Israel Matzav: Thousands of Turks mourn Bin Laden

Thousands of Turks mourn Bin Laden

Thousands of demonstrators in Istanbul protested against the death of Osama Bin Laden on Friday, while setting fire to the flags of the United States, Israel and Britain (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

"The US, UK and Israel are the murderers of the martyr," the participants chanted. "The US is the terrorist, bin Laden is the warrior."

The mourners carried pictures of bin Laden and signs condemning his assassination, and called the man who planned the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans "a beautiful, wise man, a warrior for Islam."

The mourners, who gathered near Istanbul's Fatih Mosque, which is located in the area that is considered Turkey's epicenter of Islamic extremism, burned Israeli, American and British flags, and prayed facing a stone bench that traditionally holds the body of the deceased.

Let's go to the videotape (sorry, Turkish only):







In November 2003, a series of four truck bombs in Istanbul killed 57 people and wounded more than 700. The bombs were placed at two Jewish synagogues, a branch of HSBC Bank and the British consulate. Al-Qaeda was responsible for those attacks. On Thursday, a hotel opened on the site where the HSBC Bank stood. I wonder how many Turks will go there.

Israel Matzav: Thousands of Turks mourn Bin Laden

DoubleTapper: British Cyclist Deliberately Run Over in Saudi Arabia

British Cyclist Deliberately Run Over in Saudi Arabia

A British man has been killed after youths allegedly rammed a car into a group of friends who were cycling in Saudi Arabia.

John Currie, who worked for BAE Systems – formerly British Aerospace – is believed to have been one four cyclists who started being "cut up" by local youths in two cars on a main road on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Initially, it is understood that one of the cars clipped a cyclist causing him to fall off his bike. Then, however, one of the drivers is alleged to have turned around and deliberately ploughed his car into the cyclists.

Mr Currie, 54, a human resources worker, is said to have been smashed against the vehicle's windscreen in the incident on Thursday, and later died from his serious injuries. His widow, Pauline, was returning to Britain this weekend.

The couple, from Chester, Cheshire, are believed to have two grown-up children. Mr Currie's body will be flown home for a funeral service.

In the past 15 years, there have been a number of terrorist attacks on British and other western nationals in Saudi Arabia by Muslim extremists. Several westerners have been killed – and even more injured – in a series of bombs and gun attacks. Radicals are angry that US and British oil companies and their staff are operating on Saudi soil.

In one incident, Simon Cumbers, 36, an Irish freelance cameraman, was shot dead and Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, was critically injured by apparent al-Qaeda sympathisers as they filmed in Riyadh in 2004.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) confirmed the death on Saturday. A spokesman said: "A British national, John Currie, died in a road traffic accident on Feb 25 and we were informed. We have offered consular assistance to the family." Sources at the FCO said it would be for the Saudi authorities to determine if there was a "guilty party" involved in the incident.

BAE has also confirmed Mr Currie's death. The company employs 4,500 staff in Saudi Arabia, including around 2,000 Britons.

A company spokesman said: "We can confirm that John Currie was a BAE Systems employee who worked for the HR team in Saudi Arabia and was involved in a road accident last week. Our thoughts and feelings are with his family and friends. The Saudi authorities are now investigating the case and it would be inappropriate for BAE Systems to comment any further."

Company sources say that the arrest of an individual in such circumstances would not necessarily mean that criminal charges will follow. "Under Sharia law – the Muslim law – the driver is arrested even if it is an accident," said one source. "Under Sharia law too, he may have to pay a certain amount [to the family of the victim] depending on whose fault it was."

DoubleTapper: British Cyclist Deliberately Run Over in Saudi Arabia

Love of the Land: U.S.-Syria Relations: Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad Complains that America isn’t Giving Him Enough Concessions in Exchange for Nothing

U.S.-Syria Relations: Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad Complains that America isn’t Giving Him Enough Concessions in Exchange for Nothing

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
04 November 09

As I’ve previously reported, policy toward Syria has been the best-run aspect of Obama Administration foreign policy. That’s largely because it has been left in the hands of State Department officials who have no illusions about that radical dictatorship which is Iran’s closest ally and is determined to remain that way.

Now Syrian dictator President Bashar al-Assad has complained to the country’s official news agency, November 1, that while the U.S. government is talking instead of “commanding” nothing much has changed with the Obama Administration. "It is hard to say that big steps have been taken in bilateral relations," Assad said.

More American official delegations are going to Damascus but they’re not being converted by the trip. One topic they are pressing is better Syrian control over its border with Iraq, a euphemism for: stopping helping terrorism in Iraq.

More than four months after the U.S. government announced it would send an ambassador to Syria for the first time in years, nobody has been named.

Now, the problem with tough diplomacy can be that it does not “work” immediately or seemingly not at all. This is a persistent Obama Administration criticism of its predecessors: they were tough on Iran and other radicals but the problems didn’t go away. Right! But what’s better:

--To be tough on enemies in order to weaken them, isolate them, put them on notice to change their behavior, and reinforce the determination of those being attacked by them in the region (in this case, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia) OR

--To be soft on enemies, persuading them you are weak so they will be more aggressive, giving them concessions all the better to eat you with, and demoralizing the radicals’ victims by acting as if you are on the side of the “bad guys?”

After all, Syria continues to:

Arm, finance, transport, and encourage terrorists murdering American soldiers and Iraqi civilians; oppose peace with Israel; try to seize control over Lebanon; sponsor terrorism against Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan; refuse to cooperate with the international tribunal investigating past Syrian terrorism in Lebanon; deny human rights at home and torture peaceful dissidents; and a long list of other such things.

The main criticism I have toward Obama Administration policy on this issue is the failure to support Iraqi government complaints against Syria for sponsoring terrorism and giving safe haven to its leadership, a failure you can read about here and here. Remember that these groups are openly part of al-Qaida and even the Obama Administration says that the United States is at war with al-Qaida.

Love of the Land: U.S.-Syria Relations: Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad Complains that America isn’t Giving Him Enough Concessions in Exchange for Nothing

Israel Matzav: Somali-based al-Qaeda group threatens Israel

Somali-based al-Qaeda group threatens Israel

Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, which controls part of that country, is seeking to expand its scope of operations by threatening Israel (Hat Tip: Jihad Watch).

"The Jews started to destroy parts of the holy mosque of Al Aqsa and they routinely kill our Palestinian brothers, so we are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," said Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a prominent Al-Shabab commander.

His threat was part of a series of fiery sermons delivered after Friday prayers in Baidoa in southwest Somalia. Al-Shabab controls the region, which is part of a country that has been without an effective national government for nearly 20 years.

Other leaders of the group also threatened Israel, the first time the group is known to have done so.

"We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis," Al-Shabab commander Abdifatah Aweys Abu Hamza said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

My first reaction on reading that was 'good luck with that,' but maybe I should not have been so quick to brush them off.

It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel.

But Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group warned that the group should be taken seriously.

"We should not underestimate the capacity of Al-Shabab," he said. "This is a deadly organization, a formidable foe."

Abdi said the group had been mutating from a nationalist group into a terrorist organization more like al Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders," Abdi said.

The group has also become more vicious in Somalia, a local human rights expert said.

"The most gruesome and gross violations of human rights are committed by Al-Shabab," activist Hassan Shire Sheikh said. "They have also instilled fear. They just shoot, they kill, they maim and they lash."

And you thought the war on terror was over, eh Barack?

Israel Matzav: Somali-based al-Qaeda group threatens Israel

Israel Matzav: Al-Qaeda-linked group takes responsibility for Katyusha attack; Suleiman blames Israel

Al-Qaeda-linked group takes responsibility for Katyusha attack; Suleiman blames Israel

An al-Qaeda linked group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah has taken responsibility for Tuesday night's Katyusha rocket attack near Kiryat Shmona hours after a Lebanese newspaper published an interview with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman who blamed Israel for attacking itself. This is from Haaretz (the first link):

The claim from a group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah came two days after a rocket was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, causing no casualties. Lebanese troops subsequently found and dismantled four additional rockets in the village of Houla near the border with Israel.

The claim of responsibility, made on a Web site often used by Islamic militants, could not be independently verified.

The group is named after a Lebanese militant who was among the 19 suicide attackers that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. It has claimed responsibility for previous rocket-firings across the border into Israel.

The group said its fighters set up five rockets in Houla on Tuesday night but one launched prematurely, leading the militants to flee the area leaving four rockets behind. It was the fifth such attack against Israel from Lebanon this year. Israel responded with artillery fire, but there were no reports of casualties.

Earlier Thursday, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar had published an interview with Suleiman in which Suleiman claimed that an 'Israeli agent' had launched the rocket and that one may not rule out the possibility that Israel was behind the attack.

And this from a country with whom we have no real disputes (the territorial disputes between Israel and Lebanon have been manufactured by Hezbullah to justify their own existence - the UN certified that Israel's withdrawal in 2000 complied with UN Security Council Resolution 425, only to revoke that certification three years ago because Hezbullah insisted that Mount Dov was 'occupied Lebanese territory' and not 'occupied Syrian territory').

Anyone still wonder why there is no peace in this region?

Israel Matzav: Al-Qaeda-linked group takes responsibility for Katyusha attack; Suleiman blames Israel

Chesler Chronicles » Al-Qaeda Threatens France Over Burqa

Al-Qaeda Threatens France Over Burqa

Today, al-Qaeda threatened France over the ostensible issue of the burqa. Tommorrow, America will be in their gun sights on this same issue.

The burqa, niqab — even hijab — are being used as pawns in the power struggle between jihadic Islam and the West. These dress codes are primarily political in nature.

For those people who really and truly believe that the burqa is a religious and not a political/jihadic issue — consider this:

According to the United States monitoring service SITE Intelligence, al-Qaeda has just announced that it plans to “take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country.” Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said:

“Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil). We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal … for us, the mujahedeen … we will not remain silent to such provocations and injustices. We call upon all Muslims to confront this hostility with greater hostility.”

Does anyone really believe that al-Qaeda is a religious group? Or that their religious pronouncements are holy and should be protected by American or European laws?

In a many months-old video, al-Qaeda number two, al-Zawahiri, also condemned the French law (which banned hijab) saying “the decision showed the grudge the Western crusaders have against Islam.” Zawahiri claimed to be speaking in Bin Laden’s name.

Al-Qaeda now has an Algerian-based Salafist-oriented group which is being encouraged to attack either pro-French Algerians or Frenchmen. Or both.

Le Pauvre Algerienne. For nearly twenty years, Algerian women have been pawns in the power struggle between Islamists and the Algerian government.

According to attorney Karima Bennoune, from 1992 on, Algerian Islamist men committed a series of “terrorist atrocities” against Algerian women. Bennoune describes the “kidnapping and repeated raping of young girls as sex slaves for armed fundamentalists. The girls were also forced to cook and clean for God’s warriors. … [O]ne 17-year-old girl was repeatedly raped until pregnant. She was kidnapped off the street and held with other young girls, one of whom was shot in the head and killed when she tried to escape.” As in Iran, “unveiled,” educated, independent Algerian women were seen as “military targets” and were increasingly shot on sight. According to Bennoune, “the men of Algeria (were) arming, the women of Algeria (were) veiling themselves. As one woman said: ‘Fear is stronger than our will to be free.’”

Read All at :

Chesler Chronicles » Al-Qaeda Threatens France Over Burqa

DoubleTapper: Al Qaeda to attack US from Mexico with Bio weapons

Al Qaeda to attack US from Mexico with Bio weapons

U.S. counterterrorism officials have finally authenticated this video (I posted it back in the beginning of April) by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle anthrax into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border.

The video makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the United States, according to counterterrorism officials interviewed by The Washington Times.

The video first aired by the Arabic news network Al Jazeera in February and later posted to several Web sites, including here, shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi, a veteran recruiter for al Qaeda with close ties to the Taliban, telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al Qaeda is casing the U.S. border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the U.S. "Four pounds of anthrax -- in a suitcase this big -- carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the U.S. are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour if it is properly spread in population centers there," the recruiter said. "What a horrifying idea; 9/11 will be small change in comparison. Am I right? There is no need for airplanes, conspiracies, timings and so on. One person, with the courage to carry 4 pounds of anthrax, will go to the White House lawn, and will spread this 'confetti' all over them, and then we'll do these cries of joy. It will turn into a real celebration."

Rear All at :

DoubleTapper: Al Qaeda to attack US from Mexico with Bio weapons