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Last November, a Belgian F-16 pilot hit a power line in Morocco during a training flight. As a consequence, parts of Morocco and Algeria were cut of from electricity for a while.The 350th squadron, which is based in Florennes, deployed to Sidi Slimane Air Base in Morocco with seven F-16s. They were preparing for a NATO operation in Afghanistan (ISAF), the latter which has a similar landscape. During a training mission, a pilot was flying too low and ended up hitting a power line. The aircraft could still land safely.

Last week, I attended the Marrakech Film Festival....The opening gala, complete with red carpet and paparazzi, was staged in a swanky convention hall surrounded by five-star hotels. The requisite stars made appearances.... [....] When the men awaken to discover the women missing, the entire village is mobilized to hunt them down. Their escape route, which runs along the beach, is entirely exposed, and they are brought back in a fishing boat. Watching the men of the village gather around the two women in a circle on the beach, I ought to have realized what was about to happen, but somehow...

ROME – A speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists in southern Italy on Sunday morning, killing eight of them, officials said. The driver had been smoking marijuana, police said. Bent, mangled bikes were strewn about the scene, and the sheet-draped corpses dotted the two-lane road near Lamezia Terme, in the Calabrian "toe" of boot-shaped Italy where the accident occurred. In addition to the eight cyclists killed, four people were injured, said Gianluca Gioia, a spokesman for ANAS, the agency that runs Italy's state roads and highways. Police confirmed the toll.

Do you want Muslim Brotherhood operatives serving in the Congress? Sestak is in the pocket of Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood CAIR, and I have been reporting on this evil axis since 2007. He is lying about his ties to CAIR. What does that tell you? Art Moore over at WND: 2nd Sestak scandal days before election Unindicted terrorist co-conspirator leader claims to have hosted home fundraiser for Democrat Since his election to the House in 2006, Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak has fended off strong criticism of his relationship with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a federally designated terrorist co-conspirator shown...

01 September 2010 "MOM, I'M IN JAIL." SNIPPET: "The administrator of the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum (Arabic), Faical Errai, has been arrested in Spain."

Moroccan security forces have captured an 11-member terrorist cell headed by a Gaza-based Palestinian Authority Arab aligned with the aims of the international al-Qaeda terrorist group. Yahya al-Hindi, a former member of the Islamic Jihad terror organization who is responsible for having built a global jihad network in Gaza that functions as a regional “exporter of terrorism” is also known as Abu Kathada al-Shami. His 11-man jihad team included Moroccans from Casablanca, Azilal (in the Atlas Mountains) and Oujda (in the eastern part of the country).

While President Barack Obama was “forcefully” endorsing the Ground Zero Mosque, Michelle Obama was paying homage with her presence to the Great Mosque at Granada, which overlooks what was once Islam’s most important outpost in Europe, the Alhambra palace in Granada. There is no doubt about the influence of the Great Mosque of Granada overlooking Alhambra. One Spanish guidebook states that the Alhambra is to Granada what St.Peter’s is to Rome or St. Mark’s Square to Venice. Michelle Obama and her nine-year-old daughter, Sasha, visited the Alhambra Mosque at dusk on the second day of her visit to Spain, one...

It was the images of empty food markets on the news, and reporters' overblown warnings of possible shortages, that told Spaniards on Thursday that their nation's five-century dispute with Morocco over the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, two enclaves on the Mediterranean coast, had reignited. In the worst diplomatic spat between the two countries in almost a decade, Moroccan activists were blocking food imports into one of the enclaves and promising more action to come. The Spanish government and the press were appalled, not so much at the protest, but that it had taken place after King Juan Carlos himself...

The police in Morocco have broken up a cell of 18 radical Islamist militants who were planning a series of attacks in the country, officials have said. Three of the suspects had previous convictions for terrorism, the interior ministry said in a statement. The cell "was preparing to commit acts of terrorism and sabotage within national territory and against foreign interests in Morocco", it added. Several hundred people are awaiting trial in Morocco on terrorism charges. The North African state has stepped up attempts to crack down on militant groups since more than 40 people were killed by a series...

Noam Nir, an Israeli businessman who lives and owns a property in Morocco, was shocked when he found out that the building he owns in the city of Mogador became the focus of an anti-Semitic demonstration. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Nir expressed a serious concern that such demonstrations, that were not commonplace in Morocco until recently and have suddenly begun to appear on its streets, would lead to imminent harm anhd endanger the lives of the Jewish community in Morocco.

Minneapolis lawyer Sam Kaplan -- a DFL fundraiser extraordinaire -- was a member of Barack Obama's national campaign-finance committee. In 2009, Obama rewarded him by naming him ambassador to Morocco. The exotic posting must have seemed a plum job. Morocco has been known as an oasis among Arab nations -- largely free of the repression that mars so many other Muslim countries. It's "the opportunity of a lifetime for a guy from Minnesota," Kaplan enthused to the Star Tribune in April. But since Kaplan's arrival, Morocco has turned from a diplomatic dream job to a depressing despotic reality. Since March,...

"What is clear is that Morocco is feeling the pressure of rising Islamic extremism. Seven thousand Muslim religious leaders recently signed a document describing the work of Christians within Morocco as 'moral rape' and 'religious terrorism,'...

SNIPPET: "An Aeromexico plane flying to Mexico City from Paris had to land late Sunday afternoon at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to remove a passenger whose name is on the U.S. no-fly list, Radio-Canada reported. The man was escorted out of the plane and taken into custody by the RCMP."

Note: The following text is a quote: Al Qaeda Supporter Pleads Guilty to Supporting Terrorist Organization Kansas City Man Also Admits to Bank Fraud, Overseas Money Laundering KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Kansas City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist organization al Qaeda. He also pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering. “National security is the highest priority of the Department of Justice,” Phillips said. “I applaud the diligent work of our...

Note: Video included. SNIPPET: "New information tonight about the man who confessed to setting fire to a Southeast Austin hotel. Arson investigators here say the man is a Moroccan National who went to school at St. Edward's in the 90's and who hasn't lived in the United States in eight years. His motive for setting the fire remains a mystery tonight. Flames and billowing black smoke poured out of the America's Best Value Inn Sunday. A day later, hotel guests relived the harrowing moments as they escaped the fire." SNIPPET: "Investigators say 33-year-old Mohamed Lahlou, who checked into the hotel...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

SNIPPET: "ROME (Reuters) - Two Moroccan students deported from Italy last month were suspected of plotting to assassinate Pope Benedict, an Interior Ministry source said on Friday. Mohamed Hlal, 26, and Ahmed Errahmouni, 22, students at the University for Foreigners in the central Italian city of Perugia, had been under surveillance by anti-terrorist police for months before they were expelled on April 29." SNIPPET: "Six other foreign students, suspected of contacts with militant Islamic groups, are still under investigation." SNIPPET: "The magazine said police discovered a map of Turin at Errahmouni's house annotated with numbers and circles, ahead of a...

Dark Side of Shariah Malcolm A. Kline, May 6, 2010 While American textbooks try to pretty up the history of Islam, in the real world, its less savory contours still emerge, even in countries reputed to be the most tolerant towards those of other faiths. “The days of Christians in Morocco may be numbered,” Olivier Guitta writes on the Global Post. “A wave of so-called ‘proselytizing,’ that has reportedly converted tens of thousands Muslims into Christians, has prompted authorities to clamp down on Christian residents.” “Over the last several weeks, more than 50 Christians from the U.S., the Netherlands and...

In its budget request for the State Department for the 2010 financial year, the Obama administration proposed significant increases in funding for US arms sales and military training programmes for African countries, as well as for regional programmes on the continent, and is expected to propose further increases in its budget request for the 2011 financial year. The 2010 budget proposed to increase foreign military funding spending for Africa by more than 300 per cent, from just over US$8.2 million to more than US$25.5 million, with additional increases in funding for North African countries. Major recipients included Chad, the Democratic...

...Seven years after Morocco's satanic-music trial, the alternative music scene in the North African country is alive and kicking; it has even received a grant from king Mohammed VI himself. ...The last edition of L'Boulevard drew no less than 160,000 visitors, spread out over six days and two football stadiums... It wasn't always like this. One of the members on this year's jury was 30-year-old Nabyl Guennouni. Now a manager at an events agency in Rabat, Guennouni was one of 14 heavy-metal musicians who in 2003 were arrested and sent to prison for practicing "satanism" and "endangering the Islamic faith."...