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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 05, 2015 8 Comments
A little over a week ago, President Obama was making the case that the most significant security threat was climate change and asserting that ISIS posed no credible threat to the US homeland. In the wake of the San Bernardino massacre of 14 Americans on the homeland, it is clear that the presidential fantasies and the national realities are quite different. The FBI has formally declared the incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism:
"The San Bernardino, California, mass shooting is now being investigated as "an act of terrorism," FBI official David Bowdich said Friday. Bowdich said the FBI "uncovered evidence ... of extreme planning."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 04, 2015 31 Comments
Chaos, pandemonium, terrorism, popsicles, Britney Spears -- this is the latest from San Bernardino where fourteen were murdered earlier this week. Today's developments in no certain order.

It was a terrorist attack.

The FBI confirmed Friday that the attacks are under federal terrorism investigation. Because we're officially in some bizarro world, even Chris Hayes seems to get it:

Even though the FBI is calling San Bernardino a terrorist attack, the White House keeps beating the gun control drum.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 04, 2015 25 Comments
As we are learning more about the radical Islamic terrorists responsible for 14 deaths in San Bernadino, California, the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are wasting no time in pushing for more gun control. The media started clamoring for gun control before the buildings were even cleared, and Obama was quick to leap onto his soapbox and stammer on about the need for gun control. Watch: Note the new language here: "gun safety laws."  We'll be hearing this again, I'm sure.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 03, 2015 28 Comments
In Israel, as the Knife Intifada was in full swing in early October, the Mayor of Jerusalem urged those with gun permits to carry for defense of themselves and others against random and surprise attacks. https://twitter.com/NirBarkat/status/652065143942160384 It was a variation on the theme, "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away." Now a Sheriff in Ulster County, NY, north of New York City, has urged residents to do the same in light of recent terror attacks like that in San Bernardino. The local CBS News affiliate reports:
All licensed handgun owners in Ulster County should carry their pistols. That’s the message Thursday from the Ulster County Sheriff. Ulster County is located about two hours north of New York City.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 03, 2015 37 Comments
We reported on the San Bernardino mass shooting yesterday, during which 14 people were slaughtered and 17 others wounded while attending a holiday party. San Bernardino is about 90 miles north of where I live, and the first I heard about the incident was when a series of Facebook emails were sent inquiring if I was alright. I was on my way to my consulting firm, and once there, I discovered a colleague was listening to police scanners. When the reports being broadcast indicated that IED's had been found, we both said the same thing: Terrorism. This is life in the "new normal". While President Obama was patting climate change activists for their powerful rebuke to ISIS, Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife Tashfeen Malik apparenlty were organizing an attack involving automatic weapons and tactical military gear. But officials won't speculate about a motive:
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said investigators had not determined a motive for the shooting, in which 17 people were wounded. But an official at the FBI, which is working with local agencies, said he could not rule out terrorism as a motive.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 03, 2015 12 Comments
Judicial Watch has obtained new emails (available here) that reveal a bit more about Hillary Clinton's time at State than we knew before (or than she probably wants revealed). Judicial Watch reports:
Judicial Watch today released a new batch of emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton connected to the Benghazi attack. Included is an email chain showing that Clinton slept late the Saturday after the Benghazi attack and missed a meeting that her staff had been trying to set up about sensitive intelligence issues, including the Presidential Daily Brief, on a day she was to make a slew of phone calls to foreign leaders.
There was also an interesting detail in an email concerning Bowe Bergdahl's father's concern over "Crusader paradigm."
The documents contain an email passed to Clinton in the days following the Benghazi attack in which the father of alleged Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl anguishes over the “‘Crusade’ paradigm” which he says “will never be forgotten in this part of the world.”
You may remember Mr. Bergdahl from Obama's over-the-top, tin-eared, and inappropriate Rose Garden ceremony announcing the exchange of Bowe Bergdahl, who has since been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, for five top Taliban leaders.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 02, 2015 2 Comments
Tuesday reports surfaced that Paris Police were advising against lighting Hanukkah candles in public places due to security concerns. The Times of Israel reported:
Miri Michaeli, Europe correspondent for Israel’s Channel 10 news, tweets a troubling report from Paris. The tweet reads, in Hebrew: “Chabad: Paris police order [us] to cancel most of our public [Hanukkah] candlelighting in the city, in light of the terror attack and the fear of additional attacks. Efforts [are underway] to approve a candlelighting at the foot of the Eiffel [Tower].”
Later (and after the headline spread internet-wide) the Times of Israel posted an update saying the original report had been retracted:

Posted by New Neo on December 02, 2015 6 Comments
The DNC recently took the extraordinary step of making an ad that included a clip of President Bush saying "We do not fight against Islam." In the video, the Democratic Party was using Bush to convey the idea that he was more in line with their own denials about Islamic terrorism than today's Republicans are. But, unlike today's Democrats, Bush never denied the existence of any connection between Islam and the terrorists. By distinguishing between radical (or "extremist") Islam and Islam, Bush made a distinction that was politically correct at the time and for years to come---until the Obama administration decided that Bush's formulation was unacceptable, and it was forbidden to draw the obvious connection between Islam and terrorists who said they were acting in the name of Islam. In the immediate post-9/11 weeks and months, Bush faced a very different situation than today: he was dealing with a country and a Congress playing catch-up in learning about the menace of Islamist terrorism and what it really was capable of, a need to rally together all Americans in the wake of a terrorist attack that has still never been surpassed in magnitude and daring, the very real fear of a major backlash against innocent Muslims in the US, and the goal of gaining worldwide allies (including many Muslim countries) in fighting the country that had harbored Bin Laden---Afghanistan---as well as fighting Islamic terrorists as a whole.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 01, 2015 18 Comments
This is one of those things that just leave you shaking your head. And it's an important lesson of why Israel can't lose any war -- there would be no mercy shown on the Jews. In early September we covered the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Massacre, in which 11 Israelis were murdered by PLO terrorists who took them hostage in the Olympic Village. Mahmoud Abbas, current President of the Palestinian Authority, reportedly financed the operation. https://youtu.be/4nOnRbTlWs0?t=32s Here are the images of the Israelis who died:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 01, 2015 1 Comment
A leading British bank has closed the accounts of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and several other pro-Palestinian groups amid charges that they might be funnelling funds to terrorist organisations. Manchester-based Co-operative Bank issued a statement saying Palestine Solidarity Campaign's (PSC) accounts failed due diligence checks to ensure that funds were not 'inadvertently funding illegal or other proscribed activities.' The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) claims to be surprised by the allegations and threatened legal action against the bank, crying foul about “discrimination.” PSC is one of the most influential backer of the anti-Israel boycott campaign (BDS) in UK. Jeremy Corbyn, the newly-elected leader of the Labour Party, has long been a vocal supporter of PSC and other anti-Israel groups championing the "Palestinian cause." The Labour leader enjoys long and close ties to the activist group. PSC's website describes him as “regularly speaks at [its] rallies” and being "tireless in his support for Palestine." The British newspaper The Telegraph reports the latest revelations:
An activist organisation which has Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as patron has had its accounts closed down over fears that it may be inadvertently funding terrorism.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 28, 2015 2 Comments
Eighty-nine people died when terrorists opened fire on a packed house at Paris' Bataclan concert hall earlier this month. The crowd had come to see the Eagles of Death Metal; an hour into the show, the terrorists began shooting into the crowd. That night, 130 people died all across Paris, and over 350 people were left injured. Covering those events was a very raw experience—and I was 4000 miles away, comparatively safe in my home in Washington. The stories that flowed from the streets of Paris that night—particularly those from survivors of the hostage situation and eventual massacre at the Bataclan—defined what it truly means to commit an act of terror, as opposed to an act of war or a "senseless act of violence." This week, the Eagles of Death Metal band members opened up to Vice News and described what it was like inside the Bataclan when the terrorists started shooting. Watch the whole thing (mildly NSFW for language):

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 27, 2015 4 Comments
Another head-of-state has joined French President François Hollande in declaring war on ISIS. Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi and his Interior Ministry issued a series of statements following an attack on the presidential motorcade:
NPR's Leila Fadel reports that a spokesman for Tunisia's Interior Ministry said at least 11 people were killed in the attack and 17 others were wounded. The state of emergency will last for 30 days and an overnight curfew is also in place until tomorrow morning local time. ...In March, militants opened fire on tourists inside the Bardo Museum, killing 24 people. And in June, a lone gunman killed more than three dozen tourists at a beach resort. The country also imposed a state of emergency after that attack, which was lifted last month, the Associated Press reports. The news service adds that Tunisia's president has declared "war" against terrorism and urged international cooperation in fighting it.
More via LipTV:

Posted by Miriam Elman on November 26, 2015 6 Comments
Israelis have endured yet another week of nonstop terrorism. As we’ve noted in a number of prior posts, the ongoing attacks are a consequence of a “systematic Palestinian incitement to violence”. Really it’s nothing new. But in recent weeks it’s involved much of the Palestinian political and spiritual leadership preaching a visceral hatred of Jews and the Jewish state. In recent posts (see here and here), we also highlighted how virulently anti-Israel, and even anti-Semitic, views permeate Palestinian civil society. As noted in a report published this week by The Tower, which describes nearly a dozen “outrageous” types of incitement, the reality is that both Palestinian leaders and the public support brutal terror attacks against Israelis, routinely lionize murders, and view Israel as fundamentally illegitimate.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 25, 2015 20 Comments
When it comes to destroying ISIS, how serious is the Obama Administration? So serious that the White House avoids destroying the source of ISIS funding because of environmental concerns. Yes, environmental concerns. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell joined Charlie Rose to discuss ISIS and the Obama Administration's aversion to destroying ISIS held oil wells.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 25, 2015 24 Comments
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul feels the nation is less safe today than ever before in recent memory. His concerns were validated by the most recent vapid statements from our Commander-in-Chief.  Speaking alongside French President François Hollande at a joint news conference, President Obama stated that next week’s climate change summit in Paris would be a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists.
“Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference,” Obama said during his prepared remarks, which focused mostly on the efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,” he added.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 25, 2015 34 Comments
There's a big spat over Donald Trump's comments that he remembers seeing video of Muslims in Jersey City or other towns near NYC cheering the attack on the World Trade Center. The argument is over whether it happened, whether there is video and so on. Trump is sticking to his memory, and the media is swarming to prove him wrong. CNN in particular is going all out on the effort. There's no purity of purpose there. What's most interesting to me is that there is an emerging consensus among those who are hammering Trump on this that Trump is not "lying," but likely is thinking of celebrations elsewhere. Since the aspersions that Trump is a "racist" or "Islamophobic" are predicated on a bad intent, whether he is lying as opposed to honestly mistaken seems relevant. The concept of false or suggested memory is something I've often explored both in private practice and in the course I teach. There just are some people who absolutely believe and will swear on a stack of Bibles to something that objectively did not happen -- and they always seem to be on the other side of the case from me! They are not liars, but they are wrong. Proving it is the challenge. Robert Mackey of The New York Times argues that Trump probably is confusing videos of Palestinians cheering with some memory of it taking place in northern New Jersey, The Video of Celebrations That Was Broadcast on 9/11:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 24, 2015 17 Comments
The Obama's Administration's whitewashing of language might have played well with the social justice warrior brigade, but voters aren't buying it. A survey released by Rasmussen found 60% of likely voters believe America is at war with Radical Islam. Rasmussen reported:
President Obama, Hillary Clinton and other senior Democrats refuse to say America is at war with “radical Islamic terrorism” for fear of insulting all Muslims, but voters beg to disagree. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the United States is at war with radical Islamic terrorism. Just 24% share the president’s position and disagree. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.
Pouring salt in the social justice wound, a whopping 56% of self-identifying Democrats also believe radical Islamist terrorists are our foe compared to 70% of those identifying as Republican. And the data just gets more interesting:
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