BLUF
“These poor liberals. They spend their lives righteously defending minorities from conservatives — not realizing that minorities can be conservative themselves.”
Liberals believe the price Muslims should pay for sticking up for them is giving up their religious beliefs.
HAHAHA.
The real story of course is that Christians and Muslims have found a common ground. Both want to protect their children from LGBT indoctrination in schools.
The LA Times reported, “For months, hundreds of religious parents have regularly rallied outside a Maryland school board building, aghast at curriculum featuring books that portray LGBTQ+ families to elementary school kids.
“Waving American flags, they have chanted against indoctrination of children. They’ve sued to pull their kids from lessons and argued their case on Fox News.
“In battles against LGBTQ+ acceptance [the paper’s way of saying grooming kids], it is often white evangelicals pushing for book bans [no books are banned] or boycotts over beer brands or bathing suits. In this case, Muslims are leading the fight.
“The controversy in an overwhelmingly blue Washington, D.C., suburb highlights a shift. For decades, Muslims have been focused on fighting back against accusations of terrorism. But now, in clashes in left-leaning, diverse areas from the coasts to the heartland, they’re speaking out about what they see as intolerance of their faith.”
Sounds like the left is having some buyer’s remorse. It was OK when Hillary was branding those deplorable Trump supporters as Islamophobic, but now they are discovering that Trump supporters are not as Islamophobic as she said they were. In fact, they have found common ground; both Muslims and Christians are tired of being bullied by fanatic LGBT operatives who have taken over sex education in schools and expanded it to kindergarten.
CAIR — once heralded by the left as the sole arbiter of what is Islamophobic — organized a protest against a schoolboard in suburban Washington.
Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland director of CAIR, told the LA Times, “The school system believes it is being inclusive toward LGBTQ parents and students. But in doing that, it is not being inclusive toward another set of parents and students.”
BLUF:
“We welcomed you. We created nonprofits to help feed, clothe, find housing. We did everything we could to make your transition here easier, and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?”
Though Democrats have blamed conservative Republicans for the growing outcry from the Muslim community over the radical LGBTQ agenda being forced on children in public schools, the belief still exists among woke leftists that if they continue to play nice they can coexist with—and win over—devoutly religious, socially conservative Muslims who have become disaffected with Democratic Party.
It’s almost an understatement to say that theory has been put to the test in one city in Michigan, which saw an all-Muslim city council and mayor unanimously vote to ban the Pride flag and some other flags from being displayed on city property, a vote they held during ‘Pride Month’:
And last year, a Muslim who emigrated from Yemen as a teenager became mayor — the city’s first leader in nearly a century with no Polish roots — alongside what is believed to be the nation’s only all-Muslim city council.
Many residents in this tiny enclave just north of downtown Detroit saw these changes as a sign of the Hamtramck’s progressiveness. The Muslim community that had previously experienced discrimination, including voter intimidation and resistance to mosques’ public call to prayer, had finally taken its seats at the table.
Yet the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity that made Hamtramck something of a model is being put severely to the test. In June, after divisive debate, the six-member council blocked the display of Pride flags on city property — action that has angered allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community, who feel that the support they provided the immigrant groups has been reciprocated with betrayal.
“We welcomed you,” former council member Catrina Stackpoole, a retired social worker who identifies as gay, recalls telling the council this summer. “We created nonprofits to help feed, clothe, find housing. We did everything we could to make your transition here easier, and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?”
The only flags that can be displayed on city property, per the WaPo‘s report, are “U.S., state, city and POW/MIA banners.”
My first thought when I read this was “What the heck did they expect?” My second was to remind myself that the far left always expects mindless subservience from their core voting blocs.
Though there seemed to be general agreement from Twitter conservatives with the vote to only allow the American flag and related flags on city property, some other observations were made about the widening political rift in Hamtramck which ranged from serious to downright hilarious:
The coordinated terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 unfolded at nightmarish speed. At 8:46 a.m., the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Sixteen minutes later, a second jet hit the South Tower. At 9:37, an airliner hit the Pentagon. Within hours, thousands had died, including hundreds of first responders who’d rushed to the scenes to help.
But after the events quieted and the scope of the damage came into relief, it became clear that there was at least one element of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot where the damage had been mitigated—with the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
Like the three other planes hijacked on September 11, Flight 93 was overtaken by al-Qaeda operatives intent on crashing it into a center of American power—in Flight 93’s case, likely the White House or the U.S. Capitol. But instead of hitting its intended target, the United jet went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania. While all 44 people aboard the plane were killed, countless people who might have perished in Washington were spared because of a passenger revolt—a heroic struggle undertaken with whatever low-tech weapons they and the cabin crew members could muster.
Brendan Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us, a book about domestic airline hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s, says that in the hundreds of cases he studied for his book, he never came across anything like Flight 93’s passenger revolt.
“The attitude of passengers tended to be that airlines would give the hijackers what they wanted, and so there was relatively little threat to the passengers,” Koerner says. “There aren’t really that many instances of passengers getting involved.”
7:39–7:48 a.m.: The terrorists board, likely one man short
On the morning of September 11, four terrorists boarded United Airlines Flight 93 at Newark International Airport: Ziad Jarrah, a trained pilot; and three others, who were trained in unarmed combat and would help storm the cockpit and control the crowd. All four sat in first class.
There was one fewer hijacker on Flight 93 than the five-man crews that commandeered the other three planes, leading the 9/11 Commission Report to speculate that the United Airlines hijacking operated with an incomplete team. That commission speculated that an intended fifth hijacker—Mohammed al-Qahtani—had been refused entry to the country in early August at Orlando International by a suspicious immigration official, who thought al-Qahtani wanted to overstay his visa and live in the United States.
8:42 a.m.: The flight departs late
UA 93 left its gate at Newark International at 8:01 am, only one minute later than scheduled. But heavy traffic on the runway delayed takeoff for approximately 42 minutes.
As a result, one of the flights (Flight 11) was hijacked nearly half an hour before UA 93 had even left the runway, and both of the World Trade Center towers would be hit before the hijackers on Flight 93 had taken over their plane.
9:24 a.m.: Airline dispatcher warns United 93 about cockpit intrusion
With multiple hijackings unfolding across the country, United Airlines dispatcher Ed Ballinger sent a text message warning to pilot Jason Dahl: “Beware any cockpit intrusion—two a/c [aircraft] hit World Trade Center.”
Dahl, seemingly confused, wrote back, “Ed, confirm latest mssg plz—Jason.”
9:28 a.m.: United 93 is hijacked
While flying 35,000 feet above eastern Ohio, United 93 suddenly lost 7,000 feet as the terrorists rushed the cockpit. In the cockpit, the captain or first officer could be heard shouting “Mayday!” and “Get out of here!” into a radio transmission.
Sometime before 9:30 a.m.: Hijackers kill a passenger in first class
Tom Burnett, a first-class passenger on the flight, called his wife from the back of the plane at 9:30 to report the hijacking. On the call, Burnett told his wife, Deena, that a passenger had been knifed in front of the other passengers. On a subsequent call a few minutes later, he told her the passenger had died.
9:32 a.m.: Hijacker Ziad Jarrah threatens the passengers via the intercom
“Ladies and Gentlemen: Here the captain, please sit down keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board. So, sit.”
9:35 a.m.: Jarrah redirects the jet’s autopilot toward Washington, D.C.
At approximately the same time, recordings from the cockpit capture the sound of a flight attendant pleading for her life, then falling silent.
9:35–9:55 a.m.: Passengers and crew call their loved ones
For approximately 20 minutes, passengers and crew relayed information about their hijacking…and received word of the grim news on the ground. Planes had, by this point, struck both of the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. The passengers knew they were staring down a similar fate.
Passenger Jeremy Glick told his wife Lyz that passengers were voting on whether or not to storm the cockpit in an attempt to take back the plane.
“I have my butter knife from breakfast,” he reportedly joked.
Burnett told his wife that the passengers were going to wait until they were above a rural area before attempting their action.
Flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw boiled water, to throw on the hijackers.
Those on the flight who couldn’t get through to their loved ones left heart-wrenching voicemails instead. Flight attendant CeeCee Lyles called her husband, told him she loved him, and asked that he take care of her children.
“Are you guys ready?” one of the passengers, Todd Beamer, could be heard saying to the others while on a call with a telephone operator. “Let’s roll.”
9:57 a.m.: The passenger revolt begins.
The cockpit voice recorder captured the sound of passengers attempting to break through the door: yelling, thumping and crashing of dishes and glass. In response, Jarrah tried to cut off the oxygen and began pitching the plane left and right, to knock the passengers off balance.
9:58 a.m.: Jarrah instructed another hijacker to block the door.
9:59 a.m.: Jarrah began pitching the plane up and down, again hoping to neutralize the passenger assault.
10:00 a.m.: The hijackers discuss crashing early
Still approximately 20 minutes away from their target, the hijackers recognized that they would soon lose control of the aircraft.
“Shall we finish it off?” Jarrah asked one of the other hijackers in the cockpit.
“Not yet,” was the reply. “When they all come, we finish it off.”
In the background, a passenger screamed to another, “In the cockpit. If we don’t, we’ll die!”
10:01 a.m.: The hijackers decide to crash the plane
Jarrah again asked the other hijacker if he should crash the vehicle. This time, he was told, “Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.”
Jarrah pulled the control wheel hard to the left, causing the plane to fly upside down, and then to crash into the ground at a speed of 580 miles per hour.
Two years ago, in 2021, a suicide blast ravaged the streets of Kabul’s international airport, killing 13 American service members.
To this day, the families who lost their loved ones feel President Joe Biden has ignored their pleas for answers on the deadly event. Mark Schmitz’s son, Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, was killed in the aftermath of the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In a statement to Fox News, he expressed his frustration that Biden has refused to answer whether the bomber could have been counteracted before the attack.
“Nothing yet. In fact, I’ve asked for copies of the SD card footage off of his rifle scope. That would have been recorded, and they would have been able to have that as evidence that this was or was not, in fact, the bomber. That card has been ‘misplaced,’ as they say,” Schmitz replied. “So, I don’t know what the truth is anymore. We can’t seem to get a straight answer out of anybody.”
The father accused Biden of withholding crucial information on the attack that led to his son’s death. On a separate occasion, Schmitz criticized Biden for claiming the botched withdrawal was a success, saying the president refuses to take responsibility for his actions that have caused the country to suffer.
“He’ll never learn from his mistakes; he’s proven that time and time again,” Schmitz said. “He doesn’t even accept responsibility for anything he did. I believe he said that what he did was an ‘extraordinary success.’ He’s the exact polar opposite of a leader.”
This weekend marked the second anniversary of the chaotic withdrawal that caused lives to be forever changed. Despite being one of the darkest days in Biden’s presidency, he has failed to uphold his obligations to Gold Star families.
According to the Daily Mail, the families are accusing Biden of ignoring requests to meet them while demanding him to come forward and admit his mistakes in withdrawing from Afghanistan. The mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee said, “One of the hardest parts has really been being ignored largely by the administration and official elected officials.”
The parents of Cpl. Hunter Lopez told the Daily Mail that neither the president nor his administration reached out as they mourned the loss of their child. “I would love to sit down with President Biden and have him outline the successes,” one of the parents told the Daily Mail, adding that she believes the Biden Administration did nothing right that day.
Gold Star families are expected to participate in a roundtable hosted by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX).
It would have led the news if they could have claimed it was a “white supremacist” attack.
Officers Jake Wallin, Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were shot by Barakat from about 15 to 20 feet away before they could even reach for their guns. Wallin was killed with Dotas and Hawes were wounded. It has since been revealed Barakat is originally from Syria was allowed into the United States via asylum in 2012.
‘Mohammed’ was overwhelmingly the most common name among those arrested during the recent French riots, reports the French newspaper L’Opinion, which analyzed a sample of the most common monikers amongst over 2,000 arrested throughout the uprisings in late June.
Mohammed appeared 81 times in a sample of 335 arrests, 50 times more than second place Yanis –another name with Arab origins – which appeared 31 times. In fact, several Arab names were prevalent among the random sample of 335, with Yacin appearing 11 times, Ali appearing 13, and Ibrahim at 10.
The names were revealed after the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin argued that many of the names arrested were more typical French names, including Kevin and Matteo. Yet, neither features prominently in the list revealed by L’Opinion.
“No one can ignore reality anymore… in spite of everything, most of the political class wants to believe that it is a social crisis when the root cause is obvious: immigration,” asserts the former French presidential candidate, Eric Zemmour.
The riots in France were recently compared to the French Revolution of 1789 in terms of scale and destruction by the former French spy chief, Pierre Brochand.
These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves a fellow called Mohammed. A plane flies into the World Trade Centre? Mohammed Atta. A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. A sniper starts killing petrol station customers around Washington, DC? John Allen Muhammed. A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri. A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed. A gang-rapist in Sydney? Mohammed Skaf.Mark Steyn
On Friday afternoon, police in Fargo, North Dakota, responded to a report of a car crash at 9th Avenue South and 25th Street South. Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said it was a “routine traffic accident,” but what happened when they arrived on the scene was anything but routine. A Fargo resident named Mohamad Barakat, 37, opened fire on the officers, killing one and injuring three others. Zibolski said that Barakat attacked the officers “for no known reason,” and authorities have as yet offered no hints as to the shooter’s motive. One of the most obvious possibilities, however, is being steadfastly ignored, as one might expect given today’s media narrative.
A witness said, according to the Associated Press, that Barakat “appeared to have ambushed the officers.” He was standing behind a car that was parked in the parking lot of a bank near the scene of the crash, and he quickly opened fire on the police officers from about twenty feet away. The witness added, “He was holding up the trunk of the car with his arm, and then I see the gun come up, and he set it on his shoulder and just pointed it directly at an officer in front of him. It was like 10 shots right away.”
When Barakat began shooting, the police were busy with the traffic accident and weren’t even looking in his direction, but they quickly began to return fire. Another witness recounted, “I saw them firing at each other, both at once. But soon as the shooter took a break, the cop came walking towards him, letting off round after round. There was already an officer down, and a family hiding just on the other side of the vehicle next to the shooter.”
Zibolski, however, declined to confirm that Barakat had ambushed the officers, saying only, “The investigation into that is still ongoing.” He did reveal, however, that Fargo police had previously dealt with Barakat, although he downplayed these encounters as “not anything significant.”
Above all, Zibolski was puzzled. “The first thing we always want to know in a situation like this is, ‘Why?’” said Zibolski. “Why would somebody do this? What happened?” And he expressed amazement that such an incident could take place in Fargo, North Dakota: “This is an unconscionable act. It’s hard to fathom, it’s unbelievable that something like this would happen in our community. Many of us think this stuff can’t happen. It just happened.”
Yes, it did. And Zibolski added that the FBI had been called in, but given the fact that the feds are now far more interested in finding “domestic terrorists” at school board meetings and Catholic churches than in hunting down actual terrorists, Zibolski may still not get an answer to his question of why someone would do such a thing. FBI agents today would likely not recognize an Islamic jihadist if he stood behind a car and started shooting at them, but Mohamad Barakat may have been one. There is no indication that anyone is looking into this possibility, but it would provide an immediate explanation for the details of the case.
This is because the Islamic State (ISIS) has repeatedly called upon Muslims in the West to attack police officers as well as other authorities. Back in September 2014, the Islamic State exhorted Muslims in the West not to “let this battle pass you by wherever you may be.” It called upon them to “kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
Specifically, the jihadis said: “Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves.” The jihadis should take advantage of all opportunities and means to kill: “If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him.”
Now, Mohamad Barakat may have had entirely different reasons for his attack. But the possibility that this was a jihad terror attack in Fargo, North Dakota, cannot be dismissed out of hand, even as authorities appear disinclined even to consider it as a possibility. The FBI and the entire Biden regime have never given any indication that they’re aware that the global jihad continues. Unfortunately, it does.
Tell me more about how I should give up my guns so the government can protect me https://t.co/TDvmQEJBNl
Thanks to the efforts of King Ferdinand III of Castile — aka, Saint Ferdinand — today in history, on June 29, 1236, Córdoba, which after the eighth century Muslim conquest of Spain, had become one of the most important “abodes of Islam,” to quote a disgruntled Muslim chronicler, “passed into the hands of the accursed Christians — may Allah destroy them all!”
Six months earlier, in December of 1235, a daring band of Christians, led by a few knights, stormed and took a portion of Córdoba’s eastern quarter. Word reached King Ferdinand in January of 1236, even as he was in mourning over the recent death of his thirty-year-old wife from childbirth complications.
Through their envoy, the Spaniards “implored him to help them because they were placed in most grave peril.” Against the Muslim “multitude of Córdoba, they were very few” and “separated from the Moors only by a certain wall running almost through the middle of the city.” Though at a standstill, time, the envoy made clear, was not on the Christians’ side.
The king, who for years had been spearheading the Reconquista — the Christian attempt to liberate Spain from Islam — was heavily moved by such a heroic feat; and “the grief for the loss” of his wife “did not long suspend his warlike preparations.” On the same evening that the envoy arrived, Ferdinand’s advisors strongly warned him against setting out immediately, during winter; they cited impassable roads due to snow, rain and floods, and possible ambushes from the “innumerable multitude of people in Córdoba” — to say nothing of Ibn Hud, the de facto king of al-Andalus, who was even then headed to relieve the Muslim city.
When President Joe Biden made the decision to abruptly leave Afghanistan in August 2021, he did so without the U.S. military properly exporting or destroying warehouses full of weapons. Billions of dollars worth of equipment was left behind and now, it’s showing up in the hands of terrorists attacking Israeli citizens.
“The Taliban secured a substantial arsenal of U.S. weapons and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters, after U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021. The Israeli commander with whom Newsweek spoke said some of the U.S. small arms seized in Afghanistan have already been observed in the hands of Palestinian groups operating in the Gaza Strip,” Newsweek reports.
The Israeli Defense Force has been dealing with a number of terrorist flare ups over the past year as Palestinian groups continue to attack Israeli civilians. Most recently, Islamic Jihad engaged in multi-day rocket fire against Israeli cities, eventually ending in a ceasefire after the IDF attacked in the Gaza Strip and killed a number of top terror leaders.
On Monday IDF carried out an operation in Jenin, a city in the West Bank that has become a terror hotspot similar to Gaza and Lebanon.
Today in the city of Jenin, armed suspects fired toward IDF forces from inside a mosque.
Question O’ The Day
BLUF
However, what this REALLY is, is a national security issue. Again, we should be glad that at least ONE more terrorist was nabbed at our border. Yet the question remains, what about those who have slipped through??
National security? WHAT national security? Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas keep insisting our border is safe and secure. So I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that an Afghan national on the terrorist watch list was caught in San Diego last week?
It’s been confirmed that an Afghan national on the U.S. terror watch list was apprehended while illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in California on Wednesday, one day before Title 42 officially expired on May 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET time. The arrest was confirmed to Fox News by several sources in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who did not reveal the identity of the individual on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) terror watch list.
Ok, so it’s good news that this guy, a known or suspected terrorist (KSTs) decided to show up at the border and get caught. However, I have many questions about this. MANY.
In fiscal 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations agents apprehended 67 KSTs at ports of entry and 98 between ports of entry at the southern border, totaling 165. At northern border ports of entry, they apprehended 313. Combined, CBP OFO agents apprehended 478 KSTs in fiscal 2022.
Fiscal year to date, OFO agents have apprehended 45 KSTs at ports of entry and 80 between ports of entry at the southern border, totaling 125. At the northern border, the numbers are still higher: 205 at ports of entry and two between ports of entry. So far, that’s 332 this fiscal year who’ve been apprehended trying to enter the U.S.
Question number one: How many have we missed?? Because, reality check here, you can darned well bet others decided to cross the border illegally and are numbered among those 1.5 million or more who’ve slipped through CBP fingers because resources are so thin on the ground.
Yet Mayorkas went on the Sunday talk shows yesterday and bragged about the “successes” at the border. Fewer people are crossing! Well, there’s a reason for that.
Yes indeed. It isn’t because of Mayorkas that the CBP has seen fewer crossings since last Friday. Nope, it’s because Mexico stepped up their enforcement and Governor Abbott deployed TX National Guard to the border. Also, with more people showing up at the port of entries, those facilities are totally overcrowded.
This is one of those things that looks like a big deal but isn’t. Hand drawn animation cells was a laborious process involving paper transfers, clear cell outliners & paint fillers. Recycling cells to cut time & cost was common. https://t.co/3PPE9pHKIc
In 2014, Abdullah Hasan was a recipient of the CAIR-SFBA Islamic Scholarship Fund. He went on to defend BDS for the ACLU. Now he’s an assistant press secretary at the White House.
CAIR is an Islamist organization that was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror financing trials in America. Its founders were linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and it has opposed efforts to protect the United States against Islamic terrorism.
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad had declared.
When Hasan received his scholarship in 2014-2015, the Islamic Scholarship Fund’s board members included Hatem Bazian, one of the country’s most notorious Islamic bigots, the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, and an alleged supporter of Hamas, who has spent decades trafficking in antisemitism.
Hasan’s fellow CAIR-SFBA recipients included Salmah Rizvi, a former fellow at Al-Haq, a BDS group listed by Israel as a terrorist organization over its connections to the PFLP. Al-Haq’s general director is allegedly a key terrorist leader in the PFLP. Despite this background, Rizvi got an intelligence position in the Obama administration and produced materials that went into the President’s Daily Brief. After leaving the administration, she bailed out her best friend,
Urooj Rahman, who had been accused of throwing molotov cocktails at a police car.
After conducting research around “primary Islamic texts and within a post-9/11 surveillance culture”, Hasan went into activism, opposing anti-BDS measures on behalf of the ACLU.
In an op-ed co-written by Hasan, he defended “lawful boycotts of Israel” and claimed that opposition to BDS was a “loyalty test”.
In 2019, Hasan ranted that, “Islamophobia is rampant even in our highest democratic institutions” like the Supreme Court.
Now he represents the Biden administration as one of its press secretaries.
BLUF
That mastermind of the Kabul airport attack is now dead, so we are told. Yes more than a little too late for those injured and killed in the attack. But the question must be asked. What else is at play here that we don’t know about? The skepticism is warranted.
A dead terrorist is ALWAYS a good thing. But we do need to be cautious about what else is at play here.
Well, better late than never. It seems the Taliban killed the ISIS leader who was the mastermind of the Kabul airport bombing that killed thirteen U.S. soldiers and wounded scores of others.
The ISIS-K leader who planned the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul international airport’s Abbey Gate was killed by the Taliban, according to the National Security Council.
The administration didn’t name the ISIS-K leader, but John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, called him “the mastermind of the horrific attack,” which was carried out in the final days of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Kirby did not specify when the Taliban killed the ISIS-K leader, but called it one in a “series of high-profile leadership losses” that ISIS-K has suffered this year.
The terrorist who carried out the suicide bombing, Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri, had been released from prison only days earlier when the Taliban took control of the area. The attack left 13 US service members and more than 170 Afghans dead.
Keep in mind, as Toni noted here in her post, that terrorist who actually detonated the bomb was in our sights. Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews testified before Congress that they KNEW Al-Loghri was a bad guy and our military command sat on their damned hands instead, which led to Sgt. Vargas-Andrews dealing with massive injuries he will be dealing with for the rest of his life. To this day, no one in charge has faced any repercussion for their refusal to act.
Yes, it’s very good that this one very bad terrorist is now deader than a doornail. But it is very much a case of too little too late.
Old Joe Biden’s ghostwriters issued a statement Thursday to congratulate Muslims on Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the fasting-by-day-and-gorging-by-night month of Ramadan. Predictably, it was anodyne and obsequious in the extreme, with Biden celebrating how Muslims “decorate their homes, give gifts to loved ones, wear new clothes, and visit family and friends.” The faux president is made to add: “I am moved by the generosity that is shown from families that can provide food and give charity to those in need through Zakat-al-Fitr.” In the course of all this flattery, Biden’s writer drops in a serious note: there is now a U.S. government task force dedicated to fighting “Islamophobia.”
The statement quickly shifts from telling us how wonderful it is that Muslims wear new clothes and visit family and friends to depicting Muslims as victims: “Eid al-Fitr marks the completion of a holy month dedicated to devotion, charity, and reflection—a time when we also remember Muslim communities around the world that are enduring conflict, poverty, hunger, and disease, and those that are displaced from their homes.” That served to set up the big announcement. Biden’s ghostwriter continued: “As we celebrate our blessings this Eid, let us also recommit ourselves to the timeless work of building peace and standing up for the rights and dignity of all people.” When the White House writers start depicting Old Joe babbling about peace and human rights, you know something bad is coming.
Doing this work for peace and human dignity will apparently require new restrictions on speech: “My Administration is also committed to addressing all forms of hate, including Islamophobia. This is why I established an interagency task force with senior government officials to tackle this and related challenges and encourage every American to build a more inclusive nation.” Good, because Lord knows we aren’t “inclusive” enough yet. Every last person in the world doesn’t live here on the taxpayer dime yet, so there is a long way to go.
Meanwhile, exactly what pressing need is this interagency task force designed to address? Are Muslims in the U.S. really subjected to such widespread discrimination and harassment that the feds need to step in? The record shows otherwise. FBI hate crime statistics show that Muslims are rarely targeted in hate crimes, which far more often victimize Jews and others. In fact, anti-Muslim hate crimes actually declined by 42% from 2020 to 2021. But those facts don’t fit the narrative that Muslims face widespread discrimination and harassment in the United States, and so the facts have to take a back seat.
And how is the new “interagency task force with senior government officials” going to “tackle” “Islamophobia”? No doubt we will now be inundated with taxpayer-funded material about how wonderful Islam is. In the nature of things, however, there will still be human disputes, and some of them will involve Muslims. Now that “Islamophobia” has been established as targeted by the government, these disputes will all be ascribed to “Islamophobia” and offered as evidence of how urgently needed this “interagency task force” really is. The “Islamophobia” task force will therefore likely enjoy ever-increasing budgets. That’s how government agencies work: they have to justify their existence, so they keep having to find more and more of the thing they’re supposed to be stamping out.
Most importantly, since the Biden regime is now officially committed to efforts to convince us of the wonderfulness of Islam, it is not likely to look kindly upon critics of the religion, including opponents of jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women. Will the interagency task force make any efforts to protect the right of Americans to oppose jihad terror and Sharia oppression? Will it be careful to distinguish such criticism from the alleged hatred that this task force is supposed to be combating, or will it act upon the assumption that any and all criticism of Islam, and even of jihad terror, subjects Muslims to “hate” and must accordingly be silenced?
Since the Left has been insisting that opposition to jihad violence is “hate” ever since 9/11, my money is on the latter. But this is a preposterous claim that, if followed logically (which of course it never will be, as this “Islamophobia” business is fundamentally illogical), would preclude any criticism of anything as possibly leading to “hate” and violence. In practice, it will preclude all criticism of anything the Left favors. And the freedom of speech will be eroded even further.
You gotta wonder why this was classified information. Ya know, the jihadis already know what they’re doing there and aren’t trying to hide it, so……
Less than two years after President Biden withdrew U.S. personnel from Afghanistan, the country has become a significant coordination site for the Islamic State as the terrorist group plans attacks across Europe and Asia, and conducts “aspirational plotting” against the United States, according to a classified Pentagon assessment that portrays the threat as a growing security concern.
The attack planning, detailed in U.S. intelligence findings leaked on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post, reveal specific efforts to target embassies, churches, business centers and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, which drew more than 2 million spectators last summer in Qatar. Pentagon officials were aware in December of nine such plots coordinated by ISIS leaders in Afghanistan, and the number rose to 15 by February, says the assessment, which has not been disclosed previously.
“ISIS has been developing a cost-effective model for external operations that relies on resources from outside Afghanistan, operatives in target countries, and extensive facilitation networks,” says the assessment, which is labeled top-secret and bears the logos of several Defense Department organizations. “The model will likely enable ISIS to overcome obstacles — such as competent security services — and reduce some plot timelines, minimizing disruption opportunities.”
The Pentagon is repositioning troops near the country of Sudan to prepare for a possible embassy evacuation as the nation devolves into civil war.
The Defense Department moved additional troops and equipment to a naval base in Djibouti, a small African country on the Gulf of Aden, to prepare for the potential evacuation, The Associated Press reported. The Pentagon said publicly it was deploying “additional capabilities” to the region but did not provide specifics.
Planning for an evacuation reportedly intensified after an American diplomatic convoy came under fire in Sudan on Monday. Fighting broke out in the country earlier this week between two rival factions, loyal to two warring military leaders who had been co-governing until negotiations toward a democratic process recently collapsed.
The State Department said Thursday that all embassy staff in Khartoum are currently safe and accounted for, but that the conditions on the ground are not currently stable enough for an evacuation of the staff or of other American citizens in the country. The department estimates that about 16,000 American citizens are in the country, but cautioned the figure is likely somewhat inaccurate. Americans in Sudan are being advised to shelter in place and avoid traveling on the streets.
Khartoum’s airport has been shut down and control over the area is disputed. The last time the United States conducted a ground evacuation of embassy personnel was in Libya in 2014, although it is unclear what methods could be used to do so in Sudan. At least 330 people have been killed in the several days of fighting so far, according to the most recent estimates, and an agreed ceasefire earlier this week failed almost immediately.
Has the ongoing insurrection in Iran, now into its seventh month, exposed glaring splits in the theocratic regime? In his Nowruz (Persian New Year) address to the nation, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the elderly and increasingly delusional Supreme Leader, insisted that the main priority of the theocratic regime was to fight inflation.
Unveiling his concept of ‘The Year of Curbing Inflation,’ he indirectly acknowledged that his country is bankrupt, but failed to offer any way of resolving the perilous state of the Iranian economy. His mumbled remarks may have disappointed his hard-line followers, who prefer to hear pledges to “wipe Israel off the map” or cries of “death to America,” and have little appetite for economic reforms. But splits and divisions amongst the mullahs are now the trademarks of this failing fascist regime.
The Iranian economy is in plummeting decline. Spiralling inflation, currently at 43.4 percent, and a collapsing currency, have combined with tough western sanctions to bring the country to a virtual standstill. Food prices in particular have suffered massive spikes over the past year, including a 125 percent increase for meat, 250 percent for onions, 82 percent for eggs, and 78 percent for rice.The active Iranian workforce is 26 million, of whom at least 10 million were jobless even before the Covid pandemic. Youth unemployment is at a staggering 40 percent. At least 60% of the population are living in poverty, unable to meet their essential daily needs.
Combined with the mullah’s own venal corruption and regional warmongering, it is little wonder that the country with the world’s second largest gas reserves and fourth largest crude oil reserves is now facing economic meltdown. Iran, despite its once rich, civilized and open culture, has become an international pariah, its religious fascist regime condemned for human rights abuse and the export of terror, while its 85 million beleaguered citizens struggle to feed their families.
Now, the nationwide protests which began last September, have spread from the main cities to rural towns and villages, uniting the impoverished working classes with hard-up middle-income earners, whose chants of “death to the dictator” and “death to Khamenei,” clearly signify the burgeoning demand for regime change. Facing the imminent demise of his dictatorship, Khamenei has clearly panicked, even denying in his Nowruz address that Iran was siding with Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war, calling the claim “an utter lie,” despite the export of thousands of Iranian Kamikaze drones to Russia.
