Terrorism

Long lines at the airport? Well, they may just get longer. U.S. officials have warned airlines that terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into people to get around screening procedures. 

While there is no sign of an immediate threat of terrorism in the United States, this new information could lead to additional screening procedures in airports across the country. 

A leader of a top secular party in Egypt said the 9/11 attacks were “made in the USA,” and the Holocaust is “a lie.” He also called Anne Frank’s diary “a fake.” 

Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, vice chairman of Egypt’s Wafd Party said he accepted that Nazis murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews but called the gas chambers “fanciful stories.” 

Wafd is the second most powerful political party in Egypt today, after the Muslim Brotherhood. The party announced it would run together with the Brotherhood in the upcoming September elections to present a united front in Egypt’s new government. 

A Marine Corps reservist, Yonathan Melaku, was arrested last week for suspicious activity near the Pentagon. When Melaku was approached by law enforcement in Arlington National cemetery on Friday, he fled, dropping his backpack in the chase. The backpack contained a number of suspicious items including 9 mm shell casings, clear plastic bags with a powdery substance (later found to be ammonium nitrate), and a notebook with references to the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups.

Documents discussing bomb-making were found in a search of his home, as well as a videotape of Melaku shouting “allahu Akbar” after firing shots at the US Marine Corps museum. Forensic evidence linked him to five shootings at four military buildings in the fall of 2010.

Reports show that Melaku, like many other would-be-terrorists, radicalized himself through the internet. He reportedly watched countless videos on YouTube describing atrocities in the Muslim world and accusing America of attacking Muslims. 

Facebook bans hateful and violent content, restricting pages on terrorist organizations. But Jihadi media groups have found a way around this. 

As IPT News reports, such organizations are able to form Facebook pages and share videos and documents with their followers, because they are not well-known. 

A new Facebook page of Al-Kataib Media Foundation, a division of the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab, for example, glorifies the terror group’s campaign of suicide bombing. Al-Qaeda’s media group has a similar page.

Such pages can be used to directly recruit and indoctrinate followers via the largest social network in the world. 

Read more here. 

While Americans celebrate in the streets over the death of the 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, we must remind ourselves that the "War on Terror" is in no way over. 

Al Qaeda, as well as the countless other global jihad players, will continue operating against the U.S. and the Western world, with or without Bin Laden. 

Go out and celebrate, but remember that global jihad is driven by radical Islamic ideology, and the demise of one (albeit evil) individual will not change this fact. 

Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and the terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands, was shot to death by U.S. military fire in Pakistan Sunday night.

Watch President Obama’s announcement about the killing of Bin Laden:

And watch U.S. reaction HERE.

And discussions of possible reactions from Pakistan:

According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, only 10% of U.S. voters believe American Muslims are “speaking out enough against potential terrorist attacks in the US,” and only 17% believe American Muslims are treated unfairly. 

So 57% of voters think Muslims in America should more loudly criticize potential homegrown and domestic terrorism (34% were unsure).

A majority of voters worry about homegrown terrorism, and believe the government does not give enough attention to this potential threat. So maybe we need more hearings like the House Committee Homeland Security hearings on the potential danger of domestic Islamic terrorism…

Read more here. 

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, Americans must "be prepared for potentially bad news."

In the last 18 months, over 50 Americans were charged with planning terror attacks. Many of these individuals were influenced by U.S. Citizen and al Qaeda member, Anwar al-Awlaki, who according to Holder, may be as great a threat as Osama bin Laden.

"The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens -- raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born," Holder said in the interview with ABC News.

Watch the interview here.

Today is the second anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks in which hundreds were brutally murdered or wounded, in shooting and bombing attacks across the city by Islamic terrorists from Pakistan.

Although 2 years have passed since this tragic event, the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorists is still very much at large. We cannot allow ourselves to forget that radical Islam continues to jeopardize innocent lives on almost a daily basis. We owe it to those killed in the Mumbai attacks to keep ourselves educated about this threat.

For details on the causalities of the attack, and a list of the deceased, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_2008_Mumbai_attacks

Let us all take a moment of silence to remember the innocent victims of the attacks.

The Marriot Hotel in Hamburg, Germany, agreed to host the Iran Business Forum that will help promote Iran-German business relations. The event explores, "“investment possibilities in the northwestern provinces of Iran,” undermining international economic sanctions leveled against Iran for their aggressive nuclear ambitions.

The event's keynote speaker is Iran's German ambassador, Sheikh Attar, who "represents a criminal regime that flouts international law in developing an illegal nuclear weapon, brutally represses its own people and is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism." Iranian Kurds and human right supporters said that Ambassador Attar supported a massacre against Kurds when he was governor of Kurdish and Azerbaijani provinces.

The group, United Against Nuclear Iran, wrote a letter to the Marriott executives and threatened, "UANI will take action against the Marriot hotel chain worldwide.  UANI will call on its activists to peacefully protest your properties, and will call for a general public boycott of all Marriot properties."

Should the Marriott chain be held responsible for pursuing their own business interests over international concerns?