Russian blast caused by female suicide bomber

From AFP:

A blast outside a subway station in central Moscow that killed eight people was caused by a female suicide bomber, Russian news agency Interfax quoted the federal security service FSB as saying.

Earlier the interior ministry had said several theories were being considered, among them a suicide bomber but also an explosion in a car parked outside the station.

Police meanwhile had spoken of a bomb filled with bolts and other metal objects that had been placed in or under a car. But the security source quoted by Interfax gave only a female suicide bomber as an explanation for the blast.

First Arab, Islamic Congress to be held in Europe

In Berlin in October. Here is a link to a lengthy advertisement for the thing. (Thanks to Ali Dashti and Andy.)

Our meeting in Berlin around these goals and fixed principles will create a new challenge to make the correction of way and to stop the retrogression of our nation and people and to create the practical tools to defend its existence and rights.

It will be the first practical and serious step for the Arabs and Muslims in Europe to work for the following titles:

a) Strengthening the Arab Islamic presence in Europe, unifying its institutions and securing its rights

b) Supporting the resistance movement against the aggression and occupation in Palestine and Iraq, and supporting the steadfastness of the people who is enduring all kinds of oppression and chicanery and torture under the policy of the iron Faust, and who is struggling for its freedom and sovereignty on all the Arab and Islamic countries.

c) Installing a worthy and fair popular Arab Islamic European dialogue to create a common platform of values and principles relying on the support of the right and on the resistance against oppression and injustice, aside the support of the world’s forwarding toward equality and peace between peoples.

d) Creating an Arab Islamic chain within the unified world’s front to oppose hegemony.

This language of resistance to oppression goes hand-in-hand with the language of jihad, as evidenced by the Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria.

CAIR ducks Robert Spencer

Daniel Pipes and I were scheduled to tape a TV program tomorrow with Nihad Awad and Hussam Ayloush of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). But at the last minute, Awad and Ayloush backed out, leaving the producers scrambling for replacements.

I am not surprised; over a year ago Arsalan Iftikhar of CAIR refused to debate me on the Michael Medved Show. It appears that CAIR officials know well that I am ready to ask pointed questions about them and their organization.

Mr. Awad, Mr. Ayloush: name the time and place that you would like to debate, and I will be there.

UPDATE: I just got a call from the producer and found out that actually Pipes had declined some time ago to appear with the CAIR reps, so it had been going to be just them and me. Now it's going to be me with Oakland Imam Abdul Malik Ali, taped tomorrow for airing at a later date on Pax TV's "Faith Under Fire."

Comments

I have learned a few things that may help anyone out there who would like to comment, but can't:

1. You may not be able to register with TypeKey unless your registration name is all one word: johnsmith or John_Smith, but not John Smith.
2. Make sure you have cookies enabled.
3. If you have a firewall, you may have to take it down in order to comment.

Although traffic is up, comments are still down since I put in the registration system. I hope these points help, and will let you know others as I discover them. That may be awhile, however, as I am something of a luddite when it comes to these matters.

And again: comments are largely unmoderated, although I do look in from time to time. Genocidal and abusive comments are not welcome, and will be removed if I see them. If you would like to talk to me, comments are not the best way; I can be reached at director@jihadwatch.org. If you get no reply or a late one, however, please pardon me: I get hundreds of emails daily and have quite a lot to do besides.

Ohio: Judge won't overturn imam's conviction

As jihadists dominate the news from Russia, Iraq, and Israel, here in the United States one of their key allies, and a former prominent "moderate Muslim," has suffered a setback. From AP:

CLEVELAND - A federal judge has rejected a defense request to overturn the conviction of an Islamic cleric on charges of concealing ties to alleged terrorist groups on his U.S. citizenship application in 1994.

U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin, who presided at the trial of Imam Fawaz Damra, said Monday in a 31-page ruling that a jury could reasonably conclude from the evidence that Damra had misrepresented his past on his application.

The judge also rejected a defense request for a new trial.

Damra, the Palestinian-born leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio's largest mosque, faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing Sept. 20. He also could face deportation.

The government said that when Damra applied for citizenship, he concealed ties to Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, groups the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations.

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

The defense said Damra may have supported certain groups, but he did not consider himself a member or affiliate of them.

Oh. I see. He raised money for them, but he detested them. You know, sometimes the dhimmi line gets so complicated, I wish they would issue a script or something.

Car Blast Reported Near Moscow Subway

"MOSCOW - An explosion in a car near a Moscow subway station Tuesday shattered doors and windows in the station vestibule, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, according to Russian news agencies."

Two Bus Bombs in Southern Israel Kill 15

Said the great philosopher Averroes: "Most scholars agree that fortresses may be assailed with mangonels, no matter whether there are women and children within them or not. This is based on the fact that the Prophet used mangonels against the population of al-Ta'if."

And according to the renowned Sufi Al-Ghazali: "One must go on jihad at least once a year...one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them..."

And Ibn Taymiyya, Osama's favorite classical Muslim theologian: "As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight, such as women, children, monks, old people, the blind, handicapped and their likes, they shall not be killed unless they actually fight with words [eg. by propaganda] and acts [by spying or otherwise assisting in the warfare]. Some jurists are of the opinion that all of them may be killed, on the mere ground that they are unbelievers, but they make an exception for women and children since they constitute property for Muslims."

(Thanks to Andrew Bostom for those quotes.) From AP:

BEERSHEBA, Israel - Suicide bombers blew up two buses almost simultaneously in southern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 80 others in the first Palestinian attack inside Israeli in nearly six months.

The twin blasts, claimed by the militant group Hamas, were likely to provoke a harsh Israeli response. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon planned to meet with top security officials later Tuesday, his office said.

The buses burst into flames about 100 yards apart near a bustling intersection in Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, just 10 miles from the West Bank. Hamas issued a leaflet in Hebron — the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba — saying the attack was avenging Israel's assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year.

Yassin and Rantisi, the Hamas leaders who were killed, were terrorist masterminds who inspired scores of suicide bombers. How are they equivalent to a group of civilians on a bus?

The explosions came just hours after Sharon presented to his Likud party the most detailed timetable yet for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and warned party rebels the plan "will be implemented, period."

After the attacks, Sharon said "the fight against terror will continue full strength." Aides said he would push forward with the pullout.

Rescue workers scoured the scene, cleaning up body parts and scattered pieces of the wreckage as dozens of onlookers gathered nearby. A hand with a ring lay on the ground, and spattered blood covered the walls of the mangled buses.

"People were screaming and yelling. Everybody was running," said witness Tzvika Schreter, a 50-year-old college lecturer.

Police said the messy scene was complicating the recovery of bodies and warned the death toll could rise. They did not know whether the suicide bombers were among the 15 recovered bodies.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said 30 of the wounded were in serious or moderate condition.

In the Gaza Strip, Muslim leaders praised the "heroic operation" — a phrase referring to suicide bombings — over mosque loudspeakers. "There will be no security for Israel as long as the occupation stands," said one of the leaders.

Iraq Militants Kill 12 Nepali Hostages

For, among other things, being Buddhists. From Reuters, with thanks to many who sent this to me:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A militant Iraqi group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures of one being beheaded and others being gunned down in the worst violence against captives since a wave of kidnappings erupted in April.

The announcement of the killings, made in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site Tuesday, came as France intensified its efforts to save two French reporters held hostage in Iraq by a separate militant Islamic group.

The Nepalis were kidnapped earlier this month when they entered Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm. The killing of men from a tiny country that had nothing to do with the invasion or occupation of Iraq will send shockwaves through foreign companies doing business here.

"We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians ... believing in Buddha as their God," said the statement by the military committee of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.

The group posted a series of photographs showing the killing as well as a video.

The recording showed two masked men, one in camouflage, holding down a hostage. One of the men then used a knife to behead the hostage and then hold his head aloft.

The video then showed a group of hostages lying face down and being shot by a man using an automatic rifle. It then showed bodies splattered with blood and bullet wounds.

Feds: Chicago Man an Iraqi 'Sleeper Agent'

And besides those sent by Saddam, how many sleeper agents have been sent by jihad groups into the US? If the moderate Muslim community were really all that it claims to be, it would be helping law enforcement officials find the answer to that question. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 57, pleaded innocent to making a false statement to immigration authorities. A federal judge ordered him held for a bail hearing Sept. 7....

Latchin was "an Iraqi intelligence spy sent to this country to be a sleeper agent," with directions to "assimilate himself into our culture," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Conway said.

He is not alleged to have compromised national security, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.

Federal authorities do not allege Latchin committed any other crimes. But "if he came here to be here and be available to the Iraqi Intelligence Service if needed, that alone we think is a threat to our national security," Fitzgerald said.

Latchin has lived in the United States for about 11 years, according to federal officials. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Des Plaines, Fitzgerald said.

Australia Has Terror Worries for Election

More fallout from the Zapatero and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appeasements. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

Prime Minister John Howard's government warned that Australia could become a terrorist target during a six-week election campaign that began Monday, with the war on terror and the nation's troop deployment in Iraq already taking center stage.

Treasurer Peter Costello said Australia should be alert for attacks in the lead up to the Oct. 9 election since Islamic militants detonated bombs in Madrid that killed 191 people in March. Several days later voters elected Spain's Socialists, who opposed the war and occupation of Iraq. Many said the conservative government's support for the war made Spain a target for al-Qaida.

"In Spain during an election there was a terrorist incident, so we have to be careful in Australia," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Monday - the first full day of campaigning.

The Madrid bombings were believed aimed at influencing the Spanish vote days later. Socialists won the election and made good on their pledge to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.

Costello warned terrorists that they could not sway Australian voters with such an attack.

"Any terrorists should understand this point, if they think some kind of attack on Australians is going to change Australian policy, they're wrong, dead wrong," he said, adding later that he was not referring to any specific information of a threat.

German converts to Islam easy prey for radicals

Here is an article from the English edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, (thanks to Ali Dashti) about German converts to Islam (including a bit about the eminent Ahmad Von Denffer, whose Ulum ul-Qur'an is a handy reference on Qur'anic interpretation; I quote it several times in Onward Muslim Soldiers). It ably details the alienation from the West and anti-Semitism that motivates them.

It doesn't, however, mention the fact that they are easy prey for radicals because those radicals can appeal to the obvious literal meaning of multiple texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah in order to convince them that violent jihad is a central part of their religious responsibility.

Sheik: Allah sent giant spiders to combat U.S.

"War is deceit," said the Prophet Muhammad. Evidently, sometimes it's also self-deceit. From WND, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

An Iraqi sheik claims Allah sent giant spiders to the town of Fallujah to help its residents fend off attacks by U.S. military forces.

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i spoke to Syrian TV on Monday, claiming several Arab television stations videotaped the helpful arachnids.

The interview is featured on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The organization translated the conversation into English.

"They [the Americans] attacked Fallujah and tried to cause great damage to its residents," he explained. "They destroyed mosques and homes, killed women, children and youths, and spread corruption in Fallujah. Nevertheless, we believe that Allah protects the believers, and indeed, Allah stood beside Fallujah, and I'd like to mention some miracles Allah performed in Fallujah. It is possible that the media does not know about them."

Continued Al-Sumide'i: "The first miracle that occurred in Fallujah took the form of spiders that appeared in the city – each spider larger than this chair, or about the size of this chair. The American soldiers left, holding the legs of this spider, and I too, in one of the Friday sermons, held up a spider, with all its magnitude, in front of the satellite channels and in front of the world. This spider also had thin black hair. If this hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body - and the person dies."

The sheik's interviewer then asked about the alleged TV coverage: "The people saw it, but the TV stations did not air it?"

Responded Al-Sumide'i: "The people saw it and the TV stations indeed aired it. I held the spider, and there were between 13 to 15 TV stations, including Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Majd, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and other stations, and they saw it with their own eyes."

Cowabunga, Baghdad Bob!

Russian Plane Crashes: Links Between Two Chechen Women Grows

Two Chechen women, neighbors, died last week: one on each jetliner that crashed in Russia. Hmmm. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MOSCOW (AP) -- They lived in the same apartment in Chechnya, worked in the same market and may have died within moments of each other on separate airliners that crashed in Russia last week.

New details emerged Monday about the two Chechen women who are the focus of suspicion that the planes were blown up by terrorists.

Russian investigators continued piecing together information about the Tuesday crashes that killed a total of 90 people. Gen. Andrei Fetisov, chief of the scientific department at the Federal Security Service, said investigators are certain there were explosions on both planes and reiterated that traces of the high explosive hexogen were found in the wreckage.

How the explosive may have been brought on board the planes that took off from Moscow is still unclear, and investigators were scraping for clues about Amanta Nagayeva and S. Dzhebirkhanova, two Chechen women whose names were listed on tickets for the flights.

The crashes happened just five days before presidential elections in Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been fighting Russian forces for five years. Officials had warned that insurgents and their supporters could commit terrorist acts to try to undermine the vote.

Nagayeva, 30, and Dzhebirkhanova, 37, aroused accident investigators' suspicions because they purchased tickets at the last minute - and because they were the only victims about whom no relatives inquired after news of the crashes.

At the same time, the women's bodies have not yet been identified. Officials were considering two scenarios: Either Nagayeva and Dzhebirkhanova were indeed suicide bombers, or their passports were used by other women, the newspaper Izvestia reported, citing Chechen law enforcement officials.

Nagayeva and Dzhebirkhanova, who lived in an apartment in Grozny, Chechnya's war-shattered capital, were seen on Aug. 22 leaving by bus from the town of Khasavyurt in the neighboring province of Dagestan, the newspaper said. They were believed to be en route to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where they often bought clothes and other commodities to sell at the Grozny market.

Pakistani accused of terrorist ties deported from US

From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

DENVER: A man accused of attending a terrorist training camp was deported on Thursday to Pakistan.

Sajjad Nasser, 29, was deported under a section of the Patriot Act that expands the legal definitions of terrorist organizations and acts, said Corina Almeida, chief counsel for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I think this case sends a very loud message to the terrorists and those that seek to do us harm,” she said. Nasser’s attorney, David Lane, called the allegation that his client helped terrorists “a big, fat lie”. “He is a sacrificial lamb,” his lawyer said. “It’s ludicrous. It’s racist.”

Nasser was arrested in March 2003 on charges of conspiring to harbour an illegal resident. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of possessing a fake ID and was sentenced to the 17 months already served. Nasser’s brother used Nasser’s immigration identification card to make a fake ID so the brother could get a job at a grocery store, Lane said.

Nasser was never charged with a terrorism crime; immigration authorities accused him of attending a training camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed, considered by the United States to be a terrorist group.

An immigration judge ruled in June that Nasser’s participation provided material support for a terrorist organisation, making him subject to deportation. Lane said Nasser thought the camp’s intent was to teach people to defend Pakistan against invasion by India, and left after three days when he realised its true intentions.

Under his plea deal, Nasser agreed not to appeal and may never return to the United States.

Muslim leader accuses US of `paralyzing Islam'

Remember: to "paralyze the rise of Islam" is to create the pretext for offensive jihad. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

The leader of Malaysia's Islamic fundamentalist party on Friday accused the United States of using its war on terror "to paralyze the rise of Islam" and seize control of oil reserves.

In his biggest speech since his party suffered a crushing defeat in general elections in March, Abdul Hadi Awang also accused Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government of supporting US ambitions and undermining Malaysia's sovereignty.

Opening the annual conference of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Abdul Hadi launched a scathing attack on the US and its allies, describing them as "gangsters in the Persian Gulf," and accused them of attacking Islam under the pretext of combatting terrorism.

"Now they are trying to ... force Islamic countries to amend the teachings of Islam and remove jihad teachings from Islam so that the world is left only with a US version of Islam and not the teachings of the Prophet," Abdul Hadi said.

Russians face another jihad

First there was Chechnya, and now Kabardino-Balkaria. The jihadist Kavkaz Center has posted a communique from an Islamic group there. Note the consistent and repeated religious references. These are designed to win over Muslims who may be on the fence. Note also the protestations that they do not engage in terrorism and do not target civilians. If so many mujahedin didn't engage in terrorism and target civilians, this wouldn't be necessary.

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

Praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds!

Peace and blessings be to Prophet Muhammad, to his family, his disciples and to all of those who followed him until the Day of Judgment! And then:

We are notifying everyone that by mercy of Allah the Military Council of Kabardino-Balkaria Yarmuk has been formed today. Units of Yarmuk have been deployed all across the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and are now starting to carry out the assigned combat missions in accordance with the requirements of Jihad.

We are announcing that Fighters of Yarmuk were taking part in the latest combat operation in Chegem District of the Republic....

We are Mujahideen! We are Warriors of Allah!

We are not fighting against peaceful civilians, especially against peaceful guests.

We are not fighting against women or children, like Russian invaders are doing in Ichkeria.

We are not blowing up sleeping people, like FSB of the Russian Federation does.

We are stating that any terrorist acts that can happen in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria against peaceful civilians is the job of the Russian FSB and Kabardino-Balkarian pro-Russian police.

We are fighting against tyrants and bloodsuckers, who put the interests of their mafia clans above the interests of their nations. We are fighting against those who get fat at the expense of impoverished and intimidated people of Kabardino-Balkaria, whom they brought down to their knees. We are fighting against the invaders and aggressors, who seized the Muslims land and are running the show and who are playing the master.

People of Kabardino-Balkaria!

These mere apologies for rulers, who sold themselves to the invaders, have made drug addiction, prostitution, poverty, crime, depravity, drunkenness and unemployment prosper in our Republic. It is their corrupt policies that undressed our daughters and our sisters and brought them to lechery and permissiveness.

They, along with their Kremlin’s masters, are the ones provoking interethnic strife in Kabardino-Balkaria by their criminal and unjust rule.

On their orders Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria get kidnapped and tortured. On their orders our mosques are getting closed down. And on their orders the ban is put on spreading of the religion of Islam, the religion of Truth and Justice. Probably for the first time in 1,400 years of Islam, a mosque has been built which is not called a mosque, but some «building of clerical administration of Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria». It means that ordinary Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria are not allowed in the mosque without having a special permission!

Remember: restrictions on the spread of Islam are a pretext for offensive jihad.

Council for National Policy address

I just got back to Secure Undisclosed Locationville late last night -- just before midnight, on the last stagecoach into town. I was giving talks all weekend, most notably at the Council for National Policy on Friday.

It was a good crowd, full of people with much influence in Washington. I was part of a panel with Sam Soloman, a scholar of Islam from England, and Mark Gabriel, former Al-Azhar professor and author of "Islam and Terrorism." Soloman was particularly hard-hitting, quoting Qur'anic verses in Arabic with all the fervor of a radical imam (and then, of course, in English) and illustrating vividly how jihadists use the Islamic holy book to recruit and motivate terrorists.

I myself spoke about the need to be realistic about the sources of the threat and the goals of the jihadists, so as to respond most effectively. Above all, I stressed the need for the President to speak and act with a realistic awareness of what we are up against, and to stop allowing self-proclaimed moderate Muslim groups with ties to terrorism to brief FBI and law enforcement officials, etc. And I unveiled my Fourteen Points for defeating the global jihad, which I will publish soon in some form or another. I am happy to say that they were interrupted by applause several times.

I had to hurry out right after the address so as to catch a plane and give another talk in another city that night, but on the way out I had the pleasure of shaking hands with Grover Norquist. I am sorry that no photographer was present.

Iraq New Fertile Ground For Jihad: Son Of Bin Laden's Mentor

I sketch the meteoric and criminal career of bin Laden's mentor (and possible murder victim) in my book Onward Muslim Soldiers. Here is his son describing Iraq as the latest site for jihad -- something I also detail in the book, so it is hardly a new development (I wrote the book in Winter 2003). But those who think that the jihad has been caused by American intervention there, and would end with American withdrawal, should remember that there were other sites that drew the mujahedin from around the world before Iraq: Bosnia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, etc. The jihad is not primarily a reaction to Western provocations, but an effort to spread the hegemony of Islamic Sharia; the provocations are only a pretext to gain support by playing on perceived grievances, and an opportunity to gain ground.

AMMAN, Aug 29 (AFP) - Iraq is attracting Islamic militants from across the world determined to join the "holy war" against the US-led occupation, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor Abdullah Azzam told AFP in an interview.

"Hundreds of Muslims from all over Arab and non-Arab countries go to Iraq to help the resistance end the occupation, spurred by the conviction that jihad is a duty against the occupier," said Hudayfa Azzam, 34.

He also claimed that the former regime of Saddam Hussein "strictly and directly controlled" members of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network in Iraq before the US invasion, as charged by members of US President George Bush's administration but refuted by other experts.

In 1984 Bin Laden decided to leave his native Saudi Arabia and follow Abdullah Azzam, better known as "the prince of the mujahedeens" (Muslim combattants), to Afghanistan.

Before being killed with two of his sons in a bomb attack against their car in Afghanistan in November 1989, Abdullah Azzam wrote a five-volume encyclopedia on jihad which has become the reference book for his Muslim followers.

He also founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian territories.

His ideology is that "when a Muslim country is occupied the sharia (Muslim law) says that Muslims across the world must strive to liberate that land," his son told AFP.

"That is why my father was the first Arab to go to Peshawar to help liberate Afghanistan from Soviet occupation," he said.

Impressed by the lectures Abdullah Azzam gave at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden decided in 1984 to visit Azzam in Amman where he lived to learn more about jihad.

But Azzam was packing up for Afghanistan and invited Bin Laden to follow him there.

Bin Laden took up the offer and agreed "to work in and finance" an office set up by Abdullah Azzam which provided services and guidance to the new mujahedeen recruits, Hudayfa Azzam said.

In 1987 he broke away and set up Al-Qaeda.

"The idea of jihad is the same whether the occupier is Soviet, as was the case in Afghanistan, or American, as it is now in Iraq," Hudayfa Azzam added.

He said that leading Islamic militants "realised that it is more beneficial not to have too many groups, parties and masterminds because it creates problems".

"There is effective coordination among the elite members of the resistance in Iraq," said Hudayfa Azzam, adding that the ideology now prevailing in the embattled country is close to his father's beliefs.

It is close to the ideology of "liberation movements, such as the (Palestinian radical group) Hamas", he said.

All of Gotham in Crosshairs

The NYPD stresses that they were just free-lancers not tied to any terrorist organizaton. They seem to think that will make us feel more secure and not less.

From the New York Post:

Two men charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station were also planning a "holy war" rampage against seven other crucial targets around the city — including at least two other stations, three police precincts and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, officials said yesterday...

A law-enforcement source said Siraj — who worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge with his father and uncle — was once an associate of suspects in an ongoing federal terrorism and money-laundering probe.

The suspects considered him a "loose cannon," the source said.

But don't worry. His family says he couldn't possibly be a terrorist.

2 Nailed in Herald Square Subway Blast Plot

From the New York Post

The plot unraveled when the NYPD's Intelligence Division began conducting surveillance earlier this year on a group of Muslim men in Brooklyn.

One of the men arrested yesterday had been thrown out of the group, sources said.

"Whether this is al Qaeda or an unstable lone wolf doesn't make much of a difference as to the danger," said a law enforcement official.

The men, described as being in their 20s, don't appear to be connected with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, sources said.

During the course of the investigation of the Brooklyn group, cops learned the two men had mentioned they wanted to bomb a train and went so far as to draw up sketches of the station, sources said.

Most terror attacks cost al-Qaida little, report finds

Beware of backpackers clutching a well thumbed copy of The Budget Terrorist Guide: How to Conquer Europe on Only Ten Dollars a Day.
From AP:

The al-Qaida terrorist network spent less than $50,000 on each of its major attacks except for the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings, and one of its hallmarks is using readily available items such as cell phones and knives as weapons, a U.N. report says.

The report, released Thursday by a new team monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban, detailed just how little it cost to mount terrorist operations.

For example, the report said the March attacks in the Spanish capital, Madrid, in which nearly 10 simultaneous bombs exploded on four commuter trains, used mining explosives and cell phones as detonators and cost about $10,000 to carry out. The blasts killed 191 people, Spain's worst terrorist attack.

A little more than $50 a head.

Only the sophisticated 9/11 attacks in the United States, using four hijacked aircraft, "required significant funding of over six figures," the report said. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, the vast majority in the collapse of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

The 9/11 Commisssion Report estimates the cost at between $400,000 and $500,000.

The report said U.N. sanctions have had only "a limited impact," primarily because the U.N. Security Council has reacted to events "while al-Qaida has shown great flexibility and adaptability in staying ahead of them."

Note to the U.N., John Kerry, and especially France: Conflicts, whether they be wars, cold wars, a war on terror, or ideological struggles, are won by going on the offensive.

Turkish captives found dead in Iraq

Their trucking company has decided to leave the country.

From Al-Jazeera:

The bodies of two Turkish captives shot and killed have been found in Baiji in northern Iraq.

Sources in the Iraqi police told Aljazeera on Friday the bodies of two Turkish captives had been found in the key oil refinery town in the Sunni Muslim belt that stretches north and west from the Iraqi capital.

Terror accused wants 'sex bail'

No mention of whether his religious beliefs prevent torching a train and burning 59 Hindu pilgrims to death.

From Reuters

An Indian man charged over the train torching that triggered Gujarat's Hindu-Muslim bloodshed two years ago has asked for bail so he can go home to have sex with his wife, court officials said.

Firozkhan Zafarkhan's two-page handwritten application to the court in the state's main city, Ahmedabad, says he and his wife are suffering mental trauma because their physical needs have not been met for such a long time.

He wants to be allowed out of jail for 30 days. Zafarkhan, a Muslim, said his religion and India's conservative culture forbid him from having sex with anyone but his wife.

Najaf Round-up

Najaf: Rebels evacuate Imam Ali Shrine

Bodies found in al-Sadr's former religious court

Al-Sistani takes over control of Najaf's Imam Ali mosque

Iran to repair Najaf shrine

Montreal man downed U.S. Plane, CSIS told

From the National Post

A captured al-Qaeda operative has told Canadian intelligence investigators that a Montreal man who trained in Afghanistan alongside the 9/11 hijackers was responsible for the crash of an American Airlines flight in New York three years ago.

The source claims that Abderraouf Jdey a/k/a Farouk the Tunisian downed the plane with explosives, but no evidence of explosives was found (all you conspiracry theorists are free to snort, "Hah! You mean no evidence of explosives was reported!").

Jdey is wanted by the FBI and whereabouts are unknown.

Report: al-Qaida May Target VA Hospitals

Charming.

From AP:

Al-Qaida may attempt to attack Veterans Affairs hospitals as an alternative to more heavily guarded U.S. military installations, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warn in a new nationwide terrorism bulletin.

Although U.S. authorities say there is no credible intelligence regarding a specific threat against such hospitals, the bulletin said there have been persistent reports of "suspicious activity" at medical facilities throughout the United States.

Italian journalist murdered in Iraq

From our friends at Al-Jazeera:

Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who was taken captive on 24 August, is reported to have been executed by his captors.

In a video tape received by Aljazeera, the purported Iraqi group - identifying itself as the Islamic Army in Iraq - said Baldoni had been executed because their demands had not been met.

"The group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said they executed the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni because Italy did not respond to their demand to withdraw troops from Iraq within 48 hours," Aljazeera reported.

Aljazeera decided not to broadcast the grisly footage.

Baldoni, 56, disappeared last week on the road to Najaf, the scene of fierce fighting between US troops and the al-Mahdi Army of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

Our friends atAgence France Presse "report" it this way. Quotation marks entirely theirs:

Italian press shocked at killing of 'innocent' journalist

Abu Hamza al-Masri in custody for second day

Both the US and Britain vying to put the hook-handed Abu Hamza on trial.

Perhaps we could make it an Olympic event.

From the BBC:

Police say they have arrested a 47-year-old man Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is spending a second day in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Gandhi’s grandson urges Palestinians to follow peaceful path

Aha! That's what Gandhi would think of jihad.

His grandson offers this advice to Palestinians:

Invoking an iconic moment in the Indian resistance, the 70-year-old writer and peace activist told a gathering of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "Imagine yourselves marching by the thousands behind your leaders to the checkpoints and the roadblocks demanding your free passage and the right to be treated as human beings.

"Sit at the roadblocks and sing your songs. March to the wall and dance your dances."

(cue piano)
Imagine all the people not blowing themselves up in buses and pizza parlours,
You may say I'm a dreamer...

Saudi al-Qaeda chief's wife freed

The lastest on the Saudi front via the BBC

Saudi police have released Fawzia Sauni, wife of the suspected al-Qaeda chief in the kingdom, Saleh Oufi.

Explosives Found in Russian Jet Wreckage

I am stunned to learn that those plane crashes were not coincidences:

DUBAI (Reuters) An Islamist group has claimed that it hijacked two Russian planes that crashed this week, killing at least 89 people, and threatened more attacks, according to an Internet statement posted on Friday.

Traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of one of two airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously earlier this week, the Federal Security Service said Friday, a day after a top official acknowledged that terrorism was the most likely cause of the crashes.

Council for National Policy

Friends, I am off soon to New York to address the Council for National Policy. Updates here will be posted when possible.

UPDATE: As I look over my schedule, I imagine posting will be fairly light over the next few days. I shall regale you with details when I return.

Al-Qaeda vs. the Qur'an?

In NRO Mustafa Akyol has replied to Andrew McCarthy's criticism of his initial piece claiming that radical Muslims were violating tenets of Islam by beheading hostages. My own initial reply to Akyol is here.

Looks like it's time for another long post. My apologies.

I have been criticized by people I respect recently for making trouble for moderate Muslims. Leave them alone, they say. They're doing important work, refuting the radicals. Well, sure -- if they are indeed refuting the radicals. But my problem with these articles by Mustafa Akyol and similar ones by others is that they don't refute the radicals: if a radical Muslim read them, he would be able to invoke multiple verses of the Qur'an and Sunnah to refute them. So I wonder again: what is the real intended purpose of articles like Akyol's? Is it to convert radical Muslims to moderation, or just to reassure jittery Westerners that Islam isn't as threatening as it may seem? And if it's the latter, and it's done on false or shaky pretenses, what kind of reassurance is that?

This time Akyol starts with a common canard:

McCarthy begins by defining jihad as "violent holy war." Yet the term "jihad" does not necessarily refer to armed conflict. It simply means "effort" and it can include nonviolent struggles, such as an intellectual endeavor against atheism. Of course, there is also military jihad in the Koran and in the Islamic tradition; that is the point we have to discuss and, perhaps, redefine.

Redefine? Interesting. So is Akyol rejecting traditional understandings? If so, I'm all for it, but what kind of a following does he have? But anyway, yes: no one who has studied these matters at all doesn't know that jihad doesn't always mean armed conflict. But so what? The Shafi'i legal manual (the Shafi'is are a school of Islamic jurisprudence) 'Umdat al-Salik devotes one paragraph to jihad as spiritual struggle and seven pages to jihad as warfare. Blandly asserting that jihad is also a spiritual struggle doesn't move one inch to stop the groups that are right now waging armed jihad all over the globe.

Akyol then argues that Qur'an 8:67 and 47:4, which enjoin killing unbelievers,

were revealed in seventh-century Arabia, where battles were fought by swords and spears. Winning a battle meant killing a great number of your enemies. Any reluctance during the battle to attack and kill the enemy could bring defeat, and, in Muslims' case, annihilation of the whole umma, or community of believers.

It's interesting that the rhetoric of radical Muslims often parallels this: just the other day I posted a piece from the New York-based Salafi Society of North America. It says:

Don’t the Muslims know that our struggle against the Jews is a struggle of Creed and a struggle of Religious livelihood? Don’t they realize that it is a struggle of culture, a struggle to remain in existence, a struggle of identification?

It would follow, then, that the Salafis of North America, reading Akyol's piece, would say that that is true: the context of verses 8:67 ("It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land") and 47:4 ("Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks") refers to times when the very existence of the Islamic community is threatened. And that time is now.

Then Akyol criticizes McCarthy's reasoning:

McCarthy finds in this a justification for the beheadings in Iraq. His reasoning goes like this: (a) When jihad is ongoing, the taking of prisoners is frowned on, and (b) jihad should be ongoing until the enemy is subdued.

Here is a crucial flaw in McCarthy's argument; a failure to distinguish between a military jihad (a war) and a battle. Early Muslims of Medina were at war with the pagans of Mecca for many years, but they took prisoners of war after the battles they won. If they thought along the lines McCarthy suggests, they should never have taken any prisoners of war, which was obviously not the case.

This argument is rendered irrelevant by the fact that Islam allows for the killing of prisoners of war, as I outlined in my previous response. Quoting again from 'Umdat al-Salik, which is endorsed by Al-Azhar University, the supreme institution of Sunni Islam:

When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests ... (of Islam and the Muslims) and decides between the prisoner's death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy. [o9.14]

Then Akyol assails McCarthy for invoking the account of the Bani Qurayza massacre, which I also discussed in my reply:

McCarthy criticized me at this point for leaving out the account of Bani Qurayza, the Jewish tribe whose men were reportedly beheaded by order of the Prophet because they had secretly collaborated with the pagan army attacking Medina. I had a reason for leaving this out: I strongly doubt its historical accuracy. There is no reference to such a dramatic event in the Koran and it only appears in the biography of the Prophet written by Ibn Ishaq, a man who died 145 years after the event. In a detailed article that questions the accuracy of this story, scholar W. N. Arafat explains why it was probably a "later invention." Ibn Hajar, an Islamic authority, denounced it and other related stories as "odd tales." A contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, Malik the jurist, denounced Ibn Ishaq outright as "a liar" and "an impostor" just for telling such fables. Moreover, as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership says, the "massacre... hardly shows up in Jewish literature."

This all seems impressive, but it falls apart on closer examination:

1. "There is no reference to such a dramatic event in the Koran..."
True -- sort of. Even the scholar Akyol cites, W. N. Arafat, along with many others, acknowledges that Sura 33:26 refers to the massacre:

And those of the People of the Book who aided them - Allah did take them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts. (So that) some ye slew, and some ye made prisoners.

Hardly a clear reference, I know. But anyone who thinks that the Qur'an relates stories of the early Muslims in a clear and straightforward manner has not read the book. The Qur'an is largely a dialogue between Allah and Muhammad. In it, they often refer to events and people that they know, but that we don't -- unless we have recourse to ahadith and other extra-quranic texts in order to elucidate what the Qur'an is saying. Take, for example, Sura 9:81:

Those who were left behind rejoiced in their inaction behind the back of the Messenger of Allah: they hated to strive and fight, with their goods and their persons, in the cause of Allah: they said, "Go not forth in the heat." Say, "The fire of Hell is fiercer in heat." If only they could understand!

The translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali, along with many other Muslim authorities, is certain that this verse refers to Muhammad's last military adventure, his trip to Tabuk to take on the Byzantines. He even inserts a parenthesis after "left behind": "(in the Tabuk expedition.)" But "Tabuk" does not appear here, or anywhere, in the actual text of the Qur'an.

2. "...and it only appears in the biography of the Prophet written by Ibn Ishaq, a man who died 145 years after the event."

Akyol doesn't tell you that, removed from the events as he was, Ibn Ishaq is Muhammad's FIRST biographer. There is no earlier source outside the Qur'an for details of the Muslim Prophet's life.

3. "In a detailed article that questions the accuracy of this story, scholar W. N. Arafat explains why it was probably a 'later invention.'"

And on what grounds does Arafat do this? He says, among other things, that "to kill such a large number is diametrically opposed to the Islamic sense of justice and to the basic principles laid down in the Qur'an." Therefore it didn't happen? Come on. Even if this were true, which is not at all clear in light of verses like 9:5 ("slay the unbelievers wherever you find them") as well as the legal injunctions I have already quoted, there is no reason why we must assume that the Muslims at this time and place acted scrupulously according to the injunctions of the law.

Arafat also says that "it it also against the Qur'anic rule regarding prisoners of war, which is: either they are to be granted their freedom or else they are to be allowed to be ransomed." I have already quoted authorities saying that killing prisoners is an option also. Here's another: According to the renowned jurist of the Hanafi school, Ya’qub Abu Yusuf (731-798), "There is no objection to the use of any kind of arms against the polytheists . . . one can even pursue those that run away, finish off the wounded, kill prisoners who might prove dangerous to the Muslims."

Then Akyol attacks Ibn Ishaq's reliability:

Ibn Hajar, an Islamic authority, denounced it and other related stories as "odd tales." A contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, Malik the jurist, denounced Ibn Ishaq outright as "a liar" and "an impostor" just for telling such fables.

Akyol doesn't say why they considered him unreliable. It wasn't because of his historical accounts: it was because of his legal judgments. He was suspected of quoting legal traditions with incomplete or inadequate chains of transmitters establishing their authority (although he scrupulously includes such chains for most of his historical accounts). He was further accused of Shi’ite tendencies and other deviations from orthodoxy. But the great Islamic jurist Ahmed ibn Hanbal (780-855) summed up the prevailing view: "in maghazi [Muhammad’s military campaigns] and such matters what Ibn Ishaq said could be written down; but in legal matters further confirmation was necessary."

Then Akyol invokes the Jews:

Moreover, as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership says, the "massacre... hardly shows up in Jewish literature."

I am no authority on Jewish literature, but I know an argument from silence when I see one.

As for the Bani Qurayza massacre istelf, it is amply attested in various ahadith. One summarizes Muhammad’s dealings with several groups of Arabian Jews:

Bani An-Nadir and Bani Quraiza fought (against the Prophet violating their peace treaty), so the Prophet exiled Bani An-Nadir and allowed Bani Quraiza to remain at their places (in Medina) taking nothing from them till they fought against the Prophet again. He then killed their men and distributed their women, children and property among the Muslims, but some of them came to the Prophet and he granted them safety, and they embraced Islam. He exiled all the Jews from Medina. They were the Jews of Bani Qainuqa‘, the tribe of ‘Abdullah bin Salam and the Jews of Bani Haritha and all the other Jews of Medina.

That's from the hadith collection considered most reliable by Muslims: Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, book 64, no. 4028. (That's the book numbering, not the online one. I don't have time to check for the online numbering right now.)

Akyol's final point is that the "'enemy' refers only to combatants." Unfortunately, however, again Islamic law is against him. It prohibits the killing of women and children "unless they are fighting against the Muslims" ('Umdat al-Salik o9.10, cf. al-Mawardi, al-Akham as-Sultaniyyah, 4.2). This has been interpreted as allowing civilians to be killed if they are somehow aiding the war effort — hence the common assertion that "there are no civilians in Israel."

There is more: Akyol asserts that "in the Koran Jews and Christians are called 'The People of the Book,' and salvation is promised to them if they worship God sincerely (2:62). True, but the Qur'an also says of both Jews and Christians: "Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (9:30).

So in sum, Akyol's second piece is yet another example of the shallow and incomplete presentations from self-proclaimed moderate Muslims, which, for all their power to reassure Westerners, do nothing to take the wind out of radical sails.

Akyol is right when he says: "The Koran was revealed in the seventh century and some verses refer to events that do not or could not take place today. This means there are some parts of the Koran that we can't — and aren't supposed to — implement literally now."

I couldn't agree more. Now, Mr. Akyol: please construct an argument that takes all the data into account, so that it will be more likely to convince your coreligionists to lay down their arms and take a place in civilized society.

Montreal: Explosives found in van

A suspicious minivan in Montreal; no public word yet on who it belonged to. From CP, with thanks to Ron:

MONTREAL—Police found a large stash of weapons and explosives yesterday after an investigation of a suspicious minivan tied up traffic through downtown streets for several hours.

Montreal police sent in a robot to examine several pieces of luggage after SWAT team members in full protective gear investigated the vehicle.

They seized about 15 firearms, including automatic weapons like machine guns, and also found 90-135 kilograms of explosives.

"The only good news is that the explosives and the detonators were not connected so it could not explode," said police spokesman Miguel Alston.

Looking for 'High Noon' in a Hundred Years' War

I have been saying all this for years -- but once again, it's nice to see it in the mainstream media. Common sense from Brian Jenkins in the San Diego Union Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

Where are we in the war on terrorism? How are we doing? What's the score? How long will it last? Americans are asking these questions again and again as we approach the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The questions say a great deal about how Americans view warfare as a finite undertaking with a beginning and an end. In his State of the Union address last January, reflecting the view of most Americans, President Bush stated that the war on terrorism began on Sept. 11, 2001. But many jihadists see the war as just the latest battle in the perpetual conflict of Islam vs. the Infidels that began more than 900 years ago.

In fact, nearly 1400 years ago.

The word "war" makes Americans set a goal of discernible victory – somebody surrenders, signs a document, an evil empire collapses, a wall comes down, a villain bites the dust, and life returns to normal.

But in the view of the jihadists, war is not an aberration; it is a perpetual condition. As Osama bin Laden put it in his state of Islam address last January: "This clashing began centuries ago and will continue until Judgment Day."

"Combating" terrorism, the term used 32 years ago when President Nixon created the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism, implies an enduring task. It has largely disappeared from the vocabulary of American officials. Wars are to be won, not waged indefinitely.

The jihadists cannot hope to win a conventional military contest. Their code is to lie in wait, attack when we are inattentive and make our lives untenable. Fighting is process, not progress oriented. It provides opportunities to prove conviction, courage and prowess. The jihadists view death not as a sign of defeat, but the pathway to martyrdom. Ultimate victory will come when God wills it.

There is no question that al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies have lost ground since 9/11. A supportive Taliban no longer controls Afghanistan. The readily accessible terrorist training camps are gone. Governments regarded by the jihadists as apostate are cooperating with America and its allies. Many of al-Qaeda's top planners, mid-level leaders are dead or behind bars; others have moved up, but experienced talent is hard to replace. Improved cooperation among the world's intelligence services has made the operational environment for terrorists more dangerous. Cash flow has been squeezed. Many operations have been thwarted.

But al-Qaeda can celebrate some accomplishments. The terrorist group has transcended its original organization to become an ideology shared by many. Al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists have managed to continue terrorist operations at a pace faster than before 9/11. True, the attacks in Bali, Jakarta, Karachi, Riyadh, Khobar, Istanbul, Djerba, Casa Blanca and Madrid are all at the pre-9/11 level, but still suffice for recruiting and for keeping al-Qaeda's enemies off balance.

And in the view of many jihadists, America's invasion of Iraq is a gift from Allah that has alienated U.S. allies, provoked the Arab world, exposed the United States to precisely the kind of warfare that the extremists wage best, and created a new front that will attract and train new cohorts of jihad. Security measures are costing the American economy billions of dollars and changing daily life with increased checkpoints and surveillance. And in the battle for minds, the few jihadist Web sites around before 9/11 have grown to more than 7,000.

Read it all.

Kuwaiti Cleric Questioned Over Calling For Jihad In Iraq

How many more are going unquestioned? From AFP:

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 24 (AFP) - An Islamist cleric was freed without bail after being questioned for a few hours over allegeations he incited youngsters to fight against US forces in Iraq, legal sources told AFP.

Sheikh Jaber al-Jalahma, a hardline Islamist, was questioned after some Islamist activists facing charges of recruiting fighters for Iraq mentioned his name while under interrogation, the sources said.

He and his defense lawyer Abdulrahman al-Rasheedi denied the charges and told the prosecutor that the confessions of the suspects were taken under duress, the sources added.

A second cleric, Sheikh Hamed al-Ali, the former chief of the hardline Salafi Movement, is expected to be questioned Wednesday on the same charges, the sources said.

Kuwaiti security forces arrested some 16 suspects in a crackdown last month on a group of Islamist activists for allegedly recruiting fighters for Iraq....

Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullah al-Maatuk said last week that teams of experts and clerics had been formed to draw up plans to combat extremism and terrorism which had reached a "dangerous level".

Pakistani PM: Jihad a supreme duty of every Muslim

Like Zia ul-Haq's son, Shujaat Husaain, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has distinguished jihad from terrorism. Unfortunately, the same thing I said before still holds true: the explosions caused by jihad are often quite difficult to distinguish from those caused by terrorism. That is underscored by the fact that Husaain considers the Kashmir struggle to be jihad, not terrorism. Once a conflict is labeled a jihad, all manner of mayhem is justified. From ANI:

Pakistan Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain has said that Jihad is different from terrorism in as much as the former is a supreme duty of a Muslim, and the latter a crime.

"There is a great difference between the two, but Jihad cannot be declared as terrorism," The News quoted Hussain as saying.

Pakistan has often said that what is going in Jammu and Kashmir is a Jihad and not terrorism. Claiming that Kashmiris had launched a struggle for freedom, Islamabad has maintained that it is merely supporting their struggle.

'Jihad' magazine for women on web

A new jihadist magazine for women celebrates human sacrifice. They could dedicate it to Reem Raiyshi. From the BBC, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Radical Islamists have launched a new magazine publication on the internet especially for women.

The aim of the magazine is to show women how to reconcile the apparent contradiction of fighting jihad while maintaining family life.

The magazine is called Al-Khansa, after a famous Arab woman poet in the early days of Islam, who wrote eulogies to male relatives who had died in battle.

It appears to be the first "jihadist" publication aimed exclusively at women.

The magazine says it is published by an organisation called "The Women's Media Bureau in the Arabian Peninsula".

And it claims that the former leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Abd-al-Aziz al-Muqrin - who was killed by Saudi security forces in June - was one of its founders.

Al-Khansa also appears to be linked to the most well-known jihadist outlet on the internet, Sawt al-Jihad - or Voice of Jihad.

The first edition of the magazine uses fierce language similar to that found on Sawt-al-Jihad.

One of its encouragements to jihad reads: "The blood of our husbands and the body parts of our children are our sacrificial offering."

Bangladesh: Jihadist group claims responsibility for blast and threatens democracy leader

A newly-surfaced jihadist group in Bangladesh is targeting Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister and daughter of the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One principal reason why may be that she is a champion of democracy. From ANI:

An Islamic outfit called the Hikmat-ul-Jihad has claimed responsibility for Saturday's grenade attack at an Awami League rally that was addressed by former Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina.

In an e-mail to a Bangla daily here, the HUJ also issued a fresh threat to kill Sheikh Hasina within a week.

"Don't think that Sheikh Hasina is out of danger. We missed out the previous chance, but now we are very careful about our mission. Tell her to be prepared. We are coming and this time we will accomplish our target within seven days," the message addressed to the Daily Prothom Alo said.

Albany Muslims Out on Bail Due to Lack of Evidence

Another Yee-like botch by the prosecution? From Reuters:

U.S. Magistrate David Homer said there was not enough evidence to hold Yassin Aref, 34, and Mohammed Hossain, 49, who were held without bail on Aug. 10 after pleading not guilty to money laundering, supporting a terrorist organization and conspiracy to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat.

In the wake of the arrest of the men, other Muslims in Albany -- home to about 7,000 followers of Islam -- have called the case a tragic misunderstanding and many have shied away from attending mosques for fear of being labeled terrorists.

Aref and Hossain were arrested in Albany after authorities said they agreed to help an FBI informant launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile as part of a fake plan to assassinate Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations.

Homer released them on $250,000 bond each on Tuesday and ordered them to remain in home detention with electronic surveillance bracelets, but he was caustic in his remarks on the case the government built.

NO TERRORIST LINK

"As compared to Aug. 10, there's no longer any presumption that Mr. Hossain would cause a risk of flight or danger to the community," Homer said. "There still is no evidence of Mr. Hossain's involvement with any terrorist organization.

The judge added: "The strength of the case against Mr. Aref appears less strong than it did appear on Aug. 10.

"There is no evidence ... to support claims that Mr. Aref has any contact with any terrorist organization."

The hearing was the second involving the pair associated with an Albany mosque and was granted after a possible translation error was found in key evidence against them.

At the time, U.S. authorities said the evidence included an address book found in what they called a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq that referred to Aref as "the commander" in Arabic. The Justice Department says FBI translators now read the word as "brother" in Kurdish.

The attorneys for the pair said the translation issue called for a re-examination of the entire case amid criticism that the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies have led authorities to leap to conclusions in cases that have fizzled or were dropped after initial high-profile announcements.

Defense attorneys argued the government was not merely overzealous in their prosecution but used "false information" against their clients.

"We've gone from something that sounded sinister and ominous and scary and terrible to zero in less than two weeks," said defense attorney Terence Kindlon.

Prosecutors say whether the word is "commander" or "brother" is irrelevant and does not affect the criminal charges the two men face. They say the pair were willing participants in the sting operation set up by the FBI.

Australia man targeted LA Airport

From News.com.au, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

FRENCH anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Louis Bruguiere claims a mystery man in Australia was connected to the "millennium bombing plot" to blow up Los Angeles airport in 2000. Judge Bruguiere said telephone intercepts had linked a suspect in Sydney to Algerian Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested in December 1999 in Canada before he could cross the US border in a vehicle with explosives, large amounts of money and fake identities.

He said the Sydney man was identified during an extensive international sting operation involving his office. The information was passed on to Australian authorities by the French counter-terrorism branch, the DST.

But the claim has puzzled local law enforcement officials. The Australian Federal Police refused to comment last night and NSW police said they had not previously heard of any Australian link.

DST liaises with ASIO, which is understood to have dealt with the referral without involving police.

The millennium plot was considered one of the most serious efforts to be foiled by authorities since al-Qa'ida emerged as a global terror menace in the early 1990s.

US courts have been told it was planned by the al-Qaeda hierarchy to cause massive symbolic damage at the turn of the millennium.

Muslim Brotherhood Activists Possibly to Return to Syria

The Muslim Brotherhood is the forefather of virtually all of today's Islamic terror groups -- most notably, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Held at bay in Egypt and banned in Syria, it is now making a comeback. From MEMRI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Recently, there has been frequent mention in the Syrian media of the possible return to Syria of members of the Muslim Brotherhood – an organization that has been banned in Syria for two decades, with membership being punishable by death. While Syrian government officials' statements have been repeatedly preparing the ground for this possible change, Muslim Brotherhood leaders are denying the existence of any contacts with the Syrian government on this matter. For example, while Syrian MP Muhammad Habash revealed that there had been contacts between the Muslim Brotherhood and Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood Inspector-General in Syria, Sheikh 'Ali Sadr Al-Din Al-Bayanouni, [1] denied it vehemently.

Rumors of Return Began With Assad's Statements

The rumors about the possible return of Muslim Brotherhood members started with statements by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad himself, who in April 2004 told Al-Jazeera: "Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders who were in the past involved in events have returned to Syria. These leaders, who in the 1980s were imprisoned and who were responsible for destructive operations, even those in the most senior echelons, have now left the prisons, and now most of the Muslim Brotherhood [members] are living normal lives in Syria. It is possible.

"With regard to those outside Syria, some have returned to Syria, and those from the rank and file who are not leaders but who belong or identify with the Muslim Brotherhood have returned in a quiet and orderly manner. There is acknowledgement of past mistakes, such as the killing and destruction against Syrian citizens."

Israel: Egypt facilitates arms smuggling

Anyone who is surprised by this, please contact me for some excellent suspension bridge deals. From UPI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Jerusalem, Israel, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Military Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon blamed Egypt for facilitating arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reports.

A source attending a closed-door meeting with a small group of reporters Tuesday told The Jerusalem Post Ya'alon said Egypt knew exactly what arms are being smuggled and could halt the smuggling of rocket-propelled grenades into Gaza.

Haaretz quoted unnamed "Israeli defense sources" as saying the smugglers apparently have contacts with Egyptian intelligence.

Russia Seeks Cause of Deadly Jet Crashes

Could they have had to do with the Chechen elections coming up? Ask Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. However, the Russians and Chechens are denying this at this point. From AP:

BUCHALKI, Russia - Russian emergency workers searched through heaps of twisted metal and tall grass Wednesday for clues to what caused two airliners to plunge to Earth almost simultaneously, killing all 89 people aboard and raising concerns of a terrorist strike. Officials said one of the jets sent a distress signal that may have indicated a hijacking.

Russia's main intelligence agency, however, said it had found no evidence of terrorism in initial investigations at the crash sites. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it was investigating other possibilities such as technical failures, the use of poor quality fuel, breaches of fueling regulations and pilot error, its press service told The Associated Press. Rain and thunder was reported in the regions where both crashes occurred.

A Sibir airlines Tu-154 jet, carrying 46 people, took off from Moscow's newly redeveloped Domodedovo airport at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday and the other plane, a Tu-134 carrying 43 people, left 40 minutes later, according to state-run Rossiya television. The Tu-134 was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the other plane was flying to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where President Vladimir Putin is vacationing.

The planes disappeared from radar screens about 11 p.m., and by early Wednesday morning, the wreckage of both had been found — with no survivors. Domodedovo airport said in a statement that both planes "went through the standard procedure of preparation for flight ...(and) the procedures were carried out properly."

Uncertainty over the cause of the crashes came after Sibir said that it was notified that its jet had activated a hijack or seizure signal shortly before disappearing from radar screens. Officials said the crew of the other plane gave no indication that anything was wrong, but witnesses on the ground reported hearing a series of explosions.

"There were three loud bangs on the window, like someone knocking," said Nikolai Gorokhov, a local resident who was in his home at the time of the crash.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian aviation security expert as saying the fact that the two planes disappeared around the same time raised suspicions of terrorism....

Officials had expressed concern that separatists [that is, jihadists] in war-ravaged Chechnya might carry out attacks ahead of a regional election Sunday to replace the pro-Moscow president who was killed in a May bombing. Chechen rebels have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years.

Rebel representative Akhmed Zakayev told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio from London that Chechen rebel forces and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov were in no way connected to the near simultaneous crashes.

Alleged Hamas figure arrested by Maryland police

He was videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. From the Baltimore Sun, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A man described in a federal indictment as a "high-ranking" Hamas operative was arrested in Maryland on Friday videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, authorities acknowledged last night.

Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Va., long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian terrorist group, was taken into custody as a "material witness" in a Chicago terrorism case, according to Maryland's U.S. attorney's office.

Elbarasse made an initial appearance in Baltimore's federal courthouse yesterday before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm.

In the indictment by a federal grand jury in Chicago, unsealed and announced on Friday, Elbarasse is described as a "co-conspirator" in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy in the United States and abroad to illegally finance terrorist activities in Israel.

Elbarasse was not indicted, but court documents allege that he and defendant Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook - considered one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders internationally - shared a Virginia bank account that was used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas.

Abu Marzook resides in Syria and is considered a fugitive from justice, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. The other two defendants charged in the indictment are Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah of suburban Chicago and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Fairfax County, Va.

Military tribunals at Gitmo

This is the tale of two AP stories: one about Salim Ahmed Hamdan and another about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. Both are set to appear before a military commission in Guantanamo this week. Although both men are accused of working for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the news stories are very different.

Hamdan's begins with a sob story. The poor man didn't even get paid well:

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Salim Ahmed Hamdan says he earned a pittance for his family as Osama bin Laden's driver prior to the Sept. 11 attack. But U.S. officials allege he did more, serving as the al-Qaida leader's bodyguard and delivering weapons to his operatives.

The 34-year-old Yemeni and Guantanamo terror suspect is to be arraigned Tuesday before a U.S. military commission that allows for secret evidence and no federal appeals, the first person to go before such a tribunal since World War II.

Then it highlights his defense attorney's outrage with the procedure:

"This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States," said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, Hamdan's attorney who is likely to challenge the government's classification of his client as an enemy combatant. Hamdan denies supporting terrorism.

Then it suggests that the defense has been rushed:

Depending upon what Swift has up his sleeve or what surprises the prosecutors hold, Hamdan could choose not to enter a plea and his attorney could ask for more time to prepare. It is also possible Swift will question whether the five-member commission panel's presiding officer, U.S. Army Col. Peter E. Brownback, has the capacity to judge the proceedings fairly.

Then it lists Pentagon allegations, pointing out that there is no charge that he did anything violent or participated in the planning of any mayhem:

The Pentagon, in a charge sheet, alleged Hamdan, who is also known as Saqr al Jaddawi, was a bodyguard and personal driver for bin Laden between February 1996 and Nov. 24, 2001.

The Pentagon also alleged that he transported weapons to al-Qaida operatives, trained at an al-Qaida camp and drove in convoys that carried bin Laden. It does not say he took part in any specific acts of violence or participated in the operational planning of any attacks.

Then it suggests that Hamdan, haram, is too dense to understand what is being done to him:

With a fourth-grade education and few skills to interpret legal minutia, Hamdan doesn't understand why he's being charged as anything but a civilian, Swift says. Hamden has said he earned a pittance by driving bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks, but he denies supporting terrorism.

A bit later on it suggests that military officials are trying to get away with all this behind the backs of the human rights establishment:

Representatives from Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and the American Bar Association were offered seats as observers for the pretrial hearings, but military officials have refused to let them tour the prison.

The five groups said they will watch the hearings and will try to keep a representative present for all of the commission proceedings.

"The observers were invited for the military commissions," said Col. David McWilliams, spokesman for the commissions and preliminary hearings. No other explanation was offered.

And not just them, but even the Red Cross:

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was weighing whether to send an observer to the commission hearings, the first such proceedings since World War II.

The Geneva-based group has been the only independent organization to have access to the 585 prisoners at the U.S. base accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network.

And finally, the question of fairness stated openly, complete with sneer quotes around the word terrorists:

Human rights groups have criticized holding the men as enemy combatants, a classification giving them fewer legal protections than prisoners of war. They also have questioned whether the commissions ordered by U.S. President George W. Bush will be fair.

Bush, as well as senior U.S. officials, has repeatedly has called the men "terrorists."

Now compare all that to the second AP story, about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. The two men's stories are similar: both are not well educated, and both are described as Osama's bodyguards and drivers. This one highlights how religious the man has always been -- which to any reader knowledgeable about how radical Muslims recruit, will send up a red flag:

Growing up in a middle class religious family in Sudan, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi spent most of his time in a neighborhood mosque, paying so little attention to his regular studies that he wasn't able to get into university after finishing high school.

Then it goes on to highlight the charges, without stopping first to criticize the process:

He must have been good at math, though. As an adult, Osama bin Laden trusted al Qosi enough to make him al-Qaida's accountant, paymaster and supply chief when the terrorist network was centered in Sudan and Afghanistan during the 1990s, according to U.S. military charges.

Eventually, al Qosi became bin Laden's bodyguard and driver _ so trusted that he was with bin Laden and his inner circle "before, during and after" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and helped them "evacuate" from Kandahar, Afghanistan, the military alleges.

Al Qosi, who is set to appear before a Guantanamo Bay military commission this week as a first step toward a trial, is among the more prominent detainees in Cuba.

Al Qosi has been charged with conspiracy as an al-Qaida member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.

Then it explains how he got involved in Islamic radicalism, and details how the man is up to his eyeballs in involvement with Al-Qaeda:

He's accused of training in bomb-making and assassination at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, but his introduction to Muslim extremism started at home in Sudan.

Al Qosi quickly attracted the attention of high-ranking al-Qaida figures he met after arriving in Afghanistan in 1989 the year coup leaders in Sudan declared they could bring prosperity, end civil war and solve all of the country's other problems by instituting strict Islamic rule, say former militants and Middle East security officials.

Al Qosi arrived at the tail end of the Afghan fight against Soviet invaders, and well before Afghanistan's Taliban began imposing a strict Islamic regime similar to what ideologues prescribed for Sudan. At the time, Sudanese women who didn't cover up fully when on the streets were likely to be scolded by police, punishments such as chopping off the hands of thieves were instituted, and Islamic extremists from around the world found a haven.

In the early 1990s, al Qosi completed a 45-day military training course at al-Qaida's al-Farouk camp near Khost, Afghanistan, learning combat skills, bomb-making and assassination, according to the U.S. military and the Middle East security officials. After the course, al Qosi carried messages between al-Qaida leaders and cells in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and elsewhere in Africa, one Middle East security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Qosi became close to Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad Group and bin Laden's deputy and Abu Ubeidah al-Banshiri, the Egyptian who was al-Qaida's military commander and later its main operative in East Africa before he reportedly drowned in a ferry accident on Lake Victoria in May 1996.

Though he had only a high school education, al Qosi was appointed chief accountant, managing donated funds and parceling them out for training camps and operations, another expert said.

From 1992 to 1995, when bin Laden moved his operations to Sudan, al Qosi returned home and became deputy financial chief for al-Qaida and worked for an investment company founded by bin Laden, according to the military charges and Middle East officials.

Egyptian Muslim activists who used Sudan as a base to launch attacks against their secular government at the time remember al Qosi as one of very few Sudanese close to bin Laden.

When bin Laden left Sudan under pressure from the Clinton administration in 1995, al Qosi allegedly traveled to fight with insurgents in Chechnya. Later he rejoined bin Laden in Afghanistan and became a bodyguard for the al-Qaida chief, said a former Egyptian activist who knew al Qosi then, speaking on condition of anonymity from exile in Europe.

And it ends with a quote from his brother, again with red flags for those familiar with political Islam:

"He was only committed to his religion," Abdullah told the Khartoum daily Al Sahafa in one of the stories that newspapers in Sudan have published retelling al Qosi's saga.

Not a word in the second story about the human rights groups, the suspicions about the military tribunals, etc. Just a story about one man's involvement with Al-Qaeda.

Why am I telling you all this? Do a Google search for "Hamdan + Qosi" and you'll see. As of this moment, the first story appears in ABC News; the Philadelphia Inquirer; the Los Angeles Times; the Chicago Tribune; the Manchester Union Leader; the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel; the Hartford Courant; the San Marcos Daily Record; the Porterville Recorder; the Huntsville Item; the Bismarck Tribune; the Bonner County Daily Bee; the Dunn County News; the Idaho State Journal; the Albany Democrat Herald; the Lodi News-Sentinel; the Idaho State Journal; Diario Digital of Juárez, Mexico; the Selma Times-Journal; the Appeal-Democrat; the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier; the Cheboygan Daily Tribune; the North County Times; the Santa Maria Times; the Wyoming News; the Columbia Basin Herald; the Mattoon Journal; the Mt. Carmel Daily Republican Register; the Orangeburg Times Democrat; the Helena Independent Record; the Rapid City Journal; the Daily American Online; the Elko Daily Free Press; The Missoulian; the Petoskey News-Review; the Natchez Democrat; the Corvallis Gazette Times; the Benton Courier; the Carlisle Sentinel; the Hampton Roads Daily Press; the Bradenton Herald; phillyburbs.com; the Orlando Sentinel; Xposed.com; The Spectator Newspapers; the Grand Forks Herald; Kentucky.com; the Albany Times Union; the UK's Guardian; the China Daily; IrishExaminer.com; Canada's CTV; ic Wales; and more.

The second story? You can find it in the Sudan Tribune. That's it.

Now: do you understand how the media is trying to manipulate public opinion in the war on terror?

UPDATE: Mentat points out in the comments that it's not as bad as all that, with an adjusted Google search. Still, the first, more biased story is being featured much more prominently. Look around.

Al-Qaida runs own travel agency in Latin America

...you just might not want to book a plane flight with them. From WND:

While there likely aren't any posters depicting exotic destinations on the wall, an al-Qaida travel agency operates in Latin America to help terrorists enter the U.S., the 9-11 commission reports.

The revelation was part of the panel's final report issued Saturday as the commission formally disbanded.

The global terror network operates a travel service that uses human smugglers as tools, reported Agence France-Presse.

"There are uncorroborated law-enforcement reports suggesting that associates of al-Qaida used smugglers in Latin America to travel through the region in 2002, before traveling onward to the United States," the panel said, without offering specifics.

Though the reference is to 2002, recent news reports indicate a growing concern that Arab terrorists are using the porous southern border to enter the United States.

Though the problem is getting more attention now, WorldNetDaily reported in 2001 that the number of Middle Eastern illegals crossing the southern border was on the rise.

Federal agents said OTMs – border lingo for "other than Mexicans" – were an increasing problem.

Anaheim mosque founder denies terrorism link

From AP:

LOS ANGELES A fund-raiser for an Islamic charity with alleged links to terrorism today testified he believes the donations were for humanitarian projects.

Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, who founded an Anaheim mosque, also told a judge in Los Angeles that he should be freed as he fights deportation.

Hamdan was arrested on immigration charges last month as authorities unsealed an indictment against the Richardson, Texas,-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Hamdan's detention has sparked protests by Southern California Muslims who see it as an unfair pressure tactic to get him to reveal information about Holy Land....

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking Hamdan's release on bond.

"The only solution, which the Jews will understand, is Jihaad – done with its proper conditions – to raise high the Word of Allaah"

The Salafi Society of North America acknowledges that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't really about getting land for the Palestinians at all -- it's just part of the global jihad.

It's interesting to remember that while this is being propagated -- the idea that the conflict between Muslims and Jews goes back to Muhammad and is explained in the Qur'an, Massachusetts schoolchildren will be learning that Muslims don't really pay attention to what the Qur'an says.

The enemies of Islaam and the ignorant people that follow them are trying to portray the reality of the struggle against the Jews as a struggle for land and borders, and as a problem of refugees and water ports. And they make it seem as if it is possible to end this struggle with peaceful coexistence and by compensating the refugees, rectifying their condition of living, dispersing them throughout the land and establishing a weak petty secular state, which will live under the Zionist power and which will serve as a shield for the Zionist state (against their surrounding enemies).

But all of these people don’t realize that our struggle with the Jews goes way back, ever since the first Islamic state was established in Madeenah with Muhammad, the Messenger sent to all of mankind, as its leader. Allaah has related to us in the Qur’aan, the reality of the Jews’ malice and hatred for the ummah of Islaam and Tawheed, as he says: “You will surely find that the people with the most enmity towards the believers are the Jews and the polytheists.” [Surah Al-Maa’idah: 82]

So see how Allaah has placed the Jews before the polytheists in their hatred and enmity (towards the Muslims). Even though they are united in their disbelief, they differ (from others) in their (immense) hatred towards the ummah of Muhammad, as Allaah says: “The Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion (way).” [Surah Al-Baqarah: 120]

And ever since the first hour in which the Muslims let the beautiful fragrance of Islaam flow through it (Madeenah), the Jews were there showing enmity to the Muslims and their Prophet. So our Prophet, Muhammad, was not safe from the harm of the Jews amongst their ranks. They tried to kill him three times. One time, they tried to kill him by putting a heavy rock on his head. Another time was when they placed poison in the forearm of a goat (for him to eat). And a third case was when the Jewish boy, Lubaid bin al-A’asam, may Allaah’s curse be on him, put a magic spell on him.

And lo, there are the Americans, supplying the Jews with the most ferocious and harmful weapons of destruction, so that they can kill the Muslim children, women and elderly people of Palestine. And they preoccupied the world with their American elections for the purpose of drawing attention away from the Jewish massacre and butchering of the Muslim people of Palestine.

And lo! There are the British, who supply the Jews with loud and explosive ammunition, which when used result in horrific deaths and everlasting handicapping for the youth of Palestine. So this ummah (nation of Palestinians) are open prey - whether young or old, infant or woman – in the hands of the Jews and their supporters.

And lo! There are the supporters of the Jews, who preoccupy the ummah and draw their attention away from the casualties suffered by the Muslim people of Palestine. And they make the people blind to the crimes committed by the Jews by broadcasting the Olympics and other worthless programs, which only make the ummah numb and put it to sleep!

Don’t the Muslims know that our struggle against the Jews is a struggle of Creed and a struggle of Religious livelihood? Don’t they realize that it is a struggle of culture, a struggle to remain in existence, a struggle of identification? ...

Then after all of this, it is said: “Our struggle against the Jews is a struggle for land and a border dispute!!” And the desired solution is to establish a petty Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, so that the followers of the three monotheistic – or so they claim - faiths can live in it. Are these people ignorant of the fact that the only Religion acceptable in the sight of Allaah is Islaam? ...

Indeed, the only solution, which the Jews will understand, is Jihaad – done with its proper conditions – to raise high the Word of Allaah. The Jews do not want peace, rather they only want that this ummah surrender and submit itself to them, and that it bow and debase itself to them. And they want that it wipe out the word Jihaad from its vocabulary! They want them to become slaves, employees and laborers for them, having the right to beat them with their shoes and lash them with their whips whenever they feel like it!

Our real struggle with the Jews will not end by setting up a withered state that doesn’t raise the banner of Islaam nor establishes the Laws of Allaah. How can it come to an end when the Muslim recites in his prayer seventeen times - day and night – “And do not make us from those who gained Your Anger nor from those who went astray.” [Surah Al-Faatihah: 7]

Those who “gained Your Anger” are the Jews and those who “went astray” are the Christians, according to the unanimous agreement of the Tafseer scholars, and this is so until the Day of Judgement.

So the decisive battle in which the Jews will come to an end will most assuredly come to pass – it is inevitable. It will be a battle of Faith and a battle of servitude to Allaah. The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “You will indeed fight against the Jews and you will kill them to the point where the rock and the tree will say: ‘O Muslim! O ‘Abdullaah (slave of Allaah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him.’ Except for al-Gharqad for it is from the trees of the Jews.”

This is a true promise from the one who doesn’t speak from his own desire (Prophet Muhammad), which confirms the true nature of our struggle against the Jews, unlike what the misguided and misguiding media is portraying.

Iran Says It's Not Backing Al-Sadr

Here's a twist. Has Khatami talked with Al-Haeri about this? From AP:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday that his government is not supporting the uprising by Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and blamed U.S. troops for the fighting in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"We have never taken sides in favor or against any group or faction in Iraq," Khatami was quoted as telling reporters when asked if Iran backs al-Sadr, whose militiamen are battling with U.S. and Iraqi government forces in Najaf and elsewhere.

Iran, a Shiite Muslim country with close ties to Iraq's majority Shiite population, is believed to want to counter U.S. influence in Iraq and to be trying to ensure future Iraqi governments are friendly with Iran. The Iranian government insists it is not interfering in Iraq.

Khatami said these are testing times for Iraq's interim government. "If it can't resolve the problems, then definitely the Iraqi public opinion won't have a positive view of it," he said.

The fighting in Najaf, a holy city to Shiite Muslims as the home to the revered Imam Ali Shrine, has sparked concern in predominantly Shiite Iran.

Khatami said al-Sadr's militants "had not provoked the U.S. forces in Iraq this time to justify the attacks" in Najaf. "The occupying forces play the main role in these attacks," IRNA quoted Khatami as saying.

On Islamic militant site, unknown group claims responsibility for arson attack on Paris Jewish center

The mainstream media is still saying it was neo-Nazis, but here is the latest from AP: Muslim radicals are claiming that they have carried the jihad into France.

The official at Paris police headquarters said it was still unclear whether the posting on a Web site known for militant Islamic comment by a group calling itself Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad was a serious claim....

When the smoke cleared, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker.

One message read, "Without the Jews, the world is happy," while another said, "Jews get out."

France has suffered a long wave of anti-Semitic violence since 2000, coinciding with worsening tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.

Some of the violence has been blamed on young French Muslims, although the large Muslim community itself is also a frequent target of racist attacks. Both Jewish and Muslim cemeteries have been desecrated in France recently, with swastikas painted across headstones.

Usually, such attacks are not claimed, so the message that appeared Sunday on the Web was unusual.

The message said that "a group of Mujahedeen youth set fire at 4 a.m. Paris time to the Jewish synagogue in Paris in retaliation for the racist acts carried out by the Jews in France against Islam and Muslims, and acts of defiling Muslims' cemeteries."

The posting, which referred incorrectly to the community center as a synagogue, said the blaze marked the 35th anniversary of a fire at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which gutted the southeastern wing of the holy shrine.

Rumors quickly spread of Israeli responsibility, though a non-Jewish tourist from Australia confessed to setting the fire. He was hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel.

Jihad in Switzerland

"Switzerland likely was used as a base for financial and logistical support for al-Qaida." From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

GENEVA (AP) -- Swiss investigators have established a link between at least three Arabs detained in a nationwide anti-terror sweep and a purported key al-Qaida member, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Geneva daily Le Temps said it obtained a copy of a document written by Deputy Federal Prosecutor Claude Nicati in which he detailed his case against 10 people arrested in raids since December and ordered the launch of preliminary judicial proceedings. Five suspects have been released but remain under investigation.

Swiss justice authorities routinely decline to comment on media reports or give details of ongoing investigations, and prosecutor's office spokeswoman Andrea Sadecky told The Associated Press she could not comment.

"All I can say is that we regret the report has been made public," she said.

In June, Swiss Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said investigators had concluded that Switzerland likely was used as a base for financial and logistical support for al-Qaida.

According to Le Temps, Nicati's report said two suspects arrested in Switzerland - both originally from Yemen - were in "close contact with several hardcore members of bin Laden's movement."

The report cited the name Abdallah al-Kini and described him as an "operational al-Qaida agent" involved in the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole off Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors.

Al-Kini, who has not been mentioned previously by Yemeni anti-terror investigators, currently is detained there, the report said.

Micah Garen freed

Apparently Al-Sadr realized he weren't going to achieve the desired result from killing him. But note that he won his release, at least according to this, because he opposes administration policies. From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. journalist Micah Garen was on Sunday freed by an Iraqi group who had held him hostage in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

"I am very grateful to everyone who worked to protect me and guarantee my release and I thank my friends in Nassiriya and my family and fiance who spent three months with me in Nassiriya," Garen told Arab satellite television Al Jazeera by telephone.

He was speaking from the Nassiriya office of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"Today he was brought to the office of Sheikh Sadr in Nassiriya and he is now there. We have called the human rights body in Nassiriya to come and receive him," Aws al-Khafaji, an aide to Sadr, told Al Jazeera.

Garen, of New York-based company Four Corners Media, said he was seized while taking pictures with a small camera at a market in Nassiriya.

"People misunderstood what I was taking pictures of. There was a misunderstanding," he said without elaborating. His comments were translated into Arabic by the channel.

A group calling itself the Secret Action Group of the Mehdi Army said in an Internet statement on Friday it was holding a U.S. journalist hostage and would release him on Saturday because he was opposed to U.S. administration policies.

Muslim Creed: Are Martyrdom Operations Lawful (According to Quran and Sunnah)?

We hear constantly from Islamic apologists and people who ought to know better about how the Qur'an forbids suicide, as if that is the last word about suicide attacks carried out by Muslims. But when Muslims speak to their fellow Muslims, instead of to Western unbelievers anxious to be reassured that all that we are seeing is just an aberration, a misuse of Islam that will soon pass, it's often a different story. Take this justification for suicide bombing, complete with quotes from Osama himself, found at MuslimCreed.com (thanks to nevermindlv):

"We emphasize the great importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy - operations that have inflicted great damage on the United States and Israel, which damage is unprecedented in their history, thanks to Almighty Allah." Sheikh ul-Mujahideen Usama bin Laden (hafidhahullah).

What Are Martyrdom Operations?

Martyrdom Operations - sometimes called Fidayee attacks (see Note 1) - are those where a Muslim, a Mujahid, attacks the enemy in such a way that the death of that Muslim is (should Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) so will it) highly likely. The history of Islam is replete with heroes who have sacrificed their own life for the Way of Life which is Al-Islam.*

In modern times, many Martyrdom Operations involve the Mujahid detonating an explosive device (attached to themselves or in a vehicle they are driving) when close to, or among, the enemy.

Not surprisingly, such attacks are feared by the enemies of Islam, and especially by those infidels who are waging war against Islam, those who are oppressing Muslims, and those who are invading Muslim lands.

Such attacks are often incorrectly called "suicide attacks" in the hope of discrediting them. In addition, some Muslims, and some Islamic scholars, have claimed that such "suicide attacks" are forbidden according to the Quran and Sunnah.

Are Martyrdom Operations Lawful?

To understand and answer this question, three things need to be understood:

(1) The criteria used to determine whether such operations are lawful and justified must and can only an Islamic one. That is, the judgment must be made according to Quran and Sunnah, and them alone. All other criteria or standards of judgment must be rejected. To do otherwise, is un-Islamic.

"And whosoever does not judge by what Allâh has revealed, such are the Kâfirûn." [5:44 Interpretation of meaning]

(2) The intentions of the Mujahid who undertakes the attack is important, as is the fact that their is a likelihood of the attack harming or killing enemies.

(3) In a discussion of Islamic sources - Quran and Ahadith - it is important to refer to the meaning of the Arabic, and not to rely on interpretations of meaning which use modern, and often biased, terms and words such as the English word "suicide".

The Unlawful Nature of Killing Oneself:

There is no dispute, among scholars or among the Muslims, that it is forbidden for a person to take their own life, for personal reasons. That is, because one is overwhelmed with grief, or sorrow, or has abandoned all hope when faced with difficulties.

There are many Hadith and Quranic Ayat which make it clear that the Muslim who does such a deed will not enter Paradise because such a deed involves the abandonment of Islam: the belief that one should never totally despair; never be totally overwhelmed with misery, and never abandon trust in Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala).

The Islamic Judgment:

Those - Muslim and non-Muslim - who declare martyrdom operations unlawful, and un-Islamic, consider them to be acts of what they call "suicide", and justify such a declaration by quoting Quranic verses and Hadith which refer to a person killing themselves.

Quite often, those who denounce martyrdom operations use translations of Hadith, or interpretations of the Holy Quran which use the word "suicide". For instance, Ahadith similar to the following are often cited:

The Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell-Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire." (Sahih Bukhari)

However, as mentioned above, the use of English words such as "suicide" in such translations is often incorrect, for such modern English words often mean and imply different things than are meant and implied by the Arabic, even though, in the West, the term "suicide" is sometimes understood as an "act, malicious or otherwise, of self-murder". That is, as a basically selfish act done for personal reasons. (In origin the word suicide itself derives from a term for "self".)

Perhaps a better interpretation of the above Hadith would be along the following lines:

"The person who commits Intihar by hanging themselves shall keep hanging themselves in the Hell-Fire, just as those who commit Intihar by stabbing themselves will keep stabbing themselves in the Hell-Fire."

We shall consider two Quranic Ayat often cited by those who oppose Martyrdom Operations.

1) One Quranic Ayat which is often cited (see Note 2) is: laa taqtuluu anfusakum (4:29). This is often interpreted as meaning: "Do not kill yourselves..." However, considered in context, a more correct interpretation would be along the following lines:

"You who believe: do not unfairly squander your wealth on one another, save it be for some purpose mutually agreed upon among yourselves. Do not ruin yourself, or one another, for Allah is most Merciful toward you."

2) Another Ayat which is cited is 4:93 which is often interpreted to mean: "Whomsoever kills a believer intentionally, their punishment is hell..." The argument used here by the opponents of Martyrdom Operations is that the Mujahid involved in a Fidayee attack is a believer, who - by their Fidayee attack - intends to and does kill themselves. However, this argument is invalid because the context clearly refers to a believer intentionally killing another believer - for instance in 4:92 Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) says that if a believer kills a believer by mistake, then compensation must be paid.

Thus, not only are the oft-quoted Ahadith and Quranic verses quoted, and translated or interpreted, incorrectly and out of context, but they are in fact not relevant. For what it is important to understand is that killing oneself because of some personal reason - what is often called committing suicide - is quite different and distinct from martyrdom operations. That is, there is a clear distinction between Istishad (martyrdom) and Intihar ("suicide") - in both the intention of the individual, and what results from their act.

The person who commits suicide acts out of despair, or for some personal reason, whereas the Mujahid acts out of love for Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) and a desire to please Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala): to do what Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) has commanded, which in the specific instance of martyrdom operations is confronting and attacking the enemies of Islam, even if this means, InshaAllah, one's own death.

The intention of the Mujahid is - or rather should be - a pure intention, and if this is indeed the case then Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) may well accept their martyrdom and so admit them into Paradise. A pure intention in this instance is to: (1) harm, humiliate or kill the enemy; (2) to give strength and encouragement to Muslims; (3) to weaken the resolve of the enemy; (4) to seek the reward of martyrdom, which is Paradise.

*The writer of this article is correct: such operations are a feature of Islamic history. One example was recently unearthed by Dr. Andrew Bostom: John Paul Jones encountered suicide attacks by Muslim Turks in 1788!

“…for it was the intention of the Turks to attack us and board us, and if we had been only three versts further the attempt would have been made on the 16th [June 1788] (before the vessel of the Captain Pacha ran aground in advancing before the wind with all his forces to attack us,), God only knows what would have been the result…The Turks had a very large force, and we have been informed by our prisoners that they were resolved to destroy us, even by burning themselves, (in setting fire to their own vessels after having grappled with ours.) [note added by Jones: Before their departure from Constantinople, they swore by the beard of the Sultan to execute this horrible plan…if Providence had not caused its failure from two circumstances which no man could forsee.”]

That's from John Paul Jones’ Letter to Prince Potemkin, June 20, 1788, from Life and Character of John Paul Jones-A Captain in the Navy of the United States, John H. Sherburne, 1825, p. 308.

Possible terrorist sighting in Nantucket

Maati has Canadian citizenship. From the Boston Globe, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

HYANNIS -- A long-sought suspected Al Qaeda member who has eluded a concerted international dragnet may have been sighted at a Nantucket airport this week, prompting the FBI to distribute a picture of the suspect to law enforcement and transportation officials on the island.

Law enforcement authorities declined to disclose details of the possible sighting of Amer el-Maati, who allegedly has talked about hijacking a plane in Canada and flying it into a building in the United States. The sighting was first reported in the Inquirer and Mirror newspaper of Nantucket yesterday, citing unnamed town and airport sources.

The State Police went to the Nantucket Memorial Airport at noon Thursday after the possible sighting was reported, according to Phillip Parent of the Steamship Authority, which runs ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Later on Thursday, the FBI distributed photographs of Amer el-Maati to airline and ferry employees, as well as island law enforcement officials. The photographs were not released to the media, but an FBI official confirmed the sighting report.

A flier with the photo describes Maati as "armed and dangerous" and says he "is being sought for possible terrorist threats in the United States," said Parent, the Steamship Authority's human resources director.

In May, US authorities released the photographs of Maati, 41, and six others, saying they were possibly planning terrorist attacks on American targets.

According to the FBI, Maati, also known as Amro Badr Eldin Abou, says he has Egyptian and Syrian roots, but was born in Kuwait in 1966. Maati has Canadian citizenship and is a licensed pilot, the FBI has said.

Jordan: Prince urges reforms in Muslim thinking -- oh, and obedience to Sharia

Here again, Prince Hamzah asserts that "extremism" is rejected by Islam, but his terms remain undefined — and he ends up recommending that Muslims obey Sharia, which would presumably thus include the provisions regarding violent jihad and the oppression of non-Muslims. So what looks at first glance like a statement of Muslim moderation turns out to be just the opposite. From AP, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

Jordan's Crown Prince Hamzah on Saturday urged reforms in Muslim thinking and criticized Islamic extremism, but said such fanaticism resulted from injustices and oppression being suffered by Muslims.

Hamzah, a half brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II and heir to the throne, told 80 scholars from 40 countries attending a three-day conference here that the Muslim world was facing "successive pressures and challenges ... (that) extend to every corner of the (Islamic) nation's potential and its sacred shrines."

Hamzah did not elaborate on the pressures Muslims were facing, saying only that fanaticism was caused by a "deprivation, oppression and absence of justice" that "provokes hatred."

The prince said the extremist Islamic behavior resulting from such pressure is, then, "taken as evidence to convict and blame Muslims on the false assumption that these are characteristics of their morals, principles and even religion."

"But the truth is that Islam and the Muslims reject and condemn these exceptional cases as strange to their true religion and as a form of transgression," he said....

"Extremism has destroyed, throughout history, remarkable achievements in great civilizations, including our Islamic civilization," he said. "When hatred is dominant and hearts are closed, and when people do not resort to the rulings of Sharia (Islamic law) and reason, the tree of civilization withers away and societies cease to grow."

Hamzah also blamed the media for "weakening the Muslim's energy and soul," and suggested that educational reform could remedy extremism and inform the masses of Islam's true meaning.

Pakistan says it has busted suicide plot targeting Musharraf, US Embassy

Pakistan inches closer to chaos. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan announced Saturday that it had arrested at least five men suspected of having ties to al Qaeda who'd been plotting to launch suicide attacks on government leaders and the U.S. Embassy.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters that security forces had captured five or six suspects -- one Egyptian, the others Pakistani -- in the past week across the country, and had seized weapons.

Authorities were hunting for four to five other suspects, he said.

However, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told The Associated Press that about a dozen suspects had been nabbed. He said they'd been planning suicide attacks on "important personalities."

Hayyat said the group wanted to hit the official residence of President Pervez Musharraf, Parliament and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, as well as Army House in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.

They also wanted to target government ministers, he said.

"This is a gang of suicide bombers, and our security agencies have done a remarkable job by foiling this plot," Hayyat said, adding that those captured were "definitely linked to al Qaeda."

9/11 helper approved of Hitler, found Atta "aggressively religious"

From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

A Moroccan accused of helping the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers was part of a group that raged against the United States "because it defends Israel" and himself approved of Hitler's extermination of the Jews, witnesses testified Wednesday.

Sudanese student Ahmed Maglad, 30, testified he met defendant Mounir el Motassadeq while living in Hamburg in 1997 and through him met lead suicide pilot Mohamed Atta, who he said was "aggressively religious" and was always trying to "prove something." Maglad told the Hamburg state court he also knew Ramzi Binalshibh, the suspected contact between al-Qaida and the Hamburg cell that included three of the suicide pilots.

Al-Qaida Said to Recruit in Latin America

And how do they get recruits? No one seems particularly interested in that. From AP:

MONTERREY, Mexico - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America — the potential last frontier for international terrorism.

The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.

The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29-year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.

Coren: It has to be said ...

Michael Coren, on whose Toronto TV show I once participated in a rollicking debate with Dr. Anis Shorrosh (author of Islam Revealed) and two Muslim scholars, again displays his courage and insight in daring to challenge the prevailing dhimmitude and woolly thinking. From the Toronto Sun, with thanks to Russell:

THERE ARE things you are not supposed to say. Things that people pretend are not true. Things that get you into all sorts of trouble because we live in a dishonest world. Here goes...

Not supposed to say that the Crusades were not some vile Christian slaughter, but a response by Europe to the military expansion of Islam. Muslim armies had invaded Christian lands and would continue to do so for hundreds of years. They moved into Spain and reached the gates of Vienna.

The idea that Christians became Muslim with smiles on their faces is ludicrous. Countless people died and the very birthplace of Christianity was soaked in blood. The Crusaders did not always act morally -- though they often did -- but they were merely reacting to aggressive conquest.

Today the Roman Catholic Church condemns the Crusades as being wrong. Yet few if any Muslim leaders will condemn the rape of so many Christian countries by their own ancestors. On the contrary, some Muslims speak of these countries as being somehow Islamic by nature and sometimes refer to the re-conquest of Spain.

Muslim democracy?

Not supposed to say that the United States, Europe, Israel, Jews and Christians have little to do with the fact that there is no democracy in the Muslim world. Of course many of these countries were colonized and exploited, but then most of the world suffered such a fate.
India is composed of a billion people speaking various languages. The Hindu religion and culture of this magnificent nation has achieved the largest democracy in the world. People vote, honestly, fairly and peacefully. Violence is rare and political corruption isolated. All this in spite of poverty, partial rural illiteracy and centuries of imperial dominance.

Not supposed to say that Israel has become the new international whipping boy. Its people are broadly divided into Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Ashkenazi Jews were perhaps the most persecuted people in history. The colonization of Arab nations by the West is nothing compared to the pogroms and Holocaust.

Sephardic Jews were mostly to be found in Muslim states, where they were always at the bottom of the social ladder. Sometimes they were treated fairly well, sometimes very badly. But never were they complete equals. Even in Ethiopia, with all of its problems, a way was found to treat Jews worse than anybody else.

Yet whatever one wants to say about Israel -- and people will say everything about Israel, whether it's true or not -- the country enjoys a flourishing democracy. The million Arab citizens of Israel are not always first-class citizens. But they have the vote. More democratic rights than their Arab relatives across the border in Egypt or Jordan.

Not supposed to say that although the war in Iraq was, in my opinion, wrong and foolish, many Iraqis are acting like brutal and irrational thugs. Saddam Hussein kept his country in order by ruling as a murderous tyrant yet faced very little opposition. Where were these brave Islamic militants then?

The Americans have often acted thoughtlessly and have caused much suffering. But this can't justify blowing up churches, killing innocent Iraqi people and beheading foreign truck drivers. I'm tired of various so-called "holy" cities, holy men and holy ideas. None seem very holy or capable of giving people a life of dignity and safety.

Thailand's PM: Islamic teachers brainwash students

Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin, like Western politicians who pontificate about Islam, is not a Muslim. How does he know their interpretation of the Qur'an is wrong? Where can the correct interpretation be found? It is staggering how many people of influence repeat the mantras about Islam is peace and militant Islam is a hijacking of a great peaceful religion without ever bringing forward a tradition of Islam that abjures violence altogether, or an explanation of the Qur'an that refutes (not ignores, but refutes) the radical exegesis.

Some analysts have criticized my allies in this struggle and me because, they say, we are are bent on discrediting Islam itself, and that we have set the standard for Islamic moderation so high that no Muslim can meet it without apostasizing. They say we should encourage Muslim moderates who articulate a peaceful Islam even when their version of Islam takes little or none of the radical exegesis into account, and is utterly inadequate to refute it.

But this article shows the shoddy thinking that is involved in such criticism. Thaksin is blandly asserting, as so many others have also in the US and elsewhere, that Islamic terrorists are misinterpreting and misusing Islam. But the "correct" version has yet to assert itself. When moderates who, for whatever reason, do not respond properly to radical teachings are lionized and encouraged, the assertion of any true or effective moderate Islam is postponed yet again. Such moderates make their Western audiences feel reassured, but since they make no headway against the radicals it's a hollow reassurance.

We need moderate Muslims to wage rhetorical war against the radical version of Islam. But this needs to be done by people who are completely honest about the teachings of Islam on jihad and the treatment of non-Muslims, as well as honest about the sources of those teachings and the need for massive reform. Anything less, and we're just whistling in the dark with Prime Minister Thaksin.

From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

BANGKOK - Islamic teachers in southern Thailand are 'brainwashing' students and there will be no quick end to the Muslim insurgency there, Thailand's Prime Minister said yesterday, while police reported four more slayings in the region's latest bloodshed.

Several Muslim teachers have been arrested recently because of suspicions that they may be encouraging students to take part in the rebellion and many militants killed in fighting have been teenagers studying at religious schools.

'The problem is difficult to resolve because the religious teachers have been brainwashing people with the wrong interpretation of the Quran,' Mr Thaksin Shinawatra told journalists in Bangkok.

'It will take time to resolve the problem.'

More than 330 people have been killed in fighting this year in the three Muslim-dominated southern provinces of predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

UK: Terror leaflets found at mosque

Remember Denis MacShane? He was the British Foreign Office minister who told British Muslims that they must "must make a choice between the 'British way' of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism." For that he was roasted on both sides by the multiculturalist establishment and British Muslim leaders, who made him apologize several times. In one of them, he said: "I apologise to anyone who felt that I suggested that British Muslims sympathise with...terrorist actions."

So my question now is: can Denis MacShane get an apology from the people who put these leaflets in the mosque in Birmingham?

From icBirmingham, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Hundreds of leaflets urging Muslims to become terrorist fighters have been distributed at a Midland mosque.

Police have been called in to investigate after the flyers were found at Birmingham Central Mosque last week.

The leaflets urge worshippers to become Mujahideen fighters and ask them to 'pray for death and decay to be visited upon the West'.

The literature bears the name of a group called Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamah, which mosque officials say is often used as an alias for the Al Muhajiroun group.

Al Muhajiroun, a small radical organisation which has called for a British Islamic state, has been accused of inciting terrorism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

Mosque chairman Dr Mohammed Naseem warned that the leaflets could act as a recruitment aid for would-be terrorists.

"It is very worrying," he said. "These leaflets appear to be encouraging Muslims to become Mujahideen fighters.

"This sort of thing getting into the wrong hands is very dangerous.

"They are the views of a minority of people but young, impressionable Muslims may read this and think they should be doing these things.

"I shall be showing the leaflets to our community policeman and asking him for advice."

That's great. I'm glad he is going to do that. But he should also be initiating an aggressive program to refute Al-Muhajiroun's reasons why Muslims should wage jihad against the West. Go to that group's website, and their material is full of quotes from the Qur'an and Islamic authorities. Until moderate Muslims respond to this sort of thing, jihad violence will not end. But of course in this they face an uphill battle, for the texts are not on their side.

"I want to go to Moro. I want to go to Afghanistan. I want to go to Israel to kill Sharon."

Why should he be repentant? What has been done to disabuse him of the jihad ideology? Undoubtedly nothing. From Australia's Sunday Telegraph:

UNREPENTANT Bali bomber Imam Samudra has warned he will continue to wage jihad if a recent constitutional court decision means he is set free.

Vowing to carry out more bombings against "unbelievers", Samudra said: "I want to continue my Jihad Fie Sabililah (violent holy struggle).

Actually this is "jihad for the sake of Allah," which is indeed a technical term in Islamic law referring to jihad warfare.

"I want to go to Moro (in the Philippines). I want to go to Afghanistan. I want to go to Israel to kill Sharon."

Speaking from his death-row cell in Bali's Kerobokan prison, Samudra vowed to kill again. "If I get the death penalty, I will die a martyr's death. If I'm free, I'll bomb again. You got it?"

The 33-year-old field commander of the Bali bombings that killed 202, including 88 Australians, said he would "slaughter Bush" if a recent change in Indonesian legislation meant he was released from custody.

Islamist Recruitment in Bosnia - A "White" Al-Qaeda

Muslims have told me that there are no jihadists in Bosnia, or that their number is negligible. Who, then, is doing the recruiting, and who is being recruited? From Israel National News, with thanks to Sparta:

(IsraelNN.com) Serbian news outlets have been reporting with increasing intensification in recent days on attempts by Islamist terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, to recruit soldiers among Bosnia's Muslims.

The independent Serbian news agency FoNet reported on Tuesday that Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina are being recruited to join the what has been called "white Al-Qaeda".

Slobodan Radulj, former member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's anti-terrorist task force and an adviser to the Serb member of the presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, told the Nezavisne Novine Serbian daily, "Reports by international intelligence services saying that future terrorists will be blue-eyed and blonde indicate that Al-Qaeda is recruiting in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. This is why the authorities should prevent radical Islamists from paying young and poor men to go to battlefields and to die there."

Urgent Call to Leaders of The Free World

From the Egypt Shadow Government. If the UN were sane, this is the sort of thing it would be working on:

To: The Leaders of The Free World

From: Egypt Shadow Government

Subject: Impose Sanctions on the Regimes of Mubarak, Sauds and Assad!

Dear Sirs,

Egypt Shadow Government (ESG) herewith calls upon you to impose sanctions on the regimes of Mubarak, Sauds and Assad in the interest of world peace and security. ESG recommends that sanctions include:

1. The freezing of all monies and assets that the said regimes have plundered from the treasuries of their respective countries and deposited in banks and other financial institutions in your countries.
2. Arms supplies embargo.
3. Trade embargo.
4. Severing of diplomatic relations.

ESG reasons for so requesting can be summarized as follows:

I. Those regimes are unelected and hence illegitimate.
II. They are despotic, brutal and atrocious.
III. They are corrupt, incompetent and irresponsible.
IV. They inspire, sponsor and support terrorism.
V. They orchestrate elaborately destructive hate campaigns against the West, peace, democracy and non-Muslims.
VI. They preach and spread Jihadi Islam which calls for the terrorization and annihilation of non-Muslims.
VII. They impoverish and cause the peoples of their respective countries to be miserable and hopeless which are precursor to terrorism, violence and unrest.
VIII. They blackmail or corrupt Western leaders with a view of causing division in the West.
IX. They obstruct the war against terrorism.
X. They obliterate and resist reform and modernization in the Middle East.
XI. They destabilize and cause to compound situations in Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, the African Horn and other third-world countries.
XII. They discriminate against and persecute minority groups, including Christians, in their respective countries.
XIII. They are involved in illegal arms and drugs trafficking.
XIV. They have secret programs for the development of WMD.

Yours truly
Omar Samy
Prime Minister

9 in 10 still get Saudi visas

Joel Mowbray points out a glaring omission. From the New York Post:

IF al Qaeda wants to strike on U.S. soil before the elections, it still has available to it a gaping loophole it exploited pre-9/11: Saudis' easy access to U.S. visas.

Despite supposed reforms implemented by the State Department, current statistics obtained by this columnist reveal that nearly 90 percent of all Saudi visa applicants get approved. To put this in perspective, applicants in most other Arab nations — the ones that didn't send us 15 of 19 9/11 hijackers — are refused visas three to five times more often than Saudis.

Sept. 11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed reportedly told U.S. interrogators that the reason 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis was because they had by far the easiest time getting visas. According to the 9/11 Commission, Mohammed personally discovered how true this was when he obtained a visa (using an alias) in July 2001 through a program known as Visa Express, which allowed all Saudis to apply for visas at travel agencies.

As troubling as Visa Express was, though, it was used by just three of the terrorists, since the program was only open for three months before the attack. Far more disturbing is the fact that Visa Express didn't lower the standards for Saudis to get visas; they couldn't have gotten any lower.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found in an October 2002 report that "consular officers in Saudi Arabia issued visas to most Saudi applicants without interviewing them, requiring them to complete their applications or providing supporting documentation." Even before Visa Express started, 99 percent of all Saudi nationals were approved.

Following a public outcry, State shuttered Visa Express in July 2002, and also canned consular chief Mary Ryan in the same week. Congress even came close to stripping the visa power from State — an amendment failed by a single vote in committee — but the diplomats' department staved off those efforts by pledging reform. Lots of it.

State has made some progress, such as doubling the number of names on the watchlist and breathing more life into pre-9/11 programs to identify non-watchlisted individuals who should be barred from the U.S.

What State has neglected to do, however, is enforce the law in Saudi Arabia.

Because of a provision in the law known as 214(b), all applicants are presumed ineligible for a visa until they establish their eligibility. This is supposed to be a high bar to clear, and in most countries, it is. Just not for Saudis. That's why nearly 90 percent who apply still get approved.

Frenchman suspected of planning terrorist attack arrested in Poland

The fact that he is of "Algerian origin" makes it quite likely that he is a jihadist. From AFP, with thanks to LGF:

WARSAW, Aug 18 (AFP) - Police have arrested a Frenchman near a gas pumping station in western Poland suspecting he is preparing a terrorist attack, an official from the Polish security services said on Wednesday.

"Michel N., 23, is being investigated for preparing actions which can endanger human life and destroy property," Ewa Socha, the official following the matter at the public prosecutor's office in the western city of Poznan told AFP.

"We had sufficient information at our disposal to be able to arrest him for three months," she told AFP by telephone....

The suspect is of Algerian origin, according to Poland's Fakt newspaper.

He "was arrested Friday while he was cycling around the pumping station at Swarzedz and taking photos of the site," the newspaper said.

According to another newspaper, the Rzeczpospolita, he is suspected of "having prepared the ground to blow up the pumping station".

Al-Jazeera airs footage of US journalist giving message from Iraqi captors

An attempt to get the U.S. to follow the path of Spain and the Philippines. It won't work -- at least until January. From AFP:

DOHA (AFP) - Al-Jazeera news channel aired footage of a US journalist taken hostage in Iraq reading a message from his captors in which they call on the American people to strive to "stop the slaughter" in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

"I am an American journalist in Iraq, and I was asked to pass on a message from the Martyrs Squad, who want the American people to strive to stop the slaughter in Najaf," said Micah Garen in English, according to an Arabic voice-over.

"I am now detained and am being well treated," he said.

Garen's sister, Eva, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television earlier Friday that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is at the center of a standoff in Najaf with US and US-backed Iraqi forces, had ordered the immediate release of the journalist.

Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday that the so-called "Martyrs Squad" had threatened to kill Garen unless US forces withdrew from Najaf within 48 hours.

Virginia man among three indicted on Hamas-finance charges

Living in Virginia, indicted in Chicago, with bank accounts in Mississippi. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Three Palestinian activists, including an Alexandria man, have been indicted in Chicago on charges they conspired to provide money for terrorist acts in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip....

The activists include Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Alexandria.

The three were charged with racketeering conspiracy for allegedly joining with 20 others since at least 1988 to conduct business for Hamas, which the government said included conspiracies to commit murder, kidnapping, passport fraud and other crimes.

Attorney General John Ashcroft says the men are behind the “murder of innocent individuals.”

Ashqar was accused of opening bank accounts in Mississippi for Hamas purposes. He and one of the other suspects was arrested late last night.

E-mail malfunction

Every day I get hundreds of emails, including many, many referrals to news stories -- many of which I cannot put up simply because of time constraints. But I am grateful to everyone who sends me any such material, even though I am unable to answer every message. Anyway, about a week ago, the email stopped coming in. I thought it was strange that several people who regularly sent me links suddenly stopped all at once, but I have been too busy to give it much thought -- until just now, when someone emailed me at another address to ask why I hadn't answered a note he sent several days ago through the "CONTACT US" feature at left.

Well, I never got it. And that got me wondering what other messages I have not received. Please email me at director@jihadwatch.org for the time being, and I am going to redirect the "CONTACT US" box asap. And thanks for your patience.

U.S. beefs up Canadian border security

Good idea, if a bit overdue, since it has been a while now since Canada itself acknowledged that it was a terrorist haven. From UPI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A sensor-laden aircraft, a Blackhawk helicopter and boats will operate out of a new command center in Bellingham, Wash., 15 miles south of Vancouver, said Gary Bracken, spokesman for the Air and Marine Operations.

"Along the (Canadian) border we are also faced with the smuggling of migrants, weapons, currency in both directions, as well as the possibility of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction crossing the border using traditional smuggling routes," he said....

Another command center will open by the end of the year in Plattsburg, N.Y., and over the next two years, more centers are expected to be put in place in Montana, North Dakota and Michigan, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said.

Texas: Borderwide alert issued for suspected al-Qaida member

Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, who may like to have lunch at Denny's, is being watched for along the Texas border. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The FBI has issued an alert for a suspected al-Qaida member who may try to cross the U.S. border through Arizona or Texas.

Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, 29, is suspected of being an al-Qaida cell leader and has been wanted by the United States since 2003, authorities said Tuesday.

The latest information places him in Honduras with the intent of crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, said Art Werge, a spokesman for the FBI's office in El Paso, Texas.

"We certainly don't want him crossing into the United States because his plan is to conduct terror operations," said Werge. "He is believed to be one of the most dangerous cell leaders below the leadership of al-Qaeda."

Terrorism task force looking into series of robberies at Southern California electronic stores

The thief was asking clerks details about global positioning systems before the theft. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) A joint task force on terrorism has been called upon to help investigate a series of robberies at Southern California electronics stores in which the thief asked about global positioning systems.

The latest robbery occurred Wednesday in Laguna Niguel when a man spent about 25 minutes talking on a cell phone and asking employees about global positioning systems, authorities said. The man then pulled a sawed-off shotgun out of his duffel bag and stole a TV and walkie-talkies.

Investigators have learned of four similar Radio Shack heists in Long Beach, Anaheim, Rowland Heights and Pomona in the last several weeks. Some of the other incidents also began with phone calls asking directions from Garden Grove, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

NYC Police to Watch for Terrorists on Subways

"We can't predict what is going to happen, but are adequately prepared," says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. From the New York Daily News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Hundreds of detectives in the NYPD's elite specialized units are being ordered to put aside cases and ride the rails as extra security as early as this weekend, the Daily News has learned.

Narcotics, vice, gang and organized crime investigators will join hundreds of transit and patrol cops on the subways - creating a formidable underground police force to combat terror threats leading up to and during the Republican National Convention, sources said.

A directive, handed down by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Wednesday night, requires many of the detectives to don uniforms, although some will remain in plainclothes, police sources said.

"It's going to be massive," said a Brooklyn detective. "They want a uniformed cop on every train."

Most detectives will move underground Monday afternoon but some will begin as soon as this weekend, sources said.

The extra manpower will remain in place until President Bush and other Republican honchos leave town.

Al-Sadr using children as human shields

This Christian Science Monitor report about the standoff in Najaf blandly reports that children are inside the Shrine of Ali as human shields. Or at least one child. (Thanks to "Allah" for the link.)

Inside the shrine itself, there were no weapons to be seen, but there were hundreds of Mahdi Army supporters, some of them familiar faces from a demonstration one week ago in Baghdad. They were voluntary human shields, the youngest perhaps 8 years old, the oldest 70.

Spencer on Kerry: Carter II?

Dhimmi and Rosalyn Carter with Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, Plains, Georgia, 1984

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer revisits the dark days of the Dhimmi Carter administration and the Iranian Revolution he bequeathed to us in this new piece, up today at Human Events.

Now that the Democratic Party has committed itself to warmed-over Carterism in its platform document, the comically titled "Strong At Home, Respected In The World," and Mickey Kaus has contributed a ringing endorsement worthy of the Man From Malaise ("We survived Carter and we'd survive Kerry"), it is important to remember just what we owe Jimmy Carter: a resurgent global Islamic radicalism, emboldened and directly aided by the Khomeini regime in Iran that he did so much to set in place.

A sobering reminder of just how much Carter is responsible for Iran's now sclerotic but still tenacious mullahocracy comes from Steven F. Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute in his newest book, The Real Jimmy Carter (Regnery, a Human Events sister company).

Modern Islamic radicalism, of course, was born in Egypt in the 1920s, when Hassan Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, the primary progenitor of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. And even Al-Banna's movement was a reassertion of the political Islam that dated all the way back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and which had just gone into momentary eclipse when the caliphate, the seat of the political/religious successor of Muhammad, was abolished by the secular Turkish government in 1924. Although Islamic radicals achieved many partial successes in the five intervening decades, the Khomeini revolution was the first success of this newly assertive movement on a national scale -- and its effects on the global movement have been incalculable.

And Carter was instrumental in this victory. Hayward tells the full story of how Carter, through passivity and indecision, allowed the situation in Iran to drift out of control. He notes that Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and the American ambassador in Tehran, William Sullivan, "repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully, but in fact that backing extended little beyond private verbal cheerleading."

What's more, despite the fact that Islamic radicalism was fifty years old by the time Khomeini became a serious threat to the Shah, and that Khomeini himself had been a political force in Iran for years before he came to power, "the CIA," says Hayward, "not only hadn't read any of Khomeini's writings but didn't even have copies of them." As one State Department official put it, "Whoever took religion seriously?" According to Hayward, "Neither the State Department nor the intelligence community took Islamic fundamentalism seriously, while American scholars on Iran deprecated the idea that the clergy would participate directly in forming or running a government." The chief of staff to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, William Miller, even recommended that the U.S. support Khomeini, who he thought would be a "progressive force for human rights."

Manifesting the same misunderstanding of the real nature of Islamic radicalism that still dogs the State Department and other agencies today, Brzezinski embarked on a plan to strengthen Islamic radicalism for the geopolitical ends of the day. According to political analysts and Iran experts Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi and Elio Bonazzi, Brzezinski "instituted a plan to train fundamentalist Afghan Islamic mujahidin fighters in Pakistan under CIA supervision" -- for which Carter's successor Ronald Reagan is often blamed. Zand-Bonazzi and Bonazzi also point out that "the other major Islamist terrorist force active today is also the product of misguided policies of the Carter administration, which deliberately destroyed the Shah of Iran and allowed the Islamic Revolution to take place. Hamas and Hizbollah are direct emanations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans (recall the 1984 attacks on the US embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut) and Israelis." Although Hamas and Hizbollah existed before Khomeini, he was instrumental in their becoming and remaining significant forces.

And Khomeini owed his own political life to Carter. As the peanut President himself put it when Pahlavi made a final appeal for help to regain his throne in February 1979, "F--k the Shah."

The bottom line? "Khomeini's regime," says Hayward, "executed more people in its first year in power than the shah's SAVAK had allegedly killed in the previous twenty-five years." Whether Khomeini in the early Eighties sent a thank-you note to the man now basking in glory as "America's greatest ex-President," who was by then down in Plains licking his wounds and beginning his path to the Nobel Prize, is not known. But should Kerry be elected, Khomeini's spiritual heirs, locked in a mortal struggle with a new movement for secularism and democracy in Iran, may start getting all sorts of new reasons to express their gratitude to the man in the White House.

Iran Mulls First Strike Against US

Nervous about American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and building a nuclear arsenal, the mullahocracy is thinking about striking first against the US. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's defense minister expressed his government's disquiet about the U.S. troop presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, and hinted that some Iranian generals believe they should strike first if they sense an imminent U.S. threat.

In an interview with pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Ali Shamkhani was asked how Iran would respond if America were to attack its nuclear facilities.

"We will not sit to wait for what others will do to us," he said. "There are differences of opinion among military commanders (in Iran). Some commanders believe preventive operations is not a model created by Americans ... or is not limited to Americans. Any nation, if it feels threatened, can resort to that."

Shamkhani spoke in Farsi with an Arabic voiceover. Al-Jazeera provided a transcript of Shamkhani's Farsi comments to The Associated Press on Thursday.

From the It's-About-Time Dept.: "Saudi export of strict Islam raises suspicions"

A welcome overview of Saudi involvement in spreading the message of violent jihad, from the Washington Post via MSNBC.com:

SAN DIEGO - Omar Abdi Mohamed, a lanky, soft-spoken political refugee from war-ruined Somalia in East Africa, had been preaching the word of Islam in the United States for the past nine years. Two things make him unusual.

In January, U.S. immigration authorities arrested him, saying they suspected him of being a conduit for terrorist funds, federal court records show. At the time, he was on the payroll of Saudi Arabia's government.

Mohamed was one of 30 Saudi-financed preachers in this country. Each month, the Saudis paid $1,700 to the 44-year-old, who taught the Koran at a run-down Somali social center here. He worked with little supervision from Saudi religious authorities 8,000 miles away. In the late 1990s, he set up a small charity to help famine victims in Somalia, and that is how his trouble began.

The charity received $326,000 over three years from the Global Relief Foundation, a private Islamic charity based in Illinois. In October 2002, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Global Relief a terrorist-financing entity linked to al Qaeda.

The collision of Saudi missionary work and suspicions of terrorist financing in San Diego illustrates the perils and provocations of a multibillion-dollar effort by Saudi Arabia to spread its religion around the world. Mohamed worked on the front lines of that effort, a campaign to transform what outsiders call "Wahhabism," once a marginal and puritanical brand of Islam with few followers outside the Arabian Peninsula, into the dominant doctrine in the Islamic world. The campaign has created a vast infrastructure of both government-supported and private charities that at times has been exploited by violent jihadists — among them Osama bin Laden.

And this campaign has been largely successful. But it should not be overstated. The Wahhabis have found success around the world not only because of money, but because they came with convincing, traditional exegeses of the Qur'an and Sunnah. And because their doctrines of jihad meshed nicely with the angular Shi'ism of Khomeini in Iran.

Al-Sadr sends messages of conciliation, but...

Now that hudna has come to Najaf and all is peaceful, it is most interesting to note that Al-Sadr has not made clear exactly to what he has agreed. That way, of course, he has a pretext to resume fighting whenever he wishes, and believes himself strong enough. In traditional Islamic law, Muslim forces may only agree to a truce in order to gather strength to fight again more effectively. From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 18 - Displaying the brinkmanship that has made him one of the United States' most powerful adversaries in Iraq, the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr sent last-minute messages of conciliation on Wednesday that appeared to have staved off an imminent assault on his fortress in the country's holiest Shiite shrine. For two weeks, Mr. Sadr has led his militia force, known as the Mahdi Army, in some of the deadliest fighting with American troops since the invasion 16 months ago. But faced with a deadline of hours from Iraq's interim government to back down or face attack by Iraqi troops, he abruptly signaled a change of course, and suggested he would accept demands to vacate Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, disband his militia and transform it into a political party.

Not for the first time in his months of confrontation with American troops, Mr. Sadr's apparent backing down came hedged with uncertainties, among them that he spoke only through aides, and that they were vague on what exactly he had agreed to. One of his spokesmen in Najaf told news agencies that Mr. Sadr was insisting, before any concessions, on a cease-fire that would require American and Iraqi troops to pull back from positions around the shrine, a move that would yield territory won in recent days.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Najaf and the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing two Americans.

Pressure on Musharraf?

An editorial in Pakistan's Daily Times acknowledges that since 9/11, Pakistan has had to make an about-face in its support for jihad -- and that the process is still incomplete, even within the heart and mind of Pervez Musharraf:

The opposition in Pakistan says Islamabad is bending too far backward to obey the election-related fiats coming from the United States. They accuse President Pervez Musharraf of making war against his own people on the orders of George Bush. No one believes the government’s version of the Wana Operation and everyone tends to ignore the latest flurry of arrests of the so-called Al Qaeda agents in the country. The government says that the Jamaat-e-Islami, the party of the chief of the religious alliance MMA, has been found sheltering the terrorists, which hardly anyone believes because of the general impression that everything Islamabad says is usually dictated by the United States. What is the truth?

The fact of relentless American pressure is difficult to deny. Pakistan’s great volte-face against the Taliban and jihad after 9/11 took place because of the extraordinary pressure applied directly by Washington on the military rulers of Pakistan. Indeed the coercive change has been so sudden that most Pakistanis simply cannot understand it....

After General Musharraf turned on a dime in 2001, there was political dislocation in Pakistan. The following year an entire swath of its population in the NWFP and Balochistan voted against the big change. The jury is still out on whether the election was rigged in favour of the MMA but a strong impression remains that General Musharraf did not exactly anticipate the electoral backlash against the big change in the army’s Taliban policy. There is evidence also that the 2002 election saw the playing field fixed against the two parties that General Musharraf wanted to splinter and render ineffectual. But by far the bigger challenge emerged in the shape of an aggressive clerical opposition with which he finally negotiated himself into some sort of political legitimacy through the 17th Amendment of the Constitution....

Such American and personal “compulsions” apart, there is a purely Pakistani perspective to consider too. As a consequence of the “strategic depth” policy followed by the army with the Taliban after 1996, Pakistan’s internal sovereignty had been all but bartered away. The jihadi organisations virtually ruled the big cities while the law enforcement agencies worked slavishly as their handmaidens. Then the pressures emanating from 9/11 began the process of rolling back the jihad, something on which President Musharraf may have the support of the vast silent majority of Pakistan. Would he have done it without the American pressure? Would he have done it if there hadn’t been assassination attempts on his life? Those who say that the sincerity of his commitment against Islamic extremism should be assumed after the attempts on his life by the erstwhile jihadis should remember that he also repeated his commitment to jihad in Kashmir in a recent interview to a Pakistani English daily.

Terror's South African Front

"South Africa's government embraces Iran's mullahs while turning a blind eye to terrorist groups within its own borders." From Josh Lefkowitz at FrontPage:

On July 25, following a twelve-hour shootout, two South African Al Qaeda operatives were nabbed in Pakistan, along with Africa Embassy bombing suspect Ahmed Ghailani. According to reports, the pair was plotting attacks against a number of targets in South Africa, including the Johannnesburg Stock Exchange and the National Parliament in Cape Town.

These arrests highlight the growing threat posed by radical Islamists in South Africa. In addition to Al Qaeda’s increased presence within the country, South Africa’s government has closely allied itself with Iran and has largely ignored the spread of Islamic extremism within its borders.

Two months before the Pakistan arrests, the South African government revealed that security forces had thwarted an Al Qaeda plot to disrupt the country’s presidential election. South African terror suspects have even attempted to make their way into the U.S.

Just last week, a South African with suspicious travel documents was arrested in Mexico near the U.S. border. His links to Al Qaeda are currently being investigated. And on July 19, customs agents in Texas arrested Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, a South African woman with a doctored passport. Like the man arrested last week, she is also being probed for possible Al Qaeda ties. In addition, immigration officials have been on the lookout for suspicious persons with South African travel documents ever since British authorities discovered hundreds of genuine blank South African passports during an anti-terrorism raid in London earlier this year.

While these developments underscore South Africa’s importance as a key node in the War on Terror, in fact, radical Islam has held a foothold in South Africa since at least the 1980’s.

8 Terror Suspects Appear in British Court

A few more details on the British Muslims who were just arrested. From AP:

LONDON - Eight men accused of plotting to commit murder and cause mayhem with radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals or explosives appeared in court Wednesday in a case linked to a U.S. terror alert this month.

The defendants included an alleged senior al-Qaida operative also charged with scouting prominent financial targets for terror attacks in the United States - including the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Prosecution lawyer Sue Hemming said the eight suspects were motivated by "a strong and deeply held ideology" and were willing to carry out extreme acts. She said police have about a hundred computers and thousands of files to examine as part of what promises to be a long and complex investigation.

"We've only hit the tip of the iceberg as far as a lot of this evidence goes," she told the high security Belmarsh Court in south London.

"Our Prophet did not run for office in any election ... he won the war against the infidel"

So said an imam in a sermon in the Middle East last Friday. How easy will it be to reform Islam? Amir Taheri in this New York Post piece (thanks to Fred Van Ackerman) also notes that "one theme of these sermons is that Bush's call for free elections and reform in the Muslim world amounts to 'an act of cultural aggression.'" This is the epicenter of the ideological conflict, and unless or until it changes, we will see more war.

The pan-Arab nationalists are angry at Bush because, toppling Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in Baghdad, he destroyed the illusion of a "strongman" leading Arabs to unity and socialism. "It may take a generation before anyone talks of Arab unity without being laughed out of the room," says columnist Ahmad Rabii. "Those who dreamed of an Arab superpower will never forgive Bush." The pan-Islamists also dislike Bush, but for different reasons.

They see his talk of democracy as an attempt at preventing them from establishing their "ideal Islamic" system based on the Shariah rather than elections.

Bush's "Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative" is seen by Islamists as "a plot to impose a Western model."

"The Muslim world is not a blank sheet on which Mr. Bush could draw what he likes," says writer Walid Abi-Merchid, who would vote for Kerry if he could. Opposition to Bush's plans for democratization in the Middle East is put even more dramatically by Muhammad Shariatmadari, a mullah of Arab origin now acting as an advisor to Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi.

"Bush is trying to develop an American Islam," Shariatmadari says. "He thinks that Americans will not be safe in their homes until the Muslim world is dominated by pro-U.S. governments."

That view is echoed in sermons preached at mosques throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States in recent weeks with an eye on the forthcoming American election.

One theme of these sermons is that Bush's call for free elections and reform in the Muslim world amounts to "an act of cultural aggression."

"Our Prophet did not run for office in any election," the sermon says. "He did not win any political debate. [Instead] he won the war against the infidel."

A deep-seated fear of elections is one key feature of the Islamist political psyche. The Koran includes a chapter entitled "Parties" (Ahzab), to warn against splitting the Umma (the community of the faithful) into rival political groups vying for power. "Kerry's recent statement that he would abandon Bush's democracy campaign in the Muslim world will please many Islamists," says the novelist Rubee Madhoun.

"We believe in Jihad and not in terrorism since it is different thing"

So says the son of the late Pakistani strongman Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. The problem with such assertions is that the explosions caused by jihad are often quite difficult to distinguish from those caused by terrorism. From Asian News International:

Former Pakistan president Zia-ul Haq's son, Ijaz-ul-Haq, has vowed to fulfill his late father's dream of giving freedom to the people of Kashmir.

Addressing a gathering of his supporters on the 16th death anniversary of his father, Ijaz, who is currently the federal minister for religious affairs, said that in his opinion India was still "the enemy".

"India is our enemy, which is carrying out conspiracies against Pakistan by using its agents in Afghanistan. We believe in Jihad and not in terrorism since it is different thing," the Online News quoted Ijaz as saying.

'A lot' of Canadians trained with Al-Qaeda -- and many still live in Canada

So says Canada's most visible Al-Qaeda member, Abdurahman Khadr. From the National Post, with thanks to LGF:

"A lot" of Canadians trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and some still live freely in Canada, Abdurahman Khadr testified at a court hearing at which he revealed chilling new details about Canadian terror suspects and his father's ties to Osama bin Laden's training camps.

Mr. Khadr, a 21-year-old Toronto man who underwent weapons and explosives training at four camps in Afghanistan, said in testimony made public yesterday that he had given CIA agents the names of several Canadians who trained at camps such as Khalden.

"I know a lot of people that are living in the West and are living in Canada, and that live their everyday life now and are not under arrest or anything, that have been to Khalden," Mr. Khadr testified at a July 13 hearing in Montreal.

"I had a lot of friends that were Canadians that came to Afghanistan and went to training," Mr. Khadr said. "Some of them are dead now and some of them are back in Canada and some of them are under arrest."

His contention that graduates of the Afghan camps are living normal lives in Canada comes as U.S. officials are concerned that al-Qaeda might try to use Canada as a staging ground for a terrorist strike some time before November's presidential election.

Mr. Khadr testified the training camps did not instruct recruits to "go after America," but provided basic weapons training for Muslims, whom he said are obliged to prepare to defend Islamic countries from attack. But it is now widely known the camps were run by al-Qaeda and taught recruits how to attack Western targets.

German convert to Islam describes meeting 9/11 suicide pilot

If they're really nursing political grievances under the guise of religion, how do they attract converts to their cause? Why do the terrorist cells find a comfortable home in mosques? Why did Muhammad Atta, as he taught classes in Islamic doctrine, not find his views contradicted by the peace and tolerance in the Qur'an? From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

HAMBURG - A German who converted to Islam testified Tuesday to a Hamburg court about how he became acquainted with the main 11 September suicide attacker, Mohammed Atta, in a city mosque.

The 23-year-old witness, whose name was withheld in line with ethics guidelines, was testifying at the trial of Mounir al- Motassadeq, a Moroccan student accused for the second time on charges of aiding murder and being a member of the Hamburg terrorist cell.

According to the witness, Motassadeq was in Atta's inner circle. The group became more and more committed to "jihad" or a holy war on behalf of Islam and regarded suicide attacks as a legitimate form of combat, the witness told the Hamburg state superior court.

Motassadeq denied at the first trial that he was part of the terrorist cell, but has exercised his legal right to remain silent at the re-trial. He was freed from jail after his first conviction was overturned on appeal and is seeking re-admission to university.

The state's evidence is based mainly on the network of friendships in the mosque group, with prosecutors saying Motassadeq must have had advance knowledge of the 11 September 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania....

The witness said he had converted to Islam while was still attending school in the city, and had made Atta's acquaintance in 1997 in Hamburg when Atta was giving classes on Islamic doctrine.

British Muslims charged with plotting terror attacks in USA

A radioactive or chemical attack. From SkyNews:

Eight men arrested in an anti-terrorism swoop have been charged with attempting to launch a radioactive or chemical attack.

The suspects were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and some accused of plotting a terror campaign against major financial landmarks in the USA.

The men were among those seized in a series of raids in London, the Home Counties and in Lancashire two weeks ago.

Dhiren Bharot, from Willesden, north-west London, is charged with possession of plans for the stock exchange and Citigroup bank building in New York, IMF headquarters in Washington DC.

Along with Nadeem Tarmohammed, again from Willesden, he was also accused of owning documents relating to an alleged attack on the Prudential Building in New Jersey.

Police charged Quaisar Shaffi, 25, also from Willesden, with owning part of the Terrorists' Handbook detailing the preparation of explosives.

Among those held is a man described as a senior al Qaeda agent in Britain.

The truth about the Guantanamo Four

Michael Radu at FrontPage looks at the case of the Guantanamo Four, and draws some important conclusions:

Their names: Mourad Benchellali, Nizar Sassi, Brahim Yadel and Imad Achab Kanouni.

Their current status: captured in Afghanistan by US forces, the four—all of whom are French citizens or residents— were held at Camp Guantanamo for over two years. That is, until last month, when they were sent back to France and placed under arrest on charges of “criminal association with the intent of committing acts of terrorism” and, more specifically, of membership in the terrorist “Chechen connection.”

The case of these four men is typical of the terrorists held at Guantanamo and thus, deserves some examination. While we are constantly being told by “human rights” activists that the prisoners at Guantanamo are “ illegally” held, and that many, if not all are “innocent” and have been mistreated by the Americans, the reality is something far different....

He then details the personal histories of the Four, all of whom were deeply involved in Islamic terrorism. Read it all.

Let us start with the obvious: all four men were French citizens—born in France, trained in Afghanistan—and captured there as well. All four had extensive police records; and all four were part of an Islamist terrorist movement based in France and Germany, with close ties to London (in addition, the Benchellali clan and, by implication, Nizar Sassi, were directly linked to Algerian terrorism). All were implicated in international terrorism in the Balkans and/or Afghanistan, but also in Western Europe. The four men’s backgrounds reaffirm that Islamist terror has no borders, and its best operatives are not the millions of largely illiterate sympathizers in Muslim majority countries but those born and bred in the West—something Al Qaeda itself admits.

Sociologically, the four are personal failures – unable and/or unwilling to hold jobs, poor or insufficiently educated, all with petty crime records, and, in the Benchellali case, a dysfunctional and already radicalized family environment.

Legally, the arguments already presented by the four terrorists’ lawyers are telling, and should be seen as a preview of things to come in U.S. courts. First, “study” in Islamist “schools” is a perfectly legitimate way of hiding terrorist indoctrination and indeed terrorist training. Second, alleged “abuse” by the evil Americans at Guantanamo plays to an increasingly intense anti–American atmosphere in Europe (expect Abu Ghraib to become standard defense as well).

If all Guantanamo detainees are as “innocent” as the French four, the entire world should thank Washington for taking out of business some 600 professional terrorists, notwithstanding the “human rights” fundamentalists’ baseless claim that Guantanamo is a torture center. Medically, the four had nothing to show as far as “torture” is concerned – unless, that is, denial of access to Coca Cola is indeed “torture” under “international standards” as defined by Amnesty International.

Ultimately, the “Guantanamo Four” are a symbol of the West’s ability to deal with Islamist terror, and, unpleasant as the French may be for most Americans, it is clearly better that the standards be set in Paris than elsewhere in “old” Europe. On the other hand, those still claiming that the detainees in Guantanamo are “victims” rather than actual or potential terrorists, should face the reality that defending them is not defending law or Western moral and legal standards, but defending crime.

Non-Arab recruits scout for Al-Qaeda

We've seen this many times before. Incidentally, it points up the absurdity of charging that those who are concerned about Islamic terror are "racists." From USA Today, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda allies are believed to be scouting U.S. targets, and the terror organization is using non-Arab recruits to avoid detection, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials say.

The FBI has counterterrorism investigations in virtually all 56 of its field offices but has not broken up a known surveillance cell, either because agents are tailing suspects who have not committed crimes or because they have descriptions but not identities.

It is unclear how many al-Qaeda scouts are in the USA. “The FBI has their eye on or has opened several hundred investigations of people sympathetic to or supportive of” al-Qaeda, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said. “If we knew somebody was here as an operative — and we knew who they were or where they were — they wouldn't be on the street.”

Information about active cells came from Ridge and three intelligence and law enforcement officials. The three officials wouldn't speak for attribution because the information they provided is classified. One of the three, a senior U.S. intelligence official, responded to criticism that the Bush administration raised the terrorism threat level based on information about surveillance al-Qaeda did years ago. The official said the cells:

•Have been in the USA off and on since the early 1990s, and some are still here.

•Are focused primarily on states on the coasts, though not exclusively. They include New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Michigan and California.

•Operate under deep cover, sometimes hiding their Muslim faith by posing as Christians.

•Are isolated from each other and from al-Qaeda members who would carry out attacks.

Palestinians put terror victim on 'martyrs' list

"War is deceit," said the Prophet Muhammad. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Teri:

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman accused the Palestinian observer mission of "disingenuous absurdity" for including a Palestinian teenager murdered last month by terrorists after he tried to stop a rocket attack against Israel, on a list of "martyrs" submitted to the world body.

In a letter Friday, Gillerman said that Hassan Jamil Za'anin – who was shot dead July 22 by members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades after he attempted to block them from using the family property to launch Kassam rockets into Israel – was included on a list of Palestinians allegedly killed by the IDF over the past month compiled by Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa.

Hizballah re-elects secretary general

Here is radical Muslim democracy in action: Hassan Nasrallah, the FDR of Hizballah, has won a fourth term. He has held office since 1982, rivalling another paragon of radical Muslim democracy, the PA's Arafat, who has reigned over first the PLO and now the PA for decades. With models like these, the success of democracy in Iraq is assured.

Note also the piquant contrast of the last two paragraphs.

From UPI, with thanks to Teri:

A Hezbollah statement said the group ended its seventh national congress by re-electing all the members of its Shura council whose members unanimously chose Nasarallah, 44.

Nasrallah was elected for the first time in 1982 as the head of the group blamed for the kidnapping of foreigners during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil strife....

Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese parliament by nine legislators.

The party figures on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations with global reach.

Major Battle with Terrorism is Over, Saudi Prince says

"We are past the stages of terrorism," says Abdullah. Well, that's a relief! I'm glad it was so easy! But I wonder if something will happen in the next few weeks or months that will explode his pretensions. From VOANews:

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler says the kingdom's major battle with terrorism is over, and security forces are pursuing the last remaining al-Qaida militants.

In an interview with a Kuwaiti daily, Crown Prince Abdullah said, in his words, "We are past the stages of terrorism," and "What you see now is the elimination of the last pockets" of militants.

He said Saudi security forces have effectively targeted the leaders of the al-Qaida militants. In his words, "We went directly to the heads of the snakes to cut them off."

Extremist group gives El Salvador 20 days to pull troops from Iraq

First they threatened El Salvador not to send fresh troops to Iraq. Now those that are there must leave. It's yet another example of the now-famous Arroyo-Zapatero maneuver: influence the political process of cowardly sovereign states by threatening violence. From AFP:

DUBAI, Aug 16 (AFP) - An Islamic extremist group has given El Salvador 20 days to pull out its military contingent from Iraq before it starts "carrying the war to El Salvador," an Islamist Internet website said yesterday.

"We give you 20 days to withdraw from Iraq," said the group, calling itself the Mohamed Atta-Al-Qaeda Jihad Brigades.

"This is the final deadline before we carry the war to El Salvador itself."

This warning comes as a new 380-strong El Salvador contingent is scheduled to fly out to Iraq today to relieve the present force stationed there.

The Islamic group issuing the threat, named for a suspected hijacker involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, issued a similar warning earlier this month, saying it would carry out attacks inside El Salvador.

El Salvador's President Antonio Saca has said his country will not give in to threats.

Yet El Salvador is beset by appeasers too:

Yesterday, more than 100 government opponents marched in the capital for the second time in a week on to protest the impending deployment of the third Army contingent to Iraq.

In Iraq, "what there is, is a war and an occupation in which we have no reason to participate," said Shafik Handal, leader of the former guerrilla-group-turned-political-party, the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

Handal was defeated in El Salvador's presidential elections in March by conservative US ally and businessman Tony Saca. The president has explained that sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq is a way of expressing thanks to nations around the world for helping El Salvador reach the 1992 peace accords that ended this country's 12-year civil war.

Pakistan: Terrorist plan for 14th foiled

From the Daily Times of Pakistan, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security agencies unearthed a terrorist plan and arrested terrorists on Saturday.

The terrorists were planning to attack government installations in the big cities of Pakistan on Independence Day.

Also: Pakistan arrests 63 al-Qaida suspects

Mosque leader accused of drug trafficking to remain in custody

He (along with two others from his mosque) is also accused of ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and could face a twenty-year reassignment as a prison recruiter. From ABC7Chicago.com:

A leader of a mosque on Chicago's South Side has been ordered held on charges that he trafficked a chemical used to make the illegal narcotic methamphetamine.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ordered that Tariq Isa, 55, remain in custody Tuesday without bail. She said Isa had an incentive to flee because a conviction would carry a lengthy prison term.

Isa was arrested Thursday as he arrived at O'Hare International Airport from the Middle East, authorities said. A two-count indictment charging Isa with distributing nearly 1.73 million tablets of pseudoephedrine was returned in May but was sealed until his arrest.

According to the indictment, Isa knew or had reasonable cause to believe the chemical would be used to make methamphetamine.

Isa is the third leader of the Mosque of the Martyr Izzedine Al-Qassam to face criminal charges since last year.

Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Fariz were indicted last year in Florida for allegedly financing terrorists in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They were also charged with being members of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Cyberspace Gives Al Qaeda Refuge

An update on the Internet jihad from the LA Times, with thanks to Peter Rockas:

Since Osama bin Laden and his followers were driven from their bases in Afghanistan, the Al Qaeda terrorist network has demonstrated an increasing ability to exploit the Internet as it reconfigures itself as a semi-leaderless global extremist movement far more elusive than the original incarnation.

Websites run by Al Qaeda and its backers have become virtual classrooms for terrorists, offering instructions for activities such as kidnapping and using cellphones to set off bombs, like the ones used in Madrid. Independent Al Qaeda cells and the network's loose hierarchy use easily available encoding programs and simple techniques to exchange virtually undetectable messages between Internet cafes in Karachi and libraries in London.

The Internet's importance to Al Qaeda was highlighted this month by the disclosure that Pakistani authorities had apprehended Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a suspected Al Qaeda computer engineer, and collected a wealth of electronic material.

E-mail and other information from Khan's computers led to the arrests of 13 suspects in Britain and sent investigators scrambling to unravel electronic links among militants in Pakistan, Europe and the United States, British, U.S., and Pakistani authorities said. The discovery of files on financial institutions in New York and Washington among Khan's trove also played a role in prompting the Bush administration to issue a terrorist warning.

Although it has long been known that Al Qaeda used the Internet to conduct reconnaissance on potential U.S. targets, the disks and hard drives taken from Khan disclose much about the resiliency and adaptability of a far-flung network hiding in plain sight, said U.S. and foreign intelligence officials and outside experts interviewed for this report.

"The Internet allows the organization to become a virtual self-perpetuating and changing entity in cyberspace that provides technological guidance and moral inspiration to a new generation," said Magnus Ranstorp, a counter-terrorism expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Note also, later in the article, the keen political analysis from the jihadists:

But the posting that called for attacks on U.S. allies in Iraq — and its chilling effectiveness — has proved the most startling.

"It shows that they are very strategic in what they are doing," the U.S. national security official said.

The document was posted on a website run out of the Middle East. Its language, religious references and other telltale signs convinced U.S. experts that an Al Qaeda member wrote it, though they have not identified the author.

Titled "Jihad in Iraq: Hopes and Dangers," the posting advocated attacking countries aligned with the U.S. that were most vulnerable to pressure to withdraw their troops from Iraq. Italy and Spain were singled out, with a special mention of Spain's approaching elections.

"Withdrawal of Spanish or Italian forces would put immense pressure on the British presence in a way that Tony Blair (news - web sites) might not be able to bear," it said in one of several paragraphs underlined for emphasis. "In this way the dominoes will begin to fall quickly."

At another point, the posting said, "We think that the Spanish government could not tolerate more than two, maximum three blows, after which it will have to withdraw as a result of popular pressure."

The posting was available on one of the hundreds of Arabic-language websites that cater to extremists and moderates alike. Many of them are watched by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but experts say there are far too many to monitor thoroughly.

Evan Kohlmann, a Washington-based terrorism analyst who has been a consultant to the U.S. government, said he was monitoring an Internet chat room frequented by Islamic extremists last month when someone posted copies of the complete Windows desktop of a U.S. soldier serving in South Korea.

The soldier had apparently installed a program to access his work computer through another computer and the hacker found a back door and took control of the machine by using simple techniques, Kohlmann said.

Simplicity seems to work best. One common method of communicating over the Internet is essentially an e-mail version of the classic dead drop.

Members of a cell are all given the same prearranged username and password for an e-mail account on an Internet service provider, or ISP, such as Hotmail or Yahoo, according to the recent joint report by the Treasury and Justice departments.

One member writes a message, but instead of sending it, he puts it in the "draft" file and then logs off. Someone else can then sign onto the account using the same username and password, read the draft and then delete it.

"Because the draft was never sent, the ISP does not retain a copy of it and there is no record of it traversing the Internet — it never went anywhere, its recipients came to it," the report said.

Secure messages also can be transmitted using widely available encryption tools.

Slightly more advanced methods allow messages to be embedded in image, sound or other files transferred over the Internet through a process called "steganography." The files cannot be distinguished without a decoding tool.

The difficulty of intercepting and deciphering messages has given rise to a game of cyber cat and mouse, according to government and independent experts.

In an effort to gather information on potential recruits and donors, U.S. law enforcement agencies operate websites that are set up to resemble extremist Islamic sites. Visitors leave an electronic trail when they enter the site.

On the other side, Al Qaeda can transmit false information to determine whether its members are being monitored by law enforcement.

The Internet offers stealth to its users, but authorities can get valuable information if they can get their hands on data stored in computers or on disks.

U.S. and foreign investigators still are sifting through the material taken from Khan. By cross-referencing the data with old files on people, places and methods of attacks, they hope to get a new picture of the organization's operations and identify its operatives, senior U.S. law enforcement officials say.

They also are getting a closer look at the role of the Internet in Al Qaeda's strategies — and a rare chance to turn the tables on the organization's computer prowess.

"Al Qaeda relies on the Internet just like everyone else, and increasingly more so," a senior Justice Department official said. "But that reliance could also come back to bite them."

Pakistan: Religious parties linked to al-Qaida

In Onward Muslim Soldiers I outline the political and religious philosophy of Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami. I demonstrate that his views of jihad and the hegemony of Sharia are virtually identical to those of Sayyid Qutb of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that both are deeply rooted in traditional Islamic theology and law. In light of all that, this story is hardly surprising. Note also Durrani's reaction; he is, of course, a member of one of the groups Hayat was talking about. From the Big News Network:

A government official in Pakistan Saturday accused the country's religious parties of having links to the al-Qaida terror network.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told journalists in Islamabad that some recent arrests of al-Qaida suspects of some workers of the country's religious parties had allegedly sheltered al-Qaida suspects and had links to the network.

He did not say what actions the government would take against such parties, reported news agency PPI.

Reacting to Hayat's comments, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani of the northwest frontier province urged the federal government to fire the interior minister.

Air marshals cover only a few flights

Five percent, and decreasing. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

"They are flying on a relatively limited number of flights due to availability," said Capt. Stephen Luckey, chairman of the national-security committee of the Air Lines Pilots Association, which represents 64,000 pilots.

The number of federal air marshals who protect planes from terrorist attacks is classified, and the Department of Homeland Security has refused to discuss it.

The sources said they are confident that terrorists already know the numbers based on open-source documents that can be found on the Internet, ongoing surveillance in airports and aboard planes, and in news reports.

At their request, information about specific flights or airports has been withheld.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the marshals, pilots and retired executive say there are fewer than 3,500 air marshals to protect 35,000 daily flights. Taking into consideration time off for sick leave, vacation and training, the sources say only 500 to 1,000 flights per day are protected.

Muslim terrorists 'are getting into the US over Mexican border'

More information about something we have covered here for some time: the fact that jihadists are entering the US illegally through Mexico. From The Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

President Bush has launched a drive to halt illegal immigration across America's porous southern border, amid growing fears that terrorists may be using Mexico as a base camp before heading to Arizona, Texas and California.

A string of alarming incidents has convinced Bush administration officials that lax immigration rules, designed to cope with the huge numbers of illegal entrants from Mexico, have become a significant loophole in the war on terror.

Over the past month, border agents from Arizona and Texas have anonymously reported recent encounters with dozens of Arab men, who have made their way across the 2,000-mile Mexican border.

Patrol agents told one Arizona newspaper that 77 males "of Middle Eastern descent" were apprehended in June in two separate incidents. All were trekking through the Chiricahua mountains and are believed to have been part of a larger group of illegal immigrants. Many were released pending immigration hearings. According to Solomon Ortiz, the Congressman for Corpus Christi in Texas, similar incidents are "happening all over the place. It's very, very scary".

The two groups of Arab males were discovered by patrol guards from Willcox, Arizona. "These guys didn't speak Spanish," said one field agent, "and they were speaking to each other in Arabic. It's ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously. We're told not to say a thing to the media." A colleague told the paper: "All the men had brand-new clothing and the exact same cut of moustache." Local ranchers have also reported a rise in the sightings of large groups of young males.

Last month, border patrol agents at McAllen airport, Texas, arrested a woman believed to be Pakistani, who was carrying a false South African passport. The woman, Farida Ahmed, is still being questioned by the FBI. She was travelling to New York, and admitted to having illegally crossed the Mexican border. She was still carrying a pair of wet jeans in her travel bag....

"My concern is, are we serious about terrorism?" said Sheriff Jernigan. "Or about homeland security? Because we're turning loose non-Mexicans by the thousands. Entering this country illegally is a crime, and we're turning our heads and ignoring it."

Iran: We can hit anywhere in Israel

"The entire Zionist territory, including its nuclear facilities and atomic arsenal, are currently within range of Iran's advanced missiles." From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

"The entire Zionist territory, including its nuclear facilities and atomic arsenal, are currently within range of Iran's advanced missiles," the ISNA students news agency quoted Yadollah Javani, head of the Revolutionary Guards political bureau, as saying.

"Therefore, neither the Zionist regime nor America will carry out its threats" against Iran, he said. An attack on Iran "could only be carried out by angry or stupid people. For that reason, officials of the Islamic Republic must always be prepared to counter possible military threats," Javani said in a statement, ISNA reported.

Iranian officials have made a point of highlighting the Islamic state's military capabilities in recent weeks in response to some media reports that Israeli or U.S. warplanes could try to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities in air strikes.

Airliners make emergency landings

Two passenger jets made emergency landings in Budapest yesterday. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Security threats forced two passenger jets operated by Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines to make emergency landings in Budapest Sunday.

The Lufthansa Airbus A-321 jet, which was en route from Istanbul to Frankfurt with 169 passengers, landed in Budapest after airline officials received a security threat, an airline spokesman said.

Later in the day, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 162 passengers, landed in Budapest after its pilot was told of a bomb threat by air traffic controllers in Istanbul, according to a Hungarian police spokesman.

Meanwhile, in Frankfurt, Germany's busiest airport, passengers on a Croatian Airlines Airbus A319 flight were evacuated after a bomb alert. They had just arrived on a flight from Zagreb.

Terror group threatens Dutch with 'Islamic earthquake'

"You did not learn the lesson of Spain." How different would things be today if Zapatero had not provided that lesson? From Expatica:

AMSTERDAM — Muslim extremists have threatened an "Islamic earthquake" and "nights of bloodshed" in the Netherlands unless Dutch troops are withdrawn from Iraq. The warning came a day after a Dutch soldier was shot dead in southern Iraq.

"We address this message to all crusader countries plotting against the Muslims, and which are sending forces to Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Italy and the Netherlands," organisation al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad said on an website on Sunday.

Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad is said to be group connected to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the reputed leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"Expect a hell that will turn your nights into bloodbaths," warned the statement posted on an Islamic website and addressed "to the European countries.... to the Dutch government and people."

The group warned the Netherlands that the statement was "a final message that we are sending to you, and it is a simple message, namely the pullout of Dutch forces from Iraq."

"Or else, your fate will be similar to the fate of Italy and other states," which have been the target of deadly terror attacks, it said.

"You will be surprised by the Islamic earthquake that will shake your country. You did not learn from the lesson of Spain and other countries. You only understand the language of blood and car bombs," the statement warned.

Target Vienna?

Internet Haganah (thanks to Ron for the heads-up) notes that an Al-Qaeda site has posted a map of Vienna with a site marked:

This is an underground parking garage [tiefgarage] in the center of Vienna in the immediate vicinity of the Vienna State Opera House, the Grand Hotel and numerous other tourist attractions. We don't have enough information yet about the file, who posted it, who is linking to it, etc., to be able to accurately assess whether this is a potential target, and if so, how great and imminent a threat it is. However, in light of what is above the tiefgarage...

Revealed: 20 al-Qaeda suspects on Scots hit-list

Of course, we have this from human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar: "None of the people on this list are terrorists. They are ordinary people who are being persecuted." Once again, it would be more credible if Muslim activists could admit to the existence of at least one Islamic terrorist somewhere in the world. Otherwise, this sort of thing just becomes part of the background noise whenever arrests or law-enforcement efforts are made. From The Scotsman, with thanks to Teri:

BRITISH security services have compiled a ‘hit-list’ of 20 al-Qaeda terrorist suspects who are living in Scotland and said to be connected with a plot to unleash mass murder on the streets of the UK.

The dossier, compiled by MI5 and Special Branch, contains the names of more than 80 alleged extremists across Britain whom security services allege were involved in a plan to kill, using the deadly poison ricin.

The 20 suspects living north of the Border are all Muslims and based in the Central Belt. Some are said to be British citizens.

Nine of them are Algerians arrested and then cleared of terror-related charges following a massive police operation in Edinburgh in 2002. However, the identities of the 11 remaining suspects are known only to the security services....

Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, of Glasgow-based Beltrami Berlow solicitors, is representing some of the nine Algerians who were cleared of terror charges last year.

One of them, asylum seeker Hakim Ziem - believed to be number eight on the list - was yesterday arrested and taken to Dungavel detention centre on immigration charges.

Anwar says he now faces certain death because of his inclusion in the list, and has lodged a fresh asylum claim. He said: "None of the people on this list are terrorists. They are ordinary people who are being persecuted. The fact Ziem has not been convicted would be an irrelevance to the Algerian authorities. His arrest would be sufficient to warrant their attention. Torture and violence are committed in their battle against terrorism. This would apply to Hakim Ziem...."

Italy quietly secures cities ahead of Al-Qaeda deadline

The Al-Qaeda deadline for Italy will soon pass, and Italians are getting ready. From AFP:

Police and paramilitary troops stood guard Saturday outside the Senate, the elegant Piazza Navonna, the nearby Pantheon, the Piazza Venezia, among other Rome landmarks, as well as outside the residence here of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is away at his holiday home on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

The daily Corriere della Sera said Friday some 200 embulances and 300 doctors would be on call -- and even traffic police were being mobilized, ready for action.

A statement published in an Arab newspaper on August 1 in the name of Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades threatened to strike Italians everywhere unless Rome withdrew its nearly 3,000 troops within 15 days. The same group claimed responsibility for the bloody March 11 attack on a Madrid commuter train that killed 191 people as well as the November 2003 bombings against British interests in Istanbul in which 25 people died.

In July, a statement purporting to be by Abu Hafs posted on an Islamist website threatened Italy with a "bloodbath" similar to that of the September 11 attacks on the United States if it kept Berlusconi, a high-profile supporter of the US-led "war on terrorism", in power.

Sudan: Janjaweed vow to fight any intervention by 'infidels'

In the world of John Esposito and Karen Armstrong, no intervention by "infidels" would be necessary: Islamic states would be ready to clean up the mess in Sudan in the name of the peace and tolerance taught by Islam. So stories like this one show that the world of John Esposito and Karen Armstrong is the world of fantasy, not of reality. From the Telegraph:

Arab militiamen who have brought terror to western Sudan are being trained at secret camps to launch a campaign of guerrilla warfare if British troops or other foreign "infidels" are deployed on a peacekeeping operation.

The military instruction from Sudanese army officers is part of Khartoum's clandestine efforts to integrate the Janjaweed militia into paramilitary security forces in Darfur.

Camel-riding fighters have boasted to local people that they are preparing to fight any "invaders" sent to restore order to a region where an estimated 50,000 black Africans have been killed and more than one million forced from their homes in a year-long frenzy of ethnic cleansing.

"They say that they will fight the infidels just as the mujahideen in Iraq are doing. Iraq is their inspiration," said a resident of Kass, a south Darfur market town surrounded by dozens of abandoned and burnt "ghost" villages after a year of Janjaweed attacks.

Truce Talks Collapse in Holy City of Najaf

Al-Sadr wanted concession after concession, including money for the families of those killed by Americans. Instead of granting this, which would amount to an admission that the entire Iraqi operation was illegal and unwarranted, the Iraqis and the US government have allowed the talks to break down. From AP:

NAJAF, Iraq - Truce talks between Shiite militants and Iraqi officials broke down Saturday, raising the prospect of a return to the fierce fighting between militiamen and U.S-Iraqi forces that has shaken the holy city of Najaf for more than a week.

The government's chief negotiator, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, said talks were making no progress and that he was leaving Najaf. Aides to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr blamed the United States and the Iraqi government on the breakdown....

Al-Sadr had demanded a U.S. withdrawal from Najaf, the freeing of all Mahdi Army fighters in detention and amnesty for all the fighters, in exchange for disarming his followers and pulling them out of the revered Imam Ali shrine and Najaf's old city, where they have taken refuge, aides said.

However, al-Sadr himself did not participate in the talks and al-Rubaie said he felt some "elements" were hindering his efforts to hold a face-to-face meeting with the firebrand cleric.

Al-Rubaie said he had proposed that al-Sadr's militia be disbanded and become a political movement.

"We have been talking and discussing these matters for three days but reached no positive conclusion," he said. "After three days, my government thought there was no use in continuing."

Al-Sadr aide Sheik Ali Smeisim said both sides had agreed on all points, but interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi suddenly told the government officials to break off talks and return to Baghdad.

"It is a conspiracy to commit a big massacre," he told the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television station.

Ahmed al-Shaibany, another al-Sadr spokesman, blamed the talks' failure on the Americans, who also were not participating.

"There are particular points and demands we had that we specifically wanted the Americans to sign on, but they refused," he said.

Among those demands, he said, was U.S. compensation for the families of those killed in confrontations with the Americans.

Greek security team fails to notice giant horse

I thought this was very funny -- but I hope the security measures in Greece aren't actually this lax. Unfortunately, when it comes to Islamic terrorism, the attitude of officials all over the non-Muslim world seems to be: "I say let the horse in. What's the worst that could happen?" From the Borowitz Report, with thanks to Sparta:

Olympic security officials in Athens, Greece conceded today that they had failed to notice a giant wooden horse that had been wheeled to within meters of the Olympic stadium sometime late last week.

The sudden appearance of the gigantic horse, which was said to measure over one hundred cubits in width, has raised fresh concerns that the security around the Olympic complex might be more porous than originally thought.

“When you’re spending over $1.5 billion in security, quite frankly, somebody shouldn’t be able to wheel a giant wooden horse right up to your stadium,” said one U.S. official today.

But Thanasis Kyriakou, who is coordinating the security efforts for the 2004 Olympics, said that the horse, while of unknown origin, posed no serious security threat to the Games, which are set to begin in three days.

“If anything, this gigantic horse is only bringing more attention to the Olympics,” he said. “I see this horse as a tremendous gift.”

Sharply disagreeing with Mr. Kyriakou is NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, who said that the unplanned presence of a gigantic horse could ruin his network’s coverage of the Games.

“It’s wrecking all of our camera angles,” Mr. Ebersol said. “Everywhere you look, there’s that dopey horse in the background.”

For his part, Mr. Kyriakou believes that the enormous horse could enhance viewership of the Olympics and has even recommended wheeling the mysterious wooden structure into the stadium itself.

“I say let the horse in,” he said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

College with flight school puzzled by Pakistan ad

A small college in New Hampshire that is known for its flight school has found its course offerings reprinted in a Pakistani newspaper. From AP, with thanks to Miss Moneypenney:

NASHUA (AP) — Officials at Daniel Webster College, known for its aviation program, are puzzled about an extensive listing of the college’s offerings that appeared in an English-language newspaper in Pakistan, a refuge for al-Qaida terrorists.

“Nobody knew about it,” said Annette Kurman, the college’s director of public relations. “We saw the copy and were surprised.”

Several al-Qaida terrorists attended U.S. flight schools before hijacking the airliners used in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But Kurman told The Telegraph of Nashua the school’s enrollment processes would prevent any extremists with ill intentions from attending.

She said the school’s flight programs are for traditional undergraduates, young people no older than their early 20s, and that potential terrorists attending the college “wouldn’t be an issue.”

Hmm. I'd like to know more about these screening procedures. Almost certainly they're being eyed by jihadists in Pakistan as a training source. What if the potential terrorists are traditional undergraduates, young people no older than their early 20s?

In Pakistan, Rizwan Ashraf, manager for the Nawa-e-Waqt newspaper group, told The Associated Press yesterday he could not comment immediately on the listing or who placed it....Ashraf said the advertisement section of the office has closed for the day and promised a reply today.

The listing is virtually a verbatim copy of Daniel Webster College’s “quick facts” guide on the school’s Web site. Kurman said the listing is taken directly from the college’s “collateral material” or “view book.”

It describes the school’s character and its location in southern New Hampshire.

Philippines: jihadists deploy 80 Muslim converts in cities, planning to bomb civilian and government targets

Why would converts be susceptible to the jihadist message? Because they are confronting the Qur'an and other Islamic texts without cultural preconceptions. They can read the texts and see what they teach, and act accordingly. From the Manila Times, with thanks to nevermindlv and Nicolei:

THE al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has deployed 80 Muslim converts all over the country, most of them in key cities in Metro Manila, to bomb civilian and government targets.

Citing reports from the intelligence community, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the Abu Sayyaf chieftain, Khadaffy Janjalani, trained these converts, who were former Christians, early last year in the jungles of Basilan.

In a roundtable discussion with The Manila Times editors and reporters, Gonzales named the Abu Sayyaf as the “most dangerous” of all rebel groups in the country, despite its membership of less than 300.

“Compared with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the New People’s Army, the Abu Sayyaf is the most dangerous because these terrorists even volunteer to conduct attacks to win the recognition of international terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda,” Gonzales said.

Targets for possible terrorist attacks are bus terminals, passenger ships and other crowded areas.

Gonzales said the Muslim converts, known in the intelligence community as the Balik-Islam Group, are scattered nationwide, but are concentrated in Metro Manila and the Visayas. The military arrested four of these converts early this year in Metro Manila.

“Now we have 76 more to worry about and we hope we can catch them before they inflict harm on civilians,” Gonzales said.

Dallas man who worked for Holy Land Foundation to be deported

Aynan Sabri Ismail is going to be deported -- because, according to his lawyer (in a deft turn of phrase), of a band of "anti-Semitic thugs." From CBS11, with thanks to Robert:

Accused Dallas terrorist Aynan Sabri Ismail took the stand in federal court and swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"I love this country," the bearded Kuwaiti-born Palestinian told U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers during a hearing earlier this month. "It's been good to me and this is where my family is. I want to build a peaceful, decent life for them. I just want to be a normal, decent person."

At stake for Ismail in the nearly empty Dallas immigration court was deportation to Jordan or a chance to prosper in America with his wife and five children, all citizens.

Despite professing love for his adoptive country, the 34-year-old illegal immigrant who came on a college student visa in 1988 now faces imminent expulsion, labeled a dangerous terrorist by the U.S. government. This week, Ismail decided not to appeal Judge Rogers' decision to reject an application to stay.

"He's not going to be in this country. He's not going to be acting as a sleeper. He's not going to be raising funds in this country," said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the Dallas bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "He's going to be out of this country where he's not going to do us direct harm."

Ismail's lawyer, John Wheat Gibson, said his client's deportation is part of a government agenda by a "small group of anti-semitic thugs" to rid the country of Muslims.

"They're fanatic," Gibson said of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who argued against Ismail's application to stay. "They're fundamentalists. They're just like Hamas."

Government lawyers, under pressure to use any legal means to rid the nation of perceived dangerous elements, put on evidence they said showed Ismail served as a top fundraiser for the banned Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation. President George Bush dubbed the organization a clandestine fundraising arm of Hamas and froze its assets in November, 2001.

Government lawyers said that from 1996 through 2001 Ismail had to have known that the money he raised for the nation's largest Muslim charity was going to the families of Hamas suicide bombers, providing "martyrs" with an incentive and comfort to attack Israeli civilians.

Man detained after terror attacks deported

From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Ansar Mahmood, 27, a former pizza deliveryman, called a supporter Thursday night to say he was at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and getting ready to board a plane for Pakistan.

Mahmood raised suspicions when he was seen taking a photograph near a reservoir in upstate New York just weeks after September 11, 2001.

While no terror-related charges were filed against him, investigators discovered that he co-signed an apartment lease and registered a car for a Pakistani couple with expired visas.

Mahmood was convicted in January 2002 of harboring illegal immigrants and later ordered sent back to Pakistan....

Within hours, Susan Davies of the Ansar Mahmood Defense Committee said she received a phone call from Mahmood at the airport.

Spencer interview: fear and political correctness in the age of terrorism

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer is interviewed by Michael S. Rose at CruxNews. Some excerpts:

Cruxnews.com: Why can't the mainstream media or Western politicians face up to this reality? Why can't we seem to acknowledge this as a society?

Spencer: The answer to that is simple: Fear and political correctness.

Cruxnews.com: Political correctness again? You wrote at length about the problems of political correctness in your book Onward Muslim Soldiers. It seems that political correctness in at least some of the European countries has led to tolerant laws for Islamic immigrants. Countries like France, Britain, and the Netherlands now have a significant population of Muslims. What are some of the ill effects of these nations' tolerant laws?

Spencer: The ill effects are many. Muslims in Norway are pushing to make it a crime to blaspheme the Prophet Muhammad. Britain is instituting religious hatred laws that would be aimed at muzzling criticism of Islam; a Protestant minister has been questioned by police recently after he noted that parts of the Qur’an teach aggression against unbelievers. Such laws are supposed to keep the peace between Muslims and non-Muslims, but they have the unintended effect of muzzling genuine questions that ought to be considered by the Islamic communities in Europe if they really want to live in peace in the existing secular societies....

Cruxnews.com: What can be done to stop Islam-inspired terrorism?

Spencer: First, we must acknowledge its sources and roots. As long as we continue to delude ourselves that socioeconomic or political fixes will solve the problem, and ignore the fact that jihadists are being recruited in mosques around the world every day, we will continue to be faced with this threat. We must recognize that the roots are in Islamic theology, and call on the Islamic world to reform.

Cruxnews.com: But that would require the nations of the Western World to rid themselves of their high penchant for abiding by the strict laws of political correctness. How has political correctness in Europe and/or in the US hamstrung abilities to deal with Islamic terrorism?

Spencer: Because authorities refuse to acknowledge that Islam plays any significant role in global terrorism, they have declined to investigate mosques and other places where Islamic terrorists have recruited and planned. Luckily, this is changing.

Cruxnews.com: What is the final solution? Or isn't there one?

Spencer: There isn’t one. We must call on Islam to reform, but it is wildly unlikely that this will happen. We must keep up our defenses, recognize where the problem is coming from, and develop reasonable law enforcement and immigration policies. Above all, we must recover our own spiritual resources, for ultimately this is a spiritual conflict.

American-born al-Qaida suspect in custody aids investigators

Some interesting material on Mohammed Junaid Babar from MSNBC, with thanks to nevermindlv:

U.S. officials Wednesday said Mohammed Junaid Babar has turned out to be a tantalizing figure in the investigation into the al-Qaida plot to attack the five buildings in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Newark, New Jersey. He also met top al-Qaida leaders earlier this year in Pakistan.

Babar was actually arrested in March. And as NBC News reported last week, pleaded guilty in secret in June, admitting his part in a plan to bomb targets in London. A huge sweep by British police broke that up in late March.

Babar was born in the U.S. and raised in a New York City suburb. But he has no love for his birthplace.

"I did grow up there. But that doesn't mean my loyalty is with the Americans," said Babar in a November 2001 interview. "My loyalty will, has always been, is, and forever will be with the Muslims.”

Now, authorities are exploring a possible connection between Babar and members of another British cell arrested last week, which included Esa al-Hindi, the man believed to have done most of the surveillance of the U.S. financial buildings himself.

NBC News has learned that investigators now have proof that al-Hindi was actually in the U.S. at the time the buildings were cased.

As for Mohammed Babar, investigators are also exploring a trip he admitted taking earlier this year to South Waziristan, a remote part of Pakistan near the Afghan border, now thought to be the center of al-Qaida's top planners.

Denmark threatened by jihadists: withdraw from Iraq or else

Don't forget to thank Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero every time you read a story like this. From the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Ritzau news bureau was unable to reach the Security Intelligence Service (PET) for comment on Sunday, after terrorist threats were made against this country on a website registered to the Iraqi group Abu Bakr al-Seddiq. The group, which claims to have ties to al-Qaida, threatened to wage jihad and target Denmark with car bombs, if the country failed to withdraw its forces from Iraq.

PET chief Lars Findsen issued a press release on Sunday afternoon, after news of the threat was made public.

'It is difficult to say anything more precise about the authenticity or seriousness of the latest threat. Nonetheless, it is no secret that there is a generally heightened terror threat level toward the West and its interests. The same is true of Denmark, and the seriousness of this threat, particularly in Europe, was underscored following this year's terrorist attacks in Madrid,' Findsen stated.

White House Warns of Terror Strike

More on the new threats from the Washington Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The Bush administration believes more strongly than ever that al Qaeda terrorists plan to try to influence the presidential race with a massive preelection attack, a strike that is more likely to come in August or September than in October, a White House official said yesterday.

The official ratcheted up administration warnings of an election-related attack on a day when President Bush and Vice President Cheney were on the campaign trail contending that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) would be a weak commander in chief. Some Democrats accuse the White House of issuing repeated terrorism warnings to inspire fear so voters will hesitate to change leaders with the nation under threat.

The White House official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the government had not gleaned any new information about political motives for an attack since the spring, when administration officials began saying they were concerned about an attack in conjunction with the Nov. 2 election. Nothing to date indicates "an imminent operation," the official said.

Administration officials said over the weekend that they believe at least part of the plot has been disrupted with recent arrests and computers seizures.

Nevertheless, the official referred to "the preelection plot" and said the government has intelligence in which suspected terrorists "were talking about the election."

"The beat keeps building," the official said. "You will get intelligence which suggests they're targeting the election time frame. . . . In addition to that, you get other intelligence that suggests there is planning for an ongoing operation that may not specifically mention the election."

Palestinians debate Kalandiya bombing

"They are wrong. We should raise our voice against them." Just what we need to hear from Muslims about suicide attacks, right? The man who said this was referring to the Wednesday bombing at the Kalandiya checkpoint near Jerusalem, which killed two Palestinians and wounded 10 others, along with six Israeli guards.

But there's the rub: Palestinians are upset with the bombing because it killed Muslims, not because it killed human beings in general. From AP, with thanks to Teri:

"They are wrong. We should raise our voice against them," said one angry man.

Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack and apologized for the Palestinian casualties. It said the intended target was Jerusalem, and that the assailant hastily set off the 20 kilograms of explosives by remote control when he felt Israeli security forces were closing in on him....

"Such attacks harm the Palestinian cause," said Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary. "These groups must avoid every spot where there is a possibility that a Palestinian will be there."

Abu Sneineh refused to acknowledge that her husband, Salah, 60, was killed by Palestinians. "Arabs couldn't have killed him, only Israelis," the woman said.

Symposium: The Islamic Reformation?

There is a must-read symposium on the possibility of reform in Islam at FrontPage today. The participants are Khaleel Mohammed, the famous Muslim professor who has been hitting the lecture circuit arguing that the Qur'an teaches that Israel belongs to the Jews, and with whom I tangled here; Kamal Nawash, the Founder and President of The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism; and Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist who has become an ardent Zionist and evangelical Christian.

Quotable sections abound -- including one in which moderator Jamie Glazov, who takes an active role here and scores some tremendous points, kindly invokes me and my last book. Much more important is what follows afterward, when Khaleel Mohammed denies the whole legacy of oppression that is dhimmitude, and is rightly scored by Glazov for it:

I am speechless in response to Mr. Nawash’s denial that there are verses in the Qur’an that propagate violence against non-Muslims and that command that Islam must be imposed on non-Muslims. The tragedy of 9/11, for instance, and the whole history of dhimmitude, I am afraid, does not stand before our eyes because Muslims imagined some teachings. It might have something to do with, just to start, Sura 9:5, the famous Verse of the Sword, and the fact that it is the Qur’an’s final word on jihad. In any case, Robert Spencer's authoritative study Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West pretty well lays this whole argument to rest.

Our arguments here have clearly become cyclical, and it is depressing to try to discuss a possible reformation of Islam if we can’t even agree on the basics, one of them being that Islam’s violent jihad just might have something to do with Islamic religious texts.

It is Prof. Mohammed’s turn, go ahead.

Mohammed: Let me get to the crux of the matter:

Dhimmitude is a term coined by one Islamophobe I know...referring to the status in which non-Muslims within an Islamic state must live.

He is, of course, applying the contemptuous, dismissive, and ultimately empty term "Islamophobe" to the great and groundbreaking historian Bat Ye'or. It is easier for him to do that than to refute the mass of historical evidence for the oppression of the dhimmis that she brings forth in her books.

In the Christian and Jewish experience is there an equivalent? I assume that I am being asked to do detective work here. I had assumed that each one knows his text and we can work with this.

For Judaism, I am not concerned with the Torah's view on non-Jews because never in traceable history have we found this.

For Christianity, does the term "Inquisition" ring a bell? Does the name of a place like "Matamuros" ring a bell? I come from Guyana--where I remember in my youth that we had to go to Church school, and in other parts of Latin America, the governments forced their version of Christianity down the throats of people.

Australia, New Zealand and even the US history testify. Are these things past? For most countries yes, but in Latin America, it is still thriving....

Why did Egypt, Persia etc become Muslim? The answer is simple; the intellectuality of Islam was way above and beyond what they had....

I see no reason for Muslims to apologize for Jihad as the Pope has rightly done for the Crusades: the Muslim response was a defensive one. It was their right. If you ask about Balkanization, and the Armenian genocide and seek apology from me--yes, I feel that was wrong, and those Muslims did what was absolutely against Islam and humanity. ...

There are several books in the Arab world against violent interpretations of Jihad--many of them published in Saudi Arabia. I do agree that there are probably as many that advocate violence--but in a world where many Muslims see themselves and their religion being threatened, it is something that I can understand, but not condone....

As for Muslims who have not spoken out--have we sunk so low that we have resorted to lies on this level? Almost every mosque, every imam here has spoken out. But for Shoebat and his ilk, those people have to hate Islam and declare their hate for righteousness in order to fit his warped idea of doing good....

FP: Prof. Mohammed, it is disappointing that you brush off “dhimmitude” as just a “term” referring to “the status in which non-Muslims within an Islamic state must live.” This is like saying the Holocaust is just a “term” referring to “the status” in which Jewish people had to live in places like Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald – and then saying nothing else about it.

It’s like saying that “Gulag” is a term referring to the status of certain peoples in Soviet Russia who did not fit into the design of Soviet communism -- and then saying nothing else about it.

The “Islamophobe” that you refer to who has coined the phrase “dhimmitude” is, in my humble view, a courageous hero who has made sure, like the Alexander Solzhenitsyns and Elie Wiesels of this world, that the sufferings and fates of millions of innocent victims of brutal despotism are never forgotten.

You ask: “since when is this [the Verse of the Sword] the Qur'an's final word on Jihad?”

I think you know very well that the 114 “suras” in the Qur’an are separated by Muslim scholars into the two categories of “Meccan” and “Medinan” and that the Medinan verses follow and also nullify many of the former verses. And I think you are aware that even mainstream Islamic commentators regard Sura 9 as precisely the Qur'an's last word on jihad, because it was the last sura revealed. But this debate must occur at another time and place.

You say the answer for why Egypt, Persia and Syria became Muslim is a “simple” one: “the intellectuality of Islam was way above and beyond what they had.” It is depressing to see this horrifying subject treated with such flippancy, especially with the awareness of the violent forced conversions that had occurred in the conquered territories. What integrity would it take for a person to say to someone that the kulaks under Stalin decided to enter into collectivized agriculture because it was “above and beyond what they had?”

You say that your “freest discussions--far more liberal than this one I am now having--were in Syria, Yemen and yes, Saudi Arabia.” To suggest that you would be freer in an open discussion in Saudi Arabia than in this symposium leaves me speechless. Everyone in this discussion knows very well what would happen to you in Saudi Arabia if you stood on a street corner and read aloud even a few random lines of this symposium.

You denounce Mr. Shoebat for being an unbeliever in Islam’s ability to “reform,” but if you are the one that would lead an Islamic Reformation, I think it would be important to reflect on one theme: What if, when Mikhail Gorbachev arrived to lead the Soviet regime, he announced that there needed to be a Glasnost, but that part of Glasnost would be the ideological stance that there was no Red Terror, no purges, that Lenin and Stalin never made one error, that there had never been any Gulag, and that anything that the Soviet regime might have done wrong had absolutely no roots in the ideas of Marxism itself?

Bravo, Glazov. I am honored to be allied with you in the struggle.

"Arabizing" Black Africa

Here are some key excerpts from David G. Littman's statement, delivered on the floor of the UN Human Rights Commission on August 11 and reproduced today at FrontPage. You will be able to read much more such material from the UN Human Rights Commission, detailing the routine human rights violations that occur in Islamic countries and are justified on the grounds of jihad and other Islamic principles, in my forthcoming essay collection The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.

The GOS sponsored slave raids in the context of a genocidal jihad, resulting in the loss of more than two million black African lives and the displacement of over five million people. Tens of thousands of black women and children, possibly more, were enslaved during two decades of such raiding. Most of the black slaves were marched to the North and were forced to work for Arab masters in the towns, villages and cattle camps of Darfur – Ed Daein, Abu Matarik, Abu Gabara and Nyala are all towns in Darfur around which there is a heavy concentration of Arab-owned black slaves. The number of slaves in these areas has multiplied as a result of the rape of slave girls and women, as is constantly reported these past months.

Slave raiding in Southern Sudan has been suspended on account of the current cease-fire between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. In the meantime, however, Sudan’s Islamist (NIF) rulers have shifted the focus of their jihad to the Black African tribes of Darfur, in particular the Fur, Massalit and Zagawa. In December 2003, Sudan’s President Omer Bashir openly declared a jihad against these tribes and ordered the mujahadeen to eliminate resistance in Darfur. We are now seeing the results.

Are the beheadings un-Islamic?

National Review Online published a piece yesterday by Mustafa Akyol, director of the Intercultural Dialogue Platform in Istanbul. Akyol argues that the beheadings of Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, etc. are un-Islamic.

Yesterday I opted simply to let it go by, but I have decided this morning to comment upon it instead. I know that NRO, like everyone else in the world, is searching for a moderate Islam, and that's why they published this piece. But that moderate Islam, for it to have any power to neutralize terror, has to be convincing not just to Western non-Muslims, but to radical Muslims themselves. It has to take their Islamic justifications for murder and mayhem and show that they are wrong on Islamic grounds.

Akyol's piece doesn't do that. Here are some of the reasons why. Akyol asserts that "nothing could be further from the truth" than the idea that the beheadings were carried out in the name of Islam. Why? Because:

Islam presents the principles of just war, and kidnapping noncombatants, killing them, or threatening to do so are overtly against those principles.

Let's go to a source I often quote: 'Umdat al-Salik, a Shafi'i manual of Islamic jurisprudence. I rely on it because it is readily available in English, so that any reader can check the book and see that what I say is true; and more importantly because it was endorsed by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam. Al-Azhar certified that it "conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community." Anyway, Al-Azhar says this about what are almost certainly noncombatants:

When a child or woman is taken captive [by jihad warriors], they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman's previous marriage is immediately annulled. [o9.12]

But is Akyol correct at least that Islam forbids the killing of captives? No:

When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests ... (of Islam and the Muslims) and decides between the prisoner's death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy. [o9.14]

The caliph? But there is no caliph. Is that a way out? Probably not. The manual says that "It is offensive to conduct a military expedition against hostile non-Muslims without the caliph's permission," but "if there is no caliph, no permission is required" (o9.6).

Akyol, however, is not working from legal manuals, but from the Qur'an itself:

In the Koran, there are several verses about prisoners of war. First of all, you can't take noncombatants as captives. On the contrary, another verse makes it clear that non-Muslims, even the least sympathized pagans, are to be protected whenever they ask for asylum:

"If one amongst the Pagans ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of God; and then escort him to where he can be secure. That is because they are men without knowledge" (Koran, 9:6).

Since Nick Berg, Kim Sun-il, and Paul Johnson were not combatants, their request for asylum — it is reasonable to assume that they asked for it — should have been accepted. So, they should have been kindly escorted to wherever they wished to go.

Let's assume that they were regarded as combatants. Berg, Johnson, and Sun-il should therefore have been regarded as prisoners of war. The verdict of the Koran is clear about them: They should be taken as captives during the battle, then, after the war, they should be released for free or ransomed (Koran, 47:4).

It's interesting that he quotes 47:4, because that verse contains one of the Qur'an's justifications for beheading:

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.

This is the key to Akyol's whole argument: he says that "after the war, they should be released for free or ransomed," in line with this verse's call for "generosity or ransom" at the point when "the war lays down its burdens." But the jihadists in Iraq do not believe that the war is over; far from it. They just declared jihad anew. As such, they would argue that it is not time for "generosity or ransom," but for the smiting "at their necks."

The legal manual 'Umdat al-Salik actually bases its choices on this verse: the Muslims may decide to kill, ransom or release prisoners based on what is best for the Islamic community. And that decision will no doubt be made on the basis of judgments about the status of the war and the prospects for a cessation of hostilities, however temporary.

Akyol also invokes the Prophet:

There are also historical accounts reporting Prophet Muhammad ordering his men to treat captives very humanely. According to one account:

"After the Battle of Badr, prisoners of war were brought. Among them was al-Abbâs. He did not have a shirt on, so the Prophet looked for a shirt for him. It turned out that a shirt of Abd Allah bin Ubayy was the right size, so the Prophet gave it to al-Abbâs to wear and compensated Abdullah with his own shirt" [Al-Bukhârî (3008)].

So, even the torn-up shirt of Johnson — seen in his captivity photos — let alone all the abuse that might be related to it, is inherently un-Islamic.

Unfortunately, there are other stories of Muhammad -- particularly his notorious treatment of the Jewish Qurayzah tribe of Arabia. After they were captured, Muhammad executed them. According to his earliest biographer, Ibn Ishaq: "The apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for [the men of Banu Qurayza] and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches." One of the Prophet’s fiercest enemies among the Banu Qurayza, Huyayy, proclaimed: "God’s command is right. A book and a decree, and massacre have been written against the Sons of Israel." Then Muhammad struck off his head.

Akyol also invokes Islamic jurists:

Throughout history, many Muslim jurists have also emphasized that POWs cannot be killed or tortured. Ibn Muflih, the jurist from the Hanbalî school, writes: "The correct position on the matter is that if an enemy soldier is captured, it becomes unlawful to kill him." There is also a historical account: The governor of Iraq, al-Hajjâj, brought a prisoner in irons to Ibn Umar and ordered him to come up and kill him. Ibn Umar refused, saying: "This is not the way we do things. Allah says: 'either generosity or ransom' and He does not say anything about killing them."

But another revered jurist, Al-Mawardi, agrees with 'Umdat al-Salik. Mawardi says:

As for the captives, the amir has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first, to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale or manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. [Al-Ahkam As-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), 4.5]

Why am I doing this? To make life difficult for a moderate? No. I am only trying to point out that Akyol's conclusion (the beheadings "stem from a kind of necrophilic nihilism, not from the essence of Islam") is unwarranted, and his argument will be unconvincing to a radical Muslim, who can invoke the authorities I have cited here and others.

So in sum: Akyol's piece is not the kind of moderate Islamic presentation we need in order to neutralize the radicals. We need one that confronts and refutes their arguments; his simply ignores them. Those who are looking for moderate Muslims to rise up and refute the radicals should keep looking.

UPDATE: To NRO's credit, they run a piece today by Andrew McCarthy that also points out some of the problems with Akyol's analysis.

Surprise US Fax Shakes German Terror Trial

Sami Al-Arian is not the only one who may walk -- he may soon be joined by the first man convicted of crimes related to 9/11. From Deutsche Welle, with thanks to Cathy J. Palmer:

The retrial of Mounir el Motassadeq takes an unexpected turn as the US releases testimony from an al Qaeda captive who says the suspect knew nothing of the attack plans. But prosecutors have their doubts.

The Hamburg higher adminstrative court hearing the retrial of the first man convicted in Germany of ties to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks received a bombshell fax from the US Justice Department on Wednesday.

The fax contained summaries of three detainees' interrogations, including the testimony of Ramzi Binalshibh, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Many observers have long believed that testimony from Binalshibh could provide the key to a final verdict in the case.

Only this time, it could help suspect Motassadeq rather than the prosecution.

According to the summary read out in the court room by presiding judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt, Motassadeq -- who is on trial for aiding the Hamburg-based Sept. 11 suicide pilots Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah -- had no idea of the terrorist plot.

A blow for prosecutors?

"We have to think about the consequences of this," Schudt said.

After the surprising development on Wednesday, Motassadeq's defense attorneys -- who only one day earlier claimed any testimony from Binalshibh or Mohammed would be unreliable because they had likely been tortured or forced into giving testimony by US intelligence agents --seemed pleased with the apparently exculpatory evidence.

"I think it's going to result in an acquittal," said attorney Josef Grässle-Münscher.

N.Y. man admits he aided al Qaeda, set up jihad camp

This is the man who attracted a lot of attention after 9/11 by claiming that his mother had safely gotten out of the World Trade Center on that day -- and that he was going over to Afghanistan to join Al-Qaeda. He also says here that he helped with plots for bombings in the UK. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York man has admitted to smuggling money and military supplies to a senior member of al Qaeda in Pakistan, setting up a jihad training camp and assisting in a bombing plot in the United Kingdom.

Mohammed Junaid Babar, a naturalized American originally from Pakistan, pleaded guilty June 2 to five counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as providing the support, according to a court transcript recently released.

Babar is being held without bail and faces up to 70 years in prison, but Federal Judge Victor Marrero indicated Babar will serve less jail time under a plea deal.

Babar has agreed to cooperate fully with any investigation or prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office and he may apply to the witness security program, which would relocate his family under a new identity.

Babar told Marrero he provided night-vision goggles, sleeping bags, waterproof socks, waterproof ponchos and money to a high-ranking al Qaeda official in South Waziristan, a Pakistani region near the Afghan border.

Babar said he delivered the supplies personally in January and February 2004 and someone else transported the items in the summer of 2003.

"I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to al Qaeda was supposed to be used in Afghanistan ... against U.S. or ... international forces or against the Northern Alliance," Babar said.

The Northern Alliance helped remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan by joining forces with U.S. and British soldiers.

"I set up a jihad training camp," Babar told the court, "where those who wanted to go into Afghanistan where they could learn how to use weapons, and also, you know, any explosive devices that they wanted to test out over there."

Babar, 29, confessed he supplied people who attended the training camp with aluminum powder and attempted to buy ammonium nitrate for them "with the knowledge that it was going to be used for a plot somewhere in the U.K."

US denies CIA agent beheaded in Iraq

It seems to have been a genuine murder, bot not of a CIA agent. From AFP:

A United States official has denied that a CIA agent had been beheaded in Iraq, as claimed by an Islamist web site that broadcast a video purporting to show the decapitation.

"The man depicted in the video is not a CIA official," the official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

"No CIA official is missing," the official said, adding that the Central Intelligence Agency knew the whereabouts of all its agents.

On Wednesday, an Islamist web site showed a videotape which it said was of a US national and CIA agent being beheaded by members of a Islamic militant group in Iraq.

In the poor-quality video, whose authenticity could not be verified, a young Western-looking man is seated on a chair surrounded by five hooded gunmen, one of whom beheads the man using a long knife....

But the gunmen's words are unintelligible, apart from their cry of "Allah Akbar" (God is great) after the decapitation.

U.S. to Give Border Patrol Agents the Power to Deport Illegal Aliens

There's nothing wrong with this idea. They are, after all, in the US illegally. But expect an outcry and a revised policy. From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's borders, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers with Mexico and Canada without providing them the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts, where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the United States.

Domestic security officials described the deportation process in immigration courts - which hear asylum claims and other appeals to remain in the country - as sluggish and cumbersome, saying illegal immigrants often wait for more than a year before being deported while straining the capacity of detention centers and draining critical resources. Under the new system, immigrants will typically be deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said....

The new rule will apply to illegal immigrants caught within 100 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders who have spent up to 14 days within the United States. Officials said the border agents would not focus on deporting Mexicans and Canadians, who will still, for the most part, have their cases heard in immigration court. The agents will concentrate instead on immigrants from other countries. In fiscal year 2003, about 37,000 immigrants from countries other than Mexico and Canada - primarily from Central America - were arrested along the Southwest border.

Osama calls for attacks in US, Britain, Pakistan

Osama, if he is alive, may have called for new attacks here and in the UK. Note also the free global movement of the terror operatives who carried out the attacks in Turkey. From Reuters, with thanks to Jjpmackie:

"Osama has given the go ahead to target important places and personalities in the U.S., U.K. and Pakistan," one Pakistani intelligence source said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said bin Laden's order emerged during the interrogation of al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan caught in a month-long crackdown that has dealt the network a major blow.

One of at least three top operatives, Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, also gave authorities information that led to the arrest on Sunday of two Turkish al Qaeda members linked to an attack on a Jewish target in Turkey and who fought in Chechnya, officials revealed on Wednesday.

Officials say the network's local and global threat has been reduced, but they warn of further attacks by al Qaeda and local Islamic militant allies in Pakistan who are incensed by the country's decision to back the U.S.-led war on terror.

Senators Inquire on DHS Appointee

They want to know why a former member of Alamoudi's American Muslim Council occupies a high position at DHS. From FoxNews, with thanks to DC Watson and Joe Kraft:

WASHINGTON — Two senators chairing committees with direct oversight of intelligence and terrorist-related issues have asked the chief internal watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the appointment of a top director at the agency and his brief suspension from it.

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 now-defunct American Muslim Council. He was then reinstated, and Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Jon Kyl of Arizona want to know why. They also are questioning why Gill is at DHS in the first place.

Grassley and Kyl sent a letter dated Monday to Clark Kent Ervin, DHS inspector general, requesting answers to a number of questions regarding Gill, who served in 2001 as the spokesman for the AMC, whose founder just pleaded guilty to federal indictments related to illegal foreign financing and immigration fraud, and admitted to a role in a Libyan assassination plot....

Aside from questioning whether this connection raised concerns among officials before Gill was hired, the letter draws attention to reports that Gill had omitted his affiliation with the AMC when he filed his employment application and requisite security clearances at the agency....

"Mr. Gill is reportedly director of intelligence policy in the Department’s Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP) directorate," the senators wrote. "A person in such a position would likely have access to highly sensitive information about vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure."

The senators then ask: "What is the department’s policy for employees who omit information, especially information considered important or material, from their security clearance background forms?

"What are the Department’s general policies and procedures for considering employment of a person with previous links or associations to individuals or groups who are investigated or prosecuted for suspected crimes, especially terrorism matters or, who provides services to such individuals or groups?"...

But of course, this is all just racism, not genuine concern for our national security -- says the leader of a group founded by Sami Al-Arian:

"I don’t think working for an organization like the AMC in of itself is a bad thing," said Kit Gage, president of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, whose founder, Sami Al-Arian is awaiting trial on charges he was a prime fundraiser for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an accusation he vehemently denies. Gage said the group has distanced itself from Al-Arian.

"There are always going to be people who are racist, who are anti-Muslim and feel threatened by groups like ours who do coalition work, because we stand up for groups that have taken on unpopular positions," she added.

Friends say NJ webmaster no terrorist

These kinds of stories -- he is a sweet, gentle guy, he would never have anything to do with terrorism -- would be far more convincing if they weren't issued every time a Muslim is arrested on terror-related charges in America. From AP, with thanks to Teri, who points out the curious statement at the end of the story: "'I tell you something about our society: Whoever promotes violence, we don't invite him,' said Khalid Lamada, who runs the society's outreach programs. 'We deal with the community at large, so we can't afford that.'" We can't afford that? Hardly a ringing condemnation of violence.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- To federal authorities, Mazen Mokhtar is a technologically savvy Internet whiz who operated a Web site soliciting funds and recruiting fighters for the Taliban and other Muslim warrior groups.

They searched his North Brunswick home, hauling away several bags of items, but have not charged him with a crime.

Mokhtar is listed in Internet directories as the registrant and administrative and technical contact for the Web site www.minna.com, which authorities said is an exact duplicate of one run by Babar Ahmad, who was arrested last week in London and charged with aiding terrorists.

But Mokhtar's friends and acquaintances paint a far different picture of a devout, peaceful Muslim who taught classes on Islam and sometimes led Friday prayer services.

Isn't it possible that he, like so many jihadists around the world, could have been devout and not peaceful? Every day we see statements from jihadists praising Allah for murder and mayhem. But this doesn't seem to occur to the AP writer.

"It doesn't seem like he was involved with anything like that," said Asim Uzmani, a board member of the New Brunswick Islamic Center, where Mokhtar volunteered to lead prayers at the small storefront mosque about twice a month.

Uzmani said he spoke to Mokhtar a few days ago.

"He said he used to run a hosting service four or five years ago that used to resell Web hosting services to people. He said he didn't know those guys (mentioned in court papers) and he is not involved in anything like that."...

The affidavit said Ahmad operated a Web site, www.azzam.com, through a Connecticut-based Internet service provider, OLM. Neither Web site could be accessed Tuesday without a password.

The document claims Ahmad ran a group of fund-raising and recruitment Web sites under the name Azzam Publications. Regarding the operator of the www.minna.com site, the affidavit stated, "a search of this person's residence in New Jersey resulted in contact numbers for Azzam Publications in hardcopy and electronic form."

"Therefore," the affidavit continued, "it is evident that Ahmad worked in concert with this individual to maintain the continued operation of the Azzam sites, through the use of mirror sites, when the administrators of Azzam sites shut the Azzam.com site down after 9/11."

The affidavit said the Azzam sites published, among other information, Osama Bin Laden's "Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places," calling for the violent ouster of U.S. military forces from the Middle East. The sites also provided instructions on raising and delivering money to the Taliban, including advice to use hawala system of transferring money without records.

Those who know Mokhtar said the allegations don't fit.

Abdul Basit, a prayer leader at the New Brunswick Islamic Center, said Mokhtar "is well-regarded."

"He never spoke anything bad in front of us," Basit said. "In the community, he is a good person. We never heard anything bad" from him or about him, Basit added.

Sharif Muhammad, a custodian at the center, has known Mokhtar for three years, and called his sermons moderate and peaceful.

"I never witnessed any radical or irrational behavior from him," Muhammad said. "I can honestly say I've never heard anything radical come from his lips involving terrorism - never."

Mokhtar also spoke occasionally at conferences hosted by the New York chapter of the Muslim American Society in Brooklyn.

"I tell you something about our society: Whoever promotes violence, we don't invite him," said Khalid Lamada, who runs the society's outreach programs. "We deal with the community at large, so we can't afford that."

Pakistan Protests FBI N.Y. Mosque Sting

Some ally. Some terror opponent. From AP, with thanks to Teri:

ALBANY, N.Y. - An FBI sting operation that used a purported assassination plot against a Pakistani diplomat to snare two leaders of an Albany mosque has drawn complaints from Pakistan, which issued a protest Tuesday.

An FBI informant who said he was an arms dealer asked the two suspects to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to kill Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, according to the federal complaint.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan on Tuesday condemned the FBI sting operation, saying it was bizarre and dangerous.

"This has increased our ambassador's and our mission's vulnerability ... and could have endangered the life of our ambassador," Khan said in a statement. He said Pakistan had filed a protest with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Bin Laden hints major assassination

From Bill Gertz in the Washington Times, with thanks to Ron:

U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination, triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden, will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack, The Washington Times has learned.

The assassination plan is among new details of al Qaeda plots disclosed by U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing could be carried out against a U.S. or foreign leader either in the United States or abroad.

The officials mentioned Saudi Arabia and Yemen, two nations that are working with the United States in the battle against al Qaeda, as likely locales for the opening assassination.

The planning for the attacks to follow involves "multiple targets in multiple venues" across the United States, one official said.

The new details of al Qaeda's plans were found on a laptop computer belonging to arrested al Qaeda operative Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan of Pakistan.

"We're talking about planning at the screwdriver level," one official said. "It is very detailed."

Khan was arrested July 13 in Lahore, Pakistan, along with Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who was indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa and was on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.

U.S. and allied counterterrorism officials are pursuing leads on other terrorists based on the data from Khan's seized laptop. At least one arrest in Britain has been made so far, and others are expected, the officials said.

Additionally, U.S. intelligence officials said they think that several al Qaeda terrorists already in the United States are part of the plot, although their identities and locations are not known.

The targets, in addition to the financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J., that have been the subject of public warnings, include such economic-related targets as oil and gas facilities with a view toward disrupting the November election.

"The goal of the next attack is twofold: to damage the U.S. economy and to undermine the U.S. election," the official said. "The view of al Qaeda is 'anybody but Bush.' "

The officials also said the terrorist group has begun using female members for preattack surveillance and possibly as suicide bombers, thinking that women will have an easier time getting past security checkpoints at airports, borders and ports.

Spencer: Why Al-Arian May Walk

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's latest article, "Why Al-Arian may walk," is up today at FrontPage:

He said, “Let us damn America, let us damn Israel, let us damn them and their allies until death.” He is alleged to have used his position at the University of South Florida as cover for his activities as head of the American wing of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He is thought to have held a key position in the group’s worldwide leadership and even to have established a cell of the terrorist group at his university. He helped sponsor conferences featuring Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a principal conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

He is, of course, the notorious Sami Al-Arian, and soon he may walk. Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Moody ruled that prosecutors not only have to show that Al-Arian raised money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but that he knew that what he was doing was illegal and would aid terrorist activities. According to defense attorney Bill Moffitt, who must have been resisting the impulse to jump and cheer in front of reporters: “They will have to show that the support they allege Dr. Al-Arian provided was directly connected to the violence the group carried out. It significantly raises the burden of proof, and rightly so.”

Imagine for a moment that you are a terrorist. Besides blowing up people and buildings and spreading mayhem, you decide to win a few hearts and minds by opening a soup kitchen. Then you attract a supporter who helps you raise significant money; when this supporter is arrested, he says, “Oh, I was just supporting the soup kitchen. I didn’t know they were killing anyone.” Have things gotten so bad that we have to spell this out? Even if this imaginary terrorist group really does have an accounting system that allows the big supporter’s money to be used only for its soup kitchen, that frees up other money to buy bombs. Judge James Moody should go back to elementary school: Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a terrorist group. I know it. You know it. The State Department knows it. Now we’re supposed to believe that Sami Al-Arian, who was in regular contact with members of the group itself, didn’t know it?

Yet instead of getting the rebukes he deserves, Moody has been lionized by the establishment media. In an unsigned editorial, “A standard of justice,” the St. Petersburg Times praised him for rejecting “guilt by association” and criticized existing anti-terror legislation: “Moody noted that the statutes under which Al-Arian and the others are charged, such as the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, are written so broadly that renting a hotel room or giving a taxi ride to a member of the PIJ is enough to impose criminal liability on hotel clerks and taxi drivers.”

I certainly don’t think that someone who rented a hotel room or gave a taxi ride to a terrorist should be prosecuted, unless it could be proven that the clerk or cabbie knew what he was doing. But to claim that Sami Al-Arian may have been in the position of the clerk or cabbie is absurd. The latter two generally know nothing about the person with whom they are dealing. Does Judge Moody believe, or expect us to believe, that Sami Al-Arian sent money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad without knowing who they were or to what they were dedicated? Was this just a random act of zakat (Islamic charity), and Sami could just as well have been sending money to the Rotary Club or the National Committee for Quality Assurance?

Judge Moody’s decision is all the stranger in light of the fact that the indictment of Al-Arian makes clear that the professor knew and approved the primary mission of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: bringing death and suffering to the perceived enemies of Islam. When two Islamic Jihad suicide bombers killed eighteen people in Israel in 1995, Al-Arian called them “two mujahidin [warriors of jihad] martyred for the sake of God.” He didn’t mean that they were young men striving for self-improvement.

Whether or not that kind of evidence is enough for Judge Moody remains to be seen, but the prosecution has appeared snakebitten from the beginning. Last December, some documents that were key to the prosecution’s case were accidentally shredded by the clerk’s office for the Middle District of Florida.

If Al-Arian is acquitted, it won’t be because the evidence wasn’t there to convict him. It will be because of activist judges and careless clerks — luxuries we can ill-afford in these perilous times.

Call to jihad in Egypt

They think Egypt is going to be attacked by America. But more than that, they want to topple Mubarak and establish a Sharia state under a caliph. From Khilafah.com, a website of the radical organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

Oh Muslim youth.

Oh Muslims from the land of the Arabs.

Oh descendents of the Mujahideen and Scholars

Oh youth from the banks of the Nile.

What is happening cannot have failed to attract your attention. You have seen the changes, month-by-month and year-by-year as the Muslims are under almost continuous attack.

The Americans seek to crush anyone who wishes to raise the banner of Islam once again. They will never leave the Islamic world until they control all of the people, every resource and destroy any threat to their dominance.

We all know this. We know that Iraq has now been captured and they intend to continue to the rest of the Islamic world. If they send troops to Sudan after the pressure that they are putting on that government then they will be on the doorstep of Egypt. When will it be Egypt’s turn? ...

Indeed, this Ummah is one Ummah. By attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, the enemy has already started their material attack against the Muslims. How can the Muslims of Egypt consider themselves to be separated from this?

Why is it that you can criticise anyone in Egypt except Mubarak and his family? Why is it that the youth are encouraged to listen to music, smoke hashish, and free mix with the opposite sex instead of building the land towards strength and prosperity? Why is it that the economy is in ruins and nobody really cares? Why is it that every young person wants to leave Egypt to work, even though they love their home? How can Egypt be the mother of the world when it cannot even feed itself? Why is it that everyone knows that something is going to happen and yet nobody wants to make something happen?

More and more people from every generation are going to lessons in the Masajid [mosques] and improving their personalities and increasing their knowledge. Islam is in every single household and yet Mubarak is comfortable and secure. Did he forget that Allah (Subhana wa Ta’ala) said;

وَأَنِ احْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ اللّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَن يَفْتِنُوكَ عَن بَعْضِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ إِلَيْكَ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللّهُ أَن يُصِيبَهُم بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ

And this (He commands): Judge thou between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, but beware of them lest they beguile you from any of that which Allah has sent down to you. And if they turn away, be assured that for some of their crime it is Allah's purpose to punish them. And truly most men are rebellious. Surat al Maidah 49

What has happened to you? Where is the dignity you once had? The Muslims in Egypt have always been believers who did not stand for shirk and oppression. When the Mongols invaded Bagdhad and Damascus and the whole world was afraid of them, it was the Muslims from Egypt and Palestine who fought them and defeated them and returned Islam to the world. They fought with Salah El Din to liberate Al Quds from the barbarian Crusaders. What more powerful fortress could exist than Salah El Din’s Citadel (Al Kalla) overlooking Cairo. The Muslims from Egypt won al- Hijaz back from the Saud-Wahabi alliance when they sought to divide the Khilafah and so restored the unity of the Khilafah and of the Muslims.

Now it is time to take the leadership role. Now it is time for the Muslims of Egypt to lead the world back to Islam by re-establishing the Khilafah and seeking to unite the Muslims under one banner. Everyone knows that the Muslims should be united. Everyone knows that the shari’ah must be implemented. Everyone knows that Jihad should be fought, that Palestine and Iraq should be liberated. Everyone knows that the kuffar seek to dominate the resources. Everyone knows that the Arab and non-Arab rulers in the Islamic world care about their own positions more than any other matter. Everyone knows that things cannot continue as they are.

Now is the time for bravery and steadfastness upon the deen of Allah (Subhana wa Ta’ala). If you act now you will become the leaders of the world and those remembered by Allah (Subhana wa Ta’ala) in the best of company as you risked yourselves and your wealth to establish Islam in the land.

Pakistani arrested with videos of Southern cities

Kamran Akhtar was one busy tourist. A dam, transit systems, banks. Hmmm. I guess the folks back home wanted to see some infrastructure. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

(CNN) -- A Pakistani citizen who was arrested while videotaping buildings in Charlotte, North Carolina, was charged with federal immigration violations, authorities announced Tuesday.

Kamran Shaikh -- also known as Kamran Akhtar -- was carrying videotapes of other Southern cities, according to an affidavit signed by U.S. Immigrations and Customs agent John Sherrill.

Those videos included images of Mansfield Dam in Austin, Texas; the MARTA transit system in Atlanta, Georgia; the Downtown Transit Center and Downtown Metro Trolley in Houston, Texas; and trolley cars in Dallas and New Orleans, Louisiana, the affidavit said.

Islamic apologist Ahmed Deedat funded by Osama bin Laden

The late Ahmed Deedat was for years one of the best-known Muslims in America. He debated numerous Christian apologists and evangelists and became famous as one of the earliest propagators of Islam in the modern West.

Now Yoel Natan has called my attention to a passing reference to Deedat in a New York Times piece on jihadist activity in South Africa. Deedat and his foundation, according to the Times, were funded by the bin Laden family, and Deedat himself was an anti-Semite and supporter of Osama.

In Durban, the Islamic Propagation Center International has long been financed by the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia, and its founder, Ahmed Deedat, who is now dead, was a vocal anti-Semite and ardent backer of Osama bin Laden.

It's interesting that Osama was, by funding Deedat, aiding in dawah -- which is, of course, the precursor to jihad.

Alert policeman made Charlotte arrest

Of Kamran Akhtar. An alert police officer stopped and asked questions. From WCNC.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Federal agents in Charlotte tell 6NEWS they believe a 35-year-old man from Pakistan who was arrested uptown has terrorist ties. Kamran Akhtar was arrested by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer July 20 while videotaping the downtown area of Charlotte.

Officer Anthony D. Maglione said he witnessed Akhtar at the intersection of Stonewall and Tryon around noon.

“I observed a gentleman taking videos of the skyline. Once I slowed down to take a closer look at him, he started to act a little irrational,” Maglione said. “He turned away from me, tried to become evasive. I stopped my vehicle and that’s when I got out and addressed him.”

Maglione said he asked Akhtar what he was doing and he stated several different things.

“His statements were all over the place…from taking video for his brother to just visiting,” Maglione said.

Maglione said his curiosity was peaked when Akhtar said he had to hurry to get to the bus station, but then started walking the opposite way. Maglione said Akhtar voluntarily went with him to police headquarters.

According to an affidavit, a review of Akhtar’s videotape showed the downtown area of Charlotte including the Bank of America and the building Wachovia Bank once leased. The local FBI office also is located in the building.

"All necessary security measures are being taken and our company continues to work closely with appropriate national and local authorities to monitor this situation."

Wachovia said in a statement that it was assessing the information about the videotape. The bank also said that it has "robust security procedures in place and have taken measures to enhance security at all of our facilities over the last several years.

Federal officials say Akhtar also had other videotapes of buildings in other major cities such as Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Dallas and New Orleans. It it not known at this time what Akhtar planned to do with the video....

Stephens said Akhtar had been in custody since July 20, but they did not release any details on the arrest because they were trying to determine if Akhtar was a tourist.

Yeah, whenever I go on vacation (which ain't often, my friends), I always take videos of the local banks in the cities I visit. Makes for a boffo keepsake.

Syrian Woman Arrested, Accused of Hiding Cash

This just in from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MINNEAPOLIS - A woman was arrested after attempting to board a flight en route to Syria with more than $24,000 in cash hidden in her clothes, officials said Tuesday.

Amneh Ahmad Abbas, 49, a Syrian citizen who lives in New Orleans, was charged Monday with trying to evade currency reporting requirements, the U.S. Attorney's office said. She was ordered held without bail.

The U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment on whether Abbas, who has permanent resident status in the United States, is suspected of involvement in terrorist activity. However, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force was taking part in the investigation.

The United States has imposed trade sanctions on Syria on grounds the Arab state was allegedly supporting terrorism.

Pakistani national arrested in N.C. on immigration charges

He was videotaping skyscrapers. From AP:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Federal officials have charged a Pakistani citizen with immigration violations and said Tuesday the man was detained last month after being spotted taking videotapes of downtown skyscrapers.

Kamran Akhtar, 36, was arrested July 20 after being taken in for questioning by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Anthony Maglione. Charges against him were contained in indictments unsealed in federal court Tuesday.

Akhtar is charged with violating federal immigration and naturalization laws and making a materially false statement, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert.

U.S. District Judge Carl Horn ordered Akhtar held in federal custody at a brief hearing Tuesday morning in federal court; he had been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He was being held Tuesday at the Mecklenburg County Jail.

According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrell Stephens, Akhtar told Maglione at the time of his arrest that he was making videotapes for family members.

"This is one that will require more investigation, to determine just what he was doing with these tapes," Stephens said.

Audio tape threatens Iraqi PM, police, soldiers

Iraqi jihadists continue to labor to create a Sharia state. From AP:

Cairo, Aug. 10. (AP): An audio tape purportedly by the spiritual leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group warned that militants intended to kill Iraq's prime minister and all members of the police and national army.

"We will not allow you to destroy our hopes in this blessed holy war, and we will not let you steal our bright tomorrow, which is now appearing on the horizon," the speaker on the tape tells the Iraqi police and soldiers.

The roughly 40-minute tape appeared yesterday on an Islamic website known as a clearinghouse for statements by the Iraqi insurgency group, Tawhid and Jihad. The site identifies the speaker as Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami.

The voice could not be immediately verified as that of al-Shami, but the cleric did issue a similar pro-militant tape on the same Web site on July 28.

Al Qaeda arrests yield 1,000 disks

The revelations and discoveries couldbe just beginning. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly 1,000 computer disks were recovered last week as part of a series of arrests in the United Kingdom of alleged al Qaeda operatives, U.S. government sources have told CNN.

Both British and American authorities are analyzing the information in the disks for any potential clues to possible al Qaeda attack plans.

Among those arrested last Tuesday were Esa al-Hindi, who is described by U.S. officials as a senior al Qaeda operative and someone who personally conducted surveillance in 2000 and 2001 of buildings in New York and New Jersey.

A law enforcement source told CNN there was an intense search going on in the New York area for anyone al-Hindi and two associates, who allegedly did reconnaissance with him, may have met while in the United States.

Officials said they are investigating whether Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, recently arrested in Pakistan, also visited the United States to do reconnaissance.

Al-Qaida's U.S. network

Al-Qaeda is not finished. From Arnaud de Borchgrave in UPI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Before we convince ourselves al-Qaida's down for the count, look at the stats.

Number of Islamist extremists in the world, as estimated by moderate Muslim leaders, about 12 million. Number of fundamentalist sympathizers: 120 million. That's one and 10 percent of the world's Muslim population of 1.2 billion. Then there's the number who trust Osama Bin Laden more than President Bush: a majority in Muslim countries whose populations total 450 million.

European intelligence services know an alarming number of mosques are privileged sanctuaries used by extremists. Not all mosques have observable minarets the way churches and synagogues are recognized by crosses, the nine-branched Jewish Menorah Hanukiyah and stars of David. A mosque can be declared an Islamic place of worship by self-proclaimed imams anywhere they choose, from a basement to a garage. There are 8,000 mosques, according to German intelligence officials, to minister to a Turkish minority of 2.4 million and some 500,000 North African Muslims. France has some 10,000 mosques for 6 million North Africans; the United States, 2,000.

Beyond normal Friday prayers in Western mosques, there is a common anti-Bush political message, virulent in Europe, more discreet in the United States. Internal intelligence services in Europe and the FBI in the U.S. have kept radical imams and their proselytizing efforts under close surveillance. There is little doubt among European intelligence chiefs the Western world in general and the United States in particular is now faced with a global ideological foe convinced the U.S. is the fount of all evil.

Nasir Ahmad al Bahri, known as Abu Jandal, a former Osama Bin Laden bodyguard, interviewed by Al Quds Al Arabi, a London-based, anti-U.S. Arab daily, said last week: "Al-Qaida is no longer an entity but an ideology against America. ... The plan is now to draw the U.S. into a confrontation with all the Islamic peoples. ... Bin Laden and al-Qaida have succeeded in drawing the U.S. into an unequal confrontation, not from a military technology standpoint, but from the ideological aspect. Muslims have now reached the point where they are fed up with the U.S., which lives in prosperity off our nation's resources. I believe the U.S. is heading for its demise. Now that it has found what it wanted, al-Qaida can melt into a new caldron, and a new giant would be reborn, of which al-Qaida would be part. Many of the Islamic world leaders would join it, and the confrontation with the U.S. would be inevitable. Al-Qaida would then not be the leader, but a vanguard army." A veteran of Bosnia and Somalia, Yemeni-born Abu Jandal joined al-Qaida in 1996, the year Bin Laden moved from Sudan to Afghanistan.

Read it all.

Deadly blasts hit Turkey hotels

Many people would like to think of secular Turkey as the model for the Islamic world's future. That's also why it is a prime target. From CNN:

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Near-simultaneous explosions have hit two Istanbul hotels, killing one person, and another attack has unsuccessfully targeted gas tanks at a fuel storage depot, Turkish police and company officials said.

The blasts went off about 1:40 a.m. local time Tuesday (10.40 p.m. Monday GMT) at tourist hotels in two separate Istanbul neighborhoods.

Seven people were wounded in the blasts at the hotels, Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah said.

"It appears to be a terrorist attack," Cerrah told Turkish state news agency Anatolia.

The fatality occurred at the Pars Hotel in Istanbul's Laleli district, he said.

Workers at the Pars hotel said they received an anonymous call only 10 minutes before the explosion saying there was a bomb in a room, The Associated Press reports.

"There was a huge explosion and the glass started shattering," said Umut Akgul, who was visiting a friend who works at the hotel.

Akgul said he ran to the back of the hotel and started to help evacuate tourists after the explosion, which ripped off the exterior walls of the top two floors of the hotel.

Connecting the South American Terror Dots

The jihadist presence is growing in South America, and (as we have seen here before) jihadists are entering the US through Mexico. From David Meir-Levi in FrontPage, with thanks to EPG and litefoot:

Since the early 1980’s, Arab terrorists have been sending thousands of their cohorts to the almost inaccessible jungle and mountain region between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (known as the TBA, Tri-Border Area or La Triple Frontera). Terror training camps and arsenals have been established, virtually out of the reach of local law enforcement or defense forces; and elements from Hezbollah, al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Lebanese Drug mafia operate in partnership, freely and openly in conjunction with local organized crime and corrupt government officials.

The TBA has become a virtual haven for Islamic terror groups and a base for terror operations against South American targets. The large and growing Arab population of these states (in excess of 750,000 by local estimates) provides a community highly conducive to the establishment of Islamic terrorist sleeper cells throughout the area. The attacks in Buenos Aires on the Israeli embassy (3/17/1992) and the Jewish Community Center (7/18/1994) are believed to have originated from terror bases in the TBA. Since the mid-90’s, government forces have foiled many more terror attacks against American, Jewish and Israeli targets, arresting some of the perpetrators.

CNN reported that an Islamic terrorist summit meeting was held in the TBA in late 2002, to plot attacks in South America and abroad. Security forces believe that future targets include USA and Israeli government offices, Jewish community buildings, hotels, tourism centers, airports and facilities of multinational corporations.

The TBA terrorist haven also operates an immense money-laundering project, reaping profits from their partnerships with the FARC and narcotics traffickers in the widespread South American drug trade. Government estimates place the total amount of money laundered since 1992 at more than 172 billion dollars.

There is currently no effective surveillance or containment of these terrorist activities....

Dot #3: Illegal Immigration at the Southern Border…Not Just Hispanics, Anymore. (“U.S. seizes 77 Mideastern aliens in southern Arizona,” World Tribune, 8/2/04; “Two groups of middle-eastern invaders caught in Cochise county in past six weeks,” Tombstone Tumbleweed, 7/18/04; “Breaking silence over possible terror threat,” Defense Watch, 7/23/04.)

American border patrol agents arrested 158 illegal aliens in Cochise County, Arizona, on 6/13/04. One agent, who speaks Farsi and Arabic, overheard dozens of detainees speaking Arabic in the back of the detention vehicle. He counted 53 of Middle Eastern rather than Hispanic origin. His superiors told him to keep that information to himself; but he reported it to the local newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed.

Just one week later, on June 21, 2004, another group of illegals were apprehended, including 24 Arabic speaking men. But at least as many or more escaped apprehension and disappeared into the United States.

Border Patrol officials deny that there have been any Middle Eastern illegals among those arrested, but individual arresting officers attest to the accuracy of that ethnic description.

Upon deeper investigation, the Tumbleweed editor learned that since October 1, 2003, Arizona border patrol agents have arrested 5,510 illegals from countries other than Mexico, Central and South America. In addition, the arresting officers noted that all of the Middle Eastern illegals sported identical haircuts and moustaches; and while their clothes were the typical illegal immigrant jeans, baseball caps and jerseys, the Middle Easterners all wore brand new clothes, still spiffy looking and clean (quite the opposite of the usual rather frazzled appearance of illegals).

Read it all.

London: 'Tube flood plan' to kill thousands

From This is London, with thanks to Raymond:

A terror plot to detonate a bomb inside a Tube tunnel beneath the Thames has been uncovered by MI5 chiefs, it was reported yesterday.

The explosion would pierce the bed of the river, leaving tens of thousands of rush- hour commuters to be drowned or trampled underfoot in the panic as people tried to flee.

Blueprints for an attack on the Underground and maps of the tunnels were reported to have been discovered at an al- Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, a Sunday newspaper reported. It is the latest in a series of terror scares.

Last week, reports suggested Heathrow airport was a target of Islamic fundamentalists.

Security has been stepped up at the entrances to the hundreds of miles of Tube tunnels stretching underneath London. Anti-terror chiefs recently highlighted that the radio systems of some emergency services do not work in the deepest Tube stations.

Richard Barnes, deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: 'Radio incompatibility could be a matter of life and death.'

Mauritania foils bomb, assassination plot

Jihad in Mauritania. From AP, with thanks to Raymond:

Mauritania's pro-U.S. government broke up a plot by military officers and radical Islamists to seize power in this heavily Arab West African nation through a bombing and assassination campaign, officials with the military and the ruling party claimed Monday.

There was no immediate confirmation or denial from the Sahara nation's government, and it was impossible to verify the claims independently.

Ruling party officials blamed military officers, civilians and radical Islamists in the alleged plot against President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya's government, which has allied itself with Washington in the war on terror.

Authorities arrested at least two military officers for planning a violent campaign that had the ultimate aim of wresting power from Taya, four officials of Taya's party said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed top figures were targeted for assassination, including Taya.

Western officials said they were investigating the reports of arrested military personnel.

An unspecified number of civilians and alleged Muslim extremists also were taken into custody, the ruling party officials said.

"They were hoping to carry out their plan, but it was derailed at the last moment," said a separate military source, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Video Shows Beheading of Iraq Hostage

"The brief video ends with bloody images of a body in an orange jumpsuit being beheaded with a knife as his assailants repeatedly shout 'God is great!'"

How exactly does murderous brutality show that God is great?

From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

In the new video, a bearded, blindfolded man sits before four masked men clad in black and a black banner with the words Tawhid and Jihad in white Arabic script. The hostage is wearing the orange jumpsuit that has become an iconic element in such videos, meant to evoke those worn by Iraqi prisoners subjected to abuse while in U.S. custody in Iraq.

A man is heard saying, "Here we are returning again to cut off the neck of the other hostage."

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

The brief video ends with bloody images of a body in an orange jumpsuit being beheaded with a knife as his assailants repeatedly shout "God is great!" The victim does not appear to struggle, indicating he may have been dead or drugged before the beheading, or that his arms were somehow restrained. In the last scene, one of the men in black brandishes the severed head before the camera....

Tawhid and Jihad's name refers to the Islamic tenets of monotheism and holy war. The group is believed led by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and has also claimed responsibility for the beheadings of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il.

2 Explosions Kill 8 Near Karachi Religious School

Including, according to another report, a six-year-old child. Note the curious assessment in this report: it was Al-Qaeda, but it wasn't religious. From VOA News:

Two synchronized explosions near a religious school in Pakistan's largest city have killed at least eight people and injured dozens of others.

Sindh Province police chief Syed Kamal Shah says the two explosions took place Sunday evening, close to the Jamia Islamia Binori Town religious seminary.

"Two explosions. One was in a motorbike and one was in a bicycle," he said. "The injured have been evacuated to the hospital."...

The Jamia Islamia madrasah is a Sunni religious school noted for its modern curriculum, which includes computer classes, and for its international student body.

Sectarian violence between extremists of the Sunni and Shia religious sects is not uncommon in Karachi.

But provincial government adviser Salahuddin Haider says the attack was probably not religious in nature.

Instead, he says, the culprits are likely members of international terror groups, such as al-Qaida, which he says hope to destabilize Pakistan by encouraging religious violence.

"It was an attempt to incite a particular religious group. I am happy that the leaders [of the madrasah] have given a statement saying that, 'We are being provoked,'" said Mr. Haider.

Muslim American activist: fifty percent of Muslims worldwide support extremists

"We have to come out and admit that we have a problem with extremism." Hear hear. I've been saying that for years and all I have gotten in response from the Islamic community in America is name-calling. From the O'Reilly Factor, with thanks to Foehammer:

Two leaders of a mosque in Albany have been charged with plotting to murder a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. Muslim-American activist Kamal Nawash told The Factor that Muslim leaders need to speak out against terror: "We have to come out and admit that we have a problem with extremism... it's a movement that's been growing for twenty years throughout the entire Muslim world." Nawash further claimed that many as fifty percent of Muslims around the world support the goals of the extremists.

Iraq Cleric Vows Fight to Death Vs. U.S.

We're so used to Islamic clerics talking this way that we no longer take any notice. But remember: this is a religious leader. He has devoted his life to study of the Qur'an. How has he missed all of its peace and nonviolence? From AP:

NAJAF, Iraq - A radical cleric whose loyalists battled U.S. troops for a fifth straight day vowed Monday to fight to the death, and a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb northeast of the capital, killing six people and wounding the deputy governor who was the intended target, officials said.

Explosions and gunfire were heard throughout the holy Shiite city of Najaf and U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as U.S. troops tried to drive Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen from a vast cemetery they have repeatedly used as a base. A U.S. tank rolled within 400 yards of Najaf's holiest site, the Imam Ali Shrine, also held by militiamen....

Al-Sadr vowed to keep up the battle.

"I will continue fighting," al-Sadr told reporters. "I will remain in Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."

Capitol, lawmakers targeted, officials confirm

No surprise here. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Congressional leaders have been told that federal lawmakers and the U.S. Capitol, in addition to five financial centers identified last week, are targets for attack by al Qaeda terrorists.

Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser at the White House, and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, both appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," confirmed the threats and their extent as officials remain concerned about pre-election terrorist attacks, including abductions and assassinations.

The disclosures helped explain traffic checkpoints and other tighter security imposed last week around Capitol Hill.

When asked directly by interviewer Bob Schieffer whether "there have been some threats against the Capitol and members of Congress," Mrs. Townsend replied "yes."

Mrs. Townsend confirmed that the previously undisclosed threats to Capitol Hill are part of a "continuing threat stream" of intelligence.

"We knew that al Qaeda was practiced in the training camps for assassinations and kidnappings, and there are a number of others like that that are continuing threat streams," she said.

Saudi regime collapsing?

From FoxNews, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON — Behind a façade of control, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia is in tough shape and teetering on the brink of collapse, a victim of its own corruption and a violent Islamic insurgency at its door, some U.S. experts warn.

"It is a pretty fragile royal family, it's pretty corrupt and it's sitting on some pretty weak legs," S. Enders Winbush, director of the Center for Future Security Strategies with the Hudson Institute, told FOXNews.com.

"The question is, can it do enough soon enough to put off what I suspect will be the inevitable — that at some point it will come apart," he said.

"Anyone who knows anything about the area knows it's not a question of ‘if,' but of ‘when,'" said Bill Lind, a military analyst with the Free Congress Foundation. "We need to delay it as much as possible … and think of what to do when it does happen."

Indeed. For it would be easy for an Osama clone to come to power there. Saudi Arabia has been an inconsistent ally at best, but that would make matters even worse.

Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target

Al-Qaeda has been planning to use tourist helicopters to attack New York City. From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

As a result, the officials said, security measures for helicopter operators in New York City will be stepped up in a new directive as early as this week. Among the new measures under review is a requirement for operators to conduct airport-style screenings of passengers for suspicious items, said an official with the Department of Homeland Security who had been briefed on the plan. So far, no groundings of helicopter operators are planned.

Personnel at several Manhattan helicopter charter companies said Sunday that although they had already conducted varying degrees of passenger screening themselves, they had heard of no specific safety concerns in recent days from the federal government.

Separately, a senior American intelligence official said that more than 1,000 computer disks had been seized by British authorities during arrests last week of 12 suspected operatives for Al Qaeda in England.

Senior al-Qaida Suspect Arrested in UAE

They're falling fast these days. Let's hope it keeps up. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A senior Pakistani al-Qaida operative who used to run one of the terror group's training camps in Afghanistan has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates and handed over to Pakistani officials, the information minister said Sunday.

Qari Saifullah Akhtar is in Pakistani custody, the latest in a string of major breakthroughs against the al-Qaida network, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.

Akhtar ran an al-Qaida training camp in Rishkhor, Afghanistan, where terrorists learned kidnapping and assassination techniques, as well as traditional combat skills used by Taliban fighters in their war to win control of the country before they were ousted in late 2001.

"Yes we can confirm that we have Qari Saifullah," Ahmed said.

Some 3,500 men passed through Rishkhor, a sprawling complex of shattered barracks and dusty training fields about 10 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are both believed to have visited the camp.

The camp was deserted in the hours ahead of the U.S. bombing campaign in October 2001, and Akhtar got away. It is now used as a base by Afghan soldiers.

U.S.: al-Qaida Suspect Cased New York

They want to make 9/11 just the prelude. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON - An al-Qaida terror suspect detained in England was sent to the United States in early 2001 by the principal architect of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings to perform surveillance on economic targets in New York, according to U.S. officials and government interviews with other captured terror suspects.

They said the suspect claimed he has associates in America, possibly in California.

Abu Eisa al-Hindi was arrested in a roundup last week in Britain along with 11 others.

The disclosure that al-Hindi also was known as Issa al-Britani provides tantalizing details that further link al-Hindi to recent Bush administration warnings about possible terror attacks against U.S. financial buildings in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J.

It also has spurred a furious investigation in New York and elsewhere to trace al-Hindi's travels in the United States and to try to identify his associates during the American period.

"They're looking pretty hard to find anyone in the United States who might be part of this network, but they haven't found anyone so far who's still here," Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterror chief, said Saturday.

The FBI believes al-Hindi may have had two collaborators helping perform the reconnaissance, said a high-ranking law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

U.S. counterterror officials have said previously that they believe al-Hindi, known by dozens of aliases, was the author of documents describing surveillance at U.S. financial buildings during 2000 and 2001. The documents, written in fluent English, were found among a trove of papers, computer files, sketches and photographs recovered during mid-July raids in Pakistan.

The FBI and city detectives on a federal terrorism task force are looking for witnesses with information about al-Hindi's time in New York, the law enforcement official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Psychiatrist: Terrorists 'normal'

This echoes other findings about how terrorists are relatively well-educated and affluent, and is in accord with what I have been saying for some time. From the Winnipeg Sun, with thanks to Nicolei:

TORONTO -- Suicide bombers are rational, sane people whose choice to end their lives as they kill others is considered perfectly normal in societies they grow up in, the Globe and Mail reported yesterday from a southern Ontario religious conference. In a chilling analysis of what makes a terrorist, a U.S. psychiatrist who worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said most extremists who use violence are not emotionally disturbed.

In fact, they would be expelled from their organizations if they appeared to be unbalanced, the Toronto Star said from Orillia, Ont.

"Most terrorists are quite normal. It's hard to understand but quite true," Jerrold Post said Friday....

He said "psychological warfare," or education, is the most effective weapon against terror. Young people must learn the version of Islam in which they have been indoctrinated has nothing to do with mainstream Islam.

That might be the largest, but most important, challenge of all. I wonder if Post appreciates the fact that when imams are allegedly getting involved in terrorist activities from Albany to Thailand, and respected religious leaders are calling for suicide bombing, the "mainstream Islam" he envisions might not be as strong as he thinks.

U.S. Says Man Had Ties to Plot to Disrupt Vote

Did they think a pre-election attack here wouldn't result in the same outcome as it did in Spain, and so planned to disrupt the elections themselves? From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 - A Pakistani man whose arrest provided information about the reconnaissance of financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington was also communicating with Qaeda operatives who the authorities say are plotting to carry out an attack intended to disrupt the fall elections, a senior intelligence official said Saturday.

Senior intelligence and counterterrorism officials said it was not clear whether the people behind the surveillance of the financial institutions and the people involved in the election threat were part of the same group, or belonged to overlapping or separate ones.

The arrest last month of the Pakistani, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, had already prompted a search in the United States, Britain and other countries to locate the people behind the surveillance, which took place three or four years ago. Now the authorities say Mr. Khan's arrest is also helping them unravel a threat to carry out an attack this year inside the United States.

It is not clear whether Mr. Khan represents the second channel of intelligence that officials have alluded to in recent days that, they say, convinced them that the reconnaissance of financial institutions was related to current threats.

But he is emerging as a central figure in an expanding web of connections that, the authorities say, indicates that they may have penetrated an operational Qaeda group whose intentions were previously unknown.

Florida: Did Brevard County Release Three Terror Suspects?

I have received some disturbing information from Florida: on July 25, three Middle Eastern men from New York were stopped in Brevard County. The Palestinian driver had a suspended license, and in the car were electronic components, copper wire, PVC pipes, nails, and more. They said they were plumbers on vacation, and even though they had very little clothing with them and it's a long way from New York to Florida by car, they were let go without further questioning.

My correspondent says that the Brevard County Sheriff's Department sent out a notice advising officers to contact them if these guys were apprehended again. But of course, they should have been questioned the first time. Now, if they really were up to something, as my contact notes, "they will have disappeared into the barrios of Miami-Dade by now and won't be heard from again until they strike."

UPDATE: A Jihad Watch reader called the Brevard County Sheriff's Department about this and sends me this report: "A representative just called me to assure that this has been resolved. A local city police department, not the Sheriff's Department was involved. The men had proceeded north again after being stopped. We don't know if
this is before or after doing something.... The local police reported this 'soon' after it occurred, but by then the men were long gone.
The four men returned to NY where they were apprehended. Three illegals were deported and NY 'isn't sure there is a problem with the fourth.' Perhaps they are still dealing with him in NY. The Brevard Sheriff's office spokesman assures that their office take all
such behavior seriously i.e. Photographing, strange behavior, etc.,
investigating 'until the end,' until there is nothing left to investigate."

Well, I hope so, but the initial report I received gave a distinctly different impression.

Iraq Shuts Down Al-Jazeera Station for a Month

But don't worry: you'll still be able to get it in Canada -- and the United States. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi government closed the Iraqi offices of the Arab television station Al-Jazeera for 30 days, accusing it Saturday of inciting violence.

A spokesman for Al-Jazeera called the closure "unwise" and said it restrained freedom of the press.

"It is a regrettable decision, but Al-Jazeera will endeavor to cover the situation in Iraq as best as we can within the constraints," spokesman Jihad Ballout said.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the government convened an independent commission a month ago to monitor Al-Jazeera's daily coverage "to see what kind of violence they are advocating, inciting hatred and problems and racial tension."

Qaeda-Linked Cells 'To Hit Italy' After Aug. 15 Truce

More threats. From Reuters, with thanks to LGF:

DUBAI (Reuters) - A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said on Saturday its cells in Italy were ready to strike if the country did not withdraw troops from Iraq before an Aug. 15 deadline it set a week ago.

"The truce we had offered you ... to withdraw your troops has almost ended. Our cells in Rome and in all other Italian cities are prepared and ready to carry out their mission after the end of the truce on the 15th of this month," said a statement signed by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades -- al Qaeda Organization.

"You won't feel safe in your homes. Each place will be a target after the end of the truce and the targets have been defined," it said.

Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades sent a statement last weekend to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper giving Italy 15 days to withdraw its forces from Iraq or face attacks.

Another group saying it had ties to al Qaeda and calling itself Abu Bakr al-Seddiq Brigades threatened to attack Denmark and El Salvador if they did not pull out of Iraq.

An Internet statement by the hitherto unheard of group threatened Denmark "attacks by mujahideen and rigged cars" if it did not withdraw and said El Salvador would hear "the language of blood."...

Abu Hafs said in its new statement that anyone violating Muslims would feel "the bitterness of (their) suffering" and that its words would "ring deep inside Italy and will be heard by the rest of Europe."

Jihad in Central America? Group Tells El Salvador Not to Send Troops to Iraq

Now that it has worked for the Philippines and Spain, we won't see the end of this kind of intimidation for a long time. From Reuters, with thanks to LGF:

DUBAI (Reuters) - A group saying it has ties to al Qaeda vowed on Thursday to strike inside El Salvador if the country sends fresh troops to Iraq, according to a message posted on an Islamist Web site.

El Salvador's President Tony Saca said on Wednesday a new contingent of Salvadoran troops -- approved by the legislature last month after heated debate -- would leave for Iraq in the middle of August.

"Dispatching any troops from El Salvador would be a declaration of war against Iraq's Muslim people, prompting us to launch war against you and move the conflict inside El Salvador," said the hitherto unknown group Mohammed Atta Brigades - al Qaeda of Jihad.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. The group is named after a leader of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

"No citizen will enjoy security in El Salvador as soon as any soldier arrives in Iraq ... And do not hold us responsible for bloodshed in El Salvador as we have cautioned you against taking such a step," said the brief statement in Arabic.

Ex-San Diego sailor allegedly linked to terror suspect

"Keep up the dawah and the psychological warfare," Ahmad told the sailor, a Muslim serving in the US Navy. From the San Diego Union Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei and Teri:

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit....

Investigators say the messages were sent from a Benfold e-mail account, including one in which the sailor wrote that he was on active duty in the Middle East....

The e-mail messages extolled the bombing of the destroyer Cole in October 2000 and the actions of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya, according to the affidavit documents.

A return message from Ahmad's computer account "praised the enlistee's comments and encouraged the enlistee to 'keep up with the dawah (an Arabic term for missionary work) and the psychological warefare (sic),' " the documents stated.

The sailor, in another e-mail, discussed an on-board briefing about protecting the ship from terrorist attacks like the Cole bombing, according to the documents. In that attack, an explosives-laden boat was brought alongside the destroyer while it was anchored in Aden, Yemen, and blown up. The explosion killed 17 sailors, including one from San Diego.

The same floppy disk contained a separate file describing the composition of the Constellation battle group, the ships' planned movements and a drawing of the group's formation for the transit of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, court documents said.

Under a heading of "weakness," the computer file stated, "They have nothing to stop a small craft with (rocket-propelled grenade) etc., except their SEALs' Stinger missiles."

It also noted the expected date for the battle group's transit through the strait....

Several defense analysts said the possibility of a spy or terrorist sympathizer within the military is plausible.

"I think it's disturbing, but not surprising," said analyst Jack Spencer with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. "Clearly, our military capabilities are a target of al-Qaeda."

Another defense analyst wondered whether the military is able to prevent people from supplying information to terrorists.

"During the Cold War, they were set up to sniff out Communists, but I don't know if they've come up with a program to address (terrorists)," said John Pike, director of the think tank GlobelSecurity.org. "There have been enough of these instances where service members have tried to help the (Islamic) jihad that you wonder how many that we haven't caught."

There will continue to be many that we do not catch as long as the military refuses to acknowledge that any Muslim can be radicalized.

New York mosque divided between pro-Taliban, anti-Taliban factions

Note that the pro-Taliban group has the court order. From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Muslim factions at odds over involvement with the Taliban and terrorism squared off yesterday at a Queens mosque, where the issue divided the congregation after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Armed with a court order and a phalanx of police officers, a group that had been ousted from the mosque in 2001 demanded entrance. The group, which recently won its case in State Supreme Court in Queens, said it was the true founder of the mosque, the Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq in Flushing, and demanded the departure of the current imam, who charged after 9/11 that the group had been supporting the Taliban.

The group, the Afghan Turkistan Islamic Foundation in America, found neither the imam (who was sitting in a darkened kebab house a mile away) or entrance (the imam's supporters had locked the temple doors and offered no keys).

An uproar promptly broke out, as both factions crowded into the courtyard in front of the mosque, whose entrance bears the inscription, "Enter ye here in peace and security." Both sides shouted angrily at each other, and police officers stepped in to break up standoffs and physical struggles.

Supporters of the imam, Mohammed Sherzad, shouted that the incoming faction only wanted to use the temple, the largest Afghan mosque in the New York area, as an outpost for the Taliban to finance terrorist activities.

Foundation supporters responded that Imam Sherzad, whom they had originally hired as a spiritual leader, had abused his position and illegally seized ownership of the building, a smooth gray marble mosque on 33rd Avenue serving many of the roughly 20,000 Afghan immigrants in the New York area.

"Don't touch me, you bloody fool," shouted Syed Hassan, a supporter of the imam, as he engaged in a struggle with Kabir Yaqubie, a foundation board member.Several feet from the chaos, dozens of Afghans, from both factions, conducted their Friday prayers, kneeling on brown paper spread across the asphalt parking lot.

The acrimonious split has unsettled the thousands of Afghan immigrants who rely upon the mosque as their religious and social center.

The power struggle erupted when the imam accused the foundation of funneling money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan. In turn, foundation members accused Imam Sherzad of exceeding his role as a spiritual leader by supporting certain warlords fighting against the Taliban.

Germany stages raids on radical Islamic cleric's followers

Two months ago I predicted that the "caliph of Cologne" would use the delay in his extradition to his advantage. I'm glad German authorities got that idea too. From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

COLOGNE - Authorities in Germany Friday staged raids on followers of a radical Islamic cleric who calls himself the "caliph of Cologne".

Searches were carried out at 31 homes, businesses and Muslim prayer rooms in southern Germany, authorities said.

The raids came as a deadline approached for a two-month delay in extraditing Metin Kaplan, 51, to Turkey to stand trial for treason and murder.

The fate of Kaplan, a breakaway Turkish imam who claims the title of "caliph" of the Islamic world, has become a national political controversy in Germany, with the media and law-and-order groups suggesting he is making a fool of the authorities.

That's for sure.

Kaplan has served a four-year jail term in Germany for inciting the murder of a rival pretender to the caliphate. His group has been banned because of its violence and its rejection of democracy.

Zarqawi: Muslims must wage jihad against "crusaders"

Yes, they have been waging jihad for months now, but these new declarations emphasize that the struggle must continue even now that Iraq is sovereign. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released a CD-ROM urging Muslim men to take up arms against the "crusaders" in Iraq and threatening to kill Iraq's interim prime minister....

Titled "The Winds of Victory," the recording shows fighters purportedly from al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group undergoing weapons training in different locations, some apparently in the desert and others in grassy areas. It also contains footage taken from inside cars following militants in Iraq conducting attacks, some of which has been previously aired by TV stations.

The Kuwaiti newspaper said the professionally produced CD-ROM is being circulated among fundamentalists in this oil-rich country, which borders Iraq.

A narrator on the film urges Muslim men to join the fight against U.S.-led forces in Iraq, saying "get up friends, God has opened the doors of paradise (to martyrs)."

The CD-ROM also repeats Tawhid and Jihad's threat to kill Ayad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, saying, "You escaped ... several times from tight traps, but we promise you to go on (trying) until the end."...

"Whenever I remember our ... sisters in the prisons of the crusaders ... I feel the earth moving underneath me and I promise God to take revenge," the narrator on the CD-ROM.

Junior Jihadists

"Terrorists in Gaza and beyond are busy grooming the next generation of suicide bombers." From Erick Stakelbeck and Michal Deskalo in FrontPage (thanks to Son of Infidel):

Thanks both to its much-maligned security barrier and its assassination of several Palestinian terrorist leaders, Israel has seen a dramatic decrease in suicide bombings over the past several months.

This fact—as well as the rapidly diminishing role of terror master Yasser Arafat in everyday Palestinian affairs—makes recent talk that the Intifada has finally ended after almost four years of bloodshed seem almost plausible.

But amidst these hopes, terrorist groups in Gaza and the West Bank are busy grooming the next generation of suicide bombers.

Last month, the student movement of Hamas, Al-Kutla al-Islamiyya, debuted a new Arabic-language website—www.alkotla.net—designed to encourage Palestinian teenagers to join the group and carry out suicide operations against Israel.

In addition to a section honoring past Al-Kutla suicide bombers (whose attacks have left 53 Israelis dead and over 300 injured) the site features photos of Palestinian high school students who earned academic honors this year, calling them, “the group which will lead the Palestinian nation to victory and liberation.”

According to the website, in early July, Hamas organized several large festivals in Gaza honoring over 2000 recent high school graduates. The students were presented with certificates of achievement and told to avoid “the Western lands of the infidels” while pursuing their college degrees.

Hamas has long courted top Palestinian high schoolers in order to groom them for future leadership positions within the organization. But these Hamas recruitment drives aren’t just limited to the secondary school level. Even preschoolers are sucked into the group’s culture of death.

For example, another popular Hamas website, www.al-fateh.net, features snapshots of Palestinian pre-teens and toddlers dressed in Hamas military regalia and holding automatic weapons.

Along with bedtime stories, games, riddles and coloring activities, the site showcases a Hamas “Featured Martyr.” The most recent honoree is Mahmoud Salem, the 18-year-old responsible for a suicide bombing at the Israeli port of Ashdod in March that killed 10 people.

Salem’s picture is accompanied by the text of his suicide note, which implores Palestinians “to continue their path to jihad and martyrdom.” ...

This widespread indoctrination of young Muslims calls to mind an Arabic saying, Al-ilm fi al-sghirar kanaqshi fi al-hajar. Translated into English, it means, “An education in one’s youth is like engraving into a stone.”

Nations that are battling the forces of radical Islam around the globe can only hope that isn’t the case.

January Photos Said Used for Terror Alert

This whole controversy is silly, since it has been abundantly established that jihadists have planned operations for years. Do you think the planning for September 11 began on September 10? But anyway, it looks as if the mujahedin were casing Prudential Financial in January 2004. From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Authorities have evidence that new surveillance photographs were taken of Prudential Financial's headquarters in Newark in January, a top homeland security official said Friday, even as President Bush defended the decision to issue terrorism warnings on the basis of old intelligence.

In the past, U.S. officials have said only that there was some evidence of new surveillance as late as January of this year.

But James Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security and No. 2 official at the agency, told a reporter for The Associated Press, that new photographs were taken in January of the building's interior and exterior, and were not simply old photographs that had been altered or otherwise updated.

"Both inside and out," Loy told The Associated Press following a ceremony to confer badges on officers of the department's U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office.

Albany: Neighbors Describe the Suspects as Peaceful, Religious Family Men

The obligatory "they were soft-spoken, peaceful, religious men" story is in the New York Times for the Albany imam and other Muslim leader who were just arrested.

The two men who were arrested were described by friends and acquaintances as hard-working, peaceful men devoted to their families and religion.

Mr. Aref, a Kurd from northern Iraq, was the imam of the mosque. He lived in a ramshackle wood-frame house next to a vacant lot with his wife and three young children. He had a job driving for a local ambulance company, taught children at the mosque and, last year, took a group of children to an amusement park, friends said.

As Mr. Aref's children played on the stoop of their house on Thursday, Arif Khan, a friend of the family's, said they were driven from Iraq by Saddam Hussein about four years ago.

"He was harassed by Saddam,'' said Mr. Khan, who called the government's charges, "totally fake."

Just a couple of the mistaken assumptions here:

1. Being harassed by Saddam doesn't automatically mean that you are on the side of the angels. Endeavoring to keep them from toppling his relatively secular regime, Saddam harassed radical Muslims as indefatigably as he did the Kurds and others.

2. There is no reason why a man who devotes himself to the study of the Islamic religion, even a quiet, nice man, could not or would not have gotten involved in terrorist activities. Global jihadists can and do point to numerous passages of the Qur'an and Sunna to justify their actions. The imam of Albany's mosque was no doubt familiar with these passages.

At the court hearing, the wives of both men wept and hugged each other as United States marshals led their husbands away. One acquaintance there, Sajid Ahmed, a 32-year-old native of India, said the idea of Mr. Hossain being involved in an anti-American terrorist plot seemed incredible. Not only was he often heard saying that he loved America, he said, but he was well known for giving pizza to the poor.

"It was very surprising to me,'' Mr. Ahmed said. "I think they were being nice to some other people and they got entrapped in this case."

Yes, I often demonstrate kindness to strangers by helping them obtain surface-to-air missiles.

Score one for Al-Arian and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Imagine for a moment that you are a terrorist. Besides blowing up people and buildings and spreading mayhem, you decide to win a few hearts and minds by opening a soup kitchen. Then you attract a supporter who helps you raise significant money; when this supporter is arrested, he says, "Oh, I was just supporting the soup kitchen. I didn't know they were killing anyone."

Have things gotten so bad that we have to spell this out? Even if this imaginary terrorist group really does have an accounting system that allows the big supporter's money to be used only for its soup kitchen, that frees up other money to buy bombs. Sheesh. Some of these judges should go back to elementary school: Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a terrorist group. I know it. You know it. The State Department knows it. Now we're supposed to believe that Sami Al-Arian, who was in regular contact with members of the group itself, didn't know it?

From UPI:

U.S. District Judge James Moody raised the bar Thursday for the prosecution of Professor Sami al-Arian of the University of South Florida and his three co-defendants, who raised funds for Islamic Jihad, saying a conviction must be predicated on proving the defendants knew their fundraising facilitated continued illegal activity, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported....

"They will have to show that the support they allege Dr. Al-Arian provided was directly connected to the violence the group carried out," said attorney Bill Moffitt. "It significantly raises the burden of proof, and rightly so."

A cancer on civilization

From Mike Rosen in the Rocky Mountain News, with thanks to Nicolei:

A signal contribution of the 9/11 commission report was to identify the enemy bluntly. More specifically than generic terrorism, the commission declared we are under attack from "Islamist terrorism." This is an enemy unlike our former adversary, the Soviet Union, during the half-century of the Cold War. The Soviets were ideologically committed, powerful and ruthless, but they were also rational. The nuclear weapons standoff never escalated to all-out war because neither side was suicidal.

Today, the delivery systems of weapons of mass (as well as smaller scale) destruction are fanatical, irrational, embittered, disenfranchised, psychotic, suicidal religious zealots, many of whom perceive that they have little to lose in this ephemeral world, and hope for eternal rewards in the hereafter. These aren't the kind of people who respond to negotiations.

Call it what you will - radical Islam, Wahhabism, Jihadism - it's a cancer on civilization that must be forcefully removed, just as Nazism had to be eliminated in the last century. Until we come to grips with that reality, we will not devote the will, the resources and the sacrifice necessary to win this latest world war. After 9/11, many Americans have come to understand this.

The next 9/11 might persuade some more. The French, among others, are still pathetically in denial....

... these heroic "lions of Islam" don't just murder Americans. They're equal-opportunity butchers of all "infidels."

In Khobar, that meant innocent, unarmed civilians whose primary sin was having a different religious belief from theirs. If this cancer is ever to be effectively eradicated, it would best be done by civilized Muslims, their own countrymen. One wonders if there are enough of them and if they're up to the task?

Fox this morning

In a few minutes I am going to catch an early stagecoach out of Secure Undisclosed Locationville in order to appear briefly on FoxNews. Unless there is hot breaking news (for instance, once I was in the studio, wired up and ready to go, when I was bumped for a Michael Jackson court appearance), I'll be on early in the 9AM EDT hour.

Hence few updates this morning; more later.

Suspicious activity may have been ignored

Maybe this was nothing. Or hysteria. But maybe it wasn't. The problem is in the official indifference. From FSB, with thanks to Teri:

HARTFORD -- A man from Vernon was recently driving through New York when he saw something suspicious but when he called police to alert them he says no one seemed to care.

A few days ago, Mike Maney was on his weekly trip from Vernon to Northern New Jersey to pick up merchandise. He was waiting in traffic at the approach to the George Washington Bridge when he noticed three men in the car next to him with a camera.

"I came across a vehicle sitting across from us in traffic, with three middle eastern looking men in it, with a very small palm video camera," said Maney, "We sat across from them for a minimum of 20 minutes and the entire time they were filming structures of the tunnels and the bridge."

Once the men spotted Maney watching, they appeared to become suspicious of him.

"The first time they saw me he instantly put the camera down in his lap and rolled the window up," he said." And every time he got a car length in front of me the camera came back out and he went back to filming."

Maney says he dialed 911 from his cell and he expected a big response.

"We figured the bridge would be shut down with the information I gave them," he said.

Maney says he gave dispatchers a description of the vehicle and a license plate number, but the calls made little progress because no one was sure who was supposed to respond.

"The woman on the other line who was a sergeant said 'well we're just not sure that was our jurisdiction,' which really disgusted me," he said.

Maney followed the car across the bridge into New Jersey and eventually onto the Jersey Turnpike where it disappeared, without ever being stopped by a police officer....

Mike Maney says he is sure a mistake was made.

"The first person who took my phone call should have taken it seriously, have somebody respond, pull the people over and see whether it was legit," he said.

Eyewitness News called the Port Authority police, the FBI in New Haven, New York and Washington, and the Department of Homeland Security but none of the agencies have returned the calls.

Iraq Evidence Led Feds to Albany Mosque

The jihad trail led from Iraq to Albany, New York. From FoxNews:

ALBANY, N.Y. — Information found in Iraq led federal investigators to become suspicious of an Albany, N.Y., mosque leader, FOX News has learned.

Last summer, U.S. troops discovered Yassin Muhhiddin Aref's name, telephone number and address in a book left behind in a vacated terrorist training camp, a U.S. official told FOX News. The book also revealed that Ansar al-Islam, the group running the camp, had given Aref a title: "the commander."

Aref, 34, is the Imam of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany, N.Y. He and one other mosque leader were arrested Thursday and charged with helping an undercover informant posing as a weapons dealer who was plotting to buy a shoulder-launched missile that would be used to kill the Pakistani ambassador in New York City.

British police arrest man wanted on terrorism charges in US

Jihad in Connecticut, from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The Metropolitan Police said Babar Ahmad, 30, was arrested in central London on a U.S. extradition warrant from Connecticut.

A news conference was scheduled for Friday at the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Haven, Conn. to discuss the arrest.

The warrant alleges that between 1998 and Feb. 19, 2001, Ahmad sought through American Web sites and e-mail people in the United States or elsewhere "to give or otherwise make available money and other property" to commit terrorist acts in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

Shi'ites in Iraq declare inner spiritual struggle against foreign troops

That is, they have declared jihad. But as all the American Muslim advocacy groups will tell you, that is just a struggle to better oneself. How nice that the Shi'ites are interested in self-improvement. From SkyNews, with thanks to DC Watson:

Militiamen loyal to Shi'ite Muslim radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr have declared holy war against British forces based in Iraq's main southern city of Basra.

The declaration came after four of their comrades were arrested.

"We will wage jihad and war against the foreign troops, not against police and Iraqi forces," said Sheikh Saad al-Basri, al-Sadr's representative in the largely Shi'ite city.

"However, if Iraqi personnel fight on the side of the occupiers, we will strike them harshly."

Federal Agents Raid Mosque in Albany, Uncover Missile Plot

Two men there were trying to get a shoulder-fired missile. This just in from Fox News, with thanks to DC Watson:

ALBANY, N.Y. — Federal agents and Albany police raided a Muslim mosque overnight Wednesday and arrested two men for helping someone they thought was a terrorist, a law enforcement official confirmed to FOX News on Thursday.

A block of downtown Albany was sealed off with armed officers for several hours after the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the Masjid As-Salam mosque and two Albany-area residences, officials said.

Yassin Muhhiddin Aref, 34, the Imam of the mosque, and Mohammed Mosharref Hoosain, the 49-year-old founder of the mosque, were arrested early Thursday morning. They are accused of reaching out to someone they thought was a terrorist trying to get a shoulder-fired missile to down planes in the United States.

FOX News learned from a law enforcement official, however, that that person was not a terrorist, and actually it was all a sting operation. The two men are accused of agreeing to help launder money to pay for the missile.

The men have ties to a group called Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network, according to law enforcement officials.

Sources: Al Qaeda may have made contact in U.S. recently

Another aspect of the story below. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Intelligence found in Pakistan suggests that suspected al Qaeda operatives in that country contacted an individual or individuals in the United States in the past few months, according to two senior U.S. government sources.

The officials would not characterize the nature of the communication.

But the sources said other information from Pakistan has prompted investigations in the United States to uncover whether there are any individuals or terrorist cells plotting an attack on U.S. soil.

In addition, two senior Pakistani intelligence sources told CNN that there is evidence at least six individuals in the United States were contacted by Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, an alleged al Qaeda operative who was recently taken into custody in Pakistan. U.S. officials have not confirmed that information.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters Aboard Air Force One that two intelligence streams "came to light more fully" last Friday. The first dealt with Khan and the other dealt with an undisclosed threat.

"I can't go further into it because it could compromise some ongoing operations at this point," McClellan said.

He noted, "When you connect all these streams of intelligence, it paints an alarming picture."

Evidence Suggests Terror Network Has Greater Presence in U.S. Than Thought

"Said former FBI analyst Matthew Levitt, now a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: 'I think their primary objective is just to kill as many people as possible.'" From ABCNews, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Information found on the computer files of Mohammed Khan, the 25-year-old computer engineer who was arrested last month in Pakistan, is responsible for the current terror alert at financial centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J.

Khan's records continue to yield critical clues about al Qaeda's operations, including indications that he may have communicated with several people in the United States in recent months, sources told ABC News.

Khan's computer files show al Qaeda operatives thoroughly casing the financial centers both outside and inside just before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the sources said.

Law enforcement officials said the bulk of the extensive surveillance was conducted on the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J. Federal officials publicly identified those targets earlier this week, along with the New York Stock Exchange.

"Given the specificity that apparently are in these reports, that they were not just casual targets. These were real targets," said former FBI counterterrorism agent Jack Cloonan, an ABC News consultant.

The computer files, written in English, narrate the travels of al Qaeda members throughout the buildings, offering step-by-step color commentary in rich detail, sources said.

The documents suggest the facilities were under surveillance morning and night, with operatives looking for times when security was lax and when the most potential victims were present.

Terror report stuns South Africa

After all, they opposed the war in Iraq; why on earth would Muslims be angry with them? And why indeed? I wonder if South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai could shed any light on that.

From AP, with thanks to Teri:

Two South Africans captured with a senior al-Qaida terrorist were plotting attacks on tourist sites in their home country, Pakistani officials said yesterday, a surprising target for Islamic terrorism given South Africa's vocal stand against the war in Iraq and Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

South African officials cast doubt on reports of a terrorist plot, although this past spring, a top South African police official indicated that authorities had foiled plans to attack the country during its April 14 elections....

"They had some terror plans for South Africa," Hussain said. He had no details on the plans or the timing of an attack, but an intelligence official based in the eastern city of Lahore said that authorities believe that the men wanted to target tourist sites in Johannesburg, South Africa's commercial center....

The reports sent shock waves through South Africa, where until recently many considered their country immune from terrorist attacks. South Africa, where about 2 percent of the 45 million population is Muslim, has been outspoken in its opposition to the Iraq war and its condemnation of Israel's treatment of Palestinians....

Does Affluence Cause Jihad?

From Zachary Constantino in FrontPage comes more confirmation of something I have written about several times: jihadists are generally not poor and desperate, but relatively affluent and well-educated. And this is true even of Muslims in America.

The spread of Islamist radicalism in the United States, where demographic surveys indicate that 66% of American Muslims earn over $50,000 per year, confirms this thesis.[v][5] Moreover, the top ten Muslim occupations in America include engineering, medicine, and corporate management.[vi][6] Daniel Pipes, a scholar of Islam, notes, “In socioeconomic terms, certainly, Muslims can find little fault with America. They boast among the highest rates of education of any group in the country—a whopping 52 percent appear to hold graduate degrees—and this translates into a pattern of prestigious and remunerative employment.”[vii][7]

However, in keeping with Krueger and Maleckova, this progress has hardly insulated America’s Muslim community from extremism. In 1999, at a forum sponsored by the State Department, Sheikh Mohammed Hisham Kabbani, a courageous Sufi cleric and opponent of Wahhabi Islam, argued that 80 percent of all mosques and Muslim charities in the United States had come under the influence of radical Islamic agents.

For this statement, Sheikh Kabbani endured severe criticism and even a death threat.[viii][8] Other Muslim scholars, like Khalid Duran and Tashbih Sayyed have also received death threats for their criticisms of Islamist radicalism. Sayyed warns, “Militant Islamist organizations in the US have created the perception that they are the sole voices of Muslims in the US, making their opposition [to] US efforts to eradicate fascist and totalitarian Islamist regimes a popular Muslim trait.”[ix][9]

Other troubling examples of the affluence of American-based Islamic militancy:

• Socially advantaged Americans join the jihadist ranks. Consider the case of former Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh. According to The New York Times, Lindh grew up in an “old, moneyed Marin County suburb” and his father is a “corporate-lawyer.”[x][10] The Boston Globe described the place of Lindh’s upbringing as a “comfortable home” located in a county prominent as “an address for millionaires.”[xi][11] Like Lindh, Mike Hawash, recently sentenced to seven years in prison on “charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States”[xii][12] enjoyed affluence as a software engineer for Intel.[xiii][13]

• Jihadists have set up sophisticated networks. The Washington Times explains “The terrorist organization Hamas invested millions of dollars during the past decade in real-estate projects nationwide, including in suburban Maryland, as part of a scheme to raise cash to fund acts of terrorism.”[xiv][14] The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement testifies that BMI Leasing, Inc., BMI Real Estate Development and others “conducted financial transaction with persons who were or are now Specially Designated Terrorists or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, including Yassin Kadi, Mousa Abu Marzook and Mohammad Salah.”[xv][15]

Americans who turn to militant Islam as a way of life are not looking to improve their socioeconomic status but for identity, meaning, solidarity, and solutions in a utopian moral order. To win the war on terrorism requires doing combat against the real enemies of the West – the jihadists, the networks that support their cause, and sympathetic regimes – and not non-existent “root causes.”

Pakistan: Suspect Had Photos of Heathrow

Pakistan is playing a double game like the Saudis. Perhaps to compensate for continuing to aid the Taliban, they have turned over valuable intelligence material to the British. From AP:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan gave British authorities images of London's Heathrow Airport and other sites that were found on the computers of two arrested al-Qaida fugitives, intelligence officials said Thursday.

It was not clear, however, if the information helped lead to the arrests of about a dozen suspected terrorists on Tuesday in Britain.

Maps, photographs and other details of possible targets in the United States and Britain were found on computers belonging to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani — a Tanzanian indicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa — and a Pakistani computer expert identified as Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, said two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Lahore-based intelligence official involved in the investigation following the July 13 arrest of Khan said his computer contained photographs of Heathrow airport, as well as pictures of underpasses that run beneath several buildings in London....

Several reports published in Britain said that one of the suspects, variously identified as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al-Hindi, was believed to be a senior member of al-Qaida, and had been plotting an attack on Heathrow. The reports said al-Hindi, using the codename Bilal, had been in contact with Khan.

Britain's Metropolitan Police refused to say whether al-Hindi was among those arrested, and Pakistani officials contacted by The Associated Press had no information about the link.

A Letter by an Alleged Wife of a Martyr to the Wife of Paul Johnson

Al-Qaeda jihadists spit on the memory of Paul Johnson and revile his widow. This is further indication that, in the view of Muslims such as those who murdered Johnson, Islam is a religion of compassion and mercy, but only for Muslims. From MEMRI:

The recent issue of Sawt al-Jihad ("Voice of Jihad"), which is identified with Al-Qa'ida, published an article titled "A Letter to the Wife of the Slain Pagan Paul Johnson from the Wife of One of the Martyrs." [1] This letter celebrates the murder of the American hostage Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia. The anonymous letter is attributed to the wife of one of the terrorists killed by the Saudi Security forces. The following are excerpts from the letter: [2]

'The Blood of Your Husband is the Blood of a Dog because He is an Idolatrous Infidel'

"I have heard that you appeared on television feigning innocence and wondering haughtily what was your husband's sin and what was his crime. I believe you are not ignorant of the fact that he was one of the greatest criminals indeed, although he is not considered that according to your standards, you infidels. For you call the criminal innocent and the innocent one, defending his rights – criminal. Or else, what was the purpose of your husband's work with the Apache helicopters? Have you ever believed that these helicopters hover over Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq to shower flowers and sweets over the heads of our children there? Or do you know that they throw on them rockets and bombs in order to turn their streets and homes into ashes upon which their corpses become coal? Is his work above reproach, then? Or was he innocent, while he worked on this kind of airplane [sic]?...

"You should know that our brethren whom you detain in your prisons and our brethren whom your husband used to burn with his helicopters are not alone. Rather, there are hearts pounding with love for them, just as you have demonstrated that you have loved your slain husband. Nay, we love them more than you can imagine because the blood of a Muslim is for us more precious than the Ka'ba , but the blood of your husband is the blood of a dog because he is an idolatrous infidel."

'The Corpse of Your Husband shall be followed by Mountains of Corpses'

"Do you know that we have not done anything [yet] about the blood of Muslims and the blood of my husband that was shed for no reason. We are just getting started and the corpse of your husband shall be followed by mountains of corpses of his countrymen, until they leave the country of our Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace upon him, lowly and humiliated. How can you claim innocence for your husband, Allah's curse on him, while you have been hearing the warnings of the Mujahideen calling you to leave our country that is forbidden for you? You however shut your ears and went obstinately with your wrongdoing. This is your penalty. May you shed tears mixed with blood, just as we wept blood because of your airplanes and your troops.

There is more, but you get the idea. This is a cannily written piece. It focuses on grievances that Europeans and American Leftists will love -- the occupation of Iraq, alleged Western targeting of non-combatants -- and suggests that Muslims will fight against Americans until they leave Iraq. This implies that the jihad will then end, which is the view of many analysts today on the Left and the Right: if we just stop bothering the Muslims, they'll stop bothering us. Unfortunately, this doesn't take into account the traditional Islamic teachings about offensive jihad: the necessity to wage war to establish the hegemony of Islam. It is affirmed often (here by South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai), but gets hardly any attention from taqiyya-addled Western analysts. Yet it is not something that will be mitigated by the removal of any or all points of contention.

Muslims fear Christians waging 'war against Islam'

A first-class case of projection. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

Muslims worldwide fear Christians are waging a "war against Islam," Malaysia's leader said on Tuesday, blaming the campaign against terror for increased tensions between the religions.

In an emotional speech to the World Council of Churches, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the events that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, including the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, "have all taken religious undertones."

"In the eyes of many Muslims, events in the last three years seem to lend credence to the view that the Christian West is, once again, at war with the Muslim world," Abdullah told representatives from Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches.

It was the first time that a prime minister in this moderate, predominantly Muslim country -- which chairs the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference -- was addressing an exclusively Christian audience, Malaysian officials said.

Abdullah begged Christians and Muslims to "work together for the sake of peace and justice."

"We cannot stand before a compassionate God while there is so much we have left undone because we are disunited," he said, wiping away tears as his voice began to crack.

Gee, I'm getting a little choked up myself. But saying all this to the WCC is just preaching to the choir. Let him go to Jemaah Islamiyah or any other radical Muslim group and say it, and we may start to make some progress.

Pakistan Allows Taliban to Train, a Detained Fighter Says

More evidence that Pakistan is an epicenter of the global jihad. From the New York Times:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 3 - For months Afghan and American officials have complained that even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack American and Afghan forces.

Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.

The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan. Mr. Sohail said he hoped that granting the interview would increase his chances of being freed. Mr. Sohail described his recruitment through his local mosque by a group listed by the United States as having terrorist links, his military training in a camp not far from the capital, Islamabad, and his dispatch with several other Pakistanis to Afghanistan.

He did not give all the details that intelligence officials said they gleaned from him in interrogations, but he talked easily about his party and its leaders, and said they had high-level support from within the establishment. He said he was recruited and trained within the past eight months by Jamiat-ul-Ansar, the new name for the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen party, which was designated a terrorist group by the State Department and banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan in January 2002. Under its new name it is functioning, if more discreetly, and its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, moves around freely.

Mr. Khalil has been involved in recruiting and training militants since the 1980's. In 1998, American planes bombed his training camp in Afghanistan when they were targeting Osama bin Laden after the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombing killed a number of Pakistanis, and Mr. Khalil at the time vowed to take revenge against America for the attack.

It is an open secret in Pakistan that groups supporting separatism in Kashmir have not stopped their activities, despite official declarations, and have continued to train men and infiltrate them into Indian Kashmir. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said during a visit to the region last month that Pakistan had not dismantled all the camps used to train militants for Kashmir. And while he praised Pakistan for its efforts against Al Qaeda, he urged the country to do more to stop Taliban militants carrying out attacks from Pakistan.

Money Can’t Buy My Mosque

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer has a new article at FrontPage this morning about Spain's new plan to pay off mosques:

The Spanish government, true to the principle of appeasement that it rode to power on after the 3/11 bombings, is considering paying money to mosques. The stated purpose is to make the mosques less dependent upon foreign money — particularly, of course, terror financing from Saudi Wahhabis or others.

That money is pouring in. The March 11 terrorist bombers were active members of mosques that betrayed strong Wahhabi influence. According to Antonio Camacho, the Interior Ministry’s secretary of state security, the new payment scheme is “about keeping them from having to look outside for financing because the state does not, in a way, support their activities.”

So are we to believe that because the state hasn’t supported Spanish mosques, they turned to the Wahhabis out of desperation? And so money will make the Wahhabis disappear? This is the sort of harebrained scheme that only true sons of Aethelred the Unready could dream up, or perhaps more precisely true sons of Marx and Engels, so besotted with socialism and materialism that they can’t fathom the possibility that anyone could be motivated by anything other than the desire for material gain. The jihad? Pah. They just want money. Give them some and they’ll quiet down.

Their misapprehension is elephantine. Consider the probability that many Spanish radical Muslims are familiar with the ideas espoused by Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood theorist whose writings are still widely available all over the world (including the United States today), and which are revered by radical Muslims as a comprehensive exposition of their program. In his exhaustive, thirty-volume exposition of the Muslim holy book, Fi Zilal al-Qur’an (In the Shade of the Qur’an), Qutb wrote: “As the only religion of truth that exists on earth today, Islam takes appropriate action to remove all physical and material obstacles that try to impede its efforts to liberate mankind from submission to anyone other than God. … The practical way to ensure the removal of those physical obstacles while not forcing anyone to adopt Islam is to smash the power of those authorities based on false beliefs until they declare their submission and demonstrate this by paying the submission tax.”

Likewise, a high school textbook entitled Islamic Culture, produced by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education: “Islam is Allah’s religion for all human beings. It should be proclaimed and invite [people] to join it wisely and through appropriate preaching and friendly discussions. However, such methods may encounter resistance and the preachers may be prevented from accomplishing their duty… then, Jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable…”

Do these statements sound to you as if they were made by people who will be turned from their goal by a few euros?

Lenin once prophesied that “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.” Wrong again, Vladimir Ilych, but it wasn’t for want of trying. Lest we forget, throughout the years of détente the Soviets were treated to grain deals, technology transfers and all manner of other goodies designed to prove our good will and even gain leverage over Soviet policies by creating an economic relationship. It took Soviet tanks rolling into Kabul to show that the influence gained by such maneuvers was slight at best.

Yet now Europe has embarked on this path again. The historian Bat Ye’or details in her upcoming book, Eurabia, how not just Spain, but the European Union as a whole has pursued a short-sighted and self-destructive policy of accommodation toward the Islamic world for decades now, freely adopting the posture of subservient dhimmis, as non-Muslims are termed in Islamic law, toward their Muslim masters. They have encouraged Islamic immigration without assimilation or any assurance that the immigrants would not be attached to the principles of Islamic law, including violent jihad. They have adopted the foreign policy stances of the Islamic world — becoming in effect the willing accomplices of their own destruction. “The spirit of dhimmitude which today blinds Europe,” said Bat Ye’or at a seminar at the French Senate in June, “springs not from a situation imposed from without, but from a choice made freely, and systematically carried out, in its political dimensions, over the course of the last 30 years.”

Spain reaped the fruit of these suicidal policies last March. Now they think that the damage they have done can be undone by a little cash. It is much more likely that Spain’s nightmare is just beginning.

A Slick Islamist Heads to Jail

Daniel Pipes draws out the most important lesson of the Alamoudi case in this FrontPage piece:

In 2002, the spokesman for FBI director Robert Mueller memorably described the American Muslim Council (AMC) as the “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States.” A year later, the Catholic bishops called the AMC “the premier, mainstream Muslim group in Washington.”

Its founder and long-time chief, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a Washington fixture. He had many meetings with both Clintons in the White House and once joined George W. Bush at a prayer service. He arranged a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for congressional leaders. He six times lectured abroad for the State Department and founded an organization to provide Muslim chaplains for the Department of Defense. One of his former AMC employees, Faisal Gill, serves as policy director at the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence division.

In brief, as the Washington Post describes him, Alamoudi was “a pillar of the local Muslim community.”

But the one-time high-flyer last week signed a plea agreement with the U.S. government admitting his multiple crimes in return for a reduced sentence. His confession makes for startling reading.

Alamoudi acknowledges having obtained money from the Libyan government and other foreign sources, “unlawfully, knowingly, and willfully falsified, concealed and covered up by a trick, scheme and device.” He transmitted these funds to the United States, “outside of the knowledge of the United States government and without attracting the attention of law enforcement and regulatory authorities.”

In doing so, he engaged in illegal financial transactions and filed false tax returns. He lied about his overseas travels, his interest in a Swiss bank account, his affiliation with a Specially Designated Terrorist (the Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzook), and his membership in terrorist-related organizations....

Then there is the fact that Alamoudi’s Palm Pilot, seized at the time of his arrest, contained contact information for seven men designated as global terrorists by U.S. authorities. Also, law enforcement found an unsigned Arabic-language document in Alamoudi’s office with ideas for Hamas to undertake “operations against the Israelis to delay the peace process.” And Alamoudi has at least indirect links to Osama bin Laden through the Taibah International Aid Association, a U.S. non-profit where he served along with Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama’s nephew....

Alamoudi is hardly the only high-profile, seemingly non-violent leader of an Islamist organization to associate with terrorists. At the Council on American-Islamic Relations, five staffers and board members have been accused or convicted of terrorism-related charges and the same has happened with leaders of the Islamic Center of Greater Cleveland, Holy Land Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation, and the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom.

The Alamoudi story points to the urgent need that the FBI, White House, Congress, State Department, Pentagon, and Homeland Security – as well as other institutions, public and private, throughout the West – not continue guilelessly to assume that smooth-talking Islamists are free of criminal, extremist, or terrorist ties. Or, as I put it in late 2001: “Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers.”

Militant Islam is the enemy; even its slickest adherents need to be viewed as such.

British Cops Nab 13 in Anti-Terror Raids

They declined to specify the men's nationalities, and no mention was made of religion. Meanwhile Arsalan Iftikhar of CAIR (who once refused to debate me on a radio show; Arsalan, I'm still ready when you are) says that by focusing on "Islamist terrorism," we're missing out on the real threat, from guys like Eric Rudolph. All right. I still haven't found this global movement of Christian terrorists, but I'll keep looking -- although even if it did exist, it wouldn't mean that Islamic terrorism doesn't, or is somehow excusable. That seems to be a hidden assumption of many who echo Iftikhar's views, and I find it exceedingly strange. Anyway, how many of the thirteen arrested in London do you think are Methodists? From AP:

LONDON - Police conducted anti-terrorism raids in London and several towns Tuesday, arresting 13 people believed involved in preparing terrorist acts.

London's Metropolitan Police said the afternoon and evening arrests were "part of a pre-planned, ongoing intelligence-led operation."

The men were detained "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," the police statement said, without elaborating.

The arrests were in northwest London, the suburban area of Bedfordshire, the town of Luton in the Hertfordshire area just outside the capital, and the town of Blackburn, in the northernwestern region of Lancashire.

The suspects, who are all in their 20s and 30s, will be brought to a central London police station for questioning by anti-terrorism officers, police said. They declined to specify the men's nationalities.

Police said the investigation leading to the arrests had been underway for some time and did not say whether they were linked to the terror threats disclosed by American authorities Sunday to financial industry buildings in New York, Washington D.C., and Newark, N.J.

Iraq Church Bombs Response to 'Crusader War' - Claim

Evil, corruption, immorality, and ... evangelization. Books about the Holocaust. And all this blessed by the Pope, yet. Never mind that he has spoken out consistently against the war. Why let facts stand in the way of paranoia? It's all no doubt part of a huge Zionist plan of deception. From Reuters:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) - A group in Iraq claimed responsibility Monday for a series of church bombs this weekend in a statement posted on a Web site, saying they were a response to the U.S. "crusader war" and evangelization.

"You wanted a crusader war, so these are the results. ... We warned you," the statement by a little-known Islamist group calling itself the Planning and Follow-Up Organization in Iraq said on a site where a number of claims have been posted in recent weeks.

"We were able Sunday to direct several painful strikes at the dens of evil, corruption, immorality and evangelization."

Iraq accused al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi earlier Monday of carrying out the coordinated bombings, saying the militants wanted to drive Christians out of the country....

Car bombs Sunday hit at least five churches in Iraq, including four in Baghdad. Police defused two more bombs outside other churches, one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul. The attacks killed at least 11 people and wounded 55.

"America didn't only occupy and militarily sweep Muslim countries, it also set up hundreds of evangelization organizations and printed books about the Holocaust and distributed them in Muslim countries to wrench Muslims from their religion and make them Christians," the statement said.

"The wars now in Iraq and Afghanistan are hateful crusader wars against Muslims by America and its minions, with the blessing of the Pope who has the leaders of America between his hands like slaves," it said.

Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say

Of course, many will seize on this to say that there is no real terror threat. I hope they're right, but I still see too much evidence to the contrary. And there is no doubt that the officials who point out that years have gone by between planning and attacks are right. Remember: there were eight years between the first attempt on the WTC in 1993 and the successful one in 2001. From the New York Times, with thanks to Al-Canine:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 -Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way.

But the officials continued to regard the information as significant and troubling because the reconnaissance already conducted has provided Al Qaeda with the knowledge necessary to carry out attacks against the sites in Manhattan, Washington and Newark. They said Al Qaeda had often struck years after its operatives began surveillance of an intended target.

Taken together with a separate, more general stream of intelligence, which indicates that Al Qaeda intends to strike in the United States this year, possibly in New York or Washington, the officials said even the dated but highly detailed evidence of surveillance was sufficient to prompt the authorities to undertake a global effort to track down the unidentified suspects involved in the surveillance operations.

"You could say that the bulk of this information is old, but we know that Al Qaeda collects, collects, collects until they're comfortable,'' said one senior government official. "Only then do they carry out an operation. And there are signs that some of this may have been updated or may be more recent.''

Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said on Monday in an interview on PBS that surveillance reports, apparently collected by Qaeda operatives had been "gathered in 2000 and 2001.'' But she added that information may have been updated as recently as January.

The comments of government officials on Monday seemed softer in tone than the warning issued the day before. On Sunday, officials were circumspect in discussing when the surveillance of the financial institutions had occurred, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge cited the quantity of intelligence from "multiple reporting streams'' that he said was "alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information.''

The officials said on Monday that they were still analyzing computer records, photos, drawings and other documents, seized last month in Pakistan, which showed that Qaeda operatives had conducted extensive reconnaissance.

A French Muslim family takes path to militancy

From the New York Times via the IHT, an eye-opening look at how one family moved from "moderate" to "radical" Islam. (Thanks to all who sent me this link.)

When Chellali Benchellali moved to France 41 years ago, his path seemed clear enough. Escaping the misery of his native Algeria, he hoped to get a job, marry, raise a family and blend into the French melting pot.

He got part way there. But for the last six months, Benchellali has been in a high-security French prison, along with his wife and two of his sons, all accused of helping to plot a Qaeda-style chemical attack in Europe. A third son has just been released from the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, one of four Frenchmen handed over to the French authorities last week.

The family's journey from yearning immigrants to alleged Islamic militants - accused of harboring a makeshift laboratory in their suburban Lyon apartment where one son was said to have been trying to make biological and chemical bombs - is an extreme but still emblematic manifestation of a quiet crisis spreading through Europe's growing Arab underclass.

Such dramatic deviations are rare, but they point to a dangerous ideological drift in many of the Continent's immigrant neighborhoods, a drift that is stigmatizing Muslims, alarming antiterrorism officials and shaping government policies....

... as the 1960s economic boom ended and Benchellali's finances faltered, his Muslim faith increased, neighbors say. He brought his wife, a nonpracticing Muslim, to religion....

In 1993, Benchellali began raising money and traveling to Bosnia to distribute food and clothing to besieged Muslims.

On his fifth trip there, Croatian soldiers seized him and two other men from Venissieux and held them in brutal conditions for five months. He returned with even stronger religious convictions and began preaching in the ground-floor activity room of his apartment block, which became known as the Abu Bakr mosque. His sermons took on an increasingly radical tone.

Menad, the oldest boy, received a certificate in electronics from a vocational high school in 1991. By all accounts he was dominated by his father and took a job washing windows for the same cleaning company. His father's Bosnian ordeal and growing radicalization clearly had an effect on him, his mother and friends in the neighborhood said.

By the mid-1990s, with a civil war in full swing in Algeria, supporters of the violent Armed Islamic Group carried the battle to the Continent. The police say the Abu Bakr mosque became an occasional halfway house for members of the group passing through France.

Menad had quit his job by then and was dismissed from a string of others. In 1995, he left for Syria to study Arabic and the Koran. He spent several months in Sudan, where the Al Qaeda network was coalescing. He returned to Venissieux in 1996 a bearded fundamentalist.

After Menad's return, his father took a second wife, illegal in France but permitted by Islam. The marriage caused a rift between Benchellali and his children, particularly Menad. Then Menad's own marriage, to the daughter of one of the men with whom Benchellali had been imprisoned in Bosnia, fell apart.

"It was at this time that he became more radical," Hafsa Benchellali told the police. Menad's brother Hafed told investigators: "I think we need to educate people, and in that way we can install the Sharia," speaking of the Islamic legal code. "But Menad believes it should be done by force."

Read it all.

Refugees say Sudan troops, militia worked together

In service of the jihad. From Reuters, with thanks to Teri:

ABECHE, Chad, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Statements from hundreds of Sudanese refugees indicate that militias and official Sudanese forces cooperated closely in violence in the Darfur region targeting African villagers, researchers said on Monday.

The preliminary findings come from a survey of Darfuris who have fled to neighbouring Chad, carried out by the U.S.-based Coalition for International Justice. It has spoken to some 600 refugees in recent weeks and plans to have interviewed 1,200 by mid-August.

The non-governmental group is feeding its research back to the U.S. State Department and says it aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic study of the conflict in Darfur, which has driven more than a million people from their homes....

"There certainly are patterns that are emerging and one of them has been the close coordination between government of Sudan forces and the Janjaweed (militias) in the attacks -- (an) extraordinarily high percentage," Frease said.

INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS

She also said it seemed clear that civilians had been targeted in attacks on villages and that black African tribes had been singled out for attack by the militias, drawn from the nomadic Arab population.

"It does appear that ethnic groups are being targeted and there's a sort of indiscriminate nature to the attacks ... on villages," she said. "I don't want to draw any conclusions but ... we're finding a lot of elements that indicate that a specific ethnic group is being targeted."

Sudan's government has denied it controls the Janjaweed and has branded them outlaws.

How to win the jihad

Dr. John Alexander is a private consultant and serves an adviser to the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. His books include The Warrior’s Edge (1990); Future War, with a Foreword by Tom Clancy (1999); and the sequel, Winning the War, which was published in August 2003. In May, he presented a paper at the Conference on the “Changing Nature of Warfare,” in support of the “Global Trends 2020” Project of the U.S. National Intelligence Council.

It should be read by all policymakers.

Our adversaries thrust at the inherent weaknesses of a democratic and open society. Foremost is the battle for public perception, at which we have performed dismally. The core issues are conflicting belief systems. Required is a better understanding of the nature of conflicts we face, the ability to establish the parameters of the war, and the wisdom to understand the strategic implications of use of force. It is at our peril that we continue to define conflict in anachronistic terms.

Here is a pdf of the entire paper.

Sudan's Beshir: "The door of the jihad is still open and if it has been closed in the south it will be opened in Darfur"

In last week's column I criticized Kofi Annan and the human rights establishment for not acknowledging that the Sudan genocide is a jihad. Why is this important? If you don't deal with the true problem, you can't prescribe the proper remedy. If the UN and human rights organizations rush aid or even troops to Darfur, they will be doing nothing to change the jihad dynamic, which may recur. The militias will be disarmed; will other militias form? What is needed in Sudan and elsewhere is a reform of jihad theology. No, I am not holding my breath. From the BBC, with thanks to Mike:

Sudan's army says the UN resolution on the conflict in Darfur is "a declaration of war" and threatens to fight any foreign intervention. The resolution gives the government 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed militias, which are accused of widespread atrocities against non-Arab groups.

Sudan's cabinet has also criticised the resolution. It has promised to disarm the Arab militias - but within 90 days.

More than one million people have fled their homes in 18 months of conflict....

"The Security Council resolution about the Darfur issue is a declaration of war on the Sudan and its people," armed forces spokesman General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman told the official Al Anbaa daily newspaper.

"The Sudanese army is now prepared to confront the enemies of the Sudan on land, sea and air," he said.

"The door of the jihad is still open and if it has been closed in the south it will be opened in Darfur," he said, referring to a peace deal to end 20 years of war in southern Sudan.

A letter from playwright Glyn O'Malley

Glyn O'Malley, the brave and principled playwright whose play about a Palestinian suicide attacker, Paradise, was savaged by CAIR, just sent me this message:

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I was taught to never "bury the lead," so I won't. This is a letter asking you for money. Now, please allow me to tell you why.

This last June I was privileged to be Playwright-In-Residence at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee under the auspices of APSU President Sherry Hoppe, the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, and Director of the Center of the Creative Arts, Dr. Jim Diehr, the Chair of the Department of Communication and Theatre, Dr. Mike Gotcher, the Theatre Coordinator in the Center of the Creative Arts, and a faculty member in the Department of Communication and Theatre, Dr. Sara Gotcher.

In creating "The 101st Project," Dr. Sara Gotcher and I initiated a highly unusual, collaborative project that could only be possible in a city like Clarksville which adjoins the home of The 101st "Screaming Eagles" Airborne Division, United States Army. After daily sessions of interviews with soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division of all ranks who went to Iraq and made it back home safely, I wrote "A Heartbeat To Baghdad." It did nothing to alter my personal feelings about the inevitable pain, horror, and contradictions of war, but it did about the integrity, self-sacrifice, extraordinary consciousness, and often very real heroism of the large cross section of American soldiers who shared pieces of their "souls" with me.

Inspired by their first hand accounts in Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as those of some their wives, widows, and families back home, the play journeys into the human world those of us not in the military rarely ever get to see, and one that is certainly underreported by the media. It was an extraordinary, moving experience for me as a playwright, and from what I have gathered, all who were involved. Prior to leaving, I mounted a Staged Reading of the first draft of the play to "shake it down" in front of an audience, and to begin to fund "The Sgt. Ariel Rico Memorial Scholarship" at APSU for the child of a slain, or disabled member of The 101st Airborne Division. While memorializing the husband of the first widow of the 101st to reach out to me, Jessica Rico, the Scholarship is intended to honor all the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division in harm's way. With the help of Dr. Sara Gotcher and the University, it is now a reality. It just needs to grow. All monies from ticket sales to the Staged Reading went to begin to plant the first seeds for this Scholarship. I've designated that 5% of my Author's Royalty in perpetuity will assist it.

It's been my pleasure to be invited back to APSU by President Hoppe, Dean Diehr, Dr. Mike Gotcher, Theatre Department Chair, Leni Dyer, and Dr. Sara Gotcher this Sept/Oct. to mount a full production of the play that will premiere at APSU, go on to The Tennessee College Theatre Conference, and -- hopefully -- The American College Theatre Festival. I have cleared the deck of some other commitments in order to do so, as I want the play to be as useful as possible to APSU, and the Scholarship. Apart from the standard fee for the Rights to the Play, I am waiving all royalties so that "The Sgt. Ariel Rico Memorial Scholarship" will continue to grow from direct ticket sales in these venues.

Given that I am already having talks with legit theatres, and commercial producers here in NYC, and elsewhere about productions of the play, my fingers are crossed that in addition to your help, "A Heartbeat To Baghdad" will have a life substantial enough to establish a stable fifty-thousand dollar core, that will keep the Scholarship funded.

I am writing all of you because regardless of who we elect in November, the men and women of The 101st Airborne Division will continue be on the point of the sword as they were in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Regardless of who we elect, or how we personally feel about the politics of any war, they will continue to stand ready. Sons and daughters of slain or disabled soldiers will need the help and support that an education in a Major of their choice that an excellent University like APSU can provide via this Scholarship.

I ask you to join me in making this a reality with whatever your heart and wallet can provide. Checks should be made out to "The Sgt. Ariel Rico Memorial Scholarship" and sent to:
Mr. Roy Gregory
Executive Director of University Advancement
Austin Peay State University
P.O. Box 4417
Clarksville, TN 37044

Needless to say, all contributions are tax-deductible, and APSU will provide you with a letter acknowledging your gift -- no matter its size -- that will honor the men and women of the 101st Airborne Division, and will change the life of a child.

Sincerely,
Glyn O'Malley

PS: Should you know of others who might be interested in helping "The Sergeant Ariel Rico Memorial Scholarship" at APSU, you have my permission to circulate this request. Thank you!

Holland Tunnel closing inbound to trucks

They are taking the latest threats very seriously in New York. From Newsday, with thanks to Miss Moneypenny:

The Holland Tunnel was to close to commercial traffic heading to New York at 12:01 a.m. Monday, officials said Sunday evening.

The ban was "correlated to the warning about the downtown financial districts," said Tony Ciavolella, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Here is more information about how the jihadist plans were discovered: Al-Qaida computer reveals plans to target U.S. and Britain. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan- Pakistani intelligence agents found plans for new attacks against the United States and Britain on a computer seized during the arrest of a senior Al-Qaida suspect wanted for the 1998 twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, the information minister said.

The plans were found in e-mails on the computer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested July 25 after a 12-hour gunbattle in the eastern city of Gujrat, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press on Monday.

"We got a few e-mails from Ghailani's computer about [plans for] attacks in the U.S. and U.K.," he said.

Ahmed said authorities have also arrested another top Al-Qaida suspect believed to be a computer and communications expert, and that that man was cooperating with investigators.

"He is a very wanted man, but I cannot say his name now," Ahmed said.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat confirmed that Ghailani was sharing "vital" information, but he would not comment on what it was.

"He has given us vital information, but we cannot share specifics," Hayyat said. An intelligence official said the information about a U.S. attack appeared to be centered on New York. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Website shows Turkish hostage death video

Osama calls the Turks "infidels." One deals with infidels thusly: "When he fell to the ground, the gunman shot him two more times with a pistol while shouting 'God is Greatest'." From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Islamist websites have showed a videotape of the killing of a Turkish hostage in Iraq by a group linked to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The tape, carried by several Islamist sites on Monday, showed a masked man shooting the hostage while he was seated in a chair. When
he fell to the ground, the gunman shot him two more times with a pistol while shouting "God is Greatest".

The tape had shown the hostage, in a shirt and trousers, speaking in Turkish while three masked gunmen stood in front of a banner
resembling that of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad Group....

"Turkey is still insisting on aiding the infidel U.S. operation...We will apply God's law on this apostate and ask Muslims in Turkey to help their Muslim brothers and not the occupation," one gunman said in a statement read out in Arabic.

Kashmiri child abuse

Motivated by jihad to pick up guns. From the India Times, with thanks to Nicolei:

JAMMU: The Indian Army claims to be confronting a new problem along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir - teenaged militants, some as young as 13 or 14, wielding sophisticated arms.

According to an army spokesman here, Pakistan-based militant outfits Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and even the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen have started pushing in teenagers to the Indian side.

The spokesman said in recent weeks, the army had apprehended nine such children armed with deadly weapons.

One of them was identified as 13-year-old Mohammad Islam of Sihota in Pakistan, the spokesman said. The teenager described to the army how he had been motivated for jehad and made to pick up guns.

Islamic groups hit curriculum at Saudi school

Here is CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper, of all people, doing and saying what he ought to have been doing and saying all along. Or at least seeming to do so. Pardon me if I am suspicious, in light of the organization's track record. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and Nicolei:

Two Islamic groups say a private Saudi school in Alexandria is teaching first-graders an extreme version of Islam that fosters contempt for other religions, a charge denied by the Saudi government, which creates curriculum for such schools.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a District-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, has joined with the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism in calling for an Arabic textbook to be removed from classes at the Islamic Saudi Academy.

One page in the manual for the first-grade textbook instructs teachers to tell students that any religion other than Islam is false.

"These first-grade students are very impressionable," said Kamal Nawash, a Palestinian and practicing Muslim who runs the six-month-old Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism.

"The extremist version of Islam encourages violence. We don't need to be teaching that anymore in this diverse world. We need to teach people to get along."

The Islamic Saudi Academy referred inquiries to the Saudi Embassy, which dismissed Mr. Nawash's assertion as an attempt to restart a failed political career.

Embassy spokesman Nail Al-Jubeir compared the textbook to any other religious teaching and said it was "shameful" of Mr. Nawash "to be using this as a source of bigotry."

"They are making a big thing out of nothing," Mr. Al-Jubeir said. "If that's the only thing they have to bring up, how pathetic the argument is. Judaism does not recognize Christ as the Messiah. Christians say the only way to salvation is accepting Christ in your heart."

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the textbook page conflicts with the teachings in the Koran, which says Jews, Christians and all "who believe in God" will "have their reward with their Lord."

"The [page of the] textbook is inaccurate in terms of portraying Islam's relationship with other faiths," Mr. Hooper said. "I would suggest either removing the textbook or inserting a notation that something is being changed in the textbook."...

But Mr. Nawash said he has no intention of running for office again and that his only motive is to stop extremist teaching that he fears will lead to terrorism.

"This is much more important, and it should have been done a long time ago. There is a strong movement of people pushing extremist Islam that tolerates any means, including terrorism, to meet their goals," he said. "It's not a handful, it's a worldwide uprising. ... We're not staying silent anymore."

This is not the first time Mr. Nawash has been under scrutiny.

His law firm once represented Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, a prominent U.S. Muslim leader who had a role in a Libyan conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Al-Amoudi on Friday pleaded guilty to illegal financial transactions with Libya and admitted his role in the plot.

Al-Amoudi had donated $10,000 to Mr. Nawash's campaign for the state Senate. Mr. Nawash returned the donation.

When asked whether he was friends with al-Amoudi, Mr. Nawash refused to comment.

"I was part of a law firm that represented him," he said. "I can't really comment on that. One of the attorneys in the firm represented him for a short time."

Al-Amoudi's current attorney, Stanley Cohen, said Mr. Nawash's firm has had "nothing to do" with the case for 10 months.

In defending his position, Mr. Hooper cited the teachings of the prophet Muhammad in the Hadiths: "Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one."

I didn't know Nawash had any connection with Alamoudi. The material on the Free Muslim website is very fine. The group bears watching.

As for CAIR, Hooper's statement is outstandingly disingenuous. Hooper is giving the impression, at least in this article, that Islam teaches that it is one with Christianity as it exists in the world today. But in fact the Jesus to whom he refers as Muhammad's brother is a Muslim construction who is significantly different from the Jesus of Christianity. The one religion they share in the Hadith is Islam, of which, in this view, Christianity is a corruption and heresy. There is nothing in this Hadith, or in the Qur'anic verse Hooper cites above, that is inconsistent with the idea that Christianity is false, as the Saudi textbook teaches. The fact that Hooper doesn't address these issues, but evidently just assumes an audience ignorant of Islam, is questionable at very least.

It is this tendency to go five steps when six are needed, and to persist in leaving important questions unanswered, that makes reasonable people suspicious of CAIR.

UPDATE: Two years ago the Washington Post carried a story about the same school, containing a good deal of illuminating information and raising the question: Why does CAIR only care now? (Thanks to Jo and Al for sending this):

The Saudi Islamic Academy has withdrawn its membership from a respected association of private schools in Virginia and has lost its accreditation with the group after the organization asked questions about how the academy is funded and governed, sources close to the decision said....

Since 1990, the school has touted its accreditation by the Virginia
Association of Independent Schools and the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools, which accredits more than 12,000 public and
private schools in 11 states and Latin America. The school's Web site
still says it is accredited by both.

But Sally Boese, executive director of the Virginia association, said,
"The Islamic Saudi Academy is no longer a member of VAIS, as they
withdrew their membership from our association effective June 30, 2002."...

The sources also said that some board members were concerned about
aspects of the school's curriculum. The Washington Post in January
reported that some Islamic studies classes at the school use Saudi
Arabian textbooks that promote hatred of other religions. However, the
curricular concerns were not part of the questioning that led to the
withdrawal, sources said.

Bomb blasts rock Iraqi churches

But of course, this conflict has nothing to do with religion. From the BBC, with thanks to Susan:

The first two blasts happened near churches in the busy Karada shopping area of Baghdad, sending a plume of smoke across the neighbourhood.

At least two people are reported to have been killed in what appears to be a new tactic by insurgents.

A third blast was reported a short time later in Mosul, where a police station had been bombed earlier in the day.

Witnesses said a car bomb detonated outside an Armenian church as an evening service was getting under way.

Shattered glass

It blew out stained glass windows, and scattered pieces of hot metal across the street. The wreckage of at least three burned out cars was left in its wake.

"I saw injured women and children and men, the church's glass shattered everywhere. There's glass all over the floor," Juliette Agob, who was inside the church at the time, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Ten minutes later, as the emergency services raced to the scene, a second blast went off outside a Syrian Catholic church some 400 metres from the first church.

An ambulance driver said two people had been killed.

At around the same time, a suspected car bomb went off outside a church in Mosul.

Iraqi official: I'll quit if sons freed

Why perform acts of terror? Because they work. Just ask Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Non-jihadists in Iraq, having cooperated with the Americans, continue to be targeted. From Al-Jazeera, with thanks to Nicolei:

The governor of Iraq's Anbar province says he will happily resign if captors release three of his sons, snatched from their home by armed men.

"I am ready to give in to your demands, and if you believe my presence in the (provincial capital) city (Ramadi) does not serve the interests of the region, I am ready to go," said Abd Al-Karim Bargis in an open letter to the province on Saturday.

Bargis defended his period of office in the vast province on the border with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, saying he had arranged convoys of food and medicine for residents in Falluja when the city was besieged by US troops in April.

On Wednesday, his sons, aged 15 to 30, were snatched by armed men who barged into and torched his family home in Ramadi while he was at work.

UK: Ahmadi Muslims call for 'peaceful jihad'

Of course, in the Islamic world the Ahmadis are persecuted heretics. From The Independent, with thanks to cflap:

Tens of thousands of devotees of an Islamic sect rejected by the Muslim world converged on a Surrey village yesterday to hear their leader call for a peaceful "jihad" against fanatics who follow "extremist and ignorant mullahs".

Up to 30,000 Ahmadi Muslims from around the world were expected to attend the three-day event near the village of Tilford in Surrey. The Ahmadis are ostracised by the mainstream, which claims the faith is incompatible with the tenets of Islam.

Rafiq Hayat, the UK amir (leader), said: "There are a lot of misconceptions in the Western community. We have to join together to challenge the stigmas and our main theme is one of peace. In essence we are calling for a jihad - a battle for hearts and minds - to persuade people through our conduct and good deeds that Islam is all about peace. We see it as our duty to liberate Islam from the rhetoric of extremist and ignorant mullahs and those who follow them blindly."

"We urge like-minded Muslims of all sects to follow suit and to rise up against the fanatics by demonstrating in a practical way that Islam is a friend, not a foe."

Abrihim Noonan travelled from Galway for the event. "I have been spat at and called a heretic and there are people who want to kill us," he said. "I converted to the Ahmadi community having previously spent time with Muslims such as Omar Bakri with whom I did not agree on many issues," he said. "The biggest attraction was the fact that I see it as the faith which is most true to Islam. This is the only community that is truly united in Islam."

Kerry and the Middle East

A remarkably clear-eyed assessment of America's electoral choice comes from Jane Novak, writing in ... the Arab News.

In his speech in Boston, Kerry said he knows what to do in Iraq —share the military and financial burden internationally. This will be possible he believes once he restores Western alliances and respect for the US . Opening the convention, former President Jimmy Carter stated, “The dominant international challenge is to restore the greatness of America.”

Republicans see the greatest challenge elsewhere. Vice President Cheney articulates their vision that “the enemy America faces today is every bit as intent on defeating us as were the Axis powers were in World War II or as the Soviet Union in the Cold War.” This view holds that the goal of the jihad is not to change US foreign policy but to destroy the US itself in a quest to establish a global caliphate. The 3/11 massacre in Spain they see as part of a larger effort to reclaim Al-Andalus. Republicans believe Al-Qaeda terrorists understand better than Democrats the historic stakes in Iraq and the major blow that would be dealt to their ideology by a self-governing Iraq.

Republicans, contrary to the prevailing international view, are not comprised of a cabal of neocons, Evangelicals, Zionists, oil barons and warmongers. Rather a portion of Bush’s base consists of ex-Democrat voters, prior liberals and other middle Americans disgusted with the Democrats reaction to the challenges America faces from radical Islamists.

Many Bush supporters disagree strongly with President Bush’s domestic policies and are extremely disheartened by chaos of the reconstruction of Iraq. Cringing at the president’s handling of the Greater Middle East Initiative, they agree on its goals of reform, economic development, greater literacy, and individual rights in the Middle East.

John Kerry offers these voters little global vision beyond restoring alliances in Europe.

The emphasis on the participation of the militarily weak and overtly hostile French and Germans in Iraq has little logic to the Republicans who see in the Democrats a Eurocentric view that dismisses the sacrifice of the Poles, El Salvadorans, Mongolians, thirty other nations and, most importantly, the valiant Iraqis.

Today’s Republicans see an Islamic democracy in the heart of the Middle East as the linchpin of American security that may forestall generations of terrorists. They believe in the domino theory — a strategy that relies on the hope of democracy, presented in a region of autocrats, to spread over borders and from heart to heart. This pattern of human behavior, they say, has demonstrated its strength and consistency over time in Latin America , Eastern Europe and South East Asia. For these Republicans, to paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the war, stupid.” Many Americans, hopeful and committed to success in both Afghanistan and Iraq , are unsure if Kerry shares their determination.

Those around the world who were hoping for a coherent Middle East policy from John Kerry have had their hopes dashed. Many in America are disappointed that the Democrats have not learned the lesson of 9/11, that the Middle East does affect American children mightily. As Americans, Muslims and innocents everywhere are endangered by radical Islamists, as nations globally are threatened, John Kerry’s mantra of “Stronger at Home, Respected in the World” offers little substance. And the question remains, is “Anybody But Bush” the best choice for the American electorate?

NYPD: terrorists targeting corporations, city landmarks

This story has developed from the arrest of Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed at the Texas border last week. From the New York Times, with thanks to Al-Canine:

The New York Police Department, responding to new information that terrorists may be planning to attack corporations or large public institutions in the city, last night advised building managers and corporate security personnel to step up their procedures to guard against vehicles rigged with explosives and against chemical agents placed in ventilation systems.

The warning followed meetings on Friday night and yesterday between Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Pasquale J. D'Amuro, the assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Mr. Kelly's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne.

Mr. Browne said the meetings were held to discuss the latest reports of a terrorist threat against the city, but declined to comment on the source of the new information. "The information is considered credible," said another law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity. The official said the police and federal terrorism authorities, who have received similar threats before, were unusually concerned about the new information.

Yesterday's warnings appeared to be linked to the arrest on July 19 in Texas of Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed after she entered the United States from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande and crawling through the brush.

According to several news accounts, she had an altered passport along with several thousand dollars in cash and an airline ticket to New York. CNN reported that she was charged with illegal entry, making false statements and falsifying a passport.