News of the World

[kyonides]

Sir Salman Rushdie attack suspect 'only read two pages' of Satanic Verses

Hadi Matar, 24, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the assault at an event in New York last week.

In an interview with the New York Post from jail, Mr Matar said Sir Salman was "someone who attacked Islam".

But he did not confirm that his alleged actions were driven by a fatwa issued by Iran in the 1980s.

In a court appearance on Thursday, a judge ordered Mr Matar be held without bail at Chautauqua County Jail, in New York state, after the accused entered a not guilty plea to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges.

Sir Salman published his famous and controversial novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, sparking outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous.

The book's release prompted the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for the writer's death in 1989.
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Mr Matar also told the newspaper he was "surprised" to hear that Sir Salman had survived the attack.

So when Iranian authorities claim they did not issue the order to  kill Sir Salman, they were telling us the truth... up to some point.  They just forgot to mention how the order had been given decades ago.

Ray Epps Told FBI He Expected Bomb Attack Near the Capitol
on Jan. 6, 2021, Documents Show

Epps admitted to trespassing, directing protesters to go into the Capitol. 'I wish I could take that back,' he told agents.

When James Ray Epps Sr. first called the FBI regarding his January 2021 activities in Washington, he didn’t mention how he implored protesters in several locations to go inside the U.S. Capitol, but he later told an agent that he expected that a bomb would detonate on a side street near the building.
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Despite the admissions, the FBI never arrested Epps, and he wasn’t charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with any Jan. 6, 2021, crimes. The nonaction has fueled theories that he might have been working for the FBI or another agency.

Epps, 61, has repeatedly denied those suggestions through his attorney.

Epps recently sold his house and land in Queen Creek, Arizona, because of threats and harassment and has moved to Colorado, he told The New York Times in July. According to online records, the Arizona property sold for $2.2 million on April 28.

Epps at one time was No. 16 on the FBI’s Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach most-wanted page. His entry was later scrubbed from the list without explanation. He’s among a handful of persons of interest to have their photos deleted from the FBI site.
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In an interview with FBI agents on March 3, 2021, Epps said he brought a first-aid kit in his backpack to Washington because he expected a terror attack.
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Epps told the agents that the possibility of violence weighed heavily on his mind and that he originally didn’t plan to travel to Washington. It was only when learning that his son, James Epps Jr., was going to the Trump rally that the senior Epps decided to go and keep an eye on his son, he said.
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The agents didn’t press Epps on what led him to believe there would be an explosion, nor did they ask about the two alleged pipe bombs found outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters, each just blocks from the Capitol. The Republican National Committee pipe bomb was placed near the corner of the Capitol Hill Club facing a side street, similar to the description Epps offered.

The devices didn’t detonate, and the FBI hasn’t arrested anyone in those cases.