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On Wed. July 2, 2008, an Arab started trying to kill people on a very packed busy street in Jerusalem with his work vehicle, a caterpillar type of huge bulldozer. He just drove it onto the adjacent packed street and started trying to crush cars. One of the first cars he attacked was ours. In our car were my husband in the front passenger seat, me the driver, and 3 of our girls in the back; we were on our way to meet visiting friends. As we drove toward the place, we were on the packed street called Sarei Yisrael,...

As members of the Allied Expeditionary Force entered the landing crafts that would transport them to their rendezvous with history in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, they received individual copies of the Order of the Day drafted by their Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He had given the go ahead for the massive invasion, code named Overlord, in spite of weather that was less than inviting. He wanted the men to understand what they were fighting for – and against. He told them: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven...

Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the internet, reports said on Wednesday. MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said. The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by...

The travel section of the paper featured a story on Kosovo the other day with a recommendation that readers visit this latest "must see" spot on the globe. It made me laugh. Almost forty years ago--1971 to be exact -- I traveled in what was then called Yugoslavia and is now called Kosovo. The memories of that trip remain so vivid and so utterly at odds with this report.

LONDON - The Former US ambassador to the UN says a military action against Iran is dangerous and risky yet it has to be on the table as a last resort, PressTV reported. "I don't think anybody views the use of military force against Iran's nuclear program as an attractive option. I think it's dangerous, risky, and not something that you would look at except as a last resort," John Bolton said in an exclusive talk with al-Jazeera on Thursday. "Five years of European diplomatic efforts have failed and left us with very few alternatives. That's why I think the...

Al Qaeda has successfully established a network for recruiting boys as young as 12 from across central Asia as it seeks new volunteers to enlarge its team of prospective suicide bombers and militants fighters, senior security officials from the Middle East have revealed to CBS News. News of al Qaeda venturing into the former Soviet central Asian republics with a population that has a largely Muslim heritage marks a significant addition to reports earlier this year that the hardline group had recruited young boys in the Pak-Afghan border region. Last May, a senior Pakistani security official showed a rare video...

Ethiopia says its forces have killed 71 Islamist fighters and leaders in Somalia in a joint operation with the Somali government. State media Friday say the joint operation was launched June 29 to stop what it called a "planned terrorist offensive" in the Meteban and Gura'el areas. The reports say 13 of those killed were leaders of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union or the al-Shabab militant group. They say one of those killed was a Canadian colonel whose name is on a list of international terrorists. Reuters news agency quotes Sheikh Abdirahim Issa Adow, an Islamist spokesman, as saying only seven...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday instructed the IDF to begin the process of issuing demolition orders against the homes of Ala Abu Dhaim of Jebl Mukaber - who killed eight religious seminary students in March - and Husam Taysir Dwayat of Sur Bahir, who killed three Israelis on Wednesday. On Thursday, Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz had informed the government that according to the law, Israel may demolish terrorists' homes within areas of Israeli sovereignty, but doing so could raise "significant legal problems." The statement was included in a legal opinion submitted to the government following consultations between the army and...

Husam Taysir Dwayat, the 30-year-old east Jerusalem man who carried out Wednesday's terrorist attack in the capital, was "a murderer and not a terrorist," according to his family's attorney, Shimon Kukush. Dwayat "went berserk and ran over everyone in his vicinity," Kukush told Israel Radio, pointing out that "We're talking about the center of Jerusalem, and Arab residents could have been there as well. He could have killed anyone and there is no evidence that it was terrorism." According to Kukush, Dwayat's family was "hurting and aching" over their son's action and condemns the killing of innocents. He insisted that...

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...

American Deputy Secretary of State John Bolton believes the United States committed a serious mistake when it recognized the independence of Kosovo. He fears such policy may escalate tensions in the Balkans. In an interview for the Russian news agency Interfax, Mr. Bolton remarked that Washington’s policy was on autopilot since the regime of the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. But the situation has changed considerably after the democratic government took over, which, in Mr. Bolton’s opinion, makes support for Kosovo’s independence a pointless atavism.

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....

A drunken teenager who beat up a priest walked free yesterday after the judge accepted the attack was a 'one-off mistake'. Babul Islam was one of three Asian youths who attacked Canon Michael Ainsworth in his churchyard. The 19-year-old punched the vicar in the head while others kicked him ' one all¬egedly shouting 'f*****g priest' ' only stopping when passers-by intervened. His battered victim spent nearly two weeks in hospital after the assault, which prosecutor Carl May-Smith said 'had a profound effect on him'. The shop assistant admitted being extremely drunk during the attack but denied it was religiously-motivated '...

This has so many holes in it, Swis cheese would seem whole by comparison. But the ramifications are so profound that it deserves to be reported - if only to smoke out whether or not it is true. A respected journalist, Laura Rozen, is reporting at a not very respected journalistic site, Mother Jones, that an Iranian American academic is quoting from an Iranian news site that the government of Iran will suspend uranium enrichment activities for a perioid of six weeks in exchange for:

Click to view images froma patrol in Northeast Baghdad. Photos by Bill Murray. BAGHDAD, IRAQ: It’s near noon on a Friday in Northeast Baghdad and the neighborhoods the U.S. military calls Muhallahs 535 and 734 are quiet. It’s the weekend, and many adults are at the local mosques for worship, leaving the streets filled with dozens of adolescent boys, yelling, kicking and raising minor havoc on bicycles, soccer balls and the unlucky stray dog. As U.S. Army Specialist Luis Garza and 2nd Lieutenant Jonathon Logan patrol the neighborhoods, they remember these streets during a less docile time. Both men...

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...

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Some are concerned about what NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union have nurtured there since the military and humanitarian intervention in 1999. James Jatras, a U.S.-based advocate for the Serbian Orthodox Community, put it bluntly last year when he said Kosovo was a “a beachhead into the rest of Europe” for “radical Muslims” and “terrorist elements.” It’s an assertion without evidence. “We’ve been here for so long,” said United States Army Sergeant Zachary Gore in Eastern Kosovo, “and not seen any evidence of it, that we’ve reached the assumption...

Has anyone noticed some familiar dynamics appearing on the international political scene over the last several years? The world again seems to be dividing roughly into two camps. Call it pro-Western and anti-Western for now. Perhaps someone will be creative enough to come up with a sexier name, something with the ring of “Communist” and “Free”. The most explicit global conflict in town is the jihad of some elements of fundamentalist Islam against the United States and other Western countries. But the plot is rapidly thickening. For example, China tends to support anti-Western causes in international circles, and often gets...

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii on Sunday said his ministry was informed of a U.S. plot to kidnap President Mahmud Ahmadinejad during his trip to Iraq in March. “The Intelligence Ministry was unaware of the plan to kidnap the president before he traveled to Iraq. We were informed of the plot when the president was staying in Iraq and finally… by taking some security measures, the U.S. plan was aborted,” Ejeii told reporters. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said the enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their...

Terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda may be planning to buy former NHS ambulances and police cars to mount suicide bomb attacks in Britain, MI5 has warned. They may import a tactic already used in Iraq and Israel, according to a report by MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to chief constables. In a statement to The Sunday Times, the Association of Chief Police Officers also warned of the risk of such an attack. It said ministers must legislate to stop the sale of such vehicles. Its move has been backed by Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government’s terrorism watchdog. He said he...

Four black teens were arrested on hate crime charges Friday, after police say they threw rocks at a bus full of Jewish toddlers. Police say the teens hurled racial slurs and broke windows on the school bus last month in Crown Heights. The three girls and one boy are all 14 years old. No one on the bus was hurt. The case is the latest in a string of incidents between black and Jewish residents in Crown Heights.

[JURIST] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) [official website] announced Wednesday that it will prepare a report [press release] on allegations of organ trafficking in Kosovo. Former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has alleged in a new book [JURIST report] that about 300 Serbian and other non-Albanian prisoners were victims of organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, but that a 2003 probe by her ICTY team failed to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute. In response, parliamentarians submitted a motion [text] in...

A former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Abdullah Salih al Ajmi has been identified as the Al Qaeda operative who conducted a suicide truck bombing in Mosul: Released Guantanamo detainee behind March suicide truck bombing at Combat Outpost Inman in Mosul. A former Kuwaiti Guantanamo Bay detainee conducts a suicide attack in Mosul. Two Kuwaiti al Qaeda operatives who conducted suicide attacks were featured at the end of the video. Abu Omar al Kuwaiti, also known as Badr Mishel Gama’an al Harbi, and Abu Juheiman al Kuwaiti, also known as Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, are both shown on the video, along with...

Hate preacher Abu Qatada has moved into an £800,000 home funded by the taxpayer following his release from jail. New neighbours of the cleric once described as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand in Europe said: “He could not be less welcome.” One resident, who served in the Navy during the Gulf War, said: “The fact that he is in my country, let alone around my neighbourhood, makes me mad. We are losing men in Afghanistan and now this man is allowed to live here.” Qatada arrived at the house in London on Tuesday after a court granted him bail. He is...

Serbs in protest against mosque construction 26 June 2008 | 15:19 | Source: FoNet BERIVOJCE -- Serbs from the village of Berivojce near Kosovska Kamenica are obstructing work on a building site where Albanians have begun illegally building a mosque. The Serbs are demanding that UNMIK and the Albanian authorities in Kamenica put a stop to the work and the “further irritation of the Serb populace”, reads a statement from the Kosovo Ministry. Over a hundred Serbs are protesting. One Serb representative, Boža Stanojević, said that a number of Kosovo Police Service members were harassing and provoking Serb protestors. “It...

THE HAGUE • Albanian Kosovo journalist Baton Haxhiu yesterday told a UN tribunal trying him for revealing the name of a protected witness that he had done no wrong as the man's identity was already known. "Quite a few people knew his name.... Kosovo is a small country, secrets do not last long-especially when they concern the leaders of an armed struggle against the Serbs during the Kosovo war," he told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Haxhiu, editor of the daily Express newspaper, stands accused of contempt for having named a protected witness during...

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's intelligence agency on Wednesday accused its Pakistani counterpart, ISI, of masterminding an assassination bid on President Hamid Karzai in April.The US-backed Karzai survived the April 27 attack at the annual military parade, but three Afghans were killed, one of them a parliamentarian.Sayed Ansari, spokesman for the national intelligence agency, said his organisation believed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was involved."The investigations, the documents we found and the confession of suspects arrested show the real schemer and organiser ... of the terrorist attack is the intelligence agency of Pakistan, the ISI," Ansari told reporters.The statement came a day after...

American School Books Redefine 'Jihad' to Exclude Violence -- Where is Media? By Warner Todd Huston | June 8, 2008 - 21:49 ET In yet another example of why the west could be too weak to fight the sort of global terrorism that takes the form of Islamofascism, a textbook monitoring group is charging that American textbooks have been cleansed of mentioning the violence inherent in the Islamic "Jihad." Now, our children will not be taught what "Jihad" truly means, nor that it has been used as an excuse to kill their fellow citizens because our schools have sanitized Islam...

“We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed.” That sounds like the statement of a victor in a war, dictating terms to the vanquished. And it may well be: free speech is under attack in Canada -- the prosecution of Macleans Magazine and author Mark Steyn -- and in the United States as well by Islamic governments and groups whose goal is to end free speech when it is aimed at exposing the truth about Islamic terrorism and its roots. Their goal is positively Orwellian. Replace “Big Brother” with the “Organization...

Radical Islam’s plan for world domination BY ED VITAGLIANO - AFA Journal, April 2008   In January 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by Muslim radicals in Pakistan. A few days later, the 38-year-old journalist was beheaded.   In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece in January 2008, Judea Pearl, a UCLA computer science professor and the father of Daniel, noted the implacable nature of such Muslim radicals. Pearl said, “The shocking element in Danny’s murder was that he was killed, not for what he wrote or planned to write, but for what he represented – America, modernity, openness, pluralism, curiosity,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A former senior US diplomat on Tuesday described senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as a "thoughtful politician," saying the US administration should drop its refusal to engage with the Palestinian movement. Richard Viets, who was US ambassador to Jordan in the early 1980s, recounted his meeting with Haniya in Gaza earlier this month as part of a private US group's fact-finding mission to the region. "Haniya is a very smart, articulate, sophisticated, thoughtful politician. You have to be impressed sitting in the room with him," Viets told a news conference. "On the whole his comments regarding Israel...

Fight Taliban, But Not With Weapons Washington Post, United States In today's war against Islamofascism, there's no stronger weapon than the free flow of information from the outside world. Show pictures of how a fellow Muslim country like Turkey or Malaysia is doing, or of how the once impoverished countries like India and China are advancing. It will be a much more potent weapon than the barrel of a gun.

Unfortunately, Lebanon is facing at the present time a crucial and fatal threat to the core and essence of its existence, its soul of coexistence and freedom. The free world is apparently turning a blind eye to the threat to Lebanon, the land of the historic cedars, the home of the great Phoenicians, and the unique mosaic and multi-cultural country of the Middle East. This tragedy has been unfolding without a decisive deterrent stance from the free world.

A gigantic poster of genocidal Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic hung on the outside wall of a hideous communist-style apartment block. “Get a picture of that,” I said to my friend and traveling companion Sean LaFreniere as I drove our rented car through the outer suburbs of Serbia's capital Belgrade. I had the wheel and he had the camera. “Too late,” he said. We were driving fast on a four-lane road and were almost out of the city. Our road trip from Serbia to Kosovo via Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro was just beginning. “That’s okay,” I said. “We’ll probably...

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment deployed to the Balkans earlier this year to provide Kosovo Forces with armored capabilities during Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia, according to Army officials. Information on the deployment was kept under wraps until now because of the mission’s sensitivity. In the days following Kosovo’s declaration of independence, protesters marched in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. Kosovo Force troops and U.N. police closed the border with Serbia after hearing that protesters were being bused to Mitrovica to join the protest. During the deployment 1-4 soldiers were manning Bradley fighting...

MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not opposed to an EU mission replacing the UN force in Kosovo, but the move should have the formal backing of the UN Security Council and Serbia, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday. "We are not opposed to the European Union taking on part of the responsibility for what is happening in Kosovo," Vladimir Chizhov, envoy to the European Communities, said adding a European mission should be approved by a UN Security Council resolution and Belgrade. Chizhov said UN Security Council Resolution 1244 was currently the only legal basis for an...

MANAMA (AFP) — Police in Bahrain said on Saturday one man was arrested and another freed on bail after they were accused of cooperating with and funding a foreign terrorist group, a reference to Al-Qaeda. One suspect had delivered funds "to a foreign group that uses terrorism to reach its aims" and that his beliefs "could affect security," according to a public prosecution statement. "The first suspect has admitted delivering money to that group abroad, while the second has denied it... Both suspects have been accused of cooperating with a terrorist group abroad and financing a terrorist group."

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...

In her book "The Hunt: Me and War Criminals," Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor at The Hague, reveals the gruesome details of the hundreds of Serb prisoners whose bodies were stripped of their organs during the Kosovo war. According to her sources, senior figures in the KLA were aware of the scheme, in which hundreds of young Serbs were reportedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania, where their organs were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of the reported organ harvesting and of how some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed. Miss Del Ponte...

The British expedition to Afghanistan is on the brink of something worse than defeat: a long, low-intensity war from which no government will dare to extricate itself. With the death toll mounting, battle is reportedly joined with the Taliban at the very gates of the second city, Kandahar. There is no justification for ministerial bombast that “we are winning the war, really”. What is to be done? In 2001 the West waged a punitive retaliatory strike against the hosts of the perpetrators of 9/11. The strike has since followed every law of mission creep, now reduced in London to a...

US intelligence officials fear al-Qaeda currently training white Europeans in Pakistani camps to carry out terror attacks in Europe, North America. Intelligence director: Europeans can enter US without passport, blend in more easily

Extremists are winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Britain's young Muslims, a disturbing police report warns. Increasing numbers have become so alienated from mainstream society that they could even lend their support to jihadi terrorism, the study claims. While most reject violence, many distrust police and are reluctant to inform on extremists. The report was commissioned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) after last year's failed bomb attacks in London's West End and at Glasgow Airport. It is to be discussed at Acpo's annual conference this week. In the most comprehensive research of its kind...

This is a "heads-up" for presentations on what sound like promising books (well, in my humble opinion). I'll post fuller info below, but the books are: If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy - from the Revolution to the War of 1812 The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour "Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad"

Jordan group calls for called for international arrest warrant against Geert Wilders There are so many people all over the world who would happily arrest him, the maker of Fitna has to take this seriously. There were few riots over Fitna, but as I wrote here, Islamic supremacists are this time pursuing a different strategy, and seeking laws criminalizing what they perceive as insults to Islam. Free Speech Death Watch Update: "Jordan court wants Wilders arrested," from Dutch News, June 20 (thanks to Hans): The maker of the controversial film Fitna, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, is afraid that he might...

(UNITED NATIONS) - The United States on Friday defended UN chief Ban Ki-moon's plans to transfer some powers from the UN mission in Kosovo to the European Union despite opposition from Serbia and its ally Russia. US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad told the Security Council that Washington backed Ban's plan to reconfigure the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) by transferring responsibilities in the areas of police, justice and customs to a EU mission. He told Ban that despite objections raised by Serbia and Russia, "You have to act. 1244 gives you that discretion," referring to the Security Council...

“For Hamas, the key is to keep the rocket attacks below an understood threshold and Israel's response will be tolerable, precise and produce minimal collateral (Palestinian) damage. The Hamas pattern is to fire one, two or three rockets at Sderot. Wait a few days and do it again. Injure two, three, four Israelis. Kill one or two, but not more than that - this week. Increase the range and accuracy of the rockets incrementally. Hit Ashkelon, but just once. Then wait. Hit a shopping center, but if no one is killed, the Israeli response is unlikely to threaten Hamas rule....

Magdi Allam, the Christian convert from Islam who was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at an Easter service in April, has reacted to Islamist death threats posted on a web site said to be close to al-Qaeda. He has expressed particular concern that the writers of the threatening messages may be Italian. Allam, an Egyptian-born writer and deputy editor of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, has been a controversial figure in Italy for his regular critiques of Islam. In fact, in his book “Long Live Israel,” Allam wrote “the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically...

(IsraelNN.com) Jews in Canada and Latin America are on the hit list of Hizbullah terrorist cells, according to an ABC television news report, quoting American and Canadian intelligence officials. They said that the terrorist party, headed by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, is seeking revenge for the attack last February on Imad Muginiyeh. Israel has denied involvement n the attack on the Hizbullah mastermind, who was assassinated in a car bomb blast in Damascus. ABC said Hizbullah agents have been conducting surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa and on Toronto synagogues. "They want to kill as many people as they can,...

This text is written in response to God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis, an American historian and two-time winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. In my opinion the book is largely a waste of money. This essay is not made to review the book as much as it is to refute it. It overlaps to some extent with the text The Truth About Islam in Europe, which I have published at the Brussels Journal before. Briefly summed up, God's Crucible laments the fact that Charles Martel, "the Hammer," halted the advancing Islamic Jihad...

The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna.For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. There is also a multi-index listing here. This post was compiled from comments made on one of last night’s posts. The scale of violent crime white people are being subject to in countries such as Sweden resembles warfare. Not only does the state not protect people against this racist violence, it actively sides with the attackers. Which means that the social contract is now dead and buried in most Western countries. The state is either expensive and irrelevant or...