Free Republic

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel is making strides towards a “quantum leap” in regional relations, which he predicted would culminate in full diplomatic ties and trade with Saudi Arabia. Speaking at an event held in Jerusalem by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu warned of the danger of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons – a danger that has brought Israel closer to former enemies across the Middle East. “If Iran achieves its goals of reaching nuclear weapons it puts the future of Israel at risk, it puts the future of world peace at risk. There has...

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...

Q. Some people argue that preventing non-Muslims from visiting Makkah and Madinah deprives them of a chance to be impressed with Islam. Some say that they could be informed of the protocols they have to observe and allowed to visit the two mosques. After all, Islam is very tolerant in its attitude to other faiths. Please comment. Muhammad Asif A. That Islam is tolerant is beyond doubt. But tolerance and kind treatment of the followers of other faiths does not mean contravening the rules of our religion. The question of prohibiting entry of non-Muslims into Makkah and Madinah is not...

Undated-AP -- Little is known about Farouk Hijazi -- the Iraqi spymaster now in U-S custody -- except that he could be the key figure who links Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida. Hijazi reportedly met with Osama bin Laden before the September eleventh attacks, when he served as Iraq's ambassador to Turkey. An official of the opposition Iraqi National Congress says Hijazi had an important role in organizing Iraqi sleeper cells in Europe that planned assassinations, smuggling operations and intelligence-gathering. Hijazi was born a Palestinian. Britain's Guardian newspaper says he won the favor of Iraq's rulers with his zeal for executing...

  THE ARAB WORLD'S SOARING DESPAIR Sunday, January 05, 2003 BY JOHN HASSELL Star-Ledger Staff JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- The dry, hilly landscape of the Arabian peninsula that borders the Red Sea is known as the Hijaz. This, the cradle of Islam, is the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and the home of Mecca and Medina.As a trading hub and the epicenter of successive waves of Islamic expansion over 13 centuries, the Hijaz has served as a fulcrum of sorts for struggles between Muslim lands and the West.Sixteen months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States,...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Three men with Arab names were charged Tuesday with making terrorist threats after allegedly telling a stripper at a topless bar they intended to blow up military bases in San Antonio. According to a police report obtained by WOAI radio under the Texas Open Records Act, the men were "very serious" and said they were "having a good time and spending our money just like our others did before 9-11." Some of the Sept. 11 terrorists spent the week before the attacks in a topless bar in Florida. Patrolman Al Ballew said the three men, identified...