• Kurt Westergaard,  Muhammad Caricatures

    Norway Prosecutor Files Terrorism Charges Against Three in Attack on Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten and Mohammed Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard

    Offices of the Jyllands-Posten Newspaper which published the Mohammed Cartoons

    Remember the “Mumbai-Style” terror attack in late December 2010. Now, there is more.

    Mikael Davud, David Jakobsen and Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak are charged with planning to carry out an assault using explosives on Danish paper Jyllandsposten. The charges also say they planned to shoot Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, author of the controversial Prophet Mohammed caricatures.

    All the men were arrested last year in Oslo and Germany following a Police Security Service (PST) raid.  Authorities suspected they had planned to bomb the Chinese Embassy, with one of the three trying to obtain Hydrogen Peroxide from a pharmacy. This failed due to PST intervention.

    It is also believed the plotters are connected to al-Qaida, and the case has ties to the United States.

    The three men arrived in Norway between 1999 and 2002. Mr Davud and Bujak remain in custody while Mr Jakobsen, who served as an informant for the PST, has been released.

    None of the suspects admit their guilt, but face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

    Here is more from the AP.

    The three men risk prison sentences of up to 12 years, Evanger said.

    Investigators believe the plot was linked to the same al-Qaeda planners behind 2009 schemes to blow up New York’s subway and a British shopping mall.

    An Associated Press investigation last year showed all three plots were thwarted after suspected operatives exchanged emails – sometimes poorly coded – in and out of Pakistan.

    Davud, a 40-year-old ethnic Uighur from China, was charged with receiving explosives training at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and agreeing to blow up one of several offices of Jyllands-Posten in Denmark.

    Bujak and Jakobsen are accused of joining the plot in 2009 and helping acquire bomb-making chemicals.

    Police say they had the men under surveillance and even replaced a vital ingredient with a harmless liquid to ensure they would not succeed in building a bomb.

    Davud and Bujak, a 38-year-old Iraqi Kurd, were also charged with plotting to shoot Westergaard.

    Westergaard drew the most controversial of the 12 cartoons, featuring Mohammed with a lit fuse in his turban. He was the victim of a murder attempt last year and has received several death threats.

    Davud and Bujak have been held in custody since their arrest and have both admitted they were planning an attack, although their versions have differed on who their target was, the first saying it was the Chinese embassy in Oslo and the second claiming it was Jyllands-Posten.

    Jakobsen has denied any responsibility and is currently a free man. He became a police informant in November 2009 but still faced charges for his involvement in the plot before then.

    All three suspects deny any links to al-Qaeda.

    In Norway, plotting a terrorist act alone is not a crime. If at least two people are involved they can be convicted of conspiracy.

    The trial is set to begin on October 31.

    Here are the Mohammed cartoons:

     

  • Herman Cain,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Herman Cain is Popular But Not Well Known

    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Herman Cain’s image among Republicans familiar with him is more intensely positive than any other Republican presidential candidate’s, but his 51% name recognition continues to rank near the bottom of the field. Among the better-known candidates, Rick Perry has the strongest positive image.

    Cain is attracting increased media attention after pulling off an upset in the Florida straw poll on Saturday. Much of the interviewing in the latest data, spanning Sept. 12-25 Gallup Daily tracking, was conducted before that win. However, Cain has consistently ranked near the top of Gallup’s positive intensity list this year. His current score of 26 is just below the 28 he registered on two occasions, which is the highest Gallup has measured for any GOP candidate.

    Cain’s popularity is largely due to the fact that Cain has concrete proposals (e.g. his 9-9-9 plan) and is able to articulate them well. And, he is not a typical POL.

    But, he is an outsider in an inside game and will not be able to put together the money nor the organization to help him win elections.

    Cain’s win in Florida may not be surprising in that he has always had a relatively small but intense following among Republicans, the kind of group that can propel a candidate to win a straw poll vote. His win may make him the new “flavor of the month” in the GOP nomination contest, which was the case for Bachmann in June after the first major candidate debate and for Perry in August after he officially announced his candidacy.

    That status is not necessarily welcome news, though, as increased attention begets increased scrutiny, which can lead to increasingly negative views of the candidate. For example, Bachmann’s current Positive Intensity Score of 8 is one-third as large as her score of 24 in late June. And though Perry remains among the most-liked candidates among those familiar with him, his score is beginning to show some signs of decline as his opponents have made his record and past statements a central theme of the campaign in recent weeks.

    Even if Cain is able to weather increased scrutiny, he does have to convince voters that he is both electable and capable of being president, given his lack of political experience. However, with Americans expressing a low level of trust in government and the people who hold political office, they may view a lack of political experience as more of a plus than a minus.

  • Chris Christie,  President 2012

    President 2012: Chris Christie Ads ARE Running in New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey

    Committee for Our Children’s Future (CCF) ad

    With New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaking this evening at the Reagan Presidential Library here in California, there are and have been television ads supporting Christie’s record on air.

    Backers of Gov. Chris Christie today launched a $1.5 million-dollar television campaign to promote the Republican governor’s policies.

    The Bernardsville-based Committee for Our Children’s Future (CCF), a self-proclaimed independent 501(c)(4) organization, is airing the ad on New York and Philadelphia broadcast and New Jersey statewide cable stations.

    “Washington is moving in the wrong direction. From runaway spending and record debt to gridlock, our federal government is not working. Meanwhile, in New Jersey things are moving in the right direction — two balanced budgets, a billion dollars in wasteful spending cut and millions of dollars in new education funding,” said Brian Jones, spokesperson, Committee for Our Children’s Future.

    “New Jersey should serve as a national model for government leaders across the country. It’s time for a better economic future for taxpayers, working families, and our children. We must protect our children’s future and keep the New Jersey reform movement going.”

    The ad launch roughly coincided with Christie’s education reform kickoff this month in time for campaign season.

    At his press conference today, Christie said he is not personally responsible for the group’s efforts but welcomed their support.

    Christie has quite a decision to make and he must make it soon.

    Maybe there will some hint or direction at the presser after his speech at the Reagan Library?

  • Chris Christie,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Why the GOP Should NOT Settle for Mitt Romney – The Unaired Ted Kennedy Television Ads

    The press and pundits have been good lately reporting the collapse of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign for the Presidency. Well, he did perform poorly at the past two GOP Presidential debates and he lost the Florida GOP Straw Poll to Herman Cain.

    But, hold on…..

    Who is the alternative?

    The answer is Mitt Romney.

    But, what about Romney?

    Romney is NO conservative and will have illegal immigration problems with the GOP base when he is scrutinized – or Perry runs his ads. Remember this from the 2008 campaign.

    But, what conservatives need to understand before they “SETTLE” for Mitt Romney and throw Rick Perry under the bus is that Romney is VULNERABLE to the attacks Ted Kennedy used against him in 1994. See the devastating ads in the above video that Kennedy did NOT even have to run.

    Obama will run these type of ads BUT ON STEROIDS – just like they ran against Carly Fiorina in California last year.

    New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is speaking at the Reagan Presidential Library this evening. He would be a welcome addition to the Presidential field. However, if he or Mitch Daniels do not enter the Presidential arena, don’t be so hard on Rick Perry.

    Understand what you are getting should Romney win the GOP Presidential nomination.

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