The Philadelphia Tribune by Rahim Faiez Amir Shah KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber struck a private education center in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul on Wednesday where high school graduates were preparing for university entrance exams, killing 48 young men and women and leaving behind a scene of devastation and tragedy.The bombing, blamed on the Islamic State group, was the latest assault on Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which has increasingly been targeted by Sunni extremists who consider Shiites to be heretics.It also showed how militants are still able to stage large-scale attacks, even in the heart of Kabul, and underscored the struggles of the Afghan forces to provide security and stability on their own.The attack comes amid a particularly bloody week in Afghanistan that has seen Taliban attacks kill scores of Afghan troops and civilians.It was not immediately clear how the bomber managed to sneak into the building, used by...

Americans Killed by ISIS on World ‘Kindness’ Tour Clarion Project The Americans killed by ISIS in Tajikstan in an attack by ISIS at the end of last month were on a world tour to prove that “humans are kind.”“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place,” Austin wrote on his blog. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil.“I don’t buy it,” he continued. “Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own… By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”Following a movement among fellow millennials, Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both in their late 20s, quit their jobs after coming to the conclusion that they were wasting their...

Press release from the DOJ:     Iraqi National Wanted for Murder in Iraq Arrested In California Had Previously Attempted To Gain Lawful Permanent Resident Status Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs Omar Ameen, 45, an Iraqi national, wanted on a murder charge in Iraq, appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Sacramento, California today in connection with proceedings to extradite him to face trial in Iraq.  Ameen settled in Sacramento as a purported refugee and attempted to gain legal status in the United States. The arrest was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott for the Eastern District of California, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division, Assistant Director Michael McGarrity of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, and Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office. An arrest warrant charging Ameen with the 2014 murder...

Washington Post by Liz Sly BEIRUT — The Islamic State may still have in excess of 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq and appears to have rebounded from some of its worst setbacks, according to two new reports that call into question whether the militants are as close to defeat as the U.S. military has suggested.The figures, contained in reports by the U.S. government and the United Nations, are far higher than previous estimates of Islamic State strength following its major defeats last year, when the militants were driven out of their territory in Iraq and most of their key strongholds in Syria. The U.S. military has not released any figures since last year, but comments by military officials had indicated there were not many more than 10,000 fighters left.U.S. military officials disputed the new assessments but declined to give alternative numbers, saying it is against military policy. The figures...

The Express A CHILLING UN report has revealed Libya is experiencing a resurgence in al-Qaeda presence, prompting fears of a terrorist onslaught in the region. By Sam Stevenson In North Africa, Libya is believed to be home to between 3,000 and 4,000 ISIS militants and is believed to be experiencing a revival in al-Qaeda presence.Al-Qaeda’s leaders in Iran “have grown more prominent” and have been working with the extremist group’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, “projecting his authority more effectively than he could previously” including on events in Syria, UN experts said.Egypt is also believed to have some 1,000 ISIS fighters.The news comes despite the armed group’s defeat on most fronts and following a significant halt in the flow of foreigners joining its ranks. According to the UN experts, the heightened terrorist presence is despite both ISIS and al-Qaeda suffering major losses.The UN report, which was released on Monday, analysed ISIS...

By Matt Richardson | Fox News The children discovered at an “extremist Muslim” compound in New Mexico earlier this month were both trained to use firearms and taught multiple tactical techniques in order to kill teachers, law enforcement and other institutions they found corrupt, state prosecutors revealed on Monday.The prosecutors provided more details about the accusations during a court hearing in which they asked that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four other defendants be held pending trial on child abuse charges. But the judge in the case ruled against prosecutors’ request. Judge Sarah Backus said although she was concerned by "troubling facts," prosecutors failed to articulate any specific threats to the community.She set a $20,000 bond for each defendant and ordered that they wear ankle monitors and have weekly contact with their attorneys. It was also announced Monday that 3-year-old Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, who had been missing since December, allegedly died amid...

Chicago Tribune by Jason Meisner - Contact ReporterA former Chicago man has been charged in federal court here with flying overseas in 2015 to join the Islamic State terrorism group with two friends, one of whom was later killed in a suicide attack.The indictment made public Friday charged Faress Muhammad Shraiteh, 21, with two counts of providing and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. According to the four-page indictment, Shraiteh and two friends — identified only as Individuals A and B — boarded an Alitalia flight from O’Hare International Airport to Cairo on May 13, 2015, using tickets purchased by Shaiteh a week earlier.Later that month, the trio then flew to Istanbul, but Shraiteh was denied entry because of issues with his passport. Shraiteh, who was 18 at the time, traveled instead to Israel, where he had family, while his friends remained in Turkey, according to the...

King 5 News by Taylor MirfendereskiSEATTLE — The Horizon Air employee who stole and crashed an empty commercial plane on a remote Pierce County Island Friday left behind more than grieving friends and family members who are trying to make sense of his actions.Richard “Beebo” Russell left authorities with a blueprint of significant security flaws within the U.S. aviation industry and a wake-up call that counterterrorism and aviation security experts say the country must take seriously.“We are not as prepared as we could be to defend against the insider threat,” said Jeff Price, one of the nation's leading aviation security experts and consultants. “The airline industry should take away the very real possibility that somebody with terrorist-intent could be hired at the low-level at the airport. It’s been part of the terrorist narrative for quite some time."Russell, the 29-year-old ground service agent who stole the Q-400 turboprop plane on Aug....

By Edmund DeMarche, Ryan Gaydos | Fox News A car ramming outside Parliament on Tuesday was being treated as a terror incident and a male suspect has been arrested, British authorities said.The country’s counter-terrorism command was leading the investigation. Two people were hospitalized and one person was released, Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said. A woman was also being treated for serious, but non-life threatening injuries, he said. The suspect was described to be in his late 20s and he was arrested on suspicion of terror offenses, Basu said. He was driving a silver Ford Fiesta before collided with a number of cyclists and pedestrians before crashing into the barriers during the morning commute. He was in custody, but wasn't cooperating with police. He wasn't immediately identified.British Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked emergency responders for being on the scene quickly.“My thoughts are with those...

By Clarion Project Ryan Mauro, director of the Clarion Intelligence Network and our Shillman Fellow, talks about the New Mexico Islamist compound, its relationship to Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the FBI’s delays in taking action against the location and how it could have become a Jihadist Waco. Mauro explains that Wahhaj is a leader of a radical network that includes groups involved in paramilitary training and radicalization of children. ...

Gatestone Institute by Bassam Tawil This ceasefire initiative is rather disturbing: it requires no meaningful concessions on the part of Hamas. It leaves, for example, wholly intact Hamas's extremist ideology, which calls for the destruction of Israel, and does not demand that Hamas lay down its weapons. A ceasefire may sound good, but in the current circumstances it will send a deadly message to Hamas and the other terror factions in the Gaza Strip: namely, that long-term terror bombardment of Israel gets you economic and humanitarian projects funded by the United Nations and Western donors, and perhaps even a seaport and airport. The ceasefire would give Hamas five to ten years to continue amassing weapons, tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip, and preparing for its next war with Israel. Any ceasefire agreement will be perceived as a reward for Hamas-sponsored terrorism and violence against Israel. These negotiations will spur...

Fox News by Adam Shaw As the European Union decries America's restoration of Iran sanctions, the Islamic regime is rewarding Europe’s support by ramping up its terror operation on the continent -- allegedly plotting attacks against Iranian dissidents there and politicians who back them.The Trump administration restored sanctions on the rogue regime this week, a consequence of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). That move provoked a strong response from European leaders, who said they “deeply regret” the U.S. decision.TRUMP REINSTATES IRAN SANCTIONS, SLAMS 'HORRIBLE' NUCLEAR DEAL “The lifting of nuclear-related sanctions is an essential part of the deal,” E.U. High Representative Federica Mogherini, along with French, German and British foreign ministers, said in a joint statement, vowing to “protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran.” But the regime, while facing significant unrest at home over corruption and mismanagement...

Voice of America by Jamie DettmerIn an extraordinary breach of the Islamic State's culture of unquestioning obedience, an IS writer calling himself Ibn Jubayr has penned a series of five scathing articles leveling direct and unprecedented criticism at the militant group's leadership, according to a respected monitoring group.The articles come amid a growing number of dissident social media posts by apparent IS members, a stark change in a group where any suggestion of disobedience or criticism normally has been met with harsh punishment, including whippings, torture and often, execution.The latest articles, monitored last month by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), were published on the Al-Nasihah channel on Telegram, the heavily encrypted phone messaging and social networking application used by IS supporters to communicate with each other.Ibn Jubayr is believed to be a member of a dissenting circle of IS scholars and clerics, who have been sidelined by power...

Breaking 911 GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — During a multi-state operation led by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a series of criminal arrest warrants were executed Wednesday for 17 individuals connected to an alleged criminal conspiracy to exploit illegal alien laborers for profit, fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in Nebraska and Minnesota. In addition to these arrest warrants, authorities also served search warrants for worksite hiring violations at agricultural firms in Nebraska and Minnesota, and federal document search warrants at locations throughout Nebraska, in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota; Appleton, Minnesota; and Las Vegas, Nevada.  During this investigation, authorities identified employees who were subject to arrest for immigration violations and were unlawfully working at these businesses. These individuals have been illegally residing and working in the United States; they may also have been exploited as part of this alleged criminal conspiracy.  During the execution of these...

Jihad Watch By Robert Spencer Always, job one for the establishment media is to protect the image of Islam. “Nets Omit Islamic Ties in New Mexico Kidnapping, Starved Children Case,” by Nicholas Fondacaro, Newsbusters, August 7, 2018: As we continue to get updates on more gruesome discoveries and the squalor living conditions present at a New Mexico compound that included 11 starving children (ages one to 15) and the dead body of one child, one key detail had gone totally unreported by the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC): The ties to radical Islam. Last Friday, the Taos County Sheriff’s Office executed a raid on a makeshift compound in the New Mexico desert in the search for 4-year-old Abdul-Ghani, who was believed to have been abducted by his father 39-year-old Siraj Wahhaj in Georgia back in December. And according to the Sheriff’s Office, what they found was horrific, even “third world”… The...

The National Review Islamic Extremist Trained Children to Commit School Shootings at New Mexico Compound By Jack CroweAn Islamic extremist was training as many as eleven children to commit school shootings at a dilapidated compound in New Mexico, according to court documents filed by government prosecutors Wednesday.Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the son of a suspected co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, was training the children to use assault rifles before his compound was raided by authorities on Friday, CBS News reports.“He poses a great danger to the children found on the property as well as a threat to the community as a whole due to the presence of firearms and his intent to use these firearms in a violent and illegal manner,” prosecutor Timothy Hasson wrote in justifying his request that Wahhaj be held with out bail ahead of his trial. A judge complied with the request, though prosecutors...

Fox News by Travis Fedschun Chilling new images published in Spanish media Tuesday show ISIS terrorists smiling as they prepare explosives before last year's deadly attacks in Barcelona and a nearby resort town.The previously unreleased photos were leaked from the investigation into the van attack in Barcelona's Las Ramblas district and the vehicle and knife attack in the coastal town of Cambrils that killed 16 people on Aug. 17-18.ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks saying the perpetrators were “soldiers of the Islamic State."In one of the photos published by the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, one of the terrorists, identified as Youssef Aalla, can be seen smiling and posing with an explosive belt at a house in Alcanar, Spain. Authorities said at the time the terror cell used the house in Alcanar as a bomb factory, and were planning to set off bombs at high-profile targets, until a blast at the...

  by Douglas Murray  •  Gatestone Institute How expert are these two clerics at 'interfaith relations'? Well, they are so good that their main credential is their enthusiastic support for the murderer of somebody accused of 'blasphemy'. Despite criticism from Shahbaz Taseer... the UK government had no problem allowing into the UK these two men who, as Shahbaz Taseer said, 'teach murder and hate'. In the past year, the UK has banned a fair number of people from entering the country. It has, for example, barred the Canadian activist and blogger Lauren Southern. It has also banned the Austrian activist and 'identitarian' Martin Sellner. Whatever anyone's thoughts on either of these individuals, it is not possible to claim that either has ever addressed a rally of thousands of people which they have used to extol a murderer... Yet Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman has done these things – and yet has...

The internet creates more opportunities to become radicalized. McAfee Institute The internet creates more opportunities to become radicalized. It has become a huge place for terrorists to reach out to others and exploit them to their immoral behaviors. The internet has an “echo chamber” which is a place where individuals find their ideas supported and echoed by other like-minded individuals. The web also allows radicalization to occur without physical contact. Terrorists use the internet for the following purposes: propaganda, recruitment, training, fundraising, communication, and targeting.Propaganda:Previously, terrorist’s groups would have to rely on news outlets reporting their message to the world after an attack. Now, terrorist groups can easily post the message in its entirety on their own website and include a rebuttal to opposing views.Terrorist groups can portray themselves as victims seeking a peaceful resolution who were forced into acts of violence as a last resort. Websites also host videos...

By Katherine Lam | Fox News The three mothers of the 11 malnourished children found living in a filthy New Mexico compound were arrested and charged Sunday along with two men described as armed Muslim “extremists” after authorities raided the property in search of a 4-year-old boy.Jany Leveille, 35; Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, and Subhannah Wahhaj, 35, were arrested and charged with neglect and child abuse of the children. The three women, who were found at the compound in Amalia, initially refused to answer any questions. Siraj Wahhaj, 39, and Lucas Morton also face child abuse charges.Authorities raided the compound Friday as part of their search for 4-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who vanished last December. Abdul-Ghani’s mother reported her son missing after Wahhaj took the boy, who turned 4 on Monday, to the park in Clayton County, Ga., and didn't return, The Albuquerque Journal reported. She added the boy suffers from a...