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ISIS Tag

The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a massive bomb that killed over 120 in Baghdad, their third attack in three countries in a week. The bomb exploded after midnight in Karrada, a neighborhood filled with shops and restaurants filled with people making plans before the end of Ramadan. The dead included 25 children and 10 women. Officials have said many people are still missing.

Turkish officials have said the three Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists who attacked Atatürk Airport came from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. They also identified the mastermind as Akhmed Chatayev from Chechnya. From Fox News:
Akhmed Chatayev was identified by the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper as the organizer of the coordinated assault, which killed 44 and wounded more than 200 others at Turkey’s Ataturk Airport. Turkish officials did not immediately confirm he was involved in the attack, and it was unclear if Chatayev was one of the airport bombers, in custody or on the run.

You may have read Andrew McCarthy's excellent work at National Review, but you might not be aware that McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and expert on Islamic terrorism. McCarthy offered some very enlightening and chilling testimony this week at a Senate hearing on Islamic terrorism which was led by Senator Ted Cruz. He described his testimony in vivid detail in a column at PJ Media:
Willful Blindness and Radical Islam: My Testimony On Tuesday, I was a panelist at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on “Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts to Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism.” The hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts,” chaired by Senator Ted Cruz (R. Tex.).

The terrorist attack at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport left 41 dead, including 10 foreign nationals, and 239 injured. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that the evidence they have points to the Islamic State as the culprits.

CNNMoney spoke with the person who has hacked Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) accounts with porn and gay pride. WauchulaGhost started the campaign a month ago with only pornography, but added gay pride after Omar Mateen killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, FL. He said:
"There was a few of us... that discovered a vulnerability," he told CNNMoney. "We thought, 'Hey let's go start taking their accounts ... and humiliating them.'" --- "You had all those innocent lives lost," he told CNNMoney. "I just felt there's something I could do against the Islamic State to defend those people."

New developments keep popping up with the terrorist attack in Orlando, FL, that left 49 dead and over 50 injured. This is what we know so far. Leslie wrote a post with the names of the victims and some stories about them. Our thoughts and prayers stay with them and their families during this hard time. We also wish a speedy recovery to the injured. Omar Mateen murdered those 49 people at Pulse, a popular gay club, as he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). The terrorist group has taken advantage of this and used his image in their latest recruitment ad, but no evidence exists that that Mateen ever communicated with the group. Officials discovered that Mateen watched numerous ISIS beheadings online. One official told CNN that the terrorist "consumed a hell of a lot of jihadist propaganda." He even wrote on Facebook about his allegiance to ISIS during his attack:
“I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me,” Mateen wrote in one post early Sunday morning. “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west” …“You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”

In the wake of the Orlando attack, we have seen the revival of an old debate in which Obama and the left refuse to name this enemy. Either they can't even say the word "terrorist," or they can't use any modifier that implies that Islam has anything to do with it. After a large and deadly attack such as the one in Orlando, where it was clear almost immediately that the perpetrator was an Islamic (or Islamicist, or radical Islamic) terrorist, it is glaringly apparent that Obama is refusing to call the attack what it is. And this is a weakness that Donald Trump is determined to exploit, and rightly so. Does it matter what we call perpetrators such as Omar Mateen? Obviously, both Obama and Trump---coming from opposite sides of the question---agree on the fact that it does matter, or this rhetorical battle wouldn't be going on. By using the words he uses, Trump wants to signal his resolve to oppose Islamic terrorism, as well as opposition to PC leftist language. What does Obama want to signal? Deference to the Muslim community, emphasis on his underlying policy goal of increased gun control, and minimization of the hugely increased threat from ISIS that occurred on his watch while he poo-pooed it.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has released a video called "Orlando Attack" that celebrates Omar Mateen and the murder of 49 people at Pulse in Orlando, FL. Mateen called 911 and pledged allegiance to the terrorist group before he opened fire at the popular gay club. ISIS praised the terrorist:
"One of Islamic State's lions, set out to restore the glory of the Ummah and avenge the death of Muslims. He shook the head of kufr America, terrorized it and shed its blood. He is Omar Mateen."

Details continue to emerge about Omar Mateen, the man who murdered 50 people and injured over 50 more at Pulse, a popular gay club in Orlando, FL. NBC News has reported that Mateen called 911 right before he committed the massacre. Officials told reporter Pete Williams that Mateen told the operators he "pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi." One law enforcement agent told CNN that the FBI opened "two cases on Mateen in the past," but they could not find "evidence to charge him with anything." They placed him on their radar as a possible Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) sympathizer:
In response to a question to whether the shooter may have had a connection to radical Islamic terrorism, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ronald Hopper said investigators are "looking into all angles right now." "We do have suggestions that that individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology but we can't say definitively," Hopper said.

An Islamic terrorist shot up an Orlando nightclub, killing 50 people and injuring at least 53 further people are hospitalized. CNN reports:

Approximately 20 people are dead inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in the club. At least 42 people have been transported for medical treatment, he said.

Police have shot and killed the gunman, Mina told reporters.
"It's appears he was organized and well-prepared," the chief said, adding that the shooter had an assault-type weapon, a handgun and "some type of (other) device on him." Law enforcement sources told CNN that the device, which was strapped to the suspect, was possibly explosive, but authorities don't know if it was real or not.
A canine unit indicated there were explosives inside the suspect's car as well, the sources said.
The most recent information released by police in Orlando is that 50 people have been killed and a further 53 are hospitalized.

As of now, I'm still planning on heading to Israel at the end of next week, though that could always change last minute. Family health issues seem under control at the moment, and I'm going with one of my daughters so I really didn't want to cancel if at all possible. I think I'll have some interesting perspectives, based on what's currently planned. As before, there will be an emphasis on security-related issues. I found this video, tweeted out by Becky Griffin, of interest. https://twitter.com/dorothyofisrael/status/736564981995606016 Here's the video:

Revolting details have come to light about Islamic State’s secret chemical weapons program. British newspaper The Telegraph reported that ISIS has been testing lethal chemical on humans, as well as setting up labs and moving chemical weapons stockpiles to residential areas of the Iraqi city of Mosul. The report claims that ISIS has been experimenting on captives held at a prison camp in Nineveh, Mosul. The residents near the prison have been reporting breathing difficulties and children were developing severe rashes -- side effects associated with chlorine and mustard gas. The residents of a former Christian neighbourhood in Mosul reported that ISIS moved their chemical labs after US airstrikes on the terrorist group's chemical facility at a local university. ISIS fighters moved in the locality with huge unmarked trucks and had been dumping dead dogs and rabbits in the nearby waste heap. The Telegraph corroborated the local eyewitness accounts with an ISIS informer who verified that animals dumped in the area had previously been tested with chemicals.

Islamic State (ISIS) is getting logistical and military support from Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas, a senior official of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) told the press. IDF’s Major General Yoav Mordechai revealed that terrorists belonging to Hamas and ISIS were now conducting joint military exercises in Gaza -- along the southern border of Israel. Islamic terrorist group Hamas, founded in 1987, calls for the destruction of Israel and annihilation of Jewish people in its official charter. Hamas Charter makes it clear that the Gaza-based terrorist group does not see itself as a separate entity fighting Israel, but instead is a part of the worldwide Islamic jihad. The newly-exposed alliance between ISIS and Hamas should not come as a surprise to anyone. Both of these Islamist groups not only subscribe to the same doctrine of global Jihad, but are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood movement that first started in Egypt around 1920s. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden also belonged to the same theological school of thought.

Infiltration of German Army by Islamic State (ISIS) and other Jihadists has reached an alarming level, German media reports suggest. Some 29 former German Army soldiers have joined the ranks of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, reveals a newly surfaced German military intelligence report. Additionally, the military is investigating 65 suspected jihadist serving as active duty German soldiers. According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, since 2007 German Military Counter-Intelligence Agency (MAD) has investigated 320 active duty soldiers for having suspected links to Jihadist circles. The newspaper also confirmed that until recently no backgrounds checks were done on soldiers handling sensitive combat equipment. The screening was only limited to soldiers accessing classified material. German government is trying to downplay the level of Islamist infiltration of country’s defense establishment. According to Parliament's commissioner for the military, Hans-Peter Bartels, there is no clear evidence of ‘Islamist organisation attempting to systematically infiltrate’ the German military.

The battle for the Democratic nomination is finally getting very interesting. Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver recently appeared on CNN and while host Carol Costello was (of course) defending Hillary Clinton's record, Weaver dropped some heavy criticism. Weaver went after Hillary for her ties to corporate cash, a usual tactic for the Sanders camp, and then blamed her for the rise and spread of ISIS.

President Obama announced Tuesday that he's planning to bring a greater fight to the terror group ISIS, saying he plans to "scale-up" the fight. CNN reported:
Obama looks to scale up ISIS fight President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he was looking for ways to scale up the battle against militants in Iraq and Syria ahead of a White House meeting with top U.S. military brass. The planning session on combating the terror group was not expected to yield major shifts of strategy.

British intelligence agency MI5 is reportedly tracking up to 25 ISIS terror plots threatening to bring Brussels-style devastation on to British streets. Security forces have increased surveillance on as many as 50 Islamists believed to be planning eminent terror attacks in the country. Despite ramped up counter-terrorism measures, senior security officials fear that there might be other undetected sleeper cells in the country capable of carrying out terror attacks without prior warning. In a related development, British government has raised concerns over a potential attack on country's nuclear power plants. Officials warned that ISIS terrorists operating on British soil could try to get hold of nuclear material or carry out cyber-attacks on nuclear reactors.

Despite the attacks in Brussels just days ago, Obama is still pushing for the U.S. to accept thousands of refugees from Syria and other countries. In his four minute weekly address which you can watch below, Obama spends the first two and a half minutes talking about the Brussels attack and his efforts to defeat ISIS. He uses the remaining time to argue that if we don't accept refugees, the terrorists have somehow won.