Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Terrorism Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on June 24, 2015 15 Comments
Earlier this year, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty on 30 counts including conspiracy and murder. 10 of those counts carried a capital sentence, and just one month after the verdict was read, the same jury sentenced Tsarnaev to death. Today, a judge formally handed down that verdict, and allowed victims and their families to speak directly to Tsarnaev. About 30 people stepped up to speak, and the mood in the courtroom was emotional: CNN listened in:
"I know life is hard, but the choices that you made were despicable," said the mother of victim Krystle Campbell, Patricia, who stood with her husband William and her son and brother. "You will never know why she is so desperately missed by those of us who loved her," Karen McWatters, a friend of Campbell's, told Tsarnaev, who was facing in the direction of the speakers but not directly looking at them. Tsarnaev instead often looked down, as he did during most of his long trial.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 23, 2015 12 Comments
Since last year, Obama Administration officials have been internally debating whether or not to continue with their existing policy banning the payment of ransom to terrorists in exchange for hostages. In the United States, the law specifically bans the aiding of a terror organization; however, debate over the diplomatic effects of this policy rose to the forefront last year, when ISIS terrorists demanded ransom in exchange for the life of a 25 year-old American woman. The US policy of denying ransom---either paid by the government, or private parties---caused tension in the international community. Switzerland, Spain, and France, among others, all permit negotiations with terror organizations, with all of Europe contributing at least $125 million to Al Qaeda and its affiliates in the last 5 years. Last month, the Administration signaled that it was ready for a shift in policy by discussing the possibility of creating a "Hostage Czar," who would be responsible for guiding families through the ransom payment process; and now, the White House is ready to announce an official change in policy that would allow families to pay ransoms to terror organizations without fear of prosecution.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 1 Comment
Another day, another opportunity for domestic terrorists to begin their work on US soil. Today, the FBI arrested 19 year-old Justin Nojan Sullivan after an extended investigation revealed he may have been plotting ISIS-style attack here in the US. Officials aren't yet sure (or haven't yet revealed) exactly how large of a safety threat Sullivan posed; he was arrested after law enforcement discovered a silencer in the North Carolina home where he lived with his parents. Sullivan had asked a private dealer---in reality an FBI agent working undercover---to build the silencer for him, and bragged to the agent about what he planned to do with it:
...an undercover operative made contact with Sullivan, who allegedly told him, "I liked IS from the beginning, then I started thinking about death and stuff so I became a Muslim." The FBI says Sullivan talked about buying an assault rifle from a gun show in North Carolina and shoot people last weekend "because his parents would be out of town at the time." He did not buy a rifle before he was arrested Friday but allegedly planned to purchase one at the Hickory Gun Show last weekend.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 21, 2015 49 Comments
The question of whether or not the Charleston shooting was an act of terrorism is an intriguing one.  Typically, we think of terrorism as it relates to clear terrorist attacks perpetrated by known terrorist groups like al Qaeda:  9/11, the Boston bombing, and the Fort Hood terrorist attack.  Or we think of it as it relates to nationalist groups who have engaged in violent acts against civilians such as the IRA, PLO, or FALN. When mass violent acts occur on our own soil by our own citizens—those unaffiliated with accepted terrorist groups, we don't tend to label them terrorism.  I'm thinking here of school shootings, abortion bombings, movie theater shootings, and the like.  Only when homegrown terrorists engage in acts against the government do most of us agree that it's terrorism (I'm thinking here of Timothy McVeigh and the Weather Underground). So why are we now considering whether or not the Charleston shooter was a terrorist?  If we don't think of the Sandy Hook shooter as a terrorist, why would we think of this shooter as a terrorist?  Does it become terrorism because of the race of the shooter and his victims?  That seems to be the argument.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 20, 2015 31 Comments
This week's attack on a historical black church in Charleston has sent the liberal political and media classes into a political feeding frenzy. The families of the dead, by contrast, has defied the odds embraced love and forgiveness. Here are five examples how some people sought to exploit the murders for political gain:

1. When in doubt, blame Fox News

The left has always had an abusive relationship with the journalists at Fox News, and never waits long before trying to tie the latest domestic tragedy to the "hate filled rhetoric" "spewing" from the conservative network. South Carolina Democratic Representative Todd Rutherford all but blamed the Charleston massacre on "things like Fox News," and when confronted by Bill O'Reilly, doubled down. Watch: Newsbusters has the breakdown:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 18, 2015 10 Comments
You may recall the horrific story of Colleen Hufford, a 54 year-old Oklahoma woman who was beheaded in 2014 by a co-worker who was a recent convert to Islam. The story shocked the nation and reminded many of the Fort Hood attack; some people insisted it wasn't terrorism but just an act of workplace violence. Holly Bailey of Yahoo News reported at the time:
A beheading in Oklahoma: Was it terrorism or workplace violence? She never saw him coming, according to police. Just after 4 p.m. on Sept. 25, Colleen Hufford, a 54-year-old grandmother and worker at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Okla., was standing in the doorway of the front office in the food processing facility's main building when Alton Nolen, a co-worker who had just been suspended over an argument with another colleague, violently grabbed her from behind. As horrified employees watched, Nolen, a 30-year-old production line worker with a criminal history, savagely sawed at Hufford's throat with a large kitchen knife he had gone home to retrieve, severing her head.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2015 65 Comments
AP reports on the church shooting last night in Charleston, South Carolina:
A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, killing nine people, including the pastor, in an assault authorities described as a hate crime. The suspect attended the meeting at the church Wednesday night and stayed for nearly an hour before the deaths, police Chief Greg Mullen said. The shooter remained at large Thursday morning and police released photographs from surveillance video of a suspect and a possible getaway vehicle. Mullen said he could not offer a make and model on the dark colored sedan because investigators were not certain about what is shown in the video. The victims were six females and three males, Mullen said Thursday morning. He did not give other details and said names would be released after families were notified. But State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press that the Emanuel AME Church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 10, 2015 7 Comments
On a windswept hillside terrace in the massive Har HaMenuchot Cemetery on the western edge of Jerusalem, 1969 terror victims Edward Joffe and Leon ("Arie") Kanner are buried together, next to Edward's parents Roslyn and Hyman Joffe. The cemetery itself reflects the history of the conflict. Har HaMenuchot was opened in 1951, after Jordanian troops seized "East" Jerusalem after Israel declared Independence in 1948. Jordan's conquest included not only the Jewish Quarter of the Old City but also the Mount of Olives Cemetery, the traditional Jewish burial ground. The Jewish Quarter was ethnically cleansed of Jews and its Jewish landmarks, while Mount of Olives Cemetery was ransacked, its tombstones used for building projects and many of its graves paved over for roads. Har HaMenuchot was built in response. [caption id="attachment_130311" align="alignnone" width="600"]Har HaMenuchot Cemetery Jerusalem [Har HaMenuchot Cemetery, Jerusalem][/caption]  My wife and I visited the Joffe and Kanner graves at Har HaMenuchot on June 1, 2015. [Featured Image] The cemetery is so huge, so seemingly discombobulated, so logistically impenetrable even when armed with plot and section numbers, that it took us almost an hour to find the graves.  We were accompanied by a local Rabbi who helped us say prayers. We placed small stones on the graves, in the Jewish tradition. And we were overcome with emotion. The inscriptions on the graves are simple, and nearly identical. Edward's brother Harold provided the translation: [caption id="attachment_130324" align="alignnone" width="600"][Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner Headstones] [Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner Headstones][/caption]

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 04, 2015 8 Comments
After being maligned by the press for "inviting" violence by taking a stand for free speech at her Garland, Texas "Draw Mohammad" event, Pamela Gellar was target of a beheading plot. Usaamah Rahim, who was being investigated by the FBI, was shot and killed by Boston police Tuesday. Rahim and an alleged co-conspirator, planned to behead Pamela Gellar.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 26, 2015 6 Comments
On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center sent out a joint bulletin informing law enforcement and military personnel that, although there were no credible threats hovering over holiday weekend events, officials are "aware of recent information suggesting US military bases, locations, and events could be targeted in the near-term." Happy Memorial Day! This information isn't really news to anyone following national security and foreign policy news, but the reason for the concern is novel: the dramatic uptick in social media activity by groups like ISIS has led to new sources of "insider threats" and chatter about security and maintenance procedures at sites that officials now believe are being considered as potential targets. Fox News has the exclusive:
Importantly, it speaks to the sheer volume of social media activity by pro-ISIS users, and the challenge that poses for analysts and investigators. "The large number of social media postings by US-based ISIL supporters is challenging for investigators in differentiating those supporters focused only on promoting pro-ISIL rhetoric, which may be protected speech, vice [versus] detecting those prepared to engage in violence on the group's behalf," the bulletin said.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2015 11 Comments
In Israel, you are never far away from terror or the memory of terror. I learned that by chance tonight. We arrived in Israel late afternoon yesterday, May 23, 2015.  Today was planned as a rest day to try to adjust to the 7-hour time difference. From the airport we headed directly for Haifa, the northernmost big city in Israel, with a population just under 300,000.  It is a very mixed city, both ethnically and religiously. Haifa Country Satellite Map We started the day with the classic Israeli Shakshuka breakfast at the Villa Carmel, where we are staying:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 18, 2015 54 Comments
I'm struggling to concoct a scenario more damning than this. After filing a FOIA suit, thanks to a court order Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Department of Defense and Department of State which indicate the Obama administration knew al Qaeda was planning the attack in Benghazi ten days before it happened. TEN DAYS. hillary gif benghazi FOI dept state scandal judicial watch Immediately following the 9/11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, the DOD had identified the culprits and indicated the attack had been planned "ten days or more" prior.
A Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, details that the attack on the compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.” The document was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted Defense Department “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ ideologies:”
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 atacks on the World Trade Center buildings.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 15, 2015 27 Comments
Jurors finally reached consensus in the sentencing of Boston Marathon Bomber Jahar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. According to the Associated Press:
BOSTON (AP) — A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death Friday for the Boston Marathon bombing, sweeping aside pleas that he was just a "kid" who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother. Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded upon learning his fate, decided after 14 hours of deliberations over three days in the nation's most closely watched terrorism trial since the Oklahoma City bombing case two decades ago. The decision sets the stage for what could be the nation's first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals. The execution would be carried out by lethal injection. The 12-member jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, he would have automatically received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of an MIT police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers' getaway attempt. Seventeen of those charges carried the possibility of the death penalty.

Live feed is here:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 05, 2015 22 Comments
We have been following the fallout from the shootings that centered around a “Draw Mohammed” event. Most of the media is honing in on blaming the victims, as if Pam Geller had it coming to her. Noah Rothman at Hot Air writes, The toxic implication that Pamela Geller had last night’s terror attack in Texas coming:
When political commentators note that there is no justification for sexual violence, they aren’t adhering to doctrinal feminism but the tenets of civilized Western thought. No woman, a responsible citizen would say, invites violence merely because their assailant was uncontrollably stimulated by their victim’s choice of attire. This is such a bedrock principle of human decency that it barely needs to be said. Only the most brutish and crude among us would contend otherwise. Why then does it appear vogue to imply that a terrorist attack on a Texas American Freedom Defense Initiative event organized by the group’s president, Pamela Geller, was the inevitable result of provocation on the part of the victims?
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, and promises more:
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack outside a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas -- and warned of more attacks to come. In a broadcast on its official radio channel Tuesday, the group said two Al Khilafa soldiers opened fire outside the event in Garland, a Dallas suburb. Al Khilafa is how ISIS refers to its soldiers. The gunmen, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, wounded a security guard before police shot and killed them. The ISIS radio announcer also referred to Simpson and Soofi as the terror group's "brothers." The announcement ended with this warning: "We say to the defenders of the cross, the U.S., that future attacks are going to be harsher and worse. The Islamic State soldiers will inflict harm on you with the grace of God. The future is just around the corner."
It turns out that the winner of the "Draw the Prophet" contest, Bosch Fawstin, was previously featured at Legal Insurrection when I covered a special conference organized by conservative talk show host Tammy Bruce:

Posted by Amy Miller on May 05, 2015 9 Comments
By early yesterday morning, we knew half the story regarding the allegedly aspiring jihadists who opened fire at a "draw Mohammed" free speech rally in Garland, Texas. Elton Simpson, the first of the two men to be identified, was no stranger to run-ins with the law. In 2010, he was charged with plotting travel to Somalia to "[engage] in violent jihad"; a judge at the time ruled that the government did not have enough evidence that Simpson was actually planning to engage in terrorism, but sentenced him to three years probation for lying to federal agents about his travel plans. Simpson's associates were purportedly "shocked" that he would go on the attack in Garland---but then again, when are associates of dead terrorists ever not surprised that the subject of an investigation would go to desperate lengths? Simpson's story has played out in the media, but what about the other guy? Two men attacked the event---and we now know a little bit more about Nadir Soofi, the second shooter. This photo, taken from Facebook, has circulated amongst both new and mainstream media outlets:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 04, 2015 24 Comments
While the official U.S. policy has long been that we don't pay ransom to terrorists who kidnap American citizens, the Obama administration is working to find a way around this long-standing and eminently sensible stance. The idea is to allow the family of hostages held by terrorists to pay ransoms to terrorists and avoid prosecution for aiding terrorist organizations.  ABC News reports:
Families of American hostages who communicate with foreign kidnappers or raise money and pay ransoms will no longer have to fear prosecution for aiding terrorist groups, a White House-ordered advisory group on U.S. hostage policy is expected to recommend, senior officials told ABC News last week. "There will be absolutely zero chance of any family member of an American held hostage overseas ever facing jail themselves, or even the threat of prosecution, for trying to free their loved ones," said one of three senior officials familiar with the hostage policy team's ongoing review.
It appears that in the matter of the families versus the government, both get their way.  The families, understandably, want to save their family members (though paying ransom is no guarantee), and this government prefers to negotiate with, rather than defeat terrorists.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 04, 2015 21 Comments
Reports rolled out early this morning that one of the gunmen taken out during last night's shootout in Garland, Texas has been identified as Elton Simpson. Elton Simpson was shot and killed after he and an accomplice pulled up to a "Draw Mohammed" free speech event and attacked a security officer. According to ABC News, the FBI and a bomb squad began an investigation of Simpson's north Phoenix home, where he is believed to have lived with his accomplice. This isn't the first time the government has conducted investigations into Simpson's jihad-associated activities; he was convicted five years ago of lying to officials about plans to travel overseas and allegedly join a terror organization. The New York Times laid out the history of allegations against Simpson:
In 2010, federal prosecutors in Arizona charged Mr. Simpson with plotting to travel to Somalia “for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,” and then lying to a federal agent about his plans. A judge found him guilty of lying to the agent, but said the government had not proved that his plan involved terrorism, and sentenced him to three years’ probation.
Accessibility by WAH