 Actually -- surprise! -- the local Muslims are angry about the FBI's use of informants. Apparently no one is allowed to know what is going on inside the mosques, and we are all supposed to take it on trust that inside them they are preaching love for non-Muslims, peaceful coexistence with them as equals on an indefinite basis, equality of rights for women, the importance of the Constitution's non-establishment of a state religion, and the virtues of a non-Sharia state. "Deadly FBI raid in Dearborn prompts concern over informants: Muslims, civil rights advocates decry tactic," by Niraj Warikoo for the Detroit Free Press, January 17: He called himself Jabril. Two years ago, a white man who claimed he was an ex-con and convert to Islam started attending a predominantly African-American mosque on a run-down street in Detroit. He touted his Islamic ways while offering poor members of the mosque cash for odd jobs at an auto shop on the city's west side. He told tales of sick family members and brought a young boy to the mosque who he said was his son. Jabril soon became a brother in faith and a confidante of the mosque's fiery leader, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed in a shootout during an Oct. 28 raid by FBI agents to arrest men suspected of dealing in stolen goods. Members now believe Jabril was an FBI informant who infiltrated their mosque. "He built up trust in the community," said Omar Regan, 34, one of Abdullah's sons. The case -- one of several in the past year involving informants in Muslim-American communities -- has prompted growing concern among Muslims and civil rights advocates about undercover surveillance in religious institutions. Federal officials say they don't send informants into congregations without reason. But last week, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat, called upon the U.S. Justice Department to review its policies on using informants in houses of worship. [...] For two years, the man known as Jabril to many at Masjid Al-Haqq ingratiated himself with members of the mosque, according to Abdullah's followers. They accepted him as a brother in Islam. On Oct. 28, Regan said Jabril asked mosque members to help him move some goods in a Dearborn warehouse. Authorities said the men were there to deal in stolen items. Once inside the warehouse, Jabril reportedly told the mosque members: "I'm going to go get some water, a drink of water," Regan said in an interview with the Free Press. Jabril then disappeared. Moments later, federal agents stormed inside. Abdullah, 53, was shot dead by FBI agents after an exchange of fire during the raid. Jabril was never seen again by members of the mosque. The story of Jabril's alleged infiltration offers a rare look into the use of FBI informants in Muslim-American communities in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. Members of the Detroit mosque say they believe Jabril was a key undercover informant in helping the FBI build a case against Abdullah and his followers. Muslim advocates say there's a growing problem of improper use of informants, particularly in houses of worship. Some accuse the informant of luring Abdullah to his death in the fatal shooting, which has raised questions about excessive force. But the FBI and federal prosecutors have said that agents acted appropriately in trying to apprehend members of a criminal operation led by Abdullah. They said the group preached violence and hatred against law enforcement and non-Muslims. Abdullah and his followers were not charged with any acts of terrorism. The charges against the 11 men arrested include dealing in stolen goods such as laptops and fur coats, firearms violations and tampering with vehicle identification numbers. The criminal complaint, however, highlights the radical views of the group. "America must fall," Abdullah once said, according to the complaint. While some Muslim leaders have expressed concern about civil rights, federal officials say informants are vitally needed, especially with the recent surge in domestic terrorism.... Read it all. The usual suspects, including CAIR, show up and say the usual things. With thanks to JihadWatch 
 People in America are often shocked to discover the extent to which the authorities in Britain have been taken in by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, to such an extent the UK government and police use them as advisers on combating Islamic extremism. Americans would be even more shocked to discover that exactly the same thing is going on in their own backyard. Pajamas TV features two interviews with former US security people, one described merely as having been given some kind of intel-gathering assignment by the ‘joint chiefs’ and the other described as a ‘former FBI special agent’.
The first describes how, when he discovered to his alarm that there was not only no evidence that Islamic radicals were wrong in Islamic law but that there were no counter-arguments to them in that law, the US intel/law enforcement community that had instructed him just didn’t want to know. The second, the ex-FBI man, is even more alarming. He states that the American counter-terrorist establishment has allowed itself to be infiltrated by radical Islamists -- to whom counter-terrorism officials are going for advice and training in countering Islamic radicalism.
Every major Muslim representative organisation in the US, he says, is a Muslim Brotherhood front. Hamas fronts such as CAIR are used by the US authorities for outreach to the Muslim community in America. They are invited to sit in on brainstorming sessions about investigative techniques, and are actually training the FBI. ‘The Muslim Brotherhood are telling us how to fight them’, he says. The PJTV interviewer seemed stunned by this unbelievable situation. But it’s exactly what’s happening in the UK, too, where the Brotherhood are used – incredible as this sounds – as an antidote to radicalisation and as interlocutors in good faith with the Muslim community.
In the US, this profound and wilful institutionalised ignorance of the religious war being waged against the free world revealed itself most catastrophically recently when seven CIA officers, amongst them some of the most experienced and valuable, were blown up by a Jordanian triple agent. Not only were they duped, but it seems their professional training went by the board in inviting such a man onto their base and with so many of them clustering around him. As the Washington Post reported: ‘The tradecraft that was developed over many years is passé,’ complained a recently retired senior intelligence official, also with decades of experience. ‘Now it’s a military tempo where you don't have time for validating and vetting sources. . . . All that seems to have gone by the board. It shows there are not a lot of people with a great deal of experience in this field. The agency people are supporting the war-fighter and providing information for targeting, but the espionage part has become almost quaint.’ Endemic ignorance, sloppiness, incompetence -- even now, even after 9/11, even after the restructuring which was supposed to remedy the dysfunctionality and turf wars between intelligence agencies but which – as was predicted at the time – has merely stuck another layer of bureaucracy on top. And if one thinks back to the systematic failure over decades to identify and analyse correctly the rise of Islamism and before that, the imminent collapse of Soviet communism, one has to ask oneself the terrifying question whether US intelligence really is fit for purpose at all. Melanie Phillips
 A MOCKED-UP image of how Osama Bin Laden may look today has been withdrawn by the US State Department after the FBI admitted it was partly based on a photograph of a Spanish MP taken from the internet. The Photofit image of an older, greying Al-Qaeda leader bore a striking resemblance to the left-wing politician Gaspar Llamazares, a member of Spain’s Communist party and a critic of the US “war on terror”.
It turned out Llamazares’s grey hair, jaw line and forehead had been simply cut and pasted from an old campaign photograph by an FBI technician. The FBI originally claimed it used “cutting edge” technology to come up with new images of terrorist suspects for the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. However, Ken Hoffman, an FBI spokesman, admitted yesterday that the agency had used a picture of Llamazares taken from Google Images to update the Photofit. He told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo: “The forensic artist was unable to find suitable features among the reference photographs and obtained those features, in part, from a photograph he found on the internet.” The US government had previously been using a 1998 photo of Bin Laden, including on a wanted poster that offered a reward of up to $25m (now worth £15m) for information leading to his capture or killing. Llamazares, former leader of the United Left party, was elected to Spain’s parliament in 2000. He said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the United States. “I was surprised and angered because it’s the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist,” he said. “It’s almost like out of a comedy, if it didn’t deal with matters as serious as Bin Laden and citizens’ security.” Llamazares intends to ask the US government for an explanation and is considering legal action. He said he has “no similarity, physically or ideologically, to Bin Laden”. They do share one trait: they are both 52. Bin Laden, who is wanted for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, is believed to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan frontier region bordering Afghanistan. His exact whereabouts have been unknown since late 2001, when he and some bodyguards slipped out of the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan, evading airstrikes, special forces and Afghan militias. Times Online
 AMERICAN security agents used sophisticated digital enhancement to create pictures showing how al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might look like today. The Sun reports the Federal Bureau of Investigation released the pictures showing an aged bin Laden, with his beard trimmed and headdress removed. The Muslim fanatic, 52, is blamed for masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 3000 people. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and intentionally crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others in the building. A third hit the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a field after passengers fought back against the hijackers. Read more about the FBI's old Osama bin Laden at The Sun The Australian
 A REPORT questioning the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for former terrorists is threatening to undermine Barack Obama's pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The US President has suspended a release of Yemeni prisoners because of the attempted Christmas Day bombing masterminded from Yemen. The administration has conceded it will not meet its January 22 deadline for closing the base in Cuba. The fate of all 198 prisoners still at Guantanamo now hangs in the balance after US figures showed that up to one in five former detainees have engaged in terrorist activity after their release. The main hope had been a much vaunted rehabilitation program set up by Saudi Arabia in 2003. This uses crayon therapy, table tennis and video games to reform jihadists. The Saudis had claimed near-total success for the program, which had 108 former Guantanamo detainees pass through it. But 11 of these graduates have been named on the kingdom's list of 85 "most wanted" terrorists. They include Said Ali al-Shihri, who re-emerged as a leader of al-Qa'ida in Yemen, the group claiming responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing plot. "The Saudis claim 80-90 per cent success in turning these jihadists," said John Horgan, director of the International Centre for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University, who was among the experts. "But when I asked Saudi officers how they knew these people were safe to release, all they could say was they got a feeling." Run by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the program initially received international plaudits. Aside from art therapy, games and religious discussion to counter radicalisation, it relies on social support. Jihadists are encouraged to get a flat, find a wife and settle down. "It's more like a halfway house than a prison," said Christopher Boucek, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who visited the camps. "The centres have guards and fences and you can't leave when you want to, but the first thing that happens to prisoners is their shackles are removed." He warned: "I think what we have seen is, it is unrealistic to close Gitmo if you don't have a program to monitor people when released." Mr Horgan agrees. Although he praised the Saudi scheme for being "innovative and ambitious", he said: "The idea that this is a silver bullet is naive. These guys are not being deradicalised. They are being encouraged to disassociate from terrorism, but their fundamental views have not changed." The unpublished Homeland Security report's main criticism is the lack of any reliable risk assessment to decide whether an individual should be allowed back into society. "Sex offenders have to meet all sorts of criteria before they are released," Mr Horgan said. "Why shouldn't it be the same for terrorists?" The report points out that there is no way of measuring recidivism. Many of the Saudi rehab graduates ended up in Yemen. Apart from Shihri, these included Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaish, al-Qa'ida's spiritual leader in the Arabian peninsula, and Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, who appeared in an al-Qa'ida video last January, threatening attacks. Shihri is thought to have played a direct role in an al-Qa'ida attack on the US embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, in 2008, in which 19 people died. The Australian
 Less than a month after major Nidal Hasan allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon's top intelligence officer sent the White House a report detailing an earlier failure to connect the dots.
It reads like a dress rehearsal for the Detroit bomber case, reports CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin.
According to that still-classified report, the terrorism task force responsible for determining whether Hasan posed a threat never saw all 18 e-mails he exchanged with that radical Yemeni cleric Awlaki whose communications were being monitored under a court ordered wiretap.
After the Washington task force decided Hasan was not dangerous, it never asked to see his subsequent communications with Alwaki.
"I think it's a real problem that you didn't have in one place at one time all of the communications being evaluated," said CBS News security analyst Juan Zarate.
None of the e-mails specifically mentioned Hasan's plans for a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but because he was a member of the military the FBI showed them to a Pentagon investigator with the note "comm" written on it. To the FBI that meant "commissioned officer." The Pentagon investigator thought it meant "communication."
As a result, there were no red flags that an army officer was e-mailing a radical cleric suspected of being a talent spotter for al Qaeda.
Bottom line: the lessons of the Fort Hood shootings were not learned in time to avert the near disaster on Christmas day.
 Rocket launcher? Check. Jihadist writings? Check. But no worries -- the Feds found no ties to terrorism! Keystone Kops Alert from Houston: "Rocket Launcher Found In Apartment: No Charges Filed," from Click2Houston.com, December 31 HOUSTON -- Police went to a southwest Houston apartment to break up a disturbance but ended up finding something else, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday. A woman called police on Monday and said a man was forcing his way into her apartment in the 5300 block of Elm Street. When officers went inside, they found something that made them concerned enough to call the bomb squad. They found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks. "It gives infantrymen the advantage with an ultra-light weapon that can stop vehicles, armored vehicles as well as main battle tanks and fortifications," said Oscar Saldivar of Top Brass Military and Tactical on the North Freeway. That type of rocket launcher has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The renter of the apartment didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2. "This is my house," the woman said. " Get away from here. I don't want to talk to nobody." The woman did tell police that the rocket launcher belonged to Nabilaye I. Yansane, someone whom she allowed to store items at her apartment. Police records show that she didn't want Yansane at her apartment, so she called them. According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2 about that, either. "I don't know," she said. "You'll have to ask the police." Yansane was charged with criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three days in jail, which he has already served.
No charges related to the rocket launcher or writings were filed. "Other people could have had access to the apartment, so maybe if a rocket launcher was located there, as is stated in the offense report, maybe it belonged to somebody else," attorney Garl Polland said. Prosecutors said there are no state charges for having the unarmed launcher or possessing Jihadist writings, unless they contain some type of threat. The former director of Houston's FBI office said rocket launchers can be dangerous if they're in the wrong hands. No kidding, really? "I don't know any other use for those weapons except in combat," Don Clark said. "I've had them in combat, used them in combat. That's what they are used for." Houston police said they did a thorough investigation and did not find any ties to terrorists or a terrorist network. What a relief! With thanks to JihadWatch
 By: Steve Emerson Given the raw number of terrorist plots this year, it shouldn't come as a surprise that 2009 is ending with an attempt to blow a commercial airliner out of the sky.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed bombing plot stands out in part because it appears to have been designed and launched from abroad.
Homegrown American Islamist terror became impossible to ignore this year: Two fatal attacks on the U.S. military — one killing an Army recruiter, the other a mass murder of soldiers; an intercepted plot considered the biggest domestic threat since 9/11; and a series of conspiracies to blow up synagogues, office buildings, and other targets made 2009 the year homegrown American Islamist terror became a clear, serious threat.
An American stands accused of playing a key role in scouting targets in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 170 people. Five college students gave up promising futures to try to join the jihad against American soldiers in Afghanistan. And two young men were convicted for working with Pakistani militants in plots at home and abroad.
The Nov. 5 Fort Hood massacre was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. Six months earlier, Muslim convert Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed Army recruiter William Long in Little Rock, Ark. Muhammad told police "he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," and that he would have shot more people if he had seen them outside the recruiting office.
This spike in violence and planned attacks got the White House's attention. President Obama noted in his speech at West Point explaining the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan: "In the past few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cited the case of Najibullah Zazi (a U.S. resident charged with planning to detonate a weapon of mass destruction who allegedly trained with al-Qaida): "We are seeing young Americans who are inspired by al-Qaida and radical ideology. We are seeing increasing links" between al-Qaida and American citizens "for purposes of planning terrorist attacks."
These and other recent arrests of Islamist terror suspects on U.S. soil should debunk a popular illusion: that the United States has been so successful at integrating Muslims into American life that it need not worry about homegrown radicalization, said Zeyno Baran, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Eurasian Policy.
"I think there was always a little bit of denial here," Baran told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. "People have been repeating the mantra that 'America is different' " from Europe.
Baran warned against exaggerating the potential benefits of integrating Muslims better into American culture to prevent radicalization. She noted, for example, that the British doctors who attempted to carry out a series of car bombings in London and Glasgow two years ago appeared to be well-integrated medical professionals. But the outward signs of professional and social success masked the reality that they had become devoted jihadists.
And FBI counterterrorism chief Steve Pomerantz expressed skepticism about the idea that better integration of Muslims would reduce the jihadist threat. "You only become integrated if you want to," he said during an interview.
Noting that many of the Muslims who immigrated to Europe in recent decades showed little interest in integrating themselves, Pomerantz said the United States needs to accept the possibility that American Muslims may follow the European model.
He believes the jihadist danger in the United States is likely to worsen. More at Newsmax
 With the FBI cutting off ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and now subpoenaing some 12,000 internal CAIR documents under temporary restraining order as part of the bureau’s ongoing criminal investigation of CAIR, the terrorist front group is suddenly cooperating with the FBI — or at least making a show of it. Suddenly CAIR, an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, is acting like a good citizen.
Suddenly it’s concerned about young Muslim-American men going on jihad. Suddenly it’s concerned about “certain” passages of the Quran inspiring jihadists. It’s all too little, too late. Thanks to CAIR, 42 brave American soldiers were gunned down by an Islamic nut in Texas. That’s right, thanks to CAIR. How so? For starters, it was the intimidating and ruthless CAIR that almost single-handedly created a climate of fear of reporting any suspicious anti-American behavior on the part of Muslim soldiers like Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. The CAIR-induced mass silence led to mass murder. Fear in the military of being seen as anti-Muslim also blocked intellectually honest discussion of violent Islamic ideology in the ranks. Thanks to CAIR, the military along with everyone else in government is terrified of associating terrorism with Islam. No one dares utter the M word, lest they be sued for discrimination or branded an “anti-Muslim bigot” or “Islamophobe” by CAIR’s smear merchants. “There were definitely clear indications that Hasan’s loyalties were not with America,” said Lt. Col. Val Finnell, one of the Army doctors who served with Hasan. But nobody said anything because “there’s a political correctness climate in the military,” and everybody’s “afraid of an equal opportunity lawsuit.” CAIR’s lawyers have filed thousands of EEOC complaints and lawsuits since 9/11. They’ve even gone after John Doe citizens who alerted airline crew to Muslim men behaving as menacingly and suspiciously as the 9/11 hijackers. CAIR’s “Flying While Muslim” anti-profiling campaign has had a chilling effect throughout the aviation security industry. CAIR gulled non-Muslims into the kind of see-no-evil dhimmitude that allowed Hasan to carry out his alleged terror. Had anyone dared officially protest Hasan’s extremist views, they would have not only risked their military careers but potentially faced a lawsuit sponsored by CAIR. Hasan was treated with kid gloves because CAIR demanded it. Thanks to CAIR, a dozen soldiers lay dead, along with 29 wounded, some so severely they’ll never be deployed in the war on terror again, which is just fine by CAIR. Since 9/11, the Saudi-funded front group has consistently and vehemently protested the war, even in Afghanistan, while defending the Taliban and other terrorists. More at FPM
 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.
 A MAN who attempted to light an explosive aboard a US jetliner as it landed in Detroit told investigators he was affiliated with Al-Qa'ida. CNN, citing a federal bulletin, said the man told investigators he had acquired the explosive in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used. President Barack Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, was notified about the incident and held a conference call with his national security team, CNN reported. The White House later said that Mr Obama has ordered increased security for air travel following the possible attempted airline bombing on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Sandra Berchtold, an FBI spokeswoman in Detroit, said the incident on the airline was under investigation. The Australian
 By Art Moore WND investigation seen as example of 'alarming level of anti-Islam hate' Citing the impact of the WND Books expose "Muslim Mafia" as an example of rampant "anti-Islam hate in our nation," the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on President Obama yesterday to address what it calls an "alarming" problem. CAIR – which has filed suit against "Muslim Mafia" co-author P. David Gaubatz and his son for an undercover investigation of the group's terrorist ties – distributed a list of "anti-Islam incidents" that included "a call by far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate Muslim interns on Capitol Hill as 'spies.'" "President Obama is in the best position to address the alarming level of anti-Islam hate in our nation and to urge religious and political leaders to speak out in support of tolerance and mutual understanding," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. As WND reported, Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., John Shadegg, R-Ariz., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Paul Broun, R-Ga., formally asked the House sergeant at arms in October to investigate evidence from "Muslim Mafia" that CAIR is conspiring to plant "spies" inside Congress targeting sensitive security-related committees. In another letter, to Attorney General Eric Holder, the House members ask the Justice Department to reveal to Congress members why CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in U.S. history. Last month, the four lawmakers were joined by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a letter urging the Internal Revenue Service to investigate CAIR to determine whether the Muslim group's lobbying activities on Capitol Hill violate its nonprofit status. "Muslim Mafia" uncovered confidential CAIR memos revealing that in one year alone, CAIR officials made 72 separate trips to Congress to lobby against the Patriot Act. The same year Congress met fewer than 150 days. U.S. prosecutors believe CAIR, while claiming to be a civil-rights group, is actually a front group for Hamas and other terrorists. The Justice Department stated in September 2007 during its prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas that CAIR "has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew." CAIR said its annual national report on the status of American Muslim civil rights, released this month, showed an increase in bias-related incidents in 2008. CAIR has claimed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that Muslims in the U.S. have suffered a sharp rise in anti-Islamic abuse. The group's 2005 abuse report, blamed a purported increase in anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment on the Internet and talk radio. But FBI data actually has shown the number of incidents is dramatically shrinking. The 2006 total of 156, for example, was a 68 percent drop from 2001. Moreover, incidents against Muslims were just a fraction of overall hate crimes. In 2006, 66 percent of religiously motivated attacks targeted Jews, while just 11 percent were against Muslims, even though the Jewish and Muslim populations are similar in size. In its letter to Obama, CAIR cited recent incidents in Florida in which a cross with the message "Christian nation, Christian community" was planted at the site of a planned mosque and an anti-Islam Christmas display was set up by a local church. Other incidents listed were "a spate of vandalism incidents at mosques nationwide" and "anti-Islam remarks by Christian evangelist Franklin Graham." CAIR's director Awad said Obama himself has been "targeted by anti-Muslim hate despite the fact that he is Christian," noting a Colorado car dealer recently put up a billboard depicting the president as a "turban-wearing militant." Awad pointed to recent remarks made to a Muslim and Arab-American gathering in Michigan by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in which he said the Justice Department will return to its "traditional" role of ensuring civil rights. The president has signed a spending measure that will give the Justice Department's civil rights division 102 new staff members, many of whom will be assigned to hate-crimes investigations. CAIR said it began airing a new public service announcement called "I am Muslim, I am American" yesterday on the CBS Super Screen in New York City's Times Square. FBI steps in CAIR's suit against the Gaubatzes claims they stole sensitive material from the group's Washington office under false pretenses. But lawyers for the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case this week that contends CAIR has no claim because it does not legally exist. A federal judge in Washington issued a restraining order Nov. 3 barring the Gaubtazes from further use or publication of the material – 12,000 pages of documents along with audio and video recordings – and demanding that they return it to the Muslim group's lawyers. But the FBI stepped into the case Nov. 23 with a warrant to examine the papers and recordings, apparently as part of its concern about CAIR and its terrorist links to Hamas. The bureau cut off ties to CAIR after the Islamic group was named an unindicted terror co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case. "Muslim Mafia," by David Gaubatz and "Infiltration" author Paul Sperry, asserts CAIR is acting as a front for a conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate the U.S. and help pave the way for Saudi-style Islamic law to rule the nation. WND
 US officials are actually debating whether to file charges against the five Muslim DC students, Americans who were arrested in Pakistan for planning jihad. See also here. "They are proudly saying they are here for jihad" or holy war, Anwar said. One of the jihadis left behind a "farewell" video and Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families, said: "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community". What about the father of one of the five that joined the them in their jihad? And what is the Muslim community doing to expunge the koran of these violent texts prescribing such violence? No, instead they insist we willingly go to the gallows. How can we be having this discussion? How can this be? How could such consideration be made? CAIR should be nailed for their support of jihad here and abroad. But once your premise if false, once your thinking is irrational, everything that stems from it will be ...insane. And so we have it - the era of insanity. Can you imagine if we applied this to the Nazis? Go lenient on the Nazis or ......... they'll build more ovens. CAIR is a jihadist organization. Of course they will front for the global jihad. I expect this from terrorists. But what of us? Where is our will? How can we allow this imposition of sharia law without so much as a cry out for liberty, freedom, for America, for our children? FBI walks tightrope in outreach to Muslims Washington Post
Probe into 5 Americans held in Pakistan could undermine relationships "As U.S. officials consider whether to file criminal charges against the men and how aggressively to prosecute any potential case, some Muslim leaders are calling for leniency, saying the tough approach often used by the Bush administration would alienate a community whose relationship with law enforcement is uneasy. "Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution," said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward." The era of Obama. Of the 30 Muslim terror plots thwarted on U.S. soil since 9/11, 10 came in 2009. And Obama is dismantling the very mechanisms that enable us to stop these jihadis before they attack...........
- a plan to attack military aircraft and synagogues in New York (four men arrested in May), - the fatal shooting of an Army recruiter and wounding of another in Little Rock in June, - the North Carolina plot to wage jihad in various countries (eight men charged in July),
- a conspiracy to plant bombs in New York (prevented by apprehension of the accused, an Afghan national from Denver, in September), - an attempted bombing at an Illinois courthouse, also in September, - an intended assault on a shopping center in Massachusetts, foiled in October, - and a firefight later that same month in Detroit between FBI agents and radicals bent on establishing an Islamist enclave ruled by sharia law in the United States. Thanks to Atlas
 From CAN: CNN.com reports that five Muslims in Florida have been sentenced for planning a bombing campaign with Al-Qaeda that included an attack on the Sears Tower and the FBI’s office in Miami. The highest sentencing was given to the leader of the plot, Narseal Batiste, who was given 13 ½ years in prison plus 35 years of supervision after release.
The plots were thwarted after someone told the FBI that Batiste had tried to recruit him for “jihad” in the U.S., and the Bureau then planted an undercover operative posing as a member of Al-Qaeda to infiltrate Batiste and his network.
The men were arrested before weapons were obtained and their plans were described as “more aspirational than operational.” Batiste was recorded as pledging allegiance to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist group and telling the undercover FBI agent that his group needed training and assistance so they could wage a “full ground war” inside the U.S. and “kill all the devils we can,” according to MSNBC.com. The conviction and sentencing of the five came after two mistrials and the acquitting of two other suspects arrested for allegedly being involved in the plots. World Threats
 Osama bin Laden's terror network has perfected the art of masking its unpopular agenda with a recruitment pitch that can hook just about anyone. Last week, five young men from northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., were arrested in Pakistan, alleged to have been eager volunteers for a terrorist-linked militant group in a region rife with insurgency.
The facts remain sparse so far, but this would not be the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that Americans have left their country to heed al Qaeda's call to arms. These men, however, look different -- at least from the outside. The FBI explained that the five don't fit the typical profile of a militant supporter of al Qaeda, the Christian Science Monitor reported. They were from the middle class, educated, and not visibly marginalized from American society. Their grievances were not readily apparent. In fact, these men fit exactly the profile that the FBI and the world should now come to expect: no profile at all. A militant's profile lies not in his age, race, culture, or education; anyone can join or be adopted by the al Qaeda network, the only prerequisite being a willingness to accept the group's radical, cult like ideology.
So if there is a lesson to be learned from these recent arrests, it is that profiling won't work. We need something better. According to family members and those who knew them, the five were hooked in by radical messages of precisely the sort that al Qaeda is known for. They are thought to have watched the militant rhetoric on YouTube, enough to encourage them to take the trip abroad. Across the world, al Qaeda encourages could-be recruits to do exactly the same -- to become muhajiroun or "émigrés" who move away from non militant communities, families, and friends to join the brotherhood of armed jihadists. Indeed, one of the young men abandoned his career in dental school; another left his family only a farewell video promising to defend Islam. Such a desertion seems at first unfathomable. But al Qaeda succeeds because, for more than two decades, the network has waged a successful information campaign that pushes its message out to the world as effectively asymmetrical as its use of suicide bombers on the battlefield. Al Qaeda has dominated the battlefield of the soul among the disaffected, disenfranchised, and dissatisfied.
It promises action instead of discussion. It avows to defend Islam through suicide bombings and mass murder. (Recovered jihadists are often horrified to learn, with the help of mainstream clerics, that they have been duped by a fantastical corruption of Islam, best called bin Ladenism.) More at Foreign Policy
 From CAN: The Justice Department announced on November 23 that 17 people had been arrested for providing supplies to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported. Eight of the suspects were caught in an FBI sting that began in 2007.
Two of the suspects, Hassan Hadroj and Dib Hani Harb, are said by the government to have tried to provide Hezbollah with stolen cash, fake passports, counterfeit money and 1,200 machine guns.
The FBI gave 30,000 stolen cell phones, as well as laptops and Playstation 2 video game systems to the suspects who allegedly planned to ship them to the terrorist group.
“It is well known that terrorist organizations engage in “traditional” criminal activities for the purpose of funding their violent jihad-for instance the use of cigarette smuggling,” said the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “Just as likely, however, is that some or all of these phones were brought to Lebanon where they were provided to Hezbollah operatives for the purposes of having disposable cell phones for planning and carrying out attacks.” In September, two individuals living in Queens were indicted after being caught in an FBI sting using an informant. The two sought to provide Hezbollah with cars, guns, ammunition, bulletproof vests, and night vision goggles, according to a Justice Department press release. A New Jersey resident also pled guilty this year to being paid $112,000 by Hezbollah to provide programming from the group’s television station to satellite users. His co-conspirator pled guilty to the charges the previous December. World Threats
 by Daniel Greenfield The thirteen US soldiers murdered at Fort Hood were killed by the bullets fired by Malik Nidal Hassan, but there were those who helped Nassan fire his bullets, who did everything but hold his gun and pull the trigger for him.
The initial FBI review has found that the Justice Department guidelines for opening a criminal investigation were too high, in turn investigators have said that it now requires a very high standard of evidence in order to convict a terrorist plotter. Pursuing charges before all the evidence is in hand can backfire – suspects have sued authorities before, claiming they were falsely imprisoned victims of witch hunts… Five Muslim immigrants were convicted last year of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, but they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged they were probably months away from acting.
... In January 2006, agents watched as a young man suspected of links to terrorists walked out of an Atlanta Home Depot with materials that could be used to make a bomb. They knew Syed Haris Ahmed had researched bombmaking techniques online and shaved his head, as some jihadis have done before an attack. However, they decided to wait to arrest him and keep building a stronger case – and risk a potential terror attack. Not being able to stop a terrorist before he strikes. Not being able to remove Muslims who are engaging in threatening behavior on a plane. Not able to take action against a terrorist plot for fear that the terrorists will be allowed to walk free. That is what the domestic version of the War on Terror looks like today. Those are the wages of Lawfare, the legal campaign on behalf of terrorists waged by well known liberal legal advocacy groups such as the ACLU, and the much wider base of liberal organizations and newspapers who lobbied on behalf of captured terrorists and republished every single one of their claims of torture… to the extent that the Al Queda manual made it a default for captured terrorists to cry abuse once on trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver, who was captured together with Al Queda operatives, became a cause celebre for liberals and liberal groups from Amnesty International to People for the American Way to the American Jewish Committee to George Clooney who was interested in making a movie about him and starring as his lawyer.
They turned Salim Hamdan into a martyr and breathlessly repeated every single one of his statements. And they won. They won with Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld. And they won again at trial. Hamdan was freed a few months after sentencing to return to Yemen. The liberal establishment had fought its hardest for Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard… and they won. America lost. That wasn’t the only time they won.
From day one every terrorist in Gitmo, every terrorist plotter seized on American soil plotting to murder Americans had the liberal establishment in their corner and fighting on their behalf.
From trial lawyers queuing up to defend them to the editorial pages of every liberal newspaper in America clamoring that they had been victimized, that the charges against them were worthless and that America had besmirched itself by not bowing to the wishes of the aforementioned trial lawyers. And they won. From Abu Ghraib to Gitmo, from Hamdan to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, they won. They successfully smeared US soldiers and interrogators and CIA agents as monsters, torturers and kidnappers.
They successfully portrayed Al Queda terrorists as sensitive victims and martyrs of a latter day Gulag. The same press that wouldn’t report on any of Castro’s atrocities a few miles south of Guantanamo Bay if you put a gun to their heads, put on their novelist hats and transformed butchers into loving fathers, and dedicated fanatics into misunderstood patriots. And they won. More at CFP
 ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani court ordered on Monday that five Americans detained in the country who officials said were seeking to join up with militant groups should not be deported, said a lawyer. The lawyer said the court blocked any attempt to deport the five in response to a request filed by a human rights activist. "They should not be handed over to the FBI or America or any other country until this petition is decided," said lawyer Tariq Asad from the eastern city of Lahore where the court heard the case. "The court has restrained the government from handing the five over," he said. There has been speculation that Washington may ask its regional ally Pakistan to deport the men back to the United States. U.S. FBI agents and their Pakistani colleagues have been interrogating the young American Muslims who wanted to go to Afghanistan to fight U.S.-led forces, Pakistani officials said. The five men, students in their 20s from northern Virginia, were detained last week in Sargodha in Punjab province, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. The were taken to Lahore on the weekend. The next hearing is expected on December 17. The five men tried to contact militants and stayed in touch with each other through the Internet, Pakistani security officials said, highlighting the difficulty authorities face in trying to track and disrupt plots organized online. The case has again focused attention on nuclear-armed Pakistan's performance in fighting militants as Washington presses Islamabad to root out Islamist fighters crossing the border to attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. Police have taken the first step toward filing charges with complaints based on laws pertaining to foreigners and the use of computers to organize crime. According to documents issued by the police, the five are named Waqar Hussain Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq. Police in the southern port city of Karachi raided a hotel where three of the five men stayed upon arrival in Pakistan two weeks ago. Senior Karachi police official Ghulam Nabi Memon said a mobile telephone and five bags had been recovered in the raid, although nothing significant was found in the bags. Reuters
 It would be reassuring if Muslim organizations were more unequivocal in their condemnation of acts of violence done in the name of Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) includes in its statement condemning the killings at Fort Hood, the following warning: “Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash.” This statement is designed to create and establish among Muslims the feeling they are victims within America. It also is meant to provide the basis for understanding why some lunatic who is Muslim might have reason to “snap.” This is not much different than the view, still held by a large minority of Americans (Reverend Wright anyone?) that 9/11 was simply America’s chickens coming home to roost. This warning by CAIR is an irritant and does not belong in this press release. Hate crimes in America are virtually non-existent, relative to its size. The last year for which the FBI has detailed data is 2007. There were a total of 1477 hate crimes against religion, 1010 of which were “Anti-Jewish.” “Anti-Catholic” and Anti-Protestantant crimes totaled 129, “Anti-Muslim” crimes totaled 133, and all other religions combined totaled 241.
No deaths were attributed to the victim’s religion. There were 16,000 murders in America in 2008. Bias crimes exist, but they are a sideshow. To include them in a statement condemning the murders at Fort Hood is political propaganda. It would also be reassuring if CAIR’s statement were more specific in its condemnation. They state that “no political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.” That’s not true. Not only can political and religious ideologies justify such violence, they do it all the time. Plus, why the generic “political or religious” passive sentence construction? Why not simply Islam itself condemns such violence? CAIR instead says the “American Muslim community condemns this cowardly attack.” [Emphasis added.] In today’s world, there are no accidents of language by sophisticated and well-funded organizations of any kind. Yes, paranoia can strike deep. But carefully constructed statements as obvious in what they exclude as what they include, do not help matters either. CAIR, and other such groups, needs to do better than this. Editors Note: Visit Michael Rulles Blog Here. See his previous NewsReal commentaries here. NewsReal Blog
 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
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Actually -- surprise! -- the local Muslims are angry about the FBI's use of informants. 
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