Jihad Jack, or Jack Thomas as he was previously known, was convicted in Australia for funding Al Qaida and gave an interview after the conclusion of the trial. In the interview, he explained that Osama Bin Laden prefers hugs to kisses.

Bin Laden was “very polite and humble and shy. He didn’t like too many kisses… he didn’t mind being hugged but kisses he didn’t like and he just seemed to float… across the floor,” Thomas told ABC. (source)

Jihad loved Islam, “but I really love my beer” therefore there was a dilema. He ended up traveling to Afghanistan where he met Bin Laden three times. Bin Laden specifically wanted to recruit a white Australian to launch attacks in Australia. Jihad claims he would not launch an attack within Australia and he simply “wanted to go home” which was why he accepted a false passport from Al Qaida.

Jihad though is a troubled man who had a hard childhood. He loved ballet, but he was told he was too stocky. Before leaving for Afghanistan, on a whim I suppose, Jihad was a chef and a member of a punk rock band.

The father of three claims he is just naive. Yeah, he’s naive, and stupid. His first mistake was changing his name legally to Jihad.

More good news this morning, this time from Saudi Arabia:

A 2-hour firefight with Saudi security forces ended in Riyadh Monday with five men suspected of trying to blow up an oil refinery dead.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said two simultaneous raids were conducted. In one, one suspect was arrested and was being questioned, while in the second, an Interior Ministry statement said: “All five were killed after an intense exchange of fire.”

A large quantity of arms and ammunition was also seized from the villa, the BBC reported.  “We think all the men involved had something to do with the Abqaiq attempt,” al-Turki said. [Source]

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Guards Foil Suicide Car Bomb Attack at Saudi Oil Facility

Justice has been served in Yemen:

SAN`A, Yemen — A firing squad on Monday executed an Islamic militant who killed three American missionaries in a south Yemen hospital in 2002, Yemen’s official Saba news agency reported.Abed Abdul Razak Kamel (right) was shot in the central prison of the southern Ibb province as prison, police and judicial officials watched, the agency reported.

Kamel had been convicted of opening fire on a staff meeting at a Baptist hospital in the southern town of Jibla in December 2002, killing obstetrician and surgeon Martha C. Myers, 57, hospital director William Koehn, 60, and purchasing agent Kathleen A. Gariety, 43 President Ali Abdullah Saleh had approved the death sentence.

Yemeni officials have said that Kamel may have been linked to the al-Qaida terror network headed by Osama bin Laden, who has ancestral roots in Yemen. Police found bin Laden audiotapes at Kamel’s house. [Source]

Background from a 2002 CBS report is here.

From an editorial in the New York Times concerning the Danish cartoons of Mohammed:

It is time for moderate Muslims to abandon the illusion that they can placate the Islamists by straddling the fence. It is they who must explain to their people that the cartoons were an isolated incident, and not the face of hostile crusaders. It is they who must make it clear to their people that blowing up mosques, beheading hostages and strapping on belts of explosives are far, far greater evils than a few drawings in a distant paper. They must do so because their future is at stake — not Denmark’s.

Tough words from the NYT and words I agree with. What though did the New York Times run about the cartoons? An article using a picture of the Virgin Mary made out of elephant dung to depict the Danish cartoons.

Words are great, but they don’t mean anything if you can’t back up what you say. The New York Times only talks, but they certainly don’t walk . . . unless it is on the very same fence they criticize.

Hat tip to LGF

The Washington Post has an amusing article on the reaction to the port deal.  The article specifically cites the White House’s “delayed response” to criticism.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, an outspoken liberal Democrat from New York, two weeks ago began publicly denouncing a deal to let a Middle Eastern firm take over terminal operations at six U.S. seaports. From the other end of the political spectrum, even more outspoken conservative radio host Michael Savage was doing the same — and recruiting Republican lawmakers to his cause.

To anyone listening, it was clear that President Bush had a problem on his hands. But Bush was not listening. And his political team had its attention elsewhere. By the time they noticed, Bush’s problem had grown a lot bigger.

Two weeks ago?  Was there anything more important to discuss two weeks ago than this port deal?  I would say no, but that’s because I am not a journalist therefore I didn’t cover the Cheney hunting accident with drool running down my chin.  Red or purple drool mind you.

What’s been very interesting to watch, and this WaPo article sums it up quite nicely, is how the media has reacted to White House reactions.  Cheney’s response to the hunting accident was slow, or so the media told us, and by the time Cheney opened up his mouth the media had no other logical conclusions to make than to suspect there was a massive cover-up.  No, not Chappaquiddick-esque, but a cover-up of a delayed response.

(more…)

Last week:
Hamas Terrorists Vow to Drink the Blood of the Jews

This week:
Hamas: We’re not lovers of blood

The anti-Semitic and anti-US film “Valley of the Wolves” which stars two Hollywood actors Billy Zane and Gary Busey, is playing to sold-out audiences in Germany’s 2.5 million-strong Turkish community:

Valley of the Wolves, by the Turkish director Serdan Akar, shows crazed American GIs massacring innocent guests at a wedding party and scenes in which a Jewish surgeon removes organs from Iraqi prisoners in a style reminiscent of the Nazi death camp doctor Joseph Mengele.

The production went on general release in Germany a fortnight ago and has had full houses ever since. More than 130,000 people, most of them young Muslims, saw the film in the first five days of its opening. At a packed cinema in a largely Turkish immigrant district of Berlin last week, Valley of the Wolves was being watched almost exclusively by young Turkish men. They clapped furiously when the Turkish hero of the film was shown blowing up a building occupied by the United States military commander in northern Iraq.

In the closing sequence, the hero is shown plunging a dagger into the heart of a US commander called Sam, played by Billy Zane. The audience responded by standing up and chanting “Allah is great!” [Source]

The largest movie cinema in Germany, Cinemaxx, has dropped the film from their theatres. More background from the Washington Post.