U.S. expels 2 Iranian guards at United Nations

More trouble coming from Iran: two guards at the Iranian UN mission in New York have been sent out of the country. Question: how much more jihad activity is going on under cover of diplomatic immunity? From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The two were seen taking still photos and video of New York City subways, buses and tunnels, and were expelled last weekend for conduct inconsistent with their official duties, the State Department said.

But an Iranian official said: "Like anybody who visits New York, they visit tourist sites -- sightseeing and videotaping themselves, looking at the Metropolitan Museum [of Art], places like that."

Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman at the State Department, said the guards were expelled after being observed by the FBI "videotaping various locations from New York deemed to be sensitive."

Ereli called the activity a "recurring problem, as this was the third time the United States has required the departure of Iranian security guards for videotaping and photographing landmarks in New York.

"In the case of the Iranian mission to the United Nations, it represented a unique pattern that raised concerns of law enforcement," he said.

12 air crew members banned from U.S.

Members of air crews from three unidentified countries have turned up among the tiny minority of extremists in terrorist databases. From CNN, with thanks to US Action:

Nine of the 12 had associated with terrorists or supported terrorist organizations, two were using fraudulent passports and one had a criminal record for assaulting a U.S. law enforcement officer, according to Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Asa Hutchinson. ...

Hutchinson said a similar check of 2.7 million truck drivers who were licensed to carry hazardous materials in the United States has not turned up anyone with clearly established ties to terrorism, but he said 29 "potential persons of interest" are undergoing additional checks by law enforcement.

One of the 29 has already been expelled from the U.S. for unrelated reasons.

Textbook Jihad in Egypt

While the major media continues to assure us that this recent spate of beheadings actually has nothing to do with Islam, Andrew Bostom at FrontPage details evidence that such behavior is actually taught in Egyptian textbooks -- as are the glories of violent jihad:

"Studies in Theology: Tradition and Morals, Grade 11, (2001) pp. 291-92 ...This noble [Qur'anic] Surah [Surat Muhammad]... deals with questions of which the most important are as follows: 'Encouraging the faithful to perform jihad in God's cause, to behead the infidels, take them prisoner, break their power, and make their souls humble - all that in a style which contains the highest examples of urging to fight. You see that in His words: "When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take a ransom from them, until war shall lay down its burdens.'"

"Commentary on the Surahs of Muhammad, Al-Fath, Al-Hujurat and Qaf, Grade 11, (2002) p. 9 …When you meet them in order to fight [them], do not be seized by compassion [towards them] but strike the[ir] necks powerfully.... Striking the neck means fighting, because killing a person is often done by striking off his head. Thus, it has become an expression for killing even if the fighter strikes him elsewhere. This expression contains a harshness and emphasis that are not found in the word "kill", because it describes killing in the ugliest manner, i.e., cutting the neck and making the organ - the head of the body - fly off [the body].' "

Bostom notes correctly:

Although chilling to our modern sensibilities, particularly when being taught to children, these are merely classical interpretations of the rules for jihad war, based on over a millennium of Muslim theology and jurisprudence. And the context of these teachings is unambiguous, as the translator makes clear:

"[the] concept of jihad is interpreted in the Egyptian school curriculum almost exclusively as a military endeavor… it is war against God's enemies, i.e., the infidels… it is war against the homeland's enemies and a means to strengthening the Muslim states in the world. In both cases, jihad is encouraged, and those who refrain from participating in it are denounced."

Still a few bugs in the system

Friends, by this time tomorrow I hope to be back in sunny Secure Undisclosed Locationville, where, free at last of this laptop, I will do what I can to figure out some of the technical problems that many of you have sent to me. I am confident that the registration system will be working smoothly, without any hitches, soon. Thank you very much for your patience.

Also: over the last week (and before that, too) many of you have emailed me, sent me links, etc. I am traveling and have thus been unable to answer or acknowledge most of them; in fact, the sheer volume of email is impossible for me to keep up with. So I apologize here for not being able to answer each message, and thank you for your kindness and support.

Turkish hostages let go "for the sake of our Muslim brothers"

This won't stop any of the American Muslim spokesmen and their allies from telling us that Islam respects non-Muslims and teaches tolerance, but it is more evidence that the reality is different, and that many Muslims today hold tenaciously to the sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers that runs through the Qur'an. From CNN:

The Arabic-language television network Al Jazeera reported earlier Tuesday a group led by Jordanian-born Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had freed the men contractors, who were kidnapped last week.

"For the sake of you, our brothers, and Muslims of the people of Turkey ... we will release these hostages and send them safely home," the statement said.

Iranian Government Media: 'Americans Are Behind Beheadings;' and 'Jewish Involvement in 9/11'

Why do they hate us? Well, aside from the jihad imperative and the competition to Sharia hegemony that the US presents in Iraq and elsewhere, it doesn't help that they lie about us at the highest levels. This sort of thing keeps happening in Saudi Arabia, and here is a report from Iran. From MEMRI:

The editor of the Iranian conservative daily Kayhan, Hossein Shari'atmadari, who is close to Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote in an editorial that the true perpetrators of the decapitations of foreign hostages are none other than the Americans themselves. The following are excerpts from his article on June 24:

[...]

'Why Did Americans Slaughter Their Citizens and the Citizens of America's Allies?'

"Why did the Americans slaughter their citizens and the citizens of America's allies [so] horrifyingly and terribly…? [Why] do they construct ridiculous scenery and attribute the slaughter of the hostages to Muslims when their ugly and repulsive faces are exposed as a result of the crimes they committed and the massacre of innocent civilians and the barbaric tortures of the detainees and captives?

"The answer to this question is too clear for us to explain and analyze in depth… With these terrible crimes, the Americans aspire to attain the following goals:

1. "To present a hate-inspiring image of Islam and of the Muslims and to justify barbaric military attacks on them – that is, exactly the same goals as when they established the Taliban and the Al-Qa'ida group…

2. "To respond to public opinion, particularly that of the U.S. and England, which sees the invasion of Iraq as unjustified, aggressive, and entangling and demands that the occupiers leave Iraq. In this way, America seeks to justify the continuation of the occupation of Iraq and the attack on the rest of the Muslim peoples. America is doing it under the cover of a struggle against peoples – which, it claims, know no humanity and commit various types of crimes.

3. "Some of the countries that sent forces to Iraq, such as South Korea, are facing harsh protests by their peoples. By slaughtering hostages and attributing it to Muslims, America sows the seed of hatred and loathing of Muslims in the hearts of these peoples, and encourages their governments to continue cooperating with it.

4. "Among the Americans' main goals in organizing the ridiculous and certainly terrible performance of the slaughters is the distracting of public opinion from America's and England's barbaric crimes against the Abu Ghureib detainees."

III) Official Iranian TV Channel Claims Jews Were Involved in September 11th

MEMRI's TV Monitor Project (www.memritv.org) includes monitoring Iranian television stations such as Jaam-E-Jam 1, the Iranian government TV channel directed at Europe. On June 1, 2004, the station broadcasted a series about the September 11 terror attacks. The show included video clips of the O.J. Simpson murder case. The following an excerpt of the broadcast:

"Ever since the establishment of the Zionist regime, the American strategy has been under the Zionist lobby's influence. Zionism, as expressed in the Jewish Protocols, nurtures in its mind the dream of taking over the world. With Bush's rise to power, it controls the White House with greater force. ...

"A while afterwards, a source in American military intelligence raised details pertaining to an intelligence memo regarding Israel's espionage organization, the Mossad, and its role in the events of September 11. In fact, the claim that Israel was involved in the blasts of September 11 and used it as a basis of America's new strategy for fighting the world of Islam, disappeared in the media coverage, but world public opinion still believes this possibility."

Report: Iraqi Militants Kill U.S. Soldier

Authorities aren't sure yet whether the video of the murder actually depicts Pfc. Matt Maupin, but in any case this just underscores the fact that the turnover of sovereignty in Iraq is not going to change a thing. The jihadists are fighting to establish an Islamic state, and they aren't going to be any more favorably disposed toward what they perceive as a U.S. client state than they have been toward the U.S. military presence there. That unrest will continue, and that the new Iraqi government will face fierce challenges and may not survive, are the only certainties in Iraq today.

Judges, Journalists and Jihad

Some exceedingly important information on the Sami Al-Hussayen case from Michael P. Tremoglie at FrontPage. An activist judge running wild may be a more accurate picture of this case than the usual one of an innocent Muslim victimized by racism, etc.:

Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national, was charged with using the website of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) to promote terrorism. Specifically, Al-Hussayen, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to support terrorism, one count of providing material support to terror groups and eleven counts of visa and immigration fraud.

Among the messages posted by Al-Hussayen to the websites were four fatwas – or religious edicts blessing suicide missions. One specifically mentioned a kamikaze type mission using an airplane. This was prior to 9-11.

According to US Attorney Kim Lindquist, as quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the websites were "part of his passionate, religious commitment to violent jihad – not to legitimate violence, but to suicide operations and to terrorism."

His defense was that he was merely the moderator and not concerned with the content of the messages, only posting them. It is important to note that the founder of IANA, Bassem K. Khafagi, already pled guilty to bank fraud and visa fraud in relation to his activities with IANA, which is believed to be financing terrorist activities.

One juror, John Steger a retired U.S. Forest Service worker, who was interviewed afterwards provided some insight as to why Al-Hussayen was acquitted. He referred to Judge Lodge's instruction - that the Constitution protects speech even if it advocates the use of force or violation of the law unless imminent lawlessness occurs - as influencing his choice.

Steger said ninety-five percent of what Al-Hussayen posted was "innocent" and said the "inflammatory" articles did not lead to an "imminent act. ... According to the First Amendment, that is all right." When he was asked if it could lead to a terrorist act, he said, "I don't know."

There is much more about how judges and journalists jimmied this case. It's a story that is nothing less than shameful.

Massachusetts: cab driver charged with lying to FBI

Yesterday I had occasion to speak with several people who have no idea that jihad activity is still going on in the US. They never heard of the Lackawanna Al-Qaeda cell, or the Virginia paintball gang, or the Portland group, or any other. Nor were they ignorant or ill-informed -- far from it. But the mainstream media is simply not giving stories like these adequate attention, to the detriment of us all. How different would the average American's view of terrorism and the war on terror be if all the stories like this one were common knowledge? From the Boston Globe, with thanks to nevermindlv:

A former Boston cabdriver who allegedly admitted training in an Afghanistan terrorist camp was charged yesterday in federal court in Minnesota with lying to the FBI about helping a convicted terrorist get a Massachusetts driver's license.

Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi, 41, a Lebanese national, is charged with lying about providing support to Raed Hijazi in 1997 and 1998, when both were working as taxi drivers in Boston, according to a complaint and FBI affidavit unsealed yesterday in US District Court in Minnesota.

Hijazi was later convicted in Jordan of the failed millennium bombing plot that targeted American and Israeli tourists in that country.

The complaint also charges Elzahabi with lying to federal agents by denying he had shipped radios and other communications equipment to Pakistan between 1995 and 1997.

Elzahabi, who has been held in New York since his arrest in May, will be transferred to Minneapolis to face the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

Jihad Watch returns

Dear friends,

I am writing this from far away from Secure Undisclosed Locationville -- so far away, in fact, that since Friday I have been unable to connect to the Internet. Hence the lack of updates. Also I now have such a backlog of work that there may not be many updates right away. My apologies. Jihad Watch will be back, better than ever, absolutely as soon as possible.

But I am pleased to announce that the comments system seems to be up and running. I am sure there are still a few bugs in the system, so I ask your patience. We will be working them out over the next few days. Just for fun, even though this is old news now, I am reopening the comments on the last few days of postings. So if you see something you would like to say something about -- here or at Dhimmi Watch -- have at it. I am opening the top posts on the main pages now.

Thanks again for all your patience and support.

Kindest regards,
Robert Spencer

Incitement to Jihad on Saudi Government-Controlled TV

Yeah, they're reforming, all right. Note the section entitled "Allah willing, the U.S. will collapse." It looks as if the double game the Saudis have been playing for years is still in full swing. From MEMRI:

As part of MEMRI's TV Monitoring Project, Saudi government controlled television channels including TV1, TV2 and satellite channels such as Iqraa TV, are continually monitored.(1) These channels include shows with leading Saudi religious figures, professors, members of the royal family, government leaders and intellectuals. Constant themes within Saudi television shows include: calls for the annihilation of Christians and Jews, rampant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, support for Jihad, incitement against U.S. troops in Iraq, and the coming Islamic conquest of the U.S. Segments from these TV shows can be found at www.memriTV.org. Saudi Religious Establishment 'Demonstrated that It is the Body Most Competent ... at De-Legitimizing Al Qa'ida's Cultist Ideology'

In a June 15 press release, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, maintained that "senior religious scholars in Saudi Arabia have continually and unequivocally condemned terrorism. In our war against terrorism, these condemnations are a powerful weapon." In this statement, as well as in close to two dozen others by the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. since the Riyadh bombings on March 12, 2003, the government of Saudi Arabia promoted the idea that the royal family and religious establishment have been espousing a message of tolerance. As Nail Al-Jubeir, director of the Saudi information office, said on May 6, 2004: "Our religious establishment has taught moderation to our people. The religious establishment has demonstrated that it is the body most competent and effective at de-legitimizing Al Qa'ida's cultist ideology."

In fact, on June 20, 2004, Saudi cleric Dr. Muhammad Bin Suleiman Al-Mani'i hosted a talk show on Saudi TV 1 and spoke out against killing Jews and Christians. Excerpts of his statements include: "Islamic law in general prohibits any Muslim from raising a weapon against any lover of peace - dhimmi (protected person), Jewish or Christian, a merchant, or anyone who enters (the country) on a work contract. Islamic law permits raising a weapon only against whomever aims a weapon at the Muslim in order to fight him."

While Al-Mani'i's statement against killing Jews and Christians is almost unprecedented within Saudi Arabia, he went on to explain that if non-Muslims are treated well by Muslims, they will eventually convert to Islam: "The Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian subjects had their autonomous rule under Islam, and at the same time these Muslim states, and the caliphs, preserved their rights, treated them well, maintained neighborly relations and dealt with them honestly and in good faith, treated their sick, granted them their rights, and called them to convert to Islam. Therefore, the Jewish, Christian, and other subjects converted to Islam."

Saudi Professor: Allah Permits Annihilating Christians and Jews

Sheik Dr. Ahmad Abd Al-Latif, a professor at Um Al-Qura University, was asked the following question on Saudi channel TV1 on May 24: "Some imams and preachers call for Allah to annihilate the Jews and those who help them, and the Christians and those who support them... Is it permitted according to Islamic law?" Professor Al-Latif responded: "What made them curse the Jews is that the Jews are oppressors... The same goes for the Christians, because of their cruel aggression against Islamic countries ... while the truth is that this is a crusading war whose goal is to harm Muslims. This is why a Muslim is allowed to curse the oppressors from among the Jews and Christians... Cursing the oppressing Jews and the oppressing and plundering Christians and the prayer that Allah will annihilate them is permitted."

Former Saudi Embassy Official on 'Big Explosion' Coming

Sheik Muhammad Al-Munajid, a disciple of one of Saudi Arabia's most revered religious leaders, Sheik ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Baaz, was identified in a report in the Washington Post on December 11, 2003, as running "a Web site that promotes intolerance of Christians and Jews and calls for holy war on Shiite Muslims," and was included as one of sixteen clerics associated with the Saudi embassy's Islamic Affairs Department who was stripped of diplomatic credentials.

Al-Munajid stated on Iqraa TV on April 15: "The issue is not one person, two, ten or a hundred going out with their guns to support their brothers. Defeating the infidels requires a much greater effort. It requires the mobilization of the nation. How can the nation be mobilized? I believe that the stupid acts of these Jews and Crusaders mobilize the nation. The big explosion will come! In spite of everything, it will happen!"

Much of Saudi TV is based upon religious programming. Many of these programs refer to the spread of Islam throughout the world and the battle against non-Muslims. On a May 20 episode of Iqraa TV's 'Mushkilat Min Al-Hayat' (Problems from Life), Saudi Sheik Abdallah Al-Muslih, chairman of the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Koran and Sunnah of the Muslim World League, used evidence from early Islam to support his claim that suicide bombings on enemy land are permitted according to Islamic law: "... Regarding a person who blows himself up, I know this issue is under disagreement among modern clerics and jurisprudents... There is nothing wrong with [martyrdom] if they cause great damage to the enemy. We can say that if it causes great damage to the enemy, this operation is a good thing. This is when we talk of Dar Al-Harb. But, if we speak of what happens in Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia ... this is forbidden, brothers! This is the land of the Muslims. We must never do this in a Muslim country."

Prominent Saudi Professor: Allah Willing, the U.S. Will Collapse

Supporting Jihad against U.S. troops in Iraq is the topic of many Saudi TV programs. On May 10, Dr. Yassin Al-Khatib, a professor of Islamic law at Um Al-Qura University, declared on the UAE's Al-Majd TV, which frequently has Saudi guests on it, that "the honor, blood, property and mostly the fact that they entered the country [i.e. Iraq] ... make it every Muslim's duty to go out against them, not only the Iraqis. This is every Muslim's duty. Jihad today has become an individual duty that applies to each and every Muslim. It is forbidden for a person to remain silent... When the Muslims fought in Afghanistan they destroyed the Soviet Union, which was a superpower. It collapsed and Allah willing, so will this [the U.S.] collapse."

The Coming Islamic Takeover of the U.S.

Saudis often discuss the issue of the U.S. becoming a Muslim state in the future. On a March 17 broadcast on Iqraa TV, Saudi preacher Sheik Said Al-Qahtani discussed this issue, as well as the cases in which Muslims are permitted to declare a defensive Jihad: "... We did not occupy the U.S., with 8 million Muslims, using bombings. Had we been patient, and let time take its course, instead of the 8 million, there could have been 80 million [Muslims] and 50 years later perhaps all the US would have become Muslim... What should a Muslim do if he is attacked in his country, on his land? In this case, there is no choice besides defense, self-sacrifice, and what religious scholars call - Defensive Jihad... We attacked their country, and this caused them to wake the dormant enmity in their hearts... Especially since there is global Zionism, the enemy of Islam, and Judaism, and fundamentalist Crusaders... They interpret this whole incident as only the beginning and thus there is no choice but a preemptive strike."

Al-Qahtani added on another Iqraa TV show on May 5: "Allah said, 'prepare against them all the force and horsemen that you can.' What for? In order to strike fear into their hearts... At the same time, [we should] establish strategies for the future, even if only for the short term, and prepare ... so that one of these days, even 100, 200, or 400 years from now, we will become a force that will be feared by the infidel states."

There is a lot more. Read it all. You may never get a clearer picture of what's really being said about us by our friend and ally.

Comments progress report

Comments, as you may have noticed, have been disabled for several days now, after some persistent and obnoxious attacks by a loathsome spammer or two. I was hoping they would be up and running by now, but it will be a little while longer. When they do return, registration will be required (including a valid email address). I am sure that will cut down on the activities of the loathesome spammer and his friends. Once again, apologies for the inconvenience, thank you for your patience, and be sure to keep coming to the site, as updates will continue when possible.

Testing...

This is only a test.

Iranian Source: British Sailors Apprehended To Swap For 40 Iranian Volunteers for Suicide Missions Captured in Iraq

The real reason why the Iranians seized the British ships? According to London's Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, it was all an ingenious plan. From MEMRI (with thanks to Romy):

"A source close to the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat of the real reasons and factors in the apprehension of the three British Navy vessels and the arrest of the sailors by Iranian Coast Guard patrol forces on Monday [June 21, 2004]. He indicated that the British Army command in Iraq had understood the message sent them by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards command by their capture of the ships."

'Detention of 40 Volunteers for Suicide Operations Was Great Concern to the Revolutionary Guards'

"According to the source, the content of the message was very simple: 'Release our comrades, whom you are holding, and we will release your soldiers.' The source clarified that the detention of 40 volunteers for suicide operations by the Ukrainian forces acting in Iraq was of great concern to the Revolutionary Guards command, because they [the 40] constituted the first group of volunteers participating in the Organization for the Commemoration of the Shahids, which was established recently by Revolutionary Guards Commander Col. Dhu al-Qadr.

"Al-Sharq Al-Awsat was informed that one of the senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guards, who had formerly held the post of head of the Committee for Iran-Ukraine Military Cooperation, had gone to Kiev for talks regarding the Iranian detainees. However, it turned out that the Ukrainian units had already handed the volunteers for suicide operations over to British forces acting in southern Iraq.

"Despite contacts between the Iranian and British military committees at the borders and daily contact between them in small conflict resolution - [such that] this has become routine since the British forces entered southern Iraq - the British command has so far refused to acknowledge that it is holding 40 Iranian volunteers in one of its detention camps. According to the Iranian source, this caused the Revolutionary Guards leadership to seek a semi-military solution to bring its men back from Iraq."

Bomb near Bush's hotel in Turkey

An attempt to intimidate the jihadists' Target #1? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A small bomb exploded Thursday in front of the hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to stay when he visits Ankara for meetings with Turkish leaders. One police officer was badly injured, a security official said.

The injured police officer was standing near the bomb when it went off, tearing off one of his legs, the security officer said on customary condition of anonymity.

Police had been notified of a suspicious package on the street some 75 meters (yards) from the entrance to the hotel. The bomb exploded as officers approached the package to investigate. ...

Militant Islamic groups, Kurdish separatists and leftists have carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

UPDATE: This one may not have been a jihad attack. A leftist organization has claimed responsibility. (Thanks to Jeffrey Imm for the link.)

Multiple attacks rock Iraqi cities

As June 30 approaches, the jihad intensifies (when the major media says "insurgents," they mean "jihadists.") From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents have staged simultaneous attacks on police stations and other targets in four cities across Iraq, killing at least 40 people and injuring scores more.

In the biggest attack on Thursday, a series of explosions struck the northern city of Mosul, killing more than 30 people and wounding 170 others.

The violence in Mosul -- which includes three car bombings, a rocket attack, a raid on a security company and clashes between coalition forces and insurgents -- has virtually paralyzed the predominantly Kurdish city.

Iraqi police stations and training facilities were the worst hit in Mosul, with seven Iraqi policemen and one U.S. solider among those killed.

In a coordinated series of attacks across Iraq just six days before power is handed over to an interim government, insurgents also targeted police stations in Baqubah and Ramadi and battled American forces in Fallujah.

Insurgents have taken over parts of Baqubah after launching a series of attacks that killed two U.S. soldiers and four Iraqi soldiers.

Opposition: Saudi security knew Johnson's location

More unsurprising news from the World Tribune, with thanks to Manny:

Saudi opposition sources said Saudi security commanders knew of the location of Al Qaida chief Abul Aziz Al Muqrin at least three days before he executed a U.S. hostage.

The Washington-based Saudi Institute said Saudi authorities knew of the whereabouts of the Al Qaida cell that abducted and threatened to kill Lockheed Martin engineer Paul Johnson. But the institute said the Saudi government decided not to move until Johnson, captured on June 12, was executed.

"The Saudi government knew the location of a number of the terrorists but waited until they killed American hostage Paul Johnson before moving against them," the Saudi Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

Not so fast

This morning it looked as if those British soldiers had already been released, or would soon be released by Iran. Now the situation doesn't look as positive. From This Is London:

Talks are taking place to secure the release of the eight British sailors paraded blindfold on Iranian television and forced to make public confessions.

Earlier reports coming out of the country had said that the men were already free, it was then claimed that they would not be released until Thursday.

Negotiations are now believed to be taking place between the Iranian and British delegations in the city of Mahshahr.

The breakthrough came after a day of diplomacy amid anger and revulsion at the way the servicemen were treated. As part of a deal designed to save face in Tehran, Britain was expected to make a statement of regret the men had strayed into Iranian waters.

Remember when Argentina took over the Falkland Islands? That was a different Britain, of course.

UPDATE: At last they have really been released.

Muslim kids play decapitation games

LGF has posted a horrifying link to a Scandinavian Muslim bulletin board on which someone has posted ("Look how cute!") a video of Muslim kids reenacting the Nick Berg decapitation video.

If anyone has any doubts about what we are up against in the war on terror, see this video. It isn't bloody. It's just sickening. What will become of these children who are being brought up to glorify murder and violence?

U.S., Allies Will Not Negotiate With Terrorists

No sign of the desired dhimmitude from the Bush White House or its allies. From FoxNews, with thanks to DC Watson:

NEW YORK — Although Al Qaeda-linked groups recently executed two kidnapped civilian workers, the United States continues to maintain it will not negotiate with terrorists, whatever the price — even if violence against Americans and their allies gets worse.

"I think there's a likelihood [attacks could escalate in Iraq and Saudi Arabia] and that's certainly the philosophy behind refusing to negotiate with terrorists," said Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "I think it's a sound philosophy — one that's proved the test of time … that should be continued."

Jordan's comments came after news broke Tuesday that suspected Al Qaeda terrorists had beheaded hostage Kim Sun-il, a South Korean who worked for a U.S. military supplier.

Terror checkpoints at shopping malls?

Schumer included a detailed proposal for mall security. I doubt this will fly, however, as not enough Americans are convinced that this is a real threat. From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The recent plot by an al-Qaida freelancer to blow up an Ohio shopping center and revelations that the Madrid bombers' next intended target was a suburban mall – coming on the heels of the terror group's reported plans to hit the U.S. hard this summer with a massive attack – is causing at least one congressman to demand security at the nation's shopping malls be radically beefed up with high-tech, high-dollar equipment like that used in airports.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D.-N.Y., says the government's indictment of Nuradin Abdi for plotting with al-Qaida to bomb shopping malls, coupled with recently uncovered documents showing the March 11 Madrid train bombers also planned to attack Parquesur, a large suburban shopping center there, are "clear proof" the U.S. is not doing enough to protect the nation's shopping malls from terror attacks.

"Everyone who listened to the audio tapes released by the 9/11 Commission this week couldn't help but feel their hair stand on end when they heard how unprepared we were to deal with an aerial attack," Schumer said while standing in Greeley Square outside the Manhattan Mall in New York City. "More and more evidence is mounting that if they want to attack again, they'll do it someplace closer to home like a shopping center. We've gone all-out to shore up air security, and now we have to catch up with mall security as well."

South Korea: Muslim Community Hopes Killing Doesn't Affect Perception of Islam

From the Chosun Ilbo, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Korean Muslim Imam Lee Hang-rae said during an interview at a mosque in Itaewon, Seoul on Wednesday that, “We Muslims were also shocked and felt heartbroken like everyone else. I am worried that this incident may damage the perception of Islam on the whole. The group that kidnapped and murdered Kim Sun-il is a political group that has nothing to do with Islam. They do not obey Islamic doctrines and are even against Islam. Islam itself is peace. The Koran also forbids murder in a phrase, “Do not take any precious life without proper reasons.”

It would be refreshing if just one time, we weren't asked to accept that this sort of thing "has nothing to do with Islam" just on the word of other Muslims. I wish that just one time, Muslims who say these beheadings have nothing to do with Islam would explain why Sura 47:4 ("when you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks") doesn't apply here, and why the example of Muhammad's beheadings doesn't apply -- in short, why the reasons that the radicals themselves give for what they are doing don't qualify as "proper reasons" under the Qur'anic caveat cited by Lee Hang-rae.

But they never do. Instead, all we get from one side are detailed arguments based on the Qur'an and Sunnah justifying what they do, and the other side shouting, "It's against Islam!" Never mind which side I believe; which side do you think young Muslims who are trying to live their faith properly believe?

Jihad boils up in Thailand

Just how are young men like Asaha Dajing recruited? Is it really a matter of their being "fooled"? Or are they shown convincing passages of the Qur'an and Sunnah that show that they should do what the radicals are doing if they want to be good Muslims? From USA Today, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Asaha Dajing, 19, appeared to be thriving at an Islamic college in Yala, 20 miles north of this remote village. He had just won a $125 creative writing scholarship, big money in these parts. His family was proud.

But Asaha had friends his parents didn't know about: Islamic radicals who were recruiting impressionable young men for a mysterious holy war here in the jungles of southern Thailand.

Asaha's secret life was exposed only by his death. He was killed by police along with 13 other militants April 28 when they staged a suicidal assault on a government office near this village. Most were armed only with machetes.

"They used my son because he was young," says his father, rubber farmer Tama Dajing, 49. "He could be fooled very easily. ... I blame myself because I just worked. I went out in the morning and I came home at night, and I didn't know what was going on."

No one seems to know exactly what is going on here in the predominantly Muslim southern tip of Thailand. Mysterious insurgents are terrorizing the countryside, bewildering the government in Bangkok and raising fears that radical Islamic groups from outside Thailand may have found a new base in Southeast Asia.

"It's still a witch's brew. It's still incubating," says Paul Quaglia, a former CIA official now working as a security consultant in Bangkok with Pacific Strategies & Assessments. "Regional Islamic terrorists are looking at the area for a possible jihad (holy war). Disgruntled Muslim youth form a potential labor pool" for terrorists.

Southeast Asia already is seething with Islamic violence. The group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, was behind bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002. A group called Abu Sayyaf has terrorized the traditionally Muslim region of Mindanao in the southern Philippines for several years, kidnapping tourists and attacking local Christians. Authorities fear that extremists also want to use the lawless jungles of southern Thailand to launch a holy war.

The United States has not turned southern Thailand into a new front in the war on terror and considers the insurgency an internal Thai matter. No Thai insurgent groups appear on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. However, there is some evidence that Jemaah Islamiyah, which is on the U.S. terror list, has been active in Thailand. One of the group's leaders was captured in central Thailand last year, and some of the attackers in a wave of violence April 28 reportedly wore Jemaah Islamiyah T-shirts and in some cases showed knowledge of sophisticated military tactics.

The fact that the United States doesn't see the Thailand conflict as the same conflict that is raging in Iraq, Israel, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and elsewhere in the world today is evidence of an analytic myopia that could prove fatal.

Pakistan Rejects Insinuations Implicating It In 9/11 Attacks

Not that the ideology that they have fostered for years in the madrassas had anything to do with it. From PNS, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

WASHIGNTON, USA : June 22 (PNS) - Pakistan Sunday "strongly rejected the insinuations" made by the 9/11 Commission that Pakistan, in any way, was involved with the perpetration of the horrific 9/11 attacks. "This is pure speculation," said Deputy Chief of the Mission of the Pakistan Embassy, adding:"we emphatically reject it."

"The unchecked succession of events in Afghanistan had led to the tragic events of 9/11." Mohammad Sadiq was commenting on the news reports which tried to implicate Pakistan being amongst those countries having allegedly supported or funded those involved with perpetration of the horrific 9/11 attacks. Pakistan, he reminded, had itself been a victim of terrorism, and that it was waging fight against terrorism "much before the astounding 9/11 attacks." ...

The DCM underscored that historically, Pakistan has recognized all governments in Kabul, including the Taliban government. It did not, however, mean that Pakistan agreed to the policies of the Taliban regime." "We did try to persuade [the] Taliban [to] comply with U.N. resolutions and international norms on terrorism," he added.

Man eluded airport security for 24 hours

An unsurprising story from The Halifax Herald Limited:

A man with no identification and no money spent nearly 24 hours in an off-limits area of the Halifax International Airport before being arrested, a Dartmouth provincial court heard Monday.

Federal Crown attorney James Martin said Vlad Sandulescu, a Canadian citizen of Romanian descent, scaled a fence Wednesday night and gained entry to the terminal through an unlocked door.

Mr. Martin said the 29-year-old man spent the night hidden above the ceiling tile of a washroom.

The next day, he said, Mr. Sandulescu tried to board at least three planes without a boarding pass or ticket. One flight was headed to Frankfurt, Germany, a second to New York and the third to Boston.

RCMP arrested Mr. Sandulescu about 8:30 p.m. Thursday after being told by airport security that workers had refused to allow a man without a boarding pass to enter the departure lounge and get on the flight to Boston.

Zarqawi Vows to Assassinate Iraqi Premier

He will keep fighting "until Islamic rule is back on Earth." But of course, this conflict has nothing to do with religion. A suggestion for CAIR: why don't you develop, since you folks are so moderate and all, an Anti-Sharia Kit, that will explain to Muslims why they need not and should not fight to establish Islamic rule on Earth? Because there are, of course, a lot more Muslims who think like Zarqawi. I await your positive response.

From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A recording purportedly made by the mastermind of bombings and kidnappings in Iraq threatened to assassinate Iraq's interim prime minister and fight the Americans "until Islamic rule is back on Earth."

The audio recording was found Wednesday on a Web site that serves as a clearinghouse of Islamic extremist statements. It is supposedly from Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose network has been targeted by two U.S. airstrikes since Saturday.

Al-Zarqawi's group, Monotheism and Jihad, claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg and Kim Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found Tuesday evening between Baghdad and Fallujah. ...

In the audiotape, the speaker thought to be al-Zarqawi told Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, that "we will continue the game with you until the end." The speaker said "we will not get bored" until "we make you drink from the same glass" as Izzadine Saleem, the Iraqi governing Council president killed last month in a car-bombing claimed at al-Zarqawi's group.

"We will carry on our jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is back on earth," the voice said.

Iran Frees British Sailors

After a good bit of saber-rattling, the eight British soldiers arrested for straying into Iranian territorial waters have been released.

“Stay Quiet and You’ll Be OK”

A new article by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, "Stay Quiet and You’ll Be OK," is up at FrontPage this morning.

Here’s a new slogan for the zeitgeist: stay quiet and you’ll be OK. This was the message, according to the tapes released last week, that Muhammad Atta gave to the passengers on the ill-fated airplane that he and his fellow terrorists had commandeered.

Stay quiet and you’ll be OK. Don’t mention that a Saudi imam who spoke at the opening of a large new Islamic center in London once preached a sermon in which he called Jews “evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others’] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race ‘whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs,” and “an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption.” AP noted that in London he said that Islam’s history was “the best testament to how different communities can live together in peace and harmony.” The BBC called him “one of Islam’s most renowned Imams” and reported his praise for British Muslims for having “taken great steps towards achieving community cohesion.” Neither said anything about his hate speech.

Stay quiet and you’ll be OK. Have you heard about the churches destroyed in Kosovo? “To keep the Serbs from claiming this area as part of their national heritage,” says Mikhael de Thyse of the Council of Europe, “some Albanians are attacking their churches.” In March, the cathedrals in Pristina and Prizren, Kosovo’s two main cities, were burned to the ground. Others that have been destroyed include the Holy Archangels Monastery, a charming and, of course, irreplaceable jewel dating from the fourteenth century. The local bishop has had harsh words for NATO peacekeepers, who he says have done little or nothing to protect the churches. But the media establishment has kept mum. Jihad in Kosovo? Come on. Everyone knows the Balkan Muslims are the victims, not the perpetrators! ...

As Ralph Peters has had the courage to declare, “It’s time to end the politically correct baby-talk insisting that Islam isn’t the problem. In the decaying Arab world, Islam is the problem — because of the way bitter old men interpret and deform its more humane precepts while embracing its cruelest injunctions.” It’s time to end the baby talk, and the silence. For whatever combination of political correctness, fear, and indifference has made for the silence on these stories and others like them, it does nothing but play into the hands of those who would destroy us.

Stay quiet, and the jihad will continue to advance: in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Israel, and Indonesia, and Nigeria, and the Philippines, and Western Europe, and elsewhere — and if you think we will not feel its impact here, just remember where Atta was when he said those words, and what happened next.

Comments and subscriber notes

Comments are, alas, still disabled, but the last stagecoach to Secure Undisclosed Locationville should be bringing the tools we need to fix up a new troll-proof comments feature by this afternoon, and it should be up by tomorrow or Friday. Apologies for the long delay, and many thanks for your patience. But when it is all done, I think you will find the Jihad Watch Comments section to be a cleaner, better-lighted, less menacing neighborhood, free of thugs and graffiti.

Subscribers please note: 35 of you will not receive the Jihad Watch Daily Digest today. Something called "Spamcop" has "blacklisted" Jihad Watch, such that the Digest began bouncing back from your addresses. Uncertain what to do, I sent a notice to each of you Monday but heard back from no one, so yesterday I deleted all the blocked addresses from the subscriber list rather than just have them bounce back continually. So if you stop getting the Digest and would like to do so, please remonstrate with these "Spamcop" people (I would have, but they don't have contact info on their "blacklist" site) and then re-subscribe. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Iraqi Militants Reportedly Behead Korean

"Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks ..." (Qur'an, Sura 47:4).

From AP:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday.

The pan-Arab station said it had received a videotape showing that Kim Sun-il had been executed. ...

Al-Jazeera, which had not broadcast the tape, said the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

Let us not lose our resolve to end this scourge of humanity.

U.S. threatens to abandon Saudis and their oil

Heartening news from the World Tribune:

The United States has sent a tough message to Saudi Arabia that did not rule out abandoning of the kingdom's oil sector.

U.S. officials said the Bush administration has warned that Americans would not stay in Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom takes significant steps to protect them. The officials said the warning came in wake of the Al Qaida execution of Lockheed Martin engineer Paul Johnson on June 18.

Fewer than 30,000 Americans live in Saudi Arabia, with many of them working in the defense and oil sectors. More than 5,000 Americans were said to have left the kingdom over the last year and many more were said to planning to leave for the summer.

"It could have an effect [on the Saudi oil industry]," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Saudi authorities, as commendable as their overall effort is, have not yet been able to stop the terrorists to the point that everybody doesn't have to worry anymore."

Terrorist nuclear threat 'real and imminent'

From This Is London:

The threat of a terrorist attack using nuclear weapons is "real and imminent", the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said today.

Mohammed al Baradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was a "race against time" to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials. ...

"We are actually having a race against time which I don't think we can afford," he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace conference in Washington. "The danger is so imminent... so the sooner that we start, the better for everybody involved."

Al-Qaida suspect tied to U.S.-UK jihad group

More on Mohammed Junaid Babar, from WND (thanks to Margelfand). He turns out to be the Muhammad Junaid who was widely reported after 9/11 to be on his way to Afghanistan to fight against Americans, even though his mother had survived the World Trade Center attack. I tried to track him down then, but since the "Babar" part of his name wasn't reported, I couldn't find him. Others who followed the same dead end suggested that that whole story had been fabricated. Well, it turns out it was all too real.

Al-Muhajiroun, of course, is the radical British group that is working toward the day when the "black flag of Islam," that is, the jihad flag, flies from #10 Downing Street.

A U.S.-based leader of Al-Muhajiroun who operates openly in Queens told WND on condition of anonymity: "I've known Junaid [Babar] for a long time. I met him about seven years ago in a local Mosque in Queens before we both became involved with Muhajiroun."

The leader would not comment on Babar's involvement with his group, except to say Babar was involved in "organizational operations" in Queens and later in Pakistan, where he traveled after leaving a $70,000-a-year computer job because he wanted to join the jihad in Afghanistan. ...

Al-Muhajiroun's branch in Queens claims to be involved in "only peaceful activities." The group holds closed-door meetings and study sessions at a mosque in Jackson Heights, Queens, led by an older spiritual cleric identified as a Sheikh Choudray. ...

At one Al-Muhajiroun event at Queensborough Community College sponsored by the MSA and attended by WND, a Muhajiroun speaker working with Yousuf said, "We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't recognize Congress! The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!"

The speaker continued, "The so-called terrorists are the only people who truly fear Allah. ... They are the only worthy causes, and the mighty superpower only fears them."

In a private interview with WND, a Queens based Al-Muhajiroun leader said he would be "absolutely honored" to give up his life in a "martyr operation" against American civilians. The leader warned that "a jihad is coming to America because of the moves of the Bush administration." ...

In custody, Babar reportedly told investigators al-Qaida is planning more attacks in the United States, and he allegedly revealed a detailed plan to smuggle al-Qaida agents across the Mexican border.

Babar's assertions were reportedly part of the intelligence that led to recent warnings about a summer threat from the terror network.

Babar first appeared on the FBI's radar and was put on a terror watch list after he made anti-U.S. remarks to a Canadian news reporter in Pakistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

He said that despite the fact his mother had escaped from the ninth floor of one of the World Trade Center towers, his loyalty was "to the Muslims, not the Americans." He also announced his intention to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

WND was told an Al-Muhajiroun leader in Pakistan, who appeared behind Babar in a British documentary aired on ITN television network in November, 2001, may have been instrumental in arranging for Babar to travel there.

"I'm willing to kill Americans," Babar said in the television interview, adding that he had no plans to return to New York.

Jihadists seize ministry building in Russia

Yes, it's a jihad in Chechnya. And the surrounding areas. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

VLADIKAVKAZ (Russia) - Assailants armed with grenade- and rocket-launchers seized the Interior Ministry headquarters in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, killing the acting minister, a ministry official said on Tuesday. Attacks were also reported elsewhere in Ingushetia.

The Interior Ministry official said it was not immediately clear who the attackers were, but said some of them were shouting 'Allahu akhbar' - a frequent cry of Chechnya's separatist rebels ever as their insurgency increasingly comes under the influence of radical Islam.

Fighting from the 4-year-old Chechen war has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia, highlighting the Russian military's ineffectiveness against the rebels despite having heavier weapons and far superior manpower.

Convicted Muslims appeal to Dutch Supreme Court

Holland's first convicted terrorists are appealing. From Expatica, with thanks to Nicolei:

AMSTERDAM — Two of the four Muslims convicted by an appeals court in The Hague on Monday will take their cases to the Supreme Court to have their sentences quashed. One of the men was sentenced to six years jail for involvement in a criminal gang linked to a plot to bomb the US embassy in Paris.

The Supreme Court will thus make a final ruling whether information from the Dutch secret service AIVD can be used in court. Rotterdam Court ruled at the end of 2002 against the use of the evidence, but the appeals court in The Hague reversed that ruling on Monday.

The appeals court sentenced two Muslim men to six and four-year jail terms after convicting them of involvement in an international criminal organisation, which was planning a bomb attack on the US embassy in Paris. The attack was never carried out.

The convicted men were identified as 29-year-old Jerome Courtailler, a French convert to Islam and Algerian Abdelghani Rabia, 32. But the lawyer representing the Frenchman said later on Monday an appeal will be lodged with the Dutch Supreme Court.

Pakistan: Militant leader vows jihad against US

Musharraf hasn't gotten them all. And what is he doing about the madrassas again? From HiPakistan:

WANA, June 21: The head of 'mujahideen' shura in South Waziristan on Monday said they wanted to live in peace with Pakistan, but vowed to continue waging a jihad against the United States.

"We want peace for Pakistan, but not for the US," Haji Muhammad Omar, amir of the mujahideen shura in Waziristan, told Dawn. The hitherto unknown Muhammad Omar called the BBC Pushto Service on Sunday to claim that he had been made the acting commander of the mujahideen in place of Nek Muhammad who had been killed in a missile attack last week.

Algerian Military Says Terror Leader Killed

One of the most active Islamic radical leaders in North Africa has been killed. No doubt he was waging jihad in North Africa because of his rage over Abu Ghraib and Israel. From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

ALGIERS, Algeria — Troops killed one of North Africa's most wanted Islamic militants, who had sought to link his bloody insurgent movement in Algeria to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network, the military said Sunday.

The death of Nabil Sahraoui, head of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, marked a major victory for Algerian government efforts to suppress Islamic militant violence and left his armed extremist organization with no clear leader.

Sahraoui and three of his lieutenants were killed in a "vast anti-terrorist operation" that continues in the Kabylie region east of the capital, Algiers, the army general staff said in a statement.

Comments still disabled

For those of you who may be checking in just now, I thought I'd repeat the notice that comments are temporarily closed. We have been hearing from a high volume of jihadists here at Jihad Watch, who are both enraged that we would tell the truth about jihad terrorism and ready to do violence to us for doing so. It's the same old story: say it's a religion of peace, or we'll kill you.

So anyway, we are installing new features that will, I hope, once again enable people to comment but make it easier to screen out those whose idea of jihad is to steal other people's names and post comments making lewd remarks. Until then, I ask for your patience and hope you will keep checking in, and posts will continue to be made when possible.

Thanks for all your support. Jihad Watch is, once again, an endeavor to defend human rights for all people, Muslim and non-Muslim, female and male, and anyone who is able to pierce through the fog of political correctness and misinformation to realize that has my gratitude.

Allah's Butchers

Ralph Peters says it all at FrontPage (thanks to Charles):

Religions are what men make of them. In the Arab heartlands of Islam, Muslims are making a gory mess of their faith. It’s time to end the politically correct baby-talk insisting that Islam isn’t the problem. In the decaying Arab world, Islam is the problem—because of the way bitter old men interpret and deform its more humane precepts while embracing its cruelest injunctions.

The decapitation of yet another American civilian can’t be dismissed as an aberration from “true” Islam. The tradition of beheading unarmed prisoners dates to the earliest decades of the Muslim faith. The butchering of Paul Johnson, Nick Berg and others isn’t a new phenomenon—it’s revivalism, “that old-time religion” returning for a re-match with secular devils.

Millions of Muslims find such atrocities inspiring. Millions more view such cruelty as just. It’s the vicarious revenge of the self-made failure. And for every rent-a-cleric the Saudi government pushes in front of a television camera to condemn such acts, thousands of other mullahs continue to preach anti-Western hatred--the brutal specificity of which would horrify even America’s leftists, if only they stopped apologizing to terrorists long enough to listen. ...

Arab Muslims are allowed to spew anti-Western, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Hindu, anti-everybody-else hate speech. That’s just their culture, you see. But it’s taboo for a Westerner to suggest that the roots of terror may go a bit deeper than a black sheep or two in a few Middle-Eastern families.

Leftist apologists for terror here in the United States attack any attempt at a frank discussion of the Middle East’s problems with charges of bigotry and neo-imperialism. But if we examine the madness of the American Left dispassionately, we find that it’s the Noam Chomskys, Susan Sontags and their acolytes from the campus greensward who are the true bigots. Imperialists, too.

By refusing to hold Middle Eastern civilization to reasonable standards of behavior and responsibility, our domestic Left has given new life to the “little brown brother” school of colonialist thought. According to the Left’s internal logic, Arabs aren’t capable of the same moral reflection and behavioral maturity well-educated whites demonstrate. And, of course, Arabs are oppressed (no matter that their oppressors are all Arabs).

Arab extremists and dictators have become the ghetto blacks of hard-Left foreign policy. They’re all victims of Washington and bear no personal responsibility for their own errors, failures or crimes. It isn’t the Saddams, Abdullahs, Assads or Mubaraks who oppress the Arab masses, you see. Despots are never guilty--unless they get too chummy with the Americans. Anyway, dictators are victims, too. The mass graves and misery that haunt the Middle East (if such inconveniences must be mentioned at all) are my fault. And yours, dear reader. We’re to blame for all that’s wrong with the world. And don’t you forget it!

The family secret of the hard-Left is that its followers share one powerful trait with Osama bin Laden: They need to look down on others, to feel superior and just. If the lords of terror dispense with displays of pity for their victims, it’s only because they haven’t yet attained the leftist’s level of hypocrisy.

Ex-officer 'to lead Saudi al-Qaeda'

Why is it unthinkable that Saudi officials could have helped Al-Qaeda kidnap Paul Johnson when a Saudi ex-policeman is going to head Al-Qaeda there? From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

An ex-Saudi policeman has become leader of the al-Qaeda militant group in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports from the troubled kingdom.

Saleh al-Oufi, 38, will take over from Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who was killed by police on Friday.

Saudi security forces have been hunting al-Qaeda members in Riyadh, following the execution of a US hostage.

Saudi analysts say the new leader will be a formidable foe as he been a key figure in the group since 1985.

Al-Qaeda is believed to have been behind the abduction and beheading of US defence worker Paul Johnson, the latest foreign victim of a series of militant operations in the kingdom.

Correspondents say the rise of Mr Oufi will do nothing to dispel suspicions that al-Qaeda is closely linked to members of the security forces in Saudi Arabia.

That's for sure!

South Korea unswayed by beheading threat

The South Koreans seem unwilling to follow the Spanish into dhimmitude. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

South Korea will go ahead with its plan to send 3,000 troops to help rebuild Iraq despite a televised threat from Iraqi militants to behead a South Korean hostage, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The government would do its best to seek the release of 33-year-old businessman Kim Sun-il, who has been shown repeatedly on South Korean television pleading for his life, Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin told reporters after a meeting of President Roh Moo-hyun's National Security Council.

Choi said Kim, an Arabic graduate, had been kidnapped in Fallujah on June 17 - the day before South Korea announced where its troops would be deployed after months of agonising because of security concerns and public opposition.

The group holding Kim said South Korea had 24 hours from Sunday night to withdraw its decision or they would behead him, Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported.

Iran Confiscates U.K. Military Vessels

Something is happening here, but no one knows what it is. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran confiscated three British military vessels Monday and arrested eight armed crew members, state-run television reported.

The three British ships entered Iranian territorial waters not far from the Iran-Iraq border, the Arabic language Al-Alam television reported. The station is part of the state-run Iranian radio and television network. ...

In London, the Ministry of Defense said it was investigating the report but did not know if it was true. There were no British warships operating in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, but some smaller vessels were there, the ministry said. ...

The Foreign Office said British diplomats in Tehran had been in contact with the Iranian government but it was still unclear what had happened.

Saudis Deny Security Forces Aided Abduction

Well, of course this is no surprise. But there is no real reason why Saudi officials couldn't or wouldn't have helped out with this. After all, the ideology of Al-Qaeda was nurtured and supported by high-level Saudis for years. Must we assume that all this support abruptly vanished? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Al Qaeda group responsible for abducting and killing an American engineer says it was aided by sympathizers in the Saudi security forces, a claim that was denied by Saudi authorities. ...

Sunday's Al Qaeda article said the militants decided to behead Johnson when Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, declared that Saudi Arabia would not negotiate with the kidnappers.

The group said it beheaded Johnson, 49, of Eagleswood Township, N.J., when its deadline expired Friday.

Asked about the Al Qaeda statement in a televised interview, al-Jubeir said, "We have never negotiated with terrorists. We don't intend to do so.

"I believe what the Al Qaeda people were trying to do is trying to justify a murder that is unjustifiable under any faith or under any principle of humanity."

Mm-hmm. If these high-sounding words had actually been Saudi policy for the last twenty years or so, we might not be in this fix.

Another beheading in the offing?

Sanctioned by the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the dictates of Islamic law, beheading — as the rest of the world is learning — is a perfectly acceptable practice for the Muslim warrior. From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape Sunday purportedly from al-Qaida linked militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The kidnappers, who identified themselves as belonging to a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, gave South Korea 24 hours to meet its demand or "we will send you the head of this Korean."

"Please, get out of here," the man screamed in English, flailing his arms. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important."

Of course it is. But none of our lives will be important if these thugs start getting their way by means of threats and murder.

Al-Qaida: Sympathizers aided abduction

Are the Saudis finally getting serious about combatting terrorism? The jury is still out. But this doesn't bode well, although it's not in the least surprising. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

CAIRO, Egypt -- The al-Qaida cell that kidnapped and killed American Paul M. Johnson Jr. said in an online periodical Sunday that sympathizers in the kingdom's security forces supplied it with police uniforms and vehicles and set up fake checkpoints to facilitate last week's abduction.

The details of the kidnapping appeared in Sawt al-Jihad, or Voice of Holy War, a semimonthly online periodical published by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. A separate article, the final one written by cell leader Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, killed in a shootout Friday night, justified Johnson's slaying.

The first article said militants wearing police uniforms and using police cars set up a fake checkpoint on al-Khadma Road, leading the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.

When Johnson's car approached the checkpoint June 12, the militants in police uniforms stopped his car - a Camry - detained him, anesthetized him and carried him to another car, the article said.

It said they then blew up Johnson's car.

Mixed Message Dept.: Muslims mark 200th anniversary of Africa's largest Islamic empire, appealing for peace

From Signonsandiego.com, with thanks to Twostellas:

SOKOTO, Nigeria – Saluted by sword-waving Muslim warriors on horses and camels, African presidents and emirs on Sunday celebrated the 200th anniversary of a holy war that launched the sub-Sahara's greatest Islamic empire and urged an end to rising Christian-Muslim violence that has killed thousands here.

Appeals for peace – evoking six years of fiery religious rampages by machete-waving mobs in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation – overlaid a day of musket-blasting pageantry in Sokoto, capital of the 19th-century Sokoto caliphate, or kingdom.

Later on in the article is a bit of history that sounds a lot like today's headlines:

Itinerant preacher Shehu Usman dan Fodio had catapulted the kingdom into being with a 1804-1808 holy war launched against infidels and wayward Muslims.

The June 19, 1804, battle of Tafkin Kwatto, a village about 60 miles from Sokoto, was widely seen as the war's turning point.

The victory of what some historians term West Africa's "French Revolution" sparked copycat jihads across the arid savannah plains of Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan.

But even amid a day of gunfire and pageantry, the celebrants were quick to insist that any resemblance between those days and today was purely coincidental:

In rare public comments, the current sultan of Sokoto declared that the 19th-century jihad fighter's cause had nothing to do with the rampages of today.

"I wish our own leaders would hold these values close to our hearts and entrench unity and peaceful coexistence," Sultan Mohammed Maccido told the crowd and the warriors.

He mourned "the loss of intolerable numbers of lives, and destruction and loss in property" in Nigeria's religious violence.

Sokoto today is part of 12 predominantly Muslim states that have adopted strict Islamic Shariah laws since 2000. Christians in Sokoto are few.

Dan Fodio is still widely revered by Muslims as a hero for spreading piety and Arabic literacy. Yet some Christians remember his uncompromising attitude toward nonbelievers, for whom he was once quoted as saying "there is no free place of the intellect."

Battle sites and burial grounds for Dan Fodio and his followers have been turned into monuments and mausoleums.

"He fought for Islam. He captured many places and spread knowledge," said Muhammadu Tambari, Dan Fodio's great-great-great grandson, an ostrich farmer.

"The jihad we are doing now is teaching and preaching to our children and the children of others. Spreading Islam," Tambari said. Modern day religious violence had no value, the jihad fighter's descendant said – only "creating more problems."

That's certainly true. Now if only Tambari could convince his fellow Nigerian Muslims.

What It's Really About

Read all of this trenchant commentary in Arutz Sheva by Yocheved Golani (thanks to Nicolei):

The defenseless passengers on an Air France plane, a BOAC aircraft, a Japanese jumbo jet, aboard KLM, Lufthansa, Pan Am, Sabena, TWA and other airliners were not "occupying" the planes conveying them to innocuous destinations when Islamic terrorists kidnapped, terrorized and slaughtered them throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The civilian victims scattered across the countryside of Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 had not "occupied" Pan Am 103, either.

Vacationing Christian Puerto Rican tourists weren't "occupying" Ben-Gurion airport on May 20, 1972. when pro-Islamic terrorists ambushed and sprayed them with bullets upon arrival.

Sleeping Israeli athletes invited to 1972's peace-promoting competitions in Munich were not "occupying" the Olympic Village when Arab radicals besieged and murdered them, disrupting the games promoting international friendship and trust.

Unarmed children at Ma'alot weren't "occupying" their school the day Arab terrorists forced them to jump to their deaths from the building during interrupted celebrations of 1974's Israel Independence Day.

Elderly Dora Bloch and her fellow travelers were not "occupying" Athens airport in 1976 when Arab terrorists hijacked a planeload of passengers to Uganda, resulting in Dora's murder and the rescue of her terrorized former companions.

Wheelchair-bound tourist Leon Klinghoffer was not "occupying" the Italian ship Achille Lauro when fundamentalist terrorists humiliated, then drowned the man by throwing him overboard, on October 7, 1985.

Teen hikers Yosef Ish-Ran and Koby Mandell of Biblical Tekoa did not seek to "occupy" the cave they were dragged to in 2001, and where their captors bludgeoned them to a terrifying death, then smeared their blood on the walls.

The employees of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds who reported for work that day were not "occupying" New York's Twin Towers when they were shocked, burned, smothered, blasted and shattered to death by Arab terrorists on September 11, 2001.

Daniel Pearl was not "occupying" Pakistan when he researched the links between Richard Reed and bin Laden before he was betrayed and beheaded for being a Jew, and therefore an "enemy" of Islam, in 2002. Entrepreneur Nicholas Berg was not "occupying" Iraq when Arab terrorists slowly, agonizingly, carved his Jewish head off his neck for public intimidation in 2004. The American businessmen murdered in Saudi Arabia were minding their own business when they were doing business with Muslim colleagues.

So why are they all dead? Is it truly because the Jews of Israel will not cede land to the rabble that, prevented by their compatriots from returning to their native countries in 1948, now fraudulently claim to be Palestinians? No. There are two glaring contradictions to the specious argument.

One: In 1948, Arab leaders wouldn't permit Arabs unwilling to live among Jews to live in any Arab state. The artificially created refugees were used and abused by their own brethren as violent political pawns against a nascent Israel.

Two: Sharon promised in June 2004 to "evacuate" disputed land before 2005. Within hours of that announcement, Yasser Arafat and Hamas respectively swore to annihilate and kidnap/murder military and civilian Jews. Clearly, the problem is not about "giving back" land, which never legitimately belonged to Arabs anyway.

The chaos, murder and mayhem are not about the merits or demerits of democracy, the West or Christianity, or international law. It's not about the Jews "controlling" the very same "media" that incongruously condemns Judaism, its practices and the Knesset. It's not about Israel inside or outside red, green, yellow or blue lines. It's not about the Israeli Right, or Jewish settlers (they'd be called "citizens" in any other society that inherited, purchased, won and/or annexed land). It's not about present-day Israel versus the borders of ancient Israel, nor about the alleged occupation of Arab lands.

It is about armed insanity, the calculated manipulation of public opinion via propaganda, coercion and attacks against unarmed civilians and their political leaders. And the scale of horror stands to rise now that Iran has saluted the world with a nuclear arms program.

It's about jihad.

Home Surrounded in Saudi Militant Search

Are the Saudis finally getting serious about combatting terrorism? The jury is still out. But it seems increasingly likely that they are choosing their economic over their religious interests — which also means, for the House of Saud, that they are attempting to choose survival. From AP:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Police cars and armored vehicles flooded the al-Malaz neighborhood in the Saudi capital Sunday as security forces surrounded a house where suspected militants were believed to have taken refuge after a shootout with police.

The massive operation was under way in the same district that was the focus of a huge security sweep against militants sought in the beheading of American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., whose body has still not been found.

Comments closed

My friends,

Comments are closed for now. Upgrades are in the offing that will allow them to be opened again. I apologize for all inconvenience -- but this is just a battle, not the war.

Sincerely
Robert Spencer

9/11 Panel: SA, Pakistan Aided Bin Laden

You gotta hand it to that 9/11 panel. Now they've uncovered -- get this -- evidence that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aided Al-Qaeda! Sharp as tacks, these guys. You'd almost think they were reading Jihad Watch. From the LA Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON — Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 attacks by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed his Al Qaeda terrorist network to flourish, according to several senior members of the Sept. 11 commission and U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

The financial aid to the Taliban and other assistance by two of the most important allies of the United States in its war on terrorism date at least to 1996, and appear to have shielded them from Al Qaeda attacks within their own borders until long after the 2001 strikes, those commission members and officials said in interviews.

PA PM: Aksa Martyrs Brigades to be integrated into Fatah "institutions"

More evidence of the thin line, if there is any line at all, between the official Palestinian Authority governmental structures, such as they are, and jihad terror groups that glorify the murder of innocent children. Ahmad Qurei, the Palestinian Prime Minister, has declared that the PA will not dismantle the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. From IMRA:

Qurei ... explained ... that instead they would be integrated into Fatah "institutions".

This position appears to coincide with the Egyptian plan that the various
armed terrorist groups operating in the Gaza Strip retain their weapons (in
fact they can bring in more weapons) while Israel promises not to take
action against them.

From today's hate mail

I get a lot of hate mail, most of it uninteresting. One more entertaining one recently warned me that "1.2 billion mostly poor Muslims are coming to get you." Really? All of them? Even the vast majority of moderates? What a windfall that will be for local hotels and cabbies! But I doubt my neighbors here in Secure Undisclosed Locationville will appreciate the traffic snarls.

Anyway, this one from a "Frank Atry" is less entertaining, but more instructive:

Came across your site in an online search. Let me tell you...*Everybody* has got an agenda, and *your* anti-Muslim propaganda and misinformation campaign is no different from those you set out to criticize. Now, *that* is the epitome of hypocrisy! ;-)

So, go on about your "speaking engagements," book
deals, and all that other garbage (let me guess, you
are Jewish, right???), but you didn't fool me.

F. Atry
P.S. Don't wait up for any speaking engagement
invitations from me. :-p

I'll unpack my bags, Frankie, but meanwhile: there you go again. Why do you and your jihadist friends assume that anyone willing to stand up against radical Islam and expose the jihadist agenda is Jewish? After all, the jihad is — and this ain't misinformation or propaganda, Frankie baby, but the plain words of Osama bin Laden, Abu Bakar Bashir, Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Zaraqawi, etc. etc. — directed against every non-Muslim, and will subjugate Christians and others as well as Jews under the discriminatory laws of dhimmitude. (Hindus may fare even worse, as they are not technically "People of the Book," but pagans, although they have been accorded dhimmi status by Muslim rulers in history.)

The assumption that anyone who resists the jihad must be Jewish is based on the erroneous view that this is all about Israel, and that the Islamic world would live in peace with the rest of the planet if only that tiny state were swept into the sea. The news articles I post here about Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia, Kashmir, the Philippines, and elsewhere show just how wrong that is. And I, who am not Jewish, am proud to stand with Jews and women and Christians and Hindus and Buddhists and unbelievers and everyone else against this great scourge that would destroy free societies and relegate us all to second-class status -- or worse.

UPDATE: Friends, I'm sorry to say that the loathesome spammer has compelled me to end this thread as well. However, help is on the way: soon we will have an upgrade that will take care of this problem once and for all. So I thank you for your patience.

Johnson's Family: He Loved Saudi Arabia

But as long as Paul Johnson was not a Muslim, that love was unrequited. From AP:

Johnson had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade and over the week his friends and family had described him as devoted to the culture of his adopted land.

For what ultimately killed Paul Johnson was the conviction that non-Muslims have no right to be in Saudi Arabia, in accord with the Prophet Muhammad's dictum: "Turn out all Al-Mushrikun [unbelievers] from the Arabian Peninsula" (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, book 58, no. 3168 -- in the hardcover edition; the numbering in the online edition is different, but for some reason I can't get into it today).

NOTE: Last night's loathsome spammer has returned, so I have had to close comments on this one too.

Saudi TV Shows Slain al-Qaida Leader

Despite denials, apparently Al-Moqrin is still dead. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- An al-Qaida cell fulfilled its threat to kill an American hostage, beheading him and showing the grisly photos on the Internet. Saudi officials claimed they later gunned down four militants including the cell leader who allegedly masterminded Paul M. Johnson's kidnapping.

State-run television showed pictures of the four slain militants' bodies Saturday. Among them was one it said was Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the reputed leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia's most-wanted terror suspect.

Hours earlier, a message on an Islamic militant Web site said the reports of al-Moqrin's saying were false. The message could not immediately be verified, but it appeared on a Web site that has had similar messages in the past.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday had confirmed al-Moqrin's killing, while a Saudi official had said forensic tests would confirm its identity.

Al-Qaeda chief's death denied

Now Al-Qaeda is saying that Abdulaziz al-Muqrin is not dead after all. Perhaps he is sharing an apartment with Osama bin Laden. From The Australian, with thanks to Nicolei:

THE leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, is not dead, according to a statement posted today on a website which regularly publishes statements from the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Security men at the scene of a shootout in the Saudi capital of Riyadh said that Muqrin had been gunned down along with three other militants last night.

"Following the lies ... about the death of Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, we affirm that such allegations, spread by the tyrants in Saudi Arabia, are intended to undermine the morale of the mujahideen on the Arabian peninsula," said the communique.

Posted on the site http://alsaha.fares.net, its authenticity could not be ascertained immediately.

Saudis debate Islamic basis for killing Westerners

From the New York Times via The Straits Times, with thanks to Nicolei, who also noted that only among Muslims is the question of whether the killing of an innocent civilian is justified or not "reduced to the banality of a debate. In all other major religions, the answer is so clear that one does not even think of it."

In one unusual website posting, a Saudi man who said he had worked with the kidnap victim, and had even discussed Islam with him, went so far as to try to extend a kind of religiously inspired traditional tribal form of protection known as 'ijara' that would forbid killing Mr Johnson.

'I hereby declare my protection and rescue for this man along with all his colleagues who work with us in the company, who ate with us and accepted our gifts of Islamic books which they promised to read,' wrote Mr Saad Al-Moemen.

He also described visits that Mr Johnson had made to his home and said the engineer had expressed distaste for United States foreign policy. ...

The fatwa was attacked by a number of readers who said all foreigners came to the kingdom with bad intentions, acting as the vanguard for the US military.

'Whoever gives them security is an apostate,' read one posting.

Others scoffed at the idea that an official visa somehow bestowed legitimacy on visitors.

'Who gave them the visa? It is the infidel agent regime,' read one posting in part.

'So I tell the mujahideen to keep killing them until the Arabian peninsula is cleared of the filth of the crusaders.'

Others suggested that the militants try to convert Westerners to Islam rather than killing them, because that way they would be spared from going to hell, and the image of the faith around the world would not be so tainted with blood.

One religious leader, identified as Abdel Rahman bin Saleh al-Mahmoud, said Prophet Muhammad's followers had commanded that all non-believers be expelled from the Arabian peninsula.

But it has never been clear, he wrote, whether that includes just the holy city of Mecca or some larger area. In addition, foreigners visited at the time of the Prophet, he noted, it was just the idea of permanent communities that was abhorrent.

Al-Qaida Leader Killed in Saudi Raid

Looks as if they got Al-Moqrin. This is the guy they let go before because he memorized the Qur'an. From AP:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia was believed killed in a raid in the capital Friday, hours after his group claimed the beheading of an American engineer, Saudi security officials said.

A U.S. official confirmed that al-Moqrin has been killed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

To establish identities, one Saudi official said forensic tests would be conducted on three bodies of militants killed in a shootout in a downtown neighborhood shortly after the discovery of Paul M. Johnson Jr.'s body.

The killing of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, 31, would be a coup for the Saudi goverment, which has been under intense pressure to halt a wave of attacks against Westerners in the kingdom.

U.S. Hostage Beheaded, Terror Group Says

Another beheading. From AP:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The al-Qaida group that kidnapped American Paul M. Johnson Jr. posted a statement on a Web site Friday saying it killed him, and displayed still photographs on the Internet of his beheaded body. ...

Johnson was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners.

Why does this keep happening? For an answer untainted by politically correct cant and self-serving whitewashes, check out Andrew Bostom's "The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading." It was written after the Berg beheading, but it could have been written today.

UPDATE: Here is the message accompanying the beheading photos (via The Guardian):

In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment ... Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles. We, God willing, will continue our road to fight the enemies of God.

Yet people still doubt that religion plays any real or essential role in all this. Also, I wonder if the mujahedin really called Mr. Johnson "Paul Marshall." Could they be reading Paul Marshall's Islam At the Crossroads? (Marshall was actually Johnson's middle name; I was just struck by the coincidence.)

UPDATE: The photos, via Drudge.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I'm sorry, but I've had to shut down the comments. A loathsome spammer keeps trying to post on this thread; also, although comments here are largely unmoderated, I really don't want this thread or any other to fill up with calls to genocide and the like. I still believe that we can and must defeat jihad while remaining within the bounds of Judeo-Christian morality and American Constitutionality. And no, that doesn't mean I'm not appalled and angered by what has been done to Mr. Johnson.

9/11 revelations: "Stay quiet and you'll be OK"

I am not inclined to revisit all this, as it doesn't seem to be doing much to make people aware of the fact that there are many Attas still at large. Nevertheless, this piece gives an interesting glimpse into the day-to-day workings of the most notorious jihad strike of our age, and this one some of the harrowing highlights of the flight tapes.

"Stay quiet and you'll be OK," Atta told the passengers. This could be the new slogan for all of today's anti-anti-terrorism. Stay quiet and you'll be OK: stop fighting terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere, accept the preposterous claim that there was no Iraq Al-Qaeda link, don't talk about the roots of Islamic violence in the core texts of Islam, keep mum about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is just one arena of a global jihad that is being waged against non-Muslims by people with quite readily identifiable motives and goals, and on and on. Stay quiet and you'll be OK.

No thanks.

Sudan: what is Annan waiting for?

He can't call it genocide or ethnic cleansing yet. And don't hold your breath waiting for him to call it a jihad. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan raised the possibility Thursday of international intervention to protect more than 1 million people threatened by fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan. ...

Annan said he wasn't ready to describe the situation in Darfur "as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet" but he did call it "a tragic humanitarian situation."

An unsung hero of the defense against jihad

Meet Shannen Rossmiller. From the Seattle Times, with thanks to ahoymite:

CONRAD, Mont. — Shannen Rossmiller finds early mornings are best for hunting terrorists.

When it's 4 a.m. in this one-stoplight prairie town, it's 3 p.m. in, say, Karachi, Pakistan, the sweltering hours just before the evening call to prayer. That's when Rossmiller, while her husband and three children sleep, finds the Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards frequented by radical Muslims and jihad warriors are busiest.

It is when Rossmiller pursues her deadly serious hobby: citizen cyberspy.

Two success stories of "freelance" anti-jihadists:

Spc. Ryan Anderson, National Guardsman: Fort Lewis soldier charged with attempting to aid the enemy. Private citizen Shannen Rossmiller posed as a terrorist on the Internet and lured the 26-year-old soldier into an FBI sting operation. The Army arrested Anderson in February and plans to court-martial him, saying he tried to provide information to the enemy as his unit prepared to deploy to Iraq. Anderson, a Muslim convert, could face the death penalty if convicted.

James Ujaama, former Seattle resident: Thirty-eight-year-old prosecuted for planning to set up a terrorism training camp in Bly, Ore., in 1999. Videotapes provided to the FBI by a self-proclaimed "freelance intelligence agent" in London, Glen Jenvey, played a significant role in the 2002 prosecution. Jenvey infiltrated the Finsbury Park mosque in North London to obtain the tapes, which showed Ujaama sitting alongside radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and talking about jihad. Ujaama pleaded guilty last year and has agreed to testify against Abu Hamza, who was arrested last month in London and is accused of aiding al-Qaida.

Chechen gunmen eyed in ambush

More news of the international character of the jihad. Or was it just a mercenary action? From the Washington Times:

Mercenaries believed to be from Chechnya are suspected of carrying out the deadly ambush of civilian security contractors on a road outside Baghdad earlier this month.

The attackers killed four civilians working with Blackwater USA. Three contractors who managed to escape concluded that the assault was the work of trained gunmen.

If so, said a former U.S. Special Forces fighter recently in Baghdad, "this opens a whole other can of worms for the coalition to deal with."

But what kind of can of worms?

Professional analysis of the incident concluded that the attackers were well-trained and were most likely Syrian or Chechen hired guns. They wanted to survive and not leave any bodies.

"The ambush on the [airport] highway was done by Chechen imports. Very switched on and well experienced," said the former Special Forces member.

"Hitting a moving car at [72 mph], plus from another moving car, with an RPG is no small feat ... [and] the fact that they policed up their dead [and] wounded and all the weapons also indicates their level of professionalism.

"I personally don't think they were good Muslims doing their jihad duties, or politically motivated. I think they were high-tech, highly trained mercenaries in it for the bucks."

Why? Because they were experts? Jihadists can't be skillful? I'm not sure that's a very effective or accurate assumption to make. Also, even if they were hired guns, who hired them, and why?

They let him go because he memorized the Qur'an

But obviously this work of memorization didn't make him non-violent. From the New York Post, with thanks to Nicolei:

IN recent months, he has been the world's second- most active terrorist, his roll call of atrocities eclipsed only by that of the ubiquitous Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

But this past weekend, Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin, al Qaeda's chief of operations for the Arabian Peninsula, upped the ante considerably in his jihad against the West.

In a statement issued on several Islamist Web sites, Al-Muqrin's group has claimed responsibility for the murder of one American, Kenneth Scroggs, and kidnapping of another, Lockheed Martin employee Paul Johnson, in Riyadh on Saturday.

Al-Muqrin, also known as "Abu Hajar," seems hell-bent on upholding his recent pledge to make this summer "bloody and miserable for infidels."

Just last week, he vowed through an Islamist Web site that al Qaeda would target Western airlines, military bases and residential compounds in "the near future." And on May 29, he claimed responsibility for the chaotic assault on Western oil facilities in the Saudi city of Khobar that killed 22 people, including one American. ...

Al-Muqrin is suspected of having engineered suicide bombings in Riyadh in May and November 2003 that took 53 lives (including nine Americans) and is thought to have been the architect of an April 21 attack in the Saudi capital that killed five people and wounded 148. And he claimed responsibility for a May 1 shooting spree in the Saudi oil center of Yanbu that killed six Westerners and one Saudi.

According to Al-Muqrin, the Yanbu attack, like the one in Khobar, was designed to stem the flow of Saudi oil, thereby harming the country's economy. ...

It is unclear how the Saudi government will deal with Al-Muqrin, if it catches him. In 1997, after being extradited to Saudi Arabia by Ethiopian authorities, Al-Muqrin was sentenced to eight years in prison. But the Saudi Interior Ministry released him in the summer of 2001, reportedly because he had memorized the Koran while behind bars.

War on Terror: Are We Fighting for Our Lives?

Alan Caruba echoes and underscores points I have made many times in this Insight piece (thanks to Nicolei):

I think a lot of Americans, certainly those favoring withdrawal from Iraq and efforts to negotiate with al-Qaeda and the nations supporting its holy war, have not yet figured out that the Islamic fundamentalists who beheaded Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg, who attacked this nation on 9/11, and who represent the insurgents in Iraq, want us dead. Unless, of course, we convert to Islam. ...

According to the extremists, the prophet left a trail of assassinations and other bloody acts behind him until his own death, all of which they insist are recorded by Muslim historians. This is cited as a tradition among Muslims in the early centuries of Islamic development. As the Internet essay notes, these are not just isolated incidents or aberrations. "Such violence in fact goes to the very roots of Islam as found in the Quran and the actions and teachers of the prophet of Islam himself." And that is the view of the extremists who have declared a war of terror on all those who do not see the world as they do.

The holy war that has been declared against us leaves us no choice but to fight for our lives.

Four Afghans Die in Blast Thought Aimed at NATO

Peacekeepers are regarded with the same suspicion as are all non-Muslims. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

KABUL (Reuters) - Four Afghans died in a bomb attack on Wednesday apparently targeting NATO peacekeepers, officials said, a day after President Bush held up Afghanistan as a role model for Iraq.

The blast in the northern Afghan town of Kunduz killed two children and two men, the officials said, the latest attack in a spate of violence ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls supposed to be held in September.

The blast was possibly triggered by a remote-controlled device as a vehicle from a NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team passed along a crowded road in the center of the city, Afghan officials said.

No peacekeepers were hurt in the attack, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

But an Afghan driver of the reconstruction team vehicle was among those killed, General Mohammad Dawood, the senior military commander in Kunduz, told reporters. None of the 250 German troops from the Kunduz team was in the car.

Ohio Imam Guilty of Lying About Terrorism

Score one for truth and justice. Fawaz Damra is guilty. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

AKRON, Ohio June 17, 2004 — The Palestinian-born leader of Ohio's largest mosque was convicted Thursday of lying about his connections to terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship.

Fawaz Damra, imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, showed no emotion as the verdict was read in federal court.

He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, stripped of his citizenship and deported for providing false information to become a citizen in 1994.

His attorneys will fight on.

Prosecutors claimed that Damra, 41, concealed ties to Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, groups the government classifies as terrorist organizations.

"We feel this is a victory in the war on terrorism," prosecutor Cherie Krigsman said.

Prosecutors showed video footage of Damra raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.

Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.

"He was the guy that they brought in to raise the money for Islamic Jihad," Krigsman said after the verdict. "Without the money they could not operate." ...

Many members of Damra's mosque have continued to support him, voting in March to allow him to continue leading prayers and performing other functions. ...

"Unfortunately, I don't believe justice was served," said Haider Alawan, a member of the Cleveland mosque's board of elders and a Damra backer.

Jurors sees video of Ohio imam Damra fund raising, introducing Al-Arian

A damaging video in the Damra case in Ohio. From AP, with thanks to LGF:

In the 1991 video played in U.S. District Court, Damra implores members of the audience to donate money for the Islamic Committee for Palestine. Damra tells the audience the committee "is the active arm of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in America."

Matthew Levitt, senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, testified that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is "bent on the destruction of Israel."

Damra has pleaded innocent to a charge of obtaining U.S. citizenship in 1994 by providing false information. If convicted, he could lose his citizenship, be fined $5,000 and be sentenced to up to five years in prison before being deported.

The video showed Damra standing in front of a wall with an American flag on it at the Beit Hanina Club in Cleveland, a social club for Palestinians.

Jurors watched video monitors in front of their seats that had subtitled translation of Damra's speech, which was in Arabic.

Expressionless, Damra watched most of the video on a monitor at a defense table.

On the tape, Damra also introduces Sami Al-Arian as the head of the committee.

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, has pleaded innocent to federal charges that he financed terrorists. He has been held for 15 months at a Florida prison on charges he used an Islamic think tank and a charity he founded to raise money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The hour-long video included Al-Arian's speech in which he spoke of Palestinians martyrs and describes them as heroes. He shouted into the microphone in Arabic that Muslims in America cannot forget their brothers and sisters in Palestine.

Levitt testified that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been listed as a major terrorist group in a U.S. State Department publication titled "Patterns of Global Terrorism" since 1989. He testified that the group opposes peace with Israel and a two-state system.

Levitt said that to reach its goals the group "engages in acts of violence and murder."

On a second video, Damra shouted for contributions for orphans in Palestine.

Levitt began testifying that these donations are raised to recruit people for acts of violence with the understanding that their children will be cared for after their deaths.

Defense attorney Nancy Hollander objected to the statements and Judge James Gwin told jurors to disregard it.

Army chief likens Islamic extremist threat to cancer

A realistic appraisal. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

General Peter Schoomaker compared the global war on terrorism with fighting cancer. And he says the threat from Islamic militants who want to destroy the United States is "never going to go away in our lifetime."

He says people eventually get cured of pneumonia. When it comes to cancer, he says the disease may go into remission -- but never really goes away.

Web sends call for jihad round the globe

More on the Internet jihad from Financial Times:

According to research by Jane's Terrorism and Security Centre, which closely follows terrorism developments, the internet has probably become the main global source of literature promoting jihad, or "holy war".

Richard Evans of Jane's cites research that concludes: "It is virtually impossible to control the spread of jihad material among similar web pages once it has been published in one location." All the websites linked to al-ansar.biz were hosted by the same Malaysian company, Acme Commerce, based in Kuala Lumpur. The company says it hosts 5,000 websites from up to 50 countries and cannot be blamed for their content. ...

According to Jane's, they had been used to distribute publications under the title Voice of Jihad, as well as an online jihadist magazine called al-Battar. Issued every two months, it carries essays on religious issues, advice on military strategy and training, and guidance on creating the "basic conditions for successful guerrilla warfare".

The growth in the number of similar sites and the regularity with which they change addresses while retaining readers who rapidly communicate the new addresses, has overwhelmed law enforcement agencies. In some cases other websites have found themselves hijacked by Islamist programmers who write their material on to existing sites.

"It's nearly impossible to police them," said Kevin O'Brien, a terrorism expert with RAND Europe, a think-tank. "It's a question of whether or not you can find them in the first place," he said, adding that the cost of establishing the sites was negligible or even nil if service providers offered web space as a free addition to e-mail users.

Saudi Arabian Islamists distributing a web-based jihadist magazine called Sawt al-Jihad are now so confident of outwitting the authorities that the publication is distributed at the same time every two weeks. It has yet to be snared.

But some security experts say they may be left to operate deliberately. "It seems increasingly likely that security agencies are content to let these websites run, because it's a way of monitoring what these people are up to," said Bill Durodié, a security expert at King's College, London.

So is Jihad Watch.

Suspect in Mall Plot Sent for Evaluation

Maybe it's all true, and mall bombing suspect Nuradin Abdi has been tortured in prison in Ohio, but I doubt that prosecutors would give themselves that large a self-inflicted wound. Instead, it looks as if CAIR and Abdi's other defenders are trying to set up some kind of abuse case, along with the usual charges of discrimination. Maybe they have calculated that this is the sort of thing that will play well after Abu Ghraib. From AP:

In the courtroom, Nuradin Abdi pressed his face onto a glass-covered tabletop, jerked his head randomly and muttered as his attorney successfully sought the evaluation before trial begins.

Many of Abdi's supporters who attended Wednesday's hearing said they were disturbed to see his shuffling gait and distracted behavior. Abdi has been held in federal detention since his arrest in November.

"It was like a different person," said his 17-year-old brother, Mohamed AbdiKarani, who said Abdi is innocent. "He looked at me; he didn't know who I was." ...

"The government took a healthy man, and what we have here is a broken man, mentally," said his lawyer, Mahir Sherif. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Peters said he did not object to the evaluation but added, "We have no evidence of any abuse of Mr. Abdi." ...

Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Abdi was his friend, and always quick to volunteer to help new Somali immigrants find translators, jobs and housing.

"Just seeing Nuradin in court was an emotional experience," Humeidan said. "This wasn't the Nuradin that we know. This was just the shell of a man."

About 100 supporters, including Abdi's family, filled the seats in the courtroom and stood along the walls. Afterward they joined about 200 other supporters in front of the courthouse, where many waved small American flags and a few held up signs that read "Nuradin is 100 percent innocent" and "Patriot Act Religious Profiling." ...

Sherif said it was too early for him to comment about the charges but added, "It's not beyond the government to make mistakes for whatever reason."

That is true. Still, I doubt that this man was tortured. We'll see what evidence comes in.

America's Insane Asylum for Terrorists

Michelle Malkin has some important revelations about Nuradin Abdi, the "shopping-mall terrorist," and other recently apprehended characters.

Nuradin M. Abdi, who was indicted last week for plotting with al Qaeda to blow up an Ohio shopping mall, flew here from Somalia and received bogus "refugee" status in 1999, according to authorities. Prosecutors allege that Abdi then fraudulently obtained a refugee travel document, which he used to fly to Ethiopia for jihad training. After returning, Abdi blended back into the American landscape along with tens of thousands of other refugees from a country known to be a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. Columbus, Abdi's home base, is home to more than 30,000 Somalis -- the second-largest Somali community in the United States, after Minneapolis.

The Somali-al Qaeda connection is well-established. Intelligence reports indicate that Osama bin Laden sent extremists to Somalia in the early 1990s to train and organize the Somali Islamic radical group al-Ittihad al-Islamiya. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the deaths of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu. In addition, a Saudi Arabian-based Muslim charity with alleged ties to al Qaeda has been funding refugee camps in Somali border towns. The feds have frozen the Al-Haramain Foundation's assets based on terrorism grounds, but the flow of refugees from the overseas camps subsidized by the group has not been stanched.

Not every Somalian refugee or asylum-seeker is a terrorist, of course. But the system for screening out the well-meaning from the menaces is completely overwhelmed. Claims of "credible fear of persecution" are almost impossible to document but are rarely rejected. Federal homeland security officials are unable to detain asylum-seekers for background checks without the civil liberties brigade screaming "racial profiling." And there is still a woeful shortage of detention space -- just 2,000 beds nationwide -- to hold those with suspect claims.

Graduation Jihad

Unconscionable jihadist posturing at UC-Irvine. From Roberta Leguizamon in Front Page:

The Muslim Student Union (MSU) of University of California-Irvine has asked graduating Muslim students to wear green sashes bearing the word “shahada,” the Arabic word for "martyrdom.” The Muslim world refers to a suicide bomber who kills innocent civilians in Israel as a “shahid.” Pilots and their cohorts who fly airplanes into skyscrapers are also celebrated for their “martyrdom.” Children in Palestinian schools are taught, “blessed with shahada and honour, his soul returns to its Creator to live a different life, content with the rewards and honour bestowed upon it, a life of grace thanks to Allah.” ...

It is hard to believe that the UC-Irvine would silently endorse this culture of death at its graduation ceremony, yet to date, not a single member of its administration has spoken against the MSU’s promotion of the suicide sashes. The proposed sashes don’t just represent Palestinian “freedom fighters” and their crusade against Israel. They also glorify the actions of those 15 “martyrs” who brought the World Trade Center to the ground on top of American citizens. And this institution of higher learning has chosen to support pro-terrorist advocacy while this country is at war with terrorism (or rather, vice-versa). ...

This isn’t the first time anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism have reared their ugly heads at UC-Irvine. Many Christian and Jewish students at UC-Irvine say that they have been threatened and harassed by members of the MSU. UC-Irvine allowed the MSU to bring Amir Abdemalik Ali to its campus to provide a racist, hate-laced presentation called “America Under Siege: The Zionist Hidden Agenda.” He has made the outrageous claim that Jews staged September 11 in order to promote a universal war against Muslims. Not coincidentally, Amir also praises Hamas and Hezbollah, which have both been named terrorist organizations by the United States. Hamas also offers financial rewards to the families of “shahid.”

Read it all.

CORRECTION: The entire premise of this article seems to have been an error. I have now seen photos of the stole in question (courtesy the last poster in this thread), and this LA Times article is correct in saying that all it said was "'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger,' and on the other was a symbol meaning, 'God, increase my knowledge.'" The confusion probably started because someone was told that the inscription was "Shahada," that is, "witness." In Islam this word refers to the Muslim confession of faith, quoted here. But it is the same word as "martyrdom," which for Hamas and other groups has become virtually synonymous with suicide bombing.

In any case, I don't see anything inherently wrong with these graduates wearing a stole bearing the Islamic confession of faith, as long as those of other faiths are also allowed to make a similar display.

Calling the Islamic Reform Bluff

A new article by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer is at Human Events this morning. Here's a sampling:

Eisenhower once famously said that he wanted Americans to have a religion, but he didn't care which one, and that is that.

But Islam is different -- and it isn't just Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell who say this, but Muslims themselves. At the Jihad Watch website I recently posted a link to an article in which the author recommends that the United States make repudiation of violent jihad a condition for peace and alliance. One would think that moderate Muslims in America, given their claims about themselves, would be tripping over themselves in haste to make this repudiation, but no such luck. One Muslim responded at Jihad Watch: "It is indeed amazing that the unbelivers [sic] presume not only to define Islam, but also prescribe changes ('reforms') to Allah's (swt) commands. Just how do you imagine that you will impose your will on the ummah? … The Islamic Caliphate will soon encompass the Earth, and all corrupt and unjust man-made law will be replaced by Allah's (swt) holy Sharia (Islamic law)."

Ah, but he was no doubt an extremist. Here, then, is an exchange I had recently with another Muslim, an English convert and self-proclaimed moderate. I wrote: "I would like nothing better than a flowering, a renaissance, in the Muslim world, including full equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies: freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, equal employment opportunities, etc." He retorted: "So, you would like to see us ditch much of our religion and, thereby, become non-Muslims."

In light of attitudes like these, the widespread Western assumption about Islam -- that because it is a religion, it contains core teachings of love, peace and brotherhood that people of good will can emphasize against those who would twist the religion to contrary purposes -- begins to ring hollow. Self-proclaimed moderate Muslims in the United States have insisted that they be regarded at all times as unflaggingly patriotic and filled with civic zeal, whatever unpleasant evidence to the contrary that individual cases may provide. But the forthright rejection of some of the central beliefs of the Western world by the Muslims I have quoted here and millions of others at least raises the possibility that those professed moderates are bluffing. Americans should call their bluff whenever and wherever possible by insisting that they acknowledge the elements of Islamic theology, law, tradition and history that radical Muslims use to justify violence and terrorism, and repudiate those elements not only in words, but in forthright and honest anti-terror efforts within the Islamic community.

It may be, however, that American Muslims as an aggregate will reject those calls to clean their own house, as they have done implicitly up to now. That in itself will be revealing. Those in the West who are as decent as Reagan was must avoid the cardinal temptation of decent men: to assume that others share their fundamental goodness. It is long past time to regard Islam more realistically.

Mullah Krekar convicted of terrorism in Jordan

Of course, he isn't in Jordan. He's in Norway, where he has so far skillfully worked the laws to his advantage. From Aftenposten, with thanks to Filtrat:

A military tribunal in Jordan convicted 15 men - nine living and six presumed dead - as accessories to terrorism and connections to the al-Qaida network. A report from French news agency AFP named one of the convicted as Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, who is better known as Mullah Krekar. Krekar and seven others were sentenced in absentia to 15 years of hard prison labor while Ahmad Mahmoud Saleh al-Riyati, named the ringleader of the 15-man terror cell and the only one physically present at the trial, had his term reduced to seven and a half years prison labor. ...

Norwegian prosecutors dismissed all charges against Mullah Krekar on Tuesday after deciding that they had insufficient reliable evidence to pursue his alleged links to terrorist activities. The prosecution cited the alleged torture of a potential witness against Krekar as undermining their case.

Jordan: Terror group convicted of US conspiracy

One of these was Mullah Krekar. From SkyNews, with thanks to DC Watson:

A military court in Jordan has convicted 15 men of plotting terror attacks against American and Israeli interests. ...

The court in Amman said Ahmad Mahmoud Saleh al Riyati, 34, was the mastermind of the terror cell, which it said was also associated with the Ansar al-Islam militant group.

Al Riyati is the only one of the suspects in custody. But the court halved his original 15-year sentence to "give him another chance in life".

Eight of the other 14 - 12 Jordanians and two Iraqis - received jail terms of 15 years with hard labour. All the guilty verdicts can be appealed.

The court formally dropped charges against the remaining six, saying they had died.

It did not say how but military prosecution sources have said they were killed battling American forces in Iraq.

2 Palestinian girls nabbed on way to suicide attack

What kind of fathers do these girls have? From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to J:

In a similar operation in various West Bank locations, 28 suspects were detained. They included two girls, Majda Kohon, 14, and Assil al-Hindi, 15, suspected of planning a terror attack. They were arrested in Nablus along with their fathers. Israel Radio reported one of the girls had recruited the other to carry out a suicide bombing.

A report on Ma'ariv's Web site quoted security sources as saying it is likely the girls had been recruited by the same terrorist who had sent teenage boys on suicide missions that were thwarted by troops several weeks ago.

The report quoted the mother of one of the girls as saying that she believes her daughter, whom she described as disciplined and who did not leave the house much, to be completely innocent.

Iraqi Cleric Signals End to Shi'ite Revolt

Peace, or a hudna? An end, or a pause? From Reuters:

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sent his fighters home on Wednesday in what may mark the end of a 10-week revolt against U.S.-led forces that once engulfed southern Iraq and Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.

With the formal end of U.S.-led occupation just two weeks away, Sadr issued a statement from his base in Najaf calling on his Mehdi Army militiamen to go home.

"Each of the individuals of the Mehdi Army, the loyalists who made sacrifices...should return to their governorates to do their duty," the statement said.

That call came a day after President Bush said the United States would not oppose a political role for Sadr -- only weeks after branding him an anti-democratic thug.

Suspected terrorist in FBI custody

"The real thing — a dangerous terrorist." Or another bungled arrest? Babar may have been trying to raise money for Al-Muhajiroun. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

(CNN) -- The FBI has had in custody since April a Pakistani-American who is believed linked to al Qaeda and who allegedly participated in plots to attack Americans overseas, law enforcement sources said.

Mohammed Junaid Babar is cooperating with authorities, the sources said. He is being held as a material witness as part of an ongoing investigation, which means details of his case are under seal. ...

Babar, a naturalized American citizen, was arrested in Queens. The sources said he is believed to have been involved in a financing operation in the United States to send money to a group in London known to law enforcement as "al Muhajiroun," which includes Pakistani terrorists.

That group allegedly was plotting bombings and assassinations overseas. ...

Law enforcement sources said Babar "is the real thing -- a dangerous terrorist."

Zarqawi appeals to Osama: 'Holy warriors' are in a race with time

This may be why there has been so much mayhem in Iraq recently. From the World Tribune:

In a message posted on Islamic websites, a message said to be from Al Zarqawi betrayed hints of desperation at prospects for the Islamic insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. In the nine-page message to Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, Al Zarqawi reiterated that his insurgents were racing against time to destabilize the post-Saddam Hussein government and its security apparatus.

"We are not competing with you," Al Zarqawi said in his message. "We just want to be the head of the spear, a bridge by which the [Islamic] community can reach victory." ...

In his latest purported message, entitled "The Text of Al Zarqawi's Message to Osama Bin Laden About Holy War in Iraq," Al Zarqawi reviews the Islamic strategy as well as his organization's achievements. He said his group, "Monotheism and Holy War," plans to continue targeting Iraqi police and security forces in the effort to destabilize the U.S.-supported government in Baghdad.

"We are planning to heavily target them during the coming stage before they are in full control," the statement said. "What is coming will be more [attacks], God willing." ...

"The room for maneuver has started to become smaller," Al Zarqawi said. "The grip is getting tighter around the necks of the holy warriors. With the deployment of soldiers and police, the future has become frightening." Al Zarqawi said his group was trying to organize battalions to take over Iraq before national elections, scheduled for January 2005. Once again, he raised the prospect that Islamic insurgents would fail and either be expelled or killed.

"[If we fail,] we will have to leave for another land to uphold the Islamic banner, or until God chooses us as martyrs," the statement said.

Sentences handed down in 'Virginia jihad' case

Seifullah Chapman got 85 years; Hammad Abdur-Raheem, eight years. Masoud Khan? Life. From Indystar.com:

Alexandria, Va. -- A Maryland man convicted of traveling to Pakistan and seeking to fight with the Taliban against the United States just days after 9/11 was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.

Masoud Khan was one of three people sentenced Tuesday on charges they trained for holy war against the United States by playing paintball games in the Virginia woods as part of a "jihad" network.

Algerian Islamic rebels declare war on foreigners

From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

ALGIERS, June 13 (Reuters) - Algeria's leading Islamic militant group, which has ties to al Qaeda, has declared war on foreign people and companies in the oil-rich north African country, an Islamic website said on Sunday.

The "foreigners war statement" appeared shortly after the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) claimed responsibility for killing more than a dozen soldiers in an apparent escalation of violence in the strife-torn country.

"The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat decides...to declare war on everything that is foreign and atheistic within Algeria's borders, whether against individuals, interests or installations," GSPC leader Nabil Sahraoui said in a statement.

Pakistan-based Lashker raises suicide squads in Iraq

Wait a minute. I thought suicide attacks were only carried out by desperately poor Palestinians with no weapons or any other recourse. How inconvenient for the apologists for jihad that reality keeps interfering with their romantic notions. From Newindpress, with thanks to Nicolei:

NEW DELHI: The Lashker-e-Taiba, a powerful Pakistan-based terror group active in Jammu and Kashmir, has raised a "full-blown unit for suicide squad operations against Western forces" in Iraq, a media report said on Sunday.

Up to 2,000 men between the ages of 18 and 25 have reportedly signed up for the Lashker's armed operations in Iraq, the authoritative 'The Hindu' reported in a lead story.

Sources close to Lashker's overall head, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, were quoted as saying the group hoped to send at least some suicide squad members to Iraq overland through the porous Iran-Pakistan border. ...

A majority of volunteers were drawn from the ranks of seminary students at Muridke near Lahore, Jamaat-ud-Dawa's main centre. Some volunteers were raised from the Binori town seminary in Karachi, run by fundamentalist cleric Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai until he was assassinated, it said.

Seminary students? All together now: "Don't they know the Qur'an forbids suicide???"

It's easy to get in ...

... from Canada. From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

But it was on the shores of the Niagara River, little more than a mile from the world-famous falls, that a small, inflatable, motor-powered raft was captured earlier this month, along with six adults and two children from India and Pakistan and the man accused of trying to smuggle them into this country.

While this locale is definitely not Miami or South Texas, the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States here, by traversing the waterways and railroad bridges that separate much of New York from Canada, is actually growing.

This latest group failed largely because of security enhancements put in place after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, elevating from afterthought to priority the patrolling of a border long considered friendly.

"We treat everybody as a potential terrorist," said Edward Duda, deputy chief of the Buffalo sector of the United States Border Patrol. "Anyone that crosses the border illegally, we treat them all equally." ...

Smuggling humans is a lucrative business, with passage from India or Pakistan into the United States costing as much as $40,000 for each adult, Mr. Woodside said.

Oil security chief slain in Iraq

Radical Muslims have declared on more than one occasion recently that they intend to try to disrupt their enemy economically if possible. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's oil industry appears to be the latest target of insurgents, with an oil company security chief shot to death Wednesday and a second straight day of attacks on a key oil pipeline. ...

Revenues from Iraq's oil industry are in jeopardy in the wake of the latest attacks.

In Kirkuk on Wednesday, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying Ghazi al-Talabani, the security chief for Iraq's Northern Oil Company, killing him and wounding his driver, according to a police source in the northern Iraqi city.

Al-Talabani was a cousin of Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and a member of the disbanded Iraqi Governing Council.

Over the weekend, three prominent residents of Kirkuk were killed in targeted attacks, including a well-known Kurdish cleric, a district mayor who also served as a police officer, and the father of Kirkuk's police chief.

Insurgents have been focusing their attacks on participants in the new Iraqi government in advance of the June 30 handover.

U.S. aid goes to terrorism backers

When is a sports center not just a sports center? Well, for one thing, when it's named for a terrorist. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

In one instance, about $410,000 in American aid helped finance the new Salah Khalaf Recreation and Sports Center in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The center, officially opened May 29, is named for the man considered the spiritual godfather of the Palestinian Black September faction responsible for the 1972 massacre at the Munich Summer Olympics.

The effort by U.S. lawmakers was triggered by a report in Palestinian Media Watch that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) money was being funneled to Palestinian organizations even though they have refused to sign a pledge saying they would not work with officially designated terrorist groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

In addition, Palestinian municipalities and universities have accepted substantial U.S. aid, freeing up other funds for anti-Israel and anti-U.S. protests or to honor terrorist "martyrs."

So U.S. aid is paying for anti-U.S. protests. No wonder the jihadists are so confident of ultimate victory.

French police in anti-terror raids

From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PARIS, France -- French anti-terror police have arrested 12 men in Paris under anti-terrorism laws, authorities say. ...

The suspects are thought to be linked to radical religious groups, possibly Islamic, but Caillebot would not give further details about them.

She said police suspect they were using legitimate businesses to raise money for militant combatants overseas. During the arrests, police confiscated a pistol, computer disk and material for manufacturing false documents. ...

The news agency said it had seen an Italian detention warrant last week that included transcribed telephone conversations in which suspects discussed the Paris metro, security details and a "martyr" referred to as Mohammed.

Yeah, that sounds "possibly Islamic" to me. But of course, it could have been a Methodist who just happened to be named Mohammed.

Islamic Group Shows Tape of U.S. Hostage

Another. From AP:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Islamic Web site showed videotape Tuesday of a blindfolded American hostage in Saudi Arabia, and said abductors threatened to kill him unless Saudi authorities free al-Qaida prisoners within three days.

Paul Johnson, 49, of Stafford Township, N.J., was abducted Saturday by a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The organization is believed to be headed by al-Qaida's chief in the kingdom, Abdullah-aziz al-Moqrin, who was identified as speaking on the tape.

"My name is Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.," the seated hostage says in the tape, an elaborate tattoo on his left shoulder. "I am an American. ... I work on Apache helicopters."

A U.S. official said the threat should be taken "very seriously" because the posting appears to be credible and militants have used the site before. "It has been a good indicator in the past," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ...

The Web site statement addressed Muslims all over the world, saying: "We have made a promise to ourselves to defend you. We will not let you down, and you should know that the treacherous tyrants who have helped the Americans against you, and shared your blood with them, do not represent the Muslims of Saudi Arabia. They are our enemies as much as they are your enemies. They are the enemies of God and his prophet."

U.S. Urges Americans to Exit Saudi Arabia

Another call to Americans to leave our friend and ally Saudi Arabia. This just in from AP:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is renewing its call for Americans to leave Saudi Arabia after the recent terrorist attacks, saying the safety of U.S. workers was more important than any effect on oil supplies or the Saudi economy. ...

Referring to U.S. workers in Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We first and foremost have a responsibility to Americans. We need to give them our best advice on how to handle any particular situation overseas."

"As far as the maintenance and continued flow of oil and the economy in Saudi Arabia, that is something I think the Saudis will have to describe, what provisions they can make and how they can operate those facilities."

How America can win the intelligence war

Common sense and clear thinking from Spengler in Asia Times (thanks to rickb):

Western polemicists felt at home on the moral high ground against communism, along with president Reagan. But they are tongue-tied before radical Islam, fearing to offend a religion with more than a billion adherents. Inadvertently they give credibility to the radicals. It is difficult to assess what proportion of today's Muslims are "radicals", because neither the world's Muslims nor the West has a clear definition of what is radical and what is not. Vitriolic sermonizing is so commonplace under the eyes of "moderate" regimes, for example Hosni Mubarak's Egypt, that the label of "radical Islam" has worn thin.

In reality, the West sooner or later will have to draw a bright line between "radicals" and "moderates". Under the circumstances there can be nothing in between. Islam's encounter with the West leaves room for nothing but radical jihadists on the one hand, or radical reformers. Islam is expansionist by construction and political by its original design. It is a fact of history that jihad, by which I mean specifically the propagation of the faith by violence, is a mainstream tradition. Even communal prayer in Islam has at its center the alignment of the individual believer to jihad (Does Islam have a prayer?, May 18). ...

The problem actually is quite simple. To advocate jihad today is the hallmark of the radical Islamist, and it is there that the West must draw a line in the sand. But to repudiate jihad in turn implies radical revision of the religion's mainstream, and that is the hallmark of the radical reformer.

Like other religions, Islam has reached a point in world history - or rather world history has caught up with Islam - such that it must undergo a fundamental change. By way of comparison, the Catholic Church accepts separation of church and state as well as religious tolerance, but it did so only after the likes of Count Camillo Benso Cavour in Italy stripped the papacy of temporal rule over anything but the square mile of the Vatican City. ...

Enemy is radical Islam

In short, the West must give the Islamic world a clear choice as to who is with it, and who is against it - words that President Bush has used but with muddled meaning. That would change the character of the intelligence war utterly. It may be harder to define who is friend and foe today than it was in 1981, but by the same token, it will be far easier to tell friend from foe once the West carves its criteria in stone. ...

If Washington were to make repudiation of jihad a condition for friendship with the United States, the demand would have unpredictable and destabilizing consequences for the Islamic world. Just as the race of Sovietologists viewed Reagan's determination to destabilize the Soviet Empire with horror, the whole profession of Mideast studies would rear up in horror against such a stance. But wars are won by ignoring the fat and complacent commanders of garrison troops, and forcing the burden of uncertainty on to the other side (Ronald Reagan's creative destruction, June 8). Decisive intelligence stems from destabilization of the opposing side, through defections and similar events.

Bravo.

Commander of the Khobar Terrorist Squad Tells the Story of the Operation

It's no wonder that people dance around charred corpses when Islamic radical leaders have attitudes like those expressed in the latest issue of "Sawt Al-Jihad" (Voice of Jihad). Note the consistent use of religious language, which is just another indication of the deep religious motives that underlie attacks like these.

From an interview with Fawwaz bin Muhammad Al-Nashami, who led the Khobar attacks of May 29, in a translation from MEMRI (thanks to Jerry Gordon):

"The infidel's clothing was torn to shreds, and he was naked in the street. The street was full of people, as this was during work hours, and everyone watched the infidel being dragged, praise and gratitude be to Allah. ...

"The brothers had exchanged fire with the patrols, all the while shouting, 'Allah Akbar,' and 'There is no God but Allah.'" ...

"The four of us entered the company together. We met the Arab clerks, and greeted them. We asked them: 'Where are the Americans?' They were all in shock, and said: 'What's going on? Who are you?' We told them, 'We are Mujahideen, and we want the Americans. We have not come to aim a weapon at the Muslims, but to purge the Arabian Peninsula, according to the will of our Prophet Muhammad, of the infidels and the polytheists who are killing our brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq. We want you to show us where they are.'"

What's that? You read the learned pundits saying that this idea that Arabia must be purged of non-Muslims is not really an Islamic religious tenet, but a cover for political goals? Look again. It was among the Prophet's dying wishes:

Ibn 'Abbas said, "Thursday! What (great thing) took place on Thursday!" Then he started weeping till his tears wetted the gravels of the ground . Then he said, "On Thursday the illness of Allah's Apostle was aggravated and he said, "Fetch me writing materials so that I may have something written to you after which you will never go astray." The people (present there) differed in this matter and people should not differ before a prophet. They said, "Allah's Apostle is seriously sick.' The Prophet said, "Let me alone, as the state in which I am now, is better than what you are calling me for." The Prophet on his death-bed, gave three orders saying, "Expel the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula, respect and give gifts to the foreign delegates as you have seen me dealing with them." I forgot the third (order)" (Ya'qub bin Muhammad said, "I asked Al-Mughira bin 'Abdur-Rahman about the Arabian Peninsula and he said, 'It comprises Mecca, Medina, Al-Yama-ma and Yemen." Ya'qub added, "And Al-Arj, the beginning of Tihama.") (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, book 52, no. 288)

Back to Fawwaz bin Muhammad Al-Nashami and his acts of devotion:

"We entered one of the companies' [offices], and found there an American infidel who looked like a director of one of the companies. I went into his office and called him. When he turned to me, I shot him in the head, and his head exploded. We entered another office and found one infidel from South Africa, and our brother Hussein slit his throat. We asked Allah to accept [these acts of devotion] from us, and from him. This was the South African infidel. ...

"We turned to the third site, which was the most fortified center of all the compounds. Our plan was to remain in the car until we were alongside the American Hummer. When we were next to it, the brothers appeared from the windows [of the car] and began shouting 'Allah Akbar,' and shooting them. And I saw the skull of the soldier standing behind the machine gun explode before my eyes. Allah be praised. I think the driver was also killed. ...

A little later on these religious fellows got in a bit of preaching:

"We went to one of the buildings. Brother Nimr, may Allah's mercy be upon him, shoved the door until it opened. We entered and in front of us stood many people. We asked them their religion, and for identification documents. We used this time for Da'wa [preaching Islam], and for enlightening the people about our goal. We spoke with many of them.

"At the same time, we found a Swedish infidel. Brother Nimr cut off his head, and put it at the gate [of the building] so that it would be seen by all those entering and exiting.

No doubt that was sure to win them some converts. Note the beheading and, below, the throat slitting. What happened to Pearl and Berg is common practice.

"We continued in the search for the infidels, and we slit the throats of those we found among them. At the same time, we heard the sound of the patrols and the gathering [of the security personnel] outside. These cowards did not dare to enter. About 45 minutes or an hour had passed since the beginning of the operation.

"We began to comb the site looking for infidels. We found Filipino Christians. We cut their throats and dedicated them to our brothers the Mujahideen in the Philippines. [Likewise], we found Hindu engineers and we cut their throats too, Allah be praised. That same day, we purged Muhammad's land of many Christians and polytheists.

Read the whole thing. These are common attitudes.

Ohio mall jihad

A Somali jihadist has been charged with plotting an attack on a Columbus, Ohio mall. From NBC4columbus.com, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

According to the FBI, Nuradin M. Abdi, a 32-year-old Somali national, was indicted and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida and two counts of fraud and misuse of government documents.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said that in March 2000, Abdi re-entered the United States from Africa, using a fraudulent immigration document. According to the FBI, one of his co-conspirators was Iyman Faris, a convicted al-Qaida operative, who picked him up from an airport.

Upon their return to the Columbus area, Abdi, Faris, and other co-conspirators, allegedly initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall. It is also alleged that in pursuit of this plot, Abdi received bomb-making training from one of the co-conspirators.

The indictment alleges that on April 27, 1999, Abdi applied to immigration officials for a travel document, allowing him to leave the United States and later return. Abdi indicated in the application that he intended to visit Germany and Saudi Arabia.

The FBI alleges that Abdi's true destination was to attend a military-style terrorist training camp in Ethiopia. According to a detention motion, Abdi sought training in radio usage, weapons, guerilla warfare and explosives.

The FBI stated in a detention motion that Abdi's purpose in seeking training was to ready himself to participate in violent Jihad conflicts overseas and to lend support to activities that his al-Qaida co-conspirators might ask him to perform in the United States.

You'll never guess the reaction from his family:

Abdi's cousin, Asha Yassin Hassan, said that Abdi was targeted because he is a Muslim.

Tourists die in Kashmir cafe attack

These "suspected rebels" are, you guessed it, jihadists. Note also the targeting of civilians: justified in Kashmir as in Israel by stipulations in Islamic law that forbid the killing of non-combatants unless they are perceived to be aiding the war effort in some way. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

A GRENADE attack on a crowded tourist restaurant and other weekend violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed seven people, including two tourists, and injured at least 47 others.

Police said suspected rebels lobbed a grenade into a popular restaurant in Pahalgam, a holiday resort in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, killing four people and injuring 25 others, mostly tourists. ...

Earlier on Saturday, a hand grenade thrown by a suspected Islamic rebel at an army vehicle in a border town missed its target and wounded 20 civilians, four of them critically, police said.

The blast occurred in Handwara, a town close to the Line of Control, which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Police blamed the attack on Islamic militants fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan.

Car Bomb Kills Five Foreigners in Iraq

These dancers were no doubt outraged by Abu Ghraib, and denounced American atrocities. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb tore through a convoy Monday in central Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, including an American and four other foreigners working to rebuild Iraq's power plants. A crowd gathered, shouting "Down with the USA!" and dancing around a charred body.

They were working to rebuild power plants, eh? Will these American villains stop at nothing?

Ex-Policeman Killed, Camp Attacked in Thai South

From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a Buddhist former policeman and fired three grenades into an army outpost in two separate incidents in Thailand's restive Muslim south, police said on Sunday.

The attacks came hours after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to restore peace in a month in the troubled region where more than 200 people have been killed since January. ...

Thaksin, frustrated with his government's failure to restore peace in the mainly Muslim region and facing complaints of human rights violations by troops, said on Friday the military would step up patrols and intensify searches in the three southernmost provinces under martial law since January.

"We have to go on the offensive, otherwise bandits will come out and continue to kill our people one after another," Thaksin told reporters after chairing a meeting of security officials.

But his political opponents were skeptical.

"Judging from the continuing violence, the government can just forget about what it has wished for," said opposition Democrat Party leader Banyat Bantadtan on a visit to the region.

He said he expected the violence to continue for some time.

Indeed. It will continue until Thailand becomes an Islamic state or the radical Muslims are driven out of the country.

Militants 'planning Brussels bomb'

Threats, threats, threats, plans, plans, plans. You may read this story, and then you will turn to other things. There is no chance that you will remember these failed plans for as long as you will remember 9/11. Nor is there any need for you to do so. Thank God that none of these plans have come to fruition. However, let us not let our guard down. From Expatica, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

BRUSSELS – A group of alleged Islamic fundamentalist militants arrested in Belgium and Italy earlier this week may have been plotting to blow up Nato headquarters or the European Parliament, both of which are housed in Brussels.

According to the Wednesday edition of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Italian investigators say one of the militants, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed or 'Mohamed the Egyptian', may have been plotting to bomb a "symbolic target" in the Belgian capital.

Extremists Using Web to Spread Terror

AP news item: "Extremists Using Web to Spread Terror." It's stating the obvious, yes, but there is some information about the latest video:

MANAMA, Bahrain - Web sites featuring videos of the beheading of Americans or captives pleading for their lives have become part of an electronic war of incitement, humiliation and terrorist outreach, experts say, providing a window into the minds of militant Muslims who hate the West.

The latest dramatic Web posting came Saturday, a short video that showed no faces but included a voice yelling in English: "No, no, please!"

The video showed a shot fired, then the scene of the falling body of what appeared to be a Western man — identified as Robert Jacobs, an American killed by suspected al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia last week. Two gunmen then fired at least 10 more shots, before one of them kneeled and motioned as if he was beheading the fallen man. ...

"The aim is really to spread as much terror as possible and make it available to as many people as possible, especially in the West," where Internet use is more common, said Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo expert on Islamic militants.

In what Rashwan calls a a war of "ideology, images and perception," the Web is a place for militants and their sympathizers to exchange the latest news, debate their definition of Islam, share how-to manuals, extoll their heroes and vilify their enemies.

You don't say!

"We have made a big dent in the al-Qaida network"

Major arrests in Pakistan. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani authorities have arrested 10 suspected al-Qaida members, including a nephew of detained terror mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has been in U.S. custody the past year, the interior minister said Sunday. Mohammed was a senior aide to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The men were arrested over the weekend in separate raids in the southern port city of Karachi, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said.

Among them was Masrab Arochi, a nephew of former al-Qaida No. 3 Mohammed, who was captured in March 2003 in a city near the Pakistani capital. Arochi had a $1 million US bounty on his head, Hayat said, and is believed to have been behind several attacks in Pakistan.

"It is a major breakthrough," Hayat said. "We have made a big dent in the al-Qaida network."

This is good news. However, even if all the terrorists in the world were caught tomorrow, the problem of Islamic terrorism would not necessarily go away. Why not? Because terrorists continue to recruit and gain support in mosques throughout the world. Until this changes, arrests like these are less than a drop in the bucket.

Iran: What would you do if you saw Salman Rushdie?

Salman Rushdie has now lived with a price on his head for over a decade. Long after most Westerners have forgotten about him, Iranian Muslims are still raging about his case. Recently suicide bomber recruitment in Iran was explicitly advertised as targeting Americans, Israelis, and Rushdie. And now a discussion thread in an Iranian forum (which claims to be "the largest Shia online community") has a significant number of respondents claiming they would kill or hurt him if they had the chance. From the AhlulBayt discussion forum, with thanks to LGF:

What would you do if you saw Salman Rusdie unprotected walking down the street?

Kill him, and run to Iran for your BIG reward. [ 16 ] [14.55%]

Kill him, but NOT claiming the reward after. [ 25 ] [22.73%]

harm him without killing him [ 13 ] [11.82%]

Have a polite discussion with him saying his work is wrong. [ 20 ] [18.18%]

Praise him for his "work". [ 7 ] [6.36%]

Do nothing. [ 29 ] [26.36%]

Total Votes: 110

Guests cannot vote

Palestinian gunmen raid UNRWA offices in Jenin

Next week, if not sooner, this will be portrayed as a callous UN betrayal of the Palestinians, no doubt engineered by shadowy Zionist hands. It would be so easy to support the cause of Palestinian statehood if they weren't their own worst enemies, and if supporting Palestinians didn't mean endorsing terror, intimidation, and the ultimate establishment of a Sharia state. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to LGF:

The United Nations decided over the weekend to suspend its construction project in the Jenin refugee camp after Palestinian gunmen threatened crews rebuilding houses destroyed during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.

Five men armed with M-16 rifles raided the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) offices in the camp on Friday to protest that the new houses were two small. The gunmen threatened to harm the UN staff if their demands for larger houses were not met.

Saudi Qaeda tape says shows killing of American

Note how the jihadists identify their victim.

DUBAI, June 13 (Reuters) - A purported al Qaeda videotape posted on an Islamist website on Sunday claims to show the killing of a U.S. employee in the Saudi capital Riyadh last week.

"The murder of the Jewish American Robert Jacob, who worked for the Vinnell espionage firm," a statement announcing the video on the Website says.

Thai Muslims fight jihad claims

Just last Wednesday I wrote about a jihad manual in Thailand that was being reported as a book of "distorted" Islamic beliefs. It could be seen as false, said a news story, by anyone with a "deep knowledge" of Islam. I wrote: "But where, o where, is this deep knowledge of Islam that will refute the radicals? Virtually every analysis I've seen from self-proclaimed moderates is superficial and doesn't confront radical exegesis of the Qur'an and Sunnah at all."

But now, Thai Muslims are working on a refutation of this same jihad manual. It will be very interesting to see if it really does the job -- and if so, it should be translated into every language on earth. But I still doubt that it will convincingly refute the radicals' understanding of Islam, primarily because this has not yet been convincingly done by Muslims elsewhere. Nonetheless, I'll be watching this closely.

Vientiane, Laos, Jun. 13 (UPI) -- Thai Muslims are producing a booklet to counter distortions of their faith by extremist rebels, the Bangkok Post reported. ...

Phithakkumpol said the project was in response to a book entitled "Ber Jihad Di Pattani" that had been found on the bodies of slain Islamist extremist rebels in the Pattani region of southern Thailand. Some 611 sayings of the Koran had been distorted in the book and it was important to correct them, he said.

Hamas to continue terror despite Israeli withdrawal

Why? Because, as I explained in Onward Muslim Soldiers, they object on Islamic grounds to the very existence of a state governed by non-Muslims on what they consider to be Islamic land. They will not rest until that state is obliterated, or they are. From WND:

Despite Israel’s decision to evacuate all Jewish communities and military positions in the [Gaza] area, Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar says the "resistance" and war of "liberation" will go on.

"We do not trust the Israelis and we do not trust that the Israelis are going to withdraw from Gaza while they are speaking of controlling the sea and the air," he said. "Until the occupation completely ends, our resistance will continue."

Iran Rejects Restraint on Nuclear Program

Why Iran is a threat to the free world. From AP, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Toughening its stance in advance of a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Iran on Saturday said it would reject international restrictions on its nuclear program and challenged the world to accept Tehran as a member of the "nuclear club."

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected further outside influence on Tehran's nuclear ambitions two days before the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meets to discuss Iran's highly controversial program.

"We won't accept any new obligations," Kharrazi said. "Iran has a high technical capability and has to be recognized by the international community as a member of the nuclear club. This is an irreversible path."

Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is geared toward generating electricity, not making weapons, but the United States and its allies say Tehran has a secret nuclear weapons program. The IAEA has wrestled with the dilemma for more than a year.

Yet Another Iraqi Government Official Killed

Yesterday Kubba was killed; today, Kamal al-Jarah, the Education Ministry's cultural affairs officer. Clearly the radical Muslims in Iraq are very, very nervous that republican government might actually succeed there. And it's easy to see why, of course; a successful republic could completely turn the tide in the Middle East, and end the radicals' political and spiritual ascendancy. From AP:

Al-Jarah was mainly responsible for dealing with exchange programs and relations with foreign countries and UNESCO. He had worked in the education field for 40 years, al-Amri said.

The attack came only one day after gunmen killed a deputy foreign minister as he went to work. Bassam Salih Kubba was Iraq's most senior career diplomat.

The attack on Kubba, a Sunni, was the second assassination of a senior Iraqi figure in the past month. The head of the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed in a suicide car-bombing May 17.

Four Killed in Shooting at Yemen Mosque

A domestic dispute? Really? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

SAN`A, Yemen (AP) -- A gunman opened fire with an automatic rifle on worshippers in a mosque outside the capital during midday prayers, killing four people and wounding six, according to Yemeni police.

The shooter, identified by a police official as Abdel Fattah Saleh, fired randomly during Friday prayers at a mosque in the province of Dhammar, 40 miles south of the capital, San'a. ...

An investigation was under way, the official said. But he said Saleh was not a wanted militant and that a domestic dispute may have prompted the shooting.

Yemen, a conservative country at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has long been a hotbed of militant activity. It also is awash with weapons.

"Conservative" in this context, of course, doesn't mean that they're prolife and voted for Reagan. It means they believe in violent jihad and the institutionalized oppression of women and non-Muslim dhimmis.

Soldier dies in Philippines blast

Probably another jihad attack. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The explosion came as the soldier was trying to defuse the device in front of the Honey Bee restaurant.

Some officials blamed the blast on Abu Sayyaf, one of several Islamic militant groups fighting the government on the country's southern islands.

Al-Qaida Claims U.S. Slaying and Hostage

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A purported al-Qaida statement Saturday claimed the terror group had kidnapped one American man in the Saudi capital and killed another American. It threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners.

Don't forget: their actions may become a Da’wa [call to join Islam].

The embassy confirms that an American is missing in Saudi Arabia.

American Shot and Killed in Saudi Capital

And another. From AP:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - An American was shot and killed Saturday in the Saudi capital, police said, in the third slaying of a Westerner in the kingdom in a week. ...

Al-Arabiya satellite station said the American man was killed by two militants in his home's parking garage while he was about to get into his car.

On Tuesday, an American who worked for a U.S. defense contractor was shot and killed. Last Sunday, an Irish cameraman was killed and a British TV correspondent was wounded when fired on while filming in a neighborhood that is home to many Islamic militants.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Killed; Zawahiri says Americans don't want democracy in Iraq

Iraqi's deputy foreign minister, Bassam Salih Kubba, has been assassinated. From AP:

Bassam Salih Kubba, Iraq's most senior career diplomat, was mortally wounded in Baghdad's Azimiyah district, Foreign Ministry spokesman Thamir al-Adhami said. The attack took place in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein was strong.

The attack was the second assassination of a senior Iraqi figure in the past month. The head of the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed in a suicide car-bombing May 17 at an entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone headquarters of the U.S.-run occupation authority.

Nevertheless, despite mounting evidence that significant forces in Iraq don't want the democracy that the U.S. is trying to establish, Al-Qaeda's Zawahiri has identified the chief obstacle to democracy in the Middle East: not the jihadists, but America. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The voice on the audiotape said al Qaeda is against such reforms, and that they would not benefit the Arab world.

"Americans do not want the reforms in the Arab world," the speaker said. "The Americans will not give us democracy and freedom. Democracy and freedom should come from within us, from our own souls, and our children and young generation will benefit from it.

"The Americans do not want democracy and freedom for Muslims."

The last audiotaped message believed to come from al Qaeda was from bin Laden, who issued threats against coalition officials in Iraq.

And it seems that they are following through. Is the assassination of coalition leaders an example of the "democracy and freedom that should come from within us, from our own souls"?

Educators and Parents Protest Against 'The Culture of Death' Taught In Saudi Schools

According to MEMRI, "two articles that appeared approximately a year apart in the Saudi daily Al-Watan, by Hamza Qablan Al-Mozainy, a lecturer at the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, examined the 'culture of death' in Saudi schools and the role that teachers play in disseminating it." (Thanks to stevez.)

In his first article, Al-Mozainy spoke of an exhibit for Saudi junior high school students:

"At this exhibit there were several 'lectures,' the content of most of which was not far from a call to these schoolchildren to join the stream called 'The Islamic Awakening [movement]' or 'The Da'wa [movement],' which usually turns into 'The Jihad [movement].'

"This is not the first time such an exhibit was held. The establishment of similar exhibits is common in many schools… Likewise, many teachers preach on this matter during the lessons. One female teacher brought [to class] a mannequin [that looked like a dead body] and washed it before the schoolgirls. She involved [the schoolgirls] in washing [the body] and wrapping it in a shroud. Some of the girls stated that [following this] they were stricken by a certain anxiety.…

"It seems to me that displays of this kind are only an example of the culture of death that has recently become widespread in our society. There is a bizarre insistence by some preachers on going overboard in including in their sermons frightening [statements] about the torments and horrors of the grave. This is developing to the point where the sermons include many words about the [physical] state of the dead, based on stories by those who prepare [the bodies] for burial, who usually tell fantastical tales about how signs of the good or bad end of the dead person they are washing appear on the bodies, and so on. This is also seeping into the activities within the schools…"

'Many Youths Are the Victim of Some Extremists'

"A possible reason for this method of preaching is that it is the beginning of the path that leads to the recruitment of supporters. A youth's absorption of the idea of death makes them abstain [from the pleasures] of this world and apply themselves more to religious activity, which can be managed by people with hidden goals. The distance is short from absorbing the idea of abstention from the life [of this world] and adapting to the idea of death, to the youth's becoming convinced that as long as he is going to die [anyway], this death must be 'for the sake of Allah?'

"Thus, many youths are the victims of some extremists who exploit them for the purpose of carrying out certain operations which [the extremists] make them believe are Jihad [operations]."

UN Inspectors: Saddam Shipped out WMD Before War and After

No wonder Jacques Chirac was in such a hurry to get home. "No time for funerals, mes amis américains. I have some urgent documents to shred."

Breaking news from the World Tribune:

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program.

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

Police arrest six Spaniards tied to Madrid terrorist attack

From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

The suspects included the security guard of a coal mine from which the 440 pounds of explosives used in the March 11 train bombings were stolen, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.

Two other suspects were the wife and brother-in-law of Jose Emilio Suarez, a former miner in Asturias who already has been jailed and charged with multiple murders in the attacks, which killed 191 people.

The six suspects have not been officially charged with a crime but were suspected of supplying the dynamite, Alonso said. The brother-in-law had been arrested once before on March 27 but was released after questioning.

Alonso declined to give details of how the dynamite was passed on to the suspected Islamic cell that staged the attacks. But officials previously have said the bombers paid for the dynamite with cash and drugs.

Trial of men accused of Hamas ties begins in Dallas

The idea that such charges could be "purely political" is only reinforced by all the bungled terror-related trials we have seen. Here's hoping this won't be yet another one. From WFAA.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The five Elashi brothers and their Richardson computer company InfoCom are accused of illegally exporting computer equipment to Libya and Syria.

InfoCom was raided by federal agents just before September 11. Originally the charges carried connections to terrorism, but the case has been split; the trial in Dallas now focuses on business practices.

One way or the other, the Elashi brothers say the charges are unfair.

"This is political," said defendant Ghassan Elashi. "This is purely political."

InfoCom's sale of computer equipment to Libya and Syria would be illegal, government officials said, because of those countries' terrorist connections. ...

The defense already argues that all of the equipment sold could be bought at any computer store, and that it wasn't sold to terrorist governments, but businessmen.

Defense to review documents in case of men convicted of aiding terrorists

Yet another terrorism case that may have been improperly prosecuted. From the Detroit News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The U.S. Justice Department plans to turn over 30 to 40 unclassified documents to defense lawyers in the Detroit terrorism case by the end of the month. ...

U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen ordered the review after documents were discovered in November that he said should have been turned over to the defense before the trial. They included an FBI summary of a witness interview and a letter from a convicted drug dealer that raised questions about the credibility of a key government witness.

The Justice Department doesn’t disagree that the documents were withheld, but it is sticking to its position that the men don’t deserve a new trial. ...

Defense lawyers will get a month to review the documents, Rosen told them Thursday. He hopes to hold an evidentiary hearing in September, to determine why certain documents weren’t turned over to the defense.

That could include testimony from the Justice Department, FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies. ...

The case began when three men were arrested at a southwest Detroit apartment on Sept. 17, 2001, with phony immigration documents, expired airport ID badges and a day planner with cryptic drawings of possible targets in Jordan and Turkey.

11 Chinese workers killed in terrorist attack in north Afghanistan

...no doubt in a protest against American power. Don't you see? If the American imperialists left, peace would reign. Or maybe this is just an attack by people with a grudge against road-builders. From Xinhuanet, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

A group of some 20 armed men attacked the Chinese workers compound in Jelogir area, 36 km away of Kunduz city at around 01:00 a.m. Thursday morning, killing 10 persons on the spot and injuring five others.

Many of the victims, who arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday, worked with China Railway Shisigu Group, a leading construction company engaged in road construction in post-war Afghanistan.

Boston Police to Search Rail Riders

The Democrats are coming, and subway riders in Boston will be subject to search. From Reuters, with thanks to Allon:

Boston will be the first American city to employ random searches on public transport after March's deadly bombings in Spain, officials said.

"This is a proactive policy designed to deter and prevent a terrorist attack," Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Chief Joseph Carter said.

The random searches will begin in July, before July 4 Independence Day celebrations and ahead of the Democratic National Convention at the end of July. ...

"We want the MBTA to be inhospitable to terrorists. They can go someplace else," he said.

Carter said the planned searches will randomly pick out riders and are not aimed at singling out anyone.

Great. That should catch those 80-year-old Baptist grandmother terrorist rings.

Paris was 'apparent target' for arrested militants

A suicide attack in Paris has been apparently headed off. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

On Monday, Italian police arrested Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian" and suspected of playing a lead role in the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in March. A second man was arrested as part of the raid.

Belgian police, acting on information from Italy, then arrested 15 people they said were preparing for an attack.

The warrant, used to detain Ahmed and the other suspect in Milan, quotes members of the group as saying they planned a rehearsal of an attack in Paris using mobile phone technology. The Milan prosecutor's office said the method was similar to that used in the Madrid bombings.

Defying Fanaticism

Diana West has some kind words for yours truly in this column, but more importantly, she asks -- in the most incisive terms I have yet seen -- "What would Reagan do?"

Totalitarian Islam, however, is totalitarianism with a difference. Unlike both Nazism and communism, it is not godless. I can't help wondering what Ronald Reagan would have done had Marx and Engels been deemed prophets of God. What would he have said had the Communist Manifesto been regarded as a holy book? Communists always glowed with the zeal of religious fanatics, but communism, of course, is explicitly opposed to religion. Still, imagine that Lenin's tomb had been built as a holy shrine for sacred relics, not a ghoulish mausoleum for a moldering corpse: Would the history of the Cold War have been any different? Would Ronald Reagan have dared to define a religious faith in communism as the evil that launched the empire?

Massachusetts Raid by Terrorism Task Force Results in One Arrest

From the Boston Globe. So was Mousli planning anything, or does he simply have a very rich fantasy life?

The FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Department of Homeland Security have joined local police in investigating a Syrian national after a search of his Revere duplex uncovered flight-simulation software, pictures of Osama bin Laden, two small-caliber weapons, police scanners, and radio-jamming equipment, law enforcement and court officials said yesterday.

Somerville and Revere police raided the Orvis Road home of Hammam A. Mousli, 45, at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, expecting to find computers, printers, and other equipment they believed Mousli was using in a sophisticated scheme to buy merchandise using fake UPC code stickers, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

But they found much more, prompting them to arrest Mousli and call in federal antiterrorism investigators, according to two law enforcement officials who both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Indian Muslims warn US tourists away

Lucknow is at this point closed to Western tourists. From Asia Times, with thanks to EPG:

Over the past week, a spate of protests as well as statements from clerics in the city have warned British, US and Israeli citizens to stay away from the state capital. There are also fears that the demonstrations may spread to the rest of the state, with calls being made to prevent foreigners from entering the precincts of the famous Taj Mahal in Agra, 363 kilometers away from Lucknow. India's Muslims, especially Shi'ites, have reacted sharply to the clash between US forces and Shi'ite militiamen last month in which one of the most sacred shrines of the Shi'ites, the shrine of Hazrat Ali, was damaged. Muslims form a sizeable population in Lucknow, as well as in Uttar Pradesh as a whole.

Such has been the nature of protests that the British Foreign Office issued a travel advisory on Tuesday warning its citizens against traveling to the city, as well as to postpone visits to holy sites. Visitors have been told to keep a safe distance from particular religious sites such as the imambaras (religious monuments) in Lucknow that are replicas of the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala that were damaged by fighting in Iraq. It is rare for city-specific travel warnings to be issued as they are usually applied to a country as a whole in the wake of a terrorist attack, threat or such macro parameters. The last time the US and British offices issued a travel warning to its citizens concerning India was in 2002 when Indian and Pakistan relations reached a flashpoint and several signs indicated the two countries could go to war.

Two Are Said to Tell of Libyan Plot to Kill Saudi Ruler

Abdurrahman Alamoudi, the former high-profile "moderate" Muslim who is now accused of helping finance terrorism, is telling some interesting stories these days. From the New York Times:

ASHINGTON, June 9 — While the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to statements by two participants in the conspiracy.

Those participants, Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader now in jail in Alexandria, Va., and Col. Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer in Saudi custody, have given separate statements to American and Saudi officials outlining the plot.

Mr. Alamoudi, has told Federal Bureau of Investigation officials and federal prosecutors that Colonel Qaddafi approved the assassination plan. Mr. Qaddafi's son, in an interview in London, called the accusation "nonsense."

American officials confirm that Mr. Alamoudi and Mr. Ismael have offered detailed accounts of a Libyan plot to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah and that they appear to be credible enough to have launched an American investigation. But the officials said they are still examining the scope of the plot, how far it advanced and whether Colonel Qaddafi was involved. They said the accusations were one reason the United States had not removed Libya from the State Department's list of nations that support terrorism.

Here's some background on Alamoudi from the Jihad Watch archives:

From the Washington Post November 2, 2003:

...by the early 1990s, the Pentagon was working closely with U.S. Muslim activists to hire Islamic chaplains to minister to Philips's new converts and their co-religionists. One architect of this initiative was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was indicted Oct. 23 on money-laundering charges for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Libya, which is designated by U.S. officials as a state sponsor of terrorism."

From Insight Magazine Nov. 20, 2003:

On Sept. 11, 2001, as people around the world opened their hearts and their checkbooks to victims of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, a prominent Muslim activist laid out $3,000 of his own. But he didn't have the victims in mind. He used the occasion to help re-elect one of his favorite federal lawmakers: a feisty left-winger who kept the FBI in her political crosshairs.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Abdurahman Alamoudi wrote two checks that day totaling $3,000 to the campaign committee of Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat who would spend the next – and last – year of her short tenure in office attacking President George W. Bush and the post-9/11 war on terrorism.

Twelve months after McKinney's electoral defeat, in September 2003, Alamoudi would be a federal prisoner facing allegations that he laundered money from Libya to finance his political activity in Washington and that he served as a Virginia-based paymaster for terrorists whose members included al-Qaida. He was caught in London with a suitcase containing $380,000 in cash that he admitted he had been given in Libya.

Washington Post December 1, 2003:

In late October 2000, Hillary Clinton, who was running for the U.S. Senate in New York, returned thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Alamoudi and other Muslims after some media described them as supporters of Palestinian violence. Presidential candidate George W. Bush returned $1,000 at the same time.

Alamoudi was furious. When he arrived at a demonstration against U.S. Middle East policies in Lafayette Square on Oct. 28, 2000, friends recalled, he angrily took the microphone.

"'Anybody's a supporter of Hamas here?' he yelled as the crowd cheered. 'Hear that, Bill Clinton, we are all supporters of Hamas! . . . I am also a supporter of Hezbollah!'"

A Troubling Presence at a Funeral

From Ben Johnson at FrontPage:

Patriotic Americans will always cherish their memories of Ronald Reagan’s strong and courageous leadership during the Cold War. However, his funeral at the National Cathedral may uncap different emotions. Among those the Reagan family has invited to the ecumenical service is Mohammad Magid, a D.C.-area Muslim imam with disturbing ties to suspected terrorists.

Magid, who was born and educated in the Sudan, is the Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS). ADAMS has numerous close affiliations with the main targets of “Operation Green Quest,” “the largest U.S. terror finance investigation anywhere in the world.” In March 2002, federal agents raided ADAMS’s facility in Herndon, Virginia, as part of an investigation into financial support for terrorism. Federal affidavits state that the “Grove Street addresses” (500 and 555 Grove St. in Herndon) housed more than 100 interlocking Muslim organizations, most headed by Jamal Barzinji, and these groups gave material aid to terrorists. Among those raided were several major ADAMS associates, including its chairman. Magid himself was present when federal agents raided the Herndon offices of ADAMS in March 2002.

Soon after the raid, Magid held a public meeting encouraging “community building” among the organizations investigated. Although 100 people showed up at the Sterling, Virginia, public library for the meeting, another 150 members of the overflow crowd met at ADAMS headquarters itself.

Idaho Muslim cleared of terror charges

It's not that the websites Sami Omar Al-Hussayen maintained didn't contain pro-terror sentiments; it's that he didn't have much to do with them, and anyway they're constitutionally protected speech. Constitutionally protected speech? Really?

From AP:

Al-Hussayen set up and ran Web sites that prosecutors said were used to recruit terrorists, raise money and disseminate inflammatory rhetoric. They said the sites included religious edicts justifying suicide bombings and an invitation to contribute financially to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas.

Al-Hussayen's attorneys argued that he had little to do with the creation of the material posted. And they said the material was protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression and was not designed to raise money or recruit extremists.

Well, maybe there wasn't a sign-up sheet, but what exactly constitutes recruitment? If it isn't recruitment to include material justifying suicide bombings and contribute money, what is?

Militia gunmen seize police station in Najaf

From MSNBC, with thanks to DC Watson, who notes: So much for the truce. But in Islamic law, truces are to be concluded only in order to allow the Muslim forces to gather strength to fight again.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite gunmen seized an Iraq police station Thursday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between U.S. troops and militia forces. Four Iraqis were killed and 13 were injured, hospital and militia officials said.

Gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control of the Ghari police station, which is 250 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine, witness Mohammed Hussein said. The station was looted and police cars were burned.

"We sent a quick reaction unit to assist the policemen defending the station, but they were overwhelmed by al-Sadr fighters," said Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi. "We will solve this problem as soon as possible. We will ask for the help of the Americans, if necessary."

Iranian Leader: 'The Source of Human Torment and Suffering is Liberal Democracy'

I don't know how much more pointed you can get in seeing the war on terror as a struggle of good vs. evil. A clash of civilizations occurs precisely when there are two competing visions of what constitutes the good. But of course, there is no clash of civilizations. From MEMRI, with thanks to EPG:

Recently, several high-ranking Iranian leaders, among them Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Muhammad Khatami, expressed views on the achievements of Iran's Islamic Revolution and the legacy of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, and on the relationship between Islam and Western culture and values. Both men attacked the U.S. for its handling of affairs in Iraq. Along with stressing the need to instill Ayatollah Khomeini's legacy among the younger Iranians who never knew him, Iranian Leader Ali Khameneistated that not only is Khomeini's political thought appropriate for all of humanity's needs, but that the source of human suffering is "liberal democracy." Khamenei attacked the U.S. and stated that the reason for the "disgrace" (that is, the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghureib prison) was that "liberal democracy is devoid of morality." In contrast, Iranian President Muhammad Khatami expressed his support for borrowing from Western values and blending them into Islamic culture. At the same time, however, Khatami stated that the root of all terrorism is superpower violence.

You can read their actual statements at the MEMRI link.

Pakistan's Jihad-Friendly Army

Information on the extensive ties between jihadists and Pakistan's military, from Kaushik Kapisthalam at FrontPage:

The whole Farooqi episode just illustrates the perils of Pakistan’s superficial crackdown on terror. For American authorities to continue to rely on agencies like the ISI to vet terror suspects is a dangerous proposition. Obviously the Pakistanis would want to shield anyone that would implicate their army. This means that for a successful war on terror, the US must insist on a bottom-up purge of the ISI to weed out al-Qaida sympathizers in the Pakistani army. Despite Musharraf’s promises on this regard, little has happened. Musharraf replaced the ISI’s Director General under US pressure but left the middle and lower levels untouched.

Pakistan today is the de facto epicenter of Al Qaeda’s operations, with suspects in terrorist attacks from Turkey to Indonesia all being traced back to training camps in that troubled nation. In that context, one can see that the current US war on terror in Pakistan is missing the forest for the trees. Instead of rehashing the “Over 500 Al Qaeda terrorists arrested in Pakistan” story, American authorities must ask themselves why there are so many Al Qaeda men in Pakistan in the first place. The fact is the terrorists feel they are safer there with so many connections to Pakistani agencies. Given this, trying to cherry pick some Al Qaeda Arabs from Pakistan without shutting down the ISI-jihadi nexus it is simply ineffective. American officials also need to ask Gen. Musharraf why all the Pakistani jihadi groups linked to Al Qaeda are still freely collecting funds and recruiting volunteers despite their supposed proscription.

If anything, the thought that Army officers of a nuclear-armed nation are involved in joint operations with an Al Qaeda mastermind should remind people of the seriousness of this dilemma. Who is to say that some other Al Qaeda friendly Pakistani army officers will not hand over a nuclear warhead to terrorists in the future? Isn’t it time for America to stop listening to the State Department status-quo artists and give Gen. Musharraf an ultimatum to purge his army and spy agencies of uniformed jihadists? Congress has reportedly cleared the Bush administration decision to make Pakistan a Major Non-NATO ally, which allows the Pentagon more freedom to grant military assistance to Pakistan and also virtually shields Pakistan from any future sanctions. It would only be prudent that the Pentagon makes actual aid and weapons transfer contingent on a full clean up of the Pakistani military. Anything less would be pure folly.

Indonesia: Petrol bomb hurled at church

A bomb was thrown at a Catholic Church in Indonesia. No one was hurt, but a pattern continues: this was the fifth attack on a church this week. From The Australian, with thanks to Nicolei:

Mobs attacked four churches in two neighbouring suburbs of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sunday, slightly injuring a priest and causing some damage. Three of those churches were in buildings in commercial areas that had no permit for use as places of worship. Such unauthorised churches have come in for attack in the past.

American soft-sell turns Afghans against al-Qa'eda

The Telegraph has an article on "combat marketing" -- providing wells, roads and schools to win hearts.

It comes down to deep pockets.

As Sgt Maj David Turnbull, of the 1st Battalion 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, said: "We can outspend al-Qa'eda and the Taliban.

"We are not bribing them, but making them realise that the Afghan government and American government are legitimate and we are the ones building wells, and schools for children. Their loyalties will shift and hopefully they will come out and talk."

On the other hand, the local bazaars still sell Osama bin Laden popcorn balls.

Scientists Say Padilla's Dirty Bomb Would Be a Dud

Feel relieved?

From AP:

NEW YORK - The "dirty bomb" allegedly planned by terror suspect Jose Padilla would have been a dud, not the radiological threat portrayed last week by federal authorities, scientists say.

At a June 1 news conference, the Justice Department said the alleged al-Qaida associate hoped to attack Americans by detonating "uranium wrapped with explosives" in order to spread radioactivity.

But uranium's extremely low radioactivity is harmless compared with high-radiation materials — such as cesium and cobalt isotopes used in medicine and industry that experts see as potential dirty bomb fuels.

"I used a 20-pound brick of uranium as a doorstop in my office," American nuclear physicist Peter D. Zimmerman, of King's College in London, said to illustrate the point.

Zimmerman, co-author of an expert analysis of dirty bombs for the U.S. National Defense University, said last week's government announcement was "extremely disturbing — because you cannot make a radiological dispersal device with uranium. There is just no significant radiation hazard."

Other specialists agreed. "It's the equivalent of blowing up lead," said physicist Ivan Oelrich of the Federation of American Scientists. ...

"Granted, it (uranium) could have a psychological effect" because of unfounded fears, said physicist Ferguson. But he said a government information campaign should quell any panic if such a weapon appeared.

Buddhist teacher killed in restive south Thailand

The Thai jihad continues. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

BANGKOK, June 7 (Reuters) - Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a Buddhist teacher in Thailand's restive Muslim south on Monday, the latest casualty in a spate of violence which has claimed over 200 lives since January, police said.

The 49-year-old, who was in charge of general studies at an Islamic school, was shot as he was about to start his car parked at a school in the province of Pattani, police said.

The shooting came just over a week after an elderly Buddhist man was beheaded at a rubber plantation in nearby Narathiwat province, an incident which heightened fears of sectarian tension between Buddhists and Muslims in the troubled region.

The teacher was killed despite stepped up security at schools, where at least 1,000 soldiers and police have been deployed since the new school year began in mid-May.

"We are investigating what might have been the motivation," Major General Paitoon Pattanasopon, head of the Pattani provincial police, told Reuters.

All General Pattanasopon has to do to discover the motivation is read the writings of Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslims. They have made their intentions and goals quite clear.

Saudi poll: Wide support for bin Laden

From CNN:

Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric, but fewer than 5 percent thought it was a good idea for bin Laden to rule the Arabian Peninsula.

The poll involved interviews with more than 15,000 Saudis and was overseen by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant.

It was conducted between August and November 2003, after simultaneous suicide attacks in May 2003 when 36 people were killed in Riyadh.

Imagine the figures before the Riyadh attacks.

Search of Ohio Imam's Home Invalidated

Looks like the Damra case is shaping up to be yet another bungled prosecution of a suspected Islamic radical. From AP:

CLEVELAND - A terrorist group's manifesto and other items seized by the FBI in a search of an Islamic cleric's home were taken in an illegal search and cannot be used at his trial, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge James Gwin, in a decision filed late Monday, ruled in favor of Fawaz Mohammed Damra, 41.

The Palestinian-born imam is accused of concealing ties to terrorist organizations when he applied for citizenship, which he received in 1994.

FBI agents searched his suburban Cleveland home without a warrant after his Jan. 13 arrest and seized a computer, copies of sermons and political speeches, the manifesto of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and stacks of financial records.

The agents said they had permission to search the home, but Damra's wife, Nasreen, was instructed to go to the basement during the arrest, apparently because she was upset. The judge said her absence prevented her from finding out she had the right to ask them to leave.

Federal prosecutor James V. Moroney Jr. said the manifesto was the only item from the search that the government intended to use at the trial. He said no decision had been made on whether to appeal the judge's ruling.

Prosecutors had said they wanted to use the manifesto to show the strength of Damra's ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, suggesting only a high-ranking official would have a copy.

But the judge was skeptical, noting Damra might have such a document for his teaching duties at colleges in Cleveland.

UPDATE: Charles as LGF has a wealth of illuminating information about the Catholic dhimmi who is serving as an expert witness for Damra.

Qaradawi and Islamic law

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi is the radical Muslim leader whose support for the new mosque in Boston was touted in their Arabic literature, but not in their English material. Today in Asia Times (thanks to Ali Dashti), Yukiko Ohashi explains his baneful influence on the contemporary understanding of Islamic law among Muslims in Malaysia and elsewhere.

Muslims in Malaysia, not unlike those in the Middle East, have resorted to appreciating Islam through the narrow prism of al Halal wal Haram fil Islam - which means abiding by the "lawful and prohibited acts in Islam", and which is detailed in a book of the same name by Yusuf Qaradawi.

In this philosophy, submission to God is reduced to a series of dos and don'ts - a binary moral code. This approach was systematized by Qaradawi, dean of Islamic law at Qatar University, and the methodology gained currency in the Middle East, and subsequently in Southeast Asia.

Since 1960, when Qaradawi wrote his book in Arabic, his narrow approach toward Islam has predominated. In Malaysia, his influence is deep, even among the governing Muslim elites. When former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim was the president of the International Islamic University, Malaysia, he spent considerable time with Qaradawi, expressing his support for the latter's fiqh al aliyyah (introducing Islamic law according to priorities).

In his governmental post of deputy to prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar was able to bring some of Qaradawi's ideas into public policy. Eventually Anwar was dumped from the government and jailed on charges of sodomy and corruption; however, the thoughts and practice of Qaradawi have not been totally excluded from government policy, including the reductionist elements.

Islamic scholars and thinkers in Malaysia continue to look to Qaradawi for various Islamic interpretations and verdicts, such as on the legality of suicide terrorism. More important, the inspiration of Qaradawi is integral to the conceptual blueprint for an Islamic state as held by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), which controls the Kelantan state government.

PAS's Islamic state is based on the permissible and the prohibited as outlined by Qaradawi. Observe the "Islamic state document" produced by PAS last year, the first of its kind in the history of the party, after much demand from Malaysians as to what a PAS-style Islamic state would actually represent.

In this document, it was clearly stated that PAS would implement "the Shariah [Islamic law] to achieve the five imperatives of the Shariah; therein to protect a Muslim's beliefs, life, intellect, dignity and property".

In seeking to fulfill these five imperatives, the document read: "In implementing the Shariah all vices and crimes that pertain to the above stated aspects would be controlled. Man-made laws have been [proved] a failure in securing the security and dignity of the human race."

Fatwas on Web let extremism flourish

But where on the web are the moderate fatwas that forbid violence in the name of Islam and explain why these radical fatwas are wrong? Anyone? Anyone?

This is just another example of how radical Muslims are in the intellectual ascendancy everywhere in the Islamic world. There are many non-terrorist Muslims, but they have not refuted the radicals on Islamic grounds.

From the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia A recent fatwa posted on a popular Islamic Web site in Saudi Arabia explains when a Muslim may mutilate the corpse of an infidel. The ruling, written by a Saudi religious sheik, Omar Abdullah Hassan al-Shehabi, decrees that the dead can be mutilated as a reciprocal act when the enemy is disfiguring Muslim corpses, or when it otherwise serves the Islamic nation. In the second category, the reasons include "to terrorize the enemy" or to gladden the heart of a Muslim warrior.

The religious ruling was evidently posted to address questions about the conflict in Iraq, but is not limited by geography. In fact, in each of two gruesome attacks in Saudi Arabia last month that left 25 foreigners and five Saudis dead, a Western corpse was dragged for some distance behind a car. One was the body of an American engineer in Yanbu on May 1, the other a British businessman in Khobar last weekend.

That a cleric can post such an argument in an open forum goes a long way toward explaining how the most radical interpretations of religious texts flourish in Saudi Arabia.

Fatwas like this one help pave the way for bloody assaults against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, many Saudi intellectuals believe. The stakes are higher here than anywhere else because the world price of oil hinges on perceptions of Saudi Arabia's stability.

Still, the government remains cautious in confronting homegrown radicals, Saudi analysts and a few princes say, although security forces have done important work tracking down extremists.

"We are still using soft language when we talk about the problem of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia," said Sulaiman al-Hattlan, a Saudi columnist. "We have not addressed the ideology of these groups, which is the same one the government is promoting. They attack just the individuals."

Italy, Belgium Arrest 17 Terror Suspects

AP discovers that jihad groups are united by ideology.

In a coordinated strike across Europe, police arrested 17 suspected Islamic militants, including an alleged mastermind of the Madrid train bombings who authorities say was planning further attacks, officials said Tuesday.

Fifteen people, mostly Palestinian, Jordanian, Moroccan and Egyptian nationals, were arrested in raids on about 10 locations in Brussels and Antwerp, said Daniel Bernard, Belgian federal prosecutor.

Italian police picked up two suspects, including a 33-year-old Egyptian described as the ringleader who allegedly helped plan the March 11 attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people.

The suspect, identified as Rabei Osman Ahmed - also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian" - was arrested Monday night near his apartment in the northern outskirts of Milan in an operation that involved dozens of police.

The operation "confirms the welding that took place between holy war groups of various geographical origins," said Carlo De Stefano of the Milan police. These groups "are united not only by a single project of attack on the West and on the symbols representing it, but also by the actual sharing of resources and operational experiences."

Onward, Muslim Soldiers!

Two Turks abducted in Iraq

Good thing that Muslims don't kill Muslims. These guys have nothing to worry about.

(AFP)Two Turkish men, senior employees of a Turkish construction company, have been taken hostage in Iraq by armed insurgents, a Turkish government official said today.

U.S. General in Iraq Says Hostages Freed

AP gives us this update on the Italian hostages.

Coalition forces freed Italian and Polish hostages in bloodless American commando operation Tuesday south of Baghdad, the top U.S. general in Iraq said.

All the hostages were freed from the same location and suspects were detained," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said. There was no reported exchange of fire in rescuing the three Italians and a Pole.

And let's pause a moment to remember Fabrizio Quattrocchi, the Italian hostage executed in Iraq who, moments before he was shot dead, tried to tear off his hood and shouted "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies."

American Shot to Death in Saudi Arabia

AP reports:

An American citizen was shot and killed Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. Embassy official said, the second deadly shooting of a Westerner in the kingdom in three days.

The article tells us that

There has been an upsurge of violence in the kingdom despite a high-profile anti-terror campaign that the government began last year following attacks on residential compounds.

Not "despite" but because of. The media seem constanty surprised that when one fights bad guys they fight back. But the alternative of doing nothing and allowing terrorist groups to fester is worse. Appeasement only allows terrorists to gather strength until finally they are too powerful to confront. Imagine these fanatics becoming the government of Saudi Arabia, and perhaps possessing nuclear weapons. Who would oppose them then?

All that is cold comfort to the dead American and his family, and for them I am sorry.

Foreign Hostages in Iraq Freed

FOX reports some good news:

Three Italian hostages who have been held in Iraq for almost two months were freed and are in good condition, the Italian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Jihad Comes to UC-Irvine

More on the sorry state of American campuses, from Arnold Steinberg in FrontPage:

At the University of California campus at Irvine (in Orange County), Jewish students pose these two questions. That's because of events sponsored by the Muslim Student Union (MSU) and the Society of Arab Students (SAS) related to their fourth annual “Zionism Awareness Week.” ...

At UC-Irvine, the MSU and SAS members wore green armbands to support Hamas. The leaders of Jewish campus organizations protested in vain to the politically correct administration, which is (or pretends to be) unfamiliar with Hamas' charter. Indeed, an MSU member sent an e-mail to the MSU list concerning whether graduating students should wear sashes which say "shahada" (the Arabic word for suicide bomber).

Actually it's the Arabic word for "martyrdom," but since that is what suicide bombers think they are attaining, this may be a distinction without a difference.

Phares: Wahabi vs. Wahabi

The great Walid Phares on how the Saudis tried and failed to play both ends against the middle. From FrontPage:

"And remember," said Osama bin Laden in his February 11, 2003 audio tape to al Jazeera, "those who deal with the infidels will be treated as infidels." The master of al Qaeda, angry with his former friends of the 1980s, blasted the Saudis for not cutting their relationship short with the US and its allies.

In this important speech, the man who ordered the September 11 massacres against the hated Kuffars (infidels in Arabic) wanted to see the Saudi monarchy sever all ties with Washington. Thus, as President Bush established his famous equation of being with us or with the terrorists, al Qaeda mimicked his words, threatening: "Either you're with the infidels or you're with us."

The Saudis understood bin Laden’s message, but they had two different criticisms to deal with: the first from the US, blaming them for two decades of Wahabi teachings and noting the citizenship of fourteen of the 9/11 hijackers; and the other from international Jihadists warning them not to engage in the War on Terror, let alone participate in the War in Iraq.

From the Fall of 2001 to the Spring of 2003, Riyadh tried to survive these two opposing messages. Its spokespeople in Washington practiced all their PR skills to dodge questions on the subject. The media savvy Adel al Jubair dismissed media and legislative critics a hundred times, claiming "We are in the War against Terror in as much as you are."

But practically speaking, the Salafi clerics within the kingdom continued to hail al Qaeda and al Jazeera, amplifying their voices around the Muslim world. Crown Prince Abdallah promised war against terror, while his religious emirs vowed Jihad against the West. The Iraq war didn't help any.

Personnel from disbanded Iraqi militias to join army and police

That's sure to lessen jihadist fervor in Iraq. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's new prime minister announced an agreement Monday by nine political parties to dissolve their militias, integrating some of the 100,000 fighters into the army and police and pensioning off the rest to firm up government control ahead of the transfer of sovereignty. The plan does not cover the most important militia fighting coalition forces — the al-Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — or smaller groups that have sprouted across the country since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.

Nevertheless, the announcement by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is seen as a significant step toward extending the control of the central government that will take power at the end of the month. The agreement, if it works, would also significantly reduce the threat of civil war after the U.S.-led occupation formally ends. ...

"We want to disband the Badr Brigade and to enable its members to join the new Iraqi army and police forces and serve the new Iraq," said Dr. Haitham al-Husseini, a top official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which controls the 15,000-strong Badr Brigade, a Shiite group.

This just in: Western Airliners May Be al-Qaida Target

This is news? I thought everyone knew that Al-Qaeda would be targeting airliners since, oh, around September 11, 2001. From AP:

CAIRO, Egypt - An Internet statement signed by an al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia warned Monday that the terror network will target Western airlines, military bases and residential compounds and told Muslims to stay away from Westerners.

The warning of attacks in "the near future" appeared on a Web site known for posting messages from militants, including the video in which a terror group with al-Qaida links executed Nicholas Berg, an American kidnapped in Iraq.

The authenticity of the statement, signed "Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula," could not be confirmed. Al-Qaida uses the term "Arabian Peninsula" to refer to Saudi Arabia because it rejects the rule of the Al Saud dynasty, after whom the country is named.

Al-Qaida Continues to Use Charities

Al-Haramain is just the tip of the iceberg. From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Al-Qaida has siphoned millions of dollars from Islamic charities that help poor Muslims in Africa and Asia, and U.S. and Saudi government efforts to cut the flow have largely failed, Western diplomats and former charity workers say.

Working with sympathizers inside the charities, al-Qaida has for years used humanitarian funds for terror attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia, U.S. and other Western officials told The Associated Press.

In one case, donations to the Al-Haramain Foundation to support Islamic preachers ended up in the pockets of a suspect in the November 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kenya, a Western diplomat told AP.

A wholesale fish business financed with Al-Haramain funds also steered profits to the al-Qaida cell behind the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa, U.S. officials told AP.

Piracy ‘could cripple world trade’

Pirate attacks on ships in the South Pacific are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Some see a connection to Islamic terrorism. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

SINGAPORE: Attacks on ships by sea pirates in South-East Asia are resembling military operations – growing bolder, more violent and fuelling fears of an attack that would cripple world trade, Singapore said yesterday. ...

“But the last piracy attack that took place in the Straits of Malacca showed a different pattern,” he added.

The pirates were well-armed, operating sophisticated weapons and commanding high-speed boats.

“They conducted the operation almost with military precision,” Tan said.

“Instead of just ransacking the ship for valuables, they took command of the ship, and steered the ship for about an hour, and then eventually left with the captain in their captivity,” he said.

“To all of us, this is reminiscent of the pattern by which terrorists mount an attack.” ...

Singapore has repeatedly warned of the potential link between pirates and religious militant networks such as Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for the deadly 2002 bomb blasts in the Indonesian island of Bali and widely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

“We are concerned that terrorists may seize control of a tanker with a cargo of lethal materials, LNG (liquefied natural gas) perhaps, chemicals, and use it as a floating bomb against our port,” Tan said.

“This would cause catastrophic damage, not only to the port but also for people, because our port is located very near to a highly dense residential area.

“Thousands of people would be killed,” he said.

Roche tried to tell 'em

A long article in the LA Times tells us that Muslim convert Jack Roche, at least according to his lawyer, tried to tell Australian intelligence officials about Osama's plans for 9/11 -- but no one cared.

PERTH, Australia — When Jack Roche telephoned Australia's intelligence agency in July 2000, he offered a tantalizing story: He had been to Afghanistan and ate lunch with Osama bin Laden. He had received training in explosives and plotted with Al Qaeda leaders to carry out a bombing in Australia.

A Muslim convert, Roche was prepared to become an informant, his attorney says, and provide information about Al Qaeda; its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah; and their goal of staging an attack in a Western country.

But at the time — 14 months before the Sept. 11 attacks — no one was interested.

It wasn't until 2 1/2 years later that authorities decided to take Roche seriously and arrested him on terrorism charges. Last week he was sentenced to nine years in prison for conspiring with Al Qaeda leaders to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra.

While many Australians applaud the country's first conviction under new anti-terrorism laws, Roche's case is a tale of intelligence failures that illustrates how poorly Western security officials understood the threat posed by Islamic extremism.

I wonder if they understand it any better now.

Muslim leaders call Reagan a criminal

A number of people have asked me how I could have written an article about Reagan and jihad without mentioning the Afghan mujahedin or the Beirut barracks. If time permits I will address that in another piece later this week. Meanwhile, however, the reaction of several Muslim leaders to Reagan's death doesn't give the impression that they theought of him as a friend. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

The former U.S. president was not remembered so fondly in many Arab nations. The Reagan years marked the beginning of what Lebanon's culture minister, Ghazi Aridi, called a "bad era" of American Mideast policy that he said continues to this day.

Political analyst and former Syrian ambassador to the United Nations Haitham al-Kilani agreed.

"Reagan's role was bad for the Arab-Israeli conflict and was specifically against Syria. He was the victim of the Israeli right wing that was, and still is, dominating the White House," al-Kilani said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he was sorry that Reagan died without standing trial for 1986 air strikes he ordered that killed Gadhafi's adopted daughter and 36 other people.

Reagan ordered the April 15, 1986, air raid in response to a disco bombing in Berlin allegedly ordered by Gadhafi that killed two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman and injured 229 people.

"I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children," Libya's official JANA news agency quoted Gadhafi as saying Sunday.

Defeating Global Jihad: Reagan Showed the Way

The article on Ronald Reagan I told you about last night is already up this morning at FrontPage: "Defeating Global Jihad: Reagan Showed the Way," by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer.

By vilifying and attempting to marginalize those who dare tell the truth about Islamic radicalism as Reagan did about Communism, today’s intelligentsia provides ample cover to radical Islamic terrorists, allowing them to operate under the radar screen of media scrutiny and even law enforcement.

Freedom is under attack by the warriors of jihad; the battle lines do indeed resemble those of the Cold War. “There are very useful analogies to be drawn between communism and Islam,” says Ibn Warraq. “Communism has been defeated, at least for the moment; Islamism has not, and unless a reformed, tolerant, liberal kind of Islam emerges soon, perhaps the final battle will be between Islam and Western democracy.”

This is the war we’re in now. If only we had a Reagan to fight it.

War on Islamic terror spreads to the Sahara Desert

Jihad and anti-jihad in Saharan Africa. Where did the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat get four million pounds to spend on jihad? Why, from ransom money paid by the dhimmi German government. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Ali Dashti and Nicolei:

America has launched a secret war against Islamic terrorists across the southern Sahara after it discovered that a group linked to al-Qaeda bought heavy weapons using the proceeds of a ransom deal with the German government. The realisation that a new Islamic fundamentalist force was building what officials call "garrisons in the sand" on the border of Algeria and Mali has led America to launch a new anti-terror campaign across a swathe of Africa's harshest and most sparsely populated terrain.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat has spent about £4 million, which it received in return for releasing 17 European tourists kidnapped last year, on surface-to-air missiles, heavy machine-guns and mortars.

It also bought satellite positioning equipment to enable it to conceal and later return to weapons caches buried in the sands of the Sahara.

Major Sarah Kerwin of the US Army's European Command, which is responsible for north and west Africa, said: "There are clear indications that Muslim extremists from the Middle East and Afghanistan have moved into these massive open spaces, where they are as elusive as if they were out at sea.

"They bring a new threat where they can bury weapons in the sand, mark the exact position with their satellite equipment, and then move off along the camel trails with other tools and equipment."

Later on in the article, a "Western diplomat" tells us that what the Germans paid "was equivalent to 25 per cent of the defence budget of Niger last year. That gives the extremists a huge boost, an advantage which they can exploit to destabilise these governments."

Thousands of Iranians ready for suicide raids against Israel, Americans ... and Salman Rushdie

Some people just never know when to let go. But note the large numbers. Why would 10,000 people sign up? Don't they know the Qur'an forbids suicide? Yes, I ask that every time a story like this appears, but it is really the only important question: it illustrates the hollowness and disingenuousness of the American Muslim advocacy groups' response to Islamic terrorism. From Reuters, with thanks to Peter Rockas:

"Some 10,000 people have registered their names to carry out martyrdom operations on our defined targets," said Mohammad Ali Samadi, a spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign.

But he said the group would need the green light from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to launch the attacks.

The independent group said it started to register Iranian men and women prepared to carry out the attacks after Friday prayers last week and sent forms to religious universities.

"Our targets are mainly the occupying American and British forces in the holy Iraqi cities, all the Zionists in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie," he said on Saturday.

"It is not our fault that the Zionists have brought their wives and children to the occupied territories and have turned them into shields for themselves," he added, when asked about the killing of civilians.

"Salman Rushdie is the only non-military target for us, because we believe his attack against Islam was much worse that a military assault," the spokesman said.

Hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran to attack U.S. and British interests.

"It is the duty of every Muslim to threaten U.S. and British interests anywhere," he said.

Pakistan warns of suicide attack plots

Jihad against Western aid groups and UN refugee workers. This undrrscores the fact that Islamic law allows for the killing of innocent civilians when they are seen to be aiding the war effort. This justification is used routinely in Israel and was a major reason why 9/11 didn't meet with unanimous condemnation in the Islamic world.

Also, why is the Taliban still a factor? Why are they still able to operate? Could it be that high-placed elements in Pakistan are still fond of the group? From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities have warned Western aid groups and the U.N. refugee agency to strengthen security against threats of Taliban attacks, officials said Saturday.

The warning was directed to offices in southwestern Baluchistan province.

Mullah Hashim Sagzai, a formerly unknown Taliban fighter now believed to live in a refugee camp in Baluchistan, was identified as the lead planner of suicide plots against the non-governmental organizations.

"Only those NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will be targeted where U.S.-British nationals are working," said the Afghan Refugees Organization, a Pakistani government agency which is responsible for security at refugee camps in Baluchistan.

President Reagan

I just finished writing a column about President Reagan; maybe it will appear this coming week in some publication. But I thought I would include a note here about this great and vastly underestimated man, who was the only politician of his age with the courage and vision to call evil evil, and deal with it accordingly.

Today resembles the darkest days of the 1970s, when the Soviet Union was advancing with impunity and given a free pass by what were not yet known as the forces of political correctness. To tell the truth about jihad today is the same as telling the truth about Communism then: unpopular, even ridiculous. Few grasped the urgency of the moral imperative to rescue the oppressed and defend the threatened, and few do now.

Ronald Reagan did. In those days I despised him for it; only later did I realize that we campus radicals, with all our thirst for justice, were just tools of the totalitarians. Nothing has changed on that front. What may have changed are the spiritual and cultural forces that enabled America to bring forth Ronald Reagan when we needed him. Will we be able to do it again? Will we survive if we do not?

May his memory be eternal.

Rumsfeld Fears Losing War On Islamic Extremism

No wonder the supporters of terror and their allies want his head. A refreshing dose of realism from Rumsfeld, speaking in Singapore on his way to Bangladesh. From AP, with thanks to Twostellas:

He said he fears "zealots and despots" may be turning out newly trained terrorists faster than the United States can capture or kill them.

And he said it's "quite clear" that "we do not have a coherent approach to this."

Rumsfeld said thwarting terrorists isn't enough. He said ways must be found to persuade young Muslims that "the way of the future is through education and opportunity, not through suicide and terrorism."

Bangladesh: Terror in the name of God

Islamic terror spreads in Bangladesh. From the Daily Star via Asia News Network, with thanks to Twostellas:

For the Bangladeshi-born British envoy, Anwar Chowdhury, the forenoon of May 21 started without any clue of what was in the offing. It was 1:35 and a huge crowd of people greeted Anwar, as he was about to leave the Shrine of Shahjalal after saying Friday prayers. But as the envoy, only 18 days into his new job, reached the exit door of the 700-year-old tomb, a bearded man in his early forties halted the High Commissioner's way. "The man was telling Anwar to give him some money," recalls Advocate Abdul Hai Khan, Anwar Chowdhury's grandfather and a witness to the mayhem that would follow.

Khan was helping the envoy out of the melee and he smelled a rat when the man did not get out of their way after repeated requests. "I grew suspicious. I looked up at him; the man was well built and was wearing a fashionable Comillar fatua," he says. This man cannot be a beggar, Khan thought; so when the High Commissioner told Khan to give the "beggar" 100 Taka, he said, "Just look at him Anwar, this person is not at all a beggar." Don't be so rude nana, Anwar replied. Khan, in turn, obliged his grandson; the Sylhet-based lawyer reached down for his purse and handed the beggar a hundred-Taka note.

But within seconds, a grenade was thrown at the British High Commissioner; the bomb hit the parameter wall of the shrine as he threw it up after it bumped on his lower abdomen. "Anwar told me, 'Nana, save me; they have thrown a bomb at us'," Khan recalls. "Within a few seconds," he continues, "there was a huge bang; we both fell on the pavement; and I saw blood rolling on the ground from the High Commissioner's body."

Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack; Advocate Abdul Hai Khan believes it was not at all unexpected. Only months ago, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) MP Delwar Hossain Saiedi urged a gathering at the nearby Alyah Madrasah field to resist what he called bedat (heretical activities) in the shrine. Four days later, on January 12, a bomb was exploded at the shrine. The police arrested 24 people in connection to the blast; a probe body was formed headed by the superintendent of the police. But that committee's report has not yet seen the light of the day despite repeated extensions of time. No progress has also been made on nine other blasts that rocked the north-eastern city since 1997 and have claimed 14 lives.

In the last five years 140 have been killed and around 1,000 injured in several bomb blasts that ripped through different public places across the country. Whoever the perpetrators are, says security expert Brig-gen Shahedul Anam Khan, the intention was to create panic and reap political dividend of these blasts. Khan believes the subsequent governments' failure to nab the culprits means, "either we are not capable of doing it or the major political parties do not want to see the culprits on the dock."

Hmm. Why might that be?

Malaysia sends moderate Muslim preachers to Thailand

What I want to know is: what are these preachers going to preach? How do they refute radical Muslim interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunnah? If they really have a way to do this, it needs to be spread to the rest of the world. From 7News, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Malaysia is sending moderate Islamic preachers to the restive, Muslim-dominated south of Thailand, at Bangkok's request, to spread a message of peace and progress in hopes of curbing the region's wave of violence. ...

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the troubles there are a "very, very big concern" for Malaysia because of the close contacts across the border between southern Thai Muslims and northern Malaysians.

"We have been asked to provide, to give lectures on the role of Islamic development," Abdullah said in an interview with CNN's Talk Asia program.

"The idea is that (Thais) wouldn't want to deal with militant Islam, but an Islam and Muslims who are committed to progress, committed to development, who like peace and are moderate in their ways," he told CNN's Talk Asia.

The Religious Sources of Islamic Terrorism

Shmuel Bar of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel has a fascinating, detailed piece in Policy Review (thanks to Ali Dashti) about what I have been insisting upon all along, in three books, seven monographs, and who knows how many articles: that Islamic terror is not simply an impulse to mayhem or a political response to Western power couched in religious terms. It is a fundamentally religious movement springing from a deeply held and amply attested understanding of Islamic religious principles.

All of Bar's piece is worth reading; here are some provocative points from his conclusion:

Taking into account the above, is it possible — within the bounds of Western democratic values — to implement a comprehensive strategy to combat Islamic terrorism at its ideological roots? First, such a strategy must be based on an acceptance of the fact that for the first time since the Crusades, Western civilization finds itself involved in a religious war; the conflict has been defined by the attacking side as such with the eschatological goal of the destruction of Western civilization. The goal of the West cannot be defense alone or military offense or democratization of the Middle East as a panacea. It must include a religious-ideological dimension: active pressure for religious reform in the Muslim world and pressure on the orthodox Islamic establishment in the West and the Middle East not only to disengage itself clearly from any justification of violence, but also to pit itself against the radical camp in a clear demarcation of boundaries.

Such disengagement cannot be accomplished by Western-style declarations of condemnation. It must include clear and binding legal rulings by religious authorities which contradict the axioms of the radical worldview and virtually “excommunicate” the radicals. In essence, the radical narrative, which promises paradise to those who perpetrate acts of terrorism, must be met by an equally legitimate religious force which guarantees hellfire for the same acts. Some elements of such rulings should be, inter alia:

• A call for renewal of ijtihad as the basis to reform Islamic dogmas and to relegate old dogmas to historic contexts.

• That there exists no state of jihad between Islam and the rest of the world (hence, jihad is not a personal duty).

• That the violation of the physical safety of a non-Muslim in a Muslim country is prohibited (haram).

• That suicide bombings are clear acts of suicide, and therefore, their perpetrators are condemned to eternal hellfire.

• That moral or financial support of acts of terrorism is also haram.

• That a legal ruling claiming jihad is a duty derived from the roots of Islam is a falsification of the roots of Islam, and therefore, those who make such statements have performed acts of heresy.

It is unlikely that the Muslim world will take these steps. This is not only because (as Bar points out) of the imperative of Islamic solidarity (cf. Sura 4:93 of the Qur'an) overrides other considerations, but also because the distinction he makes in this article between "radical" and "orthodox" Islam is problematic. While there are obviously millions of Muslims who are not and will never be radicals, the radicals energetically and persistently claim the mantle of orthodoxy, and by and large they are getting away with it. This is what must change, but the strong roots of the Islamic dogmas that Bar points out must be reformed will make that reform all the more difficult to accomplish.

Bush Calls Terror 'Challenge of Our Time'

Bush with Berlusconi (AP)

That it is, but does he really know who the enemy is? Does he really understand the sources of Islamic radicalism? Does he know why democracy is not being welcomed enthusiastically in Iraq? I appreciate the President's refreshingly strong stand against terrorism, but I think as a nation we still have not gotten to the heart of the matter.

From AP:

ROME - President Bush is appealing to a new generation of Europeans and Americans to pull together on Iraq and said Saturday that the war against terror "is the challenge of our time."

The president spoke at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of his strongest allies in Iraq. Yet, Bush's itinerary in Italy — and later in France — represented a fresh reminder of the divisions on this side of the Atlantic.

Bush brushed off big demonstrations in Rome against his visit. "Democracy's a beautiful thing," he said. " I am pleased to be in a country where people are allowed to express their opinion. I believe the world understands the importance of a free Iraq emerging in the Middle East."

Acknowledging differences among allies over the war, Bush said, "Now the world understands the importance of working with Iraqis" to encourage the development of a free society.

Dutch charity accused of funding Muslim terrorists

Al-Haramain is active in Holland. From Expatica, with thanks to Nicolei:

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch government faces questions on why it did not act earlier against a Muslim charity which has been accused of supporting terrorism.

On Wednesday, US and Saudi Arabian officials announced a joint crackdown on Muslim charities they accuse of aiding Islamic terrorists.

One of the groups singled out, al-Haramain, is active in the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. The US media has reported that al-Haramain is suspected of supporting terrorism, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Al-Haramain shares a postal address in Amsterdam with the El Tawheed mosque.

The mosque has been at the centre of a controversy for some time and Shershaby has been accused of preaching hate against the west and claiming non-Muslims will burn in hell.

There was a media storm in April this year when it was reported the mosque was selling books advocating female circumcision and husbands beating their wives.

Mosque board member Farid Zaari has confirmed a member of the El Tawheed board is also a spokesperson for the charity al-Haramain. The building of the mosque was partly funded by a loan from the charity.

Fallujah adopts Taliban theocracy

Has he forgotten Khomeini?

Fallujah has instituted Sharia in its pure form. Does this surprise anyone? Disappointing, but not really surprising, is Powell's remark, which contradicts earlier ones from Rumsfeld. From WND, with thanks to EPG:

The comparison to Afghanistan under the Taliban is not coincidental.

Many of the clerics who have taken over Fallujah either studied in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or were urged to adopt the Taliban example.

As a result, women must cover their hair and faces. If they don't, they are beaten in the streets. Naturally, beauty parlors have been shut down.

Men have been ordered to grow beards and barbers have been warned not to shave customers. Indeed, the barbers have been given strict guidelines on what kinds of haircuts are permissible.

Those selling or imbibing alcohol are now flirting with death. Already, several dealers have been flogged naked in the streets of Fallujah in full view of passersby. A man found drunk in Fallujah was also beaten to a pulp. ...

Last month, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would not object to an Iraqi theocracy.

Thai lawmaker surrenders

A question of loyalty. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

BANGKOK: A ruling party lawmaker surrendered to police yesterday to face treason charges in connection with a deadly raid on a military arsenal in January that marked a resurgence of separatist violence in Thailand's Muslim south.

The charges against Muslim lawmaker Najamudeen Umar, which he denies, have deeply embarrassed the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, who recently said he was perplexed by what's happening in the south, has not defended the lawmaker.

Najamudeen went by car yesterday to a police facility here along with four parliamentary colleagues from his Thai Rak Thai party and presented himself for arrest to the deputy national police chief, Lt-Gen Kovit Wattana.

Najamudeen was charged on March 23 with treason for alleged involvement in the daring guerilla raid on an army camp in the southern province of Narathiwat on Jan 4, in which four soldiers were killed and hundreds of guns stolen.

Saudi Qaeda Leader Praises Attacks for Hiking Oil Price

Oil jihad. Yet if the US were really only interested in the Middle East to gain control of its oil fields, American forces could have kept Kuwait's in the early 1990s. Instead, they returned them to Kuwaiti control.

From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's top leader in Saudi Arabia has praised a recent series of militant attacks in the kingdom which helped send oil prices to record highs on fears of instability.

The statement, issued by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin on an Islamist Web site, called on Saudis to support the militants' campaign against the U.S.-allied Saudi monarchy and accused the government of lying about details of the attacks.

"The operation in Khobar was a new victory which God bestowed upon the mujahideen and which put the Saudi government in a deep crisis," it said.

"It took the oil price to its highest levels of over $42, while Saudi Arabia is committed to America's prosperity by providing oil at the cheapest prices."

Terrorism Fears Grow on Asian Oil Route

Yet for some reason the Islamic states involved want no help from the US. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

SINGAPORE - Fears are growing of terrorism in the Malacca Straits, the pirate-ridden Southeast Asian waterway that is a conduit for half the world's oil supply.

Despite those concerns, the Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia have rebuffed U.S. offers to help police the strategic route. Part of the agenda when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld meets Asian officials Friday and Saturday will be Pentagon proposals to help provide intelligence, conduct joint patrols and send U.S. Marines into the straits.

The United States and Singapore believe the 50,000 commercial vessels - from cruise ships to supertankers - that travel through the straits each year are vulnerable targets for al-Qaida and its South Asian affiliates.

The narrow, 550-mile-long waterway straddling Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore has been a pirates' paradise since the 1800s. Piracy worldwide has tripled in the past decade, rising by 20 percent last year alone, said the U.N. International Maritime Bureau. It counted 189 incidents in Southeast Asia, more than 40 percent of the 2003 total.

"There is a fear that terrorists could resort to pirate-style tactics, or even work in concert with pirates," the maritime bureau's Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos said.

"An uptrend in crew abductions could signal a move by terrorists to train themselves in operating and navigating large commercial vessels," he added during a late-May visit to Singapore.

Japan Arrests 8th Person in Al Qaeda-Linked Probe

Jihad in Japan. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police acting on suspicions al Qaeda may have set up a network in Japan arrested an eighth person on Thursday for violating immigration laws.

Six people were arrested last week as part of an investigation into the activities of Lionel Dumont, an Algerian-born French national suspected of being involved in delivering equipment and funds to al Qaeda while living in Japan.

The seventh was arrested late on Wednesday.

Media reports have said that Dumont, who was arrested in Germany last December, may have been trying to create a network of foreign contacts for al Qaeda.

Police said the latest arrests were of two Bangladeshis, one of whom had been employed by a man who was arrested last week.

One of those arrested last week is suspected of having links to an Islamic group in Pakistan seeking independence for Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan, media reports said.

Of course, al-Qaeda has threatened Japan for sending troops to Iraq. To those who see conflicts as regional rather than ideological, Iraq has nothing to do with Kashmir. To the jihadis, each conflict- Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kashmir- is but one battle in a single war.

The arrests have stirred calls in the media for tougher immigration controls and other steps to give authorities greater powers to prevent attacks.

Last Thursday, parliament passed a law toughening penalties on illegal aliens as part of an effort to deal with a rising number of crimes committed by foreigners.

Dumont, 33, lived in Niigata, northwest of Tokyo, with his German wife from July 2002 through September 2003 and traveled frequently between Japan, Malaysia and Germany, using the false passport, media reports have said.

He made some 45 bank deposits and withdrawals, each involving several hundred thousand yen (100,000 yen is about $900) in a one-month period after entering Japan in 2002, the reports said.

Dumont had been wanted by Interpol in connection with various incidents, including an attempted bomb attack against the Group of Seven summit in Lyon, France in June 1996. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court in 2001 in his absence.

The man at the center of the investigation had an astonishing ability to blend in.

NIGITA (AP) To his neighbors, Lionel Dumont was a mystery. When police and immigration officials asked about the Frenchman, Dumont's landlord had no idea who he was, even though the landlord lived right across the street and had only 36 tenants in his apartment building.

"They showed me a black-and-white picture and asked if I remembered him," Jubei Sato said. "I couldn't place him at all. I don't think I saw him once the whole three months he lived here. He blended right in, never caused any trouble. But I found out after he left that he'd only paid half his rent."

U.S., Saudis Crack Down on Al-Haramain "Charity" Group

Another Muslim "charity" in hot water. We'll see just how "transparent" the new organization will be, but I don't tend to put much stock in what Al-Jubeir says. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said it was dissolving a Riyadh-based charity suspected of funding al Qaeda and will fold its assets into a new group that will channel all Saudi charitable contributions abroad.

In addition to winding down the Riyadh-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Saudi and U.S. officials said they would seek to block the assets of its local branches in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Netherlands.

The steps are designed to ensure Saudi charitable funds, which U.S. officials have long believed have helped to fund "terrorist" groups, do not get into the hands of militants.

Saudi Arabia has long practiced appeasement with terrorist groups but attacks within Saudi Arabia itself may shake up that unofficial policy.

U.S. and Saudi officials said the new entity -- the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad -- would help keep charitable donations out of the wrong hands.

"We do this in order to ensure that the charity of our citizens goes to those who need it and that we know where funds go when they leave Saudi Arabia," Adel Al-Jubeir, an adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, said at a news conference.

Jubeir said the new entity would operate with transparency and provide quarterly reports on how funds are spent. ...

Jubeir said at its peak Al-Haramain raised $40 million to $50 million a year and he roughly estimated the new entity that will funnel all Saudi charity abroad could raise $100 million a year, spiking higher when there are natural disasters.

To block their assets, Washington added the Al-Haramain affiliates in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Netherlands to its list of people or groups believed to have committed, threatened or supported "terrorism."

Muslim "missionary," suspected al-Qaeda member, arrested by Philippines

He's a Muslim missionary, at least according to most people. The usual denials are even broader in this story: one includes a claim that he isn't even a missionary. And of course it's an uncomfortable fact; why would someone who presumably studies the Qur'an assiduously become a terrorist? Why indeed? No satisfactory answer has ever been forthcoming from self-proclaimed moderate Muslims. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

MANILA: Philippine authorities have arrested an Arab missionary who is suspected of being a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in the southern island of Mindanao, military officials said yesterday.

The man, Hassan al-Bakre, 55, was detained by teams of immigration and security officials on suspicion of providing funds to Muslim rebels, said Major-General Emmanuel Teodosio.

He's just teaching the basics:

The military said Hassan had made trips to Camp Omar, a rebel enclave in the Mindanao region, three months ago where he taught Arabic, Islamic studies and bomb-making.

“Based on his own accounts, more than 500 students completed the courses he had supervised,” a senior navy official, who declined to be identified, told reporters.

He said Hassan had identified five Egyptian and seven Indonesian instructors at the MILF camp.

But a rebel spokesman said Hassan was a fisherman who had lived in the area for a long time and was married to a Philippine Muslim woman.

“We have nothing to do with him,” said the spokesman, Eid Kabalu. “He's not even a missionary.”

“He's not a terrorist,” said Eid. “He's a simple-living man. People there know him to be a fisherman, not a bomb-maker.”

France Raises Terror Alert for D-Day

From UPI, with thanks to Twostellas:

As France prepares for the D-Day anniversary, the French Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the Vigipirate plan terror alert has been raised.

The terror alert was raised to the red level as France prepares for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, reported Xinhua, China's main government-run news agency.

But code red isn't the highest level. The highest level is scarlet.

Australia: Sydney man charged with inciting terrorism

Internet jihadist charged in Australia. From AAP, with thanks to Nicolei:

Sydney man Bilal Khazal was charged today over terrorism activities. He was later granted bail during a brief court appearance.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the 34-year-old, who allegedly published documents inciting terrorism on the internet, was charged with one count of collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts.

Check out the court reporter's drawing accompanying the article.

It is alleged that among the documents was a book called Provisions In The Rules of Jihad - Short Wise Rules and Organisational Instructions Which Is The Concern of Every Fighter and Mujahid Against the Infidels.

Khazal allegedly compiled the book and then posted the material on the internet in late 2003.

Its publication was an offence under commonwealth law, the AFP said.

Al-Jazeera airs video of 3 Italian hostages

This article makes reference to the beheading of an Italian hostage in April -- more confirmation that this is an accepted pattern of behavior among the mujahedin. From CNN, with thanks to RAdams:

BAGHDAD , Iraq -- The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera showed video Wednesday of three Italian hostages taken captive in Iraq nearly two months ago. In the video, one of the men said the captors were treating them "excellently."

It marked the first time in more than a month the world has seen pictures of the hostages.

The three, all unshaven, were shown sitting around a table eating with spoons from a communal plate and talking among themselves. Another shot showed the three sitting in chairs. One identified himself as Salvatore Stefio.

"Today is May 31, 2004, Monday," he said on the video. "This statement we are giving is primarily directed to official Italian authorities, to the government, the holy pope, to the Catholic Church and to our families. They are treating us excellently up until now. We are in excellent conditions. We have not had any problems with the people holding us in this place."

The three hostages were among four Italians taken captive in Iraq on April 12. The other hostage was beheaded soon afterward -- a video that was given to Al-Jazeera at the time but never aired.

Saudi Militants Fire at Americans

From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Suspected militants shot at U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, adding to fears over stability that have sent oil prices to record highs since 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed in an al Qaeda attack.

Saudi Arabia continues to reap what it has sown.

Northern Virginia: Saudi charity raided

From AP, with thanks to LGF:

Alexandria, Va. (AP) - Federal agents have raided the Alexandria headquarters of a Saudi-based charity founded by a nephew of Osama bin Laden.

Don't leap to conclusions; the charity insists it is all about immigration.

The charity strongly denies any terrorist ties and says the government had told them the probe is focused only on "immigration issues." The group acknowledged that bin Laden's nephew, Abdullah bin Laden, was involved in forming its branch in Northern Virginia, it says people shouldn't assume that means it has any terrorist connections.

Ambulances for Terrorists

(Photo via LGF)

The UN and Red Cross seem to be allowing Muslim terrorists to use their ambulances. From Michelle Malkin at Town Hall via FrontPage, with thanks to Cathy J. Palmer:

Last week, an Israeli television station aired footage of armed Arab terrorists in southern Gaza using an ambulance owned and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Palestinian gunmen used the UNRWA emergency vehicle as getaway transportation after murdering six Israeli soldiers in Gaza City on May 11. The footage shows two ambulances with flashing lights pull onto a street. Shots and shouts ring out during the nighttime raid. A gang of militants piles into one of the supposedly neutral ambulances, clearly marked "UN" with the agency's blue flag flying from the roof, which then speeds away from the scene.

AccessMiddleEast.org, a nonprofit global news monitoring service, posted the video (shot by a Reuters TV cameraman) on its Web site last week. To date, Access Middle East managing director Richard Bardenstein in Israel informs me, not a single U.S. television news station has expressed interest in showing the footage to American viewers.

Why should we care? Because since 1950, the U.S. has provided UNRWA with $2.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies -- about one-third of the relief agency's total budget. And because instead of investigating this latest black eye-inducing scandal, the U.N. is blasting American troops for defending themselves against such outrageous tactics -- now being emulated by Iraqi guerrilla warriors sniping at our men and women from ambulances in Fallujah. ...

While jihadists gain shelter in its emergency vehicles, the UN continues to lambaste the U.S. for assorted wartime "atrocities." Not one more American dime should go to fund the bloody self-righteousness of the world's most generous terrorist relief organization.

Radical Islam on America's campuses

Jonathan Dowd-Gailey on the Muslim Students Association in the Middle East Quarterly, via FrontPage (thanks to EPG):

Extreme Friends In 2002, when the number of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe hit a twelve-year high, French Jewish leader Roger Cukierman observed a peculiar phenomenon on the European street -a loose fusing of extreme Left, Right, and Muslim political forces-what Cukierman terms the "brown-green-red alliance."[24] The three disparate constituencies have incompatible ideologies, but all three have a shared hatred for the pluralized world order, globalized market economies, U.S. preponderance, and the state of Israel. Cukierman has observed these forces forming an alliance of convenience in the post-9/11 world with potentially dangerous results.

The same pattern is also emerging in the United States with groups of the extreme Left forging bonds with specific Muslim organizations, and here again we find the MSA figures prominently. Given the MSA's propensity for radical politics in a campus environment, it is no surprise that it has become arguably the Muslim organization most enmeshed with American leftists. Consider the following:

· Perhaps as a reward for its total opposition to every U.S. policy since the September 2001 attacks, the MSA has been given a seat on the steering committee for International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). ANSWER is an organization dedicated to defending rogue states and fighting "U.S. imperialism," and has been distinguished by its ability to organize the largest peace demonstrations in North America. ANSWER was formed by International Action Center, a communist organization that supports Stalinist regimes worldwide, including North Korea and Hussein's Iraq. [25]

· In its aggressive protest activities against recent Middle East wars, the MSA has developed strong working ties with numerous activist groups of the extreme Left. Among them: Free Palestine Alliance, Nicaragua Network, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Mexico Solidarity Network, Korea Truth Commission, Young Communist League, Young Peoples' Socialist League, and Black Radical Congress.

As these examples suggest, the MSA boasts institutional ties with a host of radical issue-specific activist groups, all of them vehemently opposed to U.S. policy, and many of them openly anti-American.

The Center for Security Policy's Alex Alexiev argues, "The majority of Muslim Student Associations at U.S. colleges are dominated by Islamist and anti-American agendas, as are most of the numerous Islamic centers and schools financed by the Saudis. Intolerance and outright rejection of American values and democratic ideals are often taught also in the growing number of Deobandi schools that are frequently subsidized by the Saudis."[26]

Read the whole thing.

Drive to halt spread of al-Qa'eda in UK

Secret plans to stop the spread of extremism among young Muslims. Do they include ways to counter the radicals' interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah? I doubt it: Western societies have trouble even admitting that the radicals use the Qur'an and Sunnah in the first place. From The Telegraph, with thanks to Filtrat:

Downing Street has drawn up secret plans to prevent the spread of extremism among young Muslims after confidential studies found that there are up to 10,000 "active" supporters of al-Qa'eda in Britain.

Reports commissioned by the Government, details of which were leaked to The Sunday Times, found that many young Muslims are recruited from among the poor and jobless, who are regarded by al-Qa'eda chiefs as more susceptible to exploitation.

According to a Whitehall audit, Muslims are three times more likely to be jobless than the average member of the population.

The studies also cite evidence from MI5 that al-Qa'eda is seeking out middle-class recruits in universities. There are also recruitment operations in schools.

In March Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary, initiated a strategy to try to establish the roots of discontent among young Muslims.

Dozens of Whitehall officials have been ordered to work on how to improve relations with the Muslim community and to encourage Muslim clerics to adopt moderate views.

Radical imams will be thoroughly vetted and, if they do not agree to comply with the Government's demands, will be barred.

"Why aren’t we seeing any Jihadi activity in Qatar and Kuwait and Bahrain?"

A message from a radical Muslim website, from the SITE Institute (with thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

To the Mujahideen: Why aren’t we seeing any Jihadi activity in Qatar and Kuwait and Bahrain?

This message is addressed to the brothers who chose the path of Jihad to liberate the Nation:

“Why are we witnessing Jihadi activities in Saudi Arabia alone? More than any other country, Saudi applies the Shari’a [Islamic Law], which you claim is your ultimate goal. There are no bars in Saudi, no liquor, and no blending!!!

Why do we see you act only in Saudi when other neighboring countries such as Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are harboring the American Crusader Army?

They are talking the terrorist's language.

AP: Administration Freed Terror Suspect

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the FBI's list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan's militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, FBI documents allege. The Bush administration set him free - to Syria - even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges openly expressed concerns about possible terrorist ties.

Al-Marabh served an eight-month jail sentence and was sent in January to his native Syria, which is regarded by the United States as a sponsor of terrorism.

You have to wonder what is behind this.

Danger of Dirty Bomb on the Rise

Radioactive smuggling

According to New Scientist the risk of somebody somewhere triggering a radioactive "dirty bomb" is growing.

The IAEA's records, which it has released to New Scientist, show a dramatic rise in the level of smuggling of radiological materials, defined as radioactive sources that could be used in dirty bombs but not nuclear bombs.

In 1996 there were just eight of these incidents but last year there were 51. Most cases are believed to have occurred in Russia and elsewhere in Europe. Smugglers target the radioactive materials used in factories, hospitals and research laboratories, which are not guarded as securely as those used by the nuclear industry.

Since 1993, there have been 300 confirmed cases of illicit trafficking in radiological materials, 215 of them in the past five years. And the IAEA warns that the real level of smuggling may well be significantly larger, citing reports of a further 344 instances over the past 11 years which have not been confirmed by any of the 75 states that monitor illicit trafficking.

New info on Padilla case

Damning information has come out during the Jose Padilla case, indicating that he was deeply involved in plans to target American civilians in Islamic terror attacks. From Reuters:

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices read the newspapers, and they cannot help but ponder powerful new allegations that the subject of one of their biggest cases this term was heavily involved in terrorist plots against U.S. civilians, lawyers say.

The Bush administration gave a detailed accounting Tuesday of the alleged terrorist connections and training of Jose Padilla, a New York-born former gang member and convert to Islam.

Much of the government's case is corroborated by information seized in Afghanistan. Still, the issue comes down to civil rights under the U.S. Constitution.

"I don't believe that we could use this information in a criminal case, because we deprived him of access to his counsel and questioned him in the absence of counsel," Comey said.

"The questioning of Jose Padilla ... was not undertaken to try and make a criminal case against Jose Padilla. It was done to find out the truth about what he knew about al-Qaida and threats to the United States."

Philippines arrests Muslim militant, finds bombs

What has by now become a routine story, from Reuters (thanks to Nicolei):

The Philippines arrested a Muslim with links to a local militant group and seized improvised explosives, preventing an attack on a ferry in the south of the country, navy officials said on Monday.

Captain Geronimo Malabanan, a navy spokesman, said the man was caught on Monday during a raid on a suspected hideout of the Abu Sayyaf group on the island of Jolo. Another man escaped.

Improvised explosives, bomb-making materials and documents were found hidden in the ceiling of the house, Malabanan said.

"He was caught red-handed," Malabanan told Reuters. "He belonged to an urban terrorist cell of the Abu Sayyaf led by a certain Alhabsi Misaya, an expert bomber."

How is this about Iraq or Israel?

Test

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New York: Bomb-truck threat

From the New York Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

May 31, 2004 -- An internal NYPD memo warns that terrorists are seeking truck-driver licenses to try to use the vehicles as mobile bombs, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the memo, recently sent to the Office of Emergency Management, highlights the need to tighten security on the millions of trucks that enter the city every year.

"The worst-case scenario is something like Oklahoma City," Schumer said.

The first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 also made use of a truck bomb.

The memo comes amid federal alerts that al Qaeda operatives may be planning an attack on New York this summer - and an FBI warning that terrorists may use trucks to target city icons such as the Empire State Building.

The New Face of Al-Qaeda

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer on Adam Gadahn and jihad in today's lead story at Front Page magazine:

The new face of Islamic terrorism is quite a departure from the spacy half-smile of Osama bin Laden and the dead-eyed glare of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; ever since the latest FBI wanted poster came out, it’s a pudgy, long-haired American kid who appears to be locked in a desperate, losing struggle to grow a beard: Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an American convert to Islam.

Just as they did in the cases of Gadahn’s fellow converts to Islamic radicalism (John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” British shoe bomber Richard Reid, and others), Western analysts have rushed to ascribe Gadahn’s involvement with al-Qaeda as a product of his disaffection and alienation, cannily capitalized upon by al-Qaeda operatives to make the boy feel important and give him a place in the world.

Gadahn obligingly supplied the talking heads with plenty of ammunition for this sort of thing in an account of his conversion, apparently self-penned, that is posted on the website of the USC Muslim Students Association. His father was a Muslim, although evidently not a particularly active one, and his mother a Christian. Neither, by his account at least, seems to have made much effort to raise him in either faith, and he says he had some friction with them. For reasons unexplained at one point he tells us that he moved in with his grandparents. “I had become obsessed with demonic Heavy Metal music,” he says, to the extent that he “eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray."[1] Around that time he discovered Islam by cruising the Internet.

Unfortunately, Gadahn’s conversion story ends before he can tell us how he came to be involved with Islamic terrorists and undergoing training in al-Qaeda camps. But that is the fundamental question that must be answered, and all the talk of rootless, disaffected youth that has filled the airwaves over the last few days doesn’t even come close to answering it.

To be sure, since James Dean and probably earlier, alienated youth have abounded in the United States. Drugs, illegitimacy, and other byproducts of youthful disaffection are proof. But Gadahn is not a rowdy teen gleefully smashing his geeky teacher’s prized record collection in The Blackboard Jungle; he is a member of an organized, worldwide movement determined to commit acts of violence and institute Islamic law. Gadahn could have just as easily become a Jehovah’s Witness, or a Mormon. None of those choices would have landed him in a terrorist training camp and made him the new face of al-Qaeda. It’s obvious why Islamic terrorist groups would want to recruit someone like Adam Gadahn or Richard Reid. For one thing, a non-Arab can enter areas where security measures would prevent an Arab from going (although the PC Left is trying to change that).

Less discussed is the fact that men like Gadahn and Lindh can be recruited at all. The other day I was speaking with a Pakistani Muslim who told me that he knew “a little” Arabic, but didn’t speak or read it fluently. He wasn’t very involved in his religion, and had picked up what he knew of it not from a direct confrontation with its core texts and doctrines, but from cultural habit. But Western converts have no such luxury. They must approach the Qur’an and other Islamic texts without the culturally ingrained ways of understanding them that Muslims pick up in Islamic societies. Thus they come to Islam more or less in a pure, abstract form. The force of any given passage of Qur’an or Hadith, not blunted by culture or familiarity, can be presented by whoever is instructing the convert with any spin the teacher might favor.

Gadahn was apparently a member of Muzammil Siddiqi’s Islamic Society of Orange County — at least until he was expelled after a fight with someone there. Siddiqi, a high-profile self-proclaimed moderate Muslim spokesman, said of Gadahn: “He was becoming very extreme in his ideas and views. He must have disliked something.”[2]

And Siddiqi knows extreme. Kenneth Timmerman has noted that “during an anti-Israel rally outside the White House on Oct. 28, 2000, Siddiqi openly threatened the United States with violence if it continued its support of Israel. ‘America has to learn...if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that?...If you continue doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come.’” Timmerman adds, “Siddiqi also has called for a wider application of Shari'a law in the United States, and in a 1995 speech praised suicide bombers. ‘Those who die on the part of justice are alive, and their place is with the Lord, and they receive the highest position, because this is the highest honor,’ he was quoted as saying by the Kansas City Star on Jan. 28, 1995.”[3]

This is Islamic moderation? Deliver us from the fundamentalists. One such purist, Abu Hamza al-Masri, the one-eyed, hook-handed radical imam who was just arrested in Britain on suspicion of aiding in terrorist acts and trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon, has always presented his teachings as the genuine article: pure Islam. According to a March 2004 report from the BBC, “Pure Islam has claimed the mantle of being the only real Islam as practised at the time of the Prophet Mohammed and his companions. It regards the Islam that came from the Indian subcontinent as corrupted and polluted by ‘cultural’ values such as music.” Such a presentation would be especially attractive to people like Gadahn and other Western converts, who are already cut loose from their cultural moorings and uninitiated as yet into Islamic culture.

“This has led,” the BBC report continues, “to a split within the British Muslim community, creating a belief amongst many young people that there is no compromise between Islam and life in the West.” Nor is this view solely the province of a tiny minority of extremists; on the contrary, it is winning the field: “However, moderate Muslims leaders have remained largely silent and have yet to provide a credible alternative.”[4]

Likewise, a young man like Gadahn who gains what he knows about Islam from the internet will find dozens of jihadist websites, many of which feature detailed explications of the Qur’an and Sunnah such that would warm the heart of Osama bin Laden — and precious few, if any, Muslim sites that refute the rigorist interpretation in favor of an Islam that is essentially peaceful. Moderate Muslims in general don’t refute; they just ignore. Not long ago a young Muslim woman told me that she didn’t think it was necessary to respond to radical Muslim exegesis of the Qur’an — it was so ridiculous, she said, that no one with half a brain could possibly take it seriously.

Maybe. But Adam Gadahn (and Johnny Taliban Lindh, and Richard Reid, and Jack Roche, and Jose Padilla, and all the rest) shows that such responses are no longer adequate, if they ever were. Gadahn and the rest were probably recruited by straightforward appeals to numerous passages in the Qur’an and Sunnah. In Islamic history and doctrine violent jihad is founded on numerous verses of the Qur’an — most notably, one known in Islamic theology as the “Verse of the Sword”: “Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is forgiving, merciful” (Sura 9:5). Establishing “regular worship” and paying the “poor-due” (zakat) means essentially that they will become Muslim, as these are two of the central responsibilities of every Muslim.

Such verses are not taken “out of context” to justify armed jihad by radical imams such as those who may have taught Gadahn; on the contrary, that’s how they have been understood by Muslims from the beginning of Islam. Said the Muslim Prophet Muhammad: “Allah assigns for a person who participates in (holy battles) in Allah’s Cause and nothing causes him to do so except belief in Allah and in His Messengers, that he will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to Paradise (if he is killed in the battle as a martyr).”[5]

One classic manual of Islamic sacred law, which in 1991 gained the approval of Cairo’s prestigious and influential Al-Azhar University as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community,” is quite specific and detailed about the meaning of jihad. It defines the “greater jihad” as “spiritual warfare against the lower self” and then devotes eleven pages to various aspects of the “lesser jihad” and its aftermath. It defines this jihad as “war against non-Muslims,” noting that the word itself “is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion.”[6]

This manual stipulates that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” The requirement that non-Muslims first be “invited” to enter Islam and then warred against until they either convert or pay the special tax on non-Muslims (jizya), is founded upon the Qur’an: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:29).

This verse has been used in Islamic history and jurisprudence to establish three choices for non-Muslims that Muslims are facing in jihad: conversion to Islam, submission under Islamic rule (which involves a carefully delineated second-class citizen status centered around but by no means limited to the jizya tax ), or death. The goal of jihad is thus the incorporation of non-Muslims into Muslim society, either by conversion or submission.

This is the explanation that radical Muslim spokesmen around the world have given, repeatedly and consistently, for what they’re doing: they are not terrorists, they are mujahedin, warriors of jihad. In this they are doing nothing new, but merely carrying on an illustrious tradition: violent jihad is a constant of Islamic history. Calls for jihad went out in the seventh century against the Christians of Egypt and Syria and the other areas of what is now known as the Muslim world. Such calls sounded innumerable times against Europe until 1683.

After that, although jihads became less common (at least in Europe), at no point did Islamic theology reject the doctrine of jihad. It remained part of Islamic thought and practice, to be revived again where possible and necessary. Yet the simple fact that violent jihad remained and remains today a vital component of Islamic theology is today smothered under a fog of political correctness. This plays into the hands of Islamic radicals by making it unnecessary for self-proclaimed moderates to renounce these doctrines, or even to acknowledge their existence. But unless or until a large number of Muslims around the world do so, the call to violent jihad will continue to inspire young people like Adam Gadahn. After all, they want to please their new friends in their new home and do what they have become convinced is the will of Allah.

Thus, whenever someone proclaims that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists (instead of a religion that contains a violent doctrine that sets it at odds with the rest of world and cries out for reform), they are helping to make sure that more and more disaffected youth like Adam Gadahn will end up in radical Muslim training camps — and will eventually carry their struggle back to their infidel homeland.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and the author of Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (Regnery Publishing), and Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter Books).

ENDNOTES:

[1] Yahiye Adam Gadahn, “Becoming Muslim.”

[2] “American Sought Had ‘97 Arrest, ‘Extreme’ Ideas,” FOXNews, May 27, 2004.

[3] Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Pipes Objects to Fox in the Henhouse,” Insight Magazine, March 19, 2004.

[4] Navid Akhtar, “Fears as young Muslims ‘opt out,’” BBCNews, March 7, 2004.

[5] Muhammed Ibn Ismaiel Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari: The Translation of the Meanings, translated by Muhammad M. Khan, Darussalam, 1997, vol. 1, book 2, no. 36. The explanatory parenthetical phrases are added by the translators to bring out the sense of the original.

[6] Ahmed ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller (‘Umdat al-Salik): A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Amana Publications, 1999. Section o9.0.

Bomb Blast in Pakistan Mosque Kills 16

Revenge for the death of Shamzai. From ABC News, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

KARACHI, Pakistan May 31, 2004 — A bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque in Karachi during evening prayers Monday, killing at least 16 people and wounding 38 others. A top Pakistani official said the blast could be revenge for the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric.

Shamzai was a cleric who supported the Taliban.

Much of Karachi's violence is blamed on Islamic militants, angered by Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan, but clashes between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims are also common.

Much has been made of Sunni versus Shiite tensions, but many Sunni jihadis were inspired by the Shiite Islamic revolution in Iran.

In 1979 we were immediately told, of course, that Khomeini represented (all together now) only a tiny minority of extremist Muslims.