Taliban Kills 3 Americans

Taliban Kills 3 Americans

Fwd: Egypt

'Militants struck more than a dozen army and police targets in the restive Sinai Peninsula with simultaneous attacks involving a car bomb and mortar rounds on Thursday, killing at least 25 people, including civilians, officials said.

Meanwhile, an army major was shot dead at a checkpoint in Rafah near the Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4620994,00.html

 

Fwd: ISIS

'The Islamic State wants an Iraqi woman released from prison in exchange for a Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist.

Sajida al-Rishawi, 44, was placed on death row in Jordan for her role in terrorist attacks on three hotels that killed 57 others and injured 90 on Nov. 9, 2005.

Al-Rishawi, from Ramadi in central Iraq, strapped an explosive device to her body and entered the Radisson SAS Hotel in Jordan's capital city of Amman.

"My husband and I went inside the hotel. He went to one corner and I went to another," she said in a confession on state-run Jordan TV. "There was a wedding at the hotel, with children, women and men inside. My husband detonated (his bomb). I tried to explode (my belt), but it wouldn't."

The failed suicide bomber survived because she forgot a vital part of the explosive belt in the car. She blended in with the panicked guests fleeing the scene but was captured later at a safe house.'

http://news.yahoo.com/sajida-al-rishawi--the-failed-suicide-bomber-is-wants-in-prisoner-exchange-161654532.html

Jordan Ready to Swap Inmate for Pilot Held by Islamic State

Jordan Ready to Swap Inmate for Pilot Held by Islamic State

Fwd: Yemen

'Saudi Arabia is increasingly taking a security-first approach to neighbouring Yemen, where Houthi rebels have all but seized power, wanting nothing better than to finish a new border fence and then slam shut the gates.

Riyadh convened a meeting of Gulf countries on Wednesday to threaten unspecified measures to "protect their interests" in Yemen where the Shi'ite Muslim rebels, allies of its enemy Iran, are holding the president a virtual prisoner.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2921830/Saudi-Arabias-new-Yemen-strategy-fence.html

Fwd: Argentina

'They came with the cruelest of intentions. On the morning of July 18, 1994, terrorists parked a van packed with more than 600 pounds of explosives in front of a Jewish community center in central Buenos Aires, Argentina. When the van detonated, the community center collapsed. Eighty-five innocent civilians perished, and hundreds more were injured. The appalling attack came two years after another hideous bombing in Buenos Aires, when the Israeli embassy was blown up by a suicide bomber. That attack killed 29 people, including many children.

It was suspected at the time that Iran and its subsidiary terrorist organization Hezbollah were behind the carnage. Time bore that out

​..​

.

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2015/01/23/argentinas_bad_bet_110929.html

 

 

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Fwd: Yemen

'Thousands of protesters demonstrated Friday across Yemen, some supporting the Shiite rebels who seized the capital and others demanding the country's south secede after the nation's president and Cabinet resigned…

In Sanaa, which Houthis seized during their offensive in September, thousands of supporters converged on the capital's airport road. They raised green flags and banners proclaiming their slogan — "Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam"'

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/01/23/yemen-rebels-call-for-protests-a-day-after-president-resigns

go no-go

'On the one hand, West European states can intervene anywhere and at any time in their sovereign territory. As the shoot-out in Verviers and the subsequent raids elsewhere in Belgium suggest, their overwhelming advantage in force — including military, intelligence, and police — means they have not ceded control.

On the other hand, governments often choose not to impose their will on Muslim-majority areas, allowing them considerable autonomy, including in some cases the sharia courts that Emerson mentioned. Alcohol and pork are effectively banned in these districts, polygamy and burqas are commonplace, police enter only warily and in force, and Muslims get away with offenses illegal for the rest of population.

The Rotherham, England, child sex scandal offers a powerful example. An official inquiry found that for 16 years, 1997–2013, a ring of Muslim men sexually exploited — through abduction, rape, gang rape, trafficking, prostitution, torture — at least 1,400 non-Muslim girls as young as 11. The police received voluminous complaints from the girls' parents but did nothing; they could have acted but chose not to.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396918/question-no-go-zones-europe-daniel-pipes

 

Arrests in Belgium, France, Germany Amid ISIS-linked Terror Tensions

Arrests in Belgium, France, Germany Amid ISIS-linked Terror Tensions

ISIS & Al Qaeda Joining Forces

ISIS & Al Qaeda Joining Forces

Fwd: France

'Francis said on his flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Manila that everyone had not only the liberty, but also the obligation, "to say what he thinks to help the common good."

But he added that this should be done without giving offense, because human dignity should be respected.

If a friend "says a swear word against my mother, then a punch awaits him," Francis said.

"It's normal, it's normal," he said of such a response. "One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith." '

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/14/asia/philippines-pope-francis-visit/

Fwd: France

'An unnamed American official told CNN the U.S. has received information from the French intelligence service that Said Kouachi traveled to Yemen in 2011, where he trained with Al-Qaida militants. According to the official, the training included firearm usage, and possibly bomb making as well.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.636178

'Anwar al-Awlaki was the first United States citizen to be killed in a United States drone strike. His son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was the second. Anwar was known as an American and Yemeni imam and Islamic militant. US government officials said that he was a senior talent-recruiter and motivator who was involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. With a blog, a Facebook page, the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, and many YouTube videos, the Saudi news station Al Arabiya described him as the "bin Laden of the Internet."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki

 

Fwd: New York

'A Muslim cleric who preached at a London mosque attended by Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe-bomber Richard Reid was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a deadly hostage-taking and trying to start a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Calling the crimes of Abu Hamza al-Masri, 56, "barbaric" and "immoral," U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan today rejected his plea for a shorter term. She said the cleric needed to be "incapacitated."

"I don't believe that the world will be safe in 10 years or 15 years," the judge told Hamza. "I have every reason to believe that if you were free, you'd do it again."

Abu Hamza, whose forearms were amputated after an accident handling explosives, sought leniency because of his disability. He also has diabetes, high blood pressure and psoriasis.

The judge said the loss of his hands hadn't stopped him from inciting followers to carry out a deadly hostage taking in Yemen in 1998, providing captors with a satellite phone they used to communicate with him during the attack.

"You had those disabilities at the time you committed the crimes and it's important for the court to understand that you knew the risks," she said. "I do not think of a time when you would not inspire others to do the things that you yourself could not do."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/muslim-cleric-who-tried-to-build-u-s-terror-camp-gets-life-1-.html

Fwd: Turkey

'woman wearing a face veil carried out a suicide bombing near one of Istanbul's most famous tourist sites Tuesday, killing one police officer and wounding another.

The bombing took place in a police station near the famed Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia museum in Istanbul's Sultanahmet tourist area, parts of which were cordoned off for an investigation, Turkish media reported.

The woman was attempting to enter the police station near Sultanahmet Square on the pretext of having left her wallet inside when guards stopped her at the entrance, Istanbul Gov. Vasif Sahin told reporters Tuesday. She spoke heavily accented English, Sahin said.

Two officers were hurt in the bombing, and one of them later died of his injuries, authorities said.

Authorities secured the blast area and halted public transportation into the neighborhood, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.'

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-turkey-istanbul-suicide-bombing-20150106-story.html

Fwd: Canada

'Anti-Islam protester has been jailed for one year after denouncing the Koran on a Toronto subway while holding an Israeli flag...

The 50-year-old, who has previously been sentenced to nine months in jail after handing out a flyer that "vilified Muslims and disparages their religion", claimed the outburst had been part of a social experiment and that he wanted to promote debate amongst commuters.

He was refused bail and has since been behind bars for more than seven months until judge Gerald Lapkin convicted Brazau of the three charges: breach of the peace (by interfering with Toronto Transit Commission service), causing a disturbance (by using insulting language) and breaching his probation on the earlier hate-mongering conviction.

Handing Brazau a 20 month sentence, minus eight months for the time he has spent in custody before his trial'

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/canada-islam-baiting-eric-brazau-jailed-denouncing-koran-while-holding-israel-flag-1482368

Fwd: France

'Submission, by celebrated French author Michel Houellebecq, was featured on the front cover of this week's Charlie Hebdo, the magazine attacked by terrorist gunmen on Wednesday…

 

Submission, Houellebecq's sixth novel, predicts that in 2022 France's mainstream Left and Right club together to back a certain Mohammed Ben Abbes in a second round presidential run-off against Miss Le Pen.

The new president then proceeds to Islamise the EU, with Turkey and various north African countries joining the bloc. The aim is to build a territory resembling the old Roman empire.

The protagonist, François, a 44-year-old literature professor, converts to Islam after a university director introduces him to the pleasures of polygamy with submissive wives.

The book, which has a print run of 150,000, has already shot to the top of Amazon.fr's bestseller list...

François Hollande, the French president, on Monday said he would read the book and that literary freedom must be respected. But he urged the French not to give into "fear" of "submersion, invasion, submission".

Houellebecq insisted that the novel was right to focus on the rise of religion. "More and more people can't stand living without God," he said.

After previously claiming Islam was the "the stupidest of all religions", the novelist declared: "The Koran turns out to be much better than I thought now that I've reread, or rather read it."

"Atheism and secularism are dead, so is the French republic," he told NouvelObs.

While the work is undoubtedly provocative, French critics were split over its literary merits with Le Monde's Raphaêlle Leyris claiming Submission was "his most mediocre to date" and Les Echos saying there are "better things to read".

Writer Emmanuel Carrère, however, insisted it was a "sublime book" by an author whose vision is "more powerful than Aldous Huxley or George Orwell".

"If there one person in the literary world, and not just the French one, who can think through this huge mutation we all feel is under way without having the means to analyse it, it is him," he said. '

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11329625/Islamophobic-Michel-Houellebecq-book-featured-by-Charlie-Hebdo-published-today.html