Tag Archive for: IS

California Muslim stabber was on terror watch list, had Islamic State flag

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If the information in this report is true, then Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke was deliberately lying when he told the media that this attack had nothing to do with Faisal Mohammad’s Islamic faith. What is the motive of these people?

When it comes to Islamic jihad attacks, virtually all public officials downplay the Islamic aspect, obfuscate the motive, and often lie outright, all to protect Islam. What has made Islam sacrosanct so that no matter how high the stack of bodies gets, no matter how many atrocities are committed in its name and in accord with its teachings, the one thing we must not do at all costs is identify the root cause properly?

“Were Law Enforcement Leaders and UC Chancellor Aware of Threat by Terrorsits [sic]/Extremists to Attack UC Merced?,” by Matthew Gonzales, Merced TV News, November 7, 2015 (thanks to Joe):

…From the information I have gathered, the suspect was indeed not only on the FBI’s terrorist watch list but he was also on a national watch list and had been one of the topics of discussion at a recent FBI briefing to Merced County law enforcement leaders. According to recently obtained information, about 6 months ago the FBI held a terrorist/extremist briefing with Merced County law enforcement leaders. At this meeting several suspected terrorist with ISIS links were said to be here in Merced County. Names and photos were presented including one of Faisal Mohammad. Based on the FBI’s own analysis and a number of people on the terrorist watch list that are in the area they projected an attack at the UC Merced campus. Though they were not absolutely certain of the attack on the UC they did feel that there was enough information for them to be here if it did.

According to my sources the UC Chancellor was also briefed on the potential threats.

A witness who wishes to remain anonymous stated that they had seen what appeared to be a picture of an ISIS flag which was pulled out of the suspect’s pocket. Two of my law enforcement sources have verified that this is in fact true and that the UC Chancellor along with the FBI and DHS have instructed our local media and our local law enforcement leaders to feed the current narrative that FM was a disgruntled student instead of what he actually was… an extremist Muslim bent on attacking American students in the name of ISIS. And their reasoning for not informing Merced County residents or our out-of-town students and their parents about these potential threats to their lives? According to all three law enforcement sources the information was withheld because it would be bad for business. Protecting four innocent people’s lives and the truth was bad for business….

The last thing one of my law enforcement sources said before she hung-up was, “ISIS is here, Matt, and this is no longer a safe community. This info needs to be made public to the people of Merced County to be aware of the d anger signs.” I think she’s right because we have the right to know to be able to protect ourselves and our families from this impending danger.

RELATED ARTICLE: Michigan: Majority Muslim city council elected, “Today we show the Polish and everybody else”

Kerry: Islamic State not due to Islam, but due to Israel and climate change

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Hostility to Israel, dark warnings about the perils of global warming, and an anxiousness to absolve Islam of any responsibility for the evils done in its name — this single address by John Kerry sums up the Obama Administration’s foreign policy in a nutshell.

“Kerry: Extremism Not Linked to Islam; Factors Include Deprivation, Climate Change,” by Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, October 17, 2014:

(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday night rejected any link between Islam and extremism practiced by the likes of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh), pointing instead to factors such as poverty among youthful Mideast populations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and climate change.

Addressing a reception at the State Department in honor of the recent Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, Kerry told an audience of Muslim community representatives, diplomats and others that the world was facing “a very complex time, and there are many currents that are loose out there that have brought us to this moment.”

“The extremism that we see, the radical exploitation of religion which is translated into violence, has no basis in any of the real religions,” he said. “There’s nothing Islamic about what ISIL/Daesh stands for, or is doing to people.”

The situation was “complicated, and for other reasons,” Kerry said. “We’re living at a point in time where there are just more young people demanding what they see the rest of the world having than at any time in modern history.”

He said with large youthful populations in some countries in the Middle East, South-Central Asia and the Horn of Africa, “you are going to have a governance problem unless your governance is really addressing the demands and needs of that part of the population.”

Kerry said extremist violence was just a symptom of underlying causes that needed to be addressed. He spoke in that context of a need for a partnership – to pursue peace, shared prosperity and the ability to get an education and a job, as well as “sustainability of the planet itself.”

“And that brings us to something like climate change, which is profoundly having an impact in various parts of the world, where droughts are occurring not at a 100-year level but at a 500-year level in places that they haven’t occurred, floods of massive proportions, diminishment of water for crops and agriculture at a time where we need to be talking about sustainable food.”

“In many places we see the desert increasingly creeping into East Africa,” he said. “We’re seeing herders and farmers pushed into deadly conflict as a result. We’re seeing the Himalayan glaciers receding, which will affect the water that is critical to rice and to other agriculture on both sides of the Himalayas. These are our challenges.”

‘Humiliation and denial’

Kerry also linked the threat of ISIS-type extremism to the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

“As I went around and met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we – there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said, “because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt – and I see a lot of heads nodding – they had to respond to.”

“And people need to understand the connection of that,” Kerry added. “It has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity …”…

The 56-page latest edition of its publication, Dabiq, does not refer once to the plight of the Palestinians, although there are numerous hostile references to Jews, “Crusaders” and others.

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Special Report: Did ISIS Use Chemical Weapons Against the Kurds in Kobani? by Jonathan Spyer

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WARNING:  This post contains images which some readers may find disturbing.  Caution is advised.  Please scroll down to view these images.

The fate of Kobani city now hangs in the balance, as around 9000 fighters of the Islamic State organization close in on the Kurdish held area. The current IS assault on the Kobani enclave was not the first attempt by the jihadis to destroy the Kurdish-controlled area.

The Kobani enclave, most of which is now in the hands of the IS, at one time extended to Tel Abyad in the east, and Jarabulus in the west.

It constituted a major hindrance to the desire of the jihadis to maintain free passage for their fighters from Raqqa city up to the Turkish border and westwards towards the front lines in Aleppo province. IS has therefore long sought to destroy it.

Prior to the current campaign, the most serious (but unsuccessful) attempt to conquer Kobani came in July 2014, shortly following the dramatic IS advance into Iraq.

It was during this assault on Kobani that evidence emerged which appeared to point to the use by the Islamic State on at least one occasion of some kind of chemical agent against the Kurdish fighters of the YPG (Peoples’ Protection Units).

The July offensive commenced on July 2. According to Kurdish activists, the use of the chemical agent took place on July 12th, in the village of Avdiko, in the eastern part of the Kobani enclave (now in IS hands.)

Nisan Ahmed, health minister of the Kurdish authority in Kobani, established a medical team to examine the incident.

According to Ahmed, the bodies of three Kurdish fighters showed no signs of damage from bullets.

Rather “burns and white spots on the bodies of the dead indicated the use of chemicals, which led to death without any visible wounds or external bleeding.” [ii]

Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA Journal) has acquired exclusive access to photographs of the bodies of these fighters, which appear below for the first time.

According to expert Israeli sources who have seen the pictures, they appear to indicate the use of some form of chemical agent, probably mustard (blister agent), but it is not possible to conclusively confirm this without further investigation.

Where might IS have acquired these agents?

According to a report in the Arabic language Al-Modon website on July 16th, eyewitnesses in Raqqa city assert the existence of a facility close to the city containing chemical agents. [iii] The reliability of the eyewitness quoted has been indicated to MERIA by third parties.

It is possible that these were transferred to Raqqa from Iraq, following the capture of the Muthanna compound 35 miles north-west of Iraq, by IS in June.

Iraq’s ambassador Mohammed Ali Al-Hakim, speaking after the capture of Muthanna by IS, singled out two bunkers at the facility, 13 and 41, as being of particular concern.

According to a UN report compiled after the departure of UN inspectors and quoted by Associated Press, bunker 41 contained “2,000 empty 155mm artillery shells contaminated with the chemical warfare agent mustard, 605 one-tonne mustard containers with residues, and heavily contaminated construction material.

At the time, the US State Department’s Jen Psaki played down the importance of the capture of Muthanna. Psaki suggested that the facility contained “degraded chemical remnants” but that it would be “difficult, if not impossible, to safely use this for military purposes or, frankly, to move it.” [iv]

A CIA report from 2007, however, offers evidence that might challenge Psaki’s apparent absence of concern.

The report notes that “The precursor and agent production area at Al Muthanna was not completely destroyed during Desert Storm. Portions of the mustard (blister agent) production and storage area survived. The VX and Tabun production (nerve agent) facilities were incapacitated.” [v]

The report further observes that “ISG is unable to unambiguously determine the complete fate of old munitions, materials, and chemicals produced and stored there. The matter is further complicated by the looting and razing done by the Iraqis.” [vi]

With regard to the state of al-Muthanna at the time that the report was composed (2007), it observes that Stockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there. The most dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers. Although declared, the bunkers contents have yet to be confirmed.

Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited. Some of the bunkers were empty. Some of the bunkers contained large quantities of unfilled chemical munitions. [vii]

So the CIA report confirms that al-Muthanna was used for the production of chemical weaponry including mustard agent. The report also confirms that investigations have been unable to ‘unambiguously determine’ the fate of munitions at the site, and that while stockpiles clearly are stored at the site, the precise nature of these stockpiles remains unconfirmed. There are no indications that this situation has changed in the period since the report.

The evidence appears to support the contention that on at least one occasion, Islamic State forces did employ some form of chemical agent, acquired from somewhere, against the YPG in Kobani.

No further instances have been reported. The evidence also indicates that it is likely that as a result of the capture of the al-Muthanna compound, stockpiles of chemical munitions have come into the group’s possession.

The incident at Avdiko village on July 12th suggests that IS may well have succeeded in making some of this material available for use in combat.

The probable possession by the Islamic State of a CW capability is for obvious reasons a matter of the gravest concern, and should be the urgent subject of further attention and investigation.

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[i] Conversations with Kurdish activists, July, 2014.

[ii] Hadi Salameh, ‘Did ISIS use chemical weapons against the Syrian Kurds,’ July 16th, Al-Modon. (Arabic). http://www.almodon.com

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Associated Press, July 9th, 2014.http://www.theguardian.com

[v] Al Muthanna Chemical Weapons Complex, Iraq’s Chemical Warfare Program – Annex B, April 23, 2007. https://www.cia.gov

[vi] Ibid.

[vii]

ABOUT DR. JONATHAN SPYER

Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, Israel, and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is the author of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict (Continuum, 2010) and a columnist at the Jerusalem Post newspaper. Spyer holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Masters’ Degree in Middle East Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His blog can be followed at: http://jonathanspyer.com/.

VIDEO EXPOSE: Stealth Jihad at a Oklahoma City Mosque

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Today’s show is an expose’ on the “Stealth Jihad” operations of the Masjid An-Nasr, the mosque of beheader Jah’keem Yisrael.

Special guests include subject matter expert Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org, Dr. Andy Bostom, author of “Legacy of Jihad“, and former Muslim, “Noor”, who attended the Oklahoma City, OK mosque and studied under Imam Suhaib Webb.

Remember when the New York Times said ‘Americans Should Embrace Shariah Law’?

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In 2011 I wrote a column raising concerns about an op-ed in the New York Times saying America should embrace Islamic shariah law. Fast forward to today and the emergence of the Islamic State (IS), which is based, by its own admission, on shariah law. I have decided to republish my original column for all to reflect upon.

New York Times: Americans Should Embrace Shariah Law

Originally published September 4, 2011

An op-ed piece titled “Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America” appears in the New York Times. The column is written by Eliyahu Stern, Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History at Yale University. Professor Stern states, “Today, we need an Abrahamic ethic that welcomes Islam into the religious tapestry of American life.”

Professor Stern goes on to say, “The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores our country’s successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.”

The New York Times editorial board, by publishing this column, endorses Professor Stern’s premise – shariah law must be embraced by America.

First, I would like to briefly show how Professor Stern misunderstands Jewish law (Halacha) and projects that misunderstanding to support his premise that we should embrace shariah law, which calls for his own death as a Jew.

Second, I would like to present how Professor Stern makes a fatal assumption – that shariah compliant individuals easily and over time fully assimilate into non-Islamic societies.

Rabbi Jonathan Hausman in the New English Review regarding differences between Halacha and Sharia in an article, “Halacha, Sharia and the Religious Acceptance of Constitutional Governance”, states:

“Simply stated, there is a basic Rabbinic principle that has operated since roughly the year 226 CE. That principle is known as Dina d’malchuta Dina; the law of the country is binding and, in certain cases, is to be preferred to Jewish law/Halacha.

[…]

Samuel, the leader of the Babylonian Jewish community in 241 CE, specifically imbued his community with the consciousness that one must be reconciled to changed circumstances regarding government, and that civil law is necessary for the functioning of the greater society. The result was an internal recognition of Judaism’s non-supercessionist and non-conversionary character. According to the Prophet Nehemiah, Jews should obey the laws of their rulers (Nehemiah 9:37).”

This Rabbinic principle is embedded in Christian principles and attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, which reads, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

So both Jewish and Christian principles recognize “civil law is necessary for the functioning of the greater society.”

Does shariah law have the same principle of “render unto Caesar”?

According to Rabbi Hausman, who is trained in both Halacha and studied doctrinal Islam as a graduate student in Egypt, the answer is no! Rabbi Hausman points out, “Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the direct word of Allah delivered to the last and greatest prophet Muhammad. Therefore, it is immutable, perfect, unchangeable, static, and unchanging. What can’t be derived from the Qur’an may be gleaned from the Sunna, which relates how Muhammad conducted his life in practice, and is considered by Muslims to be immutable for all time.”

Rabbi Hausman finds in shariah Islam: Religion is the State and the State is the Religion. Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as “the supreme law of the land.” This is compatible with both Jewish and Christian principles. The Supremacy Clause flies in the face of shariah law.

Therefore Professor Stern’s historical comparison of the treatment of Jews and Jewish law in America and shariah law is at best misleading and at worse patently false.

Now for the issue of assimilation.

Historically, have Christians, Jews and Muslims fully and completely assimilated into other societies? The answer is yes for Christians and Jews. We find that while Christians and Jews have been subjected to unspeakable persecution by a variety of societies from the time of Pharaoh, to ancient Rome, to Nazi Germany to Arab countries in the Middle East, they have worked to assimilate.

The opposite is true of those who adhere to shariah Islamic law. As shariah law spreads in non-Islamic societies it demands seperate but equal status. Additionally, in predominately shariah compliant nations Jews, Christians and all other non-believers are categorized as infidels, a term of derision. They are forced to assimilate or are persecuted. But what says this? The Qur’an, specifically the following verses 2:190-193:

[2:190] Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors.

[2-191] And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.

[2-192] And if they cease, then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

[2-193] Fight them until there is no [more] fitnah and [until] worship is [acknowledged to be] for Allah . But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors.

Fitnah refers to the First Islamic civil war, in 656–661 AD, a prolonged struggle for the caliphate after the 656 assassination of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan. The Second Fitna, or Second Islamic civil war, is usually identified as the 683–685 AD conflict among the Umayyads for control of the caliphate. The third one refers to the taifas in the end of the Caliph of Córdoba’s rule.

Professor Stern misses the practical application of shariah Islam in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, etc. For Americans to embrace shariah law requires embracing Fitnah against America.

Professor Stern is asking Americans to sell the rope to shariah Islamists, that will be used to hang us.

ISIS one mile from Baghdad: May Obama be cursed with nightmares of the Americans we lost in Iraq

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Vice President Joe Biden recently proclaimed we would “chase ISIS to the gates of hell” — well, it seems they’re going to be a bit delayed, as they’re at the gates of Baghdad right now. Perhaps those almost 1,500 American troops — boots on the ground — will be allowed to leave from behind the gates of the U.S. Embassy and compound to fight — oops, that would be combat, and Obama said that’s not allowed. So could we be on the verge of seeing a 21st century version of the last U.S. helicopter taking off from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon as the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong breached those gates?

map isis one mile from bagdad

For a larger view click on the map.

And you must understand this would be the third U.S. Embassy that would have been evacuated in this year! First Libya, now it seems we’re doing the same in Yemen, and Baghdad could be next. I remember transiting through Baghdad as we moved in to take up our positions at Taji AB, just north of the city.

But it’s not just ISIS at the gates. The al-Qaida in Syria affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, is joining forces with ISIS — so much for those Obama air strikes to “degrade” ISIS.

As reported in the UK Independent, “Isis fighters are reportedly just one mile away from Baghdad as reports emerge of al-Qaida militants bolstering their ranks in Syria. According to the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, Isis was approaching the Iraqi capital on Monday morning. “The Islamic State are now less than 2km away from entering Baghdad,” a spokesperson said. “They said it could never happen and now it almost has. Obama says he overestimated what the Iraqi Army could do. Well you only need to be here a very short while to know they can do very, very little.”

I suppose this is something else that will sneak up on the Obama administration? It’s clearly evident — well, except to the mindless progressive socialists — that Obama’s political agenda and narrative is far more important to him than the security of the American people or the precious blood many of my warrior brothers and sisters shed in Iraq. Just last year at the UN General Assembly, it was B. Hussein Obama who spiked the football in his speech and took a personal victory lap before the world over his acclaimed achievement of ending the war in Iraq and bringing all US troops home — looks like he never consulted with the enemy about their perspective on the matter.

But we can all expect Obama to just blame the U.S. intelligence community — or maybe he’ll blame ISIS for not playing along.

The Independent says “Isis fighters were also battling Government forces in a key town 25 miles west of Baghdad – Amiriyat al-Fallujah. According to a BBC correspondent, fighting had calmed by Monday afternoon but a standoff continued along the main road to nearby Fallujah, which is under Isis control. US air strikes overnight targeted other Isis positions in Anbar province, the Pentagon said, and in Syria four more oil fields controlled by militants near Raqqa were hit on Sunday.”

“American officials called the attacks “successful” but the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed mostly civilians were hit and a grain silo was destroyed.”

Folks, this is what happens when you’re just dropping bombs with no targeting assets on the ground to enable precision. I love the pretty fighter jet tapes that are being released, but all I’ve seen are a truck here and a truck there being brilliantly blown up.

According to the Independent, “The news comes amid reports of an emerging alliance between ISIS forces in Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. The group is the Syrian offshoot of al-Qaida and has been fighting against the Assad regime in the civil war. Despite months of clashes between its forces and Isis (also known as Islamic State) militants, the two groups appear to be forming a loose coalition in parts of the country to fight increasing attacks by the US and its allies.”

“Al-Nusra’s official spokesperson, Abu Firas al-Suri, threatened the coalition nations with retaliation on Saturday. “These states have committed a horrible act that is going to put them on the list of jihadist targets throughout the world,” he said. “This is not a war against al-Nusra, but a war against Islam.”

Ok, so I just have to ask, is this guy al-Suri a high school or college teacher of the “religion of peace?” Now, does anyone believe we should take the enemy at his word and realize that his reality must become our own? So now please remind me, who are these “moderate” Islamists who are going to fight ISIS again?

“Al-Nusra and Isis leaders are now holding war planning meetings together, a source told the Guardian, although no formal alliance has been confirmed. The reports follow growing defections from other Islamist groups to Isis, which is seen as better organised and equipped to create an “Islamic State” straddling Iraq and Syria. A loyalty pledge was reportedly made by al-Nusra in June in the town of Al-Bukamal near the Iraqi border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and the two groups have fought together against Government forces.”

People follow winners and in the eyes of those in the Islamic world, ISIS is kicking arse, and they want to be a part of that. Here in America we have a loser – and just so you know, winning presidential elections through deceit, media manipulation and nefarious voting actions doesn’t make you a winner, just a progressive socialist.

I’m waiting to hear the excuses when Baghdad potentially falls — which is quite possible within this week. May Obama be cursed with nightmares by all those who lost their lives in Iraq. The “Lie of the Year for 2013″ was Obama’s “You can keep your doctor.” The Lie of the Year for 2014 should be “ISIS is the jayvee team.” But the greatest lie has to be, “al-Qaida has been decimated and is on the run.”

Leaders take responsibility, not credit, and winners don’t need to lie.

RELATED ARTICLE: ISIS Within 1 Mile of Baghdad, Escape Routes Closed – The Clarion Project

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. The featured image is courtesy of the Associated Press and UK Mail Online.

6 Elements of ‘Extremist’ Islam That ‘Moderate’ Muslims Endorsed as They Condemned the Islamic State

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At last, moderate Islam! The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Fiqh Council of North America held a press conference in Washington on Wednesday at which they announced with great fanfare that they had refuted the religious ideology of the Islamic State [see below video].

They issued this lengthy “open letter” (not, interestingly enough, a fatwa) addressed to the Islamic State’s caliph Ibrahim, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, explaining how he was misunderstanding Islam. The international media is, predictably, thrilled, but unfortunately, and not surprisingly, there is less to it than meets the eye. In fact, the “moderates” who signed on to this open letter have ended up endorsing elements of Islam that most non-Muslim Westerners consider to be “extremist.”

The fact that this is not an Islamic case against the Islamic State’s jihad terror that will move Islamic State fighters to lay down their arms, but rather a deceptive piece designed to fool gullible non-Muslim Westerners into thinking that the case for “moderate Islam” has been made, but which will not change a single jihadi’s mind, is clear from the outset from the involvement not only of Hamas-linked CAIR, but also from some of the 126 signers.

These include Professor Mustafa Abu Sway, the integral professorial chair for the Study of Imam Ghazali’s Work, Jerusalem — and a Hamas activist; Dr. Jamal Badawi, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case; Mustafa Ceric, former grand mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has called for Sharia in Bosnia; Professor Caner Dagli, a venomously hateful Islamic apologist at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, who traffics in Nazi imagery about “unclean” unbelievers; Ali Gomaa, former grand mufti of Egypt, who endorses wife-beating, Hizballah, and the punishment of apostates from Islam; Hamza Yusuf Hanson, founder and director of Zaytuna College, USA, who blamed the West for Muslim riots over a teddy bear named Muhammad; Ed Husain, senior fellow in Middle Eastern Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, who recently claimed that seizing British jihadis’ passports so that they couldn’t return to the UK from the Islamic State would only create more jihadis; Muhammad Tahir Al-Qadri, founder of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International, Pakistan, who drafted Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law and issued his own disingenuous and hypocritical Fatwa Against Terrorism; and Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of the Fiqh Council and former head of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Hardly a group that inspires confidence in their “moderation.”

And in the course of their very lengthy open letter, they endorse these six elements of what is usually considered to be “extremist” Islam:shutterstock_76411432

1. Jihad

“All Muslims see the great virtue in jihad,” says the open letter. It repeatedly stresses that jihad warfare is strictly defensive. “There is no such thing,” the scholars assert, “as offensive, aggressive jihad just because people have different religions or opinions. This is the position of Abu Hanifa, the Imams Malik and Ahmad and all other scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah, with the exception of some scholars of the Shafi’i school.”

The Shafi’i school is one of the four great schools of Sunni jurisprudence. If some Shafi’i scholars allow for “offensive, aggressive jihad just because people have different religions or opinions,” can it really be said to be un-Islamic? Are the scholars pronouncing takfir on the Shafi’i school? Or just deceiving gullible non-Muslims? The answer is clear.

What’s more, restricting jihad to defensive warfare looks even worse in light of the fact that in Sunni Islamic law, only the caliph has the authority to declare offensive jihad, but defensive jihad is obligatory upon all Muslims when a Muslim land is attacked, and need not be declared by anyone. So since the caliphate was abolished in 1924 to this day (except for those who accept the Islamic State’s caliphate claim), all jihad attacks, even 9/11, have been cast by their perpetrators as defensive – hence the jihadist tendency to retail long lists of grievances when justifying their actions.

So if 9/11 was defensive jihad, and these “moderate” scholars are endorsing defensive jihad, their “moderation” should send just a bit of a chill up the spine.

ud

2. Dhimmitude

“Regarding Arab Christians,” the scholars remind the Islamic State caliph, “you gave them three choices: jizyah (poll tax), the sword, or conversion to Islam.” Jizya is the tax specified in the Qur’an (9:29) to be levied on “the People of the Book” as a sign of their dhimmitude, their subjugation and submission to Muslim hegemony. This, the scholars say, was wrong, because “these Christians are not combatants against Islam or transgressors against it, indeed they are friends, neighbours and co-citizens. From the legal perspective of Shari’ah they all fall under ancient agreements that are around 1400 years old, and the rulings of jihad do not apply to them.”

However, then the open letter asserts that “there are two types of jizyah in Shari’ah (Islamic Law)”: the first “applies to those who fought Islam,” but the second “is levied on those who do not wage war against Islam.”

Now wait a minute. The scholars tell the caliph that the Arab Christians are friends of the Muslims, they “did not wage war against you” and thus should not have been subjugated as dhimmis. But then in the next paragraph they say that “the second type of jizyah is levied on those who do not wage war against Islam.” Thus how is the Islamic State transgressing against Islam by levying the jizya on those who did not wage war against Islam?

In any case, the “moderate” scholars are apparently fine with a religion-based poll tax, a sign of the subjugation of the religious minority, in an Islamic state. In this the authors also contradict their earlier claim that jihad is only defensive; now “those who do not wage war against Islam” are to be made to pay the jizya, which results from Muslims fighting the People of the Book: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

3-5. Stoning for adultery, amputation for theft, execution of apostates

Hudud refers in Islamic law to the punishments fixed by Allah himself for serious crimes, including the stoning of adulterers, the amputation of thieves’ hands, and the execution of apostates from Islam. While Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely claim that these punishments are not really part of Sharia or Islam at all, these scholars say: “Hudud punishments are fixed in the Qur’an and Hadith and are unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law.” Their only quibble with the Islamic State is that they have been cruel and merciless in applying these punishments.

This is telling. CAIR has led campaigns against anti-Sharia laws that depend in large part on the claim that these punishments are not part of Sharia. Now Hamas-linked CAIR has admitted otherwise. The claim that the Islamic State has not implemented them properly is just a judgment call, not a refutation of the Islamic State’s practices.

6. The Caliphate

“There is agreement (ittifaq) among scholars,” say the scholars, “that a caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah.”

A caliphate is an obligation. That is, Muslims should strive to establish a single multinational, multiethnic empire, to which alone they owe political loyalty – in other words, they owe no loyalty to the nations in which they currently reside.

This is a notable and extremely important admission. The Islamic State is appealing to so many young Muslims in the West because of its claim to reconstitute the caliphate. Caliphates are established and sustained on the principle of Might Makes Right. If the Islamic State sustains itself and survives, more and more Muslims will pledge allegiance to it.

To be sure, Hamas-linked CAIR and the Fiqh Council and all the signers of this open letter really do oppose the Islamic State. But they don’t oppose it because it is transgressing against the commands of what they believe to be a religion of peace. They oppose it because they want to establish a caliphate under the auspices of or led by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Islamic State constitutes competition. This is clear from their sly endorsements in this document of jihad, the Sharia, and the concept of the caliphate. But with so many infidels so eager to be fooled, their work is easy.

EDITORS NOTE: The image illustration via Larry Bruce / Shutterstock.com

Netanyahu: Hamas and ISIS ‘share branches of the same poisonous tree’ [Video]

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly. He said that Hamas and ISIS “share branches of the same poisonous tree” and have similar ambitions of “world domination.”

He was also highly critical of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, calling Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the U.N. the previous week “one of history’s greatest displays of double talk.”

EDITORS NOTE:  The featured image is of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the 69th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York September 29, 2014. Photo by Reuters.

Was the Oklahoma beheading America’s First ISIS-Inspired Attack?

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Was Muslim convert Alton Nolen, who allegedly beheaded co-worker Colleen Hufford and stabbed another woman in Oklahoma on Sept. 25, inspired by ISIS, the Islamist group that rules large parts of Syria and Iraq? (ISIS is also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIL, Islamic State, and Da`esh.)

Law enforcement and the media have, as usual, distanced the attack from Islam and terrorism, implying the alleged crime is an example of “workplace violence” due to Nolen’s recent firing from Vaughan Foods.

But co-workers report Nolen had a history of attempting to convert them to the Muslim faith. Law enforcement officials have not yet revealed if this was a contributing factor in Nolen’s termination. In addition, Robin Marsh of KWTV-9 reports that Nolen was “shouting Islamic phrases” while attacking his victims.

It is Nolen himself, however, who provides the best initial evidence that radical Islam in general and ISIS in particular motivated his alleged murder a fellow worker, evidence worth documenting in some detail. Though limited information is currently available, we are able to learn about Nolen in his own words and posted photographs on social media and use these as a basis to understand his beliefs and speculate about his motives.

After his conversion to Islam, Nolen posted on Facebook (under the name Jah’Keem Yisrael) his support for Islamist causes, including images celebrating Osama bin Laden and the attack on the World Trade Center. He also specifically promoted ISIS.

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For a larger view click on the image.

In February 2014, Nolen enthused about “Some of my Muslim Brothers!!!!!” and posted a time-stamped picture showing ISIS terrorists, above. The relatively obscure photograph is dated February 16, was shared on ISIS Internet forums on February 16, and was posted by Nolen on the very same day, implying he closely followed ISIS online. The picture features Omar al-Shishani, the red-bearded Chechen thought to be the terror group’s “military” chief, on his arrival to the A’zaz District of Aleppo in Syria.

Of particular interest in the photo is the prominent display of the ISIS hand signal – the index finger held up on the right hand. This appears to be the first time Nolen posted a photograph including the ISIS hand signal and it quickly becomes a recurring theme which Nolen, himself, emulates.

Some background: this hand gesture was originally created by Islamists to represent tawhid, the belief in monotheism as it pertains to Islam. ISIS adopted the gesture as the symbol of its group, and uses it to indicate solidarity with ISIS in a fashion similar to the way that criminal street gangs utilize hand signals to communicate gang affiliation.

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Islamic State salute on Alton Nolen’s (a.k.a. Jah’Keem Yisrael) Facebook page. For a larger view click on the image.

In Foreign Affairs, Nathaniel Zalinsky explores the significance of the ISIS hand signal:

[T]he concept of tawhid is central to ISIS’ violent and uncompromising posture toward its opponents, both in the Middle East and in the West… When ISIS militants display the sign, to one another or to a photographer, they are actively reaffirming their dedication to that ideology, whose underlying principle demands the destruction of the West …

The gesture is equally important for what it means to Westerners, most of whom cannot read Arabic. By raising their index fingers, militants send an easy-to-understand message of the group’s goals of theological supremacy and military hegemony… those who underestimate the dangers posed by the Islamic State need look no further than the index finger, which makes ISIS’ ambitions all too clear.

Nolen himself publicly communicated this message for the first time on April 21, 2014. He posted a photograph of what appears to be himself using the right-handed index-finger signal against the backdrop of a Muslim prayer rug that depicts the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. (The Dome of the Rock has become a symbol for Muslims worldwide to conjure images of conquest and dominance over Israel and its capital.)

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For a larger view click on the image.

Nolen posted a photograph [left]on May 30, 2014, of a young man giving the index-finger signal along with the caption, “One whom was guided to Islam 2day I offered him Dawah and he took shahada!” Dawah means to proselytize Islam and shahada is the Muslim declaration of faith. In other words, Nolen wrote that the young man converted to Islam that day. The photograph indicates Nolen was not only proselytizing the Muslim faith but also ISIS ideology.

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Photo series with Alton Nolen giving the Islamic State salute at an Islamic mosque in Oklahoma City, OK. For a larger view click on the image.

In a photo series [right] posted on August 7, 2014, the Facebook status reads, “A night at the Islamic Mosque in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with two of my brothers from Morocco!” and shows Nolen himself giving the ISIS index-finger hand signal.

Nolen’s support of radical Islam transcended hand signals, however, and his own fascination with beheadings dates back at least to March 7, 2014, when he posted an Islamist propaganda photograph of a severed head along with the following caption:

“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.” Qur’an 8:9-13

The information Nolen shared on Facebook clearly indicates his Islamist orientation. It also reveals that Nolen posted messages supportive of ISIS and adopted the group’s popular hand signals, and it suggests, he closely followed ISIS on jihadi forums. On Sept. 22, these forums broadcast a renewed ISIS call for “lone-wolf” attacks. One of its sheikhs, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, pleaded: “If you can kill an American or European infidel… put your trust in Allah and kill him in any way or manner whatsoever.” Days later, Nolen stands accused of beheading his co-worker.

Regardless if Alton Nolen answered this specific call to violence, he clearly admired his “Muslim brothers” in ISIS and their ideology. This leads one to conclude that the gruesome beheading in Oklahoma could be the first case of an ISIS-inspired terror attack on US soil. In all likelihood, it will not be the last.

© 2014 Danielle Avel

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“Progress, but No Time for Celebration”

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‘Perhaps it is the end of the beginning’ were the words that Winston Churchill used to describe a very different conflict to the one we are currently in. When Churchill described the end of the preliminary battles of the Second World War he was speaking from a continent whose young men and women were signed up in their entirety, with whole economies and populations enrolled in the fight against Nazi fascism.

Today we are of course in a very different war. And not only because so few young men and women are in uniform (and ever fewer these days in the United Kingdom). This war is different for a whole range of reasons. Today’s enemies rarely congregate in vast stadia to remind us of their size and power. They control vast territories but few countries. Rarely if ever do they wear a uniform. And hardest of all to comprehend is the fact that this time very many of our enemies are inside our own societies – with a larger group still whose sympathies they believe themselves able to call upon.

The nature of this conflict is still misunderstood now as it has been from day one: we are in a worldwide, multidimensional war against radical Islam. That so many people do not want to admit that is perhaps the greatest demonstration of our potential eventual failure. But there are signs that the battle is clearing.

Just this week the US has been leading an international coalition which is finally striking at the heart of Islamic State (IS) forces. At home in the UK one of our most notorious preachers of hate – Anjem Choudary – has been arrested along with almost a dozen of his followers. This is a moment when many people would hang up their boots and look forward to early retirement. Many of the dangers we have warned of – from Iraq to home and back again – have come disturbingly true. What some people claimed to be scare-mongering is now everyone’s daily news diet. Beheadings in London. Beheadings in Iraq. Crucifixions in Syria. Attempted beheadings in Australia. All these things, and more, have come to pass.

But here at HJS we know that this is not time for celebration or for back-patting. To think things are over now would not just be wrong – it would betray an atrocious error of timing. It is true that ISIS is now on the back-foot. But ISIS is only one group. A year ago nobody had heard of them. A year from now there will be another such group of which we have not yet heard. Domestically we have had a track record of allowing hate preachers to roam free for years before locking them up or otherwise getting rid of them. Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza. There will be others next year. And we actually do know some of their names.

But the point is that while celebrating the incremental steps that our societies are making to understanding the conflict we are in, we do not believe that this is anywhere near an end. It may well be that politicians and publics are catching up with us. But such an event would only herald, at best, the end of the beginning. Ahead of us all are severe and dangerous paths. The Mullahs are still in power in Iran. Hamas are still in power in Gaza. Across the world extremist groups are feeding on the virtues of our societies as well as our flaws. They will be doing so for years to come. So yes, a time for some recognition and some correction, but also a time to realise that we are not yet out of the first act. We do not know how many acts there will be. But people should be under no illusion, and take refuge in no false comforts. This one, to put it in theatre vernacular, looks set to run and run.

Islamic State — Do We Believe Obama or Mohammed?

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Obama and the media tell us that Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL, has nothing to do with Islam. Well, Mohammed says that Islamic State is pure Islam.

We’re at the time in history when ISIS, also called Islamic State or ISIL, has cut off the head of someone in the media. And it was so atrocious that many chose to speak out against it and one of them was Obama.

Here’s what Obama says about Islamic State, “They’ve rampaged across cities and villages killing innocents. They abduct women and children, subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They’ve murdered Moslems, both Sunni and Shia, by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them because they practice a different religion. ISIL speaks for no religion.”

Well, really what Obama’s saying here is Islamic State is not Islamic. That’s really what he’s saying briefly. But, you know it’s not up to Obama to tell us what Islam is. Islam is defined by Mohammed and Allah.

Now, let’s see what happened in the Sira, the life of Mohammed, his official biography, about all these points and let’s start with of all things, rape. On the occasion of Khaybar, once the Jews had been crushed, Mohammed put forth new orders as to how sex would be had with captured women. They were not to be had sex with when they’re having their period, nor if they’re pregnant. So here we have Mohammed giving orders on how to have sex with captives. This is called rape. It is pure Mohammed.

Now, what about the issue of torture. Well, on the same event, once he crushed the Jews at Khaybar, he knew they had buried treasure and so he questioned the chieftain. “Where’s the money? Where’s the gold? Where’s the silver?” And he wouldn’t tell him. So, Mohammed ordered the chieftain staked out on the ground and a small fire built on his chest. Still he would not speak. And so they unstaked him and took him to a man who had lost a brother in the fight against the Jews at Khaybar and he beheaded the Jewish chieftain.

So, here in one event we have torture, we have Jew hatred and we have beheading. All of these are pure Islam.

Now, let’s deal with sex slaves. From the lot of the women, Mohammed had chosen three to give as gifts of pleasure to his chief lieutenants. He gave one to Umar, gave one to Ali and one to Uthman. Oddly enough, Umar passed his sex slave on to his son. So, sex slavery is pure Mohammed.

Now, what about slavery? I’m going to read you a list of things that Mohammed was involved in with slavery. All of these come from the Sira. And by the way, all of these references can be found on politicalislam.com. He was involved in every aspect of slavery. He had Kafir men killed so their women could be made slaves. He gave away slaves for gifts. He owned many slaves, many of them black. He stood by while others beat slaves. He shared the pleasure of forced sex with women conquests. He captured slaves and wholesaled them and retailed them for the profit of jihad. His favorite sexual partner was a sex slave, a Christian woman, who bore him a son. He got slaves as gifts. His pulpit was made by a slave. He ate meals prepared by slaves. His robes were repaired by slaves. And he approved of having sex with your slaves. And if a slave didn’t obey his master he would not go to paradise. Well, that’s pretty clear about the slavery, an issue in Islam.

Now, let’s deal with the last thing, killing Christians. Mohammed had two records in dealing with Christians in Arabia. One was he was kind to them and listened to them. But, once he had crushed the pagans and once he had crushed the Jews, he then turned his attention to the Christians. He sent Khalid, also known as The Sword of Allah, to the fort of a Christian ruler and when the ruler and his brother rode out they killed one and captured the other and subjugated the Christian tribe, made them obey the Sharia and pay the jizyah.

Let me be very clear, Mohammed was a pagan killer, a Jew killer and a Christian killer. Now, let’s go back to what started this off. Who is to determine what Islam is, Obama? No. Mohammed tells us what Islam is and we need to listen to Mohammed and we can ignore Mr. Obama.

Retired Marine General: Obama’s ISIS plan hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding

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About two weeks ago, President Obama laid out his ISIS strategy, and he is struggling to garner support – not only from an alliance or coalition (which is lacking, as no one is naming the countries or their level of support) – but also from senior military generals and defense officials, current and retired, who certainly know something about battle. The latest torpedo comes from a former Commandant of the US Marine Corps, General James Conway.

As reported by The Daily Caller, “The man who was the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010 says President Barack Obama’s strategy to defeat the terrorist group, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is doomed to fail. “I don’t think the president’s plan has a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding,” retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, according to a source in attendance.”

You can always count on a Marine to not mince words. Then again, this is something we all knew was the case two weeks ago, when Obama delivered his 15-minute empty speech which focused more on what he was not going to do along with self-righteous indignation in dismissing ISIS’ Islamic ideology.

Another highly decorated and regarded US Marine General chimed in on the subject. As the Daily Caller reports, former CENTCOM Commander retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis told the House Intelligence Committee, “You just don’t take anything off the table up front, which it appears the administration has tried to do. Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies our enemies in advance that they will not see American ‘boots on the ground.’ If a brigade of our paratroopers or a battalion landing team of our Marines would strengthen our allies at a key juncture and create havoc/humiliation for our adversaries, then we should do what is necessary with our forces that exist for that very purpose.”

Even former Obama administration Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, has confided in an interview that he was against the withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. So who does Obama listen to? Obviously not the people assigned to key national security positions. I suppose being a complete political animal means he only confides in Darth Vader’s sister, Valerie Jarrett. Of course if this were a campaign, then David Axelrod and David Plouffe would be in charge. Maybe behind the scenes, Chicago is still running our country.

We are slowly watching the demise of our nation at the hands of an egomaniacal intransigent ideologue. We will be ultimately victorious, but the pain is going to be rather intense for a period of time.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. The featured image of Marine General James Conway is courtesy of the Examiner.

40 Islamic State jihadis have already returned to the U.S.

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These jihadis have already effectively renounced their U.S. citizenship by joining up with the Islamic State. They have aligned themselves with an entity that considers itself to be at war with the United States, and have vowed to destroy it. They should not have been let back into the country, much less trusted to the surveillance of the politically correct and willfully ignorant FBI.

“Dem Rep: 40 American ISIL Fighters Have Already Returned to the United States,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, September 19, 2014 9:35 am

Rep. Tim Bishop (D., N.Y.) warned during a recent speech that up to 40 radicalized U.S. citizens who have fought alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have already returned to the United States, where they could pose a terrorist threat.

Bishop claims that of the 100 or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIL’s ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, according to his remarks, which were filmed and uploaded to YouTube last week.

“One of the concerns is the number of U.S. citizens who have left our country to go join up with ISIS,” Bishop said during the speech. “It is believed there have been some number up to 100 that have done that.”

“It is also believed that some 40 of those who left this country to join up with ISIS have now returned to our country,” Bishop said, eliciting shocked responses from some in the crowd.

These 40 individuals, Bishop said, “are under FBI attention and surveillance. So they are known and being tracked by the FBI.”

Lawmakers have warned that radicalized ISIL fighters could clandestinely enter the United States through the porous southern border.

U.S. officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other security agencies have said that while the southern border poses a risk, they are more concerned about lone wolf attacks in which an isolated radicalized individual with sympathy to ISIL carries out a solo terror attack.

Bishop said that while ISIL poses and extreme threat, it is not yet capable of attacking the United States, though that could change as the group grows in strength and resources.

“It is a very, very complex and very, very dangerous threat and I think the plan that the president outlined the other night [in his national speech] is a good plan,” Bishop maintained.

President Obama “is correct to recognize the threat, and it clearly is a threat to the stability of the Middle East, a region that is already remarkably unstable,” Bishop said.

“It is not yet a threat to the homeland, but there is a concern that it could metastasize in such a way that it could become a threat to the homeland,” Bishop said, echoing concerns expressed by lawmakers on both sides of the isle.

“But at the present time, the intelligence is ISIS does not present a threat to the homeland, although that is not something that will remain static going out into the future,” Bishop said, describing the regional upheaval as “more of a political conflict in the Arab world then a sectarian conflict” between Muslims.

DHS has said that while there is no evidence of a direct threat by ISIL to the United States, it is aware that the group’s affiliates have been discussing the possibility of crossing the southern border.

“There have been Twitter, social media exchanges among ISIL adherents across the globe speaking about that as a possibility,” Francis Taylor, under secretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, told senators during a recent hearing.

Other U.S. officials also have discussed the possibility of an ISIL adherent carrying out an attack on the United States.

“We remain mindful of the possibility that an ISIL-sympathizer—perhaps motivated by online propaganda—could conduct a limited, self-directed attack here at home with no warning,” Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said in a speech earlier this month.

“We have seen ISIL use a range of media to tout its military capabilities, executions of captured soldiers, and consecutive battlefield victories,” Olsen said. “More recently, the group’s supporters have sustained this momentum on social media by encouraging attacks in the U.S. and against U.S. interests in retaliation for our airstrikes. ISIL has used this propaganda campaign to draw foreign fighters to the group, including many from Western countries.”

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Obama’s plan to defeat Islamic State just ‘toothless’ platitudes

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All Midshipmen and Cadets, while matriculating at one of the US Service Academies, are taught to fight to “Win” in academics, on the athletic field, and ultimately in combat—they learn that there is no substitute for victory!!

Unfortunately, the resident in the Oval Office’s plan to defeat the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL), is not a serious plan; there is no consistency, no clarity, and no obvious will to “Win”  Allies have observed that Obama is calling the world to ride to an uncertain trumpet when he is not committed to it.  The failure to execute an effective air campaign (the 150 air strikes over many weeks should have occurred on the first day of air campaign and everyday thereafter).  The repeated statements by Obama that there will be no boots on the ground, and failure of the air campaign to strike supply lines, long convoys of armed terrorists, and weapons depots in Syria has signaled ISIL that the plan is not a serious plan.

The allies have watched over the last 6 years as Obama walked away from the victory in Iraq & refused to leave a residual US military force in Iraq overriding his own generals, Obama walked away from air strikes in Syria 3 years ago when Assad crossed the red line, he took out a friendly leader in Libya then walking away from a destabilized Libya that resulted in Al Q’ieda taking over Libya, walked away from the friendly Egyptian Army Junta after it removed the Moslem Brotherhood Mosci who was killing Christians, and Obama has sent a signal that he will walk away from Afghanistan leaving it to the Taliban and Al Q’ieda—Middle East & NATO allies are not interested in joining a consortium with a quitter who can’t be trusted to “Win” anything.

U.S. air power, the Kurdish Forces, the Iraqi Army (with an anti-Sunni Government), and the free Syrian Army cannot possibly defeat the 30,000 man ISIL army which is projected to soon grow to 60,000 men (ISIL is selling $3 million in black market oil to Turkey every day to fund its military operation).  Air strikes will not be sufficient, when there is no effective command and control organization on the ground, there is no effective reconnaissance operation on the ground, when the US does not have the ability to capture combatants in order to develop actionable intelligence.  The US is planning to spend one year to train 5000 Free Syrians Army personnel, while ISIL grows from 30,000 to 60,000 in the same year.

After 9/11 the US inserted small Special Operation Units and CIA Paramilitary forces on the ground in Afghanistan to coordinate with the Northern Alliance, in order to drive the Taliban, Al Q’ieda, and Osama Bin Laden out of Afghanistan  The failure of Obama to commit small Special Operations and CIA Paramilitary forces units on the ground in Iraq is dooming Obama’s plan to failure—Obama keeps telling ISIL that there will be no boots on the ground—what other occupant of the Oval Officer in 238 years has ever told the enemy what the US will not do?.

The Obama administration continues to send confusing messages to reluctant US allies who are being asked to join a coalition to defeat ISIL, to the American people who are being asked to support Obama’s inept plan to defeat ISIL (68% of the American people believe Obama’s plan to “Win” is folly), and to Obama’s leftist allies in the Democratic Party to prevent them from being alarmed before the November election (the leftists, Socialists, and Marxists in the Democratic party do not want Obama to carry out a comprehensive “War Plan” to defeat ISIL they want to take funds away from the US military and use those funds to expand the bloated and inept welfare state rift with fraud).

Obama doesn’t have the strength of purpose to do what Presidents Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan did to protect the homeland.  Obama’s political policies are allowing ISIL terrorists to flood across the wide open southern border and threaten American citizens, while he hollows out the US Armed Forces, and creates a $1 trillion annual US deficient leading the nation to the brink of bankruptcy.

For the last 6 years, the Obama administration used drones to kill Al Q’ idea leaders who were immediately replaced by the next Al Q’ieda terrorist in line. They killed one leader after another who had a great deal of valuable intelligence, instead of employing small Special Operations units to capture the leaders, interrogate them, and develop the requisite intelligence to oppose the spread of Al Q’ieda worldwide.  The net result of the killer drone policy that the Obama administration bragged about, has been that ISIL metastasized and Islamic terrorism spread throughout the world like cancer—while the Obama administration was blinded because they lacked actionable intelligence from captured Islamic terrorists.

Obama didn’t want to capture, interrogate, and jail terrorists in Gitmo, all he wanted to do was to kill terrorists in the field so he could close the Gitmo operation.  The Gitmo interrogations developed an incredible amount of actionable intelligence, including providing the intelligence that led to the location of Bin Laden’s messenger, and that messenger ultimately led to US forces to the location of Osama Bin Laden’s lair in Pakistan, where SEAL Team SIX took out Bin Laden.

There is no Obama administration plan to pull out all the stops to “Crush” ISIL.  We encourage you to read the below listed macro approach to Crush ISIL written by the former National Security Advisor in the Reagan Administration, the Hon Robert C. McFarlane, USNA ’59, Col-USMC (Ret); he is calling for the effective employment of diplomacy, applying economic pressure, training  & support of Special Operation Forces, and not to continue following the past policy of  “leading from behind”, but to exercise traditional effective US leadership to “Win”.

Robert  “Bud” McFarlane is the Senior Advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and supports the Combat Veterans For Congress.

A plan for crushing the Islamic State: Toothless diplomacy is no longer an option

By Robert McFarlane – – Wednesday, September 3, 2014

It is astonishing that nearly six years into the tenure of any administration the commander-in-chief would acknowledge publicly that he has no strategy for addressing an evident, serious threat to American interests.

Last week, marauders from the so-called Islamic State overran Tabqa air base in Syria, where MANPADS, or man-portable air-defense systems, are stored. These are the weapons that can bring down commercial aircraft. Considering the pledge of this group’s leader to take the war to the United States, they now have the means to do so whether targeting the takeoff of a U.S. commercial airliner from Dubai, or in a few weeks after penetrating the Mexican border, from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas.

Historically, every new administration spends the first year of its tenure enunciating goals — essentially, to keep the peace and establish a climate at home and abroad in which American interests can be advanced — and then developing strategies for achieving them in specific regions of the world. The process begins with the president stating his view of what our regional interests are, inviting the intelligence community and the Cabinet to identify how those interests are threatened, and then tasking these principals and staff to develop a range of integrated political, economic and military measures for defending and advancing American interests throughout the world. By the end of the first year, the president has evaluated the options submitted to him and has made decisions among them. He then goes about implementing them by publishing and explaining them to three constituencies — the American people, the U.S. Congress and our allies. While this process involves hard work and disciplined leadership, it’s not rocket science. Doing it well yields enormous benefits. It engenders confidence among the American people and nurtures cohesion and support among our allies. Finally, it puts adversaries on notice that we are a serious nation that has the will, the capability, a strategic plan and the resources to prevail against any challenge they might consider posing.

Since World War II, U.S. presidents have engaged this strategic process as a proven means for defining and announcing our interests overseas, assessing how they are threatened, and developing effective strategies designed to deter, or — if deterrence fails — to prevail in any conflict well in advance of any such conflict. In the Reagan administration, I had the privilege of managing that process, and in the ensuing years, it proved invaluable not only in identifying — and pre-empting — challenges still over the horizon, but in crisis management as well. In the remaining years of the current administration, there is still time for President Obama to lead in the resolution of the plethora of crises before us — starting with the threats posed by the Islamic State and concurrently in Ukraine, China and Iran.

Modern terrorism by Islamist groups has posed a “clear and present danger” to our country for more than 30 years. In Iraq, we are faced with an especially challenging form of it.  A well-financed, well-armed and well-trained barbarous force has declared its intention, inter alia, to conduct operations against the United States on its way to establishing an Islamic caliphate of global reach and jurisdiction.

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Given the plausibility of their executing such a plan, the first comment our president must make is that this movement of uncivilized savages puts us all at risk — from Irbil to London, Chicago, Tokyo and Beijing — and that there is no basis for trying to reason with brainwashed, ideological, totalitarian, genocidal criminals bent on pursuit of an imperial strategy. The second is that they must be destroyed. Mr. Obama’s statement from Estonia on Wednesday was a good, though belated, beginning.

Developing a political, economic and military strategy for containing and then destroying the Islamic State is not something that will come easily for the president, given his proclivities toward engagement and toothless diplomacy. Yet in some respects, his task has been rendered less onerous.  Politicians in every civilized state — especially European states that have known this menace was coming for years — understand that if they don’t join in countering this scourge in Syria and Iraq, they will face it in their own countries before long.  This week, the president’s task is to forge consensus among his political counterparts in Western Europe to direct NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Philip Breedlove and the NATO military committee to work with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a plan for overcoming this menace.

Economically, it’s time to lean hard on the Gulf Arabs to shut down their formal and informal funding of radical Islamists. The diplomacy needed to get this done ought also to be a little easier than it would have been even five years ago. Their tenure is at risk, and they are palpably conscious of it. Separately, our work with European allies should involve closing their financial institutions to Islamist transactions.

The U.S. military must work with Kurdish, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, United Arab Emirates, Saudi, Jordanian and Iraqi forces to forge a strategy, first to contain and then to destroy the Islamic State’s forces. U.S. and allied tactical aviation can help limit the enemy’s mobility and provide fire support during engagements. However, the training and supervision of ground forces from the aforementioned countries in the struggle to regain lost territory must fall to experienced U.S. special operations advisory personnel — several thousand of them.

By their brashness and brutality, the Islamists may have provided an impetus and a window for the civilized world to come together and reverse their gains. It will take extraordinary leadership from Washington to oversee this battle and stay the course. That window may not remain open for long.

As soon as we have stemmed this tide — a year from now — we must turn to the agenda that we have for so long avoided — bringing the moderate Arabs, Kurds and Israel into a sustained conversation on regional security that leads toward reconciling their differences. To do so offers a revered place in history for the American president. Yet it will require a far better understanding of the nature of the challenge than has thus far been apparent, together with the courage and commitment to lead such an effort successfully.

ABOUT ROBERT MCFARLANE

Robert McFarlane served as President Reagan’s national-security adviser. He is currently a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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Texas Sheriff says it’s “naive” to say Islamic State not here: “We have found Muslim clothing, they have found Quran books”

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In June 2014, Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) enunciated the concerns that increasing numbers of people have about jihadists exploiting our open Southern border when he said:

“This jihadist group ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have promised direct confrontation with America. He is looking forward to that day and he has said that publicly, we should believe him when he says that. These folks hate everything about the United States.” What’s more, “Of course the way they would come to the United States would be through the porous border with Mexico. The drug cartels will bring people into the country no matter who they are — for money. Everyone in the world knows that the border between the United States and Mexico is completely porous.”

Jihad terrorists and their enablers and accomplices have been entering the U.S. illegally by means of the Mexican border for many years. According to TheBlaze, “Hezbollah members and supporters have entered the U.S. through the southern border as early as 2002, with the case of Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a Mexican of Lebanese descent. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison by Mexican authorities on charges of organized crime and immigrant smuggling. Mucharrafille had owned a cafe in the border city of Tijuana, near San Diego. In 2002, he was arrested for smuggling 200 people into the U.S., including Hezbollah supporters, according to a 2009 Congressional report.” Nothing has changed since then. It’s only gotten worse.

“Texas Sheriff: Reports Warn Of ISIS Terrorist Cells Coming Across The Border,” CBS Houston, September 15, 2014 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Midland County, Texas (CBS HOUSTON) – Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said that law enforcement agencies along the “wide open” border have received alerts to be on the lookout for terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria crossing into the United States.

Painter, who said he has worked along the border for “about eight years,” stated that alerts have been issued to border law enforcement to be on the lookout for suspicious terrorist activity, specifically involving ISIS cells being smuggled into the United States.

“I received an intelligence report that said that there was ISIS cells that were active in the Juarez area, which is the northern part of the Chihuahua state, and that they were moving around over there, that there was some activity…” Painter told Fox News. The report asked “for the sheriffs along the border to be on the alert, for all law enforcement to be on the alert, and to be on the lookout for these people maybe trying to come across.”

Painter sidestepped any direct knowledge that ISIS, specifically, is along the border, but he reiterated that the border “is wide open.”

“Well I’m saying the border is wide open, there is no control on the border, it’s not shut off,” said Painter. “There’s places along the Rio Grande you can walk across, there’s no water in it. I worked the border for eight years I walked back and forth across the Rio Grande; I was in Mexico, I was on this side. I never got challenged.

“There’s always a way to get across, there’s coyotes that bring those people across for thousands of dollars.”

Painter noted that “Muslim” items have been strewn along the border and estimated that 10 to 15 million “undocumented aliens” have crossed the border.

“I think it’d be naive to say that (ISIS is) not here…We have found Muslim clothing, they have found Quran books that are lying on the side of the trail, so we know that there are Muslims that have come across and are being smuggled into the United States,” Painter told Fox News….

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