Comments (0)Seven Charged with Plotting Terror Attacks
July 30, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
Seven North Carolina residents were charged with plotting to commit terrorist attacks around the world, including in Israel.
Federal prosecutors charged six American citizens and one foreign national in an indictment unsealed Monday.
The group’s leader, Daniel Boyd, a convert to Islam, reportedly trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three years ago he began recruiting men, including sons Zakariya and Dylan, to wage jihad, or holy war.
The group had amassed a large cache of weapons and held training exercises in North Carolina, which tipped off federal officials, the Washington Post reported.
Several of the men traveled to Israel, the Gaza Strip and Jordan in 2006 and 2007. In Israel in 2007, they reportedly intended to engage in “violent jihad” but did not do any fighting. Some of the men also went to Pakistan and Kosovo.
Boyd also is charged with lying to customs and FBI agents about the purpose of his visit to Israel.
Besides the Boyds, the others charged are identified in court papers as Hysen Sherifi, Anes Subasic, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan and Ziyad Yaghi. They were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. Some also face weapons charges.
German Amazon Sued Over Anti-Semitic Books
A Jewish organization in Germany is suing the German version of Amazon for hate crimes over the sale of books that it says have banned content.
At issue are some 50 titles that push anti-Semitism, downplay National Socialist crimes and deny the Holocaust, according to the German office of the American Jewish Committee, which filed its suit Friday with the state prosecutor in Munich.
Deidre Berger, AJC’s Germany director, said in a public statement that the failure to act against the sale of such material undermined German law. The titles were uncovered during research in July, but an AJC spokesperson said the company has received complaints from private individuals and political leaders for years.
Berger urged Amazon.de to “take action and remove the illegal books from its catalog immediately.”
Among the books found in the Amazon.de catalog are publications from the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party of Germany, and books that deny or relativize the Holocaust by such writers as Wilhelm Stäglich, Germar Rudolf, Udo Walendy, Jurgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno.
Applauding the move by AJC, Member of Parliament Sebastian Edathy, head of the Bundestag’s interior affairs committee, said it was “shocking that an international book dealership is not prepared to remove books that stir up anti-Semitism and undermine the democratic consensus.”
An Amazon.de spokeswoman, according to a report from the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said the books to which the AJC objected are not banned in Germany.
The spokeswoman also said the company has tightened its rules regarding the sale of books that glorify or trivialize the Nazis, but did not plan to remove any books currently for sale.
“We believe that the correct answer to controversial literature is not to ban it but to engage in discussion over the controversy,” she told Deutsche Welle.
Palestinian Group Threatens Sacha Baron Cohen
Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has increased his security detail after a Palestinian terrorist group threatened him.
The Al Aksa Martyrs’ Brigade issued a statement Monday threatening the British entertainer for the inclusion of one of its members in his most recent film, “Bruno,” according to reports.
“We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man,” the group was quoted as saying, referring to Cohen. “The movie was part of a conspiracy against the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.”
Playing Bruno, a flamboyant gay Austrian television newsman, Cohen interviews Ayman Abu Aita, identified as a leader of the Palestinian terrorist group. At one point the character beseeches Aita to take him hostage, saying “I want to be famous. I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaida is so 2001.”
The British Telegraph reported Monday that Cohen had increased security around him in response to the threat.
Aita has said he is no longer involved in the organization.
Cohen first became famous for his character Ali G, a rapper-turned-television host known for his unusual style of interviews. He achieved worldwide fame in 2006 after the release of “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which he interviewed people in the character of a mustachioed journalist from the central Asian republic.
Cohen discussed interviewing Aita on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
British Parliamentary Committee: Talk to Hamas
An influential parliamentary committee is calling on Britain and the European Union to talk to moderates in Hamas in order to save the peace process.
In a report released Sunday, the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee repeated its stand from two years ago, calling on the British government to engage with moderates within Hamas, the Islamist party ruling the Gaza Strip, saying that the current policy to shun Hamas has not been successful.
The European Union and the United States—two of the four members of the diplomatic Quartet along with Russia and the United Nations—have rejected contact with Hamas because of its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals. Both consider Hamas to be a terror organization.
However, the Foreign Affairs committee said, “We conclude that there continue to be few signs that the current policy of non-engagement is achieving the Quartet’s stated objectives.”
The committee added that “the credible peace process for which the Quartet hopes, as part of its strategy for undercutting Hamas, is likely to be difficult to achieve without greater cooperation from Hamas itself.”
Committee chairman Mike Gapes told the BBC Sunday that just as Britain found a way to talk to moderate parliamentarians in the Lebanese group Hezbollah, it should talk to moderates in Hamas in order to get them to accept the Quartet’s demands.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.