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SNIPPET: "The ties between Najibullah Zazi and al-Qaida are growing. A source who gets high-level intelligence briefings told CBS 2 HD that law enforcement officials have recorded a number of conversations between Zazi and a known al-Qaida operative in Pakistan. The key parts of the conversation? The operative told Zazi what to say if stopped by police, and there is also a reference to a "wedding," which American agents believe is a code word for an attack. Sources said the formula for the explosive TATP was found in Zazi's computer when they seized his car, and with President Barack Obama...

LONDON – Recent targeted attacks that killed militants in Somalia, Indonesia and Pakistan have chipped away at al-Qaida's power base, sapping the terror network of key leaders and experienced operatives who train recruits and wage attacks. Intelligence officials said Friday that the military strikes have reduced al-Qaida's core leadership to only a handful of men and diminished its ability to train fighters. This, they said, has forced al-Qaida to turn to its global affiliates for survival. The killings of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia, Noordin Muhammed Top in Indonesia and Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan — all in recent weeks...

War On Terror: Charges against the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole are dismissed. He will be retried, but not by a military commission that would have given him the death penalty he deserves.Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell announced on Thursday that Susan Crawford, the convening authority for military tribunals at Guantanamo, has made the decision to withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri. This is the Saudi man believed to be the architect of the bombing of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors, as it sat in the Yemeni port of Aden. The...

Two New York City apartments were raided following a visit by a suspected al-Qaida operative. No arrests were made and no weapons were found in Monday's raids, according to The New York Times. The man suspected of ties to al-Qaida is of Afghan descent and has been under FBI surveillance. He visited the Queens residences over the weekend and returned to his Midwest home, according to reports. The Times reported that the five men who lived in one of the apartments were all of Afghan descent and came from the same area of Afghanistan. The U.S. Justice Department's Joint Terrorism...

The government of Andorra has frozen “billions of dollars” in bank accounts linked to Iran, Venezuela, and a variety of terrorist groups, according to the daily Diairi d’Andorra, which publishes in Catalan. The Andorran move, announced on Thursday, was carried out in conjunction with a top secret U.S. Treasury investigation in Miami involving money laundered through Venezuelan banks that was transferred to corresponding banks in the United States. From Miami, the funds were then wired to accounts in Andorra that were controlled by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, members of his family and his regime. But the funds were also used...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said Friday he sees no signs of a major al-Qaida presence in the country, but says the terror group still maintains close links to insurgents. Gen. Stanley McChrystal spoke on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida that prompted the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. The invasion quickly toppled the Taliban regime that had sheltered al-Qaida leaders who plotted the 9/11 attacks, but has since bogged down amid a deadly insurgency. "I do not see indications of a...

"The liquid bomb plot 'terror banker' still walking free in London as Yard chief accuses U.S. of rushing investigation" By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Last updated at 2:26 PM on 08th September 2009 SNIPPET: "And it also emerged today that a suspected key figure in the plot is still at large in Britain despite being pinpointed as an Al Qaeda financier with links both to the airline plan and the 21/7 bombers." SNIPPET: "Intelligence sources in the UK have indicated it was surveillance of Mohammed Al Ghabra, 29, who first led them to the airline plotters. He is suspected of being...

SNIPPET: "According to ITRR, the latest jihadist communication was unusual in that it was very explicit and open in targeting the Germans, in discussing a coming attack, and in specifying its timing. Aside from Ramadan, which ends 19 September 2009, the upcoming German national election on September 27 has been marked as a "red flag date" by ITRR." SNIPPET: "German security services have also been cited in local media discussing stepped up jihadist chatter, threats and intelligence warnings aimed at the German state in recent months. Earlier this year, video messages delivered in German by an al-Qaeda fighter going by...

SNIPPET: "The elusive jihadi bloodhound, “Ms. Jones,” passed this article from the Saudi Gazette to me this morning. It digs deeper into the recent surrender of Fawaz al-Otaibi (65. Fawaz Al-Humaidi Hajid Al-Habradi Al-Otaibi) on the 85 Most Wanted List of February 2009. I’m not sure how much we can make of it, but the Gazette discusses the interview that al-Otaibi did with Al-Watan last week where he said that al-Qaida is suffering from ’financial crisis’ and therefore not able to deal with the numbers of foreign fighters that it has knocking on their door as of late." SNIPPET: "Well,...

A week after the 9/11 attacks, a young Muslim at South Alabama University told the school's newspaper it was "difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this." Now, eight years later, he is professing to launch attacks himself and calling on others to join the fight, as terror-related charges await him at home in Alabama, FOX News has learned exclusively.

SNIPPET: "I think it safe to assume that Hamas would like to kill Dayton and lay the blame on al-Qaida, a task perhaps made easier by the fact that al-Qaida has a relatively substantial number of supporters in the West Bank." Posted on 03 September 2009 @ 14:34

SNIPPET - Quote: Pak raids unravel Taliban-drugs link ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities arrested 13 Islamist militants in separate raids that police said on Monday foiled major terrorist attacks and provided clues to how drug sales help fund the Taliban.

Note: Photo included. Note: The following blog entry is a quote: NEW ON MEMRI TV : Muhammad Al-Shimari, an Al-Qaeda Terrorist Captured in Iraq: I Was Trained in Syria To view this clip, click here Posted at: 2009-09-02

The show is called "Death Making" in Arabic, hardly the way Al Qaeda probably wants itself described. But that is how the powerful pan-Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya casts the terror organization and its foot soldiers in its popular television program. Hosted by female correspondent Rima Salha, the Dubai-based show is heading into its third year on Al Arabiya and aims to influence how the Arab world views Al Qaeda. "As we know, there are lots of Muslims who are brainwashed so they believe in terrorism but there are also big sections of Muslims who sympathize with terrorists," says Salha....

With Attorney General Holder’s investigation of CIA operatives who utilized enhanced-interrogation techniques on detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the Obama administration’s downgrade of the War on Terror to “overseas contingency operations,” and the administration’s release of terrorists captured by heroic U.S. military personnel, what should be a preposterous question to ask the President of the United States, now needs to be asked. In the interest of America’s national security, how will President Obama treat the terrorists in America? According to a previously disclosed 2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, prepared by Virginia’s Fusion Center, “Al-Qa’ida, Al-Shabaab, HAMAS, Hizballah, Jama’at...

President Barack Obama said, "Nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal, supermax prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists," during his May 21, 2009 speech at the National Archives. In this morning's Washington Post, they report a 2006 Department of Justice memo states that convicted al Qaeda prisoners in Supermax at Florence, Colorado "coordinated the beginning of a hunger strike" and developed "a sophisticated method to resist compulsory feeding" by communicated via "tapping on the pipes." (Has no one at the Bureau of Prisons ever heard of the Hanoi Hilton and how John McCain et al communicated by...

Al Qaeda's second-in-command on Friday accused the United States of leading a crusade to turn Pakistan into a divided nation and urged Pakistanis to join in a jihad to resist. The tape from Ayman al-Zawahri, the second this month, comes after Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a U.S. missile strike on Aug. 5. It also comes after Pakistan's army went on the offensive in late April against an insurgency by al Qaeda allies, the Taliban, in Swat valley after the militants took over the district 120 km (80 miles) from Islamabad, raising fears for Pakistan's stability and...

SNIPPET: "Two Pakistani students arrested over an alleged terror plot have returned to Pakistan after deciding to leave the UK voluntarily, the Home Office has said. Abdul Khan, 26, and Shoaib Khan, 27, were among 12 people held by police after raids in north-west England in April, but the pair were never charged. The Home Office tried to deport them, saying they remained a security threat. It is understood the men decided to leave after being denied bail while appealing against deportation." SNIPPET: "Twelve students were arrested in the terror raids in Manchester and Liverpool as part of Operation Pathway,...

Washington: American authorities are pressuring Yemen to counter a rising internal Al Qaida threat more aggressively and improve intelligence-sharing amid growing worries that the country could become the next significant terrorist staging ground. As insurgent attacks have spiked in the embattled Middle East nation over the past year, the US has bolstered counterterrorism training there, including efforts to shore up Yemen's borders and combat terror financing and arms trafficking. Al Qaida's increased strength at organising and training new recruits in Yemen's vast ungoverned spaces has also led the US to consider boosting financial aid and sales of military equipment to...

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the 9-11 commission report, was the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors. Nashiri was also the target of an "unauthorized" CIA interrogation technique (that had not been legally vetted by the Justice Department) that is described in a May 7, 2004, CIA inspector general's report that was partially declassified by the Obama administration this week. CIA officers blew smoke in Nashiri's face, according to the report, and they used cigars. The IG's office described this smoke-blowing as one of several "unauthorized or undocumented techniques"...

SNIPPET: "ABU DHABI // A Lebanese American who faces terrorism charges is linked to al Qa’eda, the Federal Supreme Court was told yesterday. Naji Hamdan, 43, is charged with promoting terrorism, participating in the work of a terrorist organisation and funding a terrorist organisation. Details of the charges, all relating to alleged activity outside the UAE, emerged for the first time yesterday. A lawyer for the State Security Public Prosecution told the court: “Naji Hamdan is directly linked to Ansar al-Sunna and al Qa’eda members through electronic communication.” Ansar al-Sunna is a militant Sunni faction in Iraq connected to al...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Mali, Threat to Americans During Ramadan CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Sub-Saharan Africa - Mali 21 Aug 2009 U.S. Embassy Bamako issued the following Warden Message on August 21: Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) may use Ramadan as an opportunity to conduct further attacks against Americans. Accordingly, American citizens and their families traveling to or residing in Mali should maintain a sense of heightened awareness. American citizens are urged to consult the Department of State's Worldwide Caution...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: al-Qa'ida Threat to Americans in Mauritania during Ramadan CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Sub-Saharan Africa - Mauritania 23 Aug 2009 U.S. Embassy Nouakchott issued the following Warden Message on August 23, 2009: Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) may use Ramadan as an opportunity to conduct further attacks against American citizens. Both U.S. Government officials and private Americans working for faith-based organizations may be particularly targeted. American citizens traveling to or residing in Mauritania should maintain a sense...

Quiet has now returned to the Gaza Strip after the weekend violence which claimed the lives of 28 people. The last of the funerals of the Jund Ansar Allah fighters killed in the suppression of the organization by Hamas authorities has taken place. This episode demonstrated the tight hold which Hamas maintains on the Gaza Strip. The weekend's events also highlight an important but little discussed phenomenon taking place in the Strip, and to a lesser extent in the West Bank - namely, the growth of al-Qaida-style Salafi Islamism among a segment of the Palestinian population. Jund Ansar Allah did...

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the French embassy in Mauritania's capital, wounding two members of staff. Mauritanian police say the suicide bomber was a wanted "member of the jihadist movement". AFP - A suicide bomber died Saturday after staging an explosion near the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, as two members of staff were jogging nearby, police and embassy staff said. Two French nationals, security employees at the French embassy, were near the man at the moment of the blast," embassy official Marc Flattot told AFP. "They are in hospital, they are unharmed, but in shock,"...

London In an astounding revelation, Al-Qaeda extremists have claimed that home-grown terrorists are plotting to attack targets in Britain. According to reports, in an internet magazine read by thousands of Islamic extremists Al-Qaeda has labeled Britain and Europe as a bigger enemy than the United States. It further says that the strikes are being planned by terrorists living in Britain and others overseas, and warns of “spectacular attacks”, 'The Sun' reports

SNIPPET: "Readers, we have a glitch in the al-Qaida Matrix. This is a 30 minute audio by, Shaykh Mansur al-Shami, entitled, “Advice to the People of Jihad.” I’ve seen his name a bunch over the past several years but only in writing, when he pens articles for the magazines, The Vanguards of Khorasan and Al-Sumud. There is also an “Abu Mansur al-Shami” whose poetry has been quoted by Bin Laden himself and whose work appears in the jihadist magazines. I don’t know if they are one-in-the-same. If so, the below list is incomplete as I have not included his writings...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Islamic radicals from an al-Qaida-inspired group battled Hamas security in the Gaza Strip Friday in a shootout that killed at least seven people. The fighting began when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles, according to residents of the area. The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the...

The Law: Terrorists have had lots to celebrate recently as court rulings from Bangkok to Madrid wiped out years of work to stop them and raised doubts about treating the war on terror as a law-enforcement action.Last Friday, a U.S. federal judge ordered the release of Sheik Mohammed al-Moayad, a Yemeni cleric convicted in 2005 of financing Hamas and trying to bankroll al-Qaida by as much as $20 million. Al-Moayad had been sentenced to 75 years, but based on claims of improperly admitted evidence, a judge ordered him freed. Now set for deportation, he will likely kill again. Then on...

Just so we’re all on the same page, Abu Yahya al-Libi has an older brother. His name is `Abd al-Wahhab Qayid (Abu Idris). Remember, Abu Yahya al-Libi’s name is Hasan Qaid (transliterated differently in popular media). What makes this story significant, is that Abu Idris is one of the imprisoned senior leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) who recently renounced armed violence. And there’s the rub. The guy poised to take over al-Qaida has an older brother who is a senior member of the group that Abu Yahya used to be a member of who is now renouncing...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gkIBVaTTnTDT_lg8TWBbbawpW0cQ “Terror suspects lose extradition case in Britain” (AFP) – 5 days ago SNIPPET: “LONDON — Two alleged leading conspirators of Osama bin Laden on Friday lost their latest battle to escape extradition from Britain over the 1998 US embassy bombings in east Africa. Khalid al Fawwaz, a 46-year-old Saudi businessman, and Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian, are wanted by the United States over their alleged role in the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.” SNIPPET: “Al Fawwaz was living with his wife and three children in London before his arrest on a New York court indictment...

"The document 'Jihad Recollections - Issue # 3' has been deleted"

SNIPPET: "I did. And then I downloaded the video. So, I don’t even know what to say about this. I’m actually speechless. The speaker is a pro al-Qaida scholar named, Khalid Bin abd al-Rahman al-Husaynan (also transliterated: Khalid Bin Abdur Rahman al Hussainan)." SNIPPET: "What I love is that the Forum dudes don’t even question who he is. They just suck it down, like Jonestown Kool-Aid."

BOOK REVIEW The Mother of Mohammed by Sally Neighbour Reviewed by David Wilson What drives a blonde Australian beach bunny to go on jihad? That extraordinary question serves as the premise for one of the most absorbing non-fiction titles to surface this year. The Mother of Mohammed (MUP) by Australian journalist Sally Neighbour, 48, digs into the background of the beach bunny in question, Rabiah - born Robyn - Hutchinson, with flair, wit and candor. This book pulls no punches. "She was a scrawny, pale-skinned runt, with a shock of frizzy white-blonde hair and an eye-patch she wore from the...

Here is video of John Brennan, Obama's top Homeland Security and Counterterrorism official, giving a speech today where he said the United States is not engaged in a "War on Terror," and also does not believe we are in a "global war" nor are we fighting "jihadists." He said the only acceptable term is that we are fighting "Al-Qaeda." Who does he think Al-Qaeda is? The are "Jihadists!" But political correctness will not allow Obama to say what is true, that Islamic Jihadists have declared war on the United States and we do face a Global War against those who...

SNIPPET: "Looks like Ayman al-Zawhiri’s targets for this interview include: Vladimir Putin, Jack Straw, Muhammad Khatami and Barack Obama…. Should be out within a day or so… The jihadis are buzzing about it -"

In the past President Bush had turned this offer for a "truce" with Al Qaeda. Will the Islamic loving President Obama do the same? Qaeda tells Obama conditional truce offer stands DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said a truce offered to the last U.S. administration was still on the table, but President Barack Obama must withdraw troops from Muslim lands and meet other demands.

03 August 2009 "TOP TEN" LIST OF JIHADI FORUMS FOR 03 AUGUST 2009 It's been almost a year since a failure of truly epic proportions brought down the most significant websites of the global jihad, on or about 10 September, 2008. A year before that failure, the same sites were the target of a citizen-based effort to drive them off of the Internet. This 2007 campaign against the jihadi forums had the effect of encouraging the creation of a number of new sites, while other forums (e.g. al-Hanein) loosened their membership requirements. The net result was that the events of...

SNIPPET: "According to a report issued by Fund for Peace, Yemen is in the midst of a violent storm caused by the disappearance of the oil and gas reserves and the large flow of Somali refugees with connections to Al-Qaeda as well as the flow of extremists from Saudi Arabia. The report said that "the refugees and the extremists are the most significant imports by Yemen in 2008.""

SNIPPET: "The two main Islamist terror groups battling the weak Somali government may merge into a single outfit. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of Hizbul Islam or the Party of Islam, said he is working to unite his faction with Shabaab, an al Qaeda-backed Islamic terror group that has lobbied to join the international terrorist organization. Aweys said talks were proceeding and urged followers to continue to fight until they achieve "victory over enemies" of Islam."" SNIPPET: "Al Qaeda has increasingly focused on Somalia as being a major theater in their efforts to drive the West from African, the...

Sorry for the radio silence this week — I'm knuckled down on a book deadline. But I came up for air to talk to our buddy Guy Benson about the Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which wants to supplant our Constitution with shariah. The group, one of whose alumni is KSM, had its first national convention in Chicago last week — called "Fall of Capitalism, Rise of Islam."

The course of intelligence gathering never did run smoothly. In the United States, this challenge is compounded by the imperfect dynamic between those tasked with protecting the country and liberal legislators who believe they are protecting the country from itself. The latest kerfuffle has Congressional Democrats accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of having a "secret plan" to capture or kill al-Qaida leadership. To this, any reasonable person might respond, "I should bloody well hope so!" Who doubts that eliminating Osama bin Laden would be a good thing? And as for the plan being secret, what is the CIA to do?...

The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and self-recruitment are key elements, is a formidable challenge for security services [2]. The jihadi decentralization trend is clearly a result of counter-terrorism successes. These "defeats" have been scrutinized and digested in the writings of key jihadi theoreticians during the past few years. New roadmaps and operational concepts are being explored as the jihadis search for...

Al-Qaeda vows to hit China over Uighur unrest by Polly Hui 1 hr 48 mins ago HONG KONG (AFP) – Al-Qaeda is threatening for the first time to attack Chinese interests overseas in retaliation for the deaths of Muslims in the restive region of Xinjiang, according to a risk analysis group. The call for reprisals against China comes from the Algerian-based offshoot Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), according to a summary of its report sent to AFP by the international consultancy Stirling Assynt. "Although AQIM appear to be the first arm of Al-Qaeda to officially state they will target...

SNIPPET: "So, what I’m seeing here is that the death of these two Mauritanian scholars offered a convenient opportunity for al-Qaida to start co-branding Abu Yahya al-Libi and Atiyah abd al-Rahman (Attiyatallah) together as the unified tip of al-Qaida’s ideological spear. In other words, the leadership transition has begun. The heirs are no longer apparent. They have been named. It began with letters to al-Zarqawi and videotaped interviews and recorded statements and sermons. The naming continued with getting props in Exoneration and photoshoots and now joint releases. This jointly written eulogy release (I have never seen AQ release a two-authored...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: Police dismantle Algiers terror cell 12/07/2009 Algerian anti-terror units on Saturday (July 11th) dismantled a terror cell and arrested nine people, including several women, in the eastern Algiers suburbs of Bordj El Kiffan and Kouba, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. A suspect arrested as part of the investigation into al-Qaeda's El Fateh brigade in Algiers provided key information. According to security sources, the network had being submitting information to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on the movement and the organisation of security services in Algiers.

This is one of those articles that I really REALLY hope people will read before just commenting on the headline or the quoted sections. In fact, I think it's one of the best articles I've seen on this subject in half a decade. Yes, it's long, detailed, and forces many readers to question their previously held beliefs about regime ties to the Al Queda terrorist network, but it's not the typical anti-Bush/anti-war piece or a woohoo-Bush-was-right piece either. It is EXACTLY why: members of the 911 Commission, Sen Intel Com, as well as others (and why every investigation into the...

(Moderator note: comments for www.regimeofterror.com are now activated at the end of each post)During a series of email and telephone exchanges Matthew Degn relayed to www.regimeofterror.com his vast array of experiences working with intelligence issues relating to the current and former situation in Iraq. Among his responsibilities during his years in Iraq Degn worked as a civilian interrogator attached to the U.S. Army in Iraq before working as a Senior Policy/Intelligence Adviser to Deputy General Kamal and other top intelligence officials with the Iraq's Ministry of Interior. Degn, currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq (personal website...

McLEAN, Va. - The Bureau of Prisons says it reversed course months ago to allow some of the country's most dangerous prisoners to read two books written by President Barack Obama. Court papers filed Thursday show that prison officials twice rejected requests by inmate Ahmed Omar Abu Ali to read "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

Azerbaijan media publish segments from hearing of 2 Lebanese, 4 locals accused of planning terror attack on Israeli embassy in capital city, Baku. According to indictment, suspects admit to being sent by Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and al-Qaeda Ynet Published: 07.09.09, 00:20 / Israel News