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Exclusive: U.S. Studying Two Dozen 'Clusters' of Possible Homegrown Terrorists

August 15, 2007 7:00 AM
Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & Maddy Sauer Report:

U.S. law enforcement officials say they have identified more than two dozen "clusters" of young Muslim men in the northeast United States who are on a path that could lead to homegrown terror, ABC News has learned.

"Any one of those clusters may be capable of carrying out a terrorist action that will result in fatalities," Rand Corporation terrorism expert Brian Jenkins tells ABC News.
In a report to be made public today, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly concludes the 9/ll attacks were an "anomaly" and the most serious terror threat to the country comes from clusters of "unremarkable" individuals who are on a path that could lead to homegrown terror.

Watch Brian Ross' Report on "Good Morning America"

The report by the NYPD intelligence division, "Radicalization in the West and the Homegrown Threat," plots "the trajectory of radicalization" and tracks the path of a non-radicalized individual to an individual with the willingness to commit an act of terror, multiple sources say.
"The threat is real; this is not some bogey man we are creating here. There are individuals who are proselytizing, inciting angry young men to go down this path," said Jenkins, who reviewed and contributed to the NYPD report.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

The report identifies mosques, bookstores, cafes, prisons and flop houses as what it calls "radicalization incubators" that provide "extremist fodder or fuel for radicalization."
The leader of an American Arab civil rights group labeled the NYPD report as "unfortunate stereotyping" and at odds with federal law enforcement findings that the threat from homegrown terrorists was minimal.

"It is completely un-American; it goes against everything we stand for," said Kareem Shora, executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "We do not want to alienate any segment of any community, and by using that language you are actually aiding the extremists in their recruiting efforts."

The NYPD report, ABC News sources said, concludes that while al Qaeda can provide inspiration and an "ideological reference point," instances of command and control by al Qaeda are the exception rather than the rule.

It states that most or many terrorist attacks and attempted attacks in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States have been thought up by and planned by local residents seeking to attack their own country of residence.

The report, in its conclusions, asserts that the most significant threat to the homeland is not al Qaeda but the spread of the ideology promulgated by violent extremist Muslims, such as those belonging to al Qaeda, into the United States where it helps to radicalize residents.
The report is seen by several individuals familiar with it as filling a large gap in the most recent National Intelligence Estimate, which was released July 17 and contained little to no explicit discussion of homegrown terrorism.

"We assess that al-Qa'ida is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the Homeland," the NIE states in its "Key Judgments."

"We assess that the spread of radical -- especially Salafi -- Internet sites, increasingly aggressive anti-U.S. rhetoric and actions and the growing number of radical, self-generating cells in Western countries indicate that the radical and violent segment of the West's Muslim population is expanding, including in the United States," the NIE says in its most significant paragraph on the topic.

"We assess that this internal Muslim terrorist threat is not likely to be as severe as it is in Europe, however," is the paragraph's close.
The NYPD report cites at least 10 well-known recent cases where local authorities, the FBI and European police and intelligence agencies have thwarted plots developed either wholly or in a very large part by homegrown "actors," with little or no support from al Qaeda.
According to multiple sources familiar with the classified version of the NIE, the body of that document does little to expand on the analysis of the issue of homegrown terror.

High-ranking local and regional law enforcement in several North American jurisdictions tell ABC News that while it is important to acknowledge the links to al Qaeda -- whether inspirational, through the Internet or through travel -- it is far more important, from a law enforcement perspective, to try to identify at what points an individual might be ready to embrace violence.

Using the NYPD matrix, those officials say there are at least two dozen "clusters," or "pockets," of individuals in the region who are at various places along the path of radicalization.
In an Intelligence Assessment published at the end of June, New Jersey officials at the state's Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness noted, "Through its ongoing review of extremist Web logs, the Intelligence Bureau has identified numerous pockets of radical youth existing in New Jersey communities and especially on N.J. campuses."

The purpose of the structure proposed by the NYPD is to create a tool enabling authorities to measure whether these "pockets" are moving from sanctioned activities toward violence.
Other law enforcement efforts to arrive at a prescriptive approach to homegrown terrorism are underway, and law enforcement officials are conscious that while these activities seem essential, they touch on thorny political issues in many jurisdictions and have to be carefully orchestrated to avoid conflict with constitutional protections in the U.S. But, Jenkins says, those protections have an outer limit.

"Freedom of speech, freedom of religion does not provide a defense against planning and preparation for violence," he tells ABC News.

In West Yorkshire, England, a "community mapping model" is underway seeking to identify potential high-risk pockets in the region, which includes Leeds, home to several alleged conspirators of the four bombers in the July 7, 2005 attack on London's transportation system that killed 52 people.

In at least one major U.S. city, a similar pilot study is under consideration.
The New Jersey Intelligence Assessment identified prisons, the Internet, universities and religious/cultural institutions as the places where "radicalization in New Jersey appears to occur."

That report also spells out the key concern behind the intense law enforcement effort to make an effort to identify individuals who might be moving toward violence.

"There is evidence that radicalization is taking place in the U.S...Studies of this phenomenon in Europe have shown that these individuals are virtually indistinguishable from the population in which they live. Certain risk factors such as age and personality type may be identified, but they are not predicative," the New Jersey report says.

The dense, 90-page NYPD analysis is the nation's first full analysis of the potential for increased homegrown terror in the United States and the first to develop a matrix on which to plot the course of "unremarkable" people as they move toward the potential for violent action, multiple persons familiar with the report told ABC News.

Months in the drafting, the report makes use of a novel "cluster" model to determine where on the path from preradicalized and self-identification to indoctrination and jihad an individual and immediate peer group may be. As such, it is a valuable tool for assessing individuals that come to law enforcement's attention and in making cogent arguments in court cases, sources who reviewed the report's drafts told ABC News.

Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?

Haven't we been reporting this for months now? Yet ABC see's fit to claim this is exclusive news. Amazing.

Oh well, at least they seem to be getting with the program, even though it is a little late to claim "exclusive".

Dean

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America and the Demon Within.

Islam is pushing across the country for rights and privileges that are in effect trampling the rights of others. We took God out of the schools, out of the courtrooms and we are letting Islam in.
By Randy Taylor, Independent Analyst

11 August 2007: I’m growing very concerned about this great nation of ours. We were given a unique opportunity some 230 years ago and we are doing little to capitalize on the gift given to us by our forefathers. We are slowly surrendering our great nation to this evil called Islam. We have gone from a nation of proud men and women to a nation of scared, frightened, politically correct weaklings, willing to compromise with the Devil. We are compromising our freedoms, our beliefs, our rights to free speech.

This country was founded as “One Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” This is no longer the case and when you look closely at the situation and you look deep into the soul, one must admit that we are failing as a whole. We have compromised the people of this once great nation because we are afraid to step up to the plate and tell these Islamic organizations, these twisters of the Constitution and purveyors of murder to shove off. Click here to read complete article

When you place justice and freedoms, especially the freedom of religion under the microscope the truth is obvious. You cannot show favoritism and change the rules to fit one so called “religion” without trampling the rights and freedoms of other religions. This is exactly what is going on today with Islam in America. Little by little, small events are being accumulated which when tallied up equate to a gross violation of the standards and parameters of our US Constitution. Islam is pushing across the country for rights and privileges that are in effect trampling the rights of others. We took God out of the schools, out of the courtrooms and we are letting Islam in. No, I’m sure our founding fathers did not envision this. We were established under God, not this twisted being that the Muslims call Allah. Allah and God are the same, yet their version of their Allah is warped, twisted and demonic. (Allah is not directly referenced in the Bible, although Christians and Jews referred to God as Allah for centuries before there was ever a Mohammed or his twisted version of Allah). No God can condone this behavior exhibited by these swine.

"It is He who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it victorious over all other religions even though the Polytheists hate it." [Quran 61:9]

Small subtle things like public, taxpayer funded school menus being changed to accommodate Muslims is one example. Another is these foot baths being placed on campuses because the Muslims insist on them. Any crime against a Muslim anymore is automatically labeled as a “Hate Crime” regardless of the circumstances. I have yet to see the charge of “Hate Crime” applied to any Muslims arrested for intentional acts of terrorism or plotting to do the same.

Muslims are constantly pressuring companies to refrain from using terminology or marketing products that offend Muslims. Movie studios and network television are barraged with complaints from Muslims if it is found out that there might be any visual effect or storyline that portrays Muslims in the role of terrorists. People are being sued over T-Shirts, radio dialogue, written text because it offends Muslims. A company, just recently was forced to remove an Islamic phrase from a video game because it offended Muslims. The entire stinking “Offended Muslims” issue is way out of hand people. Go back in your pre-9/11 state of mind and try to remember the good ole’ days when you didn’t hear the word Islam and could make it through an entire news program without something related to Islam being mentioned. Ah, those were the days weren’t they? Not now, no Sir. Now when I go to a restroom on some college campuses I have to pay attention that I’m not urinating in their footbaths. Well at least I’m supposed to pretend that I know these are their footbaths.

In essence, we as Americans are surrendering our freedom of speech, our freedom to express ourselves, our freedom to worship as we choose to these Islamic purveyors of Satan. The people of Islam claim to be religious people, inspired by a higher being yet their actions around the world say otherwise. Everywhere there is a predominant presence of Islam as the primary religion and where Islam used as a form of government either in part or in whole, there are major human rights violations, murder, bombings and civil unrest. It is not a “Religion of Peace” but instead a cult of death, with the focus of the “religion” being death, jihad and martyrdom and in the case of the United States the focus is infiltration and domination of all others. Martyrdom is what they strive for. Martyrdom while killing infidels.

"Think not of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive with their Lord, and they are being provided for. They rejoice in what Allah has bestowed upon them from His bounty and rejoice for the sake of those who have not yet joined them, but are left behind (not yet martyred) that on them no fear shall come, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice in a grace and a bounty from Allah, and that Allah will not waste the reward of the believers." [Quran 3:169-171]

Look at your NYC skyline people. You have two buildings missing and over three thousand of your fellow Americans dead. Our economic system has never fully recovered from the 9/11 attacks. Many people lost every dime they had in retirement funds on that fateful day. (I’m stating this for the people that are not motivated by patriotism but instead the almighty dollar) Yet we are allowing these Islamic swine to peddle their garbage of insisting that Islam is a religion of peace? We believe them when they state that somehow we will benefit from Islam? We allow Muslim organizations to intimidate our fellow Americans? We even had to vote on the issue on whether or not a person reporting suspicious activity by Muslims could be sued for reporting it? We allow Muslim organizations to intimidate the companies that supply us with our goods and services as well as our entertainment? We allow Muslims to engage in free speech yet we let them suppress our free speech? Where does it stop? When are we going to put our foot down and say “NO” to Islam?

Every single terrorist and suspected terrorist arrest in the years since 9/11 all have had one thing in common. That common denominator is Islam. Now of course the press and the government will tell you otherwise but if you exercise due diligence and look for yourselves, you will also see the common denominator, the underlying factors, the influence behind the act or the planned act. These arrests aren’t a fluke based on a population percentage as we as Non-Muslim Americans outnumber these people at least 90 to 1. So, all things equal, in reality there should be 90 non-Muslims arrested for terrorism for every 1 arrest of a Muslim. This is hardly the case. Reality is that the ratio is reversed with 90 Muslims arrested for every 1 non-Muslim arrested on suspicion of terrorism or plotting terrorist acts. This is simple math people.

I’m saying it loud and clear, so you can hear it even in the cheap seats, Islam is not a religion of peace. It never was a religion of peace and it never will be a religion of peace.

Osama bin Laden summed it up with this statement in a message to America;

“You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?”

There are particular groups in America that really need to pay attention to these words, even more so than the middle of the road, non affiliated American. As Islamic influence slowly creeps into this country and Islam inserts its politicians and judges into the American system, your rights, your freedoms that you campaigned for will surely erode.

• Christians, you are targets for death by virtue of your beliefs, you faith system. Your Bible has warned you that you will be persecuted and put to death for your beliefs in God. Who exactly do you think the Bible is referring to?

• Rape victims in Islamic countries are often put to death. Somehow, in this twisted death cult of Islam the poor woman that was raped is at fault. She is disgraced, damaged goods. How’s that for “justice”?

• People living out of wedlock, living together, not married. Dead meat. With Christianity you are encouraged to change this arrangement, in Islam you will be put to death. Beheaded or stoned is the preferred method with Islam.

• Feminist Groups, Feminist Movements, under Islamic laws and traditions you are less valuable to the household and mankind in general than a dog. Islam teaches that women will be submissive, are second class citizens and have no vote on anything including household matters. You women fought hard for what you have accomplished, you had better pay attention to what’s happening here.

• People involved in the Adult Entertainment Industry. You will be dead. You cannot exist under Islamic law. You folks working in adult night clubs, you folks working in the adult film industry or adult publication industry.

• Gay people of America, under Islamic law, you are not even allowed to live. Homosexuals in Islamic countries, once found out are put to death. Sure, you are okay for today but you had better start looking real hard at what’s happening with the Islamic Invasion on America.

• Atheists, I don’t even have to mention where you will be. I always figured that was between you and your maker. Islam however, sees you in quite a different light. They will send you to meet your maker.

• People that manufacture or consume alcohol. This is not allowed in Islam. You, as an American take it for ranted that you can sip a beer, a glass of wine or have a drink. This is against Islamic law.

Think real hard about it.

The list goes on and on.

Straight forward, I don’t agree with many of the movements, many of the lifestyles people have chosen. But, I also believe that these choices are yours to make as I appreciate the fact that we live in a country where you are allowed to make these choices. Even if I stand in disagreement with some of the groups I mentioned, you are not under threat from me. You do not answer to me. I am not your official judge. I may speak out against things that some folks as Americans do and that is my freedom to do so. You are also afforded the freedom to defend your stance too. This is done in a peaceful, non-violent manner. That’s the beauty of having these freedoms. The worst you get from me is disagreement. Islam does not allow these freedoms. With Islam, you will get death.

You had better sit up and pay attention because the country that allows you these freedoms is under attack and being infiltrated by the very people that eliminate you from the human race once given the opportunity to do so. They have done it in their own countries and are going to stop at nothing until they can do it here.

In closing, I ask you to start watching these small victories being afforded to Islam. When you start tracking them, you will see a larger picture coming into play. The entity of this death cult, this perverted, twisted ideology of Islam is infiltrating this country. Islam is NOT a religion of Peace, Love and Tolerance as some like to think. Islam will always result in loss of freedom and certain death for the non-Muslim.

Think about it. Look outside of the box. See what’s happening in this world and in your own country. Do not make me stand alone in this fight. Myself and people like me need you to defend this country against this poison. Think of your children, your nieces and nephews, your friend’s children. What kind of mess are we leaving them?

Don’t let the war in Iraq form your view in this matter. We were attacked by Islam long before we went to war in Iraq. If you are angry about the war in Iraq, blame Islam. If the Islamic insurgency and terrorist groups were not in existence, we would have already been at minimal troop levels and the country would be on its feet. But these Islamic idiots cannot even form peace between themselves, the two main groups of Sunni and Shi’ite. How’s that for a model lifestyle and government? The primary reason we are still fighting and dying is because of the internal “religious” strife in the country of Iraq. That is the reality of it folks.

We want our boys and girls to come home. The mere existence of Islam will not allow it.

Be safe and please stay vigilant. 08.11.07

Will you lefties read this? And if you do will you believe it and finally pull your heads out of your own arses?

Dean

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Don't Like This Country? Leave.

Professor Tells Muslims to Leave Country

Hooray for Michigan State University!

Well, what do we have here? Looks like a small case of some people being able to dish it out, but not take it. Let's start at the top.

The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indrek Wichman. Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association. T he e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The group had complained the cartoons were "hate speech."

Enter Professor Wichman. In his e-mail, he said the following:

Dear Moslem Association:

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest.

I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey ), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris, France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues.

I counsel your dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."

If you do not like the values of the West - see the 1st Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.

Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially,
I. S. Wichman
Professor of Mechanical Engineering

As you can imagine, the Muslim group at the university didn't like this too well. They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded and mandatory diversity training for faculty and a seminar on hate and discrimination for freshman. Now the chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe that the good professor had the right to express his opinion.

For its part, the university is standing its ground, saying the e-mail was private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks. That will probably change. Wichman says he never intended for his e-mail to be made public, and wouldn't have used the same strong language if he'd known it was going to get out.

How's the left going to handle this one? If you're in favor of the freedom of speech, as in the case of Ward Churchill, will the same protections be demanded for Indrek Wichman? I doubt it.

[Verified as TRUE by Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp]

Dean

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Holy War, Apostasy, and Womens Rights in Islam.

My View of Islam
By; Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The undisputed definition of Islam by all her adherents is “submission to the will of Allah.” This divine will is outlined in the Koran and in the teachings and deeds of Muhammad, as recorded in the Hadith or Sunna.

While the Koran is considered to be the true, undiluted word of God revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, the Sunna carry less weight and have always been a cause for disagreement amongst Muslim scholars. Theologians of Islam have, however, reached consensus on the authority of a set of six volumes from the Sunna called the Sahih Sita, or authentic six.

On the issues of holy war (jihad), apostasy and the treatment of women, the Koran and Sunna are clear. It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread Islam to unbelievers first through dawa, or proselytizing, then through jihad, if the unbelievers refuse to convert. It is the obligation of the unbelievers to accept Islam.

Exempted from this edict of conversion are the people of the book: Christians and Jews. Both peoples have a choice. They may adopt Islam and enjoy the same rights as other Muslims, or they may stick to their book and lead the life of a dhimmi (lower citizen). Legally, the rights of the dhimmi are not equal to those of a Muslim. For instance, a Muslim man may take a Jewish or Christian wife, but Jews and Christians are not allowed to marry Muslim women. If a Christian or a Jew kills a Muslim man, they should be killed immediately. In contrast, the blood of a Muslim should never be shed in recompense for the blood of Christians or Jews.

It is also the obligation of every Muslim to command virtue and forbid vice. Apostasy, the worst possible vice a Muslim can commit, should be punished by death. The punishment need not be carried out by a state, but can easily be enforced by civilians. When it is a question of Islamic law, justice is in the hands of every Muslim.

As for the treatment of women, in the Koran and more elaborately in the Sunna, Islam assigns to girls a position in the family that requires them to be docile, makes them dependent on their male relatives for money and gives dominion over their bodies to these same male kin.In Islam there is a strict hierarchy of subservience. First and foremost, all humans are required to be the slaves of Allah. In Muslim societies, all children must obey their parents. Beyond this, women and girls must obey and serve without question their male guardians and especially their husbands. This decree of marital obedience is not in any way reciprocal.

A woman in Islam is not competent and must always have a guardian. The responsibility of guardianship may pass from father to brother to uncle before a girl is married off, at which point she must answer to her husband. Marriage is typically arranged, with no choice given to the girl, and there is often an exchange of money in the process. Thus, under the religious rule of Islam, it is still common today that a woman’s rights are essentially sold to a man she may not know, and most likely does not love.

As for education of girls under Islam, there is a clear program of indoctrination of inequality. Under Islam, education is the passing on of the rules of submission to the will of Allah. Intrinsic in this “education” is the dictation of gender roles. Girls are instructed in subservience first to God, then to the family and finally to the husband. There is strict emphasis on modesty, defined by virginity. A Muslim girl is taught to guard fiercely her virginity as an expression of loyalty to her creator and to her family and husband.

This form of education hampers her chances of ever becoming self-reliant or financially independent. A woman’s lack of social equality and freedom is a direct consequence of the teachings of Islam. Under Islam, a wife must always ask her husband for permission and she must obey indefinitely. This stricture is lifted in the unique event that he asks her to forsake God, wherein she is allowed the right of disobedience. While it is true that in Islam, technically speaking, women have the right to trade and own property, the condition of total obedience to guardians makes this “freedom” hypothetical, at best.

The goal of education given to girls under Islam is the achievement of control over female sexuality. The result of this indoctrination is that Muslim girls believe legitimate and often vocally defend their position of subordination. The lengths a Muslim society will go to in the pursuit of sexual control often cross into the territory of the absurd and, by western standards, criminal. In Islam the minimum age of marriage for a girl is after her first menstruation.

Muhammad was engaged to his wife Aisha when she was six years old, and he married her (had intercourse with her) when she turned nine. Millions of Muslim men across the world follow Muhammad in this deed, one of the most prominent examples being the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

Under sharia law (Islamic law), such as governs in Saudi Arabia, Iran and parts of Nigeria, the civil rights of women are dramatically reduced. Threat of violent punishment in the form of whipping and stoning makes the prospect of financial independence and sexual freedom for women all but impossible. Miraculously, even in such harsh circumstances you will find women who are relatively well educated, have some say in choosing a husband and manage to earn a living. Let us be clear that these exceptions are due to the compassion and progressiveness of families who have been influenced by the West, and not to rules derived from Islam.In the quest for reconciliation between Muslim and western societies, it is important to recognize that

Muslims are as diverse as Islam is monolithic. Islam attempts to unify more than a billion people of different geographical origins, languages, ethnicities, and cultural and educational backgrounds into one religious tribe. And while I acknowledge that generally stereotyping believers is difficult since belief is subjective, for the sake of discussion I would like to distinguish between five types of Muslims.

The first group includes those Muslims who leave the faith because they cannot reconcile it with their conscience or with modernity. This group is important for the evolution of the Islamic world because they ask the urgent and critical questions believers usually avoid. Ex-Muslims living in the west are just beginning to find their voice and to take advantage of the spiritual and social freedoms available to them.

The second group is comprised of genuine Muslim reformers, such as Irshad Manji, who acknowledge the theological out-datedness of the Koranic commands and the immorality of the prophet. They tend to emphasize the early chapters in the Koran urging goodness, generosity and spirituality. They argue that the latter chapters wherein Islam is politicized and the concepts of sharia, jihad and martyrdom are introduced should be read in the context in which they were written, some 1,400 years ago.

The third group is made up of those Muslims who support the gradual perpetuation and domination of Islam throughout the world. They use the freedoms offered in democracy to undermine social modernity and, though initially opposed to the use of violence, foresee that once the number of believers reaches a critical mass the last remnants of unbelievers may then be dealt with in violence, and sharia law may be universally implemented. Ayatollah Khomeini used this method successfully in Iran. Erdogan of Turkey is following in his footsteps. Tariq Ramadan, deeply rooted in his Muslim Brotherhood heritage, is devoted to such a program among European Muslims.

The fourth group is the most obvious and immediately threatening. In this group we find a growing number of hard-line Muslims who have defined martyrdom as their only goal. This is an army of young men whipped into a frenzy of suicidal violence by power hungry clergy. These clergy have public platforms and work with impunity from institutions untouched and often funded by national authorities.

The fifth group is largely ineffective and only threatening in their refusal to acknowledge the truth. Here we find the elite clergy who make a show of trying to reconcile Islam with modernity.
They are motivated by self-preservation and have no interest in true reform. They take selective passages from the holy books to make a case for a peaceful Islam, ignoring the many passages inciting violence, such as those verses which command the death of apostates.

It is through the first two of these five groups that progress and reform will come. As for the rest, the western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart.

Born in Somalia and raised a devout Muslim, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an active critic of Islam, an advocate for women’s rights and a leader in the campaign to reform Islam. Her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith have made her a target for violence and threat of death by Islamic extremists. She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington D.C., and is the author of the bestselling memoir "Infidel."

Dean

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America's Moral Paralysis

From The Washington Post

By THOMAS SOWELL
July 27, 2007 --

THE term "moral paralysis" has been used to describe the inaction of France, England and other European democracies in the 1930s, as they watched Hitler build up the military forces that he later used to attack them.

It is a term that may be painfully relevant to our own times.

Back in the '30s, the governments of the democratic countries knew what Hitler was doing - and they knew that they had enough military superiority at that point to stop his military buildup in its tracks. But they did nothing to stop him. Instead, they turned to what is still the magic mantra today - "negotiations."

No leader of a democratic nation was ever more popular than British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain - wildly cheered in the House of Commons by opposition parties as well as his own - when he returned from negotiations in Munich in 1938, waving an agreement and declaring that it meant "peace in our time."

Less than a year later, World War II began in Europe and spread across the planet, killing tens of millions of people and reducing many cities to rubble in Europe and Asia.

Looking back after that war, Winston Churchill said, "There was never a war in all history easier to prevent by timely action." The earlier it was done, the less it would have cost.

At one point, Hitler could have been stopped in his tracks "without the firing of a single shot," Churchill said.

That point came in 1936 - three years before World War II began - when Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, in violation of two international treaties.

At that point, France alone was so much more powerful than Germany that the German generals had secret orders to retreat immediately at the first sign of French intervention.

As Hitler himself confided, the Germans would have had to retreat "with our tail between our legs," because they did not yet have enough military force to put up even a token resistance.
Why did the French not act and spare themselves and the world the years of horror that Hitler's aggressions would bring? The French had the means but not the will.

"Moral paralysis" came from many things. The death of a million French soldiers in the First World War and disillusionment with the peace that followed cast a pall over a whole generation. Pacifism became vogue among the intelligentsia and spread into educational institutions. History may be interesting but it is the present and the future that pose the crucial question: Is America today the France of yesterday?

We know that Iran is moving swiftly toward nuclear weapons while the United Nations is moving slowly - or not at all - toward doing anything to stop them.

It is a sign of our irresponsible Utopianism that anyone would even expect the U.N. to do anything that would make any real difference. The U.N.'s history demonstrates again and again that going to such places is a way for weak-kneed leaders of democracies to look like they are doing something when in fact they are doing nothing.

The Iranian leaders are not going to stop unless they get stopped. And, like Hitler, they don't think we have the guts to stop them.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and its international terrorist allies will be a worst threat than Hitler ever was. But, before that happens, the big question is: Are we France? Are we morally paralyzed, perhaps fatally?

Dean

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Coming To America?

Until Islam is eradicated and purged from the world, it will remain a problem.

The Rape of Europe
By Paul Belien

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch Newspaper "DeVolkskrant" that young Europeans who love Freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will not exist twenty years from now.

While sitting on a terrace in Berlin , Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said, "We are watching the world of yesterday."

Europe is turning Muslim.

As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate.

"I am too old," he said. However, he urged young people to get out and "move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable."

Many Germans and Dutch, apparently, did not wait for Broder's advice. The number of emigrants leaving the Netherlands and Germany has already surpassed the number of immigrants moving in. One does not have to be prophetic to predict, like Henryk Broder, that Europe is becoming Islamic.

Just consider the demographics.

- The number of Muslims in Contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million.

- It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of All European children will be born to Muslim families.

- Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for newborn boys in Brussels , Amsterdam, Rotterdam , and other major European cities.

Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose Islamization. "The dominant ethos," he told De Volkskrant, "is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated.

"She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death."

In a recent Op-Ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard the Dutch (gay and self-declared "humanist") author Oscar Van Den Boogaard refers to Broder's interview. Van den Boogaard says that to him coping with the islamization of Europe is like "a process of mourning." He is overwhelmed by a "feeling of sadness."

"I am not a Warrior," he says, "but who is? I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."

Consider that in all of Europe no one under the age of 65 has picked up arms in defense of their country. That task has been borne by the United States since Hitler surrendered in 1945.

As Tom Bethell wrote in this month's American Spectator: "Just at the most basic level of demography the secular-humanist option is not Working." But there is more to it than the fact that non-religious people tend not to have as many children as religious people, because many of them prefer to "enjoy" freedom rather than renounce it for the sake of children.

Secularists, it seems to me, are also less keen on fighting. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, this life is the only thing they have to lose. Hence they will rather accept submission than fight. Like the German feminist Broder referred to, they prefer to be raped than to resist.

"If faith collapses, civilization goes with it," says Bethell. That is the real cause of the closing of civilization in Europe. Islamization is simply the consequence. The very word Islam means "submission" and the secularists have submitted already.

Many Europeans have already become Muslims, though they do not realize it or do not want to admit it.

Some of the people I meet in the U. S. are particularly worried about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. They are correct when they fear that anti-Semitism is also on the rise among non-immigrant Europeans. The latter hate people with a fighting spirit. Contemporary Anti-Semitism in Europe (at least when coming from native Europeans) is related to anti-Americanism.

People who are not prepared to resist and are eager to submit, hate others who do not want to submit and are prepared to fight. They hate them because they are afraid that the latter will endanger their lives as well. In their view everyone must submit.

This is why they have come to hate Israel and America so much, and the small band of European "Islamophobes" who dare to talk about what they see happening around them. West Europeans have to choose between submission (Islam) or death. I fear, like Broder, that they have chosen submission - just like in former days when they preferred to be Red rather than dead.

Europeans apparently never read John Stuart Mill: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse."


Dean

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The "600,000 Iraq Death Toll" Debunked.....Again?

New Critique of the Lancet's Civilian Death Claims

In 2004, British medical journal The Lancet released a study in the final days leading up to the US presidential election. Their attempted October Surprise was heavily promoted by international media and the international left (there’s a difference?), and claimed the US was responsible for more than 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. Then, in 2006, they published another study with even more wildly inflated claims.

Today Michelle Malkin has posted a new critique of the Lancet’s 2004 study, a statistical analysis by David Kane, Institute Fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University—who identifies serious problems in the Lancet’s methodology: Document drop: A new critique of the 2004 Lancet Iraq death toll study.

Much of the math here is mind-numbingly complicated, but Kane’s bottom line is simple: the Lancet authors “cannot reject the null hypothesis that mortality in Iraq is unchanged.” Translation: according to Kane, the confidence interval for the Lancet authors’ main finding is wrong. Had the authors calculated the confidence interval correctly, Kane asserts that they would have failed to identify a statistically significant increase in risk of death in Iraq, let alone the widely-reported 98,000 excess civilian deaths.

An interesting side note: as Kane observes in his paper, the Lancet authors “refuse to provide anyone with the underlying data (or even a precise description of the actual methodology).” The researchers did release some high-level summary data in highly aggregated form (see here), but they released neither the detailed interviewee-level data nor the programming code that would be necessary to replicate their results.

Note: Of course the left will refute any new statistical analysis of the Lancet Study regarding the claimed 600,000 Iraq death toll.

Clarity in analyzing studies is a primary goal of any researcher and should be part of the critical analysis of a given subject overall.

The fact that the Lancet Study has been refuted in the past, due largely to their refusal to provide the data they used for drawing their conclusions should immediately produce "red flags" with regard to unbiased truth and authenticity. Yet today this study is widely accepted as fact.

Critical thinking supported by all.....I say again ALL the...factual data and then made readily available to researchers leads to clarity on any subject.

So draw your own conclusions.

In my opinion, the Lancet Study is seriously flawed in it's attempt to provide a meaningful analysis of the actual data available. As has been stated elsewhere...2 + 2 does NOT equal 5, at least not in any of the math classes I had while studying Electrical Engineering..........


Dean

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The Terror Puzzle

NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

In the month of July alone, pieces of a simple puzzle have been handed to us, that by themselves, carry no great weight, but together paint a picture that might have us step back and reassess our immediate priorities.
By John Livingston, Contributing analyst

22 July 2007: Allow me to begin with a short, but important illustration. Driving though a neighborhood recently, I approached a dove sitting motionless in the middle of the road, staring at something on the curb. Getting closer, I expected it to fly in fear at any moment, but it did not. He just sat there, frozen in my path. He was fixated on a problem. As I drew nearer I discovered the problem to be a big black cat staring back at him.

It was obvious that both were calculating their strategies…the cat wondering which way the bird was going to move, and the dove contemplating if he had room for a flying escape. All the while I am in a 6,000 pound vehicle bearing down on the bird, and about to render his contemplations meaningless. MORE

Such is the case we find ourselves in today in America. For the last year, public attention in the area of foreign affairs, terrorism, etc., has been on Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East in general.

There is no doubt that winning the war in Iraq and maintaining the security of Israel are vital to our national interests. We must do everything we can to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran. Every "black cat" must be identified and dealt with. Enough has been written and said about each of these subjects so that I need not go into it here.

However, just as I approached the dove in the road with certain death, we had better pay close attention to what may be the "6,000 pound" problem about to run over us. In the month of July alone, pieces of a simple puzzle have been handed to us, that by themselves, carry no great weight, but together paint a picture that might have us step back and reassess our immediate priorities.

Reading the picture-chart-puzzle below of some of the events from only the month of July, it makes one wonder if we are "being told, without literally being told" that the terror threat situation is ominous. In other words, is the government trying to tell us, "This is the real deal, read between the lines, he who has an ear, let him hear"? It sure seems like it.

What makes most sense, and it is just my opinion, is that our enemy will try to attack us here in such a spectacular way, that the American public will not care that they are simultaneously attacking Israel. We have been staring at that black cat. But suddenly, when our own homeland is aflame, they know the American people will be hard-pressed to care about what happens to the Jewish nation.This scenario would line-up with the impending signs of war in the Middle East that Sean Osborne wrote about in his "must read" article here on the NEIN website, as well as the signs of attack here in the US, as spelled out in the latest issue of the HQ INTEL-ALERT Private Intelligence Report

Whether the hour is at hand here in America or not, almost everyone agrees that an attack is coming, and that it is inevitable. The question is, are your prepared?
Being deeply involved with both the Hurricane Katrina and Rita Evacuations and their aftermaths, I can tell you first-hand that if we experience a terror attack that causes a mass evacuation or large relocation of people, it will bring out the "animal nature" in the best men. You must be physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually prepared before it happens.

It was amazing to witness what some consider "valuables" tied to the roofs of their cars, that long ago had run out of gas, and no one was coming to their rescue. There was no law enforcement, no bathroom facilities on the highway, as cars crept along at eight miles an hour for two-hundred miles. It was the Old Wild West once again. The evacuation scene from Tom Cruise's movie "War of the Worlds" was played out in reality.

There were some heroes, some kindness shown, some good old-fashion American values displayed…but only while "there was enough food, water, gas, and time to go around". When supplies ran out, so did caring for one another. We only recently reunited loved ones from Hurricane Katrina for one family. Another man's mother-in-law drowned in New Orleans, because he could not find anyone to help him carry her out of the house as the water rose. He only had one leg. His "friends" were too busy saving themselves.

No one knows but God Himself what lies in store in the days ahead, but we would be fools not to be prepared for it in every way possible. Have a plan. Have a back-up plan for the first one when it fails. Think about scenarios, the worst ones. What would you do "if"? Then let us all pray our preparation was for nothing.

Dean

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