Hold the Phone...Iranian Christian Pastor Sentenced To Death Is NOT Getting a New Trial

I did a search on the case of the Iranian Christian pastor who was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christianity and convert to Islam and noticed that all of the stories had basically dried up at the end of September when all media outlets stated that he was going to get a new trial based upon world outcry over his pending death sentence.

Well, it appears that all of us in the West have been duped by the Iranians once again.

From the article at Newsmax:

The American Center for Law and Justice is sounding the alarm about erroneous reports that Iranian Pastor Yosef Nadarkhani will get a new trial instead of being hanged for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.

The Iranian media’s story line about the magnanimous opportunity for a retrial instead of the death penalty is a ruse to get people to forget about the case of Nadarkhani, who has been imprisoned for two years on charges of apostasy. Iran wants to silence the global outcry with its tale of a retrial because of concerns about the original conviction, the center says.

"What's worse is that the mainstream media has begun to run these [Iranian] reports as fact,"Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the law and justice center, told Christian Broadcast News.

The center has confirmed with Nadarkhani’s lawyer that there is no retrial. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who previously had predicted that the final decision on the pastor’s appeal would come when Iran’s supreme court convenes on Oct. 10, told AFP on Oct. 6 that he expected the ruling within days.

So, it appears that the sentence is entirely in the hands of the Ayatollah. An Ayatollah who hates infidels and Christians. This doesn't look good. Imagine how far down this story will have fallen in four more weeks and when this pastor is secretly executed in the dead of night....will we even know?

American Law Center Rebuts Claim of Retrial for Iranian Christian Pastor


The American Center for Law and Justice is sounding the alarm about erroneous reports that Iranian Pastor Yosef Nadarkhani will get a new trial instead of being hanged for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.

The Iranian media’s story line about the magnanimous opportunity for a retrial instead of the death penalty is a ruse to get people to forget about the case of Nadarkhani, who has been imprisoned for two years on charges of apostasy. Iran wants to silence the global outcry with its tale of a retrial because of concerns about the original conviction, the center says.

"What's worse is that the mainstream media has begun to run these [Iranian] reports as fact,"Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the law and justice center, told Christian Broadcast News.

The 34-year-old Nadarkhani, who converted to Christianity at the age of 19, was tried and convicted in December 2010. The pastor of several home congregations in a small Christian community called the Church of Iran, he has refused repeatedly to recant his faith.

The center has confirmed with Nadarkhani’s lawyer that there is no retrial. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who previously had predicted that the final decision on the pastor’s appeal would come when Iran’s supreme court convenes on Oct. 10, told AFP on Oct. 6 that he expected the ruling within days.

The lawyer also has disputed rumors that the court intends to uphold the death sentence for apostasy, as well as trumped-up charges of security violations, rape, and Zionism that an Iranian official had added at the last minute, as Newsmax reported. That was the first time such additional charges had been mentioned since the case began in 2009, and many observers regarded them as piling on in an effort to rationalize the death penalty.

On Oct. 10, instead of a decision, the Iranian supreme court referred the matter to Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, to rule on whether Nadarkhani should be executed.

Dadkhah told CNN Friday that Khamenei reportedly is traveling, and he expects that decision in about a week.

He also said he fears that international pressure isn’t swaying Iranian leaders: “I don’t think the statements from the United States has had any impact either on this case as this is all going through the Iranian justice system, which is based on the law and evidence.”

Five Predator Strikes In Six Days! 4 More Taliban Left Wandering the Halls of Hell

Oh boy...tell me the CIA isn't just a LITTLE fucking pissed off at the latest attack on U.S. troops in Kabul. For the fifth time in six days, U.S. predator drones have struck in northwestern Pakistan - this time they hit the area of Mir Ali in North Waziristan and left four al Qaeda/Taliban deader than shit.

Good riddance scumbags.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

US Predators struck in Pakistan's tribal areas for the fifth time in six days, killing four "militants" in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.

The unmanned CIA-operated Predators, or the more deadly Reapers, fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was moving in the village of Mubarak Shah in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, according to SAMAA. The Associated Press reported that four "militants" were killed in the attack

The identities of the four militants killed were not disclosed. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders are reported to have been killed.

Today's strike is the fifth in a recent flurry of attacks. In the past six days, the US has launched three attacks in North Waziristan and two attacks in South Waziristan.

I definitely like this strategy of ours - when the Taliban pull off a major attack in Afghanistan, they see this kind of barrage of predator strikes on their butt buddies down in Pakistan. It's similar to the strategy I've always said works the best for Israel - when a few rockets land in Israel from Gaza, the Israelis target the commanders of Hamas....it's amazing how quickly the rockets get put back in their Gaza warehouses after a few mid level Hamas commanders are on the business end of a JDAM.

US Predator strike kills 4 'militants' in Mir Ali


US Predators struck in Pakistan's tribal areas for the fifth time in six days, killing four "militants" in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.

The unmanned CIA-operated Predators, or the more deadly Reapers, fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was moving in the village of Mubarak Shah in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, according to SAMAA. The Associated Press reported that four "militants" were killed in the attack

The identities of the four militants killed were not disclosed. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders are reported to have been killed.

Today's strike is the fifth in a recent flurry of attacks. In the past six days, the US has launched three attacks in North Waziristan and two attacks in South Waziristan.

Mir Ali is a terrorist haven

The Mir Ali area is in the sphere of influence of Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an al Qaeda leader who serves as a key link to the Taliban and supports al Qaeda's external operations network. Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network also operate in the Mir Ali area. Moreover, Mir Ali is a known hub for al Qaeda's military and external operations councils.

Since Sept. 8, 2010, a total of 16 Germans and two Britons have been reported killed in Predator strikes in the Mir Ali area. The Europeans were members of the Islamic Jihad Group, an al Qaeda affiliate based in the vicinity of Mir Ali. The IJG members are believed to have been involved in an al Qaeda plot that targeted several major European cities and was modeled after the terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.

Mir Ali also hosts at least three suicide training camps for the the Fedayeen-i-Islam, an alliance between the Pakistani Taliban, the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Earlier this year, a Fedayeen-i-Islam spokesman claimed that more than 1,000 suicide bombers have trained at three camps. One failed suicide bomber corroborated the Fedayeen spokesman's statement, claiming that more than 350 suicide bombers trained at his camp.

Over the past year, the US has been pounding targets in the Datta Khel, Miramshah, and Mir Ali areas of North Waziristan in an effort to kill members involved in the European plot. Al Qaeda and allied terror groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and a number of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups host or share camps in the region. These groups are given aid and shelter by Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, a Taliban subgroup run by Siraj and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Hafiz Gul Bahadar or the Haqqani Network. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

The US has carried out nine drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas this month, killing several top al Qaeda, Taliban, and Haqqani Network commanders [see LWJ report, 2 senior al Qaeda leaders killed in recent drone strikes in Pakistan].

Over the past year, the pace of the US strikes has been uneven, but the monthly strike totals have generally decreased. From January through September 2011, the strikes in Pakistan were as follows: nine strikes in January, three in February, seven in March, two in April, seven in May, 12 in June, three in July, six in August, and four in September. In the last four months of 2010, the US 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 62 strikes in Pakistan. In 2010, the US carried out 117 strikes, which was more than double 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 in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram.

This year, that pattern has changed, as an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 23 of the 62 strikes have taken place in South Waziristan, 38 strikes were in North Waziristan, and one was in Kurram.

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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The Evil Coalition of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration

The signs have been there all along...beginning with the Obama speech in Cairo when Barack Hussein Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood members to attend the speech....and we saw the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood members step out of the shadows in Egypt in 2009 and see their first light in a very long time.

Fast forward to today and we see how the Muslim Brotherhood has not only emerged in Egypt as the ruling faction but their influence and power has spread across the Middle East and northern Africa along with the so-called "Arab Spring." Coincidence? I think not.

From the article at Family Security Matters:

These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan. This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government. All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies.

It looks like the near future will uncover many surprises after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, as we realize more and more that the popular revolts in the Arab world - and the Obama Administration’s position towards them - were determined by political battles between various pressure groups in Washington.

What we have to consider here is this - there are members of the Obama administration that see the Muslim Brotherhood as the organization that can unite the Muslim world....some of these U.S. officials actually are stupid enough to ignore the terroristic aspect of the MB and others, quite simply, are willing to allow the Muslim Brotherhood's version of the world caliphate in return to some stability. And I would venture out on a limb to say that some members of the Obama administration fully support the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We simply cannot ignore the fact that in a short three years time, the Muslim Brotherhood has gone from having to meet secretly in the bowels of Egypt to taking the main stage of world politics and policy. And for someone to refute that Barack Hussein Obama hasn't been integral in bringing this "fundamental transformation" to fruition would be negligent.

Where are the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration Taking America?


- In this article, published in the leading liberal pan Arab "Elaph”, Egyptian liberal writer Dr. Essam Abdallah exposes the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood within the Obama Administration and the campaign led by CAIR and its allies against Middle East Christians, US experts and American Muslim reformers. Abdallah's article is powerful evidence to a reckless policy of backing Islamists, perpetrated by the Obama Administration and its advisors on Islamic affairs. The Editors.

Disturbing reports are coming out of Washington, D.C.

These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan. This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government. All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies.

It looks like the near future will uncover many surprises after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, as we realize more and more that the popular revolts in the Arab world - and the Obama Administration’s position towards them - were determined by political battles between various pressure groups in Washington. Moreover, pressures by these lobbying groups have left an impact on the region's events, the last of which was the canceling of the visit of Maronite Patriarch Rahi to Washington. A number of Arab and Western news agencies have leaked that one of “those who sought to cancel this visit was Dalia Mujahid, a top advisor on Islamic and Arab affairs at the State Department, who is of Egyptian origin. And that”, said the reports, “came at the request of the high command of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who wish to see the US Administration support the Islamist Sunni current.”

Also very noticeable at this point is the growing domination of Islamist forces around the Mediterranean: the victory of the Nahda Islamist Party in Tunisia, the declaration by (TNC Chairman) Mustafa Abdeljalil that Libya is an Islamist state and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. These developments wouldn't have happened without the approval of the United States. A document published in Washington indicated that Egypt will face more violence and tensions while moving to the Pakistani, rather than the Turkish, model. Egypt will be ruled by an opportunistic bourgeoisie and a regime declaring itself Islamist, and it will be backed by a military institution. The military will be used by the Islamists to maintain power but the armed forces, the parliament, the regime and the constitution will all become Islamist.

In return, the Maronite Patriarch is denied a visit to Washington, Coptic Christian churches are destroyed in Egypt, and Coptic demonstrators are massacred at Maspero in Cairo by the Egyptian military, demonstrating that the goal is to suppress Christians in the Middle East, who are - as Patriarch Rahi said - paying a high price for the revolts of the Arab Spring. Rahi expressed his concerns about the fate of Syrian and Lebanese Christians and sees, as does the world, the flight of millions of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians from their homelands as a result of events in Iraq, and the methodic persecution against the Copts. The Christians of Egypt aren't only facing suppression and ethnic cleansing but a form of genocide.

The real question now is: who is allowing the Muslim Brotherhood lobby to damage the relationship between the US Administration and millions of Middle East Christians? This lobby was able to delay meetings between leaders from Coptic Solidarity International, including Magdi Khalil and Adel Guindy, with the US Government. Similar obstructions have been happening with Chaldean and Assyrian delegations over the past few years. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood has waged a hysterical campaign against prominent experts in counterterrorism such as Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, John Guandolo and Robert Spencer. One particularly rough campaign was waged by CAIR against Professor Walid Phares, one of the most important, and even prescient, experts in counterterrorism and Jihadist movements in the US. In his book, “The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East”, Dr. Phares predicted its evolution and the shape of coming Islamist regimes in the region.

But the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign is not limited to liberal Arabs, Christians, Jews and Atheists. It has also targeted Muslims who oppose the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) lobby such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD); Sherkoh Abbas, from the Syrian Kurdish Council; Farid Ghadri; the Somali-American author Ayan Hirsi Ali; Ali al Yammi; Tarek Fatah and many more. Attacking Muslim liberals in the West helps the Muslim Brotherhood's project in the radical Islamization of the Middle East, but it does not at all help US interests. Oppressing opposition, diversity, pluralism, and shedding human rights and freedoms are in direct contradiction to the values defended, and sacrificed for, by America's founding fathers as well as by all those who fought wars for America throughout her history.

These intimidation and suppression campaigns directed against Arab and Middle East Christians – and against intellectuals and researchers opposing the Muslim Brotherhood and its sinister ties to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran - in fact are aimed at America’s ability to become aware of the threat all of them pose to American freedoms. For American strength isn't only in its navies and military power, but in its Constitution and the laws which provide the moral force for all other distinctly American liberties.

Note that the US Constitution did not include any suppressive articles (regarding freedom of religion or freedom of speech), the lack of which is the case in many Middle Eastern countries. Rather, it was written in the spirit of a Jeffersonian federal democracy based on individual freedoms.

So, all things considered both here and in the Middle East, where exactly are the Obama Administration and the Muslim Brotherhood lobby, together, taking America? And why?

Right On Cue, America's Left Begins Palinesque Assault On Herman Cain

Let's make this perfectly clear ... any media commentator or network news anchor that accuses Herman Cain of sexual harassment claims from his days in the National Restaurant Association is a racist. So, when you watch television tonight and you see Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O'Donnell or you hear Ed Schultz bring this up, they are racist against black people.

Got it?

The Liberals in America cannot stand to see a conservative black man start to gain momentum in the race for the Presidential nomination and now have resorted to racist slurs against Herman Cain as the predictability of these attacks is almost laughable.

Some of us call this the tried and true Palinization of a candidate.

But we need to stand firm on all of this - any main stream media personality who dares follow through on the claims that Herman Cain was involved in a payoff of two women who accused him of sexual harassment is showing his or her racist leanings and they must be called out! Just like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh were called out as racists in 2007 and 2008 for reports that Barack Obama was friends with Bill Ayers, that he believed in the teachings of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and that he was friendly with Louis Farrakhan.

The fact of the matter is that any newsman or newswoman that dares to venture down this path of accusation of Cain best be prepared to be labelled as a racist.

The report is from Breitbart.

Cain denies report of sexual harassment


WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's campaign is denying allegations that he was twice accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

In a statement Sunday to The Associated Press, his campaign disputed a Politico report that said Cain had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees.

The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.

The report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

Cain's campaign told the AP that the allegations were not true, and amounted to unfair attacks.

"Inside-the-Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain," spokesman J.D. Gordon said in a written statement. "Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr. Cain's tenure as the Chief Executive Officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, political trade press are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts."

Asked if Cain's campaign was denying the report, Gordon said, "Yes."

"These are baseless allegations," Gordon said in a second interview later Sunday evening. "To my knowledge, this is not an accurate story."

Cain plans to continue with several planned appearances in Washington on Monday. He is slated to discuss his tax plan at the American Enterprise Institute, appear at the National Press Club and hold a healthcare briefing on Capitol Hill.

Cain—a self-styled outsider relatively new to the national stage—is facing a new level of scrutiny after a burst of momentum in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. He's been steadily at or near the top of national surveys and polls in early presidential nominating states, competitive with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The former pizza company executive has been pointing to his long record in business to argue that he has the credentials needed to be president during a time of economic strife.

In its report, Politico said it confronted Cain early Sunday outside of the CBS News Washington bureau, where he had just been interviewed on "Face the Nation."

"I am not going to comment on that," he told Politico when asked specifically about one of the woman's claims.

When asked if he had ever been accused of harassment by a woman, he responded, Politico said, by asking the reporter, "Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?"

A message seeking comment from Peter Kilgore, listed on the National Restaurant Association website as its chief legal counsel, was not immediately returned.

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Buddhist Mother In Thailand Shot To Death By Muslims In Front of Her 8 Yr Old Son, Grandfather Murdered As Well

Remember, Congressman Ron Paul tells us all that islamists strike out in violence because their lands have been invaded - well, perhaps Mr. Paul would like to explain why a gang of Muslims in Thailand decided to shoot to death an old grandfather at a gas station then go inside the store and shoot his daughter right in front of her 8 year old son. What have Buddhists done to islamists? Or, Congressman Paul, could it just be that Buddhists are infidels and are subject to submission or death to Muslims?

The fact of the matter is that Buddhists are slaughtered nearly every week in the nation of Thailand by islamic extremists. We have numerous accounts of Buddhist monks being killed in cold blood by the Muslims of Thailand.

One has to wonder just how proud Mohammed would be as he watched a young follower of his put a bullet through the brain of that Buddhist mother in that store...and that 8 year old son watched his mother's head separate and her brains ooze out. Would Mohammed have qualified this as Jihad?

The article is from The Nation.

Three Buddhists slain by Muslim insurgents in Narathiwat


Narathiwat - Three Buddhists were shot dead by Muslim insurgents inside a grocery store in Narathiwat Sunday.

Police said four insurgents arrived on two motorcycles and pretended to buy goods and petrol from the store, which also sells petrol, and shot the three at point blank.

Malee Masi, 49, was shot dead in front of her 8-year-old son, who was found by police as hugging the body of his mother crying when police arrived at the scene.

Srithong Masi, Malee's father-in-law, 75, was shot at his head while he was about to fill up the petrol for one of the motorcycles.

Thirapong Saelim, 42, a customer, was also shot at his head.

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Islamic Jihad In Gaza Agrees To Cease Fire, Then Gets Caught 8 Hours Later Ready To Launch Rocket Attack

The IDF discovered an Islamic Jihad terror cell preparing to launch a rocket attack against Israel some eight hours after the terror group agreed to a cease fire and an air strike was called in on that rocket crew with one jihadi being killed and another wounded.

From the report over at The Jerusalem Post:

One terrorist killed, another injured; attempted launch comes nearly 8 hours into reported cease fire with Islamic Jihad; IDF says it's not waiting for an Islamic Jihad decision, but rather preparing response plans.


The IDF identified a rocket launching cell in the southern Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon as terrorists were preparing to launch a rocket toward Israel, despite a reported cease fire with Islamic Jihad. IAF planes struck the cell, preventing the rocket from being launched.

Islamic Jihad, which has taken responsibility for the majority of some 39 rockets fired at Israel from the Strip in the past 24 hours, said late Sunday morning that it was committed to a cease fire agreement, although it asserted it reserved the right to respond to any Israeli attacks, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

I'm a bit perplexed over these latest rocket launches into Israel from Gaza - the Israelis have Gilad Shalit back, there is no chance he will be killed in response to an Israeli crackdown in Gaza so why not make a concerted effort to eliminate the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza? I mean seriously...the policy should be clear....if ONE rocket is fired from Gaza into Israel, there will be 10 Israeli air strikes in Gaza and those air strikes can be directed at Islamic Jihad OR Hamas OR Fatah OR whoever else gets in the sites of the raids.

In other words, if you are a Hamas leader in Gaza and news comes to you that 10 minutes ago Islamic Jihad jihadis fired a rocket into southern Israel, your face turns white because you know Israeli fighter jets and/or Apaches are in the air looking for YOU.

IDF strikes Gaza cell attempting to launch rocket at Israel


One terrorist killed, another injured; attempted launch comes nearly 8 hours into reported cease fire with Islamic Jihad; IDF says it's not waiting for an Islamic Jihad decision, but rather preparing response plans.


The IDF identified a rocket launching cell in the southern Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon as terrorists were preparing to launch a rocket toward Israel, despite a reported cease fire with Islamic Jihad. IAF planes struck the cell, preventing the rocket from being launched.

Islamic Jihad, which has taken responsibility for the majority of some 39 rockets fired at Israel from the Strip in the past 24 hours, said late Sunday morning that it was committed to a cease fire agreement, although it asserted it reserved the right to respond to any Israeli attacks, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

The attempted rocket launch mid-Sunday afternoon, however, cast doubts on the lasting power of the agreement. It was not clear if Islamic Jihad or another terrorist group in Gaza was responsible for the attempted launch.One Palestinian was killed and another seriously wounded in the IDF strike, Palestinian news sources reported.

The second attempt in as many hours to implement an Egyptian-brokered cease fire went into effect at around 7 a.m. Sunday morning, but the latest rocket launching attempt cast doubts on that agreement as well.

Following the 6 a.m. deadline for the earlier cease fire attempt, four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Two of the rockets exploded in open areas causing no damage and two were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. The last rocket was fired at 6:40 a.m, the IDF Spokesman's Office said.

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said that the IDF "wasn't waiting for any decision" by the Islamic Jihad, referring to reports of a ceasefire. He added that the army had been ordered by IDF Chief of General-Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz to prepare a number of responses that had been prepared by the government.

Gantz has been receiving updates throughout the day on land-based and aerial defense systems, and approved a number of operations designed to intensify the IDF's response to rocket fire.

"There are pinpoint plans to strike terrorist infrastructure - and more than that," Mordechai said. "Until now, the IDF has harmed the Islamic Jihad's rocket manufacturing and firing infrastructure, including a senior member who was responsible for these things," he added.

Responding to the rocket fire, the IAF struck six targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday. In the northern Gaza Strip it hit a terror tunnel and three rocket launch sites, and in the southern Strip it attacked two centers of terrorist activity. Nine Palestinian terrorists were killed in the strikes.

"The IDF will not hesitate to act decisively and forcefully against anyone who uses terror against the citizens of Israel, until quiet returns to area. Hamas is a terrorist organization and bears the responsibility,"

In light of the rocket fire, schools, learning institutions and day care centers located between seven and 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip will be closed Sunday, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor said.

Studies in locations between zero and seven kilometers from the Strip will be held, but only in protected rooms. In addition, the Home Front Command prohibited any public gatherings with more than 500 people. The Home Front Command also asked people who live within 40 kilometers of the Gaza Strip to stay near structures protected against rockets.

On Saturday, 35 projectiles, including Grads and mortar shells, were fired at southern communities, hitting built-up areas in Ashdod, Ashkelon and regional councils across the region. A number of the rockets caused extensive damages to buildings.

The wave of rockets came after the IDF, working with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), identified and struck an Islamic Jihad rocket cell in Gaza earlier on Saturday, killing five terrorists, including senior Islamic Jihad commander Ahmed Sheikh Khalil, who was responsible for the group’s considerable rocket production facilities.

Army sources said the cell was the same one that fired the unprovoked long-range Grad that struck near Rehovot last week. That rocket was supposedly launched to mark the anniversary of the 1995 assassination in Malta of Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki, the first person to publish a booklet that legitimized suicide in jihad.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that Israel should continue striking Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, saying it must restore its deterrence capabilities.

"Israel must bring back its deterrence capabilities that it lost," Mofaz told Israel Radio. Doing so, he said, "is the only way to stop the rocket fire."

Israel cannot allow terror organizations in the Gaza Strip to take southern Israel's residents hostage whenever it feels like it, he added.

U.S. Predator Drones Kill 6 Al Qaeda/Taliban In North Waziristan

If the Taliban efforts inside of Afghanistan over the past couple of days were designed to pressure the U.S. into stopping the predator drone strikes in NW Pakistan, well....it didn't work as the U.S., for the fourth time in five days, hit northwestern Pakistan hard with drone attacks and this strike in North Waziristan today killed six al Qaeda and/or Taliban jihadis.

From The Long War Journal article:

US Predators struck in Pakistan's tribal areas for the fourth time in five days, killing six "militants" in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.

The unmanned CIA operated Predators, or the more deadly Reapers fired six missiles at a vehicle and a compound in the Datta Khel area in North Waziristan, according to Xinhua. AFP reported that the vehicle was the primary target and the compound was damaged in the attack.

The identity of the six militants killed was not disclosed. "Armed Taliban arrived at the scene and removed the bodies," Xinhua reported.

Today's strike is the fourth this week. The US launched two other attacks in South Waziristan and another in North Waziristan.

I'm starting to think that the Taliban could enlist a whole division of fighters whose only job would be to remove bodies of their asswipe buddies from the remains of these drone strikes...I can almost hear the whining now as word comes down to Haji and his morgue crew that they have six more dead to dig out of the rubble of a compound....."What?!!! AGAIN???!!!"

Hopefully, four strikes in five days will become eight strikes in ten days soon.

US drones kill 6 'militants' in al Qaeda hub of Datta Khel


US Predators struck in Pakistan's tribal areas for the fourth time in five days, killing six "militants" in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.

The unmanned CIA operated Predators, or the more deadly Reapers fired six missiles at a vehicle and a compound in the Datta Khel area in North Waziristan, according to Xinhua. AFP reported that the vehicle was the primary target and the compound was damaged in the attack.

The identity of the six militants killed was not disclosed. "Armed Taliban arrived at the scene and removed the bodies," Xinhua reported.

Today's strike is the fourth this week. The US launched two other attacks in South Waziristan and another in North Waziristan.

Datta Khel is a known al Qaeda hub

The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

Datta Khel is a known hub of Taliban, Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda activity. While Bahadar administers the region, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and allied Central Asian jihadi groups are also based in the area. The Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army, is known to have a command center in Datta Khel.

Datta Khel serves as a command and control center for al Qaeda's top leaders, and some of them have been targeted and killed there. A strike in Datta Khel on Dec. 17, 2009, targeted Sheikh Saeed al Saudi, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law and a member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Al Saudi is thought to have survived the strike, but Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of the Shadow Army, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a general in the Shadow Army, were both killed in the attack.

But the most significant attack in Datta Khel took place on May 21, 2010, and resulted in the death of Mustafa Abu Yazid, a longtime al Qaeda leader and close confidant of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri.

Yazid served as the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the wider Khorasan, a region that encompasses portions of Pakistan, Iran, and several Central Asian states. More importantly, Yazid was al Qaeda's top financier, which put him in charge of the terror group's purse strings. He served on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or top decision-making council. Yazid also was closely allied with the Taliban and advocated the program of embedding small al Qaeda teams with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, a practice well-established in the country now.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Bahadar or the Haqqani Network, the other major Taliban group based there. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Yet Bahadar, the Haqqanis, and other Taliban groups openly carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

The US has carried out eight drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas this month. Several top al Qaeda, Taliban, and Haqqani Network commanders have been killed during the month of October [see LWJ report, 2 senior al Qaeda leaders killed in recent drone strikes in Pakistan].

The pace of the US strikes has been uneven over the past year, and the monthly strike totals have generally decreased. From January through September 2011, the strikes in Pakistan were as follows: nine strikes in January, three in February, seven in March, two in April, seven in May, 12 in June, three in July, six in August, and four in September. In the last four months of 2010, the US 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 61 strikes in Pakistan. In 2010, the US carried out 117 strikes, which was more than double 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, that pattern has changed, as an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 23 of the 60 strikes have taken place in South Waziristan, 37 strikes were in North Waziristan, and one was in Kurram.

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.

Video: Pali Terrorists Readying Rockets To Fire Into Israel

Video: When the World Hands You Lemons....Or Birds at 10,000 Feet....

BREAKING: Attack In Kabul Story Has CHANGED - Now 5 ISAF Troops Are Now Reported Killed, NOT 13 American Troops

I don't know how in the hell the wrong info got out to all of the media networks earlier today but I apologize for my story earlier that 13 American troops were killed when their Rhino Runner was car bombed. It appears that there are 8 ISAF civilians killed that might be American - I'm not sure who those personnel would be. At the same time, it looks like 4 of the dead troops are American and 1 is Canadian. Hopefully this will all get sorted out.

Please see the new revised report below from The Long War Journal.

The Taliban have claimed credit for a suicide attack in Kabul today that killed five ISAF soldiers, eight ISAF civilian employees, three Afghan civilians, and a policeman. Three more Coalition soldiers were killed in the south, while the Taliban also deployed a female suicide bomber against Afghan intelligence officials in the eastern province of Kunar.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a Rhino Runner transporting NATO troops to the Kabul Military Training Center Kabul, a US military official told The Long War Journal. The Rhino is an up-armored bus that is used to transport large numbers of troops around the capital.

An initial International Security Assistance Force stated that 13 ISAF troops were killed in the attack, but the report was later updated to specify that five ISAF troops and eight ISAF civilian employees died in the attack. The Associated Press reported that all of the ISAF dead were Americans except for one Canadian soldier.

Afghan Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that "three civilians and a police officer were killed in Kabul." According to The New York Times, two of the Afghan civilians killed were students passing by. Eight Afghans were wounded in the attack, two of them children.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that a suicide bomber named Abdul Rehman Hazarbos carried out the attack.

Either way this is a horrible attack on NATO forces in Kabul - hopefully, we can get more details later to share.

Suicide bomber kills 17 in Kabul, including 5 ISAF troops



The Taliban have claimed credit for a suicide attack in Kabul today that killed five ISAF soldiers, eight ISAF civilian employees, three Afghan civilians, and a policeman. Three more Coalition soldiers were killed in the south, while the Taliban also deployed a female suicide bomber against Afghan intelligence officials in the eastern province of Kunar.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a Rhino Runner transporting NATO troops to the Kabul Military Training Center Kabul, a US military official told The Long War Journal. The Rhino is an up-armored bus that is used to transport large numbers of troops around the capital.

An initial International Security Assistance Force stated that 13 ISAF troops were killed in the attack, but the report was later updated to specify that five ISAF troops and eight ISAF civilian employees died in the attack. The Associated Press reported that all of the ISAF dead were Americans except for one Canadian soldier.

Afghan Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that "three civilians and a police officer were killed in Kabul." According to The New York Times, two of the Afghan civilians killed were students passing by. Eight Afghans were wounded in the attack, two of them children.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that a suicide bomber named Abdul Rehman Hazarbos carried out the attack.

"A suicide car bomb attack was carried out on a bus of foreign forces in the Dar-ul-Aman area of Kabul," Mujahid said in a text message.

A US military officer told The Long War Journal that the attack was well planned to maximize Coalition casualties. The blast was large enough to flip the Rhino.

"The Taliban first had to build a bomb big enough to penetrate the Rhino's armor, and then they had to position the suicide bomber to execute the attack," the official said. "Clearly they have been observing our movements and timed this attack."

The attack in Kabul was likely carried out by what US military officials have referred to as 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 told The Long War Journal.

The Taliban and allied groups have averaged one major attack per month in Kabul since the beginning of the year [see LWJ report, Taliban launch complex attack on US embassy in Kabul, for a list of the attacks]. The last major attack took place on Sept. 13, when a suicide assault team took control of a building near ISAF headquarters and the US Embassy and opened fire. At the same time, several suicide attacks took place near police stations elsewhere in the city. The Sept. 13 attack outraged US officials and led to pointed criticism over Pakistan's role in supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani Network [see LWJ report, Admiral Mullen: Pakistani ISI sponsoring Haqqani attacks].

Today's suicide attack in Kabul takes place as the US government is seeking to conduct negotiations with the Taliban's Quetta Shura and the Haqqani Network, a powerful Taliban subgroup that is strong in the Afghan east and has been spreading into the south and north.

Three Australian Troops Shot Dead In Kandahar by Taliban Wearing ANA Uniform

It simply has been one horrible ass day in Afghanistan as three Australian soldiers have been gunned down and killed by a Taliban jihadi who was dressed in an Afghan National Army uniform. The group's interpreter was killed as well.

The story is fairly breaking and is a bit light on details. We'll continue to follow it.

The story is from ABC Melbourne.

Three Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan


Australian troops in southern Afghanistan are on alert after three fellow soldiers were shot dead and seven wounded by a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform.

An Afghan interpreter was also killed in the incident, which happened during a routine morning parade at Shah Wali Kot in the southern province of Kandahar.

The attacker was shot dead moments later when troops returned fire.

The Australian soldiers wounded have been taken to a medical facility and are now in a stable condition.

The Defence Force (ADF) has notified the families of the victims and is investigating the incident.

Afghan and Australian commanders have travelled to the site of the attack.

Troops have been placed on a heightened security alert, as a precaution against any further attacks.

Afghan and Australian commanders have visited the site of the attack to assist in the response and offer support to the survivors.

Australian army cook Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in May.

A total of 33 Australians have now been killed in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, 13 Americans operating under NATO were killed in a car bomb attack on a foreign military convoy in Kabul.

The incident is the deadliest single ground attack against the coalition in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

The dead Americans, including eight civilians and five soldiers, were travelling in a bus when it came under attack.

The assault on the ISAF convoy took place late in the morning in the Darulaman area in the west of the city, near the national museum.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Carsten Jacobson condemned the bombing.

"It is a waste of human life. It is again an attack that did not only hurt ISAF personnel but also innocent civilian bystanders who were close to this incident," he said.

The former royal palace, now in ruins, is also in the area, along with several government departments, and Afghan and foreign military bases.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they packed a four-wheel-drive vehicle with 700 kilograms of explosives.

Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the start of the war 10 years ago, according to the United Nations, despite the presence of more than 130,000 foreign troops.

The attack is likely to heighten worries about the reach of insurgent forces as the United States and its allies prepare to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by 2014.

Deep Under the Layers of the Iranian Assassination Attempt On the Saudi Ambassador

This article from Family Security Matters goes WAY beyond the surface of the recent plot by the Iranians to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador on American soil. WAY beyond the surface. This thing reads like a horror story just in time for Halloween.

Iranian Assassination Plot:

Scripted Chaos Leads Cultists to Seek Islamist "Genie's" Return



As details were released of the Iranian sponsored plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US in Washington and of a secondary plot targeting Israel’s ambassador, the undertone of the US media was one of disbelief. Directed by Iranian agents, a naturalized US citizen from Iran tried to recruit a Mexican drug cartel hit man to do the job—a hit man who turned out to be a US government informant. In announcing that one conspirator had been arrested last month, even US government officials suggested the plot sounded like something out of a Hollywood script. The official was partially correct—there is a script involved, but it is one that has been written thousands of miles away from Hollywood and, more importantly, is not fiction.

A disconnect exists between how we wish to perceive the theocratic government that has ruled Iran for 32 years and the reality of that leadership’s rationality. Through their appeasement policies, every US president from Jimmy Carter, who opened the door to Iran’s Islamic extremist takeover by pressing the Shah to leave and ushering in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to Barack Obama, who led us to believe he could talk to the Iranians, is guilty of contributing to the American perception that eventually Tehran’s mullahs would exercise reason. That has been far from the case. The Iranian leadership is devoid of rationality, only using the time that has been wasted to realize this to create a much more dangerous world. And, according to the script written in Tehran, the worst is yet to come for non-believers!

Iran’s theocrats view their rise to power in 1979 and their increasing global influence, coupled with the fall of US influence and our economic woes, as part of Allah’s grand design. The fact the West has done little to check Iran’s march to become a global threat by which Islam will be imposed upon the rest of the world is also part of this design. So too was the US invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring sweeping through the Middle East. As Allah’s design allegedly plays out, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this year produced a documentary film to educate Iran’s clerics on what lies ahead.

The film reveals Ahmadinejad as one of three players on a world stage where chaos will soon run rampant. Other players include Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Hezbollah (the terrorist group in Lebanon serving as Iran’s puppet) leader Hassan Nasrallah. How this all plays out in Allah’s design is the focus of the Iranian leadership’s cultist prophecy. (Ironically, as Iran moves closer towards fulfilling this prophecy, rather than focusing on this violent cult’s religion, US presidential politics focus on raising allegations a candidate’s nonviolent religion is a cult.) But, understanding the Iranian cult’s prophecy is critical to understanding why the Saudi ambassador in the US was targeted. Ahmadinejad’s film suggests an answer—and makes clear the doom fast approaching for the West he seeks to impose.

Ahmadinejad is a “Twelver”—as are 90% of Iran’s Shiite population. Twelvers believe in the twelve divinely ordained imams. The twelfth supposedly disappeared as a child in the ninth century while attending the funeral of the eleventh. It is believed he ascended into a state of occultation where he remains until, like a genie in the bottle, he is released to descend to Earth.

However, the “stars must be in alignment” as certain events need occur before the Twelfth Imam (also known as the “Mahdi”) returns. Two of these events should be of particular concern to non-believers.

First, the world must be engulfed in chaos. The vast majority of Twelvers believe this chaos will evolve naturally with Mahdi returning to ease the suffering. But a small sect known as the “Hojjatieh Society” believes man can initiate the necessary chaos, thus triggering Mahdi’s return, after which he will subject the world to Shariah law and rid it of non-believers. Since Hojjatiehists yearn for Mahdi’s return, they also believe any means possible is justified to precipitate the chaos.

In 1984, the Society’s views were so worrisome to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini—a brutal leader in his own right—that he outlawed the group. But, understanding the Hojjatieh mindset explains Ahmadinejad’s determination to possess nuclear weapons and his “end of the world” scenario, documented in his film, yet to come for non-believers.

This is not something we should dismiss lightly as we do with radio evangelist Harold Camping who is constantly revising the date of his “end of world” prophecy. Camping poses no threat to mankind for he leaves fulfillment of his prophecy to a Greater Power. But Ahmadinejad believes he is part of a Greater Power ordained by Prophet Muhammad to carry out his prophecy. He only awaits development of the “means” to rain chaos upon the world—and, in Ahmadinejad’s cultist world, he firmly believes the end does justify the means by which he seeks to accomplish it.

According to the film, the Twelfth Imam’s return is “very close” to happening. This comports with statements Ahmadinejad has made to various Middle East leaders that the return will occur before he leaves office as president in 2013. He has claimed, after speaking at the UN in 2006, his divine role in the prophecy’s fulfillment was suggested as he found himself surrounded by an aura that left all listeners spellbound. Unsurprisingly, no one else observed it.

Ahmadinejad has been preparing for Mahdi’s return for years. As Tehran’s mayor before becoming president, he ordered some city streets widened to accompany parades to commemorate Mahdi’s eventual return.

Not to be out-done by Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei asserts Mahdi has already visited him. During this visit, the Twelfth Imam supposedly shared his return plans, telling Khamenei it would occur while he was still Supreme Leader.

Second, another star that must align to signal Mahdi’s return is one which might shed light on the plot to kill the Saudi ambassador.

Ahmadinejad’s film reveals Saudi Arabia factors into Mahdi’s return in two ways.

The first way involves the two nations’ sectarian rivalry. Because Iran and Saudi Arabia represent two different sects of Islam, Shia and Sunni respectively, religious tensions have long existed between them. For this reason, Shiites resent the fact Sunni Saudi Arabia is guardian of Islam’s two most sacred cities, Medina and Mecca.

Accordingly, the film mentions a military commander who will form an army to march into Mecca. That commander is Hezbollah’s Nasrallah. He will invade Saudi Arabia to wrestle Mecca from Sunni control.

Some Iran critics suggest the reason for the assassination plot was Tehran’s desire for retribution for Saudi Arabia’s interference with its efforts to destabilize pro-US governments in Bahrain and Yemen. The interference even prompted some of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders to call for military action against Saudi Arabia. But, according to the film, another reason may well exist.

The second way Saudi Arabia factors into the prophecy is that no invasion can occur until after Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has died. At 86 and ill, Abdullah may be close to death’s door. But having an uncertain timetable for launching world chaos and, as an Hojjitieh cultist believing he can cause a date certain for Abdullah’s demise through assassination, Ahmadinejad may have sought the King’s “symbolic” death by seeking to assassinate his personal representative in the “Great Satan’s” capital of Washington DC.

The US Treasury Department designated as terrorists four ranking members of Iran’s special operations Qods Force—a paramilitary unit under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which also is designated by the US as a terrorist organization—for their involvement in the assassination plot. Also designated was the naturalized US citizen, Manssor Arbabsiar. Arbabsiar, as well as one of the Qods leaders, were indicted. Only Arbabsiar is in custody with the others believed to be in Iran. One of these four is known to have masterminded a 2007 raid in Karbala, Iraq, responsible for killing five American soldiers, four execution style after being kidnapped.

While Iran denies involvement in the assassination plot, taped telephone conversations between co-conspirators—referring in code to the assassination as “buying a Chevrolet”—prove otherwise. Cooperating with investigators, Arbabsiar reported the plan called for using an explosive device outside a restaurant to kill the Saudi ambassador, with no concern for innocent bystanders.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the plot “crosses a line.” Such a statement ignores other transgressions by which Iran’s terrorist activities have repeatedly crossed that line. Each time Iran has crossed it, Tehran has done so without fear of US retaliation. The 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, the 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, support for the 9/11 terrorists, responsibility for the deaths of thousands of US troops in Iraq and Afhganistan by providing militants with IEDs, and the aforementioned 2007 Karbala raid, all involved Iran.

Before retiring as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen testified, “Iran is very directly supporting extremist Shiite groups which are killing our troops. There is no question they are shipping high-tech weapons in there…that are killing our people. And the forensics prove that.” Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has denounced this support by Iran, stating, “We cannot sit back and simply allow this to continue to happen. This is not something we’re going to walk away from. It’s something we’re going to take on head-on.”

The failure of the US to ever take action against Iran for the above acts has only emboldened Tehran to continue to cross the line. Although US Attorney General Eric Holder reported unspecified action would be taken for Iran’s involvement in the assassination plot, once again Tehran’s line crossing is not deemed serious enough to warrant retaliation. A senior defense official has indicated the plot “is not a trip wire for military action in Iran.” As to taking international action against Iran, a former US National Security staff member is skeptical, stating, “It is one thing to put together an international coalition in the aftermath of a terrorist attack; it’s quite different when the attack has been foiled, especially when, as in this case, it was a sting operation.”

Iran’s charter to wage war against non-believers anywhere in the world without regard for a nation’s territorial integrity has been evident ever since 1979. It is a war sanctioned at the highest levels, as evidenced by the 1994 suicide bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. Evidence revealed involvement by Iran’s president at the time, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, leading to a warrant being issued by the Argentine government. Although, for political reasons, Interpol would not issue a warrant for Rafsanjani, it did issue warrants for his co-conspirators.

Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Its constitution mandates the exportation of the Islamic revolution beyond its borders. Therefore, it has no reservations as to how it does so, including covert assassination, as was intended in this case, or more openly, as evidenced by Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 assassination order for author Salman Rushdie after publishing “The Satanic Verses.”

If Tehran has not hesitated to undertake such aggression against the US without a nuclear weapon in its arsenal, we can only imagine what aggression is planned once it is so armed. Meanwhile, we naively ignore the threats of a nuclear holocaust upon us by a madman who denies an earlier Holocaust ever occurred.

Ahmadinejad’s film indicates the trio composed of him, Khamenei and Nasrallah will wage war against the enemies of Islam—i.e., the US, its Arab allies and Israel—and it will be a war the trio, not their enemies, seek out. When the nuclear chaos intended for the West occurs, will the line crossed finally be sufficient to trigger a US military response?

Ahmadinejad’s film is very telling. By definition, a movie “based on a true story” follows a past event in time. However, should Iran not be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons, it may be the first time a movie “based on a true story” precedes the event upon which it is based.

Iran is hellbent on releasing the Mahdi “genie” from its bottle by visiting chaos upon the US and Israel. Reality tells us the return of the Mahdi Ahmadinejad so desperately seeks to trigger will never occur. But based on Ahmadinejad’s cultist beliefs, reality should also tell us—if not stopped from arming with the capability to do so—the nuclear chaos he seeks to inflict will.

Weekend Horror - 13 America Troops Killed In Suicide Car Bomb Attack In Kabul That Kills 17 Total

This was probably the most planned out attack on U.S. forces in nearly a year in Afghanistan as a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his explosives laden vehicle into a NATO "Rhino Runner" shuttle in Kabul. Killed in the suicide bombing attack are 13 U.S. troops, 3 Afghan civilians, and an Afghan policeman.

From The Long War Journal:

The Taliban have claimed credit for a suicide attack in Kabul that killed 13 US soldiers, three Afghans civilians, and a policeman. Three more Coalition soldiers were killed in the south, while the Taliban also deployed a female suicide bomber against Afghan intelligence officials in the eastern province of Kunar.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a Rhino Runner transporting NATO troops to the Kabul Military Training Center Kabul, a US military official told The Long War Journal. The Rhino is an up-armored bus that is used to transport large numbers of troops around the capital.

The International Security Assistance Force said that "Initial reports indicate that thirteen [ISAF] service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in Kabul earlier today. Afghan Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that "three civilians and a police officer were killed in Kabul."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that a suicide bomber named Abdul Rehman Hazarbos carried out the attack.

"A suicide car bomb attack was carried out on a bus of foreign forces in the Dar-ul-Aman area of Kabul," Mujahid said in a text message.

A US military officer told The Long War Journal that the attack was well planned to maximize Coalition casualties. The blast was large enough to flip the Rhino.

"The Taliban first had to build a bomb big enough to penetrate the Rhino's armor, and then they had to position the suicide bomber to execute the attack," the official said. "Clearly they have been observing our movements and timed this attack."

The attack in Kabul was likely carried out by what US military officials have referred to as 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 told The Long War Journal.

The fact that these U.S. troops were killed while inside of the the Rhino Runner is amazing - from an article I ran across calling this vehicle "The toughest bus on the planet":

If you don’t have a helicopter at your disposal in Baghdad, as nearly all Military and civilian contractor personnel don’t, there’s really only one certain option if you wish to remain alive and that’s to travel in one of the heavily armoured Rhino Runner buses. Without a shadow of doubt, the Rhino Runner is the toughest bus on the planet

So, we can see just how many explosives this vehicle used by the Taliban must have had and also, it must have been positioned to hit the shuttle at the most vulnerable spot. I'm still shaking my head how all of those inside the shuttle were killed and that there were none that survived. What I just can't get over is that for this explosion to kill all on that bus, why weren't more people along the perimeter of the attack not killed?

All of our thoughts and prayers here at Holger Awakens go out to the families of the fallen soldiers and to their warrior brothers there in Kabul.

Suicide bomber kills 13 US troops in Kabul


The Taliban have claimed credit for a suicide attack in Kabul that killed 13 US soldiers, three Afghans civilians, and a policeman. Three more Coalition soldiers were killed in the south, while the Taliban also deployed a female suicide bomber against Afghan intelligence officials in the eastern province of Kunar.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a Rhino Runner transporting NATO troops to the Kabul Military Training Center Kabul, a US military official told The Long War Journal. The Rhino is an up-armored bus that is used to transport large numbers of troops around the capital.

The International Security Assistance Force said that "Initial reports indicate that thirteen [ISAF] service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in Kabul earlier today. Afghan Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that "three civilians and a police officer were killed in Kabul."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that a suicide bomber named Abdul Rehman Hazarbos carried out the attack.

"A suicide car bomb attack was carried out on a bus of foreign forces in the Dar-ul-Aman area of Kabul," Mujahid said in a text message.

A US military officer told The Long War Journal that the attack was well planned to maximize Coalition casualties. The blast was large enough to flip the Rhino.

"The Taliban first had to build a bomb big enough to penetrate the Rhino's armor, and then they had to position the suicide bomber to execute the attack," the official said. "Clearly they have been observing our movements and timed this attack."

The attack in Kabul was likely carried out by what US military officials have referred to as 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 told The Long War Journal.

The Taliban and allied groups have averages one major attack in Kabul since the beginning of the year [see LWJ report, Taliban launch complex attack on US embassy in Kabul, for a list of the attacks]. The last major attack took place on Sept. 13, when a suicide assault team took control of a building near ISAF headquarters and the US Embassy and opened fire. Several suicide attacks took place near police stations elsewhere in the city. The attack outraged US officials and led to pointed criticism over Pakistan's role in supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani Network [see LWJ report, Admiral Mullen: Pakistani ISI sponsoring Haqqani attacks].

Today's suicide attack in Kabul takes place as the US government is seeking to conduct negotiations with the Taliban's Quetta Shura and the Haqqani Network, a powerful Taliban subgroup that is strong in the Afghan east and has been spreading into the south and north.

Female suicide bomber strikes in Kunar

The Taliban carried out a second suicide attack in Afghanistan today. In Kunar province, the Taliban deployed a female suicide bomber to attack an office used by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's intelligence service. Five intelligence officers were wounded int he attack. The female suicide bomber was described as a "teen-age girl" by Pajhwok Afghan News.

Over the past year, the Taliban have begun to use suicide bombers on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Today's suicide attack is the seventh by a female since June 2010 [see list below]. Prior to that attack, the Taliban are not known to have used female suicide bombers.

The Taliban are known have opened camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border that are used to train female bombers, as described by two young girls who were trained to carry out suicide attacks but escaped to tell their stories.

Qari Zia Rahman has established training camps for female suicide bombers in both Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Qari Zia, who the US military has described as a "dual hatted" al Qaeda and Taliban leader, operates in Kunar and Nuristan provinces in Afghanistan and in the tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand in Pakistan. Qari Zia is closely allied with Faqir Mohammed, the Taliban's leader in Bajaur, and Omar Khalid, the commander for Mohmand. He also was close to slain al Qaeda emir Osama bin Laden. Qari Zia's fighters are from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and various Arab nations.

Three Australians killed in Kandahar

In the south, a man dressed in an Afghan Army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an interpreter at a base in Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Seven other people were wounded in the attack. Afghan soldiers killed the shooter

The identity of the shooter has not been disclosed. It is unclear if the shooter is an Afghan soldier or a Taliban fighter who infiltrated the security forces.

Suicide attacks by female bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Oct. 29, 2011
Kunar province, Afghanistan
A female suicide bomber wounded five intelligence officials in an attack on an office run by the National Directorate of Security in Kunar province.

Aug. 11, 2011
Peshawar, Pakistan
A female suicide bomber killed an elderly woman while attempting to attack a police outpost in Peshawar.

June 26, 2011
Uruzgan, Afghanistan
The Taliban gave an eight-year-old girl a bag of explosives and had her walk to a police outpost in the Cino Charo district. The explosives detonated before she reached the police, killing only the girl.

June 25, 2011
Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan
A husband and wife team, said to be Uzbeks, attacked a police station in the town of Kolachi. The team entered the town's police station under the guise of filing a complaint and took several policemen hostage. The pair detonated their vests as police laid siege to the station, killing seven policemen and a tea boy. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed the attack, and said it was carried out to avenge the death of al Qaeda founder and former leader Osama bin Laden.

June 4, 2011
Kunar, Afghanistan
The Taliban claimed credit for a female suicide attack in the Marawara district that killed three interpreters. The Taliban released an official statement on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, and claimed that a "Mujahida sister" killed 12 US and Afghan troops.

Dec. 24, 2010
Bajaur, Pakistan
A female suicide bomber killed 42 Pakistani civilians in an attack at a World Food Program ration distribution point in Khar, Bajaur.

June 21, 2010
Kunar, Afghanistan
A female suicide bomber struck for the first time in Afghanistan in Kunar province. In the attack, two US soldiers were killed and two Afghan children were wounded. Qari Zia Rahman claimed credit for the suicide attack.

Video: Taking Down the Islamic Terrorist In Bosnia

Holy Crap! 13 Taliban Killed In ONE Predator Drone Strike In South Waziristan!

I'm telling you...it's not often that we see this many Taliban (or hell, al Qaeda or any other group) killed in ONE predator drone strike but today we got 13 of the bastards in South Waziristan in one strike. Bloody awesome (pardon the pun). As you 'll see from the article, tribal leaders in the area actually put the death toll at 22 Taliban jihadis killed.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

At least 13 members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, including a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the group's emir, have been killed in a previously unreported US Predator airstrike.

The airstrike took place on Oct. 26 in South Waziristan, according to Reuters, but was not immediately reported. The exact location of the strike was not provided. Two missiles were fired at a compound. Pakistani officials said that 13 Taliban fighters were killed, but tribal leaders put the number of deaths at 22. All are said to be "militants."

Among those thought to have been killed was Taj Gul Mehsud, whom Reuters described as "a senior Taliban commander and close aide" to Hakeemullah. Taj Gul's death has not been confirmed, however.

Hakeemullah's Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is closely allied with al Qaeda and is supported and sheltered by so-called "good Taliban" leaders Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan. Both Nazir and Bahadar are supported by the Pakistani military despite their close alliances with al Qaeda and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Sorry for getting all giddy here but the average drone strike usually kills 3 or 4 jihadis so when we see something like 13 or 15 bite the dust off of just two hellfires...well, that means we either hit some explosives they had amongst them or these guys were huddled up next to a fire! LOL

Either way it's an awesome strike and the fact that we got a close aide to Hakeemullah makes it even sweeter.

US Predator strike kills 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters in South Waziristan


At least 13 members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, including a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the group's emir, have been killed in a previously unreported US Predator airstrike.

The airstrike took place on Oct. 26 in South Waziristan, according to Reuters, but was not immediately reported. The exact location of the strike was not provided. Two missiles were fired at a compound. Pakistani officials said that 13 Taliban fighters were killed, but tribal leaders put the number of deaths at 22. All are said to be "militants."

Among those thought to have been killed was Taj Gul Mehsud, whom Reuters described as "a senior Taliban commander and close aide" to Hakeemullah. Taj Gul's death has not been confirmed, however.

Hakeemullah's Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is closely allied with al Qaeda and is supported and sheltered by so-called "good Taliban" leaders Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan. Both Nazir and Bahadar are supported by the Pakistani military despite their close alliances with al Qaeda and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Hakeemullah's forces are at war with the Pakistani state and also send troops to Afghanistan to fight NATO forces. Two of Hakeemullah's top deputies have recently signaled that their group is willing to make peace with the Pakistani state. He has vowed to carry out attacks in the US, and was behind the failed car bomb plot at Times Square in New York City on May 1, 2010.

The Oct. 26 strike in South Waziristan was one of three in the tribal areas over the course of two days. On Oct. 27, Predators hit Nazir's commanders in South Waziristan and a group of militants in North Waziristan. Among those killed in the Oct. 27 strike in South Waziristan were Hazrat Omar, one of Nazir's brothers who served as the group's operational commander in Afghanistan; Khan Mohammed, a senior deputy; and Miraj Wazir, one of Nasir's cousins.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

The US has carried out seven drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas this month. Several top al Qaeda, Taliban, and Haqqani Network commanders have been killed during the month of October [see LWJ report, 2 senior al Qaeda leaders killed in recent drone strikes in Pakistan].

The pace of the US strikes has been uneven over the past year, and the monthly strike totals have generally decreased. From January through September 2011, the strikes in Pakistan were as follows: nine strikes in January, three in February, seven in March, two in April, seven in May, 12 in June, three in July, six in August, and four in September. In the last four months of 2010, the US 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 60 strikes in Pakistan. In 2010, the US carried out 117 strikes, which was more than double 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, that pattern has changed, as an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 23 of the 60 strikes have taken place in South Waziristan, 36 strikes were in North Waziristan, and one was in Kurram. Twenty of the 23 strikes that have occurred in South Waziristan have hit targets in Mullah Nazir's tribal areas.

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.