“We wanted to watch him grow up. He was a sweet smart sensitive boy”

Four-year old Daniel Tragerman z”l, the first Israeli child killed by Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.

On Friday afternoon, 4-year old Daniel Tragerman died of shrapnel wounds from a Hamas mortar fired randomly at the Nahal Oz Kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev region hard by the frontier with Gaza.  The IDF said the mortar round was fired near a school used by Gazans as a refuge landing outside the Tragerman home. The irony was that he was within minutes of leaving home with his parents and brothers to travel to safety at his grandparents in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reported:

 Gila Tragerman said a shell had exploded in their kibbutz, Nahal Oz, some time earlier, convincing the family to leave for her parents’ house in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv.

“The suitcases were already packed,” she said. “A minute before the explosion I went out to take Uri’s baby carrier (her young son) from the clothesline and met the neighbor. I asked him if they were leaving and told him we were setting off now. I went inside and there was the Color Red siren.

“The children were playing in a tent inside the house, and from the moment of the siren to the explosion only three seconds passed. We didn’t have time to get the children and go into the protected room.”

Gila said her son Daniel was very disciplined when it came to rocket sirens.

“He always rushed to the protected room,” she said. “The moment the alarm sounded he knew what to do and where to go. When everyone reached the protected room Daniel would say ‘now we’re all safe.’”

Tragerman called her son a “beautiful, smart, sensitive boy. So sweet…We wanted to watch him grow up with his brothers and fulfill himself.”

Daniel Tragerman was the first Israeli child to die in the 48 day old Operation Protective Edge. That the total of casualties to 68, including 64 IDF service personnel.

The Times of Israel noted  the reaction of Israeli PM Netanyahu:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would pay a “heavy price” for the killing. In a phone call to local Sha’ar Hanegev council head Alon Shuster, Netanyahu said the IDF and Shin Bet would intensify their operations against Hamas and other Gaza terror groups until sustained calm was guaranteed for Israel.

US Ambassador  to Israel Dan Shapiro  wrote on his Facebook page:

“I condemn in the strongest terms this outrageous terrorist attack and offer condolences to the boy’s family. Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself, which the United States supports”

But the rockets and mortar keep raining death on Israel from Hamas in Gaza. This weekend so far more than 250 rockets were fired. The barrages ranged across the country into central Israel, but were especially fierce in the south and as far east as Beersheba. . Besides the fatal mortar attack in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, rockets smashed into a synagogue in Ashdod injuring three, while, a house in Sderot was severely damaged.

Hamas has fired more than 3,600 rockets during the 48 days, 600 the IDF maintains from positions near schools, homes, Mosques and even hospitals.   IDFreported  an air attack taking out a major Hamas command center in a residential apartment building in Gaza City on Saturday evening.

The mortar that killed 4 year old Daniel Tragerman was likely supplied by Iran. Hamas fired the mortar from a position near the grounds of an UNWRA School that provided refuge for Gazan civilians.  We wonder what UNWRA spokesperson Chris Gunness   would say at this time? He who cried tears over Gazan civilian deaths falsely accusing the IDF of war crimes, while subsequently it was revealed those casualties were caused by misfired Hamas rockets.  Would he now protest the Hamas mortar men who fired   the rounds that killed young Dan Tragerman in Nahal Oz? Perhaps we should tweet him and ask. I am reminded of a poster toted around by a pro-Hamas protester at our Stand for Israel Rally here in Pensacola that said Israel murders children in Gaza.  When challenged he said that he was pro-humanity, not pro-Hamas. Some humanity!  Our deepest rachmonis goes out to the Tragerman family for the loss of their son, the late beloved Dan Tragerman z”l.   He will be laid to rest Sunday at the Hevel Shalom cemetery in the Eshkol Regional Council in the northern Negev.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Connecting the Red Dots: Where convicted illegal alien murderers were released

I grew up believing you people in Washington took your oaths seriously to protect the citizens yet ICE released 169 convicted killers and a total of 35,000 other criminals back into our society because their home countries won’t take them back. Together, they committed nearly 88,000 crimes, according to recently released report.

Question: A total of 36,000 illegal aliens involved whose countries won’t take them back must be a large number of countries. So how many are there?

Do you in Congress have the names of the countries refusing to back their citizens? Do you know which of those countries we currently give financial aid? Do you plan on stopping all aid immediately to any country that won’t take back their citizens? If not, why not?

What about transferring them all to Guantanamo Bay so they won’t be a threat to U.S. citizens?

unnamed (12)

Click on the map for a larger view.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Feds Let Go of Dozens of Convicted Murder Illegal Immigrants, See Where They Are on This Map | National Review Online

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of 100PercentFedUp.com.

The Ferguson Riots and Lessons from 1964

Policesign

The wrong lesson.

It’s a sad day when the first day of school is delayed a week because of rioting, as it has been in Ferguson, Missouri.  Teachers, instead of being in classrooms teaching, have been getting “crisis training.” Those who have irresponsibly been quick to judge in the case of the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer without all the facts have only added fuel to the fire.  This is the case in the lessons about Ferguson that have been prepared, free for teachers to download.

They follow the numerous lessons already fashioned out of the Trayvon Martin case (such as one by PBS called “Debating Race, Justice and Policy in the Case of Trayvon Martin”), with the focus on race and social justice, instead of real justice–as in the jury system, evaluation of evidence, etc.

It almost seems that the indoctrinators have been waiting with material.  Within days of the shooting, the lessons were ready for teachers to download. PBS has come out with an entire list of “resources” for teaching about Ferguson and Michael Brown to grades 7-12 (including links to videos from the PBS News Hour). The Anti-Defamation League offers a detailed lesson plan (Common Core-aligned), with discussions centered on race, the “militarization” of police, and the best ways to engage in “activism.” Teachers are instructed to play the lyrics of rapper J.Cole who has already written a song about Michael Brown. Teachers are then to ask students:

“How did you feel while listening to the song?”
“What do the lyrics mean?”
“Why do you think he wrote the song?”
“Will it make a difference?”

These lessons follow the lead of journalists, who have been quick to condemn the police, blaming the “militarization of police” for criminal and subversive elements. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch presented the first night’s looting, which seemed to go on while police stood back, as a justified release of emotion.  It was not.  The gangs came out in even greater force the following nights, perhaps encouraged by their successes and enflamed by the rhetoric of the race agitators that have come out at such moments throughout the twentieth century, especially fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago in Rochester my neighborhood was set on the path to destruction by the riots. This July in a perverse kind of “celebration” media outlets and libraries “looked back” to 1964.  The rationalizations for the rioting back then were what they are now: poverty, unemployment, discrimination, bad housing.

Nothing was the same after the riots in Rochester in 1964, no matter what the teachers or commentators said.  The destroyed businesses, ruined property values, and deteriorating schools that we had to live with defied the politically correct lessons and the commentary from perches in the suburbs or Washington, D.C.  The criminals 50 years later know the script; they know that their actions will be excused by the agitators and the oh-so-sensitive who write from offices far from the violence.  It’s shocking to see it happen over and over, in Rochester in 1964 and in Ferguson in 2014.  Today, audaciously, pundits in Washington, D.C. lecture police to be more understanding, more “brave.”

What’s different today is that the anti-police pundits are seen as being conservative.  But these conservatives are new kinds of conservatives, they insist.  They disparage the old-fashioned conservatism.  All they want is freedom, they say.  They’re purists, lumping every form of social control under Big Government.  They are, proudly, Libertarians.

Barry Goldwater 1962

Barry Goldwater 1962

Really?  Then they ought to consider the words of Mr. Libertarian himself, Barry Goldwater, who in 1964 said this in his acceptance speech for the nomination of Republican presidential candidate:

Security from domestic violence, no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government, and a government that cannot fulfill that purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens. History shows us – demonstrates that nothing – nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets from bullies and marauders.

This is what we need to start putting in lessons for school children…after teaching the adults in Washington, D.C., who would lecture us about the “militarization of police” or being more “brave.”

Jihad vs the Crusades

Whenever you’re dealing with an apologist for Islam, or even a Muslim, and you bring up jihad, almost immediately, they kickback to you: “But what about those terrible crusades? Why they’re the moral justification for jihad and we’re just as bad as they are. So let’s not talk about jihad, okay? Let’s talk about the Crusades.”

Well, what I would like to talk about here, are facts.

I created a database of 548 battles that Islam fought: jihad battles against classical civilization. This isn’t even all the battles. It doesn’t include battles in Africa, India, Afghanistan and other locations. It’s primarily at data base of the battles against the classical civilization of Rome and Greece.

548 battles are a lot; too many to comprehend. So I created a dynamic battle map with displays of the Mediterranean in 20 year increments. On the display, a white dot designates a battle during the twenty-year period, a new battle. Every time the screen changes to the next 20 year period, the previous white dots turn red and a new set of current battles are shown with white dots so you can see the unfolding history. This may seem a little confusing, but when you see it you’ll know exactly what I mean.

As the dynamic display starts, Islam bursts out of the Arabian Peninsula and immediately starts attacking the Middle East. Notice that it is not long before there are battles across the Mediterranean and attacks in southern France, and Spain.

Notice something else: when most people think of Islam, they think of Arabs; and of desert. Yet here we see that Islam is projecting power throughout the Mediterranean. Notice how the little islands of the Mediterranean are getting hammered. The navy of Islam would attack coastal towns, kill, rob, rape, and then take slaves. As this entire battle map unfolds, slaves are taken. Over a million slaves were taken from of Europe into the Islamic world. It’s something you don’t think about, but it’s absolutely true.

There were over 200 battles fought in Spain alone. We also see, however, on the east coast, in Turkey, that Islamic forces attempt to break into Europe. What happens in Spain during this ongoing fight that lasted for 400 years is that the Christians push back the Moslems. But what happens in the East is that Constantinople falls and now then eastern Europe gets hammered. The jihad comes to Eastern Europe. It’s pushed out of Spain, but northern Africa becomes completely Islamic, and the Middle East is completely Islamic.

This is all jihad, relentless jihad. And why is it so relentless?

Well, Mohammed was relentless in his jihad, and these people are good students of Islam. And so it’s jihad against the Kafir, endlessly.

It was traditional that when a new Sultan came to power, he would immediately attempt to launch new wars because he would be noted in Islamic history as to how well he fought against the Kafir.

So that’s what the jihad looked like over that time period: 548 battles. But remember, when you bring up jihad, people want to bring up the Crusades. So I also prepared a dynamic battle map of all the offensive raids of the crusaders. Let’s watch it and make a comparison.

As it begins, the Crusades enter Turkey and the Middle East; battles ensue. But there are far fewer than you might think. And in short order, the map concludes. The last battles are fought and the Crusades are over.

Now we can talk about some facts! Yes, there were Crusades. But notice that they ended centuries ago, and jihad is still being practiced today. Jihad has been with us for 1400 years. There is no comparison between jihad and the Crusades; certainly not a moral comparison. And when you’re looking at the Crusades, remember, in one sense the Crusades were defensive wars. Why? As we saw in the first jihad map, it was Islam that came out of Arabia and conquered the Middle East, a Christian Middle East. The crusaders were trying to free their Christian brothers and sisters from jihad. So there’s no moral comparison all. The motivation of the crusaders was to free Christians; the purpose of jihad was, and still is, to enslave the Kafir.

So, the next time you hear somebody talk about “those dreadful Crusades”, respond to the facts of the matter. Speak up and tell that person, “You don’t really know the facts!”

Real Islamophobes are the American media: jihadist mass murder in U.S. goes unreported

Everyone is focused on ISIS and their horrific actions abroad. But what if there were a series of jihadist murders here in the United States that went virtually unreported by the national media – impossible, right? Not so fast.

As American Uncensored News reports, “For two bloody months, an armed jihadist serial killer ran loose across the country. At least four innocent men died this spring and summer as acts of “vengeance” on behalf of aggrieved Muslims, the self-confessed murderer has now proclaimed.”

“Meet Ali Muhammad Brown. His homicidal Islamic terror spree took him from coast to coast. The 29-year-old career thug admitted to killing Leroy Henderson in Seattle in April; Ahmed Said and Dwone Anderson-Young in Seattle on June 1; and college student Brendan Tevlin, 19, in Essex County, New Jersey, on June 25. Tevlin was gunned down in his family Jeep on his way home from a friend’s house. Ballistics and other evidence linked all the victims to Muhammad Brown. Police apprehended him in July hiding in an encampment near the Watchung Mountains of West Orange, New Jersey.”

So why are we just now learning about this? I know, I’m just a despicable Islamophobe and a fear monger attempting to scare everyone.

I realize all the cultural jihadi apologists just cannot wrap their minds around the simple fact that Islamism is a threat to western civilization and our liberty and freedoms.

Muhammad Brown told investigators that Tevlin’s slaying was a “just kill.” The devout Islamic adherent proclaimed: “My mission is vengeance. For the lives, millions of lives are lost every day.” Echoing jihadist Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan, Muhammad Brown cited Muslim deaths in “Iraq, Syria, (and) Afghanistan” as the catalysts for his one-man Islamic terror campaign. “All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life.” When a detective asked him to clarify whether all four murders were “done for vengeance for the actions of the United States in the Middle East,” Muhammad Brown stated unequivocally: “Yes.” He added that he was “just doing (his) small part.”

Four men lost their lives due to a single jihadist — now what if there are 1,000 like Ali Muhammad Brown in America right now? Could there be other instances of jihadist murders occurring in America and not being reported as such? It’s irresponsible to say the least and complicity dangerous at its worst. We continue to dismiss this threat globally and we have a president who refers to it as a JV team. Domestically, we are enslaved to the false gods of political correctness and the cultural jihad enablers who attempt to force us into silence.

Consider the fact that we have a massive media army in Ferguson, Missouri but hardly a peep on this very disturbing series of jihadist murders. At least there has been some news on this out of Seattle, but otherwise it has been muted. America Uncensored goes so far as to say it was completely censored: “(We) did a search on the confessed Muslim mass murder’s name, and CNN has not even mentioned him once, ever.”

Here we have Eric Holder whisking off to Ferguson and talking about opening a “criminal investigation” by the FBI into the beheading of Foley and vowing to bring “justice.” What about the necessity of investigating these horrific murders? How are Holder and the Department of Justice going to track down an armed terrorist army? I wish he’d focus on this case and Obama would declare war against ISIS. Like that’s going to happen.

Islamophobic? That implies a fear of the Islamist threat – seems like that term should apply to our national media, not to me.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. The featured image of Ali Muhammad Brown is courtesy of NWCN.

Americans among 12,000 Muslims from 50 countries waging jihad in Syria

Where did these Americans learn their understanding of Islam? We all know, on pain of charges of “Islamophobia,” that no Muslims in the U.S., none, agree with the Islamic State, or want to bring Sharia Westward, or have any desire to restore the caliphate. None, you greasy Islamophobe. So how did these Americans come to misunderstand Islam? Were they reading “Islamophobic” writings that they mistook for the genuine article?

“Americans among 12,000 foreign fighters in Syria: US,” AFP, August 21, 2014:

Washington (AFP) – Some 12,000 foreign jihadists from 50 countries, including Americans, have gone to fight in Syria since the conflict began, the US State Department said Thursday.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that more than 100 US citizens have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to join the conflict.

They have traveled to join radical groups including the Islamic State (IS), militants fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria who have expanded into neighboring Iraq.

“We think that there are approximately 12,000 fighters from at least 50 countries in Syria — foreign fighters, including a small number of Americans — that may have traveled to Syria since the beginning of the conflict” more than three years ago, said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

“They may all not still be there,” she said, without revealing an estimated number of Americans.

US officials have been unable to identify an organized recruitment effort aimed at US citizens, as is the case in Europe.

Washington has publicly stated that Western fighters pose an especially dangerous risk, especially when they return to their countries of origin.

In late September, President Barack Obama is scheduled to host a Security Council summit with other heads of state focusing on the acute threat posed by foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq.

During his August 12 visit to Sydney, Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington and Australia agreed to take concerns about the threat posed by jihadist foreign fighters in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to the United Nations.

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Islamic State threatens jihad mass murder attack in Chicago
Hamas-linked CAIR’s Nihad Awad: “Israel is the biggest threat to world peace and security”
Kentucky Catholic church paints ن on door in solidarity with Christians persecuted by Islamic State

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of demonstrators chant pro-al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as they wave al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 16, 2014. (AP).

Protester Raises Ukraine Flag over Moscow’s Stalinist Spire

This Wednesday morning, August 20th, as the sun lit up the spires of bombastic Stalin-era high-rises in the heart of Russia’s capital, residents of a historical downtown district noticed a large flag of Ukraine fluttering over one such spire, atop a large golden star.

The top of the star had also been repainted light-blue to resemble the Ukrainian flag (the original hammer and sickle emblem in the middle remained unharmed, though). A resident of a nearby building was able to catch the perpetrator on camera as the man completed his stunt by jumping off the 560 foot tall spire with a parachute and disappearing in the pre-dawn emptiness of the city.

It’s hard to say what was more daring: to risk a deadly fall during the stunt, or to deface the iconic Stalinist spire, which continues to symbolize Russia’s imperial ambitions — and to raise the blue-and-yellow “enemy” flag over Moscow at a time of war, when all of Russia is seething with anti-Ukrainian anger as the official propaganda continues to whip the crowds into a supremacist frenzy by comparing its aggression against Ukraine with the “Great Patriotic War” against Nazi Germany.

Hatred of all things Ukrainian in today’s Russia is universal — it extends from Ukrainian-made chocolates to Ukrainian music and Ukrainian people, who are now called by a newly invented ethnic slur “ukrop,” which translates as “dill” — with the dehumanizing implication that Ukrainians are nothing more than vegetables destined to be chopped into salad.

A special kind of hatred is reserved for the emblems of Ukrainian statehood, which symbolize the country’s independence from the imperial Big Brother — the historical blue-and-yellow flag and the tryzub — the ancient ornamental trident from the times of Kievan Rus — which today’s Kremlin propaganda absurdly compares to the swastika.

Under these circumstances, falling into the hands of a frothing supremacist mob might be not much different than falling from the top of a Stalinist spire.

According to Moscow police, a group of perpetrators had apparently sneaked into the building at night through a service entrance and climbed up the service stairs to the roof unnoticed. They must have been also carrying a large flag, a load of spray paint cans, and climbing equipment which they used to scale the spire and get on top of the star.

The authorities declared a citywide manhunt for anyone seen carrying mountain-climbing equipment. The hunt resulted in the detention of four local residents — two men and two women in their mid-twenties — who are denying their involvement. In the meantime, a Russian blogger disclosed the name of the daredevil as Grigory — a young man from Ukraine who engages in the extreme sport of “roofing.” He is known on Facebook and Twitter as Wanted Mustang and has a website filled with vertigo-inducing images of himself standing or hanging from the highest points of buildings, bridges, and spires around the world.
~
Mustang_Wanted.jpg“This young man walked the streets of Moscow in a T-shirt with the Ukrainian coat of arms. He is quite famous in the ‘roofer’ circles. He is a citizen of Ukraine. I met him Saturday by accident, he said he wanted to take a walk on the roofs of Moscow, pay a visit to the Stalinist high-rises, and climb on top of the star because it must be beautiful up there,” wrote the blogger, adding that Grigory supports Ukraine’s fight against the Russia-sponsored separatists and is thinking of joining the volunteer army in Kiev.

On his Facebook page, Grigory wrote that he had already been to the war-torn eastern Ukraine in April to videotape the fighting for a Ukrainian TV channel, admitting that the body armor he was given turned out to be too uncomfortable and so he traveled without it.

Earlier this year Grigory also took part in the Maidan revolution in Kiev. One night he climbed the spire over the rallying crowds to fire a colored flare to boost the morale of the protesters (see photo on the right).

Ukraine_Flag_Grigori_Kiev.jpg

By 8:30 am Moscow time, as the hunt on mountaineers in Russia’s capital continued, a team of climbers from the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation arrived to remove the flag from the spire and to repaint the star with the original golden paint. The Ukrainian flag over Moscow flew for about three hours.

The timing of this action was not coincidental. This Sunday, August 23, is Ukraine’s Flag Day, which is also the celebration of the country’s independence from the USSR, obtained peacefully in 1991.

As Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko urged all citizens today to hang the national flag in their homes, offices and their cars, he also mentioned the action in Moscow this morning. “I appreciate that on this day, even Moscow’s greatest skyscraper was repainted in our colors,” Poroshenko said.

A group of anti-war activists in Moscow, Committee for Solidarity with the Maidan, are also planning a day pro-Ukrainian action this Sunday, urging Muscovites to color their city with yellow-and-blue flags.

A member of the group, Pavel Shelkov, writes: “Actions of the brave climbers from the Moscow chapter of the Right Sector on the eve of Ukrainian independence seem to have launched a new popular anti-war campaign – decorating our capital with Ukrainian flags. On August 24th, let’s wave Ukrainian flags in public places and attach them to cars, pin small Ukrainian flags and ribbons to our cloths, and paint flags of Ukraine where appropriate.”

Earlier this month the group held a public vigil in Moscow, remembering the victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine, after the authorities rejected their request for an anti-war rally.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on PJ Media.

Islamic State actively recruiting blacks in Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson, Missouri has become the focus of an Islamic State social media campaign to discredit President Obama, the United States and law enforcement. There is a long history of recruitment of minorities in U.S. prisons to embrace Islam. Bridget Gabriel in her column “Islam’s New Recruiting Methods” writes:

Al-Qaida and other Islamic groups are actively targeting blacks, Hispanics and single mothers in the U.S. as a part of building Al-Qaida’s American arm in its war against America. In the last week there have been three arrests of Americans recruited by Al-Qaida: one Black, one Hispanic and one White. This has been a major fear of the intelligence community since September 11th. The fear is now a reality.

The recruitment is happening in our prison system with a special focus on the Blacks and Hispanics. Imams are playing the race card in their first appeal to the felons about Islam. They are telling them that Christianity is the religion that enslaved them – that Islam is an African religion and the religion that will give them their power back and their rightful place in society.

Read the full article by going here.

Gabriel’s analysis is born out by August 19th, 2014 Tweets #FergusonUnderIS posted by members of the Islamic State.

Fergusontweets

For a larger view click on the image.

Joesph Klein in his column “Obama’s Indifference to the Islamic State Nightmare” writes, “President Obama, after months of dithering, finally authorized air strikes against ISIS, which are helping to slow down their advance against the Kurds in northern Iraq and to provide space for urgent humanitarian relief to besieged minority groups under threat of genocide by ISIS jihadists. However, as welcome as this is, the president still views ISIS as a local Iraqi problem to be dealt with by instituting a more inclusive centralized government in Baghdad rather than seeing ISIS as part of a much larger global ideological threat.”

President Obama views the Islamic State’s actions as a matter for law enforcement action rather than the “much larger global ideological threat” it poses to the free world. The beheading of American journalist James Foley by the Islamic State is a case in point. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has opened a “criminal investigation” into the murder of James Foley. “The Justice Department is actively pursuing justice in this case. We have an open criminal investigation,” Holder said, adding later that the department will ‘vigorously’ proceed with the probe.”

Bringing the executioner of Foley to justice does not solve the problem of the ideology that drives the Islamic State.

President Obama appears to view the Islamic State not as a global ideological threat but rather as a series of individual heinous murderous acts. President Obama is not alone. The free world fails to see the Islamic State’s mass murders, global reach via social media, growing strength of the IS military forces and spread of the ideology across Europe and Africa as an existential threat.

This is a classic case of the failure to discern an overall pattern from a mass of detail; to see the big picture, or the broader, more general situation. President Obama is good at detail, but can’t see the forest for the trees.

As we have stated before: The more shariah compliant an individual (Foley’s executioner), an organization (the Islamic State) or a nation state (Iran, Saudi Arabia) the more dangerous they are. History dating back to the Seventh Century to the August 19th Tweet by #ISISHero make our point.

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Liberal Exploitation of Americans

St._Louis_County_Missouri_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Ferguson_Highlighted.svg_-300x157

City of Ferguson within Missouri (right) and St. Louis County (left) (Wikipedia Image)

When one hears members of the Negro thought police and their liberal white masters of liberal philosophy in the media, government, and academia, one cannot help but understand why our nation is in a heap of hurt. Together they seek to lead, push, prod, and deceive this republic into moral depravity, economic collapse, and national weakness. It is plain and simple to me that the liberal elites do not have any one’s best interest at heart except their own.

The uprising in Ferguson, MO, is a supreme example. There was a shooting of a known thug by a police officer. Without even the slightest bit of inquiry, fellow Ferguson residents and out-of-town agitators looted local businesses, abused other black residents, and just wreaked overall havoc on the town. I, for one, cannot understand why on earth a segment of the American population that claims to want and need more opportunities would loot and burn businesses that are needed in the community.

Unfortunately, such hooliganism is probably indirectly supported by the Obama administration. It may be extreme for me to say it, but Department of Justice (DOJ) head Eric Holder has been giving DOJ investigation updates to civil rights organizations. In addition, Mr. Holder has been known in certain circles to share a common cause with the black criminal.

Jay Nixon, Democrat Governor of Missouri (Wikipedia Photo)

Rather than allow the grand jury of Missouri to do its job in peace, liberal Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called for the indictment of the police officer who shot Michael Brown. To add insult to injury, law and order was turned on its ear when the police chief supposedly ordered officers to stand down and do nothing while looters sought to raid businesses and threaten owners.

The recent events in Ferguson, MO, are undeniable proof of the long-term damages of indoctrinating generations of Americans with liberal dogma that includes the blatant disregard for stability and the rule of law. Whether the liberal elites want to admit it or not, they and their corrupt philosophy send people on bunny trails of destruction and nonsensical behavior.

Take, for example, the burning and looting of businesses because one male was shot. Yet there has been almost no reaction, anger, or one tear shed over the thousands of blacks who are blown away annually by other blacks.

Also, the silence is deafening over the systematic murder of unborn black babies every single year. Where is the outrage over that?

Geert Wilders in 2008: What will the loss of Europe mean to America?

Europe is in the process of coming under the control of Islam. Israel is in the front line of Western democracy. In a few years there will be virtually no Jews left in Europe, but how will Europe’s Christian community survive under Islam? If God forbid, Israel falls the U.S. will be the last standing Western democracy. With European nuclear weapons and likely Islamic weapons will America standing alone be able survive?

This Will Give You Cold Chills! Geert Wilders is a Member of the Dutch Parliament. In a generation or two, the U.S. will ask itself: “Who lost Europe ?”

Geert Wilders, chairman Party for Freedom, the Netherlands

Speech at the Four Seasons, New York – September 25, 2008

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe.. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing.

You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.

All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read.

You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.

Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear ‘whore, whore’. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan.

Jews are being driven out of France in record numbers, on the run from the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Jerusalem and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.

San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France.

One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.

The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example, against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus.

I call the perpetrators ‘settlers’, because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages – at the same time.

Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a hereafter, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means ‘submission’.

Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam ‘the most retrograde force in the world’, and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in Israel and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel, first, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of Jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way, the same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is Jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed.

The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as ‘right-wing extremists’ or ‘racists’. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing.

The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America – as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem ….

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe ‘s children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot trike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.

We have to take the necessary action now to stop this Islamic stupidity from destroying the free world that we know.

RELATED ARTICLE: Adams church vandalized with graffiti, swastikas – NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News

USofA Battle Lines: From Missouri to the Mexican border

It seems like the Obama administration is stirring up trouble all across the country. From Ferguson, Missouri to the Mexican border the battle lines are clear.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo of a rioter in Ferguson, Missouri is by James Keivom of the New York Daily News and of immigration protesters (insert) courtesy of BuzzPo.com.

CAIR: A Shocking Textbook Expert on Peace and Religion

Why is the above image wrong?  Let us count the ways.

1. The quote does not come from the Council on American Islamic Relation (CAIR). It does not even come from a press release. It comes from a fatwa issued by the Fiqh Council of North America at a press conference convened by CAIR. The press release, dated a day earlier, did not contain any such line.

2. CAIR is not a religious authority. It is an activist and advocacy group. In fact, in that press release, CAIR described itself as, “America’s largest Muslim civil rights group.” Educational material should not use advocacy groups as authorities, let alone as experts on religious interpretation. Perhaps the textbook should have quoted a Muslim religious scholar or just explained that the Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa on this issue. Maybe the authors thought that using the correct terminology would be scary or confusing. But that would be kind of bigoted, wouldn’t it?

3. Neither the quote provided in the text nor the full fatwa actually validate the textbook’s claim that “people may mistakenly think that Islam encourages violence.” This fatwa does call on Muslims to refrain from violence against civilians, including terrorism. But it does not state anything about the religion encouraging or not encouraging other forms of violence, such as against militaries.

And finally…

4. No one should listen to CAIR on the issue of peace. The organization simply is not credible. If you are wondering what we mean about this, just look up the following phrases together: CAIR, unindicted co-conspirator, joint venturer, U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation.

If you care about accuracy in textbooks, contact Verity Educate to find out what you can do.

“ISIS HERE” banner in Ferguson, Missouri

ISISWhiteHouse2

ISIS flag in front of White House. Click on image for a larger view.

This banner is in line with supporters of the Islamic State taking photos of the Islamic State flag held in front of the White House and other landmarks. The objective is to “strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah” (Qur’an 8:60) and to emphasize the desire of Islamic State jihadis to strike within the U.S. The fact that they have supporters here in the U.S. who can hold the banner in Missouri and the sign at the White House shows that such a strike is a very real possibility.

Meanwhile, not just the jihadis quoted here but Hamas-linked CAIR and other Islamic supremacists in the U.S. are trying to exploit the unrest in Ferguson to further their own victimhood narrative. It has carried them this far, why abandon it now?

“‘How is democracy treating you guys?’ ISIS militants take to social media to encourage Ferguson protesters to embrace Islamic extremism,” by John Hall, Daily Mail, August 19, 2014 (thanks to Bob):

ISIS militants and their supporters are using social media to encourage protesters in Ferguson to embrace radical Islam and fight against the U.S. government.

Jihadists in Syria and Iraq and their sympathisers in the West have taken to Twitter to send messages of support to hundreds of demonstrators taking part in a ninth night of angry protests in the U.S. city following the shooting by police of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

The militants’ tweets denounce local officers for the way they have attempted to quell the violence, make reference to historic acts of police brutality, and even use the hashtag #FergusonUnderISIS in an attempt to get angry young men in the city to declare allegiance to the Islamist group.

The news comes as footage purportedly taken from the scene of the Ferguson protests appeared to show one demonstrator marching along a street holding a sign reading ‘ISIS is here’.

One ISIS sympathiser calling himself Mujahid Miski, who claims to be from Minneapolis–Saint Paul but suggests he is now based in ‘the horn of Africa’, has led the campaign to encourage those taking part in the protests to embrace radical Islam.

In one message he tweets: ‘So how is democracy treating you guys? #FergusonUnderIS #Ferguson.’

He adds: ‘I thought u guys back in #Ferguson were supposed to be Free & that u had equal rights. I’d really like to know what changed? #FergusonUnderIS’.

Miski goes on to retweet dozens of messages by a Twitter user with the handle @AmreekiWitness, who claims to monitor and support the growth of radical Islam in the U.S..

Amreeki Witness’ messages focus on the treatment of black people in the U.S., praise Malcolm X for embracing Islam and urge angry young black men to take up the religion as it means the police ‘will fear you’.

In one message Amreeki Witness mocks the curfew police have imposed in Ferguson to bring an end to the disorder, saying: ‘We IS guys hate you for your freedom, eh? Just like that freedom uplifting curfew in #Ferguson? Wake up, or they’ll never let you outside.’

As the social media campaign began to take hold, with dozens of radical Islamists commenting on the Ferguson protests, Amreeki Witness tweeted: ‘May be time to organize the Muslims in America upon haqq and mobilize to #Ferguson. Defend the oppressed, start jihad here.’

The message attracted a large response, with one Islamist calling himself Amarka Al-Ahlam responding: ‘Preach, brother. We must organize brigades in preparation for the oncoming storm. #FergusonUnderIS #JihadinFerguson.’

Amreeki Witness added: ‘They cower in fear of us whilst they massacre and oppress you! It’s time to strike fear into the hearts of the oppressors. #FergusonUnderIS’.

News of the militants’ campaign to encourage Ferguson demonstrators to embrace radical Islamism comes as footage purportedly from a CNN live stream of the protests appeared to show one young man holding a sign reading ‘ISIS is here.’

It is not known whether the banner – footage of which has not yet been independently verified – was in support of the militant group or, as seems more likely, it was an attempt to compare ISIS to the local police force or the U.S. government.

Nevertheless stills of the alleged CNN footage were embraced by jihadists who have claimed they prove jihadists are already playing their part in the protests.

Chilling images of the alleged ISIS banner being carried by demonstrators have been widely shared by ISIS sympathisers on social media, who have used them to encourage supporters based in America to travel to Ferguson to further stoke the violence in the city.

News of ISIS’ attempt to hijack the Ferguson protests come as Palestinian Twitter users sent messages of support to the demonstrators and gave advice on the best way to cope with the tear gas police are using to disperse crowds.

As images emerged of heavily armed police and armoured tanks on the streets of nearby St Louis, many Palestinian Twitter users expressed their solidarity with demonstrators.

The messages of support from Palestinians come amid reports that many of the Ferguson protesters were heard chanting ‘Gaza Strip’ as they marched through the heart of the city.

RELATED ARTICLE: California: Black convert to Islam killed waging jihad for ISIS in Syria

Islamic State vows to ‘break the American cross’

ISISWhiteHouse2The Islamic State jihadis think of the U.S. as a Christian nation, and so they think of destroying it as breaking the cross, which language is also reminiscent of this:

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, son of Mary (Jesus) will shortly descend amongst you people (Muslims) as a just ruler and will break the Cross and kill the pig and abolish the Jizya (a tax taken from the non-Muslims, who are in the protection, of the Muslim government). Then there will be abundance of money and no-body will accept charitable gifts. (Bukhari 3.34.425)

“Islamic State vows to ‘break the American cross,’” Reuters, August 19, 2014:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State, the Sunni militant group which seeks to establish a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, released a video on Tuesday that gave the strongest indication yet it might attempt to strike American targets.

The video with the theme “breaking of the American cross” boasts Islamic State will emerge victorious over “crusader” America. It follows a video posted on Monday warning of attacks on American targets if Washington struck against its fighters in Iraq and Syria.

The latest footage speaks of a holy war between the al-Qaeda offshoot and the United States, which occupied Iraq for nearly a dacade and faced stiff resistance from al Qaeda.

Islamic State’s sweep through northern Iraq, bringing it close to Baghdad and in control of the second city, Mosul, drew U.S. airstrikes on the country for the first time since the end of the American occupation in 2011.

The video showed footage of President Barack Obama as well as strategic U.S. ally King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and attacks on American soldiers.

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Islamic State beheads US journalist James Foley in video
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Islamic State jihadis screaming “Allahu akbar” burn Bibles, cut fingers off for wedding rings
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ISIS Beheads American Photo Journalist — Threatens second U.S. Captive

The Islamic State, formerly ISIS, in retribution for US air strikes in Northern Iraq, released a video of the purported beheading of intrepid American Photo Journalist James Wright Foley attired in an orange jump suit.  Foley was captured in Northern Syria in November 2012. Foley was previously held captive by Gaddafi forces in Libya in 2011 for 44 days. Foley, a native of Rochester, New Hampshire was working for the on-line Boston publication, Global Post that had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to find and release him.  The video of his beheading was promptly taken down from YouTube under rules that Google has established as being too violent.    At the conclusion of the video there is a shot of another captive American Journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff.   Sotloff according to a report in the International Business Times (IBT) was captured near Aleppo on August 4, 2013. Sotloff, the IBT noted was,” a freelance journalist who had reported on Egypt, Syria, and Libya for TIME, the Christian Science Monitor, the National Interest and Foreign Policy magazine. There is also rumored to be another American aid worker captured by ISIS in the Syrian civil conflict.

Steven Joel Sotloff with ISIS Executioner

Steven Joel Sotloff with ISIS Executioner. Source: #ISIS.

This barbaric act by ISIS is reminiscent of the beheading on February 1, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan  of Wall Street Journalist, Daniel Pearl, by Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Karachi, Pakistan and American Contractor Nick Berg executed on May 7, 2004 in  Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of the predecessor of ISIS, Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Reuters account noted the contents of the graphic ISIS video entitled, “A Message to America”:

The video opened with a clip of U.S. President Barack Obama saying he had authorized strikes in Iraq.

“Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims,” words appear in English and Arabic on the screen.

It showed black and white aerial footage of air strikes with text saying “American aggression against the Islamic State”

A person identified as James Foley and wearing an orange outfit is seen kneeling in the desert as a man in black dress with a black mask stands beside him, holding a knife.

“I call on my friends family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government, for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality,” the kneeling man says.

The man in the mask speaks in a British accent and says: “This is James Wright Foley, an American citizen, of your country. As a government, you have been at the forefront of the aggression towards the Islamic State.”

“Today your military air force is attacking us daily in Iraq. Your strikes have caused casualties amongst Muslims. You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic army and a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide.”

Following his statement he beheads the kneeling man.

At the end of the video, words on the side of the screen say “Steven Joel Sotloff” as another prisoner in an orange jumpsuit is shown on screen.

Global Post published this early account this evening of the loss of their colleague, Foley, “Reported beheading of James Foley not yet verified”:

The video asserts that the alleged killing of Foley is in retaliation for recent airstrikes by the United States against IS militants in northern Iraq. In it, Foley, kneeling next to an apparent IS militant, makes comments against the US for its actions. The militant also claims to be holding journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, who went missing in Syria a year ago.

Philip Balboni, GlobalPost CEO and co-founder, made the following statement: “On behalf of John and Diane Foley, and also GlobalPost, we deeply appreciate all of the messages of sympathy and support that have poured in since the news of Jim’s possible execution first broke. We have been informed that the FBI is in the process of evaluating the video posted by the Islamic State to determine if it is authentic. … We ask for your prayers for Jim and his family.”

GlobalPost, for whom Foley had reported in Syria, has mounted an extensive international investigation since November 2012 to determine who kidnapped Foley and where he was being held. Significant research has been undertaken throughout the Middle East, including along the Syria-Turkish border, in Lebanon, in Jordan and in other locations.

“Although Global Post’s investigation at one point led us to believe that James was being held by the Syrian government, we later were given strong reason to believe he was being held by Islamic militants in Syria,” Balboni said. “We withheld this information at the request of the family and on the advice of authorities cooperating in the effort to protect Jim. GlobalPost, working with a private security company, has amassed an enormous amount of information that has not been made public.”

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden affirmed in a statement that US officials are working to authenticate the video.

“We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIL. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available,” the statement said.

Foley was on a freelance assignment for GlobalPost when he was abducted in northern Syria on Nov. 22, 2012. He was on his way to the Turkish border when he was stopped by a group of armed men. Foley reported for GlobalPost from Libya and Afghanistan before traveling to Syria in the early days of the now long-running civil war that has taken the lives of more than 170,000.

Foley’s last article for GlobalPost detailed the growing frustration with the war among civilians in Aleppo.

The fact of Foley’s kidnapping was revealed publicly for the first time by his parents, John and Diane Foley of Rochester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 1, 2012, two months after his abduction. The only other American whose identity has been publicly revealed is Austin Tice, a freelance reporter for the McClatchy News Service and the Washington Post, who was kidnapped in August 2012.

The Foley family’s last public statement on the kidnapping came in October 2013.

While covering the Libyan civil war in 2011, Foley and two other journalists, American Claire Gillis and Spaniard Manu Brabo, endured a 44-day captivity in April and May of that year at the hands of then Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi. A fourth journalist, South African Anton Hammerl, was killed when the journalists were captured by Gaddafi fighters near Benghazi in eastern Libya. Foley later returned to Libya to cover Gaddafi’s fall and eventual death. Foley and GlobalPost correspondent Tracey Shelton were at the scene of Gaddafi’s capture in October 2011.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the New English Review.