Israel Matzav

ISIS sends a warning to the United States

For ten years, I have been writing about my nervousness every time I walk into a shopping mall in the United States.

What's worse: if a certain type of terror attack hasn't happened outside of Israel, for the most part, no one is prepared for it. So yes, my Red Sox tickets for next week say "No bags or items larger than 16 x 16 x 8, coolers, cans, bottles, flagpoles, firearms or fireworks will be permitted into the ballpark." (So much for the days of the picnic lunch in the bleachers). And the ticket says that you are subject to search: but they'll search my father and me, and they won't search a 21-year old Muslim because that would be 'profiling'. And I will still walk into shopping malls or large stores tomorrow, and no one will search my bags - or anyone else's - because no American shopping mall has ever been attacked by a suicide bomber. No one will search me on my way into a movie theater until the first time someone with a political agenda shoots up a movie theater. And no one will search me going into Sbarros (which I cannot do here because they are not Kosher) or any other restaurant until a suicide bomber blows up a restaurant. In Israel, you cannot walk into an enclosed public space without being searched.

Ten years later, terror has come much closer to the United States. If the World Trade Center attacks can be looked upon as isolated in their times, during the eight years of the Obama administration there has been at least one major terror attack in the United States each year.  But very little has changed. And ISIS is warning of more.

Titled "You Are Not Held Responsible Except for Yourself," the Al-Furat Media Foundation release was distributed online with a promotional banner featuring President Obama, Omar Mateen and scenes from the previous weekend's carnage.

Al-Furat specializes in Russian-language messages to Muslims in the Caucasus and beyond. Earlier this year, for example, the media wing released the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf's video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The video opens with the tag "USA" in the upper corner and shots of an unseen person assembling a bomb to put in a suicide vest. The person buttons up a blue shirt, straps on the bomb belt, and zips up a dark brown leather jacket to conceal it. He's wearing a stainless steel wristwatch that reads 9:25.

That's followed by scenes of Times Square and the torso of the leather-jacketed man walking along the street. A TGI Friday's sign is shown.

In a close-up of the man with no location shown, he's pulling the ring on his detonator.
It appears to be mock-up footage from an Al-Jazeera segment, with the network's logo fuzzed out but still discernible.

News footage is then shown of the ABC News building banner in New York scrolling a headline about the November Paris attacks.

Then, pictures of Mateen along with closeups of the weapons he used in the June 12 attack on the Pulse nightclub: a Sig Sauer MCX .223 caliber rifle and Glock 17 9 mm.
Footage of the attack from American and Arabic TV is shown.

A black jihadist in fatigues with an outdoor backdrop that looks like IS territory in the Middle East is identified as Abu Isamil al-Amriki; he speaks perfect English and is referred to as an American, yet he speaks with a slight accent.

"Do you think you are at war with a small group of mujahideen in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other places? You are sadly mistaken. And do you think you will defeat us by bombing our homes with your drones and F-16s?" Abu Ismail says.

"O America, indeed you are at war with ... sincere Muslims around the world who yearn and desire to see the honor of Islam returned," he adds. "And O America, indeed you are at war with the people who wish to be killed and slain for the sake of Allah... you are at war with the holy Quran."

Let's go to the videotape.


Will this warning be heeded? Given that the FBI has released partial transcripts of phone calls from terrorist Omar Mateen, who murdered 50 people in a gay nightclub ten days ago and has deleted all references to ISIS, things don't look very promising.

To maintain liberty, sometimes you have to compromise a little bit of liberty. Unfortunately, some people can only learn that lesson the hard way.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Department of Homeland Security, ISIS, Islamic terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:17 AM