Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Aafia Siddiqui

al-Qaeda

Terror Networks

20040526

Link

Home Front: Politix

The new CIA director and the Tehran regime headache - opinion

2025-01-21

[Jpost] Approximately 1-2 hours following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 47th President of the United States, the Senate Intelligence Committee appointed John Ratcliffe as the CIA Director. He is tasked with leading the world's foremost intelligence and espionage organizations during this particularly critical period.

Unlike some former CIA directors who for mere thousands of dollars would disgrace themselves by attending fanatical Islamic terrorism events such as those hosted by the MEK, exchanging integrity for money, Ratcliffe would never fabricate baseless lies and empty rhetoric against the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the most esteemed and influential figure of the Iranian opposition.

Mike Pompeo, refuses to recognize that the Islamic Republic and the MEK are two sides of the same coin, with this terrorist group originating from the Freedom Movement — supporters of Khomeini and Mossadegh — and this notorious and shameful group having blood on their hands from Americans such as Colonel Paul Shaffer, Jack Turner, and Oveis Hawkins.

Ratcliffe is committed to ethics, principles, and the pillars of free thought. He understands that if Tehran's regime were to collapse, the transitional period would require a strong, reputable, and credible leader to guide society temporarily until it can choose its own path via democratic means—whether toward a modern democratic republic or a return to its monarchical roots, reflecting the true course of Iranian civilization and history.

Link

Home Front: WoT

'Victim of justice'': Dr Aafia Siddiqui seeks US presidential pardon before Biden hands over to Trump

2025-01-19

[GEO.TV] Dr Aafia Siddiqui
...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her...
, a Pak neuroscientist currently serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, has sought presidential pardon ahead of power transfer in the US, terming her jail term as ''a blatant miscarriage of justice''.

Her lawyer was of the view that the US intelligence "got the wrong end of the stick in the beginning" as agencies thought Siddiqui was a nuclear physicist working on a radioactive bomb "when she really did her PhD in education".

Siddiqui, who has been languishing in US prison for over 14 years, hoped she would be freed after "new evidence" emerged which may suggest her innocence, Sky News reported.

She has maintained her innocence and hopes ''the tide could now be turning''.

"I hope I am not forgotten, and I hope that one day soon I will be released," she told the British news channel through her lawyer.

"I am... a victim of injustice, pure and simple. Every day is torture... it is not easy. One day, Inshallah (God-willing), I will be released from this torment."

In a 76,500-word dossier, her counsel Clive Stafford Smith urged outgoing US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. The man who made Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter look competent, if only by comparison....
to issue a pardon for her client.

Her lawyer claims a catalogue of intelligence errors led to her initially becoming a suspect, citing witness testimonies that were unavailable at the time of her trial.

He alleges that, while Siddiqui was visiting Pakistain in 2003, she was kidnapped with her three children and handed to the CIA, which took her to Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

At the time of her trial in 2010, the judge stated: "There is no credible evidence in the record that the US officials and/or agencies detained Siddiqui" before her 2008 arrest, adding there is "no evidence in the record to substantiate these allegations or to establish them as fact".

Her lawyer was of the view that the US intelligence "got the wrong end of the stick in the beginning" as agencies thought Siddiqui was a nuclear physicist working on a radioactive bomb "when she really did her PhD in education".

Link

Fifth Column

With the West excusing terrorism, who needs Islamists?

2025-01-03

[IsraelNationalNews] Europe and America gave many terrorists everything: educational and job opportunities, entertainment and sexual freedom, salaries and social assistance and religious freedom. The terrorists below have never seen a day of poverty in their lives.

With Westerners excusing terrorism, who needs Islamists?

July 14, 2016, Nice. During the fireworks festival, an Islamic terrorist kills 87 people, adults and children, under a truck that claimed to be carrying ice cream to the celebration of the French Revolution.

Four days later, the famous philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, disciple and friend of Jacques Derrida, publishes an article in Libération entitled "A truck launched". Despite having gone almost unnoticed, the article has lost none of its interest:

"A truck launched to run over children - among others - gives an unbearable image of nihilism. Nihilism itself names an end: that of our history and our civilization (...) It is not enough to declare war on it. We must attack ourselves, climb aboard and dismantle the mad trucks of our supposed progress, our fantasies of domination and our commercial obesity".

Clear? Terrorists and Westerners are the same, for our little masters of thought.

The terrorist who killed 15 people with a pickup truck in New Orleans on New Year’s Day (what better way to start the year than with another Islamic massacre?) was named Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

The Wall Street Journal has a pretty good portrait: a native Texan, an Army veteran (he also served in Afghanistan), a state university graduate, and a father of three, he had worked his way up the corporate ladder. Jabbar was an attentive neighbor who regularly asked a retiree if she needed anything and had given her a vacuum cleaner, washer, and dryer when he moved in. A model citizen. The New York Times reveals that he had converted to Islam.

This time, no taqiya, like there was in the case of the attacker who drove the car into the Christmas market in Magdeburg (by the way, the security of the German market was contracted to a company called "Mecca Security" !! some stories are so absurd that they can’t be invented).

But according to the official media, a "vehicle" killed 15 people in New Orleans.

Worse than the media is the legion of Western idiots who say that Islamic terrorism is a consequence of capitalism, colonialism, Israel, white and Jewish supremacy, in short, it is our fault, the West.

The Islamic terrorist who killed the British MP David Amess in the church is the son of a former advisor to the prime minister of Somalia.

Poverty and deprivation are not, as the fatuous John Kerry said, "the main cause of terrorism." Islam is.

Syed Rizwan Farook, a thirty-year-old Muslim of Pakistani origin, and his Saudi wife Tashfeen Malik, unloaded their semi-automatic rifles on the employees of a center for the disabled in California, killing 14 people during a Christmas party, the favorite season for massacres. Farook was an American citizen and worked as an inspector at the county health department. He earned seventy thousand dollars a year.

A graduate in engineering, his father a public works employee, his sister an elementary school teacher, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez killed four marines in a recruitment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Michael Adebowale, the terrorist who slaughtered British soldier Lee Regby in the heart of London, had a bright future ahead of him. At school, his teachers had chosen him as a "model student".

Take Aafia Siddiqui, one of Al Qaeda’s Amazons, she is a neurologist who graduated from MIT and was sentenced to 86 years in prison.

And don't forget the psychiatrist who, shouting "Allahu Akbar", massacred his comrades at Fort Hood. Thirteen dead. Dr. Nidal Hassan.

The son of a wealthy banker who studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, University College London (in terms of academic results, it is the fourth university in the world) and lived in the chic heart of the English capital - that was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the attacker of the Christmas flight Amsterdam-Detroit. He lived on the fifth floor of a building on Mansfield Street. Neoclassical columns, an Art Nouveau door with a large basket of wrought iron roses, a few blocks from Oxford Street, where an apartment costs around two million euro.

And there is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the terrorists who killed Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist beheaded because he was Jewish. Sheikh is the son of a wealthy carpet merchant and had graduated from the London School of Economics.

Aqsa Mahmood, one of the most high-profile women in ISIS, lived in Pollokshields, one of the rich neighborhoods of Glasgow. Her father is the first Pakistani cricketer in Scotland. All their children went to private school.

Omar Khan Sharif, who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv cafe, attended one of the UK’s most elite schools, Foremarke Hall in Repton, founded in 1557 and whose alumni included writers such as Roald Dahl, Christopher Isherwood and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Ramsey.

Yet, from the intellectual left to Pope Francis, it is repeated that these Islamic fanatics are being recruited from among the world’s oppressed, from those who, in the words of Karl Marx, have "only their chains to lose." No, my friends, they are religious fanatics intent on overthrowing the Western society that spawned them.

Faisal Shahzad, the terrorist behind the failed Times Square attack, had a $273,000 house and a father who is a high-ranking officer in the Pakistani army. And what about Abdelkarim Mejjati, the mastermind behind the Madrid massacres, who grew up in the exclusive Gauthier neighborhood of Casablanca to a very rich father and a mother who ran a chain of beauty salons?

Europe and America gave these terrorists everything: educational and job opportunities, entertainment and sexual freedom, salaries and social assistance and religious freedom. These terrorists have never seen a day of poverty in their lives.

The Paris terrorists rejected liberté, egalité and fraternité; the British jihadists rejected the sweet British multicultural lullabies; the Islamist who killed Theo van Gogh repudiated Dutch relativism and Palestinian Arab terrorists want to cleanse the earth of the Jewish presence.

But for those who think that the West deserves it in part and are now in the top echelons of politics, the media, and universities, it is much easier and more seductive to embrace the common belief that we are the guilty ones. Self-hatred, oikophobia, will end up killing us.

With Westerners like that, who needs Islamic terrorism?

Link

India-Pakistan

PM okays financial support for delegation tasked with Dr Aafia''s release, IHC told

2024-12-03

[GEO.TV] Additional attorney general (AAG) on Monday apprised the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has inked a summary seeking financial support for a delegation tasked with release of neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui

<span class=Inverse>Aafia Siddiqui</span>

They’ll need a couple thou per person for hotels and per diem expenses, but even substantial bribes won’t get the bitch free, so why are they even bothering?

AAG Barrister Munawar Iqbal Duggal informed this to the court during hearing of a petition regarding efforts to bring her back to Pakistain. IHC Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan heard the petition filed by the neuroscientist sister Fouzia Siddiqui.

The AAG apprised the court that Senator Irfan Siddiqui would not be accompanied by the delegation due to personal issues, adding that Senator Bushra would replace him.

It is pertinent to mention here that the neuroscientist was handed down an 86-year sentence in 2010 on charges of attempted murder and assault of US personnel in Afghanistan jail. She is serving the jail term in Carswell, a high-security prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

In October, the federal government informed the IHC that a delegation was being sent to the US for the release of Dr Aafia. The delegation will comprise former and incumbent parliamentarians, retired or serving military officers, doctors and Aafia's sister Fouzia Siddiqui.
Road trip!!! I suppose I can understand wanting to get out of Pakistan for a while. And given they can’t possibly vacation in India…
At the outset of today's hearing, a representative of the Foreign Office apprised the court that visa applications for the Pak officials had been submitted with the US officials concerned and expressed hope that their applications would be approved soon.
I suspect the US State Department staff is focussed on processing all the passport applications for domestic Progressives getting all their ducks in a row in case they need to bug out, between batches quietly panicking about figuring out how to look for a job in the private sector — those that took the Department-provided post-election therapist seriously, anyway.
They informed the IHC that the FO was providing all possible assistance to Dr Fouzia. Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
the court adjourned the hearing till January 13.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Legal team working on expediting efforts to bring Aafia home

2023-06-03

And who knows? The horse might learn to sing.

[Dawn] Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui

...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her...
, a Pak neuroscientist jugged
You have the right to remain silent...
in the US for 86 years for allegedly attacking American soldiers in Afghanistan, had a third meeting with her sister at a prison hospital in Texas on Thursday.

"Please think of Fowzia Siddiqui and Aafia today! After the tainted joy of their reunion after 20yrs today they must say goodbye at least for a while," Aafia’s lawyer Clive Stafford Smith wrote in a tweet he posted before the meeting.

The two sisters had their first reunion in 20 years at the Carswell prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday. The lawyer attended all three meetings between the two sisters while Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Senator Mushtaq Ahmed also accompanied them on at least one occasion.

"Govt of Pakistain you owe her honesty," the lawyer wrote in another tweet. "Aafia and I spoke today about how she needs to know whether her infant Suleiman was really killed when she was originally kidnapped."

US authorities say Aafia was detained in Afghanistan in 2008 and was brought to a US military base for interrogation, where she grabbed a rifle and opened fire on her interrogators.

The US government said it was unaware of her location from March 2003 until July 2008, but statements released by Aafia’s side indicated that she was kidnapped earlier in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, where her son also disappeared.

Her other two children — a son and a daughter — were babies when she was incarcerated but they are in their 20s now. She saw their pictures on Tuesday, after 20 years.

She had not been in contact with any of her family members for more than a decade.

"It was deeply depressing, but nevertheless a privilege, to be present for this emotional reunion," said Mr Smith, the lawyer. The visits, he said, focused on "how we can get her home from the hell of her current existence".

Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, in a tweet, said the sisters met in a room separated by a glass wall and were not allowed to exchange gifts. Quoting Dr Fowzia, he said Aafia was not in a good condition and was not aware of the death of her mother, who passed away last year.

Dawood Ghaznavi, a Pakistani lawyer associated with the free Aafia movement, said US authorities could send Aafia to Pakistan if the Pak establishment assured them that "they would keep Aafia in a secure place" and would not allow her to resume her activities.

Yes, but who would be gullible enough to believe Pakistani government assurances in this matter?

Mr Smith said, "our request is to let Aafia go home" but it could only happen if Pakistain made sincere efforts.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Man who sold gun to Texas synagogue attacker gets 8 years in prison

2022-10-28

As we like it: all’s well that ends well. (Yes, of course you see what I did there, dear Reader. I would expect nothing less.)

[IsraelTimes] Ex-felon convicted of possession of semi-automatic pistol later used by Malik Faisal Akram to hold rabbi and 3 others hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville

A man who sold a pistol to a man who used it to hold four hostages inside a Texas synagogue before being fatally shot by the FBI
FBI

...when not in prison he enjoyed the dubious pleasures of selling illegal drugs and stolen guns to those who appreciate such things...

33, pleaded guilty in June to being a felon in possession of a firearm, prosecutors said.

Williams sold Malik Faisal Akram

...Brit-Paki known wolf, a member of jihad precurser Tablighi Jamaat and divorced father of six, he came to America specially to get the Joos to rescue Aafia Siddiqui from durance vile, but failed spectacularly — first losing his hostages and then his life. Did we ever learn who took him between the Dallas International Airport and the homeless shelter where he was given shelter and who introduced him to the felon who sold him that gun?

the weapon Arkam used when he entered Congregation Beth Israel in the Dallas-area suburb of Colleyville on January 15 and held the synagogue’s rabbi and three others hostage, according to prosecutors.

Williams, who was previously convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance, sold Akram a semi-automatic pistol on January 13.

Prosecutors said that in plea papers, Williams admitted to possession of that firearm despite his prior conviction.

"This defendant, a convicted felon, had no business carrying — much less buying and selling — firearms," US Attorney Chad Meacham said in a news release.

Prosecutors said Williams confirmed selling Akram the handgun at a Dallas intersection.

Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, held hostages while demanding the release of a federal prisoner. The standoff ended after more than 10 hours when the synagogue’s rabbi threw a chair at Akram and fled with the other two remaining hostages just as an FBI tactical team was moving in. None of the hostages were maimed.

Williams was arrested just over a week after the standoff.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Defund the FBI

2022-07-28

[FRONTPAGEMAG] Was anyone really surprised when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced that "highly credible" whistleblowers had given him information about FBI efforts to make the Hunter Biden scandal go away? Grassley wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday that "the information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI’s receipt and use of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI’s false portrayal of acquired evidence as disinformation. The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter." Will anyone hail me as a prognosticator of extraordinary powers when I predict, correctly, that in response to this letter, Wray and Garland will do absolutely nothing, except possibly to cover their tracks more effectively? No, because anyone who has been paying attention can see that.

The FBI has become a cancer on the American body politic. The FBI must go.

Grassley summarized how the FBI spiked the Hunter Biden material, stating that "the allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation." He noted that a 2020 FBI intelligence assessment that was "used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation." He added: "Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation."

Grassley continued: "In light of these allegations, I remain very concerned that political bias by a select group of Justice Department and FBI officials has infected the Justice Department’s and FBI’s usual process and procedure to open and pursue high-profile and politically charged investigations." He then concluded: "If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are — and have been — institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law."

That’s right. And Hunter Biden isn’t even close to being the first sign of this institutional corruption. Garland even sicced the FBI on parents protesting at school board meetings over the imposition of the woke agenda in public schools. When challenged, Garland insisted that this was all on the up-and-up: "Parents have been complaining about the education of their children and about school boards since there were such things as school boards and public education. This is totally protected by the First Amendment. True threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment. Those are the things we are worried about here. Those are the only things we are worried about here. We are not investigating peaceful protests or parent involvement in school board meetings. There is no precedent for doing that and we would never do that. We are only concerned about violence and threats of violence against school administrators, teachers, staff."

That sounds reasonable, but PJ Media’s Megan Fox did a deep dive into the supposed "threats" that school board members had allegedly received that justified FBI intervention, and came up empty. Fox concluded, "There isn’t one legitimate threat on the NSBA’s list or a situation that wasn’t handled easily by the police." The NSBA is the National School Boards Association, which appealed to the FBI for help, with Wray’s corrupt Bureau only too happy to oblige.

This is the same FBI that consistently denies the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, and lied outright about the jihadi who stormed the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, and took hostages in January 2022, demanding the release of convicted jihad terrorist Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui

...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her...
. FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said: "We do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, uh, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community, uh, but we’re continuing to work to find motive and, and we will continue on that path." Several days later, with the evidence overwhelming, the FBI had to admit sheepishly that it was a assassination on Jews after all.

FBI and Homeland Security Department officials have often insisted and frequently repeated the claim that "white supremacists" and other "domestic bully boys" constitute the foremost terror threat the nation faces. The FBI is currently pursuing no fewer than 2,700 investigations of "domestic extremism," more than twice the usual number of such investigations. The dramatic increase in investigations suggests, at least in a sane world, a response to a sharply increased threat, but Biden’s handlers have shown no evidence of a massive spike in "white supremacist" terrorism. It’s just something we’re supposed to take their word for. Timothy Langan, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, in November 2021 presented it to Congress as axiomatic: "It goes without saying that the threat from domestic terrorism is heightened and has significantly increased in the last 18 months."

Does it really? Or is that just what the feds would have us believe as the January 6 Committee continues its efforts to stigmatize legitimate political opposition as terrorism? Even the far-Left Daily Beast reported as far back as April 2021 that "the FBI, without any court order, sifted through the National Security Agency’s massive troves of foreign communications for information on American ’racially motivated ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful bully boys,’ a newly declassified order from the secret surveillance court details."

And all this is aside from the FBI’s role in the Russian Collusion hoax and so much more. The FBI today is a rogue, out-of-control agency in service not of justice but of the interests of the Democrat Party. It should be shut down. But will there ever be a president with the courage to do so?

Link

Home Front: WoT

FBI says Texas synagogue hostage-taker tried to buy ‘machine gun’ and drugs

2022-02-17

[IsraelTimes] Dallas man accused of selling Malik Faisal Akram pistol says the attacker sought to buy methamphetamines and ’weapon that contains large number of bullets’.

The man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue sought to buy drugs and a "machine gun" before the standoff last month that ended with the hostages escaping and the gunman’s death, an FBI
FBI

...Brit-Paki known wolf, a member of jihad precurser Tablighi Jamaat and divorced father of six, who came to America specially to get the Joos to rescue Aafia Siddiqui from durance vile, but failed spectacularly, first losing his hostages and then his life. But who took him to and from Dallas International Airport to the homeless shelter that housed him, and who introduced him to the felon who sold him that gun?

the handgun he used in his attack on Congregation Beth Israel in the suburb of Colleyville.

A federal magistrate ordered the alleged seller, Henry "Michael" Williams, detained ahead of his trial on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Williams, 32, was arrested less than two weeks after the standoff ended with an FBI tactical team rushing into the synagogue and fatally shooting Akram just as the hostages made their escape.

Authorities said Williams confessed to selling Akram, a 44-year-old British national, the previously stolen pistol.

During the detention hearing, FBI agent Taylor Page testified that Williams said Akram initially reached out to him seeking to buy methamphetamines and "a machine gun or a weapon that contains a large number of bullets."

He clearly had a romantic idea of what is available to the random foreigner, even in the far West where cowboys roam with six shooters and such.

Akram explained that he wanted the gun for intimidation to help settle a debt, according to Page.

Page also said that Akram fired his gun at some point during the standoff but did not provide details. Multiple gunshots could be heard in the area around the synagogue soon after the FBI breached the building.

In court, prosecutors highlighted Williams’ past felony convictions and Page said Williams brokered 10 to 15 other gun sales. Williams’ defense lawyer argued that he could not have known what Akram actually planned to do with the gun and said her client was being blamed for another person’s actions.

Magistrate Judge Rebecca Rutherford ordered Williams be held as a potential danger to the community.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

US charges man who sold gun used in synagogue hostage crisis

2022-01-27

Very good. Now tell us how Mr. Akram knew how to find a felon to sell him an illegal gun, and who put him together with Mr. Williams.

[JPost] Henry "Michael" Williams, has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The US Justice Department has filed criminal charges against a man for allegedly selling the gun that Malik Faisal Akram later used to take hostages earlier this month at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

Henry "Michael" Williams, 32, has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, the US Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Texas announced Wednesday.

Williams, who was previously convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance, sold Akram the semiautomatic Taurus G2C pistol on Jan. 13, according to prosecutors.

Two days later, Akram brought the pistol to Congregation Beth Israel during Saturday morning prayers, where he held four people, including the rabbi, hostage for nearly 11 hours. The first hostage was released around 5 p.m. The other three broke free unharmed when Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker threw a chair at Akram to distract him and fled out a side door.

Interviewed by the FBI days later, after his arrest on an outstanding state warrant, Williams identified a photo of Akram and affirmed he had made the firearm sale for $150.

The pistol was found inside the synagogue after FBI agents breached the building on Jan. 15, killing Akram in the process. The FBI is investigating the hostage situation as both terrorism and a hate crime.

The Times of Israel adds:

Malik Akram purchased semiautomatic Taurus G2C pistol 2 days before Texas standoff, telling dealer he needed it to ’intimidate’ someone who owed him cash, Justice Department says.

"After viewing a photo of Mr. Akram, Mr. Williams confirmed he sold Mr. Akram the handgun at an intersection in South Dallas," the Justice Department continued. "Analysis of both men’s cellphone records showed that the two phones were in close proximity on January 13."

Related: The Daily Mail has a photo of the miscreant.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Texas synagogue hostage-taker was known to MI5

2022-01-19

See developments in Britain here, and yesterday here.

[BBC] A British man who took four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas had been investigated by MI5.

Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn in Lancashire, was the subject of an investigation in late 2020 but by the time he flew to the US he was assessed to be no longer a risk.

The siege at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas ended after 10 hours, with the four hostages unharmed.

Akram, 44, was shot dead by police.

He had been on the British security service's watchlist as a "subject of interest" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.

But by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the "former subject of interest" list and was no longer considered a threat.

The Times of Israel adds:

The gunman who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue in a 10-hour standoff that ended in his death was checked against law enforcement databases before entering the United States but raised no red flags, the White House said Tuesday.

Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, arrived in the US at Kennedy Airport in New York on a tourist visa about two weeks ago, officials said. He spent time in Dallas-area homeless shelters before the attack Saturday in the suburb of Colleyville

Akram was not believed to be included in the Terrorist Screening Database, a listing of known or suspected faceless myrmidons maintained by the FBI
...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time...
and shared with a variety of federal agencies, two law enforcement officials told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Had he been included, it would have been extremely difficult for him to get into the country.

"Our understanding, and obviously we’re still looking into this, is that he was checked against US government databases multiple times prior to entering the country, and the US government did not have any derogatory information about the individual in our systems at the time of entry," White House press secretary Jen Psaki

...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State under Obama. A new American success story, under Biden she became spokeswoman for the whole administration, and she was even able to get her sister a job...
said.

She added: "We’re certainly looking back... [at] what occurred to learn every possible lesson we can to prevent attacks like this in the future."

The investigation stretched to England, where over the weekend police announced that two teenagers were in jug in connection with the standoff. The teenagers are Akram’s sons, two US law enforcement officials told AP. The officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, police in Britannia said the teenagers had been released without charge. They were detained in Manchester, about 30 miles from Akram’s hometown of Blackburn.

Investigators believe he had initially traveled to New York believing that Siddiqui was still being held there — where her trial occurred — without realizing she had been sent to a federal prison in Texas.

During the standoff, Akram forced Cytron-Walker to call Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue, and told him to demand Siddiqui’s release. In at least one subsequent call, Akram ranted and demanded that Buchdahl make efforts to get Siddiqui freed, an official said. Buchdahl called 911 and reported the calls to New York City police.

Investigators are still working to sort through all of Akram’s movements in the US and are reviewing travel, financial and phone records, but they believe Akram may have traveled by bus to Texas, two of the officials said.

Authorities believe Akram bought the handgun used in the hostage-taking in a private sale, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on.

In another major terrorism case, Omar Mateen

... the Afghan-"American" who decided he was a soldier of the Caliphate and shot fifty unarmed people to death in a Florida gay bar he used to frequent...
, who killed 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub in 2016, had been investigated repeatedly by the FBI but not charged. The FBI undertook an internal review of how it handled tips and leads in terrorism investigations.