Now we know the FlyDubai terrorist's target UPDATED

 

AfterMath - Home

American Thinker   "We’re learning more about FlyDubai flight 1073. As every sane, reasonable person immediately knew, the co-pilot was an Islamist terrorist who intended to turn the 737 into a 9-11 style missile. What we didn’t know until now was his target:

Under interrogation, Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot, confessed that after killing the pilot his plan was to fly a normal landing approach and, in the final seconds, when interception was no longer possible, crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport. That is why, rather than striking at the outset, he attacked the captain only once the plane was over Jordan. . . .

. . . "As with many acts of terrorism, the secondary effects of the attack would have been greater than the initial death toll:

Had his original plan succeeded, it would have been, by a wide margin, the worst attack in Israel’s history, and it would have closed far more than one flight corridor. Even if the physical damage at Ben Gurion could be quickly repaired, no airline would risk flying to Israel. The country would face an aviation isolation worse than anything it experienced even at the peak after October 7. . .. More.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. 

Senator Tim Sheehy just turned the Iran war debate into a history lesson.

UPDATE: Vichy France to the Miracle of Flydubai FZ1073 - Clarice Feldman

A commercial pilot describes in great detail how miraculous was the ending:

"This will go down in history as one of the best examples of aviation bravery. For this story to have the happy ending that it did, 3 things had to happen perfectly: First, Cpt. Smit, who, while on the floor (being attacked with an axe!!!), thought, "These are my last moments, but I can't let these people die," and somehow opened the cockpit door. Without his bravery and determination, Everybody dies no question. Second the passengers Yaniv and Yitzhack rushed the cockpit the minute they heard screams. Dont minimize this. Most people in a situation like this would freeze in their seats. Not to mention getting to the front of the plane in a zero G nose over. I'm assuming IDF training (mandatory for all Israelis) but even then excellent reactions under pressure." . . .

Why does an American state have Somali gangs?

 Washington Examiner  

"We should not have Somali gangs in America. Republicans have perhaps realized this too late, but they have realized it. Democrats, both nationally and in Minnesota, continue to defend, excuse, or ignore this issue, and they will gladly make the problem worse if they are put in charge of the immigration system again in 2028." 

ChatGPT

"The Democratic Party is entirely in favor of importing third-world migrants on a massive scale, leading to such absurdities as Midwestern American states having to deal with violence from Somali gangs.

A high school football game between Eden Prairie and Minnetonka was canceled on Friday night after a shooting in the stadium’s parking lot. The matchup, which was Eden Prairie’s homecoming game, was scheduled to resume on Monday, which would force both high schools to play twice in the same week, as they have games scheduled for Friday. The shooting that sent fans scrambling out of the stadium was, according to authorities, the result of local Somali gang violence.

So, how is it that a high school football game in Minnesota becomes the site of gang violence involving people from a country that is more than 8,000 miles, an ocean, and a 29-hour flight away?

Our Washington Examiner editorial from January detailed how Minnesota’s Somali population grew exponentially from the 1990s onward, including how the United States admitted more than 110,000 Somalis between 2000 and 2024 alone. From that editorial: “More than half (52%) of children in Somali immigrant homes in Minnesota live in poverty, compared with just 8% of children in native-headed households. Roughly 39% of working-age Somalis lack a high school diploma, versus 5% of natives.” Minnesota’s Somali community has become the subject of scrutiny with regard to Minnesota’s mass-scale welfare fraud, for good reason.

As much of the country learned Friday, Minnesota’s Somali community also has a violence problem. In July, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher detailed Somali youth gang activity and the shootings for which those gangs were responsible. “Somali leaders” in Minneapolis then held a news conference to denounce the sheriff for his comments." . . .   More.

Want Lower Gas Prices? Don’t Elect A Democrat

 Issues & Insights  

"Moreno had it exactly right when he followed up by saying, “If you want gas prices to go down, the last thing you should do is allow Democrats to take office, because it’ll make it permanently high. That’s what we saw under Joe Biden, and that’s what we’ll see under whatever lunatic comes next.'”

"But you could. And prices came down sharply under Trump, only to go flying back up Joe “We’re Going to End Fossil Fuels” Biden."

"You can’t open a newspaper or watch cable news these days without seeing a story about the pain and suffering Americans are feeling at the pump, with scary headlines such as “no relief in sight” and “the worst is yet to come.”

"Actually, when it comes to gas prices, the worst has come and gone – three times – all while Democrats were in the White House. Not that you’d ever know that from the mainstream media.

"Shortly after those headlines ran, gas prices started to moderate. AAA says they are down by about 10 cents a gallon from a week ago. That’s not much, but it’s far from “soaring.”

"And while it’s true that President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Iranian regime have pushed oil prices sharply upward, you have to consider everything in context.

"When news reports talk about “record high” prices, they aren’t accounting for inflation. When you do that, today’s prices are far from the highest they’ve ever been.

"As a reader service, we compiled monthly data on real (inflation-adjusted) gas prices starting in 1977 – the year Jimmy Carter took office.

"We then averaged them for each administration." . . .

"What do you see? Except for the Clinton administration, prices have been unusually high under Democrats, and relatively low under Republicans."

 More.

Poland Demands Tucker Carlson Apologize for 'False, Deeply Troubling' WWII Claims

 Newsmax.com  

"Carlson has continued attacking U.S. support for Israel, while critics have accused him of providing a platform for antisemitic voices and conspiracy theories." 

ChatGPT

"Poland's top diplomat in Washington is demanding that Tucker Carlson retract and apologize for what he called "false and deeply troubling" claims about Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland and Britain's decision to enter World War II.

Bogdan Klich, charge d'affaires at the Polish Embassy, accused Carlson of becoming "an apologist for Adolf Hitler" after the former Fox News host questioned Britain's decision to fight Nazi Germany during a podcast conversation with former British Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Carlson argued that Hitler had grievances over territory transferred to Poland following World War I and questioned why Britain went to war after Hitler had said he had no interest in attacking the country.

Klich called Carlson's characterization a "colossal insult" to millions of Nazi victims, including American servicemen killed or wounded while liberating Europe.  "Nazi propaganda cannot be rehabilitated under the guise of free speech,"  Klich wrote, demanding an immediate public retraction and apology.

The historical record also undermines Carlson's apparent reliance on Hitler's assurances about his territorial ambitions.

Hitler repeatedly made promises that were subsequently broken.

At Munich in 1938, Britain and France accepted Germany's annexation of the predominantly German-speaking Sudetenland in return for Hitler's pledge to resolve future disputes peacefully.

In March 1939, German forces occupied the Czech lands and dismantled Czechoslovakia." . . .  More.

Palestinian children's TV teaches terrorism, anti-Semitism

Posts of this sort hopes to counter the keffiyeh-clad uneducated ones on the streets and campuses of the West. Our hope is for them to see it is not the Jews whose goal it is of "genocide", but that of the invading Hamas, their supporters in Gaza, here in the American classrooms and TV such as MS NOW. TD

Rebel News

"The Palestinians' use of children as weapons of war is why I refuse to support Palestinian statehood. By comparison: even during the darkest hours of WW II the Russians, i.e. Stalin, spent tens of thousands of soldiers to evacuate children from the fighting zones to bring them to safety. When Stalin sets a moral example for the Palestinians to follow, we know they have not yet attained the basic moral attributes for a modern state. In fact, there is no precedent in human history for such behavior; even the Nazis didn't use children as human shields but evacuated as many as they could into the countryside. The Palestinians have achieved a new low in the conduct of war."

Church attendance didn't predict antisemitism. Theology did.

 The Christian Post  

"Young Christian men who regularly watched Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, or Nick Fuentes had higher average antisemitic-attitude scores than men with little or no engagement with them." 

ChatGPT

"In my survey of more than 1,000 young Christian men, church attendance did not predict antisemitic attitudes. What they believed about God’s promises to the Jewish people did.

That finding should get the Church’s attention. Young Christian men are being shaped in more than one place. What they hear in church matters. So does what they watch online.

In early summer 2026, I surveyed 1,090 Christian men ages 18–30 in the United States. I asked about their faith, media habits, politics, views of Jewish people, and comfort discussing Israel. The men came from Catholic, Evangelical, mainline, nondenominational, and other Christian traditions.

The strongest predictor of antisemitic attitudes was beliefs that God’s promises to the Jewish people have ended. When I compared the factors together, these beliefs were about four times as strong a predictor as political conservatism. Church attendance, by contrast, did not predict antisemitic attitudes in the study.

There was also a hopeful finding. Men who believed that God’s covenant with the Jewish people continues had lower antisemitic-attitude scores.

That means what churches teach matters. Christians need to ask a basic question: What does Scripture say about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people?

Romans 11 offers a clear place to begin. Paul warns Gentile believers not to boast over the Jewish branches. He reminds them, “you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:18). Later in the same chapter, Paul says the Jewish people are “beloved” and that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29).

Christian faith cannot be separated from its Jewish roots. Jesus was Jewish. His first followers were Jewish. Much of the New Testament assumes the story, promises, and Scriptures of Israel.  In Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity (2021), theologian Gerald McDermott argues that Christians better understand their faith when they understand its Jewish roots." . . .

Dr. Katie Posey is the founder and CEO of OurStory Connections, a nonprofit bringing Holocaust and antisemitism education to schools and communities. With a doctorate in curriculum and instruction and a master's in Holocaust and genocide studies, she researches antisemitism and equips Christian communities with the education to recognize and confront it. She develops and teaches continuing education courses for teachers through Fresno Pacific University and is a postgraduate fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

How Christians Should Respond to Antisemitism | Christianity.com

 . . . "And Christians cannot look away. Christians must confront antisemitism because hatred toward Jewish people attacks human dignity, distorts biblical truth, and ignores the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Scripture declares that the Jewish people are not strangers to the story of redemption but are deeply woven into it. Jesus Himself was born a Jew. The apostles were Jewish. The roots of the Christian faith draw life from the promises God gave to Israel." . . .

Argus Hamilton's Rogue Report

Argus Hamilton   

"The Nashville Tennessean reports a female convicted murderer survived two attempts at being executed by lethal injections on Wednesday. The state has taken measures to ensure that they end the prisoner's life. They are going to dress her like a toddler and leave her alone with Lindsay Clancy. 

• President Trump hit the campaign trail Thursday giving a speech in Durant, Oklahoma, at the Choctaw Nation Center adjoining its fabulous tribal casino. The complex includes a native cultural center where they teach you ancient Indian lore, like always hit on 16 if the dealer is showing a face card.

• The Treasury Department announced 60 million children have been automatically enrolled in Trump Accounts that are like 401Ks for kids, funded by tax-free contributions from family and friends. It is brilliant. Thanks to accrued interest, by the time a poor toddler reaches voting age, he's a Republican.

• McDonald's announced it will invest $9 billion to implement AI by installing robots at its drive-through windows to take orders, suggest additions and hand out the food orders to you through the window. So AI is going to kill a billion people. They're just going to do it one Big Mac Combo at a time.

• Bernie Sanders said Artificial Intelligence could destroy mankind if the government isn't there to control it. His grassroots support remains the old stoners. Bernie got a huge ovation when he spoke at the Coachella Rock Festival because everybody thought Jerry Garcia had come back from the Dead.

• The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox in the 1st game of the AL Wild Card playoffs behind their fire-balling young pitcher Cam Schlittler. He's a Yankee Stadium fan favorite whose time has come. New York is so anti-Semitic under Mamdani they'll cheer anyone who just rhymes with Hitler.   More.

Weaponization Working Group Releases Report on Garland Memo That Chilled Parental Rights and Warned Parents Could Be Domestic Terrorists (UPDATED)

United States Department of Justice  

"From this vantage point, America, which predominantly does not adhere to these beliefs, is the realm of the wrong path, the infidel way. That worldview is what underlies statements such as the claim that America "deserved" 9/11"

"Records show Biden White House and Justice Department leadership pushed for a memo that sought to find a federal “hook” to prosecute parents and charge protestors with federal crimes, despite widespread concerns from attorneys and agents

"Today, the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group issued a report detailing how Biden Administration officials at the Department of Justice explored avenues to prosecute parents and protestors who spoke to school boards and school officials during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Today’s report focuses on the production and circulation of an October 4, 2021 memorandum sent from Attorney General Merrick Garland to the Director of the FBI, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, the Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and United States Attorneys.

"On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14147 to eliminate the political weaponization of federal agencies. To many Americans, Attorney General Garland’s memo embodied the misuse and weaponization of government power. This report fulfills the February 2, 2025 directive from Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the Memo and the report ordered by the President in EO 14147.

"The report details how, despite being presented with very little evidence of actual violence or violent threats against school administrators and at school board meetings, Garland arrived at a memo which claimed, “in recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence.”

"The Working Group’s report makes clear that the ideological inspiration for the October 4, 2021 memo was a September 29, 2021 letter from the National School Boards Association to President Joe Biden in which the organization urged the federal government to consider that “these heinous actions” “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

"The Working Group officially acknowledges what many Americans already assumed: that as Biden Administration actions chilled the exercise of parental and free speech rights, parents who lawfully exercised their parental rights and freedom of speech were often targeted by members of the educational establishment." . . .   More.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy.

UPDATE: When political opponents become existential threats, violence can begin to look like virtue.   . . . "For years Americans have been told that Donald Trump isn’t merely a bad president or a politician with bad ideas. He has been compared repeatedly to Adolf Hitler and his rhetoric to that of Nazi Germany, as in this example from The Atlantic.

"The Biden campaign even published a 2023 graphic titled “TRUMP PARROTS HITLER.” Democratic politicians and political organizations have made similar comparisons, and Kamala Harris publicly agreed during the 2024 campaign that Trump could be described as a fascist.

"Those are not ordinary political insults.

Hitler isn’t remembered as a German politician with whom reasonable people merely disagreed over fiscal policy. He represents one of history’s great embodiments of evil, responsible for a regime that murdered millions.

"That distinction matters." . . .

‘Evil incarnate’: Israel’s top forensic pathologist reveals unseen Oct. 7 evidence |

YNET  

"Prof. Chen Kugel says forensic evidence showed systematic killing methods across attack sites; he recalls burned and mutilated bodies, the race to identify every victim and the psychological toll that ultimately left him with PTSD; this article contains graphic images and descriptions that some readers may find disturbing"

Israeli medical workers who treated Oct 7 wounded relive day terror hit home

. . . "First, he and his team decided not to send the night shift home, allowing the hospital to begin the day with twice its normal staffing level. At 7:45 a.m., they declared a mass-casualty incident, despite not yet knowing how many wounded would arrive and alerted all available staff to report to the hospital. Finally, they ordered additional blood supplies in anticipation of the surge of casualties.

"We usually start the shift with 50 units of blood in our blood bank. By the end of the day, we had given 250 units. If we hadn’t ordered additional blood early that morning, we might have run out and people may have died," Codish told Fox News Digital.

Codish said the hospital faced several overwhelming challenges throughout the day, beginning with the sheer number of wounded being brought to the hospital.

"In the first 24 hours, we received 674 wounded people. At the peak, we received more than 80 in a single hour, with an average of just 40 seconds between wounded people arriving," he said." . . .  More.

UPDATED: The IRGC’s Midterm Endorsement Creates a Problem for Democrats

Radicals in this world who kill babies with their bare hands or burn them alive, rape children in front of their families, then find support among American Democrats on the streets, schools, and in our Congress see a gold mine. They know these useful idiots support them over any morals rooted in Christian/Jewish ideals. They chant "Allahu Akbar!" and we say, "Come quickly, Lord!" TD

The American Spectator | USA News and Politics   

"It should be enough for the American voters to see the Democrats in an act of ultimate disloyalty. But … it will not be. The Iran war is a distant concern to them."

"The Democrats are in a quandary. They’re perplexed by a problem of their own making.

How can they deal with an endorsement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps calling on Americans to vote for Democratic candidates in the November mid-terms?  This is too delicious. I wish I had made it up, but I didn’t.

"I’ve lost count of the War Powers Resolution bills that the Dems have offered to end the Iran war abruptly. They have all failed — not because Americans recognize the legitimacy of the war against Iran’s nuclear weapons — but because Republicans have managed so far to kill the bills.

"Kamala Harris is among the presidential contenders who oppose the Iran war. In Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly — contenders to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin — have both promised to vote against further funding for the Iran war.

"Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said he didn’t want to comment on Ayatollah Khamenei’s death because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today.” When confronted by a student whose family was persecuted by the Tehran regime, El-Sayed responded by arguing that the United States has too often acted as “the world’s policeman” while saying he supported movements for democracy and freedom abroad. As if there is any democracy or freedom in Iran.

"Rep. Raja Krishnamoorti (D-Chicago) said the war was illegal and unconstitutional.

"On September 29, the IRGC sent a very long letter to the American people urging them to vote against any candidates backed by President Trump because he and Israel were the cause of the war. The letter also claimed that the Iranian nuclear program was entirely peaceful and that the IRGC was not a terrorist group, writing that there was not, “a single verifiable instance where the IRGC has committed an act of violence against civilians.”

"The IRGC has been the principal terrorist arm of the Tehran regime. It controls Iran’s ballistic missiles and its terrorist proxy forces such as Hamas and Hizballah. They are responsible for Iran’s attacks on oil tankers and much more.

"The IRGC are the first to line up to chant “death to America” and to force others to chant the same. The IRGC has committed thousands of murders of Iranian civilians as well as attempted assassinations of dissidents in other countries. The Iranian nuclear program has even been condemned by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency for enriching uranium far beyond what would be required for a nuclear power plant." . . . More.

UPDATE: They Hate America :: Gatestone Institute   "Coming from a Muslim family and being raised in Syria and Iran, I am all too aware of politicians and influencers such as Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani and others who carry that same formative identity.

"Americans should be clear-eyed: Islamist politicians and influencers in the United States will never place their first loyalty with America. It will not happen. Do not even think about it.

"For some, the feeling goes further into genuine hatred of America, Western civilization and the freedom individuals have to choose how they live. The pursuit of office and influence is driven by the aim of advancing their core identity, not of strengthening the nation that granted them the opportunity." . . .

Interesting, but that doesn't explain Springsteen and MS NOW.

France Closes 400 Schools, Rioters Planning Major Escalation October 6th and 7th, Next Target London and U.K

 The Last Refuge

"That isn’t some tiny collection of basement-dwelling extremists. It is nearly half of Democrats surveyed."  Brian C. Joondeph 

"There’s generally a strategy to the madness; you just have to wait until it starts to become visible.  The anniversary of October 7, 2023, massacre is right around the corner.

Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and involved mass shootings, hostage‑taking, rapes and horrific assaults on civilian communities.

As noted in the end of this article about the French protests, “student organizations are nevertheless calling for protests to continue, with the movement now looking towards Tuesday’s National Day of Action.”

EUROPE – Around 400 of France’s 3,700 secondary schools were closed on Friday on the orders of police prefects, with many schools switching to online lessons.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray urged parents to intervene, warning that young people were putting themselves at risk.

“Children are in danger on the streets,” he told BFMTV. “Parents must, quite clearly, take action and tell their children not to go [to the blockades].” The protests began over staffing, funding and school conditions and have spread rapidly across the country.

The Interior Ministry said 1,027 secondary schools were affected on Thursday, including 222 that were blockaded. Around 30 university campuses were also blocked.

It said 1,949 people were arrested on Thursday alone, mainly in connection with violence, unlawful gatherings and attacks on people in positions of authority. (read more) . . .  More.

When Political Violence Becomes Acceptable   

"America traditionally has had a rather simple method for dealing with politicians we don’t like. We vote against them. . . . What we don’t do is shoot them.

Or at least that used to be the understanding."

Of course, the Flydubai event was terrorism

"The co-pilot has admitted that he intended to kill thousands of people on Israeli soil."

Andrea Widburg

"It would have been the largest mass-casualty event ever. Instead, it was something else. We can point to luck, coincidence, or a higher power, but whatever the cause, something amazing happened last week."

. . . "If you’re looking for miracles in daily life, consider the successive miracles that had to occur for the Flydubai flight to land with no serious injuries other than those Captain Smit Machchhar sustained in the original attack. Here are those miracles:

• Captain Machchhar opened the reinforced locked door. Had he not done so, the plane would have crashed, and all would have died.


• The Boeing-manufactured 737 plane withstood a sudden 16,000-foot plunge at almost supersonic speeds, something it was not built to handle.


• Several passengers, instead of panicking, reacted quickly and headed straight to the cockpit and were able to enter it.


• Having stormed the cabin, they were not deterred by the fact that the co-pilot was armed with a deadly axe and was using it to disable the plane’s controls. They pulled him away from the instrument panel and tied him up with the cords from the airline’s cheesy free headsets.


• Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber who liked watching shows about airplane crashes, knew enough to push forward the control yoke that allowed the plane to level out—which, thankfully, the co-pilot hadn’t destroyed.


• The plane, having survived the first plunge, survived being leveled and continued to be airworthy despite serious structural damage.


• There were other pilots on the plane who were safely able to land it.

"That’s a whole lot of miracles for an event that took almost as little time to happen (up until the landing part) as it took me to write this or you to read it. Indeed, one Israeli who was actually on the flight noted that there were many more that did not make the headlines: . . . More.