a new wardrobe

Courtesy of Gates of Vienna:

Although, I do have to admit, I still like this design better at Liberteez:

actually proud of the french!

Following the cartoon jihad, it’s easy to see that people are more “on edge” about angering Muslims.  If the “infidel west” does anything even remotely insulting to islam (or, even worse, perceived to be insulting, or told that they did something insulting.  who remembers the story behind this picture).

Anyway, when i saw the article “Muslims ask French to cancel 1741 play by Voltaire” at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, I assumed the worse.  Yet again, the west has caved to the demands of Islamofascists.  Proud, and admittedly shocked, the French allowed the play to continue.

I recommend reading the article in full.  It gives frightening examples of countries and governments who have caved in to similar demands.

the new stage of terror financing.

A new article at the Christian Science Monitor discusses the new way terrorists are financing their operations now that so much scrutiny has been placed on their more illegal traditional “fundraising” activities (such as illegit charities, big money transfers, etc)

clues about Al Qaeda on the internet

i just finished reading this article at ABC news and learned some new things. i’ll draw your attention to some of the more interesting sections:

… After relying heavily on fixed — and thus vulnerable — Web sites until early 2002, al Qaeda quickly switched to hiding its online operations within more legitimate bulletin boards and Internet sites offering free upload services or connecting through such popular social network sites as Orkut and MySpace.

This technique of “parasiting” Web sites makes it harder for law enforcement services to track them and shut them down. …

… According to Pakistani intelligence sources, the use of free and anonymous e-mail services such as Yahoo! or Hotmail by al Qaeda operatives is widespread.

To avoid being intercepted, the messages are not sent but saved in the account’s draft box.

They can then be retrieved by other operatives by simply logging on to the same e-mail address — with a shared password.

This technique makes it impossible for intelligence services such as the British GCHQ or the American NSA to read these messages without hacking into the servers themselves, which they are legally prohibited to do …

… One of the militants, Kaci Warab, had spent several months in a facility operated by Zarqawi followers near Tripoli, Lebanon, to be trained on detonator designs far more complex than anyone had seen thus far.

One of these designs, according to French counter-terrorism sources, involved the use of Web-capable cellphones which could be “activated” (thus detonated) remotely over the Internet from anywhere in the world by punching a password on a Web site…

Talk about damn frightening! Terrorists realize they’re on the losing side of a war and have learned how to circumvent the “system.” Can you imagine seeing a ring of friends that all have terrorist ties on MySpace? Someone needs to look into tracking down this information. they’re all linking up somehow, probably speaking in codes. if you could just view their “my friends” section … oh my. talk about a treasure trove of intelligence information.

they’re resourceful if nothing else

eh, that’s bullshit. they’re also evil.

I just finished reading these two stories that are linked on the Infidel Bloggers Alliance today.

Six Charged In Middle East Money Scam

FBI Probe in North Louisiana

The FBI is conducting a large scale investigation into north Louisiana convenience stores with ties to the Middle East. As TV8’s Gina Swanson reports the Department of Homeland Security is in on the sting operation involving stores in at least four parishes.

They seized evidence by the box full. The FBI on Wednesday searched at least a half dozen convenience stores in North Louisiana. All with ties to the Middle East. The probe led agents to stores in Tallulah, Lake Providence, Monroe and Ruston. Law enforcement sources confirm that the stores are suspected of involvement in money laundering or counterfeiting. The Department of Homeland Security has sent agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice, to work the case. At each station, agents seized boxes of evidence and retrieved at least one weapon. Police sources say at least some of the gas station operators are from Yemen. An Arab country located just south of Saudi Arabia. ULM history professor John Sutherlin believes the arab heritage of the convenience store owners could make them a convenient target for terror suspects.
“Anytime Arab or Muslim people are involved people immediately think it must be terror related or have some connection to 9-11,” Sutherlin says.

The investigation reaches beyond Louisiana. TV8 news has confirmed the FBI and department of homeland security Wednesday also raided stores in Buffalo, New York.
Gina Swanson TV8 news.

Alarming? To say the least. The Libertarian in me says, “no one should have to identify themselves to transfer money anyway.” but the Patriot American in me says, “well, we can’t have Muslims running businesses in this country and finding ways to conceal their income if for anything else other than simply wanting to avoid the income tax. Let’s be frank here. Islamic charities are in the limelight. It’s too difficult for people to donate to them anymore … or hell, even for their operation anymore. every move is scrutinized, every transaction inspected. But alas, terrorists are resourceful. They know we (aside from stupid liberal market-hating freaks) love our free enterprise system. they know it’s not nearly as regulated. So now they’re turning towards running gas stations and taxi cab companies, and sending the proceeds to illicit purposes overseas.

So let’s take a look at some of the ways this might work

1. the simplest and most obvious. they run a profitable business and use these profits to fund terrorism.
2. money laundering. multiple muslims who have obtained money from illegal sources (petty crime, etc.) need a way to hide that money. they take the money to the Arab car repair shop, for instance, and enter into a false contract. so they muslims can give the auto repair shop guy the money, and the repair shop guy will just write up a false “contract,” in this case, a repair slip for car fixes that were never done. poof. money is now legit.

AP = genius. yeah, right

Mosque Attack Pushes Iraq Toward Civil War

That’s the current headline on AP. Thanks for the insight. I think that’s exactly what the Sunni extremists have in mind.

i’m trying to figure out the link

KindHearts, based out of Toledo, OH and now the indictment of several muslims in Toledo.

They’ve got to be connected, right? first the government blocks the accounts of KindHearts and only a few days later, these assholes are arrested … both in TOLEDO of all places. According to the article from the Toledo Blade, they operated several car businesses as a “cover” for traveling to and from Iraq. wtf? since when is a used car business an effective cover to travel to Iraq. they have their own endless supply of shitty pugeouts (sp?) to go a long way. i always thought import-export businesses were the way to go for front companies.

next, if they were connected with KindHearts, why were they looking to secure their own funding?

“Mr. El-Hindi met with an accountant in Dearborn, Mich., to form a nonprofit organization that would collect grants for “tax education services” and use the proceeds to finance jihadist activities. The indictment says the men also worked on the plot at Mr. El-Hindi’s home on Mayo Street.”

Something is fishy here. like it or not, most terror attacks are cheap. these folks could not possibly have carried out such a huge operation that it would have required the formation of an entirely new nonprofit.

waddya know?

i thought it was strange that when i visited the website for KindHearts, the Islamic charity whose accounts were blocked yesterday, that there was no link on their page for the Arabic section. When you look at KindHearts in English, it looks all pretty and lovey-dovey talking about building a hospital in Gaza. I did a google search for القلوب الرحيمة, which means Kind Hearts in Arabic. The first image on KindHearts’ Arabic page is related to their solicitations for buying lambs and cows for the poor in Lebanon and Pakistan:

Compared to this much nicer, calmer picture on the English only page:

I don’t know about you, but seeing a bunch of slabs of frozen animal meat superimposed over strange looking Arabs just really wants to make me donate. Yeah, right. Maybe there’s some strange attraction to the blood that makes Arabs want to donate.

kindhearts and hard heads

U.S. Blocks Accounts of Ohio Islamic Charity

One thought. It certainly took them long enough.

In 2003, the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Charles Grassley, began an investigation into multiple Islamic charities that potentially finance terrorism. KindHearts was one of the charities listed as part of the investigation. However, in November 2005, the investigation was closed, citing they “did not find anything alarming enough that required additional follow-up beyond what law-enforcement agencies are already doing.”

maybe the finance committee and the banking, housing & urban affairs committee weren’t talking to each other? seems likely considering this testimony by Steve Emerson before the banking, housing and urban affairs committee about the links that he found among KindHearts and the Holy Land Foundation and associations with other radical Muslim groups.

way to stay on top of things.

not impressed

and i’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s an article that was printed more than 15 years ago.  Don’t bother reading it.  i can summarize it for you.  muslims hated europeans, americans are descendents of europeans, thus they hate us.  we have separation of church and state, muslims don’t.  they hate us.

i don’t know aobut you, but that just solves SO much and makes me feel much better.