Threat Matrix: February 2008

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[nwctwx]

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan?

It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said.

Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding that without a change in U.S. policy there, the erstwhile sanctuary of Osama bin Laden would remain a failed state. Read More

	Why the Taliban Feel Confident
	Top US Officer Lauds al-Qaida Death
	US Air Strike Signals al-Qaida Onslaught

Threat Matrix:
February 2008

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[Cindy]

ADDING 1 link to this linkset:

JIHAD WATCH.org: "PENTAGON ISLAMIC LAW EXPERT FIRED AFTER ALL?" (February 27, 2008)

TOWNHALL.com: "THE COUGHLIN AFFAIR" -Column by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. (February 25, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com - INSIDE THE RING by Bill Gertz - Page 2: "COUGHLIN v. ISLAM" (February 15, 2008)

ANDREW BOSTOM.org - blog: "MAJOR COUGHLIN WILL NOW BE RETAINED BY THE DOD, and the rest of Congresswoman Sue Myrick's Statement on the Coughlin Affair, 2/5/08"

INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT.org - IPT News: "PENTAGON AIDE'S INVITATIONS CONTRADICTED U.S. POLICY" by Steven Emerson (February 4, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "INSIDE THE RING Islam Probed" by Bill Gertz (February 1, 2008)

FreeRepublic.com - Discussion Forum - (FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS): "MAJ. STEVE COUGHLIN FOR BEGINNERS" by Jeffrey Breinholt (January 30, 2008)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "DEPARTMENT OF THE DEFENSELESS" by Joe Kaufman (January 28, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org (PHI BETA CONS): "STEPHEN COUGHLIN AND THREE VIEWS ON JIHAD" (January 26, 2008)

NATIONAL REVIEW.com: "QUESTIONS FOR THE PENTAGON Who is Hesham Islam?" by Claudia Rosett (January 25, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com - INSIDE THE RING by Bill Gertz - Page 2: "CENTCOM and Islam" (January 25, 2008)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "VALIDATING MAJOR COUGHLIN" by Andrew G. Bostom (January 24, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "FRONT-GATE" -Commentary by Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (January 22, 2008)

IBD EDITORIALS.com: "GULLIBLE GORDON'S PENTAGON PC" by Investor's Business Daily (January 18, 2008)

CNS NEWS.com: "CONGRESSMEN SEEK ANSWERS ABOUT TERROR EXPERT'S FIRING" by Fred Lucas (January 16, 2008)

COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG.org: "ISLAMISM AND CHALLENGES TO RESOURCES FOR U.S. STRATEGIC PLANNING AGAINST JIHAD" by Jeffrey Imm (January 12, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org: "THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE DISMISSAL OF STEPHEN COUGHLIN, JOINT STAFF, PENTAGON" (January 12, 2008)

Off-Topic.Internet-Haganah.com: "ELEMENTS IN THE US MILITARY INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY FIND THE KOOL-AID* LESS-THAN-PALATABLE..." (January 11, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "INSIDE THE RING Coughlin Backed" by Bill Gertz (January 11, 2008)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "FIRED FOR THE TRUTH" by Andrew G. Bostom (January 10, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org: "'The termination of Stephen Coughlin on the Joint Staff is an act of intellectual cowardice'" (January 5, 2008)

NADREW BOSTOM.org - blog: "EATON AGONISTES, REDUX?" (January 5, 2008)

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "INSIDE THE RING Coughlin Sacked" by Bill Gertz (January 4, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org (WASHINGTON TIMES.com, "Inside the Ring" by Bill Gertz, Page 2): "PRO-MUSLIM PENTAGON OFFICIALS PRESSURING ONE OF THE U.S. MILITARY'S MOST IMPORTANT SPECIALISTS ON JIHAD" (December 28, 2007)

STRATEGY CENTER.net/docLib: "'TO OUR GREAT DETRIMENT': IGNORING WHAT EXTREMISTS SAY ABOUT JIHAD (with appendices)" by Stephen Collins Coughlin, Major, Military Intelligence, USAR, NDIC Class 2007 (July 2007) (pdf)

[Cindy]

blog:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/austria/

http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/004003.html

March 3, 2008

“Austria: Burka Ban In First Muslim Terror Trial”

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ricin/

#

UPDATE:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/march08/ricin_030208.html

“UPDATE ON THE RICIN INVESTIGATION”

03/02/08

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/616

“Ex-Sailor’s Leak Case Goes to Jury”

by IPT
IPT News
March 3, 2008

[MamaDearest]

You're welcome Oorang. I'm glad Prince Harry is home safe.

Carry on provoking to catch this precious infidel

Taliban and al-Qaida sympathisers responded to news of Harry's deployment by posting internet messages denouncing royal involvement in Afghanistan and calling for the kidnapping or killing the prince.

On a password-protected web forum often used by militants and their sympathisers, a contributor calling himself the Sweeping Army wrote: "We ask God to enable our beloved brothers in Taliban to seize this priceless booty because nothing would break the heart of his grandmother [more] than if she lost him. My dear brothers in Allah, carry on provoking to kidnap this precious infidel."

Another, writing under the user name Terror, suggested that a video should be made of Harry being "slaughtered."

[MamaDearest]

Reading between the lines of the Deoband fatwa

Last week, this seminary was in the news because it declared cinema offensive to Islam and held a conference of bearded clerics at which terrorism was discussed. The cinema fatwa can be ignored because it is meaningless except to literalist interpreters of Islam and they do not go to the movies anyway.

Dutch lawmaker gets death threat over Koran film

Al Qaeda terrorist network has issued an order to kill a Dutch lawmaker who plans to release an anti-Koran film in March, Dutch paper De Telegraaf reported Wednesday.

In a recent message on a protected website alekhlaas.net, which has links with Al Qaeda, the terror group called on people to "slaughter" Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, the report said.

[Cindy]

[Sounds like Shariah law to me] IN THE USA UPDATE:

UPDATE:

http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5928824&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

“Pace Student Who Dumped Korans in Toilet Gets Community Service”
Charges reduced from hate crime
Last Edited: Monday, 03 Mar 2008, 5:05 PM EST
Created: Monday, 03 Mar 2008, 5:05 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) —

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “In both cases, a teacher found the books in a men’s room on the second floor of the school’s main building in lower Manhattan.

Muslims consider the Koran a sacred writing that contains the direct word of God, and desecrating it is seen as an offense against God.”

[Cindy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2TmRNYK8dw

“HamNation: Better Living Through Bathroom Etiquette”
(Added August 3, 2007)

[Cindy]

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ct_020308e.htm

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC)
March 3, 2008

“Five days of escalation in the Gaza Strip: a total of 180 rockets fired. Greater numbers of standard, factory-manufactured Grad rockets continuously hit Ashqelon. IDF forces operate in the northern Gaza Strip and air strikes against terrorist targets continue. Two IDF soldiers and 80 Palestinians (most of them terrorists) killed.”

[Cindy]

Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3514569,00.html

IDF strikes and hits Qassam launching cell
Published: 03.04.08, 06:56 / Israel News

The IDF on Tuesday morning attacked a terrorist cell in the northern Strip after it launched a Qassam rocket into Israel. Another cell was struck early Tuesday.

Both cells were hit. (Hanan Greenberg)

#

Previously...

Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3514563,00.html

Qassam hits house in Sderot, causing heavy damage
Published: 03.04.08, 06:29 / Israel News

A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip hit a house in the southern town of Sderot.

The building, which was empty, sustained heavy damage. (Shmulik Hadad)

[Cindy]

IN THE USA:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1356296

“Fireman, Gunman Dead in Wendy’s Shooting”
March 4, 2008 - 12:18am

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The 42-year-old victim, Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Lt. Rafael Vazquez, who was not in uniform, had met his wife and child at the restaurant during a break in training down the street, Deputy Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Delai said. The family had gotten their food and walked out, but Vazquez returned because the wrong free toy had been included in the kids’ meal, detectives said.

Vazquez’s wife, a law enforcement officer in nearby Palm Springs, and child were in the parking lot when he was shot in the back as he stood at the counter.

“Our officer probably didn’t even see him,” Delai said of the gunman, Alburn Edward Blake.

Miller said Blake, a handyman and maintenance worker, had no relation to anyone at the restaurant and had never worked for Wendy’s, and authorities had not found any notes.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Neighbors described Blake as a quiet man who kept to himself. Michele Grippe watched police go into Blake’s apartment after the shooting to search it.

“The only thing they took out of the house was a bag of pills,” Grippe said. “Right now, I’m really, really shocked. ... I’m here with my kids, and it’s really scary to think about that. Sometimes we’ll keep our door open. My kids play outside.””

[Cindy]

“Alburn Edward Blake”... the shooter is dead.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=%22Alburn+Edward+Blake%22&btnG=Search+News

[Cindy]

http://www.truthusa.com/AllegedInsult.html

#

UPDATE:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7276213.stm

Last Updated: Monday, 3 March 2008, 23:18 GMT

“Vatican-Muslim talks due in Italy”
By Frances Kennedy
BBC News, Rome

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Vatican officials and senior Muslims are due to meet in Rome, hoping to lay the foundations for landmark Catholic-Islamic talks later this year.

Five senior figures from each religion will define the terms of a larger meeting involving Pope Benedict XVI.

Catholic-Muslim relations soured after a 2006 speech in Germany, in which the Pope quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor’s criticisms of Islam.

The Regensburg speech provoked Muslim fury and triggered protests worldwide.”

[MamaDearest]

Tour Guide wipes Israel off the map

The consumer guide Which? Holiday has been criticised for omitting all references to Israel and Israeli airlines, but not those of other nations in the region, in a recent travel survey.

Israel was not mentioned in its list of destinations and El Al was not given as an option in its choice of airlines.

Which? subscriber Harold Schogger, 59, of Edgware, Middlesex, questioned the survey’s choices. He said: “Why has Israel been left out when Egypt is there? If they’d mentioned about 10 countries, I’d understand, but they have got about 70. It’s too much of a coincidence.”

But Claire Lilley, head of Which? Holiday’s research, said that El Al and Israel were not specifically mentioned because the country and its airline were not frequently visited or used by the association’s members.

[Cindy]

Well the really good news is that I have never heard of Which, but I have heard of El Al. It’s my understand that El Al has the top security in the world for an airline.

As for Israel, wonderful place to visit and a lot to see, I’m sure.

[Cindy]

speaking of Italy...let’s go off topic and check in on the “entertainment” news:

Note: Video included:

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-JgBDgmI4aakH10XooYvgLMGJ?p=2571

“Entry for March 03, 2008 Intervista a Omar Bin Laden (2a parte)
Intervista a Omar Bin Laden (2a parte)”

Tags: intervistaaomarbinladen
Monday March 3, 2008 - 07:10pm (CET)

#

Note: Video included.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7OKepO_QBU

“CNN Interview with Osama Bin Laden’s son Omar Bin Laden”
(Added January 21, 2008)

[Cindy]

sp=understanding

[Cindy]

IF you hit that top link once, the site says you have to sign up.
Go back to the same link and click on it again. It works the second
time without signing up. Fyi.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980042/posts

“28 Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Kingdom (Saudi Arabia)”
The Arab News ^ | March 4, 2008 | Abdul Ghafour
Posted on 03/03/2008 11:15:42 PM PST by Stoat