What Al Qaeda Really Wants – An Islamic Caliphate in Seven Easy Steps

Vin posted this in a Blogtalkradio chat…they have broadcasted LOUDLY for years on their plans….

Jun07 2011 Written by Vin Ienco http://vinienco.com/2011/06/07/what-al-qaeda-really-wants-an-islamic-caliphate-in-seven-easy-steps/
[Translate]

What Al Qaeda Really Wants – An Islamic Caliphate in Seven Easy Steps
Originally published December 2005

Even for an Arab journalist it is no easy matter getting in touch with al-Qaida’s inner circle. Nevertheless, Fouad Hussein, who is based in Amman, Jordan, has succeeded in turning his correspondence with the terrorists into a remarkable book: “al-Zarqawi – al-Qaida’s Second Generation.”
If you meet Hussein, as you might when he is relaxing in Amman’s Café Vienna, you see he is calm and laid-back, without any of the glamour of a secret service spy. But what this small, slim man has to report is nothing less than the world’s most dangerous terrorist network’s plan of action: al-Qaida’s strategy for the next two decades. It is both frightening and absurd, a lunatic plan conceived by fanatics who live in their own world, but who continually manage to break into the real world with their brutal acts of violence.
One of Hussein’s most sensational sources for the book, was Seif al-Adl (pictured). The Egyptian terrorist, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks on the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998, has a ransom of US$5 million on his head from the FBI. Secret services suspect that al-Adl is now in Iran.
To prove that he really has had contact to al-Adl, Hussein includes in the first two pages of the book a copy of a hand-written letter the wanted man sent to the author. In the original document, which is 15 pages long, al-Adl describes the disagreements between al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden during the Afghanistan war. “Statements from Seif al-Adl have also crept into the chapter on al-Qaida’s strategy,” explains Fouad Hussein.

The First Phase Known as “the awakening” — this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby “awakening” Muslims. “The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaida as very successful,” writes Hussein. “The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target.” The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard “everywhere.”

The Second Phase “Opening Eyes” is, according to Hussein’s definition, the period we are now in and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the “Islamic community.” Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaida wants an organization to develop into a movement. The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an “army” set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.

The Third Phase This is described as “Arising and Standing Up” and should last from 2007 to 2010. “There will be a focus on Syria,” prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and — even more explosive — in Israel are predicted. Al-Qaida’s masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.

The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments. The estimate is that “the creeping loss of the regimes’ power will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaida.” At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.

The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.

The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of “total confrontation.” As soon as the caliphate has been declared the “Islamic army” it will instigate the “fight between the believers and the non-believers” which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.

The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as “definitive victory.” Hussein writes that in the terrorists’ eyes, because the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the “one-and-a-half billion Muslims,” the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn’t last longer than two years.

A Serious Plan?
But just how serious is this scenario? “Al-Qaida makes no compromises,” says the book’s author Fouad Hussein. He obviously believes that this seven-point plan could well become the guiding principle for a whole range of al-Qaida fighters. Hussein is far from an hysterical alarmist — in fact he is seen as a serious journalist and his Zarqawi book is better than most of the reports in Arabic on the subject. Only last year, the journalist made a film which was received with great interest and was shown on the German-French TV channel arte. In it he provided deep insights into al-Qaida’s internet propaganda machine.
Nevertheless, there is no way the scenario he depicts can be seen as a plan which al-Qaida can follow step by step. The terrorist network just doesn’t work like that anymore. The significance of the central leadership has diminished and its direct commands have lost a great deal of importance. The supposed master plan for the years 2000 to 2020 reads in parts more like a group of ideas cobbled together in retrospect, than something planned and presented in advance. And not to mention the terrorist agenda is simply unworkable: the idea that al-Qaida could set up a caliphate in the entire Islamic world is absurd. The 20-year plan is based mainly on religious ideas. It hardly has anything to do with reality — especially phases four to seven.
But that doesn’t mean that we should simply discount everything that Hussein has uncovered. A few of the steps in the agenda are plausible. The idea that Syria will become a focus for the Mujahedin is regarded by experts as highly likely. “Close ranks, concentrate on getting more recruits, set up cells,” was the call to the “Mujahedin in Syria” which appeared on one Web site at the beginning of August. From the point of view of the jihadists, Israel and Turkey are also fairly logical targets for an escalation of the confrontation. “Al-Qaida views every fight as a victory, because for so long Muslims didn’t have any weapons at all,” says Hussein. He may not be far off. As for Jordan, al-Qaida leaders such as al-Zarqawi, have already made attacks on the country. They have also stated on numerous occasions that Jerusalem is the real target.
Equally, the idea that in the future al-Qaida could increasingly become a movement that attracts young frustrated men, is hardly a theory plucked out of thin air. The terror network puts a lot of effort into its propaganda — assumedly in order to expand its support base.

Attacks on the West: a Means to an End
What is interesting is that major attacks against the West are not even mentioned by Fouad Hussein. Terrorism here cannot be ignored — but it seems these attacks simply supplement the larger aim of setting up an Islamic caliphate. Attacks such as those in New York, Madrid and London would in this case not be ends in themselves, but rather means to a achieve a larger purpose — steps in a process of increasing insecurity in the West.
Nowadays, it is harder than ever to truly understand al-Qaida: the organization has degenerated into branches and loosely connected cells, related groups are taken in, and people who hardly had anything to do with al-Qaida before, now carry out attacks in its name. It is hard to imagine orders which come right from the top because Osama bin Laden spends all his time struggling to survive. At the same time, the division between foot soldiers in the organization and sympathizers is becoming increasingly blurred. It is all too easy to fall prey to disinformation — al-Qaida also excels in this area. Even Hussein’s scenario should be judged skeptically.
His book should therefore be read for what it really is: an attempt to second guess how al-Qaida terrorists think, what they really want and how they propose to get there.
–00–
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,369448,00.html

The Obama Administration, Fresh Off Their Betrayal of Israel, Decides To Reinstate Official Contact With Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

Let's all get this straight from the get go - Barack Hussein Obama's administration has, in essence, betrayed the nation of Israel for the past two years and now, they have decided to do something that no other administration would even dream of doing...they have reinstated formal contact with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

Hell, why doesn't Obama just invite the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Taliban to the White House for a "Beheading Summit"? This is beyond out of control - this is simply conspiring with the enemies of the United States of America.

From the report at Family Security Matters:

Reuters is reporting that the U.S. will resume formal contacts with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to the report:

WASHINGTON | Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:53pm EDT (Reuters) – The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.

“The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.”

The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather than a dramatic change in Washington’s stance toward the Brotherhood, a group founded in 1928 that seeks to promote its conservative vision of Islam in society.

Under the previous policy, U.S. diplomats were allowed to deal with Brotherhood members of parliament who had won seats as independents — a diplomatic fiction that allowed them to keep lines of communication open.

Where U.S. diplomats previously dealt only with group members in their role as parliamentarians, a policy the official said had been in place since 2006, they will now deal directly with low-level Brotherhood party officials.

I have to give the MSM in America some credit throughout this Arab Spring situation in that they have covered the Muslim Brotherhood fairly well and have asked questions about what their rise to power would mean, but as usual, with Obama going out on a limb here and literally looking for contact with the MB, I doubt we will see criticism in the press.

Conversely, you will see every counter-jihad expert in America go apeshit over this - this would have been like Ronald Reagan deciding to sit down with the Soviets to conspire to take over all of Europe.

In case anyone is keeping score lately....the Palestinians are now our friends, the Muslim Brotherhood are now our friends, the Venezuelans are now our friends, the Taliban are now are friends....and oh, the Poles are now our enemies, the Brits are now our enemies and the Israelis are now our enemies.

November 2012 cannot come fast enough - any man or woman in this country that votes for Barack Hussein Obama might as well just stand up on a crate in the town square and announce that you hate America and wish its destruction.

U.S. Resumes Official Contacts with Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood


Reuters is reporting that the U.S. will resume formal contacts with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to the report:

WASHINGTON | Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:53pm EDT (Reuters) – The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.

“The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.”

The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather than a dramatic change in Washington’s stance toward the Brotherhood, a group founded in 1928 that seeks to promote its conservative vision of Islam in society.

Under the previous policy, U.S. diplomats were allowed to deal with Brotherhood members of parliament who had won seats as independents — a diplomatic fiction that allowed them to keep lines of communication open.

Where U.S. diplomats previously dealt only with group members in their role as parliamentarians, a policy the official said had been in place since 2006, they will now deal directly with low-level Brotherhood party officials.

There is no U.S. legal prohibition against dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood itself, which long ago renounced violence as a means to achieve political change in Egypt and which is not regarded by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization.

But other sympathetic groups, such as Hamas, which identifies the Brotherhood as its spiritual guide, have not disavowed violence against the state of Israel.
The result has been a dilemma for the Obama administration. Former officials and analysts said it has little choice but to engage the Brotherhood directly, given its political prominence after the February 11 downfall of former President Hosni Mubarak.”

Read the rest here.

It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood today has become a global network and that the Egyptian mother branch is not necessarily the most important part of the movement. Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, close to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, is often referred to by the GMBDR as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide.

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Hey Steel Workers' Union Members...We Told You Obama and Jerry Brown Were Using You Like Tools

For all of the union workers across America, it's becoming more and more clear that your idolized leaders like Barack Hussein Obama and California Governor Jerry Brown sure are quick to take your union dues and use them to get elected but when the steel hits the roadway, you are getting thrown under the bus just like all of us other Americans.

The word is out that a huge bridge project in California...one that will utilize a tremendous span of steel bridging....will be coming from....wait for it....NOT from the unionized steel mills of America...but the growing steel industry of China.

From the report at Yahoo Finance:

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

“They’ve produced a pretty impressive bridge for us,” Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. “Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves.”

How do you like that Mr. Joe Union Member? Remember the thousands of dollars that your union bosses took from you over the past few years to ensure that Barack Hussein Obama got elected? Remember how your union bosses said it was going to be the sweet life with that Democrat in the White House? Oh...so perhaps you think this was just an isolated glitch in the system? Then take a look at this:

In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.

American steelworker unions have disparaged the Bay Bridge contract by accusing the state of California of sending good jobs overseas and settling for what they deride as poor-quality Chinese steel. Industry groups in the United States and other countries have raised questions about the safety and quality of Chinese workmanship on such projects. Indeed, China has had quality control problems ranging from tainted milk to poorly built schools.

Now, don't get me wrong here...I'm the last person in the world who is going to belly ache about the effects of free market capitalism - anyone that has come to this site knows I am no defender of American labor unions. But at the same time, at least I am straight forward and tell it like it is. Unlike the Obama administration that promised you union workers a walk down easy street and now is rolling in your dues money and stabbing you in the back.

But hey, go ahead and keep sending those union dues in to support Big Government Barry in 2012...and of course, you can then keep bitching about these contracts going to the Chinese...and you can bitch about the fact that your dues money went to keeping abortion clinics open too. Hopefully, you can get a little laugh out of all of this because believe me, Barack Hussein Obama and Jerry Brown and a ton of Democrat lawmakers across this country are literally laughing their asses off at you patsies....day in and day out.

So let me ask you about 2012....."Are You In?"

Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label


SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

“They’ve produced a pretty impressive bridge for us,” Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. “Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves.”

On the reputation of showcase projects like Beijing’s Olympic-size airport terminal and the mammoth hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, Chinese companies have been hired to build copper mines in the Congo, high-speed rail lines in Brazil and huge apartment complexes in Saudi Arabia.

In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.

American steelworker unions have disparaged the Bay Bridge contract by accusing the state of California of sending good jobs overseas and settling for what they deride as poor-quality Chinese steel. Industry groups in the United States and other countries have raised questions about the safety and quality of Chinese workmanship on such projects. Indeed, China has had quality control problems ranging from tainted milk to poorly built schools.

But executives and officials who have awarded the various Chinese contracts say their audits have convinced them of the projects’ engineering integrity. And they note that with the full financial force of the Chinese government behind its infrastructure companies, the monumental scale of the work, and the prices bid, are hard for private industry elsewhere to beat.

The new Bay Bridge, expected to open to traffic in 2013, will replace a structure that has never been quite the same since the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. At $7.2 billion, it will be one of the most expensive structures ever built. But California officials estimate that they will save at least $400 million by having so much of the work done in China. (California issued bonds to finance the project, and will look to recoup the cost through tolls.)

California authorities say they had little choice but to rebuild major sections of the bridge, despite repairs made after the earthquake caused a section of the eastern span to collapse onto the lower deck. Seismic safety testing persuaded the state that much of the bridge needed to be overhauled and made more quake-resistant.

Eventually, the California Department of Transportation decided to revamp the western span of the bridge (which connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island) and replace the 2.2-mile eastern span (which links Yerba Buena to Oakland).

On the eastern span, officials decided to build a suspension bridge with a complex design. The span will have a single, 525-foot tower, anchored to bedrock and supported by a single, enormous steel-wire cable that threads through the suspension bridge.

“We wanted something strong and secure, but we also wanted something iconic,” said Bart Ney, a transportation department spokesman.

A joint venture between two American companies, American Bridge and Fluor Enterprises, won the prime contract for the project in early 2006. Their bid specified getting much of the fabricated steel from overseas, to save money.

California decided not to apply for federal funding for the project because the “Buy America” provisos would probably have required purchasing more expensive steel and fabrication from United States manufacturers.

China, the world’s biggest steel maker, was the front-runner, particularly because it has dominated bridge building for the last decade. Several years ago, Shanghai opened a 20-mile sea bridge; the country is now planning a much longer one near Hong Kong.

The selection of the state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company was a surprise, though, because the company made port cranes and had no bridge building experience.

But California officials and executives at American Bridge said Zhenhua’s advantages included its huge steel fabrication facilities, its large low-cost work force and its solid finances. (The company even had its own port and ships.)

“I don’t think the U.S. fabrication industry could put a project like this together,” Brian A. Petersen, project director for the American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises joint venture, said in a telephone interview. “Most U.S. companies don’t have these types of warehouses, equipment or the cash flow. The Chinese load the ships, and it’s their ships that deliver to our piers.”

Despite the American union complaints, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, strongly backed the project and even visited Zhenhua’s plant last September, praising “the workers that are building our Bay Bridge.”

Zhenhua put 3,000 employees to work on the project: steel-cutters, welders, polishers and engineers. The company built the main bridge tower, which was shipped in mid-2009, and a total of 28 bridge decks — the massive triangular steel structures that will serve as the roadway platform.

Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.

“It used to be $9 a day, now it’s $12,” he said Wednesday morning, while polishing one of the decks for the new Bay Bridge. “Everything is getting more expensive. They should raise our pay.”

To ensure the bridge meets safety standards, 250 employees and consultants working for the state of California and American Bridge/Fluor also took up residence in Shanghai.

Asked about reports that some American labor groups had blocked bridge shipments from arriving in Oakland, Mr. Anziano dismissed those as confused.

“That was not about China,” he said. “It was a disagreement between unions about which had jurisdiction and who had the right to unload a shipment. That was resolved.”

Pakistani Military Conducts 3 Day Operation in Mohmand, 40 Taliban Killed

Pakistani troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 militants in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days. – File Photo


It appears that the Pakistani military is reserving their operations against the Taliban now for when they simply cannot take any more of the daily Taliban attacks and so, in the Mohmand area butting up against the Afghan border, the Pakistanis let loose for three days and in the end the kill of Taliban jihadis totaled 40.

From the story at DAWN, we see that 17 Taliban hideouts were taken out - it doesn't state exactly HOW those hideouts were destroyed...if it was by fighter jet, attack helicopter, artillery or by ground forces but 40 Taliban dead in three days is pretty impressive.

Now, if we could only see the Pakistanis just load up and continue this for a helluva lot more than just three days. It's almost like the Pakistani government thinks they can still coexist with the Taliban in the northwest - even though time after time it has been proven that it just will never happen.

Forty militants killed in Mohmand operation


ISLAMABAD: Pakistani troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 militants in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days, a military commander said Thursday.

Brigadier Aftab Ahmad told AFP by telephone that his forces had destroyed 17 militant hideouts in the Baizai region under his command in the lawless tribal area of Mohmand.

“Militants were regularly attacking our posts on the Afghanistan border at Shonkari and Mithai and also targeting goods vehicles going to Afghanistan,” he said.

Ghalanai is the main town in Mohmand, where Pakistan has recently stepped up raids on militant hideouts, as it faces American pressure to conduct a separate offensive against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan.

“An operation was launched three days ago with the support of army aviation aircraft, helicopters and fighter jets. We killed at least 40 militants,” Ahmad said.

Maqsood Hussain, a government official in Baizai, confirmed the raids and casualties, but it was not immediately clear how the Pakistani officials reached the body count of 40.

Mohmand is one of seven districts in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks on Pakistani, Afghan and Western targets.

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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Israel on a terrorist watch list of countries that promote terrorism by Obama????

The GatewayPundit writes:
UNREAL!… Obama Puts Israel on List of Countries That Promote Terrorism

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Body language expert Tanya Reiman told Bill O’Reilly recently that Obama lied – He was no friend of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Reiman said that Obama had “contempt in his eyes” and displayed it with his body language when he was with Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was obvious.

Narcissists don’t like being challenged.

But, it’s not just the Israeli leader who Obama dislikes.
The Obama regime recently put Israel on the list of countries that support terrorism.
CNSNews and Yid With Lid reported:

In an implicit admission that Israel is so threatened by terrorism that it is not only surrounded by countries and territories that produce terrorists but also unwillingly harbors terrorists within its own territory in a way the most other nations in the world do not, the Obama administration is currently listing Israel among 36 “specially designated countries” it believes “have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members.”
Also included on the list–separately from Israel–are the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the four nations bordering Israel.
All but five of the nations included on the administration’s “specially designated country” list have majority Muslim populations (see the list below).
The five countries on the list that do not have majority Muslim populations–Kazakhstan (47 percent Muslim), Eritrea (36.5 percent Muslim), Israel (16.9 percent Muslim), the Philippines (5 percent Muslim) and Thailand (4.6 percent)–have had internal problems with radical Muslim terrorists, as reported by the State Department.

Two Saudi Muslim Men In America Rape Austin, Texas Woman

Well, well, well...I guess the islamists have decided to come to America and prey on the women here as opposed to staying home in the Middle East or Europe and doing it over there. Two Saudi men here in Texas are charged with the rape of an Austin woman as they took advantage of her state of intoxication.

From the article at Fox News:

Austin Police have arrested two men for raping a woman in West Campus early Sunday morning.

Turki Alamri, 32, and Ahmed Alkhamisi, 24, have both been charged with sexual assault. Both men are from Saudi Arabia.

According to the arrest affidavit, the victim was with a friend Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The friend gave the victim the keys to her apartment located at 600 W. 26th Street. The victim was intoxicated and intended to stay the night at her friend’s apartment.

The victim told police that she approached two men outside the apartment building who offered to help her find her friend’s apartment. She said the two men took her to an apartment she believed belonged to her friend.

Once inside the apartment one of the men, later identified as Alamri, shut the door behind them. The other suspect, whom police later identified as Alkhamisi, led the victim to the bedroom. The victim told police that Alkhamisi pushed her down on the bed and attempted to pull her dress up above her waist. The victim told him to stop but he did not. The victim then said he raped her. She pushed him off of her and told him she was calling police.

Both Alkhamisi and Alamri had their bail set at $10,000. They also both had to surrender their passports to the Travis COunty District Court. If found guilty they face a maximum punishment of 20 years and a $10,000 fine.

Hopefully, these two Saudi men will discover that in America, when you rape a woman, it's YOU that gets charged and sent to prison....NOT the woman like back in good old Riyadh. In fact, perhaps we'll get lucky and the male relatives of the victim will be able to communicate to these two Muslim fucks that they'll be waiting for them when they DO get out of prison.

I'm sure it's awfully tempting to Saudi men visiting America...you know...no burqas to contend with and of course, they cannot be blamed for doing this to women so scantily clad - in fact, that will probably be their defense...that in their culture, a woman showing skin or hair WANTS to be abused and deserves it.

Hopefully, these two pigs will get the full 20 years and will share a prison block with the some American inmates who have sisters at home.

Two Men Accused of Raping Woman in W. Campus


Austin Police have arrested two men for raping a woman in West Campus early Sunday morning.

Turki Alamri, 32, and Ahmed Alkhamisi, 24, have both been charged with sexual assault. Both men are from Saudi Arabia.

According to the arrest affidavit, the victim was with a friend Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The friend gave the victim the keys to her apartment located at 600 W. 26th Street. The victim was intoxicated and intended to stay the night at her friend’s apartment.

The victim told police that she approached two men outside the apartment building who offered to help her find her friend’s apartment. She said the two men took her to an apartment she believed belonged to her friend.

Once inside the apartment one of the men, later identified as Alamri, shut the door behind them. The other suspect, whom police later identified as Alkhamisi, led the victim to the bedroom. The victim told police that Alkhamisi pushed her down on the bed and attempted to pull her dress up above her waist. The victim told him to stop but he did not. The victim then said he raped her. She pushed him off of her and told him she was calling police.

According to court documents, as the victim attempted to flee the apartment, Alamri ran after her. He allegedly confronted her outside the elevator and told her that she did not need to call police.

While they were talking, the elevator opened and the victim saw a man get out. She told him that she had just been raped. He took her down to the first floor and called police.

Police went to the apartment and met Alamri. The witness told police that Alamri was the man he saw talking to the victim. Police spoke with Alamri’s roommate who told them that he saw Alamri with a friend named Ahmed in the apartment earlier in the night.

Alamri was interviewed by police detectives at the Sex Crimes office. He told them he was from Saudi Arabia and requested an Arabic translator.

The arrest affidavit states that Alamri told police that when he was at his apartment with his friend Ahmed there was a disturbance with an intoxicated woman. He stated that he asked the woman to leave the apartment.

Alamri then took police to the apartment where Alkhamisi lived. He was taken into custody by police.

Police also spoke to the roommate of Alkhamisi about the night of the alleged incident. The roommate told police that Alkhamisi woke him up at 5:30 a.m. to talk to him about a problem he had. He said that Alkhamisi told him there was an incident with a drunk woman they had asked to leave and he was concerned because the police were called.

Both Alkhamisi and Alamri had their bail set at $10,000. They also both had to surrender their passports to the Travis COunty District Court. If found guilty they face a maximum punishment of 20 years and a $10,000 fine.

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Greece... It's What Happens When Socialism Goes Unchecked

Riot police beat a protester during a demonstration in Athens Tuesday evening June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity reforms designed to win the country additional rescue loans needed avoid bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)


Once again the world is witnessing the ultimate failure of Socialism, the vivid proof of the defects of Karl Marx's mental disease and this time that failure is on center stage in the country of Greece. As Greek lawmakers try to scramble and make necessary cuts to ridiculous social programs and government run utilities, protesters are outside of the legislative building trying to burn down those same lawmakers. The world is watching closely as the old adage is played out....what the government can give you, they can also take away. The Greek people are finding out that individual liberties, once stripped from the people, are replaced by a dependency that only leaves despair and destruction.

From the report at Breitbart:

Clashes have broken out between riot police and protesters outside the Greek Parliament where deputies are about to vote on a crucial austerity bill.

Riot police fired volleys of tear gas to push back protesters trying to overturn barriers, while the demonstrators pelted police with bottles and trash.

Greek deputies are set to back more austerity measures Wednesday as thousands of protesters vented their anger against a bill that has to be passed for the country to get crucial bailout funds and avoid a devastating default on its debts.

The proposals by the Greek government have sparked violent protests in Athens as well as a rebellion inside the governing Socialist Party. Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to convince his party's deputies to back the bill. He replaced his finance minister earlier this month to assuage the concerns of some lawmakers.

The Socialists hold a five-seat majority in the 300-member legislature.

Alexandros Athanassiadis, many of whose constituents are employed by the Public Power Corporation which is up for privatization, said he maintains his opposition to the bill—but that he will likely be the only dissenter.

"I have not changed my opinion ... as things stand, I persist in my decision," he told The Associated Press. "I don't think (any other socialist) deputies will vote against. I will be the only one."

Athanassiadis said he opposes privatization of electricity and water companies, but supports the selling of several other state enterprises.

This really is phenomenal. Look at the statement by this Marxist tool, Athanassiadis. This is a man who is literally watching his country implode under the inefficiency and defect of Marxist socialism and yet he will not face the reality of what needs to be done. This is a man who is willing to watch the country of Greece end.

Now, when you see that kind of blind adherence to failure, compare his statements with those of Democrats in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate in regards to the budget cut proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan. Think about what someone like Sen. Dick Durbin has said and you will see we are facing the same destructive allegiance to the failure of socialism.

People in America have asked if we could ever become Greece and the answer is simple. Yes we will. There is no doubt. We have bought into a system of government that simply is flawed. It doesn't work. It didn't work in communist China, it didn't work in the Soviet Union, it hasn't worked in Cuba or as we see, in Greece. Yet the American people continue to elect leftist politicians who promise this and promise that....they elect Democrat politicians who wish to fully install this system that has failed since the demented mind of Karl Marx first jotted his ravings down on paper.

So, we have a choice. We can gut the U.S. House and U.S. Senate along with our state legislatures of these socialist kamikazees or we can prepare ourselves for the riots and the collapse of our economy and the end of America. Is that really that tough of a choice?

Clashes break out ahead of Greek austerity vote


ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Clashes have broken out between riot police and protesters outside the Greek Parliament where deputies are about to vote on a crucial austerity bill.

Riot police fired volleys of tear gas to push back protesters trying to overturn barriers, while the demonstrators pelted police with bottles and trash.

Greek deputies are set to back more austerity measures Wednesday as thousands of protesters vented their anger against a bill that has to be passed for the country to get crucial bailout funds and avoid a devastating default on its debts.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ATHENS, Greece (AP)—Greek deputies are set to back more austerity measures Wednesday as thousands of protesters vented their anger against a bill that has to be passed for the country to get crucial bailout funds and avoid a devastating default on its debts.

Outside parliament, protesters are blaming the politicians for a financial crisis that threatens to ripple far beyond Greece's borders—a Greek debt default could have huge repercussions in Europe's banking sector and stoke renewed turmoil in global markets.

The bill, which involves euro28 billion ($40 billion) worth of spending cuts and tax increases over five years, must be passed by Parliament if international creditors are to release the next euro12 billion ($17 billion) installment of the country's bailout fund. An additional bill that details how the austerity measures will be implemented must also be passed in a vote Thursday.

The proposals by the Greek government have sparked violent protests in Athens as well as a rebellion inside the governing Socialist Party. Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to convince his party's deputies to back the bill. He replaced his finance minister earlier this month to assuage the concerns of some lawmakers.

The Socialists hold a five-seat majority in the 300-member legislature.

Hours ahead of the vote, it looks like only one Socialist deputy will fail to heed Papandreou's call to back the measures, suggesting that the bill will get at least the 151 votes needed for it to pass. Hopes that the bill will pass have seen European stock markets start the day off strongly and the euro jump towards $1.44.

Alexandros Athanassiadis, many of whose constituents are employed by the Public Power Corporation which is up for privatization, said he maintains his opposition to the bill—but that he will likely be the only dissenter.

"I have not changed my opinion ... as things stand, I persist in my decision," he told The Associated Press. "I don't think (any other socialist) deputies will vote against. I will be the only one."

Athanassiadis said he opposes privatization of electricity and water companies, but supports the selling of several other state enterprises.

Wednesday's vote comes against a backdrop of violent demonstrations and on the second day of a nationwide general strike which has brought much of Greece to a standstill.

Protesters have vowed to encircle Parliament to prevent deputies from entering and voting for the bill. A massive security operation was under way to avert the blockade, with a large section of central Athens sealed off to traffic.

Scuffles broke out early in the morning as demonstrators attempted to block a major avenue leading to the center of the city, and to Parliament. Riot police responded with pepper spray, and 10 people were treated in a nearby hospital for minor injuries, hospital officials said.

Protesters converged on a car carrying communist lawmaker Liana Kanelli, but let it pass toward parliament because Kanelli said she would vote against the austerity package. However, someone in the agitated crowd threw yoghurt in her face. She wiped it away.

Demonstrators also hoisted ghoulish effigies of men they hold responsible for Greece's misfortune - Papandreou, new Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos—and shook them in the air on sticks.

"Dogs, you look after your masters," they chanted at police. The furious marchers also emptied bags of garbage from municipal containers and lobbed them at the security forces, who stood their ground impassively.

A day earlier, extensive clashes left at least 46 people injured, most of them police, as rioters pelted police with chunks of marble and ripped up paving stones, and authorities responded with repeated volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

Greece has said it has funds only until mid-July, after which it will be unable to pay salaries and pensions, or service its debts, without the next bailout installment from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. The country is also in talks for additional help in the form of a second bailout, which the prime minister has said will be roughly the size of last year's euro110 billion ($157 billion) package.

"Voting these measures is required to maintain our credibility in the (bailout) process," Venizelos said during the debate Tuesday night. "Voting for these measures, regardless of any reservations, is an important, brave act of political responsibility."

But even prominent Socialists who say they will vote in favor are voicing objections.

"The austerity measures are not only harsh, not only unfair, but they are also ineffective," Socialist critic Vasso Papandreou, who is not related to the prime minister, told parliament late Tuesday. Still, she said she would grudgingly vote for the bill.

"Greece has many problems but the real problem is the eurozone," said Papandreou, a former EU commissioner. "Europe should be a zone of solidarity, but it is a jungle where the banks can do what they like."

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Taliban Suicide Assault Team Storms Kabul Hotel Gunning For Foreigners, 14 Reported Killed So Far

From The Long War Journal.

Taliban suicide assault team attacks hotel in Kabul


A Taliban suicide assault team attacked a hotel frequented by foreigners in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Initial reports indicate that 14 people may have been killed while fighting is still underway.

A heavily armed Taliban assault team, estimated at six fighters strong, penetrated several rings of security at the Intercontinental and have entered the hotel. Three or four members of the assault team broke through the security, entered the hotel, and began targeting the guests, many of whom are foreigners. Many of the hotel guests were in the restaurant at the time of the attack. At least one Taliban sniper is said to have opened fire on security forces using rocket propelled grenades and a rifle from the rooftop. Afghan security forces have surrounded the hotel, cut off power, and are engaging the remaining Taliban fighters.

The Taliban, via their spokesman, Zahibullah Mujahid, claimed credit for the attack in a statement released to the press.

"Our muj [mujahideen or fighters] entered the hotel and they've gone through several stories of the building and they are breaking into each room and they are targeting the 300 Afghans and foreigners who are staying," Mujahid said, according to The New York Times.

The attack took place just one day before a conference was to have taken place at the Intercontinental discussing the handover of security to Afghan forces.

Today's suicide attack was likely carried out by the Kabul Attack Network, which is made up of fighters from the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, and cooperates with terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda. Top Afghan intelligence officials have linked the Kabul Attack Network to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate as well. The network's tentacles extend outward from Kabul into the surrounding provinces of Logar, Wardak, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Ghazni, and Zabul, a US intelligence official have told The Long War Journal.

The Kabul Attack Network is led by Dawood (or Daud) and Taj Mir Jawad, military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. Dawood is the Taliban's shadow governor for Kabul, while Taj Mir Jawad is a top commander in the Haqqani Network.

The Taliban have prioritized attacks against hotels in Kabul. In February, a suicide bomber detonated at the Safi Landmark. And in January 2008, a suicide assault team carried out an attack similar to today's at the Serena Hotel. Foreigners were the targets of both strikes.

Today's attack is the second major strike in Kabul this month. On June 18, a heavily armed three-man-strong suicide assault team dressed in military uniforms attacked a police station in the 1st district in Kabul, near the Finance Ministry. Nine people were killed in the attack.

The Taliban has carried out two other major suicide attacks in the capital since the beginning of April. On May 21, a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a hospital that is used to treat Afghan soldiers. Six people were killed in the blast. And on April 2, a suicide assault team attempted to storm Camp Phoenix, a NATO base. The suicide bombers were defeated by US troops guarding the perimeter.

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President Obama Gets an "F" For Recent Foreign Policy

Perhaps the reason that Barack Hussein Obama won't reveal his college grades is because he scored about the same as he has in the area of foreign policy as a writer for Family Security Matters has given him a solid "F" for his recent blunders across the world.

The fact of the matter is this - everything that President Obama has touched in regards to foreign policy has turned to shit. The Middle East peace process has never been in such tumult. The War in Afghanistan is like a rudderless ship. Libya has become so intense that it literally could generate a real call for impeachment. Iran has just gotten done firing more missile tests than you can shake a stick at and is pretty much in the driver's seat for nuclear weapons. And at the same time, even with the speech that Obama originally gave in Cairo, Islamic terrorism has never been at this high of a level.

We have never seen the world more confused by the role of America nor have we seen relationships with America's most stalwart allies more strained. And we have never seen America reach out to countries identified before as hostile to us as we are seeing now.

To be blunt, one man could not have screwed up foreign policy for the United States of America so badly even if it had been planned that way. You know, it's almost like an "F" isn't low enough of a grade.

Losing the Plot in Libya and Afghanistan
Presidential Policy: Does It Make the Grade?


Secretary Gates ended his long goodbye last week. The Senate unanimously confirmed Leon Panetta as his replacement. Confirmation hearings were also held for David Petraeus as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. All of this was over shadowed, however, by other news as the president mismanaged America’s wars on two fronts.

Congressional turmoil over the president’s Libya policy persisted. The House pointedly rejected a resolution authorizing support for military operations. Other measures propose cutting off funding may be voted on this week.

There is no question that the House’s anger at the White House is well justified. “Obama’s ham-handed approach has been an insult to the constitutional role of Congress in defining and punishing offenses against the law of nations, as specified in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution,” writes former Congressman and Heritage scholar Ernest Istook, “Obama failed to make any meaningful consultation with Congress before he committed American forces, much less obtain any type of actual approval from Congress.”

Yet, he rightfully adds, “Yes, it’s tempting for Congress to “teach him a lesson” by voting to cut off U.S. funding immediately for Libyan operations. The power of the purse is Congress’ strongest counter-balance to the President’s role as commander-in-chief. But the countervailing argument is that our NATO allies—a key component of America’s national security—have been pulled into the Libya fray based on assurances and urgings from the Obama Administration.

Those may have been improvident, but they are real. A precipitous exit from America’s role in Operation Unified Protector would pull the rug out from under our allies, making it less likely they would ever be willing to stand with America in the future when we have real need for their help.” The need not to abandon NATO, but also send a clear message to the president has left Congress scratching its head on how to square the circle.

Libya, however, is not the only controversy on the front burner. Obama also announced significant troop withdrawals from Afghanistan. While the president touted the drawdown as the “dividend” of success on the ground, that seems unlikely. Military advisors including General Petraeus and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen admitted they thought the speed of the drawdown was “risky.” The fact is, the US counterinsurgency campaign required the NATO troops not only to build-up Afghanistan security forces, but also to drive the Taliban out of the southern and eastern parts of the country. In 2009, Obama gave the generals half the “surge” troops they requested. As a result, they only did half the job. US troops did significantly degrade the Taliban presence in the south. Now, however, as they turn to finish the job, they find they will have far less troops than they need. As a result, casualties could be far greater—and the mission may fail.

In mismanaging both Libya and Afghanistan, the president has contributed greatly to “foreign-policy” fatigue in the United States. At a time when the US must remain vigilant about emerging threats—many are asking if the president won’t act to protect US vital interests—why bother? That is a dangerous attitude to have in a dangerous world.

For grossly mismanaging military deployments the president’s grade for the week has to be an “F” for failure.

New Intelligence Suggests That Flotilla Has Plans To Kill IDF Soldiers Using Chemical Weapons

I sincerely hope that this whole issue of the second Flotilla to Gaza ends up as a yawner and I think the world will more than likely be amazed once again at how Israel handles a no win situation, but there are deep concerns now, coming from new intelligence reports, that members of the flotilla are actually seeking to kill IDF soldiers who board flotilla ships.

From the report at The Jerusalem Post:

IDF sources said Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.

According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.

“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”

The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF.

I think there are some signs here that this flotilla will not get the sympathy from the world that the first one received and believe me, the documentation of what happens should be explicity by the Israelis. The fact that much of the Turkish support of the flotilla has now been withdrawn should cut down on any backlash after what is bound to me some sort of incident from the whole thing.

My hopes and prayers go out to all of the IDF forces that will be involved in confronting this threat as it approaches.

IDF: Some flotilla activists planning to kill soldiers


IDF sources said Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.

According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.

“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”

The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF.

In response to the IDF's statements, Dror Feiler, an Israeli participant on the upcoming flotilla, told Army Radio that the claims "are an attempt to justify in advance IDF violence."

Feiler said that as long as it is up to flotilla organizers, activists planning to harm IDF soldiers will not participate in the mission.

"If Israel suspects any one, it should provide us with information so we can stop him. Violent people are not permitted to take part in the flotilla," he said.

"All of the passengers signed a pledge of non-violence, because we don't want a repeat of what happened in the last flotilla," Feiler stressed. "We have no intention of confronting anyone. We just want to arrive in Gaza in peace. Israel has no reason to stop the flotilla."

"The situation in Israel, with its army and security forces fighting a group of 20 organizations, is funny. The world does not believe it, and neither does the State of Israel itself," he said.

In related news, despite earlier predictions that members of the Turkish organization IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation would not participate in the flotilla, it now appears that some members will sail with the ships alongside other radical Islamic activists.

The Navy has begun its final preparations to stop the vessels, and the IDF sources said that commandos who board the ships will be prepared for a wide-range of scenarios from no violence at all to extreme and violent resistance from the passengers.

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Two U.S. Predator Drone Strikes Today Kill 21 Taliban in South Waziristan

Holy crap. After a mind numbingly quiet weekend on the drone front in Pakistan, the U.S. unleashed holy hell on the Taliban in South Waziristan today with two predator drone strikes that killed 21 jihadis. That's right, 21 of the miserable bastards are dead and no longer strapping suicide bomb vests onto 8 year old girls.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

US Predators struck for the first time in a week, in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today, killing 21 "militants" in two attacks, according to reports from the region.

In the first strike, the remotely-piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired four missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Ghalmandi Panga in the Birmal area of South Waziristan. Eight "militants" were killed in the strike, according to Reuters.

The second strike targeted a Taliban camp that was described as "a big compound which was used as training center" in the town of Mantoi, about 20 miles north of Wana. Thirteen more "militants" were killed in the second strike.

The strikes took place in an area close to the border of North Waziristan that is used by fighters loyal to Taliban commanders Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Mullah Nazir, as well as by the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Also today, in North Waziristan a Taliban commander named Shakirullah Shakir was reported to have been gunned down while riding a motorcycle near Miramshah. Shakir is a spokesman for the Fedayeen-e-Islam, the suicide squad for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Shakir has claimed that the Fedayeen-e-Islam executed suicide attacks in Lahore in September 2010 and January 2011. Most recently, Shakir boasted that more than 1,000 suicide bombers were training at three camps in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan.

Now that is what I call starting the week off with a "bang." And you can see from the excerpt above that the drone strikes weren't the end of the good news as a Taliban commander, in fact the piece of shit that boasted about having all of those potential suicide bombers in North Waziristan, got his dues paid in full as well...getting gunned down by I'm assuming either Pakistani troops or security forces.

So, there you have it...a Monday to remember and relish. Twenty-one flea infested Taliban are no more. And I usually hate Mondays.

:)

US Predators kill 21 in South Waziristan strikes


US Predators struck for the first time in a week, in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today, killing 21 "militants" in two attacks, according to reports from the region.

In the first strike, the remotely-piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired four missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Ghalmandi Panga in the Birmal area of South Waziristan. Eight "militants" were killed in the strike, according to Reuters.

The second strike targeted a Taliban camp that was described as "a big compound which was used as training center" in the town of Mantoi, about 20 miles north of Wana. Thirteen more "militants" were killed in the second strike.

The strikes took place in an area close to the border of North Waziristan that is used by fighters loyal to Taliban commanders Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Mullah Nazir, as well as by the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Also today, in North Waziristan a Taliban commander named Shakirullah Shakir was reported to have been gunned down while riding a motorcycle near Miramshah. Shakir is a spokesman for the Fedayeen-e-Islam, the suicide squad for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Shakir has claimed that the Fedayeen-e-Islam executed suicide attacks in Lahore in September 2010 and January 2011. Most recently, Shakir boasted that more than 1,000 suicide bombers were training at three camps in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

Today's strikes are the first in Pakistan's tribal areas since June 20, when Predators hit a Taliban training camp in the Kurram agency. The US has carried out 12 strikes in Pakistan this month, exceeding the previous monthly high of nine strikes in January. There were 3 strikes in February, seven in March, two in April, and seven in May. The previous four months, from September to December 2010, averaged almost 16 strikes per month (21 in September, 16 in October, 14 in November, and 12 in December).

So far this year, the US has carried out 40 strikes in Pakistan, and is well off the pace of the 117 attacks that took place in 2010. In 2010, the US more than doubled the number of strikes that had occurred in 2009; by late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. In 2008, the US carried out a total of 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. This year, an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 25 of the 40 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, 14 strikes have occurred in South Waziristan, and one more took place in Kurram.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 101 strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 81 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda's external operations. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

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Gilad Shalit, Where Are You?

The other day marked the 5 year anniversary of the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas and this article from Family Security Matters provides a recap of exactly what happened that day just inside of Israel when 8 Hamas terrorists used a tunnel to gain entry to an Israeli army compound.

Five years has passed since Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and although once again, there is chatter that a deal might be in the offing to return Shalit, we all know just how many times we have had our hopes raised and then shattered.

Today in America, we see demented and misguided youths protesting Israel - they hold their palestinian flags and hold their signs that call Israel "occupiers" yet no one in that crowd of protesters will ever fess up to the fact that they are supporting the killers of the IDF soldiers that fateful day and those that have kept Gilad away from his family for five years.

Gilad Shalit, Where Are You?


Five years ago in June 2006, the song “Hips don’t lie” by Shakira was at the top of the charts, the Pixar movie “Cars” was a blockbuster hit and Simon Cowell’s “America's Got Talent” had just debuted and was the number one show on television.

Shakira is still a hit. As a Unicef ambassador and founder of the Barefoot Foundation, she was in Israel this past week with Shimon Peres at the Israeli Presidential Conference promoting education. Disney/Pixar just released “Cars 2” in 3D and Simon Cowell is working on a new show, “The X-Factor”.

Five years is a long time, but for the Shalit family it has been an eternity.

On Sunday morning June 25, 2006, a group of 8 Palestinian terrorists crossed the border south of the Gaza Strip into Israel. They used a tunnel that passed under the security fence to the area of the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel, and infiltrated an Israeli army facility.

They penetrated approximately a hundred meters into Israeli territory and split into three groups. The first group shot at an armored car that was empty. The second group attacked a post manned by soldiers of the Desert Patrol. They used explosives and gunfire from light weapons which wounded three Israeli soldiers.

Around the same time at least one rocket was fired and grenades were thrown at a nearby tank. The tank was manned by four soldiers including Gilad Shalit. The rocket hit the back of the tank killing its commander, Lt. Hanan Barak, 20 and Staff-Sgt. Pavel Slutzker, 20. Another soldier was wounded.

Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, the fourth soldier in the tank, was wounded in the shoulder, captured and taken by the terrorists back across the border in to the Gaza strip. During his time in captivity he has since been promoted to staff sergeant.

The terrorists were members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Palestinian governing party Hamas), the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas), and the Army of Islam.

After 24 hours of silence on Monday, June 26, 2006, the Palestinians declared they were willing to give information about Gilad if Israel released all Palestinian female prisoners and all juveniles being held in Israeli prisons.

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the demands from Hamas and told the members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem,

“This is not a matter of negotiation; this is not a matter of bargaining; Release of prisoners is absolutely not on the agenda of the Israeli government.”

On June 28, Israeli forces entered Khan Yunis in Gaza to search for Shalit. During the assault on Gaza and they arrest 60 Hamas officials, including a number of elected Hamas lawmakers.

Throughout July of that year Hamas kept threating ultimatums and Olmert stood firm. On July 17, Prime Minister Olmert told the Knesset,

“Israel will not be held hostage – not by terror groups or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign state.”

The media reported on September 15, that Egyptian mediators received a letter from Gilad Shalit; in the letter he stated he was alive and well. The handwriting was confirmed to be that of Gilad Shalit.

Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the captors, stated on January 9, 2007, that Shalit,

“has not been harmed at all ... He is being treated in accordance with Islamic values regulating the treatment of prisoners of war.” However, he threatened, “We have managed to keep the soldier in captivity for six months and we have no problem keeping him for years.

On April 8, 2007, Israel receivd by way of Egypt a list of the prisoners Hamas wanted released in exchange for Shalit. The list included 1,400 names, including many who Israel claims have “blood on their hands”, those that were involved with the deaths of Israeli citizens in acts of terrorism.

Then, on June 25, 2007, a year after the corporal’s capture, the military wing of Hamas, Izz a-Din al-Qassam, released an audio tape of Shalit sending a message to his family, friends, the Israeli government and army. He appealed for a prisoner-swap deal to be reached to secure his release. Shalit stated that his medical condition was deteriorating, and that he would require an immediate and lengthy hospitalization.

On February 4, 2008, it was reported that Hamas had sent Shalit's family a second letter written by him. The handwriting was again confirmed to be authentic.

A third letter from Hamas to Shalit’s family arrived on June 9, 2008; the handwriting was again confirmed to be his.

Throughout 2008 and 2009 these “ negotiations” continued. At no point from the time of his abduction did anyone including the International Red Cross ever see him or know his whereabouts. Hamas has continually turned down requests by the Red Cross to see him.

The parents of Gilad, Noam and Aviva, moved into a protest tent outside Ehud Olmert's official Jerusalem residence on March 8, 2009 after the outgoing prime minister stated that the demonstrations calling for Shalit's release were unhelpful.

On September 30, 2009, Israel announced that it would be willing to release twenty female Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a video proving Shalit was still alive. This video and exchange was attributed to intervention by Switzerland. The exchange took place successfully on October 2.

The video that Hamas turned over was a 2-minute and 40-second in length. After being viewed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak it was turned over to Shalit’s family. The video was later played on Israeli television.

In the video, Shalit was seen sitting in a chair in an empty room. He looked extremely frail and emaciated but given the circumstances he is otherwise healthy. He addressed Prime Minister Netanyahu and his parents while reminiscing about times he had spent with his family. At one point he held up a newspaper dated Monday, September 14, 2009. At the end of the video, he stated that the "Mujahideen of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades are treating me very well".

Now, 5 years after his abduction, the fight to free Gilad has grown. As reported by the Jerusalem Post on the 5th anniversary,

Hundreds of people began gathering at the Schalit family tent set up outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem Saturday afternoon to offer their support to the family's demand that their son, Gilad, be released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Gilad's mother and father, Aviva and Noam, as well as brother Yoel chained themselves to a fence outside the Prime Minister's Residence, saying that they are "a family in captivity."

Aviva Schalit, speaking with Channel 2 news, had a message for the prime minister: "Return Gilad tomorrow morning. We're a family [that's been] in captivity for five years. We're tired of sitting in front of the Prime Minister's Residence. We want to go home, but we want to go home with Gilad."

Israeli celebrities and former POW’s are also doing a live broadcast as the Jerusalem Post explains,

Beginning at 8 p.m., a 24-hour live broadcast began showing various celebrities and former POWs sitting inside a makeshift dark closet-like prison cell - for one hour each - to reflect the conditions of captivity Shalit is living in.

Just yesterday, according to the JTA, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had accepted a German-mediated deal for Shalit's release, and was awaiting Hamas' response,

"This proposal was harsh; it was not simple for the State of Israel," Netanyahu said Sunday according to a statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting. "However, we agreed to accept it in the belief that it was balanced between our desire to secure Gilad's release and to prevent possible harm to the lives and security of the Israeli people. As of now, we have yet to receive Hamas's official answer to the German mediator's proposal."

Twelve Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations issued a joint statement Friday calling on Hamas to end its "illegal" and "inhumane" treatment of Shalit, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Some of those groups had never before spoken out on his behalf, according to a report by the International Middle East Media Center, which called the joint statement "unprecedented."

Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father also made a statement yesterday during a press conference in front of the prime minister's official home in Jerusalem,

"We say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: you have no mandate to sentence Gilad to death," Shalit said.

In the past, Israel has not only negotiated with terrorists for the release of their own, but they have even made swaps. In 1985 Israel and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine made the Jibril Agreement in which Israel released 1,150 prisoners in exchange for three Israeli prisoners.

In 2004 Israel made the Tenenbaum deal for the release of an Israeli business man who was kidnapped and taken to Lebanon. He was released in exchange for 435 prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Shalit family members have now started a new campaign aimed at increasing the pressure on the government, "The National Referendum to Save Gilad." This campaign has a number of former senior members of Israeli security services that are taking part. They will voice their support for the current proposal for a prisoner swap.

Haaretz reported yesterday,

According to the proposal the family is advocating, Israel would release 450 terrorists with blood on their hands and 500 others to be chosen by Israel. The next stage of the campaign will be revealed in the coming days.

But the question remains now that it has been 1828 days is Gilad even still alive?

For the first time since Shalit was abducted, the International Red Cross has demanded publicly that Hamas prove that Shalit is still alive.

"Because no sign of life has been had from Shalit for nearly two years," the Red Cross publicly stated that: "We demand that Hamas provide proof that he is still alive." But Hamas has responded with rejection, claiming that the Red Cross is intervening in Israel's "security games."

The World Jewish Daily reported yesterday,

Calls for Gilad Shalit’s release appear to be gaining momentum, and pressure is mounting on both the Israeli government and Hamas to reach an agreement. Within Israel, a major rally was also held in Caesaria, near Netanyahu’s private residence.

Domestic Israeli frustration appeared to reach a peak last week, when Gilad’s grandfather, Zvi Shalit, stated publicly that he had been told by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that, despite Barak’s support for a deal offered by Hamas, “Netanyahu is opposed and cannot be persuaded otherwise." Barak has since denied that he said this.

According to Zvi Shalit, "The people involved talk to us from time to time, caress our heads, but my dear grandchild Gilad is still rotting away in the Hamas cellars having done nothing wrong, like a common criminal."

We can only hope and pray that Gilad is alive and will be released before the next “Cars” sequel is released.

If you would like to get involved or sign the petition for his release please visit the Habanim website.

Update: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted the German-mediated terms for Gilad Shalit’s release, states Arutz Sheva. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has accused Israel of “telling lies” and said no negotiations would continue until Hamas’ demands are met.

Taliban Take It Up Another Notch, Send Husband-Wife Suicide Team On Bombing, Kill 10 Police, Promise More "Couple" Bombings

The wreckage of an armoured vehicle are seen at a police station following an attack by Taliban militants in Kolachi, near the border with the South Waziristan tribal district, on June 26, 2011. – AFP


I just spent the last couple of days detailing the sick use of children to carry out suicide bombings by the Taliban in Pakistan when this morning reveals a suicide bombing attack carried out by a married couple on a Pakistani police station that killed 10 policemen. The married couple were Uzbeks working in the Taliban network.

From the story at DAWN:

The Pakistani Taliban claimed Monday that a married Uzbek couple carried out a suicide attack on a police station at the weekend and threatened further husband-and-wife bombings.

It was the first claim of its kind and only the second time that Pakistani police confirmed a woman blew herself up.

Ten policemen were killed Saturday when Taliban militants in burkas attacked a police station in northwest Pakistan, near South Waziristan, a lawless Islamist militant stronghold on the Afghan border.

“We sent a husband and wife,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP, identifying them as “Uzbek nationals”.

“We have several such couples and we will keep on targeting security forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan until the doors of oppression are shut.”

Again we see how the police in Pakistan continue to be the target of the Taliban in Pakistan. And I bring you back to the same exact strategy that al Qaeda in Iraq used during the Iraq War where police recruitment centers and police stations were the number one targets. The idea was to literally run a community out of police - kill off most of the current police and force the rest to quit and then intimidate any recruits from showing up to take their place.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the strategy is also carrying the ever-changing flavor of the month of suicide bombers. It's all about disguising the bombers so they can get close enough as police are becoming ever wary. It's almost too scary to figure out what the next two or three phases just might be.

Pakistani Taliban threaten husband-and-wife bombings


MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistani Taliban claimed Monday that a married Uzbek couple carried out a suicide attack on a police station at the weekend and threatened further husband-and-wife bombings.

It was the first claim of its kind and only the second time that Pakistani police confirmed a woman blew herself up.

Ten policemen were killed Saturday when Taliban militants in burkas attacked a police station in northwest Pakistan, near South Waziristan, a lawless Islamist militant stronghold on the Afghan border.

“We sent a husband and wife,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP, identifying them as “Uzbek nationals”.

“We have several such couples and we will keep on targeting security forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan until the doors of oppression are shut.”

Pakistani officials had said six attackers were killed after a squad of fighters armed with guns and hand grenades, and disguised in burkas, attacked Kolachi police station and took a group of policemen hostage.

“According to information from our intelligence sources, the bombers were husband and wife but we don’t have any substantial information to prove that at the moment,” police official Imtiaz Shah told AFP.

“The heads of the two bombers we have found show that they were not Pakistani,” he added.

As in practically all claims of responsibility since US forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, the Taliban said they were avenging his death.

“We sent one male and one female suicide bomber to participate in the attack because we want to liberate our people from the slavery of America,” spokesman Ehsan told AFP.

The Taliban have claimed a series of high-profile attacks on government security forces across the country since US Navy SEALs killed the al Qaeda terror chief in the garrison city of Abbottabad.