In the news - muslims......

[Shammu]

Kayhan Editor Close To Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'America and Its European Supporters Must Know... That the Price of Supporting [Israel] Will Cost Them the Property and Lives of Their Citizens... If the Heads of Some Islamic States Prevent the Muslim Peoples from Attacking the Zionists... They Can Be Toppled'

January 27, 2008

In a January 26 op-ed in the Iranian daily Kayhan, the paper's editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, called on Muslims to unite in a retaliatory attack on American, European, and Israeli "sensitive centers" because of "the war crimes that these countries are committing in the Gaza Strip" and because of their support for Israel.

In his op-ed, Shar'iatmadari stressed that American and European civilians must be harmed in these attacks, so as to make the U.S. and the European countries change their policy towards Israel. He further called for harming Israelis worldwide, and explained that Islamic regimes that prevent an Islamic attack on Israel must be toppled, because

they are defending the enemy.

Following are excerpts from Sharatmadari's op-ed, which was titled "The Defenders of the Enemy": [1]

"The slaughter being carried out by the Zionists in Gaza - which includes the mass murder of Palestinian men, women, and children, cutting off the electricity, water, and fuel, stopping the supply of medicines and food products - along with various other savage crimes, is disgraceful for the Zionists, and for America and its European allies.

"However, it is even more embarrassing and disgraceful for, first and foremost, the heads of several Islamic countries, [including] Egypt, that is insisting on adhering to the abject Camp David Accords and closing the Rafah border crossing [to the Palestinians]; for the cowardly and characterless rulers of Bahrain and the U.A.E., who awarded a prize to the murderer [i.e. President Bush] of the oppressed Palestinian people during his recent trip to the region; and for the Saudi [royal] family, that bears the appellation 'Custodian of the Two Holy Places' but is indifferent to the crimes and violations of the infidel Zionists in the Muslim holy places, and so on.

"But aren't most of the sensitive centers of the Zionists, of the Americans, and of some European states that support Israel already situated within the arms' reach of the Muslims? And aren't the Zionists [vulnerable] and located within arms' reach of the Muslims at the four corners of the earth? What human and legal basis can prevent an attack on these centers and people? Why must the savage, blood-letting Zionists and Americans be permitted to choose the field of battle as they wish? [Why are they permitted] to besiege the oppressed Palestinian brothers and sisters and their children, on the land that belongs to that helpless people, and to shoot at them night and day and to massacre them?

"America and its European and Zionist supporters must know that their support for Israel's crimes will cost them very dearly. Once they discern that this support will cost them the property and lives of their citizens, they will doubtless reconsider their support for the savage Zionists... And didn't the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] instruct that if every Muslim pours out one bucket of water, there will be a flood that will sweep away Israel, and destroy it?

"Every time a movement rises up against the Zionist occupier and acts to liberate its homeland, America and its allies accuse it of terrorism, and every state that supports these movements is punished. Why wouldn’t the Muslims act the same way, and attack all the supporters of the Zionists everywhere in the world?

"There is a legal view valid in both the Shi'ite and the Sunni school that it is permissible to attack anyone whom the enemy uses as a shield in the war against the enemies of Islam. Therefore, if some heads of Islamic states prevent the Muslim peoples from attacking the Zionists - thus constituting a shield that prevents support to the persecuted people of that region - it permissible to topple these defenders of the enemy."

America and Its European Supporters Must Know, the Price of Supporting Israel

[Shammu]

Well, bring it on, I'm ready to go see my Lord and Savior. This world is not my home!! I may even thank you for letting me go sooner...........

No I don't have a suicidal wish!!

[Shammu]

'Israel to blame for Gaza crisis'
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST    Jan. 28, 2008

Arab League foreign ministers said Monday that Israel was fully responsible for the deterioration in the Gaza Strip and demanded that the Jewish state lift the blockade immediately , open crossing points and allow humanitarian supplies through.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have traveled into Egypt in recent days after breaking through the Gaza-Egypt border fence. The border was breached a number of days after Israel announced it was stopping fuel shipments to Gaza.

"Israel, as an occupying power, is fully responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian territories and should immediately stop all its continued aggressions against the civilians and end the blockade and the collective punishment policy," read a statement issued by the ministers at the end of their meeting in Cairo Monday.

The foreign ministers also urged the UN Security Council to "shoulder its responsibility to stop [Israeli] aggression, lift the siege on Gaza and protect its people and their right in accordance with international law."

The ministers called on all parties to resume the work to open all the crossing points under internationally-agreed arrangements to avoid a recurrence of what is happening on the Gaza-Egypt border. They also welcomed the Palestinian Authority's readiness to take on responsibility for all the crossing points into Gaza.

Egypt wants to restore shared control of the border among the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and European Union monitors, but the militant Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from the border after violently seizing Gaza in June. Since then, Israel and Egypt have kept Gaza largely sealed.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters Sunday that Egypt wanted to stick to the standing international agreement, but Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza City has said that the agreement is history, and the Palestinian people will not accept turning back to the old procedure.

Hamas says its main objection to the old system is that Israel uses cameras and computers to track everyone who passes in and out of Gaza. Hamas is dispatching a delegation to Egypt to discuss Rafah security on Wednesday - the same day Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But the rival Palestinian factions will likely meet separately with Egyptian officials. Abbas has refused to talk to Hamas until the group gives up control of Gaza.

'Israel to blame for Gaza crisis'

[Shammu]

India: group formulates response to Muslim scholars' letter to Pope

A Church group has drafted a response to the letter Muslim scholars wrote to Pope Benedict XVI last October and suggested ways to spread Christian-Muslim friendship. The Islamic Studies Association (ISA) held a consultation on 20 January to prepare the response.

About 80 participants, mostly experts on Christianity and Islam, heard papers on the letter and discussed it at the meeting. They then observed that the letter focuses on basic similarities of both religions and the need for Christians and Muslims, who constitute more than half of the world's people, to work jointly for peace.

In a draft presented on behalf of the participants, Jesuit Father George Gispert-Sauch highlighted the "Christian response" from an Indian perspective. The draft acknowledges the initiative of the Muslim scholars as "a beautiful gift," and says the open letter "encourages us to seek in our common faith in one God," and also inspires Muslims and Christians to come together as friends to work for peace and those in need.

"Our common belief in God the Creator and Sustainer enables us to feel related to one another at the very deepest level of our being," it states. At the same time, it acknowledges "observable differences" in the beliefs and practices of Christians and Muslims but notes that such differences should be viewed as "challenges rather than as obstacles to mutual appreciation."

"By surrendering to the one Transcendent yet loving God," the participants pointed out, "we affirm that we cannot surrender our freedom to any created reality." Such love, they said, "impels us" to work together for the welfare of "diverse communities and individuals so as to build a truly inclusive Indian society." Christians and Muslims in India together form less than 15 percent of more than 1 billion Indians, most of whom are Hindus. The draft also suggests "concrete projects" to enhance mutual cooperation among institutions and proposes the exchange of visits on important festivals.

The message of "brotherhood" between Islam and Christianity, according to the participants, should not be limited to a scholarly level but also include the grassroots. Some suggested translating the response, still in draft form, into Urdu, the popular language of Indian Muslims, and circulating it among them. They also suggested sending it to all Catholic educational institutions.

They also suggested that the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi network with groups and provide all imams in the city with the message. Jesuit Father Paul Jackson and Divine Word Father Pushpa Anbu, respectively president and secretary of the association, were among the paper presenters. The ISA was founded in 1979 during a meeting of the Commission for Dialogue and Ecumenism of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. Its members are mostly Catholics interested in studying Islam and promoting religious amity.

India: group formulates response to Muslim scholars' letter to Pope

[Shammu]

Annan presses Kenyan rivals to end bloodshed
Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:50pm EST

By C. Bryson Hull

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan set Tuesday as a target for Kenya's government and opposition to name negotiators to try to end tribal violence in which more than 800 people have been killed.

Machete-wielding supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have been fighting each other in Kenya's Rift Valley since late last week in the latest outbreak of violence over a disputed December 27 election.

Nearly 100 people have been killed in the new bloodshed that has been largely centered on the Rift Valley towns of Naivasha and Nakuru, better known for their wildlife-filled lakes. But there were signs the violence was spreading westwards.

Police fired in the air to keep members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long-dominant in political and business life in East Africa's biggest economy, and Odinga's Luo tribe apart in the tourist spot of Naivasha.

The violence since the election has taken on a momentum of its own, with cycles of killing between tribes who have never reconciled divisions left by British colonial policy and exacerbated by politicians.

"What is alarming about the last few days is that there are evidently hidden hands organizing it now. Militias are appearing ... the targeting is very specific," Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown said on a visit to Kenya.

An official involved in Annan's mediation mission said the two sides had been asked to study a blueprint for talks on ending the bloodshed in Kenya, a key ally of the West in its efforts to counter al Qaeda.

Annan's mission is part of an African peace effort.

Both sides have traded accusations of genocide in a standoff that has shocked world leaders, who had long viewed Kenya as a peacemaker, rather than a problem, on a volatile continent.

About 250,000 people have been turned into refugees by the violence.

Official results showed Kibaki narrowly won the election but Odinga says victory was stolen from him by vote-rigging. International observers said the poll was flawed.

The United States believed the new violence "underscores the urgent need" for a political agreement, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

Annan presses Kenyan rivals to end bloodshed

[Shammu]

Europe Terror Plots Trace Back To Pakistan
Investigators Discover Suspected Terrorists In 5 Countries Have Links To Pakistani Tribal Area

Five European countries are investigating suspected terrorist plots, which track back to al Qaeda's sanctuary in the tribal areas of Pakistan, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

U.S. officials don't know if it's coordinated, but terrorists arrested in Spain for plotting suicide attacks against the Barcelona subway had traveled to the tribal areas.

They, in turn, had links to suspected terrorists in Germany, France, Great Britain and Portugal, where U.S. officials believe similar plots are in the works.

Martin reports that when U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was asked how concerned he is on a scale of 1 to 10, he said, "11."

U.S. officials are so worried about the al Qaeda sanctuary in Pakistan, they have offered to send combat troops.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf has publicly rejected that, but he admits the stakes are high.

"We have to win," Musharraf said, "because if we lose, I think it will have an impact on the region and the world, maybe in the streets of Europe."

The United States also has plans to increase its training of the Pakistani army -- but that would take years, and the threat is now.

Europe Terror Plots Trace Back To Pakistan

[Shammu]

Frankfurt Islamist group planned attack

MADRID (Reuters) - A group of Islamist extremists in Frankfurt was planning an attack in Germany, according to a would-be suicide bomber captured by police in Spain, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday.

The Frankfurt cell was one of several in European cities with orders to attack targets in Spain, France, Portugal, Germany and Britain, according to the would-be attacker turned police informant, El Pais reported.

The report did not make clear whether the German cell was to attack Frankfurt or another city.

Testimony from the same informant, who was captured after he arrived in Barcelona on Jan. 16, led to the arrest of 14 South Asians last Saturday in Barcelona after he told police an Islamist extremist cell planned to attack the city's metro and other targets in Europe, El Pais reported, quoting Spanish police.

The informant told police that leaders of the Barcelona cell told him to travel to Frankfurt to meet up with a group planning an attack, El Pais reported.

"They told him, initially, he was going to travel to Frankfurt," El Pais reported. "The informant thought he would travel to Germany to meet up with the group that was planning an attack there."

The plan changed and another member of the Barcelona cell, Akeel Abassi, was sent to Frankfurt on Jan. 18 with orders to work alone, the informant told police.

Abassi is being hunted by police, along with two other possible suicide bombers, El Pais reported.

Frankfurt Islamist group planned attack

[Shammu]

Kassem threatens to kidnap more troops
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST    Jan. 29, 2008

Hizbullah deputy chief Naim Kassem said on Tuesday that his organization would continue to kidnap IDF soldiers in order to bring about the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Kassem told Hizbullah supporters during a rally in Beirut that Israel would eventually yield to the group's demands to free Lebanese detainees.

Meanwhile, Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband, Ehud, was kidnapped by Hizbullah in 2006, said on Tuesday that because of halted talks between the relevant sides, she was unsure whether he would return.

"The present situation is that the negotiations are completely jammed. After a year and a half we're in the exact spot we were the day after the kidnapping.

"I go home alone, and don't know what to expect - whether Udi will return alive or not… I will make every effort to get him back," Goldwasser told representatives of Jewish communities in Hong Kong, Singapore and London during a conference organized by the Jewish Agency. The conference was aimed at raising international awareness of kidnapped soldiers.

Goldwasser asked Jewish representatives to call on their national leaders to approach the Lebanese government in an effort to get them to apply pressure on Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah to release Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Kassem threatens to kidnap more troops

[Soldier4Christ]

'No one leaves Islam,' judge rules 
Egyptian court bans convert to Christianity from changing ID card

No one ever leaves Islam, according to a judge in Egypt who has cited Islamic religious law in rejecting a request from a Muslim convert to Christianity to be allowed to change his religious affiliation on his national identification card.

In a decision that forecasts more and more decisions being based on Shari'a, Islam's religious law, Judge Muhammad Husseini has concluded it violates the law for a Muslim to leave Islam.

According to a report from Compass Direct News, the judge found that the convert, Muhammad Hegazy, "can believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he can't convert."

The report said Husseini cited Article II of the Egyptian constitution, making Islamic religious law the "source" of Egyptian secular law, as the basis for his conclusion.

Since Islam is the "final" and "most complete" religion, Muslims already have full freedom of religion and are not allowed to return to the "less complete" Christianity or Judaism, the ruling said.

It's a new peak in the rise of Islam in Egypt, which The Middle East Review of International Affairs said began with Anwar Sadat's tenure in power.

"He then initiated what one could, in hindsight, term 'the Great Islamic Transformation' of Egypt. The first step was to stipulate in the Second Article of his new Constitution, promulgated in 1971 (long before Khomeini embarked on his Islamic revolutionary campaign), that the Principles of Islamic Shari'a were 'a main source' of legislation. In May 1981, the 'a' was replaced with 'the,' making Shari'a the term of reference for the entire constitution, meaning all other articles were to be interpreted in that light," the organization said.

"The curricula of public schools, established by the Ministry of Education, ignore the Coptic era in Egypt's history. Courses glorifying Islam (the 'Only True Religion') and its history, while vilifying the crusaders (i.e. Christians) and the Jews, are imposed on all students," the group said.

"In the case of a father of a Christian family converting to Islam, his minor children are forced to follow suit: The mother's custody rights – a well established legal principle – are ignored in this case, as children, according to typical court rulings, are supposed to follow the 'better (or 'more noble') of the two religions,'" the group said.

On the pro-freedom website called Sons of Apes and Pigs, a commentary noted that the Egyptian court decision "went on and issued a very explicit warning to Muhammad Hegazy, his wife and their lawyer, that going against the tide would provoke civil unrest and exacerbate emotions in the Egyptian society."

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean getting in and out of Islam to another religion, but only means that each person is free to practice his own religious rites, and not playing games with Islam or contradicting Shari'a law," the website said the judge concluded.

The website, which said it took its name from Quranic descriptions of Christians and Jews, said Westerners don't realize the significance of having a national ID card listing the carrier as Muslim.

"If you get caught going to a church while your religion on your ID is Muslim, that could get you arrested, questioned and tortured," the commentary said. "The latest victim was a 27-year-old woman, Mrs. Sherreen, mother of two children from Alexandria, Egypt. She died at the police station on Jan. 3, 2008, after five hours of torture for refusing to renounce her Christian faith and come back to Islam."

The website noted in Egypt, children of parents with Muslim IDs automatically are Muslims, and they are required to follow mandatory Islamic indoctrination classes, and Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims.

It also said to apply for any job, an applicant must provide the state-designated religious affiliation.

The website also noted according to multiple media reports, Hegazy's father issued a statement that, "when I'll meet my son, I will discuss with him the reasons and circumstances that 'forced' him to leave Islam, and will offer him the opportunity to come back to Islam, but in case he refuses, I will kill him immediately."

Press reports say Hegazy's case was the first time someone had sought to make a change from Islam in the religious designation on an official national ID card.

Hegazy has reported he was studying various religions, and found he was not consistent with Islam.

"The major issue for me was love. Islam wasn't promoting love as Christianity did," he said.

As a result of his conversion he's reported being arrested and tortured several times, but it's opened wide the eyes of observers, the Apes and Pigs website said.

"Muhammad Hegazy's case dynamited the Islamic mountain of lies, propaganda and false pride," the commentary said. "Not only in Egypt, but all over the Arab world. Exposed to the world [was] the deception of the Islamic governments, Egypt in particular … [of] 'no compulsion in religion.'"

According to the Compass Direct report, Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, whose lawyers have been representing the convert, said that he was disappointed with the verdict.

"The judge didn't listen to our defense, and we didn't even have a chance to talk before the court,” Eid said.

Meanwhile, death threats have forced the couple, whose new daughter is only a month old, into hiding.

Compass also reported that at least partly because of the case, lawyers in Egypt now are trying to force the government to outlaw conversion from Islam in secular law as well as religious law.

WND previously has reported on a ruling from a U.S. federal court that an Egyptian Christian who had fled his home nation "most assuredly has a right not to be tortured." The ruling allowed the Egyptian Christian to remain in the United States.

The court pointedly concluded that "diplomatic assurances" of his religious rights "by a country known to have engaged in torture" weren't reassuring.

A report from the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights concluded Coptic Christians in Egypt have been harassed, tortured and killed by Muslims for 1,400 years.

"They have been subjected to all kinds of hate crimes including, the abduction of young Coptic girls, the killing of Coptic women and children and the destruction of their places of worship," the report said.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an agency created by Congress, also lists Egypt on its watch list of countries, noting it had "a poor overall human rights record."

In addition, Egyptian authorities have threatened two young boys who were ordered to take training to be Muslims, but refused, stating they are Christian.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. intelligence agents 'uncover bin Laden letters'
Missives found in Pakistan appear to have been written in December

US secret service agents operating in the remote border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan claim to have found five letters signed by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Saudi daily Al-Watan said on Thursday.

Citing unnamed local security sources, the newspaper said that the letters are allegedly handwritten in Arabic and bear Bin Laden's apparent signature and seal.

They appear to have been sent last December to some of Bin Laden's followers in the region.

One of the letters is addressed to the Taliban leader in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Helmand, Mansoor Dadallah.

In the letter, Bin Laden reportedly offers condolences to Dadallah, the brother of Mullah Dadallah, late Taliban leader in Helmand, who was killed last year in a US air strike.

After his brother's death, Mansoor Dadullah claimed he had received a letter from Bin Laden in an interview with satellite Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera.

Mansoor spent several years in jail and was freed in March 2007 as part of a deal that secured the release of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been held by Taliban militants for two weeks.

The letter addressed to Dadullah also urges the Taliban to step up its attacks on NATO troops deployed in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al-Watan reported.

Western intelligence agents are currently analysing the letters for evidence of any contact with 14 alleged members of an Islamic fundamentalist group arrested in anti-terror raids in the north-east Spanish city of Barcelona on January 19.

Twelve Pakistani and two Indians allegedly belonging to Jamaat Al-Tabligh wal-Dawa (Society for Propagation and Preaching) were arrested in a series of police raids.

Police said they had found bomb-related material during the raids and that the operation was aimed at breaking up an Islamist terror network.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lawsuit over airport 'breakroom' for Muslims
Man says common area taken over for Islamic activities – claims life threatened

A shuttle driver has filed a complaint with the FAA against the Salt Lake International Airport, saying officials allowed thousands of religious services to be conducted on public property. Muslim cab drivers began praying in a small airport building used as a break room after 9-11, because, the airport says, they became targets, with people yelling at them and throwing things.

Last week we brought you the story of a Muslim cab driver at the airport who says he was assaulted when he tried to pray inside the building. Tonight the man charged in that case speaks out about his case against the airport.


Shuttle driver Jeff Brueningsen took photos inside the building he and other drivers share at the airport. "It was definitely an Islamic center." He said it didn't feel right, so he filed a complaint with the FAA against the airport.

"In proper, polite company you never bring up politics or religion. And they introduced both instantly into what's supposed to be a professional, secular transportation-aviation facility," Brueningsen said.

In the complaint he details claims that he was harassed by a group of Muslim drivers who he says have threatened to kill him. It came to a head earlier this month when Brueningsen says Mohammed Alahmed and other drivers attacked him.

"They were going like this, using their fingers, saying, ‘You F-ing Jew, you don't want us to pray here,'" Brueningsen says.

Alahmed says it was the other way around, that Brueningsen tried to stop him from praying. "He say the F word against me, and I didn't do anything. And he grabbed me from my shirt and hit me with his hand," Alahmed said.

Airport police investigated and charged only Brueningsen with assault. Shortly after, the airport closed the building, and Muslim drivers began praying outside.

No one was happy.

Cab driver Yuriy Artuyunyan says, "We cannot have breakfast, we cannot go to restroom, we cannot play chess."

Barbara Gann, with the Salt Lake International Airport, said, "There were some grave concerns over safety and possible escalating violence."

Airport officials say they never sanctioned prayers, but they never stopped them. Instead they trusted the drivers to be courteous and respectful to one another, a plan that didn't work.

Airport and city officials are meeting to decide what to do with the building. While they do that, Brueningsen isn't allowed to work on airport property.

[Soldier4Christ]

Wikipedia Rejects Muslim Censors

An entry in the online encyclopedia that includes images of the Prophet Muhammad is drawing worldwide protest at ThePetitionSite.com, reports the New York Times.

One protester writes, “It’s totally unacceptable to print the Prophet’s picture. It shows insensitivity towards Muslim feelings and should be removed immediately.”

Wikipedia is not backing down, asserting that it will not be "censored for the benefit of any particular group."

Paul M. Cobb, who teaches Islamic history at Notre Dame, comments, "Islamic teaching has traditionally discouraged representation of humans, particularly Muhammad, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent. Some of the most beautiful images in Islamic art are manuscript images of Muhammad."

Kudos to Wikipedia.

[Soldier4Christ]

Al Qaeda seen planning attack on U.S.

Senior al Qaeda leaders have diverted operatives from Iraq across the globe and are increasing preparations to strike the United States, senior intelligence officials told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday. They said the terrorists had plans to attack the White House as recently as 2006.

"Al Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the U.S. — the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland," said Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, which oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Intelligence officials also said they used a controversial interrogation tactic known as "waterboarding," which some people regard as torture, only on three senior al Qaeda members early in the war on terror and that it has not been used in five years.

The officials added that al Qaeda is recruiting Westerners to terror camps in Pakistan.

"While increased security measures at home and abroad have caused al Qaeda to view the West, especially the U.S., as a harder target, we have seen an influx of new Western recruits into the tribal areas since mid-2006, " Mr. McConnell said.

Mr. McConnell revealed that al Qaeda had plans to specifically target the White House.

"It [al Qaeda] probably will continue to devote some effort towards honoring bin Laden's request in 2005 that al Qaeda attempt to strike the United States, affirmed publicly by current al Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri in a November 2006 threat against the White House," he said.

White House officials would not comment on specific security threats to the president or the White House.

DNI officials would not elaborate or offer details of specifics to the threat.

"The statement speaks for itself," said Vanee Vines spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Mr. McConnell was seated alongside CIA Director Michael V. Hayden; FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III; Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Randall Fort, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.

Later in the hearing, Mr. Hayden said his agency's use of "lawful interrogation" methods, including waterboarding, on three high-level al Qaeda members was necessary to gain critical information on the organization after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Hayden added that waterboarding was only used those three times as a necessary measure to handle the imminent threat posed by the terrorist organization.

"We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Mr. Hayden said. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

The three al Qaeda detainees were Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks; Abu Zubaydah, an early member of al Qaeda and close associate of bin Laden and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, behind the USS Cole bombing and who headed al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf before he was captured in November 2002.

The three captives were interrogated in 2002 and 2003 and waterboarding has not been used since, Mr. Hayden said.

Mr. McConnell added that although al Qaeda absorbed vast resources in "the ongoing conflict in Iraq," the terrorist organization has leveraged broad "external networks" as far as Europe to support their goals.

Internal al Qaeda documents obtained in Iraq by U.S. intelligence suggest that "fewer than 100 [al Qaeda] terrorists have moved from Iraq to establish cells in other countries," he said.

The most active al Qaeda affiliate in northwestern Africa is the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, which intelligence officials said poses a "significant threat to U.S. and European interests in the region."

Further, al Qaeda "has been able to retain a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that provides the organization many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan" making it a training hub for terrorists seeking to attack the United States and its allies, Mr. McConnell said.

Despite cooperation from Pakistan, Gen. Maples said the Pakistani military has not been able to disrupt al Qaeda operations in the tribal border region. He added that the U.S. military is prohibited by Pakistan from pursuing al Qaeda fighters or Taliban that flee Afghanistan across the border after conducting attacks.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Muslim Student Threatens Former Terrorist's Life at Air Force Academy Even

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Former terrorists Walid Shoebat,  Kamal Saleem and Zak Anani addressed cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs,  during their annual political forum. They shared their experiences as terrorists and helped cadets understand the Islamic fundamentalist mind set.
 
During the event a Jordanian college student, identified as Omar Khalifa of Metro International, approached Kamal Saleem and spoke to him in Arabic, "you are an enemy of Islam and you must die." The incident was reported to Military Police, who  investigated Khalifa's  threat.
 
"The men receive threats of this nature all of time and we take each one very seriously," said Keith Davies, Executive Director of the Shoebat Foundation. "That is why each of the men live in seclusion."
 
Numerous media outlets (New York Times, the Associated Press, The Colorado Springs Gazette, the Rocky Mountain News) did not report on the former terrorists' message, but instead focused on the [inaccurate] media statements distributed by CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations), in an all-out campaign to discredit the speakers credentials and background.
 
"We have all been told that Islam has been hijacked by extremists,” said Walid Shoebat. "Yet CAIR, who professes to be ‘Moderate Muslims’ are the Three Ex Terrorists biggest critics, and pull out all stops to try and keep out voices from being heard.  I beg to ask the question; if CAIR is indeed moderate as they claim, then WHY are they not supporting our campaign against 'extremists? If they are sincerely against the Fundamentalist Muslim agenda why do they appose us?"
 
According to the Air Force Academy's public affairs office CAIR spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, contacted them numerous times criticizing the scheduling of the three men, and requesting an opportunity to have a CAIR representative share with cadets information about the Islamic faith.  The Academy informed Hooper that the event was not about religion, but about terrorism, and he denied CAIR's request.
 
Each of the men can document their stories and identities. Shoebat has spoken at more than 50 events, including many prestigious organizations and venues. He has also addressed audiences at numerous government agencies, who always scrutinize his credentials and background, and they have cleared him each and every time. He has spoken at the National Constitution Center, Columbia, Stanford and Harvard universities, the Department of Homeland Security, and the  FBI Academy, to name only a few.  The advisory board of the Walid Shoebat Foundation is comprised of Generals and other senior officers from the U.S. Military. 

[Shammu]

Al-Qaeda has moved Germany up on hit list
Feb 9, 2008

BERLIN - GERMANY has become a prime target for Al-Qaeda, whose commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan have ordered terror attacks on the country, senior government officials said.

'Germany is at the centre of Al-Qaeda's attention and in their line of fire. The facts have changed since last year,' interior ministry spokesman Stefan Paris told reporters on Friday, confirming a press report.

A state secretary in the interior ministry, Mr August Hanning, told Die Welt newspaper that Al-Qaeda leaders based in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan had 'decided to carry out attacks in Germany'.

'We are worried that we will not be able to foil every plot,' he added.

Die Welt said Germany's domestic intelligence agency and police had established that Germany's six-year-old military mission in Afghanistan had prompted Al-Qaeda to move the country 'much higher' on its list of targets.

Mr Hanning linked the 'high risk' to the volatile situation in southern Afghanistan, saying Al-Qaeda's 'operational capacity' in the region had recovered.

In September, two German converts to Islam and a Turkish man were arrested in the western Sauerland region on suspicion of planning to blow up United States installations in Germany, including the south-western US military airbase at Ramstein.

The men had stockpiled some 700 kilogrammes of chemicals to use in 'massive' attacks to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States, the security services said.

The plotters are believed to belong to the Islamic Jihad Union, a group with links to Al-Qaeda.

The deputy chief of the federal police, Mr Bernhard Falk, told Die Welt there were clear indications that Al-Qaeda had ordered other attacks and that its cadres were preparing to strike.

'There is a high probability that besides the Sauerland plot, several other operations have been planned,' he said.

Germans in Afghanistan, often young men of Turkish origin or German converts to Islam, were recruited to become 'holy warriors' and sent back to Germany to carry out attacks, he said.

Al-Qaeda was increasingly and successfully recruiting Germans via the Internet, he added. The group posted propaganda in German and had set up 'virtual terror training camps' for supporters.

Die Welt quoted officials as saying that the security services are investigating charges against 184 suspected Islamist extremists in Germany and that 70 were deemed so dangerous that they were under constant surveillance.

The Sauerland plotters had been watched by security services for months before their arrest.

Paris said the interior ministry did not want 'to sew alarm but the public has a right to be informed'.

Germany has 3,200 soldiers stationed in Kabul and northern Afghanistan as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led International Security Assistance Force but has rejected calls by its allies to deploy men in the south to fight a Taleban insurgency.

A poll published this week found that 85 per cent of Germans are opposed to extending the military mandate in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda has moved Germany up on hit list