CNN mentioned those deadly Australian brushfires that have destroyed whole towns and killed 170 people so far. They even went so far as to mention that arson is suspected. But they left out some details about who might be starting them. From February 9, 2009 Fox News:
In November, an extremist Web site called on Muslims to launch a "forest jihad" in Australia, Europe, Russia and the United States. The posting, which quoted imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, said setting forest fires was legal under "eye-for-an-eye" Islamic law.
"Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands," the posting read.
The author of the posting indicated that Nasar — also known as Abu Musab Al-Suri — was urging terrorists to use sulfuric acid or gasoline to start the fires.
"Forest fires track well with the latest discussion trends seen in the Al Qaeda forums — easy to do, big impact, low security risk, high media coverage," said Al Qaeda expert Jarret Brachman.
"We've seen these kinds of appeals for action, be it setting fire to forests in Australia, to creating oil slicks on mountain roads in Europe, to poisoning water supplies and driving buses off bridges in the United States.
"The fact is that the Al Qaeda ideology is starting to branch out to more of an 'anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow' approach."
The Australian newspaper The Age was carrying a similar story earlier, but it seems to have disappeared from their website.
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