Riehl World View

Goose Creek Terrorism Indictments

Update: Michelle has a link to the indictment.

via Michelle Malkin: remember that Mohamed hasn't been in the US very long - since January, I believe. I'm adding some additional info below. Mohammed was also brought into the mix by the as yet un-identified individual said to have returned to Canada right after the initial arrest. CBS reports he was teaching the use of explosives for "violent reasons."

As I pointed out, as opposed to ABC's The Blotter's reporting, the material they were said to have been transporting was potassium chlorate - said to be too unstable for model rocketry.

See here here and scroll here for more on the case.

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.

Remember WISE as linked to Sami al-Arian? Well, the landlord of one of the homes searched in this investigation is Noor Salhab. He headed WISE Investments Reality, Inc. see here - but dissolved it ten days after 9/11. And if you search the Florida Sec. of State's website, you'll find he has a host of companies linked to his name. PAL real estate may take on a different meaning after all this, hard to say. He appears to like petroleum transport, too:

Officer/Registered Agent Name List
Officer/RA NameEntity NameEntity Number
SALHAB, NOOR   THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY OF TAMPA, INC.N50793
SALHAB, NOOR   PAL REAL ESTATE, INC.P00000110404
SALHAB, NOOR  TAMPA PROPERTY INVESTMENTS INC.P05000052911
SALHAB, NOOR  PETROLEUM EXPRESS INC.P98000075592
SALHAB, NOOR  ALNOOR INVESTMENT, INC.P99000052913
SALHAB, NOORPAL REAL ESTATE, INC.P00000110404
SALHAB, NOOR  TAMPA PROPERTY INVESTMENTS INC.P05000052911
SALHAB, NOOR  WISE INVESTMENTS REALTY, INC.P97000047173
SALHAB, NOOR  PETROLEUM EXPRESS INC.P98000075592
SALHAB, NOOR  ALNOOR INVESTMENT, INC.P99000052913
SALHAB, NOUR  THE AMERICAN QUR'ANIC WORKS ASSOCIATION, INC.N05000004887
SALHAB, NOURULDEENS  WISE INVESTMENTS REALTY, INC.P97000047173
SALHAB, NOURULDEENS  QUICK MART INVESTMENT, INC.P97000098666

Around We Go

Tony Snow set to go on September 14 - not an unexpected development.

Tommy Franks as a VP? Interesting.

I agree, historians will be much more kind to Bush than the media has been.

Gift Just Keeps On Giving

New York City's Department of Education gave its supervisors cell phones with a lot of neat features ... including GPS. Then they used the GPS module to see if they were at work when stamped time cards purportedly documented they were working. A judge has recommended firing one guy who was caught out. Should we look for Congressional Democrats to implement a similar plan to give cell phones to all suspected terrorists?

The evidence against Halpin, whose base pay is $300 a day, included time cards that suspiciously appeared stamped on the same machine, even though his duties placed him in different locations each day.

But there was a clincher: data gathered through the GPS system on Halpin's cellphone, which he accepted in 2005 without being told it might be used to trace his every move.

On March 8, for example, supervisors determined that Halpin was last in Manhattan at 1:31 p.m. and was home in Levittown, L.I., at 2:40 p.m. On March 29, Halpin was found at home at 2:38 p.m.

Now Here's A Man Bites Dog Story

Well, it's actually more of a police chief bites two male patrolmen story - after they got drunk and passed out. Is there a shortage of public restrooms in this part of Texas? Meanwhile, Senator Craig may be resigning today.

ALTON — Alton Police Chief Jose Luis Vela was suspended Thursday after authorities charged the 10-year veteran with two counts of sexual assault against male employees.

City Manager Jorge Arcaute suspended the chief with pay Thursday afternoon, placing Lt. Eric Hernandez in charge of the department. Vela remained in Hidalgo County Jail late Thursday on a $200,000 bond.

Politics Is Important, Right?

I imagine many political bloggers, including me, occasionally tell themselves they follow politics because it matters - it's substantive and important in the grand scheme, somehow.

Then I click over to Memeorandum which has been all Senator Craig all the time for two days, along with Feministing talking about Obama, Oprah and the love of female orgasm, while everyone waits for a former television actor to declare for the Presidency.

Add to that a crime piece in the New York Times as Democrats turn away from donor / fugitive Norman Hsu and a TimesOnLine report of priests offering eco-confessions for one's Green sins.

And I find myself wondering if it wouldn't actually be more fun and at least as serious and informative to take a page from Agent Bed Head and blog about Britney Spear's latest ass flashing episode.

Craig may have been looking for a little action in a toilet stall some months back for all I know. But from what I see looking at much of the day's political coverage, it's rather hard to imagine he was in there alone.

Thompson To Announce He'll Announce?

I don't know, folks. If Fred has anymore hitch in his git along, he's going to have to hitch a ride back to Tennessee and git any hope of becoming President out of his head. But there is still time. What's going to matter is what happens right out of the gate. My gut is, if he stumbles and people don't quickly fall for Fred, Romney may be the ultimate beneficiary, making this a contest between Rudy and Mitt. Huckabee has yet to capitalize on his strong second in Iowa.

Fred Thompson's campaign-in-waiting will hold a 4 p.m. conference call today with supporters to brief them on plans for the former Tennessee senator's presidential announcement next week, according to an e-mail obtained by Politico.com.

Playing Politics With Terrorism And War

While Hillary Clinton continues to take some flak for playing politics with terrorism, will there be a sound about the obvious playing of politics concerning war, given these quotes below from a WaPo article on the leaking of a draft GAO report designed to undermine support for the war in Iraq? And isn't leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?

... The 69-page draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is still undergoing review at the Defense Department, which may ask that parts of it be classified or request changes in its conclusions. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, normally submits its draft reports to relevant agencies for comment but makes its own final judgments. The office has published more than 100 assessments of various aspects of the U.S. effort in Iraq since May 2003.

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version -- as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

More likely said government official feared recent polling and reporting suggesting a general increase in support for our efforts in Iraq.

Goose Creek 2 Update

Update via Michelle Malkin:

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.

Hey, It's Only Art, Right?

h/t Instapundit -- I'm not really down with Osama being portrayed as any religious figure, let alone Jesus. But if it's all about sparking debate, how about my entry which starts the conversation with Osama as John the Baptist, instead.

Last night, the Uniting Church minister who chairs the Blake Society defended the pieces.

The Reverend Rod Pattenden, who awarded the $15,000 prize to the competition winner in Sydney yesterday, said his mission was to spark debate about spirituality in a world that was “cynical, degraded and in crisis”. Mr Pattenden said he did not expect controversy to result from the exhibition at the National Art School Gallery “because the Christian community doesn’t look at art a great deal”.

Great News, I'm Going To Stop Raping Your Wife!

Pardon the unreal politik here, but if someone tells their army to stand down from killing you for a rest, isn't it an admission that they were doing that very thing, and as good a reason as any to wax their butt? Actually, this has to be a desperation play by Mookie. There's every chance many factions of the Mahdi Army won't stand down, leaving al-Sadr exposed as an Iranian puppet who no longer pulls that many strings on the ground in Iraq. It'll be interesting to watch, but don't look for the media to point that last bit out if it happens.

BAGHDAD - Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops, aides said Wednesday.

The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran.

"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.