Iraqi jihadists take two Turks hostage

"Militants," they call them. The group calls itself "The Holders of the Black Banners." The article doesn't tell you this, but the black banner is the standard of jihad. These people have taken these hostages as part of their jihad against non-Muslims and secular Muslims.

How long will we pretend that we can fight against an enemy without naming him? How long will we delude ourselves into thinking that we can ignore who the enemy is and where and how he gains strength, and still defeat him?

From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi militants said Saturday they kidnapped two Turks and threatened to behead them within 48 hours, the latest in the country's unrelenting wave of abductions, even as efforts intensified to win the release of seven truck drivers taken captive by other insurgents.

The Tawhid and Jihad group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demanded the Turks' employers leave Iraq in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television, which showed three masked, black-garbed gunmen standing behind two seated men holding various forms of identification, including what were apparently Turkish passports.

Al-Jazeera identified the men as two Turkish truck drivers working for a Turkish company that delivers goods to U.S. forces in Iraq. The network said the militants threatened to decapitate the men if their demands were not met....

The kidnappers have threatened to kill one of the hostages if their employers, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., fail to meet their demands, including ending their work in Iraq.

The group, which calls itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had said they would carry out their threat by Friday night, but they had extended their deadlines repeatedly in the past and appeared to have done so again.

Sudan Denounces Security Council Plan

Another Islamic "hijacking." Looks as if the jihad will continue. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

UNITED NATIONS - Sudan denounced a U.N. Security Council resolution that gave the government 30 days to stem ethnic violence in the western Darfur region or face sanctions, saying Khartoum needed international help, not threats.

Sudan said the resolution, passed 13-0 on Friday, violates a previous agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in which it promised to crack down on the militias who have killed thousands of people and forced more than 1 million to flee in Darfur.

"Sudan expresses its deep sorrow that the issue of Darfur has quickly entered the Security Council and has been hijacked from its regional arena," Information Minister El-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said in a statement.

But the violence has continued despite a cease-fire called in July and Sudanese promises of a crackdown. The three African countries on the council — Algeria, Angola and Benin — backed the U.S.-sponsored resolution.

al-Qaida May Be Behind Pakistan Attack

Al-Qaeda trying to influence political policies through assassination? Don't they know jihad is an inner spiritual struggle? From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network may have been behind the failed attempt to assassinate the country's prime minister-designate, a senior Cabinet minister said Saturday, though investigators are still poring over the evidence.

The death toll from the suicide bomb attack Friday against Shaukat Aziz, meanwhile, rose to eight, with about three dozen injured, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Among those killed was Aziz's driver, who had not yet closed the bulletproof door on the car when a man approached and detonated a bomb.

"Al-Qaida may be behind it," Ahmed told The Associated Press, before adding that there is no hard evidence linking the group to the attack.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has said he believes al-Qaida was involved in two attempts to kill him in December, the last of which killed 17 people. He was unharmed.

Syrian music star sings praise of suicide bombers

Yet another interesting detail about Annie Jacobsen's famous Northwest flight 327. From the Washington Times:

The Syrian singer of a band that was detained by the FBI's Terrorism Task Force for suspicious activity during a recent flight to Los Angeles has written about the "glorification" of suicide bombers to liberate Palestine.

Singer Nour Mehana's latest album includes the song "Um El Shaheed," or "Mother of a Martyr," said Aluma Dankowitz of the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The song tells the story of a woman who mourned her son's death until she realized that "he died for a good cause and he should be glorified for what he did," said Miss Dankowitz, who translated the song for The Washington Times.

Mr. Mehana, widely known as the Syrian Wayne Newton, sings to the mother that her son's goals are heroic and she should be happy he is dead.

"The song opens with the depiction of a mother crying over her son. He has said goodbye to his friends and family and is not going to come back. He went with a weapon in one palm and his heart in another palm and he's not going to come back," Miss Dankowitz said. "He went to fight to free Palestine, Golan Heights and South Lebanon."

The song ends with chants of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," a common Muslim expression. Those were the last words shouted by a September 11 hijacker before the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field and have been the last words of many suicide bombers in Israel.

"Islamic Jihad Group of Uzbekistan" claims responsibility for US, Israeli Embassy bombings

This seems to be the same group that claimed responsibility for the April attacks. Note that the group's declaration amounts to a declaration of jihad until Sharia is instituted all over the Islamic world. No one seems to know much about this group, or how much trouble they can cause for this relatively moderate land. And Kofi Annan is dismayed, but what is he going to do? From Muslim Uzbekistan:

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday voiced his dismay at a series of bombings in Uzbekistan against the United States and Israeli embassies, as well as the office of the country's prosecutor. Mr. Annan's spokesman issued a statement saying the Secretary-General "condemns these criminal acts in the strongest terms." Uzbek prosecutor-general Rashyd Kadyrov announced in April the so called "Jamoats" (Communities) were behind Uzbek spring unrest "Targeting of diplomatic missions and civilians is a crime that cannot be justified by any cause," he said.

The blasts in capital of Tashkent reportedly killed two people and injured at least nine others. One of the killed was policeman and another was officer of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan. One of these two was of Russian nationality, according to RFE'RL's Uzbek service broadcast....

Not the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) on Friday claimed responsibility for suicide bombings against the US and Israeli embassies, as well as Uzbekistan's prosecutor general's office in Tashkent as i was reported previously, but an unknown group called "Jamoat" according to a statement posted on an Islamist website.

The claim was posted on (http://www.islamicminbar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=338).

"Martyrdom operations carried out by the group will not stop. They are directed against the injustice of the apostate government and in support of our Muslim brethren in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other Islamic countries ruled by apostates," said the statement, signed Mohammed al-Fateh from Bukhara.

This still unknown group ... had previously assumed responsibility for March-April attacks.

Homeland Security Appointee Under Investigation

Faisal Gill of the DHS is starting to attract attention. From FoxNews, with thanks to DC Watson:

WASHINGTON — Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the reinstatement of a top political appointee to the agency who was briefly suspended for failing to disclose ties to a controversial Islamic organization, FOXNews.com has learned.

Faisal Gill, director of policy for intelligence at DHS, was forced to take a few days off in March after sources close to the FBI raised flags about Gill's former position as spokesman for the American Muslim Council.

The now-defunct American Muslim Council was founded in 1990 to lobby Washington for the interests of American Muslims and had been involved in community activism to that end. AMC was established and headed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was indicted in 2003 on passport fraud and illegal finance activities with Libya.

Court documents call Alamoudi an active supporter of Hamas, which the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization, and an official in an international charity group run by Usama Bin Laden's nephew. Alamoudi recently told federal officials he was part of a plot to assassinate King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

According to a report first published last month by Salon.com reporter Mary Jacoby, Gill omitted his role with the American Muslim Council when he filed his employment application and requisite security clearances at the agency. Gill left off his "Standard Form 86" that he served as AMC’s spokesman in 2001.

Sudan's silent jihad

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's latest, "Sudan's silent jihad," appeared Thursday in FrontPage.

Just in time to mark the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide that it largely ignored, the human rights community is beginning to take notice of the genocide in Sudan. As welcome as this is, and as refreshing as it is that the New York Times and Washington Post have done extensive reporting on Darfur in recent weeks, few have noted that the tragedy of Darfur is actually the second Sudanese genocide of our age. The first killed over two million African Christians and animists in southern Sudan.

They may be forgiven for being slow on the uptake, however; after all, Darfur marks the third genocide in Africa that Kofi Annan is declining to notice: Rwanda, Sudan I and now Sudan II. Over 100,000 people have been killed in Darfur. By autumn the number of those who have been displaced or impoverished, or whose lives have been destroyed by the war in other ways, will most likely exceed three million. Yet Annan declared that he cannot consider it “genocide or ethnic cleansing yet.”

There is another word that Annan has never uttered in connection with Sudan. For a decade Khartoum has waged what the regime itself calls a jihad against Christians and tribalists in the South. A 1992 fatwa issued by a group of pro-Khartoum Sudanese imams declared: “An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing as a bulwark against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them.” This allowed for the murder of Christians and animists in the south; now it has been turned against the Muslims of Darfur, whose Islam doesn’t measure up to Khartoum’s hardline standards....

The victims are the blacks of Darfur and southern Sudan, who continue to be murdered and enslaved by Islamic Arab fundamentalists. The jihadists operate with impunity before a world that doesn’t dare give a name to the crime they are committing. How many more deaths will be needed before Annan and the human rights establishment admit the truth?

American Islamic Leader to Plead Guilty in Libya Plot

Alamoudi was one of the highest-profile "moderates" in the country. This article suggests that the main thing he was doing was trying to topple the House of Saud. That doesn't seem like criminal activity to me -- unless he was doing it so that an even more virulent regime could take its place. Questions linger. From the New York Times, with thanks to Steve:

WASHINGTON, July 29 - Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American Muslim leader implicated in an alleged plot by the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, to assassinate the leader of Saudi Arabia, has acknowledged his role in the plot and agreed to plead guilty to having illegal business dealings with Libya, officials said Thursday. Mr. Alamoudi, who is president of the American Muslim Foundation and has had access to senior officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations over the years, is expected to enter his guilty plea on Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., his lawyers said. He faces a maximum of 23 years in prison, but his sentence could be reduced significantly because he has cooperated extensively with the American authorities in some 100 hours of interviews about his Libyan dealings, officials said.

The plea agreement lays out extensive new details about the Libyan plot, including Mr. Alamoudi's recruitment by Libyan intelligence officials last year as an intermediary who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-Saudi dissidents in London and elsewhere, officials said. A classified version also identifies Libyan officials thought to have acted at the behest of Colonel Qaddafi in seeking to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, said officials familiar with the report....

Mr. Alamoudi has been criticized by some outside groups for what they saw as virulently anti-Israeli rhetoric, but embraced by many Muslims for the political inroads he has made among high-level American officials. Even now, he appears to have significant support among American Muslims, including dozens who have packed the Alexandria courtroom.

"The people who know Abdurahman are definitely behind him under all circumstances," said Ashraf Nubani, a Washington-area lawyer who is a close friend of Mr. Alamoudi's. "There's no doubt that this was a selective prosecution. That doesn't excuse what people may or may not have done, whether it was Abdurahman Alamoudi or anyone else, but Muslims are being targeted by law enforcement all levels of society."

Targeted? Well, is he guilty or not?

Can't find Osama bin Laden? Perhaps we're not looking in the right place.

A Jihad Watch exclusive commentary by Stella L. Jatras.

In his book, My Life, President Clinton devotes many pages to his peccadilloes with Monica Lewinsky, a woman young enough to be his daughter, and proudly writes he did it "Because I could." However, he gives scant attention to the destruction of the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia. Let us take a look at the results of what President Bill Clinton is so "proud" of regarding U.S. intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo.

A Telegraph (UK) of 26 July report titled, "US hunts Islamic militants in Bosnia," writes: "American military intelligence and the CIA have deployed hundreds of officers in Bosnia to track suspected Islamic militants amid concerns that the country has become a refuge, recruiting ground and cash conduit for international terrorism. Almost a decade after the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia has become a 'one-stop shop' for Islamic militants heading from terrorist battlegrounds in Chechnya and Afghanistan to Iraq, according to European intelligence officials."

A Wall Street Journal (Europe edition) article of Nov 1, 2001 titled, "Al Qaeda's Balkan Links," reported, "The Balkan's uncharacteristically silent exit from the world stage as the most prominent international hot spot of the last decade belies its status as a major recruiting and training center of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. By feeding off the region's impoverished republics and taking root in the unsettled diplomatic aftermath of the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts, al Qaeda, along with Iranian Revolutionary Guard-sponsored terrorists, have burrowed their way into Europe's backyard.

"For the past 10 years, the most senior leaders of al Qaeda have visited the Balkans, including bin Laden himself on three occasions between 1994 and 1996. The Egyptian surgeon turned terrorist leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has operated terrorist training camps, weapons of mass destruction factories and money-laundering and drug-training networks throughout Albanian, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria, Turkey and Bosnia. This has gone on for a decade. Many recruits to the Balkan wars came originally from Chechnya, a jihad in which Al Qaeda has also played a part."

At the same time the Clinton administration was supporting the Bosnian [Muslim] government of Alija Izetbegovic, that government issued a passport to Osama bin Laden at their Vienna embassy in 1992.

In a very revealing commentary titled, "We bombed the wrong side?" of April 6, 2004 (Canadian National Post), Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, first UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia, wrote, "The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to others." Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz wrote on the Opinion Page in The Washington Post on March 26, 2000, "Was it a Mistake? We Were Suckers for the KLA." The Kosovo Liberation Army is engaged in sex slavery, prostitution, murder, kidnapping and drugs. Furthermore, it is an army that was trained by Osama bin Laden dealing mainly in drugs, as confirmed in the May 4, 1999 article by Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper, in which he wrote, "Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa and killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans," yet we are told by the previous administration that at the time, Osama bin Laden was not the known threat that he is today.

In The Spectator [UK] article of Sep 6, 2003 titled, "How we trained al-Qa'eda," author Brendan O'Neill wrote, "For all the millions of words written about al-Qa'eda since the 9/11 attacks two years ago, one phenomenon is consistently overlooked - the role of the Bosnian war in transforming the mujahedin [Islamic warriors] of the 1980s into the roving Islamic terrorists of today."

Ironically, the U.S. is accusing Iran of intervening in the affairs of Iraq, yet in a House Republican Research Committee Report on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare, titled "Iran's European Springboard?" analysts Yossef Bodansky & Vaughn S. Forrest wrote as far back as 1992, "Thus Tehran and its allies are using the violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a springboard for the launching of a jihad in Europe." Yossef Bodansky is the author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America."

Through Clinton's misguided foreign policy, Bosnia has become al-Qaeda's corridor into Europe. As an example, Spanish media reported that one of the suspected terrorists involved in the Madrid bombing was born in Bosnia and linked to al Qaeda. (Financial Times, April 8, 2004/BBC monitoring). Reuters of 30 Dec 2003, writes, "UN adds Bosnia charity director to al Qaeda list." Furthermore, The Associated Press of 28 June reported, "In mosques and storefront Muslim charities, U.S. and European intelligence agencies are engaged in covert conflict in Bosnia, tracking up to 300 suspected Islamic militants and shutting down those financing them."

As for President Clinton's "successful" mission in Kosovo, National Review Online of March 19, 2004, wrote, "A pogrom started in Europe this week, with one U.S. official being quoted as saying, 'Kristallnacht is underway in Kosovo.' Serbs are being murdered and their 800-year-old churches are aflame. Much of the Christian heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is on fire and could be destroyed forever. By these deeds too many of Kosovo's Albanians have shown that their rhetoric about 'democracy' and 'multiethnicity,'is false, and demonstrates also that the international community's acceptance of them have been naive."

Americans are rightly outraged by the beheadings of our citizens. However, photos of Saudi Arabian mujahedin holding the severed heads of Serbs in Bosnia as early as 1992 or the most recent photo of KLA terrorists holding the severed of Serbs in Kosovo as late as 1999 went virtually unreported.

During a CATO discussion group the question was raised: "How could we bomb a sovereign nation in violation of the UN Charter, International law and the tenants of NATO." The answer from one of the pro-NATO bombing panelist said, "Because we could." Sound familiar?

Iyad Allawi, Prime Minister of Iraq, is quoted as saying (The New York Times, June 21) "We will do all we can to strike against the enemy forces aiming at harming our country, and we will not stand by with our hands tied." President George W. Bush said precisely the same thing when he said that we will do whatever it takes to defeat (Muslim) terrorists," yet we denied the Serbs the right to defend themselves against the same enemy that we are fighting today. As Gen. Charles Boyd, USAF (Ret), former Deputy Commander in Chief, European Command said, "The Serbs are not fighting to conquer new territory, but to hold on to what was already theirs."

I would like to suggest that if we are serious about finding Osama bin Laden, we look in Bosnia and Kosovo.

_________________________________________

As a career military officer's wife, Stella Jatras has traveled widely and has lived in many foreign countries where she not only learned about other cultures but also became very knowledgeable regarding world affairs and world politics. Stella Jatras lived in Moscow for two years (where her husband, George, was the Senior Air Attaché), and while there, worked in the Political Section of the US Embassy. Stella has also lived in Germany, Greece and Saudi Arabia. Her travels took her to over twenty countries.

Ignoring security threats

Now DHS has retracted an earlier statement and says that Annie Jacobsen's 14 Syrian musicians were here legally after all. What does that suggest about what DHS really knows about anything? An op-ed from the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The Homeland Security Department reversed itself yesterday, announcing that all 14 Syrian musicians who exhibited bizarre, menacing behavior on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles last month were legally in the United States after all. DHS blames the confusion about the visa status on Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees. The flip-flop by DHS is just the latest odd twist in a story that raises troubling questions about the ability of our immigration authorities and airline security apparatus to keep potentially dangerous people off passenger planes.... Since the story became public, there has been a campaign by some unnamed government officials and Internet bloggers to discredit Annie Jacobsen — a journalist and passenger who wrote about what occurred on the flight in WomensWallStreet.com — as hysterical and unreliable. Her critics point to DHS' official position that it has no intelligence showing that terrorists are conducting surveillance of airline security procedures. One problem with this is that other passengers have given accounts first reported in this newspaper that corroborate Mrs. Jacobsen's. Also, pilots and air marshals (the latter being DHS' own employees) privately speak about groups of men engaging in similar behavior on other flights, in what look like dry runs for attacks. Also, on Feb. 8 the London Observer published a story quoting intelligence officials as stating that terrorists are practicing ways to smuggle explosive components onto planes so they can assemble bombs in midflight. It stretches credulity to believe, as DHS contends, that terrorists aren't carrying out surveillance of airliners. We dismiss these serious security concerns raised by Mrs. Jacobsen at our peril.

Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing

Here's one that will build your confidence in American counter-terrorism activities. From the New York Times, with thanks to Al-Canine:

WASHINGTON, July 28 - A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.

The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

Ms. Edmonds worked as a contract linguist for the F.B.I. for about six months, translating material in Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani. She was dismissed in 2002 after she complained repeatedly that bureau linguists had produced slipshod and incomplete translations of important terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also accused a fellow Turkish linguist in the bureau's Washington field office of blocking the translation of material involving acquaintances who had come under F.B.I. suspicion and said the bureau had allowed diplomatic sensitivities with other nations to impede the translation of important terrorism intelligence.

The Edmonds case has proved to be a growing concern to the F.B.I. because it touches on three potential vulnerabilities for the bureau: its ability to translate sensitive counterterrorism material, its treatment of internal "whistle-blowers," and its classification of sensitive material that critics say could be embarrassing to the bureau.

The Justice Department has imposed an unusually broad veil of secrecy on the Edmonds case, declaring details of her case to be a matter of "state secrets." The department has blocked her from testifying in a lawsuit brought by families of Sept. 11 victims, it has retroactively classified briefings Congressional officials were given in 2002, and it has classified the inspector general's entire report on its investigation into her case. As a result, groups promoting government openness have accused the Justice Department of abusing the federal procedures in place for classifying sensitive material....

The inspector general "also criticized the F.B.I.'s failure to adequately pursue Ms. Edmonds's allegations of espionage as they related to one of her colleagues," Mr. Mueller said in his letter.

Texas: Potential terrorists released due to lack of jail space, congressman says

Here's one that will build your confidence in our border controls. From the Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Al-Canine:

Middle Easterners with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico but released for lack of jail space, said U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.

“It is true. It is very reliable information, from the horse’s mouth, and it’s happening all over the place,” Ortiz, D-Texas, told The Herald on Thursday.

“It’s very, very scary, and members (of Congress) know about this. We have contacted several agencies, and I have talked to some people, but I can’t say who.”

Kashmir jihadists target hapless women to spread terror

A horrific story from Qatar's Peninsula Online, with thanks to Raymond for the link:

Jammu: The women of Jammu and Kashmir are paying with their honour and lives as terrorists target the families of those who they feel have betrayed them.

Mariam Begum of Gandoh in Doda district was raped for days together before she was defaced by militants, who chopped off her nose and ears. She had to pay with her honour because her brother, a militant, had decided to lay down arms and live a normal life.

“How could that be?” Mariam’s captors reportedly asked her as long as she was in their captivity last month.

If Mariam, who is in her twenties, is thanking god that she survived to live another day, women in the border district of Rajouri have not been so lucky.

Teenaged Zarina, for whom her father Mohammad Shafi was looking for a match as girls in rural areas are married off at an early age, was lowered into a grave on Monday afternoon.

Her beheaded body had to be put together before the last rites. Militants had slit her throat.

Her father and brother were also buried in a similar condition the same day.

A week ago, two female members of Abdul Ghani’s family were among five people shot dead by Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists.

The fault of both these families was that their men were suspected of siding with the Indian security forces.

Women, in most cases, are raped, if not killed as the militants attempt to humiliate families suspected of working with the security forces.

“The women are targeted because this is the raw nerve of all the families and the militants have used rape as a tool against these families,” said a police officer....

Most cases of rape go unreported as shamed families keep matters to themselves, police said.

Abu Bakar Bashir Won't Be Charged in Bali Bombings

One unspoken element is the likelihood that he's too popular to be charged. And what does that tell you? This man has spoken openly about violent jihad, and defended the Bali bombings. From AP, with thanks to many:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian police dropped plans Wednesday to charge a radical cleric in the 2002 Bali bombings, but said the man Washington accuses of being a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia will remain in jail.

The 65-year-old Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with other crimes, including heading the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and a deadly suicide attack last year on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel, chief detective Suyitno Landung said. Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for both attacks.

The announcement followed last week's landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court, which barred the retroactive use of an anti-terror law rushed through parliament after the Bali bombings. The explosions killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists....

Earlier this year, U.S. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in Jakarta that Bashir had "intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities." Australia's foreign minister called Bashir a "loathsome creature" and said he should remain behind bars.

His case is sensitive in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Authorities want to be aggressive in the U.S.-led anti-terror war while not being seen as subject to Washington's influence.

Link Between Dallas City Hall and Hamas

Via the Holy Land Foundation. From CBS11 News, with thanks to EPG:

The federal government's roundup Tuesday of seven Middle Eastern men on charges of funding the terrorist group Hamas yielded an unexpected disclosure: a link between Dallas City Hall and Hamas’ top leader in Israel’s occupied territories.

North Texas resident Mufid Abdulquader is a city of Dallas engineer who was among the men charged Tuesday in a 42-count indictment for allegedly using the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas terrorist operations. But Abdulquader, a Palestinian and naturalized U.S. citizen, has a connection to Hamas shared by none of the others.

Abdulquader’s Syrian-based half brother is a top leader of Hamas, ranking so high that he has been a target of high-profile Israeli assassinations that have killed other organization leaders in recent months. Abdulquader’s half-brother – they share the same father – is Khaled Mishaal, Hamas’ political bureau chief and U.S. designee as a global terrorist.

Until the government unsealed its indictment Tuesday, the family relationship between the city of Dallas engineer and Mishaal was known only to a few intelligence officials who had grown increasingly concerned about it as Hamas leaders began publicly threatening to target Americans.

Hamas has deployed dozens of suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in a quest to annihilate that country and replace it with an Islamic regime.

But recent threats by Hamas leadership to mount attacks on American soil provoked heightened fears within the FBI that the engineer could pass along sensitive information about the city’s vital infrastructure systems to terrorists, two sources have told CBS-11 News.

It's not genocide, it's jihad

From the superb Cox and Forkum.

Watch for a column about this exact point from Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, coming very soon -- maybe even tomorrow.

Iraqi jihadists claim to kill Pakistan hostages

Is this story connected to the theological green light that was just issued? From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A militant group holding two Pakistani contractors hostage said Wednesday it had killed the men but freed their Iraqi driver, the Al-Jazeera television station Al-Jazeera reported.

The group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, had announced in a video Monday that it kidnapped two Pakistanis working for U.S. forces and sentenced them to death because their country was discussing sending troops to Iraq.

In a new videotape sent to Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, the men said they had carried out their threat, the station reported. The newsreader said the video showed the corpses of the two men; however, the station declined to show the footage.

The kidnapped men were identified by Pakistan as engineer Raja Azad, 49, and driver Sajad Naeem, 29, both of whom worked for the Kuwait-based al-Tamimi group in Baghdad. The militants also warned the company to stop doing business in Iraq or they would kill more of its employees.

Al-Qaida Suspect Arrested in Texas

I don't find any confirming stories, but here is one provocative report from Texas. From FederalNewsRadio.com, with thanks to Al-Canine:

A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high level al-Qaida operative.

Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19th headed to New York.

Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns. "In looking at her documents, they did not find any entry documents in her passport where she was legally admitted into the United States," says Flores....

Government sources tell FederalNewsRadio.com that capturing this woman could be comparable to the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It was revealed in court yesterday that she was on a watch list and had entered the U.S. possibly as many as 250 times.

Iraqi Sheikh: Kill Muslims who protect infidels

This is a declaration that those who aid unbelievers are themselves unbelievers, and can thus be killed. This is a well-attested principle in Islamic law. From the Jerusalem Post:

A lengthy audiotape purportedly by the spiritual adviser to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida-linked group justifies killing Muslims when their presence protects infidels and threatens revenge on Shiite Muslims.

The 74-minute tape, posted Wednesday on an Internet site that often carries statements from Islamic terrorists, identifies the speaker as Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, spiritual leader for Tawhid and Jihad. His name often is cited in Islamic forums as a religious authority, but he was not known to have released such audiotapes.

"If infidels take Muslims as protectors and Muslims do not fight them, it is allowed to kill the Muslims," the speaker said, then gave an example.

"If there is an interest in killing a Turk, and if it is necessary - meaning that if targeting the infidels is impossible as long as the Turk exists - then killing the Turk serves an interest to all Muslims and his killing is allowed," he said.

Turks, Jordanians, Egyptians and other Muslims have been abducted, but thus far no Muslims are known to have been decapitated.

On extremist Islamic online forums, the accidental killing of Muslims who work for US coalition forces in Iraq has always been a controversial subject, but generally it has been considered justifiable.

Opinions have been more mixed on taking Muslims hostage and beheading them, with some saying "fellow Muslims" should be spared and others urging their killing as examples to others of the fate of those who are "allied with the devil."

Groups Sue to Stop Bag Searches in Boston

Interesting: the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is suing to stop bag searches around the convention in Boston. Now, why would they care? Is this an instance of anti-Arab discrimination? As far as I know everyone, Nordic, Far Eastern, whatever, is being searched. Here is a question of whether individual civil rights should trump public safety concerns.

So tell me: when you saw those videos of the 9/11 hijackers passing through airport security, did you think they should have been searched more carefully? Or waved through for fear of anti-Arab discrimination?

From AP, with thanks to LGF:

BOSTON - Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority from randomly inspecting passengers' bags, saying it's an unconstitutional violation of personal privacy.

A judge scheduled an emergency hearing for Tuesday in the case filed by the National Lawyers Guild and the American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The random inspections began Thursday, just in time for the Democratic National Convention this week at Boston's FleetCenter. The policy is the first of its kind in the country.

The groups say the searches violate the Fourth Amendment because they don't require information that the person searched is suspected of criminal activity. They've urged customers not to consent to the searches.

"There is no way the MBTA can implement this policy in a constitutional manner," said National Lawyers Guild national president Michael Avery.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the bags aren't opened. Instead, they are run through a machine that detects explosives. Pesaturo said so far no one has objected to having their bags inspected.

If they win this case, won't that stop bag searches in places like museums as well? Not long ago I was in Washington, and I saw that places such as the Smithsonian buildings and even parking garages inspect bags. (I took a break from work long enough to stop by the National Archives, where I was searched going in, but not going out. I guess I could have carried the Constitution home in my socks.)

Freed Egyptian Thinks Remorse Turned Captors

Muhammad Qutb was freed, according to this, because he was a Muslim. From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27 - In the end, Muhammad Mamdouh Qutb figures it was his captors' remorse that led to his freedom.

Yes, they roughed him up and bundled him into a car, took him hostage for four days and told the world they would kill him. But then, said Mr. Qutb, an Egyptian diplomat, it dawned on them that he was far from an ideal target: he prayed five times a day, he fasted, and as they learned from a television report, he was known for teaching the Koran to children at the neighborhood mosque.

It did not hurt, Mr. Qutb added, that his captors, who called themselves the Lions of Allah Brigade and snatched him as he came out of a local mosque on Thursday night, had accomplished their mission without killing him. Taking him hostage and airing their demands on television was a cheap, efficient way to make their grievances known.

Judging from their accents, he said, he believed that his captors were all Iraqi. Their goal, he gathered, was to impress upon Egypt that the price of aiding the new Iraqi administration would be steep.

"They wanted to send a message to the Egyptian government," Mr. Qutb said during an interview on Tuesday inside the Egyptian Embassy. "They did that through the media."

Terrorists Obtain South Africa Passports

It would seem that the US VISIT program, which checks only people from selected countries, would be rendered useless by stories like this. From AP:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe have obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.

The illicit acquisition of the passports, which allow travel through many African countries and Britain without visas, sent shock waves through South Africa after one top police official said "boxes and boxes" of the documents were discovered in London.

Barry Gilder, director general of the Department of Home Affairs, told The Associated Press he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaida suspects or their associates in Europe — both in his current capacity and as a former deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency.

U.S. Indicts Muslim Charity in Texas

Another terror charity. And note: Hamas got $12.4 million from this one source alone. Remember that the next time you hear about desperately poor Palestinians having to blow themselves up on buses because they have no money to buy weapons and wage conventional warfare. From AP:

WASHINGTON - A major American Muslim charity and seven of its officers were charged Tuesday with providing millions of dollars in support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization blamed for dozens of suicide bomber attacks in Israel.

The 42-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas, alleges that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas from 1995 to 2001. The U.S. government froze the charity's assets in December 2001.

The indictment names the foundation along with its president, Shukri Abu Baker; chairman, Ghassan Elashi; executive director, Haitham Maghawri; and four others. The charges include conspiracy, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, tax evasion and money laundering.

Elashi, remember, is a former CAIR official.

Assassins kill top Iraqi official as eight die in attacks

At the time of the transfer of sovereignty, I said here that that transfer would change nothing: the mujahedin, the warriors of jihad, would still labor to transform Iraq into an Islamic state. From the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Nicolei:

Gunmen assassinated a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official and two of his bodyguards in Baghdad yesterday, a ministry source said.

Mussab al-Awadi was reported to have been killed along with two of his bodyguards as he left his house in the capital.

Earlier three people, including a child, were killed and seven others wounded in a suicide bombing outside the main US military base in the northern city of Mosul, the US military said....

Also yesterday, militants calling themselves the Mujahideen Corps kidnapped two Jordanian drivers and threatened to execute them in 72 hours unless their Jordanian company stopped doing business with the US military, Associated Press reported. It follows an announcement by a group holding seven other foreigners that it had extended the deadline for talks and repeated a demand for their Kuwaiti employer to leave.

The hostages - three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian, all truck drivers for a Kuwaiti firm - were seized last week by a little-known group calling itself the Black Banners brigade of the Islamic Secret Army. The brigade said it had decided to extend the deadline in response to an appeal from Sheik Hisham al-Dulami, the head of what he calls the Detainees Association.

The firm, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, said on Sunday it had received assurances the captives would be freed.

An Iraqi group, the Islamic Army, said in a video aired on Al-Jazeera television that it had kidnapped two Pakistanis working for US forces and an Iraqi contract driver. It said it had sentenced the Pakistanis to death.

Some Iraq suicide bombers 'forced'

Remember Reem Raiyshi? From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A military official with the U.S. Central Command tells CNN that in one case after an attack, troops found a body with a foot tied with a rope inside a vehicle.

The official says there also is evidence of some individuals having their entire family held by extremists who then force them into suicide car bomb attacks....

In other cases, mentioned by the official, extremists with remote detonators have followed drivers to set off car bombs.

The official also said in one instance, U.S. forces went to a house and captured extremists holding a family hostage until a bombing mission was completed.

U.S. military officials say they have noticed another tactic, to use so-called "weekend jihadists."

This generally refers to using young men from neighboring countries who come to Iraq, and have no money. Then they are pressured into conducting attacks.

Turkey warned of Al-Qaeda airplane attacks - report

More rage and threats at Turkey, despised by the radical Muslims for its secularism. From AFX, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ANKARA (AFX) - Turkey has received intelligence that the al-Qaeda network may try to carry out attacks in the country similar to the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the Milliyet newspaper reported.

Citing "an important source" the newspaper said Turkey received information on July 16 that Al-Qaeda may be planning to either hijack a plane and crash it into a target on the ground, or blow up a plane in the air using homemade explosives.

Milliyet said the interior ministry convened an urgent meeting of security and air authorities last week and ordered security measures at airports be raised to "level yellow", the highest state of alarm after the top "level red".

Israel says Hizbullah rockets threaten Tel Aviv as Iran vows to ''wipe Israel off'' map

Back in the days of the Cold War, the doctrine of "Mutually Assured Destruction" was purported to have kept both sides from launching a nuclear attack on the other. But the problem with the "Islamic Bomb" is that those who will wish to launch it will not be given pause by the prospect of their own destruction: they will be martyrs for Allah, enjoying the sensual bounties of Paradise. From Al-Bawaba, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Intelligence Chief Major-General Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash said the Iranian-backed resistance movement had a few dozen rockets "apparently" with a range of 115 kilometers and perhaps as great as 200 kilometers....

Farkash's comments were published as a spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying the Islamic Republic will wipe Israel "off the face of the earth" if it dared to attack the its nuclear facilities.

"The United States is showing off by threatening to use its wild dog, Israel," the public relations head of the Revolutionary Guards, Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri, was quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency ISNA.

"They will not hesitate to strike Iran if they are capable of it. However, their threats to attack Irans nuclear facilities cannot be realised. They are aware Tehran's reaction will be so harsh that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth and US interests will be easily damaged," he warned.

Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: 'There is No Dialogue between Us and the Jews Except by the Sword and the Rifle'

Yes, this is the same Sheikh Qaradawi who made a big splash in London recently, praising suicide bombers and getting a return invitation from London mayor "Red Ken" Livingstone. This is, yes, the same Qaradawi who was featured prominently in the Arabic-language literature of a Boston mosque construction project -- but was conspicuously absent from the English-language material. And yes, this is the same Qaradawi who was praised as a moderate by Islamic "expert" John Esposito. From MEMRI:

However, on July 13, 2004, on his weekly program on Al-Jazeera television, 'Shari'a [Islamic Law] and Life,' Al-Qaradhawi explained his objections to including Jews in the May 2004 Conference of Islamic-Christian Dialogue in Doha. [3] Accusing "the Jews" of permitting the spilling of Arab blood and of being oppressors, Al-Qaradhawi concluded, "There is no dialogue between us except by the sword and the rifle…" [4]

The following are two columns from the Arab press about Al-Qaradhawi:

Former Editor of Leading Arab Paper: 'When it Comes to Political Matters, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Represents the Utmost Degree of Extremism'

In an op-ed titled 'Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: Liberal or Extremist?' the former editor of the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, discussed the discrepancies in the positions expressed by Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi on his current visit to London and those expressed on his website and other venues: [5]

"There has been an uproar in the British papers because of the decision to allow Sheikh Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradhawi to enter Britain, and they have described him as 'The Mufti of Terrorism' and 'The Propagandist of Extremism.' They have demanded that the government stop him [from entering Britain] as did the U.S.

"Now, what is the truth: Is Al-Qaradhawi an extremist? The truth is that with regard to [internal] social problems, he is regarded as one of the most liberal ulama [i.e., Muslim religious scholars]. However, when we are talking about general political matters, he turns into a different kind of mufti, and his record is well known.

"Perhaps the fact that his name is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood organization has made him look on the world from the viewpoint of the party [i.e., the Muslim Brotherhood] rather than from the reality of the Islamic nation, its capabilities, and its needs. One can say about him what the Saudi minister for Islamic affairs said about some of the propagandists and mosque preachers – namely, that they incite the youth to go out to fight while they do not leave their countries and do not allow their own children to do so."

'Al-Qaradhawi, May Allah Forgive Him, Has Been One of the Most Prominent to Call for War and Confrontation'

"Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi, may Allah forgive him, has been one of the most prominent speakers calling for war and confrontation. But he himself has continued to live in Qatar, in an air-conditioned house. I heard what Al-Qaradhawi said in his own defense against the attack by the London press, denying that he is inciting [and claiming] that he is conducting a dialogue, and that he is against violence and in favor of peace."

'What He Said in London is Not Consistent with His Words in Doha'

"However, what he said in London is not consistent with his words in [the Qatari capital] Doha, which you can all read in their totality, as they are documented on his website. Two weeks ago, he announced on his program ['Sharia and Life'on Al-Jazeera] that he is against the Jews and against conducting a dialogue with them, and that they are all iniquitous. [6] The following are his words: 'The iniquity of the Jews, as a community, is obvious and apparent. Let me explain: The West, I can say about some of them [i.e., Westerners] who are iniquitous, and others who are not iniquitous. And it is possible. But iniquity on the part of the Jews is great iniquity, grave iniquity, iniquity that is incomparable and overt. Therefore, when it was suggested to me that Jews would be participating in the dialogue in the upcoming interview, I rejected this. I said no, we should not conduct a dialogue with these [people] while their hands are stained with our blood.' [7]

Islamist takeovers a real threat, 9/11 panelist says

And how exactly would this change the way the Saudis and Pakistanis have already been operating? From the Washington Times, with thanks to chrisb:

The threat of Islamist extremists taking over Pakistan or Saudi Arabia is real and could "fundamentally change the balance of security in the world," September 11 commission member John F. Lehman said yesterday.

How the United States treats the delicate balance of pro-American governments and radical Muslim forces in those two nations is critical to the success of U.S. strategy on terrorism, Mr. Lehman said during a meeting with reporters at The Washington Times.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia "are not our enemies," he said. "If they are to fall into our enemies' hands, it would fundamentally change the balance and have enormous impact on our economy."

Kuwait busts Iraq jihad ring

Kuwait also plans to try to keep the young from being misled by jihad ideology. I hope to see how they will explain the jihad verses in the Qur'an and Hadith. From AFP:

KUWAIT said today it was questioning 11 people in connection with an alleged campaign to recruit volunteers to fight US forces in Iraq and that some had confessed to undergoing military training.

"Eleven people have been referred to the prosecution for investigation of their role in ... enlisting youth for so-called jihad (holy war) in Iraq," Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah said....

Sheikh Nawaf said some of the suspects were teenagers who had apparently been "brainwashed" with extremist ideas....

At its weekly meeting today, the Kuwaiti Cabinet discussed measures to protect young people from the "dangerous ideas propagated by some extremists".

The drive to prevent youngsters from being misled would be co-ordinated by several ministries, including those of the interior, social affairs and Islamic affairs, Deputy Premier and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Mohammed Deifallah Sharar said.

Osama's former sister-in-law: Most Saudis back his world-view

From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat:

The author also has a chilling message for the rest of us. Despite official protestations, she says, the vast majority of Saudis support Osama's extremist world-view. "Osama bin Laden is considered a true Muslim. They don't have any doubt about that," she says in a husky, French-accented voice. The Saudis, she maintains, are essentially Taliban with money.

Ms. bin Ladin, who is half Swiss and half Iranian, was married for 14 years to Yeslam bin Ladin, the 10th son of the family patriarch, Sheik Mohamed. Osama is Yeslam's younger brother. Ms. bin Ladin lived in the Kingdom with the extended bin Laden clan from 1976 to 1985. Today, she lives in Switzerland, where she's still in a bitter, protracted divorce battle with Yeslam. The family have cut off all contact. "I know they're not very happy about the book," she says. "But they know it's true."

The book's a scorcher, not for its fleeting glimpses of Osama (who recoiled in horror when she once answered the door unveiled), but for its depiction of the utter oppression and submissiveness of Saudi women and the dysfunction of the elites. While Saudi princes rake off billions in business kickbacks, their neglected and depressed wives abuse drugs, drown their sorrows in extravagant shopping sprees, and turn to lesbian affairs for comfort. Many of them have bone density problems because they never go outside or exercise. When their husbands divorce them, they may never see their children again.

The bin Laden women "did nothing, read nothing, and were like pets kept by their husbands," she writes....

She is deeply pessimistic that Saudi society is capable of reform. "I have never seen Saudis questioning their culture and principles." And that's bad news for the rest of us.

"When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place," she writes. "The ground of Saudi Arabia is fertile soil for intolerance and arrogance, and for contempt toward outsiders. It is a country where there is no room for mildness, mercy, compassion or doubt. . . . Their way has been chosen by God.

"They are eager to understand our technology, and they understand our political systems. But inside them, there is nothing but scorn for what they perceive as the godless, individualistic values and shameless freedoms of the Western way of life."

Sudan group: Prepare to fight Western troops

Muhammad's Army is at the ready in Sudan: the tiny minority of extremists alerts worshippers at the central mosque in Khartoum. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Meanwhile a group calling itself Mohammed's army called on Muslims to prepare to fight Western forces sent on any mission to western Sudan....

In its warning of action against western forces, the previously unknown group said in a statement obtained by Reuters: "We have seen and heard of the American and British interference in Darfur and there is no doubt that this is a crusader war that bears no relation to the citizens of Darfur."

"We call upon you to speedily head towards Darfur and dig deep into the ground mass graves prepared for the crusader army," it added.

Witness said young Sudanese men were handing out the statements to worshippers at the central mosque in the capital, Khartoum.

Muslim rebels light fuse in Thailand

This report on the jihad in Thailand considers and then downplays religion as a motivating factor in the violence. But to say that the Thai jihadists are not linked to Al-Qaeda, and that many Muslims there are not radicalized, or even that one of the TR Sports players dropped out of a madrassa, actually proves nothing at all about whether or not they were motivated by jihad ideology.

The underlying problem is that secular Westerners often cannot or will not understand religious motivations. They assume that if someone like Osama talks of religion, it is just a cloak for his real motivations, which must be ethnic or socioeconomic or something else. But this founders on the fact that people with ethnic and socioeconomic grievances have gone on for centuries without declaring jihad, and many have solved their problems through negotiation. Jihad is the element that inflames conflicts such that no negotiation is possible. Also, why did the great Islamic empires, which had no socioeconomic or ethnic grievances but were in fact the richest and most powerful polities in the world, nevertheless continue to wage jihads?

Just the other day I was reading an advance copy of Pat Buchanan's new book, in which he gets as far as to say that we should listen to what the jihadists are saying. Then he retails Osama's foreign policy grievances against the US, and says we should oblige him by withdrawing from Saudi Arabia, cutting support for Israel, etc. But why not listen to everything the jihadists say -- including their universalist, expansionist manifestos, declaring that they will fight until the whole world will be ruled by Sharia? Will those men be mollified by a new, Muslim-friendly American foreign policy? Mr. Buchanan, I doubt it. Just as I doubt that the Muslims in Southern Thailand will be satisfied by anything but an Islamic Sharia state there -- in which they will no doubt have the same (or worse) socioeconomic difficulties.

From the Observer, with thanks to Filtrat:

Fifty miles from the boot camp by the coast is Su So. The village, set on a ridge surrounded by forest, is dominated by the football ground's concrete grandstand. But few play football in Su So any more. The best side in the village was TR Sports, and all 19 of its players died when they launched a dawn attack on a police post in a nearby town on 28 April.

The men had machetes and knives, the police M-16s. The team's only survivor was the coach, Pittaiya. His brother, Kamaruddin, top scorer and captain, was killed. 'He was a normal man, a nice man, very quiet,' Pittaiya said last week. 'They were all normal men. I still can't understand how this happened.'

There are no clear explanations why more than 100 poorly armed villagers launched themselves against automatic weapons. Some blame religion, others 'outside influences' that convinced the men they were invulnerable. But what is clear is that the attack was part of a wider pattern that has brought the vicious little conflict in the south of Thailand, which has claimed 300 lives already this year, to a new level of intensity.

Last week two policemen, a school bus driver, a railway official and two village administrators were shot dead. One was Sawan Khaosee, who worked in Su So. When The Observer visited the village office, a few hundred yards from the football stadium, Khaosee's desk remained piled with the papers he had been working on in the hours before his death. Khaosee was a Buddhist, like nearly 95 per cent of Thais. The villagers of Su So, like most of the people in the three provinces where the violence has been concentrated, are Muslim.The fighting that has surged there is often, by outsiders at least, said to be based in religion.

Islam is a strong element. Ever since the Sultanate of Pattani, a local Islamic kingdom, was annexed by an expansionist Buddhist monarchy more than a century ago, some have fought central rule and called for a separate Islamic state. Revolts in the 1970s and early 1980s were put down with great brutality.

The most recent violence also has a strong religious flavour. On the day that TR Sports died, another group of men attacked a police post on the outskirts of the town of Pattani after praying at a historic mosque near by. According to Niseng Nilaeh, an eyewitness, the leader called on local people to join the battle to 'sacrifice themselves for God'. Later the police found a 30-page tract arguing that it was a religious obligation for Muslims to fight for the 'lost land' of the Pattani sultanate.

Religious radicalism has been growing in the south for several years. More conservative, intolerant styles of worship have been imported from the Middle East. Certainly, many of the TR Sports players had been educated in government-registered religious schools and at least two ran their own Islamic study groups. Some had studied in the 200 new medressas -independent Islamic colleges devoted purely to religion - that have sprung up in the past decade. There are some links to a Saudi-funded hardline religious college.

According to Rawsedee Lertariyapongkul, the president of the Association of Thai Muslim Youth, world events may have angered the footballers. 'People see what is happening in Palestine and Iraq and Kashmir and feel that Muslims are being treated very badly everywhere. They want to fight for justice,' he said.

But there is no real evidence of any link between the separatists and al-Qaeda or its local affiliates. And for every one of the TR Sports team who appeared devout, there are others who were not. The youngest in the side, 18-year-old Samit Suthonehh, had left a religious school three months earlier because he didn't like it. Four others had just completed their compulsory military service.

Nor did the players ever show any interest in, or knowledge of, international affairs. There is no satellite dish in Su So. 'The guys were never interested in religion or politics,' said Pittaiya. 'They just liked to play football. All their favourite players were from Brazil or England.'

Many say the problem is ethnic.The southern provinces are mainly Malay, not Thai.The assailants who decapitated a Buddhist monk in May left a note saying: 'If you continue to arrest innocent Muslims, we will kill innocent Buddhists.' But those who wounded two policemen last week threatened to 'kill innocent Thais' if 'innocent Malays' were harmed. 'That demonstrates how confused these issues are,' said one Thai intelligence expert.

Others point to socio economic factors. Thailand's economic growth has left the southern provinces trailing. Su So's village elders complain of a lack of electricity, public transport and water pumps. The government has launched major development plans - in Su So there is scheme helping women to stitch clothes for export - but many locals still feel they are treated as second-class citizens.The police are almost entirely Buddhist Thais and abuse human rights. Alleged activists, including a human rights lawyer, frequently 'disappear'. Witnesses, who did not want to be named, said that the young men of TR Sports were executed after surrendering. The 32 men attacked in Pattani appear to have been killed in cold blood.

The final complicating factor in the south is crime. Smuggling - of arms, people and drugs - generates hundreds of millions of dollars and penetrates every part of society, including the civil administration and security authorities. Much of the violence, including a recent bomb outside a bar, is likely to be connected to business disputes. No one knows exactly who looted a huge amount of explosive from a quarry or stole 380 automatic weapons from a barracks earlier this year. But the means for massive violence are clearly available.

Osama being treated by Pakistani Army

More misadventures of that staunch U.S. ally, Pakistan. From the Times of India, with thanks to Fanabba:

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's intelligence officials knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, a well-known American analyst has said, based on a ''stunning document'' that he claims was given by a Pakistani source to the 9/11 Commission on the eve of the publication of its report.

The document, from a high-level, but anonymous Pakistani source, also claims that Osama bin Laden has been receiving periodic dialysis in a military hospital in Peshawar, says Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-at-large of the news agency UPI.

''The imprints of every major act of international Islamist terrorism invariably passes through Pakistan, right from 9/11 - where virtually all the participants had trained, resided or met in, coordinated with, or received funding from or through Pakistan,'' Borchgrave cites the confidential document as saying.

But one does not have to go to Borchgrave's unnamed sources to find Pakistan’s involvement in terrorist activity leading to 9/11. The 9/11 commission report itself nails Pakistan in chapter after chapter, revealing that the Pakistani intelligence was in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda, far more than Iran and Iraq ever were.

There follows a series of eye-opening extracts from the commission report. Read it all.

"Police spotted two cassettes with calls to jihad and martyrdom"

Spanish police have found the car used by the Madrid bombers. It seems that they were listening to self-improvement tapes. From AP, with thanks to many who kindly sent this to me:

MADRID, Spain — Three months after the Madrid train bombings, Spanish police found a rental car used by the terrorists containing personal effects, including tapes of Quranic verses and chants praising jihad, an official said Saturday.

Police found the car on June 13 in the town of Alcala de Henares, the departure point of three of the four trains bombed in the March 11 attack, a police spokeswoman said on anonymity.

She said that investigators believe the bombers used the car, a Skoda Fabia, to transport some of the explosives used in the blasts, which killed 191 people and injured 2,000.

DNA tests on clothes found in the trunk confirmed that it was used by two suspected Islamic terrorists, one of whom later committed suicide to evade capture, she said.

"Apart from clothes, an alarm clock, an agenda and a Palestinian headscarf, police spotted two cassettes with calls to jihad and martyrdom," the spokeswoman said.

UK: Police Have Foiled Multiple Terror Attack Attempt in Recent Months

From The Sun, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Met Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said yesterday: “It’s more than possible we have foiled four or five.”...

And he added: “Since September 11 there have been 520 arrests, half have been charged with an offence and there are 90 about to go to court.”

In March Sir John, 62, said it would be “miraculous” if London was not attacked by terrorists.

PA teen killed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades

This is the kind of story you should remember the next time you hear about Israeli troops firing on civlians. Palestinian Arab fighters routinely launch attacks from civilian areas, precisely in order to provoke this. From Haaretz (scroll down), with thanks to the many who sent it to me:

An Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades cell killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Beit Hanun on Friday after a row in which his family opposed the cell's attempt to launch Qassam rockets from their yard, Israeli security sources said.

According to a report obtained from Palestinian sources, the cell, comprised of six men, arrived in a van at the Za'anun family's Beit Hanun home on Friday morning. The militants then placed a Qassam rocket launcher adjacent to the family home, and one of the cell members opened fire on an armored Israel Defense Forces vehicle nearby.

Members of the Za'anun family came out of their house holding sticks and rocks, and tried to drive the Al-Aqsa militants from their yard, most likely fearing that their house would be demolished if Qassam rockets were launched from it.

During the clash, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members opened fire, killing Hassan Za'anun and wounding three other family members.

The cell left the area following the incident, without firing the Qassam rockets.

Northwest Flight 327 Update

Much has been made of the fact that the 14 Syrians on Annie Jacobsen's famous flight were indeed musicians -- as if that proves they couldn't have been up to anything.

But, as Michelle Malkin points out, they were all here on expired visas.

Two questions: Why, and How did they get in?

Israel: Suicide attack in gas station thwarted

57 terror threats in Israel over the weekend. From the Jerusalem Post:

The arrest on Friday of three Islamic Jihad members in the village of Tubas, southeast of Jenin, prevented a planned suicide attack in Israel, security officials revealed on Saturday. The three terrorists, arrested by soldiers from a reconnaissance unit of the armored corps, include the suicide bomber to-be, the man who recruited him and the man who planned the attack.

The three apparently planned to launch an attack in a petrol station in the northern Jordan valley- Beit She'an area. The suicide bomber was to have entered Israel from a Jordan Valley area where the security fence has yet to be completed.

In his interrogation with the Shin Bet, Shadi Nawaf Daraghme, 24, of Tubas, admitted he had planned to blow himself up in Israel.

Australia: Saudis quizzed on terror funds

Have the Saudis been financing terror in Australia? From the Australian via The Advertiser, with thanks to Twostellas:

A VISITING Saudi Arabian government delegation was summoned to a meeting with senior Canberra bureaucrats this month to discuss Australia's concerns about the kingdom's financing of terrorism.

The Saudi officials had been in Australia several days to meet Islamic community and business leaders before the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade learned of their whereabouts and arranged a meeting through the Saudi Arabian embassy.

A member of the delegation from the Ministry for Islamic Affairs and Endowment told The Weekend Australian it was here to sort out problems with the lucrative business of exporting halal meat to Saudi Arabia.

But members also met trustees raising $2.65million for the controversial purchase of a mosque in southwestern Sydney.

Supporters of hardline Islamic cleric Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud have bought the mosque and must raise the full amount before the July 30 settlement date.

Sheikh Zoud preaches at the prayer hall around the corner whose congregation has included Faheem Lodhi, who is in custody charged with committing an act in preparation for a terrorist attack.

Beshir accuses world of targeting Islam in Sudan

The US Congress calls it genocide. Beshir says it's all an anti-Muslim plot — not the genocide, mind you, but the reaction against it. From AFP:

KHARTOUM, July 24 (AFP) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has accused the international community of targeting Islam in his country as the government struggles to fend off mounting international pressure over the Darfur crisis, the pro-government Al-Anbaa reported Saturday.

The paper quoted Beshir as telling supporters in the central region of Gezira following Friday prayers that the real aim of the campaign against his country was not the situation in the troubled western region of Darfur, but to derail the growth of Islam in the country.

Sudan has come under increased pressure from the international community in recent days to resolve the situation in Darfur, where the UN says at least 30,000 people have died in the 16-month-old conflict between government forces and Arab militia allies and two main rebel groups in the region.

"The international concern about the Darfur issue is targeting the status of Islam in Sudan," claimed Beshir, who seized power in a bloodless Islamist coup in 1989.

Khartoum has brushed off criticism that it is not doing enough to help alleviate the humanitarian situation in Darfur, described by the United Nations as the world's worst, and pledged to improve the access of international aid agencies to the region and the needy.

The Sudanese president insisted, however, that his government's concern for Darfur was first and foremost because of the responsibility it felt for the people before God and not aid agencies or other countries.

He said his national "salvation" government, as the regime's supporters refer to it, will continue "to adhere to Islamic sharia (law), set an example for social cohesion and bring humanity out of darkness to the light of Islam."

More fruits of appeasement

Having successfully attached the heads of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to their belts, the jihadists go after Australia. From AP:

CAIRO, Egypt - An online statement by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European branch threatened on Saturday to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Iraq.

It was the second statement in a week by the Tawhid Islamic Group, a previously unknown group which on Wednesday threatened attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if their troops remained in Iraq.

"We call upon you to leave Iraq before your country turns to pools of blood," the statement warned the Australian government.

"We will shake the earth under your feet as we did in Indonesia, and lines of car bombs will not cease, God willing," the statement said, referring to the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.

The al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for that attack.

The Tawhid statement also warned Italy to comply with an earlier warning.

"We advise you to accept our offer and if you don't, you will see the lines of cars laden with explosives hit your towns and turn your nights to mornings, God willing. We swear you will see hell with your eyes," the Tawhid statement said.

Abu Hamza's War on the West

An update on the trial of the notorious British-based jihadist Abu Hamza. From The Mirror:

MILITANT cleric Abu Hamza is a leading member of a "global conspiracy" to wage war on the West, a court was told yesterday.

The allegation was made in a statement by a senior FBI agent on the opening day of a hearing to decide whether he is extradited to the United States to face terror charges....

The hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in South London was told he played a key role in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.

Hamza is accused of plotting to set up terror training camps in Bly, Oregon, and giving letters of introduction to high-ranking Taliban fighters. The allegations also relate to a hostage-taking incident in the Yemen in which three Britons were killed in 1998.

If found guilty in the US, he faces more than 100 years behind bars - or possibly the death sentence.

An affidavit from FBI terrorism expert Michael Butsch said: "The evidence demonstrates that Abu Hamza is a member of a global conspiracy to promote Jihad against the US government and other Western countries."

Referring to his preaching at Finsbury Park mosque in North London, Mr Butsch added: "He taught his followers that Jihad demanded killing the enemy of Islam."

CAIR and terrorism

Regular readers of Jihad Watch will find nothing new about the Council on American Islamic Relations in this Washington Times piece, but it is gratifying to see that word is getting out. On the other hand, all this has been known for some time, and government and media organizations continue to assume that CAIR is a neutral civil rights organization. Time to answer some questions, Ibrahim! (Thanks to Jeffrey Imm for the link.)

This piece recounts five incidents in which CAIR officials have been involved in terrorist activities, and concludes:

We understand that no organization can be responsible for the independent actions of its officials or affiliated members. To its credit, CAIR has denounced terrorist acts, most recently the beheadings of two Americans in Iraq. At the same time, the examples cited above reveal some unsettling connections between certain CAIR officials and extremist groups that demand at a minimum an internal investigation. The federal government has not yet turned its "draconian" reach on CAIR directly, and at this point we are not prepared to ask it to do so. For now, it would be better if CAIR itself began a conscientious and deliberate effort to purge members it believes have terrorist ties and to thoroughly condemn those already convicted.

Egyptian Diplomat Abducted in Iraq

Hey, as long as there are Gloria Macapagal Arroyos and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapateros out there, keep going with what works. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Militants kidnapped a senior Egyptian diplomat as he left a mosque Friday and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq's new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station....

The abduction of the diplomat threatened to undermine efforts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday to persuade Arab and Muslim countries to provide troops to protect the U.N. mission in Iraq.

A separate militant group holding seven foreign truck drivers, including one Egyptian, announced a new set of demands in a new video, insisting that their Kuwaiti employer pay compensation to those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah. They have threatened to begin beheading the hostages starting Saturday.

The practice of beheading hostages has stirred opposition in Iraq, with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led a two-month uprising against U.S. forces beginning in April, joining the criticism Friday.

"We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, where he led Friday prayers. "Anybody doing this is a criminal and we will punish him according to Islamic law."

No word on what Al-Sadr makes of Suras 8:12 and 47:4.

Four reasons why we're in this fix

From WND:

Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger blocked four separate plans of action against the al-Qaida terrorist network from 1998 to 2000, according to the newly released 9-11 commission report.

The report cites a 1998 meeting in which then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet presented a plan to capture Osama bin Laden, notes the New York Sun.

"In his meeting with Tenet, Berger focused, however, on the question of what was to be done with Bin Ladin if he were actually captured," the report says, citing a May 1, 1998, CIA memo. "He worried that the hard evidence against Bin Ladin was still skimpy and that there was a danger of snatching him and bringing him to the United States only to see him acquitted."

Berger, who served in the Clinton administration, is facing a Justice Department investigation for allegedly smuggling secret files out of the National Archives prior to the 9-11 commission hearings.

After news of the probe broke Monday, Berger stepped down from his informal position as security adviser to Democratic Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Philippines' Arroyo defiant in face of US criticism over troop withdrawal

The Philippines' Appeaser-in-Chief summons up some courage -- to direct at critics. From AFP:

Arroyo brushed off US criticism that she had played into the hands of militants and said she had no regrets about her decision.

"It won't take more than three lines to summarise my case, and let me say them. One, I take responsibility. Two, I make no apologies. Three, I stuck to my oath," she said....

Analysts said Arroyo had decided to act to avoid angering the estimated seven million Filipinos working abroad, a formidable constituency whose billions of dollars of remittances keep the economy afloat.

"I trust that our allies will come to understand that the Philippines is in a special circumstance unlike the US, Australia, Bulgaria and other countries," Arroyo said, referring to other countries with troops in Iraq.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday added to previous US criticism of the troop withdrawal saying that "in effect the kidnappers were rewarded for kidnapping."

"We were very disappointed in the actions of the Philippine government," he said.

"I'm pleased that the Filipino gentleman was returned home safely, but I think a very high price was paid for the policy position that the Philippine government took."

In his reaction, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "weakness is provocative."

"Pro-Muslim, anti-Jewish" Threatening Note Found on Amtrak Train

"This is nothing alarming," officials told the passengers. Ignore that bomb-sniffing dog. Not that I am saying that they shouldn't have tried to calm passengers, but I think this is part of a larger official pattern of downplaying every incident, leaving the public largely unaware of the magnitude of the continuing threat. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

NEWARK, N.J. — A threatening note found aboard a Washington-to-New York Amtrak train prompted police to detain it for an hour and a half Thursday morning while they checked all passengers for identification and examined the overhead luggage racks.

After officers videotaped the passengers and searched the cars with at least one bomb-sniffing dog, the train was declared safe and allowed to leave Newark Penn Station to continue on its way.

Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said he did not know the exact contents of the note, but a law enforcement source said it contained "pro-Muslim, anti-Jewish rhetoric." The note included the phrase, "You're all sitting ducks," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The note was attached to the mirror in a restroom of the train's cafe car, Stessel said. The passenger who found it notified the train crew, and police were waiting for the train when it reached Newark, its next scheduled stop.

McVisas for Saudis

Joel Mowbray points out a glaring omission in the much-flawed but elephantine 9/11 report. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

In an epic-sized 567-page report, the September 11 commission glossed over one of the most important aspects of the attack: All 19 of the hijackers entered the United States on legal visas, even though at least 15 of them didn't qualify under the law. And the panel mostly shrugged off the U.S. policy that Saudis were granted easier access to visas than any other Arab country.

The commission's latest interim report emphasizes, perhaps unintentionally, the importance of easy visas to the September 11 plot. The panel revealed that one of the biggest difficulties faced by al Qaeda was getting Osama bin Laden's hand-picked hijackers into the United States — unless they were Saudis.

So easy visa access for Saudis cleared a major obstacle: Had al Qaeda had even one more hijacker, the White House or the Capitol might have met a different fate that day.

Three non-Saudis identified by the commission tried and failed to receive visas, including the would-be fifth pilot, Ramzi bin al Shieb, a Yemeni national. September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed didn't even bother having two other Qaeda operatives selected by bin Laden to apply for visas.

Why? Because, as an earlier staff statement noted, "It soon became clear to KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] that the other two operatives, Khallad bin Attash and Abu Bara al Taizi — both of whom had Yemeni, not Saudi, documentation — would not be able to obtain U.S. visas."

Afforded only a brief mention — buried in a footnote on page 492 — was a reference to what Mr. Mohammed reportedly told U.S. interrogators last year: that 15 of the hijackers were Saudis because they had the easiest time getting visas.

The Saudi visa policy was the natural result of the "courtesy culture," an effort spearheaded by the head of Consular Affairs, Mary Ryan, which started with her appointment in 1993. The goal was simple: make "customer" service and satisfaction the top priority in visa policy, where the "customer" was not American national security.

CIA points to continuing Iran tie to al Qaeda

The Iranian mullahs weren't just involved in 9/11. They're still involved with Al-Qaeda. Is that a surprise to anyone? Not to anyone familiar with the jihad ideology. From Bill Gertz in the Washington Times:

A senior CIA official has revealed that al Qaeda operatives in Iran probably had advance knowledge of recent terrorist attacks, a sign that the cooperation between Tehran and al Qaeda is continuing since September 11.

"There have been al Qaeda people who have stayed for some time in Iran ... and because they have been in touch with colleagues outside of Iran at times when operations have occurred, it's hard to imagine that they were unwitting of those operations," the senior official said.

"And it's not hard to make the leap that they may have had at least some operational knowledge. It's harder to make the leap that they were directing operations like that."

The senior official spoke to reporters on the findings of the September 11 commission. The commission's report provides new details of Iranian government support for al Qaeda, including travel assistance to several of the hijackers involved in the 2001 airline attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

U.S. intelligence officials have said that a senior al Qaeda operations official, Sayf al-Adl, has been in Iran since 2002. He has been linked to the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in May, and to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

The commission inquiry revealed that captured al Qaeda leaders Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh disclosed to interrogators that at least eight of the September 11 hijackers "transited Iran" on the way to Afghanistan, "taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports," the nearly 600-page report stated.

Bomb Threat Aboard Turkish Ship off U.S.

This just in from Fox News:

WASHINGTON — A report of a bomb aboard a Turkish merchant ship Thursday forced the U.S. Coast Guard to escort the vessel away from the port of Philadelphia and out into the sea off Delaware, senior Defense officials told FOX News.

The ship's master notified authorities about the possible bomb, officials said. The information was revealed after the captain refused to have portions of the ship searched by the Coast Guard....

UPDATE: There was no bomb. The FBI has now charged the ship's captain with making a false statement. From CBS:

BOWERS BEACH, DE (CBS) The captain of a Turkish merchant ship headed into Philadelphia harbor falsely told a Coast Guard inspector the vessel had a bomb on board Thursday, forcing officials to order the ship to turn around, an FBI spokesman said.

Yildirim Bayazer Tumer, 46, became agitated when members of the Philadelphia Coast Guard boarded the ship for a routine inspection Thursday morning, said Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore field office.

Tumer told an officer that there was a bomb on board that was set to blow up when the ship docked at the port of Philadelphia, Maddox said.

The Coast Guard notified the FBI and other agencies, and the ship was turned around and held at a safe anchorage point near Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay. Authorities performed a thorough search that lasted a few hours, and no evidence of a bomb was found, Maddox said.

Tumer was charged late Thursday with making a false statement to a federal official, a felony. He was expected to have an initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Maddox said.

Decapitated Body Found in Iraq, Bulgaria Checking

Plus some information on the latest hostages, from Reuters:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A decapitated corpse was found by police in northern Iraq Thursday and Bulgaria said it was investigating whether the body was one of two Bulgarians seized by militants loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In Kuwait, the transport company that employs three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian also kidnapped by guerrillas in Iraq said it would do all it can to win their release.

The announcement of their kidnapping Wednesday sparked a new hostage crisis just a day after guerrillas freed a Filipino driver following Manila's capitulation to their demands.

Their captors say they will behead one hostage every three days unless the firm that employs the men, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, stops doing business in Iraq.

Iraqi police said the decapitated body and its severed head were found in the Tigris river near Baiji, 100 miles north of Baghdad, and taken to the city of Tikrit. Earlier this month another headless body in an orange jumpsuit was found in the river in the same area. It has yet to be identified.

The severed head was bloated from being submerged in the water. The body was dressed in a faded and torn reddish-colored tunic. Zarqawi's group dresses its hostages in orange clothing before executing them, mimicking the orange jumpsuits worn by U.S. prisoners including Muslim detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

The two Bulgarians, Georgi Lazov and Ivailo Kepov, were seized as they delivered cars to Mosul in northern Iraq. Zarqawi's group has already executed an American and a South Korean hostage, and has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bomb attacks in Iraq.

"We are officially looking into the situation and are checking if the body is one of the Bulgarian hostages. We are trying to confirm this," Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Vicky Melamed said in Sofia.

BEGGING FOR THEIR LIVES

Video footage given to news organizations showed the seven kidnapped drivers looking tired and afraid in a dingy room, stating name and nationality to the camera and begging for their lives to be spared. One of them, Mohammed Ali Sanad from Egypt, tried to reassure his family.

"Mom, if you see me on TV don't get worried, we are with the best people, the Iraqis," he said. "You too my kids, Ahmed and Ali, don't worry. I am coming at the end of the month as I promised you, but if we die then I say thank God."

Tragicomic relief

After reading the Spencer/Kristof letters posted yesterday, and witnessing the don't-confuse-me-with-the-facts attitude they display, Mrs. Obelix kindly sent me this ee cummings sendup. I also decided to post here the original for those who may not be familiar with it.

Here is cummings:

plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

And Mrs. Obelix:

spencer told

him:he couldn't
believe it(serge trifcovic

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it) daniel

pipes
certainly told
him,and victor davis
("he must be a

jew")
hanson;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no
sir)it took
a radioactive bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

Jihadists scouting American jetliners for new attacks

Annie Jacobsen's now-famous experience was not isolated. According to this Washington Times piece (thanks to Jjp Mackie), those kinds of dry runs are going on with disturbing frequency.

Flight crews and air marshals say Middle Eastern men are staking out airports, probing security measures and conducting test runs aboard airplanes for a terrorist attack.

At least two midflight incidents have involved numerous men of Middle Eastern descent behaving in what one pilot called "stereotypical" behavior of an organized attempt to attack a plane.

"No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack," an air marshal said.

Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods....

A January FBI memo says suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack trans-Atlantic planes by smuggling "ready-to-build" bomb kits past airport security, and later assembling the explosives in aircraft bathrooms....

The article then recounts the details of Ms. Jacobsen's experience, adding:

The pilot confirmed Mrs. Jacobsen's experience was "terribly alike" what flight attendants reported on the San Juan flight.

He said there is "widespread knowledge" among crew members these probes are taking place.

A Middle Eastern passenger attempted to videotape out the window as the plane taxied on takeoff and, when told by a flight attendant it was not permitted, "gave her a mean look and stopped taping," said a written report of the San Juan incident by a flight attendant.

The group of six men sat near one another, pretended to be strangers, but after careful observation from flight attendants, it was apparent "all six knew each other," the report said.

"They were very careful when we were in their area to seem separate and pretended to be sleeping, but when we were out of the twilight area, they were watching and communicating," the report said.

The men made several trips to the bathroom and congregated in that area, and were told at least twice by a flight attendant to return to their seats. The suspicious behavior was relayed to airline officials in midflight and additional background checks were conducted.

A second pilot said that, on one of his recent flights, an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period.

The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side....

... [A] flight attendant reported that a passenger was using a telephoto lens to take sequential photos of the cockpit door.

The passenger was stopped, and the incident, which happened two months ago, was reported to officials. But when the attendant checked back last week on the outcome, she was told her report had been lost.

Recent incidents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport have also alarmed flight crews. Earlier this month, a passenger from Syria was taken into custody while carrying anti-American materials and a note suggesting he intended to commit a public suicide.

A third pilot reported watching a man of Middle Eastern descent at the same airport using binoculars to get airplane tail numbers and writing the numbers in a notebook to correspond with flight numbers.

"It's a probe. They are probing us," said a second air marshal, who confirmed that Middle Eastern men try to flush out marshals by rushing the cockpit and stopping suddenly.

UPDATE: Clinton Taylor has shed a great deal of light on Annie Jacobsen's experience. It seems that the Syrians on her flight were indeed musicians, but that she had reason to be suspicious.

War on Terrorism: Twin Cities cases

For those who think that nothing has been attempted by radical Muslims in America since 9/11, here is a short list from the Star Tribune (thanks to Jeffrey Imm) of terror-related arrests since then in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area alone. It starts with Zacarias Moussaoui, the famous "20th hijacker," and adds:

• August 2002: Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, a Moroccan who lived in Minneapolis, was indicted and later convicted of conspiring to provide material support or resources to terrorists, of fraud and of misusing documents. ...

• November 2002: Indictment unsealed against Ilyas Ali, who was born in India and lived in St. Paul. He pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to supply weapons to terrorists through the sale of drugs.

• December 2003: Mohammed A. Warsame, 30, a Canadian man born in Somalia who lived in Minneapolis, was arrested in the Twin Cities. He has been charged with conspiring to provide aid to Al-Qaida, and federal prosecutors allege he fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

• April 2004: Agents began questioning Mohamad Elzahabi, 41, a Lebanese man who was later charged with lying to federal agents after saying that he didn't send walkie-talkies to Pakistan. Elzahabi, who lived in Minneapolis, is also charged with lying about his role in helping a man fraudulently obtain a Massachusetts driver's license. An FBI affidavit says he admitted to participating in an Al-Qaida training camp.

• July 7: Ali Mohamed Almosaleh was arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport carrying a suspicious note hinting at a public suicide. It hasn't been determined if he has terrorist ties.

Group Threatens to Behead 6 New Hostages

Memo to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: see what you have done? I am glad Angelo de la Cruz is alive and free. But are the lives of these people, who have been captured because you have shown them that hostage-taking works, worth less than his? From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened Wednesday to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries — India, Egypt and Kenya — pull all their citizens out. The threat came as militants launched a rocket attack on a Baghdad hospital, killing two people, and set off a car bomb in the capital that killed four....

The threat to behead the hostages — and separate warnings against Bulgarian, Polish and Japanese troops — is the latest development in a violent campaign to scare off foreigners, who play a vital role in supporting the new U.S.-backed government and in the reconstruction of Iraq....

A militant group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," announced Wednesday it had taken two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian hostage, and said it would behead a captive every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if their countries do not announce their intentions to withdraw troops and citizens from Iraq.

The black flag is the flag of jihad.

Spencer/Kristof: one more

The post below has gotten quite long enough, but I can't resist adding just one more exchange I have had over the Dallas Morning News article.

This one is a classic example of the moral confusion and myopia that keeps people from understanding the reality and magnitude of the threat of radical Islam. It ought to be obvious to everyone that the "Christian extremists" he mentions have done nothing remotely approaching 9/11, or 3/11, or Bali, or Nigeria, or the suicide attacks in Israel, or hundreds of other incidents I could name -- and that therefore any comparison of them with jihadists, like Kristof's, amounts to nothing more than a slur, and a diversion of our attention from where it should be. Unfortunately, it isn't obvious.

Mr. Spencer,

After reading your response to Kristof's article about the "Left Behind" series of novels, it occurs to me that you don't really understand many of the salt-of-the-earth Christians who, quite literally, take these novels as gospel. I work at a public library in a poor area of town in a midwestern state, where Christian extremism is routine. The comments from my customers indicate that they believe the "Left Behind" novels are non-fiction accounts of what will truly happen. They are often incapable of distinguishing fiction from fact. These novels are stirring up dangerous emotions in these folks that entrench their beliefs, and render them incapable of living in even a remotely pluralistic society. Mr. Kristof's view is in no way giving comfort to the Muslim extremists, but, rather, explaining how Christian religious intolerance is incompatible with living in the United States.

Sincerely,
[Name deleted]

Reply:

Thanks. Please send me news articles recounting how these folks have begun taking up arms and killing non-Christians. I look forward to receiving them.

Best regards
Robert Spencer

Spencer vs. Kristof Redux

How interesting to get hate mail from Christians for a change. Here is a choice one I received, thrillingly paradoxical in its lustily slung insults combined with its self-righteous pious posturing and castigation of me for insulting Mr. Kristof. My reply follows, along with another exchange.

These are not posted, however, just for entertainment value: it is instructive to note that these attitudes are still held by large numbers of Americans, and that they obstruct anti-terror efforts. Thus it is important, I believe, to reply to them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Also, a little State-of-the-Union note: all of the mail I have received about this column, and it has been considerable, has been either from haters or skeptics. Not one message of support or agreement. (UPDATE: I have now received a few very kind notes. Thanks to all who sent them.)

Dear Mr. Spencer, It’s very interesting how many times you mentioned Mr. Kristof’s name and followed it by an insult of some sort. Instead of sharing an intelligent and thought provoking opposite perspective you made yourself look like someone with their head up their a--.

After reading your view point of “Are Left Behind Books Dangerous?”,
in the Wednesday, July 21, 2004 edition of The Dallas Morning News, I
was ashamed and embarrassed that I share the faith of Christianity with you. Somehow, your warped sense of self has been allowed to be shared with the mass public and spread uneducated and yes, ignorant hate against all Muslims.

It is extremely ignorant to take short passages out of any book, let
alone a holy book such as the Quran, and say “See…this is what all
Muslims believe”. Many American and world Muslims do NOT believe in
the extremists actions the radical Islamic Militants have taken. The
reason I am told, is because of their holy book, the Quran. Do some
further research and you will find many passages that encourage peace, faith and tolerance in the Quran. That way, Mr. Spencer, you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of looking like a moral and racist imbecile.

It is amazing how you seem to forget all the atrocities that have
been conducted against non-Christians in history and in present day by people who share our love in Jesus. Grow up and get a grip on reality Mr. Spencer.

The several people in my office who read the article (primarily a
Christian group) felt disturbed by what you wrote and how it came
across. Your random spewing has shamed all Christians into looking like archaic fools who can’t tell their behind from their head.

I praise our Savior Jesus that there are MANY intelligent, thoughtful
Americans who think of how their words, thoughts and actions effect
other people before they speak and will realize that what you wrote was exactly that….YOUR viewpoint.

I thank Jesus, that by sharing himself in love by HIS thought, word
and action that many Americans understand that we need to remain
tolerant and humble always. Really, it takes so much time and effort to remain daily in the love and light that Jesus taught us and conduct ourselves in a “Christian manner”, that we don’t have time to stupidly slam others.

I am not sure how you got this far in life Mr. Spencer, but it is
clear that you have some serious doubts in yourself, your faith and
your own confidence as a human being. Our actions have a funny way of coming back to visit us and I pray, Mr. Spencer that you are spared the hate that you have spewed in your article.

May God Bless you,
[Name deleted], Dallas TX

And my reply:

Dear [Name deleted],

Thanks for your note. Please specify where in this article or in any of my books or other articles I have ever said: "See…this is what all Muslims believe."

I would invite you to study the Qur'an, as well as Islamic theology,
jurispudence, and history, and tell me whether you can still maintain
that Islam has no doctrine mandating violence against non-Muslims. You can find these documents readily, or see them quoted abundantly in my book "Onward Muslim Soldiers." Does this mean that all Muslims believe this? Of course not. Nor have I ever said that they do. But to ignore or gloss over this fact is to take away the principal weapon that Muslim reformers have: they can't repair what no one will acknowledge is broken.

Cordially,
Robert Spencer

And another:

How convenient for you to mention only the New Testament when talking about Christians killing other people. You fail to note, my friend, that Christians very frequently refer to Jesus' Jewishness and Christians very carefully study the Old as well as the New testaments.

And in that Old Testament are many instances where God commanded his people to go out and kill entire communities!

Also, you take a tremendous amount of literary license when you
castigate Mr. Kristof, implying that he lumps Christians and Islam so
conveniently in the same bag.

[Name deleted]

Reply:

Dear [Name deleted],

Please specify the Christian churches that teach that Christians have
the responsibility to kill non-Christians. Most Christian churches
actually teach that the Old Testament passages to which you refer have been superseded by New Testament passages such as Matthew 5:38, etc.

Also, please point out to me the existence of a global network of
Christian terrorists that take their justification from the Old
Testament, analogous to the many jihadist groups that take their
justification from the Qur'an -- not just Al-Qaeda, but Hamas,
Hizballah, Islamic Jihad, Jemaah Islamiyah, etc. etc. etc.

Please also specify any specific statement I made that misrepresents
anything Mr. Kristof said.

Cordially,
Robert Spencer

Plus this exchange, which is not hate mail but which I put up for the information contained therein:

Mr. Spencer,

I read your column (Dallas Morning News, July 21) and appreciate your
efforts, but I have do have two questions.

(1) The citations from the Quran are obviously translations. Can we be sure the word translated "fight" means a physical, armed conflict? Even our word "fight" can mean to struggle or contend, as in fighting a disease, fighting to succeed in business, etc. When I was young, we sometimes sang hymns entitled "The Fight is On" and "Onward Christian Soldiers." I don't think anybody interpreted these to go get a gun to literally fight the non-Christians.

Further, I have heard Muslims say that "jihad" means "the struggle to be a good Muslim." The context of at least one of the references you cite suggests the meaning is not a physical battle: the one about making war on non-Muslims until they either become Muslims or pay the tax. If the purpose of the war was to literally kill them, they could hardly become Muslims OR pay a tax.

(2) To my knowledge, all Christians accept the Old Testament as
Scripture. Go back and read Exodus through Judges, and see how much war you find.

Not only that, but the command to "wipe out" the enemies (non-Israelites), sometime men, women, and children, is frequently heard. Is this substantially different from what is in the Islam Scriptures?

Answers to these two sets of questions would be most important if we are to assess your overall thesis.

[Name deleted] (retired minister)
Dallas, Texas

And my reply:

In Islamic tradition, jihad has all these meanings, including physical, armed struggle. I have written a whole book about this, but in any case, the context is clear in this and many other Qur'anic verses: "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens." (47:4). "Smite at their necks" is not the language of dialogue and preaching, but of warfare.

"Further, I have heard Muslims say that 'jihad' means 'the struggle to be a good Muslim.'"

That is true. However, the legal manual to which I referred, Umdat al-Salik, devotes one paragraph to this meaning of jihad, and ten pages to warfare. It is clear where the emphasis lies, and this is not an isolated or unusual text in this regard.

"The context of at least one of the references you cite suggests the meaning is not a physical battle: the one about making war on non-Muslims until they either become Muslims or pay the tax. If the purpose of the war was to literally kill them, they could hardly become Muslims OR pay a tax."

Right. 9:29 makes it clear that the purpose of the jihad is NOT solely to kill them, but to subjugate them. As is clear from Islamic theology and law, unbelievers have three choices: conversion, submission, or death.

"(2) To my knowledge, all Christians accept the Old Testament as Scripture. Go back and read Exodus through Judges, and see how much
war you find. Not only that, but the command to "wipe out" the enemies (non-Israelites), sometime men, women, and children, is frequently heard. Is this substantially different from what is in the Islam Scriptures?"

Yes. Neither Christians nor Jews believe that those were commandments to the believers that were valid for all time. Radical Muslims, however, regard the martial verses of the Qur'an, because they were revealed later than those counseling peace and tolerance, as superseding the verses of peace and mandating a belligerent posture towards unbelievers. This is also the traditional teaching of Islamic divines.

UPDATE: For a further exchange with the first letter-writer above, read on. Once again, I believe the exchange is instructive, as exchanges like this take place every day in America nowadays. I hope you find my responses to all these helpful.

Mr. Spencer, I have read the Quran , all 114 chapters. I have also studied the Hadith as well. These are books similar to our Gospel. I did this an attempt to understand Islam and where Muslims are coming from instead of being fearful and reacting out of that fear. And yes, there were passages, when translated into English from Arabic that seemed harsh. One must remember the time frame in which this book was transcribed (over 1400 years ago). “Left Behind” books, however, are written in this day and age. Whether one likes it or not, people are going to take this information to heart. Just like some misguided souls have taken parts of the Quran and interpreted it to fit their own agenda. There are such people as Wahabists and radicals. Do not lump all Muslims together Mr. Spencer.

You are in a very privileged position Mr. Spencer, you can use your
words wisely, or you can use them to destroy. It is unfortunate in what you have chosen thus far.

I invite you, Mr. Spencer to look at our Christian history (assuming
you are a Christian) and take the opportunity to learn from it. It seems you have conveniently chosen to look the other way with our own history. Then, take a step even further and remember what Jesus did for us. It was the ultimate lesson, not man-made by greed and fear, but God-made, for us to learn. The lesson: No matter what happens, move forward with love. Stick to what speaks to your heart and do not let others intimidate you if they believe differently. Go forward by the Grace of God, in peace.

Our Savior, Jesus, sacrificed everything for us and your realm of
thinking dishonors that by spreading hate through insults and ignorance.

Yes, there are differences between Muslims and Christians, but get
over it! We live on planet earth together and there is not a lot of
room for adults who behave like spoiled children who don’t know any
better.

I see that you used this opportunity to plug your book, "Onward
Muslim Soldiers”. It may be a terrific book! On the other hand, if it
is anything like your viewpoint Mr. Spencer, then no thanks….I am not
into hate literature.

God Bless,
[Name deleted]

And the reply:

"I have read the Quran , all 114 chapters. I have also studied the Hadith as well. These are books similar to our Gospel."

Please specify where in the Gospel there are passages similar to Qur'an 9:5, 9:29, 8:12, 8:39, 5:51, 48:39, 2:191, 98:6, etc. etc. etc.

"And yes, there were passages, when translated into English from
Arabic that seemed harsh."

Are you suggesting they are not harsh in Arabic? I must inform you that unfortunately this is not the case.

"One must remember the time frame in which this book was transcribed (over 1400 years ago)."

That would be nice, were it not for the fact that radical Muslims
worldwide do not subscribe to this kind of historical interpretation.
No doubt you are familiar with the Islamic doctrine of naskh, or abrogation, which holds that verses revealed later cancel those revealed earlier in cases of disagreement. On that basis many traditional Islamic teachers have held that the verses of violence and intolerance canceled those of peace. Cf. the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, Ibn Juzayy, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Ibn Khaldun, etc.

"'Left Behind' books, however, are written in this day and age. Whether one likes it or not, people are going to take this information to heart. Just like some misguided souls have taken parts of the Quran and interpreted it to fit their own agenda. There are such people as Wahabists and radicals."

Are you aware that there interpretation represents a broad and constant tradition within Islam? I document this amply in "Onward Muslim Soldiers."

"Do not lump all Muslims together Mr. Spencer."

Please specify where and when I have ever done this.

"You are in a very privileged position Mr. Spencer, you can use your words wisely, or you can use them to destroy. It is unfortunate in what you have chosen thus far."

You seem to know quite a bit about me. Regarding this and your other
comments, I would ask how it is that you can profess such Christian
life while behaving in such an intemperate, judgmental manner, and how you can be so self-righteous about insults when you have done nothing but insult me in two messages now.

Everything I have said in every one of my published writings about
Islam, I have carefully documented from Muslim sources themselves, so
that people could know the truth about what is being said and taught in the Islamic world. Islam is not a monolith, and I have never said
otherwise. But to act as if these elements of it do not exist only
stymies legitimate reformers and plays into the hands of the radicals.

The fact that you choose not to consider these things, but instead to
heap abuse on me while knowing very little about what I say, or how or why I say it, speaks volumes about you.

Cordially
Robert Spencer

Graham: Not Only Iran Behind Al Qaeda/9-11

Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) said that he knew for a fact that another country besides Iran was behind 9/11 and Al-Qaeda. (Thanks to Foehammer for the link.)

GRAHAM: Chris, you‘re also assuming that the only foreign government that provided assistance to al Qaeda was Iran, based on this new information. I don‘t think that‘s correct. There were a number of instances in which our people were put at greater risk because of the actions of foreign governments. Unfortunately, for reason that are inexplicable to me, that‘s been withheld from the American people. I hope that this instance in Iran will be the basis of the government telling our people who are our friends and who our enemies really are.

MATTHEWS: Right. But Senator Graham, do you know for a fact that any other government helped the al Qaeda people hit us on 9/11?

GRAHAM: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Who?

GRAHAM: I cannot say that.

MATTHEWS: Is it among usual suspects?

GRAHAM: Well, I don‘t know who your usual suspects are.

MATTHEWS: Well, how about—how about—how about the kind of governments the president lists in his “axis of evil”? How about that for a start?

GRAHAM: Well, let me say this. There is—as Senator Lott has just said, there has been some reporting in those newspapers and magazines about this, so it‘s not completely withheld from the American people. And some of that has been declassified. But the government has not been forthcoming in saying, Here‘s who was involved, and here‘s what we‘re going to do about it.

MATTHEWS: I‘d love to know that list.

Nuclear arms reportedly found in Iraq

Relax, Mr. Kerry: nukes, but no WMD's. And seriously, why isn't this on the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post? From UPI, with thanks to "Allah":

Baghdad, Iraq, Jul. 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.

The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.

They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.

US, Israel, Australia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau: the Great Anti-terror Powers

The whole world has voted for terrorism — except for Australia, Israel, the US, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. More evidence of the rank corruption and utter worthlessness of the UN. From AAP, with thanks to Kevin:

Australia was among just six nations that opposed a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to tear down part of its West Bank barrier, in a stance described as proof America dictated Australia's foreign policy.

Australia voted against a UN General Assembly resolution which backed a World Court ruling calling on Israel to tear down part of barrier - an unfinished 700km concrete and barbed wire fence built partly on West Bank territory.

The resolution was supported in the UN by 150 countries with only Australia, Israel, the US, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau voting against it, and 10 abstentions.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ameer Ali said the Australian vote sent a message to the Muslim community that the government had no sympathy for Palestine.

"It is disheartening," Dr Ali said.

"Israel, America and Australia - these are three important countries that have voted against it.

"I expected that to happen because the present government goes all the way with what the Americans say, we don't have independent foreign policy at the moment.

"The government has not said anything in favour or in sympathy with the Palestinian people.

"That is the most troubling issue in the Muslim world and as long as that problem remains boiling, the governments that support this American foreign policy will be looked at with disfavour."

A respectful suggestion for Mr. Ali: maybe if he conveyed to his Palestinian Arab friends that if they stopped blowing up civilians in buses and restaurants, renounced violent jihad and Sharia provisions of dhimmitude, and accepted a peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict, they would command a great deal more sympathy. These words from the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism explain it all:

The Coalition believes that terrorism can never be justified.

No other issue has been more frequently used to justify global terrorism than the alleged support for the Palestinian cause....

The Coalition believes unambiguously that organizations like HAMAS, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are criminal terrorist organizations and their alleged support for the Palestinian cause does not in any way justify their use of terror or the killing of innocent Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Coalition believes that terrorist organizations such HAMAS and Islamic Jihad have done more to hurt the Palestinian cause than any perceived enemy of the Palestinians. The Coalition believes that the Palestinians have a just cause and have the right to live in peace and prosperity. The Coalition also believes that Israelis have a just cause and have the right to live in peace and prosperity.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is characterized by the same jihadist rhetoric as conflicts around the world between Muslims and non-Muslims. Israel is just one front in the global jihad, and all anti-jihadists should recognize that.

But of course, all this is not a problem for Palestinians at the UN, where they already have won the allegiance and sympathy of the world.

It is time for this stout coalition of six countries — and any others who may find within themselves some last vestiges of moral discernment and courage — to leave the UN and shake the dust from their feet. It's time for any states that wish to resist the global jihad to take a long, serious look at Dr. Rafael Israeli's proposal: an Alliance of Western and Democratic States (AWADS):

Coexistence between the West and the Muslim world, if not peaceful then at least non-belligerent, cannot exist or last unless a system of unilateral measures of self-defense is adopted by the West, but advertised and made clear to all, on the one hand; and another system of reward and non-lethal punishment is put in place, as a menu for every Muslim country or organization to choose from, if it elected to enjoy the goodies of the West, on the other.

Both do not require any agreement on the part of the Muslim countries, but do assume a united and uniform policy of Western countries, who are willing to participate in the effort and also to benefit from its fruits, those who belong there today, or prove in the future that they respond to the cumulative criteria, set by the West itself, for joining in, such as a certain per-capita income, a certain GNP judged necessary to maintain Western norms, a regime of liberal democracy- elected, with pacific transfer of power, accountable, a-personal, non-hereditary; a free press, transparency of government, human rights and freedoms; free enterprise, freedom of property, transaction of real estate and funds; freedom to create in the arts, the humanities, literature, and protection of one's creation; and a strong and independent judiciary to oversee all this. Such countries that would be accepted to the AWADS (Alliance of Western and Democratic States), at the center of which will be the US, Canada, Australia and Western Europe, will add other applicants as they prove their adaptability to its rules and their willingness and capacity to live by and up to them.

This system may sidetrack the chaotic situation in the UN today, where politics and shifting majorities, composed of dictatorships for the most part, determine the moral and other standards of behaviour in the world body. Durban 2001, should remain for ever a warning to the level of hatred and bigotry that the UN today is capable of stooping to.

Rules of Co-existence

AWADS will announce that it is organized to fight in unison terror, but is open not only to cooperation with Muslim countries who so desire, as long as they meet the two criteria of renouncing violence externally and enhance human rights domestically, but would even consider co-opting them into the organization if they should wean themselves from terror and develop political systems acceptable to it.

Thus, without threats, recriminations, forced reforms and all the rest, a powerful incentive is introduced in the international arena for change, the Western way, if a country so elects, or stay in the putrid marsh of UN politics. The West will then determine whom to get into AWADS, and once there what sort of obligations every country has to meet, proportionately to its strength, population and wealth, in contrast to the universality of the UN, which permits that any group of evil terrorist countries, such as Algeria, Syria and Sudan can determine the agenda and resolutions of, for example, the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva....

Three U.S. Allies Face New Threat in Iraq

Even though it only had 51 troops in Iraq, the Philippines has dealt the coalition and the free world a major blow by caving in to terrorist demands and withdrawing them. Not only will they not bring peace to the Philippines or the Middle East, but many more people will be murdered by the terrorists. After all, they have seen that it works. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - New online statements by purported militants threatened attacks against three U.S. allies — Poland, Japan and Bulgaria — if they don't pull their troops from Iraq, a day after a Filipino hostage was released because the Philippines bowed to insurgents' demands and withdrew its tiny contingent....

The new threats against Poland, Japan and Bulgaria were worrying signs that militants may be emboldened by their success against the Philippines. The United States and other coalition allies had criticized the government for agreeing to withdraw its 51-member contingent to save the life of truck driver Angelo dela Cruz, who was kidnapped two weeks ago.

The same group that kidnapped dela Cruz, the Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps, took aim at Japan. The group is the military wing of Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"To the government of Japan: Do what the Philippines has done. By God, nobody will protect you and we are not going to tolerate anybody," said a statement signed by the group. "Lines of cars laden with explosives are awaiting you; we will not stop, God willing."

A Foreign Ministry official in Japan said Wednesday that Tokyo would not pull its 500 troops, sent here for medical and reconstruction duty. Japan refused in April to withdraw after three Japanese were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents. They were released unharmed....

The veracity of the latest statement could not be determined. A new statement signed Tawhid and Jihad on Wednesday cautioned readers to trust only statements posted on the group's behalf by Abu-Maysara al-Iraqi, the pen name of a frequent contributor to sites known for militant Muslim content. The threat against Japan was not posted by Abu-Maysara al-Iraqi.

While Tawhid and Jihad — a name referring to the central Islamic tenet of monotheism and to holy war — has claimed many attacks, it rarely issues threats or warnings. It earlier claimed responsibility for beheading U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il.

An online statement from a previously unknown group that identified itself as al-Qaida's European branch contained threats to carry out deadly attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if the two countries don't withdraw their troops from Iraq.

The statement, signed by the Tawhid Islamic Group, appeared Wednesday on an Islamic Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida and groups linked to the terror network. The group identified itself as "al-Qaida in Europe." The authenticity of the statement and the group could not be verified.

The group said Bulgaria and Poland will "pay the price" just like the United States and Spain did, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington and deadly explosions on trains in Madrid in March.

"To the crusader Bulgarian government which is allying itself with the Americans and to the Bulgarian people we demand, for the last time, that you withdraw Bulgarian troops out of Iraq or we swear we will turn Bulgaria into pools of blood if you don't comply," said the statement.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said Friday he won't pull out Bulgaria's 480-strong infantry battalion from Iraq. Last week militants threatened to kill two Bulgarian truck drivers in Iraq, while the fate of the second hostage remained unclear.

The group's statement also had a warning to Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka: "Pull your troops out of Iraq or you will hear the sounds of explosions that will hit your country, at the time we choose."...

On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Janusz Zemke said withdrawing troops from Iraq would be a "terrible mistake" that would only encourage terrorism.

I'm glad somebody realizes that. It's too bad Janusz Zemke doesn't work in Manila.

Saudis Say They Found American's Head

Why was it in the freezer? Stored away for later propaganda use? From AP (thanks to Romy):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The head of slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and decapitated by militants in Saudi Arabia last month, was found by security forces during a raid that targeted the Saudi al-Qaida chief. Two militants were killed, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said Johnson's head was found after a search of one of three locations after the raid late Tuesday that hit the home of Saudi al-Qaida leader Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi. Weapons, including an anti-aircraft SAM-7 missile, chemicals, video cameras and cash were among items seized from the location.

In a statement broadcast on Saudi al-Ekhbariya television, the Interior Ministry said the head was found in a freezer in an apartment. The body was not found....

During the past year, Saudi Arabia has been rocked by suicide bombings, gunbattles and kidnappings targeting foreign workers. The attacks have been blamed on al-Qaida and sympathizers of the anti-Western terror network headed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaida wants to topple the Saudi royal family and replace it with its own Islamic government.

Spencer vs. Kristof in Dallas

A slightly expanded version of my criticism of Nicholas Kristof's appalling equation of Christian Fundamentalists with Islamic jihadists appears today in the Dallas Morning News:

Mr. Kristof either has no clue or doesn't care that Christianity does not have and never has had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Christians. Islam, on the other hand, has now and has always had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Muslims.

See, just to cite a few references, Quran 9:29 ("Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day ... (even if they are) of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya [the special tax on non-Muslims] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued") and hundreds of other verses; Sahih Muslim 4294 (Muhammad says: "Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war"); a legal manual endorsed by the closest thing to a Vatican that Sunni Islam has, Al-Azhar University: "Umdat al-Salik o.9.8 ("[make] war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians ... until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax"); plus the writings of all the major Islamic jurists....

This is, of course, the one thing that people like Nicholas Kristof can never and will never admit, because it would explode the foggy multiculturalism and relativism that passes for a worldview in their minds. But it is simply a fact. Prove me wrong.

For Mr. Kristof to term this set of novels "militant Christianity," which is somehow equivalent or becoming equivalent to militant Islam, shows that he has not the remotest idea of what the jihadists are really saying, why they are saying it, and how it differs from what Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are saying. This kind of theological equivalence is the idiot stepchild of the moral equivalence that the learned pundits used to preach regarding the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

And just as moral equivalence played into the bloody hands of the Communists, so theological equivalence plays into the hands of the jihadists, attempting as it does to blunt the force of the moral argument against them. Yeah, sure, they preach murder, but, hey, look at these novels!

Pipe bomb in Times Square station?

Maybe. But they still can't search backpacks. So even if there is no terrorism link here (and they always seem to say that these days) what's to prevent there from being one next time? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A backpack that set off a small explosion in a Times Square subway station may have contained a pipe bomb and not just fireworks, as originally believed, police said Tuesday.

The explosion at 8 p.m. Monday slightly injured a retired police officer and disrupted subway service.

Scores of heavily armed police trained in anti-terrorism tactics and hundreds of other officers sealed off parts of the surrounding streets around 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue.

Investigators said later, however, that they did not suspect any terrorism link.

NYC Cops rip judge: 'It's giving an open door to terrorists'

Another activist judge makes us all a little more vulnerable. From the New York Daily News:

NYPD cops blasted a federal judge's ruling aimed at stopping them from searching demonstrators' bags outside the Republican National Convention, saying the decision gives "an open door to terrorists."

Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet's decision - made public yesterday - prohibits blanket searches of bulky bags and backpacks in the absence of a "specific threat."

"In this day and age of terrorism, it's an extremely dangerous step in a very dangerous time in New York City," said an outraged Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.

"It's giving an open door to terrorists, and further handcuffing police at a time that they should be given a little bit more latitude," Palladino said. He said he plans to urge Mayor Bloomberg to appeal the ruling.

Sweet's decision also limits how many streets the NYPD can close around Madison Square Garden, and prohibits cops from penning protesters behind metal barricades.

The ruling does not prevent the use of hand-held metal-detecting wands around the perimeter of the convention.

Sweet wrote that his ruling is an attempt to "define a resolution which can serve to encourage free expression in a secure society."

He described the preventive measure by police as an "invasion of personal privacy."

Christopher Dunn, an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, called it a "historic victory."

"Allah said, 'Make war on them until no more temptation remains'"

The Ingushetian Shura Council in Chechyna has declared jihad. Of course, jihad has been raging there for some time, so this isn't really a new development, but there is a noteworthy point in their communiqué: the jihad is so that "the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief."

This assumes an endless jihad against unbelievers, until Islamic hegemony is established everywhere. This is traditional Islamic doctrine, but since it is obscured and denied by so many taqiyya artists (that's deception as allowed by the Qur'an, 3:28 and 16:106) and dhimmis, it is useful to see what they're saying about it in Chechnya -- which is the same thing, by the way, that jihadists today are saying worldwide, though few are paying attention.

From the Kavkaz Center via Jihad Unspun, with thanks to Nicolei:

In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Gracious!

Praise Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, peace and blessing be to our Prophet Muhammad, his family and all of his disciples.

Indeed, Allah created people so that He could be worshipped alone, so no companions are ascribed to Him, and He permitted Jihad on His Straight Way, so that the Religion of Allah could be above all, so that all areas of life could be guided by Islam, and so that the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief.

Allah said, «Make war on them until no more temptation remains…» (Anfal 39) [That's Sura 8:39]

The reason why the Muslims are weak is because they abandoned the Jihad. Allah set the infidels on Muslims, these infidels are guided by ignorance and unbelief and in the Muslim countries they have tried to do everything to make Muslims forget their Religion. Enemies are taking the riches of Muslims, they are persecuting the Muslims and thus confirming the warning from Allah:

«They will not cease to fight with ye until they avert ye from your Religion, if they will be able to do it»....

Everyone who cooperates with the invaders and helps them in the war against Muslims with weapons or with snitching thus becomes one of them. Requirement of the Shariah Law applies to such people. These people will be punished by death, because fighting shoulder to shoulder with infidels or helping the infidels in the war against Muslims banishes them from Islam. For Allah said that those who make friends among infidels become one of them. And Allah will not be guiding the wicked.

Muslims must be convinced that the only salvation and the only way to obtain honor and dignity is the Religion of Islam. Our enemies know it and this is why they are trying to do all they can to lead Muslims astray. They appoint their lackeys as muftis, imams of mosques, who in turn pervert the truth and lead Muslims away from the Religion of Islam; they spread ignorance and heresy; they split Muslims into groups and sects; they spread polytheism and they call to obey the enemies.

Muslims, do believe the promises of Allah about His help. Jihad on the Way of Allah is the truth that restores justice.

Allah is our Master and there is no help other than from Him.

Allah Akbar!!!
God is Great!!!

Military Council Majlis Al-Shura of Ingushetia
2004-07-09

How the Supreme Court’s “enemy combatant” and “Guantanamo detainee” decisions give aid and comfort to terrorists

Legal jihad, from Henry Mark Holzer at FrontPage.

First, from the editor's note:

The article below by Henry Mark Holzer discusses the Supreme Court's recent decision to give constitutional protection to foreign "enemy combatants." This development, which epitomizes activist judges "legislating from the bench," overwrites decades of precedents and undermines the country's ability to fight the War on Terror. Meanwhile, terrorists and their radical America-hating lawyers are lining up to find and exploit loopholes in the rulings that may ultimately set a large number of criminals and murderers free -- and a large number of Americans to their graves.

The advocates of these terrorists come mainly from two leftist organizations with a long history of defending the dregs of American (and now Islamic) society: the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). These groups have teamed up to challenge the rights of America to defend our jihadist enemies.

The CCR, which was founded by radical leftist attorneys William Kuntsler and Arthur Kinoy, has a long record of defending and identifying with our enemies. Like the CCR, the NLG never met an anti-American, anti-capitalist, or anti-Semite it didn't like. Both, for instance, stand firmly behind accused terrorist and former University of South Florida professor, Sami Al-Arian, who awaits trial for providing material aid to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The NLG is at the forefront of fighting on behalf of Guantanamo terrorist prisoners. It actively opposes legislation designed to prevent terror attacks, supports other terrorist groups like the Basque Separatists, and routinely passes out literature in Arabic to immigrants and visitors so they can "know their rights" with respect to U.S. investigators. "Talking to the FBI or other agents can be dangerous," says one NLG pamphlet.

The most notorious terrorist advocate currently is NLG member Lynne Stewart, who is now on trial herself for aiding and abetting the terrorist leader Omar Abdel Rahman. Stewart is a self-proclaimed champion of terrorism and an avowed Communist whose heroes include Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh. Rahman's followers perpetrated the first World Trade Center bombing and had planned other attacks on NYC. While acting as his lawyer, Stewart disseminated instructions to Rahman's followers....

And from Holzer:

Rumsfeld v. Padilla. An American citizen, Jose Padilla (the so-called “dirty bomber”) was arrested in Chicago, brought to New York, later designated an “enemy combatant,” and given into military custody in South Carolina. Assigned counsel sought habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in Manhattan), challenging Padilla’s detention.

In a narrow technical decision, the Supreme Court held that Padilla’s lawyer had sued in the wrong jurisdiction. Since the “immediate custodian” who had control of enemy combatant Padilla was the warden of the naval brig in South Carolina, that jurisdiction, not New York, was where the alleged dirty bomber’s case belonged. Accordingly, the Supreme Court told Padilla that if he wanted to challenge the detention, he would have to re-file his case in the South Carolina federal court. Thus, Padilla decided nothing substantive—the case only further defined the statutory meaning of “immediate custodian.” (Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer were prepared, knowingly, to misinterpret the habeas corpus statute and reach the merits because Padilla’s claims, apparently unlike the plain meaning of a venerable federal statute, were “important”)....

There follow details of other important cases. Read it all.

To paraphrase Godfather Don Corleone: Radical lawyers with word processors can do more harm than 100 terrorists with machine guns.

Terror in the Skies Part II

Annie Jacobsen's harrowing piece "Terror in the Skies, Again?" came under fire from many quarters, including from some who claimed it was a hoax. But it was anything but, and Jacobsen provides more information in a follow-up piece in WomensWallStreet.com(thanks to Kemaste for the link):

And I now have another important question... Is there a link between my experience on flight #327 and the arrest of Ali Mohamed Almosaleh by customs agents at the Minneapolis Airport on July 7 (approximately one week after my flight)? Almosaleh was traveling from Damascus, Syria, to Minneapolis on KLM/Northwest Airlines. According to CNN.com, "Agents found Almosaleh to be carrying what they described as a suicide note and DVDs containing anti-American material."

It was initially reported by CNN.com that the man "is not known to the intelligence community, and that his name was not on any terrorist watch list." The following day, on TwinCities.com, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Almosaleh "had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist." So, did a more thorough check of the man reveal this critical new information? Remember, according to Adams, FAM checked the 14 Syrian men on my flight against the terrorist watch lists. They found no match, so they let them go. I wonder what might have happened if the 14 Syrians on my flight had been looked into more thoroughly?

Since publishing the first article, I have received dozens of emails from people in the airline industry, including flight attendants, captains and pilots, some of whom I have also spoken with on the telephone. As of Sunday morning, to my knowledge, WWS had received no emails from anyone in the airline industry suggesting that the incident described in my first article did not happen. Here is what some of them are saying, all of it on the record.

Jeanne M. Elliott, Security Coordinator for the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), which represents the flight attendants of Northwest Airlines, said, "By the uneducated eye, and to those who don't walk in our shoes, it may have been perceived that we were doing nothing, when indeed we were putting the safety and security of those passengers as our first priority."

This is just a small excerpt. Read it all.

Spencer: Jihad TV Comes to Canada

The latest article by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, "Jihad TV Comes to Canada," is available today at FrontPage:

Al-Jazeera executives have claimed that the network has been criticized by American officials only because it doesn’t accept the American understanding of the war on terror, and because it portrays the Muslim perspective on the burning issues of the day. No doubt these two considerations made the network’s application far more attractive than Fox’s to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The members of that august body no doubt share the visceral anti-Americanism generally held by the Canadian elite — as well as an anxiousness to accommodate and pacify Canada’s rapidly growing Muslim population.

But the incidents recounted above and others like them suggest that Canada may be getting more than it bargained for. According to a recent report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, “Terrorism of foreign origin continues to be a major concern in regard to the safety of Canadians at home and abroad. … Canada is viewed by some terrorist groups as a place to try to seek refuge, raise funds, procure materials and/or conduct other support activities. ... Virtually all of the most notorious international terrorist organizations are known to maintain a network presence in Canada.” From the looks of its track record, Al-Jazeera will provide these Canadian-based terrorists with a source of news, encouragement, and instruction.

What’s more, it will serve these radical Muslims as a useful recruiting tool. For jihadist recruiters in Canada, Al-Jazeera is likely to be an electronic madrassa beaming, twenty-four hours a day, the teachings and perspective of radical Islam into the living rooms of Canadian Muslims. Nor will this be a problem for Canada alone: what is to prevent those whom Al-Jazeera radicalizes and recruits for the global jihad from slipping across the border into the Great Satan?

Whenever that happens, and whatever they succeed in doing here, you can be sure that it will be carried — and celebrated — on Al-Jazeera.

Marine Who Vanished Says He Didn't Desert

A welcome announcement from Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. From AP:

QUANTICO, Va. - Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine who disappeared under mysterious circumstances while on duty in Iraq, insisted on Monday that he was captured by enemy forces and that he is still a loyal Marine.

"I did not desert my post," he told reporters outside Quantico Marine Corps Base. "I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me."

He did not answer any questions during his brief appearance. He was joined by his brother, who arrived from Utah.

"I would like to tell all the Marines as well as all those others serving in Iraq to keep their heads up and spirits high. Once a Marine, always a Marine, Semper Fi," Hassoun said, invoking the Marine Corps motto, Latin for "always faithful."

I hope he will eventually explain why his family thought it necessary to explain to the Muslim world that he joined the Marines out of necessity — strongly suggesting that he did not hold to Marine principles and was not motivated by a sense of patriotic duty.

Man Sought for Photographing Texas City Refineries

Funny thing: I never thought of oil refineries as a popular tourist destination. I wonder if this is the same guy who was taking pictures of a Texas chemical site last winter.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas.

Texas City, located on the Texas Gulf coast about 30 miles south of Houston, has three refineries including the largest U.S. plant operated by BP Plc., which is the third-largest U.S. refinery, processing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The man, described as white with dark hair, was seen taking pictures outside the refineries, all located on the same highway, at about 5 p.m. CDT on Saturday, said Bruce Clawson, emergency management and homeland security director for Texas City.

While it is not illegal to take pictures of a refinery from a highway or street, officials would like to talk to the man to find out his reason for taking the photographs.

"This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework," Clawson said. "That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might want to do something."

PA Sermon: Jews and Americans are behind all chaos in Saudi Arabia

Another sermon full of peace, tolerance, and sanity from the PA. (Yes, that was a sarcastic sentence.) This is noteworthy for its reassertion of the radical Muslim insistence that rule must be according to the Sharia, as well as for its naked hostility and preposterous fantasizing regarding Jews and Americans. From IMRA:

Gaza Palestine Satellite Channel in Arabic, official television station of the Palestinian Authority, carries on 16 July 2004 at 0958 GMT a live sermon from Shaykh Zayid Al Nuhayyan mosque in Gaza....

Shaykh Ibrahim Mudayris delivers the sermon, which he devotes to the theme of trust....

The imam also says that fulfillment of trust goes with governing in accordance with the shari'ah. He cites the Koranic verse that says: "And, when you govern among people you must do so fairly." He then says: "Trust was lost when we the rulers stopped ruling as revealed by God. There are more than 60 Muslim states. How many of them rule as revealed by God? If the rulers had lost this trust, where is the trust of the ulema?'

The imam says: "Jews rejoiced the death of the religious scholar Shaykh Abd-al-Aziz Bin-Baz, may his soul rest in peace. They rejoiced his death, believing that the field is now open before them. Here they are trying to spread chaos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, Jews are responsible for that. Jews and Americans are behind all this chaos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because it is the country of the prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon
him, and also because they want to avenge for their ancestors, who were expelled and killed."

What's that? Jews and Americans want to avenge their ancestors, who were expelled and killed? It is refreshing that Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris acknowledges, and assumes that his hearers will take for granted, that Jews and Christians were indeed expelled from the Arabian Peninsula and killed by Muslims. But the idea that any American actually knows that, or cares to avenge it, is, well, just as farfetched as everything the Sheikh says.

The imam concludes with a general prayer to God for success in the fulfillment of the trust. He prays: "O God, preserve our country and all Muslim countries from every evil. O God, preserve the country of the two holy mosques and the country of the night journey by the prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him. O God preserve holy Al-Azhar from the filth of the Crusaders and Jews."

Jihadis attack Indonesian church

A fresh attack in the Indonesian jihad. From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

A priest has been killed and four others wounded during an attack inside a Christian church in Indonesia.

Police said gunmen entered the Effata church in Palu, in Central Sulawesi province, on Sunday evening.

The female priest, 29-year old Reverend Susianti Tinulele, died at the scene after preaching a sermon. One of the wounded is in a critical condition.

At least 1,000 people have been killed in Muslim-Christian unrest in the province over the past five years.

The shooting happened near the town of Poso, which has seen some of the worst religious violence in recent years.

That "Muslim-Christian unrest" is, of course, provoked by jihad ideology. The conflict didn't begin because Christians were attacking Muslims.

UN oil billions linked to Iraqi terrorists

From the New York Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

July 19, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.

U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the "oil-for-insurgency link" has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers....

U.S. intelligence officials believe a portion of the funds in these hidden accounts — possibly millions— is now being used to fund the Ba'athist guerrillas responsible for much of the postwar violence against coalition troops, sources said.

"We are still in the early stages of investigating this. But from what we know so far, it's the same financial system, and we believe there is now some connection between what was left over from the illegal profiteering under the oil-for-food program and the funding of insurgency," said a U.S. official familiar with the recent intelligence information.

U.S. officials revealed earlier this month that a network of Saddam's cousins led by Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a former henchman in Saddam's murderous Special Security Organization, is involved in funding and arming the militants.

Investigators found a money trail connected to Saddam's clansmen that flowed through banks in Syria. Some of these same banks, congressional investigators said, also handled the kickback depos- its during the oil-for-food program.

The Faisal Gill Affair

More on the deleterious influence of Grover Norquist on anti-terror policy. From Frank Gaffney in FrontPage mag: "Why is an associate of groups sympathetic to radical Islamists a policy director at the Department for Homeland Security?"

It now appears that Mr. Norquist’s help has extended beyond facilitating high-level access and influence for various Muslim-American and Arab-American entities with troubling ties to, or at least sympathy for, radical Islamofascists – and even terrorists. Reportedly, his association also helped someone affiliated with such a group to gain a political appointment to an exceedingly sensitive post: “policy director” of the Department of Homeland Security’s Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division.

As the title of this position suggests, its occupant would have access to highly sensitive information about the vulnerability of, among other things, U.S. ports, transportation infrastructure, chemical plants, oil refineries and nuclear power plants to terrorist attack. The incumbent is a 32-year-old lawyer named Faisal Gill.

It is unclear what qualified Mr. Gill for such a post. In response to press inquiries, a DHS spokeswoman declined to describe his qualifications or background so it is not known whether he has any prior experience with intelligence or, for that matter, with security policy.

What is known is that Gill’s political patrons include Grover Norquist, who was listed by Gill as a reference on employment documents. After all, Gill had been a spokesman for the Taxpayers Alliance of Prince William County, Virginia, which is affiliated with Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform. Gill had also worked in 2001 as director of government affairs for the Islamic Free Market Institute (also known as the Islamic Institute), whose founding president was Grover Norquist.

Interestingly, news articles published after September 11 described Gill in another capacity – as a spokesman for the controversial American Muslim Council (AMC). The AMC was founded and controlled by a prominent Islamist activist, Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi was indicted last October on terrorism-related money laundering charges. While in jail awaiting trial, he has reportedly engaged in plea-bargaining by confessing to participating in a Libyan plot to murder the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

For some reason, Gill is reported to have failed to list his work with the AMC on his “Standard Form 86” national security questionnaire. This is a potential felony violation of the full and truthful disclosure required by law of all applying for clearances.

According to two recently published articles in Salon.com, the FBI raised concerns last March about Gill’s non-disclosure of his ties to Alamoudi’s AMC. At the time, he was reportedly briefly removed from his position at DHS.

Curiously, however, Gill is said to have been reinstated within days. According to a DHS spokesman, the Department had conducted a "thorough investigation" that found Gill "exceeded all requirements" for his job.

Fortunately, on 23 June, after news reports revealed Gill’s omission, attendant suspension and subsequent reinstatement, the Homeland Security’s Inspector General, Clark Kent Ervin, announced that he would be launching an inquiry into how Gill received a security clearance, despite the omission. For some reason, though, the IG’s report is said to require as much as six-months to complete.

No to Political Islam

This is an intriguing site. (Thanks to Jonathan for the link.) Their statement that "Political Islam is a movement that arose in the 1940s as a reaction to foreign domination and political corruption" is demonstrably false; political Islam is as old as the Prophet Muhammad, and I provide an abundance of proof of this in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

Nevertheless, there is no quarrel with this:

We, the undersigned, oppose Political Islam, its agenda of hatred and oppression, and its imposition of the most barbaric interpretation of Sharia law. We seek a future in which all people, men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, enjoy the benefits of equality, justice, democracy and human rights, and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.

Check it out.

Illinois: Jordanian Charged With Lying for License

But of course, it has nothing to do with terrorism. The man just loves to fly. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

Sami Abuhamatto, 24, was arrested Friday and was being held pending a hearing on Monday.

There are no allegations that the case is terrorism-related....

Abuhamatto's six-month visitors visa expired in 1996, according to court documents. He applied for the pilot's license in May 2002, claiming he was a U.S. citizen born in Brookfield, the Chicago suburb where he lives, the documents show.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved the application less than a week later.

Authorities said they learned of the incident after Abuhamatto arranged a bogus marriage late last year in an effort to gain resident alien status.

Europe Fears Islamic Converts May Give Cover for Extremism

And with good reason. Look at all the converts who have already made news on the front lines of terror: Lindh, Reid, Padilla, Roche, Gadahn, etc. etc. From the New York Times, with thanks to Filtrat:

ST.-PIERRE-EN-FAUCIGNY, France — The Courtailler brothers grew up in this medieval Alpine town, children of a butcher who went broke, who divorced his wife and moved to a job in a meatpacking plant far away. Two of the three brothers, David and Jérôme, educated in Catholic schools, foundered in drugs until they found religion: Islam.

Within five years of David's initial conversion at a mosque in the British seaside resort of Brighton in 1996, the brothers embraced many of the leading lights of Europe's Islamic terror network. David, 28, is now in jail, and in late June, Jérôme, 29, turned himself in to the police in the Netherlands, days after he was convicted by a court there of belonging to an international terrorist group.

The Courtaillers are part of a growing group of people who found a home in Islam and then veered into extremism, raising concerns among antiterrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic that the new recruits could provide foreign-born Islamic militants with invisibility and cover, by escaping the scrutiny often reserved for young men of Arab descent.

A handful of Westerners have already been arrested on terrorism charges. Their experiences, the authorities fear, could foreshadow a deepening problem.

"Converts will be used for striking more and more by jihadist circles," said Jean-Luc Marret, a terrorism expert at the Strategic Research Foundation, in Paris. "They have been used in the past for proselytism, logistics or support, and they are operationally useful now."

Islam is Europe's fastest-growing religion, and many experts say that while there are no reliable statistics, they believe that the number of converts has grown since Sept. 11, 2001, in many ways because of the campaign against terrorism.

Iran Denies Harboring 9/11 Hijackers

Well, yes, they passed through Iran, but, uh, we didn't know they were here! Yeah, that's it! From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Sunday some Al Qaeda operatives blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States may have illegally passed through Iran from Afghanistan months before the terror strike, but Tehran dismissed as "fabrications" U.S. reports that Iran may have helped in the assault.

"It's normal that five or six people may have crossed the border within a couple of months without our knowledge. ... Our borders are long and it's not possible to fully control them," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Asefi was responding to a September 11 Commission report, expected out Thursday, that says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks in the United States by providing eight to 10 Al Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

UK probe into lost terror file

A secret police dossier dealing with Al-Qaeda plots in Britain was ... um, misplaced. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British police have said they had launched an inquiry into how a secret police dossier went missing that according to a newspaper report contained counter-terrorist plans for London's Heathrow airport.

The dossier, found lying in a road, showed 62 sites at the airport where al Qaeda was most likely to launch anti-aircraft missile strikes, the Sun newspaper said in its Monday edition.

The Sun said the dossier included facts about surveillance, escape routes, evacuation plans and deployment of rooftop snipers at the world's busiest international hub.

The plans, which have since been returned to police, were found by a motorist, the newspaper said.

A police spokeswoman could give no details about what the dossier contained or where it was found, but confirmed it had been returned to police.

"We treat any breach of security extremely seriously," the spokeswoman said.

"We have launched an internal inquiry into the circumstances of how these documents went missing and will take the appropriate action when we have ascertained the facts surrounding this matter," the spokeswoman said.

Thailand's Islamic Revolution Continues

An overview of the jihad in Thailand, from the Strategy Page, with thanks to Fanabba:

July 18, 2004: The Moslem separatist violence in Thailand continues, with two members of the ISOC (Internal Security Operations Command) were shot in the south while investigating Moslem separatists. There have been attacks against other government officials, especially teachers. As a result, 5,000 school teachers and other government officials in the Moslem areas of southern Thailand have demanded more protection, or transfers to other, safer, parts of the country. So far this year, over 300 have died from the violence in the Moslem south, most of them government officials or non-Moslem Thais. At the same time, a government amnesty has caused nearly 250, mostly young men, to turn themselves in to the police. These men will under go six weeks of re-education and be released. But the Thai police have been unable to find any of the hard core separatists who are making the lethal attacks and trying to drive out the non-Moslem minority from the south. The unrest is based on centuries old disputes between the Moslems of this region and the Buddhist Thais to the north, and the more recent popularity of Islamic radicalism and groups like al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.

This is an important site for background into this particular arena of the global jihad.

Dress Code May Hinder Their Work, Air Marshals Say

Boy, is this stupid. Maybe the people in charge of the air marshals should watch Serpico or something -- not for the corruption plot, but for the running subplot about the effectiveness of undercover ops. From the New York Times, with thanks to Ruth King.

WASHINGTON, July 16 - Beards are out. So are jeans and athletic shoes. Suit coats are in, even on the steamiest summer days.

That dress code, imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, makes federal air marshals uneasy - and not just because casual clothes are more comfortable in cramped airline seats. The marshals fear that their appearance makes it easier for terrorists to identify them, according to a professional group representing more than 1,300 air marshals.

"If a 12-year-old can pick them out, a trained terrorist has no problem picking them out," said John D. Amat, a spokesman for the group, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Documents and memorandums issued by the Department of Homeland Security and field offices of the Federal Air Marshal Service say air marshals must "present a professional image" and "blend unnoticed into their environment." Some air marshals have argued that the two requirements are contradictory.

Federal air marshals must have neatly trimmed hair and men must be clean-shaven, the documents say. Some of the service's 21 field offices have mandated that male officers wear suits, ties and dress shoes while on duty, even in summer heat. Women are required to wear blouses and skirts or dress slacks. Jeans, athletic shoes and noncollared shirts are prohibited....

Andrea Houck, 52, who was traveling through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport this week, said that she thought federal air marshals should be "totally undercover."

"Look around you," Ms. Houck said as she pointed to other passengers waiting in the food court. "Most people are traveling in T-shirts, sweatshirts and khakis." She added: "If I was a terrorist and I spotted someone dressed like an air marshal in a suit, I wouldn't get on that flight. I would get on another one."

9/11 Panel's Report to Offer New Evidence of Iran-Qaeda Ties

Sunni-Shi'ite cooperation is unusual, but not unheard of. It indicates how determined the Islamic world is in this struggle that we still dare not name. Of course, this, like everything from the 9/11 Commission, is craven and politically motivated, but there is still useful information here. From the New York Times:

The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will offer new evidence of cooperative ties between Iran and Al Qaeda, including information drawn from intelligence reports suggesting that Iran provided several of the hijackers with safe passage in the year before the attacks, government officials said yesterday.

The officials emphasized that the commission had no evidence to suggest that Iranian officials knew of the Sept. 11 plot. But they said the evidence raised new questions about why the Bush administration focused on the possibility of Iraqi ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network after Sept. 11, 2001, when there may have been far more extensive evidence of an Iranian connection.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the embargo placed by the commission on discussing the report until its release, said the panel had recently obtained intelligence showing that Iran had ordered guards at its border stations not to stamp the passports of Qaeda members from Saudi Arabia who were moving through Iran after training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan. The existence of the new intelligence was first reported on Time magazine's Web site.

The officials said the bipartisan commission had uncovered evidence that as many as 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers traveled through Iran in late 2000 and early 2001 and would have benefited from the Iranian policy, allowing them to enter the United States without an Iranian passport stamp, which could have made them subject to special scrutiny.

Slain terrorist held clues to Saddam-al-Qaida tie

This isn't really surprising to anyone who has studied jihad ideology for any period of time. It only comes as a surprise to analysts who import Western categories into their understanding of the Islamic world. An excerpt from Yossef Bodansky's new "Secret History of the Iraq War," from WND, with thanks to EPG:

But there was a darker facet to the Abu Nidal story. In the weeks prior to the assassination, Iraqi intelligence received warnings from the intelligence services of several Gulf States that Abu Nidal was trying to reach an agreement with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), which the Arab world respects and dreads far more than the CIA. Unhappy with the medical treatment he was getting in Baghdad, Abu Nidal had offered to divulge secrets in exchange for superior medical treatment in England. When London was cool to the original offer, Abu Nidal professed that he could provide the latest information about Iraqi cooperation with international terrorism generally, and al-Qaeda in particular.

Iraqi intelligence was reluctant to accept these reports because it knew the ailing Abu Nidal had few aides left, and most of these were actually working for Iraqi intelligence. After extended consideration, Saddam and the Mukhabarat high command concluded that the warnings had actually been a crude disinformation effort by the CIA or the SIS -- a sting aimed to manipulate Baghdad into exposing its growing cooperation with bin Laden, giving the administration an excuse to strike. The Iraqis, it turns out, were correct: the SIS was indeed trying to provoke the Iraqis into reckless actions, using its allies in the Gulf States as conduits for the flow of "chicken feed" to Baghdad.

The assassination destroyed all remaining hopes in Washington and London for extracting information from Abu Nidal.

Terrorists Release Beheading Video

Still glorying in blood and death. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Images of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced Saturday on an Internet site known for carrying the statements of Islamic militants.

The gruesome videotape appeared three days after U.S. authorities announced the search for the body of Paul M. Johnson Jr. had been called off.

Still photographs of Johnson's beheading had been posted June 19 on some of the same militant Islamic forums that on Saturday provided links to the newly released video footage.

Johnson, a 49-year-old engineer for U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped June 12.

The video, which ran almost two minutes and included images of tanks and destroyed homes apparently in Iraq, carried the title "The Voice of Jihad: Get the infidels out of the Arabian Peninsula."

Voice of Jihad is the name of a periodical issued on the Internet twice monthly by the al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia, which claimed Johnson's killing.

FBI: Interviews Of Muslims To Broaden

Anti-terror efforts meet with a predictable response from CAIR, Zogby, etc. They would do American Muslims a much greater service by being entirely open and cooperative; their cries of "witch-hunt" only increase suspicions. Nevertheless, I think the young man quoted at the end of the article, Alamoodi, is probably right: questioning like this doesn't accomplish much, if anything. From the Washington Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

FBI agents have launched a series of interviews of Muslims and Arab Americans in the Washington area and across the country, hoping to glean information that could prevent a major terrorist attack during this election year.

A few dozen voluntary interviews of community leaders, students, businesspeople and others have been conducted so far, according to attorneys and Muslim activists. Authorities said they do not know how many people will be contacted, but the effort is expected to expand significantly in the next week or so.

The new round of questioning is also far more targeted than an earlier program of voluntary interviews with men from Arab and Muslim countries, which followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was criticized for being ineffective and using profiling.

"This is not a general population. They are identified by intelligence or investigative information," said an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy. He added that the questioning did not signify that the people were under investigation themselves.

The questions being posed vary widely, according to attorneys, activists and interviewees. Several people in California and Arizona have been asked whether they knew anyone who had recently been in the Pakistani border region of Waziristan, regarded as a possible refuge for al Qaeda figures. They were also asked about Abu Nour, which agents identified as a mosque and school in Syria that was popular with American converts to Islam, the attorneys and activists said....

"Within two days, I received 10 calls from people freaking out because the FBI was contacting them," said Deedra Abboud, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

She said that the FBI agents went out of their way to be low-key but that Muslims were fearful when they got the calls, worrying that they were under investigation themselves.

Leaders of Muslim and Arab American organizations have been trying to build bridges with federal officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many say that the earlier interviews cast too wide a net and reflected the wrong approach.

"It creates fear in the community and accomplishes absolutely nothing," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. The Justice Department has defended earlier interviews with Middle Eastern men and Iraqi immigrants, saying they provided useful information and were a way to build contacts.

Some activists said that Muslims and Arabs were nervous about responding to the FBI, in part because thousands of immigrants wound up being deported after being contacted in earlier phases of the government's anti-terrorism campaign. Several people in the Washington area have told FBI officers that they will meet with them only if their attorney is present....

Yaser Alamoodi, a student at Arizona State University, was surprised to get a visit at home recently from a campus police officer with the local Joint Terrorism Task Force. The 27-year-old student, who is a Yemeni citizen applying for U.S. residency, said that he agreed to the interview and that the officer was friendly and polite.

Alamoodi said the questions included whether he knew anyone who had recently returned from Pakistan, anyone who had shown interest in a government building or agency or anyone who had shown extreme hostility toward Americans.

"The questions were just ridiculous," he said. "I said, 'You guys really think you're going to get anywhere with these kind of questions?'"

Alamoodi said he was puzzled about why he was selected for an interview.

"I don't go to the mosque that often," he said, "unless they have free food."

The BBC interviews a suicide bomber

We carried several stories here about Hussam Abdo, the 15-year-old would-be suicide bomber who was disarmed and jailed by Israeli forces. Now the BBC (thanks to Peter Rockas for the link) has published an interview with the boy that is extremely revealing of the culture that has spawned this demonic phenomenon -- also note that none of the vaunted brutality of the Israelis seems to be on display here:

JR: When you put on that belt did you really know - as a 15-year-old - that you were going to go and murder people, that you were going to go and cause great suffering to mothers and fathers, that you were going to be a mass murderer? Did you really know that?

Hussam: Yes. Just like they came and caused our parents sadness and suffering they too should feel this. Just like we feel this - they should also feel it. [...]

JR: When the army caught you, how did you feel?

Hussam: I was a bit scared. The soldiers came to me and there were many of them so I was a bit scared.

I was afraid that they would beat me but I wasn't afraid that they'd shoot me.

They were nice to me - they treated me well. [...]

JR: Did the people who sent you - the people from the Al Aqsa Brigades - did they promise you anything?

Hussam: Of course they did. They told me, once you carry out the operation and the soldiers come and demolish your home, we'll stand by your parents and rebuild your house and give them money. [...]

JR: Have you spoken to them since your arrest?

Hussam: I spoke to them [his parents] shortly after I was arrested. I was at the army base and the doctor there was checking me and I told him I wanted to speak to my mother, so he lent me his mobile phone.

He let me speak to my mother. She began to cry - she'd seen what happened on TV.

Then the doctor took the phone away from me and he spoke to my mother.

He said don't worry about your son, he's fine, we'll take care of him.[...]

JR: Some teenagers want to be footballers, others want to be singers. You wanted to be a suicide bomber. Why?

Hussam: It's not suicide - it's martyrdom.

I would become a martyr and go to my God. It's better than being a singer or a footballer. It's better than everything.

JR: What was the main reason for you deciding to become a suicide bomber? The one reason in particular.

Hussam: The reason was because my friend was killed.

The second reason I did it is because I didn't want to go to school.

My parents forced me to go to school and I didn't feel like going.

JR: Are you saying that one of the reasons you wanted to become a suicide bomber was because you didn't like your teacher?

Hussam: That and because of my friend Sabih, who was killed.

JR: It seems extreme that if you don't like your teacher it could partially propel you towards murder and suicide.

Hussam: The thing is my parents forced me to go to school and I didn't want to go.

FBI warns al-Qaida may recruit non-Arabs

I found this report less disturbing for the fact that al-Qaida is recruiting non-Arabs than for the idea that this is news. It indicates that the FBI, the media, or both have by now utterly forgotten about John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, Jack Roche, and all the rest. Doesn't bode well for our state of readiness to have such short memories. From AP, with thanks to pfinn:

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is cautioning local authorities the al-Qaida terror network may be recruiting non-Arabs less likely to attract notice as they carry out attacks in the United States.

Al-Qaida especially wants operatives who have American citizenship or legal residency status, the FBI's counterterrorism division said in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

"Finding operatives with U.S. status would greatly facilitate al-Qaida's ability to carry out an attack within the United States," said the bulletin, obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The new warning comes amid a continuous stream of intelligence indicating that al-Qaida is determined to strike the United States in the summer or fall. Officials have said the terror network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks hopes to inflict mass casualties again and disrupt the political process in this presidential election year.

Muslims warned: Avoid 'Christian' companies

Muslims are advised to stay away from all those Christian airlines. From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The Al-Battar Camp online magazine, stated in a June 29 posting that the measure was for Muslims' safety....

The report, "A Warning to Muslims With Regard to Getting Close to Infidels and Oppressors," was written by Sheikh Amir Ibn-Abdullah al-Amir.

It advises Muslims, "If you are working with our infidel enemies, beware. Leave their quarters to save your religion, first, as well as for your own safety, should the mujahadeen target these infidel companies that hold enmity toward the Muslims and play a role in the war against Muslim nations. Beware of being with these infidels in this situation, lest you become afflicted by what will befall them. Al-Qaida has already warned and explained that it will be targeting these companies, especially the airlines, the oil companies and others run by the Christians."

Statement Threatens Attacks Vs. Italy

What are these -- Prussian jihadists? The "inefficient" Berlusconi? They're worried about efficiency now? Of course, Silvio has upset them ever since he said: "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and — in contrast with Islamic countries — respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance." Yes, blow up Italy! That'll prove him wrong!

From AP, with thanks to the indomitable Jeffrey Imm:

The statement, signed by the Brigades of Abu Hafs al-Masri and posted Friday on an Internet site known for carrying extremist Islamic content, follows the expiration of a three-month offer of a terrorism truce purportedly made by Osama bin Laden to European states, including Italy.

"Either you get rid of the inefficient Berlusconi, or we will really burn Italy," the undated statement said, adding, "Berlusconi is dragging you into more blood plus absolute slavery to America."

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement.

Senior Sunni cleric calls for holy war against US forces in Iraq

Maybe he was just calling for a spiritual struggle for self-improvement against U.S. forces in Iraq.

RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - A senior Sunni cleric called on his followers to launch a holy war against the US forces in Iraq and threatened to turn the hotspot city of Ramadi into a "graveyard" for American troops.

"I ask US President (George W.) Bush to withdraw from Iraq or else Ramadi will become a graveyard for US soldiers," declared Sheikh Akram Ubayed Furaih at weekly prayers in the city, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad.

"I call upon my brothers the Shiites and on all other religious groups to embark on a Jihad (holy war) against the US military to force them out of Iraq," said the cleric, who spent three months in a prison after being arrested by the US military and whose home was also raided last week.

"I urge all the Iraqi people to fight a holy war against the Americans," said the cleric, among the most respected figures in this Sunni rebel bastion.

Palestinian Gunmen Kidnap French Civilians in Gaza

All that supine dhimmitude, and what do they get? Three civilians kidnapped. From Reuters, with thanks to Ruth King:

GAZA (Reuters) - Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped three French civilians in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis Friday, Palestinian witnesses and security officials said. It was the third Gaza kidnapping in a day.

The witnesses said two foreign women and a man had been sitting at a restaurant when the gunmen burst in, seized them and took them to the local Red Crescent headquarters, where they ordered workers to leave the building.

Palestinian security officials said the hostages were French. French foreign ministry officials had no information on the kidnapping.

The officials said the kidnapping was carried out by militants from the Abu al-Rish brigades, which is linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

Arab World Celebrates Fallujah as Heroic

The jihadists celebrate a victory. It looks as if the non-Muslim world will be experiencing the repercussions of Fallujah for quite some time. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

U.S. Marines besieged the city west of Baghdad in April after four Americans were ambushed and killed there. Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the Marines pulled out and handed security over to an Iraqi volunteer force.

The three-week siege is inspiring "a literature of resistance and war," said Egyptian novelist Gamal el-Ghitani. "Fallujah is a symbol, in one of the worst eras we have witnessed, that it is not impossible to stand up to America."

He said it also sends a message to Arab dictators about the lesson people may draw about resisting oppression.

"I used to laugh, despite the ghastly daily news, about how a bunch of poor, helpless Iraqis with primitive weapons are forcing the greatest superpower in the world to negotiate. Honestly, the American army was ridiculed," he said.

Islamist Websites and Their Hosts Part I: Islamist Terror Organizations

A helpful new survey from MEMRI:

Introduction The post September 11 war on terrorism has increased Islamist organizations' dependence on the Internet, making it a vital means of communication and indoctrination for both Islamist organizations and for the infrastructure of Al-Qa'ida supporters. As a result of Islamist websites often being tracked and in some cases hacked, or shut down by their Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Islamist organizations have also become increasingly dependent on chat rooms and message boards for communication.

The following list of 25 Islamist websites and message forums, the first in a series of reports, includes website affiliations, IP addresses, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and information about their registrants.(1) The entries are categorized by ISP location.

The IP addresses and hosts included in the list were valid as of July 16, 2004.(2)

The MEMRI piece continues with a list of the particular sites.

Action Alert from Americans for Free Iran

From Americans 4 Free Iran, with thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

ACTION ALERT: The Council on Foreign Relations is hosting a task force on Iran that calls for the US to engage Iran - which is Washington speak for 'make a deal'. Your voice is needed to demonstrate just how dangerous this is for America and for Iran. Please send a fax or email to the Council (in English if possible) letting them know that to "engage Iran" will mean complicity in the torture, repression and murder of an entire people -- while also allowing Iran to shelter al Qaeda terrorists and extremists bent on using nuclear weapons against America.

Contact the Council on Foreign Relations at either their NY or DC offices:

New York Office
The Harold Pratt House
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10021
Tel. (212) 434-9400
Fax: (212) 434-9800

Washington Office
1779 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 518-3400
Fax (202) 986-2984

** Or: Email the Communications Department at: communications@cfr.org

Be Sure to THANK - U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman -- Sen. Coleman (R-MN) spoke to the 'Free Iran' rally in front of the U.S. Congress on July 8-9th. Sen. Coleman has proven himself in the past year, to be one of the best new lawmakers on the issue of Iran. All you from Minnesota should be proud!! But no matter where you are from, take a minute to drop the Senator's office an email thanking him and his staff for their good work. This means a lot for members to get feedback and it can help the Senator to know how many people are watching and supporting his efforts.
Email the Senator's office:
coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

A professor's jihad to save 'jihad'

Another call for reform of Islam that seems to rest on false principles. I do not believe that genuine reform is possible without a forthright acknowledgement of what needs to be reformed. From Singapore's TodayOnline:

The word "jihad" used to have a noble connotation of an effort made towards self-improvement through enlightenment and education. But, of late, it has become synonymous with armed struggle and terrorism.

Speaking at a seminar on the uses and abuses of jihad at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies yesterday, prominent Islamic thinker Prof Mohammad Hashim Kamali said the word and deed has become one of the most distorted and politicised aspects in Islam.

The Afghan-born Prof Kamali said Islamic juristic writings on jihad were a key influence in "virtually equating jihad with war".

He said: "In the course, juristic writings on jihad became so preoccupied with its military aspect … it was eventually restricted only to this meaning to the near total exclusion of its wider connotations. This has lent support to the common misconception about jihad that has persisted ever since."

So Islamic jurists are responsible for the misconception? In other words, if you read books of Islamic law, which I do at some length in Onward Muslim Soldiers, they'll tell you that jihad means warfare, but they're wrong? The body of men who spent their lives studying the Qur'an and Hadith in order to conform every aspect of Muslims' lives to the will of Allah and his prophet, and they misunderstood this key concept?

Referring to Koranic evidence, Prof Kamali emphasised that jihad was the "inner struggle for self- discipline and a sincere striving for the acquisition of knowledge".

I wish the article had been more explicit. I'd like to know how "slay the unbelievers wherever you find them (Sura 9:5) and the scores of other Qur'anic verses commanding warfare against non-Muslims refers to an "inner struggle for self-discipline."

However, he admitted that jihad in the military sense could be interpreted as a defence against aggression.

"In countless places, the Koran ordains fighting tyranny and suppression of liberties until persecution stops and people are free to believe and act in accordance with their own conscience," said the professor of Islamic law and jurisprudence at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.

Also, I wonder what Kamali would say to Mufti Ebrahim Desai and others who say that jihad warfare is not always defensive, but must also be waged offensively to spread Islamic hegemony. The fact that he takes no notice of this is just one indication of the severe limitations of his supposedly reformist vision.

Filipino hostage: not so fast

After initial indications that the Filipino hostage had already been freed or would be freed quickly after the Philippine government's abject surrender to jihadist demands, the jihadists are slowing down the process. They want to make sure that the Filipinos carry out their part of the bargain before they carry out theirs. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

(CNN) -- Militants holding a Filipino hostage say they will free him when "the last Filipino leaves Iraq on a date that doesn't go beyond the end of this month," according to a statement read by the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera.

The statement was broadcast Thursday shortly after Al-Jazeera had shown video of the Filipino trucker reported that he will be returning home.

Images of Angelo de la Cruz, a 46-year-old trucker, were seen but his voice was not heard, with an anchor reading his purported message.

The news reader said de la Cruz had sent a message to the Philippines president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, thanking her for her decision to withdraw troops and sticking to that decision.

He also sent a message to his wife and family saying he is OK and "wait for me, I'm coming back to you."

He was not wearing the orange jumpsuit hostages frequently are seen wearing. Instead, he was wearing civilian clothing and looked like he was in good shape.

Morocco is Europe's biggest terrorist threat, Spain's judge Garzon says

Over a very pleasant dinner with a high-profile Muslim spokesman a few months ago, he assured me that Morocco was a bulwark of Muslim moderation, a veritable model for the Islamic world. Unfortunately, however, that seems not to be the case. From AP, with thanks to the many who sent this to me:

MADRID, Spain – Morocco – home to most of the suspects in the Madrid train bombing – is teeming with some 100 al-Qaeda-linked cells that are capable of suicide attacks and pose Europe's biggest terrorist threat, Spain's leading anti-terrorism judge testified Thursday.

Each cell has five to 10 members, "so we are talking about 900 to 1,000 people who could be sought by police now in Morocco," Judge Baltasar Garzon told lawmakers investigating the March 11 attacks, which killed 190 people. Garzon cited police and intelligence data.

"In my opinion it is the gravest problem Europe faces today with this kind of terrorism," Garzon said, noting that many of those groups are in northern Morocco, with members who speak perfect Spanish and are able to slip easily in and out of Spain. The two countries are just a short ferry ride away from each other across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Most of the 17 people jailed in Spain on preliminary charges stemming from the Madrid bombing attack are Moroccan, including Jamal Zougam, suspected of physically placing the bombs on the crowded morning commuter trains.

Terror alert: The Hague, West Holland 'targeted'

All that supine dhimmitude, and what do they get? Threatened like the rest of us. From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

AMSTERDAM — A letter, allegedly from al-Qaeda, suggests that European organisations in The Hague and Brussels are potential targets for terror attacks. 'Soft targets' where the public gather in Western Holland are also thought to be most at risk, it was reported Friday.

The Dutch government issued a terror alert on 9 July and security has been stepped up at government and other buildings, train stations and infrastructure points during the week.

The alert has not been rescinded and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has cautioned the public to be watchful for suspicious activity.

Terror in the Skies, Again?

Sure, Michael Moore, there is no terrorism in the US. A harrowing piece by Annie Jacobsen in Women'sWallStreet.com (thanks to Ruth King). Here are a few highlights. Please read it all. It is important not only for what it suggests about ongoing jihad activities in the USA, but also about our state of preparedness.

On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats.

On that Tuesday, our journey began uneventfully. Starting out that morning in Providence, Rhode Island, we went through security screening, flew to Detroit, and passed the time waiting for our connecting flight to Los Angeles by shopping at the airport stores and eating lunch at an airport diner. With no second security check required in Detroit we headed to our gate and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Standing near us, also waiting to pre-board, was a group of six Middle Eastern men. They were carrying blue passports with Arabic writing. Two men wore tracksuits with Arabic writing across the back. Two carried musical instrument cases - thin, flat, 18 long. One wore a yellow T-shirt and held a McDonald's bag. And the sixth man had a bad leg -- he wore an orthopedic shoe and limped. When the pre-boarding announcement was made, we handed our tickets to the Northwest Airlines agent, and walked down the jetway with the group of men directly behind us.

My four-year-old son was determined to wheel his carry-on bag himself, so I turned to the men behind me and said, You go ahead, this could be awhile. No, you go ahead, one of the men replied. He smiled pleasantly and extended his arm for me to pass. He was young, maybe late 20's and had a goatee. I thanked him and we boarded the plan.

Once on the plane, we took our seats in coach (seats 17A, 17B and 17C). The man with the yellow shirt and the McDonald's bag sat across the aisle from us (in seat 17E). The pleasant man with the goatee sat a few rows back and across the aisle from us (in seat 21E). The rest of the men were seated throughout the plane, and several made their way to the back.

As we sat waiting for the plane to finish boarding, we noticed another large group of Middle Eastern men boarding. The first man wore a dark suit and sunglasses. He sat in first class in seat 1A, the seat second-closet to the cockpit door. The other seven men walked into the coach cabin. As aware Americans, my husband and I exchanged glances, and then continued to get comfortable. I noticed some of the other passengers paying attention to the situation as well. As boarding continued, we watched as, one by one, most of the Middle Eastern men made eye contact with each other. They continued to look at each other and nod, as if they were all in agreement about something. I could tell that my husband was beginning to feel anxious.

The take-off was uneventful. But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach -- taking his full McDonald's bag with him. When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald's bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag. When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign. When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald's bag.

Then another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth. He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object. Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well.

For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit - still wearing sunglasses - was also standing. Not one of the flight crew members suggested that any of these men take their seats.

Watching all of this, my husband was now beyond anxious. I decided to try to reassure my husband (and maybe myself) by walking to the back bathroom. I knew the goateed-man I had exchanged friendly words with as we boarded the plane was seated only a few rows back, so I thought I would say hello to the man to get some reassurance that everything was fine. As I stood up and turned around, I glanced in his direction and we made eye contact. I threw out my friendliest remember-me-we-had-a-nice-exchange-just-a-short-time-ago smile. The man did not smile back. His face did not move. In fact, the cold, defiant look he gave me sent shivers down my spine.

When I returned to my seat I was unable to assure my husband that all was well. My husband immediately walked to the first class section to talk with the flight attendant. I might be overreacting, but I've been watching some really suspicious things... Before he could finish his statement, the flight attendant pulled him into the galley. In a quiet voice she explained that they were all concerned about what was going on. The captain was aware. The flight attendants were passing notes to each other. She said that there were people on board higher up than you and me watching the men. My husband returned to his seat and relayed this information to me. He was feeling slightly better. I was feeling much worse. We were now two hours into a four-in-a-half hour flight.

Approximately 10 minutes later, that same flight attendant came by with the drinks cart. She leaned over and quietly told my husband there were federal air marshals sitting all around us. She asked him not to tell anyone and explained that she could be in trouble for giving out that information. She then continued serving drinks.

About 20 minutes later the same flight attendant returned. Leaning over and whispering, she asked my husband to write a description of the yellow-shirted man sitting across from us. She explained it would look too suspicious if she wrote the information. She asked my husband to slip the note to her when he was done.

After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together, eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned, and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified.. Before I'm labeled a racial profiler or -- worse yet -- a racist, let me add this. A month ago I traveled to India to research a magazine article I was writing. My husband and I flew on a jumbo jet carrying more than 300 Hindu and Muslim men and women on board. We traveled throughout the country and stayed in a Muslim village 10 miles outside Pakistan. I never once felt fearful. I never once felt unsafe. I never once had the feeling that anyone wanted to hurt me. This time was different.

Finally, the captain announced that the plane was cleared for landing. It had been four hours since we left Detroit. The fasten seat belt light came on and I could see downtown Los Angeles. The flight attendants made one final sweep of the cabin and strapped themselves in for landing. I began to relax. Home was in sight.

Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down. I watched as the man in the yellow shirt, still in his seat, reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small red book. He read a few pages, then put the book back inside his shirt. He pulled the book out again, read a page or two more, and put it back. He continued to do this several more times.

I looked around to see if any other passengers were watching. I immediately spotted a distraught couple seated two rows back. The woman was crying into the man's shoulder. He was holding her hand. I heard him say to her, You've got to calm down. Behind them sat the once pleasant-smiling, goatee-wearing man.

I grabbed my son, I held my husband's hand and, despite the fact that I am not a particularly religious person, I prayed. The last man came out of the bathroom, and as he passed the man in the yellow shirt he ran his forefinger across his neck and mouthed the word No.

The plane landed. My husband and I gathered our bags and quickly, very quickly, walked up the jetway. As we exited the jetway and entered the airport, we saw many, many men in dark suits. A few yards further out into the terminal, LAPD agents ran past us, heading for the gate. I have since learned that the representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Federal Air Marshals (FAM), and the Transportation Security Association (TSA) met our plane as it landed. Several men -- who I presume were the federal air marshals on board -- hurried off the plane and directed the 14 men over to the side.

Knowing what we knew, and seeing what we'd seen, my husband and I decided to talk to the authorities. For several hours my husband and I were interrogated by the FBI. We gave sworn statement after sworn statement. We wrote down every detail of our account. The interrogators seemed especially interested in the McDonald's bag, so we repeated in detail what we knew about the McDonald's bag. A law enforcement official stood near us, holding 14 Syrian passports in his hand. We answered more questions. And finally we went home.

There is much more. Don't miss a word.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Threats from Islamic Forums

Some of the chatter on Islamic Forums is nuclear. The English is broken, the message is clear. From HomelandSecurityUS.net, with thanks to William Webb:

The nuclear warfare is !!The hitting scenario coming to the base God willing

Yes it is the sole solution for the destruction of the crusaders and if we drank the bitterness of the war he kept off it and the nuclear warfare from the destination of my consideration is kinds a many from it the Alzrbat of the chemical and the bacterial one .

And so that we imagine now the scenario of some Alzrbat that may establish in Hubal the age and the time idol .

What if they sickened one of young man are one of their high buildings and he carries by its hand its packs a French perfume Shahira its workshops contains the anthrax item to the air ¿¿

The drizzle will spread certainly in the areas of the intended city certainly that will not discover the cautious authorities of security in the United States not to a passage except ¿¿¿

After it is too late ¿ ¿ ¿ he will start the injured with the flow to the country hospitals an Aladmi without managing their aid !!!

And the spokesman will declare by the house in the name of so the White House accusation eggs of the base with this attack .

And after a short time the newscaster Sidhr passes so that he declares that the spokesman is by the Al-Qaeda poison the His Eminence Sheikh / Suleiman Abu Ghaith its officials the Al-Qaeda about the attack .

And its His Eminence confirms that the operations this time will not stop till that America declares its defeat and recognizes its withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and Palestine and the Arabs island .

There is much more, worth wading through.

South African imam approves offensive jihad

If I had a nickel for every time a Muslim (or non-Muslim, for that matter) has told me that jihad is merely a struggle within the soul, or a defensive struggle at most, I would buy the Trump Tower. But in Onward Muslim Soldiers I detail the Islamic doctrines calling for offensive jihad against unbelievers in order to spread the hegemony of Islam, and now new confirmation of this doctrine has come from a Muslim site. The Islamic Q&A Online run by the South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai (thanks to Robert R. for the link) fields a question from Canada:

I have a question about offensive Jihad. Does it mean that we are to attack even those non-Muslims which don't do anything against Islam just because we have to propagate Islam?

I have been reading Tafsir e Usmani for the last month or so. In it I have read that offensive Jihad (first attack) should be done by Muslims for 2 reasons. 1) For the sake of Allah (in the Way of God) 2) For the sake of subjugated people under oppression like in Kashmir, Palestine etc. Now the second reason I completely understand. But the explanation given of the first reason is "For the sake of Allah includes the propagation of Islam, the survival of Islam, the extermination of those hindrances which impede the progress and expansion of Islam." (explanation of verse 190, Surah baqara) [that's Sura 2].

I really don't understand this explanation. What does propagation of Islam mean here? Does it mean that we are to attack even those non-Muslims which don't do anything against Islam just because we have to propagate Islam? For example, there are many countries in the world which are not enemies of Islam in any way (at least I think so). Please explain to me against which Non-Muslims, the Muslims have to do Jihad and against which, Jihad is not allowed. JazakAllah Khair.

Answer 12128 2004-07-13:

You should understand that we as Muslims firmly believe that the person who doesn't believe in Allah as he is required to, is a disbeliever who would be doomed to Hell eternally. Thus one of the primary responsibilities of the Muslim ruler is to spread Islam throughout the world, thus saving people from eternal damnation.

Thus what is meant by the passage in Tafsir Uthmani, is that if a country doesn't allow the propagation of Islam to its inhabitants in a suitable manner or creates hindrances to this, then the Muslim ruler would be justifying in waging Jihad against this country, so that the message of Islam can reach its inhabitants, thus saving them from the Fire of Jahannum. If the Kuffaar allow us to spread Islam peacefully, then we would not wage Jihad against them.

and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

Pakistan: ‘650 prisoners still want to wage Jihad’

Once again: jailing jihadists doesn't do a thing to convince them to stop being jihadists. If someone believes he is on a mission for almighty God, do you really think that a stretch of prison time will make him give it all up and go home? Yet neither the US nor the Pakistani governments can take any official account of this fact, because it would lead them into areas in which they do not wish to go regarding the genesis of Islamic terror. Consequently, a great deal of our anti-terror efforts, particularly when they free jihadists from prison without any attempt to change their beliefs, are utterly inadequate. From HiPakistan:

ISLAMABAD: As many as 650 Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails have threatened that they would launch Jihad when they were set free, said Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan Foreign Minister, here Wednesday.

"These prisoners are determined to strike against the US and Kabul governments", he said. He was talking to journalists here on Wednesday morning during a breakfast meeting.

He said the prisoners made their intention known to Kabul officials and American investigators who met them before deciding about their fate. He said this caused delay in the release of these detainees.

However, the minister said the Americans had completed the process of screening and cleared majority of the prisoners, who would be handed over to Pakistan.

He said, "It will be interesting to see that how Pakistani government deals with those defiant prisoners who are still ready to fight and die in the name of Jihad."

Crouch: Forget fluff, focus on jihad

The brave and perceptive Stanley Crouch speaks out again in a forum that is usually not so hospitable to the truth about jihad: the New York Daily News.

The constant discussion of John Kerry and John Edwards in superficial, gossip-column terms may result in their soon being called John & John or J & J, but it will not change something that we have to keep our eyes on, here and abroad. The Islamic extremists bent on waging holy war will not disappear. They are intent on destroying secular governments and turning the clock back to a time when the worshipers of Allah ran what was then considered the world. One can blame any government available for riling them up and inspiring others to join them, but the facts are what they are and will remain past November. They are at war with us, and we need to face the fact that changing an administration, if it comes to that, will not cause the Prophet to appear in the skies with a referee's whistle and blow it to signal that the extremists should stop the kidnapping, the decapitating, the car bombing and constant murdering....

These are not the times for trivial pursuits. What we need to know from Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards is what kind of a war strategy they have and what it would do to give us a better chance to defeat these enemies who do not go on vacations, follow elections or respond to polls. What, exactly, do these two men propose to keep our shores safe and to handle the troubles we are faced with in Iraq as well as with the growing body of jihadists? The rest is fluff.

Author: Al-Qaida Has Nuclear Weapons Inside U.S.

A new book, Osama's Revenge, lays out the evidence. From NewsMax:

A new book written by a former FBI consultant claims that al-Qaida not only has obtained nuclear devices, but also likely has them in the U.S. and will detonate them in the near future.

These chilling allegations appear in "Osama's Revenge: The Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You," by Paul L. Williams (Prometheus Books).

Williams claims that al-Qaida has been planning a spectacular nuclear attack using six or seven suitcase nuclear bombs that would be detonated simulantaneously in U.S. cities.

"They want the most bang for the buck, and that is nuclear," Williams told NewsMax.

"I expect such an attack would come between now and the end of 2005," the author said.

In addition to writing several books on terrorism, Williams, an investigative journalist, has worked as an FBI consultant.

Williams' contention is not far from what U.S. intelligence believes, a source close to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has told NewsMax. The source said Ridge claimed that U.S. intelligence believes terrorists already have smuggled into the U.S. actual atomic devices, as opposed to so-called "dirty nukes" that simply are conventional bombs that help spread radiation.

A Black Day for International Law

Avi Davis explains the disturbing implications of the International Court of Justice's ruling on Israel's West Bank fence:

It’s a neat concept. An international court developed to adjudicate disputes between contending nations. Those who dreamed of a world government, where a single legislature would execute one body of laws to which all nations would be bound, must have been elated. With the establishment of the International Court of Justice , the idea that nations could settle their differences before a panel of eminent impartial jurists without resort to force, finally seemed to have come of age.

Put that notion to rest. The decision, last week, of the international Court of Justice to present an adverse advisory opinion on Israel’s construction of a fence in the West Bank has exposed the underlying flaws of any global deliberative body: inherent bias, racial prejudice and the kind of political manipulation that we have long come to associate with that other august body of impartial governance – the United Nations.

The International Court of Justice was originally mandated to adjudicate on cases of territorial disputes between states. This was in keeping with the general tenor of international law which customarily did not involve itself with internal matters of states. That orientation has shifted in recent years as both international humanitarian law and international environmental law have both gained greater prominence. The developing interest of the Court in issues of world environmental degradation or the abuse of human rights has seemingly created a new jurisdiction for the ICJ - one that allows it to penetrate national sovereign boundaries and pass judgment directly on matters that were once formerly restricted to the sovereign domain.

In many ways this has had its positive results. The crimes of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and those of the Hutu leaders in Rwanda who engineered genocidal campaigns in those countries, certainly warranted the intervention of an international judicial body, where no local court could nor would make determinations of fact. But there are nevertheless limits to this kind of judicial intervention. According to the ICJ’s own rules, a dispute between two nations cannot be heard unless the two contending states agree to it. The rules and the law are not clear at all about contending parties where one is not a state but an administrative body, such as the Palestinian Authority.

The increasing encroachment of international humanitarian law on sovereign jurisdiction has many nations alarmed. The natural reflex of any government when it finds its own jurisdiction is challenged, is to protect it. Thus the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Treaty of Rome’s establishment of the International Criminal Court, a policy predicated on American unwillingness to expose U.S. citizens to the vagaries of a court that could become highly politicized and not geared toward the genuine pursuit of crimes of an international nature.

Those fears now appear to have been well grounded. In agreeing to provide an advisory opinion on the West Bank fence issue and then issuing an opinion that smacks of blatant political bias, the ICJ has assaulted the very concept of impartial and independent adjudication which rests at the foundation of its mandate.

There are several grounds for this charge. First, the Court accepted jurisdiction in the matter when one of the disputants refused to participate; second, it accepted jurisdiction when one of the disputants is not a sovereign state; third, it adjudicated on a matter that has been the subject of negotiations between the competing interests for more than eleven years, therefore placing itself in the midst of an international political dispute; fourth, it took no interest whatsoever in the claims and motivations of one of those parties, ignoring entirely the humanitarian context for the fence’s construction.

Even more ruinous to the Court’s credibility and reputation were the majority’s barefaced tolerance of terrorism and tacit acceptance of the notion that the Court could and should dictate an ultimate territorial solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Take, for instance, the opinion of Judge Awn al-Khasawneh:

“Whilst there is nothing wrong in calling on protagonists to negotiate in good faith ... no one should be oblivious that negotiations are a means to an end and cannot in themselves replace that end.”

Or Judge Nabil Elaraby:

“I wholeheartedly subscribe to the view ... that the breaches by both sides of the fundamental rules of humanitarian law reside in “the illegality of the Israeli occupation regime itself”. Occupation, as an illegal and temporary situation, is at the heart of the whole problem. The only viable prescription to end the grave violations of international humanitarian law is to end occupation.”

Or Judge Pieter Koojimans:

“Resolutions 1368 and 1373 refer to acts of international terrorism as constituting a threat to international peace and security; they therefore have no immediate bearing on terrorist acts originating within a territory which is under control of the State which is also the victim of these acts. And Israel does not claim that these acts have their origin elsewhere. The Court therefore rightly concludes that the situation is different from that contemplated by resolutions 1368 and 1373 and that consequently Article 51 (describing a nation’s right of self–defense) of the Charter cannot be invoked by Israel.”

The formalistic application of the law, the brazen disrespect for the conditions and context for the construction of the wall and the inability of any of the justices, including the lone dissenting voice, to resist the temptation to rule on the legality or illegality of Israel’s control of the West Bank (a matter it was never called upon to address) has sent the world a chilling message: that property rights are of greater importance to international law than the preservation of human life.

That message will certainly resound with Palestinian suicide bombers who have little interest in the preservation of human life. The tragic irony is that in the application of humanitarian principles, murderers will ultimately find the justification for the slaughter of innocent people. And for this, no greater damage can be imagined for the future efficacy of international law.

Saudi textbooks 'demonise west'

After they were supposedly cleaned up. From The Guardian, with thanks to Nicolei:

Saudi schoolchildren are being taught to disparage Christianity and Judaism in a textbook issued by the education ministry, a report said yesterday.

The book forms part of the kingdom's revised curriculum - supposedly cleaned up after complaints that demonising the west had become endemic in Saudi schools.

A lesson for six-year-olds reads: "All religions other than Islam are false." A note for teachers says they should "ensure to explain" this point.

The Saudi Institute, a Washington-based pro-reform group, said yesterday the book, Monotheism and Fiqh, contradicted the Koran.

"The Saudi contention that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is clearly refuted by the Koran," it says in a report, quoting a verse.

Hmm. I have great respect for the Saudi Institute, but it is odd that they would insist that the contention that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is contradicted by the Qur'an. I wonder how that squares with verses like Qur'an 9:30: "The Jews call 'Uzair [Ezra] a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" Common Muslim teaching, based on verses like this one, is that what are known as Judaism and Christianity today are actually corruptions of the true religions revealed through Moses and Jesus — and that the true form of both is, you guessed it, Islam.

Muslim arrested with suicide note on flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul International

A Muslim who may have terrorist ties has been arrested trying at Minneapolis/St. Paul airport with a suicide note and anti-American material. This just in from Eyewitness News in Minneapolis/St.Paul:

Federal sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the man was arrested last Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sources in the Twin Cities and in Washington D.C. said the man arrived on a flight and was taken into federal custody. Along the way, customs agents found disturbing items in his possession.

The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that Ali Mohamed Almosaleh is in federal custody in the Twin Cities. He was being detained on an immigration law violation, but federal sources confirmed there is much more than that to this investigation.

Sources confirm Almosaleh was carrying a suicide [note] when he was arrested. They say that note indicated a specific time and date for carrying out some sort of public suicide. He was also carrying CDs and DVDs, which federal sources say contained anti-American material. A source also confirms Almosaleh had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist.

Dhimmis go home

But what surprises will the MILF have waiting for them there? From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The Philippines has begun pulling its troops out of Iraq, a move seemingly being made to satisfy demands by kidnappers of a Filipino hostage.

Eight of the 51 Philippine humanitarian troops in Iraq have already left the country, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert said early Wednesday.

"The Foreign Affairs Ministry is coordinating the pullout of the humanitarian contingent with the Ministry of National Defense," Albert said in a statement.

"As of today (Wednesday), our head count is down from 51 to 43."

The United States has protested the action, saying giving in to terrorist demands should not be an option.

Iran Threatens the US, Israel

More saber-rattling from Tehran. From MEMRI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau head General Yadollah Javani wrote in the conservative daily Kayhan, which is close to Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei:"Threats of this kind are nothing new, but Iran must respond to these threats. [2] To deal with the invader, Iran will use all its capabilities within and outside Iran. It seems to me that in his [Hamedan] speech, the leader was referring to the use of all means of force, as Iran has in its possession all means of force on the highest level.

"…The converging of millions of Iranian youth imbued with the spirit of Shehada [martyrdom] in the Basij forces [3] … along with a courageous leader, the trend of the Islamic awakening, and the consolidation of many supporters around Iran's Islamic revolution can [all] go into action in times of crisis and play their part in light of these threats.

"Today we have in our possession long-range smart missiles which can reach many of the interests and vital resources of the Americans and of the Zionist regime in our region. Thus, if the enemies show stupidity and make any mistake towards Iran, [Iran] will certainly use all the means and capabilities at its disposal.

"Today we enjoy high deterrent ability, and if the enemy acts in madness and wants to try his luck, he will, as the leader said, quickly see his black fate, and will regret acting against Iran's Islamic regime." [4]

Patriot Act chalks up 310 arrests

And 179 convictions. You won't be hearing too much about this until after the elections, if ever. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The USA Patriot Act has helped federal, state and local terrorism investigators arrest 310 persons since the September 11 attacks, 179 of whom have been convicted, and has proved to be "al Qaeda's worst nightmare," the Justice Department said yesterday in a report.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, attempting to dissuade Congress from weakening the act, key provisions of which will expire next year, delivered the 29-page document to the House Judiciary Committee, saying it gave authorities access to new legal tools and technology to "hunt down al Qaeda, destroy their safe haven and save American lives."

"We are a nation at war. ... We have to use every legal weapon available to protect the American people from terrorist attacks," Mr. Ashcroft said at a press conference with Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican.

The report said the act helped secure six guilty pleas from an al Qaeda "sleeper cell" in Lackawanna, N.Y.; allowed the surveillance of a reputed terror cell in Portland, Ore., resulting in convictions of six persons in a scheme to travel to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces; and the successful prosecution of a money launderer for Colombia's leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Al Qaeda's Growing Sanctuary

West Africa, as we have often noted here, is increasingly becoming a safe haven for radical Muslims. From the Washington Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

With the end of the brutal conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa is seldom in the news or on the policy agenda these days. Yet the region is quietly gaining recognition as what it has long been: a haven for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Weak and corrupt governments, vast, virtually stateless stretches awash in weapons, and impoverished, largely Muslim populations make the region an ideal sanctuary.

U.S. Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of the European Central Command, has been warning Congress and the Pentagon for months that al Qaeda-affiliated groups are active in Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger. The trade in diamonds used by terrorist groups, begun under the protection of former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, continues despite international efforts to curb it. "The terrorist activity in this area is not going to go away," Wald warned recently. "This could affect your kids and your grandchildren in a huge way. If we don't do something about it, we are going to have a real problem on our hands."

Surrendering to the Global Jihad

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's latest article, "Surrendering to the Global Jihad," is up today at FrontPage.

The Philippines has all of 51 soldiers in Iraq, but not for long. The Philippine government has caved in to demands from the jihadist kidnappers of Angelo de la Cruz, a Filipino truck driver in Iraq, and the troops are going home. De la Cruz is safe now, having avoided the fate that has befallen other recent hostages, and everyone is happy.

Of course, the withdrawal of fifty-one troops is of little moment in terms of the overall Iraqi military presence. But for the global jihad, this is almost as huge a victory as the Spanish capitulation after the March 11 Madrid bombings: it shows once again that the terrorists can have their way with the gelded republics of the non-Muslim world.

Be alert, be prepared

William Webb has written a disturbing article about Al Qaeda's plans for massive caualties with WMD use -- whether by nuclear, chemical or biological attack -- or by blowing up a nuclear power plant or chemical facility.

The article is on the RANTS side of his site. It is sobering and should cause each of us to ask: How can my neighbors and I increase our vigilance?

With Al Qaeda hoping and planning to cause 100,000 casualties this time -- can we afford not to be on the lookout for anomolies?

On the articles side of Webb's site, there is another item of interest: he has reprinted the un-classified version of the Department of Homeland Security briefing by a senior intelligence official.

Together, the information contained within these two documents should be a call to all of us to increase our awareness.

Iraqi Shiite cleric Sadr stabbed, injury not dangerous

Al-Sadr has Zionist or American office members?

BAGHDAD, July 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Sources close to Moqtada Al Sadr, a young Iraqi Shiite cleric, said that Sadr was stabbed by one of his office members after a quarrel over his authorities, and the injury was not dangerous, local newspaper Al Itihad reported on Monday.

The newspaper, speaking for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Al Talabani, quoted the sources saying, "a disagreement erupted between Al Sadr and some of his office members concerning the authorities of Al Sadr."

Jihadist group says it killed one Bulgarian hostage

Zarqawi's group says it has killed one of the Bulgarian hostages. The Bulgarians, of course, unlike the Filipinos, didn't cravenly cower before the jihadist threats. This man is a martyr for the cause of the equality of dignity and rights of all people.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A militant group holding two Bulgarian truck drivers said it had killed one of them, the Pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday.

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad threatened last week to kill the men if the United States did not release all Iraqi detainees by Saturday.

Hurry up! I've got a bus to catch!

From the geniuses Cox and Forkum.

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei: US and Israel, not Muslims, committing Iraqi terrorist acts

Welcome to Denial Central, Tehran division. The question that leaps to mind: does Khamenei really believe this, or does he just know that there are millions of people so drunk with hatred of America and Israel that they'll believe it? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

In comments made during a meeting with visiting Singaporean Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, Khamenei said: "We seriously suspect the agents of the Americans and Israelis in conducting such horrendous terrorist acts and cannot believe the people who kidnap Philippines nationals, for instance, or behead U.S. nationals are Muslims." ...

Numerous Islamic militant groups have claimed responsibility for similar operations in the country, including the beheadings of an American and a South Korean.

Gaza's killing school

This Sky News piece doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know, but it does underscore that this unconscionable use of children is continuing.

Children as young as 10 are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian cause.

Sky News has gained access to a young people's camp in Gaza, where the only lesson taught is how to kill Israelis.

Sky's Middle East Correspondent Emma Hurd said the camp, at an undisclosed location, had been set up to drill children in the ways of war.

The recruits, some of whom are dwarfed by their AK-47 assault rifles, are taught how to carry out ambushes....

Hurd witnessed one training session in which a militant, dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull cap, was ambushed in his car. Gunmen pulled the "settler" from his vehicle and Hurd was told if this had been real he would have been killed.

Bin Laden Associate Surrenders

This is the infamous fellow who chuckled over 9/11 with Osama on videotape. From FoxNews, with thanks to the many who emailed about this:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A senior associate of Usama bin Laden has surrendered to Saudi Arabian authorities, FOX News has confirmed.

Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, also known as Abu Suleiman al-Makki or "the crippled sheikh," apparently turned himself in to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Iran in response to the amnesty offered last month by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah on behalf of his incapacitated brother King Fahd.

He was then flown to Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials told FOX News.

Al-Harbi is best known for being in a videotape that surfaced a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, in which he is seen laughing and smiling with bin Laden as they discuss the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon over a meal, presumably in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Saudi Interior Ministry said al-Harbi contacted the Embassy in Tehran from the Iranian-Afghan border, where he was stranded. It did not say what al-Harbi was wanted for. His name does not appear on the list of the kingdom's 26 most wanted Islamic militants.

"Thank God, thank God ... I called the embassy and we were very well-received," the wheelchair-bound and smiling al-Harbi told Saudi state television in the airport terminal. "I have come obeying God, and obeying the [kingdom's] rulers."

Al-Harbi is the third man to take advantage of the amnesty, which was offered June 23, lasts for one month and promises to spare the lives of militants who surrender.

Al-Qaida hijacks Arkansas website: Violent propaganda distributed via government system

Interesting news about our security and readiness. From WND, with thanks to Richard:

The state of Arkansas unknowingly helped the al-Qaida terrorist network distribute propaganda promoting violence against the United States.

Laura Mansfield, associate director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, first noticed the postings yesterday while monitoring a forum on an Arabic-language Internet bulletin board frequented by al- Qaida sympathizers.

The Ansar forum received notoriety for releasing the video of the beheading of American citizen Nicholas Berg in Iraq.

From July 9 to mid-morning yesterday, a self-proclaimed U.S.-based al-Qaida sympathizer known as "Irhabi 007," or Terrorist 007, listed a large number of video and audio files for download by fellow sympathizers, Mansfield reported to WorldNetDaily.

The files were located on an anonymous FTP server at the Arkansas Department of Highways and Transportation in two directories called "007" and "ALQA3EDAH."

Among them were files highly sought after by jihadis, including the al-Qaida films "Badr al Riyadh," "American Hell in Iraq," "Russian Hell," "Martyrs of the Confrontation" and "Wills of Martyrs." Also posted were the Berg beheading video and many audio and video clips of various al-Qaida leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musa'ab al-Zarqawi.

The files were located at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/incoming/GIS/007 and at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/incoming/GIS/ALQA3EDAH

Mansfield reported the postings to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at 3:20 a.m. Eastern time and by noon yesterday, the directories and files no longer were accessible.

South Korea puts airports on alert after al-Qaeda warning

From m2.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Airport authorities in South Korea have increased security after an e-mail alert that a person linked to al-Qaeda would enter the country.

Security at the country's airports has been on high alert ever since the decision to send 3,000 South Korean troops to Iraq in March 2004. Although security has been tightened further, authorities said they were sceptical about the e-mail.

The note said that wanted terrorist Abdul Razak would attempt to enter South Korea to attend a Christian function in the country. Razak is on the international no-fly list and would use an assumed name to travel.

That's odd. A Christian function? Is this just a cover, or is Al-Qaeda infiltrating Christian groups now? I haven't heard of anything like this. If anyone has, please let me know.

Germany: Frankfurt prosecutors probe Islamic centre

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (thanks to Sharon):

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Police on Monday searched computer hard-drives and discs seized from a Moroccan mosque in Frankfurt looking for evidence of violent films, including a beheading, that a young girl said were shown to her and other children to try and incite hatred toward non-Muslims, authorities said.

Some 120 officers raided the Taqwa Mosque's Islamic school on Sunday after the 9-year-old told her public school teacher she and other children were shown violent videos calling for a "holy war against unbelievers," Frankfurt prosecutor's spokeswoman Doris Mueller-Scheu said.

Mosque director Ahmed Ayaou called the raid an insult, and said he did not know who the girl was or what she was talking about.

"This was very surprising - it fell upon us like a blow," he said. "Our association accepts and respects German law. We are well known in Frankfurt, and we live with everyone peacefully."

He criticized police for coming in to the mosque with weapons and not taking their shoes off as they searched the building.

I wonder what he thinks when Al-Sadr's men in Iraq go into mosques with weapons.

The Talibanization of Pakistan

While Musharraf pontificates about reform, the movement on the ground is all in the opposite direction. From the BBC, with thanks to Sharon:

The government of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province has unveiled a plan to shut public and private businesses during prayer times.

The plan replicates the Saudi Arabian model, enabling shops and businesses to close for a 20-minute prayer break.

Last week, the NWFP government was criticised by human rights groups for trying to introduce new Islamic laws.

So far no date has been given for the new initiative to take effect, but officials stress it will be voluntary.

Why would it be? The Saudi model isn't. Several Christians who worked in Saudi Arabia have told me that they had to be off the streets during prayer times -- or else.

Earlier this month, human rights activists in the province strongly criticised a proposal put forward by the MMA to establish an Ombudsman's office which would ensure that Islamic law was being implemented.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it amounted to an effort to enforce "Mullah's martial law" and "Talebanise" society.

Philippines Announces Pullout to Save Iraq Hostage

Another flip-flop from the Philippines, and appeasement comes out on top. This is a manifestation of a pseudo-humanitarianism: in the name of saving this one man's life, which is definitely worth saving, they are willing to condemn many others to deaths that will come from newly emboldened Islamic radicals who are ready to commit violence to achieve their purposes -- particularly when they see that that violence accomplishes those purposes quite well.

The Philippine government deserves the harshest possible judgment from history. It deserves nothing but the disgust and condemnation of free people. Some new Dante is needed to write the sorry story of the Chamberlains, the Zapateros, and the Gloria Macapagal Arroyos, along with all the other besotted do-gooders who brought Peace to Our Time. But such may not emerge until some distant future when the Dark Ages of the Sharia rule that is sure to come to the Philippines and elsewhere begin to recede.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Monday it would withdraw its troops from Iraq as soon as possible to save a Filipino hostage threatened with death by militants.

CNN quoted unidentified Philippine officials as saying they expected truck driver Angelo de la Cruz to be released on Tuesday, but no independent confirmation was available.

Al Jazeera broadcast footage of Philippine deputy foreign minister Rafael Seguis reading out a statement, which the television station translated into Arabic, shortly after the expiry of a new execution deadline set by the militants.

"In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Seguis said according to the translation of the statement, addressed to the Islamic Army in Iraq group holding 46-year-old de la Cruz.

"I hope the statement that I read will touch the heart of this group," said Seguis. "We know that Islam is the religion of peace and mercy."

And let this new Dante consign Rafael Seguis to a circle of hell reserved for self-deluded fools, babbling about Islam the religion of peace and mercy in an appeal to a bunch of cutthroats (literal ones) who reserve their peace and mercy only for fellow believers, but who will gladly accept the bumbling, ignorant submission of Rafael Seguis and others like him as a welcome new indication of the pusillanimity, weakness, and utter spiritual exhaustion of what was once the Christian world.

Maybe Rafael Seguis is vying for the honor of being the one, danegeld in trembling hand, to welcome the new leaders of the Islamic Republic to Manila, once the Moro Islamic Liberation Front crushes once and for all the cowed and rudderless forces of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her coterie of unready appeasers.

Spies to monitor British Muslims

Expect an outcry and a disavowal forthwith. From AFP, with thanks to Nicolei:

BRITAIN will deploy teams of intelligence officers and surveillance experts in cities where it is feared that extremists are radicalising Muslim youth, according to The Times.

The internal security service, M15, would fan officers out from its London HQ in a bid to snuff out any incipient terrorist threats within urban Muslim communities, the paper said, citing "government sources".

It was hoped the scheme would greatly improve co-operation between special police services and counter-espionage officers, it reported.

The Talkative Terrorist on Tape: Madrid Plot 'Was My Project'

Intriguing revelations about Madrid 3/11 and more, from the New York Times (thanks to the many who sent me this link):

MADRID, July 10 — Terrorists are not usually talkers. But the man who calls himself the mastermind of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid is an exception.

For nearly three months, the Italian police have eavesdropped on Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, "Muhammad the Egyptian" as the 32-year-old Egyptian is known. The contents of his conversations, both in custody in Milan and before his arrest last month, have provided the police with a mother lode of information about the secret world of a man who claims to have recruited suicide bombers and organized terrorist operations in the name of Islam.

Senior Spanish investigators believe that Mr. Ahmed played an important role in the Madrid bombings, which killed 190 people, and could indeed be the architect of the operation, although they are still searching for other leading suspects. The Italian authorities arrested Mr. Ahmed after his monitored conversations spoke of an imminent attack in an undisclosed location.

Dozens of pages of transcripts obtained by The New York Times and interviews with officials in Spain, Italy, Germany and France have shed light on Mr. Ahmed and his ability over the years to take on new identities, cross borders and avoid the police as he pressed his cause against the West. They also offer a case study of the challenges and frustrations Europe faces in monitoring radicals, routing out sleeper cells and prosecuting and convicting those they arrest.

In Germany in 1999 and 2000, Mr. Ahmed served 16 months in a detention center, feigning different Arabic accents and pretending to be a "stateless Palestinian" seeking political asylum.

In Madrid in 2001 and 2002, he befriended a group of radical Muslims, some of whom were involved in the March 11 bombings and were killed in a suicide operation while trying to escape the police.

In a Paris suburb in 2003, he eked out a living as an illegal construction worker and house painter. In Milan in 2004, he lived in an apartment in a tidy, upscale neighborhood, where he seemed to spend most of his day watching Arabic-language movies and news on satellite television.

"We looked for a job for him," said Ghazi Bidel, a 27-year-old Egyptian pizza maker who was his roommate in Milan. "But he said he didn't want to work."

Last April, shortly after the Spanish police found Mr. Ahmed's Italian cellphone number in the address book of one of two men suspected of involvement in the plot, the Italian police began tapping Mr. Ahmed's phone and bugging his apartment.

In the taped conversations, Mr. Ahmed calls himself "the thread behind the Madrid plot," discusses an imminent terrorist operation in an unidentified location and the deployment of suicide martyrs to Iraq, and complains about his marriage and money problems. He shows off a computer program that activates numerous cellphones simultaneously — similar to the technology used in the Madrid attacks — and says he was in Madrid days before the bombings.

He declares that nationality does not matter in holy war, that he has converted drug dealers and criminals to the faith and that Muslims are allowed to marry Christians as a means of acquiring false documents. He describes the ease of buying false documents but stresses quality, saying, "If you don't know who used them, it is dangerous."

Sleeping With the Enemy

From Erick Stakelbeck in FrontPage: "The Saudis have found the perfect man to mediate their terrorist amnesty program: a pro-jihad Sheikh with ties to Osama."

Last week, Saudi Arabia scored a victory for its recently-announced terrorist amnesty program, as Othman Hadi Al-Maqbul Al-Amri, an Al-Qaeda operative and one of the Kingdom’s most wanted men, gave himself up to Saudi authorities.

Although the surrender of Al-Amri, a veteran jihadist who had been on the run for two years, was certainly a positive development, the means by which it was accomplished were extremely dubious.

According to reports, Safar Al-Hawali, a radical Saudi cleric with links to Osama bin Laden and several of the 9/11 hijackers, played the role of “mediator” between Al-Amri and Saudi officials.

Over the past year, Al-Hawali has also negotiated the surrender of two other high-ranking, Saudi-based Al-Qaeda operatives, Ali Al-Faq’asi and Ali Abdel Rahman Saeed al-Faqaasi al-Ghamdi.

That Al-Hawali, a longtime Al-Qaeda supporter who spent five years in a Saudi prison for seeking to overthrow the Royal Family—and who continues to preach the destruction of the United States and Israel—has apparently become a trusted mediator for the Saudi government speaks volumes about the Kingdom’s “war” on terrorism.

Jihadists Cut Off Nose, Ears, Tongue of Kashmir Girl

The jihad in Kashmir takes on a formidable enemy: a 14-year-old girl. From Reuters, with thanks to LGF:

Mariam Begum was abducted by a group of militants from her house in Doda district south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

"The abductee was let off by the terrorists. However her ears, nose and tongue have been chopped off," a police spokesman said.

Rebels have in the past killed or maimed people who they believe are helping Indian soldiers put down the 15-year revolt in the Himalayan region.

Arafat hints Israel planted Tel Aviv bomb

Al-Jazeera (thanks to Nicolei for the link) is reporting that Arafat is playing that ever-popular game among Muslims: whenever anything bad happens, blame the Jews. The fact that Jews were killed by this bombing doesn't faze him in the least.

Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat has condemned Sunday's deadly bomb attack in Tel Aviv but suggested that it was an act of provocation carried out by the Israelis.

"We condemn this act as we always condemn these acts," Arafat said, before hinting that it could have been carried out by the Israelis.

"You know who is behind these acts," he told reporters on Sunday at his West Bank offices. "Europe knows it, the Americans know it, the Israelis know it."

Arafat has previously accused members of the Israeli secret services of having perpetrated attacks against Israel.

The blast near a bust stop on Sunday killed a 19-year-old female army surgeon and wounded 20 people.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed faction which pledges loyalty to Arafat, purportedly claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Belief is Osama WMD: Sister-in-law

Here's one for all those who would prefer to convince themselves that Osama is a cynical manipulator of the poorly grasped religious beliefs of the uneducated and poor, rather than as a deeply pious Muslim who believes that he is serving Allah in what he is doing. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

GENEVA: Osama bin Laden's sister-in-law describes him as a man so driven by his beliefs that he would deny a water bottle to his own infant son in the heat of the Saudi desert. "I'm sure Osama would not have wanted to lose his baby. By his insistence, his wife used a spoon instead of a bottle,” said Carmen bin Laden, the Swiss sister-in-law of the alleged terrorist mastermind.

"It was not as if he didn't care about the child. But to him, the baby's suffering was less important than a principle which he probably imagined stemmed from some seventh-century verse in the Koran."

Palestinians delay effort to pass Security Council resolution against Israel

Jihad politics at the UN: the Palestinians are delaying a Security Council vote on Israel's vote until after the American elections, so as not to "incite the Americans." And after that, President Kerry may make things easier for them anyway. From Haaretz (scroll down), with thanks to ceconomakis:

The Palestinians are to hold off pushing for a UN Security Council resolution against Israel's West Bank barrier until after November's U.S. presidential elections, ministers said Sunday.

"We decided that it was not wise now to go to the Security Council because we don't want to incite the Americans, especially during the election campaign and its better to wait until after the elections," one minister said after a meeting chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"In the meantime we will take the issue to the [UN] General Assembly," he said on condition of anonymity.

Philippines Won't Withdraw Troops Early

They're leaving, but not as fast as the terrorists want them to. It's appeasement, but with a stern face. From AP:

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines — still hoping a kidnapped Filipino trucker driver will be released — rejected demands Sunday of the hostage takers for an early troop withdrawal from Iraq. The group that snatched Angelo dela Cruz, 46, near the restive city Fallujah on Wednesday gave Manila until 3 p.m. EDT to advance its pullout by a month to July 20.

"In line with our commitment to the free people of Iraq, we reiterate our plan to return our humanitarian contingent as scheduled on Aug. 20, 2004," Foreign Secretary Delia Albert told reporters after an emergency Cabinet meeting on the hostage crisis.

Albert said negotiations for dela Cruz's release were continuing through "formal and informal channels," adding: "We are hopeful that with the continued support and prayers of the people, we will hurdle this crisis."

Government officials said Saturday that dela Cruz had been released, but the news was quickly denied by the militants in a message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, in which the captors gave the Philippine government 24 hours to respond to their demand for a July 20 pullout. On Saturday, Philippine authorities announced troops would leave by Aug. 20 as planned.

There are 51 Filipino soldiers and police on a humanitarian mission in central Iraq.

The Islamic Army of Iraq-Khalid bin al-Waleed Brigade said dela Cruz would "be treated as a prisoner of war, in accordance with Islamic precepts" until the deadline expired.

Tel Aviv blast: 1 dead, 20 wounded

More jihad in Israel, this time targeting people at a bus stop. From CNN, with thanks to cgiddensjr:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An explosion at a Tel Aviv bus stop has killed one woman and wounded more than 20 others, according to Tel Aviv police and Israeli emergency services.

Four of the injured are in a serious condition.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Palestinian security sources.

Israeli police said it was not a suicide attack, but the result of a bomb placed in the bushes near the bus stop, according to Tel Aviv police spokeswoman Shlomit Hertzberg.

Saudis Facing Return of Radicals

The chickens are coming home to roost. From the Washington Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- An increasing number of Saudis who crossed the border into Iraq to fight the U.S.-led military occupation are returning home to plot attacks against the Saudi government and Western targets in the desert kingdom, according to Western counterterrorism officials and Saudis with ties to militant groups. The Iraq veterans are serving as fresh recruits for an underground network in Saudi Arabia that, until recently, was led by an older generation of fighters that had trained in Afghanistan and was closely connected to al Qaeda and its founder, Saudi native Osama bin Laden. Many of those leaders have been killed or captured in recent months by Saudi security forces.

Today, the proclaimed new chief of the primary militant group in the kingdom is Saleh Awfi, 33, a Saudi who journeyed north last year to join Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic radical group in Iraq that the U.S. government has branded as a terrorist organization. Awfi stayed for a few months, barely surviving U.S. aerial bombardment, before deciding to return and take up arms in his home country, according to a former Saudi radical who met with Awfi last year.

Other Saudis are returning after spending time in newly established training camps across the Red Sea in remote parts of Sudan where central government influence is weak, said a European intelligence official whose government is advising Saudi officials on their domestic terrorist threat.

For years, the religiously conservative Saudi royal family considered itself immune to attacks from Islamic extremists, but since May 2003, armed insurgents have shaken the government with a series of bombings and shootings resulting in more than 80 deaths.

Iraq hostage 'saved because he was Muslim'

In the Qur'an there is a sharp divide between believers and unbelievers, and no indication that unbelievers enjoy the same rights and dignity as do believers. This distinction runs through Islamic theology and law, and informs present-day practice. To wit this from the Telegraph, with thanks to LGF:

A Pakistani hostage released by his captors in Iraq claimed yesterday that he saw them behead three people before sparing his life because he appeared to be a devout Muslim. Amjad Hafeez, who worked for an American company that supplied food to the United States military, was released last week after the intervention of leading Muslim clerics.

"The people who were beheaded - their hands and legs were tied and one fat guy came and beheaded all three of them, one by one, after saying 'God is Great'."

Mr Hafeez was next in line to be executed, he said. "They told me, 'The cameraman is coming. Then I cut your neck'. I waited to die."

He believes that his captors accepted that he was not an American spy, as they had alleged, when he began a Muslim cleansing ritual before saying his final prayers.

Marine's Kin Defends Son to Fellow Arabs

They live in America, but don't get the wrong idea: that doesn't mean they have any loyalty to it. Loyalty to Islam comes first; Wassef Ali Hassoun's family has a lot of 'splainin' to do, and they're doing it.

Can you remember the last time that the family of a United States Marine felt compelled to apologize for their son's service? I can't. Here, then, is an insight into the Muslim mindset regarding loyalties and service to a non-Muslim nation -- particularly the Great Satan. From AP, with thanks to Roxanne:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Relatives of a U.S. Marine who surfaced in Beirut nearly three weeks after an apparent kidnapping in Iraq appealed for understanding from fellow Arabs on Saturday, saying the Lebanese-born man emigrated and joined the Marines for financial reasons.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was doing well and recovering at a U.S. military hospital in Germany after being flown out of Lebanon on Friday, a Marine spokesman said. He is expected to return to his home unit in Camp Lejeune, N.C., next week.

In Hassoun's native city of Tripoli, his family issued a statement saying he was forced to go to the United States and join the Marines because of the deteriorating economic situation caused by Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

The statement appeared aimed at countering criticism by some fundamentalist Sunni Muslims in Tripoli who accused Hassoun's family of being "American agents and collaborators." It stressed the family's Arab and Islamic ties, and its loyalty to Lebanon.

"We are a family of Lebanese Arab Muslims. We are not seeking to defend ourselves," the Hassoun family's statement said. "But we would like to thank the Lebanese for sympathizing with one of their sons (Hassoun) who was pushed by the difficult living conditions in their home country to emigrate and forced to work in a position that they may not like."

The statement said Hassoun, 24, was "driven by the lure of a good life to emigrate, (but he) might have made a mistake by choosing to sign a four-year contract with the U.S. Navy, which expires by the end of 2005."

Captors still hold Filipino and Bulgarians

The Philippine government promised to leave Iraq almost immediately after this man's kidnappers demanded that it do so. But now they are setting a deadline for the withdrawal as a condition for the man's life.

I expect that Philippine officials will probably agree to this demand. After all, they've already established what the Philippine government is; now they're just haggling over price.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians are hanging tough.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Filipino and two Bulgarians remain captive in Iraq after militants issued a fresh threat to kill the Filipino within 24 hours.

Angelo de la Cruz had appeared close to release the previous night, but his captors then denied they were freeing him and vowed to kill him on Sunday night unless Manila decided to pull its small troop contingent out of Iraq within 10 days.

"Yesterday was a false hope, he was not released but we are hoping he will soon be free," said a Philippine embassy source in Baghdad. He said he had heard nothing since the kidnappers had extended their deadline to kill the 46-year-old driver.

Death threats still hung over two Bulgarian truck drivers, but Sofia said it was growing more confident they had survived a Friday night execution deadline set by their captors.

"Today we have more reasons than yesterday to believe that there has been no radical change in the situation of the Bulgarian hostages in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gergana Grancharova told state radio.

"There are still many tense hours ahead. I do not want to leave the false impression of undue optimism," she said.

Classified Data Missing From Los Alamos

A jihadist at Los Alamos? Since U.S. officialdom refuses to acknowledge the religious/ideological nature of this conflict, and shuns "profiling" on the basis of religion, it could happen. I hope it hasn't here, but what would prevent it? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Lab spokesman Kevin Roark refused to say Friday if the information could jeopardize national security.

He said the "Classified Removable Electronic Media" were discovered missing from the Weapons Physics Directorate during an inventory check Wednesday. He refused to specify exactly what was missing, but said the items could be products such as CDs or floppy disks.

A search was under way, and lab Director Peter Nanos said he would order a full inquiry into what happened.

"In order to operate effectively, this apparent lack of attention to CREM issues must be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Nanos said.

This is the second such incident in recent months. Classified electronic media was also reported missing in May. That data had been set to be destroyed before it went missing, Roark said at the time.

Roark acknowledged Friday that this situation is different because the items were to be used for an upcoming experiment. He added that Nanos' tone is also different this time.

"What's different in this case is the director is saying this won't stand," Roark said. "If you can't keep track of classified material, then you can't work at Los Alamos anymore."

Yeah, that would stand to reason, all right.

The deceptive fruit of appeasement

The Filipino hostage has been freed, now that the Philippines has agreed to withdraw from Iraq in accord with the Islamic terrorists' wishes. I am glad that this man's life was spared, but how many more will have to die -- in the Philippines, Iraq, and elsewhere -- because the jihadists have now seen again that terror and intimidation work and thus they should continue them? The Philippines and Spain have done the free world a grave disservice.

From AP:

MANILA, Philippines - Insurgents in Iraq freed a Filipino truck driver whom they kidnapped and threatened to behead, the Philippine labor secretary said Saturday....

The announcement came just hours after Arroyo's spokesman said the Philippines' small peacekeeping contingent in Iraq would be withdrawn when its tour ends Aug. 20. Dela Cruz's captors had demanded that Manila pull out its tiny 52-strong force within three days, a deadline that was drawing near as word came of the release.

UPDATE: Now, in what is becoming a familiar dance, they are saying that he hasn't been freed after all.

Bush ratchets up rhetoric in 'ideological' terror war

Maybe he really does understand what is at stake, or is beginning to. Or maybe he is beginning to understand that a growing number of Americans do not buy, if they ever did, his "religion of peace" line. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

KUTZTOWN, Pa. — President Bush yesterday called the war on terror "a mighty ideological struggle" between an American society of religious tolerance and Islamist militants who kill those with different beliefs.

"The better way to describe what's happening is, this is a war against an ideology which stands exactly opposite of what we believe," said Mr. Bush, using more direct and religious language to describe the war than ever before.

At an appearance later in the day in Lancaster, Pa., Mr. Bush said terrorists' "hearts are filled with evil," he said. "There is no peace treaty you can sign with these people."

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Mr. Bush characterized the war on terror as a "crusade," an off-hand comment that was widely criticized as being insensitive to Islamic culture. He has avoided couching the war in religious terms since.

But campaigning for re-election as a war president at a time when support for his performance as commander-in-chief is waning, Mr. Bush has sharpened his rhetoric.

Admitting that his "greatest fear is we're going to get attacked again," Mr. Bush told 2,500 supporters at a basketball gym at Kutztown University that he is "working hard to stop it from happening" by showing strength to the terrorists.

"Listen, we want to whip them in Iraq before we have to face them here at home," Mr. Bush said.

One of the most important values of the United States, the president said, is the nation's tradition of religious tolerance — a value not shared by the enemy.

"You see, we believe that you're as big a patriot if you worship the Almighty as if you don't. And if you choose to worship, whether it be as a Christian, Jew or Muslim, you're equally as patriotic as your neighbor," Mr. Bush said. "That's what we believe. You have the freedom to worship as you see fit in America.

"That's the exact opposite of the dim view of the people who are trying to cause us harm. So this is really a ideological struggle where the enemy is willing to use terror as a tool."

Islamic ‘terrorism’ is holding Muslims hostage: Musharraf

Note the Pakistan paper's sneer quotes around "terrorism," even though this is one of Pakistan's better papers. Also, it would be nice if Musharraf (or anyone else) could present a picture of this "true path" he mentions that would be coherent from the standpoint of Islamic theology and law. Without that, the radicals will always be able to quote abundant chapters and verses to show that theirs is in fact the true path.

And as for Israel, I wish he would explain to me what Israel has to do with the jihads in Indonesia, the Philippines, Kashmir (his own backyard, that one), Nigeria, etc. From the Daily Times of Pakistan, with thanks to Fanabba:

BAKU: Islamic ‘terrorism’ is holding the Muslim world hostage, President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday during his visit to Azerbaijan.

“But the West must also change its attitude to the Islamic world and persuade Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory, if global terrorism is to be defeated,” he said.

The Pakistani leader made the remarks in a speech about the challenges facing the Islamic world during his state visit to Azerbaijan, a mainly Muslim state which has forged close links with Islamabad.

“Unfortunately, the Islamic world is faced with many problems. It is as if the Islamic world is facing a storm,” the president, speaking through an interpreter, told a special session of the Azeri parliament.

“It is also unfortunate that terrorism harms Muslim countries. The tactics they use, such as car bombs, executions and other dirty methods, damage our great religion. Today they are holding our societies hostage. They must understand that they cannot solve the problems of the Islamic world this way. I call on them to return to the true path,” the president said.

New Jersey Man Gets 5 Years for Lying in Terror Inquiry

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

The New Jersey man, Numan Maflahi, 31, a Yemeni-born United States citizen, was convicted at a jury trial in February of making false statements to federal agents. When the agents questioned him in 2003, he denied helping a Yemeni cleric who prosecutors said made a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn mosques in 1999.

Prosecutors said Mr. Maflahi, a gas station owner who lives in Little Ferry, N.J., had been the driver and personal assistant for Sheik Abdullah Satar, a former member of parliament in Yemen. They have described Sheik Satar as a fund-raiser with ties to Al Qaeda.

But of course, for the defense this is all about racism:

Yesterday, Mr. Maflahi's lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah, told Judge Nina Gershon of Federal District Court in Brooklyn that her sentencing decision was a test of whether "this country could be fair to Arab-Americans."

Bulgaria says it won't give in to hostage-takers' demand

The Bulgarians are evidently made of sterner stuff than the Filipinos and Spanish. Or at least they know that appeasement only emboldens the aggressor. From AFP:

SOFIA -- The Bulgarian government said Friday it would not give in to blackmail after reports that two Bulgarian hostages in Iraq would be killed unless US troops freed Iraqi prisoners within 24 hours.

"We have no intention of giving in to a diktat or blackmail," Foreign Minister Solomon Passy told national radio.

Al-Jazeera aired footage late Thursday of a masked man reading a statement behind two squatting and handcuffed men that described them as Bulgarian workers. Two other armed and masked men stood by.

A banner bearing text from the Koran was hung on the wall behind. The kidnappers were from a group called Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), reportedly led top Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, according to the Qatar-based television station.

Kerry passes up terror briefing: 'I just haven't had time'

I hope that President Kerry will be able to take time out of his busy schedule to see about a few terror-related matters. That is, if CAIR & Co. don't get too steamed.

From the Drudge Report, reporting an exchange from last night's Larry King Live:

KING: News of the day, Tom Ridge warned today about al Qaeda plans of a large-scale attack on the United States. Didn't increase the -- you see any politics in this? What's your reaction?

KERRY: Well, I haven't been briefed yet, Larry. They have offered to brief me. I just haven't had time.

Officials: Bin Laden guiding plots against U.S.

They say Osama is alive, but they don't seem to have his phone number. As for the threats to try something that would influence the elections, that is nothing new. Ever since the Madrid bombings of March 11, it has been likely that Islamic terrorists would try something here before November (or early in that month). From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A plot to carry out a large-scale terror attack against the United States in the near future is being directed by Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda members, senior intelligence officials said Thursday.

Bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are overseeing the attack plans from their remote hideouts somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to senior intelligence officials.

"This type of plotting, this type of operational activity, is being done with the direct direction and authorization of that senior leadership," said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Democratic senator who attended Thursday's CIA and FBI briefing said, "It is the most worrisome situation since 9/11" without elaborating specifically.

Arrests of terror suspects in Europe and the Middle East resulted in the new warning, said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

"We lack precise knowledge about time, place and method of attack," he said. "But along with the CIA, FBI and other agencies, we are actively working to gain that knowledge."

A senior U.S. intelligence official said the warning was based on "a very strong body of intelligence."

The planned attack is "an effort to disrupt the democratic process" before November's elections, Ridge said.

Calling Mullah Omar

"Salam-aleikum, where are you?" If only they had published Omar's number! From the Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Abdullah Laghmanai, the intelligence chief in the southern province of Kandahar, said contact was made after agents seized two senior Taliban commanders on Tuesday. Omar's number and those of other leading members of his former regime were contained in the phone taken from one of the aides, Mullah Mujahed.

When Mujahed was ordered to speak to his boss, he said: "Salam-aleikum [Peace be upon you], where are you?"

"He realised it was not his man [and] cut off the phone," said Mr Laghmanai.

Yemen: Another Jihad On the Rise

Yet another place where radical Islam is advancing: Yemen, where young John Walker Lindh went a few years ago to learn Arabic. From IPS, with thanks to Alex Bobilev:

SANA'A, Jul 8 (IPS) - More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and government forces using warplanes and tanks; this is not Iraq, but the picture of new developments in Yemen.

Thousands of families are at risk as the clashes continue in the Marran mountains of Saddah area. Saddah is about 150km north of capital Sana'a, and close to the border with Saudi Arabia. It is the main centre of the Zaidi Shia sect founded about 1,000 years ago.

The rebels have been chanting slogans against the United States and Israel, according to local reports. Air attacks and tank assaults have not been successful so far in getting rebel leader Hussein Badr al-Deen al-Hothy.

Al-Hothy, former member of Parliament for the al-Haq (Truth) party is now leading an organization called 'Believing Youth'.

The government accuses al-Hothi of setting up a group modeled on the Lebanese Hizbollah to re-establish monarchy in Yemen by force. He is also accused of preventing people paying the Islamic tax Zakat to the government and of trying to set himself up as Imam. Yemen has not had an imam since Zaidi Imam Hamid al-Din was overthrown as ruler in 1962.

Al-Hothi has denied the accusations. He says 'Believing Youth' is being targeted because of its faith in Islam and its opposition to the United States and Israel.

Iraqi jihadists threaten to kill Bulgarian hostages

And why not? The Philippines caved so quickly, the jihadists have every reason to believe they have found a winning formula.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Militants in Iraq threatened on Thursday to kill two Bulgarian hostages within 24 hours unless U.S.-led forces freed prisoners, Arabic satellite television Al Jazeera reported....

The tape showed two men, identified as Bulgarians, sitting in front of masked captors, two of them toting automatic weapons while a third read a statement.

Al Jazeera said the captors vowed to kill the hostages unless the United States released imprisoned Iraqis.

"The group said the Bulgarian government bore responsibility over the safety of its citizens because its has sent troops to Iraq," the television added.

There was no immediate comment from Bulgarian officials, and it was not clear whether the captive Bulgarians were military personnel or civilians.

Bulgaria has been an ally of the United States over Iraq and has contributed troops to U.S.-led forces.

Comments update

This just in from the indispensable web wizard, Charles Johnson of LGF:

All email addresses are now hidden from public view.

That means you can post without fear of spam. He also adds that while they were visible, they were still protected from spambots with an encoding scheme. (This spam protection has been built into MT for a while.)

US Muslims convicted of violating anti-terror laws

They were convicted in Texas of selling computer equipment to Libya and Syria, among other things. From the BBC, with thanks to Twostellas:

The men - Ghassan, Basman, Bayan, Hazim and Ihsan Elashi - ran a computer business in Richardson, Texas.

They were tried on more than 20 counts of money-laundering and false statements on export documents.

Three of the brothers are facing separate charges of funnelling money to the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

The five ran a firm called InfoCom.

On Wednesday, they were found guilty of shipping money to countries regarded by the US as sponsors of terrorism, and could face up to 10 years in jail.

During the trial, prosecutors said they repeatedly filed false export forms to deceive the authorities about the nature of their business.

The defence argued that the brothers did not knowingly break laws and that the equipment sent to the Middle East consisted only of low-grade computers.

UPDATE: Daniel Pipes (thanks to Mentat) notes that one of these men, Ghassan Elashi, was a founding board member of CAIR's Texas chapter. I am somewhat abashed at not noticing his name before Mentat pointed it out: just last week I was writing about Elashi and other CAIR officials who have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in a piece for my forthcoming essay collection, The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun is at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut

Now we should get some answers. From ABCNews, with thanks to Bob:

July 8, 2004 — A U.S. Marine missing from Iraq for more than two weeks is safe and being questioned at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, ABC News has learned. ...

U.S. military officials have said the Lebanese-born Hassoun disappeared June 20 from Iraq on "unauthorized leave," but changed his status to "captured" after he turned up on Arab television blindfolded with a sword hanging over his head.

On Saturday, a statement posted on an Islamist Web site said Hassoun had been beheaded in Iraq. But a day later, another Web statement declared the Marine had not been killed after he promised not to rejoin the U.S. military. ...

U.S. military officials say they are investigating his disappearance amid suspicions of a possible hoax.

Terrorist plot believed thwarted in Montreal

It is good when attacks are prevented. But it can create the illusion for an inattentive public that there is no real threat. That's why news of thwarted attacks deserves the widest possible dissemination. From the Toronto Star, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MONTREAL — Customs officials at the Port of Montreal believe they have derailed a terrorist plot to export chemical weapons, the TVA network reported today.

The French-language television network said unidentified products used in the composition of chemical weapons were discovered in 60 cases destined for Britain in February.

Belgian police arrest Dutch resident on terror charges

But of course, there is no cause to be concerned about radicalism among the Muslim populations of Europe. What are you, some kind of racist? Go back to sleep. From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

AMSTERDAM − Belgian police have arrested a Dutch resident of Moroccan origin on suspicion of involvement in the Madrid train bombings in March.

The man was arrested on 1 July when the suspect − identified as El Houcine el H., of the southern Dutch city Weert − applied for asylum in Belgium, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Wednesday.

A spokesman from the federal prosecution office in Brussels said that the suspect was accused of preparing an international terrorist attack from Belgium.

He said the arrest was linked to arrests carried out on 8 June, when Belgian authorities raided homes in Brussels, Schaarbeek and Antwerp and arrested 15 people.

The detainees − who originate from Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco − were accused of holding links with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). Four suspects are still being held on remand.

The four suspects are alleged to have formed an operational group that used Belgium as its base and could have been sent anywhere across the globe to carry out terrorist attacks. The terrorist cell was allegedly managed from Italy.

Al-Qaeda: Italy is Next Target

Al-Qaeda wants Silvio to find out something only dead men know. They no doubt disapprove of Italy's troops in Iraq, but they're probably also still smarting over his post 9/11 remarks: "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and — in contrast with Islamic countries — respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance." Now will they attempt to prove Berlusconi wrong by wreaking mayhem in Italy?

From Novinite.com, Bulgaria's Sofia News Agency, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A purported Al-Qaeda statement has threatened Italy will be its next target in retaliation for the policy of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The statement, written in poor Italian and believed to be by Osama bin Laden, has been published in an Islamist site and included in the evening news broadcast of an Italian TV channel.

Missing Marine mystery deepens: Pentagon investigating hoax possibility

But if it was all a hoax, what was the motive? Who was behind it? No clues as of yet. From MSNBC, with thanks to Jjp Mackie:

Late Wednesday, FBI agents showed up at the Hassoun family home in West Jordan, Utah. And Pentagon officials tell NBC News that the Navy has now launched a criminal investigation into Hassoun's disappearance, and the possibility that his kidnapping may be part of an elaborate hoax.

Hassoun disappeared from his Marine unit on June 20. He showed up a week later in a hostage-style video, with a sword held over his head and his alleged captors threatening to kill him. Terrorist experts say, however, the group said to have held Hassoun is unknown.

"We don't know whether this group is simply an Internet address. ... We don't know if they were simply fabricated. We have no idea what's going on here," says terrorism expert Steve Emerson.

All eyes on Iran please...

A shortened version of this piece is now available at another website. But here, with the permission of the authors, is a Jihad Watch exclusive: the full story of tomorrow's demonstrations and the latest on the extraordinary democracy movements that are making the Iranian mullahs nervous. "All eyes on Iran please" by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi & Elio Bonazzi:

As July 8th approaches, Iranians everywhere prepare to display their hatred for the un-elected Mullahs dominating Iran. These demonstrations have become a sort of national duty for all Iranians; this year marks the 5th anniversary of the brutal University Student dorm massacres of 1999. That was the year that Khatami showed his true colors by siding with the Supreme Leader, abandoning the promised reforms and the people of Iran who voted for him. What started out as a reaction to the utter brutality of the fossilized establishment by young Iranian students, has turned into a milestone that the world should acknowledge and encourage.

Iranians inside Iran take to the streets for weeks every June and July, in order to defeat the fiendish forces that now also threaten the rest of the world; however not one western politico, speaking of freedom, human rights and democracy is willing to embrace these genuine, tireless and fearless movements in order to promote or even address what Iranians are now doing, literally for the safety of the world!

On June 17th, Hassan Abassi, head of the Revolutionary Guards' Center for Doctrinaire Affairs of National Security Outside Iran, stated that: “We [Islamic Republic of Iran] have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon civilization." However the West (and particularly the E.U.) continues depending on the dangerously under-qualified foreign policy of an apprehensive character such as Jack Straw, the current British Foreign Secretary who was Home Secretary in the Labour government of 1997-2001 and expected to become Transport Secretary after the 2001 UK general election. He was surprisingly appointed Foreign Secretary and was almost immediately confronted by the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, having little or no experience in dealing with a menace of such magnitude. As the architect of the policy of dialogue and engagement with a state (Iran) that sponsors terrorism, Jack Straw fails to realize that in the eyes of the Mullahs, dialogue, engagement and forgiveness is a sign of weakness. In spite of threats such as Abbassi’s however, Mr. Straw chose yet again to employ soft diplomacy in handling the recent capture of British navy vessels from the Shat-al-Arab waterways by Iranian military. After the parading of the blindfolded British sailors on Iranian TV and the Mullah’s refusal to promptly return the naval equipment back to Britain, Jack Straw persistently refused to honor the wishes of several Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs who vociferously insisted that the Mullahs apologize or deal with the consequences.

Iranians have acted responsibly as citizens of the global village, in passing on 25 years worth of experiences with the Islamist cancer and their roving apparatchiks. This year again people in cities, towns and villages all over Iran will rise and in solidarity with them, Iranians outside Iran have organized demonstrations in 24 cities around the world and counting. Now if the west is completely unwilling to listen to facts and figures stated over and over again by Iranians, warning them of the terror that lurks in the heart of the Mullahs, it will have been no one’s fault but that of the western powers themselves.

The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran has received reports from inside Iran, stating that the Mullah regime, spearheaded by the 3 ruling clerics, Khamenei, Rafsanjani & Khatami has officially banned any gathering or demonstration. Plans for mobilizing thousands more troops and foreign mercenaries in order to quash any popular action or uprising have been in the works for months now. The governors of Esfahan and various other cities have declared their firm intention to oppose any and all action taken to ignite widespread demonstrations.

Reports from sources within the regime's revolutionary guards and ministry of information [who keep their jobs just so they can act as informants for freedom fighters], are stating that specific orders have been given to use lethal force against anyone opposing the Islamic State's directives. Hundreds of checkpoints have been created in every city and militiamen are ordered to search cars or arrest “suspicious-looking” residents under various charges in order to increase the popular fear. Also militiamen who pour into people’s homes by force are confiscating Satellite dishes and receivers around the country. Rumor's of a deal made by the regime with the Castro’s government in order to jam, once again, radio and TV programming by opposition or Iranian services broadcast from abroad into Iran is running rampant. Kamal Kharazi, IRI foreign minister who spent last week in Cuba was assigned to deliver this request to the Cuban authorities that organized that same level of interference during last year’s June/July demonstrations. This favor is of course repaid by promises of big economic incentives helping Castro's regime.

The parallax error is the incorrect representation of a situation due to not perceiving it from a straightforward and objective angle. Western societies have been built on the concept of broad-mindedness and tolerance and this is an approach that simply cannot be applied to the Iranian Mullahs’ way of thinking. Therefore, at some point the Western world must mend its ways, put things in perspective and act with self-preserving determination.

Al-Jazeera Airs Video of Hostage in Iraq

And now, a Filipino hostage. Hostage taking and beheadings are terrific PR for the terrorists, as the search requests at Jihad Watch bear out. From AP:

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape Wednesday of armed men holding a Filipino hostage and threatening to kill him if the Philippines does not withdraw its small force from Iraq in three days.

UPDATE: Philippines Halts Troop Deployment to Iraq. Well, that was quick. Not even the Spanish caved in with such speed and alacrity.

Hamas Spokesman on UAE TV Program: On the Recruitment and Training of Palestinian Suicide Bombers

"The level of faith among a wide sector of the young believers instills in them the concept of Jihad, true Jihad in defense of the message, the homeland, the people, and the nation. They are committed even before they reach the fighting stage. They are committed to their cause and draw their belief in it from the mosque." From MEMRI:

Al-Majd TV, a United Arab Emirates religious channel, hosted Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, and Faraj Shalhoub, an expert on Palestinian affairs, to discuss the recruitment and training of Palestinian suicide bombers. This episode was translated by the recently initiated MEMRI TV Monitor Project. The following are excerpts from the program, which can be viewed at www.memritv.org :(1)

Moderator: "How are the martyrdom bombers selected? How are they recruited and prepared mentally, and morally?"

Faraj Shalhoub: "I want to talk about recruiting, before I talk about the selection. The level of faith among a wide sector of the young believers instills in them the concept of Jihad, true Jihad in defense of the message, the homeland, the people, and the nation. They are committed even before they reach the fighting stage. They are committed to their cause and draw their belief in it from the mosque.

[...]

Faraj Shalhoub: "It also requires morale preparation and so, he spends some time in religious ritual and intensive spiritual preparation until he reaches a certain level of conviction that pushes him commit martyrdom, regardless of the fact that his mental readiness was high to begin with."

Moderator: "Meaning, in the last stages before committing the martyrdom operation?"

Faraj Shalhoub: "This comes following his decision to commit martyrdom. The volunteers are those who initiate and accept upon themselves to commit a martyrdom operation. There is a widespread misconception, propagated by the Zionist enemy, that there are recruiters among the Palestinian fighters who look for martyrdom bombers. The opposite is true - the martyrdom bombers are the ones looking for the resistance factions in order to commit martyrdom operations.

"We are talking about hundreds of martyrdom bombers waiting in line to commit martyrdom operations. The factions' inability to supply enough operations for all of them is the only obstacle preventing them all from committing martyrdom operations."

Sami Abu Zuhri: "There are hundreds of female martyrdom bombers, who stream en masse and insist on participating in martyrdom operations. This is a unique phenomenon, reflecting the live spirit of Jihad among this people.

"This is our way of emphasizing… These are living examples of this people's adherence to Jihad and resistance. We want to reassure our Arab and Islamic nation that there is no longer any danger for the path of resistance. ...

Endnotes:
(1) Al-Majd TV (UAE), June 13, 2004. This is clip #117 and can be found at http://www.memritv.org/archives.asp?ACT=S9&P1=117.

Source: Missing Marine says he's safe

Perhaps we shall soon see if he really deserts, as his Muslim captors wanted him to. From CNN:

WEST JORDAN, Utah (CNN) -- Marine Cpl. Wassef Hassoun called his family Wednesday to tell them he is safe and in Lebanon, a source close to his family told CNN.

The source said Hassoun contacted the family in West Jordan, Utah, and Lebanon and told them that he had called the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and asked that he be picked up from an undisclosed location in Lebanon. The source said Hassoun sounded healthy and happy....

On Monday, a group claiming to have kidnapped Wassef Hassoun said it had taken him to safety, Al-Jazeera reported.

He "has been sent to a safe place after he had announced his forgiveness and his determination not to go back to the U.S. forces," said the group -- which calls itself "Islamic Response," the security wing of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq -- in a statement faxed to Al-Jazeera and posted on the network's Web site.

Earlier reports on other Islamist Web sites said Hassoun had been beheaded.

Democracy demonstrations for Iran tomorrow

Across the US and Europe. From Democracy for Iran, with thanks to Susan:

Please join us in our struggle to eradicate the major source and the supporter of World Wide Terrorism. This march is a Universal condemnation of the criminal Islamic regime of mullahs in Iran and a call for secularism, democracy, freedom and referendum in Iran. ...

Please click on the link to get the schedule of demonstrations, and attend one near you.

This letter is also at the site:

My fellow Iranians,

The anniversary of the 18 Tir, the Iranian Students National Uprising, is once again upon us. The 18th of Tir (July 8th) has become a symbolic struggle and resistance against the tyrannical, totalitarian and barbaric regime of the Islamic Republic. Our very brave and courageous freedom lovers have been challenging the very fabric of the foreign occupiers of the Iranian nation. Iranian people have demanded a total annihilation of this Totalitarian State of Islamic Barbarity and Terror, which lacks even the most basic human compassion and human rights.

The Iranian people after their centuries long struggle which resulted in throwing out many foreign mercenaries, will throw this new and unwanted fundamentalist Islamic thugs right into the trash-basket of history very soon.

The flowers of victory will once again blossom and the celebration of life over the celebration death will begin. But until then, we must struggle against fanaticism with all our strength. We must end poverty, ignorance, disease and inequality of opportunity. We must pledge of dedication to the service of Iran and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

I call upon the honorable people of Iran to stand tall and start to build the noble mansion of free Iran where all her children may dwell in freedom and equality. Iranian people must become masters of their own destiny.

The events of 18 Tir have created bitter taste toward the Islamic foreign oppressors. The Persian people have been struggling to obliterate these desperate opportunist parasites forever from their land. This can only happen when we have the full Support of all Iranians. This can only happen when we set aside dedicated time and resources for the destruction of this merciless, despotic, alien regime and the establishment of a Free, independent sovereign United States of Iran/Persia.

My fellow Persians, A. D Benoist said, “The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of participation. We need you to make time to come out and participate in these gatherings over and over again. “Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles,” said, Abbie Hoffman

One of the major hurdles to achieve the full democracy and the rule of law in Iran, in the past, has always come from the selfish-interest of people who have been attempting to plunder the society for their own personal gain. It is the same scenario today. If we desire to achieve freedom and remain free then we continuously need to avoid self-interest and work for our national interest and in the spirit of teamwork.

Human beings cannot create an idea world of peace and tranquility under totalitarian and despotic and tyrant regimes, such as the Islamic Republic in Iran. The freedom of the individual would be brutally repressed. The individual would be at the mercy of the merciless despots and in our case, the clergies in Iran.

Revolutions are successful only when they succeed in replacing a totalitarian state, not creating another oppressing dictatorship. We need to create a government, which will be providing greater personal freedom and liberty for all Iranians. A government, which moves away from dictatorship and proceeds towards democracy

I believe demonstrations such as 18 Tir will give Iranians in Iran who are unable to demonstrate in their own homeland a hope in the hearts of the hopeless Iranians and a chance to rejuvenate their motivation. It represents a step forward in our freedom initiative, which will break down barriers of mistrust with our home base.

As we move forward on implementing this important demonstration, we are determined to establish a grass-root organization, which effectively, monitors and supports the need to find the best way to provide more freedom.

“Behind all customs of whatever nature, behind all social unrest, behind all movements, behind all revolutions, are great driving forces.” Iranians have been struggling against alien rulers and self-determination, for so long. Because of the lack of social and political freedom, police terrorization and thought control under the occupation of Islamic terrorists in Iran have been escalating and with the selections of the members of Iran’s 7th congress, the Islamic occupiers want to continue this repression and, to legitimize their evil entity.

My fellow compatriots, once again I call upon all of you to be united with your fellow Iranians in Iran on this day and support the aspirations of the Iranians for a self-rule and their expectations for an era of peace, freedom, prosperity and independence. This is no longer a choice; it is simply a duty and obligation as an Iranian citizen.

Amil Imani
June 16, 2004
Amil_Imani@hotmail.com

Also, please sign this online petition, "A Plea For Support & Demonstration Attendance against Terrorists, Islamofascists, and Fanaticism." I just did.

Air passengers taught self-defense

A long-overdue defense manual for airline passengers is now available. From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Responding to the air-travel anxieties since 9-11, an American Airlines pilot and two aviation security experts have compiled a book to help passengers and crew defend themselves in the case of a terrorist attack.

"Never Again" is a "self-defense guide for the flying public'' with some 200 illustrations of hand-to-hand combat situations that could unfold in an airline cabin.

"Unless law enforcement is aboard, passengers and flight attendants are the first line of defense," co-author Mark Bogosian told WorldNetDaily.

An American Airlines captain, Bogosian notes that prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, flight crews were trained to cooperate with hijackers, but the suicide operation that turned airliners into missiles changed everything.

"That scenario was never imagined or talked about in our training," he said. ...

Along with disarming tips – in case a terrorist was able to get a gun on board – it provides numerous self-defense moves, ways to take away a knife or box cutter and information about dozens of ordinary items in aircraft cabins that can be used to thrwart an attack.

Bogosian emphasizes, however, this is not a "whack 'em up" book, but a carefully measured approach to an attack that begins with analyzing the situation and using the standard levels of the "force continuum" employed by law enforcement.

Chad Rebels: Libya Blocking Al Qaeda Captive's Handover

Hey, isn't Qaddafi supposed to be our pal these days? From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

Amari Saifi, the former No. 2 man of Algeria's violent Salafist Group for Call and Combat, was claimed captured by Chad rebels earlier this year as West African armed forces backed by France and the United States chased him across the Sahara.

Chad rebels told The Associated Press on Monday they had turned over two of Saifi's accomplices to Libyan agents at the two countries' border on June 25.

Libya, however, had failed to keep its word to turn over the two men to the West, Brahim Tchouma, an official in exile for the rebels' Movement for Justice and Democracy in Chad, told the AP by telephone.

As a result, Chad rebels were balking at turning over Saifi himself, Tchouma said.

"The Libyans didn't want to cooperate, and so we have stopped our negotiations" with them, Tchouma said.

Bali bombers declare Indonesian election haram

Big surprise here. From Laksamana.net, with thanks to GMG:

The majority of the 33 prisoners convicted of involvement in the 12 October 2002 Bali bombings decided to boycott Indonesia’s presidential elections, with bombing mastermind Imam Samudra declaring the elections ‘haram’ or forbidden under Islamic law. ...

Imam Samudra was not shy of grabbing journalist’s attention and gestured through the bars of his cell.

Journalists were curious to know why the man behind the bombings had decided to boycott the election.

“Democracy is haram!” he answered.

“Whoever is the leader, this country will never be right unless it’s replaced by the rule of Islamic law only,” he said.

Beheadings: Terrorism is a symptom of a bigger problem

Courageous and much-needed observations from Kamal Nawash, the fearless spokesman of an organization that deserves wide attention: the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism.

The world watched in horror as Kim Sun-il cried and begged not to be killed. Nevertheless, he met the same fate as Paul M. Johnson Jr., and Nicholas Berg as his head was cut off in the most brutal and inhumane way. Unfortunately, this will not be the end of the beheadings. The amount of media coverage the beheadings attract guarantees there will be many more.

These days, not a day goes by without news of terrorism in the name of Islam. Islamist terrorism represents one of the most lethal treats to the stability of the civilized world. With this in mind, the war against terrorism will not be won unless the world understands that terrorism is a symptom of a bigger problem and not the problem in itself.

The root cause of terrorism is an ideology called “political Islam.” Political Islam is a desire by extremist Muslims to create a fundamentalist Muslim empire made up of every Muslim nation. This desire to create a Muslim empire is based on the delusion that modernity is a threat to Islam and the idea that the Muslim community has strayed from God and if they were to return to a strict interpretation of Islam based on Sharia (Islamic Law) that the problems in the Muslim world would be solved. It is this exact mentality spurned of paranoia, ignorance, fear, and a rejection of secularism that inspired the beheading of Kim Sun-il, Paul M. Johnson Jr., and Nicholas Berg.

Political Islam has been growing at turbo speed since the 1980s.
Similar to the spread of communism, the call for Islamic states has gained substantial following among the poor, unemployed, enfranchised
and those who are disillusioned in believing that the creation of
Islamic states and the implementation of Sharia will solve all their
problems. In fact, every modern example of an Islamic state, whether in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, or Nigeria has resulted in war, terrorism, inequality for women and non-Muslims, poverty and a slippery slope into the dark ages.

Terrorism is a natural result of political Islam because those who seek Islamic states believe that they are trying to implement the wishes of God and that no matter how barbaric their tactics are, God will be pleased with them because their goal is “noble.”

Thus, the war on terrorism will not be won unless the world also engages in an ideological battle with Muslim extremists and those who call for the creation of Muslim states. No one is better suited in challenging the use of terror and Muslim extremism than moderate Muslims and Muslim organizations. Unfortunately, there is no unconditional opposition to political Islam or to extremism from Muslim organizations.

Muslim organizations in the United States and elsewhere have refused to take a Zero tolerance approach against terrorism. Although most Muslims organizations claim to be against terrorism, they only do so as long as they don’t have to give details. For example, most American Muslim organizations refuse to call HAMAS or Hezbollah terrorist organizations. This is because they share their ideology and their call for the creation of “Islamic States.” Until the day comes when Muslim organizations and leaders take a zero tolerance approach toward terrorism, the war against terrorism will not be won and we will continue to hear of more beheadings.

A major achievement: US removes 1.7 metric tons of radioactive material from Iraq

Here are 1.7 metric tons of radioactive material that won't find their way into dirty bombs detonated in New York City. From the BBC, with thanks to Richard:

Along with 1.77 tons of enriched uranium, about 1,000 "highly radioactive sources" were also removed.

The material was taken from a former nuclear research facility on 23 June, after being packaged by 20 experts from the US Energy Department's secret laboratories.

It was flown out of the country aboard a military plane in a joint operation with the Department of Defense, and is being stored temporarily at a Department of Energy facility.

Zarqawi told 'leave Iraq or die'

Turnabout is fair play, I suppose. From the BBC, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and Richard:

A group of armed, masked men have issued a public warning to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to leave Iraq on pain of death.

A previously unknown group, calling itself the Salvation Movement, accused him of murdering innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion.

The men said unless he left immediately he would be hunted down and killed.

Mr Zarqawi and his followers have been blamed for a string of attacks in Iraq and the beheading of foreign hostages.

"We have started preparing... to capture him and his allies or kill them and present them as gift to our people," one of the men said in the video, broadcast on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV network.

"We will do to you what the coalition forces have failed to do."

The warning extended to the friends, followers and protectors of Mr Zarqawi.

"This is the last ultimatum to those who give him shelter. This is the last warning," the masked man says.

The statement accused the fugitive of "heinous acts which killed innocents" in attacks across Iraq.

"What religion is he clinging to? Islam is a religion of forgiveness," it said, condemning the murder of foreign workers and threats against interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Not that they're being all that forgiving themselves, but I for one am willing to forgive them that.

Terrorist video reveals chilling insight

"I sacrifice myself for my religion." Yeah, give that man a few food stamps, and he'll calm down. More details on the Zarqawi video, from Reuters:

The sophisticated footage includes scenes such as a suicide bomber heading off on a mission, waving goodbye to his chanting colleagues as he climbs into the cab of a truck packed with explosives.

"I sacrifice myself for my religion," he says before leaving.

Moments later an explosion can be heard and a massive ball of fire fills the screen as the suicide bomber reaches his target. ...

"This video speaks of a danger more organised than the one viewed through the snippets of the intelligence and glimmers of insight the public has previously seen," wrote Michael Ware, the Time reporter who obtained the tape. "It does not bode well for the immediate future of Iraq's fledgling government nor the ultimate exit plans for the 130 000 US troops still (in Iraq)."

Ware, who has interviewed a number of insurgents over the past year, said the tape was intended to send a very clear message to coalition troops and foreigners: "We can get you. You cannot stop us."

Ware also said the video, like a corporate recruitment product, was designed to lure new fighters - and funding - to Zarqawi's network.

"It is a very, very sophisticated part of Zarqawi's information campaign, stamping him as the star of the new global jihad inspired by Osama bin Laden," said Ware.

Egyptian shadow government forming

Introducing a band of courageous men: the Egyptian shadow government.

Egypt Shadow Government has been founded by a group of liberal and progressive Egyptians to free Egypt from dictatorship and fanaticism and to save it from sinking into chaos, famines and civil wars.

The objectives of this shadow government are briefly listed as follows:

1. Build a true parliamentarian democracy in Egypt in place of the existing military dictatorship.

2. Secularize Egypt through bettering the standard of living, stamping out corruption and nepotism, ending tyranny, changing and developing education and promoting and supporting exclusively through mass media novel religious views that cast doubt on, counter and prove wrong the doctrines of fatwa (religious ruling), tafseer (science of interpretation of Quran), fiquh (religious science), khilapha (Caliphate) and jihad.

3. Halt all forms of anti-Western, anti-peace and anti-democracy propaganda.

4- End persecution of and discrimination against Copts and other minority groups in Egypt.

5. Bring about peace and stability in the Middle East through normalization of relations with Israel and by encouraging other Arab countries to do the same and through urging the Palestinians, Saudis and Syrians to free themselves from dictatorship....

Godspeed.

The new Sudanese plan for concentration camps

From bad to worse in Sudan. From the Daily Star via KurdishMedia.com, with thanks to Andy:

The appointment, a month ago, of Interior Minister General Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein as Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s special representative in Darfur passed without comment outside Sudan. This was a mistake, especially at a time when the Sudanese government was coming under pressure to take meaningful action to halt the destruction of Darfur by the country’s armed forces and its proxy Janjaweed militia.

Although Hussein was never in the public eye in the same way as other regime figures, his hard-line credentials are right up there with the best of them - "shadow head" of the army at the time of the 1989 coup that brought the National Islamic Front to power; after the coup, secretary to the Revolution Command Council that suspended the 1985 constitution, abrogated press freedom, disbanded all political parties and trade unions, and endorsed ethnic militias as a weapon of war. ...

With the Hussein plan, if it is implemented, the government of Sudan would complete its redrawing of the ethnic map of Darfur. African farmers burned out of the countryside by the army and the Janjaweed would be herded into unnatural concentrations where they would exist as a slave underclass under permanent threat of arms. Reports from inside Darfur already indicate that Arabs from Sudan and neighboring countries are being moved into areas that have been emptied of their original, African inhabitants. ...

Hussein’s resettlement plan drew no immediate criticism. It was par for the course in a week in which Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell both visited Sudan and refrained from publicly condemning an array of abuses they themselves witnessed - shots fired at students trying to deliver a petition on Darfur; whips used against civilians seeking Powell’s ear in one displaced camp, the forcible evacuation of another on the eve of a visit by Annan. ...

The US has given Khartoum a list of Janjaweed leaders it believes are responsible for war crimes. Without immediate, significant action to disarm and withdraw the Janjaweed, Washington should follow up with a list of government leaders - most importantly, those behind the country’s militia policy and military intelligence. At the UN, it must twist arms, expend diplomatic capital, do whatever it takes to get support for measures including investigations into war crimes, the deployment of an international monitoring and protection force, a ban on arms sales to Sudan and sanctions on Sudan’s oil exports.

What we have seen so far has been little more than a game of bluff. And Khartoum has yet to blink.

New Spencer article: Musharraf, You’re No Churchill

This new article by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer considers the recent remarks by Pakistan's President in light of the latest studies about the background of terrorists. It can be found today at FrontPage. A few highlights:

Call the roller of big cigars: Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf is hard at work auditioning for the role of today’s Winston Churchill. Last Monday he declared: “A new iron curtain seems to be falling. This iron curtain somehow is dividing the Muslim world on one side and the West on the other side. This is very dangerous.”

How dangerous? Well, the Islamic world is on the brink of falling into new “depths of chaos and despair.” It seems that “Muslim states are seen as the source of terrorism,” which evidently our new Churchill finds disturbing; I suppose he would prefer that we search for terrorists among the Ohio Amish. Musharraf warns of more “terrorism and an impending clash of civilizations” — unless, that is, the United States goes to what he identifies as the root of the problem: “If you manage to finish off one organization like al Qaeda ... you’ve chopped off a branch of that tree, but the tree will still grow. You must identify the root, and the root happens to be political disputes ... the root happens also to be illiteracy and poverty.” Many Muslims, he explained, “feel deprived, hopeless, powerless.” This leaves them vulnerable to being “indoctrinated by distorted views of Islam.” ...

Will Great Society programs aimed at stamping out Musharraf’s twin bogeymen, illiteracy and poverty, really put an end to all this? When the Ottoman Empire was the richest, most powerful nation in the world, it still pursued jihad against Christian Europe. None of Osama bin Laden’s millions have ever persuaded him that he’d rather haunt the nightclubs of Beirut than the caves of Afghanistan. But Musharraf isn’t alone: few in the West want to face the implications of studies like Sageman’s. It is far easier to imagine that a few dollars and a voucher or two to MIT will put everything right again in the Middle East, than to try to digest the implications of a religion in need of massive reform on a global scale.

But all this obfuscation is ultimately self-defeating: with the root causes of terror left unaddressed, the terrorists are still free to recruit and proliferate. Let Musharraf speak about the real roots of Islamic terror, and he’ll actually deserve that Churchillian mantle.

Released Gitmo detainees go back to fight U.S.

And why not? What has been done to disabuse them of their jihadist ideology? From UPI:

"We've already had instances where we know that people who have been released from our detention have gone back and have become combatants again," Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence told UPI.

"I do in fact have specific cases," he said, when pressed for further details, but declined to say more.

A defense official confirmed to UPI several such cases had involved Afghans released from Guantanamo.

"At least five detainees released from Guantanamo have returned to the (Afghan) battlefield," said the defense official, who requested anonymity.

Musharraf Sees Iron Curtain Between West, Muslims

And starring Pervez Musharraf as Winston Churchill. From Reuters, with thanks to nevermindlv:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - An iron curtain is descending between the West and the Muslim world, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf warned on Monday.

Political injustices, poverty and illiteracy are fueling religious fundamentalism and terrorism, he said in a speech while on a visit to Sweden, urging rich countries to help Muslim nations with investment and socio-economic reforms.

Most of Pakistan's 150 million people are Muslims, and a third of them live in poverty.

Many people in the Islamic world "feel deprived, hopeless, powerless" and could be "indoctrinated by distorted views of Islam," Musharraf said.

"A new iron curtain seems to be falling," he said. "This iron curtain somehow is dividing the Muslim world on one side and the West on the other side. This is very dangerous," he told Reuters in an interview after the speech.

"Muslim states are seen as the source of terrorism," he said, warning of new "depths of chaos and despair" and more "terrorism and an impending clash of civilizations" if the West, particularly the United States, and Muslim countries failed to eradicate the root causes of anger and resentment. ...

"If you manage to finish off one organization like al Qaeda ... you've chopped off a branch of that tree, but the tree will still grow. You must identify the root, and the root happens to be political disputes ... the root happens also to be illiteracy and poverty."

No. The root is jihad ideology. Until that is recognized, new terrorists will continue to stream out of the madrassas in Musharraf's own country. The idea that all this comes from poverty has been debunked again and again.

Criticism of Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's 'Islamist Democracy' Doctrine

MEMRI reports that "Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi, a Jordanian intellectual residing in the U.S.," has written a scathing "critique of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi's claim that 'democracy is in the essence of Islam.'" Note how he describes Qaradhawi, who has been praised as a reformer by John Esposito.

His points about democracy and Islam are most interesting to me, because I have written on several occasions about the difficulties democracy faces in an Islamic context. Of course, when I have said these things, I have been called an "Islamophobe" and suchlike by American Muslim spokesmen. What will they call Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi?

Some highlights of his critique:

"Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is the highest religious authority of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the spiritual leader of most of the religious movements that have become bloodthirsty terror organizations. He is religious and financial advisor to over 20 financial companies operating according to Islamic financial tenets, which are known to have destroyed the businesses of most small investors in Egypt. It was he who came up with the idea of establishing the Al-Jazeera cable channel and he who has been the spiritual leader and senior religious advisor of this channel.

"[Al-Qaradhawi] is also political-religious advisor to the Prince of Qatar and a prominent participant in conferences on democracy, Islamic Shura [Consultative Council], and interfaith dialogues. He is among those who maintain that the Shura is meant to advise the ruler, but does not obligate him. [Al-Qaradhawi holds that] the ruler must not be deposed even if he sins or oppresses, and that 'the ruler must be obeyed even if he strikes you or expropriates your property,' according to traditions falsely attributed to the Prophet. Recently [Al-Qaradhawi] has become one of the champions of 'Islamist Democracy…'"

Democracy is Alien to Islam
"Al-Qaradhawi began his speech by saying that democracy is in the spirit of Islam. It is known … that the term 'democracy' does not exist at all in Islam… Neither the Koran, nor the true or false traditions (and there are numerous false traditions), nor the teachings of pious or sinning ancestors mentioned the word 'democracy' throughout the political history of Islam as we know it today.

"Although Islam is a political religion par excellence, and was aimed at building a political empire which emerged at the time of the Righteous Caliphs and ended with the Abbasid era, Muslim jurisprudence did not address political issues except in a few modest books, the most important of which were written by Abu Al-Hassan Al-Mawardi in the 11th century and Ibn Taymiyya in the 12th century, after the Mamelukes rose to power. [3] These books were relevant only to their time; they dealt with the sovereigns of that time and urged them to be just and honest – but they had no ideological, political and historical continuation.

"Therefore, Arabs and Muslims have no political heritage to draw upon in administering their affairs today. Politics [for them] was a way to rule, not a science or a political doctrine, as explained by Ahmad Al-Baghdadi in his book 'Renewal of Religious Thought.' Hence, the Caliphate has remained unchanged from 632 through 2004 – it has kept its primitive, simple tribal form (the elite's allegiance to the sovereigns) – an un-democratic structure, despotic, and bloody except for a brief period of 12 years during the rule of Abu Baker and Omar Bin Al-Khattab [the first and second Caliphs].

"Since the time of [the Umayyad Caliph] Mu'awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan through the last Ottoman Sultan, (that is from the year 661 through the year 1924), the Islamic Caliphate was drenched with blood, and ruled by fist and sword – and even today the situation is the same in most of the Arab world.

"Al-Qaradhawi's contention that true democracy is in the spirit of Islam is false… The Islamists became aware of democracy only recently, when the West implemented it and began urging other countries to implement it too, in order to protect the people of the earth from annihilation at the hands of despotic and repressive rulers.

Read it all.

Zarqawi issues video of suicide bombers

"How can I live peacefully at a time when the holy and sacred places have been violated, and the country is usurped, and the infidels are encroaching on our country and humiliating our religion?" But of course, this isn't a religious war or a clash of civilizations or anything like that. From the London Daily Telegraph:

LONDON — Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, has staked his claim to lead the jihad against the American presence by releasing a slickly produced video of suicide bombers and several of their attacks.

The hour-long production is part political manifesto, part recruiting campaign and part propaganda to tell the United States that its intense efforts to find the Jordanian-born militant leader have been a failure.

The video released by Zarqawi's group chronicles what are supposedly the final days and hours of the suicide bombers as they prepare themselves for "martyrdom operations."

There are scenes of them praying, relaxing and reading out final statements.

"How can I live peacefully at a time when the holy and sacred places have been violated, and the country is usurped, and the infidels are encroaching on our country and humiliating our religion?" asks one purported bomber, reading his statement as armed, masked men stand behind him at night.

U.S. lawsuit accuses Arab Bank of aiding terrorists

Relatives of people murdered by jihadists in Israel have filed suit accusing Arab Bank of funding terrorist groups and even paying suicide bombers. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, claims the bank's New York branch laundered Saudi aid to terrorists. The branch first converted the money into dollars and then sent it to local branches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where it was paid out to terrorists and terrorist organizations, the suit alleges.

The bank also worked with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to distribute insurance money to beneficiaries of suicide bombers, including their families and those wounded or captured by Israeli security forces, the lawsuit alleges.

Pipes: Federal Bureau of Islamists

I just wrote about the FBI doing something right. Now here is Daniel Pipes in FrontPage with disquieting information about how they are, consistently and in the face of hard evidence, continuing to go very, very wrong.

· In February 2001, it promoted Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, a special agent who rejected a counterterror assignment on the grounds that “a Muslim does not record another Muslim.”

· In May 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller had his spokesman call the American Muslim Council “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States,” despite its record of helping fund-raise for terrorism. Today, the AMC’s long-time leader sits in jail and the organization is virtually defunct.

· In September 2003, the FBI nearly bestowed its Exceptional Public Service Award on Imad Hamad of Detroit, saved from this embarrassment by columnist Debbie Schlussel, who exposed Hamad in the New York Post as someone who “supports terrorism and [who] was himself a suspected terrorist.”

There is much more. Read it all.

FBI will interview more people to prevent terrorism

From the looks of this article, they aren't going to be questioning any Presbyterian grandmothers, either. Watch for charges of profiling and charges of a "witch hunt," but until Al-Qaeda starts recruiting Methodists, the FBI is doing the right thing. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fearing terrorist attacks this summer and fall, the FBI is using its latest intelligence to expand interviews in U.S. communities to try to find al-Qaida operatives before they strike.

An FBI official said the interviews will be driven by information gathered by the 2004 Threat Task Force, composed of bureau agents and analysts, plus experts from the intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security.

The official said only a small number of interviews have taken place so far, but they will be conducted on a larger scale in coming weeks.

Among the more immediate concerns are potential attacks at the national political parties' conventions late this month and in late August. ...

The FBI has conducted community interviews before, going into Arab-American neighborhoods after the 9/11 hijackings to seek information. After the United States invaded Iraq last year, the FBI interviewed thousands of Iraqi-born individuals living in the United States to try to uncover potential terrorists and to protect the foreign-born from hate crimes.

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I look forward to hearing from you!

Al-Jazeera: Captured Marine alive, safe, after pledging to leave US military

Now this is interesting. Al-Jazeera is reporting that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has not been killed, and won't be since he has pledged to leave the Armed Forces.

It is likely that they gave him this option because of his Islamic faith, since the Qur'an forbids Muslims to kill fellow Muslims intentionally (see Sura 4:93). This from the Washington Times:

An Iraqi Islamist group said it had moved abducted U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun to "a place of safety" after he pledged not to return to the American armed forces, Al Jazeera television network said yesterday. ...

The Islamic Response Movement did not say where Lebanese-born Cpl. Hassoun had been taken, only that he had been moved to a "place of safety," Al Jazeera said.

Libyan Forces Said to Find a Qaeda Camp

Some of the tiny minority of extremists seem to have been operating a camp in the Libyan desert. From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PARIS, July 4 — Libyan forces have discovered a terrorist camp with ties to Al Qaeda in the country's southern desert, a French newspaper reported Sunday. The report did not say whether the camp was active or abandoned when it was found 10 days ago.

The newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, quoted European antiterrorism officials as saying that the camp, thought to be used by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, was near the border with Chad not far from the region where Chadian rebels are holding one of the terrorist group's most senior members, Amari Saifi, known as Al Para.

Al-Qaida plans more hijackings

Al-Qaeda directs its ingenuity to planning new ways to terrorize and murder people. From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Al-Qaida will use more men in its next skyjacking attempt to make certain passengers and crew can be subdued, according to military sources involved in the interrogation of prisoners captured in the war on terror, reports the premium, online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

In addition, the military has learned, according to the G2 Bulletin report, plans are being made to place bombs on planes by disassembling them and having teams bring the pieces on board one by one. ...

Last week, three workers were injured when a wallet exploded on a Turkish Airlines flight after landing in Istanbul and passengers had disembarked, the airline said. The blast came hours before President Bush was expected to leave Istanbul, which is hosting a summit of NATO leaders.

Iraq Militant Vows 'Peaceful Resistance'

Yes, and anyone who believes this, please contact me: I've got a suspension bridge, in excellent condition, available for purchase at a bargain price. From AP, with thanks to Jjpmackie:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The spokesman for militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tempered threats to continue fighting Monday, saying his movement only planned to wage "peaceful resistance" against the interim government.

Al-Sadr issued a statement Sunday from his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf calling the new interim Iraqi government "illegitimate" and pledging "to continue resisting oppression and occupation to our last drop of blood."

But Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad, Mahmoud al-Soudani, called a news conference Monday to clarify that the statement was not a call to arms. He said that many of al-Sadr's supporters in Baghdad had begun taking up arms again and he needed to correct their misperceptions.

"We are still committed to the cease-fire," al-Soudani said.

Pardon me if I am skeptical. Anyone who wants us to believe that resistance "to the last drop of blood" means peaceful dissent has not quite gained my full confidence.

Yesterday was Independence Day

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Now, as 228 years ago, we must fight for these rights, or we will lose them. Equality of all people is denied by the Islamic system of dhimmitude for non-Muslims, and by its institutionalized discrimination against women. The life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all of us is threatened by radical Muslims, whose absolutist, totalitarian vision would establish restrictive, Taliban-like societies wherever they can.

Yesterday the Jihad Watch staff enjoyed a day of celebration punctuated by a reading of the Declaration (yes, that's the kind of parties we go to), a prayer of thanksgiving, and numerous haram items, including abundant beer and some delicious roast pork.

Today, meanwhile, we return to the struggle to preserve the freedoms won for us by the Founding Fathers -- a struggle to which we also pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Iraqi Militants Deny Beheading U.S. Marine

Maybe Wassef Ali Hassoun isn't dead. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - The fate of a U.S. Marine held hostage in Iraq remained in question on Monday after an Iraqi guerrilla group denied beheading Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun.

The denial Sunday gave new hope to Hassoun's relatives just when there appeared to be none.

The Ansar al-Sunna Army posted the denial on its Web site in response to reports by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry that the group had killed Hassoun.

Ansar al-Sunna said the statement announcing Hassoun's death ``has no basis of truth.'' It added that ``any statement that is not issued through our site doesn't represent us.''

Lebanon reported Hassoun's death after another extremist Web sites posted a statement that claimed he had been killed. The declaration was posted yesterday in the name of Ansar al-Sunna.

Saudi prince lashes out at US over Mideast stance

More support from our friend and ally. From the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Teri:

In unsually harsh remarks, Saudi Prince Walid Ibn Talal lashed out at US Mideast policy in an interview with a German news magazine yesterday.

"There is much frustration in the Islamic world and America is not helping matters," the nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd was quoted as saying in the interview with Der Spiegel.

"Washington must review its Mideast policy from the ground up," he said in the interview, due to hit news stands on Monday.

"The majority of Arabs and Saudis find that America is doing too little in Palestine and is downright obedient to Israel," he said in the interview, which was published in German.

Prince Walid pledged a harsh crackdown on Islamic terrorists, saying extremists have until July 23 to surrender to Saudi authorities under terms of an amnesty.

We've heard that before.

America he saw was a perfectly pagan place

A few months back Dinesh D'Souza wrote an insightful column about how freedom was essential to genuine virtue, and thus the Islamic critique of American lack of morals had no force: it's easy to be virtuous in a society where your alternative is amputation or stoning. Now he has written another about how this point should become a centerpiece of the still-neglected ideological battle against radical Islam. From SFGate:

So far, the U.S. government's military response in Afghanistan, in Iraq and elsewhere has been reasonably effective against terrorism and its sponsors. But our intellectual response has been weak.

This matters because ultimately it is not enough to shut down the al Qaeda training camps. We must also stop the "jihad factories," the mosques and educational institutions that are turning out tens of thousands of aspiring terrorists and suicide bombers. We cannot kill all these people. We have to change their minds.

Yet America is making few converts in the Muslim world.

The problem is that we have not effectively answered the strongest version of the Islamic critique of the United States. Usually Americans seek to defend their society by appealing to its shared principles. Thus our leaders remind us that America is a free society, or a prosperous society, or a diverse and pluralistic culture, or a nation that gives women the same rights as men. The most intelligent Islamic critics acknowledge all this, but they dismiss it as worthless triviality.

One of the leading theoreticians of Islamic fundamentalism was the Egyptian thinker, Sayyid Qutb, who has been called "the brains behind bin Laden." Like the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center, Qutb was a man who lived in the West and knew its ways. After studying in America, he wrote a book called "The America That I Saw" in which he argued that his familiarity with the United States was his basis for rejecting it.

Qutb, who died in 1966, wrote that he was shocked by the rampant prejudice of Americans, especially toward Arabs and Muslims. He professed outrage at the materialism and sexual promiscuity of American culture. ...

A second problem, Qutb wrote, is that the core principle of America is liberty -- the right to determine one's own destiny. This, he argued, is a highly defective principle because liberty can be used well or liberty can be used badly. ...

Let us concede at the outset that freedom will often be used badly in a free society. Freedom by definition includes freedom to do good or evil, to act nobly or basely. Given the warped timber of humanity, freedom becomes the forum for the expression of human flaws and weaknesses. On this point, Qutb and his fundamentalist followers are quite correct.

But if freedom brings out the worst in people, it also brings out the best. The millions of Americans who live decent, praiseworthy lives deserve our highest admiration because they have opted for the good when the good is not the only available option. Even amid the temptations that a rich and free society offers, they have remained on the straight path. Their virtue has special luster because it is freely chosen.

By contrast, the theocratic and authoritarian society that Islamic fundamentalists advocate undermines the possibility of virtue. If the supply of virtue is insufficient in free societies, it is almost nonexistent in Islamic societies because coerced virtues are not virtues at all.

Consider the woman in Afghanistan or Iran who is required to wear the veil. There is no real modesty in this because the woman is being compelled. Compulsion cannot produce virtue. It can only produce the outward semblance of virtue.

Once the reins of coercion are released, as they were for the Sept. 11 terrorists, the worst impulses of human nature break loose. Sure enough, the deeply religious terrorists spent their last days in gambling dens, bars and strip clubs, sampling the licentious lifestyle they were about to strike out against. In theocratic societies such as Afghanistan under the Taliban or Iran today, the absence of freedom signals the absence of virtue.

This is the argument that Americans should make to people in the Islamic world. It is a mistake to presume that Muslims would be totally unreceptive to it. Islam, which has common roots with Judaism and Christianity, respects the autonomy of the individual soul. Salvation for Muslims, no less than for Jews and Christians, is based on the soul choosing freely to follow God.

We can make the case to Muslims that freedom is not a secular invention. Rather, freedom is a gift from God.

Moreover, it is not the case that Islamic fundamentalists care about virtue while we in the West care only about freedom. We, too, care about virtue. Like them, we seek the good society; but we disagree with the Islamic fundamentalists about the best means to achieve this goal.

In the Western view, freedom is the necessary precondition for virtue. Without freedom, there is no virtue.

Florida Senate hopeful is criticized for role in Al-Arian terror financing case

Why did Sami Al-Arian continue for so long as a professor at the University of South Florida, despite credible allegations that he was involved with terrorists? Partly because of former USF president Betty Castor, who is now running for the Senate. From AP:

TAMPA -- Betty Castor had not yet marked her first anniversary as president of the University of South Florida in 1994 when allegations that Islamic terrorists had set up a fund-raising operation would turn the campus into a place mockingly called "Jihad University."

A documentary, "Jihad in America," and a series of articles in The Tampa Tribune detailed how a computer science professor and Muslim activist named Sami AlArian had set up an academic think tank affiliated with USF that was being investigated as a possible front for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. ...

It only got worse in mid-1995, when an instructor Al-Arian helped bring to the campus, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, abruptly left and emerged in Syria as the new leader of the Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group blamed for more than 100 deaths in attacks in Israel.

Now, more than a decade later, AlArian, Shallah and six other men are under federal indictment in Tampa on charges they used the think tank, World and Islam Studies Enterprises, and an affiliated charity as fronts to raise money for the Islamic Jihad.

Prosecutors have identified Al-Arian as the North American head of the organization, a charge that Al-Arian denies. The indictment charges him with using the think tank and a charity he founded to bring terrorists into the United States to attend conferences where money was raised to finance attacks in Israel. Al-Arian has denied any wrongdoing.

Castor, 63, is now running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate and is again having to explain how an alleged terrorist cell existed on campus.

Her critics do not blame her for bringing Al-Arian to USF. He had been hired years before she became president and was already a tenured professor when she took the helm in 1994.

But her detractors say when Castor was faced with allegations about Al-Arian and his colleagues, she was slow to take action. She resigned in 1999 to take another education-related job. AlArian remained a professor at USF until 2003 when he was fired after being indicted.

In a telephone interview Friday, Castor told The Associated Press that she was hamstrung to rid the university of Al-Arian. Without an indictment, she said she did not have enough evidence to fire him.

Castor said she took the matter seriously and assigned the university's lawyer and police chief to investigate, but ultimately had to rely on the FBI, which took eight years to arrest Al-Arian.

"My hands were tied because the FBI's hands were tied," Castor said.

But her critics argue that she had enough evidence to deal with Al-Arian.

"At this point, she is responsible for a major, world-class terrorist group operating under her nose," said John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor. Loftus, now an author and commentator in Tampa, sued Al-Arian in 2002, alleging terrorist fund raising after he complained that authorities, including Castor, failed to act.

Bugs in the system continuing

I tried to add a comment to one of the threads this morning, and I got the message, "You are not allowed to post comments." Since I have not barred myself from posting, I offer that as vivid evidence of the fact that bugs in the system remain -- as many of you have told me in recounting your own misadventures with the new system.

Please be assured that I am trying to figure out what is wrong and clear away all these obstacles, and I thank you for your patience. I hope soon to have a couple of web addresses for places you can go to find help; I would have posted them this morning but, on top of everything else, the power just went out on this hot and brilliantly sunny morning in Secure Undisclosed Locationville, and I thereby lost access to the addresses.

Anyway, if you get a message saying that you're banned from posting, or have some other problem, please check in again later. We hope to have everything ironed out soon.

Meanwhile, any of you who are more technically adept that I am (that includes pretty much anyone who is reading this), please go to the Movable Type support forums:

http://www.movabletype.org/support/

Charles of LGF tells me that there's a lot of information there. You can use the search function:

http://www.movabletype.org/support/index.php?act=Search&f=

And search for 'typekey'.

If you find out any information, please email me and I will post it. Many thanks.

Iraq considers pardon for rebels who killed US troops

From the With-Friends-Like-These Dept., in a story from Breakingnews.ie:

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s new government is considering offering an amnesty to Iraqi rebels who fought the US-led occupation, perhaps even pardoning those who killed Americans.

“If he was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force,” Georges Sada, Allawi’s spokesman, said of the rebels. “We will give them freedom.”

Iraq Militants Claim Marine Beheading

His family had pleaded for his life on the basis that he was a Muslim. But that wasn't enough this time -- he was still in the military of the Great Satan. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi militant group claimed on a Web site Saturday that it had beheaded a captive U.S. Marine, in what would be the fourth decapitation of a foreign hostage in the region since May.

The group, called the Ansar al-Sunna Army, posted a written statement on an Islamic web site claiming that it had killed Lebanese-born Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun.

"We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese descent has been killed, and you will soon see the movie with your own eyes," said the statement, signed in the name of the group's leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.

Jihad to continue till ouster of coalition forces, say Taliban

No surprise here, except for those who still think that negotiations or gestures of good will can win over the jihadists. From HiPakistan:

ISLAMABAD: Taliban have vowed to continue their jihad and not miss any opportunity to oust the occupation coalition forces from Afghanistan.

We will not care about our lives and we want to destroy our enemy, Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told Radio Tehran Pushto service. He made it clear that the coalition forces have occupied our country brutally and the Taliban will fight every possible tactics.

Asked why the common people were being killed, Hakimi said that they know their targets very well and such charge is the propaganda from the other side.

The Taliban spokesman said that elections would be dangerous for the existence of Afghanistan, as it has nothing to do with the freedom of our country. He said that the Taliban regard the election as illicit and illegal, but the threat is only for the candidates taking part in the elections.

U.S. Troops Find Bomb Factory in Baghdad

A blow to the jihadists. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

BAGHDAD — U.S. forces uncovered a facility where car and roadside bombs were made, and detained 51 people believed linked to an insurgent cell, U.S. military officials said Saturday.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion 8th Cavalry Regiment discovered four vehicles that were to be potentially used as car bombs and several assembled roadside bombs.

Also found were several automatic weapons, ammunition, explosives and $8,750.

Terrorists don't often fit stereotype, expert says

Terrorists are desperately poor and uneducated, and easily enticed by the promise of a few dollars or a bit of manipulative religious twaddle that the cynical power elite purvey but don't believe in themselves ... right?

Sorry. I have maintained throughout the life of Jihad Watch and in my books that this a false, misleading picture. The reality is that educated people who begin to get serious about their Islamic faith all too often turn to terrorism because they consider acts of violence against unbelievers to be part of their religious responsibility. But most analysts in the West would prefer to cling to the stereotype rather than face the unpleasant reality, because the latter presents a picture of a religion that is instilling violence in its most faithful adherents and is thus in dire need of massive reform, rather than the rosy view of a peaceful tradition that has been hijacked by a few extremists.

From Knight Ridder, with thanks to nevermindlv:

WASHINGTON - Most Americans have a false idea of the shadowy, worldwide terrorist network led by al-Qaida, according to a former CIA operative who collected the life histories of almost 400 members of the deadly movement.

The stereotype that these terrorists are poor, desperate, single young men from Third World countries, vulnerable to brainwashing, is wrong, Dr. Marc Sageman told an international terrorism conference in Washington this week.

Most Arab terrorists he studied were well-educated, married men from middle- or upper-class families, in their mid-20s and psychologically stable, said Sageman, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Many of them knew several languages and traveled widely.

But when they settled in foreign countries, they became lonely, homesick and embittered, he said. They felt humiliated by the weakness and backwardness of their homelands. They formed tight cliques with fellow Arabs and drifted into mosques more for companionship than for religion. Radical preachers convinced them it was their duty to drive Americans from Muslim holy lands, killing as many as possible.

Sageman served as a CIA case officer in Afghanistan from 1987 to 1989, running agents against the Soviet occupation. In a book, "Understanding Terror Networks," published in May, he traced the roots of the movement to a centuries-old Islamic tradition dedicated to purifying Muslim lands of "infidels" and restoring the past glories of Islam.

He described al-Qaida and its global allies as "a violent Islamist social movement held together by an idea: the use of violence against foreign and non-Muslim governments or populations to establish an Islamist state in the core Arab region."

For its members, terrorism is "an answer to Islamic decadence - a feeling that Islam has lost its way," he said.

Yes. And as such it is not a movement that is purveying some newly-minted heresy, but one that is forthrightly, even defiantly, traditionalist.

'Qaeda-Linked' Group Renews Threat to Attack Europe

Last November Muslim radicals warned their coreligionists to stay away from New York, Washington, and Los Angeles. This time they're telling them to get out of the US altogether, and threatening attacks on Europe. From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaeda vowed new attacks on Europe once a "truce" offered by Osama bin Laden expires in two weeks, newspapers said on Friday. ...

European security sources viewed that offer as a propaganda ploy to help justify future attacks. But a senior intelligence official told Reuters this week there was no indication of plans for any attack immediately after the ultimatum expires.

"To the European people ... you only have a few more days to accept bin Laden's truce or you will only have yourselves to blame," read the Abu Hafs statement, referring to bin Laden's ultimatum which ends in mid-July.

"The race now is between you, time and European governments which have refused to stop their attacks against Muslims.

"So do not blame us for what will happen and we apologize to you in advance if you are among those killed."

"Do not blame us for what will happen" -- because not only have you been warned, goes the thinking, but it will be, after all, the will of Allah.

"Muslims in the West should depart to Muslim states if they can," the group said. "Those who cannot should take precautions and live in Muslim areas, have enough food to last a month."

FBI Urges Increased Vigilance for July 4

Radical Muslims are certain to try to strike in the US before the November election, and possibly this weekend. From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A constant stream of intelligence indicating that al-Qaida wants to strike the United States this summer or fall has led federal officials to urge increased vigilance during the Independence Day weekend, but there is no specific threat of an attack timed to the holiday.

In a bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies nationwide Thursday, the FBI said police should step up patrols and watch for signs of terrorist activity, including surveillance of potential targets. The FBI also listed advice on how to spot possible suicide bombers.

"We know the U.S. homeland remains a top al-Qaida target," the FBI said in the bulletin, sent weekly to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.

Fourth of July celebrations are among the symbolic events that U.S. officials say could present an inviting target to al-Qaida, which intelligence reports indicate will attempt an attack during summer or fall. An attack also could be timed to coincide with the national political conventions or the November elections, plus the Olympics in August in Athens, Greece.

Iranian Intellectual: 'Muslims Should Reform Religion... Accept Democracy'

Kedivar's words about reform are much needed, even if his claims that Islam supports freedom and democracy run against the plain sense of the Qur'an and Sunnah -- that is, unless he means freedom and democracy for Muslim men only. In any case, his words will win lip service from self-proclaimed moderates, opprobrium from radicals, and not much action from anyone. From MEMRI:

The director of the Association for the Defense of Journalism in Iran, Dr. Mohsen Kedivar, participated in a seminar titled "Towards Democracy" at the Law and Political Science Faculty of the University of Tehran. In a speech, he addressed the issue of tyranny and democracy in Iran, noting that Iranian society had experienced two types of tyranny: secular tyranny under the Shah's regime, and religious tyranny under the regime of the Islamic Revolution. ...

Kedivar states that Islam is a religion related to time and location, and that it is the people who must decide how society should be run. He sees democracy as the best way of managing society's affairs, but does not preach secularism, and even opposes secularists who call for separation of religion and state. He has in the past been tried and imprisoned for his writings. The following are excerpts from his speech at the seminar:

[...]

"[There are] two groups which do not support freedom or democracy: [The first group is] those who support the totalitarian interpretation of religion and Islam, and [the second group is] the secular Iranians and foreigners who equate Islam with totalitarianism... The secular view religion as matter for the individual. When the officials of the regime are religious and advocate religious rule, they are permitted to propose [religious rule to the public] as a public matter, but even then [the endorsement of this principle should] be dependent upon its acceptance by the majority..."

Islam Promotes Freedom and Democracy

"[The adherents of the second interpretation, i.e.] democratic Islam, view religion as based upon democratic principles... Islam, [in their opinion,] is - for most - a way of life related to time and place... According to the first interpretation [i.e., the totalitarian interpretation of Islam], Islam is contradictory to democracy and impedes it. But according to the second interpretation, not only is [Islam] not contradictory to democracy, but it is even considered a catalyst in its [implementation]. ...

"It is incumbent upon Muslims to reevaluate the existing religious traditions and to reform religious and democratic [values]. They must accept the fact that democracy is the only way to run the social and political affairs [of society]."

Chemical weapons found, Saddam seethes

As Polish troops discover chemical weapons in Iraq, Saddam says "This is all a theater by Bush, the criminal."

The timing couldn't be worse for Saddam -- if only the stories were reported together, which is not happening as far as I can see. Instead, Saddam alone, in various dramatic poses of righteous indignation, is everywhere, sounding a good bit like Al Gore or John Kerry -- which may explain the slant of the coverage so far.

I expect that in the coming days we will see more and more stories about Iraqis' nostalgia for the good old days of the Saddam regime, and maybe even puff pieces about how the old guy wasn't so bad after all.

Feds raid Saudi-based Virginia institute

Here is more news on that raid in Virginia, reported here yesterday. Note that CAIR "observed the raid." What on earth does that mean? Were they invited along by the FBI? Were they tipped off by someone? And ultimately, is there or has there ever been an anti-terror investigation that CAIR did not consider a "fishing expedition"? From AP, with thanks to LGF:

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - Federal agents Thursday raided the Fairfax offices of a Saudi-based institute that served as a meeting point for men convicted of conspiring to support terrorism. A task force of federal agents, including the FBI, carried out boxes but made no arrests in the raid of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences.

An FBI spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment Thursday.

The institute was a meeting point for a group of Islamic men who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as preparation for holy war, according to prosecutors. Nine of the 11 men charged in what prosecutors called a "Virginia jihad network" were convicted in federal court for their roles in the group. ...

Lawyers for the Council on American-Islamic Relations observed the raid.

"We're concerned that this may be perceived in the Muslim community as a fishing expedition," council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

One last thing: why doesn't AP note that three CAIR officials have been arrested on terror-related charges in the past year or so? More fishing expeditions? Then why did Ismail Royer, who worked at CAIR during a five-year period, plead guilty to "aiding and abetting the carrying of an explosive during the commission of a felony"?

Taliban Say Cut Throat of Afghan Christian

Where is the vaunted Islamic tolerance we hear so much about? An apparent member of Afghanistan's tiny minority of Christians has fallen prey to the nation's Tiny Minority of Extremists.

Note also the way the murder was carried out, cf. Qur'an 8:12 and 47:4, as well as Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, etc. From Reuters, with thanks to Susan:

July 1, 2004 — KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas say they cut the throat of a Muslim cleric after they discovered him propagating Christianity and warned foreign aid workers they would face similar treatment if they did the same. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi telephoned Reuters on Thursday to say that the guerrillas killed Maulawi Assadullah in the remote Awdand district of Ghazni province the previous day.

"A group of Taliban dragged out Maulawi Assadullah and slit his throat with a knife because he was propagating Christianity," he said.

"We have enough evidence and local accounts to prove that he was involved in the conversion of Muslims to Christianity." ...

Hakimi charged that a number of foreign aid agencies were also involved in spreading Christianity in Afghanistan, where the adherents to the religion are in a tiny minority.

"We warn them that they face the same destiny as Assadullah if they continue to seduce people," he said.

Report: Raid in progress by ICE, FBI and IRS at Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences of America in Fairfax, VA

I have no corroboration for this, but the Northeast Intelligence Network (thanks to Jeffrey Imm) is reporting what is in the headline:

The target appears to be the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences of America in Fairfax, VA.

Reports indicate that the agencies involved in the raid suggest that authorities are seeking some sort of financial records.

As Drudge would say: developing...

Lawmakers ask Ashcroft to explain why terror suspect freed

I want to know too. From AP, with thanks to pfinn:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike are demanding to know why the Bush administration chose to release to Syria a terror suspect when several prosecutors and FBI agents had collected evidence for a possible criminal case.

The circumstances surrounding Nabil al-Marabh's release, detailed in a recent Associated Press story, are "of deep concern and appear to be a departure from an aggressive, proactive approach to the war on terrorism," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote Tuesday in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The Iowa Republican repeatedly cited the AP story and demanded that Ashcroft answer 19 questions about al-Marabh's case, including why the Justice Department didn't prosecute the man they had in custody for nearly two years either in a military tribunal or through a secret court proceeding that could protect intelligence information.

Grassley also asked Justice to detail what has happened to other terror suspects that appeared on the same post-Sept. 11 terrorism list as al-Marabh.

No Immigration Charges, Deportation for Sami Omar Al-Hussayen

There are many lingering questions about the prosecution of Idaho grad student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen for ties to terror groups, but evidently they will not be answered: he is to be deported. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The government agreed Wednesday to throw out all remaining charges against a Saudi graduate student whose terrorism case was seen as an important clash between free speech and the war on terror.

The government agreed to dismiss the immigration charges against Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, in return for his dropping an appeal of a deportation order.

"He's going back to Saudi Arabia," defense attorney David Nevin said. "This long ordeal has come to a close."

Al-Hussayen was acquitted in early June of using his computer skills to support terrorism, along with three other immigration violations. But the jury deadlocked on eight additional charges - all of which were dropped Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Al-Hussayen set up and ran Web sites that were used to recruit terrorists, raise money and disseminate inflammatory rhetoric.

But the defense claimed Al-Hussayen, a father of three and a devoted Muslim, was only volunteering his ability to maintain Web sites that were promoting Islam. Any radical material on the sites did not reflect Al-Hussayen's views and was protected by the Constitution, Nevin said.

Five men from Bangladesh & Pakistan detained near Pennsylvania nuclear plant

Maybe these guys really did just want to go fishing down by the nuke plant. Maybe not. Still, it is a good thing that the local authorities were vigilant. Otherwise there would be no stopping others with more than fishing on their minds. From The Citizens Voice of Wilkes Barre, PA, with thanks to nevermindlv:

Federal and state authorities reported Tuesday that several men of Middle Eastern descent were driving around the Berwick and Shickshinny areas Tuesday looking for the nuclear power plant in Salem Township.

The five men, four from Bangladesh and another of Pakistani descent, were reportedly seen at the Delaware Water Gap rest area along Interstate 80 around 8:20 a.m. They were also spotted in Bloomsburg, Columbia County.

State police said they were asking directions to the river near the plant because they wanted to go fishing. Their minivan was pulled over by state police in Shickshinny around 11 a.m. on U.S. Route 11 in Salem Township, four miles south of the Susquehanna Steam and Electric Power Plant.

According to federal and state authorities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified. Because of visa issues, two of the five men were detained by immigration authorities.

"We did stop and detain five individuals, who were believed to be of Middle Eastern descent, because of suspicious activity," FBI special agent Jerri Williams said.

Their van was searched Tuesday and authorities did not find anything illegal.

All five men were released Tuesday evening. Williams said Tuesday that there was no cause for alarm, as authorities did not find any links to terrorist activity.

Al-Qaeda spells out Iraq attack strategy in handbook: report

The Spain plan worked beautifully, didn't it? From AFP, with thanks to Romy:

PARIS (AFP) - Al-Qaeda reportedly planned to target Spain as the weakest link of the coalition in Iraq to force its troop pullout, according to a document from the terror network.

"We consider that the Spanish government cannot suffer more than two to three strikes before pulling out (of Iraq) under pressure from its own people," said the document obtained Wednesday by AFP from Raido France Internationale's regional office in Beirut. ...

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, elected after the train bombings in Madrid which left 191 people dead in Spain's worst ever terrorist attack, withdrew Spanish troops from the troubled country in May.

The document also contains directives about attacks on US forces in Iraq. It says that the U.S. plans to "build an Iraqi state as conceived by the United States . . . and enslave Saudi Arabia politically, fight against Islamic proselytism as a salafist and jihadic movement. This would be (for the US) the first step toward the eradication of hardline Islam in the entire world."

Zarqawi targets female soldiers

An intriguing item from AP, with thanks to Filtrat. "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know" (Qur'an 8:60).

Terrorists in the Abu Musab Zarqawi network in Iraq are specifically trying to kidnap an American female service member to further horrify the U.S. public.

Two senior defense sources said the word is being passed within the network on the importance of taking one or more women hostage.

"We have heard through intelligence channels that several extremist organizations are attempting to capture coalition servicemen and women," said a senior military officer in Iraq. "We have instituted additional force protection methods to thwart these attempts."

Another defense source said there is an "edict, either on paper or as an order," within terrorist networks to capture an American female service member.

Of the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 11,000 are women. They perform a variety of jobs, serving as drivers, medics, aviators, police and clerks. By law, they are banned from land combat, but they can still come into close contact with the enemy.

WTC Bomb Leader Making Himself Sick

It's an M&M jihad for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. From Fox News, with thanks to DC Watson:

NEW YORK — The man accused of masterminding the first World Trade Center bombing and plotting to blow up New York City landmarks is deliberately trying to damage his own health so his followers will retaliate against the United States, according to a federal prosecutor.

Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is currently serving a life sentence, has reportedly stopped taking his insulin medicine and started eating M&Ms to make his diabetes worse. The blind cleric has apparently been upset about not getting the specific brand of tea he likes in prison....

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who was the prosecutor in Abdel-Rahman’s 1995 trial, testified he believed for some time that the sheik “was going to play with his medical condition” because he knew the U.S. government would be blamed if something happened to him.

From the Jihad Watch Hatemail Bag

I looked no farther than my email inbox for this latest article, "From the Jihad Watch Hatemail Bag," which appears today in Human Events. In it I discuss the anti-Semitism, denial, and moral equivalence that marks not only my hate mail, but a disquieting proportion of the American public discourse.

I get a lot of hate mail, including the occasional message that illuminates some of the ignorance and willful blindness that still envelops much of the public sphere when it comes to Islamic terrorism. Many of the messages get stuck in some of the chief intellectual ruts that Americans all too commonly find it difficult to escape. ...

Whatever their source, they manifest an odd blindness: what if, just for the sake of argument, everyone who speaks out against terror really is Jewish? What if the doctrine of violent jihad really were the vain imagining of a few "bad apples"? And what if the CIA really had created Osama, and Abu Ghraib really were as bad as Saddam's regime, or worse? Would that make the radical Muslims stop targeting Americans? Would the bombings and beheadings stop? If only it were that easy.

Minnesota: Terror Suspect Received Haz-Mat License

AFTER he was identified as a terror suspect. How much of this kind of carelessness is still going on? From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The FBI identified Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist before the attacks of 2001, the Star Tribune reported in Wednesday's editions, citing unidentified law enforcement officials.

Yet Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials said they did not know that Elzahabi was suspected of having Al Qaeda connections when he applied in early 2002 for a commercial license to drive a school bus and haul hazardous materials. ...

Before Elzahabi got the commercial driver's license in early 2002, the FBI ran his name through a database and cleared him, Pat McCormack, interim director of the state Public Safety Department's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing, told the Star Tribune in Wednesday's editions.

Islamic sites debate beheading of Muslims

Yet another indication of the sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers that is the hallmark of Islam, and which underlies the double standard, peculiar to Muslims, that makes Saudis alarmed at terrorist attacks against Muslims but unconcerned about those against non-Muslims. From AP, with thanks to John Eibner:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Debate raged on Islamic Web sites about the propriety of killing fellow Muslims who work for coalition forces in Iraq, after militants released three Turkish hostages they had threatened to behead.

The Tawhid and Jihad movement of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi announced Saturday it would kill the three Turks within 72 hours unless Turkish companies stopped doing business with American forces in Iraq.

Tawhid, by the way, is the unity of Allah. It is sometimes translated Monotheism, but that is not quite right; it is the absolute unity that Islam insists upon as over against the Trinity of Christianity. I point this out here to underscore that this is a movement with a self-conscious religious character, and that only by acknowledging that fact and dealing with its implications are we going to make any headway against such movements. Unless or until there is widespread reform of Islam that will rule such movements out of the religion, they will continue to proliferate.

On Tuesday, however, the movement released them "for the sake of Muslim brothers and mujahedeen in Turkey," according to a statement broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

That contrasted starkly to the treatment of several non-Muslims recently. Al-Zarqawi's movement claimed responsibility for the beheading of Kim Sun-il, a South Korean who worked for a company delivering supplies to American forces, and Nicholas Berg, an American businessman. Al-Qaida-linked militants in Saudi Arabia decapitated American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. and posted pictures of his severed head on the Internet.

Most people who post messages on several Islamic Web sites known for their extremist bent believe those are justified. But the issue of whether it is proper kill Muslims taken captive because of their links to the U.S. military has been a hot topic.

Opinions are mixed. Some people appealed on the kidnappers to spare the Turks because they were "fellow Muslims." Others urged militants to decapitate them.

One other thing for those advocates of moral equivalence who may be reading this: when did you last hear of any Christians debating whether it was permissible to decapitate non-Christians? When did you last hear of any Buddhists recommending the kidnapping and murder of non-Buddhists?

General Bashir’s Genocide, Again

The world didn't much care about the Sudanese jihad against Christians in the southern part of the country, even though it went on for years and reached genocidal proportions. But when it became a racial issue with the attack on Darfur, well, now it was taking a shape that the media establishment could understand. However, Nina Shea of Freedom House has shown in NRO (thanks to Andrew Bostom for the link) that these conflicts are two sides of the same coin -- and both are motivated by jihad ideology:

In both the south and in Darfur, the policies of the regime — which is an Arab Islamist military dictatorship — against ethnic African villagers have had racial and ethnic overtones and involved struggles over resources. But more significantly, the regime has been motivated in both cases by a radical Islamist agenda. Bashir attempted to Islamicize and Arabize the south through the forcible imposition of sharia (Islamic law). He launched, by his own definition, a "jihad" against the south when it resisted.

Though the tribes of Darfur are Muslim, they are not of the hardline Salafist movement favored by Khartoum's National Islamic Front government, an offshoot of the radical Muslim Brotherhood (now is based in Saudi Arabia after being crushed in Egypt, its birthplace). The Darfur Muslims do not speak Arabic, their women wear colorful African garb, and they do not follow the strict criminal code of Khartoum's Wahhabi-style sharia, which calls for the flogging of those who drink alcohol, the body-part-amputation of thieves, the stoning of adulterers, and the execution of blasphemers.

For years Khartoum has treated the black, Sufi Muslims of Darfur as second-class citizens, systematically discriminating against them in providing development opportunities, government services, and positions of power. When they rebelled against this policy of extreme marginalization, they became — in the view of a regime that conflates religion with politics — "apostate." Under Islamist rules, apostates are to be put to death or taken as slaves. In 1992, six pro-government Sudanese imams issued a fatwa making this explicit: "An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing as a bulwark against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them." Though the fatwa was intended at that time for the Muslims of the central Nuba province and the Christians and animists of the south, it equally applies today to the Muslims of Darfur.

This underscores the fact that the conflict against global jihad is one that self-proclaimed moderate Muslims should take up energetically -- if, that is, their moderation is genuine.