Jihadis in Jersey

This story is just breaking early this morning. Hopefully more details to follow.

Six nationals of the former Yugoslavia were arrested early Tuesday on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix Army base and "kill as many soldiers as possible," federal authorities said.

The six were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden later Tuesday to face charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. servicemen, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey. Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, he said.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because documents in the case remain sealed, said the men were arrested as part of a joint federal and local investigation.

An ABC radio news report I heard earlier stated the suspects were Bosnians.

I wonder if they're any relation to Sulejman the Mysterious?

UPDATE: More from the Star-Ledger:

The would-be attackers, ethnic Albanians who had been under surveillance by the FBI for months, practiced by shooting paintball guns and real weapons in a rural area of the Poconos, one source said. They also allegedly watched jihadist videos in which Osama bin Laden urged them toward martyrdom.

"They were prepared to die," said the law enforcement source. "We became increasingly convinced this was for real and these guys were ready to roll."

The FBI had the group under surveillance for more than a year, the source said. The men had scouted out Dover Air Force Base and Fort Monmouth before settling on Fort Dix, a base that is used to mobilize troops to Iraq, said the source.

The men - several of whom were in the same family - had videotaped their practice sessions in the Poconos, the source said. That videotape, in which they railed against America, led to their arrests.

UPDATE II: More from the Washington Post.
More at Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin, A Blog For All.

Gitmo Suspect Claims Torture

Yawn. Another day, another claim of torture at Club Gitmo.

A suspected Saudi terrorist told a military hearing that he was tortured into confessing that he was involved in the bombing of the USS Cole, according to a Pentagon transcript released Friday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, said he made up stories that tied him to the 2000 Cole attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and nearly succeeded in sinking the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor, Yemen.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way," al-Nashiri said, according to the transcript. "I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told them those things."

One day it was this way, another day that way. Thanks for clearing that up, Abd. Maybe it was loud music, maybe it was a few belly slaps. Get the ACLU on the case.

According to U.S. intelligence, al-Nashiri is the suspected mastermind of the Cole bombing, and was al-Qaida's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula until he was caught in 2002. Nashiri, 41, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, was allegedly tasked by bin Laden to attack the Cole.

In the transcript, al-Nashiri says he met with bin Laden many times and received as much as a half million dollars from the terror leader. The money, he said, was for "personal expenses" including for marriage and business deals.

He said he took money to buy a boat and develop a fishing business, and bin Laden later told him it could be used for a bombing. Al-Nashiri said he ended the project, and was not involved when bin Laden later used it "as a military tool."

The poor terrorist just wanted to go fishing and he mysteriously winds up in Guantanamo Bay. Oh, the horrors.

A Congressman Who Gets It

Hats off to Congressman Steve Pearce of New Mexico, who today introduced legislation to protect those who report suspicious and potential terrorist activity. I hope the terror frontgroup CAIR seethes over this (via Power Line).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, United States Congressman Steve Pearce introduced H.R. 1640 the “Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007.” If passed, this legislation would protect individuals from being sued for reporting suspicious activities to law enforcement and security personnel.

The language of the Act comes as a direct response to a recent incident in Minneapolis. As reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

The imams engaged in a variety of suspicious behaviors while boarding a US Airways flight, according to the airport police report. Some prayed loudly in the gate area, spoke angrily about the United States and Saddam, switched seats and sat in the 9/11 hijackers' configuration, and unnecessarily requested seatbelt extenders that could be used as weapons, according to witness reports and US Airways spokeswoman Andrea Rader.

As a result of the aforementioned behavior, citizens contacted airline authorities and the pilot informed law enforcement to have the suspicious parties removed from the aircraft. The original incident occurred in November of 2006; now the group has filed suit against US Airways and the Minneapolis – St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission on 17 different charges. Included in the lawsuit as defendants, are “John Does” described as citizens who called authorities to report the suspicious behavior of the Imams.

Rep. Pearce commented on introducing the bill:

“It is a sad day in America when our own institutions of freedom are being used against us in the battle against terrorism. When I first heard about the lawsuit brought by the ‘imams’ in Minnesota, it was clear to me that this was an injustice against Americans who were simply trying to protect themselves. These brave citizens should be recognized as heroes for their efforts to report suspicious activity, particularly activity that has been associated with previous terror attacks.

A full copy of the bill, which has 10 cosponsors. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Americans Support Terror?

It appears you can take a poll and pretty much come up with any preconceived result. This could be one of the dumbest of alltime, or at least until later today.

The myth of Muslim support for terror

Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.

The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."

Notice how it's always some prestigious group nobody has ever heard of. The author claims it's prestigious, therefore it must be.

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries - Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never justified"; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?

Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable polling result.

No kidding.

Conveniently left out of his poll is anyone residing in the Middle East. I wonder why?

Terror Turnabout in Iran

It's a quagmire. Obviously, the swarthy midget, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has created more terrorists with his provocative statements.

For the ruling mullahs in Tehran the shock could not have been greater. The incident confirms their fears that they now have enemies that can use precisely their own tactics against them. Car bombs, fake uniforms and suicide attacks were introduced to the Middle East by Khomeinists first in Iran under the Shah and later in Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and as far away as Argentina by branches of Hezbollah. In the past three years, groups allied to Tehran have used the tactics against the new regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Khomeinist regime is having a taste of its own medicine, and is clearly panic-stricken by the experience.

DNC Welcomes Hezbollah Supporter

You really have to wonder what the Democrats are thinking when they invite a Hezbollah supporter to their annual confab and have him deliver the invocation. Check out An Ugly Invocation by Debbie Schlussel in the NY Post today.

THE Democratic National Committee made a strange choice to deliver the invocation last Friday at its winter meeting: Husham al-Husainy - an extremist who has a long record of support for prominent Islamists at war with America and Israel.

Al-Husainy's words before the Democrats - asking God to "help us stop . . . occupation and oppression" - were jarring enough, since he was likely referring to either American soldiers in Iraq or Jews in Israel.

But his past statements and activity make those words even more ominous.

Al-Husainy heads the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center mosque in Dearborn, Mich., one of the largest Shiite mosques in North America. He is an open admirer of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - under whose rule Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

During last summer's Israel-Hezbollah war, al-Husainy led rallies in Dearborn in support of the Lebanese terrorist group. Protesters displayed swastikas as well as anti-American and anti-Semitic posters.

Just remember this next time the Democats pretend to be flag-waving patriots.

Michelle Malkin also has The Democrats' hateful new imam.

Eight Arrested in UK Terror Raid

The BBC says the plotters were going to try a different approach, involving the kidnapping and filmed execution of a British service member.

A different approach? This is the Religion of Peace we're talking about. Every approach involves mayhem and death. What's so different about that?

BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford said sources close to the investigation said the aim of the alleged plot was to kidnap a serving member of the armed forces, perhaps while they were on home leave.

The Ministry of Defence said it could not confirm or deny reports of such a plot.

Security sources said a terror plot not aimed at mass casualties would mark "a different approach to terrorism in the UK".

Naturally, those close to the monsters are shocked by these developments.

Mohamed Barber told BBC News his cousin was one of the men arrested in Alum Rock.

"We can vouch for him he is innocent. He doesn't even have time to go to Friday prayers - that's how busy he is," he added.

Abdul Ghaffoor, a regular shopper at the raided store, said he had never heard politics being discussed in the shop.

Busy alright. Busy planning murder. Allegedly, of course.

UPDATE:Lawhawk has more.

UPDATE II: Allahpundit and Michelle have much more.

Cowardice Has Consequences

The Democrats want to pretend 9/11 never happened.

The repercussions of an airline's decision to remove a group of imams from a commercial flight in Minneapolis could be heard in Congress this year, with civil rights groups pushing Democratic lawmakers to ban racial profiling.

The incident happened in November, made national news and reinvigorated an old proposal that got little attention from the GOP.

Now, a champion of the legislation, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction on the issue. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who sponsored legislation to ban racial profiling in the last Congress, now chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.

No bill has been introduced so far, but Feingold made it clear the issue will be a priority for him.

I'd criticize Feingold, but since he's already restricted free speech, he might write another bill and come after me.

Power Line calls it Flying Imams: The Sequel.

Extremist Mosque in Boston

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby unearths The Boston mosque's Saudi connection.

Very disturbing. Don't worry though. The Saudis are our friends, right?

Speaking at the State Department in 1999, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi sheik and leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, sounded an alarm about Muslim houses of worship in the United States.

"The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques . . . is the extremists' ideology," he said. "Because they are very active, they took over the mosques; . . . they took over more than 80 percent of the mosques that have been established in the US." He warned ominously that "a danger might suddenly come that you are not looking for . . . we don't know where it is going to hit."

When Kabbani was condemned by other Muslim organizations, he stood his ground. His assessment of the leadership of US mosques, he said, was based on having visited scores of them, and in a subsequent interview he explained the extremists' pattern of infiltration.