Free Republic

In the past year, lithium-ion battery fires in electric vehicles have led to blazing wrecks along highways that take firefighters hours to extinguish and buildings that go up like a torch from fires that cannot be swiftly brought under control. And now, a plant that uses lithium to make components for batteries for electric vehicles has gone up in flames. A plant belonging to the Livent Corp. was on fire early Monday in the North Carolina town of Bessemer City, according to WCNC-TV in Charlotte. The company said there were no reports of injuries and that all employees were accounted...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. June 21 — Two brothers were convicted Friday of helping run a North Carolina-based support cell that funneled cigarette-smuggling profits to the militant group Hezbollah. Mohamad Hammoud, 28, accused of being the leader of the cell, was convicted of 16 counts that included providing material support to Hezbollah. Chawki Hammoud, 37, was found guilty of charges including cigarette smuggling, credit card fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Jurors deliberated 21 hours over three days. On Friday afternoon, they told the judge they were deadlocked on one count, a charge that Mohammad Hammoud conspired with others to provide material support...

SNIPPET: ""All I want is shahadah in Kashmir. I don't want to be famous or well known." Those were the words of Abu Adam Jibreel al Amreekee as we walked around the center in Muridke, Pakistan. As we strolled around the giant masjid and school and looked at the horses at the horse stable we talked of the difficulties in training and jihad in general. Abu Adam was only nineteen years of age when he went to the killing fields of occupied Kashmir. Born into a considerably wealthy family in Atlanta Georgia, Abu Adam had always excelled in most of...

A man accused of being part of a terrorist cell in the Triangle has been linked to what U.S. counter-terrorism officials have called a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaida threat to set off a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Jude Kenan Mohammad is among three al-Qaida leaders that investigators believe pose a particular threat because they have lived in the U.S. Mohammad, 22, dropped out of Fuquay-Varina High School in 2006 and left the U.S. two years later to visit Pakistan, his father's homeland. A federal grand...

SNIPPET: "CHARLOTTE, N.C.— The FBI is asking for the public's help in identifying a man who was seen near a restricted area along the light rail near uptown Charlotte. A worker monitoring security cameras said the man was spotted in the area in late April, according to investigators. The man was clearly in an area he wasn't supposed to be in and was acting suspiciously, the FBI said."

Just wondering how all the FReepers in the tornado areas are doing? It's been a deadly couple of days across the South - hope everyone made it thru okay.

Fifteen thousand feet high in Kashmir and armed with a Kalashnikov–that was not how friends thought Jibreel al-Amreekee would end up. All of 19, the restless kid from Atlanta had grown up in a wealthy family attending Ebenezer Baptist Church, the home pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr. A soft-spoken youth with long dreadlocks, al-Amreekee had a passion for sky diving and reading books on the world's religions. One religion that drew his interest was Islam, and while he was at North Carolina Central University, that interest grew into a calling. By 1997, he had converted and was spending his...

War On Terror: In three short years, Samir Khan went from blogging about jihad from his parents' North Carolina basement to editing al-Qaida's new online magazine in Yemen — all under the FBI radar. The 24-year-old Khan is now helping America's Enemy No. 1 recruit Muslims to kill fellow Americans as Webmaster of al-Qaida's splashy new propaganda organ, which provides instructions in English on how to "make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."And the FBI and U.S. intelligence never saw it coming. The Khan case is the latest example of a disturbing trend in U.S. intelligence lapses involving...

(CNN) -- A senior U.S. law enforcement official has told CNN that U.S. intelligence believes the principal author of the new online al Qaeda magazine is an American citizen who left for Yemen in October 2009. The magazine -- called "Inspire" -- appeared last week. Running to nearly 70 pages online, it included articles on bomb-making and encrypting electronic messages, as well as an interview with fugitive Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Awlaki.

An American who recently lived in Raleigh for a year was the lone American killed when explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final Sunday at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, killing at least 64 people. Nathan Henn, 25, who worked with Invisible Children, a San Diego-based aid group that helps child soldiers in Africa, was killed on the rugby field. Henn was a native of Wilmington, Del., but his family moved to Raleigh in 2007, and he lived here for about a year, his sister, Brynne Henn, said this morning in a telephone...

  CONSPIRACY TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT OR RESOURCES TO TERRORISTS (1 COUNT); CONSPIRACY TO KILL, KIDNAP, MAIM, OR INJURE PERSONS OR DAMAGE PROPERTY IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY (1 COUNT) BAJRAM ASLLANI Photograph taken in 2010    Aliases: Ebu Hatab, Bajram Aslani, Bajram Asslani Var Aslani, Bajram Asslani, Aslani Bajram, Bajram Aslami, Bajram Aslanni, Bajram Hajriz Asllani, Bayram Aslani DESCRIPTION   Dates of Birth Used:  August 12, 1980; August 12, 1989; November 11, 1970; December 8, 1980 Hair: Dark Brown Place of Birth: Mitrovica, Kosovo Eyes: Brown Height: 5'7" Sex: Male Weight: Unknown (heavy-set build) Complexion: Medium NCIC: T920777787 Nationality:...

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...

SNIPPET: "2. According to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of California, Naushad, together with co-defendants Tamim Abdul-Samad AKA Brandon Harris, and Darryl Eugene Peterson AKA Najm, robbed a CitiBank branch in La Mesa, California, on 19 April, 2010."

FAYETTEVILLE FELON SENTENCED FOR UNLAWFUL WEAPONS POSSESSION RALEIGH - United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court today United States District Judge James C. Dever, III, sentenced ABDULAH ASAD MUJAHID a/k/a Brian Steven Sweeney, 33, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, to 300 months’ imprisonment followed by five years’ supervised release. A Federal Grand Jury returned a Criminal Indictment on November 24, 2009. On March 8, 2010, MUJAHID pled guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(g)(1) and possession of a stolen firearm, in violation of...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

Note: The following text is a quote: Mexican Drug Lord Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Cocaine Distribution Authorities Seize Over 2300 Kilograms of Cocaine and Over $10,000,000 in Cash from Arriola Drug Trafficking Organization MAY 11 -- DENVER – Miguel Arriola, age 42, of Mexico, was sentenced late Friday afternoon, May 7, 2010, by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn to serve 240 months (20 years) in federal prison, followed by 4 years of supervised release, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, conspiracy to import...

Note: The following text is a quote: North Carolina MS-13 Gang Member Convicted of Racketeering Charges Related to Murder; First MS-13 Member Sentenced to Death Defendant Shot and Killed Two Brothers in December 2007 in Guilford County, N.C. WASHINGTON—A 12-person federal jury in Charlotte, N.C., today voted unanimously to impose the death penalty against Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, aka “Wizard,” 25. Umana was convicted by the same jury on April 19, 2010, for the murders of Ruben Garcia Salinas and his brother, Manuel Garcia Salinas, on Dec. 8, 2007, in Guilford County, N.C. The jury also found that Umana was...

WWJD to this moneychanger?

Video and photo included. SNIPPET: "FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — After four days of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found hit-and-run rampage suspect Abdullah El-Amin Shareef guilty of 10 charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder, for a hit-and-run rampage that encompassed parts of three counties in 2004. Shareef, 31, of Raeford, will be sentenced on Thursday. He faces the death penalty." SNIPPET: "Shareef's family and friends say the jury’s decision ignored testimony from mental health professionals like Rashad Rahmaan. Rahmaan, a friend of Shareef's family..."

March 3, 2010 (MMD Newswire) -- Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is requesting that Federal authorities charge the illegal aliens caught stealing over 500 railroad spikes in North Carolina with terrorism charges, since they entered America illegally and worked to sabotage train tracks in a way that could have resulted in mass casualties. "We are at war with terrorists and stealing train spikes, which is likely to cause a train to derail is an act of terrorism," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "The Obama administration must admit that their failure to adequately enforce our border and immigration laws is putting...