U.S. CITIZEN TRAINED BY AL QAEDA TO FIGHT JIHAD

Blogmaster comment: Complacency is rampant among the citizens of the United States since 911. Most have forgotten that over 3000 Americans and the citizens of other Nations were murdered a few short years ago by the Islamo-Nazis. The capture of the creten below by the FBI is only the tip of the iceburg. There is a fifth column in the U.S. and Europe and we must recognize the danger and maintain our viligance. Otherwise, we will face destruction from within.

US CITIZEN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR

RECEIVING MILITARY TRAINING FROM A

TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

(HOUSTON) Daniel Joseph Maldonado, a.k.a Daniel Aljughaifi, a United States citizen convicted of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, Don DeGabrielle, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Counterterrorism Division, announced today.
The 10- year sentence is the maximum statutory penalty for receiving military training from a terrorist organization. U. S. District Judge Gray H. Miller handed down the maximum sentence during a hearing held in Houston this morning. The prison term is to be followed by a three year term of supervised release. Additionally, the court imposed a $1000 fine.
"Those who would consider training with enemies of our national security or otherwise feel inclined to align themselves with foreign agents of international discord should consider the very real consequences of federal prison for their actions like the ten years of incarceration awaiting Mr. Maldonado," said U. S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle.
Assistant Attorney General Wainstein said, "We cannot tolerate our own citizens joining the ranks of our enemies and foreign terrorists. Any American who does so can expect swift prosecution and a severe sentence."
"By attending a terrorist training camp, Daniel Maldonado betrayed his country and endangered the national security of the United States and its allies with his support of the ICU and al Qaeda," said Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. "The FBI will continue to work with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities to aggressively pursue suspected terrorists and disrupt their activities."
Daniel Joseph Maldonado, a.k.a. Daniel Aljughaifi, 28, pleaded guilty in April 2007 admitting he had traveled from Houston to Africa in November 2005 and then on to Somalia in December 2006 to join the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and elements of Al Qaeda to fight "jihad" against the Transitional Federal Government to establish an independent Islamic State in Somalia.
While in Somalia, Maldonado was provided an AK-47, equipped with military combat uniforms and boots in Mogadishu, and participated in training camps in Kismaayo and Jilib, Somalia. The camps included physical fitness, firearms and explosives training, all in preparation to go to the front to fight for the ICU. Al Qaeda members were present at the training camps. ICU and al Qaeda, a recognized foreign terrorist organization, worked together to train fighters in the camps to fight jihad to establish an independent Islamic state in Somalia.
Maldonado was captured by Kenyan military forces on January 21, 2007 as he fled to avoid Ethiopian and Somalian forces. Expelled by Kenyan officials, Maldonado was turned over to American authorities and flown to Houston accompanied by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Maldonado has been in federal custody since his return to the United States.
The investigation leading to the conviction in this case was conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force including special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and officers of the Houston Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Gary Cobe.

Palestinian Mamzers Fire on Elderly Coupel

Qassam hits elderly couple's home

Islamic Jihad cell fires two rockets at western Negev; no one wounded but two houses and a factory damaged. Regional council head says 'scandalous' government has not yet started program to shield homes
Tova Dadon

Palestinians in Gaza fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev late Friday, one of which hit the home of an elderly couple.

A third rocket was fired Saturday afternoon and landed in an open area near Sderot. No casualties or damages were reported.

Late Friday the first rocket slammed through the roof of a house where an elderly couple lived, then ricocheted into the yard of the neighboring home, where it exploded. No one was wounded, but the rocket caused severe damage to both houses.

A second rocket landed on the premises of the Kal-Katif factory and damaged a storage container. The al-Quds Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Yoav Peled, security officer for the Shaar Hanegev regional council, told Ynet it was a miracle no one was hurt. "The Qassam accelerated when it hit the concrete roof of the elderly couple's home. They were awake when it hit and luckily weren't hurt. Due to the acceleration, the rocket continued on into the neighbors' yard, where it exploded and shattered all the house's windows," Peled said. The couple spent the night at a guest house on the kibbutz where they live, due to the severe damage to their house. They did not need any medical treatment and did not suffer shock.

Alon Schuster, head of the Shaar Hanegev regional council, said, "The Islamic Jihad launched the rocket to tell the prime minister (Ehud Olmert) that time and statistics weren't in his favor. Instead of telling Gaza perimeter residents that there's no such thing as 100 percent security, Olmert should do what he personally promised me and the other council heads – and shield the houses right away."

"It's scandalous. The program has been dragging for six months, and now we hear that it may even be cancelled. I demand of the new defense minister (Ehud Barak) that he join our demands and bring up the matter this Sunday at the cabinet meeting. There are people here whose lives need to be protected," he declared.

SYRIAN ATTACK THREATS CONTINUE

Note: Syrian Officials continue to brace their citizens and the rest of the Arab world for their planned aggression against Israel in an attempt to seize and hold the Golan Heights. Israel must not succumb to, or fear the Syrian saber-rattling. Any consideration of giving one centimeter of Israeli land to Syria for a so-called peace agreement is not only stupid, it is treasonous. Syria will not live up to any promises it makes to Israel. Talks of peace for the Golan is nothing but Syrian deceit and subterfuge. Syria's intent is the seizure of Golan by military force and the provocation of a war with Israel. Syria, and partner Iran, are the most dangerous factors today in the Middle-East. Israel should already be on a wartime footing.
Blogmaster

Miqdad Underlines that the Liberation of Golan and the Occupied Arab territories is President al-Assad's Top Priority Local News / Jun 26, 2007 - 01:40 PM Damascus,(SANA)- Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Miqdad, has stressed that the liberation of the occupied Arab territories forms top priority in President Bashar al-Assad's policy. During a political review made at the Arab Cultural Center in the liberated city of Quneitra on the occasion of the liberation anniversary of city, Miqdad said that Golan represented the hope and aspiration of Syria toward a bright tomorrow, stressing the Syrian people and their leader President al-Assad's strong belief that Golan will be restored to the mainland Syria. Miqdad made a review of the events that took place in the 80s and early 90s and the hegemony of a one- polar power on the world particularly where the American and Israeli interests are located. He also talked about the American occupation of Iraq and the US. destructive war on Iraq stressing Syria's care for the unity of the Iraqi people and land , and for the necessity for laying down a time table for the foreign troops withdrawal from Iraq , rebuilding the Iraqi army , and convening a conference on national reconciliation among all the spectrums of the Iraqi people. He also reviewed the tragic events in the Palestinian territories , stressing Syria's support to the unity of the Palestinian ranks and ending the siege on the Palestinian people. Regarding the Lebanese situation, Miqdad stressed Syria's support to the Lebanese brotherly people until they reach reconciliation and consolidation of security and stability in Lebanon . He stressed Syria's support to the Syrian detainees in the Israeli detention camps , and Syria taking pride in their honorable steadfast stances.A.N.Idelbi This article is from Syrian Arab news agency - SANA - Syria www.sana.org

CIA and State Department Maladroitness Cause British Combat Deaths

Note: I wonder how many more people are going to die while the CIA splits hairs over their credibility so they can protect Iran from any kind of unpleasant repercussions. We appreciate the sacrifices being made by British Soldiers in Iraq in support of the War on Terror. Blogmaster

Iran supplied missile that hit UK helicopter

From The Sunday Times

June 24, 2007

Richard Miniter in Washington and Michael Smith

A ROYAL NAVY helicopter that crashed in flames in Basra last year, killing all five on board, was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile supplied to Iraqi militants by Iran, according to US officials.

America knew that the Mahdi Army, the radical Shi’ite militia, had obtained the shoulder-launched missile from the Iranians but failed to tell the British because of a row between the State Department and the CIA over the reliability of the source, US intelligence sources said.

The Lynx helicopter, from 847 Naval Air Squadron, based at Yeovilton, Somerset, was carrying a three-man crew plus Wing Commander John Coxen, the most senior officer to die in Iraq, and Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill, the first British servicewoman killed in action since the second world war.

Witnesses told an inquest in Oxford last week that they saw a ball of yellow flame, typical of a particular type of missile, heading for the Lynx. Private Stuart Drummond said: “I thought it was a missile. The helicopter exploded. It was engulfed in flames and went down.”

The families of those killed were frequently asked to leave the inquest as secret details of the missile and the failure of the helicopter’s defensive systems were discussed. The report of a board of inquiry into the incident is heavily edited and was classified Top Secret Codeword, the highest UK classification.

This was because telephone intercepts, intelligence reports and pieces of the missile recovered from the scene confirmed that it came from Iran, the American sources said.

Three days before the attack, State Department officials interviewed an Iraqi linked to the Mahdi Army who told them Iran had supplied the militia with the Russian surface-to-air missile.

It was intended specifically for the Mahdi Army to shoot down a British helicopter, codenamed Operation Hawk-Taking.

The intelligence was not passed on to the British because the CIA dismissed the Iraqi detainee as “a well-known fabricator”, the sources alleged.

The allegations of Iranian involvement come amid increasing concern over Iran’s role in disrupting coalition operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Des Browne, the defence secretary, confirmed the scale of Iranian involvement in southern Iraq earlier this month. “Well over 80% of the violence is targeted against the British forces, much of it quite specifically influenced by the Iranians,” he said.

“We stand between them and their ambitions to share the spoils of what is potentially one of the richest cities in the world and to show the local population that they can force us out would be quite a coup for them. It’s in their interests to have their proxies drive us out of Iraq.”

British and US troops fought pitched battles with the Mahdi Army near the southern town of Amara last week as they broke up a network smuggling equipment from Iran to make armour-piercing shaped-charge bombs.

While it is widely known that Iran has been attempting to influence events in southern Iraq by backing attacks on British forces, suggestions that Iran is backing the Taliban in Afghanistan have, until recently, been given less credence by UK officials.

Browne went further than any British official on Iranian support for the Taliban. He said: “It is a changing pattern in that the Iranian influence is very important. We have evidence to suggest that they support the Taliban.”

Robert Gates, his US counterpart, made similar accusations, saying the extent of arms shipment across the Iranian border into Afghanistan suggested that the Iranian government was aware they were taking place.

Gates, a former CIA director, said he had seen recent intelligence analysis “that makes it pretty clear there’s a fairly substantial flow of weapons”.

Coalition forces have intercepted at least two large shipments of weapons coming into Afghanistan from Iran, one close to the border with Iran and the other near Kandahar.

It was left to the State Department to make the strongest allegations, with Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state, claiming there was “irrefutable evidence” that the Iranian government was involved in shipping weapons to the Taliban.

British officials, who had previously hesitated to suggest that Iran supported the Taliban, said they were seeing evidence of a shift in Tehran’s position.

That appeared to be confirmed by Admiral Ali Shamkhani, principal defence adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Shamkhani told the US journal Defense News that Iran had “blocked US moves” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While Iran’s “partner of choice” in Afghanistan is the United Front, the Taliban’s most implacable foe, Tehran is hedging its bets. It is also friendly with the government of President Hamid Karzai and invests heavily in Afghanistan, particularly in the west around Herat.

Its support for the Taliban is seen as similar to that of Pakistan’s, based on a recognition that in five or six years’ time America and its allies will be gone and the Taliban will not only still exist but could be in control of much of Afghanistan.

Officials said that Iran was also happy to be seen to be “tweaking the tail” of Britain and America.

- A British soldier died after a roadside bomb attack on his patrol in Basra yesterday.