Iraqis defy threats to pack massacre church on Christmas

From AFP:

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of Christians packed Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation church for Christmas on Saturday, defying threats of attacks less than two months after militants massacred worshippers and priests there.

Security was extremely tight, with forces armed with pistols and assault rifles guarding the area and a 10-foot high (three-metre) concrete wall topped with gleaming razor wire surrounding the church.

All cars entering the area were searched, and worshippers were patted down twice before being allowed into the church.

The mood was sombre after an October 31 attack claimed by Al-Qaeda affiliate the Islamic State of Iraq in which gunmen stormed the church, leaving two priests, 44 worshippers and seven security personnel dead.... More

Meanwhile attacks in the Philippines and Nigeria:

 A series of Christmas Eve church attacks and explosions left at least 38 people dead in two Nigerian cities, and at least six wounded in the Philippines. More

Christmas attacks kill at least 38 in Nigeria

UK terror plot aimed British landmarks, shopping

It appears the focus on more than one front of the terror war has shifted to smaller targets. The purpose of course is to induce widespread panic.

A large-scale terror attack was aimed at British landmarks and public spaces, security officials said Tuesday as more details emerged and police searched the homes of 12 British suspects being held for questioning.

The men — whose ages range from 17 to 28 — were arrested Monday in the largest counterterrorism raid in nearly two years. At least five were of Bangladeshi origin.

Read more: here

U.S. buffets and salad bars 'threatened with poison attacks’

There is probably a joke here as well if it weren't so deadly serious. Interesting thing here is that if credible, and it appears to be so, it would seem to signal a change in tactics. From large scale attacks to more local, small scale, "upsetting the apple cart" kind of attacks to disrupt the economy.

Al Qaeda terrorists are plotting to put deadly poison in the salad bars and buffets of hotels and restaurants, according to U.S. intelligence sources.

They would hide either ricin or cyanide in the food at a number of locations during one weekend to cause panic.

Those who ate the poisoned meals would fall ill and die within days. It takes only tiny quantities of either ricin or cyanide to kill.

Read more: here

Russia delivered 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009

WaPo

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.

The United States feared that the missiles could be funneled to Marxist guerrillas fighting Colombia's pro-American government or Mexican drug cartels, concerns expressed in U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and first reported in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

... the American commander for military forces in Latin America, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, publicly expressed concern this year that Venezuela was purchasing as many as 2,400 of the missiles, also called the IGLA-S.

Matt Schroeder, a missile expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said the missiles are among the most sophisticated in the world and can down aircraft from 19,000 feet.

Stuxneted

Choice!

Iran's nuclear program is still in chaos despite its leaders' adamant claim that they have 

contained the computer worm that attacked their facilities, cybersecurity experts in the United 

States and Europe say.

The American and European experts say their security websites, which deal with the 

computer worm known as Stuxnet, continue to be swamped with traffic from Tehran and other 

places in the Islamic Republic, an indication that the worm continues to infect the computers 

at Iran's two nuclear sites.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/09/despite-iranian-claims-stuxnet-worm-causing-nuclear-havoc/#ixzz17mFEEFca

one in four terrorists released resumed terrorist activities

From the Washington Times:

Nearly one in four terrorists released from the detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, resumed terrorist activities against the United States and the number is expected to rise, according to a report to Congress by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence(DNI).

The report, made public Tuesday, stated that out of a total of 598 detainees released as of October, 150 were confirmed or suspected of "reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer," the two-page unclassified summary said. More

Baltimore terror plot

what he needed was a shark...


The man, identified by ABC News as Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammed Hussain, planned to attack the center "with what he believed to be vehicle bomb," according to the spokesperson, Marcia Murphy. More

Catch-and-release of Taliban fighters

More than 500 suspected Taliban fighters detained by U.S. forces have been released from custody at the urging of Afghan government officials, angering both American troops and some Afghans who oppose the policy on the grounds that many of those released return to the battlefield to kill NATO soldiers and Afghan civilians.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2010/12/catch-and-release-taliban-fighters-afghanistan-angers-troops#ixzz17RXOdRqN

Activating Jihad

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is reporting that two extremist groups in the U.S., Revolution Muslim and the Islamic Thinkers Society, are becoming “increasingly operational” and are violently carrying out their faith. Today’s non-violent Islamic extremists are often tomorrow’s terrorists. Groups seeking to replace democracy with Sharia-based governance are using our freedoms to create the Islamist swamp from which terrorists emerge... More from FrontPage

the Taliban's worst nightmare.

US deploys 'game-changer' weapon to Afghanistan

The Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of its first-ever programmable "smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.... More

Christmas Tree Bomber Acted Alone- e-mailed Pakistan

No- They're never alone....

From the AP:

 The teenager accused of attempting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., was acting on his own initiative and not at the direction of any foreign terrorist organization, a law enforcement official said Saturday.


Boy that was quick figurin', eh? We're on it! But wait....


Mohamud, a student at Oregon State University, e-mailed a friend living in Pakistan.....(who)  referred him to another associate....


...The friend Mohamud was e-mailing was in Pakistan's northwest frontier province, an area known to harbor terrorists, but the law enforcement official said there is no indication that any foreign terrorist group was behind the plot.


Well, that clears up everything. Don't you feel better?

UK-based Taliban

From the Guardian:

British-based men of Afghan origin are spending months at a time inAfghanistan fighting Nato forces before returning to the UK, the Guardian has learned. They also send money to the Taliban.

A Taliban fighter in Dhani-Ghorri in northern Afghanistan last month told the Guardian he lived most of the time in east London, but came to Afghanistan for three months of the year for combat. More here

Controlling the Thinking of Others

On Politics and the Arabic Language from Porphrogenitus

(Required reading)

Musing a bit further on this article, particularly this section:

Next, our counterterror adviser evokes the perverse logic behind the administration’s recent decision to censor words offensive to Muslims (which I closely explored in this PJM article):

Nor do we describe our enemy as “jihadists” or “Islamists” because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.

Inasmuch as he is correct in the first clause of that sentence — “jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community” — he greatly errs in the latter clause, by projecting his own notions of what constitutes “holy,” “legitimate,” and “innocent” onto Islam. In Islam, such terms are often antithetical to the Judeo-Christian/Western understanding. Indeed, the institution of jihad, according to every authoritative Muslim book on Islamic jurisprudence, is nothing less than offensive warfare to spread Sharia law, a cause seen as both “legitimate” and “holy” in Islam. As for “innocence,” by simply being a non-Muslim infidel, one is already guilty in Islam. Brennan understands the definition of jihad; he just has no clue of its application. So he is left fumbling about with a square peg that simply refuses to pass through a round hole.

Until the recent "troubles" it wasn't just Islamic jurisprudence that properly understood what the term Jihad meant; it was universally understood throughout not just Islam but all cultures that had contact with Islam to mean warfare, specifically directed at non-Muslims or those declared heretics and thus deemed to be un-Islamic. (more)

The Next Attack

No doubt you have seen this but just in case…


NY Times

...he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the “primary near-term security concern of the United States.”...


...But Mr. Blair began his annual threat testimony before Congress by saying that the threat of a crippling attack on telecommunications and other computer networks was growing, as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies had “severely threatened” the sometimes fragile systems undergirding the country’s information infrastructure.


“Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication,” he told the committee.


His emphasis on the threat points up the growing concerns among American intelligence officials about the potentially devastating results of a coordinated attack on the nation’s technology apparatus, sometimes called a “cyber-Pearl Harbor.”


He said that the surge in cyberattacks, including the penetration of Google’s servers from inside China, was a “wake-up call” for those who dismissed the threat of computer warfare. “Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private-sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems, and in the very information these systems were intended to convey,” Mr. Blair said. (more)

The Most Important Story You Didn't See Last Week (and Probably Won't Ever See)

A Senate hearing last week confirmed the public's worst concern about Barack Obama: that when it comes to national security, Obama hasn't just been asleep at the switch -- he hasn't even bothered to find the switch.

"I do not think he [Obama] has a firm grasp yet on the intelligence community," 9/11 Commission Vice-Chairman and former Democrat congressman Lee Hamilton told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

This, even though Obama has been in office for over a year now.

"We were not paying close attention in this area," commission Chairman Thomas Kean testified at the hearing into intelligence lapses prior to the Christmas Day attempted airliner bombing. Kean noted that Obama has instead been focused on such issues as health care and cap-and-trade.

The two men have historically been circumspect about making politically charged statements, but they painted a portrait of an intelligence community, America's first line of defense against its jihadi enemies, that is devolving into disarray under Obama's leadership -- or lack thereof. (more)

Gathering Storm Clouds?

There are some interesting things going on today. See if you can connect the dots:

Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran.

'Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the "global arrogance" on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution

Fears that US missiles move may be exploited by Iran's hardlinersDeployment may strengthen repressive regime in

Secret CIA-Mossad meeting, preparation for new war?
A secret meeting between the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta and Israeli officials has reportedly centered on Iran's nuclear program.

Soft On Terror

Did I also mention that the lawyer for OBL's bodyguard and driver are over at the Justice Department?
Hmmm...
Charles Krauthammer  at Human Events
The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane -- that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration -- but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government.
    
After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him.
    
We have since learned that the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI). (more)

Jihadis in Somalia murder Christian leader because he converted from Islam

H/T Jihad Watch

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 26 (CDN) -- Islamic extremists shot the leader of an underground church to death outside the capital city of Somalia this month and have threatened to kill his wife, his tearful widow told Compass.

Having learned that he had left Islam to become a Christian, Somali militants from the Islamic extremist al Shabaab murdered 41-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Ali at about noon on Jan. 1, Amina Ibrahim Hassan said....


..Ali led an underground church. Christian sources said members of al Shabaab, said to have links with al Qaeda terrorists, had been monitoring Ali and his wife for indications that they had left Islam.... More

Did The Obama Administration Violate An Executive Order By Releasing Qais Qazali?

From the Weekly Standard Blog:


Did the Obama administration, by releasing Qais and Laith Qazali and
 more than 100 members of the Iranian-backed Asaib al Haq,
violate an executive order put in place by President
Ronald Reagan to prevent negotiations with hostage
takers?  (more))

Rocket Launcher Found In Apartment

I'm sure it was just to bring in the New Year.....


...When officers went inside, they found something that made them
concerned enough to call the bomb squad.

They found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. 

It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings
 and tanks....


...the woman did tell police that the rocket launcher belonged to 
Nabilaye I. Yansane, someone whom she allowed to store items 
at her apartment.

Police records show that she didn't want Yansane at her apartment,
so she called them.

According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings
that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn't want to talk
to KPRC Local 2 about that, either.( More)