Radical Islam

[Dos Equis]

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/conncarroll/2015/01/13/white-house-still-refuses-to-even-say-the-phrase-radical-islam-n1942527

listen to the current White House Baghdad Bob Press Secretary...the contortions this administration goes thru to remain PC boggles the mind

White House Still Refuses To Say "Radical Islam"
Conn Carroll | Jan 13, 2015

President Obama has pointedly refused to use the phrase "radical Islam" and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was pressed to explain why Tuesday.

"These are individuals who are terrorists," Earnest explained to NPR's Mara Liasson who had asked why the White House chose "not to associate" itself with French President Francois Hollande's assertion that France was at war with radical Islam. "And what they did is they tried to invoke their own distorted deviant view of Islam to try and justify them," Earnest continued. "And I think that is completely illegitimate, and what we should do is call it what it is. And it is an act of terror and it is one we roundly condemn."

"But the leader of France, your ally in this effort," Liasson countered, "has put a name on this ideology, which he calls radical Islam. You have bent over backwards to not ever say that. There must be a reason."

"And I guess I am doing my best to try to explain to you what that is," Earnest responded. "The first is, accuracy. We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism. And they later tried to justify that act terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it."

"The second," Earnest continued, "is this is an act that was roundly condemned by muslim leaders. I'm describing to you the reasons why we have not chosen to use that label because it doesn't seem to accurately describe what had happened. We also don't want to be in a situation where we are legitimizing what we consider to be a completely illegitimate justification for this violence. I am not going to criticize anybody who chooses to use that label. I'm talking about the way we are trying to talk about this and we are trying to be as specific and accurate as possible in describing what exactly occurred."

But is that exactly what occurred? Did the two men that assassinated the journalists at Charlie Hedbo choose the magazine at random and then, after the fact as Earnest suggests, try and justify their actions by invoking Islam?

Did the man who took hostages at a Paris grocery store just happen to pick a Jewish store by random, and then later as the White House position posits, justify his acts by invoking Islam?

Or did a radical version of Islam, one embraced by tens of millions muslims world wide, influence these men before they acted? Is this same version of Islam inspiring muslims all over the world to travel to Iraq and Syria to fight for the Islamic State? Did this same version of Islam inspire the 9/11 attacks?

The White House is right about two things. First, labels matter. That's why Earnest is bending over backwards not to use the "radical Islam" label.

Second, accuracy matters. Are young men seeking to terrorize and kill and only then, as the White House suggests, later looking for an ideology to justify what they already did? Or is there an ideology that is inspiring and motivating these attacks in the first place? And if so what is its name?

You can read Earnest's entire exchange with Liasson below.

LIASSON: There have been a lot of questions raised about why you have chosen not to associate yourself with the language that was used by the French president when he said we are at war with radical Islam. And instead you have chosen a formulation where you say we want to counter individuals who commit violence based on their warped view of Islam. Is the reason you don't want to call it radical Islam or use the word war because you are afraid of playing into the extremists desires to incite a religious war on Islam? Is that the reason you've gone to great lengths to come up with this different formulation?

EARNEST: Well Mara there are certainly, it does seem clear, that these terrorists, let's call them what they are, these terrorists, are individuals who would like to cloak themselves in the veil of a particular religion. But based on the fact that the religious leaders of that religion have roundel condemned their actions, those religious leaders have indicated that their actions are entirely inconsistent with Islam. I think the fact that the majority of victims of terror attacks that are carried out by al Qaeda and adherents to their particular brand of violence, that the majority of them are muslim, I think is a pretty clear indication that this is not a matter of the world being at war with Islam.

The world and the United States, as we've discussed in the context of ISIL, is at war with these individuals, these violent extremists, who carry out these acts of terror and try to justify it by invoking this religion.

LIASSON: But the leader of France, your ally in this effort, has put a name on this ideology, which he calls radical Islam. You have bent over backwards to not ever say that. There must be a reason.

EARNEST :I think the reason is twofold. One is, I certainly wouldn't want to be in a position where I am repeating the justification that they have cited that I think is completely illegitimate. That they have invoked Islam to try to justify their attacks.

LIASSON: Calling it radical Islam, you feel, would be playing into their hand?

EARNEST: Well I think what I am trying to do is I am trying to describe to you what happened and what they did. These are individuals who are terrorists. And what they did is they tried to invoke their own distorted deviant view of Islam to try and justify them. And I think that is completely illegitimate, and what we should do is call it what it is. And it is an act of terror and it is one we roundly condemn. It is an act of terror that was roundly condemned by muslim leaders across the globe. There are reports that at least one of the victims of the attack in Paris was actually a muslim. We know that at least one of the hostages is in the kosher grocery store was a muslim. And one of the things I think that has been particularly inspiring about the march we spent a lot of time talking about yesterday is the kind of solidarity that we saw among the French population. This is a diverse country but we saw French Jews marching with French Christians, and French Muslims in a sign of solidarity to condemn these terror acts and to demonstrate that that country will not retreat in the face of that kind of violence

LIASSON: But other of your allies have described the ideology that you call a warped view of Islam by calling it radical Islam. They are not saying we are at war with Islam. They agree with you totally in every word you just said. But they are calling the ideology, the "warped view," that these people adhere to by a name. And it seems that the White House has gone to great lengths to avoid ever calling it anything other than a warped view, and I'm wondering is there a reason for that.

EARNEST: And I guess I am doing my best to try to explain to you what that is. The first is, accuracy. We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism. And they later tried to justify that act terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it.

The second is, this is an act that was roundly condemned by muslim leaders. I'm describing to you the reasons why we have not chosen to use that label because it doesn't seem to accurately describe what had happened. We also don't want to be in a situation where we are legitimizing what we consider to be a completely illegitimate justification for this violence. I am not going to criticize anybody who chooses to use that label. I'm talking about the way we are trying to talk about this and we are trying to be as specific and accurate as possible in describing what exactly occurred.

[Dos Equis]

 

JUST CAME IN: The Last Words Of The Pilot Of The Crashed AirAsia Plane Was “Allahu Akbar!”
by Shoebat Foundation on January 14, 2015 in Featured, General
By Walid Shoebat and Theodore Shoebat

Analyzing the black box of the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 revealed the last words of the pilots was “Allahu Akbar”. Sounds familiar?

“It is as if we can feel them… Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar were the last words said before they died” says Nurcahyo Utomo, who has been an aviation investigator for almost two decades as he listened to the black box recording. We did a whole video on this:

On December 30th we stated:

“Call me an Islamophobe, but when I research the pilot from the missing flight QZ8501, Captain Iriyanto, I access the local news in Indonesian, not in English. There I find out that the pilot of the missing flight QZ8501 and like the pilot on the other missing flight MH370 are both devout Muslims, I get somewhat paranoid. Translating from Indonesian I find the following:

“Iriyanto was also active in the community as a board member and chairman of the mosque at his residence in Pondok Jati Block BC 12 Village Pagerwojo, Buduran, Sidoarjo.”

“In addition to serving as Chairman of RT 39, Iriyanto also served as a board leader of Masjid Nurul Yaqin, which is located in the housing complex.”

“He was also diligent in worship. When everyone was at home, he would certainly be seen praying in congregation in the mosque.”

Masjid Nurul Yaqin mosque is connected with Hizbut Tahrir, a major terrorist organization that wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia and Malaysia.

From Indonesian sources, I also find out that “Before Iriyanto applied for early retirement and became a commercial airline pilot he had been a pilot in the Air Force who served in the squadron Iswahyudi Airport, Madiun, East Java flying fighter Hawk MK 50 and F-5.”

Iriyanato “performed operational tasks from 1983 up until 1992.” It was such fighter jets from Indonesia that were used over East Timor and were operational till September of 1999 killing some 200,000 mostly Christian Timorese out of a total population of 600,000 which has been winked at by western powers and today western media said nothing about this pilot’s involvements?

Zaharie Ahmad Shah the captain of the other missing flight MH370 had his co-pilot also another Muslim Faruq Abdul Hamid, 27. Now I become triply somewhat paranoid.

Being just paranoid and pilots just being very devout Muslims is not 100% conclusive evidence, but when one adds the scenarios of past history, it changes things. When the first plane hit the first tower on 9-11, the TV said “it was a terrible accident” and in march Flight MH370 vanished and they also said that this was a “terrible accident,” yet when the second plane hit the other tower, the TV instantly said that, “it was definitely a terrorist attack” and now that when flight QZ8501 also vanished should not our paranoia and phobia levels be a bit up to think that “Muslim terrorists” are playing their favorite deadly pranks again?

If Iriyanto’s religion and his “Allahu Akbar” turns out to be relevant, so too will the religion of his nation. There have been at least two mass murder / suicides perpetrated by a commercial airline pilot that were investigated by both the U.S. and Muslim countries. The first occurred after the crash of Singapore’s Silk Air Flight 185 on December 19, 1997 and Egypt Air Flight 990 on October 31, 1999. In both cases, the U.S. authorities concluded pilot suicide and investigators with the Muslim countries concluded otherwise. This was not our view, it was the views of the experts on these crashes.

To read our analysis and expert reporting in more detail read More Muslims Are Going To Be Hijacking Planes And Crashing Them And Butchering Thousands, If We Do Not Ban Islam

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Several publications have obtained (its not only us) the story originally from Yahoo News which they sourced their version of this article to the New Straits Times Online. We changed the article to link to New Straight Times after we were informed that while Yahoo News stated “It is as if we can feel them… Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar were the last words said before they died” they left out “he said referring to his experience analising black boxes from past crashes” which was completely left out of the Yahoo News story even though the story is almost identical word for word. Omitting such a crucial detail paints it as if the expert had already listened to the recording which at this time has not been confirmed. Although Yahoo News made the mistake, we apologize for the reporting. Having said this, the fact remains that everything else that was reported is accurate.

http://shoebat.com/2015/01/14/just-came-last-words-pilot-crashed-airasia-plane-allahu-akbar/

[Dos Equis]

ISIS sympathizer arrested after allegedly plotting US Capitol attack, authorities say
Published January 14, 2015
FoxNews.com

An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as "enemies," and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT

A Justice Department official, however, told Fox News that Cornell was "aspirational and not operational," adding that the public was never in danger.

The investigation relied heavily on the use of a source, who the criminal complaint said began cooperating with authorities last fall to gain favorable treatment for his prosecution on an unrelated case.

The complaint adds that Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL.

"I believe that we should just wage jihad under our own orders and plan attacks and everything," Cornell told the source, according to the papers. "I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State and plan operations ourselves."

Cornell was charged with the attempted killing of a U.S. government officer and possession of a firearm in furtherance of attempted crime of violence.

Along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cincinnati Police Department, Colerain Police Department, Green Township Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police were involved in the investigation.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/14/isis-sympathizer-arrested-after-allegedly-plotting-us-capitol-attack/

[Dos Equis]

Japan PM vows to save ISIS hostages threatened with beheading in new video
Published January 20, 2015
FoxNews.com

Japan's Prime Minister vowed Tuesday to save the lives of two Japanese hostages, one a freelance journalist and the other a soldier for hire, threatened with beheading in an online video purportedly released by the Islamic State terror group.

In the video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, a militant threatened to kill the men unless a $200 million ransom was paid within 72 hours. If confirmed to be from Islamic State, better known as ISIS, the video would mark the first public demand for ransom from the group in exchange for the release of captives.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on ISIS to immediately release the hostages, saying that "their lives are the top priority." Abe is in the midst of a six-day visit to the Middle East, accompanied by more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies.

"It is unforgivable," he said. "Extremism and Islam are completely different things."

Abe said he would send Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister, to Jordan to seek the country's support and to resolve the hostage crisis. The premier also said the Israeli government, which Japan promised Sunday to cooperate with on counterterrorism, are sharing information to aid in the hostage crisis. The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment.

In the video, the two men, identified by ISIS as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa, appear in orange jumpsuits like other hostages previously killed by ISIS, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria. The militant who threatens them speaks in a British accent and resembles a militant involved in other filmed beheadings.

"To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,500 kilometers (5,280 miles) from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade," the knife-brandishing terrorist says. "You have proudly donated $100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims."

Japan's Foreign Ministry's anti-terrorism section has seen the video and analysts are assessing it, a ministry official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

Speaking in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to say whether Japan would pay the ransom.

"If true, the act of threat in exchange of people's lives is unforgivable and we feel strong indignation," Suga told journalists. "We will make our utmost effort to win their release as soon as possible."

Yukawa, a 42-year-old private military company operator, was kidnapped in Syria in August after going there to train with militants, according to a post on a blog he kept. Pictures on his Facebook page show him in Iraq and Syria in July. One video on his page showed him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle with the caption: "Syria war in Aleppo 2014."

"I cannot identify the destination," Yukawa wrote in his last blog post. "But the next one could be the most dangerous." He added: "I hope to film my fighting scenes during an upcoming visit."

Yukawa's father, Shoichi, who lives in Chiba, just outside Tokyo, expressed shock over the news in an interview with Japanese public television station NHK.

"I don't understand this," he said. "I'm quite confused."

Nobuo Kimoto, an adviser to Yukawa's company, told NHK that he had worried "something like this could happen sooner or later."

"I was afraid that they could use Yukawa as a card," Kimoto said.

Goto, 47, is a respected Japanese freelance journalist who went to report on Syria's civil war last year.

"I'm in Syria for reporting," Goto wrote in an email to an Associated Press journalist in October. "I hope I can convey the atmosphere from where I am and share it."

ISIS has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of captives -- mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers -- during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in extremely graphic videos. A British-accented jihadi also has appeared in the beheading videos of slain American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and with British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning.

The group also holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in other extremist propaganda videos, and a 26-year-old American woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S. officials have asked that the woman not be identified out of fears for her safety.

Tuesday's video marks the first time an Islamic State message publicly has demanded cash. The extremists requested $132.5 million from Foley's parents and political concessions from Washington, though neither granted them during months of negotiations before his killing, U.S. authorities say.

The Islamic State group has suffered recent losses in airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition, and with global oil prices being down, their revenue from selling stolen oil likely has dropped as well. The extremists also have made money from extortion, illicit businesses and other gangland-style criminal activity.

Its militants also recently released some 200 mostly elderly Yazidi hostages in Iraq, fueling speculation by Iraqi officials that the group didn't have the money to care for them.

Japan relies on the Middle East for most of the crude oil it needs to run the world's third-largest economy. It also has been working to build wider economic ties in the region, like with Abe's current Mideast tour.

This is Abe's second Mideast hostage crisis since becoming prime minister. Two years ago, Al Qaeda-affiliated militants attacked an Algerian natural gas plant and the ensuing four-day hostage crisis killed 29 insurgents and 37 foreigners, including 10 Japanese who were working for a Yokohama-based engineering company, JCG Corp. Seven Japanese survived.

In 2004, followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq beheaded Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda and wrapped his body in an American flag over Japan having troops in Iraq doing humanitarian work. A video by al-Zarqawi's group, which later became the Islamic State group, showed Koda begging Japan's then-prime minister to save him.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/20/purported-isis-video-threatens-japanese-hostages-in-lieu-200m-ransom/

[Dos Equis]

God bless America. 

Warning graphic: ISIS releases images of Koranic punishment of homosexuals and women
Written by Allen West on January 16, 2015


Gay man being pushed off a tall building.

You have to wonder what President Obama will say about foreign policy and national security next Tuesday in his State of the Union Address (SOTU). Perhaps he won’t say anything about it all — which may just be a good idea.

It’s clearly evident we have not decimated al-Qaida and they’re certainly not on the run — well, except for running to kill us. And what shall be said of ISIS to the full chamber of the legislative branch?

Certainly not this report from The Daily Beast — not exactly a conservative outlet — which says, “ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 airstrikes in the American-led campaign to break its grip there. At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities that the so-called Islamic State hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate.

“Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group doesn’t appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began. The result is a net ground gain for ISIS, according to information compiled by two groups with on-the-ground sources. In Syria, ISIS “has not any lost any key terrain,” Jennifer Cafarella, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War who studies the Syrian conflict, explained to The Daily Beast.”


Now before you get all excited about 800 airstrikes, remember they began in early August, so that means we are looking at 165 days – with the average airstrikes per day coming out to somewhere around 4.8. So much for a vaunted air operation to degrade, defeat and destroy ISIS.

Sadly, we’re not paying attention to this simple battlefield calculus — and I remember the days of Desert Shield/Storm and in Iraq where an air campaign meant hundreds of sorties. That’s how you pummel an enemy.

But clearly that’s not really the objective of our current Commander-in-Chief; it’s just about the facade of doing something with the real intent of doing nothing. If we cannot even bring ourselves to say who the enemy is by simply repeating what the enemy says about themselves — then we are at a loss.

It becomes blindingly obvious that not only are we loathe to define the enemy and its inspiring ideology, we are also reticent in employing our full military might to crush this 7th century cancer that has metastasized in this the 21st century.

Then again, the only force that has been decimated is our own military at the hands of President Obama. All of this I’m quite certain won’t be articulated at the SOTU next week.

http://allenbwest.com/2015/01/warning-graphic-isis-releases-images-koranic-punishment-homosexuals-women/

[Dos Equis]

Jindal’s Brilliant Take on Radical Islam
The problem and solution reside with the people of the Islamic religion themselves.
By Larry Kudlow
JANUARY 16, 2015


‘Let’s be honest here. Islam has a problem.”

Those are key sentences in an incredibly hard-hitting speech that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will give in London on Monday. It is the toughest speech I have read on the whole issue of Islamic radicalism and its destructive, murdering, barbarous ways which are upsetting the entire world.

Early in the speech Jindal says he’s not going to be politically correct. And he uses the term “radical Islamists” without hesitation, placing much of the blame for the Paris murders and all radical Islamist terrorism on a refusal of Muslim leaders to denounce these acts.

Jindal says, “Muslim leaders must make clear that anyone who commits acts of terror in the name of Islam is in fact not practicing Islam at all. If they refuse to say this, then they are condoning these acts of barbarism. There is no middle ground.”

Then he adds, specifically, “Muslim leaders need to condemn anyone who commits these acts of violence and clearly state that these people are evil and are enemies of Islam. It’s not enough to simply condemn violence, they must stand up and loudly proclaim that these people are not martyrs who will receive a reward in the afterlife, and rather they are murderers who are going to hell. If they refuse to do that, then they’re part of the problem. There is no middle ground here.”

I want to know who in the Muslim community in the United States has said this. Which leaders? I don’t normally cover this beat, so I may well have missed it. Hence I ask readers to tell me if so-called American Muslim leaders have said what Governor Jindal is saying.

And by the way, what Bobby Jindal is saying is very similar to what Egyptian president al-Sisi said earlier in the year to a group of Muslim imams.
Said al-Sisi, “It’s inconceivable that the thinking we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.”

He then asks, “How is it possible that 1.6 billion Muslims should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants — that is 7 billion — so that they themselves may live?” He concludes, if this is not changed, “it may eventually lead to the religion’s self destruction.”

That’s President al-Sisi of Egypt, which I believe has the largest Muslim population in the world.

And what Jindal and al-Sisi are saying is not so different from the thinking of French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he calls the Charlie Hebdo murders “the Churchillian moment of France’s Fifth Republic.” He essentially says France and the world must slam “the useful idiots of a radical Islam immersed in the sociology of poverty and frustration.” He adds, “Those whose faith is Islam must proclaim very loudly, very often, and in great numbers their rejection of this corrupt and abject form of theocratic passion. . . . Islam must be freed from radical Islam.”

So three very different people — a young southern governor who may run for president, the political leader of the largest Muslim population in the world, and a prominent Western European intellectual — are saying that most of the problem and most of the solution rests with the people of the Islamic religion themselves. If they fail to take action, the radicals will swallow up the whole religion and cause the destruction of the entire Middle East and possibly large swaths of the rest of the world.

Lévy called this a Churchillian moment. And London mayor Boris Johnson argues in his book The Churchill Factor that Winston Churchill was the most important 20th century figure because his bravery in 1940 stopped the triumph of totalitarianism. So today’s battle with the Islamic radicals is akin to the Cold War battle of freedom vs. totalitarianism.

But returning to Governor Jindal, the U.S. is not helpless. Jindal argues that America must restore its proper leadership role in international affairs. (Of course, Obama has taken us in the opposite direction, and won’t even use the phrase “Islamic radicals.”) And Jindal invokes Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher by saying, “The tried and true prescription must be employed again: a strong economy, a strong military, and leaders willing and able to assert moral, economic, and military leadership in the cause of freedom.”

Reagan always argued that weakness at home leads to weakness abroad. A strong growing economy provides the resources for military and national security. Right now we’re uncomfortably close to having neither.

This is the great challenge of our time. In the early years of the 21st century, it appears the great goal of our age is the defeat of radical Islam.

Jindal gets it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396584/jindals-brilliant-take-radical-islam-larry-kudlow

[Dos Equis]

Weeks after Zuckerberg vowed for free speech on Facebook, company begins censoring images of Prophet Muhammad
Published January 28, 2015
FoxNews.com

Two weeks after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted #JeSuisCharlie and vowed not to let extremists dictate the content on the social media site, Facebook has reportedly agreed to censor images of the Prophet Muhammad in Turkey.

The move comes as the Internet giant agreed to comply with a court demand in the country, the BBC reported. Facebook did not respond for comment in the article, but has in the past complied with local laws in various countries. If the company does not comply, it could be blacked out in the country.

"These companies might be U.S.-based, but their users are global -- they have to respect for local traditions and customs," a cybersecurity professor told the news agency.

The BBC report pointed out that Facebook has blocked an unspecified number of pages in Turkey that offended the Prophet Muhammad.

The company is required to follow laws in countries where it operates, but, as The Independent newspaper put it, to some "there's something a bit grating about the decision, coming so very soon after Zuckerberg's rosy-eyed epistle on free speech."

Shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, Zuckerberg took to Facebook to post, "I'm committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence." He recalled the time an extremist in Pakistan fought to have him sentenced to death over not banning content deemed offensive of the Prophet Muhammad.

The post continued, "We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world."

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/28/weeks-after-zuckerberg-vowed-for-free-speech-on-facebook-company-begins/?intcmp=latestnews

[Dos Equis]

White House acknowledges -- but also denies -- that Taliban are a terrorist group
Published January 30, 2015
FoxNews.com

If it quacks like a terrorist, isn't it one?

The White House once again Thursday agonized to draw a fine-tuned distinction between the Taliban and terror networks like Al Qaeda, even as Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that, technically, the Taliban are still on an official terrorist list.

The Obama administration is being pressed on the distinction because of a potential prisoner swap between the Islamic State and Jordan. The White House, without giving Jordan advice on what to do, has said the U.S. government does not negotiate with terrorists -- yet last year, the Obama administration traded five Taliban fighters held at Guantanamo for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

On Wednesday, a White House spokesman said that was different, in part because the Taliban are an "armed insurgency," not necessarily a terror group.

However, while the Taliban are not on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations, they are on a Treasury Department list of "specially designated global terrorists" dating back to a 2002 executive order.

Earnest acknowledged that listing on Thursday.

But then it got complicated.

Earnest explained, "They do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism, they do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda."

He said the Treasury designation allows the U.S. to impose financial sanctions against Taliban leaders.

However, he said the Taliban nevertheless are different from a group like Al Qaeda, in that the Taliban "have principally been focused on Afghanistan."

Earnest continued, "Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization that has aspirations that extend beyond just the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan."   

The U.S. government has long viewed the Taliban through a different lens than it views groups like Al Qaeda.

But the effort to reject comparisons between the Taliban-Bergdahl trade and negotiations with terrorists like the one between Jordan and ISIS has drawn criticism in Congress.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., says "it's all semantics."

"I would suggest that this administration start talking to any of the service members who fought in Afghanistan, who might have been injured or seen their friends hurt or killed, and ask them if the Taliban is a terror organization," he said in a statement on Thursday. "The administration might actually learn something and stop looking so foolish."

Hunter also has noted that Bergdahl was held at one point by militants with the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network, which technically has been declared a terror group.

In another Taliban-related development, a U.S. official told Fox News Thursday that one of the five prisoners traded for Bergdahl had since reached back out to the Taliban.

The Bergdahl trade is back in the headlines following claims that the Army may be preparing to charge him with desertion. The Pentagon and Army have adamantly denied the claims, saying no decision has been reached.

Reports have emerged that Qatar also proposed a trade last year for an Al Qaeda operative held in a U.S. prison. Two Americans held by Qatar were ultimately released in December, and the Al Qaeda operative was released this month -- though the administration insists no trade was considered. Officials said the operative was released after time served.

On Thursday, Earnest drew another distinction between the Jordan-ISIS discussion, and last year's trade. He noted that those talks were done using the Qatari government as an intermediary.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/30/white-house-acknowledges-but-also-denies-that-taliban-are-terrorist-group/?intcmp=populardiscussions

[JOHN MATRIX]

awesome thread..lots of good info/evidence

[Dos Equis]

awesome thread..lots of good info/evidence

Thanks.   

[Dos Equis]

Ayotte presses Obama administration to 'define your enemy,' declare war with Islamic extremism
Published February 01, 2015
FoxNews.com


FILE: Undated: Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C. (AP)

Sen. Kelly Ayotte pressed ahead Sunday with calls to get the Obama administration to declare war against radical Islam, as groups such as the Islamic State and Al Qaeda gain strength across continents, following the purported beheading by ISIS of a Japanese journalist.

“It very much matters because you have to define your enemy,” Ayotte, R-N.H., told “Fox News Sunday.” “The administration should spend less time on political correctness and more time on a strategy."

Ayotte made her comments as Islamic State, also known as ISIS, continues to grow and solidify in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, where the extremist group now controls about one-third of the country.

Twice last month, the White House struggled with trying to define terrorism.

In the days after a deadly terror spree last month in France, President Obama was criticized for purposely avoiding calling the attacks an example of “Islamic extremism,” settling for the more generic “violent extremism.”

In January, twelve people were murdered in France when two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, shot 11 journalists at a satirical magazine and later executed a police officer on a Paris street. Five other people were killed over the next two days by one of the brothers' associates.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the attacks suggested the world was “waging a war against Islamist extremists.” And British Prime Minister David Cameron said afterward that Europe and the U.S. face a “very serious Islamist extremist terrorist threat.”

In 2014, at least five Western hostages were killed by ISIS in less than three months: U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and Britons David Haines, a former Royal Air Force engineer, and Alan Henning, a taxi driver from northwest England.

Last week, the White House tried to explain why the administration sometimes classifies the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization -- and sometimes does not.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Obama has avoided associating the attacks with Islam for the sake of “accuracy.”

“These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism, and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it,” Earnest said. “We also don’t want to be in a situation where we are legitimizing what we consider to be a completely illegitimate justification for this violence, this act of terrorism.”

At least one Democrat -- Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran -- sides with Ayotte and other Obama critics.

“By his not using this term ‘Islamic extremism’ and clearly identifying our enemies, it raised a whole host of questions in exactly what Congress will be authorizing,” she recently told Fox News.

“Unless you understand who your enemy is, unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy,” Gabbard continued.

As Islamic State continues its foray in the Middle East, Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups continue to grow in northern Africa. 

Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said that testimony in recent hearings on U.S. efforts to stop the extremist groups suggests countries need America to take a stronger leadership role.

“Our word has to matter,” she told Fox News. “There’s a lack of strategy. Our word has to be counted on.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/01/ayotte-presses-obama-administration-to-declare-war-with-islamic-extremism/

[Dos Equis]

Animals.

New ISIS video shows Jordanian pilot being burned alive
Published February 03, 2015
FoxNews.com

burnedalive-cropped-internal.jpg

A new video that surfaced on the Internet Tuesday shows ISIS burning alive a Jordanian pilot the terror group has held since December -- an act that reportedly has prompted Jordan to ready the execution of an unknown number of terrorist prisoners.

The 22-minute video, which Jordan said is authentic, brought a grisly end to speculation into the fate of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, who was captured when his plane crashed during a bombing mission in Syria Dec. 24. The video, which reports said could have been made more than a month ago, shows the pilot standing in a cage with a line of fuel leading to him, which is then ignited, causing him to burst into flames. Islamic State had previously sought to trade Al-Kaseasbeh for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who is in a Jordanian prison for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman.

WARNING, EXTREMELY GRAPHIC VIDEO: Jordanian pilot burned alive by ISIS

"It's just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization," said President Obama, who planned to meet Tuesday evening with Jordan's King Abdullah, who was in Washington. "And I think it will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of the global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated.”

Several media outlets reported that Jordan moved swiftly following the video's surfacing, transferring at least three imprisoned jihadists, including al-Rishawi and Ziad Al-Karbuli, a former aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian Al Qaeda operative who was killed in 2006, in preparation for execution, perhaps within hours. Lebanon-based news channel Al Mayadeen nreported that Jordan intends to execute Al-Rishawi at dawn on Wednesday.

"This horrific, savage killing is yet another example of ISIL's contempt for life itself."
- Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
Jordan had shown a willingness to make the exchange, but had sought proof that its pilot was still alive. Dubai-based TV news channel Al Arabiya reported that the Jordanian military had notified al-Kaseasbeh's family that he had been killed and Jordanian TV reported that the pilot was killed Jan. 3.

In the video, viewed by Fox News, Al-Kaseasbeh, clad in an orange jumpsuit, speaks under clear duress. A narrator speaking in Arabic blasts Arab nations, including Jordan, for taking part in U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State. The final five minutes of the video show the caged pilot, his clothing apparently doused in gasoline as the fuel is lit. His screams are audible as he collapses to his knees. After being killed, the burned man and the cage are buried by a bulldozer. The video ends with ISIS offering "100 golden Dinars" for any Muslims in Jordan who kill other Jordanian pilots, whose names, pictures and hometowns are shown.

U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said administration officials are examining the video.

"We are aware of the video purporting to show that [al-Kaseasbeh] has been murdered by the terrorist group ISIL," read Meehan's statement. "The intelligence community is working to confirm its authenticity. The United States strongly condemns ISIL’s actions and we call for the immediate release of all those held captive by ISIL. We stand in solidarity with the Ggvernment of Jordan and the Jordanian people."

CIA and counter-terrorism analysts noted the tape follows a pattern familiar in ISIS clips. It features news clips of the Jordanian king with sound of coalition strikes and ground operations. Sources told Fox News it demonstrated the highest production values of any tape to date, suggesting it took considerable time to shoot and produce.

Release of the video follows days of intense protests by Jordanians outside King Abdullah’s palace over the government's refusal to agree on a prisoner swap with the terror group. Many Jordanians as well as the pilot’s family are faulting Amman – not ISIS – for allowing their country to be drawn into a "war" they claim is one between the Islamic State and the U.S. and its allies. Demonstrators outside the gates of the royal palace have cried out, “Abdullah, why are we fighting?” while other Jordanian protesters have taken to social media, creating an Arabic hashtag on Twitter that reads #NotOurWar.

The horrific footage surfaced just a day after top Islamic State leaders warned against social media disclosures of the terror army's activities that were not sanctioned by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi or the group's spokesman, Mohammad al-Adnani. It also came just hours after Secretary of State John Kerry met with King Abdullah and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Washington.

On Saturday, an online video surfaced that appeared to show Islamic State executing Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. And one week earlier, a video posted on the Internet showed the Islamist terror group delivering the same fate to another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/03/new-isis-video-purpotedly-shows-jordanian-pilot-being-burned-alive/

[Dos Equis]

Mac Thornberry: US Must Take Stronger Role Against Radical Islam
Tuesday, 03 Feb 2015
By Greg Richter

The United States should be taking a bigger role in the fight against radical Islam, says Rep. Mac Thornberry, especially after the burning death of a Jordanian pilot at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS.)

Jordan's King Abdullah is in Washington to request weapons and equipment to fight the group, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria, both of which border Jordan.

"I think the events of today point out to all of us hopefully just how urgent that demand is," Thornberrry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

"They're on the front lines."

Thornberry said Jordan is eager to get more involved in the battle, but has a small army and can't do it alone.

"I hope the United States will play a more active role not only with Jordan, but with other interested countries, to push back not only against the specific physical acts but against the ideology that is growing larger and larger around the world," Thornberry said.
Live News Update

He praised Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for publicly stating that the actions of ISIS, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups do not represent Islam. He said the United States should push other Muslim clerics and national leaders to do the same.

The United States must ramp up its social media presence as well to fight the online recruitment efforts of ISIS, he said.

"We can't do this alone. We can't even be at the front of the battle," Thornberry said. "But the United States has a key facilitating role in battling this, and we really haven't been doing that."

http://www.Newsmax.com/Newsfront/mac-thornberry-radical-islam-isis/2015/02/03/id/622501/#ixzz3QjImsxPa

[Soul Crusher]

Houthi Rebels Take Over Yemen's Government
 


AP      |  By AHMED AL-HAJ 
 

 Posted:  02/06/2015 9:54 am EST    Updated:  1 hour ago   
 
 

 
YEMEN

 




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SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's powerful Shiite rebels announced on Friday that they have taken over the country and dissolved parliament, a dramatic move that finalizes their months-long power grab.

The development also pushes the impoverished country further into chaos and threatens to turn the political power struggle into a full-blown civil and sectarian conflict, pitting Houthi Shiites against the country's majority Sunnis, including powerful tribesmen and secessionists in the south.

It could also play into the hands of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, the world's most dangerous offshoot of the terror group, and jeopardize the U.S. counter-terrorism operations in the country.


 

 
The declaration was read out by TV announcer who said the move marked "a new era that will take Yemen to safe shores." It was televised to the nation on the rebels' television network, Al-Masseria TV.

An audience of hundreds of supporters, including former officials, at the Republican Palace in the capital, Sanaa, clapped furiously. Houthi supporters were expected to take to the streets in the capital and celebrate long into the night.

The takeover statement placed Houthis' security and intelligence arm, known as the "Revolutionary Committee," as the ruler of Yemen.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has teetered on the brink of fragmentation for the past year but the crisis took a turn for the worse in September, when the Houthis took control of Sanaa after descending from their northern stronghold and fighting their way into central Yemen, seizing several other cities and towns along the way.

Their rising dominance — which included a raid of the presidential palace and a siege of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's residence — forced the president and all Cabinet members to submit their resignations in January.

Since then, Hadi and the ministers have been under house arrest. The rebels issued a deadline, which expired on Wednesday, for Yemen's political parties to negotiate what they called a way forward, warning that if there was no resolution, they would act unilaterally.

The Houthis also said that "Revolutionary Committee" would act as the country's government. The committee would also be tasked with forming a new parliament with 551 members. The committee is led by Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a cousin of the Houthis' leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi.

The new parliament would then set up a presidential council of five members that would replace Hadi for an interim, two-year period.

The announcement did not give a timetable for elections and gave no indication of Hadi's fate.

The announcement accused the political parties of "intentionally stalling" and failing to meet the Wednesday deadline, which forced their action, the Houthis said.

The takeover comes after days of failed talks sponsored by the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington, which has been Hadi's top ally, or the Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen. The kingdom is unlikely to welcome the Shiite rebels' takeover of a country at its doorstep.

Earlier Friday, Mohammed al-Sabri, a top politician from a multi-party alliance called the Joint Meeting Parties, described the Houthis' actions as a "coup," predicting it would lead to "international and regional isolation of Yemen."

Last year, the U.N. Security Council placed two Houthi leaders and deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh — also believed to be a main backer of the Houthis — on a sanctions list for their role in derailing Yemen's transition.

"Today, the Houthis are taking an uncalculated (risk)," said al-Sabri. "They are a militia, not a political group."

A former member of the Houthis' political arm, Ansar Allah, described the takeover as "madness" and a "horror movie" that would result in Yemen's collapse.

"Goodbye Yemen," wrote Ali al-Bukhiti on his official Facebook page.

[James]

[ritch]

If you re arange the letters of the country "yemen" it spells:
enemy.

[Dos Equis]

Rep. Peter King: One Can Re-enter US After Travel to Syria Via Europe
Monday, 09 Feb 2015
By Melissa Clyne

There are countless scenarios in which Islamic jihadists can enter the United States, and it’s virtually impossible for law enforcement to identify every person who may have visited Syria and has returned to America, New York Rep. Peter King said Monday on "America’s Forum" on Newsmax TV.

"I do know that all our law enforcement intelligence agencies can look at every possibility that ISIS can use to bring in agents into the United States, and it could be through Mexico, Canada and even people coming back to the U.S. who we don't know were in Syria in the first place," he said.

"I can guarantee you we don't have any way of knowing everyone that's gone to Syria, because [they] can travel to France, Spain or wherever in Europe, work their way down to Turkey, get trained in Syria and then just retrace their steps back into the U.S."

"This is an ongoing issue, it's a real problem, not just a problem, but a threat to the U.S. and we certainly have to assume that the more we carry out the attacks against ISIS, which we should, the more likely they are going to try to find a way to retaliate here in the U.S.

The arrests last week of six Bosnian immigrants from Missouri, New York and Illinois, on charges of sending money and military equipment to aid overseas terrorists, including members of ISIS and al-Qaida in Iraq, shows that our visa program and legalization process need to be reviewed, said King.

"We have to be much more selective and careful going into the backgrounds of people such as this, including Iraqi refugees coming into the country," said King, noting that the roots of radical Islam date to Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

"Anyone coming from an area in the world where there has been Islamic terrorism and Islamic strongholds, they need to be looked at extra carefully."

The suspects communicated on Facebook, transferred funds through PayPal and Western Union, and shipped boxes of military gear through the U.S. Postal Service, according to the Huffington Post, which cited the federal indictment.

Quoting the indictment, the news site reports: "The defendants are accused of donating money themselves and, in some cases, collecting funds from others in the U.S. and sending the donations overseas. It says two of the defendants, a husband and wife in St. Louis, used some of the money to buy U.S. military uniforms, firearms accessories, tactical gear and other equipment from local businesses and ship it to intermediaries in Turkey and Saudi Arabia who forwarded the supplies to fighters in Syria and Iraq."

Because of the extreme dangers presented by radical Islam, Republicans, including himself, King said, want to resolve the budget impasse with President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto any budget that undermines his executive amnesty order. If the parties don’t come to an agreement by the end of the month, the Department of Homeland Security risks a shutdown.

"The president's unilateral executive order, which many of us believe was unconstitutional, bad policy and a direct slap at Congress, brought about this entire crisis," said King. "I hope it can be resolved.

"My main concern would be grants to go to the areas that are targets of terrorism. The president has to come in and negotiate. This is going to be a rough month coming up.

"The president has to stop this constant creating [of] phony arguments and trying to bring everything to the edge. [House Speaker] John Boehner and [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell would be willing to work with him, trying to find a way forward, but again it seems to be his way or the highway and that's what got us into this issue in the first place."

The Republican-controlled Congress must "try to find means of funding to cut off, but we can't do it in a way that puts the country at risk," King said. "I don't want to be as irresponsible as he is."

http://www.Newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/Peter-King-Syria-terrorism-Europe/2015/02/09/id/623639/#ixzz3RHax0lOo

[Dos Equis]

Family of US aid worker, ISIS captive Kayla Mueller confirms her death
Published February 10, 2015
FoxNews.com

DEVELOPING: The parents of Kayla Mueller, the Arizona woman who was taken hostage by ISIS in August 2013, confirmed Tuesday their daughter died while in the hands of the terror group.

"We are heartbroken to share that we've received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life," Carl and Marsha Mueller, of Prescott, Ariz., said in a statement. "Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian.  She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace."

The family received information from their daughter's ISIS captors over the weekend that was authenticated, according to U.S. officials.


American Kayla Mueller, 26, was killed while in the hands of ISIS, her family said Tuesday.

"The family received a private message from Kayla’s ISIL captors containing additional information," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Tuesday. "Once this information was authenticated by the intelligence community, they concluded that Kayla was deceased."

"On this day, we take comfort in the fact that the future belongs not to those who destroy, but rather to the irrepressible force of human goodness that Kayla Mueller shall forever represent."
- President Obama

It is not yet known how or when 26-year-old Mueller died. ISIS claimed last week she was killed by a Jordanian airstrike, but offered no immediate evidence. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday the family was unable to determine Mueller's "precise cause of death" or the timing of it. Earnest noted there was no evidence of civilians in the area prior to Jordan's strike on weapon storage facilities in Raqqa, Syria, he said had been hit before.

"What is not possible to call into question is that ISIL is responsible for her death," Earnest said.

President Obama said in a statement earlier Tuesday that Mueller "represents what is best about America, and expressed her deep pride in the freedoms that we Americans enjoy, and that so many others strive for around the world."

"In how she lived her life, she epitomized all that is good in our world," he said of Mueller. "She has been taken from us, but her legacy endures, inspiring all those who fight, each in their own way, for what is just and what is decent. "

"No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla's captivity and death," he said. "On this day, we take comfort in the fact that the future belongs not to those who destroy, but rather to the irrepressible force of human goodness that Kayla Mueller shall forever represent."

Images of children suffering in the early stages of Syria's ongoing civil war prompted Mueller to leave her home in Prescott, Ariz., in December 2012, to work with the Danish Refugee Council and the humanitarian organization Support to Life to help refugees. According to a family spokesperson, Kayla found the work heartbreaking but compelling.


Mueller, of Prescott, Ariz., was an aid worker in Syria before she was kidnapped by ISIS in August 2013. (AP/The Daily Courier)

Mueller was captured on Aug. 4, 2013, in Aleppo, Syria -- 10 days before her 25th birthday -- while leaving a Spanish hospital staffed by the international humanitarian group Doctors without Borders.

In a letter written during her captivity in November 2014 and released to the public on Tuesday, Mueller wrote to her family, "If you could say I have 'suffered' at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through."

"I have a lot of fight left inside of me. I am not breaking down + I will not give in no matter how long it takes," wrote Mueller, a 2009 graduate of Northern Arizona University. "I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God's will we will be together soon."

Click here to read Kayla Mueller's letter to her family


Mueller, a 2009 graduate of Northern Arizona University, is shown here after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz., on May 30, 2013. (AP/The Daily Courier)

According to an intelligence source, Mueller was kidnapped along with her Syrian boyfriend, who was let go days later. He went back to convince ISIS to free Mueller but was unsuccessful, the source told Fox News.

Jordan has been launching airstrikes against the extremist group in response to a video released this week that shows captive Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death in a cage.

Al-Kaseasbeh, whose F-16 came down in December while conducting airstrikes as part of a campaign against the militants by a U.S.-led coalition, was believed to have been killed in early January.

Mueller is one of four Americans to die while being held by Islamic State militants. Three other Americans -- journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig -- were beheaded by the group.

In late October 2014, ISIS set up a Twitter account specifically to communicate with the family of American Peter Kassig, a military veteran and aid worker whom they later executed. To show their credibility, an ISIS tweet told the Kassig family to send the terror group's regards to "Carl and Marsha Mueller."

Obama spoke to Mueller's parents, offered his prayers and condolences and, "committed that we will relentlessly pursue the terrorists responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death," Meehan said.


Mueller is pictured here with her father, Carl, in an undated photo.

In confirming her death Tuesday, the Mueller family quoted another letter the young woman penned to her father on his birthday in 2011.

"I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine. If this is how you are revealed to me, this is how I will forever seek you," Kayla wrote in the letter.

"I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love; I find God in suffering. I've known for some time what my life's work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering," she wrote.


KaylaMuellerKilled.jpgEx pand / Contract
In a letter written to her family while in ISIS captivity, Mueller said, "I have a lot of fight left inside of me" and "I will not give in no matter how long it takes."

Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/10/family-us-aid-worker-isis-captive-kayla-mueller-confirms-her-death/

[Soul Crusher]

Random work place violence - nothing else. 

[Dos Equis]

The POTUS should take notes.

BREAKING: Prince Charles Makes Devastating Statement About Islam… Muslims Are Outraged
Monday, February 9th, 2015

While the President of the United States is seemingly taking the side of radical Islamists, and working to weaken and destroy the fundamental principles that Western civilization and society are built upon, other leaders are stepping up to lead the fight against the destructive and murderous ideology.

The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles is in the middle of a week-long tour of the Middle East, where it is expected that he will deliver a strong message to Muslim leaders regarding the prevalence and growth of the radical Islamist mindset.

According to Mad World News, the Crown Prince intends to demand that Muslim leaders in the U.K, and around the world, stop radicalizing young people, and to show some respect for Western culture and values.

He is also telling them that any Muslims who come to the U.K. need to abide by the English standards that are already in place, and stop trying to force their way of life on the people who were there before them.

“The radicalization of people in Britain is a great worry,” the prince told the BBC. “The extent to which this is happening is alarming, particularly in a country like our’s where we hold values dear.”

The prince is further troubled by how rampant the radical ideology is on the Internet, and how easy it is for young people to be radicalized online.

Such a strong stance against radical Islam and in defense of Christianity has elevated the prince to the historic title of “defender of the faith.”

The prince has lived up to the title by calling out Islam for the persecution of Christians and other minority religions in the Middle East, by unequivocally stating that Christians were in the region first, hundreds of years before the arrival of Islam.

He has strongly denounced the atrocious actions of the Islamic State, and how they have slaughtered and exiled hundreds of thousands of Christians and Yazidis from northern Iraq.  He says that if this continues there may soon come a day when there are no more Christians in the Middle East.

“The tragedy is even greater because Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before Islam came in the 8th Century,” Charles stated.

The prince’s tour begins with a meeting with King Abdullah II in Jordan, before also traveling to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, where he will also hopefully address the funding for radical Islamic terrorism that originate in those countries.

We commend Prince Charles for standing up in defense of the Christian faith, particularly in the Middle East, and will pray for his safe and successful return from the region.

http://conservativetribune.com/prince-charles-radical-islam/

[Soul Crusher]

White House: Paris Kosher Supermarket Attack Was 'Random' (Updated)


1:34 PM, Feb 10, 2015 • By MICHAEL WARREN




 

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President Obama referred to the Islamic terrorists who killed several French Jews last month as people who "randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris" in an interview with liberal website Vox.com. In Tuesday's press briefing, ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl asked White House press secretary Josh Earnest to clarify the president's position on the terrorists' motivation to attack the kosher supermarket.

"Does the president have any doubt that those terrorists attack that deli because there would be Jews in that deli?" Karl asked.

"It is clear from the terrorists and the writings that they put out afterward what their motivation was," Earnest responded. "The adverb that the president chose was used to indicate that the individuals who were killed in that terrible, tragic incident were killed not because of who they were but because of where they randomly happened to be."

Watch the video below:



"These individuals were not targeted by name," Earnest added.

"Not by name, but by religion, were they not?" Karl asked.

"There were people other than just Jews who were in that deli," Earnest said.

After Karl asked again if there was any doubt by the president that the shop was attacked because of the likelihood the terrorists would be able to kill Jews, Earnest finally said, "No."

Update: State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was pressed on this question as well, and she refused to speak about the motive behind the attack.

"Does the administration really believe that the victims of this attack were not singled out because they were of a particular faith?" asks AP reporter Matt Lee.

[Dos Equis]

And the nominees for dumbest political ideas of 2015 are . . . .

State Department spokeswoman floats jobs as answer to ISIS
Published February 17, 2015
FoxNews.com

What the West really needs to take on the Islamic State is ... a jobs program.

That's what a top State Department spokeswoman suggested when asked in a TV interview Monday night about what the U.S.-led coalition is doing to stop the slaughter of civilians by Islamic State militants across the region.

"We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --"

At that point, Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims."

Harf continued to argue that the U.S. should work with other countries to "help improve their governance" and "help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people."

She acknowledged there's "no easy solution" and said the U.S. would still take out ISIS leaders. But Harf said: "If we can help countries work at the root causes of this -- what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?"

The comments come as the Obama administration takes heat from lawmakers for its approach to the Islamic State, whose self-proclaimed fighters in Libya recently executed 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt.

The White House on Tuesday is kicking off a three-day summit on "countering violent extremism." It begins with Vice President Biden moderating a discussion on countering extremism with representatives from cities.

This, though, follows a pattern of conferences and summits called by the administration to address urgent challenges. The administration is facing criticism for this approach -- and for describing the summit in general terms -- at a time when Islamic State militants are spreading, recruiting and executing prisoners from multiple countries in increasingly brutal ways.

"The White House had to seem like it was doing something," said Jonah Goldberg, a National Review editor and conservative columnist, while claiming the summit won't achieve much.

Senior administration officials, though, defended the conference, and their description of it, on a call with reporters.

Asked whether Islamic extremists are in fact the focus of the summit, one official said extremism has spanned "many decades" and taken on "many forms," but they recognize that those launching recent attacks "are calling themselves Muslims."

"You can call them what you want. We're calling them terrorists," the official said.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that as airstrikes continue in Iraq and Syria, the administration is boosting efforts to counter ISIS on social media. The plan centers around a small State Department agency that pushes against ISIS and other groups' online propaganda.

"We're getting beaten on volume, so the only way to compete is by aggregating, curating and amplifying existing content," Richard Stengel, under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, told the Times.

Officials reportedly plan to describe some of their social media strategy at the three-day counter-extremism summit.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/17/state-department-spokeswoman-floats-jobs-as-answer-to-isis/

[Dos Equis]

Somebody take that kid away from the microphone.  I hope she is just a mouthpiece and doesn't have any role in policymaking. 

State Department spokeswoman: Call for using jobs to combat terror ‘too nuanced’ for critics
Published February 18, 2015
FoxNews.com

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, after coming under fire for suggesting a way to fight the Islamic State and all terrorism is by creating jobs, has an answer for her critics: Her argument is just "too nuanced" for them to understand.

Harf, in TV interviews Tuesday night, stood by her original remarks and said she was speaking about a comprehensive approach to combating "extremism."

Harf said that means airstrikes in the short-term, and going after "root causes" like poor economic conditions in the long-term.

"Longer term, we cannot kill every terrorist around the world, nor should we try," Harf said on CNN. "How do you get at the root causes of this? Look, it might be too nuanced an argument for some, like I've seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out there, but it's really the smart way that Democrats, Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat this."

Harf went on to say the approach doesn't fit "into a sound bite," when asked to respond to the intense criticism, on social media and elsewhere, of her original remarks.

On Tuesday, Rob O'Neill, former Navy SEAL Team 6 member, told Fox News a "military strategy" is what's needed to fight ISIS.

"They get paid to cut off heads -- to crucify children, to sell slaves and to cut off heads and I don't think that a change in career path is what's going to stop them," he said.

O'Neill, who claims to have fired the shot that killed Usama bin Laden, warned that the problem is spreading.

"We can't let it happen," he said. "It'll go to Saudi Arabia, it'll hit Jordan."

Harf first pointed to jobs as a counter-ISIS strategy during an interview Monday night on MSNBC -- after ISIS-aligned militants slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.   

"We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --"

At that point, Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims."

Harf continued to argue that the U.S. should work with other countries to "help improve their governance" and "help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people."

She said: "If we can help countries work at the root causes of this -- what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?"

Harf stood by the remarks Tuesday night on CNN, and on MSNBC. CNN host Wolf Blitzer challenged her statements, asking if she thinks these young men might not turn to terror if they just had a job.

Harf called that a "gross oversimplification."

Blitzer pointed out that some of the world's most notorious terrorists, including bin Laden, came from wealth and privilege.

Harf acknowledged that point. On Twitter, she also defended herself by quoting other leaders, including former President George W. Bush, who has pointed to the need to fight poverty as a way to fight terrorism.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/18/state-department-spokeswoman-call-for-using-jobs-to-combat-terror-too-nuanced/

[Archer77]

Harf's comments aren't unusual.  She's reading directly from the lefts ideological playbook. The takeaway from her comments and Obama's is simple; terrorist aren't sadist killer responsible for their own actions but victims of environmental circumstances that drive them to murder.  It's the typical victim narrative the left likes to use.  The problem is that it doesn't put the actions of ISIS and other groups like it within the context of Islamic history. And as far as I remember a profile of the average jihadist indicated they were predominately middle class or above and highly educated.
For the purpose of policy let's assume Harf is right.  What do we do?  More foreign aid?  That seldom works out. We cant create jobs for them. It's so silly it's sad.

[Dos Equis]

Harf's comments aren't unusual.  She's reading directly from the lefts ideological playbook. The takeaway from her comments and Obama's is simple; terrorist aren't sadist killer responsible for their own actions but victims of environmental circumstances that drive them to murder.  It's the typical victim narrative the left likes to use.  The problem is that it doesn't put the actions of ISIS and other groups like it within the context of Islamic history. And as far as I remember a profile of the average jihadist indicated they were predominately middle class or above and highly educated.
For the purpose of policy let's assume Harf is right.  What do we do?  More foreign aid?  That seldom works out. We cant create jobs for them. It's so silly it's sad.

I agree. 

Creating economic opportunities and killing terrorists in a war are different discussions.  We absolutely should be trying to kill terrorists.  We should also do what we can, without using my tax dollars, to provide whatever support we can to increase economic opportunities around the world.