Keeping Awlaki's Online Legacy Alive

A new blog and several archiving sites are keeping alive the writings of American al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in late September. Awlaki's popular lectures and writings made him profoundly influential to English-speaking jihadis, creating a major gap in English-language al-Qaida propaganda after his death.

Anwar-awlaki.blogspot.com is the latest site to repost Awlaki's educational materials and thoughts on various Islamic themes. The posts in this new blog focus primarily on Awlaki's political writings, including the rejection of democracy to establish an Islamic state and his numerous calls for jihad, but also touch on Awlaki's less violent works. By linking posts from the blog to jihadi forums, jihadists recycle Awlaki's older, but still relevant, ideas.

Much of the material used for Awlaki propaganda sites comes from his original blog, Anwar-alawlaki.com. Taken down after he posted in support of the Fort Hood shooting massacre, the original blog posts are archived at sites like Pure Islam. Additional radical materials are drawn from his articles in Inspire magazine and online speeches. Less openly radical websites, such as imamawlaki.blogspot.com, repost violent material alongside Awlaki's popular speeches on Islamic prophets and Mohammad.

PA Official Booted From Canada over Tweet

Linda Sobeh Ali, charge d'affaires of the Palestinian General Delegation in Canada, has agreed to government request that she leave Ottawa after linking to a video calling for Israel's destruction on her Twitter feed.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that earlier this month, Sobeh Ali posted the link on Twitter, telling her followers to "check this video out." In the video, a Palestinian girl is shown crying, shouting and reciting in Arabic a poem entitled "I am Palestinian." English subtitles were said to include language calling millions of people "to a war that raze (sic) the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird instructed his deputy to call Sobeh Ali in to complain. The Canadian government lodged a protest with President Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which agreed to call her home Tuesday.

In an interview with CTV, Sobeh Ali said she sent the tweet from her Blackberry and had not seen the video.

Meanwhile, a University of Ottawa professor says the video's English subtitles are not accurate and the offending passage did not call for a war to "destroy the Jews." Rather, said Salah Basalamah, the poem cited by the girl included a call to "kill the soul of Zionism."

Posting the video was enough for Sobeh Ali to leave her post in Canada. It turns out Husam Ayloush, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Los Angeles office, posted the same video in 2009.

Sobeh Ali is not the first PA representative in North American to run into trouble in recent weeks. Last month, Maen Areikat, the Palestine Liberation Organization's ambassador to Washington, said Jews would not be welcome in a Palestinian state.

Areikat later said that his remarks had been taken out of context. The Huffington Post later published the full quote, making clear that the PLO envoy said the two peoples should be totally separated:

"I personally still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated, and we can contemplate these issues in the future. But after the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction I think it would be in the best interests of the two peoples to be separated at first."

Palestinians Celebrate Terrorists' Freedom

More than 200,000 people gathered in Gaza City Tuesday for a rally organized by the terrorist group Hamas to celebrate the release of nearly 500 Palestinian terrorists following a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

The crowd chanted "the people want a new Gilad," in reference to the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who returned home in "reasonable health" Tuesday after being held by Hamas in solitary confinement for five years.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh welcomed close to 300 Palestinian prisoners back into the Gaza Strip, along with other leading Hamas officials. Gaza declared a national holiday. Schools were closed and the streets were decorated with the green flags of Hamas. "The rest of the prisoners must be released because if they are not released in a normal way they will be released in other ways," senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook said.

More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners ultimately will be released as part of the deal.

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, called the occasion "truly epic" in a video statement and press release Tuesday. "This was the first time in more than 50 prisoner exchanges since 1948 that on the Israeli soldier is taken prisoner during combat operation in a military outpost on the lands occupied in 1948," the release said.

"As a result we say to the occupiers that their leadership has destined you to another episode of rejecting the release of prisoners who have spent decades in jail and those who suffer serious illness."

In the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed a crowd of several thousand, praising the released prisoners as "freedom fighters." He claimed "there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government on another batch (of releases) similar to this batch after it finishes."

Abbas added, "Soon, we will see Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, whom we wish a full recovery." Barghouti and Saadat are two of four high-ranking terrorist operatives whom Israel refused to release in the Schalit deal, according to a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released Tuesday. Abbas also joined the crowd in shouts of "with spirit and blood we will redeem Palestine."

The Lebanese terrorist organization Hizballah praised Hamas on its website, saying it "proved for another time that negotiations with the Israeli enemy won't bear fruit and that what was taken by force can only be regained by force."

Prosecutors: Alleged Syrian Spy Well Armed

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A man accused of spying on dissidents for the Syrian Mukhabarat intelligence service had a loaded handgun in his car, along with a second handgun and an AK-47 in his home, when he was arrested last week, prosecutors said Monday during a bond hearing.

The government wants Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, also known as Anas Alswaid, held without bond while awaiting trial for conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government. According to his indictment, Soueid and others he recruited videotaped protests in the United States by opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He sent those recordings, along with personal contact information for some of the protesters, to Syrian intelligence handlers.

Prosecutors argued Soueid represents both a flight risk and a danger to the public. They discussed large sums of money he received from abroad, and an alleged cash deposit of thousands of dollars from the Syrian embassy, to argue flight risk.

He had 500 rounds for the AK-47 and three magazines for a .40 caliber Berretta. Agents also found body armor in his home. Soueid's purchase of the Berretta is discussed in the indictment because he gave a false address to the Virginia gun dealer.

But the indictment also indicates that Soueid made written statements indicating it was okay to attack the anti-Assad demonstrators.

In April, he attached a handwritten letter to an email saying "violence against protestors was justified, raiding homes of protestors was justified, and that any method should be used to deal with the protestors."

Prosecutors made no statement indicating they had evidence showing Soueid planned to attack any dissidents. The hearing ended without a decision and resumes Tuesday afternoon.

Libyan Missiles Headed for Gaza, Sinai

Egyptian security officials say that they have intercepted large caches of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles in tunnels connecting Egypt with the Gaza Strip since Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's ouster in August. The missiles have also been seized en route to the Sinai, the Washington Post reported.

"We believe some Palestinian groups made a deal with the Libyans to get special weapons such as shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles," said Samah Seif el-Yazal, a retired general in Egyptian military intelligence. Several surface-to-air missiles had been intercepted on a desert road from Libya to Alexandria, Egypt and headed north to Gaza, he said.

Washington estimates that the Gaddafi regime had as many as 20,000 surface-to-air missiles and authorities are working with the new Libyan government to locate them. While thousands of the missiles are believed to have been destroyed in this year's NATO bombing raids, many were looted in the chaos of the Libyan war and are being smuggled into jihadist havens such as Gaza and the Sinai.

In Hamas-controlled Gaza, Palestinian terrorists target Israel with a substantial arsenal including surface-to-surface missiles. Until now, their anti-aircraft capability has been limited. The introduction of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles could enhance Hamas' ability to target Israeli helicopters and other aircraft which patrol the skies over Gaza.

Libya's loose weapons could also destabilize the Sinai, where radicals have launched seven attacks on a pipeline that ships natural gas to Israel since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February. A cross-border attack launched in August by Hamas and al Qaida-linked jihadists in the Sinai killed eight people and wounded 30 near Eilat, prompting an Israeli raid against Sinai terror cells in which six Egyptian soldiers were killed.

An Egyptian security official and brigadier general who served recently in the Sinai said weapons seizures have included explosives and automatic weapons along with Russian-made Strela-2 and Strela-3 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

But Sinai and Gaza residents interviewed by the Post indicated that Cairo faces an uphill battle to stop the weapons traffic. Bedouins in the Sinai reacted dismissively to calls for weapons registration, saying they needed their arms to protect themselves from the police. One weapons smuggler said the job has become easy since the Egyptian uprising began in February. The price for Stinger-like anti-aircraft missiles has plummeted around Gaza, he said, because so many of the weapons have become available.

Read more here and here.

Three Convicted in Carolina Jihad Cell

A North Carolina jury convicted three men Thursday for plotting to commit jihad overseas or providing material support to terrorists.

The guilty verdicts for Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Hysen Sherifi, combined with guilty pleas by ringleader Daniel Patrick Boyd and his sons Dylan and Zakaria, ends a saga of a group which considered domestic terrorist attacks when their attempts to fight abroad were stymied.

Daniel Patrick Boyd traveled to Virginia to scout the Marine Corps base at Quantico for a possible attack.

It also marks another successful prosecution facilitated by recordings by an FBI informant. In this case, jurors heard and saw the conspirators, usually led by the elder Boyd,

The group also engaged in shooting practice and hid a cache of weapons under Boyd's home. Boyd, a convert to Islam, joined the mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. He encouraged followers to travel abroad to wage jihad, pointing in a June 2009 conversation to the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. "Those Indians will run for their lives when the real mujahideen come," Boyd said. "You can't imagine, man, when one day the brothers for the Shahada [martyrdom] are coming after you."

A seventh defendant, Anes Subasic, will be tried separately. Two other men named in the indictment remain abroad.

Hassan, who was acquitted of the conspiracy charge, faces up to 15 years in prison. Yaghi and Sherifi could be sentenced to life.

Abdulmutallab Pleads Guilty, Rants

His fellow passengers saw flames coming out of his pants and investigators found explosives sewn into his underwear. So Umar Farouk Abulmutallab's attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009 was never much in question.

Still, the 25-year-old Nigerian ended his criminal trial as it was just getting started Wednesday, pleading guilty to eight terrorism charges. He faces a minimum of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in January.

He wanted to blow up the plane, and kill the nearly 300 people on board, to avenge the deaths of fellow Muslims at the hands of the United States, Israel and other western powers, he said after telling the court he would plead guilty.

"Participation in jihad against the United States is considered among the most virtuous of deeds in Islam and is highly encouraged in the Quran," Abdulmutallab told the court.

The statement is yet another example of a terrorist justifying his actions by invoking radical Islamist ideology. He may have violated American law, he said, but he did not break the laws of the Quran.

"The United States should be warned," he added. "If the United States continues the blasphemy of Muhammad and the prophets and continues to support those who kill innocent Muslims, it should await a great calamity that will befall them at the hands of the mujahedeen soon or God will strike them directly with a great calamity soon. If you laugh at us now, we will laugh at you later in this life and at the day of judgment."

Saudi Official Cites Sharia for Beheadings

Saudi Arabia executed eight Bangladeshi citizens Friday for their alleged involvement in an armed robbery in which an Egyptian security guard was killed. The executions were carried out through the standard Saudi practice of beheading.

The executions brought Saudi Arabia's 2011 beheading total to at least 58, Amnesty International (AI) reported, more than double the 2010 figure, and 20 of those beheaded in 2011 have been foreign nationals. AI noted the Saudi judicial process often deprives the accused of legal representation or due process recognized by Western standards.

The Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh defended the executions and the Saudi legal system. "All legal procedures were followed to ensure that the trial was fair and transparent," Abdullah Al Bussairy said. He also noted the victim's family turned down an offer of "blood money," (diya) something allowed under Islamic law. Diya places lower "value" on the life of non-Muslims and values a woman's life at half that of a man.

"The Saudi government acts to implement the law of Allah. We had nothing to do but to uphold the sanctions of Allah," Al Bussairy added. "The sharia law has been implemented through the execution."

Amnesty International is not the only human rights organization expressing concern over how the kingdom implements the law of Allah. The United Nations human rights office expressed distress over the issue and called on Saudi Arabia to implement a moratorium on its use of the death penalty.

PA Official: "Auschwitzes" Better Than Israeli Prisons

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official claims Jewish prisoners got better treatment from the Nazis than Palestinian prisoners currently receive in Israel.

Israeli prisons are worse than "the Auschwitzes (sic) of the Nazis," PA Deputy Minister of Prison Affairs Ziad Abu Ein declared in an interview last week with Fatah Television, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported. Israel forgets "that we are now in the 21st century and that the conditions of our Palestinian prisoners are worse than the Auschwitzes of the Nazis, where Jewish detainees were held."

Comparing Israelis to Nazis is a recurring theme in PA media under PA President Mahmoud Abbas, according to PMW.

The PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida ran a July 5 story on the treatment of Palestinian Shahids (martyrs)declaring that "even more serious are acts which even the Nazis and the fascists did not commit at the height of their arrogance and hatred for humanity, such as the imprisonment of pregnant women together with their children" and other actions "which are considered crimes against humanity."

In June, the same newspaper reported that a PA official in Bethlehem told visiting British members of Parliament that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians was even more disturbing than Nazi persecution of Jews. "While the Jews experienced a holocaust over a limited period in history, the Palestinians have experienced a continuous and ongoing holocaust for 63 years, and yet this nation has not found a supporter who will halt this holocaust," he said.

The assertion that Israelis are behaving in a Hitlerian fashion is belied by actual Palestinian inmate accounts of prison life. PMW reported last year that a growing number of prisoners were receiving doctorates and other degrees while behind bars in Israel. Many prisoners had registered for courses at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida even reported last October that since 2000, "more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners have attained matriculation certificates while still in the occupation prisons."

Last June, Fatah TV interviewed a former prisoner on the day of his release. Despite the interviewer's best efforts to get him to say prisoners were brutalized by Israel, the man refused to depict Palestinian inmates as victims of the Zionists. "By Allah, the guys in the prison are fine. They lack nothing. They are doing fine," he said.

Breaking News: Deal Reached for Kidnapped Israeli Soldier's Freedom

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that a deal has been reached with the Hamas terrorist organization to bring home kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. The two-stage arrangement would exchange a total of 1,027 Palestinian militants for the soldier that had been kidnapped in June 2006.

"There was great tension between bringing Schalit home...and maintaining the security of Israeli citizens," Netanyahu said on Israeli television. He was also quoted saying "the window has been opened for a historic deal," following a show of flexibility in negotiations by both sides.

Schalit's freedom is a matter of days, Netanyahu said.

"We are waiting here like everyone else," Schalit's father Noam Schalit said Tuesday. "We are receiving updates, but we don't really know anything new other than what has been published."

As part of the deal, Israel agreed to first release roughly 450 terrorists, with another 550 to follow at a later date. Netanyahu convened a cabinet meeting to approve of the plan, with various reports attributing the breakthrough to German or Egyptian intervention.

Hamas reacted jubilantly to the plan, with a celebratory graphic posted on the home page of the Izz al-Deen Qassam Brigade, Hamas's military wing.

"This is a national achievement for the Palestinian people, we tried to include all Palestinian detainees in the Israeli jails, and we promise the rest of the Palestinian detainees to liberate them," said Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Hamas Political Bureau. "My Appreciations to Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian factions which managed to capture the Israeli soldier Shalit, My thanks to the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the West Bank for their steadfastness against the Israeli siege, also my thanks to the Egyptian role in accomplishing this deal."

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