Tag: terrorism

Two Men Arrested in UK Over Texas Synagogue Hostage Situation

Two men have been arrested in the UK in relation to the recent hostage attack on a Synagogue in Texas.

UK police have announced the arrest of two men in relation to the hostage attack on the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

Malik Faisal Akram — the UK national responsible for the attack — was shot dead after an 11-hour standoff after taking a number of hostages.

It has subsequently been revealed that Akram was previously known to UK Intelligence,  but was not deemed a threat to the public after an assessment in 2020.

As part of the UK’s ongoing investigation into the incident, The Telegraph has reported that a number of arrests have been made in Britain.

“Officers from Counter-Terror Policing (CTP) North West continue to support US authorities with their investigation into the events in Texas,” the publication reports the Greater Manchester Police as saying.

“As a result of this ongoing investigation, two men have been arrested this morning in Birmingham and Manchester,” the statement continues. “They remain in custody for questioning.”

The UK paper also notes that two teenagers who were also arrested after the attack have since been released without charge.

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Police in Manchester arrest two teenagers over Texas synagogue siege that saw anti-Semitic terrorist from Blackburn shot dead – as first picture of gunman emerges and his ‘devastated’ brother says: ‘He had a criminal record. How was he allowed to travel?’

The family of a 44-year-old British Muslim man who was shot dead by police in Texas after launching a terror attack on a synagogue last night demanded to know how he was allowed into America despite a long criminal record.

Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn, died in a hail of bullets after a 10-hour stand-off on Saturday in which four people were held hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, 27 miles from Dallas.

Akram had apparently flown to America two weeks ago, lived in homeless shelters and bought a gun on the street, according to US President Joe Biden. 

He was described by his family as suffering ‘mental health issues’ but concerns over a wider plot grew last night as two teenagers were arrested over the incident by anti-terror officers in south Manchester.

The pair, both believed to be under 18, cannot be identified for legal reasons. They were still in custody overnight, Greater Manchester Police said.

However the FBI’s field office in Dallas had earlier said there was ‘no indication’ that anyone else was involved in what President Biden called ‘an act of terror’.

Malik’s brother Gulbar issued a statement on behalf of the family last night in which he told of their ‘devastation’ and revealed how relatives had been in contact with Malik during his attack at the police’s request but could not convince him to surrender.

But speaking to Sky News he also demanded to know how the incident had been allowed to unfold. ‘He’s known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?’, he said.

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FBI Changes Tune on Synagogue Hostage Situation: ‘The Jewish Community Was Targeted’

The FBI released a new statement late on Sunday appearing to contradict their previous remarks about the hostage situation that unfolded on Saturday at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

The FBI said in a statement, “This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

The statement is a marks a major shift in tune from the FBI after one of its agents said on Saturday that the situation “was not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

“We do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said. “But we’re continuing to work to find motive and we will continue on that path. In terms of the resolution of the incident, the hostage taker is deceased.”

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FBI Claims Attack on Synagogue ‘Not Specifically Related to Jewish Community’

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed Saturday that an attack and hostage-taking by an armed Islamic terrorist at a synagogue near Dallas, Texas, was “not specifically related to the Jewish community,” prompting criticism online.

The terrorist burst into the sanctuary during a Sabbath service at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and took several members of the community hostage, including the rabbi, before being killed by the FBI in a raid Saturday evening.

As Breitbart News reported:

During a press conference later that night, FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said the rescue came as the result of “a long, long day of hard work by nearly 200 law enforcement officers from across the region.”

DeSarno said the FBI has identified the now-deceased suspect but said they were not prepared to release his identity Saturday night. He also would not go into the details of the hostage-taker’s motivation.

“We do believe that, from engaging with the subject, he was singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” he added. “We will continue to work to find motives and we will continue on that path in terms of the resolution of the incident.”

Many found that claim hard to believe.

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Al-Qaeda Terrorist’s Brother Allegedly Takes Hostages at Texas Synagogue, Demands Release

Muhammad Siddiqui, the brother of an al-Qaeda terrorist being held in Texas, has reportedly stormed into a Dallas synagogue while armed and has taken hostages while demanding his sibling’s release.

The crisis situation is unraveling at Congregation Beth Israel, a synagogue in Clleyville, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The gunman reportedly entered the synagogue during Saturday service and took at least four hostages, including a rabbi.

The suspect also claims explosives have been planted at the scene.

Apparently, the services were being live streamed to Facebook when the suspect entered.

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After 20 Years of Failure, Kill the TSA

On this day in 2001, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in a demonstration that the Keystone Kops are always prepared to exploit a crisis. In the ensuing two decades, the TSA has proven itself skilled at harassing travelers and freaking out over pocketknives and water bottles while steadfastly failing at its assigned task of making air transportation any safer. The TSA, in short, is an awful example of government in action.

“On the morning of September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia,” the TSA summarizes in its official history. “The attacks resulted in the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, designed to prevent similar attacks in the future.”

The TSA launched with the passage of the Aviation and Transportation and Security Act on November 19, 2001. The new law nationalized passenger screening, which previously had been the responsibility of airlines. It’s not clear why anybody saw a need for the TSA, since it’s unlikely that a federal agency would have been any more successful than private contractors at predicting terrorists’ unprecedented use of aircraft as kamikaze weapons. It’s especially unlikely that the federal agency we actually got would have successfully diverted itself from confiscating play-doh to thwarting homicidal fanatics.

“The TSA is failing to defend us against the threat of terrorism,” security expert and frequent TSA critic Bruce Schneier pointed out in 2015. “The only reason they’ve been able to get away with the scam for so long is that there isn’t much of a threat of terrorism to defend against.”

“Terrorists are much rarer than we think, and launching a terrorist plot is much more difficult than we think,” Schneier added. “I understand this conclusion is counterintuitive, and contrary to the fearmongering we hear every day from our political leaders. But it’s what the data shows.”

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New Yorker Amplifies Calls For Pipeline Bombings To Save The Planet

The New Yorker amplified calls for eco-terrorism in the name of sparking action on climate change last week by inviting Andreas Malm, the Swedish author of “How To Blow Up A Pipeline,” onto its podcast.

In the episode titled “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” Malm explains how it’s time for the climate change movement to “diversify its tactics and move away from an exclusive focus on polite, gentle, and perfectly peaceful civil disobedience.”

Malm stopped his recommendations short of “kidnapping oil workers” but said that “civil disobedience” ostensibly to save the planet should include mass acts of “intelligent sabotage” and property destruction, such as blowing up pipelines.

“I’m not saying we should stop strikes or square occupations or demonstrations of the usual kind. I’m all in favor of that. But I do think we need to step up because so little has changed and so many investments are still being poured into new fossil fuel projects,” Malm said. “So I am in favor of destroying machines, property — not harming people, that’s a very, very important distinction there. And I think property can be destroyed in all manner of ways, or it can be neutralized in a very gentle fashion as when we defeated the SUVs, or in a more spectacular fashion, as in potentially blowing up a pipeline that’s under construction. That’s something that people have done.”

“So you’re recommending blowing up a pipeline,” the host confirmed.

Malm justified such actions by claiming that the supposedly moral pros of combatting the “climate crisis” outweigh the cons.

“I don’t see how that property damage could be considered morally legitimate, given what we know of the consequences of such a project,” Malm said. 

The author also pledged “to be part of any kind of action of the sort that I advocate in the book” before criticizing the climate change movement’s tendency toward nonviolent protest.

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