The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

A TRUTH TOO HARD TO HANDLE
By Avi Davis

If anyone wants to get a close look at the way our government and military deludes itself about fundamental dangers this country faces, then go no further than the recently issued Department of Defense report on the Fort Hood slayings- Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood.

In this 85 page report, released last week and which relates to the November 5th massacre of 13 enlisted men and women together with an unborn child, you will find recommendations for tighter security for recruitment purposes, updated procedures to help the Department of Defense identify contributing factors to violent conduct and the suggested development of programs to educate DoD personnel when individuals might commit violent acts or become radicalized.

What you won’t find is the following:

The name of the assassin
Documentation on his Islamic background
The characterization of his motivations
Information on how signs of his radicalism were manifested in his actual military career
The kinds of communications he received from a YemenI based sheikh in the weeks and months prior to the perpetration of the killings.
The Jihadist inspiration behind the attacks.

So lets fill in the blanks for those military researchers who still remain mind-numbingly agog that such an event could have occurred at all:

The killer (not the alleged killer) at Fort Hood was Captain Nidal Malik Hassan;
He is a Muslim;
His writings, communications with fellow officers prior to the events of November 5, all provide convincing evidence that that he was a Jihadist, driven by a religious ideology
He took inspiration from Yemen-based preacher named Imam Anwar AlWaki and had at least ten email communications with him in the 30 days prior to the shootings;
He shouted “Allahu Akbar “as he sprayed the dining room with bullets or
He admitted that he committed his acts of murder in the name of Islam

In fact, not once in the report are the words “ Islam,” “Jihad” or “anti-Americanism” employed. Nor are we given a sense that this event registered as anything more than another case of criminal behavior which can be adequately dealt with by the criminal justice system. Hence the military’s apparent unwillingness to ascribe motivation to the attack or even a name to the ‘alleged’ offender. After all, to do so would be prejudice Hassan’s upcoming trial, a prospect the report’s authors seem to implicitly fear more than the truth itself.

Instead the report is content to commend the military personnel at Fort Hood on how effectively they responded to the attack (in other words ‘it was bad but could have been a helluva lot worse’) and reaches the astonishing conclusion that “identifying potentially dangerous people before they act is difficult” and that “religious fundamentalism in itself is not a risk factor.”

The report screams the word “denial” at us, bathed as it is in the politically correct milk of multicultural sensitivity. In this regard, of course, it is completely in keeping with the sentiments of Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey, who, in the wake of the massacre, proclaimed that, “as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

No, sir, what is far worse is the obfuscation of a basic truth – that Islamists are among us and want to kills us. What registers as even worse than this however, is the way such cognitive dissonance leads to the eclipse of good judgment among our military leaders. For underlying this empty report is the notion that the country is not at war at all, but rather faces occasional incidents which amount to little more than isolated criminal nuisances.

It is extraordinary that the most violent act of murder committed against U.S. troops on American soil in modern times, should be summed up as a case of a good soldier gone bad.

Because Hassan didn’t ‘go bad’ at all. He was already bad. The fact that his colleagues and superiors failed to notice, despite all the warning signs he offered them, is an indictment of the system in which he operated – a system apparently quite comfortable with its soldiers’ regular expression of a rabid anti-Americanism and the spouting of Jihadist ideology.

The true report of what happened at Fort Hood is not yet available. But when it does become available it will almost certainly not bear the stamp of the Department of Defense upon it. The truth, apparently, in Jack Nicholson inimitable words, is just too hard to handle.

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Google Goes Jihad
by Robert Spencer

Google, the Internet’s ubiquitous search engine, is under fire this week for censoring negative search results about Islam. If you type “Christianity is” into the Google search box, there immediately pop up a series of suggested completions to the sentence, most of them derogatory: “Christianity is bulls—t,” “Christianity is not a religion,” “Christianity is a lie,” “Christianity is false,” “Christianity is wrong,” “Christianity is fake.” No positive suggests come up. Likewise with “Buddhism is,” and the sentence is once again completed with numerous negative suggestions: “Buddhism is wrong,” “Buddhism is not what you think,” and so on. But type in “Islam is,” and nothing comes up at all. The negative suggestions inundating the searcher for other religions are nowhere to be seen. Google, however, says it was all a mistake, and denies have done anything to favor Islam. “This is a bug,” insisted a Google spokesman, “and we’re working to fix it as quickly as we can.” Oddly enough, however, even with all of Google’s technical savvy, this “bug” persisted for days and continues as of this writing, long after Google’s announcement that it would quickly be fixed. (Frontpagemagazine)

Officials: 'Credible Intelligence' on Terror Attack Planning Against U.S.-Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Justin Fishel and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
Credible intelligence has emerged that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is plotting another attack against the United States and U.S. interests abroad, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday. Credible intelligence has emerged that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is plotting another attack against the United States and U.S. interests abroad, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday. The intelligence is described as not specific about time, place or method of attack, but is being taken seriously, according to this official. The new information does not come from 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bring down flight 253 on Christmas Day. According to those familiar with the intelligence, the strategic threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, has intensified and the group is emboldened by the failed Dec. 25 plot. "The threat did not end on Christmas Day", according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, known as Al Shabaab -- translated as Mujahadeen Youth -- are described as having "shared interests and shared goals." (Foxnews)

Pentagon Report on Fort Hood Shooting Details Failures- ELISABETH BUMILLER and SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON — The military’s defenses against threats from inside its own ranks are outdated and ineffective, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Monday as he described the findings of a Pentagon review of the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas. Mr. Gates cited poor communications about internal threats to the security of personnel, as well as a weak supervision by commanders, as systemic problems with implications that go beyond the single case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the military psychiatrist accused of the shootings. The formal report, released at noon by the Pentagon, found that "some medical officers failed to apply appropriate judgement and standards of officership” when judging Major Hasan, and that more attention should have been paid to his overall performance rather than just his academic record.
Major Hasan behaved erratically and had questionable communications with a radical cleric during the years and months before the shootings, which killed 13 and injured 28 more, according to various officials monitoring the investigations that ensued. (NYT)

Sarkozy aims to outlaw niqab on public transport but outright ban is ‘unworkable’-Charles Bremner in Paris
The French Government aims to outlaw the wearing of full veils on state premises and on public transport.
President Sarkozy laid down future action on the burqa, as it is popularly known, on Wednesday in an attempt to end a feud in his centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and calm passions in and outside France’s large Muslim population. Following the controversy, France is backing away from an outright ban on Muslim women covering their faces. Mr Sarkozy, all main parties and most of the public are opposed to women wearing full veils but, after six months of parliamentary hearings, it has become apparent that a blanket ban would be unworkable and likely to backfire. In Wednesday’s New Year speech to MPs, the President sought to quash an attempt by Jean-Francois Cope, his party’s Parliamentary leader, to rush through an “anti-burka law”. Mr Cope, who is in dispute with the UMP leadership, has tabled a Bill under which women who wear full veils anywhere in public would face a £670 fine. Their husbands or other accompanying men would also face fines. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Anjem Choudary: I’m smiling because sharia is coming-Camilla Long
The radical Muslim who threatened to hold a march through Wootton Bassett is ready to defy the ban on his group and says a coup could make Britain an Islamic state
Obviously I was never going to see eye to eye with the benefitchogging Muslim hate cleric Anjem Choudary, but I didn’t realise how many of his own community think he’s dreadful, too. Few of the cafes on his home turf — London’s East End — will accommodate the bearded 42-year-old firebrand and self-styled “most hated man in Britain”. Indeed, just after he flounces out of our interview in one of the few that will — a halal diner in Whitechapel — a waiter asks me: “Is that the coffin man? I can’t bear him. All he wants is fame, and the easiest way to get that is say that Christian people should be persecuted. I don’t see much difference between him and Nick Griffin.” Two weeks ago Choudary, a British-born Muslim of Pakistani origin and the leader of the now-outlawed extremist group Islam4UK, caused a storm when he announced a plan to march 500 coffins through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, a town that regularly honours the British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and repatriated to nearby RAF Lyneham. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Al-Qaeda sets deadline to kill French hostage in Mali-Editor
Cairo (dpa) - Al-Qaeda's North African branch threatened to kill a French citizen held by the group in Mali if the government did not release four imprisoned al-Qaeda militants, a statement circulated Monday said. The Frenchman was abducted from a hotel in the northern Mali town of Menaka, some 1500 kilometres from the capital Bamako, on November 25. "Let France and Mali be forewarned that we give 20 days to fulfill our just demand, or the two governments shall be fully responsible for the life of the French hostage," al-Qaeda warned in a written statement circulated by the private, US-based monitoring group IntelCenter Monday. Al-Qaeda said its "only demand" for the release of the French national was the release of four al-Qaeda militants held in the desert country. (Botswanagazette)

Feminist actress attacked in Paris-John Lichfield in Paris
Police launched a terrorism investigation in Paris yesterday after two men tried to set fire to an Algerian feminist playwright and actress. The attackers sprayed Rayhana, known only by her first name, with petrol and threw a lit cigarette in her face. The petrol did not ignite, possibly because of the extreme cold. Rayhana, 45, is appearing in and directing her own play about the oppression of women in Algeria. She was walking to a theatre in a north-eastern suburb of the city when she was insulted in Arabic and attacked. A fortnight ago, she was approached in the same area by two men who said: "We know who you are, you miscreant whore. This is a warning." Detectives are examining the possibility that she was attacked by a radical Islamist group, although her play is equally critical of the treatment of women by radical Islam and secular authorities in Algeria. (Independent.co.uk)

Aarhus: Kindergartens drop pork from menu
The six Langenæsstien kindergartens in Aarhus will not be serving meatballs, liver pate or sausages any more. The administration has decided to drop pork from the menu, both in order to have healthier food and to prevent the Muslim children from accidentally eating the meat, says day-care manager Ruth Theilmann of Langenæsstien. She says there were various people who could say that pork is a core values, but they don't think so, while it means a lot to the Muslim parents. The Danish People's Party recently proposed that municipalities will require their institutions to serve a certain percentage of pork since it's traditional Danish food. But the argument is completely lost on Ruth Theilmann. "So what do they know of other traditions? If I look at my own traditions, there's hasn't been a lot of pork in my home, neither as an adult nor as a child." She adds that the DPP are working out of a political perspective, while the kindergartens don't work this way. (Islamineurope)

Making Higher Education Count-Ashley Thorne
How do we know whether American universities are really educating students?
In 1996, the National Association of Scholars published a report, “The Dissolution of General Education: 1914-1933.” Based on the hypothesis that general education requirements had dissolved since the 1960s, NAS studied the fifty top-ranked schools listed in U.S. News and World Report's “America's Best Colleges.” We looked at the structure, content, and rigor of required courses at each institution, and found that most institutions were no longer seriously committed to ensuring that their students are exposed to broad surveys of basic subject matter. In 2002 our Arizona affiliate examined how much graduates of Arizona’s three public universities knew about history, science, math, literature, arts, civics and other subjects, to see what taxpayers were getting in return for their support of the state’s universities. The affiliate issued a 40-question survey to 167 college seniors. The question with the most correct answers was the pop culture question, “Identify Snoop Doggy Dogg” and the question with the fewest correct answers was, “Who was the father of the U.S. Constitution?” (NAS)

Full Report: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Hatred on the Huffington Post
In its four years of existence,The Huffington Post [3] (aka “HuffPost”) has grown from obscurity into the world’s most-visited blogsite [4], and one of America’s most popular news sites [5]. It now has more monthly visitors[6] than the Washington Post, and is supported by some of the largest advertisers in the world. Its representatives have been allowed to ask questions [7] at presidential press conferences, and one was even given preferential treatment [8]. It now enjoys access to, and influence over, the top levels of the U.S. government. Top members of the U.S. Senate are among HuffPost’s official bloggers, including John Kerry [9], Carl Levin [10], Chris Dodd [11], Barbara Boxer [12] and others. A significant reason for HuffPost’s success and “legitimization” are its claims that it is a [13] nonpartisan “newspaper,” [13] dedicated to “ferret(ing) [14] out the truth,” [14] and “debunking [15] the left-right way of thinking.”[15] HuffPost also claims [16] to be non-partisan in its moderation of user comments. Arianna Huffington [17], the site’s founder and Editor-In-Chief, claims HuffPost has “a zero tolerance policy” [18] for hate speech, and that it acts vigilantly to keep its comment threads free of offensive content, 24-7.(Frontpagemagazine)

Wilders prosecution to go ahead
The prosecution of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on hate crime charges will begin next week, a court in Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday. Wilders and his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz had made a last-ditch effort on Wednesday to head off some of the charges, after the public prosecution department extended the prosecution case to include inciting hatred of Muslims, Moroccans and non-Western immigrants. But the court ruled Wilders' appeal inadmissable, saying the defence had not produced any new facts or evidence. Wilders said after the hearing it was a political trial. 'The legal system in North Korea is better than in the Netherlands,' he told reporters. Journalists had been banned from attending the hearing or entering the court building while Wilders was inside.

Exclusive: Political Correctness – a Deadly Infection-Tom McLaughlin
Only recently have I become aware of the depths to which political correctness has permeated our culture. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know how bad. It’ll be the ruin of us if we don’t kill it and comb its nits out of our hair. I began to get a clue at a private reception for Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders in Washington last February. After Wilders was escorted out by his bodyguards (radical Muslims ordered him killed for making a movie called Fitna), I found myself in extended conversation with a young Defense Department analyst who had been tasked by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to research and report on the ideology of our radical Muslim enemies. He immersed himself in Islamic law and came to the conclusion that it’s the radical Muslims who appear to have the doctrinal base in Islam, not the moderates. He said that most of the highest officials at the Pentagon rejected his brief. Then they rejected the young man himself – and that was during the Bush Administration. The Pentagon, he said, “as an institution,” wanted to believe that the Radical Muslim interpretation of jihad, which is holy war against infidels worldwide – convert them or kill them, was an aberration. (Familysecuritymatters)

Double standards row as Ed Balls refuses to ban smacking at mosque schools to avoid 'upsetting Muslim sensitivities'-Brendan Carlin
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of refusing to ban Islamic schools from smacking children for fear of upsetting Muslim 'sensitivities'. Mr Balls was last week urged to close a legal loophole which gives teachers in Britain's estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques the right to smack children - even though it is banned in other schools. He refused, prompting claims that he is allowing an alleged 'culture of physical abuse' in some of the mosque schools - or madrasahs - go unchecked. Smacking is banned in all State and private schools. However, it does not apply to madrasahs, where pupils usually study in the evenings or at weekends, because the ban exempts schools where children attend for less than 12.5 hours per week. Lib Dem schools spokesman David Laws, who is spearheading the campaign to close the smacking loophole, said: 'The Government needs to legislate to protect children - not leave an opt-out simply because it fears some ethnic or religious backlash.' He was supported by Labour MP Ann Cryer, who said it would be 'bonkers' if the Government did not act. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Muslim preachers who gloriﬁed suicide bombers are banned- Marcus Dysch
Jewish community leaders have welcomed the banning of a radical Islamist group which has glorified suicide bombers and preached antisemitism. Home Secretary Alan Johnson proscribed Islam4UK under anti-terror legislation and extended the banning order to the group’s use of other names, including Al-Muhajiroun. The extremist group, led by Anjem Choudary, had last week announced and then retracted plans to march through Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town where crowds gather to honour British soldiers killed in Afghanistan as their coffins are repatriated. Mr Johnson said: “Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism and is not a course we take lightly. We are clear that an organisation should not be able to circumvent proscription by simply changing its name.” The group has also been banned under its alternate titles, Call to Submission, Islamic Path and London School of Sharia. Two splinter organisations — Al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect — were proscribed in 2006 under the Terrorism Act. Being a member of any of the groups or attending their meetings is now punishable by up to 10 years in prison. (Jewishchronicle)

Croatia’s President-elect acknowledges need to fight anti-Semitism in his country
LONDON-ZAGREB (EJP)---Croatia’s president-elect Ivo Josipovic has acknowledged the need to fight anti-Semitism in his country, during a phone conversation especially arranged earlier this week with Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet of London.
The rabbi called him on behalf of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE). Rabbi Schochet told the new president:"It is an honour and a privilege to extend to you the heartiest congratulations for your election victory on behalf of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe and all the rabbis of Europe, and especially on behalf of the rabbis in Croatia." The RCE represents over seven hundred rabbis and Jewish communities throughout the European continent. The organisation works to improve religious services and facilities, such as providing financial and professional assistance for the construction of mikvehs (ritual baths), offering guidelines and advice on various issues. It is in regular contact with European leaders and governments about issues of concern to the Jewish community. Rabbi Schochet stressed to Josipovic that the RCE "looks forward to continuing the cordial relationship with the Croatian government." (EJP)

Aafia Siddiqui demands no Jewish jurors at attempted murder trial-James Bone
A Pakistani scientist who is the only woman accused of working with the al-Qaeda leadership has demanded that Jews should be excluded from the jury at her trial in New York. Aafia Siddiqui called for jurors to undergo genetic testing in an outburst in federal court in Manhattan yesterday. “If they have a Zionist or Israeli background . . . they are all mad at me,” Ms Siddiqui, an American-educated neuroscientist, said. “I have a feeling everyone here is them [sic] — subject to genetic testing. They should be excluded if you want to be fair,” she told the judge. Prosecutors say that Ms Siddiqui, 37, who has a biology degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD from Brandeis University, fled the US in 2003 after marrying an al-Qaeda operative. She was arrested outside an Afghan government compound in Ghazni province, allegedly carrying two lb of poisonous sodium cyanide and information on chemical, biological and radiological weapons, as well as descriptions of US landmarks such as Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty. She is charged with allegedly grabbing a US Army officer’s M4 rifle and shooting at a team of FBI agents who were trying to question her on July 18, 2008. She was shot in the stomach in the exchange of fire and taken to the US a few weeks later to face federal charges of attempted murder and assault. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Anti-Israel exhibit in Scottish Parliament-Johnny Paul
Remarks left in a comments book in the Scottish Parliament calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth have been condemned in a motion sponsored by a member of the Scottish Parliament and set to be debated in the parliament. Written in a comments book attached to an exhibition titled "Gaza Now" - and appearing alongside an array of messages of support for the Palestinian people - the comment, written by someone named "Raza from Glasgow," said, "Israel must be (and will be inshallah) wiped off from the Earth!" Jackson Carlaw, a Conservative MSP, tabled a parliamentary motion on Tuesday calling on the Scottish Parliament to "unreservedly" condemn the message displayed in the book and called on "as many Scots as possible" to participate in Holocaust Memorial Day 2010 events, which takes place on January 27. The exhibition, which was organized by a charity called Edinburgh Direct Aid (EDA) and sponsored by Labor Party MSP Pauline McNeil, contains photographs and testimonies of Gaza residents and casualties during last year's Operation Cast Lead. "Simply paying lip service to the messages of Holocaust Memorial Day once a year is no good," Carlaw said. "It's disappointing that just a few weeks before Holocaust Memorial Day 2010, the Scottish Parliament should be displaying the message 'wipe Israel off the face of the map' in an exhibition sponsored by a Labor MSP. (Jpost)

The Anti-Semitic Jihad On Campus: My Night at USC-David Horowitz
[Editor's note: Protected by a bodyguard and twelve armed campus security officers, David Horowitz spoke at the University of Southern California on November 4, 2009. This is a text of his remarks, edited for readability. A video of the speech is available here [1 ) . To read about the efforts to censor him before the speech and the slander directed at him, click here [2].]
I want to thank the College Republicans for being brave enough to invite me, and I want to thank all of you who are here to actually listen for coming. It used to be a pleasure for me to speak on a college campus like USC. I can remember the days when I could stroll onto the USC campus and walk over to the statue of Tommy Trojan where College Republicans had erected a platform for a rally to support our troops in Afghanistan after 9/11 at which I was to speak. Now, however, I can’t set foot on this campus – or any campus – without being accompanied by a personal bodyguard and a battalion of armed campus security police to protect me and my student hosts. Sheer prudence forces me to visit campuses with these security measures in place because I’ve been demonized by the campus left at virtually every school I’ve visited in the past decade and physically assaulted at several. (Frontpgemagazine)

Blood libel circulating in Canada
TORONTO – Al-Ameen Post, an Islamic community newspaper that recently ran an article accusing Jews of bringing into Israel “some 25,000 Ukrainian children” to harvest their organs, has issued a public statement of apology directed to B’nai Brith Canada. The statement, which was faxed to B’nai Brith Canada and prominently featured on Al-Ameen’s web site, was titled “To Our Fellow Jewish Canadians – Our Apologies.” B’nai Brith Canada had condemned the Al-Ameen Post after the article was reprinted in its entirety from Press TV, the official mouthpiece of the terrorist-sponsoring Iranian regime. In its statement to B’nai Brith, Al-Ameen acknowledged that “the leading Canadian Jewish organization, is not pleased with the content of the article, and have asked for an apology” and that “the editorial board of al-Ameen Post, without prejudice, extends its honest and sincere apology to our fellow Jewish Canadians for any hurt which may have been caused by us publishing or communicating such a news article.” Nevertheless, the statement went on to say that “defending our news article at this juncture would mean causing further divide in our harmonious multicultural fabric, which goes against our own values.” (Jewishtribune.ca)

Growing Norwegian hostility-Isi Leibler
Norwegian Foreign Minister Johan Gahr Støre, who is visiting Israel today, represents a government that all too often seizes the opportunity to besmirch the Jewish state and is renowned as one of the principal Israel-bashers in Europe. Jews have mixed feelings about Norway. They have fond memories of the resistance displayed by Norwegian King Haakon VII against the Nazis, but are obliged to balance this with the collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become a universal term for describing traitors.
To this day, Norway retains an unenviable reputation for sanctioning cruel blood sports like hunting, and is reviled as one of the last countries that still condone whaling. Yet this is the country that banned Jewish ritual slaughter even before the Nazis did so in Germany. Støre is today at the vanguard of European political leaders endorsing direct talks with Hamas, and repeatedly condemns Israel for having acted disproportionately and brutally in Gaza. NEEDLESS TO say, double standards apply. Norway is a NATO member, but failed to protest when it carpet-bombed Serbia, killing many innocent civilians in its efforts to depose president Slobodan Milosevic. Nor, despite the involvement of its own troops, does Norway protest about innocent civilians killed when NATO destroys terrorist networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Wordfromjerusalem)

Bomb plot ringleader: “I will change…” (UPDATED)-Michael Friscolanti
A confessed terrorist who plotted mass murder in the name of Islam says he is a reformed man, was “lucky” to be arrested before his bombs ravaged downtown Toronto, and will accept any sentence he receives for conspiring to kill fellow Canadians. Speaking in open court for the first time since his 2006 arrest, Zakaria Amara—the admitted ringleader of the “Toronto 18”—told a judge that he now rejects the radical religious ideology that fueled his deadly plot, and is thankful that the RCMP was watching him so closely. “I spent days upon days trying to summon words appropriate, meaningful and deep enough to express my regret and seek forgiveness for my actions,” he told Justice Bruce Durno, who will hand down a sentence on Monday. “At the end, I realized that only promises and actions could suffice. I would like to promise you and my fellow Canadians that I will use my sentence to change myself from a man of destruction to a man of construction. I promise, no matter how long it takes and how much it costs, to produce actions that will hopefully outweigh the actions that I once took towards hurting others.”His apology—and the tears that followed later in the hearing—was a stark contrast from the old Zakaria Amara: the terrorist front man determined to bomb three targets in southern Ontario, including the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Macleans.ca)

The suborning of American intelligence-Melanie Phillips
People in America are often shocked to discover the extent to which the authorities in Britain have been taken in by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, to such an extent the UK government and police use them as advisers on combating Islamic extremism. Americans would be even more shocked to discover that exactly the same thing is going on in their own backyard. Pajamas TV features two interviews with former US security people, one described merely as having been given some kind of intel-gathering assignment by the ‘joint chiefs’ and the other described as a ‘former FBI special agent’. The first describes how, when he discovered to his alarm that there was not only no evidence that Islamic radicals were wrong in Islamic law but that there were no counter-arguments to them in that law, the US intel/law enforcement community that had instructed him just didn’t want to know. The second, the ex-FBI man, is even more alarming. He states that the American counter-terrorist establishment has allowed itself to be infiltrated by radical Islamists -- to whom counter-terrorism officials are going for advice and training in countering Islamic radicalism. Every major Muslim representative organisation in the US, he says, is a Muslim Brotherhood front. (Spectator.co.uk)

Cyber Vigilante Prompts Debate on Internet Terror Fight-Steve Emerson
In the ever-changing conflict between the West and Islamist radicals, one front – the Internet – has emerged as a major battlefield. And, while in many areas of this frontier the Islamists strut about unchecked, one man, code-name th3j35t3r ("The Jester"), has made it his point to strike back with (cyber) force. As first reported by the security blog ThreatChaos, "The Jester" made a different kind of New Year's resolution than most: to wage war on jihadist and pro-Islamist websites and forums by systematically disrupting their servers via denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Also unlike most, he has made good on his promise thus far – and there is no sign that he will let up. "The Jester has been documenting his attacks against www.alemarah.info, www.radicalislam.org, islamicpoint.net, www.almaghrib.org, www.as-ansar.com, www.islamicnetwork.com, www.islamicawakening.com, [and] www.ansarnet.info, since the beginning of 2010," according to the ThreatChaos report. Research and reports by the Investigative Project on Terrorism have verified the radical nature of some of The Jester's targets. (Familysecuritymatters)

Key Turning Point in Jihadi's Journey-CHARLES LEVINSON, SARAH CHILDRESS and MARGARET COKER
Alleged Christmas Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Held Critical Meetings With Radical Cleric, al Qaeda OperativeSAN'A, Yemen—For 10 days this summer, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab took language classes in this ancient city on the Arabian Peninsula. He lived in student housing, appearing to his fellow students to be devout, friendly and generally content. Then, he was gone. New details in the case of Mr. Abdulmutallab, charged with attempting to bring down Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253, have emerged suggesting that it was around this time that the young man met with the radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, according to a person familiar with intelligence shared among Arab states and a U.S. official. The person familiar with Arab intelligence says Mr. Abdulmutallab met with a mysterious Saudi operative of al Qaeda. A few months later, on Christmas Day, he boarded the plane for Detroit, with 76 grams of explosives allegedly sewn into his underwear. Investigators in the U.S. and Yemen believe the meetings marked a critical turning point in Mr. Abdulmutallab's gradual transformation from pious Muslim to alleged terrorist. How and when his relationships were initially forged with al Qaeda and Mr. Awlaki, who has surfaced in multiple terror probes, is at the heart of the global scramble to trace Mr. Abdulmutallab's "radicalization"—and to determine how authorities could have missed the warning signs. (WSJ)

Our Sorta, Kinda War on Terror-Victor Davis Hanson
President Obama has not signed up for a serious effort against radical Islam.
After Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Great Britain and France sorta, kinda declared war on Germany. The formal declaration of war was real enough, but the allies’ initial responses were laughable. Two days after Germany started to slaughter the Poles, Britain began conducting “truth raids,” which were to drop 6 million leaflets over Germany. These milk runs were supposedly aimed at “showing” the Germans that Britain someday might be able to bomb them, “enlightening” them about the sins of the then widely popular and victorious Adolf Hitler, and demonstrating the Brits’ desire for peace and quiet rather than another Somme or Verdun. For much of that autumn of 1939 and the winter of 1940, the enormous French army stayed put — except occasionally to “push” a mile or two into German territory, and then retreat back, all to prove the country’s supposed fighting ability. Somehow during the nine-month-long “phony war,” the pre-Churchillian allies managed to convey a sense of weakness and timidity, while being bellicose sounding enough to offend their enemies. Hitler, in contrast, smiled and pressed on, invading Denmark and Norway, launching unrestricted submarine attacks, rounding up Jews in the east, bombing Britain, and preparing for a massive invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. (Nationalreview)

The Rome-Tehran Axis-Giulio Meotti
Italian companies—with Rome's backing—have equipped Iran's military and contributed to the regime's satellite and possibly nuclear programs.
Rome. When it comes to appeasing the Islamic Republic, no other Western nation has stooped lower than Italy. Amid the international outrage over the Iranian regime's brutalization of its own people, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned Europe "must not burn every bridge because Iran is a key figure" in the region. While rejecting any military action to stop Tehran's nuclear weapons program, Mr. Frattini urged the West to "avoid those [sanctions] that are connected with Iranian national pride." What may sound like a naïve appeal for more failed diplomacy may just as easily be thought of as a bid to secure lucrative business interests. To understand Mr. Frattini's concerns for "Iranian national pride," one has to know that next to Germany—where such bogus arguments against economic sanctions are also very popular—Italy is Iran's most important European trade partner. The list of about 1,000 Italian companies active in Iran includes such household names as Eni—the energy giant is Iran's biggest business partner in Europe according to the Italian-Iranian Chamber of Commerce—as well as Fiat, Ansaldo, Maire Tecnimont, Danieli and Duferco. Italian companies are not just busy in the civilian and energy sectors—Maire Tecnimont just signed a €200 million gas deal with Iran—but have equipped the regime's military and contributed to Iran's satellite and possibly even nuclear weapons program. (WSJ)

Ministers stopped the handouts following the September 11 attacks in America in order to prevent money being channelled towards banned groups. Current Treasury rules state that social security payments cannot be made available, directly or indirectly, to, or for the benefit of, anyone who is on the UN terrorism sanctions list. But remarks by the senior advocate of the European Court of Justice, Paulo Mengozzi, could soon mean the Government is forced to reverse that decision and reinstate the payments. Mr Mengozzi said the decision to halt the payments was unfair on the grounds of human rights. Europe's highest court is due to consider three test cases, brought by the wives of British based terror suspects later this year, at which Mr Mengozzi's observations are likely to prove crucial. The court has agreed with eight out of ten of the advocate general's previous rulings. Any decision by the European court, which is expected to issue a judgement within the next six months, will be binding on courts throughout the EU. (Telegraph.co.uk)

World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown-Jonathan Leake and Chris Hastings
A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Antarctica and the Myth of Deadly Rising Seas-Marc Sheppard
On Monday, scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute reported that they'd measured sea temperatures beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf and found no signs of warming whatsoever. And while the discovery's corollaries remain mostly blurred by the few rogue mainstream media outlets actually reporting it, the findings are in fact yet another serious blow to the sky-is-falling-because-oceans-are-risingprophecies of the climate alarm crowd. For years now, alarmists have insisted that Antarctica is thawing thanks to man-made global warming. They warn that such melting of a frozen continent containing 90 percent of all the ice on the planet would inevitably lead to a cataclysmic sea level rise (SLR). Scary stuff, indeed. (Americanthinker)

Smarter than you think-Jonathan Leake and Georgia Warren
The animal kingdom is home to much greater intelligence than has been previously acknowledged, with scientists seeing evidence of human-like traits everywhere
It was the sight of a diminutive Diana monkey attacking a giant crowned eagle in the treetops of the Tai forest in Ivory Coast, west Africa, that gave Klaus Zuberbühler his great insight into the language of monkeys. As the animal charged the bird it emitted screams that Zuberbühler, a psychologist at St Andrews University, knew he had heard before. “When we analysed our recordings we realised it was different to all the other monkey alarm calls — except for when they were fighting off eagles,” said Zuberbühler. The implication was a powerful one. Jungles such as the Tai forest are a cacophony of monkey shouts and screams. Researchers had assumed they were just simple markers of territory, distress or a desire to mate. What Zuberbühler’s findings suggested was something much more exciting: the monkeys were communicating with each other, in this case passing on complex information about a specific threat and its whereabouts. In other words, they had developed a rudimentary language. Over the following months Zuberbühler and his colleagues recorded thousands more monkey calls and spent hundreds of hours listening to the animals. Slowly they learnt the language of the apes. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Death Personified-Peter Cowie
The long-lived appeal of Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal'
No single film of the art-house era (c.1956-68) exerted as great an influence on so many directors and critics as did "The Seventh Seal." From Woody Allen to Walter Murch, from Philip Kaufman to Richard Corliss, these individuals remember the night they saw Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece as vividly as they recall the death of Marilyn Monroe or the assassination of JFK. Bergman was just shy of 38 years old when he began shooting the picture on a modest budget during the summer of 1956. An unexpected prize for "Smiles of a Summer Night" at the Cannes Festival that spring had prompted Svensk Filmindustri to greenlight this project that Bergman had cherished for some time and that stemmed from a one-act play he had written. Bergman's production designer, P.A. Lundgren, managed to create a convincing medieval milieu on the studio's tiny backlot outside Stockholm. Only a fraction of the film was shot on location—the opening on the beach, the scene on the hillside where the Knight eats strawberries and cream with his companions, and the final "dance of death." Gunnar Fischer's monochrome cinematography abounds with images that have acquired iconic status, while the film's visual impact relies not on special effects but costumes and props. (WSJ)

Painfully shy, awesomely brave, the unknown heroine behind Anne Frank's diary-Glenys Roberts
Without The Diary Of Anne Frank, the world might never have known the everyday horror of life under the Nazis. The little book by a talented teenager who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp has become one of the world's best-sellers since it made its first appearance in 1947. The diary describes in haunting detail the terror experienced by Anne's Jewish family hiding from jack-booted Germans in an attic in occupied Amsterdam. The book has become so familiar that it is hard to remember that without the humanity and bravery of one woman, it would never have been published. Miep Gies, who has died just a month short of her 101st birthday, saved the diary pages from destruction by the Germans and gave them to Anne's father, Otto - the only member of the Frank family to survive their unimaginable ordeal. Miep was Anne's confidante and the last of the handful of 'helpers' who enabled the Franks to hide for nearly two years before their capture. Her death is the final chapter in a tragic, but inspirational story. Though she was showered with honours by the Israeli, German and Dutch governments, Miep was so shy and unassuming that few people know how she came to play such a major role in the Franks' dreadful saga. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Bernard Cornwell's King Alfred in the twenty-first century-Joanne Parker
Fictional portraits of the king who burned the cakes from the nineteenth century to the present day
It is difficult to imagine that just a century and a half ago King Alfred was celebrated as a national hero, the greatest of English monarchs, a “model Englishman”. Reviewing a new history of King Alfred for Fraser’s Magazine in 1852, the historian J. A. Froude hailed his life as “the favourite story in English nurseries”. Froude was looking back across a century in which Alfred had been feted as the first “patriot king” by the supporters of Frederick, the son of George II; had been celebrated in five epic poems (including one by John Fitchett which at 1,500 pages is still the longest modern English poem); and was the subject of plays, children’s books, paintings and statues. It was over the next half century, however, that the ninth-century king of Wessex became a national icon. Works in every literary genre, including the “Alfredian” novel, became fashionable; in them Alfred was credited with the founding of trial by jury, the Royal Navy, limited monarchy and free education. During public celebrations in 1901 (a date believed, erroneously, to mark the thousandth anniversary of his death), Hamo Thornycroft’s statue of Alfred was unveiled in Winchester in the presence of dignitaries from across the empire and spectators in their thousands. Within a year, however, Alfredianism was in decline, and during the next fifty years the Saxon king all but disappeared from British popular culture. (TLS)