Tag Archives: Terrorism

FBI Operation To Disrupt American ISIS Sympathizers

The FBI is currently conducting an operation to disrupt potential domestic terrorists who are being radicalized by ISIS.

ABC News confirmed that the operation is taking place and that the latest arrest happened in New York on Saturday.  A college student thought al-Qaeda was “getting soft” and was “making efforts to prepare an explosive device for detonation.”

Fareed Mumuni, 21, has been charged with attempting to murder a federal employee after attacking a FBI agent with a knife during his arrest.

The arrest was part of an operation to take down Munther Omar Saleh, a 20-year-old American citizen now facing charges of conspiring to to provide material support to ISIS.

The papers filed by prosecutors claim Salah endorsed the ISIS attack on Charlie Hebdo in France and the attempted assault on the Draw Muhammad contest in Texas.  He also endorsed several terrorists beheadings by ISIS.

Authorities said that investigations were underway in all 50 states and have already led to five arrests of suspected terrorist sympathizers.

Boko Haram Kills Dozens In Niger Attack

Islamic extremist group Boko Haram attacked Niger’s Diffa region in an overnight attack leaving scores dead according to security sources.

At least 30 civilians are reportedly dead.  Officials added that several villages were completely burned to the ground by the terrorists.

The attack is the second time in a week that Boko Haram has crossed the Nigerian border to kill civilians.  The group launched suicide bombings in Chad Monday that killed 34.

Chad reported to those attacks with air strikes on areas that are controlled by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The new Nigerian president has promised to increase the multinational force fighting the terrorists to 7,500 and that “efforts to strengthen security cooperation with our neighbours and adjust our own response to Boko Haram will yield results very soon”.

Al-Qaeda Second In Command Killed

The number two man in the al-Qaeda power structure has reportedly been killed in a drone strike in Yemen.

Nasir al-Wuhayshi was called the “leading light” of the terrorist organization and one terrorism analyst told CNN the death is “the biggest blow against al-Qaeda since the death of bin Laden.”

“[Al-Wuhayshi] was responsible for the deaths of innocent Yemenis and Westerners, including Americans,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.

“While AQAP, al Qaeda and their affiliates will remain persistent in their efforts to threaten the United States, our partners and our interests, (al-Wuhayshi’s) death removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating those groups.”

Al-Wuhayshi was notorious for saying that Al-Qaeda needed to “eliminate the cross and the bearer of the cross is America!”

“Nasser al-Wuhayshi was a major global figure among jihadists, even supporters of al-Qaeda’s rival Islamic State viewed Wuhayshi with respect,” Islamic groups analyst Murad Batal al-Shishani said to the Christian Post.

“As well as creating AQAP itself, Wuhayshi also played a major role in forming the AQAP off-shoot, Ansar al-Sharia, in 2011, to appeal to disaffected youth in Yemen at the time of the Arab Spring. AQAP’s leader cultivated good relations with local tribes, which helped his group advance in various places in the south of the country.”

Unfortunately, the man who is replacing al-Wuhayshi is considering a formidable opponent.

“Qasm al-Rimi was considered the brains of the operation,” CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said. “For more than a decade, he’s really been at the helm of the military side of things for AQAP but also planning their large international operations.”

President Orders More Troops To Iraq

President Obama has ordered 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq, saying that they will not engage ISIS but train the Iraqi army.

The move by the White House will also including sending weapons to Sunni tribes and the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters that are operating under the Iraqi command structure.  An administration official said the hope is that a new “Sunni uprising” will take place against the terrorists.

The order comes after President Obama admitted last week ahead of the G7 conference that the U.S. did not have a cohesive plan to stop the Islamic terrorists.

The additional troops will be based at Taqaddum military base in Anbar province.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters the President asked military leaders to “take a look at what we’ve learned over the last eight months in the train-and-equip program and make recommendations to him on whether there are capabilities that we may want to provide to the Iraqis to actually make them more capable.”

Great Britain said they would be sending an additional 125 troops to help in training.

Currently, there are approximately 3,050 U.S. forces in Iraq. The majority support Iraqi security forces, about 450 train Iraqi troops, and roughly 200 fill advising and assisting roles.

ISIS Member Accidentally Gives Up Command Center Location Via Social Media

While ISIS has been successfully using social media to recruit new members and radicalize those sympathetic to their cause, some members are posting items that undermine their own case.

The U.S. military said a recent post by a “moron” helped them take out an ISIS command and control center.

“These guys that are working down at Hurlburt (Florida), they’re combing through social media. And they see some moron standing at this command and control capability for Da’Esh, ISIL. These guys go, ‘ah we got an in,'” Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said during a Monday speech in Arlington, Virginia.

Twenty-two hours later, the center no longer existed.

“Long story short…three JDAMs take the entire building out,” Carlisle said in the speech to the Air Force Association.

A JDAM is a device that guides bombs to their targets using a global positioning system and internal navigation system.

ISIS has recruited around 3,400 westerners and at least 200 Americans using social media according to Nicholas Rasmussen of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Boston Terror Gunman Plotted To Kill Police

FBI officials have confirmed that the terrorist shot and killed Tuesday by police and federal agents in Boston had been working on a plot to attack police.

Investigators said they moved on Usaamah Abdullah Rahim after intercepting a phone call talking about beheading police officers.  When they approached Rahim, he pulled out a military style knife and threatened the police. He was shot after refusing their demands to drop the weapon and withdraw.

Rahim was described as a 26-year-old security guard who had been “radicalized by ISIS.”  His original plan was to behead Pamela Geller, the woman who had hosted a “Draw Mohammed” contact in Texas that was the target of a failed terror attack.  He changed the plan to target police when he realized it would be too difficult to reach Geller.

“These cases are a reminder of the dangers posed by individuals radicalized through social media,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairma Michael McCaul said at a Wednesday hearing.

Rahim reportedly bought three military style knives from Amazon in late May.

McCaul also said there was evidence of Rahim’s social media communications with ISIS where “going on vacation” was discussed.  He explained that “going on vacation” was code for taking a violent jihad action.

Police have arrested two other men in connection with the plot.

ISIS Using Water As Weapon

The Islamic terrorist group ISIS is reducing the water flowing into Iraq’s Anbar province as the government is trying to retake land from the terrorists.

The tactic is not new to Middle East conflicts.  ISIS had previously restricted water flowing through the ISIS controlled town of Fallujah but reopened locks after residents complained about the lack of water.

Anbar Provincial Council Member Taha Abdul-Ghani told the Associated Press the terrorists are blocking water at a dam on the Euphrates river that will dry up irrigation system and water treatment plans for the government and tribes that are opposed to ISIS.  Other areas to the south and central areas of the country would be provided water from the Tigris River.

The United Nations quickly condemned the terrorist’s actions.

“The use of water as a tool of war is to be condemned in no uncertain terms,” the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters. “These kinds of reports are disturbing, to say the least.”

He said the U.N. would work to bring water to the impacted residents of the region.

Military experts say the withdrawl of water also lowers the level of the river to where terrorists would be able to walk across, allowing for attacks in locations that previously had been impeded by the water.

Residents of Habbaniya, Husaybah and Khalidiyah have been fleeing out of fear of an assault by the terrorists.

Boston Police Shoot Terror Suspect

Boston police fatally shot a man Tuesday that was part of a terrorism investigation.

An official with the U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force says the slain man was part of a terror investigation involving Islamist extremists who were under surveillance and tracking.  The man was shot after coming toward police and federal agents with a military-style knife.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the man was specifically under investigation for threats against police officers.  Details on those threats were not released to the media.

“Unfortunately, he came at the officers and, you know, they do what they were trained to do and, unfortunately, they had to take a life,” Evans said.

The suspect died at an area hospital.

Two officers who were involved in the incident were examined for stress at the hospital but did not suffer any physical injuries.

The shooting is still under official investigation.

ISIS Terrorists Control Half of Syria

Islamic terrorist group ISIS officially captured the ancient city of Palmyra on May 20th, meaning the terrorists now control over half of Syria.

The United Nations is particularly concerned about the fall of Palmyra, which is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“Palmyra tells us all cultures are linked. There’s no pure culture, no point in imposing a single culture on others,” Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, said.

Tim Muret of Open Doors told the Christian Post that the news is covering Palmyra because of the UNESCO connection but that many Christian villages being destroyed by the terrorists are being ignored.

“This certainly makes a lot of news in the states because this is a UNESCO heritage site, but the kidnappings, killings, and all the villages being destroyed usually don’t make the news.  These too have historical significance, and many of the villages are Christian,” declared Muret. “We do our best as an organization to educate churches that what you see in the news is really just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Palmyra is an another example of how IS has no regard for civilization or human life,” added Muret.

Muret also added because of the terrorists the Christian population in Syria has significantly declined over the last few years.

“The number of Christians has now dwindled down to 1.1 million or about 5 percent of the Syrian population.” Muret emphasized that Christian villages and populations are essential heritage sites too, “because those populations and much of that culture is the cradle of some of the earliest Christian communities.” The Apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, which at the time had a rapidly expanding Christian population.

President Admits Flaws In Plan Against ISIS

President Obama has admitted there were flaws in his plans to subdue the Islamic extremist group ISIS in Iraq.

The President insisted, however, that despite the flaws the U.S. is not losing in the battle against ISIS.

“I don’t think we’re losing,” Obama told The Atlantic in an interview days after the fall of Ramadi.

“There’s no doubt there was a tactical setback, although Ramadi had been vulnerable for a very long time, primarily because these are not Iraqi security forces that we have trained or reinforced.They have been there essentially for a year without sufficient reinforcements, and the number of ISIL [ISIS] that have come into the city now are relatively small compared to what happened in [the Iraqi city of] Mosul.”

Members of Congress have been critical of the President and his plans for not using ground troops in Iraq to stop the terrorists.

Senator John McCain of Arizona said the fall of Ramadi to the terrorists was “one of the most disgraceful episodes in American history.”