Guilty Plea for Would-Be Pentagon, U.S. Capitol Attacker

A former resident of a Boston suburb agreed to plead guilty Tuesday to plotting attacks on the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida terrorists.

Rezwan Ferdaus, who lives in Ashland, Mass, was arrested last September in connection with a plot to use remote-controlled planes to fly bombs into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Ferdaus also made electrical switches to detonate explosive devices that he planned to provide to al-Qaida terrorists targeting American troops stationed overseas. Ferdaus was later charged in a six-count indictment. He pleaded guilty to two counts that included attempting to damage and destroy a federal building by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Ferdaus was arrested in a federal law enforcement sting operation. He told undercover agents posing as al-Qaida operatives that attack America's "military center" and kill as many "kafirs" (Arabic term for non-believers) as possible, an affidavit said. He shrugged off an undercover agent's concern that such an attack might kill women and children, saying, "Every kafir [non-believer] is an enemy" and consequently, "every kafir [sic] blood is okay."

Ferdaus visited Washington in May 2011 to scout targets for attack. He took pictures of the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, and an area in East Potomac Park from where he proposed to launch the bomb-laden aircraft. He also confided in an FBI informant that attacking the Pentagon would "eliminate and terrify all enemies of Allah. We have this project started ... This is, this is what we have to do. This is the righteous way ... [to] terrorize enemies of Allah."

Ferdaus, who has a bachelor's degree in physics from Northeastern University, also supplied 12 cellular phones that had been adapted to act as electrical switches for bombs to undercover agents posing as al-Qaida members. When the undercover agents told Ferdaus the phone detonation devices had helped kill American troops in Iraq, he replied, "this is exactly what I wanted and I feel so blessed…." Ferdaus subsequently delivered four more phone detonation devices to the undercover agents.

According to the plea agreement, Ferdaus has agreed to a sentence of 17 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release. His plea hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Soft on Assad, Slandering Israel

Even as Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime continues slaughtering its own people, the dictatorship may be in line for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

UN Watch reported that Syria has declared its candidacy for a seat on the council, the U.N.'s flagship human-rights body, next year. The General Assembly will vote on whether to elect Syria to the council, which is responsible for "the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe."

Because Syria is running as part of U.N.'s 53-country Asian regional group, it is virtually assured of victory. Under the U.N. system, regional groups orchestrate uncontested elections to choose representatives to sit on the rights council.

"That's how non-democracies like China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China won their current seats, and how Pakistan and Venezuela are about to do the same," according to UN Watch.

Damascus declared its desire to join the Human Rights Council last year. But after Western democracies pressed the Asian bloc not to nominate that country, an 11^th-hour agreement was announced in May 2011 that Kuwait would replace Syria. This year, the United States and the European Union have taken the unprecedented step of asking the council to declare in advance that Syria will be disqualified from joining.

At first blush, it may seem unthinkable that Damascus could be considered for a position on the Human Rights Council given Assad's latest atrocities. But on Thursday, the council adopted a resolution cosponsored by Syria which called for a new U.N. declaration promoting a "right to resist and oppose oppressive colonial, foreign occupation" – effectively providing a measure of legitimacy to the justification for jihad advanced by terrorist organizations like al-Qaida, Hizballah, and Hamas.

The measure passed by a 34-1 vote (with only the United States in opposition) and 12 abstentions.

Last year, Syria was unanimously elected to a pair of human-rights committees that were part of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The United States and Great Britain tried to prevent UNESCO from taking this step. But even though the Assad government had been suspended from the Arab League, the same nations' UNESCO ambassadors in Paris ran interference for Damascus, which today remains a full member of the agency's committees dealing with human-rights organizations and judging human-rights complaints.

While going soft on Assad, U.N. "human-rights" advocates remain tough as ever on Israel. At a meeting last Monday in Geneva, U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Falk, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, blamed Israel for provoking violence and violating human rights in the "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967." Twenty states and six nongovernmental organizations denounced Israel and praised Falk, including paragons of human rights like Iran, Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Cuba. Only one party – UN Watch – defended the Jewish state.

Read more here.

13 Islamists Arrested in Separate British Cases

Six terrorism suspects were arrested Thursday in a raid which British officials said was not connected to the city's 2012 Olympic Games. Seven more Islamist suspects were picked up Friday when a random police search turned up firearms and other weapons.

Among the six detainees in the first raid was Richard Dart, an Islamist calling himself Salahuddin who was the focus of the documentary, "My Brother, The Islamist." Dart is part of a growing involvement of white British converts in alleged terrorism. Brothers Jahangir, Mohammed and Moybur Alom were among the others arrested along with as a former police community support officer. All are between the ages of 18 and 30. They were held on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack.

The other seven were arrested after police found weapons inside one of their cars. It was impounded after a routine check in northern England on suspicion the driver had no insurance.

Neither plot targeted the Olympics, which begin in three weeks. But the events took place among heightened security around the games. British authorities have taken precautions against lone wolf terrorists, the use of vehicles and planes as weapons, and even cyber threats.

FBI Fort Hood Review Expected Next Week

An independent review of the FBI's handling of intelligence before the 2009 Fort Hood shooting massacre by Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan will offer 18 formal recommendations "for corrective and enhancing measures," Fox News reports.

Former FBI Director William Webster, who led the review, promised to have the report submitted by July 13. A redacted, public version should be released a short time later, he said In a letter to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.

Mueller appointed Webster to lead the review in December 2009, a month after Hasan opened fire at a Fort Hood processing center, killing 13 people and wounding 32 more. Hasan is scheduled to go on trial in August.

Wolf wrote to Webster June 27 seeking an update on the effort, and wondering why it was taking so long. The panel conducted 50 formal interviews, reviewed more than 10,000 pages of documents and met with "interviewed all FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) personnel who were directly involved in the matter," Webster wrote. They also sought input from experts on terrorism and intelligence, information technology and Islamic radicalism.

A Senate Homeland Security Committee report issued last year slammed the Pentagon for failing to address Hasan's radical Islamic views in its own review of the deadly attack. Officials have been reluctant to call it a terrorist attack and the military's review avoided specific references to his religious beliefs.

"We are concerned that DoD's failure to address violent Islamist extremism by its name signals to the bureaucracy as a whole that the subject is taboo," the report said, "and raises the potential that DoD's actions to confront radicalization to violent Islamist extremism will be inefficient and ineffective."

Hasan had echanged emails with American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before the shooting spree, seeking approval for the attack. Awlaki encouraged him to do it, and later hailed Hasan as a hero. Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last fall.

The FBI knew about some of that correspondence, but failed to share it with Army officials. According to the Fox report:

"If there was a single point of failure, Hasan's email contact with a known terrorist was never connected to his radical statements as an Army officer and psychiatrist. Hasan's statements so alarmed his fellow students at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., that some fled the classroom."

Wolf, who leads the House subcommittee responsible for the FBI's budget, argued for prompt disclosure of the 15-page report for Congress to study.

"I fear that now, as was then, the government is not doing enough to learn from past threats and attacks to prevent and prepare for future threats," he wrote. "People died in the attack on Fort Hood. We have to learn from this tragedy."

Major French Terrorism Recruiter Arrested

French counterterrorism officials detailed a "big coup" in the fight against al-Qaida, with the arrest of a senior terrorism recruiter and supplier, Time magazine reports. The unnamed suspect ran one of most active jihadi forums worldwide and also acted as a courier between core al-Qaida branches and its larger network of allied terrorist groups.

"Here's a guy who, as administrator of one of the biggest radical websites on earth, was the conduit of messages between the main jihadi groups in Yemen, Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. And we've got his files. It's a big deal," unnamed French senior sources told Time. "This is a very intelligent, well-educated, experienced and organized expert in secure internet communication, and isn't the kind of professional extremist you turn up every day."

The June 29 arrest of a 35-year-old Tunisian living in the French city of Toulon turned up a trove of email correspondence between an unusually broad range of organizations. While communications between al-Qaida core groups are well-known, the messages show a greater level of cooperation with groups like Lebanon's Fatah al-Islam and Gaza's Jaish al-Islam.

The suspect gained the trust of senior al-Qaida leaders by 2008 and acted as an internet hub for "overseeing secure internet communications, raising funds; recruitment and transport of aspiring jihadi for indoctrination and military training; and providing information about bomb-building and potential targets," investigators said

Agents confirmed they are sure of his involvement in recruitment of at least five fighters for Afghani and Yemeni terror organizations, but suspect that figure will be much higher when they finish going through his files.

Canadian Rapper Promotes Taliban with Government Money

A popular French-speaking rapper from Montreal has released a new pro-terrorism song showing a Taliban point of view of the war in Afghanistan, Canada's National Post reports. Although Manu Militari maintains that the shocking video for "L'Attente," or "The Wait," doesn't promote terror, Canadian officials are outraged that the artist may have received more than $100,000 in government money to build his career.

The "L'Attente" video shows Taliban terrorists taking revenge for a fictional Canadian/Afghan anti-terror operation where Afghan soldiers torture a local civilian. The song contains lyrics such as "I wait for him" and "I hurry to dig a hole to put in my fertilizer bomb" while showing footage of a roadside bombing of Canadian troops and Taliban fighters gunning down survivors. "I want to free my land … This is not about religion," Manu Militari sings, while Taliban fighters are portrayed as family men.

The rapper was heavily subsidized by Canadian nonprofit MusicAction, which claims as its mission "to encourage the development of music by financially supporting the production and marketing" of acts by French Canadian artists. MusicAction is a federally funded Canadian government entity, with support coming from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage.

"The content of this song is offensive," said Sébastien Gariépy, the Minister of Canadian Heritage's Press Secretary. "To glorify the Taliban and their terrorism is indefensible and wrong. MusicAction's contribution to this group does not meet the conditions of government of Canada funding. Appropriate measures will be taken in response."

The rapper claims to have pulled the video from the Internet, although copies are available on YouTube and other video sharing sites. He has also been performing the song live for more than a year, during which time the Canadian government was underwriting his musical career.

"L'Attente" is the first single from Manu Militari's new album, which will be released on September 11.

Mixed Signals on Jihadist Role in Syria

As reports mount that jihadists are playing a larger role in the fighting in Syria, Israeli security forces are preparing for the possibility of cross-border terrorist attacks.

Israeli Defense Ministry officials say terror groups are flocking to Syria from Iraq and other countries. While their main objective is toppling dictator Bashar al-Assad, there is concern that terrorists may target Israelis living in the Golan Heights.

The military's working assumption is that a terrorist attack from the Syrian border can occur without the prior intelligence, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Brig. Gen. Tamir Hyman said Thursday.

"Terror organizations may seek to exploit a situation of instability and lack of governability that may develop on the Syrian side of the border," Hyman said at a briefing for reporters on the Golan.

But a number of recent media accounts suggest that Syrians fighting Assad are determined to prevent their revolution from being hijacked by jihadists.

A report in The New Republic this week describes the case of Walid al-Boustani, head of an "Islamic Emirate of Homs" which lasted only a few weeks. The locals did not appreciate an "Emir" who murdered and kidnapped their friends. So, in March a local Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigade executed Boustani, a native of Lebanon.

Many Syrians suspect that jihadists like Boustani are agents of the Assad regime or that their organizations have been infiltrated by Baathist spies.

The author of the New Republic piece, Arab social media analyst Tyler Golson, writes that many in the FSA want nothing to do with jihadists. For these revolutionaries, the critical question is whether Washington is regarded as a serious player in arming the Syrian resistance.

Right now, independent Salafi sheikhs have indicated a willingness to support militant groups outside the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army.

"If a unified jihadist opposition did manage to challenge the Free Syrian Army's primacy in the coming months, it could be an ominous indicator of where Syria's opposition is heading," Golson writes. "We could see the Free Syrian Army's central leadership begin to placate the Islamists by adopting Islamist rhetoric or institutions such as a sharia council, or Saudi Arabia starting to hedge its support for the FSA by taking meetings with upstart Islamist 'emirs.' Either way, it would mean that the jihad is very much on in Syria."

Read the full article here.

Vietnamese Immigrant Accused of Aiding al-Qaida in Yemen

Vietnamese-American Minh Quang Pham is charged with providing aid to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and receiving training from the terrorist group in an indictment unsealed in New York Friday. Pham is also being charged for helping al-Qaida's online propaganda efforts, which remain one of the group's most effective means of motivating attacks in the West.

According to the indictment, Pham traveled from the United Kingdom to Yemen around December 2010, and was involved in suspected aid to al-Qaida until July 2011. The court document notes how Pham acquired a Kalashnikov rifle and training from al-Qaida, met with another American citizen to create terrorist propaganda, and pledged his allegiance to the group.

From the indictment, Pham appears to have been actively participating with AQAP just months before the United States killed senior American al-Qaida propagandists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. The drone strike effectively halted AQAP's reach in the English-speaking world, although the group released two additional issues of the Inspire magazine produced by al-Awlaki and Khan.

In July 2011, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared AQAP the greatest terrorist threat to the United States, eclipsing even al-Qaida's core in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The organization since has greatly expanded its territory in Yemen, a failed state facing numerous threats from breakaway rebel factions.

Christians Under Siege from Islamists

Raymond Ibrahim provides another vivid, disturbing monthly report on Islamist persecution of Christians around the world.

Perhaps the most dangerous place to be a Christian today is Pakistan, which in May had "the lion's share of persecuted Christians," Ibrahim writes. Incidents there covered "the entire gamut of persecution – from apostasy and blasphemy to rape and forced conversions."

In sub-Saharan African countries such as Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya and the Ivory Coast, "wherever Islam and Christianity meet, Christians are being killed, slaughtered, beheaded and even crucified," Ibrahim writes.

In Nigeria, "Muslim gunmen set fire to a home in a Christian village and then opened fire on all who tried to escape the inferno." At least seven people were killed and many others wounded in the attack, one of dozens against Nigerian Christians.

In northern Mali, "rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out," Christian Today reported May 22. "Christian charity Worldshare warns that there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, and that people have been tortured into revealing any Christian relatives."

In Islamist-controlled northern cities like Timbuktu, there are reports that properties owned by Christians have been destroyed. Many Christian refugees have fled south to Bamako, the Malian capital.

In Egypt, a court acquitted eight Muslims who torched Christian homes of all charges while sentencing 12 Christians who fought them in the streets last April to life in prison. In another case, a judge dismissed all charges against a group of Muslim men who cut off a Christian man's ear in an effort to force him to convert to Islam.

Read the entire report here.

Mystery Surrounds Hamas Leader's Assassination

Hamas announced that leader Kamel Ranaja was killed in his home in Damascus Wednesday night, adding that they suspected the Mossad was behind the assassination, Haaretz reports. But increasingly negative relations between Syria and Hamas, which did not support the Assad government's crackdown on constant civil disorder, may suggest another killer.

Ranaja was a former deputy of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas official who founded the group's military wing and was assassinated in Dubai over two years ago. Israel was suspected by United Arab Emirates police of carrying out al-Mabhouh's killing, although he was also wanted by the Egyptian and Jordanian governments.

Israel's record of striking Hamas leaders makes it a natural suspect. But other motives and suspects are plausible.

"Practically, it's not reasonable that Israel or a Western country would settle accounts with a man like this, at this stage, in Syria. He's not big enough," former senior Mossad member Rami Igra told the Jerusalem Post. "He's not important enough. To assassinate him would be a very complicated, dangerous operation, and it would be taking a huge chance. I don't see Israel or any Western country willing to take this risk."

As a deputy to al-Mabhouh, Ranaja would have been privy to his former boss' weapons-smuggling contacts, Ely Karmon of the Interdisciplinary Center's Institute for Counter-Terrorism told the Post. Ranaja may have provided weapons to Hamas' allies in the Syrian opposition, particularly the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, due to the organizations' close ties. In that case, Syria may have exploited chaos in Damascus to carry out a revenge hit.

Karmon also entertained the possibility that Hamas itself carried out a hit on Ranaja, who may have pocketed cash owed to Hamas for weapons smuggling. "We saw this happen with Fatah, when Arafat killed his own operatives in Europe for stealing cash," Karmon said.

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