Guantanamo

Guantanamo Prepares For Media Storm At Trial Of KSM, 9/11 Conspirators

Ryan J. Reilly | April 16, 2012, 3:50PM

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA -- Pentagon officials preparing for next month's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused terrorists charged with plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are expecting about 600 journalists to apply for the 60 spaces available for members of the media at Guantanamo Bay's Camp Justice.

The military has not yet begun accepting credentials requests for the KSM arraignment, which is scheduled to begin on May 5, but one Pentagon public affairs official already received 100 inquires from press.

Last week's pre-trial hearings for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi Arabian man accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, served as a sort of dry run for Guantanamo's media operation, though the five reporters who attended represented just 1/12th of the 60-person capacity.

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September 11

After Criticism, NJ Town Politicians Remove 9/11 Memorial Inscribed With Their Own Names

Jillian Rayfield | September 15, 2011, 5:08PM

Controversial 9/11 Memorial in Washington Township, NJ

Officials in Washington Township, NJ have removed a 9/11 memorial after public outcry over the fact that the memorial was inscribed with the names of the officials themselves, and not of any victims of the attacks.

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KSM Trial

Holder On KSM Trial: 'I Know This Case In A Way That Members Of Congress Do Not'

Ryan J. Reilly | April 4, 2011, 4:15PM

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Attorney General Eric Holder

Despite his announcement today that the trials of five alleged Sept. 11 co-conspirators will be held in a military court, Attorney General Eric Holder is standing by his original decision to hold civilian trials for five alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in federal court and blames Congress for forcing his hand in sending them to the military system.

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Fox News

Police: Fox News Flubbed 'Granny Terrorist' Story

Ryan J. Reilly | December 30, 2010, 3:48PM

FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter published a story last week claiming that Fox News had "learned" of a federal investigation into the alleged terrorist ties of Kathie Smith, a "46-year-old, blue-eyed grandmother and U.S. citizen from Indiana." The story was quickly pulled down and scrubbed from the website, but not before TPM grabbed a copy.

FoxNews.com posted a revised version of the story on Tuesday. Fox's story glosses over the role that its own reporter had in alerting Indiana authorities to Smith and what can only be called her unique brand of "jihadism."

As for the investigation, it's unclear if the feds are probing Smith, and the Indiana State Police -- the recipient of Fox's tip -- tells TPM they have no active investigation.

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September 11

Bolton & Breitbart To Address Protesters At Today's Anti-Mosque 'Rally of Remembrance'

Jillian Rayfield | September 11, 2010, 8:51AM

Protesters In New York oppose the Park51 Islamic center.

When the ceremonies conclude in New York City today for the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, some of the commemorators will break off to attend a different kind of rally -- one that brings the Islamophobic fervor of the past few weeks to a head.

Today at 3 p.m. ET, at the proposed site for Park51 on Park Place and West Broadway in downtown Manhattan, people will gather for the "FDI/SIOA 9/11 Rally of Remembrance: Yes to Freedom, No to Ground Zero Mosque," a rally in opposition to the planned Islamic center.

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Islamophobia

Muslims Are Just The Latest American Scapegoat

Rachel Slajda | September 8, 2010, 10:40AM

An opponent of the Cordoba House, left, argues with a supporter in front of the proposed location in lower Manhattan.

You know the stories, by now: The violent attack on a cab driver, the arson in Tennessee, the sometimes unbelievable vitriol associated with a Manhattan Islamic community center. The plans by a radical pastor to burn the holy book of another religion, plans that have been condemned even by his compatriots on the fringe of American thought.

But why? And why now?

"It's been percolating," John Esposito, the director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, told TPM. As Esposito tells it, America has had a problem with anti-Muslim prejudice since before Sept. 11, 2001. But it was contained, in a way, and even after 9/11 "things were pretty stabilized." The uptick began in 2004, and now it's rising to the surface.

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Cordoba House

New Anti-Mosque Video By Liz Cheney's Group Features 9/11 Survivors, Families (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 18, 2010, 4:42PM

KeepAmericaSafe ad

Keep America Safe, the group run by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol which brought the world the "Al-Qaeda Seven" campaign in the spring, is out with a new video today featuring the family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks who oppose the construction of a Muslim center in lower Manhattan.

The two-minute YouTube video is titled "We Remember," and features first responders and family members of Sept. 11 victims who are opposed to the construction of the Islamic cultural center two blocks away from the site of the attacks, the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque."

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Bernard Kerik

Kerik Reports To Prison Today

Rachel Slajda | May 17, 2010, 10:44AM

Fmr. NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik

Bernard Kerik, the former NYPD commissioner who served during 9/11 and was President Bush's first choice for Homeland Security secretary, will report to prison today to begin a four-year sentence. In February, Kerik pleaded guilty to lying to White House officials during his DHS vetting process and to charges of tax fraud.

Yesterday, Kerik, who has been under house arrest since his sentencing, reflected on the past 10 years in a lengthy blog post titled, "It is time to move forward."

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Bernard Kerik

Before Heading To Prison, Bernie Kerik Starts Blogspot Blog

Justin Elliott | April 16, 2010, 9:40AM

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik

Bernard Kerik, the former New York Police Commissioner, former interim interior minister of Iraq, and onetime nominee to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has started a new blog using the free Google Blogger service at bernardkerik.blogspot.com.

"It's all national security and terrorism stuff related to some of the threats we face, things that I think we should be looking at," Kerik, reached by phone Thursday at his Franklin Lakes, New Jersey home, tells TPMmuckraker of the new blog. He posted Monday on "the unfortunate reality of friendly fire" in response to the Wikileaks video of a U.S. helicopter killing a Reuters photographer in Iraq.

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Fort Hood Shootings

Who Is Nidal Malik Hasan? The Picture Becomes (Slightly) Clearer

Justin Elliott | November 9, 2009, 6:01PM

Major Nidal Malik Hasan

The tentative picture emerging of Nidal Malik Hasan is of a man who likely subscribed to radical Islamic beliefs, but who was not acting on behalf of any group in allegedly carrying out the shootings in which 13 died at Fort Hood last week.

The leaks are coming fast and furious in the investigation of the shootings, so we thought we'd put together a digest of the recent coverage.

Bear in mind that what's missing from many of these reports are named sources, and that many of the initial stories about the case were totally wrong.

Here we go:

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