MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute – “Increasing numbers of Muslims in Europe are travelling to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and other conflict zones to obtain training in terrorist methods.

Although intelligence agencies have been following the trend since the July 2005 bombings of the London commuter system, which were perpetrated by four home-grown Islamic terrorists, the scale of the problem has come into greater focus in recent weeks.

European security officials are especially concerned about reports that al-Qaeda is recruiting and training Western operatives who have ‘clean’ criminal records and have the ability to travel freely and blend in with European and American cultures…

Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, recently provided important context to the threat posed by would-be jihadists. In a rare public address on June 25, Evans said the Olympic Games in London ‘present an attractive target for our enemies and they will be at the center of the world’s attention in a month or so. No doubt some terrorist networks have thought about whether they could pull off an attack.’

‘In back rooms and in cars and on the streets of this country there is no shortage of individuals talking about wanting to mount terrorist attacks here,’ Evans continued. ‘It is essential that we maintain pressure on al-Qaeda.’

Evans also said that al-Qaeda militants are using the countries which toppled their leaders in the Arab Spring as bases to train radical Western youths for potential attacks on Britain: ‘This is the completion of a cycle. Al-Qaida first moved to Afghanistan in the 1990s due to pressure in their Arab countries of origin. They moved on to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban. And now some are heading home to the Arab world again.'” Read more.

Flashback: Jihadists Using Switzerland As Base To Promote Islamic Extremism In Europe And Beyond – “Radical Muslim groups are using Switzerland as a base from which to promote Islamic jihad in Europe and beyond. Islamists in Switzerland are providing jihadists with logistical support, and also stepping up their use of Internet websites there to spread Islamic propaganda as well as to incite their supporters to commit acts of terrorism and violence. Swiss authorities have identified at least 10 trips by Islamists from Switzerland to jihadi training camps overseas just during the past 12 months.” Read more.

Flashback: Occupation Without Tanks or Soldiers: European ‘No-Go’ Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating – “Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of ‘no-go’ areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims. Many of the ‘no-go’ zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.” Read more.

Fox News – “U.S. policymakers are bracing for a potential ‘collapse’ of the power structure inside Syria, as the Obama administration closely monitors the intensifying violence in the capital.

Following a bomb attack that left several Syrian regime officials dead, a State Department source forwarded to Fox News an assessment from an independent Middle East analyst who monitors social media in the region and provides occasional guidance to the department.

‘Tweet trends on #Damascus indicate something will collapse in #Syria next 36 hours,’ the message said. ‘Looks a lot like Tripoli did a year ago.’

The note was a reference to the atmosphere in Libya’s capital before Muammar Qaddafi’s regime was overthrown, and Qaddafi was captured and killed.

It’s unclear whether Damascus has entered such a period, but the capital saw an unprecedented attack Wednesday on Bashar Assad’s regime, when a bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting and killed at least three officials.

Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels’ battle to oust Assad; Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister who is married to Assad’s elder sister; and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister who died of wounds suffered in the attack.

Also wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking alongside British Defense Minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday, said the escalating violence indicates that the rebels feel emboldened and that the government of Assad is suffering ‘probably some fragmentation around the edges’ as it struggles to keep a grip on power.

The bombing was the harshest blow to the government’s inner circle in the 16-month uprising.” Read more.

“(ANSAMed) – ANKARA – The ‘decisive battle’ has begun in Damascus, exiled Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leaders meeting in Istanbul in their first plenary congress in 30 years said today.

Three decades after their attempted uprising against Hafez al Assad, father of the current Syrian president, ended in a bloodbath and 20,000 dead, the Sunnite Muslim Brotherhood now sees their chance for a comeback.

In spite of ‘long years of repression by the regime,’ the movement has remained strong in Syria, said Brotherhood leader, Mohammad Riad Shakfa. The biggest force on the Syrian National Council, which is the West’s main opposition interlocutor, and very influential in the Syrian Free Army, the Muslim Brotherhood is supported by Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also a Sunnite, and whom Assad accuses of fomenting a religious war in his country. If Syria were to follow the Egyptian model post-Assad, the country’s next leader might well be from the Muslim Brotherhood.

But Syria’s strong ethnic and religious divisions, as evidenced by tensions within the anti-Assad forces, could also cause the country to split, warned analyst Abdullah Bozkurt.

From Turkey’s point of view, the nightmare scenario would be a three-way split into a Shiite Alawite state along the Mediterranean, a Kurdish state between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, and a Sunnite state in the rest of the country, Bozkurt said. In recent days, Syrian Kurdish National Council leader Sherkoh Abbas accused the Muslim Brotherhood of ‘railroading the revolution’ in order to replace Assad with ‘an Islamic, Sunnite, Arab and nationalist regime.'” Source – ANSAMed.

Flashback: Syria’s Choice: Murderous Secular Regime or Islamic Fundamentalists – “As Syrian dictator Bashar Assad continues to slaughter his people, there are growing indications that the Islamists are increasing their efforts to replace his regime. What started as a secular Facebook revolution against the Assad regime is now beginning to look more like a jihad [holy war] led by Muslim fundamentalists. The Muslim Brotherhood is clearly seeking to hijack the anti-Assad protests, in both the political and military fields. In the past few months, there have been many signs of a ‘return to Islam’ in Syrian society.” Read more.

“Syrian military forces were gathered in Tuesday, July 17, to save Damascus.

Tanks and armored vehicles were positioned in strength in the capital’s center and around government buildings. However, the noise and fury of battle in the Syrian capital Tuesday, July 17, were produced, debkafile’s military sources report, by six battalions of Bashar Assad’s loyal Allawite militia in clashes with the rebels who captured the two southern suburbs of Meidan and Tadmon Monday. They are trying to pound the enemy into extinction before its forces reach central Damascus.

The two beleaguered districts are home to a quarter of the capital’s 1.8 million inhabitants.

The Syrian general staff has withdrawn its command headquarters to a well-fortified complex on Shuhada Street in the capital’s center.

If Damascus falls and Assad is cornered, the entire region stands in peril of wider repercussions, because neither he nor Tehran will take defeat lying down.

debkafile’s military sources report their campaign will be paced and scaled according to the momentum of the Syrian rebels’ advance on Bashar Assad’s door-step, which could be drawn out and bloody.

On the Iranian-Hizballah list are Middle East oil installations as well as Israeli, US, Turkish, Saudi and Jordanian strategic targets.

Saturday, the Cypriot police captured a Hizballah terrorist before he could blow up an Israeli El Al flight and tourist buses in Limassol.

Tehran is feared to be focusing on the Mediterranean island as part of a plot to set Israel’s Mediterranean gas field Tamar on fire.” Read more.