‘IT WILL FALL ON THEIR HEADS LIKE LIGHTNING’: IRAN WARNS ISRAEL, SLAMS U.S. AT REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. (photo: AP)


Over the weekend, Iran’s leaders used the 23rd anniversary of the death of Islamic Republic Founder Imam Khomeini to bash the “Zionist” regimes in Israel and the U.S.

Thousands gathered in Tehran to hear Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei give his keynote address, where he cautioned the two countries not to undermine the Islamic awakening spreading throughout the Middle East. He alsoissued a stern warning to Israel not to make any future “misstep,” PressTV reports.

“The (Isreali officias) know that under the current circumstances, they are more vulnerable than ever. If they make any misstep or wrong action it will fall on their heads like lightening,” he said.


Read More at the Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/it-will-fall-on-their-heads-like-lightening-iran-warns-israel-slams-u-s-at-remembrance-ceremony/

'Israel’s creation worst catastrophe to hit world'

Head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Badie reminds followers of movement’s “sacrifices” in efforts to destroy the Jewish state.

Photo: REUTERS


The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called on Arab forces to confront Israel and for the international community to pressure the “Zionist government to withdraw from the land of Palestine.”


The comments by Brotherhood General Guide Mohammed Badie came in a written statement issued May 17 to commemorate Nakba Day, when Palestinians and other Arabs mourn Israel’s creation in 1948.





“On this day, like every year, the Arab and Islamic nations remember the worst catastrophe ever to befall the peoples of the world,” Badie wrote in the text, translated by The Jerusalem Post. “We demand the international community rectify the historic injustice [of 1948] and pressure the government of the Zionist entity to withdraw from the land of Palestine.”The statement – the existence of which was revealed Wednesday by the Investigative Project on Terrorism blog – reminds Brotherhood followers of the movement’s decades-long “sacrifices” in efforts to destroy the Jewish state.


The statement portrays the Arab revolts of the last 18 months as part of an inexorable process to “liberate” land now in the State of Israel.


“We have toppled the most repressive regimes with purpose and determination,” Badie wrote. “We have begun the era of liberation of all peoples, first of all the Palestinian people, [suffering from] the worst occupation known to man – the Zionist occupation.”


Uriya Shavit, a lecturer in Tel Aviv University’s Department forArabic and Islamic Studies, said those acquainted with the Brotherhood’s history will find the message unsurprising.





“The idea that the Brotherhood doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of Israel, and the call to eradicate it at some point, is something the group has never denied. It’s been in Brotherhood literature from its founding in 1928 until this very day,” Shavit said.


“What they have tried to do, not just during the Arab Spring but before, is to try to reconcile the ideology of never recognizing Israel, or the 1979 Egypt- Israel peace treaty, with the understanding that if they’re to be in power, they have to be realistic,” he added. “That’s why they offer statements like ‘We realize we will have to recognize agreements signed by previous governments,’ but then always add a ‘but.’”


The Brotherhood took half of Egypt’s parliamentary seats in elections earlier this year, with even harder-line Salafis taking another quarter. The Brothers’ presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, barely edged former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in firstround elections last month, and the two hopefuls will meet in a runoff ballot June 16-17.


Asked about Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel, Mursi has variously called for its revision or for putting it to referendum. Aides to the candidate have said that if elected he would not meet with Israeli officials, though his assistants might.


Badie’s Nakba Day message repeatedly cites passages from the Koran to explain political events. The Arab revolts showed popular will can topple “corrupt regimes which knelt at the feet of the Zionists,” he wrote, adding the Koranic verse, “They are those with whom thou didst make a covenant but they break their covenant every time.”


“The idea is there is no point in signing treaties with Jews – not Israelis, by the way, but Jews – because the Koran tells you just how unreliable they are,” Shavit said. “This is rhetoric even Hamas has used less in the past year, because it’s seen in the West as plain anti-Semitism, albeit in Islamic garb.”


Dan Schueftan, director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, said the question of Palestine has always been at the forefront of Brotherhood doctrine.


“This rhetoric has little to do with the Palestinians, and a lot to do with the fact that all this land is Muslim, and Israel is therefore inherently illegitimate,” he said. “Egypt is moving from a bad situation to a much worse one. Naturally, Israel will suffer: when Egypt can’t deal with its own problems, it will deflect them at us.”


Nonetheless, he said, Israelis should watch developments in Egypt and across the region with a measure of both caution and confidence.


"I'm pessimistic and optimistic at the same time," he said. "Pessimistic about what's happening in the Arab world, but optimistic over Israel's ability to deal with it."


http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=272267

Israel fitting nuclear arms on German-supplied subs: report

Israel is arming submarines supplied and largely financed byGermany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel reports in its issue to be published on Monday.

The magazine said in a cover story that Berlin had until now denied any knowledge that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.

But former high-ranking officials of the German defence ministry told Der Spiegel that the government always assumed Israel was putting nuclear warheads on the Dolphin-class vessels.

The article, based on a months-long probe, cited files from the foreign ministry in Berlin indicating the West German state was aware of the practice as early as 1961.

In Israel, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said only: "I can confirm that we have German submarines. It's no secret.

"As for the rest, I am not in a position to talk about their capacity," he told AFP.

Israel is the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power.

Germany has already supplied Israel with three of the submarines in question, footing most of the bill, and another three are to be delivered by 2017 under a recently signed contract.

Meanwhile Israel is weighing whether to order three more, according to the report.

"The Germans can be proud to have ensured the existence of the state of Israel for several years to come," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying.

The opposition Social Democrat Party called Sunday on Chancellor Angela Merkel's government for an explanation.

"The federal government must provide information so that we know if the submarines delivered by Germany can be potentially equipped with nuclear warheads," party spokesman Rolf Muetzenich told Der Spiegel.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said all submarines had been delivered unarmed.

"The federal government will not speculate on subsequent arming," he said.

The report said Germany hoped to see Israeli concessions on settlements on Palestinian land and approval for the completion of a sewage treatment plant in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the assistance.

Israel sees its existence under threat if its arch-foe Iran goes nuclear. Like the United States, it has refused to rule out bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

Germany, bearing the historical guilt of the Holocaust, is Israel's closest ally in Europe.

But it has sharply criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pro-settlement policies in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as undermining peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Tensions between Germany and Israel flared in April when Nobel prize-winning German author Gunter Grass published an inflammatory poem warning that a nuclear-armed Israel "could wipe out the Iranian people (with a) first strike."

Prophecy unfolding before our eyes!

Putin to meet Iran's Ahmadinejad in China: Kremlin


Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing next week as tensions rise over Tehran's nuclear drive, a Kremlin official said.


"Meeting Ahmadinejad will let Putin personally feel the tension around the Iranian issue and how it is perceived in Tehran," Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters last week in comments that were embargoed for release until Sunday.


Putin and Ahmadinejad agreed to meet over the phone and the initiative came "from both sides," Ushakov said.


The meeting will come as Russia prepares to host the latest round of talks on June 18 and 19 between world powers and Iranian negotiators in a bid to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.


The Moscow talks will follow a meeting last month in Baghdad where the six world powers -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- confronted Tehran over its intention to enrich uranium despite fears it was building a nuclear bomb.


The talks achieved little in two days of intense discussions besides setting up the next meeting in Moscow.


Like Western capitals, Russia "was not too happy" with the outcome of the Baghdad talks, but "understood the main thing, which is readiness of both sides to continue talks," Ushakov said.


"Only in dialogue is it possible to get a sense of any sort of compromise, which is crucial to unblock this situation... and leave out the most scary scenarios."


Russia has repeatedly warned against using military action against Iran -- an option never ruled out by Israel or the United States -- and said that this could cause a catastrophe in the Middle East.


Putin will meet Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. He is also scheduled to speak with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in a bilateral meeting.


The meeting with Ahmadinejad will be Putin's first since his return to the Kremlin for a third term after a four-year stint as prime minister.


During his second term as president, Putin met Ahmadinejad in Tehran in 2007 in a rare visit to the country by the Kremlin chief.


The Russian delegation to the China summit is a show of force with "all the major names of Russian business in attendance," said Ushakov.


Putin is also due to meet China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.


With China preparing for a stage-managed leadership change, Putin will also meet Vice Premier Li Kequiang, who is set to be the next premier, and Xi Jinping, who is tipped as the next president.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN HOLDS 'KAPO SHABBAT' ACROSS WASHINGTON, D.C.

Atlas Shrugs ~ Pamela Geller
Saturday, June 02, 2012

"....Hamas officials say Obama is different from all his predecessors. As its deputy "foreign minister," Ahmed Yussuf, told the Journal, "We believe Hamas' message is reaching its destination" -- the White House." (source:NY Post)

Any Jew who organizes for Obama is digging his own grave and that of the people of Israel. This mirrors Nazi Party Representatives attending a 1933 Berlin Jewish Community charity drive gathering -- back in December 20, 1933, three thousand Jews attended the first official Jewish gathering in which uniformed Nazis participated. The mass meeting was arranged by the Berlin Jewish community to open the special campaign for winter relief. And we know how that worked out.

Same thing. Obama has long sought out "well-respected" traitors and patsies in the Jewish Community. He knows we are overrun with them. There is no administration in American history that has been as hostile towards our closest ally in the Middle East. Auschwitz borders, a judenrein Jerusalem, and so much more:
Obama lifts freeze on $192 million aid package to Palestinian Authority
Ambassador John Bolton on Obama's Betrayal of Israel: "Merciless" "Unprecedented"
Iran Supreme Leader Khameni Praises Obama's Submission and Collusion
Obama "satisfied" with Brotherhood win in Egypt
Obama Supports Muslim Brotherhood Takeover of Syria
Obama Demands Israel Apologize to Turkey for Genocidal Jihad "Flotilla," or else
White House Cleanses Israel from Website
Obama-funded revived Mujahidin faction emerges in the Gaza Strip
Obama's America: One Policy for Jews, Another for Illegal Immigrants
Pastor Wright, Obama's Mentor of over 20 years, Calls Israel "illegal, genocidal," Urges Blacks to Disavow Their Country
Obama Lauds Sharia States, But Gives Netanyahu Ultimatum
More Obama Antisemitism: US State Dept -- Israel Violates Non-Jews' Religious Rights
Obama: "Israelis suspicious of me because my middle name is Hussein"
Bolton: Obama Respects Afghan President More than Netanyahu
Pamela Geller, Breibart: MSM, American Jews Look the Other Way As Obama Wages Diplomatic Jihad Against Israel
New Obama Policy: Israeli Nuclear Workers Denied US Entry
J [Jihad] Streeters, Soros, anti-semitic Zogby Frequent White House Vistors, AIPAC not
Israelis Protest 'Obama Intifada'
Obama blocks delivery of bunker-busters to Israel, Embargoes Weapons for Jewish Defense
Pamela Geller, Big Journalism: Obama Libels Israel
Obama Names Ambassador to State Sponsor of Terror, Syria, After Five Year Ban
Hamas in Secret Relationship with Obama
Pamela Geller, Frontpage Magazine Interview: Obama’s Landscape of Anti-Semitism
The Fix is In: Obama fires Dennis Ross and Replaces him with an Iranian Regime Lobbyist

Now the Democrats, with brazen dishonesty, are telling Jews to vote for Obama again, claiming that he is pro-Israel. They point out that Obama has said pro-Israel things -- but in reality his words mean nothing when he has also called upon Israel to accept a Palestinian state with contiguous borders, which would mean a truncated and bisected Israel disastrously vulnerable to jihad attacks, insulted Netanyahu repeatedly, and so much more. Obama wanted to go even farther to stab Israel in the back, but the "Palestinians" and Muslim states wouldn't cooperate by even giving the appearance of accepting Israel's existence and wanting to establish a lasting peace.

Meanwhile, Obama has done everything he could to usher in Islamic states surrounding Israel, including a Muslim Brotherhood-led Egypt that wants to destroy the Camp David Accords and go to war with Israel. He has said nothing about the Egyptian Parliament's designation of Israel as its number one enemy, or the rise in anti-Israel sentiment in all the "Arab Spring" countries. He has also cozied up to Erdogan in Turkey, an avowed Islamic supremacist who is working quickly to destroy Kemalist secularism and establish an Islamic state in Turkey. He refused to back real pro-freedom demonstrators in Iran, and has done nothing effective to block the mullahs' mad race to get nuclear weapons.
Campaign Holds 'Obama Shabbat' Across Washington, D.C. Weekly Standard


The president is out of town tonight, spending the night alone at his home in Chicago after a day filled with six fundraisers. But his campaign in Washington, D.C. continues.

An events list found at BarackObama.com reveals that eight "Obama Shabbat" dinners will be held this evening, here in Washington, to observe the Jewish sabbath and to "organize our community to help reelect President Barack Obama." The Jewish sabbath is observed from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday night.

The descriptions for the dinners are formulaic, sounding mostly the same. "On Friday, June 1st Jewish Americans across the District of Columbia will gather in their homes to celebrate Shabbat and organize our community to help reelect President Barack Obama," one reads. "Please join us at the home of Hannah Malvin to learn more about how you can help reelect President Obama."

Another event notice states, "On Friday, June 1st Jewish Americans across the District of Columbia will gather in their homes to celebrate Shabbat and organize our community to help reelect President Barack Obama. Please join us at the Home of Veronica Weiss to learn more about how you can help reelect President Obama. This home is not Kosher, but if you are looking for a Kosher Obama Shabbat please let us know and we will help you find one."

HARVARD, UCLA DISALLOW ARGUMENT FOR LEGITIMACY OF JEWISH STATE

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Recently I posted about how UCLA hosted a "debate" between Islamic supremacist Jew-haters Reza Aslan and Hussein Ibish arguing over the "one-state solution" or the "two-state solution" -- that is, whether Israel should be destroyed by "Palestinian" jihadists working from within or from a "Palestinian" state. There was no discussion of the legitimacy of the Jewish State. Atlas reader Wallace Edward Brand ("Salubrius") posted this comment:

I have been trying to offer the students at UCLA a view of a one lawful Jewish state West of the Jordan River. One of the UCLA faculty members told me it was impossible. All the faculty members who could sponsor a conference on that topic were too politically correct.

I had the same problem at the Harvard Conference on March 3. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11323

I tried to get the Harvard Crimson to run an op ed with my view. No reply. I finally ended up buying a quarter page ad in the printedition and the on-line edition with the facts. So I tried to do the same at UCLA. They didn't even reply to my request for a quote for a quarter page ad.

I asked him for more information and he sent me this:

Dear Pamela,

As you requested, here is the story of my trying to get on the panel in the March 3,4 conference at Harvard. It was written up by Arutz Sheva, a very conservative Israeli paper, in their English language edition: Op-Ed: "Harvard Had no Room for a One Jewish State Solution" http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11323 I was surprised at this because Ms Drew Faust, the President of Harvard is a historian. I thought she would like my presentation on the 1920 San Remo grant, the basis for my one Jewish State Solution because it is principally the history of the Middle East that has been obscured by time (and by anti-semites and anti-Zionists).

She didn't give me any help either in getting on the panel, or with getting an op ed published in the Harvard Crimson. All I got, from her aide, was a copy of a press release saying that Harvard did not endorse the conference and that "it was a free and open marketplace of ideas". Not free for my idea. I finally bought a quarter page ad in the Harvard Crimson. Arutz Sheva had agreed to my writing an op ed with the facts on the San Remo grant so a quarter page was enough to list the links to that op ed, and to an article on the three possible solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and then an article entitled: Remember the Qurayza that criticized the two state solution -- because HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz would probably sponsor a conference on that topic and I had reason to believe from a friend who knows him, that he would NOT agree to my participation. In an article he had written, he had said that the one state solutions, either from the left or the right were solutions of extremists.

So with my small ad, I finally got into the Harvard marketplace of ideas, but it wasn't free and all I got with one expensive [expensive for me] insertion in their print edition and their online edition was a small dimly lit stall in one corner.

Here is my ad:

ONE LAWFUL STATE WEST OF THE JORDAN RIVER AS A SOLUTION TO THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

Students at Colleges and Universities should know that there are actually three solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict. First there is a "one [Arab majority] state" solution, in which the Jewish Israelis would become unwelcome guests in their own National Home, and the Jews in the Diaspora, such as in Toulouse, lose the only place on earth they could go to and not be in a minority. In a conference at Harvard on March 3,4 a one [Jewish majority] solution was excluded. The panel was limited to Arab intellectuals and Israeli history "revisionists". Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard described it in Newsmax as an "Anti-semitic and Anti-Zionist Hate Fest". The second is a "two state [temporary] solution" in which the interim solution would result in the loss of much Jewish and Christian heritage and in the long run would end up as the one [Arab majority] state solution. The third is one lawful Jewish state based on the San Remo Agreement of 1920 that established the British Mandate for Palestine. It granted the Jews exclusive collective political rights to Palestine, in trust, to vest when the Jews had attained a population majority.

These three solutions are outlined at: http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2012/03/salubrius-three-possible.html

The details of the San Remo agreement are also on line in a two part op ed that can be seen at:

Part 1: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11408

Part 2: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11412

Debunking the Palestine Lie" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ByJb7QQ9U

It is likely that a conference at Harvard will also be held on a two state temporary solution. Will a discussion of the third option be permitted at such a conference? Harvard issued a press release stating that it did not endorse the March 3,4 conference and that it was " a free and open marketplace of ideas". The three solutions are like the three legs of a stool. With only the first two, it is likely that you will get strong arguments in favor of both, but they won't provide any balance.

Here is a critical review of the two state temporary solution: http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2012/03/remember-quraysh.html Also, it would be helpful to look at what Dr. Daniel Pipes has uncovered about Yassir Arafat and the treaty of Hudibyah, a two-tribe solution that went sour. http://www.danielpipes.org/316/al-hudaybiya-and-lessons-from-the-prophet-muhammads and http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/1999/09/arafat-and-the-treaty-of-hudaybiya-updates

If Colleges and Universities are free and open marketplaces of ideas, demand a conference where all three solutions are discussed by genuine proponents and opponents.

Wallace Edward Brand, UCLA '54 HLS '57

I tried to do the same at UCLA. One of the professors there whose name I have been asked not to mention, told me that it would be impossible to present the one lawful Jewish State solution there because all of the professors who would be able to sponsor a conference on that topic, and Chancellor Block, were politically correct. He was right. The head of Hillel wasn't any help either. I learned later that he had physically attacked a woman journalist, Rachel Neuwirth, who is pro-Zionist. VIOLENCE AND LEFT-WING POLITICS: What's Going On At UCLA's Hillel? http://www.think-israel.org/hes.hillel.html So I tried to see if the Daily Bruin would accept an op ed. No reply from it either. So I asked their advertising department for a rate for a quarter page ad, thinking to duplicate what I had done at Harvard. No reply to that either. I couldn't even buy my way into the UCLA free marketplace of ideas.

No reply from Chancellor Block or the trustees of the University of California either.

So that all occurred before the Hussein Ibish -- Reza Aslan alleged debate at UCLA on May 15. Cinnamon Stillwell at Campus Watch had warned that there would be a "son-of-Harvard" conference at UCLA. Here is what my friend Salomon Benzimra had to say about Hussein Ibish http://jdlcanada.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/it-was-most-regrettable-that-professor-derek-penslar-a-professor-of-jewish-history-and-an-expert-on-zionism-and-the-state-of-israel-did-not-see-it-fit-to-raise-his-voice-and-remi/ I had found your comment on Aslan. It appears that Ibish and Aslan are a good match. And that was followed up shortly after by another alleged debate at the Temple Israel in Los Angeles between Peter Beinart and David Suissa. Op-Ed: Beinart-Suissa Debate: Two Legs of a Stool, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11675

Keep up your good work,

Wallace Brand
Atlas Shrugs

Muslim Brotherhood Election Success Threatens Israel

by Daniel E. Rogell • May 30, 2012 at 4:31 pm

The Muslim Brotherhood's success in the first round of elections doesn't mean that the group is prepared to drop its militancy, despite promises of new rights for women and minorities in a broad political coalition. In an Arabic-language speech on May 17, the MB's General Guide Mohammed Badie called for Arab forces to take on Israel and not to forget the sacrifices that his group had made to destroy the Jewish state.


Badie referred to the West as the "colonial powers" that were "allied to forces of evil and world aggression," and explained that their complicity empowered the "Zionist enemy and its racial project, aimed at emptying Palestine of its people."


"As we salute the struggle, battle and Jihad of those who bear upon their shoulders their support of the Palestinian cause … let us reaffirm our adherence to all the constants of the Palestinian cause," he stated.


MB founder Hassan al-Banna "spent a large part of his life defending the cause of Palestine and the homeland, with his pen, his tongue, his wealth and himself," Badie said. The Brotherhood "expended through their history – and still does – self, money, effort, sweat and blood in support of Palestine and its people." He also rewrote history to claim that the Brotherhood had been suppressed by the Egyptian regime largely as a "penalty for their jihad and their martyrdom seeking for the sake of Palestine."


The message of the Arab revolutions is that the people can topple "corrupt regimes which knelt at the feet of the Zionists, and were subject to their orders," Badie said. "We have succeeded in toppling the most repressive regimes with will and determination; and you will succeed, with Allah's permission, in supporting the Palestinian cause," he added, calling Israel "the source of terrorism and true instability, not just in the region but in the whole world."




Investigative Project

TERROR TWEETS CALL FOR THE "SLAUGHTER" OF ZIONISTS AND DEATH TO THE WEST

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Twitter is allowing the devout Muslim terror faction Al Qassam Brigades to tweet a continuous stream of genocidal and annihilationist messages on the the social media site.

@AlqassamBrigades has Tweeted calls for the "slaughter" of Zionists, among other things. Al Qassam Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Hamas, has been responsible for some of the bloodiest terror attacks in recent history, including the 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro attack that killed 15; the infamous Dolphinarium attack in 2001, in which 21 young people were murdered at a Tel Aviv night club; and the 2002 Passover attack in Netanya that left 30 dead.


"Twitter’s terror handle" The Times of Israel, Ashley Rindsberg, May 29

The last thing you’d expect to find beneath Twitter’s cute little blue bird is an @ sign followed by the name of one of the world’s bloodiest and most ruthless terror groups. But to my surprise (and disgust) while searching for new streams on Twitter, a handle called @AlqassamBrigade was suggested to me by the social media platform.

Incredulous, I clicked the link. What I discovered is a Twitter stream that bills itself as “The official website of the Al-Qassam Brigades in Palestine.” Al Qassam is the paramilitary wing of Hamas, the Iran-backed Islamist political organization that has controlled Gaza since 2006.



Hamas is classed as a terror group by the US and the EU, as well as a number of other nations. As its “military wing,” the Al Qassam Brigades are directly responsible for carrying out terror attacks — including some of the deadliest attacks on Israeli civilians, like the August 2001 attack at a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that killed 15 people and injured 130, the Dolphinarium attack in Tel Aviv in 2001 which killed 21 young partygoers and the 2002 Passover festival attack in Netanya, which took the lives of 30 people.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas in Gaza and prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, made headlines last year for praising Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” and “Arab holy warrior” and condemning his killing by the US. (Here’s a more complete rundown of the terror group and its activities.)

So what are the Al Qassam Brigades doing on Twitter, complete with a slick illustrated background of two terrorists at work (ostensibly targeting more civilians)? For the terror group, which enjoys a fairly robust following of nearly 2,500 people on Twitter, the motivation is clear: the dissemination of anti-Israel Islamist agitprop.

Though showing a good deal of sophistication and discipline by Tweeting headlines and links to news stories in a polished English, the group also seems to be using Twitter to give itself a sheen of credibility and even legitimacy. Aware of the rules of perception in our age of media warfare, the administrators of the handle also show restraint in most Tweets.

But dig a little deeper, and you come across @AlqassamBrigades Tweets openly calling for the “slaughter” of Zionists, as in the April 16th Tweet:



There are also calls for the destruction of Israel, as in another Tweet from that date which reads:



This raises some serious questions for Twitter, a social media platform that relies on its reputation as a forum for fair, tolerant and, presumably, non-genocidal ideas. Twitter has so far not responded to my emailed request for comment.

Read the rest.

Powerful "Flame" cyber weapon found in Iran

A computer engineer checks equipment at an internet service provider in Tehran February 15, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Caren Firouz

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON | Mon May 28, 2012 2:09pm EDT

(Reuters) - Security experts discovered a highly complex computer virus in Iran and the Middle East that they believe was deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored espionage.

Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that claimed responsibility for discovering the virus.

Kaspersky researchers said they have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission like Stuxnet, and declined to say who they think built it.

Iran has accused the United States and Isreal of deploying Stuxnet.

Cyber security experts said the discovery provides new evidence to the public to show what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years.

"This is one of many, many campaigns that happen all the time and never make it into the public domain," said Alexander Klimburg, a cyber security expert at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs.

A cyber security agency in Iran said on its website on Monday that Flame bore a "close relation" to Stuxnet, the notorious computer worm that attacked that country's nuclear program in 2010 and is the first publicly known example of a cyber weapon.

Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team also said Flame might be linked to recent cyber attacks that officials in Tehran have said were responsible for massive data losses on some Iranian computer systems.

Kaspersky Lab said it discovered Flame after a U.N. telecommunications agency asked it to analyze data on malicious software across the Middle East in search of the data-wiping virus reported by Iran.

STUXNET CONNECTION

Experts at Kaspersky Lab and Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security who have spent weeks studying Flame said they have yet to find any evidence that it can attack infrastructure, delete data or inflict other physical damage.

Yet they said they are in the early stages of their investigations and that they may discover other purposes beyond data theft. It took researchers months to determine the key mysteries behind Stuxnet, including the purpose of modules used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iran.

"Their initial research suggest that this was probably written by the authors of Stuxnet for covert intelligence collection," said John Bumgarner, a cyber warfare expert with the non-profit U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit think tank.

Flame appears poised to go down in history as the third major cyber weapon uncovered after Stuxnet and its data-stealing cousin Duqu, named after the Star Wars villain.

The Moscow-based company is controlled by Russian malware researcher Eugene Kaspersky. It gained notoriety in cyber weapons research after solving several mysteries surrounding Stuxnet and Duqu.

Their research shows the largest number of infected machines are in Iran, followed by the Israel/Palestine region, then Sudan and Syria.

The virus contains about 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which caused centrifuges to fail at the Iranian enrichment facility it attacked. It has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information, said Kaspersky Lab senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg.

GATHERING DATA

Flame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats.

Kaspersky Lab said Flame and Stuxnet appear to infect machines by exploiting the same flaw in the Windows operating system and that both viruses employ a similar way of spreading.

That means the teams that built Stuxnet and Duqu might have had access to the same technology as the team that built Flame, Schouwenberg said.

He said that a nation state would have the capability to build such a sophisticated tool, but declined to comment on which countries might do so.

The question of who built flame is sure to become a hot topic in the security community as well as the diplomatic world.

There is some controversy over who was behind Stuxnet and Duqu.

Some experts suspect the United States and Israel, a view that was laid out in a January 2011 New York Times report that said it came from a joint program begun around 2004 to undermine what they say are Iran's efforts to build a bomb. That article said the program was originally authorized by U.S. President George W. Bush, and then accelerated by his successor, Barack Obama.

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman, David Oten, declined to comment on Flame on Monday, saying it may take "some time" because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.

The CIA, the State Department, the National Security Agency, and the U.S. Cyber Command declined to comment.

Hungarian researcher Boldizsar Bencsath, whose Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security first discovered Duqu, said his analysis shows that Flame may have been active for at least five years and perhaps eight years or more.

"The scary thing for me is: if this is what they were capable of five years ago, I can only think what they are developing now," Mohan Koo, managing director of British-based Dtex Systems cyber security company.

(Additional reporting by Jim Wolf in Washington, Daniel Fineran in Dubai and William Maclean in London; editing by Edward Tobin, Ron Popeski and Mohammad Zargham)

Reuters

"Shalit deal encouraged terrorists"

As the great philosopher once said, Well, duh.
"'Shalit Deal Encouraged Terrorists,'" by Elad Benari for Israel National News, May 25 (thanks to Voice of the Copts):
The Deputy head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Moti Yogev, said on Thursday that terrorists have been encouraged to try to carry out attacks against Israelis because of the deal to free Gilad Shalit.
Yogev spoke to Arutz Sheva one day after security officials revealed that the Shin Bet and the IDF broke up three terror cells operating in Hevron.
One of the cells, affiliated with Hamas’ military wing, was led by two 21-year-olds from Hevron, one of whom – Mahmoud Dwek – has been previously jailed for expressing a desire to serve as a suicide bomber in an attack against Israel.
The cell also planted a number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) along the security fence surrounding the community of Kiryat Arba and was planning to kidnap one of the Jewish residents of Hevron. If the kidnapping failed, they planned to murder the target.
Israel and Hamas signed a deal in October which saw Shalit being released after more than five years in captivity in exchange for 1,026 terrorists.
Several of the terrorists who were freed in the deal have since been re-arrested after Israeli security forces gathered evidence that they have resumed terror activity. At least one terrorist sent a memory card to relatives with detailed instructions on how to kidnap more soldiers.
“The security situation has worsened in part because of the terrorists from the Shalit deal who are here on the ground, celebrating the fact that they are senior experienced terrorists,” Yogev charged. “Some of the terrorists who were freed came to Judea and Samaria, though I do not have the exact numbers or locations. Some were not allowed to come to Judea and Samaria but it is not difficult to start and lead by example. They employ others, be it to carry out kidnappings, shooting attacks, rock throwing and general disorder.”...

Jihad Watch ~ Robert Spencer

Syria / Damascus - Perry Stone