date:20050802

[osint] Hussain's Story: Family struggle to understand why their gentle boy became a bomber

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft


 
Hussain's Story: Family struggle to understand why their gentle boy became a
bomber
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=655088



By Ian Herbert

02 August 2005 

His youthful complexion marked him out as the most enigmatic of all the
London suicide bombers; a teenager who had not completed his full-time
education yet who was prepared to explode a bomb on the No 30 bus in
Tavistock Square. 

Following the first interviews with any of the families of the 7 July
bombers, The Independent has pieced together a portrait of the life and
last-known movements of the youngest bomber, Hasib Hussain. It provides an
insight into how his radicalisation went utterly undetected by those closest
to him and how his bewildered family's frenetic attempt to find clues to his
whereabouts in the hours after the bombings took his brother on an
early-hours dash to London and to the door of the so-called bomb factory in
Leeds.

If anything, the Hussains would have considered Hasib's older brother,
Imran, a more likely confidant of the more senior Leeds bombers, Mohammad
Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer. Imran knew Khan as Sid and counted him
as a very close friend. He also often played cricket with Shahzad - whom he
met at the Tanweer family's chip shop in the 1980s - in Beeston Park, near
the Hussains' home in the Holbeck district of Leeds.

The last cricket game between Imran and Tanweer took place on the evening on
6 July, hours before he set out with Hussain for London. How could he do
that when he knew what he was about to carry out? said a family source,
left bewildered and constantly close to tears.

At 11am on the morning after that cricket match, the Hussains were informed
of the bombings in a telephone call from a daughter. Imran apparently took
the call and was struck by the immediate thought that his brother might be
injured. At 10pm that night, Mrs Hussain reported her son missing to the
casualty bureau.

By the early hours of Saturday there was still no sign of Hasib and at 4am
Imran set off with some cousins in his old Vauxhall Astra to find them. The
group toured several hospitals before returning north.

Hussain's father, Mohammed, remains convinced that if his wife had not made
the call to the casualty bureau the focus of the bombing investigation would
not have shifted to Leeds. I like to think that we may have helped in some
way, said a family source. Before we called, the police had no idea Hasib
was there.

Her call coincided with two pieces of evidence found in the wreckage of the
bombs - a fragment of Hussain's credit card and a remnant of Tanweer's
membership card for the same Northern snooker club where the Hussains
played. Hussain's provisional driving licence was also found on the bus.

As early as Saturday 9 July - three days before the Leeds police raids -
detectives in West Yorkshire were being informed by the Metropolitan Police
that Leeds might be home to a number of the bombers.

For around 24 hours, the force placed the Hussain house - 7 Colenso Mount -
under surveillance. By Sunday, when Hussain had not appeared, a family
liaison officer was sent in on a fishing expedition, knowing that she may
well be visiting the bomber's parents. Even then, three days on, Mr and Mrs
Hussain had no inkling of their son's involvement. Imran Hussain missed much
of the meeting with the officer but sources suggest that as she was about to
leave he took her to one side and said: I think Hasib may be the bomber.

By then, Imran had combed his brother's computer and papers in his room. He
found evidence to suggest a property at 18 Alexandra Grove, in Burley,
Leeds, may be linked. Before police arrived to seal the property, he had
marched up to the front door and knocked but got no answer. Eventually, an
army bomb squad carried out a controlled explosion just to get in. It
turned out to be a bomb factory. I think that might have been a lucky
escape, said a family source.

Imran also began examining a mobile telephone which his brother had left
behind. Few numbers were stored in the directory but the name of the King's
Cross bomber Germaine Jamal Lindsay, 19, was among them. Imran Hussain
also called the stored number of a surgeon, Dr Shakir Al Ani, 57, who had
the keys for the Alexandra Grove flat.

As he carried out his investigations, a bewildered Imran was forced to come
to terms with a sudden radicalisation of which his brother had shown no
sign.

In the weeks since the bombings, Hasib Hussain has been cast as a social
misfit and drop-out whose overt and sudden radicalisation may have provided
an early warning sign. Yet family sources reveal that he was a promising
academic about to head for university and an arranged marriage. Their
testimony also suggests it was highly improbable that he was exposed to
radical madrassas - Islamic schools - in Pakistan, as his fellow bombers
were.

He had won a place on a business studies degree course at Leeds University,
starting in September. An arranged

[osint] Nuke terror to strike U.S. by this weekend?

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
Nonsense...no military or clandestine operation (which is what al-Qaeda
excels at) works around strict dates.  Attacks and operations are launched
when they are ready...As for the 9/11 selection, that was the date when
everything was ready, and it was, according to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, after
two earlier postponements.

And why would the Muslims care what date the US bombed Hiroshima?  And why
would they operate on the infidel's calendar instead of their own
lunar-based calendar?  

Since something of importance has happened on every date in the year, it
is not hard to find some anniversary for each new attack.  But this is
stretching it.

-Bruce



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45562

Nuke terror to strike U.S. by this weekend?
Numbers, dates important to bin Laden include Aug. 6
Posted: August 2, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern C 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON - Intelligence gathered from captured al-Qaida documents and
interrogations of captured operatives has provided the U.S. with some
specific information about Osama bin Laden's favored dates for his
decade-long plan for an American Hiroshima nuclear terrorist attack - and
one of those dates arrives this week.

One of the most frequently cited dates is Aug. 6, the anniversary of the
U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of
that attack, so this Aug. 6 would have special significance, reports Joseph
Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter that has
broken several major stories tracking al-Qaida's nuclear terrorism plans.

An amateur sleuth, Michael Matuszak, points out, for instance, that Saturday
would also mark the 1,426 days since Sept. 11, 2001. He points out that, in
the Islamic calendar, this is the year 1426 - and that Aug. 6 would be the
first day of the seventh month, the exact midway point of the year 1426.

It is as if Bin Laden started by scheduling 'American Hiroshima' for
8-6-2005 and then worked backwards to arrive at 9-11-2001 as the precursor,
he speculates.

Matuszak arrives at the calculation, however, by including Sept. 11, 2001,
in his addition.

The Aug. 6 date and its association with Hiroshima was actually cited by
captured al-Qaida operatives, according to U.S. military sources.

So, how high is the risk this week?

This year, falling on a Saturday as it does, some G2B intelligence sources
say it is highly unlikely a major nuclear attack will occur.

In addition to mentioning this date as a preferred target, Al-Qaida
operatives have made it clear they also prefer an attack during the daylight
during the week to wreak maximum havoc and to be sure the entire world views
the images of burning U.S. cities, said one knowledgeable military
intelligence source.

Others point out that Aug. 6 arrives in Japan while it is still Aug.
5 in the U.S. Does that raise the threat level this Friday?

So far, no one in the Department of Homeland Security
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/ has mentioned raising the threat this week.
And though the Aug. 6 date was mentioned by al-Qaida operatives in
association with its American Hiroshima nuclear attack, no year was ever
discussed.

There are several other favored dates mentioned by bin Laden operatives in
association with this planned mega-attack on the U.S.

Paul Williams, author of the upcoming book The Al Qaeda Connection,
acknowledges that, according to U.S. military analysts, bin Laden places a
great deal of significance on dates. He believes Sept. 11 was chosen because
it represented the fifth anniversary of the conviction of Ramzi Yousef for
the World Trade Center bombing.

The bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, occurred Aug. 7, 1998, the eighth anniversary of the 1990 U.S.
commitment to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia.

Williams says his sources also point to two dates in October as significant.
Oct. 2 is the anniversary of the federal court conviction of blind Sheikh
Omar Abdul Rahman, the spiritual mentor of bin Laden and his top
lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Another date of significance is Oct. 7, the
day of the launching of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Other dates mentioned by other bin Laden watchers include Sept. 11 and May
14, the anniversary of the re-creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

But bin Laden also craves the element of surprise. Therefore, the more
attention specific dates are given, the more it reduces the likelihood that
they will be chosen for the ultimate terrorist attack, say G2 Bulletin
sources.

Bin Laden has spent billions of dollars on the successful purchase and
development of nuclear weapons - money his al-Qaida terrorist network earned
by directing poppy cultivation in the fields of Afghanistan, right under the
noses of U.S. occupation forces.

That is the finding of G2 Bulletin sources as well as the investigative work
of journalist Williams, and international terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky,
author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared

[osint] Al Sha'lan Attacks Iran and Al Ja'fari and Creates a Coalition with Allawi

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Interesting note that bin Laden was sending Zarqawi messages FROM Iran.
 
Bruce
 

02/08/2005 14:10:16 News from Al-Mendhar - www.almendhar.com

Al Sha'lan Attacks Iran and Al Ja'fari and Creates a Coalition with Allawi 

  http://www.almendhar.com/NewsImages/1049.jpgAmman - Hazem Al
Sha'lan, former Iraqi defense minister, has announced the creation of a
party coalition, called The Democratic Forces Union, which includes 15
Iraqi liberal parties that believe in the democratic concept. It includes
Shiaas, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Turkmen, Sabaens and Yazidis. 




During his meeting with a number of reporters in Amman, he criticized his
alliance with the former Iraqi president Ghazi Al Yawer, which caused him
frustration, considering that it was totally an unsatisfactory
experience.
Al Sha'lan clarified that the new party coalition would combine with Al
Iraqia slate, headed by the former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, to enter the
coming constitutional elections, and create a united front. He disclosed
that the American and Iraqi forces were about to arrest Abu Mos'ab Al
Zarqawi, were it not for the delay of the American party, which led to
the escape of the head of Qa'idat Al-Jihad Fi Bilad Al-Rafidain. He added
that the number of fighters of al Zarqawi supporters is equal to the size of
the military regiments and that they have chemical weapons. 
Al Sha'lan stated, After the arrest of Abbas Al Dailami, Al Zarqawi's
assistant, who was carrying messages to Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qa'ida,
he confessed that Al Zarqawi was in a farm in Faluja, accompanied with the
kidnapped Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena. We have created an exploration
force from planes and a military force to attack the site, nevertheless, the
American party refused a speedy movement without estimating the risks, which
led to the postponement of the military operation for ten days. When
attacking the farm, we did not find Al Zarqawi, but it appeared that the
information was accurate as we found items that belong to the Italian
reporter. He confirmed that the security forces have seized copies of the
communication messages with Bin Laden, who used to hand it to him through
the Iranian borders. He used to meet with Al Ghamedi in Afghanistan to
receive answers from Al Qa'ida organization head. 
The former minister pointed out that al Zarqawi possesses deterring means
to be used when necessary. Al Zarqawi is characterized with a security
sense, moves in a woman's outfit, or carried on a wheel chair, or in Arab or
Kurdish uniform, and maneuvers his movements with his presence in Baghdad,
while leading operations in Musel of Diala.
He accused Iran, without naming it, of interfering in Iraq through
espionage networks. He presented the case of a non-Arab woman, who was
appointed by one of the neighboring countries to open a big brothel to catch
men of the Iraqi National Guard, and security, and policemen, and mass
murder them. He added, We have arrested her and seized the passport of the
country, which delegated her. She confessed of the names and ranks of the
officers and the intelligence authorities of this country, the money that
she received, her mission and the women who worked for her. Al Sha'lan
criticized Ibrahim Al Ja'fari's government, its openness towards Iran and
Turkey, and its delay in establishing bridges of trust with Arab
countries, which he considered as representing a state of provocation for
Arabs and Iraqis.
Al Hayat 
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[osint] More fatwa fibs

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45553

More fatwa fibs
Posted: August 2, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern C 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

To considerable press fanfare, the Fiqh Council of North America
issued a fatwa, denouncing terrorism. The religious edict decreed
that targeting civilians' life and property through suicide bombings
or any other method of attack is forbidden, and those who commit
these barbaric acts are criminals, not martyrs.

What religious authority does the FCNA possess? Does its authority
supersede that of say, the imam of the Mosque of Mecca, Sheik Abd-al-
Rahman al-Sudays? If so, does the fatwa extend to those the eminent
(but unoriginal) imam dubbed pigs and monkeys (a synonym for Jews
among many Islamic scholars)? This foremost Islamic authority had
hateful - and hate-inspiring - words for Hindus and Christians as
well. Is that all in the past now that the FCNA has spoken?

The Council on American-Islamic Relations participated in the canned
performance. CAIR's executive director promised that this was the
strongest statement that can be made by the Islamic community. The
Muslim Council of Britain made similar sounds after July 7. We know
they were not exactly channeling the British Islamic community, of
which 6 percent justified the murders, 24 percent sympathized with
the murderers, and 14 percent would not rat them out. (Since surveyed
subjects tend to give answers that depict them favorably, these
results are likely overoptimistic).

And did that Council's fatwa nullify the opinions of the mayor of
London's favorite progressive theologian, Yusuf al-Qaradawi? As
Civitas' David Conway recently reported, the mayor galvanized
Qaradawi's compendious knowledge to draw a sharp moral distinction
between suicide-bombings against ordinary Londoners (not good) and
those against ordinary Israelis (perfectly good).

And is CAIR qualified to preach peace? Not according to terrorism
expert, Steven Emerson:

Officials of both groups [CAIR and the FCNA] have been linked to
various terrorist organizations. The reigning chairman of the Fiqh
Council [Taha Jaber Al-Alwani] is an unindicted co-conspirator in the
case against Sami al-Arian, the alleged North American leader of
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Alwani has also funded Islamic Jihad front groups in Tampa.

To meet an FCNA trustee by the name of Abdurrahman Alamoudi, you'd
have to visit a jail cell, where he'll be ensconced for the next 23
years for illegal financial dealings with Libya and immigration
fraud. He has also admitted to partaking in a plot to assassinate the
Saudi crown prince, has voiced enthusiastic support for Hamas and
Hezbollah, and has allegedly acted as a financier for al-Qaida.

Another Council member, Sheikh Muhammad al-Hanooti, maintained ties
to Hamas, but has otherwise exercised remarkable restraint, merely
calling for jihad against America, England and the Jews.

The flower of the flock is undoubtedly Muzammil Siddiqui, president
of the FCNA. Mercifully, he has confined himself to cursing America
(the wrath of God and all that stuff).

CAIR's credentials are not much better, says Emerson: In the past 4
years, several CAIR officials have been convicted of or charged with
various terrorism-related offenses. The organization has championed
and defended officials and leaders of Islamic terrorist groups such
as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Any prosecution of Islamic
terrorists; any freezing of funds for their various front
organizations; any deportation of radical Islamic clerics who preach
jihad - CAIR greets with squalls of Islamophobia and war against
Islam. According to CAIR, the indictment of Palestinian Islamic
Jihad leader Sami al-Arian on conspiracy to murder more than 100
people was politically motivated and instigated by the attack dogs
of the pro-Israeli lobby.

Speaking of the Children of Israel, one particular Quranic verse
(5:32) quoted by the Fiqh folks in support of Islam's humanity piqued
my curiosity because of a similar sounding Talmudic saying. As the
Fatwa has it, this ayah declares that, Whoever kills a person
[unjustly] ... it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever
saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.

Prompted by Dr. Daniel Pipes, I examined the context of the passage
in The Meaning of the Qur'an, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, only to find
that the FCNA has decontextualized it. The Quran actually says the
following:

On that account: We ordained
For the Children of Israel
That if anyone slew
A person - unless it be
For murder or for spreading
Mischief in the land -
It would be as if
He slew the whole people:
And if anyone saved a life,
It would be as if he saved
The life of the whole people.
Then although there came
To them Our Messenger
With Clear Signs, yet,
Even after that, many
Of them continued to commit
Excess in the land.

The verse apparently concerns the dread-Jew. At the very least, it's
fair to say this Quranic ayah is considerably less

[osint] Package found on Australian bus

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/01/sydney.bombscare.reut/index.html

http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif

Package puts wind up bus driver

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- An Australian bus driver who called police
after he found a package on his bus which emitted a strange sound when
touched was left red-faced when it turned out to be a novelty store cushion.

Just two weeks ago Sydney, Australia's largest city, adopted a New
York-style If you see something, say something counter-terrorism campaign
urging people to report unattended bags or suspicious activity around public
transport.

The driver found the package on the rear seat of his bus after completing
his route around the Sydney beachside of Coogee on Sunday.

Fearing it could be an explosive device of some kind, he called the police.

It was an unattended item, emitting a popping sound, a police spokesman
said.

Just as a precautionary measure, police went and investigated. It's a
whoopee cushion, he said.

Copyright 2005 http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#Reuters Reuters.
All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.

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Find this article at:
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[osint] UK-based Islamist Believes the Internet is Al-Qaeda''s New Leader

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Author confuses a means of communication with leadership. Interesting this
ongoing international intellectual effort to distance current Islamic
terrorism from al-Qaeda's initial terrorism. Doesn't fly tho, and is
misleading and dangerous...which is perhaps the point.

Bruce

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1id=1062 id=1062

UK-based Islamist Believes the Internet is Al-Qaeda''s New Leader
Tuesday 02 August 2005
By Mohammed Al Shafey

London, Asharq Al-Awsat- An Islamist who observes the activities of
Al-Qaeda organization believes that its offspring consider the internet
their sheikh and not Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Dr. Hani al-Siba''i, director of the London-based Al-Maqrizi Studies Center,
told Asharq al-Awsat, The new generation of Al-Qaeda organization in the
West and East does not have a sheikh that it receives instructions or orders
from. This generation''s sheikh and leader is not Al-Zawahiri or Bin Laden
but the jihadist instructions on the fundamentalists'' websites and also the
photos of the massacres in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.

He said the problem now is that Al-Qaeda''s new generation does not trust
the sheikhs who are in the West and considers them loyal to the Western
authorities in Britain, the United States, France, and elsewhere and they
therefore act alone without consulting or seeking a fatwa (religious ruling)
from any sheikh and herein lies the danger.

Al-Siba''i believes there is no ideological connection between Al-Qaeda''s
new generation in the various countries hit by the terrorist operations -
Egypt, Britain, and Turkey - but they share one concern and one idea,
namely, that the West is insulting Islam and humiliating its sons.

He added that Al-Qaeda''s new generation surpasses the old fundamentalist
organizations like the Egyptian Islamic Group, Jihad, and others because
they are born in the West, are proficient in modern sciences like chemistry
and physics, speak several languages, and are proficient in using computers
and the internet. He says: It is obvious that they know how to design
websites for spreading their ideas and also to air tapes, sermons, and films
that they obtain or are published by some media organs. He called
Al-Qaeda''s new generation a transcontinental generation that went beyond
some of the local jihad groups in some Arab countries.

He noted that Al-Qaeda''s new grandchildren have never met Bin Laden or
visited Afghanistan or Iraq, barely know how to use a machine gun, and are
not known to the security services and therefore pose a danger that is not
easy to pinpoint and hence confront. He added They take their guidance from
the internet, videotapes, and satellite channels. They speak Arabic and are
proficient in English. What is their understanding of Islam? It is a mixture
of the anger and disappointment that characterize their generation. He
pointed out that Al-Qaeda''s new generation have superb ability to move
freely because of the various nationalities they have and also do not have
black records with the local and international security circles.

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[osint] Hunting al-Qaeda: Inside the RCMP's search for a terror cell

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=5da5e065-cdbb-
4384-b3f1-790347e94e0c
 
  
Hunting al-Qaeda: Inside the RCMP's search for a terror cell

James Gordon
Citizen Special 

Tuesday, August 02, 2005


TORONTO - In the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in
the United States, Canadian police and intelligence officials fanned out
across Ontario and Quebec in search of an alleged homegrown al-Qaeda
sleeper cell.

The Ottawa-based RCMP investigation -- Project A-O Canada -- would
eventually take officers to a small, nondescript apartment complex just a
10-minute drive from Toronto's soaring downtown office towers.

It was here, the Citizen has learned, that the Mounties, secret search
warrant in hand, descended in January 2002.

It was one of seven warrants executed that day. At the same time in Ottawa,
officers were busy rifling through the residence of Abdullah Almalki, a
Canadian citizen who spent two years locked up in a Syrian prison and claims
to have been tortured.

As with the Almalki raid, police were searching for detailed banking
records, travel documents and information about explosives and government
buildings. But with the shock of 9/11 still setting in, Toronto officers
were looking for more.

Newly released court documents show that, in addition to papers and
instructions relating to Osama bin Laden, his al-Qaeda terrorist network and
the 9/11 attacks, police also sought general information about jihad and
holy wars, airline information and aviation instruction and training
manuals.

Whether they found anything remains a state secret. The Citizen has obtained
the name and address of the warrant target, but cannot publish either. The
target moved out of the apartment in December 2004, and couldn't be reached
for comment.

Interviews with former neighbours paint two different pictures of the
target. To those who knew him as just another tenant passing in the dim
hallways, he was polite, quiet and kept to himself.

One neighbour who frequently spoke with the man called him odd, however.
Telling her he was an Egyptian engineer, the target explained his sometimes
lengthy travel was the result of a career with the Canadian government.

The man's name isn't currently listed on a federal employee database.

The neighbour, speaking on condition her name not be used, added that the
target liked a lot of women, and often went to a nearby gym to work out.

Without being told of the secret warrant, the woman said she was aware of a
police raid at the apartment. Some residents understood agents with Canada's
spy agency, CSIS, had stopped by earlier and told building managers they
would be around.

She added in the months leading up to, and following, the search, strange
things were happening.

There was a guy who used to sit outside in a beat-up old Jeep, and no
matter what time of day it was, he was there, she said.

The neighbour considered calling the police on several occasions, but
eventually came to suspect it was spies at work.

Then, on two separate occasions, the intersection in front of the building
was shut down and everyone was there, including the RCMP, Ontario
Provincial Police, Toronto police and others.

Despite documentary proof that an RCMP raid took place, one angry building
manager said the suspect was a very nice man and denied police had ever
been to his property.

Four years after Project A-O Canada was launched, it remains shrouded in
mystery. The RCMP insists near-blanket secrecy over the warrants is
necessary to protect an ongoing operation, but a legal challenge by the
newspaper continues to provide new details.

The search in Toronto and another at Abdullah Almalki's residence are the
only two revealed thus far in court papers. A Citizen investigation revealed
late last year that CSIS was tipped off days after Sept. 11, 2001, about
activity at a townhouse belonging to Mr. Almalki's brother, Nazih Almalki. A
suspicious neighbour claimed to have called the spy agency and later watched
a police raid there. Nazih Almalki couldn't be reached for comment.

Maher Arar, an Ottawa man secretly shipped by the United States to a Syrian
prison and an acquaintance of the Almalki brothers, has confirmed he later
learned about a search at the townhouse.

Mr. Arar was released last year after his case mushroomed into a full-blown
international incident. A public inquiry is currently examining the role of
Canadian officials (including members of A-O Canada) in the case.

None of the men targeted by the 2002 warrants has been charged with a crime,
and none of RCMP's allegations against them have been proven in court.

C The Ottawa Citizen 2005


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[osint] London 7/7 Terror Suspect Linked to British Intelligence?

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticlecode=CHO20050801;
articleId=782
London 7/7 Terror Suspect Linked to British Intelligence?
Michel Chossudovsky, GlobalResearch.ca
August 1, 2005

A British citizen named Haroon Rashid Aswat, living in Lusaka, Zambia is
wanted for questioning in relation to the 7/7 London bomb attacks.

Haroon Rashid Aswat comes from the same town in West Yorkshire, Dewsbury,
where three of the alleged bombers lived. He is suspected of visiting the
bombers in the weeks before the attacks. New Republic, 8 August 2005).

Scotland Yard declined to shed any light on claims Mr Aswat was the
possible mastermind of the July 7 attacks.

Haroon Rachid Aswat is said to have played a central role in the London
attacks:

Cell phone records show around 20 calls between him and the 7/7 gang,
leading right up to those attacks, which were exactly three weeks ago. (Fox
News, 28 July 2005)

Links to British Intelligence?

The same source (Fox News) which presents Aswat as the mastermind, also
points to Aswat's relationship to British and US intelligence, through a
British based Islamic organization Al-Muhajiroun.

In an interview with Fox News (29 July 2005), intelligence expert John
Loftus revealed that Haroon Rashid Aswat had connections to the British
Secret Service MI-6 (emphasis added):  the entire British police are out
chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI-6 or the British
Secret Service, has been hiding him... 

The Loftus interview suggests that the suspect was being used either as an
informer or a double agent:

MIKE JERRICK [FOX NEWS]: John Loftus is a terrorism expert and a former
prosecutor for the Justice Department. John, good to see you again. So real
quickly here, have you heard anything about this Osman Hussain who was just
picked up in Rome? You know that name at all?

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, all these guys should be going back to an organization
called Al-Muhajiroun, which means The Emigrants. It was the recruiting arm
of Al-Qaeda in London; they specialized in recruiting kids whose families
had emigrated to Britain but who had British passports. And they would use
them for terrorist work.

JERRICK: So a couple of them now have Somali connections?

LOFTUS: Yeah, it was not unusual. Somalia, Eritrea, the first group of
course were primarily Pakistani. But what they had in common was they were
all emigrant groups in Britain, recruited by this Al-Muhajiroun group. They
were headed by the, Captain Hook, the imam in London the Finsbury Mosque,
without the arm. He was the head of that organization. Now his assistant was
a guy named Aswat, Haroon Rashid Aswat.

JERRICK: Aswat, who they picked up.

LOFTUS: Right, Aswat is believed to be the mastermind of all the bombings in
London.

JERRICK: On 7/7 and 7/21, this is the guy we think.

LOFTUS: This is the guy, and what's really embarrassing is that the entire
British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government,
MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him. And this has been a
real source of contention between the CIA, the Justice Department, and
Britain.

JERRICK: MI6 has been hiding him. Are you saying that he has been working
for them? LOFTUS: Oh I'm not saying it. This is what the Muslim sheik said
in an interview in a British newspaper back in 2001.

JERRICK: So he's a double agent, or was?

LOFTUS: He's a double agent.

JERRICK: So he's working for the Brits to try to give them information about
Al-Qaeda, but in reality he's still an Al-Qaeda operative.

LOFTUS: Yeah. The CIA and the Israelis all accused MI 6 of letting all these
terrorists live in London not because they're getting Al-Qaeda information,
but for appeasement. It was one of those you leave us alone, we leave you
alone kind of things.

JERRICK: Well we left him alone too long then.

LOFTUS: Absolutely. Now we knew about this guy Aswat. Back in 1999 he came
to America. The Justice Department wanted to indict him in Seattle because
him and his buddy were trying to set up a terrorist training school in
Oregon.

JERRICK: So they indicted his buddy, right? But why didn't they indict him?

LOFTUS: Well it comes out, we've just learned that the headquarters of the
US Justice Department ordered the Seattle prosecutors not to touch Aswat.

JERRICK: Hello? Now hold on, why?

LOFTUS: Well, apparently Aswat was working for British intelligence. Now
Aswat's boss, the one-armed Captain Hook, he gets indicted two years later.
So the guy above him and below him get indicted, but not Aswat. Now there's
a split of opinion within US intelligence. Some people say that the British
intelligence fibbed to us. They told us that Aswat was dead, and that's why
the New York group dropped the case. That's not what most of the Justice
Department thinks. They think that it was just again covering up for this
very publicly affiliated guy with Al-Muhajiroun. He was a British
intelligence plant. So all of a sudden he disappears. He's in

[osint] Muslim Brotherhood Behind Al-Qa'ida

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
Of course it is...both the blind sheik Abdel Rahman (bin Laden's mentor) and
Abdul Azzam his erstwhile partner,were Muslim Brotherhood members, as well
as Hassan Turabi who brought together bin Laden, Mugniyah, the Iranians,
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and other members of al-Qaeda in Khartoum in 1995.

Bruce



French Commentary: Muslim Brotherhood Plays Key Role in International
Terrorism Paris Le Figaro (Internet Version-WWW) in French 29 Jul 05

[Commentary by Radio France Internationale editorialist Richard Labeviere: 
Muslim Brotherhood Behind Al-Qa'ida]

   The Al-Qa'ida bubble has deflated considerably since the Madrid attacks
(11 March 2004.)  The first explosions in London (7 July 2005) dealt it a
decisive blow.  Last, those in Sharm Al-Shaykh (23 July 2005) have refocused

the inquiries pursued during the past several decades into the historical
background of contemporary jihadism, namely, the Muslim Brotherhood.

   Rather than attributing this series of attacks, which do not represent an

operational continuum, to some hypothetical European pillar of Al-Qa'ida,
or to an Iraqi pillar that is no more relevant, investigators have been
concentrating for several years, but particularly since Madrid, on the
international structure, or the international apparatus, of this Egyptian
brotherhood, which emerged in the late 1920s.  Developed on the basis of
organizations representing the peasantry of Upper Egypt, this movement,
based on a strict interpretation of the founding texts of Sunni Islam, was
also much influenced by the corporatist ideology that was also behind
Mussolini's Fascism.  It is partly for this reason that the brotherhood
initially organized on the basis of the sectors of economic activity in the
hands of a small bourgeoisie opposed to the free officers that overthrew
King Faruq, including Jamal Abd-al Nasir, who was to become the embodiment
of a secular and keenly Marxist-type Arab nationalism.

   This historical background, encouraged and financed from the outset by
Saudi Arabia's King Faysal would by the end of the 1970s produce more
radical groups of students advocating recourse to armed struggle --Jemah
Islamiyah and the Jihad, authors of President Anwar al-Sadat's assassination

6 October 1981.  Apart from the death sentencing issued to five leading
activists in 1982, the approximately 200 other Muslim brothers indicted --
who constantly proclaimed their Islamist convictions throughout the trial --

were eventually released without further process.  Following this amnesty,
as hasty as it was uncontrolled, most of these activists left Egypt for
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Horn of
Africa, the Africa of the Sahel, and the Maghreb.  It was this dispersal of
the veteran jihadists that lay behind the formation of Bin Ladin's nebula
until the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, and the lasting
establishment of jihadist hotbeds in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa,
and Europe.

   Apart from the historical background of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
and its reconfiguration, and apart from the Saudi financial epicenter,
investigators now favor a third lead in Pakistan, along three axes -- the
cross-border tribal areas of Afghanistan; the Kashmiri focus of conflict
with India; and last, the port metropolis of Karachi, uncontrolled and
uncontrollable, harboring some 250 madrasas (Koranic schools) daily teaching

religious hatred to students aged 4-70.

   Following the bombardments in Kosovo and Serbia, following all the
interventions decided on by the UN Security Council, following the
US-British coalition in spite of the United Nations, how is it possible to

justify the marginalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the
innumerable civilian victims of the second Iraq war?  The jihad factories
find their symbolic legitimization in the imbalance, or iniquity, of the
political and diplomatic handling of numerous international crises, among
which the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is in the forefront.  Since 1948

this conflict has generated over 400 UN Security Council, General Assembly,
and Human Rights Commission resolutions, without any of these texts being
implemented in the very least.  The second Iraqi war and the lasting
establishment in the country of Western troops, including 140,000 US
soldiers, as well as increasing numbers of military bases throughout the
region, as far as Central Asia, constitute the second symbolic reference
point for the new jihadists.  Last, the Chechen conflict completes this
triptych, the foundation of the civilizational split and the pretext for all

kinds of crusades.  From this viewpoint, these aspects of the Muslim
Brotherhood's ideology present disturbing analogies with the deadly
projections of the US neoconservatives.

   Without ever setting themselves within the historical perspective of
national and post-colonial crises, the Muslim Brotherhood's preachers active

in Europe exploit them as

[osint] INDIA: Race against time, nature to shut out militants

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://www.indianexpress.com/

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Sudden Disquiet: Infiltration, Jammu Kashmir - Part III

Race against time, nature to shut out militants

Infiltration up, Army works on war-footing to repair LoC fence damaged by
heavy snowfall

SHISHIR GUPTA

GUREZ, KANZALWAN, AUGUST 1 Grappling with a sudden spurt in infiltration in
Kashmir, the Army is now racing against time to repair nearly 140 km of LoC
fencing destroyed in heavy snowfall and avalanches.

It has also decided to modify the alignment as well as the fence structure
along major ingress routes to try and stop infiltrators.

After an infiltration attempt by 25 Jaish-e-Mohammed militants in the Baruab
sector last month, the Army, in consultation with the Centre, has opted for
a new fence on the Shamshabari ridgeline in the Gurez sector rather than
rely on the existing fence along the Kishenganga river.

Top Army officials told The Indian Express that this year's snowfall
destroyed over 35 per cent of the LoC fencing, making it easy for militants
to slip in. Of the 400 km-long fence north of Pir Panjal, 140 km has been
damaged in extreme weather conditions.

The Indian Express found large sections of the fence flattened or destroyed
between Dawar and Baruab, Chakwali and Kaobal Gali along the Kishenganga
river.

While Brigadier V Diwedi, Chief Engineer of the Kashmir-based 15 Corps, did
not quantify the extent of the fence damage, he confirmed that heavy snow
this year had played havoc. According to him, work had been taken up on a
war-footing to repair the fence.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the fence runs along 734 km of the 742 km-long LoC. It
cost Rs 351 crore to erect the fence. As of now, the fence comprises 12-feet
high Y-shaped pillars, connected with barbed wires running parallel to the
ground.

After the Y-shaped pillar, there are two straight pillars in the second and
third tiers, separated by more than a feet. In between the three pillars,
razor-sharp concertina wire rolls have been placed to keep out infiltrators.

On the Y-shaped pillar is a rudimentary alarm system (hooters, floodlights)
that's activated whenever there's any intrusion. There's an Army post every
250 metres.

On major ingress routes, the Army has also deployed passive unattended
ground sensors (UGS) that detect any movement and alert the nearest
surveillance post by giving a printout detailing time and place of
intrusion.

But this year, heavy snowfall in the Shamshabari ranges ensured that snow
accumulated in the Y-shape and brought down the pillar. Even the concertina
wires were flattened in the avalanches.

As soon as the snow melted in the higher reaches last month, large groups of
militants, primarily from Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammed, crossed the LoC from Chakwali to Kaobal Gali and the
Kanzalwan area.

The militants have been digging beneath the fence, using rubber gloves and
forked sticks to crawl below the barbed wires. As there are no sensors in
the concertina wire rolls, these are snipped by militants who normally
infiltrate between 4 am and 5 am. Once inside, the militants, helped by
local guides, cross the mountains to enter the Valley via Sonamarg or
Bandipura.

The Army now wants to replace the 26 kg Y-shaped pillar with a swan shaped
pillar to ensure that snow slides down. After infiltration increased along
the Gurez-Kanzalwan axis, it has been decided that additional vertical
barbed wires, grouted to the ground, will be put on the main pillar together
with bungees or iron spikes between the three pillars. The swan shaped
pillars will be placed on the Shamshabari ridgelines.

In effect, the fencing along the Kishenganga will become the second line of
defence in this area. While Army officials say that the LoC fencing acts as
a deterrent, they point out that there have been desperate attempts to
infiltrate even in broad daylight.

-(Tomorrow: Car bomb, the Iraq model)

URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=75522

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[osint] US intelligence says Iran 10 years away from nuclear bomb: report

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
I wouldn't bet the farm on it...Pakistan, Russia, China and Nkorea could all
help advance the date...

Bruce


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storyu=/afp/20050802/pl_afp/usirannuclear_0
50802074838
US intelligence says Iran 10 years away from nuclear bomb: report Tue Aug 2,
3:55 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran is some 10 years away from manufacturing highly
enriched uranium to make a nuclear device, The Washington Post said quoting
officials with access to a new intelligence review.

Ordered by the National Intelligence Council in January, the National
Intelligence Estimate on Iran doubles the amount of time the White House
believes Iran is away from building a nuclear weapon from five years in the
previous estimate in 2001, the daily said.

The estimate, designed to alert the US president to national security
developments, said there were credible indicators that Iran's military was
conducting clandestine work, but nothing to indicate they were related to a
nuclear weapons program, according to sources familiar with the report.

The report also expresses uncertainty about whether Iran's ruling clerics
have made a decision to build a nuclear arsenal, although it agrees that,
left to its own devices, Iran would pursue the nuclear weapons path.

On Iran's political future, the estimate is unsure whether Iran's ruling
clerics would still be in power by the time the country is capable of
producing fissile material.

The US administration keeps hoping the mullahs will leave before Iran gets
a nuclear weapons capability, said a US official familiar with the
intelligence review.

Iran on Monday informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
that it would soon resume uranium ore conversion, a move that risks plunging
talks with the European Union into crisis and exposing Tehran to UN
Security Council action.

Iran handed over a letter to the IAEA that formally notified the UN watchdog
of the imminent resumption of uranium ore conversion, the precursor to
enrichment in the nuclear fuel cycle.

It then announced that in coordination with inspectors from the IAEA it was
making the initial preparations to remove the seals placed on a plant in the
city of Isfahan and then resume conversion activities after a nine month
suspension.

The Islamic republic has yet to announce that production has started --
something it had originally said would take place Monday -- but emphasised
the initial steps were mere formalities and there was no going back.

Inspectors from the IAEA are working, controlling (surveillance) cameras
and making their own controls so that the seals can be removed, nuclear
negotiator Ali Agha Mohammadi said on state television.

When their work is completed this will mean that the (uranium conversion)
plant at Isfahan will restart. It is routine and practical work but from our
point of view Isfahan is already back online.

Tehran's decision, which jeopardises months of tortuous talks with European
Union countries aimed at saving Iran from UN Security Council sanctions,
immediately aroused expressions of grave concern from the international
community.

If Iran does not go back on its choice we will then have to demand an
exceptional meeting of the IAEA council of governors, said French Foreign
Minister Philippe Douste Blazy.

If despite this Iran carries on we will need to go to the Security
Council, he added.

The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear
weapon, lost no time in affirming its threat to go to the Security Council.
If they're not going to abide by their agreement and obligations, then we
would have to look to the Security Council, White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said.

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to halt its unilateral move, which
comes just three days before hardline president Mahmood Ahmadinejad takes
office, calling on Tehran to continue the negotiation process.

A letter from Iran given to the IAEA in Vienna complained that Europe has
dallied too long in coming up with concrete proposals for a nuclear
cooperation deal, adding that it had reason to believe that the eventual
offer would be totally unacceptable.

Iranian politicians have for once united in support of their country's right
to nuclear power, which has become an issue of national pride and compared
to the nationalisation of the oil industry by prime minister Mohammad
Mossadegh in 1953.

Both conversion and enrichment activity were suspended by Iran last November
for the duration of talks with the European Union on providing guarantees
that its nuclear programme is exclusively civil.

In Berlin, a foreign ministry spokesman said the European Union would be
making its offer in the next days. In this context, a resumption of uranium
conversion would be a completely unnecessary step ... But now it is up to
Iran not to miscalculate.

Iran had warned on Sunday that it would resume conversion work if the EU
failed by Monday to come up with its package of trade and security

[osint] Immigrants debriefed by Canadian spies for intelligence, study reveals

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

They should be doing the same thing now for Islamic immigrants.

Bruce

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storyu=/cpress/20050801/ca_pr_on_na/spy_int
erviews_1
Immigrants debriefed by Canadian spies for intelligence, study reveals JIM
BRONSKILL Mon Aug 1, 4:14 PM ET

OTTAWA (CP) - Hundreds of immigrants and refugees who settled in Canada at
the height of the Cold War were grilled by intelligence officials for
valuable information, says a new study based on still-secret files.

Newcomers fleeing Hungary following the Communist crackdown of the 1950s
were among those closely debriefed by Canadian authorities.

Details of the little-known intelligence interview program are revealed in a
study prepared for the federal government by University of Toronto history
professor Wesley Wark.

The Canadian Press obtained a draft version of the book-length manuscript in
response to a request under the Access to Information Act.

The interview program was the closest Canada came during the era to
developing a covert intelligence-gathering organization based on human
sources, Wark writes.

It was seen as a means of helping Canada earn its place with senior allies
at the western intelligence table.

In those days we were very highly dependent on the Americans and the
Brits, recalled 83-year-old Reg Weeks, a retired veteran of Canadian
military intelligence.

In early 1952, Weeks led a pilot project that involved questioning of 76
people, mainly former citizens of Soviet satellite countries who had left
the Iron Curtain through Scandinavia.

The project also included reports from two Polish defectors who had made a
slightly more spectacular escape by stowing away in the luggage compartment
of a flight to Paris, Wark's study says.

They were able to provide information on airfields and repair depots near
Warsaw and on some types of Polish aircraft previously unknown to the
Canadian military.

Initially known as the interrogation unit, the name was changed to
interview organization, undoubtedly to distance the voluntary program from
any notion of police-state tactics, Wark says.

The program was formally established in 1953 within the Joint Intelligence
Bureau, a section of the Defence Department that handled a steady flow of
secret information on economic and military matters.

The success of the interview venture depended on identifying valuable
sources, the study says.

Immigration officers at selected outposts in Europe and RCMP officials
overseas who vetted applications for emigration to Canada brought candidates
to the interview section's attention.

Military attaches in Europe were also informed of the program and requested
to keep their eyes and ears open for potential sources in the immigration
stream, Wark writes.

A 10-year summary of the program from 1963 indicated the overwhelming
majority of the 2,000 people interviewed were immigrants from Europe.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of (the bureau's) work involved processing
immigrants from Hungary, following the exodus in the wake of the 1956
uprising, Wark's study says.

A total of 1,104 Hungarian immigrants and refugees were processed by the
unit, over 300 were interviewed by case officers and individual reports were
issued in 176 cases.

Polish sources accounted for the next most significant population, with 253
immigrants processed, 56 interviewed, and 60 reports issued.

In 1962, bureau officials began debriefing officers posted to the United
Nations mission in Kashmir and, later, those attached to the UN observer
mission in Vietnam, the study adds.

The interview program also handled intelligence from other sources,
including Canadian travellers and foreign defectors.

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[osint] China offers help in securing Malacca Strait, Indonesian defense minister says

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Sounds like the same offer Iran made to Iraq to assist in its defense
training and security...or the offer the fox made to the hens in the
henhouse.

Bruce

China offers help in securing Malacca Strait, Indonesian defense minister
says(updated PM 03:27)

2005/8/2
BATAM, Indonesia (AP)

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=29615

China is offering to help secure the Malacca Strait, Indonesia said Tuesday,
adding to a list of countries anxious to make the strategic waterway safer.

Much of the world's oil and a quarter of its sea-borne goods pass through
the strait each year. But it is infested with pirates, and some countries
have expressed fears that Muslim terrorists may try to launch an attack
there.

Indonesia's defense minister Juwono Sudarsono said there was a plan from
China to add to security in the strait. He gave no more details on the
offer, but reiterated Indonesia's position that foreign troops were not
welcome in the waterway.

All countries whose supply of oil depends on the Malacca strait, like
China, Japan and Korea, have an interest in securing it, Sudarsono told
reporters in Jakarta. But we only want technical assistance.

Indonesia and Malaysia have already rejected a U.S. offer of troops.

Sudarsono made the comments as foreign ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia
and Singapore _ which share sovereignty over the Malacca Strait _ were
meeting on the Indonesian island of Batam to discuss how to boost security
in the 900-kilometer (550-mile) strait.

On Monday, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda complained that the
International Maritime Bureau was misrepresenting the nature of the security
problems in the strait, which links Asia with the Middle East and Europe.

The London-based organization monitors piracy around the world and issues
regular reports.

I don't deny there are still security problems that need to be handled, but
not all the problems are piracy attacks as reported by the International
Maritime Bureau, Wirayuda told reporters in Batam late Monday.

He claimed that the bureau included attacks on ships in the nearby Sunda
Strait and criminal acts at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port as piracy in the
Malacca Strait.

The bureau was not immediately available for comment.

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[osint] Abdullah has led reform, strike on terror for 10 years

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050802/NEWS12/50802
0319/1208

Abdullah has led reform, strike on terror for 10 years

The Associated Press
August 2, 2005

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah, who succeeded his half brother King
Fahd on Monday, is a popular leader who has been the kingdom's effective
ruler for 10 years and is the main force behind an unprecedented reform
drive.

The 81-year-old Abdullah, sticking to tradition, immediately appointed his
half brother, Defense Minister Prince Sultan, 77, as his crown prince and
successor.

But the first change in the throne in 23 years uncorks a jockeying for
position in the line of succession among the next generation, made up of
dozens of Western-educated, technology-savvy princes who can take the
kingdom into the 21st century.

The choice of Sultan is a sign that deep-rooted reform - which diplomats and
analysts say is the only way the ruling Al Saud dynasty can ensure its
survival - has been placed on the back burner as Abdullah pursues change at
his own pace.

Sultan - like Abdullah, Fahd and all the 42 sons of Saudi Arabia's founder,
Abdul-Aziz - had only a rudimentary education in the era before oil wealth
flooded the kingdom. Sultan is likely to appease the religious
establishment, which gives the monarchy its legitimacy, rather than continue
to reform its institutions.

The newer generation grew up in riches, with greater technology and contact
with the West - typified by Sultan's son, Prince Bandar, who was Saudi
Arabia's urbane ambassador to the United States until he stepped down to
return home two weeks ago.

Saudi Arabia faces the challenges of liberalizing its ailing economy and
satisfying many Saudis' desire for greater freedom and more say in politics.
It must tame the radical religious elements so the royal family's role as
guardian of Islam's holy places will not be challenged.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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[osint] Iran to restart nuclear work, crisis looms

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews
http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNewsstoryID=2005
-08-02T113853Z_01_BAN241890_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-NUCLEAR-IRAN-20050802.XML
storyID=2005-08-02T113853Z_01_BAN241890_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-NUCLEAR-IRAN-200508
02.XML

Iran to restart nuclear work, crisis looms
Tue Aug 2, 2005 1:39 PM GMT

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday there was no going back on its
decision to restart nuclear fuel work, a move a French minister said could
spark a major international crisis.

Two years of hard bargaining between the European Union and Iran over its
nuclear programme looked close to breaking point with the EU coming round to
the U.S. view that Tehran should be referred to the United Nations for
possible sanctions.

I think this Iranian affair is very serious and that it could be the start
of a major crisis, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told
reporters in Paris.

The United States says Iran is trying to build a nuclear arsenal under the
veil of a civilian atomic fuel programme. Iran says it only wants to build
nuclear power stations.

The so-called EU3 of Britain, France and Germany had been due to offer Iran
nuclear, political and economic incentives to freeze its nuclear fuel
activities indefinitely.

But Iran insists the EU recognise its right to enrich uranium, something the
union has so far refused to do.

Iranian officials said they had grown impatient with what they called EU
time-wasting and rejected the offer even before it had been made.

The political decision has been taken ... The resumption is irreversible,
Supreme National Security Council spokesman Ali Aghamohammadi told Reuters.
He said that as far as Iran was concerned, the resumption had already begun.

But he did not say the Iranians had actually broken the seals placed at the
plant by U.N. inspectors -- which would be a more decisive defiance of the
international community.

CHANCE TO SALVAGE TALKS?

Iranian officials said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors
began work at a uranium conversion plant near the central city of Isfahan on
Monday in preparation for Iran to begin its nuclear activities there.

The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will finish the installation
of surveillance equipment in the next 24 hours and we will restart the
plant's activities in the next one or two days, Mohammad Saeedi said.

But the IAEA in Austria said it would take at least a week.

The equipment needs to be sent from Vienna and it will take at a minimum of
one week to get the surveillance equipment installed as well as other
safeguard measures in place before seals could be removed, said IAEA
spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.

EU diplomats say a decision on whether to keep diplomatic options alive
could depend on whether fuel work actually begins, meaning the extra week
needed to bring in inspectors could offer a hope of salvaging talks.

The conversion plant near Isfahan turns uranium ore into gas. The gas is
then enriched into fuel that could be used either in power stations or to
make weapons.

A new U.S. intelligence review estimates Iran is about 10 years away from
having the ability to build a nuclear bomb, The Washington Post said on
Tuesday.

The EU3 said if Iran went ahead and began work at the Isfahan plant it would
call for an urgent meeting of the IAEA board which can refer Iran to the
U.N. Security Council.

Iran must stick to its commitments ... There will be a referral to the UN
Security Council if Iran doesn't back off, French Prime Minister Dominique
de Villepin told Europe 1 radio.

In the United States, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said if Iran
restarted activities at the Isfahan plant we would have to look to the
Security Council.

Some EU officials speculated Iran might be creating a mini-crisis that
President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could defuse by calling at his
inauguration on Saturday for more time for negotiation. This could make him
appear statesmanlike and soften his image as an anti-Western Islamic
hardliner.

But Aghamohammadi said the EU wanted to send its proposals later to make
Ahmadinejad look bad.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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[osint] Pentagon to Increase Domestic Surveillance for Counterterrorism

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

Pentagon to Increase Domestic  Surveillance for Counterterrorism
 
Monday, August 01,  2005
By Kelley Beaucar  Vlahos
Fox News
WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense  has developed a new strategy in
counterterrorism that would increase military  activities on American soil,
particularly in the area of intelligence  gathering. 
The move is sparking concern  among civil liberties advocates and those who
fear an encroaching military role  in domestic law enforcement. 
In an argument that eerily  foreshadowed the July London terror attacks, the
Pentagon in late June announced  its _Strategy for Homeland Defense and
Support,_ (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2005/d20050630homeland.pdf)
which would  expand its reach domestically to prevent enemy attacks aimed
at Americans here  at home. 
The strategy, approved by  Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England (_search_

(javascript:siteSearch('Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England');)   ) on 
June 24, argues that the government needs a multi-layered, preventive
approach to national defense in order to combat an unconventional enemy that
will attack from anywhere, anytime and by any conceivable  means. 
Transnational terrorist  groups view the world as an integrated, global
battlespace in which to exploit  perceived U.S vulnerabilities, wherever
they may be, reads the 40-page document  that outlines the new plans. 
Terrorists seek to attack the United  States and its centers of gravity at
home and  abroad and will use asymmetric means to achieve their ends, such
as simultaneous  mass casualty attacks, it said. 
Critics say the fears raised  by the Pentagon are being used as a
justification for the military to conduct  wider, more intrusive
surveillance on American citizens. 
Do we want, as a free people,  with the notion of privacy enshrined in the
Constitution and based on the very  clear limits and defined role of
government, to be in a society where not just  the police, but the military
are on the street corners gathering intelligence on  citizens, sharing that
data, manipulating that data? asked former Rep. Bob  Barr (_search_
(javascript:siteSearch('Rep. Bob Barr');)  ), R-Ga., a  constitutional law
expert and civil libertarian. 
This document provides a  blueprint for doing just that. 
Barr said the new strategy is  a back-door means of following through with a
2002 plan to create a massive,  centralized information database using
public and private records of  individuals, called Total Information
Awareness. 
Congress killed TIA in 2003  because of civil liberties and privacy
concerns. 
Critics say they believe much  of TIA lives on in some form through smaller,
undisclosed military contracts.  This latest plan, they say, is one way of
jump-starting TIA's initial  goals. 
This is TIA back with a  vengance, said Barr. What they have come up with
here is a much vaguer and  much broader concept that sounds more innocuous. 
[The Pentagon] is getting much  smarter in how to sell these things. 
The Defense Department report  says its increased surveillance capabilities
at home will adhere to  constitutional and privacy protections, even though
it emphasizes enhancing  current data mining capabilities. 
Specifically, the department  will. develop automated tools to improve data
fusion, analysis, and management,  to track systematically large amounts of
data and to detect, fuse and analyze  aberrant patterns of activity,
consistent with U.S. privacy protections, the  report reads. 
It will also develop a cadre  of specialized terrorism intelligence
analysts within the defense intelligence  community and deploy a number of
these analysts to interagency centers for  homeland defense and
counter-terrorism analysis and operations, states the  report. 
Some national security experts  agree that emboldened surveillance on
domestic soil is necessary in the global  War on Terror, and that such
intelligence could prevent the kind of attacks  perpetuated by homegrown
terrorists in England on July 7 and  21. 
The Defense Department has  always done intelligence operations in the
United  States. They have the legal right to do that.  There is nothing new
here, 
James Carafano, a homeland security analyst with _The  Heritage Foundation_
(http://www.heritage.org/) , told FOXNews.com. There are no new threats to
privacy  or constitutionality. I just think it's about doing [intelligence]
more efficiently and effectively. 
But John Pike, founder of _GlobalSecurity.org_
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/)  , a clearinghouse of available
intelligence  and national security information, says it's not so clear how
much data the  Pentagon will be collecting on citizens and whether it will
be retaining,  sharing and building individual dossiers. So far, the lack of
detail leaves as  many question as answers, he said. 
The bad news is there is  certainly the possibility of a return to the sort
of domestic surveillance that  we saw in the 1950s and 1960s, Pike said. 
Pentagon officials

[osint] Sandy Berger Blasts Bush for Security Failure

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

We are truly down the rabbit-hole when the contemptible Berger has the brass
balls to condemn ANYone for a security failure.

And what the hell is up with those Justice Department prosecutors who want
to slap his wrist with a wet noodle?

--S.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/7/31/213142.shtml

Sandy Berger Blasts Bush for Security Failure

Convicted 9/11 Commission document thief Sandy Berger is blasting the Bush
administration for failing to bring security to Iraq after toppling Saddam
Hussein.

As co-chair of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on the Iraq war,
Berger and his colleagues are complaining that the U.S.'s failure to prepare
for the period after the war had given early impetus for the insurgency,
according to quotes picked up by Reuters.

Despite pleading guilty in April to destroying top secret terrorism
documents related to the 9/11 investigation, the former Clinton
administration national security advisor was tapped to head up the CFR panel
along with former Bush 41 National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.

In a written report released last week, the Berger-Scowcroft panel
concluded:

The critical miscalculation of Iraq war-planning was that the stabilization
and reconstruction mission would require no more forces than the invasion
itself.

Berger and his colleagues cited the Bush administration's inattention and
misjudgments as key reasons for the post-war security failure.

Pre-war inattention to post-war requirements - or simply misjudgments about
them - left the United States ill-equipped to address public security,
governance and economic demands in the immediate aftermath of the conflict,
seriously undermining key U.S. foreign policy goals.

Despite the seriousness of his crime, Justice Department prosecutors have
recommended that Berger serve no jail time, and instead pay only a $10,000
fine and surrender his security clearance for three years.

His sentence is scheduled to be set by D.C. Magistrate Judge Deborah
Robinson in September.

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[osint] SENATOR DENOUNCES REPORT CALLING FOR UN GLOBAL INTERNET CONTROL

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Good!

Keep the corrupt UN out of it!!!

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm

SENATOR DENOUNCES REPORT CALLING FOR UN GLOBAL INTERNET CONTROL

Mon Aug 01 2005 18:43:18 ET

Washington, D.C.-Senator Norm Coleman today submitted a statement into the
Congressional Record denouncing a final report issued by the United Nations'
Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) suggesting that the U.N. assume
global governance of the Internet. Since its inception and creation in the
United States, the U.S. has assumed the historic role of overseeing the
Internet's growth and has overseen its development. The U.N. taskforce
report suggests that in addition to terminating the U.S.'s leadership role,
the authority and functions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization overseen by the U.S.
Department of Commerce, should be transferred as well. Senator Coleman
strongly opposes these measures.

My probe of the U.N. as Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations revealed management that was at best, incompetent, and at
worst corrupt, said Coleman. The first priority for the United Nations
must be fundamental reform of its management and operations rather than any
expansion of its authority and responsibilities. The Internet has flourished
under U.S. supervision, oversight, and private sector involvement. This
growth did not happen because of increased government involvement, but
rather, from the opening on the Internet to commerce and private sector
innovation. Subjecting the Internet and its security to the politicized
control of the UN bureaucracy would be a giant and foolhardy step
backwards.

Recently, I introduced UN reform legislation with the Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations, Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN), known as the
Coleman-Lugar UN Reform Bill, to help put an end to a culture of corruption
that was exposed by the Oil for Food scandal, peacekeeping sexual abuse
scandals, and other instances of organizational failures at U.N., Coleman
said. Putting the U.N. in charge of one of the world's most important
technological wonders and economic engines is out of the question. This
proposal would leave the United States with no more say over the future of
the Internet than Cuba or China-countries that have little or no commitment
to the free flow of information.

The WGIG taskforce report will be discussed at the next World Summit on the
Information Society Tunisia in November.

In light of this report, I also plan to consult with experts and
stakeholders regarding Internet governance, and will assess whether
legislation is needed as a remedy, Coleman continued. The U.S. is willing
to work with other countries that have an interest in the management of
their own country code domains but UN control is out of the question. We
will continue a dialogue with the rest of the world on these issues as we go
forward.

END

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[osint] Politicians admit Muslim religion lights the terrorist match

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft


 

Politicians admit Muslim religion lights the terrorist match 
By  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED];
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Jen Shroder
(07/31/05) 

American Daily

Shamil Bsayev is planning atrocities similar to the massacre of 330 children
and holding a thousand hostages at a predominantly Christian school in
Russia. Islamists taunted Christian parents by dangling their dead children
by their toes through school windows. Basayev is also credited for holding
800 hostage and 50 deaths at a Russian theater. Basayev said on a rebel
website: Through the kindness of Allah, [we] celebrated a double holiday --
that of the victory over fascism and a small but very important victory over
Russia. 

Muslim organizations threaten lawsuits of anyone connecting Islam to
Islamist fanaticism as our government attempts to convince the public that
mainstream Islam is peaceful. Richard Ben-Veniste of the 911 Commission
dropped a bomb on Hardball and revealed:
Our mission is to separate Bin Laden and the al-Qaida and the al-Qaida
wannabes from the Muslim world at large to make it inhospitable.
There is a need to separate the two because they ARE one. Thus the public
saturation of a fabricated Islam, defanged and sanitized, separated from the
extremists and devoid of Koran verses. But behind the scenes, politicians
identify and conclude the obvious:
This is NOT a war on terrorism. It is a war against Islamist fundamentalist
terrorists. These are Jihadists who want to achieve certain goals. They want
to get us out of Afghanistan. They want to get us out of Saudi Arabia. They
want to get us out of Iraq. They want to get us out of Iraq by using the
techniques of terrorists. ?James Gorelick, 911 Commission, Hardball 9/13/04

This is a religion that is indistinguishable from politics. The politics
and religion are the same thing but the promise is eternal life. You know?to
kill people, you get rewarded. 

[When asked if we never did anything against them politically, would they
still rage against us] , Just ask Bin Laden himself. Bin Laden said three
things: ?Get out of the Middle East, convert to Islam and end all the
corruption of your society.? Slade Gorton, 911 Commission, Hardball 9/13/04

Yet as political, social, and economic problems created flammable
societies, Bin Laden used Islam?s most extreme, fundamentalist traditions as
his match. All these elements ?including religion?combined in an explosive
compound. 911 Commission Report, pg 54. 

We are infidels, we are not simply non-Muslim. We are people who lead good
Muslims away from the true faith in the minds of Bin Laden. We are the
greater danger, that?s why we are the great satan. It is not about what we
did in Iran, it is not about what we?ve done in Iraq or elsewhere, it?s the
very fact that our existence, that our pluralism, is a direct threat to
their version of Islam. ? Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Diplomacy and
Counterterrorism, House International Relations Committee Chairman 8/24/04

[Discussing the slaughter of school children in Russia] Some of them have
religious motivations as well as political motivations but the same mindset,
the same mindset governed them even though they may have very well not have
been members of al-Qaida. [On culture, religion or US policy] You are
separating three things and saying is it this, is it that or is it the
third? The three are not indistinguishable among these people. Slade
Gorton, 911 Commission, Hardball 9/13/04

The American taxpayers are spending millions of millions of dollars to
provide education for these Palestinian children to no avail, making it
worse and perhaps the worst offenders of all, the Saudis?we had
representatives of the State Department sitting right where you are, talking
about this wonderful friendship and these great partners with us against the
war on terrorism, I thought I was living in a parallel universe when I heard
that nonsense. The madrassas?we do need to reform them but knowing that the
Saudis are getting millions and millions and millions of dollars to fund
these madrassas which are all anti-American, anti?Western, so having said
that very long introduction, how do we break through it? We support nations
that support individuals that do not have our best interests at heart, quite
the contrary, they?re our biggest enemies in the world and we dress them up
and we take them out on a date and pretend that they?re our lovers and they
are NOT. ?Rep. Shelle!
y Berkley, , Diplomacy and Counterterrorism, House International Relations
Committee Chairman 8/24/04

Usama Bin Ladin and other Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long
tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam...that stream is
motivated by religion and does not distinguish politics from religion, thus
distorting both...Bin Ladin and Islamist terrorist mean exactly what they
say: to them America is the font of all evil, the head of the snake, and
it must be converted or destroyed. It is not a position with which Americans
can bargain or

[osint] FW: 2 S. African media stories on Aswat

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
 
UK 'terror kingpin' sold CDs in Joburg  
August 2, 2005

  http://www.thestar.co.za/site/7/images/authors/author290   By Alameen
Templeton

Haroon Rashid Aswat - the man believed to have co-ordinated the London
bombing sprees in which 56 people died - is known in Fordsburg,
Johannesburg, as a nice family man.

Aswat made his living selling Islamic CDs and DVDs at fleamarkets around
Joburg and in neighbouring countries, a business associate said yesterday.

Ahmed Al Arine, who says he was interrogated for three days by South African
intelligence agents last week, said he had helped Aswat sell CDs from a
stall on Fordsburg Square and was shocked by the allegations levelled
against him.

Al Arine, a refugee from Jordan seeking asylum in South Africa, described
Aswat as a nice person and said he had never expressed any interest in
radical Islam in the five months he had known the alleged bomber.

London police, however, are determined to question him because the July 7
bombers allegedly made a total of about 20 calls to his cellphone shortly
before the bombings. 

US authorities also want to question him, accusing Aswat of trying to
establish an al-Qaeda-style training camp in Bly, Oregon.

Zambian police confirmed they were holding Aswat, who was arrested on July
20 in Lusaka. He is due to be extradited to Britain after Zambia's interior
minister yesterday signed a document handing over custody of the suspect to
Britain.

British newspapers reported at the weekend that Aswat had told his Zambian
captors he was once a bodyguard for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Al Arine is in hiding after he claimed he was subjected to intense
interrogation sessions at a police station in Pretoria.

He said he was arrested by police on July 24 without a warrant and was duped
into giving them a blood sample for DNA purposes.

Al Arine's apartment in Randburg was searched and CDs, DVDs, documents and
his computer hard drive were taken, all without a warrant, he claimed.

He had laid a complaint with the police's Independent Complaints
Directorate, which probes allegations against the police. 

Al Arine's ordeal has, however, allowed a snapshot of Aswat to emerge, which
shows he has business dealings that require him to move across borders and
in and out of Islamic communities with relative ease.

Aswat has a family in South Africa and is believed to have left the country
about a month ago, ostensibly to make business contacts on the fleamarket
circuit in Botswana.

Al Arine said yesterday he was introduced to Aswat by his grandmother and
had known him to be a soft-spoken man of good habits, who was very
private.

He was a quiet person. He didn't like anyone to interfere in his life. He
always was very secretive, but he was very nice and he was fair with
everything that he did with me, Al Arine said. 

 
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Aswat was introduced to him as Yahya and he had called him by that name in
the five months he had known him, he said.

Sometimes I hear his family call him Haroon, and his granny said to me that
this is because he looks like another Haroon in the family, Al Arine said.

Asked if Aswat had ever spoken to him about al-Qaeda or radical Islamic
issues, Al Arine said: Never. He didn't speak about these things. He was
only concentrating on business - DVDs and CDs. It was for me to manage
Joburg, and he had all the fetes and stalls outside Joburg and in Botswana,
he said.

Aswat left for Botswana about four weeks ago and suddenly disappeared. Al
Arine started getting phone calls from Aswat's worried family, wanting to
know if he had heard from his partner. 
All of Al Arine's calls to Aswat went unanswered.

Al Arine was arrested nine days ago as he, his wife and young daughter went
to Joburg International Airport to pick up a friend. 
Five cars surrounded him and about 25 policemen from the Crime Intelligence
Unit climbed out, pointing assault rifles at him.

Al Arine was forced to the ground, and when he wanted to know what he had
done wrong, the police told him the orders to arrest him had come from the
president.

He was taken back to his flat and the police seized all kinds of
documentation and carted them off.

His wife was told that if she ever wanted to see her husband again, she must
not tell anyone of the arrests, Al Arine added.

While he was being interrogated,

[osint] Terror Top Threat for Ankara After Attacks

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
Subject: [osint] Terror Top Threat for Ankara After Attacks

The increased attacks against military and civilian targets ï¿½ by
separatist Kurdish rebels in Turkey and Julyï¿½s London and Egyptian
bombings by suspected Islamic militants ï¿½ strengthen Turkish intentions to
list asymmetrical risks as a top threat in a state security paper Turkeyï¿½s
government and military leaders will conclude soon.


http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1000756C=europe

Posted 08/01/05 19:38
Terror Top Threat for Ankara After Attacks By BURAK EGE BEKDIL And UMIT
ENGINSOY, ANKARA

A recent wave of terror attacks in Turkey and elsewhere bolsters Turkish
intentions to make asymmetrical threats the focal point of an emerging
security white paper, according to Turkish defense and security officials.

The increased attacks against military and civilian targets ï¿½ by
separatist Kurdish rebels in Turkey and Julyï¿½s London and Egyptian
bombings by suspected Islamic militants ï¿½ strengthen Turkish intentions to
list asymmetrical risks as a top threat in a state security paper Turkeyï¿½s
government and military leaders will conclude soon.

The paper, which often covers three to four prospective years, is the key
state document that details foreign and domestic security threats and
therefore shapes the countryï¿½s major procurement decisions

ï¿½What has been happening in Turkey and elsewhere is the best proof that
asymmetrical threat is the biggest security risk,ï¿½ a top Turkish security
official said. ï¿½This inevitably will be reflected in the new threat
paper.ï¿½

The National Security Council, or Milli Guvenlik Kurulu (MGK), the
countryï¿½s top decision-making body, will convene at the end of August to
shape the new National Security Political Paper. Turkish leaders are
expected to finalize the paper in the next few months. MGK brings together
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Army Gen.
Hilmi Ozkok, chief of the Turkish General Staff, and leading cabinet
ministers and top generals.

After MGKï¿½s next scheduled meeting in late August, the paper will go to
Erdoganï¿½s desk for final revisions and approval.

The Kurdistan Workersï¿½ Party (PKK) and its splinter groups, which Turkey,
the United States and the European Union consider terrorists, have in recent
months increased mostly remote-controlled mine attacks against military
targets as well as bomb attacks against civilians in holiday resorts,
killing more than 120 people in the past year.

Between 1984 and 1999, nearly 40,000 people were killed in the conflict
between the PKK and Turkey. The fighting subsided in 1999 as Turkey captured
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. But the PKK has resumed attacks since it
canceled its unilateral cease-fire in June 2004. In a change of tactics, the
PKK is increasingly using improvised explosive devices like those employed
by Iraqi insurgents.

Separately, bombings in London and Sharm al-Sheik, Egypt, in July have
killed nearly 150, and the responsibility for both waves of attacks was
claimed by different Islamic groups. An al-Qaida-related group killed more
than 70 people in four bombings in Istanbul in November 2003.

ï¿½In view of recent terror attacks, it will be more realistic to substitute
[Turkeyï¿½s] conventional terror concept, which is based on military
confrontation with hostile countries,ï¿½ with an approach that emphasizes
the threat of groups like al-Qaida, said the same security official.

Last year, Turkeyï¿½s military leaders indicated they might scrap
conventional threat perceptions, saying the real risk was terror and Islamic
fundamentalism.

Anti-terror Coordination

A military official said the new paper will likely pave the way for a fresh,
comprehensive anti-terror fight, which could include creation of a special
anti-terror coordination body, most likely reporting to the prime
ministerï¿½s office. Turkish lawmakers also are mulling revisions in the
countryï¿½s anti-terror laws.

According to Reha Tartici, director for the Istanbul-based research house
Consensus, the new threat document also will affect some of Turkeyï¿½s
procurement decisions.

ï¿½In a way, it will be a guideline for a future shift to smart weaponry
instead of conventional arms,ï¿½ Tartici said. ï¿½There already are signs
for that. The newly relaunched satellite program is a good example.ï¿½

A month and a half before a deadline to respond to a call from Ankara for
the critical satellite military program, scores of local and international
manufacturers expressed their intention to bid for the contract.

Turkeyï¿½s government had earmarked an initial $138 million for the
countryï¿½s space program and asked local and international manufacturers to
respond to a request for information (RfI), which procurement officials
often view as an expression of intention to bid for a contract. But a
procurement official familiar with the program said the eventual cost may
exceed $250 million.

As of July 7, according to

[osint] Special briefing: How radical Islamists see the world

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

 

Special briefing: How radical Islamists see the world


By Dan Murphy and Howard LaFranchi | Staff writers of The Christian Science
Monitor 

August 02, 2005

Persistent suicide bombings in Iraq. Attacks on London subways. Explosions
at an Egyptian resort. 

Whether related or not, these recent incidents have heightened global
concern about the spread of radical Islamist militancy. And they raise
questions about the current reach of Al Qaeda and groups with similar
ideology. Today and tomorrow, the Monitor examines the origins of Islamic
terrorism and how it is evolving now.

What is Al Qaeda today compared to five years ago? 

In some ways it is less like the Al Qaeda of 2001 than like the Al Qaeda of
the mid-1990s, before it was able to build up organizationally with a base
of operations in Afghanistan. It is best understood as a radical ideology
loosely inspiring a disparate and very decentralized set of localized
Islamist extremist organizations.

For some terrorism experts, Al Qaeda as an organization simply no longer
exists. Its Afghan training and indoctrination sites are gone. Key leaders
have been killed or captured, or are on the run. Yet Al Qaeda as an ideology
of global confrontation and jihad, struggle or holy war, still exists.

That is why I speak of 'Al Qaedaism' as more of a factor today than Al
Qaeda, says Magnus Ranstorp of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Who are Al Qaeda's leaders? 

Osama bin Laden, still at large, founded the organization in 1988, along
with Mohammed Atef (aka Abu Hafs al-Masri), an Egyptian who was killed in a
US airstrike in Afghanistan. The group has a shura, or consultative council,
the composition of which is unknown. But some of the people most wanted
for organizing operations under Al Qaeda's name or ideology, such as Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, are not believed to be part of any centralized leadership.

Are they still organizing operations? 

The Al Qaeda leadership may maintain some command-and-control capability
from suspected locations in or near Pakistan - despite Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf's recent declaration about a smashed Al Qaeda. One possible
example: In a tape released June 17 by the Arab television network Al
Jazeera, Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri called for revenge against Britain
for allying with the US. Some experts believe such tapes are directives to
proceed with an operation. In any case, the London bombings soon followed.

What do the militants want? 

For Islamist militants, the long-term objective is an Islamic superstate, or
caliphate. Narrower objectives include the end of the state of Israel and
toppling secular Middle Eastern regimes like Egypt's. It is an article of
faith that the US and all secular Western states stand in their way, and
weakening those states is seen as positive for all their objectives.

Who is their main enemy? 

The global jihad has long named two types of targets: the near enemy
(Israel or secular Arab regimes) and the far enemy - America and its
allies. Zawahiri was always more interested in the near enemy that stood
in the way of an Islamic state in his homeland, Egypt. Bin Laden was more
interested in the far enemy, because he felt success could not be achieved
closer to home until US financial and military backing for these regimes was
eroded. When Zawahiri merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad with Al Qaeda in
1998, the two trends were brought together.

What Is their ideal society? 

They want a society that applies the Koran literally and adheres to the
social practices that prevailed at the time of the prophet Muhammad. It
would not be democratic in any modern sense, though there are provisions for
shura, or consultation - generally interpreted to mean the leader should
take advice from trusted community members. In their interpretation of
Islam, women and men have defined roles, and women generally have fewer
rights.

Their views stem from the Salafi movement within Islam's Sunni sect, the
religion's largest. For a Salafi adherent, interpretation of the Koran stops
1,300 years ago, with Muhammad, his companions, and the three generations
that followed them.

What about Wahhabi thinking - is that behind Al Qaeda? 

While many in the West use the term Wahhabi, practitioners of this Sunni
school reject the notion that they belong to any particular sect. To their
thinking, they are simply following the true path of Islam. They are Salafi
followers of Mohammed ibn abd al-Wahhab, an 18th century Arabian preacher.
Although the vast majority of Salafis are not involved in violence, almost
all attacks linked to Al Qaeda have been carried out by people under the
Salafi umbrella. The House of Saud helped this school become Saudi Arabia's
dominant interpretation of Islam. Many Saudis refuse to view Osama bin Laden
as a Wahhabi, rejecting his thirst for overthrowing the Saudi regime.
Wahhabis are supremely intolerant of Shiites,

[osint] Bombers Next Door

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

the suicide bombers next door.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8770417/site/newsweek/

Bombers Next Door
Four dead and four others safely in custody, but British police worry this is 
only the beginning.
By Mark Hosenball
Newsweek

Aug. 8, 2005 issue - The weird thing was how ordinary they all looked.
Each new glimpse of the eight suspected foot soldiers of Al Qaeda last week 
only underscored the British tabloids' description of them as the suicide 
bombers next door. A video recording surfaced showing two of the four July 7 
terrorists on a Welsh white-water-rafting holiday, laughing and paddling, 
hardly a month before they killed themselves and 52 mass-transit riders in 
London. The same commonplace quality came through in TV coverage of a police 
raid in London last week as two of the four suspects in the failed July 21 
bombings emerged meekly onto the balcony of their North Kensington apartment, 
unclothed, eyes and noses running from tear gas. A pair of small children 
toddled out onto another balcony below, visibly thrilled to find a K-9 officer 
on their doorstep. Nothing about any of the eight men's faces would have drawn 
a second look on most city streets.

No one doubted there could be more like them. Four of the men blew themselves 
up, and the other four were run to ground from England to Italy, only eight 
days after they had fled their dud bombs. The quick arrests, thanks to 
closed-circuit-TV images and fast police work, were reassuring. But Scotland 
Yard said it would be foolhardy to suppose that the conspirators behind the 
attacks intend to stop there. Someone must have recruited, organized and 
equipped the two terror cells. The bombing suspects mirrored Britain's large 
immigrant population: East Africans, Pakistanis, a Jamaican, they included a 
school aide, a business student, a transit worker, a counterman from a family 
fish-and-chips shop. How many other malcontents might Al Qaeda have already 
groomed into other sleeper cells? This is not the B team,
said London's top police officer, Sir Ian Blair, of the July 21 bombers before 
their capture. These were not amateurs ... They only made one mistake, he 
added. We were very, very lucky. London cops were on high alert last Thursday 
after getting word that more bombings were imminent. When the day passed with 
many arrests but no attacks, they speculated that their increased visibility 
might have deterred an attack, said a source close to Scotland Yard.

Investigators have found no hard evidence so far that the members of the July 7 
and July 21 cells even knew one another. Presumably the plotters didn't want an 
investigation of one leading to the other.
Three of the July 7 bombers were British natives of Pakistani descent, and all 
four had spent much of their lives in and around the northern city of Leeds. 
The July 21 suspects appear to have been children of refugees from the Horn of 
Africaâ€Somali, Eritrean, Ethiopianâ€who had lived in England for several 
years; one had only recently become a British citizen. There were hints last 
week that London police were chasing a third cell, this one of French-speaking 
Muslims.

Police have yet to figure out who directed the attacks, though they've publicly 
blamed Al Qaeda. The inquiry keeps coming back to the gritty London 
neighborhood of Finsbury Park, home of the North London Central Mosque, where a 
fiery Egyptian preacher known as Abu Hamza al-Masri was a principal prayer 
leader from 1996. He had two prosthetic hands and one sightless eyeâ€war 
wounds from Afghanistan, he told people.
Until his removal two years ago, he preached venomously anti-Western sermons to 
jihad recruits like shoebomber Richard Reid and the convicted 9/11 conspirator 
Zacarias Moussaoui. Abu Hamza was finally arrested in May 2004 and charged with 
incitement to murder, along with other offenses.

British and American counterterrorism officials, who declined to be identified 
because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, tell NEWSWEEK they're 
actively pursuing possible ties between Abu Hamza's followers and the bombings. 
One name that has resurfaced is that of Richard Reid: he's said to have been 
acquainted with at least one of the July 21 suspects, an Eritrean named Muktar 
Said Ibrahim. Another is that of Abu Hamza's top lieutenant, Haroon Rashid 
Aswat, a British-born ethnic Indian who is wanted in the United States for 
allegedly trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon for his boss. In 
the days before the July 7 attacks, calls were logged between a phone used by 
one of the bombers and one that was registered to Aswat. Counterterrorism 
officials say Aswat's phone was found in Britain, but two weeks ago Aswat was 
arrested in Zambia, where he is awaiting extraditionâ€whether to Britain or 
the United States has yet to be decided.

Despite the apparent Finsbury Park links, some of the bombers had nothing in 
common with thugs like Ibrahim, a convicted mugger, and losers

[osint] Let's face facts, Europe's being run by cowards

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16110719%255E2
8737,00.html
 
Let's face facts, Europe's being run by cowards Mathias Doepfner
01aug05

THE writer Henryk Broder recently issued a withering indictment: Europe,
your family name is appeasement. That phrase resonates because it is so
terribly true.

Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as allies Britain
and France negotiated and hesitated too long before they realised that Adolf
Hitler needed to be fought and defeated, because he could not be bound by
toothless agreements. 
Later, appeasement legitimised and stabilised communism in the Soviet Union,
then in East Germany, then throughout the rest of Eastern Europe, where for
several decades inhuman, repressive and murderous governments were
glorified. 
Appeasement similarly crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Bosnia
and Kosovo. Indeed, even though we had absolute proof of continuing mass
murder there, we Europeans debated and debated, and then debated still more.
We were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway
around the world, into Europe yet again, to do our work for us. 
Europe still hasn't learned. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle
East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word equidistance,
often seems to countenance suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist
Palestinians. 
Similarly, it generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore the almost
500,000 victims of Saddam Hussein's torture and murder machinery and,
motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, to harangue
George W. Bush as a warmonger. 
This hypocrisy continues even as it is discovered that some of the loudest
critics of US action in Iraq made illicit billions - indeed, tens of
billions - of dollars in the corrupt UN oil-for-food program. 
Today we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement. How is
Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in
The Netherlands, Britain and elsewhere in Europe? By suggesting - wait for
it - that the proper response to such barbarism is to initiate a Muslim
holiday in Germany. 
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of Germany's
Government - and, if polls are to be believed, the German people -- actually
believe that creating an official state Muslim holiday will somehow spare us
from the wrath of fanatical Islamists. 
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain on his return from
Munich, waving that laughable treaty signed by Hitler, and declaring the
advent of peace in our time. 
What atrocity must occur before the European public and its political
leadership understands what is really happening in the world? There is a
sort of crusade under way; an especially perfidious campaign consisting of
systematic attacks by Islamists, focused on civilians, that is directed
against our free, open Western societies, and that is intent on their utter
destruction. 
We find ourselves faced with a conflict that will most likely last longer
than any of the great military clashes of the last century, a conflict
conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by tolerance and accommodation
because that enemy is actually spurred on by such gestures. Such responses
have proven to be signs of weakness. 
Only two recent US presidents have had the courage needed to shun
appeasement: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The US's critics may quibble
over the details, but in our hearts we Europeans know the truth, because we
saw it first hand. 
Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of Europe from almost 50 years of
terror and slavery. And Bush, acting out of moral conviction and supported
only by the social democrat Tony Blair, recognised the danger in today's
Islamist war against democracy. 
In the meantime, Europe sits back in the multicultural corner with its usual
blithe self-confidence. 
Instead of defending liberal values and acting as an attractive centre of
power on the same playing field as the true great powers, the US and China,
it does nothing. On the contrary, we Europeans present ourselves, in
contrast to the supposedly arrogant Americans, as world champions of
tolerance, which even Germany Interior Minister Otto Schily justifiably
criticises. 
Where does this self-satisfied reaction come from? Does it arise because we
are so moral? I fear that it stems from the fact that we Europeans are so
materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass. 
For his policy of confronting Islamic terrorism head-on, Bush risks the fall
of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and
persistent burden on the US economy. But he does this because, unlike most
of Europe, he realises that what is at stake is literally everything that
really matters to free people. 
While we criticise the capitalistic robber barons of the US because they
seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our welfare states.
Stay

[osint] Iranian President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad: Is There Art that Is More Beautiful, More Divine, and More Eternal than the Art of Martyrdom?

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

This is the moderate Muslim terrorist the Europeans and US Government hope
to deal with.

Bruce

http://www.memritv.org/

http://us.f335.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=InboxMsgId=6150_1864766
1_987338_2362_50118_0_222407_134338_2607115286bodyPart=7YY=86242order=dow
nsort=datepos=0view=ahead=bIdx=5

7/25/2004

Clip No. 782

http://us.f335.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=InboxMsgId=6150_1864766
1_987338_2362_50118_0_222407_134338_2607115286bodyPart=8YY=86242order=dow
nsort=datepos=0view=ahead=bIdx=5

Iranian President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad: Is There Art that Is More
Beautiful, More Divine, and More Eternal than the Art of Martyrdom?

http://us.f335.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=InboxMsgId=6150_1864766
1_987338_2362_50118_0_222407_134338_2607115286bodyPart=9YY=86242order=dow
nsort=datepos=0view=ahead=bIdx=5

The following are excerpts from a speech by Iranian President-Elect Mahmoud
Ahmadi-Nejad, which aired on Iranian Channel 1 on July 25, 2005.

Ahmadi-Nejad: We want art that is on the offensive. Art on the offensive
exalts and defends the noble principles, and attacks principles that are
corrupt, vulgar, ungodly, and inhuman.

Art reaches perfection when it portrays the best life and best death. After
all, art tells you how to live. That is the essence of art. Is there art
that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of
martyrdom? A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity. Those who wish to
undermine this principle undermine the foundations of our independence and
national security. They undermine the foundation of our eternity.

The message of the (Islamic) Revolution is global, and is not restricted to
a specific place or time. It is a human message, and it will move forward.

Have no doubt... Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all
the mountain tops of the world.

http://www.memritv.org/ View VIDEO CLIP #782

Source: http://www.memritv.org/ http://www.memritv.org

Click underlined blue text for hyperlinked information

Related information:
Iran: http://www.middle-east-info.org/league/iran/iran.htm
Jihad, Terrorism and WMD:
http://www.middle-east-info.org/gateway/jihadterr/index.htm
http://www.middle-east-info.org/gateway/jihadterr/index.htm

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[osint] China drops bid for UNOCAL

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Looks like we won this round. But...they'll be back!

Washingtonpost.com

CNOOC withdraws offer to acquire Unocal

Reuters

Tuesday, August 2, 2005; 9:58 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China's CNOOC Ltd. 0883.HK on Tuesday abandoned its
$18.5

billion offer to acquire U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal Corp. UCL.N in
the face of strident

political opposition, clearing the way for Unocal to conclude a deal with
U.S. oil major Chevron

Corp. CVX.N.

Unocal shares opened lower on the news, while Chevron shares were flat. The
decline brought

the price of Unocal's stock roughly in line with the Chevron bid of almost
$64 a share, or about

$17.3 billion.

CNOOC made its all-cash bid on June 22, topping the early-April
cash-and-stock offer from Chevron, but it faced an uphill road in the United

States from the start. CNOOC's parent company is controlled by the Chinese
government.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu, the driving force behind the bid, in the end
listened to his political advisers, who had warned of the high political

hurdles the transaction faced.

CNOOC has given active consideration to further improving the terms of its
offer, and would have done so but for the political environment in the

U.S., the company said in a statement.

It called the political response to its offer regrettable and unjustified.

Some members of the U.S. Congress sought to block the deal almost from the
start. Last week a congressional conference committee added a

provision to a broad energy bill that would have delayed the necessary
government review of CNOOC's offer by months.

In public filings related to the Chevron offer, Unocal made clear that it
had been willing to accept the CNOOC bid under certain conditions --

conditions CNOOC ultimately chose not to meet.

CNOOC shares rose to a new record high in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday
before the company made the expected decision to withdraw its bid,

gaining 2.8 percent to HK$5.50.

This is good for CNOOC. It clears away the uncertainty risks, said John
Koh, fund manager at Daiwa Asset Management, which holds CNOOC

shares.

Unocal shareholders are to vote on the Chevron offer on Aug. 10. If they
approve the deal, it is expected to close as soon as that afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Charlie Zhu in Singapore and Wendy Lim in Hong
Kong)

C 2005 Reuters

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[osint] Europe's Angry Muslims

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 Some facts are right, analysis is weak.  European Muslims (Muslims
anywhere) have not attempted integration...and it all goes back to ISLAM.
Whatever side dishes you want to serve with it as justification, without
Islam there is no Islamic terrorism.

-Bruce


Europe's Angry Muslims
By Robert S. Leiken
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005





Summary: Radical Islam is spreading across Europe among descendants of
Muslim immigrants. Disenfranchised and disillusioned by the failure of
integration, some European Muslims have taken up jihad against the West.
They are dangerous and committed -- and can enter the United States without
a visa.
Robert S. Leiken is Director of the Immigration and National Security
Program at the Nixon Center and a nonresident Fellow at the Brookings
Institution. He is the author of Bearers of Jihad? Immigration and National
Security After 9/11.


AN AMERICAN CONCERN

Fox News and CNN's Lou Dobbs worry about terrorists stealing across the
United States' border with Mexico concealed among illegal immigrants. The
Pentagon wages war in the Middle East to stop terrorist attacks on the
United States. But the growing nightmare of officials at the Department of
Homeland Security is passport-carrying, visa-exempt mujahideen coming from
the United States' western European allies.

Jihadist networks span Europe from Poland to Portugal, thanks to the spread
of radical Islam among the descendants of guest workers once recruited to
shore up Europe's postwar economic miracle. In smoky coffeehouses in
Rotterdam and Copenhagen, makeshift prayer halls in Hamburg and Brussels,
Islamic bookstalls in Birmingham and Londonistan, and the prisons of
Madrid, Milan, and Marseilles, immigrants or their descendants are
volunteering for jihad against the West. It was a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan
descent, born and socialized in Europe, who murdered the filmmaker Theo van
Gogh in Amsterdam last November. A Nixon Center study of 373 mujahideen in
western Europe and North America between 1993 and 2004 found more than twice
as many Frenchmen as Saudis and more Britons than Sudanese, Yemenites,
Emiratis, Lebanese, or Libyans. Fully a quarter of the jihadists it listed
were western European nationals -- eligible to travel visa-free to the
United States.

The emergence of homegrown mujahideen in Europe threatens the United States
as well as Europe. Yet it was the dog that never barked at last winter's
Euro-American rapprochement meeting. Neither President George W. Bush nor
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice drew attention to this mutual peril,
even though it should focus minds and could buttress solidarity in the West.


YOUR LAND IS MY LAND

The mass immigration of Muslims to Europe was an unintended consequence of
post-World War II guest-worker programs. Backed by friendly politicians and
sympathetic judges, foreign workers, who were supposed to stay temporarily,
benefited from family reunification programs and became permanent.
Successive waves of immigrants formed a sea of descendants. Today, Muslims
constitute the majority of immigrants in most western European countries,
including Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and the largest
single component of the immigrant population in the United Kingdom. Exact
numbers are hard to come by because Western censuses rarely ask respondents
about their faith. But it is estimated that between 15 and 20 million
Muslims now call Europe home and make up four to five percent of its total
population. (Muslims in the United States probably do not exceed
3 million, accounting for less than two percent of the total
population.) France has the largest proportion of Muslims (seven to ten
percent of its total population), followed by the Netherlands, Germany,
Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Given continued immigration
and high Muslim fertility rates, the National Intelligence Council projects
that Europe's Muslim population will double by 2025.

Unlike their U.S. counterparts, who entered a gigantic country built on
immigration, most Muslim newcomers to western Europe started arriving only
after World War II, crowding into small, culturally homogenous nations.
Their influx was a new phenomenon for many host states and often unwelcome.
Meanwhile, North African immigrants retained powerful attachments to their
native cultures. So unlike American Muslims, who are geographically diffuse,
ethnically fragmented, and generally well off, Europe's Muslims gather in
bleak enclaves with their compatriots: Algerians in France, Moroccans in
Spain, Turks in Germany, and Pakistanis in the United Kingdom.

The footprint of Muslim immigrants in Europe is already more visible than
that of the Hispanic population in the United States. Unlike the jumble of
nationalities that make up the American Latino community, the Muslims of
western Europe are likely to be distinct, cohesive, and bitter. In

[osint] The Making of a Muslim

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

This is mainstream Islam (Wahabbi Sunni)...the moderates are the radical
fringe.
 
Bruce
 


 

SACRIFICE: The Making of a Muslim

Do people imagine that they will be left at ease because they say 'We have
faith!' and will not be tested? But certainly We tested those who were
before them.. 
[Quran 29:2-3] 

Whoever is not concerned with the problems of Muslims is not one of us. 
[Hadith] 

Revolutionaries are the children and young people
The young people are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle
and necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist. 
[Malcolm X]

We read these and similar verses of the Quran, Hadith, and sayings of our
leaders, yet often forget the implications of the powerful message contained
in these statements: the need to sacrifice our wealth, time, pleasures,
desires, comfort, and if need be, our life for Islam. Even though the spirit
of sacrifice is an inherent part of each of Islams fundamental pillars, it
is perhaps best realized and exemplified in the timeless journey of Hajj,
the pilgrimage to the Sacred House in Makkah. To understand what true
sacrifice is, it would be enough for us to ponder over the selfless response
of Prophet Ibrahim when he heard the extraordinary call of Allah - to
willingly give up his greatest love and hope for the future, his son, for
His sake. 

Just Imagine

Just imagine where we would be today without the heroic efforts, sacrifices,
and patience of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his devoted
Companions in building the vibrant Islamic society of Madinah? What would
the Muslim community in the West be like without the outstanding struggles
of our civil-rights activists, Islamic leaders, social workers and sincere
scholars who laid the foundations of our existence here? 

What allowed them to accomplish such monumental feats was their conviction
that no matter how great the task, how steep the obstacles, how scarce their
resources, and how few the people to assist them in their cause, they have
to do the work! It was this burning desire to please Allah that compelled
them to believe: If I dont do the work today and if I do not take the
initiative, who else will? To them Islam was a responsibility, a passion,
and indeed the totality of life! But how hesitatingly we walk in their
footsteps today. For sure, each and every one of us has something
extraordinary and positive to offer to the cause of peace and justice today!

It Aint No Piece of Cake

Nobody says Islam is easy. Nothing of any value ever is. Indeed it is not
easy to wake up for Fajr prayer on a cold winter morning. It may not be
convenient to cook food for your ill neighbour. Nobody thinks that going to
Islamic classes early Saturday morning is undemanding, when everyone around
you is partying late Friday night. Nor is volunteering at an Islamic
conference or a local food bank effortless. It may not be pleasant to offer
others your shoulder to cry upon when their personal or family life is in
crisis. Sure, resisting the peer pressure at school, university, or work
place is extremely challenging. And we know it requires real faith and guts
to speak out against oppression, racism, and tyranny.

Therefore, Islamic life is a life of sacrifice par excellence. It entails a
struggle (jihad) that must be ceaselessly waged, to actualize Islam,
inwardly and outwardly, to make it a living reality. 

Sacrifice: A Struggle to Surrender 

There is no Islam without struggle, and there is no struggle nobler 
than sharing Islam with those deprived of its beauty and blessings.
[Sayyid Qutb]

Sacrifice means giving up things which are valued or desired. Those things
may be (1) tangible, countable like our time, wealth or life, or (2)
intangible, immeasurable like our feelings, attitudes, opinions or
aspirations. They are given up for the sake of something that is more worthy
or more urgent to us (Quran 6:162). Without sacrifice, our lives would be
devoid of harmony and cooperation, full of conflict, a prey to
self-centredness and immediate gratification of desires. 

Islam: Its Shahadah at Work

We are perhaps living in times when living for Islam 
is more difficult than dying for it.
[Abdul Malik Mujahid]

Why must Islam be so emphatically linked with the idea of struggle? Cannot a
person be a good Muslim without involving himself or herself in a struggle
requiring sacrifices? The answer is: No. And for very obvious reasons. Islam
is not merely the confession of a faith which is made once in a lifetime. It
requires a radical reorientation of life and thought. The confession is not
merely verbal; it is an act of witnessing (Shahadah) which must transform
our life into a living testimony of faith. You enter Islam by saying
Shahadah (bearing witness). But you can live in Islam only by constantly
doing Shahadah (Quran 2:143, 22:28). This will bring you in ceaseless
confrontation with false gods inside you and outside you. Every act of
sacrifice nourishes your Iman;

[osint] Legislation Authorizing Civilian Border Patrols Introduced

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Good idea, since Civilian Border Patrols clearly worked successfully in
reducing cross border trafficking. Armed passengers on flights would also
eliminate hijackings.

Bruce

Legislation Authorizing Civilian Border Patrols Introduced
(http://newstandardnews.net/content/?items=2175
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?items=2175printmode=true
printmode=true)

by Brendan Coyne (bio)

Aug 2 - As Congress readied to head home for the summer recess, a Texas
Republican introduced a bill that would put the controversial Minuteman
group and
other civilian-led efforts to enforce immigration laws officially under the

aegis of state executives.
Last Thursday, Representative John Culberson and 47 other legislators
introduced the Border Protection Patrol Act, H.R.3622. The measure would
give
governors of states bordering Canada or Mexico the power to officially
deputize
groups of citizens to hunt down people immigrating illegally.
Collectively, the groups would form the Border Protection Corps, and would
be empowered to use any means and any force authorized by State law to
prevent individuals from unlawfully entering the United States, according
to the
language of the bill. Each state's Corps would be under control of the
governor, who, under the proposed legislation, would be authorized to call
United
States citizens into service in the militia.
Two weeks ago, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner
floated the idea of designating anti-immigrant vigilante groups an
auxiliary
arm of the Border Patrol, an idea immediately denied by the Department of
Homeland Security.
In a statement announcing the bill's introduction, Culberson called for $6.8

billion in funds from the Department of Homeland Security to be used for
Border Protection Corps operations and the costs of detaining, housing and

transporting foreign nationals taken into custody by the Corps or by state
and
local law enforcement.
The bill proposes funding the effort entirely with DHS money. In addition,
it calls for all unspent DHS appropriations to be transferred to an account

designated for operations by citizen militias after two years.
News of the proposed law spurred criticism from an immigrant rights group,
and, surprisingly, from members of the Minuteman movement, the Associated
Press reported Friday.
Roger Rocha, Texas state director of the League of United Latin American
Citizens, told the AP, Forming militias or condoning militias is not the
right
answer. He also warned lawmakers that their support of the measure could
critically jeopardize the Hispanic vote.
An operative with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Gary Cole, told the AP

that the measure would be like adding more bandages to an already failed
system.
The Minutemen and similar groups have been growing in numbers and spreading

throughout the country's border states. Their growth is meeting with
increasing opposition.
Also last week, citing racist behavior and a lack of proper organization
within the movement, the leader and founder of the Texas Minutemen stepped
down.
In resigning, prominent Minuteman Bill Parmley told reporters he could not
tolerate remarks by other members suggesting immigrants should be shot or
left
to die in the desert.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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[osint] Plane on fire at Toronto's Pearson International Airport

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Flames were coming from a large airplane at Toronto's Pearson International
Airport Tuesday afternoon, two hours after operations at the airport were
grounded because of severe thunderstorms in the area. There are reports that
the plane skidded off a runway in a downpour. Rescue crews are at the scene.

http://www.cbc.ca

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[osint] Toronto Plane Explosion

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Another explosion detected on the buring plane, just short of runway 24L in
Toronto. Reports say that plane was landing and came short of the runway -
a lightening strike is suspected. 225 people reported on board and no word
on casualties or fatalities. Plane is Flight 358, Air France from Paris to
Toronto.

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[osint] Terrorists' Pre-Cursors of Attack

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Disseminate broadly. Awareness equal Prevention.

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[osint] A340 DOWN IN TORONTO

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Air France A340 down in Toronto

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[osint] Air France Flight 358 Crashed while landing

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Air France Flight 358 from Paris to Toronto Skids off runway. Watchign live
and does not look good for any survivors.

Bill Davis
Chief

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[osint] The Fiqh Council's Fatwa - Actions, Not Words, Needed

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 


The Fiqh Councils Fatwa - Actions, Not Words, Needed

Yehudit Barsky

For many, the fatwa on terrorism issued by the Fiqh Council of North America
seemed to fulfill what many Americans have been seeking - a condemnation of
terrorism by Muslim American organizations. The Fiqh Council, an amorphous
group of 18 Islamic scholars, was founded by American Islamist organizations
that are linked to Saudi Arabia, Pakistani extremists and the Muslim
Brotherhood. Rarely does the Council speak out, and this may be the first
time the names of the 18 individuals who comprise the Council were revealed
publicly. The fatwa also was endorsed by more than 100 Muslim American
organizations. 

The Fiqh Council's fatwa, or Islamic theological opinion, is not written in
the traditional style. Normally, a problem is presented to an imam, and the
imam issues a substantial written response that includes a recitation of the
problem that was presented and provides Islamic legal precedents along with
citations and explanations of Islamic theological sources in support of his
opinion. The July 28 fatwa on terrorism, however, does not explain the
relevance of the Qur'anic verses that were cited, and does not include any
further sources nor an explanation of the context in which it was issued. 

While the statement condemned terrorism, the organizations that endorsed it
have demonstrated for many years that they are committed to denouncing
terrorism in name only. When they make statements condemning terrorism, we
have to examine not only what they have said but what they have actually
done to root out extremist teachings in their own communities. 

A few examples: 



*   In November 2001, the executive director of the Council on American
Islamic Relations New York office, Ghazi Khankan, defended Hamas suicide
bombings against Israeli civilians. From a religious point of view,
[Palestinians] have the right to defend themselves. Such self-defense cannot
be equated with Bin Ladin. The people of Hamas who direct their attacks on
the Israeli military are in the correct position. Those who attack civilians
are wrong, he said. Replying to a question concerning his definition of
civilians, Khankan said, Who is a soldier in Israel and who is not? Anyone
over 18 is automatically inducted into the service and they are all
reserves. Therefore, Hamas in my opinion looks at them as part of the
military. Those who are below 18 should not be attacked. 

*   In May 2004, the Islamic Society North America invited Sheikh Abdul
Rahman Al-Sudais, the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, to
speak at an event near Toronto, Canada. Al-Sudais became infamous in 2002
for a sermon in which he declared that Arabs should bid farewell to peace
with the Jews, whom he described as the scum of the human race, the rats of
the world, the killers of prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs. 

*   

*   One of the endorsers of the fatwa is Imam Fawaz Damra of Cleveland.
Damra is currently imprisoned for lying about his ties to the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad terror organization and has engaged in fundraising for it. At
a 1989 event, he told the audience that the first principle I believe is
terrorism, and terrorism alone is the path to liberation. At a similar
event in 1991, he gave a speech in which he urged participants to donate to
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, asserting that Muslim countries would not
regain their glory until all guns were aimed at the Jews, whom he described
as sons of pigs and monkeys.



*   In 2005, Freedom House issued a report that examined Saudi extremist
publications distributed in the U.S. These publications were being freely
distributed via 15 major mosques, thereby infiltrating Muslim communities
and minds throughout our country with anti-American, anti-Christian, and
anti-Semitic ideology. The signatories of the fatwa have been overwhelmingly
silent about this and have not taken action to extirpate these teachings and
inflammatory ideology. 


Muslims believe that they are commanded by God in the Qur'an to enjoin what
is right and forbid what is wrong. Muslims who are sincere about fighting
the promotion of extremist ideology need to take action against those who
are spreading that evil in their midst. When those actions are taken, then
pronouncements like the Fiqh Council fatwa will be credible. 

Yehudit Barsky is director of AJC's Division on Middle East and
International Terrorism. 

http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoGb=846739ct=1256
033printmode=1 b=846739ct=1256033printmode=1


___



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[osint] Al Qaeda as Warfighting Entity

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 
 
Al Qaeda as Warfighting Entity
August 02, 2005 16 18  GMT

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=252885


By George Friedman

In recent weeks, we have been trying to analyze the state of the
U.S.-jihadist war, touching on subjects ranging from the decision --
announced this past week -- to begin reducing U.S. troops in Iraq to the
idea that we are in the midst of a surge of jihadist attacks, intended to
reshape the course of the war.

As often happens, our readers -- mostly non-subscribers, we would note --
have lambasted us. Critics of the war have accused us of pimping for the
Bush administration for daring to imply that the war was anything but a
total and catastrophic failure. Supporters of the war wrote to condemn us
for even imagining that al Qaeda might consist of people who actually think
and plan things, rather than of raving psychotics seeking slaughter because
they feel like it. One e-mail said the war is the result of George W. Bush's
unresolved Oedipal conflicts. Another said that we were naïve in assuming
that all Muslims were not deranged killers. Discussions of the war have
never been elevated, but they have now degenerated to a Warner Brother's
cartoon -- with Sylvester, Tweety, Elmer and Bugs all cranked up on speed
and self-righteousness. 

In the midst of this cartoon-like mayhem, one group of quite serious e-mails
caught our attention and seemed to require serious consideration. 

Stratfor has been treating both Iraq and the global U.S.-jihadist conflict
as a war, understandable by the rules of warfare. We have treated this as an
asymmetric war in which two sides, using very different methods, have
engaged in a global duel. If this is so, then looking to previous wars will
provide us with guidance. As an example, we spoke last week of the current
offensive as similar to the Battle of the Bulge and Tet -- one unsuccessful
and one successful military gambit to reverse an unacceptable course of
events.

A series of thoughtful e-mails arrived, arguing that in thinking in terms of
conventional warfare -- and these readers regard even the unconventional
warfare of Vietnam as ultimately conventional -- we are fundamentally
missing the point about what is happening. The United States may be engaging
in warfare, but the jihadists are not. As one writer put it, al Qaeda is
engaged in a kind of theater and is indifferent to the outcome in any
practical sense. Creating terror is an end in itself. Therefore, so long as
it can continue to inflict terror at some level and with some randomness, it
will be satisfied. 

Put simply, this argument goes, al Qaeda does not think of itself as being
in a war but in a permanent confrontation with Christianity, Judaism and
Hinduism. This is not warfare properly understood because it is not politics
properly understood. Moreover, another stream went, terrorism is not a
warfighting strategy but a psychological one. Yet others argued that al
Qaeda is not sufficiently coherent as an organization to be engaged in
warfighting and that what the United States faces is not a military force
but a social movement. 

These are good, thoughtful arguments that have some merit. Ultimately,
however, we think them to be in error. 

Karl von Clausewitz wrote that war is the continuation of politics by other
means. In order for the United States to be engaged in a war with al Qaeda,
three things seem to be necessary. 

1. Al Qaeda must be an entity that is capable of making and enforcing
decisions. There can be no war without strategy and tactics, and no strategy
and tactics without a command structure. 
2. Al Qaeda must have political goals that are in some sense practical.
Punishing the infidel is not a political goal: It is not intended to achieve
a political outcome, nor is it intended to create or influence regimes. 

3. Al Qaeda must have a warfighting strategy that it is pursuing. Its
actions must fit into the paradigm of war and make sense from a military
standpoint.

In our view, all three of these criteria are met. This does not mean that al
Qaeda will or won't be successful; it simply means that al Qaeda's behavior
can be properly understood in terms of war.

First, it is true that al Qaeda is not a nation. The history of warfare is
replete with sub-national groups that have waged wars on the way to becoming
nations or to taking over a state. What is interesting about al Qaeda is
that it is not a sub-national grouping but a trans-national grouping. Its
goals do not involve any one country, but a range of countries. What comes
to mind is the First and Second Communist International, before the
Bolshevik Revolution captured revolutionary communism for the Soviet state. 

In the end, however, the issue is less whether there is historical precedent
for al Qaeda than whether there is a decision-making structure that can
guide combatants through the war. There certainly was one on Sept. 11, 2001.
At this point, that structure appears to be frayed.

[osint] Chaos on US-Mexican Border: Opportunity for al-Qaeda?

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

 
 Strategic Forecasting
http://www.stratfor.com/images/messages/daily_email_template_header.jpg?mop
en=050802-WTR-PRE 
DAILY TERRORISM BRIEF
08.02.2005
 
https://www.stratfor.com/subscribe_free_intel.php?ref=050802%20-%20WTR%20-%
20PREcamp=Product%20Mailingformat=HTML 

Chaos on the U.S.-Mexican Border: Opportunity for Al Qaeda?

U.S. authorities closed the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Aug.
1 -- four days after intense firefights rocked the town of more than half a
million people across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. U.S Ambassador to
Mexico Tony Garza said the consulate would remain closed for a week,
allowing U.S. authorities to assess the security situation and giving the
Mexican government a chance to deal with the problem. Two days earlier, at
Garza's request, the U.S. State Department renewed its warning for U.S.
citizens traveling to Mexico. The U.S. moves highlight the increasing chaos
in Nuevo Laredo, despite efforts by the Mexican
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=249991
government to intervene. 

On June 13, Mexican President Vicente Fox sent the Mexican army to Nuevo
Laredo to take over police functions from the city's police department,
which is battling internal corruption as well as warring drug cartels --
most notably from border cities Juarez, Tijuana and Matamoros, and from
western Sinaloa state. The breakdown in law and order that prompted Fox's
move led to the June 8 killing of police chief Alejandro Dominguez -- just
nine hours after he was sworn in. In response to Fox's order, the federal
government broke up the police force, detaining its officers and
transferring 40 of them to Mexico City for further questioning. 

Since then, local police authority has been re-instated, but with fewer
police officers and with federal assistance. Despite government efforts,
however, the situation in Nuevo Laredo continues to deteriorate. Sources in
Laredo, Texas, say Nuevo Laredo had 64 homicides in 2004, but that more than
100 homicides occurred in the first seven months of 2005. Before now, the
highest homicide rate ever recorded in the city was 71.

In another indication of border insecurity, a Chihuahua state police officer
shot a U.S. tourist in the back of the head with an AR-15 rifle July 31.
Mexican authorities said the officer's weapon accidentally discharged, but
the officer and his companions reportedly left the scene without trying to
help the victim, who was taken to a U.S. hospital in Columbus, New Mexico,
and then to El Paso, Texas. 

Illustrating the Mexican government's failed efforts in Nuevo Laredo, a
group armed with heavy machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles and at least one
rocket launcher attacked a house on Mexicali Street on July 28. The
occupants of the house, supposedly a rival drug gang, returned fire with
their own weapons. Part of the house collapsed in the ensuing battle, while
grenades were left strewn around the residential street. Police
investigating the scene afterward reportedly found a hit list complete with
names and photographs of more than a dozen local officials who had been
sentenced to death by the gang. Hours later, another firefight broke out
in the affluent Madero neighborhood, with assailants attacking a house with
automatic weapons. 

So far, the problems in Nuevo Laredo have not spilled over the border into
Texas, possibly because the criminal gangs that control Nuevo Laredo use
Laredo and its surrounding area as a trans-shipment point -- and want to
keep it from becoming another battleground. 

Complicating the situation is Los Zetas, a group of elite anti-drug
paratroopers and intelligence soldiers who deserted their federal Special
Air Mobile Force Group in 1991 and began hiring their services out to the
cartels. Zetas members reportedly have crossed the border and engaged U.S.
law enforcement personnel.

The chaos on the border is increasing concerns within the U.S. intelligence
community that al Qaeda-linked groups or other terrorists could exploit the
situation and cross operatives into the United States. Al Qaeda,
investigators fear, could use well-established smuggling routes to bypass
the enhanced scrutiny of passengers on air traffic no-fly lists. From an
operational security perspective, terrorists could be wondering why they
should run the risk of having their documents scrutinized by outbound
immigration and inbound inspectors when they can bypass all of that at the
U.S.-Mexican border. 

One source in the intelligence community says a great number of illegal
immigrants are using a pipeline that originates in Russia, crosses through
the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and passes through
Mexico into the United States. In some cases, Mexico is used as a staging
point while the illegal immigrant gets acclimated and money arrives from
relatives inside the United States for the transit fee. Most of the illegal
immigrants apprehended recently were heading for Houston; Newark,

[osint] LONDON: Use of deadly force

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

 

 
 
I worked as a use of force consultant for law firms representing law
enforcement agencies after I retired for a couple of years. I was forwarded
this well written article, and thought I'd share with you. 
 
In my opinion (based on what I know from available resources) the subway
shooting is consistent with use of force policies in most modern law
enforcement agencies. If someone brandishes a toy gun, no matter what their
intentions, and if others reasonably conclude that their life may be
threatened, then use of deadly force in self defense may indeed be
reasonable. This case is similar.
In this case, the person made some extremely bizarre decisions presenting a
situation in which others reasonably perceived a deadly threat to life and
limb, as articulated in the attached article. The outcome was decided not by
the officers, but by the actions of the suspect. Whether two to the
body,assess, and one to the head, which is the standard law enforcement
response to a shooting situation, or just a bunch to the head,assess, and
then if need be, a bunch more to the head, the appropriate response to a
perceived suicide bomber, the end result is the termination of the threat,
not the killing of the suspect, not murder, not panic, but simply the
termination of a threat created by the suspect. Stop the threat. That's how
it's done. This technique was non-existent prior to the advent of suicide
bombers in civilian environments. The terrorists created the threat, the
police only provide a response. In this case a reasonable response.
 
Deadly force is authorized to preserve one's life or or the life of a third
party if other means are unsafe or believed to be  ineffective.

The New Criminologist.
http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=1888191068

London police execute an innocent man.five shots to the head.what if he had
been carrying a bomb?
Published on 24 July 2005 .. Author BERRY-DEE, Christopher.

Put yourself in his shoes. The cop was trying to protect you. He deserves a
medal, not a murder trial.

9.30 am: Jean Charles de Menezes, dressed in clothing somewhat unsuited for
a hot day, left a flat already under surveillance by British security
services, and officers followed him.

10.00: The man arrives at Stockwell underground station, where police call
on him to halt and they draw their guns. Instead of complying with their
order, de Menezes foolishly vaults ticket barriers and runs down an
escalator to the platform, where a Northern line train is waiting.

The man half-trips and is half-pulled to the floor by three officers.
Fearing he may have explosives strapped to his body under his coat, one
officer fires five rounds from his automatic pistol into the man's head.

It was shoot to kill, because police are instructed to shoot bombers in the
head rather than the body to ensure a 'quick kill' and avoid detonating
explosives packed around the torso. If a head shot - double-taps SAS style -
severs the spinal cord the victim instantly loses all control of limbs and,
quite naturally, drops to the ground.

And a damn sensible way of killing bombers this seems to be - unfortunately
and most tragically, Mr de Menezes was an innocent electrician from Brazil! 

But what if it had been one of the 7/7 London bombers: messrs, Mohammad
Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain or the delicately named
Germaine Lindsey, who had fled from these officers and been shot?

The answer stares us in the face; their bombs would not have detonated, it
is as simple as that, so who can blame a cop with an itchy trigger finger? 
The report of this 'execution' has echoed round the world. From America to
Australia and Asia, the killing made headlines and marked the crossing of a
boundary

Though the days when all British bobbies were thought to be unarmed have
long passed, the clinical and close-quarter nature of the shooting was
unprecedented in Britain. Police have previously shot men believed to be
dangerous, but they have not stood over a prostrate figure and unloaded five
rounds into him from point-blank range. 

However, London has never before faced suicide bombers. The stakes have
become much higher, forcing new rules of engagement.

Friday's killing was a direct result of aggressive new guidelines from
Scotland Yard based on the experience of Israel and Sri Lanka in dealing
with suicide bombers. British officers are now under instructions to shoot
suspects in the head if they are believed to be suicide bombers posing an
imminent danger.

And, one must assume that the highly-trained officer who shot de Menezes,
after gaining authorisation from his divisional commander, didn't carry out
this shooting because he merely wanted to see if his gun worked.

A policy of shoot-to-kill echoes the darkest days of the Northern Ireland
troubles. And it does raise worrying questions when applied in the much
larger and more mixed communities of mainland Britain, and when the
suspected terrorists are much more elusive and shadowy.

[osint] FBI gets local police in the loop

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050802/ts_usatoday/fbigetslocalpoliceinth
eloop;_ylt=Ao1l3NVaxlH7OuJuJQyhETgTv5UB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCU
l

FBI gets local police in the loop

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAYTue Aug 2, 7:17 AM ET

Since the 9/11 attacks, more than 6,000 state and local police officers have
been granted access to classified material involving terrorist threats, the
broadest dissemination of secret information in U.S. history.

The information sharing, which is overseen by the FBI, has been held up as a
model of cooperation by law enforcement.

Despite its success, it's unclear whether giving local officials access to
classified information has provided them with a direct link to any terrorism
suspects.

Even so, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, one of the early critics of the
information-sharing program because of delays in getting secret clearances,
says the new access is forging closer bonds between local police and the
FBI. And the FBI has grown increasingly dependent on local police to assist
in terrorism investigations.

Assistant FBI Director Louis Quijas acknowledges that much of the
information being made available to police across the country may have
little value because it may not be specific to where the officers are.

But he says the confidential briefings have opened channels that never
existed and that the program is at least offering communities peace of mind
in some cases.

Since the London transit bombings last month, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.,
Police Chief Darrel Stephens says the FBI has provided a stream of guidance
on the vulnerability of transit systems.

The information, some of it delivered as recently as last week, contained no
evidence of a credible threat against U.S. transportation systems. But
Stephens says the briefings have helped police address the worries of local
officials and the public.

Some of the stuff we're getting may not be applicable to your situation; a
lot of it doesn't apply, Stephens says. But knowing what's going on in the
rest of the country and our region really helps put it all in context.

The clearances first were offered in January 2002, after local police
officials, including William Berger, then-president of the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, complained that they were being excluded
from discussions about potential terrorism targets and possible threats.

In the first year of the program, some local police officials withdrew
because it took too long to complete background checks. In the first eight
months of the program, only 320 clearances were approved.

Since then, 6,011 clearances have been authorized.

There is little to suggest that sharing information led police to break
cases in places where local authorities have made terrorism-related arrests,
such as in Lackawanna, N.Y., and Portland, Ore. Even so, Quijas says the
flow of information resulted in local police providing important guidance
for federal investigators in those cases.

The information sharing is not always a seamless operation.

In May, for instance, Washington Mayor Anthony Williams complained that city
leaders, including its law enforcement officials, were not included in early
discussions on the evacuations of the U.S. Capitol, White House and the
Supreme Court when a plane flew into restricted airspace.

We don't get a lot of classified stuff, even with the clearances, says
Berger, police chief in Palm Bay, Fla.

Sometimes (the clearances) only provide you a look at the infighting
between the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security over the information
that does go out, he says.

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[osint] Small blasts hit Turkish resort

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4738671.stm

Small blasts hit Turkish resort
Two small blasts have been reported in the Turkish resort of Antalya,
injuring at least six people, including a French tourist, police say.

The explosions occurred inside rubbish bins in different locations within
minutes of each other.

Turkey's tourism minister said a gas leak caused the blasts, but one police
official said that was not confirmed.

The country has been hit by recent bombings, some blamed on Kurdish
militants, others on Islamists.

The first explosion happened as men were emptying a rubbish truck in the
city centre, injuring three.

The second occurred about five minutes later in a refuse bin, injuring three
more, including a French tourist.

Popular resort

The explosions were caused by a gas leak. There was no loss of life,
Tourism Minister Atilla Koc was quoted by the state-run Anatolian news
agency as saying.

But a local police official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying:
The cause is not yet known. We are still investigating.

Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, is a popular holiday resort and has
grown to become Turkey's fourth-largest city.

Kurdish separatists have claimed responsibility for recent attacks on
tourist spots and have threatened further action.

Five people were killed when a bomb ripped through a bus in the Aegean Sea
resort of Kusadasi in July.

Although no-one claimed responsibility for that assault, Turkish authorities
suspect Kurdish militants of involvement.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4738671.stm

Published: 2005/08/02 18:43:53 GMT

C BBC MMV

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[osint] Tourism vital to Turkish fortunes

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4689161.stm

Tourism vital to Turkish fortunes
Bomb attacks at Turkish tourist resorts have placed the country's booming
travel industry in the spotlight.

It is not difficult to see why it might be targeted, as Spanish resorts have
been by Basque separatists, by groups seeking attention through political
violence.

Tourism in Turkey has long been viewed as crucial to the country's future
prosperity and growth, and its value to the economy has grown steadily since
the 1980s.

It is now the second largest source of national revenue, trailing only
behind foreign exports.

More Turks work in tourism than in any other industry except construction.

The country's varied charms include hundreds of miles of shimmering
coastlines, famous ancient ruins and a spectacular interior.

Target 2010

More than 13 million foreigners visit the country each year, with Turkey's
position as the crossroads between Europe and Asia attracting visitors from
a disparate range of countries.

The largest number of tourists are from major European nations, with more
than three million Germans and over two millions Britons holidaying there
each year.

But significant numbers come from Russia, the former Soviet states and new
EU members like the Czech Republic.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken publicly of the importance of
tourism, fronting a drive to improve infrastructure, services and
international competitiveness by the year 2010.

Good prospects

Visitor numbers fell in 2002 and 2003, mainly due to apprehension around the
world over the threat of war in neighbouring Iraq.

But just as Turkey emerged largely unscathed from the conflict, tourism is
expected to continue growing despite instability elsewhere in the Middle
East.

In a report published in 2004, industrial analysts Euromonitor International
praised Turkey's potential for mass tourism.

Greater economic stability, including lower inflation rates and a stable
currency, were contributing to a buoyant tourism sector, Euromonitor said.

A host of key indicators were pointing up. As well as more visitors, more
hotels were being constructed and bought throughout 2002/3, and the car
rental industry continued to grow.

With Turkey's continuing ambitions to join the European Union dependent in
part on public and political perception of its credentials among the
European public, a stable, secure and profitable tourism industry is likely
to remain of crucial importance to Mr Erdogan's government.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4689161.stm

Published: 2005/07/16 14:27:55 GMT

C BBC MMV

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[osint] 2005 UK Metro-Bus Bomb Report: Summary of New Information - 2 August 2005

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

New Arrests:

* No new arrests since yesterday.

Updated Arrest Numbers:

* There is some confusion over the number of people currently in
custody in connection to the 7/21 bombings. According to SkyNews:

Mukhtar Said Ibraim
Ramzi Mohammed
Wahbi Mohammed
Yassin Hasan Omar
Hamdi Issac
Remzi Issac
3 women in Stockwell, 1 released on bail
6 men, 1 woman in Brighton (since then 2 men and the 1 woman have
been released without charge)
1 man in Stockwell, South London (released without charge)
2 men in New Southgate, North London
1 man in Finchley, North London
1 man in Kennington, South London
2 men in Clapham and Stockwell

* In addition, I have the following people in custody:

Fati Issac, in Brescia, Italy
9 men in Tooting, South London (6 at Garratt Terrace and 3 on
Tooting High Street)
3 men in Birmingham: Israr Kafiq, Mohammed Jahangir, and another man

1 woman, arrested with Yassin Hassan Omar

New Suspect Information:

* There are conflicting reports regarding the two men arrested in
South London yesterday. Sources cite Vauxhall, Stockwell, and Clapham as
locations for the arrests. Examining the map, the Vauxhall and Stockwell
arrests may be one and the same (the areas are more-or-less interchangeable;
Clapham is farther south.)

* One of the men arrested yesterday in South London is named only as
Sharif according to neighbors, and is Ethopian or Somali. The other man
is of Asian, i.e. South Asian, extraction, is in his late 20's, and was
arrested at Morell House, on Crossford Street in Stockwell.

* Other sources simply state that a man was arrested in Clapham.

* Remzi Issac, the brother of Hamdi Issac, has been under
investigation since September 11, 2001 for links to al-Qaeda's financial
network. His souvenir shop on Via Volturno near Rome's Termini station is
being investigated for links to al-Barakat, believed to be al-Qaeda's
banking network.

* Based on evidence found in the Rome apartment, Remzi Issac has
recently travelled to Dubai, Geneva, Zurich, Munich and Amsterdam.

* Hamdi and Remzi Issac were arrested on Via Aurelia, in Tor
Pignatarra, near Rome.

Other Information:

* The women arrested last week at Liverpool station have reportedly
been released. The women are said to be the girlfriends of Mukhtar Said
Ibraim and Ramzi Mohammed.

* There are two other Issac brothers: Abdluhai (Abdulhai?) and Wahib.
One is in Canada, the other in the U.K., according to The Times. No word on
whether they have been detained or are being sought by police.

Links between the 7/7 and 7/21 cells:

* There are reports that Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, alleged leader of the
21/7 group, was in Pakistan at the same time as July 7 bombers Mohammed
Siddique Khan and Shehzaad Tanweer. Security sources in Islamabad are
trying to establish whether Said Ibrahim met the 7/7 bombers.

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[osint] US blocks funds linked to al Qaeda cell in Italy

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNewsstoryID=20
05-08-01T194755Z_01_N01477453_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-USA-ITALY-DC.XML
storyID=2005-08-01T194755Z_01_N01477453_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-USA-ITA
LY-DC.XML

US blocks funds linked to al Qaeda cell in Italy
Mon Aug 1, 2005 3:48 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday froze the assets of three
North African men who are suspected of operating a militant cell in Italy
with links to al Qaeda and Moroccan extremists.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blocked the assets of Moroccan
Ahmed El Bouhali, Tunisian Faycal Boughanemi and Moroccan Abdelkader Laagoub
for providing financial and/or material support to the Moroccan Islamic
Combatant Group, which the U.S. government says is affiliated with al Qaeda.

The Treasury Department did not give any information on assets the three men
hold in the united States.

Boughanemi and Laagoub are already in Italian custody, but Bouhali is not.
No additional information on his status was immediately available. Italy has
already frozen the assets of the three men, and has asked the United Nations
to require all its member states do the same.

Today's action targets individuals operating an al Qaeda-linked terrorist
cell in Italy that recruited combatants, raised funds for terrorist
activities and even planned terrorist attacks, Stuart Levey, Treasury
undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a
statement.

The Treasury said the three men were members of an Islamic militant group
set up in Cremona, Italy, in 1998 with the aim of committing attacks in
Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries.

It said investigations by Italian authorities produced evidence that the
group recruited volunteers for paramilitary training, collected funds for
terrorism and planned attacks.

Some experts and officials say designations such as these may only have a
limited impact and by themselves are only likely to weed out the most
obvious terrorist funding transactions.

But they say the public naming is helpful as part of a larger strategy that
must also include behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering, a crackdown on
unlicensed money transfer services and close monitoring of suspected
terrorist financiers, deep-pocket donors, bulk cash couriers and other
suspicious financial flows.

C Reuters 2005. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of
Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters
and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the
Reuters group of companies around the world.

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[osint] MI5 lists UK al-Qaeda 'targets'

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2028114.stm

Thursday, 6 June, 2002, 00:51 GMT 01:51 UK
MI5 lists UK al-Qaeda 'targets'

Agents are visiting sites to check security

MI5 has drawn up a secret list of more than 350 key British institutions
considered potential terrorist targets in the wake of the threat posed by
al-Qaeda forces.

Key government buildings and installations vital to the economy are on the
critical national infrastructure list.

All the sites have had their security profiles reassessed with the aim of
maintaining basic national services in any attack, The Times reports.

The move comes in the wake of the 11 September attacks on America, for which
Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network are held responsible.

The Houses of Parliament are considered to be among the places at risk, the
newspaper reports.

In the event of any such an attack, there are plans in place to move the
government and civil service out of the city into underground bunkers to
maintain a skeletal administration.

BT's Telecom Tower is seen as a 'key military point' and the military would
seize control of its protection in an attack to maintain communications.

Tight security

Oil refineries and vital communication installations are among the centres
which the newspaper reports have been visited by MI5 agents working to step
up security there.

The list is thought to include the country's 15 nuclear power stations, the
main National Grid sites, oil installations and petrochemical facilities.

Tighter security measures have also been stepped up at defence companies and
research centres, such as the chemical defence agency at Porton Down in
Wiltshire.

The atomic weapons establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire has also been
checked, it is believed.

Military barracks, such as the nuclear submarine bases at Faslane on the
Clyde, are seen as potential terrorist targets despite armed protection.

But some key centres such as London's Canary Wharf Tower and Birmingham's
Spaghetti junction, seen as potential targets, are reported to not receive
special protection.

They are not considered essential to the running of Britain.

The threat of suicide bombers makes these institutions virtually impossible
to insure.

In the wake of Britain's support for America in its war on terrorism and as
one of its oldest allies, security chiefs believe the country faces an
increased risk of attack.

Dealing with this is down to MI5, which is responsible for giving security
and protective advice to these institutions and installations.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: It is government policy not to comment on
operational security matters.

All security measures are kept under constant review and have been before
and after the events of September 11.

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[osint] U.S. Leaving Iraq? It's Still the Politics, Stupid

2005-08-02 Thread David Bier

I think the U.S.-leaving-Iraq theory is wishful thinking. Given the
track record of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, my suspicion is that not much
has changed with regard to their goals in Iraq and in the Greater
Middle East; their desire to stay the course in fulfilling those
objectives remains the same - though they may have to make a tactical
withdrawal of some forces in the service of that long-term strategy.

Bush  Co.'s ulterior motives have to do with empire, oil, profit,
and, especially, using their adventures and wars as a way of
garnering, maintaining and expanding their domestic political control.

In effect, U.S. withdrawal would signify that the neo-cons' crusade
against militant Islam was being abandoned, or at least greatly scaled
back, in the face of overwhelming hostility of the locals (and world,
and American public opinion) against it.

Worse still for the Bush administration, they would tacitly be
admitting that, by invading and occupying Iraq, they made a terrible
mistake. And this regime, as we all know, does not make mistakes -
Bush says God talks to him, and he is doing the Lord's work, and
that's the end of that discussion.

What is really ugly is Jane Fonda back on the anti-war road...

David Bier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/crisis/05/022_bw.html

 U.S. Leaving Iraq? It's Still the Politics, Stupid

August 2, 2005
By Bernard Weiner, 
The Crisis Papers (http://www.crisispapers.org/)

As we've learned over the past four-plus years, no matter what the
spin justifications employed by Bush  Co. spokesmen - terrorism,
national security, freedom on the march - it's usually the politics,
stupid.

We were told this from the inside by John DiIulio early in Bush's
first term. When the ex-administrator of Bush's faith-based programs
resigned, he let slip some powerful truths during an interview with
Esquire's Ron Suskind:

There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going
on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you've got
is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political
arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. ... When policy
analysis is just backfill, to back up a political maneuver, you'll get
a lot of ooops.
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/crisis/05/www.truthout.com/docs_02/12.08D.diIulio.esq.p.htm)

An unnamed current senior White House official said pretty much the
same thing:

Many of us feel it's our duty - our obligation as Americans - to
get the word out that, certainly in domestic policy, there has been
almost no meaningful consideration of any real issues. It's just kids
on Big Wheels, who talk politics and know nothing. It's depressing.
DPC [Domestic Policy Council] meetings are a farce.

So here we have military spokesmen saying the U.S. plans to start
withdrawing a large number of troops by mid-2006. Does this mean the
Iraq War will be coming to an end? As if. Remember: it's the politics,
stupid.

Just the year should be the tipoff. Yes, that's right: there are
midterm elections coming up in November of 2006, and Bush  Co.
absolutely, positively must keep control of the House of
Representatives - especially if impeachment hearings and possible
prison sentences are to be avoided.

So, since national polls increasingly reveal Americans feel the war is
not worth it, a significant number of troops in Iraq will be
redeployed elsewhere. Mercenaries - i.e., Iraqi security forces
trained and paid for by American monies - will be expected to help
protect U.S. interests and bases.

GENUINE WITHDRAWAL OR POLITICAL FEINT?

It is not clear whether Bush's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq is a
military ruse - to return them in-country, if necessary, after the
2006 election - or is part of a sincere, long-term plan to bring
virtually all of them home and thus extricate the U.S. from the
quagmire the incompetent Bush Administration got them into in the
first place.

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan makes the case for the latter
explanation in Is America's War Winding Up?:

It is difficult to draw any other conclusion from the
just-completed Rumsfeld mission. Standing beside our defense secretary
in Baghdad, Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari called for the speedy
withdrawal of U.S. forces. The top U.S. commander, Gen. George Casey,
also standing beside Rumsfeld, said 'fairly substantial' withdrawals
of the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq could begin by spring...

Casey's comment lends credence to a secret British defense memo
that described U.S. officials as favoring a 'relatively bold reduction
in force numbers.' The memo pointed to a drawdown of Allied forces
from 170,000 today to 66,000 by next summer, a cut of over 60 percent.

Previously, the administration had denounced war critics who spoke
of timetables, arguing that they signal the enemy to go to earth,
build its strength, and strike weakened U.S. forces during the
pullout. Now, America's top general is talking timetables.

[osint] Mexico vows tighter border security after U.S. move

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

(http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/reuters/brand/SIG=pd7i95;_ylt=As0sKl7twi1Z
GjLNGaU4AD8XIr0F;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMTFqaXBkBHNlYwNwcnZkbGluaw--/*http://www.reute
rs.
com)

Mexico vows tighter border security after U.S. move

Tue Aug 2, 1:37 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico promised to tighten security on its U.S.
border on Tuesday after Washington closed a consulate in the lawless city of

Nuevo Laredo because police have failed to curb spiraling violence.
_Vicente Fox_ (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Vicente+Fox) 's
spokesman said tougher measures would soon be taken in the fight against
warring drug cartels along the border.
Yesterday there was a Cabinet-level security meeting and the president gave
instructions to radicalize the operation and raise its efficiency, said
spokesman Ruben Aguilar.
He gave no details, except to rule out a curfew in Nuevo Laredo, across the
Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.
Still, Aguilar reiterated Mexico's objection to the closing of the U.S.
Consulate, saying it was an extreme measure.
More than 100 people have been killed this year in Nuevo Laredo. Most of the
deaths were linked to the drug trade, including 18 police officers.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza last week ordered the consulate temporarily
closed after rival drug gangs clashed with bazookas, hand grenades and
automatic weapons in a battle that raged for 20 minutes. He said he would
only reopen it if the security situation improved.
The State Department has repeatedly warned Americans not to travel to Nuevo
Laredo.
Mexico launched a security program along the border in June after gunmen
killed the city's new police chief hours after he was sworn in.
Authorities suspended the entire local police force for possible links to
the drug trade and army troops and federal police took over the city, a
trade hub.
But the violence continued unabated. In the latest killing, on Monday, an
unidentified man was found dead with a single shot to the back of the neck.
Source:
_http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=1896ncid=1896e=5u=/nm/20050802
/us_nm/mexico_usa_dc_1_
(http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=1896ncid=1896e=5u=/nm/20050802
/us_nm/mexico_usa_dc_1)

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[osint] Why John Bolton Terrifies the Liberal Democrats

2005-08-02 Thread Bruce Tefft

Why John Bolton Terrifies the Liberal Democrats Week of August 1, 2005
NoDNC.com staff

http://www.nodnc.com/modules.php?name=Newsfile=articlesid=322

Let's clear up definitions first, just so that we're all on the same page
and with these definitions in mind, we'll deal with the terrible horrors of
John Bolton, and why he seems to positively evil to the liberal democrats.
Liberal Democrat

Saying liberal democrat is an oxymoron--, there is no such thing. It is
kind of like saying jumbo shrimp, it sounds tasty, but if you stop and
think about it, it is just silly. It is just as silly to say liberal
democrat, if you are left of the left you are simply a hardcore socialist.

Socialist

At its most basic, socialism is another name for the belief that government
is god. In socialism (and its dear brothers National Socialism, communism,
and fascism) government is the source of all power and of all sustenance and
life. If the socialist god of government says you die, then, you die.
Remember Terri Shiavo? Or what about partial birth abortion? Just like
with Hitler and the gas chambers, Stalin-Lenin and the gulags, China and the
re-education camps, and the list goes on. I digress but you get the
picture, whether you are a choice supporter or not, under socialism it is
government that defines whether or not life is important.

Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N.

The United Nations is the world's pre-eminent socialist organization. It
exists solely, exclusively, completely and totally for the centralization of
global government power and for no other reason. Its entire purpose is to
create a collectivist government body to control the world's governments.
And how dare the United States defy their mandate to submit its sovereignty
to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Why is John Bolton so scary to the Liberal Democrats?

Mr. Bolton's mistake, horror of horrors, is that he is gone on record as
believing the United Nations needs real investigations into its corruption.
The liberal democrats god is being challenged! By all the socialist gods,
they are not going to sit still for that!

Mr. Bolton made the fatal mistake of believing the corruption in a
government body should be investigated and cleaned up. What a novel concept
that is frightening to this little god's worshippers. How very sad that the
liberal democrats attack Mr. Bolton for doing what any conscientious,
red-blooded, patriotic American should do.

I for one am thrilled that the socialists, er, I mean, the liberal
democrats just lost another fight.

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