Syria now a magnet for Sunni extremists

Naturally, without an American invasion.

NYT via MSNBC: "The video, posted on YouTube, is one more bit of evidence that Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists are doing their best to hijack the Syrian revolution, with a growing although still limited success that has American intelligence officials publicly concerned, and Iraqi officials next door openly alarmed.

While leaders of the Syrian political and military opposition continue to deny any role for the extremists, Al Qaeda has helped to change the nature of the conflict, injecting the weapon they perfected in Iraq — suicide bombings — into the battle against President Bashar al-Assad with growing frequency.

The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Sunni extremists, including those operating under the banner of Al Qaeda. An important border crossing with Turkey that fell into Syrian rebels’ hands last week, Bab al-Hawa, has quickly become a jihadist congregating point."

Mosul is ruled by Al Qaeda

Reuters: 'Baghdad's ministers describe Iraq's crippling infrastructure problems as an opportunity to invest. Occasional explosions are dismissed as the last throes of isolated cells trying to show they are still relevant in a country where the overwhelming majority is committed to peace.

But during a visit of several days in Iraq's third largest city, security officials and residents of Mosul painted a picture far worse than commonly understood from Baghdad.

Far from being furtive and on the run, al Qaeda and its allies maintain a hold over economic and political life that shows little sign of loosening. Residents speak fearfully.

Um Qassim's family of nine are Shi'ites from the small Shabak minority, one of the many ethnic groups that share Iraq's most diverse city. They have had to abandon their home and move into two rooms across town.

"They have displaced all the Shabak from their houses to eastern Mosul. Whoever resists, they kill him or bomb his house," Um Qassim said.

As she began speaking to Reuters, her husband approached, clearly agitated: "Be careful, do not mention your real name," he said. "Keep in your mind that they can reach us anytime."

Shop owners say they are forced to pay protection money to the militants. Security officials say the fighters are raising millions of dollars per month here, which they use to fund bomb attacks across Iraq.

"They keep coming, every three months, to take $300 - $100 per month - always at the same time but not the same person," said a pharmacist, who spoke to Reuters only when his shop was empty and became silent whenever a customer entered.

"They are very organized and very polite. I cannot get rid of them. The pharmacist next door refused to pay. They planted a bomb inside his pharmacy and one of his workers lost his leg."

Al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for Baghdad bombings

"A terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda has asserted responsibility for 37 recent attacks in Iraq’s capital, including what the organization called a failed attempt to assassinate the prime minister, as violence continued throughout the country Monday."

Iranian & Arab extremists did not want democracy in Iraq

"Iran, the Arab dictators and, most of all, Al Qaeda did not want a democracy in the heart of the Arab world, and they tried everything they could — in Al Qaeda’s case, hundreds of suicide bombers financed by Arab oil money — to sow enough fear and sectarian discord to make this democracy project fail." -Thomas Friedman

Usama bin Ladin's Al Qaeda did 9/11

This morning when I checked my facebook page I read a post by "Global Liberation Network":

'Some people don't believe Bin Laden and his al-Qaida group were behind the Sept 11 coordinated attacks on the US. Some even go so far as to believing the towers fell due to blasts on the ground level. Let's be rational. Bin Laden himself has stated the attacks were al-Qaida's work, and that he helped organize them. He has also stated their motives.'

I agreed and liked the post, and then I read the comments. I was surprised to see so many "truthers" who believe that 9/11 was an inside job, and I was really surprised by the number of westerners (with western names, at least) who liked the comments by the truthers.

One of the administrators posted this recording of bin Laden claiming responsibility for the attack, and explaining why it was done:



"May peace be on those who follow the light of guidance" he says. How ironic that he would mix peace with mass murder.

One truther, whose profile pic is "9/11 Truth", wrote "CIA has been caught making the bin laden tapes.FBI doesn't mention 9/11 in connection with bin laden's FBI most wanted list because they state themselves that there is NO evidence linking him to it. Don't mislead the sheep..."

CIA made the tapes? Don't mislead the sheep? Really? 10 people liked his comment, and they all have western names!

The only comment I left was a link to the Popular Mechanics article that debunks the conspiracy theories. Nobody responded to that.

The GLN admin posted this video later in the day.

It is amazing how many people think 9/11 was not done by Arab terrorists.

Al Qaeda in Iraq regrouping

'U.S. officials said al Qaeda's global second-in-command, Atiyah abd al-Rahman -- a Libyan who played a key role in managing ties between the leadership and al Qaeda in Iraq -- was killed in Pakistan last week.

But al Qaeda's resurgence, along with Shi'ite militias often funded and armed by neighbor Iran, represents a dangerous sectarian mix for Iraq as Syria seethes next door and U.S. forces aim to leave by year-end.

"There was a thought that al Qaeda has ended in Iraq. No, they regrouped and now the third generation of al Qaeda is working actively to reorganize itself with weapons and training," Lieutenant-General Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister for intelligence, told Reuters.'

AQI killed Iraqis to avenge Usama bin Laden

That must make a lot of sense to them!

NYT: "One of the most powerful insurgent groups in Iraq, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, released a statement on Saturday, warning that it had launched a 100-attack campaign to exact revenge for the United States’ killing of Osama bin Laden.

The statement did not explicitly refer to a string of over 40 attacks on Monday that killed more than 90 people and was the most violent day in Iraq this year. But the statement said the campaign had begun in the middle of this month — Monday was Aug. 15 — and would continue until there had been 100 attacks.

“We began this stage with an invasion we have called the battle of revenge for Sheik Osama bin Laden and other senior leaders,” said a statement posted on the Internet.

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has long claimed an affiliation to Bin Laden’s group, and has clearly been inspired by it. Bin Laden died in May in an American raid on his compound in Pakistan."

Pakistan arrests CIA informants who led to killing of Usama bin Laden

More proof that the Pakistani government is not on America's side in the fight against Al Qaeda. As if we needed more proof.

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Don't release photos of dead Usama

I just saw John Nichols of "The Nation" argue on the Ed Show that Obama should release photos to the public, after news of Obama's decision to set up a viewing room at the CIA for VIPs to view the photos.

Usama's fourth son is already pissed, and I bet many Saudis feel the same way. How do you think they would react to photos of their "vanished father" shot in the head? I think Obama is making the right decision.

Al Qaeda never attacked Israel

Angry Arab: "It is known that Al-Qa`idah never ever attacked Israel. In fact, it seems that Bin Laden did not adhere to boycott of companies that helped Israel. I read in the New York Times that he drank Coke."

Also read my post "12 times as many suicide bombings in Iraq as in Israel"

Usama condemned attacks on Shia?

I knew al Zawahri clashed with Zarqawi on AQI's attacks on Shia, but I did not know that Usama also disagreed with the attacks on Shia.

"The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was long bin Laden's deputy, but has clashed in the past with Al Qaeda's front group in Iraq. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahri urged followers to focus attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests, and sharply condemned the network's Iraqi wing for targeting Shiite Muslims during the years that Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/09/al-qaeda-iraq-pledges-support-al-zawahiri/#ixzz1LuOMhO72

Church murderer tries to escape, gets killed, en route to jehenem

to join Usama bin Ladin.

'A man accused of attacking a Baghdad church last year wrestled a gun from a guard overnight to free fellow Al Qaeda-affiliated detainees and launch an assault that killed at least 14 people, including a top counterterrorism officer, according to Iraqi officials and Associated Press reports.

Abu Huthaifa Battawi, who was being held in connection with an October church attack that killed 68 people, tried to drive out of Baghdad's Interior Ministry with fellow inmates when he was gunned down by guards Sunday, according to the Associated Press.'

Update: "The accused coordinator of a fatal Baghdad church siege last year was shot and killed yesterday after wresting a gun from a prison guard and launching an hourslong revolt that left 17 people dead, including a top Iraqi counterterrorism general."

Al Qaeda gets its revenge

on Iraqi Shia and Iraqi security forces, again! And it's not surprising, because it's happened so many times before! Iraqis have been the biggest victims of Al Qaeda's terrorism and assassinations in the world, I reckon.

"A suicide bomber driving an explosives-packed vehicle rammed his way into a barricaded police compound yesterday, killed 20 police officers, and wounded 40 others in the second major deadly blast in Iraq this week.

...There was no immediate claim of responsibility for this bombing or for another on Tuesday that killed nine people in a Shi’ite neighborhood in Baghdad. But the types of targets — Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite Muslims — indicate Al Qaeda in Iraq’s involvement."

Between 2003 and 2010, there were 1,759 suicide bombings in Iraq, according to this Wikipedia article.

PS: I hope Usama bin Ladin is burning in HELL now, and I hope the remainder of Al Qaeda follow him!!!

Pakistan is a terrorist state

When I heard the news of Usama's death, I was listening to a program on BBC World Service about Pakistan's blasphemy laws. If you are in Pakistan and if you are accused of blasphemy, you're fvcked, even if the courts acquit you. This is a country that has nuclear weapons and has received billions of dollars in US aid and yet in Pakistan Sufism is attacked and Sufi mosques are bombed, Christians are murdered. Shia are mass murdered. While Wahhabi terrorists live in fortified compounds.

"A day after Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan, Lucknow's Shia Muslim community has called on the international community to declare the country a terrorist state. "

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PS: Salman Rushdie agrees.

Obama not soft on defense

Lawrence O'Donnel pointed out the US raid on the Somali pirates happened under Obama. That was daring and successful. So was the mission that killed the founder of Al Qaeda.

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Usama bin Ladin killed north of Islamabad

The head of Al Qaeda, the organization that has killed tens of thousands of innocent people in the last decade, is DEAD.

I was driving when I heard the news, was listening to BBC World Service. XM Satellite service was interrupted with a message to tune in to news channels to hear major breaking news. It was the first time I heard an emergency message on XM-Sirius.

People celebrated in Washington:

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Iraqi court sentences AQI leader to death

"An Iraqi court on Wednesday ordered the execution of an al-Qaida leader and five of his lieutenants for masterminding some of Baghdad's deadliest bombings, a judiciary spokesman said.

Munaf al-Rawi was convicted and sentenced to death for the attacks that included the August 2009 government ministry bombings that killed more than 100 people, according to Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar."

Thanks Arwah Iraqia for posting on fb.

Al Qaeda's magazine for women

For women who "launch" LOL.



Thanks Fareed for posting on fb.

Islamic State of Iraq "Finance Minister" arrested

M&C: "Mosul, Iraq - Iraqi army forces arrested an insurgent affiliated with al-Qaeda on Tuesday, and six people were killed in separate attacks, according to security officials.

Army forces arrested the so-called finance minister of Islamic State of Iraq in the northern city of Mosul, an army source said."

Al Qaeda has become irrelevant

Fareed Zakaria argues that the Arab revolution is bad for Al Qaeda, which wanted to overthrow all Arab dictators via terrorism and establish an Islamic state. He says that polls show that support for political violence is lower in Iraq than it is in the USA.