MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch – “The YouTube page is here. On the right of the upper row and the left of the second row are videos by Feiz Mohammed.

‘Police seize Muslim ‘kill enemies’ videos,’ by Simon Kearney and Tracy Ong for The Australian, January 20, 2007:

FIREBRAND cleric Sheik Feiz Mohamed’s defence of his comments on a DVD calling children to jihad has been undermined by revelations, the video also urges Muslims to kill the enemies of Islam and praises martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad.In the DVD, which runs for almost four hours, Sheik Feiz describes inmates of Guantanamo Bay as better Muslims than those in Australia, who would would not forsake their lifestyles for martyrdom.

“The brothers in Cuba are better than us,” he said. “They are being examined through the best examination (a reference to God’s judgment) and the like of them worldwide.”

The sheik, who left Australia in 2005 to live in his father’s homeland, Lebanon, exorts his followers to seek the honourable death of the believer, quoting from narrations about the prophet Mohammed.

“They fight in the cause, they kill others – the enemies who fight Islam and they themselves are killed as martyrs,” he said. He gives the example of a mujaheddin who fought in Bosnia in the 1990s who spoke of nothing but jihad and was killed on the battlefield. “What a beautiful person to be associated with. Would you not like to be an associate of this person?”

The DVD was a recording of a series of passionate fire-and-brimstone sermons that told his audience over several weeks nearly four years ago his thoughts on the way to live their lives. “This is our intention that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, loving Islam,” he said.

Details of the DVD’s contents have sparked an Australian Federal Police investigation and have been met with condemnation.

AFP officers visited the Muslim youth centre founded by Sheik Feiz yesterday to collect a copy of his DVD, which was handed over voluntarily by members of the 4000-strong youth movement.

The two federal agents who arrived at the Global Islamic Youth Centre at Liverpool, in Sydney’s west, Read more…

The two Boston bombers responsible for killing 3 and wounding 264 have been identified as two brothers from the region of Chechnya in southern Russia, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency for the past two decades. Both brothers identify themselves as Muslim. The oldest brother (black cap) has been killed after a confrontation with police and may have been wearing a suicide vest (a tell-tale trait often employed by Islamists). The youngest brother (white cap) is still on the run …

Update: Second brother has been captured alive …

By Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz and Clarence Williams, The Washington Post – “They blasted across the nation’s airwaves as the mystery men on the run from the FBI in the Boston Marathon bombings, both carrying backpacks, one wearing a backward white baseball hat and the other clad in dark glasses and a white T-shirt.

On Friday, after a chaotic night in which one of the men was killed and the other became the target of a massive manhunt, information was slowly emerging about the two men — who are brothers and the prime suspects in the attacks that killed three people and injured more than 170.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect still on the loose as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was identified as the man killed during an encounter with police after an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge. Tsarnaev was believed to be in his mid-20s.

The brothers’ alleged motive in Monday’s bombings remains unclear, but they appear to be originally from the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, and two law enforcement officials said there is a “Chechen connection” to the bombings. Chechnya has been racked by years of war between local separatists and Russian forces and extensive organized crime since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The extent of the possible connection remained unclear…

The Chechen conflict dates to the early 1990s. In the summer of 1999, fighters in the predominantly Muslim republic rose up in an attempt to throw off Russian domination. Vladimir Putin, then the Russian prime minister, responded quickly, firmly and brutally to put down the rebellion.” Read more.

Chaos: Police Officer Killed, Car Chase Ensues, Explosives Thrown At Police – “About five hours after the FBI released the pictures of the bombing suspects, a police officer was shot and killed on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Middlesex County District Attorney said in a statement. A short time later, police received reports of a carjacking by two men who kept their victim inside the car for about half an hour, the statement said. Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and gunfire was exchanged, the statement said. ‘During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time,’ Colonel Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.” Read more.

Russia’s Caucasus: Breeding Ground For Islamic Terror, Links To Al-Qaida – “Militants from Chechnya and other restive regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon explosions would mark the first time they had conducted a terror attack in the West. The conflict in Chechnya began in 1994 as a separatist war, but quickly morphed into an Islamic insurgency whose adepts vow to carve out an independent Islamic state in the Caucasus… The allegations of the Caucasus men’s role in the Boston’s explosions would reinforce long-held claims by Russian officials that insurgents in the Caucasus have been linked to al-Qaida.” Read more.

For peaceful purposes …

Los Angeles Times – “A 25-year-old Somali woman living in San Diego was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to sending money to a suspected terrorist group in her native country.

Nima Yusuf admitted in San Diego federal court that she sent $1,450 to men in Somalia who were fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. She also admitted trying to recruit a local man to go to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab.

According to FBI wiretaps, Yusuf was pleased when told in a phone call by another Somali that al-Shabaab had killed Burundian peacekeeping troops. She allegedly responded: ‘Oh my God! God is great! Wonderful! I swear to God, you told me something to be happy about.’

In another conversation, Yusuf laughingly said she hoped another terrorist strike like the Sept. 11 attack occurs in America: ‘Oh! It will be happening again. Trust me, more this time it will be double, triple their deaths.’

Yusuf has pleaded guilty to conspiring with four other Somali nationals in Minnesota to provide money and other support to al-Shabaab, which is attempting to overthrow the transitional government in Somalia and oust African Union troops.

‘This is a serious crime against our country and our citizenry,’ said Daphne Hearn, FBI special agent in charge of the San Diego office.” Source – Los Angeles Times.

Flashback: California: Los Angeles Police: Terror Plots Linked To Iran And Hezbollah Are Active, May Initiate Attacks If Middle East War Erupts – “Senior police officials on Wednesday warned of potential terrorist attacks in Southern California amid a growing risk of war breaking out overseas… ‘In this region we have active terrorist plots, in this region, right now,’ said Deputy Chief Michael Downing, commanding officer of the LAPD’s counter-terrorism unit.” Read more.

For peaceful purposes …

By Ellen Jean Hirst, Chicago Tribune – “A Chicago man was sentenced today to nearly 10 years in prison for planning to travel to Somalia in 2010 to wage jihad for a terrorist group connected to al-Qaida.

Shaker Masri, 29, a native U.S. citizen of Syrian descent, pleaded guilty in July to attempting to provide material support to the Somali group al-Shabaab, which is designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman considered Masri’s younger age, mental health and stress from his mother’s sudden death in accepting the sentence worked out between prosecutors and his lawyers – 9 years and 10 months in prison.

However, she also ordered that he be under supervised release for 20 years following his release from prison.

Masri’s lead attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, had opposed the unusually lengthy supervised release, noting his client would be an old man by the time he was no longer under court supervision.

‘With all due respect, 50 years old is not old,’ Johnson Coleman said. ‘You’ve still got a lot of time left.

But Joshua Dratel, another Masri attorney, pointed out that Masri would be nearly 60 by the time he was free of the court restrictions.

‘Still not old,’ the judge said.” Read more.

Flashback: Illinois: Muslim Teen Obsessed With Violent Jihad And Killing Americans Charged With Trying To Blow Up Chicago Bar – “The FBI has charged an 18-year-old man for allegedly trying to detonate a car bomb outside a Chicago bar, federal prosecutors said Saturday. Investigators have identified the suspect as Adel Daoud, a U.S. citizen from of Hillside, Ill., a Chicago suburb… Daoud is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive, according to court documents.” Read more.

By SCOTT HIAASEN, The Miami Herald – “MIAMI — Two Pakistani brothers from Oakland Park, Fla., have been arrested on terrorism charges, accused of conspiring to deploy explosive weapons against an American target, according to a federal indictment released Friday.

The brothers, 20-year-old Raess Alam Qazi and 30-year-old Sheheryar Alam Qazi, have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. They were arrested Thursday by the FBI and remain in custody at the Broward County Jail.

Between July 2011 and Thursday, prosecutors said, the pair provided transportation, money, lodging and other aid toward a plan to use a large-scale weapon somewhere in the United States. Federal authorities would disclose few details of the ongoing investigation Friday, declining to name the target of the alleged plot, or how close the plan was to fruition.

‘Any potential threat posed by these two individuals has been disrupted,’ Wifredo Ferrer, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, said in a statement. ‘Since September 11, 2001, the top priority of the Department of Justice and this U.S. Attorney’s Office has been to deter and prosecute acts of terrorism.’

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. Investigators would not say how the terrorist plot was detected, though sources close to the investigation said Thursday’s arrests were not the result of an FBI sting.” Read more.

Al-Qaeda Fatwa Directed Followers To Retake Al-Aqsa Mosque

By Nancy Dillon, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS – “Four men with links to Southern California have been charged with plotting to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban to attend terrorist training and engage in ‘violent jihad’ against Americans, the FBI said Monday night.

The group’s alleged ringleader, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, allegedly influenced co-defendants Miguel Santana and Ralph Deleon to convert to ‘radical and violent Islamic doctrine” in 2010, prosecutors said.

Kabir, a former resident of Pomona, Calif., and naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, recently traveled to Kabul to arrange the group’s terrorist training, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in federal court in Riverside.

Santana, 21, lives in Upland, Calif., and is a permanent resident who was born in Mexico and has an application for citizenship pending in the U.S.

Deleon, 23, is a permanent resident living in Ontario, Calif., who was born in the Philippines.

The complaint alleges that in January, Deleon ‘liked’ a video posted on Kabir’s Facebook page that ‘appears to be a prayer for the success of the mujahideen and features various photos including Al-Qa’ida leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, (the) 9/11 attacks, bloodied adults and children, and Islamic fighters.’

In February, Santana said he wanted to ‘help the brothers pave the way to Jerusalem,’ the complaint states.

Prosecutors believe Santana was referring to a fatwa issued by Al Qaeda directing followers to retake control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque located in Jerusalem.

The criminal complaint alleges the men intended to meet in Afghanistan in the near future and initially join ‘the students,’ meaning the Taliban, before joining ‘the professors,’ meaning Al Qaeda.

In September, the group recruited Riverside resident Arifeen Gojali, 21, to join their cause.

The complaint says the defendants discussed the plot among themselves and with a confidential FBI source.

The various conversations detailed their plans to kill American soldiers and others, the complaint states.” Read more.

It’s interesting how defense lawyers sometimes attempt to defend the indefensible. In this case, they called their client a “harmless failure” who had never come close to attacking anyone. Well, I guess that settles it. He ought to be let go to complete that Chemical Engineering degree he was working so hard on before the authorities brought it all to an abrupt end. Because the ones we really need to focus on are those who are deadly successful …

By BETSY BLANEY, AP – “AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A former Texas college student from Saudi Arabia was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for trying to make a bomb for use in a religious attack, possibly targeting a former U.S. president.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari was sentenced in Amarillo, where jurors convicted him in June of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors say he had collected bomb-making material in his apartment and researched possible targets, including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush. A handwritten journal found in his apartment included notes that he believed it was time for ‘jihad,’ a Muslim term for holy war.

Although the 22-year-old Aldawsari apologized Tuesday for ‘these bad actions,’ Judge Donald E. Walter said the evidence against him was overwhelming. Walter acknowledged he was conflicted due to Aldawsari’s youth and signs that outside influences had led him astray.

‘But the bottom line is that but by the grace of God there would be dead Americans,’ Walter said. ‘You would have done it. In every step, it was you all alone.’

Aldawsari stood silently in shackles as the sentence was read. The formerly clean-shaven, close-cropped man now had a full beard and long hair, and appeared to have lost a lot of weight.

There is no parole in the federal system for defendants convicted of recent crimes.

Aldawsari came to the U.S. legally in 2008 to study chemical engineering. He was arrested in Lubbock in February 2011, after federal agents searched his apartment and found explosive chemicals, wiring, a hazmat suit and clocks, along with videos showing how to make the chemical explosive TNP.

Investigators say Aldawsari’s goal was to carry out jihad. His attorneys claimed he was a harmless failure who never came close to attacking anyone.

FBI bomb experts say the amounts of chemicals he had would have yielded almost 15 pounds of explosive — about the same amount used per bomb in the 2005 London subway attacks. He also tried to order phenol, a chemical that can be used to make explosives.

Court records show that his emails and journal contained the explosive’s recipe.

Prosecutors said other targets he researched included nuclear power plants and the homes of three former soldiers who were stationed at Abu Ghraib prison.” Read more.