 There is no mention in this report about the nature or origin of the threat. Hmm. Lapsed Quakers? Militant Methodists?
"UK terror threat raised to 'severe', Home Secretary announces," by Andrew Hough for the Telegraph, January 22: The announcement means that an attack is now "highly likely". Mr Johnson said that although the threat had increased there was no intelligence to suggest an attack was imminent. The Home Secretary was not specific about the threat, but indicated it was not linked to the Detroit bombing on Christmas Day. "The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has today raised the threat to the UK from international terrorism from substantial to severe," he said. "This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent. "JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review and makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas." He said that authorities were "not being specific about this, we are not gong to be specific about this". "In his statement to Parliament on security and counter terrorism earlier this week, the Prime Minister said that the first and most important duty of government is the protection and security of the British people," he said. "We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity. "We have a very focused counter terrorism facility in this country and the public should be reassured by that." He added: "The fact is we keep this under review and moving to this different threat level means we have to be more alert and it means that an attack has moved to the level of being likely, but we have absolutely no intelligence to suggest that it is imminent." 
 America needs a streamlined intelligence bureaucracy. What we’re getting from the president, argues 9/11 Commission member John Lehman, is a lot of legalisms and political correctness. Nothing could illustrate more clearly the impotence of our counterterrorism policy than the Pentagon report on why Army Major Nidal Hasan murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.
It was issued quietly last Friday, only to be buried on Page 10 of Saturday’s New York Times, and illustrates the deadly fusion of mindless bureaucracy with obsessive political correctness. The report tells us of a bureaucratic system in which the Muslim major was continually promoted “…despite concerns from his superiors.” While Islamism is hardly mentioned, a full chapter is devoted to the psychological stress that afflicts all Army doctors.
We are told by the secretary of Defense that a major cause was that the military is burdened by “…attitudes mostly rooted in the Cold War.” We are told by the co-author of the report that the problem is not rooted in Islam. “Suppose it were fundamentalist Christian-inspired… Our concern is not with religion.” Oh, I see; we must be equally vigilant for Mennonite jihad. Any intelligence bureaucrat rash enough to act on experience and insight will soon find their careers going nowhere, dismissed as a “cowboy.” Just as with the undie bomber, there was ample intelligence about Major Hasan’s terrorist sympathies in the bureaucracy. But bureaucracy is about process not outcome, and here process was adhered to and, as before, the system did indeed work; but the 13 patients died. So, nothing here to look at, move along. To deal with the crippling problem of bureaucratic bloat in intelligence, the 9/11 Commission on which I served urgently recommended the creation of a Director of National Intelligence with power to break up the bureaucratic layers and stovepipes and radically reduce the bloat by controlling the budgets, hiring and firing, and personnel policies of the entire intelligence community.
Congress agreed and created the post, but it is deeply upsetting that both Bush and Obama have ignored the intent of the commission. First, Bush created yet another vast new bureaucracy in the DNI, and now Obama will not give his DNI power over budgets or people across the agencies. He is just one more voice. Mindless bureaucracy and irrational political correctness did not of course arrive in Washington with Obama. What he added to this devil’s brew was an obsession with legalism and law enforcement. As explained by the administration in congressional testimony in December, it is now official Obama policy that for information in the intelligence bureaucracy to be acted on (for instance, putting someone on a watch list because of a warning from that person’s father that he might be a terrorist, say, or proposing that a Muslim officer’s jihadist sympathies should be considered by Army promotion boards), such information first must meet the legal evidentiary standard set in the Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio. To wit: “Reasonable suspicion requires ‘articulable’ facts which… warrant a determination that an individual is… or has been engaged in … terrorist activities.” Thus any intelligence bureaucrat rash enough to act on experience and insight will soon find their careers going nowhere, dismissed as a “cowboy.” And if there comes yet another terrorist attack? Well, rest assured that the entire government will be focused on forensics—“we will bring these criminals to justice”—and making sure the terrorists are given the full rights of U.S. citizens so that the Muslim world and al Qaeda will be impressed by our fairness.
Oh, and be sure to remind them that we are pressing ahead with our top priority of prosecuting the CIA interrogators of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, and court-martialing the three Navy SEALs who punched the murderer of four Americans in Iraq. John Lehman was secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and a member of the 9/11 Commission. Daily Beast
 For some time now, the Shiite terror organization Hezbollah has been involved in drug trafficking. American officials have long known of ties between Hezbollah, Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, ties that earn it hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In August 2008, for example, U.S. and Colombian investigators dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money-laundering ring made up of members of a Colombian drug cartel and Lebanese members of Hezbollah.
Previously, the DEA had also targeted a Hezbollah drug trafficking ring in the Tri-Border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. According to Michael Braun, former administrator and chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels. U.S. counterterrorism officials have been keeping a close eye on links between Hezbollah and the drug cartels, worried that al-Qaeda could also make use of the drug trafficking routes between the U.S. and Mexico to send its operatives across the border to carry out terror attacks on American soil. If this weren’t enough cause for concern, a weekend report in the German magazine Der Spiegel has established a clear link between Hezbollah, the European drug trade and the illegal transfer of funds from Germany directly to that terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The report says that German police have arrested four Lebanese Nationals (all members of the same family) at Frankfort Airport who were found to be carrying millions of dollars in their carry-on-bags. Later, two other relatives were subsequently arrested, and under questioning admitted that they had sent money back to Lebanon to Hezbollah’s leadership. German police suspect that the two had trained in Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon. Although the link with South American drug cartels has long been known, this is the first time that a direct Hezbollah link with the European drug trade has been demonstrated, although one has been suspected for quite some time due to increased cultivation of drugs in Lebanon. In fact, a 2009 United Nations report by that organization’s Office on Drugs and Crime says that: [Lebanese] farmers in the Bekaa Valley (once the center of the Middle East’s largest hashish industry), appear to be resuming cannabis cultivation, as well as other drugs. This is a disturbing development. During the Lebanese civil war, the drug trade generated nearly $500 million a year in revenue, which was about 15% of Lebanon’s economy at the time. That money was a huge source of revenue for Hezbollah and other militias, also bringing enormous benefit to Syria and Iran, the primary providers of weaponry to Hezbollah. The links between Islamic terrorism and drug trafficking are real and are growing, and in countries such as Lebanon–where government control is weak–Hezbollah has become a state-within-a-state, and the drug trade has become a source of funds for the procurement of its arms and matériel. A fact, which has not gone unnoticed by Hezbollah, is that terrorism does not operate without money; and the drug trade is making them a lot of it. NewsReal Blog
 SAN'A, Yemen — Yemen's government is escalating its internal conflicts that threaten to throw the country into greater chaos even as it ramps up the fight against Al Qaeda with U.S. help. The military says that Yemeni troops have launched new assaults against Shiite rebels in the north, killing dozens of rebels. The rebellion has been raging for years on the capital's northern doorstep. Also, lethal clashes erupted in the past week between protesters and security forces struggling to put an end to a secessionist movement in the once-independent south. The violence comes as counter-terror forces on Saturday conducted exercises outside San'a, attacking a mock Al Qaeda hideout and practicing a hostage-rescue operation. Foxnews
 How courageous is Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the father of terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab? If, as it is argued, the Islamic world sees the War on Terror as a War on Islam, it must have been quite intimidating to walk into the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. It must have been terrifying to walk to the front desk and ask to see the man in charge. It must have been a father's worst nightmare: not only to turn his son over to the authorities, but also to know that Guantanamo may have been in the boy's future. Did Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, though a wealthy and respected banker, fear that he, too, might find himself on the business end of an American rifle? One does not casually discuss actionable information on terrorism with American officials and not expect a hard look and maybe a little roughing-up. The White House Review of the Christmas Day terrorist attack reads like a game of Clue, in reverse. From the start, we knew the killer, we knew his location, and after sixty years of aircraft hijackings and Al Qaida's record, we had a pretty good idea of the weapon of choice. We even had a motive and a witness.
The White House blames Abdulmutallab's success on a failure to "connect the dots," but, in fact, the dots were already connected. There were no dots. We already had all the information necessary to shut down Abdulmutallab. No secret missions were in order. No covert bribes in cash-stuffed briefcases needed to change hands at disused bus stops. Delta operatives didn't have to to kick down doors, and there was no need to dust off the waterboard to draw out a name.
We knew everything.
In a press conference, President Obama said that our failure to stop the terrorist incident was "not the fault of a single individual or organization."
But that's not true. The minute Abdulmutallab's father walked into a U.S. Embassy with news that his son was a potential terrorist, the official in charge was duty-bound to see this through. Every scrap of paper and every byte of data on the suspect should have been called up and frozen. That's why we have embassies. When the information was passed to the first special agent at the CIA, he or she was duty bound to see it through. When the information was passed to the first administrator at the National Counterterrorism Center, he or she, too, was duty bound to see it to the end.
Everyone who read the name "Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab" prior to December 25, 2009 should be reprimanded and fired.
The White House findings state that, "Mr. Abdulmutallab possessed a U.S. visa, but this fact was not correlated with the concerns of Mr. Abdulmutallab's father about Mr. Abdulmutallab's potential radicalization." It's an embarrassing sentence of bureaucratese in its own right, but more so when considered in context. The State Department didn't revoke Abdulmutallab's visa because an office clerk misspelled his name in a database.
Has no one in the intelligence community ever used Google? When "Abdulmutalab" was typed in, did the computer not ask, "Did you mean 'Abdulmutallab'?"
Another admission that crosses the threshold of bewildering into the realm of criminally negligent: the National Counterterrorism Center has a database of all known and suspected international terrorists. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was added to that database.
But that database does not feed directly into the TSA No-Fly List.
Who more than known terrorists belong on the No-Fly List? There should be no human involvement required here. One line of SQL database code could have averted disaster.
According to the White House, when the CIA and NCTC got the name of a radicalized militant from the militant's own father, and a warning that he was planning an attack, they did not search "all available databases to uncover additional derogatory information." How many databases are there? And how many terrorist databases must one appear in before he or she is considered a threat to U.S. national security?
This wasn't a ticking time bomb situation involving a lone wolf under the radar. Such a terrorist will succeed, and there's nothing we can do about it, aside from remaining vigilant. But the United States already knew about Abdulmutallab, and learned of his intentions on November 18th -- a month before he struck.
Most grating in the White House report is the repeated notion that Abdulmutallab's plot failed. It didn't. Nine years after 9/11, and after billions of spent dollars in needless security, confiscated fingernail clippers, and dumped breast milk, he succeeded in smuggling explosives onto an airliner destined for American soil. He succeeded in igniting the explosive. If not for dumb luck involving bad chemistry and a brave Dutch film director, there might today be a smoldering crater in Detroit.
After the attack, President Obama remained in Hawaii and enjoyed a Christmas vacation on the golf course. After the attack, National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter took a six-day skiing holiday. After the attack, CIA director Leon Panetta remained in beautiful Monterey, California. The nation, the administration claims, can be governed from afar, and that's probably true. But when terrorists attempt a major strike on U.S. soil, isn't it a good idea to have someone in the White House situation room above the rank of janitor?
When National Security Advisor James Jones warned that the White House review of the Christmas Day terrorist attack would bring "a certain shock," one expected to learn of political intrigue and a mishandling of delicate scraps of questionable intelligence. But rather, Mr. Jones must have been referring to the Obama administration's hubris in this matter, which is the most shocking revelation of all.
D.B. Grady is the author of Red Planet Noir. The Atlantic 
 For al Qaeda and other terrorists across the globe, Obama is the gift that just keeps on giving. The fanatical Muslim terrorists who are intent on wiping out every man woman and child that doesn’t accept Allah as God was just handed another victory by the President of the United States. In response to yet another threat from the al Qaeda faction in Yemen responsible for training the panty bomber who tried to take out a U.S. bound jet on Christmas day, the Obama administration decided to close down our embassy in Yemen. “The U.S. Embassy in San’a is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula … to attack American interests in Yemen,” the embassy said in a message on its Web site. Obama’s counter-terrorism expert also informed the nation on Sunday that the United States would not be opening up a new front in Yemen to battle the increasing presence of al Qaeda there. This mirrors the Obama administration’s response to ever increasing threats from terrorist murderers: if we just ignore them, maybe they’ll go away. President Obama has made it official. Faced with murderous threats from fanatical Muslims, America will cut and run. Al Qaeda and assorted terrorists the world over are rejoicing. Yet again. These barbaric animals are laughing out loud at the policies President Obama and his buddies have enacted since he became president of the greatest country in the world. First, Obama did what Democrats do when faced with an uncomfortable reality. They redefine it. Obama abolished the war on terror with a stroke of the pen. Presto, we now have man-made catastrophic events, not to be confused with the bogus global warming catastrophic events. This was followed by the left’s favorite response to any crisis not of their own making: dialogue. Despite the fact that ‘reaching out’ is considered a distinct sign of weakness by our enemies and has never worked, Obama scored political points by convincing half the nation that he could effect world peace through the sheer force of his personality. Obama’s dialogue did accomplish something, however. It allowed him to appear to be doing something, when in actuality he was merely avoiding the hard decisions associated with real leadership. This man of action then handed terrorists legitimacy, along with all the legal rights American citizens have fought and died for. Enemy combatants, for the first time in history, will be tried in civilian courts in New York. In the same neighborhood they demolished on 9/11. How cool is that, terrorists say. This insane policy does have a silver lining. It just might encourage terrorists in Yemen and Afghanistan to surrender. That way they can leave the blood and guts battlefield and wage jihad from the worldwide platform being afforded (courtesy of U.S. taxpayers) by a New York courtroom. Again, courtesy of Obama. Who knows, terrorists might just be able to accomplish more effective jihad from within America. Just think of the recruitment opportunities in American jails. Yahoo! Then again, these animals may just opt to stay on the battlefield overseas. After all, Obama’s new rules of engagement have severely hampered U.S. fighting men. All al Qaeda has to do is hide behind women and children and they get a virtual free pass. And if by chance they get caught killing Americans and they aren’t mirandized, well, its off to Gitmo, where they’ll have a chance to rest up and regroup. Once they gain 20 pounds or so, they’ll be shipped back home where they pick up right where they left off. Unless, of course, Obama is successful in closing Gitmo, in which case the terrorists will have to make do with 3 squares and cable TV from Chicago until they get shipped home to the same old goat meat and drafty caves. No wonder our enemies are laughing. As the Taliban indoctrinate kids as young as five years-old into being killing machines, Obama focuses his efforts on sanitizing and avoiding a fight to the finish that our enemies wage as a war and Obama wages as an exercise in rhetoric. As the Left steps up their efforts to sensitize males, our enemies breed warriors and come ever closer to obtaining the technology and materials needed for a nuclear weapon. America will then have no choice but to follow Obama’s policy of appeasement. And the terrorists will have won. And America will be no more. If you’re not scared yet, let me offer you this visual exercise: Imagine Obama and his buddies coming face to face with a coven of jihadists. Which side is going to win? Obama’s words or the terrorist’s sword? NewsReal Blog
 If you try to commit jihad murder, and you have the right connections, Barack Obama may have a sweet deal ready for you. "Brennan: Deal 'on the table' for terror suspect," from Politico, January 3 The U.S. Government is offering the suspect charged with attempting to bomb an aircraft on Christmas Day, Omar Abdulmutallab, some kind of incentives to share what he knows about Al Qaeda, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday. Asked why Abdulmutallab should cooperate given his right, as criminal defendant, to remain silent, Brennan replied: "He doesn't have to but he knows there are certain things that are on the table... if he wants to engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways he can do that."... With thanks to JihadWatch
 This is the group that held a conference attended by the Flight 253 jihadist. "Houston-based group hawked Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's cds even after Ft. Hood massacre, Undie-bomber attended their "Ilmfest" conference," from The Jawa Report, December 31: What a small world it is when it comes to domestic terror. CNN reported yesterday that NWA Flight 253 Undie-bomber Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab attended the 16-day "Ilmfest" in Houston sponsored by the Al Maghrib Institute in August 2008 and two other Al Maghrib seminars in London before that (HT: JihadWatch).
Al Maghrib trots out Yasir Qadhi to claim he's shocked, SHOCKED! to see a terrorist associated with their organization (except, oops!, so was convicted terrorist Daniel Maldonado). But we can report exclusively at the Jawa Report that Qadhi's Houston-based Ilmquest was selling more than a dozen different CD sets by none other than Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as recently as last month. Ilmquest continued to hawk Awlaki's wares even after the Ft. Hood massacre, but scrubbed any mention of Awlaki from their site as soon as he was connected to the Ft. Hood incident. Ah, but thanks to Google cache, they couldn't hide all the evidence. A screenshot of Ilmquest's Awlaki offerings is below the fold. You can find that at Jawa. Yes, these fine moderate Muslims just happen to be selling CD sets of an Al-Qaeda cleric, and a would-be terrorist attends their events on two different continents and just happens to end up meeting that same Al-Qaeda cleric in Yemen.
Will these random coincidences never stop!!!!???? And CNN informs us that Yasir Qadhi was a featured speaker at the U.S. Counter-Radicalization Strategy conference organized by the National Counterterrorism Center in the summer of 2008.
The same NCTC that epicly failed to connect the dots on AbdulMutallab. OK, we're all going to die. Read it all! Thanks to JihadWatch
 by Stephen Brown When it comes to the scourge of Somali piracy, the latest incident leaves one wondering whether to laugh or cry. At the very least, it should cause heads to shake and have people asking how the West is ever going to win the War On Terror. The military news publication, Strategy Page, reports this week that the Dutch frigate, HNLMS Eversten, was ordered to release 13 Somali pirates it had captured earlier this month.
The pirates were attacking a merchant ship when the Dutch intervened and apprehended them and their vessel. However, instead of being clapped in irons to await trial, the Dutch captain was ordered to put the pirates back on their boat and release them. In addition, the Dutch sailors’ also had to provide the pirates, who not long ago would have been hung on the spot, with food and fuel to return to Somalia. (It is a wonder they were not sent on their way with apologies for any inconvenience.) The only consolation regarding this sad state of affairs concerned the pirates’ weapons: they were not returned. But the way things are going, Western naval crews may eventually have to do just that, or be required to supply a substitute, like cash or DVDs (The Pirates of the Caribbean might be a big hit) to keep their former captives entertained during their trip home. Once back at their bases, one can be assured such pillow-soft treatment will see the pirates not hesitate to return to terrorizing international shipping as soon as possible. They can easily obtain new weapons in war-torn Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau estimates the pirates’ number at about a thousand, organized in well-armed groups of 15 to 20. Last year, they earned about $50 million in ransom money from ships they had seized. In the past, al Qaeda and Islamists in Somalia have both praised Somali piracy as part of the “fight against the West.” A leader of a Somali Islamist group called the pirates “part of the mujahedeen. “They are waging war against Christian nations, who want to misuse the Somali coast,” he said. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the surge in pirate attacks in 2008. It called the campaign to seize ships and hold them for ransom a justifiable “new strategy”, since “fighters who aspire to establish the caliphate must control the seas and waterways.” Counterterrorism consultant Olivier Guitta revealed the importance of the Somali piracy campaign to al Qaeda. Guitta stated al Qaeda “intends to take control of the Gulf of Aden and the southern entrance of the Red Sea, calling the area “strategic” to the Islamic terrorist group. Al-Qaeda’s goal in seizing control of the vital waterways around the Horn of Africa leading to the Suez Canal is the removal of Western military bases from the Arabian Peninsula. It believes sea lanes weakened by “acts of piracy” and mujahedeen attacks will accomplish this. The Somali piracy campaign also fits in nicely with al Qaeda’s plan to disrupt the American and other Western economies. It knows Western countries derive their military and cultural strength from their economic power, hence al Qaeda’s attack on America’s World Trade Center. Al Qaeda wants to draw America and its allies into as many security sideshows as possible in order to further drain their treasuries. The New York Times reports that after 9/11, for example, the Department of Homeland Security spent $40 billion on the aviation security system alone. Tens of millions more can probably be added to that sum after the Northwest Airlines terrorist incident on Christmas Day, making it an al Qaeda victory in this respect despite the plot’s failure. On the high seas around Somalia, al Qaeda’s strategy of death by a thousand financial cuts sees Western and other countries facing, besides ransom payments and the huge expense of maintaining an anti-piracy naval presence, increased insurance costs. Ships that reroute around South Africa to avoid the Somalia region, while escaping the insurance penalty, incur higher operating bills due to the longer voyage. Considering the importance the Somali pirate campaign holds for al Qaeda in its long-term plans, it is a wonder that Western strategists have only come up with the harmless “catch and release” tactic as its main counter measure. Resembling a form of appeasement, it has not worked and instead has led to an increase in attacks. Statistics from the Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau, as reported in New York Times this week, bear this out. Pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and along the Somali coast have increased 200 per cent since 2007.
While 111 ships were attacked in this area in 2008, 214 have been attacked this year. Only last Monday, pirates seized a chemical tanker with a crew of 26 and a Greek bulk carrier. Strategy Page notes that although the number of attacks was higher this year, the international naval patrols established to thwart the pirates reduced the number of successful attacks from 40 per cent in 2008 to 25 per cent in 2009. The ransom demands, however, increased and the pirates are now operating off Somalia’s east coast and in the Gulf of Aden to avoid the anti-piracy patrols. Unfortunately, one can only expect the number of pirate attacks around Somalia to increase in the future. Somali pirates know Western countries seldom use force to free ships and pay large ransoms. According to Strategy Page, Western countries also refuse to attack the pirates’ bases for fear of causing civilian casualties and to avoid becoming bogged down in a land campaign in Somalia. The fact the pirates seldom face prosecution and are usually released make piracy in that region almost a risk-free crime that encourages attacks. More unsettling, however, is that these weak, ineffective policies on the part of Western countries indicate a moral bankruptcy that could decide the issue of this war. FPM
 Funny how that keeps happening. "Al-Qaeda 'groomed Abdulmutallab in London'," by Sean O'Neill and Giles Whitell for Times Online, December 30
The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner "War on Terror Week" as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London, The Times has learnt. This story does not address the possibility that Abdulmutallab could have encountered "extremism" indigenous to Nigeria, or that anyone but al-Qaeda could be the source of his interest in violent acts of jihad. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, advertised speakers including political figures, human rights lawyers and former Guantánamo detainees. One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism, was billed as "a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad". It is worth noting amid Abdulmutallab's involvement in events like this that he had sought advice on when it is permissible to deceive non-Muslims. Security sources are concerned that the picture emerging of his undergraduate years suggests that he was recruited by al-Qaeda in London. Security sources said that Islamist radicalisation was rife on university campuses, especially in London, and that college authorities had "a patchy record in facing up to the problem". Previous anti-terrorist inquiries have uncovered evidence of extremists using political meetings and religious study circles to identify potential recruits. It emerged last night that Mr Abdulmutallab featured on the periphery of one counterterrorism intelligence operation in Britain. US intelligence authorities are also looking at conversations between him and at least one al-Qaeda member. The event he organised took place in January 2007 and included talks on Guantánamo Bay, the alleged torture of prisoners and the War on Terror. He is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years.
One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners. Two others have been convicted of terrorist offences since 2007. Death coaching: Mr Abdulmutallab left UCL last year. The Times has learnt that his attempt to renew his student visa in May this year was based on an application to study "life coaching" at a non-existent college. That visa refusal may have saved Britain from an attack. His terrorist training took a new turn in August when he moved to Yemen, ostensibly to study Arabic, and was schooled by al-Qaeda there...
 American officials have cause to worry there may be more al Qaeda-trained young men in Yemen planning to bring down American jets. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon. And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God." Yemen has become a principal al Qaeda training ground and the accused suicide bomber told the FBI he was trained for more than a month in Yemen, given 80 grams of a high explosive cleverly sewn into his underpants, undetected by standard security screening. "They know that this is a weakness and an Achilles' heel in our airport security system," said ABC News consultant and former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke. Law enforcement authorities say tragedy was averted only because the bomb's detonator did not work. "I think it's very clear it came very, very close," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee. "The explosive device went off, it became an incendiary device instead of an explosive device, which is probably what saved that airplane." On Sunday, in its first communication since the failed Northwest Airline bombing, Al Qaeda in Yemen released a written statement about the December 17 air strike in Yemen.
The statement called on "the people of the Arabian peninsula" to attack American military installations, ships and "spying embassies." The U.S. Embassy in Yemen was attacked by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in September 2008, and the U.S.S. Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer, was hit by Al Qaeda in 2000.
 It's time to step back, take a deep breath and review the war against the west, and specifically America in the year 2009. Islamic invasion of America: The 20 Point Plan The stealth jihad is raging every day in our schools, our universities, our culture, in the courtroom and workplaces, but I thought it important to list the Islamic attacks against America this past year -- because the media won't. The colonization is full on. Look at the number of violent attacks against this country in 2009 alone. And what have we done in retaliation? Taken our shoes off at airports. Confiscated our lotions and perfumes to TSA. Created an outreach division at the State department reporting directly to the Secretary of State. Started teaching a glossed over, mendacious narrative about Islam in public schools across the country. Instituted prayer times for devout Muslims in the workplace. The list towards surrender and dhimmitude goes on and on. The refusal to address the ideology, the refusal to address the inspiration, the objective, the goals of the devout pursuing the Koranic goal of a universal caliphate ensures our defeat. On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid attempted to blow up a plane with his shoes. Nine years later we are still taking our shoes off while the jihadis have advanced their goals, Islamic supremacists have made incalculable inroads into our government institutions, culture, schools and workplaces.
What have we done to combat the enemy within and without? After Bush lost his mojo in 2006, nothing, Worse, we regressed, and in a final act of mass confusion and denial, elected Barack Hussein. Unbelievable. This is not my father's America. Misunderstander of Islam, Butcher knife on hand, Out on $100 Bail: "He was a Muslim and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis" 12/28/09 Abdul Mudallad Tries To Blow Up Northwest Airlines Plane, Directed by Al Qaeda: The AP says motive unclear 12/25/09 Five Missing Muslim DC Students Americans Planning Jihad in Pakistan: Like Father, like son 12/10/09 Chicago Muslim Charged In Mumbai Islamic Massacre Planned More Terror Attacks in India 12/09/09 “I said he was acting...like a terrorist,” roommate of Jihadi that Murdered Professor 12/07/09 Chicago Jihadis who Plotted to bomb Danish Cartoon Publisher at Halal Slaughterhouse Tied to Mumbai 11/24/09 Muslim Sentenced to Six-year jail term in Plot to Blow up Sears Tower: "Islamic terrorism is one of the most tremendous problem that this country now confronts ... this defendant took an oath to Al-Qaeda" 11/18/09 Muslim Garbed Jihadi Nidal Hasan Screamed "Allah Akbar" as he Mowed Down US Soldiers at Fort Hood, Death Toll Rises Going Muslim on a Photographer outside Michigan Mosque 10/30/09 Muslims of America Domestic Terror Jihad training camp videos to be released Beltway Jihadi Sniper John Muhammad: Death to the Jihadi Tonight 11/10/09
Son of an Imam Killed in Gun Battle with the FBI in Detroit is Arrested 10/29/09
Michigan Mosque leader killed during Islamic gun battle with fed 10/28/09
Hush Hush: Huge Fed/FBI Raid on Chicago Halal Goat Meat Slaughterhouse 10/20/09
Boston Muslim Terrorist Son of MAS (Muslim American Society) Leader 10/26/09
Another Conviction of Muslims Engaged in Plotting Islamic Attacks Against American Overseas 10/22/09 NY Imam Indicted in NYC Terror Attack Plot 10/22/09
Massive Muslim Attack Averted: "plot to kill two prominent US politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in US malls and American troops in Iraq" 10/31/09 "New York Muslim indicted for plotting to kill U.S. troops 9/25/09 FBI arrests Jordanian for downtown Dallas bomb plot... 9/26/09
NYC: Muslims Protest "RACIAL PROFILING" in wake of arrests in major jihad terror plot 10/00/09
Illinois man charged in plot to bomb federal offices... 9/24/09
Terror suspects accused of targeting Marine base in Quantico... 9/24/09
Men vanish after taking photos of Philly subway system... 9/24/09
Muslim Bomber Targeted Republican Representative Aaron Schock in Illinois 9/26/09 New York Muslim indicted for plotting to kill U.S. troops 9/25/09 Another Muslim Bomber: Hosam Maher Husein Smadi Arrested in Dallas Bomb Plot 9/25/09 New York City on High Alert for Islamic Bomb Attacks: Scouring Stadiums, Mass Transit, Hotels, Entertainment Complexes UPDATE: "Especially Troubling" Revelations on Muslim Suspects, 9 More BEING SOUGHT 9/22/09 Terror Bust in NC: "This was a homegrown cell based in rural America. 2) It was led by a white convert to Islam named Daniel Patrick Boyd. 3) The cell had plotted against Israel, which means they could very well have targeted Jewish sites on U.S. soil" 7/28/09 NY Muslim Convert Charged with 2008 Attack on US Base in Afghanistan and assisting in Islamic Plot to Blow Up NY Subways on Thanksgiving 7/22/09 Muslim Gangs Get Foothold in Minnesota 7/20/09 THE WAR ON AMERICAN SOIL: JIHADI WHO KILLED/SHOT US SOLDIERS said, "an act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military” "American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Koran" 6/10/09 Muslim[s] Killer Targeted Jewish organizations, a Baptist church, a child care center, a post office and military recruiting centers 6/03/09 BUSTED: More Terror In Chicago 5/26/09 MINNEAPOLIS MUSLIM GUILTY OF AIDING AL QAEDA 5/21/09 4 NYC MUSLIM TERRORISTS ARRESTED IN PLANNED MASSIVE BOMB ATTACK ON NYC SYNAGOGUES, NATIONAL GUARD AVIATION 5/20/09 5 Convicted if Sears Tower Islamic attack plot: "I want to fight some jihad" 5/12/09 MUSLIM GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR BINGHAMTON MASSACRE 4/4/09 BREAKING: ANOTHER BROOKLYN SYNAGOGUE ATTACKED BY A JIHADI3/4/09 FBI Raids UF's Nuclear Power Institute and Iranian Nuke Professor - Director's Home 2/25/09 It's important to know, there are many many sympathizers here. JIHAD IN USA: PRO-HAMAS DEMONSTRATIONS ACROSS THE USA
"I want you to watch as I kill your children, cover your children in their own blood!" I want you to to watch me blow your children's brains out" With many thanks to Atlas
 Coming on the heels of the killing spree by Maj. Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, the latest terrorist "incident," involving Abdul Mutallab on Northwest Flight 253, is yet another isolated but tell-tale sign that we must learn from: 1) If solidly middle-class Westernized Muslims mouth the al-Qaeda line of radical Islamic, anti-American boilerplate, please take them seriously — i.e., worry less about their feelings and more about the lives of innocents they may in the future seek to annihilate. The more upscale and the more the Western exposure, the more there is to worry about. 2) For the last eight years, many have patiently tried to suggest that the answer to "Why do they hate us?" does not entail poverty, Western imperialism or colonialism, support for Israel, past provocations, etc.
Rather, radical Islam encourages in an Hasan or Mutallab age-old passions like pride, envy, and a sense of inferiority — all accelerated by instantaneous communications and abetted by continual Western apologetics that on a global level blame Westerners for self-induced misery in many Islamic countries. "They did it" is far easier than looking inward to address tribalism, gender apartheid, statism, autocracy, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism, which in perfect-storm fashion ensure an impoverished — and resentful and angry — radical Islamic community while the rest of the world moves merrily on. 3) I think the year-long mantra of "Bush destroyed the Constitution" is now almost over, and we will begin again worrying about our collective safety rather than scoring partisan points by citing supposed excesses in our anti-terrorism efforts.
With the delay in closing Guantanamo (from the promised shuttering on Jan. 20, 2010 to . . . sometime in 2011?), Obama's quiet copy-catting of Bush security protocols (such as wiretaps, intercepts, tribunals, and renditions), and the popular outcry against the upcoming show trial of KSM in New York, a public consensus is growing that radical Muslims like Hasan and Mutallab will continue to attempt to kill Americans.
Citizens increasingly understand that the last eight years of relative safety following 9/11 were due only to heightened security at home and proactive use of force abroad, that we should cease trying to appease radical Islam by dreaming up new euphemisms ("overseas contingency operations," "man made disasters," etc.), and that it is time to stop the apologetics and kowtowing, and grudgingly accept that thousands of radical Islamic fundamentalists worldwide want to kill Americans — and dozens of governments, at least on the sly, hope that they do.
Such venom has nothing to do with past American behavior or George Bush's strut, nor can it be ameliorated on the cheap by Barack Obama's Nobel Prize, middle name, or reset-button diplomacy. 4) As we learned on 9/11, it is often the unsung heroes among us that come out of the shadows to aid us, and not necessarily large bureaucracies entrusted with our safety. Individuals acting on their own so often make the difference between salvation and mass murder. 5) After the embarrassing debate about Hasan (e.g., "Was he a terrorist?"; second-hand post-traumatic stress syndrome, etc.), I don't think the public will put up with similar contextualization about Mutallab.
6) The politics of anti-terrorism in this administration will insidiously begin to change, given that there was no repeat of 9/11 between 2001 and 2009 — and that thereafter, signs began to emerge that radical Muslims were reenergized and eager to trump their feat of eight years ago.
In such a climate, one must worry more about the passengers on Flight 253 and less about whether self-confessed mass murderer and beheader KSM is given a public venue to explain his hatred of the United States, and is granted rights usually not accorded to such out-of-uniform and self-proclaimed terrorist enemies.
So a little more "Beware of radical Muslim terrorists who want to murder us — and won't!" and a little less chest-thumping about dropping the supposedly retrograde "War on Terror."
 An attempted jihad attack on Christmas Day has revealed that Americans are much more vulnerable to such attacks than most have believed – while government officials whistle in the dark. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 just before it landed in Detroit. In response, Barack Obama chose not to cut short his golfing vacation in Hawaii; the White House announced that he would “likely” have something to say about this latest attempted jihad attack on U.S. soil “in the next few days.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was ebullient, maintaining that “the system worked” and “everything happened that should have.” Unless the “system” was consisted of relying on passengers to tackle jihadists (as Jasper Schuringa, the Dutch passenger on Flight 253, subdued Abdulmutallab), and trusting that jihadis’ detonators will malfunction (as did Abdulmutallab’s), Napolitano’s statement couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth.
In reality, nothing worked. Nothing at all, both in terms of security procedures for individual air passengers, and in terms of the larger strategy for dealing with jihad terrorism. All the stupid and humiliating airport security procedures, all the little baggies for toothpaste and shampoo, all the padding through the security scanner in stocking feet, didn’t work.
Abdulmutallab was able to board the plane with the makings of a bomb that would have destroyed the aircraft and killed everyone in it. The Transportation Security Administration has scrambled since Christmas Day to stiffen security procedures, but its effort is foredoomed: jihadis study these procedures carefully, always searching for ways to circumvent them. And such ways exist, even if every passenger were subjected to a full body cavity search – bomb ingredients can be separated and combined mid-flight, or spirited onboard in ways as yet unimagined by the most visionary TSA official. Abdulmutallib was also on a terror watch list, although that fact, and the fact that he had been known to anti-terror officials for several years, did not prevent him from boarding Flight 253 – showing that such lists and even official scrutiny are as useless as taking off your shoes in the airport security line.
What’s more, the jihadi’s father warned American officials about his son, who was being watched already. And still nothing was done to keep him from boarding the plane. Abdulmutallab likewise demonstrates the failure of long-term anti-terror strategies. Educated at the British International School in Lome, Togo, he was a classic recipient of Western largesse designed to win over the loyalties of Muslims. Yet his encounter with kindly non-Muslim Westerners spending their lives to educate him and his peers did not blunt the fervor of his jihadist fanaticism. And as a rich man’s son, he once again gives the lie to the firmly and widely held assumption that poverty causes terrorism. All the aid programs based on the assumption that poverty does cause terrorism and that money for schools and roads and hospitals would win over Muslim hearts and minds have not worked, and will not work. All the concerted efforts by the State Department and DHS to ignore the jihad doctrine and reach out to people they deemed to be “moderate Muslims” have likewise not worked. According to the Nigerian newspaper This Day, when Abdulmutallab was at the British International School, “he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called ‘Alfa,’ a local coinage for Islamic scholar.”
This illustrates yet again that, contrary to the popular view, Islamic jihadists present themselves among their fellow Muslims as the exponents of authentic Islam, making their case from the Qur’an and Sunnah — and those Muslims who oppose jihadist violence and Islamic supremacism have never successfully refuted their arguments. Outreach to moderate Muslims has not aided in this effort, and has deceived the general public into thinking that the influence of peaceful Muslims over jihadists is much larger than it actually is. As far as the DHS and Janet Napolitano are concerned, the Flight 253 incident is a massive and unmitigated disaster, showing the complete and abject failure of their anti-terror policies across the board.
The Flight 253 attempted jihad attack shows that the American response to jihad terrorism has failed not just in one detail or a single area. Rather, the failure is massive, comprehensive, all-encompassing.
The anti-terror approach adopted since 9/11 is not working, and is never going to work. Until it is scrapped, there will be many, many more incidents like the one on Flight 253. But rather than have the decency to admit the truth, the DHS chief is putting on a brave face and pretending that up is down and down is up. And the President keeps golfing. Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of ten books, eleven monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book, The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, is available now from Regnery Publishing, and he is coauthor (with Pamela Geller) of the forthcoming book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (Simon and Schuster). FPM
 THE al-Qaida-affiliated militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba has been actively planning one or more additional Mumbai-style attacks in India. The claim is based on scouting by a Chicago man recently charged with being a long-time clandestine operative of the group, according to current and former US, Indian and European counterterrorism officials. FBI and Justice Department officials spent last week in India and Pakistan as part of an urgent effort to head off such an attack, sharing a wealth of information from their investigation into the activities of David Coleman Headley, the officials said. The new plots, believed to be in the works for months, are most likely against “soft” civilian targets such as hotels or synagogues frequented by Americans, Israelis and other Westerners, the officials said. But India's National Defense College and other government sites have also been scouted as targets, according to officials and FBI affidavits recently unsealed in Chicago. The Justice Department last week filed terrorism charges against a third former Pakistani military officer in the Denmark plot. Those accusations are sure to exacerbate tensions in the region, current and former US and allied officials said. Washington and India have long accused the Pakistani military of maintaining close ties to Lashkar and other militant groups and using them for attacks on India. Pakistan has long denied those accusations and demanded proof. The Australian
 Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times. In an e-mail to community groups, an officer in the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit wrote: “I do hope that you will tell me about persons, of whatever age, you think may have been radicalised or be vulnerable to radicalisation ... Evidence suggests that radicalisation can take place from the age of 4.” The police unit confirmed that counter-terrorist officers specially trained in identifying children and young people vulnerable to radicalisation had visited nursery schools. The policy was condemned last night. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that it ran the risk of “alienating even more people”. Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that it was an “absurd waste of police time”. Sir Norman, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, said: “There is absolutely no example, nationally, of the police engaging with nursery-age kids specifically on this issue. That is the age for learning about ‘Stranger Danger’ and ‘The Tufty Club’.” The Home Office has disclosed, meanwhile, that a seven-year-old has become the youngest child to feature in a scheme to tackle grooming by extremists. David Hanson, the Police Minister, disclosed in a parliamentary answer that the child was one of 228 people referred to the Channel Project, part of Prevent focused on individuals. More than 90 per cent of those identified by the project have been aged between 15 and 24 and most, but not all, are Muslim. Criticism of the anti-extremism strategy is growing. The programme, funded from the £3.5 billion per year security budget, is said to stigmatise communities and encourage Muslims to spy on one another. This week John Denham, the Communities Secretary, said that the programme had to be more transparent to dispel “the fear that by joining a Prevent activity, the organisers or the participants are opening themselves up to covert surveillance, intelligence-gathering and the collection of files on the Muslim communities”. The e-mail obtained by The Times was written by a sergeant in response to Muslim community concerns. He was trying to allay fears but seems to have inflamed them. He wrote: “I am a police officer and therefore it will always be part of my role to gather intelligence and I will report back any information or intelligence which may suggest someone is a terrorist, or is planning to be one or to support others. However, my role is to raise the level of awareness of the threat of terrorism and radicalisation and support and work with partners to try to prevent it.” Arun Kundnani, of the Institute of Race Relations, contacted the officer and said he was told that officers had visited nursery schools. Mr Kundnani added: “He did seem to think it was standard. He said it wasn’t just him or his unit that was doing it.
He said the indicators were they [children] might draw pictures of bombs and say things like ‘all Christians are bad’ or that they believe in an Islamic state. It seems that nursery teachers in the West Midlands area are being asked to look out for radicalisation.
He also said that targeting young children was important because they would be left aware of what was inappropriate to say at school. He felt that it was necessary to cover nurseries as well as primary and secondary schools. He said it was a precaution and that he wasn’t expecting to come back with a list.” More at Times Online
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
There is no mention in this report about the nature or origin of the threat. Hmm. Lapsed Quakers? Militant Methodists?
Posts
