Was the murderer of Dutch filmaker Theo Van Gogh, Mohammed Bouyeri, incited towards his act of terrorism?  It’s a no-brainer answer, “yes,” but who incited him?  That’s the question Radio Netherlands poses, and the glares are firmly set upon Samir Azzouz, the imam of the as-Sunnah mosque in The Hague.

During the ongoing trial of another Dutch terrorism suspect, Samir Azzouz, it’s emerged that Imam Fawaz of the as-Sunnah mosque in The Hague gave a sermon condemning Theo van Gogh just a few weeks before his murder. A recording of the sermon exists and in it the imam is heard uttering a curse against the Dutch director for his film Submission, which is critical of Islam. The film had been shown on television shortly before the sermon.

In the recording of the sermon, Imam Fawaz calls Theo van Gogh a ‘criminal bastard’ and beseeches Allah to visit an incurable disease upon the filmmaker. He also condemns former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was involved in writing the script for Submission. The imam asks Allah to make Ms Hirsi Ali go blind and give her cancer of the tongue and brain.

Seems like a pretty clear cut case of incitement, but a professor of Islamic Law, Ruud Peters, doesn’t believe so.

“I have a couple of arguments for that – the most important is that he [Imam Fawaz] says, ‘the people who have insulted the Prophet Muhammad should die through the hands of God’ – he was very specific in that… he says, ‘leave it to God’.”

“I found no clue that [Imam] Fawaz had had any impact on him. On the contrary, we know that already more than a year before he killed Van Gogh, that he… deliberately turned away from the mosques, the […] mosques which are considered to be radical.”

Question: Isn’t it radical Islamists who argue for jihad whom emulate Muhammed, or at least how they see him as?  Those who carry out the heinous acts of murder feel they are doing Allah’s work, and the divine inspiration comes from multiple sources including the very Islamists preaching this hatred.

But is it enough to legally charge Fawaz?  I don’t know as I am not a lawyer, but it does represent yet another glaring example of the radicalization of some mosques whose leaders use their pulpit to incite acts of hatred.

HT Jihad Watch

A study conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found an overwhelming bias towards Democratic candidates in U.S. media. Quite the shocker, huh?

The study found that three out of four evaluations of Democratic candidates’ chances of winning — such as sound bites — were positive, compared with one out of eight for Republicans. Coverage has been dominated by two major themes: the effects of the Foley scandal, and the impact the Bush presidency is having on the party’s congressional candidates.

The Foley scandal produced 59 stories alone, compared with 33 on Iraq and 31 on terrorism/national security issues. “What’s hurting Republican candidates is the media’s focus on two non-candidates: Mark Foley and George W. Bush,” says center director Robert Lichter.

Tell me again why Democrats support the Fairness Doctrine? Is it because they believe forcing all media outlets to present both sides of the argument would help their cause or because they just want increased governmental control?  Reporting on polls such as this one is yet another example.

It’s fusilli media!  Why fusilli, Jerry?  Because you’re silly.
Me? I’d just be happy if the media as a whole relegated politics to the back stage and focussed on why we’re actually fighting against radical Islam. That is if they can resist the urge to run Islamic Army of Iraq propoganda using an “intermediary” as opposed to just surfing the Internet to find the snuff videos. The American public, and I daresay all publics at large, are woefully uninformed as to who the enemy is and why they are an enemy to all freedom loving individuals.

A report in The Journal News indicates dead voters have continued to vote long after they took their last breath.

A new statewide database of registered voters contains as many as 77,000 dead people on its rolls, and as many as 2,600 of them have cast votes from the grave, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal computer-assisted analysis.

The Journal’s analysis of New York’s 3-month-old database is the first to determine the potential for errors and fraud in voting. It matched names, dates of birth and ZIP codes in the state’s database of 11.7 million voter registration records against the same information in the Social Security Administration’s “Death Master File.” That database has 77 million records of deaths dating back to 1937 . . .

The numbers do not indicate how much fraud is the result of dead voters in New York, only the potential for it. Typically, records of votes by the dead are the result of bookkeeping errors and do not mean any extra ballots were actually cast.

At least the dead vote in New York too, otherwise zombie voters in the state of Washington might feel lonely.

The son of convicted terrorist Abu Hamza, previously in prison in Yemen for plotting a “bombing campaign,” somehow managed to get a job in London’s Tube.  London Mayor Ken Livingstone said he was glad Mohammed Kamel Mostafa was working and didn’t have reservations about him working in a known Al Qaida target.

A Tube Lines spokesman said: “Tube Lines can confirm that the individual in question was employed by one of our contractors. The contractor has confirmed that he met the relevant employment requirements of London Underground and UK legislation and that his pass was issued by an accredited supplier.

“Under the requirements, Tube Lines and its contractors are required to validate the probity of the people they employ, in terms of competence and right to work in the UK. Tube Lines requires all employees to declare convictions or charges against them, as does the contractor in question.”

Simply amazing.

U.S. intelligence believes advanced communications systems made for the Iranian military have made their way into Iraq, some of which was used by Hezbollah in their war against Israel.

“We believe that the Hizbullah war was used as a testing ground for a range of equipment and some of that was brought to Shi’ite militias over the last few weeks,” an official said.

The U.S. Army has expressed concern that the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-sponsored Shi’ite militias have received advanced communications equipment. Officials said the equipment was designed to intercept and jam U.S. military communications.

“We have seen some evidence that the Mahdi Army might have intercepted our communications during operations in Sadr City,” an official said. “At this point, we can’t be sure.”

Iran is at war with the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Why isn’t the U.S. at least diplomatically at war with Iran?

Elsewhere in Iraq, the cameraman of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured by Iraqi soldiers.  Documents and videos were found with the cameraman, but what those are is anyone’s guess at this point.

Senator John Kerry at Pasadena City College (video HERE):

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq. (source)

Newsflash. There are intelligent United States soldiers and there are intelligent U.S. soldiers in Iraq. It’s a volunteer force, something Kerry has never seemed to understand. That is, it’s a volunteer force until Senator Rangel decides to implement a military draft like he’s called for before.

Senator Kerry voted for the war in Iraq. During the first Democratic primary debate, Kerry was for the war and faced anti-war sentiment from Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich. Dean was allegedly way ahead in the polls at that time. Kerry, always wanting to be the president, switched from pro-war to anti-war. He voted against funding the soldiers he sent to war, later arguring he voted for the funding before he voted against it. He was, once again, pro-war during the 2004 presidential election.

Does anyone actually know where this man stands, outside of secret meetings with the enemy before advocating our enemy’s line in front of Congress? Kerry will continue to hear about it too.

He has a long history of such remarks.

Former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

The arguments for and against the veil will rage on, but what increasingly alarms me is the emergence of a post 9/11 generation of young women in the West who are out to make a statement by wearing the niqab. They enjoy all the western freedoms but choose to flaunt the veil. They are the female equivalent of the radical young men who travel to Pakistan and come back wanting to blow up trains.

Such men see themselves as companions of the prophet and they are “high” on religion. Both groups have completely succumbed to totalitarian seduction; they are the worst enemies of Islam, both to its image and to its chances of reformation.

The existence of this noisy female minority, many of them wealthy and educated, hides the fact that there are thousands of poorer women in Europe and millions across the Muslim world who have no voice and no choice. They are punished and threatened for daring to follow a different path . . .

For a while now I have been asserting that the most effective way for EU governments to deal with their Muslim minorities is to empower the Muslim women living within their borders.

The best tool for that is education. Yet the education systems of some EU countries are going through a crisis of neglect, particularly with regard to immigrant children. And in the matter of faith schools we are now paying the price of mixing education with ideology.

The Telegraph reports UNIFIL is essentially an empty suit, something I can’t say really shocks me. Hezbollah is rearming through Syria and rebuilding defensive structures in spite of UN resolutions for Hezbollah to disarm and cease being a military power.

Locals in Bint Jbeil, a town which saw fierce fighting, told yesterday how Hizbollah was using the major reconstruction efforts to rebuild their security infrastructure.

“They are working extremely fast,” said one, who did not want to be named. “Militants in Shia strongholds have interconnected tunnels and bunkers under their houses. These are being rebuilt under cover of the reconstruction work.”

He said cables and telecommunications equipment had been installed and the number of trucks delivering aid and supplies made it easy to disguise weapons smuggling.

“They have a security network of hundreds of motorcycles, linked up by walkie-talkies. Wherever outsiders move in the south they are followed. You don’t see guns, but Hizbollah knows exactly where you are.” On the crater-lined streets of Bint Jbeil, there was evidence of substantial reconstruction and young men on motorcycles, but it was impossible to discern whether any were Hizbollah fighters.

It’s only a matter of time before the next Israel-Hezbollah war that will result in much of the same, only Hezbollah will be more dug in the longer between now and the expected conflict.  UNIFL’s reaction?  Thus far, nothing.

Critical update deserving of a new post:

ABC News is reporting the alleged Pakistani strike upon a madrassa housing Al Qaida in Waziristan was carried out by a U.S. predator drone and not the Pakistani military. If true it means my analysis is wrong and outdated.

Brian Ross reports the intended target was none other than Ayman al-Zawahiri.

ABC News has learned the raid was launched after U.S. intelligence received tips and examined Predator reconnaissance indicating that al Qaeda’s No. 2 man may have been staying at the school, which is located in the Bajaur region near the village that is thought to be al Qaeda’s winter headquarters.

According to earlier Associated Press reports, villagers saw and heard helicopters fire upon the madrassa. I’m not certain how you can see and hear a helicopter if it was a drone.

It’s unknown if Zawahiri was among those killed, but ABC News does report “between two and five senior al Qaeda militants were killed in the attack, including the mastermind of the airliners plot in the U.K.” Good riddance.

Ross also reports Pakistani intelligence believes they have cornered Zawahiri in a 40 square mile region and expect to kill or capture him within a few months.  I’ll believe it when I see his dead body or one of the infamous before and after side-by-side pictures of him in custody.

HT Flopping Aces

As expected, protests have ensued in Pakistan regarding the Pakistani military striking a madrassa in Waziristan housing Al Qaida terrorists. Less shocking is that an Al Qaida linked cleric is blaming the United States.

A local leader with suspected links to al-Qaeda, Faqir Mohammed, addressed a crowd of 10,000 mourners.

“The government attacked and killed our innocent people on orders from America,” he is quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

What? What about the Joooos? The Joooos have to be to blame for the attack. I mean they are Joooos and they have a plan to take over the world. Oh, wait. That’s Islamists. Never mind then.

UPDATE: They may have reason to blame the U.S. after all, but Mohammed’s call is still incorrect if the new information is accurate.  And still, don’t Joooos make drones?