Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) - While President Barack Obama is now asking Congress to authorize him to use military force against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad because that regime used chemical weapons on its own people, the State Department is maintaining a travel warning advising Americans not to travel to Syria because the al-Nusrah Front, the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria--which is particiapting in the rebellion seeking to overthrow Assad--has carried out about 600 attacks in the country since November 2011. These al Qaeda terrorist attacks, according to the State Department, have killed many Syrian civilians. "There is also a threat from...

An 18-year-old Aurora man was arrested Friday night before he tried making his way to Syria to join a ‘jihadist militant’ group, federal authorities said. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi was taken into custody without incident late Friday at O’Hare Airport by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as he attempted to board a flight destined for Istanbul, Turkey, according to the FBI’s Chicago office. Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel G. Martin Saturday for allegedly attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He appeared on Saturday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tounisi,...

Eric Harroun is an Arizona native who rioted with rebels in Cairo and fought in Syria for Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra. **SNIP** Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Muslim, according to people who know him.

Note: Photo incuded. PHOTO CAPTION: "Police say these jeans were blown off Joseph Brice of Clarkston when a homemade explosive device he made went off Sunday." SNIPPET: "CLARKSTON - A Clarkston man was in critical condition Monday at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane after an explosion Sunday afternoon. Police said 20-year-old Joseph Brice was experimenting with explosives about a mile west of Red Wolf Bridge when his homemade bomb exploded prematurely."

SNIPPET: "Four of them - German citizens identified only as Tarek Alexander H., Daniel P., Renee Marc S. and Jonas T. - face charges of supporting al-Qaida, al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al-Islam, and membership in a criminal organization. Another four face those charges and additionally are accused of trying to recruit members or supporters for al-Qaida or al-Qaida in Iraq. In keeping with German privacy rules, they were identified only as Harun Can A., Salim Mohammed A. and Vivian S., all German citizens; and Emin T., a Turkish national. The key figure in the founding and organization of the...

SNIPPET: "The federal prosecutor's office said in a statement that the accused, identified only as Hussam S., had been detained Sunday in the western German town of Montabaur."The accused is strongly suspected of working to recruit members or supporters for Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb and the Islamic Jihad Union," the statement said." SNIPPET: "Hussam M. is believed to have used Internet forums and blogs belonging to the German section of the "Global Islamic Media Front" and the "Al-Ansar Media Battalion" since 2007 to attract militants to the various Al-Qaeda groups. And since February 2009, he allegedly...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden told the group's Iraq head Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi to plan attacks inside the United States before Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike last year, a senior US official said Tuesday. Frances Townsend, President George W. Bush's homeland security advisor, made the revelation to defend Washington's argument that it is fighting in Iraq to prevent the country from becoming a new "sanctuary" for Al-Qaeda. The bin Laden-Zarqawi link was made in secret documents that were declassified Tuesday amid pressure from Democratic lawmakers for US troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq....

BAGHDAD (AP) -- An Iraqi military spokesman says the leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has been captured in a raid west of Baghdad. U.S. officials had no confirmation

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq on Thursday denounced Iraqi Sunni politicians who met recently with Jordan's King Abdullah II, calling them and the monarch "traitors." The statement, posted on an Islamic militant Web site, did not mention a summit Thursday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush. Both leaders met separately with King Abdullah before their talks in Amman, Jordan. Instead, al-Qaida in Iraq - the country's most feared Sunni Muslim militant group - lashed out at a string of Iraqi Sunni Arab politicians who held talks with Abdullah ahead of the summit. "The traitors of Jordan's...

The insurgents allowed her to conduct occasional interviews about their organization in which she learned that they belonged to an insurgent council, including members of al Qaeda. "The main captor during all these interviews I would do was anxious to tell me about this. He told me his name was Abdullah Rashid," she said. "He said he had helped form this council … in Iraq that brought together some of the main Sunni insurgent groups, and he was the head of it. One of those groups in that council was al Qaeda and Zarqawi." She was held from Jan. 7...

Al-Qaida in Iraq has pledged to take back the volatile western city of Fallujah, declaring that it has united local armed factions into a cohesive force to fight the US and Iraqi troops who now control its streets. In Fallujah, police said they were taking the al-Qaida warning seriously. It followed the recent killings of several religious and tribal leaders whom insurgents had accused of collaborating with US forces and the Iraqi Government. The printed statement posted around Fallujah vowed that “your brothers in the al-Qaida organisation” would restore the city to the “glory and dignity” it enjoyed before the...

During the discussion of the 'amnesty' announcement it was announced the 4 diplomats from Russia had been executed. Now posted as breaking banner on CNN.com headline.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces detained a senior al-Qaida in Iraq network member and three suspected terrorists during coordinated raids southwest of Baqouba June 19. The terrorist is reportedly a senior al-Qaida cell leader throughout central Iraq , north of Baghdad . He's known to be involved in facilitating foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq , and is suspected of having ties to previous attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces. Coalition forces secured multiple buildings and detained the known terrorist plus three suspected terrorists without incident. Troops found an AK-47 with several magazines of ammunition and destroyed them all on site....

Papers show 'gloomy' state of insurgency AP - 23 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United States and Iran was among a "huge treasure" of documents found in the hideout of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The document, purporting to reflect al-Qaida policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening. The al-Qaida in Iraq document was translated and released by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie. There was no way to independently...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a "huge treasure" of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also said he believed the security situation in the country would improve enough to allow a large number of U.S.-led forces to leave Iraq by the end of this year, and a majority to depart by the end of next year. "And maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid-2008,"...

Newly released video of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq shows Abu Musab al-Zarqawi decked out in American tennis shoes and fumbling with a machine gun. The US military command says the footage was found during a series of raids in April on purported terror cell safe houses southwest of Baghdad. Major General Rick Lynch says al-Zarqawi chose not to show the world this piece of video in which he's wearing "his New Balance tennis shoes," and in which his associates "do things like grab the hot barrel of the machine gun and burn themselves."

<p>Insurgents, meanwhile, killed an American soldier and a Marine in separate attacks over the weekend, while a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the south.</p> <p>In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."</p>

BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 -- Suicide bombers killed at least 49 people Saturday in attacks targeting a Shiite Muslim funeral in eastern Iraq and an outdoor market in Baghdad, while a disagreement among the country's faction leaders nearly ended a national reconciliation conference on its first day. [...] A U.S. and Iraqi raid on a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq safe house in Mosul sparked a three-hour firefight in which four insurgents and four policemen were killed and three guerrillas blew themselves up, said Gov. Duraid Kashmoulaof Nineveh province. Iraqi and U.S. forces had suspected Abu Musab Zarqawi, leader of Iraq's...

Al-Zarqawi denies weddings targeted Saturday 19 November 2005, 10:05 Makka Time, 7:05 GMT Al-Zarqawi said the target was US and Israeli intelligence Al-Qaida in Iraq's leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in an internet audiotape the group did not intend to target Muslim wedding parties in deadly bomb attacks in Jordan last week. In the tape, posted on a website often used by groups in Iraq, al-Zarqawi defended the blasts on three hotels saying al-Qaida had inside information that they were home to US, Israeli and Jordanian intelligence agencies. "We ask God to have mercy on the Muslims, who we did...

November 18, 2005 -- The world's most feared terrorist mastermind, who has been responsible for a two-year campaign of violence in Iraq, is planning to turn his sights on moderate regimes in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, where he intends to spread his ruthless brand of jihad. An investigation into Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, has revealed that the former petty criminal from Jordan has built up a formidable terrorist network that stretches from Britain to Afghanistan and covers many countries in between. Once regarded as a brutal but relatively minor figure in the...