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Category Archives: Homeland Security

ADL: 50% Increase in U.S. Homegrown Jihadi Arrests

1 MaypmTue, 19 May 2020 13:16:53 -06002020-05-19T13:16:53-06:0001 2009 – 13:16

by Christopher W. Holton

Before we explain this report, we should mention that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) did not use the term Jihadi in their report. We inserted that term because it is the proper term that everyone should use to describe Islamic terrorism.

For some time now we have heard over and over that the biggest domestic terror threat in the U.S. is from “white nationalists” or “white supremacists.”

The ADL report would seem to indicate that there is still an active Jihadi network in the U.S. plotting terrorist attacks and providing material support for terrorist organizations.

WHY ISN’T THIS GUY IN GITMO? Saudi citizen residing in Oklahoma pleads guilty to visa fraud and concealing attendance at al Qaeda training camp

1 DecpmTue, 18 Dec 2018 14:00:15 -06002018-12-18T14:00:15-06:0002 2009 – 14:00

posted by Christopher W. Holton

This news release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is infuriating to say the least.

While we can all applaud ICE for arresting this guy and getting him to plead guilty, there are some very troubling aspects about Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj’s stay in America and potential sentencing.

Alfallaj was only discovered because of a fingerprint found on a counterterrorism raid in Afghanistan that tied him to an Al Qaeda training camp.

That was a stroke of luck because Alfallaj entered the U.S. way back in 2011.

In other words, a Saudi citizen who attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan was able to enter the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa because his wife had status as a foreign student.

And he walked around America freely until February 2018.

But that’s not all…get this…he used his visa to enroll in a private flight school in Oklahoma.

The potential sentencing of Alfallaj is a problem as well. The maximum sentence for visa fraud is just 10 years. The maximum sentence for making a false statement involving international terrorism is just 8 years. It’s hard to believe that a guy who attended an Al Qaeda training camp will emerge from a US prison with anything other than hatred for America. The ICE press release indicates that he will have to leave the country when his prison sentence is done.

That likely means that a hardened Jihadi with a particular hatred for America, as well as experience inside American culture, will be at large somewhere in the world down the road.

Maybe that’s why we were putting these monsters in Gitmo in the first place.

Anyway, below, please find the entire ICE press release pasted and linked…

12/14/2018

Saudi citizen residing in Oklahoma pleads guilty to visa fraud and concealing attendance at al Qaeda training camp

OKLAHOMA CITY — A man from Saudi Arabia who is a former resident of Weatherford, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty Friday to visa fraud and making a false statement to the FBI by, among other things, concealing his application to and attendance at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in late 2000.

This guilty plea was announced by the following agency heads: Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester of the Western District of Oklahoma, and Special Agent in Charge Kathryn Peterson of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division.

This case resulted from an investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes members from the following agencies: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, University of Oklahoma Police Department, Oklahoma City Police Department, and Edmond (Oklahoma) Police Department.

“Protecting our national security is the highest priority of the Department of Justice,” said Mr. Troester. “I commend the outstanding efforts of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force for its collaborative and focused work in this investigation.”

“This investigation highlights the ongoing, coordinated efforts of the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force to protect and defend the American people against any potential acts of terror,” said Kathryn Peterson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division.

On Feb. 5, 2018, Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj, 35, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, was taken into custody by the FBI without incident, based on a criminal complaint signed in the Western District of Oklahoma. According to the complaint, the FBI found 15 of Alfallaj’s fingerprints on an application to an al Qaeda training camp, known as al Farooq, which was one of al Qaeda’s key training sites in Afghanistan. The document was recovered by the U.S. military from an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan. The document is also alleged to include an emergency contact number associated with Alfallaj’s father in Saudi Arabia. Alfallaj is alleged to have first entered the U.S. in late 2011 on a nonimmigrant visa based on his wife’s status as a foreign student. According to the complaint, he answered several questions on his visa application falsely, including whether he had ever supported terrorists or terrorist organizations. Alfallaj has been detained in federal custody since his Feb. 5 arrest.

On Feb. 6, a grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Alfallaj. The indictment charged two counts of visa fraud. Count One alleged that from March 2012 to the present, Alfallaj possessed a visa obtained by fraud. Count Two alleged he used that visa in October 2016 to apply for lessons at a private flight school in Oklahoma. The third count charged him with making a false statement to the FBI involving an offense of international terrorism, when he denied ever having associated with anyone from a foreign terrorist group.

At the Dec. 14 hearing, Alfallaj pleaded guilty to one count of visa fraud and one count of making a false statement to the FBI relating to international terrorism. In particular, he admitted he possessed a nonimmigrant visa from March 2012 to early 2018 that he obtained by fraud. He also admitted he falsely told agents during the December 2017 interview that he had never visited Afghanistan or participated in religious, tactical or military training outside Saudi Arabia; and he otherwise affirmed falsely that all of the answers on his nonimmigrant visa application were true and correct.

Alfallaj faces up to 10 years in prison on the visa-fraud offense. He faces up to eight years in prison for making a false statement involving international terrorism. He could also be fined up to $250,000 on each count. As part of his plea agreement, Alfallaj consented to the entry of a stipulated judicial order of removal from the United States after he completes whatever prison term may be imposed. The Court will set a sentencing date in about 90 days. The maximum sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. Any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court, based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Dillon of the Western District of Oklahoma and Trial Attorney David C. Smith of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/saudi-citizen-residing-oklahoma-pleads-guilty-visa-fraud-and-concealing-attendance-al

By terrortrends | Also posted in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, ICE, Illegal Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jihad, Oklahoma, Saudi Arabia | Tagged Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj | Comments (0)

Human Trafficking, Child Jihad and Terrorism Training in New Mexico–with a Major Twist

1 AugpmWed, 08 Aug 2018 23:21:16 -06002018-08-08T23:21:16-06:0011 2009 – 23:21

posted by Christopher Holton

This story should be the biggest news story of the day, but, other than Fox News, the TV networks are either ignoring it or purposely omitting key facts in their reporting.

Late last week, a bold sheriff in Alamia, New Mexico, decided not to wait on the FBI to get out of its own way when he raided a compound in his jurisdiction, uncovering an Islamic terrorist training facility and human trafficking ring all rolled up into one…

The FBI was monitoring the site for two months but never searched it because they did not have an arrest warrant, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said on Monday.

On Friday, however, the sheriff’s office intercepted a message that was written either by one of the children or by one of their mothers which read: ‘We are starving and we need food and water.’

Authorities will not say how the message was delivered or who gave it to them but Sheriff Hogrefe said it meant he could not wait any longer for federal authorities to move in on the site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6031379/11-children-New-Mexico-compound-living-extremist-Muslims-months.html

How long the FBI would have waited to move on the compound is anyone’s guess, but it’s a good thing that Sheriff Hogrefe decided to move when he did.

It turns out that the compound was being used to hold women and children against their will in horrible conditions and it was also allegedly being used to train Muslim children to conduct jihadi attacks on schools here in America.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/08/man-arrested-at-new-mexico-compound-was-training-kids-to-commit-school-shootings-court-documents-say.html

But here’s the really important part: the mastermind of this facility was none other than 39 year old Siraj Ibn Wahhaj.

“Who he?,” you ask?

He is the son of Brooklyn, New York Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a man with a checkered past, but also one that has been coddled by US politicians for years, despite his clear ties to bad actors.

The elder Wahajj has been quick to distance himself from his son, releasing a statement through his “Muslim Alliance of North America” (MANA):

MANA STATEMENT ON THE ARREST OF SIRAJ IBN WAHHAJ

Today news stories have surfaced reporting the arrest in New Mexico of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj – son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, our beloved imam. The same stories cite the finding of several other adults and children, reportedly living in squalid conditions in what has been described as a “ramshackle bunker”, made from a partially buried house trailer.

Last December, Georgia police authorities issued an alert for a missing child, identified as three-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, a grandson of Imam Siraj. The little boy was described as suffering from a medical condition from birth, requiring medication to prevent emergency treatment. In conversation with fellow officials of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), imam Siraj verified this, and expressed his further concern for the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of some of his other family members – including his son Siraj Ibn Wahhaj (the boy’s father).

Law enforcement authorities stated at that time, that no criminal charges were pending against the child’s father. Their concern was the well-being of Abdul-Ghani’s health. Today however they stated that the child is still missing, and his father has been charged with abduction.

We at MANA have no greater details at this time . Considering a police force claim that several guns were found at the scene of the arrest of Ibn Wahhaj and another man, Lucas Morten, we are grateful to Allah that no violence occurred. We credit the arresting officers for their professionalism in a sensitive operation, even as we continue to pray for Abdul-Ghani and all of the members of the Wahhaj family. We encourage all people of good will to do the same.

This statement might be somewhat believable but for Imam Wahhaj’s past, about which much has been documented. That past makes this whole New Mexico facility and affair very suspicious indeed. Here’s a brief rundown of Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s past:

• Wahhaj was born a Baptist but converted to Islam while in college.

• He started as a member of Louis “Calypso Louie” Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam sect.

• Wahhaj became a Nation of Islam minister and preached a black separatist ideology that termed all white people as devils.

• Evidently, the Nation of Islam wasn’t what Wahhaj was really looking for because he left Nation of Islam and became a “mainstream” Sunni Muslim and, in 1978, traveled to Saudi Arabia to study Islam and especially Shariah. By 1981 he had returned to America and opened his first mosque. It was as Imam of his mosque that Wahhaj repeatedly invited Omar Abdel-Rahman (the Blind Sheik) to speak and fundraise.

Abdel-Rahman was a notorious terrorist who eventually died in prison.

Wahhaj had completely snowed the US government over the years and in 1991 became the first Imam to deliver the invocation at the US House of Representatives.

Wahhaj’s close ties to Jihad and Jihadists first became most clear when he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing:

In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, “I’m not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I’m honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list.”

Since that designation, Wahhaj’s extensive ties to known Jihadists and Jihadi organizations have been revealed, as detailed by Discover The Networks:

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=716

Now we are asked to believe that Imam Siraj Wahhaj had nothing to do with his son running a terrorism training and human trafficking camp…NOT BUYING IT…

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, FBI, Homegrown Jihad, Jihad, Kuwait, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Nation of Islam, Siraj Wahhaj, terrorist plot | Comments (0)

The Case for a Terrorist Registry in America

1 DecpmWed, 27 Dec 2017 16:05:30 -06002017-12-27T16:05:30-06:0004 2009 – 16:05

by Christopher W Holton

Since the 1990s sex offenders in America have been required to register with their local sheriff so that law enforcement can be aware of their residence.

This program has worked very well.

The time has come for a similar registry for those offenders who have been convicted of terrorism offenses.

If someone who has been convicted on terrorism charges or material support for terrorism charges moves into your community, don’t you want your local law enforcement authorities to know about it?

This scenario is not as far-fetched as you might think.

As the Associated Press reported back in August, dozens of convicts serving time in U.S. prisons for terrorism-related offenses are due to be released in the coming years.

https://apnews.com/0d08df6f540f4dc291314396534fcf31/Should-springing-of-US-terrorism-convicts-alarm-Americans?&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories

Almost all of these convicts are individuals involved with Islamic jihad who were convicted since the September 11th terrorist attacks.

You’d be shocked at how lenient the federal sentences for terrorism and material support for terrorism are. For instance, the subject interviewed for the AP article is a guy named Ismail Royer (formerly Randall Todd Royer). He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison back in 2004, but you’ll notice that he is now already a free man working for a think tank in Washington DC.

Royer claims that he is a good guy and the Washington Post did a fluff piece on him claiming he is now fighting “radical Islam.”

Excuse me if I am more than a little skeptical. As far as I am concerned, a Jihadi who has been convicted on terrorism-related charges will always be a Jihadi where our safety is concerned.

Ismail Royer should have to check in with the local sheriff where ever he lives. He should have to register as a convicted terrorist just like a sex offender has to register with the sheriff.

I guess Royer will maintain that he learned his lesson while in prison and is no longer a threat to society.

But there is ample evidence to indicate that what goes on in prisons could just as easily encourage Jihadis to stay Jihadis and network with other Jihadis.

Take for example Ahmad Khan Rahimi who was convicted in the bombings in New York and New Jersey in September 2016.

Since he has been in prison, Rahimi has “provided inmates with copies of terrorist propaganda and jihadist materials, including speeches by Osama Bin Laden and the late militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, bomb making instructions, books on jihad and issues of the al Qaeda-backed magazine Inspire…”

http://myfox8.com/2017/12/24/man-convicted-in-2016-bombing-in-new-york-that-injured-30-people-is-trying-to-radicalize-other-inmates-and-is-currently-on-a-hunger-strike/

Now, Rahimi is unlikely to ever see the outside of a prison again, but the point here is that he is an example of how the Jihadists have used our prisons to recruit and proselytize for years.

What that means is that a person sent to prison on material support for terrorism charges for sending a few thousand dollars to Al Shabaab, HAMAS, Hezbollah, ISIS or Al Qaeda may very well emerge in a few years a more hardened Jihadi than he was when he entered prison.

That’s why legislation will be introduced in several states in 2018 to require terrorist convicts to register with their local sheriff in much the same way that sex offenders have done for decades.

By terrortrends | Also posted in Homegrown Jihad, terrorist registry, Uncategorized | Tagged Ahmad Khan Rahimi, Ismail Royer | Comments (0)

More on the Jihad Threat this Christmas and New Year’s Season

1 NovamThu, 30 Nov 2017 10:54:29 -06002017-11-30T10:54:29-06:0010 2009 – 10:54

by Christopher W. Holton

Christmas-markets_shutterstock_224875129_resized

Both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have issued audio, video or online threats to attack the West this Christmas.

These threats focus on European population centers, such as Paris and London, and New York City in America, though the possibility of Jihadi attacks in other places in the West can certainly not be discounted. History has shown that places as diverse geographically as Brussels, Berlin and San Bernardino have all been targeted, especially at Christmas time.

Lone Wolf or Individual Jihad?

The possible attacks in the West could take the form of organized, planned attacks directed from Jihadi leaders overseas or inside Europe or America, or they could be carried out by individuals “inspired” by Jihadist ideology.

Ironically, very often, Western media and officials seem to take some form of weird comfort when a deadly attack ends up being the work of an individual jihadi, as opposed to an organized cell or affiliate of a known terrorist group.

In reality, the opposite should be the case.

First of all, none of the Jihadist groups–Islamic State, Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Lashkar e Taiba, Ansar al-Sharia, Abu Sayyef, Jemaah Islamiyeh–issue membership cards or wear uniforms. So a case can be made that classification of an attacker as “inspired” or “directed” could be a distinction without a difference.

But there is a difference between a cell such as the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks after training and planning conducted by Al Qaeda’s leadership and infrastructure, and the husband and wife team who shot up a Christmas party of people they knew and worked with in San Bernardino. (Though it is vital that we understand that their acts are based on the same Islamic doctrine and they are tied together by the same Jihadist ideology.)

So which flavor of Jihadi is more dangerous?

If you’re on the receiving end of an attack, it makes no difference to you, but by casualty count, the cell would appear to pose a greater threat. On the other hand, the inspired attacks seem to happen much more frequently.

A case can be made that individual Jihadis pose a greater challenge for our intelligence and law enforcement communities.

Cells have to be organized, trained and communicated back and forth with. All of this provides opportunities for detection and even infiltration.

Individual jihadis don’t offer any of these potential vulnerabilities. One can infiltrate a cell, especially one in which members are using cell phones and email to contact each other and leaders elsewhere. How does one infiltrate one guy, like the Chattanooga, Tennessee shooter, the Orlando shooter or the Uzbeki vehicle jihad attacker in New York City?

If the individual jihadi isn’t communicating with others and no one is aware of his or her plans, how are our intelligence and law enforcement assets supposed to detect them “left of bang” (before the attack)?

Unfortunately, here in the West, and the U.S. in particular, we have failed to even properly identify the nature of the threat. A popular term in Western vernacular to describe the threat of individual jihad is the term “lone wolf.”

The term “lone wolf” does not appear in Islamic doctrine, nor is it part of any Jihadist group ideology.

What is part of Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology is the concept of Jihad as an individual obligation. So what we have been seeing around the world are acts of individual jihad based on Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology. Given the basis for these attacks, they are not “senseless violence.” We can explain and understand these attacks based upon Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology.

Most importantly, the wave of individual jihadi attacks in recent years is all part of plans articulated by Jihadi ideologues:

Successful jihad will only happen within an ummah [Islamic nation or community] in which the fighting creed is firmly established and clarified. This must happen in order to attain the “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” that will spontaneously give rise to instruments of resistance.

Violent jihad is as an individual duty obligatory upon every Muslim. All the ulema have said this…”

The Call to Global Islamic Resistance
Abu Musab al-Suri
Al Qaeda propagandist
Captured in Pakistan 2005

We are now seeing this “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” in the West as evidenced by the rise of seemingly spontaneous acts of Jihad carried out by individual Muslims with no known direct contacts with Jihadist organizations.

It is this threat that we are most likely to see this Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from your Local Jihadi

Warnings in Jihadist literature and on Jihadi social media aren’t meant to give us a heads up. They are meant to inspire individual Jihadis to rise up and attack, in this case during the Christmas season. If recent history is any indication, we will see an act of deadly jihad somewhere in the West as a result of these communications.

The Christmas and New Year season is a particularly high-risk period as it offers unusually large numbers of potentially high-value and high-casualty targets, not just in places like New York, London, Paris and Berlin, but in just about every major city in the West.

The holiday season brings large crowds at sporting events, Christmas celebrations and ceremonies, churches, parks, restaurants and other gathering locations. In addition, the holiday season is also characterized by high volumes of leisure travel leading to large numbers of travellers in airports and train depots. The vast number of potential targets makes it virtually impossible for homeland security and law enforcement agencies to deploy enough personnel to successfully prevent every possible attack.

The Western holiday season is particularly attractive to Islamic jihadists because any successful attack, even a minor one, becomes a propaganda victory that can inspire others to follow suit and aid in Jihadist organization recruitment (despite what the U.S. government has said, Jihadis don’t recruit based on the prison at Gitmo; they recruit based on their successful attacks).

Jihadists have repeatedly demonstrated their will and capacity to plan and execute attacks during high-profile events. The Nice (July 216), Berlin (December 2016) and Manchester (May 2017) attacks show how individual jihadis and small cells can successfully carry out mass-casualty attacks. Despite their resounding defeats in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State continues to benefit from supporters in the West, which means there is a greater risk of terrorist attacks in the West during the holiday season.

We are most likely to see vehicle jihad using large trucks, knife jihad (stabbings) and shooting attacks, but improvised explosive device (IED) attacks are certainly also a possibility using pressure cookers (Boston marathon bombing), fertilizer and diesel fuel (1993 World Trade Center bombing) or propane tanks (failed Time Square VBIED attack).

This is why intelligence services and foreign service offices continue to issue bulletins almost on a daily basis for Europe. As Christmas nears, we should expect to see such alerts issued for major events in the U.S. as well.

By terrortrends | Also posted in airport security, Al Qaeda, Christmas threats, Europe, France, Great Britain, Homegrown Jihad, IEDs, ISIS, Islamic State, Jihad, New York, Possible terror attack, terrorist plot, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, Vehicle Jihad | Tagged Al Qaeda, Berlin, Christmas, Europe, ISIS, Islamic State, London, New Years, New York, Paris, Times Square | Comments (2)

Reacting With Tactical Defensive Measures, Ignoring Strategic Realities

1 AugpmWed, 23 Aug 2017 18:54:36 -06002017-08-23T18:54:36-06:0006 2009 – 18:54

stonewear-barriers-1

by Christopher W. Holton

In the wake of the recent vehicular Jihad attacks that have occurred in France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Israel and Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, cities in America are beginning to take prudent steps to attempt to prevent more such attacks here. An example is Miami:

The most recent of Europe’s vehicle-into-crowd attacks will alter the look of South Beach’s Lincoln Road — concrete barriers will soon frame the internationally known shopping and socializing promenade.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article168593927.html#storylink=cpy

These measures are no doubt proper, but they are also flawed in two ways:

1. Our Jihadist enemies pay attention to what we do to prepare for their attacks. If we make it difficult to run innocent victims over with a truck or tractor trailer, they will come up with another method. We will always be playing catch up.

2. Tactical defensive measures such as barriers in pedestrian areas are all well and good, but until we as a nation come to terms with the Jihadist doctrine and ideology that animates our enemies, we will never develop the serious strategies needed to defeat the Jihadists and achieve victory.

By terrortrends | Also posted in Jihad, Uncategorized, Vehicle Jihad | Tagged Vehicle Jihad | Comments (1)

State and Local Law Enforcement Must Take the Lead Against Jihad

1 JulpmSun, 03 Jul 2016 17:10:15 -06002016-07-03T17:10:15-06:0005 2009 – 17:10

Crime Scene

by Christopher W. Holton

In case you haven’t noticed, the global Jihadist insurgency has entered a new, more dangerous phase in the past two years.

The number of Jihadis and the number of attacks that they have carried out–as well as the number of casualties they have inflicted and the number of countries they operate in–has grown drastically.

The excellent, private IntelCenter organization estimates that the Islamic State has killed 18,000 people in 28 countries since they declared their Caliphate on 29 June 2014.

This includes individual acts of Jihad carried out in this country in places like Orlando, Chattanooga, Boston, Garland, San Bernardino, Queens and Philadelphia.

There is no reason to believe that this trend won’t continue. The effort to take down the caliphate is half-hearted at best because it simply isn’t something our president is interested in. He feels as if he killed Bin Laden and that should have been enough. Never mind that the world has become awash in Jihad since then.

Because of the complete lack of leadership on this vital issue, our federal bureaucratized counterterrorism apparatus is not even allowed to study Islamic threat doctrine–the very doctrine that the Islamic State cites repeatedly.

Time and time again we find that the warning signs of the Jihadi attackers were missed. We were warned about the Tsarnaev brothers (the Boston bombers) repeatedly by the Russians and the FBI knew that their mosque was founded by a convicted Al Qaeda member. Yet they were still able to carry out their attack.

There were warning signs about the San Bernardino Jihadis as well. The female, Tafsheen Malik, used a fake address to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. She also gained entry into the U.S. under the horribly flawed federal “Visa Express” program that allows applicants to bypass the interview in the screening process.

Moreover, DHS whistleblower Phillip Haney has testified before Congress and written in his new book, “See Something, Say Nothing,” that he had been ordered to cease investigations into Tablighi Jamaat, the notorious Islamist organization that had ties to the San Bernardino mosque.

Then there is the case of Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, who was twice interviewed by the FBI because he was in the contact list for an American Islamikaze bomber in Syria and because he made “incendiary” remarks to co-workers about Jihad. Oh, and his Dad posted pro-Taliban videos too. He was given the all-clear, only to end up massacring 49 innocent Americans.

What all this points to is the vital need for state and local law enforcement to take the lead against Jihad inside this country. I promise you, the NYPD does not wait for the FBI to vet suspected terrorists. Other state and local agencies around the country need to take the same approach, albeit with resources that can’t match the NYPD, which is probably the most effective counterterrorism law enforcement organization anywhere in the world.

The fact is, the Feds are unaccountable. They can’t follow up all the leads they have now and very often have a lack of knowledge as to what or who they are dealing with. I have a hunch that the FBI agents who interviewed Omar Mateen probably thought he was creepy at best, but they had nothing to charge him with and they had to go about their business. Complicating matters even more is the fact that both the FBI and DHS are forbidden from tying Islam to terrorism. That restriction right there makes them ineffective at conducting counterintelligence operations.

State and local cops are not unaccountable. They have deep roots in their communities. If an Omar Mateen is in someone’s precinct and they know he is a known associate of an Islamikaze bomber and made threatening statements about terrorism, they will keep an eye on him way past the initial interview. There won’t be much more important in that precinct once an Omar Mateen comes to the local cops’ attention.

Furthermore, state and local police are not under any restriction to refrain from studying the enemy threat doctrine. If the local sheriff or police chief is bold enough, he will mandate that his intelligence and investigative people get educated about the threat in an objective, unbiased manner–allowing the subject matter to take them where it leads them, rather than starting from the position that there is no connection between Islam and terrorism.

State and local police are now at the tip of the spear in this war. 15 years ago America sent soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines overseas to protect us all from Jihad. Today, local law enforcement is being tasked with protecting soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines from Jihad inside our own country. This is a profound shift in this war that has been lost on the overwhelming majority of the American people.

In Garland, Texas, it was a 62-year old motorcycle cop who gunned down the two Jihadi attackers who were wielding AK47s.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, it was the local police who gunned down Mohammad Abdulazeez.

In Boston, it was Boston PD who ran down the Tsarnaev brothers.

In Queens, New York, it was rookie patrolmen who were targeted by and gunned down Zale Thompson.

The San Bernardino shooters were killed by members of the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department.

In Philadelphia, it was a police officer sitting in his patrol car that was targeted by Edward Archer in the name of ISIS.

And, of course, we know that it was the Orlando Police Department who responded to Omar Mateen’s massacre.

By the time DHS and FBI show up, they have to ask permission to cross the crime scene tape. In Marine Corps parlance, by the time the Feds get involved, it’s “right of bang.”

State and local police need to prepare to operate against Jihadis “left of bang,” and that means taking their own initiative and not depending solely on our bureaucratized, federal counterterrorism apparatus for training or intelligence about potential bad guys in their jurisdictions.

By terrortrends | Also posted in Boston Marathon bombings, Homegrown Jihad, ISIS, Islamic State, Jihad, New York, NYPD, San Bernardino terror attack, Tsarnaev brothers | Tagged DHS, FBI, Jihad, police, terrorism | Comments (1)

Homeland Security Advisory Council: Covering for the Enemy Threat Doctrine

1 JunpmSat, 18 Jun 2016 18:19:59 -06002016-06-18T18:19:59-06:0006 2009 – 18:19

by Christopher W. Holton

America is at war and we continue to be prevented from identifying and understanding our enemies as a result of influence operations targeting our bureaucratized counterterrorism apparatus.

The latest evidence of this long-standing and, unfortunately, very effective influence campaign comes from the revelation that the “Countering Violent Extremism Subcommittee” of the Homeland Security Advisory Council to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a recommendation that urges rejecting use of Islamic terms such as “jihad” and “shariah” in communications about the threats that we face….

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/homeland-security-report-calls-rejecting-terms-jihad-sharia/

This is nothing new. We have heard CIA director John Brennan reject the term “jihadist” and the State Department under Condoleezza Rice rejected the use of the term as well.

We have covered the damaging efforts by our enemies to prevent the actual correct use of the term “jihad” extensively here on Terror Trends Bulletin in the past…

https://terrortrendsbulletin.com/2013/01/13/cairs-new-disinformation-campaign-on-jihad/

But the effort to suppress even mere mention of the word “shariah” is actually much more damaging than the suppression of the word “jihad.” That’s because shariah is THE enemy threat doctrine.

To understand our enemies, their motivations, their intentions and their strategy, one must study shariah. Shariah is everything to the jihadists. It is the code that they follow and its full implementation is their goal.

Forbidding the use of the term shariah, much less suppressing study of shariah in the present conflict is the equivalent of forbidding intelligence agencies from studying Mein Kampf in World War II or the works and words of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao during the Cold War.

Anyone who would recommend that we avoid studying and talking about shariah simply must have a nefarious purpose.

By way of review, shariah is Islamic law. The terms shariah and Islamic law are completely interchangeable; they refer to exactly the same thing. Shariah is an immutable theo-political-legal-military code derived from the Islamic doctrinal trilogy, made up of the Quran, the Sirah (the biography of the prophet Mohammed) and the Hadith (traditions, sayings and stories compiled about the life of Mohammed).

Every single Jihadist terrorist group in the world–without exception–has as its stated goal the imposition of shariah: the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Lashkar e Taiba, Abu Sayyef, Jemaah Islamiyah, Boko Haram, the Taliban, Al Shabaab–all of them.

So, while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be carefully avoiding the use of the term shariah, our enemies have been using it quite commonly, frequently and prominently, as if to illustrate the absurdity of the DHS recommendation.

What follows is a compilation of quotes from jihadi leaders and Al Qaeda and Islamic State documents that reveal the central importance of shariah to their movement. This is why Americans must familiarize themselves with shariah.

SHARIAH ACCORDING TO THE JIHADISTS THEMSELVES

• The sharia has forbidden us from taking infidels as confidants, inducting them into our secrets.
• The sharia forbids us from appointing infidels to important posts.
• The sharia forbids us from adopting or praising the beliefs and views of the infidels.
• The sharia forbids us from assisting infidels against Muslims; even the one who is coerced has o excuse to fight under the banner of infidels.
• The sharia commands us to battle infidels—both original infidels and apostates, as well as hypocrites. As for waging jihad against the infidels who have usurped the lands of Islam, this is a duty considered second only to faith, by ulemaic consensus.
• The sharia does not accept the excuses made by hypocrites—that they befriend the infidels because they fear the vicissitudes of time.
• We are duty-bound by the sharia to help Muslims overcome the infidels.

Ayman al-Zawahiri
Al Qaeda leader

Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his eventual successor Ayman al-Zawahiri

Democracy is based on the principle of the power of creatures over other creatures, and rejects the principle of God’s absolute power over all creatures; it is also based on the idea the men’s desires, whatever they may be, replace God absolutely, and on the refusal to obey God’s law. In Islam, when there is a disagreement or a difference of opinion, one refers to God, his Prophet, and the commands of sharia.

Ayman al-Zawahiri
Al Qaeda leader

Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah

From the point of view of ideology and sharia, we are required to establish God’s rule over any part of this earth, regardless of particularities and details. This can only happen, however, if the nation adopts this ideology and safeguards it.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Leader of Hezbollah

The laws of the shari’a embrace a diverse body of laws and regulations, which amounts to a complete social system. In this system of laws, all the needs of man have been met: his dealings with his neighbors, fellow citizens, and clan, as well as children and relatives; the concerns of private and material life; regulations concerning war and peace and intercourse with other nations; penal and commercial law; and regulations pertaining to trade and agriculture.

Ayatollah Khomeini
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
Of Iran 1979-1989

Reason also dictates that we establish a government in order to be able to ward off aggression and to defend the honor of the Muslims in case of attack. The shari’a, for its part, instructs us to be constantly ready to defend ourselves against those who wish to attack us.

Ayatollah Khomeini
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
Of Iran 1979-1989

It will be the duty of the Muslims to engage in an armed jihad against the ruling group in order to make the policies ruling society and the norms of government conform to the principles and ordinances of Islam.

Ayatollah Khomeini
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
Of Iran 1979-1989

Regarding which shared understandings, exactly, is it possible that we agree with the immoral West?… What commonalities, if our foundations contradict, rendering useless the shared extremities—if they even exist? For practically everything valued by the immoral West is condemned under sharia law. As for this atmosphere of shared understandings, what evidence is there for Muslims to strive for this? What did the Prophet, the Companions after him, and the righteous forebears do? Did they wage jihad against infidels, attacking them all over earth, in order to place them under the suzerainty of Islam in great humility and submission? Or did they send messages to discover “shared understandings” between themselves and the infidels in order that they may reach an understanding whereby universal peace, security, and natural relations would spread—in such a satanic manner as this? The sharia provides a true and just path, securing Muslims, and providing peace to the world.

… Offensive Jihadis (are) an established and basic tenet of this religion. It is a religious duty rejected only by the most deluded. So how can they call off this religious obligation [Offensive Jihad], while imploring the West to understandings and talks “under the umbrella of justice, morality, and rights”? The essence of all this comes from right inside the halls of the United Nations, instead of the Divine foundations that are built upon hating the infidels, repudiating them with tongue and teeth till they embrace Islam or pay the jizya [tribute] with willing submission and humility… Muslims, and especially the learned among them, should spread sharia law to the world—that and nothing else. Not laws under the “umbrella of justice, morality, and rights” as understood by the masses. No, the sharia of Islam is the foundation.

They say that our sharia does not impose our particular beliefs upon others; this is a false assertion. For it is, in fact , part of our religion to impose our particular beliefs upon others.

Thus whoever refuses the principle of terror[ism] against the enemy also refuses the commandment of Allah the Exalted, the Most High, and His sharia.

Osama Bin Laden

Succession, establishment, and safety – a promise from Allah reserved for the Muslims…is not simply kingship, subjugation, dominance, and rule. Rather, succession is to utilize all that for the purpose of compelling the people to do what the Sharia (Allah’s law) requires of them concerning their interests in the hereafter and worldly life, which can only be achieved by carrying out the command of Allah, establishing His religion, and referring to His law for judgment.

“This is the Promise of Allah”
Islamic State Al Hayat Media Center
2014

…terrorism is to disbelieve in those slogans and to believe in Allah. Terrorism is to refer to Allah’s law for judgment. Terrorism is to worship Allah as He ordered you.

“A Message to Mujahidin and the Muslim Ummah in the Month of Ramadan”
Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

So seek shelter – after Allah – with the Islamic State. What do you wait for after the truth has become clearer than the day and after the spiteful Rāfidah exposed their reality? Here they are today slaughtering everyone considered from Ahlus-Sunnah in Baghdad and elsewhere. No one was saved from them, even their allies, supporters, aids, tails, and dogs from the apostates who had once belonged to Ahlus-Sunnah, those in the Sahwah, army, police, and elsewhere, those whom the evil scholars confused into fleeing the implementation of Allah’s law in the territory of the Islamic State. So they became homeless, humiliated, fearful, and worrisome of the Rāfidah’s cruelty, whereas the Muslims live in the territory of the Islamic State with might and honor, secure by Allah’s bounty alone, with a life of comfort, going about the affairs of their business, livelihood, and trade, enjoying the grace of living under the rule of their Lord’s law, and all praise and grace is Allah’s. Therefore, O Muslims, seek shelter – after Allah – with the Islamic State.

Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Speech recorded on 14 May 2015

Indeed, every Muslim is intended by this war. And he is obliged to defend the religion of Allah and His Sharī‟ah…There is no good in living if we do not live under the rule of Allah and in the shade of His Sharī‟ah. And how sweet a death it is to die while supporting Allah‟s religion and defending His Sharī‟ah and His rule.

Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Speech delivered December 2015

The religion of Allah, the Exalted, will not be implemented, and this goal cannot be achieved, for which Allah created us, except by the implementation of the Sharia of Allah, and appealing to him, and the application of Islamic law. This can only be achieved by force and power.

Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Sermon delivered July 2014

The death of a single Muslim, no matter his role in society, is more grave to the believer than the massacre of every kāfir on earth. And while the Sharī’ah calls for the invasion of all kāfir lands, certainly the aggressors are dealt with before those nations not actively waging war against the Khilāfah. This is an obvious reality. Any disbeliever standing in the way of the Islamic State will be killed, without pity or remorse, until governance is entirely for Allah.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 14

Democracy is a religion that gives supreme authority to people rather than Allah In it, the right to legislate is distributed amongst mankind so that they thereby determine what laws are to be ruled by in the lands. If the majority decide sodomy is legal, it is legalized even though it contradicts Allah’s Sharī’ah. And if the majority decide to illegalize sodomy, it is made illegal, not because it is Allah’s legislation, but because supreme power is that of mankind, above and beyond the authority of Allah! How wicked a religion is one where all its members consider themselves “gods” besides Allah!

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 14

Jihad in this era is an obligation upon each and every Muslim as numerous
lands of the Muslims have been usurped by the kufār and numerous parties of apostasy have arisen therein. Until all these lands are retaken, cleansed of apostates, and ruled by the Sharī’ah, the obligation does not drop.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 14

We clarify to all that the Islamic State’s position is clear concerning the ruling on these factions, and it is that they are groups that have apostatized from the religion of Allah and have committed numerous deeds that have nullified the fundamentals of the religion. From amongst these deeds is that they fight a state that rules by the Sharī’ah of Allah while these factions are in one trench and one coalition with other factions that have resisted the implementation of the Shari’ah and declared their efforts to build a ‘democratic, civil, pluralistic’ state that removes the law of Allah from the lands of the Islamic State and replaces it with jāhilī laws. All this is done with support and direct air cover from the American-led crusader coalition that only strives to destroy the mission of the Khilāfah.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 13

So adhere to and be diligent in obedience and don’t get tired. Listen both in times of dislike and delight, Unless the leader’s order is against the Sharī’ah, for there is no obedience to the leader in such.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 12

We likewise renew our call to the soldiers of the factions in Shām and Libya. We call on them to think long before embarking to ght the Islamic State, which rules by that which Allah revealed. Remember, O you afflicted by fitnah, before embarking to fight the Islamic State, that there is no place on the face of the Earth where the Sharī’ah of Allah is implemented and the rule is entirely for Allah except for the lands of the Islamic State. Remember that if you were able to capture one hand span, one village, or one city from it, the law of Allah in that area would be replaced with the laws of men. Then ask yourself, ‘What is the ruling on someone who replaces or is a cause for the replacement of the law of Allah with the law of man?’ Yes, you commit kufr by such. So beware, for by fighting the Islamic State you fall into kufr whether you realize it or not.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 12

Then the Sharī’ah of Islam came and deemed a specific number of wives that no Muslim is allowed to exceed, that number being four. As for concubines, then there is no limit.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 12

And isn’t polygamy a part of this Sharī’ah? Know then that the One who has honored the Muslim woman and has given her rights that protect her from the plots of the wicked is the very One who has permitted for the man to marry those that please him of women. And based on that, it is not permissible for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to argue concerning the Sharī’ah of Allah.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 12

…the Islamic State will continue to strike Russia until Sharī’ah returns to all the lands of the Muslims usurped by the crusader Russians and until Russia pays the jizyah in humiliation.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 12

…we reassure the Muslims in the eastern and western extents of the Earth that Libya will not be ruled except by Allah’s Sharī’ah and that the Islamic State by Allah’s grace will pave its way quickly towards consolidation and expansion.

Islamic State Dabiq magazine
No. 11