Pakistani man one of two 'accomplices' charged in Paris attacks

Have you ever noticed...if they keep digging long enough, there's ALWAYS a connection to Pakistan in an Islamic terror attack?

The story comes from DAWN.

Pakistani man one of two 'accomplices' charged in Paris attacks


PARIS: French authorities filed terror charges on Friday against two men, including Pakistani national Mohammad Usman, who are suspected to be members of the same militant Islamic State (IS) group cell that massacred 130 people in Paris last November, a judicial source said.

The 35-year-old Pakistani Mohammad Usman and 29-year-old Algerian Adel Haddadi were charged with “criminal conspiracy with terrorists”, the source said of the men turned over earlier Friday by Austrian authorities.

Investigators believe they travelled to the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat full of refugees as two men who took part in the November 13 attacks.

Those two, thought to be Iraqis, blew themselves up outside the Stade de France stadium, one of a series of brazen assaults by around 10 people around the French capital.

But Haddadi and Usman were held up, detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had fake Syrian passports.

Once let go, they followed the main migrant trail and made it to Salzburg in western Austria at the end of November — after the Paris attacks.

Austrian police commandos then arrested them in December at a migrant centre a few hours after French authorities informed them the men could be in the country.

After his arrest, Haddadi told investigators that he wanted to go to France to “carry out a mission,” according to a statement seen by AFP.

A source close to the investigation said that Haddadi “was meant to take part in the Paris killings with his travelling companions”.

After France filed a European arrest warrant, a court in Salzburg approved at the beginning of July the transfer of the two men to France. Prosecutors said on Friday that both have now “left the country”.

Usman is reportedly thought to be a bomb maker for Pakistani militant organisations including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

India holds LeT, allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, responsible for attacks in 2008 in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Usman unsuccessfully appealed against his transfer from Austria, saying he would not get a fair trial in France and that he feared for his safety.

Salzburg prosecutors added Friday that two more men, a Moroccan and an Algerian arrested eight days after the others, remained in custody.

In December prosecutors had said that the men, aged 25 and 40 at the time, were being held “because of indications of close contact” with the two now transferred to France.

Potato Fields....Here We Come!

For years at my Blog Talk Radio Show, called The Awakening, I have referenced the upcoming days when we Americans will be trudging off to work in the potato fields while our Marxist Socialist masters sit on their horses holding weapons and whips.

I thought you might be interested in this tweet.

Venezuela has a new 'forced labor' law that can require people to work in fields https://t.co/x9MTXD2pvy pic.twitter.com/xN4emotA78

— VICE News (@vicenews) July 29, 2016

The Tale of Two Prayers

Invocation at The Republican National Convention in Cleveland




Invocation at The Democratic National Convention in Philadephia

Democrat VP Nominee Tim Kaine's DNC Speech?

Okay, so I have to give credit where credit is due....Andrew Wilkow of Sirius/XM brought up this hilarious comparison yesterday.

Bill "Balloons" Clinton

Okay, so when you see Bill Clinton holding these two balloons simultaneously in his hands....your first thoughts are?  Bill's first thoughts are?

:)

Hillary's America

"Comprehensive immigration reform will grow our economy and keep families together, and it’s the right thing to do." —Hillary

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 29, 2016

Germany's Merkel Will Continue To Sacrifice Her People To Muslim Executions

Simply hard to believe.

And people question why Britain would leave the European Union?

The story comes from DAWN.

Defiant Merkel defends refugee stance despite attacks

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday rebuffed calls to reverse her welcoming stance toward refugees in the wake of a series of brutal attacks in the country.

Merkel, who interrupted a summer holiday to face the media in Berlin, said the four assaults within a week were "shocking, oppressive and depressing" but not a sign that authorities had lost control.

The German leader said the assailants "wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need".

"We firmly reject this," she said at a wide-ranging news conference.

Merkel repeated her rallying cry from last year when she opened the borders to people fleeing war and persecution, many from Syria, which brought nearly 1.1 million migrants and refugees to the country in 2015.

"I am still convinced today that 'we can do it' -- it is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation," she said.

"We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months."

Merkel was speaking after a axe rampage, a shooting spree, a knife attack and a suicide bombing stunned Germany, leaving 13 dead, including three assailants, and dozens wounded.

Three of the four attackers were asylum seekers, and two of the assaults were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Merkel said that she would not allow jihadists, following a series of deadly attacks in France, Belgium, Turkey and the US state of Florida as well as Germany, to keep her government from being guided by reason and compassion.

"Despite the great unease these events inspire, fear can't be the guide for political decisions," she said.

"It is my deep conviction that we cannot let our way of life be destroyed."
'Urgent action'

While the German political class has largely called for calm, opposition parties and rebels from Merkel's own conservative bloc have accused her of exposing the country to unacceptable risks without stricter controls on people let in.

"Islamist terrorism has unfortunately arrived in Bavaria," the state's interior minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters Thursday, renewing calls by his Christian Social Union party for an upper limit on the number of new asylum seekers.

"We are awaiting urgent action from the federal government and Europe -- now is the time to act."

The deadliest attack came on Friday when a German-Iranian teenager who was born and raised in Munich opened fire at a downtown shopping mall, killing nine people before turning the gun on himself.

He had been under psychiatric treatment and investigators say he was obsessed with mass shootings, including Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 massacre.

They have ruled out an Islamist motive, saying the assailant had far-right "sympathies".

On July 18, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan or Pakistan slashed train passengers and a passer-by with an axe and a knife in Wuerzburg before being shot by police.

And on Sunday, a failed Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach, wounding 15 people at a nearby cafe after being turned away from the packed open-air venue. IS claimed both attacks.

Already steeped in grief and shock, Germans were further rattled by news that a Syrian refugee had killed a 45-year-old Polish woman with a large kebab knife at a snack bar in the southwestern city of Reutlingen Sunday in what authorities called a personal dispute.

"Taboos of civilisation are being broken," Merkel said. "These acts happened in places where any of us could have been."
Looming elections

The German attacks came with two state elections looming in September, in Berlin and in Merkel's fiefdom of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an economically depressed state on the Baltic coast.

The rightwing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hopes to make a particularly strong showing there with a campaign against "Islamisation", which would deal Merkel a stinging blow one year ahead of a general election.

Merkel's popularity had suffered earlier this year, following a rash of sexual assaults in the western city of Cologne on New Year's Eve blamed mainly on Arab and North African men.

But her poll ratings had recently recovered as the refugee influx has slowed dramatically due to the closure of the Balkan migrant route and an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow.

Analysts are awaiting new data to see what impact the recent attacks have had on her support.

Don't Miss the DNC Tonight!

It should be an electrifying night at the Democrat National Convention tonight as a competition will be held on the main stage.

Hillary Clinton will be pitted against Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, as they go head to head in a winner-takes-all competition.

The competition will decide if Hillary Clinton can beat a coal miner into unconsciousness faster than Cecile Richards can abort a baby on stage.  A medical professional will be on hand to gauge whether the miner is indeed unconscious and will also hoist the removed dead, mutilated fetus to prove completion.

Requests by Susan Sarandon, Alicia Keys, and Meryl Streep to be able to bid on the aborted baby's organs were turned down at the last minute, only due to overall time constraints on the air time of the competition and that Mrs. Clinton will need to wash off the miner's blood and the body parts of the dead baby before her acceptance speech.


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Image of the Day: Transparency

"Im With Her" (til the agonizing, bitter end)

Aftermath of ISIS Truck Bombing of Kurds In Syria

Analysis: Islamic State's first act of war on European Christianity

ISIS militants attack church in Normandy, France. (photo credit:REUTERS)

I guess to get any sort of reasoning of Islam's war on Christianity, I have to go to a JEWISH news outlet in ISRAEL.

The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.

Analysis: Islamic State's first act of war on European Christianity

Regardless of whether Tuesday’s attack was the work of Islamic State or whether it was merely inspired by the jihadi rhetoric emanating from the so-called caliphate, its symbolism is hard to ignore.

Previous attacks in France perpetrated by Islamic State and in its name have been against freedom of speech (Charlie Hebdo), Western liberalism (the Bataclan theater), the ideals of the French Revolution, which stand at the heart of Western thought (the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice) and against Jews (Hyper Cacher).

Now, Islamic State has successfully committed its first act of war on European Christianity itself by taking hostages in a church and slitting the throat of an octogenarian priest as they forced him to kneel and then filmed themselves preaching in Arabic at the altar.

It has been long expected. In April of last year, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a 24-year-old computer science student of North African extraction, was arrested after shooting himself in the leg. Police suspected him of planning a terrorist attack and a search of his car and apartment found four Kalashnikov rifles, two handguns and a number of bulletproof vests.

Prosecutors said he had been in contact with foreign agents in Syria who had expressly told him to carry out an attack on a church. According to some reports, Ghlam had compiled a list of possible targets, including gunning down parishioners outside a church in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif, and attacks on Paris’s iconic Sacré Coeur Basilica and the Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray church itself, the target of Tuesday’s attack.

But it didn’t take the fortuitous arrest of Ghlam to realize that Islamic State would step up its campaign to cultivate war between Islam and the West by targeting a Christian symbol.

“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah,” read a statement from Islamic State spokesman Muhammad al-Adnani in 2014. In May, ahead of Ramadan, Adnani called on the “soldiers of the caliphate” to carry out attacks in Europe and the US and to target the “Crusaders.”

Islamic State has already been waging war on Christians in Iraq and Syria, committing countless atrocities that in March were declared as genocide by the US Congress.

A core part of the terrorist group’s ideology is the belief that an apocalyptic showdown will take place at Dabiq near Aleppo in Syria where the armies of “Rome” – aka Christianity – will be defeated by the armies of Islam. What Islamic State seeks is all-out war to make that apocalyptic vision reality.

After two weeks that have seen five attacks committed either by terrorists in the name of Islamic State or by first- and second-generation Muslim migrants in Germany and France, the nightmare scenario of vigilante revenge attacks by right-wing extremists is looming ever closer.

That is exactly what Islamic State wants.

Five Saudi border guards killed in clashes in south

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Five Saudi border guards killed in clashes in south

Five Saudi border guards were killed on Monday in clashes with armed groups seeking to enter from Yemen, state television al-Ekhbariya reported, citing the Saudi interior ministry.

A ministry statement added the border guards detected attempts by “hostile” armed groups to cross the border on several fronts in the southern region of Najran on Monday morning. Eight hours of clashes ensued.

The statement did not identify the armed groups, but Saudi forces and fighters from Yemen’s Houthi movement have traded fire across the border frequently during Yemen’s more than 15-month-old war.

Peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen’s government and the Houthis to end the conflict have dragged on for more two months with few concrete results. A truce that began on April 10 has dampened fighting, but skirmishes continue almost daily.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen’s war in March 2015 on behalf of the internationally backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The conflict has killed at least 6,400 people and caused a humanitarian crisis.

In a separate incident, the Saudi-led military coalition said an Apache helicopter crashed in the Yemeni city Marib, east of the capital Sanaa due to bad weather, state news agency SPA reported.

The pilot and co-pilot from the Saudi Royal land forces were killed, SPA added from the statement.

80 dead, 231 wounded as twin blasts strike Hazara demonstration in Kabul

This story from DAWN got ZERO coverage from American main stream media because it further demonstrates how effective Barack Hussein Obama is at LOSING wars.  Remember, in 2011, VP Joe Biden said this:

"the Taliban per se is not our enemy."

Yeah, and Sarah Palin was the dumb one, right?

80 dead, 231 wounded as twin blasts strike Hazara demonstration in Kabul

KABUL: Two powerful explosions on Saturday ripped through crowds of minority Hazaras in Kabul who had gathered to protest over a power line, killing at least 80 people and leaving 231 others wounded, Afghan public health ministry said.

Islamic State group claimed responsibility for twin explosions. The bombings, apparently aimed at sowing sectarian discord in a country well known for Shia-Sunni harmony, came as thousands of Hazaras gathered to protest over a multi-million-dollar power line.

“As a result of the attack 80 people were martyred and 231 others were wounded,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

“Based on initial information, the attack was carried out by three suicide bombers... The third attacker was gunned down by security forces.”

The Taliban, who are in the middle of their annual summer offensive and are more powerful than IS, strongly denied any involvement in the attack.

IS claimed the bombings in a statement carried by its affiliated Amaq news agency, calling it an attack on Shias.

One of the march organisers Laila Mohammadi said she arrived at the scene soon after the blast and saw “many dead and wounded people”.
'Horrific attack'

The attack came as thousands of demonstrators gathered to demand that a multi-million-dollar power line pass through their electricity-starved province of Bamiyan, one of the most deprived areas of Afghanistan with a large Hazara population.

“The horrific attack on a group of peaceful protestors in Kabul demonstrates the utter disregard that armed groups have for human life,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

Footage on Afghan television and photographs posted on social media showed a scene of carnage, with numerous bodies and body parts spread across the square.

Seddq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said police were working to confirm initial reports of the blast.

Justice Department sues Pennsylvania town for rejecting mosque

Give Obama credit - he has used the Department of Justice to hammer home his agenda of open borders and the Islamization of America.  Note:  He has also used the DoJ to suppress and oppress those Christians and other infidels...The DoJ has become the "SS" of modern day America.

The story comes from The Washington Times via The Religion of Peace.

Justice Department sues Pennsylvania town for rejecting mosque

The Justice Department is taking a Pennsylvania town to court over a municipal board’s denial of a zoning application for a mosque, accusing officials of discriminating against a local Muslim organization on the basis of religion.

The Bensalem Township violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act when its zoning board in 2014 rejected a zoning request that would have allowed the Bensalem Masjid to build a mosque in the town, Justice Department attorneys wrote in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“Our Constitution protects the rights of religious communities to build places of worship free from unlawful interference and unnecessary barriers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Department of Justice will continue to challenge unjustified local zoning actions around the country when they encroach upon this important civil right.”

Members of the local Muslim community sought to build a mosque after years of renting a local fire hall for worship services. In 2012, the Bensalem Masjid organization met with elected officials to discuss options for building a 17,000-square-foot mosque on land adjacent to the township.

But as plans moved forward and the group attended a series of meetings before the Bensalem Township Zoning Hearing Board, the complaint alleges that Bensalem Masjid was treated differently than other religious and non-religious groups that had sought similar zoning variances. The board, which ultimately rejected the application in a 4-0 vote, treated other groups “more favorably than it treated the Bensalem’s Masjid’s application throughout the variance process.”

Specifically the complaint alleges that in other instances the board required only one hearing to make a zoning variance application while there were six hearings conducted as part of the Bensalem Masjid’s application.

“As another example, the Board asked questions of the Bensalem Masjid that it did not ask of many of these other applicants, including whether its membership would increase and whether it would attract members from outside of Bensalem Township,” the complaint states.

No Bensalem Township officials could immediately reached for comment on the Justice Department’s civil rights lawsuit.

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations previously filed a federal lawsuit against the township alleging the rejection of the zoning approval for the mosque violated constitutional protections for freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and equal treatment. That lawsuit is still active in federal court and is scheduled for trial next year.

Munich attack: At least nine dead in suspected terror shooting at shopping mall, police say

Well, while the media and Leftist politicians and bleeding heart liberal wankers in their basements want to wait and see and hope that some "neo-Nazi" shot up Munich, the rest of us better get our plans together to protect ourselves and our families as this war is moving through the West by the day.

The story comes from Australian Broadcasting Co.

Munich attack: At least nine dead in suspected terror shooting at shopping mall, police say

At least nine people have been killed in a shooting rampage in a Munich shopping centre that police have described as a suspected terror attack, with three armed suspects still at large.
Key points:

Police warn of "acute terror" situation, say attacker or attackers still believed to be at large
Unknown number of people also reported to be gravely injured
Main train station evacuated, metro and bus transport suspended

Police warned of an "acute terror" situation in the southern German city, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the mall as armed police roamed the streets on the hunt for the attackers.

"We suspect terrorism," a Munich police spokesman said.

The attack began shortly before 4:00pm (2:00am AEST) at a McDonald's restaurant and continued on a nearby street before the gunmen moved into the shopping centre, a police spokeswoman said.

"We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," she added.

Police said eight people had been killed and an undetermined number wounded. A ninth body had also been found about 1 kilometre from the scene and they were checking to see it was one of the gunmen.

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from the McDonald's while firing repeatedly on people as they fled.

Munich's main train station has been evacuated and metro and bus transport in the city suspended, officials said.

The OEZ mall near the southern German city's Olympic stadium was surrounded by armed police after shots were fired, while a helicopter buzzed overhead.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

"Many shots were fired — I can't say how many but it's been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

Munich police, urging people to avoid the area, said on Twitter: "There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre."

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as shoppers rushed away from the mall, some carrying children in their arms.

There is still no information about the possible motives of the attack.

Authorities have told people to stay in their homes or, if outside, to seek shelter indoors while the emergency situation remains ongoing.

Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks including bombings in neighbouring France and Belgium.

The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.

It also follows a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice after Bastille Day fireworks last week that left 84 people dead.

The Tough Questions

No one has ever asked Barack Obama a tough question.

Leave it to Holger.


Mr. Obama:

• Do you feel any humiliation knowing that you won the Nobel Peace Prize only because you are black?
• Is your pride bruised knowing that you were elected to the Presidency in 2008 only because of the color of your skin?
• In 2012, was your celebration for being re-elected President tainted because people voted you back in because of your race?
• Do you ever feel a sense of relief that you were not Impeached because you are a black man?
• When you see that you have 52% approval ratings according to the polls, are you smart enough to know that people say they approve because they don't want to be called "racist" for disapproving of you?
• Would you have been able to attend the colleges and universities that you did if you hadn't been a minority?
• When you look back twenty years from now and the only thing Americans can say about your Presidency is that it was "historic" because you were the first BLACK President, will it bruise your ego?

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Viking Vacay

Yes, even Vikings need time away from blogging.

Will be back over the coming weekend.

Holger

Islamic State claims its ‘soldier’ carried out Bastille Day attack in Nice, France

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

Islamic State claims its ‘soldier’ carried out Bastille Day attack in Nice, France

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the July 14 attack in Nice, France.

Citing an “insider source,” propagandists working for the Amaq News Agency wrote: “Executor of the deadly operation in Nice, France was a soldier of the Islamic State. He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations, which fight the Islamic State.”

Amaq News is the most prolific outlet in the Islamic State’s propaganda machine. Its statement was quickly followed up by other official claims from the group. The Islamic State’s messages do not include any specific details about the terrorist responsible, nor does it indicate that the so-called caliphate had foreknowledge of his plans.

French officials and media outlets have identified Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31 year-old originally from Tunisia, as the assailant. At least 84 people were killed when he drove a truck into a Bastille Day celebration. Counterterrorism officials in France and elsewhere are working to determine if Bouhlel had any solid connections to the Islamic State’s external operations arm, which has been plotting operations in Europe, or was inspired by the group’s call to violence.

Amaq’s wording — namely, labeling Bouhlel a “soldier of the Islamic State” — is the same formulation used after past attacks.

For example, the Islamic State’s propaganda arms described the May 2015 shooters in Garland, Tex. and the ccouple who assaulted a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif. in Dec. 2015 as the group’s “soldiers.” The San Bernardino terrorists were also labeled “supporters.” The team of jihadists responsible for the Nov. 2015 assault in Paris was hailed as “a group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate.”

Omar Mateen, who repeatedly pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi the night of his attack on a LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Fla. in June, was described as a “fighter” for the organization.

The Islamic State has repeatedly called on its members and supporters to kill civilians in the West. The number of committed jihadists and new recruits willing to heed this call has increased dramatically since 2014. By their own admission, however, the Islamic State’s leadership has also been met with some resistance when it comes to killing civilians, as opposed to members of the military or government officials.

“It has reached us that some of you do not act due to their incapacity to reach military targets, or their finding fault with targeting those who are called ‘civilians,’ so they leave harming them, doubting the permissibility thereof,” Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani said during a speech in May. “Know that inside the lands of the belligerent crusaders, there is no sanctity of blood and no existence of those called ‘innocents,’” Adnani continued.

Adjani boasted that the “list” of evidence he could cite to justify such attacks was “too long” to be mentioned at the time. But he added that “their [the West’s] warplanes do not distinguish between one who is armed and another who is unarmed, nor between a man and a woman.”

“Know that your targeting those who are called ‘civilians’ is more beloved to us and more effective, as it is more harmful, painful, and a greater deterrent to them,” Adnani assured his audience.

Al Bayan, another propaganda outlet for the “caliphate,” followed up Amaq’s statement with one of its own. Al Bayan emphasized that the attack in Nice was carried out in “response to calls from the Islamic State to target states participating in the Crusader coalition that fights the Caliphate,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Al Bayan described Bouhlel as a “soldier from the soldiers of the State,” adding that he had executed a “new, unique operation” with a “large truck.” The message didn’t offer any details on Bouhlel’s attack that aren’t already widely known.

Elections Have Consequences

OBAMA'16

Dead Cops. Dead Infidels. Dead Dreams.

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Tweet of the Day: Man Up

Men who support #CrookedHillary need to have the sissy metrosexual snot beat out of them.

There I said it

— FredZeppelin (@FredZeppelin12) July 17, 2016

Barack Obama - Worthless, Shitty President....Champion and Protector of Islam

Americans who wanted a President who loves America and wanted to see this country prosper got one shitty end of the stick when they elected Barack Hussein Obama but those Americans who wanted a President to become the #1 Champion of Islam in the world...a leader who would praise Islam, protect Islam....one who would ensure that Islamic terror ruled this world, then hell....Barry was The Man!

The story comes from Times of India.

Barack Obama slams suggestion of ‘sharia test’ in wake of Nice attack

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Friday angrily denounced suggestions from some Republican leaders that Muslims in America be "tested" after an attack in Nice, France, that killed at least 84 people , calling the idea "repugnant."

Making his first public comments since a Tunisian man drove a truck through a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks, Obama told a gathering of ambassadors at the White House that the United States stands with France and vows to fight terrorism.

Obama did not explicitly link the attack to Islamic State militants who have been connected to other recent attacks around the globe, saying that the details were not yet clear. He vowed to continue to fight the group.

"These terrorists are targeting and killing innocent people of all backgrounds and all faiths, including Muslims. I know I speak for all of us when I say these individuals and these networks are an affront to all of our humanity," he said.

Without naming names, Obama responded to a suggestion from Newt Gingrich , a former Republican speaker, who on Thursday said a religious test was needed for Muslims in America, deporting them if they believe in sharia law.


Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the November 8 presidential election, has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.


"In the wake of last night's attacks, we've heard more suggestions that all Muslims in America be targeted, tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed," Obama said. "The very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything we stand for as Americans," he said.

Obama, who spoke earlier on Friday with French President Francois Hollande, said he met with French ambassador Gerard Araud to offer sympathy and help.


Obama also spoke about a father and son from Texas who were killed in the attack. "Their family, like so many others, are devastated," Obama said.

"Moderate Muslims" , "Sharia" and Other Fairy Tales of Islam

.@newtgingrich: "We should...test every person here who is of a Muslim background, & if they believe in shariah they should be deported."

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 15, 2016

Okay, this is just flat out ridiculous.

Sharia IS Islam.  Islam IS Sharia.

Asking a Muslim if they believe in Sharia is like asking a Christian if they believe in the Resurrection.

Let me quote an expert on Islam, Bill Warner:

Sharia law is the most important part of Islamic doctrine. Sharia is Islam; Islam is Sharia. Sharia includes law, but it also includes how to raise a family, theology, philosophy and every aspect of daily living. Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs). Sharia is a manual for a civilization.

Nice try to act smart, Newt but the last thing we need in the world right now is for the West to be spouting off more projection shit about Islam.  Know your damn enemy.


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Video: How Do You Say "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" in ISIS Arabic?

Pakistan: Friend or Foe in the Fight Against Terrorism?

 The black-and-white banner of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front group for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, is prevalent at an anti-US rally in Lahore in December 2011. AP photo.

Only Bill Roggio can tackle this question.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

Pakistan: Friend or Foe in the Fight Against Terrorism?

Editor’s note: Below is Bill Roggio’s testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade and the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Chairman Poe and Chairman Salmon, Ranking Members Keating and Sherman, and other members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to speak about Pakistan and its support for terrorist groups that threaten the security of the United States and its allies.

This Committee rightly asks the question of whether Pakistan is a friend or foe in the fight against terrorism. While Pakistani officials and forces have assisted the U.S. in hunting senior al Qaeda figures at times, Pakistan’s overall strategy is pro-jihadist and therefore puts it in the foe category. Pakistan does battle some terrorist groups within its borders, but it only does so because these groups pose a direct threat to the state.

Pakistan myopically supports a host of terrorist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India to further its goals in the region. Pakistan backs these groups despite the fact that they are allied with and aid the very terrorist groups that fight the Pakistani state. In addition, many of the jihadist groups sponsored by Pakistan are allied with al Qaeda.

Today I will highlight six major groups directly supported or tolerated by Pakistan’s establishment: the Afghan Taliban and its subgroup, the Haqqani Network; the Mullah Nazir Group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Each of these groups is used by Pakistan as an instrument of its foreign policy. These six groups are by no means the only terrorist organizations supported by Pakistan, they are merely the most prominent.

Pakistan uses these six groups and others as a counterweight against what its policy makers perceive to be Pakistan’s greatest threat: India. However, the jihadist ideology has also spread throughout Pakistan as a result of policies adopted by the country’s military elite. Therefore, we should not underestimate the degree to which these groups are supported for ideological reasons.

Pakistan, a country of 182 million people, does not possess the manpower to counter India, a nation of 1.25 billion. Pakistan and India have been in a virtual state of war since Partition in 1947. The two countries have fought four active wars in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Each of these wars was initiated by Pakistan, and ended in defeats. Pakistani strategists have determined that to counter India, it must use unconventional means, including supporting jihadist groups.

Strategic Depth

To compensate for its inability to achieve victory on conventional battlefields against India, Pakistan implemented its own version of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan. Pakistan has supported groups in Afghanistan in order to deny India influence in its backyard, as well as to allow the nation to serve as a fallback in case of an Indian invasion.

Pakistan capitalized on the chaos in Afghanistan post-Soviet withdrawal and hunted for a group that would serve its purposes. With the rise of Mullah Omar’s Taliban faction in the early 1990s, Pakistan military and intelligence officers assigned to implement strategic depth saw the perfect partner: a powerful jihadist political movement that was gaining popularity throughout the country and was capable of sustaining military advances. Pakistan provided military and financial support to Omar’s faction, which successfully established the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban in 1996 and controlled upwards of 90 percent of the country until the US invasion in 2001.

In addition to securing a friendly government in Afghanistan, Pakistan used the country as both a training and a recruiting ground for a host of jihadist groups that fight in India-occupied Kashmir.

Good vs Bad Taliban

In order to justify its policy of support to jihadist groups, Pakistani elites have attempted to distinguish between what are referred to as “good Taliban” and “bad Taliban.” Simply stated, the so-called “good Taliban” are groups that advance Pakistan’s foreign policy goals and do not threaten the state or wage war within its borders. “Good Taliban” and other groups deemed acceptable by the Pakistani establishment include the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network, the Mullah Nazir Group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. These groups conduct numerous heinous acts of terrorism in the region, and are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and civilians, and yet are supported by the Pakistani state.

“Bad Taliban” are any jihadist faction that challenges the primacy of the Pakistani state. These groups include the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the Turkistan Islamic Party, and the weakened Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The Pakistani military has pursued these groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with some success. However, when targeting these groups, the military has avoided pursuing groups such as the Haqqani Network, which provided shelter and support for the “bad Taliban.”

Pakistani officials have denied that it pursues a policy of strategic depth and differentiates between “good and bad Taliban”, or alternatively, have claimed it will no longer differentiate between the two. However, these claims are false. This is demonstrated in Pakistan’s continuing support for the aforementioned groups and others, as well as an unwillingness to round up leaders and key operatives of these groups.

The Afghan Taliban

Pakistan’s support for the Afghan Taliban is well documented. It helped establish the group in the 1990s and continues to support it to this day. Hamid Gul, the former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Pakistan’s military intelligence agency that developed and implemented the policy of strategic depth, is known as “the father of the Taliban” for his role in directing support to the Taliban. (Gul is also known as the “Godfather of terrorism” for his support of global jihadist groups.) The term “father of the Taliban” isn’t reserved only for Gul; Maulana Sami ul Haq, the director of the radical Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa, also hold this title. His madrassa feeds thousands of new recruits to the Taliban on a regular basis.

Afghanistan’s insurgency continues to be fueled by Pakistan’s military and intelligence services to this day. The Taliban’s Quetta Shura, or supreme decision making council, has been based in the Pakistani city of the same name as well as elsewhere. The Taliban’s four regional military commands all are named after Pakistani cities (Quetta, Peshawar, Miramshah, Gerdi Jangal).

The Taliban’s top leadership has been based inside Pakistan, with the knowledge and approval of the military and ISI. The Taliban’s first two emirs died while in Pakistan. Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s founder and first emir, died in a Pakistani hospital near Quetta in April 2013. His successor, Mullah Mansour, was killed by the US in a drone strike in Baluchistan two months ago. They and other senior, middle and lower level leaders have operated inside Pakistan without consequence.

Pakistan’s border areas with Afghanistan serve as the life blood of the Taliban.

While all of Pakistan is jihadist friendly, the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are flush with Taliban recruiting centers, training camps, safe houses, and financial hubs. Taliban commanders freely admit that the ISI arms them and provides safe haven and training camps inside Pakistan.

Meanwhile, radical madrassas throughout the country indoctrinate Pakistani youth into the jihadist worldview and send them off to fight for the Taliban and other allied groups.

The Haqqani Network

The Haqqani Network (HQN) is listed by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its support of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. It is an integral part of the Taliban. Its founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, is a member of the Quetta Shura, while his son is one of the two deputy emirs to Mullah Haibatullah, the new leader of the Taliban. Thirteen senior HQN are listed by the US as specially designated global terrorists; most, including Sirajuddin, have been directly linked to al Qaeda. Several top al Qaeda leaders were killed in US counterterrorism operations while being sheltered by HQN.

Deadly HQN attacks inside Afghanistan have been directly traced back to Pakistan. In one instance in 2011, HQN handlers, including Badruddin Haqqani, directed an assault on a hotel in Kabul from Pakistan, according to Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security. A similar attack took place in Jalalabad that same year.

In Pakistan, the HQN is based in North Waziristan and has a presence in other Pakistani tribal agencies, such as Kurram, The Haqqanis run the notorious Manba Ulom madrassa in Miramshah, North Waziristan.

Despite the HQN’s overt links to al Qaeda, the group remains a darling of Pakistan’s military and ISI. When the Pakistani military conducts operations in the FATA, it deliberately avoids the HQN. While Pakistani leaders insist the Haqqanis are not excluded from operations, not a single senior, mid-level, or junior leader has been killed or captured during Pakistani operations in the FATA from 2008 to date.

The Mullah Nazir Group

The Mullah Nazir Group is a Pakistani Taliban faction that operates in South Waziristan. The US government listed it as a specially designated global terrorist entity in 2013 and said it “has run training camps, dispatched suicide bombers, provided safe haven for al Qaeda fighters, and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies.” Its current leader, Bahawal Khan, and his deputy, sub-commander Malang, are also listed by the US as specially designated global terrorists.

Its former leader, Mullah Nazir, who was killed in a US drone strike, identified himself as a leader of al Qaeda and said he shared the group’s views on global jihad. Multiple al Qaeda leaders have been killed while sheltering with the Mullah Nazir Group. The Pakistani military provided the Mullah Nazir Group with direct support when it clashed with rival members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Despite the Mullah Nazir Group’s direct ties to al Qaeda, Pakistan has viewed it as an ally in the tribal areas. Like the Haqqani Network, the Mullah Nazir Group was left untouched when the Pakistani military launched operations that targeted the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is perhaps the most blatant example of Pakistan’s support for jihadists groups. Listed by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, it was founded by its leader, Hafiz Saeed, along with Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, the godfather of international jihad. Bin Laden helped LeT establish training camps in Afghanistan’s provinces of Kunar and Paktia, where it continues to operates to this day. LeT shares al Qaeda’s goal of establishing an Islamic state in South Asia and beyond.

LeT operates openly inside Pakistan and has offices throughout the country. Markaz-e-Taiba, its headquarters in Muridke near Lahore, is a sprawling complex that is used to indoctrinate future jihadists before they are sent off for military training. The provincial government of Punjab has financed Markaz-e-Taiba in the past.

This terrorist infrastructure was used to conduct egregious terrorist attacks in India and Afghanistan. The most prominent attack took place in Mumbai, India, when a suicide assault team fanned out across the city and targeted multiple locations, including a theater, a train station, hotels and a Jewish center and killed 164 people. The attack lasted for three days. Indian intelligence traced phone calls back to handlers in Pakistan as the assault was ongoing. The handlers directed its fighters to execute non-Muslims, often brutally, and laughed when their instructions were carried out. After the attack, Interpol issued arrest warrants for two serving senior Pakistani army officers and a retired major.

Despite LeT’s overt ties to al Qaeda and its campaign of terror in India and Afghanistan, the Pakistani government refuses to crack down on this group. Its complexes in Muridke and throughout the country remain open, and its leaders operate unfettered. Hafiz Saeed is feted by Pakistani officials, who refuse to hold him and other LeT leaders accountable for their actions. Not a single member of LeT who has been implicated in the Mumbai attack has been prosecuted.

Harakat-ul-Mujahideen

Harakat-ul-Mujahideen is yet another Pakistan-based jihadist group that has been listed by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Its emir, Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil, is also named by the US as a specially designated global terrorist.

In an update to the US designation of HuM in 2014, the US noted that it “operates in Pakistan, and engages in terrorist activity in Kashmir, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan” and “also operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan.” These camps are thought to be in existence to this day.

Khalil, like LeT’s Saeed, is a made man inside Pakistan. In 2011, it was reported that he lived openly near the capital of Islamabad. Khalil is one of the jihadists Osama bin Laden consulted before issuing his infamous fatwa declaring war against the US in 1998. Khalil also signed the fatwa. Osama bin Laden’s courier was reportedly tied to HuM, which may have played a role in the al Qaeda master’s support network inside Pakistan. HuM has also acted like a feeder organization for al Qaeda’s newest regional branch, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which was officially established in September 2014. Asim Umar, the emir of AQIS, is a former member of HuM.

Khalil has “dispatched fighters to India, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya and Bosnia, was a confidante of bin Laden and hung out with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” the Associated Press reported in 2011. “Pakistani authorities are clearly aware of Khalil’s whereabouts,” AP continued. But they leave him alone, just as they tolerate other Kashmiri militant groups nurtured by the military and its intelligence agency to use against India.”

And like LeT, Pakistan has done nothing to crack down on HuM and its activities in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Jaish-e-Mohammed

The US government has listed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as a Foreign Terrorist organization and its leader, Massod Azhar, as a specially designated global terrorist for their ties to al Qaeda and other jihadist groups.

Like LeT and HuM, JeM is supported by Pakistan’s military and ISI because it is hostile to India and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In its 2010 designation of Azhar, the US Treasury Department said that “JeM recruitment posters in Pakistan contained a call from Azhar for volunteers to join the fight in Afghanistan against Western forces.”

JeM was implicated along with the Lashkar-e-Taiba as being behind the Dec. 13, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament building in New Delhi. Sheikh Ahmed Saeed Omar, a close associate of Azhar, was behind the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Pearl was later beheaded.

Most recently, Indian officials implicated JeM in the January 2016 assault on an Pathankot Air Force Base in India. Like other attacks, Indian intelligence intercepted phone call of Pakistan-based handlers directing the assault team as they attacked the base.

Despite JeM’s terrorist activities, Pakistan has not taken action against the group. India has made repeated requests for extradition of Azhar, only to be ignored.

A failure to act

Pakistan’s intransigence towards jihadist groups has not escaped the attention of the US government. In its Country Reports on Terrorism 2015, the State Department issued a scathing rebuke of Pakistan’s failure to police jihadist groups in the region.

“Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or HQN, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan,” the report noted.

“Pakistan has also not taken sufficient action against other externally-focused groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which continued to operate, train, organize, and fundraise in Pakistan,” State continued. Additionally, State noted that groups continue to fundraise without consequence and Hafiz Saeed “was able to make frequent public appearances in support of the organization’s objectives,” without Pakistan raising a finger to stop him.

State did not explain why Pakistan refuses to crack down on terrorist groups in its midst, but it is clear that the military and government considers jihadist organizations as a strategic asset and some see the jihadists as their ideological brethren.