“So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel.”– Leon Uris, _The Haj_ (1984)

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see – a clash between foreign al-Qa’eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents.
Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al- Qa’eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.
The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code.

Read it all.
(Earlier post here)

Thailand: 600 dead in 2 years.
I did not know that.
While I appreciate that they have their hands full pursuing the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy Project in Iraq, one would think that our khaki-clad friends covering the international “militancy” beat might have mentioned it in passing.
Of course, without US involvement second tier terrorist zones like Thailand have nearly no hope of breaking into the international news.
Complicating matters, the news cycle is currently dominated by Tom Cruise’s opinions on the state of modern psychiatry, Tom Cruise’s latest movie, Tom Cruise’s religious beliefs. Cruise to carnage – it’s hard to segue.

“Speaking of being a head taller than her new fiancee – today militants in Thailand beheaded 5 hostages….”

You see what I mean. It’s a little abrupt.
Islamists lack a well known face who can compete with a Cruise or a Pitt, and even if they did, the nature of Islamofascist pop culture isn’t all that compatable with a star system. Hellfire missiles tend to follow them around, for one thing. Some new Jihadi explodes onto the scene and, well – he explodes onto the scene.
And what today’s TV news consumer wants aren’t stars, anyway. They want to get to know the little people – the man-on-the-street Jihadi, the insurgent in the next cubicle. The people they can identify with.
You’re thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you? If terrorism in out of the way locales wants to make it to the nightly news, they should look at working the entertainment angle.
Islamofascist Reality TV.
Survivor: Chechnya.
The Amazing Race In A Bomb Laden Fiat.
As we all know – ratings = news.

“Tonight on ABC News: an behind the scenes look at the making of the hit reality TV show, “The Infidel” as it winds to the season’s closing episode. Who gets the axe?“

Players clad in black, armed with swords and AK47’s against a tropical background – how could it miss?

Torture by Harry Potter, topless female interrogators and “99 Ways To Desecrate The Koran!”
Where do those infidel Americans find the time?

….more

“So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribeagainst the world. And all of us against the infidel.”– Leon Uris, _The Haj_ (1984)

The brutal acts of violence directed at civilians and Iraqi police is losing favor among some of the members of the Iraqi insurgency. During Operation Matador, we saw examples of the local tribes, some of whom are sympathetic or even participating in the insurgency, rise up to fight the foreign jihadis after their attempts to impose a Taliban-like rule of law in Western Anbar. Today’s New York Times reports further cases of “red- on-red”, AKA the enemy fighting amongst themselves. The Marines gladly watched as insurgents duked it out along the Syrian border.

That and much more at Winds of Change, including this from the NYT;

Marines patrolling this desert region near the Syrian border have for months been seeing a strange new trend in the already complex Iraqi insurgency. Insurgents, they say, have been fighting each other in towns along the Euphrates from Husayba, on the border, to Qaim, farther west. The observations offer a new clue in the hidden world of the insurgency and suggest that there may have been, as American commanders suggest, a split between Islamic militants and local rebels.
A United Nations official who served in Iraq last year and who consulted widely with militant groups said in a telephone interview that there has been a split for some time.

Via Instapundit

The Khadr family is in the news again. Niiice. Can we at least turf these losers off the welfare rolls, or is that asking too much?

Abdurahman has publicly declared them to be al Qaeda members. His sister has said they all wished for martyrdom. Family members have spoken scornfully of Canadian society, as they receive medical care and welfare payments that keep them in a pleasant apartment in Toronto.
“They’ve dubbed us the First Canadian Terrorist Family,” Omar’s sister Zaynab, 25, said recently in an interview. “I don’t want to be in a place where I’m not wanted. Give me my passport and I will leave.” The Canadian government has impounded their travel documents, pending resolution of their case.

As you’re reading this you can bet that someone has been turned away from a battered women’s shelter or housing program in Toronto today because of a lack of resources. Resources that are instead being spent keeping freakin’ terrorists in a cushy apartment.

I miss the days of mob rule. I really do.

Michael Totten remembers Samir Kassir ;

Samir dedicated his professional and his private life to ending tyranny in his country. He was an activist as well as a journalist � an honorable combination in an oppressed country like Lebanon � and he died for his efforts.

I think this blog is misnamed. May I suggest a change to The Bloodhound? Given a whiff of information about possible Sask Wheat Pool involvement in questionable oil-for-food contracts….

NIDAL, Abu (a.k.a. AL BANNA, Sabri Khalil Abd Al Qadir);
Founder and Secretary General of ABU NIDAL ORGANIZATION;
DOB May 1937 or 1940;
POB Jaffa, Israel (individual) [SDT]
This person was an infamous terrorist (now believed to have committed suicide in Baghdad), and is blacklisted by the Treasury Department (see the linked sanctions document).
[…]
When I did some background research on “Abu Nidal Organization” (ANO), I saw many references to close ties to Iraq, and routing funding through Lebanon. Perhaps a total co- incidence. But it is chilling to find a telephone listing in Montreal for an Albanna that is renting a furnished executive suite, and shares the same name as an executive for a company in Lebanon linked to Oil For Food contracts placed on hold by the US. Very chilling indeed. Scroll down to my earlier posts to see how the dots connect.

(Helpful blogging tip – it’s more useful to include a list of direct links to earlier referenced posts – surfers who come in to an individual entry page don’t have the ability to “scroll down”. )

Investigators are questioning a United Nations employee ” from the
Netherland found loitering near the building shortly after the explosion” at the British Consulate in NYC this morning… developing.

Whatever would they need these for… ?
Related: See Belmont Club, too.
Via CS&W

“There is more coverage about the Michael Jackson Trial than I’ll ever want to see and other trivial matters…. Things like that make the evening news, but nothing about my father, for example, who has been held hostage now for over 6 � months. I find this to be an
outrage.”–Carrie Hallums Cooper

Go read her interview with Rust Shackleford.

Rusty Shackleford:

American Roy Hallums was abducted from his temporary Baghdad home on November 1st, 2004. He was in Iraq as a civilian contractor working on rebuilding efforts. His mission had everything to do with helping the Iraqi people rebuild their country after decades of war, mismanagement, and terror under the Saddam Hussein regime.
Roy was taken hostage along with six other foreign nationals, including a Fillipino named Robert Tarongoy. The U.S. did not publish the fact that an American citizen had been taken hostage because of a policy of treating civilian abductions as purely private matters. The Jawa Report was the first publication to identify Roy Hallums as the hostage.

He has an interview with his wife, Susan Hallums.

Dear friends, colleagues, and fellow bloggers,
Lebanon still has some deadly serious problems aside from just the Syrian dictatorship and the secret police. Hezabollah runs their own terrorist state-within-a-state in the southern suburbs of Beirut. I went down there yesterday and blogged about it – with photos – here.
It was, um, creepy to say the least.
Best regards from abroad,
Michael J. Totten
Beirut, Lebanon

I’ve been reading Carnage and Culture since picking it up at a used bookstore at the Raleigh airport, and it’s proving a good read. Today, author Victor Davis Hanson responds to questions from Idris A. Ahmed, editor of the Saudi daily, Al-watan Newspaper.
Their wording makes me wonder if Mr. Ahmed shouldn’t have run for the chairmanship of the DNC.
It’s another good read.

Edmonton Journal;

Kassem Daher, linked by CSIS to al-Qaeda, is a Lebanese native who came to Canada in the 1980s as a business immigrant. Daher, who once ran movie theatres in Leduc and Ponoka, left Canada in 1998.
In 2000, he was arrested in Lebanon after a shootout between police and alleged terrorists. After his arrest, Daher’s relatives denied he was ever involved in terrorism and urged the Canadian government to intervene on his behalf. He was never formally charged with a crime in Lebanon or Canada and has been free on bail for the past year, Barbara Campion, a spokeswoman for CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) told CanWest News Service on Tuesday.
[…]
In one February 1995 conversation, Jayyousi, Daher and Zaky allegedly discussed how the network was moving jihadist soldiers between Algeria, Egypt, Somalia, and Eritrea. Daher said “we are in charge of it in Canada,” according to the affidavit, and added that “we have brothers in Lebanon who are ready to go to Chechnya but there’s no money.”
“Daher and Jayyousi also discussed setting up a for-profit business in order to fund jihad,” the affidavit states. “Daher then mentioned his organization, the Canadian Islamic Association, which he described as a ‘cover, I mean it’s very good.’ ”
In January 2000, several Lebanese soldiers were killed in clashes with suspected members of a terrorist group called Takfir wal-Hijra.
On Feb. 2, Lebanese troops descended on suspects in the city of Karaoun and a shootout ensued, described by local media as a “spectacular gunfight.”
Government authorities arrested Daher and eight other suspected Takfir wal-Hijra members, and seized a stockpile of weapons that included rocket launchers and mortars.
Campion said Tuesday that CSIS believes Daher is still in Lebanon.

From Hansard,

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan�Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, according to Unicef and other international groups, the Tamil Tigers forcibly recruit children and train them to become suicide bombers. Unicef has recorded over 3,500 cases like this.
In Canada the Tamil Tigers raise funds. Our allies, many other governments, have made it a matter of their foreign policy to ban the Tamil Tigers. The recruitment of children has continued even after the tsunami. Why will our government not ban this group?
Hon. Dan McTeague (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the LTTE has been listed in Canada pursuant, as the hon. member knows, to Canada’s United Nations suppression of terrorism regulations since 2001.
I want to point out to the hon. member that this listing makes it an offence for persons in Canada or Canadians outside of Canada to provide funds to the Tamil Tigers, as well as fundraising on its behalf. The hon. member clearly knows this. We will continue on that assumption because it is the right thing to do.
Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan�Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, that is a separate list and the member well knows that. That is not the list we are
talking about in terms of banning the Tamil Tigers.
I will refer to comments made by a former director of Canada’s intelligence service. He said that our government’s policy of not banning the Tamil Tigers, and they are not banned under the classification that the member just mentioned, even puts the good people of the Tamil community in Canada here at risk. The Tamil Tigers as a group are not banned in Canada.
What does a terrorist group have to do that is more horrific than train
children to become suicide bombers in order to be banned in this country?
Hon. Dan McTeague (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, to state the question is to answer it.
The hon. member knows full well that the government is concerned about
terrorism. It is one of the reasons we have spent a considerable amount of
money toward ensuring that we have safe and secure borders.
The hon. member also understands that there are, in essence, certain
considerations that he is taking into account, including the concern we all
have to ensure that the people of Tamil origin in this country are not
treated as if they are all terrorists.
The hon. member has the same objective that we do, which is to ensure
that we keep a safe country and to work hard to ensure that in Canada we
keep security as the number one issue.

To put it another way – all a terrorist group needs to do to remain off the banned list in Canada is to continue supporting the Liberal Party.

Poll results in Indonesia show that US sponsored tsunami relief may be having an effect on public opinion.

In the first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the beginning of the United States’ global war on terrorism, more people in the world’s largest Muslim country now favor American efforts against terrorism than oppose them.
[…]

For the first time ever in a major Muslim nation, more people favor US-led efforts to fight terrorism than oppose them (40% to 36%). �Importantly, those who oppose US efforts against terrorism have declined by half, from 72% in 2003 to just 36% today.

For the first time ever in a Muslim nation since 9/ 11, support for Osama Bin Laden has dropped significantly (58% favorable to just 23%).

65% of Indonesians now are more favorable to the United States because of the American response to the tsunami, with the highest percentage among people under 30.

Indeed, 71% of the people who express confidence in Bin Laden are now more favorable to the United States because of American aid to tsunami victims.

hat tip – Bill Strong

The RCMP seized a computer from the Canadian daughter of a suspected al-Qaeda financier when she entered Canada two weeks ago, according to a report.
Police officers took a laptop and other property from Zaynab Khadr as she entered Canada from Pakistan, the Toronto Star said Thursday.

Canadian border and security officials have also confirmed that they have possession of Fateh Kamel’s Playstation, Ahmed Ressam’s cell phone, and a Guy LaFleur rookie card once owned by Paul Rose.

Michael Totten;

The Iraqi Truth Project has released a DVD documentary called Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein. One of my favorite historians, Victor Davis Hanson, and one of the best up-and-coming documentary film-makers, Evan Coyne Maloney, both had a hand in this film. It will be shown at the war crimes trials of both “Chemical” Ali and Saddam Hussein.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I did watch the trailer. It damn near knocked me out of my chair. I knew right away I had to order this movie at once. I’ve been back to watch the trailer several times already. It’s an incredibly powerful minute-and- a-half of footage and music.

(The link to the trailer is at the top of the Iraq Truth Project page)

One Al Qaeda ,
Two Al Qaeda,
Three Al Qaeda,
Four…

One of Canada’s most notorious terrorist leaders has returned home to Montreal after serving four years in a French prison for his role in an international jihadist network.
Fateh Kamel, a 44-year-old Algerian-Canadian who headed a Montreal-based extremist cell, arrived in Montreal on Jan. 29 aboard an Air France flight, sources told the National Post.
A charismatic shopkeeper who led a double life as the international terrorist operative “Moustapha,” Kamel was dubbed the “Islamist Carlos” because of his remarkable exploits around the world.
“I am GIA,” he once said in a conversation intercepted by Italian counter-terrorism investigators. GIA is the French acronym for the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. “Killing is easy for me.”
The best-known member of the so-called Groupe Fateh Kamel was Ahmed Ressam, the failed refugee claimant from Montreal who tried to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the dawn of the millennium.
Captured in Jordan in 1999, Kamel was tried in Paris in 2001 and convicted for his involvement with terrorist groups. Although sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, he was released early for good behaviour. He has a Canadian wife and son.
[…]
Born in El Harrach, Algeria, Kamel moved to Canada in the 1980s and married a Quebec schoolteacher. He fought in the war in Afghanistan and later went to Bosnia, where the next international jihad was underway. He was injured there.
In Montreal, he was the boss of an Islamic extremist cell composed of Algerians and Moroccans. The group was a branch of the Algerian GIA, but also developed close links to bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

(five, six, seven, eight….)