US intelligence officials feared that al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen were plotting to attack the United States and actually intercepted what they now believe were “dry run” shipments to Chicago in mid-September, according to several people briefed on the plot and a senior US official.

The senior US official told ABC News that the “dry run” involved a carton of household goods including books, religious literature, and a computer disk, but no explosives, shipped from Yemen to an address in Chicago by “someone with ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Another person briefed on the incident said it is now believed the terrorists sent the package “so they could track how long it took and whether there would be any problems for the package getting through the system.”

Senior administration officials told ABC News that, after the September shipment was discovered, U.S. intelligence agencies had specific concerns about the Yemen-based group’s interest in Chicago, noting not only the destination of the September shipment, but also a photograph of the Chicago skyline in a magazine recently published by the terror group’s propaganda arm.

US intelligence “intercepted the packages in transit,” the senior intelligence official said, searched them, and then allowed them to continue to Chicago.

“The dry run is always important to al Qaeda,” said Dick Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official and now an ABC News consultant. “In this case they wanted to follow the packages using the tracking system to know exactly when they got to a point, how long the timer had to be set for, so the bomb would go off at the right point, which presumably was over Chicago.”

The US official said the CIA feared the packages “were intended to probe the security system for air cargo but there was nothing in them that could have been used to hide a bomb.”…

A student who tried to murder an MP was inspired by a radical al-Qaeda cleric linked to the air cargo bomb plot, it emerged today.

Roshonara Choudhry, 21, stabbed former Labour minister Stephen Timms twice in the stomach after watching online sermons by US-born Anwar al-Awlaki.

The wanted preacher is thought to be behind the bomb plot involving packages sent from Yemen – where he is based.

US investigators believe he is also linked to the US army base killings in Fort Hood, Texas, as well as last year’s Christmas airline bomb attempt, and the failed Times Square bombing….

She became radicalised after watching al-Awlaki’s English-language jihadi sermons on the internet….

Choudhry, of East Ham, east London, had also drawn up a list of other MPs who had backed the UK’s military action.

A source said: ”She had researched the voting records of a number of MPs around the Iraq war.”

But the source said that in relation to her searches of jihadi websites there was ”no evidence to suggest there was any contact with anyone” and it was ”looking at rather than reaching out”.

”This was something which was done privately on the internet.”…

An investigation into her case was taken over by Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism command after the link to al-Awlaki was found on her computer….

Tehran, 2 Nov. (AKI) – An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery and helping kill her husband, will be executed on Wednesday, according to a statement by a group that opposes stoning in Iran.

“The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately,” said a statement on the International Committee Against Stoning (ICAS).

The group didn’t give details on the method that will use to execute Ashtiani, but following an international campaign , Iran in July said a stoning sentence had been suspended.

Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006 and according to human rights activists forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes. She later recanted that confession and has denied wrongdoing.

Ashtiani’s son and lawyer have been arrested and tortured by Iranian authorities, ICAS has said.

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi police commander was detained for questioning Tuesday in connection with the deadly attack on a Catholic church in the capital as a top political leader blamed the carnage in part on lax security.

Meanwhile, hundreds of grieving Christians and other Iraqis packed a funeral service for the dead in a sanctuary not far from the Our Lady of Salvation church where Islamic militants killed 58 people and wounded nearly 80 in a shocking attack during a Sunday evening Mass.

Iraq’s top Catholic prelate, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, urged the government to protect the nation’s Christian community and not let their promises just be ink on paper.

“We are gathered here in this sacred house to say farewell for our brothers who were just the day before yesterday exclaiming love and peace,” Delly told a weeping congregation at the Chaldean St. Joseph church in central Baghdad. “Now fate has decided that they will leave us.”

An Iraqi military spokesman said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the detention of the police commander, whom he did not identify by name. The commander was in charge of securing the Karradah neighborhood in Baghdad where Our Lady of Salvation is located….

A Muslim woman tried to kill a Labour MP by stabbing him in the stomach ‘in revenge’ for him voting for the Iraq War, a court heard today.

Roshonara Choudhry, 21, is accused of knifing Stephen Timms twice in a shock attack during a constituency surgery meeting after she greeted the MP with a smile and offered him the hand of friendship.

A second later the accused allegedly lunged forward, repeatedly plunging a three inch kitchen knife into his stomach, sending the MP ‘reeling and staggering’ backwards, before staff jumped in to wrestle the blade from her grasp.

The Old Bailey heard how the young Muslim woman had plotted for weeks to kill her local MP, buying two knives in case one ‘broke’ when she enacted her ‘punishment’ for him voting in Parliament to invade Iraq in March 2003.

After the attack, she coolly told police: ”I just pushed it (the knife) in like how it is if you punch someone.

‘I was trying to kill him because he wanted to invade Iraq.

‘I was not going to stop (stabbing him) until someone made me.

‘I wanted to kill him. I was hoping to get revenge for the people in Iraq.’

Mr Timms, 55, suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in the attack days after the general election in May this year. [...]

But in an extraordinary case, she has refused to challenge the evidence, saying she does not recognise the jurisdiction of the court.

In what is thought to be the only case in living memory, the defendant has refused to appear in court for her trial and has instructed her lawyers not to offer any evidence in her defence or cross-examine any witnesses.

The attack on May 14 this year happened at a local constituency meeting in Beckton, East London….

Mr Timms told the jury that he initially thought she was going to shake his hand when the woman, wearing a full Muslim black dress and headscarf, approached him.

He said: ‘She didn’t go and sit down as she continued to come towards me where I was standing to greet her at that point.

‘I thought she must have been coming to shake my hand. She made as if she was coming to do that. She looked friendly. She was smiling, if I remember rightly.

‘I was a little puzzled because a Muslim woman dressed in that way wouldn’t normally be willing to shake a man’s hand, still less to take the initiative to do so, but that is what she was doing.

‘She lunged at me with her right hand.’ [...]

When she was interviewed by police, Choudhry is said to have remained chillingly calm, telling officers she had been planning to kill the MP for three or four weeks and had bought two knives at the end of April ‘in case one broke’. [...]

At an earlier hearing, her lawyers entered a not guilty plea on her behalf after she refused to accept the authority of the court….

In a featured article in Human Events this morning, I discuss how the recent plot against Chicago synagogues shares features with other recent jihad plots:

Bombs were sent to Yemen via UPS to synagogues in Chicago, and the recipients were confused: why should they be singled out? “We’re rather puzzled,” said Rabbi Larry Edwards of Chicago’s Congregation Or Chadash, “at how a little congregation like ours would get on the radar as a target for somebody. I’m hoping for more information.” Emanuel Congregation’s Rabbi Michael R. Zedek added: “I think we’re interesting, but not that interesting.”

Edwards and Zedek, and their congregants, may not be aware that their synagogues are not the first to be targeted by Islamic jihadists. Just two weeks ago, four converts to Islam, James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, were convicted of plotting to bomb two synagogues in Riverdale, New York, as well as use heat-seeking missiles to shoot down military planes at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York.

That attack, like the bombs sent to Chicago from Yemen, was foiled. But jihadists succeeded in targeting Jews in Mumbai, India, in November 2008: when jihadists attacked numerous sites and murdered 173 people in the Mumbai jihad attacks, their primary target, according to information revealed later by a key surviving attacker, was Nariman House, a small Jewish center operated by Chabad. Journalist Somendra Sharma of India’s DNA (Daily News & Analysis) reported in January 2009 that “the terrorists themselves were in no doubt that Nariman House was the prime focus.” Jihad terrorist Mohammed Amir Iman Ajmal (a.k.a. Kasab), noted Sharma, “reportedly told the police they wanted to sent a message to Jews across the world by attacking the synagogue.”

The Mumbai jihad plotters spent most of their planning time making sure that the murders at Nariman House would go off without a hitch. “The Nariman House operation has to be a success,” said Ajmal. Sharma added that according to Ajmal’s statements, “as far as Nariman House was concerned, there should not be even a minimal glitch in finding it and capturing it.” Another jihadist involved in this attack explained that he had been warned by operatives of the Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) “that Nariman House was their most secret operation and must not be compromised at any cost.”

The attempted Chicago bombings were thus the third time that jihadists have targeted synagogues. It has the looks of a new strategy: Islamic jihadists have decided to terrorize Jews in particular, in accord with the Koran’s denunciation of Jews as “strongest among men in enmity to the believers” (5:82). The Koran contains a great deal of material that forms the foundation for a hatred of Jews that has persisted throughout Islamic history. It portrays Jews as the craftiest, most persistent, and most implacable enemies of the Muslims….

There is more.

“These are the truths you aren’t supposed to know!” reads the flier Texas Aggie Conservatives handed out Tuesday in front of Sbisa Dining Center.

TAC passed out two fliers, the first titled “Islam: Oppression of Women,” and the second was titled “Fundamental Islam: Deceiving the Infidel.” The first flier displayed a photo of a woman being stoned to death.

Fundamentalist Muslims, “who want to kill Americans,” are threatening the liberties afforded to Americans by the Constitution,” said TAC President Justin Pulliam.

“Americans should be worried about losing their traditional rights and liberties under the Constitution, like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion,” Pulliam said. TAC makes a distinction between “fundamentalist” Muslims and “moderate” Muslims in its arguments, Pulliam said.

“It is our goal to educate Americans about these issues so we may protect basic human rights and empower moderate Muslims to reform violent and oppressive aspects of fundamentalist Islam,” he said. “What we’re asking for, hoping for is just as Christians have denounced and no longer practice bad things in their holy books; we hope that we can have a worldwide movement where Muslims say ‘We’re no longer going to practice violent verses that are in the Quran.’”

Members of the Muslim Student Association were also stationed at Sbisa handing out fliers titled “Exposing what Islam is about,” inviting students to a lecture and questions and answers session. [...]

Pulliam said he would like to debate the issue with the MSA, but no one has accepted the offer.

“We had hoped to debate the Muslim Student Association or any other student organization that would like to put up a speaker,” he said. “We’re bringing a speaker in, Robert Spencer, for Nov. 11.”

Adam said he declined to debate with TAC because “their motive is not to understand what we believe.”

“Without the resolve to understand the other side, no dialogue or debate is successful,” Adam said, “and thus is a distraction and a waste of time.”…

Yeah, sure. Do they really think that line convinces anyone?

Honoring The Fallen Of The Fort Hood Massacre
“We remember the Alamo, we must remember Ft Hood too.”

This event is an outstanding opportunity to pay your respects to the victims of Ft. Hood and to our men and women who serve the nation to protect our freedom. It is also an opportunity to hear speakers of extraordinary courage and knowledge, who can explain the real threat, which we currently are not hearing in the media because of political correctness. Click here for speaker bios.

Our leaders and our media are not telling us the truth about the threat we face. We dishonor our troops by not speaking the truth about the true nature of the enemy. How can we as a nation ask our brave young men and women to risk their lives if we as a nation are afraid to speak the truth?

Join us on November 21st to make a statement to our leaders and for freedom. Click here for tickets.

]]> http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/spencer-to-speak-at-killeen-texas-event-to-honor-the-fallen-of-the-fort-hood-jihad-massacre/feed/ 0 http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/geller-and-spencer-speaking-in-texas/ http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/geller-and-spencer-speaking-in-texas/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:31:30 +0000 Robert

Geller and Spencer at the September 11 Rally of Remembrance

The Dynamic Duo rides into the Lone Star State on November 12, when Pamela Geller and I will be speaking at a gala event in Fort Worth. Get details here. Tickets are going fast, so be sure to reserve a space now!

The organizers of the event say: “With the knowledge of what is happening in our world today under the banner of Islam and dismayed by the inroads it is achieving in our country to destroy our culture, we are proud to bring to Ft. Worth, Texas, two of the foremost fighters against Islamist Jihad in the United States.”

And we are proud to be there.

]]> http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/geller-and-spencer-speaking-in-texas/feed/ 0 http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/spencer-to-debate-catholic-philosopher-peter-kreeft-on-islam-thursday/ http://freedomcenterstudents.org/2010/11/spencer-to-debate-catholic-philosopher-peter-kreeft-on-islam-thursday/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:28:53 +0000 Robert

The good doctor

There has been a good deal of interest in this debate, so here is the information again:

The Edmund Campion Debate Society
at the Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts
presents
its third debate of the academic year 2010-11 between two keynote speakers:

Robert Spencer, Director, Jihad Watch
&
Prof. Peter Kreeft, of Boston College
On the topic:

Resolved: That the Only Good Muslim is a Bad Muslim.

Speaking in the affirmative will be Mr. Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, frequent guest on Fox News, ABC, BBC, and many other media, and author of nine books on Islam, including NY Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. Spencer will contend that orthodox Islam is intrinsically intolerant of other faiths and incompatible with a free society, such that when individual Muslims grow secularized and less observant, they may become less of a danger to free societies.

Speaking in the negative will be Prof. Peter Kreeft of the philosophy department at Boston College, author of more than 45 books, including the recently released Between Allah and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn from Muslims. One of Mr. Spencer’s former teachers, Prof. Kreeft will argue that Catholics and Muslims belong to sister, Abrahamic faiths, and should cooperate to resist the secularization and moral decay that prevail in the postmodern, post-Christian West.

The debate is sponsored by the Edmund Campion Debate Society at Thomas More College, which has previously sponsored student debates on topics such as the morality of the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the “just war” credentials of the American Revolution. Named for the great Jesuit martyr whose forensic skills flummoxed the most articulate Anglican spokesmen in his day, Campion Society student debates follow the Oxford format–extemporaneous, without notes or time limits, conducted in the style of the British parliament. Created to help students gain a deeper appreciation of Rhetoric as a liberal art, the Campion debates supplement Thomas More College’s traditional core curriculum, which extends through all four years, covers the Great Books of the Western world, and includes extensive training in Catholic philosophy and theology.

The event is free and open to the public.

Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010, 8 p.m.
Newman Humanities Room
Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts
6 Manchester Street
Merrimack, NH

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