Here’s the quote of the day (from yesterday), from a story by the New York Times’ man in Tehran, Thomas Erdbrinck:

“Without violating any international laws or the nonproliferation treaty, we have managed to bypass the red lines the West created for us,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is close to the negotiating team.

There’s been a lot of happy talk about the possibilities of real breakthrough at the upcoming P5 + 1 talks in Baghdad next week, in which the members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, try to steer Iran to an off-ramp. I’ve even been cautiously pessimistic (as opposed to vociferously pessimistic). But I keep hearing this little whisper from them that know: “The Iranians are better at negotiating than the West.”

The Israelis are aware of this, and are worried that Iran will game the system until the point at which they have entered the so-called “zone of immunity,” in which their nuclear program is so hardened and buried that no Israeli attack could set it back. This is precisely the worry of the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and President Obama is keenly aware of Barak’s worry. This is from my Bloomberg View column today:

Obama believes that Barak, and not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is the Israeli leader agitating most vociferously for a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a strike the Obama administration thinks would be grossly premature and quite possibly catastrophic. (Your humble columnist concurs with this assessment.)

If Barak sees these talks as productive — especially in light of evidence that the U.S. and its allies are doing a credible job of keeping Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold — then Obama will have successfully pushed off an Israeli strike, at least until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

Barak has made clear that he seeks one thing above all in the nuclear talks: for Iran to shut down its formerly secret nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, near the city of Qom. Obama has made Barak’s preoccupation with Fordo his own.

Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. Author of the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, Goldberg also writes the magazine’s advice column.

The Heritage Foundation’s blog “The Foundry” reports on the latest instance of the Obama administration’s war on wildlife:

A draft regulation first filed in April would allow businesses to apply for 30-year permits allowing them to kill bald eagles in the course of other legal activities. The length of those permits would be a six-fold increase over the five-year window allowed under current law.

The USFWS explains at FederalRegister.gov: “We have reviewed applications from proponents of renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar power facilities, for programmatic permits to authorize eagle take that may result from both the construction and ongoing operations of renewable energy projects. During our review, it became evident that the 5-year term limit imposed by the 2009 regulations (see 50 CFR 22.26(h)) needed to be extended to better correspond to the timeframe of renewable energy projects.”

The Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles previously reported on how the Obama Administration’s “mean green killing machines” are decapitating golden eagles, threatening hundreds of baby tortoises, and disrupting protected kit fox populations in California.

Bird enthusiasts are also calling on the Obama administration to repeal an obscure mining regulation that is resulting in the deaths of a million or more songbirds a year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently not worried about an Iranian nuclear bomb because, as he reportedly told the former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, “The Israelis will take care of it”. He is also reportedly not worried about selling arms to Iran, either.

“I, you — we can sell everything, even if we are worried by an Iranian nuclear bomb. Because at the end of the day, the Israelis will take care of it.”

This was part of a conversation between Aznar and Putin, Aznar told reporters at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Wednesday, The Times of Israel reports.

The talk allegedly took place after Russia announced a deal to provide Iran with at least five S300 surface-to-air missile systems in 2007 (it backtracked in 2010).

Aznar, a staunch and outspoken supporter of Israel and founder of Friends of Israel initiative, was entreating Putin to cancel the deal, according to The Jerusalem Post. The Kremlin has not commented on the claims.

Aznar, who was president of Spain from 1996 to 2004, also told reporters that in a conversation with Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei in 2000, the Ayatollah was committed to Iranian self-dependency, which is why Iran wanted to develop its own nuclear capabilities, rather than buy them from North Korea or Pakistan.

Aznar also quoted Khamenei as saying Israel was “a historic cancer and an anomaly condemned to disappear.” He added that “an open confrontation with Israel and the U.S. was inevitable,” and that “he was working for Iran to prevail in such a confrontation.”

Read more here:

The PR war against Israel gets increasingly ridiculous. Below are four articles reporting and ridiculing the latest accusations against Israel for using animals as spies.

As a point of information, Israel is situated in the path of a major multi-continental flyover for international bird migration. Birds from Europe and Asia fly over Israel during fall migrations to Africa, and spring migrations back north. Israeli scientists have been banding birds for years in order to track and better understand the science of bird migration. This is done universally by many nations studying birds. A banded bird is hardly reason for a security alarm, but can regrettably serve as one more PR tool to enrage a population that needs little convincing of Israel’s “evil intent”. These absurd accusations would be laughable if people didn’t actually believe them. – Editor

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Turkish authorities believe that they have found a bird used for espionage purposes by Bird-banding is a common practice in ornithology, meant to help scientists track bird migration routes.

The band, however, was not the most damning piece of evidence against the bee-eater: Its nostrils were. The bird-beak in question reportedly sported “unusually large nostrils,” which – combined with the identification ring – raised suspicions that the bird was “implanted with a surveillance device” and that it arrived in Turkey as part of an espionage mission.

The bird’s remains were originally handed over to the Turkish Agriculture Ministry, which then turned them over to Ankara’s security services.

The suspect (screenshot)

News of the “spy bird” spread quickly within Turkey’s ornithological community, and Israeli ornithologists soon got word of it as well.

The Society for Protection of Nature in Israel was alerted and was able to confirm that the bird was banded about four years ago, as a matter of routine,
Yoav Pearlman, of the Israeli Birdwatching Center, explained that Israel’s north is home to a large bee-eater population, and that many more use Israel as a stop in their migration route, which includes Turkey, southern Europe and Russia.

“The Turkish authorities can rest easy – it’s not a spy,” Pearlman said.
Israeli wildlife officials said that this was not the first time that Israeli birds landing in Arab countries as part of their migration were “detained” for alleged espionage. Such birds, they added, usually disappear.

In January of 2011, Saudi Arabia announced that it “detained” a vulture carrying an Israeli band.

The griffon vulture was carrying a GPS transmitter bearing the name of Tel Aviv University and was condemned for being a part of a “Zionist espionage plot.”

Iranians arrest 14 squirrels for spying

By Dudi Cohen Published: 07.13.07, 23:43 / Israel News

Iranian intelligence operatives recently detained over a dozen squirrels found within the nation’s borders, claiming the rodents were serving as spies for Western powers determined to undermine the Islamic Republic.

“In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran’s borders,” state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. “The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services.”

Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam confirmed the report, saying that a number of squirrels had been caught bearing foreign spy gear within Iran’s borders.
“I heard of this but I have no specific knowledge on the subject,” he said. He refused to give further details.

Recently, Iran has increased its efforts in combating espionage by the West. The use of rodents has not been documented in the past.

‘Mossad may be behind Red Sea shark attacks’

Egyptian authorities leaving no stone unturned in bid to discover mysterious shark attacks which left German tourist dead. ‘Mossad plot not out of the question,’ says South Sinai governor.

Reuters Published: 12.06.10, 20:21 / Israel News

Shark attacks on tourists in the Red Sea have triggered a flurry of speculation as to what could have caused them, with suggestions ranging from overfishing to an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism.

The body of a 70-year-old German woman washed up on the shore at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea after an attack on Sunday. Officials said the shark had taken a chunk out of her right thigh and bitten through her right elbow.

Egypt had just lifted a ban on swimming in parts of the area imposed after three Russians and a Ukrainian were injured in shark attacks last week.
The government has invited international experts to help locate the killer shark but officials were at loss as to what could have caused its behavior.
“There is not one reason that will be ignored. We are seeking any reason that causes a change in shark behavior,” Ahmed el-Edkawi, assistant secretary for the South Sinai region, told Reuters.

Some said sharks had been drawn to shallow waters after cattle being shipped in for last month’s Islamic feast of the sacrifice, or Eid al-Adha, had died and were thrown overboard.

Others suggested it could have been part of a secret plot by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

“What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark (in the sea) to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm,” South Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha was quoted as saying by state news site egynews.net.

Egyptians often blame neighboring Israel for a variety of problems such as drug and weapon smuggling, or say it supports media that seek to portray Egypt in a bad light.

Local diving experts said single shark attacks are extremely rare in the area and were mystified by as to why so many people were attacked in such quick succession.

Tourism sector hit

The attacks grabbed the attention of world media and raised fears of a long-term hit to a tourism sector that is a lifeline for the desert peninsula’s population and the biggest foreign currency earner for Egypt.

“We’ve seen more attacks in a few days than in the previous 15 years,” said Florian Herzberg, dive operations manager at the Reef 2000 centre in Dahab resort north of Sharm. “It could be a shark with behavioral problems that was deliberately fed different things and now associates humans with food.”

Water sports centers said business had dried up after officials banned snorkeling and swimming, leaving tourists with little to do but speculate over the cause of the attacks.

“Egypt is full of rumors and one does not know what to believe,” said Gasser Mohamed, a diving instructor at CFun Divers centre in South Sinai. “I see that there are a lot of sharks in the sea and the possible rarity of tuna fish due to over-fishing seems to be causing the attacks.”

Iran exposes pigeon-brained espionage plot, literally

Security forces arrest suspected ‘spy pigeons,’ near Natanz reactor. Last year 14 squirrels were seized on espionage claims. Fate of captive birds unknown
Dudi Cohen
Published: 10.20.08, 22:29 / Israel News

Has the symbol of peace joined the efforts against Iran’s nuclear program? Iranian media reported on Monday that security forces had seized two ‘spy pigeons’ near the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz and a second location.

According to the report, One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, the report cited an unnamed informed source as saying, adding that metal rings and invisible strings were attached to the bird.

“Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings,” the source was quoted as saying.

Iranian sources said that “it is entirely possible that pigeons were used to spy on the nuclear facility in Natanz.” The birds were been handed over to defense officials, their fate is unknown.

The reactor in Natanz is one of the most heavily guarded areas in Iran, surrounded 24 hours a day by anti-aircraft units and infantry troops. The enrichment program stands at the heart of the tensions between Iran and the West.

But this is not the first time the Islamic Republic has accused members of the animal kingdom of collaborating with its enemies. Last year the country’s media reported that 14 squirrels were arrested for espionage. “The squirrels were equipped with the spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services,” the IRNA news agency wrote.
Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam confirmed the report at the time.

In the latest scandal to rock the agency charged with securing aviation from another terrorist attack, high-ranking officials at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are concealing nearly half of the breaches at major airports across the United States.

It’s simply one of many shameful lapses for the monstrous federal agency created after 9/11 to protect the nation’s transportation system, mainly aviation. With 65,000 employees and a virtually unlimited budget, the TSA has made headlines over the years for regularly missing guns and bombs during random tests at major U.S. airports, approving background checks for illegal immigrants to work in sensitive areas of busy airports and clearing dozens of illegal aliens to train as pilots just as several of the 9/11 hijackers did.

Just last month, the former head of the TSA said the agency is a national embarrassment that remains hopelessly bureaucratic and disconnected from the people it is meant to protect. Less than a year ago a House Transportation Committee called for an overhaul of the TSA, referring to the agency as inept and bloated. The congressional panel determined that, a decade after its creation, the TSA “lacks administrative competency” and “suffers from bureaucratic morass and mismanagement.”

This week an alarming federal report, issued by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, reveals top ranking TSA managers are not telling the head office about nearly half of the security breaches at the country’s major airports. This compromises security by making it more difficult to spot dangerous weaknesses in the national fight against terrorism, according to the DHS inspector general.

The facilities and the actual number of breaches were redacted for security reasons, but the audit covers unreported security violations at six major U.S. airports over a 16-month period. The average rate of reported breaches among the six facilities was only 53%, according to the DHS IG investigators. The only airport identified is New Jersey’s Newark Liberty because a senator from that state, Democrat Frank Lautenberg, ordered the probe after reading about a series of security breaches at the facility in his hometown paper.

In a statement posted on his website, Lautenberg, who is Vice Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said the new report identifies a “gaping hole” in airport security. He reminds that “the recent attempt by al-Qaeda to take down a U.S.-bound airliner showed us that terrorists are still determined to exploit aviation security gaps in order to attack America.”

What is causing this gaping hole in airport security? Get ready for this; the TSA doesn’t have a comprehensive oversight program to gather information about all security breaches, according to the IG, and therefore can’t monitor trends that could improve security. Furthermore, the TSA doesn’t provide the necessary guidance and oversight to ensure all breaches are consistently reported, tracked and corrected. As a result the agency doesn’t have a “complete understanding of breaches occurring at the nation’s airports and misses opportunities to strengthen aviation security.” This is more than a decade after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history!

Read the original article here.

MORE . . .

Classified Report Finds Vulnerabilities in Body Scanner Program

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General has completed an investigation into the effectiveness of the body scanner program as deployed in airports as a primary passenger screening system. The unclassified summary of the report notes that several vulnerabilities were found in the program, which has already cost more than $87 million. The full report consists of “Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) and will not be released to the public, according to the Inspector General. EPIC has challenged the SSI designation, arguing that it is an improper standard for classification. The Government Accountability Office, technical experts, Members of Congress, and bloggers have also questioned the effectiveness of the devices. In a federal lawsuit, EPIC challenged the body scanner program, calling it “invasive, unlawful, and ineffective.” For more information, see EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of body scanners).

Read this article here.

It is amazing how things don’t seem to change, no matter how we are alerted to the dangers that continue to grow around us. The following article, written in 2008, warned us about the threat to America from Iranian-sponsored jihadists in South and Central America. Alongside the article above, written this week, it makes us look worse than foolish. It makes us look dangerously incompetent and suicidal. Where is our government? Where is our outrage? – Editor

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The world community is waiting in anticipation to see the next American president’s stance on confronting Iran’s nuclear threat. Yet it appears that Tehran has decided not to wait and has moved on its own to develop a means of attacking the US from its own backyard.

While the Latin American Left has consistently complained about North American interference in Venezuela’s domestic affairs, it has completely ignored the dangerous infiltration of Iran’s radical regime.

Over the past six years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has allowed Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to increasingly meddle in his country’s affairs. Putting Venezuela at the center of a new, troublesome initiative, shaping Latin America’s future is part of Iran’s strategic gamble against the West.

Traditionally considered a “zone of peace,” Latin America is mutating into a new sanctuary for those who sympathize with radical Islam.

Hugo Chávez opened Latin America’s doors to Iran’s fundamentalist regime, sealing the alliance through 11 meetings with Ahmadinejad and visiting Tehran on six occasions since assuming power. Chávez is a principal champion of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and has routinely supported radical groups in the Middle East, even calling Israel’s 2006 military offensive in Lebanon a “new Holocaust.” But Chávez has not only supported extremist ideologies far from his own country, as some unscrupulous politicians have done in the past: he has woven these movements directly into the Venezuelan landscape.

One of those groups is Hizbullah-Venezuela, which has grown by taking advantage of the discontent and marginalization of indigenous communities. The vacuum that was created after Chávez expelled Christian Evangelicals from the country is used by Hizbullah to indoctrinate the Indian community of Wayuu-Guagira.

One of its leaders, ex-Marxist Teodoro Rafael Darnot, now claims to bring about the kingdom of God in Venezuela through his activities, and works with the Chavez government. The motto appearing on Hizbullah-Venezuela’s website states: “The brief enjoyment of life on earth is selfish. The other life is better for those who follow Allah.” While Venezuela remains a Christian cultural zone, the government’s cooperation with Iran reflects strategic desires, and does not reflect any Venezuelan demographic change.

Iranian threat growing far broader than Mideast

Last November Chávez proposed to his “ideological friend” Ahmadinejad a plan to build a joint “anti-imperialist” army to fight the “Great Satan” and defend the nations from a possible US attack. He also called Iran “a friend to trust” during the sixth Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas summit (ALBA) that took place in Caracas. During the summit, Chávez praised Ahmadinejad’s promises to share Iranian scientific developments with Latin America. They also agreed to invest billions of dollars in every country that cuts its ties with the US. “This fund, my brother,” Chávez said, “will become a mechanism for liberation.”

Confirming the foreseeable repercussions that such statements may trigger, journalist Patricia Poleo reported on July 9 that Venezuelans of Arab ancestry are being recruited under the auspices of Tarek el Ayssami, Venezuela’s vice-minister of the interior, for combat training in Hizbullah camps in south Lebanon.

These developments imply a serious shift of alliances in Latin America. Iran and Hizbulllah are now present in the Tri-Border Area that binds Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) and Foz do Iguacu (Brazil); They operate at Maicao in Colombia, in Margarita Island in Venezuela, at Monkey Point in Nicaragua as well as in Bolivia and Ecuador. Chávez’s sympathy toward the leftist terrorist group FARC is switching to radical organizations of Islamic backgrounds.

Leftist radical groups are realizing that, after all, their goals are not much different to the ones proposed by Islamic fanatical organizations, and are ready to leave their communist façade and adopt a set of beliefs seemingly in total contradiction to their former causes as long as they provide them the elements and means to overthrow democratic societies.

As a result of North American inattention to its own hemisphere, Iran is finding a new proxy for its global aspirations; without the need to “export” any terrorists, Iran is growing them on Latin American soil. Ahmadinejad has traveled to Latin America three more times than Bush has, leading some Latin American countries to seek a separate accommodation with Iran.

The Iranian threat is growing far broader than the Middle East and will be at the forefront of the next US Administration, no matter which government gets elected. Iran’s sphere of influence is systematically filling the gap wherever liberal democracies are leaving a vacuum, be it Gaza, Lebanon, or Venezuela. Unless there is an active policy to counter Iranian strategy, the so- called axis of evil may gain a new member: Venezuela.

Gabriel Calabrese is completing his studies in international relations and Latin American studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Calabrese is doing a traineeship at the Foreign Ministry of Israel and is currently in Washington, D.C. where he is completing an internship at The Israel Project, a strategic communications organization

As the United States considers the Islamic jihadi threats confronting it from all sides, it would do well to focus on its southern neighbor, Mexico, which has been targeted by Islamists and jihadists, who, through a number of tactics—from engaging in da’wa, converting Mexicans to Islam, to smuggling and the drug cartel, simple extortion, kidnappings and enslavement—have been subverting Mexico in order to empower Islam and sabotage the U.S.

According to a 2010 report, “Close to home: Hezbollah terrorists are plotting right on the U.S. border,” which appeared in the NY Daily News:

Mexican authorities have rolled up a Hezbollah network being built in Tijuana, right across the border from Texas and closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the Bekaa Valley are to Israel. Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West. Over the years, Hezbollah—rich with Iranian oil money and narcocash—has generated revenue by cozying up with Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs and people into the U.S. In this, it has shadowed the terrorist-sponsoring regime in Tehran, which has been forging close ties with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who in turn supports the narcoterrorist organization FARC, which wreaks all kinds of havoc throughout the region.

Another 2010 article appearing in the Washington Times asserts that, “with fresh evidence of Hezbollah activity just south of the border [in Mexico], and numerous reports of Muslims from various countries posing as Mexicans and crossing into the United States from Mexico, our porous southern border is a national security nightmare waiting to happen.” This is in keeping with a recent study done by Georgetown University, which revealed that the number of immigrants from Lebanon and Syria living in Mexico exceeds 200,000. Syria, along with Iran, is one of Hezbollah’s strongest financial and political supporters, and Lebanon is the immigrants’ country of origin. Just like only 19 jihadists were necessary to cause the devastation of September 11, 2001, only a handful of these 200,000 are necessary to wreak havoc north of the border.

A jihadist cell in Mexico was recently found to have a weapons cache of 100 M-16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. The weapons, it turned out, had been smuggled by Muslims from Iraq. According to this report, “obvious concerns have arisen concerning Hezbollah’s presence in Mexico and possible ties to Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTO’s) operating along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

As far back as 2005, an article entitled “Islam is gaining a Foothold in Chiapas” showcased the inroads of Islam in Mexico:

Long a bastion of Catholicism, southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers. Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting by the hundreds. The Mexican government is worried about a culture clash in their own backyard… Muslim women in headscarves have become a common sight….

To appreciate the significance of the fact that Muslim headscarves “have become a common sight” in Mexico, consider the words of former jihadist Tawfik Hamid, who personally knew al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri. In his book, Inside Jihad, he writes: “The proliferation of the hijab [Muslim headscarves] is strongly correlated with increased terrorism…. Terrorism became much more frequent in such societies as Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, and the U.K. after the hijab became prevalent among Muslim women living in those communities.”

After discussing an increase in converts to Islam, the article continues by saying: “It’s a development that is beginning to worry the Mexican government. Indeed, the government even suspects the new converts of subversive activity and has already set the secret service onto the track of the Mayan Muslims. Mexican President Vincente Fox has even gone so far as to say he fears the influence of the radical fundamentalists of al-Qaida” [emphasis added].

Kidnappings, as part of a drug cartel or as part of a jihadist operation, which legitimizes crimes such as kidnapping and child slavery, have become increasingly common. To convert non-Muslims to their cause, Islamists also whip up—and then exploit—a sense of “grievance” against the “white man.”

In addition, according to counterterrorism experts in this report, Islamic terrorists blend in better with Mexicans than with Europeans, thereby enabling them to sneak into the U.S. across the southwest border. This Muslim cleric, for example, discusses how easy it is to smuggle a briefcase containing anthrax from Mexico into America, thereby killing at least some 330,000 Americans in a single hour.

Similarly, Michael Braun, formerly assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said that the Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America; however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels.”

Only a few months ago, Washington announced that FBI and DEA agents disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States,” tied to Iran with roots in Mexico. The increased violence—including beheadings, Islam’s signature trademark—is even more indicative that Islamists are well ensconced in Mexico’s drug cartel.

The threat is not limited to Hezbollah; back in 2006, according to ISN, “Mexican authorities investigated the activities of the Murabitun [a da'wa, or missionary-outreach, organization named after historic jihadists along Spain's borders] due to reports of alleged immigration and visa abuses involving the group’s European members and possible radicals, including al-Qaeda.”

Even innocuous reports, such as this Muslim article, are cause for concern: “Today, most Mexican Islamic organizations focus on grassroots da’wa. These small organizations are most effective at the community level, going from village to village and speaking directly to the people.” Although this may not sound problematic, the strain of Islam being spread by many of these da’wa organizations is the radical, “Salafist,” anti-American variety. Here, for instance, is a popular Egyptian TV cleric saying that while Muslims must never smile to non-Muslims—who, as “infidels,” are by nature the enemy—they are free to do so if the Muslim is engaged in da’wa, trying to win over the infidel into the fold of Islam, especially if the potential convert can help empower Islam in any way.

These are but a few of the many reports on Islam in Mexico. The evidence that many Islamists in Mexico are plotting against the U.S., using all means—such as drug trafficking, which is not forbidden in Sharia law if it serves to empower Islam—is overwhelming.

Under various methods—from the violent to the subversive to the exploitative—Islam allows Muslims to lie and commit other duplicitous acts in the furtherance of Islam. Taqiyya [dissimulation] permits Hezbollah and other Islamists to engage in Mexico’s drug cartel, just as “pious” members of the Taliban in Afghanistan pursued the heroin trade. Aside from sheer violence, justified as “jihad,” or holy war, tactics pursued by Mexico’s Islamists include:

Kidnappings and enslavement, for which Mexico is already notorious. Sharia permits kidnapping, and even enslaving the infidel, in this situation, any non-Muslim in Mexico. The Quran not only approves of this, but allows male jihadists to have sex with female captives of war (Sura 4, verse 3). Here, for example, is a Muslim politician trying to legalize the institution of “sex-slavery.”

Extortion and blackmail, features of the Mexican landscape, are also permissible in Islam. According to Sharia, during jihad, Muslims are permitted to hold for ransom infidels to be sold back for large amounts of money. Here, for instance, is a popular Egyptian sheikh saying that the Islamic world’s problem is that it has stopped plundering and enslaving its infidel neighbors. He even boasts that under true Sharia, he could go to the local market and “buy” a female “sex-slave.”

In using subversive elements for da’wa, Muslims might comfortably use false arguments to turn Mexicans against their northern neighbors. For instance, they often argue that Islam is a religion of “racial equality,” whereas Christianity is the “white man’s” religion, imposed on their ancestors by racist whites who sought to keep them “impoverished” beyond the border. Islamist strategies in Mexico amount to trying to win the unbelievers over to their side, whether through conversion or just cooperation. For those who refuse to cooperate, they are infidels to be used in any way that seems appropriate.

Subcomandante Marcos of Chiapas entered into an alliance with a Muslim movement in the mid-1990s.

Read the original article here.

Editor’s Comments: According to our investigation, Muslims have been illegally crossing the U.S. Mexican border at an increasing rate for over a decade. Pakistanis, Afghans, Egyptians, Iraqis and Libyans posing as “Mexicans” cross on a daily basis. If apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol the adults will claim to be “Palestinians” fleeing Israeli oppression and apply for “Asylum” immediately. Those who are, or appear to be, eighteen years of age or younger, are sent to a Southwest Key Unaccompanied Minor Shelter and then “resettled” (at the taxpayer’s expense) in the the Chicago or Detroit areas. It is important to note that an eighteen year old from the above countries is likely to be a well-trained combat soldier.

Nasrallah addresses thousands of supporters by video in Lebanon on Friday.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his Lebanon-based terrorist group was capable of striking any target in Israel, declaring that “the days when we fled and they did not are over.”

”Today we are not just able to target Tel Aviv as a city but also with God’s will and strength we are able to strike very specific targets in Tel Aviv and in any place in occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said in a televised address, essentially admitting that his militia was arming itself with advanced long-range missiles in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701.

Hezbollah is based in southern Lebanon, which borders Israel. According to the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, only U.N. forces can carry arms south of the Litani River.

”For every building that is destroyed in the suburbs, there will be buildings destroyed in Tel Aviv,” he said, referring to Hezbollah’s stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

Nasrallah’s comments were some of his harshest words against Israel in several months, and came amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran.

Israel argues Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is being used to make an atomic bomb and has warned it could launch a military strike to stop Tehran. Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

Hezbollah has long been seen as a proxy of Iran and Syria and many analysts believe that in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran, Hezbollah could return fire.

”The time when our homes are destroyed and theirs remain intact is over. The days when we were afraid and they were not are over. And we say to them: The time has come when we will remain and you will be the ones who disappear,” Nasrallah told his supporters on Friday.

Read the rest of the article here.

(AINA) — Armed jihadist seized control of Qastal al-Burg village on Thursday, May 10, and ordered its 10 Christian families to leave, according to a report published by UPI on its Arabic language website.

A resident of the village, who did not wish to be identified, said “armed jihadist (expiatory) group came to the village and ordered us to leave our homes empty handed.” The armed group, he further stated, “have exercised their control over all the houses, and occupied the church and made it as their command control center.”

Qastal al-Burg village is in the province of Hama and is 48 kilometers northwest of Hama.

Read the original article here. Translated from Arabic by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi.

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported on a covert diplomatic program through which the U.S. releases high-level insurgents at an Afghanistan military prison in exchange for information, influence, and promises of peace. “We look at detainees who have influence over other insurgents — individuals whose release could have a calming effect in an entire area,” one U.S. official said. “In those cases, the benefits of release could outweigh the reasons for keeping him detained.”

An official said that this type of release is rare, adding, “Everyone agrees they are guilty of what they have done and should remain in detention.” Yet officials have negotiated swaps with Taliban members (and members of other insurgent groups) where the benefits outweigh the risks in provinces where “military power has reached its limits.”

The released detainees are often “notorious fighters” who must promise to give up violence and get warned out the door that they will get locked back up if they attack U.S. or Afghan forces again.

This report and revelation about the discrete diplomacy program comes only a few days after President Obama addressed the American people from Bagram Air Field outside of Kabul, where he signed a pact — the Strategic Partnership Agreement— with Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai. The agreement covers the U.S. commitment to the struggling nation after the planned U.S. drawdown of troops by the end of 2014. At that time, Obama says, the U.S. will assume a support role.

“The Afghans have come to us with information that might strengthen the reconciliation process,” U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said. “Many times we do act on it.”

A bit about how these exchanges materialize:

The process begins with conversations between U.S. military officials and insurgent commanders or local elders, who promise that violence will decrease in their district — or that militants will cease fighting altogether — if certain insurgents are released from Parwan. The value of the tradeoff and the sincerity of the guarantee are then weighed by senior military officials in Kabul, officials said.

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