Last Sunday, we recalled President Barack Obama’s urgent 24 September appeal at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for an anti-terror resolution and substantial international support against massive jihadist atrocities. Later that day, the UNSC announced Resolution 2178 (2014) was “adopted unanimously during a meeting that heard from over 50 national leaders…”

Citing the UN Al Qaeda-Taliban Monitoring Team in Syria and Iraq, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had previously reported that 14,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 80 UN member-states had joined the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or simply Islamic State). Following the Sec-Gen’s statement, national leaders took the floor to welcome the adoption of Resolution 2178 (2014), pledging to cooperate in the concerted global effort to fight the Islamic State and other jihadists.

…In his book, “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror” (2002), terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna writes: “Al Qaeda members Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah rented an apartment in Manila where they prepared to assassinate Pope John Paul II, who was due to arrive in January, 1995. If the pipe bomb attack failed, Al Qaeda planned for an operative disguised as a priest to shoot the Pope….”