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Posted on 04/14/2005 4:02:23 PM PDT by nwctwx
800 policemen will be recruited for N. Areas
GILGIT, May 11: Eight hundred policemen would be recruited soon to reinforce the force in the Northern Areas, officials said. They said the region had a smaller population compared to other areas of the country, but they needed more policemen to guard sequestered areas.
After the recruitment, no policemen from other districts of the region would be deployed in Gilgit city, he said. If they were drawn before the recruitment, they would be given advance TA/DA and allowed to remain in the city for not more than two months, he added.
Official sources maintained that the local police would be given Rs1,000 pay raise and training as part of restructuring plan.
>>>It's sad that unconfirmed rumors can start protests/riots like that.
You mean...a book really can't be flushed down a toilet??
^-^
Added spice to Indonesia's terror
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is facing demands to step up security in Indonesia's eastern island chain, the Malukus, or the "Spice Islands" to romantics, amid concerns that a nationwide terror operation may be in place.
Almost the whole of Indonesia's eastern region has been involved in ethnic and religious violence, and sporadic bombings and armed attacks still occur in Central Sulawesi, which lies to the west of the Malukus. Sectarian violence and separatist movements are nothing new to these areas, where, according to an International Crisis Group (ICG) report published last week, earlier conflicts in Ambon and Poso have proven to be superb recruiting mechanisms for jihadi organizations.
Excerpted
SITE INSTITUTE.org: "MESSAGE LAUDS THE MURDERER OF THEO VAN GOGH AND WARNS OTHERS WHO DESECRATE ISLAM" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A message posted on the Tajdeed forum, a UK-based message board affiliated with Mohammed al-Massari, May 12, 2005, titled: “A Picture Encourages You to Kill… The Captured Hero: The Moroccan; Only for those over 18 years of age,” congratulates Mohammed Bouyeri, the 26-year old Moroccan who murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in the morning of November 2, 2004.") (May 12, 2005) (Read More...)
EXPATICA.com: Amsterdam - "OPEN LETTER WARNS OF BLOOD AND REVENGE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A preliminary hearing against 12 alleged members of the suspected terror network Hofstad group was held in Rotterdam Court on Tuesday. Mohammed B. was described as the leader of the group for the first time, but is not yet on trial for his role in the group. B.'s murder trial will start in July.") (May 3, 2005) (Read More...)
NEW YORK (AP) - Immigration authorities have released two 16-year-old Muslim girls who were detained for six weeks amid reports they were potential recruits for a suicide bomb plot that never materialized.
The girls - one from Bangladesh, the other from Guinea - were taken into custody separately in New York on March 24 and held at a detention centre. The Bangladeshi girl, her mother and two brothers left the country voluntarily on Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Manny Van Pelt said Wednesday.
The Guinean girl was released last week and was allowed to remain in the city but still faces removal proceedings, Van Pelt said in Washington, D.C.
Details about the case, first reported last month by The New York Times, remain sketchy.
The Times cited a government document that said the FBI believed the girls posed "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." Federal officials have refused to elaborate.
The girls' supporters insisted they were innocent. At a news conference on Wednesday on the steps of City Hall, human rights advocates demanded an apology.
"We're concerned about the veil of secrecy that has surrounded this case," said Mauri Saalakhan, of the Peace and Justice Foundation. "We're concerned about the injustice that has been done to the girls and their families."
ICE insisted the girls were never accused of crimes, only administrative immigration violations.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/WarOnTerrorism/2005/05/12/1035827-ap.html
That is not good news. *sigh*
Thanks Penguino for the article regarding Mohyuddin's arrest.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/12/nat16.htm
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http://www.metacrawler.com/info.metac/search/web/Harkatul%2BMujahideen/1/-/1/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/1
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=%22Mujahid+Ghulam+Mohyuddin%22&kgs=0&kls=0
THANKS Oorang for the links.
good find, thanks for posting.
Yep.
May I be so bold as to offer this OPINION? I believe it's their last gasp. The terrorists are desperate.
HOWEVER...
That is not the end of terrorism.
End of opinion.
Local reports stated that at least two explosive devices, left in different locations, detonated early on 11 May 2005.
The explosions took place in the city of Gualeguay, which is located approximately 124 mi/200 km southeast of Parana, the capital of the province of Entre Rios. Three people were injured in the explosions.
Police reports stated that the devices exploded when residents handled them. No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for these incidents.
Ya'alon: Bin Laden's location known
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115867641034
The IDF's chief of General Staff said in an interview published Wednesday that the location of al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden is known, and he is in hiding on the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.
"I don't think that they don't known where he is. There are operational difficulties in putting your hands on him, for all sorts of reasons. But it is not true that they don't know where he is located," Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon told Maariv.
Ya'alon, a former head of IDF Intelligence, said, "Ultimately, in order to get your hands on him you will need what we perfected and that is what we call 'targeted assassination.'"
No it isn't, and Algeria was also very active at the recent Brazil Summit basically going against us and Israel in a big way.
Three killed as Afghan protests over Koran spread
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5779790&cKey=1115938219000
LOGAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Demonstrations spread in Afghanistan on Thursday over a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, and officials said three protesters were killed.
Several hundred students shouting "Death to America" held a peaceful protest in the capital, Kabul, but elsewhere demonstrations turned violent, a day after four people were killed and 70 wounded in riots in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Angry villagers in a district southwest of Jalalabad, some of them armed, tried to march to the city but were blocked by police, officials and witnesses said.
Protesters threw stones at police and gunfire broke out, and two protesters were killed, said district chief Muhammad Omar.
"The protesters were armed but they didn't fire at police," said villager Shair Ali.
Newsweek magazine said in a recent issue that investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had found interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
Saudi Arabia, Islam's birthplace, said it was following the issue with "deep indignation" and called for a swift probe of the allegations, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Muslims to resist calls for violence.
"We have heard from our Muslim friends around the world about their concerns on this matter. We understand and we share their concerns," Rice said.
"I am asking that all our friends around the world reject incitement to violence by those who would mischaracterise our intentions," she added.
Protests began in Jalalabad on Tuesday. The following day police fired on crowds after state offices were torched, shops looted, and U.N. buildings and diplomatic missions attacked.
Elsewhere on Thursday, protesters attacked police and government offices in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul.
An ammunition store was torched and exploded, killing one protester, said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
Protesters in Logar province south of Kabul, blocked a main road and chanted "Death to Bush" and "Long live Islam".
Armed with clubs and stones, they damaged police vehicles, a government office, just opened by President Hamid Karzai last week, and an office of the CARE aid group, witnesses said.
Police on rooftops ducked behind walls to avoid stones, firing into the air to scatter the protesters, who regrouped and hurled stones again. Several police were hurt.
U.S. and other foreign troops have not been involved in policing the protests, leaving that to Afghan authorities.
"REPUGNANT DESECRATION"
The United States has sought to defuse the anger by expressing outrage at the report and promising an investigation.
"A desecration of religious texts and objects is repugnant to common values and anathema to the American people," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.
The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.
The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the naval base on Cuba. Many of them were detained in Afghanistan after U.S.-led troops drove the Taliban from power in 2001.
Kabul students burned a U.S. flag and shouted slogans against Washington, Karzai and his U.S.-backed government. They demanded punishment for those they said desecrated the Koran.
Apart from Kabul, protests have flared in predominantly ethnic Pashtun areas. The Taliban drew most support from conservative Pashtun clans in the south and east. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group.
An Afghan analyst said Muslim outrage over the desecration report sparked the protests, not hatred of America.
"Afghan people don't have anti-American feeling but some Afghans might be angry with the behaviour of American troops," said Qasim Akhgar, a writer and human rights worker.
The United Nations said preparations for a September election would not be disrupted.
Reuters
I read a few articles about the summit. It did not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. My cousin still wants me to go to Costa Rica; too close for comfort for me.
Good find, thank you. Perhaps that's why they are sending an extra 800 police to the Northern Frontier (among other reasons).
It's a shame, but the days of carefree traveling seem gone forever.
Could be.
Though, after rereading the brief article a few more times, it sounds like they don't know too much more than we have for a while... hopefully the spokesman was being gaurded while speaking.
Canada fears new generation of terrorists
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050512-075511-9678r.htm
Washington, DC, May. 12 (UPI) -- Two declassified reports from Canadian intelligence say a generation of young jihadists with Canadian nationality or residency who have been through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan or elsewhere constitute "a clear and present danger to Canada and its allies," highlighting fears that the United States' northern neighbor might become a staging post for terror attacks here.
"The presence of young, committed jihadists in Canada is a matter of grave concern," states one report, titled "Sons of the Father: The next generation of Islamic extremists in Canada."
"They represent a clear and present danger to Canada and its allies and are a particularly valuable resource for the international Islamic terrorist community in view of their language skills and familiarity with Western culture and infrastructure," the report goes on.
Barbara Campion, spokeswoman for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told United Press International that the situation was "alarming because (in many cases) these are people who don't have any obvious pedigree in extremism or connection to terrorist groups."
In other cases, however, individuals with long and well-known histories of association with terrorist groups are at large in the country, apparently continuing to organize.
Jim Judd, the service's director, told a Canadian Senate hearing recently that there were "several graduates of terrorist training camps, many of whom are battle-hardened veterans of campaigns in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere" currently living in Canada.
"Often these individuals remain in contact with one another ... or with colleagues outside of the country," he went on, "and continue to show signs of ongoing clandestine-type activities, including the use of counter surveillance techniques, secretive meetings and encrypted communications."
Yet a third group, according to the report, is made up of the sons of jihadist fathers.
The report notes that Islamic culture places a premium on "obedience to parental figures. ... The duty to obey also explains why some youth have agreed to Afghanistan and Pakistan for terrorist training."
This is an apparent reference to the family of Ahmed Said Khadr, a close associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden who immigrated to Canada in the 1970s.
Khadr, a veteran of the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, was killed in a gun battle with Pakistani police in October 2003. His youngest son, Omar, 18, is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, accused of involvement in the killing of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Another son, 22-year-old Abdurahman, was released from Guantanamo in 2003 and now lives in Toronto.
"We are an al-Qaida family," he told Canadian television last year, adding that he had resisted his father's entreaties to become a suicide bomber and renounced his support for al-Qaida.
The intelligence reports, released to the National Post newspaper under Canada's Access to Information Act, were produced in April 2004, but Campion said "the situation depicted ... continues to be accurate."
Campion would not comment on the numbers of suspected second-generation jihadists in Canada, but she said the service was generally monitoring a fluid total of about 350 individuals and organizations -- in Canada and abroad -- who pose threat of one kind or another.
Because Canada's Anti-Terrorist Act -- passed in December 2001 -- is not retroactive, it does not cover acts carried out before that time, she said. Other officials say that explains why people known to be graduates of terrorist training camps are still at large.
The provisions of the law are "very comprehensive," said Campion. "They basically outlaw any kind of support for terrorist groups."
"It is safe to say we are keeping an eye on them," Campion said of the second-generation jihadists, adding that investigations were continuing and that "whenever we find something that might be of use to law enforcement or immigration agencies, we pass that along."
Five suspected Islamic extremists are currently being detained under so-called National Security Certificates -- an administrative procedure under which foreigners can be held and deported.
But Judd told the Senate that preparing the dossier for such detention "is enormously work intensive. It sometimes takes more than a year."
Campion said the service was also working "very, very closely" with its U.S. counterparts and that "if we have information we think an intelligence partner needs to know, we pass that right along."
An increased focus on that kind of information-sharing is one of the important changes that have occurred since the reports were written, according to Alex Swann, director of communications for Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Anne McLellan.
"We have set up the Integrated Threat Assessment Center," Swann told UPI, describing it as a "clearinghouse for information" about terrorist threats.
The center provides "a more timely turnaround of assessment (of threat data)," he said, and replaces "individual, ad hoc" decisions on what to share with "a mandatory requirement on all government departments and law enforcement agencies with counter-terrorist responsibilities to report (what they know) on a regular basis."
Swann was also keen to stress that Canada was "only one of many nations facing this challenge," adding that any open society with an Islamic immigrant population might be vulnerable.
"The type of persons attracted to terrorist networks is changing in worrisome ways," Judd told the Canadian Senate. "More are being found in the second generation of immigrant families in Europe, Canada, the United States and elsewhere."
The other declassified report, titled, "Al-Qaida attack planning against North American targets," says Canada is high on the list of the terror group's targets because of its presence in Afghanistan. The nation was listed the fifth most important target by al-Qaida in March 2004, "behind the United States, Britain, Spain and Australia."
"Canada is the only country listed above which has thus far not been directly attacked by al-Qaida," the report notes ominously.
It goes on to warn that "those dedicated extremists possessing terrorist training and Canadian documentation may return to Canada in order to carry out an attack."
But it is the possibility that Canada might be used as a base to plan and organize attacks against its neighbor to the south that worries U.S. officials.
"Intelligence reports indicate that terrorist groups locate in Canada in part because of Canada's liberal visa and asylum laws and the country's proximity to the United States," Inspector General of the Justice Department Michael Bromwich told Congress in 1999.
Later that year, Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who had sought asylum in Canada, was arrested attempting to enter the United States with ingredients for a bomb he planned to use to attack Los Angeles International Airport.
As Canadian citizens, second-generation jihadists would be entitled to cross the border into the United States without a passport -- something that the Sept. 11 Commission identified as a serious vulnerability that continues to alarm U.S. counter-terror specialists.
"Those concerns are legitimate," Campion told UPI.
But speaking in Toronto Wednesday, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge dismissed criticism of Canada as a haven or shelter for terrorists, praising it as an able partner in guarding the world's longest border.
"I don't accept the thesis that Canada is lenient or hasn't done what it needs to do to ... do their share to combat terrorism," Ridge said after a luncheon speech to business leaders, according to the Canadian Press news service.
Last month the departments of State and Homeland Security rolled out a plan to phase in a requirement for the use of passports "or other secure documents" at the border, but a few days later President Bush vowed to reconsider the change.
"When I first read that in the newspaper ... I said, 'what's going on here,'" he told the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
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