Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies' to foil new airport scanners

FROM DAILYMAIL.CO.UK:

Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies' to foil new airport scanners

By Christopher Leake, Mail On Sunday Home Affairs Editor 

Last updated at 10:01 PM on 30th January 2010

Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection.
But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time.

New weapon: To avoid detection by airport body scanners (above), Al Qaeda are said to be planning to surgically insert explosives into suicide bombers' bodies

Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights.
It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day.
One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’

A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

Experts said the explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) would be placed in a plastic sachet inside the bomber’s body before the wound was stitched up like a normal operation incision and allowed to heal.

Failed attempt: Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a bomb sewn into his pants
A shaped charge of 8oz of PETN can penetrate five inches of armour and would easily blow a large hole in an airliner.

Security sources said the explosives would be detonated by the bomber using a hypodermic syringe to inject TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) through their skin into the explosives sachet.

PETN – the main ingredient of Semtex plastic explosive – was used by Richard Reid, the British Al Qaeda shoe-bomber, when he unsuccessfully tried to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

In November, a Somali man who attempted to board a flight carrying a syringe, liquid and powdered chemicals was arrested before take-off.

The airliner had been due to fly from Somalia’s capital Mogadishu to Dubai.
The Somali was carrying a nearly identical package to that of Abdulmutallab, who tried to detonate it by injecting TATP from a syringe.

Abdulmutallab had stuffed explosives down his underpants as the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam made its final descent to Detroit carrying 280 passengers.
But the detonator fluid set his clothes on fire rather than the device, and he was overpowered.

Security sources fear the body-bombers could pretend to be diabetics injecting themselves on airliners, Tubes or buses in order to prevent anyone stopping their suicide missions.
Companies such as Smiths Detection International UK, which is based in Watford, Hertfordshire, manufacture a range of luggage and body scanners designed to identify chemicals, explosives and drugs at airports and other passenger terminals around the world.

These include high-specification X-ray equipment that could identify body bombs.
But one source with expertise in the field said: ‘They can make as many pieces of security equipment as they like but there is no one magic answer that can spot every single potential terrorist passing through.’

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons Counter-Terrorism Sub-Committee, said: ‘Our enemies are constantly evolving their techniques to try to defeat our methods of detection.

‘This is one of the most savage forms that extremists could use, and while we are redeveloping travel security we have got to take this new development into account.’
Senior Government security sources confirmed last night that they were aware of the new threat of body bombs, but were not prepared to make any official comment.

Cracks in the Islamist Curtain

Here's an interview with Nonie Darwish, ex-Muslim and campaigner for religious freedom.

FROM FRONTPAGEMAG.COM:


Cracks in the Islamist Curtain

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Nonie Darwish, the co-founder of FormerMuslimsUnited.com and the author of Cruel and Usual Punishment. 

FP: Nonie Darwish, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
I would like to talk to you today a bit about the Muslim voices for change that are increasing through the Islamic world. There is an unprecedented defiance taking place behind the Islamic Curtain.
Can you tell us what is transpiring?
Darwish: As you know, Jamie, I lived for 30 years in the cocoon of the Muslim world and I can see a huge change going on inside the Muslim world. More and more people are challenging the status quo.

After 9/11 and with constant recurring explosive Islamic terrorism, it has become harder for the Muslim establishment to keep the lid on Muslims questioning their system, religion and holy wars. Criticism of Islam is coming at them from every direction, putting Muslim clerics in a quagmire unable to honestly answer questions. Muslim scholars were never trained to answer questions critical of Islam or engage in hostile debate. But now, suddenly, they are challenged to the core like never before, not by Western critics, but by brave hosts of Arabic language shows from unidentified locations in the West and hosted by former Muslims and/or Egyptian Christian Copts.

Father Zakareya Botros rocks the Arab world with his show “Howard Al Hak” or “Honest Debate” when callers from various parts of the Muslim world call in renouncing Islam. Former Muslim turned Christian, Rachid Hmami, originally from Morocco, has a popular show “Fil Samim”, or “from the core”. Hmami, who is the son of a Muslim cleric, is eloquent, respectful with a calm and peaceful demeanor — a characteristic in sharp contrast to the angry loud and cursing image of many Muslim clerics.

The Muslim leadership is suddenly under a lot of pressure to answer taboo questions rarely ever asked before; taboo topics such as questioning the validity of the Qur’an, the life and marriage of Mohammad, his violent wars and assassinations, the fact that there is no minimum age for marriage of women in Islam and about ridiculous Fatwas regarding breast feeding of adult males by Muslim women and Muhammad’s urine as a cure. Muslim callers to these Arabic shows have proved beyond doubt how many Muslims have no clue as to what is written in their scriptures and religious laws.

Many Muslims are demanding answers from their religious leaders and for them to vigorously defend such criticism of Islam. However, not one Muslim cleric has answered the questions on people’s minds. Their response is more yelling, threatening, hate speech, paranoid accusations and propaganda of misinformation. This led Hmami and Father Zakaria, for instance, to personally challenge Muslim leaders to a debate. A well-known Muslim cleric was exposed to have lied when he accepted the challenge to debate on TV, but privately, on recorded phone call with Hmami, the Muslim cleric was evasive, lied and declined the invitation to the debate, giving ridiculous excuses.

FP: Where do we stand with the apostate issue?
Darwish: For the first time in Egyptian Islamic history, a number of apostates have come out publicly demanding their right choose to leave Islam and practice Christianity. Their demand was legally rejected and fatwas of death issued against them. Maher al-Gohari, Mohammed Higazi, and prominent feminist attorney Naglaa Al Imam, are among a few courageous ones. From the number of callers to the shows who claim they left Islam, I believe the number of apostates inside the Muslim world to be significant but are mostly silent. The main power of Islam and its clerics lie in the Muslim death sentence for apostasy and blasphemy. A number of apostates living in the West have greatly impacted the Muslim world. Among those are Wafa Sultan, the Italian/Egyptian Magdi Allam who was baptized by the Pope, Ibn Warraq and myself, and many others such as several former graduates of the Islamic Al Azhar University living today in the West.

I have received a recently released Arabic poem claimed to have been written by Taha Hussein, the prominent Egyptian father of Arabic literature 1889-1973. The highly intellectual and well written poem is extremely critical of the God of Islam and admits the apostasy of its writer. Hussein was once prosecuted with the accusation of insulting Islam. Challenges to Islam are coming from intellectuals, artists and journalists across the Muslim world, such as the Egyptian Sayed El Qemany; they must walk a fine line lest they get accused of apostasy or blasphemy.

While this trend challenging Islam is significant when compared to recent history, we must caution from being over optimistic for a reformation in Islam since the new trend is still in its infancy and has not yet established itself legitimately to become part of the mainstream. The reaction to such a challenge is intense and often violently lashing out in the form of acts of threat and terror. Some Muslim people of influence have admitted recently that terrorism is a Muslim commandment. On January of 2006, a member of Egyptian Parliament, “Ragab Hilal Hamida’, said from the floor of the Egyptian Parliament that “the Quran directly commands us to commit terrorism, so why are we afraid of it?”

What is without denial is that Islam today is in turmoil and going through growing pains, tearing Muslim society apart. My fear is that while Islam is in the process of finding itself it might bring down others with it.

FP: While you caution over-optimism, what effects do you think this defiance might have? What are the possibilities?
Darwish: Such defiance to bring about much needed change in the Muslim world will, hopefully, bring its intended goals of respect for human rights, women’s rights, democracy and the end of Islamic violent jihad and the hate-filled educational system against non-Muslims. But before we celebrate the beginning of the trend towards Islamic reformation, we must realize how huge the magnitude of such change will be. It will take decades if not more. The outcome is not guaranteed, and it will come at a heavy price in violence, civil unrest, oil embargoes, and sadly with lots of innocent victims both inside the Muslim world and also in the West. And I mean this in the context of terror attacks.

Some view Islamic terrorism as a sign of power, which in many aspects it is, but it is also a sign of a desperate culture trying to shut off the shining light of freedom in the world surrounding it.

The reason for such a grim process is because 1.2 billion Muslims  around the world are starting to wake up bit by bit to realize that they have been spoonfed total lies and fabrications for centuries about their own religion as well as the world outside of Islam. The greatest taqiyya (holy lie), and perhaps one of the greatest in history, is the one perpetrated on the average Muslim man and woman by their religious leaders, the men of Allah they are supposed to trust. Such an awakening will result in gradual but steady violence – which is already starting to bubble up in many Muslim countries.

The nations affected by the Islamic crisis will not only be Muslim, but also Western nations which took huge numbers of Muslim immigrants. Israel and the West, as usual, will be blamed for Muslim internal civil unrest and thus will suffer from terror attempts and shooting at them as a means to end Muslim internal civil unrest.  Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the two nations that produced the 9/11 terrorist, are already under internal threat and violence coming from terror groups such as ‘Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ and ‘the Muslim Brotherhood’ who cannot wait to destroy the regimes in both nations.
I am worried about what will happen in the coming decades to the world while Islam is undergoing possible reform and change. The Muslim world right now is a disaster waiting to happen. They are living above a volcano that can explode any time. The status quo in Muslim countries cannot continue and Muslims are discovering they have been in massive tyranny and terror for 1400 years. Muslims are leaving Islam in large numbers and more will leave if the apostasy death penalty is lifted. Tyranny cannot last for ever, not even under Sharia Law.

Where this trend will take Islam is unpredictable, but change is certain. It can take the Muslim world to a great reformation but it can also take them and the rest of the world to a horrible confrontation and a period of decline and downfall. Islam, like communism, will probably never disappear, but eventually if Islam does not reform, it will be discredited as a religion.

FP: What can Westerners do to help inflict cracks into the Islamic Curtain?
Darwish: The first thing is get out of the way when Islam is about to explode, and it will. Muslim countries need not be rescued and they need to fall on their own and grow on their own. Do not try to help or hurt if a civil war happens in Saudi Arabia or Egypt. If we cannot have oil for a while, then let it be. When we try to help a Muslim country from self -destruction, due to Muslim on Muslim atrocities, like what happened to Kuwait by Iraq, we take away their ability to recognize their internal issues, see their true enemies and why they are in trouble.

The West must realize that it is not doing itself or the Muslim world a favor by political correctness — which actually has a negative effect on Muslims trying to reform their system. Western PC is telling them we just love you the way you are, terrorism, hate speech, good and bad, we still love you. The West must demand reciprocity and equal treatment from Muslim countries. If they build mosques in the US then we must have the right to build a Church in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. By accepting a one way cultural impact from Islam, we are welcoming a disaster waiting to happen.

Western governments so far have been ignoring Muslim critics and reformers who fully understand the problem and have been only strictly dealing with Muslim groups, such as CAIR and others whose goals are in fact as Islamist as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. It is time for Western officials to give respect to Muslim critics, reformists and former Muslims.

And finally, Western victims of Islamic terror need to file a huge class action suit against Saudi Arabia and all countries that produced terrorists who are the product of their hateful jihadist educational system. They cannot claim innocence.

FP: What are your primary concerns today? What is on your mind and what worries you the most in terms of the topic we are discussing here today?
Darwish: My fear concerns the safety and security of America and Western democracy. This threat is real and we must never underestimate it. While Muslim/Arab countries are undergoing major change, internal civil unrest and violence, there will be horrific acts of violence against Israel and Western nations in the near future. Remember in the Gulf war when Saddam was desperate, he started shooting at Israel. The same thing happened in Gaza when Hamas and Fatah were fighting; they also started shooting at Israel. When Israel shoots back for self protection, that is when Muslims end their massacres between themselves

I am also concerned about the many innocent beautiful people of the Middle East — who are after all my people. The violence has already started there and I fear for the Christian minorities as well.

FP: Nonie Darwish, thank you for joining us. Thank you for being such a courageous and noble freedom fighter.

Special Forces Extraction

 

click to biggen

U.S. Special Forces are extracted from a mountain pinnacle in Zabul province, Afghanistan, by a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade after executing an air assault mission to disrupt insurgent communication. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Aubree Clute)

FROM STRATEGYPAGE.COM:

Muslim student adviser Death penalty for 'gays'

Right from the horse's mouth. Homosexuality is punishable by death under Sharia law.

FROM WND.COM:

Muslim student adviser Death penalty for 'gays'
Vanderbilt religious 'staff' says, 'I go with what Islam teaches'

Posted: January 29, 2010
12:20 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Vanderbilt University is distancing itself from a Muslim chaplain after he told a gathering of students homosexuality is punishable by death under Islam.
"I don't have a choice as a Muslim to accept or reject teachings. I go with what Islam teaches," said Awadh A. Binhazim, who is listed on the Vanderbilt website as "Adjunct Professor of Islam at the Divinity School" and an adviser to the Muslim Student Association. His comments came earlier this week at a diversity event for students.
He was asked directly, "Under Islamic law is it punishable by death if you are a homosexual?"

Binhazim said, "Yes. It is punishable by death."

The school immediately distanced itself from the professor, issuing a statement to WND that denied he was an "employee" and reaffirming Vanderbilt's "non-discriminatory policies."
"Vanderbilt University is dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of race or sexuality," said the statement dispatched by e-mail from the school to WND today.

"Awadh A. Binhazim is not and has never been a Vanderbilt employee, and is not paid by the university. He is the university's Muslim chaplain under a working agreement that is similar to those signed with chaplains of other faiths at Vanderbilt. This working agreement requires Binhazim to observe Vanderbilt rules, including its non-discriminatory policies. Vanderbilt does not limit the free speech of its students, faculty, staff or its chaplains in any way."

His profile on the Vanderbilt Dean of Students website explained Binhazim was born and raised in Kenya and studied Islam in a madrassah as a child and later at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia. He earned a master's degree at the University of Nairobi and his Ph.D. in pathology at the University of Georgia in Athens.

"He is the founder and program director of a series of courses (offered for free to those interested) on Islam held in Nashville, Tennessee. Within these courses as well as at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, Professor Binhazim teaches about Islamic beliefs, spirituality, and moral code of Islam, monotheism, Muslim cultures, and civilizations," the description continues.
His free course at Vanderbilt called "Introduction to Islam" is to begin Feb. 5:

The questions, at a student event held by the Muslim Students Association and the Army ROTC, were asked by Devin Saucier, president of Vanderbilt's chapter of Youth for Western Civilization.

He told WND it was a "30-minute, roses and butterflies overview of Islam."
Saucier said in a blog he wondered about the "unholy alliance between Muslims and leftists – how could the latter, who fervently support multiculturalism, gay marriage, and gender equality, ally with the former, who support religious and cultural supremacy, traditional marriage, and the oppression of women?"

"When I saw that the Muslim Students Association (MSA) was hosting an event titled 'Common Ground: Being Muslim in the Military' which was sponsored by the Project Dialogue committee, I knew it would be ripe grounds for me to expose the gullibility of leftists who grovel at the altars of tolerance and acceptance," he wrote.
Saucier documented the question-and-answer exchange on video.

The reaction has just started to develop, but Saucier wrote that immediately after the meeting a "rather flustered girl" demanded to know why he asked the question.
"Why would you ask some irrelevant question like that?" she said.

"I think my question was quite relevant, since there are a number of homosexuals in the military," Saucier replied.

"So?" she responded.

"Well let me put it this way. If I was a homosexual in the military, I would want to know if the religion of the person fighting next to me demands my death. That would be significant to me," he said.

"Well I learned in Sunday school that Christianity condemns homosexuality too!" the girl said.

"Yes, Christianity does consider homosexuality sinful, and Christians pray for homosexuals because of it, while Islamic law says they should be punished with death. See the difference?" he responded.

Men convicted for playing dominoes

Seems like everything is un-Islamic except living in hate. 

"The vast majority of Indonesia's roughly 200 million Muslims practice moderate Islam."

If this is moderate Islam, what is radical Islam?

FROM GOOGLE.COM:

Men convicted for playing dominoes
(UKPA)
Three Indonesian men convicted of playing dominoes for money escaped before a public caning in devoutly Muslim Aceh province.

Local Islamic police chief Muhammad Rusli said they bolted during an unguarded bathroom visit minutes before the punishment for violating anti-gambling laws.
The fugitives were caught playing dominoes for 1,000 rupiah (10 US cents) per game.

They were to receive six strokes of the cane each outside a mosque.

Aceh adopted Islamic law banning alcohol and gambling after gaining semiautonomy from the secular government following a decades-long civil war.
Last year, politicians there imposed stoning to death as a punishment for adultery.

The vast majority of Indonesia's roughly 200 million Muslims practice moderate Islam.

Courtroom Cirque du Jihad

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Courtroom Cirque du Jihad
By Michelle Malkin

Imagine this nightmare courtroom scenario: Unhinged Jew-bashing, open mockery of American soldiers, juror intimidation and coldly calculated exploitation of U.S. constitutional protections by a suspected al-Qaida defendant. Well, there's no need to wait for the Gitmo terror trial circuses. New York City is already getting a glimpse of the future.

Jihadi scientist Aafia Siddiqui is on trial right now in a federal Manhattan court for the attempted murder and assault of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan's Ghazni province two years ago. She's an accomplished Karachi-born scientist who studied microbiology at MIT and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis University before disappearing in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Counterterrorism investigators connected Siddiqui and her estranged husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Mohammed Amjad Khan, to Saudi terror funders. The couple's bank account showed repeated purchases of high-tech military equipment and apparel, including body armor, night-vision goggles and military manuals. Her second husband, fellow al-Qaida suspect and 9/11 plot helper Ammar al-Baluchi, is one of five Gitmo detainees the Obama administration is planning to transfer to New York for trial.
READ IT ALL:

Enlightened nations of the world are on a coffee-break from enlightenment

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Enlightened nations of the world are on a coffee-break from enlightenment
By Caroline B. Glick

"Never again!"

So declared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he spoke at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of its liberation.
Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he referred to as "the enlightened nations of the world," to recognize that "murderous evil" has to be stopped as early as possible to prevent it from achieving its aims. Unfortunately, the events of the past week show clearly that evil is on the march, and "the enlightened nations of the world" are on a coffee-break from enlightenment.

As Netanyahu addressed the world from the site of the most prolific genocide factory in human history, at the place where over a million Jews were gassed, starved, beaten, raped, frozen, shot and hanged and then burned in ovens, Iran's leaders were declaring loudly that they intend to finish what the Nazis started. They will destroy the Jewish people.

Iran's dictator supremo Ali Khamenei used a photo op with Mauritania's President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz — who cut his own country's diplomatic ties with Israel last January -- to renew his pledge to commit yet another Holocaust. As he put it, "Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime… When the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue."

And as he spoke, "the enlightened nations of the world's" ability to deny that the Iranian regime is building a nuclear arsenal was finally and utterly wiped away. On Monday Germany's Der Speigel reported that evidence gleaned from document intercepts and from the testimony of two senior Iranian defectors who were involved in Iran's nuclear program, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran's nuclear program is not a peaceful one. The Iranians are designing and building nuclear warheads for their Shihab-3 ballistic missiles. According to a summary of the findings now circulating through the halls of power, Iran will have the wherewithal to build nuclear warheads by 2012.
READ IT ALL:

Ft Hood’s Terror: The US failed by its own experts

Dr. Phares again gives a detailed and chilling look into the nature of the Islamic invasion of the west.  His conclusion is that we have blinded ourselves to the invasion and are suffering further inroads as a result.

FROM POLITICALMAVINS.COM:

Ft Hood’s Terror: The US failed by its own experts
By Walid Phares (bio)  

The Pentagon’s review of the act of Terrorism committed at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Hasan deserves national attention not only regarding its important conclusions but also what it missed in terms of analysis. In this piece, I’ll address major points made public in the media and raise issues about the bigger picture regarding the terror threat America is facing today.

Jihadi Penetration: Part of a War

As announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the report “reveals serious ’shortcomings’ in the military’s ability to stop foreign extremists from trying to use America’s own soldiers against the United States.” The Pentagon’s review of the Fort Hood massacre stated that “serious shortcomings” were found in “the military’s ability to stop foreign extremists from trying to use its own soldiers against the United States.” The first question that comes to mind is to know if the issue is about “shortcomings,” as described by the Pentagon, or is it about “systemic failures” as announced by President Obama in his evaluation of the Christmas Day terror act? For as underlined by the Department of Defense in the case of Major Hasan, these failures were about the military’s ability to “stop foreign terrorists from using American soldiers against the United States.” Such a statement is extremely important as it finally informs the public that US personnel is indeed being infiltrated and recruited by foreign Jihadists, which are described politically by the Administration as “extremists.” Hence, the first logical conclusion from that finding is that Jihadi networks are performing acts of War (and thus of Terrorism) against US defense assets and personnel in the homeland. Thus this warrants the reevaluation of the conflict and re-upgrading it to a state of war, even though it would still need to be determined “with whom.”

Self radicalization:

Secretary Gates said “military supervisors are not properly focused on the threat posed by self-radicalization and need to better understand the behavioral warning signs.” He added that “extremists are changing their tactics in an attempt to hit the United States.”

Concluding that the Fort Hood massacre “reveals shortcomings in the way the department is prepared to defend against threats posed by external influences operating on members of our military community,” he said. “We have not done enough to adapt to the evolving domestic internal security threat to American troops and military facilities.”

The bottom line of the Department of Defense report is, as I relentlessly argued before and since Hasan’s shootings, that the US military and intelligence lack the capability of detecting radicalization, should it be “self” developed or activated from overseas. American analysts are not able to “detect” radicalization from where it is generated. In my last three books and dozens of briefings and testimonies to legislative and executive forums, I underlined the crucial importance of identifying the ideology behind radicalization. For the latter is produced by a set of ideas assembled in a doctrinal package. Unfortunately the Bush and Obama Administrations were both poorly advised by their experts. They were told, wrongly, that if they try to identify a “doctrine” they will be meddling with a religion. Academic and cultural advisors of the various US agencies and offices (the majority of them at least) failed their government by triggering a fear of theological entanglement. To the surprise of our Arab and Muslim allies in the region, who know how to detect the Jihadist narrative, Washington disarmed its own analysts when bureaucrats of the last two years banned the reference to the very ideological indicators that could enable our analysts in detecting the radicalization threat. And it is not about “extreme religious views” inasmuch as it is about an ideology. If Arabs and Muslims can identify it in the Middle East, why can’t Americans do this also? Simply because Jihadi propaganda already penetrated our advising body and fooled many of our decision makers into dropping the ideological parameters. Hence stunningly Major Hasan, who amazingly displayed all the narrative of Jihadism, was not spotted as a Jihadist. The report tried to blame his colleagues and other superiors for failing to find him “suspicious enough” and thus for causing a shortcoming. I disagree: what allowed Hasan to move undetected was a bureaucratic memo issued under both Administrations and made into policy last summer, ordering the members of the public service to not look at ideology or refer to words that can detect it. We did it to ourselves.
The strategic threat ahead

The report raises “serious questions” about whether the military is prepared for similar attacks, particularly “multiple, simultaneous incidents.” In my book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America published half a decade ago, I sternly warned about the strategic determination of Jihadists, al Qaeda and beyond, to target the US homeland, not just in terms of terrorizing the public, but in the framework of a chain of strikes widening gradually until it would evolve to coordinated, simultaneous attacks. In 2006-2007, I served on the then Task Force on Future Terrorism of the Department of Homeland Security and developed an analysis clearly showing the path to come. My briefings to several entities and agencies in the Defense sector clearly argued that implanting, growing, and triggering homegrown Jihadists to strike at US national security is at the heart of the enemy’s strategy. I even projected the existence of a “war room” that directs these operations; Imam al Awlaki’s example of multiple operatives’ coordination is only a small fragment of what it would be like. In facing this mushrooming threat, not only do we not have a detection capacity to counter it, but we have been induced in error to adopt the opposite policies suitable to our national defense. The misleading advice that the US Government relied on is deeply responsible for the failure to counter, stop and reverse radicalization. The report, although a step in the right direction, has troubling short

a. It claims “fixation on religion” is a missing indicator. Meaning if Muslims insist on praying or Catholics refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent this could be a lead to radicalization. Obviously it is a dead end; for the indicator is the substance of the fixation, not the mere fact of religiosity. One statement of commitment to Jihad is by far more important than fasting during the whole month of Ramadan. It is not theology it is ideology, even though many writers in town insist on merging both based on their readings of text. I offer our government an easier way to detect the threat, without venturing in inextricable religious debates or unnecessarily apologizing for one or other particular faith.

b. The report describes Hasan as “an odd duck and a loner who was passed along from office to office and job to job despite professional failings that included missed or failed exams and physical fitness requirements.” Nice shot, but it leads nowhere. For the other potential Hasans amongst us aren’t all necessarily odd, failed students and physically unfit. The next Jihadists could be sharp, are professionals and extremely social. It all depends on what the “War Room” is going to surprise us with. Medical doctors in Britain, rich young men from Nigeria or converted farmers from North Carolina aren’t all in one profile basket. So let’s stop looking for framing “profiles” and start detecting ideology.

c. The report calls on the Defense Department “to fully staff those teams of investigators, analysts, linguists and others so the Pentagon can quickly see information collected across government agencies about potential links between troops and terrorist or extremist groups.” This is a long awaited initiative short of creating further catastrophes by staffing our bureaucracies with more cultural advisors, who would mislead our leaders further and worsen the already fledgling counter ideology sectors already in place. I am making the bold statement that our problem is precisely that the expertise we sought over the past eight years is the reason for our inability to detect radicalization. Hence I would recommend an additional inquiry into our own specialization body before we re-contract it to lead the war of ideas.

The beef is there. Everything else is dressing.

The Islam Tax

An outstanding assessment of how Islam has insinuated itself into Western society, and how the West just accepts one Muslim demand after another.  They are getting their jizya from our political and intelectual elites without firing a shot.

FROM RIGHTSIDENEWS.COM:

The Islam Tax
Bill Warner
Wednesday, 27 January 2010 05:26

Look at your next airline ticket and you will find a "Security Fee". What is the Security Fee that was passed after September 11, 2001? It is an Islam tax. It is more money out of an American's pocket to pay for the privilege of living with Muslims amongst us.

It turns out that we pay an enormous amount of money for our life with Islam. Let's look at a list of expenses that we bear because of Islamic ideology. If there were no Islam we would not have the Transportation Security Administration, Homeland Security, the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, all that so-called terrorist work by the FBI, rebuilding the World Trade Center and who knows what else.

The Iraq war has cost about $700 billion, the Afghan war has cost about $250 billion and all of the government agencies cost in the neighborhood of tens of billions per year. We are up to at least a TRILLION dollars of our Islam tax. That little $10 Security Fee may seem small, but that is for every round trip ticket sold in the US. What will the trial in NYC for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed cost? Millions of dollars. And the hits just keep coming.

Another part of the Islam tax is the jizyah (the dhimmi tax) that we call foreign aide. We pay various Islamic governments, including Egypt, Pakistan, the so-called Palestinians and others. Why do we pay the jizyah? We want to be friends (Never mind the 12 verses in the Koran that say that Muslims are never the friends of kafirs, unbelievers).
We are bringing Muslim refugees into America where they receive more benefits than American citizens, another Islam tax.

Why did Islam attack the World Trade Towers? Because they were the World TRADE Towers, an economic target. What was the purpose? To destroy the economy of America.
The Islam tax is a trillion dollars and counting. If we did not have this tax, it would certainly ease the economic crunch we have today.

This economic squeeze is 1400 years old. Mohammed created jihad, civilizational war. His concept of war was very sophisticated and included all forms of force against kafirs. He used threats, spies, secret agents, slavery, sex, propaganda, assassinations, deception, religious attacks, and the destruction of kafir economies.

As soon as Mohammed started his jihad, he warred against the economy of the kafirs. He kept up a running attack on the trade caravans of Mecca. When he attacked one tribe of Jews in Medina, he destroyed their economic base-their date palm plantations. This act was against the Arab customs of war, but Allah said it was a good thing. When he attacked Taif, he destroyed their plantations as well. Economic war.

One of his last acts was to attack the Christians north of Medina. Once he had crushed them, he made them pay the jizyah tax (the dhimmi tax). He did the same to the Jews of Khaybar. The jizyah tax was 50% of their income.

All Islam has to do is to keep up the attack. It does not matter whether they win or lose a particular battle. The more Islam practices jihad, the more we deny it and create some governmental nightmare that avoids the ideological war with Islam, but costs a fortune. Our self-deception is bankrupting us.

Islam produces poverty. Without oil, the income to all of the Arabic nations is less than that of Spain. This is not an accident. Mohammed was a businessman, but after he became a prophet, all of the money he made came from the loot from his victims, not a great business model. Mohammed knew how to bleed his enemies dry. We are bleeding today as a result of the Islamic war against the kafirs.

But Islam does not just tax kafirs for money. Kafirs have to submit to Sharia law and this means the loss of freedoms. Only Muslims are allowed to dictate what is taught about Islam in our schools. Islam gains the benefits of a deceitful history lesson, and we lose our freedom of speech. This is a tax on our Constitutional freedoms.

Everyday we submit a little more to Sharia law when we allow Muslims to take time off to pray at work and school. Article 6 of our Constitution says that our Constitution is the law of the land, but we are submitting to the demands of Sharia law when we declare that the sports facilities must be divided in use so that Muslim women can obey Sharia laws about mixing sexes. Our sovereignty decreases and Sharia law gains. This is a tax against our laws.

So now in America, kafirs are poorer and Muslims are richer because of Islam.

Bill Warner,
Director, Center for the Study of Political Islam

Stay Away From Book On Muslim Women, Muslims Advised

Another example of Muslim tolerance and understanding. 

FROM BERNAMA.COM:

Stay Away From Book On Muslim Women, Muslims Advised

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- The book "Muslim Women and The Challenge of Islamic Extremism" can create doubt and disharmony among the people in the country, according to the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM).

Its director general, Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz Wan Mohamad said the contents of the book contravened the Islamic Publication Materials Censorship Guidelines issued by Jakim in 1996.

"Several obvious errors were found (in the book)," he said in a statement Tuesday.

He said among others the book stated that Islamic family laws and Syariah criminal laws were promoting prejudice and discrimination against women.

The book also questioned the Fatwa institution and the ban on non-Islamic scholars from discussing Islamic issues, besides promoting re-interpretation of the verses in the Quran, especially on gender bias, he said.

Wan Mohamad said the book had been scrutinised, checked and referred to the Islamic Publication Materials Censorship Committee chaired by the Mufti of Perak, Tan Sri Dr Harussani Zakaria.

"Hence, Muslims in the country are advised to be wary of reading materials which contravene Islamic teachings. If in doubt, refer to the guidelines issued by Jakim," he said.

Wan Mohamad said Jakim also respected the High Court's decision on Monday to lift the ban on the book, but felt that it was its responsibility to explain to the public on the errors found in any Islamic book in the market.

Seating arrangement draws ire of Haia in Riyadh mall

Even non-Muslims must conform to Sharia in Saudi Arabia.

FROM ARABNEWS.COM:

Seating arrangement draws ire of Haia in Riyadh mall
Arab News  

JEDDAH: Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) in Riyadh’s Rawdah district briefly detained a Japanese professor and his wife while presenting a cultural program in a mall in the city, a local daily reported on Friday. The Haia’s attention was drawn to the seating arrangement for the event where women sat in an area sectioned off for men because there was a better view of the presentation.

The religious police also said they were not informed that a presentation of such kind would be taking place. “They should contact these departments including the governorate to get permission,” Haia spokesman in Riyadh Turki Al-Shulail told Al-Watan Arabic daily in a report published on Friday.

“The governorate will then inform the commission that it has given consent to organize the program, because we have been given the mandate to monitor such events to prevent wrong practices.” The arrest took place while the married couple was presenting a cultural exchange program on behalf of Sakura Almamlakh, a Saudi group that works to promote Saudi-Japanese cultural exchanges.

Sakura Almamlakh Director Abdul Rahman Al-Osaimi said the Haia held the Japanese man, a professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, and his wife for an hour on Thursday. “The commission officials seized mobile phones of the group’s members,” he added.

He said the management of the commercial center had made seating arrangement for women on the second floor, but some chose to sit in the men’s section because of the better view of the stage.

Indonesia: Police hunt for Sumatra church attackers

Another hysterical Muslim riot and attack Christians for simply being Christians.  In this case, since the police are Muslims, don't expect anyone top be brought to justice.

FROM ADNKRONOS.COM:

Indonesia: Police hunt for Sumatra church attackers

Medan, 26 Jan. (AKI/Jakarta Post ) - Police are stepping up their hunt for suspects following attacks against two Protestant churches and a pastor’s home in North Sumatra three days ago. Hundreds of Christians have fled the area since the attacks.

But South Tapanuli police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Subandriya said police needed to proceed carefully and avoid action that could further stoke tensions between Muslims and Christians in the area.

“Police want to deal with this matter properly to ensure it does not get out of hand," he said.

“Our job is to ensure this case does not develop into a serious racial or religious conflict,” Subandriya told The Jakarta Post.

About 1,000 Muslims set fire to the two churches in Sibuhuan, in North Sumatra's Padang Lawas district late last Friday night in an incident that was blamed as a culmination of tension between Muslims and Christians over the presence of unregistered churches in the area.

The Friday attack, the first in the history of North Sumatra where both Muslim and Christian communities live together, caused no serious injury or fatalities, but forced hundreds of Christians to flee the scene.

According to the police, the churches were built in Sibuhuan in 1982. The construction was reportedly opposed by Muslim residents because they were constructed without building permits.

In 1992, the Muslim and Christian communities reached an agreement to stop construction, but the agreement was violated. The churches maintained activity and worship.

The churches' management said it had stopped church construction in December last year following a meeting with local officials, Christians and the Indonesian Ulema Council. It had also begun dismantling the church on 13 January.

FRANCE: ANTI-VEIL IMAM TARGETED; GROUP STORMS MOSQUE

Violence is again the typical Muslim reaction to anyone, even another Muslin who dares to suggest Islam should be reformed in any manner.
 
FROM ANSAMED.INFO:

FRANCE: ANTI-VEIL IMAM TARGETED; GROUP STORMS MOSQUE
(ANSAmed)

PARIS, JANUARY 26 - Tension is high in France where Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam at the Drancy mosque, who in recent days sided in favour of a law that bans the use of the full veil has been hit by serious threats. A group of some 80 people stormed the Drancy mosque yesterday evening, making threats against Chalgoumi, a great supporter of interreligious dialogue (above all between Jews and Muslims), who recently declared that he was against the use of the full veil in France. A group of 80 people, with their faces covered, stormed the mosque where some 200 worshippers were present, a council member of the Conference of Imams, chaired by Chalgoumi himself, told the France Presse agency, asking to remain anonymous. They forced their way in and grabbed the microphones after a scuffle. At this point, they directed threats and curses against Imam, treating him as an unbeliever and an apostate and stating: we will trash his case, this Imam of the Jews...

Launched in 2009, the Conference of Imams is a collective that promotes an interreligious dialogue and the promotion of open Islam. In recent days, Hassen Chalghoumi has said that he is in favour of a law that bans the use of the full veil in France, describing it as a prison for women, an instrument used for sexist domination and Muslim recruitment. The parliamentary mission, which has been studying the measures to be adopted against the full veil, has today recommended that France should solemnly declare itself in favour of the ban and has asked for the adoption of a series of measures to ban it from administration offices and public transport. (ANSAmed).

The Organized Muslim Invasion of Europe

click to biggen

No Muslim invasion? Think again.  It's happening in America and Canada too.

FROM INFIDELSUNITE:

The Organized Muslim Invasion of Europe

LeFigaro  

The Muslim invasion routes are increasingly organized. The networks of Muslim invasion are improving and generate considerable revenue on top of conquered space. France has decided to commence a war against these priory sectors of invasion.

The UN claims that the illegal Muslim invasion racket is the world's third largest criminal activity measured by the income it generates. The trafficking of Muslim invaders has been in the attention of the French police. In 2008, the law-enforcement authorities dismantled hundreds of human-trafficking networks funneling migrants from China, Africa, Middle East and South America.

On top of the 110 police officers of the l'Ocriest  (The Central office for Combating Illegal Muslim Immigration and Employment of Undocumented Foreigners) and the 52 mobile brigades of the border police, the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity has pledged  soon to double the number of police officers tackling these networks. To achieve his goal, the minister announced his controversial policy based on incentives for the illegal Muslim immigrants to snitch on their traffickers.

The illegal Muslim trafficking is a network of more or less structured routes. In March, 2009, the Paris Police's intelligence directorate dismantled a network for Iraqi and Kurdish Muslim by bribes worth $10,000. In May, the l'Ocriest  uncovered yet another Muslim smuggling network that shuttled Iranian Muslims to Britain. According to the French police, it costs approximately 3,000 euros for a one-way trip from Greece to France.

As the European countries strengthen their borders to discourage further Muslim invasion, the business of smuggling Muslims to Europe gets more lucrative, according to the investigators. The Muslim smuggling is a 10,000,000 euro business. The best Muslim smuggling operations provide the forged documents and transportation in the utmost discretion.

In the recent years, the proliferation of Muslim candidates for exile from Africa has lead to a succession of tragedies that have claimed the lives of thousands of Muslim invaders. Many make-shift boats from Libya, Egypt, or Tunisia have been wrecked before reaching the shores of Europe in the Italian coast, while others have luckily sunk off Spain.  Furthermore, crossing the Sahara has claimed its share of Black Muslim invaders of Europe.

Regardless of these various ways, a huge number of Muslim invaders manage to reach France through its overseas territories. Mayotte, Guayana and Guadeloupe have faced massive Muslim invasion for several years.

Last year France deported over 29,000 Muslim invaders.

Sharia Law and the US Constitution

A clever look at the US Constitution verses Sharia law.  The differences are as night and day.

FROM ANNAQED.COM:

Sharia Law and the US Constitution
By Louis Palme
Oct 14, 2009

Americans are among the most tolerant and patriotic people in the world.  As a nation of immigrants, there is a certain appeal to the idea of multiculturalism where people of different backgrounds are accepted in our communities.  Our nation was founded on the principles of equality and freedom, and we have invested our resources and blood over and over again to defend those principles. Our constitution guarantees not only the freedom of speech, but also the freedom to practice our religion of choice.  So it is not surprising that many Americans see Sharia Law as a Muslim religious prerogative which we should support or at least tolerate.  Banks have rushed to provide Sharia-compliant banking, and public institutions like universities and airports have spent taxpayer dollars to help Muslims comply with their religious requirements, providing special foot-baths and prayer rooms for them. 

If anyone speaks out against Sharia Law, there is often a strong reaction within the Muslim community. This month, Dalia Mogahed, President Obama’s advisor on Muslim affairs, complained on British television that the Western view of Sharia was “oversimplified” and misunderstood.  While acknowledging that even Muslims associate Sharia with draconian criminal punishments and laws that seem unequal for women, she stated, “Part of the reason there is this perception of Sharia is because Sharia is not well understood and Islam as a faith is not well understood.”  The London-based Islam Channel panel she was on made repeated attacks against secular “man-made Law” and the West’s “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism.”  Ms. Mogahed described  her government role as “to convey . . to the President and other public officials what it is Muslims want.”  (Source:)

A similar reaction took place in a recent US Congressional hearing on the dangers posed by political Islam.  Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, one of the most prominent Muslim reformers in the United States, testified, “I think if Muslims want credibility and we want to be respected equally, we need to stand for reform within our faith of [Sharia] laws that are still in the 15th and 16th  Century.” He explained that the jihadists will not be defeated until Muslims start to recognize that their ideology is on a slippery slope toward radicalism.  In response to this testimony, Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D, Mn) delivered a verbal tirade that accused Dr. Jasser of encouraging anti-Muslim bigotry and attempting to censor Islamists.  Ellison said to Dr. Jasser, “I think you give people license for bigotry. I think people who engage in nothing less than Muslim-hating really love you a lot because you give them freedom to do that. You say, ‘yeah, go get after them.’ . .  Now is somebody going to snatch my 13-year-old daughter’s hijab off, call her a horrible name, and spit on her because of something you said,  Dr. Jasser? I worry  about that.”  (Source:)

So, to better understand whether Sharia Law is desirable (or even legal) in the United States, it might be instructive to compare it with the US Constitution. This isn’t too difficult for the layman because the US Constitution is only 17 pages long, including its 27 amendments.  Sharia Law is well-documented in the 1,200 page Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, “The Reliance of the Traveler” by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, and published in the United States by Amana Publications. While the original document dates to the late 14th Century, it has been updated in the 1990’s and bears the  approval of the Fiqh Council of North America as well as the authoritative Al-Azhar Islamic Research Academy in Egypt.  The introduction to this manual states, “The four Sunni schools of Islamic Law . . are identical in approximately 75 percent of the legal conclusions. . . [T]he authors of the present volume and their positions do represent the orthodox Muslim intellectual and spiritual heritage that has been the strength of the Community for over a thousand years . .  to the present day.”

While this volume of Sharia Law is primarily about the religious practice of Islam, the 800 pages of the manual devoted to rules and regulations also include sections on Trade, Inheritance, Marriage (suitable partners, legal rights, custody), Divorce, and Justice which would fall under civil law in the United States.  Those sections comprise 35% of the manual, and are among the most controversial because they impose draconian punishments, authorize jihad, and sanction discrimination on the basis of religion and gender. 

The summary below highlights the serious disconnects between the provisions of the US Constitution and those of Sharia Law. 
READ IT ALL:

A terror trial debacle happening right now

A taste of things to come.  Islamic terrorists, no matter weather foreign or domestic can be tried in the normal civil court system.  They must be seen as and tried as enemy combatants in military tribunals.  Upon conviction they must be segregated from civil criminals and isolated from contact with the outside world.

Upon conviction there can be only one of two sentences: death, or life and a day.

FROM MICHELLEMALKIN.COM:

A terror trial debacle happening right now
By Michelle Malkin   
January 26, 2010 09:56 AM

You want a glimpse of the future that crime-coddling Eric Holder and the White House will be bringing up en masse?

Right now, in New York City, jihad scientist Aafia Siddiqui is on trial.
See here, here, here, and here for background on the MIT-trained microbiologist/suspected KSM operative who went missing after 9/11 — and was caught, shot, and extradited two years in Pakistan after threatening to kill American soldiers.

The Pakistani government is paying for part of her defense. She has used the civilian court system to shout anti-American propaganda and spew hatred against Jews, cause legal chaos, and make a mockery of the rights she has been granted. al Qaeda has been trained to game the system. The Western-educated Siddiqui is milking it for all it’s worth.

On Monday, she was thrown out twice for outburts. Her defense team is now asking for, you guessed it, a mistrial.

A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist linked to al-Qaida got into trouble again Monday in federal court after twice interrupting the sometimes tearful testimony of an American solider who claimed he shot her in self defense in Afghanistan in 2008.

“I feel sorry for you,” Aafit Saddiqui blurted out at one point at her attempted murder trial in Manhattan. After a judge had deputy U.S. marshals remove her, she pointed at the witness and muttered something else before disappearing behind a side door.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman allowed Saddiqui to return later, but kicked her out again amid another rambling tirade about injustice. At the end of the day, the defense argued that the removals made her look bad in front of the jury and asked for a mistrial, which the judge denied.
“It’s highly appropriate for her to be escorted out of the courtroom when she acts out,” he said.

Siddiqui – a specialist in neuroscience who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University – has insisted in previous courtroom rants that she’s innocent. She also has refused to work with her defense attorneys, including some paid for by the Pakistani government.

The soldier described Siddiqui’s 2008 ambush:

He testified Afghan authorities had told him Siddiqui had been restrained, and was shocked when she sudden appeared from behind a curtain wielding his M4 rifle and yelling, “Allah akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
“It was pretty amazing she got that thing up and squared off,” he said. “She was looking at me and aiming dead at me.”

Hearing the rifle go off, the officer said he followed his military training and pulled his pistol. Siddiqui was wrestling with an interpreter when he shot her in the stomach.

“I operated within the rules of engagement to eliminate the threat,” he said.
Two jurors were also let go after a man sitting in the courtroom pointed at them, used his finger as a gun to pretend to shoot them, and mouthed an obscenity.

Reports the NYPost: ” The unidentified man in a white headdress was taken into custody but it was unclear if charges were filed following the incident in Manhattan federal court.”
An al Qaeda suspect given free reign with her tongue in a public courtroom. Jurors threatened. Prosecution in jeopardy.
Now, imagine the scene being repeated in 12 or 20 or 25 more courtrooms across America simultaneously with similar high-value suspects and the jihadi dregs of Gitmo.

Are you ready? It’s coming.

Is this another home grown Jihadi on the path to martyrdom?

Is this another home grown Jihadi on the path to martyrdom? 

"Investigators also found a map of a military installation and what they described as a traditional Middle Eastern type head dress."

The FBI will quickly come in and within hours state that there is no connection with terrorism.  But this guy is following a pattern that is becoming all to familiar. 

Time will tell.

FROM ABCLOCAL.GO.COM:


BRANCHBURG, N.J. - January 25, 2010 (WPVI) -- Police in North Jersey are trying to figure out what this man was planning to do with a cache of high powered weapons.

Forty-three-year-old Lloyd Woodson of Virginia was arrested in Branchburg, Somerset County early Monday morning after acting suspiciously at a convenience store.

Police say he was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a loaded semi-automatic rifle.
When investigators searched the nearby motel room where he was staying, they found several more semi-automatic rifles, a night-vision scope, another bullet proof vest, and a police scanner.

Investigators also found a map of a military installation and what they described as a traditional Middle Eastern type head dress.

Below is information released by officials in New Jersey:
SOMERVILLE - Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest and Branchburg Chief of Police Brian Fitzgerald announced that police have arrested and charged Lloyd R. Woodson, age 43, of Reston, Virginia with multiple weapons offenses following an investigation in Branchburg, New Jersey.
READ IT ALL:

Moslems Fighting Moslems Becomes Respectable

Muslims killing Muslims is still the best defense the West has against the global Jihad.  As long as the various factions focus on each other, they will remain relatively weak and ineffective.

FROM STRATEGYPAGE.COM:

Moslems Fighting Moslems Becomes Respectable

January 24, 2010:
Bahrain has come out into the open about its troops serving in Afghanistan. The Bahraini government revealed that it had 125 special security troops in Afghanistan, helping to provide security for American bases. The Bahraini troops are multi-lingual, and have replaced local translators, and security guards, in controlling who gets into bases. The local translators would sometimes collaborate with local truck drivers to smuggle contraband (like drugs) onto the bases. Bahrain has their troops in Afghanistan on six month tours, and will keep replacing them.

Until quite recently, Moslem, particularly Arab, nations had sent troops to Afghanistan, but had kept it quiet. But the December 30th suicide bombing of a U.S. base in Afghanistan, revealed that one of the eight people killed was Ali bin Zeid, an agent for Jordanian intelligence. The fact that Zeid was identified was unusual. But Zeid was a cousin of the king of Jordan, and it was apparently thought better to just announce his "martyrdom" and avoid all the rumors that would appear otherwise. There was no uproar in the Arab world over this Jordanian presence in Afghanistan. Apparently, Islamic terrorists have become so unpopular in the Moslem world, that it is no longer considered scandalous for Moslem troops to work with non-Moslem troops to kill the common enemy.

One of the best kept secrets in the war on terror is the number of Arab commando and intelligence troops serving in Afghanistan. Several Arab nations have quietly contributed intelligence and commando units to the counter-terror effort there. Until recently, this was kept quiet, but it was an open secret in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. These commandos are usually pretty busy back home, keeping local Islamic radicals in check. But some of their home-grown radicals have shown up in Afghanistan and Pakistan (usually after things got too hot for them back home), and it followed that these Arab governments allowed some of their counter-terror troops to continue the pursuit into the pro-Taliban areas of Afghanistan. Arrangements with the Pakistani government has allowed some of these operatives to work both sides of the border. These Arab counter-terrorists often get a crack at any Arab terrorists caught in Afghanistan, or Pakistan. The combination of interrogation skills, and cultural affinity, sometimes gets results where Western interrogators have failed.

There have been some casualties among the Arab commandos, who take part in combat operations. Those wounded or killed are referred to, if at all, as "international troops." The Arab operatives are eager to serve in Afghanistan, which is seen as the Big Leagues within the commando community. But there's also the self-interest angle. Many Arab counter-terrorist specialists are on al Qaeda's hit list, and some of these men even have prices on their heads. So it's sometimes a question of getting the other guy, before he gets you.
Bahrain has become a major American base in the Persian Gulf, with about 3,000 U.S. personnel serving there. During the 1990s, Bahrain began providing port facilities for destroyers and frigates enforcing the Iraqi embargo, and other support for the U.S. carrier task force that operates in the Persian Gulf. The Bahrain air base of Shaikh Isa was fitted out to support about a hundred U.S. warplanes. Britain bases aerial tankers in Bahrain as well.

Bahrain is an island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Population is only 700,000, and a third of those are foreigners (non-Arab). Bahrain has long been pro-West, mainly as a way to prevent takeover by Iran (or mainland Arabs). Bahrain is currently the main base for the U.S. 5th Fleet, and a major American military operation in the region. Bahrain replaced Beirut as the most popular Arab banking center, during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. Bahrain is also a major tourist destination, mainly for Saudis looking for some relief from the lifestyle police back home. You can get a drink, and much else, in Bahrain.

MQ-1C Sky Warrior

click to biggen

FROM STRATEGYPAGE.COM:


MQ-1C Sky Warrior

Posted 1/25/2010
After completing a 24-hour mission, an MQ-1C Sky Warrior aircraft from makes a landing Jan. 11. Photo Credit: Sgt. Travis Zielinski, 1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div., USD-C.
Soldiers in Iraq employ new unmanned aircraft system
Jan 16, 2010
By By Sgt. Travis Zielinski 1st ACB, USD-C
CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- Placing a new aircraft in a combat situation is a true test of its capabilities and future role within the Army.

Unmanned aircraft systems have become a mainstay in military operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom; injecting new concepts and technologies will only further push the uses of these aircraft.

Quick Reaction Capability 1, attached to 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, U.S. Division - Center, is a small unit with a handful of Soldiers deployed from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training Battalion out of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., that has spent the past months putting the new MQ-1C Sky Warrior UAS through numerous tests to help Department of Army officials determine the path of the unmanned aircraft systems.

The Sky Warrior, a system larger than the Predator, is operated by Soldiers in Iraq as opposed to being flown remotely from the United States. It has a wing span of 56 feet and is capable of carrying Hellfire missiles.

The Department of the Army wanted QRC1 to be assigned to the Baghdad area of operations; and since the 1st Cavalry Division was in charge of operations for Baghdad at the time, the unit fell under 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, said Capt. Travis Blaschke, from Spokane, Wash., commander of QRC1.

"This aircraft is in its infancy. The aircraft that we have right now on the flight line are the first aircraft produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and deployed by the Army," said Blaschke. "All of the aircraft were built during the Development and Testing phase of the acquisition process, which means all the aircraft are prototypes."

Even though the Sky Warrior is still in a testing phase, it is being used in missions to support units on the ground. Through these missions, the QRC1 unit is gathering data to determine the direction the program will go.

"Our mission is to support [U.S. Division - Center] on all of their [reconnaissance surveillance and target acquisition] missions by providing aero-scout capabilities to the maneuver commander," said Blaschke. "Our secondary mission is to validate the MQ-1C for the program of record."

Program of record, or POR, is the final milestone for any new Army asset. This will move the MQ-1C from development and testing into full rate production and adoption into the Army's common inventory.

The Army saw a need for having division-level UAS assets similar to the Air Force Predator. The Sky Warrior MQ-1C will answer this need, said Blaschke.

"We are actually testing the concept of operations, system limitations, hardware and software," he said. "We are working through a lot of challenges by forging a new path, but it has been worth it to see the incredible progress."

"To think that the company was created 14 months ago, finished qualification training eight months ago and we are now conducting full spectrum ... missions in theater is pretty amazing," he said.

QRC1 is a program that has been developed to assume and mitigate a lot of the risk for the POR, which should be developed in about three years, said Blaschke.

If the QRC1 program is successful, the Army has a plan in place to give every aviation brigade multiple Sky Warriors starting in 2011, said Blaschke. The aircraft would be a division-level asset and would be further dispersed down to the combat units to support the maneuver commanders.

"To date, the majority of the missions we are conducting involve the dissemination of full-motion video, which provides situational awareness for the commanders at battalion, brigade and even division," said Blaschke. "We have been over-watching air assaults, cordon and searches; conducting reconnaissance and surveillance."
Along with the ability to conduct surveillance and fly well beyond a dozen hours, once testing is complete, the Sky Warrior will be armed with Hellfire missiles, which will add another dimension to its combat role.

"This is an aircraft that can have different payloads," said Blaschke. "It has the capability of actually looking out long distances in order to find the enemy in different ways. Whether it is using the image intelligence, using signal intelligence, using measuring intelligence, this platform can not only find the enemy but will ultimately be able to engage and neutralize the enemy."

The Sky Warrior also has the capability to point out targets for other aircraft - enabling them to hit their target while the Sky Warrior aims, said Blaschke. It can guide in a Hellfire from an AH-64D Apache attack helicopter or even Joint Direct Attack Munitions from an F/A-18 Super Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon or F-22 Raptor - making a hunter-killer team.

"This aircraft will be standing side-by-side Army maneuver assets, rotary wing teams on air assault missions, or teaming with the ground maneuver commanders on cordons or raids," said Blaschke.

However, the Sky Warrior with all of its technology is nothing more than a display model without the men and women who operate the aircraft and know its full capabilities.

"The operators of the system need to be at the highest level of proficiency and also maintain the proper situational awareness to ensure they are supporting the ground commander to the best of their ability," said Blaschke.

Unlike the Air Force, who only allows officers to operate UAS, the Sky Warrior operators of QRC1 consist of officers, warrant officers and enlisted personnel.

The QRC1 unit is on the edge of the envelope and Army leaders have high expectations for the future of the Sky Warrior program, according to Blaschke.

"We are in the process of honing the operators' proficiency to the highest levels and also developing this aircraft to the pinnacle of reliability and lethality," said Blaschke. "The future of MQ-1C operations is only limited by the breadth of our imagination."

Officials Describe Christmas Attack Interrogation

This is exactly why Muslim terrorists must be held and dealt with under military tribunal rules.  We are at war, weather our governments admit it or not.  Granting Islamists civilian legal rights, no matter their origin or where they are captured, only allows them to carry on their holy war in the courtrooms.  It also denies us critical intelligence on Islamist plans.

Bottom line to granting Abdulmutallab civilian legal rights:  "He remained silent". 

FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

Officials Describe Christmas Attack Interrogation
Saturday, 23 Jan 2010 05:36 PM Article Font Size 
 
Badly burned and bleeding, the suspect in the Christmas Day flight to Detroit tried one last gambit as he was led away: He claimed there was another bomb hidden on the plane he'd just tried to destroy, officials said.

There was no second bomb, federal agents learned after a tense search. But the Nigerian suspect's threat began hours of conversations that are now the subject of a fierce political debate over the right way to handle terrorism suspects.

In interviews with The Associated Press, U.S. officials described for the first time the details of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's arrest Dec. 25 at Detroit Metro Airport.
Captured after a bomb hidden in his underwear ignited but failed to explode, Abdulmutallab spoke freely and provided valuable intelligence, officials said. Federal agents repeatedly interviewed him or heard him speak to others. But when they read him his legal rights nearly 10 hours after the incident, he went silent.

Since the attempted bombing, several prominent lawmakers have argued he should have been placed immediately in military custody, and the nation's top intelligence official said he should have been questioned by a special group of terror investigators, rather than the FBI agents who responded to the scene.

The officials who spoke to The AP said on-scene investigators never discussed turning the suspect over to military authorities. And their accounts show that as the hours passed, the FBI turned to its own expert counterterror interrogators and made no effort to involve the special unit, which was not yet up and running.

The officials provided an account of the law enforcement response to the holiday bombing on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the investigation.

Here is what officials say happened:

Shortly after noon on Christmas, federal agents were notified that Northwest Airlines flight 253 had arrived at the Detroit airport from Amsterdam, with a passenger who had lit an explosive device on the aircraft.
After being restrained and stripped bare by fellow passengers and crew, Abdulmutallab was handed over to Customs and Border Protection officers and local police.

The officers decided the suspect needed immediate medical attention, and an ambulance crew took him to the burn unit at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
Along the way, Abdulmutallab repeatedly made incriminating statements to the CBP officers guarding him. He told them he had acted alone on the plane and had been trying to take down the aircraft.

Abdulmutallab arrived at the hospital just before 2 p.m. Still under guard, Abdulmutallab told a doctor treating him that he had tried to trigger the explosive. The Nigerian said it didn't cause a blast, but instead began popping and ignited a fire on his groin and legs.
FBI agents from the Detroit bureau arrived at the hospital around 2:15 p.m., and were briefed by the Customs agents and officers as Abdulmutallab received medical treatment.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., FBI agents began interviewing the suspect in his hospital room, joined by a CBP officer and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The suspect spoke openly, said one official, talking in detail about what he'd done and the planning that went into the attack. Other counterterrorism officials speaking on condition of anonymity said it was during this questioning that he admitted he had been trained and instructed in the plot by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.
The interview lasted about 50 minutes. Before they began questioning Abdulmutallab, the FBI agents decided not to give him his Miranda warnings providing his right to remain silent.

While the Miranda warning — based on a 1966 Supreme Court ruling — is a bedrock principle of the U.S. justice system and a staple of television cop shows, there is a major exception which could apply in Abdulmutallab's case.
Investigators are allowed to question a suspect without providing a Miranda warning if they are trying to end a threat to public safety.

In a future trial in a federal court, prosecutors would likely justify Abdulmutallab's questioning without a Miranda warning by arguing that the FBI agents needed to know quickly if there were other planes with other bombs headed for the United States. The 9/11 attacks and other past plots have shown al-Qaida's penchant for synchronized attacks in multiple locations.

Since the incident, Republican lawmakers have argued that the Obama administration mishandled the case by not considering putting Abdulmutallab in military custody — part of a larger political argument about whether terror suspects should face military or civilian justice.

"Those who now argue that a different action should have been taken in this case were notably silent when dozens of terrorists were successfully prosecuted in federal court by the previous administration," Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier this week.

Abdulmutallab's interview ended when the suspect was given medication and the investigators decided it would be better to let the effects of the drugs wear off before pressing him further.

He would not be questioned again for more than five hours. By that point, officials said, FBI bosses in Washington had decided a new interrogation team was needed. They made that move in case the lack of a Miranda warning or the suspect's medical condition at the time of the earlier conversations posed legal problems later on for prosecutors.

There was no effort to call in the elite federal High-Value Interrogation Group, a special unit of terror specialists that the Obama administration said early last year it would create to deal with terror suspects captured abroad.

Last week, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said the unit should have been called in after Abdulmatullab's arrest. But even if federal officials wanted to expand its use to domestic cases, the special team was not ready for action, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress last week.

Based on the instructions from Washington, the second interview was conducted by different FBI agents and others with the local joint terrorism task force.
Such a move is not unusual in cases where investigators or prosecutors want to protect themselves from challenges to evidence or statements.

By bringing in a so-called "clean team" of investigators to talk to the suspect, federal officials aimed to ensure that Abdulmutallab's statements would still be admissible if the failure to give him his Miranda warning led a judge to rule out the use of his first admissions.

Even if Abdulmutallab's statements are ruled out as evidence, they still provided valuable intelligence for U.S. counterterrorism officials to pursue, officials said.
In the end, though, the "clean team" of interrogators did not prod more revelations from the suspect.

Having rested and received more extensive medical treatment, Abdulmutallab was told of his right to remain silent and right to have an attorney.

He remained silent.

Making license plates and terrorists

File this under Enemy within. 

FROM NYPOST.COM:

Making license plates and terrorists

Last Updated: 4:15 AM, January 23, 2010
Posted: January 23, 2010

It should come as no surprise that up to three dozen American Islamists re vealed this week to have skipped off to terror training camps in Yemen were radicalized in US prisons.

The surprise would be if corrections officials did anything about it.

According to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, intelligence indicates that some 36 Americans who converted to Islam in prison have departed for the al Qaeda hotbed in the past year, claiming to want to study Arabic.
Intelligence officials told the committee that they'd lost track of some of the men, who they believe have slipped away to al Qaeda training camps.

This is a big problem, the report says, "because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping homegrown operatives."

No kidding.

Indeed, such study-abroad programs for homegrown jihadists seem to be all the rage these days. Last month, five Muslim students from Virginia were arrested in Pakistan as they tried to rendezvous with al Qaeda.

But what's especially outrageous about the Yemen 36 is the very real possibility that they were fed their poison by folks collecting government paychecks as Muslim chaplains.
In 2003, Imam Warith Deen Umar, who until 2000 was essentially in charge of hiring Muslim chaplains for New York's state prisons, told The Wall Street Journal that the 9/11 hijackers should be honored as martyrs.

In 2006, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, the city's head Muslim prison chaplain, was caught by The Post preaching against "Zionists in the media" and the "terrorist" President Bush -- and kept his job.

Sure, Warith Deen Umar was dismissed, and the state Correction Department says that, 10 years on, most of the chaplains he hired have left, too.
Still, as the Senate report suggests, the radical factory in America's prisons keeps rolling along.

It's time to put a stick in the spokes.

Islam’s war against others

This article is aptly titled, but should perhaps be titled Islam's war against ALL others. 

FROM THEDICKINSONPRESS.COM:

Islam’s war against others

In 2001, the monumental sixth century Buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited on orders from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The United States and other Western governments issued protests. Afghanistan’s Islamist rulers shrugged them off.

By: Clifford May, The Dickinson Press

In 2001, the monumental sixth century Buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited on orders from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The United States and other Western governments issued protests. Afghanistan’s Islamist rulers shrugged them off.

In 2010, Al-Kifl, the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, near Baghdad, is being desecrated. On the tomb are inscriptions in Hebrew and an ark in which a Torah was displayed centuries ago. Iraq’s Antiquities and Heritage Authority, under pressure from Islamists, is erasing the Hebrew words, removing the Hebrew ornaments and planning to build a mosque on top of the grave.

So far, we’re hearing protests from almost no one. But this is not just another “Where is the outrage?” story. The larger and more alarming trend is that in a growing number of Muslim-majority countries a war is being waged against non-Muslim minorities.

Where non-Muslim minorities already have been “cleansed” — as in Afghanistan and Iraq — the attacks are against their memory. Ethnic minorities also are being targeted: The genocidal conflict against the black Muslims of Darfur is only the most infamous example.

Connect these dots: In Nigeria this week, Muslim youths set fire to a church, killing more than two dozen Christian worshippers. In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been suffering increased persecution including, this month, a drive-by shooting outside a church in which seven people were murdered. In Pakistan, Christian churches were bombed over Christmas. In Turkey, authorities have been closing Christian churches, monasteries and schools. Recently, churches in Malaysia have been attacked, too, provoked by this grievance: Christians inside the churches were referring to God as “Allah.” How dare infidels use the same name for the Almighty as do Muslims!

Many Muslims, no doubt, disapprove of the persecution of non-Muslims. But in most Muslim-majority countries, any Muslim openly opposing the Islamists risks being branded an apostate. And under the Islamist interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law, apostates deserve death.
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Useless Fort Hood Leaves Americans Unprotected

Another Diana West tour de force.

FROM TOWNHALL.COM:

Useless Fort Hood Leaves Americans Unprotected
by Diana West

"Do you believe in 'radical Islam'?" the famous Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders once asked me.

The occasion was a banquet last summer at the Reagan Library outside of Los Angeles where later that evening Wilders would receive a Hero of Conscience award from the American Freedom Alliance. I would have the honor of introducing him. "What did you say?" I could barely hear him over the speaker at the podium elaborating on the perils of, yes, "radical Islam."

"'Radical Islam,'" he repeated. "Do you think there is 'radical Islam,' or only 'Islam'"?

Me, I'm an "only Islam" kind of gal, as I told him. Who am I to argue with Muslims ranging from terror-cleric Abu Qatada to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan? Erdogan is particularly interesting as a democratically elected Islamic leader who eschews all word-modifiers of Islam including "moderate," the adjective the media often applies to his AKP political party. "These descriptions are very ugly," Erdogan said in 2007. "It is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that's it." Erdogan has also bluntly rejected descriptions of Turkey itself as an example of "moderate Islam," saying last April: "It is unacceptable for us to agree with such a definition. Turkey has never been a country to represent such a concept. Moreover, Islam cannot be classified as moderate or not."

I mention this now because after the fireworks over Scott Brown's U.S. Senate victory in Massachusetts have died down, we will have to return to the same, old, equal parts humdrum and deadly wrangle over how to think, talk about and grapple with Islam in what remains a post-9/11 world.

Two related events took place just as the Massachusetts miracle sucked the oxygen from non-election news excepting Haiti coverage. First, the Pentagon report on the Fort Hood massacre came out. It is 86 pages long and doesn't mention the words "Muslim," "Islam," "jihad," "Sharia" (Islamic law), "Koran" -- despite the fact that we know, among other things, that the killer, who initiated his massacre with a cry of "Allahu Akbar," was a Muslim inspired by Islam to perform an act of jihad as sanctioned by Sharia derived from the Koran.

These facts, however, rate official silence. So what else is new? From the Bush years to the present, see-no-Islam denial has turned U.S. government attempts to assess and discuss national security issues into Kabuki gibberish, a perpetual exercise in make-believe that the core doctrines and traditional institutions of Islam -- not "radical Islam," not "Islamism," not other aliases -- pose no threat to the core doctrines and traditional institutions of the non-Islamic Free World. Naturally, mum's the Pentagon word over jihad at Fort Hood. Or, rather, "self-radicalization" is the word. It is mentioned more than a dozen times in the report.

I can't imagine a greater dereliction of duty than this failure of U.S. government leaders to recognize, articulate and defend against what in military parlance is known as the "enemy threat doctrine." But this dereliction, this failure will trigger no investigations or court proceedings on how and why our leaders consistently mask, soft-soap and otherwise fail to assess and repel the existential threat posed by the imposition or accommodation of these same Islamic doctrines.

Talk about irony: Within days of the report's release, one of the few politicians in the world who understands, articulates and fights the imposition and accommodation of these same Islamic doctrines went on trial in the Netherlands for doing exactly that.

I refer again to Geert Wilders, now enmeshed in a Kafkaesque court trial in which the Dutch government is subverting its own democratic institutions -- namely, freedom of speech and the will of the people -- in an effort to shut down Wilders and his political opposition to the Islamization of the Netherlands. The government's case rests on Wilders' increasingly successful efforts to win support for his anti-Islamization program from the Dutch people through speeches, writings and the short film "Fitna" (easily viewable online) -- a body of work that only a tyrannical, Islamically correct government could designate as "evidence" of a crime.

How Dutch government officials must envy America's Sharia-compliant public servants who willingly generate see-no-Islam blather such as the Fort Hood report.

They can have it.

Lift veil for voter ID, SC tells burqa-clad women

Here's a decision that bucks the global trend to accede to Islamic demands.  India has had 1400 years of bitter experience with Muslim aggression and knows that Islam cannot be appeased, only put in it's place.
 
FROM INDIATIMES.COM:

Lift veil for voter ID, SC tells burqa-clad women
Dhananjay Mahapatra 
TNN, 23 January 2010, 12:33am IST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that burqa-clad women cannot be issued voter identity cards, rejecting the argument that religion prohibits them from lifting their veils.

Counsel for petitioner M Ajam Khan had contended that asking `purdah-nashin' women to lift their veil for being photographed would amount to sacrilege as their photographs would be seen by many men working as polling agents and electoral officials.

"It will hurt their religious sentiments and the Election Commission must not insist on `purdah-nashin' women to be photographed for inclusion of their name in the electoral rolls," said the counsel arguing before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma.

The order comes at a time when a controversy triggered by the ban on full-length burqas has roiled France, attracting protests from clerics.

The argument put forward on behalf of petitioners failed to impress the court. The Bench said: "If you have such strong religious sentiments, and do not want to be seen by members of public, then do not go to vote. You cannot go with burqa to vote. It will create complications in identification of voters."
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