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An unwritten pact binding the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has survived 15 presidents and seven kings through an Arab oil embargo, two Persian Gulf wars and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, it is fracturing under two leaders who don’t like or trust each other. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 37-year-old day-to-day ruler, mocks Biden in private, making fun of the 79-year-old’s gaffes and questioning his mental acuity... He has told advisers he hasn’t been impressed with Mr. Biden since his days as vice president, and much preferred former President Donald Trump ... Mr. Biden said on...

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, called President Biden's planned visit to Saudi Arabia "heartbreaking" and "disappointing." Driving the news: Biden, who once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah," is set to meet with the crown prince on Friday, a move that Cengiz described as "a huge backing down" in an AP interview. "It’s heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values," Cengiz said. Cengiz also said that Biden should urge Saudi Arabia, which she said is a "terrible ally," to embrace a...

Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them. Ghada Oueiss, a Lebanese broadcast journalist at Al-Jazeera, was eating dinner at home with her husband last June when she received a message from a colleague telling her to check Twitter. Oueiss opened up the account and was horrified: A private photo taken when she was wearing a bikini in a jacuzzi was being circulated by a network of accounts, accompanied by false claims that the photos were taken at her boss’s house. Over the next few days...

Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson appeared at the High Court in London on Thursday after being sued by a Syrian refugee for defamation. Sixteen-year-old Syrian schoolboy Jamal Hijazi and his family are seeking damages after Robinson alleged on social media the teenager had attacked white girls. "I'm being sued by the lawyer who's trying to get Shamima Begum into our country, the lawyer who represents all the terrorists," said Robinson who further alleged the lawyer had given his children's address to a far-left extremist. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had made the comments after a...

Empire may be getting the band back together for one final encore. Showrunner Brett Mahoney tells TVLine that discussions are underway to possibly have embattled former cast member Jussie Smollett return as Jamal before the show wraps its six-season run this spring. “It would be weird in my mind to end this family show and this family drama of which he was such a significant part of without seeing him,” offers Mahoney, before adding, “It’s fair to say it’s being discussed, but there’s no plan as of yet to bring him back. There’s been no decision made.” The fact that...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. --After more 30 years in the United States Park University professor detained by ICE is set to be deported to his home country of Bangladesh, according to a Facebook page called Free Syed Ahmed Jamal. "We just got word that the judge ruled against us and they have taken him out of El Paso and probably to the plane," the post said. "His legal counsel is trying to get the appeal filed before the plane takes off. Please pray for due process." Syed Jamal, from Bangladesh, has been in the United States for more than 30 years....

AFP - Al-Qaeda's military chief in Yemen warned Americans in an audio message posted online Sunday that the Boston bombings revealed a fragile security as he urged Muslims to defend their religion.

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

SNIPPET: "MANILA, Philippines—A group of suspected Filipino hackers allegedly financed by a Saudi-based terrorist cell was arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) disclosed on Thursday." SNIPPET: "The group was allegedly behind attacks on the US telecommunication firm AT&T that resulted in $2 million in losses to the company in 2009. In a statement, the CIDG said the group also had links to the Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)." SNIPPET: "ATCCD chief Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa identified the suspects as Macnell Gracilla,...

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistani jeweler said Wednesday his picture is among those of five foreign-born men the FBI says may have entered the United States on falsified passports. He said he has never visited the United States. An Associated Press photograph of Mohammed Asghar taken at his shop in Lahore on Wednesday was a near-perfect match for the one included on the FBI list under the name Mustafa Khan Owasi, down to the prominent mole on Asghar's left cheek. FBI spokeswoman Angela Bell said the bureau was not able to confirm that Asghar is the man in the...

31 December 2009 “LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN” SNIPPET: “There is overlap in space if not in time between NW 253 bomber Abdulmutallab and various unsavory characters and websites. Perhaps it’s just a case of like-minded people moving through similar places at similar times in their lives, but then again, maybe Abdulmutallab came into contact with some of these people, particularly in what appears to be his critical period of radicalization in London circa 2005-2007. At this point all I have are suspicions and some interesting data points to share.”

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

Note: The following text is a quote: Man Admits Using Alias for Immigration Status COLUMBIA, SC—United States Attorney W. Walter Wilkins stated today that Sohail Feroz Ali Dossani, a/k/a Sohail Muhammad Jamal, age 29, a Pakistani national located in Florence, pled guilty to filing false statements to gain entry and citizenship, a violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1306(c). United States Magistrate Judge Thomas E. Rogers, III, accepted the plea and will impose sentence after he has reviewed the presentence report which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. Evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing established...

FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack using high-powered guns and homemade bombs designed to cause mass death and destruction on Australian soil. A Supreme Court jury took four weeks and three days to find Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, Moustafa Cheikho, 32, and his uncle Khaled Cheikho, 36, guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts. The Daily Telegraph reports the men, all from Sydney's south-west, were accused of stockpiling weapons and chemicals for use in the pursuit of...

COVERT RADIO SHOW http://www.covertradioshow.com http://covertradioshow.com/podcast.cfm?pid=171 COVERT RADIO SHOW.com: "The Daily Blast" "Sure the Pirates lost the American Ship, but the real problems remain"

A Twin Cities Somali community activist said he is on his way to New York this morning on a mission to ensure that an accused pirate is treated justly in a court appearance this afternoon. Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, said he spoke Monday with the parents of Abdiwali Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain. Jamal said he intends to be in court today with Wali-i-Musi and carrying a letter from his parents in Somalia explaining that Jamal has permission to arrange for...

Somalis in U.S. draw FBI attention War at home seen as lure The FBI is expanding contacts with Somali immigrant communities in the U.S., especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, fearing that terrorists are recruiting young men for suicide missions in their homeland. FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson, spokesman for the Twin Cities FBI field office, described the effort as community outreach. Many members of the Somali community are concerned over disappearances, he said.

Gems, al-Qaida and murder. Mystery over killing of Osama Bin Laden's friend · Saudi man's death was political, say his family· US secret service was monitoring his activities Nick Fielding Friday March 2, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Pallbearers carry the coffin of Muhammad Jamal Khalifa at Ivato airport in Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Photograph: Jasleen Sethi/Reuters When Muhammad Jamal Khalifa was found dead at a remote gemstone mine in south-eastern Madagascar at the end of January, local police quickly put the murder down to a business deal gone wrong. The Saudi businessman, 49, had had to call in local police to...

Khalifa had an extensive history in funding, plotting al-Qaeda terrorist activities; Task Force 145 likely scored the kill Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, one of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-laws with deep roots in al-Qaeda as a financier and facilitator, has been reported to have been murdered in his bedroom in Madagascar. Khalifa, "who mined and traded precious stones in Madagascar," was reported to have been murdered by "a gang of 20 to 30 gunmen broke into his brother's bedroom, shot him dead 'in cold blood' and stole his belongings." "I don't think [his death] was politically motivated," said Malek Khalifa, Mohammed Jamal's...