‘Prayers answered’ after synagogue hostages rescued, suspect dead in Colleyville, Texas

[Valin]

NY Post

Joe Marino,

Isabel Vincent and Jesse O’Neill

January 15, 2022

Hostages at a Texas synagogue were safely rescued, and the hostage-taker was dead Saturday night, after holding a rabbi and his congregants for nearly half a day with demands that US authorities release a convicted terrorist known as “Lady al-Qaeda.”

“Prayers answered,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbot tweeted at 9:30 p.m. to deliver the fortunate update, minutes after an elite FBI hostage rescue team that was flown in from Virginia entered the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, FBI Special Agent Matt DeSarno said in a press conference.

It was unclear how the unidentified suspect — who claimed to have a bomb — died, but flashbangs and gunshots were heard as the SWAT team stormed the house of worship, more than 10 hours after the suspect took control of the house of worship.

The hostage-taker demanded the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in Manhattan Federal Court in 2010 of trying to kill US authorities in Afghanistan, and claimed to be her brother.

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More at Power Line

[Valin]

Officials are afraid to say 'antisemitism' when Jews are targeted - analysis

When Iran is angry over offensive cartoons in Europe, it attacks the memory of the Shoah and Jews. When Pakistan is angry it attacks Jews. When Al-Qaeda is angry it targets Jews.

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

JANUARY 16, 2022

In the wake of the attack on a Texas synagogue in Colleyville, authorities have indicated that the hostage taker’s demands were not specifically connected to the Jewish community. This is a reminder of the bizarre privilege that those who attack Jewish people and Jewish communities around the world often enjoy in the eyes of officials and the media. While there are ample statements condemning the attacks, there is not a great willingness to examine how a global milieu of rising antisemitism often leads perpetrators to target Jewish communities, even if their main goal isn’t an attack on Jews. 

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[Valin]

Who is Aafia Siddiqui, the prisoner whom the Colleyville synagogue hostage-taker reportedly wanted to free?

By Asaf Shalev January 15, 2022

This Federal Bureau of Investigation handout image shows undated images of a woman identified as Aafia Siddiqui (FBI/Getty Images)

(JTA) – The name Aafia Siddiqui became familiar to many on Saturday, when a man took a rabbi and his congregants hostage in a synagogue in Colleyville near Fort Worth, Texas.

That’s because the hostage-taker was reportedly demanding the release of Siddiqui from prison. 

After Sept. 11, 2001, Siddiqui — a neuroscientist with a doctorate from Brandeis University — became the first woman accused of working with al-Qaeda leadership and was dubbed “Lady al-Qaeda” in the press. She has family ties to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the chief architect of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. In 2010, she was convicted of attempting to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan while being detained in 2008 on suspicion of plotting attacks in New York.

Ahead of her trial, Siddiqui demanded that the court exclude Jews from the jury and said she wanted the jurors to undergo genetic testing.

“If they have a Zionist or Israeli background . . . they are all mad at me,” Siddiqui told the judge. “I have a feeling everyone here is them [sic] — subject to genetic testing. They should be excluded if you want to be fair,” she said. 

Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center-Carswell prison in Fort Worth, where she was transferred in 2008. It is the only federal medical facility for women in the United States.

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[Valin]

FBI blasted for saying motive for Texas synagogue hostage situation was 'not specifically related to the Jewish community'

[Valin]

Jan. 17 2921

In a November 11, 2021 panel that was streamed live on YouTube by CAIR-TX and that was titled “Injustice: Dr. Aafia [Siddiqui] and the 20-Year Legacy of America’s Wars,” Aafia Siddiqui’s attorney Marwa Elbially said that the U.S. government lies on a large scale. She gave the example of the "fabricated" rescue of American soldier, who was taken hostage by Iraqi forces in 2003. She also said that the fact that Aafia Siddiqui has not become a “household name” for every American and that he has not been portrayed in “stupid TV shows” or “poorly-made movies” is proof that the government never really believed that she was an Al-Qaeda operative.

Prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of Mpower Change, said that Aafia Siddiqui is a “political prisoner” like H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of two law enforcement officers, and like Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two FBI agents. It is interesting to note that in September 2005, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh also claimed that Jessica Lynch’s rescue had been staged (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 881.) For more about Linda Sarsour, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 6935, 6808, and 6111.

[Valin]

FBI's initial reluctance to call synagogue attack terrorism part of long-running pattern