Terrorist and former spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Salam Zaeef, has returned to Afghanistan after spending three years at Club Gitmo, among other places. The Pakistani Newspaper reports on his return, fully-funded by the Afghani Government where he will be allowed to live a life with his two wives and eight children (no 72 virgins for him!) while being protected by government guards:

KABUL, September 28 (SANA) – It has been a long journey for Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban envoy who became one of the most visible faces of Afghanistan’s Islamic government after the Sept. 11 attacks, holding daily news conferences at which he defended the Taliban’s determination to fight rather than give up Osama bin Laden.

Nearly four years later, much of it spent in American detention, he has returned to Afghanistan a more subdued man, who no longer uses his title of mullah, but wears the same thick black silk turban and long beard that are the hallmarks of the Taliban.

Mr. Zaeef, 37, was living in Islamabad when he was arrested there in January 2002. Since then, he said, he has been through detention in Pakistan, a week in a cell on an American warship, months at American air bases in Afghanistan and, finally, more than three years at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba. He was released early this month.

Mr. Zaeef, however, is hesitant about what he will do next. “I am tired; I just want to be with my family and see my children,” he said. He has no plans to return to his home province of Kandahar, he said, or to help the government persuade other Taliban members to cease fighting, although he supports the effort.

The article documents his whereabouts the last four years and notes he feels more hatred for the Pakistani government than the US. Oh, and he doesn’t think bin Laden was responsible for 9/11.

Thursday’s Times reveals for the first time that Osama bin Laden sought asylum in Britain back in 1995, wanting to abandon his base in Sudan:

Michael Howard, who was then Home Secretary, recalls how his aides told him of the asylum request from the Saudi-born militant of whom the world knew little of ten years ago.

The teenage bin Laden had reportedly toured Europe with his family and became an Arsenal fan, though there is no record of his ever having been to a match at Highbury.

The astonishing approach to the British authorities happened only months after bin Laden had secretly organised a terror summit in Manila in January 1995 to begin planning how hijackers would turn passenger planes into flying bombs. He called it the “Bojinka plot”, which is Arabic slang for an explosion.

Mr Howard said yesterday: “In truth, I knew little about him, but we picked up information that bin Laden was very interested in coming to Britain. It was apparently a serious request. He already had people operating here, and who knows how history could have been rewritten if he had turned up here?”

Bin Laden never got a chance to make a formal application as Home Office officials investigated him and Mr Howard issued an immediate banning order under Britain’s immigration laws.

It was not until June 1998 — two months before attacks on US embassies in Africa — that bin Laden was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Mr Howard said: “If he had come here to plot the attacks on the twin towers and the US had subsequently asked for his extradition, then by then, under the Labour Government’s laws, he could not have been sent because they refuse to extradite to a country which has the death penalty.”

New York Governor George Pataki cut out the Freedom Center Museum at the WTC site because it had “”too much opposition, too much controversy.”

The decision followed months of acrimony over the International Freedom Center, with furious Sept. 11 families and politicians saying that the museum would overshadow and take space from a separate memorial devoted to the 2,749 dead and would dishonor them by fostering debate about the attacks and other world events.

“We must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world,” Pataki said in a statement.

In addition to the terrorist attacks, the Freedom Center would have dealt with such topics as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the civil rights movement, the Declaration of Independence and the South African constitution.

Although I would say the opinions that carry the most weight for any memorial on the WTC site would go to the families and living victims of 9/11, from what I have read most families did not support the Freedom Center which was heavily backed by Liberal interest groups. In my opinion there should be nothing on that site as a memorial other than a memorial to those who lost their lives on that day and possibly the soldiers who have lost their lives taking down Al Qaida and the Taliban. Even so, a soldier memorial might be better suited accross the street.

(Cairo) Apparently, a prominent suspect refused to respond appropriately to the Egyptian police, so a deadly consequence of hot lead was delivered to his carcass.

From Reuters AlertNet:

Egyptian police in the Sinai peninsula shot dead on Wednesday one of the men suspected in the bombings which killed 67 people in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in July, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The suspect, Moussa Mohamed Salem Badran, born in 1978 and a resident of the North Sinai town of El Arish, had refused to surrender and opened fire on a group of policemen who tried to arrest him in the Mount Halal area, it said.

I’m going to have a cookie.

Companion at Interested-Participant.

As previously written, milestones in Iraq are everywhere. Unfortunately though you just have to know where to look. Another such milestone was achieved, or an advancement of a future milestone, in the Iraqi city of Karbala (Kerbala).

Today, American forces in the city of Kerbala officially handed over security responsibilities to Iraqi army and police units in the city.

This makes Kerbala the second Iraqi province that undergoes this transition of power after a similar step was taken in Najaf nearly two months ago.

The event which was attended by military and civil officials from both parties also included a parade for the Iraqi units that are going to assume responsibility for peace keeping tasks in Kerbala.

The faster the Iraq military is trained and can take over security responsibility, the faster Coalition soldiers can come home. In the meantime, the more Iraqi soldiers capable of securing a city the more Iraqi soldiers are available in raids and offensives against terrorist groups in Iraq.

Alleged radical Islamic terrorist group Islamist Bassij protested in Tehran today against the IAEA voting in favor of turning Iran over the United Nations Security Council and warned that if this happens, “no corner of the United States or the United Kingdom would be spared from attacks by the organisation.”

“America and Britain should know that if Iran’s dossier is referred to the Security Council, not only will their interest in the Middle East come under threat, but also these two countries’ soil will not be protected from attacks by our Bassijis”, warned Mohammad Mahmoud Heydari, the Bassij representative during the violent demonstration where several embassy windows were shattered and petrol bombs hurled into the compound.

“Our presence in this is unholy place - the evil British embassy – is because of this country’s stances against Iran’s nuclear file”, Heydari said.

“We tell America, you should know that there will not be a repeat of the Second World War, when not a single bullet was fired on American soil. This time, your interests in the Middle East and American and British soil will not be spared from attacks by the Bassij”, the Bassij representative said.

Color me unconcerned. We’ve seen multiple threats by numerous terrorist groups and potential suicide bombers coming out of Iran in the past coupled with the Iranian government issuing veiled threats against the United States over Iran’s nuclear program.

The statements likely came at the group’s protest outside of the British Embassy in Tehran where protestors threw rockes, eggs and tomatoes at the embassy walls. I’ve got my egg-retardent gear in the closet just in case.

Thankfully though the spokesman for Bassij knows his history when he says “American and British soil will not be spared from attacks.” Last I recall, U.S. soil was attacked and English soil was repeatedly attacked during World War II.

I would love to get my hands on a translated version of an Iranian textbook to see what that nation feels World War II was all about. Then again, coming from Osama Bin Laden’s repeated mentions of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it sounds like there is a region-wide void of actual historical fact.

Iran has announced the deal between Iran and India to send liquified natural gas (LNG) to India is now off the table. Why? While I have not seen any confirmation the deal was yanked after India voted in favor of turning Iran to the United Nations Security Council, one can conclude this was the reason.

Iran is, after all, pretty upset with India for the nation’s vote.

According to diplomatic sources, Mr. Yaghoubi told Mr. Saran that Teheran was very disturbed by India’s stance. It was surprising that a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement such as India had voted against another member nation like Iran, Mr. Yaghoubi reportedly said.

The nixing of this deal has, according to Indian authorities, left India at a serious disadvantage when it comes to energy. How India will overcome the deficiency is yet to be determined, but the vote for turning Iran to the Security Council by India was a surprise to me based upon this deal.

A female suicide bomber, the first woman suicide bomber in Iraq, struck an Iraqi military recruiting depot in Tal Afar. Tal Afar has been the scene of multiple Coalition offensives and also one calling point for various terrorist groups in Iraq of late. Normally attacks upon recruiting centers seem to be the work of Ansar al-Sunnah, but Al Qaida in Iraq has Female suicide bomber kills 6 in Iraq

The leader, Asif Chotto, of an Al Qaida affiliated terrorist group (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) targeting Shiites was arrested in Pakistan allegedly planning more attacks.

“He is a major catch. We were looking for him for the past three years,” said the official, who also did not want to be named because he is not authorized to discuss cases with reporters.

Keep locking them up. Meanwhile Pakistan has launched yet another raid into North Wazristan acting on tips from the community.

Cindy Sheehan is signing a contract with Speaking Matters LLC here In an article by Nathan Burchfiel on CNS News, Cindy is quoted saying:

“This is a society where people make money doing what they do and I have to pay my bills, too,”…

Sheehan previously told Cybercast News Service that she was not taking money from organizations like MoveOn.org or private financiers like George Soros but that her recent 51-city bus tour was funded by “grassroots fundraising.”

She said her contract with Speaking Matters, which has not yet disclosed how much a Sheehan appearance will cost, will help her “finally make some money …’cause Casey’s insurance money’s going to run out pretty soon.”

So Cindy is living off her son’s military insurance death benefits. Interesting.

The article continues:

Andrea’s friend, Megan Hanford, said it makes sense that Sheehan would start charging for appearances. “She can’t work while she’s traveling the country,” Hanford said, “and she’s lost any income that her son might have brought her.”

Sad.