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Unrest on the streets of Libya's capital, Tripoli, has forced Britain to evacuate some diplomats from its embassy, the Foreign Office disclosed on Friday. Members of the Libyan security forces and civilians check one of the two police stations that were attacked on Friday Photo: AFP

BEIRUT (AP) -- Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers. A website linked to Jabhat al-Nusra confirmed on Tuesday the merger with the Islamic State of Iraq, whose leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first made the announcement in a 21-minute audio message posted on militant websites late Monday.

A convicted terrorist serving life with no parole plus 240 years for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has reportedly filed a lawsuit arguing he should be let out of solitary confinement. "I request an immediate end to my solitary confinement and ask to be in a unit in an open prison environment where inmates are allowed outside their cells for no less than 14 hours a day," he reportedly wrote in confidential government records obtained by The Los Angeles Times. His terror acts were funded by Al Qaeda and his uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is allegedly the...

Seven hostages were killed by their captors during a final raid by Algerian troops - at least 23 hostages and 32 hostage-takers died in the four-day stand-off, Algerian officials say.Five Britons are feared dead or missing - five Norwegians are unaccounted for. US President Barack Obama said blame for the violent outcome rested with the "terrorists" behind the attack."We will continue to work closely with all of our partners to combat the scourge of terrorism in the region," said Mr Obama.His defence secretary, Leon Panetta, earlier told the BBC the US would go after al-Qaeda wherever they tried to hide....

he Algerian government says 32 militants and 23 captives were killed during the three-day military operation to end the hostage crisis at a natural gas plant in the Sahara. The provisional death toll was issued by the Interior Ministry on Saturday after the special forces operation crushed the last holdout of the militants at the gas refinery, resulting in 11 extremists killed along with seven hostages.

Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt. The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel. Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam...

Piers Morgan asked a pretty good question of former CIA agent Robert Baer on his show last night, and Baer is just as perplexed as Morgan. David Petraeus suddenly resigned yesterday after the FBI discovered an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, but does the FBI routinely investigate the director of the CIA? Baer tells Morgan, “There is something going on here,” apart from the sexual peccadilloes. Or could it be as simple as the old adage that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”?

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has conducted terrorist attacks in Nigeria that bring it closer to al Qaeda in northern Mali, making linkages between the groups more likely and more dangerous, according to a paper published by the Combating Terrorism Center. In the past year, Boko Haram has carried out several large-scale attacks across a 900-mile swath of Nigeria, roughly the distance between New York City and Atlanta, the paper states. That puts the Nigerian extremists just 300 miles from northern Mali, which is controlled by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other affiliated groups. Boko Haram,...

A series of internal State Department emails obtained by Fox News shows some some of the initial assessments of last month's deadly consulate attack in Libya, including one email within hours of the attack that noted that the group Ansar al Sharia had claimed responsibility. Ansar al Sharia has been declared by the State Department to be a an Al Qaeda-affiliated group. A member of the group suspected of participating in the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi has been arrested and is being held in Tunisia. The emails obtained by Fox News were sent by the State Department to a...

The Obama administration appears to be mounting yet another version of its campaign to push back on claims that it misled on the intelligence related to the attacks in Benghazi on 9/11/12. But the new offensive by the administration, which contradicts many of its earlier claims and simply disregards intelligence that complicates its case, is raising fresh questions in the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill about the manipulation of intelligence for political purposes.The administration's new line takes shape in two articles out Saturday, one in the Los Angeles Times and the other by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. The...

Via Power Line and NRO’s Eliana Johnson and our own QOTD, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asks the question everyone except the media has been asking since the terrorist attack on our Benghazi consulate and the assassination of our Ambassador by al-Qaeda and/or its affiliates in eastern Libya.  Wallace doesn’t get to ask Barack Obama whether or not he bothered to hold a national-security meeting in the aftermath of the attack to determine whether the story the White House used for the next week was on the level — our President is much too busy weighing in on celebrity feuds to answer questions like these....

Exclusive An organisation that attempts to recruit Westerners to carry out terrorist attacks on their home soil was backed by the Iranian state, according to an unlikely source of information: leased telephone line records. Security researcher Michael Kemp found a list of the Middle East nation's leased lines that use the packet switching protocol X.25, and discovered that it included a line allocated to Ansar Al-Mujahideen - a popular hangout for Islamic militants. "In the course of doing some research on X.25 - the network that existed before there was the internet - I stumbled across a document detailing all...

Kenyan military planners duped Al-Shabaab into believing that a land invasion of their last remaining bastion of Kismayu was imminent before making an amphibious landing from the sea. While Al-Shabaab planned its defences based on that assumption, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) in the Horn of Africa country, was training at sea. “As the KAF (Kenya Air Force) engaged in aerial attacks the other forces were moving in by sea, from where they were to disembark. Essentially, it was intended to divert attention, especially from the Al-Shabaab. That’s why you (the...

SEPTEMBER 14--In remarks stressing that the U.S. government had “absolutely nothing to do with” the anti-Islam film that has touched off violence in the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday sought to quash Arab concerns that the “disgusting and reprehensible” movie was somehow produced or condoned by American officials. However, Clinton’s attempt to distance the U.S. from “Innocence of Muslims”--and, by extension, its felonious producer--may be complicated by the revelation that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula became a government informant after his 2009 arrest for bank fraud, The Smoking Gun has learned. Though many key documents from the U.S. District...

On Wednesday September 12, 2012 blogger Speak With Authority discovered that five days before 9-11, the US State Department sent out a memo announcing no credible security threats against the United States on the anniversary of 9-11. The Overseas Security Advisory Council, who posted the memo, is part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security under the U.S. Department of State. The OSAC memo said: Terrorism and Important Dates Global 9/6/2012 OSAC currently has no credible information to suggest that al-Qa’ida or any other terrorist group is plotting any kind of attack overseas to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of September...

Al Qaeda is reportedly exploring a new way to attack the U.S., encouraging terrorists to make homemade “fire bombs” to start massive wildfires in California and the western U.S. Al Qaeda magazine gave step-by-step instructions on how to build and use an “ember bomb,” which sends flaming embers out into the dry fields. Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson said that’s when CAL FIRE jumped into action. “The magazine had very specific outlines and drawings and details on how to create that ‘fire bomb,’ so we felt it was in our interest to go ahead and put that together and determine what...

Investigative journalist Yassin Musharbash, a reporter with the German newspaper Die Zeit, was the first to report on the documents. One plan: to seize passenger ships. According to Musharbash, the writer "says that we could hijack a passenger ship and use it to pressurize the public." Musharbash takes that to mean that the terrorists "would then start executing passengers on those ships and demand the release of particular prisoners." The plan would include dressing passengers in orange jump suits, as if they were al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and then videotaping their execution.

Reposting of Background...AP Release:U.S. abandons plans to keep troops in Iraq**********************************EXCERPT***********************************BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.The decision ends months of hand-wringing by U.S. officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that...

Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has confirmed the deaths of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, the young American propagandist killed alongside him in a U.S. drone strike late last month. Al-Qaeda has also criticized the Obama administration for killing U.S. citizens, saying doing so “contradicts” American law. “Where are what they keep talking about regarding freedom, justice, human rights and respect of freedoms?!” the statement says, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist Web sites.

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) -- Following a day of dramatic developments in Libya, President Barack Obama said Sunday night that the situation there had reached a "tipping point" and that control of the capital was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant." He called on Moammar Gadhafi to accept reality and relinquish power.

A Libyan mourner fires shots in the air at a cemetery on August 12 during the funeral of five rebels killed in the battle for the control of the oil-rich town of Brega. Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Rebels said Saturday that they were gaining traction in a series of offensives in several parts of Libya controlled by ruler Moammar Gadhafi -- claims that the Libyan government swiftly disputed. Heavy gunfire was heard in al-Zawiya, located about 33 miles west of Tripoli, where rebels had arrived. Rebels entered the city center and managed to cut off the road to Tripoli, they...

Four of the Senate’s top voices on foreign policy voiced their support Friday for the Obama administration’s move to formally recognize rebel leaders as the legitimate governing authority of Libya. “We welcome the Administration’s decision to recognize the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the legitimate governing authority of Libya,” said Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in a statement.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Rebel leaders won recognition as the legitimate government of Libya from the United States and other world powers on Friday in a major boost to the rebels' faltering campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi. Recognition of the rebels, announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a meeting in Turkey of the international contact group on Libya, is an important diplomatic step which could unlock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his little outfit “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” are at it again. Hoping to gain traction for what has heretofore been an absolutely pathetic gun control campaign, Bloomberg is rolling out all the stops by trying to scare us into thinking Al Qaeda agents are buying their guns at U.S. gun shows. I’m not kidding: Bloomberg’s latest television ad contains clips of an American-turned-Islamist advising his comrades to buy their weapons at U.S. gun shows. The ad is very, very sloppy, and full of factual errors. Like when the Islamist says, “You can go down to a...

In July 2005, Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri sent a long letter to the group's lead operative in Iraq, urging him to tone down his activities. In Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi had been orchestrating suicide bombings of Shiite Muslim shrines. His followers frequently videotaped the beheading of hostages. Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who helped organize the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and other violence, told Zarqawi he was going too far. "We are in a media battle, in a race for the hearts and minds" of Muslims, wrote Zawahiri, who was named Thursday to succeed Osama bin Laden...

Al Qaeda has released a video urging Muslims who live in the U.S. to take advantage of the easy access to firearms and buy guns to kill Americans. In the two-hour video released Friday, Adam Gadahn, an American-born spokesman for the terror network, cited America as an example where Muslims in the West have tools at their disposal for a holy war against "the enemies of Islam." "America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms," said Gadahn, who is known as Azzam al-Amriki. "You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with...

The Justice Department announced Tuesday the indictment of two Iraqis currently living in Kentucky on terrorism charges that included an alleged plot to deliver explosives and Stinger missiles for use against Americans abroad. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, were arrested in Kentucky on May 25, and a federal grand jury in Bowling Green returned the 23-count indictment the next day. Each faces life in prison if convicted of the charges. Alwan has been under investigation since September 2009. Over the last eight years, officials say, he allegedly has supported efforts to kill U.S. forces in Iraq,...

Up until exactly 10:30 AM this morning, I personally felt pretty comfortable not seeing the photos of Osama bin Laden. I have a great trust in our Navy Seals and the Pentagon. It would take too large of a government conspiracy to lie about such a monumental claim. Further, if the Pakistanis, who are terrifically embarrassed by this incident, clearly believe Osama bin Laden was killed- than I believe it. Even the terrorist websites, who have every reason to want the legend of bin Laden alive, believe it. Only conspiracy theorists could possibly believe that the U.S. government is lying...

A day after the White House said it will not release the official photo of Usama bin Laden’s body, many are wondering how a handful of lawmakers were duped into believing they saw it. The Obama administration said Wednesday it will not make public the images of the dead Al Qaeda chief, arguing the pictures could incite violence and be used as propaganda by terrorist leaders. White House officials also say DNA evidence confirming the body as Bin Laden’s provides sufficient proof of his death. The announcement came after at least three U.S. lawmakers claimed to have seen what they...

Video August 2007 AFL-CIO Presidential Forum Obama puts a spin on his early remarks about invading Pakistan, and then claims the the American people should have a say in shaping our nation's foreign policy. Both he and Hillary Clinton speak of the importance of fighting Al Queda. Hillary Clinton said, " The last thing we need is to have Al Queda like followers in charge of Pakistan." Is it now OK to have Al Queda in charge of Libya? Now Obama is aiding Al Queda, a sworn enemy of the United States, in the overthrow of the sovereign nation of...

The opposition to military action in Libya is fascinating. President Obama is taking incoming fire from both the left and the right as various agendas collide against neutralizing Moammar Gadhafi. The dissent is all over the place, so let's try to simplify the situation. We begin with a quote from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." That's true. We have seen it time and again throughout history. When evil is not confronted, it can win, often with devastating results. There is no question that Gadhafi was on the...

Libyan rebels have overcome Muammar al-Qaddafi's forces in strategic oil town of Ajdabiya, seizing control of the city Saturday in a major turnaround for an uprising that appeared to be on the verge of defeat. Libyan government forces pulled out from the city of Ajdabiya following an air assault by Western coalition forces, a senior government official told Reuters. "Without the planes we couldn't have done this. Qaddafi's weapons are at a different level than ours," said Ahmed Faraj, 38, a rebel fighter from Ajdabiya. "With the help of the planes we are going to push onward to Tripoli, God...

British cleric Anjem Choudary says al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood have assets on the ground in Libya and are ready to take control if Moammar Gadhafi is removed from power.

It's known as the Coca Cola plane. In early November, drug traffickers landed a Boeing 727 in the Malian desert in Gao state and offloaded as much as 10 tons of cocaine. Then, rather than fly it back across the Atlantic to Latin America, they simply burnt it, treating it like a used Coke can. The terrain of northern Mali is stark desert, and a haven for Islamist insurgents with close ties to Al Qaeda. Initially, investigators thought the plane had crashed in the desert on take off. But now, based on the fact that the plane was largely intact,...

A man who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan and was convicted of a violent attack when he returned to Britain has been moved to an open prison, the Standard can reveal. Anwar Khan, 34, is believed to be the first prisoner with a background in waging jihad -"holy war" - to be moved to a low security jail where inmates are allowed out into the local community and get part-time jobs. The disclosure will put pressure on Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke who faces accusations of "soft" policies with plans to reduce the prison population by 3,000. Shadow justice secretary...

EXCLUSIVEKill Bin Laden 'plot' rumbled  TERROR leader Osama bin Laden has escaped a US plot to bomb him in his hideout, it was claimed yesterday. Supporter Abu al-Fatah claimed the al-Qaeda chief had foiled a US mission to track him in his lair.He claimed a computer memory stick containing interview questions sent to Bin Laden contained a tiny tracking beacon.Its signals would have helped America target his location with an accurate unmanned drone attack.Al-Fatah says the chip was discovered when Bin Laden's security scanned the USB stick. He said: "The US forces used a device that could transmit signals to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is acknowledging that the hardline Muslim Brotherhood may play a role in Egypt's transition from autocracy if it agrees to a peaceful, democratic process.

The Egyptian government has information a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Cairo secretly met yesterday with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation's major Islamist opposition group, WND has learned. The topic of the meeting was the future of Egypt following the "fall" of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian intelligence official told WND.

Counter terrorism officials in the United States, and the West in general, have not yet understood that there is a political, non-combatant wing of the global Salafi-Jihad movement. It acts as an international production line, routinely manufacturing thousands of Muslims with a Salafi religious orientation, a Salafi worldview, and the belief that they are part of an international movement designed to reform the world community of Muslims, bringing them back to what they consider “true� Islam, and bringing Islam back to global leadership. While the majority of the members of this movement do not commit acts of violence, they totally...

An Al Qaeda leader, the head of a designated terror organization and a confessed jihadist-in-training are among a "Who's Who" of controversial figures who have participated in weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill since the 2001 terror attacks, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals. The Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA) has held weekly Friday Jummah prayers for more than a decade, and guest preachers are often invited to lead the service. The group held prayers informally for about eight years before gaining official status in 2006 under the sponsorship of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims currently serving in...

Federal agents arrested a man Wednesday for plotting to bomb the Washington, D.C., subway system, the Justice Department announced. It was the second arrest in as many days involving Americans hoping to wage violence for al-Qaida or the Taliban, and federal law enforcement officials believe it is part of a wider attempt to launch terrorist attacks. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., was indicted Wednesday for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings...

On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari’s story was “implausible” and “not credible.” In particular, Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that al Kandari was overly evasive for a man who claimed to be innocent. Both during his interrogations at Guantanamo, and...

Recently declassified documents focusing on the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. September 11, 2001, taught us that it is too costly to allow a leader with a history of aggression and stated intent to harm the U.S. to maintain links to terrorist groups and acquire weapons capabilities to act upon that sentiment. Newly declassified documents about the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. Contradicting Saddam HusseinÂ’s testimony where he claimed he actually wanted...

On the morning of Jan. 26, Sharif Mobley stepped out of his apartment in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to buy some cereal for his sleeping 3-year-old daughter. The young American from New Jersey was surrounded by eight black-clad, masked operatives from the country's secret police. Mobley turned to run, but he was shot in the leg and bundled into the back of a white van. When Mobley shouted "I'm an American," he was hit in the face. As the van sped away, Mobley later told his lawyers, one of his Yemeni captors made a call.... Eight months later, the...

As America fights two wars overseas -- another one is raging, much closer to home. Mexico's drug war is every bit as violent. On Friday 43 people were indicted in San Diego for murder and kidnapping, including a Mexican government official. Outside Monterrey, Mexico, 23 bodies were found Thursday at a dump site used by drug gangs Mexico's drug war takes a dramatic and frightening turn. For the first time, drug gangsters used a car bomb as a weapon. The wounded man was a decoy dressed in a uniform to lure police to the bomb. An officer, a paramedic and...

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's U.S.-born spokesman warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones.

TTP Leader Hakimullah Mehsud Declares: 'From Now On, the Main Targets of Our Fidaeen [Suicide Bombers] Are American Cities' The first, which the YouTube page titled "Hakeemullah Mehsud is Alive and Healthy and Delivering news about Attacks on USA," is 2:17 long, and shows a still satellite image of North America with a still image of Hakimullah Mehsud. Speaking in Urdu, he states that the date is April 19, 2010 and threatens bombings in U.S. "states & cities"; as he speaks, explosions are shown taking place across the map. (To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2463.htm. NOTE: You...

*snip* New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said the device was found after a mounted policeman spotted a box smoking in the back of a sport utility vehicle about 6:30 p.m. "This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "We do not know the motive."

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden had no idea the U.S. would hit al-Qaida as hard as it has since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a former bin Laden associate tells WTOP in an exclusive interview. "I'm 100 percent sure they had no clue about what was going to happen," says Noman Benotman, who was head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the summer of 2000. "What happened after the 11th of September was beyond their imagination, " says Benotman, who adds that al-Qaida thought the U.S. was a "paper tiger." Sitting on the floor at bin Laden's compound in...

What’s the price of defending freedom? 15 years in prison for one Army Ranger. First Lieutenant Michael Behenna was sentenced to 15 years in prison for doing just that, defending freedom. Behenna was prosecuted for shooting al-Qaeda operative Ali Mansur while escorting the terrorist home.