Police Report: American Airlines Flight 590

Police Report: American Airlines Flight 590 » The Aviation Nation

Sources inside American Airlines tell me that the airline has no intention of settling last week's lawsuit filed in U.S. district court. David Al-Watan, Talal Cholagh, Ali Alzerej, Hassan Alzerej, Hussein Alsalih and Mohammad Al-Saedy are seeking "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in damages for racial profiling.

This 12-page police report explains why American Airlines should never pay these men a dime. It also explains why several names should be added to the 800,000+ name no-fly list — if they haven't been added already.

Aviation security is a national security issue. There should be a zero tolerance policy in effect for anyone who acts like a bully in airports and on airplanes. Shame on the attorneys who represent people like this and shame on the journalists and news organizations who belittled the female passenger who opted out of having her kids bullied by a drunk actor named Dave Al-Watan. (Each flight attendant interviewed by the police felt the behavior of Al-Watan and his cohorts was belligerent, as did at least one other male passenger interview by police).

The men, it turns out, had been hired by the U.S. Military as "authentic Iraqi" actors in Iraq-war, "role-playing scenarios." I asked a U.S. Federal Air Marshal what this meant: "Most likely these guys were at Ft. Irwin playing terrorists and insurgents," he said.

They should have left their role-playing at the army base. Instead, they tried auditioning for FOX news (see police report page 3).

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Guantánamo by the Numbers

Guantánamo by the Numbers - New York Times

Number of “high-value detainees” now at Guantánamo: 15

Approximate percentage of detainees found to have committed “hostile acts” against the United States or coalition forces before detention: 53

Approximate number of countries of which detainees are citizens: 40

Most represented countries at Guantánamo: Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen

Cost of building Guantánamo high-security detention facilities: about $54 million

Estimated annual cost of operating Guantánamo: $90 million to $118 million

Cost of “expeditionary legal complex” for the military commission (under construction): $10 million to $12 million

Number of books in the Guantánamo detention library: 5,143

Number of Korans issued to detainees from January 2002 to June 2005: more than 1,600

Number of daily calories per detainee: Up to 4,200, including halal meat

Average weight gain per detainee: 20 pounds

Number of pills dispensed per day: 1,000, to 200-300 detainees

Number of apparent suicides: 4

Number of apparent suicide attempts: 41, by 25 detainees (as of May 2006)

Number of detainee assaults on guards using “bodily fluids”: more than 400

Date of first visit to Guantánamo by the International Committee of the Red Cross: Jan. 18, 2002

Approximate number of visits by lawyers to Guantánamo detainees so far this year: 1,100

Month of first habeas corpus petition filed to challenge detention at Guantánamo: January 2002

Number of habeas corpus petitions filed in federal courts on behalf of detainees: roughly 300

Number of detainees designated by the president as “eligible” for trial by military commission: 14

Number actually charged with crimes (for example, murder and material support for terrorism): 10

Number of pending cases: 3

Number of convictions: 1 (an Australian who pleaded guilty to material support of terrorism and was sentenced to nine months of confinement in his home country)

Estimated number of detainees who may be charged in the future: 80

Month of first release of a detainee: May 2002 (one detainee repatriated to Afghanistan because of an “emotional breakdown”)

Approximate number of detainees released: 445

Approximate number of current detainees found eligible for transfer or release: 70

Countries to which Guantánamo detainees have been transferred: Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, Yemen

Most recent announced transfer of detainees from Guantánamo: Nov. 4 (eight to Afghanistan, three to Jordan)

Personal items provided to detainees upon departure: a Koran, a denim jacket, a white T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, high-top sneakers, a gym bag of toiletries and a pillow and blanket for the flight home

Number of detainees said by Pentagon to have resumed hostile activities against the United States after release: at least 30

Number of United States senators who voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution that Guantánamo detainees “should not be released into American society, nor should they be transferred stateside into facilities in American communities and neighborhoods”: 94

Number of bills in Congress calling for the closing of Guantánamo: 3

Number of members of the House of Representatives who signed a letter to President Bush in June 2007 urging him to close Guantánamo and move the detainees to military prisons in the United States: 145

Number of Republicans who signed the letter: 1

Democratic presidential candidates who are on record supporting closing Guantánamo: 8

Republican presidential candidates who are: 2 (John McCain and Ron Paul)

Closest American allies that have called for Guantánamo’s closing: Britain, France, Germany

Next scheduled legal test of the Guantánamo system: Boumediene v. Bush, a challenge to the denial of habeas corpus, set for argument before the Supreme Court on Dec. 5

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Is It "UnAmerican" To Question Suspicious Airline Passengers?

Pajamas Media: Is It "UnAmerican" To Question Suspicious Airline Passengers? The New Racial Profiling Lawsuits

“There are some groups out there pushing the limits to reap the rewards of what happened on 9/11,” Tony Loeks told PJM in an interview. “They behave in a non-violent but suspicious manner to get themselves pulled off the aircraft with the result being a civil suit against the airline.”

An example of what may have possibly been such an attempt - a separate incident involving a group of 12, suspicious-acting, Arabic-speaking men that took place on Sun Country Airlines Flight 274, traveling from Washington to Minnesota on June 27. Two passengers on that flight had contacted me about the men’s threatening behavior and asked me to investigate. At first, TSA wouldn’t confirm that the incident even happened. Later they acknowledged that it did, but refused to comment.

Loeks, the affable Director of Safety and Security at Sun Country Airlines, by contrast, was willing to talk, explaining how important safety and security is to Sun Country, and “that goes for all the passengers as well.”

When thinking about airport security, it’s easy to conjure images of x-ray and bomb detection machines, but security, is, as Loeks explained, and as Webster’s defines, “being free from danger or threat.” So what happens when passengers feel threatened? Therein lies the airlines’ conundrum.

Based on passenger accounts, the 12 Middle Eastern men on Sun Country Flight 274 appeared to be going out of their way to call attention to their aberrant, in-flight behavior. One passenger explained: “They were so many of them and they were seated all over the plane. They acted like college kids except they were too old. They stood up in unison, kept changing seats, and kept passing cellular phones. They were so disruptive. No one else was being obnoxious like they were. This was totally out-of-line behavior. They were playing musical chairs. The flight attendant kept telling them to sit in their seats. But every time [the flight attendant] was out of eyesight, they were at it again.”

During the flight, this passenger debated whether or not to tell the flight attendant further details of the men’s behavior. “But then one of the men pulled out a video camera, a big camcorder, with a big mike. The flight attendant told him to put it away. He did, until she was gone. Then he pulled it back out and started video taping all the passengers on the plane. It was intimidating. Now, there was no chance of me saying anything. These guys had me on tape.”

The passenger’s mother, who was also on the plane, described in a separate interview what she witnessed in-flight. “What the men were doing was very intimidating, especially with that video camera. I felt scared. They were loud and boisterous. I thought about saying something to the flight attendant. But we live in Minnesota and are aware of the imam’s lawsuit. It’s a little bit scary, thinking you can get sued for giving information like this.” (At the time of the flight, lawyers for six Muslim clerics, removed from an airline for suspicious behavior, had named airline passengers in their well-publicized, racial profiling suit against U.S Airways, and the Minnesota airport authorities.)

The first passenger said that what disturbed her most was what she saw after the flight landed. She was waiting at the baggage claim alongside the men. “They scared a lot of us on the plane. One girl was crying. And then, when we got to the baggage claim, the men’s wives appeared, in their headscarves and with their kids. I thought, ‘Oh, my God? These guys have kids. How can men who have their own children to think about intentionally scare people like that? On the flight, I was with my kids.”

The answer appears to be because they can. There is no passenger recourse for being intimidated, spooked or threatened by a group of obnoxious men—hailing from the Middle East, America, or anywhere else. So far, there have been no civil lawsuits.

“We often get the same canned response..” Loeks said. “I do remember this one situation about two months prior to the JFK terror plot. There’s a long taxi out of JFK. We had a Middle Eastern passenger using his cell phone camera to take pictures of the airport grounds. During the taxi portion of the flight, cell phones must be off - his wasn’t. So we reported to TSA. Barely a response. Well, after the foiled plot, they were very interested in this individual, the flight and the date.”

Which brings us back to the six Arabs and their lawsuit currently in the headlines. These were six Iraqi military contractors hired by the U.S. Army to teach Marines about Iraqi culture and etiquette. Six professionals returning to Detroit on American Airlines flight 590 on August 28. Six grown men who claim they were “humiliated,” “violated,” and “mortified” for being questioned by airport officials at Lindberg Airport for one hour. There were no handcuffs involved. No law enforcement officers with guns.

David Al-Watan, Talal Cholagh, Ali Alzerej, Hassan Alzerej, Hussein Alsalih and Mohammad Al-Saedy are suing American Airlines in U.S. District Court for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The men’s lawyer, Lawrence Garcia of Allen Brothers Attorneys & Counselors PLLC, says what the airline did to them was “un-American.”
Another passenger on the plane, a mother traveling alone with her two young kids, felt uncomfortable by the men’s behavior during boarding procedures and asked, without fanfare, to be let off the plane. Media reports said she’d “overreacted.” To this end, Leah Robbins spoke to the press, “How can you overreact when it’s your children?” she told the San Diego Union Tribune. American Airlines officials decided to ask the men a few questions. Since when is it un-American to clarify the facts?

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59 children killed in Mohammedian bombing.

The Associated Press: 59 Schoolchildren Killed in Afghan Blast

Dozens of schoolchildren and five teachers were among those killed in a suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week — the country's deadliest since the fall of the Taliban — the government said Friday.

The 59 schoolchildren had lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives.

"The education minister has ordered that no children should be ever again be used in these sort of events," said Zahoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman. He said the children ranged in age from 8 to 18.

In all, the explosion claimed the lives at least 75 people, including several parliamentarians, and wounded 96. It was the deadliest attack in the country since the toppling of Taliban regime from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

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Los Angeles police plan to map Muslims

Los Angeles police plan to map Muslims - Yahoo! News

Civil rights advocates criticized plans by the Los Angeles Police Department to map the city's Muslim communities, calling it racial profiling.
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The LAPD's counterterrorism bureau plans to identify Muslim enclaves in order to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism," said Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing on Thursday.

"We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities," said Downing, who heads the counterterrorism bureau.

Downing said the plan is still in its early stages, but the LAPD wants to work with a Muslim partner and intends to have the data assembled by the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis.

Downing testified about the plan before a U.S. Senate committee on Oct. 30.

In his testimony, Downing said his bureau wanted to "take a deeper look at the history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status and social interactions" of the city's Muslim communities.

There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties.

...the Muslim Public Affairs Council, is considering working with the LAPD on the project.

"We will work with the LAPD and give them input, while at the same time making sure that people's civil liberties are protected," said Salam al-Marayati, the council's executive director.

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Last-Minute Evidence, Legal Debate Delay Case on Canadian Detainee

DefenseLink News Article: Last-Minute Evidence, Legal Debate Delay Case on Canadian Detainee

The case against a Canadian detainee accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and supporting al Qaeda took another strange twist today when the judge delayed the proceedings to give the defense team time to review last-minute evidence likely to favor the defendant. Army Col. Peter Brownback arraigned Omar Ahmed Khadr here today on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, supporting terrorism and spying. Khadr, who sat in the courtroom in a white detainee uniform with his hair tucked up under a black skull cap, waived the right to raise motions or enter a plea to the allegations. Brownback had been expected to rule today on Khadr’s status -- specifically, to determine if he is considered an “unlawful enemy combatant.” As Marine Corps Maj. Jeffrey Groharing, the lead prosecutor, pushed Brownback to make that ruling, the defense team urged a delay until after legal challenges to the military commission’s legitimacy are resolved.

The big issue today -- one that wasn’t shared with reporters until the defense team talked with them after today’s session -- is that the defense received potentially exculpatory evidence just two days ago. Exculpatory evidence is considered favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial. Kuebler told reporters a U.S. government employee was an eyewitness to events that could prove Khadr isn’t an unlawful enemy combatant. Kuebler declined to share more specifics, saying he hadn’t had the opportunity to talk with the eyewitness himself or even to see the evidence firsthand. Another complicating factor is that the eyewitness is not here in Guantanamo Bay and that the evidence involved is still under review to determine if it’s classified. Kuebler expressed dismay today that the prosecution had provided the information only after arriving here at Guantanamo Bay late Nov. 6. However, he said he has no reason to believe the prosecution team had previous knowledge of the eyewitness or had intentionally waited until the 11th hour to share that information.

Khadr is accused of lobbing a grenade during a firefight near Khost, Afghanistan, in July 2002 that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer and cost former Army Sgt. Lane Morris an eye. Khadr, now 21, was 15 at the time. He was captured during the firefight at an al Qaeda compound and has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since late 2003. Khadr was born in Toronto, the youngest in a family that has been called “Canada’s family of terror” and allegedly had close personal ties to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. His father, Ahmad Khadr, moved the family in 1990 to Pakistan, where he rose to become a senior al Qaeda lieutenant, according to background information included in the charges filed against Omar Khadr. The senior Khadr was imprisoned in Pakistan for providing funds to support the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan and moved the family to Afghanistan in 1996 after his release, documents show. The Khadr family allegedly traveled extensively through Afghanistan and Pakistan through 2001. Documents reveal that their travels gave Omar Khadr the opportunity to meet bin Laden and other key al Qaeda leaders at bin Laden’s compound, as well as al Qaeda training camps and guest houses. The senior Khadr died during a 2003 shootout with Pakistani forces, an incident that put another son operating with him for al Qaeda in a wheelchair. But before his death, he put his son Omar on the path to follow in his footsteps. Charges against Omar Khadr allege he began his own al Qaeda training in the summer of 2002, getting private instruction in the use of rocket-propelled grenades, rifles, pistols, grenades and explosives. He joined a team of other al Qaeda operatives to apply his new knowledge converting landmines into remotely detonated improvised explosive devices and planting them where U.S. forces were known to travel. Groharing told the court today the prosecution plans to include in its evidence against Khadr a videotape showing him making and planting mines.

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FBI: Al Qaeda Eyeing Mall Attacks Over Holidays

The FBI confirmed it has issued an "intelligence information report" warning of possible Al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Chicago shopping malls over the holiday season. The warning states Al Qaeda has been planning the attack for the past two years with the intension to disrupt the U.S. economy, but it notes the latest threats fit a pattern that has emerged every holiday season since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

FBI officials say details of the threat have come from a reliable source, but said much of the information is second- and third-hand, leaving FBI officials uncertain about the reliability of the intelligence received.

"This information was obtained through a lengthy chain of acquisition, and was provided to the source by a sub-source who spoke in confidence. The veracity of the information is uncertain but the threat is being reported due to the nature of the information," the FBI said in a statement.

"In the post 9/11 era, sharing information is our top priority. Al Qaeda messaging has clearly stated they intend to attack the U.S. or its interests; however, there is no information to state this is a credible threat. We remind people to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to authorities," added FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko.

Unclassified threat information was circulated by the FBI on Nov. 7, and is based on intelligence received in late September, according to ABC, which was first to report the story Thursday. The threat states that Al Qaeda has "been planning the attack for the past two years."

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What can and must be done

When are we going to perk up and pay attention? When our children die? Did noone pay attention to Beslan?

On August 25, 2006, three unidentified males described as Middle Eastern entered the offices of a school bus sales and service company in Bergen, NY. The men were attempting to purchase school buses and requested access to buses the company had in inventory. They left the building after the request was refused and they then observed the bus service lot from a parked maroon sedan type vehicle with unidentified Ontario license plates for approximately 10 minutes.

On July 27 and 28, 2006, an identified student transport contract company based in New Hampshire received two telephone calls from subjects in New Jersey who were attempting to purchase used school buses from the company. The callers, a male and female, identified themselves as representatives of a company that solicits import and export business that uses port facilities in the Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.

On May 19, 2006, two Saudi Arabian men boarded a bus full of students in Tampa, Florida speaking Arabic and remained on the bus for at least 30 minutes before officials removed them for questioning. They then gave conflicting reasons about why they had entered the bus... ("Two Saudi men - one wearing a black trench coat despite the Florida heat -- [terrified] a busload of Tampa schoolchildren by boarding a school bus and remaining for the entire ride to school, all the while laughing and speaking Arabic...")

Four men described as Middle Eastern tried to buy a surplus ambulance, two former police cruisers and an old truck from St. Petersburg College this summer, prompting college employees to alert authorities, SPC administrators said Thursday... In response, the FBI interviewed college employees, expressed an interest in the men and installed surveillance devices in the vehicles in advance of a scheduled pickup, ...But the buyers, who made at least two previous trips to the campus, never showed up for the third and final meeting... College officials could not provide a description of the men other than they were about 40 and appeared to be Middle Eastern.

Federal law enforcement authorities notified school districts in six states that a computer disc found in Iraq contained photos, floor plans and other information about their schools, two U.S. officials said Thursday... The officials said last month FBI agents in charge of those areas alerted local education and law enforcement officials about the finding.

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N.Y. Muslim martial arts instructor gets 15 years for backing al Qaeda

A New York jazz musician was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for agreeing to help train al Qaeda fighters in hand-to-hand combat in a case that centered on an oath he took before an undercover FBI agent.

Tarik Shah, 44, a martial arts instructor raised in New York, received the maximum sentence in Manhattan federal court under a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors.

Shah pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiring to support al Qaeda. In exchange, prosecutors dropped one of the terrorism charges against him.

Two other men pleaded guilty and a third was convicted by a federal jury, but Shah was the central figure based on an oath he and a friend took in Arabic in May 2005 before an undercover FBI agent who posed as an al Qaeda recruiter.

Prosecutors said Shah wanted to attend militant training camps in Afghanistan before pledging support to "Sheikh Osama" and al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri during one of many taped meetings with the undercover agent.

Three other men were charged in the case, including Shah's friend, Rafiq Sabir, a Florida-based doctor who also attended the May 2005 meeting.

Sabir was convicted in May of two terrorism charges for agreeing to give medical treatment to al Qaeda fighters. He faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced November 14.

Mahmud Faruq Brent, a former paramedic and cab driver in Maryland, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July for attending a training camp in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the U.S. State Department has designated as a terrorist organization.

A fourth man, Brooklyn bookstore owner Abdulrahman Farhane, was sentenced in April to 13 years for conspiring to transfer funds to militant groups in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

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Terror leaders describe America bound by Islam

"Once Islam dominates, anyone living inside the Islamic state must abide by our rules. There is no choice. You will abide or face the punishment," said Muhammad Abdel-El, the spokesman and a senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

Sheik Abu Saqer, a prominent Gaza-based preacher, a founder of the Sword of Islam terror group and a subscriber to the ideology of al-Qaida, explained if Islam controls the U.S., all American women, whether Muslim or not, must cover their hair.

"This is the demand of our religion. Being and walking naked doesn't mean that you are enjoying more freedom; it means that you are going against Allah's laws and you are serving the enemies of Islam who want to empty our Islamic society from its values. Uncovered heads is a form of nudity."

Yasser Hamad, a cleric and a Hamas leader in the northern West Bank, explained in "Schmoozing" Islamic law enforcers would at first try to persuade American woman to cover their heads, but eventually females would be forced. Those women who refuse may be stoned.

Asked by Klein whether stoning was too harsh a punishment, Hamad replied: "If you don't respect the local law in America, if you don't pay taxes, if you drive on a red light, aren't there sanctions used against you by your government? Of course there are and it's okay with you. Why is there a problem when it comes to the Islamic state that wants to impose its rules?"

Hamad and other terror leaders stated all Jews and Christians living in the U.S. once Islam takes over would need to pay the jizya – a special protection tax – and other special taxes for non-Muslims, including one for the right to cultivate land. Non-Muslims cannot own land themselves.

Saqer said no new synagogues or churches can be built in the Islamic state. Existing houses of worship may remain, but services cannot be conducted loudly or in any public fashion. The ringing of church bells or blowing of the ceremonial Jewish shofar would be forbidden, the terror leaders said.

Asked about crime and punishment, Hamad explained, "For every sin and crime there is a sanction: "Prostitution: one hundred whippings; if the prostitute was married, he or she will be stoned until death; for a thief, his hand will be cut. But before enjoying the primitive nature of Islam and before you express how much you are shocked by our rules, I must say that these are not immediate sanctions, but they are used only if the person was warned."

Hamad explained prostitution doesn't mean selling sex; he said the Islamic definition applies the term to all extramarital sexual relations. But he boasted Islam's allowing men to marry many women was a perfect remedy for prostitution.

"In order to prevent prostitution and before reaching the sanctions of stoning or whipping, we will marry all our unmarried young. By the way, Islam allows the man to marry four women, so if he or she keeps practicing sex outside marriage and prostitution, in this case the sanctions mentioned in Quran will be used."

The terror leaders all said alcohol would be banned and American movies and television would be shut down.

"American culture is very cheap and very corrupting. Your American culture is based on capitalism, on democracy, sex, and other principles that go against the nature of human beings as Allah created. We will fight all that this culture represents and promotes," said sheik Saleh Faraj, one of the main leaders of the Islamic Liberation Party in the West Bank.

What about freedom of the press in the American Islamic state? The terrorists said once Islam rules us, American media outlets that don't conform to disseminating Islamic messages will be closed. They said the NY Times, CNN, the Washington Post would all be banned.

"The media will be closed not because there will be no freedom but because what is the logic of allowing the activity of media that can endanger the political and social stability of our state?" said Nasser Abu Aziz, no. 2 of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the northern West Bank.

Asked about American pop music icons, multiple terror leaders had never heard of many top singers but Klein said they were all familiar with Madonna and Britney Spears.

"Unfortunately, I heard the names of Madonna and Spears on [Arab] television when parents complain that their children neglect their studies and their values because they are influenced by your cheap American music that you call culture," said Saqer.

Hamas's Abu Abdullah said, "At the beginning, we will try to convince Madonna and Britney Spears to follow Allah's way. But I honestly don't think they will follow. If they persist with their whoring music, we will prevent them by force. I don't think that I can be in the same place with these singers. They might be killed if they do not respect our laws."

The Committee's Abdel-El, whose group previously bombed Americans, said, "Their music video clips will be forbidden and these whores Madonna and Spears will be thrown in jail until they admit they made sins and return to the moral way. If they don't, they will be stoned to death or eighty times hit with a belt."

Abdel-El said even before Islam takes over America, he would personally kill Madonna and Spears if he ran into them.

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor – I repeat, I will have the honor – to be the first one to cut the heads of Madonna and Britney Spears."

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Surprise! Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror

The desert kingdom supplies the cash and the killers

King Abdullah was surprised during his two-day state visit to Britain last week by the barrage of criticism directed at the Saudi kingdom. Officials were in “considerable shock”, one former British diplomat said.

Back home the king is regarded as a modest reformer who has cracked down on home-grown terrorism and loosened a few relatively minor restrictions on his subjects’ personal freedom.

With oil prices surging, Saudi Arabia is growing in prosperity and embracing some modern trappings. Bibles and crucifixes are still banned, but internet access is spreading and there are plans for “Mile High Tower”, the world’s tallest skyscraper, in Jeddah. As a key ally of the West, the king had every reason to expect a warm welcome.

Yet wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of worldwide terror networks. “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” said Stuart Levey, the US Treasury official in charge of tracking terror financing.

Extremist clerics provide a stream of recruits to some of the world’s nastiest trouble spots.

An analysis by NBC News suggested that the Saudis make up 55% of foreign fighters in Iraq. They are also among the most uncompromising and militant.

Half the foreign fighters held by the US at Camp Cropper near Baghdad are Saudis. They are kept in yellow jumpsuits in a separate, windowless compound after they attempted to impose sharia on the other detainees and preached an extreme form of Wahhabist Islam.

In recent months, Saudi religious scholars have caused consternation in Iraq and Iran by issuing fatwas calling for the destruction of the great Shi’ite shrines in Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, some of which have already been bombed. And while prominent members of the ruling al-Saud dynasty regularly express their abhorrence of terrorism, leading figures within the kingdom who advocate extremism are tolerated.

Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaidan, the chief justice, who oversees terrorist trials, was recorded on tape in a mosque in 2004, encouraging young men to fight in Iraq. “Entering Iraq has become risky now,” he cautioned. “It requires avoiding those evil satellites and those drone aircraft, which own every corner of the skies over Iraq. If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so.”

The Bush administration is split over how to deal with the Saudi threat, with the State Department warning against pressure that might lead the royal family to fall and be replaced by more dangerous extremists.

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'The Taliban said God himself would ignite the vest. I did not have to do anything.'

TorontoSun.com - Salim Mansur - Get tough on suicide bombings

A recent story in The Times of London reveals how utterly despicable are the folks who plan and execute suicide bombings.

Two 17-year-old peasant boys from the wilds of northwest Pakistan failed in their mission to kill the pro-West governor of Jalalabad, an Afghan border town. Farman Ullah, the suicide bomber, and his accomplice, Abdul Quboshi, instead were captured.

Times writer Robert Baer got to interview both captives. The peasant boys told their captors they believed virgins would be waiting for them at the site of the explosion and escort them to Paradise.

These captives -- their illiterate minds twisted by handlers recruiting them -- were programmed human bombs.

Baer writes: "But Farman's fanatic certainty about his scheduled appointment with the virgins of Paradise was not enough for his Taliban trainers. Attached to Farman's suicide bomb vest was a radio transmitter. If Farman's nerve failed or something went wrong, Abdul Quboshi's job was to press the detonator. As Farman told me: 'The Taliban said God himself would ignite the vest. I did not have to do anything.'"

Western democracies are confounded by the evil of suicide bombing. There seems to be no proportionate measure available at hand, or devised, to eradicate the plague of suicide bombings that result in disproportionate casualties and widespread fear.

One practical response is to have democratic governments make suicide bombing a criminal offence, then prosecute with the state's full resources those who belong to, or associate with, the network of Islamist terror (and any other network of terror) that provides ideological training, material and logistic support to recruits like Farman Ullah.

It is to this purpose that Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein recently moved, for the third time, a private member's bill -- Parliament being dissolved and then prorogued required the bill to be submitted again -- in the upper chamber to amend section 83.01 of the Criminal Code to include, for greater certainty, suicide bombing in the definition of terrorist activity.

In introducing the Senate bill S-210 Grafstein observed, "Reverence for life is a lynchpin of all religions and the keystone of the rule of law. All our laws are wrapped around this central idea."

Criminal law provides for the prosecution of those who engage in misconduct. But Grafstein also reminds us of criminal law being a deterrent, making it known that "if you do this, you will have the full power of the state brought against you."

To those who argue that a suicide bomber in consummating his mission is unavailable for prosecution, Grafstein responds: "A successful suicide bomber cannot be prosecuted. However, one can certainly prosecute those who would aid and conspire with him or her, those who taught and applaud the action."

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Rudolf Blechschmidt's story of being a hostage of the Taliban.

International Security - Emerging Threats - Analysis - UPI.com

A German man who was the Taliban's hostage for three months has for the first time spoken about his ordeal. It's a tale of terrorism, corruption and psychological warfare up in the mountains of Afghanistan, where the Taliban, and not the Western forces, call the shots.

On Oct. 10, Rudolf Blechschmidt, a German engineer, was freed together with his five Afghan co-workers after a three-month hostage ordeal in Afghanistan.

Blechschmidt, 62, was one of two German engineers working on reconstruction projects who were kidnapped along with their Afghan co-workers on July 18 in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. The other German engineer was shot during the kidnapping.

After the German’s construction company had gotten a job to reconstruct a dam in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, Blechschmidt and his colleague, Ruediger Diedrich, 43, wanted to see the dam before signing the papers; they asked for a police escort and after initial refusals finally got 10 police armed with AK-47 rifles. Yet when a group of Taliban surrounded them and took the Germans and their Afghan co-workers hostage, the police merely watched.

"They knew that foreigners who probably had money were coming to repair the dam," he told Stern. The Taliban then drove the eight hostages into the mountains, where they endured severe beatings and abuses. To this day, Blechschmidt has trouble hearing.

"I told Diedrich: 'You have to drink your urine.' I did it myself," he said. "And because it was so cold at night, I told him, 'Didi, we’ll hug each other and warm ourselves.'"

While Diedrich became increasingly weak, the Taliban refused to call a doctor. And it’s the account surrounding his colleague’s death when Blechschmidt has trouble keeping his voice.

Two days after they were kidnapped, a young Taliban fighter shot Diedrich when he refused to keep walking.

He added the fighters got a cell-phone call every morning from their Taliban leadership, waking them up when it was time to pray.

"They had the best photo camera cell phones," Blechschmidt said. "They showed us a video clip in which they cut an American’s throat. Because they don’t take prisoners, ‘We can’t take them with us,’ they said."

Meanwhile, a German special unit was trying together with Afghan officials to establish contact with the kidnappers, but according to officials, without success. Yet Blechschmidt claims a German diplomat prevented an earlier release.

He added the fighters got a cell-phone call every morning from their Taliban leadership, waking them up when it was time to pray.

"They had the best photo camera cell phones," Blechschmidt said. "They showed us a video clip in which they cut an American’s throat. Because they don’t take prisoners, ‘We can’t take them with us,’ they said."

Some of the Taliban wanted to move the German hostage to Helmand province, a sure death sentence.

Blechschmidt and his contact in the German special unit over the next days tried to convince the Afghan leadership, including President Hamid Karzai, to release the men in exchange for the hostages. But because of previous releases that had troubled Karzai, the president was unwilling to give in. Looming pressure from the German media (Blechschmidt called a radio station in Bavaria from a Taliban cell phone and told his story, which would have been aired after he hadn’t called for another two days), and a call from the German chancellor to Karzai, however, facilitated the final, successful prisoner exchange. After 84 days in captivity, Rudolf Blechschmidt was free at last.

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Terrorists firing mortars towards Israel from schoolyard

Terrorists firing mortars from schoolyard

A cell of three terrorists launching mortar shells towards Israel from a Gaza schoolyard was captured carrying out the attack by Israeli intelligence on Monday.



After the attacks are carried out the cell quickly flees the launch site, a courtyard outside an elementary school in the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. IDF forces, who identified the cell as it was carrying out the attacks, struck the terrorists after they had cleared the public buildings.

The tall structure in the video is the school and the red circle tracks the terrorists as they prepare to fire the mortars. Military officials said Israeli forces withheld fire, fearing civilians would be harmed.



A senior IDF officer told Ynet on Wednesday that Palestinian terror organizations continue to abuse the civilian population in Gaza by launching attacks against Israel from their midst.



"They don't think twice about firing Qassam rockets near crowded public areas, even though they're fully aware that they're endangering innocent civilians," said the officer.
"We're constantly faced with very difficult and complex dilemmas, how best to defend Israel's citizens and strike at these terror cells while at the same time avoid civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. The terror organizations are well aware of our sensitivity to these issues and they take full advantage of the situation, this is as cynical as their use of the civilian population gets," he said.

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Robert Spencer at Dartmouth College

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Flight cancelled because of suspicious acting Middle Eastern men.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Report: Suspicious crew raises alarm and a flight is canceled

The takeoff of an American Airlines flight out of Lindbergh Field was canceled in August because the crew was suspicious of several Middle Eastern passengers, an investigative report said.

At the time, the airline said it was a woman traveling with her two small children who raised the alarm.

According to the airline's account of the incident, the woman said the men made her so nervous she asked to be let off the plane, and the ensuing delay pushed the Aug. 28 flight to Chicago past the 11:30 p.m. curfew on takeoffs.

One flight attendant told investigators the behavior of the group made him nervous and was “making his hair stand on end.”

He said that one of the men went into the bathroom and when he came out he stood next to a woman and stared at her for three to four minutes. That passenger got off the plane.

The flight attendant also said that another man in the group began to stare at him in an “abnormal, unusual and intense” way. When he mentioned that to the other attendants, they each said they felt they were being stared at in the same fashion.

“It was like each of these (Arabic) passengers had their assigned attendant,” Kotsonis said.

Another flight attendant told investigators he had “a gut feeling and discomfort” and “needed to do something” after one of the men put a blanket on his head during the safety demonstration only to take it off and stare angrily at everyone around him.

After the passenger got off the plane, the crew talked among themselves and decided to notify the pilot about their concerns.

The pilot said in the report that this was the first time in 20 years of flying that a crew had indicated such feelings to him.

According to the report, the pilot said he had “complete trust in his crew and did not feel like they overreacted.”

It turned out that the group of seven Iraqi and Iraqi-American men worked for an Alaska-based defense contractor and had been training U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton. They have hired a lawyer.

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Freed Sheiks "Al-Qaida has condemned us to death, but we have a strong uprising".

ABC News: Freed Sheiks Describe Kidnapping Ordeal

It had to be done quickly. Rogue Shiite militiamen were holding hostage a group of Sunni and Shiite tribal sheiks who had joined a revolt against al-Qaida. For the Iraqi government and its U.S. backers, the seven men represented a rare symbol of national unity.

A daring rescue operation secured their freedom.

A meeting Tuesday between most of the former captives and military officials including the Iraqi commander of the rescue operation offered the first detailed picture of the tense and fast-moving events: the kidnapping, the slaying of one captive and the seven-hour rescue mission Monday converging on an area that was "not fit for rats."

The sheiks, recounting their 30-hour ordeal to a small group of reporters including The Associated Press, said they were tortured and humiliated. At least three of the sheiks were visibly bruised. One man's left eye was red and swollen. The two others had bruises on their backs, arms and legs.

But they insisted that they emerged from captivity more determined than ever to continue their fight.

"We already forgot the pain and the wounds from our ordeal," said Haroon al-Mohammedawi, the bearded leader of the group from Khalis, a region in Diyala province where the terror organization has a heavy presence. "We pledge to you, the people and leadership of Iraq, that we will stay the course."

Al-Qaida militants, the sheiks told Iraqi and U.S. commanders, had prevented food rations from reaching them for a year, cut off power supply to their villages and ruined their orchards.

"Al-Qaida has condemned us to death," said al-Mohammedawi, a Shiite. "But we have a strong uprising and we have volunteers from the age of 14 to 75."

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Saudi Arabian government sponsored hate lit found in UK Mosques

Publications

An authoritative new report by Policy Exchange, the UK's leading centre-right thinktank, entitled The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting Britain's mosques, reveals the worrying extent of extremist penetration of mosques and other key institutions of the British Muslim community. The report is the most comprehensive academic survey of its kind ever produced in the UK and is based on a year-long investigation by several teams of specialist researchers into the availability of extremist literature and covers more than a hundred mosques and Islamic centres throughout the UK.

Among the reports findings are:

* Most of the extremist literature is published and distributed by agencies linked to the Saudi Arabian government.

* Some of the most high-profile and prestigious mosques in Britain are among the worst offenders; in many of them, it is openly available.

* Separatist literature is distributed at the East London Mosque - which is closely associated with the Muslim Council of Britain (which purports to be the main body representing British Muslims).

Shocking statements

Pamphlets, books and leaflets obtained from mosques and Islamic centres contain an assortment of shocking statements including:

* "Jihad against a tyrant, oppressors, people of bid'ah [Muslim innovators], or wrongdoers. This type of jihad is best done through force if possible."

* "The Jews and the Christians are the enemies of the Muslim."

* "Whoever changes his religion, kill him."

Although some of the hate literature is in English, a proportion is written in Arabic. The translations commissioned by Policy Exchange have been independently verified.

Many of the publications encourage British Muslims to segregate themselves from non-Muslims. So-called unbelievers are to be treated as second-class and avoided wherever possible.

There are also repeated calls for gays to be thrown from mountains and tall buildings and for women to be subjugated.

Among the literature available are extracts from the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (published by the Saudi Ministry of Education), and other publications peddling bizarre conspiracy theories alleging that birth control is a plot against Muslims and Arabs, and that pornography is spread as part of a Jewish plot to corrupt Muslims.

The report has been authored by Dr Denis MacEoin, the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University who received his doctorate in Persian (Islamic) Studies from Cambridge University and has taught Arabic and Islamic Studies at Durham, Newcastle and Fez universities.

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Terrorist matriarch to "break silence"..... again.

CFP: Khadr matriarch to “break silence” on Canadian television tonight by Judi McLeod , 10/29/07

It will be painful news for Tabitha Speer today when she learns that the man charged with killing her husband, in the words of his mother “never killed anybody”.

Toronto-born Omar Khadr, the only western citizen detained by the U.S. military in Guantanamo prison, was charged with killing Sergeant 1st Class Christopher J. Speer in Afghanistan in 2002. The same grenade Khadr allegedly lobbed during the firefight that cost medic Speer his life, blinded Sgt. 1st Class and Special Forces Engineer Layne Morris in his right eye.

According to Canadian media reports today, Maha Elsamnah Khadr has finally “broken her silence”. According to those same reports, Khadr “was only 15” when American soldiers captured him.

Khadr says she is not looking for “extra sympathy”. She only wants Omar “to be treated fairly”.

While reports portray Khadr as breaking her silence for the first time in five years, she is on the public record for having talked about her joy when the World Trade Centre came down and the Pentagon was attacked. Happy that her sons trained in terrorist camps, she said in 2004 that it was preferable to them having remained in Canada where they would have been exposed to homosexuality and drugs.

That never stopped Mama Khadr from hightailing it back to Canada from Pakistan in 2004 for a year of free health treatment for her paralyzed son, 14-year-old Karim, wounded by a land mine.

Khadr’s late hubby, the Egyptian-born Ahmed Said Khadr, was alleged to have been an al Qaeda bagman. Killed in 2003 in Pakistan in a house where he was staying with senior al Qaeda operatives, the family patriarch had once been released from custody when former Canadian Prime Minister John Chrétien successfully pressured then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to set him free.

But when it comes to the public soapbox, Mama Khadr’s got nothing on her daughter, Zaynab.

When mainstream Canadians complained about Zaynab’s 2004 comments to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) about the September 11 attacks, indicating that Americans deserve to feel a pain similar to what they inflicted on others, then Prime Minister Paul Martin reminded them, that as a Canadian citizen she has a right to her opinions.

When Zaynab Khadr slipped quietly into Toronto on February 17 in 2005, officials seized her pictures, papers, laptop and cellphone. Songs praising Osama bin Laden as a hero were later found on the laptop.

Interviewed in a coffee shop dressed in the traditional chador by the Toronto Star, Khadr spoke of bin Laden having been a guest at her wedding.

But that the terrorist had joined her wedding party was no fault of the bride: “I mean, we don’t even write invitations for weddings,” Khadr told the Star. “We just say there’s a wedding and everybody’s invited and everybody passes it on.”

The Toronto Star also published Khadr’s email with a personal invitation from Khadr for Canadians..."if Canadians want to object to her views”.

Meanwhile, silence may be golden, but not if you are one of the Khadr clan.

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Bomb detonators in hollowed out shoes found on a European bus.

hat tip to avideditoria.com

wcbstv.com - FBI Warns Again Of Shoe Bomb Danger

The joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by CBS News today, bluntly warns that terrorists are still working to use "modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices," CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

The alert follows the discovery of bomb detonators - expertly hidden in the hollowed-out soles of this pair of shoes - found aboard a European bus last month.

Intelligence officials say the shoes were not being worn at the time, but instead were being used, as the document says, "to smuggle electric blasting caps across international borders for use in a terrorist attack."

"The terrorists have an interest in explosive devices. They are trying to figure out the best way to push them, to move them through the system," said CBS News counterterrorism analyst Paul Kurtz.

Shoes have been used by terrorists before.

Still, experts worry that a team of terrorists could beat security by carrying unassembled parts of a bomb past a checkpoint.

"Where one person will carry component A, the next person will carry component B, and they will meet together past the safety point, past the checkpoint and reassemble," explained Mike White, the director of training for Michael Stapleton Associates and a former head of the NYPD bomb squad.

Officials say there is no specific intelligence that terrorists are preparing new attacks against America. (oh, that's funny - 1rt)

But, the threat remains high - and the bulletin warns law enforcement officials not to assume that routine objects, like shoes, are always what they appear to be.

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