Threat Matrix: September 2007

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[nwctwx]

The Birth of al Qaedastan

In the year 2016, the world may find itself gloomily marking September 6 as the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan. The Emirate received de facto recognition when the Taliban used the name on the ceasefire agreement they signed with Pakistan on that day in 2006. If things go terribly wrong in the coming decade, they could come to rule a mountainous fragment of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Emirate would be a nightmare state: Osama bin Laden as sultan, Ayman al Zawahiri as vizier, and Mullah Omar the spiritual leader. An economy built on smuggling and heroin. Primary export: terrorism. Welcome to ‘Al Qaedastan’.

Analysts say the rise of a terrorist state straddling the rugged area between Pakistan and Afghanistan is now viable. The reason is a number of troubling trends. One, the revival of a Taliban firmly in the control of Al Qaeda. Two, the seeming inability of either Kabul or Islamabad to defeat the new threat militarily. Three, and the most striking, the Taliban’s systematic supplanting of the traditional tribal leadership in the area. Full story...

	Lebanon: Tiny Country, Big Threats
	Islamist Web Site Explains 'How to Join Al Qaeda'
	The Ongoing Hunt for Osama bin Laden

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September 2007

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[nwctwx]

However more importantly (to a degree) is that most underestimate the value that UBL still manages to hold (within the radical Muslim street throughout the ME...but also importantly within the Afghan/Pak border regions)...and holds his value simply because he has managed to stay alive (along with Zawahiri) - Another "aura" of sorts has managed to build up around him precisely because of this fact. He remains alive.

Thanks for this post. It is crucial that UBL/Zawahri be brought to justice and it will be an important U.S. victory if/when it happens.

[milford421]

Thanks Fars.

[celtic-cat]

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_Comments.htm?section=ed&storyID=64351#postComments

I live very near this proposed site. It is a very rural area which is almost devoid of Muslims at the present time. This area has no idea of what it is getting into.

The first thing that caught my attention was the comment that the site would be used for “calls to worship on the weekends”. If there are calls to worship, that means there will be a mosque as there are none now. If they are building a mosque in an area where there are few, if any, muslims....where will they be getting their worshipers?

I’m very unhappy with this.

[Shelayne]

Thanks for the ping—marking for later reading.

[bitt]

thanks. I am not always ‘here’ but always interested.

[Cindy]

I hope it as a rejuvinating camping trip, Godzilla.

[Cindy]

JEM and AQ.

Duly noted and thank you Oorang.

[lainie]

Highway 101 in California can’t catch a break. Tonight there’s a big fire north of Santa Barbara that’s closing it northbound (101@Arroyo Hondo Preserve). Further south, the 101 at Topanga Cyn offramp (Los Angeles area) has a hillside on fire due to the explosion of a big rig. Site says traffic is backed up to Las Virgenes but I don’t know how far that is. (Sounds far.)

The 14 freeway has had several incidents all weekend, including the North Fire screwing up traffic. (Agua Dulce/Acton/Santa Clarita - 600 acres - 20% contained). The smoke from that one is blackening my skies. Also, SR14 was under water up north of Mohave this afternoon due to t-storm downpour.

The 15 freeway was closed for awhile this afternoon in Barstow due to a terrible accident (rollover in the median I think it was). There have been other incidents reported there as well.

To sum up: CHP is out earning its pay this weekend. Beats having them harrass innocent people for driving faster than the sign said was allowed, but a tough row for anybody who needed to get anywhere in southern CA this weekend.

[Cindy]

“...where will they be getting their worshipers?”

OPINION-SPECULATION: The worshipers will be people moving to the area, or who will be traveling from outside the area or reverts aka converts or all of the above.

[BurbankKarl]

you forgot the 38 is closed in Big Bear due to a fire...

[BurbankKarl]

oops, I meant 18

[lainie]

Whoops, yes I did.

And, earlier, there was a black cow in the roadway on Elizabeth Lake Rd, out there in Leona Valley.

[BurbankKarl]

Why did the cow cross the road?

[celtic-cat]

Exactly.

While I understand that this particular sect is looked upon by the rest of the islamic sects as false and non-islamic, I still believe that they are looking to import/convert and take over. Even by their count, there are fewer than 20 families which belong to their community within the entire county at this time. When our little area is already fighting the influx of suburban sprawl, the last thing we need is an islamic center calling all their members to move here and overwhelm all of our systems and become the majority voting block.

[celtic-cat]

It was chasing a chicken.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890694/posts

“Facing Enemies Who Prefer War To Peace: The Endless Futility Of Israeli Diplomacy”
Jewish Press ^ | 8-27-07 | Louis Rene Beres

Posted on 09/03/2007 4:56:43 PM PDT by SJackson

[Cindy]

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

#

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=204144&Itemid=79&cattitle=Hyderabad

“‘Conduct mock drills for security personnel’”

Tuesday, 04 September 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Hyderabad, September 04: “Install surveillance cameras to keep a tab on persons moving suspiciously”. “Never allow customers with mobile phones inside the mall”. “Check vehicles at the entrance before allowing into the parking bay.”

These are not the instructions given by the City Police to managements of malls after the twin blasts ripped through Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat but some of the suggestions from citizens.

Visitors to the Spencer’s Hyper Market in Chikkadpally have jotted down at least 60 ideas in detail in a “Police-Public Partnership Security” register maintained by the police at the hyper market, after they conducted a mock drill to check alertness of the security personnel on Sunday.”

[Cindy]

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

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hezbollah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizballah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizbullah

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

#

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=AEEC22A3-A38F-48D4-8D28-202DAE2DE507

Iran’s Land Grab
By Amir Taheri

The New York Post | 9/4/2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “IRAN’S banks, operating through front men and companies, are financing land purchases that could redraw Lebanon’s complex ethnic and religious map.”

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/FOREIGN/109040026/1003
(AP)
TEHRAN

“Detainee makes her way back to U.S.”
By Ali Akbar Dareini
September 4, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “”After a long and difficult ordeal, I am elated to be on my way back to my home and my family. These last eight months, that included 105 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, have not been easy,” Mrs. Esfandiari said in a statement issued by her employer, the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.”

Page 2:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/FOREIGN/109040026/1003&template=nextpage

ARRTICLE SNIPPET: “Mrs. Esfandiari was first detained Dec. 30 after three masked men holding knives threatened to kill her on her way to Tehran’s airport to fly back to the U.S. after visiting her mother, the Wilson Center said.

Iran charged three other Iranian-Americans with security-related offenses: Parnaz Azima, a journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Farda; Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute; and Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California at Irvine.”

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890811/posts

#

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6975934.stm

Last Updated: Monday, 3 September 2007, 23:36 GMT 00:36 UK

“Taleban ‘getting Chinese weapons’”
By Paul Danahar
BBC Asia bureau chief, Beijing

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan.

The BBC has been told that on several occasions Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops by Afghan insurgents.

The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation.”