Category: Saudi Arabia

FBI Probes Belgian Terrorist Threat

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As I’ve previously explained, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs first alerted America to the danger of Belgian extremists, and whenever The Flemish Menace™ makes another terrorist attack, it’s important to give Charles credit. Consider the latest news from Pensacola:

The F.B.I. was investigating but did not confirm a report that the Saudi trainee had watched videos of mass shootings at a dinner party sometime this week, according to a senior American official who was briefed on the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly.
The gunman, who killed three people and injured eight others, did not have any apparent ties to international terrorist groups and appeared to have radicalized on his own, according to the official.
The gunman, identified as Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was killed by a sheriff’s deputy who responded to the attack. Lieutenant Alshamrani was training to become a pilot and initially entered the United States in 2018, according to the official. But at some point Lieutenant Alshamrani returned to Saudi Arabia and then re-entered the United States in February 2019, the official said. . . .

OK, they haven’t gotten to the part about the Belgian connection yet, but I’m sure if we keep reading, everything will become apparent:

Six other Saudi nationals were detained for questioning near the scene of the shooting, which took place over two floors in a classroom on the base. Three of the Saudis who were detained had been seen filming the entire incident, according to another person briefed on the investigation.
It was not known whether the six Saudis detained were students in the classroom building, and there was no immediate indication that those filming the incident were connected to the gunman, the person said. . . .

Seriously, there must be a Belgian angle to this, although the motive is apparently still mysterious to these New York Times reporters:

Investigators were trying to determine what motivated the gunman.
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, and Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican whose district includes Pensacola, both described the shooting as an act of terrorism.

(Of course, these Republicans are RAAAAACIST!)

But federal law enforcement officials said it was too early to establish the gunman’s motive.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity, cited a Twitter account with a name matching the gunman that had posted a “will” calling the United States a “nation of evil” and criticizing its support for Israel.

(Because we know how much Belgians hate the Jews.)

SITE said the account had also quoted Osama bin Laden, the former Qaeda leader, and was critical of United States foreign policy.
“I’m not against you for just being American,” the posts said. “I don’t hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only against Muslims Belgians but also humanity.”

(Obviously a typographical error, which I’ve corrected.)

The account could not be independently verified, and law enforcement officials did not confirm that it was connected to the gunman.
The gunman was a member of the Saudi Air Force.
The lieutenant was a trainee with the Saudi Air Force. Saudi pilots have trained at the Pensacola base since 1995.
The gunman used a locally purchased Glock 45 9-millimeter handgun with an extended magazine and had four to six other magazines in his possession, according to one of the people briefed on the investigation.

Remember, you should always trust the FBI:

During a news conference Friday night, the FBI declined to release the shooter’s identity and wouldn’t comment on his possible motivations.
“There are many reports circulating, but the FBI deals only in facts,” said Rachel L. Rojas, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office.

Well, I think we’ve got enough information now to know the gunman’s motive, despite the reluctance of federal officials and the New York Times to jump to any hasty conclusions. Charles Johnson and his LGF readers all understand that Belgian crypto-Nazis are to blame.



 

His Name Was Mohammed Alshamrani

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If I had to guess, I’d say he’s probably from Belgium:

Four people are dead including the suspect after an active shooting incident at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, police said.
The shooter was identified as Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi national [oops, I guessed wrong — RSM] and member of the country’s air force who was in the U.S. for flight training, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Investigators are trying to determine whether the shooting was terror-related, the officials said.
Authorities responded to reports of a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola at 6:51 a.m. on Friday, officials said. ATF and FBI also responded to the scene.
The shooting took place at one of the classroom buildings on the base, officials said. Officers with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene and fatally shot the suspect after exchanging gunfire.
Three people, including the shooter, were pronounced dead on scene, police said. One victim was taken to the hospital and died from injuries.
Eight others injured in the shooting were transported to Baptist Hospital, police said. . . .
During his roundtable on small business and red tape reduction accomplishments on Friday, President Donald Trump sent his condolences to families of the “warriors” killed and spoke about his call with the King of Saudi Arabia.
“I can tell you it’s a horrible thing that took place and we’re getting to the bottom on it,” Trump said. “All of the investigators are there now and they’re studying it very closely and terrible thing, and our condolences to the families.”

Y’know, if this shooter had been some kind of white nationalist alt-right extremist, CNN would be 24/7 on this story all weekend, and every liberal blog would be blaming Trump for this terrorist act. Instead what you will see is that the mainstream media and liberal bloggers will quickly bury this story, except perhaps to call out “right-wingers” as “racists” for daring to suggest that some Muslims might be dangerous.




 

Public Beheadings in Saudi Arabia

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From the headline stack at Drudge:

Saudi Arabia teen beheaded just for sending WhatsApp messages about protests…

Kingdom puts crucified body on public display… 

Executions for sorcerers, homosexuals, mentally ill…

Just remember this next time someone tells you Trump is a fascist.

On the other hand, imagine how much safer Baltimore or Chicago would be if we used the Crown Prince’s policy. Probably wouldn’t take too many beheadings to get the tough-on-crime message across.

 

Why Did Fox News and Townhall Scrub the Todd Starnes ‘Saudi National’ Story?

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Let me start by saying that I consider the obsession with the “Saudi national” — a student who was questioned after the Boston Marathon bombing — an annoying distraction from the main story of the terrorist act committed by the Brothers Tsarnaev.

This is not to say that the story isn’t interesting in its own right: Why would authorities be so hasty to turn Abdul Rahman Ali Alharb loose, at a time when the actual perpetrators were still at large and it was impossible to rule out a larger conspiracy?

An interesting question, and Tiffany Gabbay at the Blaze reports that Glenn Beck is trying to get some answers about it:

While Alharbi has gone from a person of interest, to a witness, and now to someone deemed unimportant to the case, sources have told TheBlaze that there is more to this story than is being told by the media or the government.
“We let everyone have all of the other information because we care more about the truth, more about you getting the news,” he said before explaining that since he owns TheBlaze outright, readers and viewers needn’t worry about the network being beholden to outside interests or foreign (i.e. Saudi) money.
“There is not ever going to be a member of CAIR crossing this threshold to have a private meeting with me to tell me exactly what would be in my best interest. I’m not taking the meeting. We move differently here. We are an American network, owned by an American. I am sick and tired of being told there is nothing left to see, move along,” he added.

Ah! This is it, you see? Glenn Beck (and others) believe the “Saudi national” story is being suppressed because Certain Unnamed News Organizations — which might sound like Nox Fews — are beholden to Arab money  and being intimidated by Muslim Brotherhood pressure groups. And who am I to say they’re not?

More likely, however, I think the bosses at Nox Fews and other organizations share my newsman’s instinct that this “Saudi national” angle is a distraction, a detour from the main story, and quite possibly a snipe hunt — a complete waste of time and energy. But if you think the Saudi national story is important, your paranoia about it being deliberately suppressed by a CAIR-directed conspiracy is likely to be stoked when you discover that a Certain Unnamed News Organization deleted Todd Starnes’s article about it.

Fair and Balanced. We Report, You Decide. IYKWIMAITYD.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Tell Canada: Muslim Women Have Boobies!

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Before blogging about this, I first checked Five Feet of Fury to see if the One Good Canadian, Kathy Shaidle, had weighed in. Because she obviously should, and if she had, I would have been obliged to link and quote her. How she could have missed this one, I don’t know.

Canadians are in an uproar — one might even say they’ve gotten their panties in a wad — because of the photo above, taken by a 24-year-old university student in British Columbia:

Sooraya Graham produced the image and presented it earlier this year for a class assignment as part of her fine arts degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. . . .

Some politically correct student busybodies were offended by the photo and removed it from display without securing anyone’s permission.

“I have a lot to express,” Graham said in an interview Thursday, explaining she wanted to remind people that Muslim women wear undergarments too.
“Even though some people want to silence those thoughts or make them go away, we live in Canada where as long as we’re not hurting another individual we have that right to express ourselves.”

Ah, but some Canadians are more equal than others, Sooraya, and one must always keep in mind the tender sensitivities of the easily offended bien-pensants. OK, now readers should brace themselves for the classic Paul Harvey now-you-know-the-rest-of-the-story plot twist:

Graham said her intention had been to “humanize” women who wear the niqab, which covers a woman’s entire head except for her eyes, by showing one doing a simple act that many women can relate to. . . .
Graham said her own decision to wear Islamic dress is aimed at being modest and garnering respect for her voice over her looks. Her friend, who is pictured in the photo, wears different variations to reflect her own feelings.

Whoa! The photographer is herself a Muslim who wears traditional garb and the woman pictured in the photo is her friend!

Canadians need a Jeff Goldstein discourse on “intentionalism.” But the story would not be complete without this hint of “creeping sharia”:

Since the incident was made public, an education centre in Kamloops funded by the Saudi Arabian Embassy has gone public with its opposition as well, Graham said.

Thus we have Saudi-funded organizations attempting to regulate the portrayal of Islamic culture in Canadian society: Perfect.

(Hat-tip: The Daily Beast.)

UPDATE: Because I’m an information omnivore, I sometimes forget where I get stuff. Checking my e-mail just now, I realized the Daily Beast item was sent to me — with the note, “How’d you miss this one?” — by a contributor to National Review, who shall remain anonymous, lest he get the Derbyshire treatment merely for being my acquaintance, much less for taking notice of this exemplary failure of multiculturalism.

By the way, in case you missed it: National Review “Derbed” another contributor, University of Illinois professor emeritus Robert Weissberg, for his unauthorized association with Thought Criminals.

The floggings will increase until morale improves!

UPDATE II: CBC has more on the Saudi angle:

But the Saudi Education Centre in Kamloops, which is funded by the Saudi Arabian government and provides support to Saudi students and their families, is taking issue with the photo.
“The artist didn’t approach the artwork let’s say in a very professional way that can state and can clarify the information and clarify the idea behind the picture,” said centre president Trad Bahabri.
Bahabri said he thinks text explaining the photo’s meaning is needed.
“I’m pretty sure many people misinterpret and many people misunderstand it. I can guarantee that,” he said.

Here’s Ezra Levant’s video commentary:

(Hat-tip: Lloyd S. on Twitter.)

War With Iran? Cue The Fear!

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by Smitty

Instapundit relays the Mead:

In a recent interview with CBS news anchor Scott Pelley, Panetta said “the United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us”. He continued: “We will take whatever steps are necessary to stop them”. A nuclear Iran is “unacceptable”. When US secretaries talk about “whatever steps are necessary” they are not usually talking about holding one more meeting of the sanctions committee. They are thinking shock and awe rather than cookies and tea.
Panetta said the Iranians could have a bomb in a year or less; we’ve heard this before. The point is, Washington doesn’t believe the mullahs have stopped building. Unless that changes, the Obama administration is headed toward war with Iran, quite possibly before November of 2012.

I view any of this through the lens of Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi Arabia.

For all the hue and cry about Israel this, and the Palestinians that, keep in mind the two real drivers in the region are the Shiite/Sunni tension and regime security for the oil producers. The former is about faith; the latter, cash.

Nobody really wants to see a dirty bomb, and the technological and ecological fallout from that. That hypothetical bomb, like virginity, is a one-shot deal. Short of direct physical threat to regime survival, pickling off a nuke, even a dirty bomb, just isn’t all that likely.

Ah, but the teasing one can engage in! As with the aforementioned virginity, the knowledge that a country is in the nuclear club really puts some extra shake in the hips. Which is why our various OPEC allies in the region don’t mind having the Great Satan flex a bit in the region.

Too, saber rattling is always worth points in the polls. And maybe he’ll even be able to contend that pulling the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan was to reconstitute them for the shiny new effort.

Another war? Sure. And now, from 30 years ago, let the band Fear take it away:

Bonus, for Vodka Pundit: “I Believe I’ll Have Another Beer“

Beating Women Drivers?

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Strange news from Saudi Arabia:

A campaign has been launched on Facebook calling for men to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in a planned protest next month against the ultra-conservative kingdom’s ban on women taking the wheel.
The call comes as activists are demanding the release of Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi woman who was jailed for defying the ban.

This is crazy. If you ban women from driving, how is your wife supposed to go buy you more beer during the football game?

Obligatory WikiLeaks Apocalypse Post

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The biggest headline of the massive 250,000-document dump by Julian Assange’s organization is probably this:

Prince Abdullah: Neo-Con Warhawk?

Dude. When it turns out Saudi royalty is on the same page with Bill Kristol vis-a-vis the need to bomb Iran, you know Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime is in trouble.

More seriously: This WikiLeaks dump is extraordinarily damaging to U.S. foreign policy. It impairs the trust of our allies if their confidential communications with our diplomats are not secure. Even the New York Times — which for 40 years has had an unstated editorial policy of undermining America’s national security at every opportunity — feels the need to defend itself for reporting on these leaks.

The investigation to find the persons inside the U.S. government responsible for these disclosures should be a top administration priority, and Congress should hold hearings into the evident laxity with classified information. The White House issues a bland statement, but am I the only one who has noticed that WikiLeaks didn’t seem to have unfettered access to America’s top secrets until the Obama administration came to town?

Massive aggregation at Memeorandum, with more reports from Spiegel, Haaretz, The Hill and the Wall Street Journal, and blog commentary by Moe Lane, Weasel Zippers, Legal Insurrection,  Yid With Lid, Outside the Beltway, Melissa Clouthier, Donald Douglas at American Power, Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and Vodkapundit. Dude, that’s a lot of “pundits.”

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!