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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on November 13, 2015 3 Comments
Late yesterday the Pentagon announced that it launched a drone strike against Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Emwazi, the man who served as the "face" of the group's gruesome and infamous beheading videos. Emwazi, also known as "Jihadi John," was wounded a year ago during airstrikes in Anbar Province that killed 10 terrorists and wounded at least 40 others. Emwazi had joined tribal leaders from around the region in a bunker near the Iraqi-Syrian border to pledge their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Intelligence following the strikes was muddied, but officials believed that Emwazi was taken to a local hospital before being returned to ISIS headquarters. Over the past year, western officials have conducted extensive surveillance in an effort to determine Emwazi's whereabouts---and if reports are correct, they finally found him. Yesterday's strike hit outside of the de facto ISIS capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. Officials have yet to confirm whether or not Emwazi died in the attack; Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said, "We are assessing the results of tonight’s operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate.” A U.S. senior official told CNN that authorities are confident that the strike was successful; a second source said that authorities positively identified Emwazi before they launched the drone at the vehicle Emwazi was riding in.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 12, 2015 11 Comments
Investigators sifting through the remains of a Russian jet that crashed in the Sinai last week have uncovered intelligence about a "two hour timer," and are connecting it with their working theory that an ISIS affiliate in the region planted a bomb on the plane's fuel lines before it left the popular Sharm el-Sheikh resort area for St. Petersburg. A source told Fox News about the discovery of the timer, but wasn't clear whether or not investigators found physical evidence, or were able to decipher communications between terrorist operatives. This new information supports the involvement of an "airport insider," and investigators are now interviewing ground crews and baggage handlers who had access to the plane before it left Egypt. More from Fox News:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 09, 2015 9 Comments
While European leaders and the mainstream media continue to defend open border policies, millions of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have embarked on an unstoppable march towards Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the leading proponent of Europe’s policy of unrestricted migrant intake, and she is firmly backed by the EU’s powerful bureaucracy. Before the year ends, Germany alone is expected to take in as many as 1.5 million migrants. Despite repeated calls by the Islamic State to target European countries on their own home soil, EU leaders continue to brush aside the growing fear of terrorism and Islamic radicalisation in Europe. Faced with opposition from a few Eastern European member states, the EU has decided to double down on its open border policy. Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has joined the chorus, assuring Italians that there is no need to worry about Islamic terrorists posing as migrants; but the latest high-profile arrest in Italy of a known ISIS operative once again shows how out of touch European politicians really are with the grim realities of mass migration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2015 20 Comments
The Knife Intifada continues, with daily attempted stabbings. Today in Israel an Arab woman was shot dead by an Israeli security guard at Beitar Ilit. The woman was trying to reach a bus stop in the community, where presumably she would have stabbed waiting passengers or entered the bus and conducted a stabbing attack there. That's what the headlines emphasized. But she was shot only after she pulled out a knife from her pocketbook and lunged at the Israeli man: (Video source: Col. Peter Lerner Twitter)

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 07, 2015 13 Comments
Wednesday, Faisal Mohammad embarked on a stabbing spree leaving four injured at the University of California UCMerced. Mohammad reportedly targeted members of a study group that kicked him out. A handwritten manifesto found in Mohammad's backpack indicated his plans were more sinister than mere hospitalization, he vowed to "cut someone's head off," according to Fox News.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 07, 2015 28 Comments
A new report suggests the United States power grid is vulnerable to an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack and that should scare the hell out of you. When it comes to the cost of American lives, an attack like this would make 9/11 look small. If a large portion of the United States was deprived of electricity for a significant amount of time, millions would die of starvation, a lack of access to modern medical care and the collapse of law and order. Daniel Wiser reports at the Washington Free Beacon:
Report: United States Increasingly Vulnerable to Potentially Catastrophic EMP Attack The threat of a devastating electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States is increasing just as American infrastructure has become more vulnerable, according to a new report.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 04, 2015 12 Comments
Last Saturday, a Russian jet carrying 217 passengers crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The Metrojet flight was making its way to St. Petersburg from a popular Red Sea resort when it went down in a remote, mountainous region of the Sinai. Almost immediately, two European airlines suspended all travel over the region where the jet crashed---and for good reason. According to the Associated Press, the Hassana area where the wreckage was found has played host to clashes between Egyptian forces and a group of Islamic militants who recently pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State. A local ISIS affiliate declared responsibility for the crash (now, attack), but the claim was quickly scuttled by both Egyptian and Russian officials. Now, however, US intelligence reports have revealed that it is likely ISIS or one of its affiliates planted a bomb on the plane. Via CNN:
"There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere on the plane," the official said, stressing that no formal conclusion had been reached by the U.S. intelligence community.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2015 9 Comments
Sometimes the most interesting and moving stories are the ones I stumble upon. Like the Bus No. 37 bombing memorial in Haifa, Israel, that I wrote up last May. A similar thing happened to me last Friday, when I was in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I wanted to see the Park Slope Co-op, the scene of a well-known unsuccessful anti-Israel boycott attempt a few years ago. (The efforts continue.) Next to the Co-Op, is a memorial to NY Fire Department Squad 1 members who died in the 9/11 attack. FDNY Squad 1 Station and Food Coop I knew that hundreds of firemen died that day, but I didn't know about Squad 1, a Special Operations Unit that responds to emergencies throughout NYC.  According to its Facebook page:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2015 21 Comments
Unfortunately, Palestinian propaganda promises those "martyred" while killing or attempting to kill Jews an after-life of glory and paradise. This, of course, perpetuates the conflict and death on all sides. In a twist on that theme, two Palestinians shot and killed while carrying out knifing attacks were posthumously married at a funeral of one of them in Hebron. The video was posted on Facebook by the Palestinian Information Center which also tweeted the link. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=912887278747348 The Times of Israel provides more details:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2015 25 Comments
Among the wave of attacks on Jews in Israel was the attack on Bus No. 185:
Shortly after 8 p.m. on October 12, 22-year-old Muhammad Shamasne boarded bus No. 185 near the entrance to Jerusalem and stabbed a 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier and unsuccessfully tried to grab his gun. Shamasne was shot and killed by police while passengers were attempting to subdue him.
You may remember that attack because we featured one of the heroes. Yair Ben-Shabat, an Israeli Seniors martial arts expert, helped subdue one of the attackers … with his nunchucks.

Posted by New Neo on October 19, 2015 14 Comments
What are the roots of the stabbing intifada? Jeffrey Goldberg takes a long time to say it, but he gets some of it said. It's not a "cycle of violence" where both sides are similar. One side is lying and inciting its people to violence, and this has been going on at least since the 1920s in very similar fashion. The current dispute concerns the history of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, and access to those sites. The NY Post says it more succinctly, and adds a few more things, such as the latest incident of what one might call the Muhammed al Durah phenomenon, complete with the cooperation of our State Department:
...Wednesday...Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech that Israeli security forces “executed” an innocent 13-year-old boy, Ahmad Mansara, “in cold blood.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 15, 2015 12 Comments
Incitement on social media is fueling the current epidemic of knifings, firebombings and stonings against Israeli Jews. That incitement comes from the highest levels of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as people on social media. The incitement involves not only fabricated claims of Israeli intentions as to the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque, but also false claims which portray Palestinian attackers as random innocent victims of Israeli aggression. The cumulative effect is to so inflame young Palestinians, including children, that they attack Jews for being Jews. Now a famous Palestinian activist has joined in. Bassem Tamimi is the internationally-famous Palestinian activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh who is best known for the viral videos and photos he creates by sending children, including his own, to confront Israeli soldiers.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 14, 2015 24 Comments
This week the Department of Justice created a new position aimed at coordinating investigations into the growth and threat of domestic terrorism. Current Assistant Attorney General John Carlin announced the move today during a speech focusing on the DOJ's efforts to combat extremism at home. From today's remarks at the George Washington University - Southern Poverty Law Center event [emphasis mine]:
At NSD [National Security Division], in order to ensure that we are gaining the benefits of the information and input from those eyes on the ground from around the country, and in recognition of a growing number of potential domestic terrorism matters around the United Sates, we have created a new position to assist with our important work in combatting domestic terrorism. Just this week, we appointed a new Domestic Terrorism Counsel to serve as our main point of contact for U.S. Attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters. The new DT Counsel will not only help ensure that DT cases are properly coordinated, but will also play a key role in our headquarters-level efforts to identify trends to help shape our strategy, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements required to ensure we can combat these threats. The new counsel will also play an important role with the DTEC by providing its members with insights from cases and trends from around the country.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2015 24 Comments
Tuesday was another bloody day of Palestinian knifings, shootings, car rammings, and rock throwing. Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal summed up the current knifings in Israel quite well, Palestine: The Psychotic Stage:
Today in Israel, Palestinians are in the midst of a campaign to knife Jews to death, one at a time. This is psychotic. It is evil. To call it anything less is to serve as an apologist, and an accomplice.
But its psychotic for a reason -- generations of lies about Jews fed to Palestinians in schools, media, social media and mosques. Yaacov Lozowick, Israel's State Archivist, explains at this personal website, This is what long-term education to hatred will do :
Palestinian society sends itself into spasms of bloody and murderous irrationality from time to time; at the moment the present case doesn't seem the worst of them. Yet what's striking about this time is the age of the culprits. If in the second Intifada there were hundreds of suicide muderers and would-be-murderers, most of them were young adults, and they mostly had some sort of organization behind them. Someone had to give them an explosive belt and drive them to their target inside Israel. This time many of the attackers are teenagers, some even young teenagers; and since they're using kitchen knives, all they need is access to their mothers' kitchens.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 12, 2015 12 Comments
The bloodshed continues in Israel today, with additional stabbings by Palestinians, including by a 13-year old of an Israeli teenager in Jerusalem. This is a very personal bloodletting inspired by incitement at home and abroad, and it even is tearing at the fabric of Israeli Arab society. The Muslim mayor of Nazareth lambasted Arab Knesset (parliament) members for inciting riots and ruining chances of peaceful coexistence. But the story to emerge today will be how a terrorist stabbed a soldier and tried to steal his weapon. The terrorist was stopped by Yair Ben-Shabat, an Israeli Seniors martial arts expert ... with his nunchucks. https://twitter.com/Roi_Yanovsky/status/653647617654661121

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 12, 2015 2 Comments
According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday morning, more voters than ever believe terrorists have an advantage over the United States and her allies. who is winning the war on terror rasmussen Conducted from October 4-5, the poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters, asking two questions: 1) Who is winning the War on Terrorism—the United States and its allies or the terrorists? 2) Is the United States too involved in the Middle East, not involved enough, or is the involvement about right?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 11, 2015 11 Comments
We have dealt many times with the issue of promoting children to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers. It was one of the reasons there was such an uproar when Bassem Tamimi appeared before third graders in Ithaca, NY, and advocated the children become "freedom fighters for Palestine." It's also one of the dramatic aspects of the current violence -- whether called an "Intifada" or not. Young children and teens are pushed to the front or take it on themselves to attack. Like the 16 year old who stabbed two elderly Jews in Jerusalem and went after police before he was shot dead: https://twitter.com/IdoDaniel/status/652775896143806464 Then I saw this tweet.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 09, 2015 11 Comments
A few days ago we wondered whether the rise of Palestinian knife and rock attacks was the start of a Third Intifada. Despite cheerleading from Western anti-Israel activists hoping for more violence, and incitement by Palestinian politicians and religious leaders (like the Gaza preacher in the Featured Image), it's not clear whether this is something that will last. The Second Intifada lasted years and in its early stages -- before Israel built the security barrier and launched Operation Defensive Shield -- killed 452 Israelis in 2002 alone, plus hundreds more before it was quashed. But the scale of attacks is not letting up. ] Many of the attacks are by women, like this one in Afula who stabbed a security guard at the bus station and was shot in the lower body to disable her: Israeli undercover police have started infiltrating crowds of rock throwers. This image (video here) shows the moment the undercover police draw their weapons:
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