April 11, 2006

Wife of American Hostage Jeffrey Ake Speaks Out

The wife of American hostage Jeffrey Ake has spoken out for the first time since her husband was taken hostage in Iraq a year ago today. Jeffrey Ake is one of two Americans still being held hostage in Iraq. Dean Sadek, also held hostage, was kidnapped in November 2004.

We applaud Liliana Ake for breaking her silence. It is difficult to go against the advice of the U.S. State Department and private 'experts' working for insurance companies who have little knowledge about how the hostage situation in Iraq is different than in other areas of the world.

Many of Jeffrey Ake's friends and family have dropped comments or e-mails to me thanking The Jawa Report for keeping Jeffrey's memory alive. Now that Liliana has given us the green light, let us never let a day pass without mentioning Jeffrey Ake publicly.

As former hostage Terry Anderson once said, "The tragic thing is that the torment is as much from the outside by countries and people indifferent to their fate as on the inside by their captors."

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Jeffrey Ake and Dean Sadek. No politcal cause can ever justify the taking of civilians hostage. It is a form of barbarity with no excuse.

We can only hope that the media, Muslims, and Leftist organizations will begin to pay attention to the plight of hostages who may not be one of their political allies.

For more, visit the Jeffrey Ake hostage archive here. Visit our extensive hostage archives here. And please, keep Jeff and his family in your prayers.

CNN which also features video: more...

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Islamists Post Hit List of 'Apostates'

An Egyptian group calling itself the "al-JamaÂ’ah Consultative Council" has sent an e-mail hit list to people deemed 'apostates' yesterday. The group warned that those people on the list who had left the faith would have three days (as of yesterday) to repent or they would be killed. The group also warned that the wives and children of the Muslim apostates were being followed & would be killed.

Under Islamic Law, the maximum penalty for apostasy is death.

The list includes prominent Muslims living in the West who have spoken out against violent Islamic extremism and intolerance, some still living in Muslim countries, as well as Coptic Christians who have advocated equal treatment in Egypt.

According to Copts-United (hat tip: Clarity and Resolve) the group issued the following threat if the 'apostates' did not publicly repent:

we will follow them everywhere they go and at anytime; and they can never be far from the swords of truth, and they are closer to us that our shoelaces.

They are monitored day and night. We are fully aware of their hiding places, their houses, their childrenÂ’s schools, and the times when their wives are alone at home.

We gave our rules to the soldiers of God to execute the rule of God so that their blood can become close to God [to kill them] and burn their houses.

And we thank God that many of those infidels and atheists do not exist in the land of Islam, so that they do not defile the Islamic land with their rotten blood. They are in the land of infidelity, the land of idols, pagans, and Cross worshippers: in America, Canada, Switzerland, and Italy.

If they existed on a spot in the Islamic land, let us wash the places of their slaughter and beheading seven times to purify the Islamic land of the impurity of their blood. And let us captivate their women and enslave their children loot them. Let us apply the Islamic rule to them; and whoever kills one of them, will get his loot.

The fatwa was signed by Abu Dhur Al-Maqdishi, media commander in Al-JamaÂ’ah.

The list includes:

Wafa Sultan -- American Muslim psychologist who has spoken out against jihad, the silence of mainstream Muslims over terrorism, and the treatment of women in Islam. Sultan lives in the Los Angeles area.

Ahmad Subhi Mansur (Mansour)--a liberal Egyptian theologian condemned as an 'apostate' because he accepts only the Quran as authentic and rejects the sunnas. Mansur argues in his book "The Punishment of Apostasy" (out of print) that religious liberty is fundamental to Islam. Mansur's wife and children are also specifically threatened. Mansur live in the Virginia.

Adly Abadir -- Egyptian born Christian Coptic priest, exiled from Egypt and now living in Switzerland. Abadir is an outspoken advocate against the subjegation of Christians in Egypt and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the plight of Coptic minorities living under the thumb of Muslims.

Jamal Al-Banna-- moderate Egyptian theologian & brother of the founder of the Muslim Bortherhood who publicly disputes traditional Islamic teachings about the treatment of women & jihad, but like most Muslims justifies aggressiona against Jews. Al-Banna is probably under condemnation for his firm stance against dhimmitude and for freedom of religion and for his creation of the "Committee for the Defense of Victims of Terror-Fatwas"

Majdi Khalil-- American Muslim who has spoken out against terrorism and those that justify it in the Islamic world.

Hasan Ahmad Umar-- former President of the Egyptian Court of Appeals.

Muhammad ShaÂ’lan--- possibly the same Dr. Muhammed Sha'lan who is a professor of psychology at the oldest and most prestigious Islamic universty in the world, al Azhar.

Father Zakarias Butros-- Coptic priest living in Holland who runs a website devoted to standing up for Christians in Egypt, against attrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, and which invites Muslims to engage in dialogue.

SaÂ’d Al-Din Ibrahim-- liberal Egyptian human rights activist , board member of the Ibn Khaldun Center, and Professor of Sociology at the American University in Cairo. Ibrahim is a leading human rights activists who was arrested by the Egyptian government in 2000 to the applause of Islamists around the world. He is accused by Islamists of being a 'Zionist'.

Salah Muhsin--Egyptian who has spoken out against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Dr. Shakir Al-Nabulsi -- a Jordanian born liberal Muslim, chairman of the American Academic Association in Jordan, and co-signer of an anti-Islamist petition to the U.N calling for an end to the preaching of violence against apostates. Nabulsi now lives in Denver.

Al-Afif al-Akhdar--72 year old Tunisian born French secular Muslim. The Tunisian Islamic movement Al-Nahdha, issued a death fatwa against the him for his book "The Unknown in the Prophet's Life". In addition to exposing the hypocrisy of Muslims on terrorism, Akhdar has also been at the forefront of exposing the political motivations behind Muslim regimes using the Danish Mohammed cartoons to drum up anti-Western sentiment. More on Akhdar here.

Unknown targets-- if you know who these individuals are, please warn them that they may be the target of Muslim extremists!

America -- Nidal NaÂ’isah, Fatin Nur

Canada-- Uthman Muhammad Ali & his family.

Holland-- Nahid Mitwali

Italy--Khalid Hilal

Jordan--Umar Abu Rassa, Ramadan Abd AlRahman Ali

Syria--Samir Hasan Ibrahim

Egypt--Abd al Fattah Asakir, Muhammad Shibl, Muhammad Said al Mushtahari, Abd al-Latif SaÂ’id, Ayman Muhammad Abd Al Rahman, Walid Muhammad Abd al-Rahman, Taha Hilal, Isam Nafi, Ahmad ShaÂ’ban, Amru Ismail, Abd-Al-Karim Sulayman

If you know any of the above individuals, they should be immediately warned. We hope that law enforcement officials are already aware of the danger posed to these people and pray for their safety.

UPDATE: Patrick from Clarity and Resolve in an e-mail points me to this story. Apparently, the threat was e-mailed directly to those who have been targetted, so I was wrong when I earlier stated that the threat had been posted on the internet.

Asharq Alawsat:

Dr. Wafa Sultan, who lives in California , pointed out that the source of the latest threat differed from the dozens she had previously received because it was made by a group and not an individual. She expressed fear for her life as the message included personal information about the recipients, as well as the names of some of their spouses and children. Sultan vowed to inform the U.S authorities of the email and seek their protection.

For his part, Dr, Shakir Nabulsi, a resident of Denver, Colorado, said he was not afraid of the threat as he had received several others before and refused to be frightened by terrorists.

Refusing to bow to the demands of terrorists, Dr. Ahmad Subhi Mansour, who lives I Virginia, said he would take the threat seriously and indicated the message was probably originated in Egypt .

The Islamic thinker Jamal al Banna, brother of the Hssan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Bortherhood, denied any knowledge of the organization calling itself “Supporters of God’s Messenger”, which included his name in a list of 31 supporters. He described its threat as “nonsense” and said the authors were “Satan’s soldiers”.

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Jawa vs. Schlussel

Sources tell me that I'll be on the radio in a few minutes to challenge Debbie Schlussel. While I cannot reveal to you my sources, they seem pretty reliable. You can listen to Hoist the Black Flag here.

In case I'm incoherent, my main point is not that Jill Carroll was a saint or that she wasn't against the war, but only that she was a victim. Hostages are the victim and terrorists are the bad guys. In the middle of a crime, one does not attack the victim, you go after the criminal. That's all.

UPDATE: So, during the break, Schlussel says she doesn't want to talk with me and that had she known I was going to confront her that she wouldn't have agreed to the interview. She also had the audacity to call me a "nut". Me. The nut. Right Debbie, right. I'm a "nut" for saying it's not good manners to attack a woman who is being held hostage. You, on the other hand, are the voice of reason.

I won't be on. The offer was retracted after Schlussel threw a fit. I'm not blaming Ace or Goldstein. They were just trying to be good hosts and have some class since Debbie Schlussel was the original guest & I was kind of an afterthought.

Another update: I'm not even sure Ace knew I was calling in, but Jeff thought it would be good radio.

I'm the 'nut':

Oh, ye of little faith and reading comprehension skills. I never mentioned the video, only these facts, which remain the same. http:/(no link whoring for you! -Vinnie) Jill Carroll's an extremist. And you apparently have a problem with premature articulation. Next time, read first. You got something wrong, though. More than thirty seconds in a room with you, and I think I'd have to kill you. Debbie Schlussel
Yes, Debbie, I'm the nut:
Don’t expect “journalist” Jillie to “investigate” that one. But hey, she says her Islamic terrorist captors treated her “very well,” and she talked about the nice shower and bathroom they gave her.

Since things were so great in captivity, maybe she should have remained at Terrorist Day Spa. And maybe they should change the name from “Stockholm Syndrome” to “Baghdad Syndrome.”

That is what Debbie Schlussel wrote after watching Jill Carroll's last two videos which were obviously coerced. Yes, Debbie, I'm the nut.

Another update: Ace has a post about it here. Like I said before, I don't blame Ace. Okay, I do blame Ace. But not for dropping my call. For dropping a Patrick Swayze reference into an e-mail conversation we just had. Now that, my friend, is out of bounds. No need to bring Patrick Swayze into the conversation.

The real problem we (and there are a lot people in that we) have with Schlussel is that when some of us pointed out that we disagreed with her, she responded by leaving some pretty inflammatory comments on our blogs. Then, after some of us called her on it, she played the part of victim.

See how that works, you leave nasty comments on our blogs, and then we we say nasty things back and you claim to be the victim.

And it's not just a few people. This has happened over and over again with Debbie who has either left nasty comments or written fairly nasty e-mails.

Now, she claims that she was really trying to point out that the Left supported Jill Carroll because she was one of them--a form of hypocrisy. Fair enough, and true enough, but in the process she also claimed Jill Carroll wasn't faking it when her terrorist captors forces her to say the most vile things about America. That, I think, is just stupid and, to be fair to Debbie, something I might have said at one time--and in fact, have said. But since I've actually been in contact with the families of hostages, since it's become somewhat of my cause, I've decided that such criticisms are usually out of bounds.

Again, my problem was in Debbie's reading of Jill Carroll's motivations, not in pointing out the dispicable way in which the Left often vocally supports the release of Leftist hostages but are silent when the hostage has no connection to the anti-war movement. But that's just the point: we should be against hostage taking because it is a barbaric practice, not be vocal only when it suits our political agenda.

Seriously, and I do mean to brag a bit, if you want to know anything about hostages in Iraq, this is the place and I am the go-to guy in the blogosphere. Check out our hostage archives for some evidence.

So, it's not that I disagree with Schlussel--I think you'll find I linked to her several times in the past, all positive--it's just that I (shall I say we?) don't like Schlussel.

Thanks again to Ace for offering to have me on the show next week. I dunno, though. I'm just not sure that Schlussel and myself have a real bone to pick and the only reason this has escalated the way it has is because some people are rather thin-skinnied, an attribute not well suited to the blogosphere.

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Google News Promoting Terrorist Media

Al Manor is designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. Why then does Google News use al Manor as a "news" source? If al Qaeda had a "news" arm, would Google News carry that as well? And by promoting al Manor on their website, isn't Google in violation of federal law?

As Daveed Gartenstein-Ross says over at the Counterterrorism blog:

Reasonable minds can differ about the relative merits of MichelleMalkin.com, Little Green Footballs and Democratic Underground for inclusion in Google News [and I would add, The Jawa Report]. But the inclusion of al-Manar -- itself a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, and known for its unrelenting support of terror against Americans and Israelis -- is simply indefensible.
Indeed.

Update: In a roundabout way (via Blogfather Charles, and Blogsister Michelle) I find this excellent post at Atlas Shrugs discussing the ins and outs of it.

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A message to the Israelis

Please bomb me.

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The Road to Kurdistan II

Totten's second post about his trip through Turkey to Kurdistan is up. This one features a floating castle. I kid you not.

Question: How long would it take Chuck Norris and the Delta Force to take said floating fortress?

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Wild Bill Designs New Flag


Bill sends along his new flag for Amerexanada and a new National Anthem too.

Wild Bill : It looks like our government is not going to do anything about illegal aliens, so we should start calling North America what it really is, Amerexanada (or like some like to call it Mexamericanada). Here is my idea for our new flag.

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Reformist Muslim Found

While tooling around on the internet I ran across this post at The Anchoress. I upset several people with this post a while back. When confronted on the comments I challenged Muslims to take care of the “radicals”. I got some good responses but I also got the standard “it’s happening” slogan. Remember that one website that was used to herald the 9/11 attacks and warn us of our impending subjugation. I think we have to change Islam by our pressure but too often Muslims either ignore the problem or attribute it to radicals. They are in denial that their own house is dirty and needs a good cleaning! Muslims have the power to change Islam from the inside so when we find reformers I feel we should give them all the support we can. The Anchoress, Captain’s Quarters and Jihad Watch are all involved in this ongoing conversation so join them.

The Anchoress : Instapundit linked to Clifford May asking, Where are the Moderate Muslims. Well, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to correspond with a “reformist” Muslim named Ali, who is very careful with his words - which is wise, in my opinion - but also very eager to dialogue. Bear in mind that there is a distinction, naturally, between a “moderate” and a “reformist.”
This will be a long post, but if weÂ’re really interested in dialoguing instead of demagoguing, I hope some will plow through it.
Yes ma'am plowing now.

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Zarqawi Fired From al Qaeda?

Has the leader of al Qaeda's branch in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, been fired by Ayman al-Zawahiri? Very interesting, indeed. Not nearly as interesting, though, as it would be to hear that he's dead.

I heard about this while I was gone, but had not time to blog it. From the Globabl Terrorism Analysis desk of the Jamestown Foundation:

Media reports during the past week have announced that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq—has been "replaced" or "demoted" from the leadership of Iraq's Sunni resistance coalition (Daily Star, April 3; al-Bawaba, April 2). The stories have said that al-Zarqawi was removed as "the result of several mistakes he made," including for taking "the liberty of speaking in the name of the Iraqi people" and for "targeting the Islamic states neighboring Iraq, particularly Jordan" [1]. On April 2, Jordan-based Sunni cleric Sheikh Hudayf Azzam—the son of the famous cleric, mujahideen leader, and Osama bin Laden-mentor Abdullah Azzam—told the journal al-Bawaba that "al-Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago [March 15-18] and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi." Azzam said that al-Zarqawi's "role has been limited to military action," but stressed that al-Zarqawi approved the change in his status and "has returned to where he should be as a man who came to champion the Iraqi cause" (al-Bawaba, April 2; al-Arabiyah, April 2)....

This week's reports that al-Zarqawi has been "demoted" likewise squares perfectly with the intimations al-Zawahiri sent him that there may be debilitating "sensitivities" over a non-Iraqi's leadership of the Iraqi resistance. Without even a whimper, al-Zarqawi allowed himself to be publicly rebuked—"he made many political mistakes"—moved to a lesser post, and was chastised for "speaking in the name of the Iraqi resistance and people." The manner in which al-Zarqawi's change in status was handled left the clear impression—as al-Zawahiri said would be desirable—that the resistance movement is an Iraqi insurgency, headed by Iraqis, and conducted in Iraqi interests. Foreign mujahideen are welcomed to support the Iraqi insurgents, but al-Zarqawi, by "bowing" to Iraqi wishes, publicly proved that they are playing a subordinate role....

While it is too soon to know how al-Zarqawi's new status "as a soldier of the resistance" will impact the Iraq insurgency, a strong argument can be made that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have reached out and persuaded al-Zarqawi to change his behavior in a way that will benefit al-Qaeda (al-Quds al-Arabi, April 4). Historically, al-Qaeda has been welcomed in Islamic insurgencies around the world precisely because it wanted to contribute force multipliers—military cadre, media and financial expertise, materiel, logistics assistance—and did not try to supplant local leadership. Based on the foregoing, al-Zarqawi now seems ready to play this traditional al-Qaeda role, which is likely to bring greater unity to Iraq's Sunni resistance. The foregoing also ought to give pause to those Western analysts who have concluded that bin laden and al-Qaeda are largely yesterday's news, an isolated, cowering organization unable to influence—let alone direct—the affairs of the many fronts of the worldwide anti-U.S. Islamic insurgency.

The only good Zarqawi is a dead Zarqawi. Hat tip: Professor Chaos who is no longer blogging.

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Infidel Queen

Islamist fools have forced out cool hot blonde Tamar Goregian due to the death Fatwa issued on her hot blonde self. The first and second runner up both Muslim women also declined the title due to threats of violence. The Brave Miss Teen Iraq, Silva Shahakian, has accepted the title-- but I thought the blonde infidel chick was much hotter.

ABCNEWS : Iraq's newly crowned beauty queen, Tamar Goregian, has decided to step down — just four days after her election, making this the shortest reign in the pageant's 60-year history.

On April 9, the 23-year-old, who was the first Armenian Iraqi to win the Miss Iraq pageant, announced her resignation after receiving threats by a group of religious extremists who referred to her as "the queen of infidels" for participating in the contest.

Miss Teen Iraq, Silva Shahakian, a Christian, accepted the title(pic below).

UPDATE: More hot Iraqi action here.

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Google Hosts Pedophile Websites

No, we're not talking about the North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes, we're talking about the North American Man-Boy Love Association. Blogspot, as you may already know, is a fully owned subsidiary of Google. This is the same company that warns people against seeing my Flush the Koran parody blog by giving a content warning, yet no warning for those entering a website advocating child molestation. Way to go Google!

Here is the disgusting website. I hate to even link it, but there it is. According to this WND article forwarded to my by Jay at Stop the ACLU, the site recently removed a bunch of offensive posts advocating child molestation after a Christian therapist exposed it on her radio talk show.

But, thanks to the Google cache, we've been able to see what some of those posts were that were taken down--ironical that Google, the company empowering these pedophiles is also empowering us with the tools to expose them . All the April posts are now gone, but the Google cache does have several March posts which have been removed. I've archived the cache of these pedophile bastards' webpage here just in case law enforcement needs it in the future. And I certainly hope some one gets nailed for this.

As of today, the webpage features a prominent 'code of ethics' at the top of it's page, but that wasn't true last March. For instance, the March 21st entry features links to a podcast which was once up (now gone--the link is actually to this website which claims to be an 'open roundtable childlove discussion') and describes it this way:

This episode is an intimate interview with Technea, a long-standing boylover in the community. He's an extraordinary person with a resounding understanding of life. We hear about his life, hardships, accomplishments and philosophies....

"I am a human being." Thoughts of boylove.

How about this from the comments section:
Seriously though, Thankyou Jayden and this just proves another point. Pedophiles/Pederasts/etc... have greater self-control and LOVE than some individuals in the world.

We are ONLY here for the ONEs WE LOVE! To care for them and their interests!

REMEMBER to LOVE your boy, YF and SYF...and others Remember to LOVE your wives, children, neighbors

Disgusting. It gets worse. The poster, Ashleigh, also contributes to another Google operated blog here. One of the posts, by another pedophile named 'Little Boy' links to a Canadian child actor's website, in which he says:
I think Daniel is a real cutie!
Daniel is 8 years old. Another post wonders whether or not Amazon.com can figure out a pedophile's identity if too many movies featuring young boys are bought. One of the movies mentioned features Billy Gilman. I've cached the site here .

Another related blogspot pedophile blog is here. It's called Modern Boylove. You're telling me that Google was unaware that a blog named 'Modern Boylove' wasn't run by pedophiles? The website glorifies the rape of a seven year old boy. Seven. Years. Old. I've cached it here

Some of the authors of both of the above blogs have pictures of very young children on their blogger profile pages. Here & Here.

I'm. Freakin. Speechless.

All of this is eerily remindful of another online pedophile who blogged this way before becoming a mass murderer: Joseph Duncan III

Hat tip to Jay at ACLU who has more. The WND article is here.

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Carnival of Liberty XL

Michael Hamton is hosting the carnival this week.

Welcome to the 40th weekly Carnival of Liberty! As always, the Carnival is full of amazing attractions with fun-filled adventure for the whole family.

This is the first time the Carnival has been here at Homeland Stupidity, and I have to say that the hardest part of hosting the Carnival was keeping all of these excellent posts hidden away until Tuesday. And now that theyÂ’re here, come one, come all, and enjoy the Carnival!

Next weekÂ’s Carnival will be brought to you by Left Brain Female. See the schedule to follow the Carnival of Liberty or if youÂ’re interested in hosting the Carnival.

more...

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Wait 'Til Your Blogfather Gets Home, Young Man (Updated with response from Rusty)

I must disagree with the good Dr. Shackleford on his assessment of the importance of the cyber-jihad.

While I have no issue with American hackers being paid to take down jihadist sites and forums, I don't believe that it's an imperative to winning this war. I did a post back during the Cartoon Jihad wherein I pooh-poohed the reaction of people to the MSM's failure to print them, because all of us had already seen them. By us I meant blogs, and those who frequent them. A nice commenter reminded me of the total number of people who don't get news from blogs. Healthy slap in the face, that was.

Yes, the internet is a tool used to recruit terrorists, but it's just a tool. Recruitment of Islamic terrorists was going along just fine before the internet became a household tool. The Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed when the internet was in its infancy.

Rusty wrote:

If we cannot win the cyber war, we cannot win our war against Muslim ideologues bent on creating the Islamic utopia by any means necessary.
We've defeated [insert utopian ideology here] bent on creating their visions of our world by any means necessary, all long before the internet was created.

Mohammed had no internet, and now 1.2 billion people on this Earth are forbidden to gaze upon his visage. Saladin had no internet, and it didn't stop him from kicking Crusader ass. The mujahadeen in Afghanistan had no internet, and they stomped the Soviets.

Hacking jihadi websites doesn't stop madrassas being built in Eastern Europe. Hacking jihadi websites doesn't stop imams preaching on Fridays. Hacking jihadi websites doesn't do any more good than jihadis hacking our websites. They, like us, will just put them up somewhere else.

Hacking sites may even be counter-productive. We, the great unwashed, have no true idea of what our government's capabilities are. Most of that stuff is classified. If hackers start disabling jihad sites, who knows what information they would be depriving us of.

So I disagree with my blogfather. The best way to deal with jihadis is not to hack their websites, it's far more simple than that.

Kill them all, let Allah sort 'em out. It's hard to access Ummah.com when you're dead.

And before you spit in my face in the comments, "Kill them all" does not refer to all Muslims, just the jihadis. And yes, Improbulus Maximus, "Kill them all" does refer to all Muslims, not just jihadis. And no, Background Noise, I really don't mean all Muslims, just jihadis. There, have I covered my ass?

Rusty responds--the bitch slap! Ahhh, finally a debate! A debate, a debate, my kingdom for a debate!

Okay, how to respond? Since most of my posts are tongue in cheek, focus on lipstick lesbians, or are devoted to calling people names, it isn't easy slamming on the brakes and putting on the academic helmut so quickly. But here goes.

What Vinnie has just done is a classic example of not understanding two very important points and because he misses those points, is arguing against a straw man.

1) Probabalistic relationships are different than cause-effect relationships.

Contrary to what you were taught in both physics and logic, not all cause-effect relationships are direct. No one is arguing here that the internet causes terror, only that the increase in jihadi activity online has led to an increase in a) sympathy for terrorists which gives them room to hide among the civilian populations of the world b) recruitment of terrorists.

Thus, decreasing online terror activity will certainly decrease support for terrorism worldwide and therefore terrorist acts worldwide.

2) An effect often has multiple causes.

Before the internet there was jihad and after the internet there will be jihad, thus jihad must not be caused by internet. True enough, but the internet is a cause today if not the cause.

Wars are fought on many fronts and in many different ways simultaneously. So far, we have not even begun to fight the front that is cyberspace. My argument has never been that if we win this front we will win the war on terror, my argument is that if we wish to win the war on terror we must also win the cyber war.

Winning the cyber war will not mean we will win the war on terror, but it will certainly help. However, if we do not win the cyber war we cannot win the war on terror. It is a necessary condition for winning, but not the only condition.

Why? Wars are won when the enemy believes there is no hope for victory. When fighting an army, a nation, or even an organized resistance group, killing/capturing most of them or taking control of key physical territory usually serves as sufficient grounds for resistance to fall. But because in assymetrical and decentralized warfare beating individual cells is not enough to win, an atmosphere must be created in which enemy combatants have no hope of winning and therefore lay down their arms.

There are several other erroneous points Vinnie makes--such as not understanding the differences between Saladin's or Mohammed's very centralized armies and decentralized cells of terrorists--but I'll skip to the most important one.

The argument, if I understand it correctly, is that taking down terror websites is impossible since terrorists will just find new web space and new sites will pop up. That is, we should not wage war against the cyber jihadis because we cannot win it.

I'm sorry, but that just doesn't fly. How do we know we can't win it if we've never even attempted to fight it? Further, I would argue, effectively fighting the cyber war is actually much simpler than most understand. Since the vast majority of cyber jihadi activity only come from a handful of websites, taking out the most popular ones will drastically reduce the power of terrorists to shape the opinions of Muslims around the world.

We do not need to take down every jihadi website, we only need to take down the most popular ones. This could be accomplished today if we put our mind to it. That's right, today.

And, when the jihadis move to another website, we can follow them. Then take down that website. And the next. And the next.

Last, if you think taking down a few hundred websites is hard, how hard do you think it will be to find and kill a few hundred thousand jihadis? Impossible.

Vinnie:

I still don't see how this is a necessary condition to winning the war. To me, a necessary condition would be, say, removing the mullahs from power in Iran.

Hacking jihad websites is more like H/I fire in my opinion.

So...could you elaborate on that for me?

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April 10, 2006

ACLU Rebuked in Upstate New York

From The Palladium Times:

ALBANY, N.Y. - A federal judge has ordered the Mexico school district to return bricks inscribed with evangelical Christian messages to a high school walkway, concluding their removal violated the free speech rights of the people who paid for them.

U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue ruled the bricks, with engravings like “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus Christ The Only Way!” didn't constitute a Mexico Academy endorsement of that religious view. The bricks containing such engravings were the only ones removed, while others also referred to God and some commemorated Methodist, Episcopal and Catholic churches.

“The undisputed evidence demonstrates that Mexico Academy engaged in viewpoint discrimination when it removed plaintiffs' bricks from the walkway,” Mordue wrote. “Further, the bricks at issue, which number 9 among 1,736, literally constitute an insignificant part of the walkway.”

Of course the Mexico Central School District only removed the bricks after being threatened by Central New York ACLU representatives. It's instructive that the ACLU, which supposedly champions civil liberties, used bullying to try to deny free speech to people because that speech was religious in nature.

Via Stop the ACLU

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto and Vince Aut Morire.

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Countering the Cyber Jihad: Cyber Privateering Part II

It's time we took the cyber jihad seriously. It has become obvious that the U.S. government is ill equippied to deal with the problem If we cannot win the cyber war, we cannot win our war against Muslim ideologues bent on creating the Islamic utopia by any means necessary.

Why is the U.S. government unable to respond adequately to the cyber jihad?

a) They are still in law enforcement mode.

Unless an internet website is breaking the law, no action is taken by the government. However, if we are in a war, then the normal rules do not apply. We cannot treat terrorist forces on the web as if they were simply exercising some Constitutional right of free speech. If this is a war, then fight it like one. If you can kill your enemies in war, then certainly censoring them is justified.

b) Intelligence agencies lack the institutional know-how to fight the online jihad.

Traditionally, intelligence agencies such as the NSA and CIA have been the information gathering arm of the U.S. government. Such intelligence is used by other agencies to act. They may monitor jihadi websites, but they obviously are not acting on their information.

Occasionally they do act, but when they do --such as with the arrest of Irhabi 007--they are in law enforcement mode. Irhabi 007 was charged with a crime, but if using the internet to wage war upon your own country is a crime, then doesn't this reveal the underlying problem of not treating this as a war?

c) The military lacks the tools to fight the internet jihad.

If this is war then it is the military--not the intelligence agencies such as the CIA and NSA, and not the law enforcement agencies such as the FBI -- that ought to be fighting it. The military is great at doing a lot of things, but taking down websites is not one of them. Even if we could identify each and every web server which hosts terror websites, the solution is not bombing the webhosts. For the most part, companies either are not aware that terrorists use their services or they do not care because there are no real consequences to doing business with the online jihadis.

The solution? There is no government solution. The only people really equipped to counter the online threat are hackers themselves. These cyber pirates have the necessary knowlege, tools, and experience in infiltrating and taking down websites. With minimum investment in equipment, with the assurance that they will not be prosecuted for activities which are normally considered illegal, and with the promise of a reward for each website taken down, these cyber pirates would be turned into cyber privateers. There skills which are normally deemed socially unacceptable, can be used to the advantage of winning the long war against militant Islam.

I will be posting on cyber-privateering from time to time. Stay tuned!

Michael B. Kraft at the Counteterrorism blog has some notes on Professor Gabriel Weimann's new book Terror on the Internet:

Prof. Weimann also describes various efforts by private groups or individuals to take down the web sites of terrorists –and the back and forth efforts between Israelis and Palestinians or their supporters to take down each other’s websites. He also discusses the efforts, largely futile, by governments to deprive terrorist groups of service providers because they jump to other providers or conceal their origin.

Hoffman emphasized another side of the coin—the need to take the offense as well as play defense. He said the United States and friendly governments should do more to make use of the internet get across reliable news and counter what he called the ”parallel world” in which terrorists and their supporters receive distorted perspectives and rumors on their web sites.

This may take more nimbleness and sophistication than US Government public diplomacy efforts have shown in recent years. But it is time to act and think outside the conventional box and should be given high priority. [READ THE REST]

To effectively counter the cyber jihad, it will take much more than public diplomacy. I will have more on this in the future.

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Congrats

To Slu for baby Slu.

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Iraq Did Go Uranium Shopping in Niger

Bush lied, McHaliburton, Amerikkka, etc. Hitchens:

In February 1999, Zahawie left his Vatican office for a few days and paid an official visit to Niger, a country known for absolutely nothing except its vast deposits of uranium ore. It was from Niger that Iraq had originally acquired uranium in 1981, as confirmed in the Duelfer Report. In order to take the Joseph Wilson view of this Baathist ambassadorial initiative, you have to be able to believe that Saddam Hussein's long-term main man on nuclear issues was in Niger to talk about something other than the obvious. Italian intelligence (which first noticed the Zahawie trip from Rome) found it difficult to take this view and alerted French intelligence (which has better contacts in West Africa and a stronger interest in nuclear questions). In due time, the French tipped off the British, who in their cousinly way conveyed the suggestive information to Washington. As everyone now knows, the disclosure appeared in watered-down and secondhand form in the president's State of the Union address in January 2003....

However, the waters have since become muddied, to say the least. For a start, someone produced a fake document, dated July 6, 2000, which purports to show Zahawie's signature and diplomatic seal on an actual agreement for an Iraqi uranium transaction with Niger. Almost everything was wrong with this crude forgery—it had important dates scrambled, and it misstated the offices of Niger politicians. In consequence, IAEA Chairman Mohammed ElBaradei later reported to the U.N. Security Council that the papers alleging an Iraq-Niger uranium connection had been demonstrated to be fraudulent.

But this doesn't alter the plain set of established facts in my first three paragraphs above. The European intelligence services, and the Bush administration, only ever asserted that the Iraqi regime had apparently tried to open (or rather, reopen) a yellowcake trade "in Africa." It has never been claimed that an agreement was actually reached. What motive could there be for a forgery that could be instantly detected upon cursory examination?

Hat tip: Reynolds

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Five Christian Aid Workers Murdered by Taliban

Reports are that the five civilians may have been murdered by drug lords. I don't buy it for one second. The Taliban in resurgent in Afghanistan and until there is some evidence to the contrary, should be considered the prime suspects. Why kill them? Because the Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (RRAA) is funded by Christian organizations. What more justification have the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies ever needed to kill? Notice that the aid workers were first tied up and then shot-- a sign that their murderers first gave them a Sharia kangaroo court, followed by a sentence of 'guilty' for 'apostasy' before 'executing' them.

Christian Aid:

Five medical staff working for a Christian Aid-funded organisation have been murdered in north-west Afghanistan.

The victims include a doctor, community health worker, and health educator who were part of a project run by the Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (RRAA), in Darrah-i-Bohm, Badghis province.

It is thought that at least four gunmen broke into their clinic at around 1am today (local time). According to reports, the gunmen tied them up before shooting them.

more...

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Bilal Hussein and the Continuing Saga of Insurgent Propaganda via the Media

Remember our good friend Bilal Hussein? He's an Iraq stringer who works for the AP and who's up-close and personal photos of terrorists in Iraq helped to gain that organization last year's Pulitzer. Well, he's back in the news. This time as part of an expose of how photos are staged, faked, & doctored by pro-terrorist stringers employed by the AP, AFP, Reuters, and Getty Images.

On one forum that I frequently visit, some of these doctored photos discussed in the article have been used to justify killing American soldiers in Iraq. In all cases they are used by Islamic extremists to justify their hatred of America and recruit new jihadis. Thus, the images used by the AP & other organizations--which are often staged and sometimes fake-- lead directly to the deaths of American troops and will eventually help justify the next act of terrorism against American civilians.

Via James Joyner here are some of the highlights of the National Journal article:

Thanks to digital technology, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most photographed in history. Photographers with digital cameras have provided, almost instantaneously, an enormous flood of accurate, dramatic, and even shocking images to people around the world. But the daily downloads of news photos include some that are staged, fake, or so lacking in context as to be meaningless, despite the Western media's best efforts to separate the factual from the fictional....

The photo editors for Time and The New York Times' Web site declined to comment. Other publications printed images of damage from the missile strike that seem entirely accurate. For example, Newsweek and The Washington Times published wide-angle photos of locals standing beside houses that had obviously been severely damaged. The New York Times print edition published the same wide-angle photo on January 18.....

The problem sharpens when no Western reporter is on the scene, but a photographer, usually an Iraqi stringer, is. Photo editors, or even local Western bureau chiefs, have trouble judging the veracity of the images that come from such an event. Last October, for example, The Washington Post printed a striking image of four caskets, purportedly containing dead women and children, and a line of mourning men on a flat desert plain outside the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The photo, provided by the Associated Press, accompanied an article that began this way:

more...

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Iraqi Civilian Death Toll

Rob at Left Wing Lies has created this graphic way to keep track of the number of lives saved by the Coalition invasion of Iraq. Using figures from The Weekly Standard and Iraqibodycount.net, Rob calculates that 174 fewer Iraqis die every day since Saddam was toppled.


27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="150" height="300" title="Lives_Saved">

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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