Author Topic: Radical Islam  (Read 103378 times)

Dos Equis

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #100 on: May 24, 2012, 11:21:10 AM »
Texas man sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to give money, equipment to Al Qaeda
Published May 24, 2012
Associated Press

HOUSTON –  A Texas man convicted of trying to sneak out of the U.S. to give Al Qaeda restricted military documents, GPS equipment and money was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner also ordered Barry Walter Bujol Jr. to pay a $10,000 fine.

Bujol was convicted in November on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors said Bujol, a U.S. citizen, sought to join Al Qaeda and provide it with money, two nonpublic restricted-access Army manuals and GPS equipment. He was arrested in May 2010 following a two-year investigation after using fake identification to sneak into a Houston port and board a ship bound for the Middle East.

The 31-year-old said he never intended to harm the United States or any American citizens, and that he had wanted to leave the country was because he was displeased with U.S. foreign policy. He said he wanted to become a better Muslim.

Authorities used an undercover informant who befriended Bujol and, posing as a recruiter for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, offered to help him travel to the Middle East. The informant wasn't a law enforcement agent.

Authorities said Bujol had previously made three unsuccessful attempts in 2009 to travel to Yemen or elsewhere in the Middle East.

Prosecutors also alleged Bujol exchanged emails with the U.S.-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who had ties to Al Qaeda.

Al-Awlaki, killed by a U.S. drone strike in September in Yemen, is also believed to have exchanged emails with Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the killing of 13 people in the November 2009 shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

According to court documents, Bujol used at least 14 email addresses to hide his activities from authorities and he advocated attacking U.S. facilities where military weapons were manufactured.

Bujol, who lived in Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston, was a student at nearby Prairie View A&M University.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/24/texan-convicted-helping-al-qaida-to-learn-fate/?test=latestnews

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #101 on: May 26, 2012, 11:25:46 AM »
Kansas gov. signs measure blocking Islamic law
Published May 26, 2012
Associated Press

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law aimed at keeping the state's courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group's spokesman said Friday that a court challenge is likely.

The new law, taking effect July 1, doesn't specifically mention Shariah law, which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. Instead, it says courts, administrative agencies or state tribunals can't base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the parties the same rights guaranteed by state and U.S. constitutions.

"This bill should provide protection for Kansas citizens from the application of foreign laws," said Stephen Gele, spokesman for the American Public Policy Alliance, a Michigan group promoting model legislation similar to the new Kansas law. "The bill does not read, in any way, to be discriminatory against any religion."

But supporters have worried specifically about Shariah law being applied in Kansas court cases, and the alliance says on its website that it wants to protect Americans' freedoms from "infiltration" by foreign laws and legal doctrines, "especially Islamic Shariah Law."

Brownback's office notified the state Senate of his decision Friday, but he actually signed the measure Monday. The governor's spokeswoman, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, said in a statement that the bill "makes it clear that Kansas courts will rely exclusively on the laws of our state and our nation when deciding cases and will not consider the laws of foreign jurisdictions."

Muslim groups had urged Brownback to veto the measure, arguing that it promotes discrimination. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said a court challenge is likely because supporters of the measure frequently expressed concern about Shariah law.

Hooper said of Brownback, "If he claims it has nothing to do with Shariah or Islamic law or Muslims, then he wasn't paying attention."

Both the Washington-based council and the National Conference of State Legislatures say such proposals have been considered in 20 states, including Kansas. Gele said laws similar to Kansas' new statute have been enacted in Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Oklahoma voters approved a ballot initiative in 2010 that specifically mentioned Shariah law, but both a federal judge and a federal appeals court blocked it.

There are no known cases in which a Kansas judge has based a ruling on Islamic law. However, supporters of the bill have cited a pending case in Sedgwick County in which a man seeking to divorce his wife has asked for property to be divided under a marriage contract in line with Shariah law.

Supporters argue the measure simply ensures that legal decisions will protect long-cherished liberties, such as freedom of speech and religion and the right to equal treatment under the law. Gele said the measure would come into play if someone wanted to enforce a libel judgment against an American from a foreign nation without the same free speech protections.

"It is perfectly constitutional," he said.

The House approved the bill unanimously and the Senate, with broad, bipartisan support. Even some legislators who were skeptical of it believed it was broad and bland enough that it didn't represent a specific political attack on Muslims.

"This disturbing recent trend of activist judges relying upon the laws of other nations has been rejected by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both the Kansas House and Senate," Jones-Sontag said.

The measure's chief sponsor, Rep. Peggy Mast, an Emporia Republican, also has said all Kansans, including Muslims, should be comfortable with the new law, but she did not immediately respond Friday to telephone and email messages seeking comment.

Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, acknowledged that the measure merely "made some people happy" and that a vote against it could be cast politically as a vote in favor of Shariah law.

"Am I really concerned that Shariah law is going to take over the Kansas courts? No," he said. "I'm more concerned about getting jobs to Kansas."

The Michigan-based alliance advocates model "American Law for American Courts" legislation. Its website says, "America has unique values of liberty which do not exist in foreign legal systems, particularly Shariah Law."

During the Kansas Senate's debate on the bill earlier this month, Sen. Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican described a vote for the measure as a vote for women's rights, adding, "They stone women to death in countries that have Shariah law."

Hooper said supporters of such proposals have made it clear they are targeting Islamic law.

"Underlying all of this is demonizing Islam and marginalizing American Muslims," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/26/kansas-gov-signs-measure-blocking-islamic-law/

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #102 on: May 27, 2012, 10:52:06 AM »
NYPD Muslim surveillance legal, New Jersey officials say
Published May 26, 2012
Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. –  New York City police did not violate New Jersey laws when they conducted surveillance of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups, Gov. Chris Christie's administration said Thursday following a three-month review, a finding that angered Muslim leaders who had sought a clampdown on the cross-border police operations.

The conclusion by Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a Christie appointee asked by the governor to look into the spying, means New Jersey Muslims have no state recourse to stop the New York Police Department from infiltrating student groups, videotaping mosque-goers or collecting their license plate numbers as they pray.

Such operations were part of a widespread NYPD program to collect intelligence on Muslim communities both inside New York and beyond. Undercover officers and informants eavesdropped in Muslim cafes and monitored sermons, even when there was no evidence of a crime. The result was that many innocent business owners, students and others were cataloged in police files.

The interstate surveillance efforts, revealed by The Associated Press earlier this year, angered many Muslims and New Jersey officials. Some, like Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the state's top FBI official, criticized the tactics. Others, like Christie, focused more on the fact that the NYPD didn't tell New Jersey exactly what it was up to.

In response, Chiesa launched what he described as a fact-finding review. That review concluded that the NYPD's operations violated no state laws, either civil or criminal.

Further, authorities found that New Jersey has no laws barring outside law enforcement agencies from secretly conducting operations in the state, representatives of the attorney general's office told the AP. However, New York police have agreed to meet with New Jersey law enforcement regularly to discuss counterterrorism intelligence and operations, the attorney general said.

Chiesa, the governor's former chief counsel and a longtime confidante, outlined the state's findings in closed-door meetings Thursday afternoon with Muslim leaders.

"We remain committed to striking the appropriate balance of ensuring the safety of our citizens through vigilance in fighting terrorism, while not undermining the public's confidence in how we approach that mission," Chiesa said in a written statement.

Muslim leaders said they were told that every instance of NYPD activity in New Jersey had been justified by a lead, but that the attorney general would not provide any details on the nature of any of those leads, saying the fact-finding was ongoing.

They said that they did not find the assertion credible and that their efforts to maintain communication between the community and law enforcement would be hurt by the findings that the NYPD had done nothing wrong — and could keep doing what they have been doing.

"It was basically an, 'FYI, good Thursday afternoon, let it die in the media before the Memorial Day weekend,'" said Mohamed El-Filali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, across the Hudson River from New York. If the surveillance of every mosque, burger joint and barbershop targeted was justified, he asked, why were no arrests made?

Aref Assaf of the American Arab Forum said the attorney general made them feel like second-class citizens.

"I said to him it's not only insulting, it's offensive to our sense of justice, that you bring us to Trenton to tell us that you accept as legal and valid the actions of the NYPD, and I will not be surprised if you're issuing an order informing your law enforcement officials that they too can spy on American Muslisms because if it's legal for NYPD, than it must be legal for NJ to do the same."

The Muslim leaders said they would consider all legal options, including renewed appeals for action by the U.S. Justice Department. A federal civil rights lawsuit has also been considered.

The governor was not at the meetings. He was on a visit at the same time to Atlantic City. Asked about the findings, he said: "I have every confidence in Attorney General Chiesa. If that's what he determined, it's good enough for me."

The NYPD has long maintained that its operations were lawful and necessary to keep the city safe. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the NYPD can gather intelligence anywhere in the country it wants and is not required to tell local authorities. NYPD lawyers say they are not bound by jurisdictional lines because they are just collecting intelligence, not making arrests or otherwise acting as police.

Told of New Jersey's findings, Bloomberg's spokesman, Marc La Vorgna, said in a statement: "We've said it time and again, NYPD has kept the city safe and they conduct their work legally."

The attorney general said a directive he issued requires all New Jersey law enforcement agencies to notify the New Jersey State Police Counter-Terrorism Bureau and the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness if they hear of outside departments working in New Jersey. The state agencies will then coordinate with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, of which the NYPD is a member.

Chiesa said he is also establishing a Muslim outreach committee.

Christie, who was the U.S. attorney for the state at the time of the New Jersey surveillance, has said he didn't recall ever being briefed on the NYPD operations. He was one of several state and federal officials who had earlier criticized the NYPD's conduct in New Jersey, accusing the agency of acting like "masters of the universe" by sending agents into his state.

New Jersey's FBI chief, Michael Ward, also has been critical of the NYPD for not conducting the operations within the umbrella off the Joint Terrorism Task Force, to which the NYPD belongs. He said the actions undermined the bureau's own efforts by sowing distrust of authorities among Muslims and weakened national security.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/26/nypd-muslim-surveillance-legal-new-jersey-officials-say/?test=latestnews

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #103 on: June 04, 2012, 01:19:13 PM »
 :-\


Kuwaiti court sentences man to 10 years for Twitter 'insults'
Published June 04, 2012
FoxNews.com

KUWAIT CITY –  A defense lawyer in Kuwait says a court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for Twitter posts deemed insulting to Islam and to the rulers of Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

The case appears to reflect a growing conservative influence in Kuwait.

Judge Hisham Abdullah delivered the written verdict, finding Hamad al-Naqi guilty of all charges, a court secretary told Reuters.

The judge found him guilty of insulting the Prophet, the Prophet's wife and companions, mocking Islam, provoking sectarian tensions, insulting the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and misusing his mobile phone to spread the comments.

"The prison sentence is long, but we have the chance to appeal," Khaled al-Shatti said.

The sentence was the maximum that Naqi could have received, Shatti said, according to Reuters.

Shatti is quoted Monday in Gulf media reports as saying his client has a chance to appeal the sentence. Under Kuwaiti law, the defense can file an appeal within 20 days of the verdict; jail sentences have been reduced in the past for similar convictions.

Al-Naqi claims his Twitter account was hacked.

Plaintiff Dowaem al-Mowazry argued in court that al-Naqi must be made an example of, writing in a text message that "This verdict is a deterrent to those who insult the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and the mothers of the believers."

Bahrain's Sunni monarchy has waged nearly 16 months of crackdowns against a Shiite-led uprising. Bahrain's rulers are strongly aided by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Dozens of Sunni Muslim activists and lawmakers protested against al-Naqi shortly after his arrest, and he was attacked in jail by a fellow inmate, according to the Interior Ministry, Reuters reports.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/04/kuwait-court-gives-10-years-for-twitter-insults/

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #104 on: June 04, 2012, 07:30:15 PM »
Muslim Yelling "Allahu Akbar" Beheads His Wife In Front of Their Six Children Before Throwing Her
Atlas Shrugs ^ | 6/4/12 | Pamela Geller
Posted on June 4, 2012 9:55:12 PM EDT by Nachum

Orhan Sircasi threw his wife's head from the roof of the apartment building, landing in the courtyard below (pictured)

Orhan Sircasi threw his wife's head from the roof of the apartment building, landing in the courtyard below (pictured)

After he lunged at police with the severed head of his wife he threw it from the roof of his five storey apartment building to the street below.

He was overpowered on the rooftop in Berlin and taken into custody.

Then officers entered the apartment in the Kreuzberg district of the capital to find the dismembered body of his wife and the six children aged from nine months to ten years.

'They were in a terrible state,' said a neighbour. 'He made them watch as he butchered their mother then cut her up into little pieces.'

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #105 on: June 05, 2012, 11:44:36 AM »
U.S. official: Al Qaeda leader killed in drone strike in Pakistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 1:49 PM EDT, Tue June 5, 2012

(CNN) -- Abu Yahya al-Libi, the No. 2 man in al Qaeda and a longtime public face of the terror network, has been killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

His death marks one of the most significant blows to al Qaeda since the U.S. military killed Osama bin Laden in a daring nighttime raid in Pakistan a year ago.

Al-Libi was second-in-command behind al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took the helm after bin Laden's death.

"There is no one who even comes close in terms of replacing the expertise (al Qaeda) has just lost," said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Al-Libi "played a critical role in the group's planning against the West, providing oversight of the external operations efforts," the official told CNN.

"Zawahiri will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into Abu Yahya's shoes," the official said. "In addition to his gravitas as a longstanding member of AQ's leadership, Abu Yahya's religious credentials gave him the authority to issue fatwas, operational approvals, and guidance to the core group in Pakistan and regional affiliates."

The Monday strike was the third such deadly attack in as many days and the 21st suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan this year. At least six missiles were fired at a militant compound near the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan region near the Afghanistan border.

. . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/asia/pakistan-drone-libi/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #106 on: June 15, 2012, 11:08:17 PM »
I wonder if the Obama Administration still considers the Fort Hood shooting "workplace violence," and not terrorism?

American cleric used more than 60 email accounts to reach followers, including Hasan


The American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki used more than 60 email addresses and sent several thousand emails to his followers, some with encryption and code words, while under FBI surveillance -- according to a five-month investigation by Fox News. Some of those emails were exchanged with accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan. 

"Fox Files: The Enemy Within," which debuts on Fox News Channel June 15 at 10 p.m. ET, draws on exclusive interviews and first-hand accounts of the Fort Hood massacre which killed 13 and injured at least 43 others on Nov. 5, 2009. For the first time, victims of the shooting, as well as senior investigators, break their silence about the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. 

"He (Anwar al-Awlaki) was incredibly busy. He -- during his peak period -- had upwards of 60 email accounts that he was using at any given time," retired FBI agent Keith Slotter told Fox Files. 

Slotter, whose career spanned 25 years at the Bureau, was the special agent in charge of the San Diego field office from 2007 to 2012. His agents at the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which included detailees assigned to the FBI, tracked the cleric who was the public face of Al Qaeda 2.0 and the new digital jihad. 

Since the attacks of 9/11, there are now more than 100 JTTFs across the country. 

But in the 2011 Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation of the Fort Hood massacre, the FBI came under criticism for failing to act as an "effective interagency information sharing and operation coordination mechanism."  
 
In other words, at times the FBI failed to share key information with intelligence analysts under their supervision. 

Slotter, who now works at a private international investigative firm specializing in cyber crime and digital forensics, characterized the number as "thousands of emails ... over a three-year period, tens of thousands." 

By 2009, the cleric, the first American on the CIA's kill-or-capture list, understood he was the target of U.S. and foreign intelligence services. Fox Files has learned al-Awlaki shunned the use of phones and turned to his keyboard because he believed email communications were more secure. 

"He'd let some (emails accounts) go dark, and he'd use 10 or 15, and then those would go dark, and he'd go to a different set. So he was constantly revolving," Slotter explained. "As you can imagine with that many accounts, it was quite a lot to stay on top of." 

Asked how much of it was encrypted or used code words, Slotter replied: "I'll simply say, some was encrypted. And leave it at that. I don't want to get into the technological aspects." 

Slotter has reviewed the emails between al-Awlaki and Major Hasan. The former FBI agent went to them many times after the attack to consider if anything was missed. 

"I reviewed those emails many times. I had them bound on my desk, had all of them. There was nothing really in there that would indicate al-Awlaki prompting Major Hasan to do something." 

Also in 2009, at the same time al-Awlaki was exchanging emails with Hasan, Fox Files has confirmed the radical American cleric was sending highly encrypted emails calling for a major terrorist attack. 

British court documents obtained by Fox Files through the Freedom of Information Act show the highly encrypted emails included specific operational instructions to blow up a British plane heading to the United States. The recipient -- Rajib Karim -- is now serving 30 years in a British jail. 

While the 19 emails between al-Awlaki and Hasan appear much less specific, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the mere contact between an Army officer and a known extremist should have led to more action by federal and military investigators. 

"I have read the emails and they should have given rise to alarm," Collins said. "Just the fact that a member of our Armed Forces was communicating at all with a radical cleric in Yemen should have given rise to an investigation that was thorough and complete." 

Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was shot six times at Fort Hood, told Fox News that he heard Hasan scream "allahu akbar." 

Manning spoke exclusively to Fox Files about the massacre. At one point, Manning said he pretended to be dead fearing the shooter would try to finish him off if he appeared only wounded. 

"You could lose your security clearance in the Army for having bad credit and be kicked out of the Army. But you can't lose your security clearance for talking to, uh, a member of Al Qaeda, through e-mail. I mean, it doesn't make any sense." 

Fox Files requested an interview with FBI Director Robert Mueller to discuss the Fort Hood shooting and the independent review by former FBI and CIA director Judge William Webster. The FBI has yet to respond to the formal request.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/14/al-awlaki-used-dozens-email-accounts-to-reach-followers-including-hasan/

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #107 on: June 20, 2012, 06:51:33 PM »
GOP Rep. King defends hearings on Muslim radicalization, terrorism ties

GOP Rep. Peter King on Wednesday defended hearings on the so-called radicalization of American Muslims and how that potentially leads to terrorism – amid continued arguments about the need and appropriateness of such hearings.

The meeting was the fifth such for the House Committee on Homeland Security -- led by the New York congressman and created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The overwhelming majority of American Muslims are outstanding Americans,” King said, however, the threat of radicalism is “a clear and present danger to national security.”

King faced some of the strongest objections from Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

Thompson said he couldn’t recall a congressional meeting called to reflect on previous meetings and argued committee members must make clear the Muslim community “is part of the solution, not the problem.”

He was joined in opposition by Faiza Patel, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice.

She argued that Muslims who become so-called radical Muslims do not automatically become terrorists and that Muslims account for only 1 percent of the U.S. population.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, a doctor and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, argued that 90 percent of terrorist crimes are carried out by that 1 percent.

On the issue of whether future meeting should include testimony from experts with security clearance, King said, “The purpose (of the meetings) are to have from the community … to connect with real people.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/20/gop-rep-king-defends-hearing-on-radicalization-muslims-ties-to-terrorism/?test=latestnews

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #108 on: June 24, 2012, 05:29:33 PM »
Insurgents strike Afghan hotel, NATO says
June 21, 2012|From Nick Paton Walsh, CNN


Afghan and NATO troops were attempting to push back an insurgent attack on a hotel outside Kabul early Friday, with at least one Afghan police officer killed, Afghan and allied officials said.Kabul Police Chief Mohammed Ayoub Salangi said the standoff began before midnight Thursday (3:30 p.m. ET), when three attackers with a variety of weapons attacked the Spozhmai hotel and restaurant at Lake Qargha, west of the Afghan capital.  Salangi said the hotel hosted an outdoor dinner that drew a large number of Afghans, "including women and children," and that one police officer was among the dead.The Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist militia that once ruled most of the country, said its fighters targeted the hotel because it was hosting NATO personnel and diplomats, as well as "different types of debauchery."Salangi said Afghan forces moved against the attackers slowly overnight to avoid civilian casualties.Friday morning, camouflaged soldiers rode near the scene in military vehicles and helicopters hovered in the sky as shots continued to ring out

"Definitely civilians are stuck in the hotel's garden, but we can't say if they are hostages or just caught in the ongoing situation," Salangi said. "We did not take any action in the dark because of the risk to civilians, but now we have begun our attack and killed one attacker, and injured another."

There was no immediate indication of any NATO casualties, said Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.The attack comes after several days of high-profile strikes aimed at allied troops and Afghan security forces, including bombings in two restive provinces in the country's east that killed at least 29 people, including three American soldiers, on Wednesday. It also comes nearly a year after an insurgent assault on Kabul's Hotel Inter-Continental, which left the nine attackers and 12 others dead.

In an e-mail, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the targets were Westerners.

He said the attackers were armed with suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.

"Every night people come here for different types of debauchery, but on Thursday night, the number increases, including foreigners who come here and they hold anti-Islamic ceremonies," Mujahid said. "Tonight, according to our information, a number of ISAF and embassy diplomats from foreign countries have been invited by some senior Kabul administration officials and are now under attack."

He said the Taliban were fighting government forces outside the hotel and had killed tens of government officials and foreigners, but the insurgents regularly inflate casualty figures.

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-06-21/asia/world_asia_afghanistan-violence_1_troops-and-afghan-security-afghan-police-officer-insurgent-assault?_s=PM:ASIA

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #109 on: June 26, 2012, 05:55:06 PM »
Yemen says Al Qaeda land mines killed 73 in week
Published June 26, 2012
Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen –  Land mines planted by Al Qaeda militants before they fled key southern Yemen strongholds have killed 73 civilians over the past week, Yemeni officials said Tuesday.

Engineering teams have removed some 3,000 land mines around Zinjibar and Jaar, according to the governor's office in Abyan province.

Government troops captured both towns in a two-month offensive to uproot Al Qaeda fighters from large swaths of land they captured during last year's political turmoil. Mines left behind killed 73 residents, the officials said.

The statement also said Jaar residents have found the bodies of 20 militants and two soldiers killed in last week's fighting.

Muqbel Shaddad, a Jaar resident, said over the phone that the bodies were scattered in bushes and around the countryside.

An Interior Ministry official said five Al Qaeda militants detained for carrying out terrorist attacks escaped Tuesday from a prison in the port city of Hudayda.

He said one of the detainees was believed to be a senior Al Qaeda member.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, said the ministry has started an investigation to determine who helped them to escape.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/26/yemen-says-al-qaeda-land-mines-killed-73-in-week/?test=latestnews

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #110 on: June 30, 2012, 11:57:13 AM »
Fort Hood Shooting Trial Date Set for August
Friday, 29 Jun 2012

A military judge ruled Friday against delaying the trial of the Fort Hood shooting suspect, an Army psychiatrist who remains banned from the courtroom because his beard violates Army regulations.

Maj. Nidal Hasan's trial will proceed as scheduled, beginning on Aug. 20. Defense attorneys wanted the trial moved to December, saying they needed more time to prepare.

But the judge, Col. Gregory Gross, said the defense already had plenty of time. Prosecutors had indicated they were ready for trial last fall, but the court-martial was set for March and postponed first to June and then August — all at the request of the defense team.


The beard Hasan has grown is keeping him out of the military courtroom (AP Photo)

Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the 2009 attack on the Texas Army post.

Gross said Friday that top Army officials had rejected Hasan's request for a religious exemption — due to his Islamic faith — to the rule banning beards. An appeals court also denied a defense request to overturn the judge's decision last week to bar Hasan from the courtroom unless he shaves.

Hasan watched Friday's hearing from a closed-circuit television in a nearby room, as he did during last week's hearing.

"I could have him held down and have someone shave him, but I'm not prepared to do that at this time," Gross said.

Gross also denied a defense request to step down as the trial judge, disputing allegations that he was biased against Hasan.

Lead defense attorney Lt. Col. Kris Poppe said the judge had asked defense attorneys to clean up a court restroom after Gross found a medical waste bag, adult diaper and what appeared to be feces on the floor after a hearing earlier this month.

Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police the day of the rampage, has to wear adult diapers — but the mess in the restroom that day was mud from a guard's boots, Poppe said.

Poppe also said that Hasan often gets cold because of his paralysis and had been allowed to wear a knit cap in court. But when Hasan showed up with a beard June 8, the judge ordered the cap removed because defense attorneys didn't have a doctor's note specifying why Hasan needed it, Poppe said.

Gross said that he always makes sure his courtroom and nearby areas are tidy and has the right to ask those responsible for messes to clean them. He said he has accommodated the defense team regarding scheduling and requests.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Fort-Hood-shooting-Hasan/2012/06/29/id/444037

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #111 on: July 03, 2012, 04:43:58 PM »

Outrage builds as Egypt presses for release of blind sheik behind '93 WTC attack
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published July 03, 2012
FoxNews.com

Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, is in a North Carolina prison, but is revered as a hero in Egypt.

 Egypt's new government is sparking growing outrage in the U.S. for its attempts to win the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

In Cairo, President-elect Mohamed Morsi proclaimed to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Tahir Square on Friday that he will gain the release of Rahman, who is in a federal prison in North Carolina after having been convicted of masterminding the bombing that killed six and unsuccessfully plotting to blow up other landmarks, including the United Nations.

Although a U.S. official told FoxNews.com the sheik will never be freed, the fact that Egypt's newly-installed Muslim Brotherhood government is asking has top elected officials here seething.

“It’s disgusting for a head of government to state in his inaugural speech that a man who attempted to commit mass murder should be freed,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told FoxNews.com. “The fact that he said this in his first speech says to me that this is from the heart, and the Muslim Brotherhood has been trying to convince us that they have changed.


“It’s disgusting for a head of government to state in his inaugural speech that a man who attempted to commit mass murder should be freed.”
- Rep. Peter King, (R-NY)


“We need to be more on guard than ever,” King added.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., weighed in, calling Morsi's speech "an insult."

“President Morsi’s offensive statements are an insult to the memories of the victims of the World Trade Center bombing. ... Rest assured, (Rahman) will stay right where he belongs – in jail for the rest of his life,” Schumer said.

Hani Hour Eldin -- a member of Egypt's parliament, as well as a member of the State Department-recognized terrorist organization Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya -- recently traveled to Washington to press the case for Rahman's release but apparently was rebuffed. When asked for comment on Cairo's push for Rahman's release, State Department officials referred FoxNews.com to a prior statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which she said Rahman guilty verdict and life sentence were “correct” and that the evidence was”clear and convincing.”

Talk of releasing Rahman is "a non-issue and it’s not going to happen,” said one U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

But with the new government of Egypt making Rahman's freedom a priority, many are concerned about the nation's new leadership.

“I was shocked over his call for the release," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told FoxNews.com. "This is a man who was going to virtually destroy New York City. I can’t imagine we would even consider releasing him.

“It seems as if (Morsi) wants to ingratiate himself with extremists. That’s something to consider. I always think we are better off being cautious than trusting.”

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, who led the prosecution against Rahman in 1995, said it isn't surprising that Morsi believes he has a chance.

“Egypt is going to pitch this as a humanitarian gesture,” McCarthy said. “We have an administration which just issued a visa to Hani Hour Eldin, and he is a part of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. This is an organization we use to take very seriously.

“So if you’re President Morsi and you’re are sitting back and seeing what’s going on, what stops you from making an appeal? Morsi has pressure on him. This agenda has been there the whole time.”

Rahman was convicted along with nine others of seditious conspiracy. He is being held in the Butner Federal Correctional Facility in North Carolina. He was accused of being the leader of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which was responsible for numerous violent acts including the 1997 massacre of over 60 people in Luxor, Egypt.

Although the 1993 attack failed to seriously damage the World Trade Center, it left six dead and was a precursor for the 9/11 attacks eight years later.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/03/outrage-builds-as-egypt-presses-for-release-blind-sheik-behind-3-wtc-attack/

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #112 on: July 10, 2012, 08:01:15 AM »
Mali Islamists destroy tombs at famous Timbuktu mosque


Analysis & Opinion

 Timbuktu tomb destroyers pulverise Islam’s history
 Advancing radical Islamists lay waste to religious heritage in Muslim world
 
World »

 



BAMAKO | Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:09am EDT
 
(Reuters) - Islamist militants destroyed two tombs on Tuesday at the famous 14th century Djingareyber mosque in Timbuktu, classified by UNESCO as a world heritage site, residents said.
 
About a dozen militants arrived in an armored four-wheel drive truck, armed with pickaxes and hoes. They fired in the air to intimidate people and started smashing the tombs, said Ibrahim Cisse, who witnessed the scene.

"They blocked the two main roads leading to the mausoleums. When they saw people gathering for a ceremony nearby, they began firing shots in the air," said another resident, Mahamad ould Ibrahim.

The new destruction comes after attacks last week on other historic and religious landmarks in Timbuktu that UNESCO called "wanton destruction".

Islamists of the Ansar Dine group say the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam are idolatrous.

Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al Qaeda splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg MNLA rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

They have destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city, together with a number of tombs and a sacred door at Sidi Yahya mosque, in their campaign to erase traces of what they regard as un-Islamic idolatry.

According to UNESCO, Djingareyber, together with the Sankore and Sidi Yahia mosques, are known as the three great mosques of the city. Djingareyber was built by the sultan Kankan Moussa after his return in 1325 from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

(Reporting by Adama Diarra; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #113 on: September 19, 2012, 11:53:57 AM »
France shutters embassies as anti-Islam cartoon spurs fears of new backlash
Published September 19, 2012
FoxNews.com

A French magazine's decision to publish cartoons depicting a naked Prophet Mohammad triggered a new wave of fears at embassies in Europe, even as anger at the west continued to sweep through the Muslim world.

France announced Wednesday it will close 20 embassies in Arab and Muslim nations after the weekly Charlie Hebdo published the controversial cartoons. The images threaten to further inflame Muslim protesters and terror groups, who have demonstrated against the U.S. at embassies around the world since an anti-Islam film went viral last week.

The French Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning Wednesday urging French citizens in the Muslim world to exercise "the greatest vigilance," avoiding public gatherings and "sensitive buildings" such as those representing the West or religious sites. At the same time, the country -- which has western Europe's largest Muslim population -- plunged into new debate over the limits to free speech in a modern democracy.

France's prime minister said freedom of expression is guaranteed, but cautioned that it "should be exercised with responsibility and respect."

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned that Charlie Hebdo could be throwing "oil on the fire," but said it's up to courts to decide whether the magazine went too far.

The cartoons could extend a wave of violence linked to a trailer for an amateurish film called the "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays the prophet as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester, has killed at least 30 people in seven countries.

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans, were also killed in a strike on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi -- though it remains unclear whether the violence was a coordinated attack by terrorists.

On Wednesday, several hundred lawyers protesting the movie forced their way into an area in Pakistan's capital that houses the U.S. Embassy and other foreign missions. The United States temporarily closed its consulate in an Indonesian city because of similar demonstrations, and hundreds protested the film in Sri Lanka's capital and burned effigies of President Obama.

The magazine's crude cartoons played off the film and ridiculed the violent reaction to it. Riot police took up positions outside the offices of the magazine, which was firebombed last year after it released an edition that mocked radical Islam.

Charlie Hebdo's chief editor, who goes by the name of Charb and has been under police protection for a year, defended the cartoons.

"Muhammad isn't sacred to me," he said in an interview at the weekly's offices, on the northeast edge of Paris amid a cluster of housing projects. "I don't blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law; I don't live under Quranic law."

Government authorities and Muslim leaders urged calm.

"This is a disgraceful and hateful, useless and stupid provocation," Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Paris Mosque, told The Associated Press. "We are not Pavlov's animals to react at each insult."

A small-circulation weekly, Charlie Hebdo often draws attention for ridiculing sensitivity around the Prophet Muhammad, and an investigation into the firebombing of its offices last year is still open. The magazine posted a statement online saying its website had been hacked.

Abdallah Zekri, president of the Paris-based Anti-Islamophobia Observatory, said his group is considering filing a lawsuit against the magazine.

"People want to create trouble in France," he said. "Charlie Hebdo wants to make money on the backs of Muslims."

Meanwhile, seven Egyptian Coptic Christians living abroad, including Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, who made the "Innocence of Muslims" film, and Florida Pastor Terry Jones, will be tried, presumably in absentia, by a criminal court for insulting Islam over the trailer, Egypt's public prosecutor said Tuesday.

The prosecutor said that convictions could be punishable by the death penalty, and called for the eight individuals to handed over to Egypt.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/19/france-shutters-embassies-as-anti-islam-cartoon-spurs-fears-new-backlash/

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #114 on: September 19, 2012, 06:36:26 PM »
bump

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #115 on: September 20, 2012, 12:37:53 PM »
Rushdie Says Something Wrong at Heart of Islam
Thursday, 20 Sep 2012
By REUTERS

British author Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for nine years under a death sentence from Iran's supreme leader, said in an interview published on Thursday that something had gone wrong at the heart of Islam.

Rushdie told Le Monde newspaper that his years fleeing the 1989 fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had forced him to pay close attention to a radicalisation of the Muslim world.

"Something has gone wrong at the heart of Islam. It is quite recent. I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture," he said in an interview published in French.

"For me, it is a tragedy that this culture has regressed to this point, like a self-inflicted wound. The Islam in which I grew up was open, influenced by Sufism and Hinduism, and not like the one which is spreading rapidly at the moment."

The fatwa, in response to his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses", made Rushdie synonymous with the tussle between freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities. A memoir of his nine years in hiding following the fatwa was published this week.

The interview was conducted on Sept. 12, just as a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad sparked violent protests across the Islamic world. These included a deadly attack in Libya which killed the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff.

The California-made film, and a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by a French satirical weekly on Wednesday, have revived international debate over free speech, religion and the right to offend. Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.

"There is a limit beyond which you cannot blame the West any more," Rushdie told Le Monde. "Having said that, if there was the slightest sign that Muslim society was able to create an open democracy, I would change my opinion."

This week an Iranian religious foundation increased its reward for the killing of Rushdie, in response to the film mocking Mohammad.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/rushdie-soemthing-wrong-in/2012/09/20/id/456969

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #116 on: September 24, 2012, 07:24:23 PM »
Skip to comments.
Pakistani railway minister: I’ll pay $100,000 to anyone who kills the Mohammed filmmaker
 Hotair ^ | 09/24/2012 | AllahPundit

Posted on Monday, September 24, 2012 9:40:34 PM by SeekAndFind

U.S. foreign policy is in a very, very confused place when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounds more sanguine about the latest insult to Islam than our ostensible allies do. In Egypt, an atheist who uploaded the Mohammed movie to YouTube was beaten during his interrogation by police and will stand trial for blasphemy next Wednesday. In Pakistan, one member of the coalition government can't wait that long for "justice":


The Pakistani government on Monday distanced itself from an offer by one of its Cabinet ministers to pay $100,000 for anyone who kills the maker of an anti-Islam film, saying the offer does not represent official government policy...

 Bilour said Saturday that he would pay the reward money out of his own pocket. He also appealed to al-Qaida and Taliban militants to contribute to "a noble cause" of eliminating the filmmaker...

 Bilour’s comments appealing to al-Qaida and the Taliban also struck a nerve within his own party, which is considered anti-Taliban and has lost several leaders in the fight against the insurgency.

His party, believe it or not, is considered secularist. Whether this guy has simply gone rogue or whether he sees political advantage in pandering to Pakistan’s many fanatics with bloody demagoguery, only he knows. But he told the Daily Telegraph today that he refuses to withdraw the bounty, despite pressure from the government and his party to do so. The onus is now on Zardari to fire him, but that’s complicated by the fact that Zardari’s out of the country right now. He’s at the UN, where he’s preparing to speak out against … freedom of speech:


His comments will intensify pressure on President Asif Zardari to sack his defiant minister when he returns from addressing the United Nations General Assembly this week, where he is expected to call for an international anti-blasphemy law and compare it to laws in Europe which outlaw ‘Holocaust denial.’ But his proposal has been undermined by Mr Bilour’s incitement and bounty offer.

Senior figures in his own party said they had called a series of meetings to decide whether to take action against him. Many are baffled by his actions given his long and high-risk opposition to the Taliban and al-Qaeda and his long-standing support for NATO intervention in Afghanistan and for Pakistan’s role as a supply route for its bases.

I’m bracing for the argument that the Pakistani government can’t fire Bilour because he has freedom of speech and, well, you can’t go around denying someone a government salary just because he’s calling for murder outright. For now, though, here’s the State Department response. What’s wrong with this picture?


Calling Pakistan Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour’s offer as “inflammatory and inappropriate”, a State Department statement said, “There could be no justification for violence and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence.”…

The State Department said, “The (US) President and Secretary of State have both said the video at the core of this is offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible – but that is no justification for violence, and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence.”

Note whom the harshest pejoratives are reserved for. A movie insulting Mohammed is “offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible,” which is almost exactly the same phrase the White House used today to describe Ahmadinejad’s eliminiationist rhetoric towards Israel. Meanwhile, the guy who’s begging Al Qaeda to cut the head off the man who made it is … “inappropriate” and “inflammatory.” I realize that our “partnership” with Pakistan involves lots of funny little quirks, like giving them foreign aid while their intel bureau helps Afghan jihadis kill American soldiers, but can we muster a little extra invective for an honest to goodness government minister who’s calling on terrorists to murder a U.S. citizen? How about “inappropriate, inflammatory, and problematic?” Too sharp?

Exit quotation from Pakistan’s foreign minister: “It is not good enough to say it’s free speech, it should be allowed. I think if this does provoke action against American citizens or Americans anywhere else in the world, then maybe we do need to rethink how much freedom is OK.”

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #117 on: November 21, 2012, 10:12:21 AM »
Panetta: War on Al-Qaida Taking New Direction
Wednesday, 21 Nov 2012

America's war on al-Qaida is taking a new direction, moving beyond declared combat zones like Afghanistan while countering the terrorist network's search for new sanctuaries, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

Panetta said the evolving campaign will feature the use of small U.S. strike forces; more partnering with foreign commandos; and more training and other forms of assistance that enable partner nations to combat terrorism on their own.

It also will require that the U.S. and its NATO allies "finish the job right" in Afghanistan, he said, noting that al-Qaida and other extremist groups view the country's rugged northeast — along the Pakistan border — as a viable haven. The U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan is due to end in December 2014, but Panetta said the U.S. intends to have an enduring presence there.

"All this sends a very simple and very powerful message to al-Qaida, to the Taliban, and to the violent extremist groups who want to regain a safe haven in Afghanistan: We are not going anywhere; our commitment to Afghanistan is long term, and you cannot wait us out," Panetta said in a speech to the Center for a New American Security, a think tank.

But as the war there winds down, al-Qaida is adjusting to the setbacks it has suffered not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but also in Yemen and Somalia, he said.

"The al-Qaida cancer has also adapted to this pressure by becoming even more widely distributed, loosely knit and geographically dispersed," Panetta said.

"After being left on the sidelines of the momentous change that swept through the Arab world last year, they are now seeking to take advantage of the transition period to gain new sanctuary, to incite violence and to sow instability," he added.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Panetta-al-Qaida/2012/11/21/id/465023

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #118 on: November 27, 2012, 11:27:15 AM »
Excerpt from The Terrorist Watch:  Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack, by Ronald Kessler:  "One FBI official estimates that imans in as many as one in ten of the 2,000 mosques in the United States preach extremism." 

 :-\

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #119 on: November 28, 2012, 05:02:32 PM »
Death to Amercia.   ::) 

Koran-Burning Pastor Among 8 Sentenced to Death in Egypt
Wednesday, 28 Nov 2012

An Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.

The low-budget "Innocence of Muslims," parts of which were made available online, portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.

Egypt's official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information - charges that carry the death sentence.

Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country's chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.

The man behind the film, Mark Basseley Youssef, was among those convicted. He was sentenced in a California court earlier this month to one year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter. Youssef, 55, admitted that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case.

Multiple calls to Youssef's attorney in Southern California, Steve Seiden, were not returned Wednesday.

Florida-based Terry Jones, another of those sentenced, is the pastor of Dove World Outreach, a church of less than 50 members in Gainesville, Fla., not far from the University of Florida. He has said he was contacted by the filmmaker to promote the film, as well as Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who posted the video clips on his website.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Jones said the ruling "shows the true face of Islam" — one that he views as intolerant of dissent and opposed to basic freedoms of speech and religion.

"We can speak out here in America," Jones said. "That freedom means that we criticize government leadership, religion even at times. Islam is not a religion that tolerates any type of criticism."

An Associated Press reporter knocked on the door of Sadek's home in Chantilly, Va. No one answered.

The connection to the film of the other five sentenced by the court was not immediately clear. They include two who work with Sadek at a radical Coptic group in the U.S. that has called for an independent Coptic state, a priest who hosts TV programs from the U.S. and a lawyer living in Canada who has previously sued the Egyptian state over riots in 2000 that left 21 Christians dead.

The other person is a woman who converted to Christianity and is a staunch critic of Islam.

The official news agency report said that during the trial, the court reviewed a video of some defendants calling for an independent Coptic state in Egypt, and another of Jones burning the Koran, Islam's holy book. The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence, accusing those charged of seeking to divide Egypt and incite sedition. All the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality, the agency added.

Some Christians and human rights groups worry that prosecutions for insulting religion, which existed to a degree under the secular-leaning regime of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, will increase with the ascent of Islamists to power in Egypt.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Jones-Koran-burning-execution/2012/11/28/id/465724

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #120 on: November 28, 2012, 09:50:08 PM »
Death to Amercia.   ::) 

Koran-Burning Pastor Among 8 Sentenced to Death in Egypt
Wednesday, 28 Nov 2012

An Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.

The low-budget "Innocence of Muslims," parts of which were made available online, portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.

Egypt's official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information - charges that carry the death sentence.

Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country's chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.

The man behind the film, Mark Basseley Youssef, was among those convicted. He was sentenced in a California court earlier this month to one year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter. Youssef, 55, admitted that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case.

Multiple calls to Youssef's attorney in Southern California, Steve Seiden, were not returned Wednesday.

Florida-based Terry Jones, another of those sentenced, is the pastor of Dove World Outreach, a church of less than 50 members in Gainesville, Fla., not far from the University of Florida. He has said he was contacted by the filmmaker to promote the film, as well as Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who posted the video clips on his website.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Jones said the ruling "shows the true face of Islam" — one that he views as intolerant of dissent and opposed to basic freedoms of speech and religion.

"We can speak out here in America," Jones said. "That freedom means that we criticize government leadership, religion even at times. Islam is not a religion that tolerates any type of criticism."

An Associated Press reporter knocked on the door of Sadek's home in Chantilly, Va. No one answered.

The connection to the film of the other five sentenced by the court was not immediately clear. They include two who work with Sadek at a radical Coptic group in the U.S. that has called for an independent Coptic state, a priest who hosts TV programs from the U.S. and a lawyer living in Canada who has previously sued the Egyptian state over riots in 2000 that left 21 Christians dead.

The other person is a woman who converted to Christianity and is a staunch critic of Islam.

The official news agency report said that during the trial, the court reviewed a video of some defendants calling for an independent Coptic state in Egypt, and another of Jones burning the Koran, Islam's holy book. The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence, accusing those charged of seeking to divide Egypt and incite sedition. All the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality, the agency added.

Some Christians and human rights groups worry that prosecutions for insulting religion, which existed to a degree under the secular-leaning regime of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, will increase with the ascent of Islamists to power in Egypt.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Jones-Koran-burning-execution/2012/11/28/id/465724
I wonder how long until one of these morons living in the US decides it's his duty to carry out the sentence and off that pastor...

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #121 on: November 29, 2012, 04:19:34 AM »
I wonder how long until one of these morons living in the US decides it's his duty to carry out the sentence and off that pastor...

I thought this would have happened already.

Here in Denmark we have had a couple of cases.

One came after a newspaper comic artist with an axe and some tool blew himself up in a toilet haha.. :)

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #122 on: November 29, 2012, 12:26:32 PM »
I wonder how long until one of these morons living in the US decides it's his duty to carry out the sentence and off that pastor...

I'm more concerned about the innocent civilians in our planes, trains, in our shopping malls, office buildings, etc. 

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #123 on: December 27, 2012, 04:55:50 PM »
U.S. Military Builds Up Its Presence In Africa
by TOM BOWMAN
December 25, 2012

An Army brigade from Fort Riley, Kan., some 4,000, soldiers, will begin helping to train African militaries. The idea is to help African troops beat back a growing terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida.

The American troops will head over in small teams over the course of the next year. The Dagger Brigade returned to Kansas last year from a deployment to Iraq, where it trained and advised that country's security forces.

Now unit commander Col. Jeff Broadwater is preparing to do the same kind of mission but in a different place. So Broadwater is scouring his brigade for unique skills.

"We're fortunate enough to have some African speakers, Swahili," Broadwater says.

Swahili is spoken in much of East Africa. And the colonel says he's also happy to have a handful of soldiers with first-hand experience on the continent.

"We do have some soldiers who either came over from Africa and went to school here and then joined the military or came over with their families," Broadwater says.

The brigade is expected to deploy in small teams beginning next spring throughout Africa. The soldiers will take part in military exercises and train African troops on everything from logistics and marksmanship to medical care.

Meanwhile, the Defense Intelligence Agency is already placing more of its military spies in Africa.

The top American commander for Africa, Gen. Carter Ham, says this is all new. He spoke recently at an appearance in Washington: "Africa has not been a part of the world in which we have focused a lot of attention, certainly not during the majority of my career."

American Green Berets have trained African troops in the past. But Gen. Ham says this new effort is more comprehensive, and necessary given emerging security threats on the continent.

"There are a lot of issues in Africa that are causing concern for the United States," says Richard Downie, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He points in particular to the West African nation of Mali.

"Particularly the spread of terrorism you have al-Qaida's local franchise in Africa controlling two thirds of that country right now," he says.

Al-Qaida and its affiliates are operating in a wide arc from Nigeria through Mali, Libya and into Somalia. Gen. Ham says there are indications the groups are starting to work together.

"What I worry about more than anything is a growing linkage which I think poses the greatest threat to regional stability across Africa, certainly into Europe and to the United States as well," Ham says.

And to counter that terrorist threat, the Obama administration wants to rely on African forces. That means giving them proper equipment and training, and that's where the troops from Fort Riley come in.

"We've been really just basically trying to understand you know, a little bit more about Africa," Broadwater says. "The history of those areas, the culture so when we do deploy to those countries we have a little bit better idea of what's going on."

But what's going on in the continent, says Africa expert Richard Downie, cannot be addressed by just providing military training and equipment. There are underlying causes of unrest and extremism: poverty, lack of health care and education, and predatory governments. Downie says those are the challenges the U.S. and other countries must tackle.

"Terrorism is really a symptom of a lot of other problems that really the military is not the best organization to solve," he says.

Better organizations, says Downie, would be the State Department and the Agency for International Development.

But the military is the organization with the biggest budget. That is why the Dagger Brigade will be able to take part in nearly 100 separate training and military exercises next year, in nearly three dozen African countries. Some of those efforts by the Army teams will last a few days, others a month or more.

These soldiers will not be allowed to take part in combat missions with African forces. That would require high-level Pentagon approval.

But after ten years of war, the American military is not eager for any new combat operations.

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/25/168008525/u-s-military-builds-up-its-presence-in-africa

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Re: Radical Islam
« Reply #124 on: January 25, 2013, 11:06:00 AM »
Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen Dies After US Drone Attack
Friday, 25 Jan 2013

SANAA, Yemen — Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen died of wounds sustained in a U.S. drone attack last year in southern Yemen, the country's official news agency and a security official said Thursday.

Saeed al-Shihri, a Saudi national who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, was wounded in a missile attack in the southern city of Saada on Nov. 28, according to SABA news agency.

The agency said that had fallen into a coma since then. It was not clear when he actually died.

A security official said that the missile had been fired by a U.S.-operated, unmanned drone aircraft. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Yemen had previously announced al-Shihri's death in a Sept. 10 drone attack in the province of Hadramawt. A subsequent DNA test however proved that the body recovered was not that of al-Shihri.

On Oct. 22, al-Shihri denied his own death in audio message posted on Jihadi websites.

Also known by the nom de guerre Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, he denounced at the time the Yemeni government for spreading the "rumor about my death . . . as though the killing of the mujahideen [holy warriors] by America is a victory to Islam and Muslims."

Al-Shihri went through Saudi Arabia's famous "rehabilitation" institutes after he returned to his home country, but then he fled to Yemen and became deputy to Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of an al-Qaida group.

Al-Shihri's death is considered a major blow to al-Qaida's Yemen branch, known as al-Qaida in The Arabian Peninsula. Washington considers it the most dangerous of the group's offshoots.

Al-Qaida in Yemen has been linked to several attempted attacks on U.S. targets, including the foiled Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airliner over Detroit and explosives-laden parcels intercepted aboard cargo flights last year.

In 2011, a high-profile U.S. drone strike killed U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been linked to the planning and execution of several attacks targeting U.S. and Western interests, including the attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 and the plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, has fallen into lawlessness during a yearlong uprising starting in 2011, when millions of Yemenis took to the streets demanding the ouster of their longtime authoritarian ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Al-Qaida militants exploited the unrest and took control of large swaths of land in the south until last spring, when the military, backed by the United State, managed to drive hundreds of militants out of major cities and towns.

Since then, the group has carried out deadly attacks targeting mostly security and military officials, including suicide bombings that targeted military and security compounds.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/yemen-al-qaida-leader-dies/2013/01/25/id/472896