The church must combat the enemy …

 

Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years

 

When was the last time Christians were persecuted for believing in Christ? When the Roman’s killed them for converting to Christianity and torture then in Roman Arena’s, Peter was crucified upside down by Emperor Nero.  A lot of Christians have been killed for simply believing in Jesus Christ?

 

Christians taking up arms in Iraq stands in stark contrast to the passive victim profile they have been known for since 2003 and are likely to make them more of a target. Sarkis, however, isn’t worried as he believes embracing a fighting life is much better than accepting a passive death. “We’re being killed in our homes, so why not defend ourselves? Then even if we die, we die with dignity,” he said. “We didn’t want to reach this point — we just want to live in our areas.”

 

In America

 

NEWS| Georgia: Atheist Organization Aims to Cleanse School Football Team of Faith

 

 Across the United States secular organizations are working hard to ensure that all public institutions are "cleansed" of any references to religion. In the latest attack, a Georgia high school has been told to ensure that football coaches do not participate in team prayers and all religious references are removed from team documents. Photo: Players and staff from the Glory for Christ Football League in Georgia pray before a scrimmage

Africa

 

NEWS | Boko Haram Claims Once-Predominantly Christian Towns for Islam

 

 Boko Haram has declared towns across northeast Nigeria as part of the Islamic caliphate, imposing Sharia law and driving Christians and other religious minorities from their homes, churches, communities, and livelihoods in droves. Responsible for the deaths of more than 13,000 Nigerians, including more than 1,700 Christians this year alone, Boko Haram has laid waste to much of the country and now, in declaring the world's newest Islamic regime, threatens the stability of not just the Nigerian state, but of the entire region

Asia

 

NEWS | Indonesia Warns: Radicals Inspired by ISIS to Establish a Caliphate in Asia

 

 Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is becoming “one of the main centers of Islamic activism in the Asia-Pacific region,” according to Asia News. Islamic extremism has been rising with a decline in religious pluralism in the country. Moreover, fundamentalist movements have found “inspiration in the exploits of Sunni fighters in Syria and Iraq.” The Indonesian government warned that the rising radicalism may take a more “dangerous turn with the project of creating a Caliphate” in Asia

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sisterthundershow/2014/09/01/the-church-must-combat-the-enemy

The Truth about Ukraine

It now appears that the plan was for these terrorists to shoot down a Russian passenger flight over the Ukraine in order to create a casus belli [cause for war].
Putin repeatedly claims that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons as a "de-escalatory measure" even against non-nuclear states.
The evidence that this war was preplanned is overwhelming. The planning for this Ukrainian operation started in 2006, when Putin offered to "guarantee Crimea's territory."
The forces fighting in Kiev consist not mainly of "separatists" or rebels, but of trained Russian army, intelligence and paramilitary officers, as well as Russian and some Ukrainian "volunteers" recruited by Moscow.
Putin would incite disturbances in Crimea, then graciously offer to take over Crimea to solve the problems.
For the Russians, and particularly for Putin, Ukraine can have no future other than as a Russian colony. This is indeed a phased invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. did not accept Russian aggression before; it should not accept it now.

If "truth is the first casualty of war," Russia's war against Ukraine, illegally launched by Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, is no exception.
One of the saddest developments of this war is that on all political sides, in both Europe and the U.S., an entire army of Putin defenders has emerged, for whom the United Stares can do little right and Russia can do little wrong.
On the "right," for instance, Patrick Buchanan has discovered that Russia's President Vladimir Putin is supporting both Christian values and U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Consequently he asserts we should not be worried about his illegal annexation of Crimea and aggression in Eastern Ukraine in violation of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for Russian and American assurances that the use of force or threats of military action would not be taken against it.

The facts, however, are against Buchanan.
Supporting Afghanistan through the Northern Distribution Network was actually a Russian idea. Back in 2007-8 Russia advocated some such mechanism because, like the U.S., it has a vital interest in preventing a Taliban victory. So it was actually the U.S. that supported a good Russian idea.
The notion, however, that Putin exemplifies "Christian virtues," as Buchanan claims, is totally bizarre. Putin has restored some of the elements of the Soviet Gulag, stolen billions from the Russian people, instituted police state measures that speak of fascism, broken a raft of international treaties on and with Ukraine, and unleashed preplanned wars that are nothing more than state-sponsored terrorism.

Moreover, Buchanan's argument that Russia has genuine grievances against Ukraine that justify its aggression -- such as the election of a pro-Western government in Kiev last spring -- is also completely false.

The evidence that this war was preplanned, and had nothing to do with any election results, is overwhelming. U.S. analyst Reuben Johnson wrote in 2006 that the planning for this Ukrainian operation started the same year, when Putin offered to "guarantee Crimea's territory."
A high-ranking official in a key Eastern Europe state told Johnson in 2006 that:

"Moscow has the political and covert action means to create in the Crimea the very type of situations against which Putin is offering to 'protect' Ukraine [especially] if the Russian Fleet's presence [in Crimea] is extended.
"Thus far such means have been shown to include inflammatory visits and speeches by Russian Duma deputies in the Crimea, challenges to Ukraine's control of Tuzla Island in the Kerch Strait, the fanning of "anti-NATO – in fact anti-American – protests by Russian groups in connection with planned military exercises and artificial Russian-Tatar tensions on the peninsula."

In addition, Russia has used a variety of intelligence, military, economic, informational, ideological, and other forms of penetration of the Crimea to begin the process of nullifying Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea.
[1]
Russia's military and special operation forces also augmented its capabilities for both covert and overt subversion of Ukrainian sovereignty over Crimea. A key part of the plan was instituting a substantial program giving Russian military service passports to soldiers and officers in the Transnistrian Russian "Army" that occupies part of Moldova, and rotating these soldiers through the elite Russian officer training courses at Solnechegorsk.
Thus Moscow, as Johnson observed, was not only training soldiers for an operation against Crimea as early as 2006, but the preparations also included having "Russian" soldiers ready in Moldova to move east into Crimea if need be.
Ukrainian sources have even reported that during the current war against Crimea and Ukraine, Moscow had also widened the airport in Tiraspol, the "capital" of its rump Transnistrian republic in Moldova, to permit landings of flights with heavier forces; stationed 2000 Spetsnaz forces in Transnistria, and planned so-called humanitarian intervention exercises there in order to create and then exploit a pretext for intervening in Ukraine from Transnistria in the west, if need be.
As Odessa in Crimea is only 80 kilometers from Transnistria in Moldova, the potential Russian operation would have been able to bisect Ukraine and capture all of southern Ukraine including Crimea.
[2] As it is, Russia has seized Crimea from the east, from its own territory, and now is moving against Eastern Ukraine from Russian territory as well.
After Russia's actions against Ukraine, a similar operation could next be started in Moldova. There, Russia could use its captured province on the periphery of Moldova, Transnistria, to move against the rest of Moldova. As Reuben Johnson further explained in 2006:

"You do not try to cover up a training program of this size unless you are someday planning on using these people to overthrow or otherwise take control of a sovereign government.... The facility at Solnechegorsk is used by Russia to train numerous non-Russian military personnel openly and legally for peacekeeping and other joint operations. If then, in parallel, you are training officers from these disputed regions -- officers that are pretending to be Russian personnel and carrying bogus paperwork –- then it does not take an enormous leap of faith to assume that Moscow is up to no good on this one."

Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow Center, similarly confirmed that Moscow began contingency planning for aggression against Ukraine in 2008.
In like manner, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in 2009 told Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow that Putin would incite disturbances in Crimea, then graciously offer to take over Crimea to solve the problems, and thus teach other post-Soviet states a lesson.
In 2012, Putin also admitted -- perhaps unwittingly -- that Russia began planning for the Georgian war in 2006 by using armed Russian "separatists" to start attacking Georgia, in order to provide a pretext for Moscow to detach the Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia in 2006.
[3]
Meanwhile, Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov prefigured Russia's strategy in a published and publicly discussed 2013 speech in Moscow to the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, where he prefigured the kind of war that Moscow has waged in Ukraine.
[4]
Views like Buchanan's are matched by similar ones on the far "left." Princeton professor Stephen Cohen, for example, writes in the Nation magazine that Ukraine is engaging in atrocities against Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens and that these practices justify Moscow's intervention.
Cohen further claims that Ukraine's recent election was illegal, and that this act also justified Moscow's intervention.
[5]
More recently, Cohen even went so far as to claim that there is no such thing as the Ukrainian nation, so that it is fallacious to say that Putin invaded Ukraine and thereby started a Ukrainian civil war.
[6]
If anything, Ukrainian national identity has grown in the face of Russian aggression, which has included sending into Ukraine Russian military forces in the guise of a humanitarian operation.

Russian-backed separatists parade Ukrainian army prisoners of war through the streets of Donetsk, Aug. 24, 2014. (Image source: RT YouTube video screenshot)

Moreover, whether or not Ukraine is a nation in conflict is irrelevant. It is a legally recognized state by the United Nations and over 190 nations around the world. Its borders are guaranteed by Russia, among other countries, by at least four treaties.
A key part of Moscow's claimed basis for "protecting," through military force, the Russian-speaking people of Crimea and eastern Ukraine -- claims unfortunately echoed by Buchanan and Cohen -- is that the government of Ukraine was committing mass atrocities against its citizens. These were characterized by Moscow as neo-Nazi in nature, although there is no evidence that the government in Kiev was undertaking any terrorist actions against its own citizens.
It should also be clarified that the forces fighting Kiev consist not mainly of "separatists" or rebels but rather mainly of trained Russian army, intelligence, and paramilitary officers, as well as Russian and some Ukrainian "volunteers" recruited by Moscow to fight in eastern Ukraine.
For all the supposed leanings of the local population toward Russia, the Russian troops there have gained no public support -- apparently, quite the opposite. As a result, since entering the area in April 2014, the Russian troops -- apparently to punish the Ukrainian people -- launched a wave of terrorism in eastern Ukraine against the local population
.[7]
These Russian terrorist attacks preceded the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner on July 17 -- an attack carried out by Russian trained military forces in eastern Ukraine.
It now appears, however, that the plan was for these terrorists to shoot down a Russian passenger flight over Ukraine in order to create a casus belli [cause for war]. This would have allowed Russia -- so the Putin government might have thought -- to have at the ready a credible excuse to move into eastern Ukraine with even greater military power to help the Russian separatists, with the excuse that the Russians were there to prevent any future attacks on airplanes.
[8]
It also appears that on the weekend of August 8-9, 2014, Russia was planning another invasion into Ukraine --- the third, counting the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine -- this one an attempt to persuade the Red Cross to open a corridor into Ukraine for two separate convoys of trucks providing supplies for a humanitarian intervention.
CNN explains that one convoy did not actually bypass checkpoints intended to make sure that the cargo was really "humanitarian" and not a re-supply of weapons to the "Russian separatists." It was later determined to be free of weapons. Meanwhile, on August 22, a large Russian convoy, deliberately bypassing the Red Cross inspections team and therefore assumed to be a "Trojan horse" bearing weapons, did enter Ukraine.

Foreign audiences need and deserve to know the truth: that this is indeed a phased Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning with the invasion and annexation of Crimea and now including large portions of eastern Ukraine.

It also includes a total disregard for a series of treaties between Russia and Ukraine assuring Ukraine's sovereignty and security. These treaties are the Helsinki Final Act as amended after 1991, the Tashkent Treaty of 1992 among all the post-Soviet states, Russia's 1997 and 2010 treaties with Ukraine and the Budapest Agreement of 1994 with Russia, the US, and the UK. All these treaties and agreements assured Ukraine's sovereignty and integrity, while the Budapest Agreement of 1994 reaffirmed Ukraine's sovereignty and integrity as assured by the U.S., UK, and Russia in return for dismantling and returning to Russia all the nuclear weapons it inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed.

To assume that the U.S. and the world must acquiesce to the annexation of Crimea and even subsequently negotiate with President Putin on the future of Ukraine, ignores one simple but critical point: for the Russians, and particularly Putin, Ukraine can have no future other than as a Russian colony. This means also that unless Russia is stopped, it will wage war -- both covert and overt -- on Ukraine until that country is totally under Moscow's control.
In 1990-1, a broad coalition of forces led by the United States did not accept Saddam Hussein's invasion and occupation of Kuwait. The U.S. did not accept that aggression then, and it should not accept Russian aggression now.

Whether the US and its allies will actually impose sufficiently severe sanctions that would effectively make the cost of Russia continuing its aggression prohibitive is not clear. And whether the U.S. and its allies will provide sufficient military assistance to the Ukraine government to stop Russian aggression is also not clear.

If nations, however, do not stop Putin from his evidently expansionist plans, and if he is determined to rebuild the Russian empire through war or its equivalent, conflict in eastern Europe and the Russian "near abroad" will continue to escalate.

Putin's repeated claims that Russia reserves the right during a conflict to use nuclear weapons as a "de-escalatory measure," even against non-nuclear states, should give us all pause to question those who are quick to dismiss Putin's actions as simply "far away," in a country "we know little about" and therefore of little consequence.

It is therefore disheartening to see "experts" such as Buchanan and Cohen assist Moscow in disseminating its lies here and abroad. As the Russian writer Anton Chekhov observed, "Rust eats iron, lice eat the grass and lies eat the soul."

If we do not insist on telling the truth about Ukraine, and take appropriate action to defend our freedoms, the risk to Ukrainians and to the West will only grow worse. A nuclear-armed Russia, reckless in the use of force, bodes ill for the free world.

Stephen Blank is Senior Fellow for Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C. Peter Huessy is a Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs, and at the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C.

---

[1] Conversations with Ostap Kryvdyk, Washington, D.C. June 19, 2014
[2] Maciej Falkowski, Russia's Policy in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia," Centre for Eastern Studies Warsaw, 2006, p. 56; William Varretoni, "Sweetness of the Status Quo: Strategic Patience and the Technology of Russia's Capture of Crimea,' Paper Presented to the Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Columbia University, New York, April 15, 2010; Lada Roslycky, The Soft Side of Dark Power : A Study in Soft Power, National Security and the Political-Criminal Nexus With a Special Focus on the Post-Soviet Political-Criminal Nexus, the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Separatism in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Groningen, 2011; Yuri E. Fedorov, Medvedev's Amendments to the Law on Defence: The Consequences For Europe, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Briefing Paper No. 47, November 2009, p. 7; Ryan Maness and Brandon Valentino, "Russia and the Near Abroad: Applying a Risk Barometer for War," Journal of Slavic Military Studies, XXV, NO. 2, 2012, pp. 125-148.
[3] Putin Admits Russia Trained S. Ossetians Before 2008 Georgia War - Transcript, President of Russia, www.kremlin.ru, August 10, 2012

[4] Paul Goble, "Putin's Actions in Ukraine Following Script by Russian General Staff a Year Ago," Window on Eurasia -- New Series, June 20, 2014. The Russian sources are as follows, avnrf.ru/index.php/vse-novosti-sajta/620-rol-generalnogo-shtaba-v-organizatsii-oborony-strany-v-sootvetstvii-s-novym-polozheniem-o-generalnom-shtabe-utverzhdjonnym-prezidentom-rossijskoj-federatsii and vpk-news.ru/sites/default/files/pdf/VPK_08_476.pdf
[5] Stephen F. Cohen, "The Silence of American Hawks About Kiev's Atrocities," The Nation, June 30, 2014; "After Chaotic Autonomy Votes, Negotiations Could Be Sole Path to Prevent Ukraine's Disintegration", May 12, 2014.

[6] Stephen Cohen, "The New Cold War and the Necessity of Patriotic Heresy," The Nation, August 12, 2014; and Cathy Young, "Putin's Pal," Slate, July 24, 2014.
[7] David Frum, "Ukraine's Phantom Neo-Nazi Menace," The Atlantic ,March 28, 2014; Dan Williams, "Israel rejects link of Ukraine crisis to anti-Semitism," Reuters, April 24, 2014; Amnesty International, "Abductions and Torture in Eastern Ukraine," 2014.
[8] "Rossiya pytalas' vvesti voiska v Ukrainu pod vidom mirotvortsev—Chalyi," rus.newsru.ua, August 9, 2014

Austria: Springboard for Global Jihad

Austria figures prominently in a map produced by the IS that outlines the group's five-year plan for expanding its caliphate into Europe, and has emerged as a central hub for jihadists seeking to fight in Syria.
"The spectrum of recruits for the conflict in Syria is ethnically diverse. The motivation, however, appears to be uniformly jihadist." — Austrian intelligence agency BVT.
"Allah also gives you the opportunity to wage jihad in Austria." — Austrian jihadist Firas Houidi.
"We are proud that Allah has chosen us. We feel like lions." — Austrian jihadist Abu Hamza al-Austria.

The Austrian government has announced plans to improve its intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities in an urgent effort to crack down on would-be jihadists in the country.
The decision by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner to recruit 20 new intelligence officers to focus exclusively on the threat posed by radical Islam comes after police in Austria arrested nine Chechen immigrants who were on their way to wage jihad in Syria.
The move also comes amid growing concerns that Austria's shiftless Muslim youth are becoming increasingly radicalized and vocal in their support of the jihadist group Islamic State.
The Chechens—eight men and one woman, ranging in age from 17 to 32—were purportedly planning to travel to Syria over a land route that would take them from Austria through the neighboring Balkans and on into Turkey. Four of the individuals were arrested in the southeastern Austrian province of Styria, and five others were detained in the province of Carinthia. Both provinces border Slovenia.
According t
o an analysis published by the newspaper Der Standard, Austria has emerged as a central hub for jihadists seeking to fight in Syria because Austria's geographic location provides easy access to land routes through the Balkans.
Austrian intelligence officials say that most of the 130 Austrians who are thought to have travelled to Syria are Chechens. The rest are immigrants from Bosnia, Kosovo and Turkey. Approximately 60 Austrian jihadists are currently on the front lines, 50 have already returned to Austria and 20 have been killed in action.

The returning jihadists are "ticking time bombs," according to Mikl-Leitner. Her concerns are echoed in a June 2014 report by the Austrian intelligence agency BVT, which is emphatic about the threat posed by returning jihadists. The document states:

"When fighters return from the warzone, their newly acquired combat skills, traumatic experiences and changes in behavior, plus the possibility that they have become highly radicalized, represent a considerable security risk for Austria. Those who return could become involved in proselytizing activities as well as in establishing new radical centers in which they could serve as instructors. Potential terrorist attacks could be perpetrated by so-called lone wolves but also by organized terrorist groups."

The report also warns of the "exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria." Salafism is an anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic sharia law in Austria and other parts of Europe. The document states:

"The number of young radicalized followers of violent Salafism in Austria continues to rise. In this context, the conflict in Syria is of urgent relevance for Austria, because systematic efforts are being made within Austria to radicalize and recruit people for the war in Syria.

"The conflict in Syria has become very popular among violent extremist Salafists in Austria. The spectrum of recruits for the conflict in Syria is ethnically diverse. The motivation, however, appears to be uniformly jihadist.
"So-called hate preachers can have a decisive influence on the radicalization and recruiting processes by means of ideological and personal indoctrination. Jihad is offered as the only adequate means to solving disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims. In Austria, this targeted manipulation is achieved through conspiratorial performances by charismatic leaders. Young Muslims, who are seeking alternative perspectives due to life crises, are often submissive victims to these 'radicalizers' and 'recruiters' and are often fascinated by the prospect of armed jihad."

In any event, Salafism is on track to becoming a permanent fixture of Austrian society, if demographics are any indication. The Muslim population in Austria now exceeds 500,000 (or roughly 6% of the total population), up from an estimated 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990. The Muslim population is expected to reach 800,000 (or 9.5%) by 2030, according to recent estimates.
Muslim students already outnumber Roman Catholic students at middle and secondary schools in Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria, according to statistics compiled by the Vienna Board of Education (Stadtschulrat für Wien) and published by Radio Vatican website in March 2014.
The data—which show that Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools—reflect an established trend and provide empirical evidence of a massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country.

In the current school year, 10,734 Muslim students are enrolled in Viennese middle and secondary schools, compared to 8,632 Roman Catholic students, 4,259 Serbian Orthodox students and 3,219 students with "no religious persuasion," the data shows.
As far as elementary schools are concerned, there are 23,807 Roman Catholic students, followed by 17,913 Muslim students, 11,119 "non-religious" students, 6,083 Serbian Orthodox students and 2,322 Protestants.

The statistics show that the only Viennese schools where Muslims remain a distinct minority are in the gymnasium, advanced secondary schools that place a strong emphasis on academic learning rather than on vocational skills. Students graduating from a gymnasium are more likely than others to be admitted to attend university in Austria.
Official statistics also show that nearly 60% of the inhabitants of Vienna are immigrants or foreigners.

Meanwhile, Austrian jihadists are busy using social media to promote their cause, and to taunt counter-terrorism authorities. Before leaving for Syria in early 2014, a 19-year-old jihadist from Vienna named Firas Houidi wrote the following message on his Facebook page: "To the intelligence agent who may be reading this: Either you kill us or we continue, until the heads fly." In mid-August, Houidi, who goes by the nom de guerre Firas Abdullah II, sent a follow-up "greeting" from Syria that included a photograph of an artillery shell in a box ready to be shipped to Austrian authorities.
In another message, Houidi, who has a Tunisian immigrant background, wrote that it is not necessary for Austrian Muslims to travel all the way to Syria to wage jihad against infidels. "Even if you do not emigrate and fight, then do it in Austria," he wrote. "Allah also gives you the opportunity to wage jihad in Austria." After his Facebook page was suspended, he reportedly opened another one under the name "Firas Abdullah III."

Europol, the international police organization, has now issued an international arrest warrant for Houidi for belonging to a terrorist organization and for inciting to commit serious crimes.
Another so-called Austro-Islamist named "Abu Hamza al-Austria" produced an eight-minute recruitment video calling on Muslims to wage jihad. He can be heard saying: "My name is Abu Hamza. I lived in Vienna until Allah called me and I obeyed his call." He continues:

"My brothers and sisters. When I lived in Austria, I thought it would be difficult to leave because I was used to a life of luxury. I imagined that in Syria there would be no water, very little food and drink. This is not the case. We live in houses that exceed western expectations. We live in villas with fireplaces and swimming pools. We have everything here. We have no fear of death. We are proud that Allah has chosen us. We feel like lions."

The Islamist known as "Abu Hamza al-Austria," fighting in Syria, pictured from his jihadist recruitment video.

Austrian jihadists have also used social media to call on fellow Muslims to murder Yazidis, ethnic Kurdish non-Muslims, living in Austria. One image shows an Austro-Islamist brandishing a knife accompanied by a quote from the Prophet Mohammed: "We have come to you for no other purpose than to slaughter you." Another jihadist writes: "All Yazidis living in Vienna, report to me. My knife is extra sharp." Yet another writes: "Every dirty devil worshiper [the Muslim term for Yazidis], report to me, you will bleed for what you did to my brothers in Herford, in the name of Allah, you will bleed and be killed by my very own hands." Evidently, he was referring to jihadist clashes with Yazidis in neighboring Germany in early August.

In Vienna, supporters of the jihadist group Islamic State [IS] have set up a "fan club" to promote holy war. They sell camouflage baseball caps emblazoned with the IS logo and T-shirts with terrorist messages in Arabic. Austrian newspapers have published photographs (here and here) of IS sympathizers posing in different locations throughout Vienna with messages of support. One reads: "One billion Muslims support the Islamic State." Austrian jihadists have been seen wearing IS attire on Vienna subway trains. Others have posted comments and photos on Facebook that glorify jihad and show weapons displays.

The propaganda has added significance because of Vienna's historic role in preventing Islam from overrunning Christian Europe during the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Like Spain, Austria figures prominently in a map produced by the IS that outlines the group's five-year plan for expanding its caliphate into Europe. Today's jihadists are simply fighting a new phase of a very old conflict

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Thomas Jefferson

NEWS Bosnia and global jihad - a reflection not just an ordinary American spy BY REPORTER ON 25 AUGUST 2014 • (POST A COMMENT) 1 Vote

My book "Unholy Terror" (2007) raised the dust rather pointing out an uncomfortable truth - that Bosnia and Herzegovina 90s became the playground and the main reservoir of Al-Qaeda, thanks to the malignant influence of Saudi Arabia and Iran. This was a counter, to say the least, my critics and ardent defenders of the failed policies of the West (especially American) in the Balkans, as well as the usual circle of people - fellow travelers and useful idiots Jihad, plus fervently, for personal reasons, there is no one who looked to where to Europe goes Saudi money.

25/08/2014. 20committee, the FBR was prepared by Biljana Diković
However, my main message - that Islamist extremism, although mainly imported phenomenon in Bosnia, let local roots and will probably continue to metastasize because of persistent social and economic problems facing the country - proved sadly accurate in the past seven years. For years, the debate on Islamism in Bosnia and Southeastern Europe conducted between actors in the security sector on the one hand and academics and journalists, on the other hand, with the first group, who actually understand what was happening on the ground, was concerned about the growing radicalism, while the latter are generally met by turning looks with obvious signs of trouble and accusations of bias and "Islamophobia," those who have pointed to what was going on.

But recently, even many scientists and related "as babi milo to her and merrier" thinkers recognize that Bosnia does have a growing problem of Islamic extremism. In early 2013, the International Crisis Group, an NGO that is important to be considered a leader of wisdom he'd gained the West Balkans, admitted that the problem does exist - "dangerous tango" Islamic radicalism and nationalism in Bosnia. What has been some progress.

If terrorist attacks are a measure of Bosnia is not a big focus. There were a few, thankfully, not fatal, jihadist terrorist incidents in recent years, such as the bombing of the police station in Bugojno in 2010 and shooting at the United States Embassy in Sarajevo 201 years. However, it's not just for comfort, as security experts know. In the first place, the Bosnian radicals tend to go abroad to cause havoc. Their country as European extremists sanctuary, a place where you set up the network - personal, ideological and financial (often focused on Austria, Vienna, because the de facto center of Islamic extremism in the region) to support the jihad elsewhere, including jihad in Europe. Bosnia is, in other words, the starting base - Iranian intelligence services have a similar look to it - and the implementation of terrorism in Bosnia send spam message, because it would lead to unwanted oversight of their activities.

Corrupt Bosnian officials for years, turning his eyes from the rise of extremism in their midst. Even when arrested, known radicals charges mysteriously discarded or, at worst, they "escape" from prison under mysterious circumstances. This is Saudi money and Iranian influence, which nearly a quarter-century foster clandestine network in Bosnia, a malignant role. Your Bosnian police and spies, and there are usually a little bit what I can do to change this situation. Mainly because Western countries, which could significantly help, usually reluctant to acknowledge how serious is the problem. So you have maximum security Bosnian officials are saying one thing to Western diplomats and the media, and quite another - the painful truth - behind closed doors. Welcome to Sarajevo.

Syrian civil installments bloody disintegration of Iraq, with the prominent role of foreign fighters in these terrible conflicts, have drawn attention to Bosnia, and many European countries. According to a reliable estimate of the number of Bosnians who in 2011 went to Syria and Iraq to lead a holy war is under fifty, and the region it currently has about seventy. Among them is Nusret Imamovic, leading Bosnian Salafists propagator of jihad and minor media "gadfly" who went to Syria late last year to boost troops on the ground. Significantly Imamoviæ supports Džabat Al-Nusra, jihadist faction of al-Qaeda in Syria, not a radical Islamic state, which has led to a schism in the various Bosnian extremist circles as younger Balkan radicals rather support an Islamic state and are looking to join it .

Many Bosnian Muslims were shocked on August 7, when Emrah Fojnica year-old Bosnian fighter of the Islamic state, blew up in a suicide attack in Baghdad. With the two "brothers" from Saudi Arabia and Libya, Fojnica tied a bomb vest and walked into a crowded market, killing twenty-four civilians, among whom there were eleven women and six children, two of them babies. Although the suicide bombing all but unknown in the Bosnian extremist circles, there were questions about what's going on, especially when it was revealed that the deceased's father openly celebrated the "martyrdom" of her son. "Later it was discovered that the younger Fojnica was well known to the Bosnian authorities and he was arrested in connection with the attack on the American embassy in Sarajevo in 2011, but was acquitted of terrorism charges for unknown reasons.

Bosnian authorities found it difficult to stop the departure of potential jihadists to Syria and Iraq, not only because they Turkey provides free transit through its territory. And to be fair to Sarajevo, no European country has not yet built a Fruitful system to prevent radical departure to the Middle East and jihad in their minds. It is taken as a positive sign that Bosnia in the spring implemented a new law to punish citizens who go abroad to wage jihad - with real consequences, including up to ten years in prison. Finally something is done. Or so it seemed.

In Bosnia, however, the entry into force of the law and law enforcement are two different things. As revealed in the new reports in Sarajevo newsmagazines "Free Bosnia", which has a long history of excellent investigative reporting on extremism and corruption in Bosnia, fifty Bosnian jihadists returned home from Syria and Iraq over the last two months, and since the new law effective, but none of them have been arrested. Even worse, the Bosnian government did not bring a single one of the jihadists testing, although their identities are known to the Bosnian security agencies, perhaps because the Balkan contingent Islamic state openly boasted of their exploits on Facebook.
Moreover, the Salafist propagandists continue to incite young Bosnians abroad for jihad, with the obligatory anthem new "Kalif" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, and on the Internet and in Bosnian mosques - all illegal, but apparently not illegal in real life. Just an example from this week: Bilal, the leader of the pro-ID factions among Bosnian radicals, he told his followers to join the struggle of the Islamic state, no response from authorities.

Meanwhile, the Salafist violence continues to grow in Bosnia. In early August, Damir Delic mudlark and petty criminal who turned religious radicalism in all too familiar pattern, chased with police in Hollywood-style car at full speed through the center of Sarajevo, firing at police, who had finally calmed down a shot in the leg. Delic was known to the authorities and notoriety in his Sarajevo suburb for street attack on young Muslim women who were trained in accordance with Delic understanding of decency. When Bosnians return home friški the killing fields of Iraq and Syria, where they learned to cut off heads and blow up innocent, we can expect that robbers like Delic give a new generation of officers and teachers.

Against this tide of violent extremism can be fought successfully. Authority in Kosovo last week conducted a series of raids across the small country and arrested forty suspects radicals who fought in Syria and Iraq. This sent a strong message that extremism will not be tolerated and that the law will be enforced. In relation to the population, forty jihadists arrested in Kosovo as in Germany in 1800 and 1400 Pristina Britain deserves praise for taking a strong stance on this important issue. It's something I need to look up the whole of Europe. Kosovo is equally as Bosnia mired in poverty and corruption, maybe more. It is a question of will, not the funding and foreign aid. While local authorities do not resolve to confront the problem of radicalism in their midst, he will continue to metastasize.
The rise of the murderous Islamic state as a major force in the Middle East will influence on Europe, given the large number of Europeans who have joined it. Chaos-type Islamic state turned to the West: it can only be delayed, not stopped completely. Bosnia is on the front line of European resistance to the madness, it's time to recognize this reality before it's too late.
About the author: John R. Schindler is a professor of national security at the Navy War College, USA. Before that, he spent ten years at the NSA and served kojekude, and that in this region speak his earlier e-mail, titovka@yahoo.com, and current, opdunav83@yahoo.com. One of its (promotional) analysis translated into Serbian and Austria and Bosnia-Syrian jihadist link | Warehouse
Source: Bosnia and the Global Jihad Revisited | The XX Committee Translated by: Aleksandar Jovanovic

REPOST: AMERICAN SUICIDE
Wherever you stand, please take the time to read this; it ought to scare the pants off you!

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado (Democrat). In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Recently there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of America's finest minds and leaders.... A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Davis Hansen talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how
immigration - both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: "First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows tha! t no nat ion can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus
have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficult times with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and
what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would! replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing
their similarities."

"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."

"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."

"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other- that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks
believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common Language and literature; and they worshipped the same Gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. ! Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum"
-- from many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'Pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America assuredly as Kosovo."

"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bi-lingual/bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book "Mexifornia." His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, da! rkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and
"Ignorance is strength."

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path especially The American Dream. If you care for and love our country as I do, take the time to pass this on just as I did for you.

NOTHING is exactly what will happen if you don't!

 Satan has been unleashed in the world.

Or, if you are an atheist or secular and uncomfortable with theological imagery: Dr. Frankenstein’s monster has escaped the laboratory and is rampaging across the landscape.

The most recent atrocities committed by the Islamic State — notably, the beheading of an American journalist by an ISIS mujahid on video, as a warni...ng to President Obama (see Fox News, CNN, and the Mail Online) — demonstrate that something unprecedented is at work in the Middle East. Not since the defeat of the Ottoman army in 1683 has barbarity of this magnitude gone unchecked in the region.

Actually, you’d have to go back farther than 1683, or even 1453, to find comparable events. During its entire suzerainty over Mesopotamia, the Ottoman Empire did not engage in the systematic demolition of Shiite mosques. But that is exactly what ISIS is doing, even as it massacres and enslaves Christians and Yezidis.

This is a moment of enormous historical import. The proclamation of a Caliphate by the Islamic State has electrified Islamic zealots all over the world, which is why the black flag of jihad is appearing now in so many places. ISIS is saying to the Ummah: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” And getting an enthusiastic response, based on all the demonstrators who have taken to the “Muslim street”.

The process that has now reached its maturity in Syria and Iraq began in earnest more than three years ago, when a Tunisian street vendor immolated himself and initiated what eventually became known as the “Arab Spring”. It became obvious fairly quickly that this was a moment that both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Western intelligence services had been waiting for. Assets that had been kept ready were set into motion, and long-standing plans were systematically implemented in the months that followed.

Much of the analysis below is pure speculation, but it is based on factual material. It is an attempt to fit the known facts into a plausible general framework that would help explain them. I don’t have the time (nor will my eyes hold up long enough) to find links to all the relevant material; readers are advised to hit the search engines to find corroborating material.