September 2, 2010 12:24 am
ABC News,
A radical enviornmentalist who took three hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters while wearing what police may be explosives was shot and killed by officers, police said.
The gunman, identified as James Lee, was killed by police following four hours of negotiations but the hostages are all safe, said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.
Manger said the suspect had “metalic canisters” strapped to his chest and back. When Lee was struck by police bullets, one of the canisters “popped.” Police have not confirmed if the canisters were a bomb, but Manger said the “device may have gone off” when he was shot.
June 19, 2010 9:37 pm
ABC News, “BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal’s Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard”
by David Muir and Bradley Blackburn
“The Coast Guard came and shut them down,” Jindal said. “You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, ‘Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.’”
A Coast Guard representative told ABC News that it shares the same goal as the governor.
“We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.
But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.
ABC News article continues here.
June 17, 2010 6:08 pm

ABC News, “Engineering Professor Gives Maine Boom Thumbs Up”
by Jake Tapper
“I have never directly looked at boom before,” says Ian T. Durham of the Department of Physics and Cooperative Engineering at Saint Anselm College.
That said, Durham says, analyzing boom “is a fairly standard, pretty simple mechanical engineering problem.”
Durham was recently hired by Packgen — the Maine packaging company that manufactured roughly 80,000 feet of boom that the US Coast Guard says failed an initial BP quality control test. Packgen president John Lapoint III has expressed frustration at BP/Coast Guard bureaucracy, insisting that the boom he’s making will work well in the Gulf, where boom is desperately needed.
Durham would not say how much he was paid, but he says he’s generally paid $100 an hour for consulting, and his analysis of Packgen boom took rougly 40-45 hours.
He says Packgen’s boom is superior to other boom. Its woven polypropelene is “practically indestructible,” he says. “Packgen uses it to make toxic waste disposal containers.”
ABC News article continues here.
June 15, 2010 11:34 am
ABC News, “Gov. Bobby Jindal Orders National Guard to Build Barrier Wall Off Louisiana Shore”
by David Muir
Eight weeks into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of the Mexico, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told the National Guard that there’s no time left to wait for BP, so they’re taking matters into their own hands.
In Fort Jackson, La., Jindal has ordered the Guard to start building barrier walls right in the middle of the ocean. The barriers, built nine miles off shore, are intended to keep the oil from reaching the coast by filling the gaps between barrier islands.
Watch ‘World News’ for more on this story tonight on your ABC station.
ABC News article continues here.
June 2, 2010 10:52 pm
ABC News, “U.S. to Join South Korean Military Exercise Off North Korea Coast”
by Luis Martinez
The U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate in a joint naval exercise with South Korea next week in the Yellow Sea, the same waters west of the Korean peninsula where North Korea is accused of sinking a South Korean warship last March, ABC News has learned.
A U.S. official said the carrier, which operates from its home port in Japan, “will be sent to the waters off South Korea within coming days to participate in joint exercises” with the South Korean navy.
Slated to begin June 8, the official said this exercise will be “separate and distinct” from an upcoming anti-submarine warfare exercise that Pentagon officials had said recently would be occurring “in the near future.” The upcoming exercise was first reported by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
ABC News article continues here.
May 18, 2010 8:08 pm

ABC News, “Plans For Mosque Near Ground Zero Draw Outrage in New York”
by Ray Sanchez
Known as Cordoba House, the Islamic center will have a mosque for up to 1,500 worshippers on Fridays, Khan said. The complex would also include a swimming pool, performance space and a basketball court. It will be open to non-Muslims. Some 500 worshipers already use the site of the old Burlington Coat Factory for Friday prayers. Khan said her group is open to suggestions from the community, and its members are reaching out to families opposed to the project in hopes of gaining their support. The plan for the mosque and cultural center was unanimously endorsed earlier this month by Community Board 1′s financial district committee. “It is definitely not part of the World Trade Center site,” she said. “It’s two blocks away. It’s not even in front of the site, but on a side street. We already have a presence in the neighborhood & and we want to build a peaceful future. This center will give a platform to the silent majority of Muslims whose voices get drowned out by the actions of extremists.”
The group hopes to unveil its full plans for the project by the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2011. “Extremism can only be defeated when Muslims and non-Muslims come together,” Khan said.
Fox News, “Muslims in NYC Planning to Build Second, Smaller Mosque Near Ground Zero”
by Ed Barnes
As controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.
The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks.
In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that it plans to “build the ‘House of Allah’ next to the World Trade Center. Help us raise the flag of ‘LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH’ in downtown Manhattan.”
May 6, 2010 11:33 pm

ABC News, “Sources: Shahzad Had Contact With Awlaki, Taliban Chief, and Mumbai Massacre Mastermind”
by Richard Esposito, Chris Vlasto, and Chris Cuomo
Accused Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad linked up with the Pakistani Taliban through the internet, ABC News has been told by law enforcement and intelligence sources close to the investigation. Once the Taliban identified him as more valuable in the U.S. than in Pakistan, they trained him to return to execute his bomb attack.
But according to these sources, Shahzad also had a web of jihadist contacts that included big names tied to terror attacks in the U.S. and abroad, including the figure who has emerged as a central figure in many recent domestic terror attempts – radical American-born Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki.
Besides Awlaki, sources say Shahzad was also linked to a key figure in the Pakistani Taliban, its Emir Beitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone missile strike in 2009. The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is the son of a former high-ranking Pakistani military officer.
ABC News article continues here.