Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Tehran insider tells of US black ops
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD25Ak02.html
Middle East
Apr 25, 2006
Tehran insider tells of US black ops
By an Asia Times Online Special Correspondent
TEHRAN - A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has
provided intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert
operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling
the
regime - or preparing for an American attack.
"The Iranian government knows and is aware of such infiltration. It
means
that the Iranian government has identified them [the covert operatives]
but
for some reason does not want to show [this]," said the former diplomat
on
condition of anonymity.
Speaking in Tehran, the ex-Foreign Ministry official said the agents
being
used by the US "were originally Iranians and not Americans" possibly
recruited in the United States or through US embassies in Dubai and
Ankara.
He also warned that such actions will engender "some reactions".
"Both sides will certainly do something," he said in a reference to
Iran's
capability to stir trouble up in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan for
the
occupying US troops there.
Veteran US journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in a much-discussed recent
article in The New Yorker magazine that the administration of President
George W Bush has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and
intensified planning for a possible major air attack as the crisis with
Iran over its nuclear program escalates.
Hersh wrote that "teams of American combat troops have been ordered
into
Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact
with
anti-government ethnic-minority groups". The template seems identical
to
the period that preceded US air strikes against the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan during which a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
campaign distributed millions of dollars to tribal allies.
"The Iranian accusations are true," said Richard Sale, intelligence
correspondent for United Press International, referring to charges that
the
US is using the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization and other groups
to
carry out cross-border operations. "But it is being done on such a
small
scale - a series of pinpricks - it would seem to have no strategic
value at
all."
There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and
Balochistan, three of Iran's provinces with a high concentration of
ethnic
Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively. With the exception
of
the immediate post-revolutionary period, when the Kurds rebelled
against
the central government and were suppressed violently, ethnic minorities
have received better treatment, more autonomy and less ethnic
discrimination than under the shah.
"The president hasn't notified the Congress that American troops are
operating inside Iran," said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel
who
specializes in war-game scenarios. "So it's a very serious question
about
the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military
operations in Iran."
Camp Warhorse is the major US military base in the strategic Iraqi
province
of Diyala that borders Iran. Last month, Asia Times Online asked the US
official in charge of all overt and covert operations emanating from
there
whether the military and the MEK colluded on an operational level. He
denied any such knowledge.
"They have a gated community up there," came the genial reply. "Not
really
guarded - it's more gated. They bake really good bread," he added,
smiling.
But that is contrary to what Hersh was told by his sources, According
to
him, US combat troops are already inside Iran and, in the event of air
strikes, would be in position to mark critical targets with laser beams
to
ensure bombing accuracy and excite sectarian tensions between the
population and the central government. As of early winter, Hersh's
source
claims that the units were also working with minority groups in Iran,
including the Azeris in the north, the Balochis in the southeast, and
the
Kurds in the northwest.
Last week, speaking on the sidelines of a Palestinian solidarity
conference, Major-General Yehyia Rahim Safavi, the Iranian
Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, sent a warning to the US and British
intelligence services he accuses of using Iraq and Kuwait to infiltrate
Iran. "I tell them that their agents can be our agents too, and they
should
not waste their money so casually."
On April 9, Iran claimed to have shot down an unmanned surveillance
plane
in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, according to a report in the
semi-official Jumhuri Eslami newspaper. US media have also reported
that
the US military has been secretly flying surveillance drones over Iran
since 2004, using radar, video, still photography and air filters to
monitor Iranian military formations and track Iran's air-defense
system.
The US denied having lost a drone.
This new mission for the combat troops is a product of Defense
Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld's long-standing interest in expanding the role of the
military in covert operations, which was made official policy in the
Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, published in February. Such
activities, if conducted by CIA operatives, would need a Presidential
Finding and would have to be reported to key members of Congress.
The confirmation that the US is carrying out covert activities inside
Iran
makes more sense out of a series of suspicious events that have
occurred
along Iran's borders this year. In early January, a military airplane
belonging to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards went down close to the
Iraqi
border. The plane was carrying 11 of the Guard's top commanders,
including
General Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the IRGC's ground forces, and
Brigadier-General Nabiollah Shahmoradi, who was deputy commander for
intelligence.
Although a spokesman blamed bad weather and dilapidated engines for the
crash, the private intelligence company Stratfor noted that there are
several reasons to suspect foul play, not least of which was that any
aircraft carrying so many of Iran's elite military luminaries would
undergo
"thorough tests for technical issues before flight". Later, Iran's
defense
minister accused Britain and the US of bringing the plane down through
"electronic jamming".
"Given all intelligence information that we have gathered, we can say
that
agents of the United States, Britain and Israel are seeking to
destabilize
Iran through a coordinated plan," Minister of Interior Mustafa
Pour-Mohammadi said. This sentiment was echoed on websites such as
AmericanIntelligence.us, where one reader commented, "We couldn't have
made
a better hit on the IRGC's leadership if planned ... sure it was just
an
accident?"
Then, in late January, a previously unknown Sunni Muslim group called
Jundallah (Soldier of Allah) captured nine Iranian soldiers in the
remote
badlands of Sistan-Balochistan province that borders Afghanistan and
Pakistan. And in mid-February, another airplane crashed just inside
Iraq
after taking off from Azerbaijan and transiting Iranian airspace. The
Iranian Mehr news agency reported that the "passengers on board were
possibly of Israeli origin". It added that US troops have restricted
access
to the site to Iraqi Kurdish officials and that Western media were
reporting the passengers aboard as having been German.
The Iranian government has not sat idly by and just taken these
breaches of
sovereignty. Early this month, an unidentified source in the Interior
Ministry was quoted by the hardline Kayhan newspaper as saying that the
leader and 11 members of the Jundallah group had been killed by Iranian
troops. Then last Friday, Iranian missile batteries shelled Iranian
Kurdish
rebel positions inside Iraqi territory. They were targeting a militant
group called PJAK that seeks more autonomy for Iran's Kurdish
population
and has been operating out of Iraq since 1999.
The former Iranian ambassador argues that in the event that US pressure
on
Iran continues, "the end of the tunnel" for President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad's
administration is "weaponization of the [nuclear] technology ... and a
military strike".
"The Americans are pushing Iran to become a nuclear state. Iran just
wants
to be a supplier of nuclear fuel. But [with their threats] they are
pushing
it further."
[history]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5259129-111414,00.html
Messages of fear in hi-tech invisible ink
In 2003 the CIA falsely believed al-Qaida was sending signals to terror cells through TV. Ian Sample on a scare story
Ian Sample
Thursday August 11, 2005
Guardian
The first sign that something was amiss came a few days before Christmas Eve 2003. The US department of homeland security raised the national terror alert level to "high risk". The move triggered a ripple of concern throughout the airline industry and nearly 30 flights were grounded, including long hauls between Paris and Los Angeles and subsequently London and Washington.
But in recent weeks, US officials have made a startling admission: the key intelligence that prompted the security alert was seriously flawed. CIA analysts believed they had detected hidden terrorist messages in al-Jazeera television broadcasts that identified flights and buildings as targets. In fact, what they had seen were the equivalent of faces in clouds - random patterns all too easily over-interpreted.
At the heart of the fiasco lies a technique called steganography, the art, and now hardcore science, of hiding messages. There's nothing new about steganography, in principle at least. Herodotus tells the tale of Histiaeus who, in the sixth century BC, shaved the head of his most trusted slave, tattooed a message on his scalp and let his hair regrow. The slave then travelled unchallenged to Aristagoras ,who was instructed to shave the slave's head, revealing the message urging him to revolt against the Persians. In common with modern steganography, it ensured that outsiders didn't know a secret message existed.
But to experts, the idea al-Qaida would be passing steganographic messages through TV broadcasts is ludicrous. "When they worked out the tactics of the 9/11 perpetrators, what they did was get in a car, drive some place and meet someone and have a conversation, they didn't even get online," says Peter Honeyman, steganography expert and scientific director of the centre for information technology integration at the University of Michigan. "Why were the CIA believing that they were seeing something in al-Jazeera broadcasts? I can't fathom it."
The CIA had been using computers to look for hidden messages in the headlines that scroll along the bottom of al-Jazeera broadcasts, a feature used by most rolling news broadcasters. What the CIA was up to found its way into the intelligence community rumour mill and got back to the satellite channel.
"We were aware there were intelligence reports saying that al-Qaida or its supporters might be communicating in ways that were unconventional. There were certain whispers that perhaps they were using al-Jazeera and other organisations, something we refuted categorically," says Jihad Ballout, al-Jazeera's spokesman in Qatar. "It's funny and it's frustrating at the same time as far as al-Jazeera's concerned. We're fed up of these rumours that al-Jazeera is a conduit for communication for any group."
Confirmation that the CIA had been hunting for hidden messages in broadcasts - and had turned up some curious results - came in June when US officials talked to NBC News. During the interview, the officials told how technicians at the CIA's directorate of science and technology believed they had found numbers embedded in al-Jazeera's news strip that corresponded with a hotch-potch of targets. There were dates and flight numbers, coordinates for high-profile sites such as the White House, as well as information apparently pointing to the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia.
Security experts have developed several ways to embed messages in images and video streams. One of the simplest methods is to take a frame of an image made up of pixels and alter it very slightly. "Every pixel is represented by three colours - red, green and blue - and each has a value from zero to 255 that represents the intensity of that colour. It turns out you can change the bits, make an odd number even, and an even number odd, which changes the perceived colour so little, it's difficult to tell anything's been done to it," says Honeyman, who adds that a megapixel-sized image could carry a secret message of 50,000 words.
The problem with hunting messages hidden by steganography is that there are so few of them, any computer program will come up with false positives - messages that aren't really there. "The false positive rate, even if it's vanishingly small, starts to throw signals at you that makes you want to believe you're seeing messages. And somebody could be fooled by that if they didn't understand the nature of steganography," says Honeyman.
When NBC News broke the story that the CIA's intelligence was unreliable, employees at al-Jazeera were delighted, according to Ballout, but he has concerns, too. "I'm glad it has been brought out into the open, but this is very risky for the media at large. If this perception was to be perpetuated, the media is at risk of being dragged into an area where it loses its objectivity and is considered to be party to a conflict," says Ballout. "That public policy can be swayed by something like this - getting it absolutely wrong- just imagine where this could lead. We've suffered a great deal. All the allegations against al-Jazeera, one would have to question what was driving them."
Honeyman says this isn't the first time fears have been raised of terrorists using steganographic messages. After the 9/11 attack, Honeyman and a student investigated press reports that al-Qaida was hiding messages in images on the internet. Together, they analysed millions of images. "We hunted and hunted and hunted, but we found zero, nothing, not even a 'meet me at the Starlight Lounge at 11'."
"We're dealing with the global fear of terrorism, which is legitimate, but that fear is being translated into very speculative and unrealistic scenarios, all of which are possible, but none of which are likely. Until someone turns over some evidence that says 'here's the cover message, here's the hidden message,' I'm going to remain a sceptic that terrorists are using this," says Honeyman.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2020346,00.html
Lithuanian vet who put hundreds of guns on the streets of London and Manchester
· Man admits converting gas pistols to fire bullets
· He denies helping to smuggle weapons to UK
Kate Connolly in Vilnius and Ian Cobain
Saturday February 24, 2007
The Guardian
A Russian-made Baikal gas pistol
A Russian-made Baikal gas pistol of the kind turned into lethal weapons. Photograph: PA
In Lithuania, the ancient market town of Kedainiai, a two-hour drive north of the capital, is best known for its agricultural and dairy produce. For some reason, local people are particularly proud of their cucumbers: it is, they like to say, the cucumber capital of the country.
Over the past two years, however, Kedainiai has been producing another, more lucrative, and far more deadly commodity, one which is having an impact on the lives of youths 1,100 miles away in Peckham, Moss Side and a dozen other British neighbourhoods - the British teenage gang members' weapon of choice.
Hundreds of relatively low-powered gas pistols are known to have been converted to discharge live ammunition in a workshop in the town before being smuggled into the UK. Improbably enough, the man at the heart of the trade was a local vet.
When police raided Andrius Rauba's house and workshop last August they discovered 106 firearms which had been converted, or were about to be converted, into deadly weapons. He had been buying so-called "alarm pistols" - low-powered weapons permitted by Lithuanian law - from the Russian manufacturer, Baikal, for as little as the equivalent of £10 each. He was then remodelling the barrels and even fitting silencers before selling them on for £300. By the time they reached the UK, British police believe they were retailing for around £1,500 a time.
Rauba, 37, who has two children, eight and four, is thought to have tried his hand at a number of enterprises because his vet's salary was so meagre. He dealt in second-hand cars and rubbed shoulders with cigarette smugglers and vodka bootleggers before turning to the conversion of weapons. His house boasts a home cinema, a new kitchen and a caravan in the driveway, which his wife suspects was bought with the proceeds of crime.
Rauba has admitted converting the weapons - although he denies having anything to do with the smuggling operation - and is behind bars, awaiting trial alongside 12 other men.
One day last May, Scotland Yard detectives keeping a London criminal under surveillance, watched him negotiate the purchase of 18 of Rauba's weapons from a Lithuanian arms dealer at Cafe Rouge in St John's Wood, north London. The criminal, Gerry Smith, 47, was jailed for 10 years at Blackfriars crown court last week while his Lithuanian contact, Evaldas Cinga, 34, received a seven-year term.
A month earlier, three Lithuanian men were jailed for a total of 32 years at Southwark crown court in London after smuggling what the judge called an "assassin's armoury" of weapons into Britain. Andrius Gurskas, 26, Orestas Bublilauskas, 34, and Darius Stankunas, 34, had hidden Baikal handguns along with hundreds of bullets in the modified fuel tank of a Vauxhall Astra. Officials from Lithuania's Office of Organised Crime and Corruption say the weapons came from Rauba.
In Manchester, detectives suspect they see Rauba's handiwork in 30 converted weapons found in August 2005 in a secret compartment beneath a seat of a Volvo. Four men - two Britons and two Lithuanians - were subsequently jailed for a total of 56 years. They know that there are many other converted Baikals out there. Five have been seized in Manchester in the last two weeks alone.
In the week when policymakers, senior police officers and community leaders were called to a Downing Street summit to consider the causes of teenage gun crime, and John Reid, the home secretary, announced a review of the legislation on guns and gangs, many detectives were simply trying to reduce the supply of firearms on Britain's streets.
Criminals in the UK have increasingly resorted to converted air pistols, gas pistols and starter guns since private ownership of handguns was outlawed in 1997. At first, criminals produced crude conversions of British Brocock air pistols, then moved on to German or Russian starter pistols or flare guns.
Then police began recovering an increasing number of converted gas pistols which had been smuggled into the country. Some are thought to have been used in several of the so-called black-on-black gun crimes which have claimed scores of young victims in recent years.
In Manchester, conversions now account for more than half the illegal weapons recovered. Rauba's conversions are among the most accomplished British police have seen. He had been converting Baikal IZH pistols, which are similar to the 9mm Makarov, the standard police gun in the Baltics. Each weapon was usually sold with a silencer and live ammunition. They even had new barrels which had been painstakingly rifled to maintain the velocity and accuracy of each round.
Scotland Yard detectives are convinced that the eastward expansion of the EU in May 2004 has made it easier to smuggle weapons from eastern Europe to the UK, a view echoed by Jurijus Milevskis, the deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau in Vilnius. Britain, he said, was the destination of choice due to the high demand for the guns and the high prices. "It seems the more guns that are sent there, the more the demand grows."
Gun ownership is widespread in Lithuania; anyone who does not have a criminal record is eligible to have a licence. According to police statistics, of the 294 murders committed in the country last year, only 11 involved a firearm, encouraging the widely held view that the greater the number of weapons in circulation, the less crime is committed. "Maybe Britain should consider changing its gun laws and legalising weapons," said Mr Milevskis,
Nevertheless, the Lithuanian authorities are taking arms smuggling seriously: the country's security service, the VSD, has taken control of the investigation. In Britain, ballistic tests are being carried out on large numbers of recovered firearms in the search for any "signature" in the conversion process which might establish how many originated in Lithuania, and how many were produced by Rauba.
The vet's wife, meanwhile, says she was mortified to discover what her husband had been doing. "I was in complete shock," said Diana Raubiene, 33, a special needs teacher. "I had really had no idea. I don't know what went through his mind. I don't like to think about the impact he was having on London. I don't let my imagination go that far."
This compilation of news briefs from Iran Press Service (not IranPressNews) edited by Safa Haeri has two quite interesting items (use the link below):
1. the fact that former twice President and "reformist" Khatami's home was raided and his computers, papers, files etc., confiscated by Ahmadi-Nejad's government shows hardliners doing what Alan Peters of AntiMullah has been saying for quite a while. The current government will not stop at even arresting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, let alone taking action against someone like Khatami.
2. Comments by a Zoroastrian (original real Persians) which show how angry many are at the current Islamic regime and the invasion by Reverse Crusade of Islam on the world.
"Taazi" is the pure Persian word to describe the Arab invaders of centuries ago and coined by famous writer of classics, Saadi, in a huge work that refused to use any words derived from Arabic instead of pure Persian.
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2007/02/iran-press-service-news-briefs.html
Female suicide bomber planning to target Pakistan Air Force installations in Peshawar
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=2/24/2007#10
Female suicide bomber planning to target Pakistan Air Force
installations in Peshawar
Security agencies warned on February 23 that a female suicide bomber in
fashionable clothes and sunglasses might target Pakistan Air Force
(PAF)
installations in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, to
avenge an air strike on a Madrassa (seminary) in Bajaur on October 31,
2006. "This suicide bomber will be different from others. This one will
not have a beard... it will be a good-looking girl with the aim to
avenge the air strike," official sources told Daily Times. Sources said
that the would-be suicide bomber would target PAF-run schools and
colleges to kill as many male and female students as possible. However,
PAF spokesperson Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan said "We got no
special threat."
The PAF might have been selected as a potential target after suspected
militants warned earlier that they would attack its facilities in the
same manner that "jets took off from Peshawar base to bomb the Madrassa
in Bajaur." 82 people, including 12 teenagers, were killed during an
air
strike that targeted a seminary at Damadola in the Bajaur tribal
region.
Thanks for the alert.
I must have a hundred posts, that say we will attack first, or that Iran will do so, only a few say Israel will make the first strike.
With all the threats, from all the spokesmen, in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, it does not look good.
Invitation
Dear Reader:
I am speaking twice on campuses in California on the Arab-Israeli conflict in the next few days – once in Santa Cruz and once in San Luis Obispo – and I warmly invite you to join me.
* Where: University of California , Santa Cruz , at the Stevenson Event Center
* When: February 26, 7:30 p.m.
* Topic: “The Threat to Israel ’s Existence – Why It’s Back, What It Means”
* Cost: Gratis
* Where: California State Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo , at the Spanos Theater (Building 44)
* When: March 5, 7:00 p.m.
* Topic: “The Threat to Israel 's Existence – Why It's Back, What It Means”
* Cost: Gratis
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes
http://www.danielpipes.org/
AT 22.02.07: In search of a caliphate
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB22Ak02.html
In search of a caliphate
Hizbut Tahrir (HT - Liberation Party), a global pan-Islamic movement,
was
founded in Jerusalem in 1953 by Palestinian judge Sheikh Taqiuddin
al-Nabhani. The party is dedicated to the political unity of the world
of
Islam through the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. It regards
all
governments in the Muslim world as illegitimate. Hizbut Tahrir has a
strong
presence in the United Kingdom, where the government has announced
plans to
proscribe it on account of its alleged radicalizing influence on Muslim
youths.
Taji Mustafa was born in 1971 in London. He is of Nigerian origin.
Mustafa
studied computer science at university and is an information-technology
engineer by profession. He has been a member of Hizbut Tahrir for the
past
15 years and is currently the party's media representative in the
United
Kingdom.
Taji Mustafa spoke with Mahan Abedin.
Mahan Abedin: British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated his
determination
to proscribe HT in August 2005; is the British government as determined
as
ever to secure proscription?
Taji Mustafa: A BBC report from November last year indicated that Tony
Blair was as determined as ever to proscribe HT just before he made a
trip
to Pakistan. He wanted to show [Pakistani President General Pervez]
Musharraf that he was still intent on carrying out his wishes. But more
broadly what we find is that while there are elements within the
government
who listen to the dictators of the Muslim world, there are also others
who
have looked at the reality and concluded that there is no evidence that
HT
has any connections to terrorism whatsoever. It is these realists that
are
telling the government to think through their plans carefully lest HT's
proscription was shot down by the courts.
MA: What was the main motivation behind Blair's declaration on August
5,
2005, of government plans to proscribe HT? Was it just a knee-jerk
reaction
to the July 7 bombings or was it the culmination of years of pressure
by
the Americans and the regimes in the Muslim world?
TM: We find that it is a combination of both. Tony Blair clearly wanted
to
be seen to be doing something, and that is why he announced his
12-point
plan. But in recent leaks from the New Statesman magazine and the BBC
report subsequent to that, it was made clear that people like Musharraf
and
[President Islam] Karimov of Uzbekistan have lobbied very hard over the
years for HT to be proscribed in the UK. The events of July 7 provided
Tony
Blair with the excuse to carry out the wishes of the dictators in the
Muslim world.
MA: Many governments in the Muslim world - in particular the Karimov
regime
in Uzbekistan - have alleged that the UK is central to worldwide HT
activities. Is this true?
TM: The leadership of HT is in the Muslim world. Right now we have a
global
campaign against Karimov, which essentially consists of raising
awareness
of the oppression of Muslims in Uzbekistan. This campaign is led by HT
activists the world over, including HT members in the West. Hizbut
Tahrir
is a global movement.
MA: But how central is the UK to global HT activities?
TM: We have a longer history in the UK than many other Western
countries.
MA: But you have a longer history in Germany, but your activities there
are
nowhere near as intense as your UK-based activism.
TM: We are active in the UK but the contention that this country is
central
to our activities is very wrong. HT originated in the Muslim world and
the
bulk of its activism is found there.
MA: Where is your leadership based? Many people claim it is based
either in
the West Bank or Jordan.
TM: Our leadership is based in the Muslim world. I can't be more
specific
than that, because as you can appreciate our leaders are pursued by
despotic regimes. But our leaders communicate regularly with our
members
and supporters and the broader Muslim community on a regular basis. Our
current leader, Ata Abu Rishta, communicates regularly and participates
in
online debates and conferences. He is known in the Arab world as he
used to
be HT's spokesman in Jordan and has given numerous interviews over the
years. But obviously, because of concerns over his safety and security,
we
do not discuss his location.
Awaiting a ban
MA: How close are you to proscription in the United Kingdom?
TM: This is a question which the British government should answer. We
have
made it very clear that we would challenge proscription through the
courts.
There is no precedent in the UK for banning a party simply on account
of
its ideology. We should see potential proscription in the wider context
of
the many measures this government has taken since 9/11 [September 11,
2001]
to silence dissenting Muslim voices. We have had many travesties of
justice
in this period, including 28 days' detention without charge and the
fiasco
over holding foreign terror suspects indefinitely without charge.
MA: There have been reports that the professionals in the Special
Branch
and [the UK Security Service] MI5 object to the proscription on account
of
the party's peaceful nature. Do you think they have influence over the
Blair government?
TM: I think their position is just a statement of the obvious. Anybody
who
is familiar with HT knows that throughout our 54-year history we have
had
nothing to do with violence.
MA: But my question was whether the security establishment in this
country
can pressure the Blair government into relenting over this issue.
TM: What is clear is that there is a divide in the government over this
issue. I leave it at that.
MA: What are the legal obstacles to proscription?
TM: In terms of legal obstacles, there is simply no case to link HT to
violence. Moreover, should the government ban HT, we would challenge
that
in the courts, and there is a very good chance that we would succeed. I
think many people have grudgingly accepted this. This is what is
deterring
Tony Blair, not advice from the security establishment.
MA: But can HT be proscribed tomorrow?
TM: Yes!
MA: So the government does not have to prove its case to the judiciary?
TM: No, they don't. They can ban us arbitrarily. It is as simple as
that,
but what they have to face is an automatic legal challenge from HT.
That is
what worries them.
MA: How would you fight proscription? Please provide details of your
legal
strategy, if you can.
TM: We are in touch with our lawyers and we believe we have a strong
case.
The idea of banning an organization simply because the government finds
its
views unacceptable is unprecedented in the modern history of the United
Kingdom. What this would confirm to many people is that with these new
measures Britain is becoming increasingly like the regimes in the
Muslim
world where organizations are banned on account of their dissenting
views.
This is why many people are worried about the direction the government
is
taking in this so-called "war on terror".
MA: Would successful proscription signal the end of HT in the UK?
TM: We need to be very clear about a number of important points. HT has
deep roots within the Muslim community in the UK. We have been active
in
this country for nearly 20 years. Our ideas, particularly those that
relate
to the critique of Western foreign policy, are accepted by the majority
of
Muslims in this country. What is the government going to do with all
these
people? As for myself, I am convinced of the ideology and methodology
of
Hizbut Tahrir and will continue to work along these lines.
MA: But how will people like you continue their activism? Would you,
for
instance, form a new organization?
TM: HT operates under one name wherever it is in the world.
MA: So the brand is far too deep-rooted and emotive to abandon?
TM: That has been the name of our party since its establishment in 1953
and
that is not going to change. We are one party globally.
MA: But that would mean that organizationally speaking, HT is finished
in
the United Kingdom.
TM: We will fight proscription through the courts, and people should
not
forget that we have a very strong case.
MA: Which countries in the West have banned HT?
TM: The activities of HT are banned in Germany. But membership in the
party
is not banned.
MA: What does this mean in practice?
TM: In practice it means that we can't book a hall or give a talk in
public. But membership in HT is not affected.
MA: Why have they banned their activities?
TM: The party's activities were not banned in Germany under terrorism
laws,
but rather under the pretext that our view on the Israeli occupation
equates to anti-Semitism. This is a charge which we absolutely reject
and
which is currently the subject of a legal challenge in the German
courts.
MA: Your private activities are not affected in Germany?
TM: The Germans can't stop the free flow of ideas. HT is a party of
ideas,
and all our members worldwide are highly active in conveying our ideas
and
message to as many people as possible. It is not possible to put a stop
to
such widespread intellectual and political activism.
MA: So there has been no crackdown on your members by the German
authorities?
TM: I am not aware of the precise details of day-to-day activities in
Germany. The ban on our activities is being challenged through the
German
courts.
MA: What other government has banned HT?
TM: Aside from Germany, no other government has undertaken this type of
action.
MA: What about Denmark? Have they not banned the party's activities as
well?
TM: That is not true. We spend a lot of time correcting inaccurate
information and downright disinformation about the party.
MA: Therefore, if the British government goes ahead with its plans to
completely ban HT, this would constitute an unprecedented move in the
Western world.
TM: Absolutely.
MA: Presumably this calls into question claims by the French, Americans
and
others that the UK is a haven for Islamists.
TM: Given what has happened in this country in the past five years,
many
people would seriously question statements that the UK is a
Muslim-friendly
country, let alone a haven for Islamists.
Raising radicals?
MA: Let's now discuss some of the issues that make people wary of HT.
According to the Nixon Center (an American think-tank), HT acts as a
"conveyor belt" in the terrorism process. In other words, HT
radicalizes
people and prepares them for recruitment by terrorist organizations
further
down the line. How do you counter this claim?
TM: This claim is nonsense! It is not based on any evidence and is
promoted
by neo-cons who don't want to admit that it is their policies in the
Muslim
world that are radicalizing people. People who come up with this theory
have very little appreciation of what HT is. A movement should be
judged by
what it stands for and how it wants to achieve its aims. And anybody
who
has bothered to study HT and its 54-year history would appreciate that
we
have a very clear objective and a clear method to achieve that
objective.
Our objective is to establish the caliphate in the Muslim world through
political work with the Muslim masses and the elites.
Our aim is to convince Muslims of our vision. Genuine academics who
have
studied HT would reject the conveyer-belt theory outright. I refer
specifically to Dr Suha Taji-Farouki, whose book Fundamental Quest:
Hizbut
Tahrir and the Search for the Islamic Caliphate remains the standard
academic text on HT, and Jean-Francois Mayer, a former Swiss civil
servant
and historian. Mayer wrote a lengthy research paper entitled "Hizbut
Tahrir
- The Next al-Qaeda, Really?" I should also add that in respect of
Uzbekistan, HT was able to convince many people who wanted to challenge
the
Uzbek regime through violence to abandon their plans and instead work
through politics to change their society. Consequently many of these
people
joined HT.
MA: But from an American point of view, in some cases the rhetoric and
propaganda of HT converge with al-Qaeda's. What is your position on
organizations that challenge American hegemony through terrorism? Do
you
condemn September 11 without hesitation?
TM: Our position on 9/11, 7/7 [bombings in London on July 7, 2005] and
the
Madrid bombings [2004] are very clear. Islam does not sanction such
attacks. But there is a distinction between these events and resistance
to
occupation in the Muslim world. In the case of Iraq and Afghanistan,
foreign occupiers have illegally invaded Muslim lands and people living
under occupation have the right to resist and expel the occupiers.
'Serving the state'
MA: The British government wants Muslims to cooperate in the fight
against
terrorism by supplying intelligence. Would you advise Muslims to
provide
information to the police?
TM: The terrorism threat in the UK has been hyped for political
reasons.
The main political parties use this issue as a political weapon and
each
one likes to present itself as being more capable in meeting the threat
than the others. This country faced a much more serious threat when the
IRA
[Irish Republican Army] was active. After all, the IRA was targeting
the
very essence of the British state and eliminating specific politicians
and
security officers. But nobody back then characterized the threat as
posing
an existential threat to the UK, whereas now we are being told that the
UK
is faced with an existential threat from so-called Islamic terrorists.
Furthermore, the Muslim community cannot be held accountable for the
actions of four people on the 7th of July, 2005.
MA: But if you concede there is a terrorism threat (no matter how
serious
it is), do you also accept that as British citizens Muslims are
duty-bound
to cooperate with the competent authorities in dealing with that
threat?
TM: Muslims are not the police and the security service. It is the job
of
the police and the security service to deal with terrorism. Muslims are
being asked to do much more than other citizens. We have been told that
Muslims in universities are being approached by Special Branch to spy
on
their peers. We are told that Muslim parents are being encouraged to
spy on
their children. This is unacceptable.
MA: Would you advise Muslims to cooperate with the police, especially
if
they come across information that can be potentially helpful in foiling
a
terrorist plot?
TM: But what is the job of the security service?
MA: Their job is to recruit spies.
TM: Let's be very clear. Muslims have a duty to prevent harm falling on
their community and they have a duty to look after the people who live
around them. But in this so-called "war on terror" much of the
intelligence
has proved to be false and led to fiascoes like Forest Gate [abortive
raid
on two terror suspects in London last June 2] and the so-called ricin
plot
[in 2003 in which a number of suspects were released with no evidence
of
planning a chemical attack].
'Us and them'
MA: Some people claim that HT has an anti-integration message and is
trying
to divide Muslims from wider British society. Is this true?
TM: I would refute this charge. The main force behind the development
of
the "us" and "them" society is the British government. Through its
vilification and demonization of the Muslim community, the government
has
sought to deflect attention from its foreign policy. It is this foreign
policy - namely the daily killings of Muslims in Iraq - that has
created
widespread resentment in society and alienated a vast number of
Muslims.
That is what drives the "us" and "them" society. Far from dividing
British
society, HT is working with Muslims to bridge this divide. We teach
people
to combat the propaganda and misinformation about Islam and convey the
true
nature and meaning of Islam to their fellow citizens. We also teach
people
to convey legitimate Muslim grievances in a correct and effective
manner.
This is the most effective way of promoting community cohesion in the
UK.
MA: Why have some student unions banned HT activity in the past?
TM: HT has never been banned by any student union. However, a
particular
lobbying group within the National Union of Students led it to adopt a
"no
platform policy" of denying HT - and other Muslim groups - access to
student-union events. This particular lobby did not like HT's exposure
of
the brutal crimes of the State of Israel. But on the ground, many
individual student unions have ignored this "no platform policy", since
they are well aware that pro-Israel sympathies influenced that
decision.
Consequently, HT members are regularly invited to be part of panels
discussing different aspects of Islam, the work for the caliphate in
the
Muslim world, the "war on terror" and other local and global issues on
university campuses up and down the country.
MA: Finally, how close are you in achieving your ultimate objective,
namely
the re-creation of the Islamic caliphate?
TM: Numerous signs indicate that in the Muslim world, people desire a
fundamental change in the political order and that they are fed up with
their regimes. Furthermore, when given a chance to express their
opinion,
Muslims increasingly express a desire for Islamic governance. Egypt is
a
good example. So the political work for the Islamic caliphate is
unstoppable, and its return is only a matter of time.
MA: But how close are you? Will it take another generation?
TM: We feel it will happen sooner rather than later, InshaAllah [God
willing].
(This article first appeared in SaudiDebate.com. Published with
permission.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6388713.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 23 February 2007, 15:41 GMT
UK-US in talks on missile defence
The UK and US have held high level talks on the
possibility of putting a "Son of Star Wars"
anti-ballistic missile defence system on British soil.
An article in The Economist claims Prime Minister Tony
Blair has lobbied President George Bush for the
system.
But government sources have told the BBC that talks
are "to keep Britain's options open", not a lobbying
effort.
The US said it is still more likely to site a missile
defence system in eastern Europe than in the UK.
Russia has said the system, which tracks and destroys
missiles launched at the US, will trigger an arms
race.
Poland and the Czech Republic have both been
approached by America about locating part of the
hugely expensive system on their soil.
A spokesman at the US embassy in London said there may
be opportunities to talk about other needs but it was
looking at the Czech Republic or Poland as the primary
sites.
Secret talks
BBC Defence Correspondent Paul Wood said he had
confirmed "secret high-level negotiations" had been
taking place.
Talks were continuing between the National Security
Council and Britain's top foreign affairs adviser Sir
Nigel Sheinwald, he said.
But Downing Street has said talks are at a very early
stage, and were intended only to keep Britain in
consideration as plans were developed.
David Rennie, from the Economist, told BBC Radio 4's
Today programme his understanding was that Mr Blair
had "personally led" efforts for silos to be based in
the UK, believing it would make Britain safer.
The system uses radar and satellites to detect enemy
missile launches and to guide interceptors to their
targets.
Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the
Conservatives would not oppose locating part of the
system in the UK, but wanted to examine it in detail.
'Get honest'
"We have had no details at all from the government
despite asking a lot of questions in Parliament.
"If the government really do want to maintain what
they regard as a bipartisan approach to defence in
this country, they better start getting honest with
the opposition," said Mr Fox.
Poland has recently confirmed the US wants to use its
territory to build part of its missile defence base.
The US has also asked permission from the Czech
Republic and received the backing of Czech Prime
Minister Mirek Topolanek.
In 2002, the US withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty it signed with the Soviet Union.
It says a missile defence system could significantly
reduce threats from so-called "rogue states" such as
Iran and North Korea.
But Paul Ingram, of the British American Security
Information Council, said the success of the system
was "a long way from being proven".
"Even if it did work, it would be tackling the wrong
problem at the wrong time," he told the BBC.
"The proliferation of ballistic missile technology is
not as racing away as we are being led to believe. It
has no relevance at all when it comes to issues like
the war on terror."
Meanwhile, US defence officials say work on one part
of the missile defence programme based at RAF
Fylingdales in North Yorkshire - an early warning
radar system upgrade - is almost complete.
The government faced opposition in 2003 when it agreed
the work could go ahead.
NYT 24.02.07: Blast That Killed U.S. Diplomat Tied to Qaeda
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html?_r=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print
February 24, 2007
Blast That Killed U.S. Diplomat Tied to Qaeda
By CARLOTTA GALL
KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 22 — The suicide bombing that killed an
American
diplomat here last March, just before a visit by President Bush, was
organized by a small cell of Pakistani militants and masterminded by an
operative of Al Qaeda based in the Pakistan's tribal areas, Pakistan
says.
The charge is being made by Pakistani officials as they present
evidence —
the result of months of investigations by the police, assisted by
F.B.I.
investigators — at the trial of two men accused in the plot.
The men, Anwar ul-Haq, 27, and Usman Ghani, 26, both ethnic Pashtuns
from
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, grew up in the teeming
working-class neighborhoods of Karachi and fought with the Taliban in
Afghanistan, the investigators say. On Thursday, they sat behind bars,
wearing long beards and knitted prayer caps, at the back of a courtroom
in
Karachi's central jail, listening intently to an investigator outline
the
evidence against them.
The case is one of the first in Pakistan to underline in court the
links
between splinter cells of Pakistani jihad groups and Qaeda operatives
in
Waziristan, part of Pakistan's tribal areas, which have come under
increasing scrutiny as a staging area for suicide bombers and Taliban
insurgents battling NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.
Publicly, Pakistani leaders have sought to play down the importance of
the
tribal areas as havens for militants. But the evidence being presented
by
Pakistani investigators makes clear the threat contained in Waziristan,
not
only for Afghanistan but for Pakistan itself, which has suffered six
suicide bombings in the last five weeks.
Two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf in
December
2003 were also traced to Qaeda and militants who enjoyed a haven in the
same region, where the government has little control and foreign and
Pakistani militants operate almost unimpeded, according to the home
secretary of Sindh Province, Ghulam Mohatarem, a retired army
brigadier.
"They mostly come from the north," he said of the bombers that have
plagued
Karachi and other cities. "But they are provided with logistics from
small
local cells that come up and then disappear." United States officials
in
Pakistan declined to be interviewed for this article.
The investigators' conclusions, which are largely drawn from a
confession
by Mr. Haq and from the infiltration of terrorist cells, are the latest
indication that Al Qaeda and its local operatives are still able to
operate
from Waziristan.
Brigadier Mohatarem, the home secretary, said that the police in
Karachi, a
sprawling and violent city of about 16 million, tracked down and
disrupted
the activities of numerous terrorist splinter groups in recent months.
continues..............
http://www.google.com/search?q=iwar.org.uk%2C&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
above link, is not connected to this article.......granny
Debka 15.02.07: Al Qaeda’s latest menace to America’s oil sources em bodies a plan to inflame Saudi Shiites ag ainst the Riyadh throne
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3839
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Al Qaeda's latest menace to America's oil sources
embodies a plan to inflame Saudi Shiites against the Riyadh throne
February 15, 2007, 3:24 PM (GMT+02:00)
In the February issue of Sawt al Jihad entitled "Bin Laden and the Oil
Weapon", the Saudi wing of the jihadist group calls for attacks on US
oil
suppliers in the Middle East, Canada, Venezuela and Mexico. In a
separate
article, al Qaeda reports preparations for "quality attacks to shake
the
foundations of the crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula."
DEBKAfile's al Qaeda experts draw some disquieting conclusions from the
two
articles:
1. That the magazine reappeared after a nearly two-year absence is the
first sign that Osama bin Laden's organization has been able to regroup
and
reorganize its operational cells, despite a heavy Saudi security
clampdown.
2. Those cells are primed for a fresh wave of attacks - not only
against
oil targets but also American military, economic and commercial
interests
as well as civilians working and living in the oil kingdom.
3. Stress in the magazine's title is placed on bin Laden - and the
disclosure that a special unit called "Sheik Osama bin Laden's
Companies"
has been created for the new terror offensive - indicates that he is
handing out the orders as supreme commander. It negates the widely held
premise in the West that bin Laden was a spent force and fully occupied
in
flight and concealment rather than operational command of his
organization.
4. The article defines Saudi Arabia as "a land of war." Al Qaeda
applies
this epithet to nations where war is waged to transform them into
"lands of
peace" meaning lands where Islamic law is in force. Saudi Arabia thus
joins
Iraq as target of al Qaeda's violent ire and destined to the same fate.
The Sheik bin Laden's Companies' central mission is to forestall the
perils
posed the Arabian Peninsula by Iran and the indigenous Saudi Shiite
minority. Therefore, the jihadists will launch attacks on the 3-4
million
long-suppressed Saudi Shiites (whose population inhabits and is
gainfully
employed in the oil-rich Eastern Provinces of the kingdom).
This is interpreted by DEBKAfile's sources as a stratagem for igniting
sectarian war in Saudi Arabia on the Iraq model in the oil regions of
the
kingdom. The Shiite backlash to al Qaeda strikes is likely to come in
the
form of sabotage of Saudi oil installations, the prime assets of the
Sunni
Wahhabist royal house.
DEBKAfile's experts rate this as the most acute potential threat the
Saudi
throne, as well as its oil riches, have ever faced if the scenario
depicted in Sawt al Jihad comes off.
The group was behind a failed February 2006 attack on the world's
largest
oil processing plant, the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless,
Canada, Mexico and Venezuela are taking al Qaeda's threat seriously.
February 23, 2007 PM Anti-Terrorism News
Al-Qaida: Video shows hit on U.S. base - 56-second video shows rockets
fired at U.S. military base in Afghanistan
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9htfMDwqd9Fic0AgRTQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHZkMjZyBHBvcwMxBHNlYwNzcg--/SIG=12t72l319/EXP=1172372336/**http%3a//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/afghanistan_al_qaida_3
(Pakistan) Blast That Killed U.S. Diplomat Tied to Qaeda - Highlights
links between Pakistani jihad groups and Al Qaeda in Waziristan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
White House Rehearses for a Domestic Attack - Testing simultaneous
terror attacks by “sleeper cells†using IEDs in 5 cities
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17302994/site/newsweek/
(U.S.) Terrorist suspect's self-portrait a puzzle - Daniel Maldonado's
notes released by Justice Department
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4575177.html
Ethiopian court upholds death sentences over terror - Attacks killed 29
and wounded 18 others during 11 years
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/23022007/325/ethiopian-court-upholds-death-sentences-terror.html
(Iraq) Straying From the Script - Newsweek: U.S. official in Baghdad
overstated extent of Iranian leaders' involvement in Iraq violence
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17265231/site/newsweek/?from=rss
(Iraq) US weapons making their way to PKK forces in northern Iraq
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/6000135.asp?gid=74
(Iraq) U.S. Apologizes After Arresting Son of Iraqi Politician
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254020,00.html
Afghanistan: Taliban Attacks Signal Start Of Spring Offensive
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/2/19AD086C-B571-4471-9100-EE42EE0496FB.html
(U.S.) Professor plays role in Afghanistan searches - Nebraska
professor, Afghanistan expert, advised U.S. on OBL's location after 9-11
attacks
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/022307/am_20070223010.php
Thais' sense of self threatened by insurgency - Zachary Abuza: ""The
brutality is amazing.. "It's more Islamist than it's ever been"
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/thais-sense-of-self-threatened-by-insurgency/2007/02/23/1171734017522.html
Blast in Russia's Chechnya kills at least five
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23152293.htm
Security professionals gloomy on terrorism outlook
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070223/wl_nm/counterterrorism_mood_dc_1;_ylt=AkzaqNtFvW0ciuRkhLI1aVETv5UB
Canada's Highest Court Strikes Terror Detention Law and Charges tossed
for Canada terror suspect
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_ca/canada_terrorism_arrests_1
Top Canadian court strikes down anti-terror law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070223/wl_nm/terror_dc_2;_ylt=AteVpieiihknbeZYXiEQODcTv5UB
Canada rules indefinite detention wrong
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/canada_anti_terror_law;_ylt=Aks_hvQGzKXGz1ZvaBZOlh0Tv5UB
Nepal's Maoists give up nearly 3,500 weapons
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2007/February/subcontinent_February866.xml§ion=subcontinent
NKorea invites UN atomic inspector - North Korea asked chief U.N.
atomic inspector to visit, 4 years after expelling his experts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear;_ylt=AhBonGq92iMm19DnONE5LlKs0NUE
New DNA confirms cleric, not rebel, was killed
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=India&month=February2007&file=World_News200702241457.xml
New DNA confirms cleric, not rebel, was killed
Web posted at: 2/24/2007 1:45:7
Source ::: AFP
SRINAGAR • DNA testing has proved that a body claimed to be that of a
militant killed by security forces in Kashmir was that of an innocent
Muslim cleric, police said yesterday. It was the second time in as many
days that police admitted civilians had been killed in “fake
encountersâ€
or staged executions.
The cases have sparked major protests in Kashmir after years of
repeated
charges by human rights groups that security forces were executing
civilians not involved in the uprising against Indian rule. DNA tests
conducted on the body matched with the relatives of cleric Shaukat
Ahmed
who went missing in the summer capital Srinagar last October, police
said.
On Thursday, it was announced that DNA tests conducted on the body of
another alleged militant who security forces claimed was killed in a
gunbattle in December last year matched with the relatives of a
small-town carpenter called Abdul Rahman Padder.
Padder also went missing in Srinagar. He was reportedly taken to
neighbouring Gandherbal district, killed quietly and passed off as a
hardcore Pakistani militant.
DNA tests on three more alleged victims of fake encounters, including
that of a perfume seller, are still awaited. “The samples have
matched
with the relatives of a carpenter and a cleric,†a police officer
said,
saying they were waiting for three more tests.
“We will press for harsh punishment for the policemen involved in the
killings of innocent civilians,†the officer said. Police and
security
forces are awarded cash and promotions for killing militants in the
state, where insurgency has raged since 1989 and claimed at least
44,000
lives. Public demand to know the whereabouts of thousands of missing
persons in Kashmir has gained momentum after the authorities exhumed
the
bodies of five missing persons, including Padder and Ahmed, in
February.
So far eight policemen—all belonging to a special counter-insurgency
group in Srinagar’s Ganderbal district—have been arrested over
allegations they shot dead civilians and claimed they were rebels
killed
in combat to earn cash rewards and promotions. Indian human rights
groups say 8,000 Kashmiri Muslims have disappeared since the insurgency
began, most after being detained by security forces, who have broad
powers of arrest in the restive Himalayan state. Meanwhile, two
militants and an army soldier died and three soldiers were hurt in a
gunbattle in Kashmir, police said yesterday.
[article has many hidden urls]
http://worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=574
Nuclear Terrorism: New Threats, New Initiatives
Richard Weitz | Bio | 23 Feb 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
Last month's uranium smuggling episode in Georgia has renewed concerns about nuclear terrorism. In that incident, a rogue Russian trader sought to sell 100 grams of highly enriched uranium on the local black market.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the primary multinational institution involved in these issues, 662 confirmed cases of smuggling of radioactive materials occurred between 1993 and 2004. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recorded 215 reported incidents of nuclear trafficking in 2005 alone (though it is unclear whether the increase resulted from more sales attempts or improved detection and reporting procedures).
At the late January 2007 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff warned that the inexorable advance of technology would allow "even a single individual, and certainly a group" to cause an unprecedented level of destruction. A few weeks later, two influential think tanks engaged in researching international security issues -- the East-West Institute and Britain's Chatham House -- published reports that also expressed alarm about the growing risks of nuclear terrorism.
Since terrorist groups, unlike nation states, lack the means to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium, they need to steal, buy, or otherwise acquire sensitive nuclear substances from other sources. Preventing nuclear terrorism therefore requires denying violent extremists access to enriched uranium, plutonium, and other radiological materials.
At the July 2006 G-8 summit, Presidents Bush and Putin announced a new project, a "Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism," to improve implementation and coordination of the existing national and multinational programs to counter nuclear trafficking. The most prominent extant activities in this area include the U.S.-Russian Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, launched at the June 2002 G-8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada.
The initial Bush-Putin joint statement called for a global campaign to strengthen the enforcement of existing nonproliferation agreements and institute new measures to combat nuclear terrorism. In particular, the declaration urged the world's governments to "ensure that law enforcement takes all possible measures to deny safe haven to terrorists seeking to acquire or use nuclear materials" and to "strengthen our respective national legal frameworks to ensure the effective prosecution of, and the certainty of punishment for, terrorists and those who facilitate such acts."
Articles on this Issue
* Iran's Nuclear Program Has a Long History
* Why Israel May Believe It Must Take Unilateral Action on Iran
More on WMD
Articles by this Author
* Reducing Visa-Related Tensions With Foreign Nations
* Resignation of Polish Defense Minister Could Damage U.S.-Polish Security Ties
More by Richard Weitz
Global Initiative activities aim to enhance partners' ability to deter, detect, prevent, and respond to threats of nuclear terrorism. Projects under the initiative's purview include efforts to secure dangerous radioactive sources, deter nuclear smuggling, and improve national and multinational law enforcement efforts. In principle, membership in the initiative is open to any country or organization committed to combating the proliferation of nuclear materials and reducing the risks of nuclear terrorism. At the end of October 2006, during a summit in Russia, Morocco, representatives from Russia, the United States, and ten other countries adopted a statement of principles to govern the initiative.
On February 12-13, the now 13 participating nations held a set of meetings at the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara. Participants included representatives from all the Group of Eight industrialized states as well as Australia, China, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and host-nation Turkey, as well as observers from the IAEA.
The Ankara attendees adopted a work plan to guide implementation of their Rabat principles and discussed concrete projects to pursue under the initiative. Future activities could include international exercises, expert-level meetings and exchanges, and other forms of mutual assistance intended to bolster security at nuclear facilities, combat financial activities related to nuclear trafficking, and enhance the accountability and monitoring of nuclear materials.
Unlike existing cooperative threat reduction programs, the Global Initiative focuses on safeguarding civilian rather than military nuclear facilities. A major priority of the endeavor is to prevent terrorists from gaining access to radiological materials through either attacks on nuclear facilities or nonviolent means of diversion. For this reason, the participants seek to work closely with private-sector nuclear power producers as well as the IAEA.
The government of Kazakhstan will host the next major Global Initiative meeting in its capital later this year. The participants should use the opportunity to establish longer-term research and development priorities. For example, the international community needs additional capabilities to detect the unauthorized movement of nuclear materials across national frontiers.
Global Initiative participants should also consider additional means to adapt best security practices originally developed for nuclear weapons laboratories for use in nongovernmental facilities holding sensitive radiological materials. The resurgence of the global market for civilian nuclear energy is already creating additional opportunities for unauthorized diversion of radiological materials into nuclear black markets.
Richard Weitz is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Photo: Presidents Bush and Putin shake hands before their G8 bilateral meeting Saturday, July 15, 2006, at the Konstantinovsky Palace Complex in Strelna, Russia. White House photo by Eric Draper.
http://worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=498
What is Germany's Intelligence Service Doing in Iraq?
John Rosenthal | Bio | 25 Jan 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
What exactly is the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, doing in Iraq? Although the public has had occasion to be aware of the BND presence, up until now most will have been led to believe that the BND has been "quietly" cooperating with American and coalition authorities. Even more skeptical observers will have assumed that it is at least not cooperating with America's enemies in the country. But a photograph published earlier this month in the German weekly Stern provides disturbing evidence that it is doing precisely that. (See here on the Stern website.)
The photo depicts a middle-aged man in traditional Arab dress posing in front of an inlaid door with two other men on either side of him. The two other men, seemingly guests of the man in Arab dress, are wearing Western "casual wear": jeans and an untucked plaid-shirt and loose-fitting pullover, respectively. The "host" smiles benignly into the camera. Stern has obscured the faces of the other two men, but reports that they are "beaming with good cheer."
The Iraqi "host" has been identified as Sheikh Jamal Al-Dulaimi; the other two men as agents of the BND, the German equivalent of the CIA. As it happens, Al-Dulaimi is regarded by Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigations (BKA), the German equivalent of the FBI, as the principal suspect in the alleged 2005 kidnapping in Iraq of German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff. Osthoff disappeared -- supposedly taken hostage by a hitherto unknown "resistance" group with the colorful name "Stormtroops of the Earthquake" -- on Nov. 25, 2005. According to the Stern account, the photo of Dulaimi and the two BND agents was taken on Nov. 24: the day before the kidnapping.
Osthoff was turned over to the custody of the German Embassy in Baghdad some three weeks later, on Dec. 18, following payment of a ransom estimated at $5 million. The German government has never officially confirmed the ransom payment, but it is now universally accepted in the German media that ransom was paid. Barely a month after Osthoff's release, two further Germans were taken hostage in Iraq. When asked if the ransom money paid for Osthoff may have encouraged the kidnappers in the new case, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier replied: "not the ransom money, but the reports about it."
In late January 2006, the German weekly Focus, citing BKA sources, reported that some $4,000 of the ransom money was found on Osthoff's person at the German Embassy in Baghdad. The report gave new life to already widespread speculation in Germany concerning Osthoff's possible involvement in her own alleged abduction.
Articles on this Issue
* The Jaruzelski Case: The Ascent of Agent 'Wolski'
* The CIA Rendition Controversy: Is Khaled Al-Masri Lying?
More on Intelligence
Articles by this Author
* Khaled Al-Masri Accused of Assault; German Journalists Investigated in Masri 'Leak'
* Germany Judges the World: 'Universal Jurisdiction,' War Crimes and German Law
More by John Rosenthal
Such speculation was fueled both by the open solicitude she expressed for her supposed kidnappers and the numerous inconsistencies and gaps in her inevitably bewildering accounts of the affair. (For details, see my January 2006 reports "More Euros for Terror" and "Susanne and the Baathists".) Osthoff claimed that she had been seized by followers of the late Al-Qaida-affiliated terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who mistook her for a "Jewish" spy. (On the "Jewish spy" remarks, see here.) It did not help the credibility of her story that she, for example, described her abductors addressing her on a familiar first-name basis as "Miss Susanne" -- after pulling her out of the trunk of their car. "They clarified the situation for me," Osthoff explained, oddly reassuringly.
But perhaps the strongest indication of Osthoff's involvement with her alleged kidnappers is her -- apparently to this day unbroken -- friendship with none other than Sheikh Jamal Al-Dulaimi. Osthoff's self-professed conversion to Islam and her odd penchant for wearing burqas in her earliest appearances in the German media following her release led many casual observers to conclude that she is a Jihadist fellow-traveler. But, as I have discussed in "Susanne and the Baathists," a closer inspection of her biography and her own pronouncements suggests that her true allegiance in the current Iraq conflict lies rather with remnants of the deposed Baathist regime.
Jamal Al-Dulaimi represents a case in point. Al-Dulaimi has been identified in numerous German press reports as a former personal physician of Saddam Hussein. An earlier Stern article from Dec. 23, 2005, identifies him rather as a former officer of the Baathist secret service, the Mukhabarat. All the reports concur that Al-Dulaimi hails from the Baathist stronghold of Fallujah. The December 2005 Stern article cites the account of an unnamed "foreign friend" of Dulaimi who in 2004, at the height of the local anti-American insurgency in the city, drove through the middle of Fallujah with the Sheikh: "unmolested and greeted with reverence by men whom as a Westerner one should otherwise do one's best to avoid."
Osthoff is known to have lodged in Al-Dulaimi's villa during her stays in Baghdad. It is Al-Dulaimi, moreover, who provided her the driver in whose car she would allegedly be abducted on the morning of Nov. 25, 2005. (The driver is likewise considered a suspect by the BKA.) Indeed, on her own account, Osthoff apparently set off on the trip from the Al-Dulaimi residence. "Jamal's wife made me breakfast," she remarked pleasantly in a January 2006 interview with Stern.
The newly published photo reveals, however, that it was not only Osthoff who had amiable contact to the chief suspect in her "kidnapping," Al-Dulaimi, but also local agents of the German BND. Osthoff is known in turn to have had extensive -- and, on her own account, highly amiable -- contacts with local BND agents in Baghdad. It was indeed the Osthoff case that first brought the BND presence in Iraq to public attention, when reports of these contacts surfaced. Osthoff was surely not herself a BND agent, as a sensational UPI headline from January of last year implied, but she does appear to have served as an informant for the agency: in particular -- and again, on her own account -- passing information to her BND "friends" on impending terror attacks. It was her "duty as a German," she said. That she was privy to such information is yet another indication of her proximity to local terror milieus.
Almost immediately after the coverage of the Osthoff case brought to light the BND presence in Iraq, reports appeared in the German and then, in short order, the English-language media to the effect that two BND agents stationed in Baghdad had "helped" American forces with actionable intelligence during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This supposedly "embarrassing" revelation was based exclusively on anonymous sources and, on the German domestic scene, it was quickly denied by German government officials and dismissed as unfounded by the German Bundestag's intelligence oversight committee. (For contemporaneous reports, see the "BND Affair" dossier on Transatlantic Intelligencer.) Nonetheless, it created the reassuring impression for the American public that Germany, despite the German Red-Green coalition's vociferous opposition to the Iraq War, had continued to act as a loyal ally.
Thereby, it diverted attention from the considerably more embarrassing and, prima facie, more plausible possibility that German agents in Baghdad were pursuing their country's own manifestly -- at least as far as the Red-Green coalition was concerned -- conflicting agenda. This possibility was potentially all the more embarrassing inasmuch as the BND presence had come to light in connection precisely with an apparently staged hostage-taking and the payment by the German government of millions of dollars to a presumably Baathist-inspired "resistance" group. It should, moreover, be recalled that even though the Red-Green coalition had been voted out of power, the "Red" component, in the person of Foreign Minister Steinmeier, remained in charge of German foreign policy. It was during Steinmeier's tenure as coordinator of German intelligence services under Gerhard Schröder that a BND representative, according to an Iraqi document published in the British Daily Telegraph, in early 2002 proposed to establish a "relationship" with Iraqi intelligence "under diplomatic cover."
The newly published photo, needless to say, raises new questions about the possibility of direct BND involvement in the affair. While vaguely invoking these questions, the German media have largely avoided posing them explicitly. Thus, for example, in a revised version of its story that appeared two days after the first publication of the photo, Stern vigorously spun its own revelation as merely an indication of the BND agents' dangerous indiscretion and "dilettantism." Citing supposed testimony of Osthoff herself, it even reassuringly noted that she moved out of the Sheikh's villa -- and into the BND residence -- as soon as it became clear to her that he was playing a role in the "resistance." This account stands in obvious contradiction both to the Stern's own prior reporting -- the above-cited December 2005 Stern article has Osthoff moving out because the Sheikh's wife had the annoying habit of looking through her luggage -- and to Osthoff's numerous statements of sympathy for this very same "resistance."
In any case, interviewed on the popular German talk show "Beckmann" a few days later (Jan. 8, 2007), Osthoff denied that she had any knowledge of Al-Dulaimi's involvement in the "resistance" and continued to express nothing but gratitude toward her former host. "Up till now he's never said to me, 'Hello, I kidnapped you!'," she objected when the question of Al-Dulaimi's motive for having her kidnapped was raised. Osthoff acknowledged knowing the two BND agents: "Of course, I know them." "And I know others, not only those two guys!" she added, suggesting that the BND presence in Iraq is larger than has been hitherto admitted. She claimed indeed to have served as interpreter for the two agents during the meeting with Al-Dulaimi documented in the photo. "Dear Sheikh, we're Germans, you know, and we're also against the inhuman conduct of the Americans," she related them saying by way of introduction. Referring excitedly to the January 2006 reports of her keeping part of the ransom money, Osthoff also inadvertently let slip that she had signed an agreement with German authorities as to what she can or cannot say concerning her case: "These things that I had to sign . . . that I am not permitted to say -- suddenly they're splashed all across a magazine!"
This fact perhaps helps to explain the impression Osthoff invariably gives in her public interviews of being under extreme duress and the incoherent -- virtually delirious -- quality of her discourse, which sounds like a weird mix of fact and fiction. "That is a woman who has something to hide," the psychologist Christian Lüdke commented to the German daily Die Welt after one such appearance in late December 2005. It would seem that Germany's BND does as well.
John Rosenthal writes on European politics and transatlantic relations. His work has appeared in English, French and German in publications such as Policy Review, The Claremont Review of Books, The New York Sun, Les Temps Modernes, Le Figaro and Merkur.
http://worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=555
Venezuela Preparing for 'Asymmetrical' Showdown With U.S.
Carmen Gentile | Bio | 17 Feb 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
MIAMI -- Venezuela is beefing up its military capabilities by land, sea and air in preparation for what one senior official called a possible "asymmetrical conflict" with the United States.
Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said that while his country is preparing for possible warfare with the United States -- a notion President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly asserted -- Venezuela is nonetheless in complete compliance with international and regional non-proliferation treaties.
By characterizing a warfare scenario with the United States as "asymmetrical," the ambassador was acknowledging the distinct firepower and personnel advantage of the United States, though he noted his country was preparing itself for defense nonetheless.
"We have simply been trying to upgrade our military equipment and maintain our defense while preserving balance in the hemisphere," said Alvarez, who said that Venezuela's Latin American neighbors need not concern themselves with the country's recent efforts to bolster its armaments.
The ambassador's remarks follow a recent report that Venezuela's latest arms improvement will focus on the country's navy, which is said to be interested in purchasing nine additional submarines.
Having already spent $3.4 billion on Russian arms, including assault rifles and fighter jets, the Venezuelan Navy is planning to spend $3 billion more to create the largest submarine fleet in the region by 2012, according to Venezuelan Navy Vice Adm. Armando Laguna.
Recently added to the defense spending wish list of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were Russian anti-aircraft missiles, at a total cost of $290 million.
A recent Pentagon report estimated that Venezuela had spent more like $4.3 billion since 2005 alone, more than countries like Iran, Pakistan and even China. Venezuela is also pursuing an estimated $2 billion worth of military transport ships and aircraft from Spain.
However, the deal was delayed last year when the United States objected to the sale, enforcing a policy that foreign companies must seek Washington's approval when selling U.S.-made military technology.
Venezuela is currently trying to work out a deal with Spain to swap out the U.S. parts in the 10 aircraft from Spanish company EADS-CASA and eight boats.
Though Chavez officials maintain the recent efforts to bolster the country's military capabilities are essential, some consider the expenditure a waste of revenue that could be used to alleviate the strain of chronic poverty in Venezuela.
But Chavez is keen on ramping up his country's defenses using a windfall of petroleum dollars that have filled state coffers in recent years. Having already spent a significant portion of that money on education and health programs for Venezuela's impoverished, the leftist leader has set his sights on becoming the continent's military superpower.
The latest effort in procuring new military capabilities involves the acquisition of a fleet of submarines to protect Venezuela's interest in its exclusive economic zone, which Caracas maintains consists of a large portion of the Caribbean.
Protecting an area that large would require far more vessels than the two German submarines -- both over 30 years old -- the Venezuelan military currently employs. The country's navy is reportedly keen on purchasing nine additional submarines, for a total of 11 vessels. The additions would give Venezuela the largest submarine fleet in Latin America, surpassing those maintained by neighboring Brazil and Chile.
The submarines will be the "diesel-electric variety," said Laguna in a recent communiqué, quoted earlier this month by Brazil's leading newspaper, Estado de Sao Paulo, and will weigh in at approximately 1,750 metric tons apiece. The Venezuelan Navy is currently considering bids from German, France and Russia, the odds-on favorite, for the new vessel contracts.
Venezuela has already done billions of dollars in business with Russia, purchasing 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 24 Sukhoi-30 fighters and about 35 helicopters. Now Caracas has its sights set on buying Moscow's air defense missiles, known as the Tor-M1 system, which consists of eight missiles in a battery mounted to a launch vehicle. The system can reportedly target objects up to 2,000 ft and has a range of several miles.
The missiles would be for "air defense" only, said a Venezuelan military official last month in an interview with the Associated Press, a notion that comports with Chavez's warning of a possible U.S. invasion. The Bush administration repeatedly denies it has any such designs on Venezuela.
But Washington has questioned Chavez's motives for ramping up his military and expressed concerns that the Russian assault rifles could wind up in the hands of leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia or be used to further the Venezuelan leader's socialist agenda in the region.
"I can see why Chavez wants to militarize Venezuela. . . . He's a military man just like Bolivar was a military man," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, referring to the South American Gen. Simon Bolivar, a Chavez hero who fought for and won the independence of several Latin American nations from Spain during the 19th century.
That Chavez sees himself as a modern-day version of Bolivar, readying his country to wage war against U.S. oppressors, is what inspired him to fortify Venezuela's defenses for a battle he claims Washington is already planning, noted Pike.
Waging war with the U.S. however "would be a foolish thing to do," he said, noting Venezuela has too much to lose economically from even a minor skirmish with the United Statres, Venezuela's largest petroleum customer.
"Venezuela's arms build up is totally unnecessary on so many levels," agreed Adam Isacson, director the Center for International Policy, noting that Venezuela still has a poverty rate near 50 percent while the country spends billions of dollars on arms.
"Of course Venezuela can do whatever they want with their money . . . but they just don't need that right now."
Carmen Gentile is a freelance journalist based in Miami.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/23/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Amar-Al-Hakim.php
Cleric detained by Americans is among Iraq's most powerful Shiite
politicians
The Associated Press
Published: February 23, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq: The young black-turbaned cleric detained for nearly 12
hours Friday by U.S. troops comes from one of Iraq's most influential
Shiite families and is being groomed for a major leadership role by his
powerful father.
Amar al-Hakim, 35, was arrested along with his bodyguards about 9 a.m.
shortly after he returned to Iraq from neighboring Iran. They were
taken
to a U.S. military facility in Kut, and the cleric was released about 8
p.m. The guards remained in custody, Shiite officials said.
Al-Hakim is being groomed by his father, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, as his
successor at the helm of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq, or SCIRI, the country's largest Shiite political party and a
main coalition partner in the Shiite-led government.
Like his father, the younger al-Hakim has close ties to Shiite-led
Iran,
where he and his family spent many years in exile before they returned
home after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
SCIRI is believed to have the closest ties to Iran of any major Shiite
political movement — and ironically works closely with the Americans
in
Iraq. SCIRI was founded in Iran in 1982 by Iraqi Shiite exiles and its
armed wing fought alongside Iranian forces in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq
War.
The younger al-Hakim, 35 and the eldest of four children, studied at a
Shiite seminary in the Iranian holy city of Qom. Since his return to
Iraq, he often travels through the Shiite south and speaking at Shiite
religious ceremonies.
He established a charity organization, the Foundation of the Martyr of
the Altar, in memory of his uncle and father-in-law, Grand Ayatollah
Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was assassinated in a massive bombing in
Najaf in August 2003.
An accomplished public speaker, Amar al-Hakim spends much of his time
visiting economic development projects which his charity funds and
speaking to Shiite social activists throughout the Shiite south.
The 2003 assassination propelled Amar al-Hakim's father into the
leadership of SCIRI, continuing a long family tradition of leadership
in
the majority Shiite community.
Most of the al-Hakim family fled to Iran after Saddam Hussein's agents
killed another leading Shiite figure in 1980. About 125 members of the
extended family who stayed behind were arrested and 18 executed by
Saddam's regime, according to SCIRI's Web site.
Channel of arms deliveries from N Caucasus to Moscow blocked
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11275797&PageNum=0
Channel of arms deliveries from N Caucasus to Moscow blocked
22.02.2007, 09.50
TAMBOV, February 22 (Itar-Tass) - - A channel of illegal arms
deliveries
from the North Caucasus to Moscow has been blocked by officers of the
Tambov Federal Security Service Department.
During a special operation in the city of Morshansk, an AKMSU
submachine
gun with 60 cartridges, 10 pistols with silencers and cartridges, as
well as a large sum of money were seized. Three suspects were detained,
Itar-Tass learnt at the Tambov law enforcement bodies.
Can you please remove me from your ping list? Thanks.
And no one thought to get on their kneesGod knows, how many years ago that was written, but nothing has changed. Yes, and why should it?
And tell these kids that in a worthless country
Even the brightest achievements – they are but steps
Into eternal precipices of an inaccessible Spring...Aquarium, ‘That, which I should say’, Album: Library of Babylon (1993)
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