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Fears that Russia might sell advanced weaponry to Syria kicked up a mini-storm of concern in Israel on Thursday. Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Russia for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, has been campaigning to acquire weapons systems that include long-range surface-to-surface missiles, according to Russian media reports. The news of Assad's reported ambitions prompted immediate hand-wringing among Israeli officials and analysts. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was "analyzing the ramifications" of Assad's visit.

The inspirational night dream, or ruya, is a fundamental, inspirational and even strategic part of the militant jihadist movement in the Middle East and elsewhere. This is the conclusion of a study of the reported dreams of many of the best-known al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders carried out by Dr Iain Edgar a social anthropologist at Durham University. Edgar identified four key themes from his research: Militant jihadists are inspired by night dreams Militant jihadists legitimize their actions partly on the basis of night dreams The inspirational night dream can be more 'real' than reality, connecting the individual to a mythical...

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 – No nation can solve the problem posed by radical extremism by itself, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the 102nd annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee here last night. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at the 2008 American Jewish Committee annual gala at the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2008. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “In this extraordinary time of fast-paced change, the challenge of violent extremism underpinned...

Whenever I point out that liberal Democrats in Congress threw away the gains we made in Vietnam, at great cost in blood and treasure, just as we had defeated the enemy, and are indirectly responsible for the slaughter of millions of innocent people in Southeast Asia, I get comments from liberals denying that any such thing ever took place. As Democrats in Congress and Obama and Clinton line up to repeat the greatest treachery in American history, comes the following historical remembrance. The consequences of a similar surrender in Iraq will be even more dire than that which took place...

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas-run television in Gaza broadcast a dastardly new version of Holocaust denial on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day – claiming the Jews carried out the genocide to rid themselves of the “disabled and handicapped” among them. The show, billed as part of the Islamist terror group’s educational programming, conveyed the message that the Holocaust was actually a Zionist plot, aiming to both eliminate handicapped Jews and at the same time to make “the Jews seem persecuted” in order to “benefit from international sympathy.” On the program, Amin Dabur, head of the Palestinian Center for Strategic Research, explained that...

War On Terror: Caving to Muslim pressure groups, the Bush administration has banned the term "jihadist" to define the enemy. Islamic terrorists will now be known as "violent extremists." Our war on radical Islam has been hamstrung by political correctness from the start. First, we couldn't call the campaign to strike back at al-Qaida a "crusade" because Muslims found it historically offensive. Then we couldn't define the enemy as "Islamic terrorists" because it insulted Islam — even though it accurately described the Muslims committing murder and mayhem in the name of Islam. To appease critics, we narrowed the terminology, confining...

A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official. The argument, of course, is the old Streusand/Guirard claim that by using the word jihad, we're validating the jihadist claim to be waging jihad. Of course, it's ridiculous to think that the U.S. State Department carries any validating authority within the Islamic world to determine what is Islam and what isn't. This would be the first time that unbelievers have set the meaning of Islamic theology for...

A Dutch court is presently considering a petition by the Dutch Islamic Federation seeking a review of whether Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders's new 15-minute video Fitna (strife) violates Dutch hate-speech laws. The video is a graphic description of jihadist Salafi Islam (or “jihadism”) as an interpretation of the Quran that seeks to dominate the world and slaughter non-believers. These reactions confirm the fundamental problem within European society. While the international community is pre-occupied with condemning Geert Wilders for producing a video on the barbaric manifestations of jihadism, no one is denying the facts presented in the video. No...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

The appearance of nuclear weapons materials on the black market is a growing global concern, and it is crucial that the United States reinforce its team of nuclear forensics experts and modernize its forensics tools to prepare for or respond to a possible nuclear terrorist attack. Large quantities of nuclear materials are inadequately secured in several countries, including Russia and Pakistan. Since 1993, there have been more than 1,300 incidents of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, including plutonium and highly enriched uranium, both of which can be used to develop an atomic bomb. And these are only the incidents we...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

The worst moment in Gary Stokes' life was not the day a couple of Marines in dress uniform showed up at his door to tell him his son had been killed in Iraq. That was bad, no doubt. He had spent two years wondering whether he would receive those unwelcome visitors. The worst moment came later, after the tears and the grief. The worst moment came slowly. It was the horrible realization that Sean was gone forever. He would never see his son again. Never again go fishing or camping, or watch him get married and have children of his...

Preparing an appeal of a dismissed lawsuit against the Council of American-Islamic Relations, talk radio host Michael Savage and his legal team have taken a new tack, investigating CAIR's foreign financial backers, WND has learned. CAIR is registered as a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under IRS code section 501(c)(3), which restricts "lobbying on behalf of a foreign government." CAIR's website claims that it receives no foreign government support. However, CAIR's headquarters near the U.S. Capitol until recently was owned by the ruler of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the ruler's foundation has pledged $50 million to capitalize a long-term...

To see why Tuesday's "retirement" of Navy Adm. William "Fox" Fallon as head of U.S. Central Command is good news, all you have to do is look at the Esquire profile that brought about his downfall. Its author, Thomas P.M. Barnett, a former professor at the Naval War College, presents a fawning portrait of the admiral -- a service he previously performed for Donald Rumsfeld. But evidence of Fallon's supposed "strategic brilliance" is notably lacking. For example, Barnett notes Fallon's attempt to banish the phrase "the Long War" (created by his predecessor) because it "signaled a long haul that Fallon...

Was Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King on the mark last week when he asserted Islamic terrorists would rejoice if Sen. Barack Obama becomes the next U.S. president? As a journalist and author who has conducted dozens of on-the-record interviews with Muslim terrorists, including with some of the most notorious Palestinian terror leaders, and who has documented many of those interviews in a recently released, 210-page book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists," I can answer the above question with a resounding "yes." Terrorists worldwide would indeed be emboldened by an Obama election victory not so much because of the senator's middle name –...

One expert said some productions made by the terror group were 'good enough to put on the Discovery Channel' PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN In an Internet age, al-Qaeda prizes geek jihadis as much as would-be suicide bombers and gunmen. The terror network is recruiting computer-savvy technicians to produce sophisticated Web documentaries and multimedia products aimed at Muslim audiences in the US, Britain and other Western countries. Already, the terror movement's al-Sahab production company is turning out high quality material, some of which rivals productions by Western media companies. The documentaries appear regularly on Islamist Web sites, which al-Qaeda uses to recruit followers...

The managing editor of one of the country’s biggest newspapers thinks news organizations ought to hire more Muslim reporters. Philip Bennett, the Washington Post’s managing editor, said reporters often struggle with understanding Islam during a speech Monday at UCI about the difficulties of covering the religion. Bennett’s speech focused on the media’s need to cover issues concerning Islam in an in-depth, long-term manner. To illustrate this point he drew mainly from quotes of notable colleagues and statistical polls, rarely giving his own opinion directly. “Six of 10 Americans, according to a 2007 ABC Poll, don’t understand the basic tenets of...

It's no slur to be called a Muslim The turban photos affair was a missed chance for Obama. If he really is to repair the world, he must tackle this Islamophobia. Sure she did. And George Bush put on a poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his anti-malarial African dance routines while World Bank president. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they look funny; when a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign - and when the ethnic apparel in question is vaguely reminiscent of the clothing worn by Iraqi and...

Secret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar. Nonetheless, a new wave of shock and criticism greeted the Pentagon's announcement on February 11 that it was charging six Guantánamo detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with war crimes--and seeking the death penalty for all of them. Now, as the murky, quasi-legal staging of the Bush Administration's military commissions unfolds, a key official has told The Nation that the trials have been rigged from the start....

Good grief. No Valentines for you, Charlie Brown. At least not in Kuwait. And no roses or cards with red hearts for you, Lucy. Not in Saudi Arabia. The ever-tolerant Muslim world is now condemning Valentine’s Day. Jamaan al-Harbash, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, has called for Valentine’s Day celebrations to be banned. “We call on the commerce minister,” he declared in a fine froth of moral indignation, “to perform his duties by banning celebrations of Valentine’s Day which is alien to our society -- and contradicts our religion’s values and teachings.” Another Kuwaiti MP, Waleed al-Tabtabai, chief of...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) ― Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago. Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said. The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) poses as a civil rights group, defending the rights of Muslims in America. But it was founded by Hamas as a front for Hamas's terrorist activities. Ghassan Elashi, who was the head of CAIR's Texas chapter, and another CAIR founder, Omar Ahmad, attended a key meeting in Philadelphia in 1993. An FBI memo characterizes this meeting as a planning session for Hamas, Holy Land Foundation, and Islamic Association of Palestine. Out of this meeting CAIR was born. In December 2004, a federal judge in Chicago ruled the Islamic Association of Palestine (along with the...

I have just had the privilege of returning to Iraq and more specifically to Al Anbar Province for my third tour. I say privilege for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to again serve with young Americans ---- the best of their generation ---- in combat. A second reason is there is no greater honor for any man or woman than to protect one's country in time of grave danger while wearing the nation's cloth. Finally, I do not think there can be anything more gratifying on this earth for an American than...

"I carry Bosnia in my heart," says Aiman Abu Abdurrahman, a Jihadist from middle east who was invited by the Bosnian Muslim government in the 1990 to help them kill Christians. Abdurrahman was given Bosnian Muslim citizenship and was given a local Bosnian Muslim woman to marry with whom she has children. "Bosnia is a country in which I have experienced the nicest days of my life, my Bosnian [wife] has enriched my life, my good Bosnians will always be on my side," says Abdurrahman. Two of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were veterans of the Bosnian Muslim Jihad. Most...

US President George W. Bush warned Iran Monday that the United States will "confront those who threaten our troops" and defend its allies and interests in the Gulf. Bush, in excerpts of his State of the Union speech provided by the White House, also urged Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, embrace political reforms, and "cease your support for terror abroad." "But above all, know this: America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf," he said. His message echoed US warnings about...

During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that re-affirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee. Then exhibiting far greater faith than believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that "peace" could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors. One exhibition of faith has some historic roots and witnesses; the other is rooted in fantasy. As the president's visit neared, one might have expected the Palestinians, were they interested in peace, to at least tone down anti-Israel_rants. According to Palestinian Media Watch, the government-controlled_television station instead "intensified its rhetoric calling...

Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism. In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam. Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

Manila, 16 Jan. (AKI) – In the Philippines, they have been labelled "sexy bombers" and they are believed to be the latest weapon from the Islamic terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Police from the volatile southern province of Mindanao are taking seriously the possibility that women have been trained and are ready to blow themselves up in the name of Islam. According to information given to intelligence services, there are at least 10 potential female suicide bombers ready to carry out attacks. Several cities in Mindanao, the southernmost island of the archipelago which is home to 4.5 million Muslims, would be...

IIn the movie “Die Hard 2,” a terrorist is laying out his nefarious plans to the air-traffic control chief — played by one Sen. Fred Thompson — at Dulles International Airport. “Dammit, you can't do this!” an aghast Thompson tells the terrorist character. “I am doing this!” snarls the terrorist. With similar melodramatic aplomb, the Iranians played a potentially deadly game of chicken just as all eyes were fixated on Thompson and the rest of the New Hampshire hopefuls. As Iranian speedboats confronted U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, a radio transmission intoned in the speaker's best Darth Vader English,...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Monday that all options are open when it comes to keeping Iran from obtaining atomic weapons, his clearest sign yet that Israeli could use force against a nation considered among its most serious threats. Addressing a closed meeting of the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Olmert was quoted as saying that Israel would not accept an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and a recent report by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003....

They come so frequently, it's hard to get worked up, but there's a dead giveaway this time. The teaser for the piece reads, "At the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Islamic Republic..." The author is Hooman Majd, who accuses the Pentagon of manufacturing the incident with Iran in the Gulf this week. The Pentagon's version of the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning, involving U.S. Navy warships and Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats is, at the very least highly suspicious. On Tuesday, the Navy released video footage and an audiotape to back its claims...

JERUSALEM (AP) - President Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious negotiations, said Wednesday that despite ongoing land squabbles and fears of violence he has high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the end of the year. "I come as an optimistic person and a realistic person - realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists, to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives," Bush said as he began his first presidential visit to Israel. His first formal meeting was...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Wednesday called video and audio released by the Pentagon showing Iranian Revolutionary Guards boats confronting U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz "fabricated," a state-run television station reported. "The footage released by the U.S. Navy was compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated," the English-language channel Press TV quoted an official in the Revolutionary Guards as saying. The report did not give the name of the Revolutionary Guard figure and did not offer more details about how the official knew the footage was "fabricated."

As noted in Cliff's post yesterday (relying on a Bill Gertz report in the Washington Times), the Pentagon has sacked an authentic, influential scholar of Islam, Stephen Coughlin, who evidently refused to lie about — er, I mean, "soften his views on" — Islamic extremism (which, like it or not, is rooted in Islamic scripture) at the insistence of one Hasham Islam, Army Chief Gordon England's Islamophilic factotum (one of countless such creatures now pervading the federal government). For more on this, check out this post on the new website of Andrew Bostom, another scholar of Islam. Andy knows Coughlin...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was praised in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for demonstrating her command of the players and the issues at stake in Pakistan, even as another candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was criticized for stumbling over details. But in two confident television appearances, on CNN and ABC, Clinton made an elementary error about Pakistani politics: She described President Pervez Musharraf as a "candidate" who would be "on the ballot." In fact, Musharraf was reelected to the presidency in October. The upcoming elections are for parliament, and while Musharraf's party...

GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson is warning the biggest threat facing America isn't economic or social or even political: It's the danger from nuclear terrorism. "That the years ahead will be dangerous needs no elaboration from me," Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, says in a new video prepared for Iowa voters who will caucus later this week. "Most Americans know the forces of terrorism will not rest until a mushroom cloud hangs over one of our cities," he said. Thompson, who is trailing several other candidates in Iowa, said those other issues, such as "economy, taxes, protecting our...

The new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities doesn’t change my view of that we need to restrain Iran. The NIE confirms that as recently as the fall of 2003, Iran was covertly working to develop nuclear weapons. Perhaps they have since halted their covert nuclear weapons work, but meanwhile they continue to aggressively pursue a uranium enrichment capability, despite the fact that it makes no economic sense as a civilian program. This program was begun secretly as part of their larger nuclear weapons program and could be converted to bomb-making in short order. The knowledge...

OTTUMWA — Fred Thompson’s campaign slogged through yet another winter storm to get to Ottumwa supporters on Friday. His reward was a packed room at Hotel Ottumwa. The audience was younger than that for most campaign events. It helped that school is out for the winter break. And it helped that Thompson’s visit was in the middle of the day. That was part of what convinced Phil and Constance Cavanaugh to bring their three children. Not that the Cavanaughs follow the school schedule. They home school the kids. “It’s the timing of the event, and he’s my second choice,” Phil...

G.K. Chesterton once stated, “When learned men begin to use their reason, then I generally discover that they haven’t got any.” I believe that sentiment defines the way many people — including me, on occasion — look at our world today. As we prepare to enter the year 2008, our world is encountering widespread turmoil and confusion. The shocking assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rekindles the fears we have of militant terrorists who will recklessly sacrifice their own lives to carry on their reign of terror. And while the experts and pundits and politicians continue to weigh...

Benazir Bhutto is dead, assassinated Thursday at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan: "Bhutto, 54, was leaving the rally in her bulletproof vehicle when she asked that the rooftop hatch be opened so she could bid supporters farewell, aides who were with her said. She leaned her head through the hatch, and several gunshots rang out, an aide seated next to her said. Just as Bhutto sank into her seat, a large bomb detonated outside the vehicle. The left side of Bhutto’s face was badly bloodied, aides said, but it was not clear whether she’d been hit by bullets or...

WATERLOO, IOWA -- For the first time since he started his presidential campaign, Fred Thompson took a position directly opposite that of his friend John McCain. “When I hear one of the fellows running say that we should shut down Guantanamo and bring those prisoners over here ... I wonder if he understands how the world really operates,” Thompson said. “Well, I don’t wonder, either, I think I have a pretty good idea.” The Thompson campaign later clarified that the senator was referring to Mike Huckabee, the only other Republican running that has talked about shutting down the Guantanamo Bay...

That’s the verdict rendered in this article. It’s just another example of the case conservatives should be making on Fred’s behalf. Here’s one of the key sections of the article: In short, Thompson holds the same conservative positions of all the other candidates combined, and has none of their flaws. In fact, any close observer of the campaign season would tell you that Thompson has been on the receiving end of barely any substantive attacks on policy issues. This is no coincidence. And it is the reason he has had to bear the brunt of shallow attacks about his demeanor,...

Conservative and liberal bloggers alike are buzzing about Mitt Romney's alleged statement to an Islamic businessman that he "cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified" for a Muslim, based on the percentage of Muslims in the U.S. Romney quickly disputed businessman Mansoor Ijaz's account of their exchange, but Ijaz stands by his telling. To make matters worse for Romney, TPM Election Central just dropped another bomb: apparently two NV GOPers had asked Romney a similar question several months ago and gotten a similar answer, which one of them even described as "racist." Will this hurt Romney among IA...

Compare this to [1] Huckabee’s view on waterboarding. From the [2] Charlie Rose interview: Thompson: I’m telling you, as President, if the lives of a bunch of American citizens were at stake and I thought that there was a good chance that an individual had information and could impart information that would help save those lives, I’m just saying, that I would do whatever is necessary to get that information from that person. I would authorize that. Whatever is necessary to save a number of American lives. Thanks to Cuffy who says this locks up the [3] Jack Bauer Caucus....

As we've discussed before, everything that happens, anywhere in the world is now being described a "a defeat for George Bush." Two such "defeats for George Bush" came to light this past week - and I'm not even counting West Virginia's loss to Pittsburgh which helped vault LSU and Ohio State into the BCS title game in January. First came the news that John Murtha (D-Pa) who has been mentor to, and ally of, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) had changed his mind on Iraq. For years Murtha has been among the most outspoken critics of the war in Iraq. According...

What could the USS Kitty Hawk and Citigroup possibly have in common? I'll start with the aircraft carrier because I'm still stewing over what happened when the People's Republic of China abruptly denied the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships and submarines their routine, scheduled Thanksgiving berth in Hong Kong, where hundreds of crew members' families had gathered (at considerable expense) to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones. First, there was the nasty act itself. News accounts speculated about the "reason" -- was it President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama? Our latest arms agreement with Taiwan?...

"Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where, Nor a drop to drink." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ----------------------------------------------------- Iran isn’t an energy-independent country. I’m well aware that Iran produces more than 4 million barrels of oil per day, the fourth-highest production in the world. And with the near-constant reporting about Iranian crude reserves during the past six months, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could be unaware that Iran has 132 billion barrels in proven reserves--or, at least, they claim to. But what’s often ignored is that...

77 Police Officers Hurt in Paris Riots AP By NICOLAS GARRIGA,Associated Press Writer AP - 38 minutes ago VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France - Rampaging youths rioted overnight in Paris' suburbs, hurling Molotov cocktails and setting fire to dozens of cars. At least 77 officers were injured and officers were fired at, a senior police union official said Tuesday. The violence was more intense than during three weeks of rioting in 2005, said the official, Patrice Ribeiro. Police were shot at and are facing "genuine urban guerillas with conventional weapons and hunting weapons," Ribeiro said. Some officers were hit by shotgun pellets, Interior...

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the interview. I linked to this yesterday in my Republican race Q&A, but the interview itself merits a little post of its own. In no particular order, a few observations: 1) The long form interview allowed Fred to express his knowledge and thoughts on the war on terror. He was impressive. Believe...

NCHORAGE, Alaska (11/20/2007) - Understanding the Jihadist challenge to the West is crucial for National Guard members who defend the homeland and wage the warfight abroad. So says Dr. John Finney, the international security affairs advisor to LTG H Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Finney encouraged Citizen-Soldiers and –Airmen to study Islamic history, cultures, societies and languages. Guardmembers must clearly distinguish between radical, violent Jihadists and the vast majority of Muslims, Finney said, citing an observation by Bernard Lewis, eminent Princeton University historian of the Islamic world: “Most Muslims are not fundamentalists,” Lewis wrote in his...