Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Arab Israeli charged with planning suicide bombings

2025-01-10

[IsraelTimes] An Israeli civilian from the northern Arab town of Kabul has been charged with planning a bombing attack, the Shin Bet security agency says.

The suspect is named by the Shin Bet and Israel Police as Mahmoud Hussein Muhammad Bushkar, 37, whose father is a West Bank Paleostinian.

Bushkar was recently detained by Border Police officers. The Shin Bet says he told interrogators that he planned to build suicide belts to carry out an attack.

The investigation found that Bushkar "viewed content dealing with the preparation of explosives, purchased equipment and various materials with which he performed several experiments, including the production of a TATP-type explosive and the preparation of a pipe bomb, and later even planned to prepare an boom belt in order to carry out attacks in Israel," the security agency and police say.

Authorities say that the suspect unsuccessfully attempted to recruit two others to aid him in carrying out the attack.

The Shin Bet and police investigation found that the suspect was "inspired" by the events of the current war and the 2021 Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
conflict to carry out the attack.

A handgun and materials to build bombs were seized from his possession, the Shin Bet adds.

An indictment was filed against Bushkar this morning at the Haifa District Court.

Link

Europe

Taqiyya: the West should know better

2024-12-27

[Giulio Meotti, Arutz 7] Anyone who went to a European Christmas market in the 1990s and early 2000s would never have thought that their life could be in danger. Those days are gone.

In October we discovered that the killer who murdered the children in Southport, England, was not a slightly crazy Rwandan Christian refugee, as the English government and all the mainstream media had assured us, but a terrorist with an Al Qaeda manual in his house and chemical material to make a bomb.

That was the work of Axel Rudakubana —more fully Axel Muganwa Rudakubana — the Wales-born, Moslem son of Christian immigrants from Rwanda who fell prey to previously undiagnosed Sudden Jihad Syndrome and attacked a girls’ Taylor Swift dance party in Southport with a knife …

For four months they kept the truth hidden. Why?

And who remembers the "Christian kamikaze", Emad Al Swealmeen, the name of the Liverpool attacker? "Enzo Almeni," as his friends called him, was an asylum seeker with a Syrian father and Iraqi mother who had changed his name to sound "more Western" and had faked a conversion to Christianity to hide his identity and motives. He wanted to attack the cathedral.

Instead, the Mother of Satan (TATP) and ball bearing bomb that he’d worked on for seven months went off while he was locked in a taxi outside a Liverpool maternity hospital, the quick-witted cab driver having jumped out when he realized the thing was about to kaboom.

Now we have the Saudi doctor who killed 5 people at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, central Germany.

There is now discussion about the identity of the attacker, a Saudi doctor who claimed to have abandoned Islam, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen. And so the morning after the massacre we woke up to a sea of idiocies based on his statements that he is a "former Muslim". Why an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg against Christians?

The dear doctor was pro-Hamas. Many former Muslims who knew him assure us that he never gave up Islam and that he cheated the West to be given asylum.

Did he practice taqiya, which is an Islamic practice that allows believers to deceive the enemy, pretend to be something else, in order to carry out Jihad?

The Saudis had warned the Germans that Taleb was dangerous.

A few months ago in Annecy, France, a man from Syria terrorized a park by stabbing several children. An asylum seeker who was first accepted as such in Sweden ten years ago pretending to be an atheist, Christian or homosexual to obtain asylum is a common phenomenon. The attacker in Annecy with the knife claimed to be Christian and was wearing a cross. The Syrian was in fact a former member of Bashar al-Assad's army who then joined ISIS before seeking and obtaining political asylum in Europe.

He went by Abdelmasih Hanoun — "Abdelmasih" means "Slave of Christ” — and had lived for a decade in Sweden with official refugee status and a Swedish wife, but left when his citizenship application was denied and his wife divorced him. France denied his asylum application days before the attack because he was already approved in Sweden. He was subsequently identified as Selwan Majd, a Moslem refugee from Hasakah, Syria.

Everyone knew that no Christian could blow himself up inside a cathedral, just as no Christian would stab children at random in a dance class and no ex-Muslim would attack a Christmas market in Magdeburg.

So my greatest fear is that taqiya has made incredible and chilling progress in the West.

In August it came out that one of the terrorists who wanted to carry out a massacre at the Taylor Swift concert in Vienna worked for a company that provides services at concerts.

In England they have just arrested a police officer for supporting Hamas.

In the Netherlands, police officers are no longer required to enforce laws protecting Jews, or to provide them equal treatment. So some stand by when Jews or their property are attacked; some join in.

Mickaël Harpon, the perpetrator of the massacre at the Paris Prefecture that cost the lives of four police officers, was a police officer in charge of anti-terrorism in one of the most protected places in France. The computer 007 was was hired by a department whose priorities included the fight against "terrorism, particularly radical Islamism." Harpon had secretly converted to Islam.

Joined the police in 2003, converted to Islam in 2008, upset colleagues by defending the Al Qaeda Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015. He and his wife exchanged almost three dozen Islamist text messages shortly before he ran amok with two knives. The wife was released without charge after questioning in the gallant French way.

Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, deputy commander of the judicial police, and his partner Jessica Schneider, a secretary at a police station, were killed in their home in Magnanville by an Islamist. Some time later, police investigating a woman for suspected links to ISIS made a shocking discovery: the woman had a USB that contained the personal details of thousands of French police officers.

Like the sensational news that the bodyguard assigned to Geert Wilders had been completely replaced after a police officer of Muslim origin, Faris, had passed sensitive information on the Dutch politician to gangs.

Remember how US Army Major Nidal Hasan, shouting "Allahu Akbar," killed 13 colleagues at the Fort Hood base in Texas? Who suspected him?

Numerous people reported his suspicious utterances. The chain of command somehow managed to be shocked when he tried to kill everyone.

The loss of border control is being followed by the loss of internal control. But worse still is the loss of control over one’s own identity. One thing is clear: parallel societies are growing in Europe. The authorities and the public have no idea.

The sooner we come to terms with our false conscience and reassuring lies, the sooner we will know how to defend ourselves. Alternatively, we can only say a prayer for the dead, dead because of the recklessness of a Western political and cultural class that every year doubles the stakes in a crazy experiment that can only end in a suicide.

Link

Europe

Muslims in Sweden say the country is almost conquered and that they will soon be the majority

2024-12-23

[X]

Muslims in Sweden say the country is almost conquered and that they will soon be the majority. pic.twitter.com/rJoukY1FPi
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) December 22, 2024

The tag on the video is the East Plano Islamic Center, located in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. EPIC was established in 2003, according to Wikipedia, and is led by Imam Nadim Bashir, Ustadh Mohamad Baajour, Sheikh Dr. Yasir Qadhi, Sheikh Sajjad Gul, and Morad Awad. Pakistani-American theologian, Sheikh Qadhi is labelled a moderate Salafist, presumably because as of 2011 he was speaking in English much more moderately than he had done in the past. His most famous student is Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the Pantibomber for his failed attempt on Christmas Day 2009 to blow up the plane he was on by igniting a TATP bomb sewn into his underpants, courtesy of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula bomb maker, and his PhD is from Yale. He’s the one speaking so triumphantly in the video.

Link

Fifth Column

Violent Anti-Semitism As a Campus Recruiting Tool

2024-12-22

Normally I would just shove the link into the weekly roundup, but Commentary senior editor Seth Mandel makes a point I completely missed.

[Commentary] In October, I asked what the next mutation of campus anti-Semitism was going to be, warning against the classic mistake of "fighting the last war." Well, we have our answer: terrorism.

A freshman at George Mason University in Virginia has been arrested and charged with plotting to bomb the Israeli consulate in New York.

By all accounts, the suspect, Abdullah Hassan of Egypt,

…more fully in the Rantburg archives as Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, 18, who is being held without bail as he awaits trial and deportation…

was serious about his mission.

"Hassan floated different options such as assault rifles, a boom jacket or a backpack stuffed with a homemade acetone-peroxide bomb

…the extremely touchy Mother of Satan (TATP) formula that the glossy magazine of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula once wrote up as suitable for easy mixing up in the bathtub of your mom, which is why beauty supply shops are required to report large purchases of acetone to the authorities…

— for which he sent the informant a detailed instructional video stamped with the 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....
logo, according to charging documents," the Washington Post reports.

Hassan went through the relative merits of explosives vs. shooting sprees. Lest anyone try to argue this was some kind of purely political act of anti-Zionism and not anti-Semitism, Hassan had explained that he was targeting New York City because of how easy it was there to find targets who were "Yahud"—Arabic for "Jews." He was immersed in the intricacies of the plan, "micromanag[ing] details such as the size of ball bearings to be used as shrapnel for a bomb."

Hassan had been interviewed but not charged by the FBI two years ago for spreading ISIS propaganda, so we can say he was on their radar, as officials often admit when someone escalates their threat to society.

Thus far it hasn’t been reported that Mr. Hassan was executing a an ISIS plot, or even that he had spontaneously pledged to one of the formal jihadi organizations. It appears that he just absorbed ideas from the general jihadi swamp.

It has not been GMU’s strongest semester. In November, the president of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Paleostine and her sister were barred from campus. A day earlier, police had searched their home and found guns, ammunition, anti-Semitic literature, and "death to Jews" paraphernalia. This was in connection with an investigation into an act of anti-Semitic vandalism on campus.

Jena and Noor Chanaa are the students. Their elder brother, Mohammad Chanaa, a GMU alumnus, turned in his own handgun, ammunition, and concealed carry permit the next day, accused of complicity in the project.

The worst part is that these two cases are not connected. We’re not dealing with a specific, extreme student group or a particular clique of activists under the influence of a radical professor or network. We’re just seeing an atmosphere on campus conducive to ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful Jew-hatred.

That does not, however, disconnect it from the on-campus radicalization that has been going on for a long time but which massively increased after Oct. 7, 2023. This is the next step in a process that nurtures both kinds of extremism. Post-Oct. 7, faculty and students teamed up to turn college campuses into mob sites. Tentifada encampments were set up to prevent Jewish students from accessing public parts of campus, and professors began not only joining the protests but reducing the necessity of going to class by rewarding anti-Zionist activism and participation at sit-ins. The administrations almost universally incentivized this behavior by bowing to activists and their outside patrons. Students were rarely punished and district attorneys dropped charges out of political sympathy with the tentifada.

That meant that in future years, already-radicalized students would seek to join these campuses, knowing they’d be well at home there. Which is exactly what appears to have happened with Hassan.

Which means Hassan is unlikely to be much of an outlier. We can’t know how many people with ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful designs will be caught while on campus, but we can be sure they know that America’s campuses—certain ones more than others—are the right destination for them.

After the Hassan news hit social media, an absolutely chilling detail emerged. Adam Mossoff, a Jewish professor at the university’s law school, posted: "For the past year, a permanent police presence has been assigned to the faculty suite of offices where I & [Professor David Bernstein] work. I have greater clarity now why this had to be done. It’s shameful that GMU has fostered an environment where this is needed for its profs."

The school seems to have good reason for taking extra measures to protect its Jewish professors. That it needs to do so—and it clearly needs to do so—is more proof that the American system of higher education is becoming a place that puts Jews in escalating physical danger.

Link

Europe

Germany: Manhunt After Explosives Left At Berlin Station

2024-11-01

[MSN-DW] German police are looking for a man who left a bag of explosives at Berlin's Neukölln train station. A police search is underway on Thursday in the German capital, Berlin, after a man left a bag of explosives at a Berlin train station on Wednesday evening.

A police officer told the daily Berliner Zeitung that "it seems as if an attack has been prevented," as an explosion caused by the contents of the bag would have had "dramatic consequences" if it occurred near a group of people.

The man ran away after he was subjected to a check by police officers.

The bag was reportedly destroyed at a nearby car park in a controlled explosion.

Breitbart adds:

A man fled a police stop on the Berlin mass transit rail, dropping a bag as he fled containing over 17 ounces of a terrorist-favoured home made explosive.

Bomb squad officers discovered a drinks bottle wrapped in wire containing 500g (17½ ounces) of TATP explosives, along with a further quantity of cables and a believed stolen-in-2022 Polish citizen identity card.

Oh? So he could be a jihadi or a criminal. Let’s leave the story on Page 1: War on Terror until we have more information.

TATP is highly unstable and prone to exploding if handled roughly, suggesting the suspect in this case fleeing on foot and dropping a bag containing the explosive without it setting off was a lucky escape for pursuing officers and the wider public. What was said to be an attempted terror attack by a Ukrainian krazed killer in La Belle France earlier this year was averted, apparently at the last moment, after the would-be alleged perpetrator accidentally went kaboom! in an airport hotel room, it was reported at the time.

We know it here as Mother of Satan, which can be mixed up in the bathtub of your mother

The explosive has been used in terrorist attacks and in planned terror attacks again and again, but it is also known to be in use with robbery gangs blowing up cash machines.

Berlin’s Neukölln district has developed something of a reputation for crime. As previously reported of the neighbourhood:

well known for being both heavily migrant-settled and as being a centre of strength for German left-wing hard boys, who call themselves Antifa
...the armed wing of the Democratic Party...

Or he might be Antifa. So many exciting possibilities to ponder.
In some cases... violence in Neukölln manifests itself on strictly religious lines, and in others as cultural difference.

The area has become infamous to a certain degree recently, however, as migrant riots took place on New Year’s Eve into 2023, with widespread damage across the area. The way Germany responded to these events became a scandal itself, as broadcasters were accused of trying to cover up the violence, with the immigration background to the riots subject played down in reports.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Dipsy Doodle Arizona Teen Plotted Massacre at Phoenix Pride Parade, to Take Over Country

2024-10-26

Responding to a story we had here two days ago.

[PJMEDIA] A 17-year-old in Peoria, Ariz., has been arrested over his plans to load up a drone with explosives and send it into the Phoenix Pride parade. He was hoping to "bomb 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA" and said that he had ordered bomb-making equipment. He was, however, discovered and stopped before he could carry out his attack. Still, you should have heard about a terror plot of this magnitude, yet the establishment media is maintaining near-radio silence about it.

Now, foiled attacks always get less attention than ones that are successful, and that’s why you likely haven’t heard about this particular plot, but there is another reason as well: the perpetrator was not a "white supremacist" gun nut who could be easily shoehorned into the left’s standard narrative about supposed "right-wing" violence.

Instead, Marvin Aneer Jalo was an Islamic jihadist, coming at a time when the left’s alliance with Islamic groups is fraught with tension over the Biden-Harris regime’s failure to betray Israel as thoroughly as Moslem leaders have been demanding they do, as well as over social issues, with many Moslems furious over the left’s unshakeable determination to embrace and normalize every fantasy, delusion and perversion that comes down the pike. So this was just the worst time for a Moslem to plot to blow up a Pride Parade, and that’s why you’re likely to hear about this plot only here.

AZFamily reported Wednesday that Jalo was arrested last Friday, the first day of the LGBTQEIEIO Pride Parade in Phoenix. Due to the gravity of his plans, he is "being charged as an adult with terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism, both class 2 felonies." It seems that the precocious young fellow "started communicating in internet chat rooms in 2023 with people he described as holy warriors who were recruiting him."

The "extremists" in question were jihadis from the 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....
(ISIS), and Jalo was more than willing to be recruited. He "reportedly posted that they could ’bomb 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA.’" The "take over USA" part was more than a little grandiose, but they certainly could have carried out the plot to bomb the Pride Parade. Jalo also "later said he was having supplies shipped to him to make explosives."

On his phone, the aspiring jihad terrorist had "numerous photos of firearms and an instructional video depicting an ISIS fighter making the explosive Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP)." That’s another reason why you won’t hear much, if anything, about this plot. Up until Tim Walz

...Kamala's smarmy-looking running mate, governor of Minnesota, who decided to retired rather than to deploy with his National Guard unit, then claimed to have been in Iraq and Afghanistan. One man's socialism is another man's neighborliness....
and Adam Kinzinger discovered their love for guns, however inept they are at handling them, the left’s sole interest in firearms involved strategizing about how to circumvent the Second Amendment and take them away from law-abiding civilians. If Jalo hadn’t been a jihadi, leftist media organs would have given this story massive attention as yet another indication that Americans can’t be trusted with weapons.

But Islamic jihadists who use firearms, or just save photos of them for future reference, don’t qualify to become part of the left’s exhibit on how bad guns really are. Moslem leaders are enraged at Kamala Harris
who got her start in politix between former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's' knees
for the Biden-Harris regime’s continued claims to support Israel; though the regime has betrayed Israel left and right, this never seems to placate them. The leftist establishment doesn’t dare risk enraging Moslem voters further by giving any notice to a jihad plot, much less to one against a Pride Parade.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Of Course), meanwhile, was a parade grand marshal and issued this pro forma statement: "I’m shocked and horrified at the alleged plot to attack innocent Arizonans and members of the LGBTQ community who attended the Phoenix Pride festival, and I’m grateful for the swift actions taken by law enforcement to prevent a potential tragedy. Arizonans must come together to reject hate wherever we find it. I was proud to serve as Grand Marshall of the Phoenix Pride parade this year, and I’ll continue to stand with the LGBTQ community in the face of bigotry and ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful extremism."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Teen arrested for plotting terror attack on Phoenix Pride parade

2024-10-24

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A teenager has been arrested for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired drone terror attack on Phoenix's Pride events.

Marvin Aneer Jalo, 17, of Peoria, just outside of Phoenix, was arrested on October 18 and charged with felony counts of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Jalo is accused of having an instructional video on his phone that depicted an ISIS fighter making the explosive Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), according to AZ Family. He is said to have been communicating with extremists who recruited him in a chatroom in 2023.

…real extremists or is he another one whose BFFs turned out to be the usual FBI informants?

He is said to have posted that he could 'bomb a 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA'

…the lad had an unrealistic estimate of his impact…

and that he had supplies to make explosive shipped to him, according to the outlet. Police believe, based on his messages, that the teen planned on making a 'bomb drone' using a remote-controlled vehicle.

'He definitely took steps in the process of putting together something that would act as an explosive,' Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told AZ Family.

Mitchell said the boy had 'very radical ideas' and that he was 'homophobic.'

The criminal complaint, viewed by AZ Family, said that Jalo had searched the Phoenix Pride parade event prior to the celebrations last weekend.

The case is being investigating by the Attorney's Office, the FBI, and two police departments.

'These are serious charges. They do come with mandatory prison sentences,' Mitchell said.

Jalo is currently being held on a $1million cash-only bond, according to Mitchell.

The Attorney's Office said Jalo had 'intentionally or knowingly [provided] advice, assistance, direction or management of an act of terrorism'. They added that the intention of this had been 'to further the goals, desires, aims, public pronouncements, manifestos or political objectives' of ISIS.

The teenager is accused of participating in chatrooms between November 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024, where he is said to have discussed the 'supplies necessary to make an improvised explosive device.'

The Pride celebrations carried on without incident and saw Governor Katie Hobbs and Former UN Ambassador Susan Rice attend.

Earlier this year, ahead of Pride Month in June, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a foreign terrorist organization and their supporters might attack venues and events.

Major cities, like New York City, strengthen security at its events in June.

Phoneix's Pride events are held in October, which is LGBT History Month, instead of June due to the high summer temperatures in the city.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tel Aviv suicide bombing attempt in August was overseen by Hamas in Turkey – police

2024-10-16

Follow up to this story from almost a month ago.

[IsraelTimes] Israeli authorities arrest and charge eight terror operatives accused of involvement in the incident, as well as an East Jerusalem resident who allegedly transported the bomber

An attempted suicide kaboom attack in Tel Aviv several months ago was planned and carried out under the supervision of the Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
terror group’s headquarters in ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, the Shin Bet and Israel Police said on Tuesday.

In a joint statement, the two agencies said they arrested and charged eight people accused of planning and carrying out the attack, as well as another person accused of transporting the jacket wallah from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

The incident, which took place August 18, saw a man walk down a street in south Tel Aviv wearing a backpack holding a bomb, which then went kaboom!, killing the terrorist instantly and moderately wounding a passerby.

If the bomb had not gone off outdoors, authorities said at the time, "it would have caused vast damage and multiple casualties."

According to a statement from police and the Shin Bet, the attempted attack was carried out by Jaafar Muna, a Hamas operative from the West Bank city of Nablus.

He worked together with other terror operatives there, who maintained contact throughout the planning process with Abada Bilal, a bigwig at Hamas headquarters in Turkey, who directed the operation, the statement said.

One of the operatives traveled several times to Turkey, receiving funding and explosives training from Hamas members there, the investigation revealed.

Over the course of the investigation, carried out in cooperation with the Central Investigations Unit of the Tel Aviv District Police, Shin Bet agents seized two ready-to-use TATP

…also known as Mother of Satan, whether because it is so volatile it often explodes spontaneously while being mixed up in the bathtub of your mother, or because it is so powerful…

bombs weighing about 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds), as well as about 4 kilograms of TATP meant for additional attacks inside Israeli territory.

Hamas has called for a renewal of suicide kabooms, a tactic that killed hundreds of Israelis during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s but has become rare in the decades since following the construction of a security barrier around the West Bank.

The security agency also seized some NIS 111,000 ($29,600) that had been transferred from Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey.

According to the statement, military prosecutors were set to file an indictment on terrorism charges on Tuesday against eight people accused of involvement in the attack.

Another person — a resident of Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem — has also been indicted. It was not immediately clear whether he is an Israeli citizen. According to Channel 12, some of the people charged in connection with the attack were Arab Israelis; the others were Paleostinians.

The announcement shines a spotlight on Hamas’s operations in Turkey, which has been an outspoken supporter of the terror group since its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when snuffies killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.

"The findings of this investigation clearly indicate the establishment of Hamas headquarters in Turkey and their extensive efforts abroad to incite violence and carry out bombings in Israel," the Shin Bet and Israel Police said in their statement Tuesday.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
’s embrace of Hamas, and his frequent comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler
Hitler

...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
, have worsened already fraught relations between Israel and Turkey, which were once cordial allies.

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Some pager boomer chemistry for those adverse to searching the web in such times as these

2024-09-18

Extracted from public domain, edited for readability. Scrubbed.
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT,
pentyl, PENTA (ПЕНТА, primarily in Russian), TEN
(tetraeritrit nitrate), corpent, or penthrite (or, rarely and
primarily in German, as nitropenta), is an explosive material.
It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol, and is structurally
very similar to nitroglycerin. Penta refers to the five carbon
atoms of the neopentane skeleton. PETN is a very powerful
explosive material with a relative effectiveness factor of
1.66. When mixed with a plasticizer, PETN forms a plastic
explosive. Along with RDX it is the main ingredient of Semtex.

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate
PETN is also used as a vasodilator drug to treat certain heart
conditions, such as for management of angina.

History
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate was first prepared and patented in
1894 by the explosives manufacturer Rheinisch-Westfälische
Sprengstoff A.G. of Cologne, Germany. The production of PETN started in 1912, when the improved method of production was patented by the German government. PETN was used by the German Military in World War I. It was also used in the MG FF/M
autocannons and many other weapon systems of the Luftwaffe in World War II.

Properties
PETN is practically insoluble in water (0.01 g/100 mL at
50 °C), weakly soluble in common nonpolar solvents such as
aliphatic hydrocarbons (like gasoline) or tetrachloromethane,
but soluble in some other organic solvents, particularly in
acetone (about 15 g/100 g of the solution at 20 °C, 55 g/100 g
at 60 °C) and dimethylformamide (40 g/100 g of the solution
at 40 °C, 70 g/100 g at 70 °C). PETN forms eutectic mixtures
with some liquid or molten aromatic nitro compounds, e.g.
trinitrotoluene (TNT) or tetryl. Due to steric hindrance of the
adjacent neopentyl-like moiety, PETN is resistant to attack by
many chemical reagents; it does not hydrolyze in water at
room temperature or in weaker alkaline aqueous solutions.
Water at 100 °C or above causes hydrolysis to dinitrate;
presence of 0.1% nitric acid accelerates the reaction.

The chemical stability of PETN is of interest, because of the
presence of PETN in aging weapons. Neutron radiation
degrades PETN, producing carbon dioxide and some
pentaerythritol dinitrate and trinitrate. Gamma radiation
increases the thermal decomposition sensitivity of PETN,
lowers melting point by few degrees Celsius, and causes
swelling of the samples. Like other nitrate esters, the primary
degradation mechanism is the loss of nitrogen dioxide; this
reaction is autocatalytic. Studies were performed on thermal
decomposition of PETN.

In the environment, PETN undergoes biodegradation. Some
bacteria denitrate PETN to trinitrate and then dinitrate, which
is then further degraded. PETN has low volatility and low
solubility in water, and therefore has low bioavailability for
most organisms. Its toxicity is relatively low, and its
transdermal absorption also seems to be low. It poses a threat
for aquatic organisms. It can be degraded to pentaerythritol
by iron.

Production is by the reaction of pentaerythritol with
concentrated nitric acid to form a precipitate which can be
recrystallized from acetone to give processable crystals.
Variations of a method first published in US Patent 2,370,437
by Acken and Vyverberg (1945 to Du Pont) form the basis of
all current commercial production.

PETN is manufactured by numerous manufacturers as a
powder, or together with nitrocellulose and plasticizer as thin
plasticized sheets (e.g. Primasheet 1000 or Detasheet). PETN
residues are easily detectable in hair of people handling it.
The highest residue retention is on black hair; some residues
remain even after washing.

The most common use of PETN is as an explosive with high
brisance. It is a secondary explosive, meaning it is more
difficult to detonate than primary explosives, so dropping or
igniting it will typically not cause an explosion (at standard
atmospheric pressure it is difficult to ignite and burns
vigorously), but is more sensitive to shock and friction than
other secondary explosives such as TNT or tetryl.
Under certain conditions a deflagration to detonation
transition can occur, just like that of ammonium nitrate.

It is rarely used alone in military operations due to its lower
stability, but primarily used in main charges of plastic
explosives such as C4 along with other explosives (especially
RDX), booster and bursting charges of small caliber
ammunition, in upper charges of detonators in some land
mines and shells, as the explosive core of detonation
cord. PETN is the least stable of the common military
explosives, but can be stored without significant deterioration
for longer than nitroglycerin or nitrocellulose. Detonation velocity 8400 m/s (density 1.7 g/cm3)

During World War II, PETN was most importantly used in
exploding-bridgewire detonators for the atomic bombs. These
exploding-bridgewire detonators gave more precise
detonation, compared with primacord. PETN was used for
these detonators because it was safer than primary explosives
like lead azide: while it was sensitive, it would not detonate
below a threshold amount of energy. Exploding bridgewires containing PETN remain used in current nuclear weapons. In spark detonators, PETN is used to avoid the need for primary explosives; the energy needed for a successful direct initiation of PETN by an electric spark ranges between
10—60 mJ.

Explosive data
Autoignition temperature
190 °C (374 °F; 463 K)

Its basic explosion characteristics are:
Explosion energy: 5810 kJ/kg (1390 kcal/kg), so 1 kg of PETN has the energy of 1.24 kg TNT.

Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
Detonation velocity: 8350 m/s (1.73 g/cm3), 7910 m/s (1.62 g/cm3), 7420 m/s (1.5 g/cm3), 8500 m/s (pressed in a steel tube)

Volume of gases produced: 790 dm3/kg (other value: 768 dm3/kg)
Explosion temperature: 4230 °C
Oxygen balance: −6.31 atom -g/kg
Melting point: 141.3 °C (pure), 140—141 °C (technical)
Trauzl lead block test: 523 cm3 (other values: 500 cm3 when sealed with sand, or 560 cm3 when sealed with water)

In mixtures
PETN is used in a number of compositions. It is a major ingredient of the Semtex plastic explosive. It is also used as a component of pentolite, a Pentaerythritol tetranitrate before
50/50 blend with TNT. The XTX8003 extrudable explosive, used in the crystallization from acetone W68 and W76 nuclear warheads, is a mixture of 80% PETN and 20% of Sylgard 182, a silicone rubber. It is often phlegmatized by addition of 5—40% of wax, or by polymers (producing polymer-bonded explosives); in this form it is used in some cannon shells up to 30 mm caliber, though it is unsuitable for higher calibers. It is also used as a component of some gun propellants and solid rocket propellants.

Nonphlegmatized PETN is stored and handled with approximately
10% water content. PETN alone cannot be cast as it explosively decomposes slightly above its melting point, but it can be mixed with other explosives to form castable mixtures.

PETN can be initiated by a laser. A pulse with duration of 25 nanoseconds and 0.5—4.2 joules of energy from a Q-switched ruby laser can initiate detonation of a PETN surface coated with a 100 nm thick aluminium layer in less than half of a microsecond.

PETN has been replaced in many applications by RDX, which is thermally more stable and has a longer shelf life.

PETN can be used in some ram accelerator types.

Replacement of the central carbon atom with
silicon produces Si-PETN, which is extremely sensitive.

Terrorist use
Ten kilograms of PETN was used in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing.

In 1983, 307 people were killed after a truck bomb filled with PETN was detonated at the Beirut barracks.

In 1983, the "Maison de France" house in Berlin was brought to a near-total collapse by the detonation of 24 kilograms (53 lb) of PETN by terrorist Johannes Weinrich.

In 1999, Alfred Heinz Reumayr used PETN as the main charge for his fourteen improvised explosive devices that he constructed in a thwarted attempt to damage the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

In 2001, al-Qaeda member Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber", used PETN in the sole of his shoe in his unsuccessful attempt to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. He had intended to use the solid triacetone triperoxide (TATP) as a detonator.

In 2009, PETN was used in an attempt by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to murder the Saudi Arabian Deputy Minister of Interior Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, by Saudi suicide bomber Abdullah Hassan al Asiri. The target survived and the bomber died in the blast. The PETN was hidden in the bomber's rectum, which security experts described as a novel technique.

On 25 December 2009, PETN was found in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the "Underwear bomber", a Nigerian with links to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. According to US law enforcement officials, he had attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 while approaching Detroit from Amsterdam. Abdulmutallab had tried, unsuccessfully, to detonate approximately 80 grams (2.8 oz) of PETN sewn into his underwear by adding liquid from a syringe; however, only a small fire resulted.

In the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula October 2010 cargo plane bomb plot, two PETN-filled printer cartridges were found at East Midlands Airport and in Dubai on flights bound for the US on an intelligence tip. Both packages contained sophisticated bombs concealed in computer printer cartridges filled with PETN.
The bomb found in England contained 400 grams (14 oz) of PETN, and the one found in Dubai contained 300 grams (11 oz) of PETN. Hans Michels, professor of safety engineering at University College London, told a newspaper that 6 grams (0.21 oz) of PETN—"around 50 times less than was used—would be enough to blast a
hole in a metal plate twice the thickness of an aircraft's skin".

In contrast, according to an experiment conducted by a BBC documentary team designed to simulate Abdulmutallab's Christmas Day bombing, using a Boeing 747 plane, even 80 grams of PETN was not sufficient to materially damage the fuselage.

On 12 July 2017, 150 grams of PETN was found in the Assembly of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.

Detection
In the wake of terrorist PETN bomb plots, an article in Scientific American noted PETN is difficult to detect
because it does not readily vaporize into the surrounding air.
The Los Angeles Times noted in November 2010 that PETN's low vapor pressure makes it difficult for bomb-sniffing dogs to detect.
Many technologies can be used to detect PETN, including chemical sensors, X-rays, infrared, microwaves and terahertz, some of which have been implemented in public screening applications, primarily for air travel. PETN is one of the explosive chemicals typically of interest in that area, and it belongs to a family of
common nitrate-based explosive chemicals which can often be detected by the same tests.

One detection system in use at airports involves analysis of swab samples obtained from passengers and their baggage. Whole-body imaging scanners that use radio-frequency electromagnetic waves, low-intensity X-rays, or T-rays of terahertz frequency that can detect objects hidden under clothing are not widely used because of cost, concerns about the resulting traveler delays, and privacy concerns.

Both parcels in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot were x-rayed without the bombs being spotted. Qatar Airways said the PETN bomb "could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs". The Bundeskriminalamt received copies of the Dubai x-rays, and an investigator said German staff would not have identified the bomb either. New airport security procedures followed in the U.S., largely to protect against PETN.

Medical use
Like nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate) and other nitrates, PETN is also used medically as a vasodilator in the treatment of heart conditions. These drugs work by releasing the signaling gas nitric oxide in the body. The heart medicine Lentonitrat is nearly pure PETN.

Monitoring of oral usage of the drug by patients has been performed by determination of plasma levels of several of its hydrolysis products, pentaerythritol dinitrate, pentaerythritol mononitrate and pentaerythritol, in plasma using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Link

Europe

Snipers patrol stadium roof top at Vienna Coldplay concert amid huge police presence at performance days after city's terror cops foiled attack on Taylor Swift shows

2024-08-25

More secure than Trump
In other news, Coldplay is still a thing?
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Taylor Swift was also said to have been 'horrified' by the thought of a terror attack taking place at one of her shows, as one did in 2017 at popstar Ariana Grande's gig in Manchester.

Austrian authorities have since arrested three teenage suspects aged 17, 18 and 19.

The 19-year-old suspect was later named as Beran A, an ISIS fanatic

…aaaaand we have at least a partial name for future reference…

who was building a bomb in his parents' back garden

…more new information…

as he planned to mow down concertgoers.

He was radicalised by a notorious hate-preacher in Berlin, according to German intelligence sources. Swift was also said to have been 'horrified' by the thought of a terror attack taking place at one of her shows, as one did in 2017 at popstar Ariana Grande's gig in Manchester.

Austrian authorities have since arrested three teenage suspects aged 17, 18 and 19.

The 19-year-old suspect was later named as Beran A, an ISIS fanatic who was building a bomb in his parents' back garden as he planned to mow down concertgoers.

He was radicalised by a notorious hate-preacher in Berlin, according to German intelligence sources.

More from a Daily Mail article dated 9 August:

A teen terror suspect who plotted a bloodbath at a Taylor Swift concert in Austria was radicalised by a notorious hate-preacher in Berlin, it is believed.

Beran A., the 19-year-old ISIS fanatic who was building a bomb in his parents' back garden and planned to mow down concertgoers this week, was influenced online by Berlin's rabid hate preacher Abul Baraa, according to German intelligence sources cited by BILD.

Baraa - real name Ahmad Armih - is a well-known figure among Germany security services who has 46,000 Instagram followers and over 81,000 on TikTok.

Speaking to Bild newspaper, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's equivalent of MI5, said: 'The closure of his Berlin mosque and the coronavirus pandemic led to greater engagement on social media.'

'His rhetoric and speaking style are particularly catching on with young people.'

It comes as images emerged of the garden and inconspicuous outhouse where Beran A. is said to have been constructing his suicide bomb while his parents were on holiday in their native North Macedonia.

A few years ago, Beran A.'s parents - who immigrated to Austria from North Macedonia - moved into a newly built house in the Neunkirchen district of Ternitz with him and his younger sister.

Ternitz residents told local media that Beran, who was born in Austria and attended a local school, used to be a 'harmless boy next door' often seen lounging around in jeans and trainers.

But neighbours claim he underwent a dramatic aesthetic and behavioural transformation coinciding with his pledge of allegiance to ISIS last month, adding he began growing out a bushy beard.

This feature was clearly visible in a shocking photo of the would-be terrorist posing with huge zombie knives and an ISIS flag unveiled yesterday by German media.

The 19-year-old was arrested in Ternitz Wednesday morning while a second teen, aged 17, was detained in the Austrian capital, according to director-general for public safety Franz Ruf.

It later emerged that Beran A. and his accomplice had planned to attack Swift's concert venue by driving into the crowd outside and attacking them with knives and machetes before detonating a suicide bomb to kill as many fans as possible.

Until two weeks ago, Beran A. had worked in the same stainless steel plant in Ternitz as his father.

He was doing an apprenticeship as a retail salesman in the factory, where he had access to the plant's laboratory, including various chemicals.

During a raid on the family home in Ternitz, bomb disposal experts this week secured chemicals required to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which Beran A. is said to have already experimented with.

TATP is often used by ISIS in terror attacks and requires acetone as well as hydrogen peroxide, which officials confirmed was found in the house.

Ruf confirmed at a press conference yesterday that the suspect's 'preparatory action' in the home in Ternitz focused on the manufacturing of explosives.

The head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said Beran A. was 'clearly radicalised in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels'.

Beran A.'s parents and sister reportedly are currently on holiday in North Macedonia, but police is expected to question the parents over their son upon their return.

Following his arrest, the teen fully confessed to his plans to 'kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue', Austrian security officials said.

His planned terror attack was supposed to end with him detonating his homemade bomb and killing himself in the process, according to the Austrian Heute newspaper.

Firebrand preacher Baraa, who is said to have played a part in radicalising the terror suspects, once preached at the infamous 'As-Sahaba Mosque' in Berlin.

Police raided this mosque in 2018 on suspicion of terrorist financing and later shut it down.

The location had been a hub for radical Islamists, including Reda Seyam, a high-ranking German member of ISIS, and Denis Cuspert, one of Germany's most notorious ISIS fighters.

Following the closure of the mosque, Baraa moved his preaching online, where he continued to spread extremist ideology.

In his videos, he chillingly refers to the 'kuffar' (infidels) waging war against Islam, urging his followers to resist this perceived oppression.

'How long will this humiliation go on... how far will this go, with this war, with this terrorism of the kuffar against the Muslims?' Baraa asks in one of his inflammatory sermons.

His influence has grown over the years, with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution noting that he has become a 'star' in the Islamist scene, despite multiple investigations against him.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Iranian-American Man Pleads Guilty to Texas School Bombing Plan

2022-12-10

[Breitbart] A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Iran planned to blow up a school in Amarillo, Texas, federal authorities revealed this week. At the time of his arrest, the man had several explosive devices and a suicide vest in his possession.

The question is whether he is an Iranian agent, a generic Muslim jihadi, or just plain nuts.

This week, 33-year-old Erfan Salmanzadeh went before a U.S. district judge in Texas where he pleaded guilty to the use and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. Salmanzadeh’s sentencing has been set for a later date and faces a possible life term in prison. Federal prosecutors revealed that while he was born in Iran, Erfan is a naturalized citizen.

The case began on July 26, 2021, when the Amarillo Police and Fire Departments responded to a house in connection to a loud explosion, a criminal complaint filed by the FBI revealed. Local police met with Salmanzadeh’s father at the house. When Erfan found out that police were at the house, he flushed down the toilet a gallon jar of homemade explosives in powder form. He also tried to dispose of other explosives, a nail bomb, a PVC bomb, and a suicide vest.

He’s thorough, at any rate

During questioning, Erfan told authorities that he manufactured the explosives by buying readily available chemicals and was testing mixtures by trying to blow up his Xbox video game console in the backyard.

According to plea agreement documents, Erfan recorded a video claiming that he wanted to blow up a local high school. Other videos obtained by authorities showed the man testing explosives. They also found journals with bomb-making instructions.

According to prosecutors, Erfan planned to fly to California on July 28, 2021, to avoid detection by law enforcement after a bombing.

According to CW Houston 39, the homemade powdered explosive was triacetone triperoxide, known around here as TATP or Mother of Satan because it happily goes kaboom without prompting. The wonder is that he didn’t blow up the toilet when he poured it down there, taking the rest of the house with it.

Link

Economy

Hard landing: Chances of curbing inflation without a recession look slim

2022-09-17

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 align="right" />[Hot Air] The disastrous rail strike appears to have been averted yesterday which is good news, but it may be short-lived. The chances that the Federal Reserve is going to be able to bring down inflation without sending the country into a recession seem to be declining. The Economist says the dream of a soft landing has been dashed and the worst is yet to come.

Over the summer a wild hope took hold among investors. Inflation seemed to be falling gently even as America’s economy stayed in rude health. Perhaps the worst bout of inflation since the 1980s would be easily quelled, without interest rates rising much further or much economic pain. Now the dream has been dashed. Figures published on September 13th show that the pace of underlying inflation in August was fast and furious. Stockmarkets fell by the most since the early months of the pandemic; the price of junk bonds dropped; and short-term Treasury yields spiked. America still has an inflation problem. To fix it, the Federal Reserve must go big...

The Fed’s job is to set interest rates so that inflation reaches its target. With the economy still overheating, its work is far from done. Although the central bank has raised interest rates faster than in past tightening cycles, it has been so far behind the curve that every reminder of inflation’s stickiness is jolting markets—the opposite of what good monetary policy is supposed to achieve.

Rather than continuing the cycle of tardiness and surprises the Fed should act in bigger increments, by bringing forward to this year the interest-rate rises it had planned for 2023. The odds that a painful recession can be averted, meanwhile, look woefully long. Only in the rosiest of worlds will a mild rise in unemployment suffice to slow down price rises substantially. The worst of the fight to tame inflation is yet to come.

Yesterday the NY Times published a story which came to basically the same conclusion. Here’s the Times describing the conditions for a wage price spiral:

Link

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