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Locked on 08/01/2007 10:40:04 PM PDT by Religion Moderator, reason:
New Thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1875105/posts |
Posted on 07/01/2007 2:42:24 PM PDT by nwctwx
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunfire rang out as a plane carrying Pakistan's president left an air base Friday, and police found anti-aircraft guns on a nearby roof. The apparent assassination attempt came as the army besieged extremists at the capital's Red Mosque.
The incident heightened the sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have long chastened President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for allying his government with Washington. Musharraf also has lately become entangled in a political uproar over his move to oust the chief justice.
Excerpted
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070707/NEWS01/707070304/1002/NEWS01
Yemen identifies slain Egyptian al-Qaida suspect as plotter of suicide attack on Spanish tourists
July 6, 2007
SAN'A, Yemen: Yemeni authorities confirmed Friday that an Egyptian national killed in a gunfight when resisting arrest was an al-Qaida suspect and an alleged plotter of the suicide bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis earlier this week.
Authorities said Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar, 52, was killed Thursday in San'a, the capital, during a countrywide sweep that led to the arrest of some 20 suspects in the attack on a group of tourists visiting an ancient temple in the Marib region of northern Yemen.
"He was one of the leaders ... who planned the terrorist attack in Marib," a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Egypt has asked Yemen to send a DNA sample of the slain suspect to confirm his identity, an Egyptian security official told the AP on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reasons.
Excerpted
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/06/africa/ME-GEN-Yemen-Tourist-Attack.php
Thanks, Oorang.
It’s always sumpin’.
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Kosovo Albanians (aka muslims) seek Balkan border redrawing conference
Saturday, July 7, 2007
An unnamed source from the Kosovo Albanian regime in Pristina was quoted by a separatist newspaper Koha Ditore that if the the Ahtisaari plan is trashed in the new round of talks on the status of Kosovo the regime will demand a European conference that will redraw borders in the Balkans.
"If Ahtisaari’s plan failed, or if any change of the document is called for, we will demand an international conference for redefining state borders in the Balkans," Koha quoted an official from the regime that spoke on the condition of anonymity.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried are due to arrive in Pristina as well as EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. Solana is likely to officially present the Kosovo Albanian regime with the outline for new round of talks with Belgrade that would likely take place in Brussels.
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01958.shtml
The Policy Implications of Kosovo’s Growing Tendency Towards Extremism(opinion piece)
Friday, July 6, 2007
by Erik Resly, Senior Balkans Associate, Institute on Religion and Public Policy
While fires blaze in Baghdad and Washington-housed politicians devise security strategies for the Middle East, the impending status of Kosovo’s independence looms among the rafters of the international community’s multi-pronged War on Terror.
Geographically and ethnically kin to a nation recently heralded by US President Bush as “a model of religious tolerance,” the UN-monitored province of Kosovo, demographically composed of a sobering 92% ethnic Albanian majority (as opposed to a less than 10% minority prior to the Great Serb Migrations, remains far from utopian.
Rather, the territory presents a fertile ground for the long-since documented rise of extremism. With an explosion of Saudi-funded petro-dollar-mosques and Madrasas now dotting the agrarian landscape, while the newly formed hard-line Serbian nationalist “Guard of Tsar Lazar” anxiously waits on the northeastern sideline “with bullets,” the fate of Kosovo’s future could very well determine long-term stability (or lack thereof) in Europe’s forgotten and neglected backyard.
The Islamization of Kosovo, dating back to the conquest of Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1459 and the subsequent centuries-long conversion and “dhimmitude” techniques, has experienced a surge in potency over the last ten years.
Excerpted
http://religion-and-policy.blogspot.com/2007/07/policy-implications-of-kosovos-growing.html
Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 117 in Northern Iraq
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G5tOcKHCUIE
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687360.ece
Their April story on the “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” threat has been validated.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2042342.ece
From The Sunday Times
July 8, 2007
Car bombs are linked with Iraq’s Al-Qaeda
David Leppard (excerpt)
AT least one of the suspects being quizzed over the alleged plot to set off car bombs in Britain was in recent contact with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, senior security officials said yesterday.
Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command SO15 is understood to have uncovered evidence that in the months leading up to the attacks one or more of the suspects communicated by telephone or e-mail with terrorist leaders in Iraq.
The development has fuelled a theory that the failed attacks in London and Glasgow were designed as a farewell to Tony Blair to punish him for his role in Iraq. Details of the Al-Qaeda role in the three failed car bombings are expected to emerge over the next few days.
The development suggests that intelligence received by MI5 earlier this year about a possible Al-Qaeda attack to mark Blair’s departure was accurate. A report in April by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) warned that a senior Iraqi Al-Qaeda commander had outlined details of a big attack on Britain.
The report said the commander “stressed the need to take care to ensure the attack was successful and on a large scale”. It was aimed “ideally” to take place before Blair stepped down. It said JTAC, which is based at MI5’s London headquarters, was “aware that AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq] . . . networks are active in the UK”.
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In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda Bombmaker Typified Resilient Network
Saturday, July 7, 2007
CASABLANCA, Morocco -- On March 6, Moroccan police surrounded a cybercafe here and arrested a fugitive who many people assumed had fled the country or was dead. Saad al-Houssaini, known as "the Chemist" because of his scientific training and bombmaking skills, had vanished four years earlier after he was accused of helping to organize the deadliest terrorist attack in Moroccan history.
It turned out that Houssaini hadn't gone anywhere. Since 2003, according to Moroccan police documents, he had remained underground in Casablanca as he rebuilt a terrorist operative network and recruited fighters to go to Iraq. He also spent time honing his bombmaking techniques, designing explosives belts that investigators believe were used in a string of suicide attacks this spring, including one that targeted the U.S. Consulate in this North African port city.
"The Chemist" provides a vivid example of how veteran members of al-Qaeda's central command have continued to plot major terrorist attacks around the world, particularly in Europe, North Africa and Iraq, despite the capture or deaths of many of the network's top operatives since Sept. 11, 2001. His long underground career demonstrates the limits of stepped-up anti-terrorism cooperation between governments in the past five years -- Houssaini, now 38, eluded not just Moroccan authorities but intelligence agents from France, Spain and the United States who feared he was involved with sleeper cells in Europe.
Excerpted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602304.html?hpid=topnews
ISLAMABAD. A senior Pakistani army commando died early Sunday after being shot by Islamic militants besieged in the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the country's military spokesman said.
Colonel Tariq Islam was leading overnight operations against the radical mosque, which has been in a violent standoff with government troops for six days, when he was shot several times. He died in a nearby army hospital.
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n116661
Al-Qaeda Evil Is Spreading Like A Virus
July 7, 2007
Terrorist cells are spreading across the UK so fast that an MI5 security map pinpointing them has "gone off the scale." The shocking updated map — showing hotspots of extremist groups — has now extended into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And in the wake of the London and Glasgow car bomb bids, one senior security source told the News of the World: "Cells are popping up everywhere.
"There are now so many people of interest to us that the MI5 map's red zones are merging into one another. "The frustrating thing is that we cannot keep them all under surveillance. It's really only a matter of time before one slips through the net and we get another bomb attempt."
As our terrifying map shows, the biggest hotspot is the West Midlands with more than 80 terror cells monitored. Surprisingly, that's nearly twice as many as London which has around 35 suspect groups.
Most regions now appear under threat. Leeds, Bradford and Manchester have around 60 cells being watched, while Merseyside has another 20 cells. Wales has 10 terror groups, Scotland 12 and Northern Ireland two. Security chiefs believe terrorists are moving into quiet towns and villages to evade MI5's radar.
Our source said: "This map really gets across how terrorism is a national problem which affects the entire country. "People are wrong to assume that London is the only place under threat. This has been proved by the events of the last few days. "Terror cells are reaching every corner of the UK — everyone should be aware of that." Each cell involves dozens of individuals — and the number of people thought to have links to terrorism is said to have DOUBLED in the last two years.
Hundreds of people are under MI5 surveillance and thousands more are being monitored Existence of the MI5 map was first confirmed two years ago by Inspector of Constabulary Denis O'Connor, who called for smaller English police forces to be amalgamated to combat the menace. He said: "I'm confident these problems are more widespread than just a few cities."
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news2.shtml
“Al-Qaeda Evil Is Spreading Like A Virus”
Yes.
A SUICIDE truck bomber ripped the heart out of a northern Iraqi village today, killing at least 105 people and demolishing dozens of homes and shops, police and medics said.
Ambulances and private cars ferried dozens of bloodied corpses and wounded civilians to clinics in the nearby town of Tuz Khurmatu and the provincial capital Kirkuk, where desperate relatives waited for news of the missing.
Officials were stunned by the scale of the blast, which devastated the main market in Emerli, a small rural community of people from Iraq's Shiite Turkmen minority living in an area notorious for al-Qaeda militants.
Excerpted
http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,22049,22037458-5012771,00.html
Radicalism heating up in the Caribbean
Monday, June 4th 2007
WASHINGTON - From Argentina to Haiti, the rise of radical Islam in the Caribbean and Latin America is alarming U.S. counterterror officials and leaders in the region, who say the JFK bomb plot should be a wakeup call. All four suspects in the plot had ties to the region. Two were arrested in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, including ex-Guyanese lawmaker Abdul Kadir.
Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials confirmed fears that Islamists in Trinidad and Tobago could turn the nation "into another Mogadishu," referring to the Somali capital ruled until last year by Islamic fundamentalists with Al Qaeda ties. "Trinidad and Tobago have been a high concern for us since the late 1980s," said Michael Scheuer, who created the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit in 1996. Scheuer said the Caribbean is not home to major terror groups aside from Trinidad's Jamaat al Muslimeen, but a "loose-knit" confederation of extremists have found it easy to move around the tourist-friendly islands.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the Caribbean is a region "of increasing concern to us. It's an area we should take a closer look at." "What happened in New York was very educational," a former Caribbean leader told the Daily News. Muslim extremists in Trinidad and Tobago pose a "growing danger" to Prime Minister Patrick Manning's government, he noted. But it is strife-torn Haiti that is considered "the weakest point in the area," said the former leader, who asked not to be identified.
Before 9/11, intelligence services reported that Palestinians possibly involved in terror strikes against Israel used Haiti to lie low, he said. And suddenly, in recent years, a surprising number of mosques have sprouted up in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Haiti is predominantly Catholic. "We don't understand why there are so many mosques in Haiti," the former leader said.
In Latin America, most attention of U.S. counterterror agents is focused on Argentina, its notorious border with Paraguay and Brazil, and northern Chile. But the FBI has only about 25 legal attachés, called legates, positioned in embassies throughout the Americas, a source said. Two G-men based in Trinidad's Port-of-Spain led efforts to nab the JFK plotters.
"The threat in South America is growing," said a top counterterror manager. "Lebanese Hezbollah is gaining a real foothold there." Most of Hezbollah's efforts there are aimed at fund-raising rather than plotting attacks, sources said. But there have been exceptions. In 1992, terrorists believed connected to Hezbollah blew up the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and killed 29 people. Two years later, another bomb at a Jewish aid group's offices slaughtered 85.
Last March, five Iranians and one key Hezbollah operative, Imad Fayez Mugniyah, were targeted for the 1994 bombing in an Interpol "red notice," which alerts all law enforcement that there are warrants for their arrest.
In the mid-1990s, the CIA disrupted a plot by Middle Eastern terror group Gama'a al-Islamiya to strike in its native Egypt. The group's spiritual leader, Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the "Blind Sheik," was convicted of plotting to destroy New York City landmarks in 1995. "The order to attack Egypt came out of the tri-border area," an intelligence source said.
Venezuela's close ties to Iran - which supports Hezbollah - have also drawn scrutiny, particularly when President Hugo Chavez recently announced direct flights with a visa waiver program from Caracas to Tehran and Damascus. "That's not for tourism - they have all the sunshine they need over there," a counterterrorism official said. "Obviously, there are a large number of people going back and forth."
Venezuela's neighbor Guyana also is home to many who have accepted scholarships to study in Iran. "It's something we want to watch very closely," said the former Caribbean leader.
Good article and map.
Thanks Oorang.
Thanks to all linkers/researchers. Outstanding thread.
PESHAWAR: The Frontier police was put on maximum alert following warnings by security agencies of possible suicide attacks on important government installations, senior officials and politicians, official sources told Daily Times on Saturday.
“Two Uzbeks with explosive-laden belts are planning suicide attacks,” the officials quoted security agencies as informing the government. However, the security agencies have not yet been able to identify the bombers’ targets. Security was increased around government offices in general and offices of law enforcement agencies in particular in Peshawar and no private car was allowed to park in parking areas of several government buildings.
“The bomber who hit the military convoy in Bannu on Wednesday, killing six soldiers, was Uzbek. The attack on another army convoy in Dir district on Friday in which four soldiers including a major and a lieutenant were killed was conducted by a timed device,” the official said, asking not to be named. The warning comes following NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai’s demand from the tribesmen to identify Wednesday’s bomber. “Under the law and tribal tradition, the tribal people are under obligation to maintain law and order in the area,” the governor told a jirga of clerics and elders from Bannu at Governor’s House.
According to a communiqué, the governor expressed anger at the attack on the military convoy in Bannu. He asked the jirga members not to shelter foreigners. “Law and order is deteriorating in North Waziristan and the Utmanzai elders have to critically review the ongoing situation and find a solution,” he said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/07/08/story_8-7-2007_pg7_21
Capital sealed for fear of suicide attacks (Pakistan)
Sunday, July 08, 2007
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad administration sealed the capital early on Saturday to avoid possible suicide attacks. Policemen have been deployed at all entry and exit points of the city and they have been ordered to check all vehicles and people thoroughly before allowing them into the capital. About 10 to 15 policemen are manning each entry and exit points and four-member teams have been formed to patrol the areas close to Rawalpindi, especially Sector I. Daily Times learnt that intelligence agencies have informed the Interior Ministry that there is a possibility of suicide attacks in the city in reaction to the Lal Masjid operation.
Policemen have been deployed at markets, important buildings and other public places. Gates of several police stations were closed and visitors were being thoroughly checked before they entered the buildings.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/07/08/story_8-7-2007_pg7_8
Security forces dynamite Lal Masjid wall
Sunday, July 08, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Security forces besieging the Lal Masjid late on Saturday blew up part of the wall of the compound, a security official said, AFP reported. There was also an intense exchange of fire before midnight between security forces and militants holed up inside the mosque complex, the official said. “Security forces dynamited the wall to allow people inside to come out if they want to,” he told AFP. People inside the compound who wished to leave risked being shot by hardline students if they attempted to climb the wall, which is seven to eight feet high, he said. Breaching the wall also gave security forces a clearer picture of what was happening, he added.
Security forces blew up another section of the wall early Sunday with the deafening blasts heard several kilometres away. “There has been another round of intense firing but there have been no casualties on the security forces’ side,” the official said. An AFP photographer at the scene said heavy firing between the security forces and the militants continued for more than 45 minutes late Saturday with several bullets hitting the walls of several houses.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao warned Ghazi Abdul Rashid to let the hostage children come out otherwise he would be held responsible for any harm to them. A source at the mosque told AFP that one student was killed in the battle lasting around an hour. The official death toll from five days of fighting stands at 19.
Staff report adds: Earlier in the day, the security forces increased their presence in Sub-Sector G-6/1 and erected sandbag bunkers in front of the main street after gunshots were fired from a nearby mosque. The incident, which could not be confirmed by independent sources, took place in the morning as the curfew was relaxed from 8:00 to 9:30 am to allow local residents to go to their offices and buy food. Security sources told Daily Times that 13 people had been arrested for violating the curfew in G-6/2. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz chaired a meeting where he directed security forces to exercise restraint to minimise the loss of life. He also formed a three-member committee to supervise the situation.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/07/08/story_8-7-2007_pg1_3
Thank you PGalt.
July is going to be a very, very busy month, so this thread should be really interesting, in my opinion.
Syria’s request that its citizens return home as well as Syria’s insistence that there will be a war this summer with Israel makes me wonder about the following hypothesis.
Syria is too weak to win a war against Israel without some advantage. That advantage could be a serious terror strike against Israel that would shock Israel, causing Syria to have a greater chance of success in attacking Israel. Better yet for Syria, if an independent terror group initiates that strike Israel will not know who to blame before Syria attacks. Finally, Syria’s motive for having all citizens return home could be the most chilling point of the coming war. The terror attack may in fact be biological, thus forcing Syria to take preemptive counter measures. Secure their own border and close it so that no biological agent (maybe small pox) comes back into their country.
There is a chance that it could happen.
UPDATE - Breaking news:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22037487-1702,00.html
This story is from our news.com.au network Source: NEWS.com.au
“Car bomb ‘to be detonated from Australia’”
By staff writers and wires
July 08, 2007
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “SUSPECTS linked to the foiled car bomb attacks in London allegedly planned to blow up the devices using mobile phones in Australia, a British newspaper has reported.
Eight people, including Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef in Australia, are still being held by police for questioning in relation to last week’s two bomb attack attempts in central London and another at Glasgow Airport.
The British tabloid Daily Star today reported that during their investigations police had allegedly uncovered a plan to detonate one of the car bombs outside a London nightclub from Australia.
“They intended to blow it up by remote control - by calling mobile phones in the car,” the newspaper said.”
REMINDER everyone. We are still updating this ongoing thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1682087/posts
“Looking for Map of Cell Phone Purchases”
self | August 11, 2006 | madison10
Posted on 08/11/2006 3:01:13 PM PDT by madison10
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/2067.htm
“Saudi Cartoon On Doctors Who Plan Terror Attacks”
(”Sources: Arab News, Saudi Arabia; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, July 6, 2007”)
It seems apparent that Iran and Syria are preparing to provoke a crisis. There are a multitude of ways that can be done, but however and wherever it starts, it will ultimately involve Syria and then Iran.
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