World Threats

Syrian tanks stormed the city of Hama on Sunday killing 136 civilians, the latest reports from Al Arabiya indicate.  After shelling various districts of the city for the last month, Assad’s forces carried out today one of the most ruthless single-day assaults on demonstrators yet.

Ausama Monajed, a leading Syrian dissident living in London, has suggested that the development is an all-out military attempt to quell protests before the beginning of Ramadan on Monday, when massive crowds are predicted to gather nightly after evening prayers at city mosques.

The US embassy in Damascus’s Press Attache has issued a statement saying the Syrian government has launched “full armed warfare on their own citizens.”

According to a doctor at Badr hospital, “Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants.” He added that his facility was running low on blood for transfusions and that Syrian forces had cordoned off access to the other main hospital, Al Horani. According to residents, state troops have also occupied the main buildings of the city’s electrical company and have begun strategically cutting off power to various neighborhoods.

It has become an increasingly commonplace practice when discussing Hama to reference the massacre that happened there in 1982 when the current president’s father, Hafez al-Assad, sent state troops into the city to crush an armed Sunni revolt led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Though that siege targeted whole neighbourhoods and saw similarly executed mass killings, the situation in Hama at present is vastly different.

Firstly, when US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, visited the city just weeks ago (in what was billed as a major gesture of international support for demonstrators) he characterized the rebellion as peaceful and pro-democracy. Secondly, while the regime endlessly blames “armed terrorist groups” for the violence, video from across the country has consistently shown over many months the blatant killing of unarmed civilian protestors, including women and children, by the Syrian military.

It has been two months now since Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, then considered a strong ally of Assad, said publically, “We do not want to see another Hama massacre” and warned it would be impossible for the Syrian regime to contain international reaction if a similar event were repeated. Yet in the face of a month-long besieging of the city’s residents, his complicity endures.

Ultimately, the largest challenge for demonstrators is not the removal of Assad from power, but instead a reforming of the state’s security infrastructure, which is so heavily controlled by members of his father’s regime and its loyalists. In this way, real change in Syria will demand an eventual and exhaustive political process. One wonders after Sunday’s escalation, however, if demonstrators in Hama and across the Syria have the endurance to continue their push to that end.

Currently, reports are circulating that President Assad’s immediate family is in London, including his wife Asma. This as a group of Syrian military defectors calling themselves “The Free Army of Syria”, which we have been tracking over the last few days, says it will continue to confront security forces and respond to further attacks on civilians in the falshpoint eastern oil hub of Deir ez-Zour.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been under fire for saying communities should be able to stop the construction of mosques. So he apologized, following a visit to a mosque led by Imam Mohamed Magid, the president of Muslim Brotherhood branch the Islamic Society of North America.

On Wednesday, Cain took a tour of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society of Sterling, Virginia. ADAMS Board Member Robert Marro said:

I think that the meeting today has changed his mind 100 percent. From the tenor of the conversation, I can’t see him repeating such things. … [The apology was] as close to a heartfelt and sincere apology that I’ve seen from any politician anywhere.

A statement from Cain following the meeting read:

While I stand by my opposition to the interference of Sharia law into the American legal system … I am truly sorry for any comments that may have betrayed my commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the freedom of religion guaranteed by it. Muslims, like all Americans, have the right to practice their faith freely and peacefully.

If Cain opposes Sharia-based governance, then he picked the wrong group to reach out to.

Click here to read the rest of my PJM article.

One of the reasons that Syria’s revolution hasn’t morphed into a civil war is because there isn’t a central location that has been taken from the regime where defected military forces and government officials can assemble into an opposition force. Basically, Syria needs its own Benghazi, and Deir ez-Zour (alternatively spelled as Deir al-Zour and Deir el-Zour) may fit the bill.

Yesterday, there were a large number of military defections and armed residents began fighting regime forces there. One report said that 5,000 had defected, though that can’t be confirmed. There were also defections in Homs. At least three soldiers were killed and 13 wounded for trying to switch sides.

 Today, according to Al-Jazeera’s live blog, “several soldiers” joined the protesters to stop attacks on the province’s Joura district. In Qisour district, armed residents repelled attacks by the regime.

A Syrian colonel calling himself Riad al-Asaad called the AFP, declaring himself “the commander of the Syrian Free Army.” He said he was near the border with Turkey and that“hundreds” of defected soldiers will defend Deir ez-Zour. Stay tuned.

Al-Jazeera is reporting that “many” Syrian soldiers belonging to the 7^th Armored Regiment have defected in Deir ez-Zor and took over a local airport. Ammar Abdulhamid reports that 5,000 soldiers switched sides.

This is a critical oil-rich area for the regime. Citizens in the province are now fighting back as well after five protesters were shot dead today. The fighting is centered in the northwest. The citizens have weapons because the regime armed the local tribes in order to undermine the influence of the minority Kurds.

It’s also reported that a Brigadier-General and his forces have defected and are housing themselves in Homs Military Academy. The regime has deployed 40 armored vehicles to attack it. Last week, 30 soldiers defected in Abu Kamal.

On Wednesday, Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo was arrested and found with a large quantity of weapons and explosives materials. The incident is a classic example of al-taqiyya, the Islamic doctrine of lying to non-believers. He publicly opposed the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, and now has admitted to planning on doing a similar attack on the same target.

Abdo converted to Islam at age 17, and is described by his peers as being “kind of weird” and a loner. He joined the military, and became part of the 101^stAirborne Division based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. In June 2010, he tried to avoid being deployed to Afghanistan by applying for conscientious objector status. Major media attention followed.

“I began to understand and believe that only God can give legitimacy to war and not humankind. That’s when I realized my conscience would not allow me to deploy,” he wrote in an essay about his application. He also said in an interview that he cannot “involve myself in an army that wages war against Muslims. I don’t believe I could sleep at night if I take part, in any way, in the killing of a Muslim.” He also expressed his opposition to the Fort Hood shooting, saying it was “an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam.”

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

The Georgian Interior Ministry is accusing Russian intelligence of being behind an explosion near the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi last September, which Senator Mark Kirk warns “would constitute the most serious crisis in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War.” Russia was also tied to a dozen other bomb plots last year. Russia has not given up its goal of destabilizing and dominating the U.S. ally.

Georgia has charged Major Yevgeny Borisov, an officer in the Russian GRU military-intelligence service, of orchestrating at least a dozen bomb plots last year. This includes a September 22 explosion about 100 yards from the U.S. embassy. Senator Mark Kirk sounded persuaded by the evidence, saying “These are extraordinarily specific and detailed allegations by the government of Georgia.”

Georgia found that the bombing suspects would call a GRU operative named Mukhran Tskhadaia in Abkhazia after every detonation, who is the deputy to Borisov. The Russians seized Abkhazia from Georgia in 2008 and maintain a military presence there. The Georgian government also says it discovered that photographers for the Georgian president and foreign minister were found to be GRU spies.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Below is an excerpt of my article about the United Muslim-Christian Forum and my visit to its latest event. Click the link at the bottom and go to the second page to read about my experience there.

On April 16, the United Muslim-Christian Forum (UMCF) held an interfaith event in Owego, New York, featuring Christian and Muslim speakers, including the mayor of the town. Its Web site proudly hosts a photo of Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan holding a UMCF sign. Far from the model of tolerance it casts itself as, the UMCF is a front for an anti-Semitic, Islamic extremist group named Muslims of the Americas (MOA), and the keynote speaker warned that Allah will destroy whoever supports Koran burnings, and possibly the entire country.

The MOA was exposed in the Christian Action Network’s (CAN) 2009 film, “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.,” which shows that MOA “villages” (of which the group says there are 22) are used for guerilla warfare training. The Department of Homeland Security says that the MOA is linked toJamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani militant group. Both follow Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, a radical cleric in Pakistan. In 1998, the State Department described ul-Fuqra as an “Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence.”

Shortly after the film’s release, I obtained an MOA videotape showing female members receiving paramilitary instruction at “Islamberg” in Hancock, NY. The group responded with a ridiculous rebuttal video in December 2009, followed by a four-part series in January 2010. Since then, CAN has acquired multiple recordings of gunfire coming from “Holy Islamville” in York County, SC.

The UMCF has been able to recruit some Christians as supporters, even though this information is readily available. Speakers at the April 16 event included Father Timothy Taugher of Blessed Sacrament Church in Johnson City; Prof. Diane O’Heron of Broome Community College (and UMCF board member); and Mayor Edward Arrington, who is chairman of the Deacon Board of First Baptist Church in Owego.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated on July 23, making him the fourth to be killed in the past two years. The regime denies that he was connected to the nuclear program, and is accusing Israel and the U.S. of carrying out an act of terrorism. If a foreign intelligence service is the culprit, then it is the latest shot fired in a wide-ranging covert campaign to delay the day when Iran finally gets a nuclear bomb.

Dariush Rezai-Nejad was about to walk into his home in Tehran when he heard his name called. He turned, and saw two men on motorcycles. Five shots were fired, striking him in the neck and hand, killing him and wounding his wife. He was a physics professor specializing in neutron transport, making him the exact type of scientist the regime would need to work on sparking a nuclear reaction.  An unconfirmed Israeli report alleges that he worked at a top-secret nuclear site in northeast Tehran on nuclear detonators. Of course, the regime says he was not involved in the nuclear program.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Below is the Christian Action Network’s newsletter for this week, mentioning some events you may be interested in:

Dear friend of the Christian Action Network,

Let us first express our deepest condolences to the citizens of Norway, and our outrage at the barbaric and unjustifiable attacks on July 22. Let me be clear: There are no excuses for what the attacker or attackers did. There is no justification. We won’t talk about “root causes” that justify his hatred, like some did after 9/11. His despicable acts violate the principles of Christianity and of democracy. He is a terrorist, and is no better than a member of Al-Qaeda.

We are pleased to announce that Rep. Allen West will be hosting a screening of our film, Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mosque, on September 8 in Congress for those who survived the 9/11 attacks or lost family members. If you know anything about Congressman West, you are as excited and honored as we are! He’s an extraordinary man, having served in Iraq, and he is a top target of the Islamists and the political correctness police.

The event will be at the Rayburn Congressional Office Building in Room B-339, and will go from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. A light lunch will be served. To attend, email Jason Campbell at [email protected].

In some less pleasant news, we are considering legal action against the New York City Parks and Recreation Department. We want to show Sacrificed Survivors in seven New York City parks, one every day from September 5 to 11, on our 25 foot inflatable screen. NONE have been approved yet, and we are tired of the stonewalling. We have yet to find any bookings of these parks for the dates we requested.

We can only conclude that the Department doesn’t want our shown publicly shown. Only last month, the Department allowed “Welcome to Shelbyville,” a film promoted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to be shown in a Manhattan recreational center. Are you as tired of the double-standards as we are?

If you are, then we hope you’ll continue to support our organization by having friends and family sign up for our e-mail lists and if you are able, by making a small donation.

Islamists staged demonstrations Friday criticizing proponents of a secular state and demanded they leave the country, Egypt’s Al Masry Al Youm reports. Members of Gama’a al-Islamiya and the newly formed Salafi Front gathered together in Ramsis to claim secularists are hijacking the January revolution from Muslims.

Gama’a spokesman, Assem Abdel Maged, said protesters who have returned to Tahrir square to call for the purging of state institutions and members of the former Mubarek regime are trying to destroy the country by implementing the plans of the US and Israel. He claimed secularist sources are paying 5,000 EGP per night to those staging sit-ins in the capitol.

Salafi Front spokesman, Khaled Saeed, said, “We are against the supra-constitutional principles. The Quran is above the constitution.” He argued, additionally, that the majority of Egyptians want an Islamist leader, citing the results of the March referendum on constitutional reform as support for his claim.

Meanwhile, a group of prominent Islamic scholars, including former Grand Mufti Masr Farid Wasel and more than 20 scholars from the hugely influential Al-Azhar University in Cairo are preparing a draft constitution based on the Quran and Sunnah. The group, calling themselves the Reform Rights Authority, announced they will support candidates “who advocate the application of Islamic law in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections,” adding, “Those who are against the Islamists rising to power are infidels who do not believe in God.”

Ironically, these developments come as Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) face growing pressure from secularists to set a concrete timeframe for the handover of power to an elected government. This week, twenty-eight political movements and coalitions representing a broad spectrum of Egyptian reformists criticized the SCAF for both stalling and trying to create rifts between revolutionary groups. The groups have also called for an end to SCAF military trials of civilians and the abuse of demonstrators in Suez and Alexandria.

Update: At least 80 were killed at the youth camp, in addition to the 7 killed in the car bombing.

On July 22, Norway experienced its own 9/11. A car bomb went off in Oslo, closely followed by a shooting rampage at a Labor Party youth camp. The death toll is officially at 17, but is expected to rise as more bodies are found and lives are lost from injuries. It is unclear if Islamists were involved in the attacks, but Norway now undoubtedly knows the horrors that terrorism can bring.

Seven people have died so far from the car bombing in Oslo, which shattered most of the windows of the building where the Prime Minister works. Other offices belonging to the government and newspapers were also damaged. It was soon followed by a shooting at a Labor Party youth camp that was attended by 600 people, mostly teenagers as young as 15 years old. As of this writing, 10 have died from the shooting, but eyewitnesses have reported seeing 25 to 30 bodies. The attacker posed as a police officer sent to the camp after the Oslo bombing as an additional security measure. He was shot and arrested. A statement appeared on an online jihadist forum allegedly from the “Helpers of Global Jihad” declaring responsibility, but the group has since denied involvement.

The shooter has been identified as Anders Behring Breivik. He is a Norwegian, and he is described as being “tall, blonde and [of] Nordic looks.” This strongly points to a homegrown terrorist, though the overall plot may have an international component. He describes himself on his Facebook as a conservative Christian, and he has criticized Islam on Internet forums.  He is said to be a nationalist.

Click here to read the rest of my FrontPage article.

The Iranian regime is running to the rescue of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is struggling to contain a growing revolution against his rule. The protests continually reach new heights despite the killing of over 1,700 and imprisonment of 12,000. Now, Iran is offering Assad a massive $5.8 financial aid package in a desperate attempt to stabilize its ally.

Last Friday’s protests in Syria were the largest yet. For the first time, there were large demonstrations in the capital of Damascus, and not just its suburbs. Over one million Syrians came out into the streets, out of a nation of only 22 million. It is likely that the increased turnout was encouraged by the U.S. and French ambassadors’ visit to Hama the previous week, without the Assad regime’s permission, to show support for the protesters. They were met with cheers, flowers and olive branches. The Assad regime is very worried about Western support for its domestic opponents, and retaliated by staging attacks on the U.S. and French embassies. The regime is also stoking sectarian warfare to ensure the loyalty of the Allawite minority it comes from, and to frighten the Syrian people and the West about causing ethnic cleansing and a civil war.

A think tank tied to the Iranian regime says that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is willing to give a $5.8 billion package to Syria, including a three-month loan of $1.5 billion. The Iranians are also considering giving 290,000 barrels of oil per day to Syria for a month to help bolster the economy, and to help secure the border with Lebanon to stop refugees from fleeing with cash. This investment reflects how worried Iran is about losing Syria as an ally, as the overthrow of the Assad regime would upend its strategic position in the Middle East.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Several news sources are reporting that after the blast that shook downtown Oslo there was apparently a shooting at a youth center. It appears that the two may be related.

Unconfirmed reports said a man dressed as a police officer had opened fire indiscriminately.

No-one group has said it carried out the attacks.

This is breaking news. A bomb has exploded near Norway government buildings, killing at least one. The Scandinavian country has troops in Afghanistan. One was the Prime Minister’s office.

This comes after the government indicted an al-Qaeda linked terrorist:

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various news media, including American network NBC.

Fourteen American soldiers were killed in Iraq last month, the highest monthly total since 2008. The rise in attacks has caused Defense Secretary Panetta to bluntly warn Iran that the U.S. will do what is necessary to defend its soldiers. Iran is escalating its proxy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a new wave of violence should be expected if Iraq announces U.S. soldiers will stay past this year.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has provided the radical Shiite militias in Iraq with new advanced weapons to target U.S. soldiers. The Kataib Hezbollah, for example, has been using improvised rocket-assisted munitions traced back to Iran. The spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, says the group “is a creation by the IRGC Qods Force.”

“We get the fingerprints off of a certain cache or a certain rocket that we can tie biometrically to an individual who lives in Iran, he’s a top leader of Kataib Hezbollah, he lives in Iran, he is trained by the Qods Force. All of that together is a very compelling set of evidence,” he said.

Click here to read the rest of my FrontPage article.