Daily Terrorist Round-Up 7/1/05 (Supersized Edition)

7/1/05

[Straight Vermonter]

Dozens arrested, explosives seized in Anbar sweep

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi forces in the western province of Anbar have seized thousands of pounds of explosives and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents in a three-day sweep, military officials said yesterday.

The thrust by about 1,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and sailors and 100 Iraqi troops, called Operation Sword, centered on towns along the Euphrates River about 90 miles west of Baghdad.

Marine spokesmen have said the operation, like other recent sweeps farther west, is aimed at driving insurgents out of towns and disrupting their ability to move guerrillas, weapons and supplies from neighboring Syria into western Iraq and other parts of the country.

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Forces in Iraq detain more than a dozen suspected militants

U.S.-led forces detained more than a dozen suspected militants in a counterinsurgency sweep through the western Anbar province as part of a sustained effort to disrupt the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq, the military said yesterday.

<snip>

There have been several U.S.-led military campaigns attempting to quell the sectarian bloodshed by taking aim at foreign fighter networks.

More than 1,000 American and Iraqi troops taking part in the most recent effort have detained 13 insurgents in the Anbar provincial city of Hit, 140 kilometers west of Baghdad.

The troops have met little resistance since the operation began Tuesday, said U.S. Marine Captain Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman. The raids have also netted several hundred mortar and artillery rounds along with explosives, rifles and two roadside bombs, he said.

The troops were moving through communities along the Euphrates River in the third major campaign in Anbar province in recent weeks.

Marines raided about 100 shops and homes looking for weapons before dawn yesterday in downtown Hit, pounding downs doors with sledgehammers and using shotguns to bust open locks, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

The commotion woke up the neighborhood and some men and boys ran to get keys for some of the shops.

At one house, where they used explosives to blow open a double door, Marines tried to warn an elderly man to go inside his home before the blast. They used sign language, putting their hands over their ears, and said "Boom." The man didn't understand until his young daughter came out and pulled him inside.

The troops later napped at a telephone company office to beat the searing heat, which soared to 50 degrees Celsius. Marines took sodas from shop refrigerators. A Marine drank tea in one house and another Marine of Pakistani descent who knows some Arabic inquired about CDs at a music store.

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Indonesian police arrest 24 terrorism suspects

JAKARTA - Indonesian police have arrested 24 people suspected of involvement in deadly terrorist attacks including the Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed, police and reports said on Friday.


Police chief Da’i Bachtiar said the suspects were being held under anti-terrorism laws that allow for seven days’ detention without charge. He refused to elaborate on the circumstances or reasons for their arrest.

“We took action against them, but we will announce the details later,” he said.

The Jakarta Post, citing an anonymous police source, said the 24 were seized in Central Java province for alleged involvement in the October 2002 Bali bombings and an attack on the Jakarta Marriot hotel in 2003.

The Bali blasts killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, while the Marriot attack left 12 people dead.

Both strikes are blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist network, which according some governments is linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.

Indonesian courts have convicted 35 Islamic militants for the Bali bombings and sentenced three of them to death.

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Report of Terrorist’s Surrender Denied
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News
 
JEDDAH, 1 July 2005 — A Saudi terror suspect reportedly surrendered to the Saudi Embassy in Beirut on Tuesday. Another militant has been killed in Iraq. Both were on a new wanted list issued by the Ministry of Interior.

Okaz newspaper said Faiz Ibrahim Ayub, 30, turned himself in to the Saudi Embassy in the Lebanese capital one day after the list of 36 wanted terrorists was released. Twenty-one named on the list are thought to be outside the Kingdom and 15 are believed to be at large inside Saudi Arabia.

The daily quoted Ayub’s brother, Salah, as saying he had received a telephone call from his brother in which he said he was on his way to the Saudi Embassy “in an Arab country” to give himself up.

Contacted by Arab News, a Saudi Embassy official in Beirut said they had no idea of the surrender. “We know nothing about this. To us these reports are just rumors and are not true.”

The embassy employee said he did not know what sources the press relied on when reporting such news. He added that to his knowledge, the embassy did not have any information about this matter.

Asharq Al-Awsat quoted the brother of another Saudi militant on the wanted list, Faris Abdullah Al-Dhahiry, 22, as saying his brother was killed in Iraq in November.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Prince Naif expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Saudi security forces. “Our security agencies are on full alert and are capable of reaching them and foiling their terrorist plans and operations,” he said.

Prince Naif said Al-Qaeda militants in the Kingdom would be tried in accordance with Shariah, and promised a fair trial.

The list of the 36 suspects included seven foreigners from Chad, Morocco, Mauritania, Yemen and Kuwait.

The ministry has offered a bounty of up to SR7 million for anyone who helps capture a terrorist or foil an attack.

A member of the Shoura Council, who is a leading cleric, has said clerics in the Kingdom are willing to talk with the individuals who strayed from the right path and convince them to return to the Muslim fold.

Sheikh Abdul Mohsin Al-Obaikan, who is member of the Kingdom’s Supreme Ulema (scholars) Council, said both the government and the scholars are willing to initiate a debate and convince them to return to the right path. He referred to the royal amnesty issued last year for militants to turn themselves in as a sign of such willingness.

Al-Obaikan said following the amnesty a number of terrorists had surrendered to the authorities voluntarily and were currently leading a normal life with their families.

“We are ready to enter into dialogue with whoever is willing to return to the right path of Islam. Islam is the religion of mercy and peace,” he added.

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Diwaniyah Assaulters Captured

The organizers of Wednesday attack against Polish and Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah city have been arrested.

Polish soldiers and Iraqi Security Forces have carried out a combat raid that led to the capture of perpetrator of the attack on a Polish patrol, which left two injured.

The captured man had thrown a grenade in the direction of the Polish patrol. During the operation other six people suspected of terrorist and criminal activity were detained.

Bulgaria's unit in Diwaniya is under Polish command.

The first Bulgarian troops in Iraq were based in the Shiite city of Karbala. They were later dispatched to Diwaniya, a reportedly safer place for the peacekeepers.

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U.S. completes anti-terror training (Excerpted)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- The U.S. military has wrapped up exercises aimed at getting north and west African troops ready to fight al Qaeda-linked terrorists and making sure the militants don't get a toehold in a region of porous borders and weak states.

U.S. commanders said Thursday they hope the exercise was only the beginning of a long-term relationship.

Starting June 6, 700 U.S. troops ran about 2,100 soldiers from nine North and West African nations through counterterrorism exercises including mock patrols, target practice -- even airborne parachute drills that sent hundreds of African soldiers drifting from U.S. C-130 transport aircraft.

"The exercise accomplished what we set out to do, which was to get cooperation from all the nations," said U.S. Maj. Gen. Thomas Csrnko of "Operation Flintlock," which officially ended Thursday.

"This is hopefully the beginning of a long relationship between our forces and their commands," he said by telephone from command headquarters in Germany.

"We want to help them create stable environments inside these countries," he said of the nations, many of which contain vast expanses of largely unpatrolled desert inside poorly guarded borders.

Csrnko said American troops would push for specialized units inside each country with skills honed for providing "internal security and sovereignty -- as well as a regional capability."

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Afghan Warlord Says He's Underfed in U.S. Jail
By JULIA PRESTON

An Afghan tribal leader who was arrested in New York in April on heroin trafficking charges is not getting enough to eat and is hampered from performing Muslim prayers in his prison cell, his lawyer said at a federal court hearing yesterday.

The leader, Hajji Bashir Noorzai, is being held in a segregated high-security cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, his lawyer, Stephen M. Goldenberg, said. He was arrested April 23 on charges of conspiring to sell more than $50 million in heroin from Afghanistan in the United States in the late 1990's and using the profits to buy guns and bombs in an "unholy alliance" with the Taliban government and its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

In June 2004 Mr. Noorzai, then a warlord in the Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan, was added to the Bush administration's list of most-wanted narcotics "kingpins."

In comments during and after the hearing, Mr. Goldenberg said Mr. Noorzai, who is confined to his cell 23 hours a day, had lost about 30 pounds in prison because he receives only small portions of food. The prison does not provide meals consistent with Muslim rules known as halal, which he observes. He is being fed a kosher diet, on the grounds that it is prepared on similar principles, Mr. Goldenberg said. Mr. Noorzai, 44, appeared in court yesterday looking noticeably thinner than he did at his first appearance in April.

Because of a water leak on the floor of his cell, Mr. Noorzai prays on his bed, his lawyer said. He does not know which wall to face to look east, toward Mecca, because no prison guard speaks his Pashto language.

Dispelling a mystery about Mr. Noorzai's arrest, Mr. Goldenberg said his client had been lured to New York by United States officials who had invited him to a "high-level political meeting." Mr. Noorzai did not know that the administration had publicized his name as a most-wanted drug dealer. If he had known, "it might have affected his travel plans," Mr. Goldenberg said.

After flying to New York, Mr. Noorzai met American agents in a Manhattan hotel, his lawyer said. "They spoke for a few hours and then handcuffs came out," he said.

Mr. Noorzai says he supported the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic government that was ousted by United States-led forces in 2001, because it was "the legitimate government of Afghanistan," Mr. Goldenberg said. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Noorzai's heroin trade continued to thrive after the Taliban's fall and was undermining the young democracy in Afghanistan.

Mr. Goldenberg said a prosecutor, Boyd Johnson III, had helped improve Mr. Noorzai's prison conditions. Judge Laura Taylor Swain, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, set a hearing for July 7 to decide whether to order more changes.

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Five Pakistanis held in Afghanistan

KABUL, June 30: Five Pakistanis suspected of planning attacks in the south of war-shattered Afghanistan have been arrested, Afghan police said on Thursday. They had crossed from Pakistan into the Afghan province of Zabul and were arrested on Wednesday while travelling by bus to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, provincial police chief Allahyar told AFP.

The men were seized on a tip-off from US-led forces who had kept them under surveillance, said Ghulam Mohammed Aka, chief of police in Shahr-e-Safa district where the arrests were made.

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Algerian with al-Qaeda ties gets 10 years in jail (Excerpt)

An Algerian tied to an al-Qaeda plot to poison London with ricin was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in jail in Algeria.

An Algerian court convicted Mohamed Meguerba, 37, of forming and being a member of a terrorist organization.

Meguerba fled bail in Britain in 2002 after he was arrested there. It is believed Islamic militants smuggled him back into Algeria where he was arrested that December.

His interrogation by Algerian authorities helped British police close in on a ring of al-Qaeda suspects plotting with poison and explosives in London.

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Al Qaeda Manual Drives Detainee Behavior at Guantanamo Bay 
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

If you're a Muslim extremist captured while fighting your holy war against "infidels," avoid revealing information at all costs, don't give your real name and claim that you were mistreated or tortured during your detention. 

- This instruction comes straight from the pages of an official al Qaeda training manual, and officials at the detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say they see clear evidence that detainees are well-versed in its contents.

Police in Manchester, England, discovered the manual, which has come to be known as the "Manchester document," in 2000 while searching computer files found in the home of a known al Qaeda member. The contents were introduced as evidence into the 2001 trial of terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.

The FBI translated the document into English, and it is posted on the Justice Department's Web site.

The 18-chapter manual provides a detailed window into al Qaeda's network and its procedures for waging jihad - from conducting surveillance operations to carrying out assassinations to working with forged documents.

The closing chapter teaches al Qaeda operatives how to operate in a prison or detention center. It directs detainees to "insist on proving that torture was inflicted" and to "complain of mistreatment while in prison."

Chapter 17 instructs them to "be careful not to give the enemy any vital information" during interrogations.

Another section of the manual directs commanders to teach their operatives what to say if they're captured, and to explain it "more than once to ensure that they have assimilated it." To reinforce the message, it tells commanders to have operatives "explain it back to the commander."

And at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, detainees take this instruction to heart. Many of the more than 500 detainees are "uncooperative" in providing intelligence, Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, told military analysts who traveled to the facility June 24 and reiterated today during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.

Some detainees have never uttered a single word during more than three years of interrogation. Others give false names or refuse to offer their real names.

This can prove challenging for interrogators at the facility, because many detainees "follow the al Qaeda SOP ( standard operating procedures ) to the T," according to Army Col. John Hadjis, chief of staff for Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

Officials say they see evidence of the al Qaeda-directed misinformation campaign in allegations of detainee abuse and mishandling of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed frustration over this effort during a June 21 interview on the "Tony Snow Show."

"These detainees are trained to lie, they're trained to say they were tortured, and the minute we release them or the minute they get a lawyer, very frequently they'll go out and they will announce that they've been tortured," Rumsfeld said.

The media jumps on these claims, reporting them as "another example of torture," the secretary said, "when in fact, ( terrorists have ) been trained to do that, and their training manual says so."

During a February 2004 Pentagon news conference, a DoD official said new information provided by detainees during questioning is analyzed to determine its reliability.

"Unfortunately, many detainees are deceptive and prefer to conceal their identifies and their actions," said Paul Butler, principal deputy assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

Butler said the Manchester document includes "a large section which teaches al Qaeda operatives counterinterrogation techniques: how to lie, how to minimize your role."

The document, he said, has surfaced in various locations, including Afghanistan.

The manual's preface offers a chilling reminder of the mentality that drives al Qaeda disciples and the lengths they will go to for their cause.

"The confrontation that we are calling for ... does not know Socratic debates, ... Platonic ideals ... nor Aristotelian diplomacy," its opening pages read. "But it knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine gun."

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Islamic states call for support to Iraq 
 
    SANAA, June 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) concluded its three-day foreign ministers' meeting here Thursday with a final statement calling for international support to Iraq.

    Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi told a press conference that the Islamic states promised more assistance for Iraq in the face of a raging insurgency.

    In the final statement, the ministers "affirmed their decision to offer all sorts of support to the Iraqi interim government to write a constitution, as well as achieve security and stability," said al-Kurbi.

    They "called upon all Iraqis to unite in order to end occupation", he said, adding the support was aimed at helping Iraq"achieve sovereignty and end occupation."

    According to the statement, the ministers condemned "all aspects of terrorism", but insisted on "differentiating between terrorism and legitimate resistance against occupation".

    On Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar al-Zibari asked for help from the 57-member OIC in stemming violence and restoringorder in his war-torn country.
    "There is carelessness in the organization's attitude toward Iraq," Zibari told the OIC meeting, adding "there is no any initiative to help the Iraqi people under the current difficult circumstances."

    As for the withdrawal of foreign troops, he said such a move could be taken only after the build-up of Iraqi security and armedforces is completed, and the Iraqi government is holding talks with all parties, including armed groups, to know their demands.

    Insurgents have mounted attacks against US troops and Iraqi security forces to cripple the newly formed Iraqi government. Morethan 1,200 people have been killed since the Shiite-dominated government was formed in late April.

    Foreign ministers of some 56 Islamic states as well as representatives from a number of regional and international organizations attended the gathering, which opened here Tuesday.
 

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Iraq's suicide attacks blamed on foreigners - Officials believe most are Gulf Arabs
Recent forensic work backs claims
PATRICK QUINN AND KATHERINE SHRADER

BAGHDAD—The vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners — mostly Saudis and other Persian Gulf Arabs — with North Africans also streaming in this year to carry out deadly missions, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

The bombers are recruited from Sunni communities, smuggled into Iraq after receiving religious indoctrination, then quickly bundled into cars or strapped with explosive vests and sent to their deaths, the officials say. They are not so much fighters as human bombs.

"The foreign fighters are the ones that most often are behind the wheel of suicide car bombs, or most often behind any suicide situation," said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston, spokesman for the Multinational Force in Iraq.

Officials have long believed non-Iraqis infiltrating Iraq through Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia were behind most suicide missions. Forensic work on recent bloody strikes has confirmed that thinking.

Authorities have found little evidence that Iraqis carried out the near-daily stream of suicide attacks over the past six months, U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials said. There have been exceptions. On election day, Jan. 30, a mentally disabled Iraqi boy, wearing a suicide vest, attacked a poll. An Iraqi is believed to have detonated explosives inside a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 last December. (SV-No, this has been "credited" to a Saudi member of the notorious al-Ghamdi clan) On June 11, an Iraqi suicide bomber in the uniform of the interior ministry's feared Wolf Brigade blew himself up inside the police militia's heavily guarded Baghdad headquarters.

Since 2003, fewer than 50 of more than 500 suicide attacks were carried out by Iraqis, one defence official said.

Associated Press says there have been 213 suicide attacks so far this year — 172 by vehicle and 41 by bombers on foot. Attacks, mostly car bombs and suicide missions, have killed more than 1,370 since April 28, and more than 2,170 since June, 2004.

"I still think 80 per cent of the insurgency, the day-to-day activity, is Iraqi: the roadside bombings, mortars, direct weapons fire, rifle fire, automatic weapons fire," said Kenneth Katzman, an analyst with the Congressional Research Service. The role foreign fighters play is one reason many see the conflict as slowly becoming an international struggle with militant Islam.

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Operation 'Diablo Reach Back' is a success
by Staff Sgt. Jacob Caldwell Combined Task Force Bayonet Public Affairs

Kandahar, AFGHANISTAN – In a 20-day mission in northern Kandahar Province, Combined Task Force Bayonet forces engaged Taliban forces in some of the fiercest fighting seen this year.

Led by the 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, coalition forces kicked off the military operation known as Diablo Reach Back June 7 in the rugged, mountainous terrain of Shah Wali Kot district.

The coalition forces included soldiers and policemen from the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, the Romanian Army, and U.S. forces from the 3-319th AFAR, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Diablo Reach Back, a follow-up mission to Diablo Reach conducted in May 2005, was designed to clear the area of anti-coalition militia so that the provincial government of Kandahar can establish a permanent presence and a good line of communication in the remote, northern district, according to Lt. Col. Bert Ges, 3-319th AFAR and Task Force Gundevil Commander.

The Shah Wali Kot district is considered to be one of the last Taliban strongholds in Kandahar province, but that may soon end as the patience of the district’s residents grows thin with the anti-coalition forces.

“For the most part, the people out here are tired of the Taliban,” said Ges, “Because there is no government representation out here, the Taliban come out of the hills and take their food, beat on them, harass them, and then leave.”

Establishing security in the district is the first priority, said Ges, but another is to strengthen the positions of the district leadership. Once this is done, reconstruction efforts can begin in the embattled region.

Ges wants to establish a satellite police station in Gumbad by July 1.

“Gumbad to me is very key terrain in the Gumbad valley,” said Ges, “The people are supportive of us. We have had several major shuras there. We have identified a building, and we want to rent it. We are going to bring ANP forces up there. Anywhere from 20 to 40 men and then we will augment them with (U.S. forces), anywhere from 16 to 40 men. That is to get the infrastructure started, establish communications, and then we’ll nominate a project for an actual police sub-station there.”

“I’ve put a very aggressive timeline of 1 July for this project. I just want to get some troops up there,” said Ges, “I realize they may be living out of their vehicle for the first few weeks. But I just want to get them in there, get a foothold and then expand from there. Every time we are in that village they know that we can provide security. They see the helicopters and the artillery fire. But when we leave, the Taliban can then return. So that’s why in the Gumbad project we want to show that permanent presence. Get the ANP there and help them out.”

Security has been a challenge in the district. This operation alone saw minor battles near the villages of Zamto Kalay and Chenartu. There was also significant enemy contact made by Delta Company, 2-504th PIR June 14 in the vicinity of Takht Kalay and June 17 in the vicinity of Gumbad.

“The men that we are fighting now have been around for awhile,” said Ges, “They know how we fight, so we have to be very quick and aggressive… All of the operations that we have had during Diablo Reach Back have had ANA soldiers with them. They are the main effort. We have substantial forces here also, but they do the bulk of the fighting.”

 Specifically involved in this operation were ANA soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade and ANA soldiers from Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, according to Maj. Kevin Bigelman, 3-319th AFAR Operations Officer.

“The ANA did a great job. They were well equipped, well led, and they did exactly what they were tasked to do, which was to clear the objective area and the surrounding towns,” said Bigelman.

“There has been a significant reduction in enemy forces,” said Cpt. George Whittenburg, 3-319th AFAR Intelligence Officer, “The terrain does not lend itself to finding bodies.”

The reception of coalition forces by the residents has been varied.

“At the worst, the reception has been neutral,” said Ges, “But some have been very positive. It all comes down to the leadership of the villages.”

Maintaining and improving the relationships with the various village elders is essential to the success of future operations in the village.

“We don’t want to come into a location or objective, clear it and then leave,” said Ges, “We want clear the area and then go right into civil affairs.”

“What we have been doing during this operation is bringing the District Chief and the District Police Chief with us to show them the conditions of the area and let them hear what the people are saying,” said Ges, “We always end up with what is called a shura, a meeting with the village leaders and elders.”

“And then we do a village assessment. We review all of their issues and concerns and we are very honest with them. We get all of the potential projects that they may want to have accomplished. We take them back to Kandahar to the province headquarters. And there, they do an assessment themselves and begin to prioritize (the projects),” said Ges.

Leading an international and inter-battalion force, in what are typically infantry missions, has been a rewarding experience for Ges, a field artillery officer.

“I’m very impressed by the paratroopers who come in hard, fight the enemy, and then, like that, they are already going into the next phase, where we are trying to help the people,” said Ges, “Our paratroopers know at all times that the Afghan people are not the enemy, that the enemy is the Taliban.

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Three militants arrested in JK

Three militants were arrested in separate operations in Pulwama and Anantnag districts of Jammu and Kashmir and a huge amount of arms and explosives were seized from them, official sources said.

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants identified as Shabir Ahmad Wani and Tariq Ahmad were arrested by a joint search party of First Para and police at Ashminder village in Pulwama district this morning, the sources said.

Two AK assault rifles, eight magazines with 200 rounds, nine under-barrel grenade launcher (ubgl) grenades and a hand grenade were recovered from them, they said.

In another operation, troops of 36 Rashtriya Rifles apprehended a militant of Harkat-ul Jehadi Islami group Bashir Ahmad Chopan from his hideout in Sonabrari area of Kokernag in Anantnag district this afternoon, the sources said.

An AK assault rifle, four magazines, 90 rounds and two hand grenades were recovered from him, they said.

Meanwhile, panic gripped Manigam area of Ganderbal on the outskirts of Srinagar this afternoon following detection of a box on the main road leading to Baltal, the base camp for ongoing Amarnath Yatra.

However, a bomb disposal squad, which rushed to the spot found explosive material inside the box, they said.

The box contained some documents and was suspected to have fallen from the roof of a passing civilian vehicle.
 

 

[Straight Vermonter]

Let me know if you want on/off the terrorist roundup ping list

Terrorist Scorecard

The Iraqi "Deck of Cards" Scoreboard

Centcom's New Iraq Scorecard

Saudi Arabia's Most Wanted Scorecard

Saudi Arabia's New Most Wanted Scorecard

[Straight Vermonter]

Ping

[Deetes]

Busy day in the terrorist patch ....

[AdmSmith]

Afghan Warlord Says He's Underfed in U.S. Jail

and is prevented from being a Michael Moore lookalike.

[Coop]

Lots of progress in Iraq in this report. Awesome job by our troops! I especially like all the captured artillery rounds that will not be able to be converted to IEDs.

[Valin]

Ten years for ricin plot leader
Manchester Evening News
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1434188/posts


AN al-Qaida terrorist linked to the killer of Manchester police officer Stephen Oake has been jailed for 10 years in Algeria. Mohamed Meguerba, 37, who trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, was convicted of belonging to a foreign terror organisation.

British police believe he lived and worked in Manchester before he fled Britain in 2002. Meguerba stayed at the same house in Crumpsall where Kamel Bourgass later stabbed DC Oake to death during a police raid.

It was information provided by Meguerba, after his arrest in Algeria in December 2002, that first alerted police in Britain to a ricin plot in London. Meguerba told his interrogators that he and Bourgass had been making the poison in a flat in north London and keeping it in a skin cream jar. He claimed that they had planned to smear the poison onto door handles to spread terror in the capital.

Algerian authorities passed the information on to British security officials, who eventually raided a flat in Wood Green and found evidence to back up his claims. They also found passport photographs of Bourgass. When police raided a flat in Crumpsall Lane, Manchester, in an unrelated operation in January 2003, officers stumbled across Bourgass. DC Oake, a special branch officer taking part in the raid, was murdered by Bourgass. Investigators later found Meguerba's fingerprints at the flat and also his torn-up passport in a bin outside.

Bourgass was jailed for life after he was convicted of murdering DC Oake. Earlier this year he was convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury and jailed for 17 years. Meguerba is thought to have moved around Europe before arriving in London and attending the Finsbury Park mosque.

As a fluent French, English and Arabic speaker, he was able to travel and fit in easily. He is believed to have married an Irish woman in 1997. Meguerba is not officially wanted in connection with any charges in Britain and there are not believed to be any plans to request his extradition.

[Valin]

"Dispelling a mystery about Mr. Noorzai's arrest, Mr. Goldenberg said his client had been lured to New York by United States officials who had invited him to a "high-level political meeting." Mr. Noorzai did not know that the administration had publicized his name as a most-wanted drug dealer. If he had known, "it might have affected his travel plans," Mr. Goldenberg said."


LOL! What an idiot.

[fiftymegaton]

BUMP