Category: War on Terror

Frank Crimi in FrontPage The bombing of a UN building by the Nigerian Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram is the second suicide attack launched by the organization in two months. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s government seems more intent on finding accommodation with the al-Qaeda-linked terror group than in fighting it. The latest suicide bombing delivered by Boko Haram occurred last week when a car stuffed with explosives was driven into the UN headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abjua, killing 23 people and wounding 81. That bombing followed a similar deadly strike in June when a Boko Haram car bomb exploded at Nigeria’s national police headquarters in Abjua, killing six people. Until the last two suicide bombings, Boko Haram’s campaign of bombings, murder and assassination against the Nigerian government and its security forces had been waged in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim northern states, in particular the Nigerian state of Borno. In fact, only a week before the UN bombing in Abjua, police said they shot and killed a man attempting to drive a car “loaded with several cylinders of gunpowder and gasoline” into

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage With apparent assistance from Iraqi prison officials, 20 al-Qaeda insurgents escaped last week from an Iraq jail. The escape follows the completion of an investigation into a series of prison breakouts of al-Qaeda terrorists from Iraqi prisons — one that has revealed widespread complicity from the highest levels of Iraq’s government. The latest jail break occurred last week from a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad. In the escape, a gun battle erupted in which three prisoners and three guards were reportedly killed. Moreover, most of the 20 who managed to escape were al-Qaeda prisoners, many of whom were able to walk out of the prison dressed in police uniforms. Unfortunately, breakouts by terrorists and militants from Iraqi prisons, often aided by prison or government officials, have become all too familiar. A recent report by the Iraqi Reconciliation Society, an organization that monitors Iraq’s prison system, found that approximately 4,000 militants and terrorists have escaped detention with inside help since 2006. Moreover, as Iraq takes control of jails previously

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage A recent suicide bombing by a Somali-American from Minnesota comes on the heels of 18 Somalis charged with recruiting young Somali-American men for al-Shabab, Somalia’s brutal Islamist terror group. Both incidents underscore the growing threat posed by al-Shabab’s pipeline into America’s Somali community. According to al-Shabab leaders, 25-year-old Somali-American, Abdullahi Ahmed, detonated himself last week in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, killing two African Union peacekeeping troops in the process. Ahmed was one of 20 Somali-Americans from Minnesota who disappeared in 2007. At the time, all of the men were suspected of having gone to Somalia to join al-Shabab in its fight against Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Now, that question has been confirmed with the recent indictment of the 18 Somali men, 14 from Minnesota, charged with forming a plan to recruit young Somali men from the Minneapolis area to fight alongside al-Shabab. According to one of the defendants, Omer Adbi-Mohamed, the Minnesota portion of the terror plot began around September 2007, when the conspirators formulated a recruitment plan that included such logistical issues as

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage As Iran’s state-run shipping company was being indicted for conspiring to funnel weapons to terrorist organizations, the Islamist Republic was hosting a two-day conference on combating global terrorism. As Iran’s state-run shipping company (IRISL) was being indicted for conspiring to funnel weapons to terrorist organizations, the Islamist Republic was hosting a two-day conference on combating global terrorism. IRISL was one of eleven companies indicted in New York City on charges of evading US trade sanctions with Iran by illegally funneling $60 million through Manhattan area financial institutions in an attempt to supply weapons to terrorist organizations. Moreover, according to a statement issued by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, IRISL had also violated UN Security Council Resolutions by “chartering vessels to transport IRISL cargo containers of ammunition and weaponry from Iran to countries linked to international terrorism.” In one specific case, the DA’s office noted that in November 2009, 36 Iranian cargo vessels found transporting “hundreds of tons of weaponry” had been interdicted en route to Beirut. As Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance stated, “It is alleged

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage A day after announcing its official partnership with al-Qaeda, the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram launched Nigeria’s first suicide bombing. Sadly, the Nigerian importation of Islam’s favorite weapon of choice signals a serious escalation in an already brutal sectarian war. According to Nigerian police, the suicide bomber in the capital city of Abuja drove a car loaded with explosives into Nigeria’s national police headquarters, killing himself and a Nigerian policeman. Boko Haram — often referred to as the Nigerian Taliban – took credit for the bombing. Since 2009 Boko Haram has been engaged in an escalating and deadly battle with the Nigerian government in an effort to create a Sharia-ruled Islamist state in northern Nigeria. That fight encapsulates the growing rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria, one that has pitted the country’s predominantly Muslim North against its Christian South. Yet, days before the suicide attack, Boko Haram had issued a statement setting conditions for a ceasefire with Nigeria’s government. However, those proposed talks with the Nigerian government immediately “collapsed” according to Boko Haram when Nigeria’s

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently claimed that Hezbollah possessed chemical and biological weapons. The news comes as the IDF contends the terror organization has now amassed more than 50,000 missiles and rockets, heightening Israel’s concerns over its vulnerability to a Hezbollah assault. The assertion by Gates followed reports in April 2011 that Libyan rebels had ransacked chemical weapons storage depots in and around the Libyan city of Benghazi. There they obtained at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells, which they sold to both Hezbollah and Hamas. Not surprisingly, Iran was believed to be the broker of the deal. Of course, Iran has long been accused of supplying Hezbollah with chemical weapons, the last time in 2009 when chemical traces were discovered in a Hezbollah weapons warehouse. Although Hezbollah denies having chemically-armed missiles or rockets, it doesn’t deny their importance to the terror organization. According to Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, “These are our pride and dignity… no one will be able to grab them, neither in Lebanon nor in

» Read more

Frank Crimi in FrontPage In line with the false assumption that the current unrest in the Mideast has been secular and pro-democratic in nature, a new video released by two of al-Qaeda’s top leaders offering praise and encouragement for the ongoing rebellions has been dismissed by some as a sign of the terror group’s “desperation.”  However, a careful look at the reality of the region shows that this is anything but the case. The hour-long tape stars, in separate appearances, al-Qaeda’s number two chieftain, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born leader of its Yemen affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). While al-Awlaki’s message was more generic in tone, demonstrating support for the regional unrest and condemning American involvement in the Muslim world in general, al-Zawahiri’s message was far more specific. Entreating Egypt’s Muslims to create an Islamic state, as well as sounding a clarion call for Arab nations to intercede in the Libyan conflict, al-Zawahiri intoned, “I want to direct the attention of our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries …

» Read more