Benghazi Rescue Force Told To Stand Down

A CIA team a mile away from America's besieged consulate in Libya was told to stand down and was denied reinforcements, Fox News reported in the latest revelation of intelligence failures surrounding the September 11^th attack. Despite military drones in the air above the incident and military forces on alert at nearby bases, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that the administration lacked the necessary information to deploy a rescue force.

CIA operators at a nearby safe house were told to "stand down" twice rather than try to help the ambassador's team after initial shots were fired at the consulate, the Fox report said. Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods and two other employees at the CIA annex ignored the orders and went to the consulate, rescuing the surviving diplomatic personnel. Following their return they requested backup for the then besieged CIA building, but were denied that request as well.

As mortars fell on the CIA building, a rooftop operative identified their source and called for air support. But American military forces refused to send in a Spectre gunship, despite more than sufficient time for forces to arrive from the Navy's Sigonella Air Station in Italy. Two separate Tier One Special Operations forces were also told to wait, included Delta Force troops. More than six hours into the attack, sufficient time to bring troops from European bases further afield, a mortar shell killed Woods and fellow former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty.

Panetta defended the administration's response Thursday, despite the continuing revelations. "(The) basic principle is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on; without having some real-time information about what's taking place," Panetta told Pentagon reporters. "And as a result of not having that kind of information, the commander who was on the ground in that area, Gen. Ham, Gen. Dempsey and I felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation."

He did not address the presence of two military drones providing live video feed of the attacks as they took place.

British Terrorists Posed as Charity Collectors

Terrorists planning a massive suicide bombing campaign in Britain posed as charity collectors and took donations from the public, The Guardian reports. The fraudsters raised £12,100 for the Muslim Aid (MA) charity through door-to-door pleas, the vast majority which was kept to finance their 2010-2011 plot.

A British court heard that Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, collected the funds on behalf of MA shortly after returning from military training with al-Qaida in Pakistan. The planned attack included a suicide bombing campaign as well as talk of mounting butcher's knifes on a truck and driving through a crowd, an idea taken from the al-Qaida's Inspire magazine.

The jury also heard that the two "half in jest" set up two accounts on eBay's online charity website, also to raise funds for terrorism. Only one of the group's user names, "terrorshop" and "shopterror," was shut down, although the groups were linked to an email account with the name be_terror@yahoo.co.uk."

The group also recruited others for their terror plot. "A Dawah charity shop was going to be used as a cover to recruit more people to their cause and they planned to set up charity stalls selling cakes and perfume in Coventry, Leicester and Walsall," The Guardian added.

Ruler of Qatar Visits Hamas

Qatar's Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became the first head of state to visit Gaza since the Hamas terrorist organization seized control of the territory in June 2007, Ynetnews reported Tuesday. The visit was facilitated by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-led government, which issued a statement praising the move as part of its campaign "to break the siege on the people" of Gaza.

It marked a major reversal in Qatar's relationship with Israel, which until January 2009 included clandestine talks and growing bilateral trade relations. The Qatari leader denounced Israel's policies and praised the people of Gaza for standing up to the Jewish state with their "bare chests." The Associated Press called it Hamas' "biggest diplomatic victory since taking power five years ago."

Hamas, for its part, was thrilled by what was "a state visit in all but name."

"It is the first visit by an Arab leader at this level to Gaza," Hamas said in a statement. "This breaks the political isolation of the government and opens the door to break the siege."

Despite vehement opposition from the Palestinian Authority and Israel, Sheik Khalifa also pledged $400 million for the beleaguered territory. Israel accused Qatar of taking sides against the Palestinian Authority government and claimed the decision was "hurting the Palestinians and the chance of pulling Gaza out of the mud and onto the road for peace."

An aide to Palestinian President Abbas, Nimr Hamad, condemned Khalifa for giving "the impression that the visitors recognize their rule and that would reinforce the split [between Palestinian factions] and not help the reconciliation."

Hamas has widely benefited from the creation of new Islamist regimes and the fall of Arab dictators. Islamist governments in Tunisia and Egypt have welcomed the Gazan terrorist group, despite attempts by the United States to crack down on its funding. Hamas has also profited from the flow of weapons out of Libya since Muammar Gaddafi's fall.

Questions About Alleged Terrorist's Bangladesh Links

A Bangladeshi tabloid has speculated about links between alleged Federal Reserve Bank bomb plotter Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis and radicals at a national university. The Weekly Blitz claims that Nafis was a student at the North South University in Dhaka, an institution it alleges has had links to anti-democratic Islamist movements link Hizb ut-Tahrir [HuT].

"In past few months, a large number of students from the same university have also entered United States, some of whom had affiliation with Hizbut Tahrir or Hizb Ut Towhid," the Weekly Blitz wrote. A spokesperson for the ruling Bangladesh Awami League also noted that the government was investigating the potential involvement of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, which it accuses of spreading Islamist militancy.

HuT advocates the overthrow of Western economic and political systems and the reestablishment of the Islamic super state, the Caliphate. Jamaat-e-Islami activists have been affiliated with terrorists, although the group generally works within the local political system to achieve a similar goal. But its leaders in Bangladesh have recently been indicted for participating in war crimes during the nation's war for independence.

The quotes may also shed some light on prosecutor Loretta Lynch's statement that Nafis arrived in United States "already radicalized," as well as comments by the would-be terrorist.

"All I had in my mind are how to destroy America... I came up to this conclusion that targeting America's economy is most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of America as well as the path of establishment of Khilapha," the criminal complaint quotes him saying. The statement mirrors quotes from both organizations.

Both HuT and Jamaat-e-Islami are active in the United States, with HuT maintaining a branch here.

The Islamic Circle of North America, which bills itself as a "a leading grassroots organization in the American Muslim community," has an active relationship with Jamaat-e-Islami ideology and leadership throughout South Asia. One of its leaders, Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, allegedly led a death squad during Bangladesh's war of independence.

Guilty Verdict for Al-Shabaab Supporter

A federal jury in Minneapolis found Mahamud Said Omar guilty on Friday of providing material support to al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated Islamist terror group fighting to overthrow the government of Somalia.

Omar, a Somali national who was granted U.S. residency in 1994, gave money to young Somalis living in Minneapolis to travel to Somalia to train with, and fight for al-Shabaab. He was arrested in the Netherlands in November 2009 and extradited to the United States in August 2011.

The guilty verdict marked the culmination of a nearly two-week long trial that included testimony from former al-Shabaab recruits as well as the sister of American suicide bomber Shirwa Ahmed. Ahmed was the first U.S. national to be killed in a suicide mission in Somalia on October 29, 2008.

Court records show Omar visited an al-Shabaab safe-house on a trip to Somalia and provided hundreds of dollars for the purchase of AK-47 rifles for use by Somali men traveling from Minneapolis to wage jihad alongside the al-Shabaab.

Omar's case was part of a broader federal investigation called "Operation Rhino" that looked into the disappearance of around 20 young Somali men from the Minneapolis area over the past five years, allegedly to join al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia. Approximately 18 people have been indicted under Operation Rhino.

"Today's conviction is the result of our collective efforts to hold accountable those involved in a deadly network that routed funds and fighters from the United States to the al-Shabaab terrorist organization," Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney for General for National Security said about the verdict in a Justice Department press release.

Man Admits Assistance from Iranian Military in Bomb Plot

A Texas car salesman man accused in a bomb plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States pleaded guilty Wednesday.

Manssor Arbabsiar was charged last October in a plot targeting Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir as well as other targets including the Israeli embassy. The indictment also charges Gholam Shukri, a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, which is accused of sanctioning the plot.

The Quds Force has helped wage several terror attacks worldwide in support of the Iranian regime's broader mission to export its Islamic revolution.

According to the plea agreement, Arbabsiar traveled several times to Mexico between May and September 2011 under direction from senior Quds Force officials in Iran. In Mexico, Arbabsiar met with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant posing as "a representative of a sophisticated and violent Latin American drug cartel that had access to military-grade weaponry."

Arbabsiar agreed to pay $1.5 million to the informant to carry out the assassination. He arranged for a $100,000 down-payment to be sent from Iran to the supposed cartel operative in two installments through a New York bank account. The transactions were approved by Quds Force members. Arbabsiar promised to pay the balance following the plot's execution.

Arbabsiar told the informant that he did not care about either the means of the attack or the number of people who died in the attack. "They want the guy done, if a hundred go with him, f*** 'em," he said. When the informant said he could use a bomb or shoot the ambassador, Arbabsiar responded "it doesn't matter … whatever is easy for you." In addition to bombing the Saudi embassy, Arbabsiar suggested targeting a restaurant frequented by the Saudi ambassador.

The case drew some early skepticism, especially the notion that Iran would entrust a Mexican drug cartel for such a brash terrorist attack in the United States, But in a Justice Department press release announcing the plea agreement, DEA administrator Michele M. Leonhart said the case shows that the "dangerous connection between drug trafficking and terrorism cannot be overstated, and this case is yet another example of DEA's unique role in identifying potentially deadly networks that wish to harm innocent Americans and our allies worldwide."

Iranian diplomats at the United Nations mission in New York have called the allegations against Arbabsiar "baseless." Arbabsiar faces a maximum of 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in January.

Erdoğan's Hypocrisy Exposed

Escalating tension between Syria and Turkey has exposed the blatant hypocrisy of Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when it comes to terrorism and a country's right to self-defense. Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky makes that clear in a column published Friday at the Algemeiner website.

Turkey has intercepted arms shipments headed for Damascus and even fired into Syrian territory last week after a mortar landed on Turkish soil killing five civilians. No one should doubt Turkey's resolve to protect its people, Erdoğan said.

"This situation has reached a stage that poses serious threats and risks to our national security," Erdoğan said. "Therefore, the need has developed to act rapidly and to take the necessary precautions against additional risks and threats that may be directed against our country."

That's understandable, Ostrovsky writes. But this forceful reply came after one mortar apparently missed its target and landed in Erdoğan's country. The same man all-but-severed diplomatic relations with Israel after Israel invaded Gaza in 2008 after 8,000 Hamas rockets had been aimed at Israeli civilian communities.

"Israel must pay a price for its aggression and crimes," Erdoğan said.

He continues to demand Israel apologize for storming a Turkish ship that tried to run Israel's blockade on Gaza, which is in place to try to deny Hamas with more weaponry. Nine people died after the passengers carried out an orchestrated attack on Israeli soldiers as they boarded the ship.

A United Nations report found the blockade was legal and "a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea."

But Erdoğan still called for sanctions. "Israel's cruelty … cannot be continued any longer," he told Time Magazine last year.

Erdoğan supports Hamas and the Turkish charity, IHH, which led the intercepted flotilla in 2010. But if Turkey is duty-bound to protect its people from outside attacks, so too is Israel, and Erdoğan ought to acknowledge that.

"Instead of demanding an Israeli apology over the Flotilla, it is Mr Erdoğan who is the one that should be apologizing to Israel for his entirely unjustified and vitriolic attacks in light of his government's recent actions," Ostrovsky writes. "Anything less, would be completely hypocritical."

Read the whole thing.

MB Chief Calls for "Holy Jihad" Against Israel

The head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood called for Muslims to "raise the flag of Jihad in the way of God" to liberate Jerusalem. In a statement issued Thursday in Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, Mohammed Badie said negotiations are pointless.

"Let Muslims know and let Believers be certain that the recovery of the holy sites and the safeguarding of goods and blood from the hands of the Jews will not be through the corridors of the United Nations, nor through negotiations," a translation of Badie's statement said. "The Zionists only know the method of force. They will not step back from transgression, unless they are forced to. This will only be by holy Jihad, and enormous sacrifices and all forms of resistance. One day they will be certain that we will choose this Way, and raise the flag of Jihad in the Way of God. We will go forth to the field of Jihad. This will curb their hands and prevent their tyranny."

Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi, "grew up in the Muslim Brotherhood" and was the group's designated candidate for leadership. He has not disavowed similar threatening statements from Badie, his Brotherhood colleague. In a July sermon, after Morsi's election, Badie said Muslims have a duty "to purify it from the hands of usurpers and cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the Occupation - that is an individual duty on all Muslims. They must wage Jihad with their money and lives and free it, and free its prisoners, male and female … and enable all of the displaced to return to their homeland, their homes, and their possessions."

Palestinian Official: "Armed Resistance" Still in Vocabulary

Civilians in southern Israel spent much of Monday inside bomb shelters, as Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorists fired more than 30 rockets and mortars at them, the Times of Israel reports.

Most missed their targets, and the only casualties were some animals in a petting zoo.

Hamas, which controls Gaza but frequently ducks responsibility for rocket fire, acknowledged firing many of the rockets. They came in response to Israel's attack Sunday on two terrorists on a motorcycle. One died and the other was injured. Israeli military officials say they were part of jihadist network and that one was "a senior operative involved in the planning and execution" of a June attack that killed an Israeli working on a fence at the Egyptian-Israeli border.

The Jerusalem Post reports that in the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, meanwhile, comes a reminder that peace is not on the forefront of Palestinian thinking. "No one has dropped the armed resistance from his dictionary," Fatah central committee member Mahmoud Aloul told a television interviewer Monday.

That shouldn't surprise anyone watching the PA operate. It routinely glorifies terrorists by naming parks, streets and sports teams in their memory and carries programming that incites hatred of Israel.

The current strategy is for "popular resistance," Aloul said, but that could change if certain conditions were met. The PA isn't seeking new peace talks with Israel, Aloul said, and won't until "there is a new atmosphere for conducting the negotiations."

Palestinians have walked away from two Israeli offers that would have led to a Palestinian state since the Clinton administration. Former envoy Dennis Ross described the breakdown of talks at Camp David, when Yasser Arafat turned away the United States' last, best offer. "It's very clear to me that his negotiators understood this was the best they were ever going to get. They wanted him to accept it. He was not prepared to accept it," Ross said in a 2002 television interview.

In her memoir, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described a generous Israeli offer from then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that was passed up in 2008. Palestinian negotiators declined to offer counter proposals.

State Dept.'s "Inexplicable" Emissary Choice

What would you do with a guy who initially labeled Israel as a suspect behind the 9/11 attacks and who continues to hedge on American efforts to deny Iran an atomic bomb, and whose organization challenges counter-terror prosecutions?

If you're the State Department, you send him to a human rights forum in Poland, the Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports.

Salam Al-Marayati is wrapping up a 10-day trip to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's annual gathering on human rights. Al-Marayati is a founder and president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group which cast the 1983 Hizballah bombing of a U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut for a peacekeeping mission as "exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies," and which has questioned America's designation of Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

A spokesman told Kredo that al-Marayati "has been a valued and highly credible interlocutor on issues affecting Muslim communities" and was sent to the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings "as a reflection of the wide diversity of backgrounds of the American people."

But Josh Block, a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and head of The Israel Project, blasted the move as "inexplicable" given al-Marayati's record defending Hizballah and Hamas.

But the State Department previously has tapped al-Marayati as a sponsored spokesman. In 2010, he spoke about free speech and religious freedom on a government-financed trip to Europe.

That hasn't seemed to moderate al-Marayati's tone or his view that Israel is the impetus behind American policies he doesn't like. America isn't trying to force Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program out of self-interest, he said earlier this year. It is due to Israeli influence in Washington.

"The other point here, which is very important historically, the United States has done a lot of dirty work that has served the interests of Israel," al-Marayati said. "It destroyed Iraq. It supported the destruction and crippling of Egypt. It has crippled the Gulf. And now, it is looking to Iran as the next target for crippling and destroying. I think this is madness. Who is driving our foreign policy? President Obama or Prime Minister Netanyahu?"

Bad judgment at the State Department is not isolated to al-Marayati. It also has sent officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) abroad, even though they used the opportunity to decry the state of Muslim life in America.

It's an odd public relations strategy to say the least.

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