Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2204
Venezuela's Chavez Demands Respect from Mexico's Calderon
Monday, Jan 29, 2007
By: Liza Figueroa-Clark – Venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during his weekly television program Aló Presidente.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during his weekly television program Aló Presidente.
Credit: ABN
Caracas, January 29, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez demanded respect from his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, during his weekly program, Aló Presidente, yesterday, and denied that his government planned to seize private property.
“Mr. President of Mexico, if you want people to respect you, then you must show respect,” Chavez responded during his weekly television program, which lasted 7 hours and was broadcast from a cattle ranch on the outskirts of the small city of San Carlos, in central Venezuela. Chavez was inaugurating one of several "socialist formation centers," where he said Venezuelans will study socialist ideals while undergoing job training.
Chavez’s retaliatory remarks came after Calderon criticized Venezuela’s, Argentina’s and Bolivia’s economies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Calderon issued a warning that Latin America was divided into two camps: between those countries that embraced a failed past of state-led models of development, and those that sought economic growth through foreign investment, and stated that, “many countries in Latin America have chosen a move toward the past, and among their most harmful decisions are seeking nationalizations, expropriations, state control of the economy and authoritarianism,” according to Bloomberg.
Calderon last week criticized existing prejudices in Latin America against free trade agreements and stated that investors would be better off taking their capital to Mexico rather than Venezuela, Bolivia or Argentina, where he claimed, “there have been expropriations which investors believe threaten their wealth,” in a reference to Chavez’s recent announcement that his government would nationalize the country's electric and telecommunications companies, and to Bolivia’s moves to nationalize natural gas production.
“Several countries in Latin America are acting against foreign investors, but we are thinking all day, every day, how can we attract more investment to Mexico,” Calderon said.
In response, Chavez told Calderon that building strong ties with the US was jeopardizing Mexico’s future by making it “subordinate to [US] imperialism and world capitalism,” and said he doubted Mexico was the “hope for the future,” as expressed by Calderon.
Chavez also said that Calderon was following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Vicente Fox as a “puppy dog of the empire,” referring to the ex-President’s submission to North American interests.
A diplomatic spat ensued after the exchange between Chavez and Fox late 2005, when Chavez called the then Mexican leader a “puppy dog of the empire.” The comment was in response to Fox’s criticisms of Chavez’s opposition to the free trade agreements with the United States. The incident led to both countries withdrawing their ambassadors and relations have remained tepid ever since.
Chavez admitted Sunday that until now, he had abstained from making any comments on the recently-elected Mexican President, despite the fact that “the Mexican right-wing insulted me when they called me the dictator of the Caribbean during the election campaign against [Manuel] Lopez Obrador,” he said.
Calderon, whose negative campaigning against Obrador included portraying him as an extremist and comparing him to Chavez, won the Mexican Presidential elections by an extremely narrow margin of 233,831 votes, a margin of 0.56 percent. The results were strongly contested by Obrador who refused to acknowledge the result.
“Someone who is meant to be the President of a country […] and seizes on, or uses a President of a beautiful country as an excuse to attack his internal opponent, is simply making it difficult, if not destroying, the possibility of having relations, good relations,” he added.
Chavez rejected declarations made at the World Economic Forum in recent days that claimed there was an energy and terrorism risk in Latin America , and which went as far as to qualify the Venezuelan President as the third threat to the region.
“The only terrorist threat that exists in America at present is the one represented by the government of the United States,” Chavez declared.
Private property
In separate comments made during Aló Presidente , Chavez denied that private property was under threat and urged Venezuelans not to fear the country’s accelerated move towards Socialism.
"If anybody should be scared, we should be scared of capitalism, which destroys society, people and the planet," said Chavez.
Chavez’s comments were an attempt to assuage fears of the wealthy and the middle-class who believe the government will seize assets such as second homes, yachts or expensive cars.
Chavez reminded his audience that the right to private property was enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
“We are building our own model in Venezuela: a mixed economy. We do not reject private property, but it does have to act more and more in the interests of social wellbeing.”
Chavez also reiterated his call to private businessmen and small producers to participate in the construction of Venezuelan socialism.
Chavez explained that there is also social property, which is made up of strategic resources such as oil, energy and agriculture that cannot be privatized and must be run by the State.
Lastly, Chavez stressed that Venezuela’s socialist model was original and could not be compared to any other similar experience. “Cuba is Cuba and Venezuela is Venezuela. Bolivia is Bolivia in its own time and space.”
www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1945
Socialist Ideology Takes New Roots in South America
Monday, Jan 29, 2007
By: Odeen Ishmael
Even though socialist parties have led many of the South American governments for the past decade and a half, none of their leaders ever indicated any intention to build socialism in their respective countries. But this position changed earlier this month when President Chavez announced that as his firm intention for Venezuela. With his close allies also aiming at the same direction, it is obvious that socialism is now taking new roots on the South American continent.
The leftist political trend in Latin America , and more particularly on the South American continent, became pronounced in the 1990s with socialist-oriented parties winning power in free and fair elections after a long period of right-wing dictatorships in many of the countries. However, there was no concerted rush to implant socialist programmes, and to a large extent, these leftist governments applied post-Cold War World Bank-IMF free market policies known as the Washington consensus. These included privatisation of state enterprises, tax reforms and the encouragement of foreign investment. The aim was to improve efficiency in governance and economic management.
By applying this economic model since the start of the 1990s, there was a rush to privatize and many sluggish state enterprises were gobbled up by local and foreign investors. But even though the Washington consensus was accepted as part of general economic reforms, some important state-owned businesses were never sold off. According to the World Bank, state-owned enterprises currently account for about 10 percent of Latin America's GDP and 5 percent of formal employment.
With the resurgence of democracy from the 1990s, people saw a silver lining and expected rapid development, hoping that benefits would accrue to them almost immediately. But to a large extent, that has not happened. And now more and more, they are demanding that their leaders spur effective change.
Faced with this situation, the new leaders, with their support rooted among the poor masses, have begun to re-orient their countries economies with increased emphasis placed on social programmes. And so, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guyana and Uruguay have modified the Washington consensus model in order to deal with the problems of poverty affecting them.
But the pace of economic and social development has not been as fast as people expected, and so some administrations feel that with popular support behind them (as in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador), socialist programmes should be resuscitated to rectify the problems which the free market economy could not solve.
Evidently, privatization has spurred modernization, but critics across the continent complain that the fortunes reaped have been squandered and the buyers failed to make new investments in the various countries. And even though it has also helped to promote economic growth, not all the privatized enterprises have shown success. Some have collapsed from bankruptcy and even mismanagement, while others have been re-sold to new investors for stupendous profits.
Faced with this situation, some governments are deciding to re-nationalize or to take majority shares in some of the privatized enterprises. President Morales has already done that with the Bolivian gas industry, and more recently, President Chavez announced that his government would nationalize the electricity and telecommunications sectors. This announcement caused an immediate selling off on the New York Stock Exchange of shares in the telecommunication enterprise, but the situation quickly stabilized after the government announced it would negotiate fair market prices for the businesses.
Currently, Venezuela remains a vibrant capitalist economy. But with nationalization and state majority in some key industries, including petroleum, the government is pushing for a mixed economy involving the private sector, the state, and producers' cooperatives especially in the rural areas.
In the general definition of socialist ideology, nationalization is regarded as one of its main economic base factors. But both Presidents Chavez and Morales also see nationalization as essential to national pride and security.
The "socialism" for Venezuela has not yet been defined, but President Chavez describes it as "twenty-first century socialism". There is no mention of Marxism-Leninism, even though Chavez has stated that people must read Marx and Lenin to understand what socialist ideology means.
A clearer view emerged on January 18 when Chavez explained in Rio de Janeiro, where he was attending the Mercosur summit, that his vision of "twenty-first century socialism" is different to the failed Soviet model which he said was unsuccessful because it was not democratic and did not give power to the people. He added: "In a democracy, in an authentic socialism, power must be given to the people. We have to construct a truly socialist model that does not copy models from other countries." This statement is significant since Chavez's opponents vociferously claim that he wants to set up a Cuban-type of socialism in Venezuela.
Across the Andes, the new Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has also announced his intention to introduce a socialist programme. He plans to call a national referendum to support the re-writing of the nation's constitution aimed at reducing the power of political parties and giving more power to the average citizen. He intends to increase the state's control over the economy, especially the banking system, and to expand the state's role in oil production. He is also critical of free market policies which he says has failed to improve the lives of his people, and has rejected a free-trade agreement with the US saying it will hurt Ecuadorian farmers.
In his inaugural address on January 15 he said the consequences of twenty years of the Washington consensus policies have been disastrous. Announcing the possibility of debt cancellation, he explained that the funds for repayment could be better spent on social services. Debt repayment, he added, has seriously hampered the growth of the domestic economy, with 65 percent of Ecuadorians living in poverty.
This view on the debt question has long been expressed by President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana who has been in the forefront in campaigning for debt relief for the world's highly indebted poor countries.
How will this resurging socialism in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America be pursued? The trend, it seems, will be the pragmatic fashioning of a "mixed" economy with a co-existence of both private and state sectors working side by side through an evolving form of cooperation. No political leader wants to revert his/her administration to that of the problem-laden socialist political system which faced severe confrontation – political and economic – during the Cold War years.
To be fair, the pro-socialist administrations of the past failed for one reason or the other. In some cases, they were not rooted in democracy and had little popular support. In others, Cold War pressures, destabilization, and covert and overt opposition from the West removed or overthrew democratic socialist governments as in pre-independent Guyana in 1962-64 and Chile in 1973.
Currently, socialist countries like China and Vietnam are now mixing their economies with market-oriented production and trade links and are making significant economic progress. Maybe, this is the direction that the socialist leaders in the South American region may be examining as they develop their own political and economic strategies.
Meanwhile, as the glow of socialism spreads through the Venezuelan llanos and across the Andes, more and more voices are sounding from the grassroots in support of the ideology. According to public opinion polls, the majority of Venezuelans want a socialist system but not an implantation of the Cuban system in their country. The critics of the free-market reforms also emphasize that capitalist polices have been in operation in the region for centuries, in many cases uninterrupted, but have failed to alleviate the economic plight of a vast section of the population.
Recognising this situation, the Venezuelan government has already set up its anti-poverty programmes – the Bolivarian Missions – which have brought health, education, housing and basic food products to Venezuela's poor as never before.
But, anti-socialist political groups in South America are already expressing the old Cold War fear of this socialist resurgence in the region, and even claiming that the democratically elected "socialist" leaders, by promoting this ideology, are exposing their "totalitarian and dictatorial" tendencies!
Significantly, this fear of socialism drew the wrath of the United States against the Cheddi Jagan government in pre-independent Guyana in the early 1960s. As a loyal ally of the United States at that period, Venezuela was used as a willing tool to apply imperialist pressure and destabilize Jagan's government by resuscitating a claim to Guyana's western Essequibo territory.
Interestingly, Jeronimo Carrera, Chairman of the Communist Party of Venezuela which is part of the government alliance, wrote on September 3, 2006 in the Caracas weekly La Razón that Venezuela formed part of strong imperialist pressures against Guyana in the early 1960s, but now with the Venezuelan government being firmly anti-imperialist, "it is my opinion that a decisive step of the present Bolivarian foreign policy sponsored by President Hugo Chavez would be to eliminate definitively that absurd claim. Such an action would free us of a ghost and open the door to a real and beneficial approach to the entire English-speaking Caribbean region."
Since anti-imperialism is also a crucial tenet of socialism, Guyanese surely hope that these noble words are heeded. Guyana must not be held hostage because of past imperialist actions.
Caracas, 25 January 2007
(The writer is Guyana's ambassador to Venezuela. The views expressed are solely those of the writer.
The Mara Salvatrucha Organization and the U.S. Response
Drafted By: Samuel Logan, Ashley Morse
http://www.pinr.com
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) considers the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) the most dangerous street gang in the United States. The violent nature of MS-13 members results in a number of murders and vicious beatings. Already a number of cases, tried in Maryland and New York, have resulted in hefty prison sentences, even life in prison, for MS-13 gang members.
Violence first attracted the F.B.I., but evidence of the gang's increased levels of sophisticated organization is an indication of a future where MS-13 has evolved from a street gang into a transnational criminal organization that stretches from Central America to suburban neighborhoods in dozens of U.S. cities.
Horizontal integration of the gang is a primary concern. Smaller groups within the MS-13 gang structure known as "cliques" now communicate on a regular basis. The nature of their collaboration ranges from recruiting strategies and turf protection to the development of regional strategies that involve: protecting gang members from law enforcement through witness intimidation, targeting of police officers and rival gang members, collecting dues to support gang members in Central America and other locations inside the United States, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and extortion.
Vertical integration, or connections between U.S.-based cliques and gang members in Central America, cements the transnational nature of MS-13. Documented communication between gang members in El Salvador and the leaders of MS-13 cliques in Maryland, just outside the U.S. capital, suggests a trend toward a higher level of organization that has likely been repeated in other states where MS-13 is known to have flourished, including New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, and California.
From the smallest towns to big cities, the U.S. government's reaction to MS-13 activity has quickened its pace since 2005, when the F.B.I. announced the MS-13 as the country's most dangerous street gang. Yet challenges in human resources, attention from the federal level, and the day to day details that stymie police work, such as language barriers, sometimes work in the gang's favor.
States' attorney generals offices across the United States have begun to use anti-racketeering legislation to prove that the MS-13 is a transnational and well organized criminal enterprise. The same legislation has been used in the past to dismantle mafia networks in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. The very use of this legislation indicates that federal law enforcement has begun to target "organization" as an identifying characteristic of the Mara Salvatrucha.
The MS-13, even as a criminal organization, is far from a national security threat, but its presence in U.S. cities and towns, along the U.S. border, and its deep connections with Mexican organized crime and a number of criminal elements in Central America designate the MS-13 as one of the latest groups to threaten the well being of U.S. citizens across the country.
Horizontal Integration
The spread of the MS-13 gang across the United States is unique, unlike other gang threats that law enforcement has tackled in the past. MS-13 finds its origins in large urban areas, but members are known to follow the migratory patterns of illegal aliens leading them to small towns across the United States.
Despite all its acts of violence, what may be most alarming about the MS-13 gang is its increasing organization and structure that many leading experts are comparing to criminal factions of the 1950s such as the Mafia and Hell's Angels.
A 2004 report by the National Drug Intelligence Center echoed this alarm, stating that the gang "may be increasing its coordination with MS-13 chapters in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia, and New York City, possibly signaling an attempt to build a national command structure."
Illustrating this warning, Robert Hart, supervisory special agent with the F.B.I., described a case in 2005 in which a high ranking MS-13 member from the West Coast arrived on Long Island to "to try to organize these various cliques or sets into a more formal structure." In Northern Virginia, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty observes that "in some of the violent crimes, there seems to be a kind of approval process in some kind of hierarchy beyond the clique."
In 2002, the Washington Times obtained a Metropolitan Police Department internal memo that stated that 20 MS-13 member from Los Angeles traveled to Northern Virginia because they were "upset with the local MS-13 gang because a Fairfax County police officer has not been killed."
Such incidences have continued to occur, leading law enforcement to question if the MS-13 has an organized, national leadership structure or whether members of various cliques simply engage in networking.
An exemplary case of networking and perhaps higher organization and structure within the gang across the United States lies in the Normandie Locos clique. The Normandie Locos clique originated in Los Angeles but it now has representatives in numerous locations inside the United States and Central America.
The Normandie Locos clique from Los Angeles led a well-known series of attacks that occurred between Texas, Virginia and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, elucidating the mobility and coordination of the clique. The MS-13 member who orchestrated the attacks, Lester Rivera-Paz, who had already been deported four times, was arrested after crossing the U.S. border in flight from Honduran authorities.
A subsequent investigation into the murder of a 16-year-old girl killed by Normandie Locos members revealed how the clique made trips around the United States in an effort to create new cliques. The Normandie Locos has been found well-established in cities and towns in Los Angeles; Grand Prairie, Texas; Fairfax, Virginia; New York City; Miami; and throughout the East Coast.
Vertical Integration
An October 2005 Los Angeles Times article reported that Central American gang leaders communicated directly with clique leaders in Maryland, revealing deeper truths of vertical integration within the MS-13.
Federal indictments and testimony related to a case tried in Greenbelt district court in Maryland during August 2005 confirms the Los Angeles Times report. Federal attorneys continue to prosecute the case against 22 alleged MS-13 gang members on conspiracy charges, six murders, and four attempted murders. Thus far, eight defendants have been proven guilty of racketeering conspiracy and assault with a deadly weapon to improve status within the MS-13 gang, among other charges. The jury cases against two defendants revealed direct communication between at least two Maryland cliques and MS-13 gang members based in El Salvador.
A clique known as the "Sailors," or "Marineros" in Spanish, is controlled by older MS-13 members incarcerated in the Ciudad Barrios prison, located in the mountains near San Miguel, El Salvador. In early 2005, leaders of this clique discussed an area in the United States that would be an ideal target for an extension of their clique. According to the Los Angeles Times report, they chose the Maryland area because southern California was already controlled by other MS-13 cliques. Marineros were sent to Maryland, where they quickly settled into the immigrant community in southern Maryland and formed the Sailors.
The testimony of Sailors member Noe "Shorty" Cruz, which was made during a jury trial of one known leader of the Sailors clique, Edgar "Pony" Ayala, reveals the Sailors ran extortion schemes on prostitution houses and sent money back to El Salvador.
Another clique, known as the Teclas Locos Salvatruchos (T.L.S.), also operates in southern Maryland. Like the Sailors clique, members of the T.L.S. maintain ties to members of the same clique in El Salvador. Another defendant, Walter "Lil Loco" Barahona, was found with a videotape in his apartment in which T.L.S. members in El Salvador saluted Maryland T.L.S. members.
Jose "Stomper" Constanza, formerly a member of the T.L.S. clique, testified that his clique had 26 members and met every 15 days in Beltsville, Maryland. During meetings, the leaders took dues, between US$10 and $20 per member, discussed the activity of other cliques in the area, and talked about gang loyalty and the violation of gang rules. Dues, Constanza explained, were used to post bail, deposit into the accounts of incarcerated gang members, or purchase weapons.
T.L.S. leaders were required to confer with gang leaders in El Salvador, Constanza testified, to report on the status of the gang. El Salvadorian gang members would pass along instructions to gang leaders in Maryland. Constanza also noted that T.L.S. leaders communicated with other clique leaders in southern Maryland. Authorities note that there are at least five MS-13 cliques in the area, and all appear to communicate with one another.
Another member of the T.L.S., Lisbeth Delcid, acted as an intermediary between an incarcerated T.L.S. leader in Maryland, Henry S. Zelaya, and T.L.S. members in El Salvador. Zelaya wrote letters to Delcid from prison, instructing her "to disseminate a message to an MS-13 gang member about how the gang should handle the leadership of Zelaya's clique while Zelaya was incarcerated, including instructing the gang member to make contact with other MS-13 gang members in El Salvador and to use Lisbeth Delcid as a conduit for passing information to Zelaya," according to the Greenbelt case indictment.
Zelaya's request for Delcid to act as a conduit between himself and gang members in El Salvador reveals constant communication between himself, as leader of the T.L.S. clique in Maryland, and clique members in El Salvador.
Documented cases of coordination and cooperation between MS-13 cliques across the United States and between the United States and Central America have galvanized law enforcement to rethink the strategy to combat the organization. Worried that the gang may be in the process of building a national command structure, U.S. agencies have had to respond.
The U.S. Response
In response to growing concerns over MS-13 consolidation and penetration throughout the United States, law enforcement on all levels have begun to understand a greater need for coordination and information sharing on their part in order to dismantle the gang.
The F.B.I. launched a multi-agency MS-13 National Task Force in December 2004. The MS-13 Task Force was the first of its kind and represents the first time federal agents have marked a street gang for special attention from law enforcement. The task force works to dismantle the gang, concentrating on increasing and expediting the flow of information and intelligence, coordinating investigations and helping local and state law enforcement more easily identify the gang in their areas. This task force maintains constant communication with an F.B.I. office recently opened in San Salvador, El Salvador.
In Virginia, where the gang runs rampant, multi-jurisdictional law enforcement as well as state and federal law enforcement executives have formed their own Northern Virginia Gang Task Force -- a partnership to interdict and disrupt gang activity in the area.
In order to understand crimes as part of a gang problem and not isolated acts, information sharing has become a must for law enforcement. In Maryland, software called GangNet has been purchased with federal funding to help monitor gang movements. GangNet is an Internet-based software program that will create a database to streamline information sharing between law enforcement officials. Specially trained officers, who will log on to the secure network with a password, can enter information on gang members -- such as a person's history, photographs of tattoos or scars -- and share with other police officers news of his or her latest arrest.
More than 500 agencies in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. are expected to participate. According to Thomas H. Carr, director of the Washington-Baltimore High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which will oversee GangNet, the system will eventually be tied into gang information networks in California, New York, Ohio and other states. The first officers should be able to log on by early February, and GangNet should be fully implemented in June. Over time, MS-13 related gang incidents will be mapped out, giving law enforcement a clear picture of the gang's concentration and migratory patterns in the Maryland area as well as across the country.
Two MS-13 members, part of the Greenbelt, Maryland case against 22 alleged members of various MS-13 cliques near Washington D.C., were convicted of racketeering under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (R.I.C.O.) statute. The use of R.I.C.O. in the Maryland case marks a milestone in federal prosecutions of MS-13 gang members.
R.I.C.O. was originally developed and used in federal courts to bring down the international criminal enterprises of the Mafia in the 1950s. Its re-introduction into federal courts against MS-13 gang members will set a new precedent for use of the R.I.C.O. Act in future MS-13 cases. Federal prosecutors achieved convictions under the R.I.C.O. Act by convincing a federal jury that the defendants were not just part of a local street gang but members of an international crime organization.
Since the initiation of the Greenbelt case, evidence of high levels of organization between MS-13 cliques inside the United States has evolved from a common experience shared by various law enforcement officials to official public record. Federal indictments and witness testimony provided by former MS-13 gang members currently protected by federal witness protection programs reveal solid MS-13 organization between cliques at regional and transnational levels.
This evidence, however, falls short of suggesting a rigid, hierarchical organizational structure. Thus far, various MS-13 cliques appear to work together, but it remains unclear if one clique retains command and control over a number of other cliques in the same city or region of the United States. Nor is it clear if cliques in Central America control cliques operating inside the United States.
Networks, communication, regular meeting, due collection, and loyalty to a number of unifying qualities such as gang colors, mottos, and violent activities brand the MS-13 as a highly organized street gang. As the MS-13 grows, the rigidity of organization will be required to help the gang maintain order among dozens of cliques on U.S. streets. Currently, U.S. law enforcement has made significant advances in dismantling MS-13 networks in pockets of the United States, but attention and effort to coordinate with and work alongside Central American authorities is lacking. Much more effort, attention, and resources will be required before law enforcement from the federal level to suburban neighborhoods can begin to contain the fastest growing and arguably best organized street gang in the United States.
Report Drafted By:
Samuel Logan, Ashley Morse
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1182437/
High School, College Closed After Suspicious Package Found
Posted: Jan. 29, 2007
Sanford — A community college and a high school were shut down part of Monday after a suspicious package with a threatening note was found, officials said.
The package was found Monday morning at the Crescent State Bank branch on 870 Spring Lane. The bank was evacuated, and several members of a bomb squad from Fort Bragg were called in to help Sanford police handle the situation, officials said.
The package was disposed of, and employees were allowed to return to the bank before 11 a.m., officials said.
A note found with the package named Lee County High School and Central Carolina Community College and threatened violence against them, officials said.
School administrators and Sanford police searched the Lee County High campus, and students there were being dismissed at 12:30 p.m. as a precaution, said Sharon Spence, spokeswoman for Lee County Schools. All other area schools were on a regular schedule, she said.
Students attending classes at Central Carolina as part of the Lee Early College High School also were dismissed early, and officials ordered that the entire college campus be evacuated between 2 and 5 p.m.
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=633106
JANUARY 30, 2007 - 13:50 ET
Correctional Service of Canada: Record Year for Drug Seizures at Stony Mountain Institution
STONY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTION, MANITOBA--(CCNMatthews - Jan. 30, 2007) - Staff at Stony Mountain Institution seized a record amount of narcotics and contraband prescription drugs last year. During 2006, staff intercepted 75 illegal drug shipments with an institutional value of over $248,000. Four narcotics seizures with an institutional value of $18,800 were made in December 2006.
continued...............
Islamic Terrorism in Tenkasi (back)
January 30, 2007
by V. SUNDARAM
One need not go to the streets of Baghdad or Kabul to witness gruesome deeds of Islamic terrorism. On 17 December, 2006 at Tenkasi town in Tirunelveli district, a young Hindu Munnani leader Kumar Pandian and his friends Sekar were walking through a Muslim street in Tenkasi. They were way laid by two Muslims. These two Muslims who were later to turn themselves into marauders put this question to Kumar Pandian: 'How the hell can you start an Ambulance Service in Tenkasi? Do you know what will be the consequences for you and your family?' Kumar Pandian politely replied: 'Please mind your business. For the sake of the poor and helpless people and for their welfare, we are determined to start an Ambulance Service in Tenkasi.'
Even as he was completing this reply, some Muslim marauders and terrorists who were in hiding came out into the open, surrounded Kumar Pandian and started attacking him with sword (Aruval) and knife and other lethal weapons and killed him in a brutal and barbarous manner. After killing him, they escaped in an auto rikshaw. Fortunately, Sekar survived the attack with minor injuries.
The news of Kumar Pandian's murder by Islamic terrorists spread like wild fire throughout Tirunelveli district. More than 6000 Hindus joined together and took out a procession to protest against the brutal murder and the total indifference of the local police in the vital matter of absolute maintenance of law and order and public tranquillity in the area. There was a total hartal and all the shops in Tenkasi were closed. All the 6000 anguished and agitated men who participated in the procession raised slogans to the following effect: 'Arrest the criminal and murderous Islamic terrorists! Arrest the main culprit who behind the scene was mainly responsible for the murder'. V T S Rahman Batcha, a local businessman of the area! Till this is done, we will not allow any post-mortem to be done on the slaughtered body of Kumar Pandian!
After watching the convulsive conflagration, the police spoke to the agitating Hindu members of the public about the need for peace. The Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli, Senthamaraikannan requested the men who took out the procession to give up the agitation. The Hindu leaders who had organized the agitation made it clear to the police that they would not give up their agitation till the criminal offenders were arrested. Later, the District Collector Prakash also held peace talks with the agitated members of the public.
The talks remained unsuccessful. Then the police resorted to lathi charge against the Hindus. Detailed informal enquiries conducted in Tenkasi among the Hindu community revealed that the police were functioning in a partisan and one-sided manner, thereby giving a clear public signal that they were patronising the Muslims all the time.
During the informal enquiry, many local Hindu leaders clearly stated that the Hindus of the area felt themselves powerless and impotent against the money power and political influence of the local Muslim leaders enjoying the full informal support of the local police and the Government noted for its Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating, the so called 'Mada Sarbatra' and 'Manidha Neya' public postures and policies.
Kumar Pandian's father Sorna Thevar is steeped in sorrow. Kumar Pandian has left behind his wife Jayanthi who is 32 and a one year old female child by name Swati. What makes the tragedy more poignant is that Jayanthi is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. She has said: 'Tenkasi Inspector Chakravarthi is responsible for my husband's murder. My husband used to get threatening phone calls and he always used to keep the Inspector of Police informed about such threats. The Inspector Chakravarthi treated my husband's complaints with supreme contempt'. Sorna Thevar, mourning the murder of his beloved son Kumar Pandian, has categorically confirmed: 'Some rich Muslims of the area have hired some paid mercenaries to get my son killed in so brutal a manner and I demand a CBI enquiry into the whole incident.'
It is reliably understood that Kumar Pandian had already given several written complaints to the local police that he was expecting some Muslim elements in the area to physically attack him and despite these written complaints, the local police did not care to register the FIR. It is also understood that at a local meeting of the TMMK organised by the Muslims of the area, specific speeches were made on a public platform to the effect that men like Kumar Pandian and a few others (with their specific names given) would be suitably beheaded and taught a lesson, etc. The Police remained indifferent and neutral even after these blatant blackmailing public signals. In this context, we should remember that some terrorist Muslim groups in Coimbatore had specifically announced the names of Veera Siva and Ganesan and later killed them. Keeping all this background in view, the State BJP General Secretary Pon Radhakrishnan has declared: 'I do not view the murder of Kumar Pandian as an isolated killing of an individual. Through this murder, the Islamic terrorists have given a deathly warning to the Indian nation and society. I appeal to the Government to take appropriate and stringent action against these anti-social and anti-national elements.'
What is amazing is that the local police themselves have admitted that the killing of Kumar Pandian was executed in a planned and methodical manner after keeping a close watch over his movements. The police have been able to arrest two Islamic terrorists called Hanifa and Abdulla in this connection. It is understood that these two terrorists told IG Sanjeev Kumar: 'The only issue was the construction of a Palli Vasal (Mosque) near the Kasi Viswanatha Swami Temple in Tenkasi. That is why we killed Kumar Pandian'. Both the murderers and Kumar Pandian were friends. The irony is that one of the two murderers called Abdulla was a Hindu and converted to Islam only about six months ago. Abdulla was known as Murugesan before conversion. His father is Karuppiah Pillai and mother is Mariammal. They live in Achanpudur village near Tenkasi. Karuppiah Pillai has said: 'The moment I got the news that my son has converted to Islam, I made it clear to him not to set foot on my house again. Hanifa is responsible for my son's conversion and it is he who took my son to places like Coimbatore and Mannadi and trained him in the methodology and acts of terrorism. He has converted my son into a murderer.'
During the enquiry, when the police asked Hanifa and Abdulla as to why they murdered their known friend Kumar Pandian, they coolly replied: 'When we are called upon to choose between our Islamic Faith and Friendship, there is no hesitation about the answer. That is why we voted for our faith and killed our friend.'
The secular mafia of mass media in India under the deathly stranglehold of so called secular Governments has deliberately chosen to completely black out the lethal crime relating to the cold blooded and brutal murder as it did in the case of Sukhanand Shetty, BJP Taluk president, in the city of Mangalore on 1 December, 2006 by a criminal gang of 12 Muslims. Kumar Pandian was an up and coming Hindu Munnani leader noted for his outstanding qualities of leadership and radical views relating to the advancement of the sacred cause of Sanathana Dharma and Hindutva. He had led the Hindus of the area with fearlessness and courage against all criminal and anti-social elements in the community.
Source: http://newstodaynet.com/2007sud/jan07/300107.htm
Major Palestinian Suicide Attacks since 2001 (back)
January 29, 2007
During more than six years of Palestinian-Israeli violence, 540 people have been killed in 130 Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel . Here's a look at some of the deadliest attacks:
_ Jan. 29, 2007: Three killed at Eilat bakery.
_ April 17, 2006: 11 killed at Tel Aviv felafel stand.
_ Dec. 5, 2005: Five killed at a shopping mall in Netanya.
_ Oct. 26, 2005: Five killed at a felafel stand in Hadera.
_ July 12, 2005: Five killed at Netanya shopping mall.
_ Feb. 25, 2005:Four killed near Tel Aviv night club, the first attack after a truce.
_ August 31, 2004: 16 killed in two buses in Beersheba .
_ March 14, 2004: 10 killed at Ashdod port.
_ Jan. 29, 2004: 11 killed in Jerusalem bus.
_ Oct. 4, 2003: 19 killed in Haifa seaside restaurant.
_ Sept. 9, 2003: Eight soldiers killed at bus stop outside Tel Aviv.
_ Aug. 19, 2003: 23 killed on Jerusalem bus.
_ June 11, 2003: 17 killed on Jerusalem bus.
_ March 5, 2003: 17 killed on Haifa bus.
_ Jan. 5, 2003: 23 killed on pedestrian mall in Tel Aviv.
_ Oct. 21, 2002: 14 killed on bus in northern Israel .
_ June 18, 2002: 19 killed at Jerusalem junction.
_ June 5, 2002: 17 killed on bus in northern Israel .
_ May 7, 2002: 15 killed at pool hall in Rishon Letzion.
_ March 31, 2002: 15 killed in Haifa restaurant.
_ March 27, 2002: 29 killed in Netanya hotel during Passover meal.
_ March 9, 2002: 11 killed in Jerusalem cafe.
_ March 2, 2002: 11 killed in Jerusalem .
_Dec. 2, 2001: 15 killed on Haifa bus
_ Dec. 1, 2001: 11 killed on Jerusalem 's pedestrian mall.
_ Aug. 9, 2001: 15 killed at pizza restaurant in Jerusalem .
_ June 1, 2001: 21 killed, mostly teenagers, at Tel Aviv seaside disco.
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/29/africa/ME-GE N-Israel-Bombing-Glance.php
Six Held in Pakistani Bomb Blitz (back)
January 31, 2007
by Bruce Loudon
Reeling from a third major suicide bombing in as many days, Pakistani security authorities claim to have foiled plans for further attacks after arresting six alleged bomb plotters with direct links to a prominent Taliban leader.
The wave of suicide attacks, including one on the five-star Marriott hotel in the capital, Islamabad, has caused widespread fear in Pakistan, with concern it could herald a dangerous new phase in the struggle with jihadi militants.
The six alleged intending suicide bombers were reported last night to have been picked up in the turbulent Waziristan region in the North West Frontier Province , and reports said they planned to carry out attacks across the country.
The six, who are now under intense interrogation in Islamabad , are said to have been found with suicide bomb vests packed with lethal explosives.
The suspects were found with a computer disk showing Islamic militants cutting the throats of two alleged government spies in the North West Frontier Province . The images add to the growing fear that Pakistan is becoming more of a target for militants.
Pakistani authorities say the intending bombers arrested yesterday are linked to a prominent Taliban commander, Baitullah Masud, who is believed to operate in South Waziristan and is closely allied to al-Qa'ida militants in the area.
A security source in Islamabad said: 'The link between the spate of suicide bombings and the Taliban now seems pretty clear, and the arrest of the six is a significant development.
'The intelligence suggests the Taliban, having trained perhaps hundreds of suicide bombers, are now going to give priority to targets in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy.'
Earlier in the day it was disclosed that in the latest attack by the suicide bombers a major police checkpoint in the important North West Frontier Province town of Dera Ismail Khan was blown up. In addition to the bomber, two other people, including a policeman, were killed, and seven were injured.
At the same time, in an attack in nearby Bannu, at least 12 people were injured when rockets fired by militants hit a Shia mosque.
The attacks - particularly those in the North West Frontier Province - appear to have a strong religious dimension, coming at a time when Pakistan 's Shia minority commemorates the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam.
But analysts in Islamabad believe religion is just one part of a complex set of circumstances that makes the Taliban intent on avenging assaults on them and al-Qa'ida by Pakistani security forces inWaziristan.
Heavy security measures were reported to be in place in the southern commercial city of Karachi , with senior officials claiming intelligence indicated at least three or four suicide bombers were in the port city waiting to strike, possibly against mosques.
An extra 15,000 police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in the city to deal with the threat.
Meanwhile, with growing alarm in Islamabad about the extent to which the worsening conflict in Afghanistan is spilling across into Pakistan, beleaguered Afghan President Hamid Karzai last night renewed his call for talks with the Taliban and other groups battling his Government for control of the country.
'While we are fighting with honour and dignity against an enemy who wants our destruction and wants us to bleed, once again we want to open a way for negotiations,' Mr Karzai said in Kabul .
Given the extent to which Pakistan has been unnerved by the spate of suicide bombings, it seems likely that in his effort to talk to the Taliban, the Afghan President will have the backing of Islamabad .
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,2114 5769-2703,00.html
U.S., Iran at War by Proxy (back)
January 30, 2007
The United States and Iran are fighting a war by proxy within the Iraqi conflict, a CBS News report said Tuesday.
Unnamed Washington sources told the network evidence of Iranian weaponry have been found throughout Iraq , including tank-piercing armaments, assault rifles and grenade launchers. As well, a British helicopter was shot down last May with an anti-aircraft missile supplied by Iran , the report said.
Middle East analyst Jon Alterman told the network U.S. military raids on Iranian offices in Iraq have turned up computer discs that list inventories of small arms Iran has provided to Shiite militias.
Monday U.S. President George Bush said in an interview with National Public Radio a direct military confrontation with Iran wasn't being planned but didn't rule it out either.
'If Iran escalates its military actions in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and -- or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly,' Bush said.
Source: http://www.dailyindia.com/show/108889.php/Report:-US - Iran -at-war-by-proxy
Down to the Wire with Iran (back)
January 30, 2007
by Trita Parsi
As the February 21 United Nations deadline for Iran to halt its uranium-enrichment program fast approaches, both Iran and the West are scrambling to prepare themselves for all possible moves by the other side.
A scenario causing some discomfort among decision-makers in the administration of US President George W Bush would entail Iran succumbing to the Security Council request - but only after first giving its nuclear program a decisive push.
After more than two years of negotiations, inspections, threats and counter-threats, the UN Security Council finally put the Western demand for Iran to halt its uranium-enrichment program into a legally binding Chapter VII resolution. With a deadline of February 21, Resolution 1737 requires a suspension of 'all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the IAEA', the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
Though the sanctions imposed on Iran are relatively benign, markets in that country have reacted negatively to the development and pragmatists there are pressuring the nation's top decision-maker, Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to find a face-saving way out of this situation before the standoff with the West escalates further.
This has proved a difficult task. Khamenei is suspicious of the intent of Western governments and has little faith in their willingness to reciprocate potential Iranian concessions. In his view, sources close to his office reveal, a hardline stance against the West should be tried, since the more conciliatory policies pursued by former president Mohammad Khatami failed to produce any gains for Iran.
The counter-argument, presented by the pragmatists, goes that the softer policy helped avoid a costly and potentially unmanageable confrontation with the West.
According to Nasser Hadian, a political analyst close to the reformist camp, Iran will likely announce the connection and operation of six cascades of centrifuges within the next few weeks. Sources familiar with the debate in Tehran say that Iran is considering using the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on February 11 to announce this decision and celebrate it widely.
By doing so, Hadian explained, the Iranian government would become psychologically and politically prepared to accept a compromise on its enrichment program. It would be a face-saving exercise that could pave the way for a suspension and an agreement to permit much tougher IAEA inspections to avoid any escalation in the Security Council. It would also provide Iran with a stronger position in the ensuing negotiations with the P5+1 states (the five permanent members of the Security Council - the United Kingdom , France, Russia , China and the United States - plus Germany ).
Though Iran would agree to the UN Security Council demand and intrusive inspections, this move is still causing discomfort in Western capitals. In a standoff that increasingly has become about prestige and stature, and less and less about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the Iranian move might provide Tehran with a bit too much face-saving, in the view of some Europeans. It could be interpreted by the European Union as an insult that makes its efforts to find a resolution to the nuclear wrestling match appear irrelevant.
After all, speeding up the Iranian program would counter the spirit and letter of the Security Council resolution, even if Iran manages to suspend the program before the resolution deadline is reached.
More important, the Iranian move would signal that Tehran has - in spite of US and EU efforts - managed to master the nuclear-fuel cycle. For Washington , this would cause an additional headache; mastering the fuel cycle is the latest Israeli red line (previously, Israel regarded uranium enrichment as the nuclear point of no return). Israel has signaled Washington that if Iran crosses this line, and the Bush administration refuses to take action, Israel will be left with no choice but to attack Iran itself.
As a result, from Israel 's perspective, the US policy will be proved a failure if Iran connects the cascades - even if it subsequently suspends its nuclear program and enters negotiations with the US and the EU for a long-term solution.
The threat of an Israeli attack on Iran , however, is likely still viewed with some skepticism in Washington , even though Israeli officials have warned Washington that an attack may be imminent. The Israeli Air Force still lacks the capability to take out the known Iranian facilities. More important, US war plans involve targeting not only the nuclear plants but also much of the infrastructure related to the nuclear program.
While the US has the capability to target these points, Israel does not. A rash and unsuccessful military campaign could turn the political momentum to Iran 's favor and undermine efforts to stop Tehran .
Israeli military action would also spell disaster for its efforts to use the perceived threat from Iran to forge closer ties with the pro-Washington Sunni dictatorships in the region, without necessarily acceding to the long-standing Arab condition for such a diplomatic shift: an Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state. As much as these Arab dictatorships loathe and fear Iran , they cannot gravitate toward Israel if it engages in a preemptive war against a fellow Muslim state.
Finally, Iran is home to the largest community of Jews in the Middle East outside Israel itself. About 25,000 Iranian Jews continue to live in the Islamic Republic, a country they have called home since the Persian King Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from Babylonian imprisonment 2,500 years ago. Military confrontation with Iran could jeopardize the security of this ancient community, a move the Jewish state would be reluctant to take.
Yet even if Israel doesn't act on its threats, Washington will still be faced with a major political dilemma. On the one hand, it will be difficult for the US to refuse negotiations with Iran after having publicly repeated that suspension of enrichment is its sole condition for talks.
'I myself have said I'll show up any place, any time, anywhere to talk with my Iranian counterpart, with other European leaders, if the Iranians will just do the one simple thing that the world has been asking them to do for almost three years: suspend their enrichment capabilities,' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the US Public Broadcasting Service's News Hour last month.
On the other hand, with the Bush administration having defined a nuclear-weapons capability as the mastering of the fuel cycle, and having vowed not to permit Iran to have such a capability, inaction could come at the expense of appearing to backtrack on an important pledge to Israel . Washington hawks will no doubt accuse the president of letting Iran off the hook.
At some point, however, Washington , Brussels and Tehran must choose whether to win the battle for enrichment or the battle for prestige. Winning both may be outside the realm of possibility for all involved parties.
Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA31Ak04.html
How The UK Threatens US Security (back)
January 30, 2007
by Adrian Morgan
On January 15, Dr. Daniel Pipes participated in a public debate with Ken Livingstone, mayor of London . During this debate, Dr. Pipes quoted former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who wrote in 2003 that ' Britain remains a significant base for supporting terrorism.'
Dr. Pipes said: 'British-based terrorists have carried out operations in at least 15 countries, going from East to West ... Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Algeria, Morocco, Russia, France, Spain and the United States. I give you one example from the United States - this was Richard Reid, the British shoe bomber.'
He quoted from American authors who wrote in 2006 that: 'The biggest threat to US security emanates not from Iraq , not from Iran , not from Afghanistan , but rather from Great Britain ', and concurred: 'And I believe this is the tip of the iceberg.'
That Britain should be the biggest threat to the US is, sadly, true. Britain has allowed radical Muslims to preach in the country for two decades, influencing successive generations of Muslim youth.
The agencies responsible for this situation are the judiciary, the political executive, the security agencies (MI5 and MI6) and the police. Recently, the signs that these bodies are becoming less prepared to practically deal with extremism suggest a future in which Britain will give more freedom to the radicals on its soil. These dangerous policies could eventually destroy what is left of the 'special relationship' between Britain and the United States .
By the time Siri was convicted in absentia, he was in Britain , walking free on the streets of Maida Vale, West London , claiming benefits, and consorting with other radicals, including Omar Bakri Mohammed. While claiming asylum, he set up an Islamist website, the Islamic Observation Center, which published messages from Al Qaeda members, as well as the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. He was arrested and charged in 2001 for complicity in the murder of the leader of Afghanistan 's Northern Alliance , Ahmed Shah Massoud. Massoud was killed two days before 9/11 by Belgian-based members of Al Qaeda who carried a bomb disguised as a camera. Siri was released without charge.
Siri has openly boasted that he can never be deported from Britain . He said in August 2005: 'I don't think any British judge can accept any agreement between the UK and any Middle Eastern country like Egypt . Any judge here can take this agreement and throw it in the rubbish basket.' Hosni Mubarak, Egypt 's current prime minister, has said he does not understand how people 'whose hands are drenched in blood' could gain political asylum in Britain .
Another individual arrived from Jordan . Abu Qatada (aka Omar Abu Omar, aka Omar Mohammed Othman) had similarly escaped to Britain to escape justice at home. He had arrived in September 1993, and in June 1994, he was granted asylum. Like Bakri, he was given a house in which to live with his family of five children. Qatada has been described as 'Al Qaeda's ambassador to Europe '. Videotapes of his sermons were found in the Hamburg apartment of Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 terrorist. Both Richard Reid, the failed 'shoe-bomber', and Zacarias Moussaoui, a member of the 9/11 plot, had sought religious advice from Qatada.
In 1998, Qatada was convicted in absentia in Jordan for involvement in a series of explosions in that year. Abu Qatada was arrested in February 2001, when he was suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb the Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000, the eve of the millennium. He had on him an envelope containing $14,000, upon which was written 'for the muhajideen in Chechnya '. After 2001, he was designated as a terrorist by the US Treasury, and was arrested again in October 2002.
He was kept in detention, being released in March 2005. He was rearrested in August 2005, under the orders of Charles Clarke, who was then home secretary. The deaths of 52 people in London a month earlier had galvanized the usually apathetic authorities to finally do something about the promoters of terrorism who had been allowed to freely disseminate sermons of jihad and hatred. Qatada still remains in prison, awaiting deportation. He is still fighting moves to send him back.
In 1994, Mohammed al-Massari arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker. He had fled from Saudi Arabia , where he had been a member of Saudi Hizbollah. In 1996, Britain suggested it would deport Massari to Dominica , to avoid conflict with the Saudi authorities. This never happened, and Massari still remains in Britain as a free man.
Massari is a known associate of Omar Bakri Mohammed. Bakri founded the British wing of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Massari was a member of this group in Saudi Arabia , where it is banned). In 1996, Bakri also founded the radical group Al-Muhajiroun . Massari frequented meetings of this group. He has a website, called 'Tajdeed.net.' This website has extolled the virtues of Islamist murderers such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and has shown videos of beheadings and other Islamist atrocities.
After the bomb attacks in Amman on November 9, 2005, in which 60 people died, Tajdeed praised the attacks. In the same month, while the city of Paris was wracked with incidents of Muslim rioting which were spreading throughout France and into adjacent countries, Massari used the Tajdeed website to urge Muslim youths in Europe to riot.
There are several more similar Islamists who are living in Britain , claiming asylum. One famous British-based Islamist is Abu Hamza al-Masri (Mustafa Kamel Mustafa), who for years was the imam at the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque. Hamza was not an asylum seeker - he had married a British woman in 1980 while he was a student, and gained citizenship. Hamza too was an associate of Bakri.
Hamza's sermons were listened to by Zacarias Moussaoui, Richard Reid, and two members of the cell which carried out the 7/7 attacks on London Transport in 2005. Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan had gone to the Finsbury Park Mosque to hear Hamza preach. Hamza, a friend of Omar Bakri Mohammed, ran a group calling itself the 'Supporters of Sharia', which had links with Al-Muhajiroun.
Khan, the leader of the 7/7 cell, had been involved with Al-Muhajiroun members. He had stayed in Pakistan with Hassan Butt, who had been a senior figure in the group, who had organized British members of Al-Muhajiroun to fight coalition forces in Afghanistan . Khan also met with the New York Al-Muhajiroun member Junaid Babar in Pakistan , stated Richard Watson in a BBC Newsnight documentary from October 25, 2005.
The same documentary revealed for the first time that Mohammed Sidique Khan had been under surveillance by MI5 (the British homeland intelligence services) in 2004. The intelligence services had decided that Khan was not 'important' enough to continue monitoring. Only after he and three others had killed 52 people was it revealed that Khan had had links to Al Qaeda going back five years previously - he had even gone to Malaysia , where he met Hambali, a senior figure in the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and also a known member of Al Qaeda. Hambali is now in Guantanamo . Khan had gone to the Philippines , where he attended the Hudaybiyah training camp, run by Jemaah Islamiyah and Al Qaeda. The information came from a reliable source - Nasir Abbas, former head of Jemaah Islamiyah, who is now assisting Indonesian authorities in trapping terrorists.
What is surprising is the incompetence of the UK intelligence authorities, to have failed to notice a suspect's history. Worse still, the authorities were in denial that Khan had anything to do with Al Qaeda until September 2005, when a video from Al Qaeda showed Khan condemning the West and warning of more terrorist attacks was broadcast on Al Jazeerah TV.
In April 2006, a parliamentary committee criticized MI5 for its failings regarding Khan. A month later, it was revealed that MI5 had surveillance tapes which had recorded Khan discussing the manufacture of a bomb, months before the 7/7 atrocity. The attitude of the police and the intelligence services in gathering information on terror seems to be both apathetic and blundering.
Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and another of the 7/7 bombers had grown up in Beeston, a district of south Leeds, Yorkshire . A computer expert, Martin Gilbertson, had been assisting the Iqra Bookshop in Leeds . He had assisted in compiling videos onto DVDs. Gilbertson claimed that he had sent DVDs to Holbeck police station in 2003, where he announced his worries about Khan and Tanweer's radicalism. He said: 'I added a list of names, including Khan and Tanweer, plus the names of people from whom they were receiving emails. Some of those names were quite surprising, because they included people regarded as mainstream Muslim community leaders. I heard nothing back from the police. Not a word.' The police denied having received such a package.
On the eve of the 7/7 attack, less than 24 hours before Khan and his three accomplices murdered 52 people, MI5 told members of parliament that there was 'no imminent terror attack'.
On July 21, 2005, exactly two weeks after 7/7, four individuals attempted to set off bombs on London Transport. Their bombs were not successful, causing only minor ignition and creating panic. These individuals were captured on CCTV cameras fleeing from the scene. On Monday, January 15, these four men and two others stood trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Once again, the details of the trial highlight shortfalls in the ability of Britain 's authorities to monitor suspects adequately.
Three of the accused had been regular visitors to Abu Hamza's mosque at Finsbury Park . One of these, Mukhtar Said Ibrahim (illustrated), had tapes of Hamza's inflammatory sermons at his home.
28-year old Ibrahim from Stoke Newington, north London , had attended a terror training camp in Sudan , the court was told. He had also gone to Pakistan between December 2004 and March 2005.
The court was told that five of the individuals who are now on trial had been under police surveillance almost 15 months before they had tried to set off explosive devices. The five individuals, including Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, had been in Langdale in the Lake District, Cumbria , northern England , in May 2004 and had been photographed by police.
Even though five of these individuals had been under surveillance, in late April, 2005, they had begun to purchase the ingredients necessary for their 'bomb material'. The group had planned to use the same explosive as that which had caused death and carnage on 7/7 - triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. One of the main ingredients for this is hydrogen peroxide. The court was told that the ingredients were assembled in a one-bedroom apartment in New Southgate, north London , owned by Yasin Omar, the alleged 'chemist'.
What is becoming obvious from this trial is that even though five of the suspects had bought more than 440 liters of hydrogen peroxide, no alarm bells were sounded.
Mukhtar Ibrahim, who is said to be the leader of the group, had been stopped three times by police, but had been released without charge on each occasion. When he traveled to Pakistan , he was stopped at Heathrow airport. He had with him £3,000 ($5,875) in cash, a sleeping bag and a first aid kit. His companion had part of a manual, which showed how to deal with gunshot wounds. Ibrahim had claimed to going to a friend's wedding.
On July 21, 2005, while the other individuals had tried to detonate their rucksacks on tube trains, Mukhtar Ibrahim, the court heard had boarded a Number 26 bus, where he had tried to set off his explosives. Despite 440 liters of hydrogen peroxide being bought by the group, the liquid had not been concentrated, and fortunately the devices did not explode as desired.
The lack of real doggedness by the police and intelligence authorities was demonstrated in Richard Watson's 2005 documentary. A source told the BBC that in 2004, a known terror suspect had been arrested. Mohammed Sidique Khan contacted the source, to find out what had happened. On two occasions, Khan had met the source while in the company of three other men, who had not been the other 7/7 bombers. The source contacted the anti-terrorist police. The person who answered the terror hotline was not interested, and said 'No disrespect, but these people could have been anybody.'
Sir Paul Lever, former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, when asked about the 7/7 bombings, responded: 'I suppose you could characterize it as a failure of intelligence. I would put it more as perhaps a failure of imagination. It really didn't occur to people that young men, born... in Britain , would go down that path.'
Britain is now fully aware that young men can 'go down that path', but as I will show in Parts Two and Three, the authorities are not doing nearly enough to prevent similar atrocities. There is more than a 'failure of imagination' in Britain 's war against
Source: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=668213
Iran and North Korea Collaborating on Long-Range Missiles (back)
January 30, 2007
Yesterday, Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, deputy director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said that Iran and North Korea are working together to develop long-range missiles capable of delivering their nuclear weapons. Bill Gertz reports:
North Korea test fired a long-range Taepodong missile in July, and Iran is working on a space launcher that would help develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could hit the U.S.
'Not only North Korea , but Iran has shown some significant developments in their [own] missile systems,' Gen. O'Reilly said in a speech to the George C. Marshall Institute. 'They are working in concert with the North Koreans,' he said. 'They have made a claim that they are working towards developing a space launch capability, which also would give them an ICBM capability.'
The Pentagon believes Iran has a 'new intermediate-range ballistic missile or space launch vehicle [SLV] in development,' a Missile Defense Agency briefing slide stated.
The Iranians are 'likely to develop an ICBM/SLV [and] could have an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S. before 2015,' according to the briefing chart.
A day or two ago, Hillary Clinton demanded, in her usual schoolyard-bully manner, that President Bush resolve the situation in Iraq before he leaves office, rather than leaving it for the next administration. If she had any sense, she would be demanding that he do something about Iran , rather than leaving that problem for the next administration--potentially, hers. Of course, if she did that, someone might ask her to make a constructive suggestion as to what, exactly, the administration should do about Iran , and thereby violate the Democrats' strict code of silence on that topic.
Source: http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016646.php
Super Bowl a Terrorism Target? (back)
January 30, 2007
The National Football League has boosted the law enforcement budget and heightened the security threat level for Super Bowl XLI because of terrorism fears.
The Super Bowl has been raised to a level one national security event, putting it on par in terms of manpower and resources with the US President's State of the Union speech and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
'We consider the Super Bowl so high profile that we see it as attractive to terrorists,' said Milt Ahlerich, NFL vice-president of security.
The last Super Bowl to be given a level one security designation was the 2002 New Orleans Super Bowl held three months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks upon New York and Washington .
Ahlerich said the league has budgeted $6m for the event. The money will pay for sophisticated equipment, screenings, background checks, hiring security experts and paying for 3 000 civilian security workers.
Ahlerich said they expect a peaceful event but are preparing for the worst.
'Our teams will be safe,' Ahlerich said. 'We want the focus to be on the teams on field and not on security.'
Robert Parker, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said their contingency plans include bringing in officers from all over the state of Florida . They will be backed up by the military.
He declined to say how many law-enforcement personnel would be working at the various Super Bowl events.
'We are not giving out those figures,' he said. 'We have planned for major casualty-type situations. We are not worried about not having enough manpower.'
Without going into specifics, Parker said uniformed and undercover officers will have the latest crime-fighting equipment on the ground and in the air.
'We have envisioned every possibility imagined as far as potential threats,' Parker said.
Part of their preparations has also included what might happen if aging Cuban President Fidel Castro were to die during Super Bowl week.
'We don't expect anything to happen, but if it did we would be looking at celebrations and people taking to the streets,' Parker said.
Aircraft will also be prohibited from flying anywhere near the Super Bowl stadium, Ahlerich said.
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/More_Sport/0,9294, 2-9-32_2061747,00.html
Body of Teen in Jet Wheel Well Raises Security Concerns at LAX (back)
January 30, 2007
by Jeremiah Marquez
The discovery of a stowaway who died in the wheel well of a British Airways jet has raised questions about how the young man slipped through airport security and got onto the plane.
Investigators were trying to determine where the boy, who was carrying identification and letters suggesting he was a 17-year-old South African, gained access to the jetliner, officials said Monday.
His body was found over the weekend. The victim's name was not released.
Authorities were working with the South African Consulate to check the documents' authenticity and locate possible family members. An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday, said county coroner's Capt. Ed Winter.
The death raises concerns about possible holes in air security, experts said.
'The question is how did he get there? If he could be there himself, why not (with) a 150-pound bomb?' asked Brian Jenkins, a terrorism and homeland security expert at Rand Corp., noting that Heathrow's security is extremely tight.
Jenkins also questioned why, if the teen had gotten aboard a few days ago, security inspections hadn't found him sooner.
The pilot found the body Sunday afternoon in the front wheel well of the 747-400 during a routine inspection at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before the plane was to return to London . The well compartment is enclosed but not pressurized or heated.
British Airways Flight 283 had arrived from London Heathrow Airport on Sunday. Before that, it had made trips to Hong Kong; Singapore ; Cape Town , South Africa ; and Vancouver , said Alan Proud, a spokesman for the airline.
The FBI was trying to determine where the youth boarded. The flight was last in Cape Town on Jan. 22, Proud said.
On Jan. 12, the body of a young African man was discovered in the wheel well of a Delta plane that landed in Atlanta from Dakar , Senegal . Authorities determined the man hid in the plane in Senegal and was suffocated by the landing gear.
In 2000, a man lived through a freezing Air France Boeing 747 flight from Papeete , French Polynesia, to Los Angeles . His temperature dropped 79 degrees.
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/114/v-print/story/115637.html
325,000 on US Terror List (back)
January 30, 2007
The United States is expected to place two South Africans on its list of terrorism suspects on Friday -- a massive list of 325 000 names which has been criticised by rights groups as possibly including innocents.
On Thursday, diplomatic sources told the South African Press Association that Junaid Ismail Dockrat, a dentist from Mayfair, Johannesburg , and his cousin, Pretoria cleric Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, have been named by the US government as terror suspects with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the deposed Taliban in Afghanistan .
The Dockrats have denied links to any terror group.
The US is expected to go ahead with its own listing even if the United Nations Security Council does not put the Dockrats on the UN list as the US has requested.
The list is run by the US National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC).
It compels all US financial institutions to freeze any assets and assistance, which they might give or hold on behalf of the Dockrats.
Last year, the Washington Post reported that there were 325 000 names on the NCTC list, most not US citizens and not resident in the US , and that human rights watchers warned it could include innocents.
People may appear under different spellings or aliases, so the true number of people listed is estimated to be more than 200 000.
Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel for privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post the numbers were 'shocking but, unfortunately, not surprising'.
'We have lists that are having baby lists at this point; they're spawning faster than rabbits,' Sparapani said.
'If we have over 300 000 known terrorists who want to do this country harm, we've got a much bigger problem than deciding which names go on which list. But I highly doubt that is the case.'
Other rights watchers told the Post it was not clear how someone wrongly put on the list could get off it.
'One of the seemingly unsolvable problems is what do you do when someone is wrongly put on this watch list,' said executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, Marc Rotenberg.
'If there are that many people on the list, a lot of them probably shouldn't be there. But how are they ever going to get off?'
On Friday, Nepal 's former communist rebels criticised the US for keeping them on its terrorist list and for warning that it would cut aid to areas of an interim government in which the ex-guerrillas will be involved, reported the Associated Press (AP).
'The US welcomed the interim constitution and Parliament brought through the peace process, but at the same time they [the Americans] are saying they will not support the ministries to be led by us,' said Chandra Prakash Gajurel, chief of Maoist rebels' foreign department.
'This just shows that how shortsighted and faulty the US policies are.'
US Ambassador James Moriarty had warned of the aid cuts, saying the Maoists had given orders that were 'very much against democracy'.
'There are many parties and groups in the world that are legitimate parties [who] refuse to bow down to US policies, and they are all in their terrorist list,' Gajurel told AP. - Sapa
Source: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=297021&are a=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, said he will push to get more guardsmen on the Arizona-Mexico border and give them the authority to deal with border crossers.
Meanwhile, Harper's bills are awaiting further action in the state Senate.
A spokeswoman for Napolitano said the governor had no comment on the legislation and would weigh in when and if legislation reached her desk.
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0130statewide-militia0130.html
This is the end, article on a citizen army for the border?
Turkey Arrests al-Qaeda Members in 6 Cities (back)
January 30, 2007
47 people were arrested on suspicions of having links with the terrorist group Al Qaeda in police sweeps which took place in 6 different cities yesterday.
The security operation came after more than one year of intelligence work by security forces; in Istanbul alone, 17 people were taken into custody, while in Kocaeli, Izmir , Mardin, Afyonkarahisar, and Konya there were also many arrests. The suspected head of Al Qaeda in Turkey , Ekrem Kozakoglu, was found by police in Konya . Kozakoglu is thought to have met many times with former Al Qaeda leader Al Zarkawi.
Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/5862097.asp?gid=74
[same arrest, more info]
Russian Jailed for Attempting Bomb-grade Uranium Sale (back)
January 30, 2007
by Margarita Antidze
Georgian special services have foiled an attempt by a Russian citizen to sell weapons-grade uranium for £506,000 to agents he believed were radical Islamists, a senior interior ministry official said yesterday.
The official said Oleg Khintsagov, a resident of Russia 's North Ossetia region, was arrested on 1 February, 2006, and a closed court soon after sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison.
Khintsagov was detained as he tried to sell uranium-235 to an undercover Georgian agent posing as a member of a radical Islamist group, said Shota Utiashvili, who heads the ministry's information and analytical department. The Georgian agents were working with assistance from the CIA.
'He was demanding $1 million for 100g of enriched weapons-grade uranium,' Mr Utiashvili said. 'This sort of uranium could be used to make a nuclear bomb but 100g is not enough.'
Before being arrested, Khintsagov told agents he had another 2-3kg of highly enriched uranium in the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz.
Khintsagov, who transported the uranium in plastic bags in his pockets, refused to co-operate with the investigation.
Uranium is relatively harmless to carry around because it is an alpha-emitting radioactive material that does not penetrate the skin.
The uranium's provenance was unclear. The safety of Russia 's vast stocks of nuclear weapons from smugglers has concerned world leaders since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian government said nothing on the investigation, except for an official at Russia 's nuclear agency, Rosatom, who denied Georgian accusations that Russia was not co-operating with an investigation.
There have been 16 previous confirmed cases of stolen or missing enriched uranium or plutonium recovered by authorities since 1993, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said it expected Georgia to notify it of the new case shortly.
'Given the serious consequences of the detonation of an improvised nuclear explosive device, even small numbers of incidents involving uranium or plutonium are of very high concern,' said Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman.
LETHAL SOVIET LEGACY
RUSSIA retains a sprawling nuclear weapons production industry and large stocks of weapons-grade fissile material left over from Soviet-era programmes.
According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based non-governmental organisation devoted to non-proliferation issues, Russia has between 735 and 1,365 tonnes of weapons grade-equivalent highly enriched uranium and between 106 and 156 tonnes of military-use plutonium.
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=134362007
Terror Lessons: Spain Sharpens Response Plan after 2004 Attacks (back)
January 30, 2007
by Brooks Tigner
NOTE:
3 years after the attacks, preparations remain reactive, not proactive.
Almost three years after the terrorist attacks in Madrid, the Spanish government is implementing the lessons learned for national security and civil protection.
These are: tighter coordination between security forces, first-responders, volunteer workers and public health players; faster communications with the public; and a suspension of red-tape to galvanize public resources.
The shock of multiple railway station bombings in the Spanish capital in March 2004, which killed hundreds and wounded many more, 'led immediately to a major rethink of the country’s emergency planning and homeland security needs,' a Spanish Ministry of Interior official told a group of homeland security experts.
He was speaking at a recent conference here organized by the European Homeland Security Association (EHSA).
Though many citizens immediately volunteered to help deal with the carnage, 'we didn’t have a plan for organizing them and as a result, there was confusion and a huge waste of this potential. We don’t want that to happen again,' said the official.
These and other aspects of Spain’s homeland security preparations were reviewed during the sixth round of discussions Jan. 16 with national homeland security officials organized by EHSA. Other national homeland security plans reviewed during previous EHSA-sponsored workshops include those of Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The ministry’s postevent analysis of Spain’s civil emergency response to the bombings identified a number of areas where improvements are needed. The ministry’s Department for Civil Protection and Emergency Direction is overseeing the changes.
For example, the official pointed to poor coordination between medical services as one of the main sources of confusion following the terrorist attacks. There was sufficient medical infrastructure to deal with the crisis — three mobile hospital units and 16 city hospitals — but it was inefficiently exploited.
Since no predefined emergency plan existed, there was confusion over where to send victims for medical treatment, thus creating bottlenecks in some places while other facilities were underutilized.
The targeted improvements to Spain’s homeland security policy include:
• Secure networked emergency communications.
• Faster public communications offering regularly updated news bulletins and lists of victims.
• Tighter coordination between on-site mobile crisis-management teams and their supporting satellite teams.
Spain’s emergency response capacity is highly decentralized, though it rests firmly on the principal of inter-regional solidarity across the country. This means a crisis such as a terrorist attack is managed first at the lowest and most local level, expanding to regional first-responder support when needed and, as a last resort, the country’s national infrastructure and emergency assets.
Cross-Border Confusion
As with other countries in Europe, however, the way a terrorist could throw even this seemingly efficient approach into chaos worse than that created by the Madrid bombings would be an attack along Spain’s external border.
While European Union rapid-alert mechanisms link all 27 of its member nations, there are no highly developed or centralized pan-EU procedures to deal with a crisis affecting several nations at the same time. There are bilateral agreements between countries but no standard EU template for coordinating the work of security, police, emergency responders and other crisis-management personnel regarding a cross-border event.
This was readily demonstrated during a desk-top scenario for which EHSA participants were asked to formulate emergency responses to contain the crisis.
The scenario centered on a bioterrorist attack on Andorra, the miniscule principality lying along the mountainous frontier between Spain and France, and an outbreak of a lethal virus affecting up to 700 people.
The group quickly realized that by the time the extent of the virus’ attack was understood, its impact had already spread far beyond Andorra’s borders to paralyze air and railway travel across the whole of Europe’s southwestern region, with huge implications for the economy and public health.
'It just goes to show that every nook and cranny across Europe is vulnerable to attack, and that far closer coordination between nations is needed,' Christian Sommade, EHSA’s general manager, said in conclusion of the conference. •
Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2503896&C=landwar
TERROR ON TRIAL
Cartoon Incitor Only Repeated Chants of Crowd (back)
January 30, 2007
NOTE:
Incitement to violence or Incitement to murder is a crime. This 'defense' is an admission to being an accessory to a crime.
A Muslim accused of calling for 7/7 style suicide attacks at demonstrations against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed told the Old Bailey today he was only repeating the chants of a mob.
Abdul Rahman Saleem admitted that when he led the crowd with chants 'Denmark you will pay, 7/7 on its way' and
'UK you will pay, bin Laden on his way,' his words could be construed as being threatening or intimidating.
However the father of five claimed he was not the author of the words and denied he was stirring up racial hatred when he said Danes, Norwegians and Europeans would pay with their 'blood.'
The British Telecom engineer said his words were aimed at the governments of the countries that had allowed the drawings to be published and not individual citizens.
The East London-born Briton of Pakistani descent is accused of acting as a 'cheer leader' when he whipped up a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators into a frenzy encouraging them to repeat his hate-filled slogans.
But Saleem, 31, claimed when he led the crowd with chants of 'Down, down UK' he was attacking Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet for refusing to condemn the publications and distance themselves from the Danish government, the court heard.
Saleem was filmed using a loudhailer to lead protestors with chants such as: 'Democracy, hypocrisy; Democracy go to hell, freedom go to hell; UK you will pay, Islam on its way; UK you will pay, Shariah is on its way' as they marched on the Danish Embassy on February 3 last year.
Giving evidence Saleem told the jury that he felt 'deep hurt' over the publication and had gone on the march to 'lodge a legitimate complaint.'
But he admitted that his words could be deemed to be threatening.
Asked by his barrister Rock Tansey QC why he said 7/7 bombers on its way, Saleem said: 'It was slogans that everybody was chanting.
'Slogans that I heard, slogans that was on banners, slogans everyone was using in full view of police officers. It was something I said because everybody else was saying.'
Asked about his chants saying al Qaeda leader bin Laden was on his way, Saleem justified his words by saying: 'All the chants that I used, I said, were chants that was said by everybody.
'I was not the inventor or author of the chants. They were things in the air.'
Mr Tansey asked: 'What did you hope to accomplish by saying these particular words?'
Saleem replied: 'I did not have any particular intention. It was a chant, slogan I just said. It was not something where I sat down and gave it some thought.'
Mr Tansey added: 'The UK press did not publish the cartoons,at all, only those in other countries.'
Saleem replied: 'I think it's very noble. They are self regulating but decided it was not conducive for relations between communities.'
He said the slogans were aimed at the UK government, 'not to the UK press, people. I was just hoping our government would take a stance. Meaning the government would come out and condemn and distance themselves from Denmark.'
Justifying when he shouted out Denmark, and Norway will pay 'with your blood' and Europe must pay 'with your blood,' Saleem said: We had been on the demonstration a good two-three hours.
'They were words everybody was chanting from beginning to end on the demonstration. They were really in my head, they were something I said. I never in any way intended to hurt or harm anybody.'
The demonstration was part of worldwide protests over the publication of cartoons in Danish and other European newspapers notably in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, depicting the Prophet in a way some Muslims saw as insulting to their faith.
Saleem of Mellish Street, Poplar, east London, denies stirring up racial hatred.
The trial, expected to last another three days, continues.
Source: http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=CA3033552U&ne ws_headline=cartoon_protestor_only_repeated_chants_of_crowd
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