Monday, December 29, 2014
Khaled Abu Toameh: What the Palestinian Authority Did Not Tell the UN Security Council
Last week, Jordan submitted to the Security Council a Palestinian-drafted resolution calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017 and a peace deal within a year.Two east Jerusalem brothers indicted for planning terrorist attack in capital
But what the Palestinians did not tell the Security Council is that the state they seek to establish is one that does not respect public freedoms, first and foremost freedom of expression.
This would be a state where people are detained and intimidated for using social media to express their views. It will also be a state where the president or any of his senior officials could order the arrest of anyone who dares to speak out against lack of democracy and reforms.
The draft resolution that was submitted to the Security Council fails to mention the fact that the Palestinian Authority is harassing and persecuting political opponents and critics, including Facebook users.
Moreover, the PA does not want the Security Council and the rest of the international community to know that, in the future Palestinian state, female journalists, writers and political activists can be detained for interrogation and threatened because of their work.
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Monday filed an indictment against two east Jerusalem brothers for working with Hamas to carry out a major terrorist attack in the capital.PA minister legitimizes murdering Israelis
According to the indictment, the brothers, aged 28 and 23, were recruited by a Hamas operative in the Gaza Strip to form a terror cell in Jerusalem to carry out the unspecified attack at a public venue.
While the details of the planned attack and the investigation into it remain unclear, the brothers have been charged with joining a terrorist organization, conspiracy, theft and other offenses.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said security personnel continue to investigate potential accomplices of the suspects.
Ali Sa’ada, a terrorist prisoner who murdered a father and his one-year-old baby, was fined 3.5 million shekels by Israel. That fine is “delegitimizing the [Palestinian] national resistance,” says Prisoners’ Affairs Authority Director and PA Parliament Member Issa Karake. According to Karake, who holds the rank of minister, the killing of one-year-old Israelis is legitimate “resistance.”
In his capacity as Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake has a long history of glorifying terrorist murderers, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch.
Karake defines being a victim of Palestinian terror as “being exposed to resistance by Palestinians”:
“[Israeli] courts have been... passing sentences on prisoners that force them to pay large sums in financial compensation to Israelis who have been exposed to resistance by Palestinians.” [WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Dec. 16, 2014]
Palestinian statehood vote likely pushed to 2015, FM says
The United Nations Security Council may only vote on a Palestinian statehood resolution in early 2015, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Monday, pushing off the timetable for the move by several days.Kerry said to hint at sanctions if Palestinians push UN bid
The final draft of a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017 will be submitted to the Security Council presidency by Jordan on Monday, following its approval by Arab ambassadors to the UN, Maliki told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency. But UN procedural bureaucracy may delay the actual vote until the beginning of 2015, he added.
“This process will take more than a day or two, and we must be clear with our people in order to avoid a state of confusion stemming from the numerous statements, which are sometimes contradictory,” Maliki said. “These procedures are unrelated to the Palestinian position, but are routine UN procedures in such cases.”
Maliki’s comments contradicted an assertion by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who in an interview with Al-Arabiya Friday said that the Palestinian proposal will be brought to a UN vote no later than Wednesday.
Abbas called Kerry Sunday night to inform him of the Palestinian plans to submit the bid, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.'Abbas is just as dangerous as Hamas'
An unnamed official said Kerry objected to the move during their phone conversation, and urged Abbas to delay the bid until after Israeli elections in March, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Abbas informed Kerry of the PA decision to press for a UN Security Council vote this week on the resolution, which would call for the recognition of a Palestinian state. He also voiced his opposition to settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Kerry, in return, told Abbas to again consider a postponement, and hinted that the US would veto the proposal if need be and possibly impose economic sanctions on the Palestinians, an unnamed Palestinian official said.
Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz urged the government to take drastic measures should the Palestinian Authority continue to push ahead with unilateral moves at the U.N.Abbas’ advisor warns of global Islamic war if Israel retains sovereignty over Jerusalem
"The U.N. [Security Council] is expected to vote on a hostile, aggressive, unilateral proposal on a Palestinian state," Steinitz said. "This cannot be tolerated. I believe that if the U.N. Security Council votes in favor of this resolution, we will have no choice but to seriously consider dissolving the Palestinian Authority."
Steinitz declared that Israel must stop handling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "with kid gloves. Abbas is just as dangerous an enemy as Hamas. True, he is not the kind of enemy that fires rockets, but his diplomatic assault and his incitement against the Jewish people are just as dangerous.
"I have always advocated a hard line against him. Now, if he pursues this move in the U.N. Security Council, we cannot turn the other cheek -- we have to react forcefully," Steinitz said.
PA cleric Ibrahim Madi: Kill Jews, Allah will make Muslims masters over Jews
Who’s to Blame for Middle East Peace Stall?
It was once conventional wisdom among a certain segment of Western policymakers that the Arab-Israeli dispute was the root of instability in the Middle East. Diplomats, both in Washington and Europe, resisted fiercely President George W. Bush’s belief that the road to peace and stability in the Middle East didn’t necessarily go through Jerusalem. It may not have gone through Baghdad either, but the subsequent Arab Spring should have demonstrated unequivocally that the Middle East faces myriad problems, few of which have to do with Israel.The Israelis who back UN hypocrisy
That said, for Secretary of State John Kerry and his European counterparts, the Arab-Israeli conflict holds huge importance and drains disproportionate resources. Despite European murmurings abut sanctions against Israel; diplomacy—the so-called peace process—remains the chief policy pillar.
While it’s a parlor game in the State Department and European Foreign Ministries to debate whose fault it is that the Middle East peace process is moribund, the answer often lies in the mirror. Kerry and his counterparts are doing generational damage to any hope to reach a diplomatic solution to the decades-old dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
The reason is this: the basis for diplomatic agreements is trust they will be respected and upheld. But, increasingly, Washington and even more so European capitals are signaling that diplomatic agreements are empty promises and that outside guarantees are meaningless.
One can, of course, complain about the hypocrisy of the world, and particularly that of European nations, who have continued to ignore the growth of Islamic radicalism and terrorism in the world and have focused instead, in a biased manner, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Alongside this, more and more nations are symbolically recognizing a Palestinian state and turning a blind eye to all Palestinian misdeeds. These moves are indeed symbolic, not just because they have no diplomatic meaning, but also, ironically, because Israel is once again being placed on the altar for sacrifice.Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Visits 11-Year-Old Firebomb Victim
But the more one delves into the U.N.'s outrageous conduct, the harder it becomes to separate the actions of the international community from the tailwind provided by certain Israelis. Indeed, Tzipi Livni, Isaac Herzog and even Avigdor Lieberman have explained to us that this is all happening because of a lack of diplomatic initiative on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They do this, of course, without attributing any blame to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who, despite all the concessions offered by Netanyahu, would not even agree to begin peace talks.
A unique visit occurred on Sunday when Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Dov Kalmanovich, himself a firebomb attack victim, came to the Sheba Medical Center to visit the parents of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was critically wounded last Thursday in a firebomb attack.Palestinian teen killed by IDF in West Bank after throwing rocks
Ayala's father Avner was also lightly wounded in the attack that occurred as the Shapira's car was bombarded by a Molotov cocktail on a road outside Ma'ale Shomron in Samaria. The two Arab terrorists who committed the attack were arrested the night of the attack by the elite IDF special ops unit Duvdevan.
Kalmanovich was wounded in the First Intifada that spanned from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. As a result of a Molotov cocktail attack, he suffered burns on 75% of his body.
"As chairperson of The Terror Victims Association I visited hundreds of families of wounded and bereaved families. But this incident is closer to my heart, even more than usual," said Kalmanovich.
A Palestinian teen was killed by Israeli military gunfire when hurling rocks at Israeli cars in the West Bank, the IDF said Monday.IsraellyCool: Israel Shoots Teen In The Face With A Gas Grenade
The assailant, identified in Palestinian media as Imam Jameel a-Safeer, 16, received preliminary medical treatment on the scene but succumbed to his wounds shortly after, the IDF spokesman said in a statement.
Safeer was shot at after throwing rocks at Israeli cars near the Tapuah settlement, in the central West Bank, according to the IDF. The army said the rock throwing endangered drivers on the road.
Excuse the “Ma’an-ish” title, but that’s the headline you’ll soon see so I just preempted them.Israel Deploying Underwater Barrier, Sonar Array Against Hezbollah Divers (VIDEO)
Yes, yes. That jerkwad got what’s coming to him. A bulls-eye right in the kisser by a gas grenade.
Here’s what interested me though.
Between the moment he was struck in the face, to the time not one but TWO ambulances arrived to his aid: 12 seconds. Which is the time it takes an average person to buckle his seat belt and start the engine. Then at 0:38, terrorist #3 enters the ambulance like it’s his very own getaway car.
Which leaves me with 2 takeaways from this scene.
- Pallywood production
- Palestinians once again using civilian ambulances as instruments of terror.
Under the watchful eyes of the Israeli Navy, private US and EU firms are deploying a defensive barrier and sonar array along the country’s maritime border with Lebanon, meant to foil Hezbollah undersea infiltrations, Israel’s Ch. 2 News reported Sunday.JCPA: Hamas’ New Base in Turkey
Israeli security officials believe Hezbollah has built or acquired an array of undersea weapons and delivery systems to be used against Israel in future conflicts.
While the exact details and location of the Israeli picket system are classified, its purpose is to prevent the infiltration of divers, swimmers, and submersible craft into Israeli territory.
A similar barrier has been in operation south of Zikim beach, along Israel’s maritime border with Gaza, and was instrumental in thwarting two raids by Hamas naval commandos during Operation Protective Edge this summer.
The senior Hamas figure in Turkey is Saleh al-Aruri, one of the founders of the movement’s military wing. Israel sees him as responsible for extensive terrorist activity originating from Turkey. Among other actions he is believed to have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenage boys Gilad Shear, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Ifrach in June 2014, in attempting to create an elaborate infrastructure on the West Bank for the overthrow of Mahmoud Abbas, in the creation of the terror infrastructure that tried to assassinate Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and in the planning of a terror attack at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.Hamas: Qatar hasn’t cut off our financial aid
Another senior Hamas figure now living in Turkey is Amad al-Alami, who was the movement’s representative in Iran. Hamas sources say that he came to Turkey last November to obtain medical treatment.
Also residing at the Hamas headquarters in Turkey are two of its operatives, Mahmoud Atun and Taiser Suliman, who were among those freed in the Gilad Schalit deal.
In a complaint submitted to U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and to NATO Headquarters, Israel demanded that measures be taken against Turkey as a NATO member for allowing the unhindered activity of the Hamas headquarters in Istanbul. Turkey, for its part, denied all charges.
In an interview last week to the Hamas mouthpiece Al-Rissala, al-Aruri denied any terror activity from Turkish territory. He praised the Turkish leadership and its support for the Palestinian people and claimed that the Hamas leadership would not carry out any activity on Turkish soil that would embarrass Turkey.
Hamas denied on Sunday that Qatar has decided to halt financial aid to the movement.Israeli Journalist ‘Horrified’ After Interviewing ISIS Fighters About Bloodthirsty Terror Tactics
A report in a Kuwaiti newspaper claimed in the past week that Qatar has temporarily halted financial aid to Hamas in wake of the emirate’s rapprochement with Egypt.
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said that the report was completely untrue.
He denied that Qatar was exerting pressure on Hamas to change its policy toward Egypt.
“Hamas does not meddle in the internal affairs of Egypt,” Zahar said. “Nor does Hamas pose a threat to Egypt’s national security.”
Zahar welcomed the rapprochement between Qatar and Egypt.
Israeli journalist Itai Anghel said in a radio interview last week that it was “horrifying” to hear about terrorist tactics and their graphic details described to him by captured ISIS fighters he spoke with while in Iraq and Syria.Supporters Urge ISIS to Impale or Skin Captured Pilot Alive
Anghel spent a week in each country, staying in the Kurdish-held territories to report on ISIS for the Israeli television show Uvdah. He interviewed ISIS fighters captured by Kurdish forces about acts they committed as members of the terrorist group, including beheadings, as well as their stance on Jews and Israel. Some of the captives were blindfolded during their interviews with Anghel and none of them knew that the reporter was Israeli.
“One of them said that he deliberately uses a knife which is not the sharpest knife because he wants the beheading process to take longer and to inflict more pain and more suffering on his victim,” Anghel told Israel’s TLV1 Radio this week about his conversations with ISIS militants. “And you hear it and you see his face and he’s absolutely cold and technical in the way he’s telling it. It was something beyond any logic… Even with all my experience.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) captured Jordainian pilot Moaz al-Kasasba on Wednesday after his plane crashed in Syria. Militants asked supporters on social media how to kill the innocent pilot and received numerous responses.Jordan appeals to Turkey for help in rescuing captive pilot
These people use the hashtag #We AllWantToSlaughterMoaz and #SuggestaWaytoKilltheJordanianPig. As Voactiv points out, no one knows if the terrorist group or supporters started the hashtags.
This user, who tweets constant support for jihadists, said he does not care how the terrorists kill and send Moaz to hell, but they must eliminate “tyrants” like him.
Jordan has reportedly appealed to Turkey for help in securing the release of Jordanian pilot 1st Lt. Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh who is being held captive by the Islamic State.Disease and Hunger in “Caliphate” as IS Leaders Live in Luxury
Turkish officials told Turkish daily Hurriyet that the Jordanian government turned to the Turkish embassy in Amman to request its assistance.
The Turkish foreign ministry and Turkey’s security establishment are said to be reviewing the circumstances of the incident in which the Jordanian pilot fell captive to the jihadist group last week.
In September, the Turkish government secured the release of 49 mainly Turkish hostages held by the Islamic State in a mysterious deal that is reported to have included a prisoner exchange.
Despite significant territorial gains and world-wide notoriety it seems the Islamic State fighters are falling foul of military gangs throughout history who have staged coups.Hoping to create a new society, the Islamic State recruits entire families
Their attempts at state building appear to be failing, the Washington Post reports.
Residents have said that prices are soaring, services are collapsing and health provisions are all but absent across the “caliphate” that the extremists have declared in Iraq and Syria.
Contrary to actual living standards, the Islamic State say they are delivering a ‘model form of governance for Muslims’.
IS have been making a success of their public relations campaigns via social media, from highlighting Western defectors to the hideous beheadings of humanitarian aid workers begging for their freedom with pre dictated statements to their governments.
These now include videos depicting properly working government offices and the distribution of aid amongst the war torn towns and cities which are in stark contrast to the realities facing the inhabitants who face hardship and are led by erratic fundamentalists.
The arrival of the Dhar family in Syria last month represents a key strategic goal of the Islamic State: to build not just an army but a society. The group has vowed to create a nation ruled by Islamic sharia law, and its leaders and online recruiters have encouraged doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers and accountants to join them in building the institutions of a new holy land.ISIS Executes Nearly 2,000 in Syria in Six Months
Entire families — fathers, mothers and children — have answered that call in numbers that have surprised and alarmed analysts who study the extremist group.
“These families believe they are doing the right thing for their children,” said Melanie Smith, a research associate at the King’s College International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London. “They think they are taking them to a kind of utopia.”
The Islamic State (ISIS) group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organization said on Sunday, according to Reuters.Syria ‘ready to participate’ in Moscow peace talks
ISIS also killed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the last two months, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The group has taken vast parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in territory under its control in June. Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other insurgents and Kurdish forces.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian monitoring group, told Reuters that ISIS killed 1,175 civilians, including eight women and four children. He said 930 of the civilians were members of the Sheitaat, a Sunni Muslim tribe from eastern Syria which fought Islamic State for control of two oilfields in August.
Syrian state-run TV said Saturday that the government is prepared to take part in peace talks hosted by Russia next month, but the unnamed foreign ministry official it cited suggested the scope of the negotiations would be limited to “preliminary” talks meant to pave the way for a conference in Syria itself.Senior Iranian commander killed in Iraq
The official was quoted as saying the government was “ready to participate in preparatory, advisory meetings in Moscow” that would “answer the aspirations of Syrians to find an exit from the crisis.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry had said Thursday that it hoped to host peace talks after January 20 between the Syrian government and its fractured opposition. The nearly four-year conflict has claimed over 200,000 lives, displaced a third of Syria’s population, and nurtured an extremist group, the Islamic State, which now rules over vast swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Russia is a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Western-backed Syrian opposition has insisted that any negotiated settlement include the formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers, a demand rejected by Assad’s government.
Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi was “martyred while performing his advisory mission to confront ISIS terrorists in Samarra,” said a statement posted on the Guard’s website.Obama: Iran could be very successful regional power if it curbs nuclear program
Shiite Iran says it has sent military advisers to assist Syria and Iraq in battling Sunni-led rebels and extremist groups, but has denied sending any combat forces to either country. Taqavi is the highest ranking officer known to have been killed outside Iran since the devastating 1980-88 war with Iraq, in which he fought and in which he lost his father and a brother.
The Guard said Taqavi was assisting Iraqi troops and Shiite volunteers defending Samarra, a city north of Baghdad which is home to a major Shiite shrine. It did not provide any details on how he was killed but said a funeral procession will be held in Tehran on Monday.
“Taqavi played a valuable and unforgettable role in countering the enemies of Islam,” the Guard said, without elaborating.
Iran could become a "very successful regional power" if Tehran agrees to a long-term deal to curb its nuclear program, President Barack Obama said in an interview with NPR News.Iranian official: The fight against satellite TV is more important than obtaining nuclear weapons
"They've got a chance to get right with the world," Obama said in the interview, which was taped at the White House on Dec. 18 and is set to air this week.
More than a year ago, Iran agreed to an interim plan to halt higher-level uranium enrichment in exchange for a limited easing in financial sanctions pending negotiations on a long-term deal. Those talks have now been extended to next June.
Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful energy use, but the United States and five other powers want to make sure that Tehran cannot quickly develop nuclear weapons.
Obama told NPR that Iran should seize the chance of a deal that could lift crippling sanctions.
Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Abdul Reza Dashti, the head Basij commander in Bushehr, as saying that "the battle against satellite TV and social networks on the Internet is more important than the effort of achieving chemical and atomic weapons."Iran expands 'smart' Internet censorship
Dashti said that the way of fighting these foreign influences is through "education aimed at the future generation of our society."
The regime has been threatening and fining those who own satellite dishes and then gathering and destroying those dishes publicly.
"Our mission as the one that is in charge is to provide the appropriate conditions and satisfy the people's hunger for TV shows by airing them on our government channels,"Dashti said.
He added: "Although some families aren’t aware of the damage that satellite TV does in corrupting the young generation, we should stand firmly against this cultural attack from our enemies on our values and those who are behind this."
Iran is to expand what it calls "smart filtering" of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday.Are Turkish-Israel relations permanently frozen?
The Islamic republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks.
Under the new scheme, Tehran could lift its blanket ban on those sites and, instead, filter their content.
The policy appears to follow President Hassan Rouhani's push to loosen some social restrictions, but it was not clear if it would mean more or less Internet freedom. Iranians on Twitter expressed concern that, as part of the new policy, the government would try to block VPN access to such sites.
Erdogan’s frequent pronouncements against Israel, comparing the country’s actions to Nazism as recently as during this summer’s war, hide a deeper issue: The Turkish leader and his foreign policy team have a deeply felt emotional interest in the Palestinian issue.Why Does Nobody Want to Play with Turkey?
Several times during the interview with Aktay, he stresses the 2,200 Palestinian dead in the Gaza war, and the 500 children he says Israel had killed. “You killed children and justify it as an act of self-defense... it is a kind of massacre. You take your revenge by killing innocents, 500 children.”
This is against the backdrop in which, as mentioned above, Operation Protective Edge torpedoed an agreement Israel was on the verge of making regarding the Mavi Marmara.
The Turkish support for Hamas makes it difficult for Israel to consider how the country can play a positive role, or how relations can be thawed. But Turkey and Israel share interests in trade and energy issues in the Mediterranean; there are common interests in ending the chaos in Syria; both look askance at Russian and Iranian influence.
There is likely much to be gained by Israel continuing to see Turkey as an important actor in the region, and Ankara has been open about its views. For years, Erdogan has wanted to show he can be a peacemaker, beginning with attempts in 2008 to broker a deal between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Indeed, unlike much of the region, Turkey is a stable, economically robust country, and its current ruling party will likely be in power for years to come.
For Russia, Turkey means $$$$$: Tens of billions of dollars in bilateral trade -- a perfect client for Russian natural gas, as well as a potential transit route to export gas to third countries. But it also means a hostile country ruled by Islamists who seek Sunni supremacy using jihadists, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to expand its regional clout in the Middle East, often against Russian interests.Teen accused of insulting Erdogan freed from custody
For China, too, Turkey is a good client. Unlike Russia, Chinese companies actively win infrastructure, telecommunications and mining contracts in Turkey. But like Russia, China, too, deeply distrusts Turkey politically. China's most pressing domestic security issue, the ethnically Turkic Uighur Muslim separatists in the western province of Xinjiang, has a Turkish connection. Chinese authorities often accuse Turkey of harboring Uighur terrorists and allowing jihadist Uighurs a safe passage between Syria and China.
With its neo-imperial ambitions and Sunni Islamist policy calculus, Turkey once again fails to fit any alliance's broad foreign policy and security structure. The soul searching will have to go on.
Turkey is too big, too Islamist and too un-European for the EU; it is too little Islamist and a disliked former colonial power for most of the Arab Street; a sectarian and regional rival for Iran, and a security threat to the bigwigs in the SCO.
A high school student who was jailed for allegedly insulting Turkey’s president was released from custody on Friday after his arrest caused uproar in the country.Pakistan ends detention of accused Mumbai attacks mastermind
The 16-year-old boy was arrested on Wednesday, a day after he took part in a small left-wing student rally commemorating the death of a pro-secular army officer slain by Islamists 84 years ago.
The boy, who can only be identified by his initials M.E.A. because of Turkish laws that protect the identity of minors, made a speech during the rally in which he said the students didn’t regard Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the president, but as the “thieving owner of the illegal palace,” according to court papers seen by The Associated Press.
His words referred to a vast government corruption scandal that has implicated members of Erdogan’s family, as well as a controversial 1,150-room palace in the capital, Ankara, which Erdogan inaugurated in October.
A Pakistani court on Monday suspended a detention order on the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, government lawyers said, drawing a sharp protest from India.Al-Qaeda urges ‘lone wolf’ attacks on airliners
India summoned Pakistan’s envoy to protest after the Islamabad High Court suspended the order on the alleged mastermind of the attacks which killed 166 people.
The suspension is the latest round in a tussle over whether to grant bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is accused over the terror siege in India’s commercial capital.
The Mumbai carnage was blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and India has long seethed over Islamabad’s failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning and organizing the violence.
The winter issue of Inspire, an English-language online magazine edited by the jihadist group, urges that bombs be detonated on the planes of several preeminent US commercial airline companies — American Airlines, Delta, United and Continental — in an effort to gain publicity and “crush the enemy’s economy,” according to a report published Saturday by The Guardian, a British newspaper.
The issue, the 13th released by the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, also advised rogue terrorists as to the prime altitude for detonating explosives; and encouraged them to blow up commercial aircraft above land, causing additional damage to civilian populations below.
In cases where an attack upon a US airline is not achievable, the magazine suggests British or French alternatives such as British Airways, easyJet or Air France or KLM — a Dutch airline that merged with Air France in 2003, according to a blog operated by the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based racism watchdog group.
“The first priority and the main focus should be on America, then the United Kingdom, then France… This goes on with the NATO countries as per the known order,” the magazine read.
The publication went on to praise lone-wolf terrorists because of their ability to stay undetected: “[They are] hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”
