MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Hey, he’s alive after all …

By Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans, Reuters – “President Bashar Assad accused the West on Wednesday of supporting al Qaeda militants in Syria’s civil war and warned they would turn against their backers and strike ‘in the heart of Europe and the United States.’

Assad also launched his strongest criticism yet of neighboring Jordan for allowing thousands of fighters to cross the border to join a conflict he insisted his forces would win and save Syria from destruction.

‘We have no choice but victory. If we don’t win, Syria will be finished and I don’t think this is a choice for any citizen in Syria,’ the defiant president said in a television interview.

Assad’s forces have been fighting back across the country against rebels who have taken control of much of rural Syria and seized a provincial capital in March for the first time in two years of fighting.

The conflict started with mainly peaceful demonstrations but descended into a civil war in which the United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed. Islamist militants have emerged as the most potent of the anti-Assad rebels.” Read more.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels Pledge Their Allegiance To Al-Qaeda’s “Teach-Your-Children-To-Love-Death” Al-Zawahiri – “The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result. Al-Nusra claims to have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets. On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this. Al-Nusra has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Leader Zawahiri Urges Establishment of Islamic State in Syria to Help Return of Caliphate – “Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in Syria, in an online audio message Sunday in which he also warned France against its military intervention in Mali. ‘Let your fight be in the name of Allah and with the aim of establishing Allah’s sharia (law) as the ruling system,’ he said in his first message posted on the Internet since last November. ‘Do all that you can so that your holy war yields a jihadist Islamic state,’ said Zawahiri, adding that such a state would help to re-establish the Islamic ‘caliphate’ system of rule.” Read more.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels: After Assad ‘We Have A Big Fight Against The Jews Ahead Of Us’ – “The results of Saudi Arabia’s tireless efforts were on display in Al-Midan, a suburb in southern Damascus where I recently interviewed rebel fighters. Mateen, a fighter who claimed to have traveled from Afghanistan, shared his ideas for Syria’s future after ridding it of the Assad dynasty. ‘We have to build a society of respect and brotherhood in accordance with the Prophet’s commandments … we have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us. We will take that up, God willing.’” Read more.

Oddly enough, the Al-Qaeda-loving Salafi cleric below claims that the Boston “pressure cooker” bombs could not have been done by Al-Qaeda because it was “amateurish” and not up to Al-Qaeda’s “standards.”  He apparently forgot to read Al-Qaeda’s 2010 issue of “Inspire” magazine encouraging that “pressurized cooker [bombs] be placed in crowded areas and left to blow up” and that “more than one of these could be planted to explode at the same time” …

Egyptian Salafi Cleric Sheik Murgan Salem, 4/16/2013: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Obviously, I do not know who carried out that operation, but if it was done by the mujahideen, it serves as a message to the America and the West: We are still alive. Contrary to what you say, we have not died. The (Americans) wanted to send a message to the entire world that they finished off the mujahideen – not just the mujahideen of Al-Qaeda, but the mujahideen all over the world… it was meant as a clear message to America and to the West… I do not know who did it, but they have managed to get the message across: We can reach you whenever and wherever we want.” Listen to more below.

By Reza Kahlili, WND – “Iran ratcheted up its vitriol against Israel and the United States over the weekend, warning that an attack on the Islamic regime’s nuclear facilities could lead to global war.

The rhetoric eerily matched that currently coming out of North Korea against its perceived enemies.

‘Iran will not stand by in the face of such aggression,’ Ali Ahani, Iran’s ambassador to France, said Sunday, according to the Islamic regime’s PressTV. ‘This can entail a chain of violence that may lead to World war III. A potential Israeli attack against Iran with an objective of destroying its scientific and nuclear facilities is sheer madness. Its consequences are disastrous and uncontrollable.”

The deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Brig. Gen Masoud Jazayeri, warned the United States on Saturday that Iran would continue its nuclear program.

‘We would not trade off our rights,’ he said, adding that Iran would stand with North Korea in its faceoff with America.

According to Mehr News, Jazayeri blamed the tension on the Korean Peninsula on the U.S. presence in the region.

‘Whenever necessary, we would stop the U.S. excessive demands,’ he said. ‘The Islamic Revolution will never leave its past and present friends. The U.S. and its allies will suffer great losses if a war breaks out in this region.’

The commander of the Islamic regime’s ground forces, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Poordastan, in his speech at Friday Prayers, also warned ‘the enemies’ that the country’s army has its finger on the trigger and that any attack on the country will make the ‘enemy’ regret its actions.

All enemy activities at Iran’s borders and in the region are being monitored by the country’s intelligence analysts, and Iran’s armed forces are prepared for any scenario, he said.

The regime’s PressTV ran an op-ed analysis on Saturday with a headline ‘Iran deals deathblow to U.S. global hegemony.’ The analysis, by Finian Cunningham, an Irishman whom the outlet calls ‘a prominent expert in international affairs,’ blames America for much of the world’s problems and warns of its Read more…

Tabari 9:69, “Killing Unbelievers is a small matter to us” – The Words of Muhammad, Prophet of Islam.

Al-Qaeda Magazine – How To Kill Non-Muslim Populations

By Patrick Goodenough, CNS News – “Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Writing in the online magazine of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Inspire, the terrorist known as Abu Musab al-Suri listed what he called ‘the most important enemy targets.’

Al-Suri contended that civilians should be targeted ‘when responding to a brutal practice carried out by America and her allied forces.’

‘This is done by targeting human crowds in order to inflict maximum human losses,’ he wrote. ‘This is very easy since there are numerous such targets such as crowded sports arenas, annual social events, large international exhibitions, crowded market-places, skyscrapers, crowded buildings … etc.’

‘It is possible for ordinary Resistance fighters among the Muslims residing in America and the allied Western countries to target them, in order to participate in the jihad and the Resistance, and to stretch out a helping hand to the mujahidun [Islamic warriors].’

The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist Web sites, drew attention Monday to the Inspire article.

Any short list of terrorist groups dedicated to carrying out attacks against U.S. targets would include AQAP, the al-Qaeda affiliate active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Magazine Includes Assassination Hit List, Torching Terror Tips – “Al Qaeda has released the latest edition of its English-language propaganda magazine advising would-be militants on how to torch parked cars and cause traffic accidents… In a section entitled ‘open source jihad’, the magazine gives tips on how to set fire to parked cars, including advice such as ‘don’t get petrol on yourself’, and suggests spilling oil on road bends to cause crashes… ‘The West should taste some burning. They should pay for bombarding and burning our Muslim brothers and sisters’ homes and our Holy (Koran).'” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Magazine Calls Upon American Muslims To Launch A ‘Firebomb’ Campaign Inside The US – “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.” Read more.

Iran, after all, needs North Korea to build Iranian nukes for some very specific “medical purposes” …

By Lori Lowenthal Marcus, The Jewish Press – “The deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Masood Jazayeri announced that Iran will stand by North Korea and defend it in a war between the United States and North Korea.

Jazayeri made the statement on Friday, April 5.  He blamed increasing tensions in the Korean peninsula on ‘excessive demands by the United States,’ which he said was ‘tightening the noose on North Korea.’  The Iranian military leader said that those aggressive activities on the part of the U.S. left the North Koreans with no option but to confront the ‘big Satan.’

‘The nation and government of North Korea has always been subject to threat, despotism, and imperialism by the U.S, therefore they consider it their right to boost their own defensive power in order to inhibit their enemy,’ said Jazayeri.  ‘The time is long past that the United States can bully other countries.’

And just to make sure Americans understand he means business, Jazayeri warned that ‘America and her allies will suffer countless thousands of victims’ should Iran and North Korea be provoked into a war with the U.S.

The Iranian commitment to stand with North Korea is another move in an escalating exchange of verbal hostilities – considered by many to be mostly posturing – and military maneuvers that North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. have engaged in over the past several months.” Read more.

Flashback: Connecting The Dots: North Korean Nuke Test Was Attended, And Paid For, By Iran – “All intelligence indicators received and processed by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs show that the nuclear weapon tested by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) on Feb. 12, was paid for, and intended for, the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was, in essence, a test of an Iranian nuclear weapon, and involved scientific as well as financial involvement by the Iranian government. Moreover, the weapon was not — as some media reporting has averred — a ‘step toward’ a North Korean or Iranian nuclear weapons capability: it was in fact a demonstration of a common North Korean and Iranian operationally-ready nuclear weapon.” Read more.

Flashback: Iranian Commander Reiterates Need Fully Annihilate The ‘Cancerous Tumor’ Called Israel, ‘The Zionist Regime … Will Be Cut’ – “Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said that threats and sanctions will not deter the Islamic Republic from ‘its revolutionary causes and ideals,’ and stressed that the regime will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Jewish state… ‘The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel,’ Firouzabadi said… ‘The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God willing,’ he added.” Read more.

• Flashback: Iran Ready To Expand Ties ‘In All Arenas’ With North Korea
• Flashback: Iran, North Korea to Discuss ‘Expansion of Cooperation’ in Talks
• Flashback: German Media: North Korea May Be Testing Nuclear Warheads For Iran
• Flashback: Hundreds of North Korean Nuclear and Missile Experts Working in More Than 10 Locations Across Iran

If by “freedom” and “democracy” you mean Al-Qaeda’s “teach-your-children-to-love-death” al-Zawahiri …

BBC – “The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result.

Al-Nusra claims to have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets.

On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this.

Al-Nusra has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.

Debates among Western leaders over whether to arm Syria’s rebels have often raised the concern of weapons ending up in the hands of groups such as al-Nusra.

‘The sons of al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri,’ Mr Jawlani said in a recording released on Wednesday.

But Mr Jawlani said al-Nusra had not been consulted on the merger with al-Qaeda in Iraq and insisted his group would not change its stance in Syria.

The al-Nusra statement assured Syrians that the ‘good behaviour’ they had experienced from the front on the ground would continue unchanged, the BBC’s Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Mr Jawlani said that the oath of allegiance to Zawahiri ‘will not change anything in its policies’, our correspondent adds.” Read more.

Al-Qaeda Leader Zawahiri Urges Establishment of Islamic State in Syria to Help Return of Caliphate – “Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in Syria, in an online audio message Sunday in which he also warned France against its military intervention in Mali. ‘Let your fight be in the name of Allah and with the aim of establishing Allah’s sharia (law) as the ruling system,’ he said in his first message posted on the Internet since last November. ‘Do all that you can so that your holy war yields a jihadist Islamic state,’ said Zawahiri, adding that such a state would help to re-establish the Islamic ‘caliphate’ system of rule.” Read more.

Flashback: Syria: Islamic Insurgents Brainwashing Children For The Cause Of Allah, ‘Sharia Is Our Only Law, Democracy Is Disgusting’ – “Disturbing footage of Jabhat Al Nusra insurgents using propaganda to brainwash children with their Jihadist ideals. Hatred of non-Muslims and contempt of democracy being just two of them. Several young children, some of whom have already been compelled to cover from head to toe are filmed singing songs in honour of Jabhat Al Nusra which also condemn ‘kuffars’ and their ideals while pledging loyalty to Jihad and Jabhat Al Nusra – Syria’s major Al Qaeda front group.” Watch video.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels: After Assad ‘We Have A Big Fight Against The Jews Ahead Of Us’ – “The results of Saudi Arabia’s tireless efforts were on display in Al-Midan, a suburb in southern Damascus where I recently interviewed rebel fighters. Mateen, a fighter who claimed to have traveled from Afghanistan, shared his ideas for Syria’s future after ridding it of the Assad dynasty. ‘We have to build a society of respect and brotherhood in accordance with the Prophet’s commandments … we have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us. We will take that up, God willing.’” Read more.