Free Republic

Al Qaeda's Hidden Roots By Laurie Mylroie The American Spectator | September 25, 2006 Cyrus Nowrasteh, scriptwriter for ABC's docudrama The Path to 9/11, defends the film's controversial, invented scenes, noting that the first attack on the World Trade Center occurred one month after Bill Clinton took office, and eight years passed in which Clinton did little to thwart the growing menace. Nowrasteh makes a crucial point, but it is not necessary to resort to fiction. Our understanding of the terrorist attacks -- going back to the 1993 Trade Center bombing -- has become loaded with errors obscuring Clinton's fecklessness....

The Mukhtar (Islamic religious leader) of a Jerusalem neighborhood praises Israel for defending Arabs. The Mukhtar (Islamic religious leader) of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher on Monday praised Israel for defending the city – and particularly the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount – from Hamas rockets. Just days after wide-scale riots by Jerusalem Arabs over the murder of Arab youth Mohammed Al-Khedr, Zuheir Hamadan said that Hamas, which claimed to be “defending” the Arabs of Jerusalem, was doing quite the opposite. “Israel is the one defending Al-Aqsa from the missiles of Hamas,” Hamadan said. Speaking to Israel Radio's...

<p>As if the senseless massacre of innocents in Nairobi’s Westgate mall was not horrific enough, reports are surfacing that the Islamic terrorists who seized the mall last weekend tortured, beheaded, raped, and mutilated their victims before killing them. A police doctor who entered the mall after the attack said these reports “are not allegations. Those are f***ing truths.”</p>

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab rebels Saturday mocked a US offer of up to $33 million for information enabling the arrest of its top leaders, saying they would give 10 camels to anyone who helped locate President Barack Obama. The highest price put up by the US State Department on Thursday was for al Shabaab chief Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed -- more commonly known as Godane or Abu Zubayr -- with a $7 million bounty for information on where he is hiding. "I can assure you that these kind of things will never dissuade us from continuing the...

Date: January 8, 2010 ISCC affiliated Imams Issue Important Fatwa Attack on Canada and the United States is Attack on Muslims Over 10 million Muslims Live in North America Calgary) Twenty Imams affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada have issued a Fatwa today declaring the attacks on Canada and the United States by any extremist will be the attack on 10 million Muslims living in North America. This is the first Fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the United States as attack on Muslims. Following is the text of the Fatwa. FATWA (religious edict)...

TEXT:TRANSLATOR NOTE (TN): VERBATIM TRANSLATION BEGINS HERE:PAGE 1 OF 3  IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST GRACIOUS-TO MY BELOVED BROTHER MUKHTAR -MAY ALLAH PRESERVE HIM.IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST GRACIOUS. MAY ALLAH I SPEACE AND MERCY BE UPON YOU.   I ASK ALLAH THAT YOU AND ALL THE BRETHREN BE IN THE BEST OFCONDITIONS, WITH PEACE OF MIND AND IN A STATE OF GRACE, AND I ASKALLAH TO PROTECT YOU FROM EVIL.   FOR A START, I LOVE YOU IN GOD, AND ALLAH KNOWS THAT I CARE FOR YOU.I AM ALSO VERY HAPPY WITH OUR...

One of the two men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by gunmen in the Mumbai attacks is a counter-insurgency police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said Saturday. The officials in Indian Kashmir demanded that police in Calcutta, where the suspect is being held, arrange for his quick release.

KARACHI: Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar has said that holding talks with Taliban was in the interest of the country; talks with the Taliban leaders were held earlier and were being held now also. Talking to newsmen at the PIA head office here, Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, who is PIA chairman also, said that if an agreement with Taliban gets materialized, then it would benefit the whole world and across the border actions could be controlled. As regards missile attack on Bajaur, defense minister said that the government was collecting facts and added that such attacks within Pakistan...

The Hooded Man from Abu Ghraib: The Rest of the Story by Laura Mansfield Do you remember this image? (See attached PDF file for image) The hooded man is Haj Ali al Qaisi. Haj Ali is known throughout the world because of this photograph showing him with a black hood over his head, standing on a box, with electric cords on his hands. The photo came to represent torture in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq at the hands of the American military. Haj Ali, who now lives in Jordan and heads a group called the "Organization of Victims of US...

Last week, Pakistan's Federal Shariat Court—the nation's highest Islamic court—vacated an appeals court decision that had outraged the world. In essence, the appeals court had acquitted five of the six men convicted in the 2002 "honor rape" of Mukhtar Mai. Her ongoing story may well foreshadow the future of Muslim women who suffer under tribal law and other oppressive traditions. Hers is a savage tale of brutalization and courage, with confusing twists and a resolution that is uncertain. But it is a story of hope, which provides reason for optimism. In it, the West provides an invaluable voice of conscience...

Police in Thailand believe a relative of Bali bombing mastermind Hambali was among the thieves who stole a large quantity of a bomb-making ingredient this week. Authorities say Islamic separatists stole a batch of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser and bomb-making ingredient, in an armed raid on a quarry in the country's south. The 10 thieves escaped with more than 1,300 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 58 sticks of dynamite and 170 blasting caps. Ammonium nitrate was the main explosive used in the Bali bombings. Security forces in southern Thailand are on high alert. They fear a major bomb attack is being...