Toronto Letter Bomber and Home Bunker

(Toronto, Ontario) There has been scant exposure of this story while it appears to be at the scratch-the-surface stage. An investigation into a series of letter bombs in the Toronto area has led to the arrest of 37-year-old Adel Mohamed Arnaout, a Lebanese immigrant. I'll make a wild stab and guess that he's a Muslim.

Arnaout is charged with counts of attempted murder, counts of intending to cause an explosion, a count of criminal harassment and a count of possession of explosive material.

Police, who have one man under arrest, are investigating the manufacture of at least six explosive devices -- three sent to unwitting recipients here and in Guelph during the past several weeks, and three found in the trunk of a rental car stopped Thursday night at an Esso station at Overlea Blvd. and Thorncliffe Park Dr. in Don Mills.

"We don't have a motive at this point," Toronto police Const. Wendy Drummond said. "We do know that the three victims -- the two in Toronto and the one in Guelph -- were not chosen at random."

According to Deputy Toronto Police Chief Tony Warr, the three bombs in Arnaout's rental car were each "about 14-18 inches long." Disposal came by detonation at the waterfront. more...

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Protest in Yemen: Crowd Cheers Boy

You *have* to see this. Not only is it my first Youtube but in 2 minutes you get a good sense of how some Yemenis feel about President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

This is from August and is not the main protests that I've been writing about, but watch and see.

I have to find out from Howie why I'm not getting the picture on the link like everyone else does, but still, its great. Update: I figured it out, it was in edit. Gee, Youtube is really easy. Think the Yemeni government will block now?

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Protest in Aden, Yemen Sparks Violence

Jawa has been tracking the protests in South Yemen since May 22 when they began. The movement is growing, and the regime's response has become more violent. Today's demonstration in Aden resulted in over 300 arrests and numerous injuries according to Jawa's sources.

IHT reports on the demonstrations and mentions the persistent land theft, politicized employment, and institutionalized discrimination prevalent in the former South Yemen.

Hundreds of riot police fired bullets and tear gas Saturday to disburse thousands of retired officers and soldiers in southern Yemen who were demanding to be allowed back into the military, police and protesters said...
The Yemeni government deployed dozens of armored vehicles Saturday and sealed off several roads in the southern port city of Aden where the protest was taking place, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The security measures were intended to prevent additional people from joining the demonstration. During the first protest in early August (ed-no, the first protest was in May and there was another in July), one person was reportedly killed and some 1,000 arrested when thousands of demonstrators marching toward downtown Aden clashed with police....

Over 10,000 citizens protested last week in the city of Taiz. The Yemen Times reported among their concerns were lack of water. (The city of 3.5 million gets water once every 40 days. The other 39 days, people have to buy drinking water.) more...

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Al Qaeda in Europe Recruiting Cyberjihadis, Whine About CIA Plot to Take Down Islamist Websites

Is it just me, or has al Qaeda in Europe's online jihad brigade at The Global Islamic Media Front [GIMF] become a bunch of whiny bitches? Seriously, these guys make the Taliban Marys look like Larry Craigs--you know, kinda butch but still ghey.

In a short-lived online announcement today (tragically cut short by the unfortunate death of the website) GIMF announced that it was seeking Muslims willing to fight the online jihad. The call was part of a longer post explaining what the online jihad is, why it is important, how the internet is used in the physical jihad, and lamenting the fact that so many pro-terror websites had been taken offline lately.

No doubt they had in mind their own Wordpress hosted websites, the last of which seems to have disappeared.......

In today's statement GIMF pointed to a concerted campaign at pressuring webhosts to take down jihadi forums and websites. That effort, they admit, is paying off. In addition to an unnamed individual and the 'mercenaries' this person has been able to marshal for the 'harassment' effort, GIMF also claims the CIA and FBI are now involved in counter-cyber-jihad efforts.

GIMF claims that the CIA and FBI are organizing conferences on how to fight the cyber jihad. They have also recruited Arab intelligence agencies in the effort, naming [the British-Zionist built] Jordan and Egypt specifically.

Triumphantly they declare that for every cyber-jihadi arrested 1000-3000 more will take their place. Maybe, but since arresting the cyber-jihadis isn't the only option, one has to wonder how many Salafi geeks sitting at a computer in Mommy's basement are really ready to go that far?

Recently, the group noted that Abu 'Abdallah Al-Maqdisi, webmaster of the Al-Nusra Al-Jihadiyya website, had been killed by Lebanese forces. Soooo, sad. That's odd, I don't see 1,000 cyber mujahideen volunteering to take al-Maqdisi's spot.

These guys claim they are real mujahidin, just like their compatriots fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, and Somalia. It's about time they were reminded that law enforcement isn't generally the model we use to fight wars.

Here we are GIMFers. Come and get us. We know you're in Germany, so it shouldn't be too hard to hop on over here. Just remember that in the US we have guns.

Q: With more and more complaints similar to this from the online jihad community, have we finally turned a corner in the cyber war?

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World's Shortest Lived al Qaeda Website

Looks like the World News Network lost its DNS service.....again. This time they were only online for two days before *someone* noticed and pwned them. The website http://www.w-w-n.org/ was registered on 8/29/2007 but as of two minutes ago it has somehow vanished.

Oh, and you won't find the al Qaeda linked propaganda outlet masquerading as a "news service" at their old website either.

Just to clarify, this isn't some small time operation...not just some blog with a small readership. This is one of the biggest propaganda outlets out there. And it's directly linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.

So, if you would like to help Rusty buy his wife dinner so she won't be so pissed that he spends so much time fighting these vile websites, please feel free to donate.

If you can't spare the change, how about at least leaving a comment or maybe a link? I could use the ego boost.

UPDATE: Now with "Donger need food" image (stolen from W. Zip) to reiterate the point.

more...

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Terror in Tampa Update: Terrorism Charge Filed!

The plot thickening even more. One charged with transporting explosives across state lines and the other charged with instructing how to use them for violence.

I don't think I'm going too far on a limb to suggest that by "violence" they mean jihad.

Whether or not that jihad was going to be waged in the U.S. or abroad is still a mystery. As I said yesterday, the fact that the Feds want DNA from these characters means they suspect that at least one of them is involved in some other plot. The terror charges today tell us nothing about what that plot was.

Despite what you learned on CSI, it will take some time before the DNA can be processed and compared to another sample. Think days or weeks rather than hours. Expect more charges to be filed at a later time against at least one of them. These charges may be the tip of the iceberg.
AP:

Two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across states lines and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons.

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

And to think that I spent all those years as a teaching assistant actually teaching the assigned subject material when I could have been having fun teaching people how to blow sh*t up! Oh, wait...this is USF...maybe learning jihad is part of the curriculum?

Thanks to Michelle for the tip and for reminding me just how right I was ;-) Looks like she will be doing updates, so check her out for the latest.

UPDATE: Michelle now has link to the actual indictment up. But what I find interesting is Dan Riehl's reminder that there is an unindicted third person involved who fled (or left) to Canada.

Hmmm, could the some other place where their DNA may link them be in Canada?

PS-I'm doubling down on the 'tip of the iceberg' statement above. CAIR went from seething about the two getting arrested to shutting up and 'letting the facts stand on their own merit' way too quick. When CAIR abandons your cause then you are up a creek.

UPDATE: For doriangray--why the Sami al-Arian connection matters:

If the Goose Creek two turn out to be the real deal, their recruitment and radicalization may have taken place in engineering school at USF.

Maybe, but I think a likelier explanation would be that they were radicalized on the internet and came to South Florida because of its jihad friendly atmosphere. The fact that the FBI seized their computers is a clue here.

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BBC Still Lying About Lebanon War Casualties

If every one keeps telling the same lie, after a while every one will simply know its true.

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De Palma's Vile Propaganda

I think this says it all about Brian De Palma's latest film on U.S. troop abuse of Iraqis:

"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said. [source]

In the film: U.S. soldiers doing bad things but who are later arrested and prosecuted for their crimes.

Not in De Palma's film: Our Islamists enemies beheading civilians and the celebrating their murders as the will of God.

Our side condemns and prosecutes the same actions our enemies celebrate, and yet Leftists like De Palma equivocate between the two and are okay with our enemies winning?

UPDATE: It gets worse. Geoff notes that al Qaeda beheadings are in the film. But, who does De Palma blame? Us, of course! That's the context of the whole movie. The point of the movie. The war must end.

As if the U.S. withdrawing would somehow end al Qaeda beheadings. Sure, there would be no more deaths of American soldiers in Iraq at the hands of al Qaeda. But since the vast majority of people murdered by al Qaeda, Ansar al Sunna, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and other groups are Iraqis then the horrible killings won't stop. In fact, far more people will be murdered by the Salafi and Khomeinist Islamists than now.

To the Left and in this film, I'm sure:

When we do bad things: our fault
When our enemies do bad things: our fault

There's really no winning.

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee has similar reactions.

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Millions Paid for South Korean Hostages

So, in addition to surrendering to the Taliban by pulling out their troops, then becoming dhimmis by submitting to Islamic law and forbidding missionaries, South Korea also was extorted and paid ransom? Unfreakingbelievable!

UPDATE & Bump: SOUTH KOREA: KIMCHI EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS!!!

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My Dad Went to Mecca and All He Got Me Was This Stupid ROP Linkfest

I'm back to work which means I have more time than ever reading up on news from the Religion of Peace. Aint academia grand?!?

And to Professor Chaos and Steve the Llama Bitcher who are getting drunk and puking their Chicago deep dish pizza filled guts out at the American Political Science Association's annual meeting: screw you guys, I'm going home.

Web:
Islamist Website publishes how to create your own al Qaeda cell for dummies manual

No way, not al Qaeda! Terrorists Accuse al Qaeda in Iraq of Stealing Video

Iraq:
How are those forced marriages working out for you al Qaeda? Not so much.

Holy schneike! U.S. Senators fired on as plane leaves Iraq.

About those reports that Basra is already Iran Jr......t'aint so.

Shhhh, don't tell New York Times: Petraeus, Surge Working!

Afghanistan:
Taliban: hostage taking works so we're going to ramp it up a notch.

Pakistan:
Mormons, Muslims, 6 of one half a dozen of the other.

Turkey:
A coup....the good kind: Military ready to step in to protect secularism from Islamist forces.

Domestic Dhimmis:
About the FBI meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood's North American front, Republicans no likey.

XXX Uncensored Video: The Opus Cartoon

Haditha: What crime?

Salome demands bin Laden's head on a platter.

Domestic Massochism:
Bad gay marriage coming to Iowa.

Craig will resign......taking a dump in public safe again!

Manbearpig sightings:
Global warming causes Cougar attacks*

*that, you know, never really happened

Ministry of Silly Walks:
Shelob is alive....and in Texas!

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Naughty Video: The Opus Cartoon

How long before enough YouTube jihadis flag this video as inappropriate and it gets yanked? I'll give it 48 hours. Thanks to John Ray.

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Petraeus: Surge Working!

Has Bush finally found his Ulysses S.Grant? Yes. The Australian:

David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said the build-up of American forces in Baghdad since late January had produced positive outcomes. These included the killing or capture of al-Qa'ida fighters, causing the terrorist group to lose influence with local Sunnis.

The strategic gains against insurgents would lead to a changed and possibly longer-term role for Australian troops, shifting from security operations to a focus on training Iraqi soldiers and police.

General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year, a doubling in the seizure of insurgents' weapons caches between January and August, a rise in the number of al-Qa'ida "kills and captures" and a fall in the number of coalition deaths from roadside bombings.

More to do? Yes. But at least we're finally on the road to Atlanta.......

The Victory Caucus has the Stand by the American Mission petition here.

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Haditha Was Tragedy, Not Crime

Jim Hanson, of Blackfive, takes an in-depth look at the tragedy that occurred in Haditha on November 19, 2005. As to whether or not the killings of Iraqis on that day constituted a crime, Hanson contends that "all available documents and reports and most of the testimony" say no.

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Utah Formally Protests Joseph Smith Cartoon

Because, you know, all religions are pretty much the same....right? Telegraph:

Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

Q: If Muhammed is really so pissed at these cartoons blaspheming him why doesn't he just use his Pyrokinesis powers to burn the Swedish artist to death? Or get one of the other Super Best Friends, like Jesus, to use his super-carpentry skills to build a giant statue of artist Lars Vilks and then burn it in efigy or something?

Thanks to Glen Jenvey for the link.

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A Few More Sites Flirting w/ 9-11 Twoof...

I don't know how many people outside the debunker community noticed this, but there seemed to be a recent small controlled demolition of mid-level to well known non-9-11-nutter blogs flirting with Twooferism - mostly on the left.

First, we have a profoundly idiotic post "just asking questions" making outlandish inferences and unsupported allegations at My Left Wing.

Then we have a heroically inept offering from The Dissident Voice; a self-dubbed "radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and justice."

Third, we have a gobsmackingly stupid call to action from The Muckraker Report, who apparently support all kinds of wingnuttery from both sides (think Dennis Kucinichitrons and Ron Paulbots).

And let's not forget the occasional mental illness that sometimes rears its ugly head at the Huffington Post.

Keep digging, ye superpatriots! There's a great CONSPIRACY to be found (cue X-Files theme)!

Don't believe to BOOSH's version of what everyone saw! Make it up as you go along!

ht: Screw Loose Change

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Gays Checking Out Kos's Junk, "Anti-Gay" Article Mysteriously Disappears

Here is a letter in which Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, aka "Kos", defends the pre-Clinton policy of not allowing gays in the military. You'll notice the date on the article he wrote in The Northern Star, the student newspaper of Northern Illinois University where he was an editor, is January 25th 1993-- just three days after President Clinton was inaugurated and right in the middle of the gays in the military controversy.

I wonder how John Aravosis, the editor of the America Blog, feels about Kos? He's the same guy who called Clinton's policy on gays in the military, "anti-gay". So, if Clinton's policy is anti-gay wouldn't the preceding policy be even more anti-gay? You might even call it gobsmackingly homophobic and the product of the American Taliban!

This is the same Kos who thought it was ok to help Aravosis out Jeff Gannon because:

"He has been extremely anti-gay in his writings. He's been a shill for the Christian right. So there's a certain level of hypocrisy there that I thought was fair game and needed to be called out."

Hypocrisy, thy name is Kos!

What's even better? Markos pulls the "I served in the military but you [Bill Clinton] didn't" card. A message he would come to perfect as cover for his vile criticisms of the military because, you know, he's been in the shit and has therefore earned the right to call our men and women baby killers!

Thanks to the Jammie Wearing Fools who have more details as does The Truth About Kos.

Screenshot below of Northern Star article which mysteriously disappeared.

UPDATE: Ron at Jamie Wearing Fools, who sent the pic, tells me the image was actually taken by Orlando at Fort Hard Knox. more...

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God Speed

Bill is headed to Fallujah.

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Where did teh gheys have sex before public bathrooms?

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Terrorists Accuse al Qaeda in Iraq of Stealing Video

A terrorist organization in Iraq, the Jaish al-Mujahideen, has criticized an al Qaeda front group, The Islamic State of Iraq, for stealing their video. No joke.

The recent al Furqan video shows what is claimed to be an al Qaeda IED attack on a police vehicle in Fallujah. But the video appears to be the same as an earlier attack claimed by Jaish al-Mujahideen.

You mean terrorists are stealing other terrorists videos? How could they stoop to such levels.

Top: Frame from Jaish al Mujahideen video
Bottom: Frame Islamic State of Iraq video

The complaint can be found here.

Most likely explanation? IED freelancers are videotaping their attacks and then selling them to the top bidder who then throw a watermark on it and then distribute via the internet.

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Iraqi Chemical Samples Cause Scare at UN

These are not the chemicals we're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

More here at Protein Wisdom and LGF.

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UPDATE: FREE!! Remaining Korean Hostages to be Freed Today [BONUS: email or call Taliban spokesman]

Update by Howie. The remaining seven hostages have been released. Four in one group, three in another.

-------------------

Keep your fingers crossed that the Taliban scum actually let them go unharmed.

Then take out your lucky rabbit's foot, rub three times, and say a prayer to the patron saint of vengeance that a U.S. special forces team eliminates their Taliban captors within the hour.

Yonhap:

Taliban insurgents are set to free the remaining seven South Korean hostages in Afghanistan within the next few hours, a spokesman for the militant group said Thursday.

The remaining hostages will be released from 4 p.m. (1130 GMT) in "groups of three and four," told Yonhap News Agency in a telephone conversation through an interpreter.

May I ask the simple question: WHAT THE HELL IS QARI YOUSUF AHMADI DOING STILL BREATHING AIR? WE KNOW WHERE HE IS. WE KNOW WHO HE IS. WE KNOW WHAT HE IS. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, SEND HIM TO MEET HIS 72 VIRGINS!

email Qari Yousuf Ahmadi: qarimohammadyousaf@yahoo.com
call Qari Yousuf Ahmadi: (011 from US, then) 8821621515539

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Video : Fear the Reaper

h/t : Allah, who has more.

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Paper Bags: The Next Terrorist Weapon

To the troops in Iraq: beware of seedy young men carrying plain brown paper bags. No, it's not porn in the bag. It's a mortar.

From a short video showing the pair dropping the bag, firing the mortar from it, and then running like hell. I'm guessing the paper bag mortar isn't exactly accurate.

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Terror in Tampa: Suspects Linked to Another Plot?

UPDATE 8/31: Terror charges filed! Thanks to MM for the link.

Whether or not that jihad was going to be waged in the U.S. or abroad is still a mystery. As I said in this post yesterday, the fact that the Feds want DNA from these characters means they suspect that at least one of them is involved in some other plot. The terror charges today tell us nothing about what that plot was.

Despite what you learned on CSI, it will take some time before the DNA can be processed and compared to another sample. Think days or weeks rather than hours. Expect more charges to be filed at a later time against at least one of them. These charges may be the tip of the iceberg.

Updates here. Original post follows
---------------------- more...

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Hizballah Indiscriminately Attacked Civilians

That's the opinion of a new Human Rights Watch report on Hizballah's actions during the 2006 conflict that Iran's proxy started against Israel. Rather than address the accusations with facts as Israel did, Hizballah asked supporters to stop the news conference. Human Rights Watch, fearing a terrorist attack against the hotel where the announcement of the report as scheduled to take place, cancelled the press conference.

Via WAPO: BEIRUT, Aug. 29 -- An international human rights group has concluded that Lebanon's Hezbollah movement indiscriminately attacked civilians during its conflict with Israel last summer, a finding that prompted denunciations from both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

In that climate, New York-based Human Rights Watch canceled a news conference it had planned to hold Thursday in Beirut to release the report, and its officials said they were being unfairly silenced.

The 126-page report found that "as a party of an armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law," Hezbollah had "violated fundamental prohibitions against deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians."

The full report on Hizballah's war crimes is located here at the Human Rights Watch website. Human Rights Watch has released this statement concerning the cancellation of the press conference.

(Beirut, August 29, 2007) – Human Rights Watch today canceled a news conference planned for Thursday, August 30, 2007 in Beirut, citing reports by Hezbollah-controlled media about planned demonstrations to prevent the scheduled event at the Crowne Plaza hotel, and the hotel’s decision to disallow the news conference.

Human Rights Watch had called the news conference to release “Civilians Under Assault: Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War,” a new 128-page report criticizing Hezbollah for its conduct during the 2006 war with Israel, in particular Hezbollah’s practice of deliberately and indiscriminately firing rockets toward Israeli civilian areas.

“Hezbollah is trying to silence criticism of its conduct during the 2006 war,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “But the fairness and accuracy of our reporting will speak for themselves, whether we hold a press conference or not.”

Two questions for Human Rights Watch. First, What took you so long, your report criticizing Israel was released months and months ago? And two, Why did you wuss out now? Could it be because you were reporting on terrorists who might kill you for your criticism? more...

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