Islamist Says Morsi Critics Could Be Killed

A senior member of the Egyptian Islamist group Gamaa al-Islamiya warns that politicians who oppose President Muhammad Morsi's constitutional declaration could face a campaign of "targeted assassinations," Al-Arabiya news channel reported Monday.

In an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Gamaa ideologue Nageh Ibrahim stated that recent surges of violence targeting government security forces point to the possibility of violence against Morsi critics. Ibrahim said this would be a "natural reaction" to mistrust and polarization in Egypt.

Read the full story here.

Men Arrested in Plot to Attack U.S. Military Targets Overseas

Four Southern California men were arrested Tuesday in a plot to attack American targets overseas. The men sought to join al-Qaida and the Taliban, and wage jihadi attacks on U.S. military bases and personnel in Afghanistan. The arrests were announced by Andre Birotte, Jr., the United States Attorney in Los Angeles, and Bill Lewis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.

In 2010, the plot's ringleader, Soheil Omar Kabir, introduced two of the defendants, Ralph Deleon and Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, to radical and violent Islam through postings on the social media website Facebook. Kabir posted lectures and essays of now deceased al-Qaida leader in the Arabian Peninsula, Anwar Al-Awlaki. Awlaki has been an inspiration for several terror plots in the U.S., including the November 2009 attacks on the Fort Hood military base in Texas that killed 13 people and wounded 30 others.

In addition, Kabir posted videos depicting mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan and elsewhere as well as martyrdom operations carried out by al-Qaida and Taliban against U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. In July 2012, Kabir posted a video entitled "Knights of Khorasan Islamic Emirate Martyrdom Operation Against an Army Base in Margha." The video bore the symbol of al-Qaida's media wing, As-Shabab.

According to the complaint, another video titled, "Dua of Sheikh Muhammad al Mohaisany masjid al haram makkah," featured photos of "Al-Qaida leaders Usama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, 9/11 attacks, bloodied adults and children, and Islamic fighters."

Kabir "shared" his Facebook postings with Deleon and Santana who, in turn, "liked" and commented on several of the postings. Kabir traveled to Afghanistan both in December 2011 and July 2012 to attend terrorist training camps run by the Taliban and al-Qaida. While in Afghanistan, Kabir communicated with Deleon and Vidriales about making arrangements for them to join him there. He told them that once they arrive in Afghanistan he would travel with them to meet "the students" and "the professors". The complaint said the terms "students" and "professors" were keywords for the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Santana and DeLeon confided to an FBI informant that they planned to travel to Afghanistan to wage "violent jihad." The defendants also identified potential targets for attacks, including U.S. military personnel and Army bases. The defendants said they would use firearms and explosives to carry out the attacks.

In conversations with the informant, Gojali justified his intent to launch jihadi attacks against American targets in Afghanistan. Gojali allegedly told the informant, "You know I watch videos on the Internet and I see what they are doing to our brothers and sisters, Walahi man, like it makes me cry and it gets like, I'm like so angered with them you know, we are paying what taxes for them so they can build arms and weapons to go train their soldiers and go through our country and do that to our brothers and sister you know."

In September 2012, a fourth defendant, Arifeen David Gojali, was recruited to the group. Santana, DeLeon, and Gojali made travel arrangements to Afghanistan to join Kabir. In addition to raising funds to travel to Afghanistan, the men discussed stories and code words they would use as a cover up for their jihadi plans when traveling. The men also conducted preliminary paintball and firearms training at a shooting range in Los Angeles in preparation for their terrorist training overseas.

The men face 15 years in federal prison if convicted.

Anti-Israel Beat Poet Serves Up Misinformation at Portland State

Student groups on campuses across the country are organizing anti-Israel protests and events. At one such event on Friday, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at Portland State University (PSU) hosted anti-Israel rapper/beat poet Remi Kanazi, Victoria Taft reports.

In a video of the event originally recorded by Daylight Disinfectant and referenced by Taft, Kanazi performs a rap titled "Normalize This!" during which he states that "Zionism is a real demographic threat," and calls for a "right of return."

Friday's event comes as no surprise to those who have closely followed PSU. While appalling in its disregard for facts, Taft notes that the state university has a long history tolerating anti-Israel activism and anti-Semitism on campus.

"This is a school which stood by and did nothing when swastikas were scrawled on posters for a pro Jewish event on campus...[and] stood by as one of the most notorious anti Jewish speakers, Jamal Badawi, came to campus in the guise of a "family event," Taft writes.

Read more about PSU and Friday's SUPER event here.

Iran's Enhanced Nuclear Capabilities

Iran may be capable of doubling the number of centrifuges dedicated to enriching uranium within days. This was reported by one of three diplomats from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in conjunction with the issuance of the latest IAEA Iranian Safeguards report issued Friday.

An additional 700 centrifuges are believed to have been installed at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant near Qum. That brings the total number of centrifuges at Fordow to nearly 2,800, which would mean nearly 1,400 in operation at a given time at the facility. Fordow was designed to hold approximately 3,000 centrifuges so it is now near its capacity and is buried deep inside a mountain, making it a particularly hardened target.

The IAEA report noted a sharp increase in Iran's supply of a more purified form of enriched uranium that can be more easily converted to weapon's grade fissile material. This 20 percent uranium can quickly be converted to the highly enriched form used in weapons. Over the past three months, Iran's supply of 20 percent uranium increased by nearly half.

It remains to be seen how these latest developments will impact Israel's posture toward Iran and its nuclear program. In September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly there was a "red line" on Iran's nuclear program that would trigger Israeli military action. It's believed that is the point Iran has amassed enough uranium, purified to a level of 20 percent, that could quickly be enriched further and be used to produce an atomic bomb.

Congressional Report: Hizballah a Border Threat

The United States border with Mexico remains open to exploitation by Hizballah and other Islamic terror groups that have aligned themselves with Mexican drug cartels, a report released Wednesday by a House Homeland Security Committee subcommittee finds.

The report, "A Line in the Sand: Countering Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border" warns that increasing ties between Middle East terrorist groups and Mexican drug cartels allows terrorists to enter the United States undetected.

"This is an area that has gone largely ignored and overlooked, and yet it is right in our backyard," subcommittee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas., said during the hearing. "We talk about the Middle East a lot and we talk about North Africa and Egypt and Libya, and yet something's happening not too far from here that I think the American people have no idea the threat level that it presents to us."

Intelligence gathered during the 2011 raid of Osama bin Laden's compound showed that al-Qaida contemplated using operatives with valid Mexican passports to enter the United States to conduct terror operations.

"… [T]he U.S.-Mexican border is an obvious weak link in the chain. Criminal elements could migrate down the path of least resistance and with them the terrorists who continue to seek our destruction," the report says.

Existing weapons and human smuggling networks along the Mexican border give terrorists confidence that they will be able to plan and execute major terror attacks that require a long-term presence in the United States, the report says.

McCaul led a fact-finding mission to the Tri-border region of South America of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina to see the Hizballah threat first-hand, concluding that Iran and Hizballah pose a serious threat to the U.S. southern border.

"What we are seeing here is a marriage between Hizballah, the [Iranian] Quds Force and these drug cartels," McCaul said.

A substantial link between Hizballah and the drug cartels was exposed in the indictment of Ayman "Junior" Joumaa, a Lebanese national who was accused of selling 85,000 kilos of cocaine to Mexico's Los Zetas drug cartel from 2005 to 2007.

"This nexus potentially provides Iranian operatives with undetected access into the United States," the report says.

"If there is, God forbid, a strike from Israel into Iran, the retaliation will be certain, and it will be swift, not just against Israel, but in the entire Middle East, and it will also expand into this hemisphere," McCaul said. "It will light up Hizballah operatives I think in Latin America; it will also activate Hizballah cells in the United States."

NY Jihadist Gets Life in Subway Bomb Plot

A New York City resident and member of al-Qaida was sentenced to life in prison Friday in connection with a plot to bomb the city's subway system.

Adis Medunjanin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia, was convicted in May of plotting coordinated suicide bombings in New York subways in September 2009. The plot, which ranks among the most significant terrorist attacks to be plotted against the U.S. homeland since 9/11, was directed by al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan.

The plot's ringleader, Najibullah Zazi of Aurora, Colo., pleaded guilty in February 2010 to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to providing material support to al-Qaida. In exchange for a reduced prison sentence, Zazi later testified against Medunjanin, his former high school classmate in Queens.

Another classmate, Zarein Ahmedzay, pleaded guilty in April 2010 and testified against Mendunjanin.

The three men traveled to Pakistan in August 2008 hoping to join forces with the Taliban and fight American and allied troops in Afghanistan. When that didn't work, the men met with an al-Qaida facilitator in Peshawar, Pakistan who helped transport them to Waziristan region of Pakistan to undergo military-style training at an al-Qaida terrorist camp. They met with top-ranking al-Qaida leaders there who told them they would be more useful if they returned to New York to conduct high-casualty suicide operations against well-known targets. They discussed possible targets, including the subway system, Grand Central Station, the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square and movie theaters.

They returned to the U.S. planning to attack the Grand Central and Times Square trains during rush hour in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in late August and September 2009. But federal investigators foiled the plot.

A few months later, Medunjanin crashed his car into another on the Whitestone Expressway. He called 911 just before crashing, and after identifying himself declared, "We love death more than you love your life."

"Adis Medunjanin sought martyrdom for himself and death for innocent New Yorkers as part of al-Qaeda's plan to spread terror within our shores. Instead, he will now spend the rest of his life where he belongs, behind bars," Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a Department of Justice press release. "Justice demanded a sentence of life for this al-Qaeda operative, who was dedicated to mass murder and destruction in the New York City subways. Scores of innocent New Yorkers would have been killed or maimed had Medunjanin succeeded in his plot. The combined efforts of dedicated law enforcement stood as a bulwark against al-Qaeda's reach."

Hamas' Confounding Motivation

Palestinian advocates blame Israel for the latest clashes in Gaza, pointing out Israel's vastly superior military edge.

That superiority might be the one fact not in dispute. But it raises the question of why Hamas would provoke Israeli retaliation by firing hundreds of rockets at civilians, and now by broadening those attacks to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

It could be pure anger and madness. But other factors may be in play.

Hamas may have underestimated Israel's reaction to the incessant rocket attacks, believing Israel was not prepared to further strain deteriorating relations with the new Egyptian government. As a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, Hamas may expect Egypt would deter Israel from taking severe action. Furthermore, Turkey's ongoing support for Gaza and recent exhibits of Arab solidarity, such as the Qatari emir's visit to Gaza in October, may have been construed as a sufficient increase in the diplomatic risk facing potential Israeli retaliation.

In light of the emergence of more assertive jihadi groups operating in Gaza, Hamas' control over the territory has been eroding. As a result, Hamas' reputation as the main "resistance" force to Israeli "occupation" has diminished. In this context, Hamas seeks a more active and leading role in the fight against Israel to enhance its dominance of Gaza and restore its image regionally. This is exemplified by Hamas claiming responsibility for Friday's rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and even the Israeli capital, Jerusalem.

Domestic concerns within the Palestinian political arena may also have a role in the timing of this escalation. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas intends to request the upgrading of the PA's status within the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 29. The date is symbolic since the UN voted for the partition plan to facilitate a two-state solution on November 29, 1947 – an offer Abbas has stated was a mistake for the Palestinians to reject. The recent rocket fire may be an attempt by Hamas to subvert the broader 'peace process,' as the Palestinian issue is set to receive significant international attention in the coming weeks.

With internal and global considerations in play, analyzing Hamas' motivations for instigating this confrontation may be the key to institute the appropriate American and international pressure required to facilitate a de-escalation in the violence. Otherwise, Israel will be forced to take more aggressive action to quell the unbearable rocket fire.

Gaza Rockets Reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

Hamas rocket fire reached Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Friday, in the latest escalation of the conflict between Gazan terror organizations and Israel. Although Western nations strongly back Israel, Egypt and other new Arab Islamist regimes are ratcheting up their rhetoric at the Jewish state.

Two Hamas M-75 rockets, a new and improved version of the homemade Qassam missiles, fell in open areas outside Jerusalem for the first time Friday. "We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises," Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida said about the unprecedented attack.

Rockets also fell on the greater Tel Aviv area Thursday and Friday, setting off air raid sirens in Israel's largest city for the first time since the Gulf War in the early 1990s.

Despite appeals by President Obama for Egypt to help negotiate a new ceasefire, Egypt took a sharpened tone against Israel following a solidarity visit to Gaza Friday by the nation's prime minister. Israel agreed to a brief ceasefire during Hesham Kandil's visit, but that was shattered almost immediately by Hamas rocket fire.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi warned Israel that it has "the power to uproot the aggressiveness," and even threatened that Egypt would take "unusual steps" if he felt the Israeli retaliatory strikes were a danger to the Egyptian homeland. A minister in his government also called for Egyptian attacks inside "the Zionist Entity."

Turkey's Islamist leadership called the Israeli anti-terror strikes "a pre-election stunt," and stated that he and his nation are "with our brothers in Gaza and their just cause." Tunisia's government, led by the religious Ennahda party, announced it would be dispatching its foreign minister and a delegation "to provide all political support for Gaza."

Jihad References Debated in Oregon Terror Trial

Prosecutors in Portland are asking a federal judge to dismiss a request from defense attorneys representing accused terror suspect Mohamed Mohamud to keep them from referring to "violent jihad" and martyrdom in his upcoming terrorism trial.

The Somali-born Mohamud, 21, is scheduled to go on trial in January for allegedly conspiring with men he believed were Islamic radicals to set off a car bomb at Portland's Nov. 26, 2010 Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. The bomb was a fake and was provided to him by undercover agents.

Defense attorneys contend that allowing references to the terms "terrorist," "violent jihad" and "martyr" would be prejudicial to their client and "blur and dilute" the facts of the case, which they claim involved entrapment, according to the Associated Press.

But in court papers, prosecutors counter that Mohamud used these terms himself in meetings with undercover agents and that they show his motivation, which they say stems from an ideology that encourages violent jihad.

The defense similarly sought to exclude evidence about the defendant's contacts with Amr Al-Ali, listed by the Saudi government as one of its top "47 most wanted terrorists linked to al-Qaida." It similarly wants Mahmoud's email communications with Samir Khan, an al-Qaida terrorist killed in the drone strike that also killed terrorist mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, excluded from the trial, along with Mohamud's published writings in Khan's online jihadist magazine Jihad Recollections from consideration.

Defense attorneys claim this evidence should be excluded from trial consideration because Mahmoud allegedly was a juvenile at the time of his interactions with Khan, and the communication was covered under the 1^st Amendment.

"The evidence [the] defendant seeks to exclude is highly probative of his motive, intent, and, in particular, his predisposition to commit the offense," prosecutors wrote in their court motion. "It is worth noting, however, that the government could neither control the fact that [the] defendant chose to engaged in a written relationship with an international terrorist, nor did the government have any role in [the] defendant's decision (while a juvenile) to publish articles that advocated violent jihad."

Gaza Conflict Tests Egypt

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is insisting that President Mohamed Morsi "sever diplomatic and trade relations with this usurper entity" (Israel) over the recent violence in Gaza in order for Egypt to emerge as "a role model for Arabs and Muslims who keep relations with this entity."

Morsi is struggling to balance the more pragmatic approach espoused by the country's security and diplomatic circles – who emphasize the importance of maintaining stability – with the inherently confrontational stance endorsed by the Brotherhood regarding "this usurper entity." The fact that Morsi refuses to even mention the word "Israel" publicly illustrates the hostile attitudes toward the Jewish state prevalent in the upper echelons of the new Egypt. Recently, Morsi answered "amen" to an imam calling for the Jews' annihilation and the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide called for a "holy Jihad" for Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, the Brotherhood's political party announced plans to initiate new legislation to unilaterally amend the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. This has tremendous implications with respect to the future of the vital security relationship, constituting a major cornerstone of Middle East stability.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has translated various signs and chants espoused at Brotherhood-organized protests in Cairo Thursday featuring many incendiary statements such as: "O villainous Zionist…Muslim blood is not cheap;" "Unto Jerusalem we go ... martyrs in their millions;" "Jerusalem is faith, not an issue, the issue is an Islamic Palestine;" and "O our Aqsa (mosque), do not worry, we shall redeem you with life and blood." One young protestor is photographed holding a sign that reads: "No to the Entity. The Cancer."

Each new rally includes additional calls for Israel's destruction. The chant "Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad is right here" is heard frequently or written on posters including here and here. It invokes a 7^th Century victory by Muhammad's army over the Jews.

Islamist cleric and Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi is scheduled to lead Friday prayers at Cairo's Al-Azhar University for the first time. The Brotherhood is also planning mass anti-Israel protests on Friday.

With Egypt re-calling its ambassador to Israel in response to the operations in Gaza, it remains to be seen to what extent Morsi will exploit this crisis to further the Brotherhood's vehemently anti-Israel agenda.

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