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Reposting of Background...AP Release:U.S. abandons plans to keep troops in Iraq**********************************EXCERPT***********************************BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.The decision ends months of hand-wringing by U.S. officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that...

Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has confirmed the deaths of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, the young American propagandist killed alongside him in a U.S. drone strike late last month. Al-Qaeda has also criticized the Obama administration for killing U.S. citizens, saying doing so “contradicts” American law. “Where are what they keep talking about regarding freedom, justice, human rights and respect of freedoms?!” the statement says, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist Web sites.

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) -- Following a day of dramatic developments in Libya, President Barack Obama said Sunday night that the situation there had reached a "tipping point" and that control of the capital was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant." He called on Moammar Gadhafi to accept reality and relinquish power.

A Libyan mourner fires shots in the air at a cemetery on August 12 during the funeral of five rebels killed in the battle for the control of the oil-rich town of Brega. Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Rebels said Saturday that they were gaining traction in a series of offensives in several parts of Libya controlled by ruler Moammar Gadhafi -- claims that the Libyan government swiftly disputed. Heavy gunfire was heard in al-Zawiya, located about 33 miles west of Tripoli, where rebels had arrived. Rebels entered the city center and managed to cut off the road to Tripoli, they...

Four of the Senate’s top voices on foreign policy voiced their support Friday for the Obama administration’s move to formally recognize rebel leaders as the legitimate governing authority of Libya. “We welcome the Administration’s decision to recognize the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the legitimate governing authority of Libya,” said Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in a statement.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Rebel leaders won recognition as the legitimate government of Libya from the United States and other world powers on Friday in a major boost to the rebels' faltering campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi. Recognition of the rebels, announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a meeting in Turkey of the international contact group on Libya, is an important diplomatic step which could unlock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his little outfit “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” are at it again. Hoping to gain traction for what has heretofore been an absolutely pathetic gun control campaign, Bloomberg is rolling out all the stops by trying to scare us into thinking Al Qaeda agents are buying their guns at U.S. gun shows. I’m not kidding: Bloomberg’s latest television ad contains clips of an American-turned-Islamist advising his comrades to buy their weapons at U.S. gun shows. The ad is very, very sloppy, and full of factual errors. Like when the Islamist says, “You can go down to a...

In July 2005, Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri sent a long letter to the group's lead operative in Iraq, urging him to tone down his activities. In Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi had been orchestrating suicide bombings of Shiite Muslim shrines. His followers frequently videotaped the beheading of hostages. Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who helped organize the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and other violence, told Zarqawi he was going too far. "We are in a media battle, in a race for the hearts and minds" of Muslims, wrote Zawahiri, who was named Thursday to succeed Osama bin Laden...

Al Qaeda has released a video urging Muslims who live in the U.S. to take advantage of the easy access to firearms and buy guns to kill Americans. In the two-hour video released Friday, Adam Gadahn, an American-born spokesman for the terror network, cited America as an example where Muslims in the West have tools at their disposal for a holy war against "the enemies of Islam." "America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms," said Gadahn, who is known as Azzam al-Amriki. "You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with...

The Justice Department announced Tuesday the indictment of two Iraqis currently living in Kentucky on terrorism charges that included an alleged plot to deliver explosives and Stinger missiles for use against Americans abroad. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, were arrested in Kentucky on May 25, and a federal grand jury in Bowling Green returned the 23-count indictment the next day. Each faces life in prison if convicted of the charges. Alwan has been under investigation since September 2009. Over the last eight years, officials say, he allegedly has supported efforts to kill U.S. forces in Iraq,...

Up until exactly 10:30 AM this morning, I personally felt pretty comfortable not seeing the photos of Osama bin Laden. I have a great trust in our Navy Seals and the Pentagon. It would take too large of a government conspiracy to lie about such a monumental claim. Further, if the Pakistanis, who are terrifically embarrassed by this incident, clearly believe Osama bin Laden was killed- than I believe it. Even the terrorist websites, who have every reason to want the legend of bin Laden alive, believe it. Only conspiracy theorists could possibly believe that the U.S. government is lying...

A day after the White House said it will not release the official photo of Usama bin Laden’s body, many are wondering how a handful of lawmakers were duped into believing they saw it. The Obama administration said Wednesday it will not make public the images of the dead Al Qaeda chief, arguing the pictures could incite violence and be used as propaganda by terrorist leaders. White House officials also say DNA evidence confirming the body as Bin Laden’s provides sufficient proof of his death. The announcement came after at least three U.S. lawmakers claimed to have seen what they...

Video August 2007 AFL-CIO Presidential Forum Obama puts a spin on his early remarks about invading Pakistan, and then claims the the American people should have a say in shaping our nation's foreign policy. Both he and Hillary Clinton speak of the importance of fighting Al Queda. Hillary Clinton said, " The last thing we need is to have Al Queda like followers in charge of Pakistan." Is it now OK to have Al Queda in charge of Libya? Now Obama is aiding Al Queda, a sworn enemy of the United States, in the overthrow of the sovereign nation of...

The opposition to military action in Libya is fascinating. President Obama is taking incoming fire from both the left and the right as various agendas collide against neutralizing Moammar Gadhafi. The dissent is all over the place, so let's try to simplify the situation. We begin with a quote from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." That's true. We have seen it time and again throughout history. When evil is not confronted, it can win, often with devastating results. There is no question that Gadhafi was on the...

Libyan rebels have overcome Muammar al-Qaddafi's forces in strategic oil town of Ajdabiya, seizing control of the city Saturday in a major turnaround for an uprising that appeared to be on the verge of defeat. Libyan government forces pulled out from the city of Ajdabiya following an air assault by Western coalition forces, a senior government official told Reuters. "Without the planes we couldn't have done this. Qaddafi's weapons are at a different level than ours," said Ahmed Faraj, 38, a rebel fighter from Ajdabiya. "With the help of the planes we are going to push onward to Tripoli, God...

British cleric Anjem Choudary says al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood have assets on the ground in Libya and are ready to take control if Moammar Gadhafi is removed from power.

It's known as the Coca Cola plane. In early November, drug traffickers landed a Boeing 727 in the Malian desert in Gao state and offloaded as much as 10 tons of cocaine. Then, rather than fly it back across the Atlantic to Latin America, they simply burnt it, treating it like a used Coke can. The terrain of northern Mali is stark desert, and a haven for Islamist insurgents with close ties to Al Qaeda. Initially, investigators thought the plane had crashed in the desert on take off. But now, based on the fact that the plane was largely intact,...

A man who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan and was convicted of a violent attack when he returned to Britain has been moved to an open prison, the Standard can reveal. Anwar Khan, 34, is believed to be the first prisoner with a background in waging jihad -"holy war" - to be moved to a low security jail where inmates are allowed out into the local community and get part-time jobs. The disclosure will put pressure on Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke who faces accusations of "soft" policies with plans to reduce the prison population by 3,000. Shadow justice secretary...

EXCLUSIVEKill Bin Laden 'plot' rumbled  TERROR leader Osama bin Laden has escaped a US plot to bomb him in his hideout, it was claimed yesterday. Supporter Abu al-Fatah claimed the al-Qaeda chief had foiled a US mission to track him in his lair.He claimed a computer memory stick containing interview questions sent to Bin Laden contained a tiny tracking beacon.Its signals would have helped America target his location with an accurate unmanned drone attack.Al-Fatah says the chip was discovered when Bin Laden's security scanned the USB stick. He said: "The US forces used a device that could transmit signals to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is acknowledging that the hardline Muslim Brotherhood may play a role in Egypt's transition from autocracy if it agrees to a peaceful, democratic process.

The Egyptian government has information a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Cairo secretly met yesterday with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation's major Islamist opposition group, WND has learned. The topic of the meeting was the future of Egypt following the "fall" of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian intelligence official told WND.

Counter terrorism officials in the United States, and the West in general, have not yet understood that there is a political, non-combatant wing of the global Salafi-Jihad movement. It acts as an international production line, routinely manufacturing thousands of Muslims with a Salafi religious orientation, a Salafi worldview, and the belief that they are part of an international movement designed to reform the world community of Muslims, bringing them back to what they consider “true� Islam, and bringing Islam back to global leadership. While the majority of the members of this movement do not commit acts of violence, they totally...

An Al Qaeda leader, the head of a designated terror organization and a confessed jihadist-in-training are among a "Who's Who" of controversial figures who have participated in weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill since the 2001 terror attacks, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals. The Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA) has held weekly Friday Jummah prayers for more than a decade, and guest preachers are often invited to lead the service. The group held prayers informally for about eight years before gaining official status in 2006 under the sponsorship of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims currently serving in...

Federal agents arrested a man Wednesday for plotting to bomb the Washington, D.C., subway system, the Justice Department announced. It was the second arrest in as many days involving Americans hoping to wage violence for al-Qaida or the Taliban, and federal law enforcement officials believe it is part of a wider attempt to launch terrorist attacks. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., was indicted Wednesday for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings...

On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari’s story was “implausible” and “not credible.” In particular, Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that al Kandari was overly evasive for a man who claimed to be innocent. Both during his interrogations at Guantanamo, and...

Recently declassified documents focusing on the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. September 11, 2001, taught us that it is too costly to allow a leader with a history of aggression and stated intent to harm the U.S. to maintain links to terrorist groups and acquire weapons capabilities to act upon that sentiment. Newly declassified documents about the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. Contradicting Saddam HusseinÂ’s testimony where he claimed he actually wanted...

On the morning of Jan. 26, Sharif Mobley stepped out of his apartment in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to buy some cereal for his sleeping 3-year-old daughter. The young American from New Jersey was surrounded by eight black-clad, masked operatives from the country's secret police. Mobley turned to run, but he was shot in the leg and bundled into the back of a white van. When Mobley shouted "I'm an American," he was hit in the face. As the van sped away, Mobley later told his lawyers, one of his Yemeni captors made a call.... Eight months later, the...

As America fights two wars overseas -- another one is raging, much closer to home. Mexico's drug war is every bit as violent. On Friday 43 people were indicted in San Diego for murder and kidnapping, including a Mexican government official. Outside Monterrey, Mexico, 23 bodies were found Thursday at a dump site used by drug gangs Mexico's drug war takes a dramatic and frightening turn. For the first time, drug gangsters used a car bomb as a weapon. The wounded man was a decoy dressed in a uniform to lure police to the bomb. An officer, a paramedic and...

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's U.S.-born spokesman warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones.

TTP Leader Hakimullah Mehsud Declares: 'From Now On, the Main Targets of Our Fidaeen [Suicide Bombers] Are American Cities' The first, which the YouTube page titled "Hakeemullah Mehsud is Alive and Healthy and Delivering news about Attacks on USA," is 2:17 long, and shows a still satellite image of North America with a still image of Hakimullah Mehsud. Speaking in Urdu, he states that the date is April 19, 2010 and threatens bombings in U.S. "states & cities"; as he speaks, explosions are shown taking place across the map. (To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2463.htm. NOTE: You...

*snip* New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said the device was found after a mounted policeman spotted a box smoking in the back of a sport utility vehicle about 6:30 p.m. "This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "We do not know the motive."

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden had no idea the U.S. would hit al-Qaida as hard as it has since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a former bin Laden associate tells WTOP in an exclusive interview. "I'm 100 percent sure they had no clue about what was going to happen," says Noman Benotman, who was head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the summer of 2000. "What happened after the 11th of September was beyond their imagination, " says Benotman, who adds that al-Qaida thought the U.S. was a "paper tiger." Sitting on the floor at bin Laden's compound in...

What’s the price of defending freedom? 15 years in prison for one Army Ranger. First Lieutenant Michael Behenna was sentenced to 15 years in prison for doing just that, defending freedom. Behenna was prosecuted for shooting al-Qaeda operative Ali Mansur while escorting the terrorist home.

Huge attack is top strategic goal, not ‘empty rhetoric,’ ex-CIA official saysWhen al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York's subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for "something better," Zawahiri said in a message intercepted by U.S. eavesdroppers. The meaning of Zawahiri's cryptic threat remains unclear more than six years later, but a new report warns that al-Qaeda has not abandoned its goal of attacking the United States with a chemical, biological or even nuclear weapon. The report,...

Suspect in GI killing claims al-Qaida ties Letter to judge seeks plea shift to guilty JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Memphis man accused in a deadly attack at a Little Rock military recruiting office claims in a recent letter to the presiding judge in the case that he wants to plead guilty to capital murder and that he is a member of a Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaida. Defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson called the letter by 24-year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad “inappropriate,” saying the writing complicates Muhammad’s defense. “I feel like I’m the only one with Mr. Muhammad’s best interests at heart,”...

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued fresh threats Monday against the U.S. and its Mideast allies, promising to retaliate against a surge of strikes launched in the past month against its leaders and safe havens in Yemen. The terrorist group also denied statements made by Yemeni authorities late last week that six of al Qaeda's senior leaders in the country, including the man identified as the leader of the group's military operations, had been killed in an air strike. "The Yemeni government has been making many false claims ... against the Mujahedeen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula. The latest...

SHABWA – Yemeni officials told Okaz that the field commander of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Qassim Al-Rimi and five other senior Al-Qaeda members killed in an airstrike Friday, while continuing its crackdown on the group by arresting three suspected militants. According to the Yemeni officials, the airstrike targeted two cars carrying eight people in Alajasher border area between Saada and Al-Jouf governorates. “Al-Rimi and his companions including Ammar Al-Waili were attempting to infiltrate into Saudi territories,” the officials said, noting Yemeni authorities received intelligence hours before the air force’s strike that killed the six men. However, two of their associates managed...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has tossed out most of the government’s evidence against a terrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

The first thing President Obama should address at his White House security summit is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan didn't give a damn about his apologetic overtures to the Muslim world and his efforts toward building a meaningful dialogue to address grievances in the extremist camps. Someone please, throw a cold bucket of ice water on these guys attending the meeting and wake them up! Terrorists don't care about the President's personal persona, his speeches, his commitment to close Gitmo. They could care less about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed getting a civilian trial in New York, or...

The year on the national security front did not end well with a Christmas Day effort to set a Detroit-bound plane on fire. This is not a good news story. The system failed. The U.S. government had a number of red flags about the would-be fire starter, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, but failed to revoke his visa, place him on the no-fly last or flag him for additional screening. Heritage homeland security analyst Jena Bake McNeil reports, “[o]n December 25, a Nigerian student attempted to ignite a mixture of powder and liquid on a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit, Michigan....

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport. Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday. Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they...

The Nigerian man accused of trying to ignite an incendiary device aboard a trans-Atlantic jetliner on Friday came to the attention of American officials at least “several weeks ago,” but the initial information was not specific enough to raise alarms that he could potentially carry out a terrorist attack, a senior Obama administration official said on Saturday. The investigative file was opened after the father of the suspect, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, warned officials at the United States Embassy in Nigeria of his son’s increasingly extremist religious views, the official said. “The information was passed into the system, but the...

Infiltrators given 48-hr ultimatum By Abdul Aziz Al-Rubei’i Major military operations in Jizan are ‘over’ SAUDI-YEMEN BORDER – Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation, said Tuesday that “all major military operations on the border are over.” Prince Khaled said that “only individual efforts carried out by sole infiltrators remain, and they are being dealt with immediately.” Prince Khaled issued a stern warning for an unstated number of infiltrators shored up in the village of Al-Jaberi. “The village will be destroyed over their heads if they do not surrender in 48 hours,” a deadline...

SAUDI-YEMEN BORDER – Saudi forces carried out strikes on 30 armed infiltrators attempting to take areas of Ka’ab Jaber Mountain to the north of Mt. Dokhan at dawn on Sunday. Sources at the front lines said that ground artillery supported by air strikes killed possible infiltrators who were attempting to penetrate a valley leading to areas where the Saudi military was present. The sources said that Saudi forces and paratroopers were continuing their advancement to pursue infiltrators who have reportedly suffered “heavy” losses and have had their supply lines cut off, all of which has led to a “drop in...

DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) - At Tuhama's Lebanese deli in Dearborn, and at bakeries and barbershops throughout town, it's no secret the CIA is looking for a few good spies. "There is a lot of talk, and nobody likes it," said Hamze Chehade, a 48-year-old Lebanese-American, taking a bite of his chicken shawarma. In dire need of agents fluent in Arabic, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has made an unusual public show of its recruiting effort in Dearborn -- a city of 100,000 with the densest Arab population in the United States. The agency has bought full-page ads in Arabic-language newspapers...

Ex-Mossad official sees massive attack on U.S. homeland – www.worldtribune.com WASHINGTON — Yuval Aviv, who predicted the Al Qaida strikes on London's mass transit system in 2005, said he believes Al Qaida was planning a series of mass-casualty strikes throughout the United States. Aviv said the most likely targets were places such as Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, malls and subways. "The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country — terrorists like big impact — involving at least five to eight cities, including rural areas," Aviv, a former Mossad official said. Aviv, responsible for the Israeli offensive against...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews has said some things that would make your scratch your head - like getting a thrill up his leg from a speech given by Barack Obama. However, this one will really make you wonder what he was thinking. On his Nov. 9 broadcast of "Hardball," in an interview with Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Matthews compared the incident of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan at Ft. Hood to Sirhan Sirhan's 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. "You know, I have a hard time with this because people like Sirhan Sirhan, who is...

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,...