Threat Matrix: February 2007

How al-Qaida Fared in 2006
-Full Story-

In 2006, agents of al-Qaida, as well as those inspired by its ideology, continued their attacks. Violence in Iraq intensified, and Afghanistan saw its bloodiest year since 2001.

Despite worsening chaos on those fronts, counterterrorist forces arrested and killed high-profile terrorists and kept the West free from attack. But these actions don't appear to have weakened the appeal of al-Qaida's agenda. "Home-grown" militants around the world joined its jihad, as regional fighting heightened perceptions of a global war on Islam.

Here's an assessment of some of the most significant gains and losses for al-Qaida last year: Read more..

	Azzam the American: The Making of an al Qaida Homegrown
	Islamic Cells of Revenge Joins the al Qaida Movement
	Most Dangerous Destinations 2007

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ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779196/posts

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015120.php

February 04, 2007
"Ahmadinejad: On February 11, Islamic Republic's nuclear rights 'will be established'"
(YNET NEWS)

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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3360816,00.html

"Iran: Giant achievements coming soon
Ahmadinejad: On February 11, Islamic Republic's nuclear rights 'will be established'"
Yaakov Lappin

Published: 02.04.07, 17:13

ARTICLE SNIPPET: ""Giant achievements" by Iran will be unveiled by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the coming days, the Iranian Fars news agency reported on Saturday."

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Note: The following "news" text is a quote:

http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8511140484

05 Feb 2007
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News numbre: 8511140484
16:29 | 2007-02-03

President:
Giant Achievements to Be Gifted to Iranians in Coming Days
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his administration is going to publicize the country's remarkable progresses and achievements within the coming days.

Addressing an inaugural ceremony marking the operation of 'Jegin' Dam in Bashagard in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan on Saturday, Ahmadinejad stated that bullying powers and those who pursue ill intentions always seek to destroy the free nations' feeling of self-confidence.

"The world should know today that the capable Iranian nation, relying on its own youths and scientists, has now conquered the peaks of knowledge and science," he said.

"During the current week, we are going to announce to the Iranian nation the great achievements the country has made to tell the world that when a nation decides to stand on its own feet to climb up the peaks, God helps it and that nation will embrace victory," the Iranian president further stated.

Ahmadinejad also mentioned that one such victory has been in the field of nuclear technology, and pointing to enemies' threats and the recent UN Security Council Resolution 1737 which has called for a ban on nuclear aids to Iran, he said, "Iran never expects you to help it as you have never helped nations to make progress."

The Iranian president also reiterated that the February 11 is the day when the Iranian nation's inalienable right to access and use nuclear technology will be established.

February 11 is the final day of what Iranians call as the Ten Days of Fajr (also known as the Ten-Day Dawn), marking the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, when the revolutionary Iranians led by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini dethroned the US-backed Shah and not only made him the last king of the Pahlavi dynasty, but also put an end to 25 centuries of kingship in Iran.

The Ten Days of Fajr are celebrated annually in Iran and President Ahmadinejad has promised the nation to establish the country's nuclear rights during the same period.

"The Iranian nation will celebrate stabilization and establishment of its nuclear rights during the Ten-Day Dawn," Ahmadinejad has earlier said.

Note: The following text (minus the graphic and foreign language text) is a quote:

http://osint.internet-haganah.com/archives/000816.html

February 04, 2007

Iranian nuclear scientist 'assassinated by Mossad'

The Sunday Times February 04, 2007

A PRIZE-WINNING Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran.
An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on January 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as “gas poisoning”. The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpour was poisoned but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.

Posted on 04 February 2007 @ 16:03 GMT

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=entebbe

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Thanks to Abu Afak for starting this thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779233/posts

Terror suspects behind Entebbe affair give themselves up
Reuters ^ | Feb 4, 07

Posted on 02/04/2007 5:16:05 PM PST by abu afak

After 19 years on the run, German police arrest members of RZ group, which was involved in hijacking Air France plane with dozens of Israelis on board in 1976

Two suspected members of a German left-wing terror group which took part in some of the most notorious hostage dramas of the 1970s have surrendered to authorities after 19 years on the run.

Federal state prosecutors in Karlsruhe said on Sunday that the two suspected members of the "Revolutionaere Zellen" (RZ), or Revolutionary Cells, had given themselves up in December.

RZ members helped Carlos the Jackal take ministers hostage at an OPEC conference in Vienna in 1975. Two RZ members were killed in July 1976 when the Air France plane they helped hijack was stormed by Israeli special forces in Entebbe, Uganda.

The group emerged in the early 1970s from the radical left-wing scene in Germany, which also spawned the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang.

According to the website of the Interior Ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the RZ were responsible for at least 295 attacks between 1973 and 1995.

German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that the two suspects were "a couple"....."

(Excerpt) Read more at ynetnews.com ...

http://www.globalcrisiswatch.com/podcasts.php

NOTE: The following text is a quote:

http://www.globalcrisiswatch.com

February 5, 2007
50:00 minutes | 23.4 Megs [Listen Here]
Global Crisis Watch calls to Washington, Buffalo and Bangkok to dissect the alarming signals coming from Iran ahead of its "Nuclear Festival" on Feb 11 and the deadline to halt nuclear enrichment activities on Feb 21, the mixed signals coming from Washington amidst the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, the State Department's insistence for Somalia to negotiate with Somali Islamists, and the mysterious murder of Usama bin Laden's brother-in-law in Madagascar with Alireza Jafarzadeh, Strategic Policy Consulting and author of "The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis," Eli Lake of the New York Sun, Dr. Abdiweli Ali, Niagara University, and Dr. Zachary Abuza, Simmons College and the Counterterrorism Blog.

---

Listen here:

http://www.globalcrisiswatch.com/gcw/gcw_070205.mp3

Thanks to Ernest at the Beach for starting this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779287/posts

"Strong Quake Jolts Western Caribbean"
Las Vegas Sun ^ | February 04, 2007 at 15:25:4 PST | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 02/04/2007 9:20:12 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - A strong earthquake shook parts of Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 and was centered in the Caribbean Sea about 75 miles northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 125 miles southwest of Bayamo, Cuba, the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado said. It occurred just before 4:00 p.m."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=satellite

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779262/posts

"China launches first navigation satellite"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5de699fe-b478-11db-b707-0000779e2340.html ^ | February 4 2007 | Mure Dickie

Posted on 02/04/2007 7:32:47 PM PST by jonassen

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "China has launched its first navigation satellite in nearly four years, taking a step forward in its drive to develop a positioning system intended to eventually rival Washington’s GPS and Europe's Galileo.

The successful launch on Saturday of the “Beidou” navigation satellite, on board a Long March 3A rocket, underscores Beijing’s determination to develop its space industry.

It comes weeks after China prompted expressions of concern from the US by destroying one of its own ageing meteorological satellites with a missile-launched “kinetic kill vehicle”.

China’s plans for its satellite navigation system – known in English as “Compass” – have been shrouded in secrecy, with officials repeatedly declining to comment on their intentions. However, Saturday’s launch appears to be an effort to augment a relatively imprecise system based on three Beidou satellites launched between 2000 and 2003.

In a rare public discussion of Beijing’s plans, the official Xinhua news agency said in November that two geostationary satellites would be launched early this year, allowing the system to cover all of China and parts of neighbouring countries by 2008.

The Beidou system would expand to offer global coverage with the creation of a constellation of 30 medium earth orbit satellites, Xinhua said.

The agency gave no timing for this part of the system, similar to the GPS [Global Positioning System] built by the US and Eu rope’s Galileo satellite network.

More precise positioning would be an important asset for China's armed forces. Some analysts have suggested the expanded Beidou system will use the same radio frequencies as Galileo and possibly GPS, making it more difficult for adversaries to jam the network in case of war."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=zimbabwe

Thanks to Clive for the ping to this very important article.
Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779198/posts

Zimbabwe's Farm Deadline Lapses
BBC ^ | 2-4-2007

Posted on 02/04/2007 2:54:12 PM PST by blam

Zimbabwe's farm deadline lapses

Thousands of white farmers had their properties seized

The last remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe are resisting a government deadline for them to leave their land. Many of the 400 farmers had until the weekend to hand properties over to new black owners or face prosecution.

But the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has advised members to resist - saying arrest and prosecution is their only way of getting a hearing in court.

Zimbabwe's food production has plummeted since land reforms that saw thousands of white-owned farms seized.

A government deadline for almost all the remaining farms to be transferred lapsed on Saturday.

But CFU official Emily Crookes said the farmers hoped they would be allowed to stay on to harvest their crops - as President Robert Mugabe has promised.

"Some farmers are still a bit anxious about what the future is going to be," she told AFP news agency.

Sugar farmers contacted by the BBC said they expected arrests to begin on Monday.

Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, has had to rely on food imports since the seizure of white-owned farms began seven years ago.

President Robert Mugabe launched the programme with the aim of redressing economic imbalances left over from British colonial rule.

But critics say the often violent campaign has devastated Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy, leading to massive food shortages.

PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=gaza

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=GLOBALJIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Jihad

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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07020013.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Christians in the Crossfire

By Ron Brackin
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

DALLAS, TX (ANS) -- In the Gaza Strip, Sunday, January 28, a 20-year-old man was shot through the heart and killed. He was the AWANA Club driver for Gaza Baptist Church. The next morning, a bullet stuck the home of another church member, barely missing his head.

On Friday, February 2, Fatah police broke into the church. They commandeered the six-story building to use as high ground to cover the main police station next door.
“The situation in Gaza is very dangerous,” says Pastor Hanna Massad. “We are not able to leave our homes much. We continue to hear shooting, especially at night. Streets are blocked. People are afraid and confused. It is the worst situation we ever went through, even more dangerous than any Israeli invasion.”

Gaza Baptist Church is the only evangelical church in Palestine’s volatile Gaza Strip. The believers are surrounded by nearly 2 million Muslims. Gaza is also the stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Despite the dangers, the church’s prayer team continues to travel house to house to strengthen and encourage believers. The congregation continues to minister to hundreds of impoverished Palestinian families in neighboring refugee cities.

That they remain in Gaza at all is amazing, in light of the massive flight of an estimated 1,000 people every week out of Iraq and the steady exodus of Christians from Palestine and Lebanon.

Equally as amazing is that, in the midst of the terror, bloodshed and chaos in Gaza, two young people in the church are preparing for fulltime ministry.

“I believe in the power of prayer,” Pastor Hanna wrote in a recent email message to friends in the West. “Please unite with us before the throne of God and pray that He will protect the believers in Gaza, that He will give me the strength and wisdom to minister to the church family at this difficult time and that He will give wisdom to the leaders in Gaza to stop this evil fight.”

Ron Brackin is a freelance writer in Little Elm, Texas. He has more than a quarter of a century of experience ranging from journalist and congressional press secretary to marketing and public relations. He is the author of several nonfiction and fiction books, including “Sweet Persecution” (Bethany House 1999) and "Between Two Fires" (Banner Communications 2002) "Iraq, My Handiwork" (Manara Ministries 2003) and "Around the World in Eighty Days: the Rest of the Story (PennyRoyal Press 2005). Ron is currently available for freelance projects. Visit his website at www.ronbrackin.com.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=homicidebombers

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Iraq
http://www.billroggio.com/cgi-bin/cms/mt-search.cgi?tag=Iraq&blog_id=7

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Syria
http://www.memri.org/syria.html

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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779304/posts

Iraq: Syria Sends Half Of Suicide Bombers
The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 5 2007

Posted on 02/04/2007 10:54:21 PM PST by jmc1969

Iraq has accused Syria of allowing half of all suicide bombers to cross over into Iraqi territory in an escalating war of words between Baghdad and Damascus that raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.

In the aftermath of a truck bomb attack on a Baghdad market that killed 135 Shiite Muslims, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Syria must bear heavy responsibility for the loss of life in Iraq.

"Fifty percent of murders and bombings are by Arab extremists coming from Syria," Mr. Dabbagh said. "They come from Syria, we have evidence to prove it."

(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=turkey

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1779313/posts

"A year after his murder, Don Santoro to be remembered in changing Trabzon"
Asia News ^ | 02/03/2007 | Mavi Zambak

Posted on 02/05/2007 12:19:38 AM PST by Antioch

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "It was on 5 February 2006 that Don Andrea Santoro, a Roman Fidei Donum priest, was killed by two pistol shots as he was praying in St Mary’s Church in Trabzon, where he had been parish priest for three years. It was an absurd death that shocked everyone, a gesture undertaken “in the name of Allah” by a 16-year-old boy condemned to 18 years in prison.

A year has passed. It has been an intense year, full of other dramatic events, but also of small signs of change and hope in the port city on the Black Sea, the sad backdrop of the murder.

Trabzon, the historical and re-christened Trebisonda, has long been the focus of attention of media crime reporting.

In the central park of the city, hundreds of people tried to lynch members of TAYAD (Association of Prisoners’ Relatives) twice this past year, because they sought to distribute flyers that drew attention to tragic conditions in Turkey’s special prisons.

The mysterious character who spent only 11 months in prison for hurling a bomb at a McDonalds in the city in October 2004, Yasin Hayal, hails from Trabzon. He threw the bomb because the eatery dared to hold a birthday party during the month of Ramadan. He seriously injured 11 people, including five children.

And from Trabzon came the murderous hand that struck the Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink outside the headquarters of his weekly, the Agos. This is the city to which Don Andrea accepted to lend his pastoral services four years ago, to reach out to a handful of Christians.

National and foreign newspapers have sought to understand this social phenomenon, filling their pages with wordy rhetoric that branded the Turkish town as a receptacle of evil, where economic crisis, a local culture exalting the use of arms, paranoid political nationalism, a social structure owing to the particular history of the city and its nearness to the countries of the Caucasus combined to form an explosive cocktail of hate and violence. But the city is starting to get tired of the image that has been created around its residents and wants to show its sane side.

The Turkish Internal Affairs Minister, under pressure from general protests, decided to get rid of the Prefect and the head of police of Trabzon, who had minimized the impact of the death of Don Andrea and the journalist Dink and links between the two murders with radical nationalism.

The director of the communal theatre of Trabzon, Necati Zengin, announced his respect for Armenians and Christians, so much so that since 24 December, the city theatre has been showing an Armenian opera (“Brother Baldassar”) translated into Turkish. It has already been performed 15 times and has turned out to be enormously successful, with a consistently full house and generous applause."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=turkey

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1774939/posts

"The Turkish State Continues Disseminating Hatred Against Non-Muslims"
AINA ^ | 01,26,07

Posted on 01/27/2007 9:16:42 PM PST by PRePublic

"The Turkish State Continues Disseminating Hatred Against Non-Muslims"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Association has recently written about the religiously based threats being continuously spread from the Turkish state ministry responsible for religious affairs, the Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi.

The European Parliament has demanded that Turkey stop these threats, but the situation remains. On the contrary, the threats have intensified."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/HarryRJacksonJr/2007/02/05/change_or_die_fighting_radical_islam

"Change or Die: Fighting Radical Islam"
By Harry R. Jackson, Jr.
Monday, February 5, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "I left the U.S. on my way to sunny South Africa for a conference a week ago. During my day long stopover in London, I read the most shocking headline, Young British Muslims Get More Radical. This article made three amazing pronouncements based a study done by a UK-based think tank:

• 1 out of 8 young British Muslims admire Al-Qaeda

• 40% want Sharia law in Britain

• 75% want women to wear veils."

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http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003589.html

February 3, 2007

"UK: 'Sleepwalking With The Enemy'"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A brilliant article appears in today's Telegraph, entitled Sleepwalking With The Enemy, written by Ruth Dudley Edwards, dealing with the "pernicious threat" of Islamism. This is the first time I have seen any mention in mainstream British press of the debate between Daniel Pipes and Ken Livingstone, which took place on January 20 in London.

Ms Edwards presents a cutting analysis of how Islamism can destroy Britain. It is the most accurate description of Britain's (and the West's) current predicament, faced with Islamists who are already here, whom Ms Edwards describes as the "Barbarians inside the gates".

This is an extract:"

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