The Terrorist Round-Up for December 3, 2005

A Bosnian force of 25 military experts in mines headed to Iraq on Thursday to take part in de-mining operations within the US-led forces in the war-torn Arab country, said a statement issued by the Bosnian Defense Ministry.

The force is the second Bosnian military unit to be sent to Iraq, as the ministry had already sent the first force around six months ago to participate in de-mining operations in residential areas and roads around Fallujah and other areas north and west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The Bosnian government had made a decision last May, based on a call from Washington, to take part in the US-led troops in Iraq with a limited force of military mines' experts.

The decision was taken as a "middle solution" that is aimed to satisfy Bosnian blocs backing such participation, and other blocs who stand against any Bosnian military involvement in Iraq.

December 2, 2005
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Terrorism Headlines of the Week

Domestic

3 plead not guilty to supporting terrorism

NEW YORK - A Washington, D.C., cab driver, a Florida doctor and a Bronx jazz musician have pleaded not guilty to charges they conspired to help terrorist organizations.
Taxi driver Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, Md., smiled and waved at family members and friends before entering his plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.

Seated in the jury box with Brent were defendants, Tarik Shah, 42, and Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 50. The defendants remained held without bail.
Hassen Ibn Abdellah, Brent's defense lawyer, said he had seen little of the case besides the four-page indictment accusing Brent of conspiring to help the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in December 2001.

Source: The Associated Press

Court delays Padilla transfer from brig

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday delayed the transfer of accused terrorist Jose Padilla from a military brig to face trial in Miami.
Padilla, a 35-year-old U.S. citizen, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Florida. He will remain in the Navy brig in South Carolina for at least two weeks under a two-page order issued by the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
(snip)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/30/padilla.transfer/
Source: CNN

Moussaoui's Prosecutors Draft Slew of Questions for Jury Pool

It's 31 pages of Terrorism 101, a pop quiz of sorts on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Do you know who Osama bin Laden is? How about Muhammad Atef, Mohamed Atta or Khalid Sheik Mohammed? Ever flown an airplane? Been to the Middle East?
The government wants to know -- all in the name of selecting an unbiased jury for the coming death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

The Justice Department's proposed questionnaire for potential jurors, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, contains all of those questions and many, many more. There are 89 questions, ranging from requests for highly specific biographical data to queries about whether the candidate ever worked in an airport or socializes "with any people of Arab descent."
(snip)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112801591.html
Source: Washington Post

Pentagon moves ahead in trial of Canadian teenager

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Thursday it had formed a military tribunal to hear the war crimes trial of a Canadian citizen jailed at Guantanamo Bay, proceeding even though a judge last month froze a similar case to allow the Supreme Court to decide the legitimacy of such trials.
The Pentagon formed a panel, formally called a commission, of six U.S. officers and two alternates and also named Marine Corps Col. Robert Chester as presiding officer to hear the trial of Omar Ahmed Khadr, charged last month with murdering a U.S. Army medic in July 2002. No trial date was set.

The 19-year-old Canadian citizen was 15 when he was sent to the jail for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is also charged with attempted murder and aiding the enemy, but there are no plans to seek the death penalty against him.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly halted proceedings last month in the case of Australian Guantanamo prisoner David Hicks to allow the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of those trials, the first of their kind held by the United States since World War Two.

Source: Reuters

Witness in Lodi terror case refuses to testify in bail hearing

A key witness in a federal terrorism investigation refused to answer questions that could help free a Lodi man awaiting trial, citing his right to avoid self-incrimination.
Safdar Afzal is one of three property owners who want to use their Lodi homes to guarantee that Umer Hayat will not flee if he is released on $1.2 million bail. Hayat is awaiting trial on a charge that he lied to the FBI by denying that his son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan last year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Ferris said Afzal could face the same charge as Hayat because a statement he made to the FBI conflicts with his testimony in court.
Afzal told the FBI he was not on good terms with Hayat, then testified last week that he has a very good relationship. Afzal's court-appointed attorney on Monday said he advised his client to answer no more questions that might put him in legal jeopardy.

Source: The Associated Press

Judge Rejects Al-Arian Mistrial Plea

TAMPA - A federal judge denied defense motions for a mistrial Wednesday in the terror-support trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other men as jurors wrapped up a ninth day of deliberations.
Mistrial motions came after defense attorneys learned the jury was exposed to a poll published Nov. 17 in The Tampa Tribune. It appeared on the editorial page under the headline "Court of Public Opinion" and said 87 percent of the respondents to an online poll expected Al-Arian to be convicted.

The former University of South Florida professor is accused of running a North American cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The indictment also targets Ghassan Ballut, Hatim Fariz and Sameeh Hammoudeh and includes four conspiracy counts; racketeering and conspiring to commit murder abroad.
Only one juror saw the poll and reported it to the court, wrote U.S. District Judge James Moody. The poll was cut out after the juror reported it.

Source: Tampa Bay Tribune

International

Ten dead, 21 seriously hurt in Bangladesh's first suicide bombings

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh : Ten people were killed and 21 badly injured in what police said were Bangladesh's first suicide bombings and the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists.
The government and police accused the hardline Jamayetul Mujahideen, which wants to introduce strict Islamic law in the Muslim-majority democracy, of staging the attacks targeting the legal system.
"Jamayetul Mujahideen is using Islam's name to kill people. The government has taken a hard stand and will now take an even harder stand," Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said during a visit to the south.
"This is the first suicide attack in Bangladesh," national police chief Abdul Kaiyum said after the blasts in the southeastern port city of Chittagong and in Gazipur near the capital Dhaka.

Source: Agence France Presse

Before 'Martyrdom' Plan, Belgian Woman's Faith Turned Radical

PARIS — The first female European Muslim convert to commit a suicide bombing in Iraq was a former bakery worker from a middle-class Belgian family who joined her husband in an extremist network that sent them to fight and die, authorities said Thursday.
As details emerged about a case involving at least one other suspected female jihadist, Belgian authorities decided to hold for prosecution five associates of the slain couple who had been arrested Tuesday and Wednesday, including the alleged leader of the network.

The Belgian woman died Nov. 9 during a car bomb attack on a U.S. troop convoy. Authorities identified her Thursday as Muriel Degauque, 36, a native of a town near the industrial city of Charleroi in southern Belgium.
Degauque's father is a retired factory worker and her mother is a secretary, officials said. Degauque had drug problems in her youth, married a Muslim and converted to Islam in her early 20s, they added. She plunged into fundamentalism several years ago with her second husband, a Moroccan-born extremist identified as Issam Goris.
(snip)
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept (Note: registration required, booooooo)
Source: Los Angeles Times

Belgian Police Arrest 14 in Suspected Terror Cell

BRUSSELS, Nov. 30 - The Belgian police arrested 14 suspects on Wednesday in a series of dawn raids aimed at breaking a terrorist network that the authorities said was involved in attacks on American targets in Iraq, including a suicide bombing by a Belgian woman in Baghdad three weeks ago.
The Belgian antiterrorist police said the group was recruiting volunteers across Europe to assist the Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a driving force in the Iraq insurgency.
(snip)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/international/europe/01belgium.html
Source: The New York Times

Video Shows Activists in Captivity in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A peace group blamed the United States and Britain for the abduction of four activists shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq.
Meanwhile, in the central town of Baqouba, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a minibus early Wednesday, killing nine construction workers and wounding two others, the Diyala police said in a statement.

After a monthslong hiatus in the kidnapping of foreigners, television footage on Tuesday once again showed Westerners held captive: A German archaeologist _ bound and blindfolded _ knelt among masked gunmen in one video. Four frightened peace activists were shown in another blurry tape.
The latest attacks are part of a new wave of kidnappings police fear is aimed at disrupting next month's national elections.

Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that has had activists in Iraq since October 2002, said it was saddened by the video of their workers. The workers, the group said, were working against the occupation of Iraq.

Source: The Associated Press
(and now back to the real world)

Yemen executes suspected al-Qaida ally

SAN`A, Yemen -- A suspected al-Qaida ally was executed by a Yemeni firing squad Sunday after being convicted of killing a prominent politician and plotting a deadly attack on three American missionaries in 2002.
Ali al-Jarallah was blindfolded and shot in the courtyard of the central prison in the capital, San`a, in the presence of judiciary officials, several reporters and the victim's lawyer.

Al-Jarallah was convicted in 2003 of helping plot the attack that killed three missionaries in a Yemeni hospital. He also was convicted of murdering Jarallah Omar, the Yemeni Socialist Party's deputy secretary-general, a few days earlier, and forming a terror cell to buy weapons with the intention of killing other local officials and foreigners.

Source: The Associated Press

Kidnapping in Iraq Challenges German Leader to Take a Stand

BERLIN, Nov. 29 -- Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor, promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that she would keep her country far away from the political and military minefields of Iraq. Just one week after taking office, however, Germany finds itself being pulled in anyway.
Merkel said Tuesday that her nascent administration would do everything possible to win the freedom of a prominent German archaeologist and her Iraqi driver, held by kidnappers in Iraq who threatened to kill them if Germany does not end its few tangible measures of support for the Iraqi government.
(snip)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901441.html?nav=rss_world
Source: Washington Post

One more Bali bombings suspect held

JAKARTA: Police have arrested a man for alleged involvement in the Oct 1 Bali bombings, bringing the number of suspects detained in the attack to four, a police spokesman said on Thursday.
The near-simultaneous strikes on three crowded restaurants have been blamed on the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.
Twenty people were killed and more than 100 injured, mostly Indonesians. Lt Col Antonius Reniban said a suspect identified as Dwi Widyarto, 33, was arrested last week in Central Java province for helping carry out the attack.

Source: The Associated Press

Malaysia to investigate Internet threat to attack SE Asia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia will probe a threat to attack key targets in the region attributed to a previously unknown militant group calling itself al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian Division, the government said.
"We must investigate their claim," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said late Wednesday. "If they have terror infrastructure, we must take action."

A Web site posting attributed to the group warned Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines to expect attacks on government, military and economic targets, and urged Muslims to avoid those locations.
Southeast Asian militants have used Web sites to threaten attacks or justify bombings before. There was no way to know whether the person or group behind the posting had the means to carry out the threats.

Najib, quoted by the national news agency Bernama, stressed that many threats on the Internet were attempts to confuse or frighten people. The report didn't name the Web site featuring the purported militant statement.

Source: The Associated Press

Police in swoop on terror suspect

A 28-year-old man has been arrested by anti-terror police in Hertfordshire in connection with providing weapons linked to international terrorism.
Specialist Metropolitan Police firearms officers challenged the man when he got out of a parked car near the South Mimms service station, off the M25.
The man, from east London, was taken to a central London police station.
Addresses in the Waltham Forest and Newham areas of east London are being searched as part of the investigation.

Source: BBC

Serbia Major Route For Terrorists, Criminals -Experts

BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia is a major transit route for terrorists and organized crime, local experts warned Saturday, urging authorities to seek Western help in combating the problem.
"Serbia is the terrorists' Western gate," declared Goran Radosavljevic, former commander of an elite Serbian police unit. "In order to close this gate, cooperation with the West is necessary."

Radosavljevic spoke at a conference organized by his Terrorism Research Center and attended by some of the leading terrorism and organized crime experts in Serbia.
The conference participants said that the Balkans - including Bosnia and Kosovo where thousands of international troops are deployed as peacekeepers - is crucial for Europe-bound terrorism.
"The Balkans has become a major gathering point for the terrorists ... and most of their routes go through Serbia," Radosavljevic said.

He cited the arrest last summer in Belgrade of Abdelmajid Bouchar, a suspect in the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, which killed nearly 200 people.

Source: The Associated Press

Arrested Islamist Admits Attacks Planned on U.S., Jewish Interests in Morocco

One of the 17 Islamists detained in Morocco earlier this month has told interrogators there that the group was planning to attack U.S. and Jewish interests in the country, a police source told the Agence France Presse on Friday.
Mohamed Reha, an 18-year-old Belgian-Moroccan, also told investigators that recently acquitted Dutch-Moroccan Samir Azzouz, had asked him to participate in a suicide attack on the Dutch secret service.
Azzouz was acquitted by a court of appeal over involvement in a planned attack on the Dutch secret service by an Islamic extremist group.
Reha said Moroccans and Algerians linked to the al-Qaida network had been plotting attacks "in Tangier in the north and Essaouira in the southwest."

Police said Essaouira was a resort popular among Jewish tourists while boats transporting American tourists were among the targets in Tangier.

Source: Agence France Presse

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