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AL-QAEDA in Iraq has said in response to remarks by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam with violence that it will wage jihad until the West is defeated, in a statement posted on the Internet today. "We say to the servant of the cross (the Pope): wait for defeat ... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. "We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahideen consultative council. "We will smash the cross ... (you will have no choice but) Islam...

Iraqi authorities hanged 27 convicted "terrorists" on Wednesday, the interior ministry announced. "Twenty-seven terrorists were hanged today in Baghdad. Most of them were Iraqis," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf told AFP. The authorities reinstated the death penalty which was abolished after the US-led invasion of March 2003.

An Iraqi insurgent group said it attacked U.S. forces near Baghdad by setting off explosives attached to a dog, according to a video posted on the Internet on Sunday. A distant shot in a video issued by the group appeared to show a dog sitting on the side of a road as a military vehicle approached, moments before a large explosion occurred. Iraq's Jihadi Factions, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, said it carried out the attack in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, targeting U.S. forces, without giving a date.

With the recently thwarted terrorist attacks, Democrats are once again attacking Bush for the war in Iraq...not only calling it a distraction, but blaming Bush for creating even more terrorism. This is nonsense! It's past time for those who are well-informed to remind people of the threat Saddam posed "regardless" of WMDs. It's also time to point out that Iraq didn't just become a terorist state as a result of the Iraq War as Democrats claim; it already was. In fact, the war in Afghanistan...all by itself, pretty much guranteed that Iraq would eventually become an even greater threat, regardless...

This past Sunday, Major General William McCoy, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division/Project and Contracting Office in Iraq, sent a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, a copy of which we obtained, in response to a Washington Post article by Andy Mosher on 2 August 2006.After spending almost three days traveling with and being interviewed by one of the co-writers of a very poorly written article Much Undone in Rebuilding Iraq, Audit says , Washington Post, August 2, 2006), I’m astounded at how distorted a good story can become and what...

Defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein released a letter on Thursday that he recently wrote in prison that attempts to persuade the American people to demand a troop pullout because President Bush misled them into the Iraq war. The 5,000-word letter is a rambling treatise outlining what Mr. Hussein asserts are the false reasons that the Bush administration used to justify the war in Iraq, from weapons of mass destruction to Iraqi links with Al Qaeda. Mr. Hussein blames Iran and pro-Israel interests for helping lead the Americans into war. He invokes the specter of Vietnam and the spirit of Mao...

Little Green Footballs notes one of the New York Times' "memorable photographs," which was taken by Times photographer Joao Silva. Silva was in the room with a “Mahdi Army” sniper who was trying to kill American soldiers: The Times' commentary on the photo, by Assistant Managing Editor for Photography Michele McNally: "Right there with the Mahdi army. Incredible courage." We have written before about the wire services' use of Iraqi stringers who appear to be members of, or at the least friendly with, terrorist groups. This is a step beyond that, as Silva isn't just an anonymous stringer, but is...

Via Israeli radio, Hezbollahs leader may have been killed today

Slain soldier's brother skeptical of group's claim He doubts that Menchaca, a 2nd soldier could have been linked to rape suspects HARLINGEN - The brother of slain Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca said Tuesday that he is skeptical of an al-Qaida-linked group's claim that it killed Menchaca and another U.S. soldier more than three months after troops from their unit allegedly raped and killed a young Iraqi woman. Julio Cesar Vasquez, the older brother of Menchaca, said he does not think the suspected al-Qaida insurgents could have linked the two slain soldiers to the rape suspects. ''It could be, but how...

This in from al-Reuters:Iraqi and U.S. troops battled Shi’ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad on Thursday...Iraqi security officials said IRANIAN FIGHTERS HAD BEEN CAPTURED IN THE FIGHTING (emphasis added)...The U.S. military had no immediate comment.In recent days there have been several stories further documenting the Iranian role in the terror war in Iraq, especially in the south, where Tehran has been working assiduously for several years to create a regional Islamic republic. So the al-Reuters report should not be a surprise.But it gives us the opportunity to reflect on three serious questions, none of which has been sufficiently...

CAIRO, Egypt - The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed two U.S. soldiers whom the group abducted last week, an insurgent umbrella group said in a Web statement posted Tuesday. The statement, which could not be authenticated, said the two soldiers were "slaughtered," suggesting they had been beheaded by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. The Arabic word used in the statement, "nahr," is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings. The claim of responsibility was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post...

Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia Presents a Video of the Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah By SITE Institute April 10, 2006 Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia issued a 35:34 minute video presentation of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah on December 7, 2004, yesterday, April 9, 2006. This release follows over six months of advertising amongst jihadist forums, and a message last week containing a series of screenshots and announcing the film’s imminent release. Though the operation’s execution and aftermath are only depicted via photographs, footage is provided of the initial stage of attack, wills and advice from...

A few days ago, I posted a translation of a document culled from the captured Iraqi documents that the US found during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This particular memo, dated March 17, 2001, comes from a brigadier general in the Iraqi Air Force and requests a list of volunteers from all units under his command for suicide attackers. The memo explicitly explains the targets for these terrorist attacks, as the original translation from Joseph Shahda shows: The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of...

US President George W. Bush directly linked Tehran to roadside bombings against US forces in Iraq, stepping up his criticisms of Iran amid a tense standoff over its nuclear program. "Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Bush said in a speech. He cited recent congressional testimony from John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence. The president's comments came as he launched a public relations offensive to bolster support for the war in Iraq some three years...

Per a FoxNews Alert: New tape shows Zawahiri threatening attacks against the U.S. because of the Mohammed cartoons. Mention was made of "another 9-11, another Madrid." The tape appears to be authentic, according to Fox. No link yet.

CLEVELAND A federal grand jury has indicted three Ohio men on charges of planning attacks on U.S. military personnel in Iraq, according to an indictment. The three men, who all lived in Toledo within the last year, were arrested over the weekend, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer in Toledo. The indictment was unsealed Monday. They were to be arraigned in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo on Tuesday afternoon. The suspects recruited others to train for a violent holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq, the indictment said. The group traveled together to a shooting...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version December 21, 2005, 4:25 p.m. Smoking in the Background The Bush administration sits on some telling documents. President Bush’s recent speeches and media appearances defending the Iraq war are welcome and much-needed. They also seem to be paying dividends. Support for his handling of Iraq stood at 46 percent, up 10 points since November, in a December 15–18 ABC News/Washington Post poll. Nevertheless, Team Bush still fails to deploy readily available ammunition to combat those who demand America’s retreat from Iraq. On two key fronts — Saddam Hussein’s weapons of...

"World Can't Wait" takes out an ad against "fascist" America in the New York Times. <a href=http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7213>The World Can’t Wait</a> (WCW), an organization that opposes President Bush’s decision to send U.S. troops to Iraq, ran a <a href=http://www.worldcantwait.net/>paid advertisement</a> in The New York Times Monday denouncing the “fascists and religious fanatics” responsible for the ongoing unrest and carnage in the land formerly ruled by the iron fist of Saddam Hussein.  WCW was not talking about bin Laden, Zarqawi, Zawahiri, and al-Sadr, et. al. – the Islamists who have vowed to wage perpetual jihad against the West until the latter is...

In recent weeks, by claiming that President Bush lied us into the Iraq war, many on the Left have restarted their efforts to rewrite history. But this revisionism isn’t new. In the midst of the 2004 Presidential election, the cries were just as loud. The Bush Administration is finally pushing back, and many conservative bloggers are asking their readers to Google Clinton, Iraq, 1998 for all the information they need. Last fall, The American Enterprise debunked many of these same urban legends. Urban Legends About the Iraq War Urban Legend: The Bush Administration in general, and the Vice President and...

WhatÂ’s wrong with cutting and running? Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. He was Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, he was Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. If I were a journalist, I would list all the arguments that you hear against pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, the horrible things that...