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News / Middle East US Official: Israel Declares 12-Hour Cease-fire in Gaza Saturday OA News Last updated on: July 25, 2014 3:19 PM A U.S. official says Israel has declared a 12-hour-long cease-fire in Gaza for Saturday. The pause in fighting would take effect 7:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT).

A man believed to have provided the gun used by Boston Marathon bombing suspects to kill a college police officer has been arrested on drug and weapon charges. Stephen Silva made an initial appearance in federal court Tuesday on charges related to heroin trafficking and possession of a handgun with an obliterated serial number.

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept. The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals...

Jul. 22, 2014 - 6:56 - Conservative radio host discusses the comedian's remarks.

Something important is missing from the New York Times's coverage of the war in Gaza: photographs of terrorist attacks on Israel, and pictures of Hamas fighters, tunnels, weaponry, and use of human shields. It appears the Times is silently but happily complying with a Hamas demand that the only pictures from Gaza are of civilians and never of fighters. The most influential news organization in the world is thus manufacturing an utterly false portrait of the battle—precisely the portrait that Hamas finds most helpful: embattled, victimized Gaza civilians under attack by a cruel Israeli military. A review of the Times's...

Clark S. Judge believes Obama's reaction to the tragedy was 'disconnected'. Immediately 'reverted to script' to praise his administration. Former adviser to Ronald Reagan says it confirms 'chaos' of foreign policy.

Two days after repelling an Iraqi military attempt to retake the city of Tikrit, the Islamic State and its allies are said to have overran Camp Speicher, a large base just outside the city that was being used in the failed effort to retake the provincial capital. The Islamic State's Salahaddin Division claimed in an official statement released on Twitter yesterday that it overran Camp Speicher and is in "control of the airport and the base completely." In the statement, the Islamic State claimed it killed "scores" of Iraqi military personnel, including a brigadier general and a colonel. It also...

Miss Conley might have had honeymoon visions of romance, but in reality she was in for a nasty fate. Despite embracing radical Islam, she wouldn’t have been able to erase the self-respect she was raised with in only six months. Many of the abuses the other women in the camp would have been used to, (imprisonment in the house, husbandly beatings, unwanted polygamy and a cheating husband), Miss Conley would have rebelled against. This “rebellion” would have given Terrorist Fiancé even more reason to beat her, starve her, or worse. Miss Conley is in an American jail where she’s not...

If Nouri al-Maliki wanted to dissolve the Iraqi union purposefully, he could hardly be doing a better job. While Kurds fight ISIS in the north — and more effectively than Maliki’s politically purged army has — Maliki accused them of being in league with the extremists even as Kurds mull over whether to just go on their own. Now they want Maliki out, or they’ll be leaving for good: Iraq’s Kurds said Thursday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was “hysterical” and not fit to run the country, further dimming the prospect of a new leadership uniting to face jihadist fighters.The...

Border Patrol agents are dropping off undocumented immigrants at bus stations and now at airports. Some said those who crossed illegally into the U.S are able to purchase plane tickets and board flights without a picture I.D as required for everyone else. National Border Patrol Council said while they are unaware of immigrants boarding planes without identification in the Rio Grande Valley. A union representative out of the Laredo sector told us that it is happening in Laredo and it’s happening quite often. We spoke to National Border Patrol Council #2455 in Laredo, and what they told us was shocking....

I've been caught asking myself the same question many times this week. "Does our President believe in terrorism?" No, I'm not asking if he personally believes in the use of terrorism, or the ideology of terrorism, or the effectiveness of the weapon of terrorism. Some of my critics are already condemning me for not asking that question from the start. And as well intentioned as some are who would hold those positions, I feel a need to break things down into even more succinct pieces. Does President Obama believe in terrorism's existence and imminence in the days we live this...

Partly blaming unrest in the Middle East on President Barack Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday that Obama has not spoken firmly and forcefully on Israel’s behalf and that the country no longer trusts it has the full support of the United States because of him. The Republican governor’s remarks came as Israel targeted civilian institutions with suspected ties to the militant organization Hamas and declared it would step up its bombardment of northern Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas rockets. …

Roof Knocking is the Israeli military's tactic of phoning Palestinians it is about to bomb. Before the Israeli Military bombs your house, it is not uncommon for many Gaza Strip residents to get a phone call. Can you imagine getting such a phone call, knowing it's serious, knowing they literally have got your number and have viewed within via drones? It happens a lot in this part of the world. Sawsan Kawarea, a resident of Khan Younis, said she was in her home earlier this week when the phone rang. She answered, and on the other side was 'David', who...

An Egyptian cleric formerly known as the "preacher of the revolution" during the revolt against President Hosni Mubarak warned Egyptian television viewers this week that Muslim Brotherhood sheiks have issued a fatwa permitting "anal jihad" for terrorists far from their wives, which is exactly what it sounds like.

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

Four NATO troops have been killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, the ISAF confirmed. The blast also killed two Afghan policemen and at least 10 civilians, local police said. Some reports say the NATO soldiers killed in the attack were from the Czech Republic. Earlier Ziaul Rahman Sayedkhili, a senior police officer in the eastern province of Parwan, said the blast had killed six NATO servicemen. He said a joint ISAF-Afghan force was deployed to the village of Qalandar Khil to investigate a rocket attack on a military base, which happened two days ago, and was targeted...

Cable News Network has sued Blaine County seeking information from a 1999 police investigation involving the family of Bowe Bergdahl, the Wood River Valley soldier who spent five years in captivity of the Taliban. CNN says the report from the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office is subject to disclosure under Idaho public records laws. Sheriff Gene Ramsey has twice denied the network's request. The lawsuit was filed June 25 in District Court. A hearing is scheduled at 2 p.m. July 21 before District Judge Robert J. Elgee.

Fresh back from a trip to the Middle East, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-Ariz., discuss what lessons the U.S. can learn from the violence in Iraq as it prepares to leave Afghanistan.[video]

<p>"The crisis now gripping Iraq and the Middle East was not only predictable but predicted — and preventable. By looking the other way and unconditionally supporting and arming Maliki, President Obama has only lengthened and expanded the conflict that President Bush unwisely initiated. Iraq is now a failed state, and as countries across the Middle East fracture along ethno-sectarian lines, America is likely to emerge as one of the biggest losers of the new Sunni-Shiite holy war, with allies collapsing and radicals plotting another 9/11."</p>

Baghdad (AFP) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the enigmatic self-proclaimed "caliph" of a state straddling Iraq and Syria, is increasingly seen as more powerful than Al-Qaeda's chief. The leader of the powerful Islamic State (IS) militant group was on June 29 declared "caliph" in an attempt to revive a system of rule that ended nearly 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. In a video posted online on Saturday, purportedly the first known footage of Baghdadi, he ordered Muslims to obey him during a Ramadan sermon delivered at a mosque in the northern militant-held Iraqi city of Mosul.