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Man Attacks NYPD Officers with Hatchet (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeBy KERRY PICKET.

A Facebook page of man who gruesomely attacked New York police officers with a hatchet Thursday features a profile photo of a heavily-armed man and an image of Islamic prayers, although officials have not confirmed links to extremist documents or jihadi groups at this time.

NBC News, citing law enforcement sources, reported the Facebook page belongs to Zale Thompson, a 32-year-old resident of Queens. The report describes the profile picture of his Facebook page as appearing to be “a Muslim warrior.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: SuppliedNew York axe attack: Man dead, two police officers injured

By news.com.au

A MAN wielding an axe has turned a busy New York street corner into a scene of bloody chaos, chopping one cop in the back of the head and slicing a second cop in the arm before two other officers shot him dead on the spot.

Officer Kenneth Healy, 25, had just five months on the job when madman Zale Thompson, 32, of Queens — a “scholarly” but “weird” recent convert to Islam — fractured the back of his skull with one swing of a small, blue-handled hatchet around 2 p.m.

A 29-year-old woman walking a half-block away from the madness was struck in her back by a stray police bullet and was in stable condition, according to police sources.

The NYPD is investigating whether Islamic extremism played any role in the seemingly random attack, which left the rookie in serious but stable condition Thursday night.

“There’s nothing we know at this time that would indicate that [Islamic terrorism] is the case,” Police Commissioner William Bratton said at a press conference at Jamaica Hospital Thursday night.

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FBI Report Warns of Potential Homegrown ISIS Attacks Against Law Enforcement in US

By BRANDON DARBY.

Photo Credit: APFederal authorities have warned US law enforcement of potential terror attacks against them from homegrown ISIS members or supporters, according to a leaked internal bulletin exclusively obtained by Breitbart Texas. The leaked document is dated October 11, 2014, and was provided by a trusted federal agent who did so on the condition of anonymity.

The memo was issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a Joint Intelligence Bulletin and is titled, “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Its Supporters Encouraging Attacks Against Law Enforcement and Government Personnel.” It is labeled, “UNCLASSIFIED/FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY” and asserts that it may be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and should not be released to the public, the media, or anyone else not authorized by the DHS.

FBI Isis Final

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FBI warns media: Journalists ‘desirable targets’ for ISIL

By DYLAN BYERS.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a bulletin to reporters on Thursday warning that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had identified reporters and media personalities as “desirable targets” for retribution attacks against the United States.

“The FBI assesses, based on open source statements and postings, that [ISIL] members and supporters view members of the US media establishment as legitimate targets for retribution attacks as the US-led air campaign against ISIL in Iraq and Syria continues,” the FBI bulletin states. “Online supporters of ISIL have called—via various social media sites—for retaliation against the United States and US interests abroad, especially since US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria began.”

In the bulletin, the FBI claims to have “recently obtained credible information indicating members of an ISIL-affiliated group are tasked with kidnapping journalists in the region and returning them to Syria. Members of this group might try to mask their affiliation with ISIL to gain access to journalists,” the bulletin reads.

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Peter King On Islamic Terror: ‘Nobody Should Feel Safe’

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By ALEX GRISWOLD.

New York Republican Congressman Peter King told Fox’s Greta Van Susteran that in the wake of the gun attack in Ottawa against Canada’s Parliament, “nobody should feel safe” from Islamic terror.

KING: We were anticipating something like this. Since 9/11 we’ve been on our guard. But especially since this war with ISIS has broken out, we were expecting attacks against the United States, against Canada, against any of the allied countries involved, obviously including the British. And again, when it comes to ISIS they do want to go for the military, for the police, for the national monuments and memorials, they’ve been calling for this. It’s not a secret.

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Photo Credit: Papanikos / NewscomSocial Media Prove Double-Edged Sword for ISIS

By Helle Dale.

ISIS has issued a warning to its members about their use of social media. A new directive from the group’s leaders, first reported by the Financial Times, warned against the dangers presented by metadata and other information contained in digital postings.

A new ISIS hashtag has appeared in Twitter in recent weeks, Himlat Takteem Ialami—the media restraint campaign. And an instruction manual in online behavior was distributed to ISIS members, a copy of which was seen by reporters of the FT. It reads in part:

“A number of security gaps have appeared that have benefited the enemy and have helped expose the identities of some brothers or identify some sites used by the mujahideen with ease,” the manual begins. The information revealed in digital communication, it explains, is the kind of “data that could turn your hair gray.”

Data revealed by Twitter, YouTube and Facebook postings comes in many forms—from more obvious information about individual identities and landscape and urban geography in photos to encoded data from email accounts, servers and location of signals. All this has helped make the air campaign against ISIS more effective.

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Ft. Hood Murderer's Attorney: "I Don't Know Where They Come Up With Workplace Violence"

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Photo Credit: TownHallLast night on The Kelly File Hassan’s current attorney, John Galligan, said he doesn’t understand where the classification of “workplace violence” comes from in this case.

“I don’t know where they come up with the term ‘work place violence.’ I’ve been in the Army 30 years, I’ve been in the practice of law for almost 35 years, work place violence was not the crime for which he was charged, it is not a punishable offense under the UCMJ and it’s certainly not an aggravating factor that would warrant the death penalty. Nidal Hasan was charged with mass murder,” Galligan said, adding the government had the option to charge him with terrorism and didn’t…

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'Isis is Coming': At LEAST 10 ISIS Fighters Have Been Apprehended At US Border

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Photo Credit: Reuters By Chuck Ross.

California U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter made the alarming claim Tuesday that at least ten fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have been apprehended trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border.

“ISIS is coming across the southern border,” Hunter told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.

“You say that they’re coming in the southern border which changes all the dynamics. Do you have any information or any evidence that they are actually coming in the southern border now?” asked the host.

“Yes,” said Hunter.

“Tell me what you know,” said Van Susteren.

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Photo Credit: TownHallWow: Ex-US Soldier Speaks Out About Joining Kurdish Forces to Fight ISIS

By Daniel Doherty.

It’s no secret that a dozen or so Americans have already left the United States to join ISIS, presumably to help them butcher civilians, exterminate infidels, and expand their caliphate. In fact, a US teenager was recently apprehended trying to join the terrorist organization, but was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport shortly before attempting to flee the country.

But apparently there aren’t just traitors and turncoats fighting overseas anymore, either. Right now, there are at least two Americans, frustrated by the current administration’s foreign policy approach to the rise of ISIS, who are actually fighting alongside our allies in Iraq.

One recently sat down with USA Today (after being wounded by shrapnel, as it happens) to explain why he felt compelled to serve…

Read more from this story HERE.

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Reports: ISIS is Winning

By Guy Benson.

The United States and our international partners are conducting airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria, while stepping up efforts to train and equip “moderate” forces on the ground. Our stated goal is to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the terrorist fighting force, which numbers in the tens of thousands. According to multiple reports, our aerial campaign, coupled with a boots on the ground-by-proxy approach, is not working. Top military officials, a former Obama Defense Secertary, and the American people all predicted that the administration’s ‘light footprint’ approach wouldn’t be sufficient to defeat this determined and resourceful enemy. Which brings us to this chilling dispatch from The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg:

The theme of the week in the Syria conflict—that airstrikes are of only limited use in the struggle to degrade and destroy the Islamic State terror group—is about to be underscored in terrible fashion in the besieged border town of Kobani, which is under sustained, and mainly unanswered, assault by as many as 9,000 ISIS terrorists armed with tanks and rocket launchers. I just got off the phone with a desperate-sounding Kurdish intelligence official, Rooz Bahjat, who said he fears that Kobani could fall to ISIS within the next 24 hours. If it does, he predicts that ISIS will murder thousands in the city, which is crammed with refugees—Kurdish, Turkmen, Christian, and Arab—from other parts of the Syrian charnel house. As many as 50,000 civilians remain in the town, Bahjat said. “A terrible slaughter is coming. If they take the city, we should expect to have 5,000 dead within 24 or 36 hours,” he told me. “It will be worse than Sinjar,” the site of a recent ISIS massacre that helped prompt President Obama to fight ISIS. There have been reports of airstrikes on ISIS vehicles, but so far, Bahjat said that these strikes have been modest in scope and notably ineffective. Kobani is located on the Turkish border, but Bahjat said he is receiving reports that Turkey is pulling its troops back, rather than risk armed confrontation with ISIS. “It’s unbelievable—Turkey is in NATO, so you literally have NATO watching what is happening in this town. Everyone can see it—the TV cameras are there, watching. It’s terrible.”

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ISIS Graffiti Is Cropping Up in Washington, D.C.

By Marin Cogan.

Photo Credit: Marin Cogan

On Friday, I noticed something I don’t remember seeing before: ISIS-related graffiti around my Northwest Washington neighborhood.

Here are two examples (at left and below), which appear to say Allahu Akbar, from Connecticut Avenue between Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan:

Photo Credit: Marin Cogan

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Top-Level Turnover Makes it Harder For DHS to Stay On Top of Evolving Threats

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Photo Credit: Jim Watson / AFP / Getty ImagesAn exodus of top-level officials from the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is undercutting the agency’s ability to stay ahead of a range of emerging threats, including potential terrorist strikes and cyberattacks, according to interviews with current and former officials.

Over the past four years, employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database.

The departures are a result of what employees widely describe as a dysfunctional work environment, abysmal morale, and the lure of private SECURITY COMPANIES paying top dollar that have proliferated in Washington since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The department’s terrorism intelligence arm, for example, has cycled through six directors during the Obama administration, decimating morale and contributing to months-long delays in releasing intelligence reports, according to interviews and government reports.

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Australia Thwarts Beheading Plot, says Islamic State Threat Persists

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Photo Credit: Joel Carret / European Pressphoto AgencyAuthorities in Australia have charged a 22-year-old Sydney resident with preparing to sow terror in the country by seizing a person at random and beheading him in a videotaped execution, Australian media reported Thursday.

Omarjan Azari exhibits “an unusual level of fanaticism,” Prosecutor Michael Allnutt told a Sydney court in a successful attempt to deny bail for the bearded young man, who is facing a possible life sentence.

The plot to carry out a random terrorist attack was foiled after a four-month surveillance operation revealed a network of violent Muslim extremists allegedly being directed by a former Australia resident, Mohammad Ali Baryalei, now a major figure in the Islamic State militant group in Syria, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Raids carried out in two Australian cities Thursday resulted in more than a dozen arrests, officials said.

Authorities expressed concern over the scores of Australians being drawn into the violent culture of Islamic State, which has seized broad swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed it a Muslim “caliphate” ruled by a harsh and medieval version of Sharia, or Islamic law.

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Colorado Teenager Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Support ISIS

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Photo Credit: Joshua TrujilloA 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who federal authorities say intended to wage jihad despite their repeated attempts to stop her pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to help the Islamic State militant group in Syria under a plea deal that requires her to help authorities find others with the same intentions.

Shannon Conley, appearing in a striped jail jumpsuit and a brown and black headscarf, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. She said nothing except noting that she understood the plea and its ramifications.

The agreement says she must cooperate with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and provide information about other people in Colorado and elsewhere looking to help terrorists abroad. If she cooperates, prosecutors have promise to ask for a reduction in her sentence but the decision would ultimately would be up to a judge.

Conley was arrested in April while trying to board a flight at Denver International Airport that she hoped would ultimately get her to Syria, authorities said. She was charged with trying to help a terrorist organization and could face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

The trained nurse’s aide from Arvada, Colorado, told agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force that if she couldn’t fight with the Islamic State group, she hoped to use her nursing skills to help the extremists, according to court documents.

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DHS Asks Stores to Watch Customers Behavior for Terrorist Signs

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Photo Credit: APHomeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his department will be issuing new guidance to retailers this week giving them pointers on how to spot potential terrorists among their customers by looking at what they’re buying.

While saying the government cannot prohibit sales of some everyday materials, Mr. Johnson said retailers should be trained to look for anyone who buys a lot from what he described as a “long list of materials that could be used as explosive precursors.”

He said it was an extension of the “If you see something, say something” campaign launched by his predecessor, former Secretary Janet Napolitano, which tries to enlist average Americans to be aware of their immediate environment.

“We can’t and we shouldn’t prohibit the sale of a pressure cooker. We can sensitize retail businesses to be on guard for suspicious behavior by those who buy this kind of stuff,” Mr. Johnson said during a question-and-answer session after a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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West Point Report Describes Islamic State Threat as Crisis 4 Years in the Making

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A new report from the West Point counterterrorism center challenges the notion that the Islamic State only recently became a major terror threat, describing the network’s gains in Iraq as a crisis four years in the making.

Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that top aides to President Obama expect the threat from the organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to outlast Obama’s time in office.

The details underscore the challenge facing the U.S. government and its allies as the president and military advisers weigh how — and where — to confront the Islamist militant forces.

“ISIL did not suddenly become effective in early June 2014: it had been steadily strengthening and actively shaping the future operating environment for four years,” the report from the West Point center said.

The report said that the “shattering” of Iraq’s security forces in June is a “case-in-point, the result of years of patient preparatory operations.”

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Terrorists’ Handbook: In Rhetoric and Tactics, ISIS Sounds a Lot Like an al-Qaeda Manual

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

By Joel Gehrke.

President Obama may not have a strategy for defeating the Islamic State, but the Islamic State has a strategy for the U.S. In fact, that strategy is set out, in part, in an al-Qaeda manual recently translated for the benefit of the U.S. military.

A guerrilla war proceeds in phases, according to Abd al-Aziz al-Muqrin’s A Practical Course for Guerrilla War, a strategic and tactical guide to mujahideen intent on establishing “a pure Islamic system free from defects and infidel elements.” It was written after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.


The first phase is “attrition (strategic defense),” the time for carrying out attacks, “spectacular operations, which will create a positive impact.” The terrorists use the attacks as a recruitment tool and a morale boost for potential jihadis.

Phase two is the time of “relative strategic balance,” when the jihadis build an army to hold territory that has been wrested from the incumbent regime. “There the mujahidin will set up base camps, hospitals, sharia courts, and broadcasting stations, as well as a jumping-off point for military and political actions,” al-Muqrin writes.

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Photo Credit: CBS

Photo Credit: CBS

Al Qaeda Reportedly Targeting The Air Force Academy

By CBS4.

Al Qaeda is reportedly targeting the Air Force Academy. An online Al Qaeda magazine is threatening more attacks on the U.S. and Colorado Springs could be a target.

It’s parents weekend at the Air Force Academy. Each car entering the campus was inspected for any possible sign of a threat.

The Al Qaeda English language online magazine is now suggesting targets for Lone Wolf terror attacks. Among them listed are Times Square, Las Vegas and the Air Force Academy.

Even the CBS4 news vehicles drew attention, “They told me to tell you guys to go back into the parking lot area. It’s a security issue,” one Air Force Academy security officer said.

Read more from this story HERE.