MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By DR. LAINA FARHAT-HOLZMAN, Family Security Matters – “There are two ways to analyze the violent eruption of global terrorist attacks that have marked the past three decades: analyze the nature of the threat and the culture supporting it, or blame it all on the evils of Western colonialism and American militarism. The latter analysis is the choice of the ‘politically correct,’ who say that terrorism is as rampant in the West as it is in the Muslim world. A truth check, however, will tell us that for every Western terrorist (such as Timothy McVeigh), there are hundreds almost exclusively from the Muslim world.

If colonialism is the villain of this piece, why do ideologues only talk about Western colonialism? Why ignore that Arab Muslims (and European Christians) suffered under 500 years of Ottoman Turkish colonialism well before Western colonization? And how about the Muslim world in Central Asia that suffered under both Russian Tsarist and Communist colonialism?

Arabs themselves were dreadful imperialists (700-1,000 A.D.) and every land they conquered is still dysfunctional today, according to Harvard economics professor, Eric Chaney: ‘Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present,’ in the April 7 Economist and Fareed Zakaria in Time, April 7. Wherever Arabs conquered, good governance and economic development were smothered, as they are today. This is even true for countries temporarily conquered but not converted to Islam by the Arabs (Spain, Portugal, Southern Italy).

Islamist terrorism is not just aimed at the West (revenge for colonization), but also at Thailand (Buddhist); Muslim Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia; and Nigeria, where jihadis murdered Christian church goers on Easter Sunday.  Black slavery was an Arab business long before it was European. Read more…

By RANDY KREIDER, ABC News – “The men who launched al Qaeda’s English-language magazine may have died in a U.S. missile strike last fall, but ‘Inspire’ magazine lives on without them — and continues to promote jihadi attacks on Western targets, offering detailed advice on how to start huge forest fires in America with timed explosives and how to build remote-controlled bombs.

Two new issues of ‘Inspire’ magazine have surfaced on jihadi forums, the first since radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and chief Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula propagandist Samir Khan were killed by missiles from a U.S. drone over Yemen on September 30, 2011. The magazines eulogize Awlaki and Khan as the ‘spirit’ and the ‘tongue’ of ‘Inspire’ respectively, but deny that their deaths will stop the magazine or jihad.

The second of the two issues seems to have been prepared after Khan and Awlaki’s deaths. ‘To the disappointment of our enemies,’ says one of the articles, ‘issue 9 of Inspire magazine is out against all odds … The Zionists and the Crusaders thought that the magazine was gone with the martyrdom of Shaykh Anwar and brother Samir. Yet again, they have failed to come to terms with the fact that the Muslim ummah is the most fertile and most generous mother that gives birth to thousands and thousands of the likes of Shaykh Anwar and brother Samir.’

… ‘It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb,’ which gives detailed instructions on how to ignite an ’ember bomb’ in a U.S. forest, recommending Montana because of the rapid population growth in wooded areas.

‘In America, there are more houses built in the [countryside] than in the cities,’ says the writer, who uses the pseudonym The AQ Chef. ‘It is difficult to choose a better place [than] in the valleys of Montana.’

Issue eight has an eight-page article on how to construct a remote-controlled explosives, with a laundry list of parts and ingredients and photos showing proper assembly.

In addition, issue eight provides tips on training with a handgun and issue nine provides advice on how to be an urban assassin.” Read more.

Seems like quite a lot of troops for border patrol. Either they’re quite worried about what is sprouting up out of the “Arab Spring” in Egypt and Syria, or something else is in play that isn’t being reported …

By Aaron Kalman, The Times of Israel – “The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers.

According to 2008′s Reserve Duty Law, combat soldiers can be called for active reserve duty once every three years, and for short training sessions during the other two. Rising tensions between Israel and Egypt and the ongoing unrest in Syria caused the army to ask the Knesset for special permission to call up more soldiers, more often.

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved the request recently, enabling the IDF to summon up to 22 battalions for active duty for the second time in three years. Already, the army has called up six of them.

‘This signifies that the IDF regards the Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat than in the past,’ the former deputy chief of staff, Dan Harel, said on Wednesday night.” Read more.

Arab Spring Anarchy in the Sinai: 50 Terrorist Attacks on Police – “The blossoms of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising in Egypt last year have wilted under a reign of terror in the Sinai, where Al Qaeda and other jihadi cells have carried out 50 terrorist attacks on police since the beginning of the January 25 uprising. Israel has frequently posted warnings to tourists not to visit the popular Sinai Peninsula and Red Sea resorts, but thousands of Israelis, most of them backpackers, still ignore the threats. Security sources in Egypt told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that Rafiah, which straddles the border at Gaza and Egypt, and central Sinai are under out of control of Egyptian police and soldiers.” Read more.

Dozens of Deaths Continue in Syria Despite ‘Ceasefire’ Plan – “Dozens have been killed by government forces in Syria so far this week despite attempts to enforce a UN-brokered “ceasefire plan,” an ongoing issue that the arrival two weeks ago of an advance team of 24 international peacekeeping observers has not been able to change. The six-point peace plan advanced by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan was supposed to have gone into effect 20 days ago.” Read more.

Meh, the “War on Terror” is officially over. Move along …

By Nic Robertson, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, CNN – “On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards.

Buried inside them was a pornographic video called ‘Kick Ass’ — and a file marked ‘Sexy Tanja.’

Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence — more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group’s most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.

Future plots include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants that paralyzed the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008. Ten gunmen killed 164 people in that three-day rampage.

Terrorist training manuals in PDF format in German, English and Arabic were among the documents, too, according to intelligence sources.

U.S. intelligence sources tell CNN that the documents uncovered are ‘pure gold;’ one source says that they are the most important haul of al Qaeda materials in the last year, besides those found when U.S. Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a year ago and killed the al Qaeda leader.

One document was called ‘Future Works.’ Its authorship is unclear, but intelligence officials believe it came from al Qaeda’s inner core. It may have been the work of Younis al Mauretani, a senior al Qaeda operative until his capture by Pakistani police in 2011.

The document appears to have been the product of discussions to find new targets and methods of attack. German investigators believe it was written in 2009 — and that it remains the template for al Qaeda’s plans.” Read more.

But, but, but they promise it’s only for “peaceful purposes” …

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.  For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”

"Peaceful Purposes"

By YAAKOV LAPPIN – “North Korea will soon carry out a nuclear experiment, and Iranian scientists could be present at the explosion site, sources who are familiar with the issue told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

Iranian officials from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group observed a failed North Korean rocket launch on April 13, according to a report by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

Although Seoul has neither confirmed nor denied the report, it believes that a delegation of a dozen Iranian scientists may have been technically involved in North Korea’s failed long-range rocket launch, which North Korea said was a satellite launch.

Now, the Islamic Republic may be planning a presence at North Korea’s upcoming third nuclear test as well.

South Korea government sources said on Sunday that North Korea appears

to have completed preparations for the test, and would need only to push a button to detonate an atomic bomb.

The test could come as soon as early to middle May.

North Korea has tested two atomic bombs in recent years, once in 2006 and again in 2009 – both times after it carried out failed missile tests.” Read more.

Isn’t it interesting how an Egyptian Presidential candidate now needs to speak in order to win the voting public’s support? As revealing as these words are as far as the candidate is concerned, it reveals even more about the current state of Egypt and the people now empowered to cast the ballot …

By Elad Benari – “Amr Moussa, a frontrunner in the Egyptian presidential race, criticized the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt on Monday and said that ‘the Camp David accords were dead and buried long ago.’

Moussa, who spoke during a meeting with voters in the Sohag region in southern Egypt, said, ‘The Camp David agreements do not exist anymore. They are an historic document whose place is on the shelf. The purpose of the agreement with Israel was to establish an independent Palestinian government, whereas today we are talking about an independent Palestinian state.’ His remarks were quoted by the Yisrael Hayom newspaper.

He stressed, however, that ‘as long as Israel respects the peace treaty with Egypt we will do so as well, even though the primary document which governs the relationship between Israel and the Arabs is the Arab initiative of 2002.’ These remarks echo similar ones he has made in the past.

Moussa served as foreign minister in the government of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. He then went on to serve as the head of the Arab League, a position which he gave up last year in order to run for the Egyptian presidency.” Read more.