Hump-Day Link-Around: Iran Warned That Terrorism Was Coming To America

Read: Cowboy hat-wearing hero tends to Boston marathon victims

This post is going to be a collection of odds and ends the media isn’t picking up on for a variety of reasons, but mostly because not all of it is substantiated. There are a lot of conflicting theories out there about what happened in Boston – I report – you decide.

This report by  Reza Kahlili of WND may have a larger meaning or it may just be a coincidence.

A senior commander of the Islamic regime had warned less than two months ago that terrorism was coming to America.

“If the people of America and Europe do not confront the aggressive policies of their governments, they cannot then remain far from the possible future events (terror attacks),” the regime’s armed forces deputy chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, said in a Feb. 23 interview with Fars News Agency, a media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards. “Al-Qaida groups and other services which operate for the interests of America (in Syria) will soon change the region of their operations and thereafter create new problems for America and Europe.”

Jazayeri, objecting to U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war, warned that explosions similar to those in Syria would take place in other countries.

Aaron Klein is reporting that an al-Qaida-allied group in the Gaza Strip is “claiming that there have been arrests of jihadists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of the probe into yesterday’s Boston Marathon explosions.”

The arrests could not be immediately confirmed.

Members of Gaza’s Jihadiya Salafia group further said that al-Qaida is being credited for the attack in its affiliated online forums.

The Gaza sources told WND the online al-Qaida forum messages claimed the bombings were an al-Qaida response to a U.S. military airstrike that killed a high-profile Taliban leader and four other Taliban members last week near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.

Jihadia Salafia represents al-Qaida in Gaza.

It was not immediately clear whether the Internet claims should be taken seriously or simply represented jihadists utilizing the explosions.

Debka File reported on Tuesday that a Saudi terror cell, possibly al Qaeda, behind Boston Marathon bombings. Manhunt for escaped suspect.

DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources can disclose however that the investigation has in fact homed in on a suspected terror cell of three Saudi nationals, very possibly tied to Al Qaeda.
The flat they share in the Revere, Massachusetts, near Boston, was searched after the questioning of one of the suspects, a Saudi student, who was hospitalized with badly burned hands. One of his flatmates was taken into custody over “visa problems.” A third is on the run. All three hail from a prominent Saudi family belonging to a tribe from the Asir province bordering on Yemen.

The search for the wanted man led to the grounding of a plane at Logan International Airport Tuesday.  The investigation has meanwhile broadened out to places in and outside Boston in a search for the cell’s accomplices.

The origins of the Saudi cell, if confirmed, strongly suggest that Al Qaeda of Arabia – AQAP –succeeded in planting a cell in the United States for the bombing attack in Boston – and possibly more than one in other parts of the US. Asir Province is known as a hotbed of resistance to the Saudi throne in Riyadh.
US law enforcement authorities in charge of the probe are refusing to confirm any suspects are in custody, or even leads to whoever carried out the bombings. President Barack Obama said in his second statement in 24 hours: “…we don’t know if who was behind the bombings were foreign, domestic or individual.” The President was forced to admit for the first time that the FBI was investigating “an act of terror.”

However, it’s being widely reported that the Saudi national is no longer a person of interest.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed members of the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors in a pre-scheduled hearing that was supposed to focus on the budget, but Clapper began with an update of the bombings. Ranking RepublicanSaxby Chambliss (R-GA) emerged from the briefing and said he was told the 22-year old Saudi student who was injured during the bombings and remains in the care of a local hospital was no longer a focus of investigators.

“He was never categorized as a suspect; he was a person of interest. My understanding is that he totally cooperated and that he is no longer a person of interest,” Chambliss said.

But Walid Shoebat says not so fast: “Innocent” Saudi has ties to several Al-Qaeda Terrorists:

Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:

#15 Badr Saud Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#73 Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#26 Khalid Salim Uwaid Al-Lahibi Al-Harbi
#29 Raed Abdullah Salem Al-Thahiri Al-Harbi
#43 Abdullah Abdul Rahman Muhammad Al-Harbi (leader)
#60 Fayez Ghuneim Humeid Al-Hijri Al-Harbi
Source: http://aalhameed1.net/vb/showthread.php?t=1565

Then you have Al-Harbi clan members in Gitmo:

Salim Salman Awadallah Al-Sai’di Al-Harbi
Majid Abdullah Hussein Al-Harbi
Muhammad Abdullah Saqr Al-Alawi Al-Harbi
Ghanem Abdul Rahman Ghanem Al-Harbi
Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awfi Al-Harbi
Source: http://www.muslm.net/vb/showthread.php?169019-أسماء-(90)-سعودياً-لا-زالوا-محتجزين-في-جوانتانامو

There are specific Saudi clans that are rife with members of Al-Qaeda, which makes it quite alarming as to why nearly a hundred thousand student visas are issued to these. Americans are clueless as to clan ties when it comes to terrorism.

Lesson one: Terrorism and crime by the Saudis is interlinked extensively within families, as we see in the Harbi clan.

Let me explain. Americans will never find the Kaczynski Clan official website supporting Ted Kaczynski.

Saudi Arabia is a far different story.

Shoebat was interviewed by Michael Savage, Tuesday night.

The DAILY MAIL is reporting that “Barack Obama’s administration has cut the budget nearly in half for preventing domestic bombings.”

Under President George W. Bush, the Department of Homeland Security had $20 million allocated for preventing the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by terrorists working inside the United States. The current White House has cut that funding down to $11 million.

That assessment comes from Robert Liscouski, a former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 that killed three Americans and injured at least 173 others.

Meanwhile (surely, you saw this coming): TOP DEMOCRATS: SEQUESTER HURTING BOSTON BOMB VICTIMS:

The head of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), said on Tuesday that the sequester’s $85 billion slowdown in the rate of federal spending growth is hurting Boston’s ability to respond to Monday’s terrorist attack, which claimed at least three lives, injured 176, and resulted in over 25 Americans losing at least one leg.

“Chances are the mayor in Boston is now having to figure out how to cover for the extra costs involved in having so many people out there, for security, for emergency medical assistance,” said Becerra. “He’s probably now had to supplant money from some other part of his budget. Whether it’s community police, whether it’s a vaccine for kids provided through the city, they’ve got to pay for it.”

Big Government: House Minority Whip Blames Boston Marathon Bombings on Sequester:

In responding to a question about whether Monday’s bombings would force Congress to address the sequester, Hoyer said, “I think there are multiple reasons for ensuring that we invest in our security — both domestic and international security.”

Hoyer went on to say  that the country should not pursue “an irrational, across-the-board policy of cutting the highest priorities and the lowest priorities essentially the same percentage.”

“I think this is another proof of that–if proof is needed, which I don’t think frankly it is,” Hoyer said, in reference to the Boston Marathon bombings.

Nice try, ghouls, but the Republicans offered the president a plan that would have given the Office of Management and Budget flexibility in implementing the $85 billion worth of spending cuts scheduled for fiscal year 2013.

He rejected the offer.

 Bob Owens: Shock the system? Electrical grid, comms attacked near San Jose:

Many have tried to warn authorities of the fragility of of the electric grid’s substations including Herschel Smith and myself. Now someone in California seems to have taken it upon themselves to prove the theory, and then some:

California energy officials urged people in the South Bay to cut back on power use Tuesday after a PG&E substation was damaged by vandals overnight.

The California Independent System Operator issued a Flex Alert for Tuesday, asking Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley utility customers to cut down their electricity use until midnight, including by lowering lighting, turning off thermostats and powering down unnecessary appliances.

Vandals appeared to have shot up a bank of transformers at a PG&E transmission center just southeast of San Jose, a PG&E spokesman said. Crews were working to clean up an oil spill caused by bullet holes.

Could it have been vandals? That is a possibility. But this doesn’t seem like the kind of behavior I’d expect from random thugs, shooting over or through a fence. Instead, the facility’s perimeter fencing was breached and then key transformers apparently came under fire from inside the facility. The “vandals” also hit a secondary target:

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department said there was a breach of the security fence at approximately 3:25 a.m., and five transformers at the substation were vandalized by the gunfire.

Lee Stranahan, Big Journalism: CNN: PRESSURE COOKER BOMB ‘RIGHT-WING’ SIGNATURE:

This specific claim that “pressure cooker bombs have also been a signature of extreme right-wing individuals in the United States” appears to be completely unsubstantiated. Not a single example is given even in the CNN story itself of anyone other than al-Quadea using a pressure cooker bomb.

The article goes on to discuss the Olympic Park bombing by anti-abortion terrorist Erich Rudolph but those bombings were done with pipe bombs, not pressure cooker bombs. As the article says:

For example, the devices planted by Erich Rudolph at an Atlanta park during the 1996 Olympic Games were pipe bombs filled with gunpowder and nails to increase their lethality; it also had an alarm clock as a timing mechanism. Like the bombings in Boston, those devices were concealed in a backpack, according to a Department of Homeland Security report detailing the 1996 attack.

The claim in the previous paragraph was about pressure cooker bombs being a signature of right-wing extremists, not the use of pipe bombs or the more general use of a timer or a backpack.

As Breitbart News explained, instructions on how to make a pressure cooker bomb were provided in an issue of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. While it’s certainly possible that anyone of any political belief could have made such a device, there is no available data to indicate that any “right-wing” group in the United States or elsewhere has ever done so.

Larry O’Conner: MSNBC Analyst Falsely Claims Bush Disappeared ‘Couple Weeks’ After 9/11:

What a complete ditz.

MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid is either grossly misinformed, ignorant or just willing to lie to NBC’s audience.

In an effort to enhance her glowing praise of President Obama’s response to the Boston Marathon bombings, Reid contrasted it with her memory of President Bush’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“Having, sort of, one person communicating with you is very important. We learned after 9/11 that when George W. Bush didn’t do it, Rudy Giuliani stepped in.  The whole country was waiting for him to come on the television for those first couple of weeks because you didn’t see the president.  President Obama has definitely learned the lesson that you have to speak early, speak often, speak confidently.”

Of course, Reid is just wrong.

Michelle Malkin:  America’s Empty Slogan: “See Something, Say Something”:

In brief remarks to the nation yesterday on the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama said that “we all have a part to play in alerting authorities.If you see something suspicious, speak up.” In Washington, D.C., electronic signs urged commuters to be on guard. Law enforcement, big-city mayors and security experts all echoed that famous post-terrorism refrain:“If you see something, say something.”

But who really means it?

In post-9/11 America, the truth is that our politically correct guardians only want you to see, say or do something if it can’t be construed by grievance-mongers as racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, nativist or any other “-ist” or “-ic.”

Face it: We live in a self-defeating culture that pays lip service to heroic action in times of crisis, yet brutally punishes the very kind of snap judgments and instant security profiling that make such heroism possible in the first place.

Just take a look at some of the caustic reactions to citizens and watchdogs who stuck out their necks during and after the Boston Marathon bombings. A quick-thinking spectator at the race reportedly tackled a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student visa holder he believed was acting suspiciously. The student is not considered a suspect at this point, but remains a “person of interest” in the case. [Update: Late yesterday, the feds said the student is now a “witness.”] The student’s home was searched Monday night in Revere, Mass., by a phalanx of law enforcement agencies.

Time magazine correspondent Michael Crowley clucked: “It’ll be a real shame if a Saudi guy was tackled and held simply for running in fright — and for being an Arab.” Music producer Sledgren took to Twitter to bemoan “prejudice in America.” Indian television anchor Gargi Rawat called the civilian’s actions “sad.” Gawker editor Max Read declared: “(T)his poor Saudi kid should sue the guy who tackled him.”

The Conversation: Second Ricin-Laced Letter Addressed To Barack Obama:

Via The Weekly Standard: 

“An FBI bulletin obtained by Fox News also said a second letter was sent to Obama, and was intercepted. That letter is still being screened,” Fox News reports.

The bulletin said both letters included the phrase: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”

Both were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”