Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Hizballah on U.N. chief's call to disarm: No.
From Jihad Watch:
Hizballah on U.N. chief's call to disarm: No.
As noted here, it will take more than asking once to make that happen. "Hezbollah rejects call by U.N.'s Ban to disarm," by Dominic Evans for Reuters, January 14:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dismissed on Saturday a United Nations call for his militant anti-Israel movement to disarm, saying it was determined to maintain a military capacity to defend Lebanon.
That's what state armies are for. Lebanon has one. Hizballah's forces are ultimately for the sake of Hizballah, to protect it not only from outside intervention, but from challenges from within Lebanon, including government forces.
"I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction ... the choice of armed resistance," Nasrallah said. "These weapons, along with the Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee of Lebanon's protection."
Mocking a demand by visiting U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Hezbollah lay down its weapons, Nasrallah said he was happy that Hezbollah's military prowess was a cause for concern.
"Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters to us is that you are worried, and that America ... and Israel are worried with you," he said in a televised speech marking a Shi'ite holy day.
Hezbollah, which fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006, has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands that it lay down its military arsenal, as all other Lebanese armed groups did at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
That's Resolution 1559. Not only did Hizballah defy the resolution, they are now better armed than the regular Lebanese army. What could go wrong?
Nasrallah, in hiding since 2006 for fear of assassination, says his movement has been re-arming since the 2006 conflict, when it fired hundreds of rockets across the border daily into northern Israel.
Ban, speaking in Beirut on Friday, said he was "deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hezbollah" and the lack of progress in disarmament. "All these arms outside of the authorized state authority, it's not acceptable," he declared....
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 8:12 AM
Hizballah on U.N. chief's call to disarm: No.
As noted here, it will take more than asking once to make that happen. "Hezbollah rejects call by U.N.'s Ban to disarm," by Dominic Evans for Reuters, January 14:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dismissed on Saturday a United Nations call for his militant anti-Israel movement to disarm, saying it was determined to maintain a military capacity to defend Lebanon.
That's what state armies are for. Lebanon has one. Hizballah's forces are ultimately for the sake of Hizballah, to protect it not only from outside intervention, but from challenges from within Lebanon, including government forces.
"I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction ... the choice of armed resistance," Nasrallah said. "These weapons, along with the Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee of Lebanon's protection."
Mocking a demand by visiting U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Hezbollah lay down its weapons, Nasrallah said he was happy that Hezbollah's military prowess was a cause for concern.
"Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters to us is that you are worried, and that America ... and Israel are worried with you," he said in a televised speech marking a Shi'ite holy day.
Hezbollah, which fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006, has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands that it lay down its military arsenal, as all other Lebanese armed groups did at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
That's Resolution 1559. Not only did Hizballah defy the resolution, they are now better armed than the regular Lebanese army. What could go wrong?
Nasrallah, in hiding since 2006 for fear of assassination, says his movement has been re-arming since the 2006 conflict, when it fired hundreds of rockets across the border daily into northern Israel.
Ban, speaking in Beirut on Friday, said he was "deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hezbollah" and the lack of progress in disarmament. "All these arms outside of the authorized state authority, it's not acceptable," he declared....
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 8:12 AM
Jihad against spell-check from Kenya: "The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari'ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage"
From Jihad Watch:
Jihad against spell-check from Kenya: "The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari'ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage"
Just days ago, we noted how consistent and formulaic jihadist rhetoric is from place to place, almost to the point where one could program a Jihadist Hate Screed Generator and kick back with a cup of tea while giving a hearty takbir or three that there's an app for that. Choose your language, select your infidel, "set it and forget it!"
Clearly, the generator has a few kinks to work out, but it appears to be up and running in Kenya. "Kenya Islamic group claims ties to al-Shabab," by Katharine Houreld for the Associated Press, January 14:
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An increasingly vocal Islamist group says its leader has been appointed to represent an al-Qaida-linked Somali militia in Kenya, a development that underscores the dangers Kenya faces from Somalia's insurgency.
The statement by the Kenya-based Muslim Youth Center came amid a flurry of warnings from embassies about planned terror attacks in Kenya. The Somali militant group al-Shabab has promised to attack Kenya for its decision to send troops to Somalia in October.
Al-Shabaab also means "the youth," though there has been some discussion of re-branding.
The Muslim Youth Center was named in a United Nations report last year for recruiting, fundraising, and running training and orientation events for al-Shabab. An official al-Shabab spokesman did not answer questions about whether the center now represents al-Shabab in Kenya, but a statement published on the center's blog on Wednesday was unequivocal.
"There can be no doubt that Amiir Ahmad Iman Ali's elevation to become the supreme Amiir of Kenya for al Shabaab is recognition from our Somali brothers who have fought tirelessly against the kuffar on the importance of the Kenyan mujahideen in Somalia," the statement said. The word kuffar appears to be an alternative spelling of kafir, an Arabic word meaning "unbeliever."
Yes.
Ali was featured in combat fatigues giving a 50-minute lecture in a Jan. 6 video produced by al-Kataib, al-Shabab's media foundation. He referred to wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. It was the first time an al-Kataib video was dedicated solely to his message, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications from jihadi groups.
And if you can't be with the one you hate, honey, hate the one you're with:
"If you are unable to reach the land of jihad ... then raise your sword against the enemy that is closest to you," Ali said. "Jihad should be now be waged inside Kenya, which is legally a war zone."
"You don't have to get permission from your parents," he added.
There are several ahadith where aspiring jihadists are told to consult their parents, but jihad is called obligatory on all believers (fard ayn) because the unbelievers have entered a Muslim land (never mind who fired the first shot...).
Al-Shabab threatened huge terror attacks in Kenya in October after Kenyan troops entered Somalia over concerns that insecurity from Somalia's 21-year-old civil war was spilling over the border. The U.S. Embassy has put extra security measures into place and last week the British Embassy warned that a terror attack was being planned.
Ali, also known as Abdul Fatah of Kismayo, is a Kenyan who has been based in Somalia since 2009 and commands a force of 200 to 500 fighters, according to the July U.N. report. The report said that "he now intends to conduct large-scale attacks in Kenya, and possibly elsewhere in East Africa."
Ali speaks fluent Swahili, English, Arabic and some Somali, according to a security official in Kenya. He has also studied Islamic teachings extensively and has two degrees. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The official said that Ali wanted to be seen as Kenya's answer to Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American cleric killed in Yemen last year by a U.S. missile strike.
A post on the group's website purporting to be from Ali complained about impunity for Kenyan army officers who have killed Muslims, set up arbitrary police detentions and renditions — complaints also voiced by Kenyan and international human rights groups.
But Ali also warned in a statement rife with spelling errors: "The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari'ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage."...
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 8:28 AM |
Jihad against spell-check from Kenya: "The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari'ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage"
Just days ago, we noted how consistent and formulaic jihadist rhetoric is from place to place, almost to the point where one could program a Jihadist Hate Screed Generator and kick back with a cup of tea while giving a hearty takbir or three that there's an app for that. Choose your language, select your infidel, "set it and forget it!"
Clearly, the generator has a few kinks to work out, but it appears to be up and running in Kenya. "Kenya Islamic group claims ties to al-Shabab," by Katharine Houreld for the Associated Press, January 14:
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An increasingly vocal Islamist group says its leader has been appointed to represent an al-Qaida-linked Somali militia in Kenya, a development that underscores the dangers Kenya faces from Somalia's insurgency.
The statement by the Kenya-based Muslim Youth Center came amid a flurry of warnings from embassies about planned terror attacks in Kenya. The Somali militant group al-Shabab has promised to attack Kenya for its decision to send troops to Somalia in October.
Al-Shabaab also means "the youth," though there has been some discussion of re-branding.
The Muslim Youth Center was named in a United Nations report last year for recruiting, fundraising, and running training and orientation events for al-Shabab. An official al-Shabab spokesman did not answer questions about whether the center now represents al-Shabab in Kenya, but a statement published on the center's blog on Wednesday was unequivocal.
"There can be no doubt that Amiir Ahmad Iman Ali's elevation to become the supreme Amiir of Kenya for al Shabaab is recognition from our Somali brothers who have fought tirelessly against the kuffar on the importance of the Kenyan mujahideen in Somalia," the statement said. The word kuffar appears to be an alternative spelling of kafir, an Arabic word meaning "unbeliever."
Yes.
Ali was featured in combat fatigues giving a 50-minute lecture in a Jan. 6 video produced by al-Kataib, al-Shabab's media foundation. He referred to wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. It was the first time an al-Kataib video was dedicated solely to his message, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications from jihadi groups.
And if you can't be with the one you hate, honey, hate the one you're with:
"If you are unable to reach the land of jihad ... then raise your sword against the enemy that is closest to you," Ali said. "Jihad should be now be waged inside Kenya, which is legally a war zone."
"You don't have to get permission from your parents," he added.
There are several ahadith where aspiring jihadists are told to consult their parents, but jihad is called obligatory on all believers (fard ayn) because the unbelievers have entered a Muslim land (never mind who fired the first shot...).
Al-Shabab threatened huge terror attacks in Kenya in October after Kenyan troops entered Somalia over concerns that insecurity from Somalia's 21-year-old civil war was spilling over the border. The U.S. Embassy has put extra security measures into place and last week the British Embassy warned that a terror attack was being planned.
Ali, also known as Abdul Fatah of Kismayo, is a Kenyan who has been based in Somalia since 2009 and commands a force of 200 to 500 fighters, according to the July U.N. report. The report said that "he now intends to conduct large-scale attacks in Kenya, and possibly elsewhere in East Africa."
Ali speaks fluent Swahili, English, Arabic and some Somali, according to a security official in Kenya. He has also studied Islamic teachings extensively and has two degrees. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The official said that Ali wanted to be seen as Kenya's answer to Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American cleric killed in Yemen last year by a U.S. missile strike.
A post on the group's website purporting to be from Ali complained about impunity for Kenyan army officers who have killed Muslims, set up arbitrary police detentions and renditions — complaints also voiced by Kenyan and international human rights groups.
But Ali also warned in a statement rife with spelling errors: "The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari'ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage."...
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 8:28 AM |
Thai police find cache of bomb-making materials in Hizballah-connected plot
From Jihad Watch:
Thai police find cache of bomb-making materials in Hizballah-connected plot
As one astute commenter observed the other day, surely this is about all that Israeli occupation of Thailand. An update on this story. "Thai police find large cache of bomb-making materials," from BBC News, January 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Police in Thailand say they have found a large supply of materials for making bombs, following the detention of a suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah.
The suspect led police to a building containing more than 300 boxes of fertiliser and ammonium nitrate.
The raid follows the terror alert issued by the US and Israel warning citizens to avoid tourist sites.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that the situation was under control.
The suspect, who was detained last week, is said to be a Lebanese man with a Swedish passport.
Police say the man has links to Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shia Islamist movement backed by Syria and Iran that the US considers to be a terrorist organisation.
A second suspect is also believed to have left Thailand.
A police spokesman told local media that the chemicals were going to be shipped out of Thailand for use in an unspecified third country.
The US embassy still has not lifted the warning it issued on Friday stating that Americans should "exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather".
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 10:11 AM
Thai police find cache of bomb-making materials in Hizballah-connected plot
As one astute commenter observed the other day, surely this is about all that Israeli occupation of Thailand. An update on this story. "Thai police find large cache of bomb-making materials," from BBC News, January 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Police in Thailand say they have found a large supply of materials for making bombs, following the detention of a suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah.
The suspect led police to a building containing more than 300 boxes of fertiliser and ammonium nitrate.
The raid follows the terror alert issued by the US and Israel warning citizens to avoid tourist sites.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that the situation was under control.
The suspect, who was detained last week, is said to be a Lebanese man with a Swedish passport.
Police say the man has links to Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shia Islamist movement backed by Syria and Iran that the US considers to be a terrorist organisation.
A second suspect is also believed to have left Thailand.
A police spokesman told local media that the chemicals were going to be shipped out of Thailand for use in an unspecified third country.
The US embassy still has not lifted the warning it issued on Friday stating that Americans should "exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather".
Posted by Marisol on January 16, 2012 10:11 AM
Somalia: Jihadists kill head of food distribution charity, hold up Red Cross food aid convoys
From Jihad Watch:
Somalia: Jihadists kill head of food distribution charity, hold up Red Cross food aid convoys
Jihad causes poverty, sometimes deliberately: for a totalitarian regime, controlling who eats and who does not eat is a morbidly effective means of controlling a population. "Somali rebels kill local aid worker," by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar for Reuters, January 13 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants have killed the head of a food distribution charity in central Somalia, a pro-government militia said on Friday, the latest blow to the relief effort in the famine-hit country.
"The rebels killed Abdikarim Hashi Kediye, the head of Towfiq ... and his driver yesterday afternoon between Dusamareb and Guriel," Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, the spokesman of the Ahlu Sunna militia group told Reuters on Friday.
He said the rebels had used a rocket propelled grenade.
Towfiq's coordinator Abdullahi Mohamud Yaardi vowed to continue the group's humanitarian work in Somalia's Galgadud region, but the attack underscored the perilous conditions aid workers face in the anarchic country.
On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended food distribution to more than 1.1 million people in southern and central Somalia after the insurgents held up convoys carrying emergency food relief.
The ICRC said on Friday it expected explanations from local authorities linked to al Shabaab about why its food consignment for hungry Somalis has been stuck for four weeks in Jowhar near Mogadishu for quality control.
"The longer we wait, of course, the food won't get any better," Benjamin Wahren, deputy ICRC head of operations for East Africa who is in charge of Somalia, told a news briefing in Geneva.
The ICRC's food supplies, intended for 240,000 people, have been offloaded from its 140 trucks into warehouses, he added.
Residents said al Shabaab wanted only Islamic agencies to provide aid in the areas it controls....
And yet they also murdered the aid coordinator from Towfiq.
Posted by Marisol on January 17, 2012 12:05 AM
Somalia: Jihadists kill head of food distribution charity, hold up Red Cross food aid convoys
Jihad causes poverty, sometimes deliberately: for a totalitarian regime, controlling who eats and who does not eat is a morbidly effective means of controlling a population. "Somali rebels kill local aid worker," by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar for Reuters, January 13 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants have killed the head of a food distribution charity in central Somalia, a pro-government militia said on Friday, the latest blow to the relief effort in the famine-hit country.
"The rebels killed Abdikarim Hashi Kediye, the head of Towfiq ... and his driver yesterday afternoon between Dusamareb and Guriel," Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, the spokesman of the Ahlu Sunna militia group told Reuters on Friday.
He said the rebels had used a rocket propelled grenade.
Towfiq's coordinator Abdullahi Mohamud Yaardi vowed to continue the group's humanitarian work in Somalia's Galgadud region, but the attack underscored the perilous conditions aid workers face in the anarchic country.
On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended food distribution to more than 1.1 million people in southern and central Somalia after the insurgents held up convoys carrying emergency food relief.
The ICRC said on Friday it expected explanations from local authorities linked to al Shabaab about why its food consignment for hungry Somalis has been stuck for four weeks in Jowhar near Mogadishu for quality control.
"The longer we wait, of course, the food won't get any better," Benjamin Wahren, deputy ICRC head of operations for East Africa who is in charge of Somalia, told a news briefing in Geneva.
The ICRC's food supplies, intended for 240,000 people, have been offloaded from its 140 trucks into warehouses, he added.
Residents said al Shabaab wanted only Islamic agencies to provide aid in the areas it controls....
And yet they also murdered the aid coordinator from Towfiq.
Posted by Marisol on January 17, 2012 12:05 AM
Islamic jihadists claim they set Nevada forest fires
From Jihad Watch:
Islamic jihadists claim they set Nevada forest fires
Out of hatred for the Jews, of course. The claim is dubious, but revealing in many ways. From the Ansar al-Mujahideen site (thanks to Dan):
Allah Almighty says: (And wage war on all of the idolaters as they are waging war on all of you) 36 Surah At-TaubahAllah have granted a group of our brothers from the lions of Masadat Al-Mujahidin at 8:00 in the day before yesterday Thursday 25 Safar 1433 A.H. corresponding 19 January 2012 to set fire in the forests of Nevada in the Reno region.And we by this great event and paradigm shift declare the following:1. we declare our full responsibility of setting fire in the Nevada forests in America.2. we declare widening the area of war and transferring it currently to inside America and soon to elsewhere.3. we give the enemies of Islam and the allies of the Jews who occupy the land of Palestine three months beginning from the date of this statement to disown from the Jews who occupy the land of Palestine, and their actions against our Moslem brothers, and we demand the end of their alliances that oppress our rights as owners of the land, or we will be forced to extend our war until it spreads in all the lands that plot with our enemies.4. we emphasize that targeting the so called Israel and its allies headed by America in every kind of targeting including fighting and all the types of peoples civilian and military is an individual obligation (Fradu Ayin) on every Moslem until the liberation of Palestine, and all their armies are expelled from the Moslem lands, and Allah's Word become the uppermost and religion is all for Allah.5. we also point out that fighting the Jews and their allies is easy to those who want to repel their evil on the Moslems, and here you see with your own eyes what simple materials can do, that are cheap in your enemy, and how much damages it can inflict in them, so we incite the Moslem Ummah to participate in this blessed work and move their inherent energies for that.This blessed Gazwa comes within a series of Gazawat that we declared and have previously begun and which will Insha’Allah destroy the edifices of the hateful Jewish occupation, until the Jews return from where they came since they have no place among us, and until the global alliances with the occupying Jews who occupy the land of the Moslems.May Allah bless the soldiers of Al-Rahman and lions of Tawhid, may Allah aim their shooting and steadfast their feet, and accept from them their jihad and good deeds, because they made the friend happy and annoyed the foe.And we say to the Jews and their agents this is a disgrace for you in this Dunya, and you have a big punishment in the hereafter, so have tidings with what you hate we have for you more, and do what you want, your cunning won’t benefit you and your scheme won’t benefit you, either we live under the governance of Allah or we seek shade under the Shadow of Allah.والله أكبر الله أكبر .. ولله العزة ولرسوله وللمجاهدين.
وَاللّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ.General command of Masadat Al-MujahidinSaturday 27 Safar 1433 A.h.Corresponding 21 January 2012
U.S. met with bloody Taliban faction the Haqqani network
From Jihad Watch:
U.S. met with bloody Taliban faction the Haqqani network
Racing to surrender. "LEAD: US Afghan envoy confirms talking to Haqqani insurgents," from DPA, January 22 (thanks to Wimpy):
Kabul - The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on Sunday confirmed a meeting with the Haqqani insurgent group, as signs of a dialogue between the United States and rebels continue to grow.
'We had one meeting with Haqqani network,' Marc Grossman told a news conference in Kabul.
His remarks come after US and the Taliban militants confirmed preliminary talks for opening an liaison office for the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha - increasing speculation of an end to the decade-long bloody insurgency in this war-torn country.
'I think, from the Afghan prospective anyway, this is an inclusive process but we will have to see what turns out,' Grossman said, after a two days trip to Afghanistan.
'I am looking forward to the Taliban being clear about breaking ties with international terrorism, denouncing it, distancing them salves from it.'
Grossman however did not say when and where the meeting with the Haqqani network took place.
The Taliban are demanding the release of captives held at the US prison camp at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.
'We haven't made any decisions and it's no surprise to any of you that this is an issue in the Unites [sic] States of law. We have to meet the requirements of our law,' Grossman said, referring to the demand.
'No decision has been made about this,' he said.
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said that he personally held a meeting with another insurgent faction, Hezb-i-Islami, recently....
Posted by Robert on January 22, 2012 7:03 PM |
U.S. met with bloody Taliban faction the Haqqani network
Racing to surrender. "LEAD: US Afghan envoy confirms talking to Haqqani insurgents," from DPA, January 22 (thanks to Wimpy):
Kabul - The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on Sunday confirmed a meeting with the Haqqani insurgent group, as signs of a dialogue between the United States and rebels continue to grow.
'We had one meeting with Haqqani network,' Marc Grossman told a news conference in Kabul.
His remarks come after US and the Taliban militants confirmed preliminary talks for opening an liaison office for the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha - increasing speculation of an end to the decade-long bloody insurgency in this war-torn country.
'I think, from the Afghan prospective anyway, this is an inclusive process but we will have to see what turns out,' Grossman said, after a two days trip to Afghanistan.
'I am looking forward to the Taliban being clear about breaking ties with international terrorism, denouncing it, distancing them salves from it.'
Grossman however did not say when and where the meeting with the Haqqani network took place.
The Taliban are demanding the release of captives held at the US prison camp at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.
'We haven't made any decisions and it's no surprise to any of you that this is an issue in the Unites [sic] States of law. We have to meet the requirements of our law,' Grossman said, referring to the demand.
'No decision has been made about this,' he said.
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said that he personally held a meeting with another insurgent faction, Hezb-i-Islami, recently....
Posted by Robert on January 22, 2012 7:03 PM |
Al Qaida 'planned to take German hostages'
From Europe News:
Documents seized in May linked to al Qaida leaders indicate that the terrorist organisation was aiming to take hostages in Germany and other Western countries as part of a "war of attrition," according to a newspaper report.In an article published on Sunday, German daily Tagesspiegel said security sources traced the papers to al Qaida leaders on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The documents were discovered when authorities arrested two suspected Islamists in May 2011.
One of the strategy papers said al Qaida was planning a combination of smaller and larger attacks in order to "drive the enemy to desperation." According to other documents, the terrorist group was planning to take hostages and then kill them. They also described plans to use poisons and disguises. (...)
Al Qaida 'planned to take German hostages'
The Local 23 January 2012
One of the strategy papers said al Qaida was planning a combination of smaller and larger attacks in order to "drive the enemy to desperation." According to other documents, the terrorist group was planning to take hostages and then kill them. They also described plans to use poisons and disguises. (...)
British 'al-Qaida member' killed in US drone attack in Somalia
From Europe News:
An alleged al-Qaida member from London is reported to have been killed in a missile attack from a US drone while fighting alongside Islamist insurgents in Somalia. Bilal el-Berjawi is said to have died when three missiles fired from the unmanned aircraft hit his car on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
The 27-year-old's wife is understood to have given birth to a child in a London hospital a few hours before the missile strike, prompting suspicions among relatives that his location had been pinpointed as a result of a telephone conversation between the couple.
About 12 months ago, Berjawi was stripped of the British citizenship he had held since his family moved to the UK from Lebanon when he was an infant.
He is the third Muslim from London to be killed in drone attacks in recent weeks. In November, it was confirmed that Ibrahim Adam, 24, and 38-year-old Mohammed Azmer Khan, both from Ilford, had been killed in a drone attack in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan. Khan's brother, Abdul Jabbar, was killed in a drone attack in the same region a year before. (...)
British 'al-Qaida member' killed in US drone attack in Somalia
The Guardian 23 January 2012
By Ian Cobain
By Ian Cobain
The 27-year-old's wife is understood to have given birth to a child in a London hospital a few hours before the missile strike, prompting suspicions among relatives that his location had been pinpointed as a result of a telephone conversation between the couple.
About 12 months ago, Berjawi was stripped of the British citizenship he had held since his family moved to the UK from Lebanon when he was an infant.
He is the third Muslim from London to be killed in drone attacks in recent weeks. In November, it was confirmed that Ibrahim Adam, 24, and 38-year-old Mohammed Azmer Khan, both from Ilford, had been killed in a drone attack in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan. Khan's brother, Abdul Jabbar, was killed in a drone attack in the same region a year before. (...)
U.K Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tells Students He Still Wants Martyrdom; Only Lacks Opportunity
From The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report:
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U.K Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tells Students He Still Wants Martyrdom; Only Lacks Opportunity
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Azzam Tamimi
Israeli media is reporting on the speaking appearance at the Queen Mary University Palestine Solidarity Society by Hamas spokesman and U.K. Muslim Brotherhood leader Azzam Tamimi. According to a Haaretz report, Tamimi reiterated his ties to Hamas and willingness to become a “martyr” if he had the opportunity:
British-Palestinian activist Azzam Tamimi reiterated his strong connections to Hamas and his willingness to become a “martyr” at a student event on Tuesday night, which drew controversy due to his advertised appearance. Tamimi, an academic who lives in London, sparked outrage when he said during a BBC interview in 2004 that sacrificing oneself was a “noble cause,” adding that it was “the straight way to pleasing my God and I would do it if I had the opportunity.” In response to a question from Haaretz over the opposition to his attendance, he insisted that the reason for the uproar was n attempt to silence his legitimate political views. ”I’d be a martyr for my country, of course,” he said. “If you’re not prepared to die for your country then you are not a patriot.” Regarding his connections to Hamas, which is banned in the EU over its status as a terror organization, he said: “I have a great honor to be close to Hamas,” adding that it was only unfortunate that he himself did not have a leadership role within the group. Having described Hamas chief Khaled Meshal as a close childhood friend, and saying that “all the leaders of Hamas are my friends,” Tamimi added: “I am not ashamed of my association with Hamas. Hamas, in my view, is the true representative of the Palestinian people.” His words were met with a round of applause from the audience of around 30 people. Earlier, a pro-Israel blogger, Richard Millett, was denied entry to the event, at which U.K. politician Jenny Tonge and academic Haim Bresheeth also spoke. An event organizer said that Millett was well-known as a disruptive influence. The group Student Rights had previously expressed concerns over the make-up of the panel. ”It is bad enough that Tamimi, a supporter of an anti-Semitic terrorist group like Hamas, should be invited onto a campus to speak, as he was at Loughborough University last November,” the group said in a statement on its website. ”However, what is worse is that not only will there be no balance to his hate filled views, but that the panel he will speak alongside have all declared outspoken opposition to Israel in the past,” it added.
A previous post discussed the 2010 speaking invitation to Tamimi offered by the Birmingham University Islamic Society.
Azzam Tamimi is a Palestinian whose family moved to Kuwait when he was seven. He was a long time member of the Muslim Association of Britain but switched allegiance to the British Muslim Initiative, both organizations being part of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.K. He is the director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IPT), known to have had Georgetown University Professor John Esposito on its Advisory Board as well as global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. Tamimi is the author of books on Hamas and has been interviewed by Hamas T.V. In January of 2008 he told Iranian TV that “I want to see Israel come to an end.”
See no jihad, speak no jihad
from Europe News:
See no jihad, speak no jihad
WND 23 January 2012
By Diana West
Is there a single public official who is examining – who cares about – the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security contractors in Afghanistan? I can list well over 40 such murders in the past two years. These incidents even have their own phrase in military jargon – "green-on-blue” shootings – but the color we should all be seeing is red. Does Obama see red? Pelosi? Romney? Newt? Anyone?
In the last several months, there have been five separate attacks on Western forces by uniformed Afghan army members. The toll includes three Australian soldiers killed (as they ended a regular weekly parade) and 10 wounded; two members of France’s elite parachute regiment killed (on patrol by an Afghan "ally”); and one American killed and seven wounded. The American fatality, 20-year-old Army Pfc. Dustin Paul Napier of Kentucky, was shot in the head earlier this month by an Afghan service member during a game of volleyball on base.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) didn’t offer that painfully vivid detail about the volleyball game; the media did. Official details on these shootings are scarce, and, according to ISAF’s "new policy” reported this week by USA Today, will become nonexistent now that ISAF plans to withhold information on such Afghan shootings of Western forces. (Outrageous!) Meanwhile, follow-up investigations are practically unheard of. Only a Freedom of Information Act request by the Air Force Times pried from the Pentagon’s clutches the September 2011 report on the murder of nine Americans at Kabul Airport in April 2011 by an Afghan air force officer.
The military’s findings? The killer, Ahmed Gul, 46, "acted alone.” Reading through the Air Force report, I get the impression that collaboration with "the Taliban” is the only hypothesis the investigators consider worth exploring. It is as though the military believes infiltration by hostile forces is the only conceivable threat posed to U.S. and other allied personnel on their bases in Afghanistan. Having failed to dig up concrete evidence of a more or less conventional enemy conspiracy, military investigators close their eyes to anything else – such as good, ol’-fashioned Islamic jihad. As Muslims, Afghans and Taliban alike are subject to its call. Fact. Sorry about that, but I didn’t write the Quran.
The report states: "The information collected regarding SUBJECT (shooter) and his background does not support his involvement in insurgent activity. (Air Force) analysts, in concert with other analysts and agencies, have reviewed multiple intelligence documents, investigative reports, and Open Source reporting to determine SUBJECT’s motive for the attacks. This analysis is not stating that there are no insurgent connections to SUBJECT, but that none have been established thus far during this investigation. Additionally, there are multiple reports that indicated SUBJECT may have had mental issues that were possibly compounded by alleged financial problems.”
I may not have read every word of the 436-page report this statement sums up, but I’ve already picked up a few clues to support the hypothesis that Gul was simply on a jihad.
Gul was said to have returned from Pakistan in 2008 because he "wanted to kill Americans.”
Gul frequented a mosque known for being anti-American and pro-Pakistan. (Reminds me of Shafiullah, the volleyball jihadist.)
Gul stayed up all night before his rampage, praying and cleaning his gun. (Reminds me of Maj. Hasan, the Fort Hood jihadist.)
During the melee, Gul shouted to Afghan security forces from a window: "Good Muslims – please stay away! Muslims don’t come close or you will be killed!” (Reminds me of the Mumbai jihadists.)
In a hallway outside the carnage, Gul dipped his finger in blood and wrote on the wall in the Afghan tongue of Dari: "Allah is one,” and "Allah in your name.”
One witness apparently heard the gunshots as Gul committed suicide, then a voice moaning, "Allah, Allah,” then silence.
Silence is right. According to our Inspector Clouseaus with wings, money problems and other stress must have been the murder motive. Some 1,500 Afghans turned out to pay respects to Gul at his funeral. No doubt they all shared similar financial setbacks.
Shame. Jihad is the secret these investigators are keeping, but only from themselves. It drives the murder spree against infidel troops. It also is part of the culture that renders U.S. utopian plans to train an Afghan army and police force dead on arrival. Not saying so doesn’t make it go away. It just wastes the lives of our people. Does anyone care?
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
See no jihad, speak no jihad
WND 23 January 2012
By Diana West
Is there a single public official who is examining – who cares about – the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security contractors in Afghanistan? I can list well over 40 such murders in the past two years. These incidents even have their own phrase in military jargon – "green-on-blue” shootings – but the color we should all be seeing is red. Does Obama see red? Pelosi? Romney? Newt? Anyone?
In the last several months, there have been five separate attacks on Western forces by uniformed Afghan army members. The toll includes three Australian soldiers killed (as they ended a regular weekly parade) and 10 wounded; two members of France’s elite parachute regiment killed (on patrol by an Afghan "ally”); and one American killed and seven wounded. The American fatality, 20-year-old Army Pfc. Dustin Paul Napier of Kentucky, was shot in the head earlier this month by an Afghan service member during a game of volleyball on base.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) didn’t offer that painfully vivid detail about the volleyball game; the media did. Official details on these shootings are scarce, and, according to ISAF’s "new policy” reported this week by USA Today, will become nonexistent now that ISAF plans to withhold information on such Afghan shootings of Western forces. (Outrageous!) Meanwhile, follow-up investigations are practically unheard of. Only a Freedom of Information Act request by the Air Force Times pried from the Pentagon’s clutches the September 2011 report on the murder of nine Americans at Kabul Airport in April 2011 by an Afghan air force officer.
The military’s findings? The killer, Ahmed Gul, 46, "acted alone.” Reading through the Air Force report, I get the impression that collaboration with "the Taliban” is the only hypothesis the investigators consider worth exploring. It is as though the military believes infiltration by hostile forces is the only conceivable threat posed to U.S. and other allied personnel on their bases in Afghanistan. Having failed to dig up concrete evidence of a more or less conventional enemy conspiracy, military investigators close their eyes to anything else – such as good, ol’-fashioned Islamic jihad. As Muslims, Afghans and Taliban alike are subject to its call. Fact. Sorry about that, but I didn’t write the Quran.
The report states: "The information collected regarding SUBJECT (shooter) and his background does not support his involvement in insurgent activity. (Air Force) analysts, in concert with other analysts and agencies, have reviewed multiple intelligence documents, investigative reports, and Open Source reporting to determine SUBJECT’s motive for the attacks. This analysis is not stating that there are no insurgent connections to SUBJECT, but that none have been established thus far during this investigation. Additionally, there are multiple reports that indicated SUBJECT may have had mental issues that were possibly compounded by alleged financial problems.”
I may not have read every word of the 436-page report this statement sums up, but I’ve already picked up a few clues to support the hypothesis that Gul was simply on a jihad.
Gul was said to have returned from Pakistan in 2008 because he "wanted to kill Americans.”
Gul frequented a mosque known for being anti-American and pro-Pakistan. (Reminds me of Shafiullah, the volleyball jihadist.)
Gul stayed up all night before his rampage, praying and cleaning his gun. (Reminds me of Maj. Hasan, the Fort Hood jihadist.)
During the melee, Gul shouted to Afghan security forces from a window: "Good Muslims – please stay away! Muslims don’t come close or you will be killed!” (Reminds me of the Mumbai jihadists.)
In a hallway outside the carnage, Gul dipped his finger in blood and wrote on the wall in the Afghan tongue of Dari: "Allah is one,” and "Allah in your name.”
One witness apparently heard the gunshots as Gul committed suicide, then a voice moaning, "Allah, Allah,” then silence.
Silence is right. According to our Inspector Clouseaus with wings, money problems and other stress must have been the murder motive. Some 1,500 Afghans turned out to pay respects to Gul at his funeral. No doubt they all shared similar financial setbacks.
Shame. Jihad is the secret these investigators are keeping, but only from themselves. It drives the murder spree against infidel troops. It also is part of the culture that renders U.S. utopian plans to train an Afghan army and police force dead on arrival. Not saying so doesn’t make it go away. It just wastes the lives of our people. Does anyone care?
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
Islam Commands Individual Jihad
From Europe News:
Islam Commands Individual Jihad
Family Security Matters 23 January 2012
By Clare M. Lopez
According to Islamic law, Jihad is warfare to spread the religion and is obligatory for all Muslims everywhere until such time as "there is no more Fitna [resistance to Islam] and the religion will all be for Allah alone.” (Q 8:39) Jihad against the infidel (kuffar) is of two types: offensive and defensive. The offensive kind, called "Fard Kifaya,” is conducted under the leadership of the Caliph and is for the purpose of defending the borders of Islam and sending out the armies of Islam at least once a year to terrorize the enemies of Allah. Offensive Jihad is a collective duty and when enough Muslim fighters respond to the call of the Caliph, the remainder of the Muslim population is relieved of this duty.
Defensive jihad is a compulsory duty upon all Muslims primarily when the kuffar enter Muslim lands. It is considered so critical to repulse the invader that Ibn Taymia even asserted it took precedence over making the hajj. This defensive jihad duty is called "Fard ‘Ayn” and means that there is a personal obligation for all Muslims in the land which has been attacked to join the fight. The scholars agree that children may march forth without permission of their parents, wives without permission of husbands, and slaves without permission of their masters. If the Muslims of the land attacked by the kuffar cannot expel the enemy for whatever reason, then the Fard ‘Ayn obligation expands outward to include other Muslims nearby and then at increasing distances from the center of the invasion. Eventually, Fard ‘Ayn can become obligatory across the entire world until the kuffar is expelled from Muslim land.
Abd Allah ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the author of an authoritative Tafsir (Qur’anic commentary), explained why Fard ‘Ayn is taken so seriously in Islam:
"When the Kufaar attack and control a [Muslim] country, the Ummah is endangered in its Religion, and it becomes susceptible to doubt in its belief. Fighting [the Kufaar] then becomes an obligation, to protect the Religion, the lives, the land and wealth.”
Given Islamic doctrine about offensive and defensive jihad, Fard Kifaya and Fard ‘Ayn, then, it becomes clear that the increasing number of so-called "lone wolf” attacks in the American homeland and even from within the ranks of the U.S. military in fact, are by Muslim jihadis, conducting individual jihad (Fard ‘Ayn).
Academia and the mainstream media, with their focus on "root causes” of such behavior, and U.S. national security leadership, whose main concern is to preserve the illusion that these attacks are somehow disassociated from Islamic doctrine, are all failing to describe accurately what is actually happening. The so-called "radicalization process,” of course, is nothing more than the process of "progressive revelation” as individual Muslims learn more about the obligations of their faith, become more devout, and make the decision to answer the call to violent jihad.
American troops on bases and battlefields in a number of Muslim countries may provide a convenient excuse for individual jihadis to invoke the Islamic doctrine on Fard ‘Ayn, but if it were not Fard ‘Ayn, it would be Fard Kifaya. As long as non-Muslims live free of shariah anywhere on earth, the obligation to jihad remains in effect.
Clare M. Lopez a senior fellow at the Clarion Fund , writes regularly for RadicalIslam.org , and is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, and counterterrorism issues. Copyright © RadicalIslam.org - Reprinted with permission.
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
Islam Commands Individual Jihad
Family Security Matters 23 January 2012
By Clare M. Lopez
According to Islamic law, Jihad is warfare to spread the religion and is obligatory for all Muslims everywhere until such time as "there is no more Fitna [resistance to Islam] and the religion will all be for Allah alone.” (Q 8:39) Jihad against the infidel (kuffar) is of two types: offensive and defensive. The offensive kind, called "Fard Kifaya,” is conducted under the leadership of the Caliph and is for the purpose of defending the borders of Islam and sending out the armies of Islam at least once a year to terrorize the enemies of Allah. Offensive Jihad is a collective duty and when enough Muslim fighters respond to the call of the Caliph, the remainder of the Muslim population is relieved of this duty.
Defensive jihad is a compulsory duty upon all Muslims primarily when the kuffar enter Muslim lands. It is considered so critical to repulse the invader that Ibn Taymia even asserted it took precedence over making the hajj. This defensive jihad duty is called "Fard ‘Ayn” and means that there is a personal obligation for all Muslims in the land which has been attacked to join the fight. The scholars agree that children may march forth without permission of their parents, wives without permission of husbands, and slaves without permission of their masters. If the Muslims of the land attacked by the kuffar cannot expel the enemy for whatever reason, then the Fard ‘Ayn obligation expands outward to include other Muslims nearby and then at increasing distances from the center of the invasion. Eventually, Fard ‘Ayn can become obligatory across the entire world until the kuffar is expelled from Muslim land.
Abd Allah ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the author of an authoritative Tafsir (Qur’anic commentary), explained why Fard ‘Ayn is taken so seriously in Islam:
"When the Kufaar attack and control a [Muslim] country, the Ummah is endangered in its Religion, and it becomes susceptible to doubt in its belief. Fighting [the Kufaar] then becomes an obligation, to protect the Religion, the lives, the land and wealth.”
Given Islamic doctrine about offensive and defensive jihad, Fard Kifaya and Fard ‘Ayn, then, it becomes clear that the increasing number of so-called "lone wolf” attacks in the American homeland and even from within the ranks of the U.S. military in fact, are by Muslim jihadis, conducting individual jihad (Fard ‘Ayn).
Academia and the mainstream media, with their focus on "root causes” of such behavior, and U.S. national security leadership, whose main concern is to preserve the illusion that these attacks are somehow disassociated from Islamic doctrine, are all failing to describe accurately what is actually happening. The so-called "radicalization process,” of course, is nothing more than the process of "progressive revelation” as individual Muslims learn more about the obligations of their faith, become more devout, and make the decision to answer the call to violent jihad.
American troops on bases and battlefields in a number of Muslim countries may provide a convenient excuse for individual jihadis to invoke the Islamic doctrine on Fard ‘Ayn, but if it were not Fard ‘Ayn, it would be Fard Kifaya. As long as non-Muslims live free of shariah anywhere on earth, the obligation to jihad remains in effect.
Clare M. Lopez a senior fellow at the Clarion Fund , writes regularly for RadicalIslam.org , and is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, and counterterrorism issues. Copyright © RadicalIslam.org - Reprinted with permission.
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
Video: Violent Jihadist Video Riles Norway
From Europe News:
Video: Violent Jihadist Video Riles Norway
FrontPage Magazine 23 January 2012
By Bruce Bawer
It was, shall we say, an interesting week in Norway. On Tuesday, January 17, a video was posted on YouTube that called for Norwegian soldiers to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. Over images of Norwegian soldiers and of Norway’s prime minister, foreign minister, and crown prince, a text calling for Allah to "destroy them and let it be painful” was read aloud in Arabic, with subtitles in Norwegian.
The video, which concluded with an image of Norway’s flag in flames, urged Muslims to show up for a protest rally on Friday outside the parliament building in Oslo.
The video provoked instant outrage. On Wednesday, the security policearrested a suspect, but announced that even if the rally organizers proved to be responsible for the video, their permit wouldn’t be withdrawn. It soon emerged that there were connections between the video and a Facebook group whose members included Arfan Bhatti, one of four men arrested in 2006 for shooting at the Oslo synagogue. (Bhatti was alsosuspected by police of plotting to blow up the U.S. and Israeli embassies.) Another member was Mohyeldeen Mohammed, who at a jihadist rally two years ago threatened Norway with its own 9/11.
And guess who else turned out to be an active member of the Facebook group? None other than Aisha Shezadi Kausar (20), whom I wrote about a couple of weeks ago – the girl who’s being sent around to schools by the Norwegian literary establishment so she can brainwash kids into thinking the niqab is just dandy. (Her essay, "You, Me, and Niqab,” has been reprinted in a collection of essays being distributed to students all over the country.) On Facebook, Kausar clicked "like” on the news of the upcoming rally.
On Thursday, the Communist daily Klassekampen ran a sympatheticinterview with Kausar. When Niqab Girl walked into a café with interviewer Ase Brandvold, the customers emitted audible groans. Brandvold: "Her garment provokes them….Only the eyes show. They are radiant.” Kausar: "I want to go over to them and say: Hi, I’m Aisha, and I’m an ordinary person.” Yes, an "ordinary person” who admitted to Brandvold that she planned to take part in the Saturday rally and who, when asked to comment on the video, said: "It’s just a video.” Though Brandvold pressed her (ever so slightly), Niqab Girl refused to condemn the video: "I’m tired of Muslims always being expected to distance themselves from one another all the time.”
At some point during the week came the stunning announcement by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) that Islamists represent the major terrorist threat to the country. Needless to say, this news should not have been stunning to anybody, but (as I describe in a forthcoming e-book) ever since last July 22, when anti-jihadist Anders Behring Breivik bombed a building in Oslo and massacred several dozen teenagers on the island of Utoya, the Norwegian political and cultural elite has done a very effective job of suppressing criticism of Islam on the grounds that the "lesson” of Breivik’s actions is that ethnic Norwegians must stop saying unpleasant things about Islam and embrace their bold, bearded, berobed, and belligerent fellow countrymen as friends and neighbors.
So it was that PST got slammed on a Thursday night TV debate program by Muslim leaders who called for it to stop demonizing their community and pay more attention to the threat of violence by Islam-hating "Christian terrorist” groups in Norway. (Never mind that, as a terrorism expert bravely pointed out on the show, there are no such groups in Norway.) On the same broadcast, the head of the aggressive, fast-growing Islam Net, Fahad Qureshi (whose every comment was greeted by a storm of applause from his followers in the studio audience) attacked a politician for having called the perpetrators of the threatening video "vermin”: instead of being dehumanized, Qureshi insisted, the jihadists who’d made that video should be accorded respect and invited to take part in dialogue.
What was particularly perverse about this picture was that the politician whom Qureshi called on the carpet, Abid Q. Raja, is also a Muslim – one who’s made clear his own Islamist sympathies but who, in the current bizarre atmosphere, comes off, in comparison with the likes of Qureshi, as a moderate, a patriot, a stalwart champion of the royal house and of Norwegian democracy. (The possibility that such confrontations between top-flight Norwegian Muslims are part of a calculated good cop/bad cop strategy cannot be discounted.)
Anyway, Friday came around, and the big rally proved anti-climactic, to say the least. Muslim leaders had spent the week begging their coreligionists to stay away lest they screw up the post-Breivik interdict on Islam criticism. Nearly every Muslim in Norway obeyed. Dozens of journalists and scores of cops turned up for the protest – as did I – but only a few protesters. I stayed around long enough to hear Bhatti spewing into a microphone his contempt for America, Israel, “infidels,” and “kufr,” and echoing the threats uttered on the Norway-out-of-Afghanistan video. (Unfortunately, my video of Bhatti’s rant shows him and his supporters from about thirty yards away; the mounted policewoman seen in the foreground wouldn’t let me get closer.)
On Saturday afternoon, the top headline on the website of Norway’s biggest newspaper, VG, was about Niqab Girl. It turned out that the indirect government funding of her promotion tour for female subordination (her sponsor, the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association, receives generous state support) was now beingcriticized by members of parliament from several parties – which raised the hope that there might actually be a limit to some of these people’s mind-boggling dhimmitude. Still, Wanda Voldner, head of Foreningen Les!, the group that’s sending Niqab Girl around to the schools, said there were no plans to end her tour.
VG further revealed that Niqab Girl – surprise! – supports the Taliban and prefers sharia to democracy. Voldner had no problems with this, either: “She doesn’t call for violence….We don’t see why we should change a collaboration that’s already underway.” The general secretary of the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF) agreed: “There are many authors who have many different opinions….NFF doesn’t censor.”
No – neither of these groups would ever, ever censor an author. Perish the thought! Unless, of course, the author in question was a critic of Islam. No, as far as the Norwegian establishment is concerned, it’s perfectly legitimate to invite an “author” whose entire oeuvre consists of a thousand-word piece of propaganda to “lecture” to kids on the pretext that she’s talking about her “work”; but to invite an actual working writer who actually knows a thing or two about Islam to tell the same students the truth about it – and about the Koran, and sharia law, and jihad (and to explain why Niqab Girl’s lecture tour is, in fact, a form of jihad) – would be hate speech, pure and simple.
The only hope for an about-face on this march into madness lies with the Norwegian people. Can parents who have sons battling the Taliban in Afghanistan actually accept that their taxes are paying for a Taliban supporter to indoctrinate their younger children in Norwegian classrooms? For heaven’s sake, if this doesn’t raise enough people’s hackles to make a difference, what will?
About Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center and the author of “While Europe Slept” and “Surrender.” His e-book, "The New Quislings", about the Norwegian Left's exploitation of the July 22 mass murders in Norway, will be published in early January by Harper Collins.
By Bruce Bawer
It was, shall we say, an interesting week in Norway. On Tuesday, January 17, a video was posted on YouTube that called for Norwegian soldiers to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. Over images of Norwegian soldiers and of Norway’s prime minister, foreign minister, and crown prince, a text calling for Allah to "destroy them and let it be painful” was read aloud in Arabic, with subtitles in Norwegian.
The video, which concluded with an image of Norway’s flag in flames, urged Muslims to show up for a protest rally on Friday outside the parliament building in Oslo.
The video provoked instant outrage. On Wednesday, the security policearrested a suspect, but announced that even if the rally organizers proved to be responsible for the video, their permit wouldn’t be withdrawn. It soon emerged that there were connections between the video and a Facebook group whose members included Arfan Bhatti, one of four men arrested in 2006 for shooting at the Oslo synagogue. (Bhatti was alsosuspected by police of plotting to blow up the U.S. and Israeli embassies.) Another member was Mohyeldeen Mohammed, who at a jihadist rally two years ago threatened Norway with its own 9/11.
And guess who else turned out to be an active member of the Facebook group? None other than Aisha Shezadi Kausar (20), whom I wrote about a couple of weeks ago – the girl who’s being sent around to schools by the Norwegian literary establishment so she can brainwash kids into thinking the niqab is just dandy. (Her essay, "You, Me, and Niqab,” has been reprinted in a collection of essays being distributed to students all over the country.) On Facebook, Kausar clicked "like” on the news of the upcoming rally.
On Thursday, the Communist daily Klassekampen ran a sympatheticinterview with Kausar. When Niqab Girl walked into a café with interviewer Ase Brandvold, the customers emitted audible groans. Brandvold: "Her garment provokes them….Only the eyes show. They are radiant.” Kausar: "I want to go over to them and say: Hi, I’m Aisha, and I’m an ordinary person.” Yes, an "ordinary person” who admitted to Brandvold that she planned to take part in the Saturday rally and who, when asked to comment on the video, said: "It’s just a video.” Though Brandvold pressed her (ever so slightly), Niqab Girl refused to condemn the video: "I’m tired of Muslims always being expected to distance themselves from one another all the time.”
At some point during the week came the stunning announcement by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) that Islamists represent the major terrorist threat to the country. Needless to say, this news should not have been stunning to anybody, but (as I describe in a forthcoming e-book) ever since last July 22, when anti-jihadist Anders Behring Breivik bombed a building in Oslo and massacred several dozen teenagers on the island of Utoya, the Norwegian political and cultural elite has done a very effective job of suppressing criticism of Islam on the grounds that the "lesson” of Breivik’s actions is that ethnic Norwegians must stop saying unpleasant things about Islam and embrace their bold, bearded, berobed, and belligerent fellow countrymen as friends and neighbors.
So it was that PST got slammed on a Thursday night TV debate program by Muslim leaders who called for it to stop demonizing their community and pay more attention to the threat of violence by Islam-hating "Christian terrorist” groups in Norway. (Never mind that, as a terrorism expert bravely pointed out on the show, there are no such groups in Norway.) On the same broadcast, the head of the aggressive, fast-growing Islam Net, Fahad Qureshi (whose every comment was greeted by a storm of applause from his followers in the studio audience) attacked a politician for having called the perpetrators of the threatening video "vermin”: instead of being dehumanized, Qureshi insisted, the jihadists who’d made that video should be accorded respect and invited to take part in dialogue.
What was particularly perverse about this picture was that the politician whom Qureshi called on the carpet, Abid Q. Raja, is also a Muslim – one who’s made clear his own Islamist sympathies but who, in the current bizarre atmosphere, comes off, in comparison with the likes of Qureshi, as a moderate, a patriot, a stalwart champion of the royal house and of Norwegian democracy. (The possibility that such confrontations between top-flight Norwegian Muslims are part of a calculated good cop/bad cop strategy cannot be discounted.)
Anyway, Friday came around, and the big rally proved anti-climactic, to say the least. Muslim leaders had spent the week begging their coreligionists to stay away lest they screw up the post-Breivik interdict on Islam criticism. Nearly every Muslim in Norway obeyed. Dozens of journalists and scores of cops turned up for the protest – as did I – but only a few protesters. I stayed around long enough to hear Bhatti spewing into a microphone his contempt for America, Israel, “infidels,” and “kufr,” and echoing the threats uttered on the Norway-out-of-Afghanistan video. (Unfortunately, my video of Bhatti’s rant shows him and his supporters from about thirty yards away; the mounted policewoman seen in the foreground wouldn’t let me get closer.)
On Saturday afternoon, the top headline on the website of Norway’s biggest newspaper, VG, was about Niqab Girl. It turned out that the indirect government funding of her promotion tour for female subordination (her sponsor, the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association, receives generous state support) was now beingcriticized by members of parliament from several parties – which raised the hope that there might actually be a limit to some of these people’s mind-boggling dhimmitude. Still, Wanda Voldner, head of Foreningen Les!, the group that’s sending Niqab Girl around to the schools, said there were no plans to end her tour.
VG further revealed that Niqab Girl – surprise! – supports the Taliban and prefers sharia to democracy. Voldner had no problems with this, either: “She doesn’t call for violence….We don’t see why we should change a collaboration that’s already underway.” The general secretary of the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF) agreed: “There are many authors who have many different opinions….NFF doesn’t censor.”
No – neither of these groups would ever, ever censor an author. Perish the thought! Unless, of course, the author in question was a critic of Islam. No, as far as the Norwegian establishment is concerned, it’s perfectly legitimate to invite an “author” whose entire oeuvre consists of a thousand-word piece of propaganda to “lecture” to kids on the pretext that she’s talking about her “work”; but to invite an actual working writer who actually knows a thing or two about Islam to tell the same students the truth about it – and about the Koran, and sharia law, and jihad (and to explain why Niqab Girl’s lecture tour is, in fact, a form of jihad) – would be hate speech, pure and simple.
The only hope for an about-face on this march into madness lies with the Norwegian people. Can parents who have sons battling the Taliban in Afghanistan actually accept that their taxes are paying for a Taliban supporter to indoctrinate their younger children in Norwegian classrooms? For heaven’s sake, if this doesn’t raise enough people’s hackles to make a difference, what will?
About Bruce Bawer
Bruce Bawer is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center and the author of “While Europe Slept” and “Surrender.” His e-book, "The New Quislings", about the Norwegian Left's exploitation of the July 22 mass murders in Norway, will be published in early January by Harper Collins.
Understanding Islamofascism
From Europe News:
Understanding Islamofascism
American Thinker 23 January 2012
By Yonatan Silverman
The exact identity of the person who coined the expression "Islamofascism" isn't crystal-clear. But the late Christopher Hitchens should be given credit for defining the term.
The most obvious points of comparison would be these: Both movements are based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind. ("Death to the intellect! Long live death!" as Gen. Francisco Franco's sidekick Gonzalo Queipo de Llano so pithily phrased it.) Both are hostile to modernity (except when it comes to the pursuit of weapons), and both are bitterly nostalgic for past empires and lost glories. Both are obsessed with real and imagined "humiliations" and thirsty for revenge. Both are chronically infected with the toxin of anti-Jewish paranoia (interestingly, also, with its milder cousin, anti-Freemason paranoia). Both are inclined to leader worship and to the exclusive stress on the power of one great book. Both have a strong commitment to sexual repression-especially to the repression of any sexual "deviance"-and to its counterparts the subordination of the female and contempt for the feminine. Both despise art and literature as symptoms of degeneracy and decadence; both burn books and destroy museums and treasures.
Hitchens hit the nail on the head with respect to the cultural and political parallels in the concept Islamofascism. But the thing is that even though Hitchens perspicaciously pinpointed lines of convergence between Islam and fascism, the fact remains that fascism, in the strictest sense, is a narrow and even myopic political idea which emerged in the 20th century and has since expired.
Even though it is convenient to call brutal Islamic regimes like Iran Islamofascist, the brutality of these regimes emanates not from fascism -- but from Islam. Among other things, fascism shuns religion and belief in God, while in Islam, everyone and everything submits to Allah and the Koran, along the traditional lines of religious devotion.
Islam is one of the world's three great religions, but from its inception, it has always also been an imperialistic political organization and has embodied a powerful desire to rule the world and rule over other peoples. No other great religion exhibits this desire.
The Islamic state expanded very rapidly after the death of Muhammad through remarkable successes both at converting unbelievers to Islam and by military conquests of the Islamic community's opponents. Expansion of the Islamic state was an understandable development, since Muhammad himself had successfully established the new faith through conversion and conquest of those who stood against him. Immediately after the Prophet's death in 632, Abu Bakr, as the first Caliph, continued the effort to abolish paganism among the Arab tribes, and also to incorporate Arabia into a region controlled by the political power of Medina. United by their faith in God and a commitment to political consolidation, the Muslim merchant elite of Arabia succeeded in consolidating their power throughout the Arabian peninsula and began to launch some exploratory offensives north toward Syria.
Between 600 and 1800 the Islamic Empire spread to the four corners of the world including Persia, India, Spain and as far as the Far East. Forced conversions were not necessarily part of the program. Non-believing subjects of the ruling regime paid a non-Muslim tax. But in any case, non-Muslims in the Muslim Empire were considered dhimmi, or second class citizens.
Fascism is symbolized by a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center. The image traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction and/or "strength through unity."
This is the raison d'etre of the Muslim Brotherhood, too. But in their hands, the execution of Koranic precepts is the path to follow, not fascism per se. The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and very quickly became a large, well-organized social and political organization flying the flag of Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood is on the surface a Muslim social welfare organization, and its political underpinning is strictly Islamic also. It emanates from Islam and the Koran, not from Hitlerite fascism as this ideology is understood. The Muslim Brotherhood did indeed find common ground with the Nazis, however.
When Hitler came to power in the 1930's, he and Nazi intelligence made contact with Muslim Brotherhood founder and leader al Banna to see if they could work together. Banna was also a devout admirer of Hitler. Banna's letters to Hitler were so supportive that he and other members of the Brotherhood, were recruited by Nazi Military Intelligence to provide information on the British and work covertly to undermine British control in Egypt. Banna himself said that he had "considerable admiration for the Nazi Brownshirts" and organized his own forces along fascist lines. Banna's Brotherhood also collaborated with the overtly fascist "Young Egypt" movement, founded in October 1933.
The Grand Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini did not just think like an Islamofascist; he actively collaborated with the Nazis in Berlin during the war. Among other things, he helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS.
But these are cases of Islam in the service of Nazi fascist terror. Islamofascism as the phenomenon manifests itself in our world emanates directly from Islam. The lust for world conquest and the revival of the caliphate, the terrorist violence out of a desire for jihad as commanded in the Koran, the hatred for Jews and Israel, the rejection of democracy and social equality (Taliban ideology prohibits women from working or educating themselves), the Islamic customary demand that women wear the death-shroud burqa, xenophobia (the shunning of foreigners and strangers) -- all of these are deeply imbedded in the Muslim world. These things and others are outgrowths of Islam, not fascism. But on account of their barbarity and inhumanity generally, the term Islamofascism is often used so as not to offend the mainstream.
Is the so-called Arab Spring Islamofascist? When it started last year, the West applauded these rebellions as harbingers of democracy and freedom in the Arab world.
Far from democracy, the despotic regimes and military dictatorships that the various rebellions in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Libya have overturned are being replaced by fanatical Islamic regimes. In Syria, the problem is different. Assad isn't stepping down to install a popular government -- he is killing the popular movement with gusto. And this leaves out the Islamofascist nature of Iran, which is the epitome of Islamofascism (again, that grows directly out of Islam, not fascism).
It's regrettable for humanity, but the Islamofascist ideologies and their barbaric political and social manifestations emanate in the final analysis from Islam per se -- not fascism. But the word "Islamofascism" still carries meaning.
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
Understanding Islamofascism
American Thinker 23 January 2012
By Yonatan Silverman
The exact identity of the person who coined the expression "Islamofascism" isn't crystal-clear. But the late Christopher Hitchens should be given credit for defining the term.
The most obvious points of comparison would be these: Both movements are based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind. ("Death to the intellect! Long live death!" as Gen. Francisco Franco's sidekick Gonzalo Queipo de Llano so pithily phrased it.) Both are hostile to modernity (except when it comes to the pursuit of weapons), and both are bitterly nostalgic for past empires and lost glories. Both are obsessed with real and imagined "humiliations" and thirsty for revenge. Both are chronically infected with the toxin of anti-Jewish paranoia (interestingly, also, with its milder cousin, anti-Freemason paranoia). Both are inclined to leader worship and to the exclusive stress on the power of one great book. Both have a strong commitment to sexual repression-especially to the repression of any sexual "deviance"-and to its counterparts the subordination of the female and contempt for the feminine. Both despise art and literature as symptoms of degeneracy and decadence; both burn books and destroy museums and treasures.
Hitchens hit the nail on the head with respect to the cultural and political parallels in the concept Islamofascism. But the thing is that even though Hitchens perspicaciously pinpointed lines of convergence between Islam and fascism, the fact remains that fascism, in the strictest sense, is a narrow and even myopic political idea which emerged in the 20th century and has since expired.
Even though it is convenient to call brutal Islamic regimes like Iran Islamofascist, the brutality of these regimes emanates not from fascism -- but from Islam. Among other things, fascism shuns religion and belief in God, while in Islam, everyone and everything submits to Allah and the Koran, along the traditional lines of religious devotion.
Islam is one of the world's three great religions, but from its inception, it has always also been an imperialistic political organization and has embodied a powerful desire to rule the world and rule over other peoples. No other great religion exhibits this desire.
The Islamic state expanded very rapidly after the death of Muhammad through remarkable successes both at converting unbelievers to Islam and by military conquests of the Islamic community's opponents. Expansion of the Islamic state was an understandable development, since Muhammad himself had successfully established the new faith through conversion and conquest of those who stood against him. Immediately after the Prophet's death in 632, Abu Bakr, as the first Caliph, continued the effort to abolish paganism among the Arab tribes, and also to incorporate Arabia into a region controlled by the political power of Medina. United by their faith in God and a commitment to political consolidation, the Muslim merchant elite of Arabia succeeded in consolidating their power throughout the Arabian peninsula and began to launch some exploratory offensives north toward Syria.
Between 600 and 1800 the Islamic Empire spread to the four corners of the world including Persia, India, Spain and as far as the Far East. Forced conversions were not necessarily part of the program. Non-believing subjects of the ruling regime paid a non-Muslim tax. But in any case, non-Muslims in the Muslim Empire were considered dhimmi, or second class citizens.
Fascism is symbolized by a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center. The image traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction and/or "strength through unity."
This is the raison d'etre of the Muslim Brotherhood, too. But in their hands, the execution of Koranic precepts is the path to follow, not fascism per se. The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and very quickly became a large, well-organized social and political organization flying the flag of Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood is on the surface a Muslim social welfare organization, and its political underpinning is strictly Islamic also. It emanates from Islam and the Koran, not from Hitlerite fascism as this ideology is understood. The Muslim Brotherhood did indeed find common ground with the Nazis, however.
When Hitler came to power in the 1930's, he and Nazi intelligence made contact with Muslim Brotherhood founder and leader al Banna to see if they could work together. Banna was also a devout admirer of Hitler. Banna's letters to Hitler were so supportive that he and other members of the Brotherhood, were recruited by Nazi Military Intelligence to provide information on the British and work covertly to undermine British control in Egypt. Banna himself said that he had "considerable admiration for the Nazi Brownshirts" and organized his own forces along fascist lines. Banna's Brotherhood also collaborated with the overtly fascist "Young Egypt" movement, founded in October 1933.
The Grand Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini did not just think like an Islamofascist; he actively collaborated with the Nazis in Berlin during the war. Among other things, he helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS.
But these are cases of Islam in the service of Nazi fascist terror. Islamofascism as the phenomenon manifests itself in our world emanates directly from Islam. The lust for world conquest and the revival of the caliphate, the terrorist violence out of a desire for jihad as commanded in the Koran, the hatred for Jews and Israel, the rejection of democracy and social equality (Taliban ideology prohibits women from working or educating themselves), the Islamic customary demand that women wear the death-shroud burqa, xenophobia (the shunning of foreigners and strangers) -- all of these are deeply imbedded in the Muslim world. These things and others are outgrowths of Islam, not fascism. But on account of their barbarity and inhumanity generally, the term Islamofascism is often used so as not to offend the mainstream.
Is the so-called Arab Spring Islamofascist? When it started last year, the West applauded these rebellions as harbingers of democracy and freedom in the Arab world.
Far from democracy, the despotic regimes and military dictatorships that the various rebellions in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Libya have overturned are being replaced by fanatical Islamic regimes. In Syria, the problem is different. Assad isn't stepping down to install a popular government -- he is killing the popular movement with gusto. And this leaves out the Islamofascist nature of Iran, which is the epitome of Islamofascism (again, that grows directly out of Islam, not fascism).
It's regrettable for humanity, but the Islamofascist ideologies and their barbaric political and social manifestations emanate in the final analysis from Islam per se -- not fascism. But the word "Islamofascism" still carries meaning.
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by pk
If Syria's regime falls, the U.S. will be in a better position to answer one of the lingering questions from the long Iraq War: Did Baghdad ship weapons of mass destruction components to Syria before the 2003 American-led invasion?
From Save Syria Now:
Assad's fall could solve Iraqi weapons mystery
Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times
Sunday, January 22, 2012
If Syria's regime falls, the U.S. will be in a better position to answer one of the lingering questions from the long Iraq War: Did Baghdad ship weapons of mass destruction components to Syria before the 2003 American-led invasion?
An opposition leader tells The Washington Times that a new, secular democracy in Syria would allow outside inspectors to survey and ensure destruction of what is believed to be one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the Middle East.
Western and Israeli intelligence suspect that Bashar Assad's regime in Syria also owns weaponized nerve agents.
Spy satellites tracked a large number of truck convoys moving from Iraq to Syria in the weeks before the 2003 invasion, raising suspicions that some carried weapons of mass destruction.
The invading Americans never found stocks of such weapons in Iraq, despite two years of searching by the Iraq Survey Group.
The result spurred the political left to attack President Bush with slogans such as "Bush lied, troops died," but nonpartisan national security figures said there was evidence that material may have been moved to Syria. There was just no way to get inside the Iranian-supported dictatorship to take a look.
Zuhdi Jasser, a Syrian-American physician who co-founded the group Save Syria Now, is working to bring an elected secular government to Damascus. He said the Assad regime, which has used brutal repression to remain in power, can fall within a year if the popular uprising comes to the capital.
"As far as making sure there is a public transparent disposal of [weapons of mass destruction], I believe so," Dr. Jasser told The Times.
He said an emerging group, the Syrian Democratic Coalition, is preparing a pledge by pro-democracy members.
"Many of us are banking on the fact they will not protect any arsenals there and allow a transparent change so they can be welcomed into the world community and not simply exchange one fascist government for another," he said.
Disposing of Syria's chemical weapons "has to be part of the transition," he said.
Research groups say the Assad regime maintains large stocks of chemical weapons, including mustard gas.
"Over the past three decades, Syria has acquired an arsenal of chemical weapons (CW) and surface-to-surface missiles, reportedly has conducted research and development in biological weapons (BW), and may be interested in a nuclear weapons capability," said a 2003 report by the Congressional Research Service.
Iraq at one point did possess large stocks of chemical weapons and used them on Iran and the Iraqi Kurdish population.
After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, U.N. inspectors destroyed huge caches. But U.S. intelligence agencies always believed that Saddam Hussein clung to some materials because of his regime's efforts to evade and confuse U.N. inspectors.
Suspicions lingered during the administration of President Clinton, who ordered five days of airstrikes on Iraq in 1998 to destroy what he said were remaining stockpiles that could fall into the hands of terrorists. Mr. Bush offered a similar rationale for war in 2003.
"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors," Mr. Clinton told the American people.
Among those who suspect a Syrian connection is retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., who is now the most senior U.S. intelligence officer.
He told The Times in 2003 that U.S. satellites documented waves of truck traffic out of Iraq and into Syria.
"I think personally that those below the senior leadership saw what was coming, and I think they went to some extraordinary lengths to dispose of the evidence," said Gen. Clapper, who then headed the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and now is director of national intelligence. "I'll call it an educated hunch.
"I think probably in the few months running up prior to the onset of combat that ... there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private homes, move documentation and materials out of the country," he said. "I think there are any number of things that they would have done."
On the activity on the Syrian border, Gen. Clapper said: "There is no question that there was a lot of traffic, increase in traffic up to the immediate onset of combat and certainly during Iraqi Freedom. ... The obvious conclusion one draws is the sudden upturn, uptick in traffic which may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq and, unquestionably I'm sure, material as well."
Such suspicion also found its way inside the Iraq Survey Group, the joint Pentagon-CIA organization formed to hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Charles Duelfer, who headed the Iraq Survey Group, filed a final addendum in 2005 to his exhaustive report. He said his investigators found "sufficiently credible" evidence that material for weapons of mass destruction was shifted from Iraq to Syria.
"[The Iraq Survey Group] was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out the possibility that [weapons of mass destruction were] evacuated to Syria before the war," he said.
"Whether Syria received military items from Iraq for safekeeping or other reasons has yet to be determined," Mr. Duelfer said. "There was evidence of a discussion of possible ... collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and [the Iraq Survey Group] received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that [weapons of mass destruction were] involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation."
He said all senior Iraqis then in custody denied knowledge of any weapons of mass destruction moving into Syria.
"Nevertheless," the inspector said, "given the insular and compartmented nature of the regime, [Iraq Survey Group] analysts believed there was enough evidence to merit further investigation."
Libya's new transitional government has set a precedent for allowing Western arms inspectors into the country.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based at The Hague, is an independent group that monitors compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.
It filed its most recent report on Libya on Friday, saying all of Libya's newly declared quantities of sulfur mustard and related chemicals are stored at the Ruwagha depot in southwestern Libya and are to be destroyed by April.
The same scenario could play out in a post-Assad Syria, along with detective work to determine, once and for all, whether any weapons components came from Iraq in 2003.
Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told The Times that inspectors could enter Syria "only if the new regime joins the Chemical Weapons Convention, thereby making Syria an OPCW member state and legally subject to our verification measures."
NYC POLICE THROW NAVY SEAL INTO PSYCH WARD FOR CLAIMING…HE’S A SEAL
From The Blaze:
NYC POLICE THROW NAVY SEAL INTO PSYCH WARD FOR CLAIMING…HE’S A SEAL
A Virginia man claimed to be a Navy SEAL to talk his way out of a gun possession arrest on Thursday, and the New York Police Department committed him to a psych ward thinking his claims of elite military status were the rantings of a lunatic.
Turns out the guy was in fact an elite Navy SEAL.
But as the New York Post put it, telling the NYPD “I’m in an elite military unit, you can’t arrest me,” doesn‘t help much when the city’s draconian gun laws are at issue.
Twenty-nine-year-old Shaun Day was on a leave from his duty as a Navy SEAL duty when cops nailed him for running a red light in Manhattan, New York on Thursday.
NYPD officers searched Day’s pickup truck and found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and three magazines full of ammo.
During the arrest, police claim Day was babbling incoherently and repeatedly claimed that he was an elite Navy SEAL with “top- secret clearance,” but was unable to provide any documentation for police.
After getting shipped off to the psych ward, sources told The Post the Navy sent staffers to talk to Day in Bellevue Hospital, where he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. According toGothamist:
“He was released [Friday] in their care, and they were going to treat him for post-traumatic stress. All charges against Day have been deferred, and it’s unclear how he was able to prove his status.”
So far, the charges against Day of weapons possession and a traffic violation have been deferred.
Over the past few months, other out-of-towners, however, including a former marine, have been arrested for illegal gun possession in New York and face years in prison despite pleas for leniency.
Editor’s note: The lawyer for former Marine Ryan Jerome, one of those arrested recently, joined The Blaze Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker on Friday‘s GBTV ’For the Record’ program. Here’s an excerpt from that interview:
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