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A judge in Illinois sentenced an admitted Al Qaeda agent Thursday to less than two years in prison in addition to the six years he already has spent behind bars — much less than the 15 years requested by prosecutors. But U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm said he doesn't think former Bradley graduate student Ali al-Marri has renounced the terrorist group and was likely to attack the U.S. if given the chance. But Mihm also said al-Marri deserved credit for the years he'd spent in isolation in the Navy brig. Prosecutors claimed al-Marri told an Air Force psychiatrist all infidels,...

CBS) Al Qaeda has developed a new tactic that allows suicide bombers to breach even the tightest security, as CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports. Inside a Saudi palace, the scene was the bloody aftermath of an al Qaeda attack in August aimed at killing Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counter terrorism operations. To get his bomb into this room, Abdullah Asieri, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, avoided detection by two sets of airport security including metal detectors and palace security. He spent 30 hours in the close company of the prince's own secret service...

FRANKFURT — In a new audio recording, the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, urged European nations on Friday to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, with a veiled threat of reprisals and an allusion to past bombings in Madrid and London. The message came as European nations, and particularly Germany, have come under increasing public and political pressures to reconsider their part in the Afghan war. Germany has 4,200 troops in Afghanistan, and domestic pressure to rethink its mission has mounted since German forces called in a NATO airstrike this month that left scores of Afghans dead. For Germany,...

Investigators have discovered a "Jihadi village" of white German al-Qaeda insurgents, including Muslim converts, in Pakistan's tribal areas close to the Afghan border. The village, in Taliban-controlled Waziristan, is run by the notorious al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which plots raids on Nato forces in Afghanistan. ... Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistan intelligence officer, who describes himself as a friend of Osama bin Laden, said he was aware of a German contingent and that there were a number of Swedish converts too who had arrived in Pakistan "for Jihad". "The Europeans are there [in Waziristan]. The most dedicated people there...

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. Brian Ross reports on the undercover agent in al Qaeda. In an exclusive interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early...

History-like hindsight-is supposed to be 20:20, but the deliberate partisan, political divide regarding the invasion of Iraq makes that hard. It’s not a new phenomenon. Conspiracy theories-often fueled by politics-still rage over the 911 attacks and the invasion of Iraq. To that end, even if one believes the relationship between Iraq War and 911 attacks is a conspiracy theory, it’s worthwhile to examine if for no other reason than harvesting a better understanding.

Monday, July 13, 2009 The Democrats’ War on the CIA Continues    [Marc Thiessen] Democrats on Capitol Hill have been indignant over the fact that the details of a top-secret CIA program apparently was not fully briefed to Congress. Within weeks of that program being brought to Congress’s attention, key details have now leaked to the news media — thus validating the original decision not to share the details with Congress in the first place. According to the Wall Street Journal, the program which Democrats were so angry about turns out to be an effort “to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization...

This is one of those articles that I really REALLY hope people will read before just commenting on the headline or the quoted sections. In fact, I think it's one of the best articles I've seen on this subject in half a decade. Yes, it's long, detailed, and forces many readers to question their previously held beliefs about regime ties to the Al Queda terrorist network, but it's not the typical anti-Bush/anti-war piece or a woohoo-Bush-was-right piece either. It is EXACTLY why: members of the 911 Commission, Sen Intel Com, as well as others (and why every investigation into the...

An American who left the United States to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia is strongly condemning President Obama’s efforts to seek “a new beginning” with the Muslim world, mocking Obama's “magic of charisma” and warning of more attacks against U.S. interests. “Despite the fact that you have been ... forced [by Muslim fighters] to at least pretend to extend your hand in peace to the Muslims, we cannot and shall not extend our hands,” said the man in the audiotape, identified by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) as Abu Mansour al-Amriki. “Rather, we shall extend...

July 09, 2009Why I'm Thankful for George W. BushBy Ken Russell On October 23, 1983 the Marine Corps Battalion Landing Team (BLT) building located at the Beirut International Airport was blown up.  Two hundred twenty Marines, 18 Sailors and 3 Soldiers were killed in a split second by a suicide bomber.  I wasn't there at the time.  I was participating in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada.  I was a squadron CH-46E helicopter co-pilot in Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (HMM-261) and also the squadron classified materials officer.  Being the one who set up the squadron classified messages, I read about...

Torture, Al-Qaeda Style Drawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as...

When Iranian government official Ahmad Samavati arrived in Washington, D.C., in February at the head of a five-man negotiating team, he thought he had an offer the Obama administration couldn’t refuse. The Iranian regime was going to turn over scores of top al-Qaida operatives, including some on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list. To Samavati’s surprise, the State Department officials he met declined the offer. “They told him they did not want any al-Qaida people. They told him they didn’t want them in the United States,” an Iranian source familiar with the negotiations told Newsmax.

They show that enhanced interrogations saved thousands of American lives!Last week the Obama Administration released a selected batch of memos detailing the Bush Administration’s scrupulous efforts to maintain humane, yet effective interrogations of the most vile Al Queda terrorists in our custody. That move was opposed by former CIA Chief Michael Hayden as well as four current and former CIA chiefs and others who realized that it only served to help future captured terrorists resist providing the information needed to save American lives.In an interview with Sean Hannity on Monday, former Vice President Cheney called on the Obama Administration to...

Dramatic daylight terror raids on a university may have been linked to a plot to blow up a shopping centre or nightclub, police fear. Students at Liverpool John Moores University watched in shock yesterday as two men were hauled outside and forced to the ground by armed police.  Witnesses said the duo  -  students at the university's Business School  -  were wearing combat trousers and hiking jackets, and claimed there were rumours of 'a bomb' on the premises.  (edit) The raid was one of a series carried out simultaneously across the North-West in which 12 suspects believed to be...

.."60 percent of the detainees who were released and returned to these areas have returned to fighting."

President Barack Obama has pioneered a route towards Syria that is distinctive from that of his predecessor President Bush, dispatching congressional delegations and signaling a rare authorization to sell Damascus plane parts for repairing two aging Boeing 747s. The overture comes as this Mediterranean country recently signed a memorandum to purchase 50 passenger jets from Airbus (a deal purportedly worth billions), despite Washington's trade sanctions begun in 2004 over Syria's alleged aid to militants in Iraq and destabilization of Lebanon. Mr. Obama’s moves are being greeted with vast relief. "Two days ago, we received from the U.S. Trade Department the...

Rahim al-Nashiri is the accused mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors. He was one of the three al Qaeda prisoners to be water boarded. He confessed. The charges against him have been dropped because of President Obama's request that legal proceedings against Gitmo detainees be halted pending a review of the process. President Obama has directed that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp be closed within one year. I guess he will release this monster at that time. The families of the USS Cole are very angry. I agree with them. This is an outrage. They...

From Times Online January 27, 2009 Barack Obama tells the Middle East: 'Americans are not your enemy' US President Barack Obama has told the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy" and renewed his pledge to travel to make an address in the capital of a major Muslim nation. In his first interview with Arab television since becoming president, Mr Obama told the al-Arabiya television that his administration would adopt a more comprehensive approach in its relations with the Muslim world. He also said that Israel and the Palestinians should resume their peace negotiations and he praised Saudi King...

Germany has been threatened with attacks for its presence in Afghanistan in a video released yesterday by the US centre for surveillance of Islamist sites (SITE). In the 30 minute Video message, a man calling himself Abu Talha Al-Alamani and presumed to be a member of al Queda says the Germans are "gullible and naive" if they thought they could "escape unscathed when they are the third occupation force in Afghanistan." The man, whose face is hidden by a black turban in the video, adds: "Letting me blow myself up in the name of Allah has been my wish since...

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops. Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to...

How We Decisively WON in Iraq in 2008 One of the boldest predictions ever made on The Futurist was back in May 2006, when I made a detailed case for why victory in Iraq would arrive precisely in 2008, not sooner or later. There was also a half-time update in September 2007 to the initial May 2006 prediction over here. This was an unusually bold prediction to make, given the state of Iraq in May 2006, which was before the Surge was even discussed. So now, in 2008, I am happy to declare that the United States has WON in...

A suspected suicide bomber has struck close to the entrance to the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, witnesses and police say. It is unclear so far whether there are any casualties. Reports said the bomber detonated explosives about 200m from the heavily guarded entrance to the US compound. Security in Afghanistan has become a key concern for foreign troops and officials, as the country faces an increasingly strong Taleban insurgency.

AQ wants to outdo 9/11 in new attack on US by Ed Morrissey An Arab newspaper in London has reported that al-Qaeda intends on launching an attack on the US that would “outdo by far” the 9/11 attacks. Al-Quds al-Arabi also reported that their Yemeni contact within AQ, a “former senior operative”, says the terrorist network has already begun consolidating its networks in preparation for the attack: OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will “outdo by far” September 11, an Arab newspaper in London has reported. And according to a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda...

Fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden is planning new attacks against the U.S. that will "outdo by far" the attacks of 9/11, according to a report in a London-based Arabic newspaper. The paper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, quotes a former senior Yemeni Al-Qaida official saying the terror group is now in a “positive phase,” of staffing and rebuilding training camps around the globe. The action will lead to the next “wave of action” against the U.S., the paper reported. “This will be shown by the fact that we now control a major part of the south of Somalia," the Yemeni source told the...

The document, which was drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch, states that "some thousands" of extremists are active in the UK. They are predominantly UK-born and aged between 18 and 30, and many are believed to have been trained in overseas terrorist camps. Under the heading "International Terrorism", the report, which is marked "restricted" states: "For the foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda. It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign terrorists, as...

The al Qaeda figure believed to be organizing a new terror attack against the United States is dead, a senior U.S. official tells ABCNews.com. The al Qaeda figure believed to be organizing a new terror attack against the United States is dead,... The al Qaeda figure believed to be organizing a new terror attack against the United States is dead, a senior U.S. official tells ABCNews.com. The official says the U.S. now has evidence that Khalid Habib was killed in an unmanned air strike two weeks ago in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan. Until now, there had been no...

Qaeda wants Republicans, Bush "humiliated"-Web video Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:01pm EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda leader has called for President George W. Bush and the Republicans to be "humiliated," without endorsing any party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to a video posted on the Internet. "O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him," Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet. Libi, one of the top al Qaeda commanders believed to be...

"The Swedish citizen who on Wednesday evening was reported to have been killed by US forces in Iraq was Abu Qaswara - according to the UN and EU one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders in the country. Abu Qaswara was killed in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq on October 5th, reported Reuters. Born in Morocco and known also as Abu Sara, Abu Qaswara was described by the US as the second-in-command in al-Qaeda in Iraq and the leader of the organisation's groups in the north of the country. Details about Qaswara's death were discussed at a press...

The "American" dead? KCAL-TV: Adam Gadahn has been credited with helping transform Al Qaeda's propaganda wing into a slick operation able to communicate in fluent English and produce professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year.

A human tide of more than 300,000 civilians has fled the al-Qa'ida badlands, amid indications that the fighting there has reached unprecedented levels, with the Pakistani army using massive firepower to attack jihadi militant strongholds. Helicopter gunships, fixed-wing strike aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery have been used in the onslaught that followed the visit last month by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Washington, where he was berated for Pakistan's failure to wipe out the militants. The offensive runs counter to perceptions that Pakistan's new civilian Government is "soft" on Islamic extremism. This will reassure Washington, whose ally in the...

What do you think of Suskind's allegation? I believe it 69% I don't believe it 31% Total Votes: 16,169

On the stump, Barack Obama usually concludes his comments on Iraq by saying, "and it hasn't made us safer." It is an article of faith on the left that nothing the Bush administration has done has enhanced our security, and, on the contrary, its various alleged blunders have only contributed to the number of jihadists who want to attack us. Empirically, however, it seems beyond dispute that something has made us safer since 2001. Over the course of the Bush administration, successful attacks on the United States and its interests overseas have dwindled to virtually nothing. Some perspective here is...

It now has been four years since Dr. William Graham, Science Advisor to President Ronald W. Reagan and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, and a distinguished panel completed a study of High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and its potential effects upon this country. The conclusions of this study are the most frightening I have seen concerning modern-day threats. Few have heard of it because the report has yet to be made public. The reason it has not been made public is simple: if EMP were understood by the American people, the next logical question...

Jihadism in the 21st century has plans for all types of situations, including Mujahada (Jihadi activity) in a courtroom when needed. This is now what the world will witness during the trials of the al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo, Cuba. Both the inmates on the inside and the Jihadi-mates on the outside were waiting for this moment to strike, politically and psychologically, using the media as their weapon. To the well-trained and -indoctrinated five standing trial, the objective is not to gain as many rights and freedoms as possible under current U.S. and international law; rather it is to resume...

Key will be the relations between al-Qaida, tribal leaders of north-west Pakistan and figures such as Baitullah Mehsoud, accused of being responsible for the death of Benazir Bhutto last year. But al-Qaida's influence in southern Afghanistan is said to be diminishing, disrupted by Nato, the US, military activity and money. Officials talk about the appeal of an "attractive area of ungoverned space". This is Somalia, described as an increasingly popular destination for "western jihadists", though al-Qaida is playing only a small part in the violence there, western intelligence officials suggest. Of more immediate concern is north Africa. Algeria is a...

America is very close to succeeding in Iraq. The "near-strategic defeat" of al Qaeda in Iraq described by CIA Director Michael Hayden last month in the Washington Post has been followed by the victory of the Iraqi government's security forces over illegal Shiite militias, including Iranian-backed Special Groups. The enemies of Iraq and America now cling desperately to their last bastions, while the political process builds momentum. These tremendous gains remain fragile and could be lost to skillful enemy action, or errors in Baghdad or Washington. But where the U.S. was unequivocally losing in Iraq at the end of 2006,...

Al-Qaida fighters and other Sunni insurgents have largely scattered from the northern city of Mosul in the face of a U.S.-Iraqi sweep, fleeing to desert areas further south, an Iraqi commander said Sunday. He vowed the forces will not allow them to regroup. The U.S. military said al-Qaida in Iraq was "off-balance and on the run" but remains a very lethal threat, tempering remarks by the U.S. ambassador a day earlier that the terror network was closer than ever to being defeated. The comments came amid a flurry of attacks in Baghdad and other areas, most likely attributable to Sunni...

Al Qaeda's most fervent supporters acknowledge that Iraq has turned into a disaster for them. Nibras Kazimi, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute, reports on a posting at one of al Qaeda's web sites: A prolific jihadist sympathizer has posted an ‘explosive’ study on one of the main jihadist websites in which he laments the dire situation that the mujaheddin find themselves in Iraq by citing the steep drop in the number of insurgent operations conducted by the various jihadist groups, most notably Al-Qaeda’s 94 percent decline in operational ability over the last 12 months when only a year...

One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat, He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them. Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran's influence in the Middle East. As Tehran's point man on Iraq, he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to build a pro-Western democracy on the rubble of Saddam...

A ‘key player’ accused of radicalising British Muslims is living openly in the UK A suspected terrorist who scored a legal victory against the Government this week is a senior al-Qaeda operative living openly in London, security agencies say. The man, who can be identified only as G, is one of five people who challenged the Treasury’s powers to freeze terrorist suspects’ bank accounts in a successful High Court action. Yesterday security sources described him as “a key player” who acts as a conduit between British-based extremists and the al-Qaeda leadership hiding out in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Under the Government’s...

Head of Al Karama political front Abu Uzam Al Tamimi affirmed that members of factions fighting Al Qaeda and opposing its activities in Iraq have joined the front which was formed few days ago to participate in the political process. Al Tamimi told Al Hayat Newspaper that the new political bloc joins a number of tribal sheikhs and heads of awakening councils in Baghdad in addition to a group of technocrats and members of armed factions that have fought against Al Qaeda. He added that some members who used to operate with the Islamic Army in Iraq and Eshreen revolution...

I was collecting articles on a post showing the end game coming in Iraq for Sadr and his Mahdi Army but Bill Roggio beat me to the punch today in a much better post than I was going to put together. Update - some interesting tidbits inside Roggio’s piece are worth emphasizing: Iraq’s Department of Border enforcement also seized a large shipment of roadside bombs, landmines, and explosives as it was smuggled from Iran into Iraq’s Diyala province. The Mahdi Army appears to be striking back by targeting political and religious leaders in the Baghdad South. Over the period of...

As Coalition and Iraqi security forces work to dismantle al Qaeda in Iraq’s network nationwide, al Qaeda is attempting to re-establish operations in its former stronghold in Baghdad as well as in the northern city of Mosul. Al Qaeda’s ability to conduct large-scale, coordinated attacks has diminished since the fall of 2007 as the security situation improved. But as yesterday’s suicide attacks in Baqubah, Mosul, Ramadi, and Baghdad show, al Qaeda still maintains some capacity to coordinate operations and target civilians. US and Iraqi security forces have killed or captured 53 senior members of al Qaeda in Iraq’s network over...

It's a shame Sen. Carl Levin failed to take the time to call public attention to Gen. David Petraeus' "Anaconda Strategy" chart. Petraeus briefly referred to the chart during his initial testimony this week before Levin's Senate Armed Services Committee. The Anaconda Chart is a complex graphic that depicts an intricate, multi-dimensional war. It's tough to describe even with a copy in front of you. However, the strategic concept behind Petraeus' chart (titled "Anaconda Strategy versus al-Qaida in Iraq") is dirt simple: Squeeze and keep squeezing. A commercial artist would certainly describe the chart as "too busy," but war isn't...

The outcome of the Iraq war may still be in the balance but U.S. President George W. Bush has already won the war about the war in Washington. In November 2006 elections, Bush's Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress largely due to public anger about Iraq. Democrats pledged to end the war that started in March 2003 and bring the troops home. But testimony to Congress this week by the top commander on the ground, Army Gen. David Petraeus, indicates there will be about the same high level of U.S. troops in Iraq when Americans elect Bush's...

Asked repeatedly yesterday what "conditions" he is looking for to begin substantial U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after this summer's scheduled drawdown, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said he will know them when he sees them. For frustrated lawmakers, it was not enough. "A year ago, the president said we couldn't withdraw because there was too much violence," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "Now he says we can't afford to withdraw because violence is down." Asked Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.): "Where do we go from here?" Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: "I think people want a sense of what...

WASHINGTON — For the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Obama, a "messy, sloppy status quo" is the Iraq war tagline of the moment.That was the message from Mr. Obama's colloquy yesterday with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Mr. Obama warned the top American general in Iraq and the American ambassador there against setting the bar for success too high."If, on the other hand, our criteria is a messy, sloppy status quo, there's not, you know, huge outbreaks of violence; there's still corruption, but the country's struggling...

The senior al Qaida operative who helped direct the 2005 London subway bombings and a plot to blow up commercial airliners over the Atlantic Ocean has died in Pakistan’s tribal region, U.S. counter terrorism officials said Tuesday.

The past month seemed like a hopeful time for Democrats – before an intense internal struggle turned in a direction that left them struggling for a way to deal with it. What . . . you thought I was talking about the presidential campaign? No, sillies. Iraq. That’s where Basra appeared to be giving the Democrats just what they so desperately wanted. Shiite militias got boisterous and perpetrated an uprising, prompting a response from Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki that was less than overwhelming in its ferocity. As things appeared to be spinning out of control in Basra, Hillary Clinton and...

President George W. Bush will make a brief speech about the troop mission in Iraq Thursday after his top general and ambassador in the war-torn country testify to Congress, the White House said Tuesday. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush would make a 15 to 20 minute long speech, but she refused to indicate his position amid expectations he will freeze troop withdrawals in July. Bush will invite the Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress Wednesday to hear to their views of the testimony delivered by the commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and Ambassador...