Bhutto Killed at Political Rally

I'd heard reports that she was injured but it looks like she's been killed. The jihadists have finally gotten to her:

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday at a political rally, two months after she returned from eight years of exile to attempt a political comeback, officials said.

Bhutto was shot at close range as she was leaving the rally in this garrison city south of Islamabad, aides said. Immediately after the shooting, a suicide bomber detonated explosives near Bhutto's car, killing at least 15 other people.

Bhutto was rushed to a hospital with extensive wounds to her torso, her supporters said. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, an official came out of the building and told a crowd of supporters Bhutto was dead.

Also Thursday, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a different pre-election rally in Rawalpindi, leaving four dead and at least five injured.

Bhutto's death is a devastating development, coming 12 days before Pakistanis are set to vote in national parliamentary elections already marked by enormous political turmoil. President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November -- a move which he said was to combat terrorism, but which was widely perceived as an effort to stave off legal challenges to his authority. U.S. military officials said last week that the terrorist group al-Qaeda increasingly is focusing its efforts in Pakistan.

Pakistan would be perfect for al-Qaeda since they have the bomb but fortunately two of our presidential candidates are ready to invade Pakistan to root out al-Qaeda (Obama and Huckabee -- funny how they're ready to talk with Iran but eager to invade Pakistan).

Update: This will teach me to make an offhand remark because that will be all some will focus on. I debated adding politics to the story, I wish I hadn't because it is a tragedy and that should have been the focus. Unfortunately, it was a tragedy that I expected to happen because she was a woman and she was in a position of power (influential over others) and you can't have that in a nation with terrorists who live by Sharia law.

Another update: Thompson interviewed about the murder:

Frank Gaffney-Martyn Burke film “Islam vs. Islamists" on Fox News

At 9:00 tonight. This is the film that PBS banned from it's airways. See for yourself what PBS censored.

Leak shuts down al-Qaeda's network

When the video of bin Linden was leaked to the press al-Qaeda releazed that we had access to their secret network and shut the whole thing down:

Al Qaeda's Internet communications system has suddenly gone dark to American intelligence after the leak of Osama bin Laden's September 11 speech inadvertently disclosed the fact that we had penetrated the enemy's system.

The intelligence blunder started with what appeared at the time as an American intelligence victory, namely that the federal government had intercepted, a full four days before it was to be aired, a video of Osama bin Laden's first appearance in three years in a video address marking the sixth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. On the morning of September 7, the Web site of ABC News posted excerpts from the speech.

But the disclosure from ABC and later other news organizations tipped off Qaeda's internal security division that the organization's Internet communications system, known among American intelligence analysts as Obelisk, was compromised. This network of Web sites serves not only as the distribution system for the videos produced by Al Qaeda's production company, As-Sahab, but also as the equivalent of a corporate intranet, dealing with such mundane matters as expense reporting and clerical memos to mid- and lower-level Qaeda operatives throughout the world.

(via)

Go read the rest.

Amazing! It's as if our intelligence agencies don't get that we are at war.

Here's more:

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

[...]

The precise source of the leak remains unknown. Government officials declined to be interviewed about the circumstances on the record, but they did not challenge Katz's version of events. They also said the incident had no effect on U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts and did not diminish the government's ability to anticipate attacks.

[...]

She spoke first with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism Center.

(via)

I hope that someone will investigate this so that we can find out where the leak came from.

Reason for bin Laden's fake beard?

I thought it was died for jihad but it turns out Frank J. has the real reason.

Transcript of the Osma bin Laden video

Is here (via). Wow! It's amazing how much bin Laden sounds like a rant at Daily Kos. I guess the left have a new spokesperson.

Bin Laden knows the power of propaganda in fighting this war and turning public opinion against it. Undermining the support of our troops and of our leadership. He brilliantly plays the left and the MSM by regurgitating their propaganda right back at them.

I wonder if it was an ego stroke for Chomsky to get a shout out from bin Laden. Is there any shame to being quoted approvingly by the man who caused the death of thousands of Americans?

Bin Laden may have adopted the rhetoric of the left but his bottom line is still the same: the democratic system is corrupt because it doesn't come from Allah. America, like all countries, have to submit to Islam and adopt it's laws. And if we do, we will have lower taxes. We would lose the freedom to dress the way we want, listen to the music we want and would have to stone our homosexuals and adulterers but we would be free from war because the evil corporations would no longer be able to control us through the democratic process.

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch sees this invitation by bin Laden as a precursor to war and quotes this passage from the Koran:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them....If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294):

BTW, this may be the reason bin Laden darkened his beard:

The Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black "except when the intention is jihad...as a show of strength to unbelievers."

Jihadists blow up 63 CD and shoe shops in Pakistan

I tried to find out why the Jihadists blew up the shoe shop but couldn't find anything. I'm assuming that it's because the type of shoes were considered western.

Suspected militants on Friday blew up 63 CD and shoe shops in the Mina Bazaar and Ali Plaza and partially damaged 21 nearby shops, but there were no casualties, witnesses said.

[...]

A few days ago, unidentified people had threatened the owners of these video and CDs shops through letters, warning them to close their “un-Islamic” business or face bomb attacks. The owners of the video centres had started negotiating with the local administration to find alternative businesses. However, the militants bombed the CD shops after the deadline expired.

(via)

Recent Christian converts forced to convert back to Islam

Please join me in praying for the recent converts in Bangladesh who have been threatened by their Muslim neighbors.

Local Muslims in Nilphamari district and Islamist missionaries from abroad are hauling recently converted Christians to mosques and forcing them to return to Islam, area sources said.

Evangelist and pastor Sanjoy Roy said the Muslims have forced 27 recently baptized Christians to return to Islam. Another 14 recently converts are still facing incessant pressure to return to Islam from villagers and from Muslim missionaries called Tabligh Jamat.

“The Muslims are still threatening us and saying that they will change our faith," Roy told Compass. "We wanted secrutiy and police protection, but the district commissioner did not accept our application."

Police provided eight officers to protect area Christians on July 28 but left on August 5. Muslims in Durbachari village then began capturing and hauling all male converts to a mosque to return to Islam, forcing them to sign or provide fingerprint signatures on written or blank papers. As nearly all the converts cannot read, area sources said, they did not understand they were signing or giving fingerprint signatures to return to Islam.

Earlier, on July 26, a local source said, local Muslims and Tabligh Jamat missionaries gathered in a schoolyard near the homes of some of the Christians who had been baptized in a river on June 12. Using a microphone, the Muslims threatened violence if the converts did not come out.

Fearing for their lives, the Christians emerged and gathered. The source said the Muslims asked them why they had become Christians and, furious, told them that Bangladesh was a Muslim country “where you cannot change your faith by your own will.”

[...]

Abul Hossen, 38, a fruit seller, told Compass that Muslims in the mosque threatened to hang him in a tree upside down and lacerate his body with a blade.

“Then he will understand what are the consequences of being a Christian,” the Muslims told him, Hossen said, adding that they always use “filthy language whenever they see the Christians.”

Hossen said the Muslims “do not allow us to net fish in the river” and offered him 5,000 taka (US$75) and a mobile phone handset if he returned to Islam.

“But I did not give up my faith, because I found Christ in my heart,” Hossen told Compass. “They threatened me with severe consequences if I do not go back to Islam. I said I am ready to offer up my life to Christ, but I won’t renounce my faith in Him.”

Read the rest. There are more stories of forced conversion and harassment.

Islamist Militants Target Pakistani Girls' Schools

What can you say about a religion that is so anti-women? It's disheartening that this is spreading throughout all these countries.

All throughout the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan's impoverished western border with Afghanistan, lie the ruins of barbershops and music and video stores – symbols of Western-oriented life that religious extremists have destroyed in a growing wave of violence.

Now Islamist militants have a new target, and if they are successful, observers say their campaign could be disastrous for Pakistan's future.

In what appears to be an escalating spree over the last year, extremists have bombed at least four girls' schools and circulated violent threats warning girls to stay at home. While no girls or school staff have been killed, girls in some areas have stopped attending classes – marking a direct blow to Pakistan's national enterprise of "enlightened moderation," which posits female education as a central pillar.

Pakistan finds itself at a precarious tipping point: Tremendous gains have been made in female education in recent years, but a considerable gender gap remains. Extremists' efforts to undermine education for women, who are historically one of Pakistan's most potent forces of moderation, could further empower Pakistan's growing ranks of Islamist militants.

"Because girls are the ones suffering from these oppressive ideas, if they are educated they will be a better ally in the promotion of liberal ideas and secularism," says Farzana Bari, who heads the gender studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

The continuing wave of attacks could tilt Pakistan's sensitive political balance, observers say, and hurt crucial economic development efforts. As female education improves, infant mortality rates tend to decrease, family health improves, national incomes rise, and female citizens become more politically active and aware of their rights, say development experts.

"You'll be keeping half the population of Pakistan idle [if the bombings continue]," says Syed Fayyaz Ahmad, the joint education adviser of the Ministry of Education in Islamabad. "[Girls] would not add to the economic development of NWFP. If your female children are not educated, your next generation of boys and girls are affected."

[...]

It is these new schools that extremists like Maulana Fazlullah, a powerful preacher in Swat valley, tend to target. For months, using a pirated radio channel, Mr. Fazlullah had warned locals against sending their girls to school, calling it un-Islamic and a violation of purdah, the religiously mandated confinement of women away from public scrutiny.

"A woman has been asked to remain behind the four walls of the house. Men have been given preference by God," Fazlullah explains in an interview on the banks of the Swat River, where he is building a madrassah, or religious school. In a recent peace treaty signed with the government, Fazlullah agreed to stop preaching against girls' education in return for keeping his illegal radio station

(via)

Maybe it's time for the women to fight back. I'd start with this religious school and radio station. I think the feminists should start a campaign to arm these women and help them fight back.

Thailand finally gets it

Idealism is great until you're mugged by reality. It would be wonderful if we could negotiate with our enemy and resolve our differences peacefully but what if the enemy refuses to negotiate? What if their tactics for getting their way are the death of thousands? Children and teachers slaughtered, schools are bombed, Buddhists beheaded, drive by shootings, journalists beheaded, bombing markets, and many more atrocities. Thailand has finally figured out that when you are at war it's better to fight than negotiate:

Frustrated by their inability to pacify a Muslim insurgency and concerned about rising impatience toward their rule, Thailand's generals have named a former commando and self-described assassin as their top security adviser.

The appointment this month of Pallop Pinmanee, a retired general notorious for his harsh tactics but admired for his survival instincts, appears to be an acknowledgement that the military-backed government's conciliatory approach toward Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand has failed.

"The way to solve the problem in the south is to get the people on your side," Pallop said in an interview this week. But if the violence continues, he said, the military should carry out "search and destroy" missions against the insurgents. "If we cannot make them surrender, then we have no choice - we have to destroy them."

Pallop's appointment also seems to signal that the generals who overthrew the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September, and who have trodden lightly against their political opponents so far, are contemplating harsher and more repressive actions toward dissent.

[...]

But he is perhaps best known for his decision to raid the Krue Se mosque in southern Thailand in 2004, a controversial move that left 32 insurgents dead. The raid helped reignite the centuries-old conflict between Thai Buddhists and ethnic Malay Muslims.

"Diplomacy is not his strong point," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, said of Pallop. "His expertise is to kill people and deal with things by force."

[...]

"When things get hairy, you get Pallop on your side," Thitinan said. "He knows how to fight back."

(via)

I wonder what it will take for us to realize that lesson as well.

Bullies and drug dealers

Karol of Alarming News grew up in the neighborhood with two of the Fort Dix jihadists:

When Elvis and Dritan Duka, two of the three brothers arrested on terrorism charges in Fort Dix, were kids, they were neighborhood bullies. When they got a little older, they became drug dealers.

(via)

I guess once a bully, always a bully.

Tags: Fort Dix, Alarming News

Fort Dix Jihadists lived Illegally in U.S. for 23 years

Oh. my. heck! I think I'm going to have aneurysm! The presidential candidates better promise to do something about this or I'm not voting for any of them:

Three brothers charged in the alleged Fort Dix terror plot have been living illegally in the U.S. for more than 23 years and were accepted as Americans by neighbors and friends who had no idea they would scheme to attack military bases and slaughter GIs.

A federal law enforcement source confirmed to FOX News that the three — Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — also accumulated 19 traffic citations, but because they operated in "sanctuary cites," where law enforcement does not routinely report illegal immigrants to homeland security, none of the tickets raised red flags.

The brothers entered the United States near Brownsville, Texas, in 1984, the source said, which would put their ages at 1 to 6 when they crossed the border.

The source said there is no record of them entering by way of a regular border crossing, so they are investigating whether they were smuggled into the country.

This is the biggest failure of our federal, state and local governments. This has got to be fixed because we are talking about the safety of our citizens. This is amazingly careless.

(via)

Tags: Fort Dix, illegal immigration

Saudis arrest 172 militants

Some really good news out of Saudi Arabia, it's great to see that we aren't the only nation fighting the Islamofascists:

Police arrested 172 Islamic militants, some of whom had trained abroad as pilots so they could fly aircraft in attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil fields, the Interior Ministry said Friday. A spokesman said all that remained in the plot "was to set the zero hour."

The ministry issued a statement saying the detainees were planning to carry out suicide atttacks against "public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones" — some of which were outside the kingdom

"They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks," Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour al-Turki told the Associated Press in a phone call. "They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete except for setting the zero hour for the attacks."

[...]

The Saudi state TV channel Al-Ekhbariah broadcast footage of large weapons cache discovered buried in the desert. The arms included bricks of plastic explosives, ammunition cartridges, handguns and rifles wrapped in plastic sheeting.

[...]

Al-Ekhbariah showed investigators breaking tiled floors with hammers to uncover pipes that contained weapons. In one scene, an official upends a plastic pipe and bullets and little packets of plastic explosives spill out.