TERRORIST ATTACK AT AZ POWER PLANT!

Posted: 2014-06-11

Sean Holstege, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:42 p.m. MST June 11, 2014 AZ Republic 6-11-14

FBI and ATF agents responded to a Nogales power plant after a makeshift bomb went off Wednesday.

A makeshift bomb exploded at a Nogales, Ariz. power plant Wednesday, rupturing a large fuel tank and prompting the FBI and federal bomb experts to respond.

Local officials were alerted at 9:30 a.m. to a call of “suspicious activity” at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant. An explosion had ruptured a diesel storage tank and caused what Nogales Police Lt. Carlos Jimenez described as a relatively small spill that was confined to the immediate area.

Officials closed off the power plant and an adjacent car dealership on North Grand Avenue. The FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were called.

Agents were still processing the scene at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Arizona Corporation Commission spokesman Rebecca Wilder said there were no power disruptions related to the explosion and the plant sustained only minor damage.

“The reason for the high-scale response is the plant is an electrical substation and critical to the area,” Jimenez said, explaining that as many as 30,000 customers in the area – the entire town of Nogales and its environs – depends on the plant for power.

“The whole city of Nogales could have been compromised,” he added.

There were no reports of injuries and authorities said they knew of no suspects or witnesses.

They described the explosive as “a suspicious device,” but would not elaborate. The fuel did not ignite, Jimenez said.

The investigation continues.

Staff Writer Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this report.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/06/11/nogales-explosion-power-plant-arizona-abrk/10351107/

Mosque that Boston suspects attended has radical ties

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/23/boston-mosque-radicals/2101411/

Oren Dorell, USA TODAY 6:06 a.m. EDT April 24, 2013

Terror suspects, fugitives and radical speakers have passed through the Cambridge mosque that the Tsarnaev brothers are known to have visited.

(Photo: Shakil Adil, AP)

Story Highlights

Cambridge mosque was founded in 1982 by students at MIT, Harvard and other Boston-area schools Affiliated with Muslim American Society, which federal prosecutors call an “overt arm” of Muslim Brotherhood More than half of the $15.5 million used to found the Boston mosque came from Saudi sources

BOSTON — The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque’s first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.

Its sister mosque in Boston, known as the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, has invited guests who have defended terrorism suspects. A former trustee appears in a series of videos in which he advocates treating gays as criminals, says husbands should sometimes beat their wives and calls on Allah (God) to kill Zionists and Jews, according to Americans for Peace and Tolerance, an interfaith group that has investigated the mosques.

The head of the group is among critics who say the two mosques teach a brand of Islamic thought that encourages grievances against the West, distrust of law enforcement and opposition to Western forms of government, dress and social values.

“We don’t know where these boys were radicalized, but this mosque has a curriculum that radicalizes people. Other people have been radicalized there,” said the head of the group, Charles Jacobs.

Yusufi Vali, executive director at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, insists his mosque does not spread radical ideology and cannot be blamed for the acts of a few worshipers.

“If there were really any worry about us being extreme,” Vali said, U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would not partner with the Muslim American Society and the Boston mosque in conducting monthly meetings that have been ongoing for four years, he said, in an apparent reference to U.S. government outreach programs in the Muslim community.

The Cambridge and Boston mosques, separated by the Charles River, are owned by the same entity but managed individually. The imam of the Cambridge mosque, Sheik Basyouny Nehela, is on the board of directors of the Boston mosque.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, attended the Cambridge mosque for services and are accused of setting two bombs that killed three people and injured at least 264 others at the April 15 Boston Marathon.

The FBI has not indicated that either mosque was involved in any criminal activity, but mosque attendees and officials have been implicated in terrorist activity:

• Alamoudi, who signed the articles of incorporation as the Cambridge mosque’s president, was sentenced to 23 years in federal court in Alexandria, Va., in 2004 for his role as a facilitator in what federal prosecutors called a Libyan assassination plot against then-crown prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Abdullah is now the Saudi king.

Aafia Siddiqui is shown after her graduation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Photo: AP)

• Aafia Siddiqui, who occasionally prayed at the Cambridge mosque, was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 while in possession of cyanide canisters and plans for a chemical attack in New York City. She tried to grab a rifle while in detention and shot at military officers and FBI agents, for which she was convicted in New York in 2010 and is serving an 86-year sentence.

The 2009 booking photo of Tarek Mehanna, of Sudbury, Mass. (Photo: Sudbury Police Department via AP)

• Tarek Mehanna, who worshiped at the Cambridge mosque, was sentenced in 2012 to 17 years in prison for conspiring to aid al-Qaeda. Mehanna had traveled to Yemen to seek terrorist training and plotted to use automatic weapons to shoot up a mall in the Boston suburbs, federal investigators in Boston alleged.

• Ahmad Abousamra, the son of a former vice president of the Muslim American Society Boston Abdul-Badi Abousamra, was identified by the FBI as Mehanna’s co-conspirator. He fled to Syria and is wanted by the FBI on charges of providing support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill Americans in a foreign country.

• Jamal Badawi of Canada, a former trustee of the Islamic Society of Boston Trust, which owns both mosques, was named as a non-indicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial in Texas over the funneling of money to Hamas, which is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

What both mosques have in common is an affiliation with the Muslim American Society, an organization founded in 1993 that describes itself as an American Islamic revival movement. It has also been described by federal prosecutors in court as the “overt arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood, which calls for Islamic law and is the parent organization of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Critics say the Muslim American Society promotes a fraught relationship with the United States, expressed in part by the pattern discussed by Americans for Progress and Tolerance in which adherents are made to feel cut off from their home country and to identify with a global Islamist political community rather than with America.

Zhudi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said the radical teachings often follow a theme of recitation of grievances that Islam has with the West, advocacy against U.S. foreign policy and terrorism prosecutions, and efforts “to evangelize Islam in order to improve Western society that is secularized,” he says.

Jasser, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and author of the 2012 book A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot Fights to Save His Faith, says the teachings make some followers feel “like their national identity is completely absent and hollow, and that vacuum can be filled by (radical) Islamic ideology, which is supremacist and looks upon the West as evil.”

The Cambridge mosque was founded in 1982 by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and several other Boston-area schools, according to a profile by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Its members founded the sister mosque in Boston in 2009.

The leadership of the two mosques is intertwined, and the ideology they teach is the same, Jacobs said. Ilya Feoktistov, director of research at Americans for Peace and Tolerance, said much of the money to create the Boston mosque came not from local Muslims but from foreign sources.

More than half of the $15.5 million used to found the Boston mosque came from Saudi sources, Feoktistov said, who cites financial documents that Jacobs’ group obtained when the mosque sued it for defamation. The lawsuit was later dropped.

Vali said that the vast majority of total donors were in the United States and that “no donations were accepted if the donor wanted to have any decision-making influence (even if benign).”

Vali characterized Americans for Peace and Tolerance and its founder, Jacobs, as anti-Muslim activists who spread “lies and half-truths in order to attack and marginalize much of the local Muslim community and many of its institutions.”

“It’s the new McCarthyism in full swing,” he said.

Sheik Basyouny Nehela, the imam of the Cambridge mosque, which is located across the Charles River from Boston, is on the board of directors for the Muslim American Society of Boston, which runs the Boston mosque. The Tsarnaevs attended the Cambridge mosque.

A statement issued by the Cambridge mosque said the Tsarnaev brothers were “occasional visitors.” The mosque’s office manager, Nichole Mossalam, said neither brother expressed radical views. “They never exhibited any violent sentiments or behaviors. Otherwise, they would have been reported,” Mossalam said.

The Cambridge mosque said Tsarnaev, 26, who died Thursday night in a shootout with police, “disagreed with the moderate American-Islamic theology” of the mosque. Tsarnaev challenged an imam who said in his sermon that it was appropriate to celebrate U.S. national holidays and was told to stop such outbursts, the mosque said in a statement.

Talal Eid, a Muslim chaplain at Brandeis University, said focusing on individual radicals that prayed in a building is unfair.

“In 2011, the two brothers were right under the nose of the FBI and they didn’t find anything,” Eid said, who never met the Tsarnaevs. “How do you want me as an imam to know enough to tell them they are not welcome here? How can I figure out those people have that kind of criminal intent?”

The Muslim American Society says on its website that it is independent of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, early Brotherhood literature is considered “the foundational texts for the intellectual component for Islamic work in America,” the website states.

Jacobs says claims of moderate Islam do not square with the mosque’s classic jihadi texts in its library and its hosting of radical speakers.

Jacobs said Ahmed Mansour, his co-director at Americans for Peace and Tolerance, found writings by Syed Qutb, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and other jihadi texts at the Cambridge mosque’s library when Mansour went there in 2003. Qutb pioneered the radical violent ideology espoused by al-Qaeda.

Yusuf al Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader who espouses radical views in videos collected by Jacobs’ group, was listed as a trustee on the Cambridge mosque’s IRS filings until 2000, and on the mosque’s website until 2003, when he addressed congregants via recorded video message to raise money for the Boston mosque, according to a screenshot of the announcement that Feoktistov provided.

Vali said Qaradawi was listed as an honorary trustee years ago only because his scholarship and high esteem in Muslim circles would help with fundraising.

Yasir Qadhi, who lectured at the Boston mosque in April 2009, has advocated replacing U.S. democracy with Islamic rule and called Christians “filthy” polytheists whose “life and prosperity … holds no value in the state of Jihad,” according to a video obtained by Jacobs’ group.

Vali said Qadhi was a guest of a non-profit organization that was renting space at the Boston mosque and has changed his views since that video was made.

Jacobs and others say it is not only renters who express sympathetic views for terrorists. Leaders of the Boston and Cambridge mosques, and invited guests, have advocated on behalf of convicted terrorists, urging followers to seek their release or lenient sentences.

Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, sometimes a spokesman for the Boston mosque, used Siddiqui’s case to speak against the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law passed under the George W. Bush administration. “After they’re done with (Siddiqui), they are going to come to your door if they feel like it,” he said, according to a video obtained by Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

Anwar Kazmi, a member of the Cambridge mosque’s board of trustees, called for leniency for Mehanna and Siddiqui at a Boston rally in February 2012, in a video posted to YouTube. He characterized Siddiqui’s 86-year sentence as excessive.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Kazmi insisted that the Cambridge mosque is moderate and condemns the marathon bombings. On Monday, the mosque e-mailed members to caution them that the FBI may question them and that they may want to seek representation.

“This kind of violence, terrorism, it’s just completely contrary to the spirit of Islam,” Kasmi said. “The words in the Quran say if anybody kills even a single human being without just cause, it’s as if you’ve killed all of humanity.”

First commercial flight between Egypt and Iran for 34 years

3-31-13 CAIRO (Reuters) – The first commercial flight between Egypt and Iran in 34 years took off on Saturday, the latest step towards normalising ties broken following the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution.

              Egypt and Iran agreed to resume direct flights in October 2010 before President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power, but no flights were made.

              “A flight by Air Memphis, owned by Egyptian businessman Rami Lakah, took off from Cairo to Tehran earlier on Saturday carrying eight Iranians including diplomats,” one airport official said adding that the airline could later carry out more tourist and business trips between Egypt and Iran.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and Egypt were cut in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran when the government in Cairo gave sanctuary to the deposed shah.

              But ties improved over the years, and have become significantly better since the election of Islamist Mohamed Mursi as president of Egypt in June 2012.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt in February, the first visit by an Iranian leader to Cairo in more than three decades, and called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and offered a loan to the cash-strapped Arab state.

              Mursi visited Iran in August to attend an international summit where he initiated a quartet committee that included Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to discuss ways to end the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia later left the group.

http://news.yahoo.com/first-commercial-flight-between-egypt-iran-34-years-103430177.html

Secret jihadi army created by Muslim American group; undercover NYPD informant reveals details in new book

Christian Action Network: For more information call 434-237-8201

FOREST, VA—An informant with the New York Police Department (NYPD) , who worked for eight years undercover in Muslim American compounds, reveals that the group known as Muslims of the Americas has been training its members to wage jihad—holy war—against American citizens for decades, and has created a secret jihadi army within the United States.

The undercover informant, Ali Aziz of New York, was drafted by the NYPD to inform on Muslims of the Americas (MOA) as part of a long-term, ongoing surveillance program of potential Islamic terrorist activity conducted by the NYPD.

Aziz, who said he wants to tell his story and put an end to his double life, insists he has given enough information of criminal activity—including guerilla training exercises; stockpiling illegal weapons; welfare fraud; physical abuse of women, children and elderly MOA members; forced polygamous marriages—to law enforcement to shut down the camps.

Aziz’s story is told in a new book published by PRB Publishing, Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terror Training Camps in America, by Christian Action Network President Martin Mawyer. In it, Aziz reveals that MOA has established a secret army of well-trained Islamists who are ready to attack “at one word” from their leader in Pakistan, Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani.

“It’s very simple,” Ali says in the book. “MOA is asleep. They are asleep. They are a bomb.” 

MOA was founded in the 1980s by Sheikh Gilani as a front group for the more radical terrorist network known as Jamaat Al Fuqra (“community of the impoverished”).  The group has recruited mostly from the black community, beginning in New York City where Gilani began cementing power. Since then, Al Fuqra has been linked to at least 17 terrorist-related crimes in the United States going back to the 1980s, among them welfare fraud, white-collar crimes, gun running, firebombing, drug crimes, weapons crimes and murder.

An Al Fuqra member was convicted in 2009 of murdering a rival imam in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990, after stabbing him at least 19 times. The group was also involved in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the Day of Terror plot in 1993—in which numerous New York City landmarks, including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, were targeted for attack.

In Twilight in America, Aziz describes his work as an undercover informant for the NYPD, how they promised to make his immigration problems go away if he would provide them with information about his associates within MOA.

“This is what the NYPD had wanted for the past 20 years,” Aziz said of his move to the Hancock, New York, headquarters of MOA. “They wanted someone living inside the Hancock camp who’s an undercover informant.”

Aziz’s martial arts skills were highly valued within MOA, and they drafted him to help train recruits and members. Because of his education and ability to speak both Arabic and English, Aziz worked closely with the MOA leadership, including Hancock leader Barry (Hussein) Adams, who Aziz says will one day become the leader of MOA worldwide.

Crimes committed by MOA members go beyond financial, drug running and thievery, Aziz revealed. “A lot of the children that grow up there become drug dealers. Some become murderers …

“I was providing information to the NYPD about people who committed some very serious crimes. I’m talking about  … What is the worse crime you can commit?

“I have evidence … bad people. And people got hurt very badly. And guess what? The crimes haven’t been solved. The NYPD can solve these crimes. They could solve them. They have the evidence.”

It’s unclear how many MOA compounds are in existence today. At one time the State Department identified 35 compounds in rural areas of the United States, including: Philadelphia, Pa.; Fairfax, Va.; Redhouse, Va.; York, S.C.; Commerce, Ga.; Jessup, Ga.; Buena Vista, Co. (raided and shut down in 1992); Baladulla, Ca. (raided and shut down in 2002); and more.

As noted above, several compounds been shut down after law enforcement raids discovered illegal activity being conducted. Others have purposely disbanded, according to Aziz, with members assimilating into nearby neighborhoods. This is what Aziz meant when he said “they are asleep,” according to the author.

The most shocking revelation came when Aziz told the author of Twilight in America that MOA has formed a secret army within the United States ready to carry out Sheikh Gilani’s orders. Although he said MOA no longer does “mass military training” at its camps—because they know they are being watched by law enforcement—they still have members ready to be called up.

“It’s like a formed military squad,” Aziz says in the book. “It’s certain groups. Certain individuals. Certain names. Certain guys. It is a very, very select group they have. It’s a lot of people. But it’s not like they train every day. It’s various people training in different positions.”

Twilight in America also delves into the kidnapping, beheading and dismemberment in 2002 of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Pearl was in Pakistan investigating links between the shoebomber (Richard Reid) and Al Fuqra/MOA. Pearl was on his way to an interview in Pakistan with Sheikh Gilani when he was kidnapped. Although Gilani was briefly detained and questioned in 2002 in Pakistan following Pearl’s death, he was released and never charged. In his book, Mawyer researches the links between the self-confessed murderer of Pearl, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Gilani and other terrorists involved in the kidnapping.

“Muslims of the Americas pretends to be a peaceful organization of poor Muslims who want to live separated from the rest of the world, free to practice their religion away from American influences,” says author Mawyer. “Nothing could be further from the truth. There are so many connections to terrorist activity, not to mention connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and proven, prosecuted acts of terrorism, white-collar crime and outright murder, that law enforcement needs to shut these camps down.”

Mawyer believes the information provided by Aziz, as well as other undercover informants, is more than enough to raid the camps, rescue the abused members, and shut them down—but law enforcement at all levels is afraid to act against them for fear of being labeled anti-Muslim.

“I hope this book is a wake-up call to American citizens,” said Mawyer. “It is not a question of being anti-Muslim to investigate and shut these camps. It is a question of being anti-terrorism … and keeping America safe.” 

Mawyer is the founder and President of Christian Action Network, a non-profit public advocacy and education group based in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mawyer has authored several books, including Silent Shame, The Pro-Family Contract With America and Pathways to Success. He has also produced a number of documentary films, including Homegrown Jihad, Islam Rising, Sacrificed Survivors and America’s Islamic Threat. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Larry King Live, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, NBC’s Today Show and Entertainment Tonight.

Co-Author Patti A. Pierucci is an award-winning journalist and documentary scriptwriter. She has worked as a ghostwriter for numerous national personalities, including members of Congress.

Martin Mawyer is the Founder and President of Christian Action Network, a non-profit public advocacy and education group based in Lynchburg, Virginia. He began his career as a freelance journalist and has authored several books, including “Silent Shame,” “The Pro-Family Contract With America,” “Pathways to Success,” and his most recent, “Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.” He has produced a number of documentary films, including Homegrown Jihad, Islam Rising, Sacrificed Survivors and America’s Islamic Threat. Mawyer has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Larry King Live, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, NBC’s Today Show, Entertainment Tonight and Fox and Friends.  His latest book, “Twilight in America,” co-authored by Patti A. Pierucci, details the activities of Islamic terrorist training camps scattered throughout the United States. It can be purchased at TwilightInAmerica.com or Amazon.com in book or Kindle version

http://www.christianaction.org/new-book-twilight-in-america-just-released/

Hamas-linked CAIR-Arizona chairman leads Arizona lawmakers in anti-Jewish, anti-Christian prayer

Jihad Watch

“Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading of al-Fatiha…”

The Fatihah, the first sura of the Qur’an, contains this:

“Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray.” (1:6-7)

The traditional Islamic understanding of this is that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path. The path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those who have gone astray are the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”

Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist” interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who have gone astray. This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone astray are the people of immoderation.”

Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia. Some Western commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation, and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and Christians. They found it inconceivable that Muslims all over the world would learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith anathematizes Jews and Christians.

But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes, since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case, and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews and Christians are being criticized here. Seventeen times a day, by the pious. And in the Arizona State Senate, with the willing participation of the foolish kuffar.

“CAIR-AZ Chairman Leads Prayer on Arizona Senate Floor,” from CAIR Arizona, February 7:

On Thursday, February 7th, 2013 – the Arizona State Senate’s prayer invocation was led by Anas Hlayhel – the Chairman of the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ.)Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading of al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Holy Quran) in addition to an additional prayer thereafter….

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/02/hamas-linked-cair-arizona-chairman-leads-arizona-lawmakers-in-anti-jewish-anti-christian-prayer.html

Our New Jihadist CIA Director

Obama’s CIA nominee Brennan: Islam “helped to shape my own world view”

as seen at http://www.jihadwatch.com 1/11/2013

Brennan retails a benign, positive view of jihad that completely ignores the teaching of all the Islamic schools of jurisprudence, which agree that jihad, among its other meanings, involves warfare against unbelievers in order to subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law.

“Islam ‘Helped to Shape’ CIA Nominee John Brennan’s World View,” by Patrick Goodenough for CNS News, January 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):

(CNSNews.com) – As a college student in the 1970s, John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee for CIA director, traveled in Indonesia where – he recalled in a speech in New York in 2010 – “despite my long hair, my earring and my obvious American appearance, I was welcomed throughout that country, in a way that is a reflection of the tremendous warmth of Islamic cultures and societies.”

Brennan’s Feb. 13, 2010 address to a meeting at the Islamic Center at New York University, facilitated by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), provided an insight into his views on Islam, a faith which he said during the speech had “helped to shape my own world view.”

Travels around the world over more than three decades had taught him about “the goodness and beauty of Islam,” said Brennan, whose 25-year career at the CIA until 2005 included a stint as station chief in Riyadh.

“Like the president during his childhood years in Jakarta, I came to see Islam not how it is often misrepresented, but for what it is – how it is practiced every day, by well over a billion Muslims worldwide, a faith of peace and tolerance and great diversity.”

In the speech, during which he drew applause after speaking in Arabic for more than a minute, Brennan used terms evidently designed to appeal to his audience, such as “Al-Quds” for Jerusalem, “Palestine” and “as the Qur’an reveals” – in keeping with the Muslim belief that the Qur’an was “revealed” directly by Allah to Mohammed through the angel Jibril (Gabriel).

He condemned what he said were negative stereotypes in the U.S. about Muslims and hostility towards Islam, adding that government actions and policies had contributed to the problem but saying this would change under Obama….

As Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, Brennan – a Jesuit-educated Catholic – has played a prominent role in the administration’s outreach to Muslims, American Muslims especially. He has also been a leading proponent of the effort to stop using terms many Muslims find offensive, such as “jihadist” as a descriptor for terrorists acting in the name of Islam.

“They are not jihadists,” he told the NYU audience in 2010, “for jihad is a holy struggle, an effort to purify, for a legitimate purpose. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing holy or pure or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.”

Brennan had made similar comments the previous August, telling a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that “describing terrorists in this way, using the legitimate term ‘jihad’ – which means to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal – risks giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve.”

The administration’s National Security Strategy, released three months after the NYU speech, repeatedly used variations of the phrase “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” in identifying the enemy. The term “jihadist” and did not appear in the 52-page document and the word “Islam” appeared twice – the U.S. was not fighting a war against Islam, it said, and “neither Islam nor any other religion condones the slaughter of innocents.”

(By contrast the Bush administration’s 2006 NSS stated that “the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century,” although it also said that Islam “has been twisted and made to serve an evil end.”)

When he previewed the NSS document in a speech several days before the launch, Brennan said, “Our enemy is not terrorism because terrorism is but a tactic. Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself or one’s community.”

Newspapers in the Islamic world routinely use the term “jihadist” (or, in South Asia, “jihadi”) in their news reporting on terrorist acts, without suggesting that the term has been misappropriated.

Israel withholds Palestinian funds after U.N. vote

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday it was withholding this month’s transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, after the United Nations’ de facto recognition of a Palestinian state.

Under interim peace deals, which Israel says the Palestinians violated by unilaterally seeking an upgrade of their status at the United Nations, it collects about $100 million a month in duties on behalf of the authority.

But, Israeli officials said, the authority owes about $200 million to the Israel Electric Corporation, and that money will now be deducted from the tax transfers.

The cash-strapped authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, largely depends on the tax money to pay civil servants’ salaries. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official, said Israel was guilty of “piracy and theft” by refusing to hand over the funds.

Israel has previously frozen payments to the body during times of heightened security and diplomatic tensions, provoking strong international criticism, such as when the U.N. cultural body UNESCO granted the Palestinians full membership a year ago.

“I do not intend this month to transfer the funds to the Palestinians. In the coming period I intend to use the money to deduct debts the Palestinian Authority owes to the Israel Electric Corporation and other bodies,” Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Israel Radio.

The U.N. victory for the Palestinians was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against upgrading the Palestinians’ observer status at the U.N. to “non-member state”, like the Vatican, from “entity”.

Hours after the U.N. vote, Israel said it was authorizing 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and expediting planning work for thousands more dwellings in a geographically sensitive area close to Jerusalem, which critics said would kill off Palestinian hopes of a viable state.

The United States said the expansion plan, which also drew strong European criticism, was counterproductive to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks frozen since 2010.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Pravin Char)

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-withholds-palestinian-funds-u-n-vote-113933165.html

Report: Hezbollah Has Set Up Base Camp in Mexico Near Border

Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, May 5, 2011

The terrorists are setting up shop across the border in Mexico.  But don’t worry.  They’re only partnering with the drug cartels. 10 Newsreported:

A terrorist organization whose home base is in the Middle East has established another home base across the border in Mexico.

“They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News.

The former agent, referring to Shi’a Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, added, “They certainly have had successes in big-ticket bombings.”

“We are looking at 15 or 20 years that Hezbollah has been setting up shop in Mexico,” the agent told 10News.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. policy has focused on al-Qaida and its offshoots.

“They are more shooters than thinkers … it’s a lot of muscles, courage, desire but not a lot of training,” the agent said, referring to al-Qaida.

Hezbollah, he said, is far more advanced.

“Their operators are far more skilled … they are the equals of Russians, Chinese or Cubans,” he said. “I consider Hezbollah much more dangerous in that sense because of strategic thinking; they think more long-term.”

Hezbolah has operated in South America for decades and then Central America, along with their sometime rival, sometime ally Hamas.

Now, the group is blending into Shi’a Muslim communities in Mexico, including Tijuana. Other pockets along the U.S.-Mexico border region remain largely unidentified as U.S. intelligence agencies are focused on the drug trade.

“They have had clandestine training in how to live in foreign hostile territories,” the agent said.

The agent, who has spent years deep undercover in Mexico, said Hezbollah is partnering with drug organizations, but which ones is not clear at this time.

He told 10News the group receives cartel cash and protection in exchange for Hezbollah expertise.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/05/report-hezbollah-has-set-up-base-camp-in-mexico-near-border/

US and the World Silent As Iran, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Sunni Muslim Palestinian Group Relentlessly Attack Israel

Russ Jones, ReligionToday.com Contributor Monday, November 19, 2012

Last week, Israel Defense Forces(IDF) launched air strikes in retaliation for rocket attacks from the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas, which primarily operates in the West Bank. More than 900 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since the assassination of the commander of the Hamas military wing, Ahmed Jabari. Two missiles hit Tel Aviv Friday November 16 and others fired at Jerusalem. No injuries or damage were reported.

Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 12,000 at Israel in the past 12 years. The IDF says it will do whatever is necessary to protect Israeli citizens and “cripple the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”

The Palestinian Authority has joined Hamas, the Sunni Muslim Palestinian extremist group based in the Gaza Strip, in its attacks against Israel. Additionally, intelligence shows Iran is supplying Hamas with Iranian-made Fajr-5 long-range missiles. Terrorists continue to stockpile more than 10,000 rockets in Gaza. These long-range missiles and rockets have forced families into bomb shelters and bunkers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the regular weekly cabinet meeting that the IDF “is prepared for a significant expansion of its operation.”

Netanyahu said he would continue to speak to world leaders and emphasize “the effort Israel is making to avoid hitting civilians, and this at a time when Hamas and the [other] terrorist organizations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel.”

The Foreign Ministry said it was the first time a missile was fired at Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war. The Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted hundreds of missiles fired at major population centers in Israel.

Gaza health official, Ashraf al-Kidra, reports that the death toll has risen to some 70 Palestinians, both terrorists and civilians. Three Israelis were killed last Thursday.

Life Under Rocket Fire

While many Israelis are all too familiar with living with the threat of war, being in the Holy Land during a time such as this brings a heightened sense of anxiety.

“As I write these words, the beauty of Bethlehem is dipped into a pungent mist of burning tires and tear gas,”  Brian Schrauger, a social media consultant living in Bethlehem, wrote in an email. “It permeates the atmosphere and has slithered through the open windows into my room. I hope it dissipates before I head to bed.”

And in another email:

“I was out all day in Herzliya and Ra’anana near Tel Aviv,” Schrauger continued. “It was nice. I’m back now to another night of burning tire smoke laced with tear gas permeating the air in Bethlehem. Booms and sirens echo in the distance. Taxis are not seen. Word is, a growing confrontation is brewing by the [security] wall.”

For Sarit Haim, life has always been frightening. She lives near Tel Aviv where rockets from Gaza fly pass her house almost monthly.

She worries whenever she goes to work or when she sends her children to school and even when she is out shopping for groceries.

“The thought that you are not safe is horrifying,” she said. “I cannot imagine the life of the people who don’t know where to flee because their houses are not safe.”

While Haim is further away from the fighting, her fellow countrymen aren’t so fortunate.

The International Fellowship of Christians (The Fellowship) and Jews has pledged aid to communities in southern Israel. The Fellowship has pledged a $2.7 million emergency and security aid package, which includes supplies for people in Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Sdot Negev and Eshkol. Funds will help with new security projects, food, clothing and medical care, among other assistance.

”With 20 percent of the nation’s people in bomb shelters today, improving the security of the residents of the south is a vital priority for The Fellowship,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and CEO of The Fellowship. “The untenable situation of more than 1 million residents living under constant threat of rocket fire must top the list of concerns of every friend of Israel. We are working hand-in-hand with the Israel Ministry for Home Front Defense and the IDF, and we will continue to cooperate to ensure the security of Israel’s people.”

U.S., Other World Powers Mostly Silent

Five days into air attacks between Israel and Hamas, President Obama said Sunday that Israel has “every right” to defend itself against missile attacks by terrorists inside Gaza.

Obama said at a press conference in Thailand, “Let’s understand what the precipitating event here that’s causing the current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there’s no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

In the wake of the recent Hamas attacks, several lawmakers backed a House resolution expressing support for Israel’s right to act in self-defense.

New Jersey congressman Leonard Lance called for an end to the mounting terrorist attacks on Israel and urged President Barack Obama to stand with Israel, a close American ally in the Middle East.

The seventh congressional district lawmaker supported a bipartisan congressional resolution the House approved expressing support for Israel’s “inherent right to act in self-defense.” The U.S. Senate approved an identical measure late Friday, November 16, by unanimous consent.

“The resolution expresses unwavering commitment to the security of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure borders, and recognizes and strongly supports its inherent right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against acts of terrorism,” said Lance.

“I am pleased the U.S. House in bipartisan manner reaffirmed America’s longstanding belief that Israel has every right to live in peace and defend itself,” said Lance. “When nearly 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets are being fired into Israel and killing innocent Israeli citizens, America must firmly stand with Israel and denounce the recent terrorist attacks by Hamas and others.”

Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said, “During these tumultuous times, it is important for President Obama to reiterate his unwavering support for our natural ally, Israel, and for Prime Minister Netanyahu. We must stand with Israel. Saying or doing nothing is a sign of weakness that will embolden the radical Islamic terrorists.”

“I am in regular contact with Israelis in Israel who provide me with first-hand accounts. The Israeli people are strong and resolved. They want peace, and they are determined to defend themselves against terrorists. They have that right and we must support them,” concluded Staver.

Anti-Israel Media Bias

CEO and founder of News Corporation and the creator of Fox Broadcasting Rupert Murdoch used Twitter to lash out at CNN and the Associated Press for biased anti-Israel coverage.

He tweeted: “Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?”

Earlier in the day, he also tweeted:

@rupertmurdoch: “Middle East ready to boil over any day. Israel position precarious. Meanwhile watch CNN and AP bias to point of embarrassment.”

Murdoch apologized for his “Jewish owned press” comments Sunday.

While it is uncertain whether there will be a ground invasion of Gaza, both the IDF and al-Qassam, Hamas’ military wing, have waged a war of words using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media outlets to get out their differing perspectives.

An IDF spokesman requested “no one posts anything on Facebook about where rockets and grads are falling and where sirens are being heard. Hamas intelligence can see all these posts and it can inadvertently help them with where to aim their rockets!!! Everyone take note and share.”

Expecting to find a general consensus from the Israeli population, however, Jonathan David, radio news anchor for Israel Today Magazine, said he discovered more diverse opinions than he anticipated. David maintains many Israelis found European news reports to be more biased than American coverage.

“There is a saying — if you ask 10 Israelis for their opinion, you will get 11 in return,” said David.

But David argues that most believers in Israel are united in their view of world events in the Middle East.

“Believers in Israel are more biblically literate and understand more about prophecy than American Christianity,” he said. “Americans are biblically illiterate compared to the believers in Israel. Believers here believe the Lord is in control and that ultimately enemies of Israel will be destroyed, according to Scripture.”

Russ Jones is a 25-year award-winning journalist and correspondent. He is co-publisher of various Christian news sites such as ChristianPress.com, OxfordFamily.com and a media consultant to a number of political and cause-oriented campaigns. He is also a freelance correspondent for the American Family Radio Network, a regular contributor for ReligionToday.com, Crosswalk.com and various Christian TV networks. He has been a guest on such programs as the Mike Gallagher Show, the Dennis Prager Show and Sandy Rios in the Morning. Jones holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia and St. Paul School of Theology. Russ is married to Jackie and together they have four children. He may be reached at russ@russjones.me or Facebook.com/russjones.

Publication date: November 19, 2012

http://www.religiontoday.com/news/israel-operation-pillar-of-defense-continues.html

YouTube Blocks ‘Anti-Mohammed’ Video, Not Taliban Terror Videos

Written by sup_admin, in News

By State Capital NewsFeed on October 8, 2012

 “Those who came here insulting Islam and the Koran, I will take revenge on them,” said a Taliban suicide bomber with a chilling smile. Moments later he drove a truck loaded with 10,000 kg of explosives into U.S. Forward-Operating Base Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, killing two U.S. soldiers.

It was all captured on a Taliban propaganda video narrated by an Al Jazeera reporter. It’s currently available for anyone to see on YouTube. More shocking, the Taliban have their own YouTube channel, though it is mostly dormant.

Yet when the White House pushed YouTube to censor a movie “offensive” to Muslims, YouTube made it unavailable for viewing in Islamic countries.

“The Innocence of Muslims” stands accused of starting the Islamic riots raging around multiple U.S. embassies, and it is now blocked in Egypt, Libya, India, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile YouTube does little to police jihadist videos, which often given a veneer of journalistic respectability by having been broadcast by the anti-American and anti-Israel Al Jazeera network.

Al-Jazeera serves as more or less a propaganda outlet for jihad, broadcasting footage of killed and captured American soldiers, ignoring Palestinian terrorism and coloring reports to enflame Muslim opinion against the West. The network has regularly failed to assist the U.S. government in tracing video sources provided to the channel by al-Qaeda operatives.

(None of that, by the way, matters to liberal American journalists, who’ve advocated wider U.S. cable distribution for Al Jazeera English.)

One video featured on the Taliban channel is of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Sgt. Bergdahl is the only American prisoner-of-war from the Afghan conflict, and is rumored to be held captive by the militant Pakistan-based Haqqani network.

“The videos show a steep decline in Bowe’s appearance and mental health. In the first two videos he displays a measured calm, a kind of doped-out serenity that is missing from the most recent installments. Each is typical jihadist propaganda, using Bowe to recite lines criticizing American foreign policy,” Mark McDonald of the International Herald Tribune reported in June.

According to David Reaboi, the vice-president of Strategic Communications at the Center for Security Policy, videos like this are common on YouTube. “There are a ton of doctrinal pro-Jihad videos available,” he said. “A few weeks ago I flagged a video, and it’s still there.”

The most gruesome finds include videos of Taliban soldiers posing with severed heads, and a public execution of a woman accused of adultery. Footage of Taliban training tactics are easily obtained through a simple search.

“America Will Not Be Able to Succeed”

The video of the attack on FOB Salerno remain published on YouTube. They’re a typical example of Jihadi propaganda.

“The documentary-style video was released by an al-Qaeda-friendly Islamist group. The brazen assault was carried out on June 1 at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan,” The Daily Mail reported.

It lovingly detailed the planning of the operation and the training. A Taliban operative showcased his skill with firearms by firing two machine guns at once. Terrorists were shown in what looks like American combat uniforms during live fire training with assault rifles, rockets and grenades.

Later, the terrorists gather around a mock-up of FOB Salerno and discuss the best way to infiltrate it while viewing satellite images. They load 10,000 kg of explosives into a truck and before the attack commences the driver smiles, saying “America will not be able to succeed.” He encouraged other to join the cause of Jihad.

Those horrifying words were his last, and minutes later the truck drove into Camp Salerno and exploded. Flames and smoke engulfed the screen as the base is leveled. The explosion is recorded from three different angles, while gleeful jihadists chant “Allahu Akbar,” translated as “God is greater.”

The video is rudimentary propaganda, meant to help recruit young Muslims and demoralize Westerners. Yet the “Innocence of Muslims,” not the video glorifying the killing of American soldiers, is censored by YouTube.

Reaboi told CMI this problem extends to Facebook along with YouTube.

“Facebook does the same thing. There was a group called the “Sharia War on Women” which explained how mainstream Islamic law hurts women. It disappeared overnight, and Facebook took it down because it was declared ‘hate speech’ by Muslims,” Reaboi said.

Free Speech Under Fire

America’s freedom of speech consistently incites Islamic anger, and America’s media desperately grasp at any chance to depict the “fragility” of Islam or fawn over the “compassionate Taliban.”

Rep. Ted Poe (R) of Texas expressed concern about the White House asking YouTube to remove the video.

“It is concerning that the president has no problem telling a private entity what it should do, but he has continued to remain silent on the multiple YouTube videos uploaded by terrorists. These videos are aimed to recruit new members and promote attacks on America, which are not protected under free speech,” Rep. Poe said in a statement.

The Washington Post reported Google implicitly invoked the concept of “clear and present danger” when the company blocked “The Innocence of Muslims.”

“‘Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter now play this adjudicatory role on free speech,’ said Andrew McLaughlin, a former top policy official at Google who later worked the Obama White House as deputy chief technology officer,” The Post reported in September.

YouTube defended its position and cited the company’s terms of use. In the terms the company encouraged “free speech and defends everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view,” but the site does not permit hate speech.

YouTube did not respond to any of CMI’s attempts to contact them.

http://www.christianaction.org/youtube-blocks-anti-mohammed-video-not-taliban-terror-videos/