Uncle Allah Wants You

Islamic Jihadist have posted on an Islamic website hosted in MN, instructions on how to become a Jihadist, which includes a call to ALL Muslims to take on the personal responsibility of Jihad. In the NYT blog post to gather ideas to kill Americans, the author claimed that terrorists would not be reading his blog, well this sounds quite a bit like his blog in respect to brainstorming ideas to kill Americans via a website…

An Islamist Web site recently posted an item titled “How to Join Al Qaeda,” calling on Muslims to regard jihad as a personal duty and to buy weapons, brainstorm and plot plans to kill Americans.

“Assassinating the ambassador takes no more than a gun and a bullet,” according to the alleged posting.

A jihad cell should have no more than five members — “all absolutely trustworthy” — with a commander who is “Osama bin Laden to the cell members,” according to the posting.

After obtaining funding, members of a cell should “buy weapons, make plans, brainstorm, plot your plans, monitor your enemy’s important objectives, and study its moves,” according to the posting. “Set a goal; for example, assassinating the American ambassador — is it so difficult? Is it difficult for something who has already crushed America in her own home?”

The members must be secret, perform intelligence tasks, collect information, raise funds, recruit other members and assist in operations.

“Those who act in the open must perform the primary military operations, such as assassinations, firing at enemy facilities, etc.,” according to the post.

The Middle East Media Research Institute, a group based in Washington, D.C., that monitors about 90 of these types of Web sites, translated the posting. The Web site started in Egypt, then went inactive and appeared again under a different name. The Web site passed through Site Genie, an American service provider in Rochester, Minn.

Click here to read the report from the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Minnesota Joint Terrorist Task Force is investigating the alleged posting, said Paul McCabe, a spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis.

The Jawa Report has two articles related to this, the first discuss the quick demise of the site, the second discusses the EU Islamic Jihadist that are upset that the site was taken down.

People wake up something is in the works, look at each of the recent events and then look at the whole of them.

Fireworks Kids Indicted

Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed have been indicted for terrorism related charges.

Megahed has been indicted for  “transporting explosives in interstate commerce without permits”, while Mohamed is charged with this in addition to “distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction”.

The four week investigation included searches of several locations in Florida including a storage facility.

So much for the theory it was just fireworks and they were on the way to the beach…

Two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across states lines and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons.

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., where they have been held on state charges.

The two men were stopped with pipe bombs in their car near a Navy base in South Carolina where enemy combatants have been held. They were held on state charges while the FBI continued to investigate whether there was a terrorism link.

Mohamed was charged with distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, which is a terrorism-related statute, a Justice Department official said. The crime carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

He and Megahed both face with charges of transporting explosives in interstate commerce without permits, which carries a 10-year prison penalty. Their defense attorney, Andy Savage, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The indictment was handed up in Tampa, Fla.

In South Carolina, where Mohamed and Megahed have been held in the Berkeley County jail, U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd praised state and federal authorities for cooperating in the four-week investigation that initially did not look like a terrorism case.

“The arresting deputy’s vigilance and the immediate response of our local investigators and prosecutors are highly commendable,” Lloyd said in a statement.

Since the Aug. 4 arrest, authorities sought to determine whether Mohamed and Megahed were fledgling terrorists or merely college students headed to the beach with devices made from fireworks they bought at Wal-Mart in their car, as they claimed. The local sheriff in South Carolina said the explosives were “other than fireworks.”

The charges follow several searches in Tampa, including of a storage facility and a park where the explosives might have been tested, authorities said.

Both Mohamed and Megahed are in the county legally on student visas, officials said.

Update from Michelle Maklin:

Update: The pdf of the three-page indictment is here. (Hat tip – Lawhawk). And Dan Riehl, who has followed the story closely, has a reminder about an “as yet un-identified individual said to have returned to Canada right after the initial arrest.”

Reax from the USAO in SC:

In South Carolina, where Mohamed and Megahed have been held in the Berkeley County jail, U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd praised state and federal authorities for cooperating in the four-week investigation that initially did not look like a terrorism case. “The arresting deputy’s vigilance and the immediate response of our local investigators and prosecutors are highly commendable,” Lloyd said in a statement. Since the Aug. 4 arrest, authorities sought to determine whether Mohamed and Megahed were fledgling terrorists or merely college students headed to the beach with devices made from fireworks they bought at Wal-Mart in their car, as they claimed. The local sheriff in South Carolina said the explosives were “other than fireworks.” The charges follow several searches in Tampa, including of a storage facility and a park where the explosives might have been tested, authorities said.

And here’s the FBI’s full statement:

Two University of South Florida (USF) students have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, for transporting explosives materials without permits, the Department of Justice announced today.

The two-count indictment unsealed today charges Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, both Egyptian nationals, with transporting explosives in interstate commerce without permits. The indictment alleges that the two men, “not being licensees” under federal law, “did knowingly transport and cause to be transported in interstate commerce explosive materials” on or about Aug. 4, 2007 in the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere.

Mohamed was also charged with distributing information about building and using an explosive device. The indictment alleges that Mohamed taught and demonstrated the making and use of an explosive and destructive device, with the intent that such information be used for, and in the furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a federal crime of violence.

Mohamed, a civil engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at USF, and Megahed, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding and subsequently arrested on Aug. 4, 2007 in Goose Creek, S.C. by a South Carolina Berkeley County Sheriff’s deputy. Both Mohamed and Megahed were charged with possession of an explosive device, in violation of South Carolina law. Bond was set for Mohamed in the amount of $500,000 and for Megahead in the amount of $300,000. Both men are currently being held in Berkeley County jail.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The charge of distributing information about explosive devices carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and the charge of transporting explosive materials carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Reginald I. Lloyd, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department and the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office in South Carolina. “I am very grateful for the hard work and professionalism of our local law enforcement partners in this important investigation. The arresting deputy’s vigilance and the immediate response of our local investigators and prosecutors are highly commendable.”

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, with the assistance of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in both Tampa and South Carolina, with the assistance of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.

***

Just yesterday, I told you about federal grand jury investigating the Goose Creek case asking for DNA and hair samples from one of the suspects. Now, the mystery unclouds further. Via AP breaking news: (Hat tip-reader William A.)

Two University of South Florida men indicted on charges of carrying explosives across state lines; one indicted on terror charges.

Stand by for more…

Bit more detail:

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, S.C., on Aug. 4, where they have been held on state charges.

***
Background:

Aug. 30: Mystery at Goose Creek update: Federal grand jury investigates
Aug. 12: Mystery at Goose Creek: Who are the accused Pipe Bomb Boys? Update: Yahia Megahed’s Hi5 profile is gone
Aug. 5: Saturday night bomb scare Update: Map added Update: Sunday developments Update: Monday follow-up…charges filed

Rusty at The Jawa Report mused about the other possible terror plot yesterday.

Posted in: Jihadists

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More Hostages, More Murders – S. Korea Success Story

The Taliban has finally released the remainder of the living hostages it took in an attempt to have jailed terrorists released. The idea of non-negotiation of hostages is a fundemental principal for preventing more kidnappings and killings. However when bending over and giving the hostage takers anything, you are empowering them. You give them and others reason to continue the violence. You be come the enabler. Please remember the hostages this time were there to help Afghans in hospitals, it is not just random people, they were there to help the Afghan people.

Granted, I am grateful that the remaining hostages are alive, however how many will die in the future for this mistake.

CVT is reporting that the Taliban already has plans to kidnap more people and negotiate because they deem this last hostage taking/killing as a sucess. 

The seven remaining South Korean hostages taken captive last July by the Taliban have been released, and insurgents have vowed they will abduct more foreigners.

“We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone on Thursday.

Twenty-three 23 South Koreans, all volunteers from a church group, were kidnapped by Taliban militants on July 19. Two of the male captives were later executed by gunfire.

The group had come to Afghanistan to volunteer at hospitals, and were travelling from Kabul to Kandahar City when the Taliban seized them by gunpoint.

When the last hostages were freed Thursday, men accompanying them handed a note to journalists, claiming the South Koreans had come to convert Muslims.

“They came to our nation to change our faith,” the unsigned note read. “The Afghan people have given their lives for their faith. This is the reason we arrested them.”

Relatives of the hostages and the South Korean government have maintained the group was only in Afghanistan to help suffering Afghans, not to do missionary work.

The insurgents freed the final hostages Thursday in two groups.

First, two men and two women were released to representatives of the International Red Cross on a road in the Janda area in central Afghanistan.

Hours later, the three remaining hostages — two women and a man — were released.

On Wednesday, the Taliban released 12 of the hostages into the care of the Red Cross at three separate locations in central Afghanistan, near the city of Ghazni.

The South Korean government said Tuesday that they reached a deal by agreeing to pull all of their troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2007, as already planned.

The South Koreans also had to agree to stop all missionary work in the country.

Two female South Korean hostages were freed on Aug. 13, before the deal was reached.

Taliban leaders had demanded that prisoners be released in exchange for the Koreans’ lives, but the Afghan government said it was not prepared to let go of any prisoners.

Some analysts said negotiating with the Taliban gave the insurgents political legitimacy.

“Taliban now have diplomacy, they have got spokesmen, they value cameras, they have a political dimension for their movement, and their aim is to be recognized as legitimate,” Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, told AP.

The South Korean government has said it’s common practice to negotiate with hostage-takers.

Kidnapping and killing hostages is Diplomacy and Legitimate. What the hell is wrong with this line of thought? Come on people, this is the farthest thing from Diplomacy and Legitimacy. Wake up world, you are just giving them more weaponary, it is actions that kill, and actions like these will kill even more people.

Seattle Ferry Threat – Update

Michelle Maklin reports more on the Seattle Ferry Threat. Apparently this is has been in the works for a while, but the FBI had been treating it as classified. Which leads one to believe the big search by the USCG a few weeks ago must have had a escalation of information. As she points out, the Philipino connection is a very ominous one, considering the bombing of a ferry in the Philipines and the links to the WTC bombing back to Islamic Terrorists in the Philipines.

I am still amazed that this is being considered “Profiling”. Even if it was, I think the actions of these two individuals warrant the use of Profiling.

I am sure more is to come from this, maybe not all public.

The FBI is still sifting through hundreds of tips on the two suspicious men in Seattle whom ferry employees witnessed photographing restricted areas and pacing several ferry routes, “as if trying to measure distances,” over the past several weeks.

I have learned that these men have been the subject of much investigative energy within homeland security bureaucracies for quite some time. Indeed, one source told me that until the FBI released the photos of the men, the snapshots had been handled as classified material.

Arab-American and Muslim groups have suggested that the FBI is unfairly profiling Middle Eastern men (even though no one at the FBI has breathed a word about the men’s ethnicity or religion). But as I’ve noted many times in speeches and debates about profiling, if Filipinos were engaging in this same sort of suspicious behavior, I’d want the feds to give them every bit of extra scrutiny they deserve. And I believe they are.

Abu Sayyaf jihadists and other loosely-affiliated al Qaeda off-shoots in the Philippines pose national security risks not just to that country, but to the rest of the free world. Operation Bojinka, the precursor to the 9/11 attacks, was hatched in the Philippines. Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing, trained operatives in the Philippines and set up bases and finances there with Khalid Sheik Mohammed for bin Laden. And as I noted in my first post on the Seattle ferry story on Aug. 21, al Qaeda-linked operatives in the Philippines have targeted ferries before for mass murder and violence.

Those plots and the jihadists behind them are worth a closer look.

Filipino Muslim convert Redendo Cain Dellosa, aka Habil Akmad Dellosa, admitted to carrying out the bombing of a superferry in February 2004 that killed 116 people in Manila Bay. Dellosa had trained under an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya (JI) instructor in January 2003 in Jolo, Sulu and underwent further explosives training in Buti, Lanao del Su, according to Filipino authorities. Dellosa told police he had carted eight pounds of TNT in a cardboard box onto the ship, concealed it in a TV set in a cabin bunk, and deboarded the ferry before the timed bombing device exploded and partially sunk the vessel. Militant Muslims working for Abu Sayyaf were fingered in another ferry bombing in the Philippines in 2005. Stratfor looks at ferries as jihad targets here.

The Christian Science Monitor and Western Resistance outline the threat of Filipino Muslim converts who have spread from the southern islands to the main island of Luzon, where they blend in with Catholic names. They are part of a larger “Balik Islam” (Return to Islam) movement converting Filipinos in droves to the cause of jihad. Among the prominent Filipino jihadists arrested for terrorist plotting: Rajah Solaiman group founder Ahmed Islam Santos and No. 2 leader Pio Abogne de Vera. Others arrested in airport, mall, and church bombing plots have ties to JI and Abu Sayyaf. Four were apprehended as they got off a ferry in February 2005.

Saudi terror funding has poured into the Philippines through charity front groups. The financial interconnectivity is explored in more detail here.

Behind every picture, there’s a bigger picture. Behind the FBI photo of the suspicious Seattle ferry riders, there may be many more dots to be connected than are immediately obvious to the public.

In other words: Keep your eyes wide open. And as always, if you see something, say something.

Hillary’s Convict Fund Raiser

 Mark Ambinder of the Atlanic reports about Hillary’s Hsu funding…

That major Hillary Clinton bundler…who encouraged Winkle Paws and family to pony up tens of thousands… is a fugitive from the law, the Los Angeles Times reports.

He pleaded no contest to grand theft but his lawyer claims he doesn’t remember the plea — a Craigian twist, no?

Campaigns employ compliance offers to make sure that their donors don’t violate the laws, but given how frequently these major donors turn out to be…. not so peachy, perhaps they ought to institute background checks for their bundlers.

The NYT’s is reporting how Clinton is going to give up her funds from Hsu, nice  to do that now that you have been caught. Maybe you should have done it before you got caught, it would carry more weight with most.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign announced this evening that it was donating $23,000 to charity after one of its leading donors, Norman Hsu, who had given an equivalent amount to Mrs. Clinton over the years, acknowledged today that there appeared to be an outstanding
warrant for his arrest.

According to the Clinton campaign, Mr. Hsu has contributed $23,000 to various fund-raising committees associated with Mrs Clinton: $4,600 to
Hillary Clinton for President, $8,400 to Friends of Hillary (which was primarily her Senate fund-raising vehicle), and $10,000 to HillPac, her
political action committee.

“In light of the new information regarding Mr. Hsu’s outstanding warrant in California, we will be giving his contributions to charity,” said Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign communications director.

Asked about the propriety of other donations that Mr. Hsu collected from third-party sources on Mrs. Clinton’s behalf, Mr. Wolfson said: “We regularly review contributions as we receive them; we will continue our practice of scrutinizing contributions and, should we have a basis to return a contribution, we will do so.”

Mr. Hsu put out his own statement today:

“I believe I properly resolved all of the legal issues related to my bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Therefore, I was surprised to learn that there appears to be an outstanding warrant – as demonstrated by the fact that I have and do live a public life. I have not sought to evade any of
my obligations and certainly not the law.

“I would not consciously subject any of the candidates and causes in which I believe to any harm through my actions.

“Therefore, until, this matter is resolved, I intend to refrain from all fund-raising activities on behalf of all candidates and causes.”

The Clinton campaign confirmed that Mr. Hsu is no longer a part of Mrs. Clinton’s New York-based fund-raising leadership, a group of 20 or so
major donors to her campaign. As part of this group, Mr. Hsu had attended meetings of the group with the campaign finance director, Jonathan Mantz, in the New York offices of Alan Patricof, a leading donor to Mrs. Clinton, as well as gatherings in Washington.

Michelle Maklin reports on the criminal fundraisers of the Clinton Camp…

Amazing, I bet if Hillary gets into office, that these guys will all get pardons at the end of her Terms… Sound familiar… If it doesn’t, Mark Rich, the guys who never stood trial, ran from the law and was pardoned, preventing him from being brought to trial. The odd thing I have noticed, is only two or three people I know actually know that Rudy is the the one that brought charges against Rich, while he was Prosecutor for NYC. Kind of funny how it is Rudy and Hillary in the lead.

(For those that do not remember, Rich was being charged for violation of trade embargos with Iran…) Who is one of the big countries in the world trying to make nukes????

 Anyways back to Hillary’s on the lam fundraising…

Say sleaze! Hillary with former fugitive donor Rehman Jinnah in 2000.

Sweetness and Light recalls yet another fugitive moneyman who shelled out big bucks to Hillary Clinton. Via the LATimes from last year noted by Rantburg:

Clinton donor wanted by FBI in scheme to funnel money

Robin Fields and Chuck Neubauer,

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2007

A Pakistani immigrant who hosted fundraisers in Southern California for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is being sought by the FBI on charges that he funneled illegal contributions to Clinton’s political action committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer’s 2004 reelection campaign. Authorities say Northridge businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, fled the country after an indictment accused him of engineering more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the Democratic committees. A business associate charged as a co-conspirator has entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles next week…

The case has transformed Jinnah from a political point man on Pakistani issues, a man often photographed next to foreign dignitaries and U.S. leaders, into a fugitive with his mug shot on the FBI’s “featured fugitives” wanted list. Jinnah’s profile peaked in 2004 and 2005 as he wooed members of Congress to join a caucus advancing Pakistani concerns and brought Clinton to speak to prominent Pakistani Americans, lauding their homeland’s contributions to the war on terrorism and calling relations with Pakistan beneficial to U.S. interests.

Jinnah and his family donated more than $100,000 to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates. Now friends say they believe Jinnah has returned to Pakistan. Attempts to reach him and his relatives were unsuccessful. A “For Sale” sign stood in his yard on Thursday, and a neighbor said the family had not lived there for months.

Maybe he was hanging with Norman Hsu.

Update: Jinnah surrendered to the FBI in late May, according to this Pakistan newspaper (hat tip – Noblesse Oblige):

A Pakistani businessman accused of illegally funnelling tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of US senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer surrendered to the FBI on a year-old indictment on Tuesday, then collapsed in Los Angeles federal court, Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.

Looking tired and disoriented, Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, complained of chest pains and began shaking an hour into a contentious bond hearing before US Magistrate Judge Patrick J Walsh. The judge interrupted the hearing for nearly 30 minutes while paramedics attended to Jinnah. After Jinnah’s condition was stabilised and he was taken to a local hospital for an examination, Walsh set bond at $300,000.

The drama unfolded shortly after Jinnah, who has a history of heart problems and diabetes, flew back to the US from Pakistan to answer charges by a grand jury that he engineered illicit donations to Ms Clinton’s political action committee and Ms Boxer’s 2004 re-election campaign. Officials from both campaigns have said they were unaware of the alleged wrongdoing and returned the contributions.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant US Attorney Dennis Mitchell urged the judge to deny Jinnah bond, arguing that he was a “tremendous flight risk” with a long history of financial misconduct that included five bankruptcy filings that had been dismissed by the courts.

Mitchell said authorities suspected that Jinnah returned to the US to face federal charges only because the government had initiated travel restrictions that made it increasingly difficult for the businessman to travel overseas. He could flee again if he believes he will be imprisoned, Mitchell said.

But Jinnah’s attorney, former federal prosecutor Douglas Fuchs, said that was “absurd,” noting that his client had voluntarily surrendered and faced only one to two years in prison if convicted.

Born in Pakistan, Jinnah immigrated to the US in the late 1980s and settled in Northridge. Over the next decade, he tried his hand at a string of businesses and left a trail of angry creditors and former business partners. But by 2004, Jinnah had positioned himself as a point man who could help the Democratic Party tap the increasingly affluent Pakistani American community for campaign funds. He and his family personally contributed $122,000 to Democratic candidates and organisations that year and held events for Ms Clinton and Ms Boxer at his home.

Stuart Schoenburg, 76, a Tarzana television producer charged as Jinnah’s co-conspirator, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour count and is awaiting sentencing.

***

Here’s the NYPost’s coverage of Hill and Jinnah from earlier this spring.

Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft has the FBI Wanted poster of Jinnah and much more.

Left-leaning SourceWatch compiled Jinnah’s Dem donor data.

***

New from the LATimes today, Norman Hsu speaks:

Democratic donor Norman Hsu said Wednesday that he would “refrain from all fundraising activities” until he resolved an outstanding warrant for his arrest stemming from a 1991 criminal case in San Mateo County. Hsu, a major fundraiser over the last three years for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and other Democrats, issued the statement through his attorney after the Los Angeles Times reported that he had been a fugitive for 15 years.

Prosecutors in California said Hsu disappeared in 1992 after pleading no contest and agreeing to serve up to three years in prison for defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme.

Meanwhile, Clinton’s campaign said Wednesday that it would donate to charity $23,000 in direct donations from Hsu, a New York apparel executive. And other recipients of his donations distanced themselves from the businessman.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California and Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts; Reps. Michael M. Honda of San Jose, Doris Matsui of Sacramento and Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania; and Al Franken, a Senate candidate in Minnesota, said they would divest their campaigns of Hsu’s donations. Clinton campaign aides had said earlier that the candidate had no plans to return money donated by Hsu, but the campaign reversed itself after The Times’ disclosure. “In light of the new information regarding Mr. Hsu’s outstanding warrant in California, we will be giving his contributions to charity,” Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said.

The campaign has not determined whether to return money Hsu raised, but Singer said it regularly reviews donations. “Should we have the basis to return one, we shall do so,” Singer said.

Hsu has donated or raised more than $1 million for Democrats and their causes. He served as a “bundler,” rounding up a group of donors and then packaging their checks together. He is a member of Clinton’s “HillRaiser” group, individuals who pledged to raise more than $100,000 for her presidential campaign.

FYI: Bill and Hill will be campaigning together in New Hampshire this weekend, according to her campaign blog.

All said and done, Hillary let’s move on that Campaign Financing Reform the Liberals have been stalling on, but yet swore they were going to do last year before the elections.

Megahed DNA Requested by Grand Jury

The TampaTribune is reporting the Grand Jury case for the Goose Creek Fireworks Kids is requesting DNA samples from Youssef Megahed. This request is rather strange, indicating they are looking for some link between him and some physical evidence not yet made to the public.

Many people have testified with the Grand Jury, including the owners of the home that has been linked to World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE).  WISE was the Jihad organizaion founded by the covicted professor from University of South, Sami Al-Arian.

A federal grand jury in Tampa is asking for DNA and hair samples from a University of South Florida student jailed four weeks ago in South Carolina on explosives charges, his attorney said.

Andrew Savage said in a phone interview Wednesday night that he had no indication why the samples were being sought from his client, Youssef Megahed.

The news came as the grand jury heard testimony Wednesday from people who have connections to Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, another USF student arrested at the same time.

Accompanied by attorneys, at least three people entered the grand jury area of the U.S. District courthouse on North Florida Avenue in downtown Tampa. They were the owner of a home where Mohamed planned to rent a room, the landlord’s son and a Muslim community spokesman. All three later declined to comment to a reporter.

Megahed and Mohamed, were pulled over for speeding in South Carolina on Aug. 4 about seven miles from the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station, which houses a military prison for enemy combatants.

The men were charged with possession of an incendiary or explosive device, based in part on items found in the trunk of their car, authorities said. Mohamed said they were carrying fireworks.

One week later, on Aug. 11, the FBI searched a home at 12402 Pampas Place in Tampa that is owned by Noor and Ana Salhab. Authorities said the search was related to the case involving the students.

Noor Salhab later told reporters that his son, Ghassan, has been living in the home and that he has been renting to college students while waiting to sell it. Noor Salhab said a friend of Mohamed’s rented a room there, and Mohamed planned to move in on Aug. 7.

Noor and Ghassan Salhab, with attorney Brooke Elvington, spent about an hour in the grand jury area Wednesday. Neither would talk to a reporter.

Grand juries meet in secret by law. It was not known what questions were asked. At the end of the day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer gave U.S. Magistrate Thomas Wilson a report from the grand jury, which the judge promptly sealed. Hoffer later declined to comment.

After the Pampas Place house was searched this month, Noor Salhab told reporters that the FBI seized a number of items, including a gas tank for a lawn mower, a telephone, his son’s computer and some pipe.

Muslim Think Tank Used House

Federal court records show that Salhab leased the house in the early 1990s to World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank run by Sami Al-Arian, the former USF professor accused of funding Palestinian terrorist organizations.

Elvington said she represented one of the Salhabs but did not specify which one. She formerly represented Ghassan Ballut, one of Al-Arian’s co-defendants, on terrorism-related charges. Ballut was cleared after a trial in which jurors deadlocked on some charges against Al-Arian and acquitted him on others.

Also appearing before the grand jury Wednesday was Ahmed Bedier, who has been a spokesman for the Megahed family. Bedier is executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and a frequent media spokesman for Muslims and Islamic causes.

He was accompanied by attorney Lyann Goudie and appeared to be in the grand jury area for about an hour.

Bedier declined to answer questions about his testimony, saying he wanted to check with the national headquarters of CAIR about what he was allowed to say.

‘Present The Evidence’

Bedier has called for fairness in the investigation of the students. He has stopped short of vouching for them.

The students are being held in a South Carolina jail. Bail is set for Mohamed at $500,000, and for Megahed at $300,000. A preliminary hearing on the explosives charges is set for Sept. 21.

“We’re not faulting the police for doing their work,” Bedier said at one point. “If someone is speeding and acting suspicious, by all means they should look into it.”

He added, referring to the students’ car, that “the best way to bring resolution to this is to present the evidence that was seized in that trunk. … Evidence does not lie.”

Update: Michelle Maklin has more from the St. Petersburg Times:

Just a reminder that the police in SC are standing by their charges and that one FBI official disputed recent characterizations of its press release about the case. One more tidbit from a recent St. Petersburg Times article worth noting:

Prosecutors say they are still trying to determine what the men were doing, where they were headed.

“That’s the unusual part,” said Frank Hunt, a spokesman for the Solicitor’s Office. “They said they were going to North Carolina on the way to the beach. Well, that’s not the way to North Carolina.”

…The car had a Global Positioning System device, so investigators would have a record of all the men’s movements…Not to mention cell phone records.

There’s a preliminary hearing on the explosive charges set for Sept. 21.

Odd, a GPS and they were that far off course….

John Edwards Buying Al Gore’s Left Over Carbon Credits

Ed Grubman has pics of Edwards getting into his SUV after telling a group of machinists they should sacrafice their SUVs.

Here we go with the Al Gore Carbon Credit crap. Another words if you are rich you are exempt because you will buy carbon credit, what a load of crap.

• My Little Pony John Edwards A Hypocrate? Noooo!

Aug 29th, 2007 by Ed

While speaking to the Machinists Union in Florida on Tuesday he says:

“I think Americans are actually willing to sacrifice,” Edwards said during a forum held by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “One of the things they should be asked to do is drive more fuel efficient vehicles.”

The former North Carolina senator was asked specifically if he would tell them to give up their SUVS, he said, “Yes.”

Now as Dumbocrats/Liberals/Hypocrates normally do they mean do as I say not as I do…

This is Edwards getting into his SUV… In Iowa Hillary rode around in an 18-Wheeler. Obama an RV, and Edwards in a Cadillac SRX Crossover which gets just 15 MPG.

Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz says they buy carbon offsets for the vehicles, and adds:
“John Edwards believes that all Americans need to be patriotic about something other than war, and that means conserving at home, at work, and in the cars they drive. And that includes the Edwards family. They drive a hybrid Ford Escape, but they also still own a Chrysler Pacifica – which they use less often. He is reducing his own impact on global warming by driving a hybrid, building an energy-efficient home, and subsidizing renewable energy to offset the carbon emissions of his home, vehicles, and his campaign.”

All of this of course happens when he’s not flying around the US in a private jet which has been proven to be far worse than driving even the least fuel efficient car.

In a Boston Herald article in 2004 they really nailed Flipper Kerry for his hypocracy…

Now we’ve truly heard it all. Rising gas prices are the latest John Kerry [related, bio] campaign theme, so naturally the senator was asked this week about his personal vehicle usage.

Kerry insisted, “I don’t own an SUV.”

When pressed about a Chevrolet Suburban, the mother of all SUVs, kept at the Heinz Kerry abode in Idaho, Kerry said: “The family has it. I don’t have it.”

And that’s without mentioning the other gas-guzzlers this candidate and his family enjoy, all the while posturing about reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and fuel efficiency.

At last count, there were eight “family” cars and SUVs, including the 1995 Suburban (15 mpg highway, 12 mpg city), a 1993 Land Rover Defender (12 mpg highway, 10 mpg city), a 1989 Jeep Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 16 mpg city), a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Audi Allroad (21 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser (25 mpg highway, 20 mpg city), a 1985 Dodge 600 Convertible (26 mpg highway, 23 mpg city), and a 2002 Chrysler 300M (26 mpg highway, 18 mpg city). Kerry, however, only owns up to the latter two.

Do as I say not as I do huh? Well the Nanny State in which we are all slowly being brought into has finally arrived. They seem to feel that they need to tell us what to do because we are too stupid to make our own decisions n this world. I know I am not a Sheeple, i have a sports car that gets about 25-30 MPG on the highway. I enjoy spending my money on my kids and not on some Arabian’s in ground da-durka shaped pool. If they want us to like them quit bullshifting us thinking we don’t know what they are up to!

Clinton Praises Bush – Remarks Edited Out of Print Edition

Bill Clinton in an interview for Conde Nast Traveler magazine praised President Bush for having

“done three things that I think the world generally approved of: restoring cooperation with the Latin American countries, making a diplomatic agreement with North Korea instead of continuing to have a frigid standoff, and sending Americans to the conference to discuss the future of Iraq with the Iranians and Syrians. ”

“Those are, all three, things that signify we’re trying to do better in the world.”

Clinton said the more hard-line positions the Bush administration took earlier on those and other issues were understandable in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“It took us a couple of years to regain our bearings, and I think we have now,” he told the magazine. “I think that we’re getting our balance back.”

Clinton’s remarks about Bush were not included in Conde Nast Traveler’s print edition, but they do appear on the travel magazine’s Web site.

Clinton also praised Bush for pressing for an end to the genocide in Darfur, and for seeking changes in the requirement that food for emergency assistance be purchased and shipped from the U.S.

Bush has proposed that 25 percent of such food aid can be purchased in the next nearest country, the New York Sun reports.

According to Clinton, that proposal would help “farmers in Africa and elsewhere where there’s hunger, and you get more food and you get it delivered more quickly.”

American farming and shipping interests oppose the move, the Sun reports, as do many members of Congress.

Amazing that they would strike those comments from the printed edition. I wonder what the motivation was behind that.

If you are going to do an interview and publish it, you should include the things you do not like as well as the things that you do.

This is another case of the personal politics of the people publishing this, interfering with journalism.

Greek Fires, Media Silence

Atlas Shrugs brings up an imporant point, of the 32 suspects and 7 arrests, no-one is reporting the names or background of the individuals. In addition to that, the land grab theory is growing unlikely based on where the bulk of the fires are. It seems something is being covered up. I have noticed the Mass Media has reported very little on this, and is not on the main pages as  a major headline even though half of a country is burning out of control.

GREECE’S 9/11: WHO SET THOSE FIRES?

GREECE FIRES RULED ARSON – “Greece’s 9/11” Seven arrested

A woman and her four children killed Friday, their charred bodies found with the woman’s arms around the youngsters, might have been safe if they had stayed at home. It was the only house left untouched in the village of Artemida in the western Peloponnese. The house’s white walls and red tile roof were unscathed, surrounded by blackened earth. CBS News – like the woman could ever possible know that – CBS – just report the news, not your retarded sense of irony.)

DAY 4 of deadly fires: Fires rage in Greece as SEVEN PEOPLE CHARGED WITH ARSON. They remain nameless. Why? I have searched all news sources. Any Atlas readers have a clue?

Not one major news network has even mentioned it. Half of Greece is on fire.
63 dead.

But it was not clear who was responsible for these fires.

“I think it is unlikely that land development was an incentive behind the arson,” said Nikos Bokaris, head of the Panhellenic Union of Forestry Experts. “The afflicted areas are not prime targets for construction. These are mountain areas where land is not that valuable.”

An official of the WWF environmental group also dismissed the notion of an orchestrated arson campaign. More here.

Daily Kos – Huff-lite

The Daily Kos has followed in step with the Huffington Post, in publishing an article calling for the seizure of GW Bush’s assests. These liberal nutcases are really grasping at straws. The Kos is smart enought not to suggest a military coup however. but I think the implication is there non the less.

From LGF

Today’s message from the new mainstream voice of the modern Democratic Party: Daily Kos: George W. Bush’s Property Should Be Seized.

OK, so how did I get to this conclusion?

The war itself is threatening peace and stability in Iraq. Our current regime has, in fact, undermined efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and failed to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. We are building an Embassy larger than the Vatican for Christ sakes. Yet the people of Iraq have no water and hardly any Food. Our occupation of Iraq is the number one reason that the Country is unstable. The US is stealing their oil, further hurting their economy.

For these reasons alone, by law, Bush must have his assets frozen NOW, his Property Seized, And sent to Gitmo for Water Boarding! Him and everyone in his sector. You wrote the law Chimpy, read em and weep.

I know it is far fetched, but one can only hope.

(Hat tip: JammieWearingFool.)

UPDATE at 8/27/07 10:15:40 am:

And here’s a bonus Daily Kos diary from lefty hateblogger “Booman” (boo!), accusing Joe Lieberman of dual loyalty and suggesting that the US should stop supporting Israel. It’s the new progressive realism: Daily Kos: Talking Realism With the Establishment.

We need to start planning for a future where we do not dominate the Middle East.  This will involve significant economic risks…especially for the availability of cheap and readily available energy.  It also suggests that Israel should start getting serious about a permanent, sustainable accommodation with the Palestinians and their neighbors.  Keeping a few of their most ardent and unquestioning supporters, like Joe Lieberman, in the U.S. Senate is not going to be enough to sustain an acceptable level of security.  We cannot continue to take on the blowback risks and international hit to our moral standing that our support for Israel currently entails.