Killer Acknowledges 1994 Attack Targeted Jews

A cab driver's killing of a 16-year-old Yeshiva student in 1994 "was one of the early cases of terrorism in New York City," the victim's mother said this week, but it has never been determined who else might have been involved.

Rashid Baz is serving a 141-year prison sentence for shooting into a van carrying Yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge. The case initially was cast as an act of road rage, but the New York Post reported Monday that Baz told investigators in 2007 that he deliberated targeted the van.

"I only shot them because they were Jewish," he said.

Ari Halberstam was killed. Two other passengers were hit and critically wounded, but survived the attack. It's not clear why Baz acknowledged his motive or what investigators did with the information. He told them he followed the van for two miles before attacking.

Someone gave Baz the guns, Devorah Halberstam told television station PIX 11, but investigators "let it go."

Halberstam also is upset by Baz's incarceration in a New York state prison, where he has enjoyed some questionable privileges, rather than in a federal penitentiary that houses terrorists.

The years have done little to ease her pain. "I yearn for my child," she said, "always."

Islamic Marriage Guide Teaches Men to Control their Wives

A popular marriage guide that has sold out in one Toronto bookstore is gaining media attention because of the book's controversial focus—how to beat and control your wife.

The book, titled A Gift for the Muslim Couple, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who, according to the book's foreword, is a "prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning."

In the book's opening, Thanvi writes that "It might be necessary to restrain her [one's wife] with strength or even to threaten her." Later, Thanvi enumerates the rights of the husband, which include forbidding his wife to leave "his house without his permission," having his wife "fulfill his desires," and insisting that he "not allow herself to be untidy ... but should beautify herself for him ..."

Even more controversial are the measures available to a husband if his wife is disobedient. Fortunately, the book notes that a husband should "refrain from beating her excessively," but he is permitted to "beat by hand or stick," "pull [her] by the ears," verbally scold her, or withhold money.

The Toronto Sun wrote about the book after a reader stumbled into it while browsing in a local shop.

The popularity of this book, which is also available on online Islamic bookstores and eBay, is all the more troubling in light of the many cases of Muslim honor killings and assaults that have surfaced recently.

In January, Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife, Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son, Hamed, 21, were each convicted in an Ontario court on four counts of first-degree murder for drowning four female family members in what was considered an honor killing for disobedience. The victims included Shafia's three daughters and his first wife.

In another case, presented in a UK court in January, 18-year-old Shamima Akhtar was kidnapped, beaten, and imprisoned in her home by her two older sisters and brother after she was caught kissing a white man. Prosecutor Peter Asteris told the court that this case is "about honour-based domestic violence."

An Iraqi family in Phoenix was also taken into custody Feb. 15 for allegedly beating a 19-year-old family member for resisting an arranged marriage with a 38-year-old man and for talking to another man outside school. The defendants—the victims' mother, father, and sister—stand accused of burning the victim with a spoon on the face and chest, threatening her life, cutting her neck with a knife, and tying her to her bed overnight with a rope and padlock. The victim is epileptic and has a learning disability.

The victim's mother, Yusra Farhan, told police that it was against Iraqi culture to have boyfriends.

With all these seemingly honor-related cases making headlines in the last few months alone, the prominent marriage book seems to be only adding fuel to the fire.

"I wouldn't say it's hate, but it is inciting men to hit women," said Tarek Fatah, a Muslim who argues the bookstore owner should be charged for selling the marriage guide. "This is new to you, but the Muslim community knows that this is widespread, that a woman can be beaten. Muslim leaders will deny this," Fatah added.

Cyanide Plot Instructions Posted for London Games

Exactly four months before the summer Olympic Games begin in London, officials are enacting security measures and trying to identify potential terrorist threats.

The latest, uncovered by The Sun newspaper, involves mixing cyanide into hand cream. A Sun investigator saw a discussion on the idea after using a fake identity to gain access to a website frequented by radical Islamists, including "known links to six al—Qaeda terrorists."

One participant, identified as Abu Hija Ansari, posted instructions on how to mix the poison, including a warning that gloves are worn to protect the terrorists: "Through skin: 1 — cyanide, 2 — skin cream. Mix the ingredients. The skin cream will open the pores in the skin and speed up the absorption and effectiveness of the poison."

It's not clear how the hand cream would be distributed to large numbers of people attending the games. But others on the website praised the idea, including one woman who posted a logo of the Olympiad and wrote "It's time to prepare for the event, as once again they are interfering with innocent Muslims."

British security officials have not commented on the report. There are strong concerns, however, that the games will be targeted by terrorists, including sleeper cells already entrenched in London.

"Those who believe there is no terrorist threat are living in cloud cuckoo land," Bernard Jenkin, a Tory MP and chairman of the all-party homeland security group, said in response to the Sun report.

Tunisians See Washington as Too Cozy with Islamists

Journalist Michael Totten has an intriguing report from Tunisia, where he finds rampant frustration toward the United States for its embrace of the new Islamist-controlled government there.

After dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the first Arab Spring uprising last year, the Islamist Ennahda party won control of the Tunisian assembly, which chose party member Hamadi Jebali to be prime minister in November.

Washington has courted the new government, baffling secularists in Tunisia, Totten writes. That's because Ennahda is viewed as a moderate party in American media and government, an assessment with which Tunisians on the street strongly disagree. "No to America, no to Qatar, the people of Tunisia will always be free" marchers chanted Tuesday during rallies to commemorate Tunisian independence.

"People here are against the United States helping Ennahda," a journalist told Totten. "All Americans who come here are against the Islamists, but the American government is supporting them. I wish we had a good, modern, respectful Islamic party. I'm a Muslim and I'm proud of it, but I'm not proud of this party."

The government is seen as far too cozy with radical Salafists, looking the other way as the radicals stake a claim to the new society. Ennahda members joined the Salafists in a recent rally calling for Sharia law in Tunisia.

The critics "are not part of a marginal fringe movement like their Egyptian counterparts," Totten writes. Though they failed to stop Ennahda's rise, he believes they constitute a majority of the Tunisian people. Politically "We made the revolution and they got the power," complained one student, identified as an Amnesty International volunteer. Ennahda is "a fascist party," he said.

"They tried to convince people they're just defending religion and they won the election that way, but they have a fascist program."

This happened despite a majority of Tunisians supporting other parties, and Totten notes that Ennahda suffered a drubbing during recent student elections.

All this creates an odd situation in which "young liberal activists, the natural allies of Americans, are angry because the United States is perceived as being with the Islamists, but, like it or not, that's how it is here," Totten writes.

The whole dispatch is worth reading.

PA's Inconsistent Terror Stands

In a horrific act of terror, self-proclaimed al-Qaida militant Mohamed Merah embarked on a killing spree across Southern France earlier this week, claiming the seven lives, including three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers.

A French police sniper killed Merah Thursday after a 32-hour siege in Toulouse, the BBC reports.

"This terrorist crime is condemned in the strongest terms by the Palestinian people and our children, Fayyad said Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. "No Palestinian child can accept crimes against innocent people."

Fayyad also expressed his frustrations over radical Islamists' consistent use of the Palestinian plight to justify their terrorist actions.

"It is time for these criminals to stop exploiting the name of Palestine through their terrorist actions, and to stop pretending to stand up for Palestinian children, who only seek a decent life for themselves and for all children of the world," he said.

But Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) points out that Fayyad's exposes a serious inconsistency in the Palestinian Authority's glorifying terrorists.

PA leaders, spokesmen, government controlled media outlets, and the official Fatah Facebook page consistently glorify terrorists referring to them as "heroic fighters" and "role models," PMW reports.

They also constantly pay their respects to the families of suicide bombers with home visits, PMW details in a November report.

Most recently, PA officials honored terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, leader of the team that carried out the 1978 Coastal Road massacre claiming 37 lives. "The bride of the coast, Dalal Mughrabi, and other female fighters have roles of honor in the national struggle," Laila Ghannam, Governor of Ramallah and el-Bireh, said last week.

"Dalal was a model of a fighting Palestinian woman…who fulfilled her obligation towards her land and homeland," said PA Civil Defense Commissioner Abu Al-Sheikh on March 7.

The PA also named more than a dozen West Bank institutions after Mughrabi, including "The Dalal Mughrabi Girl's High School" in Hebron, where USAID funded renovations.

Even Fayyad honored Mughrabi, among other terrorists. At a July 2011 PA summer camp he sponsored, campers were divided into three groups named after terrorists Mughrabi, Salah Khalaf, and Abu Ali Mustafaa," PMW cited.

Last March, Fayyad honored terrorist bombers in his weekly radio address, sending his warm greetings to Palestinian mothers in honor of Mother's Day.

"On this occasion, I will not fail to mention with honor and admiration the resolve of the female prisoners, the fighters, and of all the prisoners of freedom who are imprisoned in the Israeli prisons, experiencing indescribable suffering…I make special mention of all the female prisoners who are mothers: Imam Ghazawai;…Wahira Al-Sa'adi; Irena Sarahneh; Latifa Abu Zara'a…," Fayyad said.

Al-Sa'adi and Sarahneh drove suicide bombers to their attacks killing five people. Ghazawi placed a bomb in the Tel Aviv bus station. Abu Zara'a was caught smuggling a bomb into Israel for attack, PMW noted.

Islamists Rehash Canards in Bashing Law Enforcement

U.S. law enforcement's anti-terror efforts continue to come under attack from Islamists and their political allies. More than 110 organizations – ranging from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to Jews Against Islamophobia and the Center for Constitutional Rights – sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding an immediate investigation of NYPD surveillance policies.

The National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), an organization that depicts convicted terror supporters Sami Al-Arian and Ghassan Elashi and convicted terrorists Aafia Siddiqui and Dritan Duka as victims of law-enforcement "repression," sent a letter of its own to House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and other lawmakers accusing the FBI of framing innocent people in jihadist terror cases.

"These 'fake terrorism investigations' create 'crimes' where none exist and divert resources from actual threats; improperly target innocent communities and discriminate against whole communities by raising the spectre of 'terrorism' where no such plots exist, except those created by the FBI and agents provocateur the FBI rewards; and put the civil liberties of all in jeopardy by turning every new 'friend' at church, or at the mosque, into a possible informant," an NCPCF statement said.

At the press conference, NCPCF officials distributed a Mother Jones story published last summer purporting to show that 10 percent of defendants in post-9/11 federal terror cases were victims of such "provocateurs." As the Investigative Project on Terrorism demonstrated at the time, a closer examination of those cases exposes them as weak examples of terrorism "instigated" by the FBI.

NCPCF officials also claimed that last week's arrest of an alleged Taliban sympathizer near Pittsburgh is the latest example of FBI efforts to frame Muslims. The suspect, Khalifa Ali al-Akili of Wilkinsburg, Penn., was ordered detained until trial on charges that he possessed a rifle despite prior convictions for felony drug-dealing; simple assault; resisting arrest; and retail theft.

When agents went to arrest him at Allegheny County public-housing project where he lived, Akili tried to run away. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Wilson said agents found books on U.S. military strategy and jihadist literature when they searched Akili's apartment.

U.S. magistrate judge Robert Mitchell ordered Akili (formerly known as James Marvin Thomas Jr. ) held without bond until trial after an FBI agent testified that the defendant told an FBI informant that he planned to move to Pakistan and "strap on a bomb" and die like a martyr.

But at Tuesday's NCPCF press conference, officials dismissed this evidence and portrayed Akili as a hapless victim of a malevolent FBI. CAIR Legal Counsel Nahira al-Khalili said his organization is getting "increasingly disturbing reports about the FBI," which is going "well past" constitutional limits in pursuing terrorists. Khalili said CAIR is glad to be part of the coalition and "is willing and able to file lawsuits against the FBI."

Read more about questionable accusations of FBI entrapment here.

Hearing: Hizballah, Iran Have Hundreds in the US

Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hizballah have seeded the United States with hundreds of operatives, some of whom are capable "of flipping a U.S.-based fundraising cell into a lethal terror force, should Iran decide that is in its interests," a preliminary report from the House Homeland Security Committee finds.

As tensions escalate over Iran's nuclear weapons program, the committee met Wednesday to assess the possibility of Iranian/Hizballah attacks in the United States in retaliation for sanctions or a possible military strike. Last fall's unraveling of an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington showed that Iranian leaders "now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate panel in January.

Suspect Manssor Arbabsiar told investigators that "he was recruited, funded and directed by men he understood to be senior officials in Iran's Qods Force."

New York presents a top target in any future plot, NYPD Director of Intelligence Analysis Mitchell Silber told the committee. Between 2002 and 2010, NYPD and federal officials identified at least six cases in which Iranian diplomats were caught conducting "hostile reconnaissance of New York City," he testified. In one case, people carrying credentials from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Company ignored incoming and outgoing flights, photographing and videotaping the landing pad and waterline at the Wall Street Heliport.

Other witnesses described the kinds of criminal activity in the United States linked to Iran and Hizballah. Chief among them was a massive cigarette smuggling ring based out of North Carolina that sent profits back to Hizballah leaders in Lebanon. Many of the suspects had military training from Hizballah, said former Chris Swecker, who served as Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Division and who worked on the case.

That profile matches what the NYPD sees in some ongoing investigations, Silber said.

The hearing had nothing to do with the debate over how to best address Iran's nuclear program. But the committee's ranking Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, devoted nearly his entire opening statement to that issue, noting the United States did not attack Iran in response to the 1979 hostage crisis or after determining Iran was complicit in various terrorist attacks on American targets. In addition, the Democrats' witness at the hearing, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl, focused his prepared remarks on the nuclear issue.

When Thompson indirectly addressed the security issue, he urged law enforcement not to look at any particular moment in time and pretend it tells the whole story.

That drew a rebuke from Republican Dan Lungren of California. The 9/11 Commission chastised government for failing to connect the dots leading up to the al-Qaida attacks in New York and Washington, he said. "Aren't dots snapshots in time?"

The dots currently in sight, from the plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to attempted terrorist attacks in the past six weeks traced to Iran in Thailand, India and Georgia indicate "we may be moving toward a point ..[of] a higher likelihood of terrorist activity in the homeland," Silber said.

French Shooting Suspect Surrounded

French officials have surrounded the home of the main suspect in the recent killing spree in Southwestern France, which left seven people dead, including three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three paratroopers.

Initial reports indicate that the alleged gunman is Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent.

Merah called the FRANCE 24 news station early Wednesday morning and confessed to the killings, which he claimed were in response to France's military intervention in Afghanistan and its enforcement of a ban on women wearing the Islamic veil.

Merah also said he attacked the Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday because "The Jews kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine."

French authorities supposedly had previous knowledge of Merah because of visits he made to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Conflicting reports exist regarding Merah's travel history to the region but the director of Kandahar prison in southern Afghanistan, Gulam Farooq, told BBC that Merah was arrested in 2007 for carrying explosive material but he escaped a year later in a Taliban-led break-out. He also has a criminal record in France for non-terrorist crimes.

A self-proclaimed member of al-Qaida, Merah is also allegedly linked to the French Islamist group Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride), according to French news channel BFM TV. This group was banned last month in France. Another French source, Le Point magazine, reported that Merah became radicalized years ago while serving a prison sentence for a violent crime.

Authorities purportedly tracked Merah to his apartment complex in Toulouse through an e-mail account he used to lure the first shooting victim, French paratrooper Imad Ibn-Ziaten, to a meeting. Despite earlier reports that Merah had been arrested, the standoff with the gunman continues, as authorities seek to negotiate his surrender.

Note: This story is still developing. Track it live here.

Mogahed Questions Assad's Anti-Israel Bonafides

Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim adviser to President Obama, is under fire for tweets suggesting that Syrian President Bashar Assad is insufficiently hostile to Israel.

The website Jihadwatch reported that on March 10, Mogahed, who serves in the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, tweeted: "To those siding w/Assad: he cannot deliver stability, protection of minorities, or resistance to Israel. He is a killer w/o legitimacy." Jihadwatch opined that, given Assad's record of supporting terrorism and fomenting hatred against Israel, it was disturbing that Mogahed regarded Assad as being "not hostile enough."

Mogahed (who has been described as the "most influential person" shaping Obama's Middle East message) has worked to insure that radical Islamist groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are included in the White House office's activities.

After Jihadwatch reported on her Assad tweet, Mogahed replied Sunday that it was directed at supporters of Assad rather than Israel: "I am criticizing ppl who support Assad because they think he resists Israel. My issue w/him is he murders his own ppl."

A woman following Mogahed tweeted back that "Since Obama took office, and with you as advisor, we've not seen the Arab Spring, but an Islamist uprising. 2+2 still equals 4." Mogahed sarcastically replied that "your logic is flawless. I surrender. Confession: I created the Arab Spring."

Breitbart.com reported that other Mogahed tweets have been undeniably anti-Israel. After Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren's March 9 Wall Street Journal op-ed contrasted Israel's record on religious equality with the persecution of Palestinian Christians by Hamas and Fatah, Mogahed tweeted a rebuttal of sorts, linking to these anti-Israel letters distributed by Friends of Sabeel-North America, which is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Ghoneim Hate Speech Draws Coptic Complaint

A radical Islamic cleric forced out of the United States is finding trouble in Egypt, after uploading a video calling the late head of the Coptic Church the "head of infidels."

Wagdy Ghoneim's remarks prompted three lawyers to file a complaint alleging he defamed Christianity, Al-Ahram reports.

Coptic Pope Shenouda III died Saturday after serving for decades as spiritual leader to Egypt's estimated 10 million Copts. Ghoneim attacked Shenouda by blaming him for inciting sectarian violence and calling all Copts "infidels."

Ghoneim has exhibited hostility toward other faiths in the past, most notably with a series of anti-Jewish screeds while he lived in the United States. "They killed the prophets and worshipped idols," he said in a 1998 speech to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) held at Brooklyn College. His remarks also included leading the audience in a song with the lyrics, "No to the Jews, descendants of the apes."

A year earlier, he told the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) that violent jihad was the only way to liberate Palestine.

"The Jews are scared by the word 'jihad,' Ghoneim said. "We have to prepare ourselves for jihad against Jews and to liberate Aqsa Masjid. This is a must whether we accept it or not."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Ghoneim in November 2004, citing "his past speeches and participation in fund-raising activities could be supportive of terrorist organizations."

American Islamist groups rallied to his defense, saying he was being treated unjustly.

"The whole Muslim community today is under a microscope of scrutiny," Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Southern California chapter said at the time.

"There is a perception in the community that there is selective targeting and enforcement, and that is a widespread perception," echoed CAIR-Anaheim public relations director Ra'id Faraj.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) also took up Ghoneim's cause, arranging meetings with homeland security officials and U.S. Rep. Chris Cox, R-Cal., who headed the House Select Committee on Homeland Security to protest Ghoneim's detention.

"To use Muslims as scapegoats for political agendas, that is not helping us win the war on terrorism," said MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati.

Ghoneim agreed to leave the country voluntarily in December 2004. Ayloush called his departure "a dent in our civil rights struggle" and lamented the "high level of fear" in the community.

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