Category: Terrorism
-
Things That Offend Muslims: Cartoons, Books, History, Operas…
James Lileks observes that the list of things that spark outrage and violence from Islamists is long, indeed. Clip and save, for this may come in handy: If you mock Islam with a drawing or a novel, you get riots and dead people. News of mishandled holy books yields riots and dead people. Insufficiently reverent…
-
National Intelligence Estimate ”Trends in Global Terrorism
As promised, the White House has declassified portions of the controversial National Intelligence Estimate that reportedly says the Iraq War has worsened the terrorist threat. The declassified portions, in their entirety: Declassified Key Judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States” dated April 2006 Key Judgments United States-led…
-
Questioning the Iraq Intelligence Report
Robert Kagan has a withering critique of recent media reports based on leaks from a National Intelligence Estimation saying that the war in Iraq has created more terrorists. He observes that in both the NYT and WaPo stories, “there were no quotations from the NIE itself, so all we have are journalists’ characterizations of anonymous…
-
Political Islam and U.S. Intelligence
Douglas Farah notes from a recent House Intelligence Committee Report that the “U.S. intelligence community has only a single office devoted to understanding political Islam,” the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program. Moreover, that Program is not doing us much good, if the comments of its former director, Dr. Emile A. Nakhleh, in Harper‘s is…
-
FBI and the Anthrax Attacks
I think the best way to sum it up is as follows: The FBI Doesn’t Have a Clue. If you recall, initially quite a bit of interest focused on Steven Hatfill as a person of interest. Particularly the FBI was interested in Hatfill’s supposed secret underwater laboratory. Now the nobody talks about Hatfill anymore. Probably…
-
Waterboarding, Sleep Deprivation, and Hypothermia Banned
John McCain has specifically listed the previously accepted interrogation techniques banned in the compromise between the White House and the Congress. A Republican senator who played a leading role in drafting new rules for U.S. interrogations of terrorism suspects said yesterday that he believes a compromise bill embraced by party leaders and the White House…
-
Army Budget Billions Short
The Army Chief of Staff has withheld his budget plan in protest over a budget that’s 41 percent short of operational requirements. The Army’s top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of…
-
NIE: Iraq War Spawned New Generation of Terrorists
The National Intelligence Estimate concludes that the Iraq War has spawned a new generation of terrorists. A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the…
-
Maher Arar
You know, I have to wonder…where is Michelle Malkin in regards to the Maher Arar case. OTTAWA, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Canadian police wrongly identified an Ottawa software engineer as an Islamic extremist, prompting U.S. agents to deport him to Syria, where he was tortured, an official inquiry concluded on Monday. Maher Arar, who holds…
-
Bush Numbers Up After Terrorism Push
Gallup’s Frank Newport looks at a new poll released by his firm showing President Bush with his highest approval numbers in a year and concludes that the administration’s new campaign on the war against terror is having its desired effect. The Bush administration has spent the last several weeks carrying out a political strategy designed…
-
Is the Pope Catholic?
Steve Bainbridge, both on his blog and in a TCS column, answers the title question in the affirmative.
-
Republicans Backbenchers Beat Bush, Leadership on Detainees
An alliance of prominent Republican Senators, Colin Powell, and Congressional Democrats have won the first round in a battle with President Bush and the Republican Congressional leadership over the treatment of suspected terrorist detainees. A Senate committee, in a bipartisan rebuff to President George W. Bush, approved military tribunal legislation that would give more legal…
-
Al Qaeda Declares France Enemy
Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri has joined the Islamist war against France. Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests. Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said Thursday that…
-
Kissinger: West Must Unite to Avoid War of Civilizations
Henry Kissinger argues that internecine bickering over the Iraq War and misunderstanding of the consequences of the Israel-Hezbollah war could lead to dire consequences. He calls for a comprehensive cross-Atlantic strategy to stave off a “war of civilizations.” Everything returns to the challenge of Iran. It trains, finances, and equips Hezbollah, the state within a…
-
Damascus Embassy Attack: Al Qaeda? Amateurs? Assad PsyOp?
Reacting to news that this morning’s attack on the American Embassy in Damascus, Syria was apparently carried out by an al-Qaeda offshoot group called Jund al-Sham, Steven Taylor wonders whether it’s even important anymore. [T]he very nature of al Qaeda is such that almost any al Qaeda group is an offshoot. To me the operative…
-
Conservatives Call for Republican Ouster
Washington Monthly collects a series of essays from prominent fiscal conservatives and otherwise disgruntled Republicans arguing that it’s time for Republicans to go. Christopher Buckley, son of Wm. F Jr., leads the way with “Let’s quit while we’re behind.” On Capitol Hill, a Republican Senate and House are now distinguished by—or perhaps even synonymous with—earmarks,…
-
U.S. Embassy in Syria Attacked
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus came under attack this morning. Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Tuesday using automatic rifles, hand grenades and at least one van rigged with explosives, the government said. Four people were killed in the brazen attack, including three of the assailants. No Americans were hurt,…
-
Saudi Reforms, Five Years After
Over at Crossroads Arabia, I’ve posted a lengthy and detailed entry about the reforms that have happened in Saudi Arabia since 9/11. Some of the post concerns things that happened while I was assigned there as Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Riyadh. The rest is culled my my blog on US-Saudi…
-
Shorter Dinesh D’Souza
Get the women back in the kitchen (preferable pregnant), stuff those gays back in the closet, prohibit divorce, outlaw birth control methods, ban pornography and there will never be another 9/11 attack again. D’Souza shows that liberals—people like Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, Bill Moyers, and Michael Moore—are responsible for fostering a culture that…
-
The Hiroshima Fallacy
A nuclear physicist shares his views on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons; The most likely form of nuclear attack in the modern world is one carried out by terrorists. In carrying out such an attack, the attackers might well use a device quite different from the sophisticated weapon that military experts suggest it will take…
-
CNN to Rebroadcast Real-Time 9/11/01 Coverage
CNN is going to stream its real-time coverage from September 11, 2001 on the day’s 5th anniversary (next Monday). As part of its coverage of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, CNN Pipeline will stream CNN’s television coverage of September 11, 2001, in real time, as the events of the day unfolded. The free replay on…
-
Ahmednejad Urges “Purge” of Liberal and Secular Intellectuals
President Ahmadnejad of Iran is calling for a purge of liberal and secular university professors. Iran’s hard-line president urged students Tuesday to push for a purge of liberal and secular university teachers, another sign of his determination to strengthen Islamic fundamentalism in the country. With his call echoing the rhetoric of the nation’s 1979 Islamic…
-
What to Call the Bad Guys
Steve Benen is concerned by a Newsweek piece discussing Bush administration’s internal debate on how to publically describe the enemy: Last fall White House aides were grappling with a seemingly simple question that had eluded them for years: what should the president, in his many speeches on the war on terror, call the enemy? They…
-
Time to Declare Victory?
That is the gist of Radley Balko’s article at Fox News. The fatal flaw in the “war on terror” has always been its open-endedness. The president of the United States is never going to sit down on a battleship to sign a peace treaty with terrorism. So when we give the government special, allegedly temporary…
-
A New Strategy for Iran
Jonathan Rauch has an essay recommending a different strategy for containing Iran that ignores the rather foolish dichotomy of “all-out war or all-out surrender” that seems to be being pushed by Iran hawks. Here’s a tidbit: Today, the United States enjoys overwhelming conventional superiority over Iran, a fact that Iran knows well and respects. But…
-
Those Rich, Crazy Americans
Reacting to the contrast between Karl Rove‘s purported campaign strategy of emphasizing “terrorism and turnout” and Brad DeLong‘s hope that the GOP will begin “building pragmatic technocratic policy coalitions from the center outward,” Kevin Drum responds, Over the past 30 years the Republican Party has gone from Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan to Newt Gingrich…
-
Which Democrats Believe Terrorists Can be Appeased?
On yesterday’s FOX News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked a question of Senator Elizabeth Dole that I asked no one in particular earlier in the week: “Senator Dole, which Democrats, and I’d like you to name them, which Democrats running for the Senate this year believe the terrorists can be appeased?” Her answer was long…
-
Al Qaeda in Iraq 2nd in Command Arrested
Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, a/k/a Abu Humam or Abu Rana, the number two man in al Qaeda in Iraq’s chain of command has been arrested. Iraqi forces have arrested the second most senior operative in al-Qaida in Iraq, and the group now suffers from a “serious leadership crisis,” the national security adviser said Sunday. Hamed…
-
London Terror Raids Nab 14 Suspects
Fourteen Muslim men have been arrested in a massive anti-terrorist sweep in London. Armed police have arrested 14 men following anti-terror raids in London, including 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area. Two people were held elsewhere in the city in what police said was an intelligence-led operation. Police said the arrests were…
-
Bush American Legion Speech
After controversial speeches to the American Legion by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush yesterday delivered a speech that, finally, outlines his strategy in the fight against the Jihadists in a succinct, comprehensive way. The enemies of liberty come from different parts of the world, and they take inspiration from different sources.…
-
I’m Shocked…
Michelle Malkin has decided that the loon, Omeed Aziz Popal, is in fact, just your garden variety loon and not some sinister Jihadi that is carrying out a cunning plan of slowly killing Americans over the course of several millenia. Of course, this hasn’t stopped her from pumping up her image as one of the…
-
Burns Says Terrorists Drive Taxis by Day
Conrad Burns can’t seem to keep his foot out of his mouth. Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose recent comments have stirred controversy, says the United States is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.” During a fundraiser Wednesday with first lady Laura Bush, the…
-
Keith Olbermann Blasts Rumsfeld American Legion Speech (Video)
Unlike most on the right side of the blogosphere, I took Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld to task for suggesting that those who disagreed with administration policies in the war against Islamist terrorists are akin to those who appeased Fascism in the 1930s. Last night, Keith Obermann got into the act, with a 6:41 monologue…
-
Omeed Aziz Popal Kills One, Injures 14 in Vehicle Rampage
Yet another incident where a Muslim man goes on a rampage and starts running people over with his SUV. As many as 14 people were injured [Tuesday] afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco deliberately running them down before being arrested by police, who believe the same driver struck and killed a man…
-
Rumsfeld Says War Critics Appeasing New Fascism
A friend of mine emailed an MSNBC reprint of an AP story reporting that Don Rumsfeld today likened critics of the Iraq War to those who tried to appease Hitler in the 1930s. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq and counterterrorism policies of trying to appease “a…
-
Raed Banned from Plane for Wearing T-Shirt
An Iraqi man was denied the right to board an airplane because he was wearing a t-shirt with the words “We Will Not Be Silent.” An Iraqi architect says he was not allowed to board a Jet Blue flight at JFK because of the Arabic inscription on his t-shirt. REPORTER: Raed Jarrar was wearing a…
-
Democrats Poised to Take House?
Al Hunt reports that smart observers of both parties believe the Democrats will retake the House and quite possibly the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Charles Rangel and Chairman — again — John Dingell. Those titles will soon sound familiar. Barring an unexpected and big event, Democrats will win control of the U.S. House of…
-
Kidnapped FOX News Journalists Centanni and Wiig Freed
Kidnapped FOX News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig have been released unharmed. Two Fox News journalists were released Sunday, nearly two weeks after being seized by militants, ending the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip. American correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand were dropped off at Gaza…
-
Evidence? What Evidence?
A report published by the House Intelligence Committee is complaining about the effectiveness of intelligence operations against Iran? Why? Because they haven’t uncovered any evidence to back up the White House’s assertions about Iran’s weapons capabilities and intentions. A key House committee issued a stinging critique of U.S. intelligence on Iran yesterday, charging that the…
-
Twelve Arrested from NWA Amsterdam Flight (Developing)
Reuters: Twelve passengers have been arrested from the Northwest Airlines flight turned back to Amsterdam. (CNN Developing) The story so far: Two Dutch F-16 fighter jets escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Mumbai, India, back to Amsterdam after several passengers aroused concern Wednesday, according to Dutch and U.S. authorities. Dutch authorities have detained 12…
-
Osama Hearts Whitney Houston
Osama bin Laden is obsessed with Whitney Houston and plotted to kill Bobby Brown out of jealousy, at least according to some nutcase. Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is so obsessed with singer Whitney Houston he thought about killing her husband, Bobby Brown, it was claimed last night. The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet…
-
FBI Leaks Are Hampering British Investigation Into Terror Plot
British Security Services have been chastising the FBI, claiming that the Bureau’s leaks to the media have hampered their investigations into the recent plot to bomb several transatlantic flights. Anti-terror police in Britain have made an angry request to their US counterparts asking them to stop leaking details of this month’s suspected bomb plot over…
-
Italy May Take Control Over Lebanon Force
It appears that Italy may be preparing to step up to the plate that France abandoned and take control of the U.N. Peacekeeping forces in Southern Lebanon. Responding to entreaties from the leaders of Israel and Lebanon, Italy is prepared to step forward to lead the expanded United Nations peacekeeping force that has been proposed…
-
TCS Daily – Risk-Terrorism Analysis
My latest for TCS Daily, “Risk-Terrorism Analysis,” has posted. It’s a response to a recent piece by Reason science correspondent Ron Bailey and a general line of reasoning that contends we are overreacting to terrorism given the statistical odds of dying in an attack. Unlike being struck by lightning or a meteor, terrorism and other…
-
Lieberman Calls on Rumsfeld to Resign
Democrat/Connecticut for Lieberman/Republican backed Joe Lieberman called for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation on yesterday’s “Face the Nation.” Sen. Joe Lieberman, attacked by fellow Democrats as being too close to the White House on the Iraq War, on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign but said the United States cannot “walk away” from the…
-
Looking for “Moderate Muslims”?
If you want sharia law, you should go and live in Saudi Shahid Malik, the Labour MP, explains why he told fellow Muslims that if they don’t like Britain they should pack their bags Scotland Yard described it as a plot “to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale”. John Reid concurred: “The terror threat…
-
The Problem with Profiling
With the recent U.K. terror plot to blow up airliners with liquid bombs, there has been lots of discussion on the radio talk shows (at least the ones I’ve listened too) that make a big deal about profiling and how it would be an effective screen against terrorists. There is only two problems with this…
-
Hagel: Bush Looking for Excuse to Attack Iran
Exactly 1389 words into the very long piece on Chuck Hagel’s political future, the Lincoln Journal Star‘s Don Walton drops a bombshell: “Some in this administration want some excuse to take military action [in Iran],” Hagel says. ForeignPolicy.com blogger Mike Boyer, a former Hegel staffer, presents this without comment. It’s a rather bold charge to…
-
Republicans Losing Security Moms
WaPo is touting a new Pew survey showing that the so-called “Security Moms” are moving away from the Republican Party on page 1 of today’s edition. Married women with children, the “security moms” whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians…
-
Domestic Crazies — Pipe Bomb Epidemic?
While much of the media has been focused on some folks reselling cell phones, there have been a few instances of pipe bombs in the Pacific Northwest. I am loathe to paint these situations with the broad-brush of “terrorism.” First, out of Oregon’s capital, numerous pipe bombs found under vehicles Police evacuated the Tyco circuit…