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On March 9, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on one of Barack Obama's latest nominees. This time it was to assess the suitability of Tony West, Obama's nominee for the assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division. Things went "smoothly" according to the San Jose Mercury News, also publishing a nice bio of West. The Washington Post merely mentioned the hearing was "notable." Similarly the East Bay Express simply makes mention of the hearing having occurred. Apparently there was nothing of interest in West’s nomination. Curiously enough, though, not one of these...

John Walker Lindh following his capture by US troops in December 2001. John Phillip Walker Lindh, my son, was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam when he was 16 years old. He has an older brother and a younger sister. John is scholarly and devout, devoted to his family, and blessed with a powerful intellect, a curious mind, and a wry sense of humour. Labelled by the American government as "Detainee 001" in the "war on terror", John occupies a prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has been a prisoner of the American government since 1 December...

An American judge has said he has "grave doubts" about whether he has the right to rule on the treatment of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and detained by the military in Cuba. A group of civil rights advocates is challenging the detention of 158 al-Qaeda and Taleban prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, saying it violates international law and the United States constitution. But during a 20-minute hearing in Los Angeles, District Judge Howard Matz did not rule on a petition from the groups demanding that the US Government identify the men, disclose specific reasons for their detention and ...

Bound, masked and surrounded by heavily armed U.S. Marines, 20 of the most dangerous al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners arrived for indefinite incarceration at this remote Caribbean naval base. The prisoners' arrival Friday came four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The prisoners face intense interrogation, especially concerning the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of orchestrating the attacks. "These are people who would gnaw through hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, ...

Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera has broadcast a tape that appears to show one of the 11 September hijackers reading his last will and testament. The channel also aired a brief clip of wanted Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, who is shown kneeling beside his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as al-Zawahri praises the actions of the bombers. The channel identifies the hijacker as Ahmad al-Haznawi al-Ghamdi, a name which closely resembles that of Ahmed al-Ghamdi, who was on Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Al-Jazeera said the footage - which it says it checked...

CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has been arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said Thursday. Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connections with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York. "This alleged plot drives home...

ASIO was powerless to stop a Melbourne man who allegedly trained with al-Qaida from boarding an international flight out of Australia. The 23-year-old terror suspect, known as Abu Jihad, is now in custody in Cairo. The Federal Government, through ASIO, was forced to issue an international alert to find Jihad after he disappeared from Australia last October. Jihad was named as an al-Qaida terrorist by captured American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in December 2001. But ASIO was not able to verify Lindh's claims until after Jihad had boarded the aircraft in Melbourne almost 10 months later. Jihad, a house...

[ article is excerpted ... click the link to read the article ] When John Walker Lindh appeared on CNN after his 2001 capture in Afghanistan looking unwashed and vaguely surprised, one of my first thoughts was: “I can’t wait to read his memoir.” Because Walker Lindh is under a gag order until his release from federal prison in 2019, that’s going to be a long wait. Similarly, Adam Gadahn, another California-raised Al-Qaeda operative, now wanted in the United States for treason, is too busy making stagy propaganda videos to sign any publishing contracts just now. Coming to the rescue...

The war on terrorism reached into the Buffalo community Friday evening, when federal agents raided several houses and a store in Lackawanna and accused five men of Yemeni descent of operating an al-Qaida cell. The normally quiet neighborhood of modest homes and narrow streets was overrun by gun-toting police and FBI agents who ended a year-old probe with the arrests of the five men, all accused of providing material support and resources to the al-Qaida network. Disbelieving residents poured into the streets as darkness fell, and authorities searched apartments and cars before taking the suspects into custody, then cordoning off...

'Jihad Johnny' Linked to Flt. 63 Shoe Bomber America's Tailban traitor "Jihad Johnny" Walker and Flight 63 shoe bomber Richard Reid were recruited to do Osama bin Laden's dirty work by the same extremist Muslim group currently operating all over the globe to build an anti-Western army to fight jihad, one Mideast expert contended Friday. "The French newspaper La Provence reported Tuesday that Reid had been an acolyte of Tabligh-i-Jamaat," reports Islamic scholar Steven Schwartz in the New York Post. "U.S. media disclosed last week that Walker had been recruited by a San Francisco cell of the same group." Schwartz ...

American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has asked President Bush again to reduce his 20-year prison sentence by an unspecified amount, Lindh's attorney said Tuesday. Lindh, now in his early 20s, wrote a first-person account to the Justice Department's pardon attorneys arguing why he believes Bush should reduce his sentence. Lindh's attorney said the document could not be publicly released under U.S. government restrictions intended to prevent Lindh from disclosing national secrets. Lindh, a native of Marin County, Calif., who is now imprisoned in southern California, was captured in Afghanistan weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He pleaded...

Last week, John Walker Lindh  petitioned the president to commute his 20-year sentence for fighting with the Taliban, imposed in 2002.  It’s a shame that this pampered child of Marin County is sitting in a cell for something as trivial as treason. Under a plea bargain, Walker Lindh (AKA: Abdul Hamid, AKA: Sulayman Al-Lindh) pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban regime and carrying explosives for  Afghanistan’s former rulers.Which is like to saying that Benedict Arnold supplied services to George III. Johnny Jihad trained in an al-Qaeda camp – where he learned to fire an AK-47 and rubbed elbows...

Portrait of a WahhabiBy Stephen Schwartz FrontPageMagazine.com | June 30, 2003 On Thursday, June 26, I testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz).  My topic was “Wahhabism and Islam in the U.S.”  I outlined the outrageous degree to which Saudi-funded Wahhabi extremists, who are supporters of terrorism, have come to dominate Islam in the U.S. My testimony was not greeted with enthusiasm by James Zogby, the phony civil rights leader who heads the “Arab American Institute." Zogby, a Lebanese Christian once known for his moderate camouflage on Israel, but...

Senate Candidate Kirk has Links to Terrorism By MARC LEVIN An Austin Review investigation has revealed that U.S. Senate candidate Ron Kirk is employing an anti-Israel activist who has defended terrorist groups and is friends with American Taliban John Walker Lindh. The Review has also learned that Kirk has received numerous campaign donations from individuals linked with terrorism and anti-Semitism, one of whom also violated U.S. export laws by shipping sensitive technology to Libya and Syria. Kirk's recently filed campaign report shows payments to a Steven L. Hyland, Jr. of: $1133.22 for "payroll expense" and three separate payments totaling $638.30...

CYNTHIA McKINNEYPOSITION: Democrat Congresswoman from GeorgiaDONOR: Abdurahman Alamoudi AMMOUNT: $2000 on September 11, 2001 DETAILS: Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Foundation, is a well known radical mohammedan activist known for publicly praising terrorist organizations. He worked closely as an informal advisor and affiliate of several Clinton administration officials (source). At an October 2000 rally in Washington, D.C. Alamoudi spoke to a radical islamic crowd announcing ""I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas. Any supporters of Hamas here? (cheers) Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas ... I...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 12 — Several men believed to be American citizens have been taken into custody here during the past few weeks on suspicion of being linked to Al Qaeda, senior Pakistani officials said today. The Pakistani officials said most of the men had been picked up along with other suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members in joint American-Pakistani raids in the country's remote tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan. They said they believe that the men form a disjointed network of disaffected Westerners who converted to Islam and have been drawn to militant causes, fighting alongside Al...

American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh sentenced to 20 years in prison. Details coming.

<p>A photo of John Walker Lindh taken after he surrendered to Northern Alliance fighters.</p> <p>ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- John Walker Lindh told military and FBI questioners he believed the September 11 attacks were the first of three waves of terrorist strikes against the United States, according to secret documents obtained by CNN.</p>

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Defense attorneys said Monday that American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh was nothing more than a foot soldier against the Taliban's opponents and that a wide-ranging conspiracy charge against him should be dismissed. Foot soldiers cannot be charged with committing war crimes, said Lindh's lawyers in urging that a murder conspiracy charge be thrown out. It is the first in a 10-count indictment and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. ``While the indictment alleges a nebulous and far flung-conspiracy to 'kill American citizens around the world,' as well as a conspiracy to kill American...