Category Archives: Infiltration

Islamist teacher living in Canada illegally

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H/T Grace From Magicstatistics.com:

Pakistani scholar Farhat Hashmi entered Canada in October 2004 on a visitor’s visa, has twice been denied permission to work, and was ordered to leave the country in September 2005.  Yet she is still here.  In the meantime, she has founded al-Huda Islamic Centre of Canada, a girls’ school in Mississauga where she teaches a strict Islamist interpretation of the Koran.

Moderate Muslims believe her lessons encourage extremist views among her students in Mississauga — the same Toronto suburb where many of the 17 men arrested last month on terrorism-related charges grew up and allegedly developed into radicals. Some of those young men’s militant views are reputed to have been influenced by their ideologically inclined wives.

A charismatic figure who cloaks her face and body in orthodox garb, Hashmi amassed considerable wealth in the 1990s by establishing a chain of religious schools across Pakistan. Focusing her instruction on young Westernized women from monied families who had hitherto preferred a pair of jeans to the hijab, Hashmi became famous converting them to a stricter form of Islam. Stories abound of young Muslim party girls changing their ways after just a few lectures, donning the black veils that Hashmi is said to make available for purchase at her schools, along with her lectures in print, audio and DVD formats. “Her network of schools in Pakistan caters exclusively to the upper class,” says Tarek Fatah, of the Muslim Canadian Congress. “And that is where she is turning women into mothers who are then converting their sons into extremists.”

Ms Hashmi encourages her girls to allow their husbands to marry more than once.  She has also taught that an earthquake in Kashmir was divine punishment for “immoral activities”.  Hmmmm.  Islamists seem to have a penchant for attributing natural disasters to God’s vengeance against certain degenerates and reprobates.

The basis of Ms Hashmi’s work permit application was an offer of employment from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which still wants her to stay to teach Muslim girls.

Mohammad Ashraf, secretary general of ISNA Canada and the man who signed Hashmi’s letter of employment, defended her. “We need people like her — men and women who really teach what the Koran says,” he told Maclean’s. “These people who are criticizing her, they are just going around the bush because they don’t practise Islam themselves.”

Wajid Khan, Liberal MP for Mississauga-Streetsville, wants her gone pronto.  He doesn’t understand why the immigration bureaucracy hasn’t acted on the eviction letter delivered nine months ago.  He’s not the only one.

Dearborne Michigan does dress rehearsal to become Riyadh KSA

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H/T Gates Of Vienna:

Related articles: June 16 Jihad Watch

As you know, Dearborn, Michigan, features the most highly concentrated population of Muslims in the nation. My clients, Arabic Christian Perspective (ACP), and Pastor George Saieg attend the annual Arab International street festival there every year handing out Christian material to Muslims. They do this along the public sidewalks that run along the street, where the festival is conducted. It is open to the public and admission is free. Business establishments along the street remain open during the festival.

It is a bold thing to do, but in the five years ACP has been going there, it has never encountered any problems.

Now, the Dearborn Police Department has asked ACP to stand on a single corner, where they will be unable to freely mingle with festival gatherers and unable to reach their intended audience. This is a violation of its First Amendment rights.

The Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, has agreed to assist me in this matter.

June 20 Jihad Watch

As you know, my client, Arabic Christian Perspective (APC) was denied its request for a temporary restraining order, which would have prevented the City of Dearborn from restricting APC’s First Amendment right to distribute its Christian material on public sidewalks adjacent to the annual Arab International Festival. Meanwhile, because they are not subject to the court order, numerous other groups, including Christian groups, are milling about the Festival distributing their material and conducting various types of transactions. APC cannot disobey the order of the United States District Court, so where last year it had handed out some ten thousand leaflets, booklets and DVDs on the first day of the Festival, its volunteers have handed out only a small number this year.

The Festival offered APC a booth to give out their material, and Dearborn police gave it the option of two locations, one of which was in the center of the Festival and where APC could reach large numbers of people. APC chose that location and operated there for awhile until the same police officer who had given them the option told them to move to a remote location on the outer east end of the Festival, where they see few passersby. The order does not restrict their location, and in fact doesn’t cover the Festival’s offer to provide them with a booth location, so there is nothing APC can do about it. It has essentially been sent to Siberia.

What is the lesson of all of this? Apparently, it does no good to give law enforcement authorities advance notice of your intention to peacefully assemble at a public event. APC traditionally has notified local law enforcement authorities of its visits as a courtesy. In the future, I will advise them not to do that. There is simply no point. Christians no longer are being given the same rights as others. Municipal authorities see them as provocateurs, rather than citizens entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

One of your readers responded to this story with the following comment: “Yawn.” I wonder if that person would feel that way if he were told he could no longer express his views on the Internet and would be arrested if he did. The City of Dearborn has singled out one organization due to the content of its message. It has applied what it believes is a reasonable time, place and manner restriction on the one group that gave it notice of its visit to the Festival, while others are not so limited. This is an invidious form of discrimination, and the City of Dearborn will have to justify it in the lawsuit that I and the Thomas More Law Center have filed against it to permanently end this violation of the First Amendment.

RED ALERT: FBI INITIATES OFFICIAL OUTREACH TO HAMAS, A USG-DESIGNATED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

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This was mass-mailed this afternoon by retired, 21-year CIA veteran, Dr. Bruce Tefft. He’s confirmed  that the message can be distributed and attributed to him.

Friends,

Today, FBI Executive Assistant Director Tom Harrington is meeting at FBIHQ with Imam Majid of the ADAMS Center in Sterling,VA.  Imam Majid is also the Vice-President of the Islamic Society of North America – a known Muslim Brotherhood entity and un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial in Dallas in which all defendants were found guilty of leading the Hamas front group. This was the largest terrorism financing trial in the history of the United States.

This meeting today follows yesterday’s official decision by FBIHQ to use ISNA as their official point of contact with the American Muslim community. ISNA is one of the largest and most prominent Muslim Brotherhood entities in the US.  The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 with two objectives (which are their same two objectives today): impliment Islamic Law and re-establish the global Islamic Caliphate. Their creed, which is stil their creed today, includes “…martrydom in the way of Allah is our highest inspiration.”

Agents and attorneys aware of this decision believe it obligates them to violate US law by forcing them to work with a front group for a designated terrorist group (Hamas).  It is worth reminding you all that the Hamas Covenant states Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood entity, and that Hamas is a designated terrorist organziation by the US government.

I strongly encourage you all to notify your state and federal elected officials and push them to call for the strongest possible action against the FBI, to include the removal of all senior FBI officials who approved this decision.  I also encourage the maximum release of this information to the American public.

Beowulf

Toronto 18: Details of alleged bomb plot revealed

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H/T Grace:

From The National Post:

One of the Muslims planning to attack Canada from within

One of the Muslims planning to attack Canada from within

Details unfolded yesterday at a sentencing hearing about a meticulous plan to bomb three buildings in the so-called Toronto 18 bomb plot of 2006.

In a statement of facts released yesterday in a Brampton courtroom, Saad Khalid, 22, admitted to playing a role in planning the foiled attacks, which co-conspirators allegedly said would be greater than the planned London subway bombings of 2005.

Khalid is the first accused to plead guilty in the case. The attack was allegedly set for a morning in mid-November 2006.

The statement alleges Khalid’s co-conspirators planned to target the Toronto Stock Exchange, the CSIS headquarters on Front Street in Toronto, and an unidentified military base, off Highway 401 between Toronto and Ottawa. Continue Reading →

Rather pithy video showing Galloway’s true colors.

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Loath as I am to give George Galloway any more publicity than he already has, I feel its important for the sake of turning even one useful idiot against him. When Galloway gave his teleconference in Ottawa Canada he had many useful idiot supporters, some of whom where wealthy over sixty Jewish women in fact, reveling in their rebelliousness. People who had become so consumed with hatred of Bush and all things American they blindly joined forces with all things against it. With elderly Jewish people, there is also the sense that because they appear to be acting against their own interests in an identity politics sort of way, there is a kind of sanctimony in it.

Specifically, if a Jewish person defends Israel’s existence he or she will likely be dismissed by the left, that is any one who has graduated from a western university in the past five years, as simply doing so out of self interest. So Jews who side with illiberal forces such as Galloway get to feel that they are intellectually superior.

They need to know one thing:

Defense of Israel should be done because it is right and just to do it. Because Israel has the best human rights record for all people, women, blacks whites and all religions in the middle east certainly and perhaps in the world. Because Israel has the same right to exist as any other nation on earth and perhaps much more depending on your criteria. It should not matter if you are Jewish or not when you argue the case if indeed you are interested in truth and justice.

In any case Galloway attracts a lot of these types. Perhaps if they all watched this video, one of them may come to understand that it takes more courage to stand up for the truth even when others will accuse you of defending your own interests when really, you are setting yourself up for hatred scorn and derision and very possibly personal danger.

One may notice, this is a common theme of history itself. The truth has always been unfashionable. More often a lethal liability.

Eeyore for Vlad:  (I can’t find the email from whoever sent me these excellent videos but thank you)

ATHENS, June 17, 2009 (Reuters) — Two gunmen shot dead a Greek anti-terrorist policeman guarding a witness in Athens on Wednesday then fled on a motorcycle, police said.

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ATHENS, June 17, 2009 (Reuters) — Two gunmen shot dead a Greek anti-terrorist policeman guarding a witness in Athens on Wednesday then fled on a motorcycle, police said.47540871

In the worst attack since riots in December launched a wave of urban guerrilla violence in Greece, the 41-year-old officer was shot several times at close range and died in his car in the densely populated Patissia area of Athens.

“It was a cold-blooded murder … they just drew their guns and murdered him,” police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis told reporters at the scene.

The recent violence has rocked Greece’s conservative government, clinging to a one-seat majority in parliament as its popularity plummets, mainly as a result of a slowing economy.

The early morning attack was similar to the shooting of a policeman in January, claimed by the Revolutionary Struggle urban guerrillas, Greece’s most militant leftist group. That officer survived the attack.

In Wednesday’s shooting, the policeman and father of one child, had just taken over a shift guarding a witness involved in a case against an urban guerrilla group.

The unidentified attackers quickly disappeared in the streets of Patissia and a manhunt was launched in the area to locate them.

Police said there was no warning or any claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest of several against the police in Greece this year.

Leftist and anarchist guerrilla groups have launched a wave of violence against police, political and business targets since a policeman shot dead a teenager in Athens in December, prompting Greece’s worst riots in decades.

There was no immediate reaction to the attack from the government.

(Reporting by Dina Kyriakidou, Editing by Ralph Boulton)

UK’s #4 Dispaches: From Jail to Jihad. Radicalization in UK jails

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From the good people who brought us Hidden Mosque. It would seem some in the British Media have an eye open after all.

Link: JailToJihad

H/T KitmanTV and Jdamn

RCMP Outreach Follies?

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RCMP Outreach Follies?
by Winston Smithson
For IPT News
June 12, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1067/rcmp-outreach-follies

They say the Mounties always get their man. But do they sometimes get the wrong imam?

This is one of many questions coming out of the second annual “Muslims of Tomorrow 2009” conference sponsored in part by Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police on June 13. A product of efforts by the RCMP National Security Program in British Columbia, and something called the “RCMP National Security Youth Advisory Council (BC),” the initiative reflects the shaky history of the Force’s involvement in Islamic outreach.

Mounties rushed into outreach following 9/11, and the results were not always pretty. The former head of the Force’s National Security outreach group was Inspector Wayne Hanniman, whose fondest hope – expressed in a public briefing – was to work as a traffic cop in British Columbia, a unique aspiration for one involved in the high-risk and subtle area of Islamic outreach and Islamist subversion. Consistent with this goal, he formed an RCMP ethno-cultural national security consultative group whose membership inadvertently included some of the more radical elements in Canadian society.

Moderate Muslims were shocked to find the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), a chapter of the US unindicted co-conspirator outfit, CAIR, invited to participate. Under the Inspector’s wing, a CAIR-CAN official was even escorted around the Canadian Security Intelligence Service offices. The farce worsened as the National Security group’s public briefings eventually came to cite CAIR-CAN’s misleading studies of Muslim victimhood, thus doing the divisive propagandistic work of Islamists for them (For a reaction to Canada’s victimhood bandwagon, click here). Inspector Hanniman was last seen leading Canada’s UN police contingent in Sudan, where he was featured in a flattering Department of Foreign Affairs magazine article written by a journalist known for her accommodating coverage of CAIR-CAN and similar groups.

A similarly impulsive approach was taken in the creating of mirror “youth councils” by the National Security outreach group. The RCMP’s headlong rush to get into the outreach business resulted in the national security team’s hiring a bright young university graduate with suitable “diversity” credentials, but no noticeable familiarity with national security. Soon after coming aboard, Ms. Dahlia Nawwar announced in the course of a public presentation that she wanted to complete a study of the causes of youth radicalism. Singing from the “root causes” songbook, she made clear that she adhered to the apologist view that Islamic extremism was all simply a matter of reaction to oppression and alienation. Nawwar’s remarks showed no appreciation of the doctors, lawyers, engineers and other privileged classes that inspired, organized and underpinned extremism from the Muslim Brotherhood to al-Qaeda. But they did sidestep altogether the militant Qur’anic “sword verses” so routinely invoked by terrorists themselves as their sole motivation for violence.

Which gets us to “Muslims of Tomorrow.”

Although the national security outreach efforts claim to be aimed at heading off radicalism of all kinds, the conference shows a heavy concentration on Muslim concerns and perspectives – and not the most moderate among those. It is far from clear, for example, that similar resources and publicity have gone into preoccupations of other “at risk” immigrant groups, or that a federal police agency has any business getting involved in determining what tomorrow’s Muslims should look like, sound like, dress like or believe in. Even those who think government should be in the business of religion, will not soon expect similar quantities of RCMP dollars and prestige to flow into “Hindus of Tomorrow” or “Christians of Tomorrow” conferences.

In the meantime, compliant national security outreach functionaries once again seem inclined to preside over a Muslim conference premised on the discredited Islamist propaganda theme of Canadian Muslims as victims of their non-Muslim neighbors. So, as day follows night, the theme of this year’s gathering is the media portrayal of Canadian Muslims. RCMP publicity includes references to popular and largely-unsubstantiated Islamist themes: anti-Muslim bias, fear of backlash, and so on.

Two respected Canadian journalists are to figure on the “Tomorrow” panel, and the Islamic content is rounded out by panellist Imam Dr. Reda Bedeir. In some ways, Imam Bedeir’s selection reflects how tricky and ill-advised RCMP and Government involvement in religion can be.

Bedeir has a distinguished intellectual history, with an impressive list of credentials. He was even listed among the host of people attending the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference 2008. But in inviting Dr. Bedeir – or at least associating themselves with him through the “Muslims of Tomorrow” event – the RCMP’s national security outreach unit could be interpreted, in the name of the RCMP and Government of Canada, to confer legitimacy on his brand of Islam, and to commend its practice to young Muslim conference-goers. This may or may not be a comforting thought.

Like many Islamic scholars, Dr. Bedeir shares advice. In an article dealing with homosexuality, he declares the orientation “clearly sinful,” “a perverted deviation from the norm,” a matter of “choice”, and equates it to alcoholism, addiction and gambling. “[G]ay acts,” writes Dr. Bedeir, are “unlawful” in the eyes of all Islamic schools of thought and jurisprudence”. As for these schools:

“They only differ in terms of penalty. Some say that no physical punishment is warranted. Some see that severe punishment is warranted, while others require a minimum of 4 adult male witnesses before a person can be found guilty of a homosexual act.”

Bedeir appears not to rule out “severe punishment,” something that might assume major significance if one were to take seriously what is termed a “useful” web link appearing at the end of his article. The link is to advice on homosexuality by Dr. Taha Jaber Al-‘Alwani, President of the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Herndon, VA, and then president of the Fiqh Council. Al-Awani also is past president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, suspected of financing terrorist groups.

The President of the Fiqh Council concludes:

“Verily, the punishment here is the burning of both homosexuals (the actor and acted upon) or stoning them with rocks till death because Allah Most High stoned the people of Lut after demolishing their village.”

Is this the view of Dr. Bedeir? If so, would the RCMP National Security Community Outreach Program and the Government of Canada, support it? Would its proponents be appropriate role models for youth? Based on the Supreme Court of Canada’s same-sex constitutional decisions, even the cosmically-expanding cultural-sensitivity standards of RCMP outreach wouldn’t justify the burning and stoning of a Canadian minority. Yet.

This raises another issue and another minority.

Dr. Bedeir is an instructor at the AlMaghrib Institute, an Islamic educational organization with a presence across the United States and Canada – and a certain Saudi flavor. A fellow AlMaghrib instructor is Yasir Qadhi, reportedly a self-described terror watch listee. As David Ouellette, of the now-defunct Judeoscope website put it, “at least … one of his exegeses, combines traditional Islamic anti-Jewish moti[f]s with Western anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.” A recording of Dr. Qadhi’s spine-chilling meanderings on Jews is offered in “Part 8,” here.

Dr. Qadhi is still with AlMaghrib. Does this mean that his public views reflect those of AlMaghrib? Would this mean that AlMaghrib instructors should not be lionized panellists before an audience of impressionable Muslim youth – and apparently more impressionable RCMP outreachers? Does Dr. Bedeir share the Qadhi take on those pesky Yahoods? If so, would the RCMP National Security Community Outreach Program agree with Bedeir – and Imam Qadhi? Did anyone bother to research the question before sending out the “Muslims of Tomorrow 2009” invitations? Are some outreach program organizers sympathetic to AlMaghrib-type views?

Meanwhile, the RCMP advertising of the “Tomorrow” event boasts that Dr. Bedeir is Imam of British Columbia’s Burnaby Al-Salaam Mosque. This Mosque appears to have been the site of “Parents of Today: Protecting the Muslims of Tomorrow,” a March 2008 forum that was, according to its publicity, “Sponsored by RCMP Advisory Committee.” A listed “key speaker” was Bosnia-born Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, National Executive Director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, ***@*********ps.com/msg27968.html” target=”_blank”>one of the most radical of Canada’s fraternity of Islamist organizations . Radical, maybe, but apparently good enough for an RCMP “Advisory Committee” dedicated to keeping youth away from, well, radicalism.

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

Canadians and their allies must ask whether RCMP outreach is undermining the country’s national security situation. Those who care about Canada have reason to fear that misconceived approaches and incompetently-managed programs have contributed to the Islamist goal of legitimizing interests that seek, at a minimum, to encourage division and alienation within the Canadian body politic while reinforcing Islamist-supremacist and other sharia norms.

In light of the weaknesses of these RCMP Islamic initiatives, Canadians and their friends abroad would do well to press RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, Canadian Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to:

– trigger an audit and investigation of all past and present RCMP Islamic-related “outreach” activity.

– assess whether RCMP outreach involvement with radical groups and individuals has made the Force vulnerable to infiltration by such persons, and whether radical or Islamist-sympathetic individuals are, or have been, employed by the RCMP in outreach or other RCMP units, whether as regular Force or civilian personnel or as volunteers. This assessment must indicate the relevant chain of command at all times during the life of the outreach program, as well as those persons within the RCMP who recommended, approved and influenced the accepting of specific groups and individuals as outreach partners.

– evaluate whether “youth advisory” or other Muslim-dominated groups are gaining special RCMP access unavailable to other youth groups, including religion-privileged access, to recruitment opportunities, and fast-tracking into the RCMP. There must be no religion-based preferences in federal employment.

– disclose the identities of persons involved in any advisory capacity with RCMP outreach officials, so that the public can observe for itself the nature of related activity.

– undertake that any information formerly or currently provided to members of any consultative or advisory group simultaneously be made available for public scrutiny. This should enable citizens to satisfy themselves of the appropriateness of outreach participants and activity. Disclosure must include any studies and other material relating to national security and defense that is shared with community “advisors.”

– shift the culture of “outreach” so that consultations with the RCMP are regarded within relevant RCMP units as the right of the general public, and not the result of possible “in-house,” selective and privileged religious interests and lobbies operating in the shadows.

– undertake that the RCMP have no dealings with the Canadian or other affiliates of Islamic entities listed by the US Justice Department as unindicted co-conspirators in the recent Holy Land Foundation trial. This exclusion would be subject to the clearing of such entities through scrupulous investigation, and certification of clearing by the Commissioner of the RCMP and the Minister of Public Safety.

– ensure that neither the name of the RCMP nor of any other government agency be attached to outreach or other consultative bodies – such as the “RCMP Advisory Committee” – unless these bodies and their members be authorized to speak on behalf of the government. It is a failure of public administration and contrary to the rule of law to allow ad hoc, unauthorized, unaccountable groups to be perceived to have an inside track on the making of national security policy.

– end irresponsible RCMP reliance on unwarranted, alienating and dangerous Islamist “victimhood” narratives. Government must aggressively counter such disinformation with readily available evidence of Canada’s exceptionally good treatment of Canadian Muslims in the face of extremist provocation. If RCMP outreach cadres continue to prove inadequate to the challenge – indeed, by negligence and lack of insight, continue to facilitate the spread of Islamist influence – the government must recognize that the RCMP’s outreach program is operating against the national interest and must be shut down. Fast.

Winston Smithson is the pseudonym of a retired Canadian official.

Related Topics: Outreach

Accessed 12 June 2009, http://www.investigativeproject.org/1067/rcmp-outreach-follies

09-06-12, Winston Smithson, “RCMP Outreach Follies,” investigativeproject.org, 12 June 2009, http://www.investigativeproject.org/1067/rcmp-outreach-follies (accessed 12 June 2009).

To complain directly about this matter please see information below:

Hon. Peter Van Loan
Minister of Public Safety
613.991.2924
Fax: 613.952.2240
co************@***gc.ca

Where’s the heart Obama?

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the_purple_heart-749247

Army Pvt. William Long died from a bullet fired from a self described enemy of the United States. I only hope that Americans demand both he and Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula receive proper military honors in the form of a purple heart. The only difference between these two soldiers and the rest of the fine men and women fighting Islamic fanatics overseas, is that the enemy came to them. I urge Americans not to let Obamas politically correct stance on Islam overshadow this most recent terrorist attack on Americans.

 The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of an Armed Force who, while serving with the U.S. Armed Services after 5 April 1917, has been wounded or killed, or who has died or may hereafter die after being wounded;

           (1) In any action against an enemy of the United States;

           (2) In any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the Armed Forces of the United States are or have been engaged;

           (3) While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party;

           (4) As a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces;

           (5) As the result of an act of any hostile foreign force;

           (6) After 28 March 1973, as a result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the Secretary of the department concerned, or jointly by the Secretaries of the departments concerned if persons from more than one department are wounded in the attack; or,

           (7) After 28 March 1973, as a result of military operations, while serving outside the territory of the United States as part of a peacekeeping force.

           (8) After 7 December 1941, by weapon fire while directly engaged in armed conflict, regardless of the fire causing the wound.

           (9) While held as a prisoner of war or while being taken captive.

       b. A wound for which the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer.

Israelis ‘thwarted Gaza horse bomb attack’

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Senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said the incident was confirmation that Israel’s “aggressive intentions” continued, and accused Israel of not respecting the cease fire. ??? Yes, how dare the Israelis defend themselves. All these good Muslims wanted was to emulate their Jew slaughtering prophet in a manner reminiscent of the calvary charges on defenceless Jewish tribes in the past. Apparently the Israelis did not realize they were to lay down and die. Blame it all on a lack of communication I think.

palistine-victim-of-jihad1 

from BBC

Four Palestinian militants have been killed on Gaza’s border as Israeli forces fired at what they said were men and horses carrying explosives.

The Israeli military said its forces returned fire at a group including a few men wearing explosive vests and five horses loaded with explosives.

Israel said the Palestinians opened fire and tried to plant bombs near a crossing on the Gaza-Israel border.

Palestinian officials said about 10 gunmen were involved in the incident.

The Palestinian health ministry, which is run by the Hamas movement that controls Gaza, confirmed that four fighters were killed in the shooting.

Israeli forces fired on the militants with machine guns and tanks backed up with combat helicopters, the military said

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident, which took place north of Nahal Oz, the main terminal for transferring fuel into Gaza.

Nahal Oz and the nearby Karni crossing, used for transferring grain and animal feed, were closed in the wake of the incident.

It is one of the worst clashes since Israel’s three-week operation in Gaza in December and January.

Both Israel and the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, declared unilateral ceasefires in the wake of the fighting.

Senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said the incident was confirmation that Israel’s “aggressive intentions” continued, and accused Israel of not respecting the cease fire.

Although Gaza has been relatively quiet since Israel’s three-week offensive against Hamas ended on 18 January, the border is a flashpoint for sporadic violence.