In the news - muslims......

[Soldier4Christ]

"Islamofascism Awareness Week" is a project by David Horowitz and friends. This project is arranging speakers on campuses throughout the U.S. to bring attention to the atrocities of islam.

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Defending Islamofascism
It's a valid term. Here's why.

The attempt by David Horowitz and his allies to launch "Islamofascism Awareness Week" on American campuses has been met with a variety of responses. One of these is a challenge to the validity of the term itself. It's quite the done thing, in liberal academic circles, to sneer at any comparison between fascist and jihadist ideology. People like Tony Judt write to me to say, in effect, that it's ahistorical and simplistic to do so. And in some media circles, another kind of reluctance applies: Alan Colmes thinks that one shouldn't use the word Islamic even to designate jihad, because to do so is to risk incriminating an entire religion. He and others don't want to tag Islam even in its most extreme form with a word as hideous as fascism. Finally, I have seen and heard it argued that the term is unfair or prejudiced because it isn't applied to any other religion.

Well, that last claim is certainly not true. It was once very common, especially on the left, to prefix the word fascism with the word clerical. This was to recognize the undeniable fact that, from Spain to Croatia to Slovakia, there was a very direct link between fascism and the Roman Catholic Church. More recently, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, editor of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica, coined the term Judeo-Nazi to describe the Messianic settlers who moved onto the occupied West Bank after 1967. So, there need be no self-pity among Muslims about being "singled out" on this point.

The term Islamofascism was first used in 1990 in Britain's Independent newspaper by Scottish writer Malise Ruthven, who was writing about the way in which traditional Arab dictatorships used religious appeals in order to stay in power. I didn't know about this when I employed the term "fascism with an Islamic face" to describe the attack on civil society on Sept. 11, 2001, and to ridicule those who presented the attack as some kind of liberation theology in action. "Fascism with an Islamic face" is meant to summon a dual echo of both Alexander Dubcek and Susan Sontag (if I do say so myself), and in any case, it can't be used for everyday polemical purposes, so the question remains: Does Bin Ladenism or Salafism or whatever we agree to call it have anything in common with fascism?

I think yes. The most obvious points of comparison would be these: Both movements are based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind. ("Death to the intellect! Long live death!" as Gen. Francisco Franco's sidekick Gonzalo Queipo de Llano so pithily phrased it.) Both are hostile to modernity (except when it comes to the pursuit of weapons), and both are bitterly nostalgic for past empires and lost glories. Both are obsessed with real and imagined "humiliations" and thirsty for revenge. Both are chronically infected with the toxin of anti-Jewish paranoia (interestingly, also, with its milder cousin, anti-Freemason paranoia). Both are inclined to leader worship and to the exclusive stress on the power of one great book. Both have a strong commitment to sexual repression—especially to the repression of any sexual "deviance"—and to its counterparts the subordination of the female and contempt for the feminine. Both despise art and literature as symptoms of degeneracy and decadence; both burn books and destroy museums and treasures.

Fascism (and Nazism) also attempted to counterfeit the then-success of the socialist movement by issuing pseudo-socialist and populist appeals. It has been very interesting to observe lately the way in which al-Qaida has been striving to counterfeit and recycle the propaganda of the anti-globalist and green movements. (See my column on Osama Bin Laden's Sept. 11 statement.)

There isn't a perfect congruence. Historically, fascism laid great emphasis on glorifying the nation-state and the corporate structure. There isn't much of a corporate structure in the Muslim world, where the conditions often approximate more nearly to feudalism than capitalism, but Bin Laden's own business conglomerate is, among other things, a rogue multinational corporation with some links to finance-capital. As to the nation-state, al-Qaida's demand is that countries like Iraq and Saudi Arabia be dissolved into one great revived caliphate, but doesn't this have points of resemblance with the mad scheme of a "Greater Germany" or with Mussolini's fantasy of a revived Roman empire?

Technically, no form of Islam preaches racial superiority or proposes a master race. But in practice, Islamic fanatics operate a fascistic concept of the "pure" and the "exclusive" over the unclean and the kufar or profane. In the propaganda against Hinduism and India, for example, there can be seen something very like bigotry. In the attitude to Jews, it is clear that an inferior or unclean race is being talked about (which is why many Muslim extremists like the grand mufti of Jerusalem gravitated to Hitler's side). In the attempted destruction of the Hazara people of Afghanistan, who are ethnically Persian as well as religiously Shiite, there was also a strong suggestion of "cleansing." And, of course, Bin Laden has threatened force against U.N. peacekeepers who might dare interrupt the race-murder campaign against African Muslims that is being carried out by his pious Sudanese friends in Darfur.

This makes it permissible, it seems to me, to mention the two phenomena in the same breath and to suggest that they constitute comparable threats to civilization and civilized values. There is one final point of comparison, one that is in some ways encouraging. Both these totalitarian systems of thought evidently suffer from a death wish. It is surely not an accident that both of them stress suicidal tactics and sacrificial ends, just as both of them would obviously rather see the destruction of their own societies than any compromise with infidels or any dilution of the joys of absolute doctrinal orthodoxy. Thus, while we have a duty to oppose and destroy these and any similar totalitarian movements, we can also be fairly sure that they will play an unconscious part in arranging for their own destruction, as well.

[Soldier4Christ]

Islamo-Fascism Denial

Muslim organizations are joining U.S. radical groups in mounting a national hate campaign against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency has published an article denouncing the week, as have campus newspapers and organizations including the Socialist Workers Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party. And now MSA West, which describes itself as “an organization comprised of Muslim Student Associations (MSAs) representing campuses across the west coast,” has distributed a packet that it hopes will “serve the needs of MSA’s to intelligently and successfully confront IFAW.” The packet describes Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week as an “effort to curb critical thinking and academic freedom, spread racism and hate, and slander Islam and Muslims with lies and deception.”

This packet by MSA West and the growing effort to mobilize Muslim groups against an open, objective, and fair minded discussion of an Islamo-fascist ideology whose chief target is Muslims—Muslim women, gays, and free thinkers who become “infidels” the moment they question Islamic fundamentalism—shows exactly why Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week is necessary. By calling the effort to create a heightened awareness of Islamo-Fascism “racist,” these Muslim groups, and their hardcore radical allies, are attempting to invoke cloture on one of the most pressing issues of the day. They degrade real racism with their cynical charges as surely did those who formed a rhetorical lynch mob to hunt down the Duke lacrosse players. In trying to stifle Islamo-Fascism Awareness, they stifle free speech and free inquiry itself.

The witch-hunt involves fringe groups such as the Revolutionary Communist Party. It also involves groups embedded in the heart of our political process such as Campus Progress –a campus project funded by the Center for American Progress, an operation created by George Soros and Hillary Clinton and run by Bill Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta. The group has put up a "kit" for attacking Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. In the literature, David Horowitz is described as a "racist" -- the standard label the Left attaches to anyone with whom it disagrees. The literature claims -- ludicrously -- that Horowitz has said that slavery was good for blacks. Of course Horowitz has never said any such thing. Campus Progress is distorting the meaning behind Horowitz's campaign against a proposal to have people who were not slaveowners pay reparations to people who were not slaves, and to do so 137 years after slavery was abolished. And what he said about reparations can be read here. In any case, none of this has anything to do with Islamo-Fascism -- or contradicting any of the evidence exposing the evil that it creates. This assault on Horowitz and Islamo-Fascism Awareness show how dependent the Left -- and now the Muslim groups with which it has formed an unholy alliance -- has become on the tactic of assaulting a political opponent's character to direct the discussion away from a truth that it cannot deny.

Now the MSA West Packet imitates this dependence on slander and deception. The packet takes issue with the term “Islamo-Fascism” itself. “Islamofascism,” we’re told, “is a term coined by neo-conservatives. According to neo-conservatives, Islamofascists are Muslims (hence the word ‘Islam’) who seek to rule the world under a totalitarian, oppressive regime (hence the word ‘fascists’.) Such diverse people and groups like Saddam Hussein (a secularist), Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran are labeled Islamofascists….According to the proponents of Islamofascism Week, such groups pose a threat to the United States. They link these groups by stating such groups want to dominate the world under an oppressive ‘caliphate’. This accusation has no basis whatsoever.”

Really? Let’s see.

First things first: "Islamo-Fascism" has connections to fascism, as Christopher Hitchens has pointed out, because “both movements are based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind.” Both are nostalgic for past glory, obsessed with real and imagined humiliations and thirsty for revenge, filled with anti-Semitism, and committed to sexual repression and its subordination of the female.

There is nothing artful or contrived in the term “Islamo-Fascism.” It is derived from history itself. Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (from which today’s radical Muslim groups descend) was, after all, an open admirer and supporter of Adolf Hitler -- as was the principal theorist of the modern jihad, Sayyid Qutb. During World War II, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, cousin of Yasir Arafat and spiritual godfather of Palestinian nationalism, ubgone86 Amin al-Husseini, pronounced his pro-Nazi sympathies openly and proudly. In May 1941, he issued a fatwa calling upon the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv, and in November 1941 traveled to Berlin and met with Hitler. He implored the Nazi dictator to help implement a Final Solution in the Middle East. Then he went to the Balkans, where he spearheaded the creation of Muslim units of the Waffen SS.

In terms of the specific terrorist groups and entities mentioned in the MSA packet, all of them -- along with many others -- have indeed made clear that they wish to destroy the United States and dominate the world under an oppressive caliphate – that is, a unified Islamic state ruled by Islamic Sharia law:

    * Al-Qaeda: Osama bin Laden has said that the 9/11 attacks strengthened the Muslims, “which is a very good sign and a great step towards the unity of Muslims and establishing the Righteous Islamic Khilafah [caliphate] insha-Allah [Allah willing].” His second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, has declared: “The war with Israel is not about a treaty, a cease-fire agreement, Sykes-Picot borders, national zeal, or disputed borders. It is rather a jihad for the sake of God until the religion of God is established. It is jihad for the liberation of Palestine, all Palestine, as well as every land that was a home for Islam, from Andalusia to Iraq. The whole world is an open field for us.”
    * Hamas: The Hamas Charter sets out its Islamic mission as global: “Its spatial dimension extends wherever on earth there are Muslims, who adopt Islam as their way of life; thus, it penetrates to the deepest reaches of the land and to the highest spheres of Heavens. . . . By virtue of the distribution of Muslims, who pursue the cause of the Hamas, all over the globe, and strive for its victory, for the reinforcement of its positions and for the encouragement of its Jihad, the Movement is a universal one.” Universal in what way? The Palestinian Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi exhorted believers in 2002 “Oh beloved, look to the East of the earth, find Japan and the ocean; look to the West of the earth, find [some] country and the ocean. Be assured that these will be owned by the Muslim nation, as the Hadith says . . . ‘from the ocean to the ocean.’”
    * The Muslim Brotherhood: Its founder, Hasan Al-Banna, wrote that “it is a duty incumbent on every Muslim to struggle towards the aim of making every people Muslim and the whole world Islamic, so that the banner of Islam can flutter over the earth and the call of the Muezzin can resound in all the corners of the world: God is greatest [Allahu akbar]!” Despite recent claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that the Brotherhood has renounced this goal.
    * Hezbollah: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has made clear that he wishes to pose a threat to the United States: “Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute.…I conclude my speech with the slogan that will continue to reverberate on all occasions so that nobody will think that we have weakened. Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.”
    * The Islamic Republic of Iran: While as a Shi’ite he does not wish to see the establishment of a caliphate, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad harbors similar dreams of Islamic domination. He said in 2005: “we will soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism and will breathe in the brilliant time of Islamic sovereignty over today’s world.”

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

And in terms of Saddam Hussein, suffice it to say that there was a reason he trained thousands of Islamic jihad terrorists from all over the Middle East at camps in Iraq over the four years preceding the U.S. invasion.

The Minaret of Freedom Institute of Bethesda, Maryland, also takes issue, in a paper entitled “Islamo-fascism or Neocon-fascism?,” with the term “Islamo-Fascism.” Neither MSA-West nor the Minaret of Freedom Institute mentions the Algerian sociologist Marieme Helie Lucas’s observation that the term “Islamo-Fascism” was “initially coined by Algerian people struggling for democracy, against armed fundamentalist forces decimating people in our country, then later operating in Europe, where a number of us had taken refuge.”

In other words, the term “Islamo-Fascism” originates with moderate Muslims under attack from Muslim hardliners, who murdered more than 150,000 Muslims whom they regarded as infidels in Algeria in the 1990s. The Minaret of Freedom declares that “Islam rejects the teachings of fascism because it is idolatry. Instead of worshipping God and receiving one’s moral guidance through the Qur’an and other revealed scriptures (the Torah, Psalms, Gospel, etc.), the fascist receives his or her moral guidance from the State and its leader.”

For what could be a more precise term to describe the codification of the moral guidance of the Qur’an into a totalitarian system that attempts to regulate an individual’s entire way of life, as the world has seen in the Iranian and Taliban regimes? Islamic Sharia law traditionally does indeed regulate an individual’s entire way of life; when this regulation becomes a matter for state enforcement, this is indeed fascist by the very definition used by the Minaret of Freedom.

If the MSA-West and the Minaret of Freedom are really opposed to the Islamic supremacist agenda advanced by jihadists today, they should end the denial and obfuscation manifest in their responses to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, and join with its sponsors in defending the human rights of women, religious minorities, homosexuals and others oppressed under Islamic Sharia today. Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is, after all, a defense of millions of Muslims who are being tortured, persecuted and murdered today by those whose deformed universe of ideas is fascist to the core.

One clue may be in the MSA’s own questionable record and associations: according to Discover the Networks, “MSA was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as one of the Brotherhood’s likeminded ‘organizations of our friends.’ These ‘friends’ -- which included also the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Arab Youth Association, the Islamic Association for Palestine, the United Association for Studies and Research, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought -- were identified by the Brotherhood as groups that could help teach Muslims ‘that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.”

Moreover, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, “At the 7th annual MSA West Conference held at the University of Southern California in January 2005, a former MSA UCLA member, Ahmed Shama stated, ‘We want to restore Islam to the leadership of society...We are trying to establish that system of government, of Islamic governance, and to the helm of life in all walks of life. In short, we want to make the word of Allah (swt) supreme in every single aspect of life...The end goal of everything that we’re talking about is the reestablishment of the Islamic form of government...” He added: “The only justification -- the only justification -- that Muslims have to live in this country is da’wah. I say it again. It might be controversial...The only obligation that we have living in this country is da’wah...The end goal of everything I was talking about is the establishment of, the reestablishment of, Islamic form of government.”

These words were not written by David Horowitz, Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, Michael Ledeen, former Sen. Rick Santorum, or any other so-called “Islamophobe” involved with Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, but by a purported “friend” of the MSA. If this is not really the MSA’s goal, now is the time for the organization to renounce it publicly and stand with the defenders of human rights who are speaking out during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

[Shammu]

Riots in Amsterdam and Brussels
By Paul Belien
Created 2007-10-23 16:49

Europe’s no-go zones or SUAs (“sensitive urban areas") are multiplying. These are areas where the police no longer dares to venture and where Islamists hold sway. Every night since the beginning of last week, immigrant youths have been torching cars and clashing with police in Amsterdam’s Slotervaart district. The incidents started on Oct. 14 when a a policewoman shot dead Bilal Bajaka, a 22-year old ethnic Moroccan, whilst he was stabbing her and a colleague with a knife. The officers were stabbed in the breast, face, neck and back. Surgeons could only narrowly save their lives.

Since the incident, Slotervaart has seen rioting almost every night. The Amsterdam Moroccans are  “shocked” because one of them has been killed by an infidel woman. According to his family, Bilal Bajaka was mentally deranged and had a suicide obsession. Ahmed Marcouch, the Moroccan-born Socialist mayor of Slotervaart, criticized the Dutch authorities for failing to provide adequate health care for Bajaka’s mental problems.

Bilal Bajaka was, however, a personal friend of Mohammed Bouyeri, the Jihadist who ritually slaughtered the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh in 2004. Bilal’s attack on the two police officers came exactly two years after the arrest of his brother, Abdullah Bajaka, the leader of an alleged plot to blow up an El-Al Boeing at Amsterdam airport. Bilal’s family background is not at all deprived. One of his sisters is a medical doctor, another sister is a Dutch judge.

For ten days now, the situation in Amsterdam’s immigrant neighbourhoods has been tense. Senior police officers compare the current situation in Amsterdam to the 2005 Ramadan riots in Paris. Media outside the Netherlands, however, hardly mention the riots, which aim to drive the police from Slotervaart and turn the neighborhood into a new no-go area – yet another pocket of Eurabia on Europe’s soil.

Similar events are currently taking place in Brussels, the capital of neighbouring Belgium and of the EU. Last Sunday, demonstrating Turkish youths ransacked an Armenian restaurant in the Sint-Joost-ten-Node borough. According to the owner the police was present at the scene but did not interfere while his establishment was being demolished. The Armenian had to flee for his life.

Another man who had to run for his life was the Belgian journalist Mehmet Koksal, an ethnic Turk. He was attacked around 11 pm on Sunday evening by a group of some twenty Turkish youths in front of the American embassy in Brussels, a few yards from the Belgian parliament building. The Parliament and the US Embassy are less than one kilometer from Sint-Joost-ten-Node. Koksal fled to a nearby police car, but a female police officer refused to let him into the car, whereupon the youths savagely beat him up. Fearing that they were about to lynch him, the police officer changed her attitude and allowed the journalist to seek refuge in the police car.

Koksal told the press today that he is not going to press charges against the police for failing to help him. “The police woman was more afraid than I was and ultimately the police came to my rescue,” he said.

Riots in Amsterdam and Brussels

[Shammu]

Mosque or we'll riot, Religion of peace in Amsterdam

THE HAGUE -- If Amsterdam city council bars construction of the Westermoskee mosque, a great demonstration of Turks from throughout Europe will be held. The possibility of this degenerating into violence cannot be ruled out, the Turkish organisation Milli Gorus warns.

The controversial Westermoskee in Amsterdam will be built come what may, said Fatih Dag of the Turkish mosque organisation in Trouw newspaper. If the government blocks its building, Milli Gorus will call on Turks throughout the whole of Europe to demonstrate. Dag hopes this would be a peaceful procession, but fears it could get out of hand. "Our people are emotional and someone crazy can just be walking among them," he said in the newspaper.

The building of the 42 metre tall, 18-million euros Neo-Ottoman Westermoskee was blocked months ago after Milli Gorus' orthodox German head office replaced management in Amsterdam. After that, reports surfaced that Milli Gorus had wheedled billions of euros out of Turks since the 1990s by having them invest in Islamic investment funds.

Amsterdam politicians advised against the building of the new Westermoskee in the 1990s for fears of the orthodox course, but after much lobbying, the project was last year dubbed a symbol of integration by the then Justice Minster Donner, who laid the foundation-stone. Last week, it was made known that municipal authorities and Milli Gorus had suspended their cooperation on the building anyway.

If the licence for the mosque is definitively withdrawn, this would be "extremely foolish," warns Dag. "I will then immediately call for a demonstration. If every Milli Gorus mosque in Europe sends a bus, it will certainly be busy. I have not tipped off Al Jazeera, but they will certainly get wind of it, and I will speak to them. That will go out to the entire Arabic world, cross my heart. All Muslims have a satellite dish, so they will see that a beautiful project for Muslims is being forbidden here."

"Do not forget", added Dag in Trouw, "that we began the project with a number of Turks, but with all the hindrance, it has now become a matter for many Muslims throughout the Netherlands. I expect a revolt among them, naturally within the legal boundaries, but still: Our people are more emotional than you Europeans. And there can be a crazy person among them."

Amsterdam's Mayor Cohen declined to comment on the apparent threats by Dag. According to his spokesman, the mayor does however want to hear "what is going on" personally from Dag.

Build the Mosque or we'll riot, Religion of peace in Amsterdam

[nChrist]

One of the most basic rules of law enforcement is that you never give up control of an area to the lawless. This has been learned the hard way many times. It really boils down to something simple:  You either have law, order, and civilization or the law of the jungle takes over. It's sad that the first victims are usually the mob's own innocents - the children, ill, and elderly.

It's a bad mistake to let anyone have what they want because of violence and terrorist acts. In fact, it's a bad mistake to do this even once because it then becomes the standard for their operations. The opposite message should be sent. Violence and terrorist acts should get nothing but vastly increased law enforcement, jail, prison, and deportation. There shouldn't be any compromise of law and order and NEVER any reward for violence. They must be dealt with appropriately for the same reason that a pack of wolves loose in a city must be dealt with. The only other choice is to let the wolves have the city and move to another city. It should be obvious that the wolves will want your new city also, so common sense dictates that you stop the wolves.

[Soldier4Christ]

Indonesian Group Files Police Protest against 'New Prophet'...

The Muslim Alliance (Alumi) of West Java said it will file a report with the National Police on Monday against sect leader Ahmad Musadek because he has claimed himself a prophet replacing Prophet Muhammad.

"We have entrusted the Muslim Lawyers Team to file the report," Ikhsan Setiadi Latief, the alliance secretary general told detik.com Saturday.

"Hopefully, this legal action can deter other heretical groups as well."

Ahmad Musadek heads the Al Qiyadah al Islamiyah sect, already considered as heretical by the Indonesian Ulema Council.

He claimed he was a prophet after 40 days of meditation.

Alumi, which consists of 46 Muslim organizations has accused Ahmad and his sect for blasphemy against Islam.

[Soldier4Christ]

Fate of proposed Muslim center in Maryland delayed

A vote on a controversial proposal by a Muslim group to build a large retreat and worship center on farmland in a rural Maryland town has been postponed.

The Walkersville Board of Zoning Appeals was scheduled to hold a final public hearing and vote Thursday on a plan by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to build a worship facility on a 224-acre farm in the town. But according to the Frederick News-Post, the Board voted this morning to postpone the hearing until January 8, with a continuation of January 15.

An attorney for the Muslim group said he might not be ready to present his case by the time of the Board's next meeting on December 6. At issue is an amendment to a zoning ordinance that would prohibit building places of worship and private clubs on land zoned for agriculture.

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-Maryland) would not speak with OneNewsNow about the Muslim center controversy brewing in his home district.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. embassy terror plot uncovered 
'There were some specific and credible threat information'

Authorities in Azerbaijan recently uncovered a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Baku, prompting the facility to close its doors to the public Monday, Azerbaijan and U.S. officials told CNN.

 As a precaution, Britain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday "following security concerns nearby," Britain's Foreign Office said.

The terror plot was unraveled after a weekend raid outside Baku that netted several suspected members of the radical group, two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified and a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry told CNN.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the details "are still unfolding," and the threat "may or may not be" linked to the Saturday raid.

"There were some specific and credible threat information concerning the embassy and plans by militants to in some way do harm to individuals in and around the U.S. Embassy there," McCormack said, noting that no specific individuals were targeted.

Several days ago, an Azerbaijani army officer who had connections to a radical Islamic group seized four assault rifles, a machine gun and 20 hand grenades from his military unit and hid them in the outskirts of Baku, the ministry spokesman and U.S. officials said.

Government security forces tracked down the group and arrested several members during a sweep on Saturday in the village of Mastaga, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baku, the spokesman said.

One suspected member of the militant group resisted arrest and was killed in the sweep, the spokesman said. Several others are still at large, he added.

He said the terror plot also targeted Azerbaijani government buildings.

The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a warden message warning Americans in Azerbaijan to take precautions.

"While there is no information at this time that other American or Western interests in Azerbaijan are being targeted, the U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security," it said.

Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic that borders the Caspian Sea, and lies just north of Iran.

McCormack said U.S. authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Baku and will determine when normal embassy operations will resume. He said he expects the embassy to limit its operations on Tuesday, as well.

[Soldier4Christ]

Miami group ready for holy war

A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified Tuesday.
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Raymond Tanter, a Georgetown University professor and terrorism scholar for 40 years, said suspected ringleader Narseal Batiste and the other six had nearly completed the "radicalization process" and moved toward acts of terrorism before their arrests in June 2006.

Hallmarks of this process include religious conversion, operation within a military-style hierarchy and adoption of goals shared by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to destroy U.S. landmarks, Tanter said. The final stage — which he called "jihadization" — means the group is ready to plan, recruit and prepare for an attack.

"I believe that Mr. Batiste falls in the jihadization, or final stage of the radicalization process," Tanter said, adding the other members of the "Liberty City Seven" also fall into that category.

Evidence introduced at trial shows that Batiste "was talking only about violent jihad" and not other meanings of the Arabic word, such as self-examination, Tanter said.

The oath of allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden taken by the seven men — captured on an FBI videotape — "is the manner in which al-Qaida binds individuals to the organization," Tanter said.

The oath was administered by a man Batiste's group knew as "Brother Mohammed" who claimed to be an emissary sent by al-Qaida to assist in the purported terror plot. In reality, "Mohammed" paid FBI informant Elie Assad, who testified earlier that he was playing a role under close watch of FBI agents.

Tanter also testified that al-Qaida uses affiliate groups in many countries that may have local concerns but also share the terrorist organization's broader goals of imposing by force a strict form of Islamic fundamentalist government. Prosecutors say Batiste wanted to stage attacks that would create chaos and ultimately bring down the U.S. government.

"There probably are affiliate groups of al-Qaida in the United States. Al-Qaida would like to extend its reach into the United States," Tanter said.

Tanter's testimony drew strong objections from defense attorneys, who unsuccessfully sought a mistrial from U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard. Albert Levin, attorney for defendant Patrick Abraham, said the jury could unfairly conclude that the group intended to commit terrorist acts based on the expert's opinions.

"This testimony is extremely prejudicial, goes right to the heart of this case," Levin said. "His testimony has totally polluted this (jury) pool."

But Lenard concluded that the testimony did not violate her order prohibiting Tanter from giving an opinion about the group's actual intentions or mental state.

Defense lawyers have sought to portray Batiste and the others as merely hoping to con "Mohammed" out of money by going along with all the terrorist talk. They say the group never intended to attack the Sears Tower or bomb FBI buildings, as the government claims, and never acquired the means to do so.

The defense is expected to begin cross-examination of Tanter on Wednesday, with the prosecution possibly resting its case by the end of the week.

The seven men each face as many as 70 years in prison if convicted of all four charges against them, including conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida.

[Shammu]

Muhammad Deif: We'll strike in heart of Israel

Senior Hamas member says commander of organization's military wing 'planning an attack against the Israeli occupation, and will not settle for the defensive fighting policy'; adds 'organization has completed its preparations and is only waiting for orders'
Ali Waked

Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas' military wing, has said that the movement will strike in the heart of Israel in the near future, a senior Hamas member said Tuesday.

The man, Sheikh Ahmed Hamdan from the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said that he recently met with Deif in his hiding place, and heard from him that Hamas will soon replace its defensive fighting policy with an offensive one.

According to Hamdan, "The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, plans to begin its attack against the Israeli occupation in the coming weeks, and will not settle for the defensive policy."

Hamdan spoke as he visited the family of a Hamas gunman killed Monday morning in clashes with the IDF in the southern Gaza Strip. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the incident.

"Deif promised me that the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades will hit the Zionist enemy hard. The organization has completed its preparations and is only waiting for orders," he said.

Deif is responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings he planned. In 1992, he went into hiding and escaped at lease two assassination attempts. In one of the incidents, in which a missile was fired at him, Deif reportedly lost one of his eyes.

Deif inherited the command on Hamas' military wing from Yehya Ayash, known as "the engineer," who was assassinated in 1996. He was behind a series of severe terror attacks which were carried out in revenge for Ayash's assassination.

He was responsible for sending terrorists to carry out suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Ashkelon, and was behind the groups that kidnapped and murdered IDF soldiers Nachson Waxman and Shahar Simani.

Deif, who knew he was being targeted by Israel, did everything to escape and slip away. At the end of 1996, he apparently escaped to Egypt, but he later returned to plan terror attacks. The more prominent terror activists were assassinated by Israel over the year, the more Deif became involved in planning attacks, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In the past years, he and his deputy gotcha98 al-Rul, who was assassinated at the end of 2004, were involved in developing rockets. In the course of the years he was arrested by Palestinian security forces, but was released after short periods of time.

Various legends and myths have been associated with his health condition, some claiming that he suffered brain damage. Deif once appeared in a Hamas film, in which he issued a statement proving that he was still active.

Muhammad Deif: We'll strike in heart of Israel

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How many times has Israel's enemies threatened or warned about attacking Israel & then Israel either twarts their plans or their enemies 'back off'? You just never know.

Israel handed out face/gas masks this past week.

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Syria accused of plot to kill Lebanon PM

By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 30, 4:36 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority claimed Tuesday that Syria was behind a plot to assassinate him and the Lebanese prime minister ahead of crucial presidential elections next month.

Saad Hariri did not elaborate on the plot but when asked about reports that Syrian officials were behind it, he said, "We have information about this, and it is correct."

"The assassination is not only of me but of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora also," said Hariri, whose father, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in a 2005 Beirut truck bombing that was widely blamed on Syria.

Saad Hariri spoke to reporters after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Syrian officials in Damascus could not be immediately reached for comment.

Lebanon's anti-Syrian groups, which dominate the government, claim Damascus is behind a two-year killing spree that has claimed the lives of several anti-Syrian politicians and public figures. The latest was the Sept. 19 slaying of lawmaker Antoine Ghanem in a Beirut car bombing.

Syria has denied involvement in any of the killings. Rafik Hariri's assassination provoked an outcry that forced Syrian troops to leave Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

The U.S. State Department said it couldn't confirm Saad Hariri's claims.

"Without commenting on the specifics on those allegations, it's clear that there is a pattern of threat, intimidation and use of violence against those who are trying to further the process of political reform in Lebanon," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Saad Hariri also accused Syria of trying to stall the election of a new Lebanese president by "influencing recent developments in Lebanon which have negatively affected reconciliation" between the country's rival factions.

Last week, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the parliamentary session to elect a new president until Nov. 12 to give rival factions more time to find a compromise. The parliament, dominated by anti-Syrian legislators, failed to meet twice to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who steps down Nov. 24.

There had been hopes that the presidential vote could break a 10-month political deadlock between Lebanon's U.S.-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition factions led by the militant Hezbollah.

Egypt has been trying to help resolve the deadlock. Media here have reported that Cairo is trying to persuade the rival factions to accept Lebanese army commander Michael Suleiman as a compromise candidate.

Under Lebanon's complex sectarian-based political system, the president traditionally hails from the Maronite community that makes up the largest sect among minority Christians.

The parliament majority is hoping to put one of its own in the post, but the opposition has rejected a president they don't endorse. Over 15 declared or undeclared candidates are vying for the post.

Many Lebanese fear divisions over the presidency could lead to two rival governments — a grim prospect for a country that suffered through a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

Syria accused of plot to kill Lebanon PM

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Terrorists frantically concerned about Olmert's health
'We don't want him to die before following through with his promises'
Posted: October 29, 2007
11:52 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terrorists today expressed frantic concern for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's health following media reports he would hold a news conference announcing the diagnosis of a medical ailment.

At the news conference, held at 1 p.m. Jerusalem time, Olmert told reporters he will undergo a surgical procedure in the coming months to remove the early stages of a "cancerous tumor" in his prostate.

Olmert told the packed news conference he would continue with his duties as prime minister and will not undergo chemotherapy or radiation. He said the tumor was detected 10 days ago during a routine checkup, shortly before a trip to Russia.

The prime minister's doctors said the microscopic tumor was very treatable and the surgery was not urgent.

Prior to the press conference, television channels and radio networks today dramatically announced Olmert would disclose an unspecified illness.

Following the reports, WND's Jerusalem bureau received calls from almost a dozen terrorists, including senior leaders, asking whether the online news agency had any information about Olmert's illness and expressing concern for the prime minister.

The terrorists were all members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Brigades, together with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, took responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years and has carried out thousands of shootings, grenade attacks and rocket launchings aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

"I don't want him to leave office or die before he has the occasion to follow through with his promises of granting amnesty," said one leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Olmert in June granted amnesty to nearly 200 members of the Brigades and has been considering offering amnesty to hundreds more on condition the gunmen disarm and refrain from terror attacks.

According to media reports, most terrorists granted amnesty in June failed to disarm. Many reportedly have been involved in a spate of attacks.

Several terror leaders calling WND for information expressed fear Olmert won't be able to attend a U.S.-brokered November Israeli-Palestinian summit at which the Israeli prime minister is widely expected to outline a Palestinian state. There has been a flurry of media reports that Olmert is contemplating handing over sections of Jerusalem to the Palestinians, as well.

Earlier this month, Olmert hinted he would be willing to divide Jerusalem, asking during a speech whether it was "really necessary" to retain certain Arab neighborhoods in Judaism's capital.

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Terrorists frantically concerned about Olmert's health
'We don't want him to die before following through with his promises'

JERKS!!