(Hat Tip: Doug @Sondrakistan.com)
--
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Chinese Muslims Try To Hijack Chinese Jetliner
The hijackers were rapidly overpowered
by crew and passengers, but seven people were injured in the fracas. The
flight returned to Hotan airport and the six people were arrested Photo: ALAMY
Six Chinese Muslims, more often referred to there as Uighurs, apparently tried to hijack a Tianjin Airlines flight yesterday before they were stopped by the crew and passengers. Knowing how most Chinese feel about the Uighurs, I'm guessing the six left the plane with their share of bumps, bruises and lacerations.
From the article at The Telegraph:
Chinese state media said six people on board Tianjin Airlines flight GS7554 from Hotan to Urumqi had tried to “violently” take over the plane ten minutes after take-off.
Xinjiang has seen sporadic violence over the past few years between local Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants. The authorities have repeatedly blamed violence on Uighur separatists bent on splitting Xinjiang into an independent state.
A spokesman for the provincial government said the six hijackers had been Uighurs. “At the moment, we do not know the purpose of the hijack. It is still under investigation.”
The hijackers were rapidly overpowered by crew and passengers, but seven people were injured in the fracas. The flight returned to Hotan airport and the six people were arrested.
One anonymous woman, tweeting on a company account called She Lan Tang, claimed to relay information from a witness on board.
"They [the hijackers] went straight for the cockpit but failed," she wrote. "It is said the cockpit doors have all been strengthened after 9/11. One security guard was severely injured though." She added: "They brought a football-sized bomb onto the plane. Also, after all the other passengers were checked [by police] they found a seventh accomplice."
Like I've said all along...even China can't escape the threat of Islamic terror...they have an Islamic problem as does Russia. Hell, the whole world has an Islamic problem ....most of them just don't know it or want to face it.
Chinese plane in Xinjiang hijack attempt
Chinese state media said six people on board Tianjin Airlines flight GS7554 from Hotan to Urumqi had tried to “violently” take over the plane ten minutes after take-off.
Xinjiang has seen sporadic violence over the past few years between local Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants. The authorities have repeatedly blamed violence on Uighur separatists bent on splitting Xinjiang into an independent state.
A spokesman for the provincial government said the six hijackers had been Uighurs. “At the moment, we do not know the purpose of the hijack. It is still under investigation.”
The hijackers were rapidly overpowered by crew and passengers, but seven people were injured in the fracas. The flight returned to Hotan airport and the six people were arrested.
One anonymous woman, tweeting on a company account called She Lan Tang, claimed to relay information from a witness on board.
"They [the hijackers] went straight for the cockpit but failed," she wrote. "It is said the cockpit doors have all been strengthened after 9/11. One security guard was severely injured though." She added: "They brought a football-sized bomb onto the plane. Also, after all the other passengers were checked [by police] they found a seventh accomplice."
The police in Xinjiang did not respond to requests for comment.
The region is home to a mainly Muslim population of ethnic Uighurs, some of whom have complained at being marginalised by immigrant Han Chinese.
The Communist party has repeatedly accused the region of harbouring terrorists bent on splitting Xinjiang into an independent state. Last September, four people were sentenced to death for their roles in incidents that killed 32 people in Kashgar and Hotan.
ISAF kills Lashkar-e-Taiba's leader for Kunar in airstrike
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
ISAF kills Lashkar-e-Taiba's leader for Kunar in airstrike
Coalition and Afghan special operations forces killed the leader of the al Qaeda-linked, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Pure, during an airstrike yesterday in the remote eastern province Kunar.
Khatab Shafiq, "the LeT's [Lashkar-e-Taiba's] senior leader in Kunar province," and numerous "insurgents" were killed during two airstrikes in Kunar's Watahpur district yesterday, the International Security Assistance Force said in a press release.
"[T]he security force engaged the insurgents with a precision airstrike away from all civilian structures," ISAF said. "After the strike, the Afghan and coalition security force conducted a follow-on assessment and confirmed Khatab Shafiq, along with multiple other insurgents, had been killed." The special operations force directed a second airstrike after identifying "several more armed insurgents in the immediate area." ISAF said that no civilians were killed in either strike.
Shafiq's "country of origin was Pakistan," a spokesman for ISAF's Joint Command Media Operations told The Long War Journal.
ISAF said that Shafiq "was responsible for several attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, and provided money, weapons and training to insurgents in the region." He also "established multiple insurgent training camps in eastern Afghanistan, where insurgents learned how to use mortars, rockets and machine guns. Most recently, he was involved with teaching insurgents how to build and emplace improvised explosive devices."
Shafiq is the second leader of a foreign terror group killed in Watahpur in Kunar in the past month. On May 28, Sakhr al Taifi, a Saudi al Qaeda leader who was also known as Musthaq and Nasim, and another unnamed al Qaeda fighter were killed in an airstrike in the Watahpur district. Taifi is said to have served as al Qaeda's second-in-command for Afghanistan. That same day, ISAF targeted another al Qaeda leader in an airstrike in the Dangam district in Kunar.
For years, the rugged, remote Afghan province of Kunar has served as a sanctuary for al Qaeda, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and allied terror groups. The presence of al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba cells has been detected in the districts of Asmar, Asadabad, Dangam, Marawana, Pech, Shaikal Shate, Sarkani, Shigal, and Watahpur; or nine of Kunar's 15 districts, according to press releases issued by the International Security Assistance Force that have been compiled by The Long War Journal.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba has been directly identified by ISAF as operating in Afghanistan one other time, in July 2010, when it reported the capture of a Taliban commander who is tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba operations in Khugyani district in Nangarhar province.
Background on the Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba has been linked to numerous complex attacks in eastern Afghanistan and in Kabul. Its fighters are believed to have worked with the Haqqani Network, run by Siraj Haqqani, to carry out attacks on Indian targets in Kabul.
Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters have fought alongside al Qaeda and Taliban in multiple engagements against US and Afghan forces in the east, including the assault on the US combat outpost in Wanat in Nuristan province, Afghanistan, in July 2008. More than 400 enemy fighters launched the coordinated attack. In the fierce fighting at Wanat, nine US troops were killed, 15 US soldiers and four Afghan troops were wounded, and the post was nearly overrun. Although US forces ultimately defeated the attack, they withdrew from the outpost days later.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is thought to have a presence in several of Afghanistan's eastern provinces, including, Kunar, Nuristan, Nangarhar, Laghman, Paktia, Paktika, Khost, and Kabul.
The terror group is known to have run training camps in Kunar and Paktia provinces up until the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Lashkar-e-Taiba also currently operates camps in Pakistan in Mansehra, Sindh, Punjab, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan's military and its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate support Lashkar-e-Taiba as part of Pakistan's so-called strategic depth against rival India.
The terror group, which is backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and the military, and sheltered by the government, essentially runs a state within a state in Pakistan. The sprawling Muridke complex in Punjab houses "a Madrassa (seminary), a hospital, a market, a large residential area for 'scholars' and faculty members, a fish farm and agricultural tracts. The LeT also reportedly operates 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks and several seminaries across Pakistan," the Southeast Asia Terrorism Portal reported.
Over a period of years, the Lashkar-e-Taiba has established an organization that rivals Lebanese Hezbollah. The group succeeded in providing aid to earthquake-ravaged regions in Kashmir in 2005 while the Pakistani government was slow to act. Lashkar-e-Taiba is active in fundraising across the Middle East and South Asia, and has recruited scores of Westerners to train in its camps. The most well-known Western recruit is David Coleman Headley, an American citizen who helped scout the deadly November 2008 Mumbai terror assault and also plotted attacks in Europe.
Like al Qaeda, the Lashkar-e-Taiba seeks to establish a Muslim caliphate in southern and central Asia. Lashkar-e-Taiba "consistently advocated the use of force and vowed that it would plant the 'flag of Islam' in Washington, Tel Aviv and New Delhi," according to the Southeast Asia Terrorism Portal. Also, like al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba practices Wahabism, the radical Islamist school of thought born in Saudi Arabia.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has an extensive network in southern and southeast Asia. After the Mumbai terror assault in November 2008 that killed 165 people, a senior US military intelligence official described the group as "al Qaeda junior," as it has vast resources and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations. "If by some stroke of luck al Qaeda collapsed, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) could step in and essentially take its place," the official told The Long War Journal in November 2008.
The relationship between al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba is complex, the official noted. "While Lashkar-e-Taiba is definitely subordinate to al Qaeda in many ways, it runs its own network and has its own command structure. The groups often train in each others' camps, and fight side by side in Afghanistan."
The US government designated Lashkar-e-Taiba as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2001. The Pakistani government banned the group in January 2002, but this did little to shut down its operations. The group renamed itself the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and conducted business as usual.
Hafiz Saeed, the emir of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and several other leaders, have been added to the US's list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Last month, the US added Saeed to the Rewards for Justice program, and offered $10 million for information leading to his arrest and prosecution. Saeed continues to operate openly Pakistan.
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Evils of the Muslim Brotherhood...The Evidence Mounts and Mounts
The Evils of the Muslim Brotherhood: Evidence Keeps Mounting
Egypt's longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood-the parent organization of nearly every subsequent Islamist movement, including al-Qaeda-has just won the nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That apathy reigns in the international community, when once such news would have been deemed devastating, is due to the successful efforts of subversive Muslim apologists in the West who portray the Brotherhood as "moderate Islamists"-forgetting that such a formulation is oxymoronic, since to be "Islamist," to be a supporter of draconian Sharia, is by definition to be immoderate. Obama administration officials naturally took it a step further, portraying the Brotherhood as "largely secular" and "pluralistic."
Back in the real world, evidence that the Brotherhood is just another hostile Islamist group bent on achieving world domination through any means possible is overwhelming. Here are just three examples that recently surfaced, all missed by the Western media, and all exposing the Brotherhood as hostile to "infidels" (non-Muslims) in general, hostile to the Christians in their midst (the Copts) in particular, and on record calling on Muslims to lie and cheat during elections to empower Sharia:
Anti-Infidel: At a major conference supporting Muhammad Morsi-standing on a platform with a big picture of Morsi smiling behind him and with any number of leading Brotherhood figures, including Khairat el-Shater, sitting alongside-a sheikh went on a harangue, quoting Koran 9:12, a favorite of all jihadis, and calling all those Egyptians who do not vote for Morsi-the other half of Egypt, the secularists and Copts who voted for Shafiq-"resisters of the Sharia of Allah," and "infidel leaders" whom true Muslims must "fight" and subjugate.
The video of this sheikh was shown on the talk show of Egyptian commentator Hala Sarhan, who proceeded to exclaim "This is unbelievable! How is this talk related to the campaign of Morsi?!" A guest on her show correctly elaborated: "Note his [the sheikh's] use of the word 'fight'-'fight the infidel leaders' [Koran 9:12]; this is open incitement to commit violence against anyone who disagrees with them.... how can such a radical sheikh speak such words, even as [Brotherhood leaders like] Khairat el-Shater just sits there?" Nor did the Brotherhood denounce or distance itself from this sheikh's calls to jihad.
Anti-Christian: It is precisely because of these sporadic outbursts of anti-infidel rhetoric that it is not farfetched to believe that Morsi himself, as some maintain, earlier boasted that he would "achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya."
Speaking of Christians, specifically the minority Copts of Egypt, in an article titled "The Muslim Brotherhood Asks Why Christians Fear Them?!" secularist writer Khaled Montasser, examining the Brotherhood's own official documents and fatwas, shows exactly why. According to Montasser, in the Brotherhood publication "The Call [da'wa]," issue #56 published in December 1980, prominent Brotherhood figure Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah al-Khatib decreed several anti-Christian measures, including the destruction of churches and the prevention of burying unclean Christian "infidels" anywhere near Muslim graves. Once again, this view was never retracted by the Brotherhood. As Montasser concludes, "After such fatwas, Dr. Morsi and his Brotherhood colleagues ask and wonder-"Why are the Copts afraid?!"
Lying, Stealing, and Cheating to Victory: In a recent article titled "The Islamist Group's Hidden Intentions," appearing in Watani, the author Youssef Sidhom exposes a document "which carries the logos of both the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party." Written by the Deputy to the Supreme Guide, Khairat el-Shater and addressed "to all the Brotherhood branches in the governorates," the memo calls on Muslims to cheat, block votes, and "resort to any method that can change the vote" to ensure that Morsi wins, which, of course, he just did-amidst many accusations of electoral fraud. El-Shater concluded his memo by saying, "You must understand, brothers, that our interest lies wherever there is the Sharia of Allah, and this can only be by preserving the [MB] group and preserving Islam."
In short, the Muslim Brotherhood has not changed; only Western opinion of it has. As it was since its founding in 1928, the group is committed to empowering and spreading Sharia law-a law that preaches hate for non-Muslim "infidels," especially Islam's historic nemesis, Christianity, and allows anything, from lying to cheating, to make Islam supreme. Now that the Brotherhood has finally achieved power, the world can prepare to see such aspects on a grand scale.
Iraq Is Riddled With Terror Attacks - Car Bombings Kill 21, Over 100 Wounded
From the report at DAWN:
A series of attacks in Iraq killed 20 people and wounded more than 100 on Thursday, security and medical officials said, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks this month.
In the worst incident, a car bombing in a popular market in the capital killed eight people and wounded 30, a police colonel and a medical official said.
Another car bomb exploded near a Shia place of worship in Baquba north of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 51, said police and Dr Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital.
That attack came after a bombing in the city killed two people and wounded four, a police lieutenant said, while a police major said three people were wounded in an attack near the city.
Ibrahim said the hospital had also received two bodies and seven people wounded in the earlier attacks.
Another car bomb killed two people and wounded 15 in Taji, also north of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
In Samarra, farther north, gunmen killed two Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen and wounded two more at a roadblock, according to a Sahwa leader and a medical source.
It's certainly not the biggest death tolls we've seen happen in Iraq but the sheer number of widespread attacks is pretty alarming. As I read the article I was amazed as each line contained a different attack in a different area and a different type of target involved. This has seemed to be the sequence lately as Iraq remains fairly calm for a few weeks, then we see these rashes of violence and suicide attacks and then it fades back to the eerie calm.
Iraq bomb attacks kill 21, wound more than 100
BAGHDAD: A series of attacks in Iraq killed 20 people and wounded more than 100 on Thursday, security and medical officials said, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks this month.
In the worst incident, a car bombing in a popular market in the capital killed eight people and wounded 30, a police colonel and a medical official said.
Another car bomb exploded near a Shia place of worship in Baquba north of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 51, said police and Dr Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital.
That attack came after a bombing in the city killed two people and wounded four, a police lieutenant said, while a police major said three people were wounded in an attack near the city.
Ibrahim said the hospital had also received two bodies and seven people wounded in the earlier attacks.
Another car bomb killed two people and wounded 15 in Taji, also north of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
In Samarra, farther north, gunmen killed two Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen and wounded two more at a roadblock, according to a Sahwa leader and a medical source.
And five people were wounded in the former insurgent town of Ramadi west of Baghdad when a car bomb exploded in a parking area belonging to a state-run immigration office, police and a medical source said.
Thursday’s deaths brought to more than 200 the number of people killed since June
13 — a far higher toll than the 132 killed in the entire month of May.
Attacks on June 13, which killed 72 people across the country, were later claimed by Al-Qaeda’s front group, the Islamic State of Iraq.
Two car bombs targeting Shias killed 32 people in the capital on June 16, while two days later, a suicide bomber killed 22 people in an attack on Shia mourners in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
At least 12 people were killed by roadside bombs, a suicide car bomb and a shooting on June 22, while 12 more killed in two bombings on June 25.
And on Wednesday, three bombings killed 11 people, security and medical officials said.
Violence has declined significantly since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks still remain common.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Syria and Turkey Don't Much Care About Obamacare...Turkey's Army Masses On Syrian Border
A Turkish military truck transports a mobile missile launcher to the Syrian border, near Kilis Photo: AP
Good lord...do you think they would actually do it? Would the Turks actually move into Syria? Well, the latest report from The Telegraph says that the Turkish military is making some ominous moves right in Syria's face:
Bashar al-Assad was left facing the biggest test of the 15-month uprising against his rule on Thursday night as the Turkish army began gathering on the Syrian border and rebels struck again at the heart of Damascus.
In a major escalation of tensions between the two former allies, Turkey sent anti-aircraft guns and trucks carrying multiple-rocket launchers to reinforce its southern border following Syria's 'hostile' shooting down of a Turkish fighter jet.
Meanwhile, huge twin bomb blasts struck the Syrian capital, near the Palace of Justice - the third major attack on a city which had, until recent days, escaped the worst of the anti-regime violence.
I'm pretty sure this is all a show by the Turks - they forgot how to fight four centuries ago but I'd pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall in the mullahs' offices in Tehran right about now.
This actually could get to be kind of fun to watch - a Turkey-Syria war with Iran coming to the aid of Syria and Saudi Arabia coming to the aid of Turkey would be one helluva night to sit on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn.
Turkey's army gathers on Syria border
Bashar al-Assad was left facing the biggest test of the 15-month uprising against his rule on Thursday night as the Turkish army began gathering on the Syrian border and rebels struck again at the heart of Damascus.
In a major escalation of tensions between the two former allies, Turkey sent anti-aircraft guns and trucks carrying multiple-rocket launchers to reinforce its southern border following Syria's 'hostile' shooting down of a Turkish fighter jet.
Meanwhile, huge twin bomb blasts struck the Syrian capital, near the Palace of Justice - the third major attack on a city which had, until recent days, escaped the worst of the anti-regime violence.
Tomorrow (Saturday), Turkey will join its western allies in a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva to discuss Mr Assad's future. Britain and other western countries are increasingly convinced that Russia can finally be persuaded to support them in pushing for the Syrian president to step down.
Activists said that at least another 69 people, including 38 civilians, were killed yesterday, but the most dramatic incident came in Damascus, when two magnetic bombs exploded in judges' cars outside the city's main court complex. Reports said a third device was defused.
Although only three people were injured, the bombing had greater symbolic importance as a sign of the ability of rebels - assuming they were responsible - to hit the heart of the Assad regime. State television showed a black plume of smoke and reporters on the scene described the mangled wreckage of cars.
As well as the internal threat, the Syrian president is now facing significant pressure from Turkey, once an ally but which is now one of his severest critics.
Yesterday, Turkey sent missile batteries, tanks and troops to the border as a "security corridor" after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane which briefly intruded into its air-space last Friday. About 30 military vehicles had accompanied by a truck towing missile batteries from a base in the southeastern province of Hatay.
Turkey's change of heart on Mr Assad has been dramatic. The two countries nearly came to war in the 1980s and 1990s, but that was when Turkey, a staunch Nato ally, was developing close ties including a military and strategic alliance with Israel.
When the moderate Islamist party of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to power, he sought to rebalance relations with neighbours including Syria and Iran. That all changed with the violence of Mr Assad's reaction to protests against his rule.
Along the border on Thursday, there was a high police presence and civilian vehicles were being kept away. The many Syrian activists and rebels who have sought sanctuary on the Turkish side were excited at the possibility that the outside intervention on the opposition's behalf they had long sought might soon be on its way.
"We have been asking the Turkish to do this for a long long time," said Dr Munzer Yazji, who heads a team of medical staff in the town of Hatay working to supply networks of secret field hospitals inside Syria, some in the border areas.
"Our hospitals are being targeted by shelling, or doctors are being killed. Before the Syrian soldiers could come within metres of the border. Now we wish very much that this will provide some protection."
Fighters with the rebel Free Syrian Army said they believed the Turkish troops were making the first preparations for the establishment of a buffer region in northern Syria, of which an air exclusion zone would most likely be part.
"We are told that any Syrian army that comes within 5km of the Turkish border will be hit," said Ahmed, a coordinator, claiming to have inside information.
Large areas inside northern Syria are now in opposition hands. Mr Assad's troops still have the benefit of overwhelming firepower, but the opposition has begun receiving supplies of light arms from backers in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and is able to regain territory lost in heavy assaults.
Although it has nothing like the territorial control exercised by the rebels in eastern Libya in the civil war there last year, they felt secure enough to give a guided tour earlier this week to Burhan Ghalioun, until recently the leader of the opposition Syrian National Council.
They are also increasingly able to repel assaults. According to activists, a full-scale tank assault on the major city of Deir Al-Zour, near the border with Iraq, was brought to a halt yesterday by a rebel counter-attack. It had been preceded by a week of shelling and helicopter attacks, in which scores of people died.
There was also heavy fighting in the town of Douma, on the northern outskirts of Damascus.
On Wednesday, rebels attacked the headquarters of a pro-regime satellite television station, killing seven people, while the day before, there was a major gun-battle on the city's previously quiet western outskirts.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based activist group which collates casualty figures, said that 4,700 people had been killed in the country since April 12, when a UN-sponsored ceasefire was called.
Taxed For Living
By Findalis
That is the ruling of the Supreme Court. Today in a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court just told the citizens of the United States that they not only must buy health insurance, but if they don't they will be taxes for the crime of living.
We can now expect higher premiums. Few doctors practicing, fewer new doctors. We can now expect Obama and the left go farther and demand a single payer system. G-d forbid that ever happens.
We need to get angry. Angry enough to go to the polls. We need to be so angry that this will be the last hurrah for Obama and the Donkeycrats!
That is the ruling of the Supreme Court. Today in a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court just told the citizens of the United States that they not only must buy health insurance, but if they don't they will be taxes for the crime of living.
The Supreme Court has upheld the centerpiece of President Obama's health care overhaul, in effect allowing the law to survive.The clock is reset. It is 2010 once again. It is time to get out, vote the Donkeycrats out of office, vote Barack Hussein Obama out of office. That is the only way to repeal this monstrosity of a bill.
In a 5-4 decision unveiled Thursday, the court ruled as constitutional the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014.
The ruling is a victory for the president, ensuring for now that his signature domestic policy achievement remains intact.
It also ensures that the law will play a prominent role in the general election campaign, as Republican candidate Mitt Romney vows to repeal the law if elected.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed during a Republican administration, joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench in making the decision.
The ruling relied on a technical explanation of how the individual mandate could be categorized. Roberts, in the opinion, said the mandate could not be upheld under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. However, it could be upheld under the government's power to tax.
"The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause," Roberts wrote. "That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."
Source
We can now expect higher premiums. Few doctors practicing, fewer new doctors. We can now expect Obama and the left go farther and demand a single payer system. G-d forbid that ever happens.
We need to get angry. Angry enough to go to the polls. We need to be so angry that this will be the last hurrah for Obama and the Donkeycrats!
Hillary Clinton Congratulates Muslim Brotherhood On Egyptian Takeover Then Tries To Act Tough
From the article at DAWN:
“We have congratulated President (Mohamed) Morsi and the Egyptian people for continuing on their path to democratic transition,” Clinton told reporters in Helsinki.
“We have heard some very positive statements so far,” Clinton said, hailing among other things Morsi’s pledge to honour international obligations, “which would, in our view, cover the peace treaty with Israel,” signed in 1979 and which many feared could be abandoned with an Islamist in power.
However, Clinton cautioned, “one election does not a democracy make.” The historic vote was “just the beginning of hard work and hard work requires pluralism, respecting the rights of minorities, an independent judiciary and independent media,” she said.
“We expect President Morsi to demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity that is manifested by representatives of the women of Egypt, of the Coptic Christian community, of the secular, non-religious community and young people,” she added.
What a joke. Clinton certainly doesn't live in some sort of rose colored world full of that much naivete' now, does she? Perhaps she is trying to use the same tactic that her husband used when he bombed the shit out of the Serbs in the Balkans saying that the Muslims in the area would be help to high standards. I mean, seriously, Clinton has just congratulated a bunch of sharia fanatics yet want equality for women? She backed the Muslim Brotherhood who demand jihad against infidels yet she wants inclusivity of Coptic Christians?
This would be like some conservative world leader congratulating Barack Hussein Obama on his Presidential win in 2008 and then saying: "Now, we expect Mr. Obama to uphold the U.S. Constitution and reign in reckless spending as well as faithfully defends America's borders." Obama would have laughed that world leader out of the room ....just like the Muslim Brotherhood is laughing Hillary Clinton right out of Cairo.
Clinton hails Egypt vote but warns it’s ‘just the beginning’
HELSINKI: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday congratulated Egypt’s newly elected president, but cautioned that the election was just a first step towards true democracy.
“We have congratulated President (Mohamed) Morsi and the Egyptian people for continuing on their path to democratic transition,” Clinton told reporters in Helsinki.
President-elect Morsi, of the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, is in the process of forming a government after he was proclaimed Egypt’s first democratically elected president on Sunday, a year and a half after street protests toppled veteran strongman and US ally Hosni Mubarak.
“We have heard some very positive statements so far,” Clinton said, hailing among other things Morsi’s pledge to honour international obligations, “which would, in our view, cover the peace treaty with Israel,” signed in 1979 and which many feared could be abandoned with an Islamist in power.
However, Clinton cautioned, “one election does not a democracy make.” The historic vote was “just the beginning of hard work and hard work requires pluralism, respecting the rights of minorities, an independent judiciary and independent media,” she said.
“We expect President Morsi to demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity that is manifested by representatives of the women of Egypt, of the Coptic Christian community, of the secular, non-religious community and young people,” she added.
Clinton also spoke Wednesday of Egypt’s powerful military, which earlier this month assumed legislative powers after dissolving parliament following a court order and which maintains huge influence on policy-making.
The military “deserves praise for facilitating a free, fair and credible election,” Clinton said.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday spoke to the head of the ruling military, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and praised the generals for “their support for a secure, free and fair presidential election,” a Pentagon spokesman said in Washington.
“Panetta and Tantawi emphasised the value of the enduring strategic relationship between the United States and Egypt, and noted Egypt’s role as a pillar of regional peace and stability,” press secretary George Little said in a statement.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
San Diego YMCA Goes Sharia Compliant
The story is from Creeping Sharia via The Religion of Peace.
San Diego YMCA enforces sharia: women-only swim hours & gender segregated gyms for Muslims
YMCA – Young Muslims Conquer Again? Submission and utter dhimmitude in San Diego, not to mention apparent discrimination against men and non-Muslims as one Muslim woman interviewed implies. via YMCA Offers Women-Only Swim Hours For Muslim Women | KPBS.org.
Each Saturday, staff at the Copley YMCA in City Heights begin clearing out the pool and locker rooms early. They send their male lifeguards home and a female lifeguard and swim instructor clock on for a special after-hours lesson.
About 15 East African women and girls then file through the back doors for a women-only swim class. The YMCA began offering it this spring after moms and daughters in a group called City Heights Hope told the directors they can’t swim in front of men because they’re Muslim.
The Obama Dedication To Revolution....Muslim Brotherhood Style
Barack Obama Muslim Brotherhood Obfuscations
When U.S. President Barack H. Obama Sunday phoned to personally congratulate Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood president-elect, Mohammed Mursi, he confirmed his view that its Cairo-based revolution represents a genuine "transition to democracy."
To many, that statement also confirmed the naïve fantasy world Obama instituted in the White House. In contrast, clear-sighted congressmen, statesmen, Egyptian liberals and activists, Islamic history scholars and more than a few journalists realized from day one that the January 2011, Tahrir Square demonstrations would end with MB achievement of their 84-year dream --- to reinstate sharia in Egypt --- and that after gobbling the presidency they deceitfully claimed not to seek, the MB would launch an open phase in their perennial effort to impose universal Islamic law through a new global caliphate.
Obama's Sunday call, in reality, may have confirmed something far worse --- his full devotion to revolution, in the classical sense --- i.e. full-blown popular overthrow of government. The president long followed guiding socialist "lights," like the late Saul Alinksy, and his childhood mentor and hardened communist Frank Marshall Davis, whom some now claim was Obama's "real father."
Has Obama now --- or come as he will ever --- confessed that his true sympathies lie both with full-blown revolution, and the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic supremacists, not with U.S. interests at all?
Perhaps. Given Obama administration efforts to squelch all investigations and prosecutions of Islamic radicals in the U.S., one must wonder.
In spring and summer 2010, I inquired officially under the Freedom of Information Act regarding governmental agency connections to the North American Muslim Brotherhood. I approached most major government arms, including all U.S. Treasury Department units, the Justice Department, Homeland Security, State Department, and Federal Reserve Board. In every instance, I reviewed specific agency requirements for FOIA requests and submitted queries accordingly.
Not one inquiry produced results, although plenty was to be had, even excluding items concerning national security. Most agencies claimed they had conducted the stipulated searches and could find no data. A few FOIA officers admitted that would withhold the requested data, and included with their responses instructions on how to appeal. I understood that only an army of attorneys could break the wall of silence.
The FBI reply, in particular, one could most politely describe as an extreme non sequitur. I had specifically requested "existing documents" on FBI meetings from 1/1/2007 through July 2010 with specific North American MB organizations and individuals, all of whom I named. The U.S. Department of Justice had previously specified most of these groups, moreover, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, as had the latter's internal North American Muslim Brotherhood documents..
I had further specified what I meant by "existing documents."
I requested data (for example) on FBI meetings with the Islamic Society of North America and its subsidiaries, whose North American Islamic Trust unit was named as an unindicted co-conspirator of the convicted Holy Land Foundation, along with the Council on American-Islamic Affairs. Chicago's U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals had in a Dec. 2008 ruling, similarly stated that the American Muslim Society, whose FBI meeting data I also sought, was indistinguishable from the Muslim Brotherhood. Almost none of the groups denied having Muslim Brotherhood origins, MB members among their co-founders, and high regard for both the MB and its father, Hassan al-Banna. There should have been no confusion, as I carefully met FBI guidelines for FOIA requests and specifically asked for only "non-classified" data.
Nevertheless, the reply from an FBI section chief disconnected entirely from the reality, as my FOIA had requested nothing even remotely resembling what he claimed.
Given subsequent news, I concluded that the insulting and infuriating FBI non-response was intentionally so, as was the FBI's failure to respond to my politic follow-up inquiry.
In March 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice had dropped indictments against the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the American Hamas fundraising front planned at a 1993 Philadelphia of Hamas officials with CAIR co-founder Omar Awad and current CAIR executive director Nihad Awad, according to an explosive April 2011 Pajamas Media report by my colleague, investigative journalist Patrick Poole. (Shortly thereafter, I learned that the DOJ had also rebuffed other FOIA requests on the North American Muslim Brotherhood.)
Evidence of the 1993 Hamas meeting included a wiretapped Sept. 14, 1993 phone conversation --- the day after Israeli Prime Minister Yirzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat met on the White House lawn. Omar Ahmad, then president of the subsequently designated terrorist Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), phoned HLF chief Shukri Abu-Baker (now serving 65 years for terror-funding) and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar (who ran the Hamas-linked al Aqsa Educational Fund) --- to plan a meeting a few weeks later. In one breath, Al-Ashqar mentioned CAIR chief Awad, MB strategy writer Akram and "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, now serving life for conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center attack. The FBI also captured the subsequent meeting via wiretaps, FBI Agent Lara Burns testified at the HLF trial. Other FBI documents also affirm that at the 1993 Hamas Palestine Committee Philadelphia meeting, Awad stated all present are "Hamas members or sympathizers" also silently affirming his allegiance to Hamas founder Ahmed Yasin.
The Justice Department, in short, had more than enough evidence to indict CAIR, co-founder Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad. Instead, a March 31, 2010 memo, "Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad," from Assistant Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, determined to drop the case, according to two DOJ sources with whom Poole spoke.
Poole could not secure a copy of the DOJ legal memo. Even Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, can't get one, despite an Apr. 27 request after Poole's blockbuster report. Later, Congressional sources told Poole that Assistant Attorney General Kris had also dropped charges for money laundering, terrorist associations and tax evasion against another global MB front, the International Institute of Islamic Thought and SAAR Foundation/SAFA Group, whose Herndon, Va. suites federal agents raided in March 2002. Their interlinked officers, including Jamal Barzinji and Iraq-born Ahmad Totonji, who in 1963 co-founded the Muslim Students Association in on global MB orders, all have long allied with the terror-funding group, as shown in FBI documents declassified in 2008. SAAR's only possible purpose, says Senior U.S. Customs special officer David Kane, is to fund terror. Obama road blocks outraged the Texas U.S. Attorney and FBI men who expected prosecution to progress, Rep. Peter King reported.
Rep. Gohmert blasted Attorney Gen. Eric Holder for not prosecuting these MB officers and groups, despite a "mountain of evidence" and warned that "at least one" would-be-suspect-but-for-Obama has crowed of its work at DOJ to "advise on the purge of counter-terrorism training materials." Meanwhile, his committee has been waiting a year for undisclosed HLF documents locked up by DOJ. Gohmert confronted Holder on Thursday, June 21, as reported here Monday.
Administration excuses don't cut it.
Besides all that, in 2010 Obama's FBI added Muslim "outreach" partners to include yet more Muslim Brotherhood figures, such as the Muslim Advocates, Muslim Public Affairs Council and All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAM). All of them, as well as other recent FBI Islamic "outreach" additions, are recognized MB groups. Interestingly, the Muslim Advocates in 2009 sued the FBI in federal court for mosque surveillance. The FBI apparently rewarded them by letting MB organizations define the terms American law enforcement and military branches can use to discuss Muslims, even those who seek to defeat the West. Indeed, the very word "jihad" --- which the Koran mentions 164 times, generally in terms of warfare or other means of conquest --- has been banned.
What gives.
For wise Americans, Obama's absurd Sunday congratulations to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president-elect set off new alarm bells. Mursi swore to install oppressive sharia law and tie Egypt more closely to Iran, whose nuclear-weapon hungry mullahs Obama continues to appease and refuses to confront. Here is the U.S. President congratulating and promising to support Mursi, whose MB mobs in May fire-bombed the election headquarters of his opponent, retired air force geneeral Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.
In stark contrast, the latter vowed to protect Egyptians from Islamic forces wishing to drag them back to "the dark ages" --- and to halt the crime wave that rose after Mubarack's ouster. Shafiq thus attracted much heavier election support than "analysts"had predicted, especially from Egypt's justly terrified Coptic Christian minority. So on June 25 (surprise, surprise), the MB minions charged Shaifiq for graft during his 2002 through 2011 term as aviation minister. On June 26, Shafiq flew to Abu Dhabi. Speculation that he has actually "fled" has virtually ignored the MB retribution he could expect.
Unlike the case by the MB, a recent civil lawsuit challenging its interests is much likelier to dead-end and endanger complainant Mohamed Moussa than to address his charges that MB Presidential Election commission cronies let monitors favor Mursi and turned a blind eye to MB distribution of oil and sugar to buy Mursi votes before the June 16 and 17th runoff.
So let's ask again, and again, why is Obama partnering at home and abroad with the MB? And why hasn't Congress yet investigated?
Anti-Taliban Militia Commander and Bodyguards Assassinated By Taliban In Pakistan
When you head up a 1,500 member anti-Taliban militia (lashkar) in the heart of Pakistan, you are bound to be a main target of the Taliban and while Fahimud Din escaped more than his share of assassination attempts by the Taliban, his luck ran out as he and three of his bodyguards were shot to death in their vehicle, their bodies found in Peshawar.
We have seen time and time again where these anti-Taliban militia leaders have been taken out and the unfortunate part of this is that there rarely seems to be anyone ready or willing to step up and take the reins.
The story comes from DAWN.
Anti-Taliban leader shot dead in Peshawar
PESHAWAR: The bullet-riddled bodies of an anti-Taliban militia commander and three of his associates were dumped in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, police said.
The bodies of Fahimud Din, 50, chief of a 1,500-strong vigilante force in Bazidkhel on the outskirts of Peshawar, and three of his associates were found in a Toyota Land Cruiser on the city’s ring road.
“We found the bodies around 7:00 am (0200 GMT). Four of them had been shot at close range,” senior police official Asif Iqbal told AFP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. According to police, relatives had not heard from Din since Tuesday when he went to Islamabad for work.
Police said Din survived at least three suicide bombings and several roadside bomb attacks blamed on the Taliban and warlord Mangal Bagh who leads the Lashkar-e-Islam militia in the adjoining Khyber tribal district.
On June 12, two of his bodyguards were killed in a suicide attack that targeted his vehicle. Din survived because he had not been in the car.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
U.S. Drone Strike Today In North Waziristan Means the End of the Road For 5 Al Qaeda
Why, you might ask. Mainly I'm thinking this because it's the middle of the week - most of our drone strikes in Pakistan occur over the weekend...I'm not sure of the reason behind that but I believe it has something to do with weekends being low profile times for the media in Pakistan reporting the attacks.
Also, Bill Roggio mentions in the article that it's a specific area know for al Qaeda...and quite frankly, most groups of five al Qaeda are going to have at least ONE commander of sorts in that group.
So, let's hope I'm right...either way, good going guys!
The story's from The Long War Journal.
US drone strike kills 5 'militants' in North Waziristan
The US launched its first drone strike in Pakistan in nearly two weeks in Pakistan's tribal areas today. The latest strike took place in an area of North Waziristan that is known to harbor al Qaeda fighters.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more heavily armed Reapers fired two missiles at a compound in the remote Shawal Valley, according to AFP. Five "militants" were killed in the strike, Pakistani officials told the news agency.
No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or allied jihadist commanders are reported to have been killed in today's strike.
Al Qaeda, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Taliban fighters under the command of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the leader of the Taliban in North Waziristan, are all known to operate in the Shawal Valley, which is near the border with Afghanistan.
Bahadar administers the Shawal Valley. In 2009, Bahadar sheltered the families of of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, the group's leader in South Waziristan, after the Pakistani military launched an offensive in the Mehsud areas of South Waziristan [see LWJ report, Taliban escape South Waziristan operation].
Bahadar, Hakeemullah, South Waziristan Taliban commander Mullah Nazir, and Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Haqqani Network, are members of the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance formed in late 2011. The four commanders agreed to cease attacks against Pakistani security forces, refocus efforts against the US and NATO in Afghanistan, and end kidnappings and other criminal activities in the tribal areas.
The deal was brokered by senior al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al Libi as well as by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational leader of the Haqqani Network, and Mullah Mansour, a senior Taliban leader who operates in eastern Afghanistan. An al Qaeda leader known as Abdur Rehman Al Saudi was also involved in the negotiations. Mullah Omar, the overall leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is said to have dispatched Siraj and Mansour to help negotiate the agreement [see LWJ report, Al Qaeda brokers new anti-US Taliban alliance in Pakistan and Afghanistan].
Background on the US strikes in Pakistan
Today's strike is the third in Pakistan since June 4, when the US killed Abu Yahya al Libi, one of al Qaeda's top leaders, propagandists, and religious figures. Abu Yahya was killed in a strike on a compound in Mir Ali. Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen fighters belonging to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were reportedly among the 14 terrorists killed along with Abu Yahya.
Al Qaeda has since released two videos of Abu Yahya; both appear to have been produced sometime after November 2011. The first video, which appears to have been taped long ago, addressed the Syrian revolution. Abu Yahya addressed US ethics int he second video. Abu Yahya did not address reports of his death in either video. [See Threat Matrix reports, As Sahab releases video of Abu Yahya al Libi, Al Qaeda suggests Abu Yahya al Libi is alive, promises video, Al Qaeda releases another tape from Abu Yahya al Libi.]
The US has carried out 24 strikes in Pakistan so far this year. Six of the strikes have taken place this month; four were in North Waziristan and two more were in South Waziristan. Eleven of this year's 24 strikes in Pakistan have taken place since May 22, one day after the US failed to persuade Pakistan at the NATO summit in Chicago to reopen NATO's supply lines to Afghanistan. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012, and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012.]
The drone program was scaled back dramatically from the end of March to the beginning of the fourth week in May. Between March 30 and May 22, the US conducted only three drones strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas as US officials attempted to renegotiate the reopening of NATO's supply lines, which have been closed since the end of November 2011. Pakistan closed the supply lines following the Mohmand incident in November 2011, in which US troops killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers were killed after they opened fire on US troops operating across the border in Kunar province, Afghanistan.
A US intelligence official involved in the drone program in the country told The Long War Journal on May 28 that the strikes would continue now that Pakistan has refused to reopen NATO's supply lines for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
In addition to Abu Yahya, two other high-value targets has been killed in the strikes this year. A Jan. 11 strike killed Aslam Awan, a deputy to the leader of al Qaeda's external operations network.
The US killed Badr Mansoor, a senior Taliban and al Qaeda leader, in a Feb. 8 strike in Miramshah's bazaar. Mansoor ran training camps in the area and sent fighters to battle NATO and Afghan forces across the border, and linked up members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen with al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden described Mansoor as one of several commanders of al Qaeda's "companies" operating in the tribal areas. He was later promoted to lead al Qaeda's forces in the tribal areas.
The program has been scaled down from its peak in 2010, when the US conducted 117 strikes, according to data collected by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US carried out just 64 strikes in Pakistan's border regions.
So far this year, the US has launched the same number of strikes in Yemen (24) against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as it has has launched against al Qaeda and allied terror groups in Pakistan (24). In 2011, however, the US launched only 10 airstrikes in Yemen, versus 64 in Pakistan.
Islam. A Psychosocial Virus?
Reinvigorated Islam
by AMIL IMANI
Trauma, viruses, or bacteria cause the death of a biological entity. Viruses and bacteria are major killers of human beings and present great challenges to medicine. They can be deadly and have the uncanny ability to mutate. Yet they are there for their mission of ending life.
Life exists due to balance: body and soul, good and evil, and life and death. This holds true even to the lesser foundations of our lives, and how we spend our time. The small, seemingly trivial ripples that we create each day eventually build into a wave -- the wave of mankind. The moment a new entity is formed, an array of forces work to end it. Death, in effect, is pre-birth. Without death, everything freezes in place. Death often provides the raw material for the new birth. The death and decay of a tree, for instance, supplies the needed nutrients for the seed to grow; the Newtonian physics' obsolescence provided the foundation for Einstein's relativity theory.
Death and renewal are also fundamental to religion. It is for this reason that many religions promised renewal in the person of a savior. The Jews, for instance, expect the Messiah; the Christians long for the second coming; and some Muslims pray for the appearance of the Mahdi, while other Shia Muslims supplicate God for the return of Imam Hussein.
Poorly understood and little-appreciated are psychosocial viruses -- PSVs. As is the case with their biological kin, psychosocial viruses also work to corrupt any idea, mental functions, or belief and help supplant them with new ones. Various forms of mental disorders are the result of interaction between the PSVs and the person's predisposition to the condition. Not all mutations caused by PSVs are pathological. Many serve to advance the human enterprise. Without contributions of the beneficial PSVs, humanity would still be stunted in its development at the level of day one.
In the case of Islam, a special group of PSVs set out to work the minute Muhammad launched his faith, and mutation rapidly followed. First, there was the Islam of Mecca, or the Islam of Meekness. For thirteen years, Muhammad's teachings, as recorded in the early Suras of the Quran, were about many good things. Very few people became attracted to what he preached. In fact, the people scorned the man, harassed him, and eventually made him flee his hometown of Mecca for Medina. Then a major mutation took place: the Islam of Medina, or the "Islam of Tyranny," arrived on the scene. The Quran Suras of Medina are replete with exhortations of intolerance, exclusivity, and sanctioning of violence against non-Muslims. This mutation deeply appealed to the temperament of the Arab Bedouins, and they flocked to Muhammad's faith.
The PSV of the time of Muhammad continued to mutate as it reached other peoples and other lands. Each people's own ideas and beliefs -- their cognitive immune system -- responded differently to the invader. Some completely resisted the assault and defeated it. Others were overwhelmed and forced into submission. Yet some of the vanquished, over time, managed to repel the invader, while others incorporated it to various extents into their own systems of belief. In due course, the mutation among the vanquished people became so divergent that some of the variants can hardly be recognized as the progeny of the original.
Islam of today is composed of a dozen major sects and hundreds of sub-sects and schools. Just two examples should demonstrate the fact that Muhammad's Islam has decomposed.
One branch of Sunni Islam, the Wahhabi, has interbred with the Pashtun culture of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the result has been the Taliban version of Islam: a most reactionary, repressive, and savage "religion."
On the Shiite side, for example, there is a sect of the Ghulat Alavi that holds only to one of the five pillars of Islam: the Shehadah, an Islamic credo that says, "I testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger." This sect does not subscribe to the remaining four pillars of praying five times a day, fasting one month a year, pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, and paying the religious tax of zakat. The Alavi women are allowed participation in all religious events and are not required to don the hijab -- a stark contrast to the Taliban, who deny even rudimentary education to women and forbid them from leaving home without the accompaniment of a male relative.
The Ghulat Alavis deify the Imam Ali and the other Imams. They particularly revere the Imam Ali and worship him as a co-rank of God. They profess, " Ali khoda neest, valee as khoda joda neest" -- Ali is not God, but he is not apart from God. This very same sect places Imam Ali above the Prophet Muhammad.
Ideas and beliefs should thrive or fail on merit only, and not because someone says that they are the best and that everyone must accept them without questioning. Let the meritorious and the fittest survive, and let the phony and the unfit die. It is this form of freedom that has been the engine of progress in all fields of human endeavors. And it is the exact opposite practice of stifling free inquiry in many organized religions; that is the main cause of much superstition, stagnation, and even untold suffering.
What needs to sink into the Western people's minds is the realization that, to the Muslims, the idea of freedom and free thinking is largely an alien concept.
From birth onward, a Muslim's brain is packed with the notion that everything in life is predicated on the will of Allah. Allah is in charge of all things at all times. Allah is very much a hands-on God. He does the thinking, he does the ordaining, and he decides the outcome for everything large and small. And since Allah is the all-knowing as well as the all-everything, the duty of the faithful is unquestioned obedience in all matters, irrespective of any and all contradictory evidence.
Islam presently has its stranglehold over a billion humans, posing an existential threat to all non-Muslims. When this billion and a half adhere to the pathological belief of Islam and use it as their marching order of life, the rest of humanity can ignore the threat only at its own peril.
Once again, Islam has risen from the ashes and is on a campaign of conquest throughout the world. Hordes of life-in-hand foot-soldier fanatical Muslims are striving to kill and get killed. All they want is the opportunity to discharge their homicidal-suicidal impulse, on their way to Allah's promised glorious paradise. And in the background, granting the foot-soldiers' wishes, are their handlers, the puppeteers, who pull the strings and detonate these human bombs. Those who cherish life must recognize these emissaries of death -- what makes them, what motivates them, and how best to defend against them.
The campaign of death waged by the Islamist jihadist, be he a puppet or a puppeteer, is energized by the belief of delectable rewards that await the faithful implementer of Allah's dictates. Through highly effective indoctrination, the jihadist has come to believe firmly in Islam's grand delusion. He believes that Allah is the one and only supreme creator of earth and heavens, that it is his duty and privilege to abide by Allah's will and carry out his plans at all costs. He believes firmly in a gloriously wonderful immortal afterlife in paradise, for which a martyr's death is the surest, quickest admission. Although the dominating theme of the delusion is quasi-spiritual, the promised rewards of the afterlife awaiting the martyr are sensual and material. All the things and activities that the jihadist desires and cannot attain or practice, and rejects in his earthly life, will be purified and proffered to him in the paradise of the next life. Thus goes the promise.
It is also important to understand that the human mind is not a perfect discerner of objective reality. In actuality, reality is in the mind of the beholder. The outside world supplies only bits and pieces of raw material that the mind puts together to form its reality. Depending on the type and amount of bits and pieces that a given mind receives, its reality can be very different from that of another mind.
Nonetheless, it is time for Islam to shed its "burqa." The cat is out of the bag, so to speak. In the age of instantaneous communication and with rising literacy, the task of keeping this stone-age belief called Islam under cover is an impossibility.
No belief system or set of ideas, be it religious, scientific, philosophical, political, or otherwise, should be protected from open, honest criticism. It is up to the individual consumer to decide for himself, to the best of his ability and the compelling nature of the information, the value and veracity of any offering in a marketplace of free ideas.
None of the numerous contending Islamic sects is indeed the Islam Muhammad launched. That original Islam died with Muhammad, and the belief immediately started splintering and kept on splintering, with each splinter claiming to be the true Islam and renouncing and fighting every other splinter. This time around, the invigorated Muslims are using the immense amount of petrodollars they extract from oil-addicted non-Muslims. The sword is temporarily replaced by just as deadly a weapon, the petrodollar. Before long, the fanatical Muslims running Iran aim to add a more deadly modern version of the sword: the Islamic bomb. With the bomb in one hand and the other hand on the oil spigot, the religion of peace and brotherhood will have the power to bring the non-Muslim world to its knees.
U.S. Drones Take Out al Qaeda Commander in Yemen
From the report at The Long War Journal:
US drones killed an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander and two fighters in an airstrike near the southern port city of Aden today.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more heavily armed Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a pickup truck traveling in the desert in the Beer Hameed area outside of Aden, Yemeni military officials told Xinhua. The officials said that a senior AQAP commander and two fighters were killed, but did not disclose the name of the slain commander.
A US intelligence official contacted by The Long War Journal confirmed the strike, but would not comment on the nature of the target; nor would the official say if the attack was carried out by the CIA or the US military.
Today's strike in Aden is the first in the province since the US started the campaign in 2009. AQAP is known to have a presence in Aden. Just a week ago in Aden, a suicide bomber killed Brigadier General Salem Ali al Quton, the commander of Yemen's southern military district, who directed the offensive that cleared the terror group from the major cities and towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces.
As you can see from the article, it appears that the range of the predators in Yemen is expanding to more and more provinces - that could mean one of two things - either al Qaeda's presence is spreading or the Yemenis have asked for more help over a wider area.
US drones kill AQAP commander, 2 fighters in southern Yemen
US drones killed an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander and two fighters in an airstrike near the southern port city of Aden today.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more heavily armed Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a pickup truck traveling in the desert in the Beer Hameed area outside of Aden, Yemeni military officials told Xinhua. The officials said that a senior AQAP commander and two fighters were killed, but did not disclose the name of the slain commander.
A US intelligence official contacted by The Long War Journal confirmed the strike, but would not comment on the nature of the target; nor would the official say if the attack was carried out by the CIA or the US military.
Today's strike in Aden is the first in the province since the US started the campaign in 2009. AQAP is known to have a presence in Aden. Just a week ago in Aden, a suicide bomber killed Brigadier General Salem Ali al Quton, the commander of Yemen's southern military district, who directed the offensive that cleared the terror group from the major cities and towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces. Quton was killed when a suicide bomber detonated outside of the general's home. AQAP claimed credit for the attack and accused the US of directing the war against the terror group in Yemen.
US strikes in Yemen
Today's strike is the second recorded in Yemen this month. The last confirmed strike took place on June 13, in Azzan in Shabwa province. Nine AQAP fighters were reported to have been killed. Other recent airstrikes are believed to have been carried out by the US also, but little evidence has emerged to directly link the attacks to the US.
The US is known to have carried out 24 airstrikes against AQAP in Yemen so far this year; one in January, six in March, six more in April, nine in May, and at least two this month.
Since December 2009, the CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command are known to have conducted at least 39 air and missile strikes inside Yemen, including today's strike in Aden province. [For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US air strikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2012.]
The pace of the US airstrikes increased as AQAP and its political front, Ansar al Sharia, took control of vast areas of southern Yemen starting at the end of May 2011. AQAP seized control of the cities and towns of Zinjibar, Al Koud, Jaar, and Shaqra in Abyan province, and Azzan in Shabwa province.
In May, the Yemeni military launched an offensive to retake the cities and towns held by AQAP. Hundreds of AQAP fighters, Yemeni soldiers, and civilians have been reported killed during fighting that liberated Zinjibar, Jaar, Shaqra, and Azzan.
Since the beginning of May 2011, the US is known to have carried out 34 airstrikes in Yemen. This year, the US appears to be targeting both AQAP leaders and foot soldiers in an effort to support Yemeni military operations against the terror group. AQAP has taken control of vast areas in southern Yemen and has been expanding operations against the government, with raids on military bases in locations previously thought to be outside the terror group's control.
Three senior AQAP operatives have been killed in the 24 strikes so far this year. The most recent strike that killed a senior AQAP leader took place on May 6, when the US killed Fahd al Quso in a drone attack in Shabwa province. Quso, who has been described as AQAP's external operations chief, was involved in numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 US sailors. The US obtained the information leading to Quso from a Saudi operative who had penetrated AQAP.
On Jan. 31, US drones killed Abdul Mun'im Salim al Fatahani near the city of Lawdar in Abyan province. Fatahani was also involved in the suicide attack on the USS Cole, as well as the bombing that damaged the Limburg oil tanker in 2002. AQAP said that Fatahani had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US also killed Mohammed Saeed al Umda (a.k.a. Ghareeb al Taizi) in an April 22 drone strike on a convoy in the Al Samadah area of Marib province. Prior to the downfall of the Taliban regime in 2001, he had attended the Al Farouq military training camp in Afghanistan. Umda served as a member of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan before returning to Yemen, and was involved in the October 2002 suicide attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. He escaped from a Yemeni jail in 2006.
US intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula poses a direct threat to the homeland. The latest AQAP plot against the West, involving an underwear bomb that is nearly undetectable and was to be detonated on an airliner, was foiled earlier this month. The terror group has planned multiple attacks against targets in the US. A strike in Yemen last year killed both Anwar al Awlaki, the radical, US-born cleric who plotted attacks against the US, and Samir Khan, another American who served as a senior AQAP propagandist.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Taqiyya of the Muslim Brotherhood
CNN: Muslim Brotherhood Will Not Seek Presidency
Posted on February 9, 2011 CNN via The Blaze
According to CNN, the Muslim Brotherhood — the Islamist organization credited with birthing the terrorist group Hamas — says it will not field a candidate for the Egyptian presidential race.
CNN reports:
The Muslim Brotherhood said Wednesday it will promote democracy in Egypt but does not intend to field a candidate for president.
“The Muslim Brotherhood are not seeking power,” Mohammed Morsi, a member of the group’s media office, said at a news conference. “We want to participate, not to dominate. We will not have a presidential candidate, we want to participate and help, we are not seeking power.”
The Islamist umbrella group also sought to dispel fears that it would push for an Islamic state in a post-Hosni Mubarak era.
--
Taliban Execute 17 Pakistani Soldiers, 7 Are Beheaded
From the article at The Long War Journal:
The Taliban claimed to have killed 17 Pakistani soldiers in an attack in the northern district of Upper Dir yesterday. Seven of the soldiers are reported to have been beheaded.
Pakistani officials said that more than 100 Taliban fighters had crossed the border from Afghanistan and clashed with Pakistani troops, according to Dawn. Six soldiers were killed and 11 more were captured by the Taliban fighters. Intelligence intercepts indicate that seven of the soldiers were beheaded; the bodies have not been recovered, however.
Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman for the Malakand Taliban, which operate under the command of Mullah Fazlullah, claimed credit for the attack and said 17 soldiers were killed.
"Our fight will continue until the establishment of sharia law in Pakistan .... We will fight whoever tries to stand in our way," Ahmad told Reuters.
And what will the Pakistanis do about this? Probably nothing - they might conduct a minor operations with some attack helicopters, maybe lob a few artillery shells into a few compounds in Upper Dir but that will probably be it. The Pakistanis have gone extremely soft in the past six months which leads me to believe that they are convinced that the Taliban will be back in power in Afghanistan once Obama's surrender is complete and they know they will have to live next to them as a governmental power.
Note: photo above is a file photo
Taliban behead 7 Pakistani soldiers: report
The Taliban claimed to have killed 17 Pakistani soldiers in an attack in the northern district of Upper Dir yesterday. Seven of the soldiers are reported to have been beheaded.
Pakistani officials said that more than 100 Taliban fighters had crossed the border from Afghanistan and clashed with Pakistani troops, according to Dawn. Six soldiers were killed and 11 more were captured by the Taliban fighters. Intelligence intercepts indicate that seven of the soldiers were beheaded; the bodies have not been recovered, however.
Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman for the Malakand Taliban, which operate under the command of Mullah Fazlullah, claimed credit for the attack and said 17 soldiers were killed.
"Our fight will continue until the establishment of sharia law in Pakistan .... We will fight whoever tries to stand in our way," Ahmad told Reuters.
Two major Taliban groups operate in the region, one commanded by Qari Zai Rahman, and another by Mullah Fazlullah.
Qari Zai Rahman is the dual-hatted Taliban and al Qaeda leader who operates in Pakistan's tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand, as well as in Afghanistan's provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. ISAF and Afghan forces have been hunting Rahman for more than a year.
Mullah Fazlullah commands the Taliban forces in the district of Swat, which borders Dir to the east. Fazlullah's forces openly ruled Swat and neighboring districts from 2007 until April 2009, when the Pakistani military launched an operation to eject the Taliban. Fazlullah and most of his top leaders evaded the operation, however, and have since sheltered along the Afghan-Pakistani border, particularly in Upper and Lower Dir and in Kunar province in Afghanistan.
Kunar and neighboring Nuristan province in Afghanistan have become safe havens for the Taliban and a host of terror groups since the US withdrew from combat outposts starting in 2009.
The Pakistani Taliban routinely videotape executions of their captives. The most recent high-profile execution, which was recorded in a videotape that was later distributed, took place in June 2011, when the Taliban captured 16 Pakistani policemen in Dir, lined them up, and executed them via firing squad.
The policemen had been captured after the Taliban crossed the border from Kunar province in Afghanistan and attacked police outposts and villages in the Shaltalu area on June 1, 2011. The raid sparked a pitched battle that lasted for several days. Dozens of Pakistani policemen were taken hostage during the ensuing fighting. Although Pakistani officials claimed that 27 policemen and 45 Taliban fighters were killed during the raid, independent news reports put the number of policemen killed at more than 40. [See LWJ report, Video of brutal Taliban execution of Pakistani policemen emerges.]
In February 2011, Hakeemullah Mehsud, the emir of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, released a videotape of the execution of a former Pakistani military intelligence official known as Colonel Imam. Although Imam, a senior officer in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, was a favorite of the Afghan Taliban for his support of Mullah Omar, the Pakistani Taliban accused him spying against the terror group.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)