A briefing by Andrew C. McCarthy*

Andrew McCarthy is the director of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. A former federal prosecutor, he has served as a special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense. After the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Command Post in New York City. He is a contributor to National Review and Commentary, as well as various other publications. Among his numerous awards is the Justice Department’s highest honor, the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award. He has taught at Fordham University Law School and New York Law School. On October 6, 2008, McCarthy addressed the Middle East Forum in New York City about his new book, Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad. It builds on his article, “Prosecuting the New York Sheikh,” which appeared in the March 1997 Middle East Quarterly, and his acceptance speech on receiving the Middle East Forum’s Albert J. Wood Public Affairs Award in 1996.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee Australians defiant

Australians have finally found some justice and hopefully, a sense of peace and closure. Three Islamists were executed by Indonesian authorities on Sunday, shortly after midnight, for the heinous, cowardly, and evil bombings of several nightclubs in Bali on October 12, 2002, an act which “killed 202 people — most of them young Australians — and injured more than 300.” Australians have held steadfast in the war against Islamo-fascism, and will probably become even more unwavering in defense of Western ideals after hearing the twisted and unremorseful ramblings of the three Bali bombers before their executions.

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By Douglas Farah*

Every once in a while, it is necessary to step back from the abstract world of ideas and see what the ideas actually mean in people’s lives. That is particularly true as the new administration enters and has to think about what the radical Islamist agenda really means to those who live under it.

It is also worth noting the little-noticed support some of the worst parts of the Islamist agenda get from so-called moderate and mainstream Islamist groups who are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

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By Phyllis Chesler

The American people are voting in droves today. There are incredibly long lines at all my neighborhood polling sites. Feminists are especially concerned with women’s reproductive rights. They believe that the Democrats share their views.

While this is true, it may be true only for American women, not for women living elsewhere, especially in the Islamic world. … (Continue reading…)

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By Douglas Farah*

One of the significant challenges the next administration will face in combating terrorism is the fracturing consensus on international sanctions, as noted by the Washington Post.

There is no doubt the European and U.N. consensus that gave rise to the valuable tools has softened, if not vanished, in recent years. Much of friction has to do with anti-US sentiment, coupled with the inability or unwillingness of the designating parties to use what evidence there is against designated individuals in a judicial process.

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By Phyllis Chesler

My sister’s blood, a child’s blood, cries out to me.

Last week, a barbaric gang of Somali Muslim fundamentalists gang-raped a 13 year-old girl after which they stoned her to death. One thousand spectators in the Kismayo stadium cheered the stoning on. The victim’s name was Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

When a woman friend of mine recently called to tell me that she had been offered a well paid position in Afghanistan I told her not to go. When she insisted, I said: “Alright then, you’d better get a gun, learn how to use it, and get psychologically prepared to shoot yourself in case you are captured but not instantly killed.” She was shocked, shocked. And so I continued: “But you might be easily disarmed. Better have a dentist implant a cyanide tablet, (or something more merciful), in your teeth so that you can opt out of the repeated rapes or the video-ed be-heading.” Now, she was silent and listening carefully. I continued. “You may not be held for ransom, so if you absolutely must go, I would request that your do-gooder work be carried out entirely within an American Army base — but please understand, they, too, have been successfully attacked.” … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

… Neither candidate seemed to notice the “rough beast whose hour has come round.” Three debates — and neither Obama nor McCain seriously wrestled with the imminent danger of Islamic jihad, Obama because he does not see it that way, McCain because he has chosen not to make an issue of what is possibly the Mother of all issues. … (Continue reading…)

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Things continue to improve in Iraq. U.S. troops killed al-Qaeda’s Number Two, a guy who was trying to reorganize the group in the northern part of the country:

American soldiers killed the alleged No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Moroccan who trained in Afghanistan, recruited foreign fighters and ran operations in northern Iraq where Sunni insurgents remain a potent threat, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The man, who the military said was known as Abu Qaswarah, died Oct. 5 during a raid on a building in the northern city of Mosul that served as a major “command and control location” for the region. Four other insurgents were killed in the operation, the U.S. said. …

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By Walid Phares*

In the Western debate on how best to counter the rise and expansion of the Jihadi movement, particularly the Salafists, within liberal democracies, European experiences are important because of the sheer numbers of militants and the dissemination within many urban areas. France’s counter terrorism experiences are one among these learning processes for all other European Govenrment but also for North American CT planning as well. In an article I published in the Middle East Times today I commented on France’s Interior Minister remarks on the state of confrontation with the Jihadists. In a recent series of seminars in Paris, which I will report about on CTB, I also interacted with a number of French legislators and CT officials dealing with the French involvement in Afghanistan and the Sahel. In short, France is heading towards “increasing engagement with al Qaeda on two continents, Asia and Africa, as well as at home. Below is the article:

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by Michael Rubin*

There is a tendency in Western capitals to dismiss adversarial Iranian behavior as the work of rogue regime factions, which are not representative of Tehran’s true intentions. Following a Baghdad press conference providing evidence of Iranian weapons shipments to Iraq,[1] U.S. officials raised doubts about Iran’s actual culpability. The weapons shipments do “not translate to that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,” Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted the next day.[2] On February 14, 2007, President George W. Bush said, “What we don’t know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Qods Force to do what they did.”[3] Likewise, when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized fifteen British sailors patrolling a waterway between Iran and Iraq, commentators suggested that responsibility may rest more with freelancing commanders than the Iranian government.[4] Identifying the true decision-makers in the Islamic Republic is essential not only for accountability but also to ensure that any Western diplomatic outreach is targeted at those who have the power to affect regime behavior. Unfortunately, as U.S. officials again debate negotiations with the Islamic Republic, they simultaneously embrace Iranian reformists and dismiss pariah behavior as the actions of isolated rogue elements. Such an assessment is backwards, though. The IRGC represents the core of the Iranian state, and Iran’s reformists are those who, by acting on their own without either state support or any ability to deliver on promises are, in the Iranian context, the true rogue elements.

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by Mohebat Ahdiyyih*

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surprised not only many Westerners but also many Iranians when, during his first speech at the United Nations, he prayed for the hasty return of the Hidden Imam, the Mahdi, Shi‘i Islam’s messianic figure.[1] Demonstrating his priorities, he repeated the prayer in December 2007 when addressing Arab leaders at the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha[2] but did not object when they described the Persian Gulf as Arab, a diplomatic swipe at Iran’s place in the region. Ahmadinejad’s messianism is no ploy; it is very serious indeed.[3] Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Guardian Council, credits Ahmadinejad with “being inspired by God.”[4]

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By Phyllis Chesler

The street had been closed to traffic, the lines were long, the security was tight, the place was packed, and the joint was jumping. No, I was not at the airport or attending an event at the Israeli Consulate–although, these days, more and more places have been forced to adopt Israeli-like security measures. It always starts with the Jews but it never ends with us. … (Continue reading…)

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By Walid Phares*

Prague, September 16, 2008

As part of my current European lectures and briefings tour in Europe which began this week at the European Parliament in Brussels I presented a lecture to the Center for International Security in Prague on the war of ideas and global strategies of the Jihadist movements and regimes. I will be reporting on this tour in the near future. Following is an interview with the editor of the news center at (the US-funded) Radio Free Europe based in Prague based on a discussion centered on the ideological confrontation with the Jihadi forces worldwide. The exchanged was edited and sent to news desks in several languages to be broadcast. Below, find the interview and the link to the site.

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~by E.D. Kain, NeoConstant

According to The Long War Journal’s Jane Novak, the US Embassy in Yemen was attacked today by a militant group carrying machine guns, RPG’s, and setting off a series of explosions. The terrorist force was repelled after killing 16 people, and attempting to breach the US compound. After a fierce gun battle, the militants were repelled. No US citizens were killed, though many Yemeni security officers were killed or wounded in the fight.

A group calling itself Yemeni Islamic Jihad took credit for today’s attack. The group last month claimed responsbility for a July suicide car bombing at a police station in Hadramout killed one policeman and injured 18. The police station had been previously bombed with no injuries. Yemeni Islamic Jihad also threatened a future attack in the capital.

This is not the first attack or attempted attack on a US embassy or consulate this year. In July, the US consulate in Ankara, Turkey was attacked leaving several dead. Luckily both attacks proved to be failures, unlike some of the major suicide bombings we’ve seen in India and Afghanistan recently.

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