Are our military training Islamic sleeper cells in America?

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David Gaubatz in Iraq

Paul David Gaubatz, a U.S. State Department-trained Arabic linguist and former U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agent believes so. Gaubatz, and investigative journalist and Hoover Institute fellow Paul Sperry co-authored the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America. Gaubatz was the first federal agent to serve in Iraq.

According to Gaubatz, “In the U.S. our military bases have programs to bring citizens/scientists from Islamic based countries to the U.S. to train them on many of our weapons systems and some of our most highly guarded technology systems.  The U.S. military also bring foreign military personnel from Islamic controlled countries to train on our aircraft, to include how to fly the various U.S. military aircraft. Many of these foreigners disappear into the underground ‘Islamic Sleeper Cells’ throughout America. This must stop.  Kirkland AFB, NM, Wright Patterson AFB, OH. and Lackland AFB, TX. are three of the top offenders.”

“Intelligence that would not be provided to the American public is freely provided to foreign nationals from Islamic based countries that support terrorism against us.,” states Gaubatz.

Gaubatz reports, “In addition thousands of foreigners from Islamic based countries are trained at our military bases about aircraft systems and how to fly them.  Lackland AFB, Texas is one of our prime offenders in this category.  When I was a Special Agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations we continuously had open cases on foreign citizens who suddenly left our installations and disappeared into unknown areas of America. I have written previously about ‘sleeper cells’. These are some of the people who go underground into sleeper cells. They are trained military personnel who have a working knowledge of English and have been trained on our weapons systems.  Immediately after the attack on 9-11, other Agents and myself were given orders to attempt to track these ‘lost’ foreigners down.  It was an impossible hunt. There was a major concern some of the 9-11 Islamic hijackers had even trained in our military flight schools.”

“Our intelligence officers and law enforcement could help prevent another attack if they tracked down the missing military foreign nationals who have disappeared from our bases.  The U.S. military does not like to report to the public or our political leaders the disappearances of foreign nationals under their control.  I encourage readers to contact the ‘Foreign National Office’ (specifically the Air Force Research Laboratory/(AFRL/DE) and ask how many foreign scientists are working alongside our most prized U.S. scientists. Then contact the Foreign National Representative that handles the foreign military students (from Islamic countries) and ask them how many foreign students are missing from their installations.  Again I stress these are where the Islamic sleeper cells generate from,” concludes Gaubatz.

Gaubatz states, “Islamic based countries are not the friends of America. Their words, not mine.”

ABOUT DAVID GAUBATZ

Dave Gaubatz was the first U.S. Federal Agent in Iraq (2003). Gaubatz has 24 years of Federal Service. Named the “Terrorist Hunter” he exposed Islamic based terrorists and their supporters. Gaubatz releases the intelligence he collects to law enforcement and to the public. Law enforcement and military have millions of files on Islamic terrorists operating in America, and it is being withheld from Americans. Gaubatz’s work is for the American Public. Gaubatz notes, “There are already too many non profit organizations that are supposed to educate the public on Islamic terrorist issues, but they themselves are too concerned about frivolous lawsuits by terrorist groups and what the media will say that they do more to hamper educating the public than they do help.” Gaubatz provides all of the terrorism intelligence he obtains to the public first. To learn more visit David’s We Are Not Afraid website.

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Miami FBI informant: Taliban walking freely on American streets

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David Mahmood Siddiqui an FBI informant. Photo CBS Channel 7, Miami, FL

Michele Gillen from CBS Channel 4 in Miami, FL met with South Floridian David Mahmood Siddiqui an FBI informant involved in the case against Muslim Cleric Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan. Gillen reports, “Following a 29 day trial, the 77 year old former head of the oldest Mosque in Miami was convicted last month of supporting terrorism and conspiracy.  Khan awaits sentencing and could end up spending the rest of his life in prison.”

What is striking are Siddiqui’s comments during the interview.

Siddiqui states, “I am an informant and all I can tell you is that Talibans are walking freely right here in the soil of America right now, right now.”

Asked by Gillen what he thinks the risk of having Taliban living in America is, he responded; “They can commit a jihad at any time, they hate America, you have an enemy living here in American soil, do not know when they will take action to kill innocent Americans.”

“In a review of court documents and records, it appears Saddiqui and his undercover work resulted in key evidence in the case against Muslim Cleric Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan,” notes Gillen.

Watch the interview and read more by clicking here.

Curt Anderson from The Huffington Post reports, “The jury returned its verdict [on Monday, March 4, 2013] after the two-month trial of Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a downtown Miami mosque. Khan was found guilty of all four charges: two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists.”

“Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace,” said U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer, whose office prosecuted the case. “Instead, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming.”

“Prosecutors built their case largely around hundreds of FBI recordings of conversations in which Khan expressed support for Taliban attacks and discussed sending about $50,000 to Pakistan. There were also recordings in which Khan appeared to back the overthrow of Pakistan’s government in favor of strict Islamic law, praised the killing of American military personnel and lauded the failed 2010 attempt to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square,” notes Anderson.

“Khan, who testified over four combative days in his own defense, insisted the money he sent overseas was for family, charity and business reasons – above all, his religious school, known as a madrassa, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Khan also said he repeatedly lied about harboring extremist views to obtain $1 million from a man who turned out to be an FBI informant wearing a wire to record their talk,” Anderson reports.

NOTE: The featured photo shows President Reagan sitting with members of the Taliban in the White House.

Southern Poverty Law Center Exposed!

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Joel Gehrke from the Washington Examiner reports:

Family Research Council (FRC) officials released [the below] video of federal investigators questioning convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins II, who explained that he attacked the group’s headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views.

“Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups,” Corkins tells interrogators in the video, which FRC obtained from the FBI. “I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that.”

The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard reported that Corkins, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, said in court that he hoped to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.” As Bedard explained, “the shooting occurred after an executive with Chick-Fil-A announced his support for traditional marriage, angering same-sex marriage proponents.”

Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch states, “The SPLC, the well-heeled propaganda machine that smears conservatives for cash, is an integral part of the ongoing Leftist effort to demonize and destroy legitimate conservative voices — like our American Freedom Defense Initiative, which they also classify as a “hate group” — by lumping them in with the likes of the KKK. The SPLC turns a blind eye to the real hate that comes from the Left and Islamic supremacists, and offers with its hate group listings not only an incitement to violence, but a handy tool that lazy Leftist mainstream media journalists use to try to intimidate people away from supporting our message of human rights. The SPLC richly deserves its place on AFDI’s Threats to Freedom Index.”

Tom Trento, well known SE Florida radio talk show host, did a five part series on the SPLC. Trento states, “The TrentoVision Team launches an investigation into the so-called, Southern “Poverty” Law Center to find out why the Obama Administration works so closely with this “filthy rich” front group for the radical left! Our special guest is Tony Perkins, President of the prestigious Family Research Council. August 2012, Tony was the target of a radical homosexual activist who wanted to kill him and 14 others at FRC. Throughout this five-part series we will look at the finances, pro-gay agenda, pro-Islamic jihad agenda and the all around anti-American activities of the SPLC.”

Below is part one with special guest Tony Perkins, Executive Director of the Family Research Council, of a five part series on the SPLC:

Watch the other four parts of the series:

Monday April 22 – SPLC overview, with Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI-Z1Y4G88Y

Tuesday, April 23 – Peter Sprigg, Homosexual Activism at the SPLC, Family Research Council

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gHRA_0EwU

Wednesday April 24 – Gen. General Boykin, SPLC & the Muslim Brotherhood, Family Research Council

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6eI5kC6Y8E

Thursday April 25 – Charlotte Allen – SPLC finances – The Weekly Standard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eniTNIVlkTo

Friday April 26 – Ken Klukowski, FRC and Andrea Lafferty, Traditional Values Coalition, TOPIC?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9iOrvwzzqk

THE BOSTON BOMBINGS: HISTORICAL TIES TO JIHADISM IN MASSACHUSETTS

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A new Henry Jackson Society (HJS) analysis reveals over two decades of Massachusetts links to al Qaeda-inspired terrorism

DOWNLOAD THE ANALYSIS HERE

The alleged Boston bombers – Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – are the latest in a broader pattern of militancy in the state of Massachusetts. 26 other individuals closely tied to jihadist activity have been based in Massachusetts, including 15 individuals who lived there, with offenses going back over 20 years.

Based on analysis from the new HJS report Al-Qaeda in the United States: A Complete Analysis of Terrorism Offenses, these individuals include:

  • Those who have fought jihad abroad – including a Boston cab driver ‘martyred’ fighting Lebanese forces in 2000
  • Those who have fundraised for jihad via Care International – a Boston-based charity  acting as a front group for the al-Kifah Refugee Center, itself the U.S. branch of Makhtab al-Khidamat – an organisation co-founded by Osama bin Laden and key jihadist ideologue Abdullah Azzam
  • Eleven of the 9/11 hijackers, who hijacked planes leaving from Boston Logan International Airport, used Boston as a base prior to their attack
  • Aafia Siddiqui, a female al-Qaeda associate who attempted to murder U.S. officers and employees in Afghanistan
  • Rezwan Fedarus, who plotted terrorist attacks using explosives on U.S. soil

Robin Simcox, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and co-author of Al-Qaeda in the United States, has commented:

While not previously the target of a terrorist attack, Boston – and Massachusetts more broadly – has been a hive of militant activity for over two decades. Al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda inspired operatives have used Massachusetts as a base from which to plan, finance and commit acts of terror.

The U.S. has been largely successful in degrading al-Qaeda’s capacity to commit coordinated, mass casualty acts of terrorism. However, there is a clear need to remain vigilant against those who have been radicalized in the U.S. and aspire to smaller – but still deadly – terrorist acts. The al-Qaeda inspired threat is ongoing, and should continue to be treated with the utmost seriousness.

The full analysis, Historical Ties to Jihadism in Massachusetts, can be read here.

Conciliatory FBI policies toward Islam hampered probe into Boston jihad bombers

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Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch reports:

Spencer Ackerman, stand up and take a bow. Fatima Khera and John Brennan, you too. Salam al-Marayati, don’t get left out. You’re all responsible for the scrubbing of counter-terror training materials of the truth about Islam and jihad. Stand up and be recognized. But try to wash the blood off your hands first.

“Blind Eye: Conciliatory FBI policies toward Islamism hampered probe into Boston bombers,” by Bill Gertz for The Washington Free Beacon, April 23 states:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s failure to recognize political Islam as a driver of jihadist terrorism is partly to blame for the FBI not identifying one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2011 as a security risk, according to U.S. officials and private counter-terrorism analysts.The FBI revealed last week that it was warned by a foreign government in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Friday, was tied to “radical Islam” but the FBI was unable to confirm the links.

“The fact is religion has been expunged from counter-terrorism training,” said Sebastian Gorka, a counter-terrorism specialist with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The FBI can’t talk about Islam and they can’t talk about jihad.”

Added Patrick S. Poole, another counter-terrorism specialist, about FBI policies on Islam: “I have zero doubt it affected their investigation of Tsarnaev.”

A U.S. official said FBI policies of playing down Islamic links to terrorism resulted in the FBI not identifying Tsarnaev, 26, or his brother, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, who was charged with last week’s bombing, as Islamist terrorists.

Instead, the FBI is limiting its description of the two men as ethnic Chechens who became “radicalized” prior to the April 15 bombing of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and more than 200 injured in the attack using two homemade bombs placed in pressure cookers and remotely detonated.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.), who until he retired in 2011 headed the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said an investigation into the FBI’s questioning of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is needed.

“I think that is one of the things that we’re really going to have to take a closer look at,” Hoekstra told the online intelligence newsletter Lignet….

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Florida man who is Pakistani immigrant accused of plotting terror attack in New York City

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Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch reports:

It is useful to recall how many jihad attacks in the U.S. have been foiled. The number of these plots makes the prevailing unreality about jihad and Islamic supremacism all the more inexcusable. “Raees Alam Qazi [picture above left with his brother Sheheryar], 20, researched bomb-making techniques on Internet sites affiliated with al-Qaida, including one using Christmas tree lights…Qazi is charged along with his brother, 30-year-old taxi driver Sheheryar Alam Qazi, with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S.” — Associated Press, December 18, 2012

“Fort Lauderdale man seeking bond on terrorism-related charges,” by Jay Weaver for the Miami Herald, April 23 (thanks to Darcy):

A Fort Lauderdale taxicab driver accused of helping his younger brother plan a terrorist attack on New York City is seeking to be released from the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami before their trial.A federal judge is holding a hearing Tuesday on the request from Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, of Oakland Park, who had initially agreed to be detained after his and his brother’s arrests in November.

The following month, a magistrate judge ordered the detention of his younger brother, Raees Alam Qazi, 20, saying he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.

Both brothers, natives of Pakistan, are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Rubio: The Boston bombing has a bearing on the immigration debate

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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio issued the following statement regarding comments by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy that it’s “cruel” to use the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing to halt immigration reform, as well as comments by those who say this attack should derail entirely the current effort underway to fix our immigration system:

“I disagree with those who say that the terrorist attack in Boston has no bearing on the immigration debate. Any immigration reform we pursue should make our country safer and more secure. If there are flaws in our immigration system that were exposed by the attack in Boston, any immigration reform passed by Congress this year should address those flaws. Congress needs time to conduct more hearings and investigate how our immigration and national security systems could be improved going forward.

“The attack reinforces why immigration reform should be a lengthy, open and transparent process, so that we can ask and answer important questions surrounding every facet of the bill. But we still have a broken system that needs to be fixed.”

Video describes Boston mosque’s terrorist ties

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On May 22, 2010, Massachusetts Governor Patrick embraced Imam Abdullah Faarooq leader of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the largest mosque in the NE. This is the mosque that Tamerlan Tsarnaev attended. It was in 2011 that Russia warned the United States about Tsarnaev.

According the the UK Mail Online:

Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was thrown out of his local mosque for ‘crazy’ behavior after getting involved a ‘shouting match’ with his imam according to one member of the congregation.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was ejected from his Boston mosque for aggressive behavior after insulting Martin Luther King Jr. during a Friday prayer service three months agoTamerlan Tsarnaev was ejected from his Boston mosque for aggressive behavior after insulting Martin Luther King Jr. during a Friday prayer service three months ago.

Described as being full of rage by a worshiper who would give his name only as Muhammad, Tamerlan was ejected from the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center three months ago for claiming that Martin Luther King Jr. was not a man Muslims should look to emulate.

Imam Faarooq, as seen in the below video, told followers they must “pick up the gun and the sword” in response to the arrests of local Islamic extremist Aafia Siddiqui and terror suspect Tarek Mehanna.

After the Boston bombing some are again asking: Should Governor Patrick give back the money? Did the sensitivity training given to law enforcement officers have an impact on profiling the Boston Massacre bombers? Did the FBI drop the case due to “political correctness”?

Constitution Doesn’t Apply to Boston Bombing Suspect

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Joe Miller from Restoring Liberty reports:

By Jeremy Herb and Mike Lillis from The Hill. Two powerful GOP senators are calling on the Obama administration to treat the captured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings as an “enemy combatant” and deny him counsel even though he is reportedly an American citizen.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, captured Friday night outside Boston after a tense daylong manhunt, should be questioned for intelligence purposes and not read his Miranda rights.

[…]

With Tsarnaev in custody, the lawmakers said, “the last thing we should want is for him to remain silent.”

[…]

The Department of Justice indicated Friday that the administration would not read 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, citing a public safety exception.

But Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, said Saturday that the immediate threat is over and that Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who became a naturalized U.S. citizen last year, should now be treated like any other suspected criminal.

Read more.

Russia warned US about Chechen immigrants

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Russia Today reports:

The US may be shocked that the terrorist suspects behind the Boston bombings are Chechen natives, but Russia has long cautioned Washington about giving asylum to Islamists from the North Caucasus, political analyst Dmitry Babich told RT.

Two bombs exploded in Boston during the city’s Marathon on April 15, killing 3 people and injuring 176 others.

The suspects in the attack were identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, Chechen natives, who lived in the US for some time. The elder brother was killed in a stand-off with police on Thursday, while the younger one is still at large.

The Voice of Russia radio station’s political analyst, Dmitry Babich, believes that it’s time for the West to understand that the Islamist activity in the North Caucasus is a threat not only to Russia, but the US and Europe as well.

RT: Much is being made of the links of those men to the Caucasus where they briefly lived. How important a factor might this be?

Dmitry Babich: Well, I think that indeed it’s a surprise for many people that these two men happened to be out of North Caucasus. But I think it’s not very surprising because, actually, the Russian government has warned a lot about the kind of refugees, about the kind of immigrants that the US and Western European countries are ready to accept. I mean I didn’t interview these people in Europe or in the US, but read a lot of reports from Russian reporters and from Western reporters actually interviewing those people. And a lot of them didn’t change their convictions. A lot of them are die-hard Islamists. They didn’t change after leaving Russia and I can easily imagine that a lot of them consider both Russia and the US parts of the same western decadent civilization. In this situation they can wage their jihad not necessarily in a place like Syria or Iraq, but also in the US.

RT:Why would these men turn on a country which gave them asylum?

DB:Unfortunately, it happened in many countries that people, who got asylum in the West later turned against their hosts and against their benefactors. It’s enough to remember that Ayatollah Khamenei, the founder of modern Iran, was a political refugee in France before he came back as a victor to Iran. If you expect any kind of gratitude and thankful thinking from these people you’re dead wrong. Most of the jihadists are egotists in their convictions. They think that they have the right to ascertain their convictions, they have the right to commit violence acts if they feed their cause. And their cause is the creation of this Islamic State. Maybe it could be an Islamic State in the North Caucasus. It could be a universal Islamic Caliphate. But that’s their thinking and I’m afraid in Boston they are dealing with exactly that kind of thinking.

RT:How would you assess levels of home-grown terrorism in the US right now?

DB: It’s very hard for me to speak from Russia about the level of terrorism in the US, but I think that for many years it was clear that the foreign policy was, at least, strange. Although Russia never made any hostile moves towards the US since 1987, probably – since Gorbachev came to power – the US continues suspecting Russia of having different values. And it always supported groups, sometimes militant Islamic groups, which challenged Russia. I mean, of course, president Clinton didn’t support the Chechen separatists, but then if you read the American press of the time and if you read even certain articles, which appeared on the website of the New York Times today, you can see a lot of simplistic thinking about the so-called Chechen Uprising and the Islamist groups in the North Caucasus.

The American newspapers say that Russia is to blame for all of these terrorist activities. Well, I don’t agree with that. I think that Russia was actually fighting a genuine international Islamism threat in the North Caucasus, at least, during the second Chechen War (in 1999-2000). Obviously, this Islamist activity in the North Caucasus is not only a threat to Russia. It’s also a threat to the US. It’s also a threat to Europe, but somehow the Western countries just refuse to recognize it.

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Zudhi Jasser

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” issued the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) regarding the ongoing terror incident in Boston:

“The terror attacks in Boston, perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers have finally come to an end with the surrender of the younger brother Dzhoakhar in Watertown, MA Friday evening. But perhaps it will finally be the beginning of the long overdue process to retool America’s current counter-terrorism strategies.  Since 9-11, we have been fortunate up until this attack to avoid the kind of devastation and loss of life that we saw in Boston, but that was not for a lack of trying by our enemies.

The Tsarnaev brothers prove that the current whack-a-mole strategy is severely limited and flawed and that it is time for the United States to address head on the ideology of political Islam which is the root cause of Islamist terrorism.

It appears from their YouTube and Facebook pages that the brothers Islamism was nurtured in just the past few years after they had been in the U.S. for some time. So their radicalization seemed to be less about Chechnya as it was about the transnational Islamist supremacism that infected their mind, was brought with them and nurtured in the end on our soil.

Since the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, it will be important to unravel how the administration determines who actually poses an ideological risk for radicalization. To date the administration has been unwilling to even recognize that there is an ideological threat and instead calls it the meaningless “violent extremism” or in the case of Major Nidal Hasan’s Fort Hood massacre “workplace violence”.

AIFD calls upon American Muslims, the Obama Administration, media and academe to develop a coherent strategy to promote western ideals of liberty among Muslims domestically and abroad, while seeking to defeat the supremacist mindset of political Islam and its continued threat to our national security.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit their website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

Herald-Tribune: Sarasota family had ‘many connections’ to 9/11 terror attacks

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The Al-Hijji family abruptly left this home at 4224 Escondito Circle in Prestancia, Sarasota at least a week before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. – Herald-Tribune Archive

Abdulazziz al-Hijji

Contrary to previous statements made by the FBI to the news media, a family living in the south Sarasota neighborhood of Prestancia had “many connections” to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to newly released FBI documents.

The family, Anoud and Abdulazziz al-Hijji, had links to 9/11 hijackers — including Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who trained at a Venice flight school in preparation for the assault on New York and Washington, D.C., that killed 2,996.

Anoud al-Hijji is the daughter of Esam Ghazzawi, a powerful Saudi businessman with long ties to the Saudi royal family. The al-Hijjis have denied any involvement or relationship with the 9/11 hijackers.

But the family abruptly left the Prestancia home that they had lived in for six years roughly a week before the 9/11 attacks, leaving behind clothes, food, children’s toys and other living essentials.

The Telegraph UK reported in February 2012:

“A Saudi Arabian accused of associating with several of the September 11 hijackers and who disappeared from his home in the United States a few weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, is in London working for his country’s state oil company.

Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida — one of them new — and flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still circulating.

Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr al-Hijji’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001.

The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house.

All three men had trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from Sarasota.”

Jihad comes to Boston: The Chechnya Connection

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Fox News reports, “Ties between Islamic extremist groups and Chechnya well-documented. [C]ongressional researchers and foreign policy analysts have long tracked a connection between the Chechnya region and Islamic extremists with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. If the suspects are indeed Chechen, analysts told Fox News they may represent part of a jihadi network which has made its way to American soil. “The Chechen jihadi network is very extensive,” Middle East analyst Walid Phares said Friday. “They have a huge network inside Russia and Chechnya.”

Chris Kyle in his autobiography American Sniper wrote that during the 2006 battle of in Ramadi,  Iraq, “I saw a whole bunch of guys standing there in desert camouflage—the old brown chocolate-chip stuff from Desert Storm, the First Gulf War. They were all wearing gear. They were all Caucasian, including one or two with blond hair, obviously not Iraqis or Arabs… We looked at each other. Something flicked in my brain, and I flicked the trigger on the M-16, mowing them down. A half-second’s more hesitation, and I would have been the one bleeding out on the floor. They turned out to be Chechens, Muslims apparently recruited for a holy war against the West. (We found their passports after searching the house.)” [My emphasis]

Clare Lopez, former CIA  Operations officer and Russia expert, in a statement to WDW noted, “This attack is not about Russia. This is an act of jihad. As time goes on our best friends are the media who will get into the background of these two men and reveal the truth.”

Time/Yahoo News reports:

Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout earlier today, appears to have been sympathetic to Islamist radicalism. Five months ago he appears to have created a channel on YouTube called “Terrorists.” The channel features videos from the one of the leaders of the insurgency in Dagestan who goes by the name Amir Abu Dudzhan. YouTube appears to have removed two of the videos but in a third features Dudzhan calling for jihad. Holding a Kalashnikov rifle, he says, “Jihad is the duty of every able-bodied Muslim.” Among the other videos on his channel is one of Timur Mutsuraev, the bard of the Chechen resistance in the 1990s; it features his song, “We will devote our lives to jihad.” See Tamerlan’s video list here.

Here is the video on  Tamerlan’s YouTube channel calling for jihad by Amir Abu Dujana Rabbanikaly:

Reuters reports:

“Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site.

Abusive comments in Russian and English were flooding onto Tsarnaev’s page on VK, a Russian-language social media site, on Friday after he was identified as a suspect in the bombing of the Boston marathon.

Police launched a massive manhunt for Tsarnaev, 19, after killing his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a shootout overnight.”

Click on image for a larger view.

According to Reuters:

On the site, the younger Tsarnaev identifies himself as a 2011 graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

His “World view” is listed as “Islam” and his “Personal priority” is “career and money”.

He has posted links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war and to Islamic web pages with titles like “Salamworld, my religion is Islam” and “There is no God but Allah, let that ring out in our hearts”.

He also has links to pages calling for independence for Chechnya, a region of Russia that lost its bid for secession after two wars in the 1990s.

The page also reveals a sense of humor, around his identity as a member of a minority from southern Russia’s restive Caucasus, which includes Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and other predominately Muslim regions that have seen two decades of unrest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

A video labelled “tormenting my brother” shows a man resembling his dead brother Tamerlan laughing and imitating the accents of different Caucasian ethnic groups.

The Washington Post provides this background on Chechnya:

The Chechen conflict dates to the early 1990s. In the summer of 1999, fighters in the predominantly Muslim republic rose up in an attempt to throw off Russian domination. Vladimir Putin, then the Russian prime minister, responded quickly, firmly and brutally to put down the rebellion.

Later that summer, there were several explosions across Russia and Putin blamed Chechens. Putin sent the army back by force, which resulted in Western criticism of Russian tactics and human rights violations.

In the most dramatic episode, about 40 armed Chechen separatists took more than 900 hostages at a Moscow theater. After a two-day siege, Russian special police pumped a chemical agent into the theater’s ventilation system and raided the building. About 130 hostages died, and all of the Chechens were killed.

Though the war has officially ended, the Russians have maintained a tight grip on Chechnya, backing a strongman friendly to Moscow and maintaining a robust military presence. Efforts have also been underway in recent years to rebuild the shattered capital of Grozny.

Still, sporadic violence and kidnapping have continued in Chechnya and separatists retain a following. The years of fighting, crime and economic difficulties led tens of thousands of Chechens to leave their homes for other former Soviet republics.

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Killed, 2nd Got away on foot (+ video)

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There’s a police operation underway in the town of Watertown near Boston following the shooting of a policeman on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Police have confirmed one suspect has been killed and that the other suspect is still at large and is connected to Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing. Residents of Watertown are being told to remain inside.

Asjylyn Loder & Esmé E. Deprez from Bloomberg report:

“Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.

Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.

Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.”

Read more.

The featured photo, courtesy of Kelvin Ma, is of first responders including Carlos Arredondo, in cowboy hat, tend to Jeff Bauman, who was severely wounded after two explosions occurred along the final stretch of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Boston on April 15, 2013.

VIDEO: If you know either of these “suspects” in the Boston bombing call the FBI

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The FBI released images on Thursday of two men they said that they would like to question in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. If you know or know where to find either of these two individuals call 1-800-CALL-FBI:

“Today we are enlisting the public’s help to identify the two suspects,” said Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Boston field office.

Videos and photographs of the men wanted for questioning were posted online at www.fbi.gov.

UPDATE:

The Washington Times reports:

One of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead after the killing of a university officer and a shootout with police, and a massive manhunt is underway for the other, authorities said early Friday.

Residents of Watertown, a Boston suburb, have been advised by police to keep their doors locked and not let anyone in.

“We believe this to be a terrorist,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed David. “We believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people. We need to get him in custody.”

Read more.