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**SNIP** But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks. “It was a coordinated attack. It is completely false to say anything else. … It is completely a lie,” one witness to the attack told Fox News. The controversial Times report has stirred a...

Either New York Times writer David Kirkpatrick is ignoring his own colleagues’ work, or the Hillary Clinton supporters are laying out early foundations to combat what will be the biggest criticism of her tenure as Secretary of State if she decides to run for the Oval Office. The New York Times' assertion that Al Qaeda’s involvement in the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi is particularly questionable considering the preponderance of evidence that shows otherwise. In his piece, Kirkpatrick writes, ”But the Republican arguments appear to conflate purely local extremist organizations like Ansar...

Fifteen months after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the narrative of the attack continues to be shaped, and reshaped, by politicians and the press. But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks. “It...

**SNIP** The cable was a last token of months of American misunderstandings and misperceptions about Libya and especially Benghazi, many fostered by shadows of the earlier Sept. 11 attack. The United States waded deeply into post-Qaddafi Libya, hoping to build a beachhead against extremists, especially Al Qaeda. It believed it could draw a bright line between friends and enemies in Libya. But it ultimately lost its ambassador in an attack that involved both avowed opponents of the West and fighters belonging to militias that the Americans had taken for allies. Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on...

A top congressional Republican is saying a new report that concludes Al Qaeda did not carry out the 2012 attack on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is “misleading.” The new report published Saturday in the New York Times concludes that there was no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault that took place on September 11, 2012, and that it appeared that the attack was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made anti-Islamic video, as the Obama administration first claimed. New York Rep. Peter King, member and former...

A congressional report released Tuesday on the terrorist attack on the U.S. State Department compound in Benghazi, Libya says there is “ample evidence that the attack was planned and intentional” and that al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia joined in carrying it out. The report also notes that al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia took credit for the attack while it was still unfolding, and that the State Department reported this at the time to other government agencies, including the White House. “The volatile security environment erupted on September 11, 2012, when militias composed of al Qaeda-affiliated...

The threat of cyber terrorism poses a major risk to aircrafts' systems every time they enter an airport, a senior Boeing executive has said. Boeing was the focus of a cyber security scare in 2008 when an analyst claimed the firm’s flagship 787 Dreamliner passenger jet had a serious weakness in its on-board computer networks which could allow passengers to take control of the aircraft. A report by US authorities found that a network in the cabin designed to give passengers Internet access could be used to access the aircraft’s control, navigation and communication systems. Boeing claimed the problem had...

Hasn't the line for years from the U.S. government and its allies been that al Qaeda is on the run, that its fiercest fighting ability has been weakened by U.S. strikes? That truth is far more complex, of course. The terror group's manpower has increased in recent years, it has gained control of more territory in North Africa and the Middle East and is taking a different approach to death, according to top lawmakers privy to high-level intelligence and experts who have observed al Qaeda's activities since September 11.

If 2013 is remembered for anything, it will be the terrorist civil wars that have inflicted death and destruction in much of the world, especially the Middle East and Africa. Deadly, often daily, bombings are a common occurrence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria where the ruthless dictator Bashar al Assad is killing civilians and rebels with impunity to crush the rebellion there. Meantime, Egypt is being torn apart in the wake of a military coup whose armies are battling Muslim extremists in a fierce religious war with no end in sight. This week, its military-backed government declared that...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - The DOJ’s Curious Foray into the ‘Knockout Game’ FrayPosted By Arnold Ahlert On December 27, 2013 @ 12:52 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 4 Comments Twenty-seven-year-old Conrad Barrett of Katy, Texas has been charged with a hate crime by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly targeting a 79-year-old black man as his “knockout game” victim. The victim suffered two jaw fractures in the November 24 assault. “Suspected crimes of this nature will simply not be tolerated,” said Kenneth Magidson, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Texas. “Evidence of hate crimes will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted...

Hardline Iranian lawmakers are seeking to increase the nation's uranium enrichment to 60 percent to “provide fuel for submarine engines.” The bill is expected to give Tehran an upper hand if the Geneva deal, which limits enrichment to 20 percent, fails. Some 100 lawmakers have introduced the bill under a “double urgency status,” which means it may be debated in the Iranian parliament within a week, the official IRNA news agency reported. If the bill is approved, it will oblige the government “to enrich uranium to 60 percent in order to provide fuel for submarine engines if the sanctions are...

Egypt's military-backed interim government has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, a dramatic escalation that gives authorities more power in cracking down on them. Eissa added that the implications of the declaration punish those who belong to the group, financing it and those promoting the group's activities.

As the British government urges the UN to crack down on ransoms to terrorist groups, jihadists in the Maghreb are upping their hostage prices. In the past three years, jihadists groups linked to al-Qaeda and other radicals have raked in at least $70 million in ransom money—and with each year, the average financial demand from abductors has jumped, according to the British Foreign Office.

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the...

Washington (AFP) - The sectarian bloodbath in Syria is such a threat to regional security that a victory for Bashar al-Assad's regime could be the best outcome to hope for, a former CIA chief said. Washington condemned Assad's conduct of the conflict, threatened air strikes after he was accused of targeting civilians with chemical weapons and has demanded he step down. The United States is also supplying millions of dollars in "non-lethal" aid to some of the rebel groups fighting Assad's rule. But Michael Hayden, the retired US Air Force general who until 2009 was head of the Central Intelligence...

Walid Shoebat Former Muslim Brotherhood member and now Peace Activist published on 13/12/2013 a Report on Hillary Clinton’s ties to Terrorism. In an interview with Turkey’s Anatolia news agency Mursi’s wife Naglaa Mahmoud said, “I have between my fingers, a treasure trove of secrets from the White House and Mrs. Clinton fears my wrath.” She said, “I will not speak about Huma Abedin”. When asked if she had a close relationship with Hillary Clinton, she said, “When my husband returns from his kidnapping, the one who led the coup will pay a hefty price.” Of Mrs. Clinton, she said, we...

Obama justified his Libyan War to the American people by claiming that people of Benghazi were in danger from Gaddafi. After he succeeded in overthrowing Gaddafi, Benghazi reverted to its radical roots and became a city run by terrorist militias leading to the murder of four Americans. And now a fifth American. That shouldn’t be surprising because Benghazi had become a stop on the Jihadi Express. Every week, about a dozen Syrians arrive at Benghazi’s airport for what’s described as insurgent training. When they fly out, they’re carrying fake Libyan passports, according to three officials familiar with the comings and...

But they already seemed like "losers," as their successful Americanized uncle told reporters after the attack. They were out of place in the U.S., and my relationship with them developed because they needed so much basic advice about how to get by. I didn't sense impending danger in their household, but looking back, I can see now that I glimpsed a new type of threat to the U.S., one that we have only recently begun to confront.

WASHINGTON — CIA officers revealed a clash over how quickly they should go help the besieged U.S. ambassador during the 2012 attack on an outpost in Libya, and a standing order for them to avoid violent encounters, according to a congressman and others who heard their private congressional testimony or were briefed on it. The Obama administration has been dogged by complaints that the White House, Pentagon and State Department may not have done enough before and during the attack to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, and by accusations that it later engaged in a cover-up.

In a largely unheralded CNN interview last week congressional intelligence chiefs U.S. Rep Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) dropped a bombshell about the terrorism threat. He added that along with other Western targets, the terrorists have us smack in the middle of the cross-hairs. His claim is backed up by news accounts which report that as many as 2,000 Europeans have gone to Syria to join al-Qaeda and fight against the Bashar Assad regime — joining thousands more from elsewhere. That’s a pretty long way — in the opposite direction — from where President Obama told us...