Rally in US City of Charlottesville Turns Deadly as Car Rams into Counter-protesters

At least one person has been killed by a vehicle that crashed into a crowd of counter-demonstrators who were marching against a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The rally organised by the ultra-nationalist group, "Unite the Right", was planned to voice opposition to the removal of a Confederate statue and has been described as one of the largest white supremacist events in recent US history.

But Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe was forced to declare a state of emergency after violence broke out in the city.

Syria: Breaking the Propaganda War with Virginia Senator Richard Black

Virginia State Senator Richard Black and Janice Kortkamp Fearing recently returned from trips to Syria -- reporting on a reality far different than the lies the American people are being fed by the media. EIR's Jeffrey Steinberg interviews both on their meetings and experiences with top officials and everyday Syrians.

Father of Muslim American Soldier: ‘Donald Trump, You Have Sacrificed Nothing’

Khizr Khan gave a stirring speech at the Democratic convention in honor of his son, Humayun, who was killed in Iraq when a suicide bomber attacked his unit. Khan said that under a Trump government, Humayun wouldn’t have even been allowed in the country. ‘Have you even read the United States constitution?’ he asked Trump, before offering up his own copy

Khizr Khan: father of Muslim war hero to campaign against Trump in Virginia »

FBI Investigating Whether Virginia Stabbings Were ISIS-inspired

CAIR Supports Virginia Muslim Woman Fired for Wearing Hijab

Reporter and Cameraman Shot Dead in Virginia during Live Broadcast

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward.

THE GUARDIAN: Suspect is at large after killing reporter Alison Parker, 24, cameraman Adam Ward, 27, and injuring third person on scene of live TV news segment

A gunman killed two members of a news crew and injured one more in Moneta, Virginia, in a shooting that was partially captured on video on Wednesday morning.

Police are investigating the shooting at the Bridgewater Plaza near Smith Mountain Lake that took place at about 6.45am ET. A news crew from WDBJ7 local news was on the scene to film a segment for the morning news when several shots rang out. Screams followed and the camera recording the feature fell, as producers cut to the shocked studio news team.

The station later announced that two of their team, Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, had been shot dead.

Police are searching for a suspect at the scene. » | Alan Yuhas in New York | Wednesday, August 25, 2015

Obama's Rant: Vote for McAuliffe Is Vote for Progress

President Obama told Virginians Sunday to choose progress by voting for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Tuesday's election for governor. Rallying for McAuliffe in Arlington, Obama painted Republican Ken Cuccinelli as beholden to tea party extremism. (Nov. 3)

Virginia: Romney Heckled at Campaign Rally
As Mitt Romney addressed a campaign rally in Virginia, a man pulled out a banner urging an end to 'climate silence', triggering jeers from the audience and chants of 'USA, USA'.

Court Sides with Virginia Prison System on Lawsuit by Muslim Inmate Who Wanted 1/8-inch Beard
THE REPUBLIC: RICHMOND, Va. — A federal court has denied a Muslim inmate's lawsuit claiming the Virginia prison system violated his religious rights by refusing to allow him to grow a 1/8-inch beard.

William Couch challenged the Department of Corrections' grooming policy that bans long hair or beards.

A federal court in Harrisonburg sided with the department Thursday. Read on and comment » | Dena Potter | Associated Press | Monday, April 25, 2011

Bradley Manning: Top US Legal Scholars Voice Outrage at 'Torture'
THE GUARDIAN: Obama professor among 250 experts who have signed letter condemning humiliation of alleged WikiLeaks source

More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.

The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.

Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.

He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that "is not only shameful but unconstitutional" as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia.

The US soldier has been held in the military brig since last July, charged with multiple counts relating to the leaking of thousands of embassy cables and other secret documents to the WikiLeaks website.

Under the terms of his detention, he is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, checked every five minutes under a so-called "prevention of injury order" and stripped naked at night apart from a smock. » | Ed Pilkington in New York | Sunday, April 10, 2011

Man Arrested Over 'Terror Plot' to Bomb Washington DC Trains
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A naturalised American citizen born in Pakistan has been arrested over bomb plots on railway stations in the US capital that could have caused mass casualties, the FBI said.

Farooque Ahmed was arrested Wednesday and charged with trying to help people he believed were al-Qaida operatives planning to bomb subway stations around the nation's capital. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Virginia, was charged with trying to help people posing as al-Qaeda operatives planning to launch simultaneous bomb attacks on railway stations around Washington DC.

The public was never in danger because FBI agents were aware of Ahmed's activities and monitored him throughout, the agency said. And the people that Ahmed thought were al-Qaeda operatives were actually individuals who "worked on behalf of the government in this matter," according to a federal law enforcement official who requested anonymity.

The arrest appeared to have all the hallmarks of a sting operation, but the FBI refused to confirm this.

Ahmed faces 50 years in prison for charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organisation, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Virginia Set to Execute First Woman in Nearly a Century
THE GUARDIAN: Teresa Lewis will die by lethal injection on Thursday unless an appeal to the supreme court can save her

The state of Virginia this week plans to carry out its first execution of a woman in nearly a century, despite claims that Teresa Lewis has severe learning difficulties.

Lewis's last hope is an appeal to the US supreme court after Robert McDonnell, the state governor, said he will not spare the life of the 41-year-old who was convicted of arranging for two men to murder her husband and stepson. She is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday.

The men who carried out the killings – one of whom was Lewis's lover – received life sentences.

Lewis's last hope of avoiding the death chamber is an appeal before the supreme court. Her lawyers will argue that because she has such a low IQ her execution would be unconstitutional. >>> Chris McGreal in Washington | Sunday, September 19, 2010

Virginia: First to Block Health Coverage

Lessons in Revolution, via YouTube
THE SUNDAY TIMES: EVERY evening before dinner, Mohsen Sazegara disappears into the basement of his cosy suburban house in Virginia and makes a 10-minute home movie to post on YouTube.

Far from showcasing the talents of his sons or pets, Sazegara’s videos are of protest tactics aimed at bringing down a regime. His house is the epicentre of what he hopes will be the world’s first technological revolution and his videos are watched more than 6,000 miles away in Iran.

Six months after the disputed presidential election in Iran, the opposition has refused to give up despite a crackdown that has seen arrests, beatings, torture and show trials. Co-ordination of the so-called green revolution has increasingly moved overseas, where exiles are using the new media to spread the message.

Last week, when tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Iran in some of the biggest demonstrations since the elections, Sazegara had been sending instructions via Facebook, YouTube and email.

He stands in front of a green baize screen decorated with a V for victory and the movement’s slogan, “Green means resistance until spring comes”. After a brief assessment of the day’s events, he offers Iranians new ideas for fighting the regime.

They have good reason to listen. Thirty years ago, as a young revolutionary, he helped to topple the Shah, putting today’s Islamic regime in power and working as a speechwriter for its founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Sazegara was one of the founders of the Revolutionary Guard. Now he is teaching protesters how to tackle the force.

“In one part of my life I was involved in creating something; now, after 30 years, I’m trying to destroy it,” he said. >>> Christina Lamb in Virginia | Sunday, December 13, 2009

Mohsen Sazegara on CNN Explains Who Rules Iran

Five American Members of the ‘Religion of Peace’ Arrested in Pakistan
TIMES ONLINE: The FBI is investigating five American Muslim students who are thought to have been arrested in Pakistan yesterday on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks after disappearing from their homes in the US last month.

Pakistani police said they arrested the five men, aged from 18 to their early 20s, in a raid on the house of a member of the banned militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, in the town of Sargodha in the eastern province of Punjab.

The FBI has yet to confirm their nationalities or identities, but Pakistani officials said the men were all US citizens, including three of Pakistani descent, one of Egyptian descent and one of Yemeni descent, and had been staying at the house since November 30.

Their arrest came as David C. Headley, another American citizen, of Pakistani origin, pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in a case that has raised fears about Islamic militant groups' ability to recruit and operate inside the United States.

Muslim leaders in Washington said the five men - all students - had been living with their families in northern Virginia until they disappeared last month, and one had left behind a jihad-style "farewell" video message.

Officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) told reporters that the men's families contacted the organisation after they went missing.

Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, declined to give the men’s names, ages or nationalities, but one of them has been identified as a dental student at Howard University in Washington.

Mr Awad said the families brought along a video that included war images, verses from the Koran and showed one of the five men delivering a "final statement".

"It's like a farewell," he said of the 11-minute, English-language video that one of the families reportedly found in their home. Five US Muslims arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of terror plots >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Thursday, December 10, 2009

Republicans Win Virginia and New Jersey Elections in Blow for Barack Obama
THE TELEGRAPH: American voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to Barack Obama by rejecting his allies in Virginia, the swing state that helped deliver him the White House almost exactly a year ago, and the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey.

Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate, trounced his Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds, for whom Mr Obama had campaigned, by 17 points to become Virginia governor. Republicans also won the races in Virginia for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Governor Jon Corzine, the incumbent Democrat, was defeated by Chris Christie in New Jersey, where no Republican had won state-wide since 1997.

It was a sobering night for Mr Obama, who had campaigned ferociously for Mr Corzine, appearing at two of his rallies on Sunday. A sole consolation was an unexpectedly close race in upstate New York, where it seemed that the Democrat might overcome a Conservative party candidate after the Republican withdrew. >>> Toby Harnden in McLean, Virginia | Wednesday, November 04, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Updated: Republican wins in Virginia & New Jersey wins equal miserable night for Barack Obama >>> Toby Harnden | Wednesday, November 04, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Obama suffers poll blow a year after taking office >>> Giles Whittell in Washington | Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Beijing Forced Relatives to Blame Me: Uighur Activist
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: SYDNEY -- The exiled Uighur activist Beijing blames for inciting recent ethnic violence in China accused the Chinese government on Tuesday of forcing her imprisoned children to say she was responsible for the unrest.

China released a letter Monday it says was penned by close relatives of Rebiya Kadeer -- including two of her children -- blaming her for last month's deadly riots by minority Uighur Muslims in her native Xinjiang, which the government says left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.

But the 62-year-old U.S.-based activist, who arrived in Australia on Tuesday, told reporters in Sydney that the Chinese government forced two of her children to speak against her. They are both in prison in China, where one was convicted of tax evasion and the other of subversion.

"If they .. refused to cooperate with the Chinese government, then their lives would be jeopardized," she said through an interpreter. "In order to live in China, you have to lie."

Ms. Kadeer, who lives in the U.S. state of Virginia, is in Australia to attend the Melbourne International Film Festival, which will feature a documentary about her life. >>> Associated Press | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Jihad Academy in Fairfax County

YOU TUBE: Welcome to Faisal County


Welcome to Faisal County >>> Frank Gaffney, Jr. | July 13, 2009

Barack Obama to Meet CIA Agents to Calm Anger over 'Torture' Memos
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama is to make his first visit to the Central Intelligence Agency in an attempt to calm an uproar among America's spies over his release of secret memos about interrogation techniques.

President Barack Obama is to make his first visit to the CIA . Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The White House said he would address staff at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia about the "importance of the CIA's mission".

His visit came as it emerged that the highly controversial technique of "waterboarding", a type of simulated drowning, was used 266 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, two senior al-Qaeda prisoners.

Last week, Mr Obama released four memos, running to 126 pages, written by officials in President George W. Bush's administration and containing explicit details of the CIA's methods of extracting information from al-Qaeda suspects between 2002 and 2005.

Although Mr Obama said that neither CIA interrogators nor the authors of the memos should be prosecuted, civil liberties groups have demanded that charges be brought, arguing that the "Nuremberg defence" of following orders is unacceptable.

The methods, eventually prohibited by the Bush administration, included sleep deprivation for up to 11 days, forced nudity and stress positions as waterboarding, in which "water is continuously applied from a height of 12 to 24 inches" for "20 to 40 seconds". It was also revealed that Abu Zubaydah was placed in a box with an insect in order to exploit his fear of them.

Leon Panetta, Mr Obama's CIA chief, and four most recent former heads of the spy agency had all implored the US president not to release the memos, stating that doing so would damage national security and demoralise CIA operatives. >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, April 20, 2009