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"A New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks on U.S," by Souad Mekhennet and Michael Moss for the New York Times:
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Deep in a violent and lawless slum just north of this coastal city, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs.
In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. “Allah-u akbar,” the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall.
The men belong to a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam, whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp here where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of Al Qaeda.
He has solid terrorist credentials. A former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia who was killed last summer, Mr. Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with Mr. Zarqawi in the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley. Just four months after arriving here from Syria, Mr. Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an antiaircraft gun.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Abssi displayed his makeshift training facility and his strident message that America needed to be punished for its presence in the Islamic world. “The only way to achieve our rights is by force,” he said. “This is the way America deals with us. So when the Americans feel that their lives and their economy are threatened, they will know that they should leave.”
Mr. Abssi’s organization is the image of what intelligence officials have warned is the re-emergence of Al Qaeda. Shattered after 2001, the organization founded by Osama bin Laden is now reforming as an alliance of small groups around the world that share a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam but have developed their own independent terror capabilities, these officials have said. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has acknowledged directing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and a string of other terror plots, represents the previous generation of Qaeda leaders, Mr. Abssi and others like him represent the new.
American and Middle Eastern intelligence officials say he is viewed as a dangerous militant who can assemble small teams of operatives with acute military skill.
“Guys like Abssi have the capability on the ground that Al Qaeda has lost and is looking to tap into,” said an American intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mr. Abssi has shown himself to be a canny operator. Despite being on terrorism watch lists around the world, he has set himself up in a Palestinian refugee camp where, because of Lebanese politics, he is largely shielded from the government. The camp also gives him ready access to a pool of recruits, young Palestinians whose militant vision has evolved from the struggle against Israel to a larger Islamic cause.
Intelligence officials here say that he has also exploited another source of manpower: they estimate he has 50 militants from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries fresh from fighting with the insurgency in Iraq.
The officials say they fear that he is seeking to establish himself as a terror leader on the order of Mr. Zarqawi. “He is trying to fill a void and do so in a high-profile manner that will attract the attention of supporters,” the American intelligence official said.
Mr. Abssi has recently taken on a communications adviser, Abu al-Hassan, 24, a journalism student who dropped out of college to join Fatah al Islam. His current project: a newsmagazine aimed at attracting recruits.
A strikingly biased statement occurs below, though additional oddities leave open the possibility of sloppiness in addition to a lack of objectivity:
The arc of Mr. Abssi’s life shows the allure of Al Qaeda for Arab militants. Born in Palestine, from which he and family were evicted by the Israelis, Mr. Abssi, 51, said he stopped studying medicine to fly planes for Yasir Arafat. He then staged attacks on Israel from his own base in Syria. After he was imprisoned in Syria for three years on terrorism charges, he said he broadened his targets to include Americans in Jordan.
[...]
In a 90-minute interview, his first with Western reporters, Mr. Abssi said he shared Al Qaeda’s fundamentalist interpretation and endorsed the creation of a global Islamic nation. He said killing American soldiers in Iraq was no longer enough to convince the American public that its government should abandon what many Muslims view as a war against Islam.
“We have every legitimate right to do such acts, for isn’t it America that comes to our region and kills innocents and children?” Mr. Abssi said. “It is our right to hit them in their homes the same as they hit us in our homes.
“We are not afraid of being named terrorists,” he added. “But I want to ask, is someone who detonates one kilogram a terrorist while someone who detonates tons in Arab and Islamic cities not a terrorist?”
Never mind that U.S. action in the region is in response to prior violent acts of jihad, and the U.S. military does not target civilians. But wait, jihadists didn't commit acts like 9/11, Jews did, we're told.
When asked, Mr. Abssi refused to say what his targets might be.
[...]
Inside the Palestinian camp, Mr. Abssi seems to be building his operation with little interference.
Maj. Gen. Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, says the government does not have authority to enter a Palestinian camp — even though Mr. Abssi is now wanted in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on terrorism charges.
To enter the camps, he said, “We would need an agreement from other Arab countries.” He said that instead the government was tightening its cordon around the camp to make it harder for Mr. Abssi or his men to slip in and out.
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have long been fertile ground for militancy, particularly focused on the fight against Israel. But militants in those camps now have a broader vision. In Ain el Hilwe camp, an hour’s drive south of Beirut, another radical Sunni group, Asbat al Ansar, has been sending fighters to Iraq since the start of the war, its leaders acknowledged in interviews.
[...]
Mr. Abssi said he derived much of his spiritual guidance from Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Bukhari, a ninth-century Islamic scholar. A recent study by the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., listed Mr. Bukhari among the 20 Islamic scholars who had greater influence today among militant Arabs than Mr. bin Laden.
Well, at least they didn't list him as Mr. Sahih Bukhari, "sahih" being the adjective that describes Bukhari's hadith as sound, or reliable.
“Osama bin Laden does make the fatwas,” Mr. Abssi said, using the Arabic word for Islamic legal pronouncements. “Should his fatwas follow the Sunnah,” or Islamic law, he said, “we will carry them out.”
Sharia = Islamic law. Sunnah = the example of Muhammad in the ahadith and Sira.
[...]
In the interview with The Times, Mr. Abssi said he had been largely warmly received in the Palestinian camp, and that he was optimistic about his cause. “One of the reasons for choosing this camp is our belief that the people here are close to God as they feel the same suffering as our brothers in Palestine,” he said.
“Today’s youth, when they see what is happening in Palestine and Iraq, it enthuses them to join the way of the right and jihad,” he said. “These people have now started to adopt the right path.”
Posted by Marisol at March 16, 2007 7:33 AM
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A 'new' group, the same Koran, the same jihad, the same bombs,- why don't we just call it 'SOS?'
We could just about say the same about a 'new' Democratic party in the US of A....
Meanwhile, downunder:http://sheikyermami.com/2007/03/16/moonbat-wankfest-downunder-oh-muslim-here-is-the-jew-come-kill-him/
Posted by: sheik yer'mami![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 16, 2007 7:43 AM
"Maj. Gen. Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, says the government does not have authority to enter a Palestinian camp — even though Mr. Abssi is now wanted in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on terrorism charges.
To enter the camps, he said, “We would need an agreement from other Arab countries.” He said that instead the government was tightening its cordon around the camp to make it harder for Mr. Abssi or his men to slip in and out."
......Sounds like the Palestanians have begun to take of Lebanon, just like they intend to take over Israel (by intimidation and force)....If your country needs permission from other countries to enter your own land...you no longer have a land....If your police cannot arrest those in your land (people known to be wanted or have arrest warrants outstanding)..you have problems...
Muslims deal in fear and intimdation and you do now want people like this in your neighborhood...
at March 16, 2007 7:51 AM
Born in Palestine 51 years ago?
But Israel was created in 1948 and all the muslims were expelled, weren't they? Oh, that's right, they weren't. And before that is was Trans-Jordan.
That's just like Arafat who was born in Palestine via Cairo, Egypt.
Posted by: Borg at March 16, 2007 8:37 AM
Mr. Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with Mr. Zarqawi in the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley…
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Abssi…
Sheesh, for a company owned by a Jewish family, these guys sure are pro-Jihad and anti-American.
One would think that they'd know who'll be the first group slaughtered when the Moslems take over this country.
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at March 16, 2007 9:08 AM
Assalamau Laikum all,
The report says "In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. “Allah-u akbar,” the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall.
The men belong to a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam (Victory for Islam).
For Allah's sake..and that of their familes...don't they know that property prices are going up all over the world.
They are fuelling this by having more childrens than necessary ...bringing in more humans into the world...where there is a world housing shortage...and not making the right kind of investments to protect the additional collateral.
Please tell them to invest a property portfolio...make those profits...and then diverisfy into other interests...like peaceful dawa via Fatah al Islam.
Look at the land value in Dudley, in London by the olympics...and in Boston ...not to mention all the estates worldwide.
Pleaseeeee....tell them that it is stupid to fire machine guns into walls...that is simply eroding the profit...(someone's now gonna have to repair that wall...and that costs dollars too) a more effective strategy is to build a mosque in every city...in every state including the Jewish sacred state of Montana.
Longer term this is a much higher dollar value investment, and it is in the heart of infedel land....please pass the message on....Shukria.
Posted by: Naseem at March 16, 2007 9:45 AM
STFU and bring it you bunch of mentally medieval bastards.
Let's see what you can do.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses at March 16, 2007 9:48 AM
the burp of the machine gun, the splintering of the wall as the shells impact, the smell of cordite, the gleeful cheers of the Muslims machinegunners...an Islamic symphony in motion..
Posted by: exsgtbrown at March 16, 2007 10:21 AM
...Mr. Abssi displayed his makeshift training facility and his strident message that America needed to be punished for its presence in the Islamic world...
The US wouldn't be in the Islamic world if these crazy bastards would confine their murderous activities to the ummah. Unfortunately, they feel compelled to share the "blessings" of their god with the rest of us, even if it means destroying the entire world.
By the way, it probably would be a nice idea if Abssi's training facility were hit by a few bombs. If the NY Times can find that place surely the military can.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at March 16, 2007 10:52 AM
I agree with sheik yer'mami--SOS!!
I figure that those AK47's sound like the tapping of a drum.It is praise to GOD when it's is intended as such.YOU KNOW WHAT??! They praise GOD whay more then we do.. Horray for them.
Since thie life is ALL about GOD.!!!
at March 16, 2007 10:59 AM
"A recent study by the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., listed Mr. Bukhari among the 20 Islamic scholars who had greater influence today among militant Arabs than Mr. bin Laden."
-- from the article above
O my God. "Mr. Bukhari."
at March 16, 2007 11:24 AM
If some moke from the NYT can find these wankers, why not Seal Team 8? Let's hope we reach out and touch someone real soon.
Posted by: MP at March 16, 2007 11:27 AM
"Born in Palestine, from which he and family were evicted by the Israelis, Mr. Abssi, 51.."
-- from an article in The New Duranty Times, by Souad Mekhennet and Michael Moss
1. There was no "Palestine" in this century, and indeed there has not been a "Palestine" -- save in the Biblical imagination of the Western world -- for two millennia. In Islam the area was never known as "Palestine" but was simply a land that belonged to the Muslims, and where, for a brief period, Crusaders came to protect the rights of Christians who had been harried and murdered in the Holy Land (in 1009 the Caliph al-Hakim, in Cairo, had ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and later on, under the Seljuks, the Muslim persecution of Christian pilgrims triggered the Crusades). By using this place name so carelessly, instead of the phrase "Mandatory Palestine" the Times unwittingly promotes the nunc-pro-tunc backdating about some non-existent "Palestine" where the non-existent "Palestinian people" were supposedly tilling the soil since time immemorial, when the desolation and ruin, the common observation of every Western traveller from the mid-19th century on (followed by the wonder at the Zionist pioneers and their fantastic achievements at land reclamation -- see "Palestine: Land of Promise" by the celebrated American agronomist Walter Clay Lowdermilk, of Liberty, North Carolina).
2. The Times repeats, uncritically, that this "Mr. Abssi, 51" was "evicted with his family from Palestine." Really? Do we have any conceivable reason to doubt this? He wasn't "evicted" in 1948, for he wasn't born in 1948. So when was he "evicted"? There were no "evictions" of Arabs in the 1950s, or 1960s, or 1970s, save for a handful of terrorist-supporting mayors, at one point, and the brouhaha was such that the Israelis promptly -- and wrongly-- abandoned the brief practice.
Didn't the reporters think to ask, rather than simply accept and uncritically transmit to a million readers, this remark -- so much of a piece with the eyes-raised-skyward complaints of mistreatment that are standard fare -- as with those islamochristians who lyingly claim that the source of their current woe is bad old Israel, and not the steady menace, and more, of their fellow -- but Muslim -- "Palestinians." The refusal to understand lying as a way of life, of deception of Infidels as a natural state, is understood by many, including those who at one point were fooled. See "The Arab Mind" by John Laffin, the best book on the subject, or the study by Raphael Patai by the same title, which pulls its punches. Or see "The Psychology of the Musulman" by Andre Servier (uploaded onto the Internet by one of JW's most devoted posters).
3. Even if Mr. Absssi had been not 51, but 71, and claimed to have been "evicted" from "Palestine," should this claim simply have been accepted? The evidence that no such "evictions" from "Mandatory Palestine" took place is overwhelming. We have the published statements of Arab commentators, after the 1948-19 war, bewailing the encouragement by so many Arab spokesmen who told the local Arabs to leave, or who led by example, fleeing themselves, because they sensibly did not wish to be in the midst of the fighting, and assumed that those five Arab armies, with local help, would throttle the nascent and largely unarmed Jewish state, and then they could return to share in the triumph, and the loot, and the rapes, and the rest of it. It did not, as we know, turn out exactly as assumed -- as assumed for example by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, and great-uncle, as it happens of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who promised a "massacre of the Jews" the likes of which would not have been seen "since the time of the Mongols."
The Times may think it can continue to treat the truth so contemptuously, either by passing on the highly tendentious remarks of certain reporters (such as Souad Mekhennet) but reporters who serve as ventriloquist's dummies (with this or that Arab being the ventriloquist) are not exactly doing their job, and a moment's thought should have caused the editors at the Times -- if they had any sense, those worse-than-senseless things -- to change the wording, or at least to put in the most obvious and simplest change, requiring only the slightest of changes, a change to a topoynm, and then an addition of two words within a phrase.
Thus:
#1. The removal of the inaccurate and highly tendentious topoynm:
For "Born in Palestine" read "Born in Mandatory Palestine" (if Abssi's family left before May, 1948) or "Born in Israel" (if that family left between 1948 and the Six-Day War) or "Born in the West Bank" or, possibly the most informative of all, given the localness of Arab loyalties (either to one's village or city, or to the entire Muslim Arab umma, with little in "Born in (give city or village name here)."
#2. The addition of a phrase that signals the reporters in question are merely reporting, and not necessarily accepting, the claims of Mr. Abssi.
For "he and his family were evicted by the Israelis" read "he claims he and his family were evicted by the Israelis..."
Two little words, but very important:"he claims"-
Why should these reporters who appear in The Times not put in "he claims"? Given all that we know of the demonstrated falsity of claims by Shukairy, Arafat, and a hundred thousand individual Arabs, eyes raised skyward in mock outrage and grief and phony victiimhood, making the most absurd of claims, and of course not only when it comes to Israel, but when it comes to any enemy. Think of all the crazed conspiracy theories and wild charges about how the C.I.A. or Mossad must have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks, a charge that is made, and then in the next breath -- or was it the previous one - there is also delight expressed in those very attacks on the Great Satan, America. Or look at the behavior of local Muslims in Iraq. When Shi'a pilgrims are attacked, many in the crowd start shouting against the Americans. And when Shi'a militia kill Sunnis in revenge, the Sunnis blame -- the Americans. The level of sheer blague, of nonsense and lies, that are the routine far of the Arab media and the Arab world, and of a larger Muslim world, consisting of people who have been at every stage discouraged or punished for exhibiting anything but the habit of mental submission, is or should be obvious to anyone of sense who has covered the Middle East. But the use of local reporters, themselves devoid of an understanding, or certainly devoid of a wish to even attempt, something approaching objectivity, or something outside the "truths" of the semi-demented conspiracy-theory world of so many Muslim Arabs (or even islamochristians), needs to be recognized, if not by every reporter and editor, than by those who make the final decisions before the paper goes to press. It is up to them to find, and prevent, such daily outrages as we, the readers, are being made subject to. And if they can't do it? Then those papers deserve to fail. Their inability to convey the kind of information one needs to make sense of the threat of Jihad, and to understand the various instruments of Jihad, is bad enough.
And it is bad: What have you learned about the texts and contents of the texts of Islam, from The Times? The Post? any paper in the Westeern world? What have you learned about the Muslim world-view? About Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam? About the Hadith? Have you read the names Bukhari and Muslim in a single American newspaper account? Has the condition of the non-Muslim-- the dhimmi -- been given in detail, in any newpaper that you know of? No? Why not?
But still worse is the deliberate conveying of falsehood. And in the sentence selected for close textual analysis above, one sees, in parvo, what is a huge problem that keeps growing, and that damages Israel, the first victim of the Lesser Jihad -- but not the only intended victim, and every act of collaboration in such falsehoods, as they pile up, day by day, is collaboration in the weakening of the public's apprehension of the truth, about the Lesser Jihad against Israel, and about the Greater Jihad against all of us, Infidels of all kinds, everywhere.
Posted by: Hugh at March 16, 2007 12:24 PM
al Qaeda has started cells in Lebanon as predicted when they fled Iraq from US counter measures and Syria is funding them.
The summer is shaping up to be explosive.
Posted by: Lame Cherry at March 16, 2007 1:52 PM
"possibility of sloppiness in addition" from Robert.
I ask once again, how do you chew your food with your tongue so firmly in your cheek? LOL
Hugh, At this late date I am considering returning to University. Reason being if this is what passes for writing now, I could breeze through a Journalism degree in a jiffy. Don't bother with facts, just make it up as you go along.
Woodard & Bernstein did America a great disservice back in 1972/3. I remember commenting so with a chill that night in 73.
at March 19, 2007 9:59 AM
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