ISIS Executions Becoming Even More Brutal

By Tom Wyke. Two men were hurled from the top of a tower block, two more were crucified in front of a baying crowd and a woman was stoned to death in the latest series of horrific executions by ISIS.

The men were thrown from the roof down to the crowd below in the brutal punishment for being gay.

Charges found against the accused were announced by a masked Islamic State fighter, using a small handheld radio. Reading from a list, he declares the men are guilty of engaging in homosexual activities and should be punished by death, in accordance with Islamic State’s radical interpretation of Sharia law.

They had been tied up and transported in the back of a white pickup truck to the public execution sight in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Both prisoners are shown wearing casual clothing rather than the standard orange jumpsuit, commonly worn by many Islamic State prisoners in recent many high profile execution videos. (Read more about the ISIS executions HERE)

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Fight the Terrorists Before They Reach the West

By Matthew Continetti. Argue about the limits of free speech, the definition of “true” Islam, whether terrorists are lunatics or rational, or the social and political repercussions of terrorism as much as you’d like. The truth is that such debates are irrelevant to the core security problem: There is a growing and energetic movement of radical Muslims dedicated to killing as many people as they can and imposing their will on the rest.

And there is really only one way America can respond to this challenge. We need to kill them first. We need to kill them on a field of battle whose contours are determined not by the terrorists but by us. We need to kill them over there—in the Middle East—before they reach the West.

I realize that for at least the next two years what I propose is wishful thinking. American policy has reverted to a defensive condition in which Islamic terrorists set the terms of conflict. We have been here before. Until 2001, the United States treated Islamic terrorism as a matter of law enforcement. When our embassies were raided or bombed, when our barracks were destroyed, when our soldiers and sailors were murdered, when our World Trade Center was attacked, when our destroyer was damaged, we treated the assailants as members of an Arabic-speaking mafia, as criminals to be apprehended, tried, and punished.

Didn’t work. The jihad grew. It even found a base in Afghanistan, where it could equip and train and plot. In 2001, in a single fall morning, the World Trade Center was destroyed, the Pentagon bludgeoned, and more than 3,000 innocent people were killed.

America rethought its approach to terrorism. No longer were the terrorists considered felons. They were now unlawful combatants. Surveillance, interrogation, and detention policies became more aggressive. We invaded Afghanistan, we toppled the Taliban, and we sent al Qaeda leadership into hiding. (Read more from this story HERE)

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John Kerry French Faux Pas: I Just Want to ‘Share a Hug’ With You (+video)

By Our Foreign Staff and AFP. When top US diplomat John Kerry rushed towards the French president, arms open, to warmly embrace him on Friday, what followed was a cringeworthy culture clash that has befuddled many a visitor to France.

The French are just not that into hugging.

Kerry had given fair warning to his French counterparts that some American-style affection was on the cards.

“My visit to France is basically to share a big hug for Paris and express the affection of the American people for France and for our friends there who have been through a terrible time,” he said on the eve of his trip.

The phrase alone sparked confusion in the media who struggled to pin down a translation for the word hug. (Read more about John Kerry’s “share a hug” moment HERE)

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Singer Helps John Kerry Show Solidarity With France After Delayed U.S. Response to Terror Attacks

By Rachelle Blinder. “You’ve got a friend,” France.

James Taylor crooned the message in Paris Friday to help Secretary of State John Kerry apologize for the U.S.’ late show of solidarity following last weeks’ terror attacks.

The American music legend and Kerry pal opened with the melody of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, before launching into the English hit, “You’ve Got a Friend” to a crowd of survivors, victims’ families and first responders.

At the end of the 3-minute performance at Paris city hall, he reassured in French, “Your friend is here.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Egyptian Student Posts on Facebook that He’s an Atheist, Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail

Photo Credit: YahooAn Egyptian court has sentenced a student to three years in jail for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist and for insulting Islam, his lawyer said Sunday.

Karim al-Banna, a 21-year-old whose own father testified against him, was jailed by a court in the Nile Delta province of Baheira on Saturday, lawyer Ahmed Abdel Nabi told AFP.

“He was handed down a three-year prison sentence, and if he pays a bail of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 140 or 117 euros) the sentence can be suspended until a verdict is issued by an appeals court,” Abdel Nabi said, adding that an appeal was to be heard on March 9.

Abdel Nabi said his client’s father had testified against his son, charging that he “was embracing extremist ideas against Islam”.

Banna’s name had appeared in a list of known atheists in a local daily after which his neighbours harassed him, said Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on religion and beliefs at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. (Read more about the Egyptian student who received 3 years in jail HERE)

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The Great Wall of Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia has been constructing a 600-mile East-West barrier on its Northern Border with Iraq since September.

The main function of the barrier will be keeping out ISIS militants, who have stated that among their goals is an eventual takeover of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, both of which lie deep inside Saudi territory, according to United Press International.

This past week, a commander and two guards on the Saudi-Iraq border were killed during an attack by Islamic State militants, the first direct ground assault by the group on the border.

“It is the first attack by Islamic State itself against Saudi Arabia and is a clear message after Saudi Arabia entered the international coalition against it,” Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with close ties to Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry, told Reuters.

The Saudi “Great Wall” as it’s being dubbed by some media outlets, will be a fence and ditch barrier that features soft sand embankments that is designed to slow down infiltrators on foot and are too step to drive a tired-vehicle up, according to the Telegraph of London. It will have 40 watchtowers and seven command and control centers complete with radar that can detect aircraft and vehicles as far away as 22 miles as well as day and night camera installations. (Read more about the Great Wall of Saudi Arabia HERE)

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Ohio Arrest in ISIS Terror Plot Against US Capitol

Photo Credit: The Daily Beast By Fox News. An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as “enemies,” and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol.

A Justice Department official, however, told Fox News that Cornell was “aspirational and not operational,” adding that the public was never in danger.

The investigation relied heavily on the use of a source, who the criminal complaint said began cooperating with authorities last fall to gain favorable treatment for his prosecution on an unrelated case.

The complaint adds that Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL. (Read more about the ISIS terror plot HERE)
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22 Islamic Terror Camps in US

By Leo Hohmann. Last week’s brazen attack by a “home-grown” terrorist cell in France that targeted the staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked renewed interest in potential cells operating inside the United States.

And there are many.

The FBI is aware of at least 22 paramilitary Islamic communes in the U.S., operated by the shadowy Pakistan-based group Jamaat al-Fuqra and its main U.S. front group, Muslims of the Americas.

With U.S. headquarters in Islamberg, New York, the group headed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani operates communes in mostly remote areas of California, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and other states.

The FBI describes the MOA compound in Texas, called Mahmoudberg, as an enclave and “communal living site.” Located in Brazoria County along County Road 3 near Sweeny, Texas, it was discovered more than 10 years ago by the FBI through a tip from an informant in New York. (Read more from this story HERE).
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ISIS Gaining Even More Ground

By The Daily Beast. ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 air strikes in the American-led campaign to break ISIS’s grip there.

At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities ISIS hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate. Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group does not appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began. The result is a net ground gain for ISIS, according to information compiled by two groups with on-the-ground sources.

In Syria, ISIS “has not any lost any key terrain,” Jennifer Cafarella, a fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War who studies the Syrian conflict, explained to the Daily Beast. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport, Massacre 12 in Bus Attack in Ukraine

Pro-Russian separatists unleashed a series of bomb attacks Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, leveling a key airport in Donetsk, killing 12 in an attack on a passenger bus and almost certainly dooming a short-lived cease-fire, according to reports.

A senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News that the separatists destroyed the government-held airport in eastern Ukraine Tuesday afternoon.

The facility has been “flattened” and the air control tower was “decimated,” the official said. “They are now fighting over rubble.”

Maria Ivanovna, a local retiree, told The Associated Press she has become desensitized to the blasts and drew an arc with her arm to show how shells fly over her home toward the airport.

“We will survive the same way we did after World War II. Ration cards for bread; 11 ounces for children; 800 grams for factory workers and 1,200 grams for miners,” she said. (Read more from the story “Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport” HERE)

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Richest Indian State Announces Plans to Cure Homosexuals

By Sara Malm. An Indian state minister has announced plans to open treatment centres for the LGBT community to ‘make them normal’, comparing homosexuals to alcoholics.

Ramesh Tawadkar, Goa’s minister for sport and youth, said the government in the popular tourist resort would ‘cure’ homosexuals with ‘training and medicines’.

Tawadkar, a representative of right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, sparked outrage with the comments, made during a press conference yesterday.

‘We will make them normal. We will have centres for them, like Alcoholics Anonymous centres,’ Tawadkar said, adding that the Goa government would ‘train them and give them medicines too’. (Read more about the facility being created to cure homosexuals HERE)

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Former VP of Christian Reparative Therapy Group Exodus International Admits He is a Homosexual

By Billy Hallowell. Randy Thomas, the former executive vice-president of Exodus International, a now defunct, ex-gay Christian organization, and a self-described former “ex-gay poster boy“ announced in a blog post Monday that he’s gay.

In a piece titled, “A Peaceful Disclosure – I Am Gay,” Thomas wrote that the suicide of a man he once dated before he joined the ex-gay movement more than two decades ago, in part, led him to rethink how he addresses his sexuality.

Thomas also explained how additional circumstances in recent years have led him to question his beliefs and to reevaluate, asking key questions about himself and his journey. This process began to ramp up after organizational turmoil within Exodus began to take root in 2011, he said. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Update: Indian Minister Backtracks on Comments About Homosexuals

Ramesh Tawadkar claimed [today that] he was misquoted even as Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar did some damage control to say homosexuality is not a “disease”.

“I was misunderstood and misquoted. I was not talking about the LGBT (youths) but about drug addicted and sexually abused youths,” Tawadkar told PTI, as local channels in Goa continued to air the footage in which he assured medical treatment to LGBT youths to make them “normal”. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Charlie Hebdo Stands Defiant Against Jihadists, Prints MILLIONS of Papers this Week ‘Lampooning Mohammed’

By AFP. This week’s three million copies of Charlie Hebdo, the first post-attack issue of the French satirical weekly, will defiantly feature caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, its lawyer said Monday.

Attacked satirical French weekly to print a million copies next week Reuters
The special issue, to come out on Wednesday, will also be offered “in 16 languages” for readers around the world, one of its columnists, Patrick Pelloux, said.

Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer, Richard Malka, told French radio the upcoming publication will “obviously” lampoon Mohammed — among other figures — to show staff will “cede nothing” to extremists seeking to silence them.

The two gunmen who slaughtered 12 people in their attack on Charlie Hebdo’s offices last Wednesday, including five of its top cartoonists and three other staff members, claimed as they left the scene that they had “avenged the Prophet Mohammed”. (Read more about Hebdo’s Lampooning Mohammed HERE)

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Hundreds of Millions of Muslims Want to Kill You for Defiling Mohammed

By David French. As an Evangelical conservative, I can’t say that a militant, condescending atheist like Bill Maher is my favorite comedian or my favorite pundit, but when a man’s right, he’s right. His statement last week that “Hundreds of millions of them support an attack like this. They applaud an attack like this. What they say is, ‘We don’t approve of violence, but you know what? When you make fun of the Prophet, all bets are off” is supported by real data.

Extrapolating from polling numbers, hundreds of millions of Muslims do, in fact, support the death penalty for blasphemy against Mohammed. Hundreds of millions do support the death sentence for “apostasy” — converting from Islam. It’s even true that in the recent past, hundreds of millions expressed approval for Osama bin Laden.

Regarding blasphemy and apostasy, here’s the Washington Post describing startling findings in a comprehensive Pew Research Center report on Muslim beliefs and attitudes:

In fact, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center report, 88 percent of Muslims in Egypt and 62 percent of Muslims in Pakistan favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion. This is also the majority view among Muslims in Malaysia, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

Do the math. From these countries alone, there are more than 200 million Muslims who support capital punishment for basic free speech and freedom of conscience. (Read more from this story HERE)

French Police Chief Commits Suicide After Charlie Hebdo Massacre

By Henry Samuels. A high-ranking judicial police chief in Limoges committed suicide last Wednesday hours after being asked to file a report on the Charlie Hebdo killings, it has emerged.

Helric Fredou, 45, the deputy director of the regional judicial police in Limoges turned his gun on himself last Wednesday night, hours after Cherif and Said Kouachi killed 12 people in an Islamist rampage, including two policemen.

He had been tasked with investigating the family of one of the victims, but died before handing in the report.

He had reportedly interviewed families of Charlie Hebdo victims in the hours after the attack.

It is not known if his decision to commit suicide has any link to the Charlie Hebdo killings. (Read more about the French police chief HERE)

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White House Admits They Should have Sent ‘Higher Profile’ Official to Paris Rally

By Fox News. The White House acknowledged Monday that it erred in not sending a higher-level representative to the massive rally in Paris against Islamic terrorism, after facing bipartisan criticism over the meager U.S. presence at the march — which was attended by more than 40 world leaders.

“We should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.

But he also explained that the planning for the rally began on short notice and President Obama’s personal attendance, given the security challenges, would have had a “significant impact” on the march. Earnest said they had only 36 hours to prepare, and suggested the outdoor event with large crowds posed security risks.

Earnest said the U.S. still stands “four-square behind our allies in France.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Boko Haram Uses 10-Year Old Girls as Suicide Bombers

By Jennifer Van Laar. In two attacks Sunday, young women were used as “suicide” bombers at a mobile handset marketplace in Potiskum, Nigeria.

The attacks, which killed five and injured 46, are suspected to have been carried out by Boko Haram, according to a Reuters report.

A trader, Sani Abdu Potiskum, described the scene:

“I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age … you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso.”

This is not the first time Boko Haram has used girls in this manner. A 13-year-old girl refused to detonate her suicide vest in December and instead turned herself in to the police and gave an account of what happened. (Read more about the young girl being used as suicide bombers HERE)

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Senator Ted Cruz: Obama Encourages Islamic Terrorism

By Pam Key. Monday at the Heritage Action for America’s second annual policy summit, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said President Barack Obama’s lackadaisical attitude toward radical Islam, as demonstrated by his failure to attend the Paris unity march, “encourages radical Islamic terrorists.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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