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| Locked on 08/06/2005 5:10:54 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason: |
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Al Qaeda Leaders Seen in Control
Experts Say Radicals In London, Egypt May Have Followed Orders
Washington Post
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 24, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/23/AR2005072301052.html
LONDON, July 23 -- The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in
Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests
that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both
operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in
control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism
analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East.
Investigators on Saturday said that they believed the details of the
bombing plots in Egypt and Britain -- the deadliest terrorist strikes in
each country's history -- were organized locally by groups working
independently of each other. In Sharm el-Sheikh, where the death toll rose
to 88 people, attention centered on an al Qaeda affiliate blamed for a
similar attack last October at Taba, another Red Sea resort. In London,
where 52 bystanders were killed in the subway and on a bus, police have
identified three of the four presumed suicide bombers as British
natives with suspected connections to Pakistani radicals.
But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that
bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from
afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in
Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in
each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that
are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy.
The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that
the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and
well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since
the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be
in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown
about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully
capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to
do its bidding.
"What the London and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks may have in common are the
people giving directions: This is what needs to be done, and this is
how you do it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the
Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews
in Scotland.
Prince Turki al Faisal, the former director of foreign intelligence for
Saudi Arabia who was named this past week as the kingdom's new
ambassador to the United States, said in an interview, "All of these groups
maintain a link of sort with bin Laden, either through Internet Web sites,
or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan
and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden
himself, but with his people.
"Since September 11, these people have continued to operate," he said,
speaking at his residence here, where he has been serving as ambassador
to Britain. "They are on the run, but they still act with impunity.
They can produce their material and get it to the media, it seems, anytime
they like. Along with that, of course, are the orders they give to
their operatives, wherever they may be."
Overthrowing the Saudi monarchy has been a longtime goal for bin Laden,
a wealthy Saudi native who was once close to the kingdom's rulers but
was stripped of his citizenship in 1994.
Some senior U.S. officials have argued that bin Laden has been
effectively bottled up since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and
question whether al Qaeda still has the ability to plan major operations
such as the Sept. 11 attacks.
In April, for example, the State Department concluded in its annual
report on terrorist activity around the world that al Qaeda had been
supplanted as the most worrisome threat by unaffiliated local groups of
Islamic radicals acting on their own, without help from bin Laden or his
aides. The pattern of attacks in 2004, the report stated, illustrates
"what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism,
one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out
attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."
Some regional Islamic radical groups function independently of al Qaeda
but enter into mutual alliances for specific operations or campaigns,
experts say. In Iraq, for instance, one of the primary networks of
insurgents fighting the U.S. military is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a
Jordanian who has pledged his loyalty to bin Laden and acts publicly on behalf
of al Qaeda but has developed his own organization.
But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab
countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest
bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to
suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and
the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators
have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to
launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take
care of the details.
"The rather well-formed structure that they had prior to 9/11 does seem
to be degraded," said a senior British counterterrorism official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. "But there is still a fairly potent, if
diffuse network out there that still aspires to make decisions. We
should be very wary about writing them off."
Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that
country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin
Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to
Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by
the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct
orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.
The local al Qaeda network carried out its first attack on May 12,
2003, driving explosive-laden cars into the gates of Western residential
compounds in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine Americans. The
explosion stunned Saudi government leaders, who only a few months before
had said publicly that there were no terrorist groups operating inside
the kingdom.
Less than one week after the Riyadh bombing, explosions hit Morocco,
which has a long history of close relations with the United States and
little history of terrorism. On May 16, 2003, suicide bombers launched
multiple attacks on hotels, restaurants and other civilian targets in
Casablanca, killing 45 people.
At first, counterterrorism officials in Saudi Arabia and Morocco saw no
connection between the two attacks other than the fact that they
occurred four days apart. They assumed that the timing was coincidental, or
that the Moroccan bombings were prompted in part by the publicity
generated by what happened in Riyadh.
Today, however, counterterrorism officials in both countries say there
were connections between the two groups that carried out the attacks.
Two Moroccan al Qaeda operatives suspected of helping to organize the
Casablanca bombings, Karim Mejjati and Hussein Mohammed Haski, surfaced
as leaders of the local al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and were named
to the kingdom's list of most wanted terrorist suspects.
Mejjati was killed in a shootout with anti-terrorism police in a small
Saudi town in April. Haski was arrested in July 2004 in Belgium, where
he faces charges of helping to organize another sleeper cell with al
Qaeda connections, according to Belgian officials and court documents.
Both Haski and Mejjati were veterans of al Qaeda training camps in
Afghanistan, documents show.
A similar connection has emerged between the Casablanca bombings and
the March 11, 2004, train explosions that killed 191 people in Madrid.
Spanish investigators have identified a suspected ringleader of the
Madrid attacks as a Moroccan al Qaeda operative named Amer Azizi, who is
also wanted by authorities in Morocco on charges of involvement in the
network that organized the Casablanca attacks.
Like Mejjati and Haski, Azizi spent time at al Qaeda training camps in
Afghanistan before 2001 and is believed to be a conduit to the al Qaeda
leadership, intelligence officials said.
Counterterrorism investigators and analysts said it was highly unlikely
that the people who organized the July 7 London bombings were directly
involved in the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. But they predicted that both
plots would eventually be traced directly to al Qaeda.
Ranstorp, the terrorism expert in Scotland, predicted that Egyptian
investigators would pursue possible links to Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born
physician who has served as bin Laden's top deputy and al Qaeda's leading
ideologue since the early 1990s. "I doubt very much that this was done
by the same group of Pakistanis who were apparently responsible for
what happened in London," Ranstorp said. "But this very well could have
been directed by Zawahiri, in terms of activating the Egyptian front."
U.S. and European intelligence officials said they believe bin Laden
and Zawahiri remain in hiding along the rugged border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan, where access and communications with the outside world
remain difficult. But many other al Qaeda leaders have found refuge in
Pakistan's urban areas, where they are freer to move around and make
contact with operatives visiting from other countries.
Pakistani officials have confirmed that three of the four suicide
bombers involved in the London attacks this month visited Pakistan for
extended periods over the past two years, spending time in Karachi and
Lahore, Pakistan's largest cities. Investigators suspect they may have met
with al Qaeda operatives who gave them instructions for carrying out the
bombings.
British officials and counterterrorism analysts said the trail of the
investigation was clearly leading to Pakistan, which has faced renewed
criticism for giving haven to al Qaeda sympathizers and other Islamic
radical groups. Several highly wanted al Qaeda leaders who have been
captured in recent years by the FBI and CIA were caught not in the remote
terrain along the Pakistani border, but in major cities such as Karachi,
Rawalpindi and Lahore.
"Why is it that all the roads keep going back to Pakistan?" said M. J.
Gohel, a terrorism analyst and chief executive of the Asia-Pacific
Foundation, a London-based think tank. "Is it a coincidence, or is there
something more? The linkages there are just too strong and consistent.
The whole backbone of the jihadi infrastructure is not being dismantled.
It is still functioning."
The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged this week to
renew his crackdown on "extremists" and Islamic radicals in the country
and said officials were doing everything they could to cooperate with
the investigation into the London bombings. But he bristled at the idea
that Pakistan has remained a haven for al Qaeda.
Staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
Yep.
Pretty universal.
Very astute.
DITTO, DITTO, DITTO....
Tractors are fun.
If it drives, my husband has it.
I was out weeding yesterday.
Got 3 gardens done.
Fertilizing and watering off and on today.
GREAT links MamaDearest.
Two bomb plots 'linked'
Tony Thompson, Peter Beaumont and Martin Bright
Sunday July 24, 2005
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0%2C16132%2C1535237%2C00.html
Links have been uncovered between the two teams of bombers who have
brought terror to the streets of London over the past two weeks, say
security sources.
Police now believe some of the men they are pursuing for last week's
abortive attacks - on Shepherd's Bush, Oval and Warren Street tube
stations and on a No 26 bus in Hackney - attended a whitewater rafting trip
at the same centre as two of the 7 July bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan
and Shehzad Tanweer.
This raises the distinct possibility that the two operations were
connected as part of a larger plan to bring carnage to the capital.
Evidence discovered in the rucksacks left behind by the failed bombers
led police to three addresses in London. When investigators
cross-referenced them with the electoral register they discovered names that
tallied with those of individuals who attended the outdoor adventure course
in Snowdonia last summer.
Scotland Yard has con-firmed the explosive used in the 21 July bomb
attempts bore a similarity to that used in the earlier attacks. Initial
tests on a package found in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, north-west
London, yesterday show it may contain the same explosive.
The Observer understands that investigators are examining the
possibility that the trip to Bala in North Wales was used as a bonding
experience. One line of inquiry being pursued is whether a cleric was
responsible for organising the trip to bring the two cells together.
Armed police stormed an address in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, south of
Stockwell, yesterday afternoon, apparently looking for the man seen
running away from Oval station in a distinctive 'New York' top. The house
has been under surveillance since last Thursday, and the man shot at
Stockwell station on Friday morning is believed to have left the same
premises.
At around 3.45pm, a bottle-green unmarked police car entered the road,
a small close of modern flats, followed by a grey people carrier that
blocked off the street. Around 17 officers in protective helmets,
goggles and body armour appeared. Within five minutes several loud bangs were
heard as police fired gas through windows. This was followed by a
further series of bangs as police marksmen took over properties in the area.
In a separate development, police are investigating an East African
link to last week's bombers. The Observer has established that two
addresses raided on Friday have a link to individuals with family connections
in Somalia and Ethiopia, war-torn countries in the Horn of Africa with
long histories of violence.
Security officials confirmed that a Somali living at an address in west
Kilburn raided on Friday was of interest to the investigation. A second
man, thought to be Ethiopian, was arrested in Stockwell in connection
with the bombings. A third arrest in early yesterday was made as a
precaution because a man was acting suspiciously around Stockwell station.
In a report this month, the International Crisis Group warned of a new
al-Qaeda cell in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, led by a young Somali
militant who had been trained in Afghanistan. Police and intelligence
officials are now trying to establish how the London-based African cell
and the largely Leeds-based cell of Pakistani origin fit together.
'We are still looking at the recruitment process and that is something
we have yet to nail down,' said one security source.
'One possibility we are looking at is an affiliated community, through
a certain mosque, through veterans of the Afghan war or a
talent-spotter putting these teams together. The material we are working with is
limited. Until we can expose the process of recruitment, we are not going
to be close to the full answers.'
One theory is that a small and disparate group split to recruit and
form individual cells, with key members of each cell known to each other
but not to all members. Intelligence officers are also trying to
establish if any of the 'African' cell had travelled to Pakistan.
Note: The following post is an exact quote:
===
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449626/posts
Mystery illness kills at least 17 Chinese (SW China)
Boston Globe ^ | July 24, 2005 | AP
Posted on 07/24/2005 2:25:09 PM PDT by FairOpinion
BEIJING --An unidentified illness has killed 17 farmers and sickened 41 in southwestern China after they butchered sick pigs or sheep, China's official news agency said Sunday.
Those affected had symptoms including high fever, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and "became comatose later with bruises under the skin," Xinhua news agency said.
Over the past four weeks, 58 people from areas around the cities of Ziyang and Neijiang in China's southwestern Sichuan province were hospitalized with such symptoms, Xinhua said.
Seventeen of those hospitalized have died, while 12 are in critical condition, 27 are stable and two have recovered, it said.
A "preliminary probe found out that the affected farmers have butchered sick pigs or sheep" before falling ill, the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The Taliban is all but extinct as a force either political or armed in Afghanistan. Leadership is either dead or in custody and that country is effectively gone as a useful base of operations. The organization in Iraq is under similar pressure even by Iraqis formerly sympathetic. Further, AQ has broken the peace in the UK that has allowed them to effectively function almost in the open and use the UK as a safe haven. Now they've turned on Egypt and bitten that hand as it turns out that the vehicles used in the bombings came through Egyptian customs almost unchecked. So Egypt is now gone as a supporter and base of operations. They are running out of places to hide. There's the Phillippines....but our SpecOps is going full bore there, too.
Okay, suppose this is no accident. Suppose that the systematic bridge burning has a purpose. Suppose they're opening new fronts but dismantling local organizations that may be cost intensive so that they can launch a major and continuing operation against the USA. The strikes inside Egypt and Saudi Arabia and other ME targets are diversionary. They plan to open the next front here on US soil. WMD is the most obvious, but every nasty technique is obviously on the table. We have a big country and a lot of sheep to offer the wolves cover while they feast on lamb from the greater herd. Is this making sense?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449617/posts
"Daily Terrorist Round-Up 7/24/05"
Posted on 07/24/2005 1:59:23 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
2004 threats show in the first link.
http://www.google.com/search?q=jihad+threats+to+Kitty+Hawk&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&client=googlet
http://www.google.com/search?q=terrorist+threats+to+Kitty+Hawk&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&client=googlet
http://www.google.com/search?q=1426+threat+to+Kitty+Hawk&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&client=googlet
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=threat%20to%20Kitty%20Hawk
You said, "WMD is the most obvious, but every nasty technique is obviously on the table."
===
===
OPINION...
The terrorists hate us.
They are evil.
They are focused on their agenda.
They never waver on their target(s) and their goal(s).
If they see a window of opportunity to attack us; they will.
TERRORISM IS GLOBAL.
TERRORISTS ARE GLOBAL.
Adding a note here.
Not all terrorists are islamists.
The islamist terrorists are always looking for
new sources to assist with their terror plans.
Jihad, another day.
I was speaking here specifically of AQ and allied groups, not Shining Path or the IRA.
If they're looking for new sources to assist, why are they biting hands that used to feed them like Egypt and sympathizers in the UK?
Do you recall that incident last year up in New England with some lab importing a bird flu case...here's an update:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399613/posts?page=865#865
From: No One is Safe:
"Terrorism is the antithesis of civilized behavior. As horrible as any war might be, it at least pretends to know the existence of law.
"Terrorism makes no such pretension and civilization cannot endure if it is willing to accept the presence of unbridled terrorism."
From: Target for Terror:
"Teachers and administrators should be trained to use firearms and allowed to carry weapons in schools, he says.
"Parents should also be armed, he says, adding that while armed adults may not thwart a terrorist attack, they may be able to fight and save some lives or force the terrorists to change their plans."
You said, "If they're looking for new sources to assist, why are they biting hands that used to feed them like Egypt and sympathizers in the UK?"
==
OPINION: Because they feel comfortable with whatever new sources (maybe MS-13, NEO-NAZIS, Weapons & Supplies) which may be assisting them in their endeavors.
OR...
Maybe they are like rabid dogs, lashing out in their one last collective breath.
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