Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Europe
Alleged ISIS Supporter Charged For Thwarted Attacks on Denmark and London
2021-04-13
[Breitbart] A man has been charged in Norway for his alleged role in plans to carry out three bully boy attacks in Denmark and in London, and for purportedly spreading Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group propaganda on the internet.

Authorities believe the 24-year-old man, who wasn’t identified, was part of a group that sought to strike a church in England, possibly St. Paul´s Cathedral in London, but British police thwarted the plot, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Monday.

The man was also allegedly involved in plans for one or more attacks in Denmark in March and April 2019 with help from at least one Danish citizen, prosecutor Geir Evanger told NRK. Those attacks are believed to have been prevented as well.

The man has maintained his innocence. If found guilty, the man who claims to be innocent, faces up to 21 years in jail, NRK said. The trial starts in Oslo on May 18.

Evanger was quoted as saying by NRK that as to his involvement in IS, the man spread "extremist material, violent mostly peaceful material and material with religious content" online. He was an administrator for several groups on social media, including some he had created, the prosecutor said, adding they consider him to be "a relatively central participant in many of these groups."

NRK said the man had been held in jug for a while.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the case was linked to the July sentencing in London of Safiyya Sheikh, a British woman who had converted to Islam. She was locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
for life, with a minimum sentence of 14 years, for plotting to blow up St. Paul’s Cathedral, a nearby hotel in London and a subway train in a suicide kaboom.

Sheikh, born Michelle Ramsden,
...more formally Safiyya Amira Shaikh, whose jihadi mentor was Anjem Choudary
...self-proclaimed holy man who used to work for Omar Mohammed Bakdri as spokesman for al-Muhajiroun. Anjem is a loathesome little attention prostitute who is to be heard cheering for the home team anytime anybody with a turban manages to slaughter a group of unarmed infidels. Anjem was born in the UK in 1967 and is, as you would expect, of Pakistaini descent. The Ghost of Dante is of the opinion that when he goes to hell his knees will be broken once a month. He was in jug for awhile for supporting the Islamic State...
, whose inspiration was Anwar Al-Awlaki lectures, and whose family and daughter were an inconvenience she’ll no longer be responsible for...
who was a supporter of the Islamic State group, pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses.
Related:
Norway: 2021-03-30 Sweden Saw Lower Mortality Rate Than Most of Europe in 2020
Norway: 2021-03-24 California's senators ask Biden to ban sale of gas-powered cars
Norway: 2021-03-20 Scientists Say They Found Cause of Rare Blood Clotting Linked to AstraZeneca Vaccine
Related:
Safiyya Sheikh: 2020-07-04 British woman jailed for plot to bomb London’s St Paul’s Cathedral
Link


Britain
British woman jailed for plot to bomb London’s St Paul’s Cathedral
2020-07-04
[SCMP] A British Moslem convert was locked away
Please don't kill me!
for at least 14 years on Friday for plotting to blow up London’s St Paul’s Cathedral and then herself in a suicide kaboom on the London subway.

Safiyya Sheikh,
...more formally Safiyya Amira Shaikh, whose jihadi mentor was Anjem Choudary
...self-proclaimed holy man who used to work for Omar Mohammed Bakdri as spokesman for al-Muhajiroun. Anjem is a loathesome little attention prostitute who is to be heard cheering for the home team anytime anybody with a turban manages to slaughter a group of unarmed infidels. Anjem was born in the UK in 1967 and is, as you would expect, of Pakistaini descent. The Ghost of Dante is of the opinion that when he goes to hell his knees will be broken once a month. He was in jug for awhile for supporting the Islamic State...
, whose inspiration was Anwar Al-Awlaki lectures, and whose family and daughter were an inconvenience she’ll no longer be responsible for...
37, confessed to plotting the attacks when she was arrested after making contact with an explosives expert who was a police informant.

The heroin user, who converted to Islam in 2007, expressed no remorse as she was sentenced at London’s Old Bailey, gesturing to news hounds using Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s one-finger salute as she was led away.

Prosecutors also disclosed details of a call she made to a friend from prison in which she said: "I didn’t get cold feet, yeah — I was ready to go through with it."

The court was told she intended to trigger a boom jacket at the nearby London Underground station immediately after detonating the cathedral bombs. Judge Nigel Sweeney sentenced Sheikh to life in prison with a minimum term of 14 years.

He said her defence team’s claim that she had changed her mind about going through with the attack prior to her arrest "was a lie".

"Your intention had been — and remained throughout — strong," the judge said.

The investigation showed that she had confessed in August last year to undercover agents that she "would like to kill a lot".

She visited St Paul’s Cathedral — a popular tourist destination facing the London Stock Exchange — in September on a reconnaissance mission and was arrested the following month.

London’s counterterrorism police chief Richard Smith said Sheikh "loved watching graphic videos of terror" and changed her name from Michelle Ramsden after a "truly traumatic childhood".
The Guardian adds:
Delivering sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, acknowledged that Sheikh had suffered from mental health issues, but said: "There are a number of aggravating factors — communication with known holy warriors, deliberate use of encrypted communications, use of multiple social media platforms, significant volumes of terrorist publications published and attempting to disguise your identity."

Sweeney added: "I had already reached the sure conclusion in the original evidence that your claim of doubt to the police and others was a lie. Your intention had been — and remained throughout — strong."

During the sentencing hearing last month, Alison Morgan QC, prosecuting, said Sheikh was a "violent mostly peaceful holy warrior" who had pledged her support to Isis. She was not just planning an attack but also "encouraging others to commit attacks of a similar kind".

Sheikh’s online propaganda postings were sophisticated and "prolific", the court was told, including pictures of executions, glorification of atrocities and spreading threats to carry out mass murder.

Sheikh had no previous terror-related convictions but was on the radar of counter-terrorism Sherlocks from at least 2016. She was referred to the Prevent deradicalisation programme three times between 2016 and 2018 but each time she disengaged. She was never referred to the counter-extremism scheme Channel.

On the encrypted message service Telegram, Sheikh ran a social media channel called GreenB1rds, which spread pro-Isis propaganda and called for attacks in the UK and overseas specifically on churches.

Sometimes she posed as a man online, believing it would encourage more people to engage with her. Detectives had evidence that she was so fixated on her own martyrdom that she was lining up others to take over her Telegram account.

On 18 August 2019, she was stopped at Luton airport and prevented from flying to to Amsterdam. Her ticket had been purchased by Yousra Lemouesset, a Netherlands-based Isis supporter who has since been convicted of terror offences.
Related:
Michelle Ramsden: 2020-02-22 Muslim-convert who became Britain's 'first female suicide bomb plotter'
Related:
Anjem Choudary : 2020-06-06 'We will take over': Australian leader of extremist Islamic group says US riots are 'opportunity' for Muslims to seize global leadership, impose Sharia law
Anjem Choudary : 2020-01-12 Inmate attack on UK prison officer treated as terrorism
Anjem Choudary : 2020-01-04 Psychologist behind Britain’s terrorist deradicalisation scheme says there is NO guarantee offenders can ever be ‘CURED’ or pose no threat to society
Link


Terror Networks
Al-Qaeda Recruitment Lectures Offered in Google Play Store App
2018-04-19
[PJMedia] An app that has been dowloaded more than a thousand times on Google Play hooks up users with a selection of audio lectures and video addresses from American al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki.

Al-Awlaki, the New Mexico native who remains a powerful recruitment force spanning terrorist group loyalties, was killed in an airstrike in Yemen in 2011. ISIS fighters frequently quote the leading al-Qaeda member online. Lone jihadists are often found to have consumed al-Awlaki lectures, including 2016 Chelsea bomber Ahmad Khan Rahimi and Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the Ohio State student who rammed pedestrians on campus in 2016.

In a November anti-extremism crackdown, YouTube pulled tens of thousands of videos of al-Awlaki's myriad sermons and Q&As that had been uploaded to the site. A search on the site now finds al-Awlaki videos that were posted 3 to 4 months ago, after the company's purge.

The Google Play app titled "Anwar Al Awlaki Lectures" is filed under "entertainment" and rated E for everyone.
Goody.

Link


Home Front: WoT
Brownsburg man arrested, accused of traveling to support ISIL
2016-06-22
[WTHR] A Brownsburg, Indiana, man was tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
Tuesday for attempting to join the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

FBI agents arrested Akram Musleh, 18, as he tried to board a bus from Indianapolis to New York. The FBI believes Musleh was going to fly to Morocco in transit to ISIS-controlled territory.

The arrest was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana and Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott of the FBI’s Indiana Division.

Musleh is accused of planning to provide support to ISIS by fighting for the terrorist group.

FBI agents were on the scene at Brownsburg Pointe Apartments in connection with the investigation.

Musleh attended Brownsburg High School
According to the criminal complaint, when Musleh was a student at Brownsburg High School in 2013, he posted three videos of Anwar Al-Awlaki to YouTube. Al-Awlaki was a radical holy man assassinated in a drone strike several years ago, and his videos encouraging Moslems to kill Americans have been associated with the radicalization of several suspects in domestic terror attacks.

The complaint says the school worked with the FBI to dissuade Musleh from "engaging in radical extremism."

In September 2014, Musleh bought an ISIS flag online. In June 2015, he was seen in a photo posing in front of the flag.

Musleh allegedly asked youths if they wanted to join ISIS
In April 2015, Brownsburg Police investigated an incident in Williams Park in Brownsburg to look into allegations that certain people at the park were asking juveniles if they wanted to join ISIS (another name for ISIS). The FBI determined that Musleh was one of the people asking juveniles about joining ISIS.

First attempt to travel to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
It's believed Musleh traveled to Istanbul, Turkey in June 2015, booking at least three separate one-way tickets from reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
to Istanbul. Musleh allegedly told U.S. Customs and Border Protection that he was going to Istanbul to visit family. Then he explained he was traveling to get married, and would be meeting his fiancee and her family there. But the FBI says Musleh doesn't have family or friends in Turkey - and they say that the alleged fiancee is an ISIS sympathizer living in Sweden.

Musleh was not allowed to travel to Turkey in June 2015 because his passport was set to expire that August. Turkey requires a minimum of six months of validity on passports for visitors.

Journal, online statements in support of ISIS
When the FBI conducted an authorized search of Musleh's checked baggage, they found a journal containing quotes from Al-Awlaki, the late Osama bin Laden
... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel...
and others associated with terrorist groups.

The FBI says Musleh posted statements supporting ISIS on social media and found evidence of that activity online.

One-way ticket
Investigators say Musleh bought a one-way ticket on April 4, 2016 for June 23, 2016, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Casablanca, Morocco, and then on to Nador, Morocco. On April 21, 2016, he bought a one-way Greyhound bus ticket from Indianapolis to New York, to depart on June 21, 2016.

Musleh researched terror targets in Indiana
The FBI found that in May 2016, Musleh looked at a 2006 news article with the headline, "Indiana tops lists for terror targets," which details the Indiana Department of Homeland Security's list of 8,500 terror targets in the state. He also looked at commercial websites for pressure cookers a few days later and conducted extensive research on kabooms like dynamite, flash powder, explosive precursors, along with instructions about explosive chemical recipes.
Link


Britain
UK citizen jailed over plot to bomb passengers from Israel at Heathrow
2016-05-31
[IsraelTimes] Would-be al-Qaeda murderer who plotted to carry out a suicide kaboom at airport tossed in the calaboose for 40 years

A British would-be al-Qaeda terrorist who plotted to carry out a suicide attack at Heathrow airport, targeting passengers returning from Israel and America, has been tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
for 40 years.

Minh Quang Pham, 33,
...the Vietnamese-British convert to Islam who was trained in the art of bomb making by AQAP's Anwar al-Awlaki himself...
was sentenced in New York for supporting the terrorist organization al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP) in 2011.

In January, Pham admitted three counts of terrorist-related activity based on his support for the group, Scotland Yard said, though he denied that he ever intended to carry out his plot or harm anyone. No attack ever occurred.

The former Vietnamese national was first nabbed
You have the right to remain silent...
in the UK in June 2012 and was extradited to the US in early 2015.

Scotland Yard said its Counter Terrorism Command provided key evidence that helped shape the case against Pham, also known as Amin, and led to this successful prosecution.

He pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to AQAP, one count of conspiring to receive military training from AQAP and one count of possessing and using a machine gun in furtherance of crimes of violence.

Prosecutors say Pham was directed by al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki to detonate explosives in Heathrow’s arrivals area, to coincide with arrivals from Ben Gurion airport.
Link


Arabia
ISIS in Yemen: Militants kill two Yemen tribesmen
2015-12-04
AFP, AdenThursday, 3 December 2015

Militants have killed two members of an influential tribe in southeastern Yemen, tribal sources said Thursday, accusing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group of carrying out the executions.

“Supporters of Daesh on Wednesday executed members of the Awlaki tribe after kidnapping them,” a senior tribesman told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Another tribal source said Hashem and Ahmed Maklam al-Tunssi were killed in Seiyun, the second largest town in Hadramawt province, where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has a significant presence.

The men belonged to the same tribe as U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who Washington alleges was a senior Al-Qaeda operative.

He was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

The pro-government “Popular Resistance” force in Hadramawt confirmed the deaths of the two men in a statement accusing ISIS of the killing.

More at the link
Link


Home Front: WoT
Defense Wraps Up Case in Boston Bombing Trial
2015-04-02
[AnNahar] Lawyers for alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev quickly wrapped up their defense case on Tuesday as the four-week old trial entered its final stages.

Attorneys for Tsarnaev, who faces the death penalty if convicted of the April 2013 Boston Marathon attack that killed three people and maimed 264, called only four witnesses after prosecutors wrapped their case on Monday.

"That is all the witnesses that the defense will present," lawyer Tim Watkins informed the court, following the testimony of an FBI fingerprint expert.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys will make their closing arguments on Monday, federal judge George O'Toole said. After that, jury deliberations will begin.

Tsarnaev's lawyers have already admitted the 21-year-old Moslem was responsible for the bombings, telling jurors in their opening statement: "It was him."

However the defense have sought to portray Tsarnaev's elder brother Tamerlan -- rubbed out by police in the days following the attacks -- as the architect of the bombings, arguing that his younger sibling had fallen helplessly under his influence.

Under questioning Tuesday, FBI fingerprint expert Elaina Graff acknowledged that only Tamerlan Tsarnaev's fingerprints had been found on many items of evidence including materials used to manufacture bombs. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's fingerprints were absent.

- Computer search clue -
A computer expert, Mark Spencer, meanwhile said that a search of the hard drives of three computers belonging to the Tsarnaev brothers had found more than five million documents.

Searches using terms including "Boston Marathon", "gun stores", "detonator", "fireworks firing system" were all carried out on a computer belonging to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he said. No similar search terms had been found on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's computer, the expert testified.

An entire issue of the al-Qaeda propaganda magazine Inspire was found downloaded on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's computer, the expert added. The documents were later copied via a USB key and stored on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop, he said.

Spencer said the most popular pages visited online by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev prior to the bombings appeared to be Facebook and its Russian equivalent.

His brother, meanwhile, was visiting pages detailing how to make homemade bombs while watching online sermons by U.S.-born al-Qaeda preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki, killed by a drone strike in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
in 2011.

On Monday, prosecutors closed their case with gruesome testimony about the youngest fatality in the bombings that left some jurors in tears.

Chief medical examiner Henry Nields recounted in graphic detail the injuries suffered by eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was torn apart by one of the pressure-cooker bombs planted by the brothers.

The child's blood-stained clothing was shown to jurors, some of whom were unable to hold back tears. The boy suffered a massive wound to the abdomen, along with burns.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to 30 charges linked to the attacks and to the murder of a police officer, a carjacking and the shootout with police while on the run.

Seventeen of those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty under federal law.

If convicted, jurors will weigh whether to condemn him to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole, the only two sentencing options available.
Link


Olde Tyme Religion
Muslim world questions logic behind Charlie antics
2015-01-15
[ARABNEWS] Iyad Madani, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has denounced the publication of sacrilegious cartoons by French magazine Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, calling the move insolence, ignorance and foolishness.

He said: Freedom of speech must not become a hate-speech and it must not offend others. No sane person, regardless of doctrine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs being ridiculed.

Prominent Saudi scholar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ghamdi said that publication of the latest image was a mistake. Its not a good way to make the people understand us. Jesus or Moses, all messengers (of God) we should respect, and should not be made fun of in pictures or words, Ghamdi said. I believe it will make more problems.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian lands, Mohammed Hussein, said such cartoons fuel feelings of hatred and resentment among people and publishing them shows contempt for Muslim feelings.

Leading Islamic authority Al-Azhar denounced the new edition and said: The stature of the Prophet of Mercy is greater and more lofty than to be harmed by cartoons that are unrestrained by decency and civilized standards. It said: Al-Azhar calls on all Muslims to ignore this hateful frivolity.

The International Union of Muslim Scholars also criticized the antics of Charlie Hebdo, claiming they would further stir up hatred, extremism and tension. It is neither reasonable, nor logical, nor wise to publish drawings and films offensive or attacking the Prophet of Islam, said the Qatar-based union, headed by Yusuf Al-Qardawi.

According to the union, publication of the drawing would give further credibility to the idea that the West is against Islam. It said: If we agree that (those who committed the attacks) are a minority that do not represent Islam or Muslims, then how can we respond with actions that are not directed against them, but against the Prophet revered by a billion-and-a-half Muslims?

Meanwhile, Yemens Al-Qaeda branch on Wednesday confirmed it carried out last weeks deadly assault in Paris and vowed more attacks on the West.

In a video posted on Twitter, a commander said: You will look for peace and stability but you will not find it because of the deeds of those carrying out martyrdom operations and heroes of lone jihad.

He said the Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, had arranged the attack.
Link


The Grand Turk
Paris attack suspect met Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen
2015-01-10
[ARABNEWS] One of two brothers suspected of carrying out the deadly shooting at a French satirical weekly met leading Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki during a stay in Yemen in 2011, a senior Yemeni intelligence source told Rooters on Friday.

US-born Awlaki was prominent in spreading Al-Qaedas bully boy message to European and English-speaking audiences and was an influential leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP), the groups most active affiliate. He was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike widely attributed to the CIA.

US and European sources close to the investigation said on Thursday that one of the suspects in the French attack, Said Kouachi, was in Yemen for several months training with AQAP.

The Yemeni source said Kouachi, 34, was among a number of foreigners who entered the country for religious studies.

Said and his brother Cherif, 32, are at the center of a huge manhunt in La Belle France following the killing of 12 people by gunnies at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
in Gay Paree.

The two suspects are French-born sons of Algerian-born parents. Both men had been under police surveillance. Cherif was incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
for 18 months for trying to travel to Iraq a decade ago to fight as part of an Islamist cell.

There was no claim of responsibility for Wednesdays attack. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
a witness quoted by 20 Minutes daily newspaper said one of the assailants cried out before getting into his car: Tell the media that it is Al-Qaeda in Yemen!

The Western intelligence sources said that after Said Kouachi returned to La Belle France from Yemen, both brothers appeared to have refrained from any activities that might have drawn the attention of French law enforcement or spy agencies.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart...
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkeys top Moslem scholar denounced terrorism and violence committed in the name of Islam.

In remarks carried by Iranian media on Friday, Rouhani said violence and terrorism is reprehensible whether in this region, in Europe or in the United States.

Those who kill and carry out violent and murderous Moslem acts unjustly in the name of jihad, religion or Islam provoke Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
whether they wish it or not, said Rouhani.

Turkeys top Moslem scholar Mehmet Gormez denounced the attack on the French satirical weekly as an unacceptable action targeting all faiths including Islam, saying he was pained to see Islamic values used as a pretext for slaughter.

Mehmet Gormez, the head of Turkeys Religious Affairs Directorate known as Diyanet in Turkish told AFP in an interview that the massacre was an attack on all faiths, including Islam.

I see this attack not only (as an attack) against a magazines employers, La Belle France, the West or Europe but against all faiths, all esteemed values and Gods messages of mercy and grace conveyed by the Prophet (peace be upon him) to humanity, he said.

Gormez expressed fury that the attackers had used sacred Islamic words like Allahu Akbar read out to every Moslem when they are born and repeated in each prayer time.

The brutal massacre of people is unacceptable. It is similarly unacceptable that they are carried out in the name of religion.

While unequivocally condemning the attack without any buts, Gormez said he deemed freedom of expression significant but said it has a limit. I believe that denigrating or insulting the values that make a person human in the name of freedom of expression is not correct.

When it is looked at by a different faith or culture, defamation especially on the subject of faith could become cultural torture, he said.

Gormez said violent attacks were not linked to Islamic traditions and they were carried out by individuals with maimed conscious and fatal identities who were raised in the shadow of wars and the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Neither Damascus nor Baghdad were cities in history where turbans speaking fluent Oxford English beheaded other people, he said, referring to the murders committed by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) EU-born jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
Link


Home Front: WoT
The Great ‘Workplace Violence’ Epidemic
2014-10-23
As if Ebola were not serious enough, a new, and perhaps more lethal, epidemic appears to be spreading throughout the world from the Middle East to North America. It goes under the rubric “workplace violence.”

The possibility of such an epidemic first came to our attention in November 2009 when Major Nidal Malik Hasan – an Army psychiatrist who corresponded with the late Yemen-based imam Anwar Al-Awlaki and who lectured his fellow doctors on jihad — shouted “Allah Akbhar” and fatally shot 13 people, injuring 30 others, at Ft. Hood, near Killeen, Texas. The U.S. Department of Defense and federal law enforcement agencies classified the shootings as acts of “workplace violence.”

(Some scholars, however, say the first true instance of “workplace violence” was the September 11, 2001 aviation incident at the World Trade Center, since the vast majority of the people in those structures were at work. Calling this a terror attack was a misnomer instigated by Islamophobes.)

For a few years, the potential epidemic seemed to be in abeyance but of late there have been disturbing signs of a resurgence.
Link


Terror Networks
Redacted Al-Awlaki drone killing memo released after NY court fight
2014-06-23
The Champ administration justified using drones to kill Americans suspected of terrorism overseas by citing the war against al-Qaida and by saying a surprise attack against an American in a foreign land would not violate the laws of war, according to a previously secret government memorandum released Monday.

The memo provided legal justification for the September 2011 killing in Yemen of Anwar Al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida leader who had been born in the United States, and another U.S. citizen, Samir Khan. An October 2011 strike also killed Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, al-Awlaki's teenage son and also a U.S. citizen.

The memo, written by a Justice Department official, said the killing of al-Awlaki was justified under a law passed by Congress soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The law empowered the president to use force against organizations that planned, authorized and committed the attacks.

Al-Awlaki had been involved in an abortive attack against the United States and was planning other attacks from his base in Yemen, the memo said. It said the authority to use lethal force abroad may apply in appropriate circumstances to a U.S. citizen who is part of the forces of an enemy organization.
Rather vague and unspecific I'd say. No mention of his contacts with Nidal Hasan.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Accused Ft. Hood Gunman Renounces US Allegiance
2013-08-02
[Ynet] Accused Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal Hasan, MD, PhD
...the bearded, paralyzed friend of ex-Al Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who became an ex-cleric courtesy of a drone missile, followed fairly quickly by the death of his son and some friends by the same method. There are those who feel this is bad because poor Anwar was born in the U.S. as, after a decent interval, was his son...
released documents to Fox News on Thursday, days before his court-martial is to begin, in which says he wishes to renounce his US citizenship and military oath.

Hasan, an American-born Mohammedan and US Army major, is charged with opening fire on the Army post in Texas in November 2009, killing 13 and wounding 32. He is acting as his own attorney in his court-martial, scheduled to begin at the base on Aug. 6. If convicted he could face execution or life in prison.
Link



Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More