Terrorism Pays

Your terrorist past may not earn you much in book royalties, but the swooning morons who hand out literary awards are always easily impressed.

THE extra publicity could prove financially pointless, but David Hicks' controversial novel has been shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.

David Hicks for Guantanamo: My journey has been nominated for the Non-Fiction Book Award. The winner will be announced on Sept 6.

The tell-all novel accounts his six year detention at the US-run jail between 2001 and 2007 over accusations he fought for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

He eventually pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and was sent to Adelaide's Yatala Prison in April 2007.

He was released later that year.

The 35-year-old's book has sold about 30,000 copies and is believed to have generated about $10,000 profit for Mr Hicks.

Must have merely been some innocent hiker who wound up working directly with Osama bin Laden.

Terrorists Strike in Israel

Carl in Jerusalem has up to the minute details on yet another atrocity in Israel.

I suspect our "partners in peace" from the so-called state of "Palestine" have something to do with this. Just a hunch. Must be some activists or something.

Change: Democrats Lovin' the Patriot Act Now

And here I thought most Democrats hated Patriot Act.

Turns out they only hated George W. Bush. Shocking!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over fervent but scattered objections, the Senate voted by a wide margin Thursday to extend the government’s Patriot Act powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists, acting just a month after intelligence and military forces hunted down Osama bin Laden.

Facing a midnight deadline when three terror-fighting tools would expire, the 72-23 Senate vote came after three days of stubborn resistance from a single senator, Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights. With the Senate vote, the bill was whisked to the House for an evening vote and transmission to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The measure would add four years to the legal life of roving wiretaps – those authorized for a person rather than a communications line or device – of court-ordered searches of business records and of surveillance of non-American “lone wolf” suspects without confirmed ties to terrorist groups.

The White House gave assurances that the provisions would not expire even though Obama is now in Europe.

“Failure to sign this legislation poses a significant risk to U.S. national security,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

“As long as Congress approves the extension, the president will direct the use of the autopen to sign it,” Shapiro said in reference to an automatic signature machine used at the White House.

Obama will be woken up at 5:45 a.m. so he can review and approve the bill and then authorize his signature.

Hold on a sec...somebody has to actually wake Obama up in the morning?

Does he get a tuck-in at night too, I wonder?

CAIR Honcho: Bin Laden Was Like a White Supremacist or Something

It won't be long until they're calling him a member of the Tea Party.

Minority groups have previously suffered in the aftermath of terror attacks or attempted attacks, though most of those incidents have been directed at Muslim-Americans. Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said those incidents are not indicative of the American people and any belief by bin Laden that he could prompt widespread violence in such a way between any groups was a "fantasy."

"I think the viewpoint reflects more of a Neo-Nazi, white supremacist outlook on American whites than anything based in reality," he said. "I think it's fantasy based on a fundamental misunderstanding of American society."

A rather strange take for a guy who leads a group linked to terrorists.

Surprise: Mohammed Cartoon Rage Still in Effect

I get the feeling somewhere around 2050 they'll eventually carry out a successful attack. These maniacs apparently have very long memories.

Intelligence agency PET has arrested four men on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against the Copenhagen of Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
According to the agency, the arrests were made in suburban Copenhagen and were made following a long-term surveillance operation in collaboration with the Swedish law-enforcement agency SÄPO.

Three of the suspects are Swedish residents and reportedly arrived in Denmark last night, and PET said the attack was to be carried out “in the coming days”.

All four suspects have Middle-Eastern or North African backgrounds.

In addition to the arrests in Copenhagen, Swedish officials arrested a fifth suspect in Stockholm at the same time.

During the arrests, Danish police found an assault rifle and silencer, ammunition, as well as plastic strips, which are often used by police as hand restraints.

According to PET, the group planned to kill as many people as possible in the building that houses Jyllands-Posten.

And their peaceful co-religionists around the globe would have celebrated mass murder.

What a Relief: Muslim Terror Attack in Sweden Finally Puts 'Far Right' Under Microscope

It's apparently a good thing that a Muslim terrorist blew himself up in Stockholm last weekend, as it finally puts the spotlight on the real scourge facing Sweden: Those on the right who would develop a negative image of Muslims. Hey, they've got their priorities in order.

The bombs had barely exploded in Stockholm's bustling shopping district before members of the far-right, Islam-bashing Sweden Democrats rushed to their blogs and Twitter feeds. "Told you so," said one. "Finally" tweeted another.

The government and just about every editorial page has warned against blaming Sweden's growing Muslim minority for the Dec. 11 suicide attack carried out by an Iraqi-born Swede, who appears to have been radicalized in Britain.

But the far-right fringe is doing just that in another challenge to Sweden's famed tolerance, already frayed in recent months by the Sweden Democrats' entry into Parliament and a serial gunman's sniper attacks against people with dark skin.

Authorities say there's a risk that even more extreme groups, long marginalized in Sweden, will use the opportunity to advance their positions.

"The biggest worry isn't that the Muslim community will become radicalized but what this means for the view of Muslims in Sweden," said Erik Akerlund, police chief in Rinkeby, an immigrant suburb of Stockholm nicknamed "Little Mogadishu" because of its large Somali community.

A wonderful view of things, isn't it? Worry more about the "view of Muslims" more than you do the actual safety of your own citizens.

While investigating the attack, the Swedish security service is also keeping an eye on any potential reaction from right-wing extremists, said Anders Thornberg, the agency's director of operations. Those groups have kept a low profile since a series of attacks on immigrants and left-wing activists in the 1980s and '90s.

The suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab, killed himself and injured two people when some of the explosives he was wearing exploded among panicked Christmas shoppers in downtown Stockholm.

Police suspect the explosives went off by mistake too early, and that he had planned to detonate them in a more crowded place like a shopping center or train station.

One theory is that Abdulwahab had a problem with the equipment and walked off a busy pedestrian street to a side street to fix it "and that's when something happened," Thornberg said.

An audio file sent shortly before the blast from his cell phone referred to Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and an image by a Swedish artist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, enraging many Muslims.

Anti-Muslim bloggers said the bombing came as no surprise, heaping blame on Sweden's generous immigration policy. Tens of thousands of people from the Middle East, Somalia and the Balkans have fled to Sweden in the past two decades. No Western country admitted more Iraqi refugees amid the bloodshed following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Sweden Democrats lawmaker William Petzall wrote "I hate to say it, but we told you so," on his Twitter account.

"Is this the time when you're allowed to say: 'I told you so'? finally," said another tweet from party leader Jimmie Akesson's secretary, Alexandra Brunell. She later apologized, saying the wording was unfortunate.

The attack should serve as an "awakening" for Swedes, party lawmaker Kent Ekeroth wrote on his blog.

"What I mean is that people's attitudes about what Islam is and stands for are naive," Ekeroth told The Associated Press. "When finally there's been a terror attack on Swedish soil, then maybe people will understand. It's unfortunate that this is what it takes."

This overwrought concern with the feelings of Muslims is like a virus spreading across the globe, as witnessed most recently in Portland.

Also churning in my head is regret over the stress that the incident is causing for our Portland-area Muslim community. The suspect, Mohamed Osman Mohamud," ruined it for everybody," is how one Somalian man, Ahmed Ali, put it in comments to The Oregonian newspaper. "Our religion says we cannot kill innocent people. This is the reason we left Somalia."

It seems the only hope we have of defeating this menace is if the enemies of civilization laugh themselves to death.

No, Seriously: 'National Opt-Out Day' Was Like an Act of Terrorism, or Something

More pearls of wisdom from the brainiacs at 'The View'.

Well, at least Elizabeth Hasselbeck is there to talk some sense into...oh wait, she agrees with Whoopi and the rest of the gang.

Sigh.



Via Breitbart. Cross-posted.

Top Democrat: We're Totally Unprepared for Dirty Bomb Attack

Back during the Bush days if a Republican mentioned something like this we'd be told they were just doing it to scare voters. But I guess in this election cycle it's OK to do. Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't suggest Tea Partiers would be behind it.

The U.S. is “unprepared” to deal with a radiological or small arms attack even though both are likely to occur, according to a top ranking House lawmaker on intelligence issues.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment, said the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack, in which gunmen storm a specific area, is much more likely to occur than a dirty bomb attack, but that both scenarios are serious and real threats to U.S. national security.

“I’m surprised there hasn’t been a successful conventional attack in the United States,” said Harman at a New America Foundation event on Wednesday.

Don't worry, Jane. Since our borders are wide open the bad guys will find a way in. Harman also helpfully draws a map for terrorists while throwing Obama and his band of incompetents under the bus.

Harman, who receives regular classified intelligence briefings, said the White House hasn’t done a good job explaining the European scare to Americans, which she described as “a real threat.”

“[The government] ought to offer people more specific guidance,” she said. “This warning has led to more confusion than was necessary…I wish our own government right now were giving more sensible advice to people to know what to look for and what to do.”

Harman is most concerned that westerners will fly into the U.S. undetected -- via the visa waiver program -- after they’ve received terrorist training in the Middle East. The program allows citizens of certain countries to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to get a visa.

Several years ago, Harman traveled to New York City and toured three of the city’s major hospitals to inspect the levels of security they use to keep radiological materials safe from theft by terrorists.

“They are not adequately secured,” said Harman of the materials. “It’s not that hard to storm into one of these hospitals, take the source out of the machine and put together a crude bomb and explode it almost immediately, before law enforcement can arrive in adequate numbers.”

Hard-Working Pakistani Immigrant and Victim of Wave of American Islamophobia Sentenced to 86 Years

A shameful black eye on our image abroad.

A Pakistani woman trained as a scientist in the U.S. was sentenced to 86 years in prison Thursday after she was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan two years ago.

Aafia Siddiqui, 38 years old, was convicted in February of grabbing a soldier's M-4 assault rifle and trying to shoot an assembled group of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and soldiers at an Afghan police compound in July 2008.

The U.S. team had traveled to the compound in Ghazni, Afghanistan, to interview her after she taken into custody by Afghan authorities, prosecutors said. Ms. Siddiqui was found at the time with materials that included handwritten notes referring to a "mass casualty attack" in the U.S. and listed several landmark locations in New York City, prosecutors said.

Prior to her sentencing, Ms. Siddiqui again proclaimed her innocence and disputed claims by her lawyers that she has a mental illness.

The word Muslim, naturally, is omitted from the story.

Five Arrested in Plot Against Pope Benedict

Must be some of those wayward Presbyterians. Couldn't possibly be peaceful Muslims.

Police have arrested five men in connection with an alleged plot against the pope.

Counter-terrorism officers from Scotland Yard swooped on the men after receiving information that Pope Benedict XVI could be in danger.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said the security arrangements for Benedict's visit had been reviewed, but said his itinerary would not be affected by the arrests.

The suspects, aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50, were held under the Terrorism Act 2000 at business premises in central London. They were taken to a central London police station where they will be interviewed by detectives.

The spokesman said: "At approximately 5.45 this morning five men were arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Services Counter Terrorism Command on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism … Searches are being carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 at business premises in central London and residential premises in north London and east London."

Update: The five arrested are Algerians. Must be one of those small factions of Algerian extremists.

'We Can’t Say for Sure What is Going On, But it is Clandestine and Secretive'

Something secretive going on between Iran,. Syria and Venezuela? You don't say. Don't worry though. The crack team of Obama, Napolitano and Clinton are on the job.

A Venezuelan airline's “mystery” flight that shuttled among the capitals of three of the world’s most terror-friendly nations — Venezuela, Syria and Iran — has abruptly canceled its regularly scheduled departures amid accusations that it was used primarily to transport spies, terrorists and lethal cargo among the pariah counties.

“I am sorry, but we are no longer flying to Tehran and I do not know when the flights will resume. It was a flight that left Caracas on Tuesdays, but it no longer does,” Jenny Gil Romero, who handles international departures for Conviasa, the national airline that operates the flight, said in a message to FOX News.

Messages to the airline seeking further information went unanswered.

Romero's comments came in response to FOXNews.com's efforts to buy tickets on the regularly scheduled, 48-hour round trip from Caracas to Damascus to Tehran, then back again.

Intelligence analysts with both the CIA and Israel said that, despite the listing of the flight as a regular commercial route and a code share with Iran air -- Flight IR744 is also Flight VO3744 -- there was no way that anyone could buy a ticket and travel without being vetted by the Venezuelan or Iranian government. And without passport controls, flight manifests and other documents, it meant some of the world's most dangerous men could travel without fear of being uncovered.

Curiously, unlike most other bookings on the national airline, calls for reservations on this particular flight were routed to a cell phone in Argentina, rather than to Conviasa's regular service in Caracas.

The Venezuelan ambassador to the United States had defended the flights as recently as two weeks ago in response to criticism in a State Department report that cited the flight’s questionable route and procedures. Messages left at the Venezuelan embassy's press office and the ambassador's office were not returned, and a list of questions submitted to the embassy's press office was not answered.

For the past three years, every other Tuesday, Flight VO3744 would roll out to a secluded loading platform at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas. Shrouded from public view and unencumbered by the normal exit procedures, a select passenger list would board the flight.

Over the next 48 hours, according to Western intelligence agencies, Venezuelan opposition figures and a former Iran-based spy for the CIA, the flight would carry illicit, lethal cargoes -- such as explosives and possibly radioactive materials -- and provide safe passage to terrorists, spies, weapons experts, senior Iranian intelligence operatives and members of both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Reza Kahlili, the pseudonym for an Iranian who the CIA has confirmed once spied for the United States as a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, told FoxNews.com these "special flights" have been "instrumental in creating an Iranian dominated worldwide terror network that now reaches the United States." He said the flights were used to expand Iran’s efforts to create a base of operations in the Western Hemisphere.

Peter Brookes, a former Defense Department analyst and CIA employee now with the Heritage Foundation, said there was a steady stream of elite Al Quds officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard who were transported to Venezuela aboard the flight and took up positions in the Latin American country’s intelligence service.

“We can’t say for sure what is going on, but it is clandestine and secretive,” he said.

By the end of the day Hugo Chavez will be parroting Media Matters in denunciations of Fox News.

Link to the report here.

Mystery Man Celebrates 9/11 By Self-Detonating in Copenhagen Hotel

Must be one of those radical Christianists.

A suspected terrorist detonated an explosion in a Danish hotel ahead of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it emerged today.

The blast at the Hotel Jorgensen in central Copenhagen injured only the suspect, who sustained burns to his face and arms.

Although small, last night’s explosion prompted Denmark to today raise its terror alert level over fears more serious attacks could take place.

Security alerts were raised in other parts of the world too, with France’s counter-espionage agency admitting the threat to French citizens had never been higher.

In Copenhagen, the suspect, who remains in hospital, has so far chosen not to cooperate with the police and his identity is not yet known.

Police say the man appeared to be European or North African and around 40 years old and spoke excellent English.

European or North African? Well, that narrows it down. He obviously was enraged by threats of Koran burnings or something.

Meanwhile, in France, the country’s spy chief Bernard Squarcini said that France's history as a colonial master in North Africa, its military presence in Afghanistan and a proposal aimed at banning full-covering face veils in public all make the country a prime target for certain radical Islamist groups.

The risk of an attack is now as high as it was in 1995, before deadly attacks on the Paris Metro by Algerian Islamic extremists, he said.

‘Objectively, there are reasons for worry. The threat has never been as high’ as now, the interview quotes Squarcini as saying.

‘We foil an average of two (planned) attacks a year, but one day or another, we're going to get hit.’

It's all about tolerance and building bridges, we're told.

Danish police are downplaying reports the mysterious man of unknown origin was planning to attack the newspaper that dared to publish the Mohammed cartoons that so greatly offended the delicate sensibilities of peace-loving Islamists.

Update: Photo added via this report.

Foldager said police are struggling to identify the man, who is about 180 centimetres (5', 10") tall and has refused to co-operate with authorities.

"We have sent his fingerprints to the whole world and it has not resulted in anything. So for the time being, we have a big problem there," Foldager said at a news conference.

"He has an abundance of identities. The problem is that none of them are true," he said. "This is a person who has done a lot to disguise himself."

Police has previously said the blast could be terror related, but Foldager said they have no information that the man could be "part of something bigger."

"Whether or not it is terror is pure guessing," Foldager said.

Palestinian Activist Celebrates Ramadan, Kills Four Israelis

Maybe he was frustrated by the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque. After all, our moral superiors have told us such an affront to the delicate sensibilities of Muslims is fueling extremism. It's apparently driven someone crazy enough to go on a murder spree during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military says a Palestinian gunman has killed four Israelis in an attack in the West Bank.

The shooting comes just a day ahead of a White House summit relaunching Mideast peace talks.

Police say the gunman opened fire at a vehicle near Hebron — a volatile city that has experienced heavy violence in the past.

There has been no claim of responsibility. But Israeli authorities are concerned that militants might try to sabotage the U.S.-led peace efforts with violence.

ACLU Sues Obama on Behalf of Terror Kingpin Awlaki

Maybe some day the ACLU headquarters will get blown up and these America-haters will snap out of it. Though I doubt that will happen. Why would terrorists attack their most ardent supporters?

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government over an alleged policy of killing American citizens who are suspected of terrorism.

The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Washington, argued that such targeted assassinations by the government are unconstitutional.

“A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement announcing the filing of the case against U.S. President Barack Obama, the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The New York-based group, together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, brought the case on behalf of Nasser al- Awlaki, father of a U.S.-born Islamic cleric in Yemen, Anwar al- Awlaki, who is accused of having ties to al-Qaeda.

The younger al-Awlaki, who was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been marked for death by the U.S. Defense Department and the CIA, according to the organizations.

U.S. forces are trying to find al-Awlaki, saying he has been linked to plots against American targets including the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device aboard an airliner approaching Detroit in December.

Needless to say, these jokers have impeccable timing. As this story was released a couple of terror suspects of Yemeni origin were arrested.

Monday's arrests of two suspects of Yemeni descent are another example of what federal officials and observers say is a growing problem with extremism and terrorist threats emanating from Yemen.

During the past year, a number of high-profile terrorism cases -- especially those involving Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim-American cleric of Yemeni descent -- have caused concern among government officials and others concerned about anti-American threats. The CIA says it now believes that a branch of al-Qaida in Yemen is a greater threat than al-Qaida in Pakistan, the main focus since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a report last week in the Washington Post.

With his fluent English, al-Awlaki has become popular over the Internet among some radical Muslims living in the West. U.S. intelligence officials found e-mails between al-Awlaki and Nidal Malik Hasan, the Muslim man accused of going on a shooting rampage on a military base in November that killed 13 people. Al-Awlaki also is believed to have inspired the Dec. 25 bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airplane. The suspect in that case is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a native of Nigeria.

Surely the ACLU will be representing them in court.

The Boy From Brazil seems very concerned over Al-Awlaki's rights, such as they are.

It's an authoritarian scene out of some near-future dystopian novel, yet it's exactly what is happening. This is precisely the reaction of a substantial portion of the population which has been trained to believe every unproven government accusation of Terrorism. The mere utterance of the accusation -- Terrorist -- sends them into mindless, fear-driven submission, so extreme that they're willing even to endorse a Presidential-imposed death penalty on American citizens with no due process: about the most tyrannical power that can be imagined, literally.

Get a grip.

Peru Revokes Parole for 'Activist' Lori Berenson

Amazing how low media standards have sunk when a convicted leftist terrorist is called an activist.

A court in Peru has revoked parole for American activist Lori Berenson. It orders that she be captured and sent back to prison to finish the last five years of her 20-year prison sentence for aiding leftist rebels.

The BBC refers to her as a 'rebel' in their account.

A Peruvian site accurately calls Berenson what she is, a Marxist.

Previously.

Chicago: Hotbed of Radical Islamists

What's going on in Chicago? They're got cabbies linked to al Qaida, men linked to the Mumbai massacre and now a report of a man arrested who wanted to blow up American soldiers.

Counterterrorism agents in Chicago say they secretly followed a 26-year-old man from the city's Near North Side for nearly two years as he plotted to become a global Jihadist and even dreamed of executing a suicide bomb attack on American soldiers.

After determining that Shaker Masri of the Streeterville neighborhood had airplane tickets to leave Chicago this morning to carry out his mission, federal authorities say they stopped Masri and arrested him.

One attack scenario was allegedly discussed by Masri when he saw several soldiers walking on a Chicago street. On a secretly-recorded undercover tape, Masri discussed blowing himself up next to a busload of American soldiers.

He was arrested Tuesday at 5:30 PM by federal agents who say they interrupted Masri's plan to destroy his computer prior to departing Chicago. He was ticketed on a Southwest Airlines flight, scheduled to leave Wednesday morning for Los Angeles, where he would then depart the country.

In a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday morning in Chicago, Masri is accused of two federal counts: that he tried to provide material support to Al Qaeda and Somali Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabab, and that he tried to provide material support in a concealed or disguised manner to fund the use of a WMD.

Funny, but you never do see Tea Partiers being arrested for any of this stuff.

Who knows, maybe these guys are influenced by all the incendiary rhetoric heard from community leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.

It's a good thing Obama has reached out the Muslimm community. Really seems to be paying dividends in his hometown.

AQ Leader Charged in NYC Bomb Plot

This monster has been involved in seemingly every plot targeting New York the past couple decades so it's not as if this is shocking news. It does mean he's still out there in need of vaporizing.

Federal authorities are expected to announce criminal charges Wednesday against a senior al Qaeda leader in connection with a plot to bomb the New York City subway system last year, a person familiar with the investigation said.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, who remains at large, is expected to be named in a superseding indictment brought in federal court in Brooklyn in connection with the criminal case against Najibullah Zazi, the person said. The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to announce the charges out of Washington later Wednesday, the person said.

Zazi, an Afghan native who worked as an airport shuttle driver in Colorado, admitted in February that he drove to New York last September with explosives and other bomb-making materials, intending to carry out an attack on Manhattan subway lines. While in New York, Zazi said he realized he was being investigated by law enforcement and threw away the explosives. He was arrested a few days later after returning to Colorado.

As part of his plea, Zazi said he traveled to Pakistan in 2008 with the intention of joining the Taliban to fight the U.S. in Afghanistan. While in Pakistan, Zazi said he was recruited by al Qaeda and received weapons and other training there, including explosives training.

Two other men allegedly traveled with Zazi to Pakistan at the time. One of those men, Zarein Ahmedzay, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and providing material support to al Qaeda in April.

More on Shukrijumah here.

According to the new indictment, court filings and plea proceedings in the case, the plot involving Mr. Zazi was organized by Saleh al-Somali, Rashid Rauf, and Mr. Shukrijumah, who were then leaders of Qaeda’s “external operations” program dedicated to terrorist attacks in the United States and other Western countries.

The State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million several years ago for information leading directly to the capture of Mr. Shukrijumah, but he has managed to elude the authorities since the F.B.I. issued an alert for him in 2003.

He was identified as a senior terrorism figure by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed during his intensive interrogation, and officials have said that concern about him as a threat grew with the discovery that he had received flight training in the United States about the same time as the 9/11 hijackers. A bulletin warning that he might try to cross American borders with a Saudi, Canadian or Trinidadian passport was issued in 2003.

Because Mr. Shukrijumah spent so much time in the United States, his familiarity with the language and culture, and thus his ability to move freely, made him the focus of intense concern.

His time in Brooklyn in the late 1980s and early ’90s put him close to the heart of radical Islamic extremism in the United States. At the time, his father, Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, reportedly did translation work for Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric who was linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Related.

Prosecutors: Radical Hag Lynne Stewart Deserves Lengthier Sentence

I figure since they won't execute her then life in prison will suffice, especially since this terrorist-loving beast is most unrepentant.

Attorney Lynne Stewart, convicted of helping an extremist cleric pass messages from prison to terrorist followers, deserves an enhanced sentence because of statements she made after her conviction and sentencing, U.S. prosecutors said.

A federal appeals court in New York in November ruled that Stewart, 70 should be resentenced in a way that reflects the “seriousness” of her crime. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, who originally sentenced Stewart to 28 months in prison and is presiding over the case, has scheduled her resentencing for July 15.

Stewart was convicted by a federal jury in New York in 2005 for helping her former client, the blind Egyptian sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, smuggle messages to followers in defiance of U.S. prison restrictions. Stewart, who was free pending appeal, was ordered to prison Nov. 19 and is currently being held at a federal jail in lower Manhattan.

“Stewart has made it clear that if given the opportunity to engage in the unlawful conduct for which she now stands convicted she would do it again,” federal prosecutors in the office of Preet Bharara said in court papers.

Stewart’s lawyers argued in court papers that the 28-month term imposed by Koeltl was “reasonable, just and satisfied the purposes of sentencing.”

“Ms. Stewart’s 28-month sentence is reasonable, especially when viewed alongside sentences in other terrorism prosecutions, including those where the defendants joined terrorist groups and clearly intended that harm would result from their actions,” wrote Stewart’s lawyers, Liz Fink and Jill Shellow.

Her lawyers said Koeltl, who presided over the nine-month trial, was in the best position to know the appropriate term to impose and that longer terms imposed in other terrorism cases cited by an appeals court judge were for crimes which occurred after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Defense lawyers argued she hadn’t committed perjury during the trial and that she didn’t know the true terrorist nature of followers of Rahman.

Fink wasn’t immediately available for comment yesterday and federal prosecutors declined to comment on the case.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Stewart deserves an “enhanced” sentence. While the U.S. didn’t ask for the 30-year prison term which they’d previously requested, they said they would make a recommendation at a later date about what kind of sentence would be “appropriate.”

The government said Stewart deserved a harsher term because was likely to continue breaking the law, citing statements Stewart made in interviews in the days after the appeals court’s decision.

“I’d like to think I would not do anything differently,” Stewart said in an interview with the Democracy Now Network on Nov. 18, prosecutors quoted her as saying. “I think it was necessary. I would do it again. I might handle it a little differently, but I would do it again.”

Her own words make the case for a long stay in prison. A permanent residence there will do.

Terror Plots Against USA at All-Time High

I'm thinking maybe it's time for a worldwide basketball summit. It seems to be the only thing Obama is focused on and since his outreach to the Muslim world people who hate us has been such a miserable failure we may as well have a crack at it.

Jihadists are looking to attack this country like never before.

Over the past nine months, the number of terror plots in this country have "surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period," according to federal documents made public today.

The grim assessment is contained in an unclassified Department of Homeland Security intelligence memo prepared for various law enforcement groups across the country, CNN reported.

The memo says terror groups are expected to try attacks inside this country with "increased frequency."

CNN obtained a copy of the document, dated May 21, which goes on to warn that law enforcement has to "operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning."

The document specifically mentions the cases of Afghan national Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty last February to plotting attacks on the city's subways, and Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American who loaded a parked car with explosives earlier this month.

The document claims Zazi and Shahzad received training overseas "compared to lengthier training cycles for earlier operations, reducing our ability to detect their activities."

The report warns that the feds and other authorities may not be prepared for such attacks.

It says that US officials "lack insights in specific details, timing and intended targets" -- although trends indicate terrorists are looking for "smaller, more achievable attacks against easily accessible targets."

This comes as President Obama will make the threat from homegrown extremists radicalized while in this country a top priority of his new national security strategy, a top advisor said on Wednesday.

"We've seen an increasing number of individuals here in the United States become captivated by extremist activities or causes," said Obama's top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan.

Brennan said the plan is expected to be unveiled later today.

"As our enemy adapts and evolves their tactics, so must we constantly adapt and evolve ours -- not in a rush driven by fear -- but in a thoughtful and reasoned way that enhances our security and further delegitimizes the actions of our enemy," he said.

The intelligence document, meanwhile, also said terror groups, such as al Qaeda, increasingly are using Europeans and Americans as operatives or in leadership positions in which they make public statements calling for Muslims to strike the United States, CNN reported.

The document cites as examples Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Alawki and al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn.

Of course according to those terror experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center the greatest threat to mankind are right-wing extremists and talk radio listeners. Now they have no idea what they're talking about but whenever they talk the media breathlessly reports any of the bilge they emit.

Meanwhile, since our borders are wide open and the Justice Department is making zero effort to enforce our immigration laws, it appears some Somali terrorists are sauntering in from Mexico. Probably just looking for better cable access for NBA playoff games.

The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com.

The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

I just hope the police don't stop any of them and ask for their papers, especially if they're spotted enjoying ice cream.

Pakistan Army Officer Linked to Shahzad

The plot deepens. Although this news shouldn't come as a great shock considering how infested the Pakistan army and intelligence services are with Taliban and/or their sympathizers.

Investigators have arrested a Pakistani army major linked to the prime suspect in the botched attempt to bomb New York City's Times Square early this month, Pakistani law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

The major's involvement with suspect Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to fly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, remains unclear. Law enforcement sources said the major had met Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, in Islamabad and was in cellphone contact with him.

The major's arrest marks the first time someone in Pakistan's military establishment has been directly linked to the case. The sources would not say when the alleged meeting and phone calls between Shahzad and the major took place, or what was discussed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation.

The twist in the case comes as Pakistani authorities have learned more about the 30-year-old Shahzad's links with the Pakistani Taliban, the militant group suspected of helping him carry out the attempted bombing.

Another suspect being held by Pakistani authorities is a Pakistani Taliban member who appeared to play the role of liaison between Shahzad and the militant group. The Taliban member has told Pakistani intelligence agents that he met Shahzad three times last summer, Pakistani law enforcement sources said.

At one of those meetings, the Taliban member gave Shahzad an undisclosed amount of money because Shahzad had said he was running out of cash, according to the sources. U.S. officials familiar with the case have said that the Taliban gave Shahzad roughly $15,000 to pay for the attempted bombing.

The Taliban member's account appears to corroborate assertions by U.S. investigators that the Pakistani Taliban played a significant role in the events that led up to Shahzad's attempt to detonate an SUV loaded with propane tanks and fertilizer in Times Square on May 1.

Pakistani authorities at first had been skeptical of Shahzad's claims of Taliban assistance, saying their investigators had uncovered no link between the militant group and Shahzad, now in custody in the U.S. And although U.S. officials have thought the idea for the attack was likely Shahzad's, evidence is mounting that the Taliban was deeply involved in the plot.

Curious how all the buffoons who were so quick to call this a "one-off" two weeks ago are noticeably silent these days.