1. According to U.S. and Somali officials, one of the most wanted Islamic extremist leaders in Africa, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, was killed during a U.S. military helicopter raid in Southern Somalia that left six dead last Monday. Nabhan allegedly played a large role in two bombing attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 that left 229 dead. He also confirmed his participation in both an attack on a hotel in Kenya that killed 15 and an attempted missile strike targeting tourists on a flight from Mombasa to Israel in 2002. Nabhan was a high-profile leader among the al-Shabab militant group, which has continued to gain closer ties to al-Qaida forces as they attempt to overthrow Somalia’s unstable government.
2. Raymond Clark III was arrested last Thursday for the suspected murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le, whose body was discovered on Sept. 13 in a basement wall of the building where she worked as a medical researcher and Clark worked as a lab technician. Medical examinations concluded that Le died of “traumatic asphyxiation” on the day she was scheduled to marry Columbia graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. Clark was arrested based on strong forensic evidence gathered from the site of the murder. Clark currently faces a $3 million bail.
3. Last Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, revealed the U.S. spent a total of $75 billion on all national and military intelligence operations across the globe in the past year. Blair also revealed that these funds employ more than 200,000 people. The last time discretionary intelligence funding figures were released was by mistake, when a defense subcommittee accidentally published the national and military budget, which totaled $26.7 billion in 1994.
4. A U.N.-supported oversight organization recently requested that the Afghan election commission recount the ballots from more than 2,500 of the estimated 26,300 polling sites opened for the Aug. 20 presidential election because of the widespread allegations of voter fraud. A complaints panel, also supported by the U.N., is requesting voting stations that received 100 percent voter turnout and ended with one candidate receiving more than 95 percent of the votes cast undergo investigation for fraud. Two weeks ago the same panel discredited all ballots from 83 polling stations that received numerous complaints of fraud. All discredited polling stations provided overwhelming support for Hamid Karzai, who is currently running for re-election.
5. Last Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land refused to hold trial concerning a complaint issued by Army Capt. Connie Rhodes, who attempted to avoid deployment to Iraq based on the legal argument that President Barack Obama cannot hold office because she does not believe he is a U.S.-born citizen. Land has also placed Orly Taitz, the leader of the national “birther” movement and Rhodes’ attorney, on notice by stating she could potentially face sanctions if she ever files a lawsuit of similar nature against Obama again. In his court order, Land stated that Rhodes’ case presented no credible evidence and was used to accuse the president of being “an illegal usurper, an unlawful pretender, an unqualified imposter.”
6. Last Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 345 to 75 to approve an amendment that will end all government grant funding to Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a community organizer group. After a journalist videotaped multiple ACORN employees providing legal advice on how to falsify tax forms and an illegal brothel housing female minors from El Salvador; the company has lost all political backing. Additionally, ACORN is currently being investigated in 11 states for alleged voter fraud from the 2008 general election.
8212;Compiled by State of Mind Contributor Tom Hammel.
