Free Republic

COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet. The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

A man has been charged with killing a cab driver in Apple Valley in August, according to the Dakota County First Judicial District Court. Court documents allege that 18-year-old Abdirahman Abdiwahab Abdikarim of Apple Valley killed 41-year-old Michael Allen Palm, a Suburban Taxi driver, during the course of a robbery. Palm, who also went by "Cabbie Mike," was found dead the afternoon of Aug. 1, 2009 in his cab in the parking lot of the Commons II building on the 15000 block of Glazier Avenue. Witnesses said the van had been parked there with the driver's door open since at...

Richard Phillips, the ship captain toasted as a hero after he was taken captive by Somali pirates, ignored repeated warnings last spring to keep his freighter at least 600 miles off the African coast because of the heightened risk of attack, some members of his crew now allege. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that maritime safety groups issued at least seven such warnings in the days before outlaws boarded the Maersk Alabama about 380 miles off the shore of Somalia. A piracy expert and the captain's second-in-command say Phillips had the prerogative to heed the warnings or not....

A parcel of land here that sold for $12,000 two years ago now costs more than $20,000. The price of a nice pair of men's shoes has gone up from $20 to $50. The reason: pirates. The influx of millions of dollars in ransoms has changed life in this coastal Muslim community, driving prices up and creating a schism between the pirate haves and have-nots. As piracy ramps up again with the end of the monsoon season, the lifestyle of the pirates _ big houses, fast cars and easy drugs _ is decried by both religious leaders and ordinary villagers....

As the United States turns its attention to security threats abroad, the disturbing trend of extremism in America’s Somali communities is a reminder that there are also real and present dangers at home. A growing body of evidence suggests that Somali communities in the Unites States have become fertile ground for terrorist groups to recruit and implant operatives. On November 23, the federal government announced eight more indictments of Somali-Americans in Minnesota on charges of recruiting members of their community to join the al-Shabaab terrorist organization in Somalia. This brings to 14 the number of Somalis from Minnesota who have...

Video description - quote: Al-Qaeda Linked "Al Shabaab" Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 19 In Mogadishu **GRAPHIC** December 3, 2009 -Mogadishu - A suicide bomber disguised as a veiled woman killed at least 19 people, including three Somali government ministers, on Thursday at a medical graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said. It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since June, when hardline al Shabaab insurgents killed the security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a hotel in the town of Baladwayne. he United Nations-backed government...

December 03, 2009 SNIPPET: "But make sure to watch all the way through as we are treated to the jack booted marching bit all underfed ragtag armies use to seem tougher. Then, as a finale, the ever important riding around bareback on a horse while waving a flag thing." SNIPPET: "Thanks to the akhi over at al Quimmah."

The Dutch navy has arrested 13 Somali pirates who attempted to hijack a cargo ship south of Oman. The EU anti-piracy task force Navfor says the cargo ship - called MV BBC Togo - had barbed wire defences and held off an attack by two fast skiffs. The Dutch warship Evertsen later found a dhow with two skiffs fitting the description in the area. A boarding team arrested the pirates, seizing machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, ladders and grappling hooks. The pirates may be handed over to Kenya or the Seychelles for prosecution, says the Dutch defence ministry. The attack on...

reginaldo writes to clue us that pirates in Somalia have opened up a cooperative in Haradheere, where investors can pay money or guns to help their favorite pirate crew for a share of the piracy profits. "'Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others...

December 1, 2009 The impeccable timing of Somali Pirates By MrArbitrage What a strange and conveniently timed story. Usually the HIGHER a commodity goes, the more it becomes a target for criminals. Instead, these pirates seem to come out whenever oil has a pull back. Are these guys on the Goldman payroll? Speaking of strange, I stumbled upon this photo...

Just two days after a U.S. bound tanker carrying $20 million of crude oil was siezed by swashbucklers, a Greek oil tanker succesfully fended off a group of Somali pirates by using flares and high-pressure hoses against their automatic weapons. Boston.com: The coast guard said the 16 Filipino and eight Greek seamen on board were unhurt. The Sikinos had set off from Sudan with a shipment of oil. The Maran Centaurus, which pirates boarded on Sunday, is headed toward Somalia's coast. The attacks highlight the difficulty of keeping ships safe in the region -- particularly oil tankers. Read the whole...

<p>NAIROBI, Kenya — The EU's anti-piracy force says Somali pirates have seized a super tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States.</p>

Police in Wisconsin are trying to determine why a Minneapolis cab driver jumped from his cab before it crashed, and why his passenger ran from the scene. Baldwin police say a Blue and White cab crashed into a light pole and then hit a parked car in the Greenfield Elementary School parking lot around 6:40 p.m. Sunday. Responding officers found the driver, Abdi Mohamed Askar, 38, lying on the sidewalk. People who witnessed the crash followed the passenger when he ran away. Police caught up with him two blocks away and arrested him for leaving the scene of an accident....

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide "constitutionally protected religious accommodation," such as a designated prayer room. The group has also requested the school department institute diversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schooler won't face retaliation because of her request to pray at the Lewiston Middle School.

Monday, November 16, 2009 Islamic Extremists Kill Somali Church Leader Thirteenth Christian Assassinated This Year By Jeremy Reynalds Correspondent for ASSIST News Service WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) -- A human rights group has learned that members of al-Shabab (a Somali Islamic extremist group) have killed yet another leader of an underground church in the Somalia capital of Mogadishu. Washington-based International Christian Concern (ICC), reported that on Oct. 10, Pastor Ali Hussein Weheliye was returning home from a worship service when two masked members of al-Shabab ambushed and shot him. He was later taken to Darful Shifa Hospital where he died of...

A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates near Somalia, the European Union's naval force says. The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken on Monday in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north west of the Seychelles. The vessel had been heading for the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, but was diverted north, the naval force said. The EU naval force (Navfor) operates in the region to protect shipping. Somali pirates, using "mother ships" to launch their small-boat attacks on vessels, have extended their range to an area off the...

A Somali man from Minneapolis being held in a Dutch jail on suspicion of bankrolling terrorist activities has been identified by sources in the Twin Cities Somali community as Mohamud Said Omar, 43. Government officials in Amsterdam and federal authorities in Minneapolis would not confirm the identity of the man being held in the Netherlands. But several sources there and here say Omar, who is known by the nickname "Shariif," is the man in custody. Dutch authorities said in a statement that U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis...

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday. Mohamed Said Samatar said three men were arrested Thursday over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware. In addition to jailing suspected pirates, Aware also recently jailed four members of Somalia's Islamic insurgency. Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir said masked men with pistols shot the judge in the head and chest several times as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the port city of Bossaso. "These gangs hate him...

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland. The arrest appears to be the most significant development yet in one of the most far-reaching counterterrorism investigations since 9/11. The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker's center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released. But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism...

Asylum Seeker Arrested for Terrorism, US Requests Extradition ROTTERDAM, 12/11/09 - In an asylum seekers' centre in Dronten, in the province of Flevoland, a suspected Somali terrorist has been arrested at the request of the United States. The 43-year-old man allegedly provided financial and logistic assistance for an Al-Shabaab training camp. The police arrested the Somali man in the Dronten asylum seekers' centre on Saturday night. The examining magistrate in Rotterdam decided on Tuesday that he would be kept in custody for sixty days in anticipation of the procedure for his extradition to the US, the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM)...

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth. Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka. An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby. Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital. This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year. Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala...

A SOMALI man who claims to be 112 years old has married a 17-year old girl. "Today God helped me realise my dream," Ahmed Mohamed Dhore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud. Bride Safiya Abdulle's family said she was "happy with her new husband". Mr Dhore says he wanted to marry Safiya for a long time but waited for her to grow up. "I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry," he was quoted by the BBC as saying. He said his children and two...

SNIPPET: ""Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That's why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it." -- Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009 But what about the rights of women like this one -- the right not to wear the hijab? Who is standing up for them? "BREAKING NEWS: Somalia Militants Kill...

A British man has told how he and his wife were kidnapped by armed pirates while the pair slept aboard their yacht in the Indian Ocean. Paul Chandler, of Kent, speaking by phone to ITV news, said: "I was asleep and men with guns came aboard." Mr Chandler, 59, said he and his wife, Rachel, 55, are currently being held hostage on board a container ship. Their yacht was found during counter-piracy operations after a major multi-national search for the pair began. Mr Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, said the raid had come in the early hours. ... Mr Chandler said...

‘Moderate’ Islamist group had long suspected woman in Puntland was Christian. Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom... Members of the comparatively “moderate” Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali... in her home . Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam. She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a...

The Royal Navy have launched an urgent search to find a British couple thought to have been hijacked by pirates off the east coast of Africa. Paul and Rachel Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, went missing after sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania. Counter piracy rescue teams from the Royal Navy are scouring the area after a distress signal was received from their yacht, the Lynn Rival, on Friday. A news agency was contacted by a pirate this morning to say the couple were 'in our hands now'. The pirate, who gave his name as Hassan, said the captives were...

"Somali jihadists forcing civilians to watch executions" SNIPPET: "Movies and television? No way. Executions? Bring the whole family -- or else! "Somalis 'made to view executions'," by Mary Harper for BBC News, October 25:" SNIPPET: "Hundreds of people in Somalia have been forced to watch Islamist militants executing two people accused of spying. People in Merca said al-Shabaab militia patrolled the town with loudspeakers, demanding they attend the executions. The militants also ordered schools to close for the day as they were keen for children to watch the two men being shot dead by a firing squad. Most of those...

"Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen vow they will deflect the fighting to Kampala and Bujumbura" Shabelle: SOMALIA SNIPPET: "MOGADISHU (Sh.M. Network) – the Islamist officials of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have Friday talked about yesterday’s shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu and said that they will deflect the fighting in Mogadishu Kampala and Bujumbura." SNIPPET: "The official of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had threatened to the African Union troops reiterating that they will replace the fighting continuing in Mogadishu to the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi."

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A powerful Islamist group linked to al-Qaida on Wednesday ordered two radio stations in southwestern Somalia to stop broadcasts indefinitely. Al-Shabab delivered letters to Jubba and Warsan Radio stations early Wednesday ordering the shut down without giving any reasons, said Mohamed Adawe, a journalist with Jubba Radio. Another Jubba Radio journalist, Abdikarin Jakarta, said the letters threatened the stations with unspecified action if they disobeyed the closure orders.

MOGADISHU - Somali pirates were behind the hijacking of a Chinese bulk carrier with 25 Chinese crew seized in the Indian Ocean on Monday, a member of the gang said. "We have captured a Chinese ship carrying fuel," gang member Hassan told Reuters by phone from Haradheere, a pirate stronghold north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "My friends will bring the ship to either Haradheere or Hobyo. We have not yet decided but it is heading towards this area." The European Union's counter-piracy force said earlier the vessel was seized 550 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles and 700 nautical...

KISMAYO, Somalia (AFP) – No luxury cruise but a ticket to jihad was the prize for the winners of a team quiz organised by Somalia's insurgent Shebab group during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. "The reason the young men were rewarded with weapons is to encourage them to participate in the ongoing holy war against the enemies of Allah in Somalia," Sheikh Abdullahi Alhaq said at a ceremony late Friday. The radio-broadcast quiz organised by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab organisation in the southern Somali city of Kismayo lasted throughout Ramadan, which ended last month. Five neighbourhoods of the port city...

A hardline Islamist group in Somalia has begun publicly whipping women for wearing bras that they claim violate Islam as they are 'deceptive'. The insurgent group Al Shabaab has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust, residents claimed yesterday. The women are then inspected to see if the firmness is natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra. If they are found wearing , they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts, residents said. Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose a strict interpretation...

Al Shabaab extremists shoot 69-year-old after finding Bibles on him at checkpoint. NAIROBI, Kenya, September 18 (CDN) - The faith journey of a long-time underground Christian in Somalia ended in tragedy this week when Islamic militants controlling a security checkpoint killed him after finding Bibles in his possession. Militants from the Muslim extremist al Shabaab killed 69-year-old Omar Khalafe on Tuesday (Sept. 15) at a checkpoint they controlled 10 kilometers from Merca, a Christian source told Compass. A port city on the Indian Ocean 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Mogadishu, Merca is the main city of the Lower Shabele region....

Admiral Prazuck told French TV station La Chaine Info the pirates seemed to be surprised that the navy ship fought back. "Once they realised they were facing a ship that was responding and was heading towards them, they stopped shooting and attempted to flee," he said.Read More Here I know what you are thinking, "The French have a navy?" and "They fought back instead of surrendering?" Yep, they do, and did, that's what makes this not only a funny story, but an amazing one as well.

A south Minneapolis travel agency owner who is accused of swindling travelers out of airline tickets, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Hennepin County Court. Ali Mohamud, 35, is charged with six felony counts of theft by swindle. Mohamud owns Amana Travel Agency, located at 1841 Nicollet Ave. S. Mohamud is accused of taking approximately $40,000 from at least a dozen travelers by either failing to purchase their airline tickets or canceling them and keeping the cash. The FBI is also looking into Mohamud. In August, agents searched his business as part of an investigation into Somali men missing from the...

Forget Lions and Tigers The Latest in Big Game thelastcrusade.org Somalia (MNN) ― Somalia's Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15. Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia. At a checkpoint controlled by al Shabaab--a rebel group linked with al Qaeda which has taken over large...

An Australian naval ship has thwarted an attack on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, by suspected Somali pirates armed with a rocket propelled grenade launcher. The HMAS Toowoomba answered an emergency call from merchant vessel BBC Portugal after it sighted an armed boat approaching on Sept. 20, Australia's Department of Defence said today in a faxed statement. Along with the grenade launcher, staff from the Toowoomba found six AK47 assault rifles, a G3 assault rifle and a large quantity of ammunition. Somali pirates venturing out to sea as monsoon winds abate are...

Shabaab suicide bombers conducted a coordinated assault against an African Union peacekeeper base in Mogadishu. The deputy military commander for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was among the nine people killed in the attack. The suicide bombers entered the AMISOM military compound in Mogadishu driving two white vehicles with United Nations markings, Reuters reported. The two UN-marked vehicles, which were looted from a compound in Baidoa, were followed by two truckloads of Somali troops. "We thought they were real UN cars carrying white people, but moments later deafening thunder shook the ground," a witness at the compound told...

The prosecution of a Somali teenager accused of leading a pirate attack on an American cargo ship off the coast of Africa was taken off the fast track Thursday after a lawyer said more time will be needed to translate some Somali recordings into English. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he was brought after his arrest aboard the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama in April. Authorities say Muse was the only surviving pirate of a group that he led in an attack off the coast of Africa on the cargo ship, which was carrying humanitarian...

MOMBASA, Kenya — The mother of a top al-Qaida fugitive who was killed in a U.S. raid in Somalia demanded today to see her son's body while a Somalia-based group claimed him as their leader and confirmed his death. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a 30-year-old Kenyan, was wanted for the 2002 car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner. Three senior U.S. officials familiar with Monday's commando raid confirmed he was killed. Aisha Abdallah told the Associated Press she wants "to see the body of my son before it is...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top Al-Qaeda operative who figures high on an FBI list of wanted terror suspects was killed in a US military raid in southern Somalia Monday, a US official told AFP. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, named the dead man as Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan wanted for questioning for 2002 attacks in Mombasa on a hotel and an Israeli airliner. ABC news and Fox News, quoting US officials, said Nabhan was killed when at least one US helicopter fired on a convoy carrying suspected Al-Qaeda targets in southern Somalia earlier Monday. An American...

Somali president planning U.S. visit, stop in Columbus Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:24 AM ASSOCIATED PRESS The newly elected president of Somalia plans a tour of U.S. communities with large Somali populations, including Columbus, this fall in hopes of spreading the word about his country's problems and getting advice for solving some of them.

A fifth Somali man from Minneapolis apparently has been killed in his war-ravaged homeland, a relative said Friday. Mohamoud Hassan, a 23-year-old former engineering student at the University of Minnesota, reportedly died in the past day or two. "It's real bad news," Hassan's uncle said Friday night. "But that is what happened." The uncle, who did not want to be identified, said he didn't know when Hassan was killed, but added that "it's very recent. Today or last night." The circumstances of Hassan's death were not immediately known. Abdirizak Bihi, a community activist who visited with Hassan's grandmother on Friday,...

Authorities have confirmed the first case of alleged Pakistani involvement with Somali pirates in a revelation that has raised concerns here about a possible link between piracy and suspected terrorist groups. On April 28, a Russian warship apprehended 12 Pak nationals — along with Somali pirates — for attempting to attack a tanker off Somalia’s coast. An investigation, sources said, pointed to Pak nationals having played a 'lead' role. Their nationality was confirmed through identity cards and “evidence” was handed over on May 8 to MSS Rehmat, a Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship, 12 miles of Gwadar. It’s being examined...

A U.S. Navy helicopter conducting surveillance off the coast of Somalia was fired upon Wednesday by pirates aboard a Taiwanese-flagged vessel, where some 30 crewmembers are being held hostage, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The Somali pirates fired what appeared to be a large-caliber weapon at the U.S. Navy SH-60B but didn’t strike it, according to the Navy. No one was injured in the incident and the crew did not return fire, the Navy said. The Taiwanese ship Win Far was seized April 6. Since then, it has been used as a "mother ship" for the launching of...

MINNEAPOLIS — One young man attended secret meetings in Minneapolis. Another got a phone call, urging him to leave Minnesota and go to Somalia to fight. Terrorist training videos featuring English speakers pepper YouTube, calling others to the cause.

Overnight gun-battles between rival clans in a pirate stronghold on the coast of Somalia have left at least 17 dead and 30 injured, reports say. Local residents in Haradheere fled as fighting, reportedly over land and the alleged rape of a woman, intensified. Pirates who operate in the area, a port off the shipping lanes linking Europe to Asia, said they were worried the conflict could affect their activities. Somalia, torn by civil war since 1991, lacks an effective central government. "The two clans are fighting over land and a girl who was raped in the forest," a local man,...

Hundreds of police swooped on suspected terrorists in Melbourne early today amid fears suicide attacks were about to be launched on army bases in Australia. Police from around the country were quietly moved to Melbourne before launching their raids on homes in at least seven suburbs. Several men of Somali and Lebanese backgrounds were arrested and were expected to appear in court later on terrorism-related charges. Plot uncovered: A hooded terror suspect is driven to Melbourne police headquarters this morning Police sources said it would be claimed the men were planning to attack a barracks in western Sydney and other...