KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in an airstrike this week close to the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Saturday. A Taliban spokesman denied the claim.

"There's no doubt that it will have an immediate impact on their ability to conduct attacks," Collins said. "But the Taliban is fairly adaptive. They'll put somebody else in that position and we'll go after that person, too."

Labels: Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Taliban, US Troops, War On Terror

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"About as American as they come..."

WASHINGTON — Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. (R-Va.) on Thursday stood by his demand for strict immigration controls that he said would prevent Muslims from being elected to Congress and using the Koran during swearing-in ceremonies.


Islamic groups in the United States called on Republicans to repudiate Goode's remarks, which he first made in a letter attacking the use of the holy book in a ceremonial oath-taking next month by the first Muslim elected to the House.


"I do not apologize, and I do not retract my letter," Goode said emphatically during a session Thursday with reporters in the southern Virginia town of Rocky Mount.


Questioned later on Fox News Channel's "Your World," he said, "I am for restricting immigration so that we don't have a majority of Muslims elected to the House of Representatives."


The incoming House member at the center of the controversy, Keith Ellison, told CNN's "The Situation Room" on Thursday that he could trace his ancestors to Louisiana as far back as 1742. "I'm about as American as they come," said Ellison, who converted to Islam in college.


The Minnesota Democrat said he planned to use the Koran only as part of an unofficial individual swearing-in before friends and supporters. That event will follow the official ceremony in which all House members raise their right hands and pledge their allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the United States, without resting their left hands on anything.


Goode said Thursday that he wrote the letter in response to constituents who e-mailed him about Ellison's decision to use the Koran. In the letter, he said his own ceremony would be different.


When I raise my hand to take the oath on swearing-in day, I will have the Bible in my other hand," Goode wrote. "I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way…."


I fear," he wrote, "that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America."

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

Labels: CAIR, Christianity vs Islam, Islam in America, Keith Ellison, Koran, United States

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BANDA ACEH, Aceh province (AP): Enforcing Islamic law, Indonesianpolice raided a dozen beauty parlors and arrested 13 beauticiansfor failing to wear Islamic attire and two male customers forhaving their hair cut by women, police said Thursday.


Police chief Bahagia Hadi said raids on beauty parlors wouldbe intensified in the Indonesian province of Aceh because suchplaces were often found to be used for prostitution.


Bahagia said police found used condoms during a raid Wednesdayin one of the parlors in the capital of the tsunami-ravagedprovince, Banda Aceh.


The 13 female parlor workers were arrested because they woretight shirts and jeans but no head scarves, while the two menshould have known that Islamic Sharia law states they can onlyreceive haircuts from male hairdressers, he said.


All were released after being admonished by the Sharia Agency,he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 22, 2001 - At the Ahmed brothers’ barbershop in the capital city of the world’s most radical Islamic regime, haircuts can be dangerous. The wildly popular Leonardo di Caprio cut, dubbed the “Titanic” by locals, has teen-age boys lining up every day, eager to be transformed into American heartthrobs. But the “Titanic” is a serious offense in the eyes of the Taliban, the staunchly anti-Western Islamic militants who rule this nation. Said Ahmed, the older of the two barbers, has been imprisoned twice for his artistry. But business is business — despite the Taliban.


...the Taliban imposed an unbending brand of Islam on a war-torn nation ruined by civil war and the Soviet invasion more than two decades ago. In today’s Afghanistan, thieves routinely have their limbs amputated. Women, banned from pursuing most careers, are executed for adultery. Pop music and dancing are banned, along with television and videos.


Even kite flying and laughing in public are censured.

JAKARTA (Antara): Supreme Court Thursday overturned a conviction against cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on conspiracy charges in the 2002 Bali bombings.


The cleric has maintained his innocence and denounced the allegations as a plot by Washington to silence his campaign for Islamic law.

Labels: Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, Bali, Indonesia, Sharia Law, Taliban

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WASHINGTON - "All of us want to find a way to bring America's sons and daughters home again," Gates told a few hundred people in a Pentagon auditorium, including Bush, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gates' wife and mother. Rumsfeld, who handed off his authority earlier Monday in a private event, did not attend the ceremony.


"As the president has made clear," Gates said, "we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come."

At the Pentagon ceremony, Bush said he is confident Gates, 63, will bring a fresh perspective to the Iraq problem.


"He knows the stakes in the war on terror," Bush said. "He recognizes this is a long struggle against an enemy unlike any our nation has fought before. He understands that defeating the terrorists and the radicals and the extremists in Iraq and the Middle East is essential to leading toward peace."

Labels: Department of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, The Pentagon

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Two Norwegians have undergone training by Al-Qaida in Pakistan to become terrorist contacts in Norway, according to Newsweek, quoting a Taliban source.

Together with an Australian and nine from Great Britain, the two Norwegians with Muslim background have reportedly been trained at a camp on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Newsweek's source says he met the 12 recruits in the town of Mir Ali in the region of Northern Waziristan in November 2005.


- Their task is to function as organizers for Al-Qaida in their homeland, the former Taliban intelligence chief says to Newsweek.

Labels: Adam Gadahn, Afghanistan, al-Qaida, Global War on Terrorism, Norway, Terrorism, Terrorist Cell

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In the now famous words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and they are us.” If America, the lone superpower, does not hold out against the march of Islam, it will fall into the Dark Ages of Muslim control, a place where born-and-bred Americans like the fashion designer will determine what American women will wear and other Muslims will impose the Sharia law of Islam upon all of us.

When the media begins to find ways to offer up a positive image of Islam, you know they have probably decided that the game is over and we in the West have lost. The American media is expert at showing the white flag of surrender. They have been trumpeting the end of the world for decades now.

Labels: Islam in America, Political Correctness, Sharia Law

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Also at Jihadi Du Jour

THE NEWS MEDIA, politicians and observers are scrambling to speculate on how Sen. Tim Johnson's (D-S.D.) medical emergency might change the composition of the Senate. But if the health of just 1% of one-half of one of the federal government's three branches can cause this much concern, what might happen in a real emergency?



Specifically, imagine how the United States would react — or not — if terrorists succeeded in destroying Washington and, with it, all or most of the government. Chillingly, the Senate, which generated so much speculation this week, is actually in a better position to resume functioning than the other branches.


Under the 17th Amendment (which, in 1913, changed the way senators are elected), state legislatures may authorize governors to fill Senate vacancies on an interim basis, pending a special election to fill out the term. All that would be required is a statute redefining vacancies to include cases in which a senator is unable to cast a ballot because of a long-term disability. The rules should, of course, be careful to respect senators' rights to a full medical determination of their condition.


With that statute in place, a terrorist attack leading to mass incapacitation wouldn't generate institutional paralysis. We would see a new Senate rise from the ashes, with a political balance broadly representative of the nation.


This isn't true of the House or the presidency. Under present House rules enacted in 2005, a tiny number of survivors could exercise power for months, even if they were formerly from the minority party. Moreover, their newly elected speaker could succeed to the presidency if an attack took both the president and vice president.


Worse yet, the constitutional status of the speaker-turned-president would be problematic. The Constitution says a majority of each house "shall constitute a quorum to do business." It is a fair question whether the existing House rules, granting a rump the power to legislate after a terrorist attack, conform to this requirement.


Under ordinary circumstances, we'd leave a question like that to the courts, but what if the Supreme Court were also swept away? Under existing law, the president has the power to give justices recess appointments that expire at the end of the congressional session. The acting president could well be in a position to pack the very court that would judge his or her own status.


In our dangerous new world, it seems foolhardy to ignore these obvious risks. But during the five long years since Sept. 11, the leaders of the three branches of government have not been disposed to take their own mortality seriously. There have been a number of serious efforts to propose solutions to the succession problem. But there has been no serious effort by Congress or the president to enact a comprehensive package into law.


Everybody wishes Sen. Johnson a quick recovery. But the structural problems dramatized by his illness won't go away. And the political stakes may well be much greater the next time around.

Labels: American Hiroshima, media, Nuclear Terrorism, Nuclear Threat, politcs

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Also at Jihadi Du Jour

Washington-- The health of terrorist cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik, is deteriorating -- renewing fears that his death in prison could trigger an attack on the United States, officials said Thursday.


In a video in September marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, al-Qaida's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, cited the continuing imprisonment of the sheik.


"I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," he said.


Rahman was sentenced to life in prison after his 1995 conviction for his advisory role in a plot to blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations.

Labels: 9/11, al-Zawahiri, Islam, Omar Abdel-Rahman

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“Anytime when you get a Soldier to do something like that - to give his life to protect his fellow Soldiers - that’s what heroes are made of. It also demonstrates that the ‘MySpace Generation’ has what it takes to carry on the Army’s proud traditions.


“Some think Soldiers who come in today are all about themselves,” Johnson said. “I see it differently.”-- Command Sgt. Maj. William Johnson

An Iraqi grieves over the bodies of his dead relatives following two synchronized explosions that occurred in Iraq's capital. Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a main square of central Baghdad where scores of Iraqis were waiting for jobs as day laborers, killing at least 59 people and wounding 153, police said.

Labels: Iraq, Suicide Bombers, US Army

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A Muslim support teacher suspended for wearing a veil in class said it was never a problem for her pupils.


Headfield Church of England Junior School, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said pupils found it hard to understand her during English language lessons.


But Aishah Azmi, 23, said: "They never complained." She added she was willing to take the veil off in class, but not in front of any male colleagues.


Ms Azmi was suspended pending the outcome of an employment tribunal, which is due to announce its decision within the next two weeks.


Kirklees Council said she was asked to take off her veil in class and refused, but the action was "nothing to do with religion", only a practical matter about making herself understood.


But Ms Azmi told the BBC: "It hasn't caused a problem between myself and the children. They've never complained and we had a brilliant relationship."


She added: "To say the students have a problem with communication, that's not right."


Disputing the school's version of events, she insisted she had always been willing to take off her veil in front of the children but would not in front of male colleagues.


She said she had taught in class without the veil when there were no males present.


The teaching assistant admitted she had not been wearing her veil when interviewed by a male member of school staff, but said she had not realised a man would be present.


She said: "The veil is really important to all Muslim women who choose to wear it. Our religion compels us to wear it because it's in the Koran."

Labels: British Culture, culture war, UK

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained an exclusive copy of a "scary" campaign advertisement created by Hollywood producer and director David Zucker (Scary Movie III,IV and soon V) that was intended to be used by GOP organizations in the closing weeks of the 2006 campaign.


However, the advertisement was deemed "too hot" by GOP strategists all across Washington, DC who have refused to use it!


One GOP strategist said "jaws dropped" when the ad was first viewed. "Nobody could believe Zucker thought any political organization could use this ad. It makes a point, but it's way over the top."


Zucker is the producer and director of comedies such as "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun." In 2004, Zucker, a longtime Democrat, embraced the Republican Party based on concerns he had about national security issues and voted for President George W. Bush.

Labels: dhimmitude, Islam, National Security, North Korea