Gang Rapes, 'Junior Jihadists' and Runaway Sharia - Soern Kern

by Soern Kern

"Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing to do with the ideology of our enemies." — Home Secretary Theresa May, on the beading of David Haines by IS in Syria.
The documentary did not shed light on why the British government continues to allow Sharia law to take precedence over UK law by tolerating polygamy.
"You've got an eight, nine, 10-year-old child playing those kind of violent games with heads blowing off and limbs blowing off. What kind of mentality is that kid going to have?" — Convicted terrorist Shahid Butt blaming video games for radicalization of Muslim youth.
"Gangs raping children get let off and ignored, people making comments about it get chased down and treated more severely than the rapists." — Angry citizen in South Yorkshire

Islam-related issues were widespread in Britain during the month of September 2014. What follows is a summary of the main stories, presented in three broad themes.

1. Islamic Extremism and Syria-Related Threats

The House of Commons on September 26 voted 524 to 43 to approve a request by British Prime Minister David Cameron to join the American-led coalition against the jihadist group Islamic State [IS], but only in Iraq, not in Syria where the IS has established its headquarters.

The vote came after IS jihadists decapitated the British aid worker David Haines in Syria on September 14.

In a politically correct statement on the beheading, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg claimed that the murder had nothing to do with Islam. "No religion could possibly justify such grotesque acts," he declared.

The same day, a group of prominent Muslims urged the British government to change the way it refers to the Islamic State. A letter addressed to the prime minister stated:

"We do not believe the terror group responsible should be given the credence and standing they seek by styling themselves 'Islamic State.' It is neither Islamic, nor is it a State. The group has no standing with faithful Muslims, nor among the international community of nations.
"We propose that 'Un-Islamic State' (UIS) could be an accurate and fair alternative name to describe this group and its agenda—and we will begin to call it that."

Home Secretary Theresa May honored the request. Speaking to the Conservative Party conference on September 30, May praised Islam as a "religion of peace." May said:

"The terrorists who murdered David Haines like to call themselves the Islamic State. But I will tell you the truth: They are not Islamic. And they are not a state. Their actions have absolutely no basis in anything written in the Quran. What they believe has no resemblance whatsoever to the beliefs of more than a billion Muslims all over the world…
"This hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam itself... Let the message go out that we know Islam is a religion of peace and it has nothing to do with the ideology of our enemies."

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon revealed that more than 60 British jihadists who have returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq are now in police custody. It was the first time that a British official has provided data on the number of detained repatriated jihadists.

Earlier, Scotland Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said that up to 600 Britons, including 450 from London alone, had left the UK to fight for IS, and that about 250 had already slipped back into the country. Those numbers are higher than previous estimates.

Sky News aired a 12-minute report that tried to answer the question of why so many British Muslims are becoming jihadists. The report revealed a broad consensus among Muslims that non-Muslims are to blame.

The British-Pakistani rapper Kash 'The B.A.D.' Choudhary blamed a "huge sense of injustice" felt by British Muslims, while convicted terrorist Shahid Butt blamed British culture and violent computer games. He said:

"You've got an eight, nine, 10-year-old child playing those kind of violent games with heads blowing off and limbs blowing off. What kind of mentality is that kid going to have? You've dehumanized that person. To go and fight in Syria is as easy as going on holiday to Disneyland. Because you've made it easy!"

Convicted terrorist Shahid Butt blames British culture and violent computer games for the phenomenon of jihadists going to fight in Syria and Iraq. (Image source: Sky News video screenshot)

By contrast, London Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh said Muslim themselves were to blame. Speaking ahead of a counter-terrorism summit at London City Hall on September 12, Greenhalgh revealed that both he and Mayor Boris Johnson had been briefed by British intelligence on cases in which primary school pupils have been subjected to propaganda and "extremist ideology" by their families.

Greenhalgh, who oversees policing in the capital, said that London children under the age of ten are being "trained to be junior jihadis" in a disturbing new sign of the growing extremist threat in the capital. "It's pretty horrendous when you hear how some of these children are being radicalized," he said. "The threat of radicalization of young people is real and this is a problem that is going to be with us not just for a couple of years, but for the next generation."

2. Sharia Law in Britain

A documentary that aired on Channel 4 on September 24 explored the exploding subculture of polygamous marriages among British Muslims. Although polygamy is illegal under British law, it is authorized under Islamic Sharia law. It is estimated that there are now 20,000 polygamous marriages among Muslims in the UK.

Entitled "The Men With Many Wives," the documentary featured Mohammed el Ghannay, a Muslim polygamist from Sheffield whose entire family lives on state benefits. "We've got three wives, one husband, 11 children: we are a family," he says.

Shaheen Qureshi, a twice-divorced mother of eight, also lives on welfare benefits. Her first marriage was to her Pakistani cousin, and her second one was as the co-wife of a Muslim man in Bradford. When asked if she would try polygamy again, she responded: "I would if the other wives were willing to take me on board. It should be like Sex and the City where the four girls are best friends. Spread the love, that's my motto!"

The documentary did not shed light on why the British government continues to allow Sharia law to take precedence over UK law by tolerating polygamy.

Meanwhile, the British government is preparing to begin offering Sharia-compliant interest-free student loans. Under Sharia law, Muslims are forbidden from taking out loans that accrue interest, and some say this makes it impossible for many British Muslims to attend college.

On September 4, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) published the results of a four-month public consultation, which indicated a demand for a Sharia-compliant alternative finance product, known as takaful, that would involve having Muslim students pay a "donation" into a pool system rather than paying interest.

Separately, women's rights activists accused the Law Society, the professional body representing lawyers in England and Wales, of endorsing discrimination against women by refusing to withdraw its guidance on Sharia wills.

The Law Society recently issued its guidance on ensuring that wills drawn up for Muslims comply with Sharia. The move effectively enshrined Islamic law in the British legal system for the first time.

The guidance informs lawyers that under Sharia, male heirs inherit twice the amount of female heirs and that illegitimate children are not heirs.

In an open letter published on September 17, campaigners said the guidance encourages legal services "to accommodate highly gender discriminatory religious laws that are being increasingly defined by religious fundamentalists in our society."

3. Muslim Integration

In Edmonton, north London, a 25-year-old convert to Islam beheaded an 82-year-old woman named Palmira Silva in broad daylight. Witnesses said they saw the man, who was wielding a foot-long machete, behead two cats before decapitating Silva. Police said they believed the man was inspired by video footage of terrorists beheading Westerners in Syria.

In East Sussex, an Egyptian immigrant shot and killed his seven-year-old daughter and then killed himself after his estranged wife rejected Islam. The couple married in Liverpool in 2005 after the wife, who was Roman Catholic, converted to Islam. But she later rejected the faith, which led to a divorce and a bitter custody dispute over the children.

In central England, a British couple was thrown off a bus and branded racists after a Muslim passenger objected to a nursery rhyme they were singing to their autistic daughter. Nick Barnfield and Sarah Cleaves were travelling with their daughter Heidi on a bus from Sheffield to Doncaster when the 15-month-old began crying.

After the couple started singing the theme song for Peppa Pig, a popular British preschool animated television series, a Muslim woman clad in a hijab became irate, apparently because pork is forbidden in Islam. The bus driver called police and ordered the couple to get off the bus.

In Bradford, three children from a Muslim family were sent to school with "Halal Only" signs stuck to their chests (pictures here) after they were served food that did not comply with Sharia law. Talib Hussain said that his children, who attend the Woodside Academy, were served non-halal food on several occasions and would have to wear the signs from now on.

In Daubhill, a teacher at the Sunning Hill Primary School was suspended after she allegedly made a comment about a Muslim student's headscarf. A girl at the school was fidgeting with her headscarf and the teacher involved was heard to say: "If she was in my class I would chuck the scarf in the bin." The incident was reported to the police and the teacher was suspended pending an investigation.

Also in Bradford, a 20-year-old student named Rabia Qureshi complained to supermarket giant ASDA after she found a pork sausage roll in a packet of vegetarian pastries. Qureshi said she cannot eat the meat on religious grounds.

After carrying out detailed investigation, ASDA cast doubt on the veracity of Qureshi's claim. The company said only cheese and onion rolls had been processed on that particular production run, and on the one previous to that, and there had been no other complaints.

In Leicester, a local KFC fast food restaurant is refusing to provide its customers with hand cleaning wipes because they are soaked in alcohol and might offend Muslim restaurant-goers. A KFC spokesman said the company complies with Islamic Sharia law in "areas where there has been demand from our customers," and advised non-Muslims seeking non-halal options to dine somewhere else.

In South Yorkshire, police were criticized for not acting quickly enough to remove comments on an official Facebook page that blamed Muslims for the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal. The comments were left in response to so-called Jay Report, which found that at least 1,400 children were abused by gangs of men predominantly of Pakistani origin in Rotherham over a 16-year period, between 1997 and 2013.

An angry citizen wrote: "Gangs raping children get let off and ignored, people making comments about it get chased down and treated more severely than the rapists."

In nearby Sheffield, a former care-home worker told the BBC that sexual exploitation of teenage girls by Muslim men was "endemic" in the city during the early 2000s. She said that girls as young as 13 years old were passed around organized groups of Muslims and trafficked to other cities. She said her colleagues were powerless to stop the crimes. Since the BBC report, South Yorkshire Police have confirmed that there are 173 live investigations into child exploitation in Sheffield.

In Greater Manchester, a Muslim man who had sexual intercourse with two underage girls was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison. During his trial, the court heard how 25-year-old Sulman Dar of Bolton plied the 15-year-old girls with cigarettes and alcohol before taking advantage of them.

In Bradford, a 62-year-old Muslim taxi driver named Mohammed Rashid, who was caught on camera sexually abusing an 81-year-old dementia sufferer in her own home, was jailed for 15 months on September 29. Also in Bradford, Mohammed Imran was charged with two counts of conspiring to rape a girl under 16 years of age and one count of arranging/facilitating the prostitution/involvement in pornography of a 13-year-old child.

In Peterborough, 30-year-old Mohammed Abbas was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having sex with a 12-year-old girl. In Sheffield, five Muslims went on trial for allegedly trafficking a 13-year-old girl for sex. In Bucks, eight Muslim men between the ages of 28 and 45 were charged with sexually abusing girls under the age of 16. One of the men has been charged with three counts of raping a girl under the age of 13.

In Guisborough, hundreds of parents were warned about a suspected abduction attempt of an 11-year-old girl by a group of "Asian" men. In Bury, police said that a 32-year-old taxi driver named Atif Ratiq was being investigated in connection with a report of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense. In Walsall, police said they were looking for a Muslim male who sexually assaulted a 24-year-old woman on a bus.

In Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland, a 33-year-old taxi driver named Mohammed Anwar was found guilty of two sex attacks on male passengers. Anwar is married and has five children.

Meanwhile, British media reported that as many as a dozen independent Muslim schools in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets are being investigated by the Department of Education amid fears that Islamic extremists have taken over the schools.

The latest investigations are similar to the so-called Trojan Horse scandal, in which secular schools in Birmingham were found to have been infiltrated by Muslim extremists. The difference is that the affected institutions in Tower Hamlets are Muslim schools.

Separately, Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman was accused of electoral fraud after he promised free government housing to Muslims who voted for him.

Finally, Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers in London have been illegally subletting luxury apartments paid for by British taxpayers. In late September, government investigators raided the homes of 21 welfare recipients at four upscale apartment blocks.

In one case, a family of six were receiving £500 ($800) a week in housing benefits to live in a £1 million flat near Hyde Park, which they then sublet to wealthy tourists for up to £3,000 ($4,800) a week. Investigators believe the fraudsters made more than £100,000 ($160,000) each by sub-letting the apartments over a three-year period. The cost to British taxpayers: a quarter of a million pounds.


Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4767/islam-britain-september-2014

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Remembering the Battle of Tours, when the Muslim Onslaught was Turned Back - Mark Tapson

by Mark Tapson



The month of October marks the anniversary of an epic event that unfortunately is no longer widely known but which nonetheless shaped the future of the Western world, and which may still hold inspiration for the West today.

After the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in 632, Islam spread like a bloody tide throughout the Arabian peninsula, north to the Caspian Sea and east through Persia and beyond, westward through Egypt and across North Africa all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. From there it crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and consumed all of the Iberian peninsula, or al-Andalus as the Saracens called it. In a mere one hundred years, Muhammad’s aggressive legacy was an empire larger than Rome’s had ever been.

By 732 that fallen Roman empire had devolved into a patchwork of warring barbarian tribes. When Abd-ar-Rahman, the governor of al-Andalus, crossed the Pyrenees with the world’s most successful fighting force and began sweeping through the south of what would become France toward Paris, there was no nation, no central power, no professional army capable of stopping them.

No army except one – led by the Frankish duke Charles, the eventual grandfather of Charlemagne. His infantrymen, as Victor Davis Hanson puts it in a fascinating chapter of Carnage and Culture, were “hardened veterans of nearly twenty years of constant combat against a variety of Frankish, German, and Islamic enemies.” Hanson writes that the Roman legions had crumbled “because of the dearth of free citizens who were willing to fight for their own freedom and the values of their civilization.” But Charles had spirited, free warriors under his command who were willing.

Sometime in October (the exact date is disputed), on the road between Poitiers and Tours (and so it is sometimes called the Battle of Poitiers) less than 175 miles from Paris, Abd-ar-Rahman arrayed his cavalry against Charles’ solid block of Frankish footsoldiers, which at 30,000 was by some estimates half the size of the Arab and Berber army (Hanson speculates that the armies were more evenly matched).

The opposing forces sized each other up for a full week. And then on Saturday morning Abd-ar-Rahman ordered the charge. But his cavalry, which counted on speed, mobility, and terror to defeat dying empires and undisciplined tribes, could not splinter the better-trained and better-armed Frankish phalanx. At the end of the day’s carnage, both sides regrouped for the next day’s assault.

But at dawn, Charles and his men discovered that the Muslim army had vanished, leaving the booty stolen from ransacked churches behind, as well as 10,000 of their dead – including Abd-ar-Rahman himself. It was not the last Muslim incursion into Europe, but it was the beginning of the end.

Some contemporary historians downplay the magnitude of the Muslim threat, claiming that Abd-ar-Rahman’s force was only a raiding party. They minimize the significance of the battle’s outcome, too; at least one historian even claims that Europe would have been better off if Islam had conquered it. But Hanson notes that “most of the renowned historians of the 18^th and 19^th centuries… saw Poitiers as a landmark battle that signaled the high-water mark of Islamic advance into Europe.” Edward Creasey included it among his The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Many believe that if Charles – whom the Pope afterward dubbed Martel, or “the Hammer” – had not stopped Abd-ar-Rahman at Tours, there would have been nothing to prevent Europe from ultimately becoming Islamic. Edward Gibbon called Charles “the savior of Christendom” and wrote in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776 that if not for Charles’ victory, “perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford.”

If only Gibbon could see Oxford now. Not only is the interpretation of the Koran taught there, but Islam thrives in Oxford, thanks partly to the patronage of dhimmi Prince Charles. In his essay “Islam in Oxford,” faux moderate Muslim scholar Muqtadar Khan writes smugly that “Gibbon would have been surprised to learn the lesson that military defeats do not stop the advance of civilizations and the globalization of Islam is unimpeded by the material and military weaknesses of the Muslim world.”

Apart from his dubious suggestion that Islam has anything to do with the advance of civilization, Khan is right. Today the Islamic invasion of Europe and the rest of the West is of the demographic, not military, sort. The continent faces an immigration crisis from at least one generation of young Muslims, many of whom not only are willfully unassimilated, but who are waging cultural and physical aggression against their hosts, establishing parallel communities ruled by sharia and “no-go” zones of violence toward infidels. “Nothing can stop the spread of Islam,” insists Islamic apologist Reza Aslan. “There are those who would try, but it simply will not happen. Absolutely nothing can stop the spread of Islam.”

But Charles Martel begged to differ in 732. The tide was turned back then, and if necessary it can be turned back again, by new Martels. The conflict is different now – it’s far from being as straightforward and elemental as two armies facing off – and so those new Martels won’t necessarily be soldiers. They will also be culture warriors and activists and ordinary citizens willing to put themselves on the front lines against this new incursion. We need “free citizens willing to fight for their own freedom and the values of their civilization” – as Charles Martel and his warriors once were.


Mark Tapson, a Hollywood-based writer and screenwriter, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He focuses on the politics of popular culture.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/remembering-the-battle-of-tours/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

US Air Drops Supplies to Iraqi Troops - Rick Moran

by Rick Moran


We're going to be seeing a lot more of this as ISIS advances in Anbar province.

US planes dropped several hundred tons of supplies on Saturday to Iraqi troops who are cut off from Baghdad:
AFP:

US military aircraft have delivered food, water and ammunition to besieged Iraqi troops battling Islamic State militants, the Pentagon said Saturday, as the coalition pursued its air assault in Iraq and Syria.

The move marked the first time that coalition aircraft airdropped supplies to Iraqi government forces. Similar drops were previously part of humanitarian missions for civilians, such as Yazidis and Turkmen.

The airdrops of vital supplies to troops in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday came at Baghdad's request, US Central Command said in a statement.

"US military forces conducted multiple airdrops in Iraq in the vicinity of Baiji... to resupply Iraqi security forces operating in the area," it added.

In total, 36 bundles containing 7,328 halal meals, 2,065 gallons of water and 16,000 pounds of ammunition were dropped.

While Baiji remains under Baghdad's control, nearby towns "are contested as ISIL continues to conduct operations in the area," the statement said, using another acronym to identify the IS group.

The embattled Iraqi army is facing increasing pressure from IS jihadists in several hotspots.

The airdrops come after US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described the campaign against IS in Iraq as "difficult," particularly in the western province of Anbar.

"Anbar province is in trouble. We know that," he said on Friday during a visit to Colombia.

"This is a difficult effort. It is going to take time. It won't be easy. So, yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in Anbar right now."

It should be noted that there are two big military bases in Anbar that, if they fall into the hands of ISIS, would replenish most of what they've lost in two months of coalition bombings.

Iraqis are getting nervous as ISIS creeps closer to Baghdad. The feed that fear, ISIS has established sevearl terror cells in the capital who routinely carry out mass casualty suicide bombings.

A triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces northeast of Baghdad on Sunday and a roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province, dealing major blows to Iraqi security forces struggling to combat the Islamic State extremist group.

The triple attack took place in Qara Tappah, in the ethnically and communally mixed Diyala province, according to an official from the Kurdish Asayish security forces. He said the first bomber detonated an explosives vest at the gateway to a security compound that also houses the office of a main Kurdish political party.

Minutes later, two suicide bombers drove cars filled with explosives into the compound, causing heavy damage. At least 60 people were wounded in the attack.

Islamic militants have seized some towns in the volatile Diyala province and have clashed with Kurdish forces there.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In the Anbar attack, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Dulaimi was killed while traveling in a convoy north of the provincial capital Ramadi through an area cleared by Iraqi security forces a day earlier, according to Anbar councilman Faleh al-Issawi. It was not immediately clear if others were killed or wounded.

As the noose tightens, expect an increase in these sorts of bombings so that at the first inkling that ISIS troops are in Baghdad, the people will probably panic thus making defense of the city more difficult.

Rick Moran

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/us_air_drops_supplies_to_iraqi_troops.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Iraq asks for return of US Troops - Thomas Lifson

by Thomas Lifson

Faced with ISIS forces within 8 miles of Baghdad, the government of Iraq is pleading for the return of US troops. Alastair Beach reports in the UK Telegraph:

Iraqi officials have issued a desperate plea for America to bring US ground troops back to the embattled country, as heavily armed Islamic State militants came within striking distance of Baghdad.
Amid reports that Isil forces have advanced as far as Abu Ghraib, a town that is effectively a suburb of Baghdad, a senior governor claimed up to 10,000 fighters from the movement were now poised to assault the capital.
The warning came from Sabah al-Karhout, president of the provisional council of Anbar Province, the vast desert province to the west of Baghdad that has now largely fallen under jihadist control.
The province’s two main cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, were once known as “the graveyard of the Americans”, and the idea of returning there will not be welcomed by the Pentagon.
But were the province to be controlled by Isil, it would give their forces a springboard from which to mount an all-out assault on Baghdad, where a team of around 1,500 US troops is already acting as mentors to the beleaguered Iraqi army.

The pullout of US troops from Iraq, something President Obama engineered by not seriously trying to negotiate an agreement to protect them from Iraq courts in a Status of Forces Agreement  (SOFA), is a historic blunder whose consequences are onlu beginning to unfold. The situation in Iraq is grimmer than most people realize:

Most of the Euphrates valley – which runs south east from Turkey through Syria, into Iraq and towards the capital – is now under Isil control. Were Ramadi to fall, jihadi commanders would control a vital supply chain running from Baghdad directly back to their Syrian headquarters in Raqqa. They would also control the Haditha dam, the second largest in Iraq.

But does Obama have the political will to send American troops back to Iraq? Almost certainly not before the November election, for he would anger the left wing base of his party.

An actual ISIS takeover of Baghdad, with its large sections inhabited by Shiites such as Sadr City, is unlikely. But ISIS may be in a position to deny supplies, including water, to that vast metropolis:

“It’s not plausible at this point to envision Isil taking control of Baghdad, but they can make Baghdad so miserable that it would threaten the legitimacy of the central government,” said Richard Brennan, a former US department of defence policymaker.

Thanks to the half-hearted US response to ISIS, relying on a small number of fighter-bomber attacks, ISIS is thriving in the face of American opposition, lending it vast credibility among Muslims disaffected with secular, Western governance. ISIS has momentum, and that may propel it further, much further, in a region inhabited by Muslims under the sway of fundamentalist clergy, and governed by autocratic dictatorial regimes with little popular support.

The dimensions of the disaster that could unfold are stunning. Think Saudi Arabia and the Emirates under the control of ISIS or ISIS-like regimes.

Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/iraq_asks_for_return_of_us_troops.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

London Mayor Warns of 'Severe' Terror Threat

by The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

British counterterrorism forces monitoring "thousands" of potential extremists in the capital's metropolitan area • "In London we're very, very vigilant and very, very concerned," London Mayor Boris Johnson tell The Daily Telegraph.

London Mayor Boris Johnson: Security forces in the London area are involved in "thousands of operations" every day | Photo credit: Reuters

British counterterrorism forces are monitoring "thousands" of potential extremists in the capital's metropolitan area, London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a newspaper interview published Saturday, as police continue to question five men arrested on suspicion of terrorist offenses.

Johnson's comments came as police chiefs warned police officers throughout Britain to use extra care because of an increased threat to their personal safety.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted Johnson as saying the security forces in the London area are involved in "thousands of operations" every day. He said the number of people being watched is in the low thousands.

"In London we're very, very vigilant and very, very concerned," he said, adding that the national threat level had recently been raised. It is now listed as "severe," meaning an attack is viewed as highly likely.

Johnson's comments suggested the number of potential extremists is higher than had been previously believed. He said many of the estimated 500 fighters who had gone from Britain to Syria to support Islamic State militants there had come from the greater London area -- posing a security threat if they return after having received training in explosives and weapons use.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, a director of counterterrorism efforts, said the new warning to police officers about their safety was made because "the threat level to police officers and staff has been raised."

He said police are being asked to "remain vigilant and alert to any possible dangers."

Rowley didn't specify whether the increased threat to police is related to the arrests of the five men earlier this week.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case with the media, have said the men, aged 20 and 21, include one who recently returned from Syria. The officials said police are probing possible ties to the Islamic State group operating there.

The men, including one medical student, can be held for questioning until Oct. 14. That period could be extended under terrorism laws.

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=20679

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

AUSA 2014: Technologies for Asymmetrical Warfare - IsraelDefense

by IsraelDefense

Israeli companies will display sophisticated solutions, presented for the first time at AUSA 2014, for reducing injuries to uninvolved populations in urban environments

TacSA – Tactical Situational Awareness System by ROBOTEAM

SIBAT, the International Defense Cooperation Division of the IMOD, will present an array of innovative technologies for today's asymmetrical warfare at the Israel Pavilion at AUSA. These solutions, some of them presented for the first time, were developed in order to reduce injuries to uninvolved populations during fighting within urban centers. The systems were developed in close cooperation with the IDF and were proven to have saved lives in recent conflicts. 

According to the Director of SIBAT, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Mishel Ben Baruch, "Today's asymmetrical warfare is unique in that it is taking place less near uninhabited border areas, and has moved into population centers. For this reason, Israeli companies are developing technologies that prevent, as much as possible, injuries to innocent bystanders. In addition, due to the dynamic nature of the threats, there is a growing need to shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop by rapidly identifying the target - and quickly and precisely initiating countermeasures."

"In the Israel Pavilion, a wide range of advanced technologies will be presented, including intelligence and surveillance solutions designed to deliver accurate real-time intelligence pictures that enable significantly more precise targeting. Other solutions include unmanned systems and robotics that can replace and protect soldiers in dangerous locations and prevent collateral damage."

"The Israel Defense Ministry recognizes and appreciates the contribution of Israel's SME defense companies that consistently develop cutting-edge technologies that are innovative, unique, modular and flexible. These companies are able to respond quickly to customers' evolving needs and to urgent demands from the field."

"As in years past, we will promote cooperation between Israeli and American companies at AUSA - an approach which has proven successful in dealing with reduced defense budgets - and remaining competitive in a crowded market."

This year, the following companies will present their technologies at the Israel Pavilion:

Beth-El Zikhron Yaaqov Industries, Ltd.

Beth-El designs, develops, and manufactures Environmental Protection Systems handling full CBRN and TIC (Toxic Industrial Chemical) filtration, ventilation, air conditioning, dust filtration and carbon monoxide (shooting fumes) filtration for use in vehicles, tents, containers and shelters. Beth-El’s 24/7, lightweight and compact systems - being used by more than 60 armies worldwide and compliant with NATO and MIL-STD standards - offer the highest protection at very low power consumption. They have been tested and certified by International Standards Institutes and laboratories from countries all over the world.

Flying Production
Flying Production designs and develops comprehensive Defense and HLS solutions, including Multi-Rotor Platforms. The company will launch its latest lightweight, multi-rotor VTOL sUAS Platform at AUSA. The system, which can be carried by a single soldier, is ideal for urban warfare observation missions, HLS, special operations, and civilian uses. It includes a Portable Ground Control Station and Dual Sensor EO/IR Payload.

MTC Industries and Research

MTC develops and manufactures a wide range of solutions for the Aerospace and Defense industries, including: Actuators & Servo Actuators, Canard Actuation Steering Units, Gyroscopes & Inertial Sensors, High Pressure Vessels, LVDT and RVDT Displacement Transducers, Motors & Servo Motors, Resolvers, Slip Rings, Solenoid Valves and Tachogenerators. MTC's battle-proven products have been customized for, and are in use by, armies around the world, including the IDF. The company will display its advanced steering unit for mortars and rockets - enabling the prevention of collateral damage, while raising accuracy to 70%.

RADA Electronic Industries Ltd.

RADA will showcase its full range of Multi-Mission, S-Band, Software-Defined, Pulse-Doppler, AESA Radars which can assume various operational missions and enable advanced force and border protection. RADA's MHR (Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar) is a GaN-based digital radar platform that detects threats located in close proximity, including enemy mortar shells, short-range rockets, and UAVs. The system made a significant operational contribution during the recent Gaza conflict. RADA's CHR (Compact Hemispheric Radar) systems are designed for use on combat vehicles for short-range protection applications.

ROBOTEAM

ROBOTEAM designs, develops, and manufactures innovative, intuitive, ruggedized, and affordable robotic systems. The company provides a range of robotic platforms with multiple unique yet simple-to-use payloads, designed for numerous operational missions such as gathering tactical intelligence, IED dismantles, border patrol missions, search & rescue, law enforcement, and HAZMAT handling. The company will unveil its new portable command and control system with the unique capability of all-user, real-time ISR feed sharing in evolving Asymmetric environments. The system can stream up to 4 video channels simultaneously, providing a complete live picture of the operational area in a server-less system using a distributed network with no single point of failure.

RT LTA Systems, Ltd.

RT LTA designs, develops and manufactures the SkyStar™ Family of aerostats for use in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communications applications. SkyStar is a self-contained, versatile, easily transportable, cost-effective tactical system comprised of a ground control station, a ground system module, a tether, a lighter-than-air platform, a stabilized payload platform, and a sensor suite. RT's products are operational, field-proven, and currently deployed worldwide. At AUSA, the company will unveil new members of the family capable of lifting heavier payloads and staying safely in the air for longer periods of time.

TAR-Ideal Concepts Ltd.

TAR-Ideal develops and manufactures Defense and Security solutions that have been tested and integrated by the IDF. It will present, for the first time at AUSA, its tactical IR & Visible Personal Marker for the protection of soldiers from friendly fire. The company will also showcase its family of thermal imaging solutions. In addition to complete solutions, TAR-Ideal offers an optional upgrade of existing night vision systems.

Verint Systems, Inc.

Verint offers a full range of WiFi, Cellular, and Satellite Communications solutions that support GSM, UMTS, IDEN, CDMA, Thuraya, ISATPRO, etc. All of the company's solutions are operational, field-proven, and installed on a variety of ground, vehicle-mounted, and airborne platforms. A full range of Active and Passive portable and modular tactical intelligence Off-Air solutions and Command & Control Solutions will be presented at AUSA.

Video-Inform

Video-Inform will unveil at the upcoming AUSA event its breakthrough intelligence software in the area of target detection and acquisition on aerial/satellite Imagery - the 'Visual Profiler'. The software is designed for operational Geospatial Intelligence and airborne ISR missions and applications. The system is in use by a leading Air Force and has proven successful in recent conflicts.

IsraelDefense

Source: http://israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=3160

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Iranian Official: If US topples Assad, Israel will be at Risk

by The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, confirms Iran and U.S. have exchanged messages regarding the campaign against the Islamic State group • Iran has been strong backer of Assad regime during three-year Syrian civil war.

Syrian President Bashar Assad | Photo credit: AP

Israel's security will be at risk should the U.S. and its allies seek to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad as part of the campaign against the Islamic State group, Iran's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying in Saturday.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian confirmed his country and the U.S. had exchanged messages regarding the campaign against Islamic State.

Abdollahian's comments were the first time a senior Iranian official confirmed that Iran and the U.S. had discussed fighting Islamic State.

Iran has backed Assad during Syria's three-year civil war. The U.S. has called for Assad to resign and rules out cooperating with his government in the fight against Islamic State.

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=20687

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The White House’s Link to the Secret Service Prostitution Scandal - Arnold Ahlert

by Arnold Ahlert


Although it verges on resembling a slogan, the Obama administration is embroiled in yet another scandal. The story involving Secret Service agents busted for hiring prostitutes during an official trip to Cartagena, Colombia in 2012 has re-emerged. According to the Washington Post, “senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member–yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.” That revelation stands in stark contrast to denials made by Obama administration officials, who repeatedly insisted that no one from the White House was involved.

The original scandal broke when one of two dozen agents on the detail failed to pay one of the prostitutes for her services. All of the agents were punished or fired. But as the paper reveals, former White House presidential advance team member and volunteer Jonathan Dach not only registered a prostitute as his overnight guest, but White House officials were aware of it. Moreover, they allegedly attempted to sabotage the Inspector General office’s (IG) investigation.

The Secret Service reportedly shared the information on two different occasions with with top White House officials, including former White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Both times those officials conducted interviews with Dach. Both times they concluded he had done nothing wrong.

While this was occurring, a separate investigation conducted by the IG’s office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a Senate committee looking into the scandal discovered additional evidence, courtesy of records, along with eyewitness accounts from people who had accompanied Dach in Columbia. The lead investigator in the case subsequently told Senate staffers that pressure was brought to bear from his superiors in the offices of then-acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards. “We were directed at the time . . . to delay the report of the investigation until after the 2012 election,” lead investigator David Nieland told Senate staffers, according to three unidentified people with knowledge of his statement. Nieland further revealed those superiors told him “to withhold and alter certain information in the report of investigation because it was potentially embarrassing to the administration.”

Edwards countered at the time, telling Senate staffers that changes to the report were part of the normal editing process and that he was trying to maintain the focus on DHS employees. In a summary letter submitted to Congress in September 2012, he reveals that his investigation “did find a hotel registry that suggests that two non-USSS personnel may have had contact with foreign nationals.” But because his investigation was limited to DHS personnel, he “did not conduct any additional investigation into this finding and has made no determination related to these individuals because they are not DHS personnel.”

In April 2012, the White House itself tried to defuse the allegations against advance team members, claiming they had conducted their own investigation and had found nothing wrong. But they refused to any share details, with then-Press Secretary Jay Carney insisting that “I don’t have, and I’m not going to give you, a blow-by-blow of what is involved in the review.” Carney was also contemptuous of Internet “rumors” published by writers “with no editors and no conscience.” “If someone comes to us with some credible allegation that anybody at the White House was involved in any inappropriate conduct, I’m sure that we’ll look at it, but there isn’t that,” he said. “There is an attempt by some to throw rumors out there.”

Edwards eventually resigned due to allegations of misconduct stemming in part from an ongoing dispute between the investigators and their superiors regarding the possible pursuit of involvement by White House team members. The Post notes that “staffers who raised questions about a White House role said they were put on administrative leave as a punishment for doing so,” and that “the way the White House handled the scandal remains a sore point among rank-and-file members of the Secret Service more than two years later.”

Unsurprisingly the White House has pushed back. On Wednesday, spokesman Eric Schultz insisted Obama and his advisors did not interfere with the investigation, and cited a Senate report on the IG’s office, saying an inquiry was unable to substantiate Nieland’s allegations. “As was reported more than two years ago, the White House conducted an internal review that did not identify any inappropriate behavior on the part of the White House advance team,” Schultz insisted.

The “old news” meme was amplified by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest who tweeted, “Supposed WaPo ‘exclusive’ was previously reported by AP, CBS, ABC, Politico, The Hill & others – 2 years ago,” and hyperlinked to an AP piece of the Obama administration—exonerating itself. Carol Leonnig, one of the writers who broke the Washington Post story tweeted back, noting, “such different stories. None tell of evidence WH had in hand & decision to stop looking when it got more.”

Jonathan Dach, the man at the center of the storm, was a 25-year-old Yale University law student at the time. His father, Leslie Dach, contributed $23,900 to the Democratic party in 2008 to help elect Obama, and in his former job as a top lobbyist for Wal-Mart he worked with the White House on a number of projects, including Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign. In July he joined the administration as a senior counselor with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Part of his responsibilities include working on the next phase of ObamaCare.

Jonathan has a new position as well. He has been appointed as policy advisor — for the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. According to their website, the Office of Global Women’s Issues “seeks to ensure that women’s issues are fully integrated in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy,” and “works to promote stability, peace, and development by empowering women politically, socially, and economically around the world.” Apparently allegations of paying a woman for sex were insufficient to derail Dach’s post. Those allegations now include a Washington Post review of the hotel logs for Dach’s stay, “which showed that a woman was registered to Dach’s room at 12:02 a.m. April 4 and included an attached photocopy of a woman’s ID card.”

Dach has declined to be interviewed, but his attorney insists he denies hiring a prostitute, or taking anyone to his hotel room. “The underlying allegations about any inappropriate conduct by Jonathan Dach in Cartagena are utterly and completely false,” said Richard A. Sauber, who represents Jonathan and his father. “In addition, neither he nor anyone acting on his behalf ever contacted the DHS IG’s office about its report.”

The revelations are an additional headache for a White House already reeling from a series of Secret Service debacles. They include a fence-jumper who managed to get as far as the East Room of the White House, allowing an armed security contractor with three charges of assault and battery to get on an elevator with the president, and promoting an agent who has regularly served in Obama’s protective detail — despite the reality his gun was stolen from his car in 2009. Those lapses led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson following her disastrous testimony before a House committee on Sept. 30. Ironically she was hired following the resignation of her predecessor Mark J. Sullivan in 2013—ten months after the Cartagena hooker scandal.

A high-ranking Secret Service agent interviewed by the New York Observer under condition of anonymity speaks to an agency enduring a “catastrophic failure of all procedures and protocols,” one that is “under-staffed, under-trained, under-funded, not being innovative in doing more with less.”

This latest scandal and the allegations of the administration’s efforts to cover it up obviously merit additional investigation. Much like the Bengahzi disinformation campaign, the IRS’s targeting of conservative non-profits, and the president’s ridiculous assertion that terror is “on the run,” the alleged derailing of this investigation fits the pattern of an administration willing to use any means necessary to suppress information that would have damaged Obama’s 2012 reelection prospects. Moreover, Dach’s promotion and his father’s new job in the administration has a stench of quid pro quo about it unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. For the last six years, Democrats and their media cheerleading section have furiously opposed the notion that this administration is a cesspool of corruption. The November election is likely to show them the error of their ways.

Arnold Ahlert is a former NY Post op-ed columnist currently contributing to JewishWorldReview.com, HumanEvents.com and CanadaFreePress.com. He may be reached at atahlert@comcast.net.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/the-white-houses-link-to-the-secret-service-prostitution-scandal/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

We know how to win the Jihad War - James Lewis

by James Lewis

While liberals have been frozen in deep denial since September 11, 2001, conservatives often feel outrage and despair -- because nobody listens to our constant alarms.  Under Leftists our national response to Islamic aggression has been feeble at best.  The West seems willing to commit suicide from plain cowardice, ignorance and stupidity. 

But -- liberal denial and conservative despair are not justified by history.

Denial is childish and ultimately suicidal.  But historically, democracies always try to deny grave dangers as long as possible. 

The Jihad War is not the first great threat to our existence.  We have won painful victories against similar threats in World War I and II, and in the war against Soviet Imperialism. 

We forget that our Cold War resistance also started with massive denial.  Churchill was a voice in the wilderness for years, raising the alarm about Hitler, while the British Establishment tried its damndest not to listen.  Afterwards, Churchill wrote that democracies usually end up doing the right thing -- but only after exhausting all the alternatives. 

That’s good to know in retrospect, but it doesn’t look like that when blind denial is the order of the day. 

Like today. 

I believe the civilized world is slowly beginning to face the nasty reality of global Islamist aggression.  Islamist aggression is enormously destructive -- but no more than Nazi or Stalinist aggression. 

In previous global wars, visible agents for the other side penetrated our institutions, our media, universities, and government, just like the Muslim Brotherhood and its spawn have done today. 

The aggressors in those assaults were also fanatics who poisoned clear and honest debate for years.  Stalin’s first atom bomb in 1949 was as frightening as the Iranian bomb we are expecting any day.  The Communists used the same weapons: Imperialist utopian propaganda, followed by infiltration, intimidation, false fronts, agit-prop, large-scale recruitment of useful idiots, constant lying, false words of peace, the works. 

The false slogan “Islam means peace” is the same as “the peace-loving Soviet Union.”  They are both Big Lies, as used by the Nazis and the Soviets: Keep repeating a Big Lie often enough, and your sheer audacity will collapse the opposition. 

If anything, the long toll of Communist murders was even higher than the toll of Islamic fascism -- so far.  But the longer we stay in denial, the more innocents will die. 

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was also greeted by the Left with enormous enthusiasm and decades of lies to keep the West suckered.  Obamanism -- the messianic narcissism of the Left -- was then known as Lenin’s Cult of Personality.  Obama is just a repetition neurosis for the Left.  They always do the same thing, and it always fails in the long run. 

It took three and a half decades after 1917 before Churchill and Truman were able to tell the public that, yes, we were really under attack by the Soviet Empire. 

Telling the truth is a turning point when people are in suicidal denial. 

We can see three turning points in the Cold War. 

1. 1917  - The Bolsheviks stage a coup in Russia with the active connivance of the Kaiser’s General Staff, murder the Romanov family, children and all, and claim to implement Marxist utopianism. 

The Western Left goes into hysterical celebration, and ignores the endless murder campaigns that destroyed whole regions over the next three decades. 

2. 1949 - Stalin explodes his first nuclear bomb. 

Stalin’s bomb was a wake-up call.  After three decades of self-deception, the West finally began to face the truth. 

3. 1989 - Glasnost, Perestroika, and the crumbling of the Soviet Empire. 

The Empire fell, in part because Communist elites no longer believed the lies they repeated every day.  Ten or more years before the Empire fell, small numbers of dissidents started an underground press, Samizdat.  The habit of truth-telling snowballed, until it was obvious that nobody really believed the official lies any more. 

At the same time, Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II led the resistance from the West.  A combination of internal and external pressures caused the Empire to crumble. 

In the Long Jihad War we are now moving from stage 1 -- massive denial -- to stage 2 -- facing the truth.  With the rise of ISIS, aggressive Islam has broadcast its true nature to the world.  The Corporate Media can no longer deny what is obvious. 

The fanatics of ISIS use social media to spread snuff videos as a way to out-radicalize Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  Right now ISIS seems to be picking up more recruits than the competition. 

But for other radical Muslims those public decapitations carry a heavy cost.  The truth is their enemy, and ISIS ends up showing the truth. 

The real wellsprings of Islamic radicalism, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are now being forced to distance themselves from viral spread of bloody murder videos of innocent men, women and children, the open enslavement of African children for sexual brutality, the existence of public slave markets to sell human beings, the decapitation and public torture of any opponents. 

Under the control of the radical Left, our media have lied and lied about Hamas, Hezb’allah, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and all the murderous throwbacks to ancient desert tribes.  It is a paradox, but ISIS is taking the covers off those lies. 

In the next decade, as the Gulf oil monopoly declines with new energy discoveries, the big money fuel for Islamic radicalism will start draining away.  Without oil money Muslim countries may become failed states, following Afghanistan, the Sudan, Libya and the rest.  Gulf states export oil and ancient hatreds, but nothing else.  Without their oil, their power of subversion and war-making will crumble as quickly as the Soviet Empire. 

When that happens modernist Muslims will overthrow the radical priesthoods.  It happened after World War I, when a wave of modernization swept the Islamic world.  We just saw it happen again in Egypt, where the awful Muslim Brotherhood, the assassins of Anwar Sadat, were overthrown by the political mainstream.  Egypt opted for gradual progress over radical masochism. 

Saudi Arabia decapitates as many human beings as ISIS, but our media cover it up to keep us in denial.  Iran is just as murderous and even more dangerous.  The mullahs ordered their thugs to drive police vans into crowds of young people during the Green Revolution in Tehran, while Obama and Valerie Jarrett said absolutely nothing. 

We now know that Jarrett was running back-channel surrender talks to the mullahs even before Obama was inaugurated.  For almost six years the President of the United States told the world that Iran would never be allowed to get nuclear weapons.  Every single public promise was a conscious lie. 

As Prime Minister Netanyahu just told the UN, the only reason for Iran to build centrifuges is to purify uranium for bombs.  Today the mullahs either have a bomb or are within weeks or months of getting one.  For practical purposes it makes no difference. 

At what point do you know a gunslinger is ready to shoot you? When he reaches for his Colt .45, or when he actually pulls the trigger?  It makes no difference. 

With 15 minutes of warning time for ICBMs to fly from Iran to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Russia, every sane nation has to assume the worst. 

No slick lies from this White House will fool anybody but the Current Occupant. 

The Jihad War is a kind of extension of the Cold War.  Obama grew up during the Cold War -- in his case, he lived in Jakarta in the aftermath of a massive civil war between Communists, a modernist military regime, and rampaging Islamists. 

Obama is a Cold War leftover.  His whole inner circle never knew anything else.  In their minds radical Muslims are just allies of convenience to reverse the verdict of the Cold War.  This is the logic of the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1938. 

Our enemy today is not just violent Islam, but the Obama Left that invites the Muslim Brotherhood to “help” our own government.  A key to the global Jihad War is that we are being assaulted by a Left-Islamofascist Axis. 

The lessons are not hard to spot. 

1. When you are being assaulted, first tell the truth.  We have barely reached that stage today in the Jihad War. 
2. Understand your enemy’s  strengths and weaknesses.  The biggest enemy asset in the War of Soviet Aggression was our useful idiots, the same sort of people who today pretend to be blind, deaf and dumb to the danger of Islamist aggression. 
3. Penetrate and support civilized peoples in enemy lands.  Today, supporting the Kurds with weapons, training, and tactical air is a no-brainer. 
4. Use the seductions of Western prosperity and freedom to sow doubt in the minds of the enemy.  Niall Ferguson, the economic historian, points out that the Soviet Union was never able to meet consumer demand for something as simple as Levi jeans -- jeans had to be imported from the West, just as Venezuela today has to import toilet paper. 
5. Never stop talking up the values of 1776, the Western Enlightenment in Europe and America.  That means mobilizing the entire Anglosphere, including nations where educated people speak English as a second language. 
6. Abandoning your natural allies is slow suicide.  Europe failed to defend Poland and Czechoslovakia.  Today Obama would love to sell out Israel to Hamas and Hezb’allah, except that Netanyahu won’t go.  The Israelis are on to Obama. 

 Jimmy Carter surrendered a modernizing Iran to the tender mercies of Khomeinism. 

 Eurosocialism surrendered secular Turkey to fascist neo-Ottomans. 

Obama tried to surrender Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

He did manage to turn over a stable Libya to the barbarians. 

We’ve seen mass murdering totalitarians before.  We’ve seen their regiments of lies. 

We know our own media and political class are corrupt and for sale.  None of that is new. 

We can find the answers in our own values and history.  We can use the truth to defeat all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We’ve done it three times in the last 100 years. 

We can do it again. 

James Lewis

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/10/we_know_how_to_win_the_jihad_war.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.