World Terrorism : Weapons of Disruption Onging...

Whereas we have no masses, it certainly would be seriously challenging to deliver a "weapon of mass destruction" in the vast majority of geographical areas in the American West, as well as in many areas in the East and South. For instance, Montana is approximately the size of Germany, yet the population hovers only around a million (we have one representative in the House). There is no "metropolitan" area anywhere around, though Spokane is about three hundred miles away. Wyoming has more sheep than people. Utah has Salt Lake City and a few nearby populous areas. Nevada has two populated regional areas, Las Vegas and Reno. North and South Dakota have, well, a few folks here and there. Idaho folks are few and far between. I swear you can drive from San Antonio to El Paso without seeing a city policeman, because I've done it several times. Then there are Arizona, New Mexico, eastern California, inter alia. The point is we have a few population points, while the rest of the states are empty excepted for isolated small communities.Thus, out West we probably need to talk more about "weapons of disruption." (Some folks say "weapons of mass disruption," but we have no masses!)

You must ask yourself: What would I do if I were a terrorist (or a terrorism preparedness instructor) looking into the ramifications of launching a rural terrorism attack? Personally, I would concentrate on considering the consequences of disruption rather than mass destruction. Here are a few scenarios you might want consider when your local rural emergency management/response group gathers to discuss terrorism exercises.

1) Wildland Fire Incidents: Incendiary (mostly wildland) warfare has been used by military strategists for at least 2500 years, over a thousand years before the use of gunpowder. The western U.S. is disrupted, seriously disrupted, every year by wildland fires. Quite a few are started by humans, accidentally and purposefully. Starting dozens of major fires in a dozen western states could be a brilliant line of attack if militants wished to disrupt America. Thousands of security personnel could do nothing and the perpetrator/s would probably never be implicated, much less captured. Are you prepared?

2) Railroad Chemical Incidents: Many railroad main lines go through tunnels. A few strategically placed armor-piercing shells in a series of chlorine cars, along with appropriately staged derailments leaving the leaking cars in the tunnels, could shut down many main line routes in the West. Spin-off scenarios are numerous. Ready?

3) Flammable Liquid Incidents: Bridges are not easily brought down from below and approaches to bridge support structures are often highly visible and randomly monitored. However, on CNN we all have seen many tanker truck accidents involving burning hydrocarbons which have made bridge structures unusable. How hard would it be to have a few terrorists steal trucks and drive them (as opposed to hijacking planes and flying them) to strategic bridges over wide rivers or narrow gorges, ignite the gasoline (or diesel or crude), block the approaches with other incendiary or chemical releases, and make the structures extremely dangerous and impassible to highway traffic? Gotcha!

There are many variations of these themes. You probably have or can make up many more plausible, novel, and easily implemented rural-specific attack scenarios. Design exercises around them. If you want to stop terrorist events you must think like a terrorist and quit fighting last year's war!

Frederick J. (Fred) Cowie, Ph.D. E-mail: fredcowie@aol.com Phone: (24 hr cell) 406-431-3531 Website: fredcowie.com

Links to the entire reports are at the link:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=676144&contrassID=2

What to do about Iran? Rosner's time-saver

Click here to go back to Rosner's Domain

Don't have the time to read everything about Iran's nuclear controversy?
Read this abbreviated version of the best pieces published in the past couple
of days.

Feel free to make suggestions in writing to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.
Shmuel Rosner

Simplicity

Max Boot, at the L.A Times: "Sooner rather than later, President Bush
must face a hard choice: Either order air strikes (or acquiesce to Israeli
strikes) or accept a nuclear-armed Iran. A lot of bluster won't make this
difficult dilemma disappear."
Read it here.

Regime Change
Robert Kegan writes in the Washington Post that "The Bush
administration, despite its doctrine of democratization, has not yet tried
to apply it in the one place where ideals and strategic interest most
clearly intersect. It has done little to push for political change or to
exploit the evident weaknesses in the mullahs' regime. The steps are
obvious: Communicate directly to Iran's very westernized population,
through radio, the Internet and other media; organize international
support for unions and human rights and other civic groups, as well as
religious groups that oppose the regime; provide covert support to
those willing to use it; and impose sanctions, not so much to stop the
nuclear program - since they probably won't -- but to squeeze the
business elite that supports the regime."
Read it here.

Non-Issue

William Pfaff of the IHT writes that Iran's nukes are a non-issue: "Why is
all this pressure being mounted against Iran when both Washington and
Jerusalem unofficially concede that there is nothing to be done to
prevent Iran's government from continuing along its present course of
nuclear development?"
Read it here.

Reality

Gerard Baker wrote this for the Times of London: "THE UNIMAGINABLE
but ultimately inescapable truth is that we are going to have to get
ready for war with Iran. Being of a free-speaking, free thinking
disposition, we generally find in the West that hand-wringing,
finger-pointing and second-guessing come more easily to us than cold,
strategic thinking. Confronted with nightmarish perils we instinctively
choose to seize the opportunity to blame each other, cursing our
domestic opponents for the situation they've put us in."
Read it here.

An Idea

Nile Gardiner and John Hulsman wrote this for the Heritage Foundation:
"There is a way out of the present diplomatic morass that will signal to
the Mullahs in Tehran that the West is serious about reining in their
nuclear ambitions, but without allowing them to destabilize the Middle
East. The United States should propose the quick admission of Israel
into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a full and equal
member."
Read it here.

Military Option

William Arkin, Early Warning Blog: "For months, the press and
blogosphere have been filled with scoops about U.S. and Israeli
preparations for an imminent strike on Iran. Commentators in the
mainstream press, meanwhile, have questioned the likelihood of a strike
on Iran's nuclear facilities, arguing that such an attack would be
impossible or too costly given Iran's ability to hide its true targets.

"To locate and then strike these disbursed and underground facilities -
would probably require not air power but nuclear weapons," retired Gen.
Barry McCaffrey even said on NBC Nightly News Saturday night.
Commentators on both sides of this issue are wrong. Though the U.S.
military continues to prepare a preemptive attack war plan for Iran and
North Korea under the "global strike" program, speculation of an
imminent strike is utter fabrication." Read it here.

Positive Outlook

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek: "The United States should begin the
construction of an alliance to contain Iran. Our goals should be to
prevent or massively slow down the weaponization of Iran's nuclear
program, and to frustrate its meddling in the region, support for
terrorism and opposition to a peaceful settlement of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"This is not a best-case outcome, but it has its virtues. The existence of
a clear and present danger in Iran will keep the international community
galvanized. Already, the Western alliance has been strengthened in
response to Iran's belligerence, and cooperation with India, Russia and
China seems a stronger possibility than ever before."
Read it here.

Final outcome

Fred Kaplan, Slate: "So, here's the big question: If diplomacy is the only
rational solution to this problem yet the Iranians just want nukes - in
other words, if there is no deal (or at least no deal that the United
States would realistically offer) that would compel them to give up their
dream - what's the next step?
At this point, I must confess: I don't know. Neither, it seems, does
anybody else. So, dear Slate readers, do you have any great ideas?
Send them to me. I'll print - and publicly mull over - the best of them."
Read it here.

Posted for research and study: (2 opinions)

"By failing to strengthen (President Mahmoud )Abbas's position, the
U.S. has paved the way for a Hamas victory," states a document
prepared by the Saudi National Security Assessment Project.

"Moreover, the U.S administration's faith in the power of elections to
transform people makes it oblivious to the possibility that the
democratic process is often a double-edged sword which can have
unintended consequences," goes on to say the policy brief delivered
last Dec. 27 by the SNSAP's director, Nawaf Obaid."

"Hamas operates "extensive social services infrastructure that
includes schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, and soup
kitchens," basic services that the Palestinian Authority under Yasser
Arafat and later Abbas, often failed to provide anything approaching
Hamas' services."

"A Hamas win will reveal the extent U.S. power, prestige, and ideals
have been undermined in the region. In fact, it will provide momentum
to these trends and will likely lead to a power vacuum in the peace
process."

The report recommends that it will be up to Saudi Arabia - "the only
country with the political, religious, and economic might to fill the
void" -- to assume greater responsibility."

Hamas is a Sunni extremist Islamic group so stand by for Saudi Arabia
and its petrodollars to take up the funding slack if the U.S., EU and
Israel shut off aid. Naturally, Saudi Arabia will try to assume a
much more powerful position in the vacuum between Hamas and Israel.
What will CICBush43 do then?

David

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060127-054934-1354r

Saudis: U.S. paved way for Hamas victory

By CLAUDE SALHANI
UPI International Editor

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A confidential Saudi report prepared just
weeks before the Palestinian elections predicted a Hamas victory in
Gaza and the West Bank and puts the blame on the United States: "By
failing to strengthen (President Mahmoud )Abbas's position, the U.S.
has paved the way for a Hamas victory," states a document prepared by
the Saudi National Security Assessment Project.

"Moreover, the U.S administration's faith in the power of elections to
transform people makes it oblivious to the possibility that the
democratic process is often a double-edged sword which can have
unintended consequences," goes on to say the policy brief delivered
last Dec. 27 by the SNSAP's director, Nawaf Obaid.

Furthermore, the brief states that the U.S. failed to press "Abbas to
implement his commitments to security and disarmament, and has not
succeeded in convincing donor nations to fulfill their pledges for
financial assistance to the Palestinians."

Obaid's study anticipated that the Palestinian elections set for
January 25, 2006 "will in all probability result in a victory for
Hamas."

"Such an outcome would have wide ranging implications for Saudi
Arabia's national security and emerging foreign policy in the region,"
warned the confidential brief made available to United Press
International, adding that "the Palestinians face dire social welfare
needs not addressed by the current government."

Recent surveys conducted by the Saudi National Security Assessment
Project indicate that there is deep distrust of senior officials in
the Palestinian Authority, most of whom are Fatah members. "This
situation has created an opportunity that Hamas has been able to
exploit."

The brief cites United Nations statistics indicating that "almost 75
percent of Palestinians live below the poverty line."

Given that Hamas operates "extensive social services infrastructure
that includes schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, and
soup kitchens," basic services that the Palestinian Authority under
Yasser Arafat and later Abbas, often failed to provide anything
approaching Hamas' services.

Additionally, Hamas' reputation for financial probity, are in contrast
to perceived Fatah corruption and incompetence.

As the primary regional supporter of the Palestinian cause, Saudi
Arabia finds it has a unique moral responsibility to insure that
humanitarian needs of the Palestinians continue to be met,
particularly given the distinct possibility that U.S. and European
Union funds are under threat of being suspended now that Hamas will be
in power.

"A victory by Hamas presents a challenge to Saudi Arabia in that this
financial support will likely need to be increased if the U.S. and
Europe reduce or refuse to support a Hamas-controlled Palestinian
government," says the brief.

"American policies in the region, especially its unfettered support
for Israel and its designation of Hamas as a terror organization,
complicate the situation, and demonstrate that the Bush administration
is clearly out of touch. Thus, they are unable to understand the
situation from the Palestinian perspective," states the Saudi report.

The report goes on to say: "Palestinians have lost faith in a
leadership they had expected would revitalize the economy, rein in
official corruption, curb criminal activity, and revive efforts for
the creation of an independent Palestinian state."

Adding a word of caution, the Saudi report states: "A Hamas win will
reveal the extent U.S. power, prestige, and ideals have been
undermined in the region. In fact, it will provide momentum to these
trends and will likely lead to a power vacuum in the peace process."

The report recommends that it will be up to Saudi Arabia - "the only
country with the political, religious, and economic might to fill the
void" -- to assume greater responsibility.

Saudi Arabia is by far the largest supporter of the Palestinian
Authority's social and economic services. In addition private Saudi
citizens and charitable foundations donate approximately $150 million
per year to support the general social and economic programs in the
Palestinian territories. This makes the Kingdom the largest single aid
donor to Palestine.

The Saudi report stresses that Hamas' agenda must be moderated. "But
considering the centerpiece of its charter is the destruction of
Israel, that will be difficult to do."

However, according to unnamed Hamas officials cited in the Saudi
report, "the only way that the organization can moderate its approach
and still save face would be to resurrect the 2002 Abdallah peace
initiative."

This is in reference to a peace proposal put forward by King Abdullah
of Saudi Arabia, then Crown Prince, during an Arab summit in Beirut in
which he was prepared to offer Israel full recognition and normal
relations in return for Israeli withdrawal from all territories
occupied since 1967 and return of the Palestine refugees to Israel.

Reviving the Abdullah initiative would make Saudi Arabia a direct
partner in the peace process and consolidate its position as the chief
backer of the Palestinians on the world scene.

The report concludes "The Saudi leadership should prepare for this
outcome."

--

(Comments may be sent to Claude@upi.com.)

Posted for study and research:

"...the EU risked becoming "the first empire in history to go down
before it was founded."

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060127-105125-9798r

Walker's World: Turning out EU's lights

By MARTIN WALKER
UPI Editor

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- While the stunning election victory of
Hamas in Palestine has dominated the world's attention, another
important bombshell has exploded in Berlin, where it now seems that a
majority of Germans now see the European Union as the problem, rather
than as any kind of solution.

The Berliner Zeitung newspaper has obtained a leak of the latest
Eurobarometer opinion poll, organized by the EU's own Commission, that
shows a large majority of the 1,534 Germans polled blaming the EU for
economic and social problems. And 84 percent of Germans polled fear
that German jobs are likely to be lost to EU countries where labor
costs are lower.

The poll also showed that one in two Germans feared that further
European integration, for example the inclusion of Turkey and/or
Ukraine into the 25-member EU, could result in an economic crisis. As
a result, 59 percent of those polls said that no further enlargement
should take place in the foreseeable future.

Almost two-thirds of those polled, 64 percent, said declining social
standards and welfare and pension benefits were a serious problem for
Germany, and while they did not blame the EU specifically, they said
that EU membership was "part of the negative development" making
German life less agreeable.

Germany, with the largest economy and biggest population in the EU,
has traditionally been the political and commercial locomotive of
European integration, the country that usually bankrolled the complex
deals reached to resolve the EU's internal crises. But Germany's
sluggish economic growth and high unemployment over the past decade as
the country has grappled with the challenge of integrating the former
East Germany have tested this unique German role.

Many of the EU's current difficulties can be attributed to this German
weakness, and the vacuum of European leadership in policy and planning
that resulted. And while Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel,
seems ready to resume that role of German leadership and is currently
winning high approval ratings from German voters, the broader
unpopularity of the EU among Germans and their doubts about further
enlargement will limit her room to maneuver on the EU stage.

This leak of the Eurobarometer poll was echoed by two further unhappy
developments for the EU. First, a survey of members of the Association
of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce published by Die Welt
newspaper found 76 percent of the members said that the EU "interferes
too much into business."

German businessmen are not against the EU in principle. Indeed, the
poll showed that a majority of 58 percent wanted harmonized
environmental rules across Europe and also preferred a single
Europe-wide tax system - a development that key nation states like
Britain adamantly oppose. But the image of the EU as bureaucratic and
over-interfering in business is damaging for the EU, an organization
whose prime boast is that its single market has helped build European
prosperity.

Another damaging development was the claim this week by Frits
Bolkestein, the former EU Commissioner for the internal market, that
the EU's new single currency, the euro, may not survive in the long
term. In a speech to Dutch businessmen in London Wednesday Bolkestein
warned that the euro would face a dramatic test in about ten years
time when the pension crisis hits Europe "ruthlessly," with a swelling
number of baby-boomers reaching retirement while too few young workers
are available to pay the taxes needed to service the pensions.

Important states like Italy, the third largest economy in the
Eurozone, are wholly unprepared for this crisis, Bolkestein warned.

These states "will be forced by political pressure to borrow more and
increase their budget deficit, with consequences for interest rates
and inflation," he said. And all other countries using the euro would
be affected by the consequent deficits and pressure on the currency,
he added.

"The real test for the euro is not now, but in ten years time,"
Bolkestein went on. "Therefore, in my view the long-term chances of
survival of the euro should be questioned."

This looming pensions crisis is one of the arguments used by opponents
of the euro in Britain, Sweden and Denmark against their countries
joining the single currency. They claim that the choice would be
between bailing out high deficit states like Italy, or cutting Italy
loose from the rest of the eurozone in order to stave off a currency
crisis.

A further blow for the EU came this week when another former
Commissioner, Austria's Franz Fischler, warned that the EU risked
becoming "the first empire in history to go down before it was
founded."

Fischler, the veteran Agriculture Commissioner throughout the 1990s,
was launching his new book, 'Europe: The Unwanted State," on the
margins of a conference convened in Salzburg by the Austrian
government to launch "a new political and cultural debate" to rethink
what the EU is and what it should become. Austria, the current holder
of the rotating Presidency of the EU, launched the conference to
coincide with the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, and to tackle
the crisis of confidence that has gripped the EU since Dutch and
French voters rejected the draft new EU constitution their referendums
last year.

Any restoration of confidence in the EU will depend heavily on German
economic recovery, and there are strong indications that this may be
coming. Germany's business confidence index reached a 6-year high this
week, with signs of increasing productivity, good profits and renewed
investment.

But against the good economic news came a further blow this week to
German self-confidence: new demographic figures showed that Germany
had the world's highest proportion of childless women. This underlines
the coming pension problem that Bolkestein had stressed. The
statistics, collected by the EU in 2005, found that thirty per cent of
German women have not had children, and women graduates were even less
likely to breed, with 40 percent of them having no children.

Unless the birth rate recovered and began to grow again, as it is
doing in Britain, Sweden and France, Germany would have to "turn out
the lights," commented the country's Minister for Families, Ursula von
der Leyen.

"We can't turn a Katrina over to a FEMA again because they have no
legal authority or enough manpower. DHS has got to be there to
coordinate the whole effort," he said. "It has got to be done pretty
quickly too, because the next test is right around the corner and we
have got to do better the next time around."

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060124-102951-6794r

DHS unpreparaed for new attacks: claim

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Experts warn that the Department of
Homeland Security is unprepared for a terrorist attack or natural
disaster because it lacks regional bodies to act as intermediaries
between local, state and federal levels of government.

James Carafano, a Senior Fellow for National Security at the
conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington unveiled a list of five
issues he thinks must be dealt with before the five-year anniversary
of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at a foundation briefing this
week.

He urged the formation of regional DHS offices, which he said would
improve coordination between different levels of government. Caravano
said DHS must mobilize state and local governments and public safety
officials as partners in intelligence, emergency response and domestic
counterterrorism, he said.

"Regional offices are needed to enhance the effectiveness of DHS,"
Caravano told United Press International. "It is an absolute no
brainer."

When Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff took over from
Tom Ridge last July, a major reorganization and realignment of
structure took place within the department. DHS spokesman Russ Knocke
said regional offices were not included in restructuring.

Regional offices were proposed in the initial formation of DHS, but
were shot down by the Office of Management and Budget. Caravano said
the initial program for regions was too elaborate and expensive.

"It was way too ambitious and it got real political," he said. "It
became like empire building within DHS."

Caravano said Chertoff got sick of the politics that came with
regional governing and went a different route. However, he believes
Congress must be pushed to implement effective regional coordination.
"Congress has been asleep at the wheel on this issue," he said.

Knocke said the DHS had avoided politics by working with regions at a
direct level rather than creating individual regional offices. "One
major concern with regions is that it would create an extra level of
bureaucracy and establish a kind of silo effect and various little
fiefdoms responsible for a variety of cross cutting activities," he
said.

DHS is currently working with the top 75 most populated metropolitan
cities in the nation to assess their emergency preparedness systems,
Knocke said. "There is tremendous coordination at all levels," he said.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation event, Thomas Lockwood, Director
of the Office of National Capitol Regional Coordination within DHS,
said it was difficult to expect autonomous jurisdictions to sit down
and coordinate together because of each one's unique economic and
political concerns.

"It is not an easy thing to get jurisdictions together," Lockwood
said. "What we want to do is strengthen regional coordination among
all partners while respecting jurisdictional authority."

Others believe regional organizations would result in a more effective
response because DHS offers the legal authority to put relief plans in
motion quickly. The federal government's lagging response to Hurricane
Katrina, which ravished the Gulf Coast last fall leaving thousands
homeless, was a glaring example of the need for regional DHS offices,
according to this argument.

"Katrina was a reality test that couldn't be replicated by any
training exercise and the problems that went along with those relief
efforts still exist," said retired Army General William Moore, now a
consultant with Computer Sciences Corporation.

A regional body would also serve as a reassurance to those at the
local level who are far removed from the inner-workings of Washington
and the federal government, said former Attorney General Edwin Meese.

"They have to have that link and a feeling that they will have a voice
at the local level," said Meese. When it comes down to disaster
relief, Meese said, "The first responders are the ones at the local
level -- there cannot be a lack of certainty."

Continued...........posted for research and study....

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate
it, just as it obliterated others before it."

THE COVENANT OF THE HAMAS: MAIN POINTS
Aug 18, 1988

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1980_1989/THE+COVENANT+OF+THE+HAMAS+-+MAIN+POINTS+-+18-Aug-8.htm
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1980_1989/THE+COVENANT+OF+THE+HAMAS+-+MAIN+POINTS+-+18-Aug-8.htm

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August
18,
1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an
extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the
territories
under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto
comprised
of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of
destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The
following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant:

Goals of the HAMAS:

"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian
movement,
whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It
strives to
raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." (Article 6)

On the destruction of Israel:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate
it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)

The exclusive Moslem nature of the area:

"The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated
for
future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or
any
part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)

"Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation
of
Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be."
(Article 13)

The call to jihad:

"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the
individual
duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is
compulsory
that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article 15)

"Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses
everywhere in
the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty,
loudly
proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens and will
go
on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders
vanquished and
Allah's victory comes about." (Article 33)

Rejection of a negotiated peace settlement:

"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and
international
conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic
Resistance
Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the
infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution
for
the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and
international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in
futility."
(Article 13)

Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:

"Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle
[against
Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are
trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to
bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the circle of
struggle
against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such
an
act." (Article 32)

Anti-Semitic incitement:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and
kill
them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks
and
trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come
and
kill him." (Article 7)

"The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have
accumulated
huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took
control of
the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various
parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the
Communist
Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their
money
they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs
and
the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy
societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World
War I
... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the
world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge
financial
gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their
finger
in it." (Article 22)

"Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet
expansion
from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting
the
area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more
expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the 'Protocols of the
Elders of
Zion'." (Article 32)

"The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle
of
struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab
world
should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future
role
in the fight against the warmongering Jews." (Article 32)

Posted for research and study, Read this one slowly......

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn29.html

At least Hamas is open about its evil intentions January 29, 2006 BY
MARK
STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

I was at a county fair in New Hampshire last summer and stopped by the
National Guard tent. They had those "Support Our Troops" ribbon
stickers for
sale -- one on a Stars-and-Stripes background, one of them just plain
yellow. I've never liked the whole yellow-ribbon thing: It's too
victimological, too passive, too enervated. One of the distinctive
features
of that immediate post-9/11 moment of near national unity was the
blessed
absence of yellow ribbons. It would have been the wrong symbol for an
America full of righteous anger.

But four years on, and there are "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbons
a-plenty. "What's the idea behind that?" I asked the National Guardsman
manning the display.

"Well," he said, "a lot of people don't support the war and they aren't
comfortable with the flag-colored ribbon but they support the troops."

It seemed to me unlikely that people who were uncomfortable with the
national flag were likely in any meaningful sense to be supportive of
the
national army. But a couple of weeks later, driving past a house in
Hanover,
N.H., I saw an even sillier qualification: "Support Our Troops. Bring
Them
Home Now" -- so they can sit around the barracks feeling like losers
until
they're needed for some hurricane-relief operation.

Joel Stein (no relation) of the Los Angeles Times took a lot of heat
last
week for coming right out with it and saying that he didn't support the
troops and that it was a humbug phrase that he and his anti-war
comrades
shouldn't have to use as cover for their position. Good for him. He's
right.
It's empty and pusillanimous, the Iraq war's version of "But some of my
best
friends are Jewish . . ." If you're opposed to the mission, if you
don't
want to see it through, if you're supporting a position whose success
would
only demoralize those serving in Iraq and negate their sacrifice, in
what
sense do you "support the troops"? Stein ought to be congratulated for
acknowledging that he doesn't. We armchair warmongers are routinely
derided
as "chickenhawks," but Stein is a hawkish chicken, disdaining the
weasel
formulation too many anti-war folks take refuge in.

The Palestinian elections were similarly clarifying. The old guard --
Yasser
Arafat's Fatah cronies -- had their own take on the "But some of my
best
friends are Jewish" routine. For years they insisted, at least in the
presence of Americans and Europeans, that they were in favor of a
"two-state
solution" -- Israel and Palestine living side by side -- at the same
time as
they supported and glorified and financially subsidized suicide bombers
and
other terrorists. Insofar as their enthusiasm for a two-state solution
was
genuine, it was as an intermediate stage en route to a one-state
solution.

Hamas, by contrast, takes a Joel Stein view: Why the hell should we
have to
go tippy-toeing around some sissy phrase we don't really mean? Hamas
doesn't
support a two-state solution, it supports the liquidation of one state
and
its replacement by other, and they don't see why they should have to
pretend
otherwise. And in last week's elections for the Palestinian Authority
they
romped home. It was a landslide.

As is the way, many in the West rushed to rationalize the victory. The
media
have long been reluctant to damn the excitable lads as terrorists. In
2002
the New York Times published a photograph of Palestinian suicide
bombers all
dressed up and ready to blow, and captioned it "Hamas activists." Take
my
advice and try not to be standing too near the Hamas activist when he
activates himself.

Oh, no no no, some analysts assured us. The Palestinians didn't vote
for
Hamas because of the policy plank about obliterating the state of
Israel but
because Fatah is hopelessly corrupt. Which is true: The European
Union's
bankrolled the Palestinian Authority since its creation and Yasser and
his
buddies salted most of the dough away in their Swiss bank accounts and
used
the loose change to fund the intifada. After 10 years you can't blame
the
Palestinians for figuring it's time to give another group of people a
chance
to siphon off all that EU booty.

So I'd like to believe this was a vote for getting rid of corruption
rather
than getting rid of Jews. But that's hard to square with some of the
newly
elected legislators. For example, Mariam Farahat, a mother of three,
was
elected in Gaza. She used to be a mother of six but three of her sons
self-detonated on suicide missions against Israel. She's a household
name to
Palestinians, known as Um Nidal -- Mother of the Struggle -- and, at
the
rate she's getting through her kids, the Struggle's all she'll be
Mother of.
She's famous for a Hamas recruitment video in which she shows her
17-year-old son how to kill Israelis and then tells him not to come
back.
It's the Hamas version of 42nd Street: You're going out there a
youngster
but you've got to come back in small pieces.

It may be that she stood for parliament because she's got a yen to be
junior
transport minister or deputy secretary of fisheries. But it seems more
likely that she and her Hamas colleagues were elected because this is
who
the Palestinian people are, this is what they believe. The Palestinians
are
the most comprehensively wrecked people on the face of the earth: After
60
years as U.N. "refugees," they're now so depraved they're electing
candidates on the basis of child sacrifice. To take two contemporaneous
crises, imagine if the population displacements caused by the end of
the
Second World War and by the partition of British India had also been
left to
the U.N. to manage and six decades later they were still running the
"refugee" "camps," now full of grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
none
of whom had ever lived in any of the places they're supposed to be
refugees
from. Would you wish that fate on post-war Central Europe or the Indian
subcontinent?

So what happens now? Either Hamas forms a government and decides that
operating highway departments and sewer systems is what it really wants
to
do with itself. Or, like Arafat, it figures that it has no interest in
government except as a useful front for terrorist operations. If it's
the
former, all well and good: Many first-rate terror organizations have
managed
to convert themselves to third-rate national-liberation governments.
But, if
it's the latter, that too is useful: Hamas is the honest expression of
the
will of the Palestinian electorate, and the cold hard truth of that is
something Europeans and Americans will find hard to avoid.

As with Joel Stein, you're always better off knowing what people
honestly
think. For decades, the Middle East's dictators justified themselves to
Washington as a restraint on the baser urges of their citizens, but in
the
end they only incubated worse pathologies. Western subsidy of
Arafatistan is
merely the latest example. Democracy in the Middle East is not always
pretty, but it's better than the West's sillier illusions.

A google alert included this link, and all the names made me think of the Zawahiri tape and missing names, from 2005.

When I can see again, will have a go at googling them.
granny

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369667

Volume 2, Issue 8 (April 28, 2005) | Download PDF Version

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
The Voice of the Caucasus - A new Jihadi magazine
Continuing JI concerns in Singapore
More attacks due in Indonesia
The Oman Islamist Enigma
Peace Talks Amid Renewed Violence in the Philippines
Yemen Facing Insurgency on Two Fronts
Coalition Warfare, Part II: How Zarqawi Fits into Bin Laden's World Front
The Voice of Jihad is Back
Jihad Terms and Terminology

The Voice of Jihad is Back

By Stephen Ulph

Perceptions as to the war on terrorism in Saudi Arabia took a knock with the news of a series of armed confrontations during the month of April. The first of these, the bloodiest in a two-year struggle between al-Qaeda and government forces, was a three day exchange beginning on April 3 at al-Rass, a small town in the al-Qassim region some 200 miles north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Government reports spoke of 18 al-Qaeda fatalities, including a number of those on the most wanted list, in particular Sa'ud al-Utaybi and the Moroccan Abd al-Karim al-Majati, the presumed mastermind of the March 2004 Madrid train bombings. The second clash took place in Mecca on April 21 during which two mujahideen and two policemen were killed, targeted by rocket-propelled grenades. On the same day a third incident occurred at the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, resulting in the arrest of two militants.

However, another indication, just as telling, was the reappearance on the web on April 27 of the al-Qaeda web magazine Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), the ideological periodical for the Peninsular mujahideen. Publication of all Sawt al-Jihad periodicals had been interrupted last October, and it was assumed that this was an indication of the difficulties the mujahideen were facing in the increasingly efficient security environment of the Kingdom. The appearance of issue no. 29, therefore, comes as a slap in the face to the regime.

The theme of the 50-page edition, entitled al-Samidun (The Steadfast), is as expected one of ‘we're still here'. It dedicates much of its contents to elucidating and explaining the events of April's clashes with the authorities. Whether already planned before the confrontations, or as a homage, the magazine contains articles penned by some of those involved, including an editorial by Sa'ud al-Utaybi and an article with the sarcastic title Qadayna ala al-Irhab (We have put an end to terrorism). Here al-Utaybi pours scorn on the claims of the Saudi authorities to have eliminated jihad in the Kingdom as mere "daydreams". He claims that their standard by which victory is judged differs from that of the government. "Whatever we have suffered in the Arab Peninsula and elsewhere," Al-Utaybi affirms, "let the Tyrant know that our war throughout the world is one single war, beginning with his master the Americans wherever they may be, and not ending until all the thrones of Tyrants are cast down." Al-Utaybi ends with a call for more youths to join the jihad. To those who are unable to do so in the Peninsula he asks what prevents them from making their way to Iraq or other fronts? "Or for those who cannot join a front line, what stops them from sniping at Americans and killing the Crusader or Apostate enemies of God at home?"

The section "Observations: Events in the Eyes of the Mujahideen" gives an extended treatment of the April events and provides the full list of casualties and detainees (in some cases for the first time, and pointedly correcting the misinformation it claims is being put out by the government). The fatalities it lists as the following:

- Sa'ud bin Hamud al-Utaybi
- Nayif bin Abd al-Aziz al-Awshan
- Karim bin al-Tahami al-Majati (an interview with whom is to appear in the following edition) and his 11-year old son Adam.
- Fawwaz bin Mufaddi al-Enezi
- Majid bin Muhammad bin Sa'id al-Qahtani
- Sa'd bin Muhammad al-Uqayyil
- Mut'ib al-Maqati al-Utaybi
- Nawaf bin Nayif al-Hafi al-Utaybi
- Abd al-Rahman bin Abdallah al-Ju'aydan
- Faysal bin Muhammad al-Baydani al-Harbi

The magazine also lists the names of the six arrested:

- Shaikh Hamad al-Humaydi
- Salih bin Abd al-Aziz al-Jum'a
- Sa'd bin Salama al-Enezi
- Adil bin Sa'd al-Mutayri
- Zayn bin Jadid al-Bahiji
- Salih bin Abd al-Rahman al-Shamsan

The chapter al-Samidun wa–Ashab al-Rass (The Steadfast Ones and the People of al-Rass) give the mujahideen's take on the April 3-5 events, linking it fancifully with the al-Rass of the Qur'an who were destroyed for turning against God's messengers of warning. The basic purpose of the article is to turn the mujahideen's ‘defeat' into a victory and belittle the achievement of the authorities.

This is followed by a biography of one of the above arrestees, Shaikh Hamad al-Humaydi, an important mujahid ideologue whose loss will be felt. The homage continues with one of his essays urging jihad, supported, as is customary, by Qur'anic quotations and quotes from classic Muslim scholars who supported militant jihad.

The Islamic law theme is continued with a treatise by Abdullah bin Nasir al-Rashid on those considered to have immunity from conflict, dealing with the thorny subject of treatment of the Ahl al-Kitab (those other ‘People of the Book', i.e. Jews and Christians) and the issue of Dhimma (‘protected people', those subservient to Muslims).

The founder of the Peninsular mujahideen Yusuf al-Ayyiri (killed in June 2003), reappears in a lengthy article, which once again makes the point of the need for mujahid youths not to bother to seek permission from their parents for such a sacred duty, and addresses a homily to parents enjoining them not to seek to prevent their sons from enlisting. This is then bolstered by a question and answer chapter discussed by Abdullah bin Nasir al-Rashid on fatwas on Jihad and Shari'ah.

A couple of interesting points also appear in the text. One is an appeal for sympathizers not to misuse the Voice of Jihad name to front their audio publications, since it implies erroneous connection with the Peninsular mujahideen. The other is a set of detailed warnings and instructions on precautions to take when attempting to communicate with the editorial staff: not to use a known phone line, make sure to use a proxy whenever possible, avoid mentioning any information which might identify the correspondents or their whereabouts.

The Voice of Jihad alternated publication with the Mu'askar al-Battar (al-Battar Training Camp) periodical, which provided materials of a more military and training application. It will be interesting to see if the Mu'askar also makes its reappearance shortly, as some gauge of future militancy in the Kingdom.

Stephen Ulph is a Senior Fellow of The Jamestown Foundation and editor of Terrorism Focus.

March 17th,2005

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369441

Al-Qaeda's Strategy Until 2020

By Stephen Ulph

In light of this issue's report on the Idarat al-Tawahhush and its view on the secondary importance of Afghanistan in al-Qaeda's global struggle, a further window into al-Qaeda's strategic thinking is provided by a Jordanian analyst Bassam al-Baddarin. Writing on March 11 for the Arabic language daily al-Quds al-Arabi, his article ‘Al-Qaeda has drawn up working strategy lasting until 2020,' puts together from the assorted writings of al-Qaeda's ‘strategic brain' Muhammad Makkawi, what appears to be a coherent long-term strategy. It seeks to explain the series of events since September 11 2001, the events in Afghanistan and Iraq, and potentially beyond.

The subject of al-Baddarin's study, Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, is better known as Sayf al-Adel. He was a colonel in Egyptian Special Forces before joining with the mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion. At the 1998 foundation of World Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews (the full, official title for al-Qaeda), Sayf al-Adel was granted a pivotal role in military training, and subsequently headed the military wing, succeeding Abu Hafs al-Masri to become number three in al-Qaeda after Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. In 2003, Iran at one point offered to extradite Sayf al-Adel, whom it claimed to have under arrest, in exchange for Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization leaders, but Washington rejected the offer.
The theory:

Al-Baddarin identifies from Sayf al-Adel's writings a core thesis explaining events — a regional war against the Americans. It aims at opening the jihadist triangle of terror, beginning with Afghanistan, passing though Iran and southern Iraq, and ending with southern Turkey, southern Lebanon and Syria. The first, achieved, step in this strategy was to regionalize the struggle with the United States. In this, the events of September 11 constituted the first step: dragging the United States into the Arab region in preparation for an extended war of attrition. Al-Qaeda knew in advance that the quick and inevitable response would be a comprehensive attack from the super-power against Afghanistan, but that this would play into their hands by provoking another giant — the Islamic Nation — and forcing it to wake up from its slumbers. In what appears a parallel with Abu Bakr Naji's theory in "The Management of Barbarism," al-Baddarin sees in al-Qaeda's writings on the web a fore-knowledge of the course of events, that in a pre-prepared program "it sacrificed the Taleban Movement and transferred a large number of its fighting strength outside Afghanistan, to Iran and Iraq." This was to keep pace with the shift by Washington of the theatre to an even more comprehensive confrontation in Iraq. "Indeed al-Qaeda had seen this in advance … Therefore, Al-Zarqawi and his comrades left for Iraq and remained quiet in the north" until coming to fruition "through the well-known declaration of
allegiance between al-Zarqawi in Iraq and bin Laden in Afghanistan." In this manner, al-Baddarin concludes, "it can be said that al-Qaeda's strategy until the year 2000 (sic for 2020) turned its second page." All that remains are "the Syrian and Lebanese dossiers, and finally the Iranian dossier." This last is an inevitable strategic and tactical target for US military presence in the region. As to Washington's strategic preparation for this, al-Baddarin states, "al-Qaeda leaders say that the U.S. Administration has defined five objectives: ending the Palestinian intifada; controlling Lebanon's Hizbullah; effecting the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; promoting the success of the Iraqi election process; and securing the oil fields in the Arabian Gulf region and maritime crossing points." The upshot of this costly, dispersed U.S. strategy is the draining of the superpower's military resources.

The immediate question on the above is how much of these strategic theses of al-Qaeda actually predate events, or whether they constitute a ‘moving target' that takes as much from the unfolding of events as it purports to steer them. The one concession to the unpredictability of human events is al-Zarqawi's narrow escape from being traded by Saddam Hussein in return for averting the invasion — interpreted by Sayf al-Adel as God's intervention to save the group. The role of Iran in this program is also insufficiently clarified, as al-Baddarin himself states, and would imply "a certain [long distance] patient deal, still unknown … convincing Iran of the benefit in the end would be on two tracks: getting rid of Saddam and controlling Iraq, and then moving on to confronting the Americans." Even so, the article is thought-provoking as a serious and intelligent attempt at weaving together the strands of information floating on the web into a coherent whole. As such it is eagerly being consumed on the jihadi forums.

Posted for study and research:

MEXIDATA . INFO
Column 013006 Brewer

http://www.mexidata.info/id768.html

Monday, January 30, 2006

Latin American Gangs Threaten Mexico
and the U.S.

By Jerry Brewer

Those most likely to harbor gangs intent on
terror are those who may view the United
States as a declining superpower due to
recent events. Many in countries that find
it virtually impossible to control gangs,
criminals and terrorists within their own
territories – a threat that emanates as far
south as the tri-border confluence of
Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

Charles Shapiro, the former U.S.
ambassador to Venezuela, states, “Almost
every extremist terror group is now
represented in Latin America.” And that
includes Islamic terrorists, among others
al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic
Jihad. Living there among an estimated
population of 25,000 Arabs, or those of
Arab descent.

Apart from Western Hemisphere criminals,
for decades there have been pockets of
smugglers, terrorists, drug traffickers, arms
dealers, and organized crime figures from
Russia, Japan, China, Nigeria and others
nations in the area. And most of the
successful infiltration into Latin American
nations is due to weak governments,
corrupt establishments, unscrupulous
leftist leaders, and sagging economies.

The isthmus between North and South
America, with Panama as a central hub, is
a chokepoint for the movement of
land-based vehicles and people towards
Mexico and the border of the United
States. Reports have described sightings
of al-Qaeda operatives in Central America,
and some observes believe their alleged
presence “conforms to their desire to
secure land routes to the United States
through collaboration with Central
American gangs.”

The U.S. Justice Department recently
reported that a drug trafficker, Noel Exinia,
admitted importing a quarter ton of cocaine
into the United States from Mexico. Too,
he was to smuggle in 20 men who were
“Iraqi terrorists,” charging them
US$8,000.00 a head. Exinia, according to
papers filed in a Brownsville, Texas federal
court, told associates in wiretapped
conversations that these men were
“Osama’s people” (Usama Bin Laden).
Although this information was
subsequently deemed questionable, it
spoke considerably of human trafficking
possibilities with an Islamic terrorist
potential.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
has claimed that Adnan G. El Shukrijumah,
a known al-Qaeda member and suspect in
the planning of 9/11, was spotted in July
2004 in Honduras meeting with Mara
Salvatrucha gang members. This
announcement was followed by a
confirmation by U.S. officials that
Shukrijumah had attempted to acquire
radioactive material for the production of a
“dirty bomb” to be smuggled into the U.S.

U.S. Government officials report that over
90 MS-13 gang member insurgents have
been apprehended nationwide since 2004.
More than a third have been caught in the
Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, with at
least 40 caught in the Laredo area.

There are reports of Kaibiles, ex-members
of Special Forces units from Guatemala,
training paramilitary “Zeta” gunmen – who
are the enforcement arm of Mexico’s
treacherous Gulf Cartel, and other cartel
assassins. Gun battles throughout Mexico
have clearly shown the death and
destruction brought on by unchecked
violence and the sophisticated weapons
used by these rogue commandos.

The Tucson (Arizona) Sector has reported
more than a hundred attacks against
Border Patrol agents along the border by
paramilitary-looking attackers. This in total
disregard for our law enforcement at all
levels. They are bold and no longer
content to keep a low profile on and around
U.S. soil, plus some have placed bounties
on the lives of U.S. law enforcement
officers.

Border Patrol agents say they are not
prepared to fight an enemy this
sophisticated and well armed.

A report from Dallas last year, by the
Associated Press, advised of Latin American
gang violence “that’s become all too
common in Mexico, right here in Dallas.”
The report described seeing
“execution-style murders, burned bodies,
and outright mayhem.”

Here too is a wake up call to go hand in
hand with a nation’s voracious drug habit,
and the suppliers of the demand from the
south – according to officials in both
countries an estimated 95 percent of the
unlawful weapons seized or confiscated in
Mexico were first sold legally in the United
States. In one case, Mexican and U.S.
authorities working together traced 80
confiscated firearms to a Mexican citizen
who had paid Texas residents to buy
weapons on his behalf.

The terrorism risk at our southern border is
real and requires the attention of
authorities at the highest levels of
government. Yet walls and fences will not
block this threat, for many of the gangsters
and insurgents already reside in many of
our cities. Protection can only come from
initiative, commitment, diplomacy, and an
international team effort by free nations
interested in stemming this cancerous
world phenomenon.

——————————
Jerry Brewer, the Vice President of Criminal
Justice International Associates, a global
risk mitigation firm headquartered in
Montgomery, Alabama, is also a columnist
with MexiData.info.

This so closely matches what Dr. Bill Wattenberg said tonight, it seemed wise to post it.

Dr. Bill said: " I have been telling you for years that al-Qaeda has nuclear supplies, they will hit us any day now, with a Hiroshima type, small about 10 meg(?) sized nuclear bomb".......
granny...............

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows.
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46127

Saturday, September 3, 2005

WEEKEND Q&A
Paul Williams details 'American Hiroshima'
Al-Qaida plotting nuclear attack with weapons already in U.S.

Posted: September 3, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Paul L. Williams is a former consultant to the FBI on organized crime and terrorism. Since then, he has become an award-winning investigative journalist and written several books. In his new book, "The Al Qaeda Connection," he claims Osama bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons and smuggled them into the U.S. through Mexico for use in a plot known as "American Hiroshima."

By Ryan Mauro

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Ryan Mauro: Much has been written about the "American Hiroshima" report. How did you first learn about the plot?

Paul Williams: I have a unique background. I hold a Ph.D. in philosophy from Drew University and I am a seasoned and award-winning journalist. I came upon the story of bin Laden's acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons while working as the editor/publisher of The Metro and a consultant on organized crime for the FBI. Several members of the Chechen Mafia, who had emigrated to Little Odessa, muscled into the operations of the Bufalino Crime Family in Northeast Pennsylvania by selling choice No. Four heroin, guns of every description, and stolen high-end cars from New York and New Jersey .

I learned that they came to the U.S. after Makhmud and his associates sold tactical nukes and nuclear materials to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. I began to search for evidence of this sale and came upon stories in The Jerusalem Report and The London Times and Arab stories in Muslim magazines, Al-Watan al-Arabi and al-Majallah This led me to other sources and reports of further sales of nukes from the former Soviet Union to al-Qaida not only by the Chechens but also the Russian Mafia and black-marker arms-dealers, including Semion Mogilevic from the Ukraine . Such information can be obtained by any journalist with a telephone, a computer, and a library card.

I further learned that the sales to al-Qaida have been verified by a host of intelligence officials and weapons inspectors, including Hans Blix, former director general of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. The sales were even verified by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in their pronouncements that they have obtained a small arsenal of nuclear weapons from black-market sources. My research took me farther into dealings between bin Laden and Dr. A. Q. Khan and the fact that over 20 nuclear scientists and technicians from Khan's research laboratories in Pakistan worked with al-Qaida on a regular basis to maintain and modify the weapons that had been purchased and to develop other weapons from the highly enriched uranium and plutonium that bin Laden hade purchased from Uzbekistan and other countries.

Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Majeed, two of the leading officials at the Khan facility, confessed to CIA and ISI interrogators that they participated in al-Qaida's nuclear projects. The fact that the Chechens possessed the nukes should be no surprise to any reporter or investigator. In 1995, the Chechens under Com. Shamail Basayev planted a radiological bomb in Izmailovsky Park near Moscow . The bomb was made of cesium-137, and, if detonated, would have killed thousands of Russians. This incident represented the first case of a nuke to be deployed as a weapon of terror. Later that same year, Dzokhar Dudayev, the leader of the Chechen Mafia, offered to sell his collection of nuclear weapons to the United States in exchange for U. S. recognition of Chechnya 's independence. The Clinton Administration declined and so the weapons were sold to al-Qaida.

More importantly, there is empirical proof that al-Qaida possesses nukes. In 2000, British agents posed as recruits from a London mosque to infiltrate al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan . In Herat , they saw nuclear weapons being manufactured. Similarly, an al-Qaeda operative was arrested at the checkpoint at Ramallah with a weapon strapped to his back. At first, Israeli intelligence thought that the weapon was a radiological bomb but later confirmed, as reported by Richard Sales of UPI and other reputable journalists, that it was a tactical nuke. There are more examples, including the canister of uranium 238 that U.S. military officials discovered in a lead canister in Kandahar at the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom.

RM: How come other terrorism experts, Steven Emerson for example, haven't warned us about the plot? In other words, why does it seem so out of the mainstream?

PW: Few military and intelligence officials question bin Laden's ability to launch his plan for the American Hiroshima. Gen. Eugene Habiger, former Executive Chief of Strategic Weapons at the Pentagon, said that an event of nuclear mega-terrorism on U. S. soil is "not a matter of if, but when." During the 2004 presidential debates, President Bush and Sen. Kerry said that nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists represent the greatest danger facing the American people, while Vice President Cheney, on the campaign trail, warned that a nuclear attack by al-Qaida appears imminent. Before leaving office, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge both voiced that belief that al-Qaida's plan to nuke cities throughout the country soon might come to fruition.

From the private sector, Warren Buffet, who establishes odds against cataclysmic events for major insurance companies, concluded that an imminent nuclear nightmare within the United States is "virtually a certainty." From the academic community, Dr. Graham Allison, director of Harvard University 's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said: "Is nuclear mega-terrorism inevitable? Harvard professors are known for being subtle or ambiguous, but I'll try to the clear. 'Is the worst yet to come?' My answer: Bet on it. Yes." Finally, from the mainstream media, Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, concluded that the only reason for thinking a nuclear attack won't happen is because "it hasn't happened yet," adding that such reasoning represents "terrible logic." And so, Ryan, the message has been delivered but few are listening.

Emerson's importance as an analyst pales in comparison to that of Michael Scheuer, of the CIA and author of "Imperial Hubris," who was in charge on "the Alec file," the CIA's file on bin Laden. On Nov. 14, 2004 , Scheuer appeared on "60 Minutes" to alert the American people that a nuclear attack by al-Qaida "is pretty close to being inevitable."

RM: In your upcoming book, "The Al-Qaeda Connection," you write that former Russian KGB and Spetsnaz operatives maintain bin Laden's nuclear arsenal. When were they hired and how do we know they are capable of such a monumental task?

PW: Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri began recruiting former Spetsnaz technicians circa 1997. By 1999, a host of such technicians (along with nuclear scientists from China ) were working at al-Qaida laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan . By 2000, al-Qaida also secured the help of scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Research Facility in Pakistan , including the assistance of Khan himself.

On Sept. 11, 2001 , when the attack was taking place in America , bin Laden and company were meeting with Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former Chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission, and Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, chief technician for the A. Q. Khan Facility, to discuss the maintenance and deployment of al-Qaida's nuclear arsenal. When the CIA confiscated records from Ummah Tameer E-Nau ("Islamic Reconstruction"), Dr. Mahmood's bogus charity in Kabul , they discovered evidence from Mahmood's computer that at least one al-Qaida nuke had been forward deployed to the U.S. from Karachi in a cargo container. After interrogating Mahood and Majid, CIA officials discovered that more than a score of scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Facility worked on a daily basis to develop, upgrade, and maintain the al-Qaida nuclear arsenal. Almost all of these scientists have escaped from Pakistan to avoid arrest.

U.S. officials have been denied permission to interrogate Dr. Khan, even though we know that he provided nuclear technology and designs for atomic bombs not only to Libya , Iran and North Korea, but also Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Nigeria, Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Abu Dhabi and Myanmar. In Myanmar , for example, Dr. Sulieman Asad and Dr. Mohammad Ali Mukhtar are building a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor while still providing help and expertise to the al-Qaida network. It's a hellava situation and the press is not reporting it.

RM: Do you have any information on what the U.S. and its friends are doing to try to stop the plot?

PW: On Oct. 11, 2001 , George Tenet, former CIA director, met with President Bush to inform him that at least two tactical nukes have reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S. This news was substantiated by Pakistan 's ISI, the CIA and the FBI.

In accordance with this discovery, the Bush administration deployed hundreds of new and sophisticated Gamma Ray Neutron Flux Detector sensors to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and "choke points" around Washington, D.C. The administration further assigned Delta Force, the elite special operations detachment unit of the U.S. Army, the task of killing or disabling any or all suspects. Such measures have proved to be ineffective. Richard L. Wagner, senior staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, testified before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack that the currently installed radiation detection systems are highly limited in their capabilities and, in general, insufficient to the task. To add to the problem of insecurity, the borders remain almost completely porous and less than 10 percent of the freight that arrives at major ports (including New York/New Jersey) is inspected.

RM: Where is the WMD arsenal now that Afghanistan is occupied?

PW: The nuclear weapons were not contained solely in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida laboratories were established in the Balkans, Sudan, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even places like Myanmar. A number of these weapons have been forward deployed to Mexico and the U.S.

My educated guess would be that arsenals have been established in several of the following countries: Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Abu Dubai, Iran, Syria and Lebanon . The last three in light of the al-Qaida truce and bonding with Hezbollah. Myanmar looms large since very sinister events are taking place there. These events, including the construction of large reactors, have been made possible by fugitive scientists and technicians from the Khan Research Facility .But don't lose sight of the fact that nukes have been forward deployed to al-Qaida cells in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

RM: Why haven't the weapons been used already? One can't help but think that the best time to use the weapons would have been during the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq .

PW: The worst time for al-Qaida to use its nuclear weapons would have been during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq when the U.S. remained on high alert. A defining characteristic of bin Laden is patience. His favorite Islamic verse is as follows: "I will be patient until Patience is outworn by patience." He started plotting the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania when he was in the Sudan in 1993; the attack of the USS Cole was more than two years in the making and eight years passed between the first attack on the World Trade Center and the second. The planned American Hiroshima is enormous in scope. It requires not only development and (in some cases) rebuilding of the weapons along with codification for detonation but also forward deployment, site preparation and precise strategic coordination with scattered cells.

Bin Laden will not allow the attack to take place unless there is certainty of success. His entire resources (including the gains from the poppy fields) have been spent on this operation. After scrutinizing the situation and analyzing the data, Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times , said that the "best reason" for thinking that the nuclear attack by al-Qaida will NOT happen is because "it hasn't happened yet," adding this conclusion represents "terrible logic." I agree with him.

RM: Is there any indication of when Bin Laden intends to use the arsenal?

PW: Bin Laden can't sit on these weapons for years. They require constant maintenance. At any given time, a tactical nuke exudes a temperature in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that they are prone to oxidation and rust. Moreover, the triggers that emit large quantities of neutrons at high speeds decay rapidly and have short half-lives – most would become useless without maintenance in less than four months. The nuclear cores also are subject to decay and over the course of several years would fall below the critical mass threshold. Though the shells that encase the cores are the most durable parts of the weapons, they, too, are subject to contamination. The tritium used to compensate for the required amount of conventional explosives to compress the fissile core within the compact devices is less of an issue since it has a half-life of 12.3 years. Taking all things into consideration, the attack should occur within the very near future. The bombs which bin Laden began building in 1992 are for the American Hiroshima.

RM: Given the heat and radiation given off by the nuke, couldn't it be detected?

PW: Richard L. Wagner, senior staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and one of the founders of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Search Team, recently told Congress that major breakthroughs in the ability of the U.S. government to locate rogue nukes may be five years away. Wagner, a Ph.D. whose specialty is radiation detection, testified that better technology and more radiation detention devices are needed to stop the nuclear terrorist threat. "Currently installed radiation detection systems, or systems which could be procured in quantity in the next year or two, are quite limited in their capabilities and, in general, are insufficient for the task," he testified. "Substantial research and development is needed to improve detection capabilities."

A nuclear gun bomb that could be fired from a 155 millimeter recoilless rifle could be packed in the small container, stuffed into the truck of a car or van and transported into any major metropolitan city within the U.S. without detection.

That's the fact of the matter. Other weapons could be transported by private plane to any major airport. Less than 25 percent of the freight on private planes is inspected let alone subjected to radiation detection. To complicate matters, the ports of entry (such as the airports) are now controlled by the Albanian Mafia. The Albanians have taken over the operations of the Italian-American crime families and have become, according to the FBI, the leading criminal organization in the U.S. The Albanians, as you know, are Muslims with ties to radical Islam and, through the KLO, al-Qaida.

RM: I have trouble believing that teams required to maintain a nuclear weapon wouldn't be detected here in the U.S.

PW: There isn't just one team but, at least, seven. They are working within mosques and Islamic centers. In the U.S., a federal judge will not provide any FBI or law enforcement agent with a warrant to search a mosque of an Islam center for any reason since such places are listed as "houses of worship."

RM: Seven teams?

PW: At least seven teams, according to information obtained from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al-Qaida operatives, in at least seven metropolitan areas. These areas have been identified as New York, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The attack will occur simultaneously at the seven sites.

RM: How do you know you can trust what Khalid Sheikh Mohammad said? In the past, he's given us bogus information, some of which led to orange alerts. Some say he and other al-Qaida operatives are waging a disinformation campaign meant to dull our senses.

PW: No, you can't trust Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, but you can trust the information that was obtained from his laptop when he was arrested on March 1, 2003 .

RM: Will Bin Laden use them on the American homeland or also forces overseas and countries that have joined the war on terrorism?

PW: They are not for use in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Iraq or Afghanistan . The declaration of war was issued against the United States and al-Qaida insists that over 4 million Americans must die for the sake of parity. They are intent upon realizing this objective and the doomsday clock by all reckoning is very near midnight .

Ryan Mauro is the author of the upcoming book "Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq" and owner of WorldThreats.com.

Related stories:

How al-Qaida terror nukes got into U.S.

Meet al-Qaida's nuke trigger man

Al-Qaida's nuclear efforts: 'sophisticated, professional'

Pentagon drills for nuke terror

Turkish police seize Russian uranium

How Pakistan's Dr. X sold al-Qaida Islamic bomb

Author says prepare for nuclear terror

If al-Qaida has nukes, why wait to use them?

Hiroshima marks 60th anniversary of bombing

Nuke terrorists' favorite dates

Chertoff warns of nuclear terrorism

Nunn sees nuke terror threat

White House 'concerned' about al-Qaida drug link

How Osama bought bomb

Bin Laden did it, say terror experts

Al-Qaida's U.S. nuclear targets

Who shorted British pound?

Russian WMDs hidden in U.S.?

Tancredo to request al-Qaida nuke briefing

Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.

Al-Jazeera to look at open U.S. border

Mexico's blind eye to al-Qaida activity

Non-Mex illegal crossing surge

Mexican army escorts border drug-runners

Islam on march south of border

FBI chief warns of aliens from al-Qaida-tied nations

FBI chief warns of aliens from al-Qaida-tied nations

Al-Qaida runs own travel agency

Financial squeeze pushed al-Qaida south of the border

Al-Qaida south of the border?

Terrorist base south of the border

Terrorists active in U.S. 'backyard'

A Mexico cover-up of U.S. terrorist threats?

Defector: Chavez gave $1 million to al-Qaida

August, 2005.
Posted for study and research.

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows.
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Tuesday, August 2, 2005

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Nuke terror to strike
U.S. by this weekend?
Numbers, calendars important
to bin Laden include Aug. 6

Posted: August 2, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – Intelligence gathered from captured al-Qaida documents and interrogations of captured operatives has provided the U.S. with some specific information about Osama bin Laden's favored dates for his decade-long plan for an "American Hiroshima" nuclear terrorist attack – and one of those dates arrives this week.

One of the most frequently cited dates is Aug. 6, the anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of that attack, so this Aug. 6 would have special significance, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter that has broken several major stories tracking al-Qaida's nuclear terrorism plans.

An amateur sleuth, Michael Matuszak, points out, for instance, that Saturday would also mark the 1,426 days since Sept. 11, 2001. He points out that, in the Islamic calendar, this is the year 1426 – and that Aug. 6 would be the first day of the seventh month, the exact midway point of the year 1426.

"It is as if Bin Laden started by scheduling 'American Hiroshima' for 8-6-2005 and then worked backwards to arrive at 9-11-2001 as the precursor," he speculates.

Matuszak arrives at the calculation, however, by including Sept. 11, 2001, in his addition.

The Aug. 6 date and its association with Hiroshima was actually cited by captured al-Qaida operatives, according to U.S. military sources.

So, how high is the risk this week?

This year, falling on a Saturday as it does, some G2B intelligence sources say it is highly unlikely a major nuclear attack will occur.

"In addition to mentioning this date as a preferred target, Al-Qaida operatives have made it clear they also prefer an attack during the daylight during the week to wreak maximum havoc and to be sure the entire world views the images of burning U.S. cities," said one knowledgeable military intelligence source.

Others point out that Aug. 6 arrives in Japan while it is still Aug. 5 in the U.S. Does that raise the threat level this Friday?

So far, no one in the Department of Homeland Security has mentioned raising the threat this week. And though the Aug. 6 date was mentioned by al-Qaida operatives in association with its "American Hiroshima" nuclear attack, no year was ever discussed.

There are several other favored dates mentioned by bin Laden operatives in association with this planned mega-attack on the U.S.

Paul Williams, author of the upcoming book "The Al Qaeda Connection," acknowledges that, according to U.S. military analysts, bin Laden places a great deal of significance on dates. He believes Sept. 11 was chosen because it represented the fifth anniversary of the conviction of Ramzi Yousef for the World Trade Center bombing.

The bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, occurred Aug. 7, 1998, the eighth anniversary of the 1990 U.S. commitment to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia.

Williams says his sources also point to two dates in October as significant. Oct. 2 is the anniversary of the federal court conviction of blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, "the spiritual mentor of bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Another date of significance is Oct. 7, the day of the launching of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Other dates mentioned by other bin Laden watchers include Sept. 11 and May 14, the anniversary of the re-creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

But bin Laden also craves the element of surprise. Therefore, the more attention specific dates are given, the more it reduces the likelihood that they will be chosen for the ultimate terrorist attack, say G2 Bulletin sources.

Bin Laden has spent billions of dollars on the successful purchase and development of nuclear weapons – money his al-Qaida terrorist network earned by directing poppy cultivation in the fields of Afghanistan, right under the noses of U.S. occupation forces.

That is the finding of G2 Bulletin sources as well as the investigative work of journalist Williams, and international terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America."

The vast drug fortune has also aided al-Qaida in smuggling some of those nuclear weapons – along with thousands of sleeper agents – over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 criminal street gang, say the sources.

According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, bin Laden's terrorist network has a plan called "American Hiroshima" involving the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S.

Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

Besides trying to detonate its own nuclear weapons already planted in the U.S., military sources also say there is evidence to suggest al-Qaida is paying former Russian special forces officers to assist the terrorist group in locating nuclear weapons formerly concealed inside the U.S. by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Osama bin Laden's group is also paying nuclear scientists from Russia and Pakistan to maintain its existing arsenal and assemble additional weapons with the materials it has invested hundreds of millions in procuring over a period of 10 years.

The plans for the devastating nuclear attack on the U.S. have been under development for more than a decade. It is designed as a final deadly blow of defeat to the U.S., which is seen by al-Qaida and its allies as "the Great Satan."

At least half the nuclear weapons in the al-Qaida arsenal were obtained for cash from the Chechen terrorist allies.

At least nine major U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, have been mentioned as prime targets for the al-Qaida nuclear terrorists.

Stay current on all the latest details regarding al-Qaida's nuclear terror plans by subscribing to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

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