“Islamic terrorism” on The Daily Caller

On December 29, Scandinavian authorities arrested five terrorists planning an attack in Denmark. Almost as interesting as what they targeted is what they spared and the lessons it holds for future counterterrorism efforts. (more)

Until Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly’s explosive belt went off prematurely in Stockholm last month, Sweden was the poster child for isolationism in the war on terror. While Abdulwahab’s bomb failed to achieve his desired result, it did obliterate the myth that nations can remain neutral to global terrorism. (more)

Incoming House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King of New York says he is pleased that Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama administration have had an “awakening” about the threat of homegrown Islamist terrorism. (more)

Washington (CNN) — A group of 9/11 first responders joined lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday to urge the Senate passage of a health care bill meant to provide free medical treatment to those suffering from the health effects of working in ground-zero conditions following the 2001 attacks. (more)

NEW YORK — A key al-Qaida figure wanted by the FBI for the murder of 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole reportedly has resurfaced in Yemen despite reports two months ago that he had been killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan. (more)

Terror organization faces unprecedented crisis, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, stirring tension with its Iranian patrons. (more)

With the TSA handling more packages than Fed-Ex this holiday season, we need to revisit our overreaction to the sucker punch that was 9/11. (more)

Attorney General Eric Holder should be preparing his resume. He ought to be joining the exodus of congressional lame ducks who have been shown the door by incensed voters. (more)

The one-count guilty verdict against terror detainee Ahmed Ghailani disappointed many Americans who thought the government had a rock-solid case, but civilian courts are still more successful at getting convictions than military commissions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday. (more)

In a May 2009 speech, President Barack Obama announced that Ahmed Ghailani, a Guantanamo detainee suspected of involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, would be transferred to the United States for trial in federal court.  The president assured his audience that civilian courts were “tough enough” to prosecute terrorists like Ghailani and that justice would be served. (more)

The first civilian trial of a Guatanamo detainee has come to its rip-roaring conclusion: a federal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday convicted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of one count of conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa — and acquitted him on more than 280 other counts. (more)

White House officials said Thursday that the acquittal of Ahmed Ghailani on all but one of more than 280 criminal charges in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa would not undermine their effort to try former Guantanamo detainees in civilian court, even as the mixed verdict reignited debate over that policy. (more)

NEW YORK — The first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial was acquitted Wednesday of most charges he helped unleash death and destruction on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 – an opening salvo in al-Qaida’s campaign to kill Americans. (more)

Since Osama bin Laden released his latest tape, the West has finally caught on to a very real danger in the Islamic world. As Pakistan’s catastrophic floods have demonstrated, terrorists deliberately exploit the chaos of disasters to win the hearts and minds of the affected population. Because regional governments are often incompetent and corrupt, neither internal nor international aid can easily reach those who need it. Instead, fundamentalist groups are often the first presence on the ground — freely providing food, shelter and medicine. Yet the floods have also showcased the new role that web-based technology can play in co-opting radicals’ attempts to dominate relief efforts. (more)

The liberal love affair with Islam is perplexing.  While liberals tend to hate traditional Christianity for its more socially conservative worldview, they insist on vigorously defending Islam and its adherents.  From Jon Stewart’s moralizing, to Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg’s outrage at Bill O’Reilly, to President Obama’s recent droning about the “spirit of tolerance” in the Indonesian Constitution (in spite of Indonesia’s laws prohibiting speech offensive to Islam), we are forever sermonized that there is a gulf between Islamist extremism and the “vast majority” of normal Muslims, whom we would apparently love to have as neighbors and run into at Whole Foods. (more)

Hunted by U.S. drones and Yemeni authorities, one of the world’s most wanted Islamic terrorist leaders on Monday issued a new video message calling on extremists to ignore the anti-terrorism edicts of Muslim religious authorities and continue their holy war against America and Israel. (more)

When the new Congress convenes in January, all eyes will be fixed on the economy.  There is, however, another policy crisis: nine years have passed since September 11, 2001 and fourteen years since Osama bin Laden declared war against the U.S., yet the threat from the al Qaeda network continues to grow.  Meanwhile, the U.S. response remains ad hoc, lacking an overarching strategy and a clear procedural approach to al Qaeda and its affiliated groups.  Congress must help correct this deficit. (more)

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — In a rare public admission, Yemen’s Foreign Minister told CNN that U.S. drones are aiding his country in its campaign against al Qaeda. (more)

US intelligence officials feared that al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen were plotting to attack the United States and actually intercepted what they now believe were “dry run” shipments to Chicago in mid-September, according to several people briefed on the plot and a senior US official. (more)

Last week’s terror plot to send two explosive-laden packages from Yemen to synagogues in Chicago was far from an isolated incident.  The plot, in fact, likely represents the fifth attempt by the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to strike Western targets in the past ten months.  An AQAP operative attempted to detonate a commercial airliner in the skies over Michigan last Christmas, and the group has unsuccessfully attacked three British diplomatic targets in Yemen this year, including a failed suicide assassination attempt on the British ambassador.  The Christmas Day attack alerted Americans and policymakers to the threat posed by AQAP, and last August the CIA assessed that the Yemen-based franchise eclipsed al Qaeda’s core in Pakistan — frequently referred to as “al Qaeda Prime” — as the most dangerous al Qaeda branch in the world.  Unfortunately, however, the U.S. has failed to develop an effective strategy to combat the terror threat emanating from Yemen. (more)