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The United States has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn on Monday. He said that four “major neutral players” were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and CIA. The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in...

It's both amusing and educational to observe a consensus when it suddenly starts to give way at all points without yielding an inch. A couple of weeks ago, the consoling view was that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a man more to be pitied than feared, a full-blown officer in the U.S. armed forces who was too shaken up by the stories of returned veterans to be able to function properly, and a physician too stressed-out to bear in mind that there was such a thing as a Hippocratic oath. Why, even the FBI had interpreted his e-mails to Anwar...

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

MANILA, Philippines - Forty-three persons – including a politician about to file her and her brother’s certificates of candidacy (COCs), as well as journalists covering the event – were confirmed killed when heavily armed men waylaid the group on its way to the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Maguindanao. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Information Office chief Lt. Col. Romero Brawner confirmed that as of yesterday afternoon, ground troops had recovered 21 bodies – 13 women and eight men – from the massacre site in Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan town. Supporters of Buluan Vice Mayor Toto Mangudadatu...

The manager of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, Karambir Singh Kang, had no idea that a fraught conversation with his wife Niti in the early hours of November 27 last year would be the couple’s last. Niti was barricaded with their sons Uday, 14, and Samar, 5, in the bathroom of the family’s sixth-floor suite at the hotel in Mumbai as terrorists rampaged through its corridors with guns and grenades. Kang was pinned down under heavy fire in the ornate ground floor lobby as he tried to evacuate panic-stricken guests and keep in touch with his family by...

Fearing that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar might be targetted by US drones, Pakistan's ISI has helped him to flee from the border town of Quetta to the mega port city of Karachi, where he has established a new Shura council. One-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban recently found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) assistance, the Washington Times reported quoting US intelligence officials. "Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so...

The Fort Hood terror attack that killed 13 adults and an unborn child and left dozens injured was the first such radical Islamic assault on United States soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Now the producers of the startling documentary "TheThird Jihad" have announced a plan to arm citizens with information about the possibilities of more attacks, using strategy in line with the timeless battle adage – "Know thy enemy." Clarion Fund previously partnered with WorldNetDaily.com to stream its powerful documentary "The Third Jihad," which uncovers a stealth influence by radical Islamists to undermine American society.

A homegrown U.S. soldier-jihadist, having never served overseas, slaughters unarmed members of the U.S. military on American soil, and his act is foolishly excused by some as “secondary post-traumatic stress disorder.” Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp detainees responsible for 9/11 are being moved to New York for trial. As U.S. soldiers risk their lives in Afghanistan, our leaders struggle with the political consequences of their commanders’ recommendations. The war on terror is spoken of no more. We’ve adopted a see-no-jihad, hear-no-jihad, speak-no-jihad mind-set. Political correctness rules the day. Before it’s too late, America must again awaken to the unprecedented global threat...

Five men facing trial in the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty so they can voice their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, a lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, a lawyer representing accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it." Ali and four other men face a civilian trial just a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in the coming weeks. The men are accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist...

SNIPPET: “In about less than a week, India will mark the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. After the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Chicago breakthrough, now Italy has achieved some headway in the investigations relating to last year’s terror events(26/11). The Italian police have arrested, after almost a year long monitoring and surveillance, two Pakistani nationals (Father and Son duo) from Brescia city who are accused of sending funds from their money transfer agency and providing the logistical support to Pakistani terrorists. The suspects Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, owners of the Madina Trading telephone...

The suspect in the Fort Hood mass shooting will have his first court hearing Saturday.Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged with 13 specifications of murder.His attorney John Galligan said the hearing will be held in Hasan's room at Brooke Army Medical Center.The hearing will determine if Hasan should be placed in jail, pending trial. But Galligan said he'll argue that Hasan should remain in intensive care.Hasan was shot four times on Nov. 5. An update on his condition has not been released.

This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack.

Few details emerged Saturday on a reported threat at Fort Benning. Thursday a solider found a suspicious package and a note threatening a massacre similar to the Nov. 5 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, Elsie Jackson, post spokeswoman at Fort Benning confirmed Saturday. The anonymous note and package -- reported by The Army Times as a box of 20 hollow-point bullets -- were found Thursday morning outside a motor pool area at Fort Benning, located near Columbus. "There may be an update Monday," said Jackson Saturday. "But at this time there is an ongoing investigation of the incident." The discovery...

An Illinois woman is charged with a hate crime for berating a Muslim woman about the Fort Hood shooting and then pulling at her headscarf. The charge could lead to three years in prison: justice or prosecutorial overkill? In the days after the Ft. Hood shooting, mosques around the country bolstered their security in anticipation of a backlash from Americans angry about a Muslim man alleged to have killed American soldiers on their own turf. Since then, only one alleged hate crime against Muslims has been directly tied to the Fort Hood rampage. Two days after the rampage by an...

The Army Times is reporting exclusively that an anonymous note threatening a massacre similar to the Nov. 5 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, was discovered Thursday -- along with a box of 20 hollow-point bullets -- in a motor pool area at Columbus' Fort Benning.

A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up. The sign, completed Thursday by artist David Lee of Arvada, shows a grinning, cartoonish Obama and bears the words: “PRESIDENT or JIHAD?” Underneath the image is a yellow square with the phrase, “BIRTH CERTIFICATE, PROVE IT!” The words “WAKE UP AMERICA! REMEMBER FT. HOOD” appear at the bottom of the billboard at Wolf Interstate Leasing and Sales about seven miles west of Denver.

SNIPPET: "RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West. They translate writings and sermons once largely out of reach of English readers and often feature charismatic clerics like Anwar al-Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of e-mails with the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings. The U.S.-born al-Awlaki has been an inspiration to several militants arrested in the United States and Canada in recent years, with his Web-based sermons often turning up on their computers."

Federal investigators chasing e-mail and other communication links between Fort Hood shooting suspect Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and radical Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki should consult a new book that cites documents on the al Qaeda imam. “Muslim Mafia,” by investigative reporter Paul Sperry, reports on copies of once-secret U.S. immigration records revealing that U.S.-born Awlaki was detained by authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 10, 2002, as a terrorist suspect as he tried to re-enter the United States from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was mysteriously released because a warrant for his arrest had been rescinded the...

http://c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/11/19/HP/R/26172/congressional+investigation+into+Fort+Hood+Shooting.aspx

Evangelist Offends Islam bythelastcrusade.org Pat Robertson, Chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and former GOP presidential candidate, has raised the ire of Islamists and the wrath of CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations).In a broadcast of the 700 Club Monday night, the Virginia Beach pastor said that the massacre at Fort Hood was caused by a politically-correct refusal to recognize the violent nature of the Muslim religion."Islam is a violent--I was going to say religion--but it's not a religion. It's a political system. It's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of governments of the world and world...

About a week ago, Pat Robertson stated that Islam is a "violent political system." (Short video on site.) He happens to be correct, but as usual one of our politicians has to come running to stand up for a religion/political system that they know little about. Virginia's 11Th District Congressman Gerry Connolly (D), has issued this statement calling for Pat Robertson to apologize for his comments about Islam. “In the week since Mr. Robertson’s statement that Islam is ‘not a religion’ but a ‘violent political system’ whose adherents should be treated like members of the communist or fascist party, I...

Unit­ed States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a rad­i­cal cler­ic con­sid­ered by au­thor­i­ties to be an al-​Qaeda re­cruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in the af­ter­life, ac­cord­ing to an Amer­i­can of­fi­ci­al with top se­cret ac­cess to 18 e-​mails ex­changed between Hasan and the cler­ic, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month peri­od between Dec. 2008 and June 2009. "It sounds like code words," said Lt. Col. Tony Shaf­fer, a mil­i­tary ana­lyst at the Cen­ter for Ad­vanced De­fense Stud­ies. "That he's ac­tual­ly ei­ther of­fer­ing him­self up or that he's al­ready crossed that line in his own mind." CLICK HERE FOR...

A Russian Orthodox priest known for his outspoken criticism of Islam and attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity has been assassinated in his Moscow church. A masked gunman shot Father Daniil Sysoyev in the head and chest after asking for him by name, police said. The choirmaster, Vladimir Strelbinsky, was seriously wounded in the attack at St Thomas Church in southern Moscow. Father Daniil, 35, died of his wounds in hospital late last night. A Russian newspaper reported that he had recently told its journalists of 14 death threats by telephone and e-mail, which he had received as a result...

The FBI is worried a group linked to al-Qaeda is training up a new generation of terrorists. They're thought to be targeting young Somali immigrants, radicalising them to carry out attacks on their home country and possibly the US in the future. The grey high rise flats in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, are clustered together and are home to hundreds of Somali immigrants. It's not clear why teenagers like these are giving up their comfortable lives in America and returning to their war torn homeland. But over the past three years, authorities believe 20 young Somali men have gone back to fight...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — As a Spanish warship looked on, a $3.3 million ransom was delivered by boat Tuesday and Somali pirates freed a Spanish trawler and its 36 crew members. Spain's prime minister did little to deny paying off the hijackers — one reason the lucrative attacks are on the rise. "The government did what it had to do," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a news conference in Madrid. "The important thing is that the sailors will be back with us. The first obligation of a country, of the government of a state, is to save the lives...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al Qaeda’s message to Muslims in the West. They translate writings and sermons once largely out of reach of English readers and often feature charismatic clerics like Anwar al-Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of e-mails with the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings. The U.S.-born al-Awlaki has been an inspiration to several militants arrested in the United States and Canada in recent years, with his Web-based sermons often turning up on their computers.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_4546.html Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs This information is current as of today, Thu Nov 19 2009 21:45:59 GMT-0800 (PST). Niger November 19, 2009 The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the risks of travel to Niger due to threat of kidnapping, and recommends against all travel to Niger at this time. This Travel Alert expires February 28, 2010. On December 14, 2008, two United Nations officials, former Canadian diplomats, were kidnapped by the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) while...

United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009.

Maj. Nidal Hasan’s Actions Are Not Justifiable in Islam By Mukhtar Voss Posted: 11/16/2009 The story about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is sad and shocking. When I first learned of it, I could not stop reading about it, particularly once I found out he is Arab and Muslim. Since 9/11, there have been an innumerous number of suicide bombers, beheadings and many more acts of violence that were all done by Muslims and under the name of God, but it sincerely puzzles me to see such heinous crimes being committed by Muslims. In practicing my religion, I have never found...

Lieberman Blasts Defense Department Probe of the Shooting as Backward-Looking Defense Secretary Robert Gates is putting a former chief of naval operations and former Army secretary in charge of a Pentagon inquiry into the Fort Hood shootings. "It is prudent to determine immediately whether there are internal weaknesses or procedural shortcomings in the department that could make us vulnerable in the future," said Gates, who spoke at a press conference at the Pentagon on Thursday afternoon. Hours earlier, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, led by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) opened its own probe into the shooting. Lieberman characterized the investigation...

Two viruses caused the murders, wounds, and suffering at Fort Hood. The first arises from the fact that although a capacity for evil is inherent in human nature, human beings have, as David Brooks recently observed, a “conscious say” regarding the commission of evil acts. Therefore, the actual cause of the Fort Hood attack is the conscious choice by terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan to commit an act of horrific evil. There is, however, a second virus that is a proximate cause of the murders, one that — irony of ironies that cry out to Heaven for redress — allowed a...

A controversial imam who authorities have called an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing is scheduled to speak tonight to a Muslim student group at Queens College on the subject "How Islam Perfected Thanksgiving." The appearance by Brooklyn mosque imam Siraj Wahhaj - who also testified for convicted terror plotter "blind Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman - and a recent nasty verbal altercation involving members of the Muslim Student Association that invited him, has spurred some other students to demand that Queens College cut off funding for that group.

... As the enormity of the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sinks in, we must ask whether we are confronting a new phenomenon of violent rage, one we might dub--disconcertingly--"Going Muslim." This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American [...] discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. ... The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in...

There won't be 72 virgins in paradise for Fort Hood madman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- but he spent his nights enjoying earthly carnal pleasures at a no-frills strip club. The girls of Starz -- an off-base jiggle joint in Killeen, Texas -- remember Hasan well for his unusual interest in their personal lives and his self-restraint with alcohol. Hasan, the Army shrink accused of killing 13 people and wounding 42 two weeks ago in an Islamic terror-inspired rampage, had visited the club at least three times, the dancers say. He paid particular attention to a 31-year-old blonde named Jennifer...

At first glance, Moshe Holtzberg looks like any happy boy on the brink of his third birthday. Messy lunches and tons of playtime is how the lovable tot spends his time with his grandparents and nanny living in Afula, Israel. But Moshe is far from normal. He is a living miracle. Last year, a group of gunmen stormed into Moshe's old house in Mumbai, India, killing his parents and four others at the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish center. His nanny, Sandra Samuel, managed to grab him half way into the 36-hour siege, running from the chaos and saving his life. "He remembers...

IsraelNationalNews.com is reporting that Barack Obama continues to "reach out to Muslims" by appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose host is a member of a radical Muslim group. Obama has continued to "reach out Muslims," as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last June, and this past week he swore in a Muslim rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national...

The Washington Times is reporting that The Obama administration on Tuesday had Obama's National Security Council (NSC) take control of congressional briefings on the Fort Hood killings and asked Democratic leaders to delay a probe, as top Republicans said intelligence shortcomings blamed for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks are re-emerging. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the NSC had taken over the briefings "due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood," and that Democratic leaders agreed to postpone any congressional action on the shootings. "This...

Senator Lindsey Graham, of all people, destroys Our Attorney General (and Obama) on their idiotic decision to fight this war as a law enforcement issue: Ann Althouse: Holder imagines that he can hide inside that “thoughtful” routine that Obama so often relies on, but it is utterly pathetic here. Either he knows damned well what he’s doing and he’s lying or he’s outrageously unqualified for his job. His evasive style is so similar to Obama’s that he makes Obama look worse. Dan Karipides at Wizbang isn’t buying it. He doesn’t believe Holder is this much of an amateur: Which unfortunately...

<p>Accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others must be, and will be, convicted, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday in defense of his controversial recent decision to try the five alleged terrorists in a federal court in Manhattan.</p>

SNIPPET - Quote: Jihadi Cyber Wars: 'Watchdog Brigades,' 'Electronic Mujahideen Forum' Trade Accusations over Fath Al-Islam Ties On November 13, 2009, the jihadist counter-espionage group Kata'ib Al-Rasid ("The Watchdog Brigades") issued a warning that the well-known jihadist forum Shabakat Al-Mujahideen Al-Iliktroniyya ("Electronic Mujahideen Forum") was suspect and should be avoided.

The greatest hurdle Americans need to get over in order to properly respond to the growing threat of radical Islam is purely intellectual in nature; specifically, it is epistemological, and revolves around the abstract realm of “knowledge.” Before attempting to formulate a long-term strategy to counter radical Islam, Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand it—without giving it undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume that other peoples more or less share in their worldview,...

This morning I called Congressman's Manzullo's (R-Ill.) Washington office, in regards to his statement that "Islam is a religion of peace." Originally he has speaking about Islamic terrorists and had said this: "These are really, really mean people whose job it is to kill people, driven by some savage religion." Of course he received some complaints and has since apologized. Backing off of his original stance. I say non-conversation, because he only responded to what he wanted to. Here is how it went. CL: Hi, my name is Chris Logan and I am calling in regards to the Congressman's comment...

Iowa's two Republican Congressmen, Steve King and Tom Latham, are fighting against an Obama administration proposal to transfer the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison to the Iowa-Illinois border. But Democrat Bruce Braley supports the plan and believes Club Gitmo Midwest could have a "substantial economic impact" on the area.

Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.The meeting with the Taliban was kept secret by Evans and her group Code Pink in reports she and the group posted from Kabul and in interviews with the media and...

The sea lanes of the South Atlantic have become a favored route for drug traffickers carrying narcotics from Latin America to West and North Africa, where al Qaeda-related groups are increasingly involved in transporting the drugs to Europe, intelligence officials and counternarcotics specialists say. A Middle Eastern intelligence official said his agency has picked up "very worrisome reports" of rapidly growing cooperation between Islamic militants operating in North and West Africa and drug lords in Latin America. With U.S. attention focused on the Caribbean and Africans lacking the means to police their shores, the vast sea lanes of the South...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is questioning the motive behind what he sees as the Justice Department’s reluctance to provide information about the Fort Hood massacre to congressional investigators. Sessions said he talked last week to Attorney General Eric Holder, who told him that the Justice Department and the FBI could not provide information to Senate investigators because it could hinder the prosecution of Maj. Nidal Hasan, the alleged gunman accused of killing 13 people at the sprawling Army base in Texas. Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and also a member of the Armed Services panel, believes...

Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters oppose the Obama administration’s decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of voters favor the president’s decision not to try the suspects by military tribunal at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba where they are now imprisoned. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure whether it was the right decision or not. Only 30% of Americans said suspected terrorists should have access to U.S. courts, while 54% favored...

Cowardly Congressman Donald Manzullo has now joined hands with Senator Lindsey Graham. In the past week they both have bowed down to Islam, the religion of war. Muslims keep on pushing, and our so called "leaders" continue to retreat. When cannot win with these guys at the helm. Lawmaker apologizes after 'savage religion' remark By Katherine Skiba and Richard Simon November 18, 2009

(IsraelNN.com) While the U.S. debate continues as to whether Maj. Nidal Hassan’s murder of 13 soldiers in Texas this month was a terrorist attack, researcher Barry Rubin says the murderer himself provided the affirmative answer. Maj. Hasan, who is now facing charges of having murdered 13 and wounded 29 in the Fort Hood shooting attack of Nov. 5, delivered a lecture in June 2007. His topic was: Islam, the complete subservience demanded by Allah and Muhammed, and threats that the American military might encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries. Hassan’s slide show can be seen here....