World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #7 Security Watch

Iran Forces Israeli Rethink (back)

April 3, 2007

UZI Arad, former director of intelligence at Israel ‘s spy agency, Mossad, has made a lifetime’s study of revolutionary Iran . If international sanctions and diplomatic arm-twisting fail to halt its suspect nuclear activities, he is clear what the West must do: bomb Teheran.

Israel ‘s official policy, like Britain and the US , stresses peaceful pressure to secure Iran ‘s compliance with its nuclear obligations. The so-called military option has been assiduously talked down ever since President George Bush appeared to talk it up in January. In any case, military experts say, air strikes would have limited success.

Mr Arad has no such inhibitions: ‘A military strike may be easier than you think. It wouldn’t just be aimed at the nuclear sites. It would hit military and security targets, industrial and oil-related targets such as Kharg island [ Iran ‘s main oil export terminal in the Gulf], and regime targets ... Iran is much more vulnerable than people realise.’

Like most Israeli politicians and planners, Mr Arad says maximising pressure on Iran by all non-military means is the current priority.

‘Instead of threatening war, my preference would be for building an international coalition to end the [nuclear] crisis,’ said Israel ‘s veteran vice-premier Shimon Peres. Yet Iran ‘s behaviour following its seizure of the 15 British service personnel showed how difficult that would be. ‘They will use every trick,’ Mr Peres said. ‘They will try and string it out, try to exert maximum pressure. It’s blackmail ... But they will pay the price in the end.’

To say Iran has become an obsession for Israeli leaders is an understatement. Teheran’s sinister hand is seen in all the key problems facing the country, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine , and in the fostering of what Professor Amnon Rubinstein calls Israel ‘s ‘sense of abandonment surrounded by a rising sea of Islamism ‘.

What is termed the Ahmadinejad phenomenon, after Iran ‘s anti-Zionist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, represents by common agreement an existential threat. It is radically altering the way Israel views its neighbourhood.

One result has been the effective downgrading of the Palestinian issue.

Officials welcome the latest US peacemaking efforts. But they say ongoing, low-level conflict can be ‘managed’ almost indefinitely.

Similarly, Israel ‘s relations with Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia , have reached a sort of high in recent months, driven not by a developing affinity, but by shared fear of Iran .

But perhaps the most startling shift in Israel’s outlook is its increased willingness to ‘internationalise’ the search for solutions, whether in Lebanon, where it agreed to an enlarged peacekeeping presence after last summer’s war, in Palestine, where it has sought EU and other help in isolating Hamas, and in terms of improving relations with the UN.

And as both Mr Arad and government ministers see it, facing down a potentially nuclear Iran is a global, not just an Israeli necessity — and will require a joint international effort. ‘We draw a parallel with the Third Reich,’ said a senior leader of the Likud opposition party.

‘They [Iran’s leaders] are mad ... For Ahmadinejad, the cold war idea of mutual assured destruction is not a deterrent, it’s an incentive.’

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile= data/opinion/2007/April/opinion_April11.xml&section=opinion&col=

Only a Matter of Time ... (back)

March 29, 2007

Today, Britain and the West face a new Iranian hostage crisis. Reflecting on this and on President Ahmadinejad’s other actions and statements brings to mind George Orwell’s essay ‘Who are the War Criminals,’ written during World War II.

Orwell criticized the appeasement of dictators during the 1930s by British political leaders. He disdained ‘the lies and betrayals of those years, the cynical abandonment of one ally after another … the flat refusal to believe that the dictators meant war even when they shouted it from the rooftops.’

At a Tehran conference on ‘A World Without Zionism’ in late 2005, the Iranian president seemingly was shouting from the rooftops: ‘Our dear Imam [ Ayatollah Khomeini] said that the occupying regime [ Israel ] must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement … we will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world. …’

Around the world, these words — the first such declarations by a head of state since World War II — were condemned. But there also were eager apologists who said that the president was misunderstood, that, for example, he did not say ‘wiped off the map,’ but ‘wiped away.’ The gist of the statement, of course, is not lost in pedantic battles about translation and meaning. For Mr. Ahmadinejad did exactly what fascist dictators in the 20th century did before they acted on their words: He announced his plans, this time through the press of the global village.

Recently, the Iranian president met and expressed solidarity with officials in Sudan who have been carrying out genocide against non-Arabs in Darfur under the indifferent gaze of the so-called ‘world community.’ Sudan ‘s president, Omar al-Bashir, architect of the genocide, has supported Iran ‘s drive for nuclear capacity. As if the symbolism of forging an alliance with a genocidal regime were not enough, Mr. Ahmadinejad declared to a group of Islamic scholars and officials in Khartoum that the ‘Zionists are the true manifestation of Satan,’ and was greeted with chants of ‘God is Great!’

At home, the Iranian president has been busy developing nuclear power, claiming that nations have a ‘right’ to such power for ‘peaceful means.’ With the American troubles in Iraq — partly caused by Iranian support of terrorists — the ‘world community’ standing by while genocide continues in Darfur, and the world’s dithering in the face of Iran’s nuclear development, one must acknowledge that Iran has achieved a victory of sorts.

The genocidal president of Iran meets the genocidaire government of Sudan , and we are, it seems, powerless. We watch, like the appeasers of the 1930s, wringing our hands, while the new fascists flaunt their success at genocide and proclaim their future murderous intentions with the added twist of developing the nuclear means to carry them out.

We have convinced ourselves that the Iranian president doesn’t really mean what he says. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s talk about the ‘right’ of Iran to develop nuclear power is more convenient for the world community to believe than the possibility of war. Ironically, it is those who suggest that the dictators actually mean what they say — and in Sudan actually do so — who are seen as exaggerators leading us to war.

Similarly, when Hitler came to power, those who saw his danger were ignored and in some cases were treated as the ‘real problem.’

In the 1930s, the leader of Poland , Josef Pilsudski, accurately foresaw what Hitler intended for Poland and begged the great powers of Europe to intervene. For a war weary Europe , though, peace with Hitler and Mussolini was preferable to war, no matter what those fascists said.

For a war weary West, perhaps a nuclear Iran is inevitable, since the only way to stop Iran for sure would be to do as Israel did in 1981 with its pre-emptive strike against Iraq ‘s nuclear facility.

In contemplating such action, policies have to be based on what is possible not probable. September 11 was not probable but possible, and it became actual. The destruction of Chicago by a dirty bomb is not probable, but possible. Will it become actual? Are we hysterical for thinking so?

The Israeli historian, Benny Morris, made worldwide waves with an article in the Jerusalem Post and this paper postulating on the next Holocaust initiated by Iran with a nuclear first strike on Israel . His article created a firestorm of criticism, directed not at the Iranian president but against Mr. Morris for engaging in ‘scare-tactics.’

One cannot say precisely what should be done about Mr. Ahmadinejad’s crusade against Israel . There is serious talk in Israel about a pre-emptive attack. Israel ‘s consideration is based on the steely logic of thinking about what is possible, rather than what is probable, should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon.

Until we can institutionalize that calculation in dealing with threats, it is only a matter of time before those who benefit from our ambivalence translate their shouts from the rooftops into action. We civilized people may not want, or be able, to imagine a repetition of the 20th century’s barbarism, but only the very naïve would deny what could be the logical consequence of the genocidal rhetoric of today’s extremists.

Mr. Cushman, professor of sociology at Wellesley College , is the founding editor of the Journal of Human Rights.

Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/51406

Outside View: The Future of al-Qaeda (back)

April 2, 2007

One of the pillars of al-Qaida’s operational objectives in its war against the West is striking at targets of high economic value, the so-called bleed-until-bankruptcy plan first made public by Osama bin Laden in December 2004.

‘One of the main causes for our enemies gaining hegemony over our country,’ bin Laden reasoned, ‘is their stealing of our oil; therefore (Islamic fighters) should make every effort ... to stop the greatest theft in history of the natural resources of both present and future generations, which is being carried out through collaboration between foreigners and (local) agents.

Al-Qaida has been careful to spare oil wells, which are seen as critical to the success of ‘the soon-to-be-established Islamic state, by Allah’s Permission and Grace,’ concentrating instead on petroleum industry personnel, refining and transportation infrastructure. A new call for attacks on oil facilities appeared early this year in the online magazine Sawt al-Jihad (voice of the Jihad), issued by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, expanding the list of targeted countries to include such key U.S. suppliers as Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. Al-Qaida has also called on Nigerian insurgents in the Niger Delta and ‘mujahideen’ in the Caspian Sea region to take action against western oil interests.

These calls have not fallen on deaf ears. On Sept. 15, 2006, two attacks were mounted by al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen . One targeted the Canadian Nexen Petroleum Company’s oil refinery in al-Dhabba while the other took aim at the U.S.-owned Hunt Oil Company refinery in Safer. Both sites are located in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadramawt. In signature fashion, the attacks came 35 minutes apart. Both attacks were thwarted by security guards, but in the Marib case suicide bombers were just 100 yards from pipelines containing more than 15,000 cubic feet of gas and a control room for lines pumping crude oil. Al-Qaida’s message after the incident warned: ‘Let the Americans and their allies among the worshippers of the cross and their apostate aides ... know that these operations are only the first spark and that what is coming is more severe and bitter.’

More successful in its quest to disrupt oil markets was the al-Qaida ‘franchisee,’ the so-called al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC). On March 3 this group killed a Russian engineer and three Algerians as well as wounded five others traveling in a convoy at Hayoun, near Ain Defla in southern Algeria .

All were employees of the Russian company Stroytransgaz and were laying gas mains between Ain Defla and Tiaret, some 211 miles southwest of Algiers . Al-Qaida announced that this ‘modest conquest’ was being dedicated to ‘our Muslim brothers in Chechnya ... victims of the criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.’

But no doubt an equally important objective was the oil industry. Three months ago this group killed one and injured nine in a similar attack on a bus carrying staff of Brown and Root Condor, a subsidiary of the Algerian oil company Sonatrach and of the U.S. construction firm Halliburton.

Why Yemen and why Algeria ? Aside from the fact that they are good targets of opportunity and there are indigenous elements sympathetic to or directly aligned with al-Qaida, they offer a two-fold return on a rather modest investment.

The first, of course, is the undermining of Western economic interests; the second is destabilizing local ‘apostate’ regimes. Yemen is not a particularly significant player in global energy markets, but the Yemeni government is highly dependent on oil revenues, which account for more than two-thirds of the country’s GDP. A successful strike in Yemen would have further emboldened al-Qaida operatives in the ultimate target state — Saudi Arabia . There, several attacks have thus far been repelled, including one against the world’s largest oil production facility in Abqaiq (the failed attack led to a $2-a-barrel spike in world oil prices).

It would also have hurt Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh — referred to by al-Qaida as the ‘devil’ and urged to renounce democracy and his alliance with the ‘infidels’ — on the eve of the first contested presidential election in Yemen in more than a decade. There was also the issue of revenge, the leitmotif of many an al-Qaida operation. Saleh is held responsible for the 2002 killing by the CIA of Sheik Ali al-Harthi, the Qaida leader in Yemen .

Similar considerations apply in Algeria . Al-Qaida does its homework. According to one report, ‘A recent post on a password-protected Internet forum affiliated with al-Qaida asserted that attacks on Saudi oil pipelines would have a greater effect on the United States than a chemical weapons attack by creating ‘a big economic disaster for the American public.’’ This is borne out by studies suggesting that a moderate-to-severe attack on the Abqaiq facility could cut Saudi output by more than 4 million barrels a day for several months, pushing oil prices to more than $100 a barrel. The consequences for the United States and other western economies could be catastrophic. The mere threat to the security of oil supplies has already added to the cost of oil in a variety of ways. In the aftermath of the 2002 al-Qaida attack on a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen , insurers have tripled the premiums charged for supertankers passing through Yemeni waters. Rates for a typical supertanker that carries around 2 million barrels of oil have climbed $150,000 to $450,000 per trip. This charge is for the ship only; cargo is insured separately.

Al-Qaida may no longer possess the assets or enjoy the permissive environment to mount an attack on the scale of Sept. 11. But it understands that striking at the oil industry closer to home can have the dual effect of sending significant ripples through western economies while weakening enemy regimes in the Maghreb and Middle East whose legitimacy is inexorably linked to oil revenues.

Source: http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070 401-074952-6068r

DHS Regulations Represent a Major Step for Chemical Security (back)

April 2, 2007

Today, the Department of Homeland Security issued final rules regarding chemical facility security. The American Chemistry Council issued the following
statement: ‘The nation is safer today, thanks to landmark federal regulations that will drive enhanced security protections for America ‘s chemical industry.
This rule is the culmination of years of hard work by members of Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and industry leaders working cooperatively to improve national security.

‘For the first time, a federal agency is authorized to enforce national risk-based performance standards to ensure that chemical facilities assess security vulnerabilities and implement security plans to address them.

Equally important, DHS has clear authority to inspect these facilities and apply strong penalties, including facility shutdowns, for those that fail to act.

‘These new regulations will complement existing state programs and the significant security enhancements already undertaken voluntarily by our members to protect the chemical industry and the nation. In addition to leading the charge for comprehensive federal chemical facility security legislation after 9/11, our members have already invested over $3.5 billion upgrading security as part of the ACC’s Responsible Care(R) Security Code.

‘In anticipation of the new requirements, ACC has already planned a workshop later this month where DHS will brief our members on their regulatory obligations so that we can hit the ground running when the rule becomes effective in June.’

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) represents the leading companies engaged in the business of chemistry. ACC members apply the science of chemistry to make innovative products and services that make people’s lives better, healthier and safer. ACC is committed to improved environmental, health and safety performance through Responsible Care(R), common sense advocacy designed to address major public policy issues, and health and environmental research and product testing. The business of chemistry is a $635 billion enterprise and a key element of the nation’s economy. It is one of the nation’s largest exporters, accounting for ten cents out of every dollar in U.S. exports. Chemistry companies are among the largest investors in research and development. Safety and security have always been primary concerns of ACC members, and they have intensified their efforts, working closely with government agencies to improve security and to defend against any threat to the nation’s critical infrastructure.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&; STORY=/www/story/04-02-2007/0004558241&EDATE=MON+Apr+02+2007,+04:00+PM

Indonesia Floats Muslim Solution to Iraq (back)

April 3, 2007

Muslim nations should ultimately replace coalition forces in Iraq after a period of national reconciliation, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a meeting of Islamic clerics on Tuesday.

Yudhoyono, who is keen to see Indonesia take a bigger role in global issues and in particular in the Middle East, first floated his proposals on Iraq at a joint news conference with U.S. President George W. Bush last November in Bogor .
‘The spiral effect of violence has dreadfully eroded the national tradition of religious tolerance and mutual respect. This is not the natural state of affairs between the Sunnis and Shi’ites of Iraq,’ he said in a speech to about 20 clerics from around the world gathering at the Bogor presidential palace to discuss Iraq .
‘The first and most vital track in this proposed solution is the launching and unrelenting pursuit of reconciliation,’ added Yudhoyono, a former general who spent years training in U.S. military bases.

‘Once the national reconciliation is achieved, the second track is the withdrawal of the coalition forces replaced by a new coalition of forces comprising of like-minded Muslim countries,’ said Indonesia ‘s first directly elected president.
Yudhoyono also joined Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in January in backing a new Muslim initiative to resolve turbulence and violence in the Middle East .
Since Yudhoyono outlined his Iraq proposal on Bush’s second visit to Indonesia , the world’s most populous Muslim nation, there has been little evidence of it gaining much traction.

Under the Bush administration’s new Iraq policy announced earlier this year, the Pentagon has increased force levels in Iraq by about 30,000 troops in an attempt to regain control of security and reduce sectarian violence.
But opposition Democrats who hold the majority in the U.S. congress are seeking to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq in the near future.
Some Bush policies, especially in the Middle East, are deeply unpopular in Indonesia , where 85 percent of the population follows Islam. Jakarta has consistently criticised the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq .

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/JAK170577.htm

Bin Laden Hunters Abandon Psychics (back)

April 2, 2007

So desperate were British intelligence agents to locate al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and information about future terrorist attacks that they recruited psychics and palm readers who usually offer their services on the Internet.

When MI5’s new chief, Jonathan Evans, who took over the service yesterday – April 1 or April Fool’s Day – he quickly disbanded the program.

He dismissed the project as having ‘no intelligence value.’

Before it was canceled, the palmists had been told to see how hand-reading could be adapted to uncover more of the personalities of bin Laden and his senior commanders.

A memo one palmist wrote to his controller said: ‘Each society has a particular vision of masculinity and femininity. It is those differences that can help determine their attitudes to mass murder.’

In all, 24 British psychics and palmists worked for several weeks in a program that was based on the Stargate paranormal espionage program run by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

For the complete story and all the details, get instant access to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin by subscribing with your credit card – either annually at $99 or with a monthly trial at just $9.95.

Source: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54989

Ex-Muslim Preaches Dangers of Islam (back)

March 26, 2007

Daniel Shayesteh was not long graduated from the University of Tehran when on Nov. 4, 1979, 500 students siezed the American embassy in the capital of Iran .

He sympathized with their cause and indirectly supported it, but refrained from bullying the Americans. Not because it was wrong, but because he felt that westerners needed to be kept unaware of the deep hatred Muslims held for them. Mr. Shayesteh, 50, grew up in northern Iran , along the coast of the Caspian Sea . Once a Qur’anic teacher and scholar, Mr. Shayesteh earned a doctorate in international business in Turkey .

Now a Christian, converting after he fled Iran , Mr. Shayesteh travels the world decrying what he considers the dangers of Islam. Last Sunday, he spoke at Westgate Chapel Christian and Missionary Alliance in Toledo .

“Committed Muslims want [westerners] not to have knowledge of Islam,” he said in an interview. “Democracy is against the values of Islam. [Muslims] say that Allah is the ultimate value-maker; he already has a law and democratic law is not higher than Sharia, the law of Allah.”

Through the last half of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, Mr. Shayesteh was a member of a group called the Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement. They set about helping to oust the Shah of Iran and install the Islamic mullahs.

Once they succeeded, however, the new regime under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini turned and went after him.

Any Muslim who denies allegiance to Islam and its founder Mohammed can expect three outcomes: ostracism, imprisonment, or death, Mr. Shayesteh said.

“You do not have a right to reject Islam if you come from [an Islamic] family,” he said.

By 1980, Khomeini sat at the pinnacle of power in Iran . Mr. Shayesteh became the chief executive officer of a government department.

In 1981, he ran for a seat in the interim government’s Islamic Parliament.

That got him into hot water.

He won the election, but the clerics balked at giving the office to a secularist.

Three years later, he and four others were imprisoned and sentenced to death. Someone who worked in the high court office saw the order for Mr. Shayesteh’s death and interceded, but his fellow detainees were hanged.

When he was freed in 1985, Mr. Shayesteh said he was a persona non grata in Iran . He could not work, and tried but failed to flee to Turkey .

In 1988, he again attempted to leave the country but was blacklisted and had to relinquish his passport.

Still, he made it to the Turkish border and tried to cross. The border guards called for soldiers to arrest him, but when they failed to come after nearly three hours, the guards let him pass.

Several months later his wife, Mary, and three daughters joined him in Istanbul .

Mr. Shayesteh decided to go to a local Christian church, where a former business partner once visited, trying to locate him. That decision started him toward a life-changing break with Islam and conversion to Chrisitianity. In 1991, he moved his family to Australia where his wife also became a Christian.

Mr. Shayesteh taught business at the University of Technology at Sydney for eight years. Recently, however, he was fired when someone complained about his fervent Christianity.

Ultimately, the loss became an opportunity to begin a mission: teaching westerners the truth about Islam.

Source: http://seekeronos.blogsome.com/2007/03/26/old-news-but-yup-islam -is-still-a-dangerous-cult/

US Helps Fight Against Abu Sayyaf (back)

April 2, 2007

After Iraq , the southern Philippines might seem like paradise
Except for Humvees on the beach and armed guards, the US Navy Seals base in Jolo island in the southern Philippines looks more like a hang-out for surf bums than a military base for an elite anti-terrorist task force.

A few yards from the detachment’s temporary home in a mansion surrounded by blast barriers and coconut palms, the surf pounds on a powder-sand shore with jungle-covered mountains behind.

A nicer backwater of the war on terror could not be imagined.
Just a few miles away are the dwindling but still dangerous remnants of one of Asia ‘s most ruthless Muslim militant groups, Abu Sayyaf.

With leaders trained in Afghanistan and pledged to ignite jihad in South East Asia, the group has been blamed by the Manila government for killing hundreds of Philippines citizens in bomb attacks and other violence.

In 2001 the group kidnapped three Americans, beheading one. A US missionary died in a botched rescue attempt the next year. In 2004 the group was blamed for a ferry bombing in which 100 passengers died.

The Philippines military says international terrorists are still hiding with Abu Sayyaf, including two men suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.
At that time, Abu Sayyaf were making millions of dollars from kidnapping and virtually ran the Sulu archipelago, which for decades has been a lawless, impoverished region notorious for pirates and Muslim rebels.

Now the revitalised Philippines security forces estimate there are only about 200 Abu Sayyaf fighters left in the jungles of Jolo.
Hearts and minds

The US Special Forces teams, Seals and soldiers who have been based on Jolo since 2002 are strictly forbidden from engaging in combat with Abu Sayyaf, under terms agreed with the Philippines government.

Around 100 US troops are instead equipped with the latest unmanned spy planes and electronic eavesdropping equipment to gather intelligence on their allies’ targets.

The US says villagers are slowly being won over
Meanwhile, since 1997, USAid has spent $4m a year building schools, clinics and roads to win hearts and minds on the island, one of the poorest places in the Philippines .

The posting is an unusual one for military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan .
Infantryman Tommy Bairefoot, 26, transferred from convoy security in Iraq .
‘It is a bit like being in paradise, and you don’t have to worry about roadside bombs here,’ he said. With combat strictly banned, much of the Americans’ time is spent on hearts and minds programmes. Troops set up clinics where villagers who rarely see the inside of a hospital are treated.

At one clinic, Special Forces Captain Ryan Mienecke said that he had not been near any fighting during five months on the island but had seen plenty of Abu Sayyaf militants.

Gesturing at the villagers who had arrived to see an army doctor he said: ‘Take a look around you. I’m sure some of them are here at this camp.’
Human rights concerns

The US troops are full of praise for their Philippine allies, who have fought Muslim rebels for years in Jolo and surrounding islands, but only managed to win over much local support in recent years, partly thanks to US money.

General Juancho Sabban says Abu Sayyaf will be wiped out
Special Forces Captain Ian Berg said: ‘The islanders don’t really support Abu Sayyaf they just want stability, and that’s what’s being established here.’
The US Government has also spent millions of dollars on rewards for information leading to the arrest or killing of named militants.

The two most wanted are accused Bali bombers Umar Patak and Dulmatin, who has a $5m price on his head.

A major success came at the end of 2006 when Abu Sayyaf’s leader Khadaffy Janjalani was killed in a fire fight.

Islanders are wary about the military but most agree that crime rates are down and an edgy normality has returned after years of chaos and bloodshed.
Some human rights campaigners are critical of the Philippines military, however, claiming that civilians are killed in the fighting as well as militants.

Merlie Mendoza, of human rights group Tabang Mindanao, said: ‘Villagers see armed men, whether guerrillas or the military, they run away into the trees, and in the confusion they are shot. There are not investigations into what happens and nobody knows how often it happens.’

General Juancho Sabban, the ebullient public face of the fight against Abu Sayyaf, is confident that the tactics are working and that Abu Sayyaf will eventually be wiped out.

‘If you win the people, you win the war,’ he said.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6499589.stm

Morocco`s Islamic Question (back)

April 2, 2007

An important election will take place in September when Morocco — one of the Islamic world`s most liberal and progressive countries — goes to the polls to cast a verdict on the ambitious modernization program of the new King Mohammed VI.

The big question is whether the largest single party to emerge in the new Parliament will be the Islamist PJD (Party of Justice and Development). U.S. diplomats, who routinely talk with PJD leaders, note that the party opposes violence and follows the moderate Islamism of the current Turkish government.

But the Bush administration visibly cooled its rhetorical support for democratic change in the Arab world when recent elections in Egypt and the Palestinian territories suggested Islamists are likely to be the main beneficiaries.

There is no disputing the trend in Morocco . In 1997 the PJD won just nine seats, but that jumped to 34 in the 2002 elections, and even government officials think they will win at least 60 seats in September.
And as the largest party, the king may be persuaded to appoint one of its leaders as prime minister.

The decision will rest with the king, who retains sweeping powers and keeps firm control of the Interior, Defense and Foreign Affairs ministries. Other parties might form a coalition that keeps the Islamists out, but that may only delay the Islamist purge. Their popularity is growing because they represent the main opposition to the current coalition government in which socialists serve alongside conservatives.

Morocco is taking a cautious and controlled route to democracy, and it represents the kind of Islam that the Bush administration and — in its own way — the European Union admire, and they would like to see it become a model for others. For the United States , Morocco enjoys the status of a non-NATO ally and has deployed peacekeeping troops to the Balkans in support of NATO and EU missions.

NATO`s former deputy commander, German Gen. Dieter Stockman, told United Press International that ‘they were excellent troops, disciplined and intelligent and a pleasure to work with.’

Last week Morocco published the impressive results of the first year of its new free trade agreement with the United States . Trade rose by a striking 44 percent to $1.4 billion. Morocco`s exports of textiles rose by 81 percent, and its exports of electrical machinery rose to $122 million. In return, Morocco imported U.S. aircraft worth $250 million and $163 million of American cereals.

Morocco`s biggest trade partner is still the EU, but with its free trade zones and open door for foreign investment, Morocco is a country increasingly plugged into the global economy. It ranks No. 36, ahead of Turkey and Israel , in the rankings of the best places for offshoring, according to the latest Global Services Location index published by the A.T. Kearney consultancy. The same group also publishes the globalization index, in which Morocco and Tunisia are the only two Arab countries in the Top 40, notably ahead of China at No. 51.

With a per capita GDP nudging $2,000, the economy grew more than 6 percent last year and is poised for takeoff, helped by the $4.5 billion in remittances sent home by Moroccans working abroad.

The country now has almost all its children in primary school, more than half of them in secondary school, and life expectancy is now greater than 70. The birth rate has dropped to an average 2.5 children per woman of child-bearing age, and infant mortality rates have dropped from 115 to 38 per thousand. This a country doing everything it can to do everything right, despite a decade of grim droughts in the 1990s, persistently high unemployment and grinding poverty in the rural and mountain areas.

The modernization has been driven by the young king and a small, tight-knit group of technocratic ministers, many of them the king`s university classmates. In three days of intensive talks with various ministers and the monarch`s top aides, this reporter was left in no doubt of their determination to follow the ‘Asian tiger’ economies and steer Morocco into the EU`s prosperity club.

‘We are like a tree, with roots in Africa and the Arab world, but we breathe the air and take our rain from Europe,’ Ambassador Hassan Abouyoub, the king`s top foreign policy adviser, told UPI. ‘We cannot live without Europe ; we have no choice.’

The monarch, who likes to be called ‘guardian of the poor’ because of his fight against rural poverty, has pushed through the Moudawana, a crucial reform for the rights of women, despite the opposition of religious conservatives. Married to a computer engineer with whom he has two children, the king is a devout Muslim, and even the most extreme Islamists find it difficult to challenge the religious credentials of a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad. Over the weekend, religious leaders from all over the country flew into the fabled desert city of Marrakesh , where the king presided over a celebration of the birthday of his revered ancestor.

There is no question that Morocco is an Islamic country, and of a traditionally tolerant and relaxed form in which the country`s important Jewish heritage is celebrated, alcohol is freely available (and the local wines are good), and Christians and Jews can meet and worship at will. But there are ugly signs of extremism. Bomb attacks in Casablanca in 2003 led to tough new anti-terrorism laws that have been criticized by human-rights groups.

Morocco expects that its elections will generate intense interest and wide media coverage that is more likely to focus on the Islamist rise rather than on the story of reform, rising prosperity and democratization that the king and his aides would prefer to tell. But even if the Islamists do better than expected at the polls, their broadly moderate stance might yet demonstrate, much as Turkey and Malaysia have done, that democracy and Islam can work fruitfully together.

Source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/africa/features/article_1286098. php/Outside_View_Morocco%60s_Islamic_question

A Guilty Plea Could Affect Other Terrorism Trials (back)

April 3, 2007

A guilty plea yesterday by a man who attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan will dramatically limit the scope of a multi-defendant terrorism trial scheduled for later this month in Manhattan .

Mahmud Brent, 32, traveled to Pakistan just months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to engage in military training with a terrorist organization. Following the training, Brent returned to America and moved to Maryland , where he studied to become a paramedic.

Brent’s pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization, a crime for which he faces up to 15 years in prison. The guilty plea marks his exit from a high-profile terrorism prosecution that at one point included three defendants in addition to Brent. Last November another defendant, an Islamic bookseller in Brooklyn , pleaded guilty. Neither of the men who pleaded guilty are expected to be called by the prosecution to testify, lawyers involved in the case say.

The two remaining defendants — a Harlem jazz player and a Columbia University educated doctor — are accused of swearing an oath of fealty to Osama bin Laden while in a Bronx apartment. The prosecution against them is the result of a sting operation that included an undercover FBI agent who posed as a recruiter for the terrorist leader.

Originally, the charges had been the result of two separate investigations, each involving separate confidential informants.

One of the informants, whom a defense lawyer identified last year as Mohamed Alanssi, set himself afire in front of the White House in 2004 in protest of his treatment by the FBI. Court files suggest that the informant at the center of the sting operation involving the musician and the doctor is not Mr. Alanssi, raising the question of whether prosecutors will need to call Mr. Alanssi as a witness.

Brent has not cooperated with the government, his lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah, said following yesterday’s hearing. The possibility that Brent will play no role in the coming trial could be a plus for the two remaining defendants, Tarik Shah and Rafiq Sabir. Lawyers for the two had originally asked for separate trials partly on the grounds that Brent’s past history with a terrorist organization would prejudice the jury against Messrs. Shah and Sabir, who are not accused of having ties to terrorists overseas.

In court yesterday, Brent appeared in good spirits. He frequently turned around in his chair to smile broadly at the rows of family members and supporters who attended the hearing.

The group Brent was affiliated with, Lakshar-e-Taiba, was designated by America as a terrorist organization in December 2001, shortly before Brent’s arrival. Nevertheless, Brent testified yesterday that he knew of the group’s designation at the time of his trip.

Brent is a native of Ohio who lived in upstate New York before traveling to Pakistan .

Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/51695

Suit Could Stifle Terror Fight (back)

April 3, 2007

One of Mayor Bloomberg’s appointees to the city’s human rights commission is a driving force behind a lawsuit targeting ordinary citizens who reported what they felt was suspicious activity by a group of imams on a flight last fall.

Since the lawsuit was filed last month in Minneapolis , it has prompted criticism by Republican lawmakers in Washington , D.C. , who have expressed concern that the suit’s success could dampen citizen vigilance against hijackers and other terrorists.

The possibility that citizens who report anonymously what they perceive to be suspicious behavior, referred to in lawsuits as John Does, may not be entitled to anonymity, much less immunity from lawsuits, has even led to proposed legislation in the past month.

The suit was filed on behalf of six imams. They sued US Airways for removing them from a flight and are seeking the names of any passengers who might have reported their suspicions about the imams.

A New York civil rights attorney, Omar Mohammedi, whose appointment by Mayor Bloomberg to the city’s Commission on Human Rights generated controversy in 2002, is representing the group of imams.

The criticism of Mr. Mohammedi came from several City Council members and Jewish leaders due to his affiliation with the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. The organization has been accused of sympathizing with terrorist groups in the Middle East, and the Web site of the New York chapter has floated conspiracy theories about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When he was appointed, Mr. Mohammedi was general counsel for the local chapter of CAIR. He is now the chapter’s president.

At the time, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Ed Skyler, dismissed critics of the move, many of whom were elected officials, as ‘extremists.’
A spokeswoman for the commission, Betsy Herzog, said in a statement yesterday: ‘ Mr. Mohammedi is entitled to work on behalf of his clients in Minneapolis as it does not conflict with the work of the Commission.’

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office declined to comment further, saying that Ms. Herzog’s statement spoke for the Bloomberg administration.

Since his appointment, Mr. Mohammedi has kept a relatively low profile on the human rights commission, a fellow commissioner said.
The commissioner, William Malpica, told The New York Sun that Mr. Mohammedi had not ‘circulated anything’ among the other commissioners about his discrimination suit.

A revised legal complaint Mr. Mohammedi filed two weeks ago against USAirways lists as defendants all passengers who meant to discriminate against the imams by reporting allegedly suspicious activity. An earlier version of the complaint included as defendants any passenger who filed a report, regardless of intentions.

Regarding his decision to include passengers in the suit, Mr. Mohammedi told the Washington Times: ‘The imams have the right to face their accusers if they purposely made false reports with the intent to discriminate against the imams.’

The imams attracted attention by praying loudly before boarding the plane and by moving between seats, according to news reports. The legal complaint denies allegations that the imams had spoken in support of Saddam Hussein. The flight was between Minneapolis and Phoenix , Ariz.

In the wake of the suit, Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican of New Mexico, called for legislation that would protect from lawsuits anyone who reports, in good faith, suspicious behavior to law enforcement or security personnel. The bill is called the Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act.

A congressman of Long Island, Peter King, introduced a similar measure as an amendment to a transportation-security bill that would be retroactive and apply to the flight resulting in the Minneapolis suit.

Mr. Mohammedi did not return two telephone calls left for comment. In private practice, he specializes in employment discrimination and real estate law. Before establishing his own firm, housed in the Woolworth Building , Mr. Mohammedi worked for Shearman & Sterling and Anderson Kill & Olick, according to his firm’s Web site.

In the past, he has sued several public employers. Last fall, in a suit filed in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of a former Muslim correctional officer, he sued the Justice Department, claiming that the officer endured abuse from both colleagues and inmates following the September 11 attacks.

Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/51675

Europeans: Hearts Without Minds (back)

April 2, 2007

Common sense and experience have confirmed, time after time, that making concessions to terrorism and barbarity produces more of each — a lesson repeatedly unlearned by the same Europeans who so enjoy condemning President Bush’s ‘cowboy’ policies. Considering the frequency with which one European government after another makes concessions to the international criminal elements, one could only conclude that, in the particular case of the British sailors kidnapped by Iran, there is indeed only one ‘Europe,’ and it is neither responsible nor reliable. This is a tremendous problem for Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who seems to be relying upon the mythical ‘international community’ to fix a self-inflicted problem.

Why were those soldiers captured in the first place? Because, as the former First Sea Lord Sir Alan West said, British rules of engagement were ‘very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting ... Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away.’

This is worse than poor judgment — it is political correctness taken to preposterous levels. Are ‘Sinking everything in sight’ and meekly surrendering the only options? Of course not - except when unilateral disarmament makes them so, as is the case with the recent decision to transform the once impressive British Navy into a small coastal defense force.

In all fairness, the Brits are not the only Europeans unwilling to respond adequately to terrorism — and most wouldn’t be able to if they were willing. The Italians seem to have made it a policy to capitulate to terror. When one of their incompetent journalists was kidnapped by the Taliban, Rome forced the Afghan government to release five top terrorists — never mind that his Afghan driver was beheaded because nobody helped him.

The Germans did the same thing in the Sahara, and the Spaniards went even further: they voted their government out of office because terrorists claimed that by sending troops to Iraq, Spain had ‘provoked’ a jihadist attack that killed 192 people in Madrid. And, Palestinian hoodlums attacked Danes over the Mohammed cartoons, and the Danes still send aid to the ‘Palestinian people.’

Meanwhile, Europeans are all upset over the ‘mistreatment’ of jihadis at Guantanamo. The European Parliament voted to condemn governments that cooperated with the CIA because they did not provide evidence that they did so. German and Italian judges and prosecutors want to put CIA and their own intelligence operatives on trial for sending terrorists or their enablers back to their own countries.

These cases are not just hypocrisy. Even when threatened at home, Europeans have problems dealing with terror. The Spanish Socialists capitulated to a Basque murderer who blackmailed them with a hunger strike. The Dutch and German courts consistently find it hard to convict jihadis, often because, after declaring counterterrorist intelligence illegal or unacceptable, they refuse to accept it in trials. In Britain, Abu Hamza, a major ideologue and recruiter of Islamist terrorists from Algeria to Yemen, polygamist and illegal immigrant, was sentenced to just seven years for his crimes. And, it took Britain a decade to extradite Rashid Ramda to France, where he was accused of financing terrorism in Paris, because of the possibility of mistreatment by those barbarians across the Channel.

Meanwhile, the true barbarians of Tehran were seen as worthy negotiation partners by the UK, France and Germany, mostly in order to protect them from the cowboy in the White House. And now, the ‘international community’ faces a soon-to-be nuclear Iran. Iran is already getting away with repeatedly capturing British soldiers and subsidizing terrorism now; imagine what they could do with nuclear weaponry at their fingertips.

The same ‘international law’ advocated to protect Islamist murderers at Guantanamo or to declare Saddam Hussein’s trial ‘unfair’ should also condemn the kidnapping and humiliation of soldiers and attacking diplomats. However, no serious response is being contemplated at the moment. On the contrary, judging by readers’ letters to British newspapers, Britain brought this upon itself. A certain Dr. Izhar Khan from Aberdeen thinks, ‘We need to show some contrition. At least these sailors were not hooded with their hands tied at the back and them being made to adopt the stress position.’ Thank God the Iranians are not as brutal as those damned Americans.

Weakness in the face of foreign criminality is not limited to Iran, Gaza or Lebanon. It is manifest at home as well. When an illegal Congolese is arrested for jumping a turnstile in Paris’ Gare du Nord and ‘youths’ rampage and break into a Foot Locker store of running shoes and sports clothes, the Socialist presidential candidate blames the police. In 2005, when gangs of immigrant hoodlums wreaked havoc throughout France, the elites blamed the language of the Interior Minister, not the ‘disadvantaged youths.’

Source: http://www.aina.org/news/2007040293834.htm

Abductors of Two Germans In Iraq Issue New Ultimatum (back)

April 3, 2007

A renewed ultimatum demanding Germany’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in return for the freeing of two hostages held in Iraq was being closely examined by a crisis team, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said.

Security expert Georg Thamm said the fact that the abductors had allowed an earlier deadline to pass could indicate that the group - the Arrows of Righteousness - could be more interested in ransom than in political aims.

The German government has recently repeated that it will not submit to blackmail, but there was no immediate official response to the new ultimatum.

In a video released on the internet, the abductors said they would kill Hannelore Kadhim, a 61-year-old woman married to an Iraqi, and her son Sinana, 20, if German troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan within 10 days.

The group described Kadhim, maiden name Krause, as a senior person in the Austrian Embassy in Baghdad, adding that Austria was hostile to Islam. It noted that Sinana Kadhim worked for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

‘We give the German government a further 10 days to begin withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan, otherwise the fate of this criminal and her son will be death,’ it said.

In the video, Kadhim appeals in German to her relatives in Germany to mobilize the German press and to organize a protest march.

‘Why should we be victims in a war that has nothing to do with us?’ she asks.

And she called on the German people for help. ‘Germany was safe before we entered into the diabolical US alliance against what the US calls terrorism,’ she said.

‘I will be the first victim unless you respond to the demands of these men,’ Kadhim says.

Thamm noted that an earlier 10-day deadline had been allowed to run out on March 20. ‘When deadlines run out it often means they are trying to extract more money,’ Thamm told national German news broadcaster N-TV.

The two hostages were abducted from their Baghdad home on February 6.

Some 3,000 German troops are deployed on a strictly reconstruction mission in the northern provinces of Afghanistan. Germany opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and has not deployed forces there.

Source: http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_22366-Abductors-Of-Two-Germans- In-Iraq-Issue-New-Ultimatum.html

Imam is Chaplain at NYPD (back)

April 3, 2007

The NYPD appointed a new Muslim chaplain yesterday, filling a two-year void left after his predecessor resigned amid disclosures that he had a criminal record.

Imam Khalid Latif, 24, who currently serves as a chaplain at NYU, was chosen as the second Muslim chaplain in the department’s history after an ‘extensive search’ process, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

‘For a young man, he has an impressive list of accomplishments,’ Kelly said of Latif, who holds a bachelor’s degree from NYU in Middle Eastern studies and a master’s from Hartford Seminary.

Latif, an Edison, N.J., native whose family hails from Pakistan, said, ‘It is my hope that I can use this position as a means to educate not only the members of the New York City Police Department about truly what Islam stands for, but also the New York City community as a whole.’

Latif succeeds Izak-El Mu’eed Pasha, the department’s first Muslim chaplain, who resigned in June 2005.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04032007/news/regionalnews/imam_is _chaplain_at_nypd_regionalnews_tom_liddy.htm

Dissidents Discover Secret Base is Bahraini Royal Playground (back)

March 28, 2007

Bahraini dissidents, thanks to Google Earth, have discovered that a so-called closed island military base was actually a royal playground.

A dissident blogger, speaking to a Rand Corp. seminar, detailed a closed Bahraini island claimed by the military. The blogger, Mahmoud Yusef, said the so-called military base, entitled Mohamadiya, was actually a lush palace protected by the Coast Guard.

‘The place has been appropriated by the rich with the Coast Guard providing protection against outsiders,’ Yusef said.

[The assertion was relayed as parliamentarians debated freedom of expression in Bahrain, Middle East Newsline reported. Twenty-five deputies have opposed an investigation into alleged sexual content in the Spring of Culture festival.]

In an address on March 15 in the Qatari capital of Doha, Yusef said Bahrainis learned of Mohamadiya through Google Earth, located on the Internet. Google Earth offers maps and satellite images for precise regional searches.

Yusef said the Sunni kingdom has sought to battle bloggers and other elements of the media. A critic of Bahrain’s agriculture minister, Yusef said he was summoned for police investigation and charged with defamation in a blog in December 2006.

‘I criticized someone from the government who is a moron,’ Yusef said. ‘The Bahrain Journalists Association got involved and a deal was struck where I would have to change a few offensive words. But when they asked me to change comments made by others, I refused.’

Bahrain, a Sunni regime that presides over a Shi’ite majority, has been regarded as the most liberal of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states. Home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, the kingdom allows alcohol and has served as the watering hole for Western military and diplomatic personnel in the Gulf region.

‘Bahrain has strong influences from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran,’ Yusef said. ‘Nowadays people don’t ask if one is Bahraini, but whether Shia or Sunni. It [the Bahraini government] is trying to do whatever they can to marginalize one sect [the Shi’ites].’

Yusef said Bahrain’s Information Ministry has banned the media from discussing allegations by a former senior official that the Manama regime paid Shi’ites to convert to Sunni Islam. He said the ministry has also tried to force websites to register.

Source: http://intelligence-summit.blogspot.com/2007/03/dissidents-discover-se cret-base-is.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0327052720070403?feedType=RSS

U.S. seeks Russian partnership on missile defense
Tue Apr 3, 2007 4:26PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could offer to protect Russia
from emerging missile threats in an effort to ease Moscow’s anger over
Pentagon plans to place missile defense systems in the former Soviet
bloc, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

Eric Edelman, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy,
said
the United States and Russia would start talks on ways to cooperate in
missile defense.

One option is to share data retrieved by sensors that Washington wants
to place in central Europe, Edelman said.

Edelman said the United States also could offer to use its missile
defenses to protect parts of Russia that Moscow’s missile defenses do
not cover.

“If we can help them defend themselves against this same threat, I
think
we’re happy to do that,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon wants to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and 10
interceptor missiles in Poland to shoot down long-range missiles that
the United States believes Iran will be able to launch by 2015.

That plan has generated fierce criticism in Russia. Moscow sees the
system as an encroachment on its sphere of influence and some Russian
officials have said the U.S. system would target Russia, something the
Pentagon denies.

France and Germany have expressed concerns too, with some officials
saying it could lead to a new arms race.

Edelman said cooperation on defenses could alleviate worries about a
race to build and acquire ever more capable offensive missile assets.

“We want to cooperate with Russia. We think there is a benefit to
cooperating with Russia. We think the threat is one that they face as
well as one that we face,” he told reporters after meeting with
European
officials last week to talk about the missile defense plans.

The United States has offered to share missile defense technologies
with
Russia in the past. Edelman, however, said Moscow might be more likely
to accept offers now because it too faces a threat from emerging
missile
capabilities of Iran and North Korea.

Regardless of Russia’s decision on cooperation, Washington will move
forward, Edelman said.

“I don’t think if for some reason we’re unable to reach a commonly
agreed way ahead that we would want to accede to Russia being able to
dictate what we do bilaterally with other countries or what NATO does
as
an alliance.”

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/april07/medal040407.htm

A SAFE RETURN
Apollo 13 Astronaut’s Medal Recovered

04/04/07
Front and back images of recovered Presidential Medal of Freedom
James A. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970 after returning the Apollo 13 capsule home safely. Due to an imperfection in the medal above, a replacement was manufactured and presented to Captain Lovell. The imperfect medal was supposed to be destroyed but ended up in the hands of a private collector.

When an explosion rocked the Apollo 13 lunar module in 1970, scuttling a moon landing and endangering three astronauts on board—an event that riveted the nation and tested the resolve and ingenuity of the U.S. space program—the mission’s onboard commander, Captain James A. Lovell Jr., famously said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

Earlier this year, Captain Lovell, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for safely bringing Apollo 13 and its crew home, was in touch with our FBI office in Chicago to report a new problem: the Medal of Freedom originally cast for him, but replaced due to a defect prior a 1970 presentation ceremony, was up for bid on an Internet auction site.

The defective medal was supposed to have been destroyed long ago, but it apparently slipped out of the White House, eventually falling into the hands of a private collector in Pennsylvania. When Captain Lovell learned the medal bearing his name was up for auction, he worried the sale might sully the reputation of the rare decoration, one of the nation’s highest civilian awards.
“He was upset by the fact that it might diminish the medal itself,” said Special Agent Brian Brusokas, who works in the Cyber Crimes Unit in our Chicago office and opened the investigation.

The posting on the auction site touted that the medal was the “original” version meant for the Captain Lovell and called it “the ultimate collector’s item.” It read, in part: “This original medal was destined for the trash but lucky for us it was saved 37 years ago.”

Agent Brusokas quickly identified the seller and last month recovered the medal and its accessories, including the wooden storage box bearing the presidential seal. The medal’s authenticity was verified by the White House.

Since the medal still technically belongs to the White House, the collector’s possession of it amounts to theft of government property. No arrests have been made and no charges have been filed, but the investigation is continuing. The actual medal presented to Captain Lovell by President Nixon is still in his possession.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1945 to honor service in World War II and was revived in 1963 to recognize distinguished civilian service. Captain Lovell and fellow crewmen John L. Swigert Jr. and Fred W. Haise Jr. received the honor on April 18, 1970, a day after arriving home and just seven days after Apollo 13 launched en route to the moon. An oxygen tank exploded a few days into the mission, causing the crew and managers on the ground to abort the moon landing and improvise a safe journey back to Earth. Lovell’s role in the heroic saga was dramatized by Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13.”

This isn’t the first time the FBI has been brought in to help recover a medal. In 2003, three Congressional Medals of Honor wound up on an Internet auction. Cyber agents in our Buffalo office tracked down the seller in Canada and recovered the medals, which were more than 100 years old.

The sale of a Presidential Medal of Freedom isn’t illegal or unprecedented. Actor James Cagney’s medal, awarded to him in 1984, was auctioned in 2000 for $51,000. The difference in this case is that the Pennsylvania dealer didn’t own the medal. “It’s legal,” said Agent Brusokas, “only if you have good title to it.”

In the end, we’re proud to have played a role in upholding the integrity of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for Captain Lovell and for all the winners of this prestigious American honor.

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