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Politics : Attack Iraq? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (3449)	1/26/2003 10:32:17 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 8683

Hunt for 1,200 Britons who trained with al-Qa'eda By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 26/01/2003) Almost 1,200 British Muslims trained with Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network in Afghanistan, The Telegraph has learnt. The names, addresses and other details of the Britons were found by British military intelligence during searches of bin Laden's cave complex at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. Many of the Britons, all of whom trained at al-Qa'eda camps in Afghanistan, are now thought to have returned to Britain while others are believed to have died in combat. The location of some is known, but others have still to be traced. In all, the names of 1,192 Britons have been found. A senior Whitehall official confirmed the discovery, saying: "It was shocking to realise that so many young Britons had travelled to train with Osama bin Laden, al-Qa'eda and the Taliban." Last night there were calls for the men to be prosecuted for terrorism offences, or even treason, and warnings that some of those who had returned to Britain might have formed terrorist cells here. Geoffrey Bindman, QC, a leading authority on terrorism legislation, said that the men could be tried in Britain if they had trained with al-Qa'eda after the passing of the Terrorism Act 2000, which came into force in February 2001. He said: "It is an offence under the Terrorism Act to incite terrorism abroad, so it is arguable that a person working with al-Qa'eda in Afghanistan could be tried in Britain for that offence. Other offences under the Terrorism Act such as terrorist bombing can also be tried in Britain regardless of where the bombing took place." Special Branch detectives fear that some of the men who cannot be traced could be plotting terrorist attacks in Britain. news.telegraph.co.uk

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (3449)	1/26/2003 6:16:32 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 8683

Nigerian stoning case mum appeal date set for March Thursday January 23 KATSINA, Nigeria (AFP) - A Sharia court in northern Nigeria set March 25 as the start date of 31-year-old housewife Amina Lawal's appeal against a sentence of death by stoning for bearing a child out of wedlock. Judge Aminu Ibrahim at Katsina's Sharia Court of Appeal ruled against a prosecution request that it be given six months to prepare a case against Lawal, whose sentence has sparked outrage across the world. During the hearing, the divorcee huddled on a bench close to one wall of the court clutching her baby daughter Wasila, whose birth last year led to her being denounced in her village as an adulteress. In March last year Lawal was sentenced to be stoned to death by an Islamic judge in the Sharia court in Bakori village in Katsina State, one of 12 northern Nigerian states to have reintroduced the controversial legal code. Her case was taken up by womens' rights groups, fresh from their victory in a similar case where they managed to overturn on appeal a stoning verdict imposed on another Nigerian woman, Safiya Husseini. But in August Lawal's first appeal was dismissed by the Sharia appeal court in the town of Funtua, forcing her defenders to appeal to the state's supreme Islamic court in Katsina, 570 kilometres (350 miles) north of the capital Abuja. Along with a another case in which a pair of former lovers, Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman, were also sentenced to death, Lawal's case has attracted intense international criticism of northern Nigeria's three-year-old reintroduction of Sharia. asia.news.yahoo.com

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (3449)	1/27/2003 7:39:07 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8683

IMO. Good news at last >>> The FBI Says, Count the Mosques Investigators: FBI Director Robert Mueller has launched a potentially controversial initiative By Michael Isikoff NEWSWEEK Feb. 3 issue — Frustrated that his troops are still not aggressive enough in hunting down terrorists, FBI Director Robert Mueller has launched a potentially controversial initiative aimed at making sure that field agents finally get the message—and are held accountable. AS PART OF the effort, NEWSWEEK has learned, Mueller’s top aides have directed chiefs of the bureau’s 56 field offices to develop “demographic” profiles of their localities—including tallying the number of mosques. Those profiles are then being used, along with other factors, to set specific numerical goals for counter terrorism investigations and secret national-security wiretaps in each region. Top bureau officials have signaled that if field offices don’t meet their pre-established goals, they may be subjected to special reviews by inspection teams from headquarters. Field offices learned of the new project earlier this month when they received a six-page questionnaire that, in a section headlined VULNERABILITY, asked about the number of mosques in their communities. When FBI executive assistant director Wilson Lowery Jr. briefed congressional staffers on the project last week, and explained that mosque tallies would be used to help set investigative goals, “there were a lot of eyebrows that went up,” said one of those present. The approach raised concerns that the FBI was engaging in a new form of religious “profiling.” “It’s frightening to hear that this is actual policy,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations. “This just shows how they are viewing every Islamic community in the country with suspicion.” FBI officials acknowledged that the initiative could be politically dicey. But they said the move is justified given continuing concerns about undetected “sleeper cells” and troublesome evidence that some mosques may be serving as cover for terrorist activity. “This is not politically correct, no question about it,” said one top FBI official. “But it would be stupid not to look at this, given the number of criminal mosques that may be out there.” Other FBI officials stressed that mosque tallies are only one of several criteria used to assess the terrorist threat in each region. Among others, they said, are the number of “vulnerable assets” in an area (such as bridges, dams and nuclear plants), flight schools and Islamic charities that have been linked to terrorism. “This is part of a larger evaluation process,” said one senior official. “We’re trying to set performance goals and objectives for a particular field office. We’re not targeting mosques.” Mueller and his top deputies have been touring field offices and telling agents, in no uncertain terms, they need to focus more on terrorism cases, including developing undercover informants, and put aside less important cases such as drug and relatively minor white-collar fraud cases. “They don’t want to hear whether we’ve got a great bank-robbery program going,” said one top agent. msnbc.com