Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.
From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.
One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.
MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.
Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.
Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.
Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.
He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2007/01/014820print.html
January 12, 2007
Somali jihadists held UK meeting last year to raise funds
Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert: Another report of funds raised in Britain for the Somali jihadists. "Somali Islamists held UK meeting to raise funds," by Jeevan Vasagar for the Guardian:
Somalia's Islamist movement, whose leadership is accused by the US of sheltering some of al-Qaida's most wanted operatives, sent a delegation on a fundraising trip to Britain last year, the Guardian has learned. Led by an Islamist minister, the Union of Islamic Courts delegation received pledges of funding from members of Britain's Somali diaspora at a meeting at a north London school in November.
According to one community leader, the Somali delegation also met sympathisers at the Finsbury Park mosque, which became notorious as a recruiting ground for radical Islam under its former imam Abu Hamza.
Abdiwali Mohamud, a Somali community worker in Camden, said: "They were trying to influence people in a Muslim way, saying are you with us or with the unbelievers?"
Although they were not officially recognised by Britain, the Islamists also held talks with Foreign Office officials, who urged them to negotiate with Somalia's government.
The Foreign Office meeting underlines the strikingly different approaches taken by the US - which describes the Islamists as "extremists to the core" and targeted Somalia with an air strike this week - and Britain, which accepts that there were moderate elements within the UIC.
Around 500 people attended the Islamists' fundraising meeting at the Islington Arts and Media School, according to a British Somali who was in the audience. A delegation led by Omar Mohammed Mahamoud Aftooje, the Islamist minister responsible for reconstruction, appealed for financial help.
"They talked about the progress they made in Mogadishu, how they defeated the warlords," the audience member, who requested anonymity, told the Guardian. "More than 20 people donated £1,000 each, some people said £100, others £300, some of them gave cash on the spot, others gave bank details or agreed to transfer money. They said the money was for repairing roads in Mogadishu."
However, one of the UIC delegation also spoke of the need for military support, which prompted concern from the audience.
The audience member said: "He said: 'We are at war at the moment, people have died and we need military support.'
"Some people were angry, they said, are you asking for money to rebuild our country or money for fighting? Some were happy to support fighting but some were not."
But did anyone object to the "Talibanization" of their country?
The delegation also visited Birmingham and Manchester.
The Foreign Office confirmed yesterday that a UIC delegation had met British officials on November 20.
A spokeswoman said: "They asked for the meeting. HMG appreciated that at the time the UIC was a reality on the ground and in dialogue with the [Somali] government. It was reasonable to meet them."
The government was aware that the Islamists were trying to raise funds. "We were neither happy nor unhappy about that. The UIC is not a proscribed terrorist organisation."
Many among Britain's 43,000-strong Somali community admire the movement for restoring peace and the rule of law to the capital, Mogadishu, and southern Somalia, which has been fought over by rival factions since the collapse of central government 16 years ago. An Islamist supporter, Mohomoud Nur, a community worker with the London-based Somali Speakers Association, said: "Somali tribes are so fragmented the only thing that can unite them is Islam. People felt the only way they could find justice is through Islam."
The Home Office is still investigating Ethiopian claims that seven British passport holders were injured in Monday's US air strike on suspected jihadists in southern Somalia.
Mr Nur said he had phone contact with British Somali families who were stranded in Somalia and feared that their teenage sons might be accused of being jihadi fighters. "There are families that are hiding there now, who are afraid they may confiscate passports and accuse them, that they are foreign fighters."
Abdirahman Warsame, the Finsbury Park mosque's executive manager, denied claims that the Islamists had met supporters there, saying the only fundraising had been at the Islington school.
Posted at January 12, 2007 09:56 PM
[There appears to be several things going on in Tunisa, as I have had several posts about them....]
January 12, 2007
Jihadists caught in Tunisia with blueprints of foreign embassies, diplomats' names
Tunisian government officials confirm new jihad activity. "In Tunisia, extremists bore blueprints," by Bouazza Ben Bouazza for AP:
TUNIS, Tunisia - Islamic extremists involved in a deadly fire fight with police this month had blueprints of foreign embassies and documents naming foreign envoys, Tunisia's official news agency quoted the interior minister as saying Friday.
Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem described the extremists as "terrorists" in a closed door meeting with members of Tunisia's governing party, the TAP news agency reported.
It was the first time authorities had made available official information on the Jan. 3 confrontation with police that left 14 people dead — two of them members of the security forces.
Run with an iron fist, this country of some 10 million people, a tourist haven for Europeans, has largely been spared Islamic extremist violence. However, 21 people — mostly German tourists — were killed in a 2002 suicide attack on a synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba. Investigators linked the attack to al-Qaida.
Fifteen people were arrested following the Jan. 3 clash in Soliman, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Tunis, the capital. An initial clash with security forces on Dec. 23 left two dead and two police officers injured. The minister said three police officers were injured but it was not immediately clear whether that was in addition to the two injured in December.
Blueprints of some foreign embassies and documents with the names of some foreign diplomats were seized following the fire fights, TAP quoted the minister as telling leading members of the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally party. He did not name the embassies or identify the diplomats whose names figured on the documents, according to TAP.
Explosives described as locally made also were seized, Kacem told the politicians.
The minister also appeared to link the group to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, the main insurgency movement in neighboring Algeria, saying they were "Salafist terrorists."
The interior minister, confirming press reports, said a portion of the group had crossed into Tunisia from Algeria, which has been battling an Islamic insurgency since 1992.
He did not provide nationalities for group members or a total number. Press reports have said that its leaders were Tunisian but that there was a Mauritanian among them.
Authorities had earlier referred to the group simply as "criminals."
Posted at January 12, 2007 03:05 PM
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2007/01/014818print.html
TerroristWarning.com Terrorism Headlines 01/15/2006 # 1
Be sure to regularly check www.GlobalIncidentMap.com where we post our incidents much more quickly than we publish our email editions
National:
[Middletown Press] CONNECTICUT - Bomb detonates in car
"A bomb scare had the rear parking lots of a Taco Bell and Pep Boys automotive store on the Berlin Turnpike shut down Wednesday afternoon as officials examined a white Buick Century believed to have contained a bomb"
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17696464&BRD=1645&PAG=461&dept_id=10856&rfi=6
[sun-sentinel.com ] FLORIDA - White powder scare shuts parts of Palm Beach County courthouse
"mysterious letter containing a contaminating substance"
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-111whitepowder,0,644311.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
[WPTV] FLORIDA - Poison Found in Envelope at Palm Beach County Courthouse
"Authorities are confirming the substance found in an envelope at the Palm Beach County Courthouse is, in fact, a poisonous substance"
http://www.wptv.com/News/011107_PalmBeachCOuntyCourthouseEvac.cfm
[CBS4] FLORIDA - NEW INCIDENT - White Powder Found in Palm Beach Courthouse
"For the second day in a row, there’s another mysterious powder scare at the Palm Beach County courthouse"
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_012104948.html
[Henry Daily Herald] GEORGIA - Authorities on lookout for stolen trailer containing explosives
"McDonough Police say sometime between 5 p.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday, a trailer containing construction equipment and 100 pounds of gunpowder was stolen from a construction area behind the Henry County Courthouse"
http://www.henryherald.com/local/local_story_010195709.html?keyword=topstory
[CBC] CANADA - Police seize bombs, explosives from rural Ontario home
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2007/01/12/bomb-factory.html
[Reuters] PENNSYLVANIA - White powder found in Pennsylvania courthouse
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-01-12T152218Z_01_N12210344_RTRIDST_0_SECURITY-PENNSYLVANIA.XML
[Courier Post Online] NEW JERSEY - White powder leads to lockdown at Triton
"white powdery substance found in an envelope"
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/NEWS01/701120353/1006
[KUTV] SALT LAKE CITY - Suspicious White Powder Found In Mail Truck [False alarm]
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_011183848.html
[WBOY] WEST VIRGINIA - Man Questioned -- Again -- For Pre-paid Cell Phones
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=18400
[Miami Herald] USA / MEXICO BORDER - Soldiers are shot in border town
"Nuevo Laredo police and state investigators who responded to the shooting saw a large amount of dollars, assault rifles and a grenade launcher inside the soldiers' car "
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/16450799.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
[Miami Herald] FLORIDA - Pipe bomb found under car of federal witness in Hialeah
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/16460986.htm
[NBC6.net] FLORIDA - Gym Evacuated After Fumes Sicken Customers
"Medics treated about two dozen people at the L.A. Fitness Center on 124th Avenue"
http://www.nbc6.net/news/10746431/detail.html
[AP] SOUTH CAROLINA - 4 Orangeburg County Deputies Sickened After Drinking Coffee
http://www.abcnews4.com/news/stories/0107/387734.html
[NBC4.tv] CALIFORNIA - Bomb Squad Investigates Package At Costco
"package with green tape and protruding wires was found at the front door of the business"
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/10754105/detail.html
[The Register] USA - Fact, fiction or bioterror drill? How to cook up a ricin scare
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/15/ricin_scare_mashup/
[WHIO TV] OHIO - Bomb Scare Prompts Evacuation Of Urbana Plant [False alarm]
http://www.whiotv.com/news/10752036/detail.html
[Iowa City Press-Citizen ] IOWA - Odor permeates downtown; mall briefly evacuated
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/NEWS01/70115003/1079
International:
[CNN] GREECE - Blast hits U.S. Embassy compound in Athens
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/12/athens.blast/index.html
See also http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/12/content_5597817.htm
[Londonist] UNITED KINGDOM - Bomb Scare Evacuation [Near Turkish Bank]
http://www.londonist.com/archives/2007/01/bomb_scare_evac.php
[AP] AFGHANISTAN - 150 militants killed in Afghanistan, NATO claims
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-afghanistan0111,0,4791278.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines
[RIA Novosti] RUSSIA - Three militants killed in operation in South Russia
"As part of the same operation police raided another apartment believed to be used by the group early Thursday, and found explosives, detonators, a map showing police stations in the city, and Islamist Wahhabite literature"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070111/58897879.html
[Xinhua] THAILAND - Bomb injures 3 soldiers in Thai south
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/12/content_5597779.htm
[The Nation] THAILAND - Explosives found under pickup in front Pattani military camp
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/01/12/headlines/headlines_30023961.php
[Pattaya City News] THAILAND - Chonburi Gymnasium evacuated as suspicious package is neutralized by bomb squad
"a box containing a mobile phone without its battery and a message were inside. The message read” Children’s Day, 3 bombs and 3 times”
http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_12_01_50_4.htm
[Radio Prague] CZECH REPUBLIC - Over 30 Prague schools scoured for bomb after anonymous threat
"It is the biggest security operation in the Czech capital since last September when there were fears of a possible terrorist attack against Jewish targets"
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/87189
[AP] SERBIA - Authorities raise alert in Serbian prison after finding explosives
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/12/europe/EU-GEN-Serbia-Prison-Alert.php
[Reuters] TUNISIA - Tunisia says gang smashed last week were Islamists
"During the investigation, they found images of sites of some foreign embassies. They also confiscated documents containing a few names of foreign diplomats living in Tunisia and a quantity of traditional explosives"
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12887191.htm
[AntiMullah.com (Blog)] IRAN - Nuclear event in Iran?
"Reports emanating from Iran on Wednesday indicate a huge explosion - reportedly NUCLEAR - from the Kerman area at the edge of the Kavir Lut"
http://www.antimullah.com/
See also other reports of explosions in Iran - http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1AD1804A-599E-4003-8F54-21AFCC1E3200.htm
see also http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/186028.php and http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8510210160
[Itar-Tass] RUSSIA - More militants lay down arms and stopped resistance in Chechnya
http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11151184&PageNum=0
[AP Worldstream] PAKISTAN - Pakistan attacks militants in North Waziristan across border from fierce Afghan battle
"Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked supply trucks used by suspected insurgents for cross-border attacks in neighboring Afghanistan, a military spokesman said Thursday. The army attack occurred across the border from where NATO forces reported killing more than 150 militants"
http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=14133&TagID=2
[GMANews.TV] PHILIPPINES - 4 nabbed over spate of bomb blasts in Mindanao
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/26836/4-nabbed-over-spate-of-bomb-blasts-in-Mindanao
[WNA] IRAQ - Four civilians were wounded in a car bomb explosion AL-Aamel neighborhood in Baghdad
http://www.wna-news.com/inanews/news.php?item.2753.15
[NewsYemen] YEMEN - Marib bomb may be terrorist: security source
http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=3_2007_01_14_6510
[Reuters] BANGLADESH - Bomb kills 4 of family [4 bombs, 1 accidental]
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=127298&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24
[Imphal Free Press] INDIA - Shoppers escape as bomb fails to explode [Grenade]
http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=35849&typeid=1
[BBC] CHAD - Disputes over Chad rebel attack
"Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) said its forces attacked the town of Ounianga Kebir at dawn on Saturday"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6260049.stm
[IOL] IVORY COAST 01/12/2007 - Four held for fatal Ivory Coast border attack
"group, which was armed with 12-bore shotguns and knives, simultaneously attacked the border posts of the military police, police and customs officers at around 02h00 GMT on Friday and stole a number of Kalashnikov rifles"
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1168693562216B216
[ScandAsia] DENMARK - Bomb Threat Against Thai Embassy in Copenhagen
http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?news_id=3001&coun_code=dk
[AP] AFGHANISTAN - Bomb wounds adviser
"A suicide bomber in an explosives-packed car followed and then struck a two-vehicle convoy carrying foreign police advisers south of Kabul yesterday, killing himself and wounding one adviser and an Afghan civilian"
http://torontosun.com/News/World/2007/01/13/3341653-sun.html
[AFP] AFGHANISTAN - Bomb hits tanker
"bomb attached to an Afghanistan-bound petrol tanker supplying fuel to American forces in that country exploded on Sunday but caused no casualties"
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\15\story_15-1-2007_pg1_5
[Daily Times] PAKISTAN - Cop foils bombing bid
"police on Sunday recovered a time bomb near the main gate of the Metrological Department situated in front of the NWFP Assembly building"
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\15\story_15-1-2007_pg1_4
[Pakistan Times] PAKISTAN - Bomb explosion at Mastung in SW Pakistan
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2007/01/15/top14.htm
[AFP] EGYPT - Egypt arrests six Islamists in new crackdown
"Egyptian security forces arrested six members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday"
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/January/theworld_January386.xml§ion=theworld&col
[IANS] INDIA - Ulfa threatens to kill Assam Cong leaders
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/January/subcontinent_January475.xml§ion=subcontinent&col
[Reuters] EGYPT - Egypt finds explosives cache
"cache consisted of at least 500 kg (1,100 lb) of TNT hidden in two gas containers and large plastic bags and was found in the desert area near al-Arish, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast"
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/959899
[AFP] SRI LANKA - Lanka troops capture three more Tiger bases
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/January/subcontinent_January487.xml§ion=subcontinent&col
[PTI] PAKISTAN - Six injured in gas pipe blast
"near the Kolkata railway station early yesterday"
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/January/subcontinent_January469.xml§ion=subcontinent&col
[RIA Novosti] RUSSIA - Two Chinese entrepreneurs blown up in Russia's East Siberia
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070114/59032504.html
See also http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybbf&story_id=102147309&ID=blackenterprise
[Xinhua] AFGHANISTAN - 30 militants killed in S. Afghanistan
http://english.people.com.cn/200701/15/eng20070115_341148.html
[Itar-Tass] RUSSIA - No detained suspects in Moscow State University dorm explosion
"police did not confirm claims that the suspect is allegedly affiliated to nationalist groups"
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11154385&PageNum=0
[AP] SRI LANKA - 2 Tamil rebels killed in eastern Sri Lanka, bombs recovered: military
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/15/asia/AS-GEN-Sri-Lanka.php
[Ynet] ISRAEL - IDF nabs 19 Palestinian terror suspects in West Bank overnight
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3352357,00.html
[The Nation] THAILAND - Tambon official shot dead in Pattani
"believed to be a terror campaign by insurgents"
http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30024164
[The Nation] THAILAND - Couple beheaded after shot dead in Yala
"A married couple were beheaded after they were shot dead apparently by Muslim insurgents in this southern border province Sunday morning "
http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30024095
[The Nation] THAILAND - 64 teachers have been killed by Muslim insurgents
http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30024058
[AFP] THAILAND - Three killed in Thailand's restive Muslim south
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/252573/1/.html
[RTTNews] THAILAND - Insurgents Behead Buddhist And 2 Others In Thailand
"militants left a note by the body warning Buddhists to leave the area "
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20070114\ACQRTT200701140327RTTRADERUSEQUITY_0015.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.nasd
[Reuters] ISRAEL - Palestinian bombers killed in Gaza
"gunfire detonated explosives the two men were carrying"
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0115/breaking11.htm
[KUNA] IRAN - Russian admiral: Numerous US nuclear subs signals imminent strike on Iran
'Admiral Edward Baltin was quoted by news agencies as saying he believed the presence of so many US nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf meant a strike was likely"
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/1555
[Deutsche Presse-Agentur ] MYANMAR - Parcel-bomb explodes in Myanmar post office
"parcel said to be sent from China addressed to the Japanese embassy"
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1246356.php/Parcel-bomb_explodes_in_Myanmar_post_office
[Xinhua] RUSSIA - Over 500 militants surrender to authorities under amnesty in Russia
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/16/content_5610314.htm
Seaports/ Shipping/ Cruises/ Ferries/ Maritime Security/ Cargo Security/ Container Security/ Lakes/ Waterways:
[Telegraph] UNITED KINGDOM - 'James Bond harpoon' to stop terrorist attack from the Thames
"Security chiefs are developing a harpoon-like gun to defend Parliament against a terrorist attack from the River Thames"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/14/nterr14.xml
[Polskie Radio] POLAND - Explosion in Swinoujscie shipyard [Cause unknown, probable accident]
http://www.polskieradio.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=47078&j=2
[Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence] SRI LANKA - CID investigates into aircraft parts found hidden inside a cargo ship bound to KKS harbor
"Air craft in the hands of the LTTE have been considered an extremely dangerous element by the US as well as Indian intelligence for the security of the region and for the security of the world at large as far as terrorism is concerned since the terrorist group owns the worlds most advanced technology regarding suicide bombers"
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070115_04
Railways/ Trains/ Light Rail/ Subways/ Trolleys/ Tubes/ Railway Bridges and Tunnels:
[TNA] THAILAND - Narathiwat railway bomb wounds two police
"A bomb blast on a railway line in the southern border province of Narathiwat wounded two police officers, forcing train services to a halt Monday morning"
"suspected insurgents set fire to piles of tires blocking railway track, and placed other suspicious materials across the rail line "
"Meanwhile, another bomb exploded almost simultaneously in Narathiwat's Bajo district, slightly damaging a bridge but without causing injury"
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=27274
[The Nation] THAILAND - Insurgents launch two bomb attacks in Narathiwat
"Muslim insurgents launched two bomb attacks in this southern border province Monday morning, causing damages to a bridge and a section of railway tracks"
http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30024165
See also http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/15/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Southern-Violence.php
[PTI] PAKISTAN - Six injured in gas pipe blast
"near the Kolkata railway station early yesterday"
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/January/subcontinent_January469.xml§ion=subcontinent&col
[Bucks Herald] UNITED KINGDOM - Bomb on Railway Line Video Criticised
"A video on the internet showing an explosive device being set-off near a rail-line, apparently submitted by someone from Aylesbury, has been condemned by the British Transport Police"
http://www.aylesburytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=789&ArticleID=1971309
[Express News Service] INDIA 01/12/2007 - Acid attack on 2 commuters in suburban train at Virar
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=217433
[Reuters] THAILAND - 3 killed, more than 70 injured in Thai train crash
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/January/theworld_January375.xml§ion=theworld&col
[PTI/DPA] INDIA - Eight killed as goods train derails
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/January/subcontinent_January462.xml§ion=subcontinent&col
[Mirror] UNITED KINGDOM - This train is loaded with 200 tonnes of artillery shells, bullets, grenades and mortars, and I've Just planted a Bomb
"journalist holds a fake bomb as he stands by an unguarded train filled with Army explosives - exposing a horrifying security blunder"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=this-train-is-loaded-with-200-tonnes-of-artillery-shells--bullets--grenades-and-mortars---and-i-ve-just-planted-a--bomb--%26method=full%26objectid=18470907%26siteid=94762-name_page.html
[AP] CYPRUS - Passenger jet makes emergency landing in Paphos after bomb threat
"airport received a phone call shortly after 4 p.m. (1400GMT) claiming there was a bomb on board"
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/15/europe/EU-GEN-Cyprus-Emergency-Landing.php
[Xinhua] CHINA - Man carrying gun detained before going aboard plane in SW China
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/14/content_5605609.htm
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2007/01/gordievsky-reviews-litvinenko.html
Monday, January 15, 2007
Gordievsky Reviews Litvinenko
Writing in the Times of London, former spy Oleg Gordievsky (pictured, left) reviews Alexander Litvinenko's book "Blowing up Russia":
LATE LAST YEAR, THE leaders of Russia made probably the greatest blunder in the whole of their campaign against Alexander Litvinenko. Sergei Ivanov, the Defence Minister, said that he “was just a Russian who meant nothing to us”.
This is exactly what Sasha Litvinenko was fighting — the view of those in power in his motherland who regard Russia as the country of the Ivanovs and Putins and treat the rest of the population with contempt as “just Russians who mean nothing to us”
Litvinenko has become the most prominent victim in this struggle, and it is up to those who survive him to make sure that we eventually emerge as winners. This means — and it forms the epilogue to Blowing Up Russia, by Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky — that one day a presidential decree in Russia must completely disband the most punitive, corrupt and criminal organisations that have survived under different names since Lenin’s Bolshevik times and make up the Russian state security system.
A literal translation of the Russian title of this book is The FSB Blows Up Russia. It first appeared in 2002, and was almost immediately followed by an even more important study, entitled The Lubyanka Criminal Gang, published in the same year by Grani in New York, but not yet available in English. It makes sense to speak about the two together.
When someone suggested to me that one should study Litvinenko’s papers and private notes to find out why he was murdered — and intelligence professionals have no reasonable doubt that the Russian authorities were the instigators of the crime — I advised him to read Sasha’s books. Here one can easily find a clue to the hatred between one “former” lieutenant-colonel (Putin) and a genuinely former lieutenant- colonel (Litvinenko) and why Litvinenko was so suspicious of Putin.
In his books, Litvienko asserts that after Vladimir Putin was recalled from his KGB posting in East Germany, he was quickly infiltrated into the St Petersburg mayor’s office to keep an eye and ear on the new democratic mayor, Anatoli Sobchak. In their second book, Litvinenko and Felshtinsky describe how this “former” run-of-the-mill spy soon became involved in the illegal export of non-ferrous metals to the West, gaining some juicy kickbacks to the tune of $93 million.
They also allege that the chief of the department for the control and investigation of such operations was an FSB colonel, one Nikolai Patrushev.
Patrushev, they claim, was posted to Karelia, and subsequently accused of illegal dealings in Karelian birch. A criminal investigation was opened, so that his pal Sergei Stepashin, the first director of the FSB and later Prime Minister, who also came from St Petersburg security services, quickly transferred Patrushev to Moscow and appointed him to a super-secret and hyper-sensitive post as chief of FSB internal security.
Thus, the authors claim, all the dirty linen of all high-ranking FSB officers was in Patrushev’s hands. But the Karelian prosecutors might have continued their investigations. Soon, on May 21, 2001, the Karelian FSB chief, Vasili Ankudinov, who knew a great deal about Patrushev’s merry days in Karelia, suddenly died at the age of 56. When Putin became President, he invited Patrushev to head the FSB. Both are still in their positions.
One episode that is not discussed in print by Litvinenko and Felshtinsky (for the simple reason that Tsepov was not murdered until two years after the books were published) relates to Roman Tsepov, who was in charge of Sobchak’s security in St Petersburg and who provided bodyguards for Putin, by now deputy mayor. The two became close associates, and it was rumoured that Tsepov regularly handed large sums of money in cash to Putin as gifts from joint ventures that wanted to continue without undue interference. Tsepov’s killing was initiated on September 11, 2004, in the FSB’s St Petersburg headquarters. Tsepov was offered a cup of tea and died of radiation poisoning 11 days later.
All 11 chapters of Blowing Up Russia are devoted to one phenomenon — how the security service of a huge state became a criminal, mafia-type organisation targeted against the population of its own country. With numerous examples the authors attempt to show how terrorist acts were carried out, money was laundered, people killed and shadowy businesses started up and closed down in the interests of Chekists who had managed to place their own man, Putin, at the top of the country’s governing pyramid.
“I have carried out your orders, comrades,” Putin reportedly said during one December 20 annual celebration of the Day of the Spy, that has became a national holiday. “Here I am, leading the country.”
Whether such a declaration, quoted by Litvinenko and Felshtinsky, did take place, I do not know. But what I know for sure, and what Litvinenko demonstrates in his books, is that he developed from a run-of-the-mill KGB operative, known as an oper in Russian, into a fighter against everything that is unlawful and corrupt, whereas Putin degenerated from being an intelligence officer to become the leader of a country where criminal kingpins and former convicts are respected and even worshipped and now constitute the country's official “elite”. They drive the best cars, buy the best houses, acquire profitable companies at home and abroad, and have seats in the Russian parliament, the Duma.
One can only hope that the future does not belong to them, but to brave, decent, kind and loving people — like Alexander Litvinenko.
SPY VERSUS SPY
# Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was a former FSB (Federal Security Services, the agency that succeeded the KGB) agent, who accused Putin and the FSB of corruption. He died last year, after various meetings in London, one with two Russian men, both former KGB agents.
# Another meeting was with the Italian academic Mario Scaramella, who is said to have handed him documents on the killers of the campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
# A statement from Litvinenko, read out after his death, said to “the person responsible”: “You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.” He was referring to Mr Putin. The Kremlin has dismissed such allegations as nonsense. Mr Putin said “There is no grounds for speculation of this kind,” and that talk of government involvement “has nothing to do with reality”.
# A postmortem confirmed that Litvinenko was poisoned by radiation from the isotope polonium-210. Traces were found in London and Hamburg, in aircraft and on Dr Scaramella and the agents Litvininenko met.
# The Russian authorities have not co-operated fully with Scotland Yard’s investigations.
# Conspiracy theories abound: the 2008 Russian election might make Mr Putin want to eliminate critics, and Litvinenko may have unearthed secrets while investigating the Politkovskaya murder. But the Russian media have poured scorn on such suggestions, saying Litvinenko was a small-time fantasist that it was easier to put up with than to kill and risk international furore.
# Other theories point to Litvinenko’s dissident allies, to a veteran of Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces, or even to suicide or an accident.
Labels: litvinenko, russia Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/11/sunday-photos-magazine-special-edition.html
[Yulia, she is one good looker, photos on site]
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The Sunday Photos Magazine Special Edition: Who's Next?
WHO’S NEXT?
One month ago this past Tuesday, at 5:10 pm Moscow Time on Saturday October 7, 2006, the heroic and valiant Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead at her home. Politkovskaya was far and away Russia’s most internationally recognized and lauded journalist, and a harsh critic of the Kremlin’s brutal policies in Chechnya, which have been roundly condemned by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Universally, analysts have seen Kremlin complicity in the killing. As if to confirm it, commenting on the killing days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin called her an enemy of Russia, and expressed regret only for the fact that the killing would be used by Russia’s enemies as fodder for a negative PR blitz.
Given the Kremlin’s barbaric, neo-Soviet attitude towards the Politkovskaya assassination, the logical question to ask now is: Who’s next? Five targets are readily apparent: Lidia Yusupova, Marina Litvinovich, Svetlana Gannushkina, Yulia Latynina and Yevgenia Albats. Ironically, all are female. There’s no doubt but that the leading voices in favor of democracy in Russia today are women (Russian women are dramatically healthier of body than Russian men, whose abuse of cigarettes and alcohol is notorious and whose average lifespan is shockingly brief, and perhaps this leaves them better equipped in terms of fortitude as well). Outrageously Lidia, widely touted as a contender for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has only a stub entry in Wikipedia, and the same is true of Yulia (Wiki has requests for assistance with these entries posted) while Yevegenia, Svetlana, and Marina have no entry at all. Readers are asked to consider providing/supplementing these entries to Wikipedia as a first step towards creating the kind of international recognition that these three women deserve, recognition which would not only give them due respect for risking their lives in the cause of democracy but also help facilitate financing their heroic efforts and give them so protection against retaliation (LR does not do this kind of thing herself as she'd be accused of bias). Obviously, more could have been done to recognize and protect Politkovskaya while she was alive, and her killing should serve as a wakeup call for all concerned with the development of democracy.
1. Lidia Yusupova
The awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace prize to a pair of economists responsible for inventing the “microcredit” that facilitates the development of small businesses in the third world was nearly as great an affront to the worldwide battle for democracy as the prior award to terrorist Yasir Arafat. The prize should have gone to Yusupova, winner of the prestigious Rafto Human Rights award from Norway, who puts more on the line in any given day for the cause of democracy and peace than all the economists who ever lived combined. Here’s what Reuters reported about her in the run-up to this year’s Nobel announcement:
The cramped apartment on the outskirts of Moscow overlooking rows of Soviet-era tower blocks is the temporary home of human rights lawyer Lydia Yusupova, a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's temporary because next year she plans to return to her native Grozny and continue -- despite the threat of murder and kidnap -- to document human rights abuses in a war between Russia and Chechen separatists which has killed thousands. "It's very important (to win)," she said in the kitchen of her two-room apartment where she has lived since last year while she completes a study programme funded by the U.S. non-governmental organisation Ford Foundation. "The Chechnya theme is still critical. Things are not as good there as European experts may think." Whether Yusupova wins or not, she says she will return to live and work in Grozny, Chechnya's ruined capital. "Now there is another wave (of kidnappings and arrests) in Chechnya," she said comparing it to disappearances during Stalin's Soviet Union. "There are currently many people who are illegally imprisoned." Thousands died and Yusupova and Memorial, the human rights group she works for, estimate that as many as 5,000 people have disappeared -- mainly Chechens targeted by federal and pro-Russian law enforcement. Yusupova, an ethnic Russian born in Grozny, also faced the threat of kidnapping. "We went to bed every night waiting," she said, faint highlights streaked through her short, dark hair. "I didn't want to be caught totally off my guard if they came for me in the middle of the night." The dangers for people who highlight the disappearances persist away from Chechnya. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, one of President Vladimir Putin's strongest critics, was killed by a gunman in central Moscow on Saturday. "It's absolutely terrible," Yusupova said by telephone after the murder. "It was done to make others shut their mouths. To say 'See what can happen to you'."
Will it happen to Lidia too? To a large extent, that’s up to us to decide. Will we publicize her work? Make financial contributions to facilitate it? Or will we wake up tomorrow and read another horror story, just like Politkovskaya’s?
2. Marina Litvinovich
That’s Marina in the sunglasses, standing in front of an apartment building in downtown Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The building, like many others, remains a burned-out shell because, despite its claims to the contrary, the Kremlin has done virtually nothing to support a rebuilding effort. It has instead engaged in a rather pathetic, Soviet-like effort to create a Potemkin Village that will fool the unwitting eye of the few foreigners who dare to visit while leaving the population to stagnate in a condition of utter despair. But Marina Litvinovich will not be fooled. She operates a blog (in Russian) called Abstrict2001 at Live Journal and has a played a number of significant roles in the modern Russian political debate. She has served as chief of staff to Irina Khakamada, liberal legislator. She is a key advisor to liberal presidential challenger Garry Kasparov. She publishes a website called The Truth About Beslan (also in Russian) in which she investigates the Kremlin coverup of its outrageous conduct during the Beslan hostage crisis. Like Politkovskaya, she has defiantly probed the truth about Beslan by interviewing key figures involved in the events and publishing their accounts. She's been arrested by the Kremlin for taking part in public protests over its conduct regarding Beslan and she's participated in wide variety of other protests, including those to oppose the cruelty of hazing in Russia's military. Finally, she heads the Aid to Victims of Terror Foundation, whose work has been praised by Freedom House. In other words, she does more in any given day (indeed, any hour) to serve the interests of Russia than Vladimir Putin will do in his entire lifetime. Maria’s work regarding Beslan is essentially that of a shadow government, as the official government group charged with investigating the catastrophe, known as the Torshin Commission, might in the words of Russia commentator Jeremy Putley "be thought to stand as a symbol for much that is wrong with Russia today – too cowardly to tell the truth, too dishonest even to lie, knowing that lies will be transparently obvious, and so saying nothing, even though the commission has had an inordinate amount of time already to complete its investigation. It is like the failure to mount an investigation into the 1999 bombings in apartment buildings, that were declared to be a state secret. It is like holding trials in secret, so that the truth cannot be seen. It is cowardice compounded with criminality and abuse of authority."
For her service to her country, Marina has been repaid in the classic Russian manner: Brutal physical assault by cowards in the darkness. On Monday, March 20, 2006, for instance Marina was attacked from behind as she headed her car just after 9 pm. She had valuables on her person which were left untouched. Here's how Moscow Times columnist Masha Gessen described the incident:
Monday night, Kasparov's right-hand person, the political consultant Marina Litvinovich, left the United Civil Front office just after 9. About an hour later, she opened her eyes to discover that she was lying on a cellar awning and someone was trying to ascertain if she was all right. She was not: She had apparently been knocked unconscious by a blow or several blows to the head. She had been badly beaten, was bruised all over, and was missing two of her front teeth. Nothing had been taken from her: not her notebook computer or cell phone or money. She spent three or four hours in the emergency room that night, and she spent another three or four at the police station the following day. She found the police to be extraordinarily polite and considerate -- and, as the organizer of many of Kasparov's public speaking events and any number of protests, Litvinovich is something of an expert on police behavior. Some higher-up had apparently been sent down to the station to handle her case. At the same time, she told me, "I am not stupid and I could see what they were getting at: that I was just walking down the street and passed out. That I must be in poor health." Litvinovich is 31 years old and healthy. "And that I fell in such an unfortunate manner that I got bruised all over." Litvinovich has a bruise on her leg that, the doctors told her, was probably caused by a blow with a rubber baton. The police suggested it may have been a car bumper. Litvinovich pointed out that her clothes were so clean that she was wearing the same trousers and coat the following day. She clearly was not hit by a Moscow car. Moreover, this is one of several signs that she was attacked by professionals: She must have been held while she was beaten, then laid carefully on the awning on which she found herself. In other words, the attack was a message. The pristine execution and the fact that Litvinovich's valuables were not touched serve to underscore this. So what's the content of this message? Another young political consultant, an up-and-coming member of the Kremlin's Public Chamber, Alexei Chadayev, put the message forward in his blog: "Women should not be in this line of work. ... Marina is on the warpath, and no one ever said this war would be conducted according to rules." This is this country's ruling regime speaking. Its message is crude: as simple as a rubber baton, as brutal as a blow to a young woman's face. If you are going to oppose the Kremlin, it is saying, this will happen to you.
That wasn't the first time Marina has been physically attacked, proving the power of her work and the utter cowardice and impotence of those who oppose her, who cannot face her on any remotely civilized terms and can only resort to the crude violence of an animal. Next time, maybe a bullet rather than a blunt instrument will be relied upon, since the latter had no effect on this valiant heroine. That is, unless the West sends a clear message that the price of harming her is not one Russia can afford to pay.
3. Svetlana Gannushkina
As the Washington Post recently reported: “Svetlana Gannushkina, a refugee rights activist, tops a list of 89 people published by a radical nationalist group, the Russian Will, which has urged ‘patriots’ to take up arms and execute her and other friends of ‘alien’ peoples.” The Post reported further: “‘I am horrified at what happened with Anya,’ said Gannushkina, using Politkovskaya's nickname. ‘Of course, I understand that considering what happened, we are all under the same threat.’ Gannushkina said she first learned in August of the Web site calling for her to be killed as an ‘advocate of alien migrants.’” The Post revealed that “information on the targeted activists and journalists, including their phone numbers and addresses, has spread to numerous other nationalist sites and blogs and Gannushkina has received phone threats.
Gannushkina said she asked prosecutors to investigate the group's activities in August, but prosecutors have failed to launch a probe. A spokesman for the Moscow Prosecutor's Office declined comment.” Gannushkina’s response? The Post states: “Gannushkina said she would continue her advocacy work despite the intimidation, rejecting her colleagues' advice to hire a bodyguard, because she did not want to put anyone in danger. ‘If I intend to live here, I intend to live and not hide in a burrow,’ she said.”
Gannushkina is the director of an organization called the “Migration Rights Network” which is operated under the aegis of the major Russian human rights group Memorial. She is also a member of the Human Rights Council and the leader of her own organization, the Civil Assistance Committee. Here is an example of the types of issues she confronts on a daily basis:
In 2005, in 10 areas of the Russian Federation (Central Russia, the Volga Region, and Siberia) 39 people were held on charges in of so-called Islamic extremism, according to Vitaly Ponomarev, Director of the Central-Asian Program of the Human Rights Center Memorial, at an October 31 press conference, "Anti-Muslim Repressions in Central Russia" at the Independent Press Center. Scores of people are under investigation. No less than 40 percent of those under investigation undergo torture, noted Ponomarev. Recently in central Russia, terrorist accusations have been manufactured. The most scandalous of them is the Tatarstan matter, where 20 people were accused of preparing terrorist acts for the 1000th anniversary of Kazan. The kidnapping of former inhabitants of Uzbekistan continues. Vitaly Ponomarev reports that, according to Muslims of the Volga Region, each year 3 - 4 descendants from Uzbekistan disappear. The Director of the Civil Assistance Committee, Svetlana Gannushkina, discussed the fate of the 14 ethnic Uzbeks detained in Ivanov. One of them, Xatam Xadzhimatov, was freed as a citizen of Russia. The rest - 12 citizens of Uzbekistan and a citizen of Kyrgyzstan are located under guard in expectation of obtaining refugee status. The period for examining their petitions elapses on November 8th, and if the detained are not recognized as refugees, they are threatened with deportation. Gannushkina is certain that the leaders of Russia and Uzbekistan have an understanding about deporting Uzbek citizens to their native land, even though their extraditions are illegal. Gannushkina spoke about the recent deportation to Uzbekistan of Marcel Isayev and about the assistance of Russian authorities in the kidnapping, by Uzbek special services, of Russian citizen Alisher Usmanov.
Gannushkina is, then, one of the people who are actually doing the things that Politkovskaya was reporting about, and hence a natural target of Kremlin ire, perhaps concealed behind the veil of neo-Nazis or other nationalist groups.
4. Yevgenia Albats
Yevgenia Albats, host of a controversial radio talk show on the Ekho Moskvy station, one of the last bastions of independent journalism in Russia, is the heir apparent to Politkovskaya. As identified by the International Consortium of Journalists
She was the first Soviet journalist to investigate the Soviet political police, the KGB, when the communist regime was still in control. She is the author of KGB: The State within the State. In 1989, she received the Golden Pen Award, the highest journalism honor in the then-Soviet Union. She was an Alfred Friendly fellow in 1990 and a fellow of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in 1993. Albats also free-lanced for several publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and the CNN bureau in Moscow. She has a graduate degree from Harvard and has testified before the U.S. Congress on human rights abuses during the war in Chechnya, which she covered.
Albats’ book, a vigorous attack on the secret police organization of which President Putin was the former spymaster, makes her an automatic target of Kremlin ire, and her brilliant Moscow Times columns only escalated the level of confrontation. But the Moscow Times is published in English and reaches a very narrow audience; Albats move to Russian-language radio brings her to the forefront of Kremlin opposition. Recently, she launched a staunch defense of Politkovskaya on her radio program, one which caused Russophile Moscow Times columnist Alexei Pankin to label her as espousing “democratic sympathies that verge on Bolshevik intransigence.”
Reviewing her book, the New York Times wrote: “That Ms. Albats could conduct her courageous research at all suggests at least a glimmer of change in the ancient Russian apparatus of secrecy. Still, for Americans rushing to feel good about the ‘new’ Russia, ‘The State Within a State" is a sobering reminder that whatever you believe about the influence of the secret police now, the world in which the Hydra-headed K.G.B. flourished is just three short years behind us.” Albats cagily said nothing to condemn Putin when he first rose to power, giving him all the rope he needed to hang himself. She told PBS’s Frontline just after he came to power: “Obviously, I don't think that's a good idea to judge Putin just by his KGB past. It's not right, because that's the way KGB used to judge us Soviet citizens--just because we are not party members or had the wrong last name or belonged to the wrong nationality or confessed to religion. I do believe that people are capable to change, and that ten years in the democratic circles did make a certain impact on Putin, as well.” But she also fretted: “The mentality of the KGB officer is that they were taught to be an extreme statist. . . . those who believe in the Russian imperialistic notion of being a great empire. That kind of mentality was taught and developed inside the KGB. And we clearly can see that Putin is that sort of extreme statist. For him, as for many of those who worked in the KGB, the state always comes first.” Thus, she now has a solid base from which to launch her assault on the Kremlin, which may see silencing her as its only alternative given that she cannot be discredited.
If you read Russian, you can also keep up with Albats on her blog.
5. Yulia Latynina
If Yevgenia Albats is not Politkovskaya’s successor, then the mantle surely falls to her firebrand colleague at Novaya Gazeta, Yulia Latynina (also a columnist for the Moscow Times and an Ekho Moskvy radio commentator like Albats). No description of this amazing woman can suffice, one must let her words speak for themselves. Here’s a transcript from one of her broadcasts:
Good day, this is Yulia Latynina and “Access code” is on the air. First, as always, some questions from the internet. I have a bunch of questions I’m going to try to answer here about Abkhazia, about Yuganskneftegaz, about the terrorist act in Taba, even about the Russian national soccer team’s loss. But first I would like to briefly mention one interesting item which went practically unnoticed by the Russian press but was very much of interest to Western newspapers. That is the report of the governing council of Iraq, which found that Russian politicians and officials received fairly large amounts of money from Saddam Hussein. Companies linked to the KPRF received about 142 million barrels under the oil-for-food program, that works out to about $16 million of profit for them. Zhirinovsky received more than $8 million, Mirkom, the MChS’s trading company, that is, I should remind you that at that time that trading company and the MChS were headed up by the then-leader of “Unity” [Sergei] Shoigu, and all of this was going on while the question of whether Russia would support Iraq or America was being decided. Shoigu received $7.6 million, and the most modest recipient was Aleksandr Voloshin, the then-head of the presidential administration, a mere $638,000, according to the Iraqi governing council.
As I already said, none of this aroused very much curiosity in Russia. First, because all of this has long been rumored, and there wasn’t really anything that seemed too disturbing for Russia. Yes, we know more or less what our Russian officials are like, but in the West everyone was terribly alarmed. The reason I’m talking about this is that it’s a very important matter, this story about Iraqi money, Iraqi bribes to be more precise, which explains the mechanism by which our foreign policy decisions are made. To be honest, it was always incomprehensible to me why Russia took Europe’s side on the issue of Iraq rather than America’s. Let me repeat that I don’t want to discuss the Iraq war here, I don’t think it was justified, and I don’t think President Bush was a smart man for starting it, that was all falsehoods, stupidity, and lies. Just like all lies, this one has ended badly; Bush wanted to use the Iraq war to help defeat terrorism, but he’s only made it stronger. He wanted to lower the cost of gasoline for his voters, but he’s raised it. And most importantly, the war in Iraq has changed the USA from a power which controlled the world through certain mechanisms, certain economic, financial, and, as funny as it may sound in relation to the US, cultural mechanisms, to the extent that Hollywood and McDonald’s can be considered culture. So anyway, this war has transformed the USA from America into an empire. To be what America was and become an empire, that’s sort of like what happened to Spain in the 16th century, what a fall.
But we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about the fact that the war in Iraq could have become a fortunate gift for Russia, because we could have become America’s natural allies in the war against Islam. That is, we are fighting Islam in Chechnya, after all, and the US is doing so in Iraq. Second, because the USA was prepared to compensate us for our support in this war. They were ready to repay us not only with trade concessions and not only with the repeal of Jackson-Vanik; they were willing to repay us by changing Russia’s geopolitical status. Specifically, they were willing to make Russian oil instead of Arab oil one of the main sources of US oil reserves. Forgive me for such a pro-Russian statement, but a chance like this comes along to a country that has left the ranks of the superpowers once in a century. And we supported not the US, as it happened, we supported Iraq, we supported the EU, which, let me remind you, is a half-Islamic state. It’s enough to say that the most popular name for newborn boys this year in Holland was Mohammed. And now it’s become clear, from the report of the Iraqi governing council, why this happened: because the US was offering trade benefits for all of Russia, geopolitical status, Jackson-Vanik, etc. Saddam Hussein was offering big bucks to the big-shots. That is, Saddam Hussein understood better than the Americans how Russia works, because as it turned out, to get our support, the Americans shouldn’t have enticed us with Jackson-Vanik or whatever. It would have been enough to pay our officials more than Hussein did. That is a frightening decisionmaking process. We have 50 seconds to commercial, so speak up, you’re on the air.
Listener Alexei (Moscow) – Yulia, you find lots of interesting stories in the surrounding environment and comment on them in very interesting ways. But how would you comment on this story, it seems pretty interesting that some liberals are shouting on every street corner about how democracy and freedom of speech are being suppressed. But other liberals, including the leaders of SPS, Gaidar and Chubais, are implementing this very same suppression of democracy and free speech. How can that be?
Yu. Latynina – thanks for the question, I’m of course quite surprised that it turns out we’re ruled by Gaidar and Chubais here in Russia, that they are the ones suppressing free speech and democracy. I’m speechless, so I can end my commentary there and break for commercial. But, actually, that’s a brilliant text, I advise you to send it in to the Financial Times, that certain liberals, as you said, certain individual liberals, that’s a classic way of putting it, certain individual liberals are suppressing democracy. Turns out Gaidar’s in charge of the country.
How much longer Latynina will be allowed to go on like that is anybody’s guess. It’s actually quite mild compared to some of her commentary, such as this from the pages of the 2004 Moscow Times:
In the next decade, Russia may break up into six to eight different states. That, at least, is the view of CIA analysts to be found in a report available on the intelligence agency's web site. In world history, countries that suffer from systemic internal disorder inevitably become the victims of conquest. And not even nuclear weapons can guarantee the territorial integrity of a country, just as a car alarms don't always protect against theft. A country without an army is in trouble, and Russia's army showed its true colors in Chechnya: It's adept at plundering but no good at fighting. In this high-tech age, only professional armies can get the job done; mass conscript armies are as obsolete as cavalry armies were in World War II. However, our generals reject any reform of the army because a professional army would not perform, in their view, its most important function: building generals' dachas. The Kremlin also abandoned reform of the army, though for a different reason: A professional army is a threat to the authorities. All the preconditions for a military dictatorship in Russia are in place, except for the military itself. The authorities would clearly prefer that the army disgrace itself in Chechnya. The state of the army also means that the preconditions are in place for the conquest of Russia from without. The strategic foes are the Islamic world and China; but we don't hear much about Islam or China, we only hear about NATO. The fact that NATO is at our borders is a slap in the face but not a threat. disintegrating empire, which has a war on its hands but no army, tends to delegate the fighting to local princelings and to surround itself with a network of feudal principalities. One such principality is Chechnya, where President Akhmad Kadyrov will remain true to the Kremlin for as long as it serves his interests.
This is the courage of a Solzhenitsyn, willing to be packed off to a gulag in order to stand up for the future of her country. But it appears that only men, like oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, merit prison sentences from the Kremlin. Women like Politkovskaya get a bullet in the back in the night. Will we stand up for Yulia before it’s too late? We shall see.
Labels: neo-soviet crackdown, russia, sunday photos Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russianforces.org/blog/
[There is more info on weapons in Russia on this page]
Glonass and common sense
The defense ministry eventually lifted the restrictions on accuracy of data obtained from navigation satellites. Until recently it was illegal to know your location with better than 30-meter accuracy. The new measure should provide a much needed boost to the Glonass deployment plans.
[Space] [Comments (0)] [December 18, 2006
First mobile Topol-M missiles became operational
The Strategic Rocket Forces announced on December 10, 2006 that the first regiment of mobile Topol-M missiles became operational with the missile division in Teykovo.
These three missiles are the first mobile Topol-M missiles to become operational. They will join three silo-based Topol-Ms that are expected to be deployed in Tatishchevo in addition to the 42 missiles of this type already there. This should bring the number of Topol-M missiles to 48 by the end of 2006.
[Rocket Forces] [Comments (16)] [December 10, 2006
Test of an ABM interceptor
On December 5, 2006 Russia carried out a successful test of an interceptor of the A-135 missile defense system, deployed around Moscow. The test was conducted around 11:00 MSK (08:00 UTC) at the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. The Space Forces announced that the test was part of the program to extend operational life of the interceptors.
It is not immediately clear whether it was a short-range 53T6 or a long-range 51T6 interceptor. Some reports indicate that the interceptor was of the same type as the one tested on November 29, 2004, which was believed to be a short-range 53T6. Earlier tests of A-135 interceptors took place on November 2, 1999 (53T6) and on October 2, 2002 (51T6).
UPDATE: Kommersant reported that it was a test of the short-range 53T6 interceptor. Moreover, according to Kommersant, all 32 long-range interceptors of the A-135 system have been already withdrawn from service.
[Missile defense] [Comments (8)] [December 5, 2006
http://www.google.com/search?q=Small-scale+chem%2Fbio+terrorist+attacks+%28CRS%29&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Several Beslan articles:
http://www.agentura.ru/english/
http://www.google.com/search?q=KGB%27s+founder+back+on+his+plinth+in+Russia.&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Russia+faces+new+spy+threat%3A+FSB+chief.&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
Check the other departments:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:do84iOpqo40J:www.agentura.ru/english/+Agentura.Ru+and+Ejednevnyi+Jurnal+started+joint+project+called+%22Back+to+KGB%22.&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=netscape-pp
http://www.axisglobe.com/news.asp?news=10286
15.01.200711:19 (GMT) - 007 News
In a review on Russia’s secret services in 2006, published in the Yezhednevny zhurnal magazine, its authors, Andrey Soldatov and Irina Borogan, underline that the last year, probably, for the first time, Russian secret services had collided with the present real international terrorism, ‘without any accompanying political tricks, as in the Chechen Republic”.
The authors pay wide attention to the murder of Russian diplomats in Iraq last June. They call the following events a test that any of Russian secret services have failed so far.
First the intelligence services showed that they did not have any information on regional terrorist groupings.
It was unexpectedly found out that the positions, Russian intelligence had won during the Soviet period and supported by diligence of the team of Primakov and Trubnikov in the 1990s, did not suit in the new situation with the Islamists as the key players there.
The Russian intelligence, having good contacts in the environment of former supporters of Saddam Hussein in Damascus, could not prevent murder of diplomats and till now they are even unable to agree on return of their bodies.
Yezhednevny zhurnal marks that it was for the sake of these contacts when three years ago the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia got into a trouble that deprived Russian companies of any chances of oil business in new Iraq.
Then the coalition troops found out in Baghdad the SVR certificates issued couple of months earlier to the old regime’s officers upon graduation from the Russian intelligence training courses.
Without their own informers, Russian secret services had done everything to lose the help of their foreign colleagues, the authors point out.
The murder of Russian embassy employees became a pretext for assigning to secret services of the right to liquidations abroad, the authors mark.
The President had strengthened the effect, having ordered to find and destroy the terrorists.
In spite of appreciation from the security forces, already in half a year, the order had sent sideways to the Russian special services. (More in today' s Eurasian Secret Services daily Review.)
All Rights Reserved - AXIS
http://www.axisglobe.com/news.asp?news=10285
15.01.200710:07 (GMT) - 007 News
According to online paper MIGnews.com.ua, ex-major of the Ukraine’s State Protection Service, Nikolai Melnichenko has arrived to Ukraine again.
There is no precise information on his plans, the paper says, suggesting it may be connected with the statement of the American side that has stated readiness to render technical assistance in the next examination of the “Melnichenko tapes".
The ad hoc Investigation Commission of the Ukraine’s parliament on the circumstances and the reasons of death of journalist Georgy Gongadze and finding-out of the reasons of delay in investigation of the criminal case will insist on thorough examination of the records allegedly made in the office of the ex-President of Ukraine by his security guard Nikolai Melnichenko.
This was announced by the press-service of the People's Deputy of Ukraine, Vasily Silchenko, who is the Vice Chairman of the parliamentary commission. Silchenko, Yury Miroshnichenko, Secretary of the commission and Nikolai Zamkovenko, member of the commission, from the Ukrainian side and Mark Wood, embassy’s 2nd Secretary, Kent Longsdone, Adviser on political issues, and also Bryan Earl, Assistant to the attache on legal issues, took part in a meeting between the commission members and US diplomats in the US Embassy last week, according to the statement.
The US Ambassador, William Taylor, was also present at the meeting. The American side, in particular, informed, that the materials submitted by the State Office of Public Prosecutor of Ukraine for further examination by the FBI experts, do not correspond to some conditions.
Nevertheless, the FBI has examined the part of the recordings, concerning the sale of Kolchuga weapons system, and has confirmed their authenticity, MIGnews.com.ua writes.
According to Silchenko, the American experts «will render exclusively technical help», and the analysis will be spent within the framework of the current legislation of Ukraine and will help to establish the legal status of the recordings made by Melnichenko, and whether they may serve as direct evidence in the case.
All Rights Reserved - AXIS
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/08/soviet-general-exposes-soviet-and-neo.html
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Soviet General Exposes Soviet and Neo-Soviet Support for Terrorism
Writing in National Review, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc, exposes the horror of Soviet and Neo-Soviet support for terrorism. His book Red Horizons has been republished in 27 countries.
The Kremlin may be the main winner in the Lebanon war. Israel has been attacked with Soviet Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, Russian Fajr-1 and Fajr-3 rockets, Russian AT-5 Spandrel antitank missiles and Kornet antitank rockets. Russia’s outmoded weapons are now all the rage with terrorists everywhere in the world, and the bad guys know exactly where to get them. The weapons cases abandoned by Hezbollah were marked: “Customer: Ministry of Defense of Syria. Supplier: KBP, Tula, Russia.”
Today’s international terrorism was conceived at the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the KGB, in the aftermath of the1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East. I witnessed its birth in my other life, as a Communist general. Israel humiliated Egypt and Syria, whose bellicose governments were being run by Soviet razvedka (Russian for “foreign intelligence”) advisers, whereupon the Kremlin decided to arm Israel’s enemy neighbors, the Palestinians, and draw them into a terrorist war against Israel.General Aleksandr Sakharovsky, who created Communist Romania’s intelligence structure and then rose to head up all of Soviet Russia’s foreign intelligence, often lectured me: “In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon.”
Between 1968 and 1978, when I broke with Communism, the security forces of Romania alone sent two cargo planes full of military goodies every week to Palestinian terrorists in Lebanon. Since the fall of Communism the East German Stasi archives have revealed that, in 1983 alone, its foreign intelligence service sent $1,877,600 worth of AK-47 ammunition to Lebanon. According to Vaclav Havel, Communist Czechoslovakia shipped 1,000 tons of the odorless explosive Semtex-H (which can’t be detected by sniffer dogs) to Islamic terrorists — enough for 150 years. The terrorist war per se came into action at the end of 1968, when the KGB transformed airplane hijacking — that weapon of choice for September 11, 2001 — into an instrument of terror.
In 1969 alone there were 82 hijackings of planes worldwide, carried out by the KGB-financed PLO. In 1971, when I was visiting Sakharovsky at his Lubyanka office, he called my attention to a sea of red flags pinned onto a world map hanging on the wall. Each flag represented a captured plane. “Airplane hijacking is my own invention,” he claimed. The political “success” occasioned by hijacking Israeli airplanes prompted the KGB’s 13th Department, known in our intelligence jargon as the “Department for Wet Affairs” (wet being a euphemism for bloody), to expand into organizing “public executions” of Jews in airports, train stations, and other public places.
In 1969 Dr. George Habash, a KGB puppet, explained: “Killing one Jew far away from the field of battle is more effective than killing a hundred Jews on the field of battle, because it attracts more attention.”By the end of the 1960s, the KGB was deeply involved in mass terrorism against Jews, carried out by various Palestinian client organizations.
Here are some terrorist actions for which the KGB took credit while I was still in Romania: November 1969, armed attack on the El Al office in Athens, leaving 1 dead and 14 wounded; May 30, 1972, Ben Gurion Airport attack, leaving 22 dead and 76 wounded; December 1974, Tel Aviv movie theater bomb, leaving 2 dead and 66 wounded; March 1975, attack on a Tel Aviv hotel, leaving 25 dead and 6 wounded; May 1975, Jerusalem bomb, leaving 1 dead and 3 wounded; July 4, 1975, bomb in Zion Square, Jerusalem, leaving 15 dead and 62 wounded; April 1978, Brussels airport attack, leaving 12 wounded; May 1978, attack on an El Al plane in Paris, leaving 12 wounded. In 1971, the KGB launched operation Tayfun (Russian for “typhoon”), aimed at destabilizing Western Europe. The Baader-Meinhof, the Red Army Faction (RAF), and other KGB-sponsored Marxist organizations unleashed a wave of anti-American terrorism that shook Western Europe. Richard Welsh, the CIA station chief in Athens, was shot to death in Greece on December 23, 1975. General Alexander Haig, commander of NATO in Brussels was injured in a bomb attack that damaged his armored Mercedes beyond repair in June 1979. General Frederick J. Kroesen, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, barely survived a rocket attack in September 1981. Alfred Herrhausen, the pro-American chairman of Deutsche Bank, was killed during a grenade attack in November 1989. Hans Neusel, a pro-American state secretary in the West Germaninterior ministry, was wounded during an assassination attempt in July 1990.
In 1972, the Kremlin decided to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the U.S. As KGB chairman Yury Andropov told me, a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States. No one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should any longer feel safe. According to Andropov, the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought. Islamic anti-Semitism ran deep. The Muslims had a taste for nationalism, jingoism, and victimology. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch. Terrorism and violence against Israel and her master, American Zionism, would flow naturally from the Muslims’ religious fervor, Andropov sermonized. We had only to keep repeating our themes — that the United States and Israel were “fascist, imperial-Zionist countries” bankrolled by rich Jews. Islam was obsessed with preventing the infidels’ occupation of its territory, and it would be highly receptive to our characterization of the U.S. Congress as a rapacious Zionist body aiming to turn the world into a Jewish fiefdom.
The codename of this operation was “SIG” (Sionistskiye Gosudarstva, or “Zionist Governments”), and was within my Romanian service’s “sphere of influence,” for it embraced Libya, Lebanon, and Syria. SIG was a large party/state operation. We created joint ventures to build hospitals, houses, and roads in these countries, and there we sent thousands of doctors, engineers, technicians, professors, and even dance instructors. All had the task of portraying the United States as an arrogant and haughty Jewish fiefdom financed by Jewish money and run by Jewish politicians, whose aim was to subordinate the entire Islamic world. In the mid 1970s, the KGB ordered my service, the DIE — along with other East European sister services — to scour the country for trusted party activists belonging to various Islamic ethnic groups, train them in disinformation and terrorist operations, and infiltrate them into the countries of our “sphere of influence.”
Their task was to export a rabid, demented hatred for American Zionism by manipulating the ancestral abhorrence for Jews felt by the people in that part of the world. Before I left Romania for good, in 1978, my DIE had dispatched around 500 such undercover agents to Islamic countries. According to a rough estimate received from Moscow, by 1978 the whole Soviet-bloc intelligence community had sent some 4,000 such agents of influence into the Islamic world. In the mid-1970s we also started showering the Islamic world with an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a tsarist Russian forgery that had been used by Hitler as the foundation for his anti-Semitic philosophy.
We also disseminated a KGB-fabricated “documentary” paper in Arabic alleging that Israel and its main supporter, the United States, were Zionist countries dedicated to converting the Islamic world into a Jewish colony.We in the Soviet bloc tried to conquer minds, because we knew we could not win any military battles. It is hard to say what exactly are the lasting effects of operation SIG. But the cumulative effect of disseminating hundreds of thousands of Protocols in the Islamic world and portraying Israel and the United States as Islam’s deadly enemies was surely not constructive. Post-Soviet Russia has been transformed in unprecedented ways, but the widely popular belief that the nefarious Soviet legacy was rooted out at the end of the Cold War the same way that Nazism was rooted out with the conclusion of World War II, is not yet correct.
In the 1950s, when I was chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence station in West Germany, I witnessed how Hitler’s Third Reich had been demolished, its war criminals put on trial, its military and police forces disbanded, and the Nazis removed from public office. None of these things has happened in the former Soviet Union. No individual has been put on trial, although the Soviet Union’s Communist regime killed over a hundred million people. Most Soviet institutions have been left in place, having simply been given new names, and are now run by many of the same people who guided the Communist state. In 2000, former officers of the KGB and the Soviet Red Army took over the Kremlin and Russia’s government. Germany would have never become a democracy with Gestapo and SS officers running the show.
On September 11, 2001, President Vladimir Putin became the first leader of a foreign country to express sympathy to President George W. Bush for what he called “these terrible tragedies of the terrorist attacks.” Soon, however, Putin began moving his country back into the terrorist business. In March 2002, he quietly reinstituted sales of weapons to Iran’s terrorist dictator, Ayatollah Khamenei, and engaged Russia in the construction of a 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor at Bushehr, with a uranium conversion facility able to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. Hundreds of Russian technicians also started helping the government of Iran to develop the Shahab-4 missile, with a range of over 1,250 miles, which can carry a nuclear or germ warhead anywhere in the Middle East and Europe.
Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had already announced that nothing could stop his country from building nuclear weapons, and he stated that Israel was a “disgraceful stain [on] the Islamic world” that would be eliminated. During World War II, 405,399 Americans died to eradicate Nazism and its anti-Semitic terrorism. Now we are facing Islamic fascism and nuclear anti-Semitic terrorism. The United Nations can offer no hope. It has not yet even been able to define terrorism.
Labels: russia Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/08/neo-soviet-russia-undermines-world.html
Monday, August 14, 2006
Neo-Soviet Russia Undermines World Peace
Relying on CIA data, American Daily reports more details on how Neo-Soviet Russia is working to undermine world peace and support global terrorism:
Russia's cash-strapped defense, biotechnology, chemical, aerospace, and nuclear industries continued to be eager to raise funds via exports and transfers. Some Russian universities and scientific institutes also showed a willingness to earn much-needed funds by providing WMD or missile-related teaching and training for foreign students.
Given the large potential proliferation impact of such exports, transfers, and training, monitoring the activities of specific entities as well as the overall effectiveness of the Russian Government's nonproliferation regime remained an important element of the US bilateral dialogue with Russia on nonproliferation.Russia continued to play a key role in constructing the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant project in Iran. However, President Putin has insisted that all Iranian programs in the nuclear field be placed under International Atomic Energy Agency control.
President Putin amended the presidential decree on nuclear exports to allow Russia in exceptional cases to export nuclear materials, technology, and equipment to countries that do not have full-scope IAEA safeguards. For example, Russia supplied India with material for its civilian nuclear program. The Russians during the reporting period continued to supply a variety of ballistic missile-related goods and technical know-how to countries such as Iran, India, and China. Iran's earlier success in gaining technology and materials from Russia helped to accelerate Iranian development of the Shahab-3 MRBM, and continuing Russian entity assistance has supported Iranian efforts to develop new missiles and increase Tehran's self-sufficiency in missile production.
The Russians remained a key source of dual-use biotechnology equipment, chemicals and related expertise for countries of concern with active chemical and biological weapons programs. Russia's well-known biological and chemical expertise made it an attractive target for countries seeking assistance in areas with CBW applications.For instance, Russia and Syria have continued their long-standing agreements on cooperation regarding nuclear energy, although specific assistance has not yet materialized.
Broader access to foreign expertise provides opportunities to expand its indigenous capabilities and the CIA is looking at Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern.Damascus continued to seek help from abroad to establish a solid-propellant rocket motor development and production capability. Syria's liquid-propellant missile program continued to depend on essential foreign equipment and assistance—primarily from North Korean entities.
Damascus also continued to manufacture liquid-propellant Scud missiles. In addition, Syria was developing longer-range missile programs such as a Scud D and possibly other variants with assistance from North Korea and Iran. Syria continued to seek chemical weapons-related expertise from foreign sources during the reporting period. Damascus already held a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin, but apparently tried to develop more toxic and persistent nerve agents. Syria remained dependent on foreign sources for key elements of its CW program, including precursor chemicals and key production equipment. It is highly probable that Syria also continued to develop an offensive BW capability.Syria continued to acquire limited quantities of ACW, mainly from Russia. Damascus's Soviet-era debt to Moscow and inability to fund large purchases continued to hamper efforts to purchase the large quantity of equipment Syria requires to replace its aging weapons inventory.
Russia continued to be a major supplier of conventional arms. Following Moscow's abrogation of the Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement in November 2000, Russian officials stated that they saw Iran as a significant source of potential revenue from arms sales and believed that Tehran could become Russia's third-largest conventional arms customer after China and India. Russia was the primary source for China, Iran, Libya, and Sudan, and one of the largest sources for India. As an example, Russia actively marketed its thermobaric weapons at international arms shows, which likely increases the availability of this type of weapon in the open market.Russia continued to be the main supplier of technology and equipment to India's and China's naval nuclear propulsion programs.
Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/09/russia-and-islamic-terror-view-from.html
Monday, September 11, 2006
Russia and Islamic Terror: The View from Inside
Global Politician offers readers a series of excerpts from the book Spetsnaz written by KGB defector Victor Suvurov. They highlight Russian involvement in international terrorism and are particuarly apposite on the somber anniversary of 9/11.
"…Soviet secret police, the KGB, carries out different functions (than the Spetsnaz) and has other priorities. It has its own terrorist apparatus, which includes an organization very similar to spetsnaz, known as osnaz. The KGB uses osnaz for carrying out a range of tasks not dissimilar to those performed by the GRU's spetsnaz. But the Soviet leaders consider that it is best not to have any monopolies in the field of secret warfare. Competition, they feel, gives far better results than ration."
"…Osnaz apparently came into being practically at the same time as the Communist dictatorship. In the very first moments of the existence of the Soviet regime, we find references to detachments osobogo nazhacheniya-special purpose detachments. Osnaz means military-terrorist units, which came into being as shock troops of the Communist Party whose job was to defend the party. Osnaz was later handed over to the secret police, which changed its own name from time to time as easily as a snake changes its skins: Cheka-Vcheka-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB. Once a snake, however, always a snake."
"It is the fact that Spetsnaz belongs to the army, and Osnaz to the secret police, that accounts for all the differences between them. Spetsnaz operates mainly against external enemies; Osnaz does the same but mainly in its own territory and against its own citizens. Even if both Spetsnaz and Osnaz are faced with carrying out one and the same operation, the Soviet leadership is not inclined to rely so much on co-operation between the army and the secret police as on the strong competitive instincts between them."
"…Thus if it is relatively easy to recruit a man to act as a 'sleeper', what about recruiting a foreigner to act as a real terrorist, prepared to commit murder, use explosives and fire buildings? Surely that is much more difficult? The answer is that, surprisingly, it is not."
"A Spetsnaz officer out to recruit agents for direct terrorist action has a wonderful base for his work in the West. There are a tremendous number of people who are discontented and ready to protest against absolutely anything. And while millions protest peacefully, some individuals will resort to any means to make their protest. The spetsnaz officer has only to find the malcontent who is ready to go to extremes."
"On another occasion a group of animal rights activists in the UK injected bars of chocolate with poison. If spetsnaz were able to contact that group, and there is every chance it might, it would be extremely keen (without, of course, mentioning its name) to suggest to them a number of even more effective ways of protesting. Activists, radicals, peace campaigners, green party members: as far as the leaders of the GRU are concerned, these are like ripe water-melons, green on the outside, but red on the inside-and mouth-watering. So there is a good base for recruiting."
"The spetsnaz network of agents has much in common with international terrorism, a common center, for example-yet they are different things and must not be confused. It would be foolhardy to claim that international terrorism came into being on orders from Moscow. But to claim that, without Moscow's support, international terrorism would never have assumed the scale it has would not be rash. Terrorism has been born in a variety of situations, in various circumstances and in different kinds of soil. Local nationalism has always been a potent source, and the Soviet Union supports it in any form, just as it offers concrete support to extremist groups operating within nationalist movements. Exceptions are made, of course, of the nationalist groups within the Soviet Union and the countries under its influence."
"If groups of extremists emerge in areas where there is no sure Soviet influence, you may be sure that the Soviet Union will very shortly be their best friend. In the GRU alone there are two independent and very powerful bodies dealing with questions relating to extremists and terrorists."
"…The GRU's tactics toward terrorists are simple: never give them any orders, never tell them what to do. They are destroying Western civilization: they know how to do it, the argument goes, so let them get on with it unfettered by petty supervision. Among them there are idealists ready to die for their own ideas. So let them die for them. The most important thing is to preserve their illusion that they are completely free and independent."
"Although the vast majority of spetsnaz is made up of Slavonic personnel, there are some exceptions…And spetsnaz contains Turks, Kurds, Greeks, Koreans, Mongolians, Finns and people of other nationalities."
"The Soviet Union condemns the civil war in Lebanon. But there is no need for it to condemn the war. All it has to do is hold back the next transportation of ammunition and war will cease."
"Apart from military and financial support, the Soviet Union also provides the terrorists aid in the form of training. Training centers have been set up in the Soviet Union for training terrorists from a number of different countries."
"Every terrorist is studied carefully during his training, and among them will be noted the potential leaders and the born rebels who will not submit to any authority…Of equal importance are the students' weaknesses and ambitions, and their relationships with one another. Some time, many years ahead, one of them may become an important leader, but not one approved by Moscow, so it is vital to know in advance who his likely friends and enemies will be."
"The reward for the GRU is that a terrorist doing work for spetsnaz does not, in the great majority of cases, suspect he is being used. He is utterly convinced that he is acting independently, of his own will and by his own choice. The GRU does not leave its signature or his fingerprints around."
"Even in cases where it is not a question of individual terrorists but of experienced leaders of terrorist organizations, the GRU takes extraordinary steps to ensure that not only all outsiders but even the terrorist leader himself should not realize the extent of his subordination to spetsnaz and consequently to the GRU."
"The overture is a series of large and small operations the purpose of which is, before actual military operations begin, to weaken the enemy's morale, create an atmosphere of general suspicion, fear and uncertainty, and divert the attention of the enemy's armies and police forces to a huge number of different targets, each of which may be the object of the next attack."
"The overture is carried by agents of the secret services of the Soviet satellite countries and by mercenaries recruited by intermediaries. The principal method employed at this stage is "gray terror", that is, a kind of terror which is not conducted in the name of the Soviet Union. The Soviet secret services do not at this stage leave their visiting cards, or leave other people's cards. The terror is carried out in the name of already existing extremist groups not connected in any way with the Soviet Union, or in the name of the fictitious organizations. The GRU reckons that in this period its operations should be regarded as natural disasters, actions by forces beyond human control, mistakes by people, or as terrorist acts by organizations not connected with the Soviet Union."
"The terrorist acts carried out in the course of the 'overture' require very few people, very few weapons and little equipment. In some cases all that may be needed is one man who has a weapon nothing more than a screwdriver, a box of marches or a glass ampoule. Some of the operations can have catastrophic consequences. For example, an epidemic of an infectious disease at seven of the most important naval bases in the West could have the effect of halving the combined naval might of the Soviet Union's enemies."
"There is a marked increase in the strength of the peace movement. In many countries there are continual demand to make the country neutral and not to support American foreign policy, which has been discredited. At this point the 'gray terror' gathers scope and strength and in the last days of peace reaches its peak."
Labels: russia Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/10/russia-gives-direct-military.html
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Russia Gives Direct Military Assistance to Hezbollah
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Russia has moved from giving financial aid and diplomatic cover to terrorist organizations to providing them with military intelligence to be used in attacking Israel, just as it provided U.S. military secrets to Iraq during the U.S. invasion of that country.
During the fighting in Lebanon, Hezbollah received direct intelligence support from Syria, using data collected by listening posts jointly manned by Russian and Syrian crews. Hezbollah was also fed intelligence from new listening posts built on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which are operated jointly with Iran. This information was confirmed in recent reports by the defense journal Jane's.
Syria's centrality to the collection and transfer of intelligence to Hezbollah is based on separate agreements Damascus signed with Moscow and Tehran on intelligence cooperation. The agreement with Russia is much older than the one with Iran, which was signed earlier this year. As happened with the significant numbers of advanced Russian anti-tank missiles procured by Syria and transferred to Hezbollah, Russia found itself operating indirectly in favor of the Lebanese Shi'ite organization in matters of intelligence.
In addition to the profits from arms sales to Syria, the Russo-Syrian intelligence cooperation benefits Moscow in terms of the actual first-hand data collected by the listening posts. Russia is also involved in assisting Syria to enlarge two of its ports on the Mediterranean, Latakia and Tartus. Reports of this development have emerged only recently. Israel complained to Russia regarding the transfer of advanced anti-tank missiles sold to Syria. Moscow denied the reports but also promised to investigate Israel's claims.
It is not clear whether Israel also protested over the transfer of intelligence collected by the Russian-Syrian listening posts to Hezbollah. The intelligence cooperation agreement between Syria and Iran is new. It is part of a broader strategic cooperation accord between the two states that was achieved in November 2005 and confirmed during the visit to Damascus in January 2006 of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The agreement on intelligence cooperation gives great emphasis to electronic surveillance and involves the construction of four listening stations. According to Jane's, the funding for the stations, estimated in the neighborhood of dozens of million dollars, came mostly from the budget of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Two of these stations were built prior to July 12, the date the fighting began in Lebanon. One was constructed at Baab al-Hawa, close to Syria's border with Turkey, and a second, which began operating in early June, was set up on the Golan Heights. Two other stations will be constructed no later than January 2007. Iran has focused on potential threats against its territory as a result of the friction that has emerged between Tehran and the international community over its failure to freeze its nuclear enrichment program.
The Revolutionary Guard is keen to broaden its involvement in the Middle East in general and enhance its intelligence-gathering capabilities on activities in the Mediterranean region. In addition to Israel, which is an obvious target of this intelligence-gathering effort, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and American forces in the region are also of great interest. According to the Jane's report, in its agreement of intelligence cooperation with Syria, Iran insisted that no Russian intelligence officers should be allowed access to the new listening posts, despite the long standing deal between Damascus and Moscow.
Labels: cold war II, russia Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/index.html
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Human Rights Watch Blasts Russian Atrocities in 2006
Reader Jeremy Putley draws our attention to the recently issued Human Rights Watch World Report 2007, which includes the following information about Russia:
The murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaia profoundly shocked the human rights movement in Russia and internationally and symbolized the further deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has tightened its grip on human rights organizations and other independent institutions. Grave human rights abuses persist in Chechnya, including torture, abductions, and forced disappearances, and the conflict threatens to spill over into other regions of the northern Caucasus.
International scrutiny of Russia’s human rights record was grossly inadequate at a time when Russia assumed leadership of two international bodies in 2006, resulting in a lost opportunity to press Russia to improve its record. Russia took over chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May and held the presidency of the Group of Eight, hosting the organization's summit in St Petersburg in July.
Despite claims of stability and reconstruction in Chechnya, the ongoing armed conflict continues to claim civilian lives. Russia’s federal forces play less of a direct role in Chechnya; pro-Kremlin Chechen forces under the command of Chechnya’s prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, known as the “kadyrovtsy” now dominate law enforcement and security operations and commit grave human rights abuses.
Although local human rights groups reported a slight decline in the number of abductions leading to forced disappearances in 2006, these disappearances remain a key feature of the conflict, with as many as 5,000 people “disappeared” since 1999 and at least 54 so far in 2006. Reports of torture, especially in unofficial detention centers run by the “Kadyrovtsy” increased in 2006.
The Russian government failed to pursue any accountability process for human rights abuses committed during the course of the conflict in Chechnya. Unable to secure justice domestically, hundreds of victims of abuse have filed applications with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The court issued landmark rulings on Chechnya, finding the Russian government guilty of violating the right to life and the prohibition of torture with respect to civilians who had died or been forcibly disappeared at the hands of Russia’s federal troops. Hundreds of similar claims are pending before the court.
Civil Society
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), activists, and independent journalists working on human rights issues, particularly the war in Chechnya, faced increasing administrative and judicial harassment. In some cases, these individuals also endured persecution, threats, and physical attacks.
In October 2006 an unidentified gunman murdered Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaia. Known for her independent reporting, particularly about abuses committed in the war in Chechnya, Politkovskaia was a fierce critic of the Kremlin and the pro-Russian Chechen government. There seemed little doubt she was killed because of her work. Also, there was a rise in the number of death threats against prominent human rights defenders.
In November 2005 authorities in Dagestan held Osman Boliev—a human rights defender who investigated kidnapping and other abuses by police—for three months on charges of illegal weapons possession. He was tortured in custody and later acquitted and released. In July 2006 police charged him with aiding the terrorists who seized hundreds of hostages in a Moscow theater in 2002. Fearing for his safety, Boliev fled Russia.
In January President Vladimir V. Putin signed into law new regulations that impose burdensome reporting requirements on all NGOs and grant registration officials unprecedented authority to interfere with or restrict the work of NGOs. Under the law, officials may, without a court order, demand any document at any time from an NGO and order an intrusive inspection of an NGO’s office. The law requires foreign NGOs to submit annual and quarterly work plans and permits government officials to ban planned projects or activities that conflict with Russia’s national interests. All foreign NGOs had to re-register by mid-October; hundreds had to suspend their operations for weeks while their applications were pending.
In February a criminal court in Nizhni Novgorod handed Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the executive director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, a two-year suspended sentence on charges of “inciting racial hatred” for articles he had published in the organization’s newspaper. The articles featured statements from leading Chechen separatists that in reality amounted to protected speech. A civil court liquidated the organization, finding that it had failed to distance itself from Dmitrievsky; as of this writing the case was on appeal with the Supreme Court.
Several Russian human rights organizations were threatened with—but avoided— closure for problems with their charter or failing to report their activities. But the International Defense Assistance Center, a Russian group that represents people from Russia at the ECHR received a bill for back taxes and penalties on tax exempt grants for US$167,000. Under the tax code, money for educational, analytical, and research purposes is not taxable and the tax bill appears to be an attempt to shut down the NGO, which has 250 cases pending before the ECHR.
Xenophobia and Intolerance
Human rights groups reported more than a hundred racist and xenophobic attacks—an increase over last year—including at least 36 murders and 286 people beaten or wounded in the first nine months of the year. Notably, in September violent mobs in Kondopoga, in northern Russia, attacked residents from the Caucasus, causing hundreds to flee the city fearing for their lives. Some of the more serious attacks have been prosecuted, but police routinely characterize racist crimes as hooliganism, a misdemeanor charge, rather than use sentencing enhancement for hate-motivated crimes available in Russian law.
After months of rising tensions between the Russian and Georgian governments, in October 2006 Georgian authorities in Tbilisi briefly detained four Russian military officers on accusations of espionage. In retaliation, the Russian government deported hundreds of Georgians, forced Georgian-owned businesses to close, and asked teachers for lists of school children with Georgian last names so their parents could be investigated for visa or tax violations.
After a court upheld Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkhov’s ban on a gay and lesbian pride march, on May 27, 2006, several dozen gay activists and supporters attempted to hold two protest rallies in support of freedoms of assembly and expression. Hundreds of anti-gay protesters, including skinheads, nationalists, and Orthodox followers, attacked the participants, beating and kicking many, and chanted threats. The mayor’s office had earlier made homophobic statements and circulated directives to restrict gay and lesbian rights.
Entrenched Problems
A gruesome case of hazing in the army, which resulted in a conscript having to have his legs and genitals amputated, once again pushed violent hazing in Russia’s military into the spotlight. The Ministry of Defense took steps to address this crime, but maintained that violent hazing is not widespread in Russia’s military and blamed television and “the decline of traditional values” for hazing rather than taking responsibility for the problem. Violent hazing results in the death of dozens of young soldiers every year, and serious injuries to thousands more. Many conscripts commit or attempt suicide and thousands defect from their units to escape harm.
Russia continued to increase attention and resources to combat HIV/AIDS. It proposed an ambitious plan to develop treatments and vaccines and raise awareness about the disease and made infectious diseases one of the key agenda items at the summit of G8 leaders in July. However, police abuse, harassment, and widespread discrimination against injection drug users and other groups at high risk for HIV/AIDS continued to interfere with HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts. Access to treatment remained a major problem, with only a fraction of people living with the disease receiving anti-retroviral drugs.
Russia violated its obligations under the Convention against Torture by forcibly returning Uzbeks to Uzbekistan, where they face a risk of torture. In March 2006 the government announced it had returned 19 Uzbeks. In October it returned Rustam Muminov, an asylum seeker wanted on politically-motivated charges in Uzbekistan, in violation of Russian law and after the ECHR imposed an injunction to stop the deportation
Labels: human rights, neo-soviet crackdown, russia 0 comments Links to this post Thanks for reading La Russophobe
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=ACVVOYD0PSCA3QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/01/10/wleb10.xml&site=5&page=0
CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah
By Toby Harnden, US Editor
Last Updated: 1:47am GMT 10/01/2007
# Con Coughlin: Siniora government's battle for survival
The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora.
The finding was signed by Mr Bush before Christmas after discussions between his aides and Saudi Arabian officials. Details of its existence, known only to a small circle of White House officials, intelligence officials and members of Congress, have been passed to The Daily Telegraph.
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It authorises the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to fund anti-Hizbollah groups in Lebanon and pay for activists who support the Siniora government. The secrecy of the finding means that US involvement in the activities is officially deniable.
The Bush administration hopes Mr Siniora's government, severely weakened after its war with Israel last year, will become a bulwark against the growing power of the Shia sect of Islam, championed by Iran and Syria, since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Bush's move is at the centre of a fresh drive by America, supported by the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt as well as Israel, to stop Iranian hegemony in the Middle East emerging from the collapse of Iraq.
continues
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/16/wiran16.xml
Iran 'taking control of Basra by stealth'
By Thomas Harding in Basra
Last Updated: 2:05am GMT 16/01/2007
# In pictures: Brits in Basra
Iranian intelligence is preparing for complete dominance of southern Iraq when the British withdraw by penetrating Basra's security network and political parties, it can be revealed.
Iraqi intelligence sources disclosed to The Daily Telegraph that Iran plans to reap the huge financial rewards presented by the southern oil fields and prevent Western businesses from gaining a foothold inside Basra.
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Click to learn more...
British and American political and military leaders are also concerned over Teheran "giving succour" to terrorists who continue to kill troops every week.
Commanders are anxious that once they pull out of Basra in May the Iranian-backed militias will take over the political and security structures, undoing four years of work that has cost 129 British lives and billions of pounds.
Only the Iraqi army stands in the way of the murderous militias. But while it is regarded as competent, the key moment will come when responsibility for administering Basra is given to the Iraqi government with local politicians taking over. At that point a showdown between the Baghdad-controlled Iraqi army and Iranian-backed Basra militias is expected.
Iran has found it easy to build alliances with fellow Shias who form the majority in southern Iraq. The Iranian-backed insurgents have many recruits among the city's jobless. They are encouraged to attack British patrols and positions to make them look strong as part of the power struggle for Basra, an Iraqi official said. He added that if the British withdrew from the region too early Sunnis would be killed to drive them out and the work of the last four years would have been destroyed.
The ammunition and weapons used to kill and maim British troops have almost certainly crossed the border from Iran 10 miles outside the city and gone straight into the hands of terrorists.
continues:
Spy News:
http://cicentre.com/
It is so cold here that even holding the mouse is difficult, 6 to 24 degrees and frozen pipes.
Not having heat, keeps one on their toes, if they can move in 7 layers of material.
I have posted a lot of strange things, heavy on Russia.
January 15, 2007 PM Anti-Terrorism News
Iraq: At least 16 dead in bombings, shootings
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467739084&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Iraq) Car bomb kills five - wounds 28 - in Mosul
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21066659-1702,00.html
(UK) Six go on trial for failed July 21 'suicide bombings' - 'Good
fortune' foiled bomb plot
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2548394,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/tgdBreakingNewsDisplay/0,,2,00.html#0
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=428879&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5
(UK) Details on 7/21 Bombing Suspects
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=428931&in_page_id=1770
(UK) Bomber's target was baby in a pushchair
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=428932&in_page_id=1770
(UK) 'Terror factory in 9th-floor New Southgate flat'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=428959&in_page_id=1770
(UK) Reid: Terror struggle may be 'as long as' cold war
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=428970&in_page_id=1770
Somali, Ethiopian troops seek attackers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070115/ap_on_re_af/somalia_359
Somali government launches media crackdown
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070115/wl_nm/somalia_conflict_dc_129
(Iraq) Iranians 'trained Shia militants'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SAMND0BF4AF2BQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/01/15/wirq15.xml
Hamas arrests gunmen who stormed UN office in Gaza
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L15288943&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-5
Greek police question witnesses in U.S. embassy hit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070115/ts_nm/greece_attack_dc_1
Update: (Afganistan) NATO soldier killed, several hurt in Afghan
violence
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070115/wl_afp/afghanistanunrestnato_070115140717
(Pakistan) City Bomb Defused In North-west Pakistan
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_9105-City-Bomb-Defused-In-North-west-Pakistan.html
Pakistan 'nuclear' kidnap foiled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6264173.stm
Al-Qaeda 'rebuilding' in Pakistan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6254375.stm
Pakistan's Al-Qaeda dilemma
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6257029.stm
(Canada) Alleged terrorist plot hearing underway - to attack targets in
Ontario
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/15/3383553-cp.html
(Canada) Hearing looks at role of teens in terror case
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/171125
(Canada) Ex-Muslim claims he killed 223 in terror acts - Zachariah
Anani
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=9428c03f-c86a-415f-a9f8-1dae944bca7c
(Thailand) Narathiwat railway bomb wounds two police
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=27274
(India) Hizbul commander arrested in Baramulla
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1900427,000600030010.htm
(Belgium) Islamic group hacks Defense Ministry website
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=24&story_id=35535
Turkey: Clashes between Turkish troops & PKK rebels
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.376492212&par=0
Azzam The American - The making of an Al Qaeda homegrown
Analysis: Azzam The American - Adam Gadahn - The making of an Al Qaeda
homegrown
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070122fa_fact_khatchadourian
Each day another person wakes up to the truth.
There will be many countries, who give up and I hope at least a few who are willing to join the fight.
Good article/thread.
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