CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing

CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing

    Saturday, January 31, 2015   No comments

On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements.

As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.

The device was triggered remotely from Tel Aviv by agents with Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, who were in communication with the operatives on the ground in Damascus. “The way it was set up, the U.S. could object and call it off, but it could not execute,” said a former U.S. intelligence official.

New Saudi king announces major government shake-up

New Saudi king announces major government shake-up

    Friday, January 30, 2015   No comments

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's new King Salman on Thursday (Jan 29) further cemented his hold on power, with a sweeping shakeup that saw two sons of the late King Abdullah fired, and the heads of intelligence and other key agencies replaced alongside a cabinet shuffle.

Top officials from the Ports Authority, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police were among those let go.

The new appointments came a week after Salman acceded to the throne following the death of Abdullah, aged about 90.

Ancient Sea Rise Tale Told Accurately for 10,000 Years

Ancient Sea Rise Tale Told Accurately for 10,000 Years

    Wednesday, January 28, 2015   No comments

Aboriginal stories of lost islands match up with underwater finds in Australia

Melbourne, the southernmost state capital of the Australian mainland, was established by Europeans a couple hundred years ago at the juncture of a great river and a wind-whipped bay. Port Phillip Bay sprawls over 750 square miles, providing feeding grounds for whales and sheltering coastlines for brine-scented beach towns. But it’s an exceptionally shallow waterway, less than 30 feet in most places. It’s so shallow that 10,000 years ago, when ice sheets and glaciers held far more of the planet’s water than is the case today, most of the bay floor was high and dry and grazed upon by kangaroos.

Debating Howard Dean's statement that Paris Terrorists "About as Muslim as I Am"

Debating Howard Dean's statement that Paris Terrorists "About as Muslim as I Am"

    Saturday, January 24, 2015   No comments

Debating Howard Dean's statement that Paris Terrorists "About as Muslim as I Am":

HOWARD DEAN: You know, this is a chronic problem. I stopped calling these people Muslim terrorists. They’re about as Muslim as I am. I mean, they have no respect for anybody else’s life, that’s not what the Koran says. Europe has an enormous radical problem. I think ISIS is a cult. Not an Islamic cult. I think it’s a cult.

    BRZEZINSKI: Interesting, yeah. Hmm.

    DEAN: And I think you got to deal with these people. The interesting thing here, is we talked about guns the last time in regarding the United States, regarding how guns get in the hands of the kind of people that kill the two police officers here two weeks ago.

Text of the "To the Youth in Europe and North America" issued by ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei Jan. 21, 2015

Text of the "To the Youth in Europe and North America" issued by ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei Jan. 21, 2015

    Friday, January 23, 2015   No comments

In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful

To the Youth in Europe and North America,

The recent events in France and similar ones in some other Western countries have convinced me to directly talk to you about them. I am addressing you, [the youth], not because I overlook your parents, rather it is because the future of your nations and countries will be in your hands; and also I find that the sense of quest for truth is more vigorous and attentive in your hearts.

I don’t address your politicians and statesmen either in this writing because I believe that they have consciously separated the route of politics from the path of righteousness and truth.

I would like to talk to you about Islam, particularly the image that is presented to you as Islam. Many attempts have been made over the past two decades, almost since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, to place this great religion in the seat of a horrifying enemy. The provocation of a feeling of horror and hatred and its utilization has unfortunately a long record in the political history of the West.

Here, I don’t want to deal with the different phobias with which the Western nations have thus far been indoctrinated. A cursory review of recent critical studies of history would bring home to you the fact that the Western governments’ insincere and hypocritical treatment of other nations and cultures has been censured in new historiographies.

France has seen almost as many anti-Muslim acts since the Paris attacks earlier this month as in all of 2014

France has seen almost as many anti-Muslim acts since the Paris attacks earlier this month as in all of 2014

    Friday, January 23, 2015   No comments

France has seen almost as many anti-Muslim acts since the Paris attacks earlier this month as in all of 2014, a French Muslim body says. The figures could be higher as they do not include incidents recorded in Paris.

 There were 128 anti-Muslim actions or threats between 7-20 January in France - not including the densely populated Paris region - compared to 133 in all of last year, including Paris, according to an internal study released on Friday by the French Council of the Muslim Religion.

Police in Paris are yet to release their own figures.

The 128 anti-Muslim incidents are made up of 33 acts against mosques, and 95 threats reported to authorities, the Council said. According to its own figures, the incidents in 2014 represented a drop of 41 percent from 2013.

Terrorism funding in Saudi Arabia, Gulf states

Terrorism funding in Saudi Arabia, Gulf states

    Thursday, January 22, 2015   No comments

"Terrorist funding emanating from Saudi Arabia remains a serious concern." So states a cable prepared for the visit of U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke to the kingdom earlier this year.




It is one of several that have appeared on the WikiLeaks site to indicate that despite some progress, the flow of cash to extremist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan from individuals and charities in the Gulf has certainly not been halted.

Israeli source: We meant to target low-ranking guerrillas in Syria, not Iranian general

Israeli source: We meant to target low-ranking guerrillas in Syria, not Iranian general

    Tuesday, January 20, 2015   No comments

An Iranian general killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria was not its intended target and Israel believed it was attacking only low-ranking guerrillas, a senior security source said on Tuesday.

The remarks by the Israeli source, who declined to be identified because Israel has not officially confirmed it carried out the strike, appeared aimed at containing any escalation with Iran or the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group.

...

Escape to Syria of Charlie Hebdo suspect shows Turkey’s role as jihadi highway

Escape to Syria of Charlie Hebdo suspect shows Turkey’s role as jihadi highway

    Monday, January 19, 2015   No comments

For the wife of the gunman accused of killing four people at a kosher super market in Paris 10 days ago, the escape from questioning about complicity in the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks was relatively easy.

Once Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, got to Turkey, she followed the path of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other European jihadi volunteers before her – into the self-declared Islamic State.

Aided by smugglers in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, and several companions, she walked through a disused border crossing on Jan. 8 and into the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, which has been an Islamic State stronghold for months.

Read the letter the FBI sent MLK to try to convince him to kill himself

Read the letter the FBI sent MLK to try to convince him to kill himself

    Monday, January 19, 2015   No comments

When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech before huge crowds on the National Mall in August 1963, the FBI took notice.

"We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security," FBI domestic intelligence chief William Sullivan wrote in a memo two days later. A massive surveillance operation on King was quickly approved, and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover became increasingly fixated on proving that King had Communist ties, and discrediting him generally.

The surveillance failed to show that King was a Communist, but it did result in many tapes of extramarital sexual liaisons by King. So, the next year, Sullivan sent the following unsigned letter to King's home.  An unredacted version of it was only recently unearthed by Yale historian Beverly Gage, and published in the New York Times

in

Saudi Arabia's history of hypocrisy we choose to ignore

Saudi Arabia's history of hypocrisy we choose to ignore

    Thursday, January 15, 2015   No comments

Sir William Hunter was a senior British civil servant and in 1871 published a book which warned of “fanatic swarms” of Sunni Muslims who had “murdered our subjects”, financed by “men of ample fortune”, while a majority of Muslims were being forced to decide “once and for all, whether [they] should play the part of a devoted follower of Islam” or a “peaceable subject”.

Hunter identified a “hate preacher” as the cause of this “terror”, a man inspired on a visit to Arabia by an ascetic Muslim called Abdul Wahab whose violent “Wahabi” followers had formed an alliance with – you guessed it – the House of Saud. Hunter’s 140-year-old volume The Indian Musalmans – given a dusting of internet race hatred, murderous attacks by individual Sunni Muslims, cruel Wahabi-style punishments and all-too familiar proof of second-class citizenship for Muslims in a European-run state – might have been written today.

French President Francois Hollande: "Muslims are the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance"

French President Francois Hollande: "Muslims are the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance"

    Thursday, January 15, 2015   No comments

French President Francois Hollande has vowed that his country will protect all religions, saying that Muslims are the main victims of fanaticism.

Speaking at the Arab World Institute, he said Islam was compatible with democracy and thanked Arabs for their solidarity over terrorism in Paris.

There are also funerals taking place for Charlie Hebdo columnist Elsa Cayat and Franck Brinsolaro, a policeman assigned to guard Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Hollande said the French were united in the face of terror.

"French Muslims have the same rights as all other French," he said. "We have the obligation to protect them. "Anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic acts have to be condemned and punished."

Illegal arms shipments by the Turkish spy agency to opposition groups in Syria

Illegal arms shipments by the Turkish spy agency to opposition groups in Syria

    Wednesday, January 14, 2015   No comments

Twitter and Facebook as well as many other websites face closure after anonymous accounts published new revelations in a case involving what appear to be illegal arms shipments by Turkish spy agency to opposition groups in Syria, a news report said.

A Twitter account with handle “@LazepeM” published written proceedings related to search and seizure of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks in January of last year based on suspicions they were carrying weapons to Syria. The documents which revealed the trucks were carrying weapons were also published in many other websites including some Facebook accounts.

Saudi Arabia's 'outdated' brutality 'sparked by fear of online dissent,'

Saudi Arabia's 'outdated' brutality 'sparked by fear of online dissent,'

    Monday, January 12, 2015   No comments

Saudi Arabia's "outdated" government is cracking down on online dissent because it fears its power, a Saudi activist has said in the wake of the public flogging of blogger and activist Raif Badawi.

Mr Badawi, 30, a father of three, was convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam after co-founding the now banned website Free Saudi Liberals. He was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of one million riyals (£175,000). On Friday he received the first 50 lashes in what will be a weekly ritual for the next 20 weeks.

Turkish officials add credence to accusations that Turkey is enabling passage of foreign fighters into Syria: suspect in Paris attacks was in Turkey and crossed into Syria

Turkish officials add credence to accusations that Turkey is enabling passage of foreign fighters into Syria: suspect in Paris attacks was in Turkey and crossed into Syria

    Monday, January 12, 2015   No comments

(Reuters) - The suspected female accomplice of Islamist militants behind attacks in Paris was in Turkey five days before the killings and crossed into Syria on Jan. 8, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Monday by state-run Anatolian news agency.

French authorities launched a search for 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene after French anti-terrorist police killed her partner Amedy Coulibaly in storming a Jewish supermarket where he had taken hostages. They described her as armed and dangerous.

Anatolian, on its website, cited Cavusoglu as saying in an interview she had arrived in Istanbul from Madrid on Jan. 2. Turkey had received no request from Paris to deny her access.

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

    Saturday, January 10, 2015   No comments

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

 A Saudi Arabian blogger has been publicly flogged after being convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam, reports say.

Public beheading and flogging in Saudi Arabia

Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail, was flogged 50 times. The flogging will be carried out weekly, campaigners say.

Mr Badawi, the co-founder of a now banned website called the Liberal Saudi Network, was arrested in 2012.

Rights groups condemned his conviction and the US appealed for clemency.

On Thursday state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki urged the Saudi authorities to "cancel this brutal punishment" and to review his case.

In addition to his sentence, Mr Badawi was ordered to pay a fine of 1 million riyals ($266,000; £175,000).

In 2013 he was cleared of apostasy, which could have carried a death sentence.

Last year Mr Badawi's lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a range of offences in an anti-terrorism court, the Associated Press news agency reported.

'Act of cruelty'

Hezbollah chief says terrorists damage Islam more than cartoons

Hezbollah chief says terrorists damage Islam more than cartoons

    Friday, January 09, 2015   No comments

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The leader of the Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah said on Friday that Islamist terrorists had done more harm to Islam than any cartoon or book, a reference to the attack by suspected Islamist militants on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said what he called "takfiri terrorist groups" had insulted Islam more than "even those who have attacked the messenger of God through books depicting the Prophet or making films depicting the Prophet or drawing cartoons of the Prophet."

Swedish rallies in support of Muslims draw thousands after mosques attacks

Swedish rallies in support of Muslims draw thousands after mosques attacks

    Thursday, January 08, 2015   No comments

Thousands of people have rallied across Sweden expressing solidarity and support for Muslims after three attacks on mosques in just one week, which left five people injured. The participants had the slogan “Do not touch my mosque.”

Gunmen attack on French magazine, Charlie Hebdo

Gunmen attack on French magazine, Charlie Hebdo

    Wednesday, January 07, 2015   No comments

Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.

Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.

A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.

President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".

ISIL fighters take aim at the Kingdom that produced them--killing and wounding three Saudi security agents along the Iraqi-Saudi border

ISIL fighters take aim at the Kingdom that produced them--killing and wounding three Saudi security agents along the Iraqi-Saudi border

    Monday, January 05, 2015   No comments

A suicide bomber killed two Saudi guards Monday on the border with Iraq, where ISIS terrorists have seized a swathe of territory, the interior ministry said, and AFP reports.

The blast in the Arar region was followed by a firefight between the border patrol and the assailants, one of whom was shot dead, a ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.