Category Archives: al-Qaeda

Yemen plot to blow up multiple US aircraft: Ongoing

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This is a current event. Fox has good ongoing coverage of this here.

In a nutshell, it appears that several similar or identical packages have been found on multiple aircraft. The number being kicked around is a dozen. They are modified printer toner cartridges containing a white powder with wires attached to them.

From FOX:

DEVELOPING: International law enforcement agencies are investigating several suspicious UPS packages that originated in Yemen and were destined for the United States.

Authorities were examining packages found on UPS planes at Philadelphia International Airport, Newark Airport, a UPS truck in Queens, NY and another plane that was destined for Chicago but stopped in the East Midlands airport in the U.K.

A crew member aboard an inbound UPS plane from Paris, France notified authorities on approach about a suspicious package. The crew member described a possible radiological component to the package, the incident report said. The two occupants safely exited the aircraft after landing in a remote area of the airport.

A second UPS plane was isolated near the UPS terminal at the Philadelphia airport before take off.

Both planes remain under investigation.

Bare Naked Islam seems to be on top of this one as well.

France stands by its law banning burqa-like Muslim veils despite a threatening new message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday.

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NEWSER

In a recently released audio tape, bin Laden threatens to kill French citizens in revenge for France’s law to ban Muslim veils that cover the face, and because France has troops in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy confirmed that France believes the tape is authentic and said the country would not back down from the new rule.

“Obviously, France doesn’t let anyone dictate its policies, and certainly not terrorists,” Sarkozy said at a European Union summit in Brussels.

Sarkozy said his country has made its choice and that it doesn’t want women in France “trapped behind pieces of fabric.”

France says that ensuring gender equality and women’s dignity _ and upholding a tradition of secularism _ are among the reasons France is outlawing fully covering Islamic veils, like niqabs, which hide all but the eyes. The measure has already become law but does not take effect until April. Many Muslims have expressed fears it will stigmatize them.

Asked by a reporter about French hostages being held by suspected Islamic militants, Sarkozy said France was working to secure their release.

“I didn’t need a message from Mr. bin Laden to know to be worried about them,” Sarkozy said.

Five French citizens and two Africans were kidnapped in Niger on Sept. 16, and an offshoot of bin Laden’s terror group called al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility. In another abduction, two French reporters and their Afghan guides were taken hostage in Afghanistan on Dec. 29.

Islam and Women’s rights. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. C-SPAN

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Once again, a brilliant expose of the factual nature of Islam today and its consequences to a secular West with an emphasis on women’s rights. This is just under an hour.

Iraq al Qaeda more lethal as homegrown insurgency

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By Suadad al-SalhyPosted 2010/10/26 at 8:43 am EDT

BAGHDAD, Oct. 26, 2010 (Reuters) — Al Qaeda’s Iraqi branch has evolved into a homegrown, more lethal and bolder insurgency comprised of Iraqi fighters hardened in U.S. prisons and posing a challenge to Iraqi forces, military officials say.

The insurgency has been strategically weakened by the deaths of leaders, and both its numbers and the territory in which it can maneuver have shrunk since 2006-07, when Sunni tribal chiefs turned on it and joined forces with the U.S. military.

But what Iraqi officials call the “third generation” of al Qaeda in Iraq may be more difficult to fight than before because its fighters can blend in, know the weaknesses of Iraqi society, and are more interested in making a spectacular splash with their attacks than in battlefield victories.

Their assaults are aimed at grabbing attention and rattling the population at a time when sectarian tensions are fraught because of the failure of politicians to agree on a new Iraqi government seven months after an inconclusive election.

“We face the third generation of al-Qaeda now, a generation that mostly graduated from (U.S. detention camps) Bucca, Cropper and other such places,” said Major General Hassan al-Baidhani, chief of staff for the Baghdad operations command.

Al Qaeda has shown “a new type of boldness,” attacking heavily protected targets and security forces head on, Baidhani told Reuters. “This strategy depends basically on shock. They are not looking for success as much as looking for attention.”

Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is battling to retain his job, opposed by the Sunni-backed, secular Iraqiya alliance of ex-premier Iyad Allawi and some erstwhile Shi’ite allies.

If Iraqiya ends up being sidelined, the Sunnis who voted for it in March may react in outrage and return to supporting the Sunni Islamist insurgency, security officials say.

In the run-up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein’s regime of having links to al Qaeda as part of its campaign to bolster support for war.

No ties were ever proven but al Qaeda was quick to take advantage of the post-invasion chaos to establish a presence in Iraq.

for the rest, world daily:

Washington Times on Hasan, the Ft. Hood Jihadi

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EDITORIAL: Death for Hasan

Justice demands execution for murderous jihadist soldier

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Washington Times

7:02 p.m., Thursday, October 21, 2010

Mugshot** FILE ** U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan is pictured at the Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas, in April 2010. (AP Photo/Bell County Sheriff’s Department, File)

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan deserves the death penalty for perpetrating the Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood massacre. He has earned this penalty not only for the scale of his crime – the worst domestic attack on a military installation in American history, killing 13 and wounding 32 – but also for the purposeful way he planned and executed the assault, his jihadist motives and for the fundamental betrayal of the trust placed in him as an officer in the United States Army.

Witness testimony at the ongoing Article 32 hearings in a military court at Fort Hood paints a harrowing picture of Hasan as a heartless, ideologically motivated killer. The judge, Col. James Pohl, has asked for testimony from all the wounded survivors of the attack. Hasan was heavily armed, with over 300 rounds of ammunition, of which he expended at least 146. He did not fire randomly but carefully chose targets with a laser sight before firing multiple rounds into his panicked, unarmed victims. He showed no mercy to them, and deserves none himself.

Maj. Steven Richter, who testified via webcam from his current post in South Korea, recalled telling the police, “He’s one of us.” But more accurately, Hasan is one of them, an al Qaeda-inspired Islamic extremist who prefaced his assault with the jihadist war cry “Allahu Akbar!” His fateful moment was facilitated by a string of intelligence failures and oversights motivated by an overweening and persistent sense of political correctness in the military establishment.

For the rest of this excellent editorial please click through to the WT here

TALIBAN WEAPONS CARRYING SHIP CAUGHT OFF S.KOREAN COAST

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The Taliban and Hamas and Fattah are all terrorists

The destination for these weapons was the Palestinian Authority. Let’s see here, Taliban = al-Qaida, Taliban running weapons to the Arabs in the “Disputed Territories” = the Arab terrorists there in cahoots with al-Qaida. So an al-Qaida- Fakestinian Arabs nexus does exist. So why are the Europeans and the Obama administration so interested in doing business with Hamas & Fattah terrorist thugs who are aligned with the jihad? KGS

Trend: “Taliban elements have illegally entered South Korea, local media reported Friday citing an unidentified intelligence source, Xinhua reported. South Korea’s intelligence authorities, in collaboration with Interpol, seized a vessel carrying strategic weapons material heading to the Palestinian territories, and are now running after Taliban insurgents in the country, Seoul Newspaper said. The Taliban members targeted South Korea due to its lack of systematic control of strategic weapons, the newspaper said.”

French minister: Saudis warn of new terror threat

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Washington Post:

PARIS — Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from al-Qaida in Europe, “notably France,” Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday.

He said the warning of a potential attack by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was received “in the last few hours, few days.”

Europeans were informed that “al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active” on the “European continent, notably France,” Hortefeux said during a joint TV and radio interview.

“The threat is real,” he said on RTL-LCI-Le Figaro’s weekly talk show.

The word of a potential attack by Islamist radicals is the latest in a series of warnings after alerts from the international police organization Interpol and the United States.

The U.S. State Department advised American citizens living or traveling in Europe earlier this month to take more precautions following reports that terrorists may be plotting attacks on a European city, possibly a shooting spree or other type of attack similar to the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks in India.

Continue Reading →

Why Niger is right. Europe and Canada should be fighting with them.

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First, here is the AFP story referred to in teh SITREP by STRATFOR in an earlier post:

European countries must reinforce north African armies battling Islamist militants or the security situation will deteriorate and they will be forced to move, a senior Niger official said Friday.

“When speaking of security, Europe thinks of closing up, securing the interior and the borders, but the principal security of Europe is the security and development of Africa,” said Amadou Marou, president of the National Consultative Council that is managing the country’s political transition following a military coup in February.

His comments follow the kidnapping last month of five French nationals, a Madagascan and a Togolese from an uranium mining town in Niger by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

AQIM, which has exploited the vast spaces of the Sahara desert and Sahel scrub-land to stage attacks in a number of countries in the region, is believed to be holding the prisoners in a mountainous desert region in northeastern Mali.

“Somalia got away from us and northern Mali is in the process of getting away from us,” said Marou, speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of a meeting organised by the lay Catholic community Sant’Egidio.

“If the Europeans don’t reinforce security in this area, they’ll have to move,” he added.

North African counter-terrorism experts held two days of meetings this past week with their G8 counterparts on how to step up regional cooperation and battle Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda.

“The Sahel is very fragile, fertile ground for all sorts of terror and trafficking,” said Marou.

© ANP/AFP

He certainly has a point. Europeans have to get a handle on their own immigration most certainly as does the rest of the infidel world. But if Islam (radical, orthodox, traditional, whatever you want to call it) is to be fought, it must be fought where it is taking massive amounts of territory and resources away from more or less secular and more or less rational peoples.

We cannot for example, claim to be fighting Islam and attempting to curb its growing influence in Western nations while packing up and leaving Afghanistan or watching Somali militants grow in power and territory, threatening neighbouring nations and peoples and attacking non-Muslim peoples all over Africa, especially Christians and those opposed to draconian (as if there was any other kind) Islamic rule. Sooner or later, we will face off with islam in a more or less conventional military scenario. But the longer we wait, the higher the cost in blood and treasure.

Imagine Muslims like the Somali, Al-Shabab manage to get control of significant parts of North Africa land and sea. That they manage to destabilize governments in Africa that actually allow development and growth for their people, and eitehr stop the export of resources, or take control of those resources and force even more concessions of freedoms and secular laws from the west in exchange for their resources. So far, its just oil. Wait till its fertilizer materials, metals, other strategic resources.

The right time, and the cheap time to fight Islam is now, and partially in North Africa, and arguably in Afghanistan. We can win it now. Imagine the cost in 10 years.

Setting the record straight on the Khadr family.

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Found this story over at Blazing Cat Fur:

Sins of the Father: ‘Ahmed Khadr was very close to bin Laden’

Mohamed Fadil, a confidante of Ahmed Saeed Khadr who worked alongside him for almost five years, poses for a portrait in Toronto.

Tyler Anderson/National Post

Mohamed Fadil, a confidante of Ahmed Saeed Khadr who worked alongside him for almost five years, poses for a portrait in Toronto.

Stewart Bell, National Post · Friday, Oct. 15, 2010

Sometimes when Mohamed Fadil is at the mosque or having a meal with friends, he hears mention of his former boss, the late patriarch of the Khadr family, Ahmed Saeed Khadr. They’ll say he gave up his life in Canada to help the needy in Afghanistan. “They say, ‘He’s a great man who left a legacy behind,’ ” Mr. Fadil said. “They don’t know what he did.”

But Mr. Fadil said he knows.

Until now, Mr. Fadil has kept quiet about what he saw when he worked alongside Mr. Khadr in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1980s. They crossed paths again in the late 1990s until Mr. Khadr fled Kabul following the 9/11 attacks.

But he said he decided to break his silence to set the record straight about the “breach of trust” he claims Mr. Khadr committed by using charities as a cover while he waged and facilitated violence.

While the Khadr family name is now widely associated with Omar Khadr, Mr. Fadil’s account bolsters the case that the young Canadian at Guantanamo Bay is to some extent paying for the sins of his father.

Among Mr. Fadil’s claims:

  • Mr. Khadr was an influential advisor to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri. He also kept Egyptian terrorists on his payroll, notably Abu Khabab, a bomb expert who experimented with chemical weapons and ran one of al-Qaeda’s most notorious terrorist training camps.
  • Despite raising money in Canada for the needy, Mr. Khadr neglected his charity duties to participate in fighting in Afghanistan and allowed more than 100 Egyptian militants to use his office as a transit point for their journey to jihad in Afghanistan.
  • Mr. Khadr is linked to several deadly attacks, notably the 1989 assassination of Abdullah Azzam, a popular Islamic scholar. Mr. Fadil also alleged that Mr. Khadr repeatedly plotted to kill him, apparently viewing him as a rival and a threat to his fundraising efforts in Canada. “Khadr tried to kill me three times,” Mr. Fadil said.
  • The Khadr family has denied the allegations. They accused Mr. Fadil of spreading “rumours and half-truths” and said he was only trying to get back at the family for telling the CIA and CSIS what they know about him. Continue Reading →

    • Al-Qaeda targets Danish pedestrians

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    CPHPost

    Thursday, 14 October 2010 11:32 RC News

    E-mail Print

    Terrorist organisation’s magazine blames country’s support of Israel and America

    Al-Qaeda’s primary propaganda magazine has come out with a direct incitement for its supporters to carry out attacks in Denmark – if necessary, by running pedestrians down with vehicles.

    According to TV2 News, the organisation’s ‘Inspire’ magazine suggests fitting blades on the front of cars to ‘cut through Allah’s enemies at high speed’.

    Denmark is mentioned in the issue as one of the countries whose ‘government and public support the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the American invasion of Iraq’.

    In the first-ever issue of Inspire, a death list was printed that included the names of three of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper employees associated with the Mohammed drawings.

    “How to kill Americans” and other ‘tips’ published in al-Qaeda magazine.

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    From The Telegraph U.K.

    Al-Qaeda magazine published ‘tips on how to kill Americans’

    A magazine run by the Yemeni group al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula has published a list of tips on how to kill Americans.

    Published: 7:00AM BST 12 Oct 2010

    Al-Qaeda magazine published 'tips on how to kill Americans'

    Underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab at a desert camp in Yemen Photo: AP

    “A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington, DC at lunch … might end up knocking out a few government employees,” one article reads, according to the private SITE Intelligence Group, which studies, tracks and analyses the global jihadist network and terrorism financing.

    The edition also includes “The Ultimate Mowing Machine,” which describes how to use a pickup truck “as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah.” It says “to achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control . . . to strike as many people as possible in your first run.”

    The magazine includes two articles by renegade US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is on a US government kill-or-capture list for his alleged roles in the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing, and inspiring the Fort Hood shooting of 13 troops. Army Major Nidal Hassan has been charged in the killings.

    There’s also an article by the so-called American al-Qaeda, Adam Gadahn.

    Another American, Samir Khan, describes how he went from online jihadist in North Carolina to full-time terrorist in Yemen. The article is entitled, “I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America.”

    Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken root in Yemen’s remote and mountainous Shabwa province, far from the reach of the country’s weak central government.

    The group rose toward the top of the security agenda of the United States and other world powers after it was linked to the failed Christmas Day attempt to down a Detroit-bound US airliner. The would-be bomber had explosives sewn into his underwear.

    The magazine’s content reveals the group’s evolving strategy of rejecting easier-to-stop spectacular attacks in favour of one-man operations, using everyday objects.

    That shows the organisation is “increasingly agile, lethal and opportunistic,” according to Yemeni scholar Christopher Boucek from the Carnegie Endowment.

    The first edition included an article called “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”

    In the introduction to the latest magazine, the editors boast of “recent US assessments” that declared al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula “one of the most dangerous branches of al-Qaeda.” It concludes, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

    Bin Laden Said to Have Financed European Terror Plot

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    From Der Spiegel:

    Did al-Qaida terror chief bin Laden approve and finance plans for new attacks in Europe?

    Zoom
    AP

    Did al-Qaida terror chief bin Laden approve and finance plans for new attacks in Europe?

    German Islamist Ahmad Sidiqi has delivered new details about the apparent new terrorist plot against Europe and the United States. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, he has told his interrogators that al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden approved the attack plans and also provided financing. German investigators now want to examine the credibility of Sidiqi’s claims.

    The No. 3 ranking member of the al-Qaida terror network allegedly prepared to carry out fresh attacks in Europe — at least those are the claims made by German Islamist Ahmad Sidiqi during his interrogations, according to information obtained by SPIEGEL.

    He met with Sheik Younis al-Mauretani early this summer under conspiratorial circumstances in the city of Mir Ali in Pakistan, the German claimed. He said he discussed possible attacks in several European countries, including France and Britain. He allegedly claimed that Osama bin Laden had given his personal approval for the plans and that he had also provided some of the money that was needed for the attacks.

    American soldiers arrested Sidiqi in early July in Kabul, and he is currently being interrogated at the Bagram US military base. Sidiqi allegedly told his interrogators that he had fought in Afghanistan and had also met Said Bahaji, one of the men who provided support for the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks in New York and Washington. Continue Reading →

    Yet more Islamic terror suspects in Canada. MSA’s deny connection with Islam…

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    Although all the men wanted were in fact, members of the U of M Muslim Students Assn’s.

    Here is the link. Click “read this article” and search for MSA or Muslim Students Association.

    Wouldn’t it be nice though, if just once, these Muslim groups would say something like: “Oh we are working very hard with the police to help them catch these men and anyone who thinks like them. We deeply regret that they were using the religion of Islam in this way and we shall work doubly hard to earn respect in Canada and elsewhere to show that Islam can be a welcome and vital part of any community”

    Or just anything other than the usual apologetics we are so sick of.

    “We Will Teach the Dutch a Lesson”

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    From Gates of Vienna:

    Last night I posted about a thinly-veiled threat issued by a Turk against Germans who support nationalist leaders. Tonight a much more explicit threat comes from the Pakistani Taliban against the Netherlands.

    Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article with the latest from De Telegraaf:

    Taliban leader threatens Netherlands with attacks

    The Pakistani Taliban leader Wali ur Rehman threaten attacks aimed against the Netherlands in response to “laws” the Netherlands may make “against Islam” and “ridiculing Islam.” He said as much in an interview on the Dutch RTL News. The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb) knows about the statements, but sees no reason in it to review the current threat situation, which is “limited”.

    Taliban leader “We do take these signals seriously,” said his spokeswoman in response. “But these expressions were known to us and we have already factored those into our threat assessment.”

    “The path the Dutch government has taken for the last few years is very dangerous,” Wali ur Rehman said. “They always try to make new laws against Muslims. They ridicule Islam and try to confine it. We believe this is the first phase of the plans of the Dutch government. Therefore we will try — and this has a priority for us — to teach them a lesson. They will pay a price for making laws against Islam.”

    International terrorist groups still view the Netherlands as an Islam-hostile country, and therefore a ‘legitimate’ target, as was reported in the latest threat assessment from the NCTb on September 13. According to the analysis in recent months there has been no concrete evidence of attacks against the Netherlands. Therefore, the threat level for the Netherlands will remain at ‘limited’. In the U.S. moreover, there also is a reward on Rehman’s head of $ 5,000,000. Continue Reading →