USS Cole bombing survivor dies in Fla. home

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 29, 2:59 pm ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool lost his left foot when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of the USS Cole nearly a decade ago, but the injury was nothing compared with the mental torment that ravaged him almost daily.

He returned home to Florida suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder and frequent panic attacks so violent he would launch into seizures and even fractured his own wrist several times as he flailed, sister Natala Gokool said Tuesday.
One of the brothers he lived with found him dead in their home last Wednesday, just a week after his 31st birthday, Natala Gokool said. His cause of death was unknown, though she said foul play was not suspected. The family believes the seizures just became too much for his body to handle.

Labels: Fallen Heroes, terrorism, US Navy, USS Cole

photographer unknown

National Park Service photo

Labels: 9-11, 9/11, GWOT, terrorism, terrorists, World Trade Center

A man with "political and religious motives" killed a soldier just out of basic training and wounded another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center in Arkansas, police said.

The suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, reportedly had been under investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force after he traveled to Yemen and was arrested there for using a Somali passport.

According to ABC News, the investigation was in its early stages and was based on Muhammad's travel to Yemen. While there, Muhammed, a recent convert to Islam, studied jihad with an Islamic scholar, Jihadwatch.org reported.

A police report based on an interview with the suspect said Muhammad, 23, told police he observed two soldiers in uniform on Monday, drove up to the recruiting center in Little Rock and started shooting.

Labels: Jihad, Religion of Peace?, terrorism, terrorists

HANCOCK, N.Y. — If you didn't know where to look, you'd probably never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.

The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents. There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it is what can't be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.

Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle there.Federal authorities say Gilani was also one of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed responsible for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland, Ore.

[...]

Shoe bomber Richard Reid has been linked to the group, along with convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad. But it is Sheikh Gilani who creates the most controversy and concern.

Gilani has told his followers that "Zionist plotters" plan to rule the world, and he encourates them to leave America's cities and avoid the "decadence of a godless society." Gilani is the man American reporter Daniel Pearl was trying to interview in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and beheaded. The Sheikh was taken into custody and later released by Pakistani authorities; he denies any involvement in Pearl's murder.

[...]

Labels: Islam, Islamberg, Jamaat al-Fuqra, Religion of Peace?, Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, terrorism, terrorists

FBI Cuts Ties With CAIR Following Terror Financing Trial

The FBI severed its ties with all local branches of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Islamic advocacy group, an FBI official told FOX News.

The FBI is severing its once-close ties with the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, amid mounting evidence that it has links to a support network for Hamas.

All local chapters of CAIR have been shunned in the wake of a 15-year FBI investigation that culminated with the conviction in December of Hamas fundraisers at a trial where CAIR itself was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The U.S. government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

An official at the FBI's headquarters in Washington confirmed to FOX News that his office directed FBI field offices across the country to cut ties with local branches of CAIR.

More here

Labels: CAIR, Hamas, honor killing, Islam, Religion of Peace?, terrorism, terrorists

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The government agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.

[...]

"Our whole struggle is for the enforcement of Shariah (Islamic) law," Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. "If this really brings us the implementation of Shariah, we will fully cooperate with it."

[...]

...the main changes were included in existing laws stipulating Islamic justice that have never been enforced. They allow for Muslim clerics to advise judges when hearing cases, but do not ban female education or mention other strict interpretations of Shariah espoused by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Labels: GWOT, Pakistan, Religion of Peace?, Taliban, terrorism, terrorists

At Least One American Believed Killed by Freed Gitmo Prisoners
If the Guantanamo prison base is shut down, critics say, some military combatants currently held there will be sent back to their home countries — where they will rejoin terrorist groups and ultimately kill Americans.

It's already happened.

A New York woman was killed in a terrorist attack at the U.S. Embassy in Sana, Yemen, in September. And U.S. counterterrorism officials have now confirmed that Said Ali al-Shihri, 35, who was released from the Guantanamo Bay prison center in 2007, is the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in that Mideast country and is a suspect in the attack.

State Department officials have identified Susan Elbaneh, 18, of Lackawanna, N.Y., as one of at least 16 people — including her Yemeni husband — who died in the coordinated strike.

Elbaneh was initially thought to be the first American victim of a freed enemy combatant, but a Defense Department source told FOXNews.com Friday that she was not the first American "possibly" killed by a former Guantanamo detainee.

"Due to classification, I cannot get into who or when other than to say it was before the Embassy attack," the source wrote....

Labels: Gitmo, GWOT, politics, terrorism, terrorists

Labels: opinion, politics, terrorism, United Nations

CIA Director: Al Qaeda is Job 1 of Top 10 Security Challenges in 2009

Iran, North Korea and Al Qaeda are still in, but Iraq is out of the list of top 10 national security threats the United States is likely to face in the coming year.

As Leon Panetta faces a Senate confirmation hearing this week to be the next CIA director, outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden says several regions and disputes could create serious headaches for the intelligence community in 2009.

Hayden, a Pittsburgh native, put together his list on the way back from a recent Steelers game. It will not be formally presented to his successor, but it does represent the top issues Hayden anticipates will be faced in 2009.

"This is an informal list that I kind of jotted down, what are the things I would fret about over the next 12 months," he told FOX News in the second of two interviews about the nation's greatest security challenges.

"I don't want to get in the business of suggesting ways to threaten the well-being of the planet, but frankly that is what we are in the business of thinking about every day here with our analytic workforce."

Hayden said top of the list is still Al Qaeda, which has been working on expanding its associations with other groups around the world. Hayden said this development is particularly troubling because groups like Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai last November, start to think outside their region and focus on the United States and elsewhere.

Labels: politics. CIA, President Barack H. Obama, terrorism

Dismay as Gadhafi chosen to lead African Union

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Moammar Gadhafi of Libya was elected Monday as leader of the African Union, a position long sought by the eccentric dictator pushing his oil-rich nation into the international mainstream after years of isolation.

Some African leaders offered tepid praise for the choice of Gadhafi, who grabbed power in a 1969 coup. Rights groups called him a poor model for Africa at a time when democratic gains are being reversed in countries such as Mauritania and Guinea.

Once ostracized by the West for sponsoring terrorism, Gadhafi has been trying to increase Libya's presence on the global stage and its regional influence — mediating African conflicts, sponsoring efforts to spread Islam on the continent and pushing for the creation of a single African government.

He attended the session dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe and flanked by seven extravagantly dressed men who said they are the "traditional kings of Africa." Gadhafi told about 20 of his fellow heads of state that that he would work to unite the continent into "the United States of Africa."

Labels: Qaddafi Duck, terrorism, terrorists

Labels: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Operation Enduring Freedom, Pakistan, terrorism, terrorists, United Nations

Bomber's Martyrdom Tape Renews Fears Over Consequences of Closing Gitmo

As President Obama pushes for the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison, the debate over where to house the terror detainees being held there is heating up.

An exclusive video of a former Gitmo detainee's martyrdom tape, obtained by FOX News, is a reminder of the concerns that terror suspects — who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay — are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies.

Abdallah Ali al-Ajmi was transferred back to his home country of Kuwait after his release from Guantanamo in 2005. Last April he blew himself up in a homicide attack that killed 12 people in Mosul, Iraq.

Al-Ajmi, known in Guantanamo as Detainee 220, made his martyrdom tape before the attack.

"In the name of Allah, most compassionate, most merciful and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet," al-Ajmi says in the video. "I thank Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who freed me from Guantanamo prison and, after we were tortured, connected me with the Islamic State of Iraq [ISI]. And it is the gift of Allah to follow the path of this nation, the ISI."

In the video, translated by the NEFA Foundation, a non-profit that tracks terror groups, al-Ajmi mentions Guantanamo Bay right away. For many jihadists, having served time at Guantanamo is seen as a badge of honor.

Labels: Gitmo, terrorism, terrorists

NEW YORK — In 1973, a young terrorist named Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary entered the United States and quickly began plotting an audacious attack in New York City.

He built three powerful bombs — bombs powerful enough to kill, maim and destroy — and put them in rental cars scattered around town, near Israeli targets.

The plot failed. The explosive devices did not detonate, and Al-Jawary fled the country, escaping prosecution for nearly two decades — until he was convicted of terrorism charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to 30 years in federal penitentiary.

But his time is up.

In less than a month, the 63-year-old Al-Jawary is expected to be released. He will likely be deported; where to is anybody's guess. The shadowy figure had so many aliases it's almost impossible to know which country is his true homeland.

Labels: terrorism, terrorists, The Enemy Within

Obama Administration Moves to Halt Guantanamo Trials

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Military judges on Wednesday will consider motions by the Obama administration to suspend the Guantanamo war crimes trials for 120 days during a review of the system for prosecuting suspected terrorists.

The motions, filed late Tuesday at the direction of President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will be heard in the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and of Canadian Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.

Labels: Barack Obama, Gitmo, GWOT, politics, President Barack H. Obama, terrorism, terrorists

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – Two alleged orchestrators of the 2001 attacks on America casually declared their guilt on Monday in a messy and perhaps final session of the Guantanamo war crimes court. This week's military hearings could be the last at Guantanamo — President-elect Barack Obama has said he would close the offshore prison and many expect him to suspend the military tribunals and order new trials in the U.S.

Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the terrorist attacks, were unapologetic about their roles during a series of outbursts as translators struggled to keep up and the judge repeatedly sought to regain control.

"We did what we did; we're proud of Sept. 11," announced Binalshibh, who has said he wants to plead guilty to charges that could put him to death. The judge must first determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

Mohammed shrugged off the potential death sentence for the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We don't care about capital punishment," said Mohammed, whose thick gray beard flows to the top of his white prison jumpsuit. "We are doing jihad for the cause of God."

Labels: 9/11, Al Qaeda, Gitmo, Religion of Peace?, terrorism, terrorists

Feds Say Obama Prayer Leader Is From Group Linked to Hamas

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is the leader of a group that federal prosecutors say has ties to terrorists.

A Muslim scholar chosen to speak at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural prayer service Wednesday is the leader of a group that federal prosecutors say has ties to terrorists.

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is one of many religious leaders scheduled to speak at the prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral.

Mattson has been the guest of honor at State Department dinners and has met with senior Pentagon officials during the Bush administration. She also spoke at a prayer service at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Mattson, who was elected president of the society in 2006, is a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn.

But in 2007 and as recently as last July, federal prosecutors in Dallas filed court documents linking the Plainfield, Ind.-based Islamic society to the group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

Neither Mattson nor her organization have been charged. But prosecutors wrote in July that they had "a wide array of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking" the group to Hamas and other radical groups.

Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for Obama's inaugural committee, would not discuss the case or say whether the committee knew about it.

"She has a stellar reputation in the faith community," Douglass said Saturday night.

The existence of the court documents was first reported by Politico.

Labels: Barack Obama, Hamas, politics, terrorism, terrorists, The Enemy Within

The explosion of the Marine Corps building in Beirut, Lebanon, created a large cloud of smoke that was visible from miles away. Official USMC Photo


This day in 1983, at approximately 6:20 a.m., a yellow Mercedes delivery truck drove up to the Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport, and charged through the barbed-wire fence. It passed between sentry posts (the Marine sentries did not have loaded weapons), and smashed into the the lobby of Marine headquarters.

One of the sentries reported that the driver was smiling as he passed them.

The truck, which was loaded with the equivalent of about 12,000 pounds of TNT. The four-story building collapsed, crushing many inside to death. The blast produced a mushroom cloud.

Not quite half a minute later, the French Paratrooper barracks suffered the same fate. Another truck loaded with explosives detonated in the underground parking garage, levelling the headquarters.

Rescuers had to contend with sniper fire, but did manage to pull some survivors to safety in the days that followed.

241 American servicemembers were killed; 18 were Navy, 3 Army, and the rest were U.S. Marines. 60 were injured. It was the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marines since Iwo Jima.

The French lost 58 paratroopers; 15 were injured.

Three Lebanese were also killed - two at the Marine barracks, and one at the French barracks.

In response, President Ronald Reagan pledged to keep a military force in the country, despite the "despicable act." Vice President George Bush toured the site three days later, stating that the U.S. would not be cowed by terrorists.

The French retaliated with attacks on Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions in the Bekka Valley; the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was believed to be assisting in training Hezbollah fighters.

Other than limited shelling, the U.S. offered no significant military response to the attacks. A planned strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was aborted due to fears of damaging relations with Lebanon's Arab neighbors.

The Marines were moved to an offshore location. In February, 1984, the International Peacekeeping Force withdrew from Lebanon.

In the absence of the lack of strong U.S. military response, and with the withdrawal of the peacekeepers, terrorists celebrated what they saw as a victory. Terrorist attacks against Westerners, and particularly Americans, increased substantially.

The event is widely viewed as the opening salvo of the War on Terror.


For more on the Marine Barracks Bombing:
The Beirut Memorial Online

U.S. Marine Corps Website - 25 Years Later

How it Happened (Military Times)

Ceremony on Sunday marks 25th anniversary of Beirut barracks bombing

"Johnny, there ain't no BLT building."



There are 273 names engraved on the walls of the Memorial. In addition to the inscribed names of those who died in Beirut and those who have died since of injuries from that blast, there are the names of the three Marine pilots from the area who were killed in Grenada. Photo by Lance Cpl. Joseph D. Day

Labels: Beirut, Fallen Heroes, terrorism, USMC

Hijacked Iranian Ship Was A Dirty Bomb Meant For Israel On Yom Kippur

On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant, 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of Somalian pirates who grab suitable commercial ships and hold them and their cargos and crews for ransom. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

Within a period of three days, those pirates who had boarded the ship and opened the cargo container with its gritty sand-like contents, all developed strange health complications, to include serious skin burns and loss of hair. And within two weeks, sixteen of the pirates subsequently died, either on the ship or on shore.

Labels: Iran, terrorism

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A huge truck bomb devastated the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Saturday, creating a chaotic, fiery scene as rescue crews searched for survivors. At least 60 people reportedly have been killed, including one American.

The blast left a 30-foot deep crater in front of the main building, where flames poured from the windows and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building — which was in danger of collapsing.

Labels: terrorism