World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #12 Security Watch

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great find 2ndDivisionVet

U.S. Headed for ‘Heightened Alert’ Stage
ABC News ^ | July 28, 2008 | Pierre Thomas

Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008 9:57:33 AM by 2ndDivisionVet

Government officials have been quietly stepping up counterterror efforts out of a growing concern that al Qaeda or similar organizations might try to capitalize on the spate of extremely high-profile events in the coming months, sources tell ABC News.

Security experts point to next month’s Olympics as evidence that high-profile events attract threats of terrorism, like the one issued this past weekend by a Chinese Muslim minority group that warned of its intent to attack the Games.

Anti-terror officials in the U.S. cite this summer and fall’s lineup of two major political parties’ conventions, November’s general election and months of transition into a new presidential administration as cause for heightened awareness and action.

This is what the Department of Homeland Security is quietly declaring a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

According to drafts of government memos described to ABC News, the period would run roughly from this August through July 2009.

During this time, homeland security analysts will be asked to redouble efforts to study terrorism leads. And a number of agencies will be asked to review emergency response plans to a variety of attacks, from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to biological weapons.

Officials also are being asked to make sure they are prepared for all contingencies during the transition from the Bush administration to that of the next president.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052473/posts

Something like the jalapeno pepper poisoning stuff?

NORTH AMERICA

Homegrown U.S. terrorist sent to prison
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/21/Homegrown_US_terrorist_sent_to_prison/UPI-68091216683932/
Published: July 21, 2008 at 7:45 PM
SANTA ANA, Calif., July 21 (UPI) — A California terrorist who plotted to wage war against the United States was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena was part of a domestic terrorist cell that intended to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S. military facilities, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets and “infidels,” the U.S. Justice Department said.

Another member of the cell, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. The men had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last December to conspiring to wage war against the United States.

The man who organized the terror cell — Kevin James — also has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced Feb. 9.

A fourth alleged member — Hammad Samana — has been found unfit to stand trial and is receiving psychiatric care at a federal prison facility.

James created Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh while in California’s New Folsom Prison in 1997. Washington and Patterson conducted about a dozen armed robberies of gas stations to get money for the group’s planned attacks in the Los Angeles area, Justice Department officials said. Their targets allegedly included the Los Angeles airport, the Israeli consulate, Army recruiting centers and a military base at Manhattan Beach, prosecutors said.

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US kids in Taliban-backed madarsas in Pak
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080056895&ch=7/14/2008%201:53:00%20AM#

Press Trust of India
Sunday, July 13, 2008 (Islamabad)
A Pakistani filmmaker has launched a campaign to secure the release of 78 American teenagers from a Taliban-backed madarsa in the country and asked the US to step in to check students enrolment in radical seminaries to close ‘’the pipeline to jihad’’.

Imran Raza, who helped secure the release of two US teenagers of Pakistani origin, found up to 80 other such boys and girls in Karachi-based Jamia Binoria madarsa while shooting Karachi Kids a documentary on American children in Pakistan’s seminaries that will be released next week.

Raza’s film focuses on Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, the two brothers from Atlanta who were forced to study at Jamia Binoria.

When he met them three years ago, the brothers wanted to take the ‘’first plane back to America’’.

Three years later, the boys had been ‘’brainwashed’’ and said the madarsa had made them ‘’better human beings’’.

The siblings, who were enrolled in Jamia Binoria, considered one of the most radical seminaries in Pakistan, in August 2004, were well into their high school years when they were sent to Pakistan by their father.

‘’I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children to Atlanta from a Taliban-backed madarsa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the US once a year and personally recruits

Children brainwashed

American children to enrol in his madrassa,’’ Raza said in a statement on his website shortly after the release of the Khan brothers two days ago.

‘’The remaining 78 children must be returned to the US. This pipeline to jihad must be closed....It is imperative that members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madarsas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind,’’ Raza said.

Raza’s documentary Karachi Kids has been getting rave reviews and he is also running a campaign on his website karachikids.com asking people to help ‘’spread the word’’.

He encourages Internet surfers to display a Karachi Kids Banner on their blogs or join an affiliate programme to help free other American children of Pakistani descent who are still at madarsas.

Raza decided to make the documentary shortly after it was found that three of the four suicide bombers who carried out bombings in London were British nationals of Pakistani descent and two attended madarsas in Pakistan.

US-based Raza has since been joined by many others in his campaign. US Congressman Michael McCaul personally urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to help free the Khan brothers and have them returned to the US.

McCaul is also calling for the return of others children like them.

The NGO South Asia Foundation for Educational Reform has been floated to raise global awareness about madarsas, specifically their growing attraction to and recruitment of Americans and boys from other Western nations.

SAFER is focused on the growing number of American youngsters, predominantly of Pakistani descent, being sent by their parents to madarsas in their ancestral homeland.

Jamia Binoria prominently displays a banner supporting the Taliban and it is documented that Osama bin Laden spoke to students at Jamia Binoria before the 9/11 attacks.

‘’Another distinguishing feature of Binoria is that it is known to recruit Americans most aggressively, probably for their fluency in English which will help them ‘hide’ back in American society when they are graduated,’’ wrote Bernard Kerik, the contributing editor of FamilySecurityMatters.org, who has also joined Raza’s campaign.

‘’It is believed that there are another 600 American boys currently being educated in 22 madarsas throughout Pakistan... They are known to mass-produce extremists with a political agenda, including a cripplingly narrow view of society and zero tolerance of western culture. They radicalize Muslim youth and are seminaries for violent jihad.’’

In a trailer for Raza’s documentary, the headmaster of Jamia Binoria states, ‘’We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others.
‘’That is why I’m appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them and they will go back to their home countries and do the work and make people understand.’’

More than 100 American children have already graduated from his indoctrination programme.

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U.S. Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/terrorism_watch_list/2008/07/14/112760.html
Monday, July 14, 2008 7:47 PM

WASHINGTON - A U.S. watch list of terrorism suspects has passed 1 million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said on Monday the number was far too high to be effective.
The Bush administration disagreed and called the list one of the most effective tools implemented after the September 11 hijacked plane attacks — when a federal “no-fly” list contained just 16 people considered threats to aviation.
The American Civil Liberties Union publicized the 1 million milestone with a news conference and release.
It said the watch list was an impediment to millions of travelers and called for changes, including tightening criteria for adding names, giving travelers a right to challenge their inclusion and improving procedures for taking wrongly included names off the list.
“America’s new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought,” ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a release.
President George W. Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watchlists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI, through a Terrorist Screening Center.
Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration “no-fly” or “selectee” lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.
Critics have pointed to troubles that figures such as U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1960s civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and singer Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) have had with watch lists as evidence the consolidated database is poorly managed.
The Terrorism Screening Center, which maintains the list, has already put in place several steps to ensure the list is accurate and up-to-date, spokesman Chad Kolton said.
He cited a report last year by the Government Accountability Office that said there was general agreement within the federal government that the watch list had helped to combat terrorism.
“The list is very effective. In fact it’s one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has,” he said.
About 400,000 individuals are included on the list, about 95 percent of whom are not U.S. citizens or residents, Kolton said. The watch list also includes separate entries with aliases, fake passports and fake birth dates, bringing the total number of records to more than 1 million, he said.
TSA spokesman Christopher White said the agency’s “no-fly” watchlists to screen travelers were “scrubbed” last year to remove about half of the names, leaving them with somewhat fewer than 50,000.
He said Kennedy and Lewis were never on the list, and that problems they reported were due to their misidentification with names properly on it.
© 2008 Reuters. 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.

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Chertoff: European Terrorists Trying to Enter U.S.
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/terrorists_european_enter/2008/07/17/113933.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:40 PM

WASHINGTON - European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
Chertoff’s comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January — all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists.
In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al-Qaida and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road.
“The terrorists are deliberately focusing on people who have legitimate Western European passports, who don’t appear to have records as terrorists,” Chertoff told lawmakers. “I have a good degree of confidence we can catch people coming in. But I have to tell you ... there’s no guarantee. And they are working very hard to slip by us.”
Chertoff and other intelligence officials have delivered similar warnings before, and he offered no new information about specific threats or an imminent attack.
Chertoff reiterated his concern that terrorists could sneak radiological material into the country on small boats or private aircraft. This material could be used to create an explosive device known as a “dirty bomb.”
The Homeland Security Department has a strategy to protect against this small boat vulnerability and is testing radiation detection equipment in Seattle and San Diego ports.
Chertoff said that getting out a regulation to prescreen and enhance security of general aviation aircraft coming to the U.S. from overseas is one of his top priorities.
He also said he expects to approve new radiation detection technology this fall.
Responding to a question from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, Chertoff dismissed any rumor that he is on a list of potential running mates for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Chertoff quipped that the only list he has for next year is a list of vacations.
Chertoff’s term as the country’s second Homeland Security Secretary ends when a new administration takes over the White House in January.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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GAO Warns of ‘Dirty Bomb’ Threat
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/gao_dirty_bomb_threat/2008/07/15/113176.html
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:59 PM
The Government Accountability Office has raised concerns over so-called “dirty bombs,” saying the U.S. is taking too long to secure radioactive materials that could get into terrorists’ hands.
A GAO report states: “Radioactive sealed sources, which are commonly used throughout the world for a variety of purposes, are radioactive materials sealed in a capsule or permanently bonded in a solid form. These sealed sources are used in medicine and in the oil and gas, electric power, construction, and food industries.
“For example, devices containing radioactive sealed sources are used to diagnose and treat millions of patients each year, sterilize items such as medical instruments and food, and detect flaws in the metal welds in pipelines. Currently, about 2 million sealed sources are licensed for use in the United States.
“Since terrorists attacked the United States in 2001, concerns have grown that they could obtain and use sealed sources to build a “dirty bomb” — a type of radiological dispersal device (RDD) that uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material.”
Experts believe a dirty bomb attack would be confined to a small area, but could have a significant psychological effect and serious economic consequences due to cleanup problems, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The GAO found that new requirements aimed at securing radioactive materials are more than three years behind schedule.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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Saudi “Charities” and the War Against America
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B164102B-EAB6-4407-9263-D2C34C43D838
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Alex Alexiev, vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy.

FP: Alex Alexiev, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Alexiev: Thank you, Jamie, It’s always a pleasure to chat with you.
FP: The U.S. government recently designated the infamous Saudi Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as a terror financier. Tell us about Al Haramain.
Alexiev: Well, there is a lot to tell and a lot has been written about it already in the counterterrorism blog and elsewhere for those who want more detailed information. Indeed, the 9/11 Commission had a separate case study dedicated to it, but here it is in a nutshell:
The Al -Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) is one of the three largest Saudi front organizations active in the support of terrorism going back many years, and has been involved in the funding of Al Qaeda, the bombing of the American embassies in Africa and all manner of jihadist activities in Pakistan, the Balkans, Chechnia, Kashmir and elsewhere. But it will be a mistake to think of it simply as a terrorism enabler. It is even more important as a key player in funding and promoting the hateful Wahhabi/Salafi creed and the seditious shariah doctrine worldwide including in the United States.
Here are just a few figures that will give you a sense of the magnitude of these efforts. Before we moved against it, it had 50 offices around the world and operated out of Saudi embassies in another 40 countries. An official Saudi source claimed in December 2000 that it had built 1100 mosques and Islamic centers, employed 3000 proselytizers and published 13 million Islamic books.
And the most important thing about it is that contrary to countless Saudi denials, AHIF is a Saudi state-sponsored, funded and run organization. In other words, whatever it did was Saudi state policy. This is a reality that our government refuses to acknowledge even when it tries to do something about it, as, for instance, when it designated as terrorist two offices of AHIF in March of 2002, even as it labeled it misleadingly as “private, charitable and educational.”
It is important to document this briefly, because the Saudis continue to lie blatantly about their sponsorship of this and other subversive ‘charities.’ The reason AHIF operated out of Saudi embassies in many countries, as mentioned, is because it is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which maintains sizable sections in most of these embassies. Indeed, the minister of Islamic affairs is always the chairman of AHIF’s highest organ, the Administrative Council, ex-officio. This is admitted even by Al-Haramain officials, such as the top guy in the closed AHIF office in Ashland, Oregon, Al-Buthe, who called the Islamic Affairs Ministry the “patron” of AHIF.
It is also the case that Al-Haramain and the other key Saudi fronts derive most of their funding directly from state coffers. For example, in November of 2002, nearly eight months after the kingdom allegedly agreed to close down two branches of AHIF in conjunction with the U.S., a Saudi newspaper reported on a fundraising meeting for Al-Haramain and others in the presence of then-Crown Prince Abdullah and other Saudi bigwigs, at which it was reported that the Saudi government covers 80% of the charities’ total expenditures, as well as 80% of the cost of building their headquarters.
By the way, Jamie, if you know how their ‘private’ fund raising is organized, you’d realize that it’s private in name only. Here is how it’s done. A powerful member of the House of Saud sets up and chairs a fund raiser at which moneyed interests are invited and urges the assembled to support the noble efforts of whatever ‘charity’ is involved and writes a fat check himself. It is an invitation that few can afford not to follow in a country where the economic well-being of the elite depends on whether or not they’re in the good graces of the royal family.
FP: Are there any other Saudi organizations that deserve to be designated?
Alexiev: Of course, I have followed about a dozen myself and there are hundreds of others I know very little about. All told, Saudi sources speak of anywhere between 240 and 265 Islamic charities active in the Kingdom and outside of it.
The largest and most active in terrorism funding and spreading hate against us, apart from Al-Haramain, are the Muslim World League (MWL) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). A fourth large and active terror enabler, called the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) is actually a department of MWL and should not be considered a separate organization.
Just like AHIF, all of them are both documented supporters of terrorist activities and Saudi state-sponsored entities that should have been designated and closed down years ago. The MWL, for instance, through a subsidiary in Pakistan called the Rabita Trust, played an indispensible role in the founding of Al Qaeda. The fact that we have allowed these outfits to engage in open subversion against us with complete impugnity is a graphic example of our failure to even acknowledge who our real enemies are in this war.
FP: What do you think of the U.S. move on Al Haramain? Why so late and why unilaterally? What does this mean for the war on terror?
Alexiev: Well, moving to close down Al-Haramain is, of course, a positive step, but in my view it’s also a case of too little too late and serves to demonstrate the abysmal failure of this administration to fess up to the fact that our ‘strategic ally’ Saudi Arabia is a sworn enemy of the United States. Let’s not forget that we’re nearing the 7th anniversary of 9/11and it has been more than six years after our first timid effort to curtail the subversive activities of AHIF in March of 2002. During all this time we did nothing except very meekly try to talk the Saudis into cooperation. The modus operandi of this administration vis a vis the Saudis seems to be “speak softly and carry no stick.”
Yet, it was clear very early on that they had no intention to do anything but play us for a sucker. Not only did they refuse to do anything, but they actually told us off repeatedly in fairly direct and insulting terms. For instance, in September 2002, Aqeel al-Aqeel, the chairman of Al-Haramain and a man who’s alleged to have personally smuggled millions of dollars to terrorist groups, boasted in the Saudi press that “America has tried to establish a link between terrorism and Saudi charitable societies and failed,” while an official Saudi media organ claimed that the charges leveled against Saudi charities like Al-Haramain by the U.S. Treasury were “politically motivated and orchestrated by Christian neo-conservatives and their Zionist allies.”
The reason this long overdue step was finally unilaterally is probably due to the fact that the evidence of Al-Haramain’s misdeeds is and has been for a long time incontrovertible. It could also be the case that the USG people involved became worried that when the evidence eventually sees the light of day after the Bush Administration is gone, as it inevitable will, it will look like they were either extraordinarily incompetent or else went to extraordinary lengths to protect the Saudis. Either way, there is no doubt that questions will be asked.
FP: Does this mean that Washington is finally taking a tougher stance toward Riyadh?
Alexiev: I wish I could believe that, but frankly I can’t. There is just too much evidence that vested interests in Washington were keen on shielding the Saudis from having to account for their misdeeds.
FP: Can you give us some examples of how the Bush administration has shielded the Saudis? Some critics have alleged that even the findings of the 9/11 commission were politically interfered with to whitewash Saudi involvement. Any truth to that?
Alexiev: I firmly believe that the 9/11 Commission did a pitiful job of explaining to the American people what actually happened and its greatest failure by far was its conclusion that the Saudis had nothing to do with Al Qaeda and 9/11. If you look at what the Saudis do when accused of enabling terrorism, as for example in an ongoing lawsuit against them in Philladelphia, they invariably use this 9/11 Commission finding as their key defense. Yet, anybody that is half-way familiar with how Al-Qaeda came into being and with the involvement of Saudi charities like the ones discussed above and key players like Wael Julaidan, Adil Batterji and the Golden Chain characters would have to consider such a conclusion as bordering on outright disinformation. Especially because some of the USG information available to the commission and footnoted in the report, like the USG Evidentiary Proffer in the Enaam Arnout/Benevolence International case, simply precludes such a conclusion.
Now, I’m not the first to suspect political interference with the 9/11 Report and former democratic Senator Graham, who was a co-chair of the Congressional Joint-Inquiry Commission, among others, is on record with direct accusations against the Bush Administration along these lines. In the meantime, new information has come to light that makes such suspicions ever more justified. A while ago, a Czech translator, of all people, was able to get the FBI timeline on which the 9/11 Commission report was based released through the Freedom of Information Act. In a direct contradiction to the 9/11 Report, the timeline claims that the two Saudi highjackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, were picked up in L.A. by a suspected Saudi agent named Omar al-Bayoumi and stayed with him in San Diego from the moment they arrived. This directly contradicts the 9/11 report which claims that they spent two weeks in L.A. and eventually bumped into Bayoumi by sheer chance. If the former is the truth, as the FBI Timeline and all available evidence confirms, the highjackers had a well organized Saudi-run support system waiting for them the minute they came to America. By the way, telephone logs show that during the time he hosted the terrorists, Bayoumi made hundreds of calls to the Saudi embassy in D.C. and Saudi consulates in California. What do you think they discussed; the weather in San Diego?
There is yet another more than curious tidbit that ties into this. The minute Bayoumi started taking care of the eventual suicide pilots, his monthly retainer from a company in Saudi Arabia for which he did no work, more than doubled and he also started receiving money indirectly from the wife of the illustrious Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar. The fact that the 9/11 Report did not dwell on this speaks for itself. This is the kind of stuff that makes people believe in conspiracies.
FP: You have written and testified to Congress that you consider Saudi Arabia to be the main state sponsor and financial enabler of radical Sunni Islam, while the U.S. government considers it a “strategic ally.” Can you provide some evidence to back up your claim?
Alexiev: This is a fairly time-consuming exercise but let me just say this. Since 1973, Saudi Arabia has spent no less than $100 billion trying to undermine the West by promoting radical Islamism and hatred against our values and way of life. It has succeeded in dominating most of the Muslim establishment in Europe and America and imposing its hateful views on a large section of the Muslim population and dominating most of what passes as the Muslim establishment in this country. Most of our officials are clueless of this state of affairs, even in places like the Pentagon and Homeland Security, to say nothing of the FBI, and, more often than not, get their advice on matters Muslim from radical Islamist organizations like CAIR, ISNA, MAS, MSA etc. In fact, it has now gotten to the point where the FBI is asking CAIR, an organization which has a number of its high officials in jail for terrorist activities, to provide Islamic sensitivity training to their agents. The malignant political correctness and multicultural inanities that rule the land nowadays certainly have something to do with it, but the Bush Administration must share much of the responsibility for this dismal state of affairs.
FP: If your claim that U.S. appeasement of people who wish us ill is true, how has this affected our conduct of the war on terror?
Alexiev: It has affected it dramatically and much to our detriment. Despite the great successes of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re losing the war on terror. We’re losing it because we’re not in a war against terrorism, which is simply a symptom of a deeper malignancy, but in a war against barbarism in the form of a murderous medieval doctrine that seeks nothing short of the destruction of our civilization. Worse, we have declared those that work feverishly to accomplish that, our strategic allies. It boggles the mind! We’re losing this war against barbarism also because we’re in the process of transferring much of our wealth in the coffers of the enemy by becoming totally dependent on the oil of these parasitic rentiers who will soon be richer than we’re if this continues. Take a look at Wall Street’s enthusiastic reception of shariah finance, which aims at nothing less then the legitimization of shariah barbarism in the West, and you’ll see how far we’ve gone down that slippery slope.
FP: How can the American people get to the bottom of what you make sound like a conspiracy?
Alexiev: I think what needs to be done and I trust that sooner or later it will be done, is a congressional investigation of the 9/11 Commission findings and who made it possible for the Saudis to engage in openly subversive behavior against this country and get away with it. It would be great if this were to become an election issue. Beyond that we need to realize once and for all that what our enemies are doing has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with political sedition in a concerted effort to overthrow our constitutional order. We have laws against that and it is high time we stopped tolerating it
FP: What are your policy recommendations for us to get out of this mess?
Alexiev: Well, I have only one and it’s not really a policy recommendation but a wish. I wish that the American people would wake up and realize the nature of the threat this nation is facing. Our leaders show very little understanding of it. On the one hand you have an outgoing administration that, in my view, has come close to dereliction of duty in identifying and confronting our real enemies and on the other, the real possibility of a democratic administration of hard left sympathies that have traditionally proven to be willing water-carriers for the Islamists. McCain has made the right noises in identifying radical Islam as the real threat, but it is not clear at all that he really understands the problem either. Americans must finally start asking the hard questions they need to have answered in the next few months.
FP: Alex Alexiev, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.
Alexiev: Thank you, Jamie.

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US, Armenia sign deal to fight nuclear smuggling
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Armenia_sign_deal_to_fight_nuclear_smuggling_999.html

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) July 14, 2008
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed a deal Monday to fight the smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials, the State Department said.
The deal significantly boosts joint US-Armenian “efforts to combat the threat that nuclear or highly radioactive materials could be acquired by terrorists or others who would use them to harm us,” it said in a statement.
The agreement spells out the US-Armenian intention to cooperate to boost Armenia’s capabilities “to prevent, detect, and respond effectively to attempts to smuggle nuclear or radioactive materials,” the department added.
“It specifies twenty-eight agreed steps that the two governments intend to be taken for this purpose.”
The statement said Armenia will be able to take some of the steps on its own, but would receive either US or international assistance in implementing other measures, it said.
“This assistance would complement and be carefully coordinated with the aid the Republic of Armenia is already receiving from various US and international assistance programs,” it added.
The State Department said the agreement is the fifth of its kind concluded by the US government’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, with previous ones completed with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the Kyrgyz Republic.
“The US government intends to conclude similar agreements with approximately twenty additional countries where the risk of nuclear smuggling is of particular concern.”
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INTERNATIONAL

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The Long War Journal: “More than 100 terror camps” in operation in northwestern Pakistan
Written by Bill Roggio on July 11, 2008 9:05 AM to The Long War Journal
Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/07/more_than_100_terror.php

Osama bin Laden escorted by the Black Guard. Click image to view.
Al Qaeda continues to grow its network and expand its capabilities in northwestern Pakistan, US military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. The peace agreements have given the Taliban and al Qaeda time and space to re-establish their networks, which pose a threat not only to Pakistan, but the West as well.
Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied terrorists groups, collectively called al Qaeda and allied movements, or AQAM, by some in US military and intelligence circles, has set up a series of camps throughout the tribal areas and in the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. “More than 100” terror camps of varying sizes and types are currently in operation in the region, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. As of the summer of 2007, 29 terror camps were known to be operating in North and South Waziristan alone.
Some camps are devoted to training the Taliban’s military arm, some train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, some focus on training the various Kashmiri terror groups, some train al Qaeda operatives for attacks in the West, and one serves as a training ground the Black Guard, the elite bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. A US Special Forces raid against the Black Guard camp in Danda Saidgai in North Waziristan, Pakistan in March 2006 resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members of the Black Guard. Asad was the camp commander, a senior Chechen al Qaeda commander, and associate of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen al Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006.
The growth in the number of camps US intelligence officials said Pakistan is outpacing Iraq as the destination for recruits, The New York Times reported earlier this week. Iraq is now seen as a lost cause by jihadists while Pakistan is now seen as al Qaeda’s main effort. Recruits from Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East are heading to Pakistan.
Al Qaeda has also reformed Brigade 055, the infamous military arm of the terror group made up of Arab recruits. The unit is thought to be commanded by Shaikh Khalid Habib al Shami. Brigade 055 fought alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance and was decimated during the US invasion of Afghanistan. Several other Arab brigades have been formed, some consisting of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards, an intelligence official told The Long War Journal.
A strike in South Waziristan
The deteriorating situation in Pakistan’s tribal agencies is highlighted by the increased incidences of cross-border attacks over the past several months. Today, 11 Pakistanis, including nine soldiers, were wounded in an attack launched from Afghanistan into the lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan.
Conflicting reports exist on the nature of the attack, and there is no confirmation on who carried it out. An unnamed Pakistani official told Reuters that “about 60 rounds fell in Angoor Adda,” a town near Wana in South Waziristan. BBC reported more than 10 “shells” landed near a military outpost just hundreds of yards from the Afghan border. Xinhua and The News reported that the attack was conducted by US aircraft. The US military has not confirmed conducting an attack, but it rarely confirms such incidents.
The attack inside Pakistan appears to be a response to a Taliban attack on a base in Barmal in Paktika province in Afghanistan, according to several of the reports. In the past, the US military has conducted hot pursuit of Taliban forces as they flee across the border to Pakistan.
Afghan and Coalition forces have fought a series battles with the Taliban along the ill-defined border as Taliban have been attempting to overrun military bases and district centers in the region. US and Afghan forces have killed more than 200 Taliban fighters in the lopsided battles. Many of the Taliban attacks have been launched from inside North and South Waziristan in Pakistan.
The most controversial counterattack into Pakistan occurred as US forces engaged a Taliban force as it retreated from Afghanistan’s Kunar province across the border into Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal agency on June 10. The engagement sparked an international incident. The US confirmed it killed eight Taliban fighters, while the Pakistani government said 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed. The Pakistani government expressed outrage over the strike. But the incident sparked suspicions that the Pakistani paramilitary Frontier Corps either aided the Taliban or were part of the attack force.
The security situation in Pakistan’s tribal agencies has spiraled downward since the government negotiated peace agreements with the Taliban in North and South Waziristan in 2006 and throughout early 2007. The agreements gave the Taliban and al Qaeda time and space to consolidate their hold in the tribal areas and in some settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. The Taliban renewed their efforts to destabilize the Afghan government and boldly conducted a series of military attacks in northwestern Pakistan and a bloody suicide campaign in the major cities.
The new Pakistani government has reinitiated peace negotiations with the Taliban in the northwest. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

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Al-Qaida Draws More Foreign Recruits to Afghan War
http://www.newsmax.com/international/afghanistan_foreign_jihadi_recruits/2008/07/17/113799.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:00 PM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al-Qaida is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.
More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by al-Qaida as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say. For the past two months, Afghanistan has overtaken Iraq in deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and nine American soldiers were killed at a remote base in Kunar province Sunday in the deadliest attack in years.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul this month about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where a new government is trying to negotiate with militants.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, told The Associated Press that the U.S. is closely monitoring the flow of foreign fighters into both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jihadist Web sites from Chechnya to Turkey to the Arab world featured recruitment ads as early as 2007 calling on the “Lions of Islam” to fight in Afghanistan, said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. Williams has tracked the movement of jihadis for the U.S. military’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
Local Afghans in the border regions are increasingly concerned about the return of the “Araban” or “Ikhwanis,” as Arab fighters are known in the Pashtun language, Williams wrote in a CTC paper. He said there were rumors of hardened Arab fighters from Iraq training Afghan Pashtuns in the previously taboo tactic of suicide bombing.
Turkey also appears to have emerged as a source of recruits. Williams estimated as many as 100 Turks had made their way to Pakistan to join the fight in Afghanistan.
“The story of Turkish involvement in transnational jihadism is one of the best kept stories of the war on terror,” said Williams, who noted that al-Qaida videos posted on YouTube mention Turks engaging in the insurgency. “The local Afghans whom I talked to claim that the Turks and other foreigners are more prone to suicidal assaults than the local Taliban.”
Dozens of Turkish Islamic militants have trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and taken part in attacks there, said Emin Demirel, an anti-terrorism expert in Turkey. He said images of attacks on mosques or Muslim villages provide propaganda for recruiting young Turkish Muslims.
“Nowadays, they are effectively using the Internet to communicate with fellow militants, and police have difficulty in keeping tabs on several of the jihadist sites,” said Demirel, author of several books on Turkish Islamic militant groups. “Turkish courts sometimes locally block access to one particular site, but it is still accessed outside Turkey. Those Web sites eulogize fallen fighters as martyrs in order to recruit among radical Muslim youths.”
One example was Cuneyt Ciftci, the German-born son of Turkish immigrants, who took the Arabic nom de guerre of Saad Abu Furqan. In a video obtained last March by the AP, the 28-year-old was shown giving a final hug goodbye to some friends before blowing himself up outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan.
A Turkish news Web site, Uslanmam, said an Uzbek militant group called Islamic Jihad Union claimed responsibility and eulogized Ciftci as “the brave Turk who has left his luxury life in Germany and came here to go to paradise.”
Just a couple of weeks later, newspapers in Pakistan reported that four Turkish nationals with suspected links to al-Qaida had been arrested by authorities on a bus. They were found with explosives, ammunition and jihadi sites on their laptop computers.
A senior official in Turkey’s Interior Ministry said it has no information to corroborate claims of an increase in the number of Turks fighting in Afghanistan. The official asked not to be identified because Turkish rules bar civil servants from making statements to the press.
Al-Qaida’s recruitment drive stems from a slow and steady resurgence that started in 2002, according to Taliban sources.
“They are awake,” said Qari Mohammed Yusuf, who Afghan authorities confirm is a senior Taliban. “They have people going by different names to other countries. They are coming and going easily. In the last year, they have been organizing more day by day.”
Al-Qaida has financed the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, Yusuf told the AP. In the chaos created by the Taliban groups, al-Qaida has been able to steadily recruit, re-establish its public relations wing, plot new attacks and re-establish areas of operation on both sides of the border.
Some new recruits cross into Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province or through Iran into Herat province in western Afghanistan, said Nangyal Khosti, a commander loyal to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a wanted terrorist. Those from Iran have often trained in Iraq and are hardened insurgents. The recruits, Yusuf said, head to Afghanistan’s Paktika province, where there are roughly 150 Arab militants.
In Pakistan, al-Qaida recruits are sent to Waziristan and the lawless regions of the northwest along Afghanistan’s eastern border, Yusuf said.
Afghan and Western officials say a key route for al-Qaida recruits is from Central Asia into northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces, where former U.S. intelligence officials suspect Osama bin Laden is hiding. Both provinces border Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal area, where the Taliban hold sway and where the U.S. has targeted al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The hulking mountains of Kunar and Nuristan soar thousands of feet and are heavily forested, giving militants good cover. Kunar was the location of the war’s two deadliest attacks on U.S. soldiers _ on Sunday, with the killing of the nine Americans, and in June 2005, when militants shot down a helicopter and killed 16 soldiers.
Kunar and Nuristan are also the only areas in South Asia where the Wahhabi or Salafi strain of Islam dominates. Wahhabism is the main sect in Saudi Arabia and is followed by al-Qaida, while Afghanistan’s Islamic traditions are more Sufi and mystical in nature.
Naseer Ahmed al-Bahri, who was bin Laden’s bodybuard until 2000, told the AP in Yemen last year that al-Qaida has field commanders in countries from Indonesia to Senegal.
While al-Qaida may be sending most of its trainees to Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is probably also creating cells with the mission of attacking Western countries, including the United States, warned Erich Marquardt, senior editor with the Combating Terrorism Center.
“I think we have to accept the fact that al-Qaida has not taken its sights off the far enemy,” he said. “Al-Qaida recognizes that it is fighting in multiple theaters and is therefore likely training fighters for different areas of operation.”
___
Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Turkey and Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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China: More Islamic Terror Groups Busted
http://www.newsmax.com/international/china_terrorism/2008/07/16/113234.html
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 3:30 AM

BEIJING — Chinese authorities issued the latest in a flurry of claimed victories against Islamic terrorist groups Wednesday, as Beijing continues its crackdown on those it accuses of targeting next month’s Olympic Games.
Police in the city of Kashgar in the traditionally Muslim Xinjiang region so far this year have demolished a dozen terror cells linked to foreign-based organizations, the official China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday.
The report didn’t say how many people had been detained, but said members of the cells were mainly “jobless drifters or ex-convicts.”
Last week, authorities said they had detained 82 suspected Islamic terrorists and separatists in the first half of the year across Xinjiang. The suspects were engaged in plots targeting next month’s Beijing games, a police official was quoted as saying in state media. The official offered no details or evidence.
It wasn’t clear if any of the 82 detained were members of the Kashgar cells, word of which was released only on Wednesday. The report identified the groups involved as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, reportedly based along China’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan and linked to al-Qaida; and Hizb ut-Tahrir, which originated in the Middle East in the 1950s, and is banned in several countries.
Radicals among Xinjiang’s indigenous Turkic Uighur people have been fighting Chinese rule for decades, although critics say communist authorities fuel resentment in the region with harsh repression and strict rules governing cultural and religious expression.
Experts who study the region say ordinary criminals and nonviolent human rights campaigners are often labeled terrorists, while state media say raids target “illegal religious schools” and “jihad training centers.”
Media reports say at least seven terror suspects have been killed this year, while 18 were killed last year in a raid on a training base allegedly run by ETIM.
The reports follow human rights groups’ claims that authorities are ratcheting up security and repression ahead of the Aug. 8-24 games in an all-out attempt to shield the event from disruptions that could tarnish China’s carefully cultivated image of order and control.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23986257-38197,00.html
One dead in string of bomb blasts From correspondents in Karachi
July 08, 2008 05:42am
Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + -
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ONE person was killed and 37 others injured today in a string of six bomb blasts in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, raising tensions a day after a major suicide attack in the capital.
The Karachi explosions came in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed 19 people near a rally in Islamabad to mark the first anniversary of the bloody storming of the radical Red Mosque in the capital.
Pakistan’s new government is facing growing unrest just five months after defeating US-backed President Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections, with Islamist violence on the rise and political divisions growing.
“One person was killed and at least 30 injured in a series of low intensity bomb blasts in the Pashtun-dominated areas in Karachi,” police officer Mohammad Saqlain said, adding that seven children were among the wounded.
Hospital official Liaqat Memon later said 37 people were hurt.
Mr Musharraf condemned the blasts, saying the “despicable acts of terrorism were a conspiracy against the country and the people”, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but police said the blasts appeared to be small and aimed at raising tensions in the city, rather than major attacks.
“Apparently the purpose was to create panic in the city. There is also a possibility that these people who planted the bombs wanted to fan ethnic tensions in the city,” provincial police chief Babar Khattak said.
One of the blasts happened near a school, injuring several of the children. Another completely destroyed a car, leaving half a charred chassis and two wheels.
“It bewildered us all and we saw two of our friends injured. The blast sent concrete flying which damaged some motorcycles,” labourer Ali Shah said after another of the blasts in the city’s Banaras Chowk area.
Tension gripped several neighbourhoods affected by the bombs, with mobs pelting cars with stones, burning tyres and chanting anti-government slogans, an AFP reporter said.
Karachi has seen a number of attacks blamed on various Islamic militant and political groups since Pakistan joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001.
Ethnic tensions are also high between Pashtuns originally hailing from the north-western frontier region with Afghanistan and other groups.
The deadliest attack in Karachi’s history came in October 2007 when 139 people were killed in a double suicide bombing targeting the homecoming parade from exile of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto was killed by another suicide attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in December last year.
Pakistan is battling a resurgence in violence after a brief lull that was brought about by the government’s negotiations with Taliban militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, which it launched after coming to power.
In yesterday’s blast in Islamabad, a bomber blew himself up in a crowd of policemen deployed to provide security for an Islamist rally commemorating more than 100 people killed in the siege and storming of the Red Mosque.
Investigators today discovered the head of the suspected bomber on a rooftop as they made fingertip searches of the scene, security officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials said they were examining a range of possible culprits, including the mosque’s former students and Pakistani Taliban.
Last year’s operation against the mosque unleashed a wave of revenge suicide attacks that left around 1000 people dead.
The government is under growing pressure from the United States and other Western allies with troops in Afghanistan over its negotiations with militants, while economic problems are causing it trouble at home.

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24025586-401,00.html
Suicide bomb kills 24 in crowded market From correspondents in Kandahar
July 15, 2008 11:00pm
Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + -
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A SUICIDE bomber, believed to be a man, has blown himself up in a crowded bazaar in southern Afghanistan today, killing 24 people, police said.
The blast in Oruzgan province came as Afghan and international security forces battled Taliban-led insurgents in north-eastern Afghanistan, with the NATO-led force reportedly suffering casualties.
The attacker rammed a bomb-filled vehicle into a police van in the bazaar in the Deh Rawood area, 400km south-west of Kabul, causing an explosion that ripped through several shops, officials and a witness said.
Twenty civilians and four policemen were killed, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat.
“In the hospital, we have 27 people wounded,’’ he said.
He said the explosives were packed into a three-wheeled vehicle, but the interior ministry said in a statement they were attached to a motorbike.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but similar attacks have been carried out by Taliban militants, who have led an insurgency against the Kabul government since being ousted from power in 2001.
The blast came less than a week after a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 40 people including four Indian nationals, two of them senior diplomats.
The Kabul bombing was the deadliest suicide attack in the capital since the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
Nearly 70,000 international soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan to help the government fight the insurgency, but the violence has only escalated, with the insurgents making heavy use of suicide attacks.

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Three plead guilty to ‘airline’ terror bomb plot
Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2300324/Three-plead-guilty-to-%27airline%27-terror-bomb-plot.html
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last updated: 11:16 AM BST 14/07/2008
Three of the alleged leaders of a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions.

REUTERS
From left: Ahmed Ali, the operation’s self-proclaimed leader, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain
Ahmed Ali, the self-proclaimed “leader of this blessed operation,” and two men who stock-piled the components for the bombs, have accepted they were planning to attack Heathrow’s Terminal Three.
Ali, along with Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, still maintain that they were only planning a “demonstration” against British foreign policy and did not plan to kill anyone.
The jury in the trial will still have to consider verdicts of conspiracy to murder by detonating bombs on board aircraft.
The three men, along with two others, Ibrahim Savant and Umar Islam, have also accepted that they made “suicide videos” with the intention of causing a public nuisance.
They claim that they never planned to kill themselves and the videos were part of a mock “al-Qa’eda-style documentary” they were planning to release on the video-sharing website Youtube.
The jury will still have to consider whether they were also part of the plot to bring down aircraft over North American cities.
Two other men, Waheed Zaman and Arafat Khan, deny all charges.
The jury also has to consider a verdict on Mohammed Gulzar, a so-called “shadowy” figure, who allegedly flew in from South Africa to help mastermind the operation.
The trial continues with the prosecution due to start summing up later today.
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Iran’s Nukes Back

Iran Orders Secret Network of Civilian Companies to Resume Nuclear Weapons Production
http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=628

Jesse Cogan July 14th 2008
Cutting Edge News Contributor

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tours nuclear site
Teheran’s Revolutionary Guard, responsible for all nuclear programs in Iran, has been instructed by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to set up private companies to pursue the acquisition and development of P2 advanced centrifuges, according to recent Western intelligence.
The Bush Administration reacted by imposing financial sanctions on any entity participating in Iran’s nuclear programs.
“Iran’s nuclear and missile firms hide behind an array of agents that transact business on their behalf,” said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
P2 centrifuges enrich uranium two to three times faster than centrifuges currently in use. They are a key component of a blueprint for atomic bombs sold to Iran by Dr. A.Q. Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, in the 1990s. Nuclear experts confirm that the P2 centrifuges are used primarily for atomic weapons.
The private front companies, hidden on the outskirts of Teheran, are designed to operate undetected by the United Nations nuclear inspection teams. Concerns that nuclear weapon production will continue despite Iran’s proclamations of peaceful use only have circulated among Western experts.
One of the front companies will be located in Amir Abad, western Tehran, intelligence sources say. It will occupy a residential building, safe from scrutiny by UN nuclear inspectors. A company owned by the Revolutionary Guard will run another facility and coordinate, source says.
“If Iran’s nuclear intentions were peaceful there would be no need for it to undertake this work in secret,” an official familiar with the intelligence reports said.
In 2004, UN nuclear inspectors exposed the Kalaye Electric Company, a civilian company set up by the Revolutionary Guard with exactly the same clandestine structure and the same mission to produce P2 centrifuges. Traces of weapons-grade uranium were discovered and the company had succeeded in building P2 centrifuges and enriching small quantities of uranium to weapons grade. The company claimed it was producing “watches”.
World leaders, at a summit in Japan, offered Iran an economic incentive program to halt uranium enrichment programs. Posturing its growing influence in the Middle East, Teheran waited just one day to refuse the offer and boldly added that it had already increased its uranium enrichment activities. European officials refused to disclose details of Iran’s response but “it was not something that made us jump up and down for joy,” according to one official.
The world leaders at the summit insisted that Iran’s refusal should be addressed “innovatively through negotiation” voiced “serious concern” about Iran’s refusal to meet world demands to stop nuclear production.
The U.S. has frozen the bank accounts and financial assets of any company in Iran participating in the nuclear enrichment program and prohibits Americans to do business with them. The action by the State and Treasury Departments follows three prior sets of sanctions by the UN.
Individuals have also been targeted including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, a senior scientist at Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Dawood Agha-Jani, who is involved in Iran’s nuclear program; Mohsen Hojati, involved in the country’s ballistic missile program; Mehrdada Akhlaghi Ketabachi, the head of the Shahid Bakery Industrial Group; and Naser Maleki, head of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group and an official in the Iranian defense ministry.
TAMAS and Shahid Sattari Industries, two private companies allegedly participating in Iran’s nuclear production program, have also seen sanctions imposed against them. Seventh of Tir, Ammunition and Metallurgy Industries Group and Parchin Chemical Industries, believed to be owned or controlled by Iran’s Defense Industries Organization, were blacklisted last year.
Iran does not intend to halt its uranium enrichment program at Natanz, where the P2 centrifuge was successfully tested. The stand off has brought Israel and Iran and the United States closer to a military confrontation.
Jesse Cogan is a New York-based Cutting Edge News contributor.

MIDDLE EAST

Jerusalem Arabs, Hebrew U. Students Were an al-Qaeda Cell
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126887
15 Tammuz 5768, 18 July 08 11:38
by Zeev Ben-Yechiel
(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israeli police have arrested and charged six Israeli-Arabs, among them Hebrew University students, for planning an Al-Qaeda attack on a senior US official. The group, including four residents of eastern Jerusalem, are suspected of operating an al-Qaeda cell in Israel’s capital and planning to shoot down a helicopter carrying a senior US official.
The six suspects were identified by police as:
• Ibrahim Nashef, 22, of Tayibe: Physics and computer sciences student at the Hebrew University;
• Muhammad Najem, 24, of Nazareth: Chemistry student at the Hebrew University;
• Anas Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber;
• Kamal Abu Kwaider, 22, of Jerusalem’s Old City;
• Yusef Sumarin, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina;
• Ahmed Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.
Police and prosecutors charged all the suspects with membership in a terror organization. Some of them will also be tried for aiding the enemy at a time of war, possessing propaganda material, promoting a terror organization, and soliciting others to join a terror organization.

The indictments, filed against them on Friday, reveal that the six used to meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. They allegedly surfed al-Qaeda websites, where they found instructions for producing explosive devices.
Eyeing Bush’s Chopper
According to evidence, one of the detainees, Muhammad Najem, lived in a Hebrew University dormitory overlooking the university’s stadium, which also serves as a helicopter landing pad. Najem watched the landing ground as a Presidential helicopter touched down in the course of President Bush’s January 2008 visit to Israel, with the intent of shooting it down. At the same time, the suspect allegedly sought instructions on the internet for shooting down a landing helicopter, and he took mobile-phone pictures of the presidential helicopter’s landing. A “senior American official” was on board the helicopter at the time.
The six arrests are the culmination of a joint police and Shin Bet operation.
Bush Changed Plans
During the visit, the United States revised travel plans by President Bush because of the threat of a missile attack, according to a World Tribune report from January 9.
The report stated, “Israeli sources said the U.S. Secret Service canceled Bush’s plans to travel by helicopter from Ben-Gurion Airport to Jerusalem on Wednesday. The sources said the Secret Service determined that Bush’s helicopter could be targeted by an attacker with a surface-to-air missile.”%ad%
The arrests follow the arrest and indictment of two other Israeli-Arabs suspected of being Al-Qaeda operatives. The men, indicted Wednesday, are Bedouin residents of the Negev town of Rahat.
Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut are registered members of the Islamic Movement and supplied handlers with sensitive information about strategic facilities in a June operation involving the Shin Bet, Israeli police and Border Guard units.

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Coalition Forces in Iraq Detain Five Suspected al-Qaida Terrorists
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50493
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2008 – Coalition forces in Iraq detained five suspected al-Qaida terrorists during operations in Mosul and the Tigris River Valley today, military officials said.
In Mosul, coalition forces detained three suspects while pursuing al-Qaida operatives responsible for attacks on security forces. Coalition forces found weapons and grenades, which they safely disabled.
North of Baghdad, coalition forces in Samarra detained two suspects while targeting al-Qaida in Iraq members who facilitate the movement of foreign terrorists into the country.
Yesterday, Iraqi and U.S. soldiers seized weapons during operations throughout Baghdad. U.S. soldiers confiscated two roadside bombs designed to pierce armor-hulled vehicles in the New Baghdad district. Iraq soldiers seized two 81 mm mortar rounds and four propane storage tanks in the city’s West Rashid district.
Military officials in Baghdad also provided details of several July 12 operations:
Iraqi special weapons and tactics teams detained two suspected members of Iranian-backed “special groups” in separate operations in central Iraq.
In Hillah, Iraqi SWAT personnel captured a suspected special groups member linked to weapons smuggling and attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. The detainee also is linked to a June attack on the Hillah U.S. Regional Embassy Office.
In Kut, Iraqi SWAT officers detained a suspected special groups leader on charges of terrorism. The suspect is said to be a member of a weapons-smuggling cell known for storing and distributing armor-piercing bombs, and he also is linked to attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces.
Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers found two vehicle bombs and detained six suspects during an operation east of Balad.
U.S. soldiers detained three terrorist suspects in eastern Baghdad. One of the detainees is a suspected special groups member linked to kidnappings, murder and extortion of local Iraqis, as well as roadside-bomb attacks against U.S. soldiers.
U.S. soldiers seized two weapons caches in Baghdad. After being tipped off by members of the local “Sons of Iraq” citizen security group, U.S. soldiers confiscated a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, homemade explosives, bomb-making materials, and a cell phone in Baghdad’s East Rashid sector. Later, U.S. soldiers found an armor-piercing bomb in an abandoned house in West Rashid.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
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Synagogue becomes terrorist training center
http://www.crossactionnews.com/articles/view/synagogue-becomes-terrorist-training-center
Posted on July 15, 2008
By Israel Today Staff
Israel’s largest daily newspaper on Tuesday published photographs of a synagogue in a former Jewish town in Gaza that has now been transformed into a Hamas training center.
Where Jews once worshipped God, Islamic terrorists now rehearse the murder and abduction of Israelis, reported Yediot Ahronot.
In the run-up to the 2005 forced evacuation of Gaza’s Jewish population, Israel wrestled over what to do with synagogues and other public buildings in the 21 Jewish communities across the coastal territory.
Ultimately, those who argued it was not permitted to destroy places of worship won out, and the synagogues were left standing amid naive hopes that the Palestinians would refrain from desecrating them.
Less than 24 hours after the last Israeli soldier left Gaza, however, many of the synagogues were defaced and burned. But some were left standing for more devious purposes.
In the photos published Tuesday, masked and heavily armed Hamas members sporting praises to Allah on their headbands were shown executing a mock assault against the synagogue in the former Jewish town of Atzmona.
In addition to training camps, some former Jewish communities in Gaza have also been transformed into bases from which Palestinian forces launch rocket and mortar attacks on towns and villages in southern Israel.
The international community and the world media have by and large ignored the Palestinians’ illegal treatment of Gaza’s synagogues and their cynical use of former Jewish towns to practice and launch attacks against Israelis.
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Hizbollah killer gets hero’s welcome in Lebanon
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/lebanon/2304383/Hizbollah-killer-gets-hero%27s-welcome-in-Lebanon.html
By Carolynne Wheeler in Rosh Hanikra, Israel
Last Updated: 8:43PM BST 16/07/2008
A convicted killer who shot an Israeli father in front of his four-year-old daughter then bashed her head against a rock until she was dead has been released to Lebanon as part of a controversial prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbollah.
Samir Kuntar, who was serving multiple life sentences for the murder of Danny Haran, his four-year-old daughter, Einat, and a policeman in 1979, had for years been held as Israel’s last best bargaining chip for information on Ron Arad, a missing pilot who went down in southern Lebanon in 1986.
But after the delivery of a comprehensive report on Arad’s probable fate - death after trying to escape - Israeli officials confirmed Kuntar would be released as part of a swap , according to Hizbollah’s demands for two Israeli soldiers kidnapped just over two years ago.
The remains of the two soldiers were delivered in coffins, after Hizbollah had steadfastly refused to provide any hint of whether they were dead or alive.
Kuntar, who was just 16 when he joined the commando unit that sailed into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, has denied killing the little girl and the brazen mission has captured hearts and minds among Palestinians and Lebanese, many of whom consider him a national hero.
He was greeted with a red-carpet welcome at the Lebanese border, with Hizbollah officials and well-wishers present, and then delivered to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport by presidential helicopter, where he was greeted by the new Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri.
At a massive celebration in Beirut’s southern suburbs, controlled by Hizbollah, Kuntar addressed the cheering crowd.
“Thank God we arrived to this day, this day of victory, never to return to a day of defeat. Thank God who gave me strength... and who always gave me hope in the moments of weaknesses,” Kuntar said.
“Thank God who gave me the ability to endure, challenge and face imprisonment. Thank God (who) resurrected in this country a resistance, this great Islamic resistance,” he added.
The celebrations were also marked by a victory speech by Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“The period of defeat is over and the time of victory has arrived,” Nasrallah said. “This people and this nation and this country that gave a clear picture to the world... cannot be defeated.”
Also included in the swap, among 199 bodies of dead Lebanese and Palestinians – most of them guerrilla fighters – was the body of Dalal Mughrabi, a Lebanese-born Palestinian refugee who was 19 when she and 11 others hijacked a bus in what was later known in Israel as the Coastal Road massacre.
Thirty-six Israelis died in a shootout with police and detonation of the bus, along with Miss Mughrabi and her fellow commandos.
Now venerated by both Palestinians and Lebanese as one of the first women to engage in such an attack, she is remembered in songs and stories and her body’s release has also triggered celebration.
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Israel Arrests 6 Men Over Al-Qaida Links
http://www.newsmax.com/international/israel_al_qaida/2008/07/18/114027.html
Friday, July 18, 2008 7:00 AM

JERUSALEM — Israeli investigators have arrested six men suspected of trying to set up a terror network linked to al-Qaida, the Shin Bet security service said Friday.
One of the suspects wanted to shoot down President Bush’s helicopter earlier this year, the Shin Bet said.
Two of the men are Arab citizens of Israel, both of them students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement. The other four are Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem. The men range in age from 21 to 24.
The new charges follow the arrest this month of two Israeli Arabs on suspicion they gave strategic information to al-Qaida. Those arrests marked the first time Israel had accused any of its citizens of cooperating with the terror network.
Investigators found bomb-making instructions on the personal computers of several of the six new suspects, the Shin Bet said. But the statement gave no indication that their activities ever moved beyond the planning stage.
None face charges of active involvement in any attacks.
One of the Israeli Arabs, a 24-year-old chemistry student, lived in a Jerusalem college dormitory overlooking a helicopter landing pad used by Bush during a visit in January, the statement said.
Using his cell phone, the student filmed helicopters taking off and landing, and sent a message to a Web forum linked to al-Qaida asking about shooting Bush’s helicopter down, according to the Shin Bet.
The men were arrested in June and July, the statement said. But the information was only approved for publication on Friday, the day the men were to be indicted in a Jerusalem court.
The two men arrested earlier this month, Bedouin Arabs from southern Israel, gave al-Qaida operatives information about strategic sites like army bases, skyscrapers and Israel’s international airport that could serve as targets, Shin Bet said.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Americans Warned to Stay Away From Jordan Site
http://www.newsmax.com/international/jordan_shooting/2008/07/17/113721.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 11:30 AM

AMMAN, Jordan — The U.S. Embassy is advising its citizens to avoid the site of a shooting attack near a famed historic spot in Jordan’s capital.
The embassy said in a warden message Thursday that Americans visiting Jordan must maintain a high level of security caution, particularly in crowded areas, restaurants, hotels, clubs and shopping centers.
A young Palestinian gunman shot and wounded six people outside the Roman amphitheater in downtown Amman on Wednesday before shooting himself in the head. He remains in critical condition.
Police say the assailant had no links to terror groups.
There have been several shootings and other attacks in Amman in recent years, some targeting Western tourists in the amphitheater area.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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SPOTLIGHT
Bin Laden Planning Hiroshima-Type Destruction?
http://www.newsmax.com/weyrich/Bin_Laden_Plans_Hiroshima/2008/07/17/113694.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:26 AM

By: Paul M. Weyrich
Does Osama bin Laden possess nuclear weapons? Has he smuggled these weapons into the United States? Does he have a plan to detonate these weapons in multiple American cities if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities? Dr. Hugh Cort, president of the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Policy and Research, believes the answer to all of these questions is yes.
Cort has assembled a body of evidence which he claims supports the view that bin Laden has a plan for an “American Hiroshima” which will be implemented in the near future. He has sent this material to various U.S. officials, including Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Cort believes that the government is not doing enough to prevent an attack.
Much of his evidence centers around one Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist who has conducted the only interview of bin Laden after 9/11. Bin Laden told Mir that he had acquired 20 suitcase nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union. Mir told Cort that bin Laden’s men have smuggled these bombs into the United States.
His men supposedly are waiting for bin Laden to give them the signal, then seven to ten American cities will be struck. If true it is little wonder that Iran’s leader confidently predicts that the United States will be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Bin Laden supposedly has fulfilled Islamic law by warning the United States that an attack is coming and offering a truce — convert to Islam and you will not be attacked. Refusal to convert to Islam means that an attack against America is justified. Three weeks prior to 9/11 bin Laden warned that the United States would be attacked in an unprecedented way for its support of Israel.
Already bin Laden has called for all Muslims in the United States to leave. Instead of a mass exodus of Muslims from this country, new mosques are opening every few weeks. Muslim schools also are being established, which suggests that families plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. But Yossef Bodansky, director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism from 1988 to 1998, has testified that bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons.
He told Congress that “Osama has recruited former Soviet Special Forces (SPETSNAZ) soldiers to teach al-Qaida how to maintain and operate the bombs.”
Mir, by the way, has suggested that most of the nuclear weapons have been smuggled across the border from Mexico. Opponents of illegal immigration long have argued that they want the border monitored and closed for national security purposes.
Proponents of illegal immigration have maintained that opposition to it is “racist.” Clearly, opponents of illegal immigration have the better case; although if Mir is correct, the door may have been open too long.
Ronald Kessler, chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, interviewed Mueller, who said that he is very concerned about bin Laden having nuclear weapons in the United States, so concerned that the FBI has surrounded mosques in 10 American cities with nuclear radiation detectors. Cort quotes Steve Coll, president of New America Foundation, as stating that these detectors cannot sense enriched uranium when it is shielded in lead. If Islamists have such bombs, no doubt they are wrapped in lead.
Cort says that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff does not have a plan in the event that these bombs are detonated. In such a scenario real deaths will come from radiation. If people know how to avoid radiation prior to an attack, there may be many survivors.
If people can devise a radiation-proof shelter in their own homes to survive a detonation, two days later radiation is one, one-hundredth the strength of the initial blast. If people can spend three days in the shelter and then only make brief trips outside once a day, they can defeat radiation. But what credible source has warned people of the potential threat and how they can meet it?
Is all of this just alarmist talk? Has Cort missed something important which would nullify his answers? I have no idea.
It seems more than reasonable that we proceed as if it is true. If it proves to be a false alarm, what have we lost? But if Cort’s research has merit and we are prepared to handle such a situation, we could minimize its terrible impact.
When I asked some U.S. officials why no one in the government is warning people, I was told “we don’t want to unduly alarm people.” Nonsense.
I have great faith that the American people will do the right thing if properly informed. We did in the mid-1950s when told that the Soviet Union could start a nuclear war. We can do so again, but someone with credibility must tell Americans the truth.
Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Commentary

Obama and Islamic Jihad
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=6DF66F56-9171-4AAA-8738-C5A23FC9DF6D
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/16/2008
On Sunday CNN aired an interview Barack Obama recently gave to Fareed Zakaria, in which the candidate expressed the opinion that Islamic jihad is a result of U.S. foreign policy failure. This is, of course, an assumption that he shares with virtually everyone of any influence in both parties. It is conventional wisdom that the United States, or the West in general, can make the global jihad problem go away by doing something that is not being done now, or by stopping doing something else. The possibility that the jihad might have arisen not as a reaction to actions of America and the West — and cannot be ended by our actions, either, with the possible exception of overwhelming military and cultural force — never seems to occur to anyone.
Zakaria asked Obama: “Do you believe, when looking at the world today, that Islamic extremism is the transcendent challenge of the 21st century?” In reply Obama spoke of “terrorism and groups that are resisting modernity,” as if Islamic jihadists were Amish with AK-47s, and avowed that “the fact that they can be driven into extremist ideologies, is one of the severe threats that we face.”
How can such people be driven into extremist ideologies? Obama explained that when he was a child Indonesia, “Indonesia was never the same culture as the Arab Middle East. The brand of Islam was always different.” And “around the world,” he said, “there was not the sense that Islam was inherently opposed to the West, or inherently opposed to modern life, or inherently opposed to universal traditions like rule of law.”
Of course, the problem in the world today is not an opposition of “Islam” to the “rule of law.” It is the resurgence of the Islamic supremacist ideology that has led to a global attempt to replace non-Muslim legal systems with Islamic sharia law — an attempt that is making great headway in Europe and is also going on in the United States, both by violence and by stealth.
In any case, Obama went on to say that Indonesia had changed since he had lived there: “And now in Indonesia, you see some of those extremist elements. And what’s interesting is, you can see some correlation between the economic crash during the Asian financial crisis, where about a third of Indonesia’s GDP was wiped out, and the acceleration of these Islamic extremist forces.”
In other words, poverty causes Islamic jihad. This is an extremely widespread view, although it has been debunked many times. Fortune magazine, for example, reported in March 2007 that “of the 50 poorest countries in the world…only Afghanistan (and perhaps Bangladesh and Yemen) has much experience in terrorism, global or domestic.” The 9/11 hijackers were “middle-class sons of Saudi Arabia and many were well-educated. And Osama bin Laden himself is from one of the richest families in the Middle East.” Fortune noted that a 2003 study of Palestinian terrorism found “higher-status respondents (merchant, farmer or professional)” were significantly more likely than “those lower down the ladder (laborer, craftsman or employee)” to agree that there were “circumstances under which you would justify the use of terrorism to achieve political goals.” And Harvard professor Albert Abadie studied 1,776 terrorist incidents, only to find no connection between poverty and terrorism: “When you look at the data” to find such a connection, he said, “it’s not there.”

And indeed, Obama himself was not ready to blame jihad solely on poverty: “It isn’t to say that there is a direct correlation.” He said it was also the West’s fault: “But what is absolutely true is that there has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries, in order to make sure that opportunities are there, that there’s bottom-up economic growth.”
So according to Obama, the “shift in Islam” doesn’t have anything to do — or anything significant to do — with imperatives within Islam itself, or with changes in conditions in the Islamic world that have allowed for a resurgence of the jihad ideology. That resurgence is all because of the “failures of the West to work with many of these countries” — although we are pouring billions into Egypt and Pakistan and they are still hotbeds of jihadist sentiment.
Obama made a recommendation: “But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse.”
Wouldn’t it also be useful to understand that there is an expansionist and supremacist imperative shared by all orthodox sects and schools of Islam, and that some Muslims will most likely continue to act upon that imperative no matter how much we demonstrate our understanding of Islamic diversity?
Although he continues to campaign under a mantra of “change,” so far Obama is offering more of the same in a field – that of our response to the global jihad – where genuine, informed and careful change is needed more than ever.
Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His next book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs, is coming this November from Regnery Publishing.

NORTH AMERICA

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Humanizing al Qaeda, Demonizing the Bush Team
July 22, 2008; Page A17
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121668330059071911.html?mod=todays_columnists
David Addington and Omar Khadr are two names that will forever be linked to the war on terror.
Mr. Addington is chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney and a former colleague of mine. He’s the son of a West Point man who earned a bronze star in World War II and went on to become a general. Before coming to the White House, David put in stints at the CIA, at a congressional intelligence committee, and at the Pentagon — all giving him an expertise on intelligence and national security issues only a handful of others can match.
Then there’s Mr. Khadr. He is the son of a man who helped found and finance al Qaeda, and who died in a 2003 gun battle with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border.
So close were the family ties that the Khadrs lived for a while in the bin Laden family compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan; and when Mr. Khadr’s sister was married, bin Laden was an honored guest. Mr. Khadr himself went through weapons training at an al Qaeda training camp, and was captured in 2002 after a battle in which he is alleged to have killed a Special Forces medic. Ultimately he was brought to Guantanamo, where he awaits trial before a military commission for war crimes.
Guess who gets the sympathy in the press?
A few days ago, Mr. Khadr’s attorneys released a videotape from February 2003 of their client being questioned by visiting Canadian officials. At first he was hopeful, but he quickly became sullen and withdrawn when he realized the Canadians were not going to get him out. The tape shows the young man, then 16, crying for his mother, and complaining about treatment for the wounds he suffered while fighting alongside al Qaeda.
The response has been illuminating. The Montreal Gazette calls him “a victim,” “not a villain.” Closer to home, our headlines run along the lines of “Tape shows ‘frightened boy,’” “Teen on video: ‘Help me, help me’” or “Teenage detainee pleads for help, tells of torture on video; Rights group seeks immediate release.” About the only one willing to say anything unpleasant about Mr. Khadr is the soldier who lost an eye in the same firefight in which Mr. Khadr is alleged to have thrown the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
It would be easy to denounce the treatment of David Addington and Omar Khadr as an example of moral equivalence. But moral equivalence would be a step up for David.
While the operative for al Qaeda is humanized, the counsel for the vice president is demonized. Such is the temper of the times that Rep. William Delahunt (D., Mass.) felt free to joke during recent hearings that he was sure al Qaeda was watching — and was “glad they finally have the chance to see you.”
And so it goes. Reasonable people can disagree with David, and many did. But the aim here is not reasonable debate. The aim is to close debate by shouting accusations so often that they become accepted.
Thus memos that are mostly about a commander-in-chief’s legal authority are now routinely described as “torture memos.” Thus the drumbeat for hearings on “war crimes.” And thus the Washington Post column on David’s congressional testimony, where he is described “hunched” and said to have “barked,” “growled” and “snarled” — language you would use to describe an animal.
For these purposes, David makes a convenient villain. For one thing, outside the Beltway he is relatively unknown, which feeds the aura of conspiracy; one documentary presented his photo as though it were a rare shot of the Yeti.
More to the point, David does not leak to the press, in sharp contrast to many of his adversaries. I am thinking in particular of the “former high-ranking administration lawyer” who figures so prominently (and so anonymously) in the New Yorker profile that did so much to cast David as some sort of cartoon.
In his own book, Jack Goldsmith — former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and perhaps David’s greatest critic — put it this way: “Our sharp disagreement over the requirements of national security law and the meaning of the imponderable phrases of the U.S. Constitution was not a fight between one who loves the Constitution and one who wants to shred it.” Mr. Goldsmith went on to say that “whether and how aggressively to check the terrorist threat, and whether and how far to push the law in so doing, are rarely obvious” — and that for all their fights, David is a man is who acted “in good faith” to serve his country.
It’s a tribute to our society that even amid a terrible war we are capable of seeing the humanity of an enemy raised and trained to hate and kill us. Some of us are still waiting for that same presumption of humanity to be extended to the good men and women doing their imperfect best to keep us safe.

INTERNATIONAL

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Militants Threaten Nigeria’s Main Oil Pipelines
http://www.newsmax.com/international/nigeria_oil_unrest/2008/07/23/115465.html
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:30 AM
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s main militant group on Wednesday threatened to destroy the nation’s major oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal with the government to protect them.
A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta denied claims it said had been made by the country’s petroleum company that the state-run organization was paying militants to protect pipelines. Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation could not immediately be reached for comment.
“MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge when the impoverished masses in the region continue to live in abject poverty,” the statement said.
Militant attacks on Nigeria’s oil infrastructure have slashed this west African nation’s oil output by almost a quarter in the past two years, helping push world crude prices to historic highs.
The e-mail said profits of the alleged deal were split among military and government officials. The group also said “huge payments” had been made by authorities to criminal gangs in the Niger Delta to protect oil facilities, but those groups were not part of the militant movement.
To prove “we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi Creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days,” the militant statement said. Chanomi Creek is located in the western Niger Delta.
Militants say their attacks are aimed at forcing the federal government to send more money to the six states comprising the southern Niger Delta.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and is routinely ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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U.K. Court Rejects Terror Plotters’ Appeal
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/britain_bomb_plotters/2008/07/23/115427.html
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:00 AM
LONDON — A British court has rejected an appeal by five men, serving life sentences for plotting a bombing spree, to overturn their convictions.
Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Jawad Akbar, Anthony Garcia, and Salahuddin Amin were convicted in April 2007 of plotting attacks against a construction firm, utilities or London’s Ministry of Sound nightclub using fertilizer-packed explosives.
The yearlong trial exposed links between them and the men who blew themselves up on London’s transit system in July 2005.
The bomb plotters’ lawyers had criticized the trial judge’s handling of their case.
On Wednesday, three judges at London’s Court of Appeal said the criticisms were unfounded and refused to overturn the sentences.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Mukasey Seeks War Declaration on al Qaeda
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mukasey_war_declaration/2008/07/21/114847.html
Monday, July 21, 2008 3:01 PM
WASHINGTON — Congress should explicitly declare war against al Qaeda and write new rules for legal challenges by terrorism suspects following a Supreme Court ruling on the rights of Guantanamo prisoners, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on Monday.
Mukasey urged Congress to pass such legislation as the first U.S. war crimes trial got under way at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where prisoners in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism are held in a detention center condemned internationally for harsh treatment.
Democrats in control of Congress and civil rights groups reacted coolly to Mukasey’s proposals, saying they would avoid judicial oversight and stack the deck in favor of the administration.
The legislation is needed to conform with a landmark Supreme Court ruling last month that Guantanamo prisoners have the constitutional right known as “habeas corpus” to challenge their detention in federal court, Mukasey said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
A new law should prohibit courts from ordering a detainee to be released within the United States, protect secrets in court hearings, ensure that soldiers are not taken from the battlefield to testify and prevent challenges from delaying detainee trials,
In addition, he said, “Any legislation should acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us.”
“Congress should reaffirm that for the duration of the conflict the United States may detain as enemy combatants those who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully supported al Qaeda,” and related groups, he said.
A week after the September 11 attacks Congress authorized “all necessary and appropriate force” against nations and groups that planned or supported the attacks. It did not specifically mention al Qaeda, which carried out the attacks, or their Taliban allies.
Some critics have said the Bush administration was too broad in asserting a nameless “war on terrorism,” and some legal challenges have said the government failed to show a detainee’s sufficient connection to al Qaeda to justify continued imprisonment under the 2001 resolution.
Mukasey said the administration already has legal authority to battle terrorism. However, he said, “It would do all of us good to have the principle reaffirmed, not that that principle itself is in doubt.”
DETAINEE CHALLENGES
A new declaration of war specifically naming al Qaeda would give the administration more power to detain suspects, including by limiting courts’ ability to determine a suspect’s links to terrorism, said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional
Rights.
He said Mukasey’s proposals would sidestep principles and processes established in earlier court rulings.
“This will be the third time after a very clear Supreme Court ruling on what the law is that Congress has been called upon to ... stack the deck in favor of the administration,” Warren said.
But Mukasey said the new rules were needed to establish an orderly court process for challenges and end delays in trying those already charged. He said the Supreme Court ruling on detainee challenges stopped short of saying how they should proceed.
The trial of Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, began at Guantanamo on Monday. He faces charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted by a jury of U.S. military officers.
The prison at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval base houses about 265 alleged al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, including accused plotters of the September 11 attacks.
A federal judge last week said the Hamdan trial could go ahead despite the Supreme Court ruling. He held that a 2006 law creating the military commissions allowed challenges to the process only after a trial had taken place.
Mukasey said the Supreme Court decision did not invalidate the military commission system which is trying Hamdan.
© 2008 Reuters. 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.

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‘Saudi Qaeda hit Danish embassy’
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\22\story_22-7-2008_pg1_5
LAHORE: Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan and close aide of Osama Bin Laden Mustafa Ahmad Abu Yazeed alias Sheikh Saeed said on Monday that a Saudi member of Al Qaeda carried out the suicide attack on Danish embassy in Islamabad on June 2.

In an interview with Geo News, Saeed said there was no Muslim present at the Danish embassy at the time of the attack. daily times monitor
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Three die as blasts hit three Chinese buses
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\22\story_22-7-2008_pg4_4
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
BEIJING: Deliberate explosions on three Chinese buses killed at least three people and injured 14 in the southwestern city of Kunming on Monday, media said, amid a security clampdown ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics.

The official Xinhua news agency blamed the blasts on “sabotage” and said police had started roadside checks in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to try to find the person or persons responsible. It did not elaborate. The attack happened less than three weeks before the Beijing Games which China has warned could be a target of terror attacks.

An explosion on one bus happened at the Panjiawan stop at 7.10 a.m. and the second blast was nearby, Xinhua said. Pictures showed a gaping hold in the side of one of the buses and glass scattered in the street. Another explosion occured near Minshan, also nearby, the semi-official China News Service said in a report on its website (www.chinanews.com.cn).

Two people were killed at the scene and one died on the way to hospital, the report said. But a Yunnan government official said by telephone from Kunming there had only been two explosions, and declined further comment. China has occasionally witnessed bus explosions staged by disgruntled farmers or laid-off workers wanting to air grievances over poverty, demolitions or corruption. The Kunming blasts also came two days after Yunnan police opened fire and killed two rubber farmers in the province’s Menglian county in a clash that also saw 41 police officers injured.

The clash was sparked when police tried to arrest five people in Menglian for allegedly attacking a local rubber company in a long-running dispute between farmers and the private firm, state media said. Chinese authorities have directed officials to redress local residents’ grievances and act on complaints to try to resolve disputes and ensure a “harmonious social atmosphere” in the Olympics period. But the country has struggled to curb unrest. In June, 30,000 residents rioted in the streets of Weng’an, in Guizhou province, after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape and murder of a local teenage girl. Reuters
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BOMBERS MAY BE EXECUTED BEFORE RAMADAN
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=223790&Sn=WORL&IssueID=31124
JAKARTA: Three Indonesian militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings could be executed before the start of the Muslim fasting month in September after exhausting all their legal options.
The three Islamic militants - Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas alias Ali Ghufron, and Imam Samudra - have been on death row since 2003, when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
The three lost their final appeal last week and have said they will not seek a presidential pardon.
“My hope is it could be done before the fasting month, but if it falls in the fasting month, we will discuss it more specifically,” the attorney general said yesterday.
“The problem is a person who wants to conduct his religious rituals. Can an execution be done while someone is conducting a religious ritual?” he asked.
Indonesia does not make public the timing and exact location of executions which, under law, are conducted by firing squad.
He said the three men had exhausted legal appeal rights and his office held documents signed by them and their families waiving their right to a presidential pardon.
A lawyer for the bombers said the men, who have repeatedly said they are ready to die as martyrs and will not seek clemency, could still decide to seek a pardon. They are being held in a jail on Nusakambangan island off Central Java.

MIDDLE EAST
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ct_e001.htm
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) July 20, 2008
Terrorism and Internet: charges have recently been filed against two Israeli Bedouins, members of the Islamic Movement. They are suspected of acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda. They formed and maintained contact with Al-Qaeda through the Internet, based on their ideological affinity with radical Islam. 1
The homepage of Al-Ikhlas, one of Al-Qaeda’s major websites, accessed by one of the suspects. Left: information on terrorist attacks in Iraq. Right: a photograph of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy. Access to the forums on the website is only allowed to registered users using a password.
1. Joint activity of the Israeli security forces in May-June 2008 led to the arrest of two Bedouins, who are suspected of joining Al-Qaeda and acting on its behalf and on behalf of global jihad elements against Israeli citizens. The two suspects are Taher Abu Skut and his nephew Omar Abu Skut, both aged 20-21, from the Bedouin town of Rahat in south Israel , members of the Islamic Movement. During interrogation, the Israel Security Agency discovered an extensive network of contacts the two had made with Al-Qaeda and global jihad elements, based on their ideological affinity with radical Islamic ideology.

Omar bin Salama Abu Skut

Taher Abu Skut
The Internet connection with Al-Qaeda
2. The charges filed at the Beersheba District Court shed light on the connection Taher Abu Skut and his nephew Omar Abu Skut held with Al-Qaeda operatives through the Internet. Following are some highlights of their online activity: 2
a. In 2002-2006, Taher Abu Skut started becoming closer to Islam and act within the Islamic Movement in the town of Rahat . In 2006, Abu Skut, who is knowledgeable about computers, started reading Islamic articles online and access Islamic websites using his home computer and from other locations. Some of the websites he accessed belonged to Al-Qaeda and global jihad elements and called for the destruction of Israel .
b. Taher Abu Skut accessed Al-Qaeda’s Al-Hisba 3and Al-Tartiq 4 (?) websites, where he registered using the nickname Abu Mus’ab and was given a secret number to identify himself on the forums. During his participation in those forums and in online conversations, he met an operative known as Izzat al-Islam, who was the director of Al-Qaeda’s world media front and the head of the online forum. In early 2007, Taher brought his nephew, Omar, to the Al-Hisba website. Later, in early 2008, Abu Omar Skut also accessed two other websites associated with Al-Qaeda: Al-Ikhlas 5and Al-Buraq. 6

The homepage of the Al-Hisba forum site, one of the major websites associated with Al-Qaeda. It includes technical information pertaining to the Internet (including information published by hackers working for Al-Qaeda), a wealth of information on Al-Qaeda’s ideology (including radical Islamic literature), news, and updates. The company hosting the website seems to be located in Singapore.

Al-Buraq, a well-known, major forum website associated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq . It contains a great deal of information on Al-Qaeda in Iraq , radical Islamic ideology, video and audio clips praising jihad (holy war). The company hosting the website seems to be located in South-East Asia ( Singapore or Malaysia ). The website is probably managed from Pakistan .
c. During his activity on the Al-Hisba and Al-Tartiq forums, Taher Abu Skut met many Al-Qaeda operatives under various nicknames. As part of their correspondence, the operatives asked him to provide them with information on Israeli sites frequented by many people in order to perpetrate suicide bombing attacks against civilians. He was also asked to provide information on the process of issuing an entry visa to Israel and to locate sites on the border between Israel and the West Bank where Al-Qaeda’s jihad warriors ( mujahedeen ) can infiltrate into Israel in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks.
d. In response to the Al-Qaeda operatives’ request, Taher Abu Skut communicated information about a club in Eilat, the central bus station in Beersheba , the border between the West Bank and Israel , the power station of Ashkelon, and IDF bases in Beersheba . In early 2008, he sent additional information on a bus station in Beersheba, night clubs in Eilat, railroads, the Azrieli Towers in Tel-Aviv, the Ben Gurion Airport, soldiers’ gathering places in the Negev desert, and areas from which it is possible to infiltrate into Israeli territory.
e. During his activity on the Al-Tartiq and Al-Hisba forums, Taher Abu Skut was asked to distribute “information files” on Islam and global jihad, articles, movies and such through the Internet. On a request by Abu Abd al-Rahman, the advertising director on Al-Qaeda’s forums, Omar Abu Skut designed images, announcements, posters, and articles pertaining to global jihad and distributed them to other websites. On a request by another operative, Taher and his nephew produced movies about the activity of global jihad and about Muslim captives. The two also distributed Islamic books and articles from the Al-Hisba website to other websites on the Internet.
f. Omar Abu Skut had two hard drives on his computer, which contained documentation of terrorist attacks perpetrated by global jihad across the world, including in Afghanistan and Iraq . The hard drives also included books on jihad warriors ( mujahedeen ), books on manufacturing explosives, as well as videotapes of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Al-Zawahiri, in which they speak about jihad against the Jews and the Christians.
3. In the charges filed against them on July 9, 2008 , by Israel ‘s Southern District Prosecution, they were accused of such serious offenses as membership in a terrorist organization, assisting the enemy in a time of war, and communicating information to the enemy with an intent to compromise state security.
Al-Qaeda’s online handling of terrorists worldwide
4. Al-Qaeda and global jihad organizations make massive use of the Internet both for indoctrination and for operative activities, including recruitment and handling of terrorist operatives across the world. In the present incident, the Internet once again was used to recruit Israeli citizens to the ranks of global jihad based on their affinity with the ideology of Al-Qaeda and radical Islam, distributed online.
5. The phenomenon of Al-Qaeda’s recruiting and handling terrorists from across the globe through the Internet was extensively covered in a report published by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 8, 2008 . Titled “Violent Islamist Extremism, The Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat”, the report discusses the extensive use made of the Internet by Al-Qaeda, global jihad elements, and groups associated with radical Islam, and voices concerns over the exposure of American citizens to the websites of Al-Qaeda (the full report is available on the Senate website). 7 Those issues should also be of concern to other countries (including Israel ) facing “homegrown terrorists” handled by Al-Qaeda. Those terrorists go through a process of losing their own identity and embracing the jihadist ideology of Al-Qaeda and radical Islam, distributed through the Internet and in other media. 8
Example materials from Al-Qaeda’s websites

Q&A on matters of religious law on the Al-Hisba website: here, a web surfer asks on the forum about the status of an Islamic operative killed while attempting to infiltrate “the lands of jihad in Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, the Philippines, and other places” (updated on July 14, 2008).

The Al-Hisba website: a transcript of Bin Laden’s tape, titled “The Road to Thwarting the Plots”, released on December 29, 2007.

The Al-Buraq website: an example of a message written by one forum member in response to a claim of responsibility for a terrorist attack against the US forces in Iraq (updated on July 14, 2008): “Allah, bring victory to the jihad warriors [walking] your path; Allah, let them [reach] the necks [of the enemies]; may Allah bless you, lions of the two rivers [Tigris and Euphrates]; may Allah bless the army of the jihad warriors”. The website contains several claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks against the American forces operating in Iraq .
A link on the Al-Buraq website to praise songs for the “Islamic Army” in Iraq . The song collection is called: “Rejoice, Nation of Islam”. The songs contain incitement to violence.
1 According to a report by the Israel Security Agency and the charges filed against the two at the Beersheba District Court.
2 Further details on the affair can be found in a Yedioth Ahronoth article by Ronen Bergman: “The Secret Forum of Terrorism: an Inside Look” ( July 11, 2008 , in Hebrew).
3 Al-Hisba is the enforcement of the Islamic commandment of “doing good and preventing wrongdoing”. There formerly existed the function of policeman/supervisor called muhtasib, whose role was to monitor public and Islamic morality in markets.
4 We are not familiar with a website by this name.
5 Ikhlas— devotion, loyalty, particularly in the religious context (that is, religious devotion or loyalty).
6 Al-Buraq— according to Islamic tradition, one night Prophet Muhammad rode from Mecca to Jerusalem on a beast of heavenly properties, a winged horse of sorts, called Al-Buraq. When Muhammad arrived in Jerusalem , he prayed on Temple Mount and then ascended to heaven, where he was given by Allah the precept of performing the five daily prayers of Islam. Muhammad is then said to have returned from Jerusalem to Mecca . The Wailing Wall is called Al-Buraq by Muslims.
7 http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/IslamistReport.pdf .
8 See our Information Bulletin: “Terrorism and Internet: a US Senate report 1 analyzes the extensive use made by Al-Qaeda of the Internet in its war for hearts and minds. The report voices concerns over the exposure of American citizens to the websites of Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic organizations” ( July 14, 2008 ).
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Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ct_e002.htm
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) July 21, 2008
The Israel security forces recently detained six Israeli and East Jerusalem Arabs, some of them students. They planned to set up an Al-Qaeda network and planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel, including downing the helicopter of the American president during his visit to Jerusalem. 1
1. During June and July 2008 six young Arab men, two of them Israeli citizens and four residents of East Jerusalem , were detained by the Israeli security forces. The six, some of them students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , were members of a closed religious network in Jerusalem which planned to set up an Al-Qaeda network and carry out terrorist attacks against Israel . On July 18 they were indicted in the Jerusalem district magistrate’s court.
2. The six are:
i) Ibrahim Nashef , 22, from Taibeh , studying physics and computers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem .
ii) Muhammad Nijm , 24, from Nazareth , studying chemistry at the Hebrew University .
iii) Yussuf Sumarin , 21, from Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem .
iv) Anis Shweiki , 21, from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem .
v) Kamal Abu Qweidar , 22, from Jerusalem ‘s Old City .
vi) Ahmad Shweiki , 22, from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem .
3. Interrogation of the six revealed that they belonged to a radical Muslim group which customarily met in Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem . They planned to establish an Al-Qaeda network in Israel to implement the organization’s ideology. In February 2008 the group joined Al-Qaeda. Its leader was Yussuf Soumarin , a resident of Jerusalem and a former political prisoner who had recently been released from an Israeli jail.
4. The network’s activities consisted of enlisting operatives and planning terrorist attacks in Israel (which were not carried out). Muhammad Nijm , a Hebrew University student, lived in a student dormitory and surveilled a helicopter landing pad near the university’s stadium. He used his cellular phone to photograph helicopters landing and taking off. He also asked an Al-Qaeda-affiliated Internet site about the possibility of downing President Bush’s helicopter . In January 2008, after having collected the information, he decided to try to down the helicopter of an important public figure landing on the pad (at that time, President Bush was visiting Israel ).
5. The six absorbed their radical Islamic ideology from various Internet sites, some of them affiliated with Al-Qaeda . Instructions for manufacturing explosives and explosive devices downloaded from the Internet were found in some of their computers. It is yet another example of the intensive use Al-Qaeda and other jihad groups make of the Internet for indoctrination and operations, including the enlisting and activating of terrorist operatives around the world. 2
6. The group’s exposure is another in a series of recent discoveries of Israeli Arab groups which support radical Islamic ideology and plan to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel . In that context, it should be noted that two residents of the Bedouin town of Rahat , members of the Islamic Movement, were recently detained. They had used the Internet to contact global jihad and Al-Qaeda networks, and even collected information for them about possible Israeli targets. 3
1 According to an Israel Security Agency report
2 For further information see our July 14, 2008 Bulletin entitled “Terrorism and Internet: a US Senate report analyzes the extensive use made by Al-Qaeda of the Internet in its war for hearts and minds” .
3 For further information see our June 22, 3008 Bulletin entitled “Terrorism and Internet” .
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Palestinian Attacks in Jerusalem Near Obama Hotel
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/israel_attack/2008/07/22/115082.html
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:00 AM
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man from east Jerusalem rammed a construction vehicle into three cars and a city bus in downtown Jerusalem near the luxury hotel where presidential candidate Barack Obama is supposed to stay Tuesday night as he kicks off a visit to Israel. The attacker injured four people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed him, police and witnesses said.
The attack was a chilling copycat of a similar incident earlier this month when another Palestinian from east Jerusalem plowed his huge front loader into a string of vehicles and pedestrians on another busy Jerusalem street about 3 miles away. Three people were killed in that attack and dozens were wounded before an off-duty soldier shot and killed the assailant.
Police said in the latest attack, a civilian driving nearby saw what was happening, jumped out of the car and shot the driver, bringing traffic to a halt. A border policeman who rushed to the scene also shot the driver. Police sealed off possible escape routes into predominantly Arab east Jerusalem and were searching for two suspects who fled the scene, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The attacker struck a busy part of downtown Jerusalem, several hundred yards from the luxury King David hotel where Obama is scheduled to stay Tuesday night. The incident took place about seven hours before Obama was to arrive in Israel.
The driver of the bus said he was chased by the assailant as he wielded the construction vehicle’s shovel.
“I was driving on the main road when the (vehicle) hit me in the rear on the right hand side,” the driver, who was not identified, told Channel 10 TV. “After I passed him, he turned around, made a U-turn and rammed the windows twice with the shovel. The third time he aimed for my head, he came up to my window and I swerved to the right, otherwise I would have gone to meet my maker.”
Like the perpetrator of the previous attack, the driver in Tuesday’s incident was a Palestinian from east Jerusalem with an Israeli residence permit and he drove the same type of front loader vehicle, police said. Israeli police called it a “terror attack” but no group immediately claimed responsibility.
Israeli rescue services said they had evacuated one person whose leg was partially severed and Israeli media said he had been in an overturned car.
Witness Moshe Shimshi said the Palestinian driver, who was wearing a large, white skullcap commonly worn by religious Muslims, slammed into the side of the bus, then sped away and went for a car.
“He didn’t yell anything, he just kept ramming into cars,” Shimshi said.
The driver then headed for cars waiting at a red light “and rammed into them with all his might,” he added.
Channel 10 TV said a mother and her baby were also injured.
“This was another attempt to murder innocent people in a senseless act of terrorism,” said government spokesman Mark Regev. “All people who believe in peace and reconciliation must unequivocally condemn this attack. Unfortunately, it is clear that we as a society will have to remain vigilant against terrorism.”
Minutes after the attack, the driver, wearing shorts and black shoes, was sprawled backward in the construction vehicle’s cabin, his legs dangling lifelessly.
Firetrucks rushed to the scene, where the smell of gas was wafting in the air. Sirens wailed in the background, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
A four-door sedan next to the vehicle had been rammed from the rear and had crashed into a utility vehicle. A compact car stood nearby, its driver’s side smashed, and its hood and engine destroyed. Another four-door sedan was overturned on the sidewalk.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was in the area when he heard a commotion and rushed over to the scene.
The attacker “is from east Jerusalem,” he said. “They keep on inventing ways to attack us,” he said. “Every work tool has become a weapon.”
The three latest attacks in Jerusalem have been carried out by Palestinians from the city’s eastern sector.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, along with the West Bank, and annexed it. The 208,000 Palestinians who live there make up less than a third of the city’s population. They are not Israeli citizens but carry Israeli ID cards that allow them freedom of movement throughout Israel, unlike West Bank Palestinians. Many east Jerusalem Palestinians work in construction in the Jewish parts of the city.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Senior Al-Qaida Leader Gives Interview
http://www.newsmax.com/international/pakistan_al_qaida/2008/07/22/115036.html
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:00 AM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A senior al-Qaida leader has urged Pakistanis to help Afghans fight U.S.-led coalition forces and condemned President Pervez Musharraf for arresting Arab and Afghan fighters and handing them over to Washington.
In a rare on-camera interview given to Pakistan’s Geo TV and broadcast late Monday, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed reiterated al-Qaida’s claim of responsibility for the June 2 suicide car bombing on the Danish embassy in Islamabad that killed six people.
Al-Yazeed, an al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan, praised Pakistani tribesmen for helping Afghans fight _ a reference to the Taliban-led insurgency in the country _ but lashed out at the Pakistan government.
“Pervez Musharraf and his government has committed crimes for which there are no examples in the entire world,” he said.
Al-Yazeed said that secret organizations _ an apparent reference to Pakistani spy agencies _ had “arrested Arab mujahedeen and handed them over to infidel Americans.”
“This is such an ugly spot on Pakistan’s history which cannot be forgotten until doomsday,” he said.
Geo TV said the interview was conducted a few days ago in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. The footage shows al-Yazeed wearing a white turban, black-rimmed glasses and brown jacket. It is filmed against a canvas backdrop with a rifle lying to his right side. He spoke Arabic during the interview, which was dubbed into Urdu for local audiences.
Al-Yazeed has previously made video statements distributed through al-Qaida’s media arm, al-Sahab, but such an interview of an al-Qaida leader with a television network is rare.

Musharraf made Pakistan a key ally of the United States in its war on terror and rounded up hundreds of al-Qaida militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The former army strongman has been sidelined since elections earlier this year, but Pakistan remains a Washington ally although it is facing growing criticism for failing to halt the infiltration of militants from its tribal regions into Afghanistan. Concern is also growing that al-Qaida leaders enjoy sanctuary in the tribal regions, including in Waziristan, which lies opposite Khost.
Al-Yazeed said the Islamabad embassy attack was launched in response to the publication of cartoons of Islam’s prophet. The cartoons were originally published in Danish newspapers.
He said the man who carried out the attack was from the “holy land” of Mecca who had come to fight jihad in Afghanistan or Kashmir.
“But when infidels insulted the prophet, peace be upon him, he could not tolerate to live further with humiliation and said death is dearer to me in the way of God,” he said.
Al-Yazeed first claimed al-Qaida’s responsibility for the attack in an Internet posting soon after the bombing.
In the interview, he called for more Pakistanis to fight in Afghanistan _ where U.S. and NATO forces back the elected government that succeeded the hard-line Taliban regime ousted in 2001.
“Thanks be to God” that Muslims from Pakistan’s tribal regions are continuing to help Afghans, he said.
“In fact it is obligatory for them to render this help and is a responsibility that is imposed by religion. It is not only obligatory for residents of the tribal regions but all of Pakistan,” he said.
Associated Press writer Sadaqat Jan contributed to this report.
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SPOTLIGHT
(This is a two-part article concerning the threat to a dam in North America and a response to readers concerning whether the threat was contamination of the water or to the dam itself)
Another Dam Threat

July 16, 2008
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/another_dam_threat
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
At the stroke of midnight July 8, the Denver Water Board closed the road over Dillon Dam in Summit County, Colorado, citing security concerns. The board’s decision, which was implemented without advance notice to local governments and citizens, has not been well-received. It has sparked protests by enraged residents and has even prompted officials from Summit County, three affected towns nearby and the local fire and rescue department to file suit in state district court in a bid to force Denver Water to reopen the road.
The road is one of only a few traversing Summit County, so residents are understandably upset at the inconvenience caused by the closure. Local fire and rescue departments also say closing the road negatively affects emergency response times. This not the first time the road has been closed, however. The road was shut down for a week in January after a report of suspicious activity in the area — activity investigated by authorities and found to be nothing more than two men from Denver filming a music video. The Water Board has spent several million dollars to improve security for the mile-long dam road, and in May it even hired a private security company to conduct 24-hour armed patrols of the dam.
Denver Water has said the decision to close the road was not made in response to a specific threat, and we tend to believe this. With the heat they’ve received over the issue, they surely would have cited evidence of a specific threat to assuage public anger if there had been such information.
But the ruckus raised over the closure of the Dillon Dam road provides a prime opportunity to re-examine the ability of jihadist militants to operate inside the United States, and to look at the types of targets militants might be most likely to select for an attack.
Assessing the Militant Threat
To assess a threat against a potential target like the Dillon Dam, several important tactical realities must be considered. The first is that as long as the ideology of jihadism exists and at least some jihadist militants embrace the philosophy of attacking the “far enemy” — aka the United States — there will be some threat of attacks against targets on U.S. soil. Indeed, there has not been a time since 1990 when some group of jihadists somewhere was not plotting such an attack.
A second tactical reality is that the U.S. government and the American people simply cannot protect every potential target. There are simply far too many of them. While insights gained from al Qaeda’s targeting criteria can help authorities protect select high-value targets, there are just too many potential targets to protect them all. The federal government might instruct state and local authorities to protect every dam, bridge, power plant and mass-transit system in their respective jurisdictions, but the reality on the ground is that there are not nearly enough resources to protect all of these, much less to protect the far more plentiful array of potential soft targets.
Another tactical reality is that simple attacks against soft targets are very easy to conduct and very difficult to detect in advance and thwart. As an attack plan becomes larger and more complex, however, it requires more individuals, more materials and more infrastructure. This means that the bigger the attack plan is, the more difficult it is to conduct and the greater the chances it will be discovered and thwarted.
That said, just because attacks are possible — and indeed likely — and because there are a large number of vulnerable targets does not mean that all the vulnerable targets will be attacked. The capabilities and targeting criteria of militants also must be considered.
Capability
Let’s begin with the capability question first. When considering the capability of militants to strike in the United States, one must recognize that with regard to militant jihadists there are generally three different levels of actors to consider. First, there is the core al Qaeda organization; this is the small vanguard of jihadists led by Osama bin Laden attempting to lead a global rising of the Muslim masses. Second, there are al Qaeda’s regional franchises (such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), which are local or regional jihadist groups that have aligned themselves with al Qaeda, hoping to capitalize on the group’s popular brand name. And third, there are the local, self-motivated grassroots jihadists who think globally and act locally.
All three of these actors have different target selection criteria and different levels of capability. There is currently no al Qaeda franchise in the United States or even in the Western Hemisphere. This means that the main threat of an attack against a target in the United States will come from either the core al Qaeda group, a grassroots organization or a combination of the two, so we will focus our attention on those two actors.
Grassroots actors lack sophisticated terrorist tradecraft in crucial areas like preoperational planning and bomb making. Recent cases such as the July 7, 2005, attacks in London, the failed July 21, 2005, attacks in London, and the June 2007 attacks in London and Glasgow demonstrate the limited abilities of grassroots militants. They can sometimes kill people, but they do not have the ability to conduct large, strategic strikes.
Because of this, grassroots militants will often attempt to reach out for assistance if they desire to undertake a major attack. This is exactly what we saw in the early 1990s in New York. Grassroots operatives there were able to pull off a simple attack like the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, but they needed assistance for their bigger, more complex plans. In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the local cell received assistance in the form of Abdel Basit (aka Ramzi Yousef), who helped them organize, plan their attack and construct a large truck-borne explosive device. In the second 1993 case, the local cell turned to an FBI informant for bomb-making expertise and were apprehended before they could strike.
The 2006 plot to bomb a series of airliners in the United Kingdom was likewise a case where a local grassroots cell received assistance from an al Qaeda operational commander but was thwarted before it could carry out its attack — mainly due to the complexity of the plan and the number of people involved.
Thus, without assistance the odds of a successful attack by a grassroots group against a target like a dam are low. Perhaps the greatest threat posed by a grassroots group is that one of its operatives could gain employment as an engineer at a dam — therefore gaining the opportunity to sabotage the equipment controlling the dam from the inside and turning the dam into a weapon against itself. This is similar to the threat posed by insiders at chemical plants. There have also been concerns previously that a savvy cyber-jihadist could assume control of the dam’s equipment via gaps in the information security of the entity running the dam.
As for the al Qaeda core, while the group may theoretically have personnel with the expertise to undertake such an attack, they have been extremely limited in their operational ability since the U.S. response to 9/11. We came under widespread criticism last July when we wrote that the al Qaeda core was a spent force that did not pose a strategic threat to the U.S. homeland, but our assessment holds one year on. Indeed, the vast majority of attacks attributed to the al Qaeda brand name since September 2001 have been conducted by regional franchises like Jemaah Islamiyah, al Qaeda in Iraq or al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, not core al Qaeda. In our assessment, the al Qaeda core might have some ability to attack, but it no longer has the ability to conduct a devastating strategic attack such as 9/11.
The Dam as a Target
It is possible to destroy a dam. Indeed, the British Royal Air Force destroyed German dams during World War II, and aircraft from the United States and its U.N. allies destroyed a North Korean hydroelectric dam during the Korean War. In general, however, dams are very large structures designed and built to withstand powerful forces such as floods and earthquakes. Because of this, it would be very difficult to destroy one with an improvised explosive device, unless the attacker could strike at a strategic location that would cause a leak in the structure (as the British did in their attacks on German dams) or at a location that would allow the water to overtop the dam and erode it — in either case, using the power of the water behind the dam to cause the structure to fail catastrophically.
Even with massive resources, however, it is not easy to destroy a large dam made of earth and rock. For proof, one need only to look at the massive efforts of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in China to unblock the Qingjiang River after it was dammed up by debris following the powerful May 12 earthquake. The PLA has used heavy machinery and massive amounts of explosives in their efforts. One July 2 blast on the Shibangou section of the river reportedly involved 6 tons of strategically placed explosives alone. It is very unlikely that militants would have the ability to carefully place that quantity of explosives on a dam in the United States without being detected.
Obtaining explosives in Western countries is also becoming more difficult in the post-9/11 era. Even the 2006 airliner plot involved small amounts of improvised explosives rather than an attack with a huge device, and the 9/11 attacks involved no explosives at all. The grassroots militants involved in the London and Glasgow attacks in the summer of 2007 also had problems obtaining explosives, and they instead chose to try using improvised (and ill-designed) fuel-air explosive devices in those incidents.
If a militant group planned properly and somehow amassed a sufficient quantity of explosives, it would be possible for it to destroy a dam. But that does not mean a group like al Qaeda would target a dam. Even if the group had the ability to conduct such an attack, it probably would choose to use such a large quantity of explosives to attack a far more symbolic target than a dam in rural Colorado.
While al Qaeda’s Taliban cousins have conducted several unsuccessful attacks against dams in southern Afghanistan, the situation on the ground in Afghanistan is far different than that in the United States. The Taliban in Afghanistan are a large, well-supplied insurgent force that regularly strikes at infrastructure such as roads, bridges and even schools.
Conversely, there is no large jihadist element in the United States. There are only scattered grassroots operatives and perhaps a few transnational al Qaeda-types available to conduct attacks. To our mind, that means that these operatives will want to maximize their efforts and undertake the most meaningful and symbolic attacks possible. Rather than choosing targets based on military utility (like the Taliban in Afghanistan), al Qaeda generally chooses targets in the United States for their potential symbolic value so as to elicit the greatest political or psychological impact, which they then hope will translate into economic impact.
This is not intended as an insult to the people of Colorado, but the Dillon Dam simply does not strike us as the kind of target that will carry the type of symbolic or economic impact al Qaeda would seek in an U.S. attack. Symbolic targets need to be readily recognizable not only by the people who live close to them, but also by people looking at a photo in a Pakistani newspaper. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, the United Nations, or even the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the strip in Las Vegas or the Space Needle in Seattle are highly symbolic targets that would meet these requirements. The Dillon Dam does not. In fact, we are Americans and had not even heard of this specific dam until the reports of the controversy over the road closure emerged.
Does this mean that jihadists will never strike in Denver? Not at all. Lone wolf or grassroots operatives could very well strike there. As seen in past cases in New Jersey, Florida and California, such people normally seek to strike in familiar territory close to where they live, and there might well be jihadists residing in Denver. But again, such a strike by grassroots operatives or lone wolves would likely be a smaller attack aimed at a soft target. We remain skeptical of the idea of al Qaeda dispatching a team from their headquarters in Pakistan to travel to the United States to destroy the Dillon Dam. The Democratic National Convention in Denver, maybe — but not the Dillon Dam.
Tell Stratfor What You Think
This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

Part 2 continues below

Water Over the Dam

July 23, 2008
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
The response to last week’s Terrorism Intelligence Report
on the Denver Water Board’s decision to close the road running over the Dillon Dam took us a bit by surprise. We were not necessarily caught off guard by the volume of responses, but rather by a common theme that emerged in the responses we received. A substantial percentage of the readers who wrote in did so to ask if we believed the decision to close the road could have been made due to a threat to contaminate the drinking water in the reservoir, rather than a threat to destroy the dam itself. In fact, a few readers even accused us of having tunnel vision for not addressing the contamination threat in our analysis.
We consider the readers who write to us to be a representative cross-section of our total audience. If this is indeed true, it indicates that there are a lot of people out there who are curious to know whether the Dillon Dam was indeed closed due to the threat of contamination. It also reveals that there is perhaps an even greater number of people who are concerned about the broader threat of the intentional contamination of drinking water.
Because of this, we’ve decided to do something a little unusual this week and return to the topic of last week’s Terrorism Intelligence Report in order to address these two issues. We will briefly discuss the Dillon Dam situation to assess whether contamination could have been the threat that resulted in the road closure, and then use that discussion as a springboard to the larger issue of drinking water contamination.
Dillon Dam Contamination Threat
In order to understand the contamination threat to the water contained by the Dillon Dam (the Dillon Reservoir), we must first understand the layout of the dam, the road that runs over the dam, the reservoir itself, and the area surrounding it. First, the road that runs over the dam is separated from the water by several yards. A recreational trail that is several feet lower than the road runs between the road and the reservoir. Second, the road over the dam is patrolled 24/7 by armed guards and monitored by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

(click map to enlarge)

The Dillon Reservoir itself is very large. It has a surface area of 3,233 acres, is surrounded by 26.8 miles of shoreline and contains nearly 83 billion gallons of water. It is not only used as a source of drinking water for the city of Denver, but also serves as a major recreational area for camping, boating and fishing. The towns of Dillon and Frisco are both located on the edge of the reservoir, and both have marinas. There are also a number of campgrounds and picnic areas surrounding the lake, and there are many places where the roads surrounding the reservoir run in close proximity to the water.
Because of these factors, we did not see the threat of contamination to the reservoir to be a realistic one. Contaminating 83 billion gallons of water to a meaningful level of toxicity would take a very large amount of agent. To take the contamination level of the water in the reservoir to just 10 parts per million would require 830,000 gallons of contaminant. That would require a fleet of over 55 tanker trucks carrying 15,000 gallons each. Manufacturing, transporting and distributing that quantity of agent would require a tremendous amount of effort.
Secondly, even if one were able to manufacture a substantial quantity of toxic agent and transport it to the reservoir, from an operational standpoint, the road over the dam is simply not an ideal location from which to dump it into the reservoir. Draining a large amount of liquid from a tanker truck takes time, and any large vehicle that stopped on the road over the dam would be quickly noticed by the dam security force. Furthermore, the placement of the bike path between the road and the water would make it very difficult to ensure that whatever was dumped from the road would make it into the reservoir unless a long hose were used. Tactically, such an attempt would have a much higher chance of success if it were conducted in a more discreet place with less security and better access to the water’s edge. Backing a tanker truck down a boat ramp and dumping the contents of the truck directly into the water would likely be more effective.
All in all, because the dam is not an optimal place to release a contaminant, and because the more suitable areas for doing were not closed to public access, it was fairly easy for us to deduce that the dam was closed due to the perceived threat of a bombing attack and not contamination. The statements published by the Denver Water Board also clearly indicate that the board made the decision to close the road over the dam due to the threat to the structure of the dam, and not a threat to the water behind it.
Even though the Denver Water Board did not make its decision based on the contamination threat, let’s now take this opportunity to explore the topic of drinking water contamination.
Water Contamination
In general, there are several different types of substances that can be used to contaminate drinking water: pathogens, toxic metals, toxic organic compounds and radioactive material. Many of these elements are already present in water. Some occur naturally, like the pathogens E. coli, giardia and cryptosporidium, while others, like dioxin and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), result from human activity. Still others, like mercury and arsenic, find their way into water from both natural and human sources. Indeed, there are many places in the world where drinking water has been heavily contaminated by these toxins. Even in wilderness areas where the water appears to be crystal clear and pristine, people can still become sick from naturally occurring microorganisms like giardia.
Because of the natural and man-made contamination in water, treatment plants have evolved over time, developing methods to either filter or kill potential hazardous elements. Most water treatment plants use a series of different processes to remove contaminants. Some of the processes are designed to remove the solids, while others utilize substances such as sand and activated carbon to filter it. Still other processes employ ozone, chlorine and chloramine to disinfect water. In some locations, treatment plants will even use technologies such as ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis to remove impurities.
For the most part, water treatment plants do a good job of removing contaminants. Occasionally, however, a water treatment plant will experience a failure or be overtaken by a flood, which can result in contaminated water being delivered to homes. In 1993, for example, a water plant failure in Milwaukee led to the cryptosporidium infection of more than 400,000 people. More than 100 of those infected died as a result. Frequently, after a flood has compromised a water treatment plant, the community will be advised to boil drinking water until tests ensure that it is free of pathogens and other contaminants.
Such water testing is not done only in emergency situations. Under Environmental Protection Agency guidelines (which are not just guidelines, but legally enforceable standards), drinking water must be regularly tested for the presence of various contaminants, including microorganisms, organic and inorganic toxins and radionuclides.
Now, let’s look at intentional water contamination. Even if there were no water treatment plants that could detect or remove contamination, most water supply systems are enormous, and contaminating them with enough material to make the water toxic after the agent is diluted by all the water in the system would be very difficult. For example, there are 83 billion gallons of water in Dillon Reservoir. Denver Water, the company that operates the Dillon Reservoir, provides water to more than 1.1 million people and can process up to 715 million gallons of water a day at its three water treatment plants.
This large quantity of water means that even if one could manufacture or otherwise obtain a large quantity of some sort of a pathogen or toxic compound, say, 3,000 gallons (the amount contained in a small tanker truck), the millions of gallons of water that flow daily through the major water mains in an urban area would still likely result in significant dilution, unless the contaminant could be injected into the system at a point close to the end of the line.
Water systems handle about 168 gallons for each person served, which accounts for the hundreds of millions of gallons treated and transported daily. For example, a small concentration of something like sodium cyanide would have a harmful effect on people exposed to it over the long term. But in order to achieve an acute poisoning effect on a victim — the lethal dose for cyanide ingested by mouth to humans is between 50 milligrams and 200 milligrams — the concentrations would have to be much higher, and high concentrations are difficult to achieve in a system that involves hundreds of millions of gallons of water. In fact, it would take hundreds of thousands of tons of cyanide to contaminate the hundreds of millions of gallons of water that flow daily through the Denver Water system to the point where one glass of drinking water would contain enough cyanide to kill a person. This is not to mention that even the most incompetent of management at the worst water t reatment center in the world would find it impossible to miss toxicity levels of such magnitude.
Because of this dilution effect, toxins such as cyanide and ricin, which could conceivably be used to contaminate water, are generally more effective when used for targeted assassinations than they are in mass terror attacks. Even though a small amount of such substances is in theory enough to kill a large number of people, its distribution and dilution within a water system is difficult to predict, and efficiently dispersing such a substance in uniform, lethal doses would prove a daunting task. Furthermore, any person attempting to obtain a huge quantity of something like a cyanide compound from a commercial source would be carefully scrutinized in the post-9/11 environment.
Existent waterborne pathogens could be injected into the system post-processing (and some pathogens are resistant to neutralizers like chlorine or chloramine in treated water), but the pressure in water lines makes such an attack difficult. Once water leaves the treatment facility, it is pressurized by pumping stations so that it will run through the thousands of miles of distribution pipelines and up into high-rise buildings. Injecting a contaminant into these pressurized water lines could prove difficult without the proper equipment to overcome that pressure. There are also pressure gauges and alarms on the pipelines, and any attempt to access them to inject a contaminant could trigger an alert. Using an existent pathogen, however, once again raises the issue of obtaining enough of the organisms to effectively contaminate the water system.
The quantity problem could be overcome if some sort of super-pathogen were developed that could reproduce rapidly in water, bypass filtration, withstand disinfection and somehow pass water quality tests undetected. If such a bug were developed, a small quantity of the organism could conceivably be sufficient to contaminate an entire reservoir or water system. However, the development of such a vector would be very difficult and occupy a considerable amount of time and resources. This is because no such bug exists at present. Realistically, it would require the resources of a state, and not a lone wolf actor or a militant group, to design. Even then, the person engineering the organism would still have the additional challenge of assuring that it was sufficiently virulent to acutely infect its victims. Virulence is a huge issue in bioterrorism. It is something that groups who have carried out biological attacks in the past, like Aum Shinrikyo and the Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh c ult, have struggled with.
Granted, terrorist planners like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed have contemplated such attacks, among other chemical and biological weapons plots, but we have not seen concrete steps taken to implement such plans. This is likely due to the difficulty of conducting such an attack. Such schemes sound good when you are throwing ideas around, but they are very difficult to implement.
Realistic Vulnerabilities
In general, we do not believe that drinking water systems are the type of targets a militant organization such as al Qaeda or Hezbollah would choose to strike, as they do not have the inherent symbolism these groups generally look for when selecting targets. Such an attack would also not generate the same type of “shock and awe” effect that a suicide bombing or other more traditional attack would. However, a strike against the drinking water system of a highly recognizable city such as New York, Washington or Los Angeles might be seen as meeting this criterion. Other entities or actors, such as a delusional lone wolf or apocalyptic cult, might see the drinking water system in a particular city, like Denver, as a more attractive target.
That said, there are still some vulnerabilities in the water supply system that would not require a super pathogen and are within the reach of many militant actors, should they choose to attack. Perhaps the largest vulnerability in any system is the water treatment plant itself. As we saw previously in the Milwaukee example, a failure at a treatment plant can result in a very large contamination incident. Such a failure could be induced by sabotage at the plant, though such sabotage might be quickly noticed if it were not conducted in a subtle manner, and warnings would be sounded. Because of this, perhaps the greatest threat to a treatment plant is that posed by insiders, such as engineers who understand the system and know how to disable or bypass the safeguards in that system. Another threat to the plant could come in the form of a clever and knowledgeable hacker who could assume control of the plant’s fu nctions and subtly shut down critical systems. Such attacks would require far less resources than a program to genetically engineer a superbug.
Another factor to consider is the psychological impact of even an unsuccessful attack if it were conducted in an obvious manner. The perpetrators could even conduct such an obvious attack knowing that they were not going to induce mass casualties, and that the water treatment system was going to thwart their plans, but proceed anyway in an effort to sow panic and create a huge disruption.
This is where psychology comes in. If people hear that there is an incident at a water treatment plant due to a malfunction or flood and are asked to boil their water until further notice, they will do so without too much hysteria. However, if five apparent militants are seen dumping buckets into a reservoir — even if the contents of those buckets is green Kool-Aid — and people are asked to take the same course of action, the response is likely to be quite different. Even if tests failed to turn up evidence of a toxic substance, or enough of a toxic substance to make a measurable difference, the hysteria created by the specter of terrorism could very well have a tremendous psychological impact. Mass panic is likely to erupt.
Like many other potential targets, the drinking water system is vulnerable to attack. In fact, it could be easily attacked — though such an undertaking would most likely be unsuccessful at creating mass casualties. Like the 2001 anthrax attacks, however, such an event could trigger mass panic that would cause far more disruption and economic impact than the immediate effects of the plot itself.
Tell Stratfor What You Think
This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

Commentary
McCain vs. Muslim Radicals—A McCain spokesman tells the truth; Muslims demand apologies.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=4CF35AA6-16FB-4115-8693-B5432C2CBC98
| 7-23-08 | Robert Spencer
Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. are outraged over remarks made last Friday by Bud Day, a key supporter of John McCain. Day, a much-decorated Air Force Colonel and Medal of Honor recipient who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam with McCain, said during a conference call organized by the Florida Republican Party that “the Muslims have said either we kneel, or they’re going to kill us.” Day added: “I don’t intend to kneel, and I don’t advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn’t advocate to anybody that we kneel.”
The reaction was swift. Saif Ishoof, president of the Center for Voter Advocacy, said that Day’s remarks were “perpetuating a form of Islamophobia.” Khaled Saffuri, the Executive Director of the Islamic Institute (which he co-founded with Grover Norquist), was also deeply offended. “‘This is as close to racist as it gets,” he declared. “These are cheap street tactics. Even if this is called a mistake or a slip of the tongue, it shows a bigger problem with racism. McCain and the Republican party should denounce this.” (Keith Olbermann also termed Day’s words “racism and religious hatred,” although neither he nor Saffuri explained what race Islam is.)
Corey Saylor, national legislative director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also called on McCain to distance himself from Day, stating that “CAIR would like to see Senator McCain come out and make a clear statement repudiating these remarks. We don’t believe they’re helpful at all in either putting out the campaign’s message or winning the hearts and minds in the Muslim world that America needs to be winning.”
However, a repudiation from McCain was not immediately forthcoming. McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb said only: “The threat we face is from radical Islamic extremism.” However, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party, according to the Miami Herald, “said later that Day acknowledged he misspoke and ‘made an unfortunate mistake’ because he meant to say ‘terrorists’ and not ‘Muslims.’ The Herald itself took for granted that Day had said something wrong, calling his remarks a “gaffe on Muslims.”
Unnoticed, however, in the controversy over Day’s remarks was the fact that what he said was essentially accurate. While it is certainly true that not all Muslims are trying to “make us kneel,” there can be no legitimate question whatsoever that there are indeed Muslims who are engaged in such an effort. The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States is, according to a Brotherhood operative, engaged in a “grand jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
What’s more, there is considerable reason to suspect that some of the Muslim leaders who have been most indignant over Day’s words are involved in this “grand jihad.” Investigative journalist Kenneth Timmerman wrote in 2004 of Khaled Saffuri’s considerable influence in Washington, and then noted that “some of the very people Saffuri introduced to Bush and Rove are in federal prison on terrorism-related charges. Others have been expelled from the country. Still other former colleagues and donors have become subjects of a massive federal probe into U.S. funding of terrorist organizations that is code-named Operation Greenquest….Saffuri’s ties to radical Islamists and apologists for terror are neither superficial nor coincidental.” And CAIR, of course, was in 2007 named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case, and has had several of its officials arrested and convicted on terrorism-related charges.
Why was none of this been mentioned in mainstream media coverage of this story? It isn’t really surprising that it wasn’t, given the tendencies and perspectives of the mainstream media – indeed, it would have been more surprising if they had mentioned it. But Bud Day’s remarks should have been judged for their accuracy: are there, or are there not, Muslims trying to make us kneel? No one would have objected in 1944 if a military spokesman had said that “the Germans are trying to make us kneel,” and someone who took offense to such a statement on the grounds that not all Germans were pro-Nazi would only have been ridiculed. However, CAIR has shown in the past that the accuracy of statements to which it takes umbrage does nothing to mitigate their hurt feelings. And now the primacy of hurt feelings has been enshrined into law in Canada: as we have seen in the Mark Steyn trials in Canada, truth and accuracy is no defense against charges of “hate speech.” In a sane world, instead of taking offense, Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. would have been assuring reporters that they were working energetically within Muslim communities against those who wished to make non-Muslims kneel. But sanity is at a premium in the public debate on Islamic jihad today.

July 28, 2008 Anti-Terrorism News - UnitedStatesAction.com

(Iraq) Suicide attacks kill 57 in Baghdad, Kirkuk — Three female suicide bombers kill at least 32, wound 102 in Baghdad
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_25;_ylt=Aj.M_BAayDChQX4N6gNbo0VX6GMA
— likely targeted Shi’ite pilgrims (at least 25 killed) taking part in religious events in Iraq
— Medical sources said the victims of the three blasts were mostly women and children
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927673&Language=en

(Iraq) Kirkuk blast carried out by woman
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July683.xml&section=middleeast&col=
— death toll estimated at 25 dead, 185 wounded
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_25;_ylt=Aj.M_BAayDChQX4N6gNbo0VX6GMA
— see also KUNA report
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927682&Language=en

(Iraq) Intelligence driven operation detains 58 Al-Qaeda members in Iraq
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927660&Language=en

(Iraq) U.S. troops killed civilians in June incident: military — after coming after attack, found weapon in car
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/ts_nm/iraq_military_investigation_dc_2;_ylt=AkLoqhmwbSgjXP2cAK.xNH1X6GMA

(Kuwait) Court to hear Bathali’s case for inciting youth to ‘jihad’ next week
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/client/pagesdetails.asp?nid=20315&ccid=22

(Afghanistan) Report: Insurgent attacks up by half in Afghanistan; aid groups under fire
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080728/tap-as-afghan-soaring-violence-d3b07b8.html

(Afghanistan) Three civilians killed by rocket hitting eastern Nuristan (my title)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP297422.htm

(Afghanistan) NATO troops kill 2 in Afghanistan — in Kandahar when car ignored repeated warnings - opened fire on a car that
they feared was about to attack their convoy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence_16;_ylt=AnVAJpnJc42n8ZPuM31Fj2zOVooA

(Afghanistan) Kidnapped French nationals fine: Afghan official
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July903.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

(Pakistan) FATA: Al-Qaeda chemical expert ‘killed’ — Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar killed in missile strike
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7529419.stm

(Pakistan) FATA: Six killed in missile strike in Pakistan - near Azam Warsak village in the South Waziristan tribal regio
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July896.xml&section=subcontinent&col=
— Foreigners among killed in Pakistan missile strike
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July898.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

(Pakistan) NWFP: — Bomb explosion kills two, wounds a dozen in northern Pakistan — bicycle bomber outside Kohat
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927738&Language=en
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July899.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

(Pakistan) NWFP: Suicide bombers ready: Taliban Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah — if the government launches a military operation in Swat valley
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/28/top9.htm
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg1_11

(Pakistan) NWFP: 8 tribes agree not to shelter Taliban
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg1_12

(Pakistan) Top leader of banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi held — Shafiq-ur-Rehman
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/28/top4.htm
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg7_3

Pakistan leaders on Taliban hit list
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Pak_leaders_on_Taliban_hit_list/articleshow/3276557.cms

Pakistan, UK looking for female terrorist
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Pak_UK_looking_for_female_terrorist/articleshow/3273456.cms

(Pakistan) ‘Timber mafia’ funding militancy in FATA and NWFP: minister
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg7_8

Pakistan journalist in US jail on terrorism charges — Nayyar Zaidi,
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg7_6

Pakistan news reports on ISI changes - update (my title) -— Pakistan Daily Times, Dawn
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg1_1
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/28/top1.htm
— ISI’s functions to be discussed in US
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/28/top3.htm

(Pakistan) Gilani, Bush set to grapple with growing militancy
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg1_8
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080728/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanusdiplomacyattacks_080728102857;_ylt=AkDlfJtK6dsFGibMywIXPd7zPukA
— Pakistan Hopes Premier’s U.S. Visit Will Yield Funds, Forbearance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601815.html

(Pakistan) Laura Mansfield: “Girls’ Education held hostage: Over a third of girls schools destroyed or closed in Swat area of Pakistan”
http://www.lauramansfield.com/subscribers/

(Pakistan) Bombings may threaten India-Pakistan relations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080728/wl_csm/obombings

(India J&K) Two separatist insurgents gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927741&Language=en
— PDP leader escapes militant attack in J&K
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/PDP_leader_escapes_militant_attack_in_JK_/articleshow/3298091.cms

(India) Two suspected terrorists held in Chennai — suspected of involvement in serial bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedaba
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/2_suspected_terrorists_held_in_TN/articleshow/3295751.cms

(India) Ahmedabad blasts: India carries out raids after bombings kill 45
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_as/india_explosions
— Fresh leads in Ahmedabad blasts probe, more detained
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Fresh_leads_in_Ahmedabad_blasts_probe_more_detained/articleshow/3295540.cms
— Islamic group claims India blasts that killed 45 - update on “Indian Mujahideen”
- email to television stations: “In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again!”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_as/india_explosions_38;_ylt=AsP1WOLWTorceotYt3pMoFkTv5UB
— Indian Mujahideen: New face of terror
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Indian_Mujahideen_New_face_of_terror/articleshow/3298035.cms
— Indian PM meets victims in bomb-hit city
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July904.xml&section=subcontinent&col=
— Another step in ISI-sponsored Indianization of jihad
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/27raman.htm

(India) Ahmedabad blasts: Terror email traced to US citizen’s flat
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=31f215b2-1d17-434d-b66a-776887e76373&ParentID=e5d5fc1c-b6b9-49d0-8d25-4cf46c4fbb36&&Headline=Terror+email+traced+to+US+citizen%E2%80%99s+flat

(India) Hyderabad too on terror radar
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Hyderabad_too_on_terror_radar/articleshow/3292604.cms

(India) 32 militants surrender in Assam
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/32_militants_surrender_in_Assam/articleshow/3298566.cms

(India) Seven Manipuri militants behind child kidnapping nabbed
http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/387328
- 4 linked to socialist United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/manipur/terrorist_outfits/Unlf.htm

U.S. Headed for ‘Heightened Alert’ Stage — Major Events on the Horizon Prompt a Surge in Anti-Terror Efforts
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5420514&page=1

(U.S.) Web jihadist employed by federal contractor — Samir Khan — Communications worker says dead GIs ‘bring great happiness to me’
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70671

(UK) Jury begins deliberations in trans-Atlantic airliner bomb plot case
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/europe/EU-Britain-Airliner-Plot.php
— additional report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/28/uksecurity?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080728/tuk-airline-plot-jury-considers-its-verd-dba1618.html

(UK) July 7 jury offered majority verdict — jury in trial of three men accused of conducting a reconnaissance mission for the
July 7 bombers has been told it can return a majority verdict
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2465139/July-7-jury-offered-majority-verdict.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/europe/EU-Britain-Subway-Bombings.php

Iran seeks ‘common ground’ with West
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331124703&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
— US waiting for ‘definitive statement’ from Iran
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080728/pl_afp/irannuclearpoliticsusahmadinejaddiplomacy_080728153147;_ylt=Amf58iOpH_AK9sLDhWcqVdtSw60A

(Hamas) Report: Hamas delegation to travel to Egypt for talks with Fatah
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331125855&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(Gaza) German broadcaster concerned over cameraman detained in Gaza — taken from home by masked Hamas
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331124467&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(West Bank) Fatah arrests pro-Hamas students, lecturers in W.Bank
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July676.xml&section=middleeast&col=

(West Bank) Widespread torture by W Bank Gaza security forces
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July679.xml&section=middleeast&col=

(West Bank) IDF arrests 8 Palestinian terror suspects in W. Bank operations
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331118213&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(Israel) Olmert says peace accord with Palestinians unlikely in 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331122720&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(Qatar) Report: Qatari Guantanamo detainee returns home — Jaralla Saleh Mohammed Kahla al-Marri
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080727/ap_on_re_mi_ea/qatar_guantanamo_1;_ylt=ApUq.kyBd0KQx9twob.AlCATv5UB

Somalia opposition rivals will not talk: Islamist
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/wl_nm/somalia_conflict_dc_1

Somalia: After Mogadishu Ambush, Somali Leader Arrives in Garowe
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807280172.html

Somalia: Death Toll From Two Days of Fighting in Central Region Hits 28 — on Friday
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807280011.html

Nigerian militants attack oil pipelines forcing cutback in production
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/africa/AF-Nigeria-Oil-Unrest.php

(Nigeria) Five Russians kidnapped in Nigeria released: source
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/wl_nm/nigeria_delta_release_dc_2;_ylt=ApVE1hjyNFas6R_LlEJM3z5_5GIA

(Russia) Soldier killed in clash with rebel band in Chechnya
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/europe/EU-Russia-Chechnya.php

(Russia/Thailand) Bangkok court hearings in Viktor Bout case postponed until August 22
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12903635&PageNum=0

(Turkey) Istanbul bombs toll reaches 17, PM calls for unity
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/wl_nm/turkey_explosion_dc_11;_ylt=AuO2gCWF5KCDErpthrNZLF3tfLkA
— bombing hours before court was due to decide fate of Turkey’s ruling political party
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4413184.ece
— Turkish officials link bombings to rebel Kurds
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_explosions_23;_ylt=ApuzGxS7cn9VEuvAt2X2kHjtfLkA

(Turkey) Kurd killed in attack on Turkish police station: officials
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July677.xml&section=middleeast&col=

(Europe) New US online travel security screening measure goes online August 1
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/europe/EU-US-Travel-Registration.php

(Spain) Police say small explosion damages road works in northern Spain, ETA suspected
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/europe/EU-Spain-Explosion.php

(Indonesia) Officials say Islamist militants killed Christian, planned to assassinate American
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/asia/AS-Indonesia-Terror-Plot.php
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_us_terror_plot

(Thailand) Police nab suspected southern insurgents - in Narathiwat Province — believed to be involved in June railway worker killings
and 2006 attack on woman teacher
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/previousdetail.php?id=129111

(Philippines) Muslim guerrillas burn houses in Philippines, wound 3 - on Saturday — Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/July/theworld_July1475.xml&section=theworld&col=
— same MILF organization in peace deal with Philippines govt on Sunday
http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/387247

Philippines: Peace deal with MILF challenged by three politicians
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2372400405

(Australia) Melbourne 12 trial: Terror cell members were ‘part-timers’
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24090059-2702,00.html

(Sri Lanka) Artillery duels kill 22 in Sri Lanka: defense ministry
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080728/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrest_080728071204

(China) Radical Islam stirs in China’s remote west — Hizb ut-Tahrir aka Islamic Liberation party - Reuters report states “the group and some observers say it does not espouse violence”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/wl_nm/china_politics_islam_dc_1
— Reuters republishing July 7 story
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/7/worldupdates/2008-07-07T130541Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-344054-1&sec=Worldupdates

(Colombia/Spain) Spanish FARC suspect released on bail
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/27/spanish-farc-suspect-released-on-bail/
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/world_news&id=6290258

Other News:

Egyptian Islamic Preacher ‘Amr Khaled: Within 20 Years, Muslims Will Be Majority in Europe; Muslims in Europe
Should Be “Ambassadors for Islam”
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD200308

(UK) Shariah-compliant insurer launched
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/shariahcompliant+insurer+launched/2362327

(UK) Disabled married off for entry into the UK
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/2195
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=2877
— Disabled youngsters forced into marriage to provide passports
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/disabled-youngsters-forced-into-marriage-to-provide-passports-878256.html

(UK) Diplomats rescue British teenager from forced marriage - Nasrin Begum
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4394909.ece

(UK) Forced to marry her cousin at 17 - Shazia Qayum
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article4386899.ece

(UK) Salman Rushdie locked in cupboard while fatwa police protection team went to pub
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2463429/Salman-Rushdie-locked-in-cupboard-while-fatwa-police-protection-team-went-to-pub.html

(UK) Channel 4 Qur’an documentary disappoints Muslims — Muslim scholars have accused a Channel 4 documentary about
the Qur’an of being “disappointing, misleading, even defamatory”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2465174/Channel-4-Quran-documentary-disappoints-Muslims.html

(UK) All air passengers to give their fingerprints ... but is the reason security or simply to raise profits for the duty-free shops?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1038879/All-air-passengers-fingerprints-—reason-security-simply-raise-profits-duty-free-shops.html

(France) Washington Post: “Muslim Women Resist Stereotyping”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503004.html?hpid=sec-religion

Turkish court hears ruling party case
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_ruling_party_3;_ylt=AtrmbridXIBo__tu2pLOmxDtfLkA

(UAE) Universal Studios breaks ground in Dubai-The main ride should be “Back to the Past”
http://shariahfinancewatch.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/universal-studios-breaks-ground-in-dubai-the-main-ride-should-be-back-to-the-past/

Lebanon’s Jewish community staring at oblivion
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080728/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonreligionminoritiesjews_080728053222;_ylt=Aru5KG_.Klru1ZWfD7RiX4nagGIB

Saudi Writer Says Anti-Terror Plan is Attempt to “Silence” Other Opinions
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2439762~title_Saudi-Writer-Says.html

(Bahrain) Abandoned women in Bahrain seek legal redress
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July669.xml&section=middleeast&col=

(India) Gujarat Muslims hope for no Hindu backlash after bombing
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/July/subcontinent_July895.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

‘US interest in foreign news diminishing’
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\28\story_28-7-2008_pg7_10

(Australia) Qantas told to check oxygen bottles after Boeing 747 explosion
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4412808.ece

Commentaries:

Africa: Arabization of Continent And Spread of Islam — Professor Ali A. Mazrui
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807280069.html
__._,_.___

If reposting elsewhere, please credit source of this research as UnitedStatesAction.com

The prior threads in this series are:

World Terrorism prior threads:

WT Thread #1: [Started on January 1, 2006]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1550424/posts?page=4809

WT Thread #2: [The communist manifesto, muslim manifesto and list of elected in U.S. who belong to the Socialist party, on the first page of the thread]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1607641/posts?q=1&&page=4951

Thread #3:

Beginning of Israel/Lebanon War and so much more.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1650751/posts?q=1&&page=4601

Thread #4:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1679491/posts?q=1&&page=1

Thread #5:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1711256/posts?q=1&&page=1

Thread #6:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1754972/posts?q=1&&page=5151

Thread #7:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1791631/posts?q=1&;page=1

Thread #8:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1817890/posts?q=1&;page=1

Thread #9:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1853040/posts?q=1&;page=1

Thread #10:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1886546/posts?q=1&;page=4901

Thread #11:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1940757/posts?q=1&;page=1

Yes, as in spinach, tomatoes and peppers, have you read this report?

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:CTJv0rK44JwJ:www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/general/en/terrorist.pdf+Cards+with+terror+threat+in+Florida&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=71&gl=us&client=firefox-a

This is the html version of the file http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/general/en/terrorist.pdf.
Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

Terrorist Threats
to Food

Guidance for Establishing
and Strengthening Prevention
and Response Systems

Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Disease
Cluster on Health Security and Environment
World Health Organization

The first link above will take you to the html version of the full report.

Good collection of articles, give the terror threats a good foundation.

I am glad you joined in the thread and hope you will keep posting.

This is the 12th thread, and all are full of terror information.

granny

New thread for the war on terror, #12.

“Merchant of Death” to stay in Thailand for now

A Thai court has postponed a hearing to extradite a man to the United States, suspected of being one of the word’s most wanted arms traffickers. Viktor Bout’s lawyer failed to appear in court, pushing back the hearing to September 22. The Russian arms dealer, dubbed the “Merchant of Death”, was arrested in Bangkok in a joint sting operation by US and Thai authorities in March. Bout is accused of running a multi-national arms smuggling operation which fuelled civil wars in the 1990s in countries like Liberia, Afghanistan and Colombia.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3518874,00.html?maca=en-newsletter_en_Newsline-2356-html-nl

Thanks for the new thread and info. Seldom post but always read.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70472
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70472

Surviving EMP to depend on preparation
‘Many people may die for lack of basic elements necessary’

_____

Posted: July 26, 2008
12:00 am Eastern

C 2008 WorldNetDaily

A report from the federal Commission to Assess the Threat to the United
States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has painted a bleak picture
for America under such attack: Electricity grids down, uncontrolled fires
from exploding gas transport systems, no communication to summon
firefighters and if they could come, no water to battle fires. All in city
after city after city.

The http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf
200-page report says Americans should look to past incidents, then multiply
those impacts by the number of cities that could be hit by such an attack.
For example:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.713/pub_detail.asp

July 26, 2008

Exclusive: Judicial Watch Sues US Gov’t. On Behalf of Imprisoned Border
Agents

Jim http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/authors/id.9/author_detail.asp
Kouri, CPP

Ignacio “Nacho” Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, the two Border Patrol agents
shamelessly prosecuted by the U.S. government for shooting and wounding a
Mexican drug smuggler, Oswald Aldrete-Davila, on February 17, 2005, have not
been forgotten by many Americans - such as attorneys from Judicial Watch -
who are actively pursuing their release from captivity.

The two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively.
Meanwhile, Aldrete-Davila, who attempted to smuggle 750 pounds of marijuana
into the U.S., was given medical treatment and immunity for his testimony
against the railroaded border agents.

continues.

Welcome, we need you, without readers we would not need to post the news.

Stay well and be happy.

could be

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503120.html?sub=AR

Anti-Terror Funds Questioned
Local Police Depts. Say DHS Shortchanges Other Priorities

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 26, 2008; A02

The Department of Homeland Security
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Homeland+Security?tid=informline
announced $1.8 billion in anti-terrorism grants
yesterday, stirring a growing debate among state and local officials
nationwide over whether such funds are coming at the expense of other law
enforcement priorities that some say are more urgent, such as fighting
drugs, gangs and violent crime.

continued.

snipped:

Andrew Lauland, homeland security adviser to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Martin+O%27Malley?tid=informline
(D), said states also questioned a new DHS requirement to steer up
to 25 percent of state and urban-area grants to improve planning and
defenses against homemade bombs. Lauland said states asked why now, why 25
percent and what they should do if they already had spent money to counter
improvised explosive devices.

continues.

[granny notes:

I am a listener to the Police Dispatchers in several states, there are far more ‘explosive devices’ set off than we hear of in the news.

As well as many other terrorist type activities, that is not making the newspapers.

If the newspapers published the daily incidents, then they would not be able to write these articles, saying it is wrong to protect the country. LOL, that would equal ‘supporting President Bush’.

You too can listen on the internet, be prepared for a shock, the gang problem is far larger than you knew.

Google search for : listen to police scanners on the internet

You can add the state you want to the search and be sure to collect the Denver links, you will need them for the convention.

Denver has lots of incidents on the average day, and I can’t tell you which link to use, as I have several with the same site name and they are different towns around Denver.

scan denver.net will get you started, there is also .com and .us

I wasn’t paying attention to the scanner, but Las Vegas Officers have several who ran held at gun point, they keep checking in.

It appears to be a police rule, that if you draw your gun, you must advise the dispatcher.

It gets amazing when you hear a faint voice say “I have 15 at gunpoint, send backup”......

granny]

Great Post!!!!!!!

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2008/07/17/a_swiss_extremist_ag
ainst_islamic_law
A Swiss “Extremist” Against Islamic Law
Diana West
Thursday, July 17, 2008

THE SWISS ALPS, SWITZERLAND — “Explain the minaret ban,” I asked.

I was sitting in the side room of a house, overlooking a flat plot somewhat
larger than the trampoline outside. Beyond that trampoline, still visible in
the evening light, rose the Swiss Alps. Across the table, Oskar Freysinger
sat poised to address my query over some cups of espresso, speaking as a
local leader of the Swiss People’s Party.

continued.

snipped...

I asked Freysinger where Israel fits into his worldview. “Our party has
always defended Israel because we are well aware that if Israel disappears,
we lose a vanguard,” he replied. “They are fighting now our fight in fact;
and as long as the Muslims are concentrated on Israel, it is not so hard for
us. But as soon as Israel will have disappeared, well, they will come to get
the other part.”

I think by “the other part” he meant the rest of the West. In this outlook,
Freysinger is by no means alone on the European Right: members of other such
parties — for example, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, the Danish People’s Party
and Holland’s Freedom Party — explained to me how they find in Israel’s
struggle against both Islamization and jihad common cause.

“The right-wing parties should join their forces to fight Islamization,”
Freysinger said.