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BAGHDAD — Al-Qaida’s chief has called on Muslims from other countries to support rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad, saying they cannot depend on the West for help. Ayman al-Zawahri, in a videotaped statement released late Saturday, asked Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad’s “pernicious, cancerous regime.” All four states border Syria. 0 Comments Weigh In Corrections? A senior Iraqi security official also told the Associated Press on Saturday that intelligence over the last four months has revealed a flow of al-Qaida-linked fighters from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul...

SNIPPET: "While these various elements of the jihadist network are distinct, the Internet brings them together, especially at the grassroots level. Videos, websites and online magazines indoctrinate aspiring militants in the jihadist ideology and provide a forum for like-minded individuals and groups."

Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic preacher once described as Osama bin Laden’s “right hand man in Europe”, will be back on the streets within days after being granted bail. A senior immigration judge said yesterday that Qatada could be released despite even his own defence team suggesting that he posed a “grave risk” to Britain’s national security. Qatada was granted bail by Mr Justice Mitting after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that he could not be deported to his native Jordan. The bail conditions will be similar to those set in 2008, with the cleric confined...

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country. The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold. Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed. Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed. According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island,...

We May Get to See Some of Bin Laden's Death Photos After All The American public may finally bear witness to some, but probably not all, of the postmortem images of Osama bin Laden taken on the night he was killed in Pakistan. That's the conclusion of Dan Metcalfe, the former director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy, after reading the government's response in a lawsuit from activist group Judicial Watch seeking "all photographs and/or video recordings" taken during the raid in Pakistan. “If you look closely at one small segment of the government's brief, it in...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2012 – An Afghan and coalition security force captured an al-Qaida facilitator in the Gardez district of Afghanistan’s Paktia province today, military officials reported. The facilitator coordinated insurgent activity t and provided reports to senior al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan, officials said. No civilians were harmed. In other Afghanistan operations today: -- A combined patrol found about 5,559 pounds of marijuana in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province. -- In the Qalander district of Khost province, a combined force detained several suspects and seized grenades and assault rifles while searching for a Haqqani network leader who attacks Afghan...

"Radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed threatens Syria with a wave of suicide bombs" SNIPPET: "Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric banned from Britain for glorifying terrorism, has told The Daily Telegraph from his base in the Middle East that al-Qaida is poised to wage war against the Syrian regime. Bakri, once nicknamed the Tottenham Ayatollah, said hard-line Salafi Muslim groups, including al-Qaida, and his al-Ghuraba group were ready to help their "Muslim brothers" with a campaign of suicide attacks against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president." SNIPPET: "Speaking from his new home in Lebanon, the self-styled cleric, who caused controversy after...

Note: The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 917-09 November 20, 2009 DOD Announces Military Commissions Actions Today, prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions announced they intend to ask the convening authority to refer new charges under the recently-enacted Military Commissions Act of 2009 against Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri, in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors and injuries to many more. This announcement follows the attorney general's determination on Nov. 13, 2009, that a military...

NAIROBI, Kenya — An increasingly vocal Islamist group says its leader has been appointed to represent an al-Qaida-linked Somali militia in Kenya, a development that underscores the dangers Kenya faces from Somalia’s insurgency. The statement by the Kenya-based Muslim Youth Center came amid a flurry of warnings from embassies about planned terror attacks in Kenya. The Somali militant group al-Shabab has promised to attack Kenya for its decision to send troops to Somalia in October. The Muslim Youth Center was named in a United Nations report last year for recruiting, fundraising, and running training and orientation events for al-Shabab. An...

SNIPPET: "Three Pakistani men pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism-related charges of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, according to a release from the U.S. Justice Department. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Bates in the District of Columbia, Irfan Ul Haq, Qasim Ali, and Zahid Yousaf pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to provide material support to the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Ul Haq, Ali, and Yousaf were arrested in Miami on March 13 and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. The three men allegedly ran an alien smuggling operation out...

SNIPPET: "OSLO, Norway, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A Muslim extremist leader facing terrorism charges from his Norwegian hosts said this week he's planning on leaving for his native Kurdistan. Najmaddin Faraj, who goes by the name Mullah Krekar, in the 1990s was one of the co-founders of the Kurdish extremist group Ansar al-Islam, which Western officials say has links to al-Qaida." SNIPPET: "Krekar is due in Oslo District Court next month to face terrorism charges, the news agency said. Should he instead return to Kurdistan, he won't be facing any charges from the PUK, a party lawyer told Rudaw."

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

Another Christmas, another slaughter of Christians by members of the so-called "religion of peace." The Boko Haram, a "radical Muslim sect" as the Associated Press puts it, claimed credit for bombing a Nigerian Catholic church on Christmas, killing 35 and wounding 52. What do the Boko Haram want? A sect spokesman calling himself Abul-Qaqa offered this in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. "There will never be peace until our demands are met," he said. "We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released, we want full implementation of...

BOSTON — A Massachusetts man was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to help al-Qaida and plotting to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Tarek Mehanna, 24, of Sudbury, faced four terror-related charges and three charges of lying to authorities. A federal jury found him guilty of all counts after deliberating for about 10 hours. Prosecutors said Mehanna and two friends conspired to travel to Yemen so they could receive training at a terrorism camp and eventually go on to Iraq to fight and kill U.S. soldiers there. When the men were unable to find such a training camp, Mehanna returned home and...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/louisville/press-releases/2011/iraqi-national-pleads-guilty-to-23-count-terrorism-indictment-in-kentucky Iraqi National Pleads Guilty to 23-Count Terrorism Indictment in Kentucky Defendant Participated in Numerous Efforts to Kill U.S. Troops in Iraq with IEDs U.S. Department of Justice December 16, 2011 Office of Public Affairs BOWLING GREEN, KY—Iraqi citizen Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges today in U.S. District Court before Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, announced Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; David J. Hale, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky; and Elizabeth A. Fries, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Louisville Division. Alwan,...

PHOTO CAPTION - SNIPPET: "Officials believe that more members of the so-called Düsseldorf cell may still be at large." SNIPPET: "Halil S. is a man who knows his way around computers. When he went online..." SNIPPET: "German security officials allege that the 27-year-old is the fourth member of the so-called "Düsselfdorf Cell." The group is believed to be the al-Qaida cell currently active in Germany and tasked with carrying out a major attack in Europe. Three other members of the cell, Moroccan Abdeladim el-K. and two accomplices, were arrested in late April and are being held in custody. Authorities believe...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/press-release.asp?id=2915 Birmingham man sentenced to three years for terrorism offences 12 December 2011 Updated: 13 December 2011 A bookshop owner from Birmingham has been sentenced to three years in prison for possessing and distributing terrorist publications, following a nine-week trial at Kingston Crown Court. A jury yesterday (Monday 12) found the 32-year-old Ahmed Faraz guilty of seven counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and four counts of possession of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism. Seven other similar charges will lie on...

Ron Paul is surging in Iowa according to the latest polls, but if the libertarian Texas Republican does become the flavor of the week, his foreign policy views will likely leave Republican voters with a sour taste. The latest IBD/TIPP survey asked respondents which GOP presidential candidate they preferred on four issues: the economy, budget/taxes, health care and foreign policy. Paul is third behind Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, being the preferred choice by Republicans on the first three issues by margins of 9%, 10%, and 6%, respectively. As today’s IBD story touched on, Paul is weakest on foreign policy,...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16052074 SNIPPET: "A Nigerian court has sentenced a former spokesman of the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram to three years in prison. Ali Sanda Umar Konduga was arrested last month with Nigerian senator Ali Ndume, who is accused of backing Boko Haram. The group has staged several attacks in Nigeria, including on the UN base and police headquarters in Abuja. Last week, a US Congressional report said Boko Haram was an "emerging threat" to the US and its interests. Nigeria's security services said Konduga spoke on behalf of Boko Haram, using the name Usman al-Zawahiri." SNIPPET: "Boko Haram means "Western...

A 14-year-old American boy who was abducted with his mother and cousin by suspected Muslim militants in the southern Philippines was released Saturday from five months of jungle captivity, the Philippine military said.

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

SNIPPET: "From a compound in Lahore, Pakistan to a home in the quiet Brad Drive neighborhood in Rockville, there's growing concern about the fate of kidnapped American contractor Warren Weinstein. "It's just a Byzantine world, it's not straight up", says Chis Meyers, a neighbor and a widely travelled retired marine. "There's people who are going to pick out Americans", he adds. Authorities say Weinstein, 70, an industrial development expert, employed by Arlington-based J.E. Austin associates was kidnapped around 3:45 Saturday morning Pakistani time. Police say eight to ten men approached Weinstein's Lahore house on a ploy. "They had come up...

Al-Qaida says it is holding a 70-year-old American aid worker abducted in Pakistan three months ago. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaida leader, said in a video that Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped by armed men in Lahore, would be freed only if the US ceases its air strikes on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and frees prisoners. "Just as the Americans detain whomever they suspect may be connected to al-Qaida or the Taliban even in the slightest of ways, we have detained this man who has been involved with US aid to Pakistan since the 1970s," Zawahiri said. Weinstein, a development expert, has...

SNIPPET: "MANILA, Philippines—A group of suspected Filipino hackers allegedly financed by a Saudi-based terrorist cell was arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) disclosed on Thursday." SNIPPET: "The group was allegedly behind attacks on the US telecommunication firm AT&T that resulted in $2 million in losses to the company in 2009. In a statement, the CIDG said the group also had links to the Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)." SNIPPET: "ATCCD chief Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa identified the suspects as Macnell Gracilla,...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

A Dominican with an anti-American grudge has been busted for building a bomb in his upper Manhattan apartment to blow up a police station, sources said Sunday night. -snip- The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

The New York Police Department has foiled an alleged terror plot targeting law enforcement and soldiers returning from the battlefield. The New York Times reported that 27-year-old Jose Pimentel was acting as a 'lone wolf' and was taken into custody Saturday. He allegedly was inspired by Al-Qaida, although his citizenship was not immediately known.

SNIPPET: "The latest generation of jihadists has never been to an al-Qaeda training camp. These recruits learn everything they need to know online." SNIPPET: "This change, however, is not restricted to the younger generation. Many of the older elements have replaced the Afghan-style dress and long beard with an appearance that avoids attention from security officers." SNIPPET: "Herein lies the danger from sympathisers and supporters of al-Qaeda. That community is now deemed more active and effective than actual elements of al-Qaeda, especially after the crackdown by security agencies around the world. Therefore, we believe that al-Qaeda is now paying special...

Men claiming to be al-Qaida operatives are moving into the humanitarian vacuum in Somalia, distributing aid and cash to drought victims in an attempt to win hearts and minds, a Guardian investigation can reveal. On a visit to the sprawling Ala-Yasir camp in the south of the country, the Guardian saw an al-Qaida unit handing out rice, flour, oil, dates and milk as well as Islamic books and clothes to some of the more than 4,000 people made destitute by this year's drought. This was the first time the group has spoken publicly in Somalia, and the first time it...

Q: How is the US-backed Libyan revolution  just like ObamaCare? A: Now that it's too late,  we get to find out what's in it... While we still do not know who the rebels we just boosted to power actually are (but plenty of reason to suspect the worst- think AQ and Muslim Brotherhood types and you're probably not all that far-off), we're about to get educated real quick. They've already brought charges of war crimes upon themselves while PM Jabril was busy lying about Gaddafi's execution in captivity, declaring laws will be based on Sharia, and legalizing polygamy... now this:  (copyrighted) photos -here-

Weekend media reports showed al-Qaida’s flag flying in central Benghazi, and noted that Libyan anti-aircraft missiles had been purchased by terror groups, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the administration has not been surprised by news reports from Libya. “I’m not aware of anything that has been reported that has surprised us out of Libya,” Carney said during a morning press briefing. White House officials have not responded to The Daily Caller’s request for an explanation of Carney’s statement.

Weekend media reports showed al-Qaida’s flag flying in central Benghazi, and noted that Libyan anti-aircraft missiles had been purchased by terror groups, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the administration has not been surprised by news reports from Libya. “I’m not aware of anything that has been reported that has surprised us out of Libya,” Carney said during a morning press briefing. White House officials have not responded to The Daily Caller’s request for an explanation of Carney’s statement.

A Malian lawmaker who has been outspoken about his country's alleged role in providing refuge to an offshoot of the al-Qaida terror network says he was stopped in traffic Sunday in the capital by armed men who warned him to stop talking about the matter.

If there were questions about al-Qaida’s role in post-Gadhafi Libya, VICE reporter Sherif Elhelwa provides some answers in a new story with eyewitness descriptions. Al-Qaida flags, Elhelwa reports, are popping up around Benghazi. At the city courthouse, which played a prominent role in the Libyan revolution, residents are flying the late terrorist’s Osama bin Laden’s colors. Similarly, Elhelwa recounts a regular evening sight: “Islamists driving brand-new SUVs and waving the black al Qaeda flag drive the city’s streets at night.”

An official from the U.S. State Department has called the Charlotte family of al-Qaida propagandist Samir Khan to offer the government's condolences on his death in a U.S. drone attack last week in Yemen, according to a family spokesman. "They were very apologetic (for not calling the family sooner) and offered condolences," Jibril Hough said about the Thursday call from the State Department to Khan's father, Zafar. The phone call came a day after the family released a statement through Hough that condemned the "assassination" of their 25-year-old son - a U.S. citizen - and said they were "appalled" that...

[Hitchens is hard core when it comes to Islamists!] Probably because it mainly provides the kind of short-term cinematic satisfaction that characterizes the Hellfire terminus, the flashy ending of al-Qaida’s main media star has only led to the reopening of some pressing questions about the nature of the jihadi menace. It has also forced us to confront the idea of words as weapons, and the relationship between ideas and actions, in a world of conscienceless criminal violence that operates without employing any code or precedent of its own. To phrase the essence of the problem succinctly, you are perhaps more...

War On Terror: As al-Qaida cues up a post-mortem screed by Anwar Awlaki, sympathetic media are doing their own martyring. They claim U.S. warmongering made the terror traitor angry. This is a pernicious lie, and demonstrably false. And the mainstream media should be ashamed of themselves for breezily corrupting American attitudes about one of the most diabolical figures in the war on terror. U.S.-born Awlaki was a secret al-Qaida agent all along. He always hated his birthplace. The war didn't push him over the edge. In fact, he helped cause the war as a 9/11 co-conspirator. Though a CIA drone...

SNIPPET: "AN EXTREMIST Islamic group suspected of planning a crime spree across Sydney to raise money for the Taliban has been uncovered by counter-terrorism police. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that NSW Police and national security agencies have been investigating the group members for over a year, with the case currently active. The extremists have been the subject of a top secret operation led by the NSW Police Force, ASIO, Australian Federal Police and the NSW Crime Commission. A group of men, aged between 20 and 30, all Australian citizens of Middle Eastern-descent, have been identified as the core members."...

SNIPPET: "Rabat — Morocco's security forces have broken up a five-member terrorist cell that used to operate in the cities of Salé (near Rabat) and Casablanca, National Police Department said on Saturday in a statement. The statement added that the dismantled cell includes a member linked to the former emir of al Qaeda network in northern Iraq. The cell, which pledged allegiance to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, used Internet to forge close ties with al Qaida, especially in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen and Somalia, it said." SNIPPET: "To carry out their plans, the members of the cell contacted, via Internet, experts in...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is condemning the Obama administration for killing an American born al-Qaida operative without a trial. Paul, a Texas congressman known for libertarian views, says the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki on Yemeni soil amounts to an "assassination."....

Terror mastermind and senior Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is dead a senior U.S. official confirms. Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in Al-Qaeda's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said. excerpt - Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the...

SNIPPET: "The Interior Ministry says Spanish police have arrested a Cuban man suspected of belonging to al-Qaida. A ministry statement says the man was detained Monday on the Mediterranean Island of Mallorca."

Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslim pilgrims traveling by bus through southwest Pakistan on Tuesday on their way to in Iran, killing 26 people...Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against Shiites in recent years... The passengers tried to run away, but the gunmen opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding six others...The attackers then drove off, leaving the dying and wounded where they lay. It was nearly an hour before rescue teams arrived, he said. There were around 40 people on the bus.

Ten years ago, al-Qa'ida terrorists struck New York, killing nearly 2700, including 11 Australians. Just over a year later, radical Islamists bombed a disco in Bali, killing just over 200, almost half of whom were Australian. As memory of those tragedies fade, many Australians question their participation in the war on terror. Whereas three years ago, the Australian mission in Afghanistan was relatively popular, polls now show almost two-thirds of Australians want their troops withdrawn from Afghanistan. The Indonesian government's execution of the Bali bombers in November 2008 and the dispatch of Osama bin Laden in May provide natural closure,...

A man accused of being part of a terrorist cell in the Triangle has been linked to what U.S. counter-terrorism officials have called a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaida threat to set off a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Jude Kenan Mohammad is among three al-Qaida leaders that investigators believe pose a particular threat because they have lived in the U.S. Mohammad, 22, dropped out of Fuquay-Varina High School in 2006 and left the U.S. two years later to visit Pakistan, his father's homeland. A federal grand...

A senior Al Qaeda leader who has been linked to the planning of attacks on Australia has been arrested in Pakistan. Younis al-Mauritania was caught in the suburbs of the south-western city of Quetta, the military said in a statement. Two other senior operatives in the Al Qaeda terrorist group were also captured and arrested by Pakistan's main intelligence service. Mauritania was responsible for conducting international operations, and had been ordered by Osama bin Laden to hit Australian, American and European economic interests, the statement said. Cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency led to the arrests by...

A decade after 9/11, it remains the best description and most essential fact about al-Qaida. The proper task of the "public intellectual" might be conceived as the responsibility to introduce complexity into the argument: the reminder that things are very infrequently as simple as they can be made to seem. But what I learned in a highly indelible manner from the events and arguments of September 2001 was this: Never, ever ignore the obvious either. To the government and most of the people of the United States, it seemed that the country on 9/11 had been attacked in a particularly...

Michael Scheuer says rendition should be brought back as lack of intelligence has left UK and US unable to monitor militants. The Arab spring has "delighted al-Qaida" and caused "an intelligence disaster" for the US and Britain, the former head of the CIA unit in charge of pursuing Osama bin Laden has warned... The help we were getting from the Egyptian intelligence service, less so from the Tunisians but certainly from the Libyans and Lebanese, has dried up – either because of resentment at our governments stabbing their political leaders in the back, or because those who worked for the...

Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior Obama administration official said Saturday. The Libyan national who was the network's former operational leader rose to al-Qaida's No. 2 spot after the U.S. killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden during a raid on his Pakistan compound in May. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that al-Qaida's defeat was within reach if the U.S. could mount a string of successful attacks on the group's weakened leadership.

ABUJA, Nigeria — A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives rammed the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Friday, blasting an enormous hole in the building with a thunderous explosion, witnesses and officials said. As many as 400 people may have been inside at the time of the attack, the first time United Nations offices have been a bombing target in Nigeria. Boko Haram, a shadowy Nigerian Islamist insurgency group with possible links to Al Qaeda’s affiliates in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the BBC’s Hausa language...