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Donald Trump Blames This Political Figure for 9/11

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By David Martosko. Donald Trump took an unprovoked slap at George W. Bush in an interview broadcast Friday, blaming the former U.S. president for not preventing the 9/11 terror attacks.

Asked by Bloomberg Television anchor Stephanie Ruhle how Americans might trust him to keep them safe, the Republican presidential front-runner bristled at the mention of Bush’s role as comforter-in-chief after 9/11, and President Barack Obama’s similar position following the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

‘OK, I think I have a bigger heart than all of them,’ he said. ‘I think I’m much more competent than all of them.’

‘When you talk about George Bush – I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time’ . . .

‘Government has proven to be a disaster during the Obama administration,’ Trump pivoted. ‘What we need is a leader, we don’t have a leader.’ (Read more from “Donald Trump Blames This Political Figure for 9/11” HERE)

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Facing Backlash, Trump Dodges Questions on 9/11 Comments

By Tal Kopan, Eugene Scott and MJ Lee. Donald Trump, under fire for suggesting that George W. Bush shared in the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks because they happened during his presidency, repeatedly declined to engage with reporters about the matter Friday night — opting instead to continue a long-running feud with Jeb Bush on Twitter afterwards.

Trump regularly speaks with reporters at campaign events and often takes multiple questions in an impromptu manner, making his silence Friday all the more noticeable.

When asked by CNN after a rally at a local high school here if he thought the attacks were George W. Bush’s fault, Trump, after pausing to listen to the question, walked away.

Minutes later, he again declined to say anything when asked to react to Bush’s response on Twitter, ignoring at least half a dozen questions on the matter before driving away in his motorcade. He did respond to questions about the crowd size at his campaign event Friday and why he was campaigning in Massachusetts.

The controversy began Friday morning when Trump implied that the former president could share some blame for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, as he was in office at the time. (Read more from “Facing Backlash, Trump Dodges Questions on 9/11 Comments” HERE)

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Judge Dismisses Saudi Arabia From 9/11 Suit

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By AP. Saudi Arabia was dismissed Tuesday as a defendant in lawsuits brought by the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks by a judge who said lawyers had failed to show sufficient evidence linking the country to the attacks.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels said in a written ruling that lawyers for the plaintiffs had failed to show facts sufficient to overcome Saudi Arabia’s sovereign immunity. He also dismissed as a defendant the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina on the grounds that the charity is an instrument of Saudi Arabia and thus covered as well by sovereign immunity. (Read more from “Judge Dismisses Saudi Arabia from 9/11 Suit” HERE)

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Hundreds of ISIS Fighters Desert Over Pay Disputes

By Mark Duell. Hundreds of jihadis are leaving Islamic State for other extremist organisations after being forced to take a pay cut of almost £200 by chiefs, it was claimed last night.

ISIS militants were allegedly being paid £260 a month until the terror group faced financial shortages which forced their salaries down to £65 – and at least 200 gunmen have since quit.

The fighters from ISIS, which until recently was said to be the world’s wealthiest jihadist group, are now retreating from northern Iraq to earn more money from other terror organisations in Syria

ISIS, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has faced problems since coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria rendered it unable to access a multi-billion pound war chest, reported the Daily Mirror.

The group has made its money from the likes of bank robberies, stolen oil and people-smuggling, but accountants have cut down on cash convoys between war zones over drone attack fears. (Read more from this story HERE)


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After Attempt on President’s Life, Tiny Nation Seek US Help vs. Terror

By Josh Rogin. The Maldives is calling on the United States to help it respond to an attack on its president, potentially opening the newest front in the war on terror.

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Sunday narrowly escaped an explosion on his boat. His wife was injured. Investigators have converged on the island nation in the Indian Ocean to determine whether the blast is related to organized terrorism. The government is already rethinking its security and defense practices; top officials say terrorist recruiting has been on the rise there.

Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ali Naseer Mohamed told me Tuesday that officials are still piecing together what happened.

“No group has claimed responsibility,” he said. “But we believe it was an attack directed to the president. That’s the first time the president has been attacked in that way.”

Ali was in the United States this week for the UN General Assembly, and he said his government has been tracking an increased flow of its citizens traveling to Iraq and Syria to fight there, at least 40 so far. Some are coming back to the Maldives. (Read more from this story HERE)

Watch: 9/11 Cheerleading Routine Goes Viral

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cheerleading1A high school cheerleading squad’s stunning 9/11 memorial routine, set to audio from the day of the attacks, went viral after being posted online (video below).

In a video of the routine, students at Lumberton High School in Lumberton, Texas, are seen beginning their routine with a dance set to the song, “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Next, the cheerleaders begin tumbling and cheering to audio of news reports from Sept. 11, 2001, when the twin towers fell in New York City. Audio of then-president George W. Bush making a statement on the attacks can be heard.

The video received mostly positive responses, with many praising the tribute as moving.

“Just watched the Lumberton cheerleader’s 9/11 performance and it gave me chills,” one viewer wrote. “That was awesome.” (Read more from “9/11 Cheerleading Routine Goes Viral” HERE)

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Former CIA and DIA Operatives Warn of Another 9/11 Attack

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9_11_rect1The United States could be facing another 9/11 attack as factions grow deeper among the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, especially with the recently confirmed death of the Taliban’s one-eyed leader Mullah Omar, according to a senior U.S. lawmaker, federal law enforcement and intelligence officials.

The tensions between Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and the Taliban is as dangerous a national security threat to the United States as it was before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said Brian Fairchild, who spent two decades with the CIA and has testified before Congress on terrorism.

“Right now, al-Qaida, under Zawahiri, needs the Khorasan group or some affiliated group to attack the U.S. again like 9/11 in order to lift up his stature and that of the organization,” Fairchild said. “He doesn’t want something small but something big – a big-scale attack like 9/11 to make him relevant again. This is an extremely dangerous time as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban fight and compete for dominance.”

A 32-page Islamic State recruiting document obtained in Pakistan by American Media Institute detailed the growing division between the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. The document — authenticated by retired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and two other senior U.S. intelligence officers — called for the Islamic State group to launch a war with India that would draw the United States into battle and end the world.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) also issued two threatening communications in August calling on believers to take action in the U.S. through more lone-wolf attacks, according to SITE Intelligence Group and Middle-East Research Institute, both of which track terror activity. (Read more from “Former CIA and DIA Operatives Warn of Another 9/11 Attack” HERE)

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Watch: Budweiser Honors 9/11 Victims With This Touching Ad

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United Flight 175 Impacting Two World Trade CenterBy Caroline Bayard. Did you know that the first Budweiser commercial featuring Clydesdales aired back in 1967 — nearly 50 years ago? . . .

The reason? It’s not because it was too racy or controversial. Budweiser only wanted the ad to play one time, because they didn’t want to make any profit off of it. They only wanted to honor the victims of that fateful day in September of the year before. The result was a beautiful tribute, showing the horses on their journey to pay tribute to the fallen.

As you can see in the video, the ad was created on the 10th anniversary, but again, only to acknowledge that awful day and pay tribute to the heroes who were affected.

It’s hard to believe that this year marks the 14th anniversary of 9/11, as even though we’ve grown stronger with time, the wounds still feel fresh and painful. (Read more from “Budweiser Honors 9/11 Victims With This Touching Ad” HERE)

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On 9/11, This Hero Dog Risked His Life to Save a Blind Man, We Will NEVER Forget

By Barbara Diamond. Here’s a 9/11 hero you don’t often hear about…

Omar has been blind since the age of 28. He found Salty through Guiding Eyes For The Blind. The morning of September 11th, 2001 began like any other day. Omar and Salty headed off to work at the World Trade Center to prepare for a meeting. They made it up to the 71st floor when Omar heard the first plane crash into the North Tower.

As the electricity shut down and panic set in, this was the point where Salty could have fled and escaped to save himself — but there was no way he was about to leave his owner behind. Salty ran back and forth to find Omar, alerting him to the fact they had to run to the nearest stairs. There wasn’t enough room in the packed staircase for Omar to hold tightly to Salty’s reigns, so he let go and the dog was completely free. Amidst the wind, smog, and darkness, Salty could have bolted again — but instead, he guided Omar down a whopping 71 flights of stairs. Salty saved Omar’s life before the building collapsed. (Read more from “On 9/11, This Hero Dog Risked His Life to Save a Blind Man, We Will NEVER Forget” HERE)

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UNC’s ‘Literature of 9/11’ Course Sympathizes With Terrorists, Paints U.S. As Imperialistic

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towers-explode-2An English class offered at UNC Chapel Hill this fall called “Literature of 9/11” explores the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks from the perspective of radical Islamists and those who view America as an imperialist nation.

The reading assignments for the class, which includes poems, memoirs and graphic novels, present terrorists in a sympathetic light and American political leaders as greedy, war hungry and corrupt, according to a review by The College Fix.

The readings mostly focus on justifying the actions of terrorists – painting them as fighting against an American regime, or mistaken idealists, or good people just trying to do what they deem right. None of the readings assigned in the freshman seminar present the Sept. 11 attacks from the perspective of those who died or from American families who lost loved ones.

“ENGL 72: Literature of 9/11” is taught by Neel Ahuja, an associate professor of English, comparative literature, and geography at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“Neel grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He studied transnational cultural studies at the University of California, San Diego and gender studies at Northwestern University, where he was a student organizer and labor solidarity activist,” according to his online faculty bio. (Read more from “UNC’s ‘Literature of 9/11’ Course Sympathizes With Terrorists, Paints U.S. As Imperialistic” HERE)

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9/11 ‘Dust Lady’ Marcy Borders Dies From Cancer Aged 42

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marcy-borders-covered-in-dust-pic-getty-images-472951149A woman whose picture became one of the iconic images of the 9/11 terror attacks, leading her to be known simply as the “Dust Lady”, has died from cancer.

Marcy Borders passed away on Monday after a year long battle against the disease.

The 42-year-old mother-of-two was pictured covered head-to-toe in thick dust after being caught up in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Up until her death she always questioned whether her illness was related to what she endured.

“I’m saying to myself ‘Did this thing ignite cancer cells in me?” she once said. (Read more from “9/11 ‘Dust Lady’ Marcy Borders Dies From Cancer Aged 42” HERE)

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Photos Show the inside of Usama Bin Laden’s Pre-9/11 Tora Bora Hideout [+video]

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Newly surfaced photos of Usama bin Laden, taken in his Tora Bora hideout in the years before he launched the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history, and more than a decade before Navy SEALs killed him in his squalid Pakistan compound, show the Al Qaeda mastermind surrounded by guns, books and terrorist toadies.

The pictures were taken in 1996 by Palestinian journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, and introduced at a trial in Manhattan federal court of former Bin Laden deputy Khaled al-Fawwaz. Al-Fawwaz was convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and sentenced to life in prison.

The Saudi-born Bin Laden, who went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Russians, and hid there before and after the 9/11 attacks, lived in a primitive mountain home made of mud and stone. Photos show him smiling with fresh-faced cronies, seated amid massive shelves of books and grinning with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder.

Bin Laden had declared war on the United States and summoned Atwan, who was then-editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, an independent Arabic weekly published in London, to his hideout in an effort to get his jihadist message out to the world.

The photographs were found by Scotland Yard detectives in a search years later of al-Fawwaz’s London home. (Read more from “Photos from inside Usama’s Pre-9/11 Tora Bora Hideout” HERE)

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Student Visas from Saudi Arabia Increase Ten-Fold Since 9/11

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What is happening to our Republic?

Countries like Mexico are able to dictate our immigration policy.

Illegal aliens are able to disrupt congressional proceedings with impunity.

And now, Saudi Arabia is able to control our colleges.

Did Americans ever cast a vote at the ballot box to cede control of our higher education system to Saudi Arabia?

As we learned from the 9/11 attacks, our biggest vulnerability is not our air or naval defenses, it is our immigration system. Yet, not only have the politicians failed to deal with these vulnerabilities, they have blithely ignored the massive expansion of immigrant and non-immigrant visas from Middle Eastern countries since 2001. On average, we’ve issued over 100,000 new green cards to individuals from predominantly Muslim countries every year over the past decade.

Perhaps, the most jarring increase comes from student visas issued to Saudi Arabian nationals. According to the Institute of International Education, based on data compiled by the State Department, we have granted roughly 54,000 student visas to Saudi Arabian nationals during the 2013/14 academic year. This represents an eye-popping 935% increase since 2001. Saudi Arabia is now the 4th leading country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., with the rate of increase growing every year. In total, we have admitted 221,316 students from Saudi Arabia since 2001.

Why the sudden explosion in Saudi student visas, especially given the fact that Saudi Arabian nationals accounted for 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11?

In 2005, terror-supporting Saudi King Abdullah started a scholarship fund which essentially pays for his citizens to attend universities in the U.S. With the rapid rate of increase, and no caps in place on F-1 student visas, Saudi Arabia can theoretically buy out hundreds of thousands of visas in the coming years. This is a pretty good racket for Saudi Arabia because it coincides with their ubiquitous funding of Middle Eastern studies in departments of major American universities. They fund the curriculum and send their foreign nationals to change the environment on our major college campuses.

And what are the results?

Well money can’t buy you love, but it can buy hate and propaganda. The period of growing Saudi influence and concentration in our universities has corresponded with a precipitous rise in anti-Semitism on many major college campuses. When coupled with the broader increase in Muslim immigrant and non-immigrant visas in recent years – to the point that Arabic is the fastest growing language at U.S. colleges – our universities are rapidly becoming ‘little Europes’ for Jewish students.

As we noted earlier, while only a small percentage of these foreign students are likely potential security threats, the growing population from Islamic countries creates the environment that breeds this insidious ideology. It also contributes to the growing anti-Semitism, something we don’t need in this country.

The Institute of International Education also details the fields of study popular among foreign students. Forty-one percent of Saudi students are enrolled in programs within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Roughly 80% of all Iranian foreign students are pursuing degrees in STEM. So when you hear the political class drone on about the need to award more green cards to foreign students graduating in STEM fields, just know that a large portion of them hail from the Middle East. Indeed, U-Mass just took the prudent step of barring all Iranian students from studying nuclear sciences – only to relent after pressure from Muslim community-organizing groups.

And now, in an Orwellian turn of events, a group of radical Islamic leaders are able to meet at the White House and influence our domestic and foreign policies concerning the fight against “extremism.”

When do We the People get a vote? When do we get to decide the future of our country? (This article, “Student Visas from Saudi Arabia Increase Ten-Fold Since 9/11”, reposted with permission from HERE)

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Daniel Horowitz is the Senior Editor of Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @RMConservative.

WATCH: The Reason the Navy SEAL Who Killed bin Laden Decided to Speak Out

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For the man who shot and killed the most wanted terrorist in the world, opening up to the world about the night Osama bin Laden died was about closure.

In a highly anticipated Fox News special focused on him, former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill spoke of the responsibility he thought he had to tell the story of the bin Laden raid. . .

Read more from this story HERE.