Associated Press: Numerous firebombed churches = rum bottle thrown at mosque

Churches are being firebombed in Malaysia, and for AP that is "similar" to a rum bottle being thrown at a mosque. "Rum bottle thrown at Malaysia mosque amid tension," from The Associated Press, January 16 (thanks to Pamela):

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Vandals threw a rum bottle at a mosque in the first attack on a Muslim house of worship after almost a dozen similar assaults on churches in Malaysia the past week, police said Saturday.

Police have dismissed the attacks as vandalism, but they have caused disquiet in multiracial Malaysia and raised fears of more widespread religious tensions.

One Sikh temple and 11 churches have been hit - most of them with molotov cocktails - since Jan. 8....

Maybe the molotov cocktails were made from rum.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Israelis survive Jordan bomb blast

AMMAN: A roadside bomb has exploded near an Israeli embassy convoy headed to the Jewish state from the Jordanian capital.

"The Israeli embassy convoy left Amman and was headed for the Hussein bridge when the blast occurred. Nobody was hurt," an Israeli diplomat said yesterday, referring to the crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli media said the bomb detonated near the convoy taking the Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Dani Nevo, to the bridge, also known as the Allenby bridge, 50km west of Amman.

But sources in Jordan said former Israeli ambassador Yakov Rosen was in the convoy, not Mr Nevo, while Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was unclear whether Mr Nevo was in the convoy headed to Israel via the West Bank.

Israel's Ynetnews said four embassy staff members and two security guards were in the convoy, while the newspaper Haaretz said two remotely detonated bombs exploded, causing one car to flip over. The embassy's consular officer and her husband arrived back in Israel, reports said.

Jordan's Information Minister said there were no casualties or damage.

"The cars were not damaged by the blast," Nabil Sharif said, adding an investigation was under way into the attack and to determine the type of explosives used.

A source close to the investigation said: "The blast left a crater . . . 10cm deep and 80cm wide."

Israeli diplomats often travel home on Thursdays, the start of the Muslim weekend in Jordan, and return on Sundays to Jordan, which in 1994 became only the second Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, after Egypt.

Israeli diplomats in Jordan usually use rental cars.

Several attacks or attempted attacks against Israelis have occurred in Jordan since the signing of the treaty but such incidents have been rare in recent years.

In 2003, a Jordanian driver crossed the southern border with Israel and opened fire at a group of foreigners in the transit zone. He was shot by Israeli soldiers.

A non-Israeli tourist was killed and five others were wounded.

Israeli analysts said security co-ordination between Jordan and Israel was excellent, andAmman had foiled several attempts to attack Israeli targets in the past.

"I'm sure this was a surprise for the Jordanians. These people are probably Islamic or al-Qa'ida that pose a danger to the Hashemite kingdom, too," Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies said.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood said "such incidents should be expected". "As long as Israel is in the region, carrying out its non-stop aggression against the Palestinian people, we should expect these things to happen," said Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu Baker. "Israel is the source of violence in the Middle East."

The influential Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front, have repeatedly called for the scrapping of the peace treaty, expulsion of Israel's ambassador and a cut in relations with Israel.

The Australian

Fourth church attacked in Malaysia as Allah row deepens

KUALA LUMPUR - Arsonists in Malaysia struck a fourth church on Saturday as the government tried to soothe tensions arising from a row over the use of the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God.

The unprecedented attacks risk dividing the mainly Muslim nation of 28 million people, which has significant religious minorities, and complicating Prime Minister Najib Razak's plan to win back support from the non-Muslims before the next elections by 2013.

The row, over a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use Allah in its Malay-language editions, prompted Muslims to protest at mosques on Friday and sparked arson attacks on three churches that saw one Pentecostalist church gutted.

While Najib visited the badly damaged Pentecostalist church and offered a government grant of half a million ringgit ($148,100) to maintain "a harmonious society," church leaders said they wanted more concrete assurances of safety.

"We ask the government to make a strong statement to these wrongdoers so we can worship in peace on Sunday," Reverend Hermen Shastri, secretary-general to the Council of Churches Malaysia, told Reuters.

Malaysia is mainly Muslim and Malay but there are substantial ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities who mainly practice Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.

These minorities handed the government its biggest losses in 2008 state and national elections in part due to feelings of religious marginalization and growing disillusionment with corruption.

In the latest attack on early Saturday, unidentified attackers flung a home-made petrol bomb at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in a suburb in Selangor state. The two-storey bungalow sustained minor damage, church officials said.

Police said they have stepped up security at all places of worship but faced a manpower shortage. Inspector General of Police Musa Hasan told churches across the country to hire more security guards.

Christians account for nine percent of the 28 million population, with a sizable number of non-English speaking Christians in Malaysia's Borneo island states of Sabah and Sarawak who have used the word "Allah" for decades.

Najib's handling of the issue will determine whether he can keep the support of the Malays and win back ethnic Chinese and Indian voters to solidify his grip on power after taking control of the government last year.

"Till today we are protecting the interests of other races besides championing those of the Malays," Najib was earlier quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

"Don't point fingers and say UMNO is racist...when churches are burned," he said referring to his party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that is the linchpin of the National Front that has ruled the country for 52 years.

But Malay-Muslims, including those in UMNO, fear the word could be used by Christians to proselytize to Muslims, which is already illegal in the Southeast Asian country.

More than 169,000 Malaysians have joined a group page on social networking site Facebook called "Protesting the use of the name Allah by non-Muslims," a fourfold increase from the start of this week that signals growing Islamic anger.

Reuters

Report: Flight 253 bomb built by Al-Qaeda in Yemen; aircraft saved by failed detonator

Authorities have also uncovered a connection with the Fort Hood jihadist's imam, Anwar al-Awlaki. (Pictured)

"Officials: Only A Failed Detonator Saved Northwest Flight," by Brian Ross and Richard Esposito for ABC News, December 26:

Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly.

Bomb experts say there was more than enough explosive to bring down the Northwest jet, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed, and the nation's outdated airport screening machines may need to be upgraded.

"We've known for a long time that this is possible," said Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar and ABC News consultant, "and that we really have to replace our scanning devices with more modern systems."

Clarke said full body scans were needed, "but they're expensive and they're intrusive. They invade people's privacy."

Al Qaeda, said Clarke, is aware of this vulnerability in the U.S. airport security system. "They know that this is a weakness and an Achilles' heel in our airport security system and this is the second time they've tried it." [...]

According to investigators, the bomb on Northwest flight 253, which was en route from Amsterdam to Detroit when suspect Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab allegedly detonated it, contained more than 80 grams of PETN.

The material was allegedly sewn into Abdulmutallab's underwear, and was not detected by airport security.

The bomb was built and the plot organized, say U.S. officials, by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen, just north of the capital city of Sanaa.

Authorities say the 23-year-old suspect spent months in Yemen being trained for the Christmas Day suicide mission.

Investigators believe Abdulmutallab was connected to al Qaeda by the same radical imam, American-born Anwar Awlaki, who is linked to the American Army major accused of opening fire at Fort Hood in November.

According to investigators, the bomb used yesterday was built in Yemen by a top al Qaeda bomb maker. [...]

Abdulmutallab, who flew from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then Detroit, was taken into custody at the Detroit airport and was interviewed by authorities there. He was then taken to an area hospital to be treated for burns.

Abdulmutallab was on a terrorism watch list, but not on a no-fly list. Said Clarke, "So once again, we have the U.S. government, as in the case of the Fort Hood attacks, knowing about someone, knowing that they were suspicious, but that information didn't get to the right people in time."

With thanks to JihadWatch

Iran denies building nuke bomb part

IRAN has dismissed as a "scenario'' hatched by Western powers a report alleging that it is working on a key component of a nuclear bomb.

"Some countries are angry that our people defend their nuclear rights,'' foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said today.

When Western powers "want to pressure us they craft such scenarios which is unacceptable,'' he said.

He was reacting to a report in the British newspaper The Times which said yesterday it had obtained notes describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb which triggers an explosion.

The Times claimed that foreign intelligence agencies dated the documents to early 2007 - four years after Tehran was thought to have suspended its weapons program.

It said the documents detailed a plan to test whether the device works - without leaving traces of uranium that the outside world could detect.

Iran insists its nuclear program has only civilian aims denying allegations that it seeks a nuclear bomb.

Its uranium enrichment work is at the centre of fears about the program as the process which makes nuclear fuel can also be used to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.

Iran is under three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend enrichment and risks a further round after rejecting a UN-brokered deal to send its low enriched uranium abroad to be further refined into fuel for a research reactor.

The Australian

Israeli troops foil jihadist toting 15-kilo bomb

"The military has been following attempts to carry out attacks through the 'U-route', where Gazan terrorists travel to Egypt, then turn back upon reaching Sinai and infiltrate Israel via the more penetrable Israel-Egypt border."

"Terror attack foiled as troops chase away man carrying bomb," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post, November 26:

An IDF bomb squad detonated a 15-kilogram explosive seized during a search conducted along the Egyptian border on Thursday.

Late Wednesday night, IDF troops on a routine patrol of the border area spotted a suspicious figure carrying a bag containing what was later discovered to be a 15-kilogram bomb.

The soldiers ordered him to stop and fired several shots in the air. However, the man fled the scene back into Egypt, dropping the bag in his haste.

IDF sources said it was possible that the suspected terrorist was from the Gaza Strip and had crossed into the Sinai Peninsula with the intention of then crossing into Israel to carry out an attack.

The military has been following attempts to carry out attacks through the 'U-route', where Gazan terrorists travel to Egypt, then turn back upon reaching Sinai and infiltrate Israel via the more penetrable Israel-Egypt border.

Channel 10 quoted security officials as assessing the device was either meant to be used in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city, or in another major Israeli city to which the suspect would have been driven, in order to perpetrate a multiple-casualty attack.

OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant praised the soldiers' alertness and quick response.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Is the U.S. Stepping Up Preparations for a Possible Attack on Iran's Nuclear Facilities?

By JONATHAN KARL

The Pentagon is always making plans, but based on a little-noticed funding request recently sent to Congress, the answer to that question appears to be yes.

First, some background: Back in October 2007, ABC News reported that the Pentagon had asked Congress for $88 million in the emergency Iraq/Afghanistan war funding request to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

It's a 30,000-pound bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 feet below ground.

Back then, the Pentagon cited an "urgent operational need" for the new weapon.

Now the Pentagon is shifting spending from other programs to fast forward the development and procurement of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

The Pentagon comptroller sent a request to shift the funds to the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees over the summer.

Read more here,,,,

Source: ABC News

H/T: GH

APD detonates supposed bomb

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Police blew up what a man claimed was a bomb inside a backpack left at the North Austin Muslim Community Center at 11900 North Lamar Blvd. The threat shut down the stretch of North Lamar for hours until police decided to play it safe, detonating the suspicious package.

Azzam Baytie, 46, left the backpack on the ground early Sunday afternoon after having an argument with members of the Muslim center who had asked him to leave.

"He just got very angry and agitated, and he began to parade around with a backpack and what appeared to be a palm pilot saying, 'I have a bomb, I have a bomb,'" said Islam Mossaad, Imam at the North Austin Muslim Community Center.

A criminal trespass warning had been placed on Baytie by members of the Muslim center after he began acting erratically and causing problems. Baytie had been sleeping inside the mosque at the center and using it as a place to reside. Read more ...

Source: KXAN