Threat Matrix: March 2007

Senior Taliban leader held in Pakistan
-Full Story-

Pakistani security forces have captured a high-ranking Taliban leader in the southwestern city of Quetta, a senior security official and Taliban sources said late Thursday

The capture of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund marked the first Pakistan arrest of a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001 when thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan.

The security official and Taliban sources said Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership council, was arrested late on Monday, hours after a surprise visit to Pakistan by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.

	Pakistan Denies bin Laden in Country
	Al-Qaida Grows Stronger in Pakistani Safe Havens
	Taliban Commander Mullah Dadullah: Usama bin Laden is Alive

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Thanks to Calpernia for the ping to this thread.

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1796215/posts

Saudi Kidnap, Rape Victim Faces Lashing for 'Crime' of Being Alone With Man Not Related to Her
Fox News ^ | March 06, 2007 | Fox News

Posted on 03/06/2007 12:08:36 PM PST by stm

A 19-year-old Saudi woman who was kidnapped, beaten and gang raped by seven men who then took photos of their victim and threatened to kill her, was sentenced under the country's Islamic-based law to 90 lashes for the "crime" of being alone with a man not related to her.

The woman is appealing to Saudi King Abdullah to intervene in the controversial case.

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

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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1795796/posts

Saudi gang-rape victim faces 90 lashes
AFP ^ | March 5 2007

Posted on 03/05/2007 5:22:30 PM PST by jmc1969

- A Saudi woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother has been sentenced to 90 lashes -- for a meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported on Monday.

In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the 19-year-old said she was blackmailed a year ago into meeting a man who threatened to tell her family they were having a relationship outside wedlock, which is illegal in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

After driving off together from a shopping mall near her home, the woman and the man were stopped and abducted by a gang of men wielding kitchen knives who took them to a farm where she was raped 14 times by her captors.

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

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=3278

Troops Capture Terrorists in Afghanistan; Rocket Misses Coalition Base

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – American and Afghan forces captured five suspected terrorists yesterday during a joint operation in Khowst province, and an enemy rocket missed a coalition base during an attack in Kapisa province the same day, U.S. officials reported.

Afghan and coalition forces arrested five suspected terrorists, two of whom attempted to flee to a neighboring building, during a joint operation west of Khowst city yesterday evening. The suspects were arrested following a thorough search of the buildings, which also yielded a supply of grenades and armor-piercing rounds.

U.S. and Afghan authorities had been tipped off about terrorist meetings and activity at the suspected compound in Khowst province. No shots were fired during the operation, and there were no reported injuries or damages. Contraband grenades and ammunition were destroyed at the scene.

Meanwhile, an undetermined number of enemy forces fired a rocket at a coalition base located near Nijrab, in Kapisa province, late yesterday evening, officials said. The rocket missed the base, and there were no coalition casualties.

After the rocket attack, enemy forces were observed entering a nearby compound. Coalition forces requested close-air support, and aircraft dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on the enemy position, ending the engagement. There are unconfirmed reports that nine people were killed, officials said.

“Coalition forces observed two men with AK-47s leaving the scene of the rocket attack and entering the compound,” Lt. Col. David Accetta, a coalition forces spokesman, said.

“These men knowingly endangered civilians by retreating into a populated area while conducting attacks against coalition forces,” Accetta said.

(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 76 news releases.)

ARTICLE SNIPPET: ""Criminals know we are soft targets because we are not going to be carrying guns," he told CNS in December."

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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1796236/posts

Robbers shoot Irish priest who runs South African AIDS hospice
Catholic News Service ^ | March 2, 2007 | Bronwen Dachs

Posted on 03/06/2007 12:55:22 PM PST by siunevada

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- An Irish priest who runs an AIDS hospice in South Africa has been shot twice in the chest by robbers in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.

Passionist Father Kieran Creagh, 44, was shot in the early morning hours March 1 when he answered the doorbell to his apartment in the back of Leratong Hospice, said Father Sikhalele Anthony Mdhluli, the superior of the Passionists in South Africa.

Father Creagh thought someone was summoning him to see a dying patient, but he opened the door to eight men, Father Mdhluli told Catholic News Service March 2.

"He refused to let them in and called for help, but the security guard at the hospice had been tied up," Father Mdhluli said.

The men fled with money from Father Creagh's safe as well as his mobile phone, television and other electronic equipment, he said.

Hospice staff called an ambulance, and Father Creagh is in intensive care in the hospital, Father Mdhluli said. Police are investigating the case, he added.

In 2003 Father Creagh made news when he became a clinical trial volunteer and was injected with a vaccine intended to prevent people from contracting HIV.

A year later, the hospice opened after Father Creagh raised money to fund it.

The attack is particularly sad "because of all Father Creagh does for poor people in the community," Father Mdhluli said.

South Africa is among the most crime-ridden countries in the world, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban has said that priests and nuns are among the many victims of crime.

"Criminals know we are soft targets because we are not going to be carrying guns," he told CNS in December.

In late February, South African Catholic officials said they want to help cut crime through church education programs and by leading research on the issue.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24720_Russian_Journalists_Death_a_Forcible_Suicide

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

"Russian Journalist's Death a 'Forcible Suicide'"

SNIPPET: "Here’s a detailed and interesting article at Kommersant.ru on the apparent “forcible suicide” of journalist Ivan Safronov, who was reportedly about to release an exposé on Russian arms deliveries to the Middle East: Ivan Safronov Was Killed. (Hat tip: Igor.)"

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http://www.kommersant.com/p747802/Ivan_Safronov_arms_trading/

Mar. 06, 2007

"Ivan Safronov Was Killed
// Prosecutor begins an investigation of "incitement to suicide""

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Taganka prosecutor's office in Moscow has initiated a criminal investigation on the forcible suicide of Kommersant journalist Ivan Safronov, who died under unknown circumstances last Friday when he fell from a window in the stairway of the Khrushchev-era five-story building in which he lived. The police and prosecutor initially characterized his death as suicide. Safronov, who turned 51 last month, wrote about the army and space. It is known that he was preparing a publication on Russian arms deliveries to the Middle East that could have caused a major scandal."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1796284/posts

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.392212702&par=

"BOSNIA: SERB LEADER DODIK RECEIVES DEATH THREATS"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Banjaluka, 6 March (AKI) - Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has received several death threats in the past week, after the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week ruled that the Bosnian Serb army in July 1995 committed genocide against local Muslims in the eastern town of Srebrenica - when Serb forces murdered up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys - daily Nezavisne novine said on Tuesday.

The most recent threat received by Dodik was contained in a letter signed by the hitherto unknown 'New Bosnia' organisation, which arrived on Monday, said Dodik’s spokeswoman Vera Sajic. 'New Bosnia' threatened to kill Dodik and his family and to bomb his motorcade in Banjaluka, capital of the Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS), Sajic said.

The letter said that 'New Bosnia' has already sent a 'detachment' to Banjaluka with "the most sophisticated equipment" to blow up Dodik’s motorcade should he move out of the city. The phantom organisation also threatened to blow up all trucks and buses bearing Serbian plates and to mine all bridges on the Drina River between Bosnia and Serbia.

Dodik, who is RS prime minister, has resisted pressure from majority Muslims and the international community to reduce the powers of the two Bosnian entities, the RS and the Muslim-Croat federation. The Dayton peace accord that ended Bosnian civil war in 1995 granted both entities most of the powers of a state.

Muslim leaders have stepped up the drive for the complete abolition of RS as a "creature of genocide” after the ICJ's 26 February ruling. The court, however, threw out the suit by Bosnian Muslims claiming the Serbian state was responsible for the Srebrenica genocide but blamed it for failing to prevent this."

http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=%22LAX%22

http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=%22MALIKI%22

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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1796289/posts

Iraqi national carrying suspicious object detained at LAX
Los Angeles Times (free registration required) ^ | March 6, 2007 | Andrew Blankstein

Posted on 03/06/2007 2:24:45 PM PST by Deo volente

Authorities today detained an Iraqi national who was carrying a suspicious object at Los Angeles International's Terminal One.

Los Angeles airport police held the man in a passenger screening area after security agents discovered at 5:40 a.m. that he was carrying a metal object, officials said.

A preliminary investigation of the man's bags -- which were taken off a flight that was scheduled to go to Philadelphia but diverted to Las Vegas -- found nothing hazardous or dangerous, authorities said.

The man has been turned over to Immigration and Customs authorities for additional questioning, officials said at an afternoon news conference.

The man was identified as Fadhel Maliki, 35, of Atlantic City, N.J., an Iraqi national who has been in the United States since 1994, according to Ethel McGuire, the FBI assistant special agent assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Maliki was going through preflight screening when he was pulled aside after acting suspicious, officials said. He had been previously flagged based on a travel profile, but officials refused to discuss details.

According to Larry Satters, federal security director at LAX, Maliki was concealing objects connected to wires from his body.

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

Adding to post no. 288:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1796289/posts?page=37#37

To: Rushmore Rocks
"Testing?"

I don't know RR, but let's look at this article snippet from a link posted on this thread.

OPINION-SPECULATION: Testing or maybe someone else had some more parts somewhere on him/her or maybe there is more to this story that hasn't been examined yet.

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http://www.nbc4.tv/news/11185089/detail.html

"Officials Detain Iraqi Man At LAX After Suspicious Item Found"

POSTED: 12:33 pm PST March 6, 2007
UPDATED: 2:41 pm PST March 6, 2007
Email This Story | Print This Story
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ARTICLE SNIPPET: "LOS ANGELES -- Security officers detained an Iraqi national at Los Angeles International Airport early Tuesday after a suspicious item was found on the man during a body cavity search."

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "He remained in custody as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials went over his immigration paper work. Federal officials said the man's green card may have expired.

Ethel McGuire, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said this afternoon that al-Maliki had "a magnet, wires and I don't know what the other item was. It's being evaluated as we speak." After al-Maliki was searched, the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was called to the airport to examine the suspicious item."

37 posted on 03/06/2007 3:02:43 PM PST by Cindy

http://www.news.com.au

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21340164-2,00.html

"Australians trapped in fire-gutted jetliner"
By staff writers and wires
March 07, 2007 01:40pm

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Yogykarta Airport officials who did not want to be named said the Boeing 737-400, believed to be carrying 140 passengers, caught fire three minutes before landing at 7am local time (1100 AEDT)."

ARTICLE SNIPPT: ""It is true that a plane caught fire while landing. It happened when it overshot beyond the runway and burst into flames," Yogyakarta provincial secretary Bambang Susanto said.

Local Islamic leader Dien Syamsudin said: "Before the plane landed it was shaking. Suddenly there was smoke inside the fuselage, it hit the runway and then it landed in a rice field.

"I saw a foreigner. His clothes were on fire and I jumped from the emergency exit. Thank God I survived."

Mr Syamsudin, the head of the second largest Islamic organisation in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah, had been due to meet Mr Downer in Yogjakarta today.

Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said the crash was a tragedy."
With Reuters, AFP, AAP

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http://www.foxnews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,257183,00.html
(AP)

"Jetliner Catches Fire During Landing in Indonesia"
Tuesday, March 06, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia —

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Boeing 737-400 was carrying an undetermined number of Australian journalists and diplomatic staff who were in Indonesia with the country's foreign minister, said Australian Treasurer Peter Costello. The foreign minister was reportedly not on the plane."

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Muhammad Dimyati told the station he heard a blast as the plane landed. "I heard the sound of an explosion and ran through an emergency exit," he said. "I believe many passengers remained trapped on board."

Another passenger described spoke in the passenger compartment.

"Suddenly there was smoke inside the fuselage," said Dien Syamsudin, a local Islamic leader. "It hit the runway and then it landed in a rice field. ... I saw a foreigner. His clothes were on fire and I jumped from the emergency exit. Thank God I survived.""

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Thanks to RDTF for the ping to this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1796382/posts

"Indonesian jet bursts into flames upon landing"
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 3/6/07 | AFP

Posted on 03/06/2007 4:58:18 PM PST by NormsRevenge

JAKARTA (AFP)

Prosecutor: Australian terror suspects downloaded bomb making instructions
March 6, 2007

(SYDNEY, Australia) -- Nine man accused of Australia's largest terrorist conspiracy downloaded bomb-making instructions off the Internet and stockpiled chemicals to make lethal explosives because they believed Islam was under attack, a state prosecutor said Tuesday.

The nine were devotees of a radical Muslim cleric sympathetic to Osama bin Laden, and struck a pact to launch a terrorist attack because they felt their religion was under threat and needed to be defended at any cost, a pre-trial hearing heard Tuesday.

Excerpted

http://wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=6185949

3 rocket launchers seized in SW Pakistan
2007-03-07

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Frontier Corps seized three 107 mm rocket launchers along with 17 shells from an area in southwest district of Pishin in Baluchistan province, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The weapons had been dumped underground by unknown persons for sabotage purposes, said the report. No arrest was made in this regard.

Excerpted

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5810410.htm

Lebanese police seize ammunition for rocket-propelled launchers
Mar 6, 2007

Beirut - Lebanese police seized Tuesday 25 rocket-propelled grenades in a mountainous area, south-east of Beirut. 'The ammunition, which were wrapped in plastic bags, were found by a villager in a field near Aitat,' - a mainly Druze village, a police source said. Police cordoned off the area and confiscated the weapons, the source said.

Excerpted

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1273384.php/Lebanese_police_seize_ammunition_for_rocket-propelled_launchers

Shoreham Bomb Scare (U.K.)
March 6, 2007

A SHOREHAM town centre road was cordoned off this morning (Tuesday) amid fears unexploded bombs had been found. Royal Navy bomb squad officers were called to Western Road after what were believed to be unexploded devices were found in a house.

Gap-year student Jaime said: "The whole street has been cordoned off. We are not allowed out of our houses." It is believed council workers had been clearing a house in the street when they came across the unexploded devices.

http://www.shorehamtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=470&ArticleID=2100045

Iraq: Cellphone-Bomb Gang Broken Up

Baghdad, 6 March - Iraqi police have uncovered a new terror technique adopted by the insurgents, a cellphone used, not simply as a trigger for a bomb, but as an explosive device. According to the Iraqi news portal Nasariya.net, police in the capital have in recent days arrested an insurgent whom at first appearance seemed similar to hundreds of others belonging to al-Qaeda linked or Baathist groups behind much of the recent bloodshed.

What set him apart was that he headed a gang which had developed a new technique, which enabled him to insert small quantities of explosives inside mobile phones.

The man, 23, whom the portal says lived in the comfortable al-Doura neighbourhood of Baghdad, reportedly confessed to police his role in various killings and explosive attacks, mainly targeting the heavily fortified Green Zone. According to the police, it is the first time that insurgents there have used a similar technique. The man was charged with training other members of the group, who were subsequently arrested.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.392435852&par=0

Pakistan: 12 Al-Qaeda Linked Militants Killed In Trial Areas

Karachi, 6 March - At least 12 al-Qaeda linked militants were killed on Tuesday in a clash between the militants and tribesmen in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan, which lies on the border with Afghanistan. The Zalikhail tribe of South Waziristan clashed with the militants in the restive tribal region's town of Azam Warsak. The killing was carried out to avenge the killing of their tribesmen by Uzbek militants linked to al-Qaeda.

According to sources in South Waziristan, the problem started from a personal rift between a Zalikhail tribesman, Malik Saeed, and a group of Uzbek militants. On Monday some of the Uzbek and Tajik militants opened fire on Malik Saeed and as a result, Malik Saeed’s two brothers and one Afghan refugee in the tribal area were killed. The incident reportedly caused immense resentment among the Zalikhail tribal people and they sent armed youths to search out the killers and execute them. This morning the tribal youths found the group in Azam Warsak market and killed them.

South Waziristan is the home of the Uzbek warlord Tahir Yaldeshiv, the chief of Islamic movement of Uzbekistan, an Al-Qaeda linked group. Reports say that there are hundreds of foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs, who have been in hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas having fled there from Afghanistan after the US-led forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=

Reporter Who Died in Fall Probed Weapons
Mar 6, 2007

MOSCOW -- A journalist who plunged to his death from his apartment building window faced threats while reporting on a highly sensitive story that Russia planned to sell sophisticated missiles to Syria and Iran, his newspaper reported Tuesday.

Ivan Safronov, a military affairs writer for the daily Kommersant, died Friday after plunging from a stairwell window between the fourth and fifth stories. Kommersant reported Tuesday that Safronov had told his editors he was working on a story about Russian plans to sell weapons to Iran and Syria via Belarus.

The deals, if concluded, could upset the balance of power in the Middle East and strain Russia's relations with Israel and the United States, which have strongly objected to earlier Russian weapons sales to the two countries.

Excerpted

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_JOURNALISTS_DEATH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-03-06-16-28-04

Bid To Arrest Iranian Aides Irks Tehran
March 6, 2007

WASHINGTON — Iran's liaisons to the world's largest police organization are expected next week to do everything they can to reverse a decision that recommends international law enforcement agencies arrest and detain five of the regime's former high officials.

The meeting scheduled for March 12 at Lyons, France, could call into question the Islamic Republic's participation in Interpol, an international agency including 186 states that tries to coordinate the enforcement of transnational crimes.

Yesterday, The New York Sun obtained a copy of Interpol's legal ruling on the request from an Argentine court to issue what are known as "red notices" for the capture of five former Iranian regime officials. The Iranians are accused of masterminding the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a terrorist attack in which 86 people were killed. Red notices are the equivalent of arrest warrants and requested by the courts of member states for wanted fugitives.

According to a copy of the February 28 ruling from Interpol's office of legal affairs, the wanted Iranians include the former minister of Intelligence and Security, Ali Fallahijan; the former commander of Iran's Quds Force, Ahmad Vahidi; the former commander of the revolutionary guard, Mohsen Rezai; Iran's cultural attaché for its embassy in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Rabbani; and that embassy's third secretary, Ahmad Reza Asghari. Also wanted by Interpol is master Hezbollah terrorist, Imadh Mugniyah.

The decision by Interpol is significant because if the body's general assembly endorses the position of its lawyers, it would mark an unusual acknowledgement by an international organization that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. The Argentine court requested that Interpol place a red notice out for the former president of Iran, Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani, though the agency's lawyers recommended against it, saying that the decision to include the warrant for him would be too political.

Excerpted

http://www.nysun.com/article/49830?page_no=1

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070224/ZNYT02/702240491

Published Saturday, February 24, 2007
"New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just Bags"

PAUL GIBLIN and ERIC LIPTON

PHOENIX, Feb. 23 — X-ray vision has come to the airport checkpoint here, courtesy of federal aviation security officials who have installed a new device that peeks underneath passengers’ clothing to search for guns, bombs or liquid explosives.

The new body scanning machine, which went into use on Friday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and will be tested later at airports in Los Angeles and New York, will screen only volunteers, at least initially. Transportation Security Administration officials want to make sure the machine is reliable and fast enough to replace the traditional pat-down — and that it does not provoke too many protests.

Security officials examining the head-to-toe images work in a closed booth, hidden from public view, agency officials said. Special “privacy” software intentionally blurs the image, creating an outline of a body that is clear enough to see a collarbone, bellybutton or weapon, but flattens details of revealing contours."

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