Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.
From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.
One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.
MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.
Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.
Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.
Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.
He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23385310-details/Jurors+of+217+terror+trial+shown+execution+films/article.do
Jurors of 21/7 terror trial shown execution films
12.02.07
On trial: Manfo Kwaku Asiedu
The jury in the July 21 terror trial has seen footage of executions and the making a suicide vest which was allegedly found in two of the defendants' flats.
In one execution scene, three masked men stood behind an unknown man who was kneeling on the ground.
Video...see the footage purported to have been seen by the jury in the 21/7 trial
A man in a red hood spoke to the camera and images of warfare were shown. He then pulled out a knife, put his left hand on the victim's head and put the knife to his throat.
At this point the film was cut and junior prosecutor Alison Morgan told Woolwich Crown Court what happened next.
"He then goes on to cut the throat of the victim, dismembers his body and holds it up to the camera," she said.
In another scene, a blindfolded man was seen in a shallow ditch. The film was again cut and Miss Morgan explained that his throat was slashed and his head cut off and shown to the camera.
This footage was among a number of videos and audio cassettes allegedly found at the "bomb factory" in Curtis House, New Southgate, north London, where Yassin Omar is said to have lived, the court heard.
The jury was also shown footage allegedly discovered at Blair House near Stockwell, south London, where Hussain Osman is said to have lived. It included images of 9/11 and people apparently constructing home-made bombs and a ball-bearing suicide vest.
The vest was then detonated on a dummy and the impact of the explosion on large metal plates the dummy was standing next to was shown.
There were also a number of executions and beheadings including those of an apparent Egyptian spy, a Korean man, a US electrical engineer and a CIA agent, as well as the same execution - by the red hooded man - that was allegedly discovered on film at Curtis House.
Each time footage was shown it was cut before the fatal shot was fired or the blade slashed the victim's throat.
Miss Morgan also warned the nine woman, three man jury what was about to happen beforehand. Some of the other Curtis House material the south-east London court was shown included images of the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack on US barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, with men lying dead on the ground after being shot with a Kalashnikov and grainy black and white footage from an aircraft showing bombs being dropped.
One sequence consisted of a documentary about Richard the Lionheart and then a man - apparently Iraqi - being shot by US marines and a marine in interview saying: "Lets do it again".
This was followed by a hooded man dressed in camouflage clothing with a gun in his hand rapping "Dirty Kuffar" which encouraged jihad, Miss Morgan explained.
There was also a BBC newsreel from July 7, 2005 and speeches by al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and radical cleric Abu Hamza.
"One hour on the battlefield is better than 70 years of worship," Hamza apparently said. He also said "Islam is a militant religion" and "It's not called a suicide bomb, it's called a martyrdom bomb".
At one point while the two-and-a-half hour compilation of footage was played, one woman juror had her hand over her mouth.
The judge, Mr Justice Fulford, told the jury: "Some of this footage is not the most pleasant.
"View this dispassionately, don't be upset about it, and I'm sorry that today is a rather more difficult day than usual."
Six men are accused of plotting to carry out a series of murderous explosions on the London transport system using homemade hydrogen peroxide bombs.
They are Omar, 26, Osman, 28, formally of no fixed address; Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, of Stoke Newington, north London; Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address; Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London; and Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London.
They all deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life. The trial continues.
Great posts as always, Granny. Take a look at http://www.antimullah.com which has the Proposed Constitutional Amendment and a link to anti-Jihadist videos and also an interesting game fighter pilots have to play to hone their skills.
Thanks for the ping!
http://www.euronews.net/index.php?article=406305&lng=1
Al-Qaeda group claims Algerian bombings
An organisation calling itself Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the seven bomb blasts in Algeria which killed at least 10 people on Tuesday. Previously known as the Salafist group for preaching and combat, Algerian al-Qaeda made the claim in a telephone call to an Arabic television station in Morocco.
The explosions were all in or on the outskirts of the capital Algiers.
At least four of the bombs targeted police stations in what appeared a co-ordinated attack, which also wounded at least 30 people. One eyewitness said he saw people filming one of the attacks, a method already used by groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon to gather internet propaganda.
Since allying itself with Osama Bin Laden the group has become more active, striking in October and December in bomb attacks that killed five and wounded 30.
Hercules plane destroyed in Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6356789.stm
Hercules plane destroyed in Iraq
Hercules C130
The Hercules plane landed 20 km north of Al-Amarah
An RAF Hercules transport plane has been destroyed in southern Iraq after it was damaged in an "incident" on landing, the Ministry of Defence said.
Two people suffered minor injuries in Monday's incident, after which the C130 plane was destroyed because of the potential risk involved in recovery.
A military spokesman in Basra said there was no evidence of hostile action during the landing in Maysan province.
The plane, based at RAF Lyneham, had been on a routine re-supply journey.
It landed 20km north of Al-Amarah at about 2010 local time (1710GMT).
The two people injured were taken to hospital, but the spokesman would not confirm if they were military personnel.
'Potential risk'
The Hercules could not safely be recovered and was destroyed by coalition forces three hours later, said the Basra-based spokesman.
An investigation was underway, he added.
The MoD said the plane was "significantly damaged" during landing, which led to the site being secured and a "thorough assessment" being carried out.
"It was concluded that the aircraft could not be recovered without exposing our personnel to undue risk," said a spokesman.
He went on: "There was also a potential risk that anti-Iraqi forces might obtain information on specialist equipment.
"The aircraft was therefore safely destroyed by multinational forces."
The MoD stressed the aircraft had been making "a routine landing on a tactical landing zone" and the plane had not been shot down.
Parliament of North Ossetia refused to hear the alternative report
on Beslan
Prayers on the way for Nathan.
Wow... Bump to that post!
Source: Adelaide Now [edited]
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21222831-5006301,00.html
The source of a spate of _E. coli_ [O157] infections across South
Australia (SA) remains a mystery as authorities yesterday, 12 Feb
2007, admitted they were not confident of finding the cause.
Public health director Dr. Kevin Buckett said finding the origin of
the potentially fatal bacteria was proving to be an uphill battle.
"We're not overly confident but we're working very hard to track it
(the cause) down," Dr. Buckett said. "We'll keep pursuing it as far
as we can."
The admission came as the Health Department confirmed 3 new cases of
_E. coli_ infection. There have now been 10 cases reported in 2007,
which is more than a quarter of the average yearly total.
"Here in SA, we get around 30 to 40 cases of all strains of _E. coli_
each year," he said. "These cases are usually quite sporadic and
occur throughout the year. "When we get a lot of cases occurring at
once and they seem to be linked in some way, then I guess we call
this an outbreak," Dr. Buckett said.
He said the fact that the infected people lived in different areas --
including one in regional SA -- and were aged between 2 and 81 years
of age, made identifying common links difficult.
Flinders University gastroenterologist Professor Graeme Young said
finding the cause of the outbreak would involve a degree of
"detective work". "I think that if there isn't a common factor
between the people, it makes it very hard to understand why this is
happening," Professor Young said.
[Byline: Jessica Leo]
--
ProMED-mail
Black Hawks down in Iraqi quagmire
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB13Ak01.html
Middle East
Feb 13, 2007
Black Hawks down in Iraqi quagmire
By Iason Athanasiadis
TEHRAN - One of the most terrifying experiences of an embedded
journalist in Iraq has to be skimming over the darkened landscape in
the middle of the night in a Black Hawk helicopter.
On one such trip, a gunner hunched over his M60 machine-gun, scanning
the blank spaces in between the rapidly retreating palm-tree tops for
the Iraqi resistance. Sitting to my left and opposite me were fresh
troops being sent out to Balad, the sprawling US air base in central
Iraq that is said to be one of the busiest airports on Earth.
Huddled in the dimly lit cargo space, stuffing the ear-mufflers deeper
into my ears, I could only think of how exposed the helicopter we were
riding in was and the ear-shattering noise it made as it pounded
through the night. It was the same noise, amplified a hundred times
over, that is the constant accompaniment to every waking moment in
Baghdad.
US helicopters patrol the Iraqi capital day and night, purposely
flying over the Euphrates River to put some dead ground between
themselves and any Iraqi fighters wanting to take advantage of the
blind spot immediately beneath the flying machines. So ubiquitous is
their presence that they keep Iraqis from sleeping and prompted US
military spokesman Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, some time ago, to
remind an interviewer that "the noise they hear is the sound of
freedom".
Hundreds of Black Hawks fly into the Green Zone every day, banking
steeply over Saddam Hussein's former presidential palace - today the
temporary US Embassy - before landing at the adjoining helodrome
dubbed the "Washington LZ" (landing zone). As the helicopters career
over the city's dirt-gray, rubbish-strewn dun, they often discharge
flares to head off incoming missiles. With Iraq's roads laced with a
web of well-disguised roadside bombs, flying has been the preferred
mode of transport between the wide network of US and British bases.
But the fragile perception of the helicopters' invulnerability has
been shattered over the past three weeks as five US helicopters went
down around Iraq.
"It may be that the airframes were hovering more, or that they were
doing so out of range of the suppressive fire of ground troops, or
that the insurgents are giving their weapons more 'lead', or just
sheer luck," said James Spencer, a Middle East expert specializing in
defense and security issues.
The flurry of aerial destruction indicates that the insurgents have
attained a new tactical plateau and may be using more advanced weapons
systems to target the US occupation. Analysts are asking whether the
insurgents are suddenly accessing greater numbers of man-portable
air-defense systems (MANPADS) and from where. These shoulder-launched
surface-to-air missiles typically use infra-red guidance and can shoot
down low-flying aircraft and helicopters.
"There is no question that advanced MANPADS are being used against US
helos and that holding back on this strategy was intentional, so that
the ramp-up would do the most damage to morale," said Don Weadon, a
Washington-based international lawyer and Middle East authority. "It
is a battle of wills, and against superior firepower one has to be
cagey to the max."
The US military ordered changes in flight operations early last week
but it was not enough to avoid the downing of a fifth helicopter on
Wednesday. The crashes began on January 20 and follow insurgent claims
that they have received new stocks of anti-aircraft weapons and a
recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to
threaten US aircraft, according to the Associated Press.
"There's been an ongoing effort since we've been here to target our
helicopters," said Major-General William Caldwell, the US chief
military spokesman. "Based on what we have seen, we're already making
adjustments in our tactics and techniques and procedures as to how we
deploy our helicopters."
In the past, defensive measures have included flying lower and faster,
varying routes and using zigzag patterns when traversing dangerous
areas. US helicopters in Iraq are also armed with defensive aid suites
(DAS), anti-missile systems such as flares and anti-heat-seeking
devices.
The most basic DAS system includes a laser-warning detector and
multi-spectral smoke and counter-fire as countermeasures. "DAS are
only of use against guided weapons," said Spencer. "There's almost
nothing that can counter a bullet in a soft spot, nor an RPG-7 fired
at an airframe." RPG-7 is a handheld grenade launcher.
In December, Khudair al-Murshidi, a spokesman for Iraq's Ba'ath Party,
announced that Sunni insurgents had received shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles, adding that "we are going to surprise them",
in a reference to US forces.
Four of the helicopters crashed in Sunni areas, with another shot down
during fighting between the US and Iraqi armies and cultists in the
Shi'ite stronghold city of Najaf in southern Iraq.
"Until more is known about these apparent shootdowns, one cannot rule
out a very old method," said Wayne White, a veteran State Department
intelligence analyst, "a group of shooters with systems like the
RPG-7, originally designed for use against various armored vehicles on
the ground, fired simultaneously or in rapid succession at a
helicopter at relatively low altitude, increasing the chances for a
lucky hit."
This theory certainly appears to be borne out by witnesses. On January
28, a Reuters reporter witnessed the downing of the helicopter in
Najaf. He described how a burst of machine-gun fire produced a trail
of smoke from the helicopter before it crashed.
At the site of the most recent crash, Iraqi farmer Mohammad al-Jenabi
described how the twin-rotor C-46 troop carrier came down. "The
helicopter was flying and passed over us, then we heard the firing of
a missile," he said. "The helicopter then turned into a ball of fire.
It flew in a circle twice, then it went down."
The helicopter went down near the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Taji,
about 30 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Responsibility was claimed
by the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents that
includes al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"It's not that difficult to shoot down a chopper with small-arms
fire," said a British officer serving in the Middle East, "especially
if you take into account that the birds are slow and even a car driven
fast can outpace them."
Insurgents have used SA-7s, a widely used shoulder-fired missile with
an infra-red homing device, against US and British aircraft since
2003. But accusations that Iran is supplying this hardware are either
false or irrelevant, according to Western analysts.
"Whether ... they're coming in from Iran - where the technology isn't
that good - is not the case," said Weadon, the Middle East expert.
"The MANPADS can either be leftovers in Afghanistan or of Chinese or
Russian manufacture rolling in over from Saudi or even Turkey. I doubt
that anyone would risk rolling them in over the highly scrutinized
border with Iran."
Whatever their provenance may be, the introduction of advanced MANPADS
into Iraq presents an unsettling echo from a previous occupation and a
telling indication of where the current conflict may be headed. In
1980s Afghanistan, the invading Soviet army was similarly incapable of
establishing its authority outside Kabul, forcing it to rely on its
air force for transport.
Washington took advantage of this and supplied its mujahideen allies
with US-made FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems with which
to target its Cold War enemy. The mujahideen yielded the Stingers with
unnerving accuracy and vastly increased Soviet losses. It was the
single development that contributed the most to the Soviet withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
Iason Athanasiadis is an Iranian-based journalist.
http://english.sabah.com.tr/2338439F0CCE43D38AD8516090CBD257.html
Al-Qaeda's Hand in Istanbul Plot
Washington Post newspaper has published an article containing details of Istanbul bombings in 2004.
Washington Post- 02-13-2007
About a week before Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden sat down to a breakfast meeting in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. His Turkish guests had arrived with a plan for a spectacular terrorist strike, but according to accounts two of the visitors later gave investigators, there was no talk of business over the meal.
Instead, bin Laden held forth for an hour about the injustices Muslims were suffering at the hands of Isreal and the United States, standard motivational remarks tailored slightly for the occasion: He told the visitors that one of his grandmothers was Turkish.
Afterward, outside the one-story house guarded by high walls and men with Kalashnikov rifles, it was al-Qaeda's military commander who gave the visitors $10,000 in cash and crucial words of guidance.
So began a plot that ended in November 2003 with the staggered detonation of four powerful truck bombs in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. The attacks, which killed 58 people and wounded 750, may have been the last terrorist strikes specifically authorized by bin Laden. Two months after breakfasting with the Turks, bin Laden was making for his base at Tora Bora as U.S.-led forces attacked across Afghanistan.
In the fevered days after the Istanbul explosions, Turkish investigators swept up suspects by the dozens. In police interrogation rooms, many spoke at length about the conspiracy and the motivations driving it. Transcripts of those interrogations, as entered into evidence in the continuing trial of about 70 defendants in Istanbul, provide a rare, fine-grained look at the inner workings of a terrorist bomb plot. This report is based on those documents and interviews with those who knew the accused plotters.
"The aim of this organization is to take action against American and Israeli targets and to break their dominance over Islamic countries," said one suspect, explaining a conspiracy conceived long before the United States sent troops to Iraq.
"The Islamic umma are being oppressed," said another, using the Arabic word for the global Muslim community.
According to the transcripts, bin Laden's breakfast guests had already organized themselves into a cell before they approached al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. There they specifically declined to pledge allegiance to the organization, but asked for its help and blessing. The only al-Qaeda operative charged in the case is a flamboyant Syrian, Louai Sakka, who delivered to the conspirators $100,000 rolled in a sock.
But the youthful Turks who stealthily carried the plot forward were hardly international men of mystery. Those who agreed to die in the truck bombings first had to be taught how to drive. "We are different from al-Qaeda in terms of structure," said Yusuf Polat, who told police he served as a lookout at the first target, a synagogue. "But our views and our actions are in harmony."
In 2000, four men gathered on the outdoor terrace of a textile factory in the center of Istanbul. One by one, they vowed to fight what they saw as the international oppression of Islam. Polat, a fair-haired Turk who made a living selling socks and toys at an open-air bazaar, recalled that their written pledge ended with the words "or else there will be punishment."
The setting was fitting. Most of Istanbul's 12 million residents are economic migrants from Turkey's conservative Anatolian heartland. Many find work in textile mills.
Another common thread, at least for the group's leaders, was travel to Afghanistan for military training in the 1990s. Turkey is officially secular. But in the 1980s and '90s, when Turkey was waging a dirty war against ethnic Kurdish separatists, the government secretly encouraged violent religious organizations that opposed the rebels. Officials looked away when Turks traveled to fight alongside Muslim militants in Chechnya or Bosnia, whose populations retained ties to Turkey dating to the Ottoman Empire.
Habib Aktas, black-haired and sturdy, was said to have fought in Chechnya and Bosnia, in addition to attending Afghan training camps. A native of Mardin, an ancient Turkish city where Arabic is still spoken, he became head of the group formed on the terrace of Haksan Co. He hosted study groups dedicated to memorizing the Koran and indoctrinating new members "in how beautiful Osama bin Laden's path was, making jihad," said one attendee. Aktas showed videos excoriating Israel and the United States and charged attendees $3 to attend jihadist picnics in the hills above the Black Sea.
"You don't have to go abroad to fulfill your duties," he declared at one meeting, a suspect recalled. "You can also make jihad here."
The original plan involved no bombs. Aktas's group would stage a spectacular assault on a gathering of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association, a group known as TUSIAD that one suspect noted included "a lot of Jewish bosses."
"The idea," said Baki Yigit, one of the men who met bin Laden, "was to bust into a TUSIAD meeting with 10 or 15 people and ask for ransom for all members, to collect a million dollars, provide a plane and come back to Afghanistan. If anything went wrong, they would kill all the TUSIAD members and martyr themselves."
In Kandahar, al-Qaeda's military chief, Muhammad Atef, who was known to the Turks by his alias, Abu Hafs al-Masri, observed that 15 men would be a lot to lose in one operation. He suggested truck bombs. Aktas deferred to the expert, then hastened back to Turkey after Sept. 11, anticipating the American attack on Afghanistan that would leave Atef dead.
By May 2002, the Istanbul plot was underway. After toying with purchasing a quarry as an excuse for buying explosives, Aktas rented an industrial workshop for $850 a month in a part of Istanbul that lies on the European side of the Bosporus Strait. "Rainbow Detergent" read the sign out front. The windows were painted over.
"They were not friendly at all. They were very closed people, " said Ulku Yerlikaya, who tended a shop across the road. "They came to work at night."
Inside, Aktas set up a boiler, cooking down an acid into which he spooned hydrogen peroxide, following a recipe apparently learned in the Afghan training camps. The mixture was spread on the floor to dry, then packed into 100-pound fertilizer bags. Each was fitted with a fuse fashioned from wires and aluminum pipe by Gurcan Bac, another camp veteran, who spent hours on the Internet gathering information "from chats," one confederate told investigators.
The end product was loaded onto four covered pickup trucks purchased with cash Aktas kept in a safe-deposit box. Each truck, registered to relatives of the conspirators, carried two tons of the explosive concoction.
Cell leaders enforced a strict tradecraft. When plot participants gathered for meetings, usually late at night, they turned off cellphones, removed their batteries and unplugged radios against the possibility these devices might be used for surveillance by Turkish intelligence.
"Don't put your nose in other people's business," Fevzi Yitiz said he was told after asking about the cost of the bombs that he slept beside in the warehouse.
There were other precautions. In March 2003, after the capture in Pakistan of Khalid Sheik Mohammad, who investigators say was an architect of the Sept. 11 plot, cell leaders cut off contact with the one Turk who had remained in Pakistan as a contact point with al-Qaeda.
Secrecy is important," said defendant Adnan Ersoz. "You wouldn't know who studied in which study group. Suicide bombers were approached privately."
The Four Bombers
Yitiz was approached three times -- first in August 2003 by Aktas, a few days later by Bac, then by both "together, insistently."
"But I did not accept," he said.
Of the four who did, two were from the same town in eastern Turkey. Mesut Cabuk and Gokhan Elaltuntas had traveled together to Pakistan and returned wearing beards and gowns. Before the bombings they told their families they were going to Istanbul to open a computer shop.
In an apartment in Istanbul, a third bomber, Feridun Ugurlu, spent hours underlining passages in what his brother described to police as "radical Islamic books." Since returning from Pakistan in 1996, Ugurlu had been a sullen presence in his parents' home. He spoke little, except to press on his relatives volumes that promoted a purist line of Islam known as Salafism.
"I'm old enough to make the distinction between good and bad," his brother Suleyman recalled Ugurlu telling his father. "Don't put your nose in my life."
The fourth bomber was Ilyas Kuncak, 47, a spice merchant. Bearded and pious, he gave no hint of a secret life. "It's funny, because when he came back from military service, he was a communist," Abdullah Karadag, a family friend, said in an interview. "He had long hair. In these fights, left versus right, he was on the left, fighting against what he became."
In his final days Kuncak ate little, spoke less and laughed not at all, his wife noticed. But "the family is innocent," Karadag said. "The guilt lies only with brother Ilyas, and there's nothing much left of him to blame either."
'The Time Has Come'
"Dress like a groom," Aktas said, pressing the Turkish lira equivalent of $100 in the hand of Yusuf Polat. It was a few days before the first attack. Next, Aktas handed over a new Nokia cellphone, model 3315, gunmetal gray. The speed dial was programmed with three names: Mahmut, Ahmet and Rashit -- coded, like the words the sock salesman was to speak into the phone.
"The time has come," Aktas announced.
Polat's job was to stand outside the Beth Israel synagogue in the busy commercial neighborhood known as Sisli. If the road in front of the temple was clear, he was to hit the speed dial and say, "Mahmut Bey, come and take your 1 billion."
If the road was blocked and the truck was to head instead toward the rear entrance, the amount to mention was "2 billion."
"I got it," Polat told Aktas. Aktas gave Polat another $1,500 for getaway money and a new ID.
On Saturday, Nov. 15, Polat watched as Jewish worshipers arrived for the weekly service. At 9 a.m. the road was clear. He dialed. "Come and take your 1 billion." The voice in his ear replied with a Turkish saying that has a religious overtone: "If we don't see each other again, we're all square."
"We're square," Polat replied.
A moment later, another leader called to say there would be no more contact. Following instruction, Polat opened the Nokia and removed an electronic card containing subscriber information. He broke it and threw it away. Eight minutes later he felt the earth shake, then sirens. The phone he also broke in two on his way home, tossing the pieces into the garden of a bread factory.
At his home, he changed clothes and turned on the television. It showed scenes of carnage created by a second explosion, this one at another synagogue, where a bar mitzvah was underway. "And I started to regret, watching the pictures on TV," Polat said.
Ugurlu phoned him and came to see him, edgy. The police had already broken down the door of his father. Ugurlu talked about the men who had driven the trucks. "He said one of these people was going to be married a month later," Polat later told police. "He said, 'He's married to the angels now.' "
The final two bombs were detonated five days later. Just before 11 a.m. on Nov. 20, with the city still on edge, Ugurlu steered a pickup truck packed with explosives into the front gate of the British Consulate, killing 17 people, including the British consul. Kuncak blew up his truck outside the London-based HSBC Bank, killing 11.
By then, Aktas was in Syria with other organizers, one of whom crossed the frontier with a load of underwear meant to make him look like a merchant headed to market. They made their way to Aleppo, where Sakka, the Syrian al-Qaeda man, had a house. Hiding in it, they cheered the televised coverage of the bombings. They laid low for five months, then made their way into Iraq, according to evidence from two suspects interrogated in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
In Iraq, Sakka served as a senior lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. Sakka, his features altered by plastic surgery, was captured in the Turkish resort town of Antalya while allegedly making final preparations for an attack on a cruise ship. He apparently planned to survive by escaping on an underwater scooter.
The Abu Ghraib prisoners said Aktas later died in Fallujah, scene of repeated fighting between Sunni insurgents and U.S. troops.
Equipped with a Hotmail address for Aktas and $1,200, Yitiz went by bus to Tehran, where he met another fleeing conspirator. For hours, the two wandered in a park talking about the carnage. Within days, each returned to Turkey to surrender. "I had no idea that innocent people were going to be hurt," Yitiz maintained. "I did not even guess that."
Polat was arrested trying to leave Turkey.
The man whose job it was to awaken the four drivers on the day of their deaths, Harun Ilhan, was captured in southwest Turkey. He told police he had traveled overland, staying with friends along the way.
"In these friendly circles, people were talking about the explosions. Nobody knew anything about them other than me," he said. "People were saying that people who did this could not be Muslims. I did not say anything. I remained silent."
Washington Post
Publish Date: 13.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/2338439F0CCE43D38AD8516090CBD257.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
Izmir Police captures gang of hackers
Police raided houses and captured 17 members of an internet fraud gang in Izmir after learning that three hackers from Russia have sent viruses to 1 million email accounts and seized information on their bank accounts.
Police told the gang has already made hundreds of thousands of dollars by copying information of the bank accounts of about thousand people.
According to information obtained from Izmir Organized Crime Bureau, hundreds of people had applied to Izmir Prosecutors Office about a month ago, stating that their accounts were emptied by unknown people. With the orders of the prosecutor's Office, Izmir Organized Crime Bureau has taken actions by starting a wide investigation on the issue. Police detected that thieves were withdrawing money from those people's accounts via internet by using the actual passwords.
IT Crimes Group Director Kubilay Güngür has formed a team of 20 officers who quickly detected the ID's of the gang members one by one.
After a 1,5 month long chase, police have first detected the IP (Internet Protocol)numbers of the computers being used in the fraudulent act.
On Tuesday, February 13th, police have made concurrent raids in different addresses in Izmir, Fethiye, Didim and Kuþadasý and captured 17 gang members.
Being one of the biggest operations against IT Crime in Turkey, this operation has revealed that the gang was working with a group of Russian hackers who were receiving % 10 commission in every transaction.
Names of the Russian hackers were immediately given to Interpol.
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Publish Date: 13.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/5BBB0DAF3D6A4BDC8327347C8AB24F3C.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
MERKEZ GAZETE DERGÝ BASIM YAYINCILIK SANAYÝ VE TÝCARET A.Þ.
Development and Design by MBG
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Issuing a complaint against those who did not offer protection
The family of Hrant Dink has issued a complaint against all of the authorities who were unable to protect Dink despite all of the murder threat notifications. Dink's wife Rakel, his older daughter Delal, his younger daughter Sera, his son Ararat and his brother Orhan Dink all came to the Istanbul judicial court yesterday. The family was accompanied by lawyers and gave statements to the chief public prosecutor Selim Berna Altay and Fikret Seçen as the plaintiff. The statement said the family demanded all of the people involved in the murder to be uncovered. The Dink family stated that they have issued complaints against those who were incompetent in protecting Hrant Dink and in preventing his murder despite having been notified.
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Publish Date: 13.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/CBE79063E90E460089F06289C651799B.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
MERKEZ GAZETE DERGÝ BASIM YAYINCILIK SANAYÝ VE TÝCARET A.Þ.
Development and Design by MBG
Former PKK members become mercenaries in Baghdad
Two Kurdish brigades, including around 500 former PKK members, have been sent to Baghdad within the framework of Bush's new Iraqi strategy. The former terrorists are becoming soldiers in order not to be submitted to Turkey, and are being paid a salary of $400.
Two Kurdish brigades, including around 500 PKK members, have been sent to Baghdad within the framework of Bush's new Iraqi strategy. The Kurdistan Democrat Party, whose leader is Mesut Barzani, especially recruits former PKK militants and assigns them to the regions under conflict. Lately the PKK militants located in the region of Behdinan, under the control of the Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) in Northern Iraq, were called for recruitment. The former terrorists are becoming soldiers in order not to be submitted to Turkey, and are being paid a salary of $400.
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Publish Date: 13.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/1C894CB980074BA3A376063A0580CDB3.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
MERKEZ GAZETE DERGÝ BASIM YAYINCILIK SANAYÝ VE TÝCARET A.Þ.
Turkish female architect taken hostage in Kabul
The police confiscated the passport of Çiðdem Özkan who has been carrying out construction business for Americans in Afghanistan. Özkan accusing the Afghan company which lost the project, now waits for the court decision.
Çiðdem Özkan aged 48 has been building social facilities for Americans for 4 years in Afghanistan under the shadow of weapons. Özkan has become a hostage as can not exit the county for 3.5 months after the police confiscated her passport. Çiðdem Özkan applied to the court of Sheri 'a; preferred to wait for the resolution by the court although the Americans offered to abdicate her. Özkan is the niece of Süleyman Seba, honorary chairman of Beþiktaþ Sports Club and she accused Turkish authorities for their indifference.
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Publish Date: 14.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/19F58677604448818C115AA79F44F9E5.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
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The US coast to be guarded by trained dolphins
The coast of Washington in the USA is trusted to dolphins and sea lions. The ministry of defense stated that these sea mammals which were tried in the missions abroad before can be used for coast protection purposes. Around 30 dolphins and sea lions will guard the Puget Sound region for two hours each within the framework of this program. The spokesman of the sea mammals program Tom Lapuzza in charge of the training of these animals said: "these animals are for apt for detecting suspicious divers or sailors. They can warn us."
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Publish Date: 14.02.2007
Link: http://english.sabah.com.tr/3887009771534EF8ABA252339386710D.html
Copyright © 2003-2006 All rights reserved.
http://www.makingsenseofjihad.com/2007/02/voice_of_jihads.html
Voice of Jihad’s Distribution Data, A Basic Analysis
I can't believe I'm posting this, but....might as well.
http://www.makingsenseofjihad.com/2007/02/more_about_must.html
More About Mustafa
Brynjar Lia’s two-part analysis of Mustafa Setmarian Nasser (aka Abu Mus’ab al-Suri) theory of “decentralized jihad” is fascinating:
As opposed to many other jihadi writers, al-Suri always strived to maintain a practical and "operative" perspective, emphasizing the need to learn from past mistakes and devise new practical "operative theories" (nazariyat al-'amal) for future jihadi campaigns [4]. In his most important works, he focused on explaining how jihadi groups should operate in order to survive in the new post-Cold War context characterized by enhanced international anti-terrorism cooperation and the progressive elimination of terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens. Even though he himself had been a member of a typical tanzim (organization), the Syrian "Combatant Vanguard Organization," and continued to maintain very close contact with other tanzims, especially the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, all of al-Suri's operative theories are built on the premise that the tanzim model—the centralized hierarchical and regional secret jihadi organization—has outlived its role. Their Achilles' heel was their hierarchical structure, which meant that if one member was caught, the whole organization would be at peril.
Another factor which has made the revolutionary tanzims less relevant in al-Suri's eyes is the progressive Western "occupation and usurpation of Muslim land" (Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.). This transition from "indirect" to "direct occupation," which began in earnest around 1990 (Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm), obligates a reorientation: the current war must be aimed at "repelling the invading intruders and assailants" from Muslim lands. The traditional goal of attaining an Islamic revolution in one country or one geographical area has to be postponed. Al-Suri, therefore, recommends that future jihadi warfare should be concentrated around other forms, namely the "jihad of individual terrorism," practiced by self-contained autonomous cells in combination with jihadi participation on "Open Fronts," wherever such fronts are possible. In al-Suri's parlance, this term refers to conflict areas with an overt presence of mujahideen, permanent bases, open battle lines, or guerrilla war from those fixed positions [5]. Given the difficulty of opening such fronts, al-Suri concludes that "the jihad of individual terrorism" becomes, in reality, the only option for most jihadis.
Lia’s biography mentions that his new book on Al-Suri will be published in March 2007. Forget the wishlist, I’m going to buy it as soon as it comes out.
On another Al-Suri note I came across this summary of two issues of an old magazine associated with Al-Suri’s training operations in Afghanistan (December 2000, March 2001).
GMP20061229342003
Jihadist Forum Publishes Two Magazines, Including Articles by Abu-Mus'ab al Suri
Jihadist Websites -- OSC Report
Friday , December 29, 2006
Terrorism: Jihadist Forum Publishes Two Magazines, Including Articles by Abu-Mus'ab al-Suri. On 12 December, a jihadist website posted a statement and links to two Al-Dhahirin ala-Haq Magazines (Upholders of the Truth), issued by Markiz al-Ghuraba for Islamic and Media studies, which was established in 1999 by Umar Abd al-Hakim (Shaykh Abu-Mus'ab al-Suri).
Included in the magazines a section called “Terrorist Education:”
December 2000:
--"Terrorist Education" offers ideas about using gas tanks as a killing weapon, simply by placing them on fire for 35 minutes. "If you want them to become anti-personnel weapons, put glass and nails around them."
March 2001:
--"Terrorist Education" talks about the "poison in rotten meat" and its potency in the killing of people. The meat is poisoned by potent bacteria, "Clostridium Botulinum," which was used in Tokyo's metro. "A fatal dose of it is 0.000012 gm., which kills a human being in three to six days. Putting 30-60 ml. of toxin in a water reservoir containing 3 million liters of water will kill anyone drinking that water."
February 12, 2007 at 07:45 PM in Ideology, Jihad Apologetics, Jihad Media, Jihad Strategy | Permalink
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