Zawahiri (al Qaeda #2) videotape surfaces

Top al-Qaida Figure Ayman Al-Zawahri Urges Support for Iraqi Insurgents in Video

CAIRO, Egypt - No. 2 al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq, particularly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and called on all Muslims to support them in a video posted Thursday on the Internet.

The video was dated with an Islamic month corresponding to November 2005 and al-Zawahri mentions an Oct. 23 earthquake that hit Pakistan and Afghanistan. But it appeared to be the first time the 28-minute video has been made public.

It was not clear why the video was not released soon after the date it was allegedly filmed. . .

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0605110155191821.htm

President says his letter to President Bush was invitation to Islam
Jakarta, May 11, IRNA

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that his letter to President George W. Bush did not concern the nuclear dossier, but rather was an invitation to Islam and the prophets culture.

He made the above remarks in reply to a reporter while attending press conference on his letter to President Bush in Jakarta in the afternoon of the third day of his stay in Jakarta.

Stressing that the letter was beyond the nuclear issue, the chief executive said that in principle, the country's nuclear case is not so significant to make him write a letter about it.

"We act according to laws and our activities are quite clear. We are rather intent on solving more fundamental global matters.

"The letter was an invitation to monotheism and justice, which are common to all divine prophets. If the call is responded positively, there will be no more problems to be solved," added the president.

The president said that the letter actually contained a clear message of invitation to human beliefs, adding that its response will determine the future.

Concerning Iran's readiness to hold talks with the US, he said that Iran is in favor of dialogues, but it depends on the conditions.

"We hold talks with our allies, such as Indonesia, quite smoothly. However those intending to speak to us with authority should attempt to change their attitude," he added.

About the possibility of military attack on Iran, he said that psychological war is quite likely and expressed his doubt about the military option.

In response to a question about suspension of enrichment, the president said that Iran will agree to suspend the process only if all those having access to nuclear fuel will suspend theirs and let their relevant facilities be inspected.

"Otherwise, we do not find it necessary to suspend our uranium enrichment and consider the call for it as unfair and will continue to reject it,"
In reply to another question whether Iran will need the assistance of other Islamic states in its nuclear issue, he said that the country has the potential to defend itself.

"However, given that we do not merely defend our own nation, we wish to feel the presence of our allies, including Indonesia as one of our closest friends," he added.

In response to a question about Indonesia's mediation between Iran and the US, he said that if such dialogue has to take place for the sake of global peace and detente, Iran prefers Indonesia to be one of the negotiators.

News sent: 19:18 Thursday May 11, 2006

" . . .In his most recent recording, bin Laden began his statement by saying, "Peace be upon those who follow guidance." That language, the analysis concluded, closely matches a pattern seen before the bombings in London last July 7. Bin Laden used almost identical greetings in statements directed to Europeans in April 2004 and to Americans in October 2004. "We believe that this signifies this is a warning message, and they feel they're obligated (to give) in the run-up to an attack," said Ben Venzke, chief executive at the IntelCenter. The government's counterterror officials declined to comment on the analysis."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/terror/main1226006_page2.shtml

Experts Scour Bin Laden Tape For Clues

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2006

(CBS/AP) Osama bin Laden's warning this week about an upcoming attack on the United States answered at least one question about the al Qaeda leader: He is still alive, or at least was until very recently.

But it opened a new inquiry by counterterror officials who are analyzing the bin Laden audiotape for clues about when and where it was made, and, most importantly, whether it sends a signal to carry out his threat.

Intelligence analysts were scrutinizing the recording for any clues, including certain words and phrases, that might be a signal for the terror network's members or followers. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The Homeland Security Department said it had no plans to raise the nation's terror threat-alert level and no reason to believe an attack was imminent.

"We, of course, have been very concerned about the threat of terrorism, generally, since the attacks of 9/11," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. "And obviously we expect the American people to live their lives as normally as possible."

The audio recording was the first public statement by bin Laden since December 2004. That is the longest stretch the terror leader has been publicly quiet since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Authorities would not say whether the recording indicates anything about bin Laden's whereabouts or health.

A counterterror official said analysts believe the tape appears to have been recorded since December, although it was not clear how recently, or if it was in response to U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan last week that Pakistani authorities said killed four senior al Qaeda operatives.

The Arab television network Al-Jazeera, which released the tape Thursday, initially reported it was made in December but corrected itself later to say it was recorded this month. Editors at the station said they could not comment on how they knew when it was made.

John Rollins, a former Homeland Security intelligence official, said the timeline is important because terror threats can lose credibility as time goes on without an attack.

"If you can date it back as being from weeks or months ago, and he's saying then that he's getting close to operation readiness, this gives you an indication that it's bravado," said Rollins, now a terrorism specialist at the Congressional Research Service.

But if the threats were recorded very recently, "then that does raise the bar to more concerns that the timing of the tape may coincide with actual plans that are under way," Rollins said.

An analysis by the IntelCenter, a contractor working with U.S. intelligence agencies, highlighted language in bin Laden's statement that it said could be part of a warning cycle for Americans.

In his most recent recording, bin Laden began his statement by saying, "Peace be upon those who follow guidance." That language, the analysis concluded, closely matches a pattern seen before the bombings in London last July 7. Bin Laden used almost identical greetings in statements directed to Europeans in April 2004 and to Americans in October 2004.

"We believe that this signifies this is a warning message, and they feel they're obligated (to give) in the run-up to an attack," said Ben Venzke, chief executive at the IntelCenter.

The government's counterterror officials declined to comment on the analysis.

The tape came days before a planned weekend training exercise in which military aircraft are to conduct patrols over the nation's capital to intercept and divert planes that appear to pose a threat. But Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for the defense of U.S. territory, said there have been no changes to the systematic air patrolling of U.S. airspace.

The threat on the bin Laden audio tape "means nothing to us," the spokesman said. He said the training was planned well before the tape's release and was just the latest in a series of such exercises.

An audiotape from al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was posted Friday on an Islamic Web site, but U.S. officials said the recording does not appear to have been made recently and may even date back years.

In the audiotape, al-Zawahiri read a poem praising "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The tape made no mention of a Jan. 13 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting al-Zawahiri and killed four al Qaeda leaders.

The CIA verified the voice as al-Zawahiri following a technical analysis, an agency official said.

It was unclear when the recording was made, although the poem referred to Afghanistan martyrs in the period during Northern Alliance action against the Taliban that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the CIA official said.

The officials at two U.S. counterterror agencies who said the tape appeared old spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.

The 17-minute tape was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum a day after bin Laden released his first audiotape in more than a year, threatening new attacks in the United States and offering Americans a conditional truce.

The tape made no statement, and instead the voice on it was heard reading a long poem honoring "martyrs of jihad," or holy war.

He dedicated the poem to "all Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen (holy warrior) brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."

The lack of content of this week's follow-up UBL tape is unprecedented. Following a year of silence (2005), then two tapes (1/19/06 and 4/23/06), this one is strangely different. He has "gone quiet". There is almost no rhetoric, no threats, and no didactic explication of al Qaeda ideology. It is a brief denial of Moussaoui's role and those in Guantanamo in the 9/11 plot. The "proof of life" rationale that is being peddled in the media is nonsensical. It is not consistent with the pattern of UBL tapes since 9/11. There have been many other times since 2001 that should have produced such "desperate measures" from UBL to demonstrate existence or relevance and no such tape ever emerged. The tone is not of one under duress or retreat but of one who perceives he is in control. There are a couple hints to "two groups" embedded in this week's (5/23/06) UBL tape. If there really is a second group, he is communicating to them that Moussaoui and the Gitmo prisoners did not possess information that could endanger their operation, and they should feel free to proceed.

Also note the blessing that he uses to "bookend" the message (opening and conclusion) is the same one he used to close the 1/19 tape (9/11 "re-versed" in a manner of speaking) and the same phrase Ahmadinejad used to close his recent 18-page public letter to Bush. I'm not sure if UBL has ever bookended any of his communications with the same blessing or verse. It may have happened, but very seldom - - if ever.

(separations with arrows added below for emphasis)

A Testimony to the Truth <<<<<<<

Shaykh Usama bin Ladin
(May Allah Protect Him)
Rabi' al-Thani 1427AH /May 2006 CE
As-Sahab Media
.................
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace upon the Prophets and Messengers.

As for what follows:

From Usama bin Muhammad bin Ladin to the American people:

Peace be upon he who has followed the Guidance. <<<<<<<

This is a brief message whose topic is my testimony

on behalf of the Muslim prisoners you are holding, and in it I will talk about the truth concerning them, which is something which the Bush administration hates and is hostile to. I begin by talking about the honorable brother Zacarias Moussaoui.

The truth is that he has no connection whatsoever with the events of September 11th, <<<<<<<

and I am certain of what I say, because I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers - Allah have mercy upon them - with those raids, <<<<<<<

and I did not assign brother Zacarias to be with them

on that mission. <<<<<<<

And his confession that he was assigned to participate in those raids is a false confession which no intelligent person doubts is a result of the pressure put upon him for the past four and a half years. And were this pressure lifted from him for him to return to his normal state, he would state the fact I mentioned.

And among the things that confirm this fact is that

the participants in September 11th were two groups: <<<<<<<

pilots and support teams for each pilot in order to control the aircraft. And since Zacarias Moussaoui was learning how to fly, it follows that

he wasn't component #20 <<<<<<<

from the teams which helped to control the airplanes, as your government previously claimed, and your government knows this fact with certainty. And if Moussaoui was studying aviation to become a pilot of one of the planes,

then let him tell us the names <<<<<<<

of those assigned to help him control the plane.

But he won't be able to tell us their names, <<<<<<<

for a simple reason: that in fact they don't exist.

This is from one perspective, <<<<<<<

and from another perspective, the brother Moussaoui was arrested two weeks before the events, and

had he known anything - however little - about the September 11th group, we would have told the brother Commander Mohamed Atta and his brothers - Allah have mercy upon them - to leave America immediately before their affair was exposed. <<<<<<<

And with this it becomes clear to even the novice investigator - not to mention the seasoned one - that there is no connection between him and the events of September 11th.

And then I call to memory my brothers the prisoners in Guantanamo - may Allah free them all - and I state the fact, about which I also am certain, that

all the prisoners of Guantanamo, who were captured in 2001 and the first half of 2002 and who number in the hundreds, have no connection whatsoever to the events of September 11th, <<<<<<

and even stranger is that many of them have no connection with al-Qaida in the first place, and even more amazing is that some of them oppose al-Qaida's methodology of calling for war with America.

And this is in addition to the arrest of those who were working in the relief agencies, like Abu Abdul Aziz al-Mutrafi, or those working in the media, like Sami al-Hajj and Taysir Alouni, who was imprisoned at the instigation of the American administration.

So the conclusion is that all the prisoners to date have no connection with the events of September 11th and knew nothing about them, with the exception of two of the brothers, may Allah free them all. Bush and his administration are aware of this fact, but they avoid mentioning it, for reasons not hidden to the discerning.

Among these reasons is that it is necessary to create justifications for the massive spending of hundreds of billions on the Defense Department and other agencies in their war against the Mujahideen. My mentioning of these facts isn't out of hope that Bush and his party will treat our brothers fairly in their cases, because that is something no rational person expects, but rather

it is meant to expose the oppression, injustice and arbitrariness of your administration in using force and the reactions that result from that.

This is from one perspective, <<<<<<<

and from another perspective, perhaps there will one day come from the Americans someone who desires justice and fairness, and that is the path to security and safety, if you are interested in it. This is what needed to be said.

And

may peace be upon he who has followed the Guidance. <<<<<<<

Sure thing.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060524/kyodo/d8hq2cao0.html

Wednesday May 24, 2006 5:23 PM

U.S. Embassy in Japan warns nationals of possible threat

(Kyodo) _ The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo warned its nationals Wednesday to exercise caution after it learned of a possible threat against U.S. facilities in Japan.

"The U.S. Embassy has learned of a possible threat against American facilities in Japan, the credibility of which has yet to be determined," the embassy said in a statement posted on its website.

"Given the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, we advise American citizens to exercise caution and report any suspicious activities to authorities," it added. The U.S. Memorial Day holiday is next Monday.

Commenting on the alert, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Tokyo has no specific information indicating a terrorist attack is planned in Japan.

"We do not have any concrete information that an attack will be carried out by international terrorists" in Japan, Abe said at a news conference.

Security has been tight around the embassy and other U.S. facilities in Japan since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/14/MN92245.DTL&type=printable

State Department memo warned of terrorist threat

EARLY WARNING
State Department memo warned of terrorist threat
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, September 14, 2001

(snipped)

" . . .Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that he was "startled" by a little-noticed State Department memo that was issued a week ago and warned that Americans "may be the target of a terrorist threat."

The memo, issued just four days before the attacks on New York and Washington, identified the threat as coming from "extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization." . . .

The warning dealt primarily with military bases in Japan and Korea. But as Shultz pointed out, the mere fact that a warning was issued indicates that "something was cooking."

http://www.middleeastwire.com/newswire/stories/20010911_3_meno.shtml

Japan's Red Army Claims Responsibility for US Attacks: Al Jazeerah

By Middle East News Online
September 11, 2001

Amman (MENO) - In an unconfirmed report, sources from the Amman offices of Al Jazeerah satellite news channel indicated that a call came in from a caller who was "speaking Arabic with an accent" claimed that the Japanese Red Army is claiming responsibility for today's attacks against U.S. targets in New York and Washington D.C. Middle East News Online has been unable to verify these claims.

The communist group said that the attacks came in retaliation for US atomic bombs that killed thousands of Japanese in the World War II in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Japanese Red Army is an international militant group formed around 1970 after breaking away from Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. The JRA was led by Fusako Shigenobu until her arrest in Japan in November 2000. The JRA's historical goal has been to overthrow the Japanese Government and monarchy and to help foment world revolution.

Earlier today, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine initially took responsibility, but later an official from the organization denied any involvement. Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the attacks.

Sunday, September 9, 2001

http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/01/sep01/ed090901a.html

U.S. military on alert after
terrorist threat made to troops in Pacific
By Jennifer Svan and Hiroshi Chida, Stars and Stripes

U.S. officials on Friday warned American citizens in Japan and South Korea to be on alert following a report of an unconfirmed terrorist threat against the U.S. military in the Pacific.

“It’s a caution to American citizens simply because there was a threat directed at the American military and the places that they gather,” U.S. Embassy spokesman Patrick Linehan said Saturday.

Linehan described the threat as “credible” but did not provide details such as when or where a possible attack might occur. He also did not say when the warning would be lifted.

Terrorist warnings are rare in Japan, Linehan said.

There are about 48,000 U.S. troops in Japan and 37,000 in South Korea, all of whom are covered by the warning. About 120,000 Americans live in Japan, according to the embassy, including active military members. About 70,000 Americans live in South Korea, the U.S. military has said.

A worldwide caution issued in June to all Americans overseas was being revised to include the new information about the Asia threat, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

“It needs to reflect the fact a little more specifically that there is a potential threat in Asia,” Boucher said.

The Threatcon level at Osan Air Base, South Korea, and Yokota Air Base west of Tokyo remained at Alpha Saturday. U.S. military officials were unavailable Saturday to comment.

The threat could be a warning preceding an October visit to Japan by President Bush, a professor says.

Toshiyuki Shikata, a national security professor at Teikyo University in Tokyo and a former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general, said he thinks the threat may be from one of two terrorist groups: a militant Islamic group or a group trying to cause chaos.

If they’re Islamic terrorists, “they are not happy about Israel’s hawkish attitudes in the Middle East and the [United States], which supports Israel,” he said.

Ways terrorists may attack include bombing, chemical and biological warfare, cyber terrorism, or targeting of nuclear power plants, he said.

It would be difficult to attack U.S. installations in Japan because of strict access to base, and the Japanese police have tight control on firearms smuggling, he said.

Though it’s difficult to attack U.S. bases, “it has meaning in the attempt itself,” Shikata said.

Meanwhile a terrorist attack in South Korea would damage President Kim Dae-jung’s “sunshine” policy of engagement toward North Korea, and could be blamed on the U.S. troop presence there, he said.

Bush is expected to visit Japan in October to discuss the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, and economic and environmental issues with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Bush is making the stopover in Japan on his way to Shanghai for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Yokosuka Naval Base officials say Bush plans to visit the base Oct. 18. Bush is also expected to visit South Korea.

Stripes reporter Jim Lea and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

If there really is a second group, he is communicating to them that Moussaoui and the Gitmo prisoners did not possess information that could endanger their operation, and they should feel free to proceed.

Really good point, Joe.

A few things from UBL's last statement leave me puzzled as well.
First, he mentions 9/11...six times. I haven't the foggiest notion if that means anything, just that it seems strange.
Second, this statement:all the prisoners of Guantanamo, who were captured in 2001 and the first half of 2002 and who number in the hundreds, have no connection whatsoever to the events of September 11th, <<<<<<
Curious to me because I don't know who would think that "hundreds" were at gitmo as a direct link to 9/11. That they're linked to qaida or taliban...or just bad dude jihadis, yes...

Third, Moussaoui as fact, was training as a pilot prior to 9/11. If he wasn't to be a pilot on 9/11...when was he supposed to "pilot"?

may peace be upon he who has followed the Guidance

We've already been asked to convert and "warned" in previous messages. I guess UBL has made that clear by sandwiching his blessing....that it's too late now. "Followed" as 'past tense' - implying that if you haven't followed -C'est' la vie

"A few things from UBL's last statement leave me puzzled as well. First, he mentions 9/11...six times. I haven't the foggiest notion if that means anything, just that it seems strange."

Didn't catch that. Maybe if you count the year of the attack as "year 1" it means six years have passed - - not full years, but all or parts of them? (2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006) Or it could mean something more (who, what, where, when), but I'd be guessing without any real idea what it might mean (if anything). Also, the 9/11 plot began 6 yrs earlier (Bojinka 1995). So it is not so far-fetched to believe that something underway now was hatched years ago.

One striking coincidence related to "six"is in the Discovery-Times UBL documentary from a couple years ago that has been running this weekend. It shows at the very end the image of the wall map we discussed a couple years ago (the one crudely drawn in what looks like crayon with the fuse-lit bomb on the Canadian border forming the words "The Destruction of America" in Arabic). Seven of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were at that late 1999 Kandahar meeting with UBL (taped for posterity as a AQ promotional video).

The map behind them is only visible for a second or two, and it never pans down to the southernmost states, but from what is seen on the screen, DC is shaded solid green, but not labeled.

However, *six* states are both labeled and lightly shaded green - - WA, CA, NV, MI, NY, NJ and IL. Given that this was the last video of the hijackers w/ UBL, and the possibility there was a parallel plot at the time that has not yet been executed - - this should give one pause. Also, past history makes this not seem so incredible as it might sound to some. One of the videotapes UBL made prior to the 1998 African embassy bombings had him sitting in front of a world map, and over his shoulder was the horn of Africa. Maybe the 1999 map image with the six states dealt with a follow-on operation to 9/11 that was disrupted in the weeks of late September and October 2001. But I am not in a position to assume that.

Also, related to the late 1999 recruiting tape, if it turns out that there is evidence to justify Hamid Mir's contention that there are 23 sleepers out there, there is solid reason to believe their faces might have been recorded for posterity on one of the pre-9/11 al Qaeda recruiting tapes or "testimonial" (last will and testament) videos.

I can envision somebody reviewing a martyrdom tape picked up in Afghanistan after 9/11, and since the individual has not been sighted after 9/11, assuming that they took part in some jihadi battle in late 2001 Afghanistan and was martyred and their remains never recovered. I hope every face on every pre-9/11 video was identified and accounted for . . . if the "23" exist, at least some of their faces are likely to have been recorded.

"I don't know who would think that "hundreds" were at gitmo as a direct link to 9/11."

I think that it was a blanket denial that of all the hundreds who have passed through Guantanamo, none had any direct connection to 9/11. He specifically refers to those picked up in 2001 and 2002. So I'd guess they were mostly from Afghanistan or people picked up in other countries who had passed through the training camps. The idea is that those guys might have also been fellow roomies in an Afghanistan "Camp Jihadi" at some point in the late 90s or 2000, 2001 (I think most if not all the 9/11 attackers had gone through the camps). So this would reassure them that if they heard their bunkie from boot camp got picked up, they would have no more idea of any unexecuted operation as they had no information on 9/11 before it happened.

"We've already been asked to convert and "warned" in previous messages. I guess UBL has made that clear by sandwiching his blessing....that it's too late now. "Followed" as 'past tense' - implying that if you haven't followed -C'est' la vie"

I did not catch the tense change. I went back this weekend and actually the Oct 2004 video had the "blessing sandwich", but didn't see that elsewhere (1/19/06 was an "open-faced sandwich"), but everything to this point has been in the present tense.

I think it goes back to the idea that this might be a message to al Qaeda operatives rather than Americans (even though he starts off saying it is). The idea is that this phrase has been a signal in the past (re: post 125), so it is not a general blessing for all hearers but a specific communication to specific people. The tense change (along with the "book-ending" or "sandwiching") might mean something. It could mean that the attackers, once they have carried out their mission, have "followed the Guidance", and being "martyrs", no longer "follow" in the present tense.

Also would mean that he is addressing them as "living martyrs" ("dead men walking") and indicates imminence.

Not a problem.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20060529-1623-canada-terrorism.html

Canadian spy agency says potential terrorists living in Canada

By Beth Duff-Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:23 p.m. May 29, 2006

TORONTO – Canada's spy agency said Monday that some Canadian citizens or residents received terror training in al-Qaeda-run camps in Afghanistan, providing official reinforcement to what security analysts have warned for years.

The deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Jack Hooper, told a Senate committee studying Canada's role in Afghanistan that there are people living in Canada who fought with al-Qaeda during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defense held a full day of hearings on Canada's military mission in Afghanistan, and how it relates to security at home.

The hearings come as Canadians and some lawmakers voice growing concern over the deaths of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan as part of a NATO force. Parliament voted earlier this month to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan until 2009.

Canada has about 2,000 soldiers based in Afghanistan, most of them in Kandahar.

In outlining the domestic threat, he pointed to examples of people who had lived in Canada who later took part in terrorist attacks. A common thread among them was time spent at training camps in Afghanistan.

“When we talk about the homegrown terrorist phenomenon, these are people ... in most instances who are Canadian citizens,” he said. “A lot of them were born here. A lot of them who were not born here emigrated to Canada with their parents at a very young age.”

Hooper did not provide any specifics on numbers of potential terrorists or their whereabouts. It also wasn't clear what the agency was doing in relation to monitoring or possibly questioning and detaining potential terrorists. Canadian Press news agency said Hooper did not respond to questions from reporters after the hearing.

“I can tell you that all of the circumstances that led to the London transit bombings ... are resident here and now in Canada,” said Hooper, the service's operations director, referring to the bombings in Britain's capital that killed 52 civilians and four terrorists last July 7.

Committee chairman Sen. Colin Kenny said the attacks on Britain should serve as a wake-up call for the problems Canada could encounter with homegrown terrorists.

“They'd been born in country,” Kenny said of the London bombers. “They had all of the slang and comfort with the culture that you and I have, and yet, boom, here they are committing terrorist acts.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060530/wl_canada_nm/canada_security_canada_col_3

CSIS can't find many terror suspects

By David Ljunggren

Canada's spy service admitted on Monday it couldn't track down many domestic terror suspects and said the country faced an increasing threat from "home-grown terrorists" who are assimilated into society.

The frank comments by a senior official at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) underscore the problems facing the country's counter-terrorism operatives in the wake of the September 11 suicide attacks in New York.

Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations at CSIS, said the service was trying to keep track of "350 high-level targets" as well as 50 to 60 organizations thought to be linked to groups such as al-Qaeda.

"We know who and where some of them are," he told the Senate's national defense committee.

Both the current and previous directors of the CSIS have said over the last two years that an attack by militants inside Canada is inevitable.

Hooper, who complained about a lack of funding, said the overall number of targets CSIS was tracking had not changed since 1998.

"Since 1998 ... we have cut back back considerably in a number of investigative fields. We've reduced the number of individual and organizational targets and yet the target numbers themselves have remained static," he said.

"So we've effectively augmented our target base in a number of particularly terrorist domains. I am concerned that ... maybe we operate at top operational capacity and we've reached that and that critical capacity hasn't really been enhanced over the years."

In recent years, al-Qaeda has twice specifically threatened to strike against Canada.

"We stay up at night worrying about the threats we don't know about. We always used to work on the basis ... that for every one we knew (about), there were probably 10 we didn't," said Hooper. "I worry that the ratio is increased. I think there may be more unknowns now there than ever."

Hooper said CSIS was increasingly concerned by what it called the emergence of "home-grown terrorists" -- young Canadians from immigrant backgrounds.

"They are virtually indistinguishable from other youth. They blend in very well to our society, they speak our language and they appear to be -- to all intents and purposes -- well-assimilated ... (they) look to Canada to execute their targeting," he said.

Hooper drew parallels to last year's London bombings, where four young British men from immigrant families set off bombs in the transit system which killed 52 people and wounded 700.

"I can tell you that all of the circumstances that led to the London transit bombings, to take one example, are resident here now in Canada," Hooper said.

Because home-grown suspects were Canadian, they could not be deported, Hooper told the committee.

"We have two remedies -- we can work in collaboration with law enforcement to see them prosecuted or we can work to disrupt their activities," said Hooper, who declined to answer reporters' questions afterward.

The Senate committee was examining the possible ramifications of Canada's military mission to Afghanistan, which Canada wants to extend for two years to 2009.

Hooper said there could be a risk of veterans of the fighting coming to Canada and launching terror attacks.

CSIS staff could only investigate about 10 percent of the 20,000 immigrants who have come to Canada from Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last five years.

"That may be inadequate," said Hooper.

So it is not so far-fetched to believe that something underway now was hatched years ago.

For sure. I'm imagining jihad101 class drills: When you hear UBL repeat something 6 times, that means....aaack, what?

6 hits in 6 cities (great recall on that map, Joe!) of the "Great Satan" on 6/6/06 would be quite a statement. June 6 is also a Tuesday and June 6, 1944 was "D-Day".

June 6, 1982: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

June 6, 1968 RFK dies.

So this would reassure them that if they heard their bunkie from boot camp got picked up, they would have no more idea of any unexecuted operation as they had no information on 9/11 before it happened.

That sounds like a reasonable explanation, thanks.

(1/19/06 was an "open-faced sandwich"), but everything to this point has been in the present tense.

FOFL on the open-faced sandwich. Thanks for going back and checking on the tenses though. Details like that are important to UBL.

and being "martyrs", no longer "follow" in the present tense.

Also would mean that he is addressing them as "living martyrs" ("dead men walking") and indicates imminence.

Yep, soon.

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