Topic: They Walk Among Us

[HavokFour]

Seriously, I don't get it... one would assume that a person immigrates to Canada because they love Canadian values. Coming here, and then playing the we-take-offense-to-your-culture card is just pathetic. I am an immigrant myself and I know why I came here, I know what I want and most importantly, I know what debts I have to pay back for this privilege.  I am not against multiculturalism, but sometime it just gets out of hand (e.g. happy holidays anyone... and I not even a Christian!).Maybe we should stress more on the values that make a Canadian, than the whole multicultural aspect?

Never understood it myself. As the son of a refugee I never once heard my father (Dominican Republic) make any such claim in the short amount of time I knew him. The second he landed on US soil he became your stereotypical gun toting, God fairing American. A very successful one too, he made quite a name for himself in both Goya Foods, Inc and The Coca-Cola Company.

Perhaps it is due to the rise in Liberalism around the world?

I agree with you.  Why try to recreate the problems they are fleeing from/moving away from in Canada?  If they want to do that, then why did they leave their native land?  I assume that they thought that Canada had a better culture, so why would they want to change it to something else?  I just don't get it.  I would hate to think it was solely for the money and social health and welfare handouts.

While I am positive the majority of immigrants come here to become Canadians and to integrate into our society, there is still an large number that unfortunately have no other interest than to leech off Canadian Citizens.

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

USA / Justice

Muslim-American terrorism study: Not many incidents, but it only takes one

By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer / February 2, 2011 
The Christian Science Monitor


LINK

Since 9/11, the number of Muslim-American terrorism suspects and perpetrators has averaged about 16 a year. Last year was slightly higher, but way down from 2009.

In the years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the number of Muslim-American terrorism suspects and perpetrators has averaged about 16 per year. In 2010, according to a new report, the total was 20.

That was a sharp drop from 2009, when 47 Muslim-Americans committed or were arrested for terrorist crimes, according to the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security in Durham, N.C., a consortium among Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and RTI International.

But 2009 likely was an aberration – the year when a group of 17 Somali-Americans joined Al Shabab, the Islamist insurgent movement linked to Al Qaeda. The number of individual Muslim-Americans plotting against targets in the United States also dropped by half, from 18 in 2009 to 10 in 2010.

“Of course, even a single terrorist plot is too many,” says Charles Kurzman, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the report’s author. “But this trend offers a challenge for the American public: If we ratchet up our security concerns when the rate of terrorism rises, should we ratchet down our concerns when it falls?”

That is certainly not the case for federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities tasked with preventing domestic terrorist attacks.

While most attacks have been disrupted or failed on their own, 11 attacks since 9/11 have resulted in 33 deaths – including 13 people killed by Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009. The Times Square bombing attempt by Pakistan-born Faisal Shahzad could have brought the total deaths due to domestic terror attacks much higher if the bomb had not failed to explode when ignited.

List of 2010 plots

According to professor Mr. Kurzman’s analysis, 75 percent of the Muslim-Americans engaged in terrorist plots in 2010 were disrupted in an early stage of planning.

“This is consistent with the pattern of disruption since 9/11,” he writes, when 102 of 161 plots – 63 percent – were disrupted at an early stage of planning.

On Tuesday, Colleen LaRose – the Philadelphia woman who called herself “Jihad Jane” – pleaded guilty to four federal charges, including conspiracy to murder a foreign target (Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who had depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad in ways that many Muslims found offensive), conspiracy to support terrorists, and lying to the FBI.

Over the past five years or so, about 30 American Muslim extremists have been caught up in sting operations, according to Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League.

Most recently, that includes Antonio Martinez (a Muslim convert who had changed his name to Muhammad Hussain), who attempted to detonate a car bomb at a US Army recruitment center in Maryland, and Somalia-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud, arrested in December for allegedly plotting to explode a bomb at the Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore., where thousands of families had gathered for the traditional Christmas tree lighting.

Other cases involved plotting to attack synagogues in the Bronx, attempting to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and plotting to carry out a coordinated bombing attack on Metrorail stations in suburban Virginia near Washington.

“Many of these extremists have a passionate desire to act on behalf of their cause, but in a practical sense have a limited ability,” says Mr. Pitcavage. “Part of this is due to their selection of tactics, which often tend towards large and spectacular attacks that are difficult to carry out.”

“Part of this is due to an inability on their part to obtain or construct weapons or explosives on their own,” he writes in an e-mail. “Thus when they encounter someone purporting to be able to supply such resources [including undercover FBI agents], they may well be receptive.”

Targeting the 'lone wolf'

It’s often pointed out that security agencies need to prevent all attempted attacks in order to be successful but that terrorists need to succeed just once. Of particular concern are home-grown “lone wolf” attackers, seen as expendable to terrorist groups overseas.

For this reason, sting operations frequently are the technique of choice in heading off such attacks.

“It does send a message that the government isn’t just leaving the barn door open like they were before 9/11, that it will have some kind of either limiting or deterrent impact on those who don’t come under the scrutiny of authority,” says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

As Kurzman at the University of North Carolina points out, sting operations often begin with tips from the Muslim-American community itself – the largest single source of initial information, according to his research.

IN PICTURES: American Jihadis

More on LINK

[milnews.ca]

This from the RCMP:

A four-year RCMP national security criminal investigation, known as Project Darken, has resulted in arrest warrants being issued for two former Winnipeg residents on terrorism-related charges.

RCMP investigators in Winnipeg have compiled evidence that two Canadian citizens, Maiwand Yar and Ferid Ahmed Imam, conspired to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training, with plans to later join the insurgency against NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Ferid Ahmed Imam, age 30, is being sought on charges of instructing to carry out terrorist activity and conspiracy to participate in activity of a terrorist group.

Maiwand Yar, age 27, is being sought on charges of conspiracy to participate in activity of a terrorist group and participation in activity of a terrorist group.

Both individuals are known to have traveled to Pakistan in March 2007. The current whereabouts of Maiwand Yar and Ferid Imam are unknown. These charges are being laid in absentia and Canada-wide arrest warrants have been issued for both men.

“These warrants are the result of a lengthy and thorough national security criminal investigation involving key partners throughout Canada and the U.S.,” said Assistant Commissioner Bill Robinson, Commanding Officer of “D” Division RCMP. “We are deeply committed to our efforts aimed at countering terrorism. This investigation targets criminal activity and not specific communities or groups.”

Project Darken was conducted by the RCMP National Security Enforcement Section in Winnipeg with the cooperation of partners at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada Border Services Agency, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and international law enforcement agencies.

(....)

The public is encouraged to contact the RCMP National Security tip line at 1-800-420-5805 to report information on the whereabouts of Maiwand Yar and Ferid Imam, or suspicious activities that could pose any threat to Canada’s national security.

More from CBC.ca (via Yahoo) here, and a bit of backstory from October of last year here.

Edited to add attached statement from CSIS Prairie Region DG.

[milnews.ca]

A bit more detail from the FBI on one of the chaps:

A superseding indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court yesterday charging Ferid Imam, also known as "Yousef," with providing and conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, aiding and abetting the terrorist training of Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay, and Adis Medunjanin, and using a destructive device in furtherance of crimes of violence.1 The indictment was unsealed in coordination with Canadian authorities, who earlier today announced terrorism charges against Imam, who is a Canadian citizen. According to the Eastern District indictment, Imam aided and abetted Zazi, Ahmedzay, and Medunjanin's receipt of military-type training from al Qaeda when the three men traveled to Pakistan in 2008. Zazi, Ahmedzay, and Medunjanin subsequently returned to the United States to carry out a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices on behalf of al Qaeda. This plot was uncovered and disrupted by law enforcement authorities in September 2009. Zazi pleaded guilty to his role in the plot on February 22, 2010; Ahmedzay similarly pleaded guilty on April 23, 2010.

If convicted of the crimes in the indictment, Imam faces between 30 years' and life imprisonment.

The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

"As today's charges demonstrate, we will not rest in our pursuit of those responsible for plotting terrorist attacks," stated United States Attorney Lynch. Ms. Lynch expressed her gratitude to the law enforcement personnel, both American and Canadian, who took part in the investigation.

"The three men already charged with conspiring to set off bombs in New York were also charged with receiving overseas training to accomplish that nefarious goal. Among other alleged acts of terrorism, Ferid Imam helped them get that training. Today's charges are an important step in bringing to justice all the conspirators," said FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge Fedarcyk ....

[Thucydides]

An ominous prediction:

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2011/03/14/what-if-they-are-already-here/?print=1

What if They Are Already Here?

Posted By Michael Ledeen On March 14, 2011 @ 9:21 pm In Uncategorized | 45 Comments

A very long time ago — back in the last century, when I worked for men like Alexander Haig and Ronald Reagan — the United States government knew of at least three terrorist sleeper cells on our soil.  The most famous of these was  in St. Louis, Missouri, where Zeit Isa, a member of the Abu Nidal organization — one of the most lethal of that time — was quietly running a convenience store.  He was a Palestinian who had gone to Puerto Rico and married a local woman (even though he already had a wife in the old country).  They produced two girls, and one night the older one came home late and her father stabbed her to death as her mother held her down.  The FBI got the whole thing on audio tape.

This led to the trial of 4 members [1] of the group in the mid-nineties, which exposed the Abu Nidal sleeper network to public view.  Many of the network, realizing that it had been penetrated by the FBI, left the United States, but Isa and his wife spent the rest of their lives in a federal prison.

You’d have to think that if there were three sleeper cells in America in the eighties, there must be even more now, and I’m sure that’s correct. Dave Gaubatz, who’s spent years studying this nasty business, says so quite categorically [2], and, like other counterterrorist experts, sounds surprised none of the terror underground has emerged to kill Americans.

The government doesn’t ever want to talk about such things, but every so often we get to look through a dark windowpane, as for example the very disturbing story [3] earlier this year about an Iranian book that turned up in the Arizona desert.  It was a hymn to martyrs — suicide killers.  If you read the whole thing, you’ll probably break into a sweat.  Try this:

“At this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest border,” a Department of Homeland Security [4] official said in a statement.”  But we’re not talking about groups operating along the border;  we’re talking about terrorists inside the United States.  Those intended-to-be-reassuring words from DHS carefully beg the central question.  And the more you read, the worse it gets:

    (FBI Director Robert) Mueller testified before the House Appropriations Committee in March 2005 that “there are individuals from countries with known Al Qaeda [5] connections who are changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic.”

    Just last year, the Department of Homeland Security had in custody thousands of detainees from Afghanistan [6], Egypt, Iraq [7], Iran, Pakistan [8], Saudi Arabia [9] and Yemen [10]. U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that there were 108,025 OTMs (“Other Than Mexicans”) detained in 2006, compared to 165,178 in 2005 and 44,614 in 2004.

So we’ve got thousands (!) of dangerous Middle Easterners in prison (not counting the many “diplomatic personnel” we’ve kicked out of the country, like those Iranians working at the UN caught photographing subway stations and bridges in the middle of the night), and surely we do not have them all.  Some of them must have burrowed in.  A friend in the FBI told me, in the nineties, that they had identified sleeper terrorists working as doctors, dentists, and attorneys.  They had excellent “cover,” in short, they were not what most people imagine (crazed fanatics running around with scimitars shouting short phrases in Arabic and praying in airports on their little carpets).

And then there is the frightening story of a possible fifth terrorist team on 9/11.  This is documented by a Wikileaks classified cable given to the London Telegraph [11].

It tells of a 3-man team of Qataris who flew from London to the United States, staked out some targets in New York and Washington, and then went to southern California.  They were scheduled on the American Airlines plane that hit the Pentagon (the one on which Barbara Olson was murdered), but, at the last minute, they switched flights and left the country.

So they’ve come here.  Some have installed themselves among us, others have passed through.  But doubt not that there are terrorists waiting for the “go code” to attack.  Indeed, we often find them in the trunks of nice cars [12] crossing our borders.

We’re at war, but our leaders are forever forbidding us to even say it.  Yet denial will only make things worse, offering more opportunities to our would-be killers.  You know, the ones that don’t officially exist.  Except they always have.

Article printed from Faster, Please!: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2011/03/14/what-if-they-are-already-here/

URLs in this post:

[1] the trial of 4 members: http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-02/news/mn-18130_1_abu-nidal

[2] says so quite categorically: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8528/pub_detail.asp

[3] very disturbing story: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/27/iranian-book-celebrating-suicide-bombers-arizona-desert/

[4] Homeland Security: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/national-security.htm#r_src=ramp

[5] Al Qaeda: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/iraq/al-qaeda.htm#r_src=ramp

[6] Afghanistan: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/afghanistan.htm#r_src=ramp

[7] Iraq: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/supplemental-spending.htm#r_src=ramp

[8] Pakistan: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/pakistan.htm#r_src=ramp

[9] Saudi Arabia: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/saudi-arabia.htm#r_src=ramp

[10] Yemen: http://www.foxnews.com/topics/yemen-al-qaeda.htm#r_src=ramp

[11] the London Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8297848/WikiLeaks-Did-al-Qaeda-plot-fifth-attack-on-911.html

[12] in the trunks of nice cars: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351385/Controversial-Muslim-cleric-caught-smuggled-U-S-Mexico-border.html

[Thucydides]

"They" are also indulging in info ops:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/anti-american-foreign-donors-are-paying-off-our-profs-shouldnt-we-address-this/?print=1

Anti-American, Foreign Donors Are Paying Off Our Profs. Shouldn’t We Address This?
Posted By Clarice Feldman On March 25, 2011 @ 12:31 pm In Uncategorized | 32 Comments

When educators who are identified as professors from prestigious universities testify before Congress, write op-eds, and appear on public or media sponsored panels, most readers and listeners value their words more than those of others less credentialed. Perhaps this is especially the case when the subject is foreign affairs, which — without warrant — is generally treated as an arcane subject requiring considerable specialized study to fully comprehend.

For this reason, concern is growing that our universities, especially those highly regarded, have been receiving very large sums of cash from abroad, often from countries or citizens of countries which hold positions antithetical to our interests or engage in conduct shocking to our values. This matter is receiving critical attention from both sides of the political spectrum.

The fact of these large gifts is no secret. 20 USC 1011-Sec. 1011f requires colleges and universities to disclose foreign donations and contracts valued at $250,000 or more, and the Department of Education annually posts them online on its website.

Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article by Scott Carlson on the subject [1] (subscription only). Reviewing the latest such report from the DOE (the next is due next month), he notes:

Over the past 10 years, gifts from and contracts with governments, companies, and individuals [in the Middle East] have amounted to more than $600 million.

Qatar is the largest contributor, donating almost half of the total. It is followed by Saudi Arabia, which donated $77 million. I suspect that with the downturn in the American economy these large foreign gifts are being more aggressively sought out and constitute a larger and larger portion of university revenues.

How much of this is known to alumni and students is unclear. If you recall, the videos of the NPR fundraisers (both former university fundraisers) and the make-believe Arabs revealed that they were very willing to do what they could to keep the proposed gift anonymous. They said they had done this before, and even mentioned an $80 million dollar gift — apparently from a domestic giver with a feminist bent — to a number of universities which had successfully been kept under wraps by all the schools concerned. I suspect that a great deal of the foreign funding, though reported as the law requires to the federal government, may not be fully known in university communities.

In any event, word is getting out. As Carlson observes, the initial complaints came from conservatives and those who support Israel, but now the left — which is expressing concern about human rights issues — has joined in. Some of the most well-publicized of these disputes here and in the UK involve unseemly conduct on the part of university officials, but incidents which undermine scholarship are not as well-known.

We may know of Lawrence Tech’s grant of a doctorate to Bahrain’s prime minister, who in turn donated $3 million to the university; or we may know of the scandal at the London School of Economics — the university trained Libyan officials and granted an apparently unearned doctorate to one of the dictator’s sons. (Subsequently, it was learned that Michigan State was also training Gaddafi’s men, and prominent Harvard professors — through a public relations firm of their creation, Monitor — were hiring professors in part to burnish the dictator’s image.) However, although these incidents have had higher profiles, I believe these acts are far less insidious and detrimental to our interests and to the universities’ basic functions than is so much else that this largesse creates on a regular, lower-profile basis.

First, these gifts cannot but distort the research and classroom work of a university. Professors, universities, and the entire university food chain (graduate students, assistant professors, students) all know who has money, and naturally gravitate to those studies and projects for which there is funding. If there is no money to support research in a given area, there can be no fellowships or grants to sustain the scholarship. So teachers read, teach, and write about topics for which funding is available, and students make such topics the object of their study. Time is a scarce resource even in the groves of academe, and smart people do not wish to waste theirs pursuing subjects for which there will be no ability to finance and publicize their endeavors.

Second, can one doubt that there will be a tendency not to offend the donors? It’s possible that Stephen Walt (professor of international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government), a man who was hired to tart up Gaddafi in the public view, might have written this drivel [2] on his own without the money, but one doubts it despite his strong anti-Israel, pro-Arab views:

First, although Libya is far from a democracy, it also doesn’t feel like other police states that I have visited. I caught no whiff of an omnipresent security service — which is not to say that they aren’t there — and there were fewer police or military personnel on the streets than one saw in Franco’s Spain. The Libyans with whom I spoke were open and candid and gave no sign of being worried about being overheard or reported or anything like that. The TV in my hotel room featured 50+ channels, including all the normal news services (BBC World Service, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, etc.) along with contemporary U.S. sitcoms like “2-1/2 Men,” shows like “Desperate Housewives,” assorted movies, and one of the various “CSI” clones. A colleague on the trip told me that many ordinary Libyans have satellite dishes and that the government doesn’t interfere with transmissions. I tried visiting various political websites from my hotel room and had no problems, although other human rights groups report that Libya does engage in selective filtering of some political websites critical of the regime.  It is also a crime to criticize Qaddafi himself, the government’s past human rights record is disturbing at best, and the press in Libya is almost entirely government-controlled.  Nonetheless, Libya appears to be more open than contemporary Iran or China and the overall atmosphere seemed far less oppressive than most places I visited in the old Warsaw Pact.

Benjamin R. Barber, then a senior fellow at Demos (a New York-based think tank focused on the theory and practice of democracy) and now at Rutgers, was also hired by the Harvard-related group to buff up the Libyans. He wrote this bit of treacle [3]:

Written off not long ago as an implacable despot, Gaddafi is a complex and adaptive thinker as well as an efficient, if laid-back, autocrat. Unlike almost any other Arab ruler, he has exhibited an extraordinary capacity to rethink his country’s role in a changed and changing world.

On the other hand, Joseph Nye of Harvard’s Kennedy School didn’t act as a Gaddafi promoter. Upon returning from a trip to Libya, he disclosed his consulting arrangement with Monitor and reported critically on what he saw there [4]. It could well be that the funders — like those who fund two Georgetown University centers run by Professors John L. Esposito and Michael Hudson, two men instinctively critical of the U.S. and Israel and indulgent of the Arabs — are often merely putting money in the pockets of those who already take their side, and are not buying their approval. Mutual attraction, not prostitution, may explain the grants on one side and the product on the other.

Still, by funding these professors the donors are assuring that these professors gain power and prominence within their university and the academic community.

This problem is not confined to foreign gifts. Those who follow the latest politically popular trends — like global warming — get funded by the government; those academics skeptical of it do not. Similarly, when the Annenberg Foundation funds went from that foundation, through Obama, to Bill Ayers [5], Ayers’ power within the University of Illinois undoubtedly increased, along with his sway in the national educational establishment itself. Still, the notion of foreign governments, especially those who pose national security issues for this nation, buying up or paying off like-minded professors or directing undue scholarship towards a benign reading of matters in their interest is especially troubling.

Aside from monitoring what information is made public, is there anything else that can be done? I think a first step would be for universities to adopt a code of conduct, requiring professors who speak publicly before Congress, in the media, and before public audiences to disclose any foreign funding of which they are the recipients. This hardly seems to be asking a great deal. I believe it is a policy in ordinary use respecting scientific research — I can’t see why this policy merits objection from academia. Increasingly the public is used to and demanding transparency in all our institutions — why should universities and those who run them and work there be exempt? They have a unique ability to shape public opinion, and with that comes a special obligation to be candid about who’s footing the bills.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/anti-american-foreign-donors-are-paying-off-our-profs-shouldnt-we-address-this/

URLs in this post:

[1] published an article by Scott Carlson on the subject: http://chronicle.com/article/Mideast-Unrest-Reawakens/126817/
[2] this drivel: http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/18/the_shores_of_tripoli
[3] this bit of treacle: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401328.html
[4] reported critically on what he saw there: http://www.tnr.com/article/85011/joseph-nye-qaddafi-libya-tnr
[5] when the Annenberg Foundation funds went from that foundation, through Obama, to Bill Ayers: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../blog/can-obama-survive-the-annenberg-cover-up/

[Thucydides]

How to guide of what to look for. Remember, if seconds count, the police are minutes away....

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110406-how-tell-if-your-neighbor-bombmaker

How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker
April 7, 2011 | 0855 GMT

How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker

By Scott Stewart

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released the fifth edition of its English-language jihadist magazine “Inspire” on March 30. AQAP publishes this magazine with the stated intent of radicalizing English-speaking Muslims and encouraging them to engage in jihadist militant activity. Since its inception, Inspire magazine has also advocated the concept that jihadists living in the West should conduct attacks there, rather than traveling to places like Pakistan or Yemen, since such travel can bring them to the attention of the authorities before they can conduct attacks, and AQAP views attacking in the West as “striking at the heart of the unbelievers.”

To further promote this concept, each edition of Inspire magazine has a section called “Open Source Jihad,” which is intended to equip aspiring jihadist attackers with the tools they need to conduct attacks without traveling to jihadist training camps. The Open Source Jihad sections in past editions have contained articles such as the pictorial guide with instructions titled “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” that appeared in the first edition.

In this latest edition of Inspire there are at least three places where AQAP encourages jihadists to conduct “lone wolf” attacks rather than coordinate with others due to the security risks inherent in such collaboration (several jihadist plots have been thwarted when would-be attackers have approached government informants looking for assistance). In recent years there have been a number of lone wolf attacks inside the United States, such as the June 2009 shooting at an armed forces recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark.; the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting; and the failed bombing attack in New York’s Times Square in May 2010. Of course, the lone wolf phenomena is not just confined to the United States, as evidenced by such incidents as the March 2 shooting attack against U.S. military personnel in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the past, STRATFOR has examined the challenges that lone wolf assailants and small, insulated cells — what we call grassroots jihadists — present to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. We have also discussed the fact that, in many cases, grassroots defenders such as local police officers can be a more effective defense against grassroots attackers than centralized federal agencies.

But local federal agents and local police officers are not the only grassroots defenders who can be effective in detecting lone wolves and small cells before they are able to launch an attack. Many of the steps required to conduct a terrorist attack are undertaken in a manner that makes the actions visible to any outside observer. It is at these junctures in the terrorist attack cycle that people practicing good situational awareness can detect these attack steps — not only to avoid the danger themselves, but also to alert the authorities to the suspicious activity.

Detecting grassroots operatives can be difficult, but it is possible if observers focus not only on the “who” aspect of a terrorist attack but also the “how” — that is, those activities that indicate an attack is in the works. In the past we’ve talked in some detail about detecting preoperational surveillance as part of this focus on the “how.” Now, we would like to focus on detecting another element of the “how” of terrorism and discuss the ways one can detect signs of improvised-explosives preparation — in other words, how to tell if your neighbor is a bombmaker.

IEDs and Explosive Mixtures

In the 11th edition of “Sada al-Malahim,” AQAP’s Arabic-language online jihadist magazine, Nasir al-Wahayshi noted that jihadists “don’t need to conduct a big effort or spend a lot of money to manufacture 10 grams of explosive material” and that they should not “waste a long time finding the materials, because you can find all these in your mother’s kitchen, or readily at hand or in any city you are in.” Al-Wahayshi is right. It truly is not difficult for a knowledgeable individual to construct improvised explosives from a wide range of household chemicals like peroxide and acetone or chlorine and brake fluid.

It is important to recognize that when we say an explosive mixture or an explosive device is “improvised,” the improvised nature of that mixture or device does not automatically mean that the end product is going to be ineffective or amateurish. Like an improvised John Coltrane saxophone solo, some improvised explosive devices can be highly-crafted and very deadly works of art. Now, that said, even proficient bombmakers are going to conduct certain activities that will allow their intent to be discerned by an outside observer — and amateurish bombmakers are even easier to spot if one knows what to look for.

In an effort to make bombmaking activity clandestine, explosive mixtures and device components are often manufactured in rented houses, apartments or hotel rooms. We have seen this behavior in past cases, like the December 1999 incident in which the so-called “Millennium Bomber” Ahmed Ressam and an accomplice set up a crude bombmaking factory in a hotel room in Vancouver, British Colombia. More recently, Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested in September 2009, was charged with attempting to manufacture the improvised explosive mixture tri-acetone tri-peroxide (TATP) in a Denver hotel room. In September 2010, a suspected lone wolf assailant in Copenhagen, accidentally detonated an explosive device he was constructing in a hotel. Danish authorities believe the device was intended for an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which was targeted because of its involvement in publishing the controversial cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed.

Similar to clandestine methamphetamine labs (which are also frequently set up in rental properties or hotel rooms), makeshift bombmaking operations frequently utilize volatile substances that are used in everyday life. Chemicals such as acetone, a common nail polish remover, and peroxide, commonly used in bleaching hair, can be found in most grocery, beauty, drug and convenience stores. Fertilizers, the main component of the bombs used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center attack, can be found in large volumes on farms or in farm supply stores in rural communities.

However, the quantities of these chemicals required to manufacture explosives is far in excess of that required to remove nail polish or bleach hair. Because of this, hotel staff, landlords and neighbors can fairly easily notice signs that someone in their midst is operating a makeshift bombmaking laboratory. They should be suspicious, for example, if a new tenant moves several bags of fertilizer into an apartment in the middle of a city, or if a person brings in gallons of acetone, peroxide or sulfuric or nitric acid. Furthermore, in addition to chemicals, bombmakers also utilize laboratory implements such as beakers, scales, protective gloves and masks — things not normally found in a hotel room or residence.

Additionally, although electronic devices such as cell phones or wristwatches may not seem unusual in the context of a hotel room or apartment, signs that such devices have been disassembled or modified should raise a red flag, as these devices are commonly used as initiators for improvised explosive devices. There are also certain items that are less commonly used in household applications but that are frequently used in bombmaking, things like nitric or sulfuric acid, metal powders such as aluminum, magnesium and ferric oxide, and large quantities of sodium carbonate — commonly purchased in 25-pound bags. Large containers of methyl alcohol, used to stabilize nitroglycerine, is another item that is unusual in a residential or hotel setting and that is a likely signal that a bombmaker is present.

Fumes from the chemical reactions are another telltale sign of bombmaking activity. Depending on the size of the batch being concocted, the noxious fumes from an improvised explosive mixture can bleach walls and curtains and, as was the case for the July 2005 London attackers, even the bombmakers’ hair. The fumes can even waft outside of the lab and be detected by neighbors in the vicinity. Spatter from the mixing of ingredients like nitric acid leaves distinctive marks, which are another way for hotel staff or landlords to recognize that something is amiss. Additionally, rented properties used for such activity rarely look as if they are lived in. They frequently lack furniture and have makeshift window coverings instead of drapes. Properties where bomb laboratories are found also usually have no mail delivery, sit for long periods without being occupied and are occupied by people who come and go erratically at odd hours and are often seen carrying strange things such as containers of chemicals.

The perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing manufactured the components for the truck bomb used in that attack in a rented apartment in Jersey City, N.J. The process of cooking the nitroglycerine used in the booster charges and the urea nitrate used in the main explosive charge created such strong chemical fumes that some of the paint on the walls was changed from white to blue and metal doorknobs and hinges inside of the apartment were visibly corroded. The bombmakers also flushed some of the excess chemicals down the toilet, spilling some of them on the bathroom floor and leaving acidic burn marks. The conspirators also spilled chemicals on the floor in other places, on the walls of the apartment, on their clothing and on other items, leaving plenty of trace evidence for investigators to find after the attack.

Given the caustic nature of the ingredients used to make homemade explosive mixtures — chemicals that can burn floors and corrode metal — and the very touchy chemical reactions required to make things like nitroglycerin and TATP, making homemade explosives can be one of the most dangerous aspects of planning an attack. Indeed, Hamas militants refer to TATP as “the Mother of Satan” because of its volatility and propensity to either severely burn or kill bombmakers if they lose control of the chemical reaction required to manufacture it.

In January 1995, an apartment in Manila, Philippines, caught fire when the bombmaker in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, Abdel Basit (aka Ramzi Yousef), lost control of the reaction in a batch of TATP he was brewing for his planned attack against a number of U.S. airliners flying over the Pacific Ocean — an operation he had nicknamed Bojinka. Because of the fire, authorities were able to arrest two of Basit’s co-conspirators and unravel Bojinka and several other attack plots against targets like Pope John Paul II and U.S. President Bill Clinton. Basit himself fled to Pakistan, where he was apprehended a short time later. This case serves to highlight the dangers presented by these labs to people in the vicinity — especially in a hotel or apartment building.

Another form of behavior that provides an opportunity to spot a bombmaker is testing. A professional bombmaker will try out his improvised mixtures and components, like improvised blasting caps, to ensure that they are functioning properly and that the completed device will therefore be viable. Such testing will involve burning or detonating small quantities of the explosive mixture, or actually exploding the blasting cap. The testing of small components may happen in a backyard, but the testing of larger quantities will often be done at a more remote place. Therefore, any signs of explosions in remote places like parks and national forests should be immediately reported to authorities.

Obviously, not every container of nitric acid spotted or small explosion heard will be absolute confirmation of bombmaking activity, but reporting such incidents to the authorities will give them an opportunity to investigate and determine whether the incidents are indeed innocuous. In an era when the threat of attack comes from increasingly diffuse sources, a good defense requires more eyes and ears than the authorities possess. As the New York Police Department has so aptly said, if you see something, say something.

Give us your thoughts on this report

Reprinting or republication of this report on websites is authorized by prominently displaying the following sentence, including the hyperlink to STRATFOR, at the beginning or end of the report.

"How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker is republished with permission of STRATFOR."

Read more: How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker | STRATFOR

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

U.S. lists Montreal mosque as al-Qaeda 'recruiting' place
26/04/2011 9:22:52 AM

CBC News
 
LINK



The Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque in Montreal was among nine houses of prayer or Islamic institutes worldwide considered by the U.S. military to be places where "known al-Qaeda members were recruited, facilitated or trained," according to leaked classified American intelligence documents.

According to the Pentagon's Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants, among documents from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, posted by the New York Times on Sunday, the other mosques or Islamic centres included:

- Abu Bakr Islamic University in Karachi, Pakistan.

- Makki Mosque, also in Karachi.

- Al Khair Mosque in Sanaa, Yemen.

- Dimaj Institute in Sadah, Yemen.

- Finsbury Park Mosque and Four Feathers Youth Club in the United Kingdom.

- Laennec Mosque in Lyon, France.

- Islamic Cultural Institute in Milan, Italy.

- Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Matrix of Threat documents were designed in the early days of the Guantanamo detention centre to guide military intelligence interrogators and analysts there as they tried to assess what detainees might have done in the past and what risk they might pose in the future, the Times said.

Several men who passed through the Montreal mosque in the late 1990s ended up detained outside of Canada, including in Guantanamo Bay, after the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, the Globe and Mail reported Monday.

The most significant figure was Mohamedou Ould Salahi, an electrical engineer from Mauritania who, according to another leaked classified document, served as an imam at the Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque in Montreal for about a month.

A call to the mosque wasn't immediately returned on Monday evening.

According to the classified memo prepared by the U.S. Department of Defence in March 2008 and published Monday by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Salahi was an admitted al-Qaeda member with family ties to a senior member of the organization.

The U.S. intelligence document alleges Salahi, 40, was a leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Duisburg, Germany, and later the leader of the Montreal-based al-Qaeda cell that was responsible for the foiled millennium bombing plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport and possibly other U.S.-based targets.

The document also alleges that Salahi recruited three of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack highjackers and facilitated their training.

The memo concluded he should continue to be detained at Guantanamo because he is an admitted member of al-Qaeda who swore bayat (allegiance) to Osama bin Laden, trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, served as a key member of the organization's network in Europe and was prepared to be a martyr.

It says Salahi bounced around Europe in the 1990s, living and working in Germany, alleging his main responsibility was recruitment for al-Qaeda. He relocated along with his wife and family to Canada in 1999 when he had trouble extending his visa in Germany.

"Detainee obtained an immigrant landing visa from the Canadian government and on 26 November 1999, travelled to Montreal, CA, where he stayed with [Hosni] Mohsen, and made plans to study electrical engineering at the Polytechnic [de] Montreal.? While in Montreal, detainee became the imam at the al-Sunnah Mosque during the month of Ramadan, replacing the previous imam, who left for hajj (pilgrimage) to Saudi Arabia," the document stated.

In late December 1999, the Mounties questioned Salahi about Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian Montrealer who was arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border while trying to enter the U.S. with explosives, and became known as the "Millennium Bomber." It was alleged the two met sometime between Salahi's arrival in Canada and Ressam's arrest.

Salahi was assessed by the U.S. military to be "high" risk, posing a threat to the United States, its interests and allies if released without adequate rehabilitation - an assessment given to most of the 172 remaining Guantanamo detainees.

The U.S. intelligence documents also showed that about one-third of the 600 prisoners already transferred to the custody of other nations were also declared "high risk" before their transfers, the New York Times reported

They also make little mention of the harsh interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo, methods such as sleep deprivation and exposure to cold temperatures that drew criticism from around the world, the newspaper reported.

Salahi disputes allegations, alleging abuse

Salahi has acknowledged joining the mujahedeen in its fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

But he says he had no role in the millennium bomb plot and denies any association with al-Qaeda, the Taliban or their associates since 1992.

Salahi has tried unsuccessfully to obtain Canadian intelligence documents from the interviews the RCMP conducted with him in 2000, which he claims could corroborate his claim of abuse at the hands of his American captors.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear his case while the Federal Court of Canada ruled last year that he is not entitled to the information because he is neither a Canadian citizen nor subject to legal proceedings in Canada.

At the end of January 2000, Salahi went to visit his ailing mother in Mauritania, where he was detained on several occasions before authorities there turned him over to Jordanian authorities.

Eventually he was handed over to the U.S. military and later transferred in August 2002 to Guantanamo, where he continues to be held.

With files from The Canadian Press

[57Chevy]

       From eCanadaNow and Shared in accordance with provisions provided in The Copyright Act

Apr 27th, 2011
WikiLeaks: Montreal Mosque Was Al Qaeda Recruitment Center
http://www.ecanadanow.com/canada/2011/04/27/wikileaks-montreal-mosque-was-al-qaeda-recruitment-center/

The latest cache of WikiLeaks classified documents released on Sunday revealed that US military leaders considered a mosque in Montreal to be one of the top nine al Qaeda recruitment centers around the world.

The leaked 17-page document, entitled “JTF-GTMO Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants,” was written in 2008 by the Defense Department to help intelligence officers assess immediate terrorist threats.

The former imam of the mosque, Mohamedou Ould Salahi, was accused of being the leader of al Qaeda cells in Germany and then in Canada. He has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for seven years, and has been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to get the Canadian Supreme Court to hear his accusations of abuse at the hands of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2000.

The Mauritanian-born Salahi is also reported to have helped make travel and training arrangements for some of the September 11 bombers and to have met with Algerian Ahmed Ressam, the so-called “Millennium Bomber” who was arrested at the US-Canadian border and convicted of planning to blow up the Los Angeles International Airport in late December 1999.

The Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah mosque was the only al Qaeda recruitment and training site listed in North America. The others are located in Britain, France, Italy, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
                          _______________________________
from Wikipedia:
Mohamedou Ould Salahi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamedou_Ould_Slahi
---
He trained in an al Qaeda camp and swore bayat to al Qaeda in March 1991. Slahi returned to Germany soon after and then traveled to Afghanistan again for three months in early 1992. Slahi alleges that he "severed all ties with ... al-Qaeda" at that time. The U.S. government maintains that Slahi "recruited for al-Qaeda and provided it with other support" since then
---
                       _________________________
from last year
NEW YORK, Apr 12, 2010
Judge Orders Man Once Labeled "Highest-Value Detainee" Released From Gitmo
http://www.alternet.org/rights/146425/judge_orders_man_once_labeled_%22highest-value_detainee%22_released_from_gitmo/

U.S. federal court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo prisoner once described as the "highest-value detainee at the facility" -- and set off a firestorm of protest from Republican lawmakers.
---

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

WORLD NEWS

Canadian's terror trial to hear closing arguments

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 | 2:38 PM
 Sympatico.ca News

LINK

A U.S. court was set to hear closing arguments on Tuesday in the trial of a Canadian citizen accused in the United States of playing a crucial role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The presentations come after U.S. prosecutors presented extensive wiretap and surveillance evidence they allege connects Tahawwur Rana to both the Mumbai massacre, as well as an unexecuted plot to attack a Danish newspaper.

Rana, a 50-year old Pakistani-born businessman from Ottawa, has been on trial in a Chicago courtroom for three weeks on several counts of providing material support for terrorism.

Rana's lead attorney Charles Smith, a leading human rights lawyer, has argued the prosecution's case rests entirely on one witness - Rana's boyhood friend, Daood Sayed Gilani, who legally changed his name to David Headley.

Defence attorneys have tried to paint Headley as an untrustworthy witness and focused questioning on how Headley initially lied to the FBI as he pretended to co-operate, lied to a judge and even lied to his own family.

"All Mr. Smith has to do though of course is plant reasonable doubt in one juror's mind," the CBC's Bill Gillespie reported Tuesday from outside the courthouse.

But Gillespie also noted that since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. federal prosecutors "have a 90 per cent success rate in getting convictions in terrorism cases."

On Monday, prosecutors played short video clips of statements from Rana, who had agreed to speak with FBI investigators for nearly six hours after his arrest.

Rana could be heard in the clips recounting names and affiliations of others charged in the case, including members of the Pakistani intelligence agency known as ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed in the Mumbai attack.

But it was unclear from the statements whether Rana knew of the Mumbai plot ahead of time.

Rana emigrated from Pakistan to Canada in 1997, staying just long enough to become a Canadian citizen before moving to Chicago to open a branch of his successful immigration consulting business.

In Chicago, Rana renewed his friendship with Headley, who has confessed to being a Lashkar-e-Taiba member after agreeing to a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty and extradition to India or Denmark.

Headley testified at the trial he conducted detailed surveillance on the Mumbai target while posing as a representative of Rana's company - and that Rana was in on the plot that killed more than 160 people, including two Canadians.

Headley has also testified he learned surveillance and intelligence techniques at training camps run by ISI agents and saw Pakistani army officers giving Lashkar fighters weapons training.

Rana did not testify in his defence.

With files from Bill Gillespie and The Associated Press

[Thucydides]

Worth looking into. This may be the real reason Anthony Weiner was under such pressure to resign:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/revealed-weiners-in-laws-secret-muslim-brotherhood-connections/?print=1

Revealed: Weiner’s In-Laws’ Secret Muslim Brotherhood Connections
Posted By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack On June 16, 2011 @ 11:14 am In Homeland Security,Opinion,Politics,US News | 60 Comments

Was Huma Abedin — wife of Anthony Weiner and deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton — unaware that her mother was reported as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Did Western media miss what has been revealed in several Arab newspapers and left secret in American government circles?

Al-Liwa Al-Arabi [1] (translated here [2]) claims to have leaked an extensive list, partially published by Al-Jazeera [3] and several other major Arab newspapers, that includes Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, in the Brotherhood’s secret women’s division — known as the Muslim Sisterhood or International Women’s Organization (IWO).

Information about the IWO can readily be found at the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website [4]. An excerpt from its goal, translated from the Arabic, states:

The Women Organization’s goal, in accordance with the Muslim Brotherhood rules, is to gain and acquire a unified global perception in every nation in the world regarding the position of women, and the necessity of advocacy work at all levels in accordance with the message of the Brotherhood, as written in Women in Muslim Society, and the rearing of women throughout the different stages of life [emphasis added].

The Egyptian paper Al-Dostor revealed that the Sisterhood includes 63 international members across 16 different countries — a claim confirmed by the Arab Center for Studies, headed by researcher Abdul Rahim Ali. [5]

Neither Huma nor any major Western media outlets even mention this bit of common knowledge in the Arab world.

But there is more. Also confirmed [6] by Arab sources is that Huma Abedin has a brother who works at Oxford University named Hassan Abedin. Oxford, which has long been infiltrated by Islamists who founded the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies [6] (OCIS), has Huma’s brother listed as a fellow [7] and partner with a number of Muslim Brotherhood members [8] on the Board — including al-Qaeda associate Omar Naseef [9] and the notorious Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi [10]. Both have been listed as OCIS trustees. [11] Naseef continues to serve as Board chairman. [12]

In 2009, Qaradawi’s role within Oxford [13] and the Muslim Brotherhood was championed [14] by the notorious Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi of Al-Nahda – a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate now active in Tunisia. OCIS has even presented an award [15] for great scholarly achievement to Brotherhood member Shaykh Abd Al-Fattah Abu Gudda, whose personal history goes back to the Brotherhood’s founder, Hasan al-Banna.

Even the Sunday Times acknowledges [16] that the cradle [17] of Islamic jihad — Al-Azhar University — actively attempts to establish links with OCIS, where Huma’s brother serves.

Was Huma unaware [18] of all this as she accompanied [19] Hillary Clinton to the Dar El-Hekma [20] women’s college in Saudi Arabia? Huma’s mother is co-founder and vice dean at the college and an active missionary on issues regarding Muslim women.

Another member listed as belonging to the Sisterhood mentioned by Al-Jazeera [3] is Suheir Qureshi. Alongside Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was brought in due to her connection with Huma, Qureshi spoke on issues of women in Muslim society. An Arabic news report [21] of what happened during [22] Hillary’s visit [19] stated that:

Suheir Qureshi spoke of how elated she was of Hillary’s historic visit…. Saleha Abedin spoke after Suheir Qureshi and beamed in the presence of Secretary Clinton. Saleha’s speech preceded the former first lady’s. Then Hillary stood. She donned a broad smile as she approached the podium….Clinton started with a strong word and she spent a long time complimenting Dr. Saleha Abedin regarding her daughter. Hillary explained that Huma holds an important and sensitive position in her office. She ended her speech by speaking of Saleha Abedin’s daughter (Huma), that a person must be happy if mentioned in a positive light but there is no happiness that equals the compliment given to children in front of a parent [emphasis added].

It is sacrilege in Islam for Huma’s mother to accept the reality that her daughter is married to a Jew. Yet neither Saleha nor Huma’s brother Hassan denounces her marriage to Weiner, especially when it was considered null and void [23] by some of the highest authorities [24] on Islamic Sharia rulings.

Huma’s brother has been key in furthering the Islamic agenda [25] and has worked with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on a program of “spreading Islam to the west.” A detailed report [9] from 2007 shows that Naseef was identified as the likely force behind the Abedin family’s departure from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, circa 1977 – the same year that the Muslim Sisterhood was established.

In 2008, Dr. Mumen Muhammad wrote about [26] why Huma vowed to stay with Hillary even if the latter were to lose the presidential nomination to Obama:

Abedin assures in press releases of her continuance on the path with Hillary Clinton, even if Clinton failed as a candidate. The candidate’s aides and other influential figures in the Democratic Party assure that they do not disregard Abedin running for election or taking her position in the political arena with the help in successive political administrations of the Clinton family itself [emphasis added].

Hillary Clinton signed a document [27] less than one month prior to her trip to Saudi Arabia with Huma that lifted the ban [28] on Tariq Ramadan, allowing him entry into the United States. (Ramadan is the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna [29], and has ties to Islamic terrorist groups.) The Clinton family played a key role in promoting Fethullah Gülen, the extremely powerful Turkish imam and notorious Islamist conspirator, as he fled Turkey for the United States after attempting to overthrow Turkey’s secular government. (He was indicted [30] on this charge in 2000.) In 2008, the former president heaped praise [31] on Gülen, giving him a clean slate. Gülen has been given refuge and has even had sermons aired on Turkish television during which he explained to his followers how to best seize power [32] from the Turkish government:

You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers… until the conditions are ripe….Until that time, any step taken would be too early — like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside [emphasis added].

Gülen expressed this sentiment in another sermon [33] as well:

The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web; and we teach those who do [emphasis added].

Serving with Huma’s brother as an Oxford Centre trustee [11] is Abdullah Gül [34], Turkey’s president himself. He considers himself a follower of Fethullah Gülen, according to Wikileaks. [35]

Huma Abedin’s charm, family connections, and access to highly sensitive state secrets — as admitted by Hillary herself — can have significant consequences. What absolutely must be known is if this circle of public servants was made aware of all these ties to potential enemies of the state.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/revealed-weiners-in-laws-secret-muslim-brotherhood-connections/

URLs in this post:

[1] Al-Liwa Al-Arabi: http://hobaheba.blogspot.com/

[2] translated here: http://www.shoebat.com/blog/archives/1202

[3] Al-Jazeera: http://www.aljazeera.net/Mob/Templates/Postings/NewsDetailedPage.aspx?GUID=666261C4-31C1-4DE3-86B5-FD0E84ACBE28

[4] official website: http://www.ikhwanhistory.org/index.php?title=%5F%5F%5F%5F%5F_%5F%5F%5F%5F%5F%5F_%28%5F%5F%5F%5F%5F%5F%29&diff=87650&oldid=87648

[5] Abdul Rahim Ali.: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=23185

[6] confirmed: http://alqumaa.net/vb//showthread.php?t=45524

[7] fellow: http://www.oxcis.ac.uk/fellows.html

[8] members: http://www.almktaba.com/book/picbook/book8/p16.html

[9] Omar Naseef: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1924323/posts

[10] Yusuf Qaradawi: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=822

[11] trustees.: http://globalmbreport.com/?p=2641

[12] Board chairman.: http://www.charityperformance.com/charity-details.php?id=12448

[13] within Oxford: http://ikhwanmisr.net/article.php?id=21082

[14] championed: http://www.ghannoushi.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=298:qaradawi

[15] an award: http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?10813-Shaykh-Abd-Al-Fattah-Abu-Gudda

[16] acknowledges: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7099811.ece

[17] the cradle: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/05/sheikh-al-azhar-urges-jihad-against-terrorists.html

[18] unaware: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/huma-abedin-sucked-into-weiner-scandal/803127/

[19] accompanied: http://globalmbreport.org/?p=2242

[20] Dar El-Hekma: https://sisweb.daralhekma.edu.sa:8251/portal/page?_pageid=374,146513&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

[21] news report: http://www.mnfaa.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8889

[22] during: http://secretaryclinton.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/hillary-clinton-in-saudi-arabia/

[23] null and void: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=7&ID=11439&CATE=1436

[24] highest authorities: http://www.farfesh.com/Display.asp?catID=119&mainCatID=117&sID=82834

[25] Islamic agenda: http://www.alriyadh.com/2006/02/22/article132831.html

[26] wrote about: http://www.syria-aleppo.com/news/1778.html

[27] signed a document: http://www.tariqramadan.com/US-Government-Lifts-Ban-on-Tariq.html

[28] lifted the ban: http://globalmbreport.org/?p=1956

[29] Hasan al-Banna: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1368

[30] indicted: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/sep/01/1

[31] heaped praise: http://www.youtube.com/user/turkishcenter

[32] seize power: http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition

[33] another sermon: http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition#_ftnref49

[34] Abdullah Gül: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6595511.stm

[35] Wikileaks.: http://leaksfree.com/2009/12/gulen-turkeys-invisible-man-casts-long-shadow/

[E.R. Campbell]

This, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, is why o0ur security services need to remain vigilant in both directions - in and out:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/21/quebec-woman-charged-with-trying-to-export-assault-rifle-parts-to-lebanon/

Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon

National Post Staff

Oct 21, 2011

By Stewart Bell and Graeme Hamilton

MONTREAL — Young and striking in her black hijab, Mouna Diab was once active in a Quebec youth group that fought discrimination against Muslims by challenging the stereotypes that too often associate them with violence and terror.


But the outspoken 26-year-old activist had little to say this week after appearing in a Montreal courtroom to face a charge alleging she had violated a United Nations Security Council arms embargo that prohibits the export of weapons to Lebanon.

“I really have no comment to make,” she said. At the bungalow where she lives in suburban Laval, friends and family likewise declined to talk about the case. “She’s finding the whole ordeal very difficult,” her lawyer, Richard Prihoda, said.

Police said Ms. Diab was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on May 19 as she was departing for Beirut. In her luggage, investigators allegedly found parts of AR-15 assault rifles. Other parts were allegedly shipped separately.

Police said the components could have been assembled into working firearms. “If you put all the pieces together you could build or make two weapons with it,” said Cpl. Luc Thibault, a spokesman at the RCMP’s “C” Division in Montreal.

She pleaded not guilty on Thursday and returns to court Nov. 10. She is the only person charged so far in relation to the alleged scheme, which comes as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is struggling to staunch the flow of illicit arms into an unstable Lebanon.


http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/na1022-ar15.jpg?w=620&h=465

The RCMP investigation was opened eight months ago by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Montreal, a unit set up following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and made up of Mounties, Quebec police and Montreal police officers.

“This investigation launched in February 2011,” Cpl. Thibault said. “It targeted a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin who exported parts of assault weapons, which they call an AR-15.” He added, “Any criminal act that poses a potential threat to national security is dealt with very seriously by all law enforcement agencies including our national security enforcement team.”

Criminal charges against alleged violators of UN sanctions are rare in Canada, but not unprecedented. Last year, Mahmoud Yadegari of Toronto was sentenced to three years for attempting to ship nuclear-related items to Iran despite a UN embargo.

The charges against Ms. Diab do not specify any intended recipient of the gun parts, and police would not elaborate. Nor is it apparent why anyone would take such a risk when Iran and Syria already keep their Lebanese allies armed to the teeth.

“Lebanon itself is awash in weapons so this strikes me as very fishy to begin with,” said Frederic Wehrey, a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. “If they were to go that route, smuggling, it would be for some sort of high-end capability. And even then, to my knowledge, I’ve never heard of this.”

He said one possibility was that a Lebanese group might be trying new methods to acquire firearms, fearing that Syria’s days as a transshipment route for Iranian weapons could soon end if unrest topples President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

“Are they trying to set up redundant networks as insurance against what’s happening in Syria?” the Lebanon expert said. “If they do this with enough people, if they have enough people trying to do onesies and twosies, then maybe they calculate that enough will get through, but it just strikes me as so much effort.”

The arrest of Ms. Diab has drawn renewed attention to her activism. The website of the Montreal-based association des jeunes libanais musulmans, or Association of Young Lebanese Muslims, listed her as vice-president in 2007.

At the time, the website was linked to the sites of several anti-Western Shiite clerics, including Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and the Iranian hardliner Mesbah Yazdi, who claims the West is trying to “wipe out” Muslim culture.

It also linked to the late Lebanese cleric Mohammad Fadlallah’s website, which says it is “obligatory to wage war” against Israel and that making peace with Israelis is “not permissible.” Muslims in “occupied land” must provide “material or moral support” to fighters, the cleric’s website adds.

The association was one of many that signed a statement in August 2006 denouncing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s position on the deadly war that had erupted when Hezbollah attacked an Israel military convoy across Lebanon’s southern border.

The following February, Ms. Diab was part of a delegation that traveled to the Quebec town of Hérouxville to try to counter violent stereotypes of Muslims. The town had passed a code of conduct directed at immigrants that, among other things, banned stoning, female genital mutilation and head coverings. Ms. Diab told La Presse at the time that she found the Hérouxville code hurtful.

Later that year, she was quoted in a Le Devoir article about the one-year anniversary of the month-long Hezbollah-Israel war. In the article, she told about speaking to a cousin in Lebanon who was hiding from Israeli planes that were attacking near the village.

“It is difficult to present yourself differently when you are being attacked and the only ones defending you are members of Hezbollah. So you identify with Hezbollah, it’s normal,” she was quoted as saying.

Canada calls Hezbollah “one of the most technically capable terrorist groups in the world.” Providing support to Hezbollah was outlawed by Ottawa under the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2002. Ms. Diab has not been charged with any terrorism offences.

In the aftermath of the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that called for Hezbollah to be disarmed and disbanded. To that end, member nations were ordered to halt all transfers of arms, ammunition and “spare parts” to Lebanon, except with the approval of the Lebanese government. Canada adopted the sanctions in 2007.

Ms. Diab is accused of violating Section 3 of the Canadian Regulations Implementing the United Nations Resolution on Lebanon, which reads: “No person in Canada and no Canadian outside Canada shall knowingly export, sell, supply or ship, directly or indirectly, arms and related material, wherever situated, to any person in Lebanon.”

Ali Chibli, a member of the executive committee at the Lebanese Islamic Centre in Montreal, where Ms. Diab organized occasional events when she was involved in the youth association, said the centre never condones breaking the law.

“Anything that is against the Canadian law, we are against it,” he said. “The law is for everyone, so everybody has to respect it. This is our mandate. It is what we tell people, even the imam in his speeches.”

He said he was puzzled when he learned of the charge against Ms. Diab. “In Lebanon, they don’t need people to ship them [gun] parts from here. . . . In Lebanon, it’s easy to get weapons. It’s easy to get rifles. It’s easy to get whatever you want.”

National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com

Many Lebanese and Syrians have settled in Montreal and have made common cause with domestic anti-Israel groups as well as pursuing their own "old country" political agendas.

[GAP]

Partner of alleged Canadian terrorist grapples with competing realities
JOSH WINGROVE EDMONTON— From Monday's Globe and Mail Sunday, Feb. 05, 2012
Article Link
 
When the Mounties came knocking one frigid January day in Edmonton, Aisha Rain thought it was a joke. So did her common-law husband. “Is this Candid Camera?” she recalls him asking.

It wasn’t, and her life has never been the same. Police had come that day, one year ago, to arrest her partner. “I remember thinking, like, this can’t be happening,” Ms. Rain says.

At issue was a clash between portraits of two men, worlds apart.

One was Sayfildin (Sayf) Tahir Sharif, 39, the contractor who Ms. Rain, a first nations woman, quickly fell in love with after they met in the summer of 2009. She converted to Islam to be with the man, an Iraqi Kurd who was granted Canadian citizenship in 2005. He became a father figure to her four children. They cooked, lived and prayed together in an Edmonton apartment.

The picket-fence image is at odds with the portrait of Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, a man the U.S. Department of Justice alleges is a terrorist. The Justice Department alleges that a few months before meeting Ms. Rain, Mr. Sharif helped co-ordinate a suicide bombing attack in Iraq that killed five American soldiers; that he pledged his support for a war on America “1,000,000 per cent;” that he sent terrorists money.

It’s that man, they say, who has been posing under the alias of “Sayf” – Arabic for “sword.”
More on link
 

[Nemo888]

I'm thinking the Muslim terrorists are winding down and domestic terrorists are just getting started. I think politically motivated domestic born terrorists will be our bread and butter in the future. With the destruction of manufacturing the majority of the working class are becoming surplus. In only the last ten years American manufacturing has increased production by 30% but US jobs in manufacturing have dropped by over 30%. With automated factories competing against de facto slave labor in Asia and Africa the majority of our average Joe's will have no useful work. The combined erosion of useful labour and buying power for average Americans will marginalize a huge percentage of the population. The working class at one time was 70% of our capitalist economy. They made everything and bought everything. They matter less and less each year. Average US salary is 26k per year now and real buying power is dropping steadily. This will probably cause some extreme unrest in areas of severe economic hardship. Which will bring in tougher crackdowns on communities like Oakland. Which will lead to radicalization of certain susceptible members of that community. At least we already have all the infrastructure in place to look after this problem. I don't think it was a waste of money in the end.

[Nemo888]

This, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, is why o0ur security services need to remain vigilant in both directions - in and out:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/21/quebec-woman-charged-with-trying-to-export-assault-rifle-parts-to-lebanon/

Many Lebanese and Syrians have settled in Montreal and have made common cause with domestic anti-Israel groups as well as pursuing their own "old country" political agendas.

 Soon borders will not be as big a problem as the internet. I was at The Pirate Bay torrent site(purely for educational purposes) and was looking at the new section for physical object 3D printing. You can download a model of a 1970 Chevelle hotrod for instance.  Then I went to Shapeways.com to check out how much 3d printing cost. Then I remembered your story on weapon parts. If they get the tolerances a little tighter on metal printing we will be able to print things like full auto bolts for our legal AR's and longer mags from torrents we download off the internet. If some Black Bloc anarchists get their hands on a good 3d printer and a usb stick of weapon models they could get into some serious mischief.

This is a picture of a torrent downloaded off the internet and printed locally. You get the idea.


P.S. No sign of Blender(3D modelling program) files on the darknet yet. But I am sure there are some networks working on it already.  The people who keep titles like "The Terrorist's Handbook: A practical guide to explosives and other things of interests to terrorists" circulating around the deep web will be on to this in no time.

[Foxhound]

Then I went to Shapeways.com to check out how much 3d printing cost.

If some Black Bloc anarchists get their hands on a good 3d printer and a usb stick of weapon models they could get into some serious mischief.

So, how much is one of these printers that can print in 3-D with moly-steel gonna cost me?

[wildman0101]

Twistedcable,
Your so far outa your league you dont even know how to bat.
Noticed your profile. No Military exsperience. Nothing. PVT
response please candy a##.
Scoty B

[jollyjacktar]

Soon borders will not be as big a problem as the internet. I was at The Pirate Bay torrent site(purely for educational purposes) and was looking at the new section for physical object 3D printing. You can download a model of a 1970 Chevelle hotrod for instance.  Then I went to Shapeways.com to check out how much 3d printing cost. Then I remembered your story on weapon parts. If they get the tolerances a little tighter on metal printing we will be able to print things like full auto bolts for our legal AR's and longer mags from torrents we download off the internet. If some Black Bloc anarchists get their hands on a good 3d printer and a usb stick of weapon models they could get into some serious mischief.

This is a picture of a torrent downloaded off the internet and printed locally. You get the idea.


Bloody Hell!!  I never thought of this possibility.  I'm sure you are correct in your musings.  Some shithead, somewhere is trying as we type you can bet on it.

BTW, how much did the nice TPB ship cost you to print?

P.S. No sign of Blender(3D modelling program) files on the darknet yet. But I am sure there are some networks working on it already.  The people who keep titles like "The Terrorist's Handbook: A practical guide to explosives and other things of interests to terrorists" circulating around the deep web will be on to this in no time.

[George Wallace]

WOW!  Just WOW!  Talk about people with no common sense.  Not just the Muslims who came up with this ad, but the City councilors who didn't have it taken down.   (Link in Title)

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Religious ad sparks transit fury


The Canadian Times
05 Apr 2012

TORONTO - A Muslim advertisement stating "There is no god but Allah" has started a vigourous debate amongst Toronto transit riders and sparked a review from the Toronto Transit Commission Advertising Commission Group.

After five complaints were made, a working group including Coun. Karen Stintz has decided to allow the advertisement to remain in the Kennedy subway station.

"The decision to reject or accept an ad isn't decided by whether someone takes offence to it or not," said TTC spokesperson Brad Ross. "It doesn't violate the Human Rights Code. We can't reject an ad because it espouses one view on religion."

More on link.

Religious ad on subway sparks controversy

09/04/2012 7:30:00 AM
by Nevil Hunt

An ad promoting Allah will stay in place at a Toronto subway station despite complaints from the public.
 

An ad stating "There is no god but Allah" inside a Toronto subway station has prompted at least five complaints, but it will stay right where it is.

A working group including a Toronto city councillor reviewed the ad in the Kennedy subway station and found it is in keeping with the Human Rights Code.

"We can't reject an ad because it espouses one view on religion," said a Toronto Transit Commission spokesman. "The decision to reject or accept an ad isn't decided by whether someone takes offence to it or not."

Given that the transit system is public, it makes no sense at all to allow ads that upset members of the public. If anything within the system makes users uncomfortable – the temperature, the noise or the ads on the walls – the TTC should do everything it can to fix the problem if it's not too expensive a proposition.

That means that air-conditioned bus shelter across the city would be nice but obviously would cost a fortune. Removing a poster that multiple riders find offensive costs the TTC and the taxpayer nothing.

The ad includes an offer of free Korans and Islamic books, which can't offend anyone. It includes a website and directions to a booth operated by the Islam Info Centre, which paid for the poster to be displayed in the subway station.

Disseminating information is fair game, but if the other words offend, the poster should come down.

The Toronto subway poster has drawn criticism from the Canada Family Action Coalition. The president of the coalition called it "an offensive ad to all non-Muslims," that is "saying all other faiths are illegitimate."

Religions by their nature are divisive. They set people up in different camps with their different opinions, and they also seek out new members.

And when one religious group puts on a push to convert, the other religious organizations can't help but feel threatened. In the case of the subway poster, that attempt to reach people of other faiths, or no faith, flies in the face of some people who want to protect the status quo.

Even the founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress said the ad goes too far. He said "There is no god but Allah" is a mistaken translation into English. He told a reporter that it should read, "There is no god but God."

That phrasing may well have caused less angst for people of other faiths and the Islam Info Centre should consider making that change to the poster, even if the TTC working group has allowed it to stay as is.

The transit commission is in a sticky spot because it has to try and make everyone happy. The commission must be even-handed which means there are two options: accept all ads and risk offending some riders or accept none at all.

Should the poster be removed? Would you feel the same way no matter which religion was being promoted?

More on link.

[Jim Seggie]

Maybe we should put a billboard up that states " There is no true god but Thor!" or Zeus, or whatever god you want to make up.


But for goodness sake don't put one up that espouses Christianity.....or is it just me that thinks this way?

[milnews.ca]

But for goodness sake don't put one up that espouses Christianity.....or is it just me that thinks this way?

Well, if the TTC spokesperson is to be taken at his/her word ....

"We can't reject an ad because it espouses one view on religion," said a Toronto Transit Commission spokesman. "The decision to reject or accept an ad isn't decided by whether someone takes offence to it or not."

.... one would think it wouldn't be any problem at all.

It'll be interesting to see if a church tries to do the same thing elsewhere in the TTC system - then we'll see if an ad espousing one view on religion really can go up, regardless of complaints received.

[RDJP]

Given that the transit system is public, it makes no sense at all to allow ads that upset members of the public. If anything within the system makes users uncomfortable – the temperature, the noise or the ads on the walls – the TTC should do everything it can to fix the problem if it's not too expensive a proposition.

Anything?  So if users are uncomfortable with waiting for a driver to take a bathroom break, like this past week, perhaps the TTC should remove that privilege?

How is this any different from a Christian church putting up a poster saying "Christ died for your sins." Is that saying that any other religions not based on Christ are illegitimate?

[Jim Seggie]

How is this any different from a Christian church putting up a poster saying "Christ died for your sins." Is that saying that any other religions not based on Christ are illegitimate?

The difference is that if you put up something that espouses Christianity, someone will complain vociferously and something will be done. But we are a tolerant nation, right?

[Danjanou]

Maybe we should put a billboard up that states " There is no true god but Thor!" or Zeus, or whatever god you want to make up.


But for goodness sake don't put one up that espouses Christianity.....or is it just me that thinks this way?

Done 

[Jim Seggie]

Love it! I, by the way, am a Jedi.

I just haven't been issued my light saber yet,  something about procurement....