Graffiti scrawled in a bathroom in a Yale University science building threatened an arson attack on the Slifka Center for Jewish Life on the campus.

The graffiti was discovered late last month but was first reported in the local media on Tuesday. A Slifka Center board member said the news of the graffiti was not released to the public sooner in order to allow the police to do some investigation quietly.

The exact wording of the graffiti has not been released, but it reportedly threatened an attack for May 16, the second day of the Shavuot holiday.

Police in New Haven, Conn., and the FBI are investigating, the New Haven Register reported.

“This is a very disturbing incident for a community such as ours, in which tolerance of all races, religions and points of view is a fundamental value,” Yale Vice President Linda Koch Lorimer said in a statement. “A threat to any community within our university is a threat to us all.”

SlifkaCenter programs have continued on schedule, and upcoming events including Shavuot programs have not been altered.

“Difficult times can serve to remind us of our many blessings,” a statement issued by the center said. “Slifka Center is fortunate to be a vibrant hub of Jewish and interfaith life within a welcoming community, in which incidents such as this one are very rare.”

Two former associates of New York Democratic mayoral candidate John Liu were convicted in an illegal campaign fundraising scheme uncovered in an FBI investigation, according to CBS New York.

Jurors heard secretly recorded tapes that prosecutors said showed Liu’s two associates, Jia “Jenny” Hou and Xing “Oliver” Wu Pan, plotted to cheat the city out of campaign matching funds and then lied about it.

An FBI agent posed as a potential donor to the campaign, offering $16,000.

The donation was to be much larger than the law allows if the campaign wants to get matching funds from the city.

Jurors found with that, the plot was hatched to use straw donors to conceal the source of the large illegal donation.

Prosecutors charged that coded language was used by Pan and Hou to make sure that Liu knew the source of the money.

Even the vicious mass murderer Ted Bundy had admirers who swore he was innocent. But in this age in which there are pictures of Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon finish line pre-explosions with backpacks and post explosions without backpacks, and also pictures of the exploded backpacks, not to mention the reported admission by Dzhokhar that he and his brother built and detonated the bombs, it is hard to believe there are those who insist the Tsarnaevs are innocent.

But there are.

And some of those who maintain this position have very carefully put together loving video homages to the Tsarnaevs, complete with pictures that have not yet been shown in the media.

Some of the pictures in the video are of the boys growing up, many are of the older brother, Tamerlan, in the gym, quite a few show Dzokhar hanging out with friends. There are some artistic renderings and some of various milestone events.  In one picture Dzokhar is shown in front of the Chechen flag, in another he looks out seductively from behind a tangle of dark curls.

Interspersed between the photographs are messages in Russian, proclaiming the innocence of the Tsarnaevs.  The images slide by, the music is eastern and hypnotic.  An audiovisual ode to monsters.

The Boston Marathon bombers had planned to stage a major attack on a crowded area of the city during July 4th Independence Day celebrations, but they struck on Patriots’ Day because they had assembled their pressure cooker bombs sooner than expected.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, whose brother Tamerlan was killed in  the massive manhunt for the perpetrators of the Marathon bombings, told the FBI that had planned grisly “fireworks” by attacking a large celebration along the city’s Charles River.

Having finished constructing the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment ahead of schedule, they drove around Boston until they decided to strike at the finish line of the Marathon, where three people were killed. Many of the more than 260 who were wounded lost logs and arms.

One law enforcement official told The Washington Post that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s version may not be true because the bombs were so complex that it is not certain they could have built the bombs as quickly as they claim without outside help.

Both law enforcement officials expressed some skepticism about Tsarnaev’s account, saying that the complexity of the bombs made it unlikely that the brothers could have completed them as fast as he claimed.

“Maybe we will never know. This is the story that he is telling us,” the official said.

The younger Tsarnaev said he and his brother struck out of anger at the United States for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also were influenced by radical Muslim clerics who incite their followers to kill and be glorified by Allah.

Regardless of whether the brothers acted alone, and regardless of the fine legal point distinguishing between “terrorists” and “murders,” there is a basic similarity between them and terrorist organizations, particularly  Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas.

All three of these terrorist groups are involved in Gaza, which Hamas controls but with increasing difficulty because of their rivals’ appetite for blood.

That is a common thread, or gene, that seems to connect terrorists and murderers.

Hamas has amassed thousands of tons of explosives and advanced weapons far beyond what most people imagine. Hezbollah in Lebanon has stockpiled so many missiles it has been described as having more  than any government in the world outside of the United States.

Like the Tsarnaev brothers, these terrorist groups live by a creed of  “attack or perish.”

There mission in life is to kill Jews, Westerners, Christians, homosexuals and even Muslims who are in anyway linked to one of the above.

That is why every senior Israeli military officer involved with Gaza and Lebanon has said that it is only a matter of time until the “next round” will come and with worse consequences than the previous.

That’s is why a “ceasefire” agreement is only a pause, and why the “Second Intifada” is not the last.

When Hamas first began attacking Israelis more than 20 years ago, it was with primitive Kassam rockets. With each round of violence, their missiles reached deeper into Israel.

Everyone knows they had longer-range missiles, but the government agreed with “ceasefires” to calm down the terrorists – until their need for rage could not be contained any more.

Before the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign four years ago, Hamas struck Ashkelon and Ashdod.

Before and during the Pillar of Defense campaign last November, they struck Tel Aviv and  the outskirts of Jerusalem.

They have even more devastating weapons, such as anti-aircraft missiles than can down a commercial airline,. That is why military and civilians airlines have changed their landing and take-off patterns to steer clear of Gaza.

And that is why Dzhokhar and Tamerlan did not wait for the Fourth of July.

Unless terrorists and murders disarmed, they usually are driven buy their objective to use the rigger finger, and nothing usually stops them except bullets.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev no longer is around to attack more Americans in Boston, Times Square or anywhere else. Tamerlan probably die in jail if not executed.

No one knows if America is seething with a few, or dozens or hundreds or thousands of terrorist-in-the-making.

But wherever they are, like Hamas, Hezbollah and  Al Qaeda, they will attack as soon as they can – unless someone gets them first.

Bomb threats on two Houston synagogues Wednesday closed classes, one day after a similar threat on a court forced a quick evacuation.

The synagogue bomb threats were called in to called in to Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform temple, and the Conservative Congregation Or Ami on Wednesday afternoon.

Both synagogues canceled Hebrew school classes for Thursday but said they would reopen Friday with more security. Officials searched the buildings and did not find anything suspicious.

The Houston Police Department, Anti-Defamation League, FBI and Department of Homeland Security all were notified about the threats, Congregation Beth Israel told the Houston Chronicle.

A message on the Beth Israel website said that a congregational dinner scheduled for Friday night was canceled; it did not say if the cancellation was related to the bomb threat.

Tuesday’s bomb threat on the HoustonMunicipalCourtsBuilding resulted in the evacuation of several courtrooms.

No explosive device was found.

The FBI has arrested a Los Angeles man who allegedly operated a Ponzi scheme targeting the city’s Iranian Jewish community.

Shervin Davatgarzadeh, also known as Shervin Neman, was taken into custody on suspicion of defrauding $3 million from mostly Jewish Iranian-American investors, the FBI said.

According to the indictment, Davatgarzadeh posed as a hedge fund manager promising to invest in the Los Angeles real estate market.

He is suspected of illegally using the investments to pay for a lavish lifestyle for himself and his wife that included a $60,000 wedding ring, luxury cars and a new office.

Iranian Jewish community in Los Angeles has been rocked by a series of Ponzi schemes in recent years, according to the L.A. Jewish Journal.

A U.S. district court in March sentenced an Iranian-Jewish radio talk show host and businessman, John Farahi, to 10 years in prison for swindling $24 million from dozens of victims, mostly Iranian Jews.

In October 2011, Iranian-Jewish businessman Ezri Namvar was sentenced to a seven-year prison term for stealing $21 million from four clients.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of “Ten Most Wanted” fugitives dates back to 1950 but the list of “Most Wanted Terrorists” dates back to just after 9/11 and a sense that terrorism had become a strategic threat. Today, the list includes 31 individuals, all of them male and with a single exception (Daniel Andreas San Diego, an animal rights extremist), all of them Muslim:

* Abd al Aziz Awda – 1950, Palestinian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad * Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser – ca. 1947, Saudi, Saudi Hizbullah * Abdul Rahman Yasin – 1960, American, World Trade Center bombing in 1993 * Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah – 1963, Egyptian, Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings in 1998 * Adam Yahiye Gadahn – 1978, American, Al-Qaeda * Adnan G. El Shukrijumah – 1975, Guyanese, Al-Qaeda * Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Mughassil – 1967, Saudi, Saudi Hizballah * Ali Atwa – ca. 1960, Lebanese, TWA hijacking in 1985 * Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie – 1965, Saudi, Saudi Hizballah * Anas Al-Liby – 1964, Libyan, Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings in 1998 * Ayman Al-Zawahiri – 1951, Egyptian, Al-Qaeda * Faouzi Mohamad Ayoub – 1966, Lebanese, Lebanese Hizballah * Hakimullah Mehsud – ca. 1980, Pakistani, Pakistani Taliban * Hasan Izz-Al-Din – 1963, Lebanese, TWA hijacking in 1985 * Husayn Muhammad Al-Umari – 1936, Lebanese, 15 May Organization * Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub – 1966, Saudi, Saudi Hizballah * Isnilon Totoni Hapilon – 1966, Filipino, Abu Sayyaf Group Jaber A. Elbaneh – 1966, Yemeni, Al-Qaeda Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim – 1965, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986 * Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi – 1960, Yemeni, USS Cole bombing in 2000 * Jehad Serwan Mostafa – 1981, American, Al-Shabaab * Mohammed Ali Hamadei – 1964, Lebanese, Lebanese Hizballah * Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain Ar-Rahayyal – 1965, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986 * Muhammad Ahmed Al-Munawar – 1965, Palestinian, Abu Nidal Organization * Omar Shafik Hammami – 1984, American, Al-Shabaab * Raddulan Sahiron – ca. 1936, Filipino, Abu Sayyaf Group * Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah – 1958, Palestinian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad * Saif Al-Adel – ca. 1960, Egyptian, Al-Qaeda * Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz Al-Turki – 1955, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986 * Zulkifli Abdhir – 1966, Malaysian, Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia

Comments:

(1) Muslims make up 30 out of 31 most wanted terrorists, or about 97 percent of them. That’s a pretty good indication of what Bernard Lewis’ 1990 article famously called “Muslim rage” and why Islam-related issues have such prominence.

(2). Islamists make up 27 out of those 30; only the three perpetrators of the Pan Am 73 hijacking in 1986 (Rahayyal, Munawar, Turki), all connected to the Abu Nidal Organization, are not Islamists (or at least were not in 1986). This predominance of jihad reflects the Islamist hegemony among politically extreme Muslims.

(3) Ethnic Arabs make up 25 of the 30 terrorists. The largest numbers are 4 each of Lebanese, Palestinians, and Saudis, 3 each of Americans and Egyptians. Non-ethnic Arabs include 2 Filipinos, 1 Malaysian, 1 Pakistani, and 1 American convert. This high percentage confirms the sense that Arabic-speakers have the most pent-up hostility toward Americans.

(4) Most attacks by these most wanted fugitives date from the 1980s and 1990s – Khobar, TWA 847, East African embassies, WTC bombing. Symbolically of this relative antiquity, the only American airlines attacked by them were Pan American and TWA, both long defunct. This points to the greater success since 9/11 in both foiling and tracking terrorism, thanks to greater resources and more diligence.

(5) Also reflecting the long-ago quality of this most wanted list, note the striking pattern of their decadal birthdates:

1930s – 2 1940s – 1 1950s – 4 1960s – 18 1970s – 2 1980s – 3 1990s – 0

The average age is close to 50 – not exactly the prime time of life for terrorism. The youngest listee, Hammami, will be 29 years old in less than a week. The eldest two, Umari and Sahiron, are approaching 80.

Originally published at DanielPipes.org and The National Review Online, The Corner, April 30, 2013.