Europe & UK: Vehicle Terror Attack Fears Raised

From the Press Association:
Police officers guard a van that crashed into a French Christmas market in Nantes on Monday (AP) 
Fears have been raised that Islamist extremists could launch opportunist attacks in crowded spaces over Christmas following three incidents in France in the past four days.

A van burst into a Christmas market in the western city of Nantes on Monday night, injuring 10 people before the driver reportedly began stabbing himself.

On Sunday night, in the eastern city of Dijon, a driver reportedly shouting "God is great" in Arabic ran down several people, injuring 13 before coming to a stop.

Those incidents came after an attacker knifed three police in Tours on Saturday before he was shot dead by one of the officers. The French government has denied any links between the attacks but announced plans to further raise security in public spaces, including the deployment of around 300 soldiers.

British security services have been in close contact with the French, according to sources quoted in The Times.

A senior Whitehall source told the newspaper the police focus, until the incidents in France, had been on terrorists opening fire with weapons in public space but now vehicle-based attacks had moved to the top of the agenda.

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the threat level in August against a backdrop of increasing concerns over hundreds of aspiring British jihadis travelling to Iraq and Syria to learn terrorist ''tradecraft''.

Fears of a terrorist attack on Britain's streets have heightened in the wake of the rise of Islamic State (IS), the extremist group that has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria and attracted thousands of foreign jihadists to its cause, including more than 500 Britons.

IS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani recently urged supporters to use all means, including their own vehicles, to try to kill westerners. A new Counter-terrorism and Security Bill, containing a range of powers including new orders that can block suspected British fighters from returning to the UK, was introduced to Parliament last month.

Young Boy Recites Song On Hamas TV: "The Jews are barbaric apes, the most evil of creatures"

France’s Wave Of Crazy-Terror Christmas Attacks

From the Daily Beast:
The French government would like people to believe that insanity and terrorism are mutually exclusive. But as we are seeing all over the world, one can serve the other.

PARIS—Three attacks in three towns in three days have spread terror across France. But were they the acts of terrorists? French President François Hollande is telling the French people they should “not lump them together.” Prime Minister Manuel Valls says that two of the three incidents were the work of deranged copycats, but don’t fit into a “classic terrorist logic.” And an adviser to the French government, speaking privately, tells The Daily Beast, “These are not lone wolves, they are crazy wolves.”

But these are crazy times, and as we have seen repeatedly this year, to think in terms of “classic terrorist logic” is to lose sight of the growing threat posed by random, terrorist-inspired chaos created at the hands of, yes, thoroughly deranged killers.

In just the last few weeks we have witnessed the siege of a coffee shop taken over by a wacko astrologer-Shia-Sunni-jihadi-swindler; a hatchet attack by a nut job in New York City, and a lone shooter in the Canadian Parliament.

In France, the death toll has been lower: One young man killed in the city of Nantes. But almost 30 people have been injured, and the terror effect is such that 300 extra troops have been added to the already extensive military and police presence in the cities where the attacks took place; cabinet meetings have been convened; appeals for calm are more common than season’s greetings.

Prime Minister Valls has sought to focus attention on the most recent attack, in Nantes, which is the one with the least obvious connection to ISIS-inspired terrorism. But the chronology of carnage leaves little doubt that the so-called Islamic State’s propaganda played a role provoking the would-be killers.

On Saturday, a 20-year-old named Bertrand Nzohabonayo, whose family comes from Burundi, screamed “Allah akbar,” or God is Great, stabbing and slashing three police officers in the Loire Valley town of Joué-lès-Tours before, finally, the cops shot and killed him. According to Le Monde, anti-terrorist police already knew his younger brother Brice as a potential terrorist threat. In August 2013, his mother had warned police that Brice was being radicalized and influencing Bertrand. On Dec. 16, Brice posted the black banner of ISIS on his Facebook page. On Dec. 18, Bertrand did the same. And two days after that, Bertrand set out to kill and be killed.

On Sunday, in Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, ordinary pedestrians and shoppers found themselves targeted by a man thus far identified only as Nacer Ben K. He, too, shouted “Allah akbar” as he drove around the city running people down in an incident reminiscent of some recent attacks in Israel. After police captured him, he reportedly claimed he was carrying out jihad to avenge the death of children in the Palestinian territories. But Nacer’s bona fides as a madman are well established, and French officials focused on those: He reportedly had made 157 visits to psychiatric wards since 2001.

On Monday, in Nantes, a 37-year-old loner with a history of psychological problems ripped up his well-tended little garden in a village nearby, then drove into the city in the evening and rammed his little white truck into shoppers at the Christmas market near a little chalet serving mulled wine. The man, identified by the French press as Sebastien Sarron, fatally injured one of the bystanders and hospitalized several others before taking a knife and plunging it into his own body several times without managing to finish himself off. He and four of his victims remain hospitalized. He did not shout “God is great,” but his random act served the purposes of ISIS almost as well. It’s the sheer randomness of the terror that takes its toll.

The government continues to call for calm while warning people to be on their guard. Many will simply stay away from crowds and stay home this Christmas Eve, which could be a very silent night indeed.

Australia Anti-Terror Police Arrest Two In Sydney

From BBC:
Australian police said they did not believe an attack was imminent

Counter-terrorism police in Sydney have arrested two men, charging one with possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack.

The other suspect was charged with breaching a control order.

The arrests were related to a series of counter-terrorism raids in September, officials said.

They come after Australia's prime minister said there had been heightened "terror chatter" since a cafe siege in Sydney last week.

That saw gunman Man Haron Monis, a self-styled cleric originally from Iran, take 17 people hostage in a cafe in the city centre. A 16-hour siege followed, during which two hostages and Haron Monis were killed.

On Wednesday, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said the man arrested on the terrorism charge, 20-year-old Sulayman Khalid, had documents that mentioned potential government targets.

"I am confident that we've disrupted the activity that they were planning," he said.

But he added: "There is nothing that indicates at all that [there were] any specific targets or time frame in relation to this particular activity at all."

Mr Khalid, who did not apply for bail, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The 21-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also denied bail.

Judges can issue control orders against persons of interest in criminal cases, imposing restrictions on them. The 21-year-old man had breached an order preventing him from accessing certain forms of telecommunications.

'Terrorist sympathisers'

After raids in Sydney and Brisbane in September, police said they had foiled a plot to "commit violent acts" in Australia, including a plan to behead a member of the public.

Police say 11 people have now been arrested and charged with terrorism-related offences since the start of the campaign, which began soon after Australia's terror threat level was raised to "high" for the first time.

Mr Phelan said the ideology of the group targeted in the raids was linked to that of militant group Islamic State, and that its members were accused of helping people travel overseas to fight with extremists.

After a meeting of the National Security Committee on Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there had been "a heightened level of chatter amongst people who we would normally think of as terrorist sympathisers".

"We don't know when and how an attack may come, but we do know there are people with the intent and the capability to carry out further attacks," he said.

Jordanian MP Hind Al-Fayez: "I'd rather set myself on fire than sign gas deal with Israel"

US Government Offering $5M Reward For Al Qaeda Leader Freed From Gitmo

From Fox News::
The Obama administration is scrambling to track down an Al Qaeda terrorist released from Guantanamo Bay years ago, offering a $5 million reward for information on him and placing him on a global terrorist list.

Ibrahim al-Rubaysh was originally released in 2006 by the George W. Bush administration and put into a Saudi Arabian "rehabilitation" program. However, al-Rubaysh returned to the battlefield and now serves as a top leader with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda affiliates.

The Pentagon, though, insists that it continues to take precautions before releasing prisoners.

Lt. Col. Myles Caggins, Defense Department spokesman for detainee policy, said more than 90 percent of detainees transferred under the Obama administration "have resumed quiet lives in various countries."

Al-Rubaysh, he said, was held at Guantanamo from 2002 and transferred in 2006.

"Since 2009, the Defense Department and five government departments and agencies conduct thorough security and intelligence reviews prior to transferring Guantanamo detainees," Caggins said.

Recent alerts from the State Department revealed how al-Rubaysh has reestablished himself in militant circles since his release.

A briefing posting on the department's Rewards for Justice website offers up to $5 million for information that "brings justice" to the former detainee. It says he has served as a senior "sharia official" with AQAP since 2013 and as such, "provides the justification for attacks conducted by AQAP." He also is involved in planning attacks, the posting says.

A statement released last week by the department putting him on a list of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" offered more details about his activities. The department said al-Rubaysh has made public statements, including this past August, "where he called on Muslims to wage war against the United States."

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch first reported on the reward offer for the former Gitmo inmate.

The group criticized the "laughable Saudi rehab program, which started under Bush and continued under Obama."

Judicial Watch wrote: "It turns out that al-Rubaysh is the poster child for the Saudi rehab's failures. He's a dangerous Al Qaeda operative based in Yemen and now, years after freeing him, the United States wants him captured."

Detainee transfers have continued at a steady clip, to countries all over the world, since the Bush administration. A total of 23 detainees have been released this year, and more of the 132 detainees left at Guantanamo are expected to be transferred in the coming months.

GOP lawmakers have raised security concerns, warning that some could return to the battlefield and endanger U.S. troops serving overseas. But the administration says the camp itself undermines national security and should still be shuttered.

1,000 Soldiers Deployed On French Streets To Combat Christmas Terror Attacks

From Breitbart:
More than 1,000 soldiers have been deployed on the streets of France for Christmas after a spate of suspected festive-season terrorist attacks across the nation have left many French citizens critical of the government’s denialism, and fearful of increasing violence.

The move stands in contrast to the official line of the French government that the attacks, in which the assailants were reported in all cases to have shouted the Arabic salutation “Allahu Akbar” as they commenced their rampages, had nothing to do with terrorism, and were completely unrelated. The government has come under fire from opposition parties for its denial of a terrorism link, with French social media users reportedly cheering on the straight-talking rejection by the Front National (FN).

The Times reports the comments of FN deputy leader Florian Philippot which have apparently got social media users excited: “This is obviously terrorism… I wish they would stop playing politics and ideology, telling us that there are systematically isolated acts by disturbed people”. France has the largest Muslim population of any Western European nation, and the FN believes the government is reluctant to say anything that could antagonise the millions of Muslims settled in the country.

Many of the large, suburban communities are known for their exceptional violence during the new year celebrations, indulging in mass car-burnings and rioting are predominantly Muslim. The French government euphemistically designates these areas “Sensitive Urban Zones” and earmarks them for special policing and spending programmes, but to ordinary Frenchmen they are better known as “no-go zones”, where emergency services dare not tread.

After the attacks of the past few days, which included a French-Burundian Muslim convert entering a police-station with a knife and attacking officers, and two ram-raid attacks with cars against street crowds, the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls addressed the nation on live television. He said: “The number of patrols will be increased during this [Christmas] period. 200 to 300 extra soldiers will be deployed in the coming hours”. These extra troops, who patrol the streets with fully-automatic assault rifles, will augment 780 already on patrol.

The attacks have highlighted the difficulty of pre-empting lone-wolf style attacks, and the frightening speed in which radicalisation can take place. The mother of police station knife attacker Muslim convert Nzohabonayo has reported her son only started taking an interest in religion, and wearing traditional Islamic clothes a week before the attack.

German Salafis Set Out To Convert Poles To Islam: ‘Our brothers and sisters are already preparing videos on YouTube’

From Jihad Watch:
The churches should formulate responses to this challenge. But they won’t, because to do so could harm the “dialogue.” Here is a report from Polish counter-jihadists:

One of the most well-known Salafis in Germany, a native German convert named Sven Lau, expressed willingness to spread Islam into Poland, claiming that his ‘brothers and sisters are already preparing messages in the Polish language which will be published on the internet’. The ‘brothers and sisters’ in his view are the Polish converts to Islam living in Germany. Lau brags that they are high in numbers and refers to them as ‘fervent believers’.

‘This is not a joke’, said Sven Lau, one of the most well-known Salafis in Germany, ‘We want to bring the message of the Merciful Allah to Poland. This is imminently possible. Soon there will be more Muslims among the Poles and the Italians than there are among the Germans.’

Sven Lau is a 34 year old German convert to Islam who has established his own mosque. He also launched the Sharia police patrol in the German city of Wuppertal last September, where he was telling the citizens off for not adhering to customs dictated by Shariah law along with another eleven radical Muslims. It is similar to the Sharia patrols already present in the UK and was the first occurrence of this kind in the country.

Sven Lau’s group claims is it capable of answering the questions which previously failed to be addressed by Christianity. A Polish convert to Islam, Yusuf, explains that before his conversion ‘none from among the Christians was able to successfully answer the questions I was asking.’

The German intelligence services estimate that the Salafis are the fastest growing extremist group in Germany. According to experts, the group will consists of around 7,000 members by the end of 2014. Burkhard Freier, the chief executive Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, admits that ‘these are dangerous people who recruit fighters for the Islamists in the Middle East, raising funds and collecting equipment or even preparing terrorist plots on the German soil.’

However, another German Salafi named Abu Adam shows a different face when interviewed by the Polish Catholic newspaper Fronda. When asked about potential the Salafi threat for Catholics, Abu Adam says that there is none. He claims that his religion rejects violence and that both Salafis and Catholics can cooperate successfully in the struggle against atheism and moral decadence. He also reassured that Jesus Christ is of great importance to Muslims worldwide: ‘Jesus is the Messiah and the son of Mary, a blessed man. We love Him as every Muslim is obliged to.’ Abu Adam stressed that ‘Catholics are the closest to us among all others’ and also insisted that Islam definitively rejects conversion by force: ‘There is no place for such things within Islam. This is totally forbidden!’

This announcement coincided with the recent trip to Poland by UK group Dawah Mission UK. The members of the group, accompanied with a Polish convert to Islam, Jakub Filip Wasilewski, made an attempt to spread Islamic message to Poles in Warsaw. Dawah Mission is a global Muslim initiative. Its activities revolve around promoting Islam by challenging people of other faiths and distributing informative leaflets.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza (large Polish daily left-wing newspaper), Poland currently has around 25,000 Muslims living within its borders. One in five is a member of the Tartar community, a Muslim community which has been present in Poland for around 300 years and does not show significant problems with assimilating to the mainstream society. The rest consists of Polish converts as well as Muslim immigrants from Middle Eastern countries.

Based on:

http://polskaniepodlegla.pl/kraj-swiat/item/325-islamisci-u-naszych-bram-chca-nawracac-polakow

http://polskaniepodlegla.pl/kraj-swiat/item/332-fronda-pl-atakuje-narodowcow-broni-islamistow

http://wyborcza.pl/1,75477,16996906,Niemieccy_glosiciele_radykalnego_islamu_szykuja_ofensywe.html#ixzz3JatMN4KZ

http://natemat.pl/127433,muzulmanie-nawracaja-na-polskich-ulicach-internauci-oburzeni-bo-wyznawcy-islamu-rozdawali-w-warszawie-ulotki

Terror Raids: Sulayman Khalid To Spend Christmas Behind Bars

From the Daily Telegraph:
Sulayman Khalid outside Bankstown court earlier this year. Picture: John Grainger

A MAN who made national headlines when he stormed off an Australian current affairs program after being questioned about the cancellation of his passport has been charged with terror-related offences.

Sulayman Khalid was one of two men arrested yesterday as part of an ongoing counterterrorism investigation into the alleged planning of a terrorist attack on Australian soil.

A police source said part of the terror plot related to a guerrilla war involving the killing of random people in the Blue Mountains.

Khalid, also known as Abu Bakr, appeared earlier this year on SBS’s Insight wearing a jacket emblazoned with the Islamic State flag and abruptly stormed off the set when questioned about his support for IS fighters and the revelation his passport had been revoked due to fears he would head overseas to fight.

“In order for me to be connected to the values here of Australia, the Australian government needs to stop picking on the Muslims here,” Khalid said on the show.

“Whenever you express your opinion of a tyrant, you are subjugated to being a terrorist or subjugated to being a national threat.”

The 20-year-old from Regents Park was charged with possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack.

He appeared via videolink at Parramatta Local Court this morning dressed in a T-shirt.

He was nonchalant and played with his shoulder length hair as his lawyer Adam Houda told the court he hasn’t applying for bail.

He will spend Christmas behind bars and reappear in court on February 18...

Fearing More “Mental Illness,” France Deploys Soldiers In City Centers

From Jihad Watch:
If the recent “Allahu akbar” attacks in France were all simply manifestations of “mental illness,” why are French authorities deploying soldiers in city centers? Are they afraid that the whole country is going crazy? Or are they well aware that these attacks were Islamic jihad attacks, despite their official denials?

“France attacks: Gunman ‘armed to the teeth’ arrested in Cannes as government deploys soldiers in city centres,” by Umberto Bacchi, International Business Times, December 23, 2014:
A gunman “armed to the teeth” has been arrested in Cannes as the French government pushes troops into city centres across the country, following two separate attacks that left one person dead and dozens injured.

A man carrying two loaded pump-action shotguns and a knife was detained early in the morning as he walked in the centre of the Mediterranean city, famous for its film festival.

Police officers spotted him on CCTV and proceeded to arrest him, local newspaper Nice Matin reported. His intentions were not immediately clear.

The development came as Prime Minister Manual Valls announced hundreds of extra troops will be deployed in numerous cities over the Christmas break, following a spate of attacks that has sparked fears of Islamic terrorism.

Ten people were injured and one has been killed after a 37-year-old man crashed his van into a crowded Christmas market in Nantes, western France.

A day earlier, another driver reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) ploughed his Renault Clio into pedestrians at several different locations in the eastern city of Dijon. He wounded 11 people.

The two nearly identical rampages followed a stab attack in the central town of Joue-les-Tours that saw a 20-year-old man slash the throat of a police officer and wound two others.

The assailant, identified as a Muslim convert named Bertrand Nzohabonayo, was shot dead by police.

Authorities said the drivers in Nantes and Dijon suffered from mental illness.

President Francois Hollande said there was no link between the three attacks, which Valls claimed were unrelated to terrorism.

Security has been stepped up across city centres in France in the wake of the attacks. Up to 300 troops have deployed across sensitive spots, such as busy commercial areas and transport hubs.