Yet another set of articles in a major newspaper / magazine / etc. implies that the war against the West isn’t going well for Al Qaeda or at least not as well as Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen hoped 7 years ago, when they attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. We, the West, are winning while they, Al Qaeda extremists, are making increasingly more enemies. Additionally, Al Qaeda has been weakened by the war on terrorism and by its own actions. (more…)

PoliGazette’s Jonathan Wilson wonders what went wrong in the Middle East and what US policy should be. (more…)

When I first read the news that the United States government has called on its officials to stop referring to Islamic terrorists as “Jihadists” or “mujahedeen,” I thought to myself “that’s silly. Is this political correctness in action or what?” But after I had read the entire article at the AP, my opinion had changed dramatically: (more…)

Al Qaeda increasingly faces sharp criticism from once-loyal sympathizers who openly question its ideology and tactics (more…)

The Jerusalem Post reports that US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff said Tuesday that “[t]errorist groups are believed to be actively recruiting Western Europeans for possible attacks in Europe, or to use the continent as a springboard for strikes in the United States.” (more…)

Turkish Daily News reports that the European Court of First Instance “annulled yesterday a decision to place the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on the European Union’s terror list.” Experts said, however, that “the ruling does not prevent member states from blacklisting the terrorist organization.” (more…)

Kevin Sullivan on John McCain’s view on the war on terrorism: “While the McCain Doctrine seems to prioritize the hunting, capturing and/or killing of Jihadists, it doesn’t seem to lay out a broader strategy for reducing terrorism as a viable avenue for would be terrorists.” (more…)

Rasmussen Reports has a breaking poll up: you can’t read an article about it yet, but you can watch a video. If you watch the video, you’ll see Scott Rasmussen explaining that 47% of the American people believe that the US and its allies are winning the war on terrorism. Furthermore, the number of Americans who believe that the terrorists are winning has fallen “to the lowest level ever.” (more…)

It seems that, according to most, Senator John McCain made a major mistake when he said recently that Iran is supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq. After all, Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization, whereas Iran is a country run by Shi’ites. Reading the stories on McCain, then, gives on the impression that he knows as much about the different religious groups in the regions as George W. Bush did when he gave the order to invade Iraq. (more…)

The Dutch government and Parliament have decided to stay in Afghanistan until 2010. A few months ago, the Dutch cabinet already said that it wanted to prolong our stay in the Afghan province of Oruzgan, but now most other MP’s have agreed to stay in the war-torn country for a couple of years more as well. (more…)

Below the fold follows a videoclip of Keith Olbermann showing the latest GOP scare ad. The ad is about the FISA law, it’s trying to scare Americans into accepting broader powers for the US government. The Democrats are portrayed as soft on terrorism, and willing to put the American people into great danger. (more…)

One of the major battles in the War on Terrorism, is “the war of minds.” Both sides in this conflict try to win the sympathy of the masses, and then especially of the Muslim masses. Al Qaeda has used every propaganda technique known to mankind to spread it’s radical message and to influence the way Muslims in the Middle East think. The West has done the same. As it is, it seems that the West is - slowly but surely - winning this battle. (more…)

An Al Qaeda leader, the Saudi Jar Allah aka Abu Yasir al-Saudi, was killed Wednesday, by a guided missile fired from a US Military helicopter. “According to the military, al-Saudi conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including a Jan. 28 bomb attack that killed the five U.S. soldiers.” (more…)

The Turkish military has announced on its website that it has withdrawn all its troops from Iraq. According to the military, the decision to withdraw the troops wasn’t forced on the Turks by outside forces: they had simply accomplished their goals. According to Turkey, the threat the PKK posed to Turkish citizens has now been removed. (more…)

There’s some seriously bad news for Hillary Clinton: the race for the Democratic nomination is over. Why do I say that? Because Barack Obama isn’t debating her anymore, he’s now attacking McCain and defending himself against McCain’s attacks. The elections is now between these two men, HRC has become irrelevant. (more…)

Failing to act decisively - or at all - when in possession of intelligence about Osama bin Laden is perhaps Bill Clinton’s biggest failure as president and his longest-lasting legacy. 

Now, writing about the U.S. missiles that killed Abu Laith al-Libi, an al Qaeda commander, MSNBC says:

Having requested the Pakistani government’s official permission for such strikes on previous occasions, only to be put off or turned down, this time the U.S. spy agency did not seek approval. The government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was notified only as the operation was underway

(more…)

Dave Winer wonders:

What if you were a criminal President?

President Bush wants to give the phone companies immunity.

Who would you like to give immunity to?

What crimes are you willing to excuse?

Interesting question.  Here’s one answer:  If I were a criminal president, my wife might be running to be the Democratic party’s nominee in the 2008 election.

(more…)

The Associated Press (for Hillary) brings the news that Spain has arrested 14 terrorism suspects. The Gang of 14 are Muslim extremists and police say they were probably planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Barcelona. (more…)

The Daily Mail reports that “[a] computer nerd from Shepherd’s Bush, West London, became al Qaeda’s top internet agent, it can be revealed today.” (more…)

Mark Deli Siljander, a former Republican Congressman, “was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al Qaeda and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.” (more…)

The New York Times reports that, according to two former senior intelligence officials, “Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy.” (more…)

Steven M. Warshawsky explains at the American Thinker why he believes that Rudy Giuliani is the Republican candidate in the race. Read it in its entirety, conclusion:

My final scorecard on these five issues is as follows:

On the war on terror, Giuliani is the best candidate; McCain is a distant second. (more…)

I apologize for not posting much on the investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s death lately: I think that most of us - myself included - have been overly focused on the US elections. If one doesn’t search for other news purposefully, one has the tendency to believe that the only relevant thing happening right now is that the Obama camp accused Clinton of downplaying MLK’s significance and that Michigan is the center of the world… for now. (more…)

Via Outside the Beltway comes the news that “[t]he chief of the US military said he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been ‘pretty damaging’ to the image of the United States.”

Admiral Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters yesterday: “I’d like to see it shut down.” Asked why he wants it closed down he explained: “More than anything else it’s been the image — how Gitmo has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States.” (more…)

When it comes to foreign policy and especially the war on terrorism, John McCain makes a whole lot of sense. Wondering why I say that? Watch this video at Pajamas Media. Earlier today I linked to Giuliani on the War on Terror, now is the time for McCain’s conversation with Claudia Rosett and Roger L. Simon. (more…)

Pajamas Media’s - whose network we joined recently - Roger L. Simon and Claudia Rosett had the opportunity to talk to Rudy Giuliani about the war on terrorism. The conversation is party of PJM’s “War on Terror Conversations” series for which PJM will talk with, I think, all of the Republican candidates. You can watch the conversation (or read the transcript) with Giuliani by clicking here. (more…)

Al Qaeda nerd Adam Gadahn has called on Muslim extremists in the Middle East to receive American President George W. Bush with bombs, booby-traps and so on when he visits the region and he tore up his American passport, saying that it was symbolic gesture and that every person who’s compassionate, honest, moral, etc. should feel ashamed to carry such a passport.

After he destroyed it he said that he doesn’t “need it to travel” anyway. (more…)