J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Terrorism’ Category

A man from Nigeria, whose father is the head of Nigeria’s largest bank and warned the U.S. embassy there of his son’s militant ties possibly to Al Qaeda, gets on an American flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Just while the plane is preparing for final approach the Nigerian goes into the bathroom because he has “stomach cramps”. In actuality, he had the makings of an incendiary device sewn into his underwear and had to retrieve them. He returned to his seat and used a blanket because the “stomach cramps” were making him cold.

In fact, he was trying to inject a liquid from a syringe into the powder he already had ready. When the sound of firecrackers was heard an alert and brave passenger from the Netherlands actually jumped over seats with people to get to this man and stop him from blowing up the plane. He suffered burns on his hands and arms, but put out the fire.

The perpetrator suffered from second degree burns on his legs, apparently, as he had no pants legs on him when taken to the front of the plane.

The President of the United States was on vacation in Hawaii and was not notified of this situation for 3 to 3 1/2 hours after the attack. His response? Call the Attorney General and put this armed combatant in jail, after reading his rights and providing a lawyer, and it appears this will be treated as a criminal case instead of the act of war it is.

The Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, said the “system worked”. The system didn’t work. We were just lucky an alert Dutchman took this man down.

Now Americans are going to have to be frisked at American airports, can take only one carry-on bag on an overseas flight, American Airlines (not even the airline involved) is refusing to provide blankets and pillows to passengers, and no one can stand up in the plane within one hour of landing.

The problem was in the Amsterdam airport and the authorities in the embassy for not getting this man on a no-fly list after his own father, a prominent citizen, reported him.If you want to put an incendiary device together under a blanket you can just as easily put it together under your coat. The man had only one carry-on bag and it didn’t contain the explosives, and the highest elected official in our country was not notified for three or more hours just so the staff that did notify him could be “sure” of what happened.

This man deserves no constitutional rights and should be sent to a military tribunal for his crime of terror against the United States.

Are we as a government making it harder for people in foreign airports to come and go as they please, while American passengers must be delayed by an already slow system to board an airplane? I don’t mind being checked, and usually get the full treatment, but I want everyone checked that way here and abroad.

This man had a multiple entry visa to this country while Great Britain revoked his visa for saying he wanted to take a course that did not exist in that country.

It’s time to get out of the 9/10 mentality. We have had a soldier killed at a recruiting station, eleven people killed by a mad psychiatrist on one of our Army bases and now this. The perpetrators will be treated as criminals instead of war criminals, and given every right under the constitution a common thief would be given.

I think Mr. Obama, his staff and Napolitano have a lot of explaining to do. Instead of pushing a health care bill the majority of Americans do not want and pushing other huge spending bills, maybe Obama should divert the money to national security, which seems to have suffered during his short time in office. But then again he doesn’t want to offend his Arab cousins. And before anyone criticizes that statement remember his father is listed as Arab and African. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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Baghdad on Sunday, October 25, 2009

Remember Sunday’s bombings in Baghdad that took the lives of approximately 155 people? Remember the Democrats and other war protesters telling us we didn’t need to be in Iraq because Al Qaeda was the enemy and they weren’t in Iraq? Remember Obama pulling our troops to the bases because we were leaving Iraq because, well who knows why really?

It seems Al Qaeda really is in Iraq and mighty proud of what it is able to do now that we have reduced troop strength there.

Yeah, bombing civilians in the middle of a city is a really manly way to live. To do it right Al Qaeda should have all taken part and then they would have all been martyrs and guaranteed paradise with their 70 virgins or raisins or whatever.

Al Qaeda’s umbrella group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in the heart of Baghdad that killed at least 155 people, including 24 children trapped in a bus leaving a day care center.

The Al Qaeda branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, said in a statement posted on the Internet late Monday that its “martyrs … targeted the dens of infidelity.”

I rest my case.

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Just when you think a person cannot say or do something more bizarre than they have in the past they surprise you.

Here’s Jack Murtha’s suggestion as to where to house the terrorists imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay:

Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., says he’d be willing to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his congressional district if President Obama makes good on a plan to close the U.S. prison there.

As one of his first acts in office, the president circulated a draft Wednesday that would shut down Guantanamo Bay within a year.

Murtha only has a minimum security prison in his district. But he says he’d have no reservations about holding detainees there in a maximum security prison.

“Sure, I’d take ‘em,” said Murtha, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. “They’re no more dangerous in my district than in Guantanamo.”

Murtha added that there was “no reason not to put ‘em in prisons in the United States and handle them the way they would handle any other prisoners.”

But that idea disturbs House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“Most communities around America don’t want dangerous terrorists imported into their neighborhoods,” Boehner said in a statement.

“The key question is where do you put these terrorists?” Boehner asked.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is introducing a bill that outlaws the release of a known terrorist into the U.S. Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said it would be appalling to close Guantanamo.

“If terrorists suddenly get the same rights as citizens, then we’ve turned the world upside down,” Smith said. “We don’t think there should be a limit to their detention as long as they are a clear and present danger.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., had hoped the president would close Guantanamo Bay. But he said he didn’t know how best to handle the prisoners.

“They’re very unsavory,” Skelton said. “I don’t know where you put them.”

[emphasis-mine]

Jack Murtha has accused United States Marines of being cold blooded killers without them receiving due process. He has insulted his own constituents and now believes that my home state is equipped to deal with those who would kill more innocent Americans given even one whit of a chance.

No thanks sir. If you wish to personally take the responsibility of policing these thugs then please go find yourself a piece of ground away from civilization, retire from the House and do so. Requiring civilian guards in an already overcrowded prison system to take on this chore is well beyond the pale.

Are you listening Western Pennsylvania? Please think twice the next time Rep. Murtha is up for re-election.

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Since we are accused of questioning everyone’s patriotism I wonder if it’s acceptable to question the patriotism of the person who did this little act of violence?

DEVELOPING STORY — An explosive device damaged a military recruiting station at approximately 3:45 a.m. in Times Square early Thursday, and police blocked off the area to investigate.

The explosive device caused minor damage, and no one was injured, police said. The explosion shattered a glass entryway.

A witness decribed the explosion as, “loud enough that people at the Marriott Marquis Hotel heard it and saw a puff of smoke.”

First Berkeley, CA tells the Marine Corps their recruiting station is unwelcome and now some nut in New York City has decided he’ll make sure the recruiting station for the armed services is out of commission for a few days. Who knew our military would qualify for hazard pay while stationed in the US?

Can we question their patriotism now?

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By now everyone knows a nut job attached what some reports say were road flares to his chest and walked into Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, NH, taking at least four people hostage for several hours. He claimed he had a bomb attached to his chest.

He allowed a woman with a baby to leave and another was freed later, but it was a long afternoon of praying and hoping no one would be injured in this psycho’s demand for attention.

Something like this crosses party lines. The people working in that campaign office were just regular volunteers like you would see in any campaign office in any city in this country.

They were working to see to it their candidate won the NH primary. They were taking part in doing their civic duty. They are the grassroots of the Democratic party.

They had every right to expect a normal, dull, boring day of phone calls, envelope stuffing and phone answering duty.

Instead, tonight they are probably all awake from the sheer terror they felt, even though they made it out of there alive and safe.

Senator Clinton is on her way to NH to thank the police and the workers. I normally do not watch TV, but I caught a glimpse of her speaking tonight and she appeared to me to be genuinely concerned about these people.

It’s a crying shame our country has come to this. Now campaigns should hire protective services and put security locks on doors and windows to protect private citizens who are doing what they see as their civic duty.

We have gone down this road at least for the last almost eight years, with people calling outright for the president’s assassination and not respecting the office of President of the United States.

If we have sunken that low then the logical next step is to take it out on the candidates and their campaign workers.

I may not agree with the tactics employed by some campaigns or even any of the campaigns, but human life is more important than politics and must be protected at any cost.

If candidates can raise millions by going to one fund-raiser then they should be required to spend some of it on protection for the unpaid workers who are beating the bushes for them.

Thank God these women are safe.

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With all the verbal sparring occurring in the presidential campaign, when I saw the following headline, I thought the former President might be able to distinguish the policies of Mrs. Clinton from those of Senator Obama.

Bill Clinton wades in to defend Hillary’s reputation

Okay, I thought, maybe I will learn something of the Senator’s planned healthcare program which has been promoted by her campaign or her stance on the War on Terror, or maybe something about her plans for Social Security. Wrong again. Instead, according to the quotes available it was no more than a she’s better than him interview.

Moving past that, something else caught my eye. Did you know that terrorism did not exist in 1992? I recall terrorist attacks far earlier than that but it seems former President Clinton has no recollection of there being any such thing.

Asked about his own experience when he became President aged 46 – the same age as Mr Obama is now – Mr Clinton said that in contrast to 1992, “we didn’t have the terror threat. We didn’t have the troops in Iraq.

Alright then, no troops in Iraq, I’ll give to that but no terror threats? I wonder if he remembers the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Ramzi Yousef entered this country in 1992..I consider that a terror threat.

And, whether purveyors of terrorism commit their acts on US soil or abroad should have no distinction to a sitting President, so let’s consider this list:

1992
January 17: Eight Protestant British army contractors are killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an Army base near Omagh.
February 5: Three civilians were killed and 29 injuried by East Turkestan Islamic Movement two bus bombs in Urumqi (see: 5 February 1992 Urumqi Bombings)
February 28, 1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge station injuring 29 people.
March 17: Israeli Embassy bombing by “Islamic Jihad” in Buenos Aires, Argentina; 29 killed, 242 injured.
April 5, 1992: The Iranian embassy in Ottawa is stormed by members of MEK, an Iraq-supported religious right group.
April 10, 1992: A large bomb explodes in St Mary Axe in the City of London killing three people and injuring 91. Many buildings are heavily damaged and the Baltic Exchange is completely destroyed.
September 1: Nine die, including a six-month old baby, and seven are injured when a bomb explodes in a suburb of Medellín.[76]
October 12, 1992: A device explodes in the gents’ toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others.
November 11: Bombs explode in nine Colombian cities, leaving one person dead and 35 injured. The Medellín Cartel is held responsible for the attacks.[77]
December 3: Ten police officers and four civilians die when a bomb planted by drug traffickers explode in Medellín.[78]
December 29: Two police officers and 50 civilians wounded when a car bomb explodes at a party in a suburban area of Medellín.[79

The citizens of Israel suffered at the hands of terrorists in 1992, and I would bet there were many other incidents which either were not reported or I simply have neglected to locate through limited research.

Terrorism existed long before President Clinton took the Oath of Office and will exist long past the time President Bush retires to Texas. I suppose it just depends on what your definition of terror is….in the US terror, abroad??????.

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Here is the text of the advertisement:

Ahmadinejad is a terrorist.

Columbia University is wrong to give him a platform.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens our nation and the freedoms we value. He has supported attacks on our soldiers and our allies.

He should be treated as the terrorist that he is.

Yet, while Columbia gives a terrorist like Ahmadinejad a platform to speak, they refuse to allow the ROTC on campus.

What has happened to this prestigious university?

People who support killing Americans are welcome. But the military that defends them is not.

Columbia should be ashamed of its actions.

Freedom’s Watch knows that America and the forces of freedom are right. We know the threat of terrorism is real.

And we know democracy must prevail.

The terrorists and their appeasers are wrong.

SUPPORT FREEDOM’S WATCH

Stand up for Freedom and those who defend it.

Surrender is not an option. Victory is America’s only choice.

Visit www.freedomswatch.org or call 877-222-8001

Hat Tip: Red State

For a round-up of protest activities go to Sister Toldjah

If you live in or near New York and wish to participate in the demonstrations against this devil go to Atlas Shrugs for the schedules. The rest of us will be with you in spirit.

Let’s show this thug what America really is!

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Usama bin Laden is reported to be releasing another of his speeches, perhaps in a few days.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as Al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by Al Qaeda around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages — including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

“Soon, God willing: [Ed note: Allah---not the real God'] Come to Jihad (holy war)’, from sheik Usama bin Laden, God protect him” the banner read. [Ed: The Devil protects his own.]

“Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Usama bin Laden,” it read.

What a coward to hide out and declare all these things while not participating in them himself.

In the meantime, his chief sandal-licker Aymen Al-Zawahiri put out an 80 minute video that shows him in a room with books. Maybe they’ve made a studio in their cave, or maybe they’ve escaped the mountainous region of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military’s July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants’ leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.

The siege “revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don’t deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (U.S. President George W.) Bush’s crucifix,” al-Zawahiri said.

“Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students … has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation,” he said.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are thought to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where many analysts believe they have rebuilt Al Qaeda’s core leadership.

The tone of Thursday’s video was triumphalist, with al-Zawahiri calling for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa and on U.N. and African peacekeepers expected to deploy in Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region.

The French and the Spanish? Gosh, I thought the French didn’t fight them and the Spaniards switched governments to get out of Iraq when one of their trains got blown up by Al Qaeda.

Folks, I truly believe this is a war between the forces of good versus the forces of evil.

Remember we didn’t do anything to them to provoke the 9/11 attacks either, no matter what people who want to appease them say.

They want the entire world to do one of two things: convert to Islam or die. Period. The only reason they are fighting is to convert the world to Islam, which they feel is their duty.

If we were to walk out of Iraq today we could count on them coming to get us again and again until they have achieved their goal. Convert or die.

Heck, we can’t even convince some people God is real and Christ died for their sins so they can have eternal life in heaven, but I’ll bet a lot of the appeasers would be more than happy to convert to Islam before dying.

We no longer have any Nathan Hales in our Congress to declare, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Some in Congress would lead the conversion effort if they thought it meant more power for them. Unfortunately, there would be no women in power and the rest of us would be in burkas if bin Laden were to get his way.

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It appears the “enemy combatants” held at Guantanamo Bay will not receive the right to be heard in US Federal Courts anytime soon.

A move to give terrorism suspects the right to challenge their detentions in federal court fell short in the Senate today, even though it had majority support.

Fifty-six senators voted to cut off debate, and move forward to a vote on the bill itself, a step known as cloture. But under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture.

Some supporters of the bill said they might bring it up again, although it was not clear just when.

It is beyond me why anyone would believe that these individuals are entitled to the use of our courts to make a mockery of our system and of this country. These individuals are not US citizens, therefore not protected under our Constitution.

The names of those Republicans who voted for this measure should come as no surprise to anyone, but Joe Lieberman once again stepped to the plate and did not vote with the party he for so long called his own.

Besides Mr. Specter, five other Republican Senators supported the measure. They were Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, also voted for it.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who lists himself as an independent Democrat, was the only non-Republican to vote against it. Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, did not vote.

I believe in civil rights, however, when it comes to those who are bent on the destruction of this country I draw the line and applaud the majority of Republican Senators for standing pat on this issue.

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I wonder how much major news coverage this story will get?

Audio portions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s testimony from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal were released by the Pentagon Thursday.

The audio clips contain admissions by the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks that he plotted to kill President Clinton and Pope John Paul II.

“I was responsible for the assassination attempt against President Clinton during his visit to the Philippines in 1994 or 1995,” Mohammed says in English during his testimony before the tribunal. “I was responsible for the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul the second while he was visiting the Philippines,” Mohammed says.

Al Qaeda is no friend of Americans and pandering to their demands or wishes will not make make them our friends. Look at how far back it was that they planned to assassinate Bill Clinton, who was our sitting president at the time.

The party of FDR is now the party of George McGovern on steroids. Fold, give in, appease, kill them with kindness and all will be well. All will not be well, and anyone who is seriously thinking of the safety of our country will understand that, although we may disagree on how to handle the snakes. But never, ever leave that snakepit unattended until the last viper is gone or we will be sorry.

To read a summary of the full transcript go here.

If you wish to read the entire report go here. Both are pdf files and require a pdf viewer.

I’ve done a quick search and looked at the DOD site but I can’t find the audio. Strangely, I can’t find the story except on Fox, but it was partially written by the AP.

Update: Here’s the audio link.

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The citizens of Israel are among some of the bravest in the world. They live daily with the threat of suicide bombers, rocket attacks and are surrounded by countries hostile to their very existence.

They field an exceptional army and have intelligence services which some consider in the top tier, but even they are little consolation when an attack like the one yesterday occurs. Who but a murderous thug with no regard for human life would fire these rockets at all let alone into populated areas? One rocket fired on Monday exploded near a day care center. Viewing this video brought home the reality these people live with every day.

Thankfully no one was injured in this attack as is noted in this article.

A Palestinian rocket landed in a courtyard next to a crowded day care center on Monday, sending panicked mothers scrambling to take their screaming toddlers to safety and bringing warnings of retribution from Israeli leaders.

None of the 15 children at the center was hurt. But frantic parents in Sderot—already furious over the government’s failure to protect them and their children from the near-daily rocket fire—pulled their children out of schools on the second day of the academic year. It was unclear when studies would resume.

Imagine for a moment watching your child step on a school bus every morning and knowing that there is a constant threat of violence targeted at the very area in which their school is located.

One wonders how long it would take before we would all be home schooling our children. This is no doubt a universal feeling and it seems the parents in Sderot have also reached their limit.

The Education Ministry said studies would continue normally. But Batya Katar, head of the Sderot Parents Association, said parents were pulling all 2,500 of the town’s students out of school.

“The school year is over. We can’t hold on any more,” Katar told The Associated Press by telephone, the voices of panicked parents audible in the background.

At one Sderot school, Nahum Bitton arrived to take his children home.

“Of course I’ll take them out. Should I leave them in the hands of Hamas?” Bitton told AP Television News.

As a parent and grandparent let me answer your question Mr. Bitton. No, you should not.

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On the night of June 30 some of our soldiers were on patrol in Ramadi. Some of them had never experienced combat and didn’t expect to that night, but they ran upon some Al Qaeda in the midst of planning a major offensive.

This Washington Post story explains what happened.

Yes, there were American dead that night, and yes, there were Al Qaeda dead that night, along with some civilians who were killed in their tents while sleeping.

I think the following sums it up pretty well. Please read the rest to see what happened that night.

In the end, the battle of Donkey Island left 11 U.S. troops wounded and two dead, while an estimated 32 insurgents were killed. The heavy fighting between the Americans and the al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents had deep repercussions across Ramadi.

Iraqi police officers close to Buchan “lost it” when they heard of his death, Rosa said.

“I love Sergeant Buchan. When he died, all of the police cried,” Col. Jabbar Hamid Ajaj said in his Ramadi office, plastered with posters he had made featuring Buchan.

At his mansion near the main U.S. base in Ramadi, Sattar, the tribal leader, was alarmed to learn that he had been the insurgents’ prime target but took comfort in the U.S. tank stationed outside his home.

“If al-Qaeda gets away from the Awakening, they won’t get away from the American forces,” Sattar said. “We are allies,” he added as he shared a tiny cup of bitter coffee with Lt. Col. Miciotto Johnson, commander of the 1-77. “I defend Col. Johnson, and Col. Johnson defends me.”

U.S. commanders said the battle was a major defeat for al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, showing how hard it is for them to operate in Anbar, where they face an increased U.S. troop presence and rejection by the Sunni population.

“Al-Qaeda is on its back foot,” said Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. “They have largely lost Anbar province.”

But U.S. officers in Ramadi say it is only a matter of time before al-Qaeda in Iraq strikes again.

“We’re still expecting attacks similar to this one,” said Maj. Andrew Wortham, the 1st Brigade Combat Team’s intelligence officer in Ramadi.

Soldiers who fought in the battle say they feel extremely lucky to have happened upon the insurgents — and to have survived. They’re concerned that if U.S. forces leave, the insurgents will return and easily kill local police and officials. “I worry about pulling out of this area early. If we do, these guys are dead meat,” Lauer said.

Spannagel, the scout leader, said the fighting revealed “a false sense of security that we’d won the battle in Ramadi.”

In fact, he said, “this shows the enemy is patient. This is his land. He’s got all the time in the world. . . . They’re going to continue to fight in Anbar.”

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The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said — a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that “provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists.”

The situation between the United States and Iran can’t get much worse and we know the Revolutionary Guard is supplying, training and acting as terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard’s vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard’s financial operations.

“Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately,” said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. “It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people.”

Read the rest of the story here.

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Speaks for itself.

The defence has rested its case in the trial of US citizen Jose Padilla and two other men accused of supporting terrorism and conspiring to kill.
Mr Padilla’s lawyers did not call a single witness during the 53-day trial.

Evidence from the prosecution focused on recorded telephone conversations involving his co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi.

All three men face life sentences if convicted of providing support for Islamic extremists overseas.

It is alleged they conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other countries from 1993 to 2001.

The case is expected to go to the jury next week.

The telephone conversations presented as evidence were mostly in Arabic and prosecution witnesses said they contained coded references to terrorist activity.

Mr Padilla was heard on only seven of the tapes and he did not use any coded language, the FBI’s lead investigator testified.

Al-Qaeda training camp

The chief evidence against him is an application form to attend an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan which prosecutors say prove he was connected to Islamic extremists.

Mr Padilla, a former Chicago gang member of Puerto Rican descent, is a convert to Islam.

He was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in May 2002 after returning from Pakistan.

After his arrest Mr Padilla was accused of planning to detonate a radioactive bomb and held in a military jail without charge for three years.

But when he was transferred to the civilian courts in 2005 the indictment made no mention of the so-called dirty bomb plot.

Story

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The other day Guss wrote this post with the comment:

You have got to be kidding me. When most of the terrorists are from Saudi Arabia, you don’t sell them arms.
These people are not our friends.

I can’t say I disagree with his statement. The following is from The Omega Letter, a subscription only Christian end-times publication. It discusses the ramifications of this military hardware sale from a Christian perspective.

Arming the Jihad

For reasons that few understand and even fewer can articulate, the United States government is considering a $20 billion arms sale to the wellspring and root of Islamic jihadist theology, Saudi Arabia.

According to a senior US defense department official quoted in the Jerusalem Post, “We’ve been working very hard on a Saudi arms package, which we believe is critical to the overarching architecture… to deal with the changing strategic threat from Iran and other forces.”

Speaking before the UN in September, President Bush told the world, “Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false, and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror.”

But it is the House of Saud itself that is “perverting Islam” and threatening, as the White House correctly puts it, a world in which “our children will face a region dominated by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.”

Weapons the Bush administration is evidently planning to sell them. Arming the Saudis to deal with Iran is an unthinkably dangerous gamble on more levels than one is comfortable contemplating.

First, the House of Saud is a regime whose future should be calculated in months or years, rather than decades. King Abdullah is 83 years old. Over the course of his lifetime, he’s had thirty wives and has produced at least fifteen sons and twenty daughters. Overall, the Saudi royal family has some 6000 princes at last count. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Jersey City, N.J., woman who lives in the flight path of the Newark airport, woke up this morning to find what appears to be a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher on her front lawn.

Niranjana Besai was leaving her house, located at 88 Nelson Street, to go to work just after 8 this morning when she spotted the launcher on her front lawn. “I read it and it [said] ‘missile,’” Besai told CBS 2 HD. “There was little ‘missile’ [writing] on it.”

She immediately called police.

Sources tell CBS 2 HD that the device is the type used to shoot shoulder-fired rockets and is capable of taking down an aircraft.

What’s more troubling, sources add, is that Besai’s house is located along flight path for Newark Liberty International Airport.

Besai’s neighbor, Joe Quinn, saw her pointing at the equipment from her front porch. When he walked over to see what the fuss was about, he was just as shocked to see the six-foot-long weapon.

“She’s pointing that there’s something in the front,” he told CBS 2 HD. “I said, ‘Let me come down and take a look,’ and I saw a little soldier on it and I said, ‘Whoa, that’s a missile launcher or something!’”

Jersey City Police removed the launcher, and the incident is now being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI.

Sources say Besai is not involved in the investigation as a suspect.

Jersey City Police could not confirm whether the device was actually operable.

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Isn’t it wonderful to have friends?

Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a U.S. official says.( I wounder who he or she is) Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq’s Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

The situation has left the U.S. military in the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Story

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I guess not everyone hates reporters.

In exchange for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, Britain told the Hamas terror group through mediators it would free from jail an extremist sheik accused of serving as al-Qaida’s spiritual adviser in Europe, Palestinian sources involved in the negotiations claimed to WND.

The sheik, Abu Qatada, is accused among other things of advising 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Qatada’s sermons were found among the possessions of 9/11 operational leader Mohamed Atta.

The Palestinian sources involved in the Johnston negotiations claimed the British government pledged through a third-party mediator to release Abu Qatada after six months so the release wouldn’t appear connected to Johnston’s freedom.

Story

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Considering recent events in England, this article makes one wonder how many are involved in this ring of terrorists associated with the medical profession.

45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids

A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.

Cyber-terrorists: Tariq Daour, Younis Tsouli and Waseem Mughal

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.

One message read: “We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.” This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

HT: Jules Crittenden

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This isn’t good news. Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any worse in Iraq, here comes this jerk.

As Americans celebrate the 4th of July today, Al Qaeda’s top deputy Ayman Zawahiri is appearing in a new internet video praising jihadi fighters in Iraq and elsewhere. Dressed in all white and sitting before a news studio background, Zawahiri warns Americans that “Today, the wind – by grace of Allah – is blowing against Washington.”

In the hour and half long video, which surfaced today on the website Strategic Translations, a translation and terror analysis firm, Zawahiri urges his followers to hurry to Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Somalia.

He also offers a message of confidence to the jihadi fighters in prison saying that victory in Iraq and Afghanistan will come soon.

“You must be patient and steadfast,” he says. “Rejoice, for victory is near, with Allah’s permission, and the herds of crusaders have begun to split up and their sole concern has become searching for a way out.”

Entitled “The Advice of One Concerned,” the video has English subtitles and includes clips from other videos and news broadcasts, including one from Al Furqan, the video production arm of the Islamic State of Iraq. There is a brief clip of Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, speaking about the security challenges facing the United States. Also appearing on the tape is a clip of Abdul al-Bari Atwan, the editor of a London-based Arabic newspaper. In the clip, from an appearance on an Arabic news channel, Atwan declares that al Qaeda has become stronger since the September 11th attacks and that is truly an international organization.

Video and Story

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I don’t know if the title of this post is part of the Hypocratic Oath doctors take, but I do know it’s something they are taught while in medical school.

It seems some were not in class the day this was discussed, or crossed their fingers while taking the oath.

LONDON — At least three physicians were among the suspects arrested in Britain’s car-bomb plots, and authorities announced three new arrests — including a doctor in Australia — as the investigation spread overseas yesterday.

British media reports said an Indian doctor was among the eight persons in custody, and another outlet said at least five of the detainees in Britain were physicians. British police confirmed that a Palestinian doctor and Iraqi physician were among those held, and Australian officials said a foreign doctor working there had been detained in the case.

It was asked by Ayschlay in one of the threads a week or so ago what makes terrorism.

The prevailing thought is the poverty in which they live and the lack of hope for a better future.

Having doctors involved in plots to kill innocent people—as many as they could—would seem to put the lie to that theory.

They are, after all, well educated, well paid and have hopes of a great future.

I don’t know what makes a terrorist a terrorist except pure, unadulterated hatred for something. That something in this case appears to be hatred for all things not Muslim.

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The airport in Glasgow, Scotland, was evacuated after a flaming car ran into the terminal.

Here is the entire AP story via BBC available at this time:

GLASGOW, Scotland — Witnesses said a motorist tried to ram a Jeep Cherokee in flames into the main terminal building of Glasgow airport Saturday, reports said.

The British Broadcasting Corp. said witnesses described an SUV driving at full speed toward the terminal building with flames pouring out from the car.

The airport was evacuated and all flights suspended, the report said.

Police, however, said two cars had collided outside the airport around 3:15 p.m., with one of them bursting into flames.

Strathclyde Police spokeswoman Lisa O’Neil did not confirm media reports saying the motorist tried to drive into the terminal building.

“One car is on fire, but it is not clear if it went inside the terminal building,” she said.

Here’s more information from CNN:

LONDON, England (CNN) — A burning car has been driven into the terminal building of Glasgow Airport in Scotland, police confirmed on Saturday.

Police and witnesses described an SUV-style vehicle in flames being driven at full speed towards the building.

The incident comes with the UK already on alert for terror attacks a day after two cars loaded with explosives were discovered in London.

An eyewitness at the airport speaking to a British TV network said there appeared to be injuries. Images showed black smoke and flames rising from the vehicle just outside the building. Sirens could be heard in the background.

A witness told Sky News that a man had fled from the car as it struck the building and been immediately wrestled to the ground by police.

“The jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal,” one witness, Stephen Clarkson, told the BBC.

“It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank because it was not a massive explosion.”

Airport authorities said the airport had been evacuated and all flights suspended.

Update: Here’s the latest AP update via Breitbart News.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) – Two men rammed a flaming sport utility vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance in what appeared to be the third terror attack on Britain in two days, witnesses said. Police said two suspects were arrested.
There were no reports of injuries but the airport—Scotland’s largest—was evacuated and all flights suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas canisters and nails.

“One has to conclude … these are linked,” Dame Pauline Neville- Jones, former head of Britain’s joint intelligence committee, told Sky News. “This is a very young government, and we may yet see further attacks.”

Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, who took office only Wednesday, was being briefed on developments, Downing Street said.

Also, the president has ordered extra precautions at American airports, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy since we are flying to Texas on Friday the 13th of July and returning on Monday the 16th of July.

I’m changing the category on this post from “Uncategorized” to “Terrorism” since that word has now been used by the British authorities.

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Someone is determined to terrorize London and who knows where else?

LONDON, England (CNN) — As authorities were investigating an explosives-packed car discovered outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus on Friday, a second vehicle was found in London that had similar explosive material inside, security sources said.

The second car had been parked underground near Trafalgar Square in an area where parking was not allowed.

Workers towed it to a lot on Park Lane near Buckingham Palace and thought it smelled of gasoline. Given the reports that gas canisters were among the explosive material found in the other car, they became suspicious, security sources said.

Authorities then blocked off a section of Park Lane while they examined the car and discovered the material.

The sources did not say exactly what was found in the second car, but a U.S. source with knowledge of Britain’s investigation said the second vehicle is linked to the first.

Earlier Friday, a section of Fleet Street also was cordoned off briefly, then reopened without incident.

Inside the first car near Piccadilly Circus, a device was found to be loaded with fuel, gas cylinders and nails, said security sources, and it was set up for remote detonation.

Is it foolish for me to say each of us must be on the look-out for similar things in this country? I think not, though others may disagree with me.

If you’re in a large city, especially be on the look-out.

Thankfully, God was looking out for London at least twice today.

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People in the Haymarket section of London, which is close to Picadilly Circus, a place with restaurants, bars, etc. noticed a Mercedes that had crashed into some trash cans and the driver running away.

They called the police who discovered the car was laden with gas containers and a large number of nails.

British police thwarted an apparent terror attack in central London on Friday, discovering a parked silver Mercedes that was packed with gas containers and a large number of nails. The attack would have caused “significant injury or loss of life,” police said.

A British security official told The Associated Press that there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq.

“Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we’ll know more about what type of individuals are behind this,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.

The official said Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between Friday’s incident and at least two similar foiled plots — including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.

Officers were called to the Haymarket area near Piccadilly Circus shortly before 2 a.m., a police statement said. Sky News cited witnesses as saying doormen from a nearby nightclub had reported that someone had crashed a Mercedes sedan into garbage bins and had run away.

It’s a good thing someone was smart enough to call the police before anything bad had happened to a lot of people.

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I read this abc news piece last night, saying Al Qaeda has suicide bombers ready to come to the US, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.

I went to bed praying they don’t succeed, but if they do what would the reaction be by the American people if someone made it into our country and got inside a shopping mall’s food court at a busy time and blew themselves and numerous others up at the same time?

What would be the reaction of the American people if a car bomb were driven into a building where there is a crowd of people?

How about if they got into a speedboat and attacked one of our ships docked in San Diego or any other Naval base, killing who knows how many people?

Sadly, my conclusion was this: People would say it was because we are in Iraq. Remember we hadn’t gone into Iraq when Mogadishu, the USS Cole or 9/11 happened, to name just a few recent terrorist incidents.

They’d blame Bush for not keeping us safe, forgetting how many attacks have been thwarted since 9/11.

Congress would surely have investigations, especially if the government buildings such as the Capitol were attacked—just as soon as they came out of hiding and changed their underwear.

And of course they would blame the porous borders, which probably would be a factor, but the blame for that can be shared by everyone—especially the far right wing of the Republican party. By far right wing I mean the Calebs of this world and Big Mo knows what I’m talking about. The ones who are so pure in their ideology they are not willing to even consider a compromise that can be improved upon later.

So, to the readers and bloggers on the right and left who frequent this site I ask you to think about this hypothetical and tell me, after searching your souls, what your reaction would be, other than maybe anger?

My first urge after the anger and sadness would be to go after the animals who ordered this no matter where they are and no matter what government supported them.

It certainly wouldn’t be to psychoanalyze them to see why they are angry at us, because it doesn’t take too much to work up the radicals.

Remember this is a debate and not a fight so no one should take personally what anyone else says.

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The Anchoress has a very interesting post up that talks about the JFK Terror plot, Bush, Reagan and Thompson.

Her thoughts on the JFK Terrorist plot and the likely response from the left blogosphere is spot-on:

I think the left has a very amusing take on all of this: There is no such thing as terrorist plots – they’re just Bush constructs meant to raise his poll numbers.

See, if a terror plot is thwarted, it’s because it wasn’t really a serious plot, it was just a haphazard idea that would have gone nowhere, and Bush is wrong to pimp it as news. In fact, the news broadcasts shouldn’t even be reporting on it, because it’s just Bushian propaganda.

But if a terror plot succeeds, it’s either because Bush wanted it to succeed – to acquire power and take over the country – or it’s because Bush wasn’t paying attention, because he’s an inept moron.

Let’s pray none of the plots succeed and we won’t have to see the finger of blame being pointed toward the White House.

She then answers those who question her on Reagan’s immigration “solution” over 20 years ago.

I think Reagan was a realist, but when he declared amnesty he should have done something about security and enforcement 20 years ago, which only highlights that the problem is of illegal immigration long standing and that no president knew how to tackle it.

I also think that people change. Are you the same person you were 20 years ago? I’m not. You can’t tell how anyone – or any immigrant – is going to turn out 20 years after you admit him to the country. So what, then? Should we just disallow all immigrants because someday, in 20 years, one of them might become a terrorist?

Someday, in 20 years one of them might become something great, too.

This was in response to someone stating the Reagan immigration bill gave citizenship to one of the JFK terrorists.

This little tidbit from the Anchoress has me wondering. I don’t see Fred Thompson as being slick, but we’ll only know that if and when he actually gets into the contest.

So far, all I see in Thompson is that he’s too slick by half, capable of playing with people’s heads, and that he’s fond of cigars…in all of that, he reminds me more of Bill Clinton than Ronald Reagan.

I must admit with the way he has been playing around with announcing or not announcing his candidacy he seems to be playing around with our heads.

He’s no Ronald Reagan and anyone who expects him to be is going to be disappointed for those who loved Reagan and for those who hated him.

By the way, tomorrow is the third anniversary of the death of this wonderful man. The third anniversary of the day he was set free from the bondage of his own mind being destroyed by Alzheimer’s.

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OK, I looked for this article in the NY Times and Washington Post but the only place I could find it was here, which is actually a NY Post story on the Fox web site. I quit reading the NY Post a while back because they changed formats and seemed to be more local and gossipy than real news, but this short blurb is interesting.

A group of 9/11 responders has contracted blood cancers at an unusually young age, and top doctors suspect the disease was triggered by an unprecedented “synergistic mix” of toxins at the World Trade Center site.

The WTC Medical Monitoring Program is now studying a group of Ground Zero workers, including cops, construction workers and volunteers, suffering from cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

“The kind of thing that worries us is that we have a handful of cases of multiple myeloma in very young individuals … a condition that almost always presents late in life,” said Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the program at Mount Sinai Hospital.

“That’s the kind of odd, unusual and troubling finding that we’re seeing already,” she says in an interview with the New England Journal of Medicine, which comes out today.

9/11 is going to continue to make people ill and claim lives for a long time to come.

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For the video go here.

This traitor, Adam Gadahn, tells us if we don’t leave all Islamic lands, free all Muslims from U.S. prisons and end support for Israel we will see worse than 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq or Virginia Tech.

What a wonderful religion of peace he represents.

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