A RADICAL plan by Al-Qaeda to take over the Sunni heartland of Iraq and turn it into a militant Islamic state once American troops have withdrawn is causing alarm among US intelligence officials.
A power struggle has emerged between the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, an organisation with ambitions to become a state which has been set up by Al-Qaeda, and more moderate Sunni groups. They are battling for the long-term control of central and western areas which they believe could break away from Kurdish and Shi’ite-dominated provinces once the coalition forces depart.
According to an analysis compiled by US intelligence agencies, the Islamic State has ambitions to create a terrorist enclave in the Iraqi provinces of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Nineveh and parts of Babil.
“Al-Qaeda are on the way to establish their first stronghold in the Middle East,” warned an American official. “If they succeed, it will be a catastrophe and an imminent danger to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.”
The US conviction that the Islamic State could seize power is based on its use of classic Al-Qaeda tactics and its adoption last October of a draft constitution. This was entitled Notifying Mankind of the Birth of the Islamic State and was posted on a website based in Britain. The group named 10 ministers under its emir, Abu Amer Al-Baghdadi. They included a war minister, Abu Hamza Al-Muhajer who is also known as Abu Ayub al-Masri and is Al-Qaeda’s commander in Iraq.
When he began testifying at his own trial this week, a West Boca doctor accused of pledging to support al-Qaida hoped to convince a jury that the FBI had it all wrong: He was a man of peace.
Religion of peace strikes again.
If that was the plan, then Rafiq Abdus Sabir had a disastrous day on the witness stand Friday. Under cross examination, the Columbia University-trained physician acknowledged a history of family violence, a fascination with weapons and a belief that good Muslims should engage in armed jihad, or holy war.
U.S. Attorney Victor Hou asked Sabir about an audiotape found at his house, in which a religious lecturer said God would "destroy the disbelievers."
"That's God's word. I have to believe in it," Sabir said.
They also discussed passages from religious books. One said Jews should be expelled from the Arabian peninsula. Another said Muslims are obligated to obey an imam who declares war against nonbelievers. Hou asked Sabir whether he agreed with both passages, and he said yes -- but added that Muslims are only required to follow such instructions from a legitimate religious authority.
Hou pressed him further: "You believe that you must participate in armed jihad, if you get a chance to?"
"Yes," Sabir answered, but he said only in a legitimate conflict.
Mohamad al-Janabi, a reputed al-Qaeda member in the nearby city of Salman Pak, said in a interview that he was unable to contact his comrades in Mahmudiyah to determine whether they were responsible for the attack.
But he added: "I can assure you that we will start pressuring Bush in a new way at the same time he is facing pressures from the Democrats and the American people. And there will be no problem to sacrifice 10 soldiers in order to abduct a single American soldier and get him on television screens begging for us to release him."
Notice Al Qaeda is not pressuring us to stay, which is odd, because I keep being told that Al Qaeda loves having American troops in Iraq and Bush is "playing right into their hands."
I don't think this is going to have the effect Al Qaeda seeks. It's getting harder and harder for the media to pretend that Al Qaeda isn't the major source of violence and terrorism in Iraq -- and the biggest cause of US troop deaths -- and they're going to have a hard time avoiding using the words "Al Qaeda" when they run these tapes.
Question: Would these tapes be considered a "coordinated" media buy for the Democrats under McCain-Feingold? Will the FEC investigate?
Maybe that's the way to get the media remotely perturbed at Al Qaeda -- we can sell them on the idea that "Al Qaeda is swift-boating Iraq." They really do seem to despise "swift-boating."
It's terrible. How they got captured, exactly, the article doesn't say.
housands of U.S. soldiers searched Sunday for three Americans who were missing after their patrol came under attack in an explosion that killed four of their comrades and an Iraqi army translator....
The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, said it had captured several soldiers in the attack, but offered no proof to back up its claim, posted on an Islamic Web site.
The search for the missing Americans began after insurgents attacked a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter before dawn Saturday near Mahmoudiya.
The U.S. military said Saturday that five people were dead and three were missing.
On Sunday, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell confirmed that the Iraqi interpreter was among the dead - and that all the missing were Americans. He said about 4,000 U.S. troops were involved in the search.
...
Mahmoudiya is about 20 miles south of Baghdad in an al-Qaida-dominated area known as the "triangle of death." Two U.S. soldiers were massacred there last year after they disappeared at a checkpoint.
One Good thing, these dudes have the permanent face paint and body markings...
One very bad thing, their mentality and already settled turf combined with the Jihad mentality to blow things up and none of the body art and aility to get MS-13 schooling....
DIRE DIRE
Outcome and future unless quashed.
The enemy is here in North AMerica.
Fort DIx was just the beginning.
Mall in Utah, gunman shouting Allah Snackbar... its begun.
VT... Hmmm. Nobody knows what happened to loner dude.
Jerry Steele thinks he found some tattooed friends online. Some really evil intent illegal gang members.. some really evil intent jihadies.. a perfect witches Brew not advisable to drink of.. THE IDEOLOGY underlying is what needs to be fought.. the messengers of hate.
JS
DEFINITELY VISIT THIS SITE FOR MORE INFORMATION IN HOW TO IDENTIFY MS-13 Our AMerican Law enforcement could be aided as well... ONTARIO GANG INVESTIGATORS ASSOCIATION
********
BRENT AT WORLDGANG REPORTS IN:
Some of you are aware of our ongoing investigation into the unholy alliance between the MS-13 [Mara Salvatrucha] gangs and Al Qaeda in North America. Recently we have completed extensive research into the Federally funded Southwest Keys Organisation which is responsible for re-settling young illegal immigrants from Central America and Islamic countries, into mainstream American cities. Interviews with members of the Southwest Keys management has confirmed that recently released soldiers from Islamic countries have succeeded in passing themselves off as Central Americans, fooling U.S. Border Patrol agents and Homeland Security (I.C.E.).
In Canada,Brent M. P. Beleskey of WorldGang and ONGIA has been compiling evidence of MS-13's infiltration into local gangs and the local drug trade . Mr.Beleskey is currently working on a documentary detailing the spread of Ms-13 and militant Islam and their influence on the mean streets of Ontario.
Please stay tuned for more news as we lose our national heritage to the appeasers and the Islamic-Gangs Coalition.
By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
BAQOUBA, Iraq - Across the walls of the villas they seized in the name of their shadow government, black-masked al-Qaida militants spray-painted the words: "Property of the Islamic State of Iraq
They manned checkpoints and buried an elaborate network of bombs in the streets. They issued austere edicts ordering women not to work. They filmed themselves attacking Americans and slaughtered those who did not believe in their cause.
For months, al-Qaida turned a part of one Baqouba neighborhood into an insurgent fiefdom that American and Iraqi forces were too undermanned to tackle — a startling example of the terror group's ability to thrive openly in some places outside Baghdad even as U.S.-led forces struggle to regain control in the capital.
U.S. forces took back the entire Tahrir neighborhood during a weeklong operation that wrapped up Sunday in Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that al-Qaida declared last year the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.
Though the operation was a success — it forced the guerrillas to either flee or melt into the population — soldiers say the extremists are likely to pop up anywhere else that's short on American firepower.
Indeed, even as the Tahrir operation took place, insurgents stepped up attacks on a new police post in the adjacent Old Baqouba district — which was also cleared recently — pounding it daily and killing Baqouba's police chief in a suicide car bombing.
Insurgent teams, meanwhile, have tried to infiltrate back into Tahrir, U.S. Capt. Huber Parsons said Tuesday.
When U.S. forces began pouring into the embattled district last week, residents said it was the first time they'd seen significant numbers of coalition troops since last fall. U.S. troops set up a combat outpost in northern Tahrir several months ago.
But to the south, residents recounted watching helplessly as masked fighters came and went freely in past months, piling weapons into the back of vehicles and taking over the homes of Shiites who had either fled or been killed.
"We were terrorized," said one man. "We wondered, Where is the government? Why have they forgotten us? Why does nobody come here to help?"
Baqouba has been wracked by violence for years. But insecurity has skyrocketed since late last year, partly because Sunni militants fleeing Baghdad's security crackdown have sought refuge here.
An estimated 60,000 people have fled the city of 300,000, most of them Shiites driven out by Sunni hit squads. Meanwhile, vital government subsidized food and fuel shipments, which normally flow in from Baghdad, ceased arriving because of political corruption in the capital, said Col. David W. Sutherland, whose 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, is responsible for security in Diyala province.
"In an insurgency, if you don't have faith in the government or security forces ... you turn to those who will offer you a better way," Sutherland said. "The terrorists were able to drive a wedge between the government and the people. But we're reversing that."
The battle for Baqouba picked up in mid-March.
U.S. commanders rushed in Stryker infantry battalion which helped clear, and eventually calm, the southern district of Buhriz, once the city's most violent area. While American forces fought there and in Old Baqouba, they watched neighboring Tahrir spin out of control.
Parsons said video from an unmanned aerial drone last month showed suspected al-Qaida militants searching vehicles at a checkpoint. They held back from destroying it, choosing to "track them to see where they were going, where they lived," Parsons said.
Then, for eight days in early April, al-Qaida battled fellow insurgents from the nationalist 1920 Revolution Brigades, who residents said were trying to resist the terror group's bid for control. The nationalist fighters ran out of ammunition and fled.
With the district firmly in al-Qaida's hands, local leaders and sheiks called on American and Iraqi soldiers for help.
U.S. forces first sent road-clearing teams into southern Tahrir April 22. Insurgents fired mortars and popped out of windows with rocket launchers, destroying three de-mining robots. Tanks and infantry blasted surrounding buildings, killing more than a dozen attackers.
The next day, Parsons moved three of his platoons into central Tahrir on foot. All three came under fire. The day ended with a 30-minute firefight at dusk in which rounds ripped through palm groves. Apache helicopters shot Hellfire missiles at a house insurgents had fled to, lighting the sky in thunderous blasts.
Fighting eased afterward. Soon, previously empty streets were teeming with crowds of people who shook soldiers' hands as they passed.
Residents recounted watching groups of masked men dig into roads with jackhammers in recent weeks, planting bombs and stringing copper wire to trigger them from houses and schools.
The militants mostly kept to themselves, but they distributed puritanical leaflets commanding women to cover themselves in black from head to toe, and stay home from work. They ordered tea shops shut and warned men not to smoke water-pipes.
"No one dared ask them why," said one father. Those who did drew unwanted scrutiny — and a possible death sentence, he said.
Families told of Shiites who went shopping and never returned. One man said his brother had been kept and beaten in a makeshift prison with two dozen others.
At night, masked men stormed homes, robbing and carrying out extra-judicial killings. "Nobody knew whether they were al-Qaida or the police or just common criminals," said a baker named Ali. "It was total lawlessness."
Like other residents interviewed, Ali declined to give his full name in fear of reprisals from insurgents.
Insurgents blocked roads with concrete barriers taken from coalition forces. One checkpoint was so permanent that U.S. troops found a schedule naming those who manned it daily.
In some empty homes, guerrillas knocked small holes in the walls to use them as sniper positions. Below some, bullet casings littered the floor.
Half a dozen of houses containing weapon stashes, as well as one booby-trapped villa with a 155mm artillery shell rigged to blow behind its front door, were leveled. Many stashes were pointed out by residents.
One cache of rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs was found simply leaning against a wall in the back room of an abandoned home, along with handcuffs, ski masks, radio handsets and a video camera. A tape inside it showed a "Husky" American bomb disposal vehicle trying to de-mine a road in Baqouba.
Parsons eyes widened when he saw it: the driver and the vehicle work with his Stryker unit.
On the video, machine-gun fire erupted amid cries of "Allahu Akbar," God is Great, targeting the vehicle and a de-mining robot.
The footage cut abruptly to an unrelated, final scene: A closeup of a blood-splattered corpse whose blindfold had been pulled from his face. The man looked Iraqi and appeared to have been tortured.
Soldiers said they believed al-Qaida operatives had lived in Tahrir, using homes there as a kind of rear base. In the living room of one home residents said served as a medical aid station for wounded fighters were empty beds, neck braces and x-rays scattered across the floor.
Although insurgents claimed many houses in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq, they tried to erase their work with splotches of white paint two months ago — realizing the proclamations might be too conspicuous. On some gates and walls, the paint was too thin to cover the black Arabic lettering.
The Islamic State is a coalition of eight insurgent groups. Late last month, it named a 10-member "Cabinet" complete with a "war minister," an apparent attempt to present the Sunni coalition as an alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Parsons assured each family that U.S. troops and police would stay behind to keep insurgents out after he left, and establish a new police station.
Al-Qaida "had months and months to run rampant because we didn't have the forces available to come in here until now," Parsons said. "They controlled this neighborhood, but they don't anymore."
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - U.S.-led forces killed a senior al-Qaida in
Iraq operative believed responsible for the kidnappings of Westerners, including a Christian Science Monitor reporter and a slain peace worker from Virginia, a military spokesman said Thursday.
The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, said a rocket attack on Iraq's Green Zone on Wednesday killed four foreign contractors _one from the Philippines, one from Nepal and two from India — who were working for a U.S. government contractor. It was the third straight day that extremists used rockets or mortars to hit the area where Iraq's parliament meets.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the killing of Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri, described as al-Qaida's information minister, had apparently led to confused reports that al-Qaida's top leader or the head of an umbrella group of Sunni insurgents had been killed.
Caldwell said the military had conducted numerous operations against al-Qaida in Iraq in the last six days but does not have the bodies of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri and did not know "of anybody that does."
U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations against the terrorist network following a series of car bombings and suicide attacks that have killed hundreds in recent weeks despite a security crackdown in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
Al-Jubouri was killed while trying to resist detention in an operation about four miles west of the Taji, a town near an air base north of Baghdad early Tuesday, and the body was initially identified by photos, then confirmed by DNA testing Wednesday, he said.
Al-Jubouri was believed to have been deeply involved with the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter who was released unharmed, and Tom Fox of Clear Brook, Va., one of four men from the Chicago-based peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams who was found shot to death in Baghdad on March 10, 2006, he said. He was also involved in the kidnapping of two Germans in January 2006, Caldwell said.
In a statement, Christian Science Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim said the development "reminds us of the enormous efforts made by everyone over 82 days to secure Jill's safe release."
"While much remains to be done to improve conditions in Iraq, we appreciate the continuing efforts by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government to make the country a safer place for journalists and citizens alike," Bergenheim said.
On Thursday, mourners gathered at al-Jubouri's house in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, as a huge funeral tent went up in the street, police said.
The Interior Ministry said earlier that al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, had been killed and released photos of what it said was the body of the leader of the umbrella group, which includes al-Qaida.
But Caldwell said al-Baghdadi's death could not be confirmed.
"If that person even exists, again, we have nobody in our possession or know of anybody that does, alive or dead, that is going through any kind of testing or analysis at this point with respect to those two individuals," he said.
On Tuesday, officials said al-Masri, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, had been killed by rivals north of Baghdad, but the body had not been recovered.
Regarding al-Masri, Caldwell said "we in fact do not have in our possession nor do we know of anybody that has anybody or person at this time that we think is him."
"His overall status whether he is dead or alive is actually unknown to us at this point," he added.
The U.S. Embassy statement gave no other details about Wednesday's attack that killed the four contractors in the Green Zone, which is home to the U.S. and British embassies and thousands of American troops as well as key Iraqi government offices.
Insurgents routinely fire rockets and mortar rounds into the sprawling Green Zone.
The attacks seldom cause casualties or damage because they are poorly aimed and there is a lot of open space in the zone, but two Americans — a contractor and a soldier — were killed in March in a rocket attack on the area and two suicide vests were found unexploded less than a week after that.
The adequacy of security in the area also came into question after the April 12 suicide bombing in the parliament building's dining hall. One lawmaker was killed in the blast, which was claimed by an al-Qaida-led amalgam of Sunni insurgents.
On Wednesday, Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a U.S. military spokesman, said the latest round of Green Zone attacks appears to be part of a strategy by extremists "to score a spectacular hit or try to obtain some sort of a headline-grabbing direct hit."
___
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Surprising Study Reveals Muslim Communities Long to Be Acknowledged As Part of Mainstream America
NEW YORK, April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Many American Muslims
feel simultaneously overexposed in the media and invisible as part of the American mainstream. But while they generally perceive themselves to be under constant suspicion, a new study shows that Muslims still believe in
the American dream and are quietly living out traditional American values.
"One of the most crucial things to emerge from the study is that American Muslims want to feel less singled out and to be simply
acknowledged and accepted," says Marian Salzman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of JWT Worldwide. "They're hyphenated Americans in a country where religious observance is normal."
JWT, the largest advertising agency in the U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world, commissioned this wide-ranging study on America's estimated 6 to 8 million Muslims; it includes in-depth interviews with noted American
Muslims, ethnographies of ordinary Muslims and a survey of 350 Muslims that used face-to-face interviews. An adapted version of the survey was also fielded online to more than 450 Americans representing the general
population.
"We quickly found out that Muslims have become wary of discussing themselves and their faith," notes Salzman. "Many have felt a lot of hostility directed at them and didn't want to risk expressing opinions on
anything vaguely controversial. It took a lot of effort to convince enough Muslims that our study was purely market research, not for political purposes."
Participants balked most notably at questions related to 9/11 and its
effects, adds Ann Mack, JWT's director of trendspotting. "America's post-9/11 focus on Muslims has forced them to grapple with some tough questions that few other Americans have had to face: How public should they
be about their faith? Should they stand up for it or avoid confrontation? Are there conflicts of loyalty between their faith and their country?" Among the key quantitative findings:
* Over two-thirds (69 percent) of American Muslims say they are often
judged by events outside their control, a view of Muslims shared by 60 percent of the general sample. At a time when Arabic names or Muslim attire routinely attract unwelcome attention, more than half of Muslims
(53 percent) fear that their right to express their religion is under attack, and 39 percent of the general population agrees with them.
* Much of Muslim angst is driven by widespread perceptions of anti-Muslim
bias in the media. Well over half of Muslims (57 percent) feel that media coverage is always/mostly biased, and another third (34 percent) feel it is occasionally biased. The general public senses an anti-Muslim
slant as well, with 25 percent agreeing that coverage is always/mostly biased and 48 percent saying it's occasionally biased. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of Muslims say they are increasingly angry
about the way the media characterizes and portrays Muslims.
* When it comes to the stuff of everyday life, however, Muslims are like other Americans. Both Muslims and the general population place a high
priority on feeling safe outside their home (89 percent of both samples), personal freedom (89 percent of Muslims vs. 93 percent of the general sample), education (90 percent vs. 88 percent) and, to a lesser
extent for both, career (75 percent vs. 69 percent).
* On the topic of advertising, Muslims generally reflect mainstream American views, with a slant toward the conservative. A little over 70
percent of both samples agreed advertisers should accept greater responsibility for setting a moral standard. Sixty-nine percent of Muslims vs. 59 percent of the general sample feel that most advertising
sets a low moral tone for younger and more easily impressed viewers; 60 percent of Muslims vs. 47 percent of the general sample agree that the advertising they see is too suggestive or immodest.
* Muslims' biggest gripe with advertising is that it doesn't acknowledge their existence: A high 71 percent of Muslims (vs. 34 percent of the general sample) agreed that "Advertisers rarely show anybody of my
faith/ethnicity in their advertising," and 72 percent said that if they felt advertisers generally wanted or appreciated the business of Muslims, they would pay more attention to ads.
* While most Muslims (61 percent) feel that it's hard to be a Muslim in America, many are optimistic; indeed, 73 percent said they are confident that Western society would one day accept Islam.
Muslims are not necessarily looking for marketers to provide any specially targeted products, although Islam does require specific food and
packaged goods (halal), clothing (modest) and financial transactions (shariah- compliant). What they are primarily looking for is acknowledgment from marketers, says Mack. "The challenge and the opportunity for brands
are to connect with Muslims in a low-key way that recognizes their American-ness and seeks to understand their particular attitudes."
"Every step of this study has been hugely instructive for us and for
our clients," says Salzman. "We started out with the intention of learning about the 'Muslim community.' We quickly found out that there is no such thing as a single American Muslim community, much as there is no single
Christian community. Muslims vary hugely by ethnicity, faith, tradition, education, income and degree of religious observance, to name a few factors."
JWT will make the study available to key clients and will also sell the
findings on its proprietary "smarts" Web site (http://www.jwtintelligence.com) starting May 1. A comparable study of the Muslim market in the U.K . will be launched on May 21. The study was done in collaboration with Market Probe, NoFormula and Attention Space.
About JWT
JWT ranks as the largest advertising agency brand in the United States
and as the fourth-largest full-service network in the world. Its parent company is WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY). JWT's heritage of brand-building excellence extends back to 1864, making us the world's oldest advertising agency brand. In 1939, JWT pioneered the first national consumer research panel. In 1988, we created the first research study of consumer lifestyles, "Life
Stages." We believe in being anthropologists first, advertising people second.
The political battle in Washington over a Democratic plan to pull U.S. troops from Iraq is being exploited by al Qaeda, which has stepped up attacks to hasten a withdrawal, Iraq’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
Hoshiyar Zebari said Iraq had become “entangled” in domestic politics in the United States, where there is growing impatience for progress in reconciling the country’s warring sects.
U.S. President George W. Bush has vowed to veto a war spending bill that requires combat troops to begin withdrawing by Oct. 1. Congress, which is controlled by the Democrats, plans to send the bill to Bush on Tuesday.
“This plays out very badly here,” Zebari said in an interview with Reuters, making the first substantive government comment on the political tussle.
“It shows the administration is not united. And everybody watches this development, al Qaeda, the anti-democratic forces who are fighting us.”
He pointed to an increase in car bomb attacks blamed on al Qaeda that have caused the civilian death toll to stay high despite a major 10-week-old operation by U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad, the epicentre of the violence.
“This recent escalation you have seen was expected, just to show the Baghdad security plan is not working.
THe Bobblehead exploding ALlah does not approve of Jerry Steele
".... 9 out of 10 Jihadies agree to issue fatwah on Jerry...
UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
Frontline News From the Real Source and Not Commander Piglosi, Kommandant Traitor Harry Reid nor Blue Helmet Chickie Schumer" http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom2/default.aspx
