Munir Farooqi, Israr Malik and Matthew Newton exposed by undercover police infiltrating faith stalls in Manchester Three men who recruited vulnerable men to fight British soldiers in Afghanistan to fight a holy war have been jailed after they were convicted of offences following an anti-terror trial. Munir Farooqi, 54, Israr Malik, 23, and Matthew Newton, 29, were exposed after undercover police officers infiltrated faith stalls in Manchester and found they were trying to groom vulnerable men to travel to training camps and battlefields abroad, where they would “fight, kill and die” in a jihad against coalition forces. They were convicted following a trial at Manchester crown court. On Friday, Farooqi was given four life sentences and told he must serve a minimum of nine years before he can be considered for parole. He had been convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism, three counts of soliciting to murder and one count of dissemination of terrorist publications, following a four-month trial. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Richard Henriques said: “You are in my judgment a very dangerous man, an extremist, a fundamentalist with a determination to fight abroad.” Farooqi had used his experiences fighting with the Taliban as a “tool of recruitment” to run the “Manchester recruitment centre” from Islamic bookstalls in the city. His operation was “sophisticated, ruthless and well honed,” the judge said. “You found the images of coffins draped in American flags as a source of great amusement. As residents of this country you owe allegiance to the Crown, that appears to have escaped your attention.” The group used dawah stalls – in Longsight and Manchester city centre to target vulnerable men and after converting them to the faith, radicalised them using terrorist literature, CDs and DVDs. Two undercover officers spent more than a year infiltrating the group and gaining the trust of Farooqi, who had been previously jailed in Afghanistan after fighting alongside the Taliban in 2001. One of the detectives taped him boasting: “If we die, we win. You have Allah on your side, how can we lose? You know jihad is not about you giving your life away. If we’re going to go there you make sure you take at least 40 or 50 people with us so we’ve done something.” The undercover officer said Farooqi told him he had been jailed for fighting in Afghanistan and he had been trailed by MI5 after returning to Britain. Matthew Newton, a white convert who worked as an estate agent, was convicted of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism and two counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and sentenced to six years. He told the court he had never heard Farooqi advocate violence. Malik, from Fallowfield, was convicted of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism and two counts of soliciting to murder and received an indeterminate sentence. It will be five years before he is eligible for parole. Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, head of the North-West counter terrorism unit, said: “This was an extremely challenging case, both to investigate and successfully prosecute at court, because we did not recover any blueprint, attack plan or endgame for these men. “However, what we were able to prove was their ideology. These men were involved in an organised attempt in Manchester to recruit men to fight, kill and die in either Afghanistan or Pakistan by persuading them it was their religious duty. “That is not an expression of religious freedom, but a concerted effort to prepare people to fight against our own forces abroad. In law, that is terrorism. “Munir Farooqi was the leader. He used his dawah stall to attract vulnerable people like Israr Malik, and then begun to radicalise them, encouraging them to perform violent jihad abroad. He even arranged for these publications to be brought into a prison. Having already fought in Afghanistan in 2001, his war stories were another powerful way of influencing vulnerable young men. For young men who feel angry at the world, these powerful messages can be very persuasive.” He added: “We have worked very closely with a number of mosques, local partners and community leaders to keep them informed since the arrests, as we know this case has provoked strong feelings. I would like to thank those people for their support and understanding throughout what has been a very challenging investigation.” Officers found three books and three DVDs that were considered terrorist publications at Farooqi’s home among more than 50,000 books and leaflets and more than 5,000 recordings. UK security and terrorism Global terrorism Taliban Manchester Afghanistan Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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KUNAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. soldiers deployed on the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan say the war isn’t going away for another ten years, even after Washington pulls troops from a country locked in a deadly Islamist insurgency. With failing public support for the war, President Barack Obama has announced a plan to gradually draw down the 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and hand over all security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. But ten years after the September 11, 2011 attacks, which brought U.S. forces to Afghanistan, the country still faces a Taliban insurgency that the world’s formidable military has been unable to quell. For Captain Dan Mizak of the…
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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and fellow Americans: Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country. We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that’s made things worse. This past week, reporters have been asking, “What will this speech mean for the President? What will it mean for Congress? How will it affect their polls, and the next election?” But the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don’t care about politics. They have real-life concerns. Many have spent months looking for work. Others are doing their best just to scrape by — giving up nights out with the family to save on…
Continue reading …9/11 Anniversary: 10 Years Later, Tourists Check-in To Lower Manhattan (PHOTOS)
September 9, 2011 No Comment
The words “rebirth,” “re-energize” and “revival” are commonly spoken when referring to Lower Manhattan. But, 10 years after the horror experienced on September 11, 2001, the words have taken on more than just a somber and emotional element. Since 2001, hotel and retail services increased 10%, and tourists and business travelers now have the choice of 18 hotels – triple the number that existed in 2001 — with seven more new hotels slated for opening in the coming year, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York. Tourism has increased by nearly 30% in just the past two years, but as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 nears, the hospitality industry hasn’t lost sight of its focus. Lower Manhattan today is undeniably both a tourist destination, as well as Manhattan’s financial heart. In addition to businesses headquartered in the area and the energy of the New York Stock Exchange, the 16-acre World Trade Center site is currently under construction and will include five new skyscrapers, One World Trade Center and the Memorial Museum (set to open 2012), as well as restaurants and retail stores. Aside from the $20 billion being invested in the new World Trade Center area, an $875 million project by Frank Gehry will see the tallest residential building in New York (set to open in 2012), and in 2014, haute couture moves into Lower Manhattan when the fashion moguls at Condé Nast move their headquarters into One World Trade Center. The new development is not only a tourist attraction, but will force a surge of employment opportunities and attract more business to the area. The suits that adorn the patrons of cafes, restaurants and sidewalks on Wall Street and in Battery Park City now mingle with tourists donning “I LOVE NY” t-shirts, and leisure travelers with cameras wrapped around their necks and maps pointing in all different directions. Ten years ago, those who stayed at a hotel in Lower Manhattan probably didn’t notice the view, but today, the views of the Statue of Liberty across the water or the Freedom Tower from the guest room window is a stark reminder of the resiliency of New York. NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York, in collaboration with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, launched a communication campaign earlier this year to promote Lower Manhattan to visitors. The Get More NYC: Lower Manhattan, which was designed to illustrate the recovery and revitalization of Lower Manhattan in the last decade, started June 1 and encourages visitors to stay in Lower Manhattan’s hotels, eat in its restaurants, shop in its stores and take advantage of the Lower Manhattan experience. “A crucial part of the story of September 11th is how Lower Manhattan – an area many people said would turn into a ghost town – has come back in the past 10 years,” said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a press release. “People from across the country – and around the world have contributed to its revival, and now we want our visitors to see that full recovery for themselves. Lower Manhattan is where the first chapters in the remarkable story of New York City were written four hundred years ago. And it’s where the next installment of New York City’s story is being written today.” Hotels help fuel Lower Manhattan’s revival On Sept. 11, 2001, the 820-room New York Marriott World Trade Center Hotel – which sat in between the towers – was entirely destroyed. A few blocks down the street sits the 500-room New York Marriott Downtown (formerly called the New York Marriott Financial Center). The hotel closed after the attacks and reopened Jan 7, 2002, in hopes of providing a place for both business and leisure travelers eager to return. “We changed the name to appeal to business and leisure travelers,” said Kathleen Duffy, spokesperson for New York City Marriott hotels. “Business travel curtailed and leisure travel was down, but we had to remain viable. People started coming back, and there was a lot of ‘patriotic leisure travel’” that Duffy said helped revitalize the dour mood of the area. Just this week the hotel received the flag that was originally hung in the New York Marriott World Trade Center Hotel and is now prominently displayed in the lobby of the Marriott Downtown. There were challenges along the way, “but the opening of the memorial and the museum is bringing leisure travel back to Lower Manhattan.” “People [in the area] are saying less ‘Ground Zero’ and more ‘the Memorial’,” said Duffy. “It’s a shift in mindset. It’s a turning point. Once the memorial is open to the general public, I think it’s going to bring an enormous amount of leisure travel to Lower Manhattan.” At The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, hotel employees are gearing up for an rush of guests and tourists as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches. The hotel, which was slated to open in October 2001 but officially opened its doors on January 27, 2002, stands to many as a symbol of the revival of lower Manhattan. “Initially, when we first were built we had unobstructed views of the World Trade Center site and people would sit and watch the rebuilding of the area from the Club level,” said Nicole La Valette, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Ritz-Carlton, Battery Park. Over the years, more residential buildings were built, obstructing the views, which La Valette says was actually a good thing. “It was a sign of the revival.” Today, guests who once requested views of Ground Zero from their hotel room are now offered an equally dramatic view. From the hotel you can see clear to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of hope and resilience. “There’s a lot more residents and tourists in the area now, and the activity in downtown is positive for our employees and our guests,” said La Valette. “The redone parks and new restaurants, and talk about new retail stores — people feel like they are in a good place right now. Despite everyone saying it’s going to be a ghost town, it’s hasn’t proven to be.” The soon-to-be open Conrad New York, located at 102 North End Avenue, will be the hotel group’s first property in New York, and Lower Manhattan was an easy choice, said Robert Rechtermann, General Manager of the Conrad New York. “The neighborhood has so many new restaurants, shops and businesses opening that it’s becoming a destination in and of itself.” To add to the mix, the new Conrad will feature high-design “green roof”, complete with a bar, a garden and river views. It’s true that staying in the Financial District doesn’t have the same flashy appeal as Times Square or elegance of the Upper West Side, but Lower Manhattan nevertheless embodies the best of New York’s effortless attitude, and it’s got a serious cool-factor. Nowhere else in Manhattan can you get a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty in one spot or walk Wall Street and end your day bar-side in Tribeca. Sure, you’ll have to navigate through construction cranes and orange cones, and the sound of jackhammers will likely provide the background music to your leisurely stroll through Battery Park, but in a way it’s almost inspiring — the construction you’re walking through, the hotel you’re staying in, or the restaurant you’re ordering from form pieces of history that tell a riveting story about a powerful past that made way for positive future. The Lower Manhattan hotels to date include: Millenium Hilton; Gild Hall, a Thompson Hotel, Holiday Inn Wall Street and Holiday Inn Express, Hyatt Andaz Wall Street, Eurostars Wall Street, Ritz Carlton Battery Park, Hampton Inn Financial District, W New York Downtown, Club Quarters- Wall Street & World Trade Center, The Wall Street Inn, New York Marriott Downtown, World Center Hotel, Doubletree by Hilton -Financial District, and the Cosmopolitan. The Conrad New York will open later this year.
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While former Rep. Anthony Weiner's district is not always a Democratic stronghold, it does tend to vote more liberally. David Weprin, the Democratic New York State assemblyman running in the special election for Weiner's former seat is not the greatest candidate, either. A few weeks ago, he told a newspaper that he thought the national debt was around only $4 trillion. With a weak Democratic candidate, some are wondering if Republican Bob Turner can take the seat, and if he does, hold it in the November election as well. So far, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already spent nearly $500,000 in TV ad spots in the district, which began airing yesterday and will continue through Monday. The Democratic House Majority PAC has also bought additional advertising time to support Weprin. If Turner still pulls a win, do you think he
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HayleyWerin says: RT @ GleeWatch : Dave Grohl Talks Glee Diss On Chelsea Lately (VIDEO): http://t.co/E3t42nf
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Killer who struggled with murderous thoughts was not mentally ill, inquest hears Raoul Moat compared himself to fictional characters such as King Kong and the Incredible Hulk while on the run from armed police and said he hated himself as he struggled with his murderous thoughts, an inquest heard. The feelings could have been triggered by a traumatic childhood in which he was beaten and once saw his mother burn all his toys, the jury heard at Newcastle crown court. He was paranoid, suspicious, mistrustful of authority figures and blamed other people for his misfortune. But the 37-year-old former bouncer was not mentally ill, according to a forensic psychologist brought in to advise expert police negotiators. Moat shot himself after a tense six-hour standoff with armed police, in Rothbury, Northumberland, in July 2010. He had been on the run for a week after shooting his former girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, killing her new boyfriend, Chris Brown, and blinding PC David Rathband. The inquest heard Moat was tormented by bad dreams and feelings which he detailed on a dictating machine while he was on the run. In the message recovered by police, Moat said: “I feel like King Kong when he’s right at the top of that building, all messed up, when he’s in a real mess. I hate myself. I do hate myself. “It is a part of me. I’m like the Incredible Hulk. It is not anger, it is something completely different.” He likened it to being a wild animal “and it’s been there all my life.” He said: “I’ve had it at the back of my mind and it only ever comes out when I get hurt. It is just bonkers. A psychologist said it has got something to do with my mother and rejection; I don’t know, I don’t understand that kind of thing.” He said the violence he had committed “did not feel real” and likened it to playing the video game Doom . And he said when he shot his victims his jaw had been “champing, like he was on ecstasy”. Forensic psychologist John Hughes said the recordings showed Moat “ruminating and rehearsing” what had happened in his mind, as he tried to make a decision on his next move. Andrew Straw, cross examining for the Moat family, said the former doorman had been plagued throughout his adult life by nightmares in which he was seven-years-old and being chased by monsters. Straw asked Hughes if Moat, who was once prescribed antidepressants for depression, was mentally ill. Hughes said: “He has hit a point where he is turning things over in his mind and trying to make sense. He is using analogies that make sense to him. He feels like there is a huge, terrible, angry person in there. “I did not interpret it to mean in a bigger picture there was any mental illness at that point.” He said there is not the sort of chaotic disorder and failure to plan as there would be if he was mentally ill. He spoke of the need for the expert police negotiators to control the stand-off situation carefully. He said this would give Moat a sense of control that could prevent an “awful outcome” as they were by that stage dealing with “a suicide intervention” situation. The inquest continues. Raoul Moat Crime Mental health Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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In speech hailing new generation of free schools, prime minister pledges to raise standards and raises prospect of eliminating illiteracy Opponents of free schools are defending an educational establishment that has let down pupils and accepts failure as a fact of life, David Cameron has said. In a speech hailing the new generation of free schools opened this week, the prime minister pledged to raise standards and raised the prospect of eliminating illiteracy. “When China is going through an educational renaissance, when India is churning out science graduates, any complacency now would be fatal for our prosperity,” he said at the Free School Norwich. “And we’ve got to be ambitious, too, if we want to mend our broken society, because education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens.” The prime minister reiterated his warning, delivered last weekend, that benefits could be cut from the parents of children who played truant. “We need parents to have a real stake in the discipline of their children, to face real consequences if their children continually misbehave,” he said. “That’s why I have asked our social policy review to look into whether we should cut the benefits of those parents whose children constantly play truant. Yes, this would be a tough measure – but we urgently need to restore order and respect in the classroom, and I don’t want ideas like this to be off the table.” Cameron was speaking at the end of a week in which 24 free schools, created under legislation enacted in the coalition’s first few months, opened. The schools, free from local authority control, have greater freedoms than the academies established by Tony Blair. The prime minister was scathing about critics of free schools who say they will divert resources from existing schools. “Those opposing free schools are simply defending the establishment – an establishment that has failed pupils and infuriated parents for too long,” he said. “Those who support free schools are on the side of parents, charities and committed teachers who are trying to make things better on the side of the choice, freedom and competition that will really drive up standards.” Cameron was highly critical of an education establishment that he said had tolerated failure. “For a long time in this country, there has been a scandalous acceptance of under-performing schools,” he added. “It’s the attitude that says some schools – especially in the poorest areas – will always be bad. “That meekly accepts educational failure as a fact of life. Well, I’m sorry – that’s patronising nonsense.” The prime minister said the government would drive up standards by: • Ending “wrong-headed methods” that have failed pupils and making sure every teacher has the resources to deliver synthetic phonics teaching. “That’s the method that’s proven to work – and that’s how we can eliminate illiteracy in our country,” he said. • Raising the bar on GCSE results. By the end of the current parliament, a school where less than 50% of pupils are achieving five good GCSEs will be deemed to be underperforming. The last government set this at 30%. • A greater focus on rigorous subjects tested in a rigorous way. “Our curriculum review will mean we are really demanding in what we expect our children to learn,” he said. • A focus on tackling “coasting schools”. The prime minister said two schools in deprived parts of London – Burlington Danes Academy in Hammersmith, and Walworth Academy in Southwark – had achieved impressive results at GCSE. But in Oxfordshire and Surrey, relatively affluent counties represented by the prime minister and the education secretary, Michael Gove, only 16 state secondary schools did better than the two London schools. “”Why is there this difference?” Cameron said. “Why are these schools coasting along?” The prime minister said that, by the end of next year, the government would have transformed about 150 failing secondary schools and 200 failing primaries into academies. “Britain is a modern, developed country. If they’re seeing excellence as standard in cities like Shanghai, why can’t we see that in cities like London? “We’ve got the resources, we’ve got the fantastic teachers, we know what works. Now we just have to have the will – the energy – to make this happen and, believe me, we have it.” Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said: “The prime minister’s vision of an education system which delivers the best for everyone is one with which we agree. “The union simply does not accept that the fragmentation of our education system is the right answer. The free schools and academy programme are a divisive and unnecessary experiment with this. “To ensure that every young person has the very best chance to both reach their full academic potential and to be a ‘good citizen’, we need well-ordered schools within a coherent education service supported by youth provision, and a range of local support services. This government’s programme of cuts is hitting all this provision.” Free schools Schools David Cameron Education policy Liberal-Conservative coalition Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Power company officials believe a worker moving a piece of monitoring equipment in an Arizona utility substation likely turned off the lights yesterday for a massive 6 million customers stretching through southern California and Mexico. “This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of…
Continue reading …From our good friends at Next Media Animation . Rick Perry was born a democrat to rancher parents deep in the heart of Texas. He met his wife in kindergarten at a piano recital. Perry was a backer of former vice president Al Gore. But GOP operative Karl Rove convinced Perry to switch sides. Perry became the governor of Texas when George W. Bush and Karl Rove left for the White House. He is known for creating jobs. But critics say his business grants reward political donors. His HPV program was attacked because it benefited a donor. Also unpopular is a $5 “pole tax” that bar patrons must pay to enjoy live nude entertainment. Perry is not a Bush clone. In fact, Perry and Bush hate each other. Bush and Rove backed Perry’s GOP rival in the 2010 governor’s race. Perry is known for praying. He prayed for drought relief. But God has a sense of humor and denied Perry his rain. Still, Perry leads the GOP race. Will he go all the way?
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