Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - September 2006

[nwctwx]

Five Years Later, We're Still Not Safe
-Full Story-

In the five years since terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have accepted inconvenience, sacrificed personal liberties and paid billions of dollars for a security clampdown that touches virtually every aspect of their lives.

And we're still not safe.

A close examination of the federal government's homeland security effort shows that there have been major accomplishments since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But it also reveals how vulnerable the nation remains to catastrophe.

	Hunt for bin Laden Is Chasing Shadows and Raising Tensions
	Homegrown Terror Suspects Raise Concern
	New Video Coming from al Zawahri and American al Qa'ida
	> Adam Yahiye Gadahn

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[Cindy]

NOTE: The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711107/posts


Prominent Al-Qaeda leader killed in Al-Anbar
KUNA ^ | Sept 30 2006

Posted on 09/30/2006 4:01:46 AM PDT by jmc1969

Several tribal members killed Saturday four members of Al-Qaeda, including a prominent leader, whereas several of the network members have escaped towards the Syrian-Iraqi borders, the Iraqi television quoted Al-Anbar council saying.

The council, which consists of tribal leaders in the province, said that members of their tribes killed four Al-Qaeda members, including a prominent leader in the network known as Abu Shujae Al-Yamani, during an armed confrontation in Sankoura town in western Iraq.

The council said several of the network's members have escaped towards the Iraqi-Syrian borders urging the Iraqi government to pursue them.

The council had declared earlier that two Al-Qaeda members were killed and six others were arrested and were handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces continued a wide-scale military operation in Diyala province in northeast Baghdad.

Spokesman of the general commander of the armed forces, Qassem Al-Mawsawi told KUNA that 39 militants were arrested in Baqouba during the operation conducted by the Iraqi army.

The security forces declared on Friday that 60 militants were also arrested in Diyala.

[Cindy]

"Arab store owners upset by raids"
WWL TV / Houma Courier ^ | Sep. 29, 2006 | Robert Morris

Posted on 09/30/2006 4:06:28 AM PDT by chemicalman

HOUMA --

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711108/posts

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=mumbai

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711114/posts

"Pakistan 'role in Mumbai attacks'"
BBC News ^ | 09/30/2006

Posted on 09/30/2006 4:28:17 AM PDT by Republicain

[Godzilla]

Thanks, hard to keep up when out of town and / or working on field sites long hours. Lets just keep our fingers crossed nothing gets out of hand.

[callmejoe]

Sorry the link didn't work. I've read the original source material for that article and it is all from articles written by Dr. David Cook at Rice University, one of the nation's preeminent experts on Islamic eschatology (study of their end-times beliefs). Anyone interested can google his name, or freeper dajjal has links to some of his articles on his home page (which I also recommend).

More on what is happening in Baghdad . . .

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/30/iraq/main2053845.shtml

(snip)

. . . After U.S. troops detained a bodyguard for the leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political group on suspicion he was preparing massive suicide bombings inside the fortified Green Zone, fearful officials on Saturday enforced a total ban on movement in Baghdad.

Speaking on Al-Arabiya TV on Saturday morning, Interior Ministry official Hussein Ali Kemal said the move was to "prevent the security situation from deteriorating." He added, however, that the information was that there was a threat that an attack "might occur against places of worship and shopping centers during Ramadan."

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17671

2005-01-30

Insurgents spreading Iraq coup rumors

Iraqi government says ‘terrorists’ spreading rumor of military coup during all-day curfew.

BAGHDAD - Anti-government insurgents are spreading false rumors about an attempted coup in Baghdad, the government said Saturday, as the city was placed under curfew.

"This is a rumor that takfiris (Sunni extremists) and terrorists are spreading," said Brigadier General Qassim Mussawi, the prime minister's military spokesman, when asked about rumors of an impending military coup.

"This is not true, our forces will continue chasing terrorists in all sectors," he said on state television.

The all-day curfew was put in place Saturday "as a precautionary measure" said Mussawi, in response to intelligence tips about possible suicide attacks.

Two months ago rumors swirled about dissatisfaction in the Iraqi army leadership, and on Friday night the US television network NBC cited one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers as saying the military was planning a coup.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf laughed off the possibility of a coup.

"Who would be overthrowing whom? If you gave Baghdad to the army, they would say 'no, please keep it!'," he said.

"What would they do? Go down to the Green Zone and arrest (US Ambassador Zalmay) Khalilzad in the presence of a hundred thousand US soldiers?"

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-09-30T115340Z_01_GEO743062_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml

Baghdad under total daylight curfew
Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:54 AM ET

By Peter Graff

(snipped)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq imposed a total daylight curfew on Baghdad on Saturday, banning all movement, as U.S. forces said they had foiled a possible suicide plot to attack the city's sprawling "Green Zone" government compound.

U.S. troops on Friday arrested a security guard at the home of the leader of the main Sunni political bloc. The U.S. military said on Saturday the man was suspected of planning car bomb attacks on the fortified zone.

"Coalition force personnel detained an individual at the residence of Dr Adnan al-Dulaimi in Baghdad September 29. The detained individual is suspected of involvement in the planning of a multi-vehicle suicide operation inside Baghdad's International Zone," the military said in a statement.

It said the man may have been linked to al Qaeda, and the plan might have been to use suicide vests in the attack. U.S. forces did not enter Dulaimi's house, but searched a security trailer there and the suspect's car, it said.

Dulaimi leads the Accordance Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, which is also housed inside the Green Zone. . .

There was no official explanation for the curfew, which emptied streets. A political source said it was linked to fears that security in the Green Zone had been compromised. He said access for all but the most senior officials had been curtailed.

The 5 sq km (2 sq mile) riverside compound once occupied by Saddam Hussein is home to thousands, including most senior officials and the U.S. and British embassies.

In March, Iraq jailed several defense officials accused of a plot to infiltrate hundreds of al Qaeda fighters into the Zone's security force.

Another senior Iraqi official said the curfew was imposed because of fears of more widespread unrest after a bloody first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which the U.S. military said suicide attacks had hit a record high.

The curfew would remain in place until 6 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said. The U.S. military said the curfew was the Iraqi government's decision, and such measures had proven effective in the past. . .

[callmejoe]

No problem. I thoroughly recommend reading Iraqi blogs going back the past two years. It is a graphic depiction of how that country has been comprehensively disintegrating. I like ITM the best. Omar is extremely intelligent and would make a great political analyst. But his is one of the few relatively pro-American blogs (relatively speaking). And even he broke with the rosy view last year as the street-level ethnic cleansing began to emerge and has since devolved into community-level ethnic cleansing.

It is important to read the truth from the "real Iraq". American forces and contractors in the Green Zone and bunkered up on other bases do not live in the same reality (though that reality is still incredibly dangerous). So it became easy for policymakers to dismiss the "ground-truth" as "henny-penny", "chicken-little", "the-sky-is-falling" handwringing.

But even if one doesn't know Iraqis personally who are living this nightmare, just going back over some of those blogs the past two years is evidence enough that America is indeed in a "State of Denial".

[callmejoe]

"Anniversary of first strikes on Afghanistan - 10/7?"

It is something to watch. The threat will only intensify as we move further into Ramadan, especially the latter third surrounding the "Night of Power".

I have a feeeling this may not be just one single event but a sustained escalation.

[callmejoe]

"The government declined to give a reason for the curfew and did not say whether it was linked to the detention. Authorities had never before banned walking in Baghdad, and the order may indicate fears that Sunni radicals might respond violently."

Unprecedented since the beginning of the war. We have surged troops into Baghdad over the past month as part of "Together Forward" and even then we have seen the most violent two weeks in Baghdad and most unstable security situation there since the war began.

And just yesterday we produced yet another delusional PR assessment of the situation saying something to the effect that al Qaeda in Iraq has been seriously crippled back in June with the death of Zarqawi.

The picture of a senior American military official trying to spin al Qaeda as being on the ropes at the end of the two most violent weeks in Baghdad's modern history, as American forces and Iraqi units have been surged into Baghdad to battle for the fate of Iraq, after a week where it was announced that plans were being made to seal off Baghdad in every direction by building a "virutal moat" of trenches and checkpoints, and on the day a massive attack against the Green Zone was being uncovered that was so serious that for the first time a last-minute curfew was suddenly announced that covers not only vehicles, but also all pedestrian traffic, threatening people who leave their homes with being shot on sight . . .

There is only one way to describe such a spin on the situation.

Delusional.

Very few people appreciate how bad this could get.

[EternalHope]

Very few people appreciate how bad this could get.

Thanks for the info. You paint a pretty bleak picture.

It is possible that the "Tet Offensive" of Iraq is about to occur. If so, I would expect it to be timed to peak around the "Night of Power" towards the end of Ramadan.

That would mean the next four weeks is when the war in Iraq will be won or lost. It is also possible that various other hot spots around the world will erupt at the same time. A coordinated combination of events is quite possible, even probable. The bad guys DO talk to each other, and they are quite capable of planning.

But no matter how badly things go in Iraq (and/or the rest of the world) in the next four weeks, the worst thing we can do is cut and run. Remember, we WON the battles of Tet. But because of TET the U.S. media/liberals/democrats lost heart, and the war was lost.

Military victory in Iraq is not assured. But we would not have to lose militarily in Iraq. All it would take is for the Democrats to take power in the next election. That election hangs by a thread. If we fail in Iraq, militarily or because of the loss of political will, the consequences will be devasting for the whole world.

Failure in Iraq will quickly lead to the worst war the world has ever seen. On one side will be a primitive barbarian ideology/religion armed with weapons and know-how they got from their opponents. On the other side will be a soft and decadent civilization that is barely willing to defend itself.

[Cindy]

I understand.

[Cindy]

THANK YOU for the update on Iraq, callmejoe.

[Cindy]

NOTE to lurkers: Generally speaking, the death of a diver is usually not terrorism related (ie peple attacked by sharks, people with health problems); howver, here on the Threat Matrix, we have an interest in scuba divers. See prior threads. FYI.

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=scubadiver

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=scubadivers

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=diver

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=divers

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ON THE NET...

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/85658.php?contentType=4&contentId=208510

Posted: Wednesday, 20 September 2006 6:38AM

"Police ID Body Found Off Atlantic Beach"

ATLANTIC BEACH, Long Island --

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The NYPD says it had a report about a missing diver on September 10."

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THANKS to freeperfromnj for the ping to the following article news brief.

Note: The following news brief is a quote:


http://www.longislandpress.com/index.php?show=article&cp=216&a_id=9871

Body Found in Ocean

Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death of a 40-year-old man who was found off the shore of Atlantic Beach on Sept. 18 at 8:10 a.m. Nassau police say that a private fishing boat discovered the body of Paul Labella of Brooklyn, floating in the water about 1.5 miles south of Long Beach in the Atlantic Ocean. Upon arrival, Marine Bureau recovered the body. Labella was wearing a black wet suit and diving gear. He was taken to the Nassau County Medical Examiner’s Office. New York City Police Department’s Missing Person Squad is investigating further.

[callmejoe]

"It is possible that the "Tet Offensive" of Iraq is about to occur. . . But no matter how badly things go in Iraq (and/or the rest of the world) in the next four weeks, the worst thing we can do is cut and run. Remember, we WON the battles of Tet."


I normally avoid Iraq as a topic because my opinions are not popular and I don't have time for flame wars. But these are good questions rationally presented. So I'll bite. And in any case, I broached the subject.

I think folks have been expecting the Tet scenario to materialize at some point, but I do not think either we, nor they are capable of delivering a "knockout blow" to the other side's will to fight. You are right to observe we won Tet militarily, but not politically. So it is the perception of reality that matters as much as the underlying reality itself. We cannot disengage because unlike Vietnam, Iraq is not just regionally significant from a strategic perspective, but globally significant in terms of:

1) the global revolutionary jihad and their goal of constructing an imperial Caliphate initially headquartered in Baghdad and fashioned in the image of their fascist ideology

2) the perception of global American weakness vis-a-vis potential strategic adversaries such a strategic disengagement would create and the new crises such a perception would spawn

3) the source of the global energy supplies upon which determines the difference between global economic growth and global economic collapse.

It was none other than Jimmy Carter who first declared the Persian Gulf region an area of vital strategic importance, signaling the Soviets that we would go to war to protect our interests there. It doesn't matter who the next President may be, they can campaign on "cut and run" from the day after the election in November to Election Day 2008, but when they get into office, they would all face the same reality from day one -- if you leave with the situation in chaos you will be eventually forced to return to the region in a far worse state with far more cost because:

1) America allies in the region will come under colossal pressure and subversion from the revolutionary state or states that emerge from the Iraqi chaos and we will be forced to "re-intervene" to keep the cancerous Caliphate from spreading, or else watch our allies fall one by one, destroying our credibility and endangering our interests

2) The perception that America has left the region to its own devices will tempt others to fill the vacuum, and again, just as even someone like President Carter understood back in the late 70s, we cannot tolerate an attempt by future global adversaries to dominate that all-important region

3) The embryonic Caliphate and/or Iranian client states will gradually come to control more and more of the global energy supply. The smaller Gulf States will come under their sphere of influence or fall, KSA will either collapse from within under the perceived ascendance of the Caliphate to their north, or they will be overcome from without. Either way, even the Europeans and Japan would then be forced to intervene because their own survival would be at stake. Virtually every post-WWII recession has been preceded by an energy-related supply shock. Monopolization of a critical mass the global energy supply by fascist jihadi states or a single revolutionary Caliphate would enable them to either blackmail the rest of the civilized world with economic strangulation (our European and Asian allies are even more dependent than we are), or use the oil revenue from the civilized world to build WMD arsenals and long-range delivery platforms.

"But because of TET the U.S. media/liberals/democrats lost heart, and the war was lost."

"Hearts and minds" is a two-way street. Our center of gravity is our national will. The 9/11 plotters were targeting national will on 9/11, not buildings. Every time our national leadership makes a pronouncement or a promise that they cannot prove or deliver, they degrade the national will to some degree. And it has a cumulative effect.

"Hearts and minds" means framing your issue/message, and staying on that message until you win. You have to have the right message. You cannot appear to be selling snake oil. We have jumped back and forth from message to message over three years and not been convincing with any of them - - eliminating WMD in Iraq, fighting al Qaeda in Iraq (claiming their presence prior to the invasion), and democratizing Iraq to stabilize the region.

The reality is that each one of these three was and is a legitimate reason to wage war.

But because the ultimate verdict on each of these points seem to be destined to be delivered at a future date, and not conclusively proven in the present, the frustration has been building. The failure to deliver on any of these three core rationales has opened up both a gap between perception and reality, and an expectations gap between the national leadership and its citizenry.

Because we have not found the WMD or 9/11 "smoking gun", many, if not most Americans expected, their expectations were dashed. And their patience would not be so thin if there was a credible "plan for victory" (as the administration frames it these days), but with repeated and continual missteps and misstatements over the course of three years, their credibility has been steadily eroding.

The "expectations game" is no game. This is what determines national will.

If I tell colleagues all day I am treating them to a steak dinner tonight on the company credit card, then I treat them to fast food, their expectations have not been met and the gap between expectations and reality will be significant. But if I tell them that we might not have time to go out to eat as we are working on a deadline, but then I call out for pizza delivery on the company dime, they'll be happy they don't have to wait to eat, or run to get food for themselves.

When you continually build up expectations then fail to meet them ("end of major combat operations", "democracy is messy", "insurgency is in its last throes", etc) you destroy your credibility and therefore, you undermine the public willingness to continue along the path you set out because people begin to feel it is a road to nowhere and you don't understand where you are or where you are going.

It is not just far left dems that are bolting. Polling shows one-third of self-professed conservatives are no longer on board. That does not include moderates/independents, who have firmly turned against the administration.

I support the war. I do not support how it has been conceived, communicated or conducted.

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=GLOBALJIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihad

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=morocco

http://www.tkb.org/Country.jsp?countryCd=MO

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_975.html


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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013352print.html
(AP)

September 30, 2006

"Jihad seen in upward trend in Morocco"

RABAT, Morocco -

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "What's new in the latest case is the wide range of people accused. Middle-class women and security force members allegedly formed the core of a group that authorities say called itself Ansar al-Mehdi, or Supporters of the Mehdi -- a divine figure in Islamic tradition who will establish justice on Earth before Judgment Day.

While the Mahdi is more commonly associated in the media with Shi'ite Islam, it is worth noting here that Sunni Islam -- to which Moroccans are adherents -- also teaches the coming of a Mahdi, though of a different identity from the hidden twelfth imam in the Shi'ite tradition."

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http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2006/09/30/news/news12093006.txt

"Al-Qaida No. 2 calls Bush a failure and liar"

By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006 11:58 AM PDT

CAIRO, Egypt -
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Al-Zawahri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden, accused the United States and its agents of torturing Muslim prisoners seized across the Middle East.

“Your agents in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have captured thousands of the youth and soldiers of Islam whom you made to taste at your hands and the hands of your agents various types of punishment and torture,” al-Zawahri said, according to the IntelCenter. “But we, by Allah's grace, are taking revenge on their behalf daily from your troops and the troops of your allies and agents in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula and all Muslim countries from Indonesia to Morocco, and moreover, on your own soil every day.”"

[callmejoe]

Lt. Gen McInerney was on Fox a little while ago saying that he had a normally reliable source that tells him that a chemical weapons attack on the Green Zone/Baghdad that could have generated "upwards of 5-10,000" casualties was part of the plot by al Qaeda in Iraq.

And here is the "spin" from the DoD spokesman in Baghdad yesterday.

perception vs reality = expectations gap = erosion of credibility = political consequences

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1335

Al Qaeda in Iraq Severely Disrupted, General Says
By Steven Donald Smith
American Forces Press Service

(snip)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2006 – The killing of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June severely disrupted the terrorist organization’s capability, but foreign fighters entering Iraq continue to cause problems, a senior Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters in Baghdad yesterday.
“What the al Qaeda in Iraq could do in May and what they can do today has been seriously degraded,” Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said. “They are not as effective or as organized today as they were back in May. But they're still an organization out there.” . . .



http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=13634896&src=rss/worldNews

" . . . The registered refugee figures showed 40,000 families -- 240,000 people -- claiming assistance, up from 27,000 families in July. The figures do not include an uncounted number of Iraqis who have moved home without claiming aid. . ."

Quarter million Iraqis flee sectarian violence

Thu Sep 28, 2006 02:14 PM ET
By Ahmed Rasheed and Peter Graff (snipped)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A quarter of a million Iraqis have fled sectarian violence and registered as refugees in the past seven months, data released on Thursday showed, amid an upsurge in attacks that has accompanied the Ramadan holy month.

Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq called for the kidnapping of Westerners to swap for a Muslim cleric jailed in the United States, according to an Internet audio tape.

The sectarian killing continued in Baghdad, where police said they had found the bodies of 40 victims -- bound, tortured and murdered -- in the last 24 hours, a total that has become almost commonplace in the capital over the last few weeks.

The United States says violence in Iraq has surged in the last two weeks, and this past week, the first of Ramadan, saw the most suicide bombs of any week since the war began in 2003.

The registered refugee figures showed 40,000 families -- 240,000 people -- claiming assistance, up from 27,000 families in July. The figures do not include an uncounted number of Iraqis who have moved home without claiming aid.

"The reason for this increase is that the security situation in some provinces has deteriorated considerably, forcing people to leave their homes in fear for their lives," said Migration Ministry spokesman Sattar Nowruz. . .

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=GLOBALJIHAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Jihad

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=INTERNET

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http://www.sofir.org/sarchives/005736.php


29 September 2006
"Evidence of jihadi forum use for AQ C&C purposes"

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Arabic - http://www.ctc.usma.edu/3OO31006-arabic25639-05.pdf

English - http://www.ctc.usma.edu/3OO31006-english25639-05.pdf



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ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=BANGLADESH
http://www.tkb.org/Country.jsp?countryCd=BG

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=INTERNET

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=CELLPHONES

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=CELLPHONE
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THANKS to Little Jeremiah for the ping to this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711167/posts

and this article:

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3321

"DEBKAfile Exclusive: Al Qaeda’s novel death technique: Detonating hundreds of simultaneous explosions through cell phone and Internet"

September 30, 2006, 10:49 AM (GMT+02:00)


DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report extreme concern among security services in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Israel, after the source of 350 multiple attacks in Bangladesh on Aug. 17, 2005, was traced to Tripoli, Lebanon

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "French counter-terror experts leading an international inquiry into the attacks discovered that a facility, set up there by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s late Iraq commander, had developed the new design which works through Internet messengers like Skype or MSN.

Network-connected mobile phones can remotely detonate over the Internet simultaneous explosions hundreds of miles apart, anywhere on the world. US forces located and killed Zarqawi on June 7, 2006.

This system, seen only in Bangladesh so far, is more complex than any used by al Qaeda before."

[Cindy]

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB710.pdf
"STRATEGIC CHALLENGES FOR COUNTERINSURGENCY
AND THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM"
Edited by
Williamson Murray
September 2006

This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, section 101. As such, it is in the public domain, and under the
provisions of Title 17, United States Code, Section 105, it may not be copyrighted.


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Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.sofir.org/sarchives/005737.php


29 September 2006
"Strategic Challenges For Counterinsurgency And The Global War On Terrorism"
The US Army's Strategic Studies Institute just released a 313 page compilation titled:

Strategic Challenges For Counterinsurgency And The Global War On Terrorism

Two chapters in particular are noteworthy enough that we have extracted them and offer them here:

1. The Dark Fruit Of Globalization: Hostile Use Of The Internet
by Lieutenant Colonel Todd A. Megill

This reviews the problem and offers some suggestions regarding counter-measures.

File: http://www.sofir.org/resources/29sep06-dark_fruit.pdf

2. From The Ashes Of The Phoenix: Lessons For Contemporary Counterinsurgency Operations
by Lieutenant Colonel Ken Tovo

The author reviews lessons that can be learned from the Phoenix Program - the highly controversial and much-maligned US counterinsurgency against the Viet Cong infrastructure in South Vietnam. He then discusses these lessons in light of the current global Islamist insurgency, whose infrastructure he describes as follows:

The general support component of the militant Islamic infrastructure also includes Islamic nongovernmental organizations that solicit money on behalf of al-Qa’ida and other terrorist organizations, as well as funding fundamentalist madrassas and mosques throughout the world. Such religious institutions serve as recruiting centers and platforms to spread their propaganda messages. This component also includes media organizations and web sites that provide fora for the insurgents’ psychological operations and assist in the furtherance of their information campaign objectives. The infrastructure directs, supports, and sustains the execution of violence against the regime and Western enemies; it constitutes the insurgency’s center of gravity.
File: http://www.sofir.org/resources/29sep06-phoenix.pdf

Posted on 29 September 2006 @ 08:23

[Cindy]

THANKS to Interesting Times for the ping to this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711259/posts


"Hamid Mir to Speak at November Symposium on Terrorism"
America's Truth Forum ^ | September 30, 2006 | Jeff Epstein

Posted on 09/30/2006 10:24:38 AM PDT by Interesting Times

[Cindy]

THANKS to Velveeta for the ping to this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1710944/posts

"A Boeing 737 passenger airliner is missing over Brazil, a Gol Airline" spokesman confirms.
CNN ^ | 29 september 2006 | CNN

Posted on 09/29/2006 5:31:02 PM PDT by Btrp113Cav

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.internet-haganah.com/harchives/005740.html

30 September 2006
"Fadlallah is invited to STFU"

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http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/005624.html


30 May 2006
"mabarrat.org.lb: Web site of Hizballah-linked 'Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association'"

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http://www.tkb.org/RWExecquery_All.jsp?QueryString=Fadlallah&imageField.x=7&imageField.y=10&pagestate=0&setoptions=0&QueryType=64&ExpansionLevel=1&SelectedLibs=All

http://www.tkb.org/RWExecquery.jsp?sLibraryType=information_resource&QueryString=Fadlallah

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http://www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=5784

SNIPPET QUOTE:

Group Profile
Fadlallah, Sheikh Muhammed Hussein

Aliases: No known aliases

Group: Hezbollah
Role: Spiritual Leader
Current Location: Lebanon

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http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=Fadlallah&scoring=d