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Discrimination against Arab-American agent alleged WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for an investigation into whether the FBI retaliated against its highest-ranking Arabic-speaking agent, a new letter reveals. The public airing of the private workplace squabble is a potential embarrassment for the FBI, which faced criticism after 9/11 for its failure to hire many Arab-speaking agents and for failing to better understand the radical Islamic community inside the United States. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate whether the FBI's treatment of agent...

The FBI named a career-long expert in terrorism to its top national security job yesterday as one of its own agents went public with allegations that the bureau still lacks the experience and skills needed to effectively combat terrorists. Agent Bassem Youssef, a whistle-blower who alleged he was passed over for promotions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said in an interview with The Washington Post that counterterrorism agents and their managers still lack basic knowledge about Middle Eastern culture, Arabic language and terrorist mind-sets. In some cases, Youssef said, that lack of knowledge has caused agents to investigate people...

WASHINGTON - Bassem Youssef is the FBI's highest-ranking Arab-American agent. He's fluent in Arabic, ran the FBI's offices in Saudi Arabia and is a terrorism expert. In fact, Youssef's undercover work helping to infiltrate the terror organization of the so-called "blind sheik," Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, earned him the intelligence community's most-prestigious award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. But now, for the first time, Youssef is speaking out against the agency he loves. "I don't believe that the FBI's doing everything it can to combat terrorism," the 18-year FBI veteran tells NBC News.

<p>I didn't hear if anyone was planning for a live thread of the film tonight. Just in case anyone wants to start early. Some in Australia already have seen part 1.</p>

Michigan man pleads guilty to aiding Hizballah Yet we are not even to question the loyalties of Muslims in America -- to do so would be "Islamophobia." This story shows why such pieties must be discarded. "Dearborn resident helped terror group," from the Detroit News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm: DEARBORN -- A Dearborn man pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material support to Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization. Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, 33, admitted to hosting meetings at his Dearborn home during Ramadan in 2002 and allowing a Lebanese man to solicit donations from people there for Hezbollah. The U.S. government...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Pair Charged With Terror Recruiting in U.S. Thursday, September 16, 2004 WASHINGTON — Two men were charged Thursday with providing financial support to terrorists and recruiting terror group members, including one person identified by U.S. authorities as alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla (search). A 10-count grand jury indictment handed up in federal district court in Miami charges Adhan Amin Hassoun (search) and Mohamed Hesham Youssef (search) with providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to provide support. The indictment contends Hassoun helped recruit individuals from the United States for groups engaging in Islamic "jihad," or holy war, in countries such as Afghanistan,...

Authorities Conclude Switzerland Likely Used as Base for Financing, Logistical Support for 9/11 Attacks by Al-Qaida By Daniela Sigrist Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2004 BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Investigators have concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for financing and logistical support for the Sept. 11 attacks by al-Qaida, the country's attorney general said Thursday. Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said authorities plan to begin court proceedings in the coming weeks in three terror cases, capping investigations started four days after the 2001 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington. A special task force initially was charged...

<p>Just a few days ago, Democrats on Capitol Hill seemed quite eager to make political hay out of news reports suggesting that President Bush might have known in advance about the September 11 attacks. Prominent Democrats like Sens. Tom Daschle, Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt have loudly demanded investigations into what the administration knew about the possibility that terrorists were preparing to attack the United States.</p>

After telling a national radio audience last week that there was no connection between the World Trade Center attacks and Saddam Hussein, "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert got an earful on Sunday from Vice President Dick Cheney, who outlined a mountain of evidence tying Iraq to the 9/11 catastrophe. Recalling that he had told Russert two years ago that he knew of no Iraqi link to the attack, Cheney said Sunday, "Subsequent to that, we've learned a couple of things." The Vice President contended that more recent evidence indicates "that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda...

WASHINGTON – The Clinton administration "de-emphasized" fighting Arab international terrorism to focus on domestic terrorism – namely, white "right-wing" militia groups – which led to the FBI ignoring Arab nationals flocking to U.S. flight schools, veteran FBI agents told WorldNetDaily. They say the shift was so dramatic at the FBI that dozens of boxes of evidence that agents gathered in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case were never analyzed – until it was too late. The evidence held valuable clues to al-Qaida's network and operations, they say. Some 40 boxes of material left over from the WTC investigation, which...

CATASTROPHIC INTELLIGENCE FAILURE In 1995, the CIA and the FBI learned that Osama bin Laden was planning to hijack U.S. airliners and use them as bombs to attack important targets in the U.S. This scheme was called Project Bojinka. It was discovered in the Philippines, where authorities arrested two of bin Laden's agents, Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad. They were involved in planting a bomb on a Philippine airliner. Project Bojinka, which Philip-pine authorities found outlined on Abdul Murad's laptop, called for planting bombs on eleven U.S. airliners and hijacking others and crashing them into targets like the CIA ...

AFP - Western secret services knew as far back as 1995 that suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden planned to attack civilian sites using commercial passenger planes, German newspaper Die Welt said. Quoting sources close to western intelligence services, Die Welt said authorities did not take seriously the threat of the plan, known as Project Bojinka. The plan was discovered in January 1995 by Philippine police who were investigating a possible attack against Pope John Paul II on a visit to Manila. They found details of the plan in a computer seized in an apartment used by three men ...

It seems only yesterday that 168 innocent Americans perished in Oklahoma City in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history – pre-9/11. After saving lives, the top priority on that fateful day was "Whodunit?" Then things got worse. As the nation tried to figure out "whodunit," the political left already had an answer, and no amount of facts would change it: "The killer was 'the political right.' " Mass Murderer #1: Conservative Talk Radio Remember? According to the left's account, there was one bomber, 150 million co-conspirators and, at the top, a few dozen hate-driven conservative talk radio show hosts...

CBS 11 investigates very serious questions about what our government knew about planned terrorist attacks against America... including 9/11 and Oklahoma City. As far back as seven years ago, federal authorities may have been told terrorists were already in this country taking flying lessons and picking their targets. Sources say the evidence was overwhelming and the U.S. was clearly and repeatedly warned. CBS 11 Special Correspondent Steve Narisi traveled to the Philippines where the questions were first raised and perhaps even answered. "My reaction was that they had done this and they have succeeded. Those were my words. They...