Portents of A Nuclear Al-Qaeda

Courtesy of Washington and by permission from the author, David Ignatius, Link to the article: Here

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is paid to think about the unthinkable. As the Energy Department's director of intelligence, he's responsible for gathering information about the threat that a terrorist group will attack America with a nuclear weapon.

With his shock of white hair and piercing eyes, Mowatt-Larssen looks like a man who has seen a ghost. And when you listen to a version of the briefing he has been giving recently to President Bush and other top officials, you begin to understand why. He is convinced that al-Qaeda is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb that will leave the ultimate terrorist signature -- a mushroom cloud.

We've all had enough fear-mongering to last a lifetime. Indeed, we have become so frightened of terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, that we have begun doing the terrorists' job for them by undermining the legal framework of our democracy. And truly, I wish I could dismiss Mowatt-Larssen's analysis as the work of an overwrought former CIA officer with too many years in the trenches.

But it's worth listening to his warnings -- not because they induce more numbing paralysis but because they might stir sensible people to take actions that could detect and stop an attack. That's why his boss, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, is encouraging him to speak out. Mowatt-Larssen doesn't want to anguish later that he didn't sound the alarm in time.

Mowatt-Larssen has been gathering this evidence since a few weeks after Sept. 11, when then-CIA Director George Tenet asked him to create a new branch on weapons of mass destruction in the agency's counterterrorism center. He helped Tenet prepare the chapter on al-Qaeda's nuclear efforts that appears in Tenet's memoir, " At the Center of the Storm." Now that the uproar over Tenet's mistaken "slam dunk" assessment of the Iraqi threat has died down, it's worth rereading this account. It provides a chilling, public record of al-Qaeda's nuclear ambitions.

Mowatt-Larssen argues that for nearly a decade before Sept. 11, al-Qaeda was seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction. As early as 1993, Osama bin Laden offered $1.5 million to buy uranium for a nuclear device, according to testimony presented in federal court in February 2001. When the al-Qaeda leader was asked in 1998 if he had nuclear or chemical weapons, he responded: "Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so."

Even as al-Qaeda was preparing to fly its airplane bombs into buildings, the group was also trying to acquire nuclear and biological capabilities. In August 2001, bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, met around a campfire with Pakistani scientists from a group called Umma Tameer-E-Nau to discuss how al-Qaeda could build a nuclear device. Al-Qaeda also had an aggressive anthrax program that was discovered in December 2001 after bin Laden was driven from his haven in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda proclaimed a religious rationale to justify the WMD attacks it was planning. In June 2002, a Kuwaiti-born cleric named Suleiman Abu Ghaith posted a statement on the Internet saying that "al-Qaeda has the right to kill 4 million Americans" in retaliation for U.S. attacks against Muslims. And in May 2003, at the same time Saudi operatives of al-Qaeda were trying to buy three Russian nuclear bombs, a cleric named Nasir al-Fahd issued a fatwa titled "A Treatise on the Legal Status of Using Weapons of Mass Destruction Against Infidels." Interrogations of al-Qaeda operatives confirmed that the planning was serious. Al-Qaeda didn't yet have the materials for a WMD attack, but it wanted them.

Most chilling of all was Zawahiri's decision in March 2003 to cancel a cyanide attack in the New York subway system. He told the plotters to stand down because "we have something better in mind." What did that mean? More than four years later, we still don't know.

After 2004, the WMD trail went cold, according to Mowatt-Larssen. Many intelligence analysts have concluded that al-Qaeda doesn't have nuclear capability today. Mowatt-Larssen argues that a more honest answer is: We don't know.

So what to do about this spectral danger? The first requirement, says Mowatt-Larssen, is to try to visualize it. What would it take for al-Qaeda to build a bomb? How would it assemble the pieces? How would the United States and its allies deploy their intelligence assets so that they could detect a plot before it was carried out? How would we reinvent intelligence itself to avert this ultimate catastrophe?

A terrorist nuclear attack, as Tenet wrote in his book, would change history. If we can see how this story might end, perhaps we can deflect the arrow before it hits its target.

The writer is co-host of PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues. His e-mail address is davidignatius@washpost.com.

washingtonpost.com readers have posted over 187 comments about this item. View All Comments »

Technorati tags: george tenet, cia, iran, nuclear weapons, al qaeda, David Ignatius, Mowatt-Larssen, Bush, Energy Department, DOE, Osama bin Laden, wmd, new york subway, Nasir al-Fahd, fatwa, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Pakistani scientist, us intelligence, Iran, Iraq, global war on terror, bin laden, Umma Tameer-E-Nau

.

October 12 - Final Response Forthcoming From Iran’s Ahmadinejad?

Courtesy of National Terror Alert Center:

October 12 - Final Response Forthcoming From Iran’s Ahmadinejad?

October 11, 2007

Tomorrow, October 12, 2007 is the last Friday of Ramadan and the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has issued a statement, vowing to liberate “all of Palestine” with some sort of “final response” to Iran’s enemies.

Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the message would be sent to coincide with Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan.

On September 19th the following article appeared in the Islamic Republic News Agency

Supporters of the Zionist regime will receive their response during the world Quds Day’s rallies, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said Wednesday.
The spokesman made the remarks during his weekly press conference while commenting on the current visit to the occupied Palestine of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Quds Day is held each year on the last Friday of Muslims fasting month of Ramadan after it was nominated by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as a day to voice the protest of the Islamic Ummah against the Zionists.
The day falls on October 12 this year.
“The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime (the Zionist regime) which is now at its weakest political and social position,” Elham said.
He warned that Washington’s insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result “but further political disgrace” for itself. Referring to the approaching World Quds Day, the spokesman stressed, “Supporters of the Zionist regime will definitely receive the final response for their support on that day.”
Source http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/men...9796134418.htm

So what does this mean?
No one really knows. Ahmadinejad has made these types of threats before, most recently leading up to an August 22nd date, in which he indicated by several references that he would be giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This threat was surrounded with a great deal of talk of the return of the 12th Imam.

The 12th Imam
See Pamela’s article at Atlas Shrugs for more on this.

Is Ahmadinejad once again “crying wolf”, or in this case “nukes”. No one really knows for sure, but much has changed in the middle east since August. Tensions have increased along with and Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric and many are beginning to believe some type of confrontation is inevitable.

All of this needs to be viewed within the same context as the Iranian radicals. Ahmadinejad and those in Iran who are aligned with him in his beliefs, believe they are leading Iran into a new “Persian Empire” and that a religious war against Israel and the U.S. will herald the arrival of the Muslim “messiah” known as the “Mahdi”.

Because of their prophetic perspective and their belief that they must prepare the way for the “Mahdi,” many would not be surprised if the Iranians attempt to begin this effort to bring on the Mahdi by launching a military action against the United States and/or Israel in the very near future. Is October 12th, the date they have selected? We will apparently know the answer soon.

A few interesting points about this date in history.
October 12th, 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia (modern day Iran) conquers Babylon (modern day Iraq). Very significant date in history for Iran.

October 12th, 1492 - Christopher Columbus discovers America.

October 12th, 2000 - The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members.

October 12th, 2002 - Terrorists detonate bombs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

October 12th, 2007 - Al Quds day — also known as “Jerusalem Day”, or the “International Day of Al-Quds”. This day is celebrated in an annual event opposing Israel’s control of Jerusalem, or Al-Quds in Arab

Other items to consider…
The Rhetoric
Ahmadinejad has continued to call for for “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” along with his mantra to “wipe Israel off the map”. Many countries including Israel and the U.S. have made it clear that Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

Mysterious Strike Inside Syria
Israel is still maintaining silence several weeks after Syria complained that Israeli aircraft invaded its airspace in a mysterious incident that raised tensions and triggered a welter of US media speculation about possible targets for the operation. Explanations for what anonymous US officials have said was a strike inside Syria range from suggesting it was aimed at the shipment of weapons to Hizbollah from Iran, to saying Syria may be building a nuclear facility with North Korean help.

A World Without Israel
Ahmadinejad recently used his speech to the United Nations General Assembly to againa unveil a vision of a world without Israel, in which America and Europe would be freed of what he said was Zionist oppression.

600 Missiles Pointed At Israel
Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported. “Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked,” the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. “600 missiles will only be the first reaction.”

Russians Evacuated?
there are numerous unconfirmed reports that Russian nuclear technicians have evacuated from their assignment at the Bushehr nuclear reactor facility and returned to Russia without explanation, this according the Khorramshar News Agency.

This action, if true, would suggest the possibility that the Russians were tipped off that some sort of military action was imminent, perhaps October 12, the end of Ramadan.

The New Moon
October 11th is the start of the new moon, which is when the US military, particularly the US Air Force likes to begin any aerial bombing attacks because it is easier to avoid aircraft detection when there is no moon to illuminate attacking planes or ground forces.

Conclusion:
We’re not good at making predictions and we won’t attempt one here. We will all have to wait and see if anything happens.

(Our guess…massive protests in Iran and several speeches…but we could be wrong)

Feel free to kick in your 2 cents in the comments.

"Watch your six"

Be ever Vigilant,
Bos'un

Technorati tags: iran, amanamedjihad, bushehr nuclear facility, ramadan, russia, Ramadan, Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, liberate, Palestine, final response, Quds Day, The 12th Imam, Jerusalem Day, International Day of Al-Quds, muslim, terrorism suspects, counterterrorism

An agreement between Columbia University and Ahmadinejad?

As reported, there appears to be more to the story:
Columbia Alum Freed in Advance of Ahmadinejad’s Speech 

Looks to me that Iran is still in the hostage taking business.  Who approached who to gain the release of Columbia Alumnus?????

(CNSNews.com) – The president of Columbia University is expressing relief that a Columbia alumnus was released from an Iranian prison -- just days before the Iranian president is scheduled to speak at Columbia University.
for the rest of the story: Columbia Alum Freed in Advance of Ahmadinejad’s Speech

Technorati tags: Columbia University, Ahmadinejad, hostages, Iran, pre-release agreement, state sponsored terrorism, terrorist nation, america at war

Know the Enemy

Last year (08/2006) I received permission from the author to post this and decided to run it again because it is a pertinent topic for the world leader conference. 

Courtesy of Dallas News.  Reposted with permission of the author, Rod Dreher.

Forty years ago, the godfather of Islamic terrorism was executed, says Rod DREHER, and America today is no closer to understanding his apocalyptic vision.....

Two days from now, the country will observe the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its catastrophic aftermath. What will pass unnoticed on that day is the 40th anniversary of a hanging of a revolutionary in Cairo, an event that is incalculably more important to the present and future of the United States than any meteorological event.The pious life and martyr's death of Sayyid Qutb, and the legacy the Islamic theologian left behind, extend a powerful challenge to the West. Until we provide an answer to him and his followers, we can't hope to prevail in the war of ideas with Islamic extremists. And most of us have no idea who this man even was.

Sayyid Qutb (pronounced KUH-tuhb) has been called "the philosopher of Islamic terror." He rose from humble origins in rural Egypt to become an influential theologian and leading light of Egypt's fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood movement. He advocated global Islamic rule imposed by the sword.

Also Online

English translation of 'Milestones.'

The Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered him hanged for treason Aug. 29, 1966.

Yet, his ideas have spread like a prairie fire over the parched landscape of Islam's last generation. As writer Paul Berman observed, Qutb was "the intellectual hero of every one of the groups that eventually went into al-Qaeda."

We Americans have a bad habit of assuming that there's nothing to radical Islam but fury, grievance and bloodlust. We think of jihadist leaders as wild-eyed mullahs far removed from our experience. It's a fatal form of condescension. Qutb may have been a madman by our lights, but he was no fool – and, in important ways, he had our number.

Americans also cherish the idea that lack of understanding is at the root of conflict – and that there are few disputes that can't be worked out by people getting to know each other. Not so with Qutb, whose sojourn in America as a foreign exchange student between 1948 and '50 radicalized him and confirmed his hatred for Western materialism and freedom.

Qutb spent most of his time in the Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colo. The pathologically prudish Egyptian scholar was shocked by the morality of Greeley's women, appalled by its racism and scandalized by the wealth of American society.

As Lawrence Wright writes in The Looming Tower, his acclaimed new book about the roots of 9/11:

"Qutb saw a spiritual wasteland, and yet belief in God was nearly unanimous in the United States at the time. It was easy to be misled by the proliferation of churches, religious books and religious festivals, Qutb maintained; the fact remained that materialism was the real American god. 'The soul has no value to Americans,' he wrote to one friend. 'There has been a Ph.D. dissertation about the best way to clean dishes, which seems more important to them than the Bible or religion.' Many Americans were beginning to come to similar conclusions. The theme of alienation in American life was just beginning to cast a pall over the postwar party. In many respects, Qutb's analysis, though harsh, was only premature."

It is tempting to laugh at the Islamic pietist overwhelmed by the sensuality of the Rocky Mountain Gomorrah. But when Qutb returned to Egypt, his ardor to fight Western cultural hegemony led him to write: "We are endowing our children with amazement and respect for the master who tramples our honor and enslaves us. Let us instead plant the seeds of hatred, disgust and revenge in the souls of these children."

Qutb believed that if Muslims accepted democracy, capitalism, civil liberties and the Western way of life, they would commit spiritual suicide. He dedicated the rest of his life to convincing Muslims that their only hope rested in surrendering totally to a stringent form of Islam.

But why, according to Qutb, are modernity and Islam irreconcilable?

Because modernity was only made possible by a fundamental theological error that guaranteed man's alienation from God and from his nature. This alienation had reached a point of crisis worldwide, with the world's richest and most powerful nations producing masses of well-fed, well-off people who are rootless, miserable, hedonistic and self-destructive.

This was not a novel insight. As Paul Berman points out in his 2003 book Terror and Liberalism, many Western thinkers of the same era were writing about alienation amid the freedom and plenty of modern society. Qutb located the source of the modern world's ills in Christianity's separation of the world into sacred and secular realms, creating what he called a "hideous schizophrenia" that caused Western man to split the material realm from the spiritual.

Islam holds the two to be one under God's sovereignty. But this unnatural divorce had material benefits for the West, enabling it to leapfrog far ahead of the Islamic world in science and technology. The West's success made it powerful, true, but its culture grew increasingly debauched, and its people were turning into moral and spiritual wrecks. Yet – and here, Mr. Berman writes, is where Qutb is most original – the all-powerful West was in the present day imposing its false and destructive ideals on the weakened Muslim world.

What is to be done? Lenin famously asked about Czarist Russia. Qutb's answer to the same question about the West was, in part, "Milestones," a Leninist-style tract advocating worldwide Islamic revolution.

In this thin volume, Qutb argues that the Islamic nation must overthrow modernity if it wishes to continue to exist. Only Islam, with its divinely given law regulating all aspects of daily life, is capable of rightly ordering the soul and body, and of being most true to God-given human nature. He believed the West, whether or not it realized it, was engaged in a fight to the death against Islam. Though the conflict had military, economic and cultural aspects, for Qutb, this was essentially a religious war.

"Milestones" calls for the subjugation of all non-Islamic peoples, the total crushing of all non-Islamic institutions and entities, and the universal imposition of harsh sharia law. Reading "Milestones" as a guide to the mentality of jihadists is a bone-chilling exercise (even more so when you consider that Muslim teens participating in a 2004 quiz competition at the Dallas Central Mosque were assigned "Milestones" as part of their contest reading).

His is the voice of the genocidal utopian, an apocalyptic idealist who – like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Mao – will stop at nothing to create an earthly paradise on the bones of the Crusaders, Zionists, moderate Muslims and sundry infidels.

It's difficult to imagine why anybody fell for Nazism or communism, but neither ideology could have gone anywhere if it didn't speak deeply to the hopes, needs, fears and passions of millions. As fanatical as Qutb's Islam sounds – as fanatical as it is – it provides an explanation for the misery and backwardness so much of the Muslim world lives in today. It gives its followers dignity and solidarity, a focus for their anger, a sense of purpose and of being on the right side of history. It holds out the false promise, that old siren song, that perfect happiness and oneness can be achieved in this life, once the Enemy has been destroyed. And it is a vision that Qutb gave witness to by courageously sacrificing his life.

What are we to do? There are no easy answers, but we should begin by jettisoning as folly the naive idea that all Muslims want the same things the liberal West wants. Followers of Qutb's brand of Islam hold that our wealth, secularity and freedom, especially for women, are evidence of our corruption.

While Qutb's prescriptions are quite mad, his diagnosis of the Western spiritual and psychological condition was serious, and it requires a serious response. If we Westerners cannot look at the world we've created for ourselves and understand that Sayyid Qutb was not all wrong, we will never figure out how to convince the Islamic masses he lived and died for that their holy martyr was a false prophet.

Rod Dreher is an assistant editorial page editor. The views expressed here are his own. His e-mail address is rdreher@dallasnews.com .

Find a link to an English translation of Sayyid Qutb's "Milestones" at DallasNews.com/Extra.

Please link Mr. Dreher's article at Dallas News and send him an email, if you desire.

Technorati tags: sayyid qutb, false prophet, eastern society, western society, islamic jihad, islamic terror, Gamal Abdel Nasser, al-Qaeda, sharia law, Islam, Iran, Ahmadinejad, us-haters, anti-christian, anti united states, muslim extremists

Al-Zawahiri to the U.S.: "Do Not Ask President Bush When The Soldiers Will Return– Ask Instead How Many Will Return"

VIEW THE NEW MEMRI TV WEBSITE AT: www.memritv.org

Special Dispatch-Jihad and Terrorism Studies Project  September 21, 2007

No. 1721

Al-Zawahiri to the U.S.: "Do Not Ask President Bush When The Soldiers Will Return– Ask Instead How Many Will Return"

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
Al-Zawahiri to the U.S.: "Do Not Ask President Bush When The Soldiers Will Return– Ask Instead How Many Will Return".

The Islamist website www.ekhlaas.org/forum/, which is hosted by Layered Technologies, Inc. in Texas, USA, posted, on September 20, 2007, an 80-minute video of Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri speaking on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of 9/11.

The video was produced by the Al-Sahab media company in the month of Sha'ban, 1428 (August-September 2007), apparently prior to September 11, 2007, and is subtitled in English.

In the video, statements by Al-Zawahiri are interspersed with footage of jihad fighters in various places around the world, audio clips from Osama bin Laden's speeches, statements by Western commentators and U.S. officials, and more.

Following are the main points of Al-Zawahiri's statements in the video:

First, Al-Zawahiri expresses his condolences for the death of the martyr cleric Maulana Abd Al-Rashid Ghazi in Afghanistan, promises to avenge his death, and calls on Muslims to follow in his path and in the path of other jihad-fighting clerics.

Al-Zawahiri then accuses Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf of selling Pakistan's honor and religion, and says that Musharraf's forces are serving "the hunting dogs of the Crusaders-Zionists."

He then spoke of the Americans' defeat in Iraq by the jihad fighters; an announcer then attributes this to the "sacrifice of the jihad fighters, first among them Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi."

Al-Zawahiri then advised the Americans, "Do not ask President Bush when the soldiers will return; ask instead how many of them will return."

Al-Zawahiri called on the Muslims in the Maghreb to bring Andalusia back into the fold of Islam, and stated that this could only be done by "purging the Islamic Maghreb of the French and the Spanish who have returned there."

He calls on the Sudanese to wage jihad against the Crusader invasion of Darfur, as their brothers did in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Further on in the video, Al-Zawahiri addresses the issue of jihad in Somalia, Chechnya, and Palestine, and calls on the Islamic nation to support the jihad fighters "under the victorious banner of the Prophet."

*********************

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at www.memri.org

Bin Laden Urges Pakistani Jihad

Courtesy of AP News, MyWay

  CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on Pakistanis to rebel against President Pervez Musharraf in a new recording released on Thursday, saying his military's siege of a militant mosque stronghold makes him an infidel.

The storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July "demonstrated Musharraf's insistence on continuing his loyalty, submissiveness and aid to America against the Muslims ... and makes armed rebellion against him and removing him obligatory," bin Laden said in the message.

"So when the capability is there, it is obligatory to rebel against the apostate ruler, as is the case now," he said, according to a transcript released by Laura Mansfield, a U.S. terrorism expert who monitors militant message traffic.

Bin Laden's voice was heard over a video showing previously released footage of the terror leader. It was posted Thursday on Islamic militant Web sites.  For the rest of the story: Bin Laden calls for Jihad in Pakistan

Ayman al-Zawahri releases new video tape days after Osama

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in a new video released Thursday, the latest in a series put out by the terror network.

The video came days after Osama bin Laden released two messages to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary—including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

The 80-minute video posted on Islamic militant Web sites Thursday was in a documentary style, touting al-Qaeda's activities in various areas, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and North Africa.   For the rest of the article: New al-Qaeda Video Released

"Terrorists have been arrested on the border, security chief says"

Courtesy of Counterterrorism Blog

"Terrorists have been arrested on the border, security chief says"

By Michael Cutler

Here's the lead from an article that deals with the nexus between our nation's failure to secure our borders and the imminent danger that this lunacy poses to our nation's security, six years after the attacks of September 11, 2001: "Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaeda have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years." The official described one person caught in 2004 as being tied to a Pakistan insurgent group and whose specialty was smuggling Afghanis and other illegal aliens across the border.

I want you to take a moment to let the significance of all of this sink in. Our nation is at war with terrorists who have already killed thousands of innocent victims within our nation's borders. The commonly quoted number of victims is approximately 3,000. In point of fact I fear that the ultimate toll will actually be a multiple of that number when you factor in all of the people who are dying of lung diseases and other ailments associated with the various highly toxic pollutants that were released when the buildings at the World Trade Center complex collapsed. And now we see how the open borders of the United States facilitate the entry of terrorists, at a time when "We the People" are being inconvenienced, and our freedoms and expectations of privacy are being significantly reduced.

We know that in order to carry out their pernicious plans, terrorists must gain entry into our country and embed themselves in communities around the United States. The key to both of these activities is the way in which our nation secures its borders and enforces the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States. So it is critical that USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) create as tight and effective system as possible. It is also important that all governments deny illegal aliens sanctuary, because sanctuary for illegal aliens will encourage still more illegal aliens, and will enable criminals (and especially terrorists) to set up shop in those communities willing to provide sanctuary.

Petraeus explains Iraq’s link to U.S. security, responds to criticism

Courtesy of Multi-National Force Iraq

Thursday, 13 September 2007

Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander, Multi-National Force-Iraq (right), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace, fly to the Green Zone and survey the sites along the way in Baghdad, July 16, 2007. File photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, Joint Combat Camera Center.

WASHINGTON — The top commander and diplomat in Iraq told reporters at the National Press Club today that what happens in Iraq is critical to long-term U.S. security.

“Achieving our national interest in Iraq is very important” and a critical part of the overall U.S. national strategy to make the country safer, said Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq. “The central front of al Qaeda’s global war on terror is in Iraq.”

Petraeus was joined at the Press Club event by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker.

Petraeus repeated the statement he made yesterday to the Senate Armed Services Committee that he couldn’t spell out exactly what impact al Qaeda resurgence in Iraq might have on the U.S. homeland.

“I was trying very hard yesterday to avoid becoming more than the MNFI commander,” he said. “And so when I was asked about the global war on terrorism, I thought that that perhaps is a question for those who are carrying out the global war on terrorism. I'm carrying out one piece of that, which is the part that is prosecuted inside Iraq.”

Petraeus said the U.S. strategy in Iraq is showing progress in flushing out al Qaeda and other extremists and reducing violence. Coalition and Iraqi operations have left al Qaeda “considerably diminished” and “much more on the run” than Petraeus said he could recall since they established themselves there. “We believe that al Qaeda in Iraq is off balance,” he said.

He emphasized, however, that evidence shows al Qaeda hasn’t given up and continues working to regain territory it’s lost. The terrorist group remains “very dangerous,” he said.

Petraeus said he considers al Qaeda in Iraq “the wolf closest to the sled” because it’s been behind the most horrific attacks in Iraq and has generated the most ethno-sectarian violence. Particularly since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, this violence has been “tearing the fabric of Iraqi society,” he said.

Crocker said he’s convinced that any al Qaeda resurgence in Iraq would be devastating, not just to Iraq, but also to the United States. “We have to assume that anywhere al Qaeda can find operating room, space, the ability to organize … (and) consolidate, they are going to use that to come after us,” he said.

Petraeus and Crocker told reporters the troop surge in Iraq is showing progress in countering the threat al Qaeda and other extremists pose. They pointed to evidence of that progress: reduced violence, greater Iraqi security force responsibility, and increased tribal cooperation with Coalition efforts.

This assessment, which they delivered over the past two days to the Senate and House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, drew sharp criticism from some corners and, in some cases, personal attacks.

The general, who stated at all three congressional hearings this week that his assessment reflected his views alone -- not those of the Pentagon, the White House or Congress -- said a poem by Rudyard Kipling proved helpful as his integrity came under attack.

Kipling’s poem, “If,” begins, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. …” It goes on to talk about the importance of trusting yourself when others doubt you and of maintaining your principles even when you’re hated, lied about and condemned.

Pressed to comment on the attacks against him, Petraeus offered a simple response. “I disagree with the message of those who are exercising the 1st Amendment right that generations of soldiers have sought to preserve for Americans,” he said. “Some of it was just flat completely wrong, and the rest is at least more than arguable.”

Petraeus showed more of his human side as today’s news conference opened, initially telling reporters he planned to begin by reviewing the statement he’d made during the past two days of hearings.

“Actually, I’m not sure if even I can bear giving the shortened version of my opening statement for a fourth time,” he laughed. “And I know you don’t want to hear it for a fourth time.”

(Story by Donna Miles American Forces Press Service)

In other developments throughout Iraq:

• Coalition forces killed one terrorist and detained 13 suspected terrorists during raids Wednesday to disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq’s ability to operate in central Iraq.

• Two people were freed from captivity and four others arrested and charged with kidnapping after a tip-driven raid was conducted by soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 5th Division, 6th Iraqi Army at the Salhiyah Apartments Saturday.

Egyptian Playwright Ali Salem Speaks Out Against 'Culture of Death'

Courtesy of MEMRI

Special Dispatch-Egypt/Reform Project
September 13, 2007 , No. 1713

Egyptian Playwright Ali Salem Speaks Out Against "Culture of Death"

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit: HTML Link HERE

The following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian playwright Ali Salem, which aired on Abu Dhabi TV on August 16, 2007.

To view this clip, visit: Video Clip Link HERE

To view the MEMRITV webpage on Egyptian playwright Ali Salem, visit: "Whoever Tells You That Bread is More Important Than Freedom is a Fraud And a Thief"

Ali Salem: "There is no contradiction between freedom and what I call the 'pot of meat.' I will go even further, and say that the 'pot of meat' – not to mention the fruit, bread, salt, pepper, and salads, and on cold winter nights, hopefully a bowl of soup – bears an inherent connection to philosophy and freedom. If you are free, you can plant your field, and raise buffaloes and cows, and you are free to go and sell them at the market.

"You have a trade that earns you money, and there is a merchant who will buy and slaughter them, and then he will sell it at the market. In such a case, you are working at a job that brings you money. You need a society with freedom in politics, economy, and education in order for this cycle to be complete. Whoever tells you that bread is more important than freedom is a fraud and a thief.

"The meat, in this case... There are also cheese, olives, and pastrami, and there are shoppers at the supermarket – all these things require political and economic freedom.

[...]

"The Culture of Death is a Culture of Irresponsibility"

"The culture of death is a culture of irresponsibility. It is a culture in which a person considers all the 'others' to be his enemies. He is terrified of them, and he feels he must finish them off before they finish him off. In addition, this culture does not glorify life – although life is the greatest thing Allah has created for us. I'm not relying on any religious authority or historical examination, but I can only give you my personal opinion. Allah created us in order to enjoy this beautiful universe, and in order to make it even more beautiful, or at the very least, to keep it beautiful.

[...]

"It is in the interest of the people of this region to achieve peace."
Interviewer: "You've visited Israel, and you are one of the supporters of peace."

Ali Salem: "True."

"We Have Finished the Conflict of War, And We Enter the Competition of Peace"

Interviewer: "Some people criticize you for this stand. In brief, on what objective foundations do you base your defense of peace?"
Ali Salem: "When you suffer such an ignominious defeat as in 1967, and when you begin to uncover what your mistakes were, you begin to think that you must not be defeated in peace as well, that you must not lose the battle for peace as well as the war.

[...]

"We have finished the conflict of war, and we enter the competition of peace. Peace is not a beautiful garden, in which we and the Israelis will sit together. Peace is a venue for competition. Human jealousy requires us not to be inferior to them in terms of democracy, human rights, import, export, education, and scientific research."

[...]

Interviewer: "How do you view the future of political Islamic movements, and their connection to Arab society in particular?"
Ali Salem: "Arab history is full of such movements. In elementary school, we used to read: 'And then the Sultan wiped them out,' or 'Then the Emir finished them off,' or 'Then he went to the city and turned it to rubble.' Times have changed, and no one is allowed to wipe out anybody. Today, the [Islamists] are not the main force. They are in the opposition. The public is learning every day that this kind of conflict will get them neither a Palestinian state nor human rights."

*********************

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at www.memri.org

Homeland Security is preparing US for Nuclear Attack

According to Michael Chertoff, America is Preparing for Nuclear Attack

Weapons of mass destruction, small boats packed with explosives and Islamic radicalization are the greatest terrorist threats facing the country, top U.S. security officials said Monday on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, said, "The enemy is not standing still." FBI Director Robert Muller warns of "sleeper" terror cells within the U.S. Read the Full Story — Go Here Now.

Remembering 9/11/2001

Courtesy of NTARC Newsletter: www.nationalterroralert.com

Remembering September 11, 2001

Watch The Video

From a different view.

This home video of the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center is from a 36th floor apartment near the North Tower. The events of 9/11 are familiar to all of us. Perhaps so much so that over time we have become desensitized to the actual events. What is absolutely chilling, is how the video captures the personal experience of the couple taking the video. It is their comments, telephone calls, shock and anguish that brings back a flood of emotions from that day. It was released last year on the 6th anniversary of 9/11.

This Weeks Homeland Security Headlines At NTARC

School Bus Terror Threat

Osama Bin Laden To Release Second Video Tape

Blogs Debate Authenticity of Osama bin Laden Video Tape

Attorney Assists Two USF Goose Creek Terror Suspects Seeking Release

Bin Laden Planning High Impact Terror Plots Against U.S.

Bin Laden set to release a NEW video

Courtesy of Drudge Report

As al Qaeda chatter picks up just before the 6th anniversary of 9/11, AP is reporting this morning that Bin Laden is set to release another video. Apparently, Bin Laden will be presenting the last testament of one of the Sept. 11 homicide hijackers on the new video set for release today.

If you recall that last week, Bin Laden tried to justify the 9/11 attacks, which, he claimed, "further harmed America's reputation and its prestige worldwide..." Bin Laden mocked the Democrats for failing to stop the war in Iraq and called for the Michael Moore crowd to step up their anti war rhetoric, "Now that your representatives in the Democratic party failed to fulfill your desire to stop the war, you can keep marching in the streets of big [U.S.] cities holding up anti-war signs......"

Bin Laden appeared to be issuing a warning (da'wa) to the infidels of America and the west to convert to Islam or perish, "The biggest and most irreversible error one can commit in this world is to die without surrendering oneself to Allah, namely, to die without embracing Islam......"

The Sahih Muslim Hadith, [Book 019, Number 4294] indicates that a Muslim da'wa is required before an all out onslaught with the infidel western enemies.

Is an attack imminent? Only the radical Islamists know for sure. We should be prepared to unite against them and drive them from the face of the earth. My message for the liberal crowd is that you don't know what you are up against.

Be ever vigilant.

UPDATE: Latest on Fox News regarding the new video, 9/10/2007

Sept. 11 Hijacker's 'Last Testament': Al Qaeda announces it will release new video of Usama bin Laden presenting last testament of one Sept. 11 hijacker

Bin Laden's Video Message to the American People

Special Dispatch – Jihad & Terrorism

September 10, 2007 

No.1709

Osama Bin Laden's Video Message to the American People

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
Osama Bin Laden's Video Message to the American

On September 8, 2007 the Islamist forum http://al-ekhlaas.org, hosted by Layered Technologies, Inc. in Texas, USA, posted a video message from Osama bin Laden to the American people titled "The Solution."
The following are excerpts.

Bin Laden opens his message by discussing the effect of the 9/11 attacks, which, he claims, "further harmed America's reputation and its prestige worldwide..." He goes on to characterize U.S. policies throughout history, and more recently in Iraq, as morally reprehensible. For example, he presents Bush's claim that the U.S. is "cooperating with Al-Maliki's government in order to spread freedom in Iraq" as an attempt to cover up Bush's "true intentions," which are "to work with leaders of one sect in Iraq against another sect" in hope that this will turn the war in his favor, while in fact this policy has precipitated a civil war "which [Bush] can no longer control." Thus, bin Laden claims that while the U.S. "proclaim[ed] the slogans of justice, freedom, equality, and humaneness," in reality its policies yielded "fear, destruction, killing, famine, illness, and vagrancy." As a result of this war, he continues, "there are more than one million orphans in Baghdad alone, and hundreds of thousands of widows... The American's [own] statistics... [reveal] that more than 650,000 people have been killed in Iraq as a result of the war and its consequences."

Bin Laden then points out that the Democrats have so far failed to stop the war in Iraq, despite winning the congressional elections. He interprets this as an indication that wealthy individuals still dominate policy decisions, and says to the Americans, "Now that your representatives in the Democratic party failed to fulfill your desire to stop the war, you can keep marching in the streets of big [U.S.] cities holding up anti-war signs," but this will be to no avail.

Bin Laden then adds that "there are [nevertheless] two [ways] to bring [the war] to an end. The first... is for us to continue killing and fighting you with ever increasing intensity [until we defeat you]... The second is... [for you] to liberate yourselves from the deception and restrictions... inflicted upon you by the capitalistic system... in the same way you liberated yourselves from the monks and kings that once enslaved you, and from feudalism." The goal of the capitalist system, he warns, is to turn the entire world into a fief controlled by large corporations..."

As an alternative to the capitalist system, bin Laden offers Islam. He calls upon the Americans to embrace Islam, saying: "The biggest and most irreversible error one can commit in this world is to die without surrendering oneself to Allah, namely, to die without embracing Islam." He warns that, once the owners of the major corporations realize that the Americans people have lost confidence in the democratic system and have started searching for an alternative, i.e., Islam, "they will run after you to please you and fulfill your every desire, in order to turn you away from Islam." He therefore advices the Americans not to waver in their pursuit of Islam, since the benefits they will receive by embracing it are numerous, including a significant reduction in taxes, since Islam does not impose taxes beyond the mandatory 2.5% Zakat (i.e., alms) tax.

*********************

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East.  Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.

MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at www.memri.org

Damascus airport called Al Qaeda hub

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Courtesy of World Tribune

Damascus airport called Al Qaeda hub

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, has been recruiting support for legislation that would sanction Damascus International Airport.

Lieberman said the airport has become the major conduit for Al Qaeda fighters to Iraq as well as Iranian weapons shipments to Lebanon. He based his assertion on briefings from the U.S. military.

On Thursday, the Bush administration released an unclassified version of a national intelligence estimate that supported Lieberman's allegations against Syria. But the report said Damascus, despite its increase in support for militias in Iraq, has cracked down on Al Qaeda in wake of a determination that the Islamic movement threatens Syrian national security.

Lieberman said U.S. intelligence has determined that the lion's share of Sunni volunteers fly into Damascus International Airport and then proceed overland to Iraq. He said this makes Damascus the hub of Al Qaeda travel in the Middle East.