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, a