Israel Busts Alleged Terrorist Plan Against Bush

If this is true, these have got to be contenders for the Dumbest Terrorist Award.  Going on the Web and asking for advice on how to shoot down the President’s helicopter?  Was Homer Simpson part of this alleged terrorist cell? 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080718/ts_nm/security_israel_qaeda_dc

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accused six Arabs on Friday of trying to set up an al Qaeda cell in Israel and said one of them had proposed attacking helicopters used during a visit by President George W. Bush.

Israel's Shin Bet counter-intelligence agency said one of the suspects had used his mobile phone to film helicopters at a sports stadium in Jerusalem that was used as a landing site for Bush's delegation.

The suspect then posted queries on Web sites frequented by al Qaeda operatives, asking for guidance on how to shoot down the helicopters, the agency said in a statement.

(read the full story at the link above.)

 

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Coup Attempt of U.S. Military

 

First, a personal observation.  As a veteran and a pastor, I know how important it is to allow military personnel to maintain their faith and attend worship services of their choice.  The members of our military need Chaplains, they need support for their faith, but they do not need extremism.  The military has a strict policy to uphold this, with limits on religious practices.  Outside of regularly scheduled religious services, military Chaplains are required to be non-Denominational in their relationships with others.  Religious services are required to avoid evangelization, and proselytizing (trying to convert others to your religion) is forbidden.   In strongly religious Muslim countries, proselytization of fundamentalist Christianity will only make enemies, not friends.  The campaign detailed below, where significant organizations are working to promote a change in US military forces to fundamentalist Christianity only (no other religions allowed, not Judaism, not Catholicism, not Islam, etc.) is being pushed by the Dominionists (whom we have previously exposed.)  This is a violation of military codes, of the US Constitution guarantee of separation of Church and State, and of various federal laws.  Who is exposing this attempt to take over the US military?  The best work is being done by our veterans, veteran service organizations, and members of the US military (at personal risk to their careers and sometimes to their lives.)

Dominionists Attempt Coup of U.S. Military Forces

A US sniper uses the Qur'an as target practice in Baghdad. A US Marine hands out coins to residents in Fallujah that ask in Arabic on one side: "Where will you spend eternity?" The other side is inscribed with a Biblical verse: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16." An American soldier who performed two tours in Iraq is denied promotion when his superiors learn he is an atheist, after he refuses to pray during Thanksgiving dinner (pdf). An anti-Islamic poster adorns the door of the Military Police office at Fort Riley, Kansas, featuring a quote from conservative pundit Ann Coulter: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." And as the New York Times reported this week, some cadets at West Point and the Naval Academy feel pressured by their schools to adopt a Judeo-Christian worldview.

Some may say these are isolated incidents of religious intolerance, but evidence is mounting that a virulent evangelical Christianity is spreading through the American armed forces, breaking the constitutional barrier between church and state and worse, like our jihadist enemies, presenting the "war on terror" as a clash of civilizations between the Christian west and the global Muslim community.

The process of creating good Christian soldiers starts early, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a group fighting to maintain the secularism of the armed forces. At Fort Jackson army base in Columbia, South Carolina, the director of the Christian outreach group Military Ministry, Frank Bussey, tells soldiers that "government authorities, police and the military = God's ministers". Photographs exist of Bussey's student-soldiers posing in their fatigues with rifle in one hand and Bible in the other, an eerily similar pose to jihadist martyrs with their rifles and Qur'ans. His Bible study classes are known as "God's Basic Training", where attending cadets learn "when you join the military, you've really joined the ministry."

Military Ministry was established in 1964 by Bill Bright, the founder of the controversial fundamentalist Christian organisation, Campus Crusade for Christ, because, according to the group's website, "he recognised the military as a special audience for evangelistic outreach." 

But what the group means is that soldiers are prime for easy indoctrination. In 2002, according to MRFF, the Military Ministry's website carried a brutally honest description of the group's strategy:

Young recruits are under great pressure as they enter the military at their initial training gateways. The demands of drill instructors push recruits and new cadets to the edge. This is why they are most open to the "good news". We target specific locations, like Lackland AFB [Air Force Base] and Fort Jackson, where large numbers of military members transition early in their career. These sites are excellent locations to pursue our strategic goals. 

An investigation by MRFF in 2006 into Military Ministry's activities at Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Sam Houston, an army base, uncovered evidence that Military Ministry staffers have successfully converted incoming soldiers with the approval of top commanders. 

In another episode in 2002, Campus Crusade for Christ made a promotional video at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, featuring three cadets and two chaplains in uniform, thus violating a prohibition against endorsing a non-federal entity while in uniform. The video also talks of "spiritual programmes" on Monday nights encouraged by the academy, and Campus Crusade's campus director Scott Blom calls the cadets he indoctrinates "government paid missionaries" for Christ.

A similar promotional video for Campus Crusade's Christian Embassy, a social networking organisation for Washington DC's evangelical elites, also caused the department of defense’s inspector general to rebuke seven military officers. His report (pdf) last year said that each officer's appearance in a promotional video for the group while "in uniform with rank clearly displayed, in official and often identifiable Pentagon locations" conferred the appearance that the defence department endorsed Christian Embassy.

As Jeff Sharlet wrote in Harper's Magazine in 2006, in the video Major General Jack Catton "says that he sees his position as an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a 'wonderful opportunity' to evangelize men and women setting defence policy. 'My first priority is my faith,' he says. 'I think it's a huge impact. ... You have many men and women who are seeking God's counsel and wisdom as they advise the chairman [of the joint chiefs] and the secretary of defence.'"

But the proselytizing doesn't end at the Air Force Academy or within the halls of the Pentagon, according to the New York Times. West Point and the Naval Academy are guilty too. Nine midshipmen at the Naval Academy recently asked the American Civil Liberties Union to petition the school to abolish daily prayer at lunch where attendance is mandatory. The academy denied their request. Sources ranging from seven cadets, two officers and a former chaplain at West Point told the Times that those that didn't attend religious services were sometimes called "heathens". Mandatory banquets begin with prayer.

MRFF's founder and director, Mike Weinstein, a former legal counsel in the Reagan administration, says that by giving such evangelical Christian organizations and sentiment such privileged access, the defence department is "creating a fundamentalist Christian Taliban." While this may sound like hyperbole, creating soldiers that have no tolerance or respect for other faiths or belief systems has real consequences. 

Militarily, it slowly creates a soldiery divided by sectarianism, when it should be unified to fight for one and one thing only: the United States constitution.

Overseas, the impact is more immediately felt.

When news broke last month regarding the shooting of the Qur'an, 1,000 Afghans rioted; three people died. Also, the news that an American sniper was riddling their holy book with bullets didn't go over well with the Sunni tribes the US had cobbled together into a coalition, known as the Sunni Awakening, to fight al-Qaida and its fellow travelers in Iraq. The episode led Major General Jeffery Hammond to go prostrate before tribal leaders in Radwaniyah and say: "I come before you here seeking your forgiveness. In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers."

Incidents such as these can be exploited by al-Qaida and other jihadists to argue, rather convincingly, that the United States is not in a war against terrorism but a war against Islam. When peaceful Muslims come to buy into this narrative, al-Qaida and its fellow travelers become heroic defenders of the faith, and a new generation of Muslims become vulnerable to radicalization.

In the statement apologizing for the sniper's conduct, the military said the incident was "not representative of the professionalism of our soldiers or the respect they have for all faiths". This may be so, but until portions of the American military stop giving preferential access and treatment to evangelical fundamentalist Christian organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ's Military Ministry, jihadists will have evidence that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are nothing more than a 21st-century crusade to reconquer Muslim lands for Christ's salvation, led by a president who wears his crucifix on his sleeve.

Robert Kaplan describes American soldiers endearingly as "imperial grunts", but this fundamentalist subsection of American soldiers is more akin to "evangelical grunts" - soldiers who believe that there is no difference between American national interest and god's interest and are zealous to spread this message through the force of arms.

American national security can only suffer from such a divisive belief.

 

Watch the Anderson Cooper video report here: http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/Media_video/ac360/index_lg.html 

 

(The following are short article summaries and/or headlines.  Read the full articles at the links provided.)

Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) Launches Landmark Lawsuit against DoD Secretary Gates and Major Freddy Welborn
CLICK HERE TO READ PRESS RELEASE

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COURT FILING (PDF)

 

Military.com - 
'God's Basic Training' Coming Under Fire

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SHOCKING
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST
US AIR FORCE ACADEMY VIDEO

This video (filmed in the summer of 2002) can currently be found on the Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored Global Pastors Network (GPN) website. GPN, a large and very active worldwide organization, was co-founded by Dr. Bill Bright, the late founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and its website is a widely used resource for curriculum materials and videos, prominently featuring the "Bill Bright Video Library," which includes the video filmed at the Air Force Academy.

CLICK HERE TO READ MRFF'S ORIGINAL
RESEARCH REPORT ON THE 
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST'S 
MILITARY MINISTRY

This original MRFF report (upon which the Military.com article was based) contains even more background information and the photographs mentioned in the Military.com article.

 

Truthout.org: Pentagon Sued Over Mandatory Christianity
CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE 

 

LA TIMES OP-ED: Not so fast, Christian soldiers
The Pentagon has a disturbing relationship with private evangelical groups.
CLICK HERE TO READ OP-ED 

 

TIKKUN: An Evangelical Coup in America's Military
An In-Depth Interview with Mikey Weinstein
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION 

 

Breaking Bombshell: Military Religious Freedom Foundation Exposes Virulent Anti-Semitism within the U. S. Army Garrison, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
CLICK HERE FOR PRESS RELEASE 

 

Weaponized Evangelism | Opinion | Jewish Journal

According to Weinstein, the US military "has just been completely infused ... serious threat out there that we view to be as much a national security threat ...

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/6/4/115352/2789

As amazing as it sounds, dominionists may in fact be fomenting terrorism--not just the domestic terrorism like bombings of women's clinics we normally associate, but the very "Islamist terror bombings" that the GOP loves to use to frighten America into voting a red ticket. We detailed yesterday on how Christians in Iraq (including communities literally founded by the apostle Thomas) have been targeted due to aggressive prosyletisation by dominionist "missionary" groups; today, we focus on how our soldiers are targeted and becoming targets due to the actions of dominionists...and how some of the very folks targeting both our nation's fighting folks and Iraqis are essentially dominionist rogue agents in the US military's chaplaincy.

Soldiers targeted--and soldiers playing "God Warrior"

No less than one of the primary groups responsible for targeting Iraqis for conversion is also strongly linked to military steeplejacking--Campus Crusade has been linked to both, and the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church specifically has called out Campus Crusade as one of the worst offenders in this regard.  Many of the persons most intimately involved with the Abu Ghraib torture scandal are linked with the Assemblies of God, which has increasingly gone not only militaristic in its imagery but has increasingly become virulently anti-Moslem (many in the Assemblies have in fact called for an outright ethnic cleansing of Moslems from the US and have even relied on Holocaust revisionism to support these calls)

(read the full article at the link )

 

With thanks to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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Co-Conspirator Grabbed

Boris Pribich, a Serbian National living in Simi Valley, CA, (previously exposed here for a long history of forgery, fraud and racism) has been indicted and arrested on charges that include money laundering, wire fraud, offering financial support to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to make false statements. Pribich is another co-conspirator of Jeanette Runyon, previously exposed here. This is the second co-conspirator of Ms. Runyon’s to be arrested. More indictments and arrests are expected.

Allegedly, Ms. Runyon has cut a deal with the Department of Justice to name everyone involved in her recent scheme to buy a Ukrainian baby, using laundered money and numerous forged documents, in return for serving her sentence on U.S. charges concurrently (at the same time) with her sentence from the Ukrainian court on human trafficking charges.

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More Hagee Harangues

Hagee Blames Terrorism & Current Recession on… Abortions!

“Used with the permission of People For the American Way [or People For the American Way Foundation].”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/05/hagee_economic.html

Hagee: Economic Woes God's Punishment for Abortion

Televangelist John Hagee recently received political absolution from Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. “This case is closed,” announced Donohue, apparently intending that his judgment would keep Hagee from dogging John McCain.

However, the Catholic Church is just one of many topics Hagee addresses with his trademark style. From New Orleans to welfare to immigration, Hagee continues to confront everyday issues with the certainty of apocalyptic judgment. Just this week, for example, his TV program aired a sermon that dealt with economic issues (a potential weakness for McCain’s campaign), education, and terrorism:

“If you do not accept the blessing of children, and [you] do as America has done, is to curse the children through abortion, you will bring the judgment of God on your society. …”

“The liberal mental midgets protesting for abortion-on-demand are too brain-dead to see that they have brought the judgment of God upon America’s economy. Why are America’s major universities right now recruiting students from abroad? … Why? Because we killed ours.”

“America’s now developing a society that knows nothing about the Founding Fathers. They don’t know anything about American history. They’re “global citizens,” the citizens of the world. And that’s why they can live among us and then become terrorists [Hagee snaps] overnight.”

See the video of Hagee’s rant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYAp3BKXvRs

Technorati Tags:john hagee, recession, abortions, rants, extremism, armagedonite, sermons, immigration, welfare
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American Terrorist Strike US Target

American Terrorists Strike in Washington State

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080303/ap_on_re_us/luxury_homes_fire

WOODINVILLE, Wash. - Fires burned four multimillion-dollar show homes in a suburb north of Seattle Monday, and authorities found a spray-painted sign purportedly left by a radical environmental group at the scene.

The sign, a white sheet that had the initials of the Earth Liberation Front in scraggly red letters, mocked claims the luxury homes on the "Street of Dreams" were environmentally friendly, according to video images of the sign aired by KING-TV.

"Built Green? Nope black!" the sign said.

The fires started at a strip of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where developers show off the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. The homes are later sold.

The blazes are suspicious because they were set in multiple places in separate houses, said Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District Seven. Eastman confirmed that the ELF sign was found at the scene of the fires in the community north of Woodinville, where some homes were still under construction.

The ELF, or Earth Liberation Front, is a loosely organized collection of radical environmentalists authorities say is responsible for other arsons in the Northwest.

A woman is currently trial in Tacoma for a suspected ELF fire at the University of Washington in 2001. Briana Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher, is accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted a devastating fire bomb.

The fire is one of the most notorious in a string of arsons that investigators say were perpetrated from the mid-1990s to 2001 by ELF.

No one was hurt in the arson at UW, but its Center for Urban Horticulture was destroyed and rebuilt at a cost of $7 million. It was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering trees, investigators said.

More on the Earth Liberation Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation_Front

• Original ELF
• The evolution of ELF after "Operation Backfire", Earth Liberation Front
• Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network (ELPSN)
• North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
• GreenIsTheNewRed.com
• Green Scare
• Eco-Terror Indictments: 'Operation Backfire' Nets 11, FBI
• Eco-Terrorism, FBI
• Covert Repertoires: Ecotage in the UK
• Do or Die: Voices from the Ecological Resistance
• Earth First! (UK) action reports
• Earth First!
• Bombs and Shields: Covers the latest ELF news

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Blogger Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Hoax

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2008_2_29.html#21EEFC17

Man Pleads Guilty to “Dirty Bomb” Hoax

A Wisconsin man could be sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to claiming online that terrorists planned to use radiological “dirty bombs” against seven National Football League stadiums, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2006).

On about 40 occasions from September to October 2006, Jake Brahm posted a message on a Web site claiming that attacks were planned on Oct. 22 of that year in Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, Miami, New York, Oakland and Seattle.

“The death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as [a] result from radioactive fallout,” the message stated.

A federal grand jury one year ago indicted the 22-year-old Wauwatosa man under the Patriot Act for willfully conveying false information regarding attacks on the stadiums involving weapons of mass destruction and “radiological dispersal devices.”

He is scheduled for sentencing in federal court in New Jersey on June 5. Along with up to five years in prison, Brahm could be fined $250,000.

“This was the Internet version of yelling fire in a crowded theater, but to a much wider audience,” U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said in a statement. “I don’t think anyone needs to be reminded in this day how serious and dangerous such conduct is” (Jeffrey Gold, Associated Press/USA Today, Feb. 28).

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Brahm

Even though the original web article was very obviously a hoax, and offered not a single shred of evidence for its claim, the usual suspects (examples below) went bonkers about repeating it as if it were Gospel. At least they’re consistent – never letting facts interfere with a rant. These anti-Muslim hate mongers are so desperate to portray anything Muslim as “evil” that they show extreme gullibility in promoting even hoaxes. This defendant isn’t even Muslim, but these hate mongers don’t care, as their stories show, they readily portray his site as “an Islamist site” (it’s not in the least Islamist, the site is shown in the Wiki link above), they portray this defendant as a “jihadist” and this as “another example of Islamist terrorism.”

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013640.php

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/185045.php

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52460

Technorati Tags:terrorism hoax, blogger, legal action, robert spencer, worldnetdaily
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UK Terrorist Attack Stopped Just In Time

Neo Nazi Terrorist Attack Stopped by Brits (h/t to hurryupharry)

Just in Time

http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2007/11/09/neonazi_with_nail_bombs.php

Neo-Nazi with Nail Bombs

You might have spotted this item, at the beginning of the month:

A man has been arrested under the Terrorism Act after potentially explosive materials were seized at a house in East Yorkshire. The 31-year-old has been taken to a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning by officers from the counter-terrorism unit, police said.

Well, this is what it was:

A suspected neo-Nazi from East Yorkshire was planning a nail bomb attack and had four home-made devices, a court heard yesterday.

Shaven-headed Martyn Gilleard, 31, of Poole Street, Goole, allegedly intended to wreak carnage and scribbled down his racist intentions in notebooks. ...Colin Gibbs, prosecuting, told the court: "We say he has a terrorist agenda, but to a right-wing part of the spectrum."

Gilleard is alleged to have researched the making of explosives on the internet, bought ingredients and assembled four devices.

District Judge Timothy Workman remanded Gilleard in custody and committed the case to the Old Bailey, where he will next appear on November 23.

It looks as if this one was pretty much ready to go.

Thank heavens he was stopped.


Suspected neo-Nazi accused of nail-bomb plot - Yorkshire Post

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Never Again. Never Forget. Never Ignore.

In memory of those who died, and those who gave their lives trying to save others. A clear reminder of why we must never give up the battle against hatred and extremism in all its forms. The attacks of 9/11/2001 were the worst type of hatred, where hate turns from demagoguery to mass violence. Never again. Never forget. Never ignore extremism.

Billy Collins, former poet laureate, wrote "The Names" in the wake of September 11 and read it during a special joint session of Congress in New York on September 6, 2002.

This is what poets laureate are for.

The Names

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
Then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Eberling, names falling into place
As droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
In the morning, I walked out barefoot
Among thousands of flowers
Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,
And each had a name --
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal
Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
And stitched into the cloth of the day.
A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.
Monogram on a torn shirt,
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner --
Kelly and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.
When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden
As in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,
Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
Or cried out behind a door.
Names blown over the earth and out to sea.
In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows.
A boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
And the names are outlined on the rose clouds --
Vanacore and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.
Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

Technorati Tags:the names, 9/11 attack, pentagon, world trade centers, extremism
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CNN To Explore Religious Extremism

This looks to be highly informative. It explores religious extremism of the three major faiths, and the dangers of each. Of course, the usual suspects are already demanding it be edited or not aired, because (according to the usual suspects) there is no such thing as Christian terrorism or extremism. Tune in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening to catch the entire 6 hour report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_en_tv/ap_on_tv_christiane_amanpour

CNN TO EXPLORE DANGERS OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

by DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer Sun Aug 19, 12:40 PM ET

NEW YORK - Christiane Amanpour's work on the documentary series "God's Warriors" took her directly to intersections of extreme religious and secular thinking.

She watched, fascinated, as demonstrators in San Francisco accused teenagers in the fundamentalist Christian group BattleCry of intolerance in a clash of two cultures that will probably never understand each other.

Understanding is what Amanpour is trying to promote in "God's Warriors," which takes up six prime-time hours on CNN this week. The series on religious fundamentalism among Christians, Muslims and Jews airs in three parts, 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday through Thursday.

Many people know only stereotypes of these true believers, even the ones in their own country, she said.

Yet it's vital to be familiar with their thinking given the growing importance of these movements in the war on terrorism, the never-ending conflicts surrounding Israel and conservative politics in the United States.

"I'm not interested in drumming up false fears, or falsely allaying fears," CNN's chief international correspondent told The Associated Press by phone from France, where she added last-minute touches to the series. "I just want people to know what's going on."

Amanpour traveled extensively over eight months to work on the series. The trips to Amanpour's native Iran are most fascinating. She explored the ancient roots of the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis, and talked with one of the country's most accomplished female politicians about how Muslim women are treated.

Another segment tried to explain why so many devout Muslims are willing to give their lives to a cause.

"To the West, martyrdom has a really bad connotation because of suicide bombers who call themselves martyrs," she said. "Really, martyrdom is actually something that historically was quite noble, because it was about standing up and rejecting tyranny, rejecting injustice and rejecting oppression and, if necessary, dying for that."

Finishing the project didn't leave her with a sense of fear over the implications of stronger fundamentalist movements.

"I did come away with a sense that we — or those people who don't want to see religion in politics and culture — if we don't look into it and see what is going on, we're in danger of missing it and not be able to react to it properly," she said.

Amanpour was one of the last reporters to talk to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. She interviewed him a week before he died about the legacy of the Moral Majority, the organization that thrust evangelical Christians onto the political stage.

The segment on Christians explores BattleCry in some depth, digging at the roots of an organization that fights against some of the cruder elements of popular culture and urges teenagers to be chaste. In noting how girls at some BattleCry events are encouraged to wear long dresses, Amanpour asks the group's leader how it is different from the Taliban.

In a non-judgmental way, she visits a family that is home-schooling its children and explores the influence of Evangelicals on the courts.

"There is so much nuance, so much information, so much to talk about, by no means were we able to talk about it all," she said, "and by no means do I claim this is the definitive project. It is one of the fullest, one of the most ambitious and one of the most complete."

Amanpour, 49, is no longer CNN's most visible reporter, as she was when skipping from one war zone to another. She received a lot of attention for her documentary "In the Footsteps of bin Laden" last year, and said she's enjoying the opportunity to put day-to-day news in greater perspective.

She's frequently criticized American television networks, including her own, for not spending enough time on international news.

That hasn't changed. "I believe (the audience) wants to know more than our bosses or superficial focus groups would have you believe," she said.

Amanpour was recently named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. She's leaving her home base of London to move to New York with her husband, former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin.

"This is really a personal move for my husband,who has lived eight years out of his own country and wants to come back," she said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.cnn.com

FBI Issues Strange Statement

For all the Islamophobes who jumped all over this, proclaiming these two guys' guilt within minutes of their arrest - a reminder that it's never wise to jump to conclusions. It's always best to wait and see how the evidence, investigations and trial play out, if a case gets that far. Remember the Constitution? It applies to Muslim-Americans, too - in case you forgot.

PREDICTION: Within 24 hours, the Islamophobes will claim the FBI is trying to "cover up" terrorism, a claim they often make when the FBI announces that an event is not terrorism-related. Paranoia runs rampant in the world of Islamophobia.


Perhaps another "Oops!" for the FBI? (It wouldn't be the first time, in a variety of cases.) Perhaps just being careful to protect civil rights? ROFL Well, we'll have to wait and see what the investigation shows.

Hillsborough: FBI's caution puzzles experts

The agency admits pipe bomb charges against two USF students may be false.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff WriterPublished August 16, 2007
TAMPA - For days after the arrest of two University of South Florida students accused of having pipe bombs, the FBI remained silent.

On Wednesday, the agency released a statement telling the public it's possible there's no merit to the accusations against Youssef Megahed, 21, and Ahmed A. Mohamed, 26. Both were arrested Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., on charges of possession of explosives.

(read the full story at the link)

Is Jihad watch Training Terrorists?

Why is Jihad Watch offering excerpts from a terrorist training manual? Is Robert Spencer now offering a course to train terrorists?

From: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017796.php

How to be a jihadi: Taliban's training secrets

"In a situation where infidels and their crooks are ruling the world, it is the prime duty of all the Muslims to take arms and crush those who are bent upon crushing the Muslims throughout the world."

By Isambard Wilkinson and Ashraf Ali for the Telegraph (thanks to Davida):

(read the full article at the link)


It’s bad enough that the Telegraph publishes what it claims is the Taliban’s terrorism training manual, but we have to wonder, why does an American racist, who claims to be against jihad, reprint some of material out of a supposed terrorist training manual? Is he trying to train American extremists? Is he trying to encourage any Islamist extremists to use this information to commit terrorist attacks? Spencer is constantly after new sources of money, greed is an obsession with him, could he now be accepting money as a Taliban trainer?

In past articles on one of America’s foremost racists, Robert Spencer, I only lightly touched on his obsessive-compulsive disorder, although I am far from the first to notice this, it is frequently discussed among his critics. One example to prove this anxiety disorder is how much time he spends reading this blog. Note the following, from the very extensive logging records of this blog:


VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link No referring link
Host Name pool-71-181-40-6.cncdnh.fios.verizon.net
IP Address 71.181.40.6 Spencer
Country United States
Region -
City -
ISP Verizon Internet Services Inc
Returning Visits 0
Visit Length 16 hours 18 mins 27 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser Firefox 1.5.0
Operating System Mac OS X
Resolution Unknown
Javascript Enabled
Navigation Path
Date Time WebPage

15th August 2007 06:10:06 AM No referring link
www.hatewatchhallofshame.blogspot.com/

15th August 2007 06:37:32 PM No referring link
www.hatewatchhallofshame.blogspot.com/

15th August 2007 10:28:33 PM www.google.com/search?q=Foehammer.net%3A Who and where is this racist known as %22Foehammer&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT
64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:MOCXaWhbtwAJ:hatewatchhallofshame.blogspot.com/ Foehammer.net: Who and where is this racist known as %22Foehammer

===========================================================

The above is the record from just one day (August 15, 2007) where Spencer visits this blog (he’s here every day), and where he again spent an inordinate amount of time, specifically 16 hours, 18 minutes, 27 seconds reading this blog. Spencer sometimes enters through a Google search, thinking this will mask his identity, but he’s wrong, everyone’s identity is recorded. (Privacy note: Out of the massive number of readers of this blog, I don’t care about the visitation records of 99.9%, I only watch for what the known hate mongers are doing, and for hacking and vandalism attempts, such as were previously committed. The visitation records erase after 24 hours, except for the few identified for suspicious activity. Obviously, when a visitor is both one of the previously exposed hate mongers and spends over 16 hours in one day at the blog site, it is tagged for suspicious activity.)

As to Spencer spending this much time in one day (and this is not at all uncommon for his visits) it can only have one of two explanations:

1) He is an extraordinarily slow reader. Since I have seen no evidence of this in the multiple, thorough investigations of Spencer, I think it is safe to rule it out.

2) He is exhibiting obsessive-compulsive behavior. See an explanation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from the:

NIMH: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

It may be important to note, in the Telegraph’s story, this sentence: “The guide, which is similar in its aims to British and American military field manuals, was obtained by The Daily Telegraph from a source in Pakistan who claimed to be close to the Taliban.” The problem shown here is that there is no verifiable authenticity to this manual. Receiving anything from an unidentified source who “claims” to be close to another unidentified source is always highly questionable. It's possible that this could simply have been some intrepid scam artist selling a homemade forgery to a gullible reporter. Without any verifiable authenticity, it is impossible to determine whether this manual is genuine.

But, whether it is genuine or not, quoting from this manual offers the information to anyone who reads the quoting site. Whether that is Spencer (previously shown as working in opposition to the war on terror, and betraying America’s national security interests) or anyone else, they should be condemned for passing along what they believe to be any portion of a manual allegedly used to train terrorists.

Some would say that we need such information in order to understand the enemy’s tactics. That much, taken strictly, is true. But in that claim, who is the “we”? Is Spencer on the front lines, in the military or intelligence community, fighting the enemy? Of course not. Like the vast majority of Islamophobes, Spencer has never spent one day in either the military or as an intelligence agency employee. (Note I didn’t say “all”, I said “vast majority”.) The Pentagon, the CIA, DHS, NSA and the FBI, and their equivalents in the UK and other allied countries are the only ones needing this information. These agencies have a legitimate purpose in having the information. Anyone else (outside these agencies) does not, and one has to question why they would release this for publication.

Technorati Tags:robert spencer, taliban, treason, traitor, training terrorists for profit, greed, ocd
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Hindu Terrorists, JDL Terrorists Join Forces

(From 2001 news report. Best information is that this union is still active)

http://www.themodernreligion.com/assault/grps-unite.html

Hindu terrorists, JDL terrorists join forces (from 2001)

Anti-Muslim Groups Unite Through Internet By Dean E. Murphy, New York times, 2 June 2001

Web site run by militant Hindus in Queens and Long Island was recently shut down by its service provider because of complaints that it advocated hatred and violence toward Muslims. But a few days later, the site was back on the Internet. The unlikely rescuers were some radical Jews in Brooklyn who are under investigation for possible ties to anti-Arab terrorist organizations in Israel.

The unusual alliance brings together two extreme religious philosophies from different parts of the world that, at first glance, have little in common. But living elbow-to-elbow in the ethnic mix of New York, the small groups of Hindus and Jews have discovered that sharing a distant enemy is sufficient basis for friendship.

So tight is their anti-Muslim bond that some of the Hindus marched alongside the Jews in the annual Salute to Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue last month. Yesterday, several of the Jews joined a protest outside theUnited Nations against the treatment of Hindus in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime.

"We are fighting the same war," said Rohit Vyasmaan, who helps run the Hindu Web site, HinduUnity.org, from his home in Flushing, Queens. "Whether you call them Palestinians, Afghans or Pakistanis, the root of the problem for Hindus and Jews is Islam."

The budding Hindu-Jewish relationship presents a view that counters a popular perception of New York City not as an open door to immigrantsseeking a better life, but as a political way station, where some people come or stay not to make money but to engage in politics from afar. For some of the Jews in Brooklyn and the Hindus in Queens and Long Island, their time in the United States is temporary, made necessary only because of the threat of Islam in South Asia and the Middle East. Ultimately, members of both groups said, they must leave New York to confront the enemy face-to-face.

"I would love to move back to India provided the situation improves there," Mr. Vyasmaan said. "We have made a promise to do so."

Mr. Vyasmaan, who is 30 and came to New York from New Delhi when he was 13, said matter-of-factly that he and many others expect to die in the battle for Hindu supremacy. Nonetheless, he is protective of the identities of some of HinduUnity.org's biggest financial backers. Some of them have been implicated in Hindu nationalist acts in India and are only in the United States biding their time, he said. One of the site's major supporters on Long Island was involved in destroying an ancient mosque at Ayodhya in northern India in 1992, Mr. Vyasmaan said. The mosque was built on a site that is also holy to Hindus. The incident led to widespread rioting between Hindus and Muslims in India, and it isstill profoundly divisive.

"Now they won't let us build a temple at the site of the mosque," Mr. Vyasmaan said. "So there is more controversy. He plans to go back."

HinduUnity.org advertises itself as the official site of Bajrang Dal, a fundamentalist Hindu movement in India that has chapters throughout that country and has frequently clashed with Muslims and was among the groups blamed for the 1992 attack. The Web site also goes by the name Soldiers of Hindutva, a term that refers to the primacy of Hindu religion and culture. Mr. Vyasmaan said the Web site has 500 people affiliated with it.

The Jews in Brooklyn, meanwhile, are followers of Rabbi Meir David Kahane, the assassinated Israeli politician whose teachings advocated the expulsion from Israel of all Arabs, most of whom are Muslim.

Their headquarters in Brooklyn was raided in January by the F.B.I. as part of a federal investigation into their association with two Kahane political parties that were banned in Israel and designated as terrorist organizations by the State Department. The designations followed a series of violent attacks on Palestinians, including the killing in 1994 of 29 Muslims in the West Bank by Baruch Goldstein, a Kahane adherent who was born in Brooklyn.

Central to the Kahane message is that all Jews belong in Israel, making any Jew in the United States a temporary resident. Many of the group's biggest supporters shuttle back and forth between Israel and New York, keeping one foot in each country.

Rabbi Kahane was Brooklyn-born, as were many of his supporters, and was shot to death at a Manhattan hotel in 1990. His son, Binyamin, who took up his father's teachings, also carried an American passport but spent most of his time in Israel. He was killed with his wife when their car was ambushed in the West Bank in December.

During his last visit to New York, two weeks before his death, Binyamin Kahane reminded a gathering of several hundred supporters in Brooklyn of their obligation to settle in Israel. The Brooklyn group runs a Web site, Kahane.org, that aims to keep the Kahane movement alive despite the political crackdown in Israel and the terrorist designations in the United States. The site's manager, Michael Guzofsky, said the Jewish-Hindu relationship in New York is a practical one that reflects a common suffering at the hands of Muslims. The alliance is born from adversity, he said, and transcends the differences in their religious traditions, which, he acknowledged, the two groups have never addressed in detail.

"I definitely understand their pain even if I don't know much about their faith," Mr. Guzofsky said of the Hindu fundamentalists. "Their Web site isa little more militant than ours, but an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth kind of speech is something you can find in the Old Testament. I am not going to judge people who have been oppressed by others and who fight back."

The Hindu Web site is up and running only because Mr. Guzofsky and other Kahane backers came to its rescue. Several weeks ago, the company that ran the site's Internet server, Addr.com of Greenwood Village, Colo., notified Mr. Vyasmaan that it was canceling its contract. Matt Johnson, a representative of Addr.com, said that the company had received complaints about offensive content on the site, which contains historical accounts about Hinduism and the centuries-long conflict between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia. This week, a commentary on the site called on Hindus "to stand up and take arms" against Muslims in India, urging them to "exterminate and banish" them. The site also urged Hindus to "Fight if you must! Die if you must!"

Mr. Johnson said representatives from HinduUnity.org contended that the Web site was informational and did not advocate violence. But after three days of telephone calls between New York and Colorado, Mr. Johnson said, the company decided to pull the plug, saying that HinduUnity.org was a hate site.

When Mr. Vyasmaan got word of the decision, his first call was to Mr. Guzofsky's office at the Hatikva Jewish Identity Center in Brooklyn. Mr. Guzofsky had run into a similar problem in December, when he was forced to find a new server because of complaints about the Kahane site. Mr. Guzofsky was in Israel, but he returned the phone call within hours and quickly set out to solve Mr. Vyasmaan's problem.

The solution came by means of a businessman in Annandale, Va., Gary Wardell, who designs and services Web sites and who branched out into the server business last year. Mr. Wardell offered to help Mr. Guzofsky in December when he read about kahane.org's problems, eventually taking on the job as the Kahane site's host. Although Mr. Wardell said he is converting to Judaism from Christianity and has taken an avid interest in the teachings of Rabbi Kahane, he said his motivation in assisting Mr. Guzofsky was as much financial as religious. "I am a small business and I need customers," Mr. Wardell said. "Sometimes when you have bills to pay, that takes the focus of your attention."

Early last month, when Mr. Guzofsky told him about HinduUnity.org, Mr. Wardell agreed to a similar business relationship for the same bottom-line reasons, he said. Mr. Guzofsky said his group had not officially endorsed the views on the Hindu Web site, but they support the right of the Hindus to express them. For that reason, there is a link to HinduUnity.org on the Kahane Web site and, Mr. Guzofsky posted an announcement this week about the Hindu protest outside the United Nations.

"It is a core issue of free speech," Mr. Guzofsky said. "We have made it clear to the folks at HinduUnity.org that if their site ever comes down again, we will offer them a mirror site with ours so people can be updated concerning their events. I would hope they would do the same for us." Mr. Vyasmaan said there is no doubt that the favor would be returned. Already, he said, Hindus associated with the Web site have written to Congress urging that the two Kahane political parties be removed from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. It is a cause very dear to Mr. Guzofsky, who said he was recently asked by the authorities to submit fingerprints and handwriting samples for use in their investigationinto his Brooklyn operations.

Mr. Vyasmaan said doubters of the Hindu-Jewish commitment need to look no further than his home in Flushing, where he displays a large picture of Rabbi Kahane.

"He was a great man," Mr. Vyasmaan said. "It almost appeared as if he was speaking for the Hindus."


FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE JDL:

Kahanist Convicted

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=123

The JDL & Kahane

Jewish Task Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

B'nai Elim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kach and Kahane Chai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kahanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Backgrounder:The Jewish Defense League


FURTHER INFORMATION ON HINDUTVA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Unity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindutva

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh

http://www.appiusforum.com/minority.html

http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/sp07/graduate/gmj-sp07-grad-shanadi.htm

Terrorists on Trial in UK

The BNP is a far-right ultra-nationalist group, with elements of neo-Nazism and Christianity. Members of the BNP have been responsible for everything from hate speech to violent crimes, and are working to gain a political presence in the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/6263022.stm

BNP man and dentist in bomb trial

Both men denied they were plotting an explosionA former British National Party (BNP) candidate and a dentist stockpiled chemicals as part of a bomb plot, a court has been told.

Robert Cottage, 49, and David Jackson, 62, both from Lancashire, have denied conspiracy to cause an explosion with chemicals ordered over the internet.

Mr Jackson, of Nelson, also denies possessing explosives - a charge admitted by Mr Cottage, of Colne.

The pair are on trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Eleven boxes of chemicals that could be combined to cause a dangerous explosion were found at Mr Cottage's house, the jury was told.

Mr Cottage bought them online in September 2006 on the instructions of Mr Jackson, prosecutor Louise Blackwell QC said.

The dentist became friends with Mr Cottage - who has failed to win three local elections - at BNP meetings.

As their relationship progressed, he became more religious and more controlling of her.

Louise Blackwell QC, prosecuting Lancashire Police were alerted to the plot by Mr Cottage's wife, Kerena, 29, who told her social worker she was scared they were going to test chemical bombs in countryside near Preston.

"She was aware that the chemicals were intended to harm the enemy, which she understood to be the government or anyone who came unannounced to the door of their house," said Ms Blackwell. The Anarchist Handbook, which contained bomb recipes, had been downloaded on Mr Cottage's computer, the jury heard. Ms Blackwell said this selection and printing of instructions from the handbook revealed their intention to cause explosions.

During a two-day search of Mr Cottage's house, officers found ball bearings, a hoard of food and weapons including a crossbow, airgun and several BB guns.

Ms Blackwell said Mr Cottage told police he had stockpiled the items over fears the country was on the brink of civil war.

Brainwashing claim

His wife had become increasingly disturbed by his "radical" attitude towards Asians and his interest in listening to radical radio programmes on the internet.

"As their relationship progressed, he became more religious and more controlling of her," Ms Blackwell said.

Ms Blackwell told the court he removed television aerial so his wife could not watch what he described as "brain-washing material put out by the government".

The court also heard that officers searched dentist Mr Jackson's home a few days later on 1 October 2006. Mr Jackson told police that Cottage had bought the chemicals to teach his son chemistry.

But the court heard Mr Cottage told police they were for Mr Jackson to teach him how to make fireworks.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.