Threat Matrix: May 2007

U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons
-Full Story-

Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation.

But the 25-year-old Mr. Khyam, a Briton of Pakistani descent, also personifies a larger and more immediate concern: as a British citizen, he could have entered the United States without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 other Britons of Pakistani origin.

American officials, citing the number of terror plots in Britain involving Britons with ties to Pakistan, expressed concern over the visa loophole. In recent months, the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, has opened talks with the government here on how to curb the access of British citizens of Pakistani origin to the United States.

	How the Plot Came Together
	Briefing on Release of 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism
	Iran to Tell Coalition Forces to Leave Iraq at Summit in Egypt

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

Thanks to Abu Afak for the ping to this thread.

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830557/posts

Jama’atul Mujahideen BANGLADESH: Militant Islamist Terror
ICT ^ | April 30, 2007 | Adam E. Stahl

Posted on 05/08/2007 10:08:36 PM PDT by abu afak

Radical and militant Islamist organizations have existed as an opposing force to Bangladesh’s secular and democratic system since Bangladeshi independence 1971.

Once a surreptitious force in Bangladesh, these organizations are now operating overtly, as is witnessed by a steady increase in Islamist TERROR attacks across the country; (Bangladesh saw over 500 Explosions in 2005, all carried out by militant Islamists).

Membership of Bangladeshi Radical- militant Islamist organizations is RAPIDLY INCREASING because of two key factors: deep economic turmoil-severe political instability. ...A consequence of the ongoing political rivalry between the country’s two main political parties, the Bangladeshi National Party and Awami League (AL). An increase in membership to Radical Islamist organizations is proving that Bangladesh is becoming a nexus of militant Islam in South Asia, as many Bangladeshi militant Islamist organizations have been linked to al-Qa’ida. Furthermore, the secular and democratically elected BNP has built a coalition with politically oriented Islamist groups such as the Jamaat e-Islami (JI), Bangladesh’s largest radical political Islamist party and the Islami Oiyka Jote (IOJ). This was done to ensure the BNP’s hold on power. The by-product of this is that these groups have elected representatives as well as a legitimate voice to distribute their ideology. It is noteworthy that the JI and IOJ, though radical, are not involved in executing terrorist attacks. They are...connected to underground militant Islamist Terror organizations, which have carried out well-organized, Fatal attacks against governmental/non-governmental targets, such as suicide attacks.....”

Though a multitude of Bangladeshi Islamist terror organizations exist, one group is worthy of attention: Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (The Party of Holy Warriors). The organization is Bangladesh’s largest Islamist terror organization.[4] It receives funds from foreign patrons, such as SAUDI ARABIAN and KUWAITI CHARITIES, proving that international support for their cause exists beyond Bangladesh’s borders.

[.....]

(Excerpt) Read more at ict.org.il ...

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

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830577/posts

Pardon Me? A Congressional Pardon [Duncan Hunter]
NY Times ^ | May 7, 2007 | By Sarah Wheaton

Posted on 05/08/2007 11:58:06 PM PDT by Jim Robinson

The power to pardon traditionally belongs to the president. But Representative Duncan Hunter, who is seeking the 2008 Republican nomination, isn’t waiting for Inauguration Day.

Mr. Hunter introduced a bill in January to initiate an unprecedented Congressional pardon of two former border patrol agents currently serving 11- and 12-year sentences after shooting a drug smuggler on the Texas-Mexico border in 2005.

For Mr. Hunter and other immigration hardliners, their conviction is an “extreme injustice.”

While Constitutional objections are “very much a possibility,” said Joe Kasper, Mr. Hunter’s spokesman, he doesn’t see the measure threatening executive power. The president’s required signature on the bill “would obviously be synonymous with his authority to execute a pardon,” he said. “The Congress is doing nothing more than initiating a pardon.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=sudan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=russia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830580/posts

Sudan using Chinese, Russian weapons in Darfur: Amnesty
DefenceTalk.com ^

Posted on 05/09/2007 12:14:52 AM PDT by DTAD

China and Russia are supplying arms to Sudan, which is using them in war-torn Darfur in violation of a UN embargo, the human rights group Amnesty International charged Tuesday.

Amnesty released a copy of a report which it said shows that “arms supplied to Sudan from China and Russia ... have been used for violations of the Security Council’s own mandatory arms embargo.”

China and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council, which imposed an arms embargo in 2005 that covered not just all armed groups but also the Sudanese government, which allegedly backs the Arab Janjaweed militia.

(Excerpt) Read more at defencetalk.com ...

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

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=irhabi007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=terrorist007

###

UPDATE:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603333/posts?page=39#39

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9111542

Special report
“Waiting for al-Qaeda’s next bomb”
May 3rd 2007
From The Economist print edition

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Security sources say jihadi activity has moved away from mosques to clubs, gyms and private homes, where it is harder to monitor. The internet has proved to be an “ungoverned space” where al-Qaeda and its followers have thrived. On April 23rd, a British court started hearing the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism overseas. They include Younis Tsouli, of Moroccan origin, who is alleged to be a prolific internet propagandist going by the name of “Irhabi 007”, or “Terrorist 007”. He and another suspect are also accused of conspiracy to murder in a case linked to suspects arrested in Bosnia. “Of all the things I have seen over the past few years,” says Mr Clarke, “one of the most worrying has been the speed and apparent ease with which young men can be turned into suicidal terrorists.”

Self-starting terrorism is an ever-present danger. But over several investigations, counter-terrorism officials have usually found direct links leading back to Pakistan, often to al-Qaeda figures. Key British suspects travel back to Pakistan for training and indoctrination. Mr Khyam and Khan are alleged to be linked, through a British middleman, to Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, the alleged number three in al-Qaeda, who was taken to Guantánamo Bay last week.”

39 posted on 05/09/2007 12:41:31 AM PDT by Cindy

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830588/posts

England - Four More Arrested Over 7/7 Bombings
Sky News (excerpt) ^ | May 9, 2007

Posted on 05/09/2007 1:05:00 AM PDT by HAL9000

Excerpt -

Four more people have been arrested by anti-terror police investigating the July 7 attacks.
Fifty-two people were killed by four bombers in the 2005 attack on the London transport system.

Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, detonated bombs on three Tube trains and Hasib Hussain, 18, attacked a bus.

The four people arrested today are two men aged 30 and 34 and a woman, 29, from West Yorkshire and a 22-year-old man from Birmingham.

~ snip ~

(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...

ON THE NET...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=25412_Aussie_Sheik-_Its_OK_to_Kill_Kids_in_Battle&only

Tuesday, May 08, 2007
“Aussie Sheik: It’s OK to Kill Kids in Battle”

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21695697-5006784,00.html

“It’s OK to kill kids in battle: Sheik”
Richard Kerbaj
May 09, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “THE deputy spiritual leader of Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali has told his students that it is “obligatory” for all Muslims to engage in jihad if an Islamic country is under attack, even if it means killing the enemy’s children.

Sheik Shady Suleiman, a youth leader at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s southeast, told his students in a one-hour Arabic and English lecture that it would be “self defence” to kill children who were attacking them in battle.”

###

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24748_Rape_Sheikh_Told_to_Stifle&only

Friday, March 09, 2007
“Rape Sheikh Told to Stifle”

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21349436-421,00.html

“Sheik Hilali banned from talking to the media”
By Richard Kerbaj
March 09, 2007 12:44am

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “FIVE of the nation’s most powerful Islamic clerics, including Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali, have been banned from talking to the media by Muslim leaders for delivering “anti-Australian” messages.”

###

STEPPING BACK IN TIME...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23100_Australian_Muslim_Leader-_Women_Are_Satans_Weapons&only

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
“Australian Muslim Leader: Women Are Satan’s Weapons”

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html

“Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks”
Richard Kerbaj
October 26, 2006

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “THE nation’s most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don’t wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned “meat” that attracts voracious animals.

In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.

While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who “sway suggestively” and wore make-up and immodest dress ... “and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years”.

“But the problem, but the problem all began with who?” he asked.

The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney’s southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years’ jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28217

“Assault on Assyrian Christians”
By Paul Isaac
International Herald Tribune | May 9, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A militant Islamic group in Iraq recently issued a fatwa, or religious edict, to the Assyrian Christian residents of the Baghdad suburb of Dora: Convert to Islam within 24 hours, or face death. At the same time, Muslim neighbors were instructed, over the loudspeakers of local mosques, to confiscate the property of Christians and enforce the edict.

The response was as swift: The majority of Assyrians remaining in Dora immediately gathered whatever they could carry and fled the city.

Iraq’s Assyrian Christians know quite well that these latest threats are not empty promises.”

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=nuclear
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=uranium
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=russia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=kazakhstan

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070508-115454-9343r.htm

Page 1 of 2 next » advertisement

“Kazakhstan plans nuke fuel bank”
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 9, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Russia and Kazakhstan are poised to sign an agreement creating a joint uranium-enrichment center, a possible first step toward an international nuclear fuel “bank” that could remove the need for countries such as Iran to pursue their own enrichment programs, Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin said yesterday.”

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

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200705/FOR20070509a.html

“Illicit Nuclear Networks Still Pose Threat, Expert Says”
By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 09, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) - The Pakistan-based black market network responsible for providing Iran, North Korea and Libya with nuclear technology could resume nuclear proliferation, an international think tank is warning.

Despite the Bush administration’s assertion that the network headed by disgraced former Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been rolled up, experts are not convinced that it no longer poses a threat.

Khan sold designs for centrifuges — devices that spin at high speed and extract fissile material from uranium for building nuclear weapons. Not long after his illicit activities were exposed in 2004, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan.”

###

STEPPING BACK IN TIME...

http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/Archive/200402/FOR20040203b.html

“Nuclear Transfers to Rogue States Could Implicate Pakistan Gov’t”
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
February 03, 2004

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com)

UPDATE...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6637917.stm

Last Updated: Wednesday, 9 May 2007, 09:57 GMT 10:57 UK

“Police hold 7 July bomber’s widow”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The wife of 7 July bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan is among four people arrested in connection with the 2005 attacks, which killed 52 people.

Officers arrested Hasina Patel, 29, and two men in West Yorkshire and one man in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

The four, aged between 22 and 34, are suspected of commissioning, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism.

They are being taken to Paddington Green station in London to be interviewed.

Searches are being carried out at one address in the Handsworth area of Birmingham and one in Selly Oak.

West Midlands Police said the man arrested in Selly Oak was 22 years old.

In West Yorkshire five addresses are being searched - two houses in Dewsbury, two in Beeston and one in Batley.

Others charged

Also among those arrested was Khalid Khaliq, 34, from Tempest Road in Beeston, Leeds - the street where 7 July Aldgate Tube bomber Shehzad Tanweer lived.

Tanweer was one of four suicide bombers to mount the co-ordinated attack in the capital nearly two years ago, which also injured more than 750 people.”

http://www.registercitizen.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18316750&BRD=1652&PAG=461&dept_id=572376&rfi=6

“Arson at Winsted camp”
05/09/2007
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By KARSTEN STRAUSS
Register Citizen Staff

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “WINSTED - A fire that destroyed several buildings at a popular local camp was determined to be arson Tuesday.

Fire Marshal Bill Baldwin said evidence shows that an accelerant was purposely used burn five buildings at Camp Wah-Nee, 128 Wahnee Road, on Monday morning.

“There was gasoline spread all over the place,” Baldwin said.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Fire and police officials are asking anyone with any information to call the anonymous arson hotline at 1-800-84-ARSON. A $2,500 reward is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals responsible for an arson.”

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1161.html

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Wed May 09 2007 03:35:07 GMT-0700.

Worldwide Caution

April 10, 2007

This Public Announcement updates information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against Americans and interests overseas. This supersedes the Worldwide Caution dated October 11, 2006 and expires on October 9, 2007.

The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas. Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings.

Ongoing events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East have resulted in demonstrations and associated violence in several countries. Americans are reminded that demonstrations and rioting can occur with little or no warning.

In August 2006, British authorities arrested a significant number of extremists engaged in a plot to destroy multiple passenger aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States. The September 2006 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Syria and the March 2006 bombing near the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan illustrate the continuing desire of extremists to strike American targets.

Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests. The bomb attacks targeting buses carrying foreign workers in March 2007 and December 2006 in Algeria, a series of bombings in Thailand in May and September 2006 that targeted commercial and tourist destinations in the far south, and the bombings in the the Egyptian resort town of Dahab in April 2006 all illustrate how terrorists exploit vulnerabilities associated with soft targets. Additional examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas and locales where Americans gather in large numbers, including during holidays. Financial or economic targets of value may also be considered as possible venues; the vehicle-based suicide attack on an oil facility near Mukalla and Marib in Yemen in September 2006 and the failed attack on the Abqaiq oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia in late February 2006 are such examples.

In the wake of the August 2006 plot against aircraft in London, numerous terrorist attacks on trains in India in 2006, the July 2005 London Underground bombings, and the March 2004 train attacks in Madrid, Americans are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems. In addition, extremists may also select aviation and maritime services as possible targets.

U.S. citizens are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance, be aware of local events, and take the appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. For additional information, please refer to “A Safe Trip Abroad” found at http://travel.state.gov .

U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert. These facilities may temporarily close or periodically suspend public services to assess their security posture. In those instances, U.S. embassies and consulates will make every effort to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens. Americans abroad are urged to monitor the local news and maintain contact with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

As the Department continues to develop information on any potential security threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information through its Consular Information Program documents, available on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov . In addition to information on the Internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. or outside the U.S. and Canada on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.

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