U.S. intel alerted to threat of 'Forest Fire Jihad'
U.S. intel alerted to threat of 'Forest Fire Jihad'
World Tribune ^ | January 15, 2008 | Staff
U.S. officials monitoring terrorist web sites have discovered a call for using forest fires as weapons against “crusader” nations, in what may explain some recent wildfires in places like southern California and Greece.
A terrorist website was discovered recently that carried a posting that called for “Forest Jihad.” The posting was listed on the Internet on Nov. 26 and reported in U.S. intelligence channels last week. The statement, in Arabic, said that “summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”
The writer called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to “start forest fires.”
The posting quoted imprisoned Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab Al-Suri, as saying “Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.” Al-Suri is a senior Al Qaida leader captured in Pakistan in 2005 who is believed to be in U.S. custody.
“The idea of forest fires is attributed to him, may God set him free, as is in this short clip,” the writer stated.
The posting said that setting forest fires were legal under extremist Islamic law as part of a “eye for an eye” and that can produce “amazing results.”
Wildfires in California burned more than 500,000 acres beginning in October and authorities said arson was to blame for some of the fires. In August, wildfires broke out in Greece that authorities say were deliberately set.
The writer stated that it was permissible to burn trees in carrying out jihad.
“Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands,” the writer said.
The writer stated that “targeted forests” are in the nations that “are at war with Muslims,” including the United States, Europe, Russia, and Australia.
Other nations, including Brazil are “off limits” because Brazil has not joined the “armies of the crusade.”
On damage caused by wildfires, the report said that the fires typically take months to put out which means that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time.”
The fires also will cause economic damage because it will limit exports of timber used to make furniture and also will cause losses to pharmaceutical companies that use trees for ingredients for drugs, the posting said.
Smoke caused by the fires will create pollution and military forces could be tied up fighting fires. The report noted that U.S. military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan “could even be recalled” as occurred following hurricane Katrina, which did not occur.
“Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organization were to claim responsibility for (starting) the forest fires,” the writer said. “You can hardly begin to imagine the level of the fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia, and in Australia.”
The report said that Abu Musab Al-Suri, urges terrorists to use sulphuric acid to start a forest fire, as well as gasoline.
The article was signed by Abu Thar Al-Kuwaiti, on behalf of a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network.
November 21st, 2018, 21:38
vector7
Re: U.S. intel alerted to threat of 'Forest Fire Jihad'
Oh the many facets of jihad! Now we’re seeing fire jihad in America. According to reporter David Barnett, a Palestinian jihadist group, Masada al Mujahideen, has recently claimed credit for the ongoing wildfires in Arizona in a statement that was posted to a jihadist forum on Wednesday.
The statement, titled “Masada al-Mujahideen Fulfilled its Promise and Attacked America Again After the Expiration of the Period with Fires that Achieved Historic Results,” was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
“We had previously announced an unconventional war against the occupation state of Israel, and then we escalated this war to reach its main supporter, America, so that it receives a major share of it, which will destroy their flora and fauna, with permission from Allah and then with our hands,” the group said.
The statement further said that the group targeted the United States “in order to make it clear and to make it know we can reach it when we warn it, and to make it certain that our hands don’t just reach it but also strike it.”
The group warned that the attacks “will not be the last…if America does not respond to our demands.” The statement boasted that 19 firefighters had been killed in the fires.
Authorities contradict Masada al-Mujahideen’s claims, saying that they believe the fires were started by lightning.
This is not the first time they have claimed responsibility for fires in the United States. In January of 2012, they also claimed credit for wildfires in Nevada and they have claimed credit for over a dozen fires in Israel since 2010.
They have also claimed numerous attacks on Israel other than the fires, including rocket and mortar attacks.
Masada al-Mujahideen formed in April of 2008, claiming Abu Omar al Ansari as its leader.
Whether their claims are true or not is anyone’s guess. However, Pamela Geller points out:
The devout Muslim group, Al Qaeda, has long urged the setting of forest fires as a form of jihad (holy war). Spring 2012: al-Qaeda’s English-language online magazine, Inspire, published an article called “It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb,” which featured instructions on how to build an incendiary bomb to light forests on fire.
What should disturb everyone is that anyone would claim responsibility for such atrocities, especially these guys, right? They’re from the “religion of peace” (Yes, there’s loads of sarcasm laced in that statement.)
A Palestinian jihadist group, Masada al Mujahideen, has claimed credit for starting the ongoing Arizona wildfire that has killed 19 firefighters, according to a report from The Long War Journal’s David Barnett.
The Long War Journal is a project of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, whose leadership council includes among others former CIA Director R. James Woolsey Jr. and Former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
According to the report, the SITE Intelligence Group obtained and translated from a jihadist Internet forum a statement titled “Masada al-Mujahideen Fulfilled its Promise and Attacked America Again After the Expiration of the Period with Fires that Achieved Historic Results.”
The statement boasted of the deaths of the 19 firefighters and claimed, “We had previously announced an unconventional war against the occupation state of Israel, and then we escalated this war to reach its main supporter, America, so that it receives a major share of it, which will destroy their flora and fauna, with permission from Allah and then with our hands.”
The statement further said that the group targeted the United States “in order to make it clear and to make it known we can reach it when we warn it, and to make it certain that our hands don’t just reach it, but also strike it.”
The Arizona fire killed 19 of 20 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew, the greatest loss of life for firefighters in a wildfire since 1933 and the deadliest day for U.S. firefighters since the 9/11 when 340 died.
“Just as we remembered the brave men who ran into the twin towers,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said, “we will also remember the men of the Granite Mountain Hotshots.”
Thus far, however, ABC News reports authorities believe the Arizona wildfire began with a lightning strike in Yarnell, Ariz., about 90 miles northwest of Phoenix, before spreading to roughly 6,000 acres amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.
As WND reported, authorities have said a similarly deadly fire that struck Colorado last month was not the result of any “lightning strike.”
“One thing that my investigators have given me the authority to state is that they have all but ruled out natural causes as the cause of this fire,” said Colorado’s El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa. “I can’t really go any further on that, but I can say we are pretty confident it was not, for instance, a lightning strike.”
One expert on Islamic terrorism believes the wildfire that ravaged the outskirts of Colorado Springs, killing two people and destroying more than 500 homes, should be examined by terror investigators, if for no other reason because of the history of threats from al-Qaida and others to burn America’s forests.
At the American Center for Democracy, noted terror funding expert Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote that Bill Scott, a senior fellow at ACD, warned about terrorist fires last July, speaking at the briefing on Capital Hill.
“An expert on aerial firefighting, he presented a sobering analysis of the devastating (2012) Waldo Canyon Fire [in Colorado], pointing out that the striking rise [in] Western U.S. wildfires may be caused by elements other than nature,” Ehrenfeld wrote. “He noted that in spring 2012, al-Qaida’s English-language online magazine, Inspire, published an article called ‘It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb,’ which featured instructions on how to build an incendiary bomb to light forests on fire.”
She explained that Russia’s security chief, Aleksandr Bortnikov, also has warned, “Al-Qaida was complicit in recent forest fires in Europe” as part of terrorism’s “strategy of a thousand cuts.”
“Since then, more fatwas advocating that ‘fire is a cheap, easy and effective tool for economic warfare’ have been issued,” Ehrenfeld wrote. “They’ve included detailed instructions for constructing remote-controlled ‘ember bombs, and how to set fires without leaving a trace.’”
Israel’s forests also have been targeted, she noted.
“While many of the fires that have scorched millions of acres and destroyed thousands of homes in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and other states have been identified as arson, none has been publicly attributed to criminal or terrorist groups, despite the presence of Mexican gangs and [a] large number of other illegals in our Western states,” she said.
Mother Jones reported Don Smurthwaite, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman, “downplayed” Ehrenfeld’s ideas, “but he didn’t dismiss the notion outright.”
“We don’t have any hard evidence that any wildfires in the U.S. were started by terrorists in recent years,” he told the publication. “But is it a possibility? Certainly.”
He noted the last confirmed weaponized wildfires were in World War II, when the Japanese sent incendiary balloons across the Pacific.
The terror group’s magazine included pictures, diagrams and explanations on how to start fires to obtain the most damage.
CBN analyst Erick Stakelbeck said the extreme detail provides reason for concern. The information, he said, is “all designed to cause the maximum amount of carnage and death.”
CBN noted that in the U.S., more houses are built in the countryside than in the cities and cited a Montana fire chief who said the prospect of a wildfire terrorist attack was not farfetched.
WND also reported websites run by jihadis made claims of arson in a number of California wildfires.
WND reported in 2004 that an Arabic-language jihadi website also posted a message purporting to be “al-Qaida’s plan of economic attack” on the U.S. that including proposals to turn the nation’s forests into raging infernos.
The National Terror Alert Response Center report said: “We are NOT implying that the California fires are an act of terrorism; however, the threat of pyro-terrorist attacks pose a significant risk to the U.S. and the fires in California and Greece earlier this year should be a wake-up call.”
Even in 2003, an FBI memo warned that national forests in the West could be the next target for terror by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The memo, obtained by the Arizona Republic, warned law enforcement that a senior al-Qaida detainee told interrogators he planned to spark multiple, catastrophic wildfires simultaneously in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming to strike a blow to the U.S. economy.
WND also reported documents recovered from a remote area along the Pakistan border revealed that bin Laden wanted al-Qaida to launch a “global fireball” by lighting forest fires in Europe, the United States, Australia and South America.
The documents, uncovered during an operation led by the British intelligence service MI6, were described by experts in that agency as “the most worrying [plot] that the world is facing.”
One of the many media groups supporting ISIS operations online claimed that the deadly wildfires in northern and southern California are retribution for coalition bombings in Syria.
The image circulated online by Al-Ansar Media uses a photo of a burning building and misspells the state "kalifornia."
"O america, This is the punishment of bombing Muslims in Syria," states the text. "This is Allah's punishment for you. And in shaa Allah, you will see more fires. Praise be to Allah."
The Camp Fire in Butte County, north of Sacramento in California's Gold Rush country, has claimed the lives of at least 48 people, according to Cal Fire incident stats today. The blaze, which started Thursday, has destroyed 7,600 residences and 260 commercial buildings, making it the most destructive fire in the state's history as it ripped through Paradise, Calif., at a speed of 80 acres per minute. It was 35 percent contained today at 130,000 acres. The cause is still under investigation.
The Woolsey Fire has torched 97,620 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties after starting on Thursday, and was 47 percent contained today. The blaze resulted in the evacuation of Malibu, reaching the Pacific Coast Highway. There have been two fatalities and 483 structures destroyed including several celebrities' homes. The cause of this blaze is also still under investigation.
ISIS has not officially taken responsibility for either of the fires. The terror group has previously suggested both wildland and commercial or residential arson as an attack tactic.
This time last year, as several wind-whipped blazes ravaged California, ISIS highlighted the ferocity and toll of the wildfires in multiple issues of their al-Naba newsletter, which usually focuses on news from around ISIS' occupied territories and conflict zones.
In January 2017, ISIS' Rumiyah magazine -- which was published in multiple languages including English yet is no longer produced by the terror group -- stressed to would-be jihadists that "incendiary attacks have played a significant role in modern and guerrilla warfare, as well as in 'lone wolf' terrorism," claiming a November fire at a furniture factory in Losino-Petrovsky, Russia, and highlighting scores of wildfires around Israel that month as incidents that "demonstrated the lethality of such an effortless operation."
Suggested target locations for arson attacks, the magazine stated, "include houses and apartment buildings, forest areas adjacent to residential areas, factories that produce cars, furniture, clothing, flammable substances, etc., gas stations, hospitals, bars, dance clubs, night clubs, banks, car showrooms, schools, universities, as well as churches, Rafidi [Shiite] temples, and so forth. The options are vast, leaving no excuse for delay."
Jihadists were advised to time their arson "preferably in the later part of night to the early hours of morning when people are generally asleep," and instructions were offered on how to block off exits to inflict casualties. For wildfires, ISIS said to look for dry brush "as fire cannot endure in damp or wet environments." Arsonists were encouraged to leave the mark of ISIS somewhere near the fire site with spray paint or black marker.
November 21st, 2018, 21:44
vector7
Re: U.S. intel alerted to threat of 'Forest Fire Jihad'
