With terrorist strikes increasing by 45% from the previous year, “The most important trend to emerge was attacks on soft targets…The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is gradually disappearing”:
- Pakistan Terrorists Target More Civilians in 2009 (Christian Science Monitor)
Iranian accuse the US and Israel of complicity in the assassination of professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi; a State Dept. official says “absurd”::
- Tehran Bomb Kills Nuclear Scientist: Media (Reuters / Washington Post)
The Malay attacks on churches are not only in direct violation of Qur’anic commandments …
- Parliamentary Opposition Leader Expresses Outrage At Church Attacks (The Micah Mandate)
… but the intolerance behind it flies in the face of the 14-century history of Arabic speaking Christians and Jews using the word Allah to refer to God of Abraham:
- Allah – the Word (NY Times)
Britain outlaws Islam4UK and all its parent groups and any successor groups not for terrorism, but for its “glorification”:
- Islam4UK to be banned, says Alan Johnson (Guardian)
Despite al-Qaeda’s use of “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a cause célèbre … it has yet to establish authoritative operations in either the West Bank or Gaza,” but a pro-Israeli think tank claims that extremists think Hamas has gone soft and threaten “the formation of an ‘Al Qaeda in Palestine'” …
- Up Next: ‘Al Qaeda in Palestine’? (Christian Science Monitor)
… Meanwhile refugees leave one failing state for another could open up a major recruiting ground of Al-Qaeda:
- Somalis Fleeing to Yemen Prompt New Worries in Fight Against Al-Qaeda (Washington Post)
Approximately 40% of Afghanistan’s heroin and morphine travel through Pakistan:
- Drug Addiction Plights Pakistan (Al Jazeera)
