Flotilla to Gaza Set for Late June

A flotilla seeking to break an Israeli blockade on Gaza plans to sail from European ports during the third week of June, organizers announced on Monday in a statement after a meeting in Paris.

Last year's sea convoy ended with a deadly raid when passengers attacked Israeli commandos with clubs, knives and other weapons as the commandos tried to board their ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack was organized in advance by IHH head Bulent Yildirim, who recruited approximately 40 IHH activists to carry out the violent confrontation.

The commandos opened fire, killing nine people. Israel imposed the blockade to try to stem the flow of supplies going to the Hamas government in Gaza.

Organizers promise that their Freedom Flotilla II will go on regardless of the consequences.

"But just as Egyptians stayed in Tahrir Square, accepting nothing less than the departure of the former regime, so too we must accept nothing less than a full end of the illegal blockade of Gaza and all forms of the Israeli occupation of Palestine," organizers said.

Zaher Birawi, a Hamas activist who lives in the UK and who also serves as a spokesman for Viva Palestina, said at a flotilla press conference on Monday. "Even if the border is re-opened at Rafah, we will fight to smash the wall of the sea."

At least two members of the European Parliament plan to join the flotilla.

In addition, IHH plans to send a separate boat to Gaza on May 31, the anniversary of last year's flotilla confrontation, laden with aid and construction materials. The ship will dock at Egypt's El Arish Port and the aid will be transported to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which will be permanently opened by Egypt's interim government.

IHH, the Turkish organization that was behind last year's effort, is accepting applications to join its flotilla contingent. The group helped al-Qaida when Osama Bin Laden "started to want to target U.S. soil," according to French intelligence expert Jean Louis-Bruguiere. It also supported jihadist operations in Bosnia and Afghanistan in the 1990s.

IHH's extensive ties to Hamas have been verified by the U.S. government, and the United States is considering designating the organization as a terrorist group.

IHH also has ties to the Turkish government and Turkish Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan, who strongly supported last year's flotilla. A report published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs notes that "a laptop said to have been found on board the flotilla was reported to contain minutes of a meeting held by the organizers shortly before the flotilla launch, in which they asserted that the flotilla had received the director support of the Turkish government, including of Prime Minister Erodgan."

Freedom Flotilla II is comprised of at least 20 organizations from around the world, several of which lead last year's flotilla. A new American organization, U.S. Boat to Gaza, plans to carry up to 60 people from the United States.

Israeli Islamist: We Will Die or Be Victorious

Raid Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, traveled to Jordan to stir up support for the "resistance," according to an article in Jordanian daily Al-Sabeel. Salah was previously banned from traveling abroad, a condition for his release in a Hamas fundraising case, but he is now being hailed as a hero by Jordan's Islamist community.

"Reassure yourself that you are welcome in Jerusalem and its wings, although they are being injured, imprisoned, and martyred," said Salah. "However, our word is one – we said it and we will say it in the courtyards of Jerusalem and the blessed Masjid al-Aqsa, in all positions we endured… We are an Ummah [nation] that doesn't surrender.. Either we will die or we will be victorious with the help of Allah, the most High."

"He told about the female heroes of al-Aqsa, exemplified in the organization 'Muslims for the sake of al-Aqsa,' which faced the arms and horses from the army of the Zionist enemy with the shout, 'It starts on the ground and rises to the heavens, with our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you O Aqsa,'" Al-Sabeel reported. "In this are the beginnings of the positions of heroism, which have only one end; As the morning ends the night reliably, so is end of this heroism the extinction of the Israeli occupation."

Salah previously served time in Israeli prison for Hamas fundraising activities and for spitting in an Israeli police officer's face. As the leading Palestinian cleric in Israeli territory, which he believes is also a part of Palestine that will be liberated, Salah's comments are considered important in Islamist circles. Salah also recently declared that the al-Aqsa mosque is in danger, "warning of the risks due to Israeli violations."

State Department Targets Haqqani Network

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has designated a man believed to be in charge of kidnappings for an al-Qaida affiliate as a global terrorist. The move freezes any U.S. assets belonging to Badruddin Haqqani and bars any people in the United States from dealing with him.

Haqqani's father Jalaluddin created what is known as the "Haqqani network," which operates out of the Federally Administered Tribal Area in North Waziristan. "The Haqqani Network has been at the forefront of insurgent activity in Afghanistan, responsible for many high-profile attacks," a State Department release said.

Badruddin Haqqani sits on a leadership board for the group and has acknowledged responsibility for kidnapping New York Times reporter David Rohde in 2009. Rohde escaped after seven months in captivity.

In addition, U.S. officials believe that the Haqqani network has been protected by elements within Pakistan's intelligence service. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is "a longstanding relationship" between Pakistan's ISI and the Haqqani group.

Bloomberg reports that a similar designation of Badruddin Haqqani by the United Nations requires the international community to impose asset freezes and bar him from traveling.

The Treasury Department previously targeted Haqqani's father and brothers, in addition to group leaders and fundraisers with similar designations.

Pakistani Terrorists Seek WMD from al-Qaida

A top leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), who was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department along with two other Lashkar operatives and an al-Qaida leader in July 2009, is helping the Pakistan terror group obtain biological weapons and anthrax through his al-Qaida connections, the Times of India reports.

The information was revealed in interrogations with Pakistani businessman and Guantanamo detainee, Saifullah Paracha, who said that the LeT was in contact with a U.S. based "al-Qaida anthrax operative" as part of its efforts to gain access to weapons of mass destruction.

LeT leaders Arif Qasmani, Mohammed Yahya Mujahid, and Nasir Javaid, and al-Qaida operative Fazeel-A-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen Al Peshawari, were designated by the U.S. Treasury for their active support for the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Lashkar in India.

Qasmani has been described in the Treasury press release as "the chief coordinator for Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's dealings with outside organizations" and is also alleged to provide financial support to al-Qaida operations. He has been directly tied to the July 2006 commuter train bombings in Mumbai and is reported to have received funds from Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Paracha, a businessman based in the Pakistani city of Sargodha, told U.S. interrogators in 2008 that Qasmani was in communication with Nazmut Tariq, described as a U.S.-based al-Qaida pharmacist, to discuss ways to obtain biological weapons and anthrax for the LeT. Paracha also disclosed that he had known Tariq since 1969 and both men are from the same village, Nazimabad, in Pakistan. Tariq was also described as a member of the radical Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party in Pakistan.

His current whereabouts are unclear, but his name was referenced in a document seized from an al-Qaida safe house in Pakistan alongside an entry for anthrax vaccine, the Times of India report said.

Dossier Reinforces ISI Ties to Mumbai Plotters

India has released a new dossier Tuesday linking five Mumbai terror plotters to Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI. The plotters include an active ISI officer who has been charged in the U.S. along with four other Pakistani nationals in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 that killed 166 people, including six Americans. The Pakistan-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), is believed to be behind the attacks.

The dossier seeks to intensify the pressure on Pakistan just a week ahead of a high-profile terrorism trial in Chicago tied to the Mumbai attacks. The move also comes in the wake of rising allegations of ISI complicity in the hiding of bin Laden in the years following the 9/11 attacks after the al-Qaida leader was killed by U.S. assault forces in the Pakistani garrison town of Abottabad, just 35 miles north of the capital Islamabad.

The dossier identifies the ISI officer as "Major Iqbal" and claims he "on behalf of the ISI, was actively involved in the planning and execution of the Mumbai terror attacks." Major Iqbal is described as a handler for American Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley who helped scout targets for the Mumbai terror attacks.

According to the dossier, Major Iqbal, who was posted in Lahore in 2007 and 2008, provided $25,000 to Headley to conduct his surveillance operations for the attacks. Headley handed the surveillance videos to Major Iqbal before sharing them with Lashkar, the dossier said.

Headley, who admits to conducting surveillance for the Mumbai attacks, is slated to be a key witness at the Chicago trial of co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

In addition to Major Iqbal, the dossier describes senior LeT commander Sajid Majeed, better known as Sajid Mir, as a "key planner of Mumbai terror attacks." LeT trainer and explosives expert, Abu Qahafa, is alleged to have been present in the "LeT control room in Pakistan" during the attacks. Also mentioned in the dossier are high-level Lashkar operative Abu Alqama and an unnamed "Lashkar Member D," who is reported to have been Headley's handler before Major Iqbal assumed that position.

Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian is accused of using the Mumbai office of his immigration company, First World Immigration Services, as a cover for Headley while he scouted targets in the city. Rana has claimed immunity from prosecution under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act arguing he was working under orders from the ISI to protect Pakistan's national interest.

Indian authorities have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the trial of Lashkar extremists in Pakistan charged in connection with the Mumbai attacks. Indian aggravation has been further compounded with recent cables released by Wikileaks that claim that several detainees of the Guantanamo Bay facility told U.S. interrogators that ISI supports militants to wage jihadi attacks against India from across the border in Pakistan.

Pakistan has denied the role of ISI in the Mumbai attacks and said it cannot be held accountable for the actions of former military officers.

Manji Advocates for Islamic Reformists Over Moderates

President Obama was mistaken when he publicly declared that Osama bin Laden "was not a Muslim leader," asserts Irshad Manji in an excerpt of her latest book Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom. Bin Laden espoused a real interpretation of Islam, she writes, and the religion needs reformists to challenge this interpretation, not moderates to solidify the status quo.

Manji is a longtime reform advocate and director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University. While moderate Muslims, like moderate Jews and Christians, acknowledge flaws in their scripture, moderates in Islam hesitate to openly debate problematic passages in the Quran and censure those who speak out, she writes. But events within the Muslim community affect those outside the community and "so our business is everyone's business."

Perhaps the clearest example is an oft-cited passage that says "Whoever kills a human being…it is as if he has killed all humankind."

The missing phrase allows killing "as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land." Jihadists use that clause as "a loophole to exploit" and justify their violence, she writes.

Reformists can counter that loophole by showing "that more Muslims are being slaughtered by other Muslims than by anyone else."

Moderate Muslims may not be up to the job because they can be overly consumed with Western imperialism and fear that publicly criticizing their religion is tantamount to a total surrender of group honor and identity to the West, Manji writes. This blinds Muslims to the imperialists within Islam who "dominate, censor, injure and murder fellow Muslims."

"Moderate Muslims denounce violence committed in the name of Islam but insist that religion has nothing to do with it; reformist Muslims, by contrast, not only deplore Islamist violence but admit that our religion is used to incite it."

Read the full excerpt here.

Would-be Courthouse Bomber Pleads Guilty

An attempted terrorist who targeted a federal courthouse in Illinois pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Michael C. Finton, also known as "Talib Islam" [Student of Islam], entered a guilty plea on a single count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against property owned by the United States.

"Michael Finton is one of a number of young Americans over the past two years who, under the influence of a radical and violent ideology, have sought to carry out acts of terrorism in the United States," said Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Todd Hinnen. "Although a coordinated undercover law enforcement investigation thwarted Mr. Finton's plot to destroy the federal courthouse in Springfield, this case underscores the need to remain vigilant against the threat posed by homegrown extremism."

Finton seemed to be an unusual terrorist. Tall and red-haired, Finton was known as "cheerful and polite" by his coworkers at the Seals Fish and Chicken in Decatur, Ill. A part-time fry cook, Finton converted to Islam in prison and idolized John Walker Lindh, an American who fought alongside the Taliban. He also believed that American society was too "permissive," causing him to see Saudi Arabia as a potential place to settle.

According to the plea agreement, Finton admitted that he drove a truck containing what he thought was a ton of explosives to the Paul Findley Federal Building and Courthouse. The federal facility was not in danger because the "explosives" were actually inert substances. After parking the truck between the court and a congressman's office, Finton triggered a timer on the device, transferred vehicles, and then tried to remotely detonate the fake bomb.

Finton picked the target and initially intended to detonate two bombs. The first would destroy the courthouse, while the second would target those who responded to the scene.

Hatem Abudayyeh's Mystery Freeze

Activists in Chicago are protesting what they say is a Treasury decision to freeze the assets of a Palestinian activist under investigation for terror support. But a Treasury spokeswoman says they didn't do it.

Supporters of Hatem Abudayyeh say he learned Friday that his family's bank accounts were frozen. Initial statements urged people to call Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is investigating Abudayyeh and up to two dozen other people for possible support to at least two designated terrorist groups. A spokesman for Fitzgerald's office said Monday that "there is no court record of such action" and that the U.S. Attorney was not involved.

The supporters' websites then indicated that Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was responsible for "the latest escalation of the repression of anti-war and Palestinian community organizers by the US government."

Supporters "are appalled at the government's attempt to restrict the family's access to its finances, especially so soon before Mothers' Day," a statement said. People were urged to call Treasury to protest the move.

But a Treasury spokeswoman said she found no record of action against Abudayyeh or his wife. OFAC issues news releases for virtually all actions taken, but nothing has been issued in this case.

Last September, FBI agents raided two dozen locations in Chicago and Minneapolis as part of an investigation involving the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The targets, including Abudayyeh, insist they are peace activists who are being unjustly harassed by the government. Abudayyeh works as executive director of the Arab American Action Network.

Soltan: U.S. a Bigger Terrorist than Bin Laden

Terrorism committed by the United States is far worse than anything al-Qaida emir, Osama bin Laden, ever carried out, says former Fiqh Council of North America member and close Yusuf al-Qaradawi associate, Salah Soltan.

The reason for this, he says, is because "Bin Laden's terrorism was in the defense of Islam and the resistance against the occupiers, [even if it was waged] in a way that deviated to some extent from the middle path of moderation." In contrast, the U.S. acted only "in defense of hegemony, oppression, and tyranny" and "combined a base end with base means."

The remarks first appeared on the Arabic-language site of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, IkwanOnline, last Tuesday, and were cross-posted that same day on Soltan's personal website. The Arabic text was translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), and posted on that group's website Monday. The original post was credited to a Dr. Salah Al-Din Sultan—a slight variation on the full name that Soltan identifies himself by in his 2007 CV.

In addition to wild claims about the terroristic tendencies of the United States, Soltan goes on to call into question the narrative that bin Laden was killed by a team of American Special Forces last week.

"Perhaps [America's] claim that it cast [bin Laden's] body into the sea renders likely the rumor that he died several years ago, which would tarnish the face of the U.S. [and reveal it] as totally helpless."

"[The U.S.] fabricated the drama [of bin Laden's assassination] in order to present imaginary achievements, just as [it falsely claimed that there were] nuclear arms in Iraq," writes Soltan, according to the MEMRI translation.

This most recent statement by Soltan is the latest in a long list of conspiracy theories promulgated by the former resident of Hilliard, Ohio. In May 2006, Soltan—then identified as "president of the American Center for Islamic Research (ACIR), a non-profit organization registered in Ohio and located in Columbus—told Al-Risala TV that 9/11 was planned by Americans "in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism."

Over the years, Soltan has made vile, incendiary, and often times, outlandish, comments about Jews and Christians as well. In one example from last year, Soltan told Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV that each year, Zionists kidnap "several non-Muslims [sic] –Christians and others" in order to slaughter them and then knead their blood into Passover matzah.

Soltan left the United States in 2007 and lives in Bahrain, where he is a resident and advisor to that country's Islamic Affairs ministry and a professor at Khaleej University and Makkah Open University. During his time both here and in Bahrain, he has been intimately connected to a host of international Muslim Brotherhood-tied organizations, including Qaradawi's International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), the Muslim American Society's Islamic American University, and the Fiqh Council of North America.

Islamist With 7/7 Links Paid by Scotland Yard

Despite his numerous connections with the suicide bombers struck London's transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 innocent people and wounding nearly 800 more, a British Islamist's company has been paid by Scotland Yard and numerous local councils to "engage" Muslim youths, the London Telegraph reported Saturday.

Tafazal Mohammad, managing director of Muslim Youth Skills (MYS), was called a "person of interest" by the British MI5 agency in 2001 when he attended a jihadist training camp with Mohammed Sidique Khan, ringleader of the suicide terrorist cell that carried out the 7/7 bombings.

Yet today, MYS charges up to 115 British pounds per head (approximately $188) for courses to "engage and empower hard-to-reach and marginalized groups." The group's website claims its clients have included some local authorities as well as the Government Office of London, abolished earlier this year.

Approximately 20 police officers and staff attended an MYS course last year at a cost of approximately $3,000, a Scotland Yard spokesman said. The agency said he was hired as part of a 'strategy" that did not require officers to "routinely carry out background checks." The course was intended "to help improve understanding and relations with young Muslim people," a police spokesman told the Telegraph. Read more about Scotland Yard's approach to jihadism here.

Although Mohammad has never been charged with a terrorist offense, a recent British inquest into the 7/7 bombings said he and Khan were kept under surveillance by West Yorkshire Police and MI5 during a 2001 "training camp organized by known extremists," one investigator said. She added that at that point Mohammed was regarded as a "suspected terrorist sympathiser" by British security services.

Mohammad was a trustee of a jihadist bookshop along with Khan, who bombed the Edgware Road train on 7/7, killing six other people, and Shehzad Tanweer, who bombed the Aldgate transit station, murdering seven people.

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