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Use of Sharia ‘courts’ increasing in UK
The Christian Institute
1/18/2012
The use of Sharia ‘courts’ is on the increase in Britain with thousands using Islamic law to settle disputes, according to the BBC.The news comes as a leading barrister claims that Sharia law is compatible with human rights, and beneficial to communities.
However, critics say the courts discriminate against women and should not operate as a parallel legal system.
Tripled
A Bill has been brought before the House of Lords by Christian humanitarian, Baroness Cox, to curb the growth of Sharia courts.
Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, a representative of the Islamic Sharia Council at Leyton, told BBC Asian Network that his caseload at the east London council had “easily more than tripled” over the past three to five years – dealing with up to 300 disputes a month.
And earlier this week leading barrister Sadakat Kadri, also a Harvard Law School contemporary of Barack Obama, called for the UK to become more Sharia-literate.
Acknowledged
Regarding Sharia law councils, Mr Kadri said: “It’s very important that they be acknowledged and allowed to exist.”
He also told the Guardian that the courts were good for “the community as a whole”.
In 2009, think-tank Civitas reported that an estimated 85 Sharia councils could be operating in Britain.
Oppressive
But Sharia opponents believe it discriminates against women as well as rulings falsely claiming legal jurisdiction over criminal and family law.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, argued that the UK’s rule of law “must not be compromised by the introduction of a theocratic legal system operating in parallel.”
Last year Baroness Cox introduced the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill to the House of Lords, which aims to tackle discrimination suffered by Muslim women under Sharia law.
Coercion
If passed, it would firmly outlaw the practice of giving women’s testimonies half the weight of men’s and create a criminal offence of falsely claiming legal jurisdiction.
Speaking about Muslim women the Baroness said: “We must do all that we can to make sure they are free from any coercion, intimidation or unfairness”.
Under the 1996 Arbitration Act the rulings of religious arbitration tribunals, including the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, can be enforced in commercial and civil cases.
The BBC reports that Sharia councils have been operating in the UK since 1982, however these locally-appointed councils have no legal powers and cannot impose any penalties.
Link: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/use-of-sharia-courts-increasing-in-uk/
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Jihad in America – lessons must be learned
The Greeley Gazette
Jan 22, 2012
by Craig MastersThis past Friday the non-partisan, non-sectarian organization, "Act! for America," presented an informative lecture on the increase in successes of the multi-faceted Islamic jihad in America. The meeting was held at Johnson's Corner restaurant and was presented by a team of speakers brought to the area by the Colorado Conservative Union.
The presentation entitled, " Jihad in America, Under the Radar Across the Nation" began with a brief introduction of "Act! for America." The organization is nationally recognized as non-partisan, non-sectarian and founded by Lebanese immigrant, Brigitte Gabriel. Gabriel became an outspoken activist against Sharia Law and the Muslim Brotherhood after watching the destruction of her home and so much more of Lebanon by violent jihadists attempting to force Sharia Law upon the non-Muslims in Lebanon. The mission of the organization is to educate Americans about the truth of the threat of radical Islam to the freedom of all people in the world who would choose not to live under Sharia Law. The organization's speakers make no apologies for their frank descriptions of the bad things that happen in war - any war, all wars. And they make it clear that whether the politically correct Americans accept it or not, Islam is in a war to win - not to coexist.
The featured speaker, introduced only as Joe B for security purposes, was born and raised on what is called the Green Line in Beirut, Lebanon. He introduced the audience to Beirut through a series of photographs of where he lived; before and after the destruction of the neighborhood by the war between Christians and Muslims. He relayed the anguish of first-hand experiences of growing up and attending school with Muslim friends who became mortal enemies who would shoot to kill one another from apartment buildings virtually across the street dividing the East and West Beirut; geographically, culturally and politically.
Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, the only Christian country in the Mid-East. As a thriving "western" economy with climate and geography similar to Colorado's - including snow in the mountains - Lebanon's Christian areas offer the entertainment venues such as movies, nightclubs and women in clothing not available in the Muslim neighborhoods. Joe B explained that the very existence of much of the beautiful buildings and shopping in east (Christian) Beirut is due to the fact that Muslim men regularly enjoy the social opportunities found within the Christian areas. For this reason, much of the destruction and violence occurs in residential neighborhoods. His photos illustrated this point well.
The main emphasis of the evening's presentation was to inform the audience of the increasing power and influence of Islam in America. "Act! for America" has worked to create a nationwide network of chapters in order to more effectively inform, educate and mobilize Americans regarding the multiple threats of radical Islam. A key mission of the organization is to reach out and explain to all people who wish to remain free what they can and must do to protect themselves and their way of life against this very focused and determined enemy.
Americans have been told by leading Muslims that Islam is a "religion of peace." But Joe, who speaks and reads Arabic as well as or better than most of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, explains that the words of Sharia and the Qur'an refer to a "peace" which can only come after every person on Earth is living under Sharia Law.
Through a series of informative slides and news articles, Joe B made clear the intent of Islam can only be identified through actions: never the words of Imams. Some actions are easier to see and understand than others. Violent jihad, for example is obvious when an airplane flies into a building and kills thousands. But stealth jihad comes in many forms. "Act! for America" chapters have worked to stop the advance of Sharia Law and educate Americans about the danger of allowing Muslim Brotherhood to use our unique invention of political correctness to accept them into America's tolerant society. These, he says, are examples of non-violent jihad.
Joe echoed the words of AtlasShrugs.com founder, editor and publisher Pamela Geller, in saying that there is no compromise ground between Islam, a political ideology, and Christianity, a religion. Americans, he explained, are only accepting a "Trojan Horse" into their neighborhoods by tolerating Mosques being built and accepting the lie that Islam is a religion that deserves protection under our Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth, he explained. He cited the Arabic phrases from Sharia writings which clearly allow lying to protect and promote Islam.
Another interesting fact about Sharia, which is accepted as law in 57 countries, is that these "laws" were never associated with Muhammed. They were written hundreds of years after the death of Muhammed. Powerful warlords of the mid-east had them created and used as the law of convenience to punish and enslave their enemies. But today, radical Islam insists that Muslims must live by Sharia as the ultimate law. Islamic leaders insist that Sharia comes from God, not man, and therefore, no man-made law such as the Constitution of the United States, can supercede Sharia.
Several sitting judges in the United States have accepted Sharia and applied English translations of these rulings as law in U.S. court cases. Tennessee and Oklahoma have recognized the need for laws that specify American law must be the only law accepted and enforced in American courts. According to the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which identifies and tracks jihad activities in America, many other states will be facing the choice to either accept or reject the claim by Muslims that Sharia is a higher authority than American law and the U.S. Constitution. Over the past year the Greeley Gazette has reported stories of judges allowing Sharia to take precedence over state law.
Winning the right to use Sharia is one example of what Joe identifies as 'Stealth Jihad'. Other examples were cited including investments in terrorist training camps funded by charities the U.S. has assigned tax exempt status because of their "religious" affiliation.
After identifying the clear connection to terrorist activities, the FBI raided three Jihadist training camps in Colorado in 2010. The Christian Action Network, Liberty News online, and many other sources indicate that the number of radical Islamist training camps continues to grow within the United States. Perhaps the most credible source of such information is from Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Muslims of America).
According to financial records obtained by Free Republic, “Muslims of America,” has purchased or leased hundreds of acres of property – from New York to California – in which Sheikh Mubarak Gilani boasts of conducting “the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare.”
In a recruitment video captured from Gilani’s “Soldiers of Allah,” he states in English: “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America... Act like you are his friend. Then kill him,” says Gilani in the recruitment video, explaining how to handle American “infidels.”
The most widely known member of Gilani's "Soldiers of Allah" is probably Major Nidal Hasan, the shooter at the Fort Hood, Texas, Army base. In the days leading up to his jihad, Hasan gave infidels a copy of his business card which carried the letters "SoA" to proudly and openly identify himself as one of Allah's soldiers.
Joe B further explains that, in Arabic, Gilani's instructions are more graphic. He instructs his followers to befriend their enemy, work for him until he turns away and then stab him in the back. The Fort Hood jihad has raised many questions. Joe B reminded the audience that those who are informed will be safer than those who choose to pretend they will be left alone if they simply accept the presence of Islam in their neighborhood.
Link: http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=13006#
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From US private school student to al-Qaida agent
Published January 18, 2012 | Associated PressMoeed Abdul Salam didn't descend into radical Islam for lack of other options. He grew up in a well-off Texas household, attended a pricey boarding school and graduated from one of the state's most respected universities.
But the most unlikely thing about his recruitment was his family: Two generations had spent years promoting interfaith harmony and combating Muslim stereotypes in their hometown and even on national television.
Salam rejected his relatives' moderate faith and comfortable life, choosing instead a path that led him to work for al-Qaida. His odyssey ended late last year in a middle-of-the-night explosion in Pakistan. The 37-year-old father of four was dead after paramilitary troops stormed his apartment.
Officers said Salam committed suicide with a grenade. An Islamic media group said the troops killed him.
Salam's Nov. 19 death went largely unnoticed in the U.S. and rated only limited attention in Pakistan. But the circumstances threatened to overshadow the work of an American family devoted to religious understanding. And his mysterious evolution presented a reminder of the attraction Pakistan still holds for Islamic militants, especially well-educated Westerners whose Internet and language skills make them useful converts for jihad.
"There are things that we don't want to happen but we have to accept, things that we don't want to know but we have to learn, and a loved one we can't live without but have to let go," Salam's mother, Hasna Shaheen Salam, wrote last month on her Facebook page.
The violence didn't stop after Salam died. Weeks after his death, fellow militants killed three soldiers with a roadside bomb to avenge the raid.
It is not clear to what extent Salam's family knew of his radicalism, but on his Facebook page the month before he died, he posted an image of Anwar al-Awalki, the American al-Qaida leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, beside a burning American flag. He had also recently linked to a document praising al-Awalki's martyrdom and to a message urging Muslims to rejoice "in this time when you see the mujahideen all over the world victorious."
After his death, the Global Islamic Media Forum, a propaganda group for al-Qaida and its allies, hailed Salam as a martyr, explaining in an online posting that he had overseen a unit that produced propaganda in Urdu and other South Asian languages.
A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said Salam's role had expanded over the years beyond propaganda to being an operative. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The family, originally from Pakistan, immigrated to the U.S. decades ago. Salam's father was a pilot for a Saudi airline, and the family eventually settled in the Dallas suburb of Plano. Their cream-colored brick home, assessed at nearly $400,000, stands on a corner lot in a quiet, upper-class neighborhood.
The family obtained American citizenship in 1986. Salam attended Suffield Academy in Connecticut, a private high school where tuition and board currently run $46,500. He graduated in 1992.
A classmate, Wadiya Wynn, of Laurel, Md., recalled that Salam played varsity golf, sang in an a cappella group and in the chamber choir, and that he hung out with a small group of "hippie-ish" friends. She thought he was a mediocre student, but noted that just being admitted to Suffield was highly competitive.
Salam went on to study history at the University of Texas at Austin and graduated in 1996. His Facebook profile indicated he moved to Saudi Arabia by 2003 and began working as a translator, writer and editor for websites about Islam.
"Anyone can pick up a gun, but there aren't as many people who can code html and understand the use of proxies," said Evan Kohlmann, a senior partner a Flashpoint Global Partners, which tracks radical Muslim propaganda.
Salam, who had apparently been active in militant circles for as long as nine years, arrived three years ago in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and became an important link between al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremists groups, according to an al-Qaida operative in Karachi who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is wanted by authorities.
Salam traveled to the tribal areas close to the Afghan border three or four times for meetings with senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, the operative said. He would handle money and logistics in the city and deliver instructions from other members of the network.
Back in the United States, Salam's mother is a prominent resident of Plano, where she is co-chairwoman of a city advisory group called the Plano Multicultural Outreach Roundtable, as well as a former president of the Texas Muslim Women's Foundation.
The founder of the latter group, Hind Jarrah, said Shaheen and her husband are too upset to speak with anyone.
"She's a committed American citizen. She's a hard worker," Jarrah said, calling her "one of the nicest, most committed, most open-minded" women she had ever met.
Salam's brother, Monem Salam, has traveled the country speaking about Islam, seeking to correct misconceptions following the 9/11 attacks. He works for Saturna Capital, where he manages funds that invest according to Islamic principles — for example, in companies that do not profit from alcohol or pork. He recently moved from the company's Bellingham, Wash., headquarters to head its office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
After the 2001 attacks, he and his wife made a public-television documentary about his efforts as a Muslim man to obtain a pilot's license. They also wrote a column for The Bellingham Herald newspaper that answered readers' questions about Islam.
Both Salam's parents and his brother declined numerous interview requests from The Associated Press.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, dozens of U.S. citizens have been accused of participating in terrorism activities, including several prominent al-Qaida propagandists, such as al-Awalaki and Samir Khan, who was killed alongside him. Perhaps best known is Adam Gadahn, an al-Qaida spokesman believed to be in Pakistan.
Of 46 cases of "homegrown terrorism" in the U.S. since 2001, 16 have a connection to Pakistan, according to a recent RAND Corporation study. Salam's background as college-educated and from a prosperous family isn't unusual among them.
Salam divorced his wife in October, but was contesting custody of their three sons and one daughter. The children were staying with him in the third-floor apartment when a squad of paramilitary troops known as Rangers arrived around 3:30 a.m.
Officers said they pushed through the flimsy door, and Salam killed himself with a grenade when he realized he was surrounded.
The Islamic media group and the al-Qaida contact in Karachi disputed that account, saying Salam was killed by the troops.
Through the windows, blood splatter and shrapnel marks were visible on the wall close to the dining table. There were boxes of unpacked luggage, a treadmill and two large stereo speakers. Residents said Moeed had only been living there for five days.
Neighbor Syed Mohammad Farooq was woken by an explosion. Minutes later, one of the troops asked him to go inside the apartment and see what had happened, he said.
"He was lying on the floor with blood pooling around him. One of his arms had been blown off. I couldn't look for long. He was moaning and seemed to be reciting verses from the Koran," he said. "I could hear the children crying, but I couldn't see them."
Hours later, Salam's wife and father-in-law, a lawyer in the city, came to collect the children from the apartment in Gulistane Jauhar, a middle-class area of Karachi, Farooq said. On the night he died, Salam led evening prayers at the small mosque on the ground floor of the apartment building.
"His Koranic recitation was very good," said Karim Baloch, who prayed behind him that night. "It was like that of an Arab."
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Johnson reported from Bellingham, Wash., and can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle. Brummitt reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and can be reached at https://twitter.com/cjbrummitt.
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AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar contributed to this report, along with reporters Ashraf Khan in Karachi, Pakistan; Zarar Khan in Islamabad; Adam Goldman in Washington; Danny Robbins and Linda Stewart Ball in Plano, Texas; and Paul Weber and Will Weissert in Austin, Texas.
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Shed no tears for physicists killed in covert nuclear war
Michael Burleigh
January 14, 2012
The Sydney Morning HeraldOPINION
PHYSICS is an unhealthy line of work in today's Iran. A few days ago, 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan died in his car after two motorcyclists attached a magnetic charge to the door. Roshan can be seen among the men in white coats, beaming modestly behind President Ahmadinejad, in a photo taken a few months ago.
Roshan was not the first and nor will he be the last casualty of a covert war designed either to dissuade Iran from acquiring a bomb, or to prompt retaliatory missteps that will trigger an all-out onslaught by Israel or the US against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The identity of the assassins is inherently unknowable - though a good guess would be the dissident Mujahideen-e-Khalq group on behalf of Mossad. The CIA's weak human intelligence presence inside Iran makes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's categorical denial of American involvement plausible.
Why it is happening is far easier to fathom. Israel, although not the world's sole assassin, has historical form in this area. In 1963, Mossad embarked on Operation Damocles to menace and murder former Nazi rocket scientists who, according to a defecting Austrian, were helping then President Nasser develop rockets that could be equipped with radiological warheads. They received parcel bombs through the post, while their families back in Germany and Austria were threatened with violence. More recently, in 1990, Mossad shot dead Canadian Gerald Bull outside his Brussels apartment. Bull was helping Saddam Hussein improve Scud missiles while developing a long-range ''supergun'' as a sideline.
A similar logic, of degrading an enemy's scientific and technical capacity, was evident from the assassination campaign which Israel waged against key Hamas and Hezbollah figures. Victims included Hamas' Yehiya ''the Engineer'' Ayyash, whose head was blown off in 1996 by what he thought was his mobile phone, and Hezbollah's Imad Mugniyah, scraped from the street in 2008 after he was killed leaving a party at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Both men had a lethal expertise which would be difficult to replace.
The Israelis believe that anyone who knowingly participates in developing weapons of mass destruction or terrorism should be aware that these are not risk-free activities. Iranian scientists know full well that electronic switches are used in nuclear triggers, and that enriching uranium beyond a certain percentage is not for the production of medical isotopes. And they accept the considerable financial rewards involved. If there are questions about the morality of killing such men, there are questions about the morality of their work in the first place.
Recent history has mixed lessons. In 1943 and 1944 the RAF and USAAF carried out repeat strikes on the German V-2 rocket launch site at Peenemunde, where the hydrogen peroxide fuel was also produced. They were not unduly concerned whether scientists and engineers were killed too, nor foreign slave labourers, provided the V-2s ceased raining down on London.
About the same time, Norwegian agents carried out a more morally fastidious operation to disable the Nazi heavy-water plant at Vemork, after the failure of raids and a glider-borne commando operation. Eventually, they not only got inside the plant to destroy its machinery, but sank a ferry containing railway wagonloads of the finished product in a fjord. While doing so, they scrupulously avoided causing any civilian casualties, by for instance attacking on a Sunday morning when children would not be taking the ferry to school.
Meanwhile, physicists and engineers are not subject to ethical codes in the way that biologists are with animal or human experimentation. Indeed, scientists routinely claim the quest for knowledge trumps everything, as those who worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos boastfully announced. Robert Oppenheimer said: ''If you are a scientist, you cannot stop such a thing … You believe that it is good to find out how the world works.'' He and his colleagues at least had the excuse that both the science and the weaponised atom bomb were untested, at least against a real city. Of course they could employ the compartmentalisation argument, rather like railway timetablers and dispatchers who sent trains to Auschwitz. What about the engine drivers and signalmen while we are about it? More plausibly, they can point to dual use, like Fritz Haber, who discovered how to synthesise ammonia into explosives, toxic gas and fertiliser that feeds half the world's population. But then firms that sold base chemicals to Saddam Hussein could make that claim too, and the Kurds got no fertilisers, but murderous clouds of gas.
Today's Iranian physicists can view a nuclear bomb detonating on the internet, and can read about Hiroshima in any number of books, starting with John Hersey's shocking 1945 account. They work for a regime that has explicitly threatened Israel (and by implication many ambient Palestinians) with such a weapon. I shall not shed any tears whenever one of these scientists encounters the unforgiving men on motorbikes, men who live in the real world rather than a laboratory or philosophy seminar. Except that if Israel ventures down this road, I cannot think of much of an argument to prevent Iran following them, and then anyone else who decides to follow.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/shed-no-tears-for-physicists-killed-in-covert-nuclear-war-20120113-1pzg8.html#ixzz1jNkrv9Sr
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Tensions high, US warns Iran not to block shipping
By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer – 1/13/2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tensions rising by the day, the Obama administration said Friday it is warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf.
Spokesmen were vague on what the United States would do about Iran's threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.
That prospect is the latest flashpoint with Iran, and one of the most serious. Although it currently overshadows the threat of war over Iran's disputed nuclear program, perhaps beginning with an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear structure, both simmering crises raise the possibility of a shooting war this year.
"We have to make sure we are ready for any situation and have all options on the table," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, addressing a soldier's question Thursday about the overall risk of war with Iran.
For several reasons, the risk of open conflict with Tehran appears higher in this election year than at any point since President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to try to bridge 30 years of enmity. A clash would represent a failure of U.S. policy on several fronts, and vault now-dormant national security concerns into the presidential election contest.
The U.S. still hopes that international pressure will persuade Iran to back down on its disputed nuclear program, but the Islamic regime shows no sign it would willingly give up a project has become a point of national pride. A bomb, or the ability to quickly make one, could also be worth much more to Iran as a bargaining chip down the road.
Time is short, with Iran making several leaps toward the ability to manufacture a weapon if it chooses to do so. Iran claims its nuclear development is intended for the peaceful production of nuclear energy. Meanwhile, several longstanding assumptions about U.S. influence and the value of a targeted strike to stymie Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon have changed. For one, the White House is no longer confident it could prevail on Israel not to launch such a strike.
An escalating covert campaign of sabotage and targeted assassinations highlighted by this week's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist may not be enough to head off a larger shooting war, and could prod Iran to strike first.
The brazen killing of a young scientist by motorcycle-riding bombers is almost surely the work of Israel, according to U.S. and other officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The killing on a Tehran street followed the deaths of several other Iranians involved in the nuclear program, a mysterious explosion at an Iranian nuclear site that may have been sabotage and the apparent targeting of the program with an efficient computer virus.
Iranian officials accuse both Israel and the U.S. of carrying out the assassination as part of a secret operation to stop Iran's nuclear program. The killing came a day after Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran — in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Panetta made a point of publicly denying any U.S. involvement, but the administration tied itself in knots this week over how far to go in condemning an action that could further the U.S. goal of stalling Iranian nuclear progress.
The U.S. position remains that a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities is undesirable because it would have unintended consequences and would probably only stall, not end, the Iranian nuclear drive. That has been the consensus view among military leaders and policy makers for roughly five years, spanning a Republican and Democratic administration.
But during that time Iran has gotten ever closer to a potential bomb, Israel has gotten more brazen in its threats to stop an Iranian bomb by nearly any means, and the U.S. administration's influence over Israel has declined.
Israel considers Iran its mortal enemy, and takes seriously the Iranian threat to wipe the Jewish state from the map. The United States is Israel's strongest ally and international defender, but the allies differ over how imminent the Iranian threat has become, and how to stop it.
The strained relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays a role, as does the rise in influence of conservative political parties in Israel. U.S. officials have concluded that Israel will go its own way on Iran, despite U.S. objections, and may not give the U.S. much notice if it decides to launch a strike, U.S. and other officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
The Obama administration is concerned that Iran's claim this week that it is expanding nuclear operations with more advanced equipment may push Israel closer to a strike.
Obama last month approved new sanctions against Iran that would target its central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.
A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard force was recently quoted as saying Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz if the country's petroleum exports are blocked due to sanctions.
Panetta linked the two crises Thursday, saying an Iranian nuclear weapon is one "red line" the U.S. will not allow Iran to cross, and a closure of the strait is another.
"We must keep all capabilities ready in the event those lines are crossed," Panetta told troops in Texas.
He did not elaborate, but the nation's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, has said the U.S. would take action to reopen the strategic waterway. That could only mean military action, and there are U.S. warships stationed nearby.
"The United States and the international community have a strong interest in the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in all national waterways," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday, adding that Iran is well aware of that position. "Our views are clear, we're expressing them publicly and privately, and I'll leave it at that."
International talks to barter Iran out of building a nuclear weapon are nearly collapsed, the United States and several partners are on the verge of applying the toughest sanctions yet on Iran's lifeblood oil sector, an increasingly cornered Iranian leadership is lashing out in unpredictable ways and faces additional internal pressures with a parliamentary election approaching.
All that adds up to a new equation, U.S. and western diplomats said. A unilateral U.S. military strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure remains unlikely but no longer unthinkable, while the likelihood of an Israeli military strike has increased.
Immediate consequences would probably include an unpredictable spike in oil prices, ripple effects in troubled European economies and a setback for the fragile U.S. economic recovery. Longer term, a strike or a full-on war would almost surely ignite anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and beyond and empower hardline political movements in newly democratic Egypt and elsewhere.
Although the Obama administration wants to avoid conflict, it is locked in a cycle of provocation and reaction that feeds Iranian fears and may make war more likely, said Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department Iran expert now at the Brookings Institution.
"The tactics the administration has been taking means conflict becomes more likely, because of the potential for miscalculation and the level of tensions and frustrations on both sides," she said.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqui37Cx9g6kHJgMKlnm3rN4Im9w?docId=3760cb57b4844f259699bf4122e8f530
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Suspected Islamic Extremist Arrested in Alleged Florida Bomb Plot
FOX News
1/9/2012
URGENT: A 25-year-old man described as an Islamic extremist was arrested in an alleged plot to attack crowded areas in the Tampa, Fla., area with a car bomb, assault rifle and other explosives, authorities said Monday.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Sami Osmakac, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the former Yugoslavia, was arrested Saturday night.Osmakac, from Pinellas County, allegedly told an undercover agent that "We all have to die, so why not die the Islamic way?'" according to a federal complaint.
FBI agents arrested Osmakac on Saturday after he allegedly bought explosive devices and firearms from an undercover agent. The firearms and explosives were rendered inoperable by law enforcement. The federal complaint says that shortly before his arrest, Osmakac made a video of himself explaining his motives for carrying out the planned violent attack.
He has been charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His first appearance in federal court is scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
Sources close to the investigation told Fox News that Osmakac was being "closely monitored by law enforcement" for months in what authorities have described as a "sting operation."
Federal officials said a confidential source told them in Sept. 2011 that Osmakac wanted Al Qaeda flags. Two months later, the federal complaint said, Osmakac and the confidential source "discussed and identified potential targets in Tampa" that Osmakac wanted to attack.
Osmakac allegedly asked the source for help getting the firearms and explosives for the attacks, and the source put him in touch with an undercover FBI employee.
On Dec. 21, Osmakac met with the undercover agent and allegedly told the agent that he wanted to buy an AK-47-style machine gun, Uzi submachine guns, high capacity magazines, grenades and explosive belt. During a later meeting, Osmakac gave the agent a $500 down payment for the items.
"According to the complaint, Osmakac also asked the undercover employee whether he/she could build bombs that could be placed in three different vehicles and detonated remotely, near where Osmakac would conduct a follow-up attack using the other weapons he requested," a press release from the Department of Justice said. "The undercover employee said he/she could possibly provide explosives for one vehicle. Osmakac also allegedly said that he wanted an explosive belt constructed to kill people."
On Jan. 1, Osmakac told the agent that he wanted to bomb night clubs, the Operations Center of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and a business in Tampa, Florida.
Osmakac told the undercover FBI agent that he wanted to detonate a car bomb and use the explosive belt to "get in somewhere where there's a lot of people" and take hostages.
He also allegedly told the agent that "Once I have this…they can take me in five million pieces," in an apparent reference to a suicide blast. During that meeting, the agent told Osmakac he could always change his mind about his plot.
Osmakac had created a "martyrdom video" and tried on a bomb belt before being arrested Saturday, law enforcement officials told Fox News.
Click for more on this story from MyFoxTampaBay.comFox News' Mike Levine and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/09/suspected-islamic-extremist-arrested-in-florida-bomb-plot/#ixzz1izDGdGSi
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Israeli hackers: We've obtained Saudi credit card info
A group of hackers from Israel, abroad claim to have obtained details of thousands of Saudi credit cards; threaten to expose the data should cyber attacks on Israel continue
Aviel Magnezi
YNetNews.com
1/9/12
Cyber vengeance: The major credit card information leak, a by-product of the activities of theSaudi hacker who has been sneering over attempts to locate him, has not been ignored.Israeli hackers who spoke to Ynet claimed on Monday that they have managed to lay their hands on the details of thousands of credit cards used on Saudi shopping websites. Ynet has confirmed the hackers' reports. "If the leaks continue, we will cause severe damage to the privacy of Saudi citizens," one of the Israeli hackers threatened.
Related stories:
- Saudi hacker's identity uncovered?
- Compromised credit cards restricted
- Saudi hackers leak personal information of thousands of Israelis
The Israeli hackers' activities have yielded, according to the hackers, "thousands of lists that include the personal details of citizens in the Arab state as well as the credit card details of those citizens. At the moment, we're holding on to the information and waiting for the right moment to publish it," they stressed.
Will Saudis soon be facing credit card leak?
Ynet has looked into the details and can confirm that at least some of the names on the list are real and match the rest of the details presented in the hackers' list. Most of the identities matched the information in the file, their Facebook and email accounts as well as their telephone numbers. The people listed were mostly Saudi citizens.
Speaking to Ynet, Mohammad, a Saudi resident, confirmed the details and tried to find out how his telephone number and information was discovered. "That is my name and those are my personal details, but I don't know anything about a credit card leak, no one told me anything," he said before hanging up.
One hacker who spoke to Ynet said: "We could not stay silent after the pompous boasting of the Saudi hacker." He added that "a few Israeli hackers came together and decided on various responses for each cyber activity that would be carried out against Israel, including responses beyond the cyber world."
The Facebook page of one of the Saudis exposed by Israeli hackers
When asked what he meant he explained that "the response we decided upon after group consultations includes scenarios where Israel is attacked outside of the cyber world." For example, he explained that "if a terror attack were to take place, we will make every effort to publish the terrorist's personal details and those of his family."He stressed that "sadly, the State of Israel does not support an offensive policy so we are forced to maintain a great deal of secrecy; if we are caught we're facing a harsh punishment."
Meanwhile, the Saudi hacker has failed to impress Israelis. "Any hacker can see tat this isn't the most talented person and that everything he did demanded very little knowledge and that it can be carried out through pre-arranged programs without any problems."
The Israeli hacker added that they were "working on exposing his true identity, but it isn't our main priority."Computer aficionados have said that the major leak was a "major failure" and stressed that it was not difficult to carry out and lacked technological sophistication."
The Knesset's Economics Committee discussed Monday the recent credit card scandal. Representatives from Israeli credit card companies, the Bank of Israel, the National Security Council, Justice Ministry and National Cyber Headquarters all participated in the meeting.
While the credit card companies' representatives stressed their ability to track down irregular financial activities, an expert warned "the damage caused from this monumental affair of identity theft is much greater than it appears."
"We have very high technological abilities," a representative of the credit companies stressed. "Even in this particular affair, our ability to block the cards and immediately stop any sort of damage was very high. We did it immediately – in the first incident within less than an hour and during the second event within less than ten minutes."
"This is a huge event in Israeli terms and a small one on a global scale. People like Omar, so-called-Omar, appear every so often. This was an attempt to embarrass the State of Israel. If he wished to cause financial damage he would have kept the lists to himself and not have published them," they added.
According to Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski, a researcher in the field of internet and information law and information security, "the damage is great, tens times greater than what's said here. Even if the credit card companies operated in a perfect manner, this event will remain with many Israelis for a long time, because they can be impersonated and therefore be classified as problematic online."
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-4173264,00.html
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Iran Imposes Death Sentence on U.S. Man Accused of Spying
By HARVEY MORRIS
New York Times
1/9/12
LONDON — Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced to death a former United States military serviceman of Iranian descent on charges of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported on Monday.The former serviceman, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, is the first American to receive a death sentence in Iran since the Islamic Revolution more than 30 years ago ushered in the estrangement in American-Iranian relations that has reached new levels of tension in recent months. Mr. Hekmati’s family in the United States has insisted he is no spy and was merely visiting family in Iran.
“It’s a very shocking sentence,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group that has been following Mr. Hekmati’s case.
Mr. Hekmati, who has been imprisoned in Iran since August, had been charged by prosecutors with receiving espionage training at American bases in Afghanistan and Iraq before infiltrating Iran.
The Fars agency said he was sentenced to death for “cooperating with the hostile country and spying for the C.I.A.”
“The court found him Corrupt on Earth and Mohareb (waging war on God),” according to Fars. The formulation is routinely used in cases against alleged enemies of the Islamic Republic, and the charge carries the death sentence.
Mr. Hekmati’s detention became public last month when Iranian state television broadcast video of him. It identified him as an American-born Iranian-American from Arizona.
In the video, the man identified as Mr. Hekmati said he joined the United States Army after graduating from high school in 2001, served in Iraq and received training in languages and espionage.
He said he was sent to Iran by the C.I.A. to gain the trust of the Iranian authorities by handing over information, some misleading and some accurate. If his first mission was successful, he said he was told, there would be more missions.
The claims in the video could not be verified at the time. The C.I.A. declined to comment after the broadcast on Dec. 18.
In the televised confession, Mr. Hekmati was shown speaking in fluent English and Persian. He said he was a C.I.A. operative sent to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry.
Iranian officials said their agents had identified him at the American-run Bagram air base in Afghanistan and tracked him as he infiltrated Iran. Mr. Hekmati’s family in the United States told American news media that he had traveled to Iran to visit his grandmothers and was not a spy.
The United States had demanded Mr. Hekmati’s release and the State Department said last month that Iran had not permitted diplomats from the Swiss Embassy, which represents American interests in Iran, to see him before or during his trial.
Accusations by Iran of espionage inside its borders are common, and Iran often announces that it has captured or executed people it says are spies for Western powers and Israel.
On Sunday, Heydar Moslehi, the Iranian intelligence minister, said Iran had arrested several spies who sought to carry out American plans to disrupt parliamentary elections in March, according to Fars.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Mr. Moslehi said: “Our intelligence apparatus had complete information about the activities of the arrested spies. The detainees were in contact with abroad through cyberspace networks. We arrested them after we obtained full information about their espionage activities.”
Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York, and Artin Afkhami from Boston.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/world/middleeast/iran-imposes-death-sentence-on-alleged-us-spy.html
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Army to allow hijabs, turbans in Junior ROTC
The Daily Caller
By Carolina May
3:43 PM 12/22/2011The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim and Sikh students participating in Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) to wear headscarves and turbans while in uniform.
The decision, announced Thursday, followed an October incident in which Muslim teen Demin Zawity quit JROTC when her commanding officer at a Brentwood, Tenn. high school would not allow her to wear her hijab in the homecoming parade.
CAIR later wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requesting “constitutionally-protected religious accommodations for the girl and for future Muslim JROTC participants.”
In a letter to the Muslim organization sent on Panetta’s behalf, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield explained that based on the incident that led Zawity to quit JROTC, the Army will now be making more accommodations for religious headwear in the training program.
“Based on your concerns, the Army has reviewed its JROTC uniform policy and will develop appropriate procedures to provide Cadets the opportunity to request the wear of religious head dress, such as the turban and hijab,” Stubblefield wrote in the letter, made public by CAIR. “This change will allow Miss Zawity and other students the chance to fully participate in the JROTC program.”
Army spokesman George Wright confirmed Stubblefield’s letter to CAIR and explained to The Daily Caller that while JROTC is affiliated with the Army, it is not actually a part of the Army. The new procedures will provide JROTC with a exemption method more similar to current Army procedure mandated through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
That law allows soldiers on active duty to apply for religious accommodation if they want to alter their uniforms in accordance with their religious beliefs. The exemptions are applied on a case-by-case basis. Soldiers who are transferred must reapply.
“Requests for ETP [exemptions to policy] to uniform and grooming standards (AR 670-1) based on religion, are considered on a case by case basis and balanced against military necessity ETPs are temporary, cannot be guaranteed at all times, not liberally granted, and may be revoked due to changed conditions,” Army regulations state.
According to Wright, currently there are three Sikhs and one Orthodox Jewish rabbi who have been approved to wear religious garb outside of their standard regulation uniform on active duty. One female Army captain has applied to wear the hijab for religious observance. Her case is pending.
Still, political commentator Jed Babbin, a former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, noted that the point of a uniform is uniformity.
“Look at the word: ‘uni’-’form’ — everybody wears the same thing,” Babbin told TheDC. “The military is by its own nature diverse and creates a culture in which everyone, regardless of their race or creed, is blended into one force for a common purpose. This [uniform exemption] divides it, balkanizes it on religious grounds… the point of JROTC is to get you ready for ROTC in college which is preparing you to go on active duty. So if you are going to allow it for ROTC? Why don’t you allow it on active duty?”
CAIR, though, cheered that now Muslims and Sikhs will be able to fully participate in JROTC while wearing their religious attire.
“We welcome the fact that Muslim and Sikh students nationwide will now be able to participate fully in JROTC leadership activities while maintaining their religious beliefs and practices,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/22/army-to-allow-hijabs-turbans-in-junior-rotc/#ixzz1hL3O2PE7
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Hillary Clinton suggests Islamic governments fear religious debate
By Neil Munro - The Daily Caller 11:35 AM 12/15/2011
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used an international conference on religious freedom Wednesday as a platform to suggest that Islamic governments which suppress Christianity are secretly afraid Islam will lose out in a public debate.
“Every one of us who is a religious person knows there are some who may not support or approve of our religion, but is our religion so weak that statements of disapproval cause us to lose our faith?” she asked the attendees, who included national representatives from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
“Especially when one person’s speech seems to challenge another person’s religion’s belief, or maybe even offends that person’s religious beliefs … we defend our beliefs best by defending free speech for everyone,” she said, while citing her own experience as a Methodist — a Christian movement made up of many Protestant denominations, and where debate is common.
Clinton’s senior aide, the Saudi-born Huma Abedin, said the speech was largely unscripted. “Mostly, it was off-the-cuff,” Abedin told The Daily Caller.
Among the attendees were representatives of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Clinton did not mention any country by name, nor did she specifically mention Islam.
But her diplomatic rebuke of Islamic governments was daring and novel, partly because it may prompt a violent response, or even a careful counterargument, from advocates of Islam in the Arab world.
However, Clinton’s speech did not address similar sensitivities in the United States, where cooperating progressives and Islamists frequently say Islam’s critics are mentally ill, and typically refuse to debate the context and meaning of their own religious texts.
In August, for example, the liberal Center for American Progress issued a report titled “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.” The report was aimed at several critics of Islam, including Robert Spencer, a best-selling author whose repeated requests for debates have been ignored by allied progressive and Islamic advocates in the United States.
Similarly, Department of Justice officials have described American critics of Islam as mentally unstable, a danger to national security, or similar to the Ku Klux Klan, whose history includes frequent murders of black and Republican legislators and activists.
“Materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive … will not be tolerated,” and are a threat to national security, Dwight Holten, a top DOJ official, said on Oct. 19 at a Washington, D.C. event scheduled by the department.
Muslim immigrants to the United States may turn away from integration because of “Islamophobia” or racism, Holton added. When a reporter for TheDC asked Holton to explain his charges, he pushed a door shut in the reporter’s face.
At the same event, Mohamed Magid, a Sudan-born Islamic advocate in the United States, asked for criticism of Islam to be criminalized. One member of the audience was Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, who did not rebuke or even respond to the request by Magid, who now serves as president of the largest Islamic umbrella group — the Islamic Society of North America.(RELATED: Progressives, Islamists huddle at Justice Department)
Secretary Clinton’s speech was delivered at the close of a closed-door conference intended to begin implementation of a 2011 U.N. resolution dubbed “16/18.”
That resolution was passed this year, in place of another favored by hard-line Islamic countries that would have declared criticism of Islam to be criminal defamation.
The successful resolution is titled “Combating Intolerance, Negative Stereotyping and Stigmatization of, and Discrimination, Incitement to Violence and Violence Against, Persons Based on Religion or Belief.” It urges all governments to promote tolerance of all believers, to promote “a wider knowledge of different religions and beliefs,” to counter religious discrimination, anti-Semitism and “Islamophobia.”
The deal encourages and helps activists in many countries to establish religious freedom, said Ambassador Michael Kozak, the U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
The Department of State gathering was an off-the-record meeting of experts from roughly 30 countries. Attendees discussed legal and regulatory measures to promote religious freedom and free speech.
The three-day meeting was impacted by U.S. domestic politics. For example, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was allowed present a claim, while a Christian group, the Traditional Values Coalition, was excluded from the event and from preparatory discussions. The coalition’s president, Andrea Lafferty, was briefly detained just prior to Clinton’s speech.
The meeting, and Clinton’s speech, Lafferty told TheDC, downplayed the large-scale persecution and killing of Christians in Islamic countries, including Sudan, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt.
When asked if religious freedom was being advanced in Muslim-majority countries by the administration’s current foreign policy — which encourages the removal or dictators but does not condemn Islamic groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood — Kozak said “time will tell.”
But the diplomatic debate that led to the 16/18 resolution is driven by Islamic advocates.
In orthodox Islam, there is little to no room for religious debate outside the boundaries of tradition. In several Islamic countries, including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, people are executed for blasphemy, heresy and apostasy, which is the act of abandoning one’s religion.
Islamic advocates say the harsh punishments are mandated by Islamic texts and local culture, which do not fully separate mosque and government, and often view religious dissent as betrayal.
Those views are markedly different from Christian texts, which promise a loving God, mandate the separation of church and state, and expect moral freedom.
Clinton’s speech reflected those Christian themes. American believers argue — but do not demand — submission from their rivals, she said. Instead, “we trust that over time, if [our rivals] are wrong, they will come to see the errors of their ways.”
In contrast, she continued, there’s reason for concern when “people are not confident in their religious beliefs to the point where they do not fear speech that raises questions about religion.”
Her speech included both new and old themes in American religion.
She argued that “truly at the root of every major religion is a connection with the divinity, is an acceptance and a recognition that we are all walking a path together.”
That claim of religious universalism is not widely shared by Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist clerics. For example, Islamic clerics say the Bible’s Old Testament is really a Muslim text that is misunderstood by Christians and is distorted by Jews. Similarly, most Christians say the Christian God is guided by love and reason, and rewards faith from free people, while most Muslim clerics say Allah requires submission and accepts forced conversions.
But Clinton also repeated the traditional American Christian view that human rights “are rights endowed by our creator within each of us… [and] we have special obligations to protect these God-given rights.”
That’s a markedly more traditional view than that held by her boss, President Barack Obama.
In November, for example, he excluded Christianity from his Thanksgiving message, and suggested that Americans’ rights to freely speak, vote, assemble and own property depend on the approval of other Americans. “No matter how tough things are right now, we still give thanks for that most American of blessings — the chance to determine our own destiny.” (RELATED: Democrat leaders merge church and party)
Throughout her speech, Clinton returned to the argument that religion requires freedom. And she repeatedly, although diplomatically, prodded Islamic governments to tolerate other faiths. Without citing any countries, she directed her criticism at Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where laws actively penalize or bar rival religions.
“We know governments which fear religion can be quite oppressive, but we know that societies that think there is only one religion can be equally oppressive.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/15/hillary-clinton-suggests-islamic-governments-fear-religious-debate/#ixzz1geLDCxZI