IGNORANCE & DENIAL WILL RESULT IN TERRIBLE WOUNDS

What do these KNIFE wounds suffered by an ARMED law enforcement officer have to do with Islam?

The wounds he suffered by misperceiving and miscalculating distance to his knife wielding attacker, because he was armed with a gun, are mild compared to those we will suffer as we continue to misjudge and deny the danger of militant Islam to Western civilization.

To continue to fall for the Islamic disinformation of being a religion of peace instead of it being the religion of body pieces.

Of an "ism" of domination, death and merciless punishment of matters we barely notice as a civilized world, even trivial things such the clothes we wear, but which in the mindset of 1,400 years ago on which Islam insists are approvingly punished by whipping, gang rape, severing limbs, gouging out eyes, cutting off tongues and other crude, dark ages methods.

Executions or punishments are frequently purposely done in public to frighten and discourage dissent and enforce obedience to Allah and to anyone who claims "to speak to and for Allah".

The officer was armed himself but forgot the golden rule of distance, distance, distance. If you have ever wondered why police shoot and kill someone "merely" armed with a knife when they have guns, just look at the photos below.

We continue to ignore that Islamic sharia (religious) law and tenets encourage RAPE and SLAVERY and promote it as a POSITIVE aspect of Islam - as an integral part of the religion not a side effect but a principal tool.

Like the victim of this attack, if we do not distance ourselves from the repeatedly stated and implemented customs of Islam and evaluate how to deal with it as not a "religion" for appeasement but as the virulent proponents of the "religion" as written in the Koran and the hadiths and tenets, then we shall not survive.

An expert on Islam has addressed (below the photos) how it depends on slavery and rape to implement its aims in a way so foreign to us in the West we cannot conceive of it as a reality.

But it is.

Stifled by our Western laws and evironments, it now tries to insert sharia law into our nations as the thin end of a wedge that will overthrow us and create a global Islamic caliphate. Something the Koran and hadiths envisage as a just aim - at any cost to limb and life of the infidels/kafirs.

Here's a visual aid to what we invite by denying and rejecting the dangers that political Islam aims at us and like the knife wielding attacker, fully inends to take out on us by our allowing them close to us.

SLASHED BACK




SLASHED SIDE




SLASHED UPPER CHEST


Bill Warner is the director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI) and spokesman for politicalislam.com.

CSPI’s goal is to teach the doctrine of political Islam through its books and it has produced an eleven book series on political Islam.

Mr. Warner did not write the CSPI series, but he acts as the agent for a group of scholars who are the authors. The Center’s latest book is The Submission of Women and Slaves, Islamic Duality.

Here is part of an interview with FrontPage Magazine:

Slavery is the fruit of Islamic duality.

Mohammed, the master of dualism and submission, used slavery as a tool of jihad because it worked. Mohammed’s life was infused with slavery. Slaves were the lifeblood of Islam. Mohammed, the white man, owned both male and female black slaves. His attitude was pure dualism.

The most disgusting thing about Islamic slavery is not that Muslims enslave others, but that we ignore it. The Muslims have been fed the Koran and the Sunna in their mother's milk. They are doing what is ethical according to Islam. In a strange way, Muslims are to be pitied. A Muslim is the first victim of Islam.

The criticism of whites because of their being involved in slavery is standard fare in the media and the universities.

Try to find a university that even teaches about the killing of 120,000,000 Africans for Muslims to profit from the 24,000,000 resulting slaves.

Blacks define themselves on the basis of slavery. They will not go beyond the white, Christian version of slavery. There is only one theory of history in the black community—the West African Limited Edition version of history.

Blacks will not admit the broad scope of slave history.

Hindu slavery? It never happened.

White and European slavery? It never happened.

Slavery on the East coast of Africa? It never happened.

A massive slave trade through the Sahara into North Africa? It never happened.

Black, eunuchs at the Medina mosque? It never happened.

This incomplete history of slavery is what U.S. and European taxpayers fund in the state universities.

How can black leaders ignore Islam's sacred violence in Africa?

Why aren’t the black columnists, writers, professors, or ministers speaking out? They are ignorant and in total denial. They are the molested children of Islam. They fear angering the Black Moslem Brotherhood and losing the victim status they have establsihed.

Blacks are dhimmis and serve Islam with their silence. There is a deep fear of Islam that makes them overlook and placate Islam.

Arabs are the masters of blacks.

One thing whites and blacks have in common is that their ancestors were enslaved by Islam, and both are too ignorant to know it.

Blacks and whites have a secret shame buried under the denial of being slaves inside Islam.

But the rest of the media and intellectuals line up as dhimmis, too.

One of the marks of a dhimmi under the fourth caliph, Umar, was that a dhimmi was forbidden to study the Koran.

The chief mark of dhimmitude today is ignorance of the Koran, the Sira and the Hadith. The ignorance of kafir intellectuals about Islam is profound.

They don't know about how jihad killed the 120,000,000 Africans, the 60,000,000 Christians, the 80,000,000 Hindus or the 10,000,000 Buddhists.

Our intellectuals do not know about the Tears of Jihad (detailed in all of our books). That is a lot of death and ignorance—270,000,000 dead. Our intellectuals don't know, don't care and don't bother. They deny.

University Islamic studies never mention the Islamic political doctrine.

The media discusses Islam in terms of political correctness, and multiculturalism. History courses don’t teach about the civilizational annihilation due to jihad.

Religious leaders placate imams in public gatherings and have no knowledge what the imam actually thinks of them. Political thinkers do not even know Islam as a political force.

The problem with this ignorance is that our intellectuals are unable to help us. They do not understand that Islam is a civilization based upon the ideal of dualism.

Islamic ethics and politics have one set of rules for Muslims and another for kafirs.

Our civilization is based upon the ideal of unitary ethics, the Golden Rule. We do not have two sets of laws and ethics, like Islam. Our intellectuals cannot explain what dualism has meant in the past or what it will mean for our future—civilizational annihilation.

Our intellectuals and the media have only one view of Islam—a glorious civilization. (As spoon fed to them).

They have created the "terrorist", a bogus term based upon ignorance. And the "terrorist" is not even a "real" Muslim, but an extremist fundamentalist.

All of these terms are based upon a profound ignorance of Islamic political doctrine and are intended as a false balm to soothe us.

Intellectuals cannot connect the dots of persecution of other intellectuals and artists today, such as Salman Rushdie, Theo van Gogh, the Mohammed cartoon riots, and Daniel Pearl.

This persecution is part of a 1400 year Islamic tradition of keeping all intellectuals and artists in line with the doctrine of political Islam.

But for our intellectuals, there is no history, no connection, no pattern, no doctrine of Islam. Their only doctrine is the doctrine of denial. These intellectuals write our textbooks. Then our tax dollars buy the books to feed the ignorance.

What explains the intellectuals’ silence and ignorance?

The enormous violence of jihad has produced the psychology of the “molested child” syndrome. Intellectuals fear, apologize for, and placate the Islamic abusers, ignoring the violence of the past.

Then they turn around and advise our politicians. The result is an ignorant populace who look to our intellectuals for guidance and find treachery and lies.

They forget that:

Islam’s stand on slavery is based on its political principles of submission and duality.

The principle of submission could not be clearer. By definition a slave is the most submissive of all people. You become a slave only when you have no more choices. A slave has completely submitted to a master.

The principle of duality is shown by the fact that Islam does not enslave Muslims, only kafirs (non-Muslims). Since only kafirs are enslaved, it assures that more of the world submits to Islam.

Islamic slavery is based on the Trilogy of the Koran, the Sira (Mohammed’s life) and the Hadith (the Traditions of Mohammed). All three texts say that slavery is permitted, ethical, desirable and a virtue. There is not one single negative word about slavery.

Slavery is seen as a process that brings kafirs to Islam. It is a virtue to free slaves, but Mohammed only freed slaves who submitted to Islam. If the kafir slave does not submit, then their children will. So given enough time, slaves convert to Islam. That is one of the reasons that Islam sees slavery as a positive.

Of course, there is another reason that Islam sees slavery as being so "good" and that is the money.

Mohammed and the other jihadists made a fortune out of enslaving kafirs. Mohammed used the money for more jihad. So slavery financed the spread of Islam and jihad from the beginning.

All morality in Islam is patterned after the example of Mohammed, the perfect being. Everything that he did and said defines what is permitted or “good”.

Mohammed repeatedly sanctioned forced sex (rape) with kafir females after they were captured. The Hadith clearly reports that he got first choice of the women.

In one case, he repeatedly demanded one particular woman for himself and swapped two other kafir slave women for his choice. So if Mohammed was involved in the rape of kafirs, then rape is a virtue, not a sin or error.

When Mohammed destroyed the B. Qurayza tribe, all of the adult male Jews were beheaded, so that no husbands were left. Mohammed then took the children and gave them to Muslims to raise as Muslims and he sold off the Jewish women as slaves.

We know from another story that the women were divided into sex slaves and domestic slaves. In one scene, a jihadist is trying to obtain a high ransom for a woman and he is told that her breasts are flat and her mouth is cold, so her value was less. In short, she was only good for work around the house, not in the bedroom.

The Hadith tells of another story where the Muslims used coitus interruptus to avoid impregnating the kafir sex slaves. The reason was purely for business. If the kafir sex slave was pregnant, then she was worth less money.

Islamic doctrine says that kafir women should not be used for prostitutes, only for the pleasure of the master.

When Mohammed attacked the Jews at Khaybar, many moral precedents were set. Sexual slavery received an entire set of rules. Muslims were not to rape pregnant or menstruating women until they had delivered the child or finished their periods. At Khaybar, Mohammed’s god Allah, announced that even married women were fair game for rape.

Mohammed only killed some of the Jews at Khaybar. The male and female survivors were needed to work the land as dhimmis.

(The original dhimmis were semi-slaves with no civil rights. Today, dhimmis are ignorant kafirs who apologize for Islam.)

Since Islam needed the men to work, husbands were left alive. That was the reason that the Koran said that in this case, even with the husbands looking on, it was good to rape the women.

Sexual slavery was not only fun and profitable for the Muslim men, but rape was a powerful tactic of war, then and today. The women are forced into submission to Muslim men and the husbands are humiliated.

Humiliated men are weakened men, so more kafirs were less able to resist Islam.

For some time Mohammed's favorite sex partner was a Christian slave from Egypt named Mary. One of Mohammed's wives caught him in some state of intimacy with Mary in the wife's bedroom and raised hell.

Mohammed promised to not do it again and moved Mary to her own apartment in Medina.

Everything that has been said up to now is not only history; it is Sunna (the example of the perfect pattern of action and morality found in Mohammed).

Rape is Sunna. Rape is not a sin. Rape is permitted and encouraged by Mohammed and the Koran. Islam is the only political system in the world that includes rules for rape and war. Rape is jihad. How good can it get? A Muslim gets to rape a kafir girl and get heaven credits. All jihad is a ticket to Paradise.

The most disgusting aspect of the Islamic rape of kafirs is not the rapes, but the kafir response. Kafirs become dhimmis by ignoring the rapes. I challenge you to find one, even one, mention of Islamic rape in the history books.

Islamic rape is more taboo than the N-word in the Mass Mainstream Media. At least the N-word is acknowledged to exist. Even unicorns exist in media fantasy. But Islamic rape is forbidden to even exist as a fantasy.

And to reach a fevered rant: our so-called "feminist" scholars are absolutely intellectually and morally bankrupt hypocrites.

They are traitors to our culture and a shame and a disgrace. They remain silent in the face of heinous crimes against women. They are arch-dhimmis when they refuse to speak of the Sunna, history and current rapes of our daughters, mothers, and sisters.

And our tax dollars support their evil in our public universities.

ISLAM CREATING HUGE PROBLEMS IN EUROPE

DENMARK'S "TROUBLES" EMERGING IN NEIGHBORHOODS NEAR YOU IN THE USA - JUST A MATTER OF TIME. Hispanic and other illegal immigration has already provided a foretaste with more limited violence - except for gangs like MS 13 - attached to it.

*This is rather long but well said and interesting. It is only the tip of the iceberg in Europe and likely elsewhere too. The Netherlands and Britain have had their problems along with the French.

Three years ago when my friend Dollie and I were laying over in Oslo, waiting to take the train across Norway to Bergen to board the Coastal Ferry for a trip up the coast and around the North Cape, we took a sightseeing walk and stopped in a sidewalk cafe for a drink. I immediately noted the large number of Muslims,
particularly the women in their Burkhas, and so I said something to the waitress about it.

She immediatelly responded without hesitation, Yes, there
are too many of them. It is now obvious that their govt's socialized
benefits have attracted a growing number of Muslims and they are finding it difficult to cope.

That has been particularly true in the Netherlands, France, and Britain as well as Denmark. Live and Learn. RC

We all know about what's happening in Denmark and Europe as well but what is written here reinforces the knowledge of the horrible march of the Muslim plague The situation in Denmark is no different than the rest of Europe.

We're too politically correct to put together our problem. Is this fear mongering or a recitation of facts?

Here is a preview of what is in store for America & the free world, if we don't pay attention to what is happening to our World!!!

Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom By Susan MacAllen

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark . But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen , one didn't see Muslim immigrants. The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens.

It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism - one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free
thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.

Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined
to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism.

How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets - all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves.

As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark 's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride
in Danish heritage and history.

The New York Post in 2002 ran an article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that
the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode. In the article they reported: "Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending."

"Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark 's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes."

"Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane." "Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem."

"Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark 's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark
in 40 years will be Muslim."

It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish
values and laws.

An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and the U.S. : some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark , a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade.

I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of
occupying Nazi soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.

In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration.

Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe . ( Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of "racism" by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.) If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark 's history, culture, and a Danish language test.

You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship. You must demonstrate an intent to work, and have a job waiting. If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark , you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.

You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen.

Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark , they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.

In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the
government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary.

In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. "We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration. The calculations of the welfare committee
are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now," he said.

A large thorn in the side of Denmark 's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no
bones about the new policy toward immigration, "The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference," she says, "There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come. "

And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, "In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others. We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech." Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone.

Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark , Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen , stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money.

When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark .

The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence
was once so scarce.

Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will
determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.

And meanwhile, Americans clamor for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole.

As we in America look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history.

We would do well to look to Denmark , and say a prayer for her future and for our own.---Amen

VIEW INSIDE THE IRAQ SURGE - Excellent

Inside the Surge


The American military finds new allies, but at what cost?
by Jon Lee Anderson


November 19, 2007


A man suspected of Mahdi Army activity is detained during a recent raid in Baghdad. General David Petraeus has singled out Ghazaliya,a mostly Sunni district in the western part of the city, as an area where the military has made progress. Photograph by Johan Spanner.


Joint Security Station Thrasher, in the western Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya, is housed in a Saddam-era mansion with twenty-foot columns and a fountain, now dry, that looks like a layer cake of concrete and limestone. The mansion and two adjacent houses have been surrounded by blast walls.



J.S.S. Thrasher was set up last March, and is part of the surge in troops engineered by General David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq. Moving units out of large bases and into Joint Security Stations—small outposts in Baghdad’s most dangerous districts—has been crucial to Petraeus’s counterinsurgency strategy, and Thrasher is now home to a hundred American soldiers and a few hundred Iraqis.



This fall, on the roof of the mansion, amid sandbags, communications gear, and exercise equipment protected by a sniper awning, Captain Jon Brooks, Thrasher’s commander, pointed out some of the local landmarks. “This site was selected because it was the main body drop in Ghazaliya,” he said, indicating a grassy area nearby. “There were up to eleven bodies a week. Most were brutally mutilated.”



CLICK ON TITLE/HEADING FOR FULL STORY IN THE NEW YORKER - great insight into what's going on. Worth the read.

IRAN AGENTS FOR BRITISH HOSAGES

The kidnapping of five British contractors - four security guards and a financial consultant - has long been suspected of being an Iranian-backed job. A recent report in the Times Online confirmed an Iranian extremist group has demanded the release of Qais Qazali, the leader of the Iranian-backed Qazali network, in exchange for the five Britons.

"Senior Iraqi government sources say their captors have promised they will not be harmed but any rescue attempt would endanger them," the Times Online reported. "They claimed the hostages will remain prisoners 'for as long as it takes' to secure the release of Qais Qazali, a former chief spokesman for the Shi’ite Mahdi Army."

The British have been unable to secure the release of their citizens as the US military has refused to release Qazali. "Talks aimed at freeing the hostages are believed to have reached deadlock this month after British negotiators said they had no power to free Qazali," said the Times Online.


Qazali is not a low level Shia extremist commander, but one of the most senior Iranian-backed terrorists captured in Iraq. Qazali, along with US Ali Mussa Daqduq, Mahmud Farhadi, and Azhar al Dulaimi are the four most senior Iranian Qods Force agents captured or killed in Iraq since Coalition forces began targeting the Iranian networks. US Special Forces captured senior members of Iran's Qods Force in Baghdad in December 2006 and Irbil in January 2007.


Iranian surrogates -- the Qazali and Sheibani networks, which are now collectively referred to as the Special Groups -- stepped up their attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces in January 2007.


Daqduq is a senior Hezbollah operative who was tasked by Iran to organize the Special Groups and "rogue" Mahdi Army cells along the lines of Lebanese Hezbollah. He is a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah, and commanded both a Hezbollah special operations unit and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s security detail.



Farhadi was the commander of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Ramazan Corps of the Qods Force. The Ramazan Corps is responsible for Qods Force operations in Iraq. As the Zafr Commander, Farhadi was responsible for all Qods Force operations in north-central Iraq, including cross-border transfers of weapons, fighters and money.


Azhar al Dulaimi is the mastermind and tactical commander of the complex attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala on January 20th as well as other high profile terror attacks in Iraq. Five US soldiers were killed during the Karbala attack and subsequent kidnapping attempt. Dulaimi was killed in a raid in Baghdad last summer.


In March 2007, Coalition forces captured Qais Qazali, his brother Laith Qazali, and several other members of the Qazali network. Qazali was a spokesperson and senior aide to Muqtada al Sadr and has been since identified as a senior member of the Special Groups.


The Qazali network conducted sophisticated operations against US forces at the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center, kidnapping and killing five US soldiers during the aborted operation. Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces have been heavily targeting these "Special Groups" and "Secret Cells" since General David Petraeus' briefing on the Qazali and Sheibani networks on April 26.


Recently, the US military and the Iraqi government have praised Iran for slowing the flow of weapons into Iraq. Attacks with the deadly Iranian made explosively formed projectile mines, or EFPs, have decreased dramatically and new caches are not being found. The US recently released nine Iranians held in Iraq, including two Qods Force officers detained in Irbil earlier this year.

NEW NON-LETHAL TECHNOLOGY

American commanders in Iraq are urging Pentagon chiefs to authorise the deployment of newly-developed heat wave guns to disperse angry crowds or violent rioters.

In pictures: How I was zapped by a heat wave gun

But the plea for what senior army officers believe could prove a valuable alternative to traditional firepower in dangerous trouble-spots has so far gone unanswered.

The ADS can target crowds from 750 metres away
Washington fears a barrage of adverse publicity in the suspicious Muslim world and is concerned that critics will claim the invisible beam weapons were being used for torture.

Now the US military directorate charged with developing non-lethal weapons, which has invested more than a decade developing the Active Denial System (ADS), has launched a concerted effort to convince both the public and its own bosses at the defence department of the device's merits.

"With brand new technology like this, perception is everything," said Col Kirk Hymes, a former Marine artillery officer who heads the directorate.

He added that tests were almost complete and the first ADS, also known as the Silent Guardian, could be deployed early next year if the Pentagon allows. The decision is so sensitive that it is expected to be made personally by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, who sent senior representatives to the demonstrations.

Raytheon, the company contracted to manufacture the prototype, has also received interest from several undisclosed European countries. The machine displayed last week cost about $10 million to build, but the directorate believes that the ADS can be put into production for $2-$5 million (£1-2.5 million) per device.

Col Hymes told observers at a demonstration that the system was a safe and effective alternative to plastic bullets, which can cause injury and sometimes death and are effective only up to 75 metres.
The heatwave weapon can, by contrast, target troublemakers from 750 metres. It works by dispatching high-powered radio waves from a vehicle antenna, similar to a satellite television dish, causing the molecules in a target's skin to vibrate violently, creating a burning sensation.

"We are pretty good at shouting and intimidating people and we have been perfecting the art of lethal warfare since Cain and Abel," he said. "But in places like Iraq we are re-learning that we need a response in the spectrum between shouting and shooting. The ADS provides this."

But he added: "This is not something we want to roll out and deploy and surprise people. We know we need to educate the public."

In fact the development of the weapon only became public after the Sunshine Project - a Texas-based group that campaigns against biological and chemical weapons - pushed for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

In pictures: The Telegraph's Philip Sherwell is zapped by a heat wave gun

The group's director, Edward Hammond, said: "If we are not prepared to use it as a crowd control technique on our own citizens, then we really shouldn't be using it in Iraq either."

Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon intelligence officer who is senior military analyst for the Human Rights Watch campaign group, was among those invited to feel the device's impact at a recent demonstration.

He said: "If I had the option of being shot by a bullet or this, I would choose this - but still not enough is known about it. This is novel technology. We're talking about bringing science fiction into reality and it's critical to have open discussion."

He added: "People understand what happens when you get shot with a gun, but with the "pain-ray" there's still uncertainty. When it's used, the military is going to have to deal with a public backlash because I'm sure there will be claims of medical problems by the people it's been used upon, real or not."

"We are talking about young soldiers having this in their hands. If we upset the civilian population in Iraq, whether by killing, by torture or by misusing this, it will have a strategic effect on the US's ability to execute effective operations."

Col Hymes said that all ADS operators were given a six-week training course that covered sophisticated crowd control techniques as well as handling the technology.

AL-MASRI FINALLY COMING TO USA - UNWILLINGLY

British Court OKs Extradition of London Imam
November 17, 2007
by Arthur Bright

A British court ruled Thursday that London Imam Abu Hamza al-Masri, Britain's highest profile Muslim radical, could be extradited to the US to face charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and providing material support to terrorists.

Although Britain is likely to comply, the US bid to extradite Mr. al-Masri still faces several challenges, namely concerns about his potential prison conditions in the US and whether such a move might violate his human rights.

Al-Masri, the firebrand Muslim cleric convicted last year in Britain of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, faces extradition to the US on 11 terrorism-related charges. That process, however, could take time, reports the British Broadcast Corporation.

City of Westminster Magistrates Court approved the extradition, but the decision has to be ratified by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Senior District Judge Timothy Workman ruled that Abu Hamza (al-Masri), who preached at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, had lost his legal arguments. The judge said he would send the matter to the Secretary of State for a decision on whether the former civil engineering student should be extradited.

The New York Sun writes that the British home secretary's assent to extradition is thought to be a formality. Upon her approval, al-Masri can be sent to America to face charges filed against him in New York in 2004.

Mr. Hamza (al-Masri) is charged with sending an associate to collect funds from sympathetic Muslims in New York that were used to send two co-conspirators to Afghanistan to recruit a 'front line commander' to direct acts of violent jihad in the West. ... The terrorism charges against Mr. Hamza relate to a period in late 1999 and early 2000 in Bly, Ore., when he is accused of trying to set up camps to train youths to commit violent acts of jihad and terrorism.

In April 2004 the cleric was the subject of an 11-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York. According to [then US Attorney General John] Ashcroft, between December 23 and 29, 1998, Mr. Hamza plotted to take Westerners hostage in Yemen and provided a satellite telephone to members of the Islamic Army of Aden, who carried out the kidnapping.

The Sun notes that four of the hostages, three Britons and an Australian, were killed when Yemeni forces stormed the kidnappers' hideout. A key point of contention in the extradition hearings has been whether al-Masri's incarceration in the US might violate his human rights, reports The Daily Telegraph (London).

Judge Workman was told that Hamza was likely to be housed in a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where his treatment would breach the Human Rights Act. Hamza was said to be in poor health with diabetes, raised blood pressure, the loss of sight in his right eye, poor vision in the left and the effects of the amputation of both forearms. A report from a former chief judge of the US Court of Appeals said supermax prisoners were 'locked down for 23 hours a day in small cells between 48 and 80 sq ft.'

The Independent (London) adds that if convicted of charges in the US, al-Masri could be facing a 99-year prison sentence in a 'supermax' facility. But Workman rejected those arguments, as he does not foresee al-Masri being held in such a prison indefinitely.

Judge Workman said that to hold Hamza... in such a regime for an indefinite period could breach his human rights, but he added: 'I am satisfied that the defendant would not be detained in these conditions indefinitely, that his undoubted ill health and physical disabilities would be considered and, at worst, he would only be accommodated in these conditions for a relatively short period of time.

'Whilst I find these conditions offensive to my sense of propriety in dealing with prisoners, I cannot conclude that in the short term the incarceration in a 'supermax' prison would be incompatible with his Article 3 rights.'

CNN reports that extradition could be several months away, as he cannot be sent to the US until all his avenues of appeal under British law are exhausted. If he is extradited, his US trial would interrupt the seven-year prison term he is currently serving in Britain. If he is convicted, his US sentence would begin after his British sentence is completed.

A British judge last year sentenced al-Masri to seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. The court convicted the cleric of possessing items including a 10-volume 'encyclopedia' of Afghani jihad, which the prosecutor described as 'a manual for terrorism;' the texts discussed how to make explosives, explained assassination methods, and detailed the best means of attack.

The cleric was also convicted of possessing video and audio recordings which prosecutors said he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred. Both non-Muslims and Muslims have condemned al-Masri's preaching, which include praising the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, calling al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a hero, and describing the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster as punishment from Allah because the astronauts were Christian, Hindu and Jewish.

CNN adds that al-Masri's followers include Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to light a bomb in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in the US in connection with the September 11 attacks. The Guardian notes that for all his condemnations of the US and the West, al-Masri's 'brazenness also helped - with his knowledge or otherwise - the [British] intelligence services.'

Following his conviction last year, it emerged he had repeatedly met MI5 and Special Branch officers. A former MI5 agent who infiltrated the Finsbury Park mosque said Hamza was allowed to operate by the security services as long as he did not threaten Britain's national security. Both the agent and a close associate of Hamza claimed the cleric was an unwitting informant on other extremists.

The Guardian adds that al-Masri claims he is not a man of violence, but rather he is solely a political advocate.

ANNUAL ISLAMIC PILGRIMAGE - THE HAJJ

Here's a link to an article about the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lifetime. It provides more information than what is generally reported. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flphajj1113pnnov13,0,201556.story.

Be advised that the 3 week period surrounding December 18 - 22 (dates of the Hajj) will be a period when thousands of U.S. Muslims will be traveling to Saudi Arabia. I have an acquaintance who is a commercial aviator.

He tells me that the logistics of moving some two million Muslims from all over the world to and from Mecca for the Hajj requires reactivating retired aircraft for all the special charter flights.

Those used to run charters from really backward third world nations will often be so fouled by the passengers....some of whom may have never used a flush toilet, that afterwards they are unfit for further passenger service. They will be stripped of seats and subsequently used only as air freighters.

Incidentally, this Hajj period may be a good time to stay away from crowded major malls. The absence of faithful Muslims just may provide a period during which terrorist attacks might be planned. Crowded malls have been identified as potential target sites.

This will be the first time in many years that the annual Hajj occurs during the Holiday shopping period. This happens due to the fact that Islam observes a twelve month calendar of 28 day lunar months, (336 days) so Hajj is 29 days earlier this year than last.

ANOTHER INSTANCE OF OUR INADEQUATE BACKGROUND CHECKS

If we cannot accurately check out people like Prouty how do we expect to penetrate the cover stories of infiltrators from Islamic Iran, for whom the Mullah regime goes to lengths to provide bullet proof cover before sliding them into the USA? Often via Canada.

Former FBI, CIA Employee Pleads Guilty to Computer Crime

Grant Gross, IDG News ServiceTue Nov 13, 5:00 PM ET

A former employee of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency has pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and accessing a U.S. government computer system to unlawfully find information about her relatives and the Islamic organization Hizballah.

Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, originally from Lebanon, also pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.

She was accused of using her fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship to gain employment with the FBI and CIA, and of using her position in the FBI to check on the information held on family members connected to Hizballah, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. government considers Hizballah a terrorist group.

Prouty faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge; one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for the unauthorized computer access charge; and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the naturalization charge.

Prouty “engaged in a pattern of deceit to secure U.S. citizenship, to gain employment in the intelligence community, and to obtain and exploit her access to sensitive counterterrorism intelligence,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said in a statement.
Prouty first entered the U.S. from Lebanon in June 1989, on a one-year, non-immigrant student visa, according to court documents.

After her visa expired, she remained in Taylor, Michigan, living with her sister. As a way to remain in the U.S., Prouty later offered money to an unemployed U.S. citizen to marry her, and on Aug. 9, 1990, she was married.

Prouty never lived with her fraudulent husband, but continued to live with her sister, the DOJ said.

In August 2000, Prouty’s sister married Chahine, the owner of La Shish. A month later Prouty used the FBI’s computerized Automated Case System without authorization to query her own name, her sister’s name and that of her brother-in-law, the DOJ said.

In June 2003, Prouty accessed the FBI system and obtained information from a national security investigation into Hizballah that was being conducted by the FBI’s Detroit field office

For full story go to:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20071113/tc_pcworld/139605

HOMELAND MALL ATTACK WARNINGS

Alan Note: this was probably a rehearsal for future operations. In addition to Jihadists like him, who have attack plans on our malls and schools (to get our children - kill or kidnap), there are estimates of SEVERAL THOUSAND suicide/homicide bombers already in place in the USA and various European countries, who will attack our malls, restaurants and "soft target" public places. As retaliation for any attack on Iran.

Don't be surprised to have IEDs (indeterminate explosive devices) going off on our freeways as they do in Baghdad. Most probably of Iranian manufacture, smuggled over our porous borders.

This may be the price we pay in civilian losses inside the USA for not allowing the same hostile Iranian inspired terrorists exploding nuclear, biological or dirty bombs on or at us instead of this "lesser" (by comparison only) penalty of those we lose as above.

Those who promote NOT attacking Iran and are against the border fence might wish to consider those two points of holding back till Iran has a larger arsenal of nukes (they already have a half dozen and allowing our border to leak so the explosivers come across as easily as they do today.

Are they willing to die for their idealistic beliefs? Like no profiling? They SHALL be tested and weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth after the fact will not bring the dead back to life. In fact they may likely be among the dead.

Stop analyzing foreign mentalities. mindsets and motives in American terms rather than in the terms of the cultures, upbringing, murderous religious tents of those you try to "protect" according to your upbringing and American social norms!

Last December, a Muslim man identified as Derrick Shareef, a/k/a Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef planned to set off at least four and possibly more hand grenades and improvised explosive devices at the CherryVale Shopping Mall in Rockford, near Interstate 90 and Interstate 39, about 75 miles north of Chicago.

Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef was arrested by FBI agents from the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force before he had the opportunity to set his plans in motion. The mall has about 130 retail stores and was one of "several potential targets" that also included a list of federal buildings as well.

According to authorities, he planned to detonate explosives at the shopping mall during the Christmas shopping season. Our details of that incident are at this link.

Today, another warning about plots against malls across the U.S. was issued for this holiday season in the form of a government advisory, with some governmental sources acknowledging to the Northeast Intelligence Network that there has been reliable intelligence obtained from recent investigations to indicate that shopping malls are in the cross hairs of Islamic terrorists who are already in the U.S.

According to both federal and state sources close to this agency, shopping malls are considered desirable targets for both the psychological effect as well as the economic damage such attacks could produce.

According to the sources closest to this agency, "no specific malls or shopping centers have been actually identified."

FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/2007mallwarning

ALSO CHECK OUT ANOTHER HOMELAND ARTICLE ON ISLAMIC TERROR TITLED "THE BIGGEST LIE EVER SOLD"

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Gilani21108

INTERPOL WARRANTS FOR FIVE IRANIANS AND ONE LEBANESE - WITH PHOTOS

Beirut - Interpol voted yesterday in Marrakesh , Morocco to issue red notices for five Iranians and one Lebanese member of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina in which 85 people were killed.


Lebanese Imad Moughnieh - only non-Iranian sought by Argentina. Served as intelligence officer for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. U.S. has put $25 million bounty on him. Allegedly involved in kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon in 1980s and suicide attacks on U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine base in Lebanon — bombings that killed more than 260 Americans. Whereabouts unknown.

Ali Fallahian - Former Iranian intelligence minister and midlevel cleric who graduated from seminary in Qom, Iran, widely seen as breeding ground of Islamic militants. Now on Experts Assembly, elected body responsible for appointing Iran's supreme leader. Has been accused of links to other attacks — slaying of three Iranian Kurd dissidents in Berlin and murders of five Iranian political dissidents; denies involvement.

Mohssein Rezaei - Commander of Revolutionary Guards during Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq. Retired from military and entered politics. Now serves on Expediency Council, body that arbitrates between Iran's parliament and Guardians' Council.

Mohssein Rabbani - mid-ranking Iranian cleric was cultural attache at Iranian Embassy in Argentina in 1994. Also has been implicated in 1992 terror bombing at Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. No longer in Iranian government.

Ahmad Vahidi - General in Revolutionary Guards, regarded as father of country's missile program. Believed to working in Defense Ministry, but little information publicly available.

Ahmad Reza Asghari - worked as third secretary in Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, but believed to have been linked to Revolutionary Guards. Not known whether he still works for Iranian government.

(Alan note: some reports place him at the Iranian Embassy in Syria)

LIBERAL BRITAIN STILL UNABLE TO COMBAT TERRORISM

New Leader, Same Government?

The Labour Party, headed by Gordon Brown since June 27 this year, has been in power for more than a decade. When Labour was elected in May 1997, Gordon Brown held the post of chancellor and was regarded as second-in-command of the government. Islamic extremism was on the rise in British campuses and mosques when Labour came to power, but little was done to extinguish it.

One of the government's first laws to be introduced was the Human Rights Act of 1998. This enshrined the terms of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights into British law, trumping all existing legislation. The 1998 Act has been one of the biggest obstacles in countering terrorism. Many foreign terrorists have been allowed to seek asylum in Britain, even though they have been convicted in their home states for acts of terror that have included fatalities. They have been allowed to spread their extremism in Britain, and even plot terror acts abroad, with impunity.

The Human Rights Act has allowed Afghan terrorists and their families to be allowed permanent residence in Britain, and has prevented the deportation of known and suspected terrorists to their home countries, lest they be subjected to torture - a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR. Individuals like Abu Qatada, once described as "Al Qaeda's ambassador in Europe" remains in detention in Britain. Yasser al-Siri, convicted of terrorism and causing death in his native Egypt, walks free in Maida Vale, West London.

In November 2005, the Terrorism Act of 2006 was still undergoing review in the House of Lords (parliament's upper house). Four clauses of the Terrorism Act were opposed by the Association of Chief Police Officers. The controversial clauses were:
Amending human rights legislation to enable easier deportations
Making the glorification of terrorism (including acts of terror outside the UK) an offense

Automatically refusing asylum to anyone linked to terrorism anywhere

Banning Hizb ut-Tahrir and successors to the group Al-Muhajiroun
The only one of these clauses to remain when the terrorism law was finally passed was the offense of glorification of terrorism - Schedule 1, section 1 (3) of the Act. The 2006 Terrorism Act introduced penalties for the first time for engaging in terrorism training, either at home or abroad.

Even though the Human Rights Act 1998 protects the rights of terrorists and other criminals who are not even British citizens, a recent legal ruling declared that old people living in private care homes are not protected by the Human Rights Act.

In this week's Queen's Speech, outlining bills to be introduced during parliamentary session, a new Terrorism Act was mentioned. In all the proposed legislation produced by Gordon Brown's government, there are no reported plans to decrease the terms of the Human Rights Act to make deportations of terrorists or criminals easier, nor are there measures to extend the Act to protect vulnerable elderly people in private nursing homes.

The Queen's Speech was widely expected to show Gordon Brown's promised "vision" for Britain. Various commentators have condemned the "lack of vision" in Brown's planned legislation.

When a major terrorism trial came to its conclusion on April 30, 2007, five individuals were given life sentences for plotting bombings on the UK mainland employing ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The most damaging evidence, which eventually secured convictions, was that produced by secret surveillance by MI5. Bugs had been placed in an apartment belonging to the cell's ringleader, Omar Khyam, and also in his car.

Even though secret electronic and video surveillance evidence is legally acceptable in a British court of law, evidence gained by phone-tapping is not allowed. For decades, successive U.K. governments have legally authorized phone-tapping of individuals. The majority of phone-tapping is enacted through the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Click on link below for full article:

http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003903.html

DETAILS OF ATTACKED SOUTH AFRICAN NUCLEAR SITE

Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center 25°48'S 27°54'E
Church Street Extension West
P.O.Box 582
PRETORIA 0001
Republic of South Africa


The Atomic Energy Board was founded in 1948, and in 1961 the board moved from Pretoria to its existing site at Pelindaba near Hartbeespoort Dam approximately 30-35 km West of Pretoria. In the mid-1960s the South African nuclear weapons program moved from downtown Pretoria to the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center.

"Pelindaba" is derived from the words pelile meaning "finished." and 'indaba' meaning "discussion".

The Pelindaba site consists of 2300 hectares of which around 54 hectares are building space.

This AEC site includes the Safari-1 research reactor, a hot cell complex, a waste disposal site, and conversion and fuel fabrication facilities.

Facilities at Pelindaba include: (click on link below)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/rsa/pelindaba.htm

FEWER PAKISTANI TROOPS AT INDIAN BORDER

NEW DELHI — For the first time in 60 years, Pakistan has considerably reduced the number of troops along the heavily guarded border with India.

The matter has come up in the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Turmoil in Pakistan and unrest in its western areas, have resulted in Pakistani troops being pulled away in large numbers from the border areas adjoining Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Reports quoting intelligence agencies said here yesterday that the aggressively positioned eastern frontier areas adjoining India have become extremely thin. Pakistani troops that otherwise are positioned to counter Indian forces, have been moved out to Waziristan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the western borders, reports said.

Intelligence officials have been quoted as saying that strain is starting to tell on the regular Pakistan army with tensions mounting in the north west frontier. “The very sign of pressure building up against Pakistan is that their forces which never compromised on its eastern border have been moved out leaving the border areas along India lean and lanky,” said top officials.

Some 38,000 troops from key border installations have been repositioned, the Caninet Committee has been told. It is said as many as 15 Infantry Brigades of Pakistan army have been repositioned on the border areas of north west frontier to fight Taleban.

Many reserve troops and units that were on duty on the borders at Indo-Pak Line of Control have been moved out. Even soldiers from the elite strike corps that are trained to slice into India in the event of war along with reserves with the army GHQ in Rawalpindi have been mobilised. However, this doesn’t indicate that Pakistan’s eastern border has been left totally unattended.

The thinning of troops indicate that Islamabad is quite apprehensive about internal developments more than any untoward events unfolding with India. Officials were quoted as saying that Islamabad isn’t worried with New Delhi that has seemingly been sympathetic with the situation in its neighbour that forced President Pervez Musharraf impose 'emergency' last Saturday.

“For them the priority is surely the western flank that has brought them more trouble as of now. With Indo-Pak peace process still on, Islamabad can at least trust its new found camaraderie with New Delhi,” officials said. Latest inputs have shown that the Mangla-based Army Reserve North (ARN) and Multan-based Army Reserve South (ARS) too have been repositioned, said Indian Express newspaper.

“They have been dispatched to Peshawar or Quetta for deployment along the troubled Afghan frontier. Units from the Force Command Northern Area (FCNA) that controls Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir region and forces from the dual-role XI Corps in Peshawar — tasked with defending the Afghan border have also been moved to fight the Taleban,” said the report.

The reports quoting valid details, point out that written instructions were sent by Pakistan Army GHQ to all formation commanders to determine the quantity of forces each unit could relieve for deployment along the Afghan border and even the hinterland. After that a classified list of ‘extra troops’ was drawn up by GHQ based on an internal audit that was carried out by all formations.

Top US-based defence analysts watching developments in India and Pakistan, have warned that this pressure on Pakistani armed forces could lead to an ‘abnormally high percentage of Pakistani troops on active duty’ — a factor that is dangerous, as it can ‘crack open’ the army against President Musharraf himself.

“Intelligence data says that out of the 66 Infantry Brigades (about 1.65 lakh troops) in the Pak army, 33 brigades are currently on active duty. Of these, 18 brigades (45,000 troops) are deployed for counter-terror operations. With half its troops committed to active duty, the army is finding it hard to rotate and relive formations,” said reports.

“It is a major operational constraint. In the event of war, the whole army gets mobilised but in an ideal scenario, one-third of the troops should be on duty, while the rest are in transit or in a peace area. In long term, it will get increasingly difficult to manage the already strained forces,” top officials were quoted as saying.

On this scenario, strategic affairs expert Stephen Cohen has pointed out that “the (Pakistani) army might lose its coherence. It is a multi-ethnic army, derived from the old British Indian army, and from time to time it, like its predecessor, has had ethnic-based mutinies (the most notable being the revolt of the Bengali elements of all three services in 1970).”

“At present, about 18 per cent of the Pakistan army are Pushtuns or of Pushtun-origin. There are reports of officers refusing to attack targets, and the astonishing case, still unexplained, of nearly 300 officers and jawans surrendering to the militants in Waziristan — where they are still being held hostage,” Cohen wrote for Brookings Institution explaining that America was in for a tough ride with developments in Pakistan.

SURGE DEFEATING THE TERRORISTS BUT NOT OUR NEWS MEDIA

To all those who said the “surge” in U.S. forces in Iraq was doomed to fail, a look at the latest results should be instructive, if not humbling.

Start with American military casualties. For October (36 Americans killed in action), they were the lowest for any month since February 2004, more than three years ago. U.S. casualties have now declined for five consecutive months even as American forces press the fight against al-Qaeda-in-Iraq terrorists and move out of their mega-bases to operate from security outposts in Iraqi neighborhoods.

Steadily fewer American soldiers killed or wounded is a measure of a weaker enemy now in retreat – in fact, an enemy being defeated – plus dramatically increasing cooperation from Iraq's civilian population.

This latter point is vital, on both military and political grounds. As security expands and Iraqis consequently feel safer from retaliation by terrorists and sectarian extremists, their willingness to cooperate with U.S. and Iraqi government forces is growing accordingly. A major reason that al-Qaeda-in-Iraq terrorists are now losing is because Iraqi civilians are tipping off coalition forces about the locations of roadside bombs, arms caches and terrorist cells.

Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, deputy to Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus, gave these totals in a briefing last week for illegal arms, ammunition and explosives recovered in just the last two weeks of October:

“Over 37,000 pounds of explosives, a thousand gallons of nitric acid used to make homemade explosives, over 2,000 artillery rounds and over 500 rockets, 136 assembled explosively formed penetrator IEDs (improvised explosive devices), along with 359 copper discs used to make more EFPs, and hundreds of rifles, grenades, anti-tank weapons and suicide vests.” Odierno attributed these arms captures largely to tips from local Iraqi civilians."

The death knell for any insurgency or terrorist movement sounds when the civilian population that these killers claim to represent begins turning them in to the security forces.
Next, consider the numbers and trend lines for Iraqi civilian deaths. This is a core indicator not only for moral and humanitarian reasons but because protecting Iraq's civilian population is a central goal of Gen. Petraeus' new counterinsurgency strategy.

Iraqi civilian deaths are down more than 60 percent since their peak last December, from 3,000 that month to just over 700 in October. That's still too many, of course, but in a nation of 25 million people beset with sectarian violence and terrorism, a two-thirds drop in civilian deaths is a remarkable achievement.

As with U.S. casualties, the trend line for Iraqi civilian deaths is steadily declining, particularly since the surge offensives aimed at clearing and holding strategic population centers gained momentum this past summer.

Securing greater Baghdad against terrorist attacks is a surge priority. Results? The incidence of mass-casualty terrorist attacks (truck bombs, car bombs and the like) in Iraq's capital city is down 75 percent in recent months.

The second-ranking surge objective was pacifying Anbar province, formerly the heartland of the Sunni insurgency against U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies. A year ago, Anbar was suffering more than 300 enemy attacks and hostile incidents per week. The number for the last week of October all across Anbar, Iraq's largest province, was fewer than 30.

Overall, the declining numbers of terrorist attacks and security incidents represent, as Gen. Odierno noted, “the longest continuous decline in attacks on record.”

Credit for these impressive, even stunning, gains in Iraq is irrefutably attributable, first, to the surge's 30,000 additional U.S. troops and Petraeus' new counterinsurgency strategy. Without these essential reinforcements and a wholly new strategy, the American mission in Iraq would be where it was last December – a failing effort staring at defeat.

Instead, al-Qaeda is on the run and losing, the main Shia militias are respecting a truce with coalition forces, and the Sunni tribal sheiks in Anbar and Diyala provinces and elsewhere have joined U.S. forces against al-Qaeda. Sectarian reconciliation, the ultimate political key to peace and security in Iraq, remains unfulfilled at the national level but is gaining ground locally under U.S. tutelage.

Acceptable levels of security and stability define the road out of Iraq for U.S. combat forces. The surge's success brings that day closer.