Free Republic

CHICAGO - Two Chicago-area cousins were arrested Wednesday on federal charges out of Cleveland accusing them of conspiring to wage holy war against Americans overseas, including U.S. military forces in Iraq. Zubair A. Ahmed, 27, of suburban North Chicago, and Khaleel Ahmed, 26, of Chicago, were accused along with three other men from the Toledo, Ohio, area who already had been under indictment on charges of plotting acts of terrorism against Americans overseas. The fresh indictment returned by a grand jury in Cleveland added the two Chicago-area men to the roster of defendants and brought additional charges against the three...

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...

WTVG -- Crystal Dixon just received verbal notification from UT that she has been fired for speaking her opinion in a copy of the Toledo Free Press. A high-ranking University of Toledo administrator has been fired for speaking out. UT's associate vice president of human resources was put on paid administrative leave about 2 weeks ago after writing an opinion column in the Toledo Free Press. Crystal Dixon just received verbal notification from the University of Toledo that she has been fired. It's all for speaking her opinion in a copy of the Toledo Free Press. Doug Oliver has been...

The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Grand Jihad” in Toledo   By Patrick PooleFrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, March 10, 2008 It might only be the shores of Lake Erie, but the Muslim Brotherhood has established an invasion beachhead in Toledo. The most recent landing by the international Islamic extremist organization was last weekend when the Muslim American Society (MAS) – the ideological arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, identified as such by the Department of Justice in a court filing back in December – held a conference at the University of Toledo. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Department of Homeland...

THE Blade has a long-established principle of seldom endorsing a candidate in any primary election. It's easy to see, however, that this isn't a typical year. For the first time in history, the outcome of the Ohio primary may well determine the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. We are not yet ready to say who we will endorse in November. But we wholeheartedly agree with something our editorial board heard on Sunday: 'We have to have a government that works for ordinary people. We've got to be able to bring the country together so we have a...

You're all aware, I'm sure, of the several attacks against our fighting men and women perpetrated by city governments of late. The Berkeley City Council, who intended to try and kick Marine recruiting offices out of the city, and Toledo, where Mayor Finkbeiner refused to allow the Marines to exit a bus in his city when they arrived to start planned upon exercises, are all over the news. It is also well known that in Toledo, Ohio and Berkeley, California protesters for and against the Marines have been deployed to face each other and the news media have been there...

A Toledo city hall prank at the expense of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner created a downtown whodunit yesterday. For several hours during the day, the telephone voice mail greeting for the city's purchasing hot line was, "Carty Finkbeiner is a complete moron." Katerina Bekyarska, a spokesman for Mr. Finkbeiner, said the outgoing message was changed immediately after it was brought to her attention. "Someone obviously went in and - trying to do a joke, not a very good one - went in and recorded the message," Ms. Bekyarska said.

Carty Finkbeiner, the jerk mayor of Toledo,cursed on live radio when asked about his anti-Marines stance. He’s always got excuses. This time he says he was “tongue-tied.” More likely: Brain-tied. Radio host Maggie Thurber writes about how The Jerk’s stand could cost the city $57.7 million:

You're all aware, I'm sure, of the several attacks against our fighting men and women perpetrated by city governments of late. The Berkeley City Council, who intended to try and kick Marine recruiting offices out of the city, and Toledo, where Mayor Finkbeiner refused to allow the Marines to exit a bus in his city when they arrived to start planned upon exercises, are all over the news. It is also well known that in Toledo, Ohio and Berkeley, California protesters for and against the Marines have been deployed to face each other and the news media have been there...

We have had two instances recently of municipal authorities evicting Marines from their cities. During the last week of January, the City Council of Berkeley, California, issued a statement saying Marine recruiters weren’t welcome in their city because of the service’s policy of "don’t ask, don’t tell" toward gays – a policy instituted during the Clinton administration. Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley has subsequently issued an apology, following a public uproar and the introduction of measures in both houses of Congress to withhold federal funds from Berkeley. More recently, on 8 February, Toledo, Ohio, mayor Carty Finkbeiner canceled a Marine...

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Turning away a squad of Marine Corps reservists planning a weekend of training downtown has put the city's mayor in the crossfire of veterans. Even some supporters wonder what he was thinking. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner told the Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., to turn around when they hit town Friday, saying he didn't want them scaring unsuspecting visitors and office workers. City Council members have sent an apology to the Marines, and the local visitors bureau offered the unit's 200 members a free hotel stay, restaurant gift certificates and a visit to the zoo. "I'm shaking...

Council votes to apologize; resolution aims to squelch mayor vs. Marines flap Toledo City Council yesterday attempted to quell the controversy surrounding Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s order to cancel a Marine Corps warfare training exercise downtown with a unanimous vote of apology. Without discussion, the 12-member council approved a resolution apologizing to Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the mayor’s action Friday afternoon. Mr. Finkbeiner, who has refused to apologize and has defended his decision, yesterday declined to say whether he would sign the resolution or if he believed the controversy would hinder the city’s...

Thank you for your thoughts. Your message will be conveyed to the Mayor. Attached is the Mayor's Statement to the Media and a statement from Lt. Colonel Piccoli, U.S. Marine Corps on this issue. Statement from Mayor Carty Finkbeiner -Regarding U.S. Marine Corps. February 10, 2008 Frank Szollosi can play politics with anything. It is what he does best. Today, I spoke with Major Jeff Brooks of the United States Marine Corps. I conveyed my sincere regret for the failure to communicate within the administration and any inconvenience that caused the U.S. Marine Corps. I also conveyed, as my staff...

They were gone but not forgotten. A day after Mayor Carty Finkbeiner ordered 200 Marine Corps Reservists out of downtown Toledo, residents here and elsewhere expressed disappointment, disbelief, and even outrage. His last-minute call Friday resulted in the unit canceling its planned training exercises and returning to Grand Rapids, Mich. And by yesterday afternoon, the mayor's reaction had become a national news story picked up by Internet blogs along with the popular Web site, The Drudge Report. Media phone lines and e-mail boxes kept busy as keyboard-tapping critics sounded their opinions on what some have billed the "Carty vs. Marines"...

Mayor kicks Marines out of Toledo 1-24th Marines were scheduled for weekend urban warfare training in downtown Toledo, when Carty gave them the boot By Darsha Philips Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. TOLEDO, OH -- Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Friday ordered some 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan, out of Toledo just before the unit was supposed to start a weekend of urban warfare training downtown. The mayor’s spokesperson, Brian Schwartz said, “the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling...

Mayor kicks Marines out of Toledo 1-24th Marines were scheduled for weekend urban warfare training in downtown Toledo, when Carty gave them the boot By Darsha Philips Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. TOLEDO, OH -- Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Friday ordered some 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan, out of Toledo just before the unit was suppose to start a weekend of urban warfare training downtown. The mayor’s spokesperson Brian Schwartz said, “the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling...

A company of Marine Corps Reservists received a cold send-off from downtown Toledo yesterday by order of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. The 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., planned to spend their weekend engaged in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave. Toledo police knew days in advance about their plans for a three-day exercise. Yet somehow the memo never made it to Mayor Finkbeiner, who ordered the Marines out yesterday afternoon just minutes before their buses were to arrive....

OK, so 200 Marines stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, piled on to five buses and came to Toledo, Ohio, yesterday to practice some urban patrol exercises. The Toledo police knew about the request for the three-day exercise well in advance, but somehow Mayor Carty Finkbeiner didn’t see the memo requesting permission for the event. So when when the first bus arrives at 3:20 p.m. and Staff Sergeant Andre Davis steps off, he is greeted by a city employee and told that the mayor wanted him and his soldiers out of town by 6 p.m. “I wish,” Sgt Davis drily remarked,...

Mayor to Marines: Leave downtown He says urban exercises scare people By JC REINDL BLADE STAFF WRITER A company of Marine Corps Reservists received a cold send-off from downtown Toledo yesterday by order of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. The 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., planned to spend their weekend engaged in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave. Toledo police knew days in advance about their plans for a three-day exercise. Yet somehow the memo never made it to...

Perrysburg, Ohio - From Interstate 75, the sight is striking: A gleaming white mosque with twin minarets in the classical Islamic style rises out of the Ohio countryside. A visit to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo during Friday prayers offers another remarkable scene. Inside the mosque's domed prayer hall, as light streams through stained-glass windows inscribed with attributes of God and verses from the Koran, men and women gather to pray alongside each other, with a low partition in between. In most mosques, women pray either behind the men, separated by a curtain or enclosure, or in another room....

TOLEDO -- A golf outing for politicians left some embarrassed after they found out strippers were handing out drinks at the event. Days after the annual event, members of the Lucas County Democratic Party are calling for John Irish to resign and to clear the party's name. One participant said he saw a woman flash a group of golfers. Others at the fundraiser for the Democratic fundraiser said they didn't see any inappropriate acts. "When the word got out that these girls are strippers, it gave the party a black eye," said Clerk of Courts Bernie Quilter. "Every elected official...

Since the VT shootings in Blacksburg, Virginia, we have seen all manner of wild-eyed, anti-gunners come out of the woodwork to cynically use this crime as a chance to beat their gun grabbing drums. But, proposing that we send government Stormtroopers to smash down the doors of every home with a gun in it to confiscate their Constitutionally legal firearms is a step I haven't seen in a purportedly responsible newspaper. That is, until the Toledo Blade published a proposal for taking away our right to self-protection that included "Special squads of police" with unlimited powers to confiscate all guns....

University of Toledo football player Richard Davis, toting a shotgun and a handgun, was looking to settle an ongoing dispute with a teammate yesterday when he tried to enter what he thought was his teammate’s house in southwest Toledo, police said. But the 21-year-old junior was greeted at gunpoint by Vincent Scott, an off-duty Lucas County sheriff’s deputy. “This could have ended so horribly,” Toledo police Capt. Ray Carroll said. “He could have killed somebody or been killed himself.” No one was hurt in the incident, but the suspect was charged with attempted aggravated burglary at the deputy’s home on...

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- A federal judge has told Toledo's mayor that a radio reporter who was barred from attending a news conference must be allowed into future news events. U-S District Judge James Carr ordered the mayor's office yesterday to notify W-S-P-D about upcoming news conferences. The station sued the city after one of its reporters who is also a talk show host was barred from a news conference last week. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's office says it issued the ban because the reporter is not objective. A day later, Milliken and other station employees forced their way into a...

Local news report.

'Blade' Expects to Lose $5 Million in 2006 -- Lockout Could Go On 'Forever' By Joe Strupp Published: December 29, 2006 10:27 AM ET NEW YORK General Manager Joe Zerbey of The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, says 2006 is likely to end with his newspaper losing some $5 million for the year, claiming the paper must have wage and benefit concessions from union workers in order to make money down the line. "We hope that we can get a contract with our unions that enables us to make a profit," Zerbey said Friday about the paper's eight bargaining units, seven...

WASHINGTON --Sen. John Kerry didn't contest the results at the time, but now that he's considering another run for the White House, he's alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004. An e-mail will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio. The bulk of the e-mail criticizes Strickland's opponent, GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official. "He used the power of his state office...

REGRETTABLY, The Blade today finds itself in a labor dispute with the people who traditionally have mattered most to the company: our employees and their families. We wish it were not so. We wish that it had not become necessary to utilize a management prerogative with an unfortunate sounding name - a lockout. So we believe it is instructive to explain for our readers, and indeed, for our own workers, why we are at this point. The simple truth is that The Blade is bleeding financially and cannot continue to operate indefinitely under such circumstances. The company would not be...

Five Fat Girls Sought Cops report "flurry of chubby fists" in Toledo milk heist AUGUST 9--Robbery is never funny. Except when it's described by Toledo police officers with a peculiar sense of humor. Early this morning, Scott Gibson, 44, was returning from the grocery store with a gallon of milk when, as he told cops, he was surrounded by "5 fat black girls" in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken. As described by officers Patrick Sutherland and Kristi Eycke in the below Toledo Police Department incident report, one of the "hefty felons" asked Gibson to surrender his milk....

Wanna read a great Horatio Alger story? Except that in Latin America, it’s a far more radical thing: President Alejandro Toledo, the outgoing president of Peru, a staunch, effective opponent of leftist Chavista populism, has decided to go back to being a shoeshine boy for charity, doing $100 shoeshines on behalf of the the shoeshiners pension fund. Toledo leaves office on July 28, and although he had plenty to be proud of as Peru’s first full-blooded Indian president, he was never ashamed of his humble roots ... Toledo was a wonderful president of Peru who openly challenged Venezuelan dictator Hugo...

I have recently learned that the OHIO IMMIGRANTS NETWORK/ NETWORK OF IMMIGRANTS OF OHIO - RIO is planning this (source link referenced): On Wednesday, April 12, 2006, the Toledo-based, Labor Party affiliate, Farm Work Organizing Committee (FLOC) AFL/CIO, in conjunction with the Ohio Immigrant Network (RIO) and the STUDENTS of the schools of Toledo, will be holding “A STUDENT’S MARCH FOR JUSTICE AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS RALLY” The march is set to begin at noon, at the corner of South Avenue & Broadway and will commence with a rally & music at Golden Rule Park, located adjacent to Toledo Public School’s...

Immigration rally planned in Toledo By Carl Chancellor and Colette M. Jenkins Beacon Journal staff writers Ohio's protests over proposed changes to federal policies involving immigration rules have been relatively small compared to those in other states. But that could change next week when a rally in support of immigrants' rights is held at Toledo's Golden Rule Park. Beatriz Maya of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, a Toledo-based union representing more than 10,000 migrant farm workers mainly in Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina, said the noon rally is being dubbed March for Justice. Sister Rita Mary Harwood of the Catholic...

TOLEDO USED CAR DEALER INDICTED ON TERRORISM CHARGES/TOLEDO BLADE TOLEDO USED CAR DEALER INDICTED ON TERRORISM CHARGES, WASSIM MAZLOUM, OWNS TWO USED CAR LOTS IN TOLEDO, "CITY AUTO SALES & RAM AUTO SALES", HE AND 2 OTHERS WERE GOING TO ASSIST IRAQI TERRORISTS TO KILL US SOLDIERS. Mr. Amawi is a Jordanian citizen who was living in Toledo; Mr. El-Hindi was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Jordan who was living in Toledo, and Mr. Mazloum is from Lebanon but a legal permanent resident of the United States. Their citizenship and religion — each is Muslim — again put the...

WESTWOOD ONE LAUNCHES THE MONICA CROWLEY SHOW --New Program to Air Saturdays, Noon - 3 p.m. ET-- Beginning Saturday, April 1, 2006 New York, NY Monday, Mar 20, 2006 - Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is proud to announce the national launch of The Monica Crowley Show, the three-hour talk program hosted by author and news personality Monica Crowley. The show begins Saturday, April 1, 2006, and will air from noon to 3 p.m. ET. The Monica Crowley Show will debut on major market stations across the country including: WABC-AM New York, WTKK-FM Boston and WTNT-AM Washington DC. The show will...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A federal magistrate ordered a man with dual U.S.-Jordanian citizenship held without bail Tuesday on charges he plotted with two co-defendants to wage attacks against American and allied troops. Prosecutors argued that Mohammad Zaki Amawi should not be released because of the risk of harm to the community or the chance that he would flee the country. He has family in Jordan and regularly traveled overseas, prosecutors said. Amawi's attorney, Dennis Terez, said there was no threat that his client would flee and that Amawi's mother and brother living in Toledo had agreed to share their home...

When I was a kid, the boys next door were always building something--a soap box racer, an intricate box kite, a telescope or a sail boat. Joe and DB were marvels and were always tinkering with some gizmo, trying to put it together out of a million parts, and usually succeeded. The smaller kids in the neighborhood would watch for hours, fascinated, as the boys worked in their backyard.

Three charged in conspiracy against US troops Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:09 PM ET By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal grand jury in Ohio indicted three men with plotting to kill people overseas, including U.S. troops in Iraq, and one was charged with threatening President George W. Bush, court documents showed on Tuesday. The indictment said the three men -- Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, Marwan Othman el-Hindi, 42, and Wassim Mazloum, 24 -- were part of a conspiracy that began in November 2004. "It was part of the conspiracy that one or more conspirators would recruit others to...

The local San Diego FOX-6 Channel has just broken the story tonight that the San Diego Chapter of "Kind Hearts" Charity has also had it's finances frozen for having links to terrorist organizations. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were living and taking flying lessons here in San Diego.

An FBI sweep launched in Puerto Rico to prevent a "domestic terrorist attack" is eliciting widespread outrage on the island - and as far away as New York City - with critics accusing the agency of trying to use terrorism as a guise to turn public opinion against Puerto Rico's independence movement. The Friday morning raid on the U.S. commonwealth, which targeted five private homes and one business, was launched to prevent attacks from the Boricua Popular Army, the FBI said. The special agent in charge of the San Juan Division of the FBI, Luis Fraticelli, said the searches were...

Sixty years ago during World War II, two soldiers from the Toledo area helped prevent Nazi troops from blowing up a bridge serving as a vital supply link between France and Germany. Now a bridge in South Toledo has been named after them. The Leonard/Drabik Veterans' Memorial Bridge, which carries South Avenue over Swan Creek, recognizes Lt. Gen. John W. Leonard, commander of the U.S. Army's Ninth Armored Division, and Sgt. Alexander A. Drabik, whose efforts resulted in the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany. General Leonard and Sergeant Drabik "richly deserve a permanent...

There was no shortage of stupidity in Toledo last week.   The morons were definitely out in full force with the inbred Virginian Snaggle-toothed Nazis taking on the Riotous Could-we-get-more-pathetic-if-we-tried Vandals in a full-fledged moron-match to see which group could look the most dim-witted and despicable.  I’m pretty certain both groups won (or lost) because both parties came out looking like complete idiots.

The October sun warmed the first anti-Nazi protesters who assembled in Manhattan Plaza; it might have lulled some into a false sense of complacency. That was not the case with Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre, who stopped and talked with everyone who gathered to oppose the National Socialist Movement. Speaking with an anti-racist skinhead, Navarre offered a friendly warning. "It's a beautiful day out today, isn't it?" he asked. "It's way too nice of a day to be sitting in a jail cell, so let's keep things legal." He warned the protesters that any deviation from the agreed boundaries of...

The recent gang riots in Toledo, Ohio has produced a renewed interest in the issue of street gangs and their criminal activities. Americans were shocked at news broadcasts showing gang members on the streets of Toledo looting, breaking into homes and torching buildings. The news media template for the rioting is that these thugs were anguished and enraged over a group of Neo-Nazis protesting on the streets considered the territory of gang members. But an honest view of news footage of the gang members rioting displayed an atmosphere of celebration and lawlessness rather than anguish. The violence broke out about...

WHAT HAPPENED IN TOLEDO? By Michelle Malkin · October 17, 2005 05:05 AM It was ugly in Toledo, Ohio, this weekend--and if you watched any of the cable news coverage or glanced at the national MSM headlines, as I did, you probably are still wondering what really went down.

Neighbors: Neo-Nazis Had No Right to March By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 10 minutes ago Lou Ratajski stands in front of his damaged club, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005, in Toledo, Ohio. Jim and Lou's Sportsmans Club was damged during an outbreak of violence in response to a white supremacist march in a North Toledo neighbothood. The riot broke out Saturday when protesters confronted members of the National Socialist Movement who had gathered at a city park. Rioters threw baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores, and set fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said. (AP Photo/Daniel...

TOLEDO, Ohio - Police began receiving word midweek that gangs were going to descend on a neighborhood where a riot erupted over a planned march by a white supremacist group, but the resulting disturbance was worse than expected, the police chief said Sunday. Officers who work in the area reported that gang members were planning to turn out in force, and authorities made plans to handle any disturbances, Police Chief Mike Navarre said at a news conference Sunday morning. However, he added the protest lasted longer and was more intense than expected. Authorities want to determine why protesters turned their...

White Supremacists Riot in Toledo, Ohio By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer (10 minutes ago)

TOLEDO, Ohio - A crowd that gathered to protest a neo-Nazi march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores, and setting fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said. Mayor Jack Ford blamed the rioting on gang members taking advantage of a volatile situation. He said he was declaring a state of emergency and setting an 8 p.m. curfew. He also ask the Highway Patrol for help. "It's exactly what they wanted," Ford said of the group that planned the march, which was called off because of the rioting. At least two dozen members of the...

TOLEDO, Ohio - A crowd that gathered to protest a white supremacists march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores, and setting fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said.

TOLEDO, Ohio — A crowd that gathered to protest a white supremacists' march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police and vandalizing vehicles. Six people were arrested and police, fire and media vehicles were damaged, Police Chief Mike Navarre said. At least two dozen members of the Roanoke, Va.-based National Socialist Movement (search), which calls itself "America's Nazi Party," gathered at a city park to march under police protection. Organizers said they were demonstrating against black gangs that were harassing white residents. The march was canceled, and the violence broke out about a quarter mile away from the park...