Underwear Bomber Sentencing Underway With Expected Life Imprisonment

The admitted terrorist who sought to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on its way to Detoit is in court today for sentencing. It's widely expected that Abdul Farouk Abdul Mutallab will receive a life sentence.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the privileged son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, returns to federal court in Detroit on Thursday to receive a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, four months after pleading guilty and admitting it was a suicide mission for al-Qaida.

The hearing is an open platform for passengers and crew who want to speak, but only five of nearly 300 are expected to address the court, according to the government.

Abdulmutallab, 25, tried to detonate explosive chemicals that were hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The government says he first performed a ritual in the lavatory — brushing his teeth and perfuming himself — and returned to his seat. The device didn't work as planned, but still produced flame, smoke and panic in the cabin.

"I've become bolder. I've become stronger," said passenger Shama Chopra, 56, of Montreal, who plans to speak in court. She ran unsuccessfully for the Canadian Parliament in 2011, a race she couldn't have imagined joining years ago.

"I don't have to feel weak," Chopra said in an interview Wednesday. "I don't have to be scared of anything. God has given me a second chance to live."

On the second day of the trial in October, Abdulmutallab suddenly pleaded guilty to all charges. In a defiant speech, he said he was carrying a "blessed weapon" to avenge Muslims who have been killed or poorly treated around the world. He admitted he was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and leading al-Qaida figure in Yemen who was killed by a U.S. drone strike last fall.

"The Quran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them ... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Abdulmutallab said.

His lawyers are trying to argue that a life sentence is unconstitutional because he didn't succeed in carrying out the attack that was intended to blow up the plane and all those on board. That argument is a last-ditch attempt to avoid life in prison and it's not likely to work. Mutallab is expected to also give a statement, and I'd expect that he'll use the opportunity to once again rail against the American justice system, the US in general, and to reaffirm his support for jihad.

Yet, that's not the most bizarre part of today's hearing. Among the five people who are testifying today is a passenger, Kurt Haskell, who has been blogging that the terrorist was conspiring with the US government so as to pave the way for full-body scanners to be installed at airports.

Underwear Bomber Enters Guilty Plea in Attempt To Blow Up Plane Christmas Day

You no longer have to say "alleged" underwear bombing suspect Abdul Farouk Abdul Mutallab. Today, he admitted in open court to attempting to blow up the plane by using explosives sewn into his underwear.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab answered questions from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder.

"Are you therefore pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?" Edmunds asked.

"That's right, yes," Abdulmutallab replied.

Edmunds reviewed the charges and possible penalties with Abdulmutallab before he entered his pleas, including that he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

He's accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. The bomb didn't work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire.

Prosecutors' evidence was stacked high. Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaida and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen.

There are also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S.

That's a change of face and tactics from just a few days ago when he was defiant in court and attempted to use the courtroom to further his agenda of jihad.

FBI Links Reservist Arrested Outside Pentagon To Shooting Incidents; Including Video

A string of mysterious shooting incidents, including where shots were fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, the Pentagon, and several other military-related locations around Virginia have been tied back to a reservist who was arrested outside the Pentagon (HT: Killgore Trout).

FBI officials who arrested 22-year-old Marine reservist Yonathan Melaku outside of the Pentagon during a security scare last week say he recorded himself shooting at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and have linked him to a string of five shootings in October and November.

Federal prosecutors charged Melaku on Thursday with destruction of property and firearms violations in the Eastern District of Virginia. He's accused of shooting at the Marine Corps museum two times as well as the Pentagon, a Marine Corps recruiting sub-station in Chantilly and a Coast Guard recruiting office in Woodbridge between Oct. 17 and Nov. 2.

Authorities said in an affidavit that they found bomb-making and explosives documents on Melaku's computer, according to a preliminary FBI review. They also found a digital video tape of one of the shootings in his desk.

"I've already... that's the military building... last time I hit them, they turned off the lights for like four or five days," Melaku allegedly said in the video, according to an FBI affidavit. "So now here we go again; this time I'm going to turn it off permanently."

He allegedly shouted "Allahu Ackbar" before firing the rounds, and from the sound of things, it appears that he's another lone wolf jihadi who has caused at least $100,000 in damage due to his alleged firing on a total of five military buildings, including the Pentagon, a Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly, VA, a US Coast Guard recruiting station in Woodbridge, VA, and the museum twice. He was taken into custody while fleeing into Arlington National Cemetery.



Melaku, a naturalized US citizen from Ethiopia, was out on bail on unrelated grand larceny charges at the time of his arrest. The same gun was used in all the incidents. The Marine Corps is in the process of removing him from the service on those larceny charges.

Bin Laden Raid Reveals Porn Collection?

The raid that resulted in the US killing Osama bin Laden brought back a treasure trove of intel and terabytes of data. Well, it appears that at least a portion of those terabytes of data included a porn collection. What exactly are we talking about here?

Kinky in Kashmir
Jammin' in Jammu
Burkha'd Heat I-IV
Furry and Lovin' It
Taliboning.
Osama does Abbottabad

Should this really surprise anyone? For all their talk about the West's decadence and lack of morals or failures of Osama's fellow Muslims to strictly adhere to his vision of Islam, bin Laden and his minions partook in more than their share of the same decadence (and he was found not in a cave, but in a well to do community in Pakistan albeit with meth-lab shabby chic decor).

Bin Laden was from a monied and elite family. Many of the 9/11 plotters were monied and from professional backgrounds. Zawahiri is from a professional background. They didn't call for jihad because of a lack of money or resources between and among them - but frequently because of the so-called excesses. They'd throw in other pablum, particularly the anti-Israel stuff because the Arab media and Arab street loves that kind of thing.

Osama bin Laden and his followers all claim to adhere to a strict version of Islam, but it seems that the part that manifests most is the hatred of women's rights and violence towards anyone they deem to be an enemy (whether it's the West or those Muslims who don't believe the way they do - as is all to frequently the case in Afghanistan and Pakistan).

We found out after 9/11 that several of the 9/11 plotters visited strip clubs prior to carrying out the attacks, and now we know that bin Laden had a signficant porn stash on his computers. Other terrorists have been caught with online porn collections, and some have used pornographic images to send coded messages (and here).

I think this particular tidbit was released precisely because it shows bin Laden to be nothing more than a hypocrite who had no problems sending others to murder thousands, all while he was comfortable in Abbottabad wanking off to Hot Girls of Hydrabad II.

Who Will Follow Bin Laden as Head of Al Qaeda?

While much of the speculation as to who will assume the role as top terrorist in al Qaeda has fallen on Ayman al Zawahiri, there appears to be rumblings over whether he is sufficiently charismatic enough to keep the group going and whether he can get along with other terrorists.

Other possibilities include Anwar al Awlaki, whose followers have carried out several high profile attempted attacks in recent years.

Yet, there's one figure who hasn't quite made the headlines in the US who may be in a position to take over al Qaeda. He's a former Pakistani commando known as Ilyas Kashmiri.

An elusive figure who often wears heavily tinted aviator glasses, Kashmiri remains at large and active in plotting new attacks against the West, U.S. officials say. It was Kashmiri who, according to U.S. officials, was the key figure behind a suspected plot for multiple attacks in European cities, patterned after the 2008 Mumbai terror strike, which led to a widely publicized State Department travel advisory in October.

While Ayman al-Zawahri remains the “presumed” successor to bin Laden, the longtime al-Qaida deputy is deeply unpopular in some circles and his elevation is by no means guaranteed, a senior U.S. official told reporters this weekend. If al-Zawahri doesn’t make it, Kashmiri may emerge as the dark horse in the ensuing power struggle, the official told NBC on Monday.

“His star has been on the rise for the last several years,” said the official. “He would have to be on the al-Qaida short list.”

Kashmiri was at one point a member of the Pakistani military, serving as a commando in a Special Services Group that was once tasked with training Afghan mujahedeen to fight the Soviets.

He was later reassigned to train Kashmiri fighters against the Indians, but broke from the Pakistani army and joined a terrorist group — called Harakat-ul Jihad-i-Islami, or HUJI (“Movement of Islamic Holy War”) — that has been closely aligned with al-Qaida.


So far, U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped on whether they have found evidence in bin Laden’s compound that shows direct contacts between the now deceased al-Qaida leader and Kashmiri. But hints of such links — and of Kashmiri’s interest in mass casualty terror plots — are contained in U.S. court documents.

While Kashmiri was originally trained and worked closely with the Pakistani military and security services, he turned on Pervez Musharaf's regime and even targeted him in assassination attempts. His cadre of terrorists have carried out attacks in Pakistan, India, Kashmir, and plotted against the West, including a plot against Jyllands Posten for their running cartoons depicting Mohammad.

He's known to use the frontier provinces of Pakistan as his base of operations.

The US labeled him a specially designated global terrorist in August 2010, which puts him in the same ranks as the ex-bin Laden and Zawahiri. The US has attempted to carry out UAV airstrikes against him in the past, and have come close on several occasions, particularly after capturing several of his top henchmen.

Depending on who to believe, one would think that al Qaeda had three spheres of operation - the strategic, military, and ideological - with bin Laden, Kashmiri, and Zawahiri running each, respectively. However, with bin Laden's death and the cache of intel gathered from his compound in Abbottabad, that thinking may have been sorely misguided. It would appear that bin Laden was in command and control over most operational and strategic thinking of the terror group, using couriers to shuttle information between him and his subordinates.

Kashmiri, being central to these discussions, therefore may be in a better position to assume the leadership role. He's got the military credibility among the Taliban and knows his way through the region better than others, including Zawahiri. He also benefits from knowing Pakistani tactics and probabilities - where and how the Pakistanis operate their security forces and military. That's invaluable in evading capture or being struck in Pakistani airstrikes.

Pakistan's Government Deals With Fallout From Bin Laden Raid

Around the world, people are trying to figure out exactly how Osama bin Laden was able to live and thrive in the shadow of Pakistan's military academy for years without anyone in the Pakistani government knowing. Many suggest that the government was either incompetent or complicit in bin Laden avoiding capture for all these years.

Statements from bin Laden's wife suggests complicity with at least some members of the Pakistani security services such that while the government at its highest levels may not have known that bin Laden was in their country, others who did were doing their best to keep the government in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts.



The US raid has raised the ire among both Pakistani Islamists and nationalists - each of whom have taken exception with the US and the Pakistani government. The US acted as though the Pakistani government was penetrated and could not be trusted. That could be seen as lack of faith in the Pakistani government, or that it provides the Pakistani government an out - allowing the Prime Minister to claim that the US acted alone to avoid the appearance of collusion in going after bin Laden that could raise the ire of the Islamists.

Prime Minister Gilani rejects the claims of incompetence or collusion, but those are pretty much empty statements without more evidence to suggest otherwise.

Gilani acknowledges Pakistan's "intelligence failures" over the bin Laden case, but says all the world's intelligence agencies also failed in the inability to track down the terrorist leader.

Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: In an address to Pakistan, he rejected the "blame game" in attempts to point the finger at Pakistan's military and intelligence agency, known as ISI.

"Yes, there has been an intelligence failure," Gilani says. "It is not only ours, but all intelligence agencies of the world. The al Qaeda chief, along with other al Qaeda operatives, have managed to elude other intelligence agencies for a long time."

He says, in fact, that ISI was responsible for a tip that helped lead the CIA to bin Laden's hideout in a compound in Abbottabad, 35 miles from Islamabad.

"It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or the state institutions of Pakistan, including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in cahoots with al Aqaeda," he says.

He concedes that the issue of how bin Laden could hide in plain site is a source of concern in Pakistan, but says an investigation has been ordered to get to the bottom of it.

"Let's not rush to judgment," he says. "Charges of incompetence or complicity are absurd. We emphatically reject such speculation."

The problem is that the CIA and US officials both state that Pakistani intel services were in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts and that they didn't consult with the Pakistanis before the raid, lest they tip off bin Laden as to the impending raid. While the Prime Minister claims full confidence in the Pakistani military and ISI, the behind the scenes situation is likely to be full of recriminations and demands for answers in how the government could have been left in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts for so long.

The Pakistani government has to walk a fine line between dealing the Islamists a blow and nationalists who might side with the Islamists over the hard feelings created by the US raid to take out bin Laden with the government apparently in the dark about the raid until after the raid was already underway.

So, why did bin Laden choose Abbottabad? Well, it was central to Pakistan with easy access to Islamabad and a quick getaway to the frontier provinces should bin Laden be tipped off. Building a walled compound wouldn't be out of character, and the area was a frequent destination of vacationers and Pakistanis from all over the country.

I suspect that the military academy was another reason that bin Laden chose the town; it could provide a source for recruiting future jihadis.

It also appears that the compound wasn't nearly as militarized as one could have expected; there weren't escape tunnels, hidden weapons caches, or other accoutrements that one could expect around a terror master like bin Laden. Perhaps he grew complacent in the fact that he was hiding in plain sight and that his security measures were sufficient to avoid detection by the Pakistanis or that he wasn't expecting the US to carry out a raid against his compound.

Don't expect other al Qaeda terror masters like Awlaki or Zawahiri to make that same mistake. Both are more likely to take additional security precautions in light of how the US carried out the raid in Pakistan.

More Details Emerge On Raid That Got Bin Laden; And One That Missed

Now that al Qaeda has itself admitted that yes, Osama bin Laden is dead, the deathers (aka those who don't believe President Obama when he says that bin Laden is dead) will relent and admit that bin Laden is indeed dead as President Obama says? Any takers on that? I'll even give odds.

No? Good. Because some people will never admit that bin Laden was killed in that raid.

In any event, bin Laden was quite busy while lounging in that Abbottabad compound all these years (his wife says she never left in all that time) plotting and planning further attacks. That he was focusing on railways around the world, and particularly in the US is quite troublesome because rail security particularly in the US has always lagged that of the airlines.

The US has also carried out the first UAV airstrike since bin Laden's death, targeting terrorists in the frontier province of Waziristan:

A suspected CIA drone strike targeted a hotel Thursday in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan’s borderlands, killing eight people, according to Pakistani news reports.

A series of missiles pounded the town of Datta Khel, near what U.S. officials believe is the headquarters of the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent force that has staged deadly bombings in Afghan cities and regularly attacks NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, as details continue to leak about the raid that killed bin Laden, we're learning about the efforts that came up short to get bin Laden in the past.

The NYT reports that intel had indicated that bin Laden may have contemplated a meeting in Tora Bora in 2007, and that a mission was planned and aircraft routed to intercept, but were called back when the intel turned out to be less than reliable and concerns raised about collateral damage. That instead led to a commando mission - killing a bunch of terrorists, but revealing that bin Laden wasn't among them.

“We thought we had ‘No. 1’ on this side of the border,” said a senior American military officer involved in planning the operation. “It was the best intelligence we’d had on him in a long time.”

The military set into motion one of the largest strike missions of its kind, with long-range bombers, attack helicopters, artillery and commandos all ready to pummel the rugged mountain valley along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, according to military officers and former government officials.

But just as the half dozen B-2 Stealth bombers were halfway on the 3,000-mile flight to their target, commanders ordered them to return to their secret base in the Indian Ocean, because of doubts about the intelligence on Bin Laden and concerns about civilian casualties from the bombs.

A smaller, more precise raid was carried out by commandos and attack helicopters, killing several dozen militants in the episode, which has not been previously disclosed.

But the founder and formative figure of Al Qaeda was not there.

Inside the White House, the disappointment was palpable, according to senior aides to former President George W. Bush. What might have been Mr. Bush’s last chance at redeeming his administration’s failure to capture or kill Bin Laden after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, when he was cornered in the same Tora Bora region but escaped into Pakistan, did not materialize.

Amid the national relief over the killing of Bin Laden by a Navy Seal team in Abbottabad, Pakistan, this secret chapter in the hunt for the world’s most famous fugitive is a reminder of the years of frustration and false hopes government officials endured in trying to pick up his trail.

Note too that this was after the shutdown of the bin Laden section in the CIA by the Bush Administration.

It also shows that the CIA was still not on the ball when it came to bin Laden and al Qaeda's operational hierarchy. After all, the CIA was stating at that time that:

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

The US focus had shifted towards going after al Qaeda's mid level terror network, perhaps hoping to lead to the high value targets in the process. That too may have led them to carry out the 2007 attack in the hopes of capturing or killing bin Laden.

UPDATE:
The Pakistanis can cooperate only so much without setting off the Islamists in a serious way. One report today indicated that the Pakistanis knew to some extent about the raid and have to claim otherwise to keep the Islamists from jumping ugly in a serious way to overthrow the government.

Another report indicates that the US informed the Pakistanis that they were carrying out this mission - while the mission was already underway. Details may or may not be accurate that the Pakistanis had scrambled jets to deal with the inbound flight of US helicopters and were sent away once notification reached the Pakistani military. The lede on that report was that the US could have been close to having a disastrous run-in with the Pakistani military during the mission inside Pakistan's borders with disastrous consequences for both sides.

If the Pakistanis are now scrambling to make more arrests, that intel could come one of four different paths: (1) directly from the people who the US left behind at Abbottabad, (2) the US could have sent them the necessary intel; (3) gathered from independent sources completely; (4) combination of sources. No way to know for sure.

It's the same deal about today's UAV airstrike - there's no way to know if it is connected with the OBL mission raid intel cache, or whether it was planned separately.

UPDATE:
It appears that the CIA was tracking the Abbottabad compound from a house nearby. They used a variety of electronic eavesdropping methods, but the agency refuses to comment on those reports. Some means and methods should not be revealed, lest they reveal too much about tactics and capabilities that the US uses to track down al Qaeda and other high value targets around the world.

UPDATE:
Further evidence of Pakistani duplicity - based on statements being released from the Pakistanis themselves. It raises still more troubling details in the bin Laden search over the years - particularly in how the Pakistanis were involved, especially as it relates to bin Laden's wife who is now in Pakistani custody.

A few key points from the story: She’s now in Pakistani custody, recovering from the gunshot wound; U.S. intelligence officials are unlikely to get the chance to speak with her. After 9/11 when the Afghan campaign began, Pakistan’s government reportedly gave her haven and helped her return to Yemen. She later reentered Pakistan to join her husband, which, as McGirk writes, points out a potentially major intelligence lapse in hindsight: Why take years deciphering courier aliases when bin Laden’s wife could have led them right to him?

On top of that, there’s this detail of further alleged Pakistani duplicity, which will only further inflame tensions at a delicate moment:

Says [an] Arab woman formerly connected to al-Qaeda: “There was an understanding with the Pakistani army. We would get a tip-off that the army planned to raid one of our houses in the tribal area. We would flee but leave some ‘evidence’ behind so that the army could show to the Americans that we’d been there.”

I have no doubt that the latter may help explain the former. If the CIA believed that the Pakistanis were laying down a false trail or were coopted by al Qaeda, then trying to track down bin Laden based on his wife's whereabouts could have been seen as a false trail. This reinforces the notion that the Pakistanis were apparently left in the dark about the operation because the US didn't trust elements within the Pakistani government to not tip off al Qaeda and bin Laden. It also explains, in part, why the Pakistanis aren't going to let the CIA and US officials anywhere near her. On top of cultural and religious misgivings over such interrogations, bin Laden's wife would likely reveal much about bin Laden and al Qaeda's relationship with those within the security services and military.

UPDATE:
Apparently the Pakistanis understand the visuals of the situation, and they may have decided that the best course of action is to sack the head of the Pakistani intel services (ISI):

To allay both domestic and international anger and dismay over the presence of Osama bin Laden in a military cantonment town close to the capital, senior Pakistani officials have told The Daily Beast they recognize that an important head has to roll and soon. They say the most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director general of the country’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. In a last ditch effort to control the damage and to assure the US that the ISI was not harboring him and was unaware of his presence in Pakistan, Pasha reportedly flew to Washington today. But these high-level sources who refused to be quoted or named say his resignation is only a matter of time.

Initial Review of Data From Raid Links Bin Laden To Ongoing Plots and Plans

Considering that Osama bin Laden was living in relative comfort and luxury in the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, it is not surprising that he was up to his eyeballs in ongoing plans to carry out terror attacks around the world.

With Bin Laden’s whereabouts and activities a mystery in recent years, many intelligence analysts and terror experts had concluded that he had been relegated to an inspirational figure with little role in current and future Qaeda operations.

A rushed examination of the trove of materials from the compound in Pakistan prompted Obama administration officials on Thursday to issue a warning that Al Qaeda last year had considered attacks on American railroads.

The documents include a handwritten notebook from February 2010 that discusses tampering with tracks to derail a train on a bridge, possibly on Christmas, New Year’s Day, the day of the State of the Union address or the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said. But they said there was no evidence of a specific plot. An Obama administration official said that documents about attacking railroads were among the first to be translated from Arabic and analyzed. The materials, along with others reviewed in the intelligence cache, have given intelligence officials a much richer picture of the Qaeda founder’s leadership of the network as he tried to elude a global dragnet.

“He wasn’t just a figurehead,” said one American official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, who had been briefed on the documents. “He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets, and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders.”

The crash program across the intelligence community to translate and analyze the documents has as its top priority discovering any clues about terror attacks that might be in the works. Intelligence analysts also were scrubbing the files for any information that might lead to identifying the location of Al Qaeda’s surviving leadership.

Since Sunday night, when President Obama announced the killing of Bin Laden in a daring raid, counterterrorism officials have been alert to the possibility of new attacks from Al Qaeda to avenge its leader’s death and prove its continuing relevance.

Department of Homeland Security officials have reviewed potential terrorist targets and deployed extra security at airports. And in response to the new evidence seized at the Bin Laden compound, the Transportation Security Administration issued a bulletin to rail companies.

But officials emphasized that the information was both dated and vague. “It looks very, very aspirational, and we have no evidence that it developed beyond the initial discussion,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Homeland Security.

The initial data may not end up being accurate and the review may yet turn out to be an incomplete or completely different interpretation..

Still, it does raise questions on how bin Laden was able to maintain operational security for all these years and goes to show just how capable he was in being able to maintain contacts with other al Qaeda through his trusted couriers.

That bin Laden lived in Abbottabad means that far from being cut off from the rest of al Qaeda, he was much more likely to be in control and providing guidance and plotting further attacks.

The intel from the raid also appears to have uncovered plots to blow up trains or tampering with rails. It's all about causing mass casualty attacks and doing the most damage - perhaps in connection with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Railroads have long been targeted by al Qaeda and several plots have been disrupted in the past in the US, including plots to blow up the PATH tunnels to New York, subway bomb plots, and unfortunately al Qaeda successfully carried out deadly attacks against railroads in Madrid.

Like Clockwork, Jihadis Vow Vengeance

Like clockwork, Islamic jihadists are vowing vengeance for the death of Osama bin Laden. Some were wishing the news to not be true, but others were realizing that their spiritual leader was killed by the US - and vowed revenge:

"Oh God, please make this news not true... God curse you Obama," said one message on an Arabic language forum. "Oh Americans... it is still legal for us to cut your necks."

Some forums members urged others not to believe news of the death until it was confirmed online by militant news sources.

"The source of news that we trust is that which comes from the mujahideen (holy warrior)," a message on Ansar forum said. "Be patient and don't spread rumors...we've asked this repeatedly, so please do not write anything on the subject."

Hours later, several of the threads discussing bin Laden's death had been shutdown.

But 'Asad al-Jihad 2', labeled a "prominent member of the jihadist internet community" by the monitoring group SITE, acknowledged the leader's death and vowed revenge.

"The whole world hangs on the death of one man, and if all his enemies were killed their effect would not be the same as his," SITE quoted him as saying on the Shumukh al-Islam forum.

"We will take our revenge on behalf of the Islamic Ummah for the death of the Sheikh of Islam ... Whoever wishes this to be the end of jihad or a means to weaken the organization, I say to him: Wait a little!"

MESSAGE OF JIHAD

Bin Laden's killing, in a compound outside the Pakistani city of Islamabad, dealt a symbolic blow to the global militant network, although Islamist forum posters said the strike would not change their commitment to fighting Western powers.

"Osama may be killed but his message of Jihad will never die. Brothers and sisters, wait and see, his death will be a blessing in disguise," said a poster on another Islamist forum.

Osama bin Laden was killed, but that didn't kill the ideology or the terror group he helped spawn. We're going to have to remain vigilant to prevent further attacks, whether they're decreed to be in revenge for bin Laden's death or for any number of purported grievances that these terrorists use as excuses for their brutality and mass carnage.

Islamic Terrorists Murder Pro-Palestinian Supporter Because He Wasn't Muslim

An al-Qaeda-inspired group calling itself al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, or Monotheism and Holy War, murdered a member of the International Solidarity Movement, which itself is a radical leftist pro Palestinian group. The group released a video and tortured their victim before strangling him:

The body of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was discovered by Hamas security forces in an empty house in Gaza City a day after he had been seized, officials said. Arrigoni had been strangled with a plastic handcuff strip, said Khalil Abu Shamala, director of Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights, who went to the scene with security officials. He said Arrigoni’s head was bloodied, apparently from being beaten before he was killed.

“It seems that he was subjected to torture,” Abu Shamala said in a telephone interview. “I have seen many bodies during the intifada and after assassinations by Israeli soldiers, but I was totally shocked when I saw the way they killed him.”

Curiously, this supposed proponent for human rights ignores years and piles of evidence of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups to instead equate the death of this Italian activist with Israel's actions.

He certainly knows what to say to his intended audience - equate the murder of the ISM supporter with the killings of Palestinians at the hands of Israel (which is acting in self defense).

Apparently that human rights guy has never seen the handiwork of Hamas during the Palestinian civil war - when they were throwing Fatah thugs off rooftops, or the bodies of Palestinians who died when Hamas rockets/mortars fell into Gaza instead of Israel, or when Hamas bomb factories blew up in own-goals, to say nothing of all the torture by Hamas of their enemies at any point since Hamas took over.

He also knows that to speak the truth about Hamas' human rights abuses, torture, and violence would result in a shortened lifespan (and a violent and tortured end as well). The Islamists who have run amok in Gaza routinely ignore human rights laws and condone violence of this sort, and yet Palestinian human rights groups ignore such activities and instead focus on Israel - precisely because it fits into the Palestinian propaganda machine - and because to speak out against the terror groups would result in their own lives being put at risk.

Once again, this highlights that Islamist terrorist groups will murder people who self-identify with the Palestinian cause precisely because they aren't sufficiently Islamist (or in this case, because the person was Christian). ISM ought to realize that in their incessant demonization of Israel they have not only exposed the true nature of the group they purport to support (the Palestinians), but that their actions have bolstered terror groups throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas has no problem doing the same kind of thing, but does so more judiciously - after all, they fire mortars, rockets and missiles into Israel each with the intent of murdering and maiming anyone they hit. Several non-Israelis have been among the injured and killed, so the Washington Post spin as making the terror group Hamas seem more palatable is distasteful to say the least. It's reprehensible.

Israel Continues Taking Fire From Gaza

The kassams, Grad missiles, and mortars continue to be fired into Israel from Gaza, and media reports claim that Hamas is backing off an all-out confrontation with Israel and floating a ceasefire/hudna?

If Hamas isn't firing all the rockets and mortars, they certainly are giving a wink and nod to the other terror groups and factions that are - because Hamas has no intention of cracking down against other terror groups unless they pose a direct threat to Hamas' ability to rule with an iron fist in Gaza. The PLFP says that a ceasefire is a dangerous thing for Palestinians, which makes no sense until you realize that the only reason that these terror groups thrive is that they've succeeded in indoctrinating entire generations of Palestinians into refusing to accept a Jewish state of Israel living alongside a Palestinian state. Yet, a hudna would play into the terrorists' hands since they'd use the opportunity to regroup and rearm, just as they've done since Operation Cast Lead. The ceasefires/hudnas have not stopped the violence, but any reduction in fire from Gaza is reported by the international media as a "relative lull" even though the attacks have continued unabated.

No nation on the planet would tolerate such a situation for anywhere near as long as Israel has.

Wouldn't you know it that the moment Israel strikes back hard to defend itself against terrorists, the claims of disproportionate use of force come bubbling to the surface. And once again, Turkish leaders are the ones who are busy touting this nonsense.

Turkey has no problem using force against the PKK, a Kurdish group that claims a region that includes parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq as its own. Indeed, one could call that use of force disproportionate, but I don't. It's military force designed to combat and defeat an enemy. In Israel's case, Hamas and other terror groups are entrenched within significant civilian populations with the express purpose of maximizing a body count should Israel return fire.

Hamas and other terror groups fire hundreds of rockets and mortars since the beginning of the year, and each and every one was with the intention of murdering and maiming Israelis and to cause significant property damage. Israel's response has been extremely limited - firing only in significant measure after an anti-tank missile blew up a bus carrying two people - injuring one critically. To go after the terrorists, Israel has carried out airstrikes against terror targets and the smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Sinai.

Those aren't disproportionate.

They are barely sufficient to deter Hamas from further attacks.

And now the Arab League is calling on the UN to impose a no-fly zone on Israel over Gaza. That suggestion comes on the heels of UN efforts in Libya to thwart further human rights abuses by Khadafi against his own countrymen and the Arab League thinks it has hit upon a winning strategy to give Hamas cover in its ongoing war against Israel. Make no doubt about it - Hamas is at war with Israel, and but for Israel's restraint, Hamas continues to exist and acts as a thorn in Israel's side.

None of the Arab League nations would tolerate such acts by a terror group against the regime - not Syria, not Iran, not Saudi Arabia, not the UAE, nor any of the other nations in the League. This is an effort to undermine Israel's right to defend itself from attack.

Terrorists Continue Firing Rockets and Mortars In Israel Day After Deadly Jerusalem Bombing

Terrorists in Gaza have not let up in their efforts to fire rockets and mortars with the purpose of maiming and murdering Israelis or causing significant property damage in Israel. An incessant stream of rockets have hit Israel, and have been at an increasing pace since the beginning of January. That comes a day after a deadly bombing in Jerusalem when a suitcase filled with explosives detonated next to a bus stop killing an Israeli woman and wounding more than 50 people. The Israeli ambassador to the US says that the Gaza mortar and kassam attacks are unrelated to the bombing, which would suggest that the group behind the bus bombing may not be Hamas or Islamic Jihad. That would point the finger at Fatah, al Qaeda, or a splinter group from one of any number of other terror groups.

As a result, Israel has fired back against the terrorist infrastructure - hitting suspected smuggling tunnels and Hamas ammo dumps and weapons factories.

IDF tanks shot into Gaza on Thursday, injuring one man, according to Palestinian sources, following five rockets launched from Gaza into Israel.

The strike came after the IAF struck four targets in Gaza Strip in the early morning, after Palestinians fired about a dozen rockets and mortars across the border, striking deep into Israel.

The tanks were aimed at a Hamas facility in Gaza City, which reportedly burst into flames.

Earlier Thursday, the IAF bombed terrorists that were attempting to shoot rockets into Israel.

Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said on Thursday that Israel "will not be tolerant of any escalation."

Speaking in the US, Ya'alon said that Israel will not tolerate "terrorist attacks or shooting rockets at our citizens."

He said that the war against terror "requires a long battle, but it will not stop us from taking care of whoever shoots at Israel, as they have in the last few days or sends terrorists to the center of cities."

"Whoever does this will not be immune to a decisive attack," Ya'alon said. "Hamas is responsible for everything that is shot out of Gaza and if it does not take responsibility, it will pay the price."

Since Thursday morning, three Kassam rockets, one Grad missile and a mortar shell were shot into Israel from Gaza. Grad missiles landed in Ashdod and south of Rishon Lezion.

The rocket attacks hitting Ashdod have injured several Israelis, but that gets short shrift in the international press, which instead focuses on Israeli airstrikes and the casualties they inflict.

All the while, the only reason Israel would be carrying out those airstrikes is because Gazan terrorists, including the ruling Hamas, are incessantly attacking Israel at every opportunity and such actions would never be tolerated by any other country on the planet.

At the same time, while the UN and other Palestinian flacks claim that Israel is blocking Gazan and Palestinian educational opportunities because of the blockade, they ignore that Palestinian terrorists routinely target Israeli schools, preschools, and that has forced many to build bomb shelters and attendance has grown sparse because of worries that such schools would again be targeted.

And again, but for Palestinian terror, Israel would not need to enforce a security fence, checkpoints, or a blockade to prevent Hamas and other terror groups from arming themselves for a conflict with Israel with the intention of destroying Israel.

UPDATE:
Reuters attempts to analyze the situation and claims that the latest surge in violence is the result of an internal dispute between factions in Hamas that spilled over and enabled other like-minded terror groups to attack Israel. It supposes that factions within Hamas didn't want to engage in reconciliation talks with Fatah, and a proposed meeting with Fatah's Abbas could be derailed if a judicious use of force against Israel could provoke a limited military response that adversely affected security in Gaza to the point of canceling the meeting.

That kind of pretzel logic is worthy of Rube Goldberg. It is also insightful into how the Palestinians deal with any kind of political challenge - they resort to attacking Israel.

Hamas' problem is that once they took credit, other terror groups began with their own assaults on Israel and that is likely to spiral out of their control. And for Reuters to claim that things have been relatively quiet is factually wrong. Hundreds of rockets and mortars were fired into Israel from Gaza in 2010 - one a day - every day - for 2010. 2011 is shaping up to have even more. Several people were killed and dozens were injured in those attacks.

That's not quiet - not by a long shot.

It's quiet only in that Israel has been restrained in its retaliations for such provocations. The terrorists engage in their triangle offense to avoid retaliation all while perpetuating terror attacks and spreading the anti-Israel ideology.

That should not last.

Developing: Bus Explodes In Jerusalem With Multiple Casualties Reported

Scene of bus explosion in Jerusalem (via Daylife)

At least four people were seriously injured when a bomb exploded next to a bus in Central Jerusalem.

MDA says none dead, over 20 injured Police estimate that package at exploded next to Egged bus 74 outside Binyanei Ha'uma in central Jerusalem; Netanyahu delaying departure to Moscow.

An explosion took place on or near a bus in central Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon.

Police said that a bomb exploded outside Egged bus number 74 at a station in front of the Jerusalem Conference Center in the center of town.

Reports said that over 30 people were injured in the attack although the exact number was still unknown.

Magen David Adom said that no deaths were reported in the attack.

For the moment, it doesn't appear to be the work of a suicide bomber, but rather someone who deposited a bomb along the bus route. Watch for the ghouls in Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other terror groups rush to claim responsibility for the attacks. These terror groups will claim that this is in response to Israel's actions in Gaza, but Israel would not be forced to take military action against Gaza or set up checkpoints had the Palestinians not engaged in a terror campaign against Israel and sought to delegitimize Israel at every opportunity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu had been scheduled to travel to Moscow, but that has been postponed.

With the increasing number of terror attacks against Israel, expect Israel to step up its counterterrorism operations against Gaza in the coming days. The Palestinians will have no one to blame but themselves for this situation. They've repeatedly attacked Israel, refused to recognize Israel's rights to exist and peacefully coexist with Israel, and failed in their obligations under Oslo to cease and desist from promoting jihad and terror attacks against Israel.

Israel's right to defend itself means that airstrikes and counter battery attacks against those firing from in the midst of civilian populations in Gaza and any resulting casualties are the fault and responsibility of the terrorists in Gaza who use those human shields. It is the Gazans who allow and enable these terrorists - after all, Gaza voted overwhelmingly for Hamas when the last elections were held and support the war against Israel's existence.

UPDATE:
One Israeli woman has died of their wounds from today's terror attack, and 39 were wounded.

Also, the Palestinian terrorists continue firing more Grad rockets and mortars into Israel, following on their ongoing campaign of terror.

UPDATE:
50 people are now listed as being injured in this attack, making it one of the worst attacks in years. With the ongoing terror attacks from Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas has the gall to call on Russia to pressure Israel to not retaliate against Hamas? Abbas is blaming Israel for an escalation, when this falls solely on Hamas and the terrorists who initiated the latest round of attacks - after initiating each of the last series of attacks - and before that initiating attacks leading up to Operation Cast Lead.

It's absurd, but that's how Abbas rolls. He's hoping that Israel gets pressured into holding back against the terrorists who keep inflicting countless damage and injuries to Israelis, while the Palestinians play their triangle offense - Hamas and PIJ attack Israel, and Abbas demands concessions without giving anything up in return.

UPDATE:
More mortars and rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza. Reports indicate that the mortars contained phosphorus - prohibited under international law (for all who claimed that Israel used phosphorus against civilians - what say you now about the Gazans using them) explicitly with the purpose of harming civilians and/or setting fires to farm/forest lands.


Key takeaway: explosives was in a small suitcase left next to a bus stop, containing 1-2kg of explosives. Authorities are looking for additional attacks.

UPDATE:
This video includes a phone call to Israeli police warning of a suspicious package, and you can hear the explosion go off while on the phone with the authorities. Israelis are quite keen to warn and be wary of unattended packages, and this was no different:



The deadly consequences are all too apparent when such things get overlooked or ignored.

Pakistani Christians Bury Assassinated Government Minister Who Supported Repeal of Anti Blasphemy Laws

Shahbaz Bhatti was laid to rest in his home village in Pakistan after being assassinated on Wednesday because he sought a repeal of the country's notorious anti-blasphemy laws.

Thousands of Pakistani mourners have attended the funeral of murdered minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

Mr Bhatti, a Christian, was shot dead on Wednesday by the Taliban after he urged reform to blasphemy laws.

There were emotional scenes as several thousand Christians buried their leader in his home village near Faisalabad.

Earlier, hundreds turned out for a church service in the capital. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told them his colleague had been "very rare".

Wednesday's assassination in Islamabad was the second this year of a Pakistani politician who wanted to reform the controversial blasphemy laws.

The ease with which Bhatti was assassinated led to calls for the resignation of key security ministers and investigations.

The blasphemy law imposes a death sentence for anyone who insults Prophet Muhammad or the religion of Islam, but its opponents note that the law has been used to settle personal scores and persecute members of the minority faiths.

Gilani was among those paying their respects at the funeral, but President Zardari did not attend, and the ruling party has refused to reform the blasphemy law.

Bhatti and Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer both criticized the blasphemy laws after a Christian woman was sentenced to death under them last year. On Jan. 4, Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards, who said he was angry about the governor's stance on the laws.

But the ruling party abandoned Bhatti and Taseer on the subject, a sign of how scared they are of upsetting powerful Islamist groups. Gilani has repeatedly insisted the government would not change the laws.

President Asif Ali Zardari did not attend the funeral mass or the burial service in Khushpur, though he rarely makes public appearances out of fear for his life. Also notably missing were top leaders of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which is considered somewhat sympathetic to Islamists.

There are reports that Gilani offered to step down because of the assassination because someone had to take responsibility for the security lapses.

What's needed is that Pakistan's top leadership repudiate the blasphemy laws and reform the law. Instead, they're cowed by the threats of violence against those who express any views that are antithetical to the Islamic extremists.

Two American Servicemembers Killed at German Airport by Radicalized Muslim

German authorities acknowledge that their investigation continues into the motivations of a 21-year-old man from Kosovo, Arid Uka, who is in custody after two U.S. airmen were killed and two others were wounded Wednesday in a shooting on a U.S. military bus at Frankfurt Airport but believe that Uka carried out the attack because he was a radicalized Muslim who wanted to attack Americans.

He apparently shouted out Allahu Ackbar before opening fire on the bus.

The suspect's uncle, 70-year-old Rexhep Uka, said Uka was born and raised in Germany and was a devout Muslim who worked at the airport.

He said Uka's grandfather was a religious leader at a mosque in the village of Zhabar, near Mitrovica, Kosovo.

Murat Uka, who identified himself as the alleged shooter's father, says the only thing he knew about his son was that he hadn't turned up at work on Wednesday.

The Frankfurt airport refused to comment on whether the suspect worked there.

The airport, continental Europe’s second biggest after Paris, is routinely used by American soldiers based in Germany for arrivals and departures.

ABC News reported that when the gunman opened fire, he shouted 'Allah Akbar' which is Arabic for 'God is Great'.

The airport is routinely used by US servicemembers as it is a major hub near major US bases in Germany, including those that provide access to the theaters of operation in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The death toll could have been much worse but for the fact that Uka's gun jammed after firing nine times, allowing police to take Uka down.

Protesters Continue Defying Mubarak's Regime

After yesterday's riots and skirmishes started when pro-Mubarak groups stampeded camels and horses through Tahrir Square and hundreds of people were injured, the Egyptian Prime Minister apologized for the violence. Gunfire overnight rang out through Tahrir Square and at least five people were killed. That was after hours of melee combat between the pro-Mubarak thugs and protesters included hurling rocks, Molotov cocktails and anything that wasn't firmly attached to the ground.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told state TV that the attack on the anti-government protesters which began late Wednesday was a "blatant mistake" and promised to investigate who was behind it. He said the actions of the pro-Mubarak supporters were "a million percent wrong."

In an attempt to quell the violence, Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters Thursday and deployed between them and the protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

The protesters accuse the regime of organizing the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement.

Government supporters charged central Tahrir Square Wednesday afternoon, sparking 15 hours of uncontrolled chaos, with the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs as soldiers largely stood by without intervening.
Video: Witness: Gangs roam Cairo with 'iron bars, knives' (on this page)

However, the military began to move with muscle to stop the fighting early Thursday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn.

Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters.

Multiple journalists were assaulted by mobs of demonstrators, making it more difficult for reporting to get out. So, what has the Egyptian government/military done?

Well, the military has begun rounding up the journalists.

The Egyptian military started rounding up journalists, possibly for their own protection, on Thursday after they came under attack from supporters of President Hosni Mubarak who have been assaulting anti-government protesters.

The U.S. State Department condemned what it called a "concerted campaign to intimidate" foreign journalists in Egypt. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that violence against journalists was part of a series of deliberate attacks and called on the Egyptian military to provide protection for reporters.

Foreign photographers reported a string of attacks on them by Mubarak supporters on Thursday near Tahrir Square, the scene of battles between supporters of Mubarak and protesters demanding he step down after nearly 30 years in power.

One Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver. A Greek freelance photographer was punched in the face by a group of men who stopped him on the street near Tahrir Square and smashed some of his equipment.

An Associated Press reporter saw eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the prime minister's office, not far from Tahrir Square

The Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the army to protect its offices and journalists.

Instead of capturing those who were assaulting the journalists, the military is squandering an opportunity to do the right thing to maintain the flow of information.

Despite the military's ongoing presence in Cairo, the violence continues as the pro-Mubarak thugs continue their ongoing assault on the protesters.

Meanwhile, jihadis are looking on and trying to figure out how they can take advantage of the situation to further their own agenda.

At Muslm.net, a Web site associated with Al Qaeda in Egypt, the call was for foreign youths to come to Egypt to join the jihad.

“Hey, brothers, the fall of Egypt’s tyrant is a fall of the earth’s tyrants,” it urged. “This is the time to slaughter the cow.”

That, one expert said, was about the most they could make of the crisis.

“Like always, Al Qaeda’s online movement is viewing this through consummately opportunist lenses,” said Jarret Brachman, a counterterrorism consultant and author of the book “Global Jihadism,” who monitors jihadi Web sites.

Elsewhere, Web postings urged jihadis in Egypt to attack the Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline, which goes to Israel. “This is a chance to stop the supply to the Israelites,” urged a writer on the Shumukh al-Islam forum, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist Web sites.

In Yemen, where Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is stronger, the group posted a videotaped speech by its deputy leader Abu Sufyan al-Azdi encouraging attacks on a Shiite group that it considered part of an Iranian advance on the country, according to SITE.

The jihadi groups, which created mayhem in Egypt in the early part of the last decade, were largely crushed by Mr. Mubarak’s government, and do not enjoy popular support. They face structural challenges in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative but nonviolent organization, forms the best-known political opposition.

Though many Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, began in the Muslim Brotherhood, the two movements have often contrary positions, and the Brotherhood on Tuesday announced its support of Mohamed ElBaradei, a liberal Muslim, to lead an opposition umbrella group in negotiations on a new government to replace Mr. Mubarak’s — a position that is antithetical to Al Qaeda, because it exalts human authority rather than divine.

On Hanein, a Qaeda Web site, a poster using the name Citizen of the Village called jihadis to join with the Muslim Brotherhood because both supported Islamic revolution, whatever their differences.

“You have printed the exact truth,” another replied. “We have to sacrifice for our religion and not let titles hinder us.”

From their weakened position, some jihadis struggled to figure out their role in the protests in Cairo.

In a post on the Ansar al-Mujahedeen forum, translated by SITE, an anonymous writer noted many jihadis’ objections to the demonstrators’ “mistakes and distance from religion.”

But he added, “it is nevertheless our duty not to ignore the benefits that may come about,” including an empty throne. “Jihadists may then leap on that throne.”

Yet, the writer also acknowledged that within the jihadi movement many felt that replacing Mr. Mubarak with a secular, democratic leader might mean simply exchanging one tyrant with ties to the United States with another. “So we wait and do not care for those revolutionaries against injustice, and we continue our jihadi path and the support of our jihadi brothers.” Ultimately, “separating the jihadi movement from the popular Muslim movement is the end of this movement,” he wrote.

Perhaps most ominous are the calls for the jihadi groups to come under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella to help topple the Mubarak regime.

UPDATE:
There are reports that the Egyptian Central Bank is imposing limits on how much depositors can withdraw. That would suggest that the Bank is contemplating a possible bank run - except that the news of those limits might itself bring on a bank run not just in Cairo, but around the country. That's going to upset the already delicate economic situation even further and would suggest that the government is even more worried about the financial picture than they're letting on.

Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that the Egyptian Constitution will be amended to impose term limits and who can or can't be elected to the presidency.

#
1457: More from Vice-President Suleiman, as reported by state TV: He says articles 76 and 77 of the Egyptian constitution will be amended, and other articles are open to amendment as well. Article 76 specifies who can or can't run for president, and article 77 says the president can be re-elected, without specifying a term limit.

That's not sufficient to placate the protesters.

The BBC is also reporting that at least one employee at the state-run television network has quit over the propagandizing nature of the network's reporting:

#
1450: Shahira Amin, was until yesterday a journalist with the state-run Egyptian channel, Nile TV. She told the BBC World Service that she had to leave her job because she no longer felt able to report the state view when what she saw on the street was so different: "We were basically showing the pro-Mubarak rallies all day long, as if that was the only thing that was happening. I couldn't show what was happening here in Tahrir. I couldn't even report the figures as they were. So no thank you. I feel liberated."

NYT Lede coverage continues here.

Mohamed ElBaradei has given Mubarak 48 hours to leave the country, but that's an idle threat since ElBaradei doesn't exactly have the power to make that happen. It's just a strong statement made in the hopes of currying favor among the disparate opposition groups.

UPDATE:
The regime is systematically attempting to thwart reporting of the protests, the riots by pro-Mubarak thugs, and otherwise getting the news out about the ongoing conditions in the country.

Many journalists covering the protests in Egypt were detained and attacked on Thursday, and human rights groups were also a target, in what appeared to be an escalating effort to block reports on the violence.

The Egyptian security forces were rounding up workers for human rights groups as well as foreign journalists, witnesses in Cairo said. Security police raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, where many nongovernmental organizations operate. They ordered people there to lie on the floor and disabled their mobile phones. Two people were being interrogated. The state news agency Thursday has asked foreign press to evacuate all the hotels near Tahrir Square.

The Committee to Protect Journalists was investigating at least 10 cases of reporters being detained on Thursday. The government told the journalists that they were not being arrested but rather taken into "protective custody," according to the group.

UPDATE:
There are protests in Gaza to support the anti-Mubarak protesters, but similar protests were disbanded by Hamas in Gaza and Fatah has prevented similar gatherings in the West Bank. The PA Prime Minister says that the Egyptian situation is blamed on the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday during a visit to Paris that he thinks the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is playing into the unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Fayyad said he thinks protesters' complaints stem partly from the internal situations in countries hit by unrest, but also from "a frustration, a desperation because of the failure of efforts to solve the Palestinian problem."

Ah, when all else fails, blame Israel. Never mind that the situation in Egypt is directly related to with the failure of Mubarak to provide socioeconomic opportunities and allow a political process to develop and flourish that was open - high food costs, high unemployment, and lack of political participation have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with the autocratic regime in place whose economic policies have led to more than half the population of Egypt living on less than $2 a day.

And you wonder why I have no expectation of success in a peace process when Israel is demonized its so-called partners in peace at every opportunity.

Ghailani Sentenced To Life In Prison For African Embassy Bombings

Despite being found not guilty on 280 counts of murder/attempted murder but guilty of a single charge of conspiracy to destroy government property, Ahmed Ghailani was sentenced to life in prison for the deadly African embassy bombings.

The nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people and wounded thousands.

Mr. Ghailani, 36, was convicted on Nov. 17 of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, while being acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy.

But the many acquittals seemed to carry little weight with the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court, who, before imposing the sentence, said that “Mr. Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions and the conspiracy he joined.”

The judge rejected the defense’s request for a lesser sentence, saying, “The very purpose of the crime was to create terror by causing death and destruction.”

Mr. Ghailani, in the six years that the government says that he was a fugitive after the attacks, trained in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda, and later became a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. He was captured in 2004 after a 14-hour gun battle with Pakistani authorities.

He will likely spend the rest of his life in Supermax.

The judge got this one right. The conspiracy to carry out the attacks was done to maximize the body count and inflict terror on the populace. The only suitable sentence was life in prison, so while it was unfortunate that the jury could not find him guilty on the hundreds of murder and other sundry charges, the end result is that he was still never going to live to see another day as a free man.

Rockets and Kassams Continue Hitting Israel From Gaza

Despite Hamas' claims that they are trying to stop further attacks, kassams and mortars continue slamming into Israel.

According to the report, Hamas also deployed operatives along the border with Israel in order to maintain control over the Strip.

Palestinian sources quoted by Asharq Alawsat said that representatives from the different Gaza groups refused to commit to a ceasefire with Israel or to prevent retaliation for Israeli actions. They did, however, agree not to initiate an escalation.

On Monday evening, three Kassam rockets were fired into Israeli territory and exploded in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The rockets fell in an open area and did not cause any injuries or damage.

We've seen a definite uptick in terror attacks against Israel since the beginning of the year no matter what Hamas is saying publicly.

At some point, Israel's government is going to have to deal with the Gazans militarily because the Palestinian terror groups are ratcheting up the attacks without fear of retaliation. When that happens, the propagandists will again claim Israel is the aggressor and that the attacks are somehow disproportionate in the force used.

They will ignore the rocket and mortar attacks that occur incessantly and without end. They will ignore the casualties among those in Israel who have been in range of those attacks. They will ignore that Israel's restraint has limits.

And the Gazan terrorists will have once again mistaken Israel's restraint for weakness as they continue attacking Israel and causing untold misery on their fellow Gazans.

Baltimore Man Arrested In Alleged Car Bomb Plot

Details are still sketchy at this point, but authorities have arrested a man from Baltimore, Maryland in connection with a plot to blow up an Armed Forces recruiting station in Cantonsville, Maryland.

The man -- described as a 21-year-old convert to Islam -- is upset that the military continues to kill Muslims, a law enforcement source said. His name and residence were not immediately made available.

Marcia Murphy with the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore said the suspect was arrested in the morning hours "in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland, with what he believed to be a vehicle bomb."

He is to make an initial appearance in a U.S. District Court in Baltimore at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The arrest comes after a high-profile string of unsuccessful terror attempts, such as last year's alleged Christmas Day bombing attempt, the botched Times Square car bombing, and the alleged Portland, Oregon, plan to attack a Christmas tree-lighting.

The suspect had been monitored for months by law enforcement agents, and Murphy said there was "no actual danger to the public" because the explosives were "inert."

The most recent attempted terror attacks in the US have been carried out by recent converts to Islam, who seem to be the most radicalized and most likely to follow through on threats to attack the US and its interests domestically.

It will be interesting to see whether ties to other known terrorists and their ideologues become known, including ties to Anwar al-Awlaki.

This plot was busted in much the same way as a plot to bomb a tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon.

UPDATE:
The suspect's name is Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammed Hussain.

Germans Raise Terror Alert Warnings For Airports and Rail Systems

The German government has raised warnings for rail and air travel based on increased chatter about a possible attack through the end of the month.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the government felt compelled to issue a warning of a “new threat level” after receiving intelligence from an unnamed foreign partner and gathering evidence domestically from Islamist groups.

“There is cause for concern, but no cause for hysteria,” de Maiziere told reporters today in Berlin. He said the public will begin to see an increased security presence, though “there are a large number of measures they won’t be able to see.”

The warning follows a worldwide terror alert prompted last month after bombs were found in air-cargo shipments. One bomb, packed inside a printer cartridge, was timed to explode on a flight as it reached the U.S. East Coast. That bomb, which originated in Yemen and was discovered at the U.K.’s East Midlands airport on Oct. 29, had passed through Germany via Cologne/Bonn airport.

A second bomb was found in Dubai. Both were addressed to synagogues in Chicago.

De Maiziere said Germany received additional intelligence after the incident and compared the threat level to the weeks before September 2009 federal elections, when a series of video messages emerged on the Internet warning of terror attacks in Germany. German authorities attributed those threats to an al- Qaeda-inspired campaign that aimed to influence the election, which gave Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term.

As always, the public has to remain vigilant and if they see something out of the ordinary in transit hubs, they should say something to the authorities. If you see something, say something.

Some of this may be the result of ongoing investigations into the failed Yemeni bombing campaign to take down aircraft with cargo bombs. However, there is a concern that active terror cells are operating out of Hamburg Germany.

A group of jihadists from the German city of Hamburg was alleged to be at the heart of the purported plot, European intelligence officials said.

Western intelligence officials say they learned about the alleged plot after Ahmed Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan descent, was arrested in Afghanistan in July and taken to the U.S. air base at Bagram for questioning.

"You are aware that the federal security authorities have been presuming a stronger threat situation from international terror for a considerable time," de Maiziere said. "In spring 2009 and in the time thereafter, there were detailed indications of possible attacks in the U.S.A., in Europe and in Germany as well."

US Predator airstrikes continue to target al Qaeda and Taliban targets along the Afghan-Pakistani border, including a strike that killed 20, which included at least four al Qaeda members (foreign fighters).

Yet, there are more pressing concerns with Yemen being a terror haven. Anwar al Awlaki has been insistent on carrying on the jihad against the West and exhorting jihadis to engage in war against the US in particular. His latest videos epitomize his strategy of carrying out attacks by any means necessary. Awlaki's followers have been more active in carrying out attacks against the US than those directly linked to Osama bin Laden of late - the Fort Hood shooter, Times Square bomber, and several other plots were linked to Awlaki. It would seem that Awlaki's al Qaeda affiliate branch in Yemen is best positioned to carry out attacks to the US, and it continues to represent an ongoing threat to US security interests around the world.