» A terror group takes responsibility: A terror group known locally as Boko Haram seems to be taking advantage of the weakness of the country’s central government in Northeastern Nigeria, planning attacks to escalate sectarian violence and going after government buildings and police stations in the process. “There’s that fear that something might possibly happen again,” said Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama. The group has threatened to continue its attacks “until until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians.”
I would have a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. Now, then you need to look at the whole situation and examine the facts.Herman Cain, answering a question from Anderson Cooper as to whether he would, as he’d earlier intimated, be comfortable authorizing a hostage swap along the lines of what went down between the Israelis and Palestinians today — the hypothetical situation was an American soldier being held hostage, and his holder demanding the release of all Guantanamo detainees. Similar to Cain’s recent contradiction on his remark about an electrified border fence (he said it was a joke, but that he might still want an electric fence), he seems to want it both ways in an awkwardly compressed way. If you say you can’t negotiate with terrorists, isn’t that sort of the end of this question?
In a recent newsletter called HuffPost Hill, The Huffington Post attacked U.S. government officials for their killing of radical Islamic terrorists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, despite the fact that these to so-called Americans have tried and in some cases succeeded in killing countless… [more]
We’ve covered this story before and have made clear that there’s a balance here. But the problem that we see here is one of due process. HuffPo’s report is slanted in a way that sharply pins the story on an angle that frustrates many among the left. But it’s another thing entirely to paint HuffPo as anti-American because they disagree with something the U.S. government did. Here’s the issue, as many on the left see it: There’s this thing called due process for U.S. citizens, and they feel that Obama basically ignored it in hopes of stopping someone who was seen as greatly influential in al-Qaeda, a man who despite that had American parents who didn’t want the U.S. government to simply drop a bunch of bombs on him. “The question then is, why The Huffington Post is so eager to support a terrorist and murderer?” That’s just as slanted as HuffPo’s take. They’re not “eager to support a terrorist and murderer,” but they think that due process has a place in the war on terror, even for perceived enemies of the state. And they’re not alone. Glenn Greenwald’s been heavily against this, too.
Looks like his trial just hit the skids.
(Source: inothernews)
Iranian bombing plot stymied by FBI: American officials reported today that the FBI infiltrated and derailed a terrorist plot backed by Iran. The plan involved paid collusion from an elite Iranian security force to the Zeta drug cartel of Mexico (unbeknownst to the Iranians, the contact they believed to be with the Zetas was cooperating with the FBI). The intended outcome was a bomb going off at a Washington D.C. restaurant, which would have killed Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. This is big news, as a publicly disseminated example of Iran as a state supporter of terrorism; it has been viewed as such by the U.S. State Department since 1984. source
The United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions.Eric Holder, holding a press conference where he held Iran in low regard; he wasn’t holding back a story that would have a strong hold on the press for the rest of the day: That the U.S. held two Iranian suspects in their custody, who the U.S. believes hold the key to an assassination plot involving a Saudi diplomat, as well as a number of related plots. Hold the phone!
Although not widely known, Jamaicans have been involved in some of the worst or potentially devastating acts of terrorism of the last decade.A recently-uncovered Wikileaks cable from a U.S. diplomat in Jamaica • Suggesting that Jamaicans are a serious terror threat … a claim that the diplomat makes by linking three separate notable terror incidents in the past decade to people of Jamaican descent: Shoe bomber Richard Reid (his parents were Jamaican), D.C. sniper co-conspirator Lee Boyd Malvo and 2005 London bomber Germaine Lindsay. As Talking Points Memo points out, the ties are weak at best, making this 2010 diplomatic cable a bit of a bizarre footnote in the annals of Wikileaks — one with plenty of bizarre footnotes already. source (via • follow)
Look, I don’t want to kill someone. But if you threaten my family [and] one of our lives is in danger, I’m doing all I can to kill you. No apologies.CNN contributor Roland S. Martin, commenting via Facebook on the U.S.-led attack that killed Anwar al-Awlaki - Yahoo! News (via brooklynmutt)
The FBI also released a similar warning when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden. In related news, the guy who designed the underwear bomber’s underwear bomb was likely also killed in the strike that killed al-Awlaki.
As a general matter, it would be entirely lawful for the United States to target high-level leaders of enemy forces, regardless of their nationality, who are plotting to kill Americans both under the authority provided by Congress in its use of military force in the armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces as well as established international law that recognizes our right of self-defense.A vague, anonymous U.S. official • Discussing and defending the American role in killing key al-Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki, whose killing was sanctioned in a secret memo put together by the Justice Department. As we pointed out earlier, al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen, making his assassination very controversial for some, most notably Glenn Greenwald. Does the explanation above hold water? source (via • follow)
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Also killed along with Awlaki: Samir Kahn (also American), who was the editor of Al Qaeda’s English-language magazine, Inspire.
We could say all sorts of things about Anwar al-Awlaki, but we’ll let this Yemeni official say them for us: “He’s the most dangerous man in Yemen. He’s intelligent, sophisticated, Internet-savvy, and very charismatic. He can sell anything to anyone, and right now he’s selling jihad.” A high-profile get for the United States, the al-Qaeda recruiter was killed during an ongoing bombing campaign coordinated with Yemen. Obama is expected to speak on al-Awlaki’s death soon. Why is this such a big deal? Here’s a breakdown:
See this model plane here? It was a terror threat. This model plane was reportedly owned by a 26-year-old Massachusetts musician (and apparent lone wolf terror suspect) named Rezwan Ferdaus, who wanted to use this model plane (and another one) to blow up the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Obviously, it would’ve been loaded to the gills with explosives … if Ferdaus’ plan actually worked. See, the guys he was reportedly working with? He thought they were al-Qaeda operatives. Actually, they were FBI. Oops. Ferdaus also reportedly built some cell phones modified to blow up roadside bombs in Afghanistan. However, he also handed those to the FBI. source
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