News, Prophecy and other

[Soldier4Christ]

IDF: Palestinian conflict to escalate

The IDF estimates that it is headed toward another violent round of clashes with the Palestinians following a period of relative calm, senior security officials said.

The dreary prognosis is based on the army's five-year plan for 2006-2011, which will be made public in July.

According to the assessment, army intelligence officials believe Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ambitious plan to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank will not do anything to decrease the scope of daily violence in the region. Instead, the army is moving forward based on a working plan that it is nearing another round of bloody violence with the Palestinians.

"The Palestinian society has chosen a path in which there is no compromise," a senior officer said, referring to the recent victory by Hamas in legislative elections.

The officials said the assessment is based on intelligence but gave no further details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the document has not been released.

The army traditionally has pessimistic outlooks, with working plans based on "worst case scenarios." However, in the 1990s it also spoke about "a window of opportunity" to make peace with Palestinians.

The No. 1 danger to Israel, as outlined in the five-year plan, is the Iranian nuclear program, which is defined as an "existential threat to Israel." It is followed by the threat of a renewed low-intensity conflict with the Palestinians. The third level of threat is all-out war.

In order to prepare for a conflict with the Palestinians, the army will shift its resources toward counter-terrorism units and away from traditional forms of warfare, such as the armor, artillery and engineering corps.

The army's general staff is expected to formally authorize the five-year plan in early July.

[Soldier4Christ]

'3rd intifada
on its way'
Terror leaders detail for WND
'massive new war' against Israel


With Hamas now in power, the long-ruling Fatah party and its "military wing" Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades forced into the opposition, and Israel announcing it will soon withdraw from the West Bank, Palestinian terror leaders tell WorldNetDaily recent events here are leading them to launch what they call a third intifada – or violent confrontation – against Israel consisting of suicide bombings, rocket attacks against Jewish communities and "a few new surprises in our arsenal."

Some terror leaders, particularly from the Al Aqsa Brigades, whose associated Fatah party scored poorly in last month's parliamentary elections, say they are planning massive violence against Israeli civilians mostly to revolt against the new Hamas-controlled Palestinian government.

"The new intifada is only a question of time and this will be the hardest and the most dangerous one. It's just about timing until the order to blow up a new wave of attacks will be given," Abu Nasser, a senior Al Aqsa Brigades leader from the Balata refugee camp in northern Samaria told WorldNetDaily in an interview.

Israel expecting new wave of terror

In the last 10 days Israeli forces intercepted 12 potential suicide bombers and have stopped several dozen bombings the past few months, prompting fears of "a new and worrisome wave of terror," said Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet security services.

Hamas last month catapulted to power, winning Palestinian parliamentary elections by a large margin and wresting control from Fatah. Israel has warned the losing terror groups, particularly Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades, will try to stymie efforts by Hamas to form a new government and sign a long-term cease fire with the Jewish state. Also, members of the Islamic Jihad terror group expressed disappointment their organization decided not to run in elections, and have warned they will stop Hamas from imposing a truce.

Last week, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced his Kadima party, leading overwhelmingly in the polls for next month's Israeli elections, will seek to "change Israel's borders" by withdrawing from most of the West Bank. Some security officials told WND they fear terror groups will increase attacks to claim credit for an Israeli West Bank pull-out.

After Israel announced its withdrawal from Gaza, which it carried out this past summer, terror organizations, mostly led by Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, increased attacks in the area, at one point firing an average of seven rockets per week at Gaza's Jewish communities.

Diskin warned that Iran and Syria, currently under mounting international pressure, are streaming large sums of money to Palestinian terror groups to spur on local cells to carry out attacks in hopes of starting regional violence.

The Palestinians launched their first intifada in 1987, which developed into a well-organized violent rebellion orchestrated by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization from its headquarters in Tunis. The so-called second intifada was initiated in 2000 after Arafat rejected at Camp David an Israeli offer of a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and sections of eastern Jerusalem. Some 993 Israelis and 3,781 Palestinians have been killed so far. Many say the second intifada is still being waged.

The terror groups themselves say they are planning a new wave of violence against Israelis, which some terror leaders are calling a "third intifada." They detailed for WorldNetDaily how they will carry it out.

Al Aqsa Brigades: 'We'll kill Israelis to revolt against Hamas'

The Al Aqsa Brigades was formed in 2000 by then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat as a military offshoot of the Fatah party. PA President Mahmoud Abbas signed a cease fire with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last February, to which the Brigades was party – but the terror group continued carrying out attacks.

Al Aqsa's Abu Nasser claims Israel put Hamas in power, and says his group is preparing a new terror onslaught as a result.

"For the last 10 months we respected a cease fire expecting to see changes in the lives of the Palestinian people, but we received from the Israeli side more assassinations ... and above all we received the Hamas victory, which seems to be the result of an Israeli and international conspiracy. They believe that Hamas will give up easier our lands and rights. I think that they are right, but we will not allow this to happen. We will fight and we will blow up the new intifada," Abu Nasser told WND.

Sources close to Al Aqsa say Abu Nasser was involved in preparing the last three suicide bombings in Israel, including the attack last month at a Tel Aviv shwarma restaurant that injured more than 30 Israelis.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal over the weekend said his group might sign a long-term cease fire with Israel, but told reporters he will not ask other Palestinian group to stop attacks.

Abu Nasser told WND the Brigades will not respect any cease fire agreed to by Hamas and will not halt attacks at Hamas' request.

"I am sure Hamas will start arresting us, but it will not be that easy [for them]," said Abu Nasser. "We are preparing ourselves for the worst scenario."

Asked if Al Aqsa's new terror war will be launched less out of aggression toward Israel and more to revolt against Hamas, Abu Nasser replied, "This is partially true. When we were in power, we were obliged to be more sensitive and more obedient to the instructions and policies of our leadership. Now that we lost the elections, why should we obey the leaders and just who do we obey? The Hamas?

Continued Abu Nasser: "I am sure once [Hamas is] in power it is only that power that is really important for them. They will be ready to give up things that President Arafat refused to do. The proof for what I am saying is that in the last days when the Israeli army killed more than 15 Palestinian activists, most of them from our Brigades, we did not hear the voice of Hamas. Where are their resistance principles? Did they disappear after the elections?"

Abu Nasser warned the so-called third intifada will be a combination of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Jewish towns.

"The Al Aqsa Brigades recently unified most of our cells and groups and we will wait for the most suitable moment to launch our resistance acts. As for the acts, there will be suicide attacks but there will be a massive use of rockets. These rockets will be launched against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but also if needed against Israeli cities inside the green line."

Rocket war against Israel

Since Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip this past August, security officials have been warning that the Palestinian terror groups transferred their rocket capabilities to the West Bank, which is within firing range of Israel's international airport and many major Israeli cities, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israel has confirmed that at least two rockets have been fired in the West Bank so far from the northern Samaria town of Jenin. There is information terror groups in the West Bank, particularly the Al Aqsa Brigades and Islamic Jihad, will step up attacks against the area's Jewish communities ahead of any Israeli withdrawal from the area.

WorldNetDaily caught up with Abu Oudai, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader responsible for coordinating the organization's rocket network in the West Bank. He warned that his organization is preparing a rocket war against Israel:

"We have launched [several] times and with the help of Allah we will launch these rockets regularly. There will be no calm, no cease fire until the occupation leaves our land. I don't need to tell you that the aerial distance from Jenin to Netanya, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities is not big without telling you what are all our plans concerning other parts of the West Bank."

Oudai said his organization and other terror groups have stockpiled Palestinian rockets, including Qassams, which can travel about 2 miles, more primitive Jenin-1 and Jenin-2s, and Arafat-1 and Arafat-2 rockets, some of which can reportedly travel up to 3 miles. He claimed his group is developing a new rocket that will put all of Israel's major cities within firing range.

"The very near future will prove their capacity to kill and destroy and to beat the Israelis in the West Bank exactly like we did with these rockets in the Gaza Strip," Oudai said.

Oudai pocked fun at Israel's West Bank security barrier, which has been credited with making it more difficult for Palestinian groups to carry out suicide bombings.

"[The Israelis] have built a huge wall on which [it] spent billions of dollars but still we are hitting Israel with our rockets and reaching every target we want. This wall will not defend [Israel] from our rockets which have defeated the wall and all the security measures taken to prevent our attacks," Oudai boasted.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

Israeli military leaders previously warned that the Jewish state will launch an "unprecedented" military campaign against any rocket firing from the West Bank.

The Israeli Defense Forces did not initiate any large-scale anti-rocket operation in response to the rockets launched from Jenin. It has been largely unable to stop the rockets regularly fired from Gaza into nearby Israeli Negev towns.

The Israeli army regularly responds to Qassam firings from Gaza with surgical missile strikes and artillery fire at areas it says are used to launch rockets. In December, Israel set up a buffer zone in sections of Gaza occasionally used to fire rockets into nearby Israeli Negev communities, but the Palestinian terrorists shifted their launching sites to other areas and have continued the attacks.

Said Oudai: "Israel already has used all its tools. Tanks, aircrafts, assassinations and everything it could use. But we are still here and still fighting. We do not get excited from the Israeli threats. What can be this unprecedented reaction? They have already tried everything."

In Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organization of several Palestinian terror groups, has taken credit for many of the rockets launched from the area since 2000.

Abu Abir, spokesman for the Committees, boasted his group transported missiles to the West Bank.

"If there is need, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel can become our target. Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank," Abu Abir told WorldNetDaily.

Abu Abir said his group has "improved [our] capacities in shooting these rockets. Even the Israeli officers agreed that the improvement is at all levels, [including] the distance that these rockets can reach, the capacity of explosives and their accuracy. In the last five years, there is no doubt that our abilities have improved."

Islamic Jihad: 'The Israelis should wait for our surprises'

Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for every suicide bombing against Israel since last February's cease fire, including bombings in a Tel Aviv disco and restaurant and a Netanya shopping mall, among others. Al Aqsa leaders told WorldNetDaily they aided the recent bombings. Islamic Jihad also says it fired most of the rockets launched from the Gaza Strip since Israel's August withdrawal.

Israel says Islamic Jihad is directly backed by Iran and Syria. Jihad chief Ramadan Shallah operates openly from Damascus and regularly visits Tehran.

Security sources say Hezbollah headquarters in Damascus and Beirut have ordered Islamic Jihad to carry out attacks in hopes of drawing Israel into a protracted military conflict.

Israel's Diskin warned that Iran and Syria are looking to use Islamic Jihad in part to distract mounting international pressure against their respective countries.

Iran is under fire for its alleged nuclear ambitions, and the international community led by the United States has threatened to bring Syria to the United Nations Security Council for allegedly interfering in the investigation into the assassination last year of former Lebanese Prime Minister Raqif Hariri, for which Syria has been widely blamed.

WorldNetDaily spoke with Islamic Jihad's northern West Bank leader Abu Khalil, who warned his terror group is planning a terror onslaught to chase Israel from the West Bank and eventually from Jerusalem.

"We will launch very soon very painful attacks that will shake the enemy. In fact, this is more the continuation of the (second) intifada because we never said that the intifada has ended. We will never give calm and security to the enemy. This will happen only when Israel will run away from Jerusalem and the West Bank like it did in Gaza," Abu Khalil said.

Abu Khalil, like leaders from the Al Aqsa Brigades, said his group will not respect a Hamas request to halt attacks against Israel.

"I don’t believe the brothers in Hamas will ask us to stop. In any case, our only commitment is towards Allah, and the blood of our people and brothers and towards our political leadership," Abu Khalil told WND.

"Therefore we will not give up the right to defend ourselves and to launch all kinds of attacks against Israel everywhere there is an Israeli soldier or any Israeli goal in the West Bank and 1948 occupied Palestine [the entire state of Israel]."

Asked which weapons will be emphasized during Islamic Jihad's next wave of terror attacks, Abu Khalil replied, "I should not answer this question for operational reasons. But we proved that we use everything Allah enables us to achieve and to use – suicide attacks, rockets and more surprises. The Israelis should wait for interesting surprises."

Hamas: 'Our goal is to rebuild Palestinian society'

Hamas, a terror group responsible for more than 60 suicide bombings, last month won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament and is currently attempting to form a governing coalition.

Hamas leaders claim they will focus on rebuilding Palestinian society, and have stated they may sign a long term cease fire agreement with Israel.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas chief in Gaza, told WorldNetDaily his group will "rebuild the Palestinian life shattered by corruption in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This is our goal now. To make a better life for the Palestinians."

In a widely circulated interview, al-Zahar even recently claimed to WorldNetDaily that Hamas might negotiate with Israel using a third party.

He said his group will likely agree to a long-term cease fire with the Jewish state, but said it will not recognize Israel or renounce its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel by "assaulting and killing."

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal this weekend said his group will not stop other Palestinian organizations from carrying out attacks against Israel.

Still, some analysts contend Hamas might use its power to halt some anti-Israel violence in hopes of receiving financial aide from international donors.

But the Al-Mustaqbal Research Center in Gaza warned that after Israel's Gaza withdrawal Hamas attacks will be focused on West Bank Jewish communities. The Center is reportedly closely aligned with Hamas and, according to Israeli security officials, it espouses Hamas ideology:

"[Hamas will be] transporting warfare technologies such as mortars and rockets from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. These will provide an easy way to bombard Israeli populated areas adjacent to the security fence, and the fence, which is currently under construction, will therefore become useless," stated a recent publication by the Research Center, according to a translation by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at Israel's Center for Special Studies.

Al-Mustaqbal stated Israel's Gaza withdrawal provided Hamas and other terror groups with a staging ground from which to launch attacks and to transport rockets to West Bank communities. It said the Gaza withdrawal proves Israel will vacate other areas in response to repeated attacks.

PFLP: Terror forced Israel out of Gaza, will get us rest of Jewish state

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has carried out recent West Bank shooting attacks and rocket firings from the Gaza Strip. The group's leader, Ahmad Saadat, is in a Palestinian jail in Jericho for allegedly planning the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavaam Zeevi in October 2001.

Israeli security officials say the PFLP has scaled back its participation in attacks the past few months, but Abu Hani, a leader of the PLFP's "armed wing," the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, told WorldNetDaily his group used the time earned from last year's cease fire to build its arsenal in preparation for a third intifada.

"The last months were used for a rest in order to rehabilitate forces. The Palestinian people preserves its right to fight against Israel," Abu Hani said.

He told WorldNetDaily the PFLP is "forced" to launch a new terror war.

"It is not that we prepare an intifada. It is the reality on the ground that dictates a new intifada. There is the fence, there is the building in the Jewish settlements, the daily Israeli penetration into Palestinian cities, villages and camps and of course the killing of our comrades and brothers," Abu Hani says.

Israel routinely conducts anti-terror military raids in the West Bank when it receives intelligence warning of new attacks. The Israeli Air Force fires at targets in Gaza in attempts to halt Palestinian groups from launching rockets at nearby Jewish communities.

Abu Hani warned, "The current situation does not leave to the Palestinians many choices but to fight with all the tools we have or can have. The Gaza withdrawal proves unfortunately that force, attacks and rockets is the only language and attitude that the Israelis understand. They do not withdraw unless they are hit by the Palestinian resistance. So if there is a way that has already obliged the Israelis to withdraw, why not to use it again?"

[Soldier4Christ]

Canadian Terror Probe Expands to 7 Nations

TORONTO (AP) - Police said Monday more arrests are likely in an alleged plot to bomb buildings in Canada, while intelligence officers sought ties between the 17 suspects and Islamic terror cells in the United States and five other nations.

A court said authorities had charged all 12 adults arrested over the weekend with participating in a terrorist group. Other charges included importing weapons and planning a bombing. The charges against five minors were not made public.

The Parliament of Canada, located in Ottawa, was believed to be one of the targets the group discussed.

Authorities said more arrests were expected, possibly this week, as police pursue leads about a group that they say was inspired by the violent ideology of the al-Qaida terror network.

"This investigation is not finished," Mike McDonell, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. "Anybody that aided, facilitated or participated in this terrorist event will be arrested and prosecuted in court."

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day also predicted more arrests. Another senior government official told The Associated Press on Sunday that more warrants were being gathered and that arrests were likely, possibly this week.

Although both Canadian and U.S. officials said over the weekend there was no indication the purported terror group had targets outside Ontario, McDonnell told National Public Radio on Monday that the inquiry has expanded beyond Canada.

"We are working with and sharing our information with our allied countries," he said.

A U.S. law enforcement official said investigators were looking for connections between those detained in Canada and suspected Islamic militants held in the United States, Britain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Denmark and Sweden.

American authorities have established that two men from Georgia who were charged this year in a terrorism case had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Prosecutors have said the Georgia men, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, traveled to Washington to shoot "casing videos" of the Capitol and other potential targets.

Sadequee, 19, a U.S. citizen who grew up near Atlanta, is accused of lying to federal authorities during an FBI terrorism investigation. Ahmed, 21, a Georgia Tech student, faces a charge he provided material support and resources for terrorism.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said the 17 suspects in Canada are an example of a type of group that authorities have been concerned about for some time: self-organized, ad hoc cells of homegrown extremists, a development first seen in Britain.

The official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Canada's government rightfully considered the 17 a serious threat because there was evidence the group was far along in planning attacks.

McDonell also indicated Canadian authorities felt compelled to move in. "We've been investigating them for some while and it got to the point where we could no longer control the risk," he told NPR.

The U.S. counterterrorism official added there was no reason to believe the group had U.S. targets in mind, but also no reason to exclude the potential.

Canadian police say there is no evidence the suspect group had ties to al-Qaida, but describe its members as being sympathetic to jihadist ideology. Officials are concerned that many of the 17 suspects were roughly 20 years old and had been radicalized in a short amount of time.

The Ontario Court of Justice released details of the charges faced by the 12 adult men arrested Friday and Saturday. The men are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing.

Each is charged with one count of participating in a terrorist group.

Three of them - Fahim Ahmad, 21, Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24 - also are charged with importing weapons and ammunition for the purpose of terrorist activity.

Nine face charges of receiving training from a terrorist group, while four are charged with providing training. Six also are charged with intending to cause an explosion that could cause serious bodily harm or death.

No information was released on the five young males arrested due to federal privacy laws that protect minors.

Canadian media have reported that the suspects attended a training camp in Washago, a rural community 90 north of Toronto. The National Post quoted unidentified residents in the wooded area as saying they heard machine-gun fire and saw men dressed in camouflage carrying equipment.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police displayed evidence Saturday that included camouflage uniforms, flashlights, walkie-talkies and detonators, but have refused to confirm whether they were used at a training facility.

Canadian officials said their investigation involved some 400 intelligence and law enforcement officers and was Canada's largest counterterrorism operation since the Anti-Terrorism Act was adopted in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks. Local media reported the inquiry began in 2004 with intelligence monitoring of Internet chat rooms.

Officials announced Saturday that the 17 suspects were arrested after the group acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be mixed with fuel oil to make a powerful explosive. One-third that amount was used in the deadly bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

The Toronto Star reported that undercover Mounties delivered the substance to the group in a sting operation. The Star, citing unidentified sources, said the suspects actually received a harmless substance.

A prayer leader at a storefront mosque in Missassauga, a city west of Toronto, said several suspects prayed there daily but never spoke of hurting others. The oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, often led prayers at the one-room Al-Raham Islamic Center for Islamic Education.

"I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There's no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation," the prayer leader, Qamrul Khanson, said Sunday.

Khanson said Jamal's Friday night prayers were "more aggressive" than those of other prayer leaders, but there was no talk of hostility or terrorism.

The mosque is sandwiched between The Cafe Khan, which offers Pakistani kabobs, and a convenience store in Mississauga, a city of 700,000 people with many immigrants. A worker at the cafe, Mohammed Jan, said several of the suspects often came in for snacks.

"It's pretty shocking. They used to come every day and they just seemed normal," Jan said. "I definitely didn't find their behavior suspicious."

Neighbors said Jamal's wife drove a school bus, and he did not seem to work regularly. The couple has three children, neighbors said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Author helped expose Canada terrorists
Williams worked with authorities on al-Qaida links


When Canadian law enforcement authorities busted a Toronto terrorist plot with al-Qaida connections, they acted with the benefit of briefings and research developed by American investigator Paul L. Williams, author of the new WND Books release "Dunces of Doomsday: 10 Blunders that Gave Rise to Radical Islam."

Canadian police last Friday arrested 17 suspected Islamic terrorists, mostly in Toronto, who were allegedly planning to unleash a string of attacks in Ontario in retaliation for the country's support of the U.S. in the War on Terror.

Williams has long been investigating the link between terrorist operatives and Canada's McMaster University. Williams' research has unveiled a complex, highly connected group of radical Islamic professors – many of whom earned their advanced degrees from McMaster – strategically recruiting radical Islamic jihadists and converted sympathizers who enrolled as students under aliases for terrorist training and to steal radioactive material from the university.

In late May, Williams traveled to Canada to investigate his McMaster University findings. By his third day in Ontario, Williams was a guest of the government "because of the leads I was providing to the Ontario police," he says.

"When I spoke to the Ontario police, they were investigating some of the students, and I was investigating the faculty," he said. "You have a virulent nest of al-Qaida operatives who have been there since 1996. Several of those operatives from Toronto were mentioned in a BOLO (Be on the Lookout) report issued in 2004. In the Division of Earthquake Engineering (at McMaster University), there are 16 professors; 15 of them are from Cairo, and they all have their advanced degrees from McMaster. We've discovered that some of these professors have ties to Islamic Jihad in Egypt. You're seeing the first wave of arrests."

In the "Dunces of Doomsday," Williams writes, "At McMaster University, where the al-Qaida agents registered under fictitious names, wanted terrorist gotcha98 el-Shukrijumah and friends wasted no time in gaining access to the nuclear reactor and stealing more than 180 pounds of nuclear material for the creation of radiological bombs."

Now, in addition to the members of the terrorist network arrested last Friday, Williams says, "We believe we found gotcha98 el-Shukrijimuah in the Toronto area and, if not, we've found his double."

Williams describes the latest series of events as "the tip of the iceberg," with the worst yet to come. He asserts that the United States is in danger of a looming attack, made possible by years of top-level administration avoidance and lax security.

"When you hear of a nuclear spillage (missing radioactive material) � the last one – the only one – I've heard of was Chernobyl. That's huge. They cannot deny it," Williams says.

[Soldier4Christ]

Plot began in chat room
CSIS monitored discussions on bombing targets
'Training camp' visit turning point for investigators


For most Canadians, ammonium nitrate — even after it was used to destroy the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, including dozens of kids in a daycare centre —is nothing much more than a commonly used plant fertilizer.

Farmers buy and use it by the tonne, mixing it into the soil to ensure a bountiful crop.

But mix ammonium nitrate with the inflammatory rhetoric of an Internet chat room, and it instantly acquires the potential to become something entirely different, needing only the addition of a little fuel oil to turn it into a lethal bomb.

So when a shadowy group of disaffected urban youth began talking in an Internet chat room in the fall of 2004 espousing anti-Western views, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was listening.

The spy agency, and an alphabet soup of other security agencies across the continent, closely monitor such sites, where talk may sometimes turn to buildings and bombs and bringing global jihad home to North America, to Canada.

Often it's just that — talk — but when CSIS began monitoring the sites allegedly used by some of the 17 men and youths arrested on terrorism-related charges in a sweeping series of raids across the GTA Friday evening, the Canadian spy agency heard enough to remain interested, and increased surveillance of the group.

While CSIS and police typically won't talk about their operational methods, the available techniques range from monitoring electronic communications, from cell phones and landlines to emails and computers, to physically following persons of interest as they move about and talk to others.

Four months after the surveillance began, two Americans, from the Atlanta, Ga., area, popped onto the radar.

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee had been communicating by email with the Canadian group, investigators allege, and in March 2005 the two hopped on a Greyhound bus, paying $280 (U.S.) for two round-trip tickets to Toronto, where, according to U.S. court documents, they were to meet with "like-minded Islamists."

"According to Ahmed ... they met regularly with at least three subjects of an FBI international terrorism investigation," the court documents allege, and discussed "strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike."

By now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was involved, and also monitoring members of the Canadian group. The federal police service was brought into the case Nov. 17, 2004, by CSIS agents who believed they had enough information to warrant a criminal investigation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. authorities were also watching the two Americans, and at some point discovered communications between the men in Canada and Atlanta and other suspected terrorists overseas, including a group arrested in London last fall that counted among its members a computer specialist who used the Arabic word irhabi — for terrorist — as his Internet handle, Irhabi007.

Talk in the group was wide-ranging, according to an American law enforcement official, "about a whole range of targets." Officials and U.S. court documents allege group members were scouting targets that included Canadian government buildings, American oil refineries, and a U.S. tower that they believed controlled global positioning systems used in aviation.

Federal prosecutors in New York also told a recent hearing Sadequee and Ahmed had visited Washington and videotaped the U.S. Capitol, the World Bank headquarters and some fuel storage facilities.

They were charged in March and April and are awaiting trial.

Ahmed, a Pakistani native who has pleaded not guilty, arrived in the U.S. with his family when he was about 12 and is now an American citizen; Sadequee, whose family came from Bangladesh, was born in Virginia; he has been denied bail and is awaiting trial.

In August, 2005, Canadian investigators were watching closely as a car tried to cross back into Canada across the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie. Pulled over by a student working with the Canadian Border Services Agency, the car was rented by Fahim Ahmad, 22 — arrested as part of Friday's sweep — for two others, 24-year-old Yasin Abdi Mohamed of Toronto and Ali Dirie, 22, last of Markham.

Mohamed was found with a loaded handgun tucked in his waistband; Dirie had two pistols taped to his inner thighs; both are now serving two-year sentences.

No charges were laid against Ahmad for making the vehicle available. Not then.

By last winter federal investigators were becoming increasingly concerned about the Canadian group, stressing that it shouldn't be underestimated. Among the things that set alarm bells ringing was an alleged visit to a northern Ontario "training camp" by group members; what they did there or how long they stayed hasn't been revealed.

But investigators allege some of the group's members made a video showing them imitating military manoeuvres. And, police say, the suspects had allegedly acquired guns.

By February, intelligence analysts saw the group as the country's greatest terrorism threat, and called an unusual high-level briefing for chiefs of Ontario's police forces, including Toronto police Chief Bill Blair.

Not long after that investigators brought Toronto Mayor David Miller into the loop, alerting him to a terror investigation that might include a Toronto building as its target.

Although no one is saying so officially, the CSIS headquarters, on Front St. in the shadow of the CN Tower, was among the possible targets — but not, officials stressed during a news conference Saturday, the TTC.

The lengthy investigation took on added urgency this month when talk in the group allegedly turned to acquiring three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, enough to build several powerful bombs.

The rental truck used by Timothy McVeigh to destroy the eight-storey Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was loaded with only a third of that amount; his victims included 168 dead and more than 800 wounded.

Like the CSIS building, the Murrah complex was filled with law enforcement offices.

By the end of last week, investigators felt they had enough evidence to move in on the group.

Although police haven't officially said so, sources have told the Star's Michelle Shephard that the final act in the multi-year investigation came when federal agents intercepted the group's order for the fertilizer, and arranged to have it delivered by truck.

But, the Star has learned, police switched the fertilizer with a harmless powder before making the delivery.

After the deal was done, the handcuffs came out.

At around the same time an elite team led by the RCMP's anti-terrorism task force, comprising federal agents and police officers from forces including Toronto, York, Durham and Peel, began swooping down on locations in Mississauga and Toronto.

Heavily armed officers and armoured vehicles were used in the raids, and police say they met with no resistance in arresting 12 adult males and five juveniles. Most were processed that night at a heavily-guarded Durham police station in Pickering, and appeared in Brampton court the next morning, also under heavy security.

On Saturday, at a 10 a.m. news conference, investigators began revealing some of what they know.

Chiefs of the Toronto, Peel, York and Durham police forces, and representatives from the OPP and CSIS, flanked RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell as he outlined what police say were their plans for the fertilizer.

"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," McDonell said. "If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one tonne of ammonium nitrate.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

"This group posed a real and serious threat," McDonell emphasized. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out these acts."

Behind him, a tabletop held evidence from the Friday evening raids, including a 9-mm Luger pistol, military fatigues, a grab-bag of items ranging from two-way radios, knives and flashlights to duct tape, and a sample bag of ammonium nitrate.

Six of the accused adults are from Mississauga, four from Toronto and two are serving time in a Kingston prison on gun-smuggling charges. Most of the men are in their 20s, although one is 30, another 43.

Police have said they will not discuss the five juveniles arrested during the sweep.

Charges against the men — who return to Brampton court Tuesday — include participating in or contributing to the activity of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; providing or making available property for terrorist purposes; and the commission of indictable offences including firearms and explosives offences for the benefit of or in association with a terrorist group.

This marks only the second time that such charges have been laid since the Criminal Code was amended in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to include terrorism offences.

It's also the first time police have made arrests to stop what they allege was an imminent terror attack on Canadian soil.

For neighbours of the 10 men and five juveniles who appeared in Brampton court Saturday — Yasin Abdi Mohamed and Ali Dirie, in prison in Kingston, did not appear — the arrests and charges came mostly as a shock.

They talked of quiet men, religious men, who played basketball and went to school and looked for jobs, of an elder who mentored younger men, but mostly, of men who kept to themselves, coming and going silently to and from their homes in Mississauga and Toronto.

"They never spoke to anyone," said one neighbour.

One youngster talked of the older brother, 19, who'd often disappear, for weeks at a time, without telling anyone where he was going.

"I heard he was going to some camp," the younger brother said. "But I don't know anything about it."

But eventually the older brother and his friends would reappear, the boy recalled, usually with a gift.

"They brought me a lot of stuff, like army suits and caps," the boy said. "Sometimes, he'll go get pizza."

[Soldier4Christ]

 Canada vastly widens probe of bomb plot
Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press


MISSISSAUGA, Ontario The Canadian authorities investigating an alleged homegrown plot to blow up buildings in Ontario said Monday that more arrests were possible as part of a wider probe into terrorist cells in at least seven countries, including the United States.
 
The Toronto Star, citing a U.S. counterterrorism official it did not name, said investigators were combing through evidence seized during the raids on Saturday looking for connections between the 17 arrested suspects and at least 18 other Islamic militants detained in the United States, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Britain, Denmark and Sweden.
 
"This investigation is not finished," Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. "Anybody that aided, facilitated or participated in this terrorist event will be arrested and prosecuted in court."
 
In an interview with National Public Radio, McDonell said the inquiry had expanded beyond Canada. "We are working with and sharing our information with our allied countries," he said.
 
The police have refused to say what the targets were. But media reports suggested the group had videotaped the CN Tower in Toronto, one of the world's tallest structures, and planned to hit the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa and intelligence service offices in Toronto, as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange.
 
The arrests were made Friday and Saturday after the group acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate from undercover Mounties in a sting operation, The Toronto Star has reported. The fertilizer can be mixed with fuel oil or other ingredients to make a bomb.
 
That is three times the amount of fertilizer used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, McDonell said. The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killed 168 people and wounded more than 800.
 
"For various reasons, they appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by Al Qaeda," Luc Portelance, assistant director of operations with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Saturday.
 
Officials said the operation involved about 400 intelligence and law-enforcement officers and was the largest counterterrorism operation in Canada since the nation's Anti-Terrorism Act was adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Star reported that the investigation began in 2004 with the monitoring of Internet chat rooms.
 
"We've been investigating them for some while, and it got to the point where we could no longer control the risk," McDonell told NPR on Monday.
 
A prayer leader at a storefront mosque west of Toronto said several of the suspects prayed daily there but never spoke of hurting others.
 
"I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There's no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation," Qamrul Khanson, an imam at the one-room Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, said Sunday.
 
The 40 to 50 Muslim families who worship at the mosque were astonished, he said, to learn that the police had arrested 12 adults, 19 to 43 years old, and 5 suspects younger than 18 on Friday and Saturday, charging them with plotting an attack in southern Ontario. Two Americans who met with the suspects also are in custody.
 
The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said the operation was "obviously a great success for the Canadians. They're to be congratulated for it."
 
The 17 suspects represent a spectrum of Canadian society, from the unemployed to a school bus driver to the college-educated. The 12 adults live in Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston, Ontario.
 
The police said the suspects, all citizens or residents of Canada, had trained together. The oldest suspect, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, often led prayers at the storefront mosque.
 
Khanson said Jamal's that Friday night prayers were "more aggressive" than those of other prayer leaders but that there was no talk of hostility or terrorism.
 
The modest mosque is sandwiched between the Café Khan, which offers Pakistani kebabs, and a convenience store in Mississauga, a city of 700,000 people with many immigrants. Mohammed Jan works at the café and said several suspects often came in for snacks after prayers.
 
An FBI special agent, Richard Kolko, said in Washington that there may have been a connection between the Canadian suspects and a Georgia Tech student and another American who had traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss locations for a terrorist strike.
 
The 17 suspects are scheduled to appear again in court Tuesday.
 
Rocco Galati, a lawyer for two of the men from Mississauga, said: "Both of their families are very well-established professionals, well-established families, no criminal pasts whatsoever. That's why we're anxious to see the particulars of the allegations against them."
 
Another imam, Aly Hindy, said he knew nine of the suspects and complained that the Canadian intelligence service, known as the CSIS, had unfairly targeted his mosque and congregants for years. "They have been harassed by CSIS agents and this is what they come up with?" he said. "I'm almost sure that most of these people will be freed."
 
 

[Soldier4Christ]

Islamic militia ends Somali warlords' rule 

An Islamic militia has seized control of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, after routing a coalition of warlords widely believed to have been backed by the United States.

After steady gains in recent days, fighters allied to the Union of Islamic Courts claimed victory yesterday morning. In a radio address, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the joint Islamic Courts Union, declared 15 years of warlord-rule over. "We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu," he said. "We are ready to meet and talk to anybody ... for the interest of our people."

Fierce clashes between the two heavily armed groups, which have traded accusations of pandering to the west and having links to al-Qaida, have claimed more than 350 lives in the Somali capital this year. Most were civilians killed by mortars or anti-aircraft fire.

Somalia has been without an effective government since Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In much of the country, and in Mogadishu in particular, warlords have ruled by force, accumulating vast wealth through the control of ports, roads and airfields, and ensuring any attempts at national authority failed.

While the end of the fighting should bring relief to Mogadishu's residents, it presents a challenge for the government, which has been unable to sit in the capital due to opposition from both the warlord coalition and the sharia courts.

In an apparently conciliatory move, the government sacked four cabinet ministers allied to the "anti-terror" coalition on Sunday. But analysts say that it will find it difficult to sit down with Sheikh Ahmed.

President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord who made his reputation as a hard man who crushed fundamentalists, is vehemently opposed to establishing an Islamic state. "The question now is whether the government and the courts are going to talk or whether they are going to confront each other," said a Horn of Africa analyst, who asked not to be named. "It's anybody's guess."

Fighting in the capital flared up in February when a group of secular warlords, including four government ministers, formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-terrorism as a bulwark against the growing authority of the Islamic Courts Union.

Established as a means of dispensing clan justice, the ICU had grown in popularity in Mogadishu in recent years - less for its hardline stance than for bringing some sense of order. But the presence of suspected jihadis in the courts hierarchy raised fears, particularly in Washington, of a creeping "Talibanisation" in Somalia.

The US is understood to have provided financial support to a number of secular warlords through its counter-terrorism base in Djibouti in return for handing over suspected al-Qaida militants or information about their movements. The US has refused to confirm or deny the reports, saying only that it will help anyone fighting terrorism.

"This is a staggering defeat for the US strategy of counter-terrorism by proxy," the Horn of Africa analyst said. "It also represents seismic shift in Somali politics. For the first time in many years we have a new political group that is capable of forming some sort of administration."

[Soldier4Christ]

Defense News: Israel planning Arrow Mark 4

(Israel Business Arena Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (IAI) subsidiary Elta Group, the Israel Air Force, and Ministry of Defense are designing components for the Arrow Mark IV, which will have qualitatively better performance than current versions. The Arrow upgrade is one response to the threat posted by conventional or nuclear armed Iranian ballistic missiles, says Defense News, citing Israeli defense sources.

The Arrow Mark IV will have a new radar unit, improved interceptor missiles, and other components that will convert the system from a theater anti-ballistic missile defense system into an integrated nationwide anti-ballistic missile defense system.

An official Ministry of Defense source said the new radar would turn the Arrow Mark IV into a completely holographic system, which will enable control of interceptor missiles from any location.

Elta is developing the Arrow Mark IV radar, the Green Pine I, which will have a much deeper monitoring range than the 700-kilometer range of the existing radar. The new radar is scheduled to enter operational service in 2009.

Arrow program heads said they plan to gradually improve the system, step by step, including a Mark 3.5 version with improved radar and interceptor missiles, which will enter service in early 2007.

The upgrade program is part of an Arrow system upgrade program, which will terminate at the end of the 2008 fiscal year. The US is financing two-thirds of the program, and Israel is financing the rest.

The US Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has asked Congress for $77 million for the upgrade program for 2007. Israel's Ministry of Defense wants an additional $58 million from Congress to finance accelerated joint production of the Arrow's interceptor missiles, and to conduct research on other improvements needed to counter the Iranian nuclear threat.

The Arrow upgrade program is part of Israel's preparations to counter Iran's efforts to develop and produce nuclear weapons. In the coming months, Israel plans to launch its latest spy satellite, which will be able to spot changes on the ground in Iran, even in poor weather conditions and under cloud cover.

In a separate development, the Israel Navy is finalizing details of a contract with a German shipyard for two more submarines, which will reinforce Israel's strategic deterrence capability, or launch a retaliatory strike against Iran from the sea in the event of a missile attack.

Defense News says that, in recent months, Israeli and US officials have increased the two countries' response coordination, in the event that diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear efforts fail.

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran threat to supplies triggers a steep rise in oil price

OIL prices jumped again yesterday after a threat by Iran to disrupt crude supplies to the West triggered a renewed bout of nervousness in energy markets.

The sabre-rattling comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, at a rally in Tehran on Sunday, helped to drive US light crude prices up by a further 77 cents in afternoon trading in London, on the back of steep gains of $1.99 on Friday.

Yesterday’s continued price rises pushed the cost of a barrel of US light crude back above $73 a barrel, while benchmark London Brent added a further 98 cents to $72.01 a barrel.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks dealt a blow to hopes for a compromise between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme, coming just days before today’s presentation of Western negotiating proposals to Tehran by Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief. “If you make any mistake, definitely shipment of energy from this region will be jeopardised. You have to know this,” the ayatollah said.

His comments were a departure for Iran, which has previously said that it would not use oil as a political weapon, despite controlling a quarter of the world’s crude exports and having the capacity to close the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf.

The Iranian threat comes at a sensitive moment for oil markets, with estimates suggesting little more than two million barrels a day of spare capacity and the industry bracing itself for possible supply disruptions from the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite this, the White House joined Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, yesterday in urging calm.

President Bush’s spokesman said that Iran’s threat was “theoretical” and called for patience to allow Tehran to consider the incentive package to be offered today by Señor Solana on behalf of America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China in return for Iran halting its nuclear work.

“He threatened that in the case of a US invasion; that was a theoretical statement,” Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, said. “Let’s give it time, let the Iranians take a look at what the offers are, the incentives and disincentives. One can probably expect there will be a couple of quick rejoinders. We counsel patience.”

Dr Rice also responded by urging a “wait and see” stance.

Geopolitical tensions over energy also surfaced once again in Russia, meanwhile, as Gazprom, the state energy monopoly, sounded a warning that Ukraine was not pumping enough gas into underground storage. Gazprom said that this could lead to new cuts in Russian supplies to Europe for a second consecutive year.

# Lukoil, the biggest Russian oil producer, plans to double its production to four million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the next ten years, Leonid Fedun, vice-president of the group, said yesterday.

[Shammu]

Gore Uses Religion to Attract 'Global Warming' Converts
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer


New York (CNSNews.com) - Former Vice President Al Gore used religious references Thursday night in New York City in an attempt to convince a "town hall" meeting that human-caused catastrophic climate change is real.

Gore's "Town Hall on the Climate Crisis," held at a New York theater, was timed to coincide with the release of his "global warming" disaster film, "An Inconvenient Truth," distributed by a division of Paramount Pictures.

Gore compared global warming skeptics to conspiracy theorists who believe the U.S. faked the moon landing in 1969. He also announced that he supports a "petroleum tax," and he suggested a boycott of the oil giant Exxon-Mobil for its allegedly poor environmental record.

Another panelist appearing with Gore compared the effort to combat "global warming" to the 19th century movement to end slavery in the U.S.

"Every faith tradition has teachings that are directly on point [to climate change]," Gore told the packed audience, which included former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.

"The Book of Revelation [says] God will destroy those who destroy his creation," Gore said, noting that some evangelical Christian leaders have expressed concern about climate change. "Whatever works," Gore added, prompting applause and laughter.

Gore departed the event, sponsored by Wired Magazine, with his wife Tipper in a chauffeur-driven black Lincoln Town Car provided by a New York City limousine service.

Gore noted that the Bible promotes good stewardship of the Earth. "Noah was commanded to preserve biodiversity," he said.

Lawrence Bender, the director of Gore's documentary, echoed the religious undertones when he described the conversion of his home to solar energy.

"I have become evangelical basically," Bender said during the two-hour panel discussion. Joining Gore and Bender were NASA scientist James Hansen, celebrity activist Laurie David and former Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry, who is currently a contributing editor to Wired Magazine. The panel discussion did not include any scientists who are skeptical about human-caused global warming.

An impassioned Gore employed apocalyptic language in urging the crowd to believe that Earth's climate is in crisis because of human activity.

"If you believe what [NASA scientist] Jim Hansen said just a moment ago -- if you believe, if you accept the reality that we may have less than 10 years before we cross a point of no return -- if you believe that, this is a time for action," Gore said.

He suggested that the current inhabitants of the Earth are facing a "collision between our civilization and the planet."

"People [who] are alive today have been placed at a point in history that puts on us the burden of action that is almost unimaginable in the context of human history," Gore said.

"We are the most powerful force of nature now. We are literally changing the relationship between the Earth and the Sun," he said. "It has the capacity to bring civilization itself to a dead halt."

Hockenberry compared the righteousness of combating "global warming" to the movement to abolish African American slavery in the 19th century.

"We are here at a similar moment. We are witnesses to the emergence of an issue that could not be more urgent," Hockenberry insisted.

'Giant wake-up call'

Other panelists also used dire rhetoric to convince the audience that action must be taken to stave off what they believe is climate doom caused by the buildup of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

"I am hoping that [Gore's] movie will be a giant wake-up call for this country," Laurie David told Cybercast News Service before the event began. David, the wife of comedian/director/producer Larry David, served as the producer for "An Inconvenient Truth."

"It's embarrassing that [the U.S. is] not leading on this issue," David said. "I don't even consider this an environment issue anymore. I really consider this a national security issue -- a public health issue," she added.

Despite the urgent call to action, Gore conceded that little can be done to combat what he termed a "planetary emergency."

He said politics falls short of "the minimum necessary to really address this crisis."

Gore dismissed the scientists who are skeptical of catastrophic human-caused climate change, comparing them to industry-funded tobacco scientists who denied a link between smoking and cancer.

"There is no longer any debate. The consensus is as strong as it ever gets in science," Gore said. "[There is] still a percentage of people who think that the moon landing was staged," he added.

Gore also accused the oil and gas industry of attempting to mislead the public on the urgency of climate change.

"Some of the executives of Exxon-Mobil will soon look back and feel ashamed of what they're doing by confusing the debate," he said. "I don't know why it's considered no longer acceptable to have a boycott of companies like Exxon-Mobil," he added to applause.

Gore also said he supported a "petroleum tax" as long as it was "revenue neutral" and did not place an undue burden on poor Americans.

Legal liability?

Hansen, director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, agreed with Gore's characterization of climate science and wondered what culpability the U.S. will face from the consequences of "global warming."

"When nations must abandon their lands because of rising seas, what will our legal liability be?" Hansen asked.

Gore praised Hansen as an objective scientist, ignoring his partisan Democratic Party ties. As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Hansen publicly endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004 and received a $250,000 grant from the charitable foundation headed by Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Hansen also has acted as a consultant to Gore's slide-show presentations on "global warming," on which the movie is based.

Hansen, who alleged in January that the Bush administration has been suppressing science for political purposes, previously acknowledged that he once emphasized "extreme scenarios" on climate change to drive the public's attention to the issue.

In the March 2004 issue of Scientific American, Hansen wrote, "Emphasis on extreme scenarios may have been appropriate at one time, when the public and decision-makers were relatively unaware of the global warming issue. Now, however, the need is for demonstrably objective climate-forcing scenarios consistent with what is realistic under current conditions."

Hansen defended the $250,000 grant from the foundation run by Teresa Heinz Kerry, during an interview with Cybercast News Service following Thursday's panel discussion.

"That was an environmental award," Hansen said. "I can't imagine anyone would turn down an environmental award. You don't check the politics of who provides the awards. I frankly don't understand the question," he added.

Hansen bristled when Cybercast News Service asked him about his "extreme scenarios" quote.

"It's pure hogwash. That statement was taken out of context. I did not say that I had ever used extreme scenarios," Hansen insisted before ending the interview.

I will not post the link because of language. I have changed some of the language.

[Shammu]

The Media War on Traditional Values
By Cliff Kincaid  |  June 5, 2006

The sewer-mouth by the name of Howard Stern once denounced Jack Thompson as a "lunatic lawyer" for getting him kicked off radio stations. Considering the source, this is why this statement is featured as a badge of honor on the cover of Thompson's book, Out of Harm's Way, about the dangers posed by what passes for "entertainment" on television, radio and video games. The book not only describes how Thompson has waged a valiant legal war on those who pollute our culture, it offers evidence of direct harm caused by what children see, read and hear.

Thompson is a father who cares about his family and country.

Another fighter is Rebecca Hagelin of the Heritage Foundation, who wrote Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad. You can read her excellent speech to Hillsdale College on the Hillsdale website.  A mother, she understands the dangers. We need more mothers like her speaking out.

She's right that the culture has gone mad. To the disgrace of American society, Stern, who has since fled to satellite radio, has become something of a cultural icon. It's like he's become the new Hugh Hefner, the modern version of the dirty old man. Stern has even appeared several times on Fox News, supposedly the "conservative" cable channel. Thompson's book would be well worth it if he only dealt with the damage caused by this so-called "King of All Media." Thompson's chapter on "Stern Stuff" examines the disgusting nature of what this creature spews forth. To cite just one example, Stern told his audience shortly after 9/11 that prostitutes should be sent to the rescue workers on their breaks. Much of what Stern says can't even be described without being offensive. What he represents is a sickness and blight on our society.

Thompson's book notes that Stern saw news about the 1999 student shootings in Colorado, including film of students fleeing the school, and commented, "I don't know who's doing this, but I'll tell you one thing. If I were this guy, or these guys, whatever, I'd be sure to bang these chicks before I killed them. Look at some of these broads. They're hot."

It's one thing to pollute a young person's mind. That's bad enough. It's another thing to provoke violence. Media which explore the well-documented link between violent entertainment and real-life violence are few in number. As Thompson documents, they include stories on the NBC Today Show and the CBS 60 Minutes program. And yet it's Thompson who has been denounced as a "censor" by the ACLU. Thompson is in favor of more, not less, information. He wants the public to know and understand the nature of the assault taking place on our young people. He is a former libertarian who now believes strong action is required to stem the tide of violence and filth enveloping our culture.

Indeed, he has harsh words for the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, saying its opposition to any interference with business and the marketplace would, in its most extreme form, legalize dangerous drugs and prostitution in the name of individual choice. He sees that as cultural suicide.

His book contains references to his Christian faith, which has enabled him to take on media personalities such as Howard Stern, big corporations and powerful judges. One of the most fascinating stories, included in a chapter entitled, "Is this lawyer insane?," involves a Judge by the name of Richard Feder who wanted to hear evidence that Thompson's opposition to pornography meant that he was mentally unstable. This was a way that Thompson's opponents had explored as a way to disbar and silence him. Thompson discovered the judge was a former ACLU official who believes the distribution of child pornography is protected speech.

Thompson waits until page 225 of his book, however, to spring a bombshell: that liberal Senator Hillary Clinton's office had called him, asking for help and information in preparing her for a news conference on sex and violence in video games. That news conference was held last year and featured Clinton's call for a federal probe into how video games are rated and marketed to children.

Last December Clinton went further, introducing with Senators Joseph Lieberman and Evan Bayh the Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA), S.2126, to prohibit the sale of violent video games to minors.

I met Jack Thompson when he provided enormous help to Oliver North, Reed Irvine and Charlton Heston in launching a campaign against Time Warner over the rap song "Cop-killer" by Ice-T and his band, Body Count. Heston attended the Time Warner meeting and eloquently denounced the company for producing and marketing such trash. Time Warner had sunk so low as to ship the CDs to disc jockeys in miniature black plastic body bags.

Thompson's book goes into detail about the campaign against Time Warner.

In an interview at the time (with Tony Snow), Heston recalled his attendance at the annual meeting: "… I'm very proud of this, I really am. I owned some Time Warner stock and I went in and confronted their full board meeting and read the lyrics. I can't repeat them on television…And I shamed Time Warner, the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world, into firing Ice T and dropping the album. Now, he threatened to kill me. He hasn't done that yet."

Heston, unfortunately, has faded from the scene because of his age and illness. His voice and presence will be missed. But Thompson continues the fight. Once you read his book, you will understand that America's enemies don't just hijack planes and fly them into buildings.

The Media War on Traditional Values

[Shammu]

45 states have acted to ban gay marriage

By The Associated Press Mon Jun 5, 6:54 PM ET

Forty-five states have acted to define traditional marriage in ways that would ban same-sex marriage.

___

Nineteen states have constitutional amendments: Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

___

Twenty-six states have enacted statutes but not constitutional amendments: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

___

Five states have not taken either action: New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

45 states have acted to ban gay marriage

[Shammu]

 Taliban-like regime may be rising in Somalia
Islamic militants capture capital in Horn of Africa nation

Monday, June 5, 2006; Posted: 1:19 p.m. EDT (17:19 GMT)

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Islamic fundamentalists whose ideology is similar to the Taliban seized control of Somalia's capital Monday, unifying the city for the first time in more than a decade and posing a direct challenge to a fledging U.N.-backed government.

The advance against a secular alliance rumored to be backed by Washington comes after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in the Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that Somalia could fall under the sway of al Qaeda.

"We won the fight against the enemy of Islam; Mogadishu is under control of its people," said Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, on a radio broadcast. The militia now controls a 65-mile (100-kilometer) radius around the capital after fighting off a secular alliance of warlords.

The Islamic militia is gaining ground just as the U.N.-backed interim government struggles to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 155 miles (249 kilometers) from Mogadishu. Weapons prices soared there Monday amid fears that the militia could head next to Baidoa.

The militia is the first group to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu's neighborhoods since the last government collapsed in 1991 and warlords took over, dividing the impoverished country of 8 million into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, said the Islamic militia's victory in Mogadishu was a major turning point in the country's history.

"It is exactly the same thing that happened with the rise to power of the Taliban," he said, adding that the extremists are "using the people's weariness of violence, rape and civil war" to gain support for a government based on Islamic law.

The battle between the militia and the secular alliance has been intensifying in recent months, with more than 300 people killed and 1,700 wounded -- many of them civilians caught in the crossfire of grenades, machine guns and mortars.

Alliance leaders could not be reached for comment Monday and had likely fled Mogadishu. One of them, warlord Mohamed Dheere, was believed to be in Ethiopia seeking reinforcements.

The United States is widely believed to be backing the secular alliance in an attempt to root out any al Qaeda members operating in the Horn of Africa, but American officials have declined to comment. The United States has not carried out any direct action in Somalia since the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down."

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said recently that three al Qaeda leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are being sheltered by Islamic leaders in Mogadishu.

The same al Qaeda cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed 15 people and a simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner.

The Islamic militants and their secular rivals began competing for influence in earnest after a U.N.-backed interim government slowly began to gain international recognition. The weak government, wracked by infighting, has not been able to enter the capital because of the violence.

Interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi recently fired four ministers who were part of the secular alliance, leaving the alliance without any support in the government.

Mogadishu residents expressed relief at Monday's relative peace, but they had mixed responses to the Islamic militia's advance.

"The victory of Islamic Courts is a major step toward a lasting peaceful settlement in Mogadishu," said Somali economist Abdinasir Ahmed. "We are tired of the deception and rhetoric of the warlords."

Computer engineer Abdulqaadir Bashir disagreed. "The Islamic clerics want to be like the Taliban regime in Afghanistan," he said. "People have no hope at all."

Taliban-like regime may be rising in Somalia