David Harris in Ottawa Citizen on Khawaja trial. "The enemy within"

When the first trial under Canada's Terrorism Act opened in Ottawa, the other day, we posted on the remarkable ability of the defendant, Momin Khawaja, an IT contractor, to penetrate the resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to engage in communications and contact with terrorist 'colleagues' abroad in the UK and Thailand. The lurking fear is two fold. How far did Khawaja invade encrypted counter terrorism and intelligence data bases, including those shared with MI-5 in the U.K. and the FBI, here in the U.S.? Further, as in a John le Carre novels about Soviet-era mole hunter George Smiley, how many other Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hizbullah agents lurk inside the Canadian diplomatic, counter terrorism, and national security agencies? ...

"Jizya by Iraqi Christians paid for the Insurgency:" NY Times alleges

... This New York Times article introduces a topic to most Americans, that is little understood-jizya, the poll tax levied in brutal draconian fashion on kafirs or unbelievers in Arab Muslim lands, Iraq being one example. Jizya is like Mafia 'hush money' with a difference. In the case of the mob, if you paid the hush money you survived. In the case of Islamic Shari'a law, it didn't matter, you could still be killed, as attested to what happened to the Iraqi Chaldean Christians. U.S. military intelligence guesstimated that upwards of $2.0 million might have be paid in the form of jizya to al Qaeda insurgents and funded their attacks. Verifying that will be a daunting task. ...

Radical Sheik Turani 'scuppers' sukuk bond market for Shari'a compliant finance: 'too greedy'

Scupper is a nautical term for a drain. In 'Britspeak' it means to sink a vessel or proposition. Radical Sheik Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who heads the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions, basically 'scuppered' the burgeoning sukuk or Shari'a compliant bond market. He thought the 'boom' in sukuk bonds was 'too greed', didn't conform with Quranic standards, so he basically drained the market.

Note what this Financial Times report said: ...

"Saudi King Abdullah seeks stability by reaching out on religion:" wants to be the 'Vatican of Islam'

Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute ... had been instrumental in leading the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) effort on evaluation of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) Islamic studies texts that has become, as Jim Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition remarked: 'a hot potato'. Shea was in the midst of another project directed at the Saudi Wahhabi hate texts. During the conversation she remarked about what the Saudi King Abdullah was up to holding a high profile gathering of Muslims scholars, both Sunni and Shia, in the holy city of Mecca. This Financial Times article about Abdullah's 'dialogue initiative with the major sects in Islam, as well as, outreach to Christians and Jews, presented an interesting tableau of what occurred last week: ...

First of Folsom Prison Jihadis sentenced to 22 year in L.A. terror case

Levar Harvey Washington was sentenced to 22 years for his involvement in terror plots to hit military facilities, the Israeli consulate and synagogues in the Los Angeles area. Washington and an accomplice were involved in more than a dozen gas station holdups, in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Police investigation of one such holdup in Torrance led to his and the group's arrest. Washington is the first of the Folsom Prison Jihadis, converts to the extremist Muslim group Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), to stand trial in the Santa Ana , California federal court to be convicted. Note what this Los Angeles Times article says about how long it took for federal authorities to apprehend the 'cell'.

Federal authorities said JIS had been formed in 1997 and the cell in 2004. Law enforcement officials did not stumble upon the group until 2005, while investigating a Torrance gas station robbery. ...

Al-Arian Indicted for Refusal To Testify in Muslim Charities Cases: "a perury trap"

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer science professor had been an active leader in the U.S. for Palestinian Islamic Jihad an officially designated foreign terrorist organization and had raised funds for it here in the US. He was originally sentenced on a guilty plea verdict in a long trial in the Tampa Federal District Court to 57 months and deportation, thereafter after serving his sentence. Al Arian had lost two U.S. Appeals court bids to remain silent on the new investigation that lead to his indictment on Wednesday by the Virginia Federal court.

Note this from the New York Sun report: ...

# "Islamic school on fraud charges:" this time Australia!!

A tip of the hat to "Beowulf" for this one. It's a doozie. And we thought that the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Virginia was a problem with its 'illegal operations'. Here's one of Australia's 'premier' Islamic schools, Australian Islamic College, located in Perth, Western Australia where the administrators engaged in fraud: billing for non-existing students to the regional and federal Australian governments in excess of $3 million A dollars. if that wasn't bad enough the fraudsters paid themselves salaries of over $200,000 each.

Note how they did this nifty trick to fool the kafirs down under from The Australian report. ...

Shahda comments on the Washington Post Al Qaeda media production article on As Sahab ("the clouds")

... The effect of shutting down the terrorist cyberspace is much more devastating on Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups than many experts believe. Taking away their most potent weapon for spreading propaganda, recruiting and training new terrorists online to conduct terrorist acts will have destructive effects on the terrorist groups that very few can imagine their significant magnitude. ...

"Virginia's Islamic Academy on Shaky Legal Ground:" You're telling us!

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn't appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn't part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally. This new evidence doesn't give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter. However, it is understandable why State Department officials are eager to take a pass on this diplomatic and public relations conundrum. But there is no indication that the controversy surrounding the Islamic Saudi Academy is going to subside anytime soon. ...

Scientists find 'law of war' that predicts attacks

Scientists believe they may have glimpsed a "law of war" that can be used to predict the likelihood of attacks in modern conflicts, from conventional battles to global terrorism. ... "We can use the power-law distribution to accurately predict the likelihood of different sized attacks occurring on any given day. This is useful for military planning and allocating resources to hospitals. ...

Zodiac copycat boasts pregnant soldier murder

... Police immediately confiscated the letter and asked the paper not to release its contents, telling executive editor Brian Tolley that news of the note would interfere with their investigation and unnecessarily frighten the public.

"Not printing the letter goes against nearly everything I, and this paper, stand for," wrote Tolley in an Observer article. "Our job is to gather and report information, not to keep it in the dark."

But yesterday, according to Tolley, the newspaper confirmed that the symbol on the letter was also found written in lipstick on a mirror at the crime scene. ...

Iran says Gulf oil route at risk if attacked

...TEHRAN (Reuters) - The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday. ...

... Analysts say Iran may not match the firepower of U.S. forces but could still cause havoc in the region using unconventional tactics, such as deploying small craft to attack ships, or using allies in the area to strike at U.S. or Israeli interests.

"Regarding the main route for exiting energy, Iran will definitely act to impose control on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," Jafari said of the Gulf waterway through which about two-fifths of all globally traded oil passes. ...

Cheney aide Addington says he didn't write memos

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's top adviser on Thursday refused to claim any responsibility for the adoption of harsh interrogation methods following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks during a combative exchange with congressional Democrats....

Navy challenges sonar restrictions

HONOLULU (AP) | The Navy is challenging Hawaii's authority to protect whales by restricting the use of sonar during training exercises, environmentalists and military representatives say...

IRAN: CONVERT COUPLE ARRESTED, TORTURED, THREATENED

LOS ANGELES, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.

A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.

Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.

“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed. ...

Thousands Cheer as Pakistani Militants Decapitate, Shoot Afghans Accused of Spying for U.S

At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border....

Neighbors ignore rape victim's screams for hours

..."She got in the hallway, slammed her door shut and screamed. I didn't pay any attention to it. I thought she fell over something, and that was it. I went to bed." ...

Cars Slow to Watch as Teens Beat Homeless Man to Death

CLEVELAND — A group of teenagers beat a homeless man to death as passers-by slowed to watch the attack, some of which was caught on videotape, police said.

Gangs traffic some 500,000 foreigners a year across Mexico

Mexico City - An estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants from South America, the Caribbean and Central America pay Mexican gangs to help them transit Mexico and cross into the United States every year, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said Wednesday.

This illegal trade brings 'extraordinary earnings' since each person pays 4,000 to 15,000 dollars. In total, this would mean some 2 to 7.5 billion dollars a year, the commission said.

The commission, which also said Mexican officials deport an estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants every year, released the report just two weeks after a high profile illegal transit case made headlines. ...

RFK assassination was 'Palestinian terrorism'

An editorial in The Jewish Week is charging that the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan was the beginning of Palestinian terrorism for Americans.

The report by Associate Editor Jonathan Mark, prompted by the 40th anniversary of the assassination this month, decries the absence of media publicity over the fact that Sirhan was a "West Bank immigrant" who wanted "fair play" for Palestinians and was infuriated over Kennedy's cozying up to the Jewish community during the election campaign campaign. ...

Muslim Terrorists May Be Trying To Sink the Dollar

(IsraelNN.com) Mujahideen Muslim terrorists may be behind the sinking American dollar as part of a campaign to cripple the American economy, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported. The media watch group, which specializes in tracking Arabic language websites, said that postings on websites the past two years reflect a move toward waging an economic war against the United States. ...

Ex-Army scientist to get $5.8M in anthrax lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Army scientist who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks will receive $5.8 million to settle his lawsuit against the Justice Department. Steven Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case. ...

Pentagon: Taliban a resilient force in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new Pentagon report says the Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan. ...

Muslims will be searched by sniffer dogs despite religious objections, say police

Questions have been raised over using sniffer dogs to search Muslim passengers at train stations following complaints that it is against their religion.

Some Muslims had raised objections over being searched by the explosive-detecting animals, but British Transport Police have said they will continue to use the specially trained animals.

Dogs are considered to be unclean or impure in Islamic teaching and it is forbidden to keep the animals as pets. ...

Lawsuit Dismissed In LAPD Immigration Status Questions Case

LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles judge dismissed a taxpayer lawsuit Wednesday that sought to repeal a long-standing directive prohibiting Los Angeles police officers from asking arrestees about their immigration status. ...

US checks if tomatoes caused Salmonella outbreak

Infrastructure Protection

WASHINGTON - As salmonella cases continue to climb, the government is checking if tainted tomatoes really are to blame for the record outbreak — or if the problem is with another ingredient, or a warehouse that is contaminating newly harvested tomatoes. ...

...it is possible that tomatoes being harvested in states considered safe could be picking up salmonella germs in packing sheds, warehouses or other facilities currently under investigation.

Most worrisome, the latest victim became sick on June 15 — long after the outbreak began on April 10 and weeks after government warnings stripped supermarkets and restaurants of many tomatoes.

"The source of contamination has been ongoing at least through early June. And we don't have any evidence that whatever the source is, it's been removed from the market," said Dr. Patricia Griffin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Disease detectives at the CDC in Atlanta are double-checking their own probes just in case some other type of produce is really the culprit.

"We have also kept an open mind about other possibilities and are looking into other ingredients," Griffin said....

... "The facts keep changing here. The outbreak is continuing," he said. "We need to re-examine all parts of this system and make sure that the consumer message is still solid." ...

...Salmonella bacteria live in the intestinal tracts of people and animals. Food outbreaks typically are caused by direct contamination with animal feces or use of contaminated water on foods eaten raw or not fully cooked.

Fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps typically start eight to 48 hours after infection and can last a week. Many people recover without treatment. In fact, the CDC estimates that for every confirmed salmonella patient, there can be 30 to 40 others who didn't see a doctor or weren't tested — although fewer are uncounted during headline-grabbing outbreaks. ... The outbreak's sheer scope — with illnesses being reported in 36 states and Washington, D.C. — and length make it unlikely that a single farm will be the culprit,...

...That in turn points more suspicion at warehouses and other points in a tomato's path from farm to sale where bushels, even tons, may be repacked, or rewashed, or otherwise processed. Acheson said the investigation's big surprise is how many times tomatoes are repacked, as suppliers hand-pick their way through boxes to meet individual customers' demands for, say, small ripe tomatoes or larger greener ones.

And therein is a key problem: Some of the packing houses that handled suspect tomatoes from Florida and Mexico may now be handling freshly harvested tomatoes, Acheson said. FDA inspectors are hunting contamination in some of those packing houses now.

On Border Inspection 'Search' Strategies: Getting Resources and Risk Management Right

Studies, Analysis & Opinions, Border Security & Immigration

Mr. Chairman and other distinguished Members, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. In my testimony, I would like to (1) make the case that the public policy issues regarding searches and inspections at border ports of entry and exit (including searching electronic equipment, such as computers and personal digital devices) are more important than the narrow legal issues, (2) explain why searches are an important component of effective border security strategy and advocate for continuing to allow federal entities broad discretionary authority in implementing the searches and inspections at the border, and (3) offer some specific proposals on ensuring that border searches and inspections remain an efficient and effective component of border security strategy. ...

The Injustice of Proportionality

Studies, Analysis & Opinions

Now, the Supreme Court has decided, punishment for child rapists must be "proportional." In particular, the Supreme Court - that bastion of conservatism, according to the Left - ruled this week in Kennedy v. Louisiana that child rapists could not be sentenced to the death penalty. "[T]he death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. Child molestation and other similar crimes, said Kennedy, "may be as devastating in their harm, as here, but 'in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public,' they cannot be compared to murder in their 'severity and irrevocability.'"

This is nonsense of the highest order. Murder may be the most final of all crimes, but it is hardly the most severe or irrevocable. Victims of rape must live with the memory of that rape for the rest of their lives; children victimized by rape are often damaged to their dying day. ...

Are America’s Core Values Missing in Education?

Studies, Analysis & Opinions

Should professors in a tax-supported educational institution be fired for moral failings, like sexual harassment or accessing pornography on school-owned computers?

Don’t Let Constitution Stand in the Way of Liberals

Studies, Analysis & Opinions

The recent Supreme Court decision of Boumediene v. Bush concerning the habeas corpus rights of enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Naval Base illustrates the need for a president who will nominate jurists that follow the Constitution and not their own political ideology. For the first time, the Court has now extended U.S. constitutional rights to foreign nationals residing outside the country. What's all the more galling is that the recipients of this right were engaged in killing U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Now, this same court has agreed to hear the petition of a deported Pakistani national who wants to sue former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller. He claims they subjected him to harsh treatment during several years of detention, and discriminated against him because of his nationality and religion. Have the liberal members of the Court secretly converted to Islam, or do they just hate President Bush like all other left-wing ideologues?...

Sheriff eludes county censorship campaign

State & Local News

A Colorado sheriff who poked fun at a municipal proposal to ban red and green lights at Christmas for being too religious and was investigated for expressing his thoughts on the issue now is funding and launching his own department website in order to escape governmental censorship.

"The 'Bull's-eye' and 'Bull Sheet' are once again under attack," wrote Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden in what he described as probably his last professional opinion piece on his portion of the Larimer County website.

He said his new website will be funded by himself, run by a volunteer, and appear at www.LarimerSheriff.org.

Mexican set free after border patrol agent struck, killed

Border Security & Immigration

Judge releases drug dealer accused of murdering U.S. officer with vehicle

Thought police target comedian

International News

Government-sponsored Human Rights Commissions in Canada have attacked the writings of author Mark Steyn and have told a pastor to renounce his faith. Now they're jumping into a fight over words from a comedian who is known for insulting interaction with audience members.

'Religion in private' OK, says ACLU

National News

New limits on Christians leave family groups reeling

Can Obama legally serve as U.S. President?

National News, Studies, Analysis & Opinions, Congress

Jim Bramlett
Jun 26, 2008
Dear friends:

At this stage of the game, it seems like a ludicrous question, but it is a legitimate one: Can Obama legally serve as U.S. President?

To serve in that office, one must be a natural-born citizen. Obama claims that he is but the certificate that his campaign has provided to prove it appears to be a forgery, produced by Photoshop. This is according to Israel's Daily News Magazine, israelinsider, at
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12939.htm. The article explains in great detail and even offers photos of Obama's claimed birth certificate compared with real ones. They say, "It is now a certainty that the 'birth certificate' claimed by the Barack Obama campaign as authentic is a photoshopped fake."

With Obama's certificate, the certificate number has been blackened out, plus the required state seal is missing. What has been presented by his campaign is an invalid birth certificate. There is no reason why any such certificate should be missing either number or seal.

Is Obama a real natural-born citizen, or he trying to fake his way into the White House? He can easily answer that by requesting a certified birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, and revealing it. This can be easily resolved.

Will he do so? If not, why not? Will the Republicans press the issue? Probably not, for fear of backlash. Will the mainstream media press the issue? Probably not, because Obama is their man.

Important questions are raised:

1. Why would Obama provide us with a fake birth certificate?
2. Is he a real natural-born citizen?
3. If not, what is he doing trying to be an illegal President?
4. Could it be that our worst fears are valid -- that he is a Muslim plant?

If this is pursued and Obama cannot, or will not, produce a valid birth certificate, this may produce the greatest political crisis in American history, and he will have to withdraw, causing rioting in the streets. There is only one worse possible political outcome -- that an illegal candidate, with a Muslim name and with a Muslim background, is elected President of the United States during the war against Muslim terror.

Watch this one.

Jim

N.Y. Times Names Names, Jeopardizes Safety — Again

National News, Intelligence Community, Islamic-Fascist (Enemy & Their Supporters), Studies, Analysis & Opinions

By: Ronald Kessler -- With its recent story naming a CIA analyst who interrogated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, The New York Times has once again undermined our safety.

Fearing retribution, the agency asked the paper not to name the CIA analyst. The paper ran his name anyway, saying it generally withholds names only in the case of “victims of sexual assault or intelligence officers operating undercover.”

While the operative was not serving undercover, the fact that he interrogated the architect of the 9/11 plot was classified. Naming him added nothing to the Times story. But it will make him a possible target of al-Qaida and will make other CIA officers wonder if they want to risk being involved in any sensitive intelligence operations if their identity may be publicly disclosed, jeopardizing their safety and the safety of their families.

The case for withholding his name was thus even more compelling than not running the name of Valerie Plame, who was technically undercover but not in any danger. Yet the Times has run 521 stories suggesting it was wrong for the White House, and specifically Karl Rove, to divulge her name. Only 27 of the articles mentioned the person who actually leaked her name to columnist Robert Novak, former State Department official Richard Armitage, who ironically has been critical of the Bush administration.

The New York Times previously disclosed the existence of the Bush administration’s secret National Security Agency program for intercepting calls of suspected terrorists when one leg of the call is in the U.S. It also disclosed the administration’s SWIFT program for tracking the worldwide financial transactions of terrorists.

In both cases, the disclosures warned terrorists that their communication channels were being intercepted, so they began using other methods, thus undercutting our safety and making another successful 9/11 attack more likely.

In neither case was any abuse — meaning an illegal act for political or otherwise improper purposes — involved. In the case of the phone and e-mail intercepts, Bush disclosed the program at its inception to key members of Congress, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, and the NSA inspector general. Congress has since endorsed the program with legislation.

Calling the leaks “devastating,” Fran Townsend told me, when she was the chief of counterterrorism in the White House, “It’s not just a question of you're putting individuals at risk. The real risk is to the lives of Americans who may suffer an attack because we couldn’t stop it, because the source was taken out.”

Besides its rule on naming subjects of stories, The New York Times withholds people’s names for one other reason: In its June 22 article, the paper said most of the sources for the article could not be named because they were speaking about a highly classified program.

When it helps The New York Times get a story, names are withheld. When it helps our national security, they are not. And when the next attack comes — as it surely will — The New York Times will be the first to blame President Bush. ...

The Mahdi Army: New Tactics for a New Stage

Studies, Analysis & Opinions

Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has issued a statement describing a new strategy for attacking Coalition forces (alkufanews.com, June 13). The statement follows a year of intense military pressure against his Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) militia and a series of confusing and sometimes contradictory decisions. The hard-line cleric, who has not been seen in public for months, issued orders to reorganize his militia into a civilian branch and a small but select armed wing commissioned to fight Coalition forces. Only three months earlier al-Sadr had announced his retirement and admitted failure in his efforts at “liberating Iraq” ...

Is There a Nexus between Torture and Radicalization?

Studies, Analysis & Opinions

A great deal of debate surrounds the factors driving the brand of radical Islam in the Middle East that inspires some individuals to commit acts of violence. A recurring theme in extremist discourse is opposition to incumbent authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. For radical Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda, unwavering U.S. support for the autocracies that rule Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region tops a list of grievances toward what amounts to pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the region. In addition to al-Qaeda, however, most Muslims in the Middle East also see these regimes as oppressive, corrupt and illegitimate. Authoritarian regimes in the region are also widely viewed as compliant agents of a U.S.-led neo-colonial order as opposed to being accountable to their own people. ...