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
Screening Flags Illegal Workers (back)
February 5, 2007
by Kristin Collins
For more than a decade, it has been an open secret that many of the 5,000 workers at Smithfield Packing Co.'s gigantic Bladen County slaughterhouse were illegal immigrants.
Most everyone -- the company, the community and the government -- was willing to look the other way as thousands of Hispanic immigrants moved in, started families and even began to fight for better working conditions at the plant in the town of Tar Heel .
Now all that is changing.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has recently taken a keen interest in Smithfield , a Virginia company that is one of the world's largest pork producers, and many other large companies that rely on immigrant labor. Federal agents are combing through records at large plants nationwide, looking for fraudulent Social Security numbers. They are deporting people who believed that, after surviving the treacherous journey over the U.S. border, they were safe.
Twenty-one workers were arrested at the Smithfield plant last week and will probably be deported. Company officials say they will soon have to fire nearly 500 more workers if they can't explain why their Social Security numbers are invalid. Hispanics make up about half the 5,000 employees at the Tar Heel plant, the largest pork- processing facility in the world.
Company spokesman Den nis Pittman said Smithfield is cooperating with federal immigration officials because it fears sanctions if it doesn't.
Swift & Co., another large meat processor, saw more than 1,200 of its workers in six states arrested in a December immigration raid. And in the fall, a Georgia poultry plant, Crider Inc., lost more than 600 of its 900 employees in a raid.
'We need these people,' Pittman said. 'They're trained. They're good, hard-working employees. Some of them have been here six, seven, eight years. But if Homeland Security says they're not eligible to work here, we can't have them work here.'
Going door-to-door
Federal immigration officials aren't just targeting large companies. In recent months, they have been going door to door to round up illegal immigrants, some of whom have been convicted of crimes.
Three such operations have been held in the Charlotte area since last spring, resulting in more than 200 arrests, said Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The last of the three was in January.
Most of those picked up were convicted drunk drivers, Rocha said. But a few happened to live or work where agents visited.
Rocha predicted more arrests in the coming months.
He said the agency will recruit more companies to sign up for a program that allows ICE to inspect employee records. He would not say how many companies have enrolled so far.
ICE is also training sheriff's departments, including three in North Carolina , to make immigration arrests, a practice that was banned until a recent federal law change enabled local police to help with immigration enforcement.
'We're doing what we need to do to restore integrity to the immigration system,' Rocha said.
Get-tough attitude
Some say public outrage has forced the government to act. In the past year, grass-roots anti-immigration groups have gained steam.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, known for conducting citizen border patrol operations, is expanding into non-border states, including North Carolina , training volunteers to confront business owners that they suspect of hiring illegal immigrants.
A North Carolina-based group, Americans for Legal Immigration, started a popular Web site where people can report employers they suspect of hiring illegal workers.
Rumors about Hispanic immigrants spreading disease, brutalizing U.S. citizens and even plotting to reconquer the southwest for Mexico have spread on the Internet.
'They're beginning to do their job,' Ron Woodard of Cary, founder of a nonprofit group that opposes illegal immigration, said of ICE officials. 'Illegals are going to get the message that, if you come here the wrong way, your days are numbered.'
This get-tough attitude has support among many in Washington .
Laura Caudell, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem , said Burr is pleased about the crackdown. But she also said he will push for immigration reform.
'He believes those who break the law must be held accountable,' Caudell said. 'He wants the Senate to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation which will include an effective temporary worker program.'
Some argue that, in a country with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, arresting a few thousand people is political show.
'If there are some sensational things, like big raids or a wall built, or even talk of building a wall, that gives politicians some cover to say, 'Look, I'm getting tough. Now I'm going to vote for immigration reform,' ' said Altha Cravey, a UNC-Chapel Hill geography professor who is writing a book on Mexican migration.
Cravey pointed out that, even though Congress passed legislation last year to build a wall along the Mexican border, the project has not been funded.
Living in fear
Advocates say that Hispanics now live in fear of being yanked from their homes or workplaces. They say ICE is victimizing families who have lived in North Carolina for years without incident.
'What we need is a complete reform of our immigration system,' said Marisol Jimenez McGee, advocacy director with El Pueblo, a nonprofit agency that helps Hispanic immigrants. 'So why are they going after families and creating terror in our communities?'
Eduardo Pena, a worker advocate and union organizer at the Smithfield plant, said he met last weekend with the families of those who were arrested. He said they are struggling to find out where their family members are and what charges they face.
In many cases, he said, they have lost the family's sole breadwinner. Some have U.S.-born children and few connections left in Mexico .
At the plant, the Hispanic workers who remain live in fear, Pena said. He said rumors of immigration raids spread through the plant regularly, forcing Hispanic workers to flee.
'It reminds me of an island where a hurricane is coming,' Pena said. 'People are getting ready for disaster.'
Source: http://www.charlotte.com:80/mld/charlotte/16626914.htm
States Challenge Nat'l Driver's License (back)
February 5, 2007
by Leslie Miller
A revolt against a national driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states.
The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Within a week of Maine 's action, lawmakers in Georgia , Wyoming , Montana , New Mexico , Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
'It's the whole privacy thing,' said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. 'A lot of legislators are concerned about privacy issues and the cost. It's an estimated $11 billion implementation cost.'
The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.
States will have to comply by May 2008. If they do not, driver's licenses that fall short of Real ID's standards cannot be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.
About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona , Georgia , Hawaii , Massachusetts , Missouri , New Hampshire , Oklahoma , Utah and Wyoming .
Missouri state Rep. James Guest, a Republican, formed a coalition of lawmakers from 34 states to file bills that oppose or protest Real ID.
Though most states oppose the law, some such as Indiana and Maryland are looking to comply with Real ID, Sundeen said.
The issue may be moot for states if Congress takes action.
Source: http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn= /2007/02/04/578422.html
With Us or Against Us (back)
February 5, 2007
by Frank Gaffney
The outcome of the present, global conflict may ultimately turn on the implementation of a policy it took President Bush just seven words to declare on November 6, 2001: 'Youre either with us or against us.'
For too long, it has been possible for far too many around the world to have it both ways. This must stop.
In particular, the time has come to make it clear to those who are helping our enemies that they are not with us and that there are real costs associated with being against us.
Every one of us can contribute to this effort by making an example of a company that is contemplating doing a lot more business with Islamofascist Iran, at the very moment that it is aggressively pursuing (with help from North Korea) nuclear arms and the ever-longer-range ballistic missiles with which to deliver them. Presumably these are the means by which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to realize his oft-stated goals of wiping Israel 'off the map' and bringing about 'a world without America .'
A company that is at the moment a prime candidate for such treatment is Royal Dutch Shell. According to the Conflict Security Advisory Group (CSAG) an independent market research firm whose Global Security Risk Monitor online database is the industry standard for assessing publicly traded companies that do business with terrorist-sponsoring regimes this Anglo-Dutch corporation has done billions of dollars of business over the years with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It even has four offices in Tehran .
Last week, however, Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told participants in a conference call that his firm and a Spanish oil company, Repsol, have entered into a preliminary understanding to help the Iranian regime develop part of its vast South Pars natural gas reserve. Press reports indicate that Tehran believes the deal is worth $10 billion.
To be sure, that $10 billion will translate into profits for Shell and its partner. It will, though, also afford the Islamofascists in Iran revenue streams that will enable them to support more terrorists, to kill more Americans and Iraqis, to destabilize the region and to prepare genocidal attacks on this country as well as our ally, Israel .
Making such a huge, further investment in Iran would, in short, be a very unfriendly act. And Shell must understand that it will be regarded, and treated, as such.
For one thing, the Bush Administration should interpose the strongest possible objections to putatively allied governments in London and The Hague that export guarantees and insurance for this deal would seriously complicate bilateral and trilateral relations. For another, the Treasury Department should make life miserable for any banks that might contemplate helping underwrite such an investment.
The real power to punish Royal Dutch Shell for being against us in this War for the Free World, however, should lie with American investors and consumers. The Roosevelt Anti-Terror Multi-Cap Fund (RATF) is the first mutual fund in the nation to be certified by the Conflict Securities Advisory Group as 'terror-free.' It holds in portfolio neither Shell nor any other publicly traded companies doing business in Iran , Sudan , Syria or North Korea . Nationwide Financial, E-Trade, Ameritrade and Schwab have begun offering RATF as an option on their investment platforms.
In addition, Sarah Steelman, the Treasurer of Missouri, has taken the first public fund terror-free and achieved a higher return in so doing. Her state's 529 college savings plan will shortly offer such an option as well, one which will be available to investors from all over the country. If you dont want to enrich those who are trying to kill us, insist that your money be it in public pension funds, 401k plans, mutual funds, life insurance portfolios, etc. is invested terror-free.
Whether you are an investor or not, you have another option: Show Shell how you feel about its dealings with our Iranian enemies by filling up your car at the pumps of one of its American competitors who, by law, are not permitted to do business with terrorist-sponsoring states.
Interestingly, Shell's CEO is already nervous about his company's ties to Tehran . As he told reporters last week: 'I would like to emphasize that we have here quite a dilemma. This is Iran . They are the Number Two in oil and gas reserves in the world. But we have all the short-term political concerns.'
By making an object lesson of Shell, we can help resolve its management's 'dilemma.' If it actually starts to be painful to be 'against us,' we can ensure that more of those who wish to do business with America and who typically take for granted our protection of their freedoms line up 'with us,' instead of with our enemies. Without help from our friends, maybe those enemies' regimes will change their behavior, or even fall from power. It is certainly worth a try.
In recent weeks, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, former Governor Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Senator Rick Santorum and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have embraced the idea of terror-free investing. Let's show Shell and other, foreign-owned companies that partner with our foes like France's Total, China's Sinopec, Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI that Americans take seriously the imperative of countering Iran's nuclear ambitions and support for international terror. They had better be with us, or else.
Source: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,124077,00.html
Decision Time on Iran (back)
February 5, 2007
Trade and investment matter greatly to Tehran ; it needs foreign investment to maintain a steady flow of oil revenues
Victory in Iraq requires more than adjusting troop levels. It means quashing the violence stirred up by foreign powers.
That's what led President Bush earlier this week to issue a clear warning to the chief mischief-maker, Iran, that the U.S. 'will respond firmly' to any further violent provocations from that quarter.
It's about time. We've long known that Iran finances terrorist and allied Shiite militia groups in Iraq , in some cases arming them with armor-piercing roadside bombs.
Iranian intelligence services also collaborate with Baathist insurgents attacking U.S. forces. Documents recently seized from an Iranian facility in the Kurdish region of Iraq detail how Iran 's Islamic Revolutionary Guard has supplied insurgents with weaponry ranging from heavy machine guns to shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
Those are ideal armaments for downing U.S. helicopters, and we've lost three of them in a matter of weeks. It's no stretch to suspect those Iranian weapons are responsible.
Why has Iran escalated the violence? Iran may anticipate stronger U.S. campaigns against its allies in the Shiite militias. Or, looking at the result of the American elections, it may be anticipating a wholesale withdrawal of U.S. forces that would leave a power vacuum for Iran to fill inside Iraq .
Either way, Iran is acting as if it's on a roll.
In addition to escalating the insurgency in Iraq , Tehran believes it has the upper hand in the protracted diplomatic sparring over its nuclear programs. Thumbing its nose at global objections, Iran recently announced plans to install 3,000 nuclear centrifuges to boost uranium enrichment. And still European leaders balk at taking tougher action through the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Tehran is quietly but steadily up-grading its arsenal. Last year, Iran tested an 'ultra-horizon' missile that can be fired from helicopters and jet fighters. During military maneuvers last November that Iranians officially described as aimed at stopping 'trans-regional powers' in the region, many other missiles were test-fired -- including the Shahab-3, which can reach Israel . The U.S. Missile Defense Agency says Iran is 'likely to develop an ICBM/SLV' and could have an ICBM 'capable of reaching the U.S. before 2015.'
That's just a couple of presidential administrations away.
In the meantime, the Iranian threat is real and growing. If Iran succeeds in forcing a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq , the current government in Baghdad would surely fall, leading to even greater chaos and bloodshed. Iran would gain greater influence, if not outright dominance, of at least the Shiite southern region of Iraq .
An emboldened Iran also would jeopardize world access to Gulf oil and assure an even broader export of terrorism across the Middle East . Meanwhile, a likely intra-Islamic civil war would engulf the region and perhaps other parts of the Muslim world. The Saudis and other Sunni Arabs already are growing nervous over Iranian assertiveness.
So what should President Bush do?
For starters, the U.S. should press the European Union and Japan to impose the strongest possible economic sanctions outside the U.N. framework, especially restrictions on foreign investment. Trade and investment matter greatly to Tehran ; it needs foreign investment to maintain a steady flow of oil revenues.
Current sanctions already seem to be working. Iranian critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complain that his confrontational approach is undermining their national interests. We must drive this increasingly unpopular leader further into his shell. That means ruling out direct talks, which would only enhance the embattled leader's status and give the world the false impression that hes someone we can do business with.
Instead we should launch public diplomacy initiatives to drive wedges further between Ahmadinejad's regime and the restive Iranian people. It's easy to find topics for such initiatives -- from the regime's human-rights abuses to its ties to terrorism. Our current public-diplomacy efforts have been disjointed and too much below the radar. We need to coordinate them better at the highest levels of government.
Muslim countries threatened by Iran 's pursuit of Shiite dominance also need to be brought more into this strategy. Turkey and those Arab states who find Iran 's belligerence destabilizing should pressure Iran more as well. And we should encourage our allies in the region to assist us in deploying missile defenses.
President Bush promises to stop Iranians from inflicting violence inside Iraq . This will take more than the occasional arrest of suspected Iranian intelligence officials or raiding arm caches. It requires beefing up Iraqi and U.S. forces to monitor and interdict known supply and infiltration lines from Iran .
If we can avoid the temptation to fold in Iraq , we might gain enough time to defeat the insurgents and prevent an even worse outcome -- a hegemonic Iran standing astride the heart of the Gulf and the Middle East .
Source: http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idarticle=7745
Tangled Trail of Terror (back)
February 5, 2007
by Emma-Kate Symons
It is a sinister tale of alleged terrorism stretching from Paris to the Sydney suburb of Lakemba via the Caribbean, Yemen , Afghanistan and Pakistan . The cast of characters includes a revolver-toting French anti-terrorism judge known as Le Cowboy; a French Muslim convert from Guadeloupe who married an Australian woman and allegedly plotted a terrorist attack on Sydney ; a conservative imam; and an anti-Taliban warlord hated by Osama bin Laden.
Welcome to the wild world of Willie Brigitte, the 38-year-old Frenchman who this week faces court in Paris charged with 'associating with terrorist organisations'.
After more than three years languishing in a French jail - where he has been repeatedly interrogated by Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the celebrated French judge and bete-noire of international terrorists and organised criminals such as Carlos the Jackal - Brigitte will finally face judgment.
The three-day trial in an open terrorism court before Bruguiere and two other judges, but no jury, will centre on accusations Brigitte supplied false Belgian passports to the killers of an anti-Taliban warlord, who were involved in an attack closely linked to 9/11.
Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan on bin Laden's orders two days before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US . Massoud's killers were aided by the false identity documents allegedly provided by Brigitte, in an international plot that suggests the Frenchman had close ties the al-Qa'ida hierarchy.
Bin Laden apparently struck a deal with the Taliban to eliminate their enemy Massoud in Afghanistan as a pre-emptive strike.
The assassination was designed to protect the Taliban and al-Qa'ida ahead of anticipated US retaliation for September 11.
It is believed it could not have happened without Brigitte furnishing false identity papers that allowed the killers to travel to Afghanistan .
There is no evidence Brigitte knew in advance about the September 11 plots. But if found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.
He has already been detained for the maximum allowed period of three years and four months under France 's wide-ranging judicial anti-terrorist powers. French courts have sentenced five other men associated with Massoud's death to prison terms of between three and seven years.
In October 2003, Brigitte was handed to French authorities for deportation from Australia over alleged visa irregularities.
In reality, ASIO, acting on a tip-off from the French intelligence services, apprehended Brigitte while they believed he was planning a terrorist bomb attack.
The deportation prompted a furore in Australia , with the Opposition attacking the Howard Government over the security lapse that allowed Brigitte into the country.
Pressure also grew to reform Australia 's detention regime for suspected terrorists and associates, as justice officials effectively gave up on a prime suspect in an attack on Australian soil because of a lack of powers to arrest and detain him.
Australian authorities linked the Frenchman to the same alleged conspiracy as one of his Sydney associates, Australian-born architect Faheem Lodhi, who was convicted of planning to blow up the Sydney electricity grid and is serving a 20-year maximum sentence.
They are hoping this week's trial in Paris will shed more light on Brigitte's alleged jihadi activities in Sydney .
Representatives of the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and the Attorney-General's office are expected to closely monitor the trial, with unconfirmed reports suggesting some government observers are likely to follow proceedings from the courtroom.
It has been rumoured Australian authorities could testify during the trial, or take legal action against Brigitte over his alleged crimes in Australia after the Paris court case.
However, a spokesman for the Australian embassy in Paris said he had no knowledge of government participation in the trial. The embassy was also not aware of any plans for consular staff to attend the trial, in one of Paris 's dedicated terrorist courts.
Brigitte's often bizarre Australian connections date back to early this decade when he is believed to have undergone training in the military camps of extremist Islamist group Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan. French and Australian investigators believe he was sent to Sydney on a mission by the leadership of the al-Qa'ida linked group.
His orders were to plan and carry out a major terrorist attack. When he arrived in Sydney , Brigitte quickly formed close associations with a group of Sunni radicals in Lakemba. He took a job in a Sydney restaurant and was a frequent visitor to the Haldon Street prayer hall in Lakemba, headed by imam Sheik Abdul Salem Mohammed Zoud.
Brigitte was in Sydney for only five months before his deportation. But during that period he met and married Melanie Brown, a 'fair dinkum Aussie' from Sydney's southwest, a fellow convert to Islam who has had associations with some of Australia 's most radical Islamist identities.
Zoud, who presided over the traditional Muslim wedding ceremony for the Franco-Australian couple, was alleged in a secret court dossier to have operated the Sydney arm of the fundamentalist Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah association from the Haldon Street prayer hall. The association's mission was to 'adhere to a hardline ... interpretation of Islam, and support the use of jihad against those perceived as enemies of Islam', the dossier says. Questioned at the time of the dossier's publication, Zoud stated publicly that he did not believe bin Laden had any connection to the September 2001 attacks.
'He's not a terrorist in my view. I don't believe yet he did what the Americans said. I swear by God, by Allah ... I reject bin Laden's culpability in the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.' He also said: 'I'm against all terrorism who kill civilian people. Let the Australian people relax. Why everyone make the Australian people scared from the Muslims?' Asked about Brigitte he said: 'I saw that man Willy Brigitte once, because I'm authorised celebrant. He ask me and I did it, after I check everything. Maybe less than hour.'
Court documents also revealed an earlier chapter to Brigitte's criss-crossing of the globe, allegedly in pursuit of jihadi glory.
Three years before 9/11, the Frenchman signed up for mentoring classes with Yemen 's al-Iman University chief.
The extremist cleric Sheik Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan , was alleged to have chosen bin Laden as a protege in the 1970s.
Brigitte's Yemen sojourn ended badly, with the French national arrested along with some classmates. They were accused of trying to kidnap a Western diplomat, and he spent three weeks in jail before being released.
When Brigitte was flown to France and immediately placed in detention by Bruguiere in October 2003, he could still count on the loyalty of his zealous wife.
Brown, a former Australian soldier, travelled to France to visit her husband - famously sporting her hijab - in a jail outside Paris soon after his deportation.
But Brown later revealed the marriage was over, and Brigitte's lawyer Jean-Claude Durimel confirmed she had not seen her estranged husband since her visit to France .
Despite cutting ties with Brigitte and starting a new life of studies and amateur cricket at the University of Sydney , Brown maintained her Islamic faith and ties with radical Muslims in Australia .
She burst back into the public spotlight late last year, when it was revealed she was a friend of Rabiyah Hutchison, a fellow convert to radical Islam.
Hutchison was once married to the head of Jemaah Islamiah's terror cell in Australia , Abdul Rahim Ayub. Her two sons by that marriage, Mohammed and Abdullah, were recently arrested in Yemen on suspicion of being part of an al-Qa'ida plot to smuggle arms to Somalia .
Brigitte's lawyer Durimel, in earlier interviews with The Australian, was vague about his client's alleged terrorist training in Pakistan . Durimel continues to deny Brigitte had any nefarious designs or terrorist ambitions while he was in Australia . He says Brigitte knew nothing about any terrorist plot to bomb targets in Sydney .
He says Brigitte will plead not guilty to the French court's charges, of which 'there is no proof, it's an empty dossier'.
Durimel's claims of innocence were supported yesterday by Alain Chouet, a former chief of security intelligence at France 's CIA equivalent, the DGSE (Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure), and an expert on Islamist violence.
Chouet tells The Australian the charges against Brigitte are weak and that 'French justice is really tired of Brigitte'.
If Brigitte is acquitted of the charges filed against him, it will be a significant defeat for Bruguiere's long quest to prove the extraordinary global reach of Islamist terrorist networks: from France to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia .
For Australian justice it will pose all manner of legal complications. Even if authorities believe they have the evidence and the necessary anti-terror legislation to bring Brigitte to justice under Australian law, difficulties remain.
Bruguiere, in a Paris meeting with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock in 2005, expressed his scepticism about Australia 's anti-terror laws.
As reported by The Australian, Bruguiere suggested 14 days to hold terror suspects was not adequate.
Can Brigitte be extradited back to Australia if French law finds him not guilty of terrorist crimes? For Chouet, French justice has gone too far with the case of Brigitte, egged on by the sensationalism and ill-founded theories of Australian counterparts.
'I persist in believing he (Brigitte) is an imbecile and a person without importance whom the Australian authorities continue to play on to create fear,' he says.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,211703 06-28737,00.html
Afghanistan Losing War on Drugs (back)
February 5, 2007
A Pakistani sewed opium into the beads of a tapestry. An Afghan taped bags full of drugs to his body. A Chinese woman tucked narcotics into hollowed heels.
Afghan Gen. Aminullah Amarkhil says he arrested them all, and that has been the source of all his problems. The Afghan government, however, accuses Amarkhil of corruption and wants him returned to his homeland for questioning.
Until October, Amarkhil was a top customs official in the world's largest opium producing nation, responsible for halting the flow of drugs through Afghanistan 's main airport. Now he is seeking asylum in London , saying that his life is in danger from drug lords who pressured the government to fire him amid corruption charges.
'If I was corrupt I wouldn't be here now,' Amarkhil said as he sat huddled by a space heater in a cramped one-room apartment in a West London suburb. 'If I accepted money the smugglers offered me, I would be a very rich man today. One thing is clear: I am here because I didn't deal with them.'
Though Western backers of President Hamid Karzai's government have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-drug programs, corruption at every level of government has made it impossible to make significant inroads, experts say. U.S. officials have said the drug trade helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency.
Last year, Afghanistan had a record opium crop, producing enough to make 670 tons of heroin, more than the world's addicts consume annually.
Amarkhil spent 18 months as the customs chief at Kabul International Airport . Far from the modern world of X-ray machines and drug-trained dogs, officials at the Kabul airport often worked without basics such as electricity.
'I had no machines, no scanners, not even any dogs. All I had was my experience, my spies and Allah,' he said, pointing his finger to the sky.
Amarkhil contends he was so successful that he upset druglords tied to corrupt government officials, who accused him of corruption.
Afghan Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Aloko says Amarkhil fled rather than face scrutiny; Amarkhil says he was questioned and released, but left amid fears for his life.
'He was scared because we had strong evidence of what he was accused,' Aloko said. 'We are trying to bring him back to the country with the help of Interpol.'
Britain 's Home Office and its Serious Organized Crime Agency would neither confirm nor deny receiving any extradition requests in the case.
Amarkhil disputes the allegations, saying that the charges were trumped up by officials in the pay of drug kingpins. The 44-year-old father of seven earned a salary of $500 a month - and said he was routinely offered bribes of $2,000 to $5,000 by traffickers to let their cargo through.
A senior Western official in Kabul , who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, described Amarkhil as 'fairly aggressive' in carrying out his duties. He said the alleged corruption was low-level, involving such things as visas and parking fees.
Amarkhil said he can prove that high-placed officials allow drug runners to operate brazenly. From a suitcase, the former customs officer brought out videotapes describing dates and times of some of his most successful arrests.
The videotapes show smugglers being taken into a room to be questioned, as their stash of drugs was laid before them. Dozens of nationalities were represented: Pakistani men with long beards, Thai women, Chinese girls and Nigerian businessmen.
One showed an Afghan allegedly caught trying to conceal 14 pounds of heroin. In another, a woman caught with 2 pounds of heroin threatened Amarkhil with retaliation from 'friends in high places.' She was freed in less than a month, Amarkhil said.
Corruption in Afghanistan 's central institutions is hampering the fight against drugs ahead of this year's harvest and poses an increased risk to the 30,000-strong NATO force battling the Taliban-led insurgency, Amarkhil said.
Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.af ghandrugs04feb04,0,1453666.story?coll=bal-natio nworld-headlines
JeM Expansion in Spain (back)
Febraury 5, 2007
by Antonio Baquero and Jordi Corachan
TERROR GLOBAL|EXPANSIÓN OF A NEW VIOLENT STRUCTURE
Catalunya is the European base of a Pakistani branch of Al Qaeda
1. Islamabad says that the 'Army of Mohammed' catches young people in Spain and sends them to tribal zones
2. The Police detects the implantation in that group of two radical Islamic currents
Spain , and specially Catalunya, has become the main base in continental Europe for the Jaish-e-Mohamed (JEM, the Army of Mohammed), a Pakistani terrorist group with ties to the central control of Al Qaeda and implicated in the attacks of the July 7 2005 in London .
Sources of the Pakistani security forces divulged to this newspaper that the JEM cell 'has recruited Pakistanis in Spain and it has sent to them to Pakistan, where it has made them available to the networks of Al Qaeda in the tribal zones', in an traced itinerary to which in November of the 2004 they made Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, two of the authors of 7-July.
WATCHED INDIVIDUALS
Those sources emphasized 'the collaboration' between the Spanish and Pakistani security services that allows to very follow close by the trips between Spain and Pakistan of several individuals.
The same sources said that, in Spain , the JEM uses 'mosques to recruit and to mobilize volunteers for jihad, just as it does in Great Britain '. The Pakistani sources indicated that the JEM uses Spain , and specially the Catalan territory, as a logistics base. 'In Catalunya, their members collect funds and send stolen European passports to Pakistan ', they warned.
ATTACKS IN INDIA
The JEM is not the only Pakistani terrorist group that has penetrated Spanish territory. The Pakistani security forces indicated that another group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET, the Army of the Pure ones), a movement responsible for numerous attacks in India , has been able to be implanted in Spain , where is essentially dedicated to collect funds.
Though he JEM as the LET are two terrorist groups that, in their origins, concentrated their attacks against the India occupation of Kashmir , after 11-September they reoriented their strategy by adding to it jihad against the West, like Al Qaeda.
Fernando Reinares, director of the Program of Global Terrorism at the Royal Elcano Institute, alerted of the threat that these Pakistani networks represent, that, in his opinion, 'they mainly affect Catalunya, Andalusia and the Rioja'.
This specialist warned that 'for Spain, the risk factor is growing in the sense that the jihadist networks of Pakistani origin are having serious difficulties in committing attacks in the United Kingdom, that is where they focus their intentions at the moment'.
TWO CURRENTS
People in charge of the antiterrorist fight of the forces of security of the State recognize 'to be very worried' about the implantation of those groups, of which they emphasize 'their extreme mobility not only in Spain but all over the world'. However, they indicate that 'the Pakistani group is very hard to infiltrate and that, although they pay the informants very well, they are able to obtain very few'.
Sources of the Catalonian police explain that in Catalunya '2 radical Pakistani currents have arrived: Deobandi, that is the ideology of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Toyba, which agrees with the doctrine of the Taliban; and Barelvi, in which a third Pakistani group registers, the Sunni Teherik'.
'Those radical doctrines already have been implanted, spread reason why we called elements with convencimiento' to which we are watching very close by', it explains a control of the police, that recognizes: 'Those individuals want to create in the community a critical mass of followers to recruit. The Pakistanis have warned us much to the spread of those ideas between the immigrants and for that reason we have open investigations'. 'We suspected that they are carrying out logistic workings and of collection of funds', they indicate.
Repetition of the Model
This police officer in charge explains the penetration by the fact that 'when a collective immigrant group grows, it tends to reproduce in the new country the currents of his country of origin'.
Alexis Debat, a French investigator of the Nixon Center in Washington specializing in Pakistani terrorist networks, explains 'before the increase of the police pressure that was registered in Great Britain after the attacks of London, parts of the logistic structure that these groups had in the United Kingdom was transferred to continental Europe, mainly to France and Spain'.
LINK BETWEEN GROUPS
In both countries support structures for the terrorist cells have been created like in Great Britain . But there are differences. 'The structures in France are much less active in France than in Spain at the level of recruitment and collection of funds', assured Debat, and that emphasized 'the high level of independence of the Spanish cells'.
This specialist emphasized the narrow relation between the JeM and Al Qaeda. The connection between both organizations is Mati ur Rehmán, the most-wanted terrorist in Pakistan , accused of organizing the attacks against the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf.
EUROPEAN AGENDA
' Ur Rehmán --it indicated-- it is the one who maintains the database with the contacts of all the Pakistani radicals that passed by the training camps in Afghanistan . Many of them traveled soon after to Europe, mainly to Great Britain , where they established terrorist cells. Ur Rehmán is the one that organized the deployment, the one that maintains the contact and the one that issues the orders'.
In fact, Ur Rehmán is tied to the suicide bombers who perpetrated 7-July in London , the prisoners who planned the attacks against airplanes in August 2006 and the Pakistanis arrested in 2004 by the Barcelona police.
Source: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&i dioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=377211&idseccio_PK=1008, translated to English.
al-Qaeda Terrorist Living In Madagascar (back)
February 5, 2007
A senior member of the al-Qaeda network - Fazul Abdullah Mohammed - is in hiding on the island of Madagascar off the coast of southern Africa , reports said Monday.
Midi Madagasikara, the island's largest newspaper, quoted military 'and other' sources as saying that Mohammed was directing al-Qaeda's activities in East Africa from a hideout in the harbour city of Majunga in the north-west of the country.
Mohammed was reported to have come to Madagascar , where his partner is said to live, from the neighbouring Comoros Islands .
The government in Antananarivo did not confirm or deny the report.
Mohammed is on the US list of 35 most-wanted terrorists over suspicion of his involvement in the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, which killed 228 people and injured over 5,000.
The US government is offering 5 million dollars for information leading to his capture.
A close relative of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, was shot dead in Madagascar in January according to unconfirmed reports.
Source: http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_12439-Al-Qaeda-Terrorist- Suspect-Living-In-Madagascar-Report.html
Chavez Sets May Oil Takeover Date (back)
February 2, 2002
Venezuela 's president has said he will nationalise a series of oil projects in the Orinoco river belt within months.
Hugo Chavez was speaking as he signed a law granting him the authority to rule by decree for the next 18 months.
Mr Chavez said the government the operations, run with five international oil firms, would be state-owned by the beginning of May.
Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said that the government would seize the operations if no agreement was reached.
Controlling stake
'I have given instructions that on 1 May - 1 May - all the fields of the Orinoco Belt should wake up under our control,' Mr Chavez told a news conference.
Under Mr Chavez's plans, Venezuela will take on majority stakes of 60% in four projects which process the crude oil in the country's eastern Orinoco Belt.
He said that he hoped the foreign firms would remain as minority partners.
The decision affects the oil firms Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Statoil and BP.
The White House has said that it hopes that US firms will be treated 'in accordance with international regulations'.
The Venezuelan leader also lashed out at his arch-enemy US President George W Bush, who said on Wednesday that the concentration of political power could damage democracy in the country.
'The president of the United States should resign, if he had the least dignity ... if only the United States had a democracy like what we have here. If only the American people could call a recall referendum.'
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/6322721.stm
Iran's Parliament Speaker Meets Islamic Jihad Terror Chief (back)
February 5, 2007
Iran 's parliament speaker, Gholam Ali Hadadeadel stated that the conflicts and disaccords among Muslims sects was a great victory to the Zionist regime and the enemies of Islam.
In the meeting with Palestine's Islamic Jihad movement secretary general, Ramadan Abdullah, Gholam Ali Hadadeadel remarked that the U.S. and the Zionist regime propose the danger of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order 'to divert the attention of the world from Palestine, which is Islam's main issue'.
He also expressed disappointment regarding the neutrality and approval of some small neighboring countries before the plots of the Zionist regime.
'It's very disappointing that some countries state their protests against Iran and propose the idea of Sunni and Shiite sects among Muslims instead of stating their oppositions against the murder and crimes of the Zionists and the U.S. against the oppressed Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi nation,' he said.
He went on to say that on one hand these countries spread the red carpet for Israel and on the other hand they recognized Iran as a dangerous country.
'Muslims in all parts of world must not forget the main enemies of Islam,' he asserted.
In the final parts of his talk, Hadadeadel insisted on preserving the unity among Palestinian groups by avoiding interior conflicts in the present sensitive regional circumstances.
For his part, Ramadan Abdullah appreciated the perpetual material and spiritual support of the Iranian nation and government.
Referring to the defeat of the Zionist regime in the 33 day war against the Islamic resistance in Lebanon , Abdullah stated that sowing seeds of disaccord among Muslims in the region was the new strategy of the Zionist regime and the U.S.
'Unity among Muslims is the greatest threat to the U.S. and the Zionist regime,' he added.
He also referred to the triangle composed by the U.S. , the Zionist regime and some other countries.
'They do not look at Israel as an enemy but look upon Iran as the danger,' he concluded.
Source: http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-872051&Lang=E
Links Between LTTE and al-Qaeda (back)
February 15, 2007
For the second year running a prestigious international institute has highlighted possible links between the LTTE and al-Qaeda, the terrorist organisation allegedly responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States and other bombings.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the London-based think tank has referred to links between the two organisations both of which are banned as terrorist organisations in several countries.
In its latest issue of the Military Balance 2007 which analyses important world developments and the military hardware of state and non-state actors, IISS however talks of possible commercial links between the LTTE and al-Qaeda and makes no reference to any military connections between them.
IISS was the first international think-tank to publicly announce LTTEs acquisition of air power. Three years ago the IISS in its Military Balance reported that the LTTE had acquired light aircraft and helicopters.
Although IISS does not explain what the possible 'commercial links' might be, analysts here believe that there are several possibilities.
'It is possible that the LTTE is using its merchant ships to help transport weapons from al-Qaeda to its cells or support groups in other countries,' one analyst told The Sunday Times.
Source: http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=4100
British Muslims Criticize Media Reporting (propaganda)
February 5, 2007
Members of Birmingham 's Muslim community on Saturday criticized the intense media speculation surrounding the arrest of nine local men over an alleged terrorist plot to kidnap and kill a British soldier.
At a packed public meeting at Birmingham Central Mosque, speakers criticized the media for releasing the names of some of those detained and reporting lurid details of their alleged plans.
Police are questioning nine men detained Wednesday in this central England city on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. None has yet been charged. Media reports based on anonymous sources and unconfirmed by police said officers had foiled a plot to kidnap, torture and murder a British Muslim soldier and post images of the killing on the Internet.
'There is no evidence, that we know of, but pure speculation, statements from the home secretary, houses raided and the media frenzy,' said Tariq Mahmood, who lives in the area where some of the arrests took place.
'The media will go away, the polities will move on, but we will feel the effects of this farce for years to come,' he said.
Moazzam Begg, a Briton who was detained by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay for two years before being released in 2005, also criticized media coverage of the arrests.
'I hope that when the truth manifests itself that, metaphorically, heads will roll with the people who put out these stories in the first place,' he told the meeting.
The nine suspects, believed to be British men of Pakistani descent, were arrested in homes and businesses in several Birmingham neighborhoods. Under British law, terrorist suspects can be held for up to 28 days before they must be charged or released.
Britain 's MI5 spy agency says it has foiled five major terrorist plots since the July 2005 transit bomb attacks that killed 52 commuters in London .
Several trials are underway or upcoming, including the case of a group of men accused of planning to use fertilizer bombs to attack nightclubs and other targets.
But anti-terrorist police have also made high-profile mistakes that have angered many Muslims.
Last June, two brothers were detained after a dawn raid on their home in east London by police looking for a chemical bomb. Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, was shot in the shoulder during the raid, during which no explosives were found. After a week of questioning both brothers were released without charge.
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/03/europe/EU-GEN- Britain-Terror-Arrests.php
The 'Tolerance' of Islam (back)
February 5, 2007
Disinformation: The Tolerance of Islam
We hear it time and time again about the tolerance of Islam. Lets see how tolerant they were last week.
Pakistan Detains Christian Woman For 'Insulting' Islam
Police took Martha Bibi into custody late Monday, January 22, in the town of Kot Nanak Singh in District Kasur, southeast of the city of Lahore, after the local Imam urged Muslims to attack the Christian family saying 'Martha uttered derogatory words against the Holy Prophet Muhammad,' said the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) advocacy group.
'On hearing the continuous announcement [from the mosque] and voices of people outside who were gathered to attack her home, Marthas family left to hide in one of the neighboring houses,' APMA said. However soon, 'police came and arrested Martha Bibi.' She was charged under section 295 C of Pakistan s controversial Blasphemy Law and could face the death penalty if convicted, APMA. In many cases Christians have however received long prison sentences. Bibi has denied the charges.
Heres some more tolerance.
Video: Anti-Christian Atrocities During The Anti-Pope Jihad
In the midst of the Papal Jihad, a Nigerian Muslim accused his Christian tailor of blasphemy. Before the ensuring riots were over, sixteen churches had been burned to the ground in a mysteriously coordinated campaign
Even more tolerance.
UK city council bans Holocaust Memorial under Muslim pressure
In A move widely seen to be bowing to Muslim pressure, Bolton Council has scrapped its Holocaust Memorial Day event. The council is to replace it with a Genocide Memorial Day in June. This is in line with the policy of the Muslim Council of Britain, which continues to boycott HMD and is asking for a Genocide Day, which will also mark 'the ongoing genocide and human rights abuses of Palestinians' by Israelis. The council decision was made in consultation with the towns Interfaith Council.
We have such a plethora of tolerance!
Bethlehem Christians Break Silence on Muslim Oppression
After many years of the mainstream medias annual story about mean Israelis stealing Bethlehem s Christmas (see here for a comical example), the truth has been revealed. Christians are fleeing every Muslim-majority territory because of the apartheid discrimination encouraged by Muslim sharia law. Land theft works because the testimony of non-Muslims is weighed less in every sharia court in the world.
Pakistan : Tortured brick makers refuse to embrace Islam
Steadfast Christian faith sustains them through month-long imprisonment. Two brothers who used to work at a brick kiln have escaped from what they describe as a kidnapping and torture by the business owner, who wanted them to convert from Christianity to Islam, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group helping members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.
And heres some visual proof provided by the Roncesvalles blog.
The caption reads:
Youre initially drawn in by the youngsters sad eyes, but then react in horror to the lock and chains wrapped around his ankles. G.M.B. Akash was visiting a [Quran] village school in Dhaka , where this young boy was restrained as punishment for refusing to study.
Source: http://www.bloggernews.net/14392
China 'hacking German computers'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d26f113c-b718-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html
China 'hacking German computers'
By Astrid Meier and Friederike Tiesenhausen Cave
Published: February 8 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 8 2007 02:00
China is increasingly hacking into the computers of German and other
European companies in order to spy on them, Hans Elmar Remberg,
vice-president of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the
Constitution, warned yesterday.
"We have detected a rising number of hacking attacks by the Chinese
recently," he said. Russia and China were the two countries most actively
involved in spying activities in Germany, said Mr Remberg. But while
the Russians were still using secret agents, China was mainly active
electronically. Germany suffers losses worth billions every year due to the
theft of corporate know-how. Friederike Tiesenhausen, Berlin and Astrid
Meier, Frankfurt
Thanks for this alert to Milford421
[KOIN] WASHINGTON - Police Make Arrest In Truck Bombing
"Neighbors say they heard and felt a blast around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
An explosive device went off, sending nails and shrapnel into the
truck and the outside of the home"
http://www.koin.com/Global/story.asp?S=6055317
[The FBI is active today, several pages of reports for today]
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=%22FBI%22&ei=utf-8
1. St. Paul officer in FBI probe quits force, joins Sheriff's Office Open this result in new window
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune - 1 hour, 6 minutes ago
Timothy Rehak, a 20-year veteran of the St. Paul police force who has surfaced in an FBI investigation of a Ramsey County Sheriff's official, submitted his resignation from the Police Department Thursday to accept an inspector's position at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. Rehak has also been under an internal affairs investigation within his own department for issues unrelated to the FBI ...
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2. FBI's new leader seeks harmony Open this result in new window
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune - Feb 08 6:08 PM
Ralph Boelter, the FBI's new special agent in charge of the Minneapolis office, says his first priority will be "to provide steady and sure leadership to the office itself." That would be a welcome relief. The office, which covers Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, has endured a number of embarrassing squabbles in recent years, ranging from disagreements over the pre-9/11 investigation of ...
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3. New Minneapolis FBI chief says counterterrorism remains priority Open this result in new window
Fargo Forum - 30 minutes ago
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The new special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis division has something of a head start on the job -- he's been here before, looking for ways to make the local operation work better.
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4. FBI Seeks Public's Help In Finding Fugitive Open this result in new window
KTSM - Feb 08 5:41 PM
The FBI says a man wanted in California may be here in the Sun City.
Save
5. New FBI Head Continues Search For Red Lake Boys Open this result in new window
WCCO Minneapolis/St. Paul - Feb 08 5:30 PM
The new special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis division has something of a head start on the job -- he's been here before, looking for ways to make the local operation work better. More Minnesota News
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6. WP: Distrust between FBI, Muslims Open this result in new window
MSNBC - Feb 08 3:12 AM
FBI agents struggle to reach out to community leaders after years of mutual suspicion.
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7. FBI arrests 4 more in Cocke probe Open this result in new window
Knoxville News Sentinel - Feb 08 1:39 PM
The FBI has arrested four more people as part of a lengthy probe into organized crime and public corruption in Cocke County.
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8. FBI Makes Arrest in Cuba Robbery Open this result in new window
WTOK-TV Meridian - Feb 08 1:45 PM
The FBI office in Alabama says it has charged Diondus Dewarren Burton, 24, of Cuba, Ala., for the armed robbery of Sumter County Credit Union on Dec. 15, 2006.
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9. FBI Investigating Laser Beams Pointed At SLC Jets Open this result in new window
KUTV2 Salt Lake City - Feb 08 9:23 AM
FBI agents are looking for a suspect who may be flashing laser lights at pilots at Salt Lake International Airport.
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10. Sept. 8, 2005: Sabri's office searched by FBI for evidence of fraudulent letter Open this result in new window
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune - Feb 08 9:32 AM
While Minneapolis developer Basim Sabri was in the federal prison camp at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Wednesday, federal agents searched his Lake Street office for evidence of more crimes. The search warrant affidavit said the FBI has probable cause to believe that he and Hanan Sabri, both his secretary and a cousin, engaged "in a scheme to submit a false and fraudulent letter, supposedly from a ...
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Thanks to Milford421 for this alert;
AMMO SCARE AT JFK CLIP FOUND ON JET ( American Airlines)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082007/news/regionalnews/ammo_scare_at_jfk_regionalnews_larry_celona_____and_bill_sanderson.htm
AMMO SCARE AT JFK
CLIP FOUND ON JET
By LARRY CELONA and BILL SANDERSON
February 8, 2007 -- A loaded ammo clip was found aboard an American
Airlines jet that had just arrived at Kennedy Airport from the
Dominican Republic, and now cops are trying to find its owner.
The bullets were discovered in a seat-back pocket at about 10:30
p.m. Jan. 29 by a worker cleaning the jet after its flight from
Santo Domingo, authorities said yesterday.
The plane, which had arrived at Kennedy about two hours earlier,
also visited Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, that day.
continued............
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.384619168&par=
TERRORISM: AL-QAEDA WEB MONTHLY BACK AFTER YEAR'S BREAK
Riyadh, 8 Feb. (AKI) - After more than a year's absence, the jihadi propaganda monthly "Voice of Jihad" (Sawt-al-Jihad), edited by the Saudi cell of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, has reappeared on the Internet. The new issue - the 30th - opens with an editorial threatening the Saudi regime and welcoming the birth of "an Islamic emirate" in Iraq by local al-Qaeda cells. "Voice of Jihad" was launched in 2003 covering mainly ideological and doctrinal issues concerning the mujahadeen in the Arabian Peninsula.
"As for us, we have begun a new year and we ask Allah that it be a year of victory," reads the editorial. For some time now we have been preparing important operations which will make the crusader (i.e. American) bases on the Arab peninsula tremble and the aim of the mujahadeen will be to cleanse the peninsula of the pagans and the crusader bases" - a reference to US military posts in the region.
The editorial concludes with a message to the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. We say to our emir, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, that we will continue on his path. Your soldiers are working, planning and preparing something which will make him and all true believers very happy. We pray to Allah that all will go well until the arrival of zero hour," it added.
The magazine also carries a claim of responsibility for an attack by Islamist terrorists against a Saudi oil refinery at Baqiq, on 24 February 2006.
It concludes with an interview with a doctor of Moroccan origin living in France, who in the 1990s decided to fight alongside the Bosnian mujahadeen, and a corner dedicated to readers, who are invited to write to the jihadi publication on the site http://contactus.arabform.com
(Ham/Aki)
Feb-08-07 17:21
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.384239606&par=0
PAKISTAN: INVESTIGATORS MAKE HEADWAY IN AIRPORT ATTACK PROBE
Islamabad, 8 Feb. (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan's security agencies, investigating Tuesday's armed attack at Islamabad airport believe it was directly linked to some of the recent suicide attacks in the capital and in the North-West Frontier Province. Preliminary investigations and interrogation of one of those arrested has led to detention of four more militant suspects from the NWFP. A top security official said that based on intelligence collected so far, the government had been warned of the possibility of more such attacks by religious militants, possibly linked to the local Taliban based in the Waziristan region.
The exact identity of the person involved in the airport attack was yet to be established, but investigators said some clues suggested that he might have been from the Punjab. Atleast one person was killed and three injured in the explosion at the airport car park after a group of armed men was challenged by security guards. Three of the attackers were injured in an exchange of fire. One tried to throw a grenade, but died when it exploded.
The investigation team has also obtained footage of the armed attack captured by close circuit cameras of the airport and it is believed that they would help trace the identity of the terrorist.
Senior officials told Pakistani daily Dawn that the government had received high security threats in Islamabad after which security had been beefed up in and around all important buildings, including Parliament House, Presidency, Prime Minister House and federal ministries, a senior security official told Dawn on Wednesday.
The latest attempt to target the Islamabad airport was foiled due to enhanced security by the Airport Security Force. So far most of the victims had been security personnel, both official and private, but had any, one of the bombers succeeded the consequences would have been disastrous.
One official said an intelligence agency had reported to the government that six suicide bombers had reached Islamabad to hit high-profile targets. The report seems to be based on facts because six out of two terrorists have already carried out attacks including the one at Marriott Hotel and the other who died during a fire-fight at the Islamabad Airport, the official said.
It is feared that the other four bombers can strike anywhere in the capital and most probably some VIPs or important buildings.The official, however, said there was a possibility that the remaining terrorists had left the capital after finding it difficult to strike due to extraordinary security measures.
Meanwhile, high security alert has been declared in Islamabad and strict checking of visitors is being conducted at the entrance of all important buildings. The employees of all government offices and federal ministries have been directed to display their official identity cards otherwise they would not be allowed to enter into their offices.
Chief Islamabad Police Commission Khalid Pervez said the assistance of private security agencies had also been sought and the staff of some restaurants and hotels had been imparted security training to enable them to take their own security steps these days.
Pervez said the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) had obtained fingerprints of the armed attacker who was killed in Islamabad Airport to know if they matched with the fingerprints of all Computerised National Identity Cards (CINCs) holders.
(Aki/DAWN)
Feb-08-07 09:28
[Odd, that they say this is a brand new disease]
Source: KOAA.com [edited]
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=6519
Canine Flu outbreak in Denver
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