So, Back to That Chattanooga Terrorist, al Qaeda

Posted on July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

On the case of the Orlando terrorist, Omar, U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch followed the White House script and announced the attack was merely a hate crime against the LGBT community. The enemies of America are studying and al Qaeda replied with:

Al Qaeda urges lone wolves to target whites, to avoid ‘hate crime’ label

Lone wolf jihadists should target white Americans so no one mistakes their terror attacks for hate crimes unrelated to the cause of radical Islam, Al Qaeda writes in the latest edition of its online magazine.

In an article first reported by The Foreign Desk, Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) called for more self-directed Muslim terrorists to kill in America. But the article, titled “Inspire guide: Orlando operation,” tells terrorists to “avoid targeting places and crowds where minorities are generally found” because if gays or Latinos appear to be the targets, “the federal government will be the one taking full responsibility.” More from FNC.

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was radicalized a year before Chattanooga terror attack: FBI agent

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the lone-wolf terrorist who fatally shot five military personnel at two locations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last summer, had been radicalized for at least a year, according to an FBI agent.

Abdulazeez was radicalized online before a July 2014 trip to visit family in the Middle East and discussed committing jihad before carrying out the July 16 attack, FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“I know he wanted to commit jihad and commit jihad here in the United States, but I don’t think the specific target was necessarily picked out too far in advance,” Mr. Reinhold told the newspaper. “There was some planning involved, but not years worth.”

Mr. Reinhold said evidence collected by authorities shows Abdulazeez was a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki and radicalized after devoting himself to the deceased al Qaeda leader’s online sermons.

Abdulazeez, who was shot to death by police during the attack, was not on any terrorist watch lists and had no prior convictions, although he was facing a July 30 court appearance for an April DUI arrest. More from Washington Times.

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Per the White House:

What We’re Doing

President Obama has a strategy to defeat ISIL, fight terrorism, and protect the homeland.

The President is pursuing a comprehensive strategy that draws on every aspect of American power. Here’s an up-to-date look at what we’re doing to combat the threat of terrorism abroad and here at home.

Supporting and Enabling Our Global Partners

On September 10, 2014, President Obama announced the formation of a broad international coalition to defeat ISIL. Since then, the United States has led 66 international partners in a global coalition to counter ISIL with a focus on liberating ISIL-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. The mission is aimed at striking ISIL at its core, degrading its networks, and constraining its prospects for expansion. This is a multi-year effort, but we are united with our Coalition partners in making progress together to degrade and destroy ISIL.

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Islamic State has gained almost exclusive focus while the matter of the Chattanooga terrorist was inspired by Anwar al Alawki. He was al Qaeda and was killed in a drone strike in Yemen under the specific orders from the Obama kill list. Is anyone paying attention to al Qaeda at all?

It is noted just today, July 1, 2016:

DailyMail: The leader of terror group al-Qaeda has warned the United States there will be grave consequences if they execute Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri has appeared in a new video threatening America if the death sentence is carried out on the 22-year-old.

The footage shows the Egyptian-born Islamic extremist wearing white robes and sitting in front of green velvet robes.

He urges Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the ‘Crusaders’ Campaign led by the United States’.

He says: ‘If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it … will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences.’

Nearly 1 Million Immigrants Ignoring Deportation

Posted on July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

It is quite interesting that the Obama administration can release proven known terrorists from the Guantanamo Detention Center to either home countries or any other country that the administration colludes with to accept them.

We have a former detainee that was released to Uruguay that has fled alleged to Brazil.

MiamiHerald

But…..this policy does not seem to apply to the Department of Homeland Security or ICE.

Specifically, the law states:

On being notified by the [DHS Secretary] that the government of a foreign country denies or unreasonably delays accepting an alien who is a citizen, subject, national, or resident of that country after the [DHS Secretary] asks whether the government will accept the alien under this section, the Secretary of State shall order consular officers in that foreign country to discontinue granting immigrant visas or nonimmigrant visas, or both, to citizens, subjects, nationals, and residents of that country until the [DHS Secretary] notifies the Secretary that the country has accepted the alien. (8 U.S.C. § 1253(d); Emphasis added.)

Nearly 1 million immigrants — including more than 170K convicts — ignoring deportation

WashingtonTimes: Nearly 1 million immigrants are ignoring deportation orders to remain in the U.S. — including more than 170,000 convicted criminals, according to a new report Thursday that suggests the government’s deportation efforts are still falling short.

Only a small fraction of the immigrants are even being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), meaning most of them remain free on the streets, where they can commit crimes and continue living in the shadows, according to the study by Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

“The fact that almost 10 percent of the illegal resident population has already been ordered removed and is still here illustrates just how dysfunctional our immigration enforcement system is. It also should be of great concern that 20 percent of them are conviction criminals, and that most of these are at large in our communities,” Ms. Vaughan said.

She said the 925,193 aliens who were still here despite a deportation order break down into three categories. In some cases their home countries refuse to take them back, and U.S. officials feel constrained by law to release them; other times they are released by sanctuary cities, who help thwart deportations; and still others abscond on their own.

Mexicans account for the most aliens, with nearly 200,000 ignoring deportation orders. About a third of those are convicted criminals, Ms. Vaughan said. El Salvador accounts for more than 150,000 of the aliens, but just 10,000 of them are convicted criminals.

Perhaps most troubling is that the population is steadily growing, with the Obama administration tracking down fewer than 10,000 fugitives a year on the streets. Even when criminals snagged by checking local prisons and jails are included, the number of those deported from the interior of the U.S. is far less than 100,000.

But some 179,040 new criminal aliens were given final orders or removal in 2015 yet remained in the country, Ms. Vaughan said, citing data obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Related reading: The law requires the State Department to impose visa sanctions on countries that won’t take their own citizens back, a requirement Secretaries Clinton and Kerry have simply ignored. NRO

3 Terrorists of Turkey Airport, Entered from Raqqa

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

The mastermind of Tuesday’s Istanbul airport massacre appears to be a one-armed Chechen terrorist who trained Russian-speaking militants, had a long history of supporting terror and was known as “Akhmed One-Arm,” according to several government documents and regional media reports.

Akhmed Chatayev was identified by the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper as the organizer of the coordinated assault, which killed 44 and wounded more than 200 others at Turkey’s Ataturk Airport. Turkish officials did not immediately confirm he was involved in the attack, and it was unclear if Chatayev was one of the airport bombers, in custody or on the run. More from FNC.

Guardian: Turkish police have identified one of the attackers as Osman Vadinov, a Chechen from Dagestan who reportedly entered Turkey on his Russian passport about a month ago.

Police said he had entered Turkey from Raqqa, the Isis stronghold in Syria, at least once before in 2015 and is suspected to have had links to jihadi cells inside Turkey.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper claimed that the man suspected of being the organiser of the attack was an Isis commander of Chechen origin called Akhmed Chatayev, described by the US Treasury Department as “the commander of the Yarmouk Battalion, a Chechen faction of [Isis].”

Chatayev is said to be responsible for the recruiting and training of Russian-speaking Isis militants and was added to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists in 2015. He is wanted by the Russian government.

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Bearded ‘terror mastermind’ fled Russia 12 years ago before settling in Turkey as ISIS recruiter

DailyMail: Akhmed Chataev is said to be the brains behind the attack after three suicide bombers launched a co-ordinated assault on Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, according to Turkish media.

Chataev – nicknamed ‘One-Armed’ after he claimed one of his limbs was chopped off in prison – fled Russia 12 years ago, and won refugee status in Austria.

‘Having left jail in Georgia, Chataev moved to Syria and in ISIS he is in charge of the whole Russian sector of work.’
In January, Russian secret services named him as the main recruiter of terrorists from ISIS to Russia and European countries. Chataev – nicknamed ‘One-Armed’ after he claimed one of his limbs was chopped off in prison – fled Russia 12 years ago, and won refugee status in Austria.
Once in Europe, he sent equipment back to the Northern Caucuses for terrorists to use, it has been reported.
In 2008, he was arrested in Sweden for illegal possession of arms, spending a year in prison after Kalashnikov guns, explosives and bullets were found in his car.
‘One-Armed’ insisted that he was trapped in a sting operation. After he completed his sentence, he moved to the Ukraine, where he was arrested on a warrant from Russian police – but used his Austrian refugee status to avoid deportation.

Istanbul airport attackers identified as Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals

ISTANBUL – The three suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport have been identified as nationals from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a senior Turkish official said Thursday.

Turkish authorities did not release the names of the attackers, who staged a triple suicide bombing at Turkey’s biggest airport on Tuesday, killing 43 people and wounding more than 230.

The identities exposed possible connections between Islamic State cells and Turkey’s large communities of workers and others from the Central Asia region. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Turkish officials have said they believe the Islamic State is behind the bloodshed.

Even as the country reeled from the violence, the assault on one of the world’s busiest airports – and a symbol of Turkey’s modern economy – threatened to propel the country into a wider war with the jihadists.

Turkish police staged raids in at least two cities, detaining at least 13 suspects in connection with the attacks.

Counterterrorism units raided 16 addresses in Istanbul and launched operations in the coastal city of Izmir, according to Turkish officials and the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Three of those arrested in Istanbul are foreign nationals. Another nine suspects were detained in Izmir for providing logistical support to the Islamic State, but it was unclear if they are directly tied to the attack.

But Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a televised speech late Wednesday that the government’s assertion that the Islamic State is responsible “continues to gain weight.”

Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala also said there was no conclusive evidence, but early reports suggested the Sunni extremists were behind the bloodshed.

“Every connection is being evaluated carefully,” the Associated Press quoted Ala as saying.

Two people injured in the attack later died, raising the death toll to 43, officials said. More than 230 people were injured.

On Wednesday, a senior Turkish official gave a timeline of the attack: First, a militant detonated explosives in the arrivals area on the ground floor of the international terminal. A second attacker exploded a bomb minutes later in the departures area upstairs. Finally, a third bomber detonated explosives in the parking area amid the chaos as people fled to escape the attacks inside.

It was unclear at what point security forces exchanged gunfire with the attackers, according to the official’s timeline. But witnesses spoke Wednesday of scenes of panic, fear and wounded fellow travelers.

“It was chaos. No one was in charge,” said Faisal Rashid, a 15-year-old who was traveling with his family from Sweden to Iraq, where they are originally from. “We just ran, all of us, outside. We didn’t know what we were doing – we just thought we could die.”

The airport handles more than 60 million passengers each year and is a hub for Turkey’s official carrier, Turkish Airlines.

“If the Islamic State is indeed behind this attack, this would be a declaration of war,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This attack is different: the scope, impact and deaths of dozens in the heart of the country’s economic capital.

“It will have widespread ramifications,” he said.

DoJ Files for 27 Month Delay on Clinton Records

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

Can you feel the outrage building yet? Imagine if this DoJ was investigating and prosecuting the mafia…oh wait….

From The Daily Caller:

Department of Justice officials filed a motion in federal court late Wednesday seeking a 27-month delay in producing correspondence between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s four top aides and officials with the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings, a closely allied public relations firm that Bill Clinton helped launch.

If the court permits the delay, the public won’t be able to read the communications until October 2018, about 22 months into her prospective first term as President. The four senior Clinton aides involved were Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin.

The State Department originally estimated that 6,000 emails and other documents were exchanged by the aides with the Clinton Foundation. But a series of “errors” the department told the court about Wednesday evening now mean the total has grown to “34,116 potentially responsive documents.”

U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, a President Obama-appointed judge, had previously ordered the State Department to release the requested documents by July 21. But Department of Justice lawyers informed Contreras Wednesday night that “the [State] department discovered errors in the manner in which the searches had been conducted in order to capture documents potentially responsive to plaintiff’s request.” The motion was filed by Justice Department attorney Joseph Borson on behalf of the State Department.

Borson also provided new details about how few resources the State Department has devoted to answering 106 separate Freedom of Information Act requests that are pending before it, many of them ordered by federal judges. Only 71 “part-time” retired foreign service officers are being used to review all of the pending FOIA requests.

Combine this with Loretta Lynch’s absurd “coincidental” meeting with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix Airport and you have shenanigans going on that would make Richard Nixon blush.

This is where I tend to get frustrated with GOP leadership. This is a situation where every prominent Republican, particularly GOP leaders, should be on every network and cable news show and quoted in every newspaper outlet clamoring for an independent prosecutor to look into Hillary Clinton’s emails. It is obvious, now that Hillary Clinton has secured the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, the Obama administration will do all it can to shield her from scrutiny and especially, prosecution. Full article from RedState.

**** Meanwhile if you would like more on the deposition of Patrick Kennedy:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released the deposition transcript of Patrick Kennedy, State Department under secretary for management, regarding Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s use of the clintonemail.com system to conduct official government business.

The deposition transcript is available here.

Kennedy testified that the significance did not “register” with him that Clinton was using a non-state.gov email account even though he communicated with her by email; and though he is under secretary for management of three of the four offices charged with ensuring State Department policies practices and procedures are followed, he had no opinion as to whether policies were violated except to say that State Department records-management policy encourages employees to use state.gov addresses for official business.

Kennedy is among seven depositions of former Clinton top aides and State Department officials that Judicial Watch has questioned under oath.

This discovery arises in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, former deputy chief of staff to Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about the clintonemail.com system. (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). Judge Sullivan ordered that all deposition transcripts be made publicly available.

Terror Database Hacked/Leaked

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

Terror-suspect database used by banks, governments, has been leaked

Thomson Reuters has secured the source of the leak

CSOnline: A database described by some as a “terrorism blacklist” has fallen into the hands of a white-hat hacker who may decide to make it accessible to the public online.

The database, called World-Check, belongs to Thomson Reuters and is used by banks, governments and intelligence agencies to screen people for criminal ties and links to terrorism.

Security researcher Chris Vickery claims to have obtained a 2014 copy of the database. He announced the details on Tuesday in a post on Reddit.

“No hacking was involved in my acquisition of this data,” he wrote. “I would call it more of a leak than anything, although not directly from Thomson Reuters.”Vickery declined to share how he obtained the data, but he’s already contacted Thomson Reuters about securing the source of the leak.

In an email, Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday that it was “grateful” to Vickery for the alert. The “third-party” that leaked the database has taken it down, the company added.

Vickery has previously exposed database leaks related to Mexican voters, a Hello Kitty online fan community and medical records.

His copy of the World-Check database contains the names of over 2.2 million people and organizations declared “heightened risks.” Only a small part of the data features a terrorism category. Additional categories include individuals with ties to money laundering, organized crime, corruption and others.

He is asking Reddit users whether he should leak the database to the public. His concern is that innocent people with no criminal ties may have been placed on the list.

The information isn’t really secret either. Users can buy access to the database from Thomson Reuters.

Leaking the database, however, could create risks and tip off “actual bad guys” that they’ve been placed on the list, Vickery said.

Thomson Reuters declined to say how it might respond if Vickery decides to publicize the information. The World-Check database is sourced from the company’s analysts, “industry sources” and government records.

Related reading: Thomson Reuters World-Check KYC, AML, CFT and PEP Due Diligence

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Much more goes on besides just a terror database:

Truth Technologies’ Sentinel with World-Check lets you quickly and cost-effectively mitigate risks associated with PEPs, money laundering and terrorist financing. Sentinel gives you seamless access to the Data-File to determine whether customers are Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), terrorists, or financial criminals, and to conduct enhanced due diligence. As a hosted solution for reducing your organization’s risk, there is no software for you to install, maintain or update, allowing you to focus on your core mission.

A comprehensive solution for regulatory compliance, World-Check’s risk intelligence database, contains hundreds of thousands of meticulously structured profiles on individuals and entities known to represent a financial, regulatory or reputation risk to organizations. Coverage includes; money launderers, fraudsters, terrorists, organized crime and sanctioned entities amongst other high risk categories. In addition, World Check tracks Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and their relationship networks plus individuals and businesses from other categories. World-Check’s database find direct application in financial compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), PEP screening, Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), fraud prevention, government intelligence and other identity authentication, background screening and risk prevention practices.