Bombings across Iraq target Shia

"In total, more than 21 bombs exploded on Wednesday in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi cities of Kerbala, Balad, Haswa, which are predominantly Shi'ite areas that have been targeted before by Sunni Islamist insurgents."

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."

Osama bin Laden funded Bali attack

Jakarta Globe, March 23: "Osama bin Laden gave the Jemaah Islamiyah $30,000 (Rp 322 million) to carry out terror attacks in Southeast Asia, a key witness in the ongoing trial of Bali bombmaker Umar Patek told a Jakarta court yesterday."

Salam Fayyad: Stop using Palestinian cause to justify murder

'Extremists must stop using the Palestinian cause to justify their acts of violence, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday after a deadly attack on a French Jewish school.

"It is time for these criminals to stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine and to stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life," the Palestinian premier said in a statement.'

I like Salam Fayyad.

20 bombs exploded at 13 sites in Iraq: 46 killed

LAT: "The targets of the attacks included Shiite Muslim pilgrims, Iraqi police, an army patrol, government officials and guards outside a Christian church in Baghdad."

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."

Iraq executes Tunisian for bombing of Askari shrine

'Iraq executed a Tunisian man convicted of the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine that set off the worst of the country’s sectarian violence, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.

Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim said that Yusri Fakhir, who was convicted early this year of the bombing on the al-Askari shrine in Sunni city of Samarra, was executed Wednesday in Baghdad. Ten other people — one Egyptian and nine Iraqis — also were executed on unrelated terrorism convictions, Ibrahim said.

The Tunisian Foreign Ministry expressed its “regret and displeasure” following the execution, which happened “despite the efforts undertaken by the Tunisian state” to try to win a reprieve for Fakhir.

Last week, Tunisia’s interim president sent a letter to his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, asking for Fakhir’s release.

Fakhir’s father told the Tunisian state news agency TAP that his son was innocent of any crime.

“I consider my son a martyr and his final resting place is paradise,” Fakhir Trigui said. “There is no reason to be ashamed because he did nothing wrong.” '


He was innocent of any crime? He did nothing wrong? Did the schmuck go to Iraq as a tourist?

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.

Munich terrorists were trained in Libya

I'm watching "One Day in September" on Current TV, and I decided to read the Wiki article, which turned out to be timely:

"The documentary begins with an advertisement by the Munich Tourism Bureau with a beautiful young girl inviting the world to visit the city for the Olympics, then shows interviews with the wives of some of the murdered athletes, including Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer. The film also features the first known filmed interview with Jamal Al-Gashey, allegedly the only surviving terrorist. Al-Gashey, who is in hiding in Africa, wears a cap and sunglasses and his face is slightly blurred.

There are various shots of the Games getting under way, and attention is given to the lax security the Germans had at the Games. The terrorists are seen preparing for the assault; Al-Gashey claims that he and the other members were trained in Libya before going to West Germany to begin the assault."

Amazing how much terrorism Qadhafi funded.

PS: One Day in September is a MUST SEE documentary.

Two Iraqis arrested in Kentucky on terrorism charges

"Two Iraqis, including one allegedly involved in attacks with improvised explosive devices on U.S. troops in Iraq, have been arrested in Kentucky on federal terrorism charges, the Louisville Courier-Journal."

PS: "Two Iraqi nationals who came to the US as refugees have been arrested in Kentucky on charges that they conspired to provide money, weapons, and other support to Al Qaeda in Iraq, federal officials announced on Tuesday."

Bombings kill two dozen in Baghdad

"A wave of bombings hit the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing nearly two dozen people in a spate of violence that rocked nearly every corner of Baghdad and renewed questions about whether the country’s security forces can repel future internal threats.

In a 90-minute period shortly after sunrise, at least seven explosions ripped through the city, a succession of blasts that unnerved Iraq and U.S. officials who had been heralding the overall decline in violence here in recent months.

...No U.S. troops, who currently serve in non-combat roles in Iraq, were killed or wounded in any of the incidents. Instead most of the explosions were directed Iraqi police officers and government officials, both of whom have become favored targets of terrorism and insurgency groups in recent months."

Wahhabism is a terrorist cult

From an excellent article by Thomas Friedman:

'The Saudi ruling bargain is an old partnership between the al-Saud tribe and the Wahhabi religious sect. The al-Saud tribe get to stay in power and live however they want behind their palace walls, and, in return, the followers of the Wahhabi sect get to control the country’s religious mores, mosques and education system.

The Wahhabis bless the Saudi regime with legitimacy in the absence of any elections, and the regime blesses them with money and a free hand on religion. The only downside is that this system ensures a steady supply of “sitting around guys” — young Saudi males who have nothing other than religious education and no skills to compete — who then get recruited to become 9/11-style hijackers and suicide bombers in Iraq.

No one explains it better than the Saudi writer Mai Yamani, author of “Cradle of Islam” and the daughter of Saudi Arabia’s former oil minister. “Despite the decade of the West’s war on terror, and Saudi Arabia’s longer-term alliance with the United States, the kingdom’s Wahhabi religious establishment has continued to bankroll Islamic extremist ideologies around the world,” wrote Yamani in The Daily Star of Beirut, Lebanon, this week.'

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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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bomb explodes at Jerusalem bus stop

"A bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop Wednesday in central Jerusalem, killing one woman and wounding 38 in what appeared to be the first militant attack in the city in several years."

Like in Iraq, victims of terrorists in Israel are often poor people.

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.

Frenchman linked to terrorism convicted in Paris court

Canadian Press: "A Paris court has convicted a Frenchman who went to Iraq in 2004 to fight as an insurgent and sentenced him to five years in prison.

The court issued a warrant for 28-year-old Peter Cherif who attended the trial but wasn't present for the verdict Thursday. His lawyer also was absent.

Cherif was among a group of Paris youths who left for Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004. Two were killed, one as a suicide bomber, another in a bomb explosion.

Cherif was arrested in December 2004 in Fallujah and held for 19 months by U.S. troops, then turned over to Iraqis and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He escaped to Syria and was sent to France. He was freed in 2009 but charged with criminal association linked to terrorism.

Seven others in the French group have been convicted."

Bombs explode in Baghdad

Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN: "Five roadside bombs exploded in four Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday morning, killing a civilian and wounding 19 others, the Interior Ministry said.

The worst attack occurred in the Ghazaliya neighborhoods when a roadside exploded outside Talib al-Edani's house , an official with the Sunni Endowment, a group that oversees Sunni religious sites in Iraq. Edani was wounded along with two other people.

A few minutes later, when Iraqi security forces arrived, another roadside bomb exploded, killing one civilian and wounding nine people, including five Iraqi soldiers."

Saudi in Texas arrested on terrorism charges

"A 20-year-old Saudi student has been arrested in Texas in a bomb plot that may have targeted former President George W. Bush and nuclear plants, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who was admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and was attending college in Lubbock, Texas, was arrested on Wednesday by FBI agents, the Justice Department said.

He was accused of terrorism charges involving the purchase of chemicals and equipment to make a bomb, with potential targets that included nuclear power plants. One of his e-mails included the Dallas address of Bush. Another cited three former U.S. military members who had been stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison, where Iraqis faced abuses by their American jailers."

Thanks Maury for posting.