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SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

CROMWELL, Conn. -- A Connecticut nuclear engineer is under investigation in a federal terrorism probe, but denies allegations he offered support to a militant Islamic Web site and said he's being targeted because he is Muslim. Syed R. Maswood, 41, confirmed that he is the unnamed Connecticut resident mentioned last week in a federal affidavit charging a British national with supporting terrorism. Federal agents raided Maswood's home March 17, seizing computer equipment and financial records, he said. Investigators discovered his e-mail address among files used to maintain a Web site that funneled money and equipment to terrorists, according to the...

Paris court convicts three aides to shoebomber ReidA top French court jailed three men for terrorist conspiracy on Thursday after finding them guilty of helping "shoebomber" Richard Reid, who narrowly failed to destroy a U.S. airliner over the Atlantic. (snip) Jacqueline Rebeyrotte, presiding judge at the main Paris criminal court, sentenced Ghulam Rama to five years in prison and expulsion from France once his sentence was served. (snip) His co-accused, Frenchmen Hakim Mokhfi and Hassan El Cheguer, both aged 31, were each jailed for four years, one year suspended. The court ordered them released as they have been in preventive...

MOSSAD'S KILLING MACHINE COMES TO BRITAIN A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics came closer this weekend in Britain. The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents. Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun, last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the one in Tel Aviv. Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were "primed and ready to go". The threat was sufficient...

Today, in federal court in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders following their convictions by a federal jury in November 2008 on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, and David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. All defendants are presently in federal custody. “Today's sentences mark the culmination of many years of painstaking investigative and prosecutorial work at the federal, state and local levels....

Jurors have reached a verdict in the second trial of a Muslim charity accused of helping to finance terrorism in the nation's largest such case since the Sept. 11 attacks.The verdict was to be announced Monday afternoon, on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. It was once the nation's largest Muslim charity.Holy Land is accused of giving more than $12 million to support the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in 1995.Jurors were to read a long list of verdicts on more than...

Sometimes a story just doesn't seem to be "all there." Cinnamon Stillwell suspected as much in a NewsBusters item on January 10: Call me overly suspicious, but the story of 16-year-old Farris Hassan traveling to Iraq on a whim strikes me as unbelievable. Hassan's interview with Rita Cosby of MSNBC, a Florida newspaper columnist's skepticism, and a January 18 posting by the Northeast Intelligence Network (NIN), which describes itself as "a small contingent of experienced investigators ..... founded by veteran private investigator Douglas J. Hagmann," all appear to confirm Stillwell's suspicions. What is known of Farris Hassan's saga at this...

Of all the clergy in America ..... why her?Obama invites Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood linked ISNA to offer prayer at inauguration. ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the same Hamas funding case that named CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood group - in the same Brotherhood document that speaks of its goal of destroying Western civilization from within. (more)Creeping Sharia has more: A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release...

NEFA Foundation Report - "The Union of Good: A Global Muslim Brotherhood Hamas Fundraising Network" By Evan Kohlmann The NEFA Foundation has released a new report by NEFA Senior Analyst Steve Merley titled, "The Union of Good: A Global Muslim Brotherhood Hamas Fundraising Network." The Union of Good is a coalition of Islamic charities that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. It is headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, and most of the trustees and member organizations are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood. The Union of Good was...

Homeland Security: U.S. citizens have spoken with a resounding verdict of GUILTY and said they're not going to tolerate those who fund terror in this country under the cover of Muslim charity.In one of the biggest wins yet in the battle against terror-financing, federal prosecutors convinced a Texas jury to convict the nation's largest Muslim charity and five of its former organizers of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Jurors read guilty verdicts on all 108 felony charges in the conspiracy — a clean sweep for the Justice Department, which streamlined its case against...

DALLAS – A jury convicted five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on all counts in the Hamas-support case after 8 days of deliberations. The men, Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks. In the original trial last year, jurors acquitted El-Mezain on 31 of the...

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The Holy Land Foundation gave more than $12 million to Palestinian terrorists, prosecutors in Texas said in closing arguments at the Muslim charity's trial. "Don't let the defendants deceive you that what they did, they did to support widows and orphans," federal prosecutor Barry Jonas told a jury Monday in Dallas. A trial last year against Holy Land ended in a mistrial, the Dallas Morning New reported Tuesday, noting prosecutors this time eliminated much of their previous case but kept their essential charge that Holyland was created to raise money for Hamas, deemed a terrorist group under U.S. law.Lawyers for...

Interpal the controversial UK-based Palestinian charity, is facing closure after Lloyds TSB instructed the Islamic Bank of Britain to shut its bank account. Interpal (pictured), which is on a list of banned organisations in the US because of suspected links with terrorists, is also under investigation by the UK Charity Commission for the third time. The first two investigations by the Commission, which concluded in 1996 and 2003, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the charity. The latest one, which opened in December 2006, is examining fresh concerns about the potential for inappropriate links between the charity and terrorist...

One watches with dismay as Democratic candidate Barack Obama manages to hide the truth on his longstanding, if indirect ties to two institutions: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), listed by the US government in 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-funding trial; and the Nation of Islam (NoI), condemned by the Anti-Defamation League for its "consistent record of racism and anti-Semitism." First, Obama's ties to Islamists: • The Khalid al-Mansour connection: According to former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton, Mansour "was raising money for" Obama's expenses at Harvard Law School. Mansour, a black American (né Don Warden), became...

An Islamic charity with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban is now collaborating with an unlikely new partner: UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund.UNICEF has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity of massive scope that keeps branches in more than 20 countries and has over 100 offices worldwide. According to UNICEF, it will be teaming with the charity’s domestic Saudi branch to “promote children’s rights, health, equality and education,” in the oil-rich kingdom — but the organization has been doing more than just charity work. The U.S. Treasury Department...

A jury on Friday convicted three men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq. The men — Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 — face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops. Defense attorneys charged that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by a government informant. The jury returned its verdict after three...

A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday. Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia. A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Al-Arian's appeal Friday, ruling that federal prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement by...

A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - A suspected Hezbollah mole who penetrated who penetrated the ranks of the FBI and CIA pleaded guilty Tuesday to falsely getting U.S. citizenship and snooping in FBI terrorism files. Former waitress Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, of Vienna, Va., admitted arranging a sham marriage with an American in Michigan to win U.S. citizenship. She parlayed that into sensitive jobs as an FBI special agent and a CIA operations officer, sources said. Sources told The News that Prouty is believed to be a double-agent planted in the agencies by Hezbollah or its supporters, though government officials downplayed her ties to...

DALLAS Prosecutors have produced scores of documents, audio and video tapes, and intercepted phone calls in their attempt to prove that a Muslim charity based in a suburban Dallas office park was actually a fund-raising arm of Middle Eastern terrorists.Much of the evidence has surfaced before in books, newspaper articles and previous trials. But those who track terror-financing say the document haul from the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development has also produced new information.They say the documents shed light on a web of related organizations of militant Palestinian supporters in the United States, some of...

July 17th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - The United Kingdom House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges has released a report today concerning MP George Galloway and his misconduct related to the Oil-for-Food Program. The Parliament report was highly critical of Galloway's activities related to the Program, ruling against Galloway on every charge. Finally, the Committee recommends that he be suspended from the House of Commons for eighteen working days – which is reportedly "one of the most severe [penalties] given to an MP" – and requests that he apologize for his misconduct. In arriving at its conclusions, the...

It's really too bad that Karl Rove/Dick Cheney/Scooter Libby/Dick Armitage/whoever ruined Valerie Plame's life by destroying her priceless anonymity. Still, there's an upside: Now you can have lunch with Plame and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson for the low, low current asking price of $950.00.The bill of fare: Includes lunch for two(2) with Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson and a signed book. We don't remember who told us, but you'll have lunch with Ambassador Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame at a "safehouse". Lost in the din of the leak scandal that has consumed Washington is the very personal impact...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration moved Tuesday to block the assets of two Saudi men accused of providing support to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, Adel Batterjee and Saad al-Faqih. Batterjee was instrumental in founding the Benevolence International Foundation, an Islamic charity that the United States has previously deemed a a global terrorist group. Al-Faqih has maintained associations with the al-Qaida network since the mid-1990s, the Treasury Department alleged. The agency submitted the two names to the United Nations for possible inclusion in its list of terrorist financiers. If the names are included, member countries would also have...

From the Worcester Country (MA) Telegram & Gazette: Two high-profile lawyers join Islamic charity caseOct 10, 2006First Amendment issues in case will be arguedBy Kevin Keenan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFWORCESTER— A pair of nationally recognized lawyers have been retained to argue First Amendment issues in a criminal case involving an Islamic charity and two of its officers who are charged with misrepresenting the charity’s work.Susan R. Estrich, a lawyer, author and media pundit, who managed Michael S. Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, and Harvey A. Silverglate, a noted Cambridge criminal defense lawyer, entered appearances Thursday as counsel for Emadeddin Z. Muntasser...

Charity charged with funneling funds to Iraq Columbia Islamic group, now defunct, is accused of sending $1.4 million during Hussein’s reign. By MARK MORRIS The Kansas City Star A defunct Columbia charity and five officers and associates have been charged with illegally sending more than $1.4 million to Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power. The 33-count federal indictment, unsealed Wednesday in Kansas City, is the latest assault on a charity that in 2004 was designated a supporter of global terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and Hamas. At its core, the indictment alleges the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA solicited...

SANTA ANA — An Orange County woman said in an expose that aired last night that her ex-husband is a Muslim extremist who helped set up an al Qaeda sleeper cell in their Anaheim apartment complex in the 1990s. Saraah Olson told ABC-TV's "Primetime Live" that her ex-husband, Hisham Diab, beat her, turned a local teenager into a terrorist fanatic, and brought other terrorists into their home. Authorities say the couple's former neighbor, Khalil Deek, is considered a major al Qaeda figure, and is believed to have run the Orange County cell -- one of the first al Qaeda sleeper...

WASHINGTON - As a senior member of the House ethics committee, Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) had an obligation not to disclose the contents of an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders, a lawyer for one of the House Republicans said Thursday. Just as a federal judge should not reveal confidential information about a case, McDermott should not have given reporters access to the taped telephone call, regardless of how it was obtained, said lawyer Michael Carvin. "He had a duty not to disclose, therefore he can't claim First Amendment rights" allowing him to make the...

New York Times turns to Supreme Court 2 hours, 47 minutes ago The New York Times asked the Supreme Court on Friday to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two reporters in a leak investigation about a terrorism-funding probe. The case involved stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon that revealed the government's plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation. In a 2-1 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal prosecutors can see the phone records of Shenon...

November 27, 2004 THE SATURDAY PROFILE The Fear Born of a Much Too Personal Look at Jihad By RICHARD BERNSTEIN BREMEN, Germany THE first thing to know about the woman known widely here as Doris Glück is that Doris Glück is not her real name. She won't tell you her given name, or even her official new name - provided by the German police - beyond the first name and initial, Regina S. She won't say where she lives, either, and when she meets you at the railroad station in Bremen, she is clearly anxious to get away quickly lest...

Today: November 27, 2006 at 6:0:10 PST Raided Muslim Charity Sues Bank ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT (AP) - A Muslim charity raided by federal agents in September has sued a bank, saying it violated the charity's civil rights by planning to close its accounts. The charity, Life for Relief and Development, also seeks an injunction to stop Comerica Bank from giving other banks any information it might have about the organization. The charity is challenging the constitutionality of a section of the Patriot Act, which allows financial institutions to share information about suspected money laundering or terrorist activity. Comerica had told...

Spokesman for 6 Muslim clerics barred from US Airways flight One of six Muslim imams pulled from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last night by federal authorities is affiliated with a Hamas-linked organization and acknowledged a connection to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. Omar Shahin, who served as a spokesman for the clerics, is a representative of the Kind Hearts Organization, which had its assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury pending an investigation, notes Islam scholar Robert Spencer on his weblog JihadWatch Treasury spokesman Stuart Levey in February said KindHearts "is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and...

Excerpt - Six passengers were removed from a Phoenix-bound US Airways flight Monday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and questioned by police, airline and airport officials said. Authorities said the crew reported that the passengers were acting suspiciously. ~ snip ~

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called Tuesday for an investigation into the behavior of airline staff and airport security in the removal of six Muslim scholars from a US Airways flight a day earlier. A passenger raised concerns about the imams - three of whom said their normal evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the Phoenix-bound plane, according to one - through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways.

Sheik Jamal Said stood before the packed mosque and worked the crowd like an auctioneer. Speaking Arabic, the prayer leader asked for a donation of $10,000. No one responded. He asked for $5,000, and three men raised their hands. < SNIP> The recipient of the worshipers' generosity was Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian activist accused by the U.S. government of aiding terrorists. And the prayer leader's passionate appeal is a reflection of the ascendancy of Muslim hard-liners at the mosque, one of the most outspoken and embattled in the U.S. The mosque did not become this way without a struggle. Relying...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two suspected members of Hamas have been arrested in the United States and charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering and racketeering, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced. The authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect facing the same charges, identified as the deputy chief of the political bureau of Hamas, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who currently resides in Syria. Ashcroft said the trio allegedly ran a US-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell linked with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group which has publicly admitted to many killings, primarily of Israelis but also...

MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES - There are so many links between the Abu Sayyaf Group of the Philippines, which beheaded an American hostage a few months ago, and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network, that on paper they look like the route map for a Peshawar-based airline. The links run from that high, bleak border city in Pakistan to terrorist dens in Afghanistan and Yemen; to murders and bombings in the Philippines; to the first attack on the World Trade Center; to a foiled attempt to assassinate the pope during a 1995 visit to Manila. A captured Abu Sayyaf guerrilla, ...

Two former executives at a government-funded youth organization whose finances were scrutinized after it diverted money to the liberal radio network Air America were charged Thursday with misappropriating $1.2 million of the non-profit's funds. Charles Rosen, a former executive director at the Gloria Wise Community Center, and his former assistant director, Jeffrey Aulenbach, face charges of grand larceny and obstructing governmental administration. Rosen was also charged with forgery. New York City's Department of Investigation, which investigated the nonprofit for two years, said the men improperly took more than $290,000 from the organization for their personal use, on top of their...

FBI agents yesterday raided the suburban Detroit headquarters of LIFE for Relief and Development (LRD), the largest Islamic charity in the country. I first wrote about the group for The Post in 2003. Back then, FBI Director Robert Mueller was set to give an award to Imad Hamad, who heads the Midwest chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). But, after my Post article pointed out that Hamad was a subject in over a dozen terrorism-related investigations, the FBI revoked the award. One of those investigations concerned Hamad's close ties to LRD. Both the FBI and the then-U.S. Customs...

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), an American humanitarian relief organization based in Southfield, Michigan is continuing its efforts to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the needy despite the surprise raid of its headquarters today. Agents from the FBI and IRS executed search warrants today for financial and other records. Although the agents were very courteous and professional, the raid came as a total shock and surprise to the staff and officers of LIFE. LIFE has repeatedly engaged law enforcement officials and invited various government agencies to visit and inquire about LIFE's humanitarian...

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan Federal counterterrorism officials on Monday raided the suburban Detroit offices of an international Muslim humanitarian organization. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents executed search warrants at the headquarters of Life for Relief and Development in the Detroit suburb of Southfield. The warrants were based on a criminal assertion, but the affidavits in support of the warrants are sealed, William Kowalski, an assistant special agent in the FBI's Detroit office, told the Detroit Free Press. "The warrants have been signed off by a judge, and it pertains to an ongoing criminal matter," FBI spokeswoman Dawn Clenney told The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organization as fund-raisers for al Qaeda and other terror groups. It also designated one of the Saudi-based organization's high-ranking officials, Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, as a fund-raiser for al Qaeda. The action means that no American can have any dealings with the two branches of the organization or with Al-Mujil and that any assets they have in the United States will be frozen. "Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a cell...

WASHINGTON - An American who has made al-Qaida propaganda videos is charged with aiding terrorists in a secret federal indictment expected to be unsealed soon, the New York Daily News has learned. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a 28-year-old Californian who now calls himself Azzam al-Amriki, has appeared in four al-Qaida videos. In two of the videos, released since the July 7 anniversary of last year's bombings of London's transit system, he appears with his face uncovered. The federal indictment is expected unsealed in Los Angeles in the next few days, three sources said. It will likely charge Gadahn with giving material...

May 21, 2003, 8:45 a.m. Trails Lead to SaudisA Virginia terror probe continues. By Matthew Epstein In March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group of Saudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The government hauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the "SAAR Network," a web of dozens of related companies with interlocking officers, directors, and corporate headquarters. The Treasury Department suspected the group was laundering money for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Now over a year after the raids, many are asking whether the Justice Department will hand down indictments or clear the...

Three months after the RCMP began arresting 18 suspects accused of plotting terror attacks in Canada, an investigation by the National Post has uncovered a web of links to Pakistan. Today, in the first of four parts, the role of a Pakistani training camp is revealed.- - - BALAKOT, Pakistan - A worn footpath climbs from the Kaghan Valley highway into the lush mountains above the River Kunar, on Kashmir's western frontier. The locals all know where it leads. An hour's walk up the steep trail there is a training camp built by Islamic militants called Madrassa Syed Ahmed Shaheed...

Mystery man in terrorist investigation WTVG-- March 2, 2006 - The trainer's identity may have been found. Here's the latest on the man who helped investigators piece together a case against three suspected terrorists. The so-called "trainer" is now linked to the Toledo-based Kind Hearts Organization, a Muslim charity. Employees say the Trainer was a part-time Kind Hearts employee known as "Balil". The Toledo Blade and Cleveland Plain Dealer identify Balil as 39-year-old Darren Griffin. It's believed he is no longer in Toledo and is under the protection of the federal government. Meanwhile, Kind Hearts says the Trainer often tried...

American universities rank among the best in the world, but they also boast another, more dubious distinction: They are home to some of the world’s most radical academics. Last month, one of these select individuals, UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, brought his hate-filled show to two extremist Islamic Centers in South Florida. Both of these institutions are in the process of building large-scale mosques in their respective cities. And, given that their guest had previously called for attacks on the United States, the question naturally arose: Were these institutions looking to make friends in the community or to start a holy war?Past...

Muslim countries use procedural moves to block progress at conference. An attempt to end Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said. The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself. But Red Cross officials hosting the conference confirmed that...

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. The...

McDermott Files Appeal in Taped Call Case By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday asked a full nine-member appeals court to hear an appeal of a case involving an illegally taped telephone call that was leaked to reporters nearly a decade ago. A three-judge appeals court panel ruled last month that McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by giving the news media a tape recording of a 1996 call involving then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The 2-1 opinion, by judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...