FOLLOWING THE LEAD OF ISRAEL BY: FERN SIDMAN Now that the hoopla over the successful United States "hit" on arch terrorist Osama bin Laden has begun to fade into the annals of history, the stark realization that the US and the free world are still bereft of a concrete plan of action to stem the tide of al-Qaeda terrorism is beginning to set in. Having spent close to 10 years assiduously tracking down the elusive 9/11 mastermind, we hasten to remind the CIA, along with the various and sundry intelligence networks, that the task of eradicating Islamic radicals bent on global domination demands replication of the kind of "muscle" that bagged bin Laden. Taking a cursory glance at the modern state of Israel's 63-year history and the bold modalities employed to confront the existential perils presented by a veritable panoply of terrorist organizations, it would appear that the Jewish state can teach the world a lesson or two in the area of "focused foiling". Having enshrined targeted assassinations as the pillar of their counter-terrorism doctrine, Israel has succeeded in creating a profound cumulative effect on the vast array of terror organizations in its midst. Leaving Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in a state of obfuscation and disarray through the routine elimination of their leaders; such actions clearly serve as a viable deterrent for those next in line for succession into their predecessors' shoes. For a brief historical retrospective, let us recall that the long arm of the Mossad often launched surprise attacks terrorists in the most remote locations. In April 1973, Ehud Barak (who was dressed as a woman), led Israeli commandos as they landed in Beirut and "took out" senior members of the Fatah movement including Yusuf Najjar who was Yassir Arafat's deputy and Fatah spokesman Kamal Nasir. Israel also had a direct hand in the 1979 explosion in Beirut that killed Hassan Ali Salamah, founder of Fatah's elite Force 17. In April of 1988, yet another brash operation was undertaken when an Israeli commando force under the leadership of former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon landed in Tunis and killed Khalil al-Wazir, known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad. This reprehensible miscreant was the head of the PLO's military branch and the second in seniority in the organization. Subsequent to a bloody barrage of suicide attacks which claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis, agents from the Mossad shot and killed Fathi Shiqaqi, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in October of 1995 in Malta. Yahya Abdel-Tif Ayyash, the notorious Hamas operative, better known to many by his sobriquet "The Engineer" was the next in line for Israeli retribution when in 1996 he made his last call in Beit Lahya, Gaza using a booby trapped cellular phone that exploded in his hands. For those who don't remember, he was responsible for masterminding suicide attacks in which 50 Israelis died and 340 were wounded. Other Hamas leaders targeted for their role in the Al-Aqsa intifada of 2000 included Mahmoud Adani, killed in February of 2001, Jamil Jadallah, killed in November 2001, Salah Shahade, killed in July 2002, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, killed in March 2004, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, killed in April 2004 and Adnan al-Ghoul, killed in October 2004. And the list goes on. In terms of vanquishing terrorism, targeted assassinations can be classified as a measured response in that they exclusively focus on actual perpetrators of militant attacks, while dramatically reducing collateral damage in terms of civilian and non-combatant casualties. In a 2010 article entitled "Targeted Killings Work" that appeared in Infinity Journal, the argument was made that targeted assassinations are a strategy that entails "limited force in support of policy" and that it has proven most successful. The context of the article specifically related to proclamations from Hamas that called for cease fires and "periods of calm" in 2004 after the hub of their leadership had been targeted by Israeli forces. The article states that Israeli targeted killings throughout "the 2000-2005 armed rebellion represented a successful strategy" because "the tactics never undermined Israeli policy enough to alter Israel’s overall political objectives" and because Hamas' will to perpetuate armed violence was broken, albeit temporarily. And for those who are of the opinion that targeted killings are extrajudicial; thus standing in direct contravention to the values and norms of a democratic society, let it be known that on December 14, 2006, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that targeted assassination is indeed a legitimate form of self-defense against terrorists. Perhaps the United States should follow Israel's lead in terms of beefing up their intelligence, getting down to the nitty-gritty and taking the gloves off. Al-Qaeda leaders and others in their coterie have promised to exact revenge against America, its president and its people. One would have to be exceptionally naive at best and abysmally ignorant at worst to take such saber rattling lightly. Let's not forget Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian surgeon who joined a jihadi cell when he was just 15. His militant group Al Jihad is believed to have played a pivotal role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and according to reports, Zawahiri is viewed as al-Qaeda's most significant ideological mouthpiece. Some terrorism experts believe that he was more instrumental in the 9/11 attacks than even bin Laden. The wanted list, however, doesn't stop here. As a top ranking member of Al Qaeda, Saif Al-Adel was indicted by the United States for his role in the same 1998 bombings in Tanzania and there is speculation that he may now be the military commander of the terrorist group. Also an Egyptian, al-Qaeda member Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah has orchestrated the establishment of terrorist training facilities in Somalia and assisted Saif al-Adel in providing military intelligence and training to al-Qaeda members in the Sudan. Terrorists come in variant forms, shapes and sizes and are not necessarily limited to minimalist cave dwellers. They can be also be found as heads of state in that bastion of instability known as the Middle East and their names can also be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad. The time is long overdue to reconsider all options in the ongoing war on terror; to learn lessons from the intrepid Israelis and to prepare to gird our loins for the battles that lie ahead.
JUSTICE HAS ITS DAY BY: FERN SIDMAN There is no doubt that the infamous attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 constituted the most definitive moment in modern history. On that frenetic day the world stood still; frozen in time as gruesome memories were etched in our collective psyches for eternity. It was on that day that an elusive, shadowy figure named Osama bin Laden, (who hitherto was considered a parenthetical nemesis) was suddenly and unceremoniously plucked from historical obscurity and catapulted head first into the global amphitheater. In the days and weeks to follow, we learned of such organizations as al-Qaeda and the Taliban; predicated on a doctrine of religious fanaticism and unadulterated hatred for all things Western; namely the United States. The names and motives seemed more enigmatic to us than the countries in which they originated in, but there was one thing we knew: The man at the helm of this agglomeration of barbaric zealots was responsible for the murder of close to 3000 Americans and it was he that represented an existential peril to the freedoms and liberties that we hold so dear. So now, it is close to 10 years later, and the wretched life of Osama bin Laden has finally been snuffed out through the legendary doughtiness of US Navy SEALS in a far away compound in Pakistan. Six days after the 9/11 attacks, a reporter queried then President George W. Bush if he wanted bin Laden dead. “I want him — I want justice,” the president answered. “And there’s an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.’” We can take some comfort in knowing that the last face that bin Laden saw before his long awaited demise was that of an American serviceman. Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed bin Laden displaying an unabashed insouciance towards the righteous indignation of the US and the free world in a series of grotesque videos that he's released. While endlessly taunting his American adversary; he has also launched acrimonious salvos that are replete with clear indications of future attacks of this magnitude. While President Obama can use this as a feather in his cap for his re-election bid and bolster his flagging ratings in the foreign policy department, we know that timing is a strange thing and only through a fortuitous confluence of events did US intelligence ultimately pinpoint bin Laden's location and exact long awaited justice. On that note, Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do as it has been revealed that they knew of bin Laden's whereabouts for years while remaining criminally mum on the subject and playing a sinister double game with the United States. Despite the jubilant news that this foreboding paradigm of evil incarnate has been eradicated, it would be foolhardy to believe that bin Laden's brainchild, namely al-Qaeda, was buried along next to him the North Arabian sea. Al-Qaeda is alive and well, as we've so painfully learned during our military involvement in Iraq. We need only turn our heads to the deadly civil strife plaguing Libya to comprehend that al-Qaeda cells have created an unholy partnership with the NATO backed rebel forces. Only the politically myopic would promulgate the erroneous and dangerous notion that the killing of bin Laden is tantamount to the final chapter of al-Qaeda history and those that emulate their pernicious ethos. We must remain cognizant of the fact that al-Qaeda will maintain its status as a multinational purveyor of terrorism unless the US remains vigilant in their quest to do real battle with this seemingly intractable foe. At this juncture, we're riding a superlative wave of national pride and inspiration. Let's capitalize on this euphoria, lest we backslide into complacency by listening to the inexhaustably loquacious liberal rantings of certain political pundits and other opinionistas with a skewed perspective on justice. Al-Qaeda, under bin Laden's leadership, has declared the entire world as fair territory in their holy war against those "recalcitrant" infidels. Let us remember the tourist spots that were bombed in Bali and the passenger trains that were likewise bombed in Spain. Let us never forget the 17 sailors murdered on the USS Cole warship in 2000 and the scores of other US military personnel who were murdered in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Let us remember that prior to 9/11, al-Qaeda was implicated in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, an aborted plot to hijack a dozen jets, the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and a plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters and murder President Bill Clinton. Let us also take heed of the fact that al-Qaeda operatives have successfully insinuated themselves into the fabric of the very Western culture that they ostensibly abhor, utilizing technological advancements to further their objectives of global domination. Case in point: Reports reveal that bin Laden issued "fatwas" (religious decrees) by fax as he lived a purportedly Muslim ascetic existence while declaring his war on Americans through an e-mail that he had beamed by satellite around the world. His al-Qaeda members routinely communicate through encrypted messages on their computers and use CDs to store their bomb-making manuals. Let's face the cold, hard facts. We're not exactly dealing with a rag tag cadre of rogues who are running the revolution from an undisclosed boiler room. Osama bin Laden is finally dead but the task of extricating his legacy and ridding the world of the evil that he wrought will be a protracted and sometimes grueling battle. Persistence is the key; as we just saw before our very eyes. It took the United States 10 years to "get" bin Laden and it may take many more years to enitrely vanquish his terrorist acolytes, but it is incumbent all of us in the free world to try. Our lives and the lives of our children depend on it.
 The following are excerpts from an interview with Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf, the son of Sheik Hassan Yousuf, Hamas leader in the West Bank. Yousuf Jr. converted to Christianity, and recently revealed that he had collaborated with Israel. The interview aired on BBC Arabic on March 12, 2010.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: I have said, and I continue to say, that my problem is not with Hamas or with the Muslims. My problem is with the God of Islam and with the Prophet of Islam. With regard to... There were continuous conflicts, which drove me to think about which direction I would like my life to go. Of course, the torture carried out by Hamas on its people in prison, their stupidity, and their political inadequacy drove me to speak out.
[...]
Interviewer: Are you saying that your views on what you call "the Islam of Hamas" are what led you to collaborate with the Israelis?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Who said there is the Islam of Hamas and the Islam of Al-Qaeda?
Interviewer: That's what you are saying, more or less.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: No, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that Islam is Islam, and the Koran is the Koran. The Koran suffers from a split personality, and the God of Islam suffers from a split personality. All the Muslims who follow the God of Islam interpret Islam as they like, but this does not negate the terroristic and murderous character of Islam, which incites people, through the Koran, to kill people and blow themselves up.
[...]
Interviewer: Where does the Koran call for terrorism?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Go to Surat Al-Tawba, verses 5 and 29. The problem is that Muslims do not understand their own religion. I call upon the Muslims to read their Koran and understand it, before they say that Islam is a religion of peace and compassion.
Interviewer: I asked you...
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: The God of Islam calls to kill any non-Muslim. The God of Islam calls to kill me today.
Interviewer: But don't you agree that Islam recognizes other religions, exalts Jesus, recognizes Judaism, and so on? Do you or do you not accept this?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: There are several unreliable views of several Islamic thinkers, but their authority does not supersede that of the God of Islam, who said: "Slay the People of the Book wherever you find them."
Interviewer: How can you say that? Did the Koran call to slay the People of the Book?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: He said: "Slay the polytheists wherever you find them." Read the surah.
Interviewer: But the People of the Book are not polytheists, are they?
[...]
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: If you want to ague with me – let's argue. Is Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, the supreme role model for the Muslims?
Interviewer: What do you think?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Did Muhammad kill the Jews of Khaybar, or didn't he? You tell me. Why distort the facts? The Muslims must be honest with themselves and with the rest of the world. Muhammad – the supreme role model for the Muslims – killed the Jews of Khaybar, of Qureiza, and of Nadhir. He killed their children and captured their women. This is the supreme role model for the Muslims.
Interviewer: So your problem is with history, not with the present.
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: My problem is with that false prophet, Muhammad, and with the God of Islam.
[...]
The Muslims are not terrorists by nature. They are among the best nations, in my opinion. However, if the Muslims continue to cover for the terrorists, and to glorify and honor terrorists who blow themselves up, killing children, they will continue to be accomplices. My father is an accomplice.
[...]
Israel has been acting with violence, and killed innocent people. It killed people with or without a reason, but mistakes may happen. Every country on the face of the earth makes mistakes, not only Israel. The difference between Israel and Hamas...
Interviewer: When Israel kills innocent people, this is a "mistake," but when others kill innocent people, it is not?
Mus'ab Hassan Yousuf: Killing is a mistake – regardless of who the killer is – but Hamas has no principles, no laws, and no limits, whereas Israel is bound by law and constitution. If there is a racist Israeli, he will stand trial. Give me one example of a Hamas official who stood trial.
[...]
In my view, if Islam were implemented properly, this would spell the destruction of the Arab and Muslim world – the whole world, in fact – because every Muslim would become a Bin Laden.
[...]
The Christians have been persecuted for the past 14 centuries – not by the Muslims, but by the God of Islam. The persecution begins in the Koran and in the behavior of the Prophet of Islam. View Film Clip Here. With thanks to MEMRI 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's son Omar believes the al Qaeda leader has achieved his aim of humbling the United States but warns his death could unleash "very, very nasty" attacks by militants, Rolling Stone magazine said. In a rambling interview conducted in part in a Damascus strip club, Omar bin Laden told the magazine that U.S. President Barack Obama was making a mistake by scaling up the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. "It is like adding water to sand, as we say in the Arab world -- it only makes the sand heavier," Rolling Stone quoted bin Laden as saying in the interview that will be on newsstands on Friday. "If I was in his position, the first thing I would do is make a truce. Then for six months or one year, no fighting, no soldiers. Afghanistan can never be won. It has nothing to do with my father. It is the Afghan people." Omar bin Laden shot to his own form of notoriety in 2007 when he married a British woman almost twice his age whom he allegedly met while on a ride to the Giza pyramids in Egypt. The two have since been denied entry to Qatar, Egypt and Britain, while Spain rejected an asylum request. Omar describes himself as one of 11 sons of bin Laden and has in the past detailed a bizarre childhood spent in jihadist camps in Sudan and Afghanistan among battle-hardened fighters who tested chemical weapons on puppies, among other things. He left his father in Afghanistan in 2001 several months before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Rolling Stone said Omar bin Laden was making a living as a scrap metal merchant in the Saudi city of Jeddah, compared himself to film star Mel Gibson and dreamed of working for the United Nations and meeting Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Bin Laden said his father was overjoyed when U.S. voters elected George W. Bush in 2000, predicting that he was just the kind of president the United States needed -- "one who will attack and spend money and break the country." Despite the huge amount of money and effort spent hunting for bin Laden, believed by many intelligence analysts to be hiding in tribal areas on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Omar bin Laden said he believed the United States was actually lucky that his father had not been killed. "It is going to be worse when my father dies. The world is going to be very, very nasty then. It is going to be a disaster," bin Laden said, adding his father had managed to head off more lunatic attack suggestions from his followers. "My father has a religious goal. He is controlled by the rules of jihad. He only kills if he thinks there is a need." And while he has not seen his father in almost a decade, Omar said he did not believe bin Laden would see a need to launch more big attacks. "He doesn't need to. As soon as America went to Afghanistan, his plan worked. He has already won," the magazine quoted him as saying. Reuters
 By Douglas Farah The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report broke the story that the U.S. State Department has lifted Tariq Ramadan's ban from entering the United States. Ramadan , an influential European leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, was long banned because of alleged ties to terrorist activity. The lifting of the ban, ordered by Secretary of State Clinton, is a significant victory for the Brotherhood, who has sought to frame the issue of Ramadan's exclusion as one of academic freedom rather one of national security. Ramadan was ecstatic, saying on his blog: Today’s decision reflects the Obama administration’s willingness to reopen the United States to the rest of the world, and to permit critical debate. Coming after nearly six years of inquiry and investigation, Secretary Clinton’s order confirms what I have affirmed and reaffirmed from day one: the first accusations of terrorist connections (subsequently dropped), then donations to Palestinian solidarity groups, were nothing more than a pretense to prohibit me from speaking critically about American government policy on American soil. The decision brings to an end a dark period in American politics that saw security considerations invoked to block critical debate through a policy of exclusion and baseless allegation. Today I am delighted at the decision. The truth of the grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is far more complex, and there is little doubt that, in the end, he is an agent of radicalization rather than peace. A rock star in the European Muslim scene, Ramadan, despite weak academic credentials, has been offered a teaching position at Notre Dame University. As noted in this extensive review of Brother Tarik: The Doublespeak of Tarik Ramadan by French journalist Caroline Fourest, the definitive look at Ramadan's cannon, he is intent on saying one thing to Western audiences while something else to his followers. They often do not match up. This is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is eager to use the freedoms that would never exist under the caliphate is so desires to create, in order to promote its totalitarian vision.
It demands the right to be heard while being unequivocal in its unwillingness to view as equal anyone who does not embrace its view radical Islamism. While it is willing to use the democratic process to achieve its goals, often putting it at odds with militantly violent groups such as al Qaeda, in the end the Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden share an identical vision of what the world should look like under Allah's rule.
My full blog is here. Counterterrorism Blog
 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
 The Tundra Tabloids had contacted the Dutch embassy in Helsinki on Thursday, 14.01.10, and spoke with one of its representatives, who agreed with the TT that such a court proceeding against Geert Wilders would never see the light of day in a US court.
The TT also brought up the fact that it was the grossest of ironies that the man who vindicated Osama Bin-Laden in a mock court trial on Dutch tv, Gerard Spong, was also the individual responsible for filing charges against the Dutch politician.
So it's interesting that the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington D.C. has posted this notice on its website, which basically says that: "there's no political influence going on here, so please move on, nothing to see……..". KGS
January 14, 2010"In September 2009, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ordered the criminal prosecution of Mr. Geert Wilders, Member of the Dutch Parliament, for inciting hatred and discrimination based on his statements in various media about Islam. Various people and organisations had asked for his prosecution. In June 2008, the Public Prosecutor had determined that his statements were not against the law and had dropped the case, but the plaintiffs appealed this decision before the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal determined that statements equating Islam to Nazism were a punishable insult to Islamic worshippers and therefore constituted ground for criminal prosecution.
The Court of Appeal did not convict Mr. Wilders of a crime, but ordered the Public Prosecutor to start a criminal procedure against him before the District Court of Amsterdam.
On January 13th, the District Court in Amsterdam dismissed a motion made by Mr. Wilders to limit the charges against him. The Court ruled that the indictment was in line with the decision of the Court of Appeal and that there were no new facts that would give reason to limit the scope of the indictment.
On January 20th, the District Court in Amsterdam will start the proceedings in the case. Ultimately, it will decide whether or not mr Wilders has committed a criminal offense.
The Court of Appeal and the District Court are fully independent from the Dutch government. As the procedure is ongoing, any further comment by the Netherlands government on the case itself would be inappropriate. Mr. Wilders is a member of parliament and continues his work while the case goes through the legal process."
 Just when it looked like the war between the so-called "conservatives" and the "reformists" over the next phase of the Muslim Brotherhood was coming to a close, it heats up again. The Brotherhood was scheduled to announce the successor to Supreme Guide Mohammad Mahdi Akef, but that has been postponed until the weekend. The Cairo-based English-language weekly Al-Ahram explains: "Three members of the group's conservative wing -- Mohamed Badei, Rashad El-Bayoumi and Gomaa Amin -- competed for the post.
Sources say Badei is most likely to become the next supreme guide, having won 66 out of total 100 possible votes on the group's Shura Council. His seemingly clear cut victory has been undermined by the support El-Bayoumi, 75, secured from the group's international affiliates." According to the independent Egyptian daily Al Sharouk: "Objections raised by what is called the "Global Shura Council" to choosing Mohamed Badei as the 8th Supreme Guide (and the de facto Supreme Guide for Muslim Brotherhood Movement worldwide), forced the Movement to reschedule the press conference to announce the name of the new Guide to take place on Sunday instead of yesterday. … According to well-informed sources, Mohammad Mahdi Akef is trying to convince the members of 'Global Shura Council,' gathering in Beirut now, to accept the nomination of Badei for the sake of protecting the reputation of the Muslim Brotherhood and its cohesion." This leaves the Brotherhood in a potentially tricky spot. Akef technically is no longer the Supreme Guide. Mohammad Habib, a reformist and the former first deputy, has resigned and Kharait al Shater, the second deputy, is in jail due to one of the Egyptian government's frequent crackdowns on the Brotherhood. As we previously reported, reformists were routed a few weeks ago when the Brotherhood announced the new members of its guidance bureau – the group's main governing body. Through questionable gaming of the election process by outgoing Supreme Guide Mohammad Mahdi Akef, Mahmoud Ezzat and hardliner allies ensured the reformists were virtually squeezed out of the movement's leadership. Hence, Habib resigned, calling it "selection rather than election." One reformist Brotherhood member has been protesting the results on his blog. He states: "I can't accept Sayed Qutb's ideology in Muslim Brotherhood, and it's clear that the new office will adopt the Qutbic Ideology, most of the office members were arrested with Sayyed Qutb in 1965." Qutb was a highly influential Brotherhood intellectual executed by the Egyptian regime in 1966. His two most prominent works, Milestones and In the Shade of the Quran, inspired a new generation of jihadists, including Osama bin Laden, who was taught by Qutb's brother Mohammad at a university in Saudi Arabia. Qutb saw the Muslim world as having descended into jahilliyya, or pre-Islamic ignorance. Qutb called on Muslims to wage jihad to "liberate" the entire world from the servitude of man-made laws, which would be replaced by Shariah. If Akef is successful in his lobbying efforts and Mohammad Badei becomes Supreme Guide, the next phase of the Brotherhood's history will likely be defined by Qutb's ideas and deepening fundamentalism. Badei has held prominent positions in the past on the guidance bureau and in two Brotherhood-dominated professional associations. Some have tried to paint Badei as a consensus candidate who is widely liked in the movement. However, he makes it clear where his influences lie. An article posted on the Brotherhood's English-language website notes that Badei "has been said to follow the conservative ideals of the late Sayed Qutb" whom he defends as a reformer rather than a hardliner. Badei is seen as "one of the most loyal leaders to the organization of Sayyid Qutb," according to the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayah. In an interview last November with Al Youm Al Sabi'e, Badei was stalwart in his opposition to the idea of a woman or a Copt assuming the presidency of Egypt, basing his decisions strictly and solely on Islamic law. When asked about a woman becoming president, he replies, "[O]ur Fiqh [jurisprudence] choice is that women are not suited to lead the state." On Copts, Badei cites "a Prophetic Hadith which forbids a man from outside the faith from assuming the leadership of the state." When asked if such logic results in a religious state, Baddee explains: "We are a Muslim state, not a religious one. The leader undertakes a religious burden alongside his leadership like the Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace) did in the first Muslim state, being the leader of the state and the executer of legal rules; and he led the army." The interviewer then asks if the people have the right to choose what they want. Badei's answer is chilling to those of us who believe in freedoms of speech, religion, association and other central tenets of democracy: "If the people choose something against the Sharia, it is not proper to implement it. If there is a conflict with the Sharia, it must not be put into force." But what else can we expect from someone who was imprisoned with Sayyid Qutb? According to Al-Hayah: "The new general guide was sentenced in a number of cases, the most famous of which was a 15-year imprisonment in 1965 in the military case that included among the sentenced the fundamentalist leader Sayyid Qutb; Badi spent 9 years in prison on the basis of that sentence…" The now-overwhelming influence of hardliners among the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood will ensure the movement will remain – at its core – strictly committed to establishing an Islamic state with Shariah as the law of the land. Past advocates for the Brotherhood who view it as a "moderate" organization that can serve as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world and a counterbalance to al Qaeda may want to rethink their views. IPT
 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 GROUP of influential religious leaders in Yemen have threatened to declare jihad - holy war - if foreign troops intervene to stem the spread of al-Qa'ida in the country. The edict is a clear warning to the United States as it plans to step up its military involvement in the country.
 The criminal case against the first Guantanamo detainee standing trial in a US civilian court should be thrown out because he was denied the right to a speedy trial, defence lawyers have argued. But the US government said in the Manhattan federal court on Monday that gathering intelligence from Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani during interrogations was "weightier, more significant" than giving him a speedy trial. The case of Ghailani, a Tanzanian national charged over his alleged role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, is being watched for precedents that could affect other Guantanamo detainees. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, is also due to be tried in Manhattan federal court. Alluding to the importance of the proceeding, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said during Monday's session: "I think everybody can agree that whatever I do here would be unprecedented." Ghailani was taken into custody in Pakistan in July 2004 and interrogated outside the US as part of the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" programme in which suspects were captured in one country and interrogated in another. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006 and his case was moved to the Manhattan federal court last June. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda to kill Americans, as well as separate charges of murder for the 224 people killed in the African bombings. Ghailani's case, which coincides with the eighth anniversary of the first group of 20 detainees being sent to Guantanamo in 2002, is a test for Barack Obama's plans to shut down the US military prison. Last week, the US president reiterated his commitment to shut it down although the White House has conceded that he will not meet his self-imposed deadline of the end of January. Obama also suspended the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen last week, following revelations that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to destroy a Detroit-bound US airliner on December 25, reportedly received al-Qaeda training in Yemen. Nearly 200 detainees remain at Guantanamo, nearly half of them from Yemen. The US government is working to refurbish a prison in the state of Illinois to hold some detainees while their fate is determined. Al Jazeera
 SAN'A, Yemen — Yemen's most influential Islamic cleric, considered an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist by the United States, warned the government on Monday against allowing "foreign occupation" of the country in the growing cooperation with the U.S. against the terror group. Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani's comments reflected a deep mistrust among Yemenis of Washington's intentions as it ramps up counterterrorism aid and training for San'a to combat Al Qaeda's offshoot here. Al-Zindani, a radical cleric who once associated with Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan, is highly influential among Yemenis and the government is careful to maintain at least his tacit support. "We accept any cooperation in the framework of respect and joint interests, and we reject military occupation of our country. And we don't accept the return of colonialization," al-Zindani told reporters. "Yemen's rulers and people must be careful before a (foreign) guardianship is imposed on them," he said. "The day parliament allows the occupation of Yemen, the people will rise up against it and bring it down." President Obama said he does not plan to send American combat forces to Yemen, and San'a has said it will not allow such a deployment. "I have no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground in these regions," Obama said in an interview with People magazine to be published Friday. U.S. military personnel are helping train Yemeni counterterror forces and gave Yemeni forces intelligence and logistical help in heavy airstrikes last month against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts that Yemen says killed dozens of militants. Al-Zindani is a controversial figure in Yemeni politics. The United States has labeled him a "global terrorist," alleging he helps fund and recruit for A Qaeda and that students from Iman University — which he heads — were involved in past attacks. But Yemen's government courts his support. The deputy prime minister last week denied al-Zindani is a member of Al Qaeda. Addressing a news conference held at his San'a home, al-Zindani denied U.S. accusations against him, saying "it's become well known among the people that a lot of lies come out of" Washington. He also denied any knowledge of Al Qaeda's activities in Yemen. He also denied he had any influence on an American-Yemeni radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is being hunted by Yemeni forces for alleged Al Qaeda links. more at FoxNews
 By Diana Mukkaled Al Qaeda has grown weak. It is nothing more than a pursued leadership, a disintegrated entity and an ideology struggling to survive on the internet. This has been repeated over the past few years. However, a couple of incidents that took place recently have opened the world’s eyes to an alarming resurrection of Al Qaeda in several places around the world including Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and the US.
Perhaps the most absurd attack of all was the suicide bombing that targeted a volleyball court in Pakistan. What awakened Al Qaeda in such a vicious manner? Was Al Qaeda dormant in the first place? Specialists, politicians and media figures are now trying to answer these unnerving questions.
What concerns us in this article is the renewed interest in the internet as a means for spreading terrorism, especially after unearthing a link between Omar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the young Nigerian who almost blew up an American airliner bound for Detroit, and Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Awlaqi, who is suspected of having links to three of the 9/11 hijackers and to Malik Nadal Hassan, the US army Major who killed 13 of his fellow troops at a US military base a few weeks ago. At one point when Al Qaeda’s activities on the ground dwindled for logistic, financial and operational reasons, the internet remained its only stage for vital interaction.
Furthermore, a lot of material that did not find its way to- or was blocked by-traditional media managed to find plenty of space on the internet and so Al Qaeda’s online collection increased dramatically. Any web user would come across books, journals, poems, detailed events and video clips of terrorist operations all posted on the net. On Jihadist sites, people can read a complete body of works compiled over the years of operations carried out by Al Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and other places. These works have built up a large and extensive archive that is being circulated and downloaded using interactive technology.
The archive is being presented as eye-catching, cross-border material or a collection of heroic deeds spearheaded by faithful believers. Samples of such terrorist operations are being narrated in a beckoning style that appeals to certain segments that are impressed by such stories. It is true that Al Qaeda has become part of the divisions and score-settling bloodbaths in Yemen and Iraq. However, this does not absolve the international community of its responsibility [not to allow] the rampant spread of Al Qaeda's ideology through the internet, all the way from Indonesia to the United States. Some might say that if it weren’t for the internet, Al Qaeda would not exist. This statement, though it requires some scrutiny, is correct in a way. The internet enabled Al Qaeda to survive despite its fall. While Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawaheri were lying low and were completely unable to administer anything, Al Qaeda forums were busy providing those wandering aimlessly with what the leadership of the organization had failed to supply in terms of ideas, plans, methods of operation, and training, particularly where the making of explosives was concerned. Today Al Qaeda is back, thanks to the unlimited time and space the internet has provided.
It is not enough to search through cyber space to try and understand how Al Qaeda operates. It is imperative that we first recognize the enormity of our divisions and internal rifts that continue to aggravate and nourish Al Qaeda. Asharq Alawsat
 To be sure, after a few initial misguided statements, Obama did get somewhat serious about the Christmas Day attack. First, he instituted high-level special screening for passengers from 14 countries, the vast majority of which are Muslim with significant Islamist elements. This is the first rational step away from today's idiotic random screening and toward, yes, a measure of profiling -- i.e., focusing on the population most overwhelmingly likely to be harboring a suicide bomber. Obama also sensibly suspended all transfers of Yemenis from Guantanamo. Nonetheless, Obama insisted on repeating his determination to close the prison, invoking his usual rationale of eliminating a rallying cry and recruiting tool for al-Qaeda. Imagine that Guantanamo were to disappear tomorrow, swallowed in a giant tsunami. Do you think there'd be any less recruiting for al-Qaeda in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, London? Jihadism's list of grievances against the West is not only self-replenishing but endlessly creative. Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa commanding universal jihad against America cited as its two top grievances our stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia and Iraqi suffering under anti-Saddam sanctions. Today, there are virtually no U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. And the sanctions regime against Iraq was abolished years ago. Has al-Qaeda stopped recruiting? Ayman al-Zawahiri often invokes Andalusia in his speeches. For those not steeped in the multivolume lexicon of Islamist grievances, Andalusia refers to Iberia, lost by Islam to Christendom -- in 1492. This is a fanatical religious sect dedicated to establishing the most oppressive medieval theocracy and therefore committed to unending war with America not just because it is infidel but because it represents modernity with its individual liberty, social equality (especially for women) and profound tolerance (religious, sexual, philosophical). You going to change that by evacuating Guantanamo? Nevertheless, Obama will not change his determination to close Guantanamo. He is too politically committed. The only hope is that perhaps now he is offering his "recruiting" rationale out of political expediency rather than real belief.
With suicide bombers in the air, cynicism is far less dangerous to the country than naivete. Read more at TownHall
 U.S. intelligence officials believe that the homicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Usama bin Laden's close allies, raising fears that the Al Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence. Authorities believe that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taliban group thought to be shielding bin Laden. The attack was carried out by a Jordanian doctor whom the CIA believed was about to divulge the whereabouts of bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
It is one of the deadliest blows against the CIA and has increased tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan because of Islamabad’s repeated failure to target the Haqqanis. The Haqqanis control a large block of territory on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border near the Afghan town of Khost, a Taliban hotbed near where the CIA officials were killed on December 30. It is also where the U.S. believes bin Laden is hiding. One former CIA officer, who did not wish to be named, told The Times of London that the agency had taped evidence of a Pakistani army officer tipping the Haqqanis off about a raid and a member of Pakistan's intelligence service boasting that the "Haqqanis are our guys." Pakistan has ignored U.S. demands to target the strongholds of the Haqqanis’ leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose father, Jalaluddin, founded the network and was a Mujahidin commander and ally of the U.S. during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The network is said to be behind several audacious attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008. Continue reading at The Times of London FoxNews
 As we look back on the past ten years, it is clear that we are now entering a post-American decade. How did it all go so wrong so quickly?
The year 2000 kicked off with the Democrat ruse of a "stolen election" -- this from the racketeering party of ACORN -- but thankfully, it was not stolen after all. George W. Bush took the reins, but soon thereafter came the culmination of all the Islamic attacks on the U.S. during the Clinton years. Islam's fatwa on the West during the Clinton administration came home to New York and Washington on September 11th.
And while the Bush Doctrine (you are either with us or against us) was the right approach, the well dressed jihadists that Islamists like Grover Norquist ushered into the White House after 9/11 managed to sabotage the best strategy to fight Islamic jihad. The cowboy swagger set against the whole fantasy about the hijacking of Islam and the "religion of peace" nonsense was irreconcilable. It confused people. And it led to the marginalization and even dismissals of brave men and women who evaluated and exposed the jihadist ideology in our government agencies. Who can forget the case of counter-jihad expert Steve Coughlin, the Pentagon's most knowledgeable specialist on Islamic Law and jihad terrorism? The Pentagon ended the career of its most effective analyst at the behest of a Muslim aide, Hesham Islam, within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Islam scholar Andrew Bostom observed that Couglin's firing was symptomatic "of the intellectual and moral rot plaguing our efforts to combat global jihadism."
In February 2009, former Bush administration official Douglas Feith told me that that kind of rot is systemic. He recalled that an Office of Strategic Influence was created within his Pentagon office to fight the ideological war -- but then "somebody leaked -- well, leaked, no. No, somebody lied to the New York Times and gave a report saying that this Office of Strategic Influence was intending to lie to foreign journalists. And the New York Times ran a front-page story saying that. It caused a big imbroglio that resulted in the shutting down of this office. I don't think the U.S. government has recovered to this day from that fiasco, because every time anyone suggested creating an office to really deal with jihadist ideology in a systematic or strategic way at the Pentagon, people would say, oh, no, we are not going to have another Office of Strategic Influence problem."
And so the drip, drip, drip of jihad continued through the last decade. We became more paralyzed, impotent, and deceived. Meanwhile, the Leftist/Islamic alliance, a deadly marriage between the Democratic Party and their propaganda handmaidens in the mainstream media, engaged in daily beatings of Bush and his administration.
Removing Saddam Hussein was good. There is no way around that powerful truth. But why stop there? Removing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well would have been even better. But Bush lost his mojo in 2006. The relentless pounding by the Left, Israel's halfhearted performance in the war with Hezb'allah in the summer of 2006, and the loss of the House and the Senate in November 2006 all contributed to the rout.
But what really led to the downfall of Bush's leadership was the falsity of his premise. He wanted to believe, like Condi and Powell and the soft diplomacy crowd, that Islam would negotiate with the West. Islam cannot negotiate. Yet still the West continues its pursuit of the impossible, despite great risk. This is a function of the Western mind. These people think it inconceivable that talk can't solve anything and everything, that war is an indelible part of the human condition. But it is. War is as much in the makeup of man as sex, food, art, love, all of it.
And wars must be fought. They will not disappear, but we will.
Of course, we know this. But the Left, our in-house enemy, demonizes any war that America chooses to fight. The egregious, horrible crimes of Mao, Stalin, bin Laden, Che, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ahmadinejad, et al, which are so heinous and so enormous, are in their terrible minds a historical footnote. They become cultural icons for the "radical chic." Cold-blooded monsters have co-opted our country.
And so successful was the Left at infiltrating our government, schools, and institutions that eight years after the most heinous attack on American soil, we elected an icon of our mortal enemy. A Kenyan, Indonesian, third-worldish boulevardier with as much understanding of the American experience as any foreign national. Don't call me a racist for calling him what he is -- I am not interested in the color of his skin, but in the content of his character. His lack of experience in all relevant areas to the office of the president is breathtaking. And his bowing to Islam and our enemies worldwide is disastrous.
Bush's premise was false, but Bush was a patriot. Bush loved America, and he protected America, even if he refused to see the enemy for who and what it was. It was no accident that America was safe for eight years post-9/11. Eight years of safety is cracking apart now under a weak and pro-Islamic president. The jihadi attacks on America in 2009 were staggering. And it has only just begun. Dismantling the Bush protections against jihad and launching attacks on Americans, bloggers, tea partiers, town hallers, patriots, and vets is incomprehensible -- and if I hadn't lived through it, I wouldn't believe it possible.
I pray that America examines the Left decade and takes stock. It was the appeasement of the Left that destroyed the foundations of this country. We must rebuild them. The advancement of Islam would never have been possible -- could never have happened -- without our surrender to the Left. The real war is against the Leftist/Islamic alliance.
This is a fighting year.
Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and is former associate publisher of the New York Observer. She is the author (with Robert Spencer) of the forthcoming book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (Simon and Schuster).
 Ron Paul tries to remind us that we're the bad guys. On Monday, the gift-that-keeps-on-giving known as Congressman Ron Paul had a fierce debate with the Ben “Captain Monotone” Stein over what causes terrorism. Predictably, Ron Paul stuck to the line that they are only terrorists because we are “occupiers.” See the video here: To Mr. Paul, the terrorists are not pan-Islamic theocrats but violent nationalists fighting for liberation. Unfortunately, this line of thinking has become far too common these days, with proponents repeatedly citing Bin Laden’s grievances against U.S. foreign policy as the true source. But let’s take a look at what else Bin Laden has to say on the subject with some help from Raymond Ibrahim, shall we? “Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue — one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice — and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually?” Bin Laden then answers his own question:
“Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; [2] or payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; [3] or the sword — for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die.” Paul’s argument collapses under the simplest cross-examination. If he’s right, then why are Islamic extremists trying to overthrow governments perceived as not “Islamic” enough?
Why does Al-Qaeda kill eight times as many Muslims as non-Muslims? What do bombings in Bali, Istanbul, Casablanca, or any other Muslim city have to do with Israeli and American “occupation?” Oh, Ron Paul, how you make my job so easy sometimes. I’m glad that this little scene from the movie “Bruno” didn’t embarrass you into seclusion (Caution: Sexual Content.) Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and a regular contributor to FrontPage Magazine. NewsReal Blog
 By Bill Roggio Pakistani commandos killed four al Qaeda operatives and detained 27 suspects during a raid on a hospital in a region in South Waziristan under the control of a Taliban leader considered friendly to the government. Pakistani troops surrounded the Hafiz Hospital in Wana, the administrative center of South Waziristan, and killed three “Arabs” and a Sudanese al Qaeda operative.
The Hafiz Hospital is run by a former member of Pakistan’s national assembly. "Commandos and security forces raided the hospital,” a Pakistani security official told Dawn. “Militants fired on the troops and in the gunfight, which lasted more than four hours, four militants and a woman were killed, while 27 others were arrested. One soldier was also injured. The three dead militants appear to be Arabs and one of Sudanese origin.” Pakistani troops raided the hospital after receiving intelligence that the fighters sought treatment from wounds suffered during fighting in the Sherwangi region in the Mehsud tribal areas, where the military is conducting an operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Wana region is run by Taliban commander Mullah Nazir. Nazir is not a member of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan; he and other Taliban commanders operate independently of that group. Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.
However, Nazir openly supports Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. More senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir’s forces continue to operate across the border in Afghanistan. On Dec. 6, his fighters crossed the border and destroyed an Afghan Army outpost. Earlier this year, just prior to launching a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan, the military agreed to a peace deal with Nazir as well as with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Nazir and Bahadar are not members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, which is also based in North Waziristan, are also considered "good" Taliban by the Pakistani government and military. The peace agreement calls for the Pakistani military to be able to move through Nazir and Bahadar's tribal areas without being attacked. Another condition of the agreement prohibits Bahadar and Nazir from providing shelter to fleeing members of the Mehsud branch of the Taliban. But Taliban fighters from the Mehsud tribal areas have sought shelter with Mullah Nazir in the Wazir tribal areas, and the rearguard fighters still opposing the Army's advance are receiving support from Nazir's forces, US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are also providing shelter to fleeing Taliban fighters and covert support to the Mehsud Taliban, and they also shelter al Qaeda leaders and fighters.
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