Recently in Huntington is unassailable Category
Aabid Khan and his global jihad
By Steve Swann
BBC News Home Affairs unit
But just as importantly, detectives established the phone had been in contact with a number registered to an address in the UK.Aabid Khan's conviction marks the latest chapter in a series of raids and arrests across three continents. Four trials have already led to convictions in three countries - and the investigations continue.
Armed police closed in on an apartment on a rutted road in a village on the edge of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
As they burst in, they subdued a group of men they had been observing. One of the group had an armed "suicide belt" of explosives.
These arrests in March 2005 were a major breakthrough in an investigation that would reveal how international jihadists were operating through the internet - from North America and Europe through to South Asia.
The searches in Bosnia uncovered a so-called "martyrdom" video explaining in English how the men were fighting on behalf of oppressed Muslims around the world.
Materials included the mobile phone belonging to the ringleader, who had traveled from Scandinavia hoping to carry out attacks on NATO targets.
When officers from the Metropolitan Police kicked in the door of a modest flat in west London, they had no idea they were about to arrest one of the then most significant figures among a growing network of cyber-terrorists.
The occupant was a young Moroccan, Younes Tsouli, who had used the internet to build links to al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq and a wider network around the world.
Robert Mueller, the Director of the FBI has described Tsouli as an example of how "the web is terrorism's new frontier, offering both persuasive information, but also practical instruction".
Tsouli's encrypted hard drive was a treasure trove of evidence which led detectives to other suspected extremists across the world.
These men had been using password-protected internet forums to exchange views on jihad - but they did not realise they had also left themselves exposed to infiltration by intelligence officers.
Meanwhile, in North America, police and spies began watching another group they linked to this online network. Like Tsouli and Khan, many of them were very young.
The targets they are alleged to have discussed attacking - the global positioning system and the Canadian Parliament - often seemed fanciful.
Khan allegedly talked online to some of them about setting up a mini-Sharia state in a remote part of Scotland.
Nevertheless, his naivety was combined with a deadly seriousness and burgeoning connections to militant groups in Asia.
People who are too stupid to realize what is 'impossible' can sometimes achieve remarkable results.
When detectives said they needed to swab his hands as he was suspected of handling explosives, he started to shake violently.
"I've been handling fireworks in Pakistan," he said.
And I'm your mommy. 50 to life, no parole and to be forgotten in a high security solitary prison. Each and every single one convicted.
Hizbullah mentored pre-9/11 Al Qaida on suicide attacks against U.S.
GERTZ - WASHINGTON -- Hizbullah helped Al Qaida plan suicide attacks against the United States despite religious differences, a new report said.
The report by the Foreign Policy Research Institute asserted that Hizbullah provided Al Qaida with plans on the use of suicide attackers to blow up U.S. installations. The report, authored by researcher Michael Horowitz, said the Iran-sponsored Hizbullah assistance enabled the Al Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
"In the 1980s, Hizbullah was the hub from which suicide tactics spread to the Palestinians and other groups," the report titled, "The History and Future of Suicide Terrorism," said. "In the 1990s and beyond, Al Qaida became the hub."
The report, based on a review of 800 groups deemed terrorists, said Al Qaida adopted Hizbullah's use of suicide bombings as an operational decision. Horowitz, assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said Al Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden determined that suicide bombers marked the only option in his goal to destroy the U.S. embassies in east Africa.
"So, despite profound theological differences between the Salafist/jihadist views of Al Qaida and the Shi'ite Hizbullah, Bin Laden sent his operatives to go talk to the Hizbullah leadership," the report said. "They came back with what were effectively operational blueprints for how to plan and execute suicide attacks, especially against hard targets like embassies."
The report said new groups tended to adopt suicide attacks while more established organizations, such as the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Irish Republican Army, rejected the doctrine that their members must die. The only PLO wing to use suicide bombings was Fatah.
Fatah was said to have adopted suicide attacks in response to the influence of such rivals as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Horowitz said the success of Islamic suicide bombings against Israel threatened the prestige of the secular Fatah movement.
"They [Fatah] eventually adopted suicide terrorism in 2000 in the Second Intifada, years after Hamas and Islamic Jihad," the report said. "One explanation for their delay is the way prestige was locked up with particular people and within the organization. You received credit and priority in the organization based on hijackings, kidnappings and remote attacks. It made suicide terrorism something very complicated for them to deal with organizationally. It took them a long time to figure out how to adopt it."
The report said Islamic suicide bombings, estimated to cost $150, must be seen as a military tactic rather than an ideological decision. Horowitz said insurgency groups have stopped suicide attacks when judged to be ineffective.
"Explaining suicide terrorism requires viewing it as a military innovation and better understanding the organizational requirements needed for its adoption," the report said. "The organizational element is the real obstacle. Therefore, which groups should be more likely to adopt and which should be more likely to pass on suicide bombing even if that tactic, on the surface, could help them achieve their goals? It should be easier for the younger groups that do not have embedded ways of doing business to adopt suicide terrorism and harder for those more established groups."
LONDON -- A major Iran exercise said to demonstrate military power was actually designed to gauge internal security, analysts said.Western intelligence sources said the Great Prophet-3 exercise, from July 11 through 14, focused on the internal security capabilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The sources said Great Prophet-3 tested a command and control network meant to facilitate rapid response to a rebellion in Iran during any war with the United States.
"The entire missile firing phase of the exercise was designed to demonstrate deterrence," an intelligence source said. "But the real goal of the exercise was to maintain security in times of war."
The exercise envisioned Western air strikes on Iranian cities amid a war with the United States. The sources said IRGC wanted to determine whether the C2 network could survive such a major assault.
"There were bugs in the network, but it worked," the source said. "They demonstrated that they could suppress unrest as well as provide civil defense."
There is no doubt in my mind that there is little point in trying to destroy the nuclear weapons program of Iran unless we go on to a realistic campaign to KILL THE MULLAHS and remove the entire IRGC, Basij, Guardian Council and leadership cadre of Iran. If we are not willing to do this, there is no point in acting. Since we are certainly NOT going on to a land invasion of Iran (I don't favor ANY such thing, btw), this is the only way I can foresee which has a chance to give the Iranian a shot at something better, and remove the chance of a cataclysmic nuclear regional war with far reaching consequences in terms of death, disease and radiation exposure.
The sources said IRGC has completed the deployment of its Basij paramilitary force throughout most of Iran. They said Basij, designed to mobilize up to 12 million personnel, has established an internal security presence in 31 provinces.
Another goal of Great Prophet was to determine whether IRGC could rapidly load and fire a range of missiles. The sources said many of the missiles were aging weapons drawn from underground bunkers in remote areas of Iran.
On July 21, Iran launched another IRGC exercise meant to test the interoperability of internal security and military forces. The month-long exercise, meant to test the restructured IRGC, was taking place in the Ardabil province and was commanded by Col. Jalil Babazadeh. The sources said nearly 100 IRGC and Basij battalions were participating.
Well, if Iraq is taken as a isolated incident I guess we could have that argument. I argue that there is a war of civilizations going on, and in fact it is a worldwide religious war of variable intensity depending on place and time, and that Iraq is Guadalcanal. It is the place where the war forks either one way or the other.
There's a piece off the board.
If Iraq can make it as a democratic state, and satisfy the aspirations of it's people IN THIS WORLD, leaving them with fulfilling lives here, while they pray and prepare for the next, without the necessity to kill us in order to make the world Dar al Islam, not only was it worth it, but it will have saved an unimaginable number of lives.
Imagine, if you will, what the world would have made in 1937, of a Winston Churchill who would have, as PM in 1936 carried his military rejection of the German reassertion of its sovereignty in the Rhineland into a military conquest and occupation of Germany.
It would have been the full justification of those who said WSC was the apotheosis of colonial, imperialist war mongering (something the German Foreign Ministry, and Goebbels always claimed). We would never have found out what would be OUR alternate history, and for all we know, he would be a minor aberration in a peaceful period. There would be (Zinn and Judt and Foner like) books written about the golden age which would have ensued had Germany just been allowed to pursue her destiny rather than be crushed by imperial Britain and her lackeys, the French. There's just one thing...he would have been right to invade, conquer and occupy Germany and as WE know save 45,000,000 lives.
I don't know what dangers a Saddam freed from his sanctions (as would certainly have happened) would have exposed us all to in the free world, but we can be sure the world would not be more stable.
More, seen in the context of this worldwide religious war being waged against us, and against our nature, the ultimate success of this effort proves to the takfiri sunni freaks and their allies in function the khomeinist freaks that we WILL come, we WILL act and we WILL plant the germ of THEIR destruction and it WILL succeed because men want to be free, and to see their children have better lives then they did in THIS world.
The alternative to that solution is just, in the end, to kill a hell of a lot of people.
I'd rather not.
Mr. Fukuyama must isolate Iraq an an experience, and individual war to make his case, but Iraq, like Israel really turns out to be just one campaign in a much larger experience.
Fukuyama:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he was right in supporting the surge and that Democrat Barack Obama was wrong in opposing it. On this tactical issue I grant that Sen. McCain was right. But Sen. Obama was right on the much more important strategic question of whether the war itself was a prudent policy, and here Mr. McCain remains as wrong as ever.
Mr. Obama does not share McCain's instinctive reliance on hard power as the primary instrument for dealing with messy questions of terrorism and proliferation in the broader Middle East. This is one reason I support him for president.
Indeed, I can think of no democrat who can afford to say out loud that he believes :
"I think we are in a war against Islamic extremism, and I think that war is worldwide" John McCain
This gap on this observation is one of the issues which divides us all. Geroge Bush failed to even attempt to make this case. Had he done so and been convincing, no democrat would today be able to sy the stupid things they do about the most important issue in our lives, and Mr. Fukuyama would have to think harder about the paramters encompassing the meta structure of his arguments.
OIL-RICH FUND EYEING FORECLOSED US HOMES
There's a new land grab starting in America.Foreign money, which up to now has focused its attention on investing in iconic commercial real estate - like Barneys New York and the Chrysler Building - is now moving to scoop up tens of thousands of discounted foreclosed homes across the country.
One sovereign fund, said to have earmarked $29 billion to purchase foreclosed residential real estate, recently hired a West Coast mortgage broker and is starting to search for bargains, The Post has learned.
The search, which is being carried out, in part, by Field Check Group mortgage consultant Mark Hanson, who was retained by the broker, Steve Iversen, is concentrating on single- and multi-family REO (real estate owned) homes, or homes that have already been taken over by the mortgagee.
Neither Iversen nor Hanson would disclose the name of the client, but sources told The Post it's a sovereign fund.
It is difficult enough to watch folks' homes being taken over and bought up in the normal way of things as lives are destroyed and changed forever to the negative, but to know that those whose single value to the globe is what lies beneath the dirt by chance and to know that their greed in pricing this commodity far above it's material value is the lever by which they buy our homes in the extremis they have perpetrated, is unconscionable.
This is a national issue which, if this economy is broken by energy prices will face a very large percentage of American families.
The unidentified fund joins individual US investors, hedge funds and Wall Street banks in kicking the tires of REO homes, which have fallen in value so much that they are now tempting investments.
A sovereign fund would have two distinct advantages over other investors - the depressed value of the US dollar makes the homes a bargain, and sovereign funds have deeper pockets.
The sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi, for example, has a reported $875 billion in assets, while Norway has $391 billion, Singapore has $303 billion and Kuwait has $264 billion in their sovereign funds, which are funded by proceeds from oil sales.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is expected to announce next month what type of US distressed assets they will be investing in and real estate is at the top of the list, according to a report in Financial Times last week.
ADIA did not respond to an e-mail question about REO investments.
So far, prices on bulk sales of REO properties vary based on location and are selling from 60 cents to 80 cents on the dollar. Hanson started out offering 40 cents on the dollar for about $2.5 billion worth of California properties owned by IndyMac and Washington Mutual but was turned down. The banks refused to comment.
Hanson is now willing to pay 50 cents to 60 cents on the dollar for a collection of California REOs worth at least $500 million.
In fact, this week Hanson's team negotiated a $2 billion package mixed with homes across the country for 31 cents on the dollar. While progress seems slow, Hanson reminds us this is only a nine-month old industry.
Some market experts think such deeply discounted REOs, like the deal Hanson just closed, are more fiction than fact.
"The size and discount of that type of deal isn't the norm yet," said Robert Pardes, with Recourse Recovery Management Services, a provider of mortgage advisory services.
"The critical mass of bulk REO is in well-capitalized institutions that don't need to sell yet in bulk at a deep discount because they are better off not taking substantial hits to the capital just to get the assets off their books,"
This may change, should the market become more crowded with bank failures and distressed institutions, he said.
Enoch Lawrence, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis, says "This type of bulk buy would make an impact on the market. They are in a unique position because they have a long time horizon to invest and a cheap cost of capital. It's actually a perfect time for them to acquire these REO assets."
But hey, Nancy, Harry and Barry, let's fart around some more with drilling and anything else which might, in your geological and climatological opinion disturb the environment in Tonga. That's a much higher priority to some people.
In other words, who are the more conscienceless murderers?between expanding ties with Iran or Gulf Arabs GAZA CITY -- Only a year after capturing the Gaza Strip, the Hamas regime, has been split between Sunni and Shi'ite interests.
Hamas sources said hundreds of members of the military have defected in protest of the regime's expanding ties with Iran.
Well, that's what happens when you are genocidal wahabbi qutbite freaks, in the pay of genocidal khomeinist freaks.
The sources said many of the defectors joined Al Qaida-aligned groups funded by Gulf Arab princes alarmed over the Iranian intervention around the Arab world.
A military display by masked Palestinian militants of the Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on Aug. 6. AP/Khalil Hamra
"We are undergoing a split that many warned would happen," a Hamas security commander said.
On July 30, Hamas acknowledged that a leading operative of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah was arrested. The operative was identified as Imad Id, the correspondent for the Hizbullah satellite channel, Al Manar. Id, amid heavy pressure by Hizbullah, was said to have been later released.
"We believe he was working with hostile elements against the government," a Hamas source said.
This marked the second Hamas arrest of a journalist in the Gaza Strip in the last week of July. On July 26, Sawah Abu Saif, a cameraman for the German ARD network, was detained and beaten by Hamas's Internal Security forces. ARD said Abu Saif, released on July 31, was believed to have been tortured.
"All accusations against Sawah Abu Saif are, according to those who know and work with him, entirely unsubstantiated," ARD chairman Fritz Raff said on July 30. "Hence, as a clear sign of protest ARD will close its offices in Gaza until further notice."
Hamas sources acknowledged that the Islamic regime has been split into pro-Sunni and pro-Shi'ite factions. The sources said the security forces were financed and directed by Iran and Hizbullah while the political leadership was aligned with such Sunni countries as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The split within the Islamic regime has been linked to a spate of attacks on Hamas in late July. On July 25, six people, three of them Hamas security officers, were killed in a cafe explosion after a military exercise.
At first, Hamas blamed the opposition Fatah movement. But Hamas sources said the bombing was conducted by a former Izzedin Kassam officer, Jihad Hejeila, who defected to an Al Qaida-aligned Sunni militia.
It just doesn't get any better than that
On July 30, the Hamas Interior Ministry identified the bomber as coming from the Hellas
clan, a longtime opponent of the Islamic regime. Hellas, whose members denied any involvement in the bombing, was said to be one of the largest clans in the area of Gaza City.
The regime sustained another bombing on late July 29 during a training exercise in the southern Gaza Strip. At least six Hamas officers were injured in an explosion at the Qadasiya military training center outside Khan Yunis. Hamas said the explosion could have been the result of an accident.
Over the last 48 hours, Izzedin Kassam has abducted several Palestinians around Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Some of the Palestinians, said to be Fatah members, had their mustaches shorn in an attempt by Hamas to humiliate them.
Following are excerpts from an interview with members of the Egyptian Unique Moustache Association, which aired on Egyptian TV on July 11, 2008.
To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1829.htm.
Interviewer: "I'm sure many people have pressured you to shave off your moustache, saying, 'What is this? Enough of that.'"
Association head Fathi Ahmad Mahmoud "Moustache": "My personality forces people to treat me with respect."
Interviewer: "Didn't your friends, relatives, your wife, or your children say 'Enough is enough?'"
Fathi Ahmad Mahmoud "Moustache": "They are all proud of me. My youngest boy, Nader, calls himself 'Nader Moustache.' Get it? All his friends call him 'Nader Moustache.'"
[...]
Interviewer: "Do you respect all types of moustaches - regardless of their size, length, or width?"
Allam Muhammad Abdel Al-Halim: "Of course."
Interviewer: "Even Hitler's moustache?"
Captain Sayyed Shahada: "By the way, I respect the moustache of this Hitler, because he humiliated the most despicable sect in the world. He subdued the people who subdued the whole world - him with his '11' moustache. By the way, that kind of moustache is called '11.' The generation of this Hitler... When I was little, my father, may he rest in peace, grew that kind of moustache, and so did all his classmates. They all had this '11' moustache. That was in the days of Hitler... My father... "
How can these morons even be a challenge,
except thru our own stupidity?
Today there are questions about the reliability of the govt itself
Lets go to page one based mostly on Steve Coll's wonderful Ghost Wars, and George Crile's, Charlie Wilson's War.
In opposing the USSR in Afghanistan the USA directly aided Shah Massood, and at the insistence of Pakistan's ISI (Inter Service Intelligence agency) sent 50% of our cash aid thru their hands to aid others. They claim that the bulk went to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
We don't know for sure.
What we do know is that after the USSR withdrew and the govt there collapsed, the ISI threw their weight behind a group being educated in refugee camp madrassahs, the Taliban who with their aid triumphed over Massood. He was murdered by them and their Al Qaeda allies on 9/9/2001. It has been alleged that the ISI created the Taliban. It cannot be proven.
Since then, this head of the ISI at the time, since 1987, one Hamid Gul has made it clear that 9/11 was the jews, and the USA is conspiring against Islam. His long term involvement and enmity towards the USA and all too typical bigotry make it clear what his proclivities are, and make it very CREDITABLE that the ISI at the least acts on its own, and may well show us the true policies of Pakistan.So we come to the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, the safe enclave of terrorists, and the permanent war in Afghanistan as result of this sanctuary.
Yet we cannot just take steps compulsory to eliminate the Taliban in Pakistan being blind to the fact that our forces in Afghanistan are landlocked and we ship their supplies across Pakistan, leaving them potentially and likely cut off by American and NATO action.
I don' t think given their history that the ISI is doing anything but acting against the USA.
From Strategy Page:
The U.S. recently accused the Pakistani ISI (Inter Service Intelligence agency) of being directly involved in a recent terror bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. The accusation not only involved CIA representatives going to Pakistan to present intelligence information directly to Pakistani leaders, but also leaking the event to the media. This was the most recent of many instances where ISI has supported Islamic terrorists, and this time Pakistan reacted by saying they would root out "Taliban spies" in the ISI. The problem is that these Islamic radicals have been operating openly in the ISI for three decades, and were put there by the government in the late 1970s, when it was decided that Islamic conservatism was the solution for Pakistan's problems (corruption and religious/ethnic conflicts.) These guys are not just "Taliban spies," but Pakistani intelligence professionals that believe in Islamic radicalism.
More History From Strategy Page:
As I see it the only possible, less than all out chaos and war solution, is to empower the many people in Pakistan who remain for secular democracy, and insist that they are strengthened. If not we are going to be at war in a nation of 170 million or more, many of whom are deobandi fanatics.Typically, the Pakistani generals seized control of the government every decade or so, when the corruption and incompetence of elected officials became too much for the military men to tolerate. The generals never did much better, and eventually there were elections, and the cycle continued. The latest iteration began in 1999, when the army took over, and was only voted out of power last year. Civilian governments tend to be hostile to the ISI, and apparently they are going to make a real effort to clear out many of the Islamic radicals in the ISI. But as recent attempt by the government to take control of the ISI backfired when the generals said they would not allow it. Nothing is simple in Pakistan.
The ISI grew particularly strong during the 1980s, when billions of dollars, most of it in the form of military and economic aid, arrived from the oil-rich Arab governments of the Persian Gulf. All this was to support the Afghans who were resisting a Russian invasion (in support of Afghan communists who had taken control of the government, and triggered a revolt of the tribes). The Afghan communists were atheists, and this greatly offended Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries, who feared that Russia would encourage Arab communists to rebel elsewhere. So the resistance to the Russians in Afghanistan was declared a holy war which, after a fashion, it was. After about nine years of fighting the tribes, the Russians got tired of their slow progress (and more pressing problems back home, like the collapse of their economy from decades of communist mismanagement).
The Russians were gone by 1989 (and the Soviet Union collapsed three years later), but the Afghans promptly fell upon each other and the civil war seemed never-ending. This upset Pakistan, which wanted to send millions of Afghan refugees back home. Few of the refugees were interested as long as Afghans were still fighting each other. So the ISI created its own faction, the Taliban, by recruiting teachers and students from a network of religious schools that had been established (with the help of Saudi Arabian religious charities) in the 1980s. The most eager recruits were young Afghans from the refugee camps. The Taliban were fanatical, and most Afghans were willing to support them because they brought peace and justice. But the Taliban never conquered all of Afghanistan, especially in the north, where there were few Pushtun tribes (most Taliban were Pushtuns, from tribes in southern Afghanistan). The Pushtuns were about 40 percent of the population, and had always been the most prominent faction in Afghanistan (the king of Afghanistan was traditionally a Pushtun.)
Although a military junta was again running Pakistan when September 11, 2001 came along, the president of the country, an army general (Pervez Musharraf), sided with the United States, and turned against the Taliban. But many in the ISI continued to support the Taliban, and the army was too dependent on the ISI (for domestic intelligence, and to control Islamic militants that were attacking India, especially in Kashmir) to crack down on the ISI.
Al Qaeda took this betrayal badly, and declared war on the Pakistani government. The ISI was used to seek out and kill or capture most of the hostile al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. But the ISI insured that Islamic terrorists who remained neutral were generally left alone. The ISI thwarted government efforts to have the army clear the al Qaeda out of the border areas (populated largely by Pushtun tribes, there being more Pushtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan). But now, in one sense, it's September 11, 2001 all over again. The U.S. has told Pakistan that it is fed up with getting screwed around by the ISI, and if Pakistan doesn't clean out the ISI, and shut down Islamic terrorists along the Afghan border, NATO, U.S. and Afghan troops will cross the border and do it.
If these Pakistanis who want freedoms cannot stand up to the freaks from the madrassahs, then it is going to be war.
Real democracy is the only possible remedy to HUNTINGTON, and even that is a hope, and might very well fail like the house of cards to the first breeze of a distant typhoon.
Only one weapon, given our current armed forces can ensure victory in that circumstance.
About freaking time.
American people responsible for 'blood of Muslims'
Al-Qaida's No. 3 man says Islam sees U.S. residents, government the same
Posted: August 02, 2008
12:22 am Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A top commander for al-Qaida says American people are as responsible for the U.S. military's ability to "wage war and spill the blood of Muslims" as is the American government.
"Islam does not distinguish between the American people and the American government, since both are in a state of war with Islam," Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid said in a recent interview.
The comments came in a report from Pakistan's independent television network Geo News, which was monitored and translated the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The MEMRI report said al-Yazid is considered al-Qaida's No. 3 man and "top commander in Afghanistan." The interview was in Arabic and broadcast with a voiceover in Urdu, and later was posted on Islamic websites.
We ARE the govt by choice. They are correct (so I guess everyone might as well vote)
I guess it also means we better KILL these sons of bitches wherever they are.....
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Philippines, Thailand, Somalia, Egypt, Gaza, Waziristan ......that's where the war is. We just can't come out and say it? Is that the prevailing thought in DC, or have we even come that far?
MEMRI said al-Yazid also is known as Sheikh Sa'id, and he's a 52-year-old Egyptian with two wives and 14 children. The report said he was arrested in 1981 for involvement in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat but later was released. He later joined al-Qaida and moved his operations to Afghanistan. He was working with Osama bin Laden in the Sudan in 1991 and later handled al-Qaida's financial affairs.
In the interview, al-Yazid said, "After all, these are the people who elect the [American] governments, and who even elected [President George] Bush for a second term in office, despite their awareness of his agenda against Islam. Despite witnessing Bush's many brutal [actions] against the Muslims, these people re-elected him. They are the ones who pay the taxes that enable the American government and army to wage war and spill the blood of Muslims."
Al-Yazid also said al-Qaida's attacks on the U.S. in Afghanistan are becoming more frequent and predicted that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai will fall.
Here is my word on that....'come out come out wherever you are'
Israeli intel warns of Al Qaida attack helped by Hamas, Hizbullah
JERUSALEM -- Israeli intelligence community has detected evidence that the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in Lebanon were beginning to cooperate with Al Qaida."There is concern that Al Qaida will cooperate with extremist elements in the region such as Hizbullah and Hamas," a senior intelligence official said.
Ya think?
Officials said the intelligence assessment was relayed to a Cabinet panel during a session on July 23. The so-called Security Cabinet held its first meeting to discuss the Al Qaida threat to Israel and the region.
So far, officials said, Al Qaida has not established a significant presence in Israel or the West Bank. But they said young Muslims have been encouraged to contact Al Qaida via the Internet for such missions as intelligence-gathering and attacks against strategic facilities in Israel.
Senior ministers, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, were briefed by directors of the Mossad, Israel Security Agency and military intelligence. The intelligence chiefs were said to have warned that Al Qaida was seeking to recruit Westerners to enter Israel as tourists and conduct mass-casualty strikes in coordination with such groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A blindfolded suspected Al Qaida insurgent drinks water as he sits with other suspects in a vehicle in al-Nida, in the Diyala province. AFP
"It arose in the discussion that Global Jihad organizations, led by Al Qaida, pose significant threats to the state of Israel, to Israeli citizens and to Jews around the world," Olmert's office said in a statement after the meeting.
Officials said the intelligence community has detected cooperation between the Hamas regime and elements of Al Qaida. They said Hamas has allowed an Al Qaida presence in the Gaza Strip for both operational and political reasons. The presence has included such groups as the Army of Islam, the Army of the Nation and the Army of Believers-Al-Qaida in Palestine.
"Hamas wants to show that the alternative to its regime is Al Qaida and that additional pressure by Israel or the international community will only ensure a Taliban-style regime in Gaza," an official said.
So we have Qutb's muslim brotherhood warning, hey Al Qaeda is worse? Worse than what?
The Al Qaida presence in the Gaza Strip has also been supporting cells in the Sinai Peninsula in neighboring Egypt. Officials said Al Qaida cells in eastern Sinai were planning to abduct Israelis and Westerners.
Al Qaida was also seen as cooperating with Hizbullah, particularly in southern Lebanon.
It should be obvious even to the thick headed morons who insist Iran and KSA will never cooperate that when looking at what should be the death's head enemies of Hizballah and Al Qaeda they agree on TWO THINGS:
They will cooperate against the kufr. It is their individual responsibility to do so.The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah."
Officials said Hizbullah has coordinated with Al Qaida elements to attack the Spanish contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in 2007.
"We are are witnessing a paradigmatic change in the Middle East in which radical countries and elements are trying to [install] a new order to replace the traditional national, secular one that exists today," Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, visiting the United States, said on July 23, "At the center of this radical axis is Iran, who seeks to achieve its regional aspiration of hegemony by upsetting the existing balance of power. I believe it is therefore crucial that we block Iranian aggression, which would in turn weaken the radicalization process in the region presently being manifested in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories."
In July 2008, Israel reported the capture of two Al Qaida-aligned squads comprised of Israeli Arab citizens. Officials said elements in Israel's Islamic movement were drawing closer to Al Qaida.
A more or less daily listing of casualties and/or actions in the ONE WAR, avoiding Iraq and Afghanistan where the casualties are obvious.
Five soldiers, 25 militants killed in Swat clash
* Military spokesman says Fazlullah's aide killed in action
* Helicopter gunships kill four key Taliban commanders
* NWFP info minister says use of force only recourse if state writ constantly challenged
PESHAWAR/MINGORA: Twenty-five Taliban militants and five soldiers were killed in a fierce clash in the restive Swat valley on Wednesday, the military said.
A military statement said up to 70 militants attempted to storm a checkpost in the Ucharai Sar area near Matta tehsil, about 20 kilometres from Mingora. "The attack was successfully repulsed, resulting in the death of 25 miscreants," the military said in a statement.
Two army officers and three soldiers were "martyred" in the fighting, it added. The officials included an officer, a junior commissioned officer and three other personnel, sources said.
Mindanao: four Christians killed, a fifth missing
by Santosh Digal
Yesterday an armed group ambushed a bus in Lanao del Sur, stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The group robbed passengers and then shot the men. The Philippine Church urges an accord between the government and MILF to avoid an escalation in violent attacks.Cotabato City (AsiaNews) - Armed men stopped a mini-bus and murdered four Christian male passengers execution-style in Mindanao yesterday, while a fifth passenger is still missing.
ISLAMABAD, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A local government official was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northwestern Pakistan's main town on Wednesday, local media reported.
Taliban re-occupy PTV booster in Bajaur
LAHORE: Local Taliban on Wednesday re-occupied a PTV booster and a levies check post in the Barang tehsil of the Bajur agency, Aaj TV reported.
Grabbed on way to seek al Qaeda cash
According to the channel, security forces had earlier taken control of the booster compound and the check post vacated by Taliban but on Wednesday Taliban regained control. The political administration of the agency had initiated talks with Taliban through a jirga, it said. daily times monitor
5:00AM Thursday July 31, 2008
Jemaah Islamiyah has been severely weakened by hundreds of arrests.
Two alleged Indonesian terror leaders were headed to Iraq to seek help from al Qaeda, according to a seized laptop that indicates regional militants are cash-strapped but determined to rebuild international links, security officials say.
Abu Husna and Agus Purwantoro are reputed to be key leaders in Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant network that once accepted al Qaeda funds to carry out strikes in Southeast Asia.
The men were detained in Malaysia in March and are awaiting trial in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Two soldiers wounded in Yala bombing
YALA, July 29 (TNA) - Two soldiers were wounded in a bomb blast early Tuesday in the violence-plagued province of Yala.
The police gathered evidence for further investigation.
Police closed the Bangnieng-Yala road in Yala municipal district after the incident.
The remote-controlled bomb was detonated as six soldiers were patrolling the area. Two were slightly wounded and rushed to hospital. The bomb was hidden at the roadside near an electric power pole.
Police defuse another bomb in western IndiaAHMADABAD, India (AP) -- Police defused another explosive device Wednesday in western India, bringing the total number of unexploded bombs found there in the last two days to 19.
The discovery of the bombs in the diamond-polishing center of Surat on Tuesday and Wednesday came after 22 explosions tore through the nearby city of Ahmadabad over the weekend, killing 42 people and wounding 183.
Seven small blasts also shook Bangalore in the south, killing one person. Authorities initially reported two deaths there but later said the second death was not related to the attack.
Surat Police Commissioner R.M.S. Brar said the 19th bomb was discovered Wednesday morning in one of the city's markets, and police were telling people to avoid gathering in public places.
(AFP)
30 July 2008
LONDON - A Syrian national who attempted to make bombs for Al-Qaeda-style attacks was jailed for seven years by a British court Wednesday, after being found guilty of terrorism offences.
A judge in Birmingham, central England, told Hassan Tabbakh that the home-made devices could have been developed into viable bombs capable of causing death and destruction.
The 38-year-old physics graduate, who lived in the city, was convicted of "preparing for acts of terrorism" after a two-week trial.
A jury heard he had tried to make bombs using easily available materials such as fertiliser and had made handwritten notes about their design.
Judge Frank Chapman told Tabbakh he was not being punished for having Islamist beliefs or for supporting Osama bin Laden's extremist network and similar organisations. (ISN'T THAT SPECIAL)
Have fun boyz!Taliban split into two factions in Bajaur Agency
By Hasbanullah Khan
KHAR: Taliban in the Bajaur tribal district split into two factions after infighting between two militant organisations in Mohmand Agency led to the killing of eight members of one group on July 18.
Pro-Baitullah Mehsud Taliban leader Umer Khalid killed eight members from the Shah Sahib militant group, including its chief and deputy chief, on July 18.
"We, four commanders, are resigning from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) over the killing of mujahideen in Mohmand Agency," Salar Masood, a spokesman for the four commanders, told Daily Times on Monday. "We will form our own group - Tehreek-e-Taliban Al Jihad - to continue jihad against the United States," Masood said on the phone from an undisclosed location in the Bajaur region. Maulvi Munir, Dr Abdul Wahab and Maulvi Abdul Hameed are the three other commanders who left the TTP.
"Innocent mujahideen (what on earth is an innocent murderer of innocents for religous reasons?) were killed in Mohmand. This is against shariah. Mujahideen do not kill innocent people," Masood said. He charged the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP with "deviating" from the real cause of fighting the Americans inside Afghanistan. "We took up the matter with Baitullah Mehsud but he did not take our concern seriously," he said.
The rift between the Taliban, according to observers, would weaken Baitullah Mehsud. They believe the infighting among militant organisations would help the government exploit the situation.
"Taliban leader in Bajaur Maulvi Faqir must be upset at this development because the four commanders are quite influential," the observers said on condition of anonymity.
Natanz, Arak, Bushehr?
'Hizbullah convoy likely hit in Iran'
Jul. 25, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POSTA mysterious explosion in a suburb of Teheran that killed 15 people last Saturday was likely an attack on a Iranian military convoy carrying arms to Hizbullah, the Telegraph reported Friday.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards imposed a news black-out immediately after the blast, but the UK newspaper reported that it looked like sabotage was responsible for destroying the convoy as it traveled through Khavarshahar.
The newspaper noted that the company responsible for moving the military equipment, LTK, was owned by the Revolutionary Guards and was allegedly involved in shipping arms to Hizbullah.
Last Saturday's incident was the latest in a series of mysterious explosions in the Islamic republic.
In May, Iran blamed British and US agents for an explosion at a mosque in Shiraz that had just been the site of a military exhibition.
In 2007, more than a dozen Iranian engineers lost their lives while trying to fit a chemical warhead to a missile in Syria.
A few months earlier, a train apparently carrying military supplies to Syria was derailed by an explosion in northern Turkey.
Special forces are on the ground and waiting. They may have been there for YEARS.
SEND A MESSAGE
Palestinians: Israel uses rats against J'lem Arabs
Jul. 20, 2008
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POSTThe Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa says Israel is using rats to
drive Arab families out of their homes in the Old City of Jerusalem.
In the past the news agency, which is controlled and funded by PA President Mahmoud Abbas's office, has accused Israel of using wild pigs to drive Palestinians out of their homes and fields in the West Bank. In the reports, Palestinians were quoted by the agency as saying that they had seen Israelis release herds of wild pigs, which later attacked them.
But this is the first time that Palestinians have spoken of rats being used against them.
"Rats have become an Israeli weapon to displace and expel Arab residents of the occupied Old City of Jerusalem," Wafa reported under the title, "Settlers flood the Old City of Jerusalem with rats." The report continued: "Over the past two months, dozens of settlers come to the alleyways and streets of the Old City carrying iron cages full of rats. They release the rats, which find shelter in open sewage systems."
Wafa quoted unnamed Arab residents as saying that they had tried to eliminate the rats with various poisons, but to no avail.
Israel's goal was to "increase the suffering of the [Arabs] in Jerusalem by turning their lives into a real tragedy and forcing them to evict their homes and leave the city," Hasan Khater, secretary-general of the Islamic-Christian Front in Jerusalem, was quoted as saying.
Jerusalem Municipality spokesman Gidi Schmerling said that the report was "pure fiction," and had no connection to reality.
More info HERE, article written in 2000.Iran is working on a nuclear weapon-related capability that could cripple all U.S. electronic systems with a massively disrupting electromagnetic pulse over the United States or elsewhere, a specialist on EMP told Congress last week.
William Graham, head of a congressional commission that investigated EMP threat, said the United States is vulnerable to attack by electromagnetic pulse weapons from Iran, as well as North Korea, China and Russia.
"Several potential adversaries have -- and more can acquire -- the capability to attack the United States with a high altitude nuclear weapon generated electromagnetic pulse," said Graham told the House Armed Services Committee.
"A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication," Graham said during a hearing last week. "EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. A well coordinated and widespread cyber attack is another potential example."
An EMP strike would cover a wide geographic region and would cause significant damage to critical infrastructures and "thus the very fabric of society," he said.
Graham was the head of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack that first reported on the dangers in 2004.
The U.S. government needs to prepare for a future EMP attack through a combination of prevention, planning, training, maintaining situational awareness, protection and preparations for recovery.
"In so doing, the U.S. will reduce the incentives for adversaries to conduct such an attack on our homeland, our friends and allies, and our forces deployed abroad," Graham said. Among the threat scenarios are EMP attacks using a nuclear warhead detonated from a missile fired from a freight over U.S. territory, a terrorist attack sponsored by a rogue state.
Graham said Iran has conducted missile launches from a vessel in the Caspian Sean and has tested high-altitude explosions from the Shahab-3 medium-range missile.
"Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States," Graham said.
Graham said there is no other explanation for Iran's high-altitude detonation tests or the freighter launch of the missile "other than to deploy an EMP type of attack."
He noted that relatively low-yield, unsophisticated nuclear weapons can be used to generate potentially catastrophic EMP effects over wide geographic areas, and designs for variants of such weapons, as well as more sophisticated weapons, appear to have been illicitly trafficked for a quarter century at least.
North Korea also reportedly has the capability to mount an advanced nuclear weapon on a missiles, he said.
Additionally, China and Russia in the past considered limited nuclear attack options that, unlike their Cold War plans, employ EMP as the primary or sole means of attack, Graham said.
"Indeed, in May, 1999 during the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia, high-ranking members of the Russian Duma meeting with the U.S. congressional delegation to discuss the Balkans conflict raised the specter of a Russian EMP attack that would paralyze the United States," he said.
Also, two weeks ago Assistant Defense Secretary James J. Shinn told the same committee that "China's military is working on exotic electromagnetic pulse weapons that can devastate electronics systems by using a burst of energy similar to that produced by a nuclear blast," Graham said.
Rep. Rosco Bartlett, R-Md and a leader in highlighting the threat, called potential EMP attacks on the country a "real threat."
"It's my understanding that a robust lay-down, like we produced by a single weapon of 200 kilovolts per meter that made it 300 miles high over Iowa or Nebraska, would probably shut down all of our national infrastructure," Bartlett said. "There would be no electricity. The SCATA units in our substations and so forth would all be gone. The large transformers would be destroyed, and we don't make those. It would take a year and a half or so to buy them from somebody overseas who makes them."
As societies we grant these men pardon for that, because of the endeavors they were engaged in.
George Washington
Ulysses Grant
Joshua Chamberlain
John Pershing
Alvin York
Donald Arthur Gary
Archibald Vandegrift
William Halsey
Nathan Hale
There are many others.
Those are Americans, but across the ages in the west we have chosen the Bromheads and Elizabeth Tudor's, the Duke of Marlborough's and Ronald Cartland's, the Arthur Wellesley's.
Our choices made by inchoate agreement and over time reflect what we are, and what we hope.
Thus George Custer has been reviled and excoriated. The Dyer's seen for the butchers they were and rejected forcefully. PUBLICALLY.
And so we come to the remarkable descent of civilization marked by the decline, even
fancifully, from one Salah ul Din, to Samir Qantar, the murderer of 4 year old girls.I complain to you as a human being that we are all besmirched by these execrable people who are prepared to mark the freedom of this man. Right now, at 7:12 est Drudge has not a word about this trade of two dead kidnapped and murdered Israelis, patrolling within their own border, for various other miscreants and Samir Qantar. This trade, in the works since 2006 not only marks the evil that arab society has become by making this child murderer a hero, but as it pasess unremarked elswhere marks the end of the destruction of any kind of value system in the west, and the true weakness of our lifestyle.
Samir Quntar will live his life beloved by his society because he ensured that the last sight seen by the 4 year old Einat Heran before Quntar crushed her skull, was her father's murder.
Ehud Olmert has made this possible.
No arab leader would dare raise his voice as this 'crowning achievement' set a new criterion for the death of arab civilization.
No event can more clearly illustrate that the conclusions of Samuel Huntington are unassailable, and that his clash is upon us.
What values can we be said to share with those who make a hero of Qantar?
Where are the people of the west today?
Where is there a SINGLE EDITORIAL?
LONDON -- Western intelligence sources said Belarus has been negotiating the sale of a strategic air defense system to Iran.The sources