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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 29, 2016 1 Comment
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a judgment allowing victims of Iranian terror to attach a judgment owed to Iran.  This is separate from the Bank Markazi case argued before the Supreme Court last month. In this case -  Ministry Of Defense And Support For The Armed forces Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran v. Frym - ten victims of Iranian terrorism who hold valid judgments against Iran from previous cases seek to collect by attaching a judgment owed to Iran in yet another previous dispute.  All of the victim/Plaintiffs are U.S. citizens and have successfully navigated a welter of procedural and jurisprudential pitfalls. The case is a good reminder of Iran's global reach and commitment to terror.  It's also fairly complicated, so bear down.

1997 Ben Yehuda Bombing

Nine of the Plaintiffs seeing to enforce judgements against Iran were injured or had loved ones injured in the same attack.  According to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia:

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 24, 2016 8 Comments
British banking giant HSBC shut down accounts held by Islamic Relief Worldwide ("IRW") last month.  IRW has long been suspected of funneling money to terrorist organizations. According to the Center for Security Policy:
[IRW is] the largest international Islamic charity in the world, with a $240 million operating budget, nearly 300 employees, chapters in more than 12 countries with their own multi-billion dollar budgets, and operations in over 30 countries, all based in Birmingham, England.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on February 23, 2016 15 Comments
Having campaigned on closing Gitmo and on his first day in office signing an executive order to close it within the year, Obama has been steadily emptying the detention center, often in dubious deals and scandalous, logic-defying swaps.  This is something that he has been determined to accomplish while in office, and with time running out, he has today proposed a new plan to close Gitmo for good. Speaking somewhat uncomfortably about American values (as he always does), Obama laid out his reasoning behind and plan for closing Gitmo within the year. CNN reports:
Obama outlined a blueprint that involves transferring the bulk of remaining detainees to other countries and moving the rest -- who can't be transferred abroad because they're deemed too dangerous -- to an as-yet-undetermined detention facility in the United States.

Posted by New Neo on February 20, 2016 36 Comments
[See the UPDATE at the end of this post, which indicates that the information published in the Time article was most likely incorrect.] Donald Trump has said repeatedly that on the morning of 9/11 he watched the burning World Trade Center towers from his midtown Manhattan apartment. One controversial aspect of his claim is that he could see people jumping from the WTC as he watched from his apartment, which is four miles away. Some experts doubt that is feasible. But no one has disputed that Trump was in NY that morning. Here is Trump talking about 9/11, and mentioning that he was in his apartment at the time:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 19, 2016 9 Comments
On February 18, 2016, Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, was stabbed to death in a supermarket while he was shopping with his wife and baby daughter. Tuvia Yanai Weissman and family Another Israeli, 35, was wounded and is being treated in the hospital. The Palestinian attackers were 14 years old. They were shot by a private citizen during the assault. One died and the other is an Israeli hospital where he will receive as complete medical treatment as the person he stabbed.* These stabbing attacks by Palestinian minors, of which there have been many, don't happen in a vacuum. There is widespread incitement both officially from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and also in social media. This video was released just days ago:

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on February 18, 2016 42 Comments
A legal fight between Apple and the FBI is highlighting some critically important issues in the debate between privacy and security. After the San Bernardino attacks, an iPhone 5C belonging to one of the two shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook, was among the evidence gathered by the FBI. The FBI obtained a warrant to search the contents of the iPhone, but Farook's iPhone, like most people's, is protected by a passcode that encrypts the data on the phone and prevents anyone without the code from accessing it. Apple's security systems are designed to prevent hacking attempts like "brute-force attacks" by requiring delays after wrong passcode guesses and an auto-delete function that is activated after ten incorrect attempts. The FBI went to court to obtain an order to get Apple to help them get around these security features and access the data on Farook's phone. Court orders Apple to help the FBI; Apple refuses to comply

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 17, 2016 16 Comments
After a machete-wielding terrorist injured four people in his restaurant, Hany Baransi, owner of Nazareth deli in Columbus, Ohio will update his decor. The attacker asked if Initial reports indicated a small Israeli flag greeted Nazareth customers when they entered the deli along with an Arabic sign, "Ahlan Wa Sahalan" or "“You are my family, take it easy.” The little symbol of Israeli pride will be replaced for a much bigger one. Ohio restaurant, terror attack

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 17, 2016 16 Comments
Jesse Hughes is the front man for Eagles of Death Metal, the band which was performing in the Bataclan theater during the Paris terror attack. The band is returning to finish their show and Hughes gave an interview to a French TV show. When guns came up, things got interesting and emotional. Eric Scheiner of CNS News reports:
Eagles of Death Metal Frontman: 'Did Your French Gun Control' Stop Anyone From Being Killed at Bataclan in Paris? In a recent interview with French iTélé, Hughes said that French gun laws did nothing to help the victims.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 12, 2016 13 Comments
Thursday night, Mohammad Barry injured four at an Israeli-owned restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. According to witnesses, Barry began stabbing patrons with a machete, going booth by booth. Barry fled the scene but police were able to locate him. When Barry lunged at police wielding a knife and machete, police opened fire, killing him. The FBI is now investigating, but they're not saying why. No reports indicate whether or not the counterterrorism unit is involved.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 10, 2016 6 Comments
The U.S. move to boost NATO forces in Eastern Europe is another black mark on President Obama and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy.  The decision to strengthen NATO's bulwark against further Russian adventurism is sound in itself, but it further exposes the 2009 Russia Reset as a naive, amateurish blunder.  The cost for the mistake - a mistake many recognized and warned against at the time - is still being reckoned on battlefields in Eastern Ukraine. President Obama entered office determined to distance himself from U.S. foreign policy that made no sense to his ideological view.  Among the anachronisms he identified was the tense U.S.-Russia relationship.  Relations with Russia degraded through President Bush's second term, and than cratered when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and President Bush responded by deploying U.S. warships to the Black Sea and airlifting Georgian troops home from Afghanistan. Two months after taking office, Obama dispatched his newly-appointed Secretary of State - Hillary Clinton - to reset relations with Russia.  In March, 2009, Clinton met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland, and gave him a big, red, plastic button with the Russian word "peregruzka" on it.  Clinton thought it meant "reset;" it actually meant "overcharge."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on February 07, 2016 20 Comments
Obama's first year in office was a busy one as he worked tirelessly to hinder the government's ability to identify, locate, track, or make common sense connections between Islamists and terrorism. In April of 2009, the DHS released a now-infamous report entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" and in which conservatives were labeled potential terrorists not because they are radical militants but because they are pro-life, support the Tenth Amendment, or are veterans. Michelle Malkin wrote at that time:
It is no coincidence that this report echoes Tea Party-bashing left-wing blogs (check this one out comparing the Tea Party movement to the Weather Underground!) and demonizes the very Americans who will be protesting in the thousands on Wednesday for the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party. From the report, p.2: Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 04, 2016 11 Comments
The disastrous JCPOA and President Obama's political compulsion to hide Iranian wrong-doing have infected the entire Democratic Party.  Instead of responding to Iran's support for terrorism and violations of its international commitments by imposing penalties, President Obama - and now his Democratic allies in Congress - are running cover. David Gerstmen wrote last month that "Obama’s Passivity in Face of Aggression Puts Iran in Driver’s Seat" and
in October, Iran tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that was later determined by the United Nations to have been in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929.  The administration, in response to Congressional pressure, was set to impose new sanctions on Iran at the end of 2015, but retreated when threatened by Iran.
Rather than leave Obama exposed to more embarrassment if he has to veto or block an Iran sanctions bill, Senate Democrats are trying to do the work for him.  According to The Hill:

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 02, 2016 4 Comments
As negotiations to negotiate an end to the Syrian civil war plod along, the UN has admitted, internally, that it is powerless to enforce any Syria peace deal. According to Foreign Policy, the UN knows it cannot enforce or even monitor any peace deal it brokers:
In a confidential strategy paper exclusively obtained by Foreign Policy, the office of the United Nations’ top envoy to Syria warns that the U.N. would be unable to monitor or enforce any peace deal that might emerge from landmark political talks underway in Geneva. The paper raised concerns the world might harbor unrealistic expectations about the U.N.’s ability to oversee and verify a cease-fire in a civil war beset by a dizzying array of armed factions and terrorist groups. “The current international and national political context and the current operational environment strongly suggest that a U.N. peacekeeping response relying on international troops or military observers would be an unsuitable modality for ceasefire monitoring,” according to the “Draft Ceasefire Modalities Concept Paper” by U.N. envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura’s team. In plain English, that means Syria will be far too dangerous for some time for traditional U.N. peacekeepers to handle.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 28, 2016 8 Comments
With the recent wave of terrorism unleashed on Israeli civilians, Prime Minister Netanyahu's government is investing in technology to pre-empt “lone wolf” attacks. Since September 2015, more than 100 stabbings attacks have taken place and 29 Israelis have died, including an American teenager. The terror attacks in Israel are not limited to knife attacks alone, about 40 shootings and 20 car ramming incidents have also taken place during the same period. Hamas and PLO-affiliated terrorist group are increasingly using Facebook and other social media platforms to recruit and direct attacks against unsuspecting Israeli civilians. And Israel is doing what Israel does best -- using cutting-edge technology to fight back terrorism. Speaking at a Cyber Technology conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that the country is studying the modus operandi of these “lone wolf” terrorists, and devising tools to monitor social media and pre-empt such attacks. Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel will invest more in technology enabling it to gather intelligence on social media about potential “lone wolf” terrorists, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Wednesday.  (…)

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 27, 2016 7 Comments
Early in December, the first news I had of the San Bernardino terror attack was Facebook inquiries as to whether I was alright. Today, Facebook friends were asking me about another attack that seemed to be occurring a mere mile from where I often work. Fortunately, it was a false alarm:
Reports of an active shooter at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) Tuesday morning led to a lengthy lockdown of the military facility, but U.S. Navy officials confirmed no gunman was found and no injuries were reported. NMCSD was placed on lockdown just after 8 a.m. and people inside were ordered to shelter in place after an unidentifed Department of Defense employee reported hearing three shots fired in the basement of Building 26, which houses a gym and barracks, according to the Navy.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 26, 2016 9 Comments
German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost reports that Germany's capital Berlin is rapidly turning into an “Islamist stronghold” in the heart of Europe. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV is monitoring some 680 Islamists in the city. The agency classified 360 of these Islamic radicals as capable of carrying out violent attacks. These figure where released by the City of Berlin, as local authorities launched several ‘social programs’ to ‘stop the radicalization of youth.’ The newspaper also confirmed that 50 Islamists have returned back to Berlin after serving in the ranks of the Islamic State. The Berliner Morgenpost doesn't say, but these ISIS-returnees are most likely back on the dole and receiving tax-payer funded counselling from their social workers and psychologists, to help them cope with the trauma of having brutalized underage sex-slaves, beheaded infidels, and desecrated places of worship sacred to Christians or other faiths. These revelations from Berlin coincide with the terror warning by EU’s law enforcement agency Europol. According to Europol, Islamic State may now have "hundreds of militants in countries across [Europe]" that are "ready to bring murder and mayhem to the streets." London-based Daily Mail reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 25, 2016 7 Comments
Terror attacks in and against Israeli Jews now are daily occurrences. Most don't make their way into the U.S. media. Two recent examples are twin 18-year old sisters arrested for bomb making, and at stabbing attack which left two Israeli women injured but could have been much worse. The Times of Israel reports:
Iraeli security forces arrested 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday. Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Shin Bet officers discovered pipe bombs and other explosive materials in the home of Diana and Nadia Hawila in late December 2015, officials said.
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