Terrorism Headlines of the Week
Domestic
Terrorism Headlines of the week
Assessments Find Threat of Suicide Attacks in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 - Confidential government assessments say that Al Qaeda remains intent on attacking targets in the United States and that suicide bombings are clearly "a preferred method of attack among extremists" in the wake of last month's terror attacks in London.
The July 7 attacks on the London transit system, as well as others overseas, have prompted American officials to reassess potential threats to targets in the United States. Their conclusions, circulated among law enforcement officials by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, differ little from many earlier assessments since the Sept. 11 attacks but make clear that officials see Al Qaeda as a continued threat at home.
Although American intelligence officials "do not believe the London attack necessarily presumes a similar attack against rail or mass transit targets in the United States, there has been consistent threat reporting for some time suggesting that terrorists may have an interest in targeting mass transit systems," according to a security bulletin on July 20.
A second security bulletin also prepared after the London bombings warned that in addition to setting off bombs on trains and subways, Al Qaeda might seek to derail trains or crash a truck carrying flammable material into trains.
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Source: The New York Times
Md. Man Accused of Plot to Aid Terrorists
Federal authorities yesterday charged a Baltimore County resident with conspiring to support a terrorist organization, alleging that he said during a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI that he had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
Mahmud Faruq Brent, a U.S. citizen who once worked as a paramedic in Silver Spring, is accused of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamic group that the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization. Brent was arrested in Newark yesterday morning and appeared later in federal court in Manhattan.
A criminal complaint filed there says the FBI listened in during a conversation between Brent, who also uses the name Mahmud Al Mutazzim, and Tarik Shah of New York, a jazz musician and self-described martial arts expert. Shah was arrested in May and has pleaded not guilty to charges that he provided material support to al Qaeda.
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Source: Washington Post
Prosecutors Present Jihad Leaders' Discussions
TAMPA - The top leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had big problems in April 1994. They were running out of money, and they couldn't agree on a place to hold a meeting.
The bickering was intense, and more than once, different members of the board of directors, or shura council, threatened to leave the organization. Islamic Jihad officers in the United States weren't getting their salaries, and one based in England complained that he had to take a second mortgage out on his house.
Then on April 6, 1994, a young Islamic Jihad member got into a car supplied by Hamas. It had seven propane tanks filled with 500 pounds of black powder and seven pounds of steel nails, according to a stipulation by attorneys.
The suicide bomber, Raed Muhammed Zacharane, drove up to a public bus in Afula, Israel, and blew up the car, killing nine people and injuring about 50 others.
The operation cost about $90,000, according to statements made in intercepted phone conversations read to jurors in the trial of Sami Al- Arian on Wednesday.
According to news reports, the bomber was a West Bank teenager, and many of the victims were Israeli teenagers who were getting ready to board the bus, which was attacked as it stopped near two schools that had let out.
Source: Tampa Bay Tribune
International
Al Qaeda to West: It's about policies
BAGHDAD – With an AK-47 at his side, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No. 2, appeared in a videotape broadcast Thursday and claimed that the 7/7 bombings were payback for British participation in America's "policy of aggression against Muslims."
The video is another Al Qaeda message apparently intended to turn Western democracies against their leaders by explaining acts of terrorism as rational decisions from a group with specific political goals. It challenges the position of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bush administration officials, who have insisted that the London attacks have nothing to do with Iraq and that terror attacks will continue regardless of policy.
"By linking the bombings to Iraq, he basically sent the message that no matter what Blair says, Iraq is the reason," says Bob Ayers, a counterterrorism expert at Chatham House, a think tank in London. "He's calling Blair a liar." This latest tape was released on a day when an unprecedented police security operation was under way in London.
While Mr. Zawahiri didn't directly take credit for the London attacks, he promised more attacks on Britain, the US, and other allies, saying "tens of thousands" more American troops will be killed in Iraq if there isn't an immediate withdrawal.
It was one of three taped statements, all aired on Al Jazeera, that Zawahiri has made since the end of February, a pattern of rising communication from the Al Qaeda leaders that appears to belie statements from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that Osama bin Laden and his aides are on the run.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian exile whose terrorist career began at home and who hates the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak, did not mention the terrorist attack on Egypt's resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23. The omission, analysts speculate, suggests the tape was made before the Sharm attacks, and the second subway attacks in London.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Blair proposes strict anti-terror measures
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed strict anti-terror measures Friday that would allow Britain to expel foreigners who preach hatred, close extremist mosques and bar entry to Muslim radicals. "The rules of the game are changing" following last month's bomb attacks, he declared.
The proposals, which also target extremist Web sites and bookshops, are aimed primarily at excluding radical Islamic clerics accused of whipping up hatred and violence among vulnerable, disenfranchised Muslim men.
"We are angry. We are angry about extremism and about what they are doing to our country, angry about their abuse of our good nature," Blair said. "We welcome people here who share our values and our way of life. But don't meddle in extremism because if you meddle in it ... you are going back out again."
Also Friday, police charged three men with failing to disclose information about the whereabouts of a suspect in the failed July 21 London bomb attacks. Police did not name the suspect. The wife and sister-in-law of Hamdi Issac, a suspected July 21 attacker, face similar charges, as does another man.
The July 7 suicide attacks on London's transit system and the failed July 21 attacks raised fresh concern about the freedoms Britain offers to individuals and groups known for extremist activities. Blair said the focus of the anti-terror proposals was on foreigners because authorities believe "the ideological drive and push is coming from the outside."
But some members of Britain's 1.8 million-strong Muslim community expressed concern that moderate Muslims would be subjected to new prejudices and restrictions.
Britain has been criticized for lagging behind its European neighbors in responding to terrorism. Since last month's attacks, France has expelled two extremist Muslim prayer leaders and plans to ship home eight others. Italian authorities deported eight Palestinian imams.
As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, Britain is not allowed to deport people to a country where they may face torture or death.
Blair is hoping to win pledges from countries that deportees would not be subjected to inhumane treatment. An agreement has already been reached with Jordan, and London is talking to Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.
Source: The Associated Press
Zambia to Deport Terror Suspect to Britain
LONDON (AP) - As investigators worked to bring terror suspects in Zambia and Italy to Britain, an official warned Wednesday that London police are being stretched thin by the pressures of heightened security in the wake of bombing attacks.
Many officers in the Metropolitan Police have been working longer hours and more days as they investigate the attacks, said Richard Barnes, a member of the watchdog agency for the Metropolitan Police Authority.
Thousands of officers from the force and the British Transport Police have been deployed at subway and train stations across London in recent weeks, in a bid to avert more strikes after the deadly July 7 bombings and failed July 21 bombing attempt.
Police also have had to deal with numerous security alerts, often caused by suspicious packages that prove to be harmless.
``The Met has risen, as it always does, remarkably well to the challenge, but you can't sustain people working 12 hours a day, six days a week, constantly,'' Barnes told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
``There are some specialists who are working far more than that. ... The pressure is just enormous.''
Source: The Associated Press
Afghan government to take custody of many Guantanamo detainees
MIAMI - (KRT) - The U.S. and Afghan governments announced an agreement Thursday that could significantly shrink the prison population at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by transferring up to 110 Afghans back to a lockup in their homeland.
The United States said it would help the Afghans build prisons and train guards as part of the deal for "the gradual transfer of many Afghan detainees to the exclusive custody and control of the Afghan government."
Of the 500 or so captives at the prison camp in Cuba, about 110 are Afghan citizens, the Pentagon disclosed Thursday.
The State Department said the agreement came out of a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush in May - a period of intense criticism of U.S. detention policy.
"At first glance, it appears to be transfer from one legal black hole, in Guantanamo, into another legal black hole, in Afghanistan," said Philadelphia attorney Peter Ryan, whose firm Dechert LLP is providing pro bono representation for nine Afghans.
One is Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, in his mid-30s, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan - and among the best-known captives at Guantanamo Bay.
Other Afghans detained there who have filed suit against the Bush administration include people like self-described shepherd Sharbat Khan and blacksmith Alif Mohammed, a father of 10.
Source: The Miami Herald
Egypt police kill fugitive bombings suspect
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian security forces killed a fugitive suspect in last October's deadly Sinai bombings, attacks that the authorities here have said could be linked to last month's carnage in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Mohammed Saleh Felifel, 24, was killed in the Ataqa Mountains, east of Cairo and across from the Sinai peninsula, the interior ministry said. His wife was wounded during an exchange of fire.
"In the course of investigations of the latest terrorist incidents, conclusive evidence was discovered that pointed to the fact that elements involved in these attacks were hiding out in a quarry at Mount Ataqa, 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the Cairo-Suez highway," an interior ministry statement said.
The statement did not specifically say that Felifel was involved in the July 23 Sharm el-Sheikh bombings that killed at least 67 people, including at least 16 foreigners.
It said that security officers that had approached the area were fired at and returned fire. "It was discovered that the escaped suspect Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Felifel had been killed in the exchange of fire and that his wife ... was wounded."
Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said after the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks that investigators were probing possible links with the October attacks in the resorts of Taba and Nuweiba.
Felifel was being tried in absentia since July 2 over his involvement in the October bombings, which according to the interior ministry killed 34 people, including Israelis.
His brother Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Felifel was one of two suicide car bombers who rammed the Taba Hilton hotel on October 7.
Two other men, Mohammed Gaiez al-Sabah and Mohammed Rubaa Abdullah, are also standing trial and appearing at the high state security court in Ismailiya, northeast of Cairo.
Their lawyers have denied that the three were linked to the group that carried out the Sharm bombings.
Both Sabah and Abdullah have also denied any involvement in the October triple bombings and charged that confessions had been extracted under torture.
Source: Agence France Presse
Jordan arrests 17 Al-Qaeda suspects over attack plot
AMMAN (AFP) - Jordanian security forces have arrested 17 members of suspected Al-Qaeda linked networks suspected of plotting to attack local security officials and "American officers," judicial sources said.
"General intelligence broke up two terrorist networks comprising 17 members aged 22 to 27, who were arrested and sent to the prosecutor general at the state security court for interrogation," one source said.
Eleven of the suspects belong to a Saudi Arabian group called the Al-Haramein Brigades and the six others are part of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Iraq-based Al Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers, the sources said.
The date of their arrest was unknown but according to sources they were arrested in north Amman as they were collecting "donations."
State security court prosecutor general Fawaz al-Atum said the accused will "appear in court after a charge sheet is prepared on the plot to launch terrorist attacks and damage Jordan's relations with a foreign country," in a reference to the United States.
Source: Agence France Presse
Top Swiss Court Blocks Help to France in Probe Tied to Bin Laden's Brother
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Aug 4 (AFP) - Switzerland's supreme court on Thursday ordered the country's justice authorities to halt cooperation with a French probe linked to a half brother of Osama bin Laden, Yeslam Bin Ladin.
The Federal Tribunal upheld an appeal by two companies cited in the probe which had sought to block the handover of bank account details to French judge Renaud van Ruymbeke.
Van Rumbeyke first opened an investigation in December 2001 into allegations that Binladin's companies handled terrorist funds.
The companies, which were not named in the tribunal's ruling, had protested that they had not received an adequate explanation of why the French investigator wanted the details.
Swiss prosecutors had declined to give the companies the information, saying they wanted to protect the private interests of Saudi-born Binladin, a naturalised Swiss citizen who is based in Geneva.
Source: Agence France Presse
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SV, that certainly is a heart-tugging photo at the head of your post.
What's the background info on it? (Location, source, etc.)
