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Iraq
Terrorists Announce Death of 'Juba, the Baghdad Sniper' (ver. 1.72)
2007-09-24
h/t Jawa Report
A forum connected to al Qaeda has announced the death of 'Juba, the Baghdad sniper'. Several videos produced by The Islamic Army in Iraq purporting to be of 'Juba' began to appear online 2005. A 'Top 10' video went viral and 'Juba' became a pop phenomenon. It also caused outrage when CNN aired clips from the video showing an American being shot and killed.

The announcement of Juba's death claimed that the sniper had left the Islamic Army in Iraq to join al Qaeda when the latter group formed 'The Islamic State of Iraq'. Juba, the announcement claimed, had been betrayed by an informant and 'was killed like a hero'.

On hearing the announcement, the popular Canadian based pro-terror website Jihad Unspun, released a poem lauding 'Juba':
My targets were many
Crusaders and traitors
All on my hit list
For a bullet through their chest
Or mortal wound
As a warning to others

Jihad Unspun is a Google News source.

Of course, the problems with the announcement of 'Juba's' death are many. First, the claim that he left the IAI to join al Qaeda. Possible, but not likely.

Second, the claim that he was killed just a few days ago during Ramadan. In November of last year the Iraqis claimed they had captured a man named Ali Nazar al Jubori and that he was the original Baghdad sniper.

Third, it seems clear that even if there was a Baghdad sniper who called himself 'Juba' (there is a popular myth that the Americans named him that, but it's not true) that the vast majority of sniping videos were not of the same man.

How do we know that 'Juba' could not have been one man? Because the very first Islamic Army in Iraq produced "Juba Top 10 video" included footage of an American soldier being hit near his Humvee. What is not shown in the Juba footage is the fact that the American survived, the sniper was killed, and this "Juba's" sidekick who filmed the incident was captured down the road, videotape in hand.

Juba was a myth created for propaganda purposes by The Islamic Army in Iraq. The same group that murdered American hostage Ronald Schulz and Italian Red Cross worker Enzo Baldoni. This is also the same group that produced the Lee Tucker: Lee's Life for Lies video, which was also a complete fabrication.

So it's not surprising that a group which glorifies the murder of civilian hostages and makes propaganda films showing a 'dead anti-war' soldier would also lie and create a sniper 'hero' named Juba. It's also not surprising that the Islamic State of Iraq would lie about this 'hero' joining al Qaeda before being 'martyred' during Ramadan. After all, al Qaeda in Iraq is the same group that paid an actor to play the part of the leader of The Islamic State of Iraq.

So, we welcome the news that another Baghdad sniper has been killed. But he's not the Juba. If there ever really was a Juba, he was either killed in 2005 or captured in 2006. And if it just so happens that this Juba is the Juba, then all the better.
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Iraq
Iraq: Islamic schism creates new militant group
2007-07-20
(AKI)- A schism among Islamic militants has led to the creation of a new organisation in Iraq called the Furquan Army. According to the Arab television network, al-Jazeera, the new militant group was born after divisions recently emerged within the Islamic Army of Iraq.
Splitters!
The Islamic Army is a Muslim fundamentalist organisation allegedly linked to al-Qaeda. It was responsible for the execution Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni, who was kidnapped near Najaf in 2004.

In a message distributed on Islamic internet sites, the new organisation accuses the directors of the Islamic Army of "having put aside Jihadist activities preferring to negotiate with Baghdad in order to participate in the political life of the country." The divisions did not stop the leaders of the Islamic Army from launching an intense armed conflict in recent months ended by the mediation of representatives from Ansar al-Sunna.
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Iraq
Islamic Army targeting journalists
2006-03-26
AN IRAQI militant group which killed an Italian reporter in 2004 said it was watching foreign journalists but would only kill those it considers to be spies for its U.S.-led enemies.

Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview overnight with a man it described as the spokesman of the Islamic Army in Iraq, who accused the United States of responsibility for the car bombs that have killed thousands of civilians since 2003.

"The security bodies of the Islamic Army ... follow them constantly or at least keep watch and occasionally a journalist or another falls into their hands," said the man, who was identified as Ibrahim al-Shemmari.

He said the group's interrogators questioned those captured and a court-like body issued its verdict and sentence.

"If he was found innocent he would be freed and if he was caught red-handed in a certain situation with the occupation then he would be handled in a manner that is in line with the interests of Jihad (holy war) in Iraq," added the man, whose face was blurred.

The man described Enzo Baldoni, the Italian journalist killed by his group in 2004, as a spy, adding that journalists and other non-military foreigners were not targets "so long as they were committed to their professions".

"The Italian? He was a spy. It was clear to us from the beginning that he was a spy. Evidence were abundant but the French journalists were freed," he said of two French journalists his group released after abducting them in 2004.

More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been abducted in the anarchy that followed the U.S.-led invasion. Most foreign hostages have been released, but 54 are known to have been killed and more than 50 are believed to be held.

The Islamic Army in Iraq has claimed several kidnappings and attacks on foreign and Iraqi government forces.

But, "It is not within our targets to kill innocent civilians," said the figure, who was wearing a chequered headdress and Arab robes.

"There is information that many of the car bombs are the work of the Americans ... they have long been working to distort the reputation of the resistance so that the Iraqi people would reject it," he said.

Thousands of people have been killed by car bombs in Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Mr Shemmari dismissed the Iraqi government as a group of "sectarian gangs at whose hands the Sunnis tasted bitterness" and said his faction would not negotiate with Iraqi officials.

The Islamic Army would however negotiate with the United States if it recognised the resistance and set a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq.

"We do not reject negotiations (with Americans) in principle as these would be negotiations for the exit of the occupiers," he said.
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Afghanistan
Taliban acquires Iraqi training video
2006-03-15
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have acquired a training video on urban guerilla warfare produced by an Iraqi militant group. A copy of this video, which is in a CD format, has been obtained by Adnkronos International (AKI). The Taliban has received training from the group known as the Islamic Army of Iraq and have brought the CD back to their bases both in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The video is not for propaganda purposes but strictly for training. Many of the leaders of the Islamic Army of Iraq are believed to be former officials of the Iraqi army under the regime of Saddam Hussein including those from Saddam's elite Republican Guards which may explain why the video shows sophisticated attacks. The Islamic Army in Iraq is a militant group notorious for carrying out abductions in Iraq and was responsible for the kidnapping and death of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in 2004.

There are ten separate film clips in the video manual. Each segment shows a particular aspect of the training required to carry out deadly attacks. The methods have been employed by Iraqi insurgents against the US-led forces in Iraq and the same strategies are being taught to the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The video is divided according to the principles identified to successfully carry out such attacks; developing a complete structure of intelligence, a complete infiltration of the rank and file of the opposing forces, a comprehensive knowledge of the target, precise identification of the material used in carrying out the attacks on specific targets, as well as recruiting dedicated foot soldiers for this type of mission.

Based on such a structure, the video shows how the militants monitor the surroundings of an area where a US armoured vehicle is expected to pass. While one team monitors the operation near the target, a car laden with explosives rams into the vehicle and destroys it. The monitoring team, sitting in a small truck nearby, then flees the area.

In another clip, the fighters take their positions near an area where a helicopter carrying US soldiers is expected to begin a flight. As soon as the helicopter takes off, the militants hit it with a missile and it comes crashing down. The video then shows many of the passengers burnt alive while one US serviceman manages to escape. The militants on the ground then hunt him down and capture him. The video then shows the US soldier begging for his life, in English, before the militants silently riddle him with bullets.

In a third video clip, an explosive is planted at a US base in Talafar in northern Iraq. A blast occurs and the building then collapses. The video shows US soldiers pointing at the site of the blast and in a matter of seconds these soldiers themselves are blown up in a similar explosion. The video aims to show the capacity of insurgents to infiltrate areas where US and coalition forces are operating Iraq.

The entire video is accompanied by audio of Koranic verses are being recited and Jihadi songs whose lyrics include: "We will defend our land with full vigour".
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Terror Networks & Islam
Al-Qaeda's "Voice of the Caliphate" newscast debuts
2005-09-27
An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.

The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera.

The origins of the broadcast could not be immediately verified. If the program was indeed an al Qaeda production, it would mark a change in how the group uses the Internet to spread its messages and propaganda. Direct dissemination would avoid editing or censorship by television networks, many of which usually air only excerpts of the group's statements and avoid showing gruesome images of killings.

The broadcast was first reported by the Italian Adnkonos news agency from Dubai. The 16-minute production was available on Italian newspaper Web sites.

The lead segment recounted Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the narrator proclaimed as a "great victory," while showing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia walking and talking among celebrating compatriots.

That was followed by a repeat of a pledge on Sept. 14 by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, to wage all-out war on Iraq's Shiite Muslims. An image of Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Muslim, remained on the screen for about half the broadcast.

The masked announcer also reported that a group called the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have launched chemical-armed rockets at American forces in Baghdad. A video clip showed five rockets fired in succession from behind a sand berm as an off-screen voice yelled "God is great" in Arabic. The Islamic Army asserted responsibility last year for the killing of Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in Iraq.

A commercial break of sorts followed, which previewed a movie, "Total Jihad," directed by Mousslim Mouwaheed. The ad was in English, suggesting that the target audience might be Muslims living in Britain and the United States.

The final segment was about Hurricane Katrina. "The whole Muslim world was filled with joy" at the disaster, the anchorman said. He went on to say that President Bush was "completely humiliated by his obvious incapacity to face the wrath of God, who battered New Orleans, city of homosexuals." Hurricane Ophelia's brush with North Carolina was also mentioned.

The name of the broadcast refers to the Islamic empire that emerged following the death of the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, eventually stretching from Turkey to Spain and creating an era of Islamic influence that bin Laden has said Muslims should reestablish. According to credits following the broadcast, it was produced by the Global Islamic Media Front.

Numerous radical Islamic organizations, some claiming affiliation with al Qaeda, spread information, including photos and videos, by the Internet. Some evade ongoing efforts to shut them down by disguising their presence within innocuous Web sites.
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Iraq-Jordan
Islamic Army urges Iraqis to vote against constitution
2005-09-11
The Islamic Army in Iraq, an extremist Sunni group known for kidnapping and killing foreigners, issued an Internet statement yesterday, urging Iraqis to vote no in October’s referendum on a new constitution.

The group’s Shariah law committee said that “voting no ... will result in a rejection of the constitution, the failure of (enemy) plans and the fall of the government which is in the pay of the occupier.”

The statement on an Islamist website differs from declarations made by other militant Sunni groups which have threatened Iraqis with death if they participate in the October 15 vote.

“Saying yes would be to pass an impious constitution ... which seeks to divide Iraq into different districts submissive to the occupier and replace most Islamic laws by impious laws and take the Islamic and Arab identity away from Iraq,” it said.

“Boycotting the referendum and preventing citizens from taking part ... is in the enemies’ interest ... because thus, brother Muslim, you will have diminished the voice of those who reject the constitution and favoured (the victory of) those who want it.”

The Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the Ansar al-Sunna, also linked to Al Qaeda, have called on Iraqis to boycott the referendum on pain of death.

Leaders of Iraq’s disempowered Sunni minority have voiced objections to certain aspects of the draft constitution, which was passed over their heads by parliament in August.

The document will need to be rewritten and resubmitted if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces say no, numbers the Sunni community could muster.

The Islamic Army notably murdered Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni last August and kidnapped French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were released in December after four months detention.
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Iraq-Jordan
Italian forces leaving Iraq
2005-08-14
Italy has begun winding down its military presence in southern Iraq with the withdrawal of a battalion of more than 120 soldiers, a military spokesman says. "Between 120 and 130 men from San Marco battalion have returned to Italy and will not be replaced," Lieutenant-Colonel Fabio Mattiassi, spokesman for the Italian contingent in Nasiriya, said.
Goodbye, and thank you...
The announcement appeared to confirm a report in Saturday's La Stampa newspaper and previous statements by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Italy would recall 300 soldiers from its 3000-strong contingent operating under British command in southern Iraq. Berlusconi faced massive protests at home when in June 2003 he committed Italian soldiers to Iraq.
But he had the guts to send them there, and he's had the guts to keep them there. He said when he was going to withdraw them, and now they can go home with honor, unlike the Spanish.
A bombing on an Italian police base in Nasiriya on 12 November 2003 killed 17 Italian soldiers and two civilians, and wounded 20 others. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack. An Italian soldier was killed and 12 others injured in later clashes with Shia militias in the city. Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was kidnapped in August 2004 and murdered after the Italian government rejected an ultimatum to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
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Iraq-Jordan
US confirms direct meetings with insurgent leaders
2005-06-27
Asked to respond to a report that US military representatives met with several Sunni Iraqi insurgents twice in June, Rumsfeld told Fox News ''there have probably been many more than that" and described the contacts as an effort to ''split people off and get some people to be supportive" of the political process in Iraq. Other parts of the US government, including the State Department and CIA, have also been holding secret meetings with Iraqi insurgent factions in an effort to stop the violence and coax them into the political process, according to US government officials and others who have participated in the efforts. The military plan, approved in August 2004, seeks to make a distinction between Iraqi insurgents who are attacking US troops because they are hostile to their presence, and foreign insurgents responsible for most of the suicide bombings -- which have killed more than 1,200 people in the last couple of months -- and whose larger political aims are unclear.

General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command who is in charge of the war in Iraq, told CNN yesterday that ''US officials and Iraqi officials are looking for the right people in the Sunni community to talk to in order to ensure that the Sunni Arab community becomes part of the political process. And clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community. It makes sense to talk to them." But, Abizaid added, ''We're not going to compromise with Zarqawi," a reference to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is believed to be leading that part of the insurgency involving foreign fighters, particularly Islamic extremists arriving from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and elsewhere.

Citing two Iraqi sources, the newspaper said that among the Sunnis in attendance was a representative from the Ansar al-Sunna Army, which claimed responsibility for killing 22 people in the dining hall of a US base at Mosul, and another from the Islamic Army in Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the murder of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.
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Iraq-Jordan
Iraq 'Kidnappers' Threaten to Kill Italian Hostage; Blather Threats
2005-02-06
An Islamist militant group in Iraq claimed responsibility for kidnapping an Italian journalist and threatened to kill her by Monday, following an earlier kidnap claim, according to an Internet statement. The statement, which could not be verified, was signed by the Jihad Organization and threatened to kill Giuliana Sgrena by Monday if Italy did not withdraw its troops from Iraq. A group with a similar name, the Islamic Jihad Organization, claimed on Friday to have taken Sgrena and set a 72-hour deadline for Italy to remove its troops, but did not specifically threaten to kill her. It was not clear if the latest posting was by a separate group. Both statements were posted on the Web site by the same user and had the same format, although the sign-off differed.

"We in the Jihad Organization ... announce that we will implement God's law (kill) on the Italian prisoner Giuliana Sgrena after 48 hours if the Italian government, headed by the criminal Berlusconi, does not announce it will withdraw (troops) from Iraq," said the statement dated on Saturday. "To the Italian people, it is time for you to know the truth about your criminal government that is still in Iraq," it said. "Your sons' blood is the responsibility of Berlusconi and his gang of Islam's enemies. Your army's continued presence in Iraq will bring about grave consequences and you will not be blessed with security as long as Muslims in Iraq are not living securely," it added.

Like Friday's statement from the Islamic Jihad Organization, the threat was posted on a site not used by the main Iraqi insurgent groups. In September, the Jihad Organization, claimed in a Web statement to have killed two Italian aid workers, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari. The claim also followed a statement from the Islamic Jihad Organization saying it abducted the same women and would kill them if Italian troops did not leave Iraq. Both women were subsequently released.

Sgrena's kidnapping is the first of a foreigner since the Iraqi elections last Sunday. Sgrena, a correspondent for Rome-based Communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was snatched from the street while she was interviewing people near Baghdad university. Il Manifesto was virulently opposed to the 2003 Iraq war and an opponent of Berlusconi and President Bush.
Hmm. If ever there was a suspicious kidnap, this is it. At the least, there's a guaranteed case of Stockholm syndrome coming up...

Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was abducted in August by an organization calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. He was killed after Rome refused its demand to pull troops from Iraq.
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Iraq-Jordan
xinhua: Terrorist Trifecta: Italian female journalist kidnapped in Iraq
2005-02-04
Xinhuanet -- An Italian female journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad on Friday, police said. Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist working for I1 Manifesto newspaper, was interviewing people near Baghdad University with her Iraqi colleague, when unknown gunmen kidnapped her from her car. Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was kidnapped in an area between Baghdad and Najaf on Aug. 20, 2004, and was later killed by his captors of the Islamic Army in Iraq. Another two Italian female humanitarian workers were abducted in Iraq last September, but were released three weeks later. Insurgents have mounted a campaign of hostage-taking and beheading of foreigners to undermine the US-backed interim government.

Xinhua cheesecake: Nicole Kidman, Sharapova
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Iraq-Jordan
Islamic Army in Iraq threatens Italian nationals: website
2004-10-15
The Islamic Army in Iraq, a militant group which kidnapped and executed an Italian journalist, threatened to target all Italian nationals in Iraq unless Rome withdraws its troops from the country, according to a message posted on the group's website. "We warn the Italian people and their government to withdraw their troops and businesses from Iraq," said the statement, posted alongside photographs of Enzo Baldoni, the journalist who was shot dead by his captors in August. "Any soldier, any investor, business owner or civil servant will suffer the same fate" as Baldoni, the group said in a "statement to the Italian people" posted on the site http://happynow.jeeran.com/b3htm.
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Iraq-Jordan
Chirac sends French foreign minister to Middle East
2004-08-30
French President Jacques Chirac dispatched his foreign minister to the Middle East yesterday in the face of a terrorist threat to two French citizens that Paris could not readily blame on American foreign policy.
"Surely, M. le President, there must be some way?"
"Alas, Jean-Pierre, I can find none!"
"Sacred blue!"
Kidnappers holding two French journalists in Iraq have demanded that France drop a new law barring the wearing of head scarves by Muslim schoolgirls — who return to classes at state-run schools this week. They set a deadline of midnight tonight. While no specific death threat was made in the ultimatum from the "Islamic Army of Iraq" delivered over the weekend, the same group said last week it had killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni. "The lives of two Frenchmen, as well as the values of the republic" are at stake, Mr. Chirac said in a dramatic address yesterday before Foreign Minister Michel Barnier flew to Cairo in an effort to secure the release of the two journalists. "I solemnly demand their liberation," Mr. Chirac said of the two reporters, stressing that "France has always guaranteed religious freedom — the cement of the nation." Although the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced a "general mobilization at the highest level," its only options appeared to be diplomacy and the intervention of leaders of the Islamic community in France, which generally condemns the kidnappings.
One option would be for the Frenchies to politely ask the permission of Mr. Bush the Iraqi interim gummint to send the Foreign Legion to slaughter all the Islamists it can find in Fallujah. Once the body count reaches 1000 or the reporter is produced alive and unharmed, the Frenchies can depart, to the cheers of their countrymen and the admiration of that part of the world community that still retains testicles. The message sent would be that if one kidnaps French citizens, one can expect to have one's henchmen pulverized in a ratio of 1000:1. We can, of course, calculate the odds of the option being taken...
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat joined those calling for the release of the journalists, describing Mr. Chirac as "a good friend of the Palestinian people."
"Youse idiots! You're endangering the boodle!"
French Islamic leaders yesterday issued a series of appeals to the "Islamic Army," an al Qaeda-linked group that has claimed responsibility for killing more than a dozen hostages. The two journalists — Christian Chesnot, a freelancer on assignment for Radio France International, and Georges Malbrunot of the Paris daily Le Figaro — were kidnapped nine days ago in Iraq. Late on Saturday, the Qatar-based television station Al Jazeera broadcast a tape showing the two hostages, one of whom said he was "well."
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