Nigerian Update: December 30

12 murdered at a Christian wedding.  No mention of the religion of the murderers, only a reference to the area being "Muslim dominated".

From the Boston Herald December 30

Extremists kill 12 in Nigerian Christian villages
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Witnesses say suspected Islamic militants killed 12 civilians in weekend attacks on two Christian villages in Muslim-dominated northeast Nigeria. One attack targeted a wedding party.

The witnesses said eight victims died when extremists attacked a wedding reception at Tashan-Alede village in Borno state late Saturday night, and four in neighboring Kwajffa village on Sunday.

A security official confirmed the attacks but said they did not yet have casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The leader of a 4-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed thousands in northeast Nigeria recently threatened to target Christians. Village attacks have become common with many more Muslims than Christians killed this year.

The attacks have continued despite a state of emergency and the deployment of thousands of troops since May.

"Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal...has told interrogators that the terror group was planning to use a small nuclear bomb...in the industrial city of Surat in Gujarat"

But not to worry, they found it very difficult to acquire a nuke, so they resorted to conventional "state of the art" explosives.  They must be "moderate" Muslims.

From Rediff December 30

Indian Mujahideen wanted to nuke Surat

In a chilling revelation, Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal, who is currently in the custody of Delhi police, has told interrogators that the terror group was planning to use a small nuclear bomb while carrying out a devastating strike in the industrial city of Surat in Gujarat.

Explaining why the IM decided to use the world’s most dangerous weapon -- which would have caused the death of millions and wiped off the city -- Yasin admitted that an earlier terror attempt in Surat had failed miserably, according to a source in Delhi police.

“Although (fellow terror operative) Riyaz (Bhatkal) assured that such a strike could be arranged, we found it impossible to access a nuclear bomb. In our earlier attempt, we had used state-of-the-art technology at Surat, yet none of the bombs worked,” the source quoted Yasin as saying.

Incidentally, the IM chief claimed that he had been instructed by fellow terror operative Riyaz Bhatkal to evacuate all members of the Muslim community from the city, before carrying out the strike.

He reportedly added, “We wanted to ensure that no Muslim was killed or injured in the attack. We were planning on using high-powered explosives and knew that the casualty rate would be high".

“We then decided to visit all the mosques in Surat and urge the Muslims to leave the place. Initially, we contemplated pasting a message on the walls of the mosques, but couldn't do as as we feared that information about the impending strike would be leaked. Worse, we didn’t get any encouragement from local members of the Muslim community,” the source quoted Yasin as saying.

Meanwhile, Yasin has been brought to Chickmagalur, Karnataka, for further investigations.

Riyaz, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan, and his brother Iqbal own a piece of land in this town.

Chickmagalur was a major hub of terror activity for the Indian Mujaideen and the plot of land was used as a training ground for terrorists, according to Yasin’s own confessions

The southern town was also the bomb-making base for the terror outfit, whose members stored ammonium nitrate -- a component extensively used in explosives -- in a shed on the land owned by the Bhatkals.

Yasin has admitted that IM terrorists were learning how to make deadlier bombs, said the source.

“Some of our cadres were sent to Pakistan to learn how to make powerful bombs and how to use AK-47 rifles...

Read it all

California "military style" attack on power station, FBI investigating

Did anyone see this earlier this year?  No American media went with this article, I wonder why?  It appears in a British paper instead.  Are our dear leaders blind or just uncaring?

This is frightening and should be a wake-up call for those charged with protecting the public. Anybody?

From the Daily Mail December 29 by Ryan Gorman

FBI investigates military style attack on California power station

The FBI is investigating a ‘military-style’ attack on a California electric power facility earlier this year.

The April 16 attack saw as many as two gunmen storm the PG&E Metcalf substation after severing phone service and fire several dozen rounds at transformers.

Federal officials took over the investigation from local law enforcement on fears it was linked to the Boston marathon bombing only a day earlier, but those fears appear to have subsided.

At least one person, maybe two, went down multiple manholes at the facility in a San Jose suburb and cut fiber cables leading to the substation, according to Foreign Policy, which detailed the well-planned attack.

This knocked out 911 and landline service to the substation, as well as cell phone service to the surrounding area.

PG&E employees had no means to call for help when, at 1am, as many as two gunmen began their attack.

More than 100 rounds were fired from high-powered rifles at many transformers – 10 were damaged in one area and three transformer banks in another, a PG&E spokesperson told the site.

Cooling oil leaking from at least one transformer bank caused transformers to overheat and shut down. This led officials to warn locals to conserve energy, but no major power outages occurred.

No major damage or injuries were sustained either, but a stalled local investigation led the feds to take over the case.

‘Initially, the attack was being treated as vandalism and handled by local law enforcement,’ a senior intelligence official told Foreign Policy.

‘However, investigators have been quoted in the press expressing opinions that there are indications that the timing of the attacks and target selection indicate a higher level of planning and sophistication,’ the official explained.

Russian jihadist's head found, one child killed

I guess the best way to identify the jihadist, outside of fingerprints would be the head.  The Winter Olympics are 6 weeks away and it appears the attacks have started.  If Putin can keep the games jihad-free it will be a miracle.

From Zee News December 29 by Himanshu Kapoor

Russia blast: One child among 16 killed, bomber's head found

Moscow: In a suicide attack, a female bomber blew herself up at the entrance of a train station in the Russian city of Volgograd on Sunday killing at least 16 people, including one child. It is a second deadly attack in country as it prepares itself to host the upcoming Winter Olympics.

According to reports, the woman detonated the explosives in front of a metal gate just inside the main entrance of the Volgograd station. The blast was caught on the CCTV cameras, which showed a huge fireball in the hall and smoke billowing from the shattered windows.

Those injured in the attack were seen lying on the ground, screaming for medical help, the reports stated. A local news agency said that President Vladimir Putin has asked the law enforcement agencies to take all necessary measures to ensure security.

Around 42 people were wounded in the attack and some would be flown to Moscow for treatment, Russian Heath Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai said.

The blast took place at 12.45 pm (8:45 a.m. GMT) in the Volgograd-1 train station. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism, the committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

A criminal case was launched under two articles - 205 (act of terrorism) and 222 (illegal turnover of arms and ammunition), official spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Russia Vladimir Markin has said.

Markin said that the power of the explosion was equivalent to at least 10 kg of TNT and was stuffed with pieces of scrap metal. According to reports, the head of the female bomber who committed the act of terror has been discovered. This "will make it possible to identify her (bomber)," a Volgograd law enforcement source said.

Earlier this week, the country was shaken by another suicide bombing attack in which three people were killed in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk.

With the bus blast yesterday the jihad attacks now number three.

Transvestite baffles TSA security, gets past fence and onto runway in Newark

This is not about jihad and Islam per se, but it is an indication of the trouble the TSA and airport security have in making travel safe in the US.  If a man in women's red pants and a smart brown sweater can ramble through a security fence and across two active runways before being caught, what chance do we have to actually catch a jihadist in a smart black burqa?

From The New York Post December 25 by Philip Messing

Cross-dressing man caught on Newark runways

The Port Authority’s pricy perimeter-protection system failed again Wednesday when it failed to detect that a man — dressed as woman — had hopped a fence at Newark Airport and wandered across two runways, sources told The Post.

Siyah Bryant, 24, of Jersey City, was wearing women’s red pants and a smart brown sweater as he allegedly walked onto the tarmac at about 4:20 a.m. after tryst in a car near the airport went bad.

Newark’s Perimeter Intrusion Detection System should have alerted officials to Bryant’s presence long before he took his turn on the runway — but the $300 million-plus system flunked.

“The [PIDS] cameras were operating and he was not detected by the PIDS system,” a source said.

Bryant’s misadventure began while he was on “a date” with another man and their car ran out of gas on the New Jersey Turnpike, sources said.

Bryant “felt uncomfortable” when his pal called a third man to bring them fuel, so he set off on foot, sources said.

He allegedly scaled the security fence and rambled unnoticed across two runways before trying to enter Terminal C, where he was confronted by a United Airlines worker, who called cops.

He was charged with criminal trespass.

The PIDS system includes cameras that watch the airport’s outer fence, which is topped with barbed wire and lined with sensors to detect climbers. It remains unclear why Bryant was not spotted.

Obviously the system is not tweaked to register smart brown sweaters.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” PAPD chief Louie Koumoutsos said. “The PAPD is continuing to review PIDS video and other surveillance methods to determine the circumstances of the incident.”

Read it all  

McDonalds pays 50K in jizya over beard flap, admits no wrongdoing

If they admitted no wrongdoing why are they paying 50K?

Another example of how the West must bow to Muslim sensibilities in the private sphere.

From CBS December 20

McDonald’s To Pay $50,000 To Muslim Employee In Discrimination Lawsuit

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — McDonald’s has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed it discriminated against a Muslim employee in Fresno who wasn’t allowed to grow a beard.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the settlement was reached Thursday with McDonald’s Restaurants of California.

According to the suit, Shaheed Khan was a crew trainer at a Fresno McDonald’s in 2005 when he asked to wear a beard to work, citing religious beliefs. He quit after the request was refused.

The commission filed a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations. Under the settlement, McDonald’s agreed to pay $50,000 to Shaheen and to reinforce training of its managers and staff on existing anti-discrimination policies.

In other words, retraining to make sure no one insults Muslims.

The company didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Warning! Graphic video!

Just when you think Islam cannot get any more barbaric, along comes something like this.  We have seen jihadists behead those deemed enemies of Islam, but we have never seen the Taliban playing soccer with those heads.  Be warned, this is as shocking as it gets.

From CrossMuslims December 27

Soccer à la Taliban

 Please go to the link above to see the video, I cannot copy the URL properly here.

Wichita jihadist says he did it for Allah

But to point that out would make one an Islamophobe, so don't do it.

From Jihad Watch December 16 by Robert Spencer

Wichita jihadi: "My only explanation is that I believe in jihad for the sake of Allah and for the sake of my Muslim brothers and sisters"

"Criminal Complaint Reveals Communications Between Loewen and Undercover FBI Agents"

..."Brothers like Osama bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki are a great inspiration to me, but I must be willing to give up everything (like they did) to truly feel like an obedient slave of Allah," Loewen said. "You stated you might be able to put me in contact with someone that might be able to help - not sure what that means. I in no way want to put you or any other brother in harms way- and that is a great concern of mine, so please be careful. Today I printed out something called the AI Qaeda Manual."

Loewen told FBI #1 that he could provide a tour of the airport. It is not clear who initiated the idea.

"Let me preface the bottom line by saying I have become 'radicalized' in the strongest sense of the word," Loewen said. "I don't feel Allah wants me any other way- I MUST be active in some kind of (dare I say it) jihad to feel I'm doing something proactive for the Ummah- giving money to those who fight for the Tawheed is one that I am definitely interested in, but direct jihad against a civilian target is not out of the question. Point being, is my having access to airport property the primary reason for the tour- if the answer is 'no' then I will not bring it up again."

"I guess I look at myself as the 'access' guy at this point- just need more details," Loewen continued. "If any exist at this point- are we talking explosives, because I know nothing about that? It's all very surreal at this point, exciting, yet scary."

Loewen stated that he could get access to the tarmac which leads to the airliners and control tower, but not until January. He apologized for asking questions before the operation was in the planning phase.

"I believe the potential for me doing more is staggering," Loewen said. "I have some rough ideas, but I know nothing about explosives. Don't you think with my access to the airport that I should put that to good use? I'm sure I am not as ready as I think I am, but by next year- who knows. Understand I have NO experience in things like this, but I'm willing to learn...Anyway, I'm just talking right now but I still feel I'm being led in this direction."

As time went by, he hesitated and said he was moving too fast. Loewen wanted to stick with giving money donations to needy Muslims for a while.

"Reading about the actions of the muhajideen and actually carrying them out is two different things," Loewen said. "If not for my family, I would have already carried out some sort of operation- but that's my fault for putting others before Allah which I know better than to do."

He sent pictures to FBI #1 of some fighter jets who had apparently stopped at the airport for fuel.

Read it all

Saudi 9-11 coverup points to high ranking Saudi family members

For those who believe in conspiracy theories of a 9-11 inside job, or that the Jews did it, here is another in the link between Islam and 9-11.  The Saudis are not our friends and have always played both sides of the fence.  Here we have not just an act of jihad, we have an act of war from a supposed ally.

From The New York Post December 15 by Paul Sperry

Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup

After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.

But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.

It was kept secret and remains so today.

President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).

A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.

Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Some information already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.

The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.

The findings, if confirmed, would back up open-source reporting showing the hijackers had, at a minimum, ties to several Saudi officials and agents while they were preparing for their attacks inside the United States. In fact, they got help from Saudi VIPs from coast to coast:

LOS ANGELES: Saudi consulate official Fahad al-Thumairy allegedly arranged for an advance team to receive two of the Saudi hijackers — Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi — as they arrived at LAX in 2000. One of the advance men, Omar al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi intelligence agent, left the LA consulate and met the hijackers at a local restaurant. (Bayoumi left the United States two months before the attacks, while Thumairy was deported back to Saudi Arabia after 9/11.)

SAN DIEGO: Bayoumi and another suspected Saudi agent, Osama Bassnan, set up essentially a forward operating base in San Diego for the hijackers after leaving LA. They were provided rooms, rent and phones, as well as private meetings with an American al Qaeda cleric who would later become notorious, Anwar al-Awlaki, at a Saudi-funded mosque he ran in a nearby suburb. They were also feted at a welcoming party. (Bassnan also fled the United States just before the attacks.)

WASHINGTON: Then-Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar and his wife sent checks totaling some $130,000 to Bassnan while he was handling the hijackers. Though the Bandars claim the checks were “welfare” for Bassnan’s supposedly ill wife, the money nonetheless made its way into the hijackers’ hands.

Other al Qaeda funding was traced back to Bandar and his embassy — so much so that by 2004 Riggs Bank of Washington had dropped the Saudis as a client.

The next year, as a number of embassy employees popped up in terror probes, Riyadh recalled Bandar.

“Our investigations contributed to the ambassador’s departure,” an investigator who worked with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington told me, though Bandar says he left for “personal reasons.”

FALLS CHURCH, VA.: In 2001, Awlaki and the San Diego hijackers turned up together again — this time at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, a Pentagon-area mosque built with funds from the Saudi Embassy. Awlaki was recruited 3,000 miles away to head the mosque. As its imam, Awlaki helped the hijackers, who showed up at his doorstep as if on cue. He tasked a handler to help them acquire apartments and IDs before they attacked the Pentagon.

Awlaki worked closely with the Saudi Embassy. He lectured at a Saudi Islamic think tank in Merrifield, Va., chaired by Bandar. Saudi travel itinerary documents I’ve obtained show he also served as the ­official imam on Saudi Embassy-sponsored trips to Mecca and tours of Saudi holy sites.

Most suspiciously, though, Awlaki fled the United States on a Saudi jet about a year after 9/11.

As I first reported in my book, “Infiltration,” quoting from classified US documents, the Saudi-sponsored cleric was briefly detained at JFK before being released into the custody of a “Saudi representative.” A federal warrant for Awlaki’s arrest had mysteriously been withdrawn the previous day. A US drone killed Awlaki in Yemen in 2011.

HERNDON, VA.: On the eve of the attacks, top Saudi government official Saleh Hussayen checked into the same Marriott Residence Inn near Dulles Airport as three of the Saudi hijackers who targeted the Pentagon. Hussayen had left a nearby hotel to move into the hijackers’ hotel. Did he meet with them? The FBI never found out. They let him go after he “feigned a seizure,” one agent recalled. (Hussayen’s name doesn’t appear in the separate 9/11 Commission Report, which clears the Saudis.)

SARASOTA, FLA.: 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and other hijackers visited a home owned by Esam Ghazzawi, a Saudi adviser to the nephew of King Fahd. FBI agents investigating the connection in 2002 found that visitor logs for the gated community and photos of license tags matched vehicles driven by the hijackers. Just two weeks before the 9/11 attacks, the Saudi luxury home was abandoned. Three cars, including a new Chrysler PT Cruiser, were left in the driveway. Inside, opulent furniture was untouched.

Democrat Bob Graham, the former Florida senator who chaired the Joint Inquiry, has asked the FBI for the Sarasota case files, but can’t get a single, even heavily redacted, page released. He says it’s a “coverup.”

Is the federal government protecting the Saudis? Case agents tell me they were repeatedly called off pursuing 9/11 leads back to the Saudi Embassy, which had curious sway over White House and FBI responses to the attacks.

Read it all

Lebanese Army fires at Israeli soldiers

Accusations fly, but with rampant anti-semitism it will be Israel to blame.  After all, everyone knows how evil Jews are, and that the IZCTTOTW* is marching towards a gentile-free future.

From Yahoo News December 15

Report: Lebanese army fires at Israeli soldiers

BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese army force opened fire Sunday along the volatile border with Israel, Israeli officials and Lebanon's National News Agency said.

The Israeli military said that shots were fired at a civilian vehicle traveling along the border, adding that the sniper was a member of the Lebanese military.

Arab satellite TV channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya reported that an Israeli soldier was killed in the shooting, but there was no immediate confirmation of casualties from either side.

Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UN forces in southern Lebanon, said the UN was informed of a "serious incident along the blue line around Ras Naqoura." He said UNIFIL is in contact with both the Lebanese and Israeli armies, and that they are cooperating.

"The incident happened on the Israeli side of the blue line," he said, referring to a U.N. drawn line demarcating the border between the two enemy states.

Tenenti declined to provide details on what transpired, saying UNIFIL was still trying to determine exactly what happened.

Read it all

Iran tests ballistic missile with range to hit Israel

Yet no one in the Obama administration sees this as a problem.

We are doomed.

From The Washington Free Beacon December 11 by Adam Kredo

White House: Iranian Ballistic Missile Test Not a Deal Killer

The White House says that an Iranian ballistic missile test would not invalidate a recently signed nuclear accord meant to temporarily halt some of Iran’s most controversial nuclear work.

The White House clarified its stance just days before Iran is scheduled tolaunch another ballistic missile some 75 miles into the atmosphere.

The statement contradicts recent remarks indicating that such a test would in fact violate and nullify the weeks-old agreement, which provides Iran with some $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a partial six-month freeze of its uranium enrichment program.

A White House National Security Council (NSC) spokeswoman told PolitiFact on Friday that an Iranian missile test in the next six months would in fact “be in violation of the agreement” and that “the agreement would cease to exist.”

Asked on Wednesday morning to clarify that statement in light of Iran’s intent to launch a rocket next week, a White House official said that PolitiFact got it wrong.

“That statement on ballistic missiles is incorrect,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon via email. “We have reached out to PolitiFact to correct.”

PolitiFact staff writer Steve Contorno did not immediately have comment on the controversy when contacted Wednesday afternoon by the Free Beacon.

Nearly five hours after the Free Beacon contacted the White House and PolitiFact about the issue, a correction was appended to Contorno’s original article.

“This story has been changed to reflect a misstatement by the U.S. National Security Council on whether a missile test by Iran would ‘be in violation of the agreement (with Iran). The agreement would cease to exist,’” the correction states. “After the story was published, the National Security Council asked PolitiFact to correct the record that they had meant that Iran would be forbidden from testing a nuclear warhead.”

The White House confirmed that a ballistic missile test would not invalidate the deal.

“The prohibition would not include testing of a conventional ballistic missile,” according to the correction.

Iran announced late Tuesday that it intends to launch another “research” rocket into space by the end of next week, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency.

The rocket “will be launched next week as the next part of the plan to send living creatures into space,” General Mehdi Farahi, Iran’s deputy defense minister and the head of its aerospace organization, was quoted as saying.

Read it all

Iran pulls out of nuclear talks, accuses US of increasing sanctions

The agreement between Iran and the West is not in force yet, details are still being worked out, yet Iran doesn't like the US tightening already in place sanctions and have left the talks in a huff.

So much for dialogue based in mutual interests.

From The Washington Free Beacon December 13 by Adam Kredo

Iranians Pull Out of Nuke Talks

Iranian negotiators abruptly ended nuclear talks with Western powers in Vienna on Friday just a day after the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions on Tehran.

Iran had threatened that new or tighter sanctions would nullify the recently reached Geneva interim deal, which is not yet in effect.

The Iranians abruptly “halted” the talks and left Vienna so that they could consult with higher-level officials about how to proceed with talks following the tighter sanctions, which were announced Thursday morning by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“The Iranian negotiators interrupted the talks with the [P5+1] for consultations in Tehran,” a negotiator said on Thursday, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency.

“America’s move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,” Iranian chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi reportedly told the Iranian press. “We are evaluating the situation and will make the appropriate response.”

Iranian and Western negotiators were in the middle of talks about ways to implement the interim agreement when the sanctions were announced, according to experts.

The “wild thing about today’s action [is that] Treasury officials [are] negotiating terms of [the Joint Plan of Action] w/ Iran right now in Vienna,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies expert Jonathan Schanzer tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

The White House told the Washington Free Beacon early Friday that it would address the development later in the day.

The interim accord reached in Geneva created the framework for a final deal that would halt portions of Iran’s contested uranium enrichment program for six months.

With final negotiations on the six-month freeze in limbo, it remains unclear when exactly Iran will begin halting its nuclear work.

Read it all

"I don't understand how you can read the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) and not understand that jihad and the implementation of Sharia is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah"

So says Terry Lee Loewen, newby jihadist and lover of death and carnage.

From IPT December 13

Alleged Kansas Bomber Wanted to Be "Obedient Slave of Allah"

An FBI sting has led to the arrest of a Wichita, Kan. man who thought he was about to die in a suicide car bombing that targeted a terminal at the city's Mid-Continent Airport.

Terry Lee Loewen, 58, worked at the airport as an avionics technician. This gave him access to airport grounds. He was arrested before dawn Friday after he tried to open a security gate and get on the tarmac, the Kansas City Star reports.

According to a three-count complaint, Loewen discussed his view of faith as a Muslim. That included expressing "his desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda" during an online conversation with someone whom, unbeknownst to him, was an FBI employee.

"I don't understand how you can read the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) and not understand that jihad and the implementation of Sharia is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah," Loewen allegedly wrote Aug. 5. "I feel so guilt-ridden sometimes for knowing what's required of me but yet doing little or nothing to make it happen. I love my Muslim brothers and sisters, whether they agree with me or not, it's just hard to deal with the denial that some of them appear to be going through."

Osama bin Laden and American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki "are a great inspiration to me, but I must be willing to give up everything (like they did) to truly feel like a (sic) obedient slave of Allah (swt)," he wrote a few days later.

Later that month, he asked for help finding "someone who is active in jihad and could use an occasional influx of 'help' ... I just hate the kaffar government and those who are following it to the Hellfire, and the sooner it and its followers get there, the better."

Loewen was trying to drive a van packed with explosives to a terminal as part of a plan he spent months developing, a Department of Justice statement says. He "talked about his commitment to trigger the device and martyr himself."

The explosives were rendered inert by the FBI and the public was never in danger. Agents were drawn to Loewen early last summer after he made statements about jihad. He is with trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Many national Islamist groups have criticized similar sting operations, arguing the FBI is manufacturing a terrorist threat where it might not exist. If Loewen's correspondence in the complaint proves accurate, however, he was a man with the motivation and access to pull off a horrific attack. Left alone, he might have found ways to make his own bomb.

At one point, Loewen acknowledged not knowing whether he could trust his contact. But it wasn't enough to discourage him from pursuing an attack. "my greatest fear is not being able to complete an operation because I was set up," he wrote. "I hate this government so much for what they have done to our brothers and sisters, that to spent (sic) the rest of my life in prison without having taken a good slice out of the serpents head is unacceptable to me."

If convicted, Loewen could face life in prison.

Muslim convert gets Islam all wrong, tries to blow up Wichita airport

The would-be jihadist, Terry Lee Loewen

Another misunderstander of the religion of peace.  There seem to be many of these new Muslims (and old hats) who continually try to explode the claim that Islam means love your neighbors.  Terry Lee Loewen believed that Allah required him to kill and be killed (9-111) and so, on this he began his trip towards martyrdom.  Unfortunately he hooked up with FBI undercover agents who provided him with the fake bomb and the means to attempt to detonate it on the tarmac at Wichita airport next to a fully loaded plane.  He was arrested immediately upon him pushing what he thought was a detonator button.

Alas, no virgins for Terry.

From NBC December 14 by Pete Williams

Feds say they disrupted suicide bomb plot by worker at Wichita airport

A 58-year-old airport worker was charged Friday with allegedly planning a suicide bombing at a passenger terminal at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Kansas.

The suspect, Terry Lee Loewen, an avionics technician who lives in Wichita, was arrested earlier in the day as he attempted to use his security pass to drive a vehicle that he thought contained explosives onto the tarmac at the airport, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Wichita. In fact, the car contained only dummy explosives.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Loewen spent months developing a plan to drive a carload of explosives to the airport terminal and that he was determined to trigger the bomb himself and die in the blast.

Loewen, who is white, became radicalized after reading extremist Islamic material on the Internet, Grissom said.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Wichita charges Loewen with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was scheduled to be arraigned at 3 p.m. local time.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Investigators tell NBC News that Loewen has been under scrutiny since August, when he began having an online exchange with someone he thought was a like-minded individual but who turned out to be an FBI employee.

"Let me preface the bottom line by saying I have become 'radicalized' in the strongest sense of the word, and I don't feel Allah wants me any other way," he said in one message, according to the complaint.

But remember, it would be Islamophobic to point out that Islam drove him to behave this way.

At the news conference, Grissom and Michael Kaste, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Kansas City, stressed that the suspect was under constant surveillance and at no time was the public in danger....

12 Nuns kidnapped in Syria

No word on their location or any demands.  The persecution of Christians continues unabated, and the world yawns.

From AsiaNews December 2

Maaloula: Islamist rebels abduct 12 nuns from the St Thecla Orthodox monastery

Damascus (AsiaNews) - Islamist rebels have kidnapped a group of nuns from the Greek Orthodox monastery of St Thecla (Mar Taqla) in Maaloula (north of Damascus). Mgr Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio in Damascus, confirmed the information after speaking with the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate. Through the Vatican diplomat, the latter "calls on all Catholics to pray for the women religious."

"Armed men burst in the monastery of St Thecla in Maaloula this afternoon. From there, they forcibly took 12 women religious," Mgr Zenari said, citing a statement from Patriarchate. The group of Islamist rebels has apparently taken them to Yabrud, some 80 km north of the capital. Neither the nuncio nor the church Greek Orthodox Church know reason behind the kidnapping.

Islamist Rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had invaded the small town on 5 September after driving out regime troops with the support of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Brigades. After taking control of the city, they went on a rampage against Christian buildings, killing three young Catholic men.

More than 3,000 people, the town's entire Christian population, fled their homes seeking refuge in Bab Touma, the Christian quarter of Damascus. Some found shelter with relatives in Lebanon or in local Greek-Catholic convents.

Only Muslims were left in town, plus 40 nuns at the St Thecla Monastery who stayed to help care for dozens of orphaned children.

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Iran nuclear agreement: no worries, just two more nuclear plants to be built

That's right, Iran is to build two more plants.  Nothing to see here, go back to sleep.

From the Times of Israel December 4

‘Iran plans two more nuclear plants at Bushehr’

Iran is reportedly talking to Russia about building two more nuclear plants in Bushehr province, according to a senior official who spoke to an Iranian media outlet on Tuesday.
The head of the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Committee Jalil Jafari Boneh Khalkhal told the semi-official Fars news agency that the second and third atomic power plants will be similar to the existent facility in the southern province, but with higher safety standards.

President Hassan Rouhani announced on Saturday that Iran would build a second nuclear plant at Bushehr.

“Our first nuclear power plant is active in the (Bushehr) province which will develop, God willing,” Rouhani said in a speech Saturday night to officials in Bushehr province, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Sunday.

The current Bushehr reactor was built by Russia and reached full capacity last year. “Based on our estimates, the second nuclear power plant will be built in the same province and I hope that we can use the facilities of this province,” Rouhani said.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said Sunday that the Islamic Republic needs more nuclear power plants, the country’s official news agency reported.

Salehi said the additional nuclear power would help the country reduce its carbon emissions and its consumption of oil, IRNA reported. He said Iran should produce 150 tons of nuclear fuel to supply five nuclear power plants.

“We should take required action for building power plants for 20,000 megawatts of electricity” in the long term, Salehi said.

If the nuclear program is for civilian power, where is the grid infrastructure needed to distribute that power?  Look at Google earth and try to find anything that looks like a power distribution grid.  There isn't one, so the question becomes; how will the power generated by nuclear power plants get to the people?  Or is the program not for civilian power but nuclear weapons?  Time will tell, but by then it may be too late.

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Feinstein says we are less safe from terrorism today

But I thought the Taliban were on the ropes and Al-Qaeda had been decimated.  What happened?

From the New York Post December 1 by S.A. Miller

Feinstein: America is less safe from terrorism

WASHINGTON – The heads of Congress’ intelligence committees warned Sunday that America is less safe from terrorism today than it has been in recent years.

The dire warning came from both sides of the aisle, with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) agreeing that the threat is worse.

“Terror is up worldwide. The statistics indicate that,” Feinstein declared on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“The fatalities are way up. … There are new bombs, very big bombs — trucks being reinforced for those bombs,” she said. “There are bombs that go through magnetometers. The bomb maker is still alive. There are more groups than ever. And there is huge malevolence out there.”

She said the threat to the US has grown with the rise of “more groups, more fundamentalist, more jihadist, more determined to kill to get to where they want to get.”

Uh oh, she used the "J" word.  Methinks the label of Islamophobe will soon be applied...or not.

On the same show, Rogers said that he would “absolutely agree that we’re not safer today for the same very reasons.”

“The pressure on our intelligence services to get it right to prevent an attack are enormous. And it’s getting more difficult,” he cautioned.

He also warned against letting the Obama administrations successes killing top al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, lull Americans into a false sense of security.

“People think that, well, we’ve got this thing beat. And that’s just not the case,” said Rogers.

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"...religious discord is the enemies’ most important plot, serving interests of the Zionist regime"

Another round of "the Jews did it" from our now possible friend, Iran.

From Fars News December 2

Senior Iranian MP: Rift among Muslims Serves Israel's Objective

“Enemies of Islam and the Muslim nations are not pleased with friendly ties among Muslim countries in this sensitive region,” Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Sunday.

He said religious discord is the enemies’ most important plot, serving interests of the Zionist regime.

Zionist regime=Israel

Last week, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani underlined the necessity for strengthening unity among the regional countries to minimize the effectiveness of enemy efforts to create rift among Muslims.

“Regional states will not allow certain countries to target regional security by means of terrorism and…to cause religious and sectarian strife,” Shamkhani said in a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Tehran on Tuesday.

He further urged the “free and independent” countries to strengthen unity and cooperation to play a leading role in international developments.

“Iran will proceed with its principled policies and approaches to supporting the (anti-Israeli) resistance, establishing peace and calm in the region, and expanding amicable relations with neighbors,” the senior Iranian security official added.

In November, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim Ummah (community) to increase vigilance as enemies of Islam are hatching increasing plots to stir sectarian strife among them.

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Karen Armstrong blames the West for the problems with Islam

One of the few people on earth that apologizes for Islam and has the ear of Western leaders.  A dangerous combination that she has exploited for a number of years.  Her claim to fame is her collaboration with John Esposito on a Gallup poll/book that purported to show the number of "moderate" Muslims worldwide.  Problem was they cooked the numbers to inflate the actual number and published those numbers as a fact.  She is a former nun who is under the spell of Islam, and has numerous issues with both anti-jihadists but also with much of the religious world, except Islam.

Keep her name in mind for she always pops up.  Her book on M Uhammad is a good read for the history, not so good for learning about true Islamic ideology.

From FPM November 28 by Andrew Harrod

Karen Armstrong’s 9/11 British Empire Blowback Thesis

“We did this,” popular British religion writer Karen Armstrong said in a November 21, 2013, keynote address at Georgetown University in reference to her country’s imperial history and Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Speaking to Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) Armstrong clearly showed with bizarre, anti-Western self-accusatory explanations for jihadist violence how “I like to turn the finger against myself first.”

“We have all done terrible things,” Armstrong stated at ACMCU’s 20th anniversary conference on “Muslim-Christian Relations in the 21st Century: Challenges & Opportunities.” Armstrong in particular was “very conscious as a person of the British Empire” about how “we are all implicated” in problems afflicting Muslims globally. Armstrong referenced Anglo-French involvement during World War I in determining Middle Eastern borders and Pakistan’s “almost impossible” borders derived from Indian partition in 1947. Armstrong also considered “our Palestinian mess” as a British sin inciting Muslim violence today.

American drone strikes around the world and “new images of Muslim suffering” following America’s military regime change in Iraq added to Armstrong’s anti-Western litany. “Disgraceful” also for Armstrong was global poverty such as the “people in the world who do not have clean water.” Reverently referencing “Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,” Armstrong cited an Islamic hadith about the immorality of sleeping while others hunger. In light of all this suffering, Armstrong rejected making Islam a “scapegoat” for the “violent sins of the 20th century.”

“Muslim pain, Muslim suffering” and the “desire to do something about it” were thus Armstrong’s explanation for violence from groups like Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda videos, for example, presented a “collage of pain” and yet “we don’t see the half of it.” “Self-interested policies have blown up in our face,” Armstrong concluded, and demanded that people “look at these images of pain.”

“Hiroshima and 9/11” result from deficient personal reflection, Armstrong concluded. Armstrong compared impersonal killing from the “high altitudes” of World War II bombers to “killing from a helicopter” and criticized Westerners for being a “privileged caste” removed from the world. In contrast, “weeping together creates bonds between human beings.” Armstrong argued that the world should have wept for Muslims following 9/11 just as the Greek playwright Aeschylus mourned for his enemies slain at the Battle of Salamis in The Persians.

Armstrong perceived no threat in any given religion such as Islam, for all faiths according to her have a “version of the Golden Rule.” Armstrong saw religious fundamentalisms “rooted in a profound fear of elimination,” not any aggressive ideology, such that they became “more extreme” under attack by military force and media. The tearing off of women’s veils by Iranian troops under the Shah, for example, incited a backlash of Shiite fundamentalism. The present Islamic Republic of Iran, meanwhile, elicited from Armstrong merely the comment that the “Iranian revolution is still continuing.”

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Summary of a report titled "The misguided Fatwas of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis"

We all have heard fatwas that sounded outrageous, even for Islam.  Here, in an official report is documented proof that even Muslims sometimes find their co-horts religious proclamations just a bit silly.

From India Today November 28

Fatwa: Women who swim in the sea commit adultery, should be punished

"When a woman goes swimming, as the word for sea is masculine, when "the water touches the woman's private parts, she becomes an 'adulteress' and should be punished."
- Summary of a report titled "The misguided Fatwas of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis", as published in the Al Masry Al Youm.

A report by a committee set up by Al Azhar, one of the oldest and most prestigious Islamic universities in Cairo, to study the fatwas issued by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis reveals how Islamists view women.

The findings of the committee's report were published in the Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm. In all, the committee studied 51 fatwas issued by the Brotherhood and the Salafis during President Mohamed Morsi's tenure.

According to the report, "the fatwas issued by both groups (the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis) regard women as strange creatures who are created solely for sex. They considered the voices of women, their looks and presence outside the walls of their homes an 'offence'. Some even went as far as to consider women as a whole offensive."

Another fatwa prohibited women from "eating certain vegetables or even touching cucumbers or bananas", due to their phallic imagery which could lead women down the wrong path.

Another fatwa directed women to "turn off the air conditioners at home in the absence of their husbands as this could indicate to a neighbour that the woman is at home alone and any of them could commit adultery with her".

Another fatwa orders that girls as young as 10-years-old be married "to prevent them from deviating from the right path".

Another prohibited girls from going to school more than 25km away from their homes.

A strange one said that a couple's marriage would be annulled if they copulate with no clothes on.

Now I have heard of couples only doing it in the dark, but this...

Interestingly, one fatwa which made headlines all over the world was issued by the Al Azhar university which called for women to "breastfeed male acquaintances thereby making them relatives and justifying their mixed company". The fatwa was, however, later retracted.

At the same time, some of these fatwas also sanctioned the use of women as human shields...

Canadian man files suit against Taxi company for discrimination; Muslim driver refused him and his guide dog

This happens frequently but we don't hear about it anymore, seems it's old news.  I say discrimination of any kind should always be news, especially when it is Islam that is at the root of the problem.

From Global News November 30

Human rights complaint filed against cab company over guide dog

SASKATOON – A man who says he and his guide dog have been having trouble with a Saskatoon cab company has filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

Mike Simmonds says the problem started two months ago when a dispatcher for Comfort Cabs told him he would need a pet-friendly taxi.

He says he’s been told twice since then that drivers weren’t comfortable with his seeing-eye dog because of their religious beliefs.

He called the manager to complain and received an apology.

Simmonds says the manager suggested there must have been a misunderstanding.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination against people with service animals.

“It baffles me that in this century people have such problems with guide dogs,” Simmonds said Friday.

“If you’re driving a taxi in this country, you have got to know that you’re open to service dogs.”

Cliff Kowbel, operations manager at Comfort Cabs, said that the company continually informs its drivers that working dogs are not pets. He said the company has a policy that the dogs are not to be refused.

Simmonds said he was on his way to the airport two weeks ago when he was turned away by a driver who said a larger cab was needed.

“I said, ‘Here, the suitcase goes in the back or in the trunk and he’s designed to go under my feet. We’ve got to get to the airport.”‘

Simmonds said he could tell the driver was obviously uncomfortable, so he asked him if he had a problem with dogs. The driver replied that associating with dogs was against his religious beliefs.

In order not to be Islamophobic, I am going to say that the religious belief noted above is most likely Mennonite.  Or Quaker...maybe Lutheran...i'm not sure now....

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