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For more than a decade, Suleiman Anwar Bengharsa has served as a Muslim cleric in Maryland, working as a prison chaplain and as an imam at mosques in Annapolis and outside Baltimore. He gave a two-week course in 2011 on Islamic teachings on marriage at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, where President Obama made a much-publicized visit this year. But in the last two years, Imam Bengharsa’s public pronouncements have taken a dark turn. On Facebook, he has openly endorsed the Islamic State, posted gruesome videos showing ISIS fighters beheading and burning alive their enemies and praised terrorist attacks overseas....

The Obama administration's policy in the Middle East appears to be designed to remove secular tyrants and replace them with more religiously oriented regimes. Thus, Gaddafi ("We came, we saw, he died." Ha ha ha.) and Mubarak were targeted. Bashar al Assad is the current target. This policy has been marked by monumental incompetence, mendacity, and confusion. Nothing about it should be accepted without a healthy dose of skepticism, including what follows. The Telegraph of the U.K. has a video of U.S. commandos fleeing a town under a barrage of insults ("Crusaders! Infidels! Dogs! Get out!") from the Free Syrian...

France has begun air strikes against so-called Islamic State in Iraq from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, reports say. A number of Rafale fighter planes took off from the carrier early on Friday, news agency AFP said. It quoted an officer on board, who said the planes would take part in an attack on Mosul, an IS stronghold in Iraq. The Charles de Gaulle, France's only aircraft carrier, was sent to the region earlier in September.

Islamic State militants will no longer control any oil in Iraq after being ousted by government forces last week from an area near Kirkuk. The ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim have been driven out of Shirqat by co-ordinated Iraqi force. DT "Take the Oil” Iraqi forces have yet to recapture the Najma oil-field, near Qayyara, but its producing wells are no longer accessible to IS government offensive and (US) air strikes. The reality is that it is extremely difficult to extract and smuggle oil while our forces are advancing towards Mosul...," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad.

Russia escalated its anti-American invective Thursday in the deadlocked diplomacy over the Syrian war, dismissing a threat by Secretary of State John Kerry to halt talks and accusing his spokesman of abetting global terrorism — including against Russian military personnel in Syria. The Russian response came as United Nations officials warned that 600 wounded civilians in the rebel-held districts of the divided northern city of Aleppo must be evacuated and that food is nearly exhausted for the 275,000 residents trapped there. The residents have been pummeled for the past week by Syrian and Russian airstrikes, including by powerful bombs that...

CNN: President Barack Obama was asked by a Gold Star mother why he refuses to say "Islamic" terrorism. He said he doesn't want to associate the religion of Islam with people who are "murderers."

He might want to talk to his boss about it. Because his boss is the one bringing them here to enrich us and become "part of our story". Just like in New York, Boston and Orlando. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies worry that a surge of violent extremists will eventually move from ISIS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq into Western nations with the aim of committing terrorist attacks, FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Tuesday. "The caliphate will be crushed," but hundreds of people will remain and become part of a "terrorist diaspora" in the next two to five...

President Barack Obama has taken a lot of criticism from political opponents over his rhetoric when it comes to terrorism. But on Wednesday at a CNN presidential town hall, he was asked to defend why he refuses to say "Islamic" terrorism to a Gold Star mother. "My son gave his life for acts of terrorism," audience member Tina Houchins told Obama at the town hall moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper. "Do you still believe that the acts of terrorism are done for the self-proclaimed Islamic religious motive? And if you do, why do you still refuse to use the term...

Even as Hillary Clinton pushes a new scheme for defeating ISIS, the reality is that contradictory U.S. policies in the Mideast that she helped formulate are fueling the growth of jihadi extremism ___ Hillary Clinton has unveiled a two-part plan to defeat the Islamic State, and just as critics might expect, it’s a doozy. One part calls for an “intelligence surge” to combat the group both at home and abroad while the other urges that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s self-styled caliph, simply be knocked off. Both are indicative of why the disaster in the Middle East can only get...

President Obama’s top official responsible for vetting refugees testified before the Senate Wednesday that it’s possible for people from Syria and other terrorist-infested countries to have their refugee applications approved based simply on personal interviews with a “highly trained” immigration officer. Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, could not deny that in many cases there is no data from the refugee’s home country that would corroborate or refute his story. He tried to reassure the committee by saying the screening process is lengthy and continuously being improved, noting that the United Nations pre-screens the refugees before his...

Erdogan: Mosul offensive will commence October 19 By Zhelwan Z. Wali yesterday at 07:30 Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. AP photo ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed on Sunday that the battle to push the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh) out of their stronghold of Mosul will commence on October 19. “It is said that the battle for Mosul against Daesh will kick off on October 19 and that we all have to be prepared for this event,” Erdogan said in a meeting with...

Hungary aims to aid and defend Christians persecuted by ISIS.Hungary has announced a new initiative to fight forces that discriminate against and persecute Christians. The government has decided that in the light of the recent attacks on Christians, a new department will be set up in Hungary to study these cases and fight radical forces that threaten the lives of innocent Christians. The authorities have indicated that this department will not only take into consideration the attacks that have been happening in the Middle East, but also the disguised forms of discrimination against Christians in Europe. Hungary's Minister for Human...

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is a controversial character. But there’s no denying the emails he has picked up from inside the Democrat Party are real, and he’s willing to expose Hillary Clinton. Now, he’s announcing that Hillary Clinton and her State Department were actively arming Islamic jihadists, which includes the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. Clinton has repeatedly denied these claims, including during multiple statements while under oath in front of the United States Senate.

During Monday night's presidential debate, Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton was telling ISIS "everything you want to do" by putting her plan to defeat the terrorist group on her website. Trump added, "no wonder you've been fighting ISIS your entire adult life." Watch here:

A prominent Jordanian writer, who was on trial for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam, has been shot dead outside a court in Amman where he was due to appear. Nahed Hattar, 56, was charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam after posting the cartoon on Facebook this year. The cartoon, entitled The God of Daesh (Isis), depicted an Isis militant sitting next to two women and asking God to bring him a drink. Hattar was arrested in August and released on bail early this month. On Sunday, he was shot in the head three times as he...

shocking new video put out by the Islamic State shows the organization’s fighters shooting at least 100 captured male Iraqi civilians in a trench. The clip begins with the fighters shepherding a line of captured Iraqis into a trench. It then cuts to the civilians kneeling in a room being beaten by the fighters. They are then taken outside and lined up in a trench. Fighters execute them one by one, while slow dramatic jihadi music plays. The clip ends with ISIS fighters in uniform slowly walking down a road, as seen through the lens of night-vision goggles.

Washington – A number of American psychologists ruled out the possibility that religion might be the main motive for the American Islamists extremists who used violence, especially those who said they are ISIS followers. These experts said that a huge number of them suffer psychological problems and cultural contradictions or even a failure in life. John Cohen, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University and the former counterterrorism coordinator at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told Asharq al-Awsat that many of them have psychological and behavioral characteristics in common. “Some studies reveal that they suffer dangerous psychological and personal...

Syrian forces pounded rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Sunday, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 300 others, an activist group reported. The bombardment destroyed residential centers, overwhelmed hospitals and angered diplomats meeting at the United Nations. "Everyone in Aleppo is depressed," an activist on the ground told CNN. "They don't know what they have done to become targets for warplanes. Fear is clear in the eyes of anyone you see walking the streets of Aleppo. Yesterday I saw a woman walking on the street and crying , no clear reason, just crying."Hundreds of airstrikes have pummeled the city,...

Two young women suspected of planning an attack in France were detained by police in the southern French city of Nice, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday, the latest sign that Islamic State is shifting its focus from the battlefield in Syria to orchestrating terror plots in Europe. The two young women—17 and 19 years old—had been in contact with Rachid Kassim, a French recruiter for Islamic State, on the Telegram Messenger messaging app, the person said. Mr. Kassim, who is believed to be in Islamic State territory, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Pastor J.D. shares the three main reasons Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 38 are about to be fulfilled and why it’s important to understand their significance.

(CNN)A prominent Jordanian writer facing charges for sharing a "blasphemous" anti-ISIS cartoon that outraged Muslim groups was fatally shot in Amman on Sunday, state news agency Petra reported. Nahed Hattar, a member of the country's Christian minority, was shot three times outside a courthouse in the capital where charges against him were being heard. Hattar, a political commentator and columnist, was remanded in custody last month after sharing a controversial cartoon on Facebook that sparked anger from Muslim groups. Amman Governor Khaled Abu Zeid ordered that the writer be held for the "blasphemous" Facebook post, Petra reported. Hattar was charged...

A gun attack in Malmo has left 'multiple injuries' as police seal off an area in the south of the Swedish city. The shooting occurred just before 7pm local time this evening and police have an ongoing operation in the area. A witness to the incident said there were around twenty shots fired by people in an Audi which then drove off at high speed.

STAGE 1: INFILTRATIONMuslims begin moving to non-Muslim countries in increasing numbers and the beginning of cultural conflicts are visible, though often subtle. - First migration wave to non-Muslim “host” country. - Appeal for humanitarian tolerance from the host society. - Attempts to portray Islam as a peaceful & Muslims as victims of misunderstanding and racism (even though Islam is not a ‘race’). - High Muslim birth rate in host country increase Muslim population. - Mosques used to spread Islam and dislike of host country & culture. - Calls to criminalize “Islamophobia” as a hate crime. - Threatened legal action for...

This week, ISIS launched a mustard gas rocket against U.S. forces in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base in Iraq. The U.S. military is in the region preparing an airfield ahead of Iraq's offensive to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State. The rocked carrying the chemical agent landed within hundreds of meters. The poor condition of the warhead posed no threat to personnel in the area. The U.S. military is testing fragments and a small sample of a suspicious "tar-like, black, oily" substance from the scene. The first examination initially tested positive for mustard gas but...

According to a report from Iraqi News, the Islamic State staged the public execution of six youths from a “resistance faction” in Mosul by handcuffing them and then killing them with a welding machine, before a large crowd of onlookers. “This came in order to create a state of fear and panic among the people,” said a source from within Mosul. The Toronto Sun explains that the Islamic State often uses the term “resistance group” to describe groups of young people who spray graffiti on the walls of occupied cities. Fox News reported the six boys, whose exact ages are...

Can we cut the cr-p, kids? Forgive my language, but, as Ecclesiastes teaches that there’s a time for everything. The time to cuss is now.“Radical Islamic terrorism�: He has to be able to say it! This, preach conservative talking heads, is the acid test for electing the next American president.Is this convoluted concept one you can even remember?“Radical Islamic terrorism� is like the LGBTQ acronym, it’s a mouthful. It’s unmemorable, unintuitive and does not accurately describe the vile men and women who menace us in our American, English and European homelands.“Radical Islamic terrorist� is, very plainly, wrong.Language mediates behavior. In...

FALLUJAH, Iraq – In the three days since the Iraqi city of Fallujah was reopened for residents following its recapture from the Islamic State group, just over 500 families have returned home, Maj. Gen. Saad al-Harbea, the head of west Baghdad operations, said. Hundreds more have massed around the checkpoints that block the city's entrance to await the multiple security approvals required to re-enter Fallujah, which lies 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital. But the vast majority of the 300,000 people that made up the city's prewar population remain scattered across the country.

Five years after President Obama announced that "the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that he does not expect the Syrian president to leave power any time soon. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to arrange a pause in Syria's civil war fell apart, even as Dunford and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter addressed the committee. According to the Associated Press, the bombing campaign in rebel-held districts of Syria's Aleppo city intensified Friday, as the government announced a new offensive in the area. At Thursday's hearing, Sen....

A chilling video has been released by jihadi propagandists which shows how 'Cubs of the Caliphate' - children looking as young as five - are being brainwashed into becoming the next wave of ISIS fighters. The narrator refers to them as 'the generation that will conquer Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca and Rome'. On a tour of a sharia institution, run by the Islamic State in the Al-Khayr province of Syria - according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which posted and translated the video - young boys are asked about their dreams and aspirations.

Jason Falconer is a part-time police officer, but he didn’t have to carry a concealed firearm to Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, Minn., on Saturday. He wasn’t on duty when a knife-wielding man went on a rampage. He was—like the thousands of concealed carry permit holders across the country—an American citizen exercising his constitutional rights. But his decision to do so saved dozens of lives, and his quick thinking and good training kept the situation from getting much worse.

In another act of horror from ISIS, six boys have been taken and tortured to death with welding rods on welding equipment for the “crime” of playing soccer: � Islamic State has executed six boys with a welding rod and flogged three young men for playing football, it has been reported. The six boys from the Nineveh area in Iraq were said to have been handcuffed before a welding machine and rod was used to kill them in a public execution by the terror group in central Mosul. “ISIS said that the youths belonged to a resistance faction,” a source...

The Islamic State is digging a moat around its biggest stronghold in Iraq, Mosul, in preparation for an expected attack from the Iraqi army and its U.S. partners, and is using oil tankers to construct a wall around the city, which it would set on fire if the Iraqi army gets too close, according to Mosul residents. The organization is also digging tunnels underneath the city as a means of stopping the army’s advance, shutting down some neighborhoods, and setting bombs. The attack on the city, which ISIS captured two years ago, is planned for next month. It would mark...

HER dusty file was one of hundreds of thousands of documents stacked in a house in a wealthy neighbourhood of Baghdad. Asma Rasheed married a pilot, lived comfortably in the presidential compound of Saddam Hussein and directed a microbiology programme that was not supposed to exist. Rasheed’s light blue folder has emerged from a huge archive seized by forces loyal to Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which opposed Saddam. The archive — a dark who’s who of Iraq — reveals the tiniest details of blandishments and humiliations by a paranoid regime that shared the Nazis’ obsession...

Islamic State forces have fired crude chemical weapons at US troops in Iraq, the Pentagon has confirmed, a startling disclosure that US officials promptly downplayed as resulting in no deaths or injuries. The attack came from a powdered mustard agent delivered in a mortar or rocket shell and fired on US forces on Tuesday at the Qayyarah West air base near Mosul. The air base, recaptured from Isis in July, is a pivotal staging ground for a highly anticipated attack on Mosul, Isis’s capital in Iraq approximately 40 miles (65km) to the north. Related: The harrowing story of the woman...

ISIS is suspected of firing a shell with mustard agent that landed at the Qayyara air base in Iraq Tuesday where US and Iraqi troops are operating, according to several US officials. The shell was categorized by officials as either a rocket or artillery shell. After it landed on the base, just south of Mosul, US troops tested it and received an initial reading for a chemical agent they believe is mustard. No US troops were hurt or have displayed symptoms of exposure to mustard agent. One official said the agent had "low purity" and was "poorly weaponized." A second...

Islamic State militants may have fired a chemical rocket at American troops based in Iraq, the US military says. A rocket that landed within several hundred yards of US troops at Qayara air base near Mosul may have contained mustard agent, it said. No one was hurt in the attack on the base, which is home to several hundred US soldiers. If confirmed, it would be the first chemical weapons attack on coalition forces in Iraq.

Washington (CNN)ISIS is suspected of firing a shell with mustard agent that landed at the Qayyara air base in Iraq Tuesday where US and Iraqi troops are operating, according to several US officials. The shell was categorized by officials as either a rocket or artillery shell. After it landed on the base, just south of Mosul, US troops tested it and received an initial reading for a chemical agent they believe is mustard. No US troops were hurt or have displayed symptoms of exposure to mustard agent. One official said the agent had "low purity" and was "poorly weaponized." A...

Suspected New York City bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami referenced now-deceased Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammed al-Adnani in his journal, a purported picture of the journal obtained by ABC News reveals. The bloodstained journal clearly makes reference to seeking “guidance” from leading terrorist figures Anwar al-Awlaki and “Brother Adnani.” Adnani rose to chief spokesman of ISIS, frequently encouraging lone wolf attacks in the West, particularly on non-believers. After the announcement of Adnani’s death, Rita Katz, of Site Intelligence group, tweeted that ISIS supporters calling for lone wolf attacks cite Adnani more than any other terrorist. In his last public speech, Adnani...

<p>“Nobody believes in it. You’re like, ‘Fuck this,’” a former Green Beret says of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian militias. “Everyone on the ground knows they are jihadis. No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort, and they know they are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’”</p>

Footage of Masyaf shows missile shaped items; IAEA urges Syria to let inspectors visit reactor that IAF destroyed in 2007. A compound in western Syria with buildings and hundreds of missile-shaped items has been identified as functionally related to a nuclear reactor Israel destroyed northeast of Damascus in 2007. Satellite footage of the site in Masyaf was obtained by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security and shows a compound built in a ravine and surrounded by what appears to be a line of trenches. While there are no security measures visible in the commercial satellite imagery, ISIS said...

As radical Islamic maniacs stab people in Minnesota and set off bombs in New Jersey and New York, the White House and the left continue to live in a fantasy land. Yesterday, White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, all around purveyor of horse manure and spin stated that the country’s war with the Islamic State is a “narrative battle.” I thought I had heard war described in every possible way, but never in the dream world, academic, 1984 speak calling it a ‘narrative battle.’ Imagine Patton telling the Third Army, “Men, tomorrow we’re going to fight a narrative battle against the...

"Hannity discusses a variety of topics with Mayor Giuliani including the terror incidents in NY and NJ over the weekend, the onus on Obama and Hillary for ISIS, profiling, and Mayor de Blasio's performance regarding the weekend terror activity." Links to specific discussions in the interview: Brief discussion of Chelsea and NJ terror over the weekend, including possible error by the FBI. Giuliani puts responsibility for ISIS on Obama and Hillary. Three issues in the coming election that affect terrorism profoundly. Profiling de Blasio over the weekend.

In the wake of a radical Islamic terrorist attack on New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is telling citizens not to worry about the threat of jihadist violence and pushing for even more questionably vetted migrants to be resettled in the United States. De Blasio and the mayors of London and Paris co-wrote an op-ed in which they said terrorism committed by refugees is “vanishingly rare.” “Militant violence is vanishingly rare,” the trio wrote in The New York Times on the heels of three separate attacks in the United States. The comments are not likely to go over well...

George Soros to invest $500 million in help for refugees http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/20/george-soros-to-invest-500-million-in-help-for-refugees-through-his-open-society-foundations.html George Soros to invest $500 million in help for refugees Nyshka Chandran | @nyshkac 9 Hours Ago CNBC.com Soros invests $500m for refugees Billionaire investor George Soros pledged on Tuesday to invest up to $500 million in programs and companies benefiting migrants and refugees fleeing life-threatening situations. Announced against the backdrop of an ongoing United Nations (U.N.) summit in New York, Soros explained that he wished to harness the power of the private sector for public good. "We will invest in startups, established companies, social impact initiatives, and businesses...

In a video-clip posted on Instagram by "Abu Hamza Shishani,” a young girl clad in an abaya and niqab is trained in boxing and performs strength-training exercises with her father. In the background, a toddler with an ISIS headband plays with a pistol, and an AK-47 is propped up against the wall.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We have with us, for just a few moments, the vice presidential nominee -- the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence -- on the phone with us. Governor, welcome, and great to have you back. PENCE: Thank you, Rush. Good to be with you from Mason City, Iowa. RUSH: Mason City, Iowa. You know, Governor, I know you've gotta be gone at 2:15, so when 2:15 hits -- pfft! -- I want to let you know, you'll be done. PENCE: (chuckles) Governor Mike Pence calls RushRUSH: But I want to run a couple things by you. President Obama...

Trump, chastising Clinton and Obama for refusing to name the enemy “radical Islam,” called the threat a “cancer from within” in an interview Monday with the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” Clinton, meanwhile, reiterated the Obama administration’s insistence that calling ISIS, the Islamic State, Islamic would play into the hands of the jihadist group and its allies.

Donald Trump has released the following statement regarding the latest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. New York, New Jersey and Minnesota: “In the past 48 hours, our law enforcement showed again that, without them, our country is neither safe nor secure. I am grateful for the quick action of law enforcement in capturing the terrorist responsible for Saturday’s bombings, and the off-duty police officer for stopping the terrorist in Minnesota. This weekend’s attacks, from Minnesota to Manhattan, are just the latest to be carried out on U.S. soil under President Obama. These should be a wake-up call for every American....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwa1pxFV9hU

A video surfaced purportedly showing US commandoes beating a humiliating retreat from US backed rebels in Syria. Heckled by anti-American chants the video shows a convoy of pick-up trucks taking US commandoes away from the town of Al-Rai near the Turkish border which had just been captured by Turkish and American backed rebel militias reportedly fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. “Christians and Americans have no place among us” one man screamed “They want to wage a crusader war to occupy Syria.” Another yelled “The collaborators of America are dogs and pigs. They wage a crusader war...