Clipmarks | merrie's 'al qaeda' clips

Facts: 5 Years Later: New Strategy Improving Security In Iraq

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:17:23 GMT

clipped by: missjackson

The past five years have been a critical time in history. U.S. troops should be proud of their partnership with Iraqis and the progress in Iraq.

The battle in Iraq is noble, necessary, and just.

Defeating the enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home.

Because we acted against Saddam Hussein, the world is better and America is safer.

The "Surge" Strategy Has Produced Dramatic Results In Iraq

The U.S. is carrying out a new strategy in Iraq based on providing population security.

The surge is working.

More than 90,000 concerned local citizens are now helping to protect their communities from terrorists, insurgents, and extremists.

As we have fought al Qaeda, Coalition and Iraqi forces have also taken the fight to Shia extremist groups – many of them backed, financed, and armed by Iran.

The U.S. has doubled the number of provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq.

Political Progress Is Taking Place In Iraq

Why The Brits Are Setting Terrorists Free

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:49:38 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: It is surely no accident that this failure to grasp the true dimensions of the Islamic terrorist threat is so pronounced among the British elite. For these are the people whose education and careers embody the key attribute of Britain's liberal society – the belief that the world is governed by rational agents acting in their rational self-interest.

The British ruling class just doesn't get religious fanaticism. That is why its judges and politicians are finding it so difficult to fight Islamic terror. Not just Britain but the whole world is less safe as a result.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

There is much emotional talk about defending Britain's ancient rights and liberties, whose erosion in the ostensible cause of fighting terror would, it is said, hand victory to al Qaeda. But this view does not chime with British public opinion – which if anything wants the government to take more draconian measures against terrorism. That's why Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided to extend the current 28-day limit for detaining terrorist suspects before charge to 42 days, a measure which the House of Commons recently passed.

So does this mean that the establishment mood on counterterrorism is toughening up? Not a bit. Mr. Brown forced through the 42-days law only with the last-minute help of the handful of Northern Irish Ulster Unionist MPs. Not only his own Labour backbenchers but the Conservative Party and most of the political and intellectual class are solidly against the measure, which is likely to be thrown out when it reaches the upper house of Parliament this month.

Tags: britain, rights, terrorism, al qaeda members, pm brown, house of commons, labour party, conservative party, intellectual class

Big Gains Against al Qaeda

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:11:36 GMT

clipped by: missjackson

Clip Source: www.commentarymagazine.com

Near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al Qaeda globally—and here I’m going to use the word “ideologically”—as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam. Thus spoke CIA Director Michael Hayden in an interview with the Washington Post published on May 30 under the headline, “U.S. Cites Big Gains Against al Qaeda.” Hayden’s upbeat assessment is shared by a surprising number of analysts who have written recently about al Qaeda’s decline and possible fall, including Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek, David Ignatius in the Washington Post, Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker, Peter Bergen and Paul Cruikshank in the New Republic, former CIA analyst Marc Sageman in a new book, Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the 21st Century, and Michael Sheehan, a former New York Police Department counterterrorism chief, in Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves.

Demand The U.S. House Censure Rep. Delahunt NOW!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:24:38 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Also, more action alerts include:

Tell YOUR Rep. to Co-Sponsor the "Affordable Gas Price Act"

As usual, the government doesn't have a solution to the problem -- the government IS the problem!

House bill H.R. 2415, short-titled the "Affordable Gas Price Act," was introduced on May 21, 2007. The official title of the bill states its purpose:

"To reduce the price of gasoline by allowing for offshore drilling, eliminating Federal obstacles to constructing refineries and providing incentives for investment in refineries, suspending Federal fuel taxes when gasoline prices reach a benchmark amount, and promoting free trade."

So for over a year now, Congress has had available to them legislation that reduces gas prices by reforming government polices that artificially inflate the price of gas.

And not one of them has even had the guts to sign on as a co-sponsor.

Clip Source: capwiz.com

ALERT: On Thursday, June 26, David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

When Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) asked him about certain terrorist interrogation techniques, Addington responded that he couldn't respond while C-SPAN was broadcasting the hearing, because "Al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN." ...

Tags: david addington, c-span, judiciary subcommittee, rep delahunt (d-ma)

Delahunt Is Glad Addington Is Al-Qaida Target

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:56:18 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Congressman Delahunt's response was, "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you."

Mr. Delahunt now denies he meant what he said. But what he clearly said was "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you." Al Qaeda now knows the face of one of the men who relentlessly pursues its henchmen and deals with their interrogations. Mr. Addington volunteered for public service, not a death sentence with Congressional encouragement.
Delahunt is both a vile liar and a cowardly lion willing to roar down at Mr. Addington while encouraging terrorists to do his dirty work in a war he has been ineffective at stopping.

Congressman Delahunt's email address is william.delahunt@mail.house.gov.

Congressman Delahunt can be reached at 202-225-3111 and by fax at 202-225-5658

Or, you can ask Barack Obama yourself at (866) 675-2008

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AEDR7ghl7AU

Clip Source: www.redstate.com

David Addington is the Vice President's Chief of Staff. Yesterday, he testified before Congress.

While Congress has also descended into a more shrill style, until yesterday it had not crossed one line of civility that never should be crossed on either side.

During the course of the hearing, Congressman and Obama Superdelegate William Delahunt (MA-10) asked Mr. Addington about water boarding. Mr. Addington responded that he would not go into details because Al Qaeda is probably watching.

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: vp's chief of staff, david addington, c-span, congressional hearing, obama superdelagate, william delahunt, (d, ma.)

Some Iraqi News Not Reported By "The Media"

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:36:55 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Meanwhile Bill Roggio reports that a released Gitmo detainee is back to the front and is responsible for attacks inside Iraq: The detainee, Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, drove a armored truck packed with explosives into a Iraqi army base and detonated it, killing 13 Iraqi army soldiers and wounding 42.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/released_guantanamo.php

Just the tip of the iceberg I’m afraid after our courts release a large chunk of these guys.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, through its puppet organization the Islamic State of Iraq, released its latest propaganda video on June 23. The video contains a montage of attacks throughout Iraq, and features two Kuwaiti al Qaeda operatives who conducted strikes in Mosul. One of the operatives was released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Islamic State of Iraq used footage taken at Combat Outpost Inman by this reporter in Mosul in March of this year.

Clip Source: www.floppingaces.net

The remnants of the Mahdi Army have gone underground, forming an armed network on a much smaller scale. How small? Think of the Spartans at Thermopylae, and cut that in half while removing the courage and the military skill.

The military wing of the Sadrist Movement, the political party loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, is “turning itself into a secret armed organization,” an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi intelligence reports suggest the group’s numbers have dwindled from around 50,000 to as few as 150 in the past few years.

Intelligence officials credit decisions by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to launch military offensives against Shiite militants in the southern parts of the country as deterring the group. An Iraqi intelligence official reports as many as 2,000 Mehdi Army fighters were killed in recent operations in Basra, Sadr City and the provincial capital of Maysan, Amarah.

Tags: mahdi army, basra, sadr city, mosul, the islamic state of iraq

Bin Laden's Right-Hand Man Out On Bail

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:08:58 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: He was also banned from associating with a long list of named people, including Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Rachid Ramda, who was convicted in France of masterminding a series of bombings in 1995. Abu Hamza, another firebrand preacher convicted of inciting hatred at a London mosque, was also named.

Abu Qatada won a lengthy appeal against his extradition from Britain to Jordan in April and at the time, the Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, pledged the ruling would be appealed and he would not be released.

Described by SIAC as a "truly dangerous individual" who has played a central role in major terrorist activities associated with al-Qaeda, Abu Qatada has, in his absence, been convicted twice in Jordan for conspiracy to carry out bomb attacks on two hotels in Amman in 1998 and for providing finance and advice for bomb attacks in Jordan planned to coincide with the millennium.

Clip Source: www.smh.com.au

I am extremely disappointed that the courts have granted Abu Qatada bail, albeit with very strict conditions

The radical cleric who inspired Mohammed Atta - one of the ringleaders of the September 11 hijackers - is to be released from a London prison within 24 hours, it has been confirmed.

The decision to allow Abu Qatada out of custody and into home arrest on bail comes despite a British Government pledge that the man described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe would not be allowed to go free.

An eight-page dossier on the conditions of his bail, made public on Tuesday by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), stated that he would be fitted with an electronic cuff, placed under surveillance and on 22-hour-a-day house arrest in his West London home.

In addition, Abu Qatada would not be allowed to attend any mosques and was banned from using any communications equipment such as mobile phones, computers or access to the internet.

Tags: radical cleric, london prison, abu qatada, out of custody, bin laden's right-hand, europe

Britain Announces New Sanctions Against Iran, Troops To Afghanistan

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:20:12 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are strained over allegations that the Taliban and Al Qaeda find sanctuary in Pakistan's border regions.

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates as they become available.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

LONDON — Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Britain will freeze assets of Iran's largest bank in a further move to discourage the country from developing nuclear weapons.

Brown said Monday at a news conference with U.S. President George Bush that Britain will urge Europe to impose further sanctions.

The prime minister said Britain will take any necessary action to impress on Iran that it needs to abandon any ambitions of developing nuclear weapons.

President Bush says the United States can help calm the "testy situation" along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the president is not endorsing a threat by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to send Afghan troops into Pakistan to fight notorious Taliban leaders.

Speaking at a news conference in London, Bush says the mission for the United States remains to deny safe haven to extremists who want to kill innocent people. The president said, "That's the strategy of Afghanistan. It needs to be the strategy of Pakistan."

Tags: pm gordon brown, president bush, sanctions on iran, freeze iranian assets, nuclear weapons, afghanistan, pakistan, taliban, al-qaeda

Iraqi Police Says Senior Qaeda Militant Killed

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:12:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Anbar, a former epicentre of Sunni-led insurgency, has seen a dramatic fall in violence since the end of 2006 after local Sunni groups began siding with US forces to fight Al-Qaeda.

Clip Source: afp.google.com

Iraqi police parade with their national flag

HADITHA, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi police on Friday killed a senior Al-Qaeda in Iraq militant and four aides during a gunbattle in the western province of Anbar, the police official who led the assault said.

Saudi national Abu Bakr al-Saudi was killed along with his four comrades near the town of Haditha in the Sunni Arab province, Colonel Mohammed Hussain told AFP.

"We got a tip-off about his whereabouts from the locals. Our forces fought an intense seven-hour battle with him and his aides during which Abu Bakr and four others were killed," Hussain said.

One of the militants killed was a Tunisian, Abu Yakeen, the colonel said, adding two others were Iraqis, while the police were yet to identify the fifth dead militant.

Another Iraqi militant was arrested after the clash, Hussain said.

US and Iraqi forces claim Al-Qaeda militants are currently operating mainly in Nineveh province with the provincial capital of Mosul being their last major urban bastion.

Tags: senior al-qaeda in iraq, abu bakr al-saudi, haditha, colonel mohammed hussain, mosul

Obama's Plan For Defeat

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:54:19 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But Obama and the Democrats would forfeit every one of these successes to a declared policy of fixed and unconditional withdrawal.

The disconnect between what Democrats are saying about Iraq and what is actually happening there has reached grotesque proportions. Obama will keep pulling out his 2002 speech opposing the war. But McCain's case is simple. Is not Obama's central mantra that this election is about the future not the past? It is about 2009, not 2002. Obama promises that upon his inauguration, he will order the Joint Chiefs to bring him a plan for withdrawal from Iraq within 16 months.

If McCain cannot take to the American people the case for the folly of that policy, he will not be president. Nor should he be.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

The choice could not be more clearly drawn. The Democrats' one objective in Iraq is withdrawal. McCain's one objective is victory.

McCain's case is not hard to make. Iraq is a three-front war -- against Sunni al-Qaeda, against Shiite militias and against Iranian hegemony -- and we are winning on every front:

We did not go into Iraq to fight al-Qaeda.

But al-Qaeda chose to turn it into the central front in its war against America.

-- As for the Shiite extremists, the Mahdi Army is isolated and at its weakest point in years.

Its sponsor, Iran, has suffered major setbacks, not just in Basra, but in Iraqi public opinion, which has rallied to the Maliki government and against Iranian interference through its Sadrist proxy.

Even the most expansive American objective -- establishing a representative government that is an ally against jihadists, both Sunni and Shiite -- is within sight.

Tags: iraq, mccain, obama, al-qaeda, mahdi army, al-sadr, iran's sadrist proxy

Supreme Court Lets Guantanamo Prisoners Challenge Detention In U.S. Courts

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:39:01 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: This is breaking news. Check back for more

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices, in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Justice Steven Kennedy wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Dissenting were Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Tags: u.s.supreme court ruling, gitmo detainees, al-qaeda links, terrorism, taliban

What Phase Two Senate Intelligence Report Says About Saddam's Hospitality

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:19:28 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Postwar information supports prewar assessments and statements that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad and that al Qaeda was present in northern Iraq.

But now, even in a partisan report designed to attack the Bush administration's credibility, the Senate Intelligence Committee has admitted that Bush and his officials were right to argue that Saddam was harboring al Qaeda fugitives. Both prewar and postwar intelligence assessments confirm their view.

And while the Senate Intelligence Committee got this issue right, it got many others wrong. The report is not even internally consistent and the committee simply ignored numerous pieces of information that got in the way of some of its conclusions.

Iraq and al Qaeda did not have a cooperative relationship.

[c]ommittee ignored the best evidence-Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in postwar Iraq.

Clip Source: www.weeklystandard.com

In reality, the report is little more than yet another attempt by partisan Democrats to make political hay out of flawed prewar intelligence.

Therefore, the report is intended to portray the Bush administration in the worst possible light. But even with this bias, the committee came to a noteworthy conclusion: The Bush administration was right to claim that Saddam's regime was harboring al Qaeda members.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's report includes this conclusion at the end of a terse section on the Bush administration's claims about Saddam's prewar terror ties:

Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other al Qaeda-related terrorist members were substantiated by the intelligence assessments.

Intelligence assessments noted Zarqawi's presence in Iraq and his ability to travel and operate within the country. The intelligence community generally believed that Iraqi intelligence must have known about, and therefore at least tolerated

Tags: saddam regime, prewar terror ties, iraq, prewar/postwar intelligence, al-zarqawi

Eat Crow, liberal Iraqi war skeptics

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:15:47 GMT

clipped by: pkronfield
clipper's remarks: If Democrats had won the White House in 2004, the jihadists might have succeeded. The idiotic liberals are still for retreat in the face of victory.
The US decision to "stay the course" in the Iraq war, which was also widely mocked and criticized, served to thoroughly demoralize the jihadist movement.
Another example of why liberals are unfit to run this country, unless you want to run it into the ground.

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

AMERICA has won, or is about to win, the Iraq war.

The latest proof came last month, as the Iraqi army - just a few months ago the target of scorn and abuse from Democratic politicians and journalists - forcefully reoccupied three cities that had served as key insurgency bases (Basra, Sadr City and Mosul).

Sunnis and Shias alike applauded as their nation's army compelled insurgent militias to lay down their arms. The country's leading opposition newspaper, Azzaman, led the applause for the move into Mosul - a sign that national reconciliation in Iraq is under way and probably irreversible.

US combat deaths in May also were down to 20, the lowest monthly total since February 2004. The toll for May 2007 was 121.

In a Washington Post interview, CIA Director Michael Hayden said we're witnessing the "near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq."

If Democrats had won the White House in 2004, the jihadists might have succeeded.

there's no substitute for winning.

Tags: war on terror, victory, loony left

D-Day In Context

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:32:07 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Perhaps that's because it would draw parallels between those who stormed the coast of France in 1944 and those who are fighting now -- and winning -- a war against radical Islam. Unlike those who braved their way into Hitler's Fortress Europe, the young Americans fighting today's battles reap few accolades from the potentates of the press or the liberal "leadership" in Washington.

A recent editorial warned about Iraq: "Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war." And it took to task those who comprise "the 'this-war-is-lost' caucus."

The victories over al-Qaida and the Shiite militias in Iraq, against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's remnant in Afghanistan, have been won by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines -- and the new allies in these countries. Those who landed on the beaches of Normandy 64 years ago were American heroes. So are those who serve today.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

Sixty-four years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on the radio and implored Americans to "devote themselves in a continuance of prayer invoking thy help to our efforts." The "effort" of which he spoke was Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing of 150,000 American and Allied troops at Normandy. The risks were so great that Winston Churchill told the people of Britain: "The invasion has been launched. The result is with God."

Since then, those who fought their way ashore June 6, 1944, and successfully breached Hitler's Atlantic Wall have been honored justifiably for their participation in the momentous event. On the 40th anniversary of the operation, Ronald Reagan stood on that "lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France" and spoke of that "giant undertaking unparalleled in human history" and praised "the boys of Pointe du Hoc the heroes who helped end a war."

This year, the anniversary of their achievement received little notice

Tags: normandy, d-day, franklin delano roosevelt, winston churchill, afghanistan, iraq, al-qaeda, bin-laden, taliban, muslim extremists

9/11 Architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Make Me A Martyr

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:05:43 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: It has declared Mohammed and other al-Qaeda accused to be "illegal enemy combatants", stateless individuals who should not be afforded the usual protections given to prisoners of war.

Joining him (Khalik Sheikh Mohammed) at the long-awaited hearing were Ramzi Binalshibh, who is said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaeda leaders; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew and lieutenant of Mohammed; Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, al-Baluchi's assistant; and Waleed bin Attash, who allegedly selected and trained some of the 19 hijackers who turned planes into missiles in the attacks.

BROUGHT up in Kuwait in a family whose roots lie in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, Mohammed developed extremist Islamic beliefs as a teenager. He claims to have joined the Muslim Brotherhood at 16 and to have fallen for violent jihad.

Of beheading Mr Pearl, he said: "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew."

Clip Source: news.scotsman.com

There was a dramatic beginning to the war crimes trial as he declared that he wanted the death penalty for his part in 9/11, for which he is said to have claimed responsibility "from A to Z". "Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time," Mohammed announced.

The judge, Ralph Kohlmann, had warned him he faced execution if convicted of organising the attacks that claimed 2,973 lives at the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania where passengers forced down their hijacked plane. "I will, God willing, have this, by you," Mohammed said.

He and his four alleged co-conspirators each face death if convicted of war crimes, including murder, conspiracy, attacking civilians and terrorism by hijacking planes to attack the US landmarks. The proceedings represent a milestone for the US authorities, who have been on Mohammed's tail for 15 years.

Mohammed defiantly sacked his defence team and insisted he wanted to represent himself.

Tags: 9/11 defendants, illegal enemy combatants, war crimes, murder, conspiracy, terrorism