Must see video: With Open Gates: The forced collective suicide of European nations
I planned to post this yesterday, but was too busy with work. The Middle East is taking over Europe. Unfortunately for the Europeans, that isn't a reference to Israel and the Jews. It's a reference to Muslims coming from Middle Eastern, South Asian and African countries who are turning native Europeans into a minority with the cooperation and encouragement of Europe's chattering classes.
Let's go to the videotape. It's kind of long but worth watching.
With all this going on, the only thing that seems to concern the Europeans is barring products of 'Israeli settlements' - an act that is proven anti-Semitic by the fact that it is the only 'occupation' among some 200 worldwide that the Europeans have decided to address.
The European countries themselves are starting to reconsider the Schengen laws that allow persons to pass from one country to another, and it is time for other countries in the West - the United States, Canada (very little chance that will happen now that Trudeau has replaced Harper), Australia and yes, Israel, need to reconsider the admission of citizens of European countries without visas.
The world is changing in dangerous ways. Vigilance is necessary.
ICYMI this says it all: J Street elects Muslim of Pakistani descent as President
After this one, let no one say that J Street is pro-Israel: J Street U has elected a Muslim of Pakistani descent as its President.
At its “Summer Leadership Institute” in
Washington this week, J Street U elected Amna Farooqi, a senior at the
University of Maryland who is of Pakistani descent, Haaretz reported. Farooqi co-wrote a blog post for the Times of Israel
in March on Hillel President Eric Fingerhut’s decision to withdraw from
a commitment to speak a the J Street National Conference.
Approximately 120 J Street U student leaders
attended the four-day gathering, according to Haaretz, and J Street U
says it has 4,000 active participants on 75 college campuses in the
United States.
A native of suburban Washington, D.C., Farooqi
grew up in a “fairly religious Muslim home” with “a lot of Jewish
friends,” Haaretz reported.
But “growing up in a household sympathetic to
the Palestinian cause, the Palestine-Israel conflict was always the
elephant in the room,” she said in a video filmed at the J Street
conference last March. “This conflict evoked a level of anger and
emotion in me, and I needed to learn more. Everything I was learning
about the conflict made me not want to be pro-Israel. … As someone who
wanted to contribute to ending this conflict I knew I needed to
understand all sides.”
Pro-Israel anyone? Their heads are so open their brains have fallen out.
Another US ally with a lot to worry about from the Iran sellout
There's another US ally outside of Israel and the Persian Gulf whose interests are taking a serious beating as a result of the Obama-Kerry sellout to Iran: India.
India's primary concern, however, remains neighbouring Pakistan.
As this nuclear deal sets a Shiite Iran on the highway to a nuclear
bomb, rival Sunni-Arab nations are getting jittery about the prospect of
living in an Iranian-dominated Middle East.
Pakistan would be the preferred one-stop shop from Sunni-Arab nations
to acquire a "turnkey" nuclear bomb. Saudi Arabia has apparently
financed Pakistan's clandestine nuclear program for decades and hopes
get an "off the shelf" nuclear bomb in return. U.S. President Barack
Obama might be right about not allowing a nuclear Iran "on his watch,"
but after he leaves the White House -- and because of him -- the nuclear
landscape of the Middle East might be "radiating" like a pinball
machine.
The multi-billion dollar nuclear deals between Pakistan and
Sunni-Arab nations will be brokered by the Pakistani Army, and the money
will largely go to fund Islamist infrastructure and jihadist
insurgencies in Kashmir and beyond.
As is the case with Obamacare domestically (the real economic hit occurs too late to affect Obama's standing while he's in the White House), so too with the sellout to a nuclear Iran.
Two senior administration officials confirmed to us that U.S.
soldiers and Shiite militia groups are both using the Taqqadum military
base in Anbar, the same Iraqi base where President Obama is sending
an additional 450 U.S. military personnel to help train the local
forces fighting against the Islamic State. Some of the Iran-backed
Shiite militias at the base have killed American soldiers in the past.
Some inside the Obama administration fear that sharing the base puts
U.S. soldiers at risk. The U.S. intelligence community has reported back
to Washington that representatives of some of the more extreme militias
have been spying on U.S. operations at Taqqadum, one senior
administration official told us. That could be calamitous if the fragile
relationship between the U.S. military and the Shiite militias comes
apart and Iran-backed forces decide to again target U.S. troops.
American critics of this growing cooperation between the U.S.
military and the Iranian-backed militias call it a betrayal of the U.S.
personnel who fought against the militias during the 10-year U.S.
occupation of Iraq.
“It’s an insult to the families of the American soldiers that were
wounded and killed in battles in which the Shia militias were the
enemy,” Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain told us. “Now,
providing arms to them and supporting them, it’s very hard for those
families to understand.”
The U.S. is not directly training Shiite units of what are known as
the Popular Mobilization Forces, which include tens of thousands of
Iraqis who have volunteered to fight against the Islamic State as well
as thousands of hardened militants who ultimately answer to militia
leaders loyal to Tehran. But the U.S. is flying close air support
missions for those forces.
The U.S. gives weapons directly only to the Iraqi government and the
Iraqi Security Forces, but the lines between them and the militias are blurry. U.S. weapons often fall into the hands
of militias like Iraqi Hezbollah. Sometimes the military cooperation is
even more explicit. Commanders of some of the hardline militias sit in
on U.S. military briefings on operations that were meant for the
government-controlled Iraqi Security Forces, a senior administration
official said.
In an email, Omri Ceren of The Israel Project adds:
A parade of horribles. From a political perspective, the U.S. is sharing a base with Iran-backed Shiite militias that killed American troops, which will be toxic publicly and on the Hill. From a military perspective, the U.S. is allowing itself to be spied on by groups that could use that intelligence if they're unleashed on American troops by Iran, which may deter the Obama administration from pressuring Tehran. And from a diplomatic perspective, the scoop will confirm fears across the region that the U.S. is realigning with Iran – or that, at the very least, Washington is literally and figuratively providing fuel for Iran's expansionist campaign across the region:
The U.S. is not directly training Shiite units of what are known as the Popular Mobilization Forces... but the U.S. is flying close air support missions for those forces. The U.S. gives weapons directly only to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces, but the lines between them and the militias are blurry. U.S. weapons often fall into the hands of militias like Iraqi Hezbollah. Sometimes the military cooperation is even more explicit. Commanders of some of the hardline militias sit in on U.S. military briefings on operations that were meant for the government-controlled Iraqi Security Forces, a senior administration official said... “There’s no real command and control from the central government,” one senior administration official said. “Even if these guys don’t attack us... Iran is ushering in a new Hezbollah era in Iraq, and we will have aided and abetted it.”
The fears have straightforward implications for the viability of any nuclear agreement with Iran.
Everything - everything - relies on Saudi Arabia not nuclearizing in the aftermath of an agreement later this month. If the Saudis take a pass, then maybe a deal can hold for a time. If they purchase a weapon from Pakistan or build a bomb over the medium term, then no force in the world short of a military campaign could prevent the IRGC from matching their capabilities. No one pretends that the Iranians will sit on the sidelines while the Saudis go nuclear. That scenario then becomes the worst of all worlds: the administration will have seeded a polynuclear Middle East, detonated Washington's alliances with its traditional allies, and shredded the sanctions regime - and it won't even have a denuclearized Iran to show for it.
The Saudis have been very clear about their decision calculus: they'll go nuclear not when Iran goes nuclear, but when Riyadh concludes that it's inevitable that the Iranians will go nuclear. They're not going to wait.
The Obama administration has rolled out three arguments for why that's not going to happen, at the risk of losing the ability to rationalize the JCPOA. The first is that the Saudis are too poor to go nuclear, which is difficult to square with the existence of the North Korean program. The second is that the Saudis are too afraid of an international oil embargo to go nuclear, which is an argument that - generously - does not immediately strike analysts as in line with geopolitics as it works in our reality.
The third is that American security assurances to the Gulf - specifically, that Washington will continue to push back against Iranian regional expansionism - will sufficiently reassure that Arab states that they don't have to chart their own course. But those security assurances can't survive revelations that we're aiding Iran in creating the “Hezbollah era in Iran [I think that should be "Hezbollah era in Iraq. CiJ].” And when they do fail the Saudis will go nuclear and the Iranians will back out of the JCPOA to match. Instead of a status quo of no deal and no nukes, it'll be a Middle East of no deal and lots of nukes - and in the meantime, the U.S. will have squandered decades-old alliances and the painstakingly-built international sanctions regime against Iran.
It will be interesting to see if, by tomorrow, the administration has settled on how its intends to address the scenario.
You didn't really think that Saudi King Salman was going to trust his country's security to the moron on Pennsylvania Avenue, did you? A report in the Sunday Times of London says that Saudi Arabia is going to be purchasing a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia had made the “strategic decision” to purchase a nuclear
weapon from Pakistan amid the ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear
program, a former American defense official said in a report published today in The Sunday Times.
“There has been a longstanding agreement in place with
the Pakistanis and the House of Saud has now made the strategic decision
to move forward.”
While the official did not believe “any actual weaponry has been
transferred yet”, it was clear “the Saudis mean what they say and they
will do what they say”, following last month’s Iranian outline nuclear
deal. …
Asked whether the Saudis had decided to become a nuclear power, the official responded: “That has to be the assumption.”
The assessment is shared by an American intelligence official who spoke to the Times,
saying that “hundreds” of CIA employees are trying to determine if
Pakistan has already supplied any nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
Let's hear it for Mr. 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation.' Change, indeed. What could go wrong?
Barack Hussein Obama admitted on Thursday that contractor Warren Weinstein, an American Jew who was kidnapped because he was Jewish and was being held by al-Qaeda for ransom, was killed in a January by a US drone strike. Sadly, the US had no clue where Weinstein was. This is from the first link and was written by former Congressman Allen West (R-Fl).
As reported by USA Today,
“President Obama expressed “grief and condolences” Thursday for a
January drone strike against suspected terrorists in Pakistan that
accidentally killed two hostages, including an American aid worker.
Obama said he took full responsibility for the operation and apologized
to the families of the hostages. “I profoundly regret what happened,” he
said. The two Western hostages — one American, one Italian — were
killed during a drone strike that targeted members of al-Qaida, the
White House said. They were Warren Weinstein, 73, an aid worker from
Maryland who was a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International
Development, and Giovanni Lo Porto, 39, an Italian citizen working for a
German aid agency. Both were kidnapped by al-Qaida in Pakistan —
Weinstein in 2011 and Lo Porto in 2012. The White House said the
counterterrorism operation, and another this year in the same region,
also killed two other Americans believed to be working with al-Qaida. In
an extraordinary eight-minute statement to reporters, a solemn Obama
halted at points during his brief remarks, looking down at notes. “I
cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto
families are enduring today,” he said.”
The first issue has to be, why is the family just now finding
out about this fratricide by drone strike, which occurred in January? I thought this was supposed to be the most transparent administration in American history.
...
I understand Clausewitz’s “Fog of War” but I also realize
that something went terribly wrong in the decision-making authorizing
this strike.
“The site of the attack had been under surveillance for hundreds of
hours, and that surveillance was “near-continuous” in the days just
before the attack, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. The
spying used a variety of methods, including drone imagery, and
discovered a known al-Qaida operative driving into the compound, said
U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Based on that
intelligence, Earnest said, intelligence analysts concluded with “near
certainty” that al-Qaida leaders were present and that civilians were
not.”
What is apparent is that HUMINT intelligence assets were not used to
validate imagery. Then again, why would anyone want to support U.S.
intelligence gathering in Pakistan after how this administration has
treated Dr. Shakil Afridi who assisted in the identification of Osama
bin Laden’s hideout?
The preeminent question must be, who granted approval? If we
are restricting drone usage to the U.S. military, it is fairly easy to
ascertain the chain of command in the decision-making for this
engagement. But, if this was not within the military operational command
chain emanating out of Afghanistan — then we have a bureaucratic,
administration issue.
And based on the lack of transparency and length of
time before this was revealed, — it leads me to believe this decision
came from the latter, not the former. And that ladies and gents, is the
reason why the president of the United States took the podium.
Josh Rogin reports that the US had no clue Weinstein was there. That's because - as West noted as well - the US has no intelligence assets on the ground in the area.
One of the biggest questions following President Barack Obama’s
startling revelation Thursday that a U.S. drone strike had
killed Weinstein (and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto) is how the
intelligence community could have been unaware that he was at the
al-Qaeda site where he became collateral damage in the effort to fight
terrorism. A lack of human resources on the ground and a total lack of
intelligence on Weinstein’s location contributed to the accident that
now has the administration and Congress rethinking how the
U.S. will conduct its secret war.
“We put a high priority in tracking and finding him and seeing what
we could do to rescue him,” Dan Benjamin, the State Department’s
ambassador for counterterrorism from 2009 to 2012, told me Thursday.
“The trail went cold quickly and we didn’t know where he was.”
...
Several officials told me that Weinstein, who worked as a business
development contractor for United States Agency for International
Development in Lahore, was nervous about his security just before his
capture. He had built a safe room in his house and told friends he was
hoping to leave Pakistan soon.
In 2012 and 2013, al-Qaeda release several hostage videos
of Weinstein begging the Obama administration to do more to retrieve
him. Several officials told me that although U.S. authorities
repeatedly raised his case with their Pakistani counterparts, there was
no direct interaction with al-Qaeda about any ransom or trade and no
real information on where the terrorist group was holding him for the
three years he was in captivity.
“I don’t think there was any attempt to rescue him because I don’t
think we had the slightest idea where he was,” said Rand Corporation’s
James Dobbins, who was the State Department’s special representative for
Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2013 to 2014. “I don’t believe there were
any real leads.”
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter said Thursday
that Weinstein’s death was the result of a broken interagency process
in which a Pentagon official, Jason Amerine, developed a plan for a
trade that would have included the return of Weinstein along with Army
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl was released by the Taliban in 2014 in
exchange for five Taliban commanders being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Warren Weinstein did not have to die," Hunter said in a statement.
"His death is further evidence of the failures in communication and
coordination between government agencies tasked with recovering
Americans in captivity — and the fact that he’s dead, as a result, is
absolutely tragic.”
But several officials told me today that a trade that included
Weinstein was never seriously entertained by the interagency team tasked
with retrieving him, which was led by the FBI and included the CIA,
State Department and Pentagon.
“It never struck us as a plausible option,” Dobbins said, noting that
Bergdahl was being held by the Taliban while Weinstein was being held
by al-Qaeda. The U.S. had extensive negotiations with the Taliban over
the years, but not with al-Qaeda, he pointed out.
This is why you can't lead from behind, and you can't pretend you're not fighting a war when your options are fight or surrender.
A terrorist attack on the Pakistani
national grid plunged more than 140 million people into darkness before
power was restored, prompting U.S. experts to warn that terrorist cells
and “lone wolves” in the United States could cause similar damage to the
vulnerable national electric-grid system.
The blackout in Pakistan affected more than 80 percent of the
country’s population and all public services in all the major cities,
including the capital, Islamabad.
A separatist group in the Naseerabad district of Baluchistan province
in the country’s southwest caused the blackout by blowing up a major
transmission line connected to the national grid.
It was the third such attack in two weeks.
“It shows the bad guys definitely do know what they’re doing when
they want to – in a country with upwards of 100 nuclear weapons,” said
Clare Lopez, vice president for research and analysis at the
Washington-based Center for Security Policy.
In the latest attack on a major transmission line in Pakistan, two
nuclear plants went offline after the outages while problems occurred at
the country’s main international airport in Lahore.
Some 10,000 people rallied this week in Lahore, the capital of the
Punjab province, to protest the movie trailer that Muslims say insults
Islam, according to the International Herald-Tribune. One participant,
identified as Abdullah Ismail, died after being taken to an area
hospital. Witnesses said he had complained of feeling sick from the
smoke from American flags burnt at the rally.
Turkey's lax border policies have enabled ISIS to finance and arm its
fighters in Syria; ISIS cells are now operating throughout Turkey.
And Turkey also helped Iran, a state sponsor of terror, evade
sanctions to the tune of billions of dollars in 2012 and 2013. Yet this
week, Turkey chaired the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum in New York.
It could be an item from The Onion — except it's not satire.
Launched in 2011 after the failure of previous multilateral groups to
tackle terrorism, the 30-country GCTF has itself become a farce — not
least because Turkey is the co-chair, along with the United States.
Turkey holds this honor because of its rare qualities: It is a Muslim country that is a trusted US and NATO ally.
But it has also become a hub for terrorist recruiting and support —
most definitely including ISIS recruiting and support, as The New York
Times has reported.
Yet the GCTF promotes Turkey as part of the solution, rather than a core part of the problem.
Nor are the problems new. In 2012, Turkey blocked Israel from joining
the GCTF, though the Jewish state has vast anti-terrorist experience and
intelligence.
Equally absurd, GCTF members include Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan, all three of which help fund or otherwise sponsor terrorism.
What's amazing about this is not the positions that Turkey has taken (they're actually quite consistent), but rather the fact that both the US Congress and the media have mostly been silent about it.
U.S.-led air strikes hit grain silos and other targets in Islamic State-controlled territory in northern and eastern Syria overnight, killing civilians and wounding militants, a group monitoring the war said on Monday.
The
aircraft may have mistaken the mills and grain storage areas in the
northern Syrian town of Manbij for an Islamic State base, said the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There was no
immediate comment from Washington.
...
The strikes in Manbij appeared to have killed only civilians, not
fighters, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory which gathers
information from sources in Syria.
"These
were the workers at the silos. They provide food for the people," he
said. He could not give a number of casualties and it was not
immediately possible to verify the information.
...
In eastern Syria, U.S.-led forces bombed a gas plant controlled by
the Islamic State outside Deir al-Zor city, wounding several of the
militant group's fighters, the Observatory said.
The
United States has said it wants strikes to target oil facilities held
by Islamic State to try to stem a source of revenues for the group.
The
raid hit Kuniko gas plant, which feeds a power station in Homs that
provides several provinces with electricity and powers oil fields
generators, the Observatory said.
I want to make it clear that I have no problem with classifying grain silos or gas plants as military targets. Depending on how they're being used, that classification could well be accurate. In fact, there's something to be said for targeting an opposing army's sources of fuel and food.
But it's hypocritical for Obama to condemn Israel for doing the exact same thing in Gaza. And it's not the first time Obama has done it.
Let's go to the videotape. Make sure to check out Scott Shane around the five-minute mark. Obama was very unhappy when Israel claimed that all of the male casualties between the ages of 18 and 40 in Gaza were probably terrorists.
Oh my: US Ambassador Power refers to Daniel Pearl as part of 'cycle of violence'
If you're an American citizen, this is your ambassador to the United Nations:
Daniel Pearl's story is reminder that individual accountability & reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence. @DanielPearlFNDN
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) February 24, 2014
Remind me now... to which 'cycle of violence' did Daniel Pearl belong when he had his throat split by a Pakistani Muslim? When was the last time Israel attacked Pakistan?
Daniel Pearl was a Jew, and he was murdered for being a Jew. Although as one of my friends pointed out this morning, the Daniel Pearl Foundation often spits out the same kind of drivel.
There are many comments on this tweet, and they are uniformly against Ambassador Power.
But recall, that this is the woman who wanted to send US troops to drive Israel out of Judea and Samaria. She fits right in with the Hussein Obama administration....
Kidnapped American in Pakistan asks Obama to negotiate with al-Qaeda for his release
Warren Weinstein, an American who was kidnapped in Pakistan two years ago, has asked President Obama to negotiate for his release with al-Qaeda in a video posted by the terror group to its web site.
A State Department spokeswoman and a member of Weinstein’s family
said Wednesday night that they had not independently received the note
or video. The Washington Post provided a copy to both of them.
State
Department spokeswoman Marie Harf later said that U.S. officials were
“working hard to authenticate” the contents of the message.
“We
reiterate our call that Warren Weinstein be released and returned to his
family,” she said in a statement. “Particularly during this holiday
season — another one away from his family — our hopes and prayers are
with him and those who love and miss him.”
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri
said in a statement issued in December 2011 that Weinstein would be
freed if Washington stopped launching air strikes in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all
imprisoned members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The following year,
Zawahri urged followers to kidnap Westerners to gain more leverage in
al-Qaeda’s bid to get prominent jihadists freed from U.S. custody. Among
the top priorities for the group is the release of Sheikh Omar
Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian who was convicted of orchestrating the
1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The Obama administration has
said it will not negotiate with al-Qaeda for Weinstein’s release. The
United States as a matter of policy generally does not negotiate with
kidnappers, but the government devotes resources to finding Americans
kidnapped overseas.
While the kingdom's quest has often been set in the context of
countering Iran's atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis
might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic
republic.
Earlier this year, a senior Nato decision maker told me that
he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan
on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.
Last month Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military
intelligence, told a conference in Sweden that if Iran got the bomb,
"the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb,
they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring."
Since 2009, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned
visiting US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross that if Iran
crossed the threshold, "we will get nuclear weapons", the kingdom has
sent the Americans numerous signals of its intentions.
...
Talking to many serving and former officials about this over the past
few months, the only real debate I have found is about how exactly the
Saudi Arabians would redeem the bargain with Pakistan.
Some think it is a cash-and-carry deal for warheads, the
first of those options sketched out by the Saudis back in 2003; others
that it is the second, an arrangement under which Pakistani nuclear
forces could be deployed in the kingdom.
Gary Samore, considering these questions at the centre of the
US intelligence and policy web, at the White House until earlier this
year, thinks that what he calls, "the Nato model", is more likely.
However ,"I think just giving Saudi Arabia a handful of nuclear weapons would be a very provocative action", says Gary Samore.
He adds: "I've always thought it was much more likely - the
most likely option if Pakistan were to honour any agreement would be for
be for Pakistan to send its own forces, its own troops armed with
nuclear weapons and with delivery systems to be deployed in Saudi
Arabia".
This would give a big political advantage to Pakistan since
it would allow them to deny that they had simply handed over the
weapons, but implies a dual key system in which they would need to agree
in order for 'Saudi Arabian' "nukes" to be launched.
Others I have spoken to think this is not credible, since
Saudi Arabia, which regards itself as the leader of the broader Sunni
Islamic 'ummah' or community, would want complete control of its nuclear
deterrent, particularly at this time of worsening sectarian
confrontation with Shia Iran.
...
And it is Israeli information - that Saudi Arabia is now ready to
take delivery of finished warheads for its long-range missiles - that
informs some recent US and Nato intelligence reporting. Israel of course
shares Saudi Arabia's motive in wanting to worry the US into containing
Iran.
Amos Yadlin declined to be interviewed for our BBC Newsnight
report, but told me by email that "unlike other potential regional
threats, the Saudi one is very credible and imminent."
Even if this view is accurate there are many good reasons for
Saudi Arabia to leave its nuclear warheads in Pakistan for the time
being.
Doing so allows the kingdom to deny there are any on its
soil. It avoids challenging Iran to cross the nuclear threshold in
response, and it insulates Pakistan from the international opprobrium of
being seen to operate an atomic cash-and-carry.
These assumptions though may not be safe for much longer. The
US diplomatic thaw with Iran has touched deep insecurities in Riyadh,
which fears that any deal to constrain the Islamic republic's nuclear
program would be ineffective.
President Nuclear Disarmament has been such a tuches-licking wimp with respect to Iran that he's going to succeed in having more countries go nuclear under his watch than any previous US President.
India warned Israel about terror plot against Israeli tourists - Mumbai attack against Israelis an 'error'?
The Hindustan Times reports that India's intelligence agencies warned Israel last month about a plot by the Indian Mujahideen to attack Israeli tourists. More interesting, the Times reports that after the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai - in which the Chabad House in the city was a key focal point - the Pakistanis sent a message to Israel via the Turkish army (which generally opposes Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan - or did in 2008 before all its high-ranking officers were arrested) that the Israeli deaths in those attacks were 'an error.'
The home ministry carried out a joint security review of Pushkar,
Jodhpur and Jaisalmer — all popular tourist destinations for Israeli and
other foreign tourists — with the Rajasthan police. The Israeli embassy
was briefed by Indian counterterrorism officials, but did not issue a
warning to tourists “beyond the normal.”
The existence of a Rajasthan IM module was revealed by the
investigation that followed the recent arrest of IM co-founder Yasin
Bhatkal. He revealed that IM has split on ideological lines.
A Brahma temple in Pushkar was cited by Bhatkal as being particularly
popular among Israelis. This temple had been considered by
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba scout David Headley as a terror target.
The IM cluster led by Iqbal Bhatkal, Riyaz Bhatkal and Mohsin
Choudhary takes its cue from the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence
agency. The ISI wants the terrorist group to remain focused on mainland
India.
The Pakistanis are also nervous about putting Israeli in the
crosshairs given the Jewish state’s policy of violent retaliation
against terror attacks. Sources have claimed that after the Mumbai 26/11
attack, the Pakistan military sent an unofficial message through the
Turkish army to Israel claiming the Israeli deaths were an error.
These concerns led the ISI to raid a Defence Housing Authority house
in Karachi where IM cadres were being housed and took away
communications equipment and weaponry in June.
The Pakistani Taliban have sent 'hundreds' of men to Syria to fight alongside the Obama-supported Syrian rebels.
The Pakistani Taliban have set up camps and sent hundreds of men to
Syria to fight alongside rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad,
militants said on Sunday, in a strategy aimed at cementing ties with
al-Qaida's central leadership.
More than two years since the start of the anti-Assad rebellion,
Syria has become a magnet for foreign Sunni fighters who have flocked
to the Middle Eastern nation to join what they see as a holy war against
Shi'ite oppressors.
Operating alongside militant groups such as the al Nusra Front,
described by the United States as a branch of al-Qaida, they mainly come
from nearby countries such as Libya and Tunisia riven by similar
conflict as a result of the Arab Spring.
On Sunday, Taliban
commanders in Pakistan said they had also decided to join the cause,
saying hundreds of fighters had gone to Syria to fight alongside their
"Mujahedeen friends".
"When our brothers needed our help, we sent
hundreds of fighters along with our Arab friends," one senior commander
told Reuters, adding that the group would soon issue videos of what he
described as their victories in Syria.
As in Egypt and Libya, it seems that the Hussein Obama administration has once again chosen the 'right' side to support. What could go wrong?
#Tomorrow13 A Muslim talks about Israel's President's conference
Next week, I will be attending the annual President's Conference here in Jerusalem for the third time (maybe even the fourth). One of the speakers will be Raheel Raza, the President of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow. Raheel received a letter from a 'Palestinian in Vancouver' urging Raheel to boycott the conference. She wrote this piece in response.
My response to my Palestinian friend is that the first time I was
invited to speak at this conference three years ago, I went, hesitantly,
not knowing what it was all about. I was so enthused by both my visit
to Israel and the conference that I wrote extensively about the
experience on my blog, and later named my own Not-for-Profit
Organization "Muslims Facing Tomorrow" with an idea that one day, I
would host a similar conference about ideas and a vision for a better
tomorrow.
Upon my return, I praised the country and the people, but many of my
Muslim friends were not interested in knowing these details. They only
asked, "Were there any Palestinians at the conference and was the
Israel-Palestinian issue discussed?" I was happy to respond that yes,
there were Palestinians at the conference; I had even brought home a
book on Islam from one of the Palestinian speakers there.
About human rights violations: granted that Israel, like every other
country, has violations -- but far fewer than those of the countries
surrounding it. Israel is still the only liberal democracy in the area
where one can find gender equality and freedom for its citizens. During
my visits to Israel, I have, in fact, questioned Israeli Arabs and found
that they are loath to leave the country where they enjoy freedom and
human rights.
...
My problem is that I am from Pakistan, a country where the word human
rights has no meaning or recognition whatsoever. According to the Human
Rights Watch World Report on Pakistan for 2012, Pakistan had a
disastrous year -- including increasing attacks on civilians by militant
groups, religious minorities facing unprecedented insecurity and
persecution, and where freedom of belief and expression are coming under
severe threat as the presence of Islamists has grown by leaps and
bounds. This does not even begin to address violations against women.
The Aurat Foundation, a local women's rights group in Pakistan, says the
number of incidents of violence against women in Pakistan has increased
at least seven percent over the past year.
But I have never seen or heard a Palestinian speak out about these
human rights violations; take part in demonstrations or boycotts for
these offences, or show support for the cause of Pakistani women. Where
were their voices when Christians and Shias were being killed and
brutalized in Pakistan just a few months ago? No one asked me to cancel
my annual visits to Pakistan, but I did lodge a complaint against my own
land of birth at the UNHRC, so I may not be travelling back there soon.
...
In ending let me say this to my Palestinian friend: The
Palestinian-Israeli conflict is over land, and can be solved when both
sides recognize one another and, as equals, then have a dialogue. This
means that, like me, you have to accept that Israel has a right to
exist. It is not the only conflict related to Muslims. If you want
justice for those facing criminal human rights violations, then speak
out against Sudan, Egypt, Burma, China, Iran and all other countries who
regularly persecute their own citizens.
Iranian state television reported at least 40 people were killed in the
Islamic Republic, while Pakistani officials say at least five people,
three women and two children, died in the southwest area of the country.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:44 GMT at a depth
of 15.2 km (9.4 miles). Tremors from the 7.8 magnitude quake were also
felt in India and Gulf states.
People in the city of Zahedan poured into the streets when the earthquake struck, Iran's Fars news agency reported.
All
communications in the area have been cut, the Iranian Red Crescent's
Mahmoud Mozaffar told state television. Rescue teams have been
dispatched to the affected area, he said.
"In the aftermath of
this earthquake five evaluation teams from the Khash and Saravan
branches were sent to the area to assess damage," Mozaffar said.
The
epicenter was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert, 201
km (125 miles) southeast of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in
Pakistan, USGS said.
...
Most of Iran's nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or
its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A
US Institute for Science and International Security map did not show
any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan.
Judea Pearl to light memorial flame in memory of son Daniel
Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, will light a memorial flame on Monday at a ceremony commemorating Jews who were murdered around the world for being Jewish since the establishment of the State of Israel.
Pearl is an Israeli-born computer scientist and a recipient of
the Turing Award, a top prize given annually in his field.
Also present
will be Daniel Pearl’s mother, Ruth Pearl, his two sisters, his widow, Mariane
Pearl, and his son Adam Pearl, born several months after his father’s
murder.
Daniel Pearl, a Jewish correspondent for The Wall Street Journal
who held dual Israeli-American citizenship, was beheaded by Islamist terrorists
in Pakistan while researching a story about ties between “shoe bomber” Richard
Reid and al-Qaida.
Pearl’s kidnapping and subsequent murder shocked
America, and his last words, affirming his Jewishness, became widely
quoted.
“My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish. My
family follows Judaism. We’ve made numerous family visits to Israel,”
Pearl was recorded saying before his murder.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post by phone from his hotel in the capital on Saturday evening, Pearl said that
he was honored to light the memorial flame and that by doing so he felt that he
was “fulfilling a promise to Danny to convey his last words to the people in
Israel and to the people of the world.”
He said that holding the ceremony
in Jerusalem was especially important because it is the city in which his son
had his bar mitzva.
“I think I’m closing the circle here,” he
said.
I'm very pleased that Professor Pearl has come here to light the flame. It is truly an appropriate memorial.
Morsy meets al-Qaeda's al-Zawahiri in Pakistan, bringing him to Egypt
Reports in Arab media indicate that President Obama's Second BFF, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy, has met secretly in Pakistan with al-Aqeda commander Ayman al-Zawihiri (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News). The two agreed that al-Zawihiri will relocate to Egypt.
“…the meeting lasted 45 minutes, during which Egyptian
president Muhammad Morsi promised to make preparations for Ayman
Zawahiri to return soon to Egypt, indicating that some Muslim
Brotherhood members would handle the operation, by first smuggling the
al-Qaeda leader to a Gulf nation, likely Qatar, and then easily
transferring him to Egypt—on condition that Zawahiri disappear lest he
embarrass Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood with its American ally,
whose security and intelligence agencies consider Zawahiri most wanted.”
Morsi is not the only Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figurehead to meet Zawahiri. Daniel Pipes chronicled multiple instances
of Tareq Ramadan, the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder
Hassan Al-Bana, in which Ramadan interacted with al-Qaeda
operatives—including and like Morsi coordinated a meeting with
al-Qaeda’s number two at the time, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
But don't expect the Obama administration to reduce its aid to Egypt by one cent.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
