Ottawa Police Reach out to Islamist Groups After Terrorist Attack

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) 

Just after last week's terrorist attacks in Ottawa, the city's police chief Charles Bordeleau reached out to various Muslim leaders and organizations with questionable ties to radical organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, according to a report produced by the Canadian website Point De Bascule.

Sikhander Hashmi, the imam at the Kanata Muslim Association (KMA), acknowledged that Bordeleau contacted him to reassure the Muslim community in case of "backlash" from the terrorist attack. This perceived "backlash" remains to be seen. More significantly, the Ottawa Police Service overlooks connections between Hahsmi's organization and the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in Ottawa. That includes money it transferred to the Hamas-linked IRFAN-Canada in 2010, according to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

IRFAN-Canada lost its charity status in 2011 following a CRA audit that exposed the organization as an "integral part" in Hamas' international fundraising infrastructure. The donations in question were sent between 2005 and 2009. Canadian authoritiesdesignated IRFAN-Canada as a terrorist organization earlier this year after determining the charity served as a front for Hamas, transferring close to $15 million to the terrorist organization.

The KMA also transferred money to the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), an organization linked to the Pakistani Jammat-e-Islami.

Moreover, Chief Bordeleau previously met with other controversial Muslim leaders in Ottawa. In January 2013, he met with Jalil Marhnouj, vice president of the Assunnah Muslims Association and other leaders affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood network in Canada. The Assunnah Muslims Association transferred $29,880 to IRFAN.

Despite the Canadian government's acknowledged link between the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and Hamas, the Ottawa Police Service maintains an extensive relationship with the controversial group. The NCCM, formerly known as CAIR-CAN, has trained Ottawa Police officers since February 2002, according to a Senate Committee testimony provided by a former Ottawa police chief. The NCCM is a recognized affiliate of CAIR, which has been identified by the FBI as part of a Hamas-support network in the United States.

Click here for the full Point De Bascule.

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Agent Storm: Inside al Qaeda for the CIA

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BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF JIHAD: Civil war emerges in terror movement

foxnews

The civil war in Syria has spawned another civil war in the global jihadist movement, with Islamic State, ruled by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (l.), and Al Qaeda, led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, (r.), emerging as sworn enemies.

By Jamie Dettmer

Syria’s bloody civil war has spawned a separate rift with ramifications well beyond the region known as the Levant -- a battle for the very soul of the global jihad movement.

Islamic militants who poured into the embattled nation to help the Free Syrian Army in its bid to topple dictator Bashar Assad are now fighting Assad, the rebels and each other in a barbaric free-for-all. At the center is the split between Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the newly emerged Islamic State, which are fighting each other on the battlefield and in the war for recruits to the cause of Islamic terrorism.

“The two groups are now in an open war for supremacy of the global jihadist movement,” according to Middle East scholar Aaron Zelin in a research paper published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S.-based think tank.

Throw in the jihadist-led insurgency in neighboring Iraq, which has become intertwined in the insurrection in Syria, and the shifting alliances are becoming for many even harder to understand.

“The two groups are now in an open war for supremacy of the global jihadist movement.”- Aaron Zelin, Middle east scholar

Last week, Al-Nusra, struggling to stay relevant and recruit fighters, released a video featuring three of their fighters as they head off in northern Syria near the city of Aleppo to battle the Islamic State, which was disowned by Al Qaeda. The message was that they, not Islamic State, have the purer motives.

“We in the Al Nusra Front only fight to raise the word of Allah, to make the oppressed triumphant,” one fighter says. “We only fight to get rid of the enemy Bashar and his soldiers. We have come to fight them so that we can impose Allah’s laws on the country. We have not come to oppress people, steal from people, or take their property.”

Another fighter urges Islamic State fighters to defect and “return to the truth” by joining Al Nusra, which is aligned with several Islamist rebel militias in Syria and has been fighting against the Islamic State since last winter, when Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri disavowed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the boss of the upstart group then known as ISIS.

“Al Qaeda announces that it does not link itself with [ISIS] ... It is not a branch of the Al Qaeda group, does not have an organizational relationship with it and [Al Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions,” the terror network’s General Command declared.

The pointed disavowal sparked mass defections from Al Baghdadi’s burgeoning operation. Jihadist and rebel groups eager to avenge ISIS assassinations of their comrades, took it as a sign it was open season on ISIS.

But Al Baghdadi, whose mentor was Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who himself was rebuked in 2005 by Al Zawahiri for excessive extremism in Iraq, clawed back. The success Islamic State, as it is now known, has enjoyed since is testament to his leadership skills and strategic savvy of the jihadist veterans from Iraq and Chechnya who are at the core of ISIS. By forming alliances with Sunni tribes along the border and deep into Iraq, Al Baghdadi managed to magnify his power.

Some terror experts believe Al Zawahiri, Usama bin Laden’s successor as Al Qaeda chief, was too slow in identifying Al Baghdadi as a serious rival for leadership of the global jihad movement. Tensions had existed within the jihadist movement in Syria since April 2013, the year before the disavowal, and “core Al Qaeda failed to take a genuinely commanding line,” said Charles Lister, a terrorism expert with the think tank Brookings Doha Center.

Some analysts view the split as having been prompted by Al Qaeda’s leadership fear that Al Baghdadi was too cruel with his beheadings, beatings and whippings and imposition of religious Shariah law on territory his men controlled.

But the dispute is, in some ways, more of a generational difference and a vying for the loyalty of jihadists affiliates and offshoots around the world – a jostling that is fracturing the jihadist movement and represents the biggest challenge Al Qaeda has faced since U.S. Navy SEALs took out bin Laden.

Many of the younger generation of jihadists support the Al Baghdadi idea of seizing territory and carving out a jihadist caliphate. They want their own state and have tired of Al Qaeda’s traditional approach of gradualism.

Caliphate refers to a system of government stretching across most of the Middle East and Turkey that ended nearly a century ago with the fall of the Ottomans.

And Al Baghdadi has been smart in his marketing – outshining Al Nusra in the use of social media to recruit and message.

“Taken globally, the younger generation of the jihadist community is becoming more and more supportive, largely out of fealty to its slick and proven capacity for attaining rapid results through brutality,” Lister said.

Al Baghdadi’s announcement of a caliphate in the summer straddling the border of Syria and Iraq – he has ambitions to spread it all the way west to Lebanon -- has increased his standing among jihadi groups worldwide and more foreign fighters are choosing to join him than Al Nusra.

Several important affiliates have sworn allegiance to ISIS, while many others are avoiding declaring their choice between al Baghdadi or Al Qaeda, preferring to hedge their bets and wait to see who comes out on top.

On the ground in Syria and Iraq, the top dog at the moment is ISIS. With the advanced weaponry it has captured from fleeing Iraqi forces and the money it looted from Iraq’s regional banks, it has taken over the group and has much to offer recruits.

But Islamic State’s expansion has brought new battlefronts that could stretch the terror group to the breaking point. In Iraq, where it has carried out horrific executions of Christians and other religious minorities, it now faces hardened Kurdish fighters, the Iraqi Army, U.S. airstrikes and a budding international coalition and even Iran.

All that comes even as Islamic State, estimated to include less than 20,000 fighters, continues to seize villages and kill enemies in Syria. If the well-funded upstart terror group hopes to stay on top of the global jihad movement, it will have to maintain its momentum.

Al-Qaeda Calls for Car Bomb Attacks on American Cities, Targets Abroad

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By Kerry Picket

The latest issue of Al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine contains an article about using car bombs in U.S. cities as well as abroad during election seasons, both presidential and congressional, as well as on Christmas and New Years Eve. 

The cities and areas listed in the piece include Washington, D.C., New York, Northern Virginia, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

America is our first target, followed by United Kingdom, France and other crusader countries.
As for the field target for the car-bomb, you have places flooded with individuals, e.g. sports events in which tens of thousands attend, election campaigns, festivals and other gathering. The important thing is that you target people and not buildings:
Washington DC and New York:
Washington is the capital, and New York is the former capital. Both have symbolic importance to the American people and government. Moreover, White House is in Washington, and DC has about 347,000 federal govern ment employees and many important figures in the government live there. As for New York, it is known for its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center, it is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States.
Northern Virginia:
It has a big military presence, almost all the military bases are based in this state, apart from the Air Force which is based in Chicago. There are federal agencies in Northern Virginia, including the headquarters of the Department of Defense and CIA; and military facilities in Hampton Roads, the site of the region's main seaport. Virginia in general attracts a load of tourists.
Chicago:
It is in the mid of the US, hence it is a major transportation hub. It is an important component in global distribution, as it is the third largest inter-modal port in the world. It is also an important worldwide center of commerce. The city has the second largest financial center in the United States. Among its most important financial structures:
1. Sears Tower, a 108-story skyscraper, it held the title tallest building in the world for about 25 years.
2. The Chicago Board of Trade Building.
Los Angeles:
The most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States. It is also the largest manufacturing center in the western United States. It is also the home base of Hollywood. Areas and Restaurants with high profile personalities - Usually these people visit the restaurants during the weekend:
Arlington
Alexandria
Restaurants and Bars in the M street, Washington.
Tennis stadiums; they are visited by thousands of people, and high profile people, especially the US Open.

The piece includes interviews with islamist and Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011, and Samir Khan, who was killed in the same air strike. Khan served as editor and publisher of Inspire up to that point. A photo of New York City is shown at the end of the piece. 

The terrorist organization's magazine has a letter from the editor that states:

Whenever Al-Qaeda is mentioned, the American citizens' mind thinks of vest and car bombs.
Bearing in mind that none of these weapons has struck them post 9/11. So why would they relate Al-Qaeda to these bombs? Simply because they fear these weapons and have seen enough of their destructive power in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many Feisal Shahzads are residing inside America, and all they need is the knowledge of how to make car bombs. They are all yearning to fulfill their duty of Jihad.
The American government was unable to protect its citizens from pressure cooker bombs in backpacks, I wonder if they are ready to stop car bombs!
Therefore, as our responsibility to the Muslim Ummah in general and Muslims living in America in particular, Inspire Magazine humbly presents to you a simple improvised home recipe of Shahzad's car bomb.
And the good news is … you can prepare it in the kitchen of your mom too.

The piece also lists specific locations and times to attack European sites in England and France. These include the Bastille Military Day Parade on July 14 in Paris and soccer (football) stadiums during Premier League FA Cup Matches in the UK "when huge crowds leave the stadium and celebrate around the entrances and FA Cup matches."

Is Al-Qaeda Laundering Funds Through Cuba?

capitolhillcubans

Yesterday, the Castro regime decreed that it would now begin to freeze bank assets affiliated to Al-Qaeda in Cuba.

That raises important questions:

What took it so long?

Is this a tacit admission that it has been facilitating terrorist financing all along?

Has Al-Qaeda been laundering funds through Cuba's secretive banking system for the last two decades?

What about other terrorist groups?

Hadn't "experts" assured us that Castro had long given up these activities?

Where's the oversight?

Why should we trust Castro's regime now, let alone it's non-transparency?

According to the Castro regime, this new decree supposedly demonstrates its "commitment in the fight against money laundering, financing terrorism and the proliferation of weapons."

So says the regime that was recently caught red-handed lying to the international community about its illegal proliferation of weapons to North Korea.

Old habits die very hard. 

Régimen cubano congelará cuentas bancarias relacionadas con Al Qaeda

limpiandose la cara pero manteniendo el trasero sucio, para que europeos, yumas, colaboracionistas, akademicos, ong's y toda la fauna simpaticona renueven sus brios para que la administacion obama excluya de la lista de pais terrorista a la finca biranesa. los dineros de la narcoguerrilla de las farc, de los narcotraficantes, de los palestinos, de la corrupcion, de los que realizan fraudes al medicare, no preocuparse que continuaran siendo bien guardados en el mas seguro de las bovedas bancarias del mundo.

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NTN24

El gobierno cubano decidió congelar "sin dilación" ni "previa notificación" los fondos de cualquier banco extranjero que opere en Cuba que tenga vínculos con Al Qaeda o el Talibán, indican dos decretos publicados este viernes.

"Serán congelados sin dilación y sin previa notificación los fondos u otros activos derivados o generados (...) o que pertenecen o están controlados directa o indirectamente por personas o entidades (...) vinculadas con Al-Qaeda y el Talibán", señala un decreto publicado en la Gaceta Oficial.

Jihadists in Syria and Iraq: A step too far

The Economist

The rapid rise of an al-Qaeda affiliate fighting alongside rebels in Syria may be coming to an end as backlash against more extreme jihadists grows.

AQAP's Role in the Al Qaeda Network: What You Need To Know

TIME

Al-Qaeda and its allies: The many-headed monster

The Economist

Al Qaeda Taking over in Syria

breitbart

By Michael Yon 

The Syrian rebel Kawa Khalil told me the recent story of the Holy Cross church.

Before the war, the church doubled as a school, attended by Muslims and Christians. After the destruction of Syria began, classrooms became homes for refugees.

On 27 October, the Holy Cross Armenian Orthodox Church was burned in Tal Abyad, Raqqa, Syria.

The attack was blamed on the Hamza Brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Mr. Kawa Khalil reports that the day after the burning, al Qaeda came onto the streets blaming the arson on the FSA. He stated, however, that al Qaeda committed the crime.

When a similar attack occurred in nearby Raqqa, other Muslims came onto the streets to apologize to Christians, saying they are not like this. The crowd tried to right the cross but it was too heavy. A video of the Raqqa apology was posted online.

Despite their long history, some believe the days of Christians in Syria are fading. Many have fled to Turkey, possibly having already spent their final days in their homeland.

In the United States there is a tendency to view this as “Muslims vs. Christians,” yet on the scale of the troubles these are subtopics. Stories that center on the Christian suffering can make it sound like “another Christian village has fallen,” when the stories coming from Syria are “another village has fallen, and this one happens to be mostly Christian.”

The targeting of Christians is often not the result of religious differences.

Politically, some targeting stems from many Christians siding with Assad’s regime, fearing an inevitable pogrom. Assad nurtures Christian fears to gain their support.

But that hardly matters: if they side against Assad, his forces will also attack. The price of being a minority can be dammed if you do and dead if you don’t.

In the ultimate “you are with us or against us, “ there is no option to play Switzerland and pretend lofty neutrality as if that were a choice. Alpine geography and political circumstance afford lucky Switzerland the fantasy of being above it all, yet a desert village on key terrain and crucial routes has less fortunate geography and circumstance. The options are to run, surrender, or fight.

A Syrian Christian told me that he supports the revolution while other Christian members of his family support Assad. Pick your destiny. He moved to peaceful Turkey to resist through other means.

Mr. Khalil estimated there are 200 al Qaeda in Tal Abyad. He sees them walk around town wearing suicide belts in plain view, including among crowds. In no country has al Qaeda ever been known for civic responsibilities. AQ is always about “Me, me, me! Look at me on a Mission from God! Licensed to Kill!”

AQ will not allow people to smoke, yet impolitely wears suicide belts in the vegetable markets. Talk about open carry.

Read the rest of the story at Michael Yon Online. Learn more here.

Kuwaiti Newspaper: Obama Negotiating with Hezbollah Terrorists

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By Joel B. Pollak 

The Obama administration has entered secret talks with the Hezbollah terrorist group, mediated by Great Britain, according to a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, as relayed by the Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

The State Department lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Thirty years ago, Hezbollah bombed a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241. Hezbollah is currently helping to prop up the Assad regime in Syria, in a war that has claimed over 100,000 civilian lives. The organization is also dedicated to Israel's destruction.

According to the report, President Barack Obama opened the "secret indirect talks" to discuss "the fight against al-Qaida, regional stability, and other Lebanese political issues." Hezbollah is supported by Iran and has been involved in terrorism throughout the world. It has also been active in other conflicts, laundering money through the trade in illicit diamonds the fueled the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, for example.

Bin-Laden 'Mentor' Runs For President In Afghanistan

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Kabul (AFGHANISTAN) (AFP) - Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a former Islamist warlord who trained the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, enters Afghanistan's presidential election race, triggering alarm among Western diplomats.  

Video: Terrorists in Nairobi rented store for months before the attack

As investigators sift through the rubble of the partially-collapsed Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, a major new development in the aftermath of the terrorist attack has been made public. The al-Shabaab operation didn’t start at the mall on the day of the attack, but began three months earlier when the group leased a retail space in the mall as cover for their preparations. ABC News reports that Kenyan authorities are now trying to determine whether the group cached weapons in the store to serve as their armory for the attack:

Keep reading on Hot Air >>

Al Qaeda Threat Prompts Global Alert

Read on foxnews >>

Iraq prison break a bad sign of things to come

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on worldnews >>

Al Qaeda issues internal complaint to terrorist

Report: Al Qaeda-linked militants planned attack on US Embassy in Egypt

worldnews

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

An al Qaeda-linked cell disrupted in Egypt was planning suicide attacks on the French and U.S. embassies, the state news agency MENA reported, according to Reuters.

In light of this news and last week’s stabbing of a U.S. citizen on the embassy’s perimeter, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted U.S. citizens to exercise “elevated awareness.”

“The knife attack on the Embassy's perimeter, along with weekend media reports acknowledging that Egyptian authorities have disrupted a terror cell possibly targeting Egyptian and Western interests, serve as yet another reminder of the need to exercise good situational awareness,” read a statement from the embassy, which was obtained by NBC News. 

According to Reuters, authorities announced Saturday they had captured three Egyptians with al Qaeda links, saying they had been found in possession of 22 pounds of explosive materials.

"The investigations revealed that the suspects were intending to carry out terrorist bomb operations inside Egypt via suicide operations, penetrating the security cordon in front of the American and French embassies with a car bomb," MENA said, citing a source in the state security prosecutor's office, according to Reuters.

MENA said the suspects had escaped from prison in 2011, during the revolts that removed Hosni Mubarak from power.

Report: CIA Seeks Al-Qaeda 'Inspire' Magazine Editor

Breitbart News 

www.politisite.com

Two weeks after the devastating Boston Marathon bombings, the UK Telegraph now reports that the CIA is seeking the editor of Al-Qaeda’s English-language Inspire magazine, the source from which the Tsarnaev brothers apparently learned how to build pressure cooker bombs. The prior editor was killed by US drones in 2011 in Yemen.

The article in Inspire that inspired the Tsarnaevs was titled “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” The CIA source told the Telegraph, “Inspire clearly is a powerful propaganda tool.” A former CIA officer also said, “They are intensifying investigations into who is behind this publication, and where the money for it is coming from.”

Via terror plot suspect a 'very good boy,' mom says

CBC News

The mother of one of the two suspects accused of trying to carry out an al-Qaeda-supported plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train for almost a year doesn't believe the charges against her son, saying he is a "very good boy" and a genius who loves to study.

"It surprised me. I didn't believe it. I am certain my son cannot commit such an act," Raoudha Esseghaier, mother of Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, told Radio-Canada from her home in Tunisia "I know it because I've raised him and I know him by heart."

• Jason Kenney wants to know why Via terror suspect wasn't deported
• Via terror plot suspect says Criminal Code 'not a holy book'

Raoudha said her son, who had been doing doctoral research at the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique in Varennes, Que, runs experiments and does research.

"He is a very good boy. He loves his studies. Chiheb is a genius. Since his childhood, believe me, he's been passionate about his studies," she said. "When he was four, he knew how to read and count. Since his childhood, he is studying. Even when we would say, 'come play,' he would answer 'no, I don't want to. I prefer to study.'"

His father, Mohammed Rached Esseghaier, questioned the evidence against his son

"When someone wants to derail a train, he needs equipment, something, or, at least, a plan with [targets] spelled out. But they have not found anything."

• Via terror plot suspects deny allegations
• Charges against Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser

But the father did admit that in the last few years his son had changed and that the changes did not please him.

Earlier this week, Esseghaier, a Montreal resident who is from Tunisia, appeared in court, where he said that the Criminal Code should not apply to him because it's "not a holy book."

He, along with Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, are facing terrorism related charges in an alleged plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train. Esseghaier has been remanded into custody until his next appearance on May 23.

Watched for almost a year

CBC News reported this week that the RCMP had been following Esseghaier since May 2012. At that time, two undercover surveillance officers watched him on an Air Canada flight to Cancun, where he was to attend a biomedical conference.

Esseghaier's behaviour on the plane was "bizarre," and he had an altercation with a female flight attendant after he went to the washroom, sources say.

Iran denies involvement in Canadian terror plot