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On Sunday, the Israel Security Agency (also known as Shin Bet or Shabak for short) announced the arrest of members of an Islamic Jihad terror cell that planned to assassinate Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, according to JTA. According to the Shin Bet, the six members of the cell planned to place an explosive charge on the minister’s route and appealed to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to receive funding for the attack. The terrorist ringleaders were identified as 25-year-old Mahmud Awad al-Asakra from the village of Rafida near Bethlehem (Judea) and 32-year-old Muhammad’ Ali Ibrahim ‘Asakara also from...

Is it OK to dress as an Arab terrorist on Halloween? How about sporting blackface and going as a Jamaican? A student group in Ohio says no and their campaign has re-ignited the discussion about racism and cultural stereotyping that seems to surface every year when people don costumes for the holiday. The "We're a culture, not a costume" campaign, by Ohio University's Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS), features posters showing students of various ethnicities holding up photos of people dressed as corresponding stereotypical characters like a Geisha girl and a donkey-riding Mexican. The posters read: "This is...

The battle with pirates operating off the coast of Somalia grew yesterday when raiders seized two more ships but lost one of their own in an uneven firefight with the Indian Navy. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) described the situation yesterday as “out of control”. The surge in hijackings came as Saudi Arabia confirmed that a ransom demand had been made for the freeing of the Sirius Star supertanker, seized at the weekend with her crew of 25 and a cargo of oil worth $100 million (£65 million). Two more vessels – a Thai fishing boat with a crew of...

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should withhold federal funds from a California college given the failure of the college to ensure the safe presence of military recruiters on campus, the Secretary was advised by a public interest law firm in a letter released today. According to news reports, military recruiters were forced to flee yesterday from a University of California Santa Cruz job fair because of a raucous mob. Mountain States Legal Foundation advised Rumsfeld that the college’s actions violate the Solomon Amendment, which requires that colleges permit military recruiters on campus or lose all federal funds. UC Santa Cruz...

Iraq official defends 'torture' facility Thursday, November 17, 2005; Posted: 10:51 a.m. EST (15:51 GMT) BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interior minister has defended a government facility that was found to be holding dozens of prisoners, including some showing signs of torture, saying it held "the most criminal terrorists." "Nobody was beheaded or killed," a defiant Bayan Jabr told a news conference Thursday, saying that only seven of 170 detainees showed marks of torture. "Those detainees, those criminal killers inside the bunker were not Indians or Pakistanis or Iranians," he said, waving a stack of passports in the air. "Those...

Editor's Note: Italian media report that Al Qaeda is moving operatives through Italy on their way to North Africa and Europe with the help of a Naples-based criminal network similar to the Mafia. Italian investigators say Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization is moving deep into the Mediterranean peninsula's underworld of organized crime. Italian media recently revealed that hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives coming from North Africa are being sent to Northern Europe though a maze of safe houses belonging to the Neapolitan Camorra, a Naples-based criminal network akin to the Mafia. The internationally connected Camorra organization specializes in drug...

You've heard about the disengagement plan, but maybe you don't really get what it's all about. Now it is explained in a short video, which you can watch online at israelunitycoalition.org. Even watching only the first five minutes of this video is informative. You will see video footage of arab children explaining that they are raised to believe they will eventually have Jerusalem and the Jews will be gone. You will see muslim leaders lecturing in mosques that 'returning to the '67 borders is just the first step and eventually all the cities of Israel will be theirs.' You will...

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told hundreds of armed militants at a campaign rally in Gaza on Sunday that he would never abandon them, but would fight to protect them from Israeli raids. Abbas' comments were his latest gesture to Palestinian gunmen - viewed as resistance heroes by Palestinians and as terrorists by Israel - whose support he has courted during his campaign to replace Yasser Arafat in the January 9 elections. Though Abbas is the overwhelming favorite to win the vote, he lacks Arafat's charisma and street credentials. Even if he posts a strong victory, he will need to consolidate...

Thanks to the great holy work done by Israel’s security forces, which include the Shin Bet, IDF, Israel Police and other intelligence groups, Passover in Israel this year was quiet. This stands in start contrast to the 2002 Passover celebration during which an Arab suicide terror attack at a hotel on the Passover Seder night itself occurred. This attack caused the murder of 30 Israelis who were innocently celebrating their freedom to practice their religion. During the holiday this year, TEN Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks, among them suicide terrorist bombings, were intercepted by Israel (1). Due to the biased nature...

Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday captured senior Islamic Jihad militant Amjad Abeidi, who planned the suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant last month in which 21 people were killed. Abeidi is responsible for dispatching a number of suicide bombers to carry out attacks in Israel, including Hanadi Jaradat, who blew herself up in Haifa's Maxim restaurant. The soldiers located the complex in which Abeidi was hiding, and searched it. Several hours later they found a weapons stockpile hidden under one of the houses. After the soldiers threw a grenade into the...

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Al-Qaida planned U.S. forest fires FBI memo described plot to set blazes in the West Posted: October 27, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is a weekly online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years. © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com As arson wildfires consumed nearly 200,000 acres in Southern California, destroying 850 homes and killing at least 13, the inevitable question arises: Who started the fires? While firefighters focus on containing the blazes rather than...