Meet the new captain

As you read this, Fatima bin Laden is living at the federal prison near the airport and being questioned by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. It's a tough case. On the one hand, she led an al-Qaida jihad to blow up the Navy brig at Ford Island, which succeeded in the blow-up part but failed in its goal of freeing Muhammed Resurreccion. On the other, the JTTF has her on tape condemning the violence her uncle and the Khomeini Sharia Unification Movement for Preaching and Combat were about to unleash on Hawaii, and she helped identifying the four captured members.

Lt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC, on the recommendation of Major Ray Gumption, the Marine rep on the JTTF, was given a battlefield promotion to captain. Never again would fellow Marines or Muslims wonder which came first, being American or Muslim. He could do -- be -- both. Like the honorable Japanese Americans of the 442nd in WWII, he'd stared a dilemma in the face and found there really wasn't one. Like them, he believed in America and was grateful for the freedom and opportunity it gave him, and risked his life to defend that way of life. He's in the Marines for the long haul.

"I'd like to be the Muslim Eric Shinseki," he told me, "or Colin Powell." And for better or worse, he remains devoted to Fatima. "She loves Allah, bless his name, and has a pure and loving heart. Who else could be my wife?"

There are whispers at the JTTF of assigning Baz and Fatima, maybe after a bit of cosmetic surgery, to the CIA and letting them coordinate infiltrating jihadists in America and abroad. Imagine it, Osama's niece spying for the Red, White and Blue. I was impressed with Fatima's intelligence and found her revulsion with terror sincere during six hours of interviews just before she, escorted by Baz, turned herself in to the JTTF at the Kuhio Federal Building. You ask me, she's helped America plenty and can help us a lot more as the free and loving wife of the patriot Capt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC. One day to be Gen. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC, mark my words.

Their friends Jennifer Hira and Joe Matsuo are planning a wedding, and perhaps the happiest is her daughter, Jesse, 3, who finally has a kind and responsible man in her life.

It was first reported by a local TV station that Imam Ibrahim al-Shakr was kidnapped by members of an al-Qaida cell who shot and killed four of his followers at their Kaimuki apartment. (At Queen's ER, Dr. Laurie Tang and her new favorite nurse, Rosalita Resurreccion, were credited with saving the fifth.) We know that the young imam was rescued by off-duty HPD officer Quinn Ah Sun. Imam Ibrahim was offered a place in the witness protection program, but said he had the work of the One God of Peace, Love and Compassion to do.

Call it odd if you want, but Quinn and Baz were not the only law enforcement/military/martial arts types who began to see truth and beauty in Imam Ibrahim's Sufi teachings, and soon formed a security committee to defend him against future attacks.