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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has enjoyed strong support from a lobbyist group that backs the Kosovo Liberation Army despite allegations the KLA is a Muslim terrorist group with ties to criminal drug networks and al-Qaida. The Albanian American Civic League, or AACL, regards the KLA as "freedom fighters," said the AACL's president, former Republican congressman Joe DioGuardi of New York. They're "not terrorist, like the Serbs and Greeks say," DioGuardi insisted in an interview with WND. But Islam expert Robert Spencer, editor of the popular website Jihad Watch, contends radical Islam is the driving force behind the Kosovo...

Four years ago, while working as a senior adviser in NATO's Brussels, Belgium, headquarters, I got an up-close look at the way al-Qaida's best minds see Western elections. On March 11, 2004, Spain was rocked by perhaps the bloodiest terrorist attack in Europe since World War II, as bombs ripped apart commuter trains in Madrid, leaving nearly 2,000 Spaniards dead or injured — three days before the country went to the polls. The incumbent party was promptly hurled out of office, and in Brussels, my colleagues and I watched as the Spanish mission began receiving drastically different instructions from Madrid....

Excerpt - At least 10 militants were reported killed when four missiles fired from Afghanistan hit their hideouts in a Pakistani tribal area, officials said today. The missiles struck two militant hideouts in Baghar village in the restive district of South Waziristan on Tuesday night, a senior security official said. ~ snip ~

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Saeed al-Masri was killed in recent clashes with Pakistani forces near the Afghan border, a security official said on Tuesday. "He was believed to be among the top leadership of al Qaeda," the senior security official said on condition of anonymity. Al-Masri, which means "the Egyptian," was the most senior al Qaeda operative to have been killed in Pakistan's tribal belt since the death of his compatriot, Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, last month. Television channels identified the dead man as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid and said...

BREAKING NEWS — Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Saeed al-Masri has been killed in recent clashes with Pakistani forces in a Pakistani region near the Afghan border, a security official told Reuters on Tuesday. "He was believed to be among the top leadership of Al Qaeda," the senior security official told the news agency on condition of anonymity. Al-Masri, which means Egyptian, was the senior most Al Qaeda operative

SENIOR AL QAEDA COMMANDER ABU SAEED AL-MASRI KILLED IN PAKISTAN - SECURITY OFFICIAL

Excerpt - Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for Pakistanis to support jihad in his first ever audio statement in English, which aired today on a Pakistani television station, according to IntelCenter, a Washington-based firm that tracks terrorism. ~ snip ~

Al-Qaeda's violent methods and tactics have been coming under mounting criticism this year from Islamist scholars who once supported it. One by one they have been coming out in public to denounce the organisation's actions as being counterproductive. But at the same time, a leading British de-radicaliser says the number of young British Muslims attracted to violent extremism is growing - and, he claims, the UK government is partly to blame. In the living room of his London home, the Libyan former jihadist Nu'man Bin Othman reads out part of the open letter he sent recently to al-Qaeda's no 2...

The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting.

Key Findings Saudi Arabia and Libya supplied the most fighters in the Sinjar Records. Saudi Arabia contributed the highest number of foreign fighters to al�Qa`ida’s fight in Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007, followed by Libya. Foreign Fighters contributed approximately 75 Percent of suicide bombers between August 2006 and August 2007. Of the 376 fighters in the Sinjar Records that designated their “work” in Iraq, 212 (56.4 percent) were listed as suicide bombers. AQI is a wounded organization. Tribal disaffection, the surge in Coalition and Iraqi Forces in 2007�2008, and AQIs self�destructive penchant for violence have all contributed to...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

BAGHDAD - The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, according to group leaders and Iraqi intelligence officials, a possible further sign of what Iraqi and U.S. officials call growing disarray and weakness in the organization. U.S. officials say there are indications that al-Qaeda is diverting new recruits from going to Iraq, where its fighters have suffered dramatic setbacks, to going to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they appear to be making gains.

Religion of Irony alert. Al Qaeda's #3 has called for the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for meeting with the Pope and calling for interfaith dialogue. Why does this get King Abdullah a death fatwa? The logic goes something like this: The Pope offended Muhammad by suggesting that the Muslim prophet spread Islam by the sword. For this, the Pope deserves death. King Abdullah deserves death by colluding with the Pope and abandoning violent jihad. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Al Libi also is accuses King Abdullah of being involved in some conspiracy --part...

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. missile strike on a Pakistani madrasa near the Afghan border killed six people on Monday, possibly including an al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, Pakistani security officials said. A senior Pakistani security official said Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Egyptian chemist regarded as one of al Qaeda's top bomb makers, could have been the target. Monday's pre-dawn attack blitzed a house close to a madrasa used by militants near Azam Warsak village, about 20 km (12 miles) west of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan tribal region, a known hotbed of...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — In his seventh of month of U.S. captivity, Osama bin Laden's driver told a pair of FBI agents that it was America's fault that the al Qaida leader was alive. The message was, ''You had these opportunities, America. You didn't do anything,'' FBI agent George Crouch Jr. testified Friday at Salim Hamdan's war crimes trial. The United States could have killed bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996, Hamdan told his interrogators. They could have killed him after al Qaida's 1998 twin bombings at the U.S. Embassy bombings in...

AMMAN: The US Democratic candidate Barack Obama said that a conspiracy is being planned in tribal areas for attacking the United States. Talking with journalists on arriving in Jordan from Iraq, Barack Obama said that the situation in tribal areas is deteriorating and more US troops are needed in Afghanistan. Obama said that he is willing for the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan within 16 months after he becomes the US president. King Abdullah warmly received him on arriving in Jordan.

JERUSALEM – The 9-11 attacks were carried out because of a lack of "empathy" for others' suffering on the part of al-Qaida, whose terrorist ideology "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair," Sen. Barack Obama explained in largely unreported comments eight days after the mega-terror attacks that rocked the nation. Obama went on to imply the September 11th attacks were in part a result of U.S. policy, lecturing the American military to minimize civilian casualties in the Middle East and urging action opposing "bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent." "Even...

One recurring question that has been at the forefront of most intelligence agencies since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon just 1 mile outside Washington concerns the ongoing efforts by terrorist groups to acquire weapons of mass destruction: chemical, biological and mostly nuclear. Each of the NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) weapons comes with a certain advantage and disadvantage -- for the terrorist, that is. Of the three sorts, biological weapons are quite possibly the easiest to safely reproduce in a lab, assuming one knows what to do. A...

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: US troops in Afghanistan are massing close to the border with Pakistan, poised to launch bombing raids on suspected terrorist bases in the North Waziristan region, British and Pakistani newspapers reported on Wednesday. Nine American soldiers were killed and 15 wounded on Sunday in an attack by militants on a US base in Kunar province, close to the Pakistani border. The Times said troops have been airlifted from the village of Lowara Mandi and that heavy artillery and armoured vehicles were also being moved into position for possible cross-border attacks on Pakistan. The paper said US admiral Michael...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda Yemeni wing called in an Internet posting on Wednesday for kidnappings of tourists in the Arab country to press for the release of jailed militants. "It is a duty that detainees be freed through any rough way such as kidnapping tourists, who are numerous, or through various other ways," an article in the e-magazine of al Qaeda in the South of the Arabian Peninsula read. The group said it was pained some militants "had turned themselves in voluntarily to the ruling regime to improve their situation", in an apparent reference to a Yemeni-American thought...

BAGHDAD — Iraq experienced the lowest number of acts of violence in more than four years last week, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said July 9. Security progress in Iraq is unmistakable, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said. Civilian deaths around the country were at their lowest point in three years, the general told reporters, adding that the reduction in violence is allowing the Iraqi government and the coalition to put in place projects that improve the quality of life in the country and create jobs for Iraqis. The general said the security improvements are due in large part...

Two Israeli Beduin from the Negev town of Rahat were charged Wednesday with plotting terrorist outrages over the internet with al-Qaida members overseas and marking out civilian and military sites in Israel for attack. The suspects were named by police as Taher Abu Sakut, 21, and Omar Abu Sakut, 22. They were arrested in late May and early June in a joint Israel Police-Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation. An indictment was filed against them on Wednesday in the Beersheba District Court, accusing them of membership in a terror organization, aiding the enemy during a time of war and transferring...

What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq. London's Sunday Times called it "the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." A terrorist force that once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere 1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul.

As the global war on terror approaches the start of its eighth year, the NYPD says it has never been more prepared - but also warns that the city can never let its guard down. In a two-part series, Daily News reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy looks at the terror threat in New York - and around the world. Sunday's installment focuses on an NYPD undercover officer who dug deep into the potential terrorists in our midst. A young undercover city detective spent four years in the shadowy world of terrorist wanna-bes - taking part in jihadist discussions and training in parks...

via translation - Thousands of Islamists commemorate the storming of the Red Mosque Thousands of Islamist radicals gathered in Islamabad to celebrate the first anniversary of the bloody storming of the Red Mosque. The capital of Pakistan is placed under high surveillance. Many demonstrators deemed close to the Taliban and Al Qaeda brandissaient black flags and slogans scandaient paying tribute to the "martyrs" of the headquarters of the Red Mosque. The police established a security perimeter around the mosque, inaccessible by car, with son barbed wire and search pedestrians in the search for possible weapons. "We demand to act against...

An Islamist group has sent threatening letters to Assyrian churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, asking them not to cooperate with US forces. The letter sent by The Batallion of Just Punishment, Jihad Base in Mesopotamia, also opposes the establishment of a sectarian Assyrian-Christian police force, reported the Assyrian International News Agency on Wednesday. "We caution and warn anyone who tries to rob us through dealings with the Americans or through the spreading of American forces and/or police to protect the Holy Shrines in the Islamic Republic of Iraq, that these shrines would remain target of the freedom...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

NO one should feel safe without submitting to Islam, and those who refuse to submit must pay a high price. The Islam ist movement must aim to turn the world into a series of "wildernesses" where only those under jihadi rule enjoy security. These are some of the ideas developed by al Qaeda's chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji, in his new book "Governance in the Wilderness" (Edarat al-Wahsh). Middle East analysts think that the book may indicate a major change of strategy by the disparate groups that use al Qaeda as a brand name. The Saudi police seized copies of...

SOURCES: BUSH ANGER AT COMING NEW YORK TIMES STORY DETAILING HUNT FOR BIN LADEN... The newspaper planning to expose internal debate surrounding 'highly classified Pentagon order'; Special Operations forces hunt al-Qaida leader in mountains of Pakistan... DEVELOPING.... Thats the Story from drudge, OMG if the Times is gonna report this... Good GOD.... This is Huge. ( yea and Series) This is NOT a good thing for national Security and I am just a housewife. Even I can see and call a Traitor, a Traitor, but the Editor and the signing off authority that Prints this, to bee seen by the...

Text of report in English by Yemen News Agency Saba website Hadramout, June 25 (Saba)-The security services have arrested allegedly one of the most wanted al-Qaeda militants and four others in Hadramout province, east of Yemen. Security sources said that Haytham bin Saad has been arrested with along four of his companions. The sources affirmed that the five al-Qaeda militants have been in a prison of the state security in Sayoun city of Hadramout. Source: Yemen News Agency Saba website, Sanaa, in English 25 Jun 08

The SurrenderMedia recently misreported (there’s a surprise) that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda, when in fact the report the SurrenderMedia was trying to cover said just the opposite. As I noted at the time the analysis showed Saddam Hussein had long time ties with Ayman Zawahiri, who at the time ran the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. A group that was integrated into al-Qaeda when Zawahiri joined forces with Bin Laden in the 1990’s. Gateway Pundit has a link to a recent news article out of Iraq showing evidence that Saddam Hussein continued his ties with Zawahiri after...

"IT'S going to be us and al-Qaeda against Hezbollah." Sitting in a disused warehouse in the Bab-al-Tebbaneh district of Tripoli, a Sunni fighter explains how the ad-hoc militia that he helped command in the recent fighting are preparing for the future. Softly-spoken and courteous, speaking to The Scotsman on condition of anonymity, he pauses to offer cigarettes. "When we hear al-Qaeda are threatening the Shia, we do celebratory gunfire," he says. Al-Qaeda has had major setbacks recently. In Iraq, at least according to the CIA, it has suffered "near-strategic defeat", while missile strikes have killed some top figures in Pakistan....

LONDON – Officers in Britain's MI6 intelligence service, working alongside Pakistani intelligence officers in that nation's remote North West province, have located a training camp where children, some as young as six years old, were being trained as suicide bombers, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The camp – one of several al-Qaida training camps in the region – is under the direct control of the terror group. The intelligence officers led Pakistani Special Forces to the children's camp outside the village of Spinkai in the mountainous region. An MI6 report on the school describes it as...

June 13, 2008 HP-1023 Washington - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Kuwait-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) for providing financial and material support to al Qaida and al Qaida affiliates, including Lashkar e-Tayyiba, Jemaah Islamiyah, and Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya. RIHS has also provided financial support for acts of terrorism. "Designating and freezing the assets of an organization engaged in charitable work is a decision not taken lightly because the last thing we want to do is cut off needed humanitarian assistance," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "However, the reality is that...

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2008 – Although al-Qaida’s operations in Iraq have been battered, the terrorist organization remains a threat to be reckoned with, the U.S. military’s top officer said here today. Al-Qaida is “on the run in Iraq,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted at a Government Executive Magazine-hosted breakfast at the National Press Club. The terrorists, he said, are being pressured by U.S. and Iraqi security forces, as well as concerned citizens who want al-Qaida out of their country. However, al-Qaida remains a “lethal foe” of the United States, Mullen cautioned, noting the...

"Notable progress" has been made in Iraq, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at a conference in Stockholm May 29. "I have a feeling that things are better," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a surprise visit to Iraq last weekend. "The Iraqis themselves, with their army, their administration, are taking charge of their own problems." If the UN and the French can see progress in Iraq, why can't Sen. Barack Obama? Maybe because he hasn't been there in more than two years. Sen. Obama's ignorance is understandable if he's been relying for his information on reporting from...

Osama Bin LadenNew Yorkers last week were reminded yet again of the horrors of the 9/11 attacks, when their unrepentant mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arraigned in Guantanamo Bay. But few are aware a tectonic shift has taken place beneath the headlines in the wider war on terrorism - one that could within a few years significantly lower the likelihood of terror returning to New York's streets. This is because Al Qaeda has gotten itself into hot water with the one constituency that it cannot afford to alienate: its fellow jihadists.Over the past year, a growing number of very consequential...

This is alarming. There has been a lot of talk on various jihadi forums regarding a nuclear strike by AQ.

McLean, Va. (AP) -- A federal appeals court upheld the conviction Friday of a Virginia man convicted of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush, but said that he must be resentenced. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a 30-year prison term and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. Prosecutors had argued that the judge improperly deviated from federal sentencing guidelines that called for life in prison. The ruling is a major victory for prosecutors in one of their most high-profile terrorism cases. Abu Ali grew up in northern Virginia and was valedictorian...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A blast occurred Monday outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, causing casualties, police and security officials said. "Yes, there has been a blast at the Danish embassy but we are not sure whether it was inside or out," local police official Mohammad Shabir told AFP. Security officials said there were several casualties.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A man accused of joining al-Qaida in the early 1990s and helping teach fellow Muslim extremists how to bomb U.S. and European targets pleaded guilty Tuesday to planning terrorist attacks. Christopher Paul, 44, pleaded guilty to a count that carries a maximum life prison sentence, but entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for a 20-year term. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost accepted the plea but said he would not give final approval to the deal until he sees the government's pre-sentence report, which is not expected for several months. No sentencing date...

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he's managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren't buying their makeover. Last November, his crony Faisal M. Gill lost a bid for a seat in the Virginia state legislature. Now another protege, Kamal M. Nawash, has lost his third political race in seven years....

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he’s managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren’t buying their makeover.

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

CAIRO, Egypt May 31, 2008, 12:47 pm ET · Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida's refusal to include — or at least acknowledge — women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam. In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters. His remarks have since prompted an...

The FBI has launched a publicity campaign in Afghanistan to announce a $1 million reward for information about an American from California charged with treason. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 29, grew up in Riverside County. He is "an integral part of al-Qaida's media and recruitment branch (and) has endorsed terrorist activity," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Friday. Gadahn was indicted by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana in 2005. He was charged with one count of treason and two counts of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The FBI's publicity effort campaign will include matchbooks, handbills and...

War On Terror: Before the surge, the CIA said the Iraq War was boosting al-Qaida globally. Now it finds the group is beaten in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and is losing elsewhere. Imagine if we'd surrendered in Iraq.In a Washington Post interview last week to mark his two years as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden rattled off a list of accomplishments: "Near strategic defeat of al-Qaida in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qaida globally — and here I'm going to use the word 'ideologically' — as a lot of...

JERUSALEM — Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff warned Thursday that the radical Islamic group Hezbollah "makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team," and poses the greatest threat to national security."Someone described Hezbollah like the A-team of terrorists in terms of capabilities, in terms of range of weapons they have, in terms of internal discipline," Chertoff told FOX News. "To be honest, they make Al Qaeda look like a minor league team. "They have been more disciplined, and they've been in some senses more restrained in the kinds of attacks they carry out ... in recent years, but that's...

PESHAWAR: Matchboxes carrying Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden’s photograph are in circulation in Peshawar city, advertising huge rewards from the US government in return for information about Osama. “Contact the nearest US embassy or consulate, if you have any information about Osama Bin Laden,” says the text written in Urdu on one side of the matchbox containing 30 sticks. Postal and email addresses for sharing of information with the US government have also been given on the other side of the matchbox, which also mentions the web-site www.heroes.net for further information. The inside text states Bin Laden is wanted...

The FBI issued a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies this week warning that al-Qaida has made new threats to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. targets. ABC News reported late Tuesday that intelligence sources have confirmed that al-Qaida plans to release a new video on the web sometime tomorrow. U.S. intelligence believes the terror group will advise its "jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West." An FBI spokesman confirmed the threat "calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians." The U.S. has no "intelligence of any specific plot or...