Threat Matrix: November 2006

The Price of Victory
-Full Story-

The "bombshell" revelation from last April's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which was leaked to the New York Times in September, was that the war in Iraq had resulted in more terrorism, not less. As reported by United Press International's Claude Salhani, "Did we really need 16 intelligence agencies to tell us that? Ten minutes of watching the newscast of your choice, from Al-Jazeera to Fox News, would be enough to convince most observers." But the key question is why the war has provoked the global Jihad.

One answer has to be the influence in the Arab world of the America-
hating network Al-Jazeera. The AIM DVD on "Terror Television" shows film footage of captured terrorists saying they came to Iraq to kill Americans because of the words and images on Al-Jazeera.

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Man arrested at airport with information on nuclear materials

DETROIT - A 34-year-old Dallas man was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport on Tuesday, carrying $78,883 in cash and a laptop computer containing mysterious files about cyanide and nuclear materials.

Authorities said Sisayehiticha Dinssa, a U.S. citizen who was born in Ethiopia, was arrested after getting off an airline flight from Amsterdam. They said he had spent four months in Nigeria on unspecified business.

When agents asked him whether he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $59,000. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the mysterious files. Dinssa told agents he was interested in learning about cyanide and nuclear materials.

(snip)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/16021320.htm

ON THE NET...

http://www.ice.gov

November 15, 2006

"ICE arrests 33 in connection with religious worker visa fraud scheme"
WASHINGTON, D.C.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/061115dc.htm

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/11/15/national/w133210S23.DTL&type=printable

"Dozens of Pakistani Immigrants Arrested"
- By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

(11-15) 15:43 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Dozens of Pakistani immigrants who came to the United States posing as religious workers were arrested Wednesday, authorities said, as Homeland Security agents tried to close a commonly exploited avenue for illegal immigration.

Immigrants who were supposed to be teaching or conducting religious ceremonies were arrested across the East Coast, where authorities said many worked as gas station attendants, taxi drivers, landscapers and factory workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been scrutinizing the religious worker visa program, which a 2005 review found was rife with problems. Homeland Security officials found fraud in one of every three religious visas they reviewed.

"What we see are religious institutions such as churches that may exist only on paper but are sponsoring people," ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said. "Our concern is we don't know who these people are. They're obviously not who they say they are and they don't have religious training."

Those arrested include a textile factory worker in Atlanta, a truck driver in Philadelphia and a gas station attendant in New York, officials said. Most of the 33 people were from Pakistan.

Though most were not performing religious work, authorities said two Massachusetts imams were arrested for using fraudulent documents."

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http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006377.htm
"The religious worker visa scam"
By Michelle Malkin · November 15, 2006 09:42 PM

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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin021203.asp

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http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&lr=&cof=L%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmichellemalkin.com%2Fgraphics%2Fmm_logo.gif%3BLH%3A124%3BLW%3A750%3B&domains=michellemalkin.com&q=religious+worker+visa&btnG=Search&sitesearch=michellemalkin.com

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/061115dc.htm

November 15, 2006

ICE arrests 33 in connection with religious worker visa fraud scheme

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents today arrested 33 individuals in eight states and the District of Columbia in connection with an ongoing investigation into a specific visa fraud scheme that was designed to help large numbers of illegal aliens, primarily from Pakistan, fraudulently obtain religious worker visas to enter or remain in the United States.

ICE agents arrested each of the individuals on administrative immigration violations. The arrests were made by ICE agents in Boston, MA; New York, NY; Buffalo, NY; Hartford, CT; Atlanta, GA; St. Paul, MN; Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Harrisonburg, VA; and Washington, D.C. Those arrested will be processed for removal proceedings and have an opportunity to appear before an impartial Immigration Judge. Some of those arrested could face criminal prosecution on visa fraud charges.

The multi-year investigation by ICE agents in New York and Boston has revealed that petitioners in the United States filed false applications on behalf of large numbers of illegal aliens under the Religious Worker Program, which is administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The illegal aliens paid substantial cash fees to the petitioners to file fraudulent paperwork on their behalf in order to obtain religious worker visas for which they were not eligible.

Under the Religious Worker Program, aliens with religious training and experience can obtain work visas and, ultimately, green cards if religious organizations in the United States, such as churches, synagogues, or mosques, sponsor them. To qualify for the religious worker visas, aliens must, among other things, be in the United States solely for religious employment; must have received a job offer as a religious worker; and must not be working in any secular employment.

Many of those arrested today were not religious scholars or religious workers, but were illegal aliens employed as gas station attendants, truck drivers, or factory workers, among other things. Others arrested today were religious workers, but had used fraudulent identity documents in obtaining their religious worker visas. Finally, ICE agents also took into custody six additional illegal aliens who they encountered during their efforts to apprehend beneficiaries of the visa fraud scheme.

ICE has found numerous cases of religious worker visa fraud involving individuals from many different nationalities and religions. Earlier this month, Dong Wan Park, 53, the former pastor of a church in Washington state, appeared in federal court in Tacoma after being deported to the United States to be sentenced for orchestrating a large-scale religious worker visa fraud involving South Korean nationals.

The pastor, a South Korean national, had filed fraudulent applications for South Koreans he claimed were coming to the U.S. to serve as associate pastors at the Hope Korean Church, where he served as pastor. None of the visa applicants was ever employed at the church or had any religious training.

An August 2005 Benefit Fraud Assessment of the religious worker visa program by USCIS found a substantial rate of fraud among applications for such visas. In the report, USCIS surveyed a random sample of 220 religious worker petitions and found indications of fraud in more than 32 percent of the petitions.

ICE is working closely with USCIS, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in this ongoing investigation. USCIS has revoked the visas of each of the beneficiaries of this scheme. This case underscores the success of increased cooperative efforts between ICE and USCIS. Following the creation of the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, USCIS has become an active partner with ICE supporting investigations of immigration benefit fraud.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=GLOBALJIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihad

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=IRAN
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148
http://www.memri.org/iran.html
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=SOMALIA

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=israel
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=166

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http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/11/irans_involvement_in.php

"Iran's Involvement in Somalia, with al-Qaeda
Iran seeks uranium in exchange for training, weapons. Somali Islamists fought with Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. Saif al-Adel is plotting against the West with the help of the IRGC."

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Further details emerge on the United Nations report on foreign involvement in Somalia. The UN report shatters the myth that Sunnis and Shiite terrorists and nations would not cooperate due to ideological differences in religion and an intense hatred between the sects. Reuters notes that Somali Islamists fought in Lebanon against the Israelis over the summer in exchange for training, weapons and the potential transfer of nuclear material to Iran. Syria also provided training to Somali Islamists. As we noted, Iran has supplied the Islamic Courts with anti-aircraft weapons as well as anti-tank missiles."

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739323/posts

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/15/usomalia115.xml

"Iran tried to swap guns for Somali uranium"

By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:29am GMT 16/11/2006

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Plutonium find 'is evidence of Iran going ahead with nuclear plan'
Iran tried to obtain uranium from Somalia in return for supplying weapons to the anarchic country's Islamist movement, according to the United Nations.

A report given to the Security Council today finds that Iran is one of seven countries breaking a UN arms embargo by providing weapons to the Islamic radicals who control most of southern and central Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.

Three illegal arms shipments from Teheran are detailed in the 86-page report. One consignment which reached Somalia in July included 1,000 machine guns, 45 surface-to-air missiles, M-79 rocket launchers and land mines.

After the arrival of this shipment, the UN says that Iran promised the Islamists further weapons – but only in return for uranium, presumably for use in Teheran's nuclear programme.

Two Iranians were sent to Mogadishu in order to negotiate this deal. Somalia's recoverable uranium deposits are modest, totalling about 6,600 tonnes, compared with 326,000 tonnes in Canada, the world's biggest producer."

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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014067.php
(TheAustralian.news.com.au)

November 15, 2006

"Iran sent 700 Somalis to fight Israel"

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1730468/posts?page=790#790

http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/11/irans_involvement_in.php
THE FOURTH RAIL - Blog:

"Iran's Involvement in Somalia, with al-Qaeda
Iran seeks uranium in exchange for training, weapons. Somali Islamists fought with Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. Saif al-Adel is plotting against the West with the help of the IRGC."
(November 14, 2006)

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http://www.rewardsforjustice.net

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Wanted_Terrorist

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/images/Al-Adel.jpg

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Al_Adel

Wanted
Saif Al-Adel
Up to $5 Million Reward
Date of birth: April 11, 1963; April 11, 1960
Place of birth: Egypt
Height: Unknown
Build: Unknown
Hair: Dark
Eyes: Dark
Sex: Male
Citizen: Egyptian
Status: Fugitive
Aliases: Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, Seif Al Adel, Ibrahim Al-Madani

Saif Al-Adel is thought to be affiliated with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), and is believed to be a high-ranking member of the al Qaeda organization, currently in Afghanistan.

Indicted for: conspiracy to kill United States nationals, to murder, to destroy buildings and property of the United States, and to destroy National Defense utilities of the United States.

Usama Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri , Mustafa Mohammed Fadhil , Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani , Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam , Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan , Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Saif Al-Adel, Anas Al-Liby , Ahmed Mohamed Hamed Ali , and Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah , and others already in custody are believed to be responsible for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August, 7, 1998. These terrorist attacks indiscriminately killed 224 innocent civilians and wounded over 5,000 others. These terrorist are believed to be part of an international criminal conspiracy headed by Usama Bin Laden. The U. S. Government is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction, in any country, of those people listed above.

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1730468/posts?page=790#790
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1730468/posts?page=791#791

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stepping back in time...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/000207.php

November 23, 2003

Al Qaeda ordered Saudi bombing from Iran

Says Reuters: "A senior al Qaeda militant orchestrated the bombing of a residential compound in Saudi Arabia earlier this month by telephone from Iran, a Saudi newspaper says.

"Okaz newspaper, quoting informed sources on Sunday, said the militant network's security chief Saif al-Adel gave orders for the attack in the capital Riyadh by satellite phone. . . . 'The sources said that the terrorist Saif al-Adel is in Iran,' it added."

Saif isn't alone: "The newspaper said Saif al-Adel fled to Iran with 500 al Qaeda members during the intensive U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in late 2001. It said they were detained by Iranian troops." Not all that efficiently, it seems.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official says this about Al-Qaeda's Iranian presence: "These are rumours...We are serious about confronting al Qaeda. We have always been and will continue to be so." He sounds a bit like Saddam's Information Minister.

Posted by Robert at November 23, 2003 08:48 AM

http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/061115dc.htm

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NOTE: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739476/posts

Two Massachusetts imams accused in immigration scheme
Boston Globe ^ | 11-16-06 | Yvonne Abraham and Raja Mishra

Posted on 11/16/2006 1:09:15 AM PST by xtinct

Federal immigration agents arrested imams from two Boston-area mosques Wednesday, alleging they were involved in a scheme that provided religious worker visas to immigrants who used them to enter the United States and work instead as gas station attendants, truck drivers, and factory laborers.

Hafiz Abdul Hannan, imam, or leader, of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford, and Muhammed Masood, imam, or leader, of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, were among 33 people taken into custody nationwide after a multi-year investigation led by agents in Boston and New York, said Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=GLOBALJIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihad

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=HAMAS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=PIJ

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http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200611/INT20061115a.html

"Israeli Killed in Palestinian Rocket Attack"
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
November 15, 2006

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Israeli woman was killed and another man seriously injured when a Kassam rocket slammed into a busy street in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday morning.

The injured man reportedly was a bodyguard for Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who lives near the street where the rocket struck.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack and several others on Wednesday in separate statements, saying the rocket attacks were revenge for what they called Israeli "massacres."

Israel has expressed regret for mistakenly shelling an apartment building last week outside the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Eighteen Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed by what Israel called an "errant" shell. Israel said it intended to hit a rocket-launching site.

Wednesday's rocket attack on Sderot is expected to prompt an Israeli military response. "

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1739479/posts

Court orders retrial of 9/11 hijacker friend (Germany; MOTASSADEQ; Never-ending story continues)
Scotsman.com ^

Posted on 11/16/2006 1:39:30 AM PST by Michael81Dus

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's highest court of appeals on Thursday ordered that a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers must face a third trial on charges of aiding the deadly 2001 attacks on the United States.

Judge Klaus Tolksdorf, who has said that Mounir El Motassadeq clearly knew his acquaintances from Hamburg were planning plane attacks, ordered the retrial.

Motassadeq was convicted last year of belonging to a terrorist organisation and sentenced to 7 years in prison, but cleared of the more serious charge of abetting mass murder.

He was unexpectedly freed from a Hamburg prison in February after Germany's Constitutional Court upheld a defence motion that he be released pending an appeal.

Motassadeq is one of only a handful of men to have been tried in connection with the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1730468/posts?page=790#790

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NOTE: The following text is a quote:

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06110065.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Horn of Africa: War and Jihad imminent
- Christians across the region greatly at risk

By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) is a union of militias linked to Mogadishu's various clan-based Islamic courts. After capturing Mogadishu on 4 June 2006, the ICU set up a 'parliament' - the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (SICC) - and enacted sharia law in the city. The ICU has since advanced militarily, making territorial gains across southern Somalia.

The conflict inside Somalia threatens to erupt into regional war. It is all about power: geopolitical (regional power - the quest for a unified and Greater Somalia), clan dominance (clan power - the ICU is dominated by Hawiya), political ideology (totalitarian political power through Islamism) and religion (religious power through Islamic domination and Sharia).

The head of the SICC is Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys. He is a veteran of Somalia's 1976-78 Ogaden War in which the Somali Army failed to capture eastern Ethiopian territory. He then became the leader of the al-Qaeda affiliate 'al-Ittihad al-Islami' (AIAI), a terrorist group that perpetrated terror attacks against Ethiopia in the mid-1990s, including bombings in the capital Addis Ababa. AIAI sought the creation of an Islamic Caliphate over a Greater Somalia made up of all lands inhabited by ethnic Somalis: Djibouti (French Somalia), Somaliland (British Somalia, an unrecognised independent liberal democracy), Puntland (autonomous) and southern Somalia (both Italian Somalia but dominated by different clans), eastern Ethiopia (Ogaden, home to four million ethnic Somalis) and north-eastern Kenya. Whilst the Ethiopian armed forces crushed AIAI, the ideology has re-emerged in the ICU under the leadership of 'Aweys.

The ICU is receiving support from Eritrea, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria as well as ethnic Somalis Islamists across the region and foreign jihadis from the Arab world, Pakistan, Hezballah and more. (Support is also coming from some Somali nationalists and Ethiopian opposition groups who don't realise that the Islamists are not really their friends.) On the other hand the UN-recognised Transitional Federal Government, Ethiopia, Somaliland and Puntland oppose the ICU agenda, and Uganda has offered 'peacekeeping' assistance.

The ICU does not have the military capacity to seriously challenge the Ethiopian Army. It will therefore rely on terrorism and it will direct attacks at soft targets. This will doubtless include churches and Christians, as well as Christian missions and ministries all across the Horn of Africa. The US embassy in Nairobi has issued a warning that the Islamists may be preparing to launch suicide attacks in Ethiopia and Kenya. As Islamic zeal and belligerence rise, grassroots persecution and killings of Christians in Muslim-dominated areas is increasing. Whilst Ethiopia will be able to defend itself, it will not occupy Somalia. The situation for Somali Christians will remain perilous until the ICU is replaced by an authority that treasures life, peace and liberty.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO -

comfort, encourage, strengthen, protect and deliver his people.
'frustrate the ways of the wicked' (Psalm 146:9) by:
- exploiting the divisions within the ICU so it is frustrated by internal schisms;
- disrupting the traffic of illicit arms so the ICU is frustrated by lack of weapons and ammunition;
- cutting off funds so the ICU is frustrated by lack of finances;
- and opening the eyes of the deceived so the ICU is frustrated by lack of grassroots support.

work all things together for good, and bring peace and liberty to the Horn of Africa for the sake of his Church, his Kingdom and his glory.
Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the WEA RLP(Religious Liberty Prayer) mailing list

Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

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