POPULARITY
Join Imam Khalid Latif for a Jummah Khutbah titled "Moments of Solitude: Closeness to God."
The New York Times once labeled William Kunstler "America's most controversial lawyer." What earned him that distinction was his defense of the so-called "Chicago Seven," a group of young radicals who tried to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But the Chicago Seven were hardly Kunstler's most controversial clients. He also represented clients ranging from Jack Ruby to U.S. Marine and Russian spy Clayton Lonetree, to the man known as The Blind Sheikh, the man behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. I met William Kunstler in 1994, when he wrote his autobiography, a book titled My Life As a Radical Lawyer.
The decade begins with the United States engaged in a war to liberate the Mideast country of Kuwait. The World Trade Center in New York is targeted by a terror cell based in the United States and inspired by a radical cleric known as “The Blind Sheikh”. But as US authorities close that case, Bin Laden reemerges on the world stage. Voices heard in this episode: Bill Hemmer, Co-anchor of America's Newsroom on the FOX News Channel Brit Hume, FOX News Senior Political Analyst Gen. Jack Keane, Ret. Four-Star Army General and Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army Amy Kellogg, FOX News Channel Correspondent Brian Kilmeade, Co-host of FOX & Friends on the FOX News Channel Andy McCarthy, former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Greg Palkot, FOX News Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Leon Panetta, Former Chief of Staff to President Clinton and Defense Secretary and CIA Chief for President Obama Chad Pergram, FOX News Channel's Capitol Hill Correspondent Ali Soufan, Chairman, and CEO of The Soufan Group and former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mary Jo White, Former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Katherine Zimmerman, American Enterprise Institute fellow, and adviser to the Critical Threats Project Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
FBI informant Emad Salem is close to not only the Blind Sheikh but his trusted lieutenant, an ambitious terrorist named Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali. Salem soon finds himself at the Statue of Liberty with Siddig Ali; their goal is not to enjoy their visit but figure out how to destroy it with a bomb. It is one of five targets in what will come to be known as The Landmarks Plot -- a plan to cause mass casualties by attacking not only tourist sites but heavily trafficked crossings such as the Holland Tunnel and George Washington Bridge. Salem convinces Siddig Ali and his accomplices to make their bombs in an abandoned Queens warehouse that has secretly been wired with FBI cameras and other recording devices. As the plans near completion, the plotters are arrested. They will eventually be convicted and sent to prison. Law enforcement now better understands that the threat of terror against America is ongoing and international … which makes it even more difficult to fight.
FBI informant Emad Salem is close to not only the Blind Sheikh but his trusted lieutenant, an ambitious terrorist named Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali. Salem soon finds himself at the Statue of Liberty with Siddig Ali; their goal is not to enjoy their visit but figure out how to destroy it with a bomb. It is one of five targets in what will come to be known as The Landmarks Plot -- a plan to cause mass casualties by attacking not only tourist sites but heavily trafficked crossings such as the Holland Tunnel and George Washington Bridge. Salem convinces Siddig Ali and his accomplices to make their bombs in an abandoned Queens warehouse that has secretly been wired with FBI cameras and other recording devices. As the plans near completion, the plotters are arrested. They will eventually be convicted and sent to prison. Law enforcement now better understands that the threat of terror against America is ongoing and international … which makes it even more difficult to fight.
NYPD Detective Louis Napoli and FBI Special Agent John Anticev fear an attack is coming, but without their mole, Emad Salem, they’re blind to the machinations of the Brooklyn terror cell. Then on February 26, 1993, a bomb goes off in the basement parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. We follow investigators as they chase down clues and round up suspects, including one who bungles his way directly into the hands of the FBI. (His fellow terrorist will later call him “the stupidest, the stupidest, the stupidest of God’s creatures.”) The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, gets away. Yousef, the most dangerous terrorist in the world, is now hiding out overseas and planning even deadlier attacks. Back in New York, the FBI convinces Salem to rejoin the terror cell. He does, and becomes the personal assistant of Omar Abdel-Rahman (a.k.a. the Blind Sheikh). One of Salem’s jobs is to communicate by fax with a Saudi financier named Osama bin Laden. Then Salem learns that the cell is planning an attack designed to topple city landmarks and kill thousands.
NYPD Detective Louis Napoli and FBI Special Agent John Anticev fear an attack is coming, but without their mole, Emad Salem, they're blind to the machinations of the Brooklyn terror cell. Then on February 26, 1993, a bomb goes off in the basement parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. We follow investigators as they chase down clues and round up suspects, including one who bungles his way directly into the hands of the FBI. (His fellow terrorist will later call him “the stupidest, the stupidest, the stupidest of God's creatures.”) The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, gets away. Yousef, the most dangerous terrorist in the world, is now hiding out overseas and planning even deadlier attacks. Back in New York, the FBI convinces Salem to rejoin the terror cell. He does, and becomes the personal assistant of Omar Abdel-Rahman (a.k.a. the Blind Sheikh). One of Salem's jobs is to communicate by fax with a Saudi financier named Osama bin Laden. Then Salem learns that the cell is planning an attack designed to topple city landmarks and kill thousands.
In 1981, the radical cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman -- known as The Blind Sheikh -- inspires the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat at a military ceremony. One of the soldiers present is Emad Salem. He swears revenge against the Sheikh. Cut to: 1990. Salem is retired from the Egyptian army and scratching out a living as an immigrant in New York. NYPD Detective Louis Napoli and FBI Special Agent John Anticev approach him with a potentially life-altering request. Would he be willing to infiltrate a terrorist cell in Brooklyn led by the Blind Sheikh himself? Salem agrees and, relying on his street smarts and military experience, becomes a trusted member of the cell. He’s on the brink of uncovering a major plot when FBI supervisors make a disastrous decision.
In 1981, the radical cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman -- known as The Blind Sheikh -- inspires the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat at a military ceremony. One of the soldiers present is Emad Salem. He swears revenge against the Sheikh. Cut to: 1990. Salem is retired from the Egyptian army and scratching out a living as an immigrant in New York. NYPD Detective Louis Napoli and FBI Special Agent John Anticev approach him with a potentially life-altering request. Would he be willing to infiltrate a terrorist cell in Brooklyn led by the Blind Sheikh himself? Salem agrees and, relying on his street smarts and military experience, becomes a trusted member of the cell. He's on the brink of uncovering a major plot when FBI supervisors make a disastrous decision.
On RIGHT IN DC today, I'm so excited that my guest is my good friend Andy McCarthy. I'm sure you'v seen him all over the Internet. He is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, he's a contributing editor at National Review, he's also a best-selling author and he's a Fox News contributor. You might not know this about him but he's a former Chief Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the Blind Sheikh and 11 other jihadis that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. I first came to know about Andy through his involvement in that prosecution and he's written about it in "Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad." I recommend that book for anyone who's interested in the ongoing issues we have with the threats from radical Islam. In my interview with Andy, we talk about: • How he is able to produce such excellent, logical, evidence-based work as a writer • The Robert Mueller team going to the judge saying the plea deal with Manafort is off but not giving reasons why • LINK to his article: Evaluating Paul Manafort’s Alleged Violation of His Plea Agreement, https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/evaluating-paul-manaforts-alleged-violation-of-his-plea-agreement/ • The allegations that Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange of Wikileaks • Why the Mueller investigation has become a farce • Difference between national security investigations and criminal investigations and why the two don’t mix • The “Wall” in the FBI and DOJ • The problems of conspiracy cases, evidence, why many things aren’t a felony, and final outcomes • Mueller is investigating something that is not a crime • What Mueller really wants • Why there is no federal crime in talking to foreign nationals • Will there be a damning report issued by Mueller which will result in impeachment hearings? • When there is insufficient evidence for a case, why you don’t write an epic about why you decide to decline prosecuting • Why it’s not Mueller’s job to decide whether or not Trump should be president • The rule in the DOJ: if there is no crime then keep your mouth shut to protect the rights of the person under investigation • Prosecutors trying to get the phone passcode of a student defendant in recent harassment case • The 5th amendment, 4th amendment, and the government’s right to the information we carry on our phones • Conservatives getting banned from social media for mentioning facts about sharia law • Why social media companies are shooting themselves in the foot for policing content on their services • What should President Trump look for in his next Attorney General? Twitter: @AndrewCMcCarthy Articles: https://www.nationalreview.com/author/andrew-c-mccarthy/ Books by Andrew C. McCarthy • UPCOMING: Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency • The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America • Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment • Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad Encounter Broadsides Books: • #7 How the Obama Administration has Politicized Justice: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State • #18 How Obama Embraces Islam's Sharia Agenda: A Creed for the Poor and Disadvantaged • #42 Islam and Free Speech --- Gayle Totter's Website: gayletrotter.com/ Twitter: @gayletrotter Support Gayle's RIGHT IN DC Podcasts: www.patreon.com/gayletrotter
Andrew C. McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, contributing editor of National Review and author most recently of essential books on the threat of Islamic supremacism including Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America and Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy. In addition to being one of the nation’s foremost national security analysts and legal experts — formerly serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the vaunted Southern District of New York — he is one of the most humble, insightful and devoted patriots I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. In Part I of my in-depth interview with Andy McCarthy, we discussed his experience prosecuting the jihadist mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack and what it taught him about the Islamic supremacist threat America faces, the primacy of religion for Muslims in the Middle East and in the West, why Islamic supremacists choose jihadist savagery over assimilation, willful blindness in American national security and foreign policy regarding the nature of the jihadist threat, folly in American foreign affairs from Syria to Libya, and the imperative to collapse the Khomeinist Iranian regime. What We Discussed How McCarthy, an Irish Catholic kid from the Bronx became one of the nation’s foremost legal experts on jihad and Sharia law The prosecution of the Blind Sheikh and his terrorist cell over the first World Trade Center attack and plots to destroy other New York City landmarks McCarthy’s impressions having sat face-to-face with some of the world’s most evil jihadists, and why their portrayal as genocidal maniacs is wholly inaccurate The strength of religion over other animating factors when it comes to jihad, and the West’s projection and mirror-imaging Why Islamic supremacists do not want to assimilate into Western culture or adopt Western principles such as freedom of religion and individual liberty The willful blindness and arrogance of America’s national security and foreign policy establishment over Islamic supremacism and the Middle East Whether America is better off in homeland security and foreign affairs almost 17 years after 9/11 McCarthy’s belief in the Bush Doctrine What America’s national interest is in Syria McCarthy’s fear that America will be unwilling to engage in future wars of necessity given the expense in blood and treasure of the last two decades What McCarthy would do if he were counterjihadist czar The West’s disastrous record of colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots The disaster of Iran Deal and the imperative to collapse Iran’s Khomeinist regime Further Reading Show Notes Transcript Thanks for Listening! Check out other episodes, show notes and transcripts at benweingarten.com/bigideas. Subscribe, rate and review: iTunes | Stitcher | Google | YouTube Follow Ben: Web | Newsletter | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Advertising & Sponsorship Inquiries: E-mail us. ___________ Backed Vibes (clean) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
GRP 109-I had the honor of having on Master Sergeant Changiz Lahidji. MSG Lahidji served on a Special Forces A-Team for 24 years. He was born in Iran and served in the Iranian Special Forces before immigrating to America. Changiz is a soldier at heart and wanted to serve his country. He joined the Army in 1978 and went on to become the first Muslim Green Beret in American history. Changiz was in a unique position to work special undercover assignments. He went undercover in Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis to spy on Iranian soldiers guarding the U.S. Embassy where Americans were being held, hostage. MSG Lahidji found himself in Afghanistan training the Afghani Mujahideen to fight against the Russian’s during the 1980’s. We talked about his role working undercover in New York City gathering intelligence on Omar Abdel-Rahman was also known as “The Blind Sheikh” an Egyptian born extremist who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center Bombers. Changiz spent time in Afghanistan after 2001, as well as Iraq, and Africa. Master Sergeant Lahidji’s book Full Battle Rattle is available everywhere books are sold. Check out the link below: https://www.amazon.com/Full-Battle-Rattle-Longest-Serving-Team-ebook/dp/B073TSN3PQ 0:00-Intro 4:57- Iranian Special Forces to American Special Forces. Going undercover to gather intelligence during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis 12:31-Training the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to counter Soviet aggression during the 1980’s. 24:55-Special assignment working undercover gathering intel on Omar Abdel-Rahman also known as “The Blind Sheikh”. Rahman was connected to the group responsible for the 1993 world trade center bombing. 32:30-The embassy bombing in Beirut in 1983. 42:35-Fallujah, Iraq 2003. Working in Sudan and driving for President Jimmy Carter in Africa. This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Biowave. BioWave is the non-opioid way to block chronic or acute pain at the push of a button. VA recognized, VA prescribed, FDA cleared and made in America, BioWave is used by over 30 VA’s and even professional sports teams. If you are a veteran or active military that needs help managing pain, visit BioWave.com and learn how to get treatment at no cost. www.BioWave.com Follow my co-host and my pages on social media. Links below. Global Recon: www.Globalrecon.net https://www.instagram.com/igrecon https://www.instagram.com/blackopsmatter www.twitter.com/igrecon https://www.facebook.com/GlobalReconPodcast/ HP Lefler: https://www.instagram.com/4runner.freyja Chantel Taylor: https://www.instagram.com/mission_critical https://www.instagram.com/altern8rv Music provided by Caspian: www.caspianmusic.net
Andrew C. McCarthy covers Boston, the Blind Sheikh, the Arab Spring, and Turkey in his remarks at TNC's board dinner. First broadcast 6/5/13.