Leçons from France via Walid Phares

In the Western debate on how best to counter the rise and expansion of the Jihadi movement, particularly the Salafists, within liberal democracies, European experiences are important because of the sheer numbers of militants and the dissemination within many urban areas. France's counter terrorism experiences are one among these learning processes for all other European Govenrment but also for North American CT planning as well. In an article I published in the Middle East Times today I commented on France's Interior Minister remarks on the state of confrontation with the Jihadists. In a recent series of seminars in Paris, which I will report about on CTB, I also interacted with a number of French legislators and CT officials dealing with the French involvement in Afghanistan and the Sahel. In short, France is heading towards "increasing engagement with al Qaeda on two continents, Asia and Africa, as well as at home.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

Excellent analysis

The Grey Lady examines that strange specimen, Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders is the Dutch MP who is producing a film on the Qur'an that has the Islamic world in a frenzy even before anyone has actually seen it. This New Duranty Times profile is, well, not as bad as it could have been, but contains several sly digs at Wilders, whom it treats with condescension throughout, and contains almost nothing about the fantastic disproportion of the Muslim reaction to his film, and the necessity of preserving free speech even when some may find it offensive.

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

Okay, count me in on this crazy "energy independence" thing

Achieving energy independence

There is no doubt that our resistance to the global jihad is severely hampered by our continued purchase of oil from the Saudis, who have done so much to finance the same jihad. And now six and a half years after 9/11, the President of the United States cannot cajole the Saudi King into agreeing to lower oil prices, as gasoline approaches the four-dollar-a-gallon mark, and yet he has done nothing to initiate any coherent plan to free us from this energy dependence.

It doesn't have to be this way. The Alaskan oil reserves could have been opened up years ago, over environmentalist objections, as a matter of national security. The U.S. could have pursued other oil options much more aggressively than it did, while undertaking a full-scale Manhattan Project to find viable new energy sources. And now in Energy Victory: Winning the War On Terror By Breaking Free of Oil, Robert Zubrin outlines what we can and should do now to keep from continuing to pay at the gas pump for our own destruction.

Zubrin, who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering and was for many years a senior engineer at Lockheed Martin, here outlines a clear and practical program for achieving American energy independence within ten years. He explains in detail that even a non-specialist like me can understand (at least partially!) that a rapid transition to high-alcohol fuels -- methanol and ethanol -- is both practically feasible and desirable.

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

(In case you don't recognize the name, Robert Zubrin is a founder of a society I joined.)

Just what Europe needs....

Thousands of Kosovars chant "KLA! KLA!"

From "Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia: Braces for a Bitter Showdown," by Nabi Qena and William J. Kole for the Associated Press:

In the capital, Pristina, the mood was jubilant. Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved subfreezing temperatures to ride on the roofs of their cars, singing patriotic songs and chanting: "KLA! KLA!" the acronym for the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.

From "KLA rebels train in terrorist camps," by Jerry Seper for the Washington Times in 1999:

Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden...

Is this independence venture really something the U.S. should encourage?

One of the pantheon

Ibn Warraq: The Atlas Shrugs Interview!

What the @#&!?

Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban in order to get them to switch sides

Witless Realpolitik Alert: the British once again demonstrate their utter incomprehension of and disregard of the jihad ideology. Sure, the Taliban will accept their training -- and continue to pursue jihad.

"Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan," by Jerome Starkey in the Independent (thanks to Blue):


Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

Via Drudge

U.S. to Designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as Terrorists

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 9:14 PM


"The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong 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 describe as the group's 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 Guards will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It identifies individuals, businesses, charities and many extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guards 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 move reflects the escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran over issues including Iraq and Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran has been on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1984, but in May the two countries began their first formal one-on-one dialogue in 28 years with a meeting of diplomats in Baghdad.

The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guards' 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 Guards' financial operations."

Read it all at WAPO.

Jihad in a digital world

Virtual jihad hits Second Life website

"Recruiting in the fantasy world for real-life jihad. By Chris Gourlay and Abul Taher for the TimesOnline (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Islamic militants are suspected of using Second Life, the internet virtual world, to hunt for recruits and mimic real-life terrorism.

Police and the intelligence services are concerned that it may have been infiltrated by extremists to proselytise, communicate and transfer money to one another. Radicals may also be responsible for “virtual” terrorist attacks in which buildings depicted on the website are blown up.

Kevin Zuccato, head of the Australian government’s High Tech Crime Centre, said jihadists may also be using the virtual reality world to master skills such as reconnaissance and surveillance. “We need to start thinking about living, working and protecting two worlds and two realities,” he told a security industry conference in Sydney."

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

Interesting on two fronts...

More Overlooked History: The Muslim Libel Cases

"Two news flashes on August 1, 2007. First, the lawyers representing the so-called Flying Imams in their lawsuit against US Airways announced that they were not going after the unnamed passengers whose concerns prompted the men to be pulled off the Arizona-bound flight (here). I suppose that is good to know, now that the long-term policy implications of their lawsuit are about to justify (literally) an act of Congress. Second, Cambridge University Press announced that it was going to destroy all copies of the 2006 book Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World, in response to a libel claim filed in England by Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker ....

Connected? Absolutely. Each story involves people who do not like how information flows these days. Each chose litigation as the means to try to get their way.

...

DATELINE – BIRMINGHAM 1935
The Birmingham Post reports that an Arab sheik is interested in acquiring an American bride for his harem, and describes what he is looking for and some of his good attributes. The newspaper is sued for libel. White v. Birmingham Post Co., 233 Ala. 547, 172 So. 649, Ala. 1937."

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

"UK Terror Plot Investigation - News Roundup - July 3"

July 3 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities:

-- Terror Attacks: 'All Key Suspects Held'. Sky News reports "Police investigating the failed terror attacks on London and Glasgow believe they now have their key suspects in custody. But they stress their inquiries are far from over and say Britain is likely to remain on a critical level of terror alert for some time."

-- 'Same Men Behind Attacks'. Sky News is reporting that sources say the same men were behind both the London and Glasgow attacks. In addition, Sky News is reporting the name of the second Jihadist arrested in Glasgow as "Dr Khalid Ahmed". Sky News is also stating now that that destination of the Australian doctor fleeing Australia when he was arrested - was headed to Pakistan.

-- Two Additional Arrests in Blackburn (northwest UK). Sky News reports that "Two men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences after they apparently tried to collect a delivery of large gas canisters at an industrial estate in Blackburn."

-- CBS News reports this morning that "Intelligence sources tell CBS News that the people behind the attempts were directly recruited by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir," the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. See Evan Kohlmann's May 1 post on al-Muhajir and see other CT Blog posts on him.

-- Seven Doctors Held in UK Terror Plot. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that, of the total of 8 suspects currently arrested, "Seven doctors held over al-Qa'eda bomb plot" and that "five of the seven suspects held by British police are young Middle Eastern men employed at British hospitals". This includes a Dr. Mohammed Asha from Jordan, and Dr. Bilal Abdulla from Iraq. The Daily Mail is also reporting that two of the doctors are Saudi. An increasing focus is on suspects employed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, Renfrewshire. Sky News has provided a brief summary of the 8 suspects arrested thus far. Daily Telegraph has provided a high level timeline of the Jihadist car bomb efforts.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

From Jihad Watch

"July 4: What are we fighting for

1. Equality of rights before the law:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." — Declaration of Independence

"Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." — Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, F. J. Goulding, translator, London, 1970.

2. Governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." — Declaration of Independence

Non-Muslims have "absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines." If they do, "the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life." — Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami."

Neville Brown

Brown: Don't say terrorists are Muslims

"They are Muslims, of course, and they use core Islamic texts and teachings to justify their actions, but never mind that. We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Let's just pretend that isn't happening, and maybe it will go away. The "war on terror" is over too. We're just dealing with a few bad apples, that's all. Nothing to be concerned about.

Gordon Brown's tenure as British Prime Minister is certainly off to an auspicious beginning. His people will remember him in the same breath with...no, not that Churchill fellow with his awful cigars. But certainly with Churchill's illustrious predecessor, who brought Peace In Our Time.

By Macer Hall for the Daily Express (thanks to Twostellas):

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped.

The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair....

Mr Brown’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language."

Read it all at Dhimmi Watch.

'Be United, Resolute And Strong'

"Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed."

London Car Bomb Found; Second Car Bomb and Suspect Identified (updated)

By Jeffrey Imm

In London today, a car bomb was defused outside of a central London nightclub at 2 AM (British Time), targeting up to 1,700 people with a combination of gasoline bombs and reportedly a trunk full of nails.

London police were contacted when witnesses saw a Mercedes being driven erratically near London West End night club Tiger Tiger, and the driver jumped out of the automobile and ran away. The car was reported to have two gasoline canisters and be full of nails. Witnesses subsequently saw gas canisters being removed from a Mercedes automobile by police at 4 AM BDT.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

(UK) Scotland: Terror Strike at Glasgow Airport
By Jeffrey Imm

Sky News reports another "terror strike" in the United Kingdom today, this time in Scotland at Glasgow Airport. Sky News reports that the latest incident involving a flaming Jeep Cherokee SUV ramming Glasgow Airport terminal "is being treated as a terror attack" -- Sky News video report

Per Sky News:"Two Asian men are being held after a burning Jeep was rammed through the terminal building at Glasgow airport... [s]ince the attack, Blackpool airport has been shutdown and security has been tightened at Newcastle and Edinburgh airports."

Later, Sky News also reported that one of the men "was found wearing a suspicious device". Officers would not say whether it was a suicide belt.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

UK at Highest "Critical" Terror Level
By Jeffrey Imm

Sky News reported that: "[t]he country is now at its highest threat level and means an attack is expected 'imminently'. "The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the level in response to the events of the last 48 hours".

BBC News reports that the UK's national terrorism threat level has been raised to "critical", according to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. BBC News stated that "The announcement came after a meeting of the government emergencies committee Cobra, following a burning car being driven into a Glasgow airport terminal. Ministers, police and security service officials began their third meeting in three days at 1900 BST, this time with a video link to ministers in Scotland. Cobra met earlier in the day to discuss the two car bombs found in London."

Sky News reported that "During the [Cobra] meeting, chaired by Gordon Brown, ministers discussed deploying troops at UK airports to counter any further terror attacks."

ABC News notes that "[t]he last time the threat level was raised to critical in the United Kingdom was last August after a liquid bomb plot was foiled." ABC News also states: "Although the threat level "critical" is meant to indicate an attack is imminent, in practice the British appear to have reserved its use for after an attack or attempted attack has already occurred and a follow-up attack is imminent."

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

Chilling, but not surprising

"Guest Worker Amnesty Program" Would Not Protect America
By Michael Cutler at Counterterrorism Blog

"Those pushing the 'Guest Worker Amnesty Program' who claim that our nation has attempted an 'enforcement only program,' and that this approach has not worked, fool no one! All that we have been provided with is the illusion of enforcement and it is the illusion that has failed to work! A Guest Worker Amnesty Program will not help to get our border under control, it will do just the opposite, providing a huge incentive to millions of aliens to run our borders with the hope (indeed, expectation) that they will be able to participate in this program!

Let us consider some of the many ways that illegal aliens and potentially criminals and terrorists can gain entry into our country:

1. Running the Mexican border
2. Running the Canadian border
3. Stowing away on a ship
4. Entering the United States through a port of entry under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program (This enables aliens from 27 countries to enter our country without first applying for and obtaining a nonimmigrant visa.)
5. Procuring a nonimmigrant tourist visa by filing a fraudulent application.
6. Entering the United States with a valid visa and then violating the terms of the visa such as overstaying the period of time for which he was admitted. (US VISIT is not currently able to track the departure of aliens who are admitted for a temporary period.)
7. Procuring a nonimmigrant student visa and then not attending the school for which the visa was issued.
8. Applying for and receiving an immigrant visa based on a fraud marriage. (If successful, this ploy provides the alien with a "green card" and puts him (her) on the path to United States citizenship.)
9. Applying for and receiving an immigrant visa based on a fraud job offer, as is the case with the marriage fraud, the alien would receive a "green card" and would place the alien on the path to United States citizenship.
10. Applying for political asylum by making a false claim of "credible fear." (Mir Aimal Kansi used this ploy. In January 1993, roughly one month before the first attack on the World Trade Center, he stood outside the headquarters of the CIA in Virginia and opened fire on CIA employees who were arriving for what they had thought would be a routine day at work. Two CIA officials died and three were wounded.) "

Read it all.

The Mahdi-come-lately gives even more reason to take out his nuclear capabilities

Ahmadinejad: Israel will be destroyed
Iran Focus

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime (Israel) had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime," IRNA quoted him as saying.

"God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech to foreign guests mostly from African, Arab and neighboring countries who attended ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Read it all.

Countdown to Israel's destruction has begun, says Ahmadinejad
Jihad Watch

"The countdown to Israel's destruction has begun, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech commemorating the death of Iranian revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Sunday.

'The arrogant superpowers and the Zionist regime invested all their efforts during the 33-day war, but after 60 years, their pride has been trampled and the countdown to the destruction of this regime has been started by Hizbullah fighters,' the president was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Mehr."

Read it all.

I hope that Ahmadinejad, our "smart bombs willing", will find that HIS "foundations are shaking" pretty soon

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Public Address on May 24 Discusses U.S.

From MEMRI TV

"Ahmadinejad: 'Let me tell you that with the help of God, they are done for. Like a battery about to run out, they muster the remainder of their power but Allah willing, nothing will happen. We've passed that. Wait one month, two months, three months... Allah willing, as soon as possible, we will pass that. Their situation is much worse than one can imagine. Their foundations are shaking.'"

To View This Clip, Click Here.

Portrait of a traitor

"Legitimate Demands"– A Video Speech by Adam Yahiye Gadahn Produced by as-Sahab Media
By SITE Institute

Al Qaeda's American Flack in New Video

By James Gordon Meek

"Osama Bin Laden's Jewish-American mouthpiece Adam Yahiye Gadahn, aka Adam Pearlman, aka "Azzam al-Amriki," is making a new appearance on video at this hour to threaten more attacks, which this century's "Tokyo Rose" promises will make America forget 9/11.

The short video, "Legitimate Demands," was expected for several hours. A teaser posted on jihadist websites by Al Qaeda's As-Sahab propaganda wing was caught by several private counterterrorism outfits, including the SITE Institute, IntelCenter and Laura Mansfield's blog."

The Same Old Threats from the American Face of Al-Qaida
By Evan Kohlmann

"Though Gadahn peppers his diatribe with clear references to recent events (such as the massacre at Virginia Tech), much of it appears to be the same old recycled propaganda. Arguably the most incendiary remark made by Gadahn in "Legitimate Demands" is taken almost verbatim from a similar video message he recorded of himself in September 2004: 'Your failure to meet these demands... means that you and your people will, Allah willing, experience things that will make you forget *all* about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq--and Virginia Tech.'"

FBI: American Al Qaeda is a 'Tool'
By James Gordon Meek

"I quizzed Miller, with my colleague Lara Jakes Jordan of the Associated Press, about the emergence of Al Qaeda's Jewish-American spokesman, known as "Azzam al-Amriki," who grew up in California, converted to Islam, was recruited by Al Qaeda and was indicted last year in Los Angeles for treason and giving material support to terrorism.

Read more about the FBI's view of Gadahn at the Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac Blog."

Excellent analysis from Mr. Sheridan AND PM Blair

The reason we are losing the battle of information and ideas is because the coherent religious and ideological position that al-Qa’ida represents has an extraordinary degree of support within the Muslim world

"The truth will out, eventually. 'Extremists winning war of words, too,' by Greg Sheridan in The Australian, with thanks to JE:

SIX years after the 9/11 terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York and killed almost 3000 people, a majority of American Muslims do not believe the attacks were carried out by Arabs. And more than one-quarter of young US Muslims believe suicide bombings can be justified in some circumstances.

These shocking and tragic findings, which come from the Pew Research Centre, tell us much about why the war against Islamist terror is going to last for generations.

The West is losing the information and propaganda war against Islamist extremism. It is not losing because it is being insufficiently kind to Muslims at home or in the Middle East."

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

Worth reading for the term "kooky Chomskyites" alone

Al Qaedism, Again
Another straw on the back of the proverbial American camel.
by Victor Davis Hanson

"About a year after 9/11, I made use of a word “al Qaedism” in a National Review Online essay to describe such seemingly isolated terrorists, both amateurs and the more organized, both the deranged and the more focused. At that time we were all discussing the careers of those like John Williams, John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, or Richard Reid (or rather John Mohammed, Abdul Hamid, Abdullah al-Muhajir, or Abdel Rahim).

Yet, both then and now, we waste our time wondering whether such terrorists are al Qaeda-controlled or not. The question is academic. It matters little whether they were explicitly ordered to kill by central terrorist command (they probably were not) or were inspired by CDs, the Internet, or the local mullah.

The point is simply that, for purposes of harming America, lone-wolf jihadists need only to feel the same rage and perceived grievances — al Andalus, Israel, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, etc. — as their pin-up heroes like bin Laden or Zawahiri.

But, again, why do these residents in our midst, who have voluntarily come to America, and some of whom have had America itself spend billions abroad on their brethren, wish to kill us?

Such questions are nonsensical. The aggrieved Islamist, whether born here or abroad, lives in a world of emotion, never reason, in which pride, envy, and a sense of inferiority always trump logic."

Read it all at VDH's Private Papers.

It makes me wonder if the AP stringer is a member

Yes, wildfires are raging, but don't despair: Muslims are praying for rain

"Charles at LGF has discovered a completely gratuitous reference to CAIR in "Second Wildfire Breaks Out in Georgia Swamp; Florida Fires Still Raging," an AP story.

As of Friday, the number of active fires has dropped from 236 to 223, with about 140 square miles —- over 87,000 acres — burnt. Seven homes in the state were destroyed.

Other large fires are burning in Bradford and Collier County.

Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says Florida Muslims are offering special prayers for rains at mosques on their religion's day of rest.

In northern Minnesota, high wind fanned a fire around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, prompting more evacuations."

Read it all at Jihad Watch. And for a little background on the Council on American-Islamic Relations: CAIR Watch.