• Home Page
• Computer Blog
• Chess Blog
• Exercise & Diet Blog
• Theology Blog
• Islamic Terrorism Blog
• Contact Us

U.S. soldier captured by Taliban

Just in: "Taliban capture U.S. soldier," from CNN, July 2:

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier has been captured by militants in Afghanistan, the U.S. military and the Taliban said Thursday.

The unidentified soldier has been missing since Tuesday. U.S. forces are exhausting all resources to find the soldier, the military said.

"We are not providing any further details at this time, in order to protect the welfare of the soldier," a military statement said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the abduction. The U.S. soldier was kidnapped along with three Afghan soldiers, Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said.

The U.S. soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district and got drunk, Sangeen said. He was ambushed while returning to his car and was taken to a safe place, Sangeen said.

CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims.

A source with the U.S. military denied the claim that the soldier was drunk.

"The Taliban are known for lying and what they are claiming are not true," the source said.

"War is deceit."

The soldier's family has been informed, the military said.

Hizb ut-Tahrir America Conference Update: HTA Books Grand Ballroom at Chicago Area Hilton

Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has booked the Hilton in Oak Lawn, IL for the "Fall of Capitalism & Rise of Islam" conference, according to an update on their Khilafah Conference web site. HTA was forced to find another venue at which to hold their conference after the original venue, the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois canceled. The Aqsa School's business manager told a CBS News reporter that the representatives of HTA had "misrepresented themselves and the event" and the school did not "want to be in the middle of something like that."

According to the announcement on the HTA conference web site, the conference will still be held on July 19th, from 11 am to 5 pm, as originally planned.

The Hilton Oak Lawn reservations department does not have any record of guest rooms held under the name "Hizb ut-Tahrir," or "Khilafah Conference," or "Fall of Capitalism & Rise of Islam." The Hilton's catering department, which keeps a record of the organizations that have booked event spaces at the hotel, was not open at the time of the publication of this article; therefore, it cannot be determined at this time whether HTA booked under its own name or if it has used a cover name to reserve the Grand Ballroom. *** UPDATE: 7/2/09 - Hizb ut-Tahrir reserved the banquet space at the hotel under its own name and apparently did not find it necessary to use a cover name. ***

For more information on HTA and the Khilafah Conference, please see my recent posts on the Counterterrorism Blog.

How the FBI Broke Saddam - Part 4 (Epilogue)

Three months into interrogating Saddam Hussein, the FBI had heard no bombshells. There had been no startling boasts by Iraq’s ousted president of ordering the Kurds in northern Iraq to be gassed, nor had he bragged of sending his thugs to slaughter Shi’a in the south to quash the uprising that followed the first Gulf war.

But the more the FBI confronted him with its painstakingly-gathered evidence - documents, videos, witnesses and interrogations of other regime detainees - the harder it had been for Saddam to lie, spin or obfuscate. By May 2004, he was still defiant - but the chinks in his armor were noticeable.

He admitted as a point of pride that he was “responsible” for everything his regime did, good or bad.

FBI Agent George Piro had mostly kept Saddam in the dark about current events, forcing him to reckon with the hell he brought on his own people. Now it was time to show the ex-dictator he was no longer in charge of anything more than his own thoughts. Now it was time to humiliate him over his failures. Only then would he come clean about what propelled the U.S. and Iraq into war, agents reasoned.

In the FBI’s 21st interrogation session, Saddam asked what was making headlines. He was told Iraq had signed a new constitution, was about to regain its sovereignty, had a new all-Iraqi Governing Council and that elections were on the way. None of that made him happy, according to the Bureau’s files.

Next came intense discussions about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. “Iraq does not have any WMD and has not for some time,” the FBI reported back to Washington, summing up Saddam’s responses. (Charles Duelfer - who had taken over the WMD hunt from the CIA’s David Kay in January - was coming up just as empty as his predecessor.)

Why had he rejected UN weapons inspections and defied President Bush? Saddam’s answer - one never seriously considered inside the Beltway before the 2003 invasion - was shockingly credible. “Even though Hussein claimed Iraq did not have WMD, the threat from Iran was the major factor as to why he did not allow the return of the UN inspectors,” the FBI reported.

Read my full post - with FBI source documents - on Saddam's WMD and Al Qaeda explanations at the New York Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac Blog.

Recommended Audio Sermon Series

SPECIAL REPORT:Sharia Comes to Dearborn, Michigan

• We see a booth that is specifically for answering questions people have about Islam.
  
• Nabeel walks up to the booth and attempts to ask a question.
  
• When the Muslims don’t want to talk on camera, Nabeel begins walking away.
  
• One of the Muslims (a former member of Tupac’s crew!) then invites Nabeel back for a dialogue.
  
• Security grabs our camera and forces MJ to turn it off. Security then breaks up the discussion, despite the fact that the Muslims at the booth agreed that we could record the conversation.
  
• We leave the tent and ask a police officer if we are free to record; he responds that we are in a public area and can record all we want. He also says that it is illegal for anyone to touch our cameras or force us to turn them off.
  
• We walk up to some non-Muslim security guards and ask if we can record a dialogue; they reply in the affirmative.
  
• Nabeel attempts to reestablish the discussion, but this time the Muslims at the booth don’t want to talk on camera.
  
• We leave the booth, and I see the woman who had grabbed the camera and forced MJ to turn it off. I begin recording the woman (in case we need to identify her later), at which point she gets on her walkie-talkie and informs her fellow Muslim security guards that we are harassing her.
  
• Following their pattern of entrapping Christians at the festival, the Muslim security guards convince two teenagers to strike up a conversation with Nabeel and snatch a pamphlet from his hand.
  
• While one of the teens distracts Nabeel with a conversation, the other snatches the pamphlet from Nabeel's hands.
  
• Within seconds we’re surrounded by a mob of Muslim security guards.
  
• The Muslim security force slaps our cameras, threatens us, shouts profanity at us, openly proclaims that our rights as Americans are meaningless, pushes us, kicks and tries to trip Nabeel, and lies to the police.
  
• The head of security then informs the police that we must be removed from the festival.
  

The Bolivarian-Islamist Narrative in Latin America and its Dangers

Yesterday I participated in a Hudson Institute event on Populism, Islamism and "Indigenism" versus Democracy in Latin America. What came into focus there was the joint narrative of the Bolivarian populist governments (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua) and radical Islamists, led by Iran.

It is hard, on the surface, to imagine what a secular revolution that allows women on the beach in bikinis, salsa music, racy soap operas and rum has in common with a theocracy that tolerates none of those things and believes that divine law should rule the world.

One of the primary unifying threads in the joint narrative is the utopian vision that a human system can be devised that will bring justice and peace. Hence, from this vision, both groups construct a narrative of heroic battling against the earthly forces of evil and corruption, and both have chosen the United States as its primary enemy, followed closely by other liberal democracies that, in their view, have failed to live up to the utopian ideals.

This is where, as I have written about before, the joint fascination with asymmetrical warfare and its desirability meshes with the larger story line. Both sides view themselves as small powers taking on vast world powers, a David and Goliath narrative that imbues a sense of inevitable ultimate victory with the need to find the weapons that will lead to the defeat of enemy.

The keynote speaker at the Hudson event, Spanish parliamentarian Gustavo de Arístegui, has written that those in this alliance, whether secular or religious, view themselves as "legitimate soldiers in an heroic battle within the context of an asymmetrical war of liberation. It is a theory that justifies any kind of violence, including terrorism, if it is used against the most powerful countries, the repressive forces of the West."

This view of the heroism of the actions is in part what gives such a dangerously romantic view of suicide bombings, as espoused in the book Chavez has adopted as official military doctrine: Peripheral Warfare and Revolutionary Islam: Origins, Rules and Ethics of Asymmetrical Warfare (Guerra Periferica y el Islam
Revolucionario: Orígenes, Reglas y Ética de la Guerra Asimétrica) by the Spanish politician and ideologue Jorge Verstrynge. I have written about that more extensively in a previous post.

There is little doubt that this tactical alliance would shatter if either side were to gain significant ground. The Islamists have shown, particularly in the Iranian revolution that was viewed initially by many as triumph of secular, reformist forces, that it will eat the young revolutionaries for lunch.

But for now, the common view of the struggle against the West, bound by a narrative both can offer as an explanation for their actions, is sufficient. The common enemy is there, and the weapons for the struggle can be obtained.

One of the dangers of this narrative is not just the seduction it holds for messianic leaders like Chavez in Venezuela and Ahmadinejad in Iran, but the lure it holds for non-state armed groups like the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), who increasingly find themselves isolated and without a coherent reason to continue the revolution.

Chavez's willingness to embrace and help write this narrative means that he has shared with his allies in the FARC, and why his pro forma protestations of not supporting the revolutionary cause are meaningless, and will remain so. The FARC needs to articulate a reason for its continuation in the armed struggle. The narrative not only offers that, but well-trained allies (Hezbollah particularly) who can help them advance once a common agenda is established. And that is truly alarming.
(NOTE: My personal site is still under attack. Apologies).

Cut Bibi Some Slack

Kurdish leaders are drunk with power

Christian killed for buying tea from an only-muslim tea stall

Cut Bibi Some Slack: Why Obama’s hard line on Israeli settlements is counterproductive

Turkey losing interest in EU Now following ‘pro-Arab Islamist’ foreign policy

Thug-In-Chief vows revenge against states that backed protesters

If those are the only states against which Ahmadinejad plans to seek revenge, Obama can breathe easy. "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns of revenge on pro-democracy states," by Damien McElroy for the Telegraph, June 30 (thanks to James):

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned the regime would seek revenge against states it has accused of fanning pro-democracy demonstrations in the wake of its disputed election.

Mr Ahmadinejad used the attack on Western powers send a defiant message in his first public comments since his controversial re-election was upheld by the electoral authorities on Monday. He said: "We must use all the capacities to break the monopoly of the global powers."

But the British Foreign Secretary was anxious to play the dhimmi anyway:

Despite the ominous tone from Tehran, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, raised hopes that the two sides could bring a crisis over the arrest of Iranian employees of the British Embassy. After two conversations with Manouchehr Mottaki, his Iranian counterpart, Mr Miliband said he was hopeful of a swift resolution. He said: "I have discussed this issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki and we both agreed in our second telephone conversation yesterday that a swift resolution was in both of our interests."...

"Those who asked for the annulment of 10th presidential election are anti-revolutionary and against the regime," hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami told the official news agency IRNA. "If anyone said there was fraud in the election, he has lied and committed a sin," [sic}

Committed a sin.

NYC Mayor: No Muslim holidays in NYC public schools

Anti-dhimmitude from an unexpected source: the mayor of New York. Bloomberg unexpectedly bucks the politically correct tide and points out that New York City public schools can't possibly observe every holiday that may be observed by any given student. The holiday initiative, in any case, is an attempt further to undermine the Judeo-Christian character of the nation (which remains as a pivotal influence upon our legal system and society even as belief has waned), and to force further acceptance of the highly dubious proposition that almost everyone already accepts anyway: that Islam has no political, violent or supremacist character about which anyone need be concerned, but is rather simply a religion like other religions that fit easily into the framework of American pluralism and the non-establishment of religion. And all they're asking for, by golly, is to be treated like everyone else -- after all, Christmas is a day off from school, isn't it?

Meanwhile, unnamed, unmentioned, unacknowledged, Sharia supremacism remains in the background.

"Bloomberg: Schools Can't Observe Muslim Holidays," from AP, June 30 (thanks to Pamela):

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's City Council has passed a nonbinding resolution asking the Education Department to observe two important Muslim holidays. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is so diverse schools can't observe every holiday.

The city has the nation's largest school system. A 2008 study by Columbia University's Teachers College estimates at least 10 percent of its 1.1 million students are Muslim....

What? "At least 10 percent" of New York City public school students are Muslim?

This shows you yet again how trustworthy trusted news sources such as AP really are. Even if the Columbia Teachers College study did say that, it is absurd, and AP should not have passed it on uncritically.

Why would the percentage of Muslims in New York City public schools so much higher than even the most generous estimate of the Muslim population in the U.S.? Even if you take the most inflated figure of all that Islamic advocacy groups bandy about, it makes for nine million Muslims in the U.S. That's three percent. Of course, one may expect that they would congregate in cities and that therefore New York's total would be higher than the national total, but three times higher?

And there aren't nine million Muslims in the U.S., anyway. Even Obama, who claimed in Cairo that there were seven million, revised it down to five million soon afterward. The Pew Research Center a few years ago found 2.3 million -- less than one percent.

The inflated figures, of course, are designed to magnify the appearance of Muslim political clout. And apparently this is an effective tool, as it is frequently employed.

Obama increasing jizya to Jordan and other Muslim countries

Because we all know that Islamic countries have no sources of income of their own. If Jordan is really in economic trouble, it certainly can't look to, say, Saudi Arabia for help. After all, everyone knows how poor the Saudis are. And it is, of course, the Infidel's place to pay tribute -- to "pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Qur'an 9:29). Obama seems all too willing to oblige.

"Obama Increasing Aid to Jordan, Other Muslim States," by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz for Israel National News, June 20 (thanks to LGF2):

(IsraelNN.com) In the latest in a recent series of increased American assistance efforts for Arab and Muslim states, U.S. President Barack Obama has allocated an additional $150 million to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The regimes leading Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia have all benefited from recent American policy shifts....

On another front, in March of this year, it was reported that the Obama administration planned to dramatically increase funding to the Palestinian Authority for security training, which is conducted by Jordanian police under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton. The U.S. allocated $75 million for the PA police training in 2008, but reports indicated that the Obama administration was planning to pump up to $130 million into the program in 2009. In any event, the U.S. has already pledged $600 million in funds to the Palestinian Authority, with another $300 million for humanitarian aid to the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Elsewhere in the region, the U.S. is set to help the United Arab Emirates become the first Arab nation with a developed nuclear power infrastructure. President Obama gave his official support and authorization for the $41 billion project, allowing private U.S. companies to compete for construction contracts.

In Pakistan, the U.S. president proposed $2.8 billion in aid for that nation's military, alongside civilian aid of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years. The military aid is ostensibly to allow the Pakistanis to more effectively fight jihadist and al-Qaeda terrorism emanating from the Swat Valley and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border....

Yet Pakistan has played a double game with that aid for years.

Australia: Egyptian stabs stepdaughter 20 times with a butcher knife: “I stabbed the slut. I wanted to kill her, but unfortunately she’s still breathing.”

He was only sentenced to 12 years. Stiffer sentencing would go a long way toward sending a clear message: You cannot do this in Australia. "Racy photos prompt stabbing," by Amelia Bentley for the Brisbane Times, June 29 (thanks to Michelle):

A man used a butcher's knife to stab his stepdaughter up to 20 times because he believed she was a "slut" who was interfering in his marriage, a court has heard.

Khaled Ibrahim Mohamed Ellaimouny, 38, was today jailed for 12 years for the attempted murder of his stepdaughter Amanda Lee Smith, who was 24 when her stepfather stabbed her in the chest, arms, legs and face as she sat on the lounge of the family's Shailer Park home in January 2007.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said Ellaimouny, an Egyptian national who married Ms Smith's mother after meeting her online, moved in to the Smith family home in January 2006.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny, who worked as a chef at a restaurant in the Logan area, got along well with his stepdaughter until late 2006 when he discovered semi-nude photos of her and her boyfriend on a family computer and began referring to her during arguments with Ms Smith's mother as "the slut daughter."

Following marital troubles in late 2006, Ellaimouny moved out of the home. He met with his wife at a local tavern on January 14 and told her to choose between him and her daughter, whom he claimed was interfering in their marriage.

He later turned up at the family home where during an argument he spat in Ms Smith's face and slapped her before she and her mother locked him out of the house.

However Ellaimouny got in through a side door, grabbed a butcher's knife with a 21cm-long blade from the kitchen and screamed "Now I'm going to kill the bitch" before stabbing and slashing Ms Smith's chest and arms, Mr McCarthy said.

"You've ruined my f---ing life; I want you to die," Ellaimouny reportedly said.

Friends of Ms Smith arrived at the house as Ellaimouny was leaving, covered in a blood and carrying the bloodied knife.

He allegedly told them: "I stabbed the slut. I wanted to kill her, but unfortunately she's still breathing."

Ms Smith was taken to hospital where she was treated for 20 wounds, including a severed radial artery of her right arm, severed nerves and a 4cm gash into her lung cavity.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny told his wife after the incident: "I stabbed her because she's a f---ing slut, she deserved that. All I wanted to do ... just get rid of her."

On the first day of his trial today, Ellaimouny pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, which related to him sending a letter from jail encouraging his wife to convince Ms Smith not to proceed with charges against him.

Justice John Byrne said the attack upon Ms Smith was "frenzied and sustained" and would have been "a terrifying experience for her."

"She is fortunate to have survived," he said.

asd

The Troop Drawdown Could Be Costly for Iraq

Somali jihadist: “it’s time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbors … The people should be ready to take part in jihad.”

"Islam's borders are bloody" -- the late Samuel Huntington

Somalia (and vicinity) Jihad Update. "Somali hardline Islamists threaten Ethiopia," by Mohamed Ahmed for Reuters, June 30:

MOGADISHU, June 30 (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist rebels threatened on Tuesday to attack Ethiopia after repeated witness reports that Ethiopian troops were back in the chaotic Horn of Africa country they withdrew from in January.

Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement from the capital in which new President Sheik Sharif Ahmed played a role. That sparked an Islamist insurgency which is still raging despite their withdrawal.

"I'm telling the people that it's time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbours," Sheikh Abdiqani Mohamed Yusuf said on a radio station controlled by the al Shabaab rebels in the southern port of Kismayu.

"We have to invade their country, like they did to our country. This is our best chance," he said. "The people should be ready to take part in jihad."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said last week possible suicide attacks in Ethiopia by Somali Islamist rebels were a threat he "didn't expect to go away any time soon"...

Syria Threatens To Take Back Golan By Force

Shocker: “Banned” Pakistani jihadist groups expanding

The report's recommendation to the Pakistani government? Just keep an eye on them. "Banned Pakistani groups 'expand'," by Syed Shoaib Hasan for BBC News, June 29:

Militant groups banned in Pakistan are expanding operations and recruitment in Pakistani-run Kashmir, according to a government report seen by the BBC.

The observations are from a detailed secret report submitted to the region's government on the groups' activities in the city of Muzaffarabad and elsewhere.

Pakistan banned the groups in 2002 after an attack on India's parliament brought the two states close to war.

There was no immediate comment on the revelations from Pakistan's government.

Pakistan's allies, including the US, have expressed fears regarding the groups' proliferation and their close links to al-Qaeda.

'Cover for militancy'

A copy of the report, which was submitted by regional police to Pakistan-administered Kashmir's cabinet on 25 March, was obtained by the BBC in Islamabad. It finds that three banned groups - Harkatul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba - are active in Muzaffarabad.

Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad are said to be planning to open madrassas, or Islamic schools, in the city where Lashkar-e-Taiba is already operating a madrassa.

"No officials are allowed to enter these premises to gather any sort of information," the report says.

"We fear these madrassas maybe a cover for furthering militant activities." [...]

Local people have confirmed to the BBC that there has been a great increase in militant activity in the regions mentioned.

"These people are being protected here," said Raja Faisal Majeed, a lawyer living in a village near where some of the militant groups have set up base.

"Sometimes they operate under the guise of a charity, sometimes as a school. We have protested against them to no avail."

Despite the fact that the groups mentioned are banned under Pakistan's terrorism act, the report does not advocate any action against them other than to keep an eye on their activities.

Sam Shamoun vs. Farhan Qureshi: “The Trinity in the Old Testament”