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Posted on 03/05/2005 1:08:04 AM PST by Straight Vermonter
Russian authorities kill 5 suspected school seizure accomplices, arrest 4
SERGEI VENYAVSKY
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Authorities killed five people and arrested four others suspected of helping stage the hostage-taking raid on a southern Russian school last September, prosecutors said Friday. Officials believe the arrested were involved in the Sept. 1-3 attack on School No. 1 in the North Ossetia region town of Beslan "at the stage of its preparation," Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions; about half of the more than 330 people killed were children. Five other suspects were killed while resisting arrest, Shepel said in a statement. It did not say when or where the raid took place.
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for the school seizure, in which officials say 32 people took part. They say 31 were killed and one detained. Anger has grown over the slow pace of the investigation, particularly among residents of Beslan. Many suspect authorities are hiding information about the attackers and how they were so easily able to slip into town with a huge quantity of weapons.
In January, Shepel said that seven suspected accomplices of the attackers had been killed in special operations, two others arrested, and six put on a wanted list. The head of a parliamentary commission investigating the attack later said that among the two suspected accomplices in custody and three being sought were law enforcement officials with ranks higher than major.
Shepel said that the suspects arrested in the latest raid were also accused of involvement in a deadly attack last June on police facilities in Ingushetia, which lies between North Ossetia and Chechnya.
He added that a suspected al-Qaida liaison in Chechnya, Abu Dzeit, a Saudi national who died in a Russian security sweep last month, was a key organizer of the school seizure and other terror attacks.
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A police officer was arrested and charged with negligence after he released the two women suspected of carrying bombs onto the planes without inspecting their belongings. A ticket scalper and an airline employee accused of helping a woman get on a plane were also arrested.
Leader of terrorist group in Haifa st. arrested
Al Sabaah ^ | 2005 Mar 2 | Unknown
Posted on 03/03/2005 8:14:09 AM EST by Wiz
Police operations in breaking into some houses have resulted in capturing one of the leaders of terrorist groups in Baghdad who was controlling terror groups in Haifa Street, a source at security forces said.
The security forces elaborated that Seid Hashim was nick named Amir al-Umera' (prince of princes) and have been run many times from traps held in the region when security forces have besieged the zone searching for him and other mates.
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Terrorism Headlines of the Week
Domestic
US man indicted for selling list of US spies in Iraq to Saddam
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A naturalized US citizen has been indicted in the midwestern state of Indiana on charges he agreed in 2002 to sell the names of US spies in Iraq to Saddam Hussein's government for three million dollars (2.3 million euros), according to court documents.
"Seeking out those who would work with foreign governments and organizations hostile to this country is the top priority of Department of Justice," US Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Susan Brooks said Thursday when Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban appeared in court.
According to the indictment, Shaaban, 52, also known as Shaaban Hafed and Joe Brown, was charged with conspiracy, acting as a foreign agent without notification and violating the Iraqi sanctions in place before Saddam was deposed by the US-led military invasion two years ago.
It alleges Shaaban traveled to Iraq in late 2002 to meet with members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and agreed to sell the name of US intelligence operatives in Iraq for three million dollars.
The charges were the result of an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs departments.
"While it is not alleged that Shaaban was an actual Iraqi Intelligence Officer and charged with espionage, it is alleged that Shaaban sought to assist intelligence officers," said Keith Lourdeau, FBI Special Agent in Charge of Shaaban's case.
"Our national security is constantly threatened by foreign intelligence services... The FBI will aggressively pursue those individuals who seek to provide sensitive information to hostile governments," he added.
Source: Agence France Presse
Terror Money Trial in NYC Winds Down
Documents, videotapes and secretly recorded conversations prove a Yemeni sheik and his assistant gave vital support to some of the world's deadliest terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, a federal prosecutor charged in closing arguments Thursday.
"Although these defendants didn't strap bombs onto themselves or fly planes into the World Trade Center, they're indispensable to the people who do," prosecutor Pamela Chen told jurors in Brooklyn federal court.
Attorneys for Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, countered that prosecutors used an untruthful informant motivated by greed to build a case that played on anti-Muslim prejudice.
"Perhaps a billion Muslims are interested in knowing whether it is possible in New York City, perhaps two miles from ground zero, for two Arabs to get a fair trial when they are charged with supporting terrorism," said Zayed's lawyer, Jonathan Marks.
During the five-week trial, prosecutors said al-Moayad supported Hamas suicide bombings in Israel and helped funnel Islamist fighters to al-Qaida in Bosnia and Afghanistan. In early 2003, the sheik and Zayed were secretly recorded in an FBI sting operation agreeing to funnel more than $2 million to Hamas and al-Qaida, the government charged.
The government built its case with evidence gathered by informant Mohamed Alanssi, a Yemeni immigrant who set himself on fire outside the White House last November in what he described from the stand as a cry for help and more money from the FBI.
Source: Associated Press
Agent: Va. Man Admits Plan to Kill Bush
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Mar 2, 2005 — A man accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush admitted many times that he joined al-Quaida and pondered hijackings similar to the Sept. 11 attacks, an FBI agent testified.
Agent Barry Cole's testimony Tuesday came at a pretrial hearing for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23. A federal magistrate said Abu Ali posed a "grave danger" and ordered that he remain jailed pending trial.
"The defendant has in his own words indicated he is a grave, grave danger to this community and this nation," said Judge Liam O'Grady after hearing Cole's testimony.
Abu Ali was charged last week with providing support to al-Qaida and conspiring to assassinate the president. Authorities allege Abu Ali, who grew up in Virginia, joined al-Qaida while studying in Saudi Arabia.
Defense attorney John Zwerling claims the government obtained its confessions through torture, and that four attorneys had seen scars on Abu Ali's back the defendant says were inflicted by Saudi authorities. Zwerling said after the hearing that he has more evidence to confirm claims of torture, but he would not discuss specifics.
Cole testified that he interviewed Abu Ali over four days in September 2003 and Abu Ali admitted he joined al-Qaida and discussed various potential acts, including a plan in which he would personally assassinate Bush.
Cole said other plans included hijacking planes in Great Britain and Australia and using them as missiles to attack targets in the United States, a plan to free prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and a plan to destroy naval ships in U.S. ports.
Zwerling said the various plots that Cole described were "preposterous."
"How is he going to free the brothers at Guantanamo? Is he going to take a rowboat? Doesn't that sound bizarre to you?" he asked Cole.
Abu Ali was in Saudi custody for nearly two years before charges were brought by the U.S. government. Zwerling said the government had obtained his alleged confession in September 2003 and suggested prosecutors would have brought charges then if they had a strong case.
Source: Associated Press
Judge considers delay for Al-Arian
TAMPA - Jailed former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian may find out today if his lawyers will get more time to prepare for his trial.
Al-Arian and three other men are scheduled for trial in April on charges that they had roles in supporting, promoting and raising money for a terrorist group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian's attorneys say they need an extra three months to prepare for the trial, which is expected to last six months.
U.S. District Judge James Moody may address the request filed by Al-Arian's lawyers today, after both sides have finished screening questionnaires completed by potential jurors.
Lawyers spent Thursday going through the questionnaires. By the end of the workday, 145 of the 322 questionnaires had been screened. "Let's hope we finish in this lifetime," Moody said before the tedious process began.
The judge granted Al-Arian's lawyers' request to toss out roughly 45 of the questionnaires due to indications of financial hardship or bias. One potential juror said a six-month trial would interfere with plans for a cruise. Moody indicated he would keep that person in the pool until he decides whether to grant the delay, because if he does, the trial dates would not conflict with the vacation. Court resumes at 9:15 this morning.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Report: Bomb suspect had N.Y. rail sketch
A suspect in the Madrid train bombings last year had a sketch of New York City's Grand Central Terminal, but city Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that there was no threat to the world's largest train station.
Kelly said a one-page sketch found in the suspect's computer was "a basic schematic" of the station's interior.
"It is not an operational plan," he said. "It is not something that would indicate an immediate threat to a facility." (Video: Police commissioner downplays speculation)
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the sketch was not "specific or technical" and added, "We don't believe it could have been used for operational plans by a terrorist."
Kelly said photos and a drawing of a New York City building that he wouldn't identify also were found in the computer of Mohammed Almallah, who was arrested two weeks after the bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid on March 11. The attack killed 191 people. Almallah was released a week after his arrest but is still considered a suspect.
Kelly told CNN later that transportation engineers who studied the sketch believe it depicts Vanderbilt Hall, a waiting room off the main concourse.
Kelly said the sketch is part of the ongoing Madrid investigation, which has landed 24 people in jail.
Spanish police gave U.S. authorities a disk with the Almallah material, though it is unclear when. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a New York radio station, "We've known about the data on this computer for a long time." Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs city trains, said, "We were made aware of it in December." He said the sketch "was not of anything we would consider a sensitive area."
Source: USA Today
Democrats seek probe of terror risk from Choicepoint
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats urged the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday to investigate the terrorism threat posed by security breaches at ChoicePoint Inc. and other companies handling sensitive consumer information.
"There is little to stop al-Qaida from using known vulnerabilities to break into ChoicePoint's databases or to prevent terrorists from stealing critical records off commercial airplanes," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., ranking minority member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
"Terrorists could use this information to steal identities to enter the United States illegally or to finance terrorist attacks," Thompson and other members of Congress wrote in a letter to Patrick Hughes, the department's assistant secretary for information analysis.
The issue of identity theft jumped into headlines last month when ChoicePoint, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based data broker, revealed that computerized personal records of 145,000 Americans had been obtained by scammers in California posing as legitimate customers.
In an unrelated incident, Bank of America reported last week that it had lost computer records for 1.2 million federal employees, including a number of U.S. senators. The records are believed to have been stolen from a commercial plane by baggage handlers, Thompson said.
"Congress must examine the security of commercial databases as well as the handling of the information contained in them," he told reporters.
In a separate letter to the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, the ranking Democrats on several committees with security oversight urged the GAO to examine what the Department of Homeland Security is "specifically" doing to counter the threat.
Among the Democrats who signed the letters were Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Few signs of progress in hunt for bin Laden
WASHINGTON - More than three years after President Bush declared his intention to capture Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," the terrorist chieftain remains free to taunt his pursuers and plan more attacks.
Bush offered assurances Thursday that the search is still on, but there are few signs of progress in the hunt for America's most wanted fugitive. A $25 million bounty, an international ad campaign seeking tips and the deployment of thousands of troops have failed to flush out the man behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the latest reminder of bin Laden's status as a terrorist on the loose, the federal Homeland Security Department warned state security officials last weekend that intelligence reports indicate that bin Laden has urged Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the top al-Qaida operative in Iraq, to plan attacks in the United States.
"We're on a constant hunt for bin Laden," the president said at a swearing-in ceremony for Michael Chertoff, the new head of the Homeland Security Department. "We're keeping the pressure on him, keeping him in hiding." As for al-Qaida, Bush said: "Stopping them is the greatest challenge of our day."
Critics charge that the manhunt has lost steam because of a lack of coordination within the U.S. government and insufficient cooperation from Pakistan. Bin Laden is thought to have slipped back and forth across the isolated border between Afghanistan and Pakistan since a U.S.-led coalition in 2001 toppled the Taliban regime, which had given him sanctuary in Afghanistan. A number of al-Qaida leaders, possibly including bin Laden and his top associate, Ayman al Zawahri, slipped through two American dragnets in eastern Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.
Two U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matters are classified, said that since then the administration had twice temporarily diverted unmanned spy planes and other intelligence assets from the Afghan-Pakistani border to Iraq, once to support the U.S.-led invasion and more recently to help find terrorist leaders there and protect Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.
"There really hasn't been any significant progress," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent who also served as a State Department counterterrorism specialist. "This has to be a fully integrated, coordinated effort."
Source: Knight Ridder Newspaper
Michigan man pleads guilty to aiding terror group Hezbollah
DETROIT – A man accused of hosting fund-raising meetings for a Muslim guerrilla group at his home pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that Mahmoud Youssef Kourani hosted meetings in 2002 at which a speaker from Lebanon solicited donations for the group Hezbollah, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.
Kourani, 33, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group, prosecutors said.
The government has not identified the speaker. Prosecutors said the money was intended for a program that benefits orphans of fighters killed in Hezbollah operations or by the group's enemies.
Under a plea agreement, Kourani faces no more than five years in prison, The Detroit News reported. He could have faced up to 15 years. Sentencing is scheduled for June 14.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell and Kourani's attorney, William Swor, declined comment.
Kourani has been in custody since May 2003, when federal agents charged him with harboring an illegal immigrant after searching his Dearborn home. He was indicted in November 2003 and pleaded guilty.
Kourani served six months in federal prison and was awaiting deportation in an immigration facility when he was indicted in 2004 on the terror charge.
Source: Associated Press
Texas man indicted over bin Laden bounty hunt
DETROIT - A man who told authorities he was headed to Syria to try to collect a $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden faces charges of attempting to smuggle more than $13,000, a Taser stun device, ammunition and radiation detectors.
Matt Mihsen was indicted Tuesday and was scheduled to be arraigned March 8, prosecutors said.
At the time of his arrest on Feb. 15, Mihsen told agents that he was going to Syria in hopes of claiming the reward — offered by the U.S. government — for information leading to bin Laden’s arrest and conviction, according to the charges.
Mihsen, 47, of suburban Fort Worth, Texas, said he was a registered private investigator and wanted to conduct an independent probe into the illegal sale of uranium by extremists, authorities said.
According to the indictment, Mihsen, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Syria, left Dallas on Feb. 15 for Damascus.
Mihsen changed planes at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, but an outbound search of his checked luggage revealed that he was attempting to take a number of items with him to Syria including a Taser, ammunition, pepper spray, a bulletproof vest and three Geiger counters.
Mihsen told federal agents he planned to use the items as bait to lure possible uranium smugglers, authorities said.
He also denied carrying a large amount of cash before agents found he had $13,256 on him and in his luggage, the indictment says.
A message was left Wednesday for Mihsen’s lawyer in the federal public defender’s office.
Mihsen was indicted on charges of making false statements to federal investigators, trying to smuggle bulk cash out of the United States and attempting to export money and goods to Syria without a permit or authorization. The third charge, the most serious, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Source: MSNBC
Suspect in killings of Daniel Pearl has been arrested, police say
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested a man wanted in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and already sentenced to death in absentia for a hotel bombing that killed 11 French engineers.
The suspect, Mohammed Sohail, was among six people who fired on police from a motorcycle, sparking a shootout, said Fayyaz Khan, a Karachi police investigator. He said the shooting began when a patrol asked the men to stop at a routine checkpoint in the city, the site of frequent attacks by Islamic militants.
The five other suspects fled, but Sohail fell off one of the motorcycles and was captured, Khan said. No policemen were injured in the shooting and it was not known whether the attackers suffered any casualties.
After his arrest, Sohail confessed to being a member of the outlawed Islamic militant group, Harkat Jihad-e-Islami, Khan said. Sohail was allegedly a close aide of Amjad Hussain Farooqi, one of al-Qaeda's reputed point men. Khan said Sohail was also believed to have played a role in Pearl's abduction, but he did not give details.
Another police official, requesting anonymity, said Sohail will be interrogated about suspicions that he shot the grisly video that showed Pearl's throat being slit with a knife.
Farooqi was killed in a shootout with security forces last September in the southern city of Nawabshah. Pearl, who was doing a story on Islamic militancy, was kidnapped Jan. 23, 2002, and later beheaded in Karachi.
Source: USA Today
Banks urged to enlist in anti-terrorist war by monitoring transactions
HOLLYWOOD · Bankers must be continually vigilant and devote resources to monitoring suspicious financial activities that could point to terrorist activities, experts said Wednesday at the start of a three-day conference focusing on anti-money laundering regulations and practices.
The people behind the Sept. 11 attacks didn't make sophisticated financial transactions, but terrorist financing is becoming more complex, said John Roth, chief of the fraud and public corruption section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
"Unfortunately, next time it will not be as simple," Roth said during Wednesday's session on terrorist financing, part of the 10th annual International Money Laundering Conference and Exhibition, which runs through Friday at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood.
More than 1,300 people from 60 countries are expected to attend the conference, said organizer Charles Intriago, founder and publisher of the Miami-based Money Laundering Alert newsletter.
In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act and as part of that strengthened anti-money laundering requirements outlined in the existing Bank Secrecy Act. The Patriot Act requires banks to have better knowledge of their customers and report suspicious activities.
Much of the conference will be devoted to issues related to the Bank Secrecy Act and federal regulators' enforcement of the rules, Intriago said.
The Bank Secrecy Act has worked well for anti-money laundering efforts, but isn't as effective for tracking potential terrorist activity because the transactions aren't often suspicious, said Doug Greenburg, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Winston & Strawn. Greenburg investigated al-Qaida's finances, the Sept. 11 attacks and U.S. efforts against terrorist financing as a staff member of the 9-11 Commission.
Banks need to know their customers to better help law enforcement, and need strong programs to detect potential suspicious activity, Greenburg said.
Source: Sun-Sentine
Lawsuit lays blame for torture at the top
WASHINGTON - Human rights organizations are attempting to take accountability for the US military's alleged use of torture to a place government officials have so far failed to go - the top of the chain of command.
In a case that raises significant moral as well as legal questions about the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, a coalition of human rights groups, aided by former military officials, is suing to pin blame for the interrogation abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere at the highest level of government.
Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights First filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who they say were subjected to torture and abuse by US forces under the command of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"Secretary Rumsfeld bears direct and ultimate responsibility for this descent into horror by personally authorizing unlawful interrogation techniques and by abdicating his legal duty to stop torture," says Lucas Guttentag, lead counsel in the lawsuit and director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "He gives lip service to being responsible but has not been held accountable for his actions. This lawsuit puts the blame where it belongs, on the secretary of Defense."
The suit charges Mr. Rumsfeld with violations of the US Constitution and international law prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment. The lawsuit also seeks compensatory damages on behalf of the eight individuals allegedly tortured and abused by US military forces.
Although a civil case, it is building on a legal doctrine of holding top officials accountable for treatment of detainees in times of war, according to Scott Horton, chairman for the committee on international law at the New York City Bar Association. The legal rationale is rooted in the Nuremberg trials of 1946, he says, in which top officials were held responsible for establishing an "environment" permissive of abuse.
It's not clear, of course, if the charges will stick or even how the cases will proceed. Military historians can't recall a similar suit being filed. The closest, they say, occurred on the Philippine island of Samar at the turn of the 20th century. Still, those court martials did not go above the level of a brigadier general.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
White House presses Syria to expel terror groups
WASHINGTON - The White House on Wednesday urged Syria to expel terrorist groups that Washington says are operating inside its territory.
Spokesman Scott McClellan also renewed accusations implicating the Damascus-based Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in last week's bombing in Tel Aviv.
"Syria continues to support terrorism, Syria continues to allow its territory to be used by terrorists. We have firm evidence now that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad out of Damascus was involved in planning the attack in Tel Aviv. It is unacceptable that terrorists are allowed to operate out of Syrian territory," McClellan said.
"Syria is a country which is very controlled and the Syrian governement needs to act against those terrorists and shut them down, and get them out of the country," he said.
On Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's claim that some 14,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon will leave in coming months McClellan said: "We need to see by the actions not by their words that they are going to change their behaviour and that they are going to withdraw from Lebanon. We also need to see action on other fronts as well.
"Syria is a country that is out of step with the way the Middle East is moving. The Middle East is moving on democratic reforms in many areas and that is a very positive sign," the spokesman said, adding: "Syria continues to be out of step with these efforts."
Source: Agence France Presse
International
Suspected school seizure accomplices slain
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Authorities killed five people and arrested four others suspected of helping stage the hostage-taking raid on a southern Russian school last September, prosecutors said Friday.
Officials believe the arrested were involved in the Sept. 1-3 attack on School No. 1 in the North Ossetia region town of Beslan "at the stage of its preparation," Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions; about half of the more than 330 people killed were children.
Five other suspects were killed while resisting arrest, Shepel said in a statement. It did not say when or where the raid took place. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for the school seizure, in which officials say 32 people took part. They say 31 were killed and one detained.
Anger has grown over the slow pace of the investigation, particularly among residents of Beslan. Many suspect authorities are hiding information about the attackers and how they were so easily able to slip into town with a huge quantity of weapons.
In January, Shepel said that seven suspected accomplices of the attackers had been killed in special operations, two others arrested, and six put on a wanted list. The head of a parliamentary commission investigating the attack later said that among the two suspected accomplices in custody and three being sought were law enforcement officials with ranks higher than major.
Shepel said that the suspects arrested in the latest raid were also accused of involvement in a deadly attack last June on police facilities in Ingushetia, which lies between North Ossetia and Chechnya. He added that a suspected al-Qaida liaison in Chechnya, Abu Dzeit, a Saudi national who died in a Russian security sweep last month, was a key organizer of the school seizure and other terror attacks.
Source: Associated Press
Abu Sayyaf growing into major terrorist group — expert
The Abu Sayyaf gang in the southern Philippines is slowly transforming into a major terrorist group capable of carrying out Bali-type attacks with the help of the Jemaah Islamiyah, an expert said yesterday.
The JI’s strategy is to "insert" itself in conflict areas and foment sectarian violence and there has been evidence to suggest that the Abu Sayyaf has received some form of training from them, said Zachary Abuza, director of the East Asian studies program at Simmons College in Boston
The Abu Sayyaf, a small Muslim group that operates in several islands in the southern Philippines, gained notoriety in 2000 and 2001 with a series of kidnappings of western tourists, including Americans.
More recently, the group has claimed credit for the fire bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay last year that killed more than 100 people, and simultaneous bombings of three targets in Manila and two cities in Mindanao last month that left 12 people dead.
Abuza, an acknowledged expert on cross-border terrorism, noted that the Abu Sayyaf’s recent bombing attacks appear to have the hallmarks of JI, whose alleged leader Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted yesterday for taking part in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the Bali bombings in Indonesia that left 202 dead in 2002.
"The Abu Sayyaf is back in business and we should be very concerned," Abuza told reporters after a lecture in Manila.
At the moment, Abuza said the Abu Sayyaf has the capability of carrying out "relatively small" bombings compared to the attacks elsewhere in the region that were blamed on JI, which has been using car bombs. "Technologically, they haven’t quite crossed the threshold that the JI has," Abuza said, but "they certainly are" learning quick.
"There is no reason why they can’t learn this stuff," he said, noting that bomb making materials were readily available in the southern Philippines.
Source: Agence France Presse
Indonesian cleric's sentence disappoints many
Jakarta, Indonesia, Mar. 3 (UPI) -- Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of heading al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison Thursday for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
While the white-bearded, 66-year-old militant cleric, has been found guilty of committing an "evil conspiracy" in the bombings, a panel of five judges cleared Bashir of two charges of terrorism.
"The defendant Abu Bakar Bashir has been proven legally and convincingly to have committed the crime of evil conspiracy that caused fire or explosion that left other people dead," Chief Judge Soedarto said, reading the court's ruling.
Thursday's lenient sentence -- the second for Bashir, who was sentenced to 18 months in 2003 for immigration offenses - sparked immediate criticism from foreign governments.
The United States and Australia, which considered Bashir leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group blamed for a string of bombing attacks in recent years, have objected to the light sentence.
"We respect the independence of Indonesia's judiciary, but given the gravity of the charges on which he was convicted, we're disappointed at the length of the sentence," said Max Kwak, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
Legal experts have admitted that the trial, which has occasionally descended into farce, has been difficult for prosecutors. The proceedings were plagued by shaky evidence and fickle witnesses. JI members whom the prosecution believed would cooperate did not do so. Aware of apparent weaknesses in their case, prosecutors asked for a sentence of eight years. This might seem lenient given the charges against him, for which the maximum penalty is death.
Source: United Press International
Terrorists could exploit Asia conflicts
Al-Qaeda's allies could exploit religious conflicts in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere in South-East Asia to entrench themselves and plot major terrorist attacks, a United States terrorism expert said.
Radical Islamic groups such as Jemaah Islamiah foment religious-driven violence to gain adherents and advance their extremist cause, and countries in the region, especially Thailand and Indonesia, should guard against such a strategy, American terror expert Zachary Abuza said.
"These people want to provoke sectarian conflict," Abuza, director of East Asian Studies at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, told a conference on religion and conflict. "It gives people a sense of jihad (Islamic holy war), a sense of defending their religion. This is where they get their recruits from," he said.
Jemaah Islamiah is blamed for several deadly attacks in South-East Asia, including bombings on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002 that killed 202 people. Authorities also blame the group for a series of bomb attacks in Manila in December 2000 that left 22 people dead.
Abuza said he was particularly alarmed by a spike last year in attacks and deaths arising from a conflict in southern Thailand and a flare up of sectarian violence in central Indonesia.
More than 700 people have died in Thailand's south - the only area dominated by Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country - since January 2004 in violence that the government blames on Islamic separatists.
Source: AAP
Spain plans summit to fight Colombia terrorism
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, plans to host a summit of three South American leaders later this month aimed at fostering closer co-operation in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking in Colombia.
The summit is tentatively scheduled for March 29 and invitations have been sent to Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. A venue has yet to be agreed on.
Government officials in Madrid say Mr Zapatero is expected to hold up the successful Franco-Spanish campaign against Eta, the Basque separatist group, as proof of the effectiveness of cross-border co-operation against terrorism.
Successive Colombian governments have been fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a group considered a terrorist organisation by the US and Europe, for about 40 years.
The Spanish government has also been forced to step up its anti-terrorist operations since last year's train bombings by al-Qaeda cells, which left nearly 200 dead and about 2,000 injured.
However, the Zapatero initiative is also partly aimed at easing tension between Spain and Colombia over Madrid's planned sale of military equipment to Venezuela.
Mr Chávez in January agreed to buy four naval vessels and possibly six C-295 transport aircraft from Spain in a deal worth as much as $1.2bn (€910m, £630m). That purchase, part of a weapons procurement programme that has stoked fears in Colombia over an arms race, came at the height of a dispute between Venezuela and Colombia over the capture of a Colombian insurgent in Caracas.
Last year, the Chávez government successfully lobbied Madrid to cancel a symbolic contract, signed by former prime minister José María Aznar, to supply Colombia with about 40 refurbished AMX-30 battle tanks.
Source: Financial Times
Suicide Bomb Probably Killed Hariri-Lebanon Source
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's investigations show that ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was almost certainly killed by a suicide car bomb, a judicial source close to the probe said Friday.
The source said results of the probe would be released next week. He expected them to show that a Muslim militant who had appeared in a video tape claiming responsibility for the attack was in the car that ripped through Hariri's motorcade in Beirut on Feb. 14.
"The attack happened when a car slowed up to allow Hariri's motorcade to pass it. As the motorcade passed it, the car blew up," the source said. He said evidence came from a security camera at a nearby bank which caught parts of the incident.
Lebanon's opposition and the international community have made revealing the identity of Hariri's killers a key priority. Many have pointed the finger at Syria, which is under intense pressure to quit Lebanon. Damascus has denied any role.
The source said investigators were working on identifying the brand of the car used and expected the arrival of Swiss experts over the weekend to help find out the type of explosives, which he said weighed around 660 to 770 pounds.
A previously unknown Islamist group said in a video aired a few hours after the bombing it had carried out a suicide attack against Hariri because he supported the Saudi government.
Lebanese security sources identified the man who read the statement as on the video as Ahmed Tayseer Abu Adas and authorities did DNA tests on the remains of a body found at the scene to establish they belonged to Abu Adas. The source said Abu Adas was in the attack car but that his father had told investigators that he did not know how to drive. "He could have been driving the car or sitting next to the driver," the source said.
Abu Adas told his family in January he was leaving for Iraq. They had not seen him since Jan. 15 when he left the house, officials had said.
Source: Reuters
Zarqawi rallies Iraqi insurgency thanks to Al-Qaeda, US
BAGHDAD - Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has rallied the insurgency in Iraq thanks to his endorsement by Al-Qaeda and demonization by the United States.
For several months, most claims of attacks carried out by the insurgency, dominated by supporters of the former Baathist regime, have been issued by groups purportedly linked to Zarqawi's network, formerly known as Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), Iraqi and US officials said.
Zarqawi's name is a convenient tag for toppled president Saddam Hussein's Baath party and security service veterans who want to disguise their involvement and gain popular support for their violence, the officials said. "Baathists are no longer supported by the people in Iraq," said the interior ministry's intelligence chief Major General Hussein Kamal.
"The Baathists have chosen to hide behind the religious Jihadi front to regain the sympathy of the people and control the minds of the ignorant. This led Zarqawi to be the front.
"They (the Baathists) are working with the Islamists under joint leadership to gather intelligence and wage operations," he said. "By Islamists, I mean Al-Qaeda and others existing in Iraq."
He added that the partnership was also spurred by the crackdown on insurgents by the new Iraqi security forces. Baathists saw the Al-Qaeda brand name as a useful calling card, Kamal said.
Source: Agence France Presse
Iraq Insurgency Leader Charged in Jordan
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan charged Iraq insurgency leader Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and another militant Wednesday with carrying out a 2003 attack on its Baghdad embassy that killed 18 people.
Both al-Zarqawi and Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network and have already been convicted and sentenced to death in Jordan for other terror attacks. Al-Jaghbeer and al-Zarqawi, both Jordanians, are accused of planning the Aug. 7, 2003, suicide bombing of the embassy.
Al-Jaghbeer is in Jordanian custody but Al-Zarqawi is believed to be in Iraq, where he hands an insurgent faction. There is a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.
Both men face the death sentence if found guilty.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for nine al-Qaida suspects charged with plotting to attack targets in Jordan with chemical and other weapons claimed they were beaten in prison and locked in dark rooms. "Such measures are a violation of the law and should not be repeated," lawyer Mohammed Mihyar said.
The nine are charged along with al-Zarqawi and three other fugitives in the plot foiled last year. Their hearing is set to resume March 9.
Source: Associated Press
Iraq Qaeda Wing Says Still Strong, Vows New Attacks
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said that suicide attacks carried out in recent days proved the group was still strong and capable of pursuing its war against "infidels," according to an Internet statement posted on Friday.
"What happened ... and will happen in coming days is a response to infidel deceptions and claims that the mujahideen (holy fighters) are weaker and that their attacks have abated," said the statement attributed to the military commander of the Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq, Abu Aseed al-Iraqi.
In a separate Internet statement, also dated March 3, the group said its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would soon issue a message to the faithful.
The Jordanian militant's group has claimed the single bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein -- a suicide attack that killed 125 people in the town of Hilla on Monday.
It also said it was behind car bombs near Iraq's Interior Ministry in Baghdad on Thursday that killed at least five policemen and bombings on Wednesday which killed 13 Iraqi soldiers. "Iraq's plains and deserts have turned into volcanoes erupting beneath the infidels and all around them," the military commander said in the statement posted on an Islamist Web site.
"We call on all Muslims who cherish their faith to strike with the sword," said the group which has led the insurgency against U.S.-led forces and the Iraqi government.
Iraqi authorities say they have captured a number of Zarqawi's aides and associates, but the group has dismissed the reports and said U.S.-led forces wanted to boost low morale. Zarqawi, the deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Iraq, is the U.S. military's most wanted man in Iraq.
Washington has said it learned that bin Laden, who is held responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, had asked Zarqawi to plan attacks in the United States.
The last audio tape purporting to come from the Jordanian militant was posted on the Internet on Jan. 23 and declared war on Iraq's parliamentary election, saying it was a plot against Sunni Muslims by Washington and its "infidel" Shi'ite Muslim allies.
Source: Reuters
Angry Iraqis demand resignations after massive Hilla bombing
Hundreds of angry Iraqis protested in Hilla for the second day on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of local officials after a devastating car bomb attack in the city killed 118 people. The government declared a day of mourning over the attack, the deadliest since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
Some 300 people gathered in front of provincial governor Walid Janabi's offices in Hilla calling for him and others responsible for security to step down. The demonstrators, including relatives of the victims and members of civic and political groups, also demanded that those responsible be punished.
On Monday, a suicide bomber struck a crowd of former civil servants lining up outside a health center for medical checkups as part of job applications.
Many in this predominantly Shiite Muslim city of half a million people, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, blamed Sunni militants for the attack.
The group of Al- Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility, according to a statement posted on an Islamist website Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Al-Iraqiya state television announced that interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had declared a day of mourning throughout Iraq on Wednesday and ordered that the families of victims be given compensation. It said 1.5 million dinars (about 1,000 dollars) would be paid for each person killed and 750,000 dinars for each person wounded.
Source: Agence France Presse
Khadr laptop seized at Toronto airport: report
Hoping to glean vital information about terrorist operations, the RCMP seized a laptop and other property from the daughter of an alleged al Qaeda patriarch when she arrived in Canada from Pakistan.
In a report published Thursday, the Toronto Star said Mounties took the computer, a cellphone and some handwritten notes to search for information about al Qaeda's activities when Zaynab Khadr landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport two weeks ago.
According to an affidavit filed to obtain their search warrant, investigators believe Khadr, 25, is involved in al Qaeda activities. The allegations have not been proven in court. Citing the sworn document, the Star quotes RCMP Sgt. Konrad Shourie's concern with the Khadrs.
"I believe that Zaynab Khadr has willingly participated and contributed both directly and indirectly towards enhancing the ability of al Qaeda to facilitate its criminal activities," he writes. "The entire family is affiliated with al Qaeda and has participated in some form or another with these criminal extremist elements," Sgt. Shourie adds.
Khadr's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, had been accused of funnelling money to al Qaeda through his Canadian charity organization. He died during a shootout with Pakistani forces in 2003. The youngest of four Khadr brothers, Karim, was shot and paralyzed in that fight.
Since returning to Canada last year, Karim has lived with relatives in the Toronto-area. His older brother Abdurahman, who was released from U.S. custody last year, also lives in Canada.
Abdurahman grabbed headlines last March, when he said in a TV documentary that he grew up in an "Al Qaeda family" with ties to Osama bin Laden.
Source: The Canadian Press
Missing Imam's Trail Said to Lead From Italy to CIA
ROME — When Hassan Osama Nasr, a controversial Egyptian-born imam, vanished from the streets of Milan two years ago, his friends and family insisted he'd been kidnapped by American agents. Few people listened. But today it appears Italian judicial authorities may agree with them.
A leading prosecutor in Milan has opened an investigation into the February 2003 disappearance, which has the hallmarks of a so-called extraordinary rendition, in which American counter-terrorism agents seize and transport suspects to third countries without seeking court permission.
The right-wing administration of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has not commented on the case, although it seems unlikely that the U.S. would conduct an extraordinary rendition without at least the tacit approval of the Italian government.
The case has outraged Italian opposition politicians, who want to know whether their government is involved in what one called "the outsourcing of torture." Nasr reportedly resurfaced 15 months later in Egypt and said he had been kidnapped by American and Italian agents and taken to Egypt, where he was tortured. His current whereabouts are unclear.
Extraordinary renditions have apparently been used increasingly since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. U.S. agents reportedly grab suspects in one country and then transfer them to another country to be interrogated, sometimes with tactics not allowed on American soil, such as torture.
Most suspects are said to have been nabbed in countries such as Pakistan where the rule of law is tenuous and the actions are easier to conceal. It is extremely rare for an official in a country where a seizure takes place to launch an investigation, as the Italian prosecutor has done.
Nasr, widely known as Abu Omar, was a suspected militant affiliated with a mosque in Milan that U.S. and Italian investigators have long contended was a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
Source: Sun-Sentinel
And the Muslims have OBL and guys like these two pukes to thank.
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