Report: Islamists in Prague had planned mass murder of Jews

[Behind the Aegis]

PRAGUE - Islamic extremists planned to kidnap dozens of Jews in Prague and hold them hostage before murdering them, the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes reported on Friday.

The Czech Republic's leading newspaper quoted unidentified sources close to intelligence agencies as saying the captives would have been held in a Prague synagogue while the captors made broad demands that they knew could not be fulfilled.

When those demands - which were not specified by the sources - were not met, the extremists would blow up the building, killing all who were inside, the paper added.

The paper, which gave other few details, did not say whether any arrests were made and did not specify the identities of the extremists.


more...

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. Yeah, this is really what we need going on these days. n/t

[intaglio]

2. Oh yeah?

Give me leave to think that maybe this story is a plant.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Haaretz

is not always a reliable source.

I would wait to see if this story is reported anywhere else first.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. It appears the story originated in the Czech Republic

Mladá fronta DNES or MF DNES, the most influential daily newspaper in the Czech Republic is the original source.

[pampango]

9. The story has been picked up by Spiegel Online and the Scotsman...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,441131,00.html

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1479602006

Don't know if the story is true or not. If true, it does highlight the dilemna that we will have, hopefully, in 2009 with a Democratic president. If a terrorist plot is broken up before it happens, the Republicans will not believe it. If the plot succeeds, they will point out how ineffective our anti-terrorism policy is.

I will wait for more information on this story, but I assume that the .01% of Muslims represented by terrorists are spending their time planning something somewhere.

[cali]

6. Of course you have leave to think that

but is there any particular reason that you do?

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. They lost me after the Shuttle Columbia crashed

when they said that 'Ilan Ramon became Israel’s first fallen soldier in this remote arena – the battle-field of the 21st century.'

There's a copy of the original article in the PDF file at the link.

http://www.newseum.org/frontpages/columbia/020203pdf/ISR_HA.pdf#search=%22ramon%20Israel%E2%80%99s%20first%20fallen%20soldier%20%22

[0007]

26. Thank you.

[pampango]

27. By "They lost me...", you mean Haaretz, right?

Not all Israeli newspapers or all Jews? If you are talking about Haaretz, I don't know that much about it. It may be slanted like many American papers are.

We sill have to see if this story is verified by other papers and other sources. I don't normally believe any one source, left, right, or center, without verification from other sources.

[Lurking Dem]

29. Ha'aretz is left wing

[pampango]

35. I don't know if DoYouEverWonder agrees with your view

of Haaretz? If so, that would give the article more credibility.

Still, the story may or may not be true. Time will tell. If true, then the planned crime would obviously been a great atrocity, regardless of who the perpetrators were.

[AliceWonderland]

32. The poster meant the publication Haaretz

It's in the pdf link in the post, a Haaretz story. There are so many spurious accusations of anti-Semitism floating around these days, and the more clarification the better. Anti-Semitism is a serious charge, and these days, a charge that is heavily abused.

[cali]

51. Baloney.

Frankly I think the charge that one gets charged with anti-semitism the moment one engages in criticism of Israel is every bit as much a bullshit line as someone who actually charges anti-semitism when it's not warrented. Both are ploys to shut down the other side. Both suck. You just engaged in it. And btw, there are far more examples and real incidents of anti-semitism, than there are false charges.

[AliceWonderland]

57. I completely agree that both are harmful

And personally, I dislike spurious charges of anti-Semitism because they detract from the seriousness of the change. I feel the same about charges of racism or sexism. These are grave problems, and need to be treated as such. Someone asked if the poster in question was talking about Jews, Israeli newspapers, or one particular newspaper, and that point needed clarification. From the link posted, the poster was referring specifically to his opinion of the reliability of one publication -- that needed to be stated, whether one agrees with the opinion or not.

All forms of hate that cause violence are an abomination, from anti-Semitism to racism that underlies wars on entire ethnic groups. We need as much clarity as possible to deal with these issues. We sling around concepts in our society, and it doesn't lead to understanding, let alone solutions.

I was specifically concerned with the misunderstanding in the jump from a judgement on one newspaper article to to a larger, more serious judgement. I don't think the poster meant that at all.

[DoYouEverWonder]

36. Yes, Haaretz

The article in the OP was from Haaretz.

[MrPrax]

33. Woohoo...missed that one n/t

[legin]

41. I deleted Haaretz from my bookmarks too

a while ago.

An editariol article during the attack on Lebanon at Haaretz, titled:
"Why this is the most moral war in our 100 year history"
made me very glad I had done so.

[Behind the Aegis]

48. and?

As you have admitted, the source was not Ha'aretz. So why the lingering doubt?

[DoYouEverWonder]

50. Like I said already

Since their reporting on the Shuttle Columbia was so over the line, I find they are not a reliable primary source.

It turns out that this story originated in the Czech Republic and was picked up by a number of sources indicates that the story is probably credible.

[pampango]

56. Thanks for the edit. I respect that. n/t

[sugapablo]

11. Well it is just some stinkin' lying Jews, so who they hell cares?

Bunch of lying zionist agressors anyways.

Isn't Israel to blame for this? I'm sure it must be.


(Do I need that little sarcasm emoticon?)

[PCIntern]

14. Yeah you do need that emoticon...

b/c lately, your posts could fall right in line with a bunch of others I've read.


:evilfrown: :evilgrin: :hippie: :party: :toast: :bounce: :mad: :puke: :eyes: :smoke: :think: :crazy: :silly: :wtf: :argh: :freak: :dunce: :hangover: :nopity: :hurts: :boring: :spank: :wow: :beer: :grr: :nuke: :scared: :thumbsdown: :thumbsup: :hi: :dem: :kick: :shrug: :puffpiece: :loveya: :donut: :tinfoilhat: :hug: :grouphug: :cry: :pals: :headbang: :yourock: :banghead: :dilemma: :blush: :rant: :sarcasm: :woohoo: :applause: :hide: :popcorn: :rofl: :spray: :patriot: :yoiks:

[The Stranger]

15. The irony of your post is that the new "Other," the new racial and ethnic

enemy, the existential threat to the West and Christendom, complete with its own evil, twisted caricatures blasted daily in the worldwide media, is the Arab/Asian Muslim.

[cali]

19. Anyone who peruses through

the threads on that cesspool freerepublic, can see that there's much truth in what you say: It's shocking the open villification of Islam and Muslims. Nevertheless, that age old and deeply rooted prejudice against Jews is still a very real problem. It's not either/or. We need to be vigilant about both. And one other thing; there are billions of Muslims and a mere 13 million Jews in the world.

[PCIntern]

21. Cali

I would love to respond, agree with you, AND AMPLIFY, but I'll get in trouble and I promised to be good around here.

[The Stranger]

37. We agree again.

By the way, I'm an excellent dinner conversationalist.

[cali]

43. LOL

and I'm a terrific cook, but I'm not sure we agree, unless you also concur with my statement about anti-semitism being a stubborn problem, that is no less of a problem because of anti-Muslim bigotry.

[crikkett]

38. Yes.

:evilfrown:

[Henny Penny]

54. Have you considered removing the word "that" from your post? n/t

[PsychoDad]

3. Lots of "unknown knowns" in that story.....

As rummy would say.

And why the Jews of Prauge?

It will be intersting to see if the story unfolds.

Peace.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. See #28. -nt

[Judi Lynn]

7. I doubt you'd EVER see a bogus story anywhere. It can't happen!

World: “Rumsfeld’s fake news flop in Iraq”
Sunday, 17 September 2006
The U.S. has previously admitted that it is running a campaign to plant fake news stories and articles in Iraqi papers in an effort to improve its tarnished image in the country.

Last December, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Pentagon secretly paid Iraqi newspapers to run articles supporting the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq.

The Times said the articles in question were written by U.S. soldiers, and translated into Arabic by a defence contractor which helps get them published in Iraqi newspapers.

The paper moreover stated at that time that those articles were later presented as unbiased accounts by independent journalists, rather than stemming from the U.S. military.
(snip/...)

http://www.sibernews.com/the-news/world-news/%93rumsfeld%92s-fake-news-flop-in-iraq%94-200609175640/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Controlling the Message
"Among the missions proposed for the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence was one to 'coerce' foreign journalists and plant false information overseas. Secret briefing papers also said the office should find ways to 'punish' those who convey the 'wrong message.' One senior officer told CNN that the plan would 'formalize government deception, dishonesty and misinformation'," Bamford wrote.

"According to the Pentagon documents, John Rendon would use his media analysis to conduct a worldwide propaganda campaign, deploying teams of information warriors to allied nations to assist them 'in developing and delivering specific messages to the local population, combatants, front-line states, the media and the international community.' Among the places Rendon's info-war teams would be sent were Jakarta, Indonesia; Islamabad, Pakistan; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Cairo; Ankara, Turkey; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The teams would produce and script television news segments 'built around themes and story lines supportive of U.S. policy objectives.'

"Rendon was also charged with engaging in 'military deception' online -- an activity once assigned to the OSI. The company was contracted to monitor Internet chat rooms in both English and Arabic -- and 'participate in these chat rooms when/if tasked.' Rendon would also create a Web site 'with regular news summaries and feature articles. Targeted at the global public, in English and at least four (4) additional languages, this activity also will include an extensive e-mail push operation.' These techniques are commonly used to plant a variety of propaganda, including false information," Bamford wrote.
(snip/...)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Information_Operations_Task_Force

[Bridget Burke]

8. Unknown sources, unspecified demands, no details on the suspects....

Yeah, right.

I can make one correction, though. The story says Prague's Jewish population was "decimated" during WWII. Decimation was the Roman practice of making captives draw lots; one in ten would be executed. However, about 2/3 of Prague's Jews died in the Holocaust.

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Prague.html

[Igel]

12. Link

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/teroriste-chteli-v-praze-unest-desitky-zidu-fmo-/domaci.asp?c=A061005_213256_domaci_ad

I went to the link because I wanted to know which synagogue was probably targeted.

"Všechny dostupné informace míří k tomu, že během židovského náboženského svátku chtěli vniknout do synagogy v Jeruzalémské ulici v centru Prahy a vzít jako rukojmí přítomné věřící."
'All available information leads to the conclusion that during the Jewish religious holiday they wanted to enter the synagogue on Jerusalem Street in downtown Prague and take the believers present hostage.'

Mlada Fronta Dnes is the continuation of the Mlada Fronta publication; the Mlada Fronta (or 'Youth League', I guess it would be; 'dnes' = today) was the Czech parallel to the Soviet Komsomol. So Mlada Fronta Dnes was vaguely equivalent to Komsomolskaya Pravda, back in the '70s and early '80s. Not today. (It was the paper I usually read when I was in Prague or Brno.)

[Eurobabe]

13. I am not surprised, my daughter and I were in Jewish Quarter

in Prague on 7/23/06, and they had armed guards around the small historic synagogue. Truthfully, I felt really uneasy being there in that district with all the crap going on in the ME. I had an intuitive sense of foreboding doom, and I pay attention to those, they don't happen often....

[Bridget Burke]

20. Those armed guards were not only worried about Muslims...

Your sense of foreboding doom might have been an echo of what happened to the Jews of Prague in the last century.

Europe still has an active minority who think the Final Solution was not final enough. They vandalize synagogues & Jewish cemeteries.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pampango]

18. Who "they"?

The Czech newspaper or those alleged to be doing the plotting?

[geek tragedy]

23. I'm sure it's the nefarious Zionist operatives. eom

[geek tragedy]

22. Do you know that not all Joooooos are Zionist agents?

I didn't think so.


:sarcasm:

[Lurking Dem]

24. unbelievable

[cali]

25. LOL

It's a story out of Prague about an alleged plot to abduct and murder jews. It has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. Your comment is idiotic in the extreme. And it's clear you have an ugly agenda. Just retch.

[LostinVA]

17. Oh boy

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

28. Tell me, with a straight face, this is reliable.

"Unidentified sources close to intelligence agencies." Uh-huh.

[cali]

30. It may or may not be reliable

but it certainly is possible and even believable. History tells us that much.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

31. Oh, I see. It has "truthiness." -nt

[cali]

39. Do try

a little harder to grasp what I said. Your eagerness to believe that this isn't true, instead of witholding judgement is just a little strange.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

42. It seems YOU have a difficulty to grasp what I said.

I'm just trying to point out that this story is unverifiable and its so-called sources are all but nonexistent. In short, it doesn't pass the smell test. Not even worthy of the name "news."

And trying to defuse the aforementioned points by saying it's "believable" is the EXACT definition of "truthiness" as Stephen Colbert famously put it.

Eagerness? WTF?

"little strange?" Please elaborate.

[cali]

44. People pick and choose what

stories to believe, not on whether the sources are verifiable, but on whether or not they want to believe the story. See Jason Leopold.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

46. You're more right than you think about THAT.

Jason "24 Business Hours" Leopold (a story I was skeptical about too) is an EXCELLENT analogy for the case at hand. Think a little bit more about it.

[pampango]

40. Can't do that, but can't say it's bogus either.

If this was a Lebanese newspaper reporting on an alleged plot by Israeli agents against the Shia Muslims of Southern Lebanon, would I immediately discount that. Got to admit I would have my doubts, like you do with this article, but I would wait for more information before denouncing it. Plenty of time to do that later.

In this Czech instance, what one cannot say is that it is ridiculous to even consider that Islamist terrorists (accounting for less than .01% of Muslims) might attack targets in Western Europe. That does not prove that this story is true or false, only that it is not inconceivable. Similarly it could be a planted story, so we will just have to wait and see how it unfolds.

[PsychoDad]

52. But, is this news, or gossip?

Unnamed, undisclosed, etc...

There is no way of anyone verifying anything here. Undisclosed sources, unnamed persons, no one arrested....

Thankfully no attack.

Me claiming that I heard from my cousin Ahmad that he overheard someone in the stall next to him talking about overhearing someone planning an robbery on a Gyro stand is more credible and verifiable.

Is this the sad state of what passes for "news"? Why didn't the reporter follow up and investigate? Or is it that all reporters simply pass on information given to them from undisclosed government agencies anymore?

Peace.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cali]

47. WTF

is wrong with people that they keep bringing up Israel re this story? This is about Jews in Prague. It comes from a Prague source. I have no idea whether it's true or not, but it's a damn pity that people who are convinced this story isn't true would absolutely believe it if this was about Muslims being threatened. Nice double standard so many folks have.

[Behind the Aegis]

49. Lots of slips showing.

Many, rather than addressing the article, attack the source, in this case Ha'aretz. The thing is this wasn't produced by Ha'aretz, but it was a Reuters story picked up by other papers, including one which is very anti-Israeli. Yet, we hear how unreliable the Israeli newspaper is and is "dumped" by some. I wonder if they "dumped" the NYT after the Miller incident? :shrug:

Personally, I will wait to see what more develops. There is also the possibility that it was rumor or that it wasn't "Islamists." The neo-nazis have started to become more bold in Europe in the past year. So, it wouldn't surprise me if they might be involved.

[Behind the Aegis]

53. added information

PRAGUE (EJP/AFP)--- Arab terrorists planned to kidnap dozens of Jewish worshippers in Prague, hold them hostage and eventually murder them all, Czech newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reported Friday, citing trustworthy sources close to the intelligence services.

--snip---

Since then nothing further had leaked out on the affair, leading to a dispute between the right-wing government and the opposition, which raised doubts over the seriousness and urgency of the alleged threat.

At the end of September, the same daily, Dnes, quoting sources in the police and intelligence services, linked the affair with the arrest of four Norwegians suspected of preparing attacks on a synagogue in Oslo and on the US and Israeli embassies there.

It said one of the four suspects, a Pakistani who holds Norwegian citizenship, was supported in the Czech plan by an Albanian gangster named Princ Dobrosi who was in the same Norwegian prison before escaping, spending a few years living under a false identity in Prague and then being arrested by the Czech polic.

entire article

[Lurking Dem]

55. Thank you BtA.

I wish I could say I was floored by some of the responses but since I was called a liar once after relating a couple of antisemitic experiences I had living here in the South and reporting a news item about a man from National Alliance attempting to shoot Jewish toddlers at the preschool it doesn't suprise me at all.

They hate us for our rugelach.

[PsychoDad]

59. Thank you for the update.

This contains much more information.

Sadly, it was not the plausibility but the lack of information that I was questioning in the last article.

Sounds as if the plot involved more than muslims. shameful.

[Spinoza]

58. I wanted to say:

Thank God, this has been prevented.

But,I am an atheist.

Thank you Czech Republic. Well done.