Category Archives: Terrorism

Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Terrorism

Terrorism: Hallmarks of the Bulgaria Suicide Bomber with a “Shaved Head”………

   

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“Mileva said the bomber “had a white face, light eyes, and very thick
brown hair. The facial bones were shattered in the explosion.”On Friday, district prosecutor Kalina Tchapkanova cited witness reports that the suspect had dark eyes………”

“Bulgarian police along with the CIA, FBI and Interpol are struggling to identify a suicide bomber who killed six people, including five Israelis, as the United States said the attack bore the “hallmarks” of Hezbollah. Investigators have released CCTV footage of the person they believe carried out Wednesday’s attack at the airport of the Black Sea town of Burgas on a bus carrying Israeli holidaymakers, which also claimed the life of the Bulgarian driver.……… Burgas prosecutor Kalina Tchapkanova quoted witnesses as saying the man “spoke English with a slight accent” and appeared to be Arab. The car rental service owner’s wife Afrodita Petrova said she was sure he was of Arab origin and had shaved head ………….”

The mystery suicide bomber with a “shaved head”: who almost looked like a European Neo-Nazi.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the consummate opportunist, predictably and quickly accused Iran, then accused Hezbollah, then both Iran and Hezbollah. That was before anyone said anything about any suspect. Bulgarian press initially said he was a Swedish-Algerian al-Qaeda member who had served in Guantanamo, a Mr. Ghezali. The Swedes denied that was him, cryptically saying Ghezali is “not in Bulgaria”. It is possible that Hezbollah was behind it, or more likely al-Qaeda, or some European neo-Nazi group (with shaved heads).
One thing is certain: this was a suicide terror bombing targeting civilians. Hezbollah and Iran don’t use suicide bombings. It is not part of their operational style, the ‘suicide‘ part. That would be more like al-Qaeda Salafi jihadists who commit suicide terror attacks then wait for the promised rivers of wine and the renewable virgins on the other side. Netanyahu of course knows that, as do most Western intelligence services. Apparently most and not all, given that some US “official” told the New York Times that the operation was Iranian-Hezbollah, just as Netanyahu claimed. The American official said, apparently with a straight, that the operation bore the “hallmarks” of Hezbollah. Someone ought to have asked him: when was the last time Hezbollah used a suicide bomber? They may have done some bombings in the past, but not ‘suicide‘ bombings as far as I know. Unless they have changed their operational methods (or their ‘hallmark’ drastically. 
Now about that shaved head, European neo-Nazi style………….
Cheers
mhg
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Iran, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

Wild West Mullahs: a Ministry for Stupid Foiled Foreign Plots …….

   

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“New York police believe Iranian Revolutionary Guards or their proxies have been involved so far this year in nine plots against Israeli or Jewish targets around the world, according to restricted police documents obtained by Reuters. Reports prepared this week by intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department (NYPD) say three plots were foiled in January, three in February and another three since late June. Iran has repeatedly denied supporting militant attacks abroad. The documents, labeled “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” said that this week’s suicide bomb attack in Bulgaria was the second plot to be unmasked there this year. The reports detail two plots in Bangkok and one each in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Baku, Mombasa and Cyprus. Each plot was attributed to Iran or its Lebanese Hezbollah militant allies, said the reports, which were produced following the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria of a bus carrying Israeli tourists. Iran on Thursday dismissed “unfounded statements” by Israel linking Tehran to the Burgas blast, saying they were politically motivated accusations which underscored the weakness of the accusers………….”

The Iranians must have a special Ministry for Stupid Foreign Plots That Are Always Foiled in the West. I am almost, almost serious here.
Somebody in Tehran must be spending his days and nights concocting ways to get his agents in New York and Washington and Texas and Michigan and Samoa and Guam caught in traps set by New York’s Best (and apparently brightest). Nine Iranian plots so far foiled this year alone. It is a wonder the theocratic regime is still standing, given its track record of failed plots.
Then you can add the plots foiled in Washington and other states, and the plots in Azerbaijan, Thailand, India, Cyprus, Las Vegas, Tegocigalpa, Africa (especially South Africa), Bahrain (nicknamed a popular uprising), Saudi Arabia (nicknamed a popular uprising in the Eastern Province), Egypt (called spreading Shi’ism and Communism and Masonism and perhaps even Zionism), Bulgaria (Netanyahu has ordained that it was a joint Iranian-Lebanese plot), and others. Maybe a good case can be made for a new war. Did I leave out September 11 New York City? September 11 was declared an Iranian plot by some federal judge in New York or Washington earlier this year. Adding all this to the nuclear program and adding in arming and supporting the Syrian regime and Hezbollah.
Now, whoever heard of any other peaceful nation arming a repressive regime of a dictator or an absolute tribal monarchy (not talking about Saudi Arabia or Bahrain here)? Whoever heard of a peaceful nation arming a band of militias that disrupt their repressive government (not talking about the Free Syrian Army here)?
Cheers
mhg
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Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Libya, Terrorism

Coming Home: Libya Seeks Release of its Terrorists in Iraq, May Recycle them to Syria…..

   

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“A Libyan delegation is in Baghdad to negotiate the release of countrymen detained in Iraqi prisons, senior officials said on Thursday, adding that eight prisoners have been pardoned. “We will receive some of the (Libyan) prisoners that are in Iraq,” Justice Minister Hmeida Ashur told AFP. “The order for the release of eight prisoners in Iraq was signed yesterday and they will be transferred to Libya in the next couple of days,” he added, without elaborating. He was speaking during a visit to a freshly built courthouse and prison complex in the suburb of Tajura, east of Tripoli, which the interim authorities say reflect broader efforts to revive the judiciary and conduct fair trials. Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil had said on Wednesday that negotiations were under way with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to secure the handover of Libyan prisoners there. On Thursday, the head of the Libyan delegation to Baghdad, Suleiman Fortia, said that there are “about 20 Libyan prisoners” being held in Iraq’s penitentiary system……………”



Several Arab countries have sent their Wahhabi Salafi youth to Iraq to join al-Qaeda and mainly to kill Shi’as. Initially I had thought these Salafi terrorists mostly came for Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states and Jordan, but there seem to be many of them from Libya, among other places. There apparently are many now in Syria as well and possibly in northern Lebanon.

The “new” Libya, liberated by NATO bombs and GCC money, seems to be stuck in the old Qaddafi mode of exporting terrorists and weapons and trouble to other lands. Once these terrorists are caught, the Libyan regime seeks to get them released, perhaps so that they can go to Syria and fight with al-Qaeda against the al-Assad regime. Once these terrorists are killed and their souls sent to hell, the new Libyan regime seeks to repatriate their bodies, which makes a lot of political sense now that armed Islamists hold sway over the new democratic Libya.
If I were in charge of Iraq (not that anybody is fully in charge in Iraq) I would insist that they be tried according to the laws of the land. After all, their al-Saud sources of ideology insist on trying suspected foreigners in their kangaroo courts and end up chopping their heads off. The Saudis even refuse to send their bodies back home to their families, and everybody is entitled to go home.
Cheers
mhg
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Al-Qaeda, Arab Revolutions, Syria, Terrorism

Third Saudi Emir of Syria: Torn between Arabs and Turks and Umayyads………

   

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“Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool
Loving both of you is breaking all the rules
Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool
Loving you both is breaking all the rules…….”  Mary MacGregor

“Radical Islamist groups are evolving in Syria. An audio recording has been released by Saudi Majed al-Majed, emir of al-Qaeda’s Abdullah Azzam Brigades, who left Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon over a month ago. The latest statement from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which was released as an audio recording, does not resemble the organization’s other statements in terms of tone, form, or content. The introductory section declared allegiance to Saudi Majed Muhammad al-Majed (b. 1973) as the emir of the organization in the Levant. Al-Majed, who is one of the most wanted men in Lebanon, left Ain el-Helweh refugee camp last month, heading for the battlefields of Syria. Declaring a Saudi from the Arabian Peninsula as the emir of the Levant is an unusual move for al-Qaeda, which is known to pick leaders according to their respective nationalities………..”

Syria has had its share of “foreign” masters since the Romans left involuntarily about fourteen centuries ago. The final chapter was supposed to have been written after World War I when the British appointed Faisal Ibn Al Hussein of Hijaz as King of Syria, after they had “liberated” the Levant form Turkish occupation. He was the second Hijazi to start a new dynasty in Syria. Fourteen centuries before him the Hijazi Mu’awiya Ibn Abu Sufyan (an opportunistic Umayyad and most of his life a tough pagan enemy of Islam) declared himself Caliph after the death of Imam Ali, the fourth rightful Caliph in Kufa (Iraq). His power base and capital was Damascus and his dynasty lasted a little more than one century.
Faisal did not last long in Syria: France invaded and kicked him out (the British gave him Iraq as a consolation prize). There was no Saudi Arabia at the time: the al-Saud were cornered in their own homeland of Nejd in those days, having barely defeated Ibn Rasheed (al-Rasheed). Still this new al-Majed clown of al-Qaeda comes from the Arabian Peninsula, like the earlier ones, and he is Saudi.
Does this mean that when and if the al-Assad regime is finished the Saudis will control Syria? If and when the Baathists fall I suspect there will be competition between the al-Saud, the Qatari al-Thani, and the Turks over running Syria. The first two have a lot of money to spend in Syria (actually only the al-Thani Qataris can afford that, the Saudis have so many princes who grab the money that they can’t afford to spend so much). The Turks have the advantage of proximity and the muscle and, more important, a seeming workable political and economic system. But this Arab competition we are talking about here will be through the Muslim Brothers and the more pro-Saudi Salafis rather than al-Qaeda as we know it. The Saudis probably now think they will be happy just to see the Iranian influence in Syria ended (as do all Western powers), but they will then face an even more powerful Turkey which used to rule Syria (as well as parts of what is now Saudi Arabia). Turkey will provide an even more compelling example of a democratic (sort of) Islamic state than either theocratic Iran or Kleptocratic Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Of course the Wahhabi jihadists like al-Qaeda are getting stronger in Syria, being fed Arab volunteers and money and arms. They are very likely to hang around there for a long time, just as they are in Iraq.

Cheers
mhg
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Arab League, Arab Politics, Baghdad Summit, Iraq, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

Imperiled Hegemony: the Baghdad Summit and Saudi Arabia’s Iraqi Dilemma……….

    

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“Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, an ethnic Kurd and the chief architect of the Baghdad summit, beamed Monday as he counted down the hours to what he bills as a historic moment: Iraq reclaiming its place in the Arab world after years of isolation during the U.S.-led military occupation and its spinoff sectarian war. For the past several summits, Zebari weathered the snubs and slights of Arab rulers, who openly questioned the legitimacy and sovereignty of the Iraqi government because it’s dominated by Iranian-backed Shiite Muslims and Kurds, and was formed in the shadow of Western occupiers. Now, however, the U.S. military is gone, and many of those skeptical Arab leaders have either been overthrown or forced into humbling reforms after the Arab Spring uprisings of last year. With the Arab League so heavily invested in the outcomes of revolts in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia and — most urgently — Syria, member countries are expected to use the conference to discuss their limited options for containing the regional crises now spilling across borders………”

Iraq has always been a dilemma for the al-Saud, an unwelcome presence in the Arab fold. The Baathist regime under Saddam Hussein flirted with the Saudis for eight years as it fended off Iranian counterattacks. The Saudis and the GCC financed and armed Saddam’s regime for eight years of war, as did the West. Yet the Saudis have always been wary of Iraq since before the Republic was established in 1958, actually since long before then. There are several reasons why the al-Saud do not welcome return of Iraq to the Arab fold:


  • Iraq is (potentially) a powerful rival for regional political dominance between the Jordan River and the Iranian border and southward. It is the most populous and potentially richest country in the Arab east. The total Saudi population is less than one half that of Iraq (taking into account that more than one third of the Saudi population are temporary foreign laborers and housemaids). For almost thirty years Iraq was preoccupied with Baathist-provoked wars. The Saudis have had unrivaled domination of the lower tier of the eastern Arab world during that time. That period might also be coming to an end, if the Iraqis can liquidate their Arab al-Qaeda terrorist guests and reconcile with each other politically. Reports indicate that Salafi terrorists are still infiltrating into Iraq from the Gulf GCC states and possibly Jordan, intent on murder. The Salafi terrorists’ assigned role is partly to keep Iraq off balance and too preoccupied with internal security to be involved in the region.
  • Iraq’s petroleum sector has been neglected for thirty years. It is beginning to revive, but will take some time to reach its potential. Iraqi reports now claim they are the second largest producers, overtaking Iran. Other reports also indicate that Iraqi reserves may have exceeded what Iran has. There is some speculation that eventually Iraqi reserves may exceed those of Saudi Arabia. Remember, Saudi output has been going full blast at 8-11 mb/d for decades, while Iraqi and Iranian output (and exploration) were hampered by wars and Western economic blockades. It is hard to give up the position of the biggest fish in the smaller Gulf pond. 
  • Politically the al-Saud never liked Iraq, but they like that country much less now that it has a Shi’a-dominated government. The Shi’a religious monuments and shrines in southern (and other parts of) Iraq have been targets of Saudi Wahhabi raiders since Ottoman days. The Wahhabi rulers of the Saudi Salafi theocracy may have distrusted and hated the previous Baathist rulers of Iraq, but they have nothing but ill will for the new ruling classes of Iraq. They, and some other GCC Gulf potentates, have behaved as if an entitlement was taken away from them, the entitlement that a Sunni Arab elite should continue to rule over 80+% of the rest of Iraqis (mainly Shi’a Arabs and Kurds and Turkmans). In other word, they would like Iraq to be like Bahrain.


The Saudis have don’t yet have a full ambassador in Baghdad, although last year they accredited their Amman ambassador to also cover Iraq. He will lead the Saudi delegation instead of the king or one of the princes. Syria also got the same treatment whey it hosted the Arab summit three or so years ago. The Arab League is a toothless mechanism, has been so since 1970. Its only relevance is when Western powers dust it off and show that the Arab League supports their actions in the MENA region (as in Libya, and almost in Syria).
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Egypt, Iran, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Suicidal Iranians: Another Dastardly Terror Plot in the Suez Canal……….

    

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“The Egyptian authorities claim to have foiled an Iranian attempt to blow up Israeli vessels in the Suez Canal, a government-linked newspaper has reported. Details of the alleged plot are likely to escalate tensions between Israel and Iran, who are locked in a stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear programme that many fear could trigger a new war in the Middle East. Israeli officials were unable to confirm the details, but said it was significant that the report had been published in Al-Ahram Weekly, a semi-official newspaper. Quoting state prosecutors, Al-Ahram said Egyptian police were holding two Egyptian nationals who are charged with receiving orders and payment from Iranian agents to blow up an Israeli ship. The two allegedly offered a third suspect, Mohammed Zakri, £5.1m to carry out the attack. Mr Zakri was reportedly told that he would be “paid by the Shiites”, apparently a reference to Tehran.…………..”

Oh oh, this is now an epidemic. Yet another Iranian plot surfaces, this time in Egypt, just two days after the last one, which was about four days after the one before it, which was just days after the one preceding………
And the suspect in Egypt knew just the exact words to say to the police; “paid by the Shiites“. He sounds so sincere, he almost sounds like a Salafi that equates Shi’as with Iranians (the way I often equate Salafis with a Saudi fifth column). There hasn’t been an Iranian plot against Egypt since they tried to take over the country with the help of Hizbollah about two months ago, as reported by Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. A couple of months before that the Iranians were plotting with al-Qaeda to take over Egypt again, for the second time in 25 centuries (according to the same Saudi daily). Before that, some two years ago, they had tried to convert all 80 million Egyptians to the Shi’a sect, but Hosni Mubarak and the Shaikh of al-Azhar saved the day.
This new plot is uncovered exactly one day after an Iran-Hizbollah-Hamas plot was exposed by Ambassador Gerald Feierstein to take over Yemen, barely two days after the plot in New York to take photos of tourist sites. I am not even going to list all the other plots exposed so far, leaving their masterminds, the Iranian mullahs, in a state of un-consummated frustration.
Apparently the (extremely stupid) Iranians are itching to be bombed and have their infrastructure destroyed by Israel and the United States. Preferably with the blessings of the UN Security Council (they already have all the al-Saud and Salafi blessings they need). The mullahs must be disappointed with nothing to show for their efforts: that their country is still standing on its feet after all the previous plots they concocted and tried to execute all around the world. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must have called in the chief of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and given his a dressing down:  ”If you are so smart, then why are our cities, out command and control centers, our ports and our oil infrastructure still standing?”
What must be frustrating for the mullahs is that all their terror plots consistently fail. From the Persian Gulf to Egypt to Georgetown to New York to Asia, not one of these dastardly plots has been consummated. Maybe the best thing for the West to do about their nuclear program is to leave it alone. Just let them botch it up like all their other plots.

(Humor and wit side: it is possible, just possible, that the Iranians, some faction of them, are behind all these wild worldwide plots that we read about almost every other day now. Some of them, besides Jack the Texan and his Mexican drug cartel pals, may have had a grudge against the Saudi ambassador. But in that case which faction is it? An internal Iranian faction or an external Iranian faction?)
Cheers
mhg


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censorship, cyber war, Europe, France, Terrorism

Sarkozy as Big Brother: Lurking at Jihadist and Terrorist Websites……..

    

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“French President Nicholas Sarkozy means well. In the wake of horrific antisemitic murders reportedly pulled off by a Qaida-trained killer, Sarkozy is proposing to lock up frequent visitors to pro-terrorist websites. However understandable, the move would cripple open source attempts at understanding terrorism trends without stopping terrorists. “Anyone who regularly consults internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison,” Sarkozy argued to a political rally in France on Thursday. “What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.” But terror porn doesn’t work like kiddie porn. For one thing, visitors to jihadist websites like the al-Shmukh forum aren’t just terrorist wannabees. They’re also lurking terrorism researchers or, um, journalists like us. And there’s law enforcement and intelligence officers monitoring them to discern the next moves of potentially dangerous people. ………….”

No doubt Sarko is electioneering. He is in a tough race against the socialist Francois Hollande, and he always veers to the right when in trouble, just like any good Republican candidate in the USA. Going to a Jihadist website doesn’t make one a Jihadist or an enabler, just like going to white supremacist websites doesn’t make one a white supremacist. There is, besides the legitimate research and information value, the entertainment value in both these types of sites.
Europeans have been doing this ‘censorship’ more often lately. They have blocked and banned television networks and now websites. Yet they feign outrage when one of our dictators or despots does the very same thing, especially if that dictator or despot is not one of their allies. This is what an American would call “sanctimonious European bullshit”. Yet there is plenty of it on this side o the Atlantic as well (you know that if you follow the political campaigns this year).
Cheers
mhg


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Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Racism, Terrorism

White Gods vs. Brown Gods: Greed and Blood Money from Beirut to Lockerbie to Tehran to Afghanistan.. …….

    

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Here are some brief media reports of “terrorist” acts in Beirut, Europe, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. These acts were committed by Arabs, Muslims, and Westerners. That acts were shocking, they always are. Note the aftermath. It is almost as shocking as the acts themselves, in fact more so because the aftermath reflects how humans are valued differently in the West. Now a comparison is in order:

Feb. 2012: “The U.S. paid $50,000 in compensation for each villager killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in a shooting rampage allegedly carried out by a rogue American soldier in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Sunday. The families were told that the money came from President Barack Obama. The unusually large payouts……….”

Feb. 2011: “Paul Wolfowitz has been branded ‘pathetic’ after launching an extraordinary attack on the families of those who lost loved ones in the Lockerbie bombing. The former deputy Secretary of Defense said the U.S. had buckled under pressure from grieving relatives to normalise relations with Libya so they could walk away with $10million each in compensation………….”

Nov. 2008: “The U.S. said Sunday it has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. More money is on the way to complete the settlement, but $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the U.S. Treasury to a private account administered by Lockerbie families’ lawyers on Friday, the top American diplomat for the Mideast said. David Welch spoke to reporters aboard U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plane as she returned to Washington from the Middle East. He said he expected the rest of the Lockerbie payments would be made soon as soon as administrative details were worked out. The cash comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism in the 1980s that Libya finished paying into last month………”

Sept. 2007: “WASHINGTON — Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. “These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done,” he said………………”

“On July 3, 1988, an Iranian aircraft registered on the radar screen of the USS Vincennes. The U.S. Navy officers on the bridge identified the approaching aircraft as an Iranian Air Force F-14 Tomcat. Though they would later claim that they tried to reach the aircraft on military and civilian frequencies, they failed to try air traffic control, which would have probably cleared the air. Instead, as the aircraft drew nearer, the Americans fired two guided missiles at their target: a civilian Airbus A300B2, killing 290 civilians, including 66 children, en route to Dubai…… Reza, who served as a volunteer Basiji from 1987-1988 and teaches chemistry now, admits he doesn’t think about what happened too often. “Still, when I do,” he said, “I remember how nobody cared! These were Iranian civilians who were killed and there was no condemnation.”……..”

The Huffington Post report, the first one I quoted up there, calls the $50k and $10k “unusually large payouts“. What they mean is “unusually large payouts for the life and limb of Afghans, non-Westerners“.
I have commented before on Lockerbie vs. Iran Air 655. Clearly, a white man or woman, a white child, is worth much more than an Afghan or an Iranian or an Arab (man or woman or child). Reading through these reports, I wonder: is it possible that they are? Maybe they are.
Cheers
mhg


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Espionage, Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon, Terrorism, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

New Iranian Terror Plot Uncovered by, You Guessed it, NYPD………..

    

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“A senior New York police official disclosed that at least 13 suspects with ties to the Iranian government had been questioned by authorities in the last seven years after conducting surveillance of possible attack sites. Mitchell Silber, the New York Police Department’s director of intelligence analysis, said the city’s large Jewish population and international significance as a terror target made it ripe for a strike by either Iran or Hizbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group it sometimes uses as a proxy. Testifying before the House of Representative’s Homeland Security Committee, he said the suspects included six people on a sightseeing cruise who were taking photographs and film of well-known New York landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge in 2005. And in September 2010, federal air marshals detained four people taking pictures and films at a heliport in the city. During questioning, all 13 people admitted that they were associated with the Iranian government, but they were ultimately released without charge…………”

I wonder if it is still legal to take pictures of the Empire State building. That used to be my favorite landmark in New York when I was a teenage student back east, it still is, along with the Statue of Liberty. I used to take photos of it, then climb on top and take more amazing photos.
I don’t know about this. They haven’t been able to catch any Iranian terrorists yet (just a few weapon and technology smugglers). Even with Hezbollah agents, the best they could find was some hapless Lebanese trying to smuggle bullets for pistols to Lebanon. Bullets for pistols! I guess he didn’t realize that Hezbollah has missiles and anti-aircraft guns and drones and is waiting for the first Iranian nuclear bomb.
I am near despair that they ever will catch a genuine Iranian or Hezbollah terrorist in the US: unless they can revive that old Cheney idea of a meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and Iranian intelligence. Woops, that was Iraqi intelligence, allegedly. Then there is Jack the Texas used-car dealer who conspired with Ali Khamenei and the Quds Force and Hezbollah and the Mexican Cartel and FARC to blow to smithereens an Arab yes-man ambassador in Washington. I am beginning to suspect that there
probably are no such thing as “Iranian terrorists” in the United States,
none in New Jersey-NYC, none in Westwood. Not even any hiding under the bed of the Saudi ambassador or Representative
Peter King or, heaven forbid, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl).


More seriously: it pays to be vigilant these days. If there is a new war, all bets are off. Terrorism may become a reality instead of just an opportunity for some ambitious or overeager cop or agent or East Coast DA.
Cheers
mhg


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Al-Qaeda, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Syria, Terrorism

Terrorism: Ducks of Damascus, Salafis in Syria……….

 

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“Two bombs hit the Syrian capital of Damascus early Saturday morning, killing at least 27 security forces and civilians, according to state-run TV, which broadcast an awful scene of bloody carnage. The blasts reportedly came from car bombs targeting the government’s aviation-intelligence department and criminal-security department buildings. A reporter from the Associated Press said shooting broke out shortly after the blasts—the latest in a string of suicide bombings that have killed dozens of people since late December. As usual, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime said “terrorist forces” behind the yearlong uprising were responsible for the attacks, though the opposition says government forces had strategically set up the bombings to tarnish their reputation………”

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck, lays eggs like a duck, then voila! It is a duck! This was an act of terrorism. It would have been called “terrorism” in London, in Paris, in Riyadh, and in Oshkosh (WI), so why not in Damascus?
The Syrian regime has nothing to gain by showing the world that Damascus is not secure. Unless they do it to blame the opposition. Yet the cost to the regime may be higher than the benefit. Maybe.
The opposition has much to gain by showing the world that Damascus is not safe. No, I am not saying Burhan Ghalioun was the perpetrator, not even the neo-fascists of the Not Free Syrian Army. But the most likely culprits in this terror bombing are the al-Qaeda or other Salafi terrorists. They have been filtering “back” from Iraq into Syria, bent on indiscriminate murder (in Iraq most of their terror murder was quite “discriminate”).
Cheers
mhg


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