Are you pro-al Qaeda is not a trick question.

“Are you pro-al Qaeda?” is not a trick question, but Rep. Ilhan Omar refused to answer. pic.twitter.com/JLWIuvQxOm

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 15, 2019

Reflections on Terrorism, Dumb and Smart

Peggy Noonan’s observation in the Wall Street Journal that the most recent jihadist mass murderer is “an idiot”—unlike the men who perpetrated 9/11, but like all who have struck us since—provokes more thought than likely went into it.

Noonan correctly notes that 9/11 led us to expect more attacks with comparable planning and execution. Instead, we’ve been hit by random idiots, the most sophisticated of whom (the Bataclan murderers) operate at an elementary infantry level.

So what? Our ruling class concludes that more and better policing has precluded attacks on the scale of 9/11, limiting Islamist terrorism to a level with which we can live. But this lumping of terrorism into a single category misunderstands how very different 9/11 was from what has followed—different kinds of perpetrators, different bases of support, a different relationship with Islamism, and different in the dangers they comport for us. Hence they misunderstand what military and police action can accomplish.

Focusing on these differences—especially in the light of the recently released Osama Bin Laden documents and their emphasis on al-Qaeda’s latter-day relationship with Iran—invites us to cut through the establishment’s parrot-chorus of “what everyone knows” about terrorism and to unravel the complexity what we are really up against. The following is the first of a four-part attempt to do this.

Far from idiots or zealous amateurs working from Afghan caves, the men who planned and ran the 9/11 attack forged passports, and used the international banking system, sophisticated intelligence, and logistics. With the sole exception of Mohammed Atta, they did not expose themselves to danger. So good was their security that, to this day, we do not know who most of the hijackers were: The names on the passports they used to board did not match the security camera photos and, whereas Atta sent the remainder of the money from the plot to an account linked to Bin Laden—openly—the world’s banking sleuths have been unable to determine from which accounts the money had come.

Wiping out records of money transfers is akin in sophistication to producing and altering passports—the kinds of things done not in Afghan caves, but by sovereign countries’ intelligence services. Though we don’t know who provided the passports with which most of the 9/11 hijackers came to America, we know that Saddam’s Iraq provided the ones with which Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Rahman Yasin came to America for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and that the crew who organized 1993 ran 9/11 as well. We know that, unlike the “idiots” who have hit us since, these people had no history of Muslim devotion. They were professionals, with the resources of sovereign countries’ intelligence services.

The billions of dollars in barbed wire, badges, intelligence, and policing inflicted upon America since 9/11 have neither prevented nor thwarted any plans to attack the United States with the sophistication and on the scale of 9/11. The primordial fact is, no one has tried.

And.

The Muslim world’s states and terrorists have always lived symbiotically. Because mobilizing for full-scale war exposes these states’ congenital internal fragility, they have always fought through proxy groups. Hence, willful ignorance has been required for the American ruling class to maintain the fiction that terrorist groups are independent. That fiction has served our ruling class’s ideological predilections and has provided terrorists the sine qua non for their operations. That is why the Bin Laden papers’ discussion of al Qaeda’s relationship with Iran (about which more in another article) is such a valuable reminder of reality.

Newt up: Reflections on Terrorism: Iran and Bin Laden

ISIS, Palestinians and Democrats vs. Civilization

When ISIS operatives bomb civilians creating mass casualties, cut the throats of elderly priests and shoot up a Christmas party in San Bernardino, militant Muslims celebrate.  The 9/11 hijackers were praised by Al-Qaeda.  

Osama bin Laden was hailed and adored by much of the Muslim world.  Here’s how he is described by a Saudi journalist: “He’s the father, he’s the brother, he is a leader, he is the Imam.”

Successful terror attacks on Israelis are followed by Palestinians passing out candy in celebration. 

Taking a page from the ISIS, al-Qaeda, Palestinian play-book, in the U.S., when a thug robs a store, attacks a policeman, tries to take his gun and charges him before being shot, Democrats erect memorials to the thug, call him a “Gentle Giant” claim he was hunted down and shot in cold blood while his hands were raised, throw a party and invite the thug’s mother for a prime time speech.  

In between these two events they loot Ferguson, Missouri and burn down the rest.

In Baltimore, a city run by Democrats for over 50 years, Freddy Gray, a 25-year-old with over 20 criminal court cases behind him, was arrested and died in police custody.  Six officers were accused of killing him, all were exonerated but the city gave his family a payday of $6 million.   That beats getting a piece of candy but this is America, not the Middle East.

When you celebrate cop killers and accuse cops of systematically murdering young black men you should not be surprised that a meaningful number of your young admirers decide to shoot a cop on their own.    

“What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!” and "Pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon" is not a cry and response that sane people want chanted.  To simply pass by without comment or claim it wasn’t you when your lunatic fringe begins a murder spree - killing five cops in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge, ambushing cops in their cars or during traffic stops - is totally unacceptable. 

And let there be no mistake, the Democrat lunatic fringe is going mainstream.  Today it's impossible to tell where responsible Democrats leave off and advocates of shooting cops begin but they're all in the same party and no one is trying to drive them out.  The Black Lives Matter cop haters are just too big a part of the Democrat voting block so they are catered to.

To make heroes or heroines of people who were shot trying to kill cops is not OK.  It puts the Democrats in the same camp as the Muslims cheering the death of infidels and Jews.  And it encourages more of the same in the same way that ISIS encourages more “lone wolf” attacks by its fans in Europe and America by idolizing those who murder in its name. 

A talk radio host in Norfolk, Virginia was bothered by the Democrat’s celebration of moms whose kids were killed in a segment called Mothers of the Movement.  These speakers included the mother of Michael Brown, the so-called “Gentle Giant” who was killed after he tried to wrestle Officer Wilson's gun away from him in Ferguson, Missouri.  Another Mother of the Movement was the mother of Trayvon Martin who was shot while trying to batter a neighborhood watchman to death by slamming his head against the pavement.  One irate caller with a bad connection ranted for several minutes about the unfairness of police in New Jersey, New York and – I assume – Norfolk, Virginia.  His high-speed complaint was mostly undecipherable but appeared to justify the attacks on cops.  I would suggest that police in Norfolk watch their backs because someone has a grudge.   It's worth noting that the Virginian Pilot, the city's main newspaper, is a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and has a history of covering up crimes committed by black gangs.  

The Liberal press went wild when Gabby Giffords was shot by a nut of no known political persuasion when someone found that Sarah Palin had targeted Giffords for defeat in the upcoming election by placing cross-hairs on  a map of her district.  Palin was accused by every Liberal with access to the media of being responsible for Gifford’s shooting.

 

Let me just get ahead of the next cop shooting.  

Unlike Palin who did nothing to encourage anyone to shoot Giffords, Hillary and the Democrats have blood on their hands.  The German public understands this and shows Angela Merkel drenched in the blood of the victims of Muslim immigrant crimes.  Replace Merkel’s face with Hillary’s and you see the reality of race, crime and Democrat politics in America.

"Someone"

Richard Fernandez:

To fully understand why it is important to understand the Marxist concept of “someone”.

The Baltimore mayor was unconcerned about property destruction because she was convinced that “someone” would rebuild it. The same “someone” who will pay for the deficit and ransoms to al-Qaeda, as well as the bribes to Iran. The identical “someone” that will cough up the reparations to the inmates of Guantanamo. The “someone” who will man the ships to fight the Iranian boghammers, should it come to that.

“Someone” is the source of other people’s money. He is like the tooth fairy who makes the wreckage of looted streets and houses go away. In fact four pastors in the revival tent of the Left advocate sending prayers known as tax collection letters to “someone” — who is not from earth, not from MSNBC anyway – to pay for all their wishes as they don’t pay any themselves.

“Someone” is the Leftist equivalent of God; responsible for all the good and bad in the world, something to fear as much as need. This mysterious deity, when loosed from control, is the cause of the failure of all their schemes, he makes the crops go bad, ruined Detroit, hexed foreign policy, inspired the riots in Baltimore and caused the drought in California.

Whenever anything goes wrong, it is with the Dark Side of the “Someone” that we should look for an explanation. Find the wreckers, saboteurs, capitalist roaders and you will find the source of evil. They in former times went about as a Black Cat but now favor the appearance of a white male or black person (who is really a white patriarch in disguise). These malign spirits are often glimpsed driving in a beater at all hours, drinking cheap coffee and eating even cheaper donuts, with unsightly bags around their eyes, to and from a mysterious place of devil-worship called “work”. There you will find the root of oppression, microaggression and all the ills of the world.

Obama's White House Guest List

Bud Norman comments about the selective outrage of the Left. Hot and bothered about the Israelis defedning their homes against a rain of rockets aimed at their women and children, a ho-hum pass for the Arabs and Islamist thugs offing Christians and each other in far greater numbers. In fact you will have to go to specifically Christian sources to find more than the occasional brief mentions of the "ethnic cleasing" of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. We get the sneaking suspiction that Liberal/Left America really approves of it.

Turning to Obama's White House

The guest list at that fancy White House gathering of African leaders is a similarly curious example of selective outrage. Among those getting the red carpet treatment and presidential promises of massive wealth redistribution are Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Oblang Nguema Mbasago, fresh from a killing spree that left all of his prominent political opponents dead, and Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who advocates a policy of beheading homosexuals, along with the usual assortment of seedy Afro-Marxist thugs who have made such a mess of post-colonial Africa. These elegantly embossed invitations to the White House were handed out by the same administration that routinely derides its domestic political opponents as extremists bent on dirty air and dirty water, and who are implored in faux-hip-hop fashion to “Just stop hatin’,” and it strikes us as odd. Even the most stubborn American adherents of the millennia-old notions about same sex-same marriage draw the line well short of beheading homosexuals, and thus far even the kookiest musket-weilding and tricorner-hat-wearing “tea party” types haven’t offed anybody.

U.S. troops prevented from helping even as al Qaeda overruns Iraqi cities

Obama's losing the war that Bush won.  By failing to negotiate a status of forces agreement at the beginning of his term in office, he guaranteed that Iraq would fall either to Iran or to al Qaeda.

Gen. Keane and others who fought in Iraq are watching their gains slip away. “We’re creeping right back to where the situation was at the beginning of the surge in 2007,” he said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting close.

“What we could do to help them is some advisers at the major headquarters to provide some advice to them in terms on what the strategy should be and the tactics should be,” he said. “We’re not talking about returning troops again. That’s not going to be politically viable.”

Gen. Keane, who was Army vice chief of staff and a key adviser to the George W. Bush administration on how to defeat the insurgency, said Mr. al-Maliki’s government has returned to its old way of operating.

“We trained them an awful lot on how to do this, but the fact of the matter is they have ignored in the past a lot of our counterinsurgency practices by simply posting checkpoints along roads and being considerably more defensive than what you need to be in terms of a protect-the-population counterinsurgency strategy, which is what they will need to do to gain the momentum back. That’s going to be critical for them,” he said.

Of course he also screwed up Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda-linked force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq

Al Qaeda's on the Run?  Obama's victory lap was just a little too soon.  But it did get him past the election, and I guess that's good enough for government work in the Obama Era.

Al-Shabaab: Three Americans Among Gunmen in Kenya Mall

The death toll at the mall under attack in Kenya is now 86. Among the killers are three Americans.

Al-Shabaab is claiming that there are American gunmen among those still holed up in the Westgate mall in a standoff with Kenyan and Israeli special forces....

“We received permission to disclose the names of our mujahideen inside #Westgate,” their latest account tweeted.

They proceeded to tweet the names one by one, including Ahmed Mohamed Isse, 22, “native” of St. Paul, Minn., Abdifatah Osman Keenadiid, 24, of Minneapolis, and Gen Mustafe Noorudiin, 27, of Kansas City, Mo.

All good old American names.

 

The Twin Cities in Minnesota appears to be a hotbed of al Qaeda activity. Could it have anything to do with Minnesota's politics? Few elected officials are not member of the DFL Party(Democrat-Farm-Labor).  The home of Al Franken (who won election thanks to a trunkful of ballots that were found after the election was over) and Keith Ellison (the only Muslim Senator).   And then of course there are the Muslim cab drivers who won't carry dogs or alcohol.   

How many ways can you say, “workplace violence”?

Remember Obama's boast of having "decimated" al Qaeda?  Not so fast, Tonto. 

How many ways can you say, “workplace violence”? The writers of the Narrative have their work cut out for them tonight. With hostages still in the grasp of al-Shabab in Kenya, ABC News reports that 43 people have died in a suicide bombing attack on a church in Pakistan.

Police officer Mohammad Noor Khan says the bomber struck as worshippers were coming out of services at the church in the city’s Kohati Gate district. He said the attacker’s severed legs were found.

Hard-line militants have been blamed for previous attacks on Pakistan’s Christian minority, as well as Muslim groups they consider heretics.

Unsurprisingly, women and children were killed. The BBC says that “a bomb blast outside a church” wreaked the customary havoc and “the victims were said to include women and children.” The numbers are still rising: the VOA has upped the death toll to 50, with a hundred more wounded, and NBC News now has the number of dead at 55.

Since only a little over 1% of the population in that region is still Christian there isn’t a whole lot of design margin left among the holdouts. They are going to be wiped out. Not that the administration has proved very sensitive on the issue of ethnic cleansing without a lobby to plead on their behalf. The administration’s effort to reach out to the Muslim community has proved so successful one wonders Who’s On First. Or who employs whom. Andy McCarthy noted that “Gehad [as in Jihad] el-Haddad”, the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, was recently arrested in Egypt on terrorism charges. Prior to his arrest he was a top official for the Clinton Foundation.

Before emerging as a top Brotherhood official and adviser to Morsi, el-Haddad served for five years as a top official at the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by former President Bill Clinton. 

El-Haddad gained a reputation for pushing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist agenda in the foreign press, where he was often quoted defending the Brotherhood’s crackdown on civil liberties in Egypt.

He was raised in a family of prominent Brotherhood supporters and became the public face of the Islamist organization soon after leaving his post at the Clinton Foundation. However, much of his official work with the Brotherhood took place while he was still claiming to be employed by the Clinton Foundation.

That’s bringing coziness to new heights.

This raises the question of how deeply committed the Obama administration is to the narrative that Islam is a fundamentally pacific ideology whose reputation for gentleness is only occasionally marred by a few misguided and miserable souls. They seem determined to push that story on the public come what may.

One of the problems with that storyline is that it is patently false. The Islamic world is currently convulsed by a widespread sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia, a rivalry which with Iran’s pending acquisition of the atomic bomb, threatens to go nuclear.

Anyone with access to the Internet can readily see that vast numbers of people — a hundred thousand in Syria alone — are dying in its myriad battlefields, and although the deaths among Christians may be great in number (even if the papers refuse to pay much attention to events like the recent attack on Zamboanga City) the deaths among Muslims are even greater.

A search on “mosque blast” in Google readily reveals that Muslims are blowing up mosques even faster than they are wrecking churches and malls.

Ted Cruz on Benghazi: "Truth is not partisan"

Why might Boxer object to an investigation that might damage Hillary Clinton in the long run up to the 2016 election?

US closing embassies in Mideast for a day amid possible Qaeda threat

DRUDGE headlines:

U.S. EMBASSIES ACROSS MIDDLE EAST TO SHUT DOWN SUNDAY...
State Dept: 'Precautionary,' but won't detail threat...
NBC: Possibly connected to al Qaeda...
Dozens of CIA ops on ground during Benghazi attack...
GOP Rep: Obama admin hiding survivors, changing their names...



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT

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