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[Catholic Caucus] Vatican again turns off lights for ‘Earth Hour’ to promote ‘respect for Our Mother Earth’Father Enzo Fortunato, the communicators director of St. Peter’s Basilica, linked the move to Pope Francis’ encyclical on ‘climate change,’ Laudato Si’."The Vatican once again turned off its external lights for an hour this weekend to “raise awareness of respect for Our Mother Earth.”In a statement issued to journalists accredited to the Holy See late Saturday afternoon, Father Enzo Fortunato – the recently appointed director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica – announced the darkening of the basilica that evening: On the occasion of...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

January 2, 2014 Obama Releases Osama bin Laden Adviser Who Vowed to Kill Bush by Daniel Greenfield It’s a shame that the Navy SEALS decided to disobey Obama’s orders and killed Osama, instead of taking him back for trial. If Osama were still alive, Obama would have set him loose. Since Osama is feeding the squid somewhere, Obama had to settle for the next best thing and released a veteran senior terrorist who was also one of his military advisers.After releasing a nuclear terrorist, Obama decided to give the Jihad a New Year’s present by freeing 5 more terrorists. They...

Two more people have been arrested in Seattle and New York, FBI officials said yesterday, as investigators tried to break up a suspected terrorist network they believe was plotting a bomb attack against a US target .... Graham Fuller, a specialist on Islamic extremism and a former CIA analyst, said: "I'm a little sceptical about the possibility that the GIA is now targeting us because it would have been accompanied by some kind of rhetoric. Therefore I would speculate that these guys are working on their own or hired by someone else." And Mr Fuller argued that Mr Ressam's Afghan...

NOTE: The following SNIPPET is a quote: DON'T OPEN THAT FILE, MEMET! With much fanfare, al-Malahim, the media arm of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, announced the imminent release of — and then subsequently did release — what they claimed was the first official English-language al-Qaida magazine. It's called "Inspire" as in "Inspire the Believers" (as opposed to the Quranic edict to Incite the Believers. They did this with the full cooperation of the administrators of the al-Faloja forum in particular. Interestingly, the first couple of pages of the document appear perfectly normal. Then things get weird...

Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan, by Caroline Fourest; foreword by Denis MacShane (Encounter Books, 262 pp., $23.95) In the 1990s, Western liberals, alarmed at the presence of Islamic fundamentalists in their midst, turned in desperation to Muslims whom they dubbed “reformers” or “modernizers.” They hoped that these figures would have a moderating influence on disaffected Muslim youths who refused to integrate into Western society. One such “reformer” is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born academic. Ramadan has won the confidence of many in the West, including the British government, which asked him to serve on its task force for...

On 9 November, a 38-year old Belgian named Muriel, blew herself to pieces in Baghdad near a group of Iraqi policemen, killing five other people. The woman had converted to Islam after marrying a Belgian of Moroccon origin. Her husband was shot down by American troops. The American authorities informed the Belgian authorities of the woman’s identity a few weeks ago, but Brussels kept it secret. Yesterday evening the Franco-Luxemburgian network RTL announced the news. Last night, the Belgian police arrested 14 people. Nine of them are Belgians, mostly of foreign origin, three are Moroccans and two are Tunisians. They...

SNIPPET: "On Thursday, April 2, a federal judge ruled that Guantánamo detainee Hedi Hammamy is being held for good reasons. Judge Richard Leon of the DC District Court found the US government’s evidence was sufficient to show that Hammamy supported al Qaeda and the Taliban. Hammamy, who is also known as Abdul Haddi bin Hadiddi in the US government’s unclassified Guantánamo files, was arrested by Pakistani authorities in April 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo months later. Government prosecutors demonstrated that Hammamy’s passport was recovered in a cave in the Tora Bora Mountains, which were the main fallback zone for fleeing...

May preaches green gospel The Green party leader comes to tears during a London sermon on the climate change threat. By Jonathan Sher, Sun Media London Free Press Mon, April 30, 2007 Preaching in London about the threat of climate change, Green party Leader Elizabeth May brought herself to tears yesterday, not for children who will inherit the Earth, but for the God she believes created it. It wasn't the first time May has mixed politics and faith -- she says she speaks often at churches. But her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears as she delivered...

An underground film showing the slaughter of Algerian soldiers is being used as a recruitment tool for British Islamic radicals The trail runs from a wet corner of a west London street to the dusty mountains of eastern Algeria, from a garage on the Thames to the Mediterranean, from a mosque off north London's Seven Sisters Road to Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. In one direction the trail is a conduit for volunteers and money - both heading for Islamist rebels fighting a brutal war against Algeria's government. In the other direction flow political refugees, communiqués boasting of ...

[Islamic virus] Wahhabism: from Vienna to Bosnia http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17462 Image: ISN Local media reports trace the financial and ideological center of Bosnia's radical Wahhabi movement to Vienna, while the moderate Islamic community prepares for an intensifying battle of influence. By Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch (06/04/07) Only the funeral of former Bosnian Muslim leader and wartime Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic went down with a bigger crowd and more security than that last weekend of Jusuf Barcic, the informal leader of Bosnia’s radical Muslims of the Wahhabi movement. More than 3,000 Wahhabis arrived in the northern city of Tuzla...

New links between ETA and Islamic terrorismETA provided false identifications to the Islamic terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993Madrid. Javier Oyarzábal (Information Services of CITY FM) – Eusebio Arzalluz aka “Paticorto” [short leggy], a member of today’s Executive Committee of ETA and one of the most trusted men by ETA leader “Txeroki” [pronounced Cherokee], provided false documents to the Islamic Terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993. On May 23rd of that year, a series of explosions shook a workshop for vehicle reparation in the Santa Rosa quarter, next to Managua [Nicaragua]. The outcome was:...

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has claimed that a radical Algerian Islamist group had joined al-Qaeda and is being urged to punish France, it has emerged. Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared a video on a website on the fifth anniversary of the 11 September attacks. In the tape, he issued a warning of new attacks targeting Israel and the Gulf. Although France's government opposed the US-led war in Iraq, French officials believe the country is still a target for Islamist militants. In the video, Zawahiri says: "Osama Bin Laden has told me to announce to Muslims that the GSPC [the Salafist Group for Preaching...

The Algerian Connection Why did Saddam financially support an al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria? by Thomas Joscelyn 08/03/2005 12:00:00 AM LATE LAST MONTH an Algerian-born terrorist named Ahmed Ressam received a commuted sentence of 22 years (prosecutors had recommended 35 years) in prison for his role in planning to blow up the Los Angeles airport. His sentence infuriated many since his involvement in the plot against LAX was immediately transparent. After all, he was captured in December 1999 after driving off a ferry from British Columbia in a vehicle laden with bomb-making explosives. Ressam received a commuted sentence after providing...

Fernando Huarte Santamaría, a leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in the northern city of Gijón, Asturias, contacted Algerian terrorist Benesmail Abdelkrim in the Villabona prison in 2001. Huarte even got Abdelkrim a furlough to go to the dentist and paid his bill; the two last met in October 2004. A few days later, the police arrested Abdelkrim and found the address of a well-known ETA terrorist in his pocket. Abdelkrim served time with two other notorious prisoners, Spaniard Antonio Toro Castro and Moroccan Rafá Zouhier, two police informants accused in the March 11, 2004 bombings. In April 1997...

Britain's release of insurgent scares Algerians, MI5 agent Monday, February 7, 2005 Britain's plans to release a leading Islamic insurgent with ties to Al Qaida after a court ruled anti-terror laws violated human rights.http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453408.311111111.html Algerian officials said the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to free Abu Qatada after nearly four years in prison. Abu Qatada is regarded as being aligned with Al Qaida. Officials said Abu Qatada was suspected of being Osama Bin Laden's envoy in Britain during the 1990s. The planned release of Abu Qatada has alarmed Algerians in Britain as well as in Europe. This has...

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!

LONDON [MENL] -- Al Qaida operatives have been relocating to the southern Sahara Desert in Algeria and have prepared secret bases near the border with Mali. Western intelligence sources said the Al Qaida effort was detected in early 2003 and has been aided by the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call. They said the Salafist leadership has provided Al Qaida with hideouts and logistics in the mountain region. "The area is ideal for Al Qaida training and command functions," an intelligence source said. "The area is isolated and is located along the border with Mali, where there is no trace...

<p>IF YOU TOOK every failed, trendy educrat idea, packaged them in a school and put radical animal-rights activists in charge of it, you'd end up with something like the Humane Education Learning Community -- a K-6 charter school approved by Sacramento's San Juan Unified School District.</p>

SARAJEVO, Oct 10 (AFP) - Algeria and Egypt have sought the extradition of two of their nationals arrested in Bosnia on suspicion of terrorist involvement, a Bosnian official said Friday. Aissa Benkhira, 35, with dual Algerian and Bosnian citizenship, was arrested last month on an Interpol warrant issued in 1995, the Bosnian court official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Amquad Youssef, an Egyptian also with dual Bosnian citizenship, was arrested in August as he attempted to enter the Balkan country with a fake Belgian passport. He was also named on an Interpol arrest warant issued in Cairo. The official...