Lockerbie Bomber Could Go Free

The case of the only man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, Britain's biggest terrorist outrage that killed 270 people, could be reopened after fresh evidence that his conviction was based on unreliable evidence.

If the appeal is successful, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi could walk free.

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Attention Truthers

Here's something for the Kooky Kult of Koslam to go into denial about.

Philippine troops defuse bus bomb after U.S. Embassy warning

The bomb — black powder stuffed in a pitcher with steel fragments for deadlier effect — was hidden in a backpack on a bus where it was hastily abandoned by two men late Sunday in southern Maguindanao's Talitay town, regional army spokesman Lt. Col. Julieto Ando said.

Panicking passengers grabbed the bag and hurled it outside the bus. Police and army experts later defused the bomb, which was attached to a timer and batteries but was not yet set to explode, Ando said.

A police investigation was under way to determine whether the foiled bombing was planned by al-Qaida-linked militants, or linked to lingering political wrangling following May 14 congressional and local elections, he said.

The volatile Maguindanao region, where Muslim guerrillas and political warlords hold sway, was hit by bombings and gun attacks because of intense political rivalries during the balloting.

"It's hard to pinpoint who left that bomb in the bus," Ando told The Associated Press by telephone.

Maybe someone working on orders from Karl Rove?

"We had our share of bombings, killings and gun strafing in the recent elections. It's impossible not to have those in an elections here."

We're waiting for leading presidential candidate Ron Paul to link this event to US foreign policy blowback.

Imminent Terror Attack in Germany?

From The Blotter.

U.S. and German officials fear terrorists are in the final planning stages of an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany.

Law enforcement officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com that U.S. air marshals have been diverted to provide expanded protection of flights between Germany and the United States.

"The information behind the threat is very real," a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble told reporters, "The danger level is high. We are part of the global threat by Islamist terrorism."

Tut tut now, Mr. Schauble. How dare you mention Islamists and terror in the same breath. Don't you know that's very impolite in some circles?

"The attack would be designed to create high numbers of casualties among both Germans and the U.S. military," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterror official.

The 9/ll hijackers planned their operation out of Hamburg, Germany, and the country continues to be known as a staging area for al Qaeda and groups affiliated with it.

"There are 300 to 500 people who are suspected to be part of al Qaeda cells in Germany," said Col. Andrews Pratt (Ret.) of the George Marshall Center in Germany.

They're All Muslims, But...

Now that much more is known about the six Muslims arrested in New Jersey, the spin from Muslims begins.

The description of the suspects as "Islamic militants" caused renewed worry among New Jersey's Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, but none were connected to that plot.

"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says `Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous."

Where would anyone get that idea?

Around the blogosphere, LGF has updates here, here, here, and here, Michelle Malkin has extensive coverage here and Dan Riehl unearthed some excellent information.

Others commenting include Sister Toldjah, Weasel Zippers, Strata-Sphere, No Runny Eggs, Hot Air, Lawhawk, Captain's Quarters, Jihad Watch, Hugh Hewitt, Outside the Beltway, Gateway Pundit, Jawa Report, Patterico's Pontifications, Atlas, La Shawn Barber, Rhymes With Right, Blackfive, Counterterrorism.

NewsBusters notes MSNBC.com isn't interested in the story.

Paki Music Shops Attacked

Via Jihad Watch. I wonder if the creature formerly known as Cat Stevens will be playing Peshawar?

Islamist/Communist Alliance

Counterterrorism Blog calls it strange, but is it really? Both ideologies are enemies of freedom, so an alliance seems natural.

Aussie Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty

From this account, it appears he may be shipped back down under.

David Hicks has pleaded guilty to one count of supporting a terrorist organisation.

He pleaded guilty to a late night specially convened military commission after an apparent deal was reached between his defence attorney and the prosecution.

The plea raises the prospect that he will soon return to Australia.

It is unclear what sentence he will have to serve. There was no mention of how long he will have to serve, or if he will serve it in Australia.

The Military Commission will reconvene tomorrow (Tuesday) to enter a formal verdict.

It sure appears they have no shortage of bleeding-heart moonbats in Australia.

The Australian Demorats and Greens today condemned the ejection of Hicks's lawyers, saying it was further evidence of the the judicial process being rigged against the Australian.

"That's the problem with a kangaroo court, it makes its own rules," Democrats leader Lynn Allison said in Canberra.

"It's a continued abuse of justice and of David Hicks himself.

"We must remember this is just the beginning. It could be several years before he's brough to trial proper."

Australian Greens leader Bob brown compared the dismissal of Hicks's lawyers to the processes under the former Soviet Union's legal system.

"This court is nowehere near the level of justice that we expect in a Western democracy, particularly in Australia.

"It's got the Howard Governement's tick of approval but it is mightily unpopular with Australians and as it's unfolding it's going from bad to worse."

USS Cole Mastermind Confesses

The left was quick to question the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Let's see how long it takes them to dismiss this.

A Yemeni portrayed as an al-Qaida operative and a member of a terrorist family confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, killing hundreds, according to a Pentagon transcript of a Guantanamo Bay hearing.

The transcript released Monday was the fourth from the hearings the military is holding in private for 14 "high-value" terror suspects who were kept in secret CIA prisons before they were sent to the U.S. facility in Cuba last fall.

Last week, Waleed bin Attash said he helped plan the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200, according to the transcript. He also said he helped organize the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in which suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided-missile destroyer, killing 17 sailors.

"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said when asked what his role was in the attacks. "I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."

Also alleged to have been Osama bin Laden's bodyguard at one time, bin Attash is in his late 20s and is a Yemeni who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, authorities have said. Said to be an al-Qaida operational chief, bin Attash is known as Tawfiq bin Attash or Tawfiq Attash Khallada or simply Khallad. He was captured in 2003.

UPDATE: Transcript here.

UPDATE II: Allahpundit has more.

Purification of Europe

Some sobering commentary from Diana West: Imposing Islamic Law.

I saw something eerie this week. It wasn't an apparition exactly, but rather a head-spinning blur of headlines about global jihad that, rather incredibly, began to take on the unmistakable shape of a British old school tie.

How? Maybe I should start by explaining it was the old school tie that came to mind first in the form of a new publication on British education: namely, a 72-page manifesto (sorry, "guidance") from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) on how British state schools might better accommodate children from the Muslim community, which, according to the 2001 census, makes up 2.7 percent of the British population.

Did I say "better" accommodate their Muslim pupils? I mean, much, much better accommodate them. In fact, if the British were to adopt half of the MCB's recommendations for making British schooling Muslim-friendly, they might as well re-issue the 19th-century boy's school classic as Abdullah Brown's School Days. At the crux of the Muslim council's document is a call for special treatment for Britain's Muslim students that is so special as to reorient the entire British system according to Islamic law.

Read the rest.

More at LGF.

Arithmetic of Jihad

Some sobering numbers.

It's time we open our eyes and confront reality. Ever since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the media has sought to reassure us that only a tiny minority of Muslims actually support the use of violence against Israel and the West.

It's just a small fringe, a marginal few at best, they tell us, so don't worry about it all too much. One percent or three percent - who cares? Just sit back, enjoy your morning eggs and coffee and have a nice day.

But a look at the numbers tells a very different story. The extent of support for global jihad is frightening in its proportions, and the numbers are anything but insignificant.

Read it all.

They weren't created by George W. Bush, either.