NORTH AMERICA
Homegrown U.S. terrorist sent to prison
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/21/Homegrown_US_terrorist_sent_to_prison/UPI-68091216683932/
Published: July 21, 2008 at 7:45 PM
SANTA ANA, Calif., July 21 (UPI) — A California terrorist who plotted to wage war against the United States was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena was part of a domestic terrorist cell that intended to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S. military facilities, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets and “infidels,” the U.S. Justice Department said.
Another member of the cell, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. The men had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last December to conspiring to wage war against the United States.
The man who organized the terror cell — Kevin James — also has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced Feb. 9.
A fourth alleged member — Hammad Samana — has been found unfit to stand trial and is receiving psychiatric care at a federal prison facility.
James created Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh while in California’s New Folsom Prison in 1997. Washington and Patterson conducted about a dozen armed robberies of gas stations to get money for the group’s planned attacks in the Los Angeles area, Justice Department officials said. Their targets allegedly included the Los Angeles airport, the Israeli consulate, Army recruiting centers and a military base at Manhattan Beach, prosecutors said.
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US kids in Taliban-backed madarsas in Pak
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080056895&ch=7/14/2008%201:53:00%20AM#
Press Trust of India
Sunday, July 13, 2008 (Islamabad)
A Pakistani filmmaker has launched a campaign to secure the release of 78 American teenagers from a Taliban-backed madarsa in the country and asked the US to step in to check students enrolment in radical seminaries to close ‘’the pipeline to jihad’’.
Imran Raza, who helped secure the release of two US teenagers of Pakistani origin, found up to 80 other such boys and girls in Karachi-based Jamia Binoria madarsa while shooting Karachi Kids a documentary on American children in Pakistan’s seminaries that will be released next week.
Raza’s film focuses on Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, the two brothers from Atlanta who were forced to study at Jamia Binoria.
When he met them three years ago, the brothers wanted to take the ‘’first plane back to America’’.
Three years later, the boys had been ‘’brainwashed’’ and said the madarsa had made them ‘’better human beings’’.
The siblings, who were enrolled in Jamia Binoria, considered one of the most radical seminaries in Pakistan, in August 2004, were well into their high school years when they were sent to Pakistan by their father.
‘’I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children to Atlanta from a Taliban-backed madarsa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the US once a year and personally recruits
Children brainwashed
American children to enrol in his madrassa,’’ Raza said in a statement on his website shortly after the release of the Khan brothers two days ago.
‘’The remaining 78 children must be returned to the US. This pipeline to jihad must be closed....It is imperative that members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madarsas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind,’’ Raza said.
Raza’s documentary Karachi Kids has been getting rave reviews and he is also running a campaign on his website karachikids.com asking people to help ‘’spread the word’’.
He encourages Internet surfers to display a Karachi Kids Banner on their blogs or join an affiliate programme to help free other American children of Pakistani descent who are still at madarsas.
Raza decided to make the documentary shortly after it was found that three of the four suicide bombers who carried out bombings in London were British nationals of Pakistani descent and two attended madarsas in Pakistan.
US-based Raza has since been joined by many others in his campaign. US Congressman Michael McCaul personally urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to help free the Khan brothers and have them returned to the US.
McCaul is also calling for the return of others children like them.
The NGO South Asia Foundation for Educational Reform has been floated to raise global awareness about madarsas, specifically their growing attraction to and recruitment of Americans and boys from other Western nations.
SAFER is focused on the growing number of American youngsters, predominantly of Pakistani descent, being sent by their parents to madarsas in their ancestral homeland.
Jamia Binoria prominently displays a banner supporting the Taliban and it is documented that Osama bin Laden spoke to students at Jamia Binoria before the 9/11 attacks.
‘’Another distinguishing feature of Binoria is that it is known to recruit Americans most aggressively, probably for their fluency in English which will help them ‘hide’ back in American society when they are graduated,’’ wrote Bernard Kerik, the contributing editor of FamilySecurityMatters.org, who has also joined Raza’s campaign.
‘’It is believed that there are another 600 American boys currently being educated in 22 madarsas throughout Pakistan... They are known to mass-produce extremists with a political agenda, including a cripplingly narrow view of society and zero tolerance of western culture. They radicalize Muslim youth and are seminaries for violent jihad.’’
In a trailer for Raza’s documentary, the headmaster of Jamia Binoria states, ‘’We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others.
‘’That is why I’m appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them and they will go back to their home countries and do the work and make people understand.’’
More than 100 American children have already graduated from his indoctrination programme.
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U.S. Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/terrorism_watch_list/2008/07/14/112760.html
Monday, July 14, 2008 7:47 PM
WASHINGTON - A U.S. watch list of terrorism suspects has passed 1 million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said on Monday the number was far too high to be effective.
The Bush administration disagreed and called the list one of the most effective tools implemented after the September 11 hijacked plane attacks — when a federal “no-fly” list contained just 16 people considered threats to aviation.
The American Civil Liberties Union publicized the 1 million milestone with a news conference and release.
It said the watch list was an impediment to millions of travelers and called for changes, including tightening criteria for adding names, giving travelers a right to challenge their inclusion and improving procedures for taking wrongly included names off the list.
“America’s new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought,” ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a release.
President George W. Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watchlists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI, through a Terrorist Screening Center.
Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration “no-fly” or “selectee” lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.
Critics have pointed to troubles that figures such as U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1960s civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and singer Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) have had with watch lists as evidence the consolidated database is poorly managed.
The Terrorism Screening Center, which maintains the list, has already put in place several steps to ensure the list is accurate and up-to-date, spokesman Chad Kolton said.
He cited a report last year by the Government Accountability Office that said there was general agreement within the federal government that the watch list had helped to combat terrorism.
“The list is very effective. In fact it’s one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has,” he said.
About 400,000 individuals are included on the list, about 95 percent of whom are not U.S. citizens or residents, Kolton said. The watch list also includes separate entries with aliases, fake passports and fake birth dates, bringing the total number of records to more than 1 million, he said.
TSA spokesman Christopher White said the agency’s “no-fly” watchlists to screen travelers were “scrubbed” last year to remove about half of the names, leaving them with somewhat fewer than 50,000.
He said Kennedy and Lewis were never on the list, and that problems they reported were due to their misidentification with names properly on it.
© 2008 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
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Chertoff: European Terrorists Trying to Enter U.S.
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/terrorists_european_enter/2008/07/17/113933.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:40 PM
WASHINGTON - European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
Chertoff’s comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January — all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists.
In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al-Qaida and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road.
“The terrorists are deliberately focusing on people who have legitimate Western European passports, who don’t appear to have records as terrorists,” Chertoff told lawmakers. “I have a good degree of confidence we can catch people coming in. But I have to tell you ... there’s no guarantee. And they are working very hard to slip by us.”
Chertoff and other intelligence officials have delivered similar warnings before, and he offered no new information about specific threats or an imminent attack.
Chertoff reiterated his concern that terrorists could sneak radiological material into the country on small boats or private aircraft. This material could be used to create an explosive device known as a “dirty bomb.”
The Homeland Security Department has a strategy to protect against this small boat vulnerability and is testing radiation detection equipment in Seattle and San Diego ports.
Chertoff said that getting out a regulation to prescreen and enhance security of general aviation aircraft coming to the U.S. from overseas is one of his top priorities.
He also said he expects to approve new radiation detection technology this fall.
Responding to a question from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, Chertoff dismissed any rumor that he is on a list of potential running mates for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Chertoff quipped that the only list he has for next year is a list of vacations.
Chertoff’s term as the country’s second Homeland Security Secretary ends when a new administration takes over the White House in January.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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GAO Warns of ‘Dirty Bomb’ Threat
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/gao_dirty_bomb_threat/2008/07/15/113176.html
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:59 PM
The Government Accountability Office has raised concerns over so-called “dirty bombs,” saying the U.S. is taking too long to secure radioactive materials that could get into terrorists’ hands.
A GAO report states: “Radioactive sealed sources, which are commonly used throughout the world for a variety of purposes, are radioactive materials sealed in a capsule or permanently bonded in a solid form. These sealed sources are used in medicine and in the oil and gas, electric power, construction, and food industries.
“For example, devices containing radioactive sealed sources are used to diagnose and treat millions of patients each year, sterilize items such as medical instruments and food, and detect flaws in the metal welds in pipelines. Currently, about 2 million sealed sources are licensed for use in the United States.
“Since terrorists attacked the United States in 2001, concerns have grown that they could obtain and use sealed sources to build a “dirty bomb” — a type of radiological dispersal device (RDD) that uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material.”
Experts believe a dirty bomb attack would be confined to a small area, but could have a significant psychological effect and serious economic consequences due to cleanup problems, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The GAO found that new requirements aimed at securing radioactive materials are more than three years behind schedule.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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Saudi “Charities” and the War Against America
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B164102B-EAB6-4407-9263-D2C34C43D838
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Alex Alexiev, vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy.
FP: Alex Alexiev, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Alexiev: Thank you, Jamie, It’s always a pleasure to chat with you.
FP: The U.S. government recently designated the infamous Saudi Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as a terror financier. Tell us about Al Haramain.
Alexiev: Well, there is a lot to tell and a lot has been written about it already in the counterterrorism blog and elsewhere for those who want more detailed information. Indeed, the 9/11 Commission had a separate case study dedicated to it, but here it is in a nutshell:
The Al -Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) is one of the three largest Saudi front organizations active in the support of terrorism going back many years, and has been involved in the funding of Al Qaeda, the bombing of the American embassies in Africa and all manner of jihadist activities in Pakistan, the Balkans, Chechnia, Kashmir and elsewhere. But it will be a mistake to think of it simply as a terrorism enabler. It is even more important as a key player in funding and promoting the hateful Wahhabi/Salafi creed and the seditious shariah doctrine worldwide including in the United States.
Here are just a few figures that will give you a sense of the magnitude of these efforts. Before we moved against it, it had 50 offices around the world and operated out of Saudi embassies in another 40 countries. An official Saudi source claimed in December 2000 that it had built 1100 mosques and Islamic centers, employed 3000 proselytizers and published 13 million Islamic books.
And the most important thing about it is that contrary to countless Saudi denials, AHIF is a Saudi state-sponsored, funded and run organization. In other words, whatever it did was Saudi state policy. This is a reality that our government refuses to acknowledge even when it tries to do something about it, as, for instance, when it designated as terrorist two offices of AHIF in March of 2002, even as it labeled it misleadingly as “private, charitable and educational.”
It is important to document this briefly, because the Saudis continue to lie blatantly about their sponsorship of this and other subversive ‘charities.’ The reason AHIF operated out of Saudi embassies in many countries, as mentioned, is because it is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which maintains sizable sections in most of these embassies. Indeed, the minister of Islamic affairs is always the chairman of AHIF’s highest organ, the Administrative Council, ex-officio. This is admitted even by Al-Haramain officials, such as the top guy in the closed AHIF office in Ashland, Oregon, Al-Buthe, who called the Islamic Affairs Ministry the “patron” of AHIF.
It is also the case that Al-Haramain and the other key Saudi fronts derive most of their funding directly from state coffers. For example, in November of 2002, nearly eight months after the kingdom allegedly agreed to close down two branches of AHIF in conjunction with the U.S., a Saudi newspaper reported on a fundraising meeting for Al-Haramain and others in the presence of then-Crown Prince Abdullah and other Saudi bigwigs, at which it was reported that the Saudi government covers 80% of the charities’ total expenditures, as well as 80% of the cost of building their headquarters.
By the way, Jamie, if you know how their ‘private’ fund raising is organized, you’d realize that it’s private in name only. Here is how it’s done. A powerful member of the House of Saud sets up and chairs a fund raiser at which moneyed interests are invited and urges the assembled to support the noble efforts of whatever ‘charity’ is involved and writes a fat check himself. It is an invitation that few can afford not to follow in a country where the economic well-being of the elite depends on whether or not they’re in the good graces of the royal family.
FP: Are there any other Saudi organizations that deserve to be designated?
Alexiev: Of course, I have followed about a dozen myself and there are hundreds of others I know very little about. All told, Saudi sources speak of anywhere between 240 and 265 Islamic charities active in the Kingdom and outside of it.
The largest and most active in terrorism funding and spreading hate against us, apart from Al-Haramain, are the Muslim World League (MWL) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). A fourth large and active terror enabler, called the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) is actually a department of MWL and should not be considered a separate organization.
Just like AHIF, all of them are both documented supporters of terrorist activities and Saudi state-sponsored entities that should have been designated and closed down years ago. The MWL, for instance, through a subsidiary in Pakistan called the Rabita Trust, played an indispensible role in the founding of Al Qaeda. The fact that we have allowed these outfits to engage in open subversion against us with complete impugnity is a graphic example of our failure to even acknowledge who our real enemies are in this war.
FP: What do you think of the U.S. move on Al Haramain? Why so late and why unilaterally? What does this mean for the war on terror?
Alexiev: Well, moving to close down Al-Haramain is, of course, a positive step, but in my view it’s also a case of too little too late and serves to demonstrate the abysmal failure of this administration to fess up to the fact that our ‘strategic ally’ Saudi Arabia is a sworn enemy of the United States. Let’s not forget that we’re nearing the 7th anniversary of 9/11and it has been more than six years after our first timid effort to curtail the subversive activities of AHIF in March of 2002. During all this time we did nothing except very meekly try to talk the Saudis into cooperation. The modus operandi of this administration vis a vis the Saudis seems to be “speak softly and carry no stick.”
Yet, it was clear very early on that they had no intention to do anything but play us for a sucker. Not only did they refuse to do anything, but they actually told us off repeatedly in fairly direct and insulting terms. For instance, in September 2002, Aqeel al-Aqeel, the chairman of Al-Haramain and a man who’s alleged to have personally smuggled millions of dollars to terrorist groups, boasted in the Saudi press that “America has tried to establish a link between terrorism and Saudi charitable societies and failed,” while an official Saudi media organ claimed that the charges leveled against Saudi charities like Al-Haramain by the U.S. Treasury were “politically motivated and orchestrated by Christian neo-conservatives and their Zionist allies.”
The reason this long overdue step was finally unilaterally is probably due to the fact that the evidence of Al-Haramain’s misdeeds is and has been for a long time incontrovertible. It could also be the case that the USG people involved became worried that when the evidence eventually sees the light of day after the Bush Administration is gone, as it inevitable will, it will look like they were either extraordinarily incompetent or else went to extraordinary lengths to protect the Saudis. Either way, there is no doubt that questions will be asked.
FP: Does this mean that Washington is finally taking a tougher stance toward Riyadh?
Alexiev: I wish I could believe that, but frankly I can’t. There is just too much evidence that vested interests in Washington were keen on shielding the Saudis from having to account for their misdeeds.
FP: Can you give us some examples of how the Bush administration has shielded the Saudis? Some critics have alleged that even the findings of the 9/11 commission were politically interfered with to whitewash Saudi involvement. Any truth to that?
Alexiev: I firmly believe that the 9/11 Commission did a pitiful job of explaining to the American people what actually happened and its greatest failure by far was its conclusion that the Saudis had nothing to do with Al Qaeda and 9/11. If you look at what the Saudis do when accused of enabling terrorism, as for example in an ongoing lawsuit against them in Philladelphia, they invariably use this 9/11 Commission finding as their key defense. Yet, anybody that is half-way familiar with how Al-Qaeda came into being and with the involvement of Saudi charities like the ones discussed above and key players like Wael Julaidan, Adil Batterji and the Golden Chain characters would have to consider such a conclusion as bordering on outright disinformation. Especially because some of the USG information available to the commission and footnoted in the report, like the USG Evidentiary Proffer in the Enaam Arnout/Benevolence International case, simply precludes such a conclusion.
Now, I’m not the first to suspect political interference with the 9/11 Report and former democratic Senator Graham, who was a co-chair of the Congressional Joint-Inquiry Commission, among others, is on record with direct accusations against the Bush Administration along these lines. In the meantime, new information has come to light that makes such suspicions ever more justified. A while ago, a Czech translator, of all people, was able to get the FBI timeline on which the 9/11 Commission report was based released through the Freedom of Information Act. In a direct contradiction to the 9/11 Report, the timeline claims that the two Saudi highjackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, were picked up in L.A. by a suspected Saudi agent named Omar al-Bayoumi and stayed with him in San Diego from the moment they arrived. This directly contradicts the 9/11 report which claims that they spent two weeks in L.A. and eventually bumped into Bayoumi by sheer chance. If the former is the truth, as the FBI Timeline and all available evidence confirms, the highjackers had a well organized Saudi-run support system waiting for them the minute they came to America. By the way, telephone logs show that during the time he hosted the terrorists, Bayoumi made hundreds of calls to the Saudi embassy in D.C. and Saudi consulates in California. What do you think they discussed; the weather in San Diego?
There is yet another more than curious tidbit that ties into this. The minute Bayoumi started taking care of the eventual suicide pilots, his monthly retainer from a company in Saudi Arabia for which he did no work, more than doubled and he also started receiving money indirectly from the wife of the illustrious Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar. The fact that the 9/11 Report did not dwell on this speaks for itself. This is the kind of stuff that makes people believe in conspiracies.
FP: You have written and testified to Congress that you consider Saudi Arabia to be the main state sponsor and financial enabler of radical Sunni Islam, while the U.S. government considers it a “strategic ally.” Can you provide some evidence to back up your claim?
Alexiev: This is a fairly time-consuming exercise but let me just say this. Since 1973, Saudi Arabia has spent no less than $100 billion trying to undermine the West by promoting radical Islamism and hatred against our values and way of life. It has succeeded in dominating most of the Muslim establishment in Europe and America and imposing its hateful views on a large section of the Muslim population and dominating most of what passes as the Muslim establishment in this country. Most of our officials are clueless of this state of affairs, even in places like the Pentagon and Homeland Security, to say nothing of the FBI, and, more often than not, get their advice on matters Muslim from radical Islamist organizations like CAIR, ISNA, MAS, MSA etc. In fact, it has now gotten to the point where the FBI is asking CAIR, an organization which has a number of its high officials in jail for terrorist activities, to provide Islamic sensitivity training to their agents. The malignant political correctness and multicultural inanities that rule the land nowadays certainly have something to do with it, but the Bush Administration must share much of the responsibility for this dismal state of affairs.
FP: If your claim that U.S. appeasement of people who wish us ill is true, how has this affected our conduct of the war on terror?
Alexiev: It has affected it dramatically and much to our detriment. Despite the great successes of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re losing the war on terror. We’re losing it because we’re not in a war against terrorism, which is simply a symptom of a deeper malignancy, but in a war against barbarism in the form of a murderous medieval doctrine that seeks nothing short of the destruction of our civilization. Worse, we have declared those that work feverishly to accomplish that, our strategic allies. It boggles the mind! We’re losing this war against barbarism also because we’re in the process of transferring much of our wealth in the coffers of the enemy by becoming totally dependent on the oil of these parasitic rentiers who will soon be richer than we’re if this continues. Take a look at Wall Street’s enthusiastic reception of shariah finance, which aims at nothing less then the legitimization of shariah barbarism in the West, and you’ll see how far we’ve gone down that slippery slope.
FP: How can the American people get to the bottom of what you make sound like a conspiracy?
Alexiev: I think what needs to be done and I trust that sooner or later it will be done, is a congressional investigation of the 9/11 Commission findings and who made it possible for the Saudis to engage in openly subversive behavior against this country and get away with it. It would be great if this were to become an election issue. Beyond that we need to realize once and for all that what our enemies are doing has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with political sedition in a concerted effort to overthrow our constitutional order. We have laws against that and it is high time we stopped tolerating it
FP: What are your policy recommendations for us to get out of this mess?
Alexiev: Well, I have only one and it’s not really a policy recommendation but a wish. I wish that the American people would wake up and realize the nature of the threat this nation is facing. Our leaders show very little understanding of it. On the one hand you have an outgoing administration that, in my view, has come close to dereliction of duty in identifying and confronting our real enemies and on the other, the real possibility of a democratic administration of hard left sympathies that have traditionally proven to be willing water-carriers for the Islamists. McCain has made the right noises in identifying radical Islam as the real threat, but it is not clear at all that he really understands the problem either. Americans must finally start asking the hard questions they need to have answered in the next few months.
FP: Alex Alexiev, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.
Alexiev: Thank you, Jamie.
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US, Armenia sign deal to fight nuclear smuggling
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Armenia_sign_deal_to_fight_nuclear_smuggling_999.html
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) July 14, 2008
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed a deal Monday to fight the smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials, the State Department said.
The deal significantly boosts joint US-Armenian “efforts to combat the threat that nuclear or highly radioactive materials could be acquired by terrorists or others who would use them to harm us,” it said in a statement.
The agreement spells out the US-Armenian intention to cooperate to boost Armenia’s capabilities “to prevent, detect, and respond effectively to attempts to smuggle nuclear or radioactive materials,” the department added.
“It specifies twenty-eight agreed steps that the two governments intend to be taken for this purpose.”
The statement said Armenia will be able to take some of the steps on its own, but would receive either US or international assistance in implementing other measures, it said.
“This assistance would complement and be carefully coordinated with the aid the Republic of Armenia is already receiving from various US and international assistance programs,” it added.
The State Department said the agreement is the fifth of its kind concluded by the US government’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, with previous ones completed with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the Kyrgyz Republic.
“The US government intends to conclude similar agreements with approximately twenty additional countries where the risk of nuclear smuggling is of particular concern.”
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INTERNATIONAL
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The Long War Journal: “More than 100 terror camps” in operation in northwestern Pakistan
Written by Bill Roggio on July 11, 2008 9:05 AM to The Long War Journal
Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/07/more_than_100_terror.php
Osama bin Laden escorted by the Black Guard. Click image to view.
Al Qaeda continues to grow its network and expand its capabilities in northwestern Pakistan, US military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. The peace agreements have given the Taliban and al Qaeda time and space to re-establish their networks, which pose a threat not only to Pakistan, but the West as well.
Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied terrorists groups, collectively called al Qaeda and allied movements, or AQAM, by some in US military and intelligence circles, has set up a series of camps throughout the tribal areas and in the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. “More than 100” terror camps of varying sizes and types are currently in operation in the region, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. As of the summer of 2007, 29 terror camps were known to be operating in North and South Waziristan alone.
Some camps are devoted to training the Taliban’s military arm, some train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, some focus on training the various Kashmiri terror groups, some train al Qaeda operatives for attacks in the West, and one serves as a training ground the Black Guard, the elite bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. A US Special Forces raid against the Black Guard camp in Danda Saidgai in North Waziristan, Pakistan in March 2006 resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members of the Black Guard. Asad was the camp commander, a senior Chechen al Qaeda commander, and associate of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen al Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006.
The growth in the number of camps US intelligence officials said Pakistan is outpacing Iraq as the destination for recruits, The New York Times reported earlier this week. Iraq is now seen as a lost cause by jihadists while Pakistan is now seen as al Qaeda’s main effort. Recruits from Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East are heading to Pakistan.
Al Qaeda has also reformed Brigade 055, the infamous military arm of the terror group made up of Arab recruits. The unit is thought to be commanded by Shaikh Khalid Habib al Shami. Brigade 055 fought alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance and was decimated during the US invasion of Afghanistan. Several other Arab brigades have been formed, some consisting of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards, an intelligence official told The Long War Journal.
A strike in South Waziristan
The deteriorating situation in Pakistan’s tribal agencies is highlighted by the increased incidences of cross-border attacks over the past several months. Today, 11 Pakistanis, including nine soldiers, were wounded in an attack launched from Afghanistan into the lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan.
Conflicting reports exist on the nature of the attack, and there is no confirmation on who carried it out. An unnamed Pakistani official told Reuters that “about 60 rounds fell in Angoor Adda,” a town near Wana in South Waziristan. BBC reported more than 10 “shells” landed near a military outpost just hundreds of yards from the Afghan border. Xinhua and The News reported that the attack was conducted by US aircraft. The US military has not confirmed conducting an attack, but it rarely confirms such incidents.
The attack inside Pakistan appears to be a response to a Taliban attack on a base in Barmal in Paktika province in Afghanistan, according to several of the reports. In the past, the US military has conducted hot pursuit of Taliban forces as they flee across the border to Pakistan.
Afghan and Coalition forces have fought a series battles with the Taliban along the ill-defined border as Taliban have been attempting to overrun military bases and district centers in the region. US and Afghan forces have killed more than 200 Taliban fighters in the lopsided battles. Many of the Taliban attacks have been launched from inside North and South Waziristan in Pakistan.
The most controversial counterattack into Pakistan occurred as US forces engaged a Taliban force as it retreated from Afghanistan’s Kunar province across the border into Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal agency on June 10. The engagement sparked an international incident. The US confirmed it killed eight Taliban fighters, while the Pakistani government said 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed. The Pakistani government expressed outrage over the strike. But the incident sparked suspicions that the Pakistani paramilitary Frontier Corps either aided the Taliban or were part of the attack force.
The security situation in Pakistan’s tribal agencies has spiraled downward since the government negotiated peace agreements with the Taliban in North and South Waziristan in 2006 and throughout early 2007. The agreements gave the Taliban and al Qaeda time and space to consolidate their hold in the tribal areas and in some settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. The Taliban renewed their efforts to destabilize the Afghan government and boldly conducted a series of military attacks in northwestern Pakistan and a bloody suicide campaign in the major cities.
The new Pakistani government has reinitiated peace negotiations with the Taliban in the northwest. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.
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Al-Qaida Draws More Foreign Recruits to Afghan War
http://www.newsmax.com/international/afghanistan_foreign_jihadi_recruits/2008/07/17/113799.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:00 PM
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al-Qaida is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.
More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by al-Qaida as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say. For the past two months, Afghanistan has overtaken Iraq in deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and nine American soldiers were killed at a remote base in Kunar province Sunday in the deadliest attack in years.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul this month about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where a new government is trying to negotiate with militants.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, told The Associated Press that the U.S. is closely monitoring the flow of foreign fighters into both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jihadist Web sites from Chechnya to Turkey to the Arab world featured recruitment ads as early as 2007 calling on the “Lions of Islam” to fight in Afghanistan, said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. Williams has tracked the movement of jihadis for the U.S. military’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
Local Afghans in the border regions are increasingly concerned about the return of the “Araban” or “Ikhwanis,” as Arab fighters are known in the Pashtun language, Williams wrote in a CTC paper. He said there were rumors of hardened Arab fighters from Iraq training Afghan Pashtuns in the previously taboo tactic of suicide bombing.
Turkey also appears to have emerged as a source of recruits. Williams estimated as many as 100 Turks had made their way to Pakistan to join the fight in Afghanistan.
“The story of Turkish involvement in transnational jihadism is one of the best kept stories of the war on terror,” said Williams, who noted that al-Qaida videos posted on YouTube mention Turks engaging in the insurgency. “The local Afghans whom I talked to claim that the Turks and other foreigners are more prone to suicidal assaults than the local Taliban.”
Dozens of Turkish Islamic militants have trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and taken part in attacks there, said Emin Demirel, an anti-terrorism expert in Turkey. He said images of attacks on mosques or Muslim villages provide propaganda for recruiting young Turkish Muslims.
“Nowadays, they are effectively using the Internet to communicate with fellow militants, and police have difficulty in keeping tabs on several of the jihadist sites,” said Demirel, author of several books on Turkish Islamic militant groups. “Turkish courts sometimes locally block access to one particular site, but it is still accessed outside Turkey. Those Web sites eulogize fallen fighters as martyrs in order to recruit among radical Muslim youths.”
One example was Cuneyt Ciftci, the German-born son of Turkish immigrants, who took the Arabic nom de guerre of Saad Abu Furqan. In a video obtained last March by the AP, the 28-year-old was shown giving a final hug goodbye to some friends before blowing himself up outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan.
A Turkish news Web site, Uslanmam, said an Uzbek militant group called Islamic Jihad Union claimed responsibility and eulogized Ciftci as “the brave Turk who has left his luxury life in Germany and came here to go to paradise.”
Just a couple of weeks later, newspapers in Pakistan reported that four Turkish nationals with suspected links to al-Qaida had been arrested by authorities on a bus. They were found with explosives, ammunition and jihadi sites on their laptop computers.
A senior official in Turkey’s Interior Ministry said it has no information to corroborate claims of an increase in the number of Turks fighting in Afghanistan. The official asked not to be identified because Turkish rules bar civil servants from making statements to the press.
Al-Qaida’s recruitment drive stems from a slow and steady resurgence that started in 2002, according to Taliban sources.
“They are awake,” said Qari Mohammed Yusuf, who Afghan authorities confirm is a senior Taliban. “They have people going by different names to other countries. They are coming and going easily. In the last year, they have been organizing more day by day.”
Al-Qaida has financed the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, Yusuf told the AP. In the chaos created by the Taliban groups, al-Qaida has been able to steadily recruit, re-establish its public relations wing, plot new attacks and re-establish areas of operation on both sides of the border.
Some new recruits cross into Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province or through Iran into Herat province in western Afghanistan, said Nangyal Khosti, a commander loyal to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a wanted terrorist. Those from Iran have often trained in Iraq and are hardened insurgents. The recruits, Yusuf said, head to Afghanistan’s Paktika province, where there are roughly 150 Arab militants.
In Pakistan, al-Qaida recruits are sent to Waziristan and the lawless regions of the northwest along Afghanistan’s eastern border, Yusuf said.
Afghan and Western officials say a key route for al-Qaida recruits is from Central Asia into northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces, where former U.S. intelligence officials suspect Osama bin Laden is hiding. Both provinces border Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal area, where the Taliban hold sway and where the U.S. has targeted al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The hulking mountains of Kunar and Nuristan soar thousands of feet and are heavily forested, giving militants good cover. Kunar was the location of the war’s two deadliest attacks on U.S. soldiers _ on Sunday, with the killing of the nine Americans, and in June 2005, when militants shot down a helicopter and killed 16 soldiers.
Kunar and Nuristan are also the only areas in South Asia where the Wahhabi or Salafi strain of Islam dominates. Wahhabism is the main sect in Saudi Arabia and is followed by al-Qaida, while Afghanistan’s Islamic traditions are more Sufi and mystical in nature.
Naseer Ahmed al-Bahri, who was bin Laden’s bodybuard until 2000, told the AP in Yemen last year that al-Qaida has field commanders in countries from Indonesia to Senegal.
While al-Qaida may be sending most of its trainees to Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is probably also creating cells with the mission of attacking Western countries, including the United States, warned Erich Marquardt, senior editor with the Combating Terrorism Center.
“I think we have to accept the fact that al-Qaida has not taken its sights off the far enemy,” he said. “Al-Qaida recognizes that it is fighting in multiple theaters and is therefore likely training fighters for different areas of operation.”
___
Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Turkey and Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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China: More Islamic Terror Groups Busted
http://www.newsmax.com/international/china_terrorism/2008/07/16/113234.html
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 3:30 AM
BEIJING — Chinese authorities issued the latest in a flurry of claimed victories against Islamic terrorist groups Wednesday, as Beijing continues its crackdown on those it accuses of targeting next month’s Olympic Games.
Police in the city of Kashgar in the traditionally Muslim Xinjiang region so far this year have demolished a dozen terror cells linked to foreign-based organizations, the official China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday.
The report didn’t say how many people had been detained, but said members of the cells were mainly “jobless drifters or ex-convicts.”
Last week, authorities said they had detained 82 suspected Islamic terrorists and separatists in the first half of the year across Xinjiang. The suspects were engaged in plots targeting next month’s Beijing games, a police official was quoted as saying in state media. The official offered no details or evidence.
It wasn’t clear if any of the 82 detained were members of the Kashgar cells, word of which was released only on Wednesday. The report identified the groups involved as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, reportedly based along China’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan and linked to al-Qaida; and Hizb ut-Tahrir, which originated in the Middle East in the 1950s, and is banned in several countries.
Radicals among Xinjiang’s indigenous Turkic Uighur people have been fighting Chinese rule for decades, although critics say communist authorities fuel resentment in the region with harsh repression and strict rules governing cultural and religious expression.
Experts who study the region say ordinary criminals and nonviolent human rights campaigners are often labeled terrorists, while state media say raids target “illegal religious schools” and “jihad training centers.”
Media reports say at least seven terror suspects have been killed this year, while 18 were killed last year in a raid on a training base allegedly run by ETIM.
The reports follow human rights groups’ claims that authorities are ratcheting up security and repression ahead of the Aug. 8-24 games in an all-out attempt to shield the event from disruptions that could tarnish China’s carefully cultivated image of order and control.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23986257-38197,00.html
One dead in string of bomb blasts From correspondents in Karachi
July 08, 2008 05:42am
Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + -
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ONE person was killed and 37 others injured today in a string of six bomb blasts in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, raising tensions a day after a major suicide attack in the capital.
The Karachi explosions came in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed 19 people near a rally in Islamabad to mark the first anniversary of the bloody storming of the radical Red Mosque in the capital.
Pakistan’s new government is facing growing unrest just five months after defeating US-backed President Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections, with Islamist violence on the rise and political divisions growing.
“One person was killed and at least 30 injured in a series of low intensity bomb blasts in the Pashtun-dominated areas in Karachi,” police officer Mohammad Saqlain said, adding that seven children were among the wounded.
Hospital official Liaqat Memon later said 37 people were hurt.
Mr Musharraf condemned the blasts, saying the “despicable acts of terrorism were a conspiracy against the country and the people”, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but police said the blasts appeared to be small and aimed at raising tensions in the city, rather than major attacks.
“Apparently the purpose was to create panic in the city. There is also a possibility that these people who planted the bombs wanted to fan ethnic tensions in the city,” provincial police chief Babar Khattak said.
One of the blasts happened near a school, injuring several of the children. Another completely destroyed a car, leaving half a charred chassis and two wheels.
“It bewildered us all and we saw two of our friends injured. The blast sent concrete flying which damaged some motorcycles,” labourer Ali Shah said after another of the blasts in the city’s Banaras Chowk area.
Tension gripped several neighbourhoods affected by the bombs, with mobs pelting cars with stones, burning tyres and chanting anti-government slogans, an AFP reporter said.
Karachi has seen a number of attacks blamed on various Islamic militant and political groups since Pakistan joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001.
Ethnic tensions are also high between Pashtuns originally hailing from the north-western frontier region with Afghanistan and other groups.
The deadliest attack in Karachi’s history came in October 2007 when 139 people were killed in a double suicide bombing targeting the homecoming parade from exile of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto was killed by another suicide attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in December last year.
Pakistan is battling a resurgence in violence after a brief lull that was brought about by the government’s negotiations with Taliban militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, which it launched after coming to power.
In yesterday’s blast in Islamabad, a bomber blew himself up in a crowd of policemen deployed to provide security for an Islamist rally commemorating more than 100 people killed in the siege and storming of the Red Mosque.
Investigators today discovered the head of the suspected bomber on a rooftop as they made fingertip searches of the scene, security officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials said they were examining a range of possible culprits, including the mosque’s former students and Pakistani Taliban.
Last year’s operation against the mosque unleashed a wave of revenge suicide attacks that left around 1000 people dead.
The government is under growing pressure from the United States and other Western allies with troops in Afghanistan over its negotiations with militants, while economic problems are causing it trouble at home.
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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24025586-401,00.html
Suicide bomb kills 24 in crowded market From correspondents in Kandahar
July 15, 2008 11:00pm
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A SUICIDE bomber, believed to be a man, has blown himself up in a crowded bazaar in southern Afghanistan today, killing 24 people, police said.
The blast in Oruzgan province came as Afghan and international security forces battled Taliban-led insurgents in north-eastern Afghanistan, with the NATO-led force reportedly suffering casualties.
The attacker rammed a bomb-filled vehicle into a police van in the bazaar in the Deh Rawood area, 400km south-west of Kabul, causing an explosion that ripped through several shops, officials and a witness said.
Twenty civilians and four policemen were killed, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat.
“In the hospital, we have 27 people wounded,’’ he said.
He said the explosives were packed into a three-wheeled vehicle, but the interior ministry said in a statement they were attached to a motorbike.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but similar attacks have been carried out by Taliban militants, who have led an insurgency against the Kabul government since being ousted from power in 2001.
The blast came less than a week after a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 40 people including four Indian nationals, two of them senior diplomats.
The Kabul bombing was the deadliest suicide attack in the capital since the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
Nearly 70,000 international soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan to help the government fight the insurgency, but the violence has only escalated, with the insurgents making heavy use of suicide attacks.
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Three plead guilty to ‘airline’ terror bomb plot
Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2300324/Three-plead-guilty-to-%27airline%27-terror-bomb-plot.html
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last updated: 11:16 AM BST 14/07/2008
Three of the alleged leaders of a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions.
REUTERS
From left: Ahmed Ali, the operation’s self-proclaimed leader, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain
Ahmed Ali, the self-proclaimed “leader of this blessed operation,” and two men who stock-piled the components for the bombs, have accepted they were planning to attack Heathrow’s Terminal Three.
Ali, along with Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, still maintain that they were only planning a “demonstration” against British foreign policy and did not plan to kill anyone.
The jury in the trial will still have to consider verdicts of conspiracy to murder by detonating bombs on board aircraft.
The three men, along with two others, Ibrahim Savant and Umar Islam, have also accepted that they made “suicide videos” with the intention of causing a public nuisance.
They claim that they never planned to kill themselves and the videos were part of a mock “al-Qa’eda-style documentary” they were planning to release on the video-sharing website Youtube.
The jury will still have to consider whether they were also part of the plot to bring down aircraft over North American cities.
Two other men, Waheed Zaman and Arafat Khan, deny all charges.
The jury also has to consider a verdict on Mohammed Gulzar, a so-called “shadowy” figure, who allegedly flew in from South Africa to help mastermind the operation.
The trial continues with the prosecution due to start summing up later today.
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Iran’s Nukes Back
Iran Orders Secret Network of Civilian Companies to Resume Nuclear Weapons Production
http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=628
Jesse Cogan July 14th 2008
Cutting Edge News Contributor
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tours nuclear site
Teheran’s Revolutionary Guard, responsible for all nuclear programs in Iran, has been instructed by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to set up private companies to pursue the acquisition and development of P2 advanced centrifuges, according to recent Western intelligence.
The Bush Administration reacted by imposing financial sanctions on any entity participating in Iran’s nuclear programs.
“Iran’s nuclear and missile firms hide behind an array of agents that transact business on their behalf,” said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
P2 centrifuges enrich uranium two to three times faster than centrifuges currently in use. They are a key component of a blueprint for atomic bombs sold to Iran by Dr. A.Q. Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, in the 1990s. Nuclear experts confirm that the P2 centrifuges are used primarily for atomic weapons.
The private front companies, hidden on the outskirts of Teheran, are designed to operate undetected by the United Nations nuclear inspection teams. Concerns that nuclear weapon production will continue despite Iran’s proclamations of peaceful use only have circulated among Western experts.
One of the front companies will be located in Amir Abad, western Tehran, intelligence sources say. It will occupy a residential building, safe from scrutiny by UN nuclear inspectors. A company owned by the Revolutionary Guard will run another facility and coordinate, source says.
“If Iran’s nuclear intentions were peaceful there would be no need for it to undertake this work in secret,” an official familiar with the intelligence reports said.
In 2004, UN nuclear inspectors exposed the Kalaye Electric Company, a civilian company set up by the Revolutionary Guard with exactly the same clandestine structure and the same mission to produce P2 centrifuges. Traces of weapons-grade uranium were discovered and the company had succeeded in building P2 centrifuges and enriching small quantities of uranium to weapons grade. The company claimed it was producing “watches”.
World leaders, at a summit in Japan, offered Iran an economic incentive program to halt uranium enrichment programs. Posturing its growing influence in the Middle East, Teheran waited just one day to refuse the offer and boldly added that it had already increased its uranium enrichment activities. European officials refused to disclose details of Iran’s response but “it was not something that made us jump up and down for joy,” according to one official.
The world leaders at the summit insisted that Iran’s refusal should be addressed “innovatively through negotiation” voiced “serious concern” about Iran’s refusal to meet world demands to stop nuclear production.
The U.S. has frozen the bank accounts and financial assets of any company in Iran participating in the nuclear enrichment program and prohibits Americans to do business with them. The action by the State and Treasury Departments follows three prior sets of sanctions by the UN.
Individuals have also been targeted including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, a senior scientist at Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Dawood Agha-Jani, who is involved in Iran’s nuclear program; Mohsen Hojati, involved in the country’s ballistic missile program; Mehrdada Akhlaghi Ketabachi, the head of the Shahid Bakery Industrial Group; and Naser Maleki, head of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group and an official in the Iranian defense ministry.
TAMAS and Shahid Sattari Industries, two private companies allegedly participating in Iran’s nuclear production program, have also seen sanctions imposed against them. Seventh of Tir, Ammunition and Metallurgy Industries Group and Parchin Chemical Industries, believed to be owned or controlled by Iran’s Defense Industries Organization, were blacklisted last year.
Iran does not intend to halt its uranium enrichment program at Natanz, where the P2 centrifuge was successfully tested. The stand off has brought Israel and Iran and the United States closer to a military confrontation.
Jesse Cogan is a New York-based Cutting Edge News contributor.
MIDDLE EAST
Jerusalem Arabs, Hebrew U. Students Were an al-Qaeda Cell
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126887
15 Tammuz 5768, 18 July 08 11:38
by Zeev Ben-Yechiel
(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israeli police have arrested and charged six Israeli-Arabs, among them Hebrew University students, for planning an Al-Qaeda attack on a senior US official. The group, including four residents of eastern Jerusalem, are suspected of operating an al-Qaeda cell in Israel’s capital and planning to shoot down a helicopter carrying a senior US official.
The six suspects were identified by police as:
• Ibrahim Nashef, 22, of Tayibe: Physics and computer sciences student at the Hebrew University;
• Muhammad Najem, 24, of Nazareth: Chemistry student at the Hebrew University;
• Anas Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber;
• Kamal Abu Kwaider, 22, of Jerusalem’s Old City;
• Yusef Sumarin, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina;
• Ahmed Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.
Police and prosecutors charged all the suspects with membership in a terror organization. Some of them will also be tried for aiding the enemy at a time of war, possessing propaganda material, promoting a terror organization, and soliciting others to join a terror organization.
The indictments, filed against them on Friday, reveal that the six used to meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. They allegedly surfed al-Qaeda websites, where they found instructions for producing explosive devices.
Eyeing Bush’s Chopper
According to evidence, one of the detainees, Muhammad Najem, lived in a Hebrew University dormitory overlooking the university’s stadium, which also serves as a helicopter landing pad. Najem watched the landing ground as a Presidential helicopter touched down in the course of President Bush’s January 2008 visit to Israel, with the intent of shooting it down. At the same time, the suspect allegedly sought instructions on the internet for shooting down a landing helicopter, and he took mobile-phone pictures of the presidential helicopter’s landing. A “senior American official” was on board the helicopter at the time.
The six arrests are the culmination of a joint police and Shin Bet operation.
Bush Changed Plans
During the visit, the United States revised travel plans by President Bush because of the threat of a missile attack, according to a World Tribune report from January 9.
The report stated, “Israeli sources said the U.S. Secret Service canceled Bush’s plans to travel by helicopter from Ben-Gurion Airport to Jerusalem on Wednesday. The sources said the Secret Service determined that Bush’s helicopter could be targeted by an attacker with a surface-to-air missile.”%ad%
The arrests follow the arrest and indictment of two other Israeli-Arabs suspected of being Al-Qaeda operatives. The men, indicted Wednesday, are Bedouin residents of the Negev town of Rahat.
Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut are registered members of the Islamic Movement and supplied handlers with sensitive information about strategic facilities in a June operation involving the Shin Bet, Israeli police and Border Guard units.
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Coalition Forces in Iraq Detain Five Suspected al-Qaida Terrorists
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50493
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2008 – Coalition forces in Iraq detained five suspected al-Qaida terrorists during operations in Mosul and the Tigris River Valley today, military officials said.
In Mosul, coalition forces detained three suspects while pursuing al-Qaida operatives responsible for attacks on security forces. Coalition forces found weapons and grenades, which they safely disabled.
North of Baghdad, coalition forces in Samarra detained two suspects while targeting al-Qaida in Iraq members who facilitate the movement of foreign terrorists into the country.
Yesterday, Iraqi and U.S. soldiers seized weapons during operations throughout Baghdad. U.S. soldiers confiscated two roadside bombs designed to pierce armor-hulled vehicles in the New Baghdad district. Iraq soldiers seized two 81 mm mortar rounds and four propane storage tanks in the city’s West Rashid district.
Military officials in Baghdad also provided details of several July 12 operations:
Iraqi special weapons and tactics teams detained two suspected members of Iranian-backed “special groups” in separate operations in central Iraq.
In Hillah, Iraqi SWAT personnel captured a suspected special groups member linked to weapons smuggling and attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. The detainee also is linked to a June attack on the Hillah U.S. Regional Embassy Office.
In Kut, Iraqi SWAT officers detained a suspected special groups leader on charges of terrorism. The suspect is said to be a member of a weapons-smuggling cell known for storing and distributing armor-piercing bombs, and he also is linked to attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces.
Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers found two vehicle bombs and detained six suspects during an operation east of Balad.
U.S. soldiers detained three terrorist suspects in eastern Baghdad. One of the detainees is a suspected special groups member linked to kidnappings, murder and extortion of local Iraqis, as well as roadside-bomb attacks against U.S. soldiers.
U.S. soldiers seized two weapons caches in Baghdad. After being tipped off by members of the local “Sons of Iraq” citizen security group, U.S. soldiers confiscated a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, homemade explosives, bomb-making materials, and a cell phone in Baghdad’s East Rashid sector. Later, U.S. soldiers found an armor-piercing bomb in an abandoned house in West Rashid.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
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Synagogue becomes terrorist training center
http://www.crossactionnews.com/articles/view/synagogue-becomes-terrorist-training-center
Posted on July 15, 2008
By Israel Today Staff
Israel’s largest daily newspaper on Tuesday published photographs of a synagogue in a former Jewish town in Gaza that has now been transformed into a Hamas training center.
Where Jews once worshipped God, Islamic terrorists now rehearse the murder and abduction of Israelis, reported Yediot Ahronot.
In the run-up to the 2005 forced evacuation of Gaza’s Jewish population, Israel wrestled over what to do with synagogues and other public buildings in the 21 Jewish communities across the coastal territory.
Ultimately, those who argued it was not permitted to destroy places of worship won out, and the synagogues were left standing amid naive hopes that the Palestinians would refrain from desecrating them.
Less than 24 hours after the last Israeli soldier left Gaza, however, many of the synagogues were defaced and burned. But some were left standing for more devious purposes.
In the photos published Tuesday, masked and heavily armed Hamas members sporting praises to Allah on their headbands were shown executing a mock assault against the synagogue in the former Jewish town of Atzmona.
In addition to training camps, some former Jewish communities in Gaza have also been transformed into bases from which Palestinian forces launch rocket and mortar attacks on towns and villages in southern Israel.
The international community and the world media have by and large ignored the Palestinians’ illegal treatment of Gaza’s synagogues and their cynical use of former Jewish towns to practice and launch attacks against Israelis.
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Hizbollah killer gets hero’s welcome in Lebanon
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/lebanon/2304383/Hizbollah-killer-gets-hero%27s-welcome-in-Lebanon.html
By Carolynne Wheeler in Rosh Hanikra, Israel
Last Updated: 8:43PM BST 16/07/2008
A convicted killer who shot an Israeli father in front of his four-year-old daughter then bashed her head against a rock until she was dead has been released to Lebanon as part of a controversial prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbollah.
Samir Kuntar, who was serving multiple life sentences for the murder of Danny Haran, his four-year-old daughter, Einat, and a policeman in 1979, had for years been held as Israel’s last best bargaining chip for information on Ron Arad, a missing pilot who went down in southern Lebanon in 1986.
But after the delivery of a comprehensive report on Arad’s probable fate - death after trying to escape - Israeli officials confirmed Kuntar would be released as part of a swap , according to Hizbollah’s demands for two Israeli soldiers kidnapped just over two years ago.
The remains of the two soldiers were delivered in coffins, after Hizbollah had steadfastly refused to provide any hint of whether they were dead or alive.
Kuntar, who was just 16 when he joined the commando unit that sailed into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, has denied killing the little girl and the brazen mission has captured hearts and minds among Palestinians and Lebanese, many of whom consider him a national hero.
He was greeted with a red-carpet welcome at the Lebanese border, with Hizbollah officials and well-wishers present, and then delivered to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport by presidential helicopter, where he was greeted by the new Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri.
At a massive celebration in Beirut’s southern suburbs, controlled by Hizbollah, Kuntar addressed the cheering crowd.
“Thank God we arrived to this day, this day of victory, never to return to a day of defeat. Thank God who gave me strength... and who always gave me hope in the moments of weaknesses,” Kuntar said.
“Thank God who gave me the ability to endure, challenge and face imprisonment. Thank God (who) resurrected in this country a resistance, this great Islamic resistance,” he added.
The celebrations were also marked by a victory speech by Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“The period of defeat is over and the time of victory has arrived,” Nasrallah said. “This people and this nation and this country that gave a clear picture to the world... cannot be defeated.”
Also included in the swap, among 199 bodies of dead Lebanese and Palestinians – most of them guerrilla fighters – was the body of Dalal Mughrabi, a Lebanese-born Palestinian refugee who was 19 when she and 11 others hijacked a bus in what was later known in Israel as the Coastal Road massacre.
Thirty-six Israelis died in a shootout with police and detonation of the bus, along with Miss Mughrabi and her fellow commandos.
Now venerated by both Palestinians and Lebanese as one of the first women to engage in such an attack, she is remembered in songs and stories and her body’s release has also triggered celebration.
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Israel Arrests 6 Men Over Al-Qaida Links
http://www.newsmax.com/international/israel_al_qaida/2008/07/18/114027.html
Friday, July 18, 2008 7:00 AM
JERUSALEM — Israeli investigators have arrested six men suspected of trying to set up a terror network linked to al-Qaida, the Shin Bet security service said Friday.
One of the suspects wanted to shoot down President Bush’s helicopter earlier this year, the Shin Bet said.
Two of the men are Arab citizens of Israel, both of them students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement. The other four are Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem. The men range in age from 21 to 24.
The new charges follow the arrest this month of two Israeli Arabs on suspicion they gave strategic information to al-Qaida. Those arrests marked the first time Israel had accused any of its citizens of cooperating with the terror network.
Investigators found bomb-making instructions on the personal computers of several of the six new suspects, the Shin Bet said. But the statement gave no indication that their activities ever moved beyond the planning stage.
None face charges of active involvement in any attacks.
One of the Israeli Arabs, a 24-year-old chemistry student, lived in a Jerusalem college dormitory overlooking a helicopter landing pad used by Bush during a visit in January, the statement said.
Using his cell phone, the student filmed helicopters taking off and landing, and sent a message to a Web forum linked to al-Qaida asking about shooting Bush’s helicopter down, according to the Shin Bet.
The men were arrested in June and July, the statement said. But the information was only approved for publication on Friday, the day the men were to be indicted in a Jerusalem court.
The two men arrested earlier this month, Bedouin Arabs from southern Israel, gave al-Qaida operatives information about strategic sites like army bases, skyscrapers and Israel’s international airport that could serve as targets, Shin Bet said.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Americans Warned to Stay Away From Jordan Site
http://www.newsmax.com/international/jordan_shooting/2008/07/17/113721.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 11:30 AM
AMMAN, Jordan — The U.S. Embassy is advising its citizens to avoid the site of a shooting attack near a famed historic spot in Jordan’s capital.
The embassy said in a warden message Thursday that Americans visiting Jordan must maintain a high level of security caution, particularly in crowded areas, restaurants, hotels, clubs and shopping centers.
A young Palestinian gunman shot and wounded six people outside the Roman amphitheater in downtown Amman on Wednesday before shooting himself in the head. He remains in critical condition.
Police say the assailant had no links to terror groups.
There have been several shootings and other attacks in Amman in recent years, some targeting Western tourists in the amphitheater area.
© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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SPOTLIGHT
Bin Laden Planning Hiroshima-Type Destruction?
http://www.newsmax.com/weyrich/Bin_Laden_Plans_Hiroshima/2008/07/17/113694.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:26 AM
By: Paul M. Weyrich
Does Osama bin Laden possess nuclear weapons? Has he smuggled these weapons into the United States? Does he have a plan to detonate these weapons in multiple American cities if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities? Dr. Hugh Cort, president of the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Policy and Research, believes the answer to all of these questions is yes.
Cort has assembled a body of evidence which he claims supports the view that bin Laden has a plan for an “American Hiroshima” which will be implemented in the near future. He has sent this material to various U.S. officials, including Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Cort believes that the government is not doing enough to prevent an attack.
Much of his evidence centers around one Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist who has conducted the only interview of bin Laden after 9/11. Bin Laden told Mir that he had acquired 20 suitcase nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union. Mir told Cort that bin Laden’s men have smuggled these bombs into the United States.
His men supposedly are waiting for bin Laden to give them the signal, then seven to ten American cities will be struck. If true it is little wonder that Iran’s leader confidently predicts that the United States will be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Bin Laden supposedly has fulfilled Islamic law by warning the United States that an attack is coming and offering a truce — convert to Islam and you will not be attacked. Refusal to convert to Islam means that an attack against America is justified. Three weeks prior to 9/11 bin Laden warned that the United States would be attacked in an unprecedented way for its support of Israel.
Already bin Laden has called for all Muslims in the United States to leave. Instead of a mass exodus of Muslims from this country, new mosques are opening every few weeks. Muslim schools also are being established, which suggests that families plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. But Yossef Bodansky, director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism from 1988 to 1998, has testified that bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons.
He told Congress that “Osama has recruited former Soviet Special Forces (SPETSNAZ) soldiers to teach al-Qaida how to maintain and operate the bombs.”
Mir, by the way, has suggested that most of the nuclear weapons have been smuggled across the border from Mexico. Opponents of illegal immigration long have argued that they want the border monitored and closed for national security purposes.
Proponents of illegal immigration have maintained that opposition to it is “racist.” Clearly, opponents of illegal immigration have the better case; although if Mir is correct, the door may have been open too long.
Ronald Kessler, chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, interviewed Mueller, who said that he is very concerned about bin Laden having nuclear weapons in the United States, so concerned that the FBI has surrounded mosques in 10 American cities with nuclear radiation detectors. Cort quotes Steve Coll, president of New America Foundation, as stating that these detectors cannot sense enriched uranium when it is shielded in lead. If Islamists have such bombs, no doubt they are wrapped in lead.
Cort says that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff does not have a plan in the event that these bombs are detonated. In such a scenario real deaths will come from radiation. If people know how to avoid radiation prior to an attack, there may be many survivors.
If people can devise a radiation-proof shelter in their own homes to survive a detonation, two days later radiation is one, one-hundredth the strength of the initial blast. If people can spend three days in the shelter and then only make brief trips outside once a day, they can defeat radiation. But what credible source has warned people of the potential threat and how they can meet it?
Is all of this just alarmist talk? Has Cort missed something important which would nullify his answers? I have no idea.
It seems more than reasonable that we proceed as if it is true. If it proves to be a false alarm, what have we lost? But if Cort’s research has merit and we are prepared to handle such a situation, we could minimize its terrible impact.
When I asked some U.S. officials why no one in the government is warning people, I was told “we don’t want to unduly alarm people.” Nonsense.
I have great faith that the American people will do the right thing if properly informed. We did in the mid-1950s when told that the Soviet Union could start a nuclear war. We can do so again, but someone with credibility must tell Americans the truth.
Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Commentary
Obama and Islamic Jihad
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=6DF66F56-9171-4AAA-8738-C5A23FC9DF6D
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/16/2008
On Sunday CNN aired an interview Barack Obama recently gave to Fareed Zakaria, in which the candidate expressed the opinion that Islamic jihad is a result of U.S. foreign policy failure. This is, of course, an assumption that he shares with virtually everyone of any influence in both parties. It is conventional wisdom that the United States, or the West in general, can make the global jihad problem go away by doing something that is not being done now, or by stopping doing something else. The possibility that the jihad might have arisen not as a reaction to actions of America and the West — and cannot be ended by our actions, either, with the possible exception of overwhelming military and cultural force — never seems to occur to anyone.
Zakaria asked Obama: “Do you believe, when looking at the world today, that Islamic extremism is the transcendent challenge of the 21st century?” In reply Obama spoke of “terrorism and groups that are resisting modernity,” as if Islamic jihadists were Amish with AK-47s, and avowed that “the fact that they can be driven into extremist ideologies, is one of the severe threats that we face.”
How can such people be driven into extremist ideologies? Obama explained that when he was a child Indonesia, “Indonesia was never the same culture as the Arab Middle East. The brand of Islam was always different.” And “around the world,” he said, “there was not the sense that Islam was inherently opposed to the West, or inherently opposed to modern life, or inherently opposed to universal traditions like rule of law.”
Of course, the problem in the world today is not an opposition of “Islam” to the “rule of law.” It is the resurgence of the Islamic supremacist ideology that has led to a global attempt to replace non-Muslim legal systems with Islamic sharia law — an attempt that is making great headway in Europe and is also going on in the United States, both by violence and by stealth.
In any case, Obama went on to say that Indonesia had changed since he had lived there: “And now in Indonesia, you see some of those extremist elements. And what’s interesting is, you can see some correlation between the economic crash during the Asian financial crisis, where about a third of Indonesia’s GDP was wiped out, and the acceleration of these Islamic extremist forces.”
In other words, poverty causes Islamic jihad. This is an extremely widespread view, although it has been debunked many times. Fortune magazine, for example, reported in March 2007 that “of the 50 poorest countries in the world…only Afghanistan (and perhaps Bangladesh and Yemen) has much experience in terrorism, global or domestic.” The 9/11 hijackers were “middle-class sons of Saudi Arabia and many were well-educated. And Osama bin Laden himself is from one of the richest families in the Middle East.” Fortune noted that a 2003 study of Palestinian terrorism found “higher-status respondents (merchant, farmer or professional)” were significantly more likely than “those lower down the ladder (laborer, craftsman or employee)” to agree that there were “circumstances under which you would justify the use of terrorism to achieve political goals.” And Harvard professor Albert Abadie studied 1,776 terrorist incidents, only to find no connection between poverty and terrorism: “When you look at the data” to find such a connection, he said, “it’s not there.”
And indeed, Obama himself was not ready to blame jihad solely on poverty: “It isn’t to say that there is a direct correlation.” He said it was also the West’s fault: “But what is absolutely true is that there has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries, in order to make sure that opportunities are there, that there’s bottom-up economic growth.”
So according to Obama, the “shift in Islam” doesn’t have anything to do — or anything significant to do — with imperatives within Islam itself, or with changes in conditions in the Islamic world that have allowed for a resurgence of the jihad ideology. That resurgence is all because of the “failures of the West to work with many of these countries” — although we are pouring billions into Egypt and Pakistan and they are still hotbeds of jihadist sentiment.
Obama made a recommendation: “But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse.”
Wouldn’t it also be useful to understand that there is an expansionist and supremacist imperative shared by all orthodox sects and schools of Islam, and that some Muslims will most likely continue to act upon that imperative no matter how much we demonstrate our understanding of Islamic diversity?
Although he continues to campaign under a mantra of “change,” so far Obama is offering more of the same in a field – that of our response to the global jihad – where genuine, informed and careful change is needed more than ever.
Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His next book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs, is coming this November from Regnery Publishing.
Great Post!!!!!!!