terror – praag.org

Government says no imminent danger to US interests

The South African government is monitoring a number of people linked to a reported threat to US interests, but was satisfied that no one faced any imminent danger, the security minister said.

The US Embassy warned its citizens on Tuesday of a possible attack by militants, a rare security alert in a stable democracy seldom associated with Islamist militancy.

State Security Minister David Mahlobo said the US Embassy had shared information linked to the warning with his officials.

“This is not a new information, the information has been shared over the past few days, the information has been acted upon,” he said.

“In terms of our own threat analysis, we had to do a threat analysis, who is the source and what is happening, and came to the conclusion that there is no immediate danger.”

In Washington, a State Department official said the security message was to inform US citizens that militants may be targeting US interests in South Africa, including US government facilities and businesses.

“There is no additional information as to timing or potential targeting,” the official said.

“US citizens should be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance their personal security.”

The embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town closed for several days in 2009 after what US officials described as a specific threat to diplomatic missions in South Africa.

Source: Reuters

Al Qaeda urges attacks on super rich Americans

A notorious al Qaeda magazine is encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks on U.S. economic leaders, including Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett.

The list in Inspire magazine also included industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch, internet entrepreneur Larry Ellison, and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. A prominent economist was also on the list but asked that his name be withheld. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was named, though not Janet Yellen, who succeeded him.

Also pictured was Jim Walton, one of the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, although he was misidentified in the caption as his late father, Sam Walton. Several other names on the list were misspelled.

The slickly produced magazine article begins with a photo illustration showing blood-spattered pictures of several of the leaders next to a dripping gun. Its stated goal is to derail the “revival of the America Economy.”

The article says the “economic personalities” and “wealthy entrepreneurs” can get off the list by withdrawing their money from U.S. banks, investing their wealth outside American soil, and denouncing support for Israel.

Source: NBC News

US alert on South African terror threat

The US on Tuesday warned its citizens in South Africa of a “specific, credible” threat.

The US embassy said on its website it had “information that extremists may be targeting US interests in South Africa, to possibly include US government facilities and other facilities identifiable with US business interests.

There is no additional information as to timing or potential targeting”. Americans were urged to increase vigilance and to follow any instructions they may get from South African authorities regarding their safety.

The Ministry of State Security’s spokesperson Brian Dube spoke to The Citizen late last night after flying to Cape Town, and said the Minister had “noted media reports relating to the statement issued by the U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa relating to security concerns.”

“We confirm that there has been an interaction between ourselves and the U.S. authorities on this matter,” Dube said. “At this stage we can confirm that after verification of same by our law enforcement agencies, there appears to be no immediate threat or danger. We will however continue to monitor the situation, working with everyone including the U.S. authorities.”

Dube added the Minister wanted to reassure the public government would continue its efforts to ensure everyone’s safety. “We reiterate our resolve to work with members of the international community in creating a safer and secure world and to ensure that South Africa remains a safe destination for anyone who wishes to travel here,” Dube said.

US embassy spokesperson Cynthia Harvey said its department of state had no higher priority than the protection of its citizens. “When we receive specific, credible, non-counterable threat information, it is a standard practice worldwide for US embassies and consulates to issue Security and Emergency Messages such as the Security Message issued today by US Embassy Pretoria,” Harvey said.

The warning comes ahead of the anniversary of 9/11, a set of attacks in America on September 11, 2001 by Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda which killed nearly 3 000 people.

“The US government, as it does in any investigation into terrorist threats against American interests around the world, will cooperate with SA authorities,” Harvey said.

The US embassy in SA told its nationals to “be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security”.

Ex-Saffer foils terror attack on French train

When a gunman armed with an AK-47 attempted to attack a packed passenger train in a terror attack in France, Chris Norman, 62 – who grew up in South Africa – thought he was going to die.

But he was determined to die fighting, and therefore “sprang into action”.

Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, has been arrested by French police after opening fire in the packed high-speed train. But his attack was cut short by four men, including Norman and Americans Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler.

The train was travelling between Amsterdam and Paris on Friday and the attack happened shortly after the gunman emerged from the toilet inside carriage 12. One man was hit in the neck by a bullet as terrified passengers and staff fled. Three people were injured in the attack, including Stone.

The men “tackled, beat up and hogtied the suspect”. Besides the assault rifle, they also confiscated a Luger pistol, ammunition and a box cutter.

Norman said he was scared when they decided to tackle the would-be attacker but carried on, with the idea of stopping him.

He spoke to French media after the eventful train journey.

“My first reaction was to sit down and hide. Then I heard one guy, an American, say, ‘go get him’. Then I heard another American saying, ‘don’t you do that buddy’, or something like that.

“I think that was it. So then I decided it was perhaps the only time or only chance to take on the terrorist.”

Norman said the man had extra magazines for the AK-47 and he thought he was going to die.

“My thoughts were I’m probably going to die anyway. I thought I’d rather die being active, trying to take him down than sitting in the corner and being shot. But once you start moving you are not afraid anymore,” he said.

Norman lives in France and has a UK passport. He was born in Uganda and grew up in South Africa before starting his own IT consultancy business in 2012.

Source: IOL

ISIS set up stronghold in Europe

Security services think the Osve area in Bosnia is used for ISIS training camps and could be a base for devastating terror attacks on the West.

Islamic State have established a stronghold in mainland Europe, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals.

Terrorists are secretly buying land in an isolated village, surrounded by deep woodland.

Security services think the area in Bosnia is used for ISIS training camps and could be a base for devastating terror attacks on the West.

Crucially, the location gives IS a key strategic position due to its proximity to the Mediterranean which is used by extremists from Syria, Iraq and North Africa.

At least 12 ISIS fighters trained in the village of Osve have left for Syria in recent months and five are reported to be dead.

Terror expert Dzevad Galijasevic said: “From this village a large number of people went to Syria and are going constantly.

“The chosen location of some of the properties is on a hill, where there is no possibility to approach without being seen. It is clear that the source of the terrorist threat is right there. It is a major threat.

“There is no one there who isn’t ready to respond to the summons to jihad.”

We visited the hilltop village 60 miles from Sarajevo and six miles from the town of Maglaj afternoon.

It is not mapped by GPS and is only accessible by steep and winding roads barely wide enough for cars to pass.

Bosnia is an ideal position for jihadis travelling illegally from Syria to Greece, via Turkey, and then through Macedonia and Serbia.

Guns and other weapons are easier to obtain in Bosnia than in other parts of Europe due to illegal ownership following the conflicts of the 1990s.

Five months ago, anti-terror cops raided the village of Gornja Maoca in the north of the country following reports of houses flying the ISIS flag.

The area is home to followers of the strict Sunni Islam Wahhabi movement. It has been raided by police several times over the past decade due to suspected links with radical groups.

Source: Daily Mirror

Blast kills dozens in Nigeria

A bomb blast hit a busy meat market in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday, killing as many as 50 people, an eyewitness and a hospital source told Reuters.

The bomb which was concealed under a butcher’s table in the market went off at around 1pm local time, killing shoppers and travellers, a military source said.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the latest explosion, which follows two bomb attacks over the weekend that killed at least 30 people and bore the hallmarks of militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

The group, which new President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush, has killed thousands of people and displaced around 1.5 million in its bid to establish an Islamic caliphate in the northeast of Africa’s biggest economy and top oil exporter.

Lawal Kawu, a paramedic, said 31 charred bodies had been evacuated to the teaching hospital in Maiduguri, and several other people were brought in with severe injuries.

Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion.

Source: Reuters

Interpol warns that ISIS is gaining ground

A growing number of extremist groups from Africa to southeast Asia are shifting their allegiance to the Islamic State group, leading to greater risks for “cross-pollination” among conflicts beyond Syria and Iraq, the head of Interpol said Friday.

Juergen Stock cited this shift as an emerging trend at a UN Security Council meeting along with changing travel methods being used by foreign fighters seeking to join groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Stock was a keynote speaker at a meeting attended by half a dozen ministers including US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to assess progress in implementing a US-sponsored resolution adopted last September requiring all countries to prevent the recruitment and transport of would-be foreign fighters preparing to join extremist groups.

On Friday, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement calling for a significant increase in border controls, improved cooperation at all levels “including preventing terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources.”

Johnson said the United States will be developing a new passenger data-screening and analysis system within the next 12 months which will be made available to the international community at no cost for both commercial and government organizations to use.

In a report obtained by The Associated Press on April 1, the panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions against al-Qaeda said the number of fighters leaving home to join al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and other countries has spiked to more than 25,000 from over 100 nations. The panel said its analysis indicated the number of “foreign terrorist fighters” worldwide increased by 71 percent between mid-2014 and March 2015.

Source: AP

Jordanians support ISIS

In a recent survey conducted by AlJazeera.net, the website for the Al Jazeera Arabic television channel, respondents overwhelmingly support the Islamic State, with 81% voting “YES” on whether they approved of ISIS’s conquests in the region.

The poll, which asked in Arabic, “Do you support the organizing victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?” has generated over 38,000 responses thus far, with only 19% of respondents voting “NO” to supporting ISIS.

ISIS pose a direct threat to the “entire civilised world”, the Queen of Jordan has declared, as she urged Muslims around the world to rise up against the group.

She urged people to ignore the “clash of civilizations”. Queen Rania said the war against ISIS must happen with the support of Britain and other allies in the Western world.

She spoke to leftist journalists earlier and said that ISIS threatened the One World ideology because it was “medieval”. She said all “modern” people should unite against the scourge.

Even as Jordan launched intense airstrikes against the Islamic State to avenge the extremist group for burning to death a captured Jordanian fighter pilot, the militants enjoy large support in the kingdom.

Unprecedented security at Zim Pakistan clash

Thousands of police and paramilitaries have been deployed and helicopters will be buzzing over Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which has been turned into a fortress for Friday’s Twenty20 cricket game against lowly Zimbabwe.

Authorities have mounted an unprecedented operation to guard insurgency-hit Pakistan’s first home international in six years.

The fixture is Pakistan’s first on home soil since 2009, when militants launched a gun attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, killing eight police and civilians and leaving seven players wounded.

Roads around the stadium will be closed and shops and restaurants have been shuttered for the duration of the series, consisting of two Twenty20s and three ODIs, all in Lahore.

Jammers are in use to cut out radio signals, hampering wifi at the stadium, and fans will have to go through metal detectors at three security checkpoints, raising the prospect of hours of queuing.

Zimbabwe have been under tight wraps since their arrival early on Tuesday, when they were whisked from the airport to their hotel watched by thousands of security personnel.

They are far from the usual arrangements for a cricket match, and Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said it was a new experience for him and his team.

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi hoped the first ball on Friday will refocus attention on cricket as he attempts to lift his team after a poor World Cup and series in Bangladesh.

Despite the tight security and the late confirmation of the series, following a massacre in an attack on a bus in Karachi, organisers say the 27,000-capacity venue is a sell-out for Friday’s game.

Source: AFP

ISIS posts warning after Garland attack

The terrorist group ISIS says they will murder Pamela Geller and kill anyone who shields her.

The terrorists also say they have 71 fighters in 15 different states and they 23 have signed up already for missions like the failed Sunday attack in Garland, Texas.

The attack by the Islamic State in America is only the beginning of our efforts to establish a wiliyah in the heart of our enemy. Our aim was the khanzeer Pamela Geller and to show her that we don’t care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter. This will heal the hearts of our brothers and disperse the ones behind her. To those who protect her: this will be your only warning of housing this woman and her circus show. Everyone who houses her events, gives her a platform to spill her filth are legitimate targets. We have been watching closely who was present at this event and the shooter of our brothers. We knew that the target was protected. Our intention was to show how easy we give our lives for the Sake of Allah.

We have 71 trained soldiers in 15 different states ready at our word to attack any target we desire. Out of the 71 trained soldiers 23 have signed up for missions like Sunday, We are increasing in number bithnillah. Of the 15 states, 5 we will name… Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, California, and Michigan. The disbelievers who shot our brothers think that you killed someone untrained, nay, they gave you their bodies in plain view because we were watching.

The next six months will be interesting, To our Amir Al Mu’mineen make dua for us and continue your reign, May Allah enoble your face.

The threat was posted by Abu Al Ameriki.

Arabian media reports ties between ISIS and US

Arabian media have reported Wednesday about ties between Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the US. The reports appeared in response to US Senator John McCain’s attempts to deny his communication with al-Baghdadi.

The main evidence is the picture taken in 2013 in Syria, where Senator McCain met with opposition representatives whom the US supported in their fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Elaph newspaper published an article titled “Photo of A-Baghdadi and McCain Adds Uncertainty to Relations between Washington and ISIS,” stating that the American politician held talks with al-Baghdadi at the meeting with the Syrian opposition.

Elaph noted that the photo triggered an “uproar” in social networks, with users claiming it provides a significant proof that there is secret connection between the US and the Islamist leader. Internet users say that the US, declaring the group its enemy number one in public, in reality provides financial and surveillance assistance to ISIS. Some users even go as far as claiming that the Islamic State, like al-Qaeda, was created by Americans.

The media wonder – why has not America destroyed al-Baghdadi and released him from a US prison? Elaph wrote that this proves there are ties between the Islamist and the White House, reminding readers that al-Baghdadi was released “in odd circumstances”. However, not long after releasing him, Americans declared al-Baghdadi “terrorist number one.”

Egyptian daily Al-Wafd published an article titled “Islamic State – America’s Mad Wolf,” saying Washington created the organization with the support from British and Pakistani special services. The main aim of Islamic State is to destroy Syria and Iraq, and the daily claims that US war on Islamism is “a big lie” that is used to justify Washington’s involvement in the framework of its military strategy. Militants’ attack on Iraq in 2014 is described by the newspaper as one of the operations planned with the participation of McCain and with the support of US and NATO.

Source: Itar-TASS

Obama says Islam has always been part of United States

We hear a lot about the United States’ Judeo-Christian heritage, but according to President Obama, “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”

That’s what the president told a White House conference on “countering violent extremism” on Wednesday.

In his speech on Wednesday, Obama was making the point that Western nations must show that they “welcome people of all faiths,” at a time when “extremists” are saying that Western nations are “hostile to Muslims.”

However, America’s first dealings with Islam were tense and unpleasant.

According to a Heritage Foundation paper, shortly after America’s founding, the United States “was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era,” who looted American ships and captured American sailors, holding them for ransom or selling them as slaves.

The paper notes that America’s struggle with Muslim pirates from the Barbary States (modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776 and continued for roughly four decades.

In his remarks on Wednesday, President Obama said Muslim Americans now serve as police officers, firefighters, soldiers, “and in our intelligence communities and in homeland security.”

He said Muslim American heroes are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, “having given their lives in defense of all of us.”

“And, of course, that’s the story extremists and terrorists don’t want the world to know — Muslims succeeding and thriving in America. Because when that truth is known, it exposes their propaganda as the lie that it is.

“It’s also a story that every American must never forget, because it reminds us all that hatred and bigotry and prejudice have no place in our country. It is not just counterproductive. It doesn’t just aid terrorists. It’s wrong. It’s contrary to who we are.”

So-called hate crimes against Muslims escalated in this country after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 — attacks perpetrated by Islamic radicals — but they have never reached the level of hate crimes against Jews, according to the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.

In 2013, for example, 62.4 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of anti-Jewish bias, while 11.6 percent were victims of anti-Islamic bias.

Compare that with the year before the 2001 terror attacks: In 2000, of the 1,699 victims of anti-religious hate crime, 74.6 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias; and only 2.1 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Islamic bias.

President Obama on Wednesday stressed that U.S. is not at war with Islam:”We are at war with people who have perverted Islam,” he said.

He also said the West and Islam are not in conflict; and that Islam is not incompatible with modern life.

Source: CNS News

Bibi urges EU Jews to move to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged European Jews to move to Israel after a Jewish man was killed in an attack outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue.

“Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” Netanyahu said in a statement, repeating a similar call after attacks by jihadists in Paris last month when four Jews were among the dead.

Two police officers were also wounded in Sunday’s attack in Copenhagen, one of two fatal shootings in the normally peaceful Danish capital on the weekend.

In the first attack on Saturday, a 55-year-old man was killed at a panel discussion about Islam and free speech attended by a Swedish cartoonist behind controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

“Extremist Islamic terrorism has struck Europe again… Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews,” Netanyahu said in the statement.

The Israeli prime minister said his government was to adopt a $45 million (39.5 million euro) plan “to encourage the absorption of immigrants from France, Belgium and Ukraine”.

“To the Jews of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is waiting for you with open arms,” Netanyahu said.

He had made a similar call after three days of bloodshed in Paris that started with the January 7 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people were gunned down, followed the next day by the shooting death of a policewoman just outside the city.

On January 9, the gunman who killed the policewoman took hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris. He killed four Jewish hostages before police shot him dead when they raided the store.

The bodies of the four were later flown to Israel where they were buried.

Officials in Copenhagen described the weekend attacks as an act of terror and said the man believed to be behind the shootings was shot dead after opening fire on police at a rail station.

The Palestinians also condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” with PLO official Saeb Erakat calling the Copenhagen attacks “absolutely unjustifiable.”

“Terrorism knows no religion or nationality, and our opposition to such violence must be firmly united. We stand in solidarity with the Danish people,” Erakat said in a statement.

Source: AFP

Terrorists celebrate 20 years of terror

Former Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled’s visit to Soweto on Sunday turned into a celebration of violence, armed terror and crime “for a noble cause”.

Posters of Nelson Mandela adorned the walls of the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre in Soweto with the words: “The belligerent attitude adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable.” Mandela however had welcomed armed terror in South Africa.

One of the main reasons why Mandela had lingered in prison for 27 years, was because he had refused to call off the ANC’s armed struggle campaign against innocent civilians.

The Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Mcebisi Skwatsha reminded the audience that weapons were an essential part of the struggle: “You are told it’s a matter of life or death, but the cause is a noble one. It was a matter of being inducted into the use of an AK47.”

“Two people stood out for us young ones. It was that picture of comrade Leila carrying an AK47. And it was also a pic of comrade Che Guevara carrying an AK47.

Without irony Skwatsha said Khaled, like Nelson Mandela, had been labelled a terrorist.

“The chief terrorist became the president of a liberated South Africa. Look at the difference the terrorists have made in our country in the last 20 years.”

Since Mandela’s release South Africa has become a criminal paradise, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world and a child rapist’s dream.

Max Ozinsky, a national executive committee member of the MK Veterans Association, said Israel and apartheid South Africa had worked together to fight the ANC and its “armed struggle against apartheid and its supporters”.

Skwatsha said he had been involved in terror against civilians in South Africa. He joined the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe “at an early age in the 1980s”.

Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association chairman Kebby Maphatsoe meanwhile declared war on the EFF, saying it was “in parliament because of our sweat and blood”.

He told a raucous crowd at the Centre: “They’ve declared war on us and we’ve been left with no choice but to defend ourselves.”

The mostly ANC crowd chanted struggle threats against EFF members, promising violence.

Khaled, who has reportedly had no less than nine facial plastic surgery interventions, leaves for Jordan today.

Her visit was to raise funds for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel in South Africa.

“Now you’re enjoying the streets of Soweto. I feel I’m with my family. You’re sisters and brothers. We [Palestinians] were celebrating in 1994 when you got your elections. Freedom is important because it is dignity. Why don’t they [Israelis] admit that occupation is terrorism?”