Sunday, November 28, 2010


Muslim "refugee" tries to bomb Oregon Christmas tree lighting



A Somali-born teenager was arrested in an undercover operation on charges that he tried to detonate a van that he thought was filled with explosives at a Portland, Oregon, Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, obtained what he believed to be the bomb from undercover FBI employees, according to court papers filed with his arrest yesterday. The public was never in danger, a Justice Department statement said.

"I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured," Mohamud allegedly told undercover FBI agents, according to an affidavit filed in support of the arrest. At another point, he allegedly said, "It’s gonna be a fireworks show" and "a spectacular show."

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Corvallis, Oregon, told undercover FBI agents that he had been thinking of committing violent jihad since he was 15 years old, and that he had written for an online publication supporting such actions, according to the affidavit.

Counterterrorism officials, citing a series of cases in recent years, say they are increasingly concerned about American citizens planning terror attacks in the U.S. because those plots are difficult to detect and prevent.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was convicted of a May 1 attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square.

Mohamud is charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance in federal court in Portland on Nov. 29.

In August 2009, Mohamud was in contact by e-mail with an associate outside the U.S. who authorities suspect of being involved in terrorism, according to the Justice Department. They allegedly discussed the possibility of his traveling to Pakistan to "engage in violent jihad," the Justice Department statement said.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June contacted Mohamud under the guise of being affiliated with the associate, according to the arrest affidavit. He told them he wanted to stage an explosion and needed help, according to the Justice Department. He allegedly told an undercover agent that he wanted to attack a "huge mass" of people "in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays." He said he wanted to carry out the attack in Oregon because "nobody ever thinks about it."

Earlier this month, Mohamud and the undercover FBI agents went to a remote location in Lincoln County, Oregon and detonated a bomb concealed in a backpack as a trial run, according to the affidavit. Mohamud mailed bomb components to undercover FBI agents, who he thought were assembling the device, according to the affidavit.

Mohamud told the FBI agents that he thought it was "awesome" when people had to jump from the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11 attacks, and said he wanted to see body parts and blood after setting off his bomb, according to the affidavit.

Before the planned bombing at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, Mohamud put on a white robe and a white and red headdress, along with a camouflage jacket and read a written statement in front of a video camera, the affidavit said. "For as long as you threaten our security, your people will not remain safe," he said, according to the affidavit.

Yesterday, Mohamud and an undercover agent allegedly drove a white van near the courthouse. The fake bomb, constructed by FBI technicians, included six 55-gallon drums containing inert materials and diesel fuel, according to the affidavit.

Mohamud tried to detonate the bomb using a cell phone, according to the affidavit. He was taken into custody soon after, about 5.40p.m. Portland time, about 10 minutes after the tree lighting was scheduled to begin. As he was being transported, he allegedly yelled "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, and began kicking the FBI agents.

Mohamud took classes at Oregon State University in Corvallis starting in late 2009 and he withdrew last month, said Todd Simmons, a university spokesman. Mohamud faces life in prison if convicted.

"The threat was very real," said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, in the Justice Department statement. "Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale."

SOURCE






Call for reform of British "human rights" law

David Cameron is under pressure to deliver on a promise to reform the Human Rights Act following the disclosure that the foreign-born murderer of Philip Lawrence has been arrested on suspicion of another violent attack.

Frances Lawrence, the headmaster’s widow, said the legislation needed to be “revised”. Conservative MPs urged the Prime Minister to act on his previous pledges to scrap the current legislation.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed on Wednesday that Learco Chindamo had been arrested four months after his release for the 1995 murder of Mr Lawrence outside a west London school.

The Government had been prevented from deporting Chindamo to Italy, where he lived as a child, because of the Human Rights Act. He was freed in July and allowed to live in Britain.

Yesterday Mrs Lawrence told The Daily Telegraph: “I think the Human Rights Act needs revision. It omits the notion of responsibility, without which we are less than human. I don’t think this is a mere philosophical point.”

The legislation was introduced by the Labour government in 1998, but has been criticised for providing more protection for criminals and terrorists than law-abiding citizens. Over the past few years, Mr Cameron repeatedly called for the legislation to be reformed, describing it as “a glaring example of what is going wrong in our country”. The Conservatives drew up plans for a Bill of Rights to replace it. The change would have been introduced before the end of the year had the Tories won a majority. Under the Coalition, the reform has been delayed. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and a previous supporter of the Act, has been charged with helping to lead a commission reviewing the legislation.

The commission will not start work until 2012 at the earliest, raising fears that the Act will not be overhauled.

The decision to hand control of the issue to Mr Clegg has irritated some ministers, who are braced for the issue not to be resolved before the next election.

One Conservative Cabinet minister said: “This is another totemic issue like inheritance tax which has been thrown overboard.

“It is an issue which needs to be resolved but Cameron has virtually given up on it. It now looks like reforming the Act properly will be for the next manifesto.

“This was all ready to go; it would have been law next year if we had won the election. But that’s life.”

Last night, Conservative MPs urged Mr Cameron to push ahead with his previous pledge to reform the Act.

Priti Patel, MP for Witham, said: “The public will be appalled to see that human rights laws continue to prevent us from sending dangerous foreign criminals back to their own countries. Instead of the public being protected they are being left to commit more crimes in Britain. There are serious issues with the way human rights legislation operates which has left people feeling that the rights of criminals are being put above those of the law-abiding majority.”

Dominic Raab, MP for Esher & Walton, who helped to draw up the plans for a Bill of Rights, said: “Britain’s inability to deport criminals because it disrupts their family ties is a direct result of the Human Rights Act, not the European Convention [on Human Rights]. This case highlights the difference a Bill of Rights can make, and why it should be a priority. It must not be kicked into the long grass.”

Rehman Chishti, a barrister and Conservative MP for Gilliam and Rainham, said: “Learco Chindamo should have been extradited a long time ago when he was first sentenced. People talk about his human right to a family life but what about the human rights of the public who have a right to be protected from him?”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “There is a Coalition agreement on this and it sets out very clearly what we are going to do on the European Convention on Human Rights. There is an awful lot of work going on between now and then.

“There are many other things going through the House of Commons and many other bits of policy, and significant reforms under way in lots of areas and we are getting on with those.”

SOURCE





Segregation’s back with “Sisters’ Splash.”

Are you a Muslim woman? Don’t want to share the pool with men? Then welcome to George Washington University’s “Sisters’ Splash, the ladies-only swim hour.

“The school’s Lerner Health and Wellness Center closed the pool to men and covered the glass door with a dark tarp, giving female Muslim students the chance to swim at their leisure, while honoring the basic tenets of their religion.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State are of course outraged, oh wait a minute, they aren’t: “Because George Washington is a private university, there should be no constitutional issues with the swim hour, Ayesha N. Khan, legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”

Interesting, yet when Bob Jones University wanted to discriminate against black students they were told they would lose their tax-exempt status. Oh well, I guess some people are better than others.

“Aliya Karim, social chair of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) women’s group, tells the student newspaper the organization made the effort to coordinate the swimming hour so fellow Muslims would feel comfortable in the pool. “Personally, I would only want to go when just girls are there,” Karim, who is also a Hatchet photographer, tells the newspaper.”

Well, we wouldn’t want Muslims to be uncomfortable, would we? I mean, I remember being a fat kid and being forced to take swimming lessons as part of the mandatory physical education program at my high school, I remember the kinds making fun of me, too bad I wasn’t a Muslim, I would have loved “fat hour” at the pool.

“Rahiba Noor, a junior who serves as the community service chair of the MSA, tells the newspaper that, prior to attending GW, swimming laps at a private pool was an important part of her health regimen. At school, however, Noor tells the student newspaper she’s resigned herself to staying away from the water and using a treadmill.

“Religious values always define us,” Noor tells the newspaper. “Although I wouldn’t really mind, it would be satisfying to me religiously to swim only with girls.”

Plenty of people have religious values, like Orthodox Jews, they don’t eat pork. So what do they do? They bring their own lunch, pick something else from the menu, go to a kosher restaurant or get their education at Brandeis, Yeshiba University or Baruch College. So if we’re not accommodating Orthodox Jews, why the hell do it with Muslim women?

So here’s my compromise as a believer in freedom, now listen up Muslims because this is for you: Instead of donating so much money to Hezbollah why don’t you raise funds for a private Muslim country club? Then you can build your own damn pool, hell, build two pools, and practice all the segregation you want. Until then, stop demanding special treatment from a private school that gets taxpayer dollars!

SOURCE

We learn here that the pool was constructed with money donated by a Jewish philanthropist. Does he approve? If not, change could be in the air






Netanyahu: Palestinian distortion of historical facts hurts Mideast peace drive

Is there anything else left for the Palis to lie about?

A Palestinian Authority report claiming the Western Wall was not a Jewish holy site and was, in fact, sacred to Muslims poses a serious question as to the Palestinian's desire to reach a peace deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

The prime minister's rebuke came in the wake of a report released by a senior PA official on Wednesday which said the Western Wall had no religious significance to Jews and is in fact, holy Muslim property.

Al-Mutawakil Taha, deputy minister of information in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank, told The Associated Press that his five-page study published on a Palestinian government website reflected the official Palestinian position.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday, Netanyahu severely criticized the PA-sponsored study, saying that "denying the link binding the Jewish people and the Western Wall by the Palestinian information office is a travesty."

"When the Palestinians Authority denies the connection between the Jewish people and the Western Wall it raises serious questions as to its intentions to reach a peace deal founded on coexistence and mutual recognition," the statement said, adding that the PA must cease its "distortion of historical facts and encourage a bridge to peace that would lead to a historical reconciliation between the two peoples.

Part of the report released by the Palestinians on Wednesday disputes that the Western Wall was a retaining wall of the Temple compound, discarding centuries of documentation and archaeology.

"This wall has never been a part of what is called the Jewish Temple," the report claimed. "However, it was Islamic tolerance which allowed the Jews to stand before it and cry over its loss."

The report concludes that since Jews have no claim to the area, it is holy Muslim territory and must be part of Palestinian Jerusalem.

SOURCE. A less restrained comment on the matter here

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here or Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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