Law enforcement officials in Germany say that 52 people, including 18 children, were hit on Monday when a man rammed a car into a carnival crowd in the western part of the country.
&#8220;A 29-year-old German citizen was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide in the town of Volkmarsen,&#8221; the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51626844">reported</a>. &#8220;Police have also arrested a second person for allegedly filming the incident.&#8221;
The victims ranged from two-years-old to 85-years-old, and 35 people remained in the hospital. It was not clear whether there were any fatalities from the apparent attack.
The incident happened during celebrations for Rose Monday, which is celebrated throughout parts of Europe.
&#8220;A silver Mercedes drove through plastic barricades set up for the parade and into a group of people at about 14:45 local time,&#8221; the BBC reports.
Eyewitnesses told German media that the driver had accelerated toward the crowd and appeared to target children. Police said they believed it was an attack but that there was no indication of a political motive.&#8221;
Authorities said that the driver was being treated for injuries sustained during the incident before being questioned by prosecutors. Those same authorities rejected rumors that the driver was drunk during the incident.
The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/car-driven-crowds-carnival-parade-germany/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>The driver is a 29-year-old German citizen who has not been named under the country’s privacy laws. He is understood to be from the local area, and has no history of political extremism. &#8230;
The police presence is already heightened across Germany in the wake of a series of attacks.
The latest incident comes just days after a far-Right gunman killed nine people before turning his gun on his mother and himself in the town of Hanau, which also lies in Hesse.</blockquote>
&#8220;We’re assuming it was an intentional crime,&#8221; a police spokesman told reporters.
Regional government officials reportedly said the possibility that it could have been a terrorist attack &#8220;could not be ruled out.&#8221;
Reinhard Kubat, a local councillor, told Bild, “It was a beautiful procession and just as it ended I suddenly saw flashing lights and heard sirens. Crying people came towards me. There were mainly injured children on the street, but also older people.”
Elmar Schulten, a reporter for Waldeckische Landeszeitung, said, “When I arrived there were 15 people on the floor, many of them small children. People were howling everywhere, including grown men. Fathers who saw their children lying on the floor.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, “Our thoughts are with the injured. We hope they will all make a swift and full recovery. I wish them, their families and everyone who was in the Rose Monday parade strength. And I thank the emergency services from the bottom of my heart.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Unsere Gedanken sind bei den Verletzten von <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Volkmarsen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Volkmarsen</a>. Wir hoffen, dass alle gut und zügig wieder genesen. Ihnen, ihren Angehörigen und allen, die bei dem <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rosenmontagszug?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Rosenmontagszug</a> waren, ganz viel Kraft. Und von Herzen danke den Einsatzkräften vor Ort.
&mdash; Heiko Maas 🇪🇺 (@HeikoMaas) <a href="https://twitter.com/HeikoMaas/status/1231992989163098114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Regional Prime Minister of Hesse Volker Bouffier said in a statement, “I am shocked by this bad deed, which has injured so many innocent people, some of them seriously. My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives and friends, and I wish everyone a speedy and complete recovery.”
USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/24/man-drives-car-into-germany-carnival-crowd-volkmarsen-30-injured/4860079002/">added</a>, &#8220;Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery. She also thanked the police and all medical personnel involved.&#8221;

GERMANY-CARNIVAL-POLICE

Man Rams Car Into Crowd In Germany In Apparent ‘Attack’; Hits 52 People

Germany

Terrorism

Authorities have reportedly opened an investigation into the death of Obama-era Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whistleblower Philip Haney, who was was found dead in his California home on Friday.
&#8220;On February 21, 2020 at approximately 1012 hours, deputies and detectives responded to the area of Highway 124 and Highway 16 in Plymouth to the report of a male subject on the ground with a gunshot wound,&#8221; the Amador County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said in a statement. &#8220;Upon their arrival, they located and identified 66-year-old Philip Haney, who was deceased and appeared to have suffered a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. A firearm was located next to Haney and his vehicle. This investigation is active and ongoing. No further details will be released at this time.&#8221;
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/dhs-whistleblower-philip-haney-found-dead-police-say">reported</a>:
<blockquote>He was an outspoken <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268282-dhs-ordered-me-to-scrub-records-of-muslims-with-terror" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">critic</a> of the Obama administration, specifically its handling of radical Jihadist elements and Islamic terrorism.
Haney, who retired in 2015, studied Arabic culture and language while working as a scientist in the Middle East before becoming a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 as a Customs &amp; Border Protection (CBP) agriculture officer.
After serving as an armed CBP officer, he was promoted to its Advanced Targeting Team. He specialized in Islamic theology and the strategy and tactics of the global Islamic movement.</blockquote>
Fox News contributor Sarah Carter responded by suggesting that Haney had been murdered, &#8220;Somebody I deeply respected and considered a friend Phil Haney – a DHS whistleblower during the Obama Admin was apparently killed yesterday in Southern California. Pray for his family and pray they find the person who murdered him. Still trying to get confirmation on details.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Somebody I deeply respected and considered a friend Phil Haney &#8211; a DHS whistleblower during the Obama Admin was apparently killed yesterday in Southern California. Pray for his family and pray they find the person who murdered him. Still trying to get confirmation on details
&mdash; Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/status/1231249584925630464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Haney was known for blowing the whistle on the Obama administration, claiming that the administration shut down a program that could have prevented Islamic terrorist attacks that were carried out on U.S. soil.
In 2015, Haney told then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly that his work could have prevented the 2015 Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.
“The network of individuals that we work with were tied to a large group called Tablighi Jamaat, part of a larger group called Deobandi,&#8221; Haney said. &#8220;We had thousands of organizations or individuals in the database and we tracked them as they moved in and out of the United States on the visa waiver program. That’s what first brought the group to our attention.&#8221;
&#8220;And as we developed the case and started putting the pieces in place, we gain more and more evidence of their activities,&#8221; Haney continued, adding that the mosque of one of the terrorists behind the attack was allegedly connected to the organization that he was investigating.
Haney told Kelly that had the Obama administration not shut down the investigation, which was years in the making, would have likely flagged the terrorists who carried out the attack.
<iframe title="Whistleblower Says He Could Have Prevented CA Attack If Gov&#039;t Didn&#039;t Cut Funding" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bClwr4osp50?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In 2016, following the Islamic terrorist attack on the Orlando Pulse nightclub, which at the time was the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, Haney told Fox News&#8217; Sean Hannity that he believed that the Obama administration&#8217;s decision to shut down his investigation likely prevented DHS from stopping the terrorist attack.
<iframe title="DHS whistleblower speaks out about jihad in America" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ea6pt13Jp5Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Philip Haney

Homeland Security Whistleblower From Obama Era Found Dead

Obama Administration

Suicide

whistleblower

The United Kingdom now says it will end an &#8220;early release&#8221; program in place for individuals convicted of &#8220;terror offenses&#8221; after two people were wounded in a second attack committed by someone granted leniency under the early release rules.
According to <a href="https://apnews.com/bee3f1d416f1de836ba26fa04f025f4f">the Associated Press</a>, the UK has been employing a rule which allows those convicted of planning terror attacks to serve a fraction of their prison sentence before being automatically paroled without a hearing. The rule, introduced ten years ago by the Labour Party, is meant to show mercy to those who may have been targeted for radicalization and to keep terror cells from recruiting in prisons. In the last decade, around 70 people have walked free because of the rule.
Sunday, Sudesh Amman, one of the parolees, &#8220;strapped on a fake bomb and stabbed two people on a busy street before being shot dead by police,&#8221; per the AP. It was the second such attack by a former prisoner in less than six months.
Amman was sentenced to just three years for &#8220;publishing graphic terrorist videos online and had stockpiled instructions on bomb making and knife attacks,&#8221; but got out of jail after only around 18 months &#8212; half his sentence. In November, Usman Khan killed two people near the London Bridge while out on conditional release.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the British Parliament on Monday that he will propose a slate of new rules, curbing the state&#8217;s ability to allow terror offenders to walk free.
&#8220;We cannot have the situation, as we saw tragically in yesterday&#8217;s case, where an offender &#8211; a known risk to innocent members of the public &#8211; is released early by automatic process of law without any oversight by the Parole Board,&#8221; Buckland said in a speech Monday morning.
The new rules would ensure that terror prisoners serve at least two thirds of their sentence before being considered for early parole. And instead of an automatic release, each prisoner will have to demonstrate rehabilitation.  Because, Buckland added, this is &#8220;an unprecedented situation of severe gravity,&#8221; the rule will apply to the approximately 200 prisoners currently serving time on terror-related charges.
&#8216;This is a liberal country, it is a tolerant country,″ Prime Minister Boris Johnson added in his own interview. “But I think the idea of automatic early release for people who obviously continue to pose a threat to the public has come to the end of its useful life.”
&#8220;Now that I am prime minister I&#8217;m going to take steps to make sure that people are not released early when they commit&#8230; serious sexual, violent or terrorist offences,&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50618744">he told the BBC</a>. &#8220;I absolutely deplore the that fact that this man was out on the streets&#8230;and we are going to take action against it.&#8221;
The new slate of rules will likely include measures requiring that law enforcement officials closely monitor those convicted on terrorism charges and then released for a certain period of time.
“We are going to have to accept that we have to be much more skeptical and robust about dealing with the risk of harm,″ one expert told the AP. “We may need to accept that there are certain people who are so dangerous they must be kept in prison indefinitely.”
Leftists in the UK were unhappy at the news. Labour Party leaders blamed law enforcement &#8220;budget cuts&#8221; for the rise in terrorist activities, not the early release program, and a &#8220;human rights activist&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51364047">told the BBC that the new rules</a> present &#8220;civil rights concerns.&#8221;
&#8220;From last month&#8217;s knee-jerk lie detector proposal, to today&#8217;s threat to break the law by changing people&#8217;s sentences retrospectively, continuing to introduce measures without review or evidence is dangerous and will create more problems than it solves,&#8221; he said.

uk terror

Finally: UK Will End ‘Early Release’ Program For Convicted Terrorists After Latest Attack

Radical Islamic Terror

United Kingdom

An Islamic terrorist organization claimed credit this weekend for the December 6, 2019, terrorist attack on Naval Air Station Pensacola which resulted in the deaths of three U.S. sailors and severe injuries to eight other Americans.
&#8220;Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed on Sunday that it directed a Saudi military officer to carry out the shooting,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/world/middleeast/al-qaeda-claims-it-directed-florida-naval-base-shooting.html?action=click&amp;module=Latest&amp;pgtype=Homepage">reported</a>. &#8220;In an audio recording released on Sunday, the leader of the Yemen-based group, Qassim al-Rimi, claimed responsibility for the Dec. 6 attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola, according to SITE, an organization that tracks jihadist media.&#8221;
The Times noted that the group &#8220;produced a copy of his will as well as correspondence that indicated he had been in contact with Al Qaeda. Experts said those elements gave the claim a plausible air.&#8221;
The development shines new light from a separate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-out-another-top-terrorist-in-the-middle-east">report</a> from late last week that indicated that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly killed al-Rimi in a drone strike last month in Yemen.
Bruce Riedel, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former C.I.A. officer, told The Times that Al-Qaeda&#8217;s release of the audio was “a statement that AQAP has infiltrated the Saudi military, which is an embarrassment for the Saudis.”
Colin P. Clarke, a senior fellow at a New York-based research organization, said that Al Qaeda’s claim “makes the F.B.I.’s battle with Apple for access to [the terrorist&#8217;s] phone even that much more critical.”
On January 13, Attorney General William Barr announced the findings of the government&#8217;s findings and declared that the attack on the base was a terrorist attack.
&#8220;The evidence shows that the shooter was motivated by jihadist ideology,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;During the course of the investigation, we learned that the shooter posted a message on social media on Sept. 11 of last year that said: &#8216;the countdown has begun.&#8217; Over Thanksgiving weekend, he visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. He also posted other anti-American, anti-Israeli, and jihadi messages on social media, and did so two hours before his attack at the naval base.&#8221;
&#8220;Early reports indicated that the shooter arrived at the site, accompanied by other Saudi cadets, who took video of the attack as it unfolded,&#8221; Barr continued. &#8220;These reports turned out not to be accurate. The shooter arrived by himself. Other Saudi cadets happened to be in the area and, after the attack began, they took some videos of the resulting commotion. They fully cooperated in the investigation, as did the other Saudi cadets who were interviewed by the FBI at Pensacola and at additional bases across the country.&#8221;
Barr said that there was no evidence suggesting that the Saudi military knew of the attack ahead of time and said that they were cooperative in the investigation.
&#8220;While there was no evidence of assistance or pre-knowledge of the attack by other members of the Saudi military (or any other foreign nationals) who are training in the United States, we did learn of derogatory material possessed by 21 members of the Saudi military who are training here in the United States,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;17 had social media containing some jihadi or anti-American content.  However, there was no evidence of any affiliation or involvement with any terrorist activity or group.&#8221;
&#8220;15 individuals (including some of the 17 just mentioned) had had some kind of contact with child pornography.  While one of these individuals had a significant number of such images, all the rest had one or two images, in most cases posted in a chat room by someone else or received over social media,&#8221; Barr continued. &#8220;The relevant U.S. Attorneys offices independently reviewed each of the 21 cases involving derogatory information and determined that none of them would, in the normal course, result in federal prosecution.&#8221;
Barr added, &#8220;However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia determined that this material demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer in the Saudi Royal Air Force and Royal Navy and the 21 cadets have been dis-enrolled from their training curriculum in the U.S. military and will be returning to Saudi Arabia (later today).&#8221;
This is a developing news story, refresh the page for updates.

Shooting On Naval Air Station Pensacola Leaves Multiple Dead And Injured

Terrorist Organization Claims Credit For December Attack On Florida Naval Base

Al Qaeda

Florida

Law enforcement officials in London shot and killed a man on Sunday who allegedly went on a mass stabbing spree in a &#8220;terrorist-related&#8221; attack.
“Three victims have been taken to south London hospitals,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said in a statement. “One man is being treated as life-threatening, one woman has non-life threatening injuries and another woman has minor injuries.”
“As part of a proactive Counter Terrorism operation, armed officers were in immediate attendance and shot a male suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene,” D’Orsi continued. “A device was found strapped to the body of the suspect and specialist officers attended. Cordons were put in place and it was quickly established that this was a hoax device.”
&#8220;The situation has been contained and officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are now leading an investigation into the incident,&#8221; D’Orsi added. &#8220;The incident was quickly declared as a terrorist incident and we believe it to be Islamist-related.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/INCIDENT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#INCIDENT</a> A man has been shot by armed officers in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Streatham?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Streatham</a>. At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related. Please follow <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@metpoliceuk</a> for updates
&mdash; Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1223987448742666241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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British Prime Minister responded to the attack by <a href="https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1224000347645063174">tweeting</a>, &#8220;Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.&#8221;
Johnson later added: “An investigation is taking place at pace to establish the full facts of what happened, and the Government will provide all necessary support to the police and security services as this work goes on.”
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/london-police-shoot-man-dead-after-stabbing-attack-11580660534">highlighted</a> some of the recent terrorist attacks that have rocked London over the last couple of years:
<blockquote>The incident is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks to have hit London in recent years. In November, a convicted terrorist on parole was shot dead by police after he killed two people in central London.
In June 2017, London Bridge and the surrounding area were the scene of a bloody rampage by three knife-wielding men, who plowed a van into pedestrians and stabbed people in nearby bars and restaurants. All three were shot dead by police. Eight people were killed and dozens hospitalized in the assault.
Also in June 2017, a van struck pedestrians outside a London mosque. Earlier that year, another car attack occurred on London’s Westminster Bridge, leaving five dead. And in May 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 concertgoers in Manchester.</blockquote>
In 2017, EU anti-terror chief Gilles de Kerchove said that Britain was home to up to 35,000 Islamic extremists, more than any other country in Europe.
De Kerchove <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/31/britain-home-35000-islamist-fanatics-country-europe-top-official/">told</a> Spain&#8217;s El Mundo newspaper: “The United Kingdom has identified 20,000 to 35,000 radicals. Of these, 3,000 are worrying for MI5, and of those 500 are under constant and special attention. France has 17,000. Spain many less, but more than 5,000 I suppose. In Belgium almost 500 have been to Syria and there are around 2,000 radicals or more. I wouldn&#8217;t like to put a concrete figure on it, but (in Europe) tens of thousands, more than 50,000. We must select those who are really worrying and the most dangerous, and they should be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Police Shoot Armed Man In South London

Multiple Victims Reported In ‘Islamist-Related’ Mass Stabbing London Terror Attack

London

Federal law enforcement officials arrested an alleged Al-Qaeda terrorist leader in Phoenix, Arizona, late this week on murder charges filed by the Iraqi government.
Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, a 42-year-old Iraqi national was &#8220;wanted to stand trial in Iraq for two charges of premeditated murder committed in 2006 in Al-Fallujah,&#8221; the Department of Justice said in a statement.
An Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant for Ahmed and subsequently requested Ahmed&#8217;s extradition from the United States.
&#8220;According to the information provided by the Government of Iraq in support of its extradition request, Ahmed served as the leader of a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in Al-Fallujah, Iraq, which planned operations targeting Iraqi police,&#8221; the DOJ added. &#8220;Ahmed and other members of the Al-Qaeda group allegedly shot and killed a first lieutenant in the Fallujah Police Directorate and a police officer in the Fallujah Police Directorate, on or about June 1, 2006, and October 3, 2006, respectively.&#8221;
The DOJ noted that the decision to extradite him to Iraq will ultimately be made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The DOJ statement did not mention when or how Ahmed entered the United States.
In other terrorism-related news, The New York Times reported on Friday that the United States took out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-out-another-top-terrorist-in-the-middle-east">another top terrorist</a> in the Middle East.
“The officials expressed confidence that the Qaeda leader, Qassim al-Rimi, was killed in a January airstrike in Yemen but were awaiting confirmation before making a public announcement,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/middleeast/qaeda-yemen-alrimi.html">reported</a>. “If confirmed, his death could represent a significant blow to the Qaeda affiliate, which remains one of the most potent branches of the terrorist group. The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has tried to attack the United States and Europe and is thought to still want to.”
The Times stated that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) appears to have been the entity responsible for taking out al-Rimi as military officials said that they were not aware of any strikes.
Also on Friday, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/omar-promotes-makes-false-claims-about-new-countries-added-to-travel-ban-list">announced</a> that it added six new countries to the travel ban list due to those countries not meeting certain requirements that allow officials to screen individuals who from those countries.
In a statement, DHS outlined why the six countries were added to the list:
<blockquote>Burma: Burma has begun to engage with the United States on a variety of identity-management and information-sharing issues, but it does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Eritrea: Eritrea does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Nigeria: Nigeria does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Sudan: Sudan generally does not comply with our identity management performance metrics and presents a high risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States.
Suspension of entry for Diversity Immigrants, as described in section 203(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1153(c).
Tanzania: Tanzania does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Diversity Immigrants, as described in section 203(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1153(c).</blockquote>
Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf said, “The top responsibility of the President and the Department of Homeland Security is the safety and security of the American people, and these new vetting criteria accomplish that goal and are raising the bar for global security. It is logical and essential to thoroughly screen and vet everyone seeking to travel or immigrate to the United States. However, there are some countries from whom the U.S. does not receive the necessary information about its travelers and, as a result, pose a national security or public safety risk that warrants tailored travel restrictions.”
Wolf continued, “DHS has refined its robust security standards, including enhanced screening and vetting capabilities, that allow us to better identify terrorists and criminals attempting to enter the United States. These screening and vetting capabilities are most effective when foreign governments contribute to our ability to verify a traveler’s identity and assess whether they pose a national security or public safety risk. For a small number of countries that lack either the will or the capability to adhere to these criteria, certain travel restrictions have become necessary to mitigate potential threats. The new, additional restrictions are not blanket restrictions. These tailored restrictions will make the U.S. safer and more secure. And countries that make the necessary improvements will have their restrictions removed accordingly, as was done in 2018.”

SYRIA-CONFLICT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-GAZA-RALLY

Alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist Leader Arrested In Phoenix On Murder Charges

President Donald Trump appears to have added another name to the list of terrorists that his administration has killed as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly launched a drone strike that killed the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
&#8220;The officials expressed confidence that the Qaeda leader, Qassim al-Rimi, was killed in a January airstrike in Yemen but were awaiting confirmation before making a public announcement,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/middleeast/qaeda-yemen-alrimi.html">reported</a>. &#8220;If confirmed, his death could represent a significant blow to the Qaeda affiliate, which remains one of the most potent branches of the terrorist group. The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has tried to attack the United States and Europe and is thought to still want to.&#8221;
The Times reported the CIA learned about al-Rimi’s location in November from an informant in Yemen and then started to track him using drones and other technology.
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Times: “He was an Al Qaeda veteran whose career started in the camps in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. After he was busted out of prison, he was part of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s relaunch management team, becoming their military commander.”
The news comes after a Trump-authorized drone strike killed Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), in early January.
In October, Trump authorized a raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria which resulted in al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death when he detonated a suicide vest as he was running from U.S. forces.
The day after al-Baghdadi was killed, U.S. forces conducted another attack that resulted in the death of al-Baghdadi&#8217;s likely successor, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, when an airstrike took him out as he was being &#8220;smuggled across northern Syria in the back of an oil tanker truck,&#8221; the Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/world/middleeast/al-baghdadi-successor-reported-killed.html">reported</a>.
Another terrorist that the Trump administration took care of was Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, who had repeatedly threatened to attack the U.S. and who was believed to be in line to taking over Al Qaeda.
&#8220;Details of the strike that killed him were scarce, including when and where,&#8221; The Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/us/politics/hamza-bin-laden-al-qaeda.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The United States government played a role in the operation, but it was not clear how, according to the officials, who discussed his death on the condition of anonymity because it involved sensitive operations and intelligence gathering. Mr. bin Laden was killed sometime during the first two years of the Trump administration, officials said.&#8221;
Not quite making the list was Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds Force, who the Trump administration attempted to take out with a drone strike on the same day that they took out Soleimani.
“The disclosure of a second mission indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to target a larger set of Iranian military and paramilitary leaders than was previously known,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/world/middleeast/trump-iran-yemen.html">reported</a>. “The unsuccessful airstrike in Yemen was aimed at Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds Force, a potent paramilitary organization. He was known as a key financier for Iran’s proxy wars.”
The Washington Post reported that the details surrounding the plan remained “highly classified” and suggested that Shahlai could be re-targeted again in the future.
“Another senior official said the two strikes were authorized around the same time and that the United States did not disclose the Shahlai mission because it did not go according to plan,” the Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/on-the-day-us-forces-killed-soleimani-they-launched-another-secret-operation-targeting-a-senior-iranian-official-in-yemen/2020/01/10/60f86dbc-3245-11ea-898f-eb846b7e9feb_story.html">reported</a>. “The official said Shahlai may be targeted in the future, though both countries have signaled an interest in de-escalating the crisis.”
Refresh the page for updates.

President Trump And First Lady Melania Depart White House For Florida

Trump Takes Out Another Top Terrorist In The Middle East

Donald Trump

Middle East

Qassim al-Rimi

In its latest annual <a href="http://www.islamophobia.org/reports/228-2018-civil-rights-report-bias-incident-data.html">hate crimes report</a>, the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/profiles/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a> (CAIR) vilified U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials as the nation’s greatest perpetrators of anti-Muslim discrimination. So, when as many as 60 Iranian and Iranian-American travelers were delayed for hours earlier this month at the U.S.-Canada border, CAIR was quick to accuse the federal agency of living up to its purported reputation. Has the U.S. government decided to make life difficult for Iranians living in America, as CAIR contends? Or are the nonprofit’s actions part of an enduring campaign to subvert U.S. border security?
In response to a January 2 air strike which <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/opinion/soleimani-iran-tom-cotton.amp.html">killed</a> Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/ntas/alerts/20_0104_ntas_bulletin.pdf">published</a> a bulletin warning that Hezbollah and other Iranian loyalists could carry out homeland-based plots by targeting “critical infrastructure.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the national guard to protect public transportation, while <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-03/us-cities-on-alert-after-killing-of-iran-leader-qassem-suleiman">government officials</a> in California, Washington, and Massachusetts ordered increased police patrols or warned citizens to remain extra vigilant.
Meanwhile, the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington became congested on January 4 after as many as 60 Iranian natives were allegedly selected for additional screening and detained, in some cases, for several hours. The travelers, who were returning from a pop concert in Vancouver, put a <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article238985213.html">strain</a> on CBP resources as customs agents struggled to keep up with the sudden increase in cross-border traffic. However, CAIR officials explicitly alleged that delays and mistreatment were premised solely on national heritage.
Soon after, CAIR’s Washington chapter issued a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-wa-assisting-iranian-americans-detained-at-us-border-300981286.html">press release</a> accusing CBP officials of treating Iranians and Iranian-Americans to prolonged interrogations at the U.S.–Canada border. “A source at CBP reported that the [DHS] has issued a national order to CBP to ‘report’ and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the country who is deemed potentially suspicious or ‘adversarial,’ regardless of citizenship status,” CAIR wrote.
CBP <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/us-border-protection-denies-reports-that-iranian-americans-were-detained-at-washington-canada-border/281-e276b43b-21a1-46d3-8de7-f1e700b0016a">rejected</a> these allegations. &#8220;Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” said CBP spokesperson Michael Friel.
So far, CAIR has failed to produce any evidence supporting its discrimination claims. Instead, the nonprofit denigrated CBP personnel based on the testimony of frustrated tourists who experienced delays while crossing an international border during a period of heightened geopolitical tension.
What can’t be known about the recent cross-border controversy, because it falls beyond the public purview, is whether there was specific intelligence from the Terrorist Screening Center that indicated a need to conduct a more robust screening operation at the Peace Arch crossing. It is telling that <a href="https://www.thenorthernlight.com/stories/order-to-detain-iranian-american-travelers-likely-originated-in-blaine-say-lawyers,9173">no other enhanced security measures</a> were enforced at other U.S. entry points around the same time.
Even public knowledge of the threats posed by Shi’ite Islamism suggests that it was credible national security risks, and not uninformed profiling, that guided CBP’s actions. The agency must contend with Hezbollah’s elite external operations unit, known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), whose members have been <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">trained</a> to &#8220;maintain ostensibly normal lives” until they are activated to serve the Iranian regime&#8217;s interests.
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">FBI reports</a> indicate that Canada serves as a staging area for future homeland attacks. Ali Kourani, a Hezbollah sleeper agent <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hizballah-operative-sentenced-40-years-prison-covert-terrorist-activities-behalf-hizballah-s">convicted</a> in 2019 of planning attacks in the U.S., <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">told </a>FBI agents that IJO is “even more active in Canada than they were in the United States.” Kourani’s Iranian handlers discussed the strategic advantages of cultivating familial ties to Canada, so that “it wouldn’t appear suspicious or odd if he were to make travel to Canada with some regularity or frequency.”
Iran is a country that is regularly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-state-department-iran-remains-world-s-worst-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-/30248755.html">cited</a> as a state sponsor of terrorism, with a track <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">record</a> of penetrating U.S. borders. For instance, between 1995 and 2000, Lebanese immigrant Mohammed Youssef Hammoud oversaw a vast “<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/mohamad-youssef-hammoud-sentenced-30-years-terrorism-financing-case">criminal enterprise</a>” in Charlotte, North Carolina, which accumulated millions of dollars in capital intended for Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
In 2011, Soleimani’s Quds Force was implicated in a clandestine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">plot</a> to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and bomb the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. Then there is Alexei Saab, a New Jersey resident charged in September with a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-new-jersey-man-terrorist-activities-behalf">nine-count indictment</a> for surveilling targets on behalf of IJO, probing for “soft spots” throughout New York City.
CAIR’s position on screening for terrorists, however, has been to <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">undermine</a> the process wherever possible. Indeed, the organization exerts a great deal of <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-asks-federal-court-in-mich-to-prohibit-fbi-border-agents-from-interrogating-muslim-travelers-about-religious-beliefs-and-practices-300858541.html">effort</a> challenging the government’s immigration and border security policies.
In September, CAIR proclaimed “complete victory” in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">lawsuit</a> that challenged the constitutionality of the <a href="https://apnews.com/f8abc66af1a64cc7a5f4fba0420cfc54">terrorist watch list</a>, a security protocol that subjects implicated airline passengers and border transients to additional screening. (Fewer than 0.5% of watch list suspects are U.S. citizens or legal residents.) For more than a year, CAIR filed lawsuits and amicus briefs that <a href="https://www.cair.com/fighting_the_unconstitutional_muslim_ban">stalled</a> Trump administration efforts to implement a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">travel ban</a> affecting visitors from select high-risk countries
CAIR has even directed Muslim Americans who are detained by customs officials to <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wtsp.com/amp/article/news/politics/muslim-rights-groups-urge-passengers-to-refuse-secondary-questioning/67-395025140">obstruct</a> the screening process whenever possible, perhaps explaining the delays experienced at the Peace Arch Border Crossing. “Whether you wait an hour or four hours, remain silent until they let you out,” advised CAIR-Florida executive director Hassan Shibly.
National-level law enforcement efforts must be led by consulting relevant intelligence <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/law-enforcement-guard-iran-retaliation-u-s-after-commander-killed-n1109826">sources</a>. Given the geopolitical context, the enhanced security posture at the U.S.-Canada border can be attributed to due diligence, and not some nefarious desire to pester Iranian-Americans. Yet, CAIR is far too eager to paint American security personnel as aggressors. CBP was merely taking reasonable precautions in the face of escalating hostility from a rogue nation that has spent decades building powerful Islamist infrastructure across North America.
&nbsp;
David Firester is a writer for Islamism in Politics, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>. He is the founder and CEO of TRAC Intelligence, LLC, an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College, and a former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst.

Border Wall As House Investigates $400 Million Contract

FIRESTER: CAIR’s Fight To Undermine U.S. Border Security Continues

Border Wall

CAIR

Canada

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Iran

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Muslim Immigration

Muslims

National Security

On Tuesday, testifying before a military commission prepared to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM), the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks which killed roughly 3,000 Americans, James Mitchell, the psychologist who supervised the CIA’s interrogation program after September 11 and has been attacked because some of those techniques included waterboarding, defiantly told the commission, “Let me tell you, just so you know: if it were today, I would do it again.”
Mitchell and another psychologist, John “Bruce” Jessen, helped create the interrogation techniques used on the terrorists. Mitchell stated, “I thought of my moral obligation to protect American lives against the temporary discomfort of terrorists who took up arms against America. I decided I would just live with it.”
As the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-21/ksm-guantanamo-911-psychologist">Los Angeles Times</a> noted, “The five men — Mohammed and his nephew, Ammar Baluchi, along with Ramzi bin Shibh, Mustafa Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash — are accused of conspiring to murder almost 3,000 people. They were all captured in either 2002 or 2003 and have been in American custody since.&#8221;
James G. Connell III, lead defense attorney for Baluchi, thanked Mitchell for coming to court. Mitchell fired back, “I actually did it for the victims and families, not for you.” He later stated, “You folks have been saying untrue and malicious things about me and Dr. Jessen for years, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I don’t want to spend a lot of time with you.”
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8491509/Osama-bin-Laden-killed-CIA-admits-waterboarding-yielded-vital-information.html">The Telegraph</a> reported in 2011, &#8220;American officials have said that one of the crucial clues that led to bin Laden was a piece of information about an al-Qaeda courier that came from September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or from the so-called 20th hijacker, Mohammad al-Qahtani.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Isiw2doiA">Speaking</a> in a powerful interview with AEI fellow Marc Thiessen in 2016, Mitchell said of KSM, “In the beginning he was like the devil; he was belligerent; he was hostile; he was angry; then after EITs (enhanced interrogation techniques) and we drifted into debriefings, he became charming and more cordial. You know, evil doesn’t always look evil; it’s most powerful when it can get inside your defenses, and KSM is one of those guys, when he turns on the charm, he’s extremely good at it.&#8221;
Mitchell continued, “Interrogation for the CIA was when you were questioning somebody who was actively trying to resist providing you with the information. They’re trying to hide their secrets and wouldn’t engage with the question. So in those particular cases, the enhanced interrogation techniques would be used normally only for a couple of weeks. Usually within about 72 hours, people were beginning to try to find ways to cooperate. When they started to find ways to cooperate, we moved as quickly as we could into debriefing.”
Mitchell explained that the so-called “fireside chats” following the debriefing sometimes yielded information because the individual felt that the official debriefing was over and would relax and talk more freely. Mitchell spoke of how KSM later gave classes to CIA members on various subjects related to terrorism, such as how they got their funding, etc. Mitchell said KSM would say afterward, “Now you should be on the FBI’s most wanted list because you’ve been trained by KSM.”
Mitchell said other individuals spent time playing basketball or other pursuits, but KSM liked to pontificate. Speaking of how KSM could turn on the charm, he said, “It was like Yoda. It was like talking to Yoda. Except that Yoda could sometimes be the devil.”
Mitchell recalled Jessen saying to KSM, “You know I noticed at times that it looked like you wanted to say something, like you had more to say, but then you backed away from it.” Mitchell continued, “KSM looked at me, you know, like I was his errand boy, he looked at me and he said, ‘Go get that lady who takes the notes,’ even though she was the WMD expert and a phenomenal analyst, remember, he’s a terrorist who basically didn’t like women; didn’t really like talking to them. And he said, ‘Go get that lady who takes the notes,’ and then when she came back with me, he described beheading and dismembering Daniel Pearl.”
Mitchell continued, “I did tear up, of course, I tear up a lot; I cry at dog food commercials, but he talked about cutting his throat and dismembering him, and one of us, I can’t remember which one of us it was, said, ‘Was that difficult for you?’ because we found it reprehensible, and he said, ‘Oh, no. I had lots of sharp knives, and I had to keep sharpening them; the only difficult thing was cutting through the neck bone.’ Just that casually. And then he went on to describe, like I said, how he’d dismembered him and buried him in a hole because the ground was too frozen. It was horrible.”
Mitchell recalled that the CIA went back to confirm KSM had actually been the one who beheaded Pearl, and when he was told that it had been confirmed, he said, “Yes. I cut his head off with these blessed hands.” Mitchell said, “And he was mugging for the camera.”
&nbsp;

James Mitchell

Psychologist Who Waterboarded Alleged Mastermind Of 9/11 Attacks: ‘I Would Do It Again’

Christians in Nigeria were violently assaulted by radical Muslims in the small village of Kulben, located in the central area of the country&#8217;s Plateau state Mangu County. At least thirteen civilians were murdered and three more were injured in the attack.
Nigerian outlet <a href="https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/01/09/herdsmen-in-another-massacre-in-kulben-village/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PM News</a> reports that the Plateau Police Command confirmed the January 8 attack was suspected to be the work of armed members of the Muslim Fulani herdsmen extremist group, who have used violence in the past to suppress Christian communities in the African nation. 
Police Public Relations Officer DSP Terna Tyopev explained, “In the early hours of today, we received a distress call that gunmen, suspected to be herdsmen, attacked Kulben community of Kombun District of Mangu.”
“Immediately we received the information, the commissioner in charge of the command, Mr. Isaac Akinmoyede, directed the DCP in charge of Operations, Mr. Aliyu Tafida to mobilize to the scene,” he continued. “As I speak, our team of detectives and other officers are in the scene of the crime to prevent further attacks.”
Local resident Michael Mutding described the assault in a text message to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2020/01/muslim-fulani-herdsmen-kill-13-christians-wound-three-in-central-nigeria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Morning Star News</a>. 
“They were shooting with guns in all directions, forcing the villagers to scamper into surrounding bushes,” he said. “Corpses of those killed have been evacuated by soldiers and police to the mortuary of Mangu Cottage Hospital; and all the victims are members of COCIN.”
According to <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/again-gunmen-kill-13-persons-in-fresh-plateau-attack/">The Guardian</a>, an eyewitness claims that the attack was in retaliation to villagers stopping the heavily armed herdsmen from cattle rustling outside the village of Kerang. 
“It was a tough battle between the youths and the rustlers. At the end, three of them were arrested and some of the cows recovered. The cows and the suspects were handed over to the Police in Kerang,” the eyewitness said. 
The deadly attack prompted swift responses from Nigerian lawmakers. 
Local representative Bala Fwengje said in a statement, “This attack on my people by these herdsmen comes as a rude shock to us, as efforts have been made by security agencies to curtail such incessant attacks on our people.” He added, “It is a sad thing that these attacks are still being carried out by the herdsmen on our people without provocation.”
Plateau state Gov. Simon Bako Lalong echoed those sentiments. “We have toiled to ensure that peace returns to Plateau state, and we will not allow anyone to make nonsense of our efforts,” he said vowing to arrest the suspects. “We are determined to deal decisively and firmly with anybody found culpable in attacking or inciting people to carry out attacks against one another.”
Tyopev confirmed that no arrests have been made. “No arrest is yet to be made, but we are doing everything possible to ensure the criminals are arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Local Christian leader Audu Tetmut told Morning Star News that the attack was a surprise, since the village has had no prior discernible tension with the radical group. 
“Our community had lived peacefully with the herdsmen without any issues of dispute with them,” he said. “So we are surprised that they attacked us.”
Radical Muslims have engaged in a campaign to force the growing Christian community out of Nigeria. In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-radical-muslims-suspected-may-attacks-jacob-airey">May 2019</a>, the Fulani herdsmen were suspected in an attack near the city Jos that took thirty civilian lives. This assault was on the heels of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/muslim-extremists-murder-over-30-nigerian-jacob-airey">March 2019</a> attack in Maro where over two dozen were killed. 
The aid group Mercy Corps told the <a href="https://www.gulf-times.com/story/652919/Gunmen-kill-12-in-central-Nigeria-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gulf Times</a> that the extremists’ attacks on villages and farmers have, &#8220;contributed to more than 7,000 deaths in the past five years.”

NIGERIA-UNREST-FULANI

Radical Muslims Kill Thirteen Nigerian Christians

Africa

Christianity

Crime

Islam

Persecution

Radical Islam

Progressives, never known for their sense of epistemological humility, are often fond of boasting that it is they — and only they — who are on the &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that American progressives, going back at least as far as the depths of the Cold War, have evinced a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">most peculiar obsequiousness</a> toward America&#8217;s totalitarian geopolitical foes.
President Barack Obama, the braggart who taunted then-House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) a mere three days after his first inauguration with, &#8220;<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/08/13/too_bad_obama_didnt_follow_his_own_advice_123650.html">I won</a>,&#8221; was very fond of gloating how it was he — and not his partisan opposition — who was on the &#8220;<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/69855/right-side-history-according-president-obama">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that Barack Obama, who oversaw a most rancid realignment in the Middle East in favor of the world&#8217;s number one state sponsor of jihad, kowtowed to that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">terrorist regime</a> to the tune of $100–150 billion in funding and $1.7 billion in <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-iran-payment-cash-20160907-snap-story.html">cold, hard pallets of cash</a>.
Because nothing apparently says &#8220;progressive&#8221; like a regime that funds murderous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">terrorist proxies</a> the <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/houthis/">world over</a>, brazenly attempts targeted assassinations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/08/iran-behind-two-assassinations-in-netherlands-minister">all</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/02/france-blames-iran-for-foiled-bomb-attack-near-paris">throughout</a> the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/justice/iran-saudi-plot/index.html">West</a>, publicly <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-publicly-hangs-man-on-homosexuality-charges-578758">hangs homosexuals</a> simply because they are homosexuals, and has been found <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/iran-told-to-pay-10-5-billion-to-sept-11-kin-insurers">liable by a U.S. federal judge</a> for billions of dollars in damages owed to the families of those killed on 9/11.
In a sane world, Barack Obama and his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html">failed novelist</a>-centric <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-24/the-secret-history-of-the-iran-deal-echo-chamber">&#8220;echo chamber&#8221;</a> of pro-ayatollah sycophants would be apologizing today to both the American people and the Iranian people. Obama will never actually do so, of course; how very un-&#8220;progressive&#8221; it would be to humbly concede the retrospective error of one&#8217;s ways. As Dennis Prager once <a href="https://www.dennisprager.com/being-on-the-left-means-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry-part-230/">quipped</a>, perhaps the nicest part of being on the Left is never having to say you&#8217;re sorry.
Instead, it is Donald Trump, recent author of the <a href="https://twitter.com/SGhasseminejad/status/1216131659986325504">most liked tweet</a> in the history of the Farsi language, who has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">boldly defended</a> American interests against the Iranian mullocracy and stood in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216356280933273600">lockstep solidarity</a> with the repressed Persians <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-protesters-refuse-to-walk-on-u-s-israel-flags-attack-soleimani-posters">bravely protesting in the streets</a> against their Islamic Revolutionary overlords. The mullahs are once again shooting some of their very own in the streets, but the president of the United States has made it exceedingly clear that the eyes of the world are watching. By <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/03/trumps-strike-on-soleimani-is-about-america-first-not-reckless-interventionism/">knifing the Qassem Soleimani jugular</a>, prudently declaring victory and <a href="https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1216363363510386688">cutting bait</a> at exact right time, and offering moral and rhetorical succor to a subjugated populace, Trump has led by example every step of the way through this most recent flare-up of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-unyielding-iranian-menace">unceasing</a> post-Islamic Revolution <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-dispatch-of-soleimani-and-the-escalation-of-the-war">tumor</a>.
Every step of the way.
It is Donald Trump, and not Barack Obama, who is on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; on the issue of Iran.
You would never know that from our media elites — nor from the other sheltered denizens of our bicoastal <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ruling-Class-Corrupted-America-About/dp/0825305586">ruling class</a> clerisy who barely conceal their dripping disdain for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">rubes and yokels</a> of flyover country. Really, hold aside for a moment the oh-so-predictable pro-Iran apologia of moral midgets like Rep. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-crippling-sanctions-starve-iran-bds-movement-israel-economic-warfare-measured-response">Ilhan Omar</a> (D-MN). It is our media vanguard, who on cable television and the nation&#8217;s leading broadsheets alike so often take the form — by sheer happenstance, we are assured! — of <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/01/10/the-obama-administrations-guerrilla-war/">Obama administration alumni</a>, that have parroted ludicrous <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dan-gainor-anti-trump-media-attack-him-for-killing-of-soleimani-blame-him-for-iran-shooting-down-plane">Iranian regime talking points</a> in a depraved attempt to deny the dreaded orange man of anything that might be viewed as a political &#8220;victory.&#8221;
Cold War-era Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) may have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-and-iran-11578262553">once said</a> that &#8220;politics stops at the water&#8217;s edge,&#8221; but for today&#8217;s debased media and political Left (I repeat myself), the mantra might as well be &#8220;shilling for a uniquely evil jihadist regime to own the cons.&#8221;
Thankfully, the Iranian people — who, above all else, are the victims of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — need not care about the American media&#8217;s temper tantrums and self-immolations; Trump&#8217;s Twitter allows him to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-trump-tweets-for-liberty-in-iran">easily speak directly</a> to the American people. The Iranian people need not care about the armchair quarterbacking of those who would question the wisdom of the Soleimani strike. The Iranian people need not care about those who would haphazardly yell &#8220;warmonger!&#8221; at a president who has arguably been the most militarily restrained commander-in-chief since Jimmy Carter. And the Iranian people need not care about an idolatrous political Left that, along with abortion and global warming, has found an additional pagan sacrament in the thuggish Iranian regime.
What the Iranian people quite clearly do care for is Donald Trump&#8217;s Iran policy. The Iranian people, unlike Obama&#8217;s &#8220;echo chamber&#8221; and the leftist/media alliance that has fought so diligently to defend its rotten legacy, know what it means for an American statesman to be on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; when it comes to their country. Barack Obama and his henchmen will never apologize for their sins, but the history books they seem to care so much about will note how it was his successor who righted his own wrongs on Iran.

John Kerry with Javad Zarif

HAMMER: On Iran, Trump Shows Obama The Real ‘Right Side Of History’

Barack Obama

Foreign Policy

Nuclear Weapons

Qassem Soleimani

Asia Siddiqui, a 35-year-old woman who was arrested on terrorism-related charges in 2015, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison following a trial in New York City.
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/73efbf179942949cdd1638b7408762da">Associated Press</a>, Siddiqui was “studying how to make bombs for a terrorist attack that prosecutors said would have targeted” U.S. law enforcement officers. Prosecutors also said that Siddiqui “followed and expressed a violent, warped version of Islam which, in their view,&#8221; demanded that she and her co-defendent, Noelle Velentzas, “teach each other and learn how to build a bomb.”
According to the <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/asia-siddiqui">Counter Extremism Project</a>, Siddiqui was born in Saudi Arabia and holds dual U.S. citizenship.
Richard Donoghue, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release that “lives were saved when the defendants’ plot to detonate a bomb in a terrorist attack was thwarted by the tireless efforts of law enforcement,” reports the news agency. “This is precisely the reason why countering terrorism remains the highest priority of the Department of Justice.”
Defense lawyers claim that Siddiqui “would have required the expertise of the fictional MacGuyver” to build a bomb with the materials she had in her basement. Furthermore, they say, the idea that “she was going to independently build her own explosive device is equally fictional.”
Following the 2015 arrest of Siddiqui and Velentzas, the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/wannabe-terrorists-weighed-attack-nypd-funeral-complaint-article-1.2171174">New York Daily News</a> reported that the terrorist duo had considered bombing a funeral for police officers, and expressed to an undercover officer how easy murdering a police officer would be.
<blockquote>Homegrown terrorists Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, were self-proclaimed &#8220;bad bitches&#8221; hoping to &#8220;make history&#8221; with a massive blast and body count from a police funeral or some other major public event, authorities charged Thursday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s war,&#8221; Velentzas, who declared herself an Islamic State citizen, said in a tape-recorded August conversation. &#8220;It&#8217;s f&#8212;ing war.&#8221;
Velentzas, in another of many chats recorded by an undercover investigator, declared that killing a cop was actually easier than grocery shopping.
&#8220;Sometimes one has to wait in line to buy food,&#8221; she was quoted as coolly telling the undercover last December after the executions of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
The Ramos funeral, which drew 20,000 law enforcement mourners, sparked speculation between the two accused women and the undercover about bombing a subsequent funeral.</blockquote>
A <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/04/02/velentzas-siddiqui-complaint.pdf">criminal complaint</a> filed against Siddiqui and Velentzas in 2015 reveals that Siddiqui also had a soft spot for jihadist literature and poetry, and in 2009 submitted a poem to “Jihad Recollections,” a terrorist magazine. According to the complaint, the poem “calls for its readers to engage in violent jihad and to destroy enemies of Islam.” In a conversation with an undercover officer, Siddiqui also referenced an article she wrote that “referred to having written the poem.”
The New York Daily News previously published an excerpt of the poem, revealing lines that read: “Some of us are born soldiers, battle runs through our blood,” “Hit cloud nine with the smell of turpentine, nations wiped clean of filthy shrines,” and “taste the Truth through fists and slit throats.” The excerpt of the poem concludes as follows: “What can my enemies do to me if Allah has promised me success.”
Velentzas is scheduled for sentencing on March 3, 2020.

Funeral Held For NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen Shot In Friendly Fire Incident While Apprehending Suspect In Bronx

Jihadist Poet Who Considered Bombing NYPD Funeral Sentenced To Prison

On Tuesday, members of Iran’s parliament, chanting “Death to America,” passed a bill designating all U.S. forces as “terrorists.” Those forces included all U.S. forces and employees of the Pentagon and affiliated organizations, agents and commanders, as <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7859915/Iran-designate-forces-Pentagon-employees-TERRORISTS.html">The Daily Mail</a> reported.
The Parliament stated, “Any aid to these forces, including military, intelligence, financial, technical, service or logistical, will be considered as co-operation in a terrorist act.” In addition, the legislators allotted over $220 million to the Quds Force of the Iranian military.
Iran&#8217;s chief of police Hossein Ashtari called the United States a “state sponsor of terrorists.”
The Fars News Agency <a href="https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13981017000292">reported</a>, “During the session, a bill previously ratified on April 23, 2019, that designated the US Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization in retaliation for the designation of the IRGC by the US administration as a terrorist entity was corrected and ‘all members of the Pentagon, the affiliated companies and institutes and commanders and those who ordered for the assassination of Lieutenant General martyr Hajj Qassem Soleimani’ were added to the terrorist list.”
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irans-news-parliment-approves-bill-designating-u-s-military-terrorist-organizations-qassem-soleimani/">CBS News</a> reported, “A senior U.S. official told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct attack on American interests in retaliation for the airstrike that killed Soleimani, his top military commander and friend.”
A spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades. Mohammed Mohyee, <a href="https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13981017001117">said</a> that Hezbollah is waiting to see what Iran will do before they decide how to respond to the airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, calling the airstrike “U.S. folly” and stating, &#8220;We are waiting for Iran&#8217;s response to the US folly and after that we will decide about the type and volume of our response.”
Last April, President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-designation-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-foreign-terrorist-organization/">declared</a> Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its Qods Force, a terrorist entity, stating:
<blockquote>I am formally announcing my Administration’s plan to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.  The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.
This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as a FTO.  It underscores the fact that Iran’s actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments.  This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime.  It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC.  If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.
This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences.  We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.</blockquote>

Ayatollah Yazdi elected Assembly of Experts chairman

Iran’s Parliament Names All U.S. Forces ‘Terrorists’

U.S. Army

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who was infamously the sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against Congress&#8217;s post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which precipitated the Afghanistan invasion, has now taken to spreading outright fake news.
Yesterday, Lee took to Twitter to spread baseless and unconfirmed innuendo that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is now involved in the detention of Iranian-American U.S. citizens. &#8220;People of Iranian descent — including American citizens &amp; green card holders — are reportedly being detained by CBP officials,&#8221; Lee tweeted. &#8220;We can’t let this stand.&#8221; She continued, urging conscientious citizens all over the land to contact her district office: &#8220;If you or someone you know has been targeted or detained by CBP officials, please contact my district office at 510-763-0370.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
People of Iranian descent — including American citizens &amp; green card holders — are reportedly being detained by CBP officials. We can’t let this stand. 
If you or someone you know has been targeted or detained by CBP officials, please contact my district office at 510-763-0370.
&mdash; Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepBarbaraLee/status/1213944364575031296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Less than 30 minutes after Lee&#8217;s misleading spreading of fake news, CBP itself responded. &#8220;Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false,&#8221; the agency tweeted. &#8220;Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false.
&mdash; CBP (@CBP) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1213951246463328256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Congresswoman Lee was not the only prominent leftist to spread this fake news, as the Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/05/customs-border-iran-detain-order">reported</a>. Other offenders included Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who tweeted on Sunday: &#8220;Deeply disturbed by reports that Iranian Americans, including U.S. citizens, are being detained at the Canadian border with WA State.&#8221; She continued, similarly urging conscientious citizens to contact her office: &#8220;My office has been working on this all morning. Please contact us with information on directly affected people at WA07PJ_casework@mail.house.gov.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Deeply disturbed by reports that Iranian Americans, including U.S. citizens, are being detained at the Canadian border with WA State.
My office has been working on this all morning. Please contact us with information on directly affected people at WA07PJ_casework@mail.house.gov.
&mdash; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1213896795409059840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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As <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/border-patrol-denies-reports-by-democrats-that-iranian-americans-were-being-detained">noted</a> by the Washington Examiner, part of the fear-mongering began via the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was infamously an <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/1854/doj-cairs-unindicted-co-conspirator-status-legit">unindicted co-conspirator</a> in the largest terror finance trial in the history of the Department of Justice. CAIR had issued an <a href="https://www.cair.com/breaking_cair_wa_assisting_iranian_americans_detained_u_s_border">alarmist post</a> earlier on Sunday entitled, &#8220;BREAKING: CAIR-WA Assisting Iranian-Americans Detained at U.S. Border.&#8221;
Lee, keeping with her longtime status as an ardent foreign policy dove, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of escalating military tension with the Islamic Republic of Iran. As <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/476862-omar-lee-introduce-house-resolution-directing-trump-to-pull-us-troops-back">reported</a> by The Hill, Lee is teaming up with none other than Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to draft a congressional resolution that would prevent U.S. military action against Iran that is not expressly authorized by Congress:
<blockquote>
The resolution released by the two lawmakers would explicitly tie any military action against Iran to a congressional vote, though the U.S. would not be prevented from responding to an Iranian attack.
&#8220;We in Congress must exercise our Constitutional duty—and do everything in our power to stop another disastrous war,&#8221; Omar said in a statement. &#8220;Following the assassination [of Gen. Qassem Soleimani,] thousands of additional troops were sent to the Middle East in one of the largest rapid deployments seen in decades. This follows years of saber-rattling and threats of war against Iran by President Trump and his accomplices.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s past time for Congress to reassert our Constitutional authority and return to diplomacy with Iran and our allies,&#8221; added Lee, the sole member of Congress to vote against war in Afghanistan in 2001.
</blockquote>

Barbara Lee Women&#8217;s March

Democrat Barbara Lee Spreads False Information About DHS Going After Iranian-Americans

Department of Homeland Security

Surveillance

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

The January 2 death of Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, has prompted consternation from some press and policymakers. Killed in Baghdad by a U.S. drone strike, Soelimani was <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpilSf6fYHToY3HKxO7dBDmtZp5g">described</a> by The Washington Post as a “revered military leader” and by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as a mere “<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF5c-YWQiOrhhfuX94tA4Xym2dK6w">foreign official</a>.”
In fact, he was an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/raphael-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-is-a-modern-day-nazi-ss">arch-terrorist</a> responsible for the murders of thousands of people — including hundreds of American servicemen and women, many of who were murdered and maimed by Iranian-created explosive devices.
Pundits and reporters alike have claimed that Soleimani’s death has led to Iran threatening the U.S. But they have it backwards. Tehran has been threatening the U.S. for years — a fact the media have often ignored or obfuscated.
Indeed, in the days prior to his death, Soleimani and the Shiite militias under his command had <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMa9PkrZSmYC2xW8fYZ1vNbQ9jUQ">murdered</a> an American contractor and attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Iranian belligerence long predates the Trump administration.
Ever since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently called for “death to America.” <a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEEZcg3ZcJ_BHvO4a6GXbjKkZW9QA">Anti-Americanism</a>, like anti-Semitism and imperialism, is a core tenet of the regime’s Islamist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TAPs_r81AqQC&amp;q=ideology#v=snippet&amp;q=ideology&amp;f=false" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DTAPs_r81AqQC%26q%3Dideology%23v%3Dsnippet%26q%3Dideology%26f%3Dfalse&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFH0wn8HiHGON8co_qZTpuMYlgB5g">ideology</a>. For four decades, Iran has sought to make good on its threats, kidnapping and <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF0l1yNTe6i7IbJDBOyLddUXtGEuA">torturing</a> Americans, bankrolling terrorist groups — Sunni and Shiite <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGU6Zm_QmKHPkTTArPeNB3gCvB7Cg">alike</a> — that attack Americans, and murdering <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHx1UBKlC8CMU6EHLKorW4JQceemA">our troops</a>.
Yet Western media have frequently minimized Iran’s open hostility. In December 2015, for example, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhsPzIt_VMhKvJstZpG-Q8vfPvCg">noted</a> that “powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias” had “threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq in response to U.S. legislation” granting Kurdish forces the means to defend themselves from ISIS. Most major U.S. news outlets <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHTc8EeHpMz_Vr-OyEIX9PwyMANtw">ignored</a> Iran’s gangster-like behavior.
Similarly, on November 26, 2016, an Iranian ship threatened a U.S. military helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident was profiled in a brief Reuters report at the time that noted that “a small Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard vessel pointed its weapon” at a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter. However, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other prominent newspapers <a href="https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0_4WHsusjl8wTHte1QcPg22dz-A">failed</a> to cover it.
In 2014 and 2015 — while the Obama administration was engaged in negotiations with Iran over its illicit nuclear weapons program — the regime was ramping up its cyber war. As one New York Times report <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r=0" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r%3D0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFp2L3zAElm6sm6U5J29ebbrNo5Lw">detailed</a>, American officials and private security groups “say they see a surge in sophisticated computer espionage by Iran, culminating in a series of cyber attacks against State Department officials.” The attacks, the Times admitted, were “nothing new, having begun in the latter years of the Bush administration and proceeded since then to target U.S. agencies, banks and citizens.” The report pointed out that Iranian cyber attacks transitioned in 2014 from attempting to disrupt, degrade, and destroy targets to “spear phishing for espionage.”
“Beginning in May 2014,” the report said, “researchers found evidence that Iranian hackers were targeting Iranian dissidents, and later policymakers, senior military personnel and defense contractors in the United States, England, and Israel.”
Perhaps most alarmingly, Iranian terrorists have sleeper cells in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — a fact that many in the press have overlooked. On April 17, 2018, several intelligence officials told Congress that Iranian agents tied to the terror group Hezbollah had been discovered. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based terrorist organization completely <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjhvF0zS7Zt41jYdK4uzRmtUqDKA">funded and controlled</a> by Tehran. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by al-Qaeda, Hezbollah had murdered more Americans than any other terrorist entity.
Although the majority of analysts testified that Iranian proxies like Hezbollah pose a threat to the U.S. homeland, many news outlets failed to report their testimony, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQAjDE6ZIZXfOysiC3aF94CQ8Paw">noted</a> at the time.
U.S. law enforcement even arrested two Hezbollah operatives, Samer El Debek and Ali Mohammad Kourani, indicting them in May 2017 for “casing targets for possible future terror attacks.” Both were members of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization (ESO), also known as Unit 910. ESO is tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks and other operations, such as money laundering and drug smuggling, throughout the world. As he later told investigators, Kourani had been recruited into the ESO in January 2008.
The two Hezbollah operatives — both naturalized U.S. citizens — underwent military training in Lebanon and procured explosives, night-vision goggles, and drone technology. El Debek reportedly scoped out potential targets, including New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) and La Guardia International Airports, and the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in Queens, New York. As the terror analyst Matthew Levitt detailed in a June 14, 2019 Foreign Policy <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHixgr6xY7xcaKSjhb7wujvP4nm8w">article</a>, before he was convicted, Kourani’s trial showed that Iranian sleeper cells were far more active in the U.S. than previously thought. Yet this revelation, and the trial itself, received little press attention.
In 2007, Iranian proxies <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHk7Z2JVKGcDEDoxTj36OEqYh53hA">planned</a> to blow up the fuel tanks at JFK International Airport, but were thwarted by authorities. In another foiled plot, Iranian-backed operatives <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF1Cfv2ScXLiMfmDDtw32fuLU4avw">planned</a> to blow up a Washington, D.C. restaurant in 2011 in order to murder a Saudi dignitary. Yet these facts were conveniently ignored in numerous reports on the potential fallout from Soleimani’s death.
Iran itself has openly broadcast its ambitions, holding rallies and marches calling for death to both “the Great Satan” (the U.S.) and “the little Satan” (Israel). In 2017, an Iranian filmmaker <a href="https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnAbpF-sOXW-wLoqVf-iUDgimOag">released</a> a 90-minute movie depicting the destruction of U.S. Naval forces by Tehran. In the film, a character that closely resembles Soleimani leads a single vessel against more than a dozen American warships. When a U.S. commander orders him to surrender or die, he replies: “General, I am not a diplomat, I am a revolutionary!”
But Iran’s threats are no mere fantasy. And the threat posed by the Islamic Republic warrants honest and complete media coverage.
&nbsp;
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Washington D.C. office of CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Iran map

DURNS: The Media Have Long Ignored Iran’s Threats

Islamic State (ISIS)

Leftism

Media

Media Bias

Progressivism

On Sunday, an Islamic terror attack by Al-Shabaab on a military base in Kenya where U.S. troops were stationed resulted in the deaths of three Americans.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-islamic-terrorist-group-attacks-base-used-by-u-s-forces-in-africa">attack</a> on the military base in the early morning hours on Sunday comes as U.S. forces are on alert across the world for potential terrorist attacks after the U.S. military killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, which is a designated terrorist organization.
The United States Africa Command <a href="https://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/32494/update-u-s-statement-on-manda-bay-terrorist-attack">said</a> in statement:
<blockquote>During an attack by al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida group in East Africa, earlier today, one (1) U.S. service member and two (2) Department of Defense contractors were killed at a Kenya Defense Force Military Base in Manda Bay, Kenya.
In addition, two (2) Department of Defense members were wounded. The wounded Americans are currently in stable condition and being evacuated. &#8230;
The attack on the compound today involved indirect and small arms fire. After an initial penetration of the perimeter, Kenya Defense Forces and U.S. Africa Command repelled the al-Shabaab attack. Reports indicate that six contractor-operated civilian aircraft were damaged to some degree. Manda Bay Airfield is utilized by U.S. forces whose missions include providing training to our African partners, responding to crises, and protecting U.S. interests in this strategically important area.</blockquote>
U.S. Army General Stephen Townsend, Commander, U.S. Africa Command, said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of our teammates who lost their lives today. As we honor their sacrifice, let’s also harden our resolve. Alongside our African and international partners, we will pursue those responsible for this attack and al-Shabaab who seeks to harm Americans and U.S. interests. We remain committed to preventing al-Shabaab from maintaining a safe haven to plan deadly attacks against the U.S. homeland, East African, and international partners.”
“The work that our U.S. forces are doing in East Africa bolsters partnerships, counters malign influence, and maintains critical pressure on terrorist networks,” Townsend continued. “Our efforts directly contribute to counterterrorism, maritime surveillance, and intelligence sharing missions with our Kenyan partners. This activity enables enhanced security and stability in the region and for America.”
The statement from the U.S. Military out of Africa comes as U.S. personnel in Iraq reportedly came under fire on Sunday at the U.S. Embassy.
&#8220;Three rockets landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, home to the US Embassy and the seat of Iraq’s government, city residents said on Sunday,&#8221; The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/3-rockets-hit-near-us-embassy-in-baghdad/">reported</a>. &#8220;Police sources told Reuters that the projectiles were Katyusha rockets. Witnesses told AFP they saw two rockets hit near the US embassy.&#8221;
The attacks come after Iran has vowed to take revenge against the United States for killing Soleimani by striking targets within its reach throughout the Middle East.
U.S. forces killed Soleimani after he conducted a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last week.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Iran over the weekend that there will be severe consequences if they try to enact revenge as the U.S. military is prepared to strike numerous Iranian targets.
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-makes-major-announcement-in-new-threats-toward-iran-iran-signals-readiness-for-war">tweeted</a>, “Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, &amp; badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters.”
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,” Trump continued. “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level &amp; important to Iran &amp; the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”

SOMALIA-UNREST-ATTACK

Three Americans Killed In Terror Attack On African Military Base; Rockets Fired At U.S. Embassy In Iraq

Iran has raised the &#8220;red flag&#8221; over the Holy Dome Jamkaran Mosque, warning the United States that it intends to engage in a &#8220;severe battle,&#8221; in the hopes of intimidating President Donald Trump.
<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1223958/Iran-US-red-flag-Qassem-Soleimani-world-war-3-ww3-Donald-Trump-Jamkaran-Mosque">The British outlet, Express</a>, reports that the Iranian mullahs raised the red flag on Saturday, a traditional warning of a coming holy war. The scarlet flag is embroidered with the message, &#8220;Those who want to avenge the blood of Hussein.&#8221;
The move comes in response to the death of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s brutal Quds Force and the architect behind hundreds of terror attacks on U. S. soldiers in the Middle East. Soleimani was killed in a targeted drone strike late Friday, decimating Iran&#8217;s control over the Iraqi government and exposing Iran&#8217;s behind-the-scenes operations in Iraq, encouraging that country&#8217;s destabilization.
Imam Sayyed, the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran declared, on Friday, that the mullahs would seek &#8220;severe revenge&#8221; on President Donald Trump and the United States for the high profile killing. Trump, in turn, said that the attack &#8220;should have been done a long time ago&#8221; and that Soleimani&#8217;s death marks the pre-emptive end of a war, not the start of a new conflict. Solemani, the president added, was in the process of planning &#8220;imminent and sinister&#8221; attacks against American targets in Iraq and beyond.
So far, the Iranians have backed down from declaring World War III, as many leftists predicted in the wake of Friday&#8217;s strike. Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, told media through an adviser that the regime has a list of &#8220;military targets&#8221; that they intend to strike if they are &#8220;further provoked.&#8221;
&#8220;The response for sure will be military and against military sites,” the adviser told CNN according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/476810-khamenei-adviser-says-iran-will-target-us">The Hill</a>.
He added that America should simply accept the consequences attendant to killing Soleimani and shy away from responding to any aggressive action on the part of Iran with any further response.
&#8220;It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted,” the adviser added. “Afterward they should not seek a new cycle.&#8221;
To perhaps no one&#8217;s surprise, Iran&#8217;s pledge to target only military sites does not have an expiration date. &#8220;[F]or sure no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe. And they are accessible to us,&#8221; Khameini&#8217;s advisor was sure to add at the end of his interview.
Reports on social media also indicate that Iran&#8217;s mullahs have offered a bounty for President Donald Trump, however those reports are as yet unconfirmed.
The chief of terror organization Hezbollah joined in the conflict Sunday morning, as well, declaring that he would assist Iran in expelling the United States from the Middle East, <a href="https://apnews.com/2fd2efad28f41f82f8204d4d3ae05ba6?utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow">according to the Associated Press</a>.
“The suicide attackers who forced the Americans to leave from our region in the past are still here and their numbers have increased,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Sunday. The U.S. military, he added, “will pay the price.&#8221;

IRAN-

Iran Raises ‘Red Flag’ Over Mosque Warning Of ‘Severe Battle,’ Says They Will Attack Military Sites

Iraq

Qasem Soleimani

The word is everywhere: &#8220;Mourn.&#8221;
&#8220;Thousands of people turned out to mourn the death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, whose body was returned to Iran after the top military commander was killed in a U.S. drone strike,&#8221; The Hill reported.
&#8220;Thousands of mourners dressed in black marched through the streets of Ahvaz beating their chests in live footage aired on state TV,&#8221; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-iran/body-of-iranian-commander-killed-by-u-s-strike-in-iraq-returned-to-iran-idUSKBN1Z4038">Reuters</a> News Agency reported.
&#8220;Thousands of mourners in Baghdad chanted &#8216;America is the Great Satan&#8217; during a funeral procession Saturday for Iran’s top general and Iraqi militant leaders, killed in a U.S. airstrike,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/04/mourners-chant-america-is-the-great-satan-over-death-of-soleimani.html">CNBC</a> wrote.
But that&#8217;s just what the U.S. media chose to focus on in the days after President Trump ordered the U.S. military to take out the world&#8217;s No. 1 terrorist.
Elsewhere in the world &#8212; including in Iraq &#8212; there was much celebration for the death of man who had killed thousands in his own country. In fact, some even baked cakes thanking Trump.
&#8220;Iranian regime called for 3 days of mourning, but Iranians are baking cakes and calling for 3 days of celebrations. They’re posting pictures of the cakes and the cookies and giving it out to people with thanks to Trump,&#8221; national security and political warfare expert David Reaboi wrote on Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iranian regime called for 3 days of mourning, but Iranians are baking cakes and calling for 3 days of celebrations. 
They’re posting pictures of the cakes and the cookies and giving it out to people with thanks to Trump. <a href="https://t.co/L2n13NRcnh">pic.twitter.com/L2n13NRcnh</a>
&mdash; David Reaboi (@davereaboi) <a href="https://twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1213212194529304576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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He followed that with another post saying, &#8220;More Iranian celebratory cakes!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
More Iranian celebratory cakes! <a href="https://t.co/jtFkZ8OhoJ">pic.twitter.com/jtFkZ8OhoJ</a>
&mdash; David Reaboi (@davereaboi) <a href="https://twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1213216980288909318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Human rights advocate Hassan Mahmoudi joined in. &#8220;Iraqis are celebrating the death of Qasem Soleimani by baking cakes and distributing among the people thanking president trump for eliminating Qassim Suleimani,&#8221; he wrote on Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iraqis are celebrating the death of Qasem Soleimani by baking cakes and distributing among the people thanking president trump for eliminating Qassim Suleimani 
 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iraq?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Iraq</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Suleimani?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Suleimani</a> <a href="https://t.co/GVlqAgIcxH">pic.twitter.com/GVlqAgIcxH</a>
&mdash; hassan.mahmoudi (@hassan_mahmou1) <a href="https://twitter.com/hassan_mahmou1/status/1213586173559549957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Soleimani was responsible for the death of many Americans and helped plan the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya in 2012, The Daily Wire reported on Saturday. More recently, Soleimani helped direct the brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters in Iraq. “&#8217;We in Iran know how to deal with protests,&#8217; Soleimani said, according to Iraqi officials at the meeting,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/62642940e3fe4b1b87323decc9487fea">Associated Press</a> reported in October. “This happened in Iran and we got it under control.”
While the U.S. media reported on &#8220;mourning&#8221; Iraqis, others focused on the celebrations taking place around the world after the No. 1 terrorist was taken out.
&#8220;Iraqis — Iraqis — dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more,&#8221; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter, adding a video showing Iraqis celebrating.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iraqis — Iraqis — dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more. <a href="https://t.co/huFcae3ap4">pic.twitter.com/huFcae3ap4</a>
&mdash; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1212955403077767168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Some foreign news agencies focused on the celebrations. “Iraqis who have demonstrated for months against a government they see as beholden to Iran broke into song and dance Friday after a US strike killed a top Iranian commander,” the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iraq-anti-govt-protesters-sing-dance-after-soleimani-death/">Agence France Presse</a> reported. The AFP added that those who were celebrating chanted, “Oh Qasem Soleimani, this is a divine victory. This is God’s revenge for the blood of those killed.”
Canada&#8217;s Globe and Mail wrote a piece headlined, &#8220;Iranian-Canadians dance, cheer and celebrate death of top general in Iran.&#8221;
It seems as if everyone but the U.S. media &#8212; and liberals &#8212; knew just how bad a man Soleimani was. But the MSM simply can&#8217;t allow Trump to have a single victory.
Just how dangerous was Soleimani?
&#8220;Soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion, contributing to terrorist plots as far away as New Delhi and London,&#8221; Trump said after the airstrike. &#8220;Today we remember and honor the victims of Soleimani&#8217;s many atrocities and we take comfort in knowing that his reign of terror is over. Soleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the Middle East for the last 20 years. What the United States did yesterday should have been done long ago. A lot of lives would have been saved. Just recently Soleimani led the brutal repression of protesters in Iran, where more than 1,000 innocent civilians were tortured and killed by their own government.&#8221;
&#8220;We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,&#8221; the president added.
&nbsp;

Studio shot of sparkler atop cupcake, american flag in background

U.S. Media Says Iraqis ‘Mourning’ Death Of Terrorist, But Some Seem To Be Dancing, Baking Cakes In Celebration

Iranians chanted “death to America” as they mourned the death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani during a funeral procession on Saturday.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/us-iran-soleimani-tensions-live-intl-01-05-20/h_6a85a53149579c7cedb252b3b616085a">reported</a> that the mourners “wept as they walked alongside the vehicle carrying his coffin down the streets of Baghdad,” while some “carried signs that read, ‘We are all Muhandis and Soleimani.’”
More from CNN:
<blockquote>Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi was among the crowd of mourners walking next to the cars carrying the coffins.
Some women carrying flags of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces — the forces al-Muhandis commanded — erupted into tears when the slain commanders were mentioned. Many mourners said the attack strengthened their resolve to expel US forces from Iraq.
&#8220;This strike killed our heroes, but it created a thousand more Hajji Soleimanis and Muhandises,&#8221; said Assifa Abbas, 50, a mother of three PMF fighters. &#8220;If Parliament doesn&#8217;t vote to expel US troops, they will see the true face of the Iraqi street.&#8221;</blockquote>
Along with the mourners, members of Iran’s 290-seat parliament also chanted “death to America” on Sunday, The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/05/iranian-mps-chant-death-america-parliament-overqassem-soleimani/">reported</a>.
&#8220;Mr. Trump. This is the voice of Iranian nation. Listen,&#8221; said Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
Soleimani was killed Friday during a U.S. airstrike as he traveled to Baghdad. A funeral for him has been planned in Tehran and other Iranian cities over the next three days.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-revolutionary-guard-spokesman-breaks-down-over-soleimanis-death">reported</a>, Soleimani’s death has had a profound effect on the nation, as evidenced by the spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards breaking down on live TV while announcing the death.
The U.S. Department of Defense released a statement regarding Soleimani’s death late last week:
<blockquote>At the direction of the president, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.
This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.</blockquote>
Trump made a statement to the country on Friday after the airstrike.
“The United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the #1 terrorist anywhere in the world, Qasem Soleimani,” Trump said. “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.”
“Under my leadership, America’s policy is unambiguous to terrorists who harm or intend to harm any American: We will find you, we will eliminate you, we will always protect our diplomats, service members, all Americans and our allies,” he continued. “For years the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its ruthless Quds force under Soleimani’s leadership has targeted, injured, and murdered murder hundreds of American civilians and servicemen.”

Iran protest

PREDICTABLE: Iranians Mourning Soleimani Chant ‘Death To America’

Al Shababb, Somalia&#8217;s largest Islamic terrorist organization, launched an attack on a military base in Kenya used by U.S. forces during the early morning hours on Sunday.
A military source <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/01/05/world/africa/05reuters-kenya-security.html">told</a> Reuters, &#8220;They have attacked Manda airstrip in Lamu, which is just next to the military camp that hosts military personnel from many countries including Kenya and the U.S. We are informed that fighting is still ongoing.&#8221;
The U.S. military said in statement, “U.S. Africa Command acknowledges there was an attack at Manda Bay Airfield, Kenya and is monitoring the situation. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the incident. As facts and details emerge, we will provide an update.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
U.S. Africa Command acknowledges there was an attack at Manda Bay Airfield, Kenya and is monitoring the situation. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the incident. As facts and details emerge, we will provide an update.
&mdash; US AFRICOM (@USAfricaCommand) <a href="https://twitter.com/USAfricaCommand/status/1213728693748674560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Reuters&#8217; source said that the terrorists were trying to get to the military base by going through the airstrip.
The report from Reuters also included the following statement from the terrorist organization:
<blockquote>An elite group of soldiers from Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen’s ‘Martyrdom Brigade’ launched a daring dawn raid on a U.S. naval base known as ‘Camp Simba’ in Lamu County, Kenya. &#8230; the base is home to hundreds of U.S.military personnel and Kenyan soldiers and serves as one of the many launch pads for the American crusade against Islam in the region.</blockquote>
The attacks comes as U.S. forces are on high alert for possible attacks after President Donald Trump authorized an airstrike late last week that killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, which is a designated terrorist organization.
An Iranian official indicated that it was considering some 35 different U.S. targets to strike in response to the U.S. killing its top terrorist leader.
Trump responded via Twitter late on Saturday night, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-makes-major-announcement-in-new-threats-toward-iran-iran-signals-readiness-for-war">writing</a>, “Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, &amp; badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters.”
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,” Trump continued. “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level &amp; important to Iran &amp; the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
The U.S. State Department <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DSG-Statistical-Annex-2018.pdf">reported</a> in October 2019 that the most recent terrorism statistics available indicated that Al-Shabaab was the third deadliest terrorist organization in 2018 as it conducted 535 attacks in Somalia and Kenya that resulted in the 2,062 deaths and 1,278 injuries.
The fact that the terrorist group, according to Reuters, had accepted responsibility for the attack appears to be out of the ordinary given how Al-Shabaab reportedly operates. The State Department said that Al-Shabaab has &#8220;a known policy of not claiming responsibility for incidents outside Somalia even though they are active in neighboring countries.&#8221;
The State Department further noted that of the 306 assassinations that happened in 40 countries around the world in 2018, Somalia accounted for 60 of them and Al-Shabaab was responsible for 51. Al-Shabaab also deployed the use of IEDs more frequently than any other terrorist organization.
The Counter Extremism Project <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/al-shabab">reported</a> that Al-Shabaab has reportedly received funding from the government of Iran.
Journalists posted the following videos and images of the purported attack on Twitter:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Al-Shabaab has attacked a US military base in Lamu, Kenya. No news on casualties etc as gunfire exchange continues <a href="https://t.co/6KPPRUoacK">pic.twitter.com/6KPPRUoacK</a>
&mdash; Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) <a href="https://twitter.com/samirasawlani/status/1213704152578220032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Reports from Kenya say Al-Shabaab militants have launched a dawn attack on Kenya military base in Lamu County. A suicide car bomb reportedly breached the entry to Camp Simba, Manda Bay. The explosion sent plume of dark smoke into the sky, photos purportedly show. <a href="https://t.co/OxL8H1Qvgs">pic.twitter.com/OxL8H1Qvgs</a>
&mdash; Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) <a href="https://twitter.com/HarunMaruf/status/1213694162907873283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
JUST IN &#8211; Alshabab Fighters claim responsibility &#8211; A Military Base in Manda Bay ,Lamu was attacked this morning . Gunshots can still be heard . <a href="https://t.co/YI19ZvxeNG">pic.twitter.com/YI19ZvxeNG</a>
&mdash; Hussein Mohammed (@huseinmoha) <a href="https://twitter.com/huseinmoha/status/1213693580843323392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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BREAKING: Al-Shabaab militants attack U.S./Kenyan military base in Lamu; reports of casualties <a href="https://t.co/WMhDwo3MDS">pic.twitter.com/WMhDwo3MDS</a>
&mdash; BNO News (@BNONews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1213698424069148674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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