Daily Terrorist Round-up Stories 4/23/05 (Terrorists Convicted in Iraq, Captured in Singapore)

4/23/05

[Straight Vermonter]

Four convicted of terrorism in Iraq

An Iraqi criminal court sentenced four people, including an Iranian, to prison Friday following their conviction of being involved in terrorist activities.  The four were sentenced to prison terms ranging between 6 and 10 years. They were seized in different parts of Iraq and charged with entering Iraq illegally and possessing arms.

The Iraqi government has accused Iraq's neighbors, notably Iran and Syria, of allowing gunmen to cross into Iraq to fight U.S.-led multinational troops and Iraqi forces.

On Thursday, Iraqi security forces raided a hideout for insurgents in eastern Baghdad, killing one and capturing nine, including four Arabs.

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Singapore nabs suspected al Qaeda-linked militant

SINGAPORE, April 22 (Reuters) - Singapore said on Friday it had arrested a man linked to Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda network who had planned attacks in the city-state and had studied bomb making in the Philippines.

Jahpar bin Osman trained in the southern Philippines, where Islamic rebels are pushing for an independent state, and had been negotiating with a regional al Qaeda ally, Jemaah Islamiah, on targets to be attacked, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.

Singapore, a staunch U.S. ally that foiled plots in 2001 and 2002 to bomb Western targets in the city-state, also said it had released another militant after he "responded positively to religious counselling".

The government said 35-year-old Jahpar, detained under Singapore's Internal Security Act for two years after his arrest on Thursday, had been a member of Jemaah Islamiah since the mid-1990s.

Singapore has said the earlier Jemaah Islamiah plots, including plans to attack an American school, embassies and U.S. and Israeli companies, were designed to provoke war between Malaysia and Singapore.

The group's aim was to take advantage of the instability to establish a regional Islamic state, it said.

Singapore authorities said they had released on April 15 Abdul Majid, a 42-year-old Singaporean man of Pakistani origin who had joined Jemaah Islamiah in 1989 and taught a militant brand of Islam to recruit new members.

The government said Majid would not be allowed to leave Singapore without permission for two years or meet former militants.

Jemaah Islamiah militants were responsible for the October 2002 bomb attacks on Indonesia's Bali island that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

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2 Egyptian al-Qaeda ‘members’ placed on terror watchlist (Philippines)

Immigration officials in major airports and subports nationwide were placed on alert after the Bureau of Immigration received an intelligence report that two Egyptian members of al-Qaeda have arrived to sow terror in the country.

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. ordered two weeks ago that Muhsin Musa Mutawalli Atwah, a.k.a. Abd Al-Rahman Al-Muhajir, and Muhammad Rabi’a Abd Al-Halim Shuwayb, a.k.a. Hamza Al-Rabi, be included on the watch-list of foreign terrorists.

Their inclusion was requested by the intelligence community, which wanted the duo arrested and taken into custody should they enter the country.

"Placing foreigners deemed as threats to national security on our watch list is a standard operating procedure of our campaign against terrorism," said the lawyer Faisal Hussin, the bureau’s intelligence chief.

Hussin said the two Egyptians were the latest among thousands of foreigners placed in the bureau’s watch-list.

Intelligence sources identified Muhajir as a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, leader of the international terror group al-Qaeda. Muhajir serves as a senior explosives expert of al-Qaeda and allegedly serves as consultant on almost every bombing attack blamed on the terror group.

Muhajir’s association with bin Laden reportedly dates back to the mid-1990s when latter lived in Sudan.

He is said to have trained the militia that fought and attacked American peacekeepers in Somalia in 1993 and allegedly made the car bombs that went off at the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.

Al-Rabi, on the other hand, was identified as a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and currently a member of al-Qaeda’s military committee as the organization’s deputy chief for external operations.

As the successor to Khalid Shaihk Muhammad who was captured in Pakistan in early 2003, Al-Rabi is allegedly involved in establishing al-Qaeda cells in many countries and supervised the training of the group’s operatives including those behind last year’s bombings in Uzbekistan.

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Al Qaeda, Sept. 11 Suspects Go on Trial in Spain
By Daniel Trotta

MADRID (Reuters) - The suspected leader of al Qaeda in Spain, accused of aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers, went on trial with 23 others in Madrid Friday in Europe's biggest court case against suspected Islamist militants.

The trial that is expected to take months and carries possible jail sentences of more than 60,000 years began with the only Spanish-born suspect telling the court he condemned terrorism.

"I absolutely condemn all terrorist acts, all violent acts, the spilling of blood of children, women and the elderly. And I don't believe that as a Muslim but as a citizen of any ideology," Luis Jose Galan, a convert to Islam, said under questioning from the prosecutor.

Galan is an old acquaintance of the central figure in the case, Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, who faces sentences totaling 62,512 years if convicted on charges he helped the Sept. 11 hijackers plan the attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.

Galan, who is accused of belonging to al Qaeda and of possessing weapons, faces 18 years in prison. The Spaniard admitted owning some weapons but said they were all for sport and were properly licensed.

The case against him focuses on a trip he took to Indonesia in July 2001, shortly after Barakat Yarkas had been there.

Investigators believe Galan received military training in Indonesia, but he said he went to visit friends and pursue business opportunities.

Before going to Indonesia, Galan received an e-mail from there requesting arms for the jihad, prosecutors say. Galan said he could not remember that particular e-mail but that he often received a range of reports from the Muslim world.

"They can write me an e-mail asking me for the atomic bomb or just about anything. Right now I don't remember," he said.

The trial's first day was marked by testy exchanges between some of the 20 defense lawyers and presiding judge Javier Gomez Bermudez, head of a three-judge panel hearing the case.

The defendants, in street clothes, were held in a bullet-proof glass booth, although two of them were allowed into the open courtroom for medical reasons.

The defendants were brought into a secure area of the building in police vans with a battery of uniformed police and television cameras camped outside the courtroom.

BIN LADEN CHARGED

All the defendants have denied the charges against them. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is also charged, but Spain cannot try suspects in their absence.

Barakat Yarkas and two others -- Moroccan-born Driss Chebli and Syrian-born Ghasoub Al Abrash Ghalyoun -- also face charges of mass murder for allegedly helping the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Investigators accuse Barakat Yarkas and Chebli of helping prepare a meeting of Sept. 11 conspirators in Spain in July 2001, when hijacker Mohamed Atta traveled to the country.

Atta is believed to have piloted one of the planes into the World Trade Center.

Galan said he was unaware if Barakat Yarkas had recruited Islamist holy warriors for training or fighting in Afghanistan and Bosnia, as prosecutors allege.

The defendants include Tayseer Alouni, a reporter for Arab TV channel Al Jazeera who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the attacks on New York and Washington.

Prosecutors accuse him of carrying money intended for al Qaeda members during visits he made to Afghanistan for his journalistic work. Alouni says he is innocent.

The only person convicted so far in relation to the Sept. 11 attacks is Moroccan-born Mounir el Motassadeq, who last year won an appeal against his conviction in Germany and is being tried a second time.

In the United States, Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui plans to admit a role in the attacks, U.S. government sources said Wednesday.

The Madrid trial was adjourned until Monday.

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13 years for shoebomb plotter who didn't board jet
SHAN ROSS

SAAJID Badat who admitted conspiring with "shoebomber" Richard Reid to blow up an airliner over the Atlantic, but changed his mind before boarding the flight, was jailed for 13 years yesterday.

Badat, 25, entered a guilty plea in February - admitting he had conspired with Reid to blow up planes in simultaneous attacks.

It is the first major conviction for a terrorist plot in Britain since the 11 September, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Reid failed in his bid to blow up an American Airlines’ plane flying from Paris to Miami on 22 December, 2001, after passengers and crew overpowered him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a US court in January 2003.

Badat confessed to an identical plan. He bought a ticket to fly from Manchester to Amsterdam on 17 December, 2001, and then on to the US, but changed his mind about taking the flight and dismantled his device. Badat returned to live in Britain where he became an Imam and a Muslim preacher.

Judge Adrian Fulford said he was being lenient because Badat had "a genuine change of heart", abandoning plans for the attack and pleading guilty.

The judge condemned the plot as "truly appalling" adding: "There are few more serious crimes than what you were planning. It intended to shock the lives of thousands of friends and relatives of the loved ones who would have been devastated by it."

Justice Fulford said he hoped the sentence would send a message to others considering terrorism that a decision to turn away from violence would benefit them in court.

The court had heard how Badat left home aged 19 and went to live in London, working as a kitchen porter and security guard before travelling to Afghanistan to train in a terror camp. Over the next few years, he travelled between Pakistan, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan on three British passports, pretending the legitimate one was stolen. He also used forged entry and exit visas - made by the same stamp that appeared on Reid’s passports.

Throughout 2001, Reid and Badat’s travel plans were remarkably similar and by 11 September, 2001, both were staying in Amsterdam, prosecutor Richard Horwell said.

Badat and Reid then returned to Afghanistan and were persuaded by a Taliban sympathiser to take part in the plot. They carried the explosive equipment with them throughout the following three months.

But by early December, Badat began to have doubts about the plot, and started sending a series of e-mails to his handlers warning them Reid would be "on his own".

Badat returned to Britain, got rid of the shoe that was to house the bomb and dismantled the explosives, but kept them in two suitcases in his bedroom.

London’s Old Bailey court heard at the hearing in February that Badat had been given an explosive device in Afghanistan that had a detonating cord that matched Reid’s.

Badat, from Gloucester, was arrested in November 2003. At his home, police found a bomb which he had made safe by separating the detonator and fuse from the plastic explosive, which had been designed to evade airport security.

Mr Horwell said that both bombs were "identical" in design and would have "been sufficient to make a hole through the fuselage of a passenger jet".

Describing the plot, Mr Horwell said: "Following the terrorist training that Reid and Badat had received, the final plans by them must have been made.

"They left Pakistan within days and had the aim of carrying out simultaneous attacks on passenger aircraft flying from Europe to the US. The plot was to cause explosions in two passenger aircraft when they were in flight over the Atlantic.

"The evidence also discloses that Badat must have withdrawn from this plot but Reid did not and it was only good fortune that prevented him from achieving his terrible objective."

When police arrested Badat, he told them exactly where all the explosives were kept.

Badat’s counsel, Michael Mansfield, QC, said his client was devout, but had his "sincere" beliefs "manipulated".

Mr Mansfield said when Badat was a teenager he felt increasingly concerned for the plight of Muslims being persecuted around the world, and wanted to fight their cause. But by 2001, he said Badat became caught up in the "cauldron of concern and activity" in Afghanistan and faced a "moral dilemma" fighting for his Muslim brothers. He said Badat was persuaded to take part also because he had no money, but added that his client was now filled with remorse and wanted to warn-off potential terrorists. "He sees there can never be any justification in jeopardising the lives of innocent civilians for this kind of terrorist activity," said Mr Mansfield.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said: "This is a very important conviction and is the culmination of a painstaking investigation lasting three years. It is a tremendous example of cooperation between international agencies and those in the UK."

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Switzerland extradites terror suspect to Spain

GENEVA, April 22 (Reuters) - Switzerland extradited to Spain on Friday the suspected leader of a Muslim cell that Spanish officials say planned to blow up Spain's High Court with a truck bomb.

Moroccan-born Mohamed Achraf was flown from Zurich to Madrid escorted by three Spanish police officers, the Swiss federal office of justice in Berne said in a statement.

Switzerland's highest court rejected Achraf's appeal against extradition earlier this month.

In Madrid, Achraf appeared before High Court Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska who ordered him jailed on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organisation, faking documents and attempted murder in connection with the plot to bomb the court, Europa Press news agency reported.

He refused to reply to the prosecutor's questions, it said.

Court officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Spain says Achraf, 31, led a group called "Martyrs for Morocco" that planned to detonate a truck loaded with 500 kg (1,100 lb) of explosives near Spain's High Court.

High Court judges are leading a series of probes into Islamic militants, including the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 that killed 191 people.

Achraf was flown to Spain as Europe's biggest trial of al Qaeda suspects got under way in Madrid. Twenty-four people are on trial, including three accused of mass murder for allegedly helping the plotters of the 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

Achraf was arrested in Switzerland in September 2004, accused of stealing mobile phones and being in the country illegally, Spanish police said.

They said Moroccan authorities believed Achraf's real identity might be Abderrahmane Tahiri, who was expelled from France in 1995.

More than 30 people were arrested late last year as part of Judge Baltasar Garzon's investigation of the alleged plot to blow up the High Court and other major Madrid landmarks.

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(Excerpted) Otaki church arsonist jailed  (New Zealand)
By DON KAVANAGH

The man who burned down the historic Rangiatea Church in Otaki in 1995 was jailed for four years yesterday and told if he had not boasted of his crime he might never have been caught.

Francis Shaw, 38, was found guilty in February of burning the church down with two others who died before the case came to trial. Shaw, who defended himself at the trial, claimed he had done it because the Anglican Church had betrayed Maori.

Judge Philip Connell told Shaw yesterday it was his own fault he had been charged with the crime as, while serving time for unrelated offences, he had told members of the prison service and police he had done it.

"If it hadn't been for your boasting, it is unlikely that there would have been any resolution as to who the perpetrator was," Judge Connell said.

"You blamed the Anglican Church for leading people astray and corrupting their lives . . . Your thinking is warped. You are utterly wrong."

Shaw, who had "al Qaeda" tattooed on the back of his neck, had claimed at his trial that he had suggested the church as a possible arson target to a group of Maori radicals and that he had gone along with two of them on the night the church burned down but had not wanted any part of it.

He was found guilty after a four-day trial.

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(Excerpted)A military shift?(Netherlands)

The Netherlands is currently discussing with the US government a greater role the Dutch military could play in future military conflicts and crisis situations, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed last month.

The Dutch government will decide this summer whether to provide a naval contribution to Enduring Freedom in the Persian Gulf. The mission would continue until the end of the year.

But a terrorism expert with the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael), Edwin Bakker, denies the Netherlands is shifting its focus from peacekeeping operations to first strike capabilities.

  He says the Dutch government does not want to rely only on European partners and instead, its geopolitical strategy is to remain a reliable partner of the US.  However, this requires the ability to act as a first-strike nation, backing up the nation's involvement in peacekeeping operations.

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Guerilla leader planning terror attacks killed in Chechnya

KHANKALA. April 22 (Interfax) - A joint squad of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Chechen Interior Ministry killed a guerilla leader who was planning a series of terrorist attacks during the May 9 celebrations on Victory Day, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Friday.

"The so-called emir of Chervlyonnaya and Shelkovskaya villages, Suleyman Dakayev, has been killed," Shabalkin said.

"It is known for sure that Dakayev received $60,000 from Maskhadov's successor, Saidulayev, for organizing terrorist attacks in Grozny," he said.

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Infiltration bid foiled, two ultras killed in Poonch (India)
 
Jammu, April 22: VIGILANT troops foiled an infiltration bid killing two militants in Sabra Galli in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district while a dreaded Lashkar-e-Toiba militant were among three militants killed in separate encounters in Doda and Rajouri districts.

According to Army spokesperson, last night troops deployed in the area observed a movement of group of militants near the Line of Control. Initially the Army personnel did not react. But when they were 300 mts short of the fence, the troops challenged them. In the ensuing fire fight, two ultras were killed while others managed to flee to Pakistani side.

Due to dense foliage and mine field the search for the militant bodies were carried out only after day break. The bodies were found lying in the mine field. Identity of the militants could not be ascertained. operation was on when reports last came in.

Meanwhile a militant owing allegiance to Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit were among three militants killed in separate encounters with the security forces in Thanamandi tehsil of Rajouri district and Banshal area of Doda district.

Sources said a militant identified as Abu Abdullah Waqar of Lashkar outfit was killed in the encounter with the security forces in hardulkwari area in Thanamandi tehsil of Rajouri district. An AK rifle with three magazines and 19 rounds of AK ammunition were seized from the encounter site.

In another encounter in Banshal area of Doda district a militant owing allegiance to Hizbul Mujahidee outfit was killed.

The slain ultra has been identified as Nazeer Ahmad Lone, son of Subhan Lone, resident of Charrot. A pistol with magazines and five rounds were seized from the possession of slain ultra.

While a militant belonging to Al Badr outfit was killed in a fire-fight with the security forces in Thilarpera area Budhal tehsil of Rajouri district.
 

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[Straight Vermonter]

Let me know if you want on/off the terrorist roundup ping list

Terrorist Scorecard

The Iraqi "Deck of Cards" Scoreboard

Centcom's New Iraq Scorecard

Saudi Arabia's Most Wanted Scorecard

[ScaniaBoy]

The news from the Netherlands was very encouraging. Wonder what the EU, France and Germany, will say about that?

[leadpenny]

I agree, ScaniaBoy. The Netherlands, I believe, has the distinction of having the longest unbroken period of friendly relations with the US of any country. It may go back to 1776.

Good article at the link.

[Valin]

U.S. troops kill more than 12 Afghan rebels

STEPHEN GRAHAM

Associated Press
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/11448888.htm

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. forces poured fire from artillery and warplanes onto militants launching rockets at an American base, killing more than 12 rebels in Afghanistan's volatile southeast, the military said Thursday.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official said two former Taliban leaders had taken up a reconciliation offer from the government of President Hamid Karzai that American commanders hope will erode the 3-year-old insurgency.

The rebels were killed late Tuesday when U.S. troops responded to four rockets fired at the main American base in Khost province, close to the Pakistani border, a military statement said. There were no injuries or damage.

A-10 ground attack aircraft and an AC-130H gunship dropped two 500-pound bombs and fired more than two dozen rockets and cannon rounds, while ground troops trained artillery on the assailants, it said.

"We were able to see the launching point of the rockets and we brought everything we had to bear on it," Maj. J.R. Mendoza, a U.S. Army official based in Khost, said in the statement. "More than a dozen insurgents were killed."

Taliban militants have vowed to step up their campaign against the 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and have mounted a string of ambushes and roadside bombings along the Pakistani border.

But American commanders insist their insurgency is unraveling in the face of U.S. and Afghan military operations and the reconciliation offer from Karzai's government.

Two more former Taliban officials took up the offer this week, an Afghan official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Mullah Mohammed Nazim and Mullah Akhtar Mohammed returned from Pakistan on Wednesday and swore allegiance to Afghanistan's new order at a ceremony in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, said Mohammed Wali, a local government spokesman.

Wali said Nazim had served as governor of Zabul, a former Taliban stronghold and a focus of insurgent operations since U.S. forces drove the hardline militia from power in 2001, and as a military commander in northern Sar-e-Pul province.

Mohammed had been police chief in western Farah province, Wali said.

The official declined to comment on whether the pair had been involved in militant operations since 2001.

"It was difficult for them to come home, but now the problems have been solved," Wali said. "This will give more Taliban the confidence to take advantage of the government's offer," Wali said.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the commander of the 17,000-strong U.S. force here, warned on Saturday that militants may launch a large-scale attack in coming months, when the country is preparing for Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.

But those who have decided to fight on appear to be taking heavy casualties when confronted with American airpower.

On Monday, U.S. and Afghan forces exchanged fire with suspected Taliban rebels in Zabul, killing 17 guerrillas and arresting several more, including several Chechens and Arabs, an Afghan official said.

Another dozen militants were reportedly killed last week when U.S. troops and warplanes reinforced Afghan forces who had been ambushed on a mountain pass near Khost. Two American soldiers were wounded.

Barno has also encouraged Pakistan to step up military operations against militants on its side of the mountainous frontier.

However, a senior Pakistani general criticized him on Wednesday for suggesting that Pakistan was planning a new offensive in its North Waziristan tribal region, which neighbors Khost.

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Associated Press Writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

[Valin]

The Iraqi government has accused Iraq's neighbors, notably Iran and Syria, of allowing gunmen to cross into Iraq to fight U.S.-led multinational troops and Iraqi forces.

Unless or until there is a MAJOR change in..attitude on the part of Iran and Syria I could see this blowing up sometime in the not to distant future. Not a lot of love lost between Iraq and Iran-Syria anyway. Can we say hot pursuit?