The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues, serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide realtime information about terrorism cases and policy developments.

Beyond these individual cases, moreover, it is a fact that radical propaganda has been distributed in U.S. prisons. Before it was shut down by the Saudi Arabian government in 2004, the Wahhabist Al Haramain Islamic Foundation distributed large numbers of extremist books worldwide, including to American prisons. Al-Haramain boasted offices in over 50 countries and received between $45 and $50 million in donations every year.

When law-enforcement agents raided the U.S. branch of Al Haramain, headquartered in Ashland, Oregon, in February 2004 as part of a money-laundering investigation, they seized copies of the literature the foundation had been distributing. They also made a remarkable find on one of the seized computers: a database that detailed where the group had sent its literature. It contained over 15,000 names. While not all recipients were prisoners, enough were that "Prisoner Number" and "Release Date" were standard fields in the database. The charity also regularly mailed bulk quantities of literature to prison chaplains, who distributed the books to inmates.

Some of the texts that Al Haramain had distributed to prisons deserve a closer look. Take Muhammad bin Jamil Zino's Islamic Guidelines for Individual and Social Reform, which was sent to an estimated 1,000 prisoners (an exact tally has not been made public). One of the book's themes is jihad. As early as page two, Zino states that Islam "commends the Halal [lawful] money in possession of a pious person who pays a share of it in charity and for Jihad (fighting in the way of Allah)." While some students of Islam argue that the term jihad is often misunderstood because it has nonmilitary meanings, Al Haramain's literature avoids any ambiguity: Zino forthrightly states that the term means fighting.

This advocacy of jihad is reinforced by repetition. Zino instructs his readers that children should be indoctrinated in the glories of jihad from an early age:

Teach your children the love of justice and revenge from the unjust like the Jews and the tyrants. Consequently our youth would know that Palestine should be freed and Jerusalem must be of the Muslims. They have to learn about Islam and Jihad as per the Qur'an and that the holy fighting for justice is supported by Allah the Almighty.

And he further specifies the objects and means of jihad: "The Jihad against the disbelievers, communists and the aggressors from Jewish-Christian nations can be either by spending on Jihad or by participating in it in person."

Indeed, the "Jewish-Christian nations" are special objects of ire throughout the literature that Al Haramain distributed to prisons. Virulent anti-Semitism and hatred of non-Muslim governments are recurring themes.

On a page headed "Act upon these Ahadith," the hadith being sayings and traditions attributed to Muhammad, Zino's very first injunction reads: "The Last Hour will not appear unless the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them." Zino also imputes conspiracies to the Jews. In a passage denouncing fortunetellers, he writes, "If they know the Unseen, let them talk about the secret schemes of the Jews so that we combat them."

More sweepingly, Zino denounces "belief in man-made destructive ideologies such as atheistic communism, Jewish masonry, Marxian socialism, secularism or nationalism" as nullifying an individual's adherence to Islam. This is in keeping with the views of another of the writers whose works Al Haramain reportedly sent to prisons: Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips. In The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism), Philips excoriates the acceptance of non-Islamic rule in place of sharia law in Muslim lands. Philips describes acquiescence to non-Islamic rule as an act of idolatry and disbelief. "Un-Islamic government," he writes, "must be sincerely hated and despised for the pleasure of God."

The Koran, of course, was widely distributed by Al Haramain--the Koran, that is, in its Wahhabi version. As Stephen Schwartz reported here a year ago, the Wahhabi translation of the Koran is suffused with contempt for non-Muslims, particularly Jews and Christians. It contains numerous interpolations not present in the Arabic, all pushing the meaning in a radical direction. Al-Haramain distributed this volume to an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners.

The Wahhabi Koran also contains explanatory material rife with calls to holy war. An early footnote, for example, states:

Al-Jihad (holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior, . . . and His Religion (Islam) is propagated. By abandoning Jihad (may Allah protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honour is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfil this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite.

This rules out nonmilitary interpretations of jihad, insisting on "full force of numbers and weaponry." It also endorses jihad as a means of propagating Islam, and specifies that it is required of "every Muslim."

Most chilling of all is a 22-page appendix by Saudi Arabia's former chief justice Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid found in the vast majority of the Korans that Al Haramain sent to the prisons. Entitled "The Call to Jihad (Holy Fighting in Allah's Cause) in the Qur'an," this essay is an exhortation to violence.

Bin Humaid argues at length that Muslims are obligated to wage war against non-Muslims who have not submitted to Islamic rule. He explains,

Allah . . . commanded the Muslims to fight against all the Mushrikun as well as against the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) if they do not embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizyah (a tax levied on the non-Muslims who do not embrace Islam and are under the protection of an Islamic government) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.

Mushrikun refers to all nonbelievers who are not classified as people of the scriptures; bin Humaid thus advocates war with the entire non-Muslim world.

Once again, the essay appeals to the reader to volunteer for jihad:

Jihad is a great deed indeed and there is no deed whose reward or blessing is as that of it, and for this reason, it is the best thing that one can volunteer for. . . . [I]t (Jihad) shows one's patience, one's devotion to Islam, one's remembrance to Allah and there are other kinds of good deeds which are present in Jihad and are not present in any other act of worship.

There is reason to believe that the literature distributed by the Al Haramain Foundation is only the tip of the iceberg of what has reached and may still be reaching U.S. prisons. For all its impressive international presence, Al Haramain had only a handful of employees at its U.S. branch, and was just one of a number of Wahhabi charities with U.S. prison-outreach programs. The focus here is on Al Haramain's literature purely because the February 2004 raid opened a window into its program of prisoner education.

More study of radical indoctrination in prisons is warranted. Earlier this year, Freedom House, the New York-based human rights organization, released a scrupulously documented report exposing the extremist contents of literature found in the libraries, publication racks, and bookstores of 15 prominent U.S. mosques. The report is entitled "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques."

A similar sampling of the Islamic literature available in federal and state prisons--both in libraries and distributed by prison chaplains--is needed to further our understanding of whatever extremist indoctrination has occurred and is occurring. A good place to start is the California prison system, where the latest plot for jihad on our soil was apparently hatched.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a counterterrorism consultant and attorney.

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Bureaucracy Kills

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

A story posted yesterday at CNN.com provides a disgusting snapshot of how bureaucratic red tape and fears of legal liability actively thwarted volunteers' attempts to assist the relief efforts in New Orleans:

Doctors eager to help sick and injured evacuees were handed mops by federal officials who expressed concern about legal liability. Even as violence and looting slowed rescues, police from other states were turned back while officials squabbled over who should take charge of restoring the peace. Warehouses in New Orleans burned while firefighters were diverted to Atlanta for Federal Emergency Management Agency training sessions on community relations and sexual harassment. Water trucks languished for days at FEMA's staging area because the drivers lacked the proper paperwork.

The story provides concrete and compelling examples of how this occurred. It is sad, to say the least, that in the wake of the worst natural disaster in this country's history, an adherence to process over results coupled with the defensive fears and refusal to take responsibility that typify government bureaucracy prevented those who were willing and able to provide assistance from doing so. As Philip K. Howard painstakingly details in The Death of Common Sense, American bureaucracy so rigidly focuses on process that human judgment and responsibility have fallen by the wayside. The fact that volunteers whose help was clearly needed were turned away is a tragic example of this which is best summarized in an anecdote in the CNN.com article linked to above:

FEMA halted tractor trailers hauling water to a supply staging area in Alexandria, Louisiana[.] The New York Times quoted William Vines, former mayor of Fort Smith, Arkansas, as saying, "FEMA would not let the trucks unload. . . . The drivers were stuck for several days on the side of the road" because, he said, they did not have a "tasker number." He added, "What in the world is a tasker number? I have no idea. It's just paperwork and it's ridiculous."

Paperwork should not take precedence over helping those in need in a time of crisis. And just as we should trim our bureaucracy to allow a more effective disaster response, so too should we make sure that law enforcement officers charged with protecting us from terrorists are not shackled by red tape.

More Frustration on Viktor Bout

By Douglas Farah

Seems Congressional folks on both sides of the aisle are growing increasingly frustrated with the unwillingness or inability of the Pentagon and State Department to answer questions about Viktor Bout. One set of concerns centers on Bout's ongoing and potentially illegal contracts with the U.S. military and KBR in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other is the State Deparment's inability to get companies and individuals in Bout's network, designated by Treasury Department's OFAC office as bad guys with their assets frozen, onto the broader U.N. sanctions list, which would make the measures applicable worldwide. It has been five months since the OFAC designations, yet State refuses to take what is largely an administrative step and push the already-completed paperwork on up to the United Nations.

The frustration is getting to the boiling point. At least one influential Republican senator is pushing for a special Inspector General investigation into the Pentagon's seeming endless ability to allow Bout's companies to continue to subcontract out high-priced charters. The effort is likely to be joined by Democrats and some influential House Republicans. Also using the old Bout planes is KBR for moving its personnel around. The most complete details of these convoluted relations are provided by the Yorkshire Ranter here and here. Those involved in pushing for this investigation believe that the OFAC freezing orders and designations makes it illegal to deal with any Bout company directly, through contractors or subcontractors. The U.S. Central Command, responsible for the Iraq operations have been reminded of the law several times, to little long-lasting avail.

There is also the question of State's inaction on moving toward a global designation. The United States has pretty high legal standards for designating individuals and companies, especially when the reason for the designation is not directly terror related. Bout's designations fall under the Liberia sanctions regime, not the Taliban and al Qaeda. (However, the Treasury Department did allege that Bout made $50 million selling arms to the Taliban).

Under the Liberia sanctions regime, also in place in the U.N., the designations are unlikely to be challenged, unless Russia comes to Bout's defense. To continue reading, please go here.

Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia Responds to Counterterrorism Raids in Dammam

By Evan Kohlmann

Al-Qaida's Jihad Committee in Saudi Arabia has released a new communiqu� and audio recording in response to recent armed clashes that took place in the eastern city of Dammam between Saudi police and wanted Al-Qaida members beginning on Sept. 4. According to the communiqu�, Saudi Interior Ministry representatives were incorrect in claiming that the militants possessed large amounts of explosives and that wanted Al-Qaida operative Mohammed al-Suwailmi was among the casualties from the battle. In order to make their point, Al-Qaida also released an alleged audio recording of al-Suwailmi alongside their communiqu� narrating the clashes in Dammam.

Click to view English translations c/o Globalterroralert.com:
- Sept. 4 video of clash outside Panda market in Dammam
- Sept. 11 communiqu� from Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia
- Sept. 11 transcript of audio by Mohammed al-Suwailmi

UN 60th GA Summit Misses Its Mark in Combating Terrorism

By Victor Comras

�This week's United Nations summit in New York was billed as the largest gathering of heads of state and government in history. So it is a pity the document they came to endorse is not so much a recipe for radical reform of the international system as a damp squib.� So says an editorial in the September 16th edition of Australia�s Sydney Herald. I�ve chosen that quote as it so aptly captures the tone, texture and result of the UN�s 60th General Assembly Summit, particularly when it comes to their handling of international terrorism.

Terrorism was among the loudest issues being discussed at the UN these passed weeks. But, there is relatively little to show for it. Terrorism certainly got its due in the rhetoric department. There was plenty of condemnation, but little else. At the end of the day the Summit's Outcome Document was left only with �We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.� Other paragraphs of the document pledged to consider the Secretary General�s Counter-Terrorism strategy, to work for the adoption of a comprehensive Anti-Terrorism Convention and to address the root causes of terrorism.

But compare this to the proposed language contained in the August 5, 2005 Draft Outcome Document which was subsequently dropped (See my Earlier Blog) and its clear that the General Assembly once again fell short.

�We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, as it constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security�.We affirm that the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and non-combatants cannot be justified or legitimized by any cause or grievance, and we declare that any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, when the purpose of such an act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a Government or an international organization to carry out or to abstain from any act cannot be justified on any grounds and constitutes an act of terrorism.�

By Andrew Cochran

Referring to the immediate post-Katrina response, I wrote here on September 1 that "this shows us how unprepared we are for a major urban terrorist attack." An article in Monday's "Technology Daily," which "Technology Daily" has graciously agreed to share with our readers (Word file), discusses the virtual collapse of communications in the Gulf region, especially in New Orleans. The article forecasts that "Lawmakers and first-responder groups plan to use the incident to push previously drafted bills, as well as new proposals to connect emergency workers across the country." And private sector witnesses at a Congressional hearing today testified that a cybersecurity attack could cause severe economic disruptions.

So the federal government has to move more quickly to the establish a secure, reliable, high-speed communications system across all platforms. In pursuit of that goal, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) recently sent a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, asking him to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to open more radio spectrum for advanced communication services (Acrobat file). The Senators asserted that the opening of the spectrum by the FCC for advanced hybrid communications systems, using both satellites and land-based components, will help emergency responders and provide a "seamless back-up in situations where the terrestial network is down because of a natural disaster or terrorist attack." The Senators pointed out that one potential application for the new spectrum would enable airlines to view the passengers in the airplane before leaving the terminal, and then transmit the signal to TSA (and presumably law enforcement). The Senators also pointed out that the Defense Department has already inquired into linking 450 critical domestic sites, many without a reliable land-based telecomm infrastructure, through wireless broadband, and a hybrid system could meet DoD's needs. This letter looks like the kind of constructive, bipartisan effort that we need more of to keep law enforcement and first responders connected through an attack.

Purported Terror Threat by "Al-Qaida in Northern Europe"

By Evan Kohlmann

In a new communiqu� verified as authentic by the same online authority responsible for distributing credible material from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a group calling itself "Al-Qaida's Committee in Northern Europe" has issued a threat to carry out additional suicide bombing attacks similar those that took place on July 7 in downtown London. According to an electronic statement issued on September 11, members of the purported Al-Qaida unit announced their intention to "sacrifice our souls and dead bodies for this religion, in order to raise the flag of the mujahideen, and to preserve the souls of the Muslims in the same way that our brothers in Britain have done previously." No specific European nation or target was mentioned in the communiqu�.

Click to view English translation c/o Globalterroralert.com

Iraqi Insurgents Claim Chemical Weapon Attacks

By Evan Kohlmann

At least two different Iraqi insurgent groups thought allied with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida faction have claimed responsibility for recent attacks allegedly involving chemical weapons on U.S. and Iraqi forces in the cities of Baghdad and Al-Madain. On September 13, the Army of the Victorious Sect (rumored to be comprised of ex-Fedayeen Saddam and Iraqi intelligence personnel) claimed responsibility for launching rockets allegedly tipped with chemical agents at the Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad. A day later, the Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI)--a faction that acknowledges occasional joint operations with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--took credit for an alleged attack on U.S. and Iraqi military forces in the city of Al-Madain with chemical-equipped 120mm Hawn mortar shells.

Click to view English translations c/o Globalterroralert.com:
- Sept. 11 chemical threat from Army of the Victorious Sect
- Sept. 13 alleged attack by Army of the Victorious Sect
- Sept. 14 alleged attack by the Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI)

Foreign "Hurricane Relief Workers" Allowed Entry With Virtually NO Screening

By Michael Cutler

I was sent this memo that, according to sources whom I trust, is an authentic memorandum concerning immigration policy and relief workers seeking to enter the United States. It is highly disturbing, and the only good that might come out of this is that the federal government might essentially put alien smugglers out of business! Add this to the fact that the federal government is waiving the prevailing wage requirement for contractors in the region where the hurrican created so much devastation and the picture that emerges is that we have all but eliminated our nation's borders in the name of hurricane relief. Add to this the information that I received in an e-mail (attached below) from T.J. Bonner, the president of the Border Patrol Council about the situation on the borders and how Fidel Castro is exploiting the situation in Florida (which will really scare you):

MEMORANDUM FOR: DIRECTORS, FIELD OPERATIONS

DIRECTOR, PRECLEARANCE

FROM: Assistant Commissioner

Office of Field Operations

SUBJECT: Interim Guidance Process for Entry of Hurricane Katrina Relief Workers

This memorandum addresses the interim procedures to be immediately instituted at ports of entry for the processing of foreign nationals to provide emergency services in conjunction with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Additional guidance will be forthcoming but these processes will be utilized until those final processes are in place.

In processing relief workers, the role of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be three-fold:

1. To ensure that bona fide applicants for admission in support of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts are processed expeditiously;

2. To ensure that the security of the inspection process is sufficient to eliminate frivolous or fraudulent applications for admission;and

3. To support the relief efforts to the greatest extent possible while enforcing the immigration statute and regulation.

In this instance, relief workers are considered to be those providing emergency services as a result of Hurricane Katrina. These may include utility workers to assist with power and telecommunication restoration, transportation companies needed to deliver specific cargo or supplies, foreign engineers or professionals to assist with flood mitigation, and foreign relief workers with international aid organizations such as the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, among others.

The CBP Office of Field Operations Field Liaison Unit will coordinate all requests for the admission of foreign relief workers. To the extent possible, ports of entry will be notified in advance of the arrival of relief workers. In those cases where relief workers make application for admission with advance notice, such requests must be immediately forwarded to the Field Liaison Unit who will then coordinate with affected and responsible agencies and will arrange for the expedited vetting of the requests.

Once a request has been reviewed by the Field Liaison Unit, the ports of entry will be notified of the appropriate type or class of admission (i.e., B-1 or parole):

Where admission in a nonimmigrant category is authorized, generally the individual will not require employment authorization as it will have been determined that their activity in the United States would not constitute employment under the immigration laws.

If the individual is not in possession of the appropriate passport and visa, the documentary requirements will be waived without fee. The period of admission should be for the period of time commensurate with the expected duration of their need, not to exceed one year. In consideration of operational needs and with GS-13 or higher review and approval, enrollment in ENFORCE may be waived.

Where parole has been authorized - for purposes of Hurricane Katrina relief workers only the Form I-94 issued to document the parole will be annotated just below the parole stamp with "Employment Authorized. On the reverse side of the Form I-94, list the occupation of the parolee in Box 18 and note the employer or sponsoring organization in box 26 under "Comments." The parole code will be "DT."

The period of parole should be for the period of time commensurate with the expected duration of their need, not to exceed six months. Parole will be granted without fee.

In consideration of operational needs and with GS-13 or higher review and approval, enrollment in ENFORCE may be waived.

Whether paroled or admitted as a nonimmigrant, processing officers must ensure that all inspection procedures are completed. This includes, at a minimum:

Primary name query in the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS);

Biographical and/or biometric queries in all other appropriate systems;

Referral to secondary;

Secondary inspection results in IBIS;

Completion of all required fields on Form I-94; and

Submission of the completed Forms I-94 for data entry.

This policy does not amend the policy issued September 3, 2005 titled Admission of Crewmen in and Around the Gulf of Mexico Assisting with Hurricane Relief that stated that such crewmembers would be paroled for one year. The parole code for all aliens, those affected by this policy and the crewmembers discussed in the September 3 memorandum, shall be "DT."

This policy does not relieve the ports of all requirements for NSEERS registration of special interest aliens. Aliens who are subject to NSEERS registration will be processed through NSEERS unless otherwise exempted and will be appropriately advised of departure requirements.

Where other grounds of inadmissibility exist (e.g. criminal, security, prior immigration violation, etc.), CBP may consider granting parole provided:

1) The individual does not pose any known terrorist threat to the United States;

2) The individual does not pose any immediate threat to the United States for criminal activity;

3) The individual is not likely to add to the illegal immigrant population in the United States; and

4) The individual's particular skills are deemed absolutely necessary to the relief effort.

/sig/ Jayson P. Ahern

Jason Ahern, director of field operations for US Customs

Department of Homeland Security

Bureau of Customs and Border Protection

E-mail from T.J. Bonner (emphasis added):

Hi Mike:

Here are the numbers for the New Mexico detail: 105 total agents, 31 to Lordsburg and 74 to Deming.

Tucson Sector is sending 50 agents, El Paso Sector is sending 30, and San Diego Sector is sending 25. (San Diego Sector has been sending about 100 agents a month to Tucson Sector and continues to do so. Talk about a shell game!)

Also, I'm getting reports that the number of Cubans arriving in South Florida is escalating dramatically, and they are telling our agents that the word on the street in Cuba is that the Coast Guard and Border Patrol are too busy helping in the Gulf Coast to patrol the waters in Florida.

T.J.

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New al-Qaeda Tape Continues Appeasement Theme

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

I've written a number of times (most recently in the Daily Standard) that al-Qaeda has been attempting since April 2004 to convince Westerners that the terrorist group is worth negotiating with, and that it can be appeased. Ayman al-Zawahiri's August 4 videotape was one example of these efforts. In it, Zawahiri referred to the truce that Osama bin Laden had previously offered in exchange for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Muslim world, and stated that Westerners "would never dream of peace until we actually live it in Palestine and before all foreign forces withdraw from the Land of Muhammad."

Al-Qaeda's latest tape, believed to be the work of Muslim convert Adam Gadahn, is a remarkable example of al-Qaeda continuing to pursue this rhetorical strategy. It is, in fact, al-Qaeda's most blatant attempt to appeal to Westerners. In the very first sentence of the tape, Gadahn states that "[f]our years after the blessed raids on New York and Washington," the people of the West are "continuing to speculate about the causes and objectives which lie behind those historic events and subsequent developments." Gadahn says that there is no excuse for Westerners' uncertainty about al-Qaeda's objectives, since "the mujahedeen have been unambiguous in stating, in stating their methodology, objectives and the reasons for their armed struggle against the crusaders and they have not hidden anything." The rest of the tape is designed to outline al-Qaeda's objectives, and explicitly frames their terrorist attacks as a response to Western aggression.

Speaking to Westerners, Gadahn states that if leaders like President Bush and Prime Minister Blair "really had your protection in mind, they would have heeded the mujahedeen's demands for justice and withdrawn from the Muslim world. If they really cared about protecting you, they would have responded positively to Sheik Osama's proposal for a truce with the European nations, instead of arrogantly dismissing his initiative with the false claim that quote, 'We don't negotiate with terrorists, and that in any case, al Qaeda has no demands to meet.'"

The most remarkable passage of Gadahn's videotape urges Westerners to overthrow their leaders in order to find peace with al-Qaeda:

It is clear from what we have just explained that you, the people of the West, now have two mutually exclusive paths from which to choose. Rid yourself of your current leaders and governments and their anti-Islam, anti-Muslim policies or suffer the consequences. Rise up against your leaders � crusaders beholden to Zion who claim to be ruling according to popular will � yet ignore opinion polls and two-million-strong marches. . . . Removing your world rulers is the logical choice for you, the people of the West. As for the alternative, it is the path which you are currently following, the path of [Slobodan] Milosevic and Bush and Blair and their unending campaign of terror, the path of death and suffering and ultimately defeat.

By Bill West

Today, the New York Sun ran an article about the soon-to-occur visit by recently �elected� Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the United Nations General Assembly. He has been granted a restricted entry US visa as a foreign head of state, notwithstanding what would normally be grounds for exclusion against an alien suspected of being involved in terrorism and terror support activities.

The article further describes the outrage at this by several of the former American hostages of the Iranian takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. A number of these former hostages have identified Ahmadinejad as having been directly involved in the takeover and also having personally taken part in their captive interrogations. The US Government claims its �investigation� of those allegations, so far, has not developed sufficient evidence to conclude that Ahmadinejad was directly involved in the embassy takeover. A number of the former hostages claim the Government�s investigation of the matter has not been properly conducted, and they cite a classified CIA report that has not been fully released as one example indicating the US Government�s bias in favor of the new Iranian president.

Former hostage David Roeder, a retired Air Force colonel, is quoted in the NY Sun article as saying a State Department official had just started interviewing him about the matter when information contained in the CIA report was leaked, noting that conclusions appeared to have been made by Government officials before all available information had been collected.

Attorneys representing the hostages are reported to be seeking a meeting with US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton on the matter. A response from a representative for Bolton, however, indicated �the ambassador's schedule is full and he regrets he won't have time for the former hostages.�

I lived the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) part of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980. It was conducted under something called Project 067. This ranged from rounding up thousands of out-of-status Iranian students and watching virtually all of them later apply for and receive political asylum (with very many being bogus claims) to being part of the Washington, DC Jail extrication of 100+ Iranian rioters in a five-hour knock down, drag out brawl within the jail wherein many INS agents were injured (including me). Those were Iranian �students� who were arrested by the US Park Police and Metropolitan PD after hundreds of them had rioted on the mall in DC protesting the decision by President Jimmy Carter to allow the fallen Shah to come into the US for medical treatment for his terminal cancer.

Afterward, we moved those criminal Iranians, all of whom had refused to identify themselves and who had been arrested for assaulting police officers (some with 2x4 boards spiked with large nails used as clubs�all perhaps part of demonstrating the �peaceful� side of Islam to those of us in American law enforcement not familiar with such things at the time), in two C-141s from Andrews AFB to an upstate NY BOP prison...only to have President Jimmy Carter�s White House order them all released a few weeks later. Virtually all of those rioting thugs eventually applied for and received asylum in the United States.

This was the beginning of the widespread abuse of the US political asylum system. Thousands of young Iranian �students,� many of whom were radical Islamists (US law enforcement and Intelligence agencies really didn�t know what that was then) were in violation of their immigration status and were caught by the INS. They had money, hired lawyers and decided they didn�t want to return to the Land of the Ayatollah, even if they might philosophically and religiously agree with the old bearded whack-job. They overwhelmed our asylum and immigration court systems, and for the most part won, and were allowed to stay. So much for the Government�s get-tough Project 067.

This was also arguably really the beginning of America's war with radical Islamic terrorism, even if we didn�t recognize it, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is quite arguably one of its founders. Solid American citizens, who were and are highly reliable witnesses, have come forward and have offered testimony about how Ahmadinejad terrorized them and other Americans. Now the US Government is kowtowing to this Islamic thug at the expense of his surviving American victims. I thought we might have learned some lessons since 1979.

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Latest Evidence Hizballah Funds Palestinian Terrorists

By Matthew Levitt

In the first half of 2004 Israeli intelligence reported that Hizballah's fingerprint was present on 80 percent of terrorist attacks emanating from the West Bank. By then a series of arrested Fatah operatives conceded that Hizballah was funding nearly all of their group's attacks.

To be sure, Iran also provides a tremendous amount of funding and logistical support to Hamas through Hizballah, in addition to funding Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hizballah conditions this funding on successful Palestinian attacks, paying three to five thousand new Israeli shekels per attack and allowing operatives to keep any funds left over after successful strikes. Given the desperate economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza, this is a very effective means of encouraging terrorist activity.

Over the past several years, Hizballah has provided between $750,000 and $1.5 million to Palestinian terrorist groups annually. Besides the large-scale funding obtained from Iran, Hizballah uses charities as humanitarian fronts for terrorist activities against Israel (e.g., the al-Ansar Charity Association in Gaza). Israel has taken several measures to frustrate these efforts, including arresting moneychangers and seizing their funds; confiscating undeclared funds over 2,000 Jordanian dinar at Israeli-Jordanian crossing points; and raiding accounts tied to terrorists and front organizations in Ramallah banks.

But like other successful terrorist groups, Hizballah constantly adapts its tactics to evade counterterrorism efforts. Its innovations include transferring funds to the accounts of terrorists' family members and smuggling a computer chip with a detailed bombmaking guide from an operative in Jordan inside a Sony Playstation videogame console.

But the latest evidence that Hizballah continues to finance Palestinian terrorist groups and fund specific attacks comes from Ireland.

A Dateline NBC report that aired September 11, 2005 reveled that Jihad Jaara, a top operative for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is living free in Ireland where he continues to meet with fellow terrorist operatives and finance terror attacks.

On Jaara's suggestion, Dateline correspondent Lisa Myers contacted his friend and fellow al-Aqsa operative Salem Bawaqnah in an Israeli maximum security prison. Jaara believed Bawaqnah would corroborate his claim that he has entirely renounced terrorism following his exile from the West Bank. Instead, Bawaqnah told Myers that since July 2004 Jaara has helped him secure funding from Hizballah for terrorist cells in the West Bank involved in car bombings in Israel.

Jaara lived a double life as an officer in the Palestinian Preventative Security Force and an al-Aqsa operative. While serving as a Palestinian security officer, he masterminded countless violent actions against both Israelis and Americans, including the January 2002 murder of Avi Boaz (a seventy-two year old American citizen in Bethlehem) and a suicide bombing that killed eleven in that same year. In March 2002, Jaara was among those taking refuge in the Church of Nativity, one of Christianity's holiest sites, during the forty day siege there following the Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank. This terrorist action spawned international attention. Jaara was permitted to leave Bethlehem and resettle in Ireland under the condition that he assure Irish authorities in charge of monitoring him that have would have no further involvement in terrorist activities.

Irish intelligence officials, who denied NBC's requests for an interview, affirm they have intensified surveillance on Jaara after he left the country under a fake passport in 2003 for a meeting in Spain with other suspected militants. Spanish authorities detained Jaara and shipped him back to Ireland only after he "rang the leader of (Spanish) security and told him, 'I am Jihad and I am now in Spain.'" This is not the first time Jaara has taunted the authorities. He previously has not only bragged to Newsweek about his role in the murder of Boaz, he has also allowed BBC camera crews to follow and film him as he fired into an unsuspecting Jewish neighborhood.

According to Jaara, he acquired much of his operational expertise -- "especially for shooting" -- in CIA counterterrorism training courses he took as a Palestinian security officer.

For more on Hizballah financing Palestinina terrorist groups see "Hizballah's West Bank Foothold," and "Assessing Hizballah's West Bank Foothold."

For more on Hizballah terror financing in general see "Hizballah Finances: Funding the Party of God."

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Disillusion and Frustration in Intelligence Community

By Douglas Farah

In recent conversations and in more formal settings with those in and around the intelligence community, it is clear there is still widespread disaffection with CIA director Porter Goss and his inner circle at the CIA and their heavy-handed ways of getting most of the senior staff there, with decades if not centuries of cumulative experience, to retire. One of the largest emerging problems, as a result, is that, while the recruitment levels at the agency have tripled since 9-11, the number of officers with field experience to guide, train and lead them has diminished to almost nothing. One of the latest to walk out the door is Robert Richer, the second-ranking official in the clandestine service, who left in a dispute with Goss's crew, mostly brought over from the Hill, to run the CIA. Here is the Washington Post story on it.

There is no question the CIA needed to be remade in the wake of 9-11, but several retired officers who now work around the agency feel the full-scale bloodletting in recent years has left the CIA on the brink of becoming unable to produce the intelligence and analysis required of it. I have had my quarrels with the agency over time, but I know there are many good people trying very hard to do their jobs. While youth and fresh ideas are needed, they need to be blended with the experience of people who have been in the field. Some old hands are being hired back on contracts to try to help, but that is a limited and short-term fix to a structural problem that will be difficult to overcome in the near term.

There is another dangerous problem facing the intelligence community, and that is the potential dysfunctionality of the National Counter Terrorism Center. The problem, according to intelligence insiders, is that it does away with one of the main things the CIA got right in recent years--the ability to sit analysts and field operatives down together to produce an intelligence product from gathering to analysis to operations. The NCTC gives the analytical reporting responsibilities to the DNI at CIA, while the operational authority comes from the president, thus giving two chains of command. This will again fragment the analysis and collection functions and far removes decision-making process from those with the most direct knowledge of events. It will also make timely operational decision-making more difficult and less flexible. Timely, flexible responses are the mantra of intelligence reform, but is a big step back from that.

On possible solution, according to one recently retired senior official, would be to give the NCTC operational capability. For the rest of the post, go here.

UN Diplomats Drop Efforts to Define Terrorism

By Victor Comras

No one ever thought that reforming the United Nations would be an easy task or that we were about to return the United Nations to its role as an effective protector of international peace and security. Yet, we should all be saddened by news that the negotiators in New York have dropped the inclusion of a clear definition of terrorism from their reform program. Previous efforts, extending over 8 years, had failed to come up with an agreed terrorism definition. This time there was high hope that the UN would �get it right.� Drawing from the recommendations of its own High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, Secretary General Kofi Annan had put great emphasis on a definition of terrorism and a strategy aimed at combating terrorism and terrorism support and financing. It was time to make it clear, he said, that any deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes was terrorism. He lobbied for, and received strong support for such a definition from international leaders at both the Riyadh Counter-Terrorism Conference and the Madrid Terrorism Summit. So what happened?

Unfortunately, too many countries, particularly in the Middle East, are still wedded to the same terrorist tactics they have used for decades to address their perceived grievances. They maintain that there must be a right to resistance against occupation and that such right encompasses tactics of violence against civilians. Such a "right to resistance" concept carries with it nefarious implications not only for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also for the coalition presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. For a while it looked like Saudi Arabia, in the face of its own struggle with terrorists, was willing to break from this mold. Last February the Saudi Government hosted an international counter terrorism Conference in Riyadh. The final document produced by that conference recommended, inter alia that � The problem of definition {of terrorism} needs to be overcome.� It went on to say that �The proposals contained in the UN High Level Panel Report on New Threats and Challenges could provide a useful basis to facilitate an urgent compromise in this field.� Just this week King Abdullah again made reference to the work of the Counter-Terrorism Conference and the need to move forward with its recommendations. He again emphasized the important role the UN must play in this endeavor. At the same time the Saudi negotiators, along with Syrian diplomats, in New York pressed their opposition to the very definition of terrorism outlined in the high level panel report.

The definition put forth by the High Level Panel is clear and straightforward. �Any action constitutes terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non combatants, with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.� Why is such a definition so important? First of all it provides common ground for international cooperation in combating terrorism. It lays the foundation for requesting and receiving the mutual assistance and support required under the various UN counter terrorism resolutions and the 12 international counter -terrorism conventions now in place. The absence of a terrorism definition seriously hinders any effort to coordinate an international response to terrorism. Without a common definition countries remain free to interpret their own obligations and define for themselves which groups are terrorists and which are �freedom fighters.� Saudi Arabia uses this distinction, for example, to get away with funding Hamas, while Iran and Syria use it to provide funds and support to Hezbollah. But, many other countries have also used it to avoid taking steps to freeze funds or take other civil or criminal action against those individuals or groups which they support.

When the world's statesmen gather in New York September 14th to open this session of the General Assembly they will grapple with UN reform. Perhaps they will make some progress toward that end. But, they will fail in strengthening the UN's role in combating terrorism if they fail to lay the necessary common foundation for fighting terrorism that a clear definition would provide. Let's hope that some of these statesmen will speak up and force a vote on this issue. Let those who support defining terrorism for what it is stand up and be counted, and leave those opposed remain seated for history and posterity.

Federal Banking Regulators & Gulf Coast Community Banks Face Difficult Post-Katrina Balancing Act

By Andrew Cochran

One of the fallouts from Hurricane Katrina is that small community banks along the Gulf Coast not only saw buildings destroyed, but lost their computer systems, their currency, and their clients. In the terrorism context, the community banks now face the problem of trying to meet customer identification requirements imposed by the Bank Secrecy Act which were toughened, and thus more expensive to meet, by the USA PATRIOT Act. On September 2, federal banking regulators issued broad guidance to Gulf Coast banks on how to meet regulatory requirements while assisting customers. With respect to BSA compliance, they said, "Recognizing the urgency of this situation, the agencies encourage depository institutions to use non-documentary verification methods for customers that may not be able to provide standard identification documents, as permitted under the regulation." A week later, last Friday, the regulators issued a set of "Frequently Asked Questions." The FAQs point out that the BSA allows banks to verify customers' identities by using documents (such as a driver�s license or passport), or "non-documentary methods" (such as through searching credit bureau records or other public databases), or a combination of both. So the regulators are going to let Gulf Coast banks exercise wide discretion in customer verification documentation for some time.

Certainly the regulators and law enforcement know that reducing the verification burden presents the opportunity for criminals, including identity thieves and gangs, to create accounts which could then be used to move money for nefarious purposes, including for terrorist activity. But the community banks in the area need regulatory relief to get back into business and to serve the populace, even if just temporarily. The regulators and banks face a difficult test, balancing the need to reestablish the financial institutions in the area versus maintaining anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing mechanisms.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced a bill in late July to permanently reduce financial institutions' burdens and costs associated with reporting suspicious account activity, and there will be Congressional hearings on the impact of the hurricane on financial institutions. Absent Hurricane Katrina, his bill would have had difficulty winning passage. It will be interesting to see if the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina results in the enactment of Rep. Hensarling's bill to reduce the burdens imposed under the BSA and the USA PATRIOT Act.

Power Outage in Los Angeles Not Terrrorist-Related (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

LAST UPDATE AT 5 pm ET. Large sections of LA were out of power, just a couple of days after the release of an Al Qaeda tape which threatened LA and Melbourne with terrorist attacks. The AP reports that the LAPD is on "full tactical alert." LAFD says that it was an accidental cut in a line - employees of the LA Department of Water & Power, which supplies power in the city, "are responsible for the outage." LAFD says that the outage is sporadic and ending in some areas. LA International Airport reports no disruptions to flights yet.

NEVER FORGET: Events & Commentaries on the Fourth Anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

By Andrew Cochran

AP story: "Thousands walked Sunday in remembrance of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in tribute to U.S. troops abroad. By their presence, marchers endorsed the worldwide fight against terrorism that began after airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field four years ago...Mark Burlingame, 54, of Lancaster, Pa., whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the jetliner that hit the Pentagon, said: 'I'm here to show support for our military and represent 9/11 families in support of the military's effort to crush the scourge of terrorism in the world.'" Fox News Network: "In New York, family members gathered at the site of the World Trade Center tragedy to read the names of lost loved ones who perished in the attacks and observed four separate moments of silence to mark the time when each jetliner struck the towers and then when each tower fell." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, Gov. Ed Rendell and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge joined about 1,000 others at the fourth memorial service this morning in Shanksville. As volunteers slowly read the names of each of the 40 passengers and crew, a large bell sounded, followed by the peal of a smaller bell. United Flight 93 was en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when it was hijacked. The plane crashed in a reclaimed strip mine at about 10:06 a.m., about 80 minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center in New York." Pres. Bush remembered 9/11 Heroes at a Medal of Valor ceremony on Friday.

Stories about the anniversary from Palm Beach Post (Florida); Volvograd, Russia; China; San Francisco Chronicle; Irish press; "New Orleans rescuers pause to observe Sept. 11"; Canadian press on Prime Minister Martin's observance; observance in United Arab Emirates; New monument unveiled in Padua, Italy.
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI marked the anniversary: "May God inspire men and women of good will everywhere to renounce hatred and to build a world of justice, solidarity and peace."

Tonight, the Discovery Channel premieres "The Flight That Fought Back" - read my review of this outstanding tribute to the warriors of Flight 93, and please help fund the Flight 93 National Memorial.

CT Blog Experts on the 9/11 Anniversary: Four Years Later, Are We Safer? (Updated with video)

By Andrew Cochran

On Thursday, the Counterterrorism Blog held a live panel discussion titled, "Four Years Later: Are We Safer?" Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, gave the opening remarks, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking Member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, provided written remarks for the event. On the fourth anniversary of the deadly attacks which changed the world, Contributing Experts Dennis Lormel, Michael Cutler, Michael Kraft, Victor Comras, Douglas Farah, and Zachary Abuza share their written statements on the subject (Zeyno Baran's post below includes a portion of her presentation at the panel). UPDATE 9/14: You can see a video of the panel discussion on the Intelligence Summit website.

From Dennis Lormel's statement: "(W)e are safer in certain respects but are a country at risk, at significant risk. We are safer in terms of the investigative and intelligence gathering capabilities of our investigative, intelligence and regulatory agencies...It is important to understand that terrorists and terrorist organizations will always have access to funding...In fact, U.S. investigative, intelligence and regulatory agencies have achieved noteworthy successes in the disruption of funding flows. Unfortunately, most of these successes cannot be made public because of investigative or intelligence considerations...For its part, government needs to do a better job of outreach with the financial sector...Feedback and guidance from the government concerning BSA issues has been inconsistent...An area in which the U.S. government has excelled is providing technical assistance to other countries in developing infrastructure and capacity to address AML and terrorist financing...These programs have reaped incredible goodwill and intangible benefits for the U.S. Regrettably, budgetary and resource constraints have hindered program continuity in this area."

From Michael Cutler's statement: "(I)t is my belief, that at least where the immigration component to the issue of national security is concerned, we are at least as vulnerable today as we were on September 10, 2001...The fact that Richard Reid could have entered the United States under the Visa Waiver Program was ignored by our government and continues to be ignored, even the though the terrorists who bombed the London underground could also have sought to enter the United States without first securing visas in order to seek entry into the United States...The investigation and prosecution of terrorists and other serious criminals for committing visa fraud is a great prosecutorial tool, however, aliens who enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program cannot be prosecuted for visa fraud because they did not require a visa when they entered the United States...The new agents who have been hired by ICE are not getting the necessary foreign language training that they need to be effective in carrying out their duties and their oaths of office. We still have just slightly more than 2,000 agents assigned to attempting to enforce the critical immigration laws from within the interior of the United States."

From Michael Kraft's statement: "We are not as safe as we could or should be�partly because of the evolving nature of the international terrorism threat, and partly because we do not pay enough attention to the nuts and bolts of our counterterrorism efforts...(W)hen it came to the hard work of providing the actual funding for key counterterrorism programs, both the Executive Branch and Congress have fallen short. A prime case is the Antiterrorism Training Assistance Program (ATA) which the State Department runs to help improve the capabilities of foreign civilian law enforcement Agencies...Yet OMB keeps cutting the budget requests, even after 9/11 before they went to Congress where future cuts are usually made. In the pending FY 06 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, the House cut $11 million dollars from the Administration�s $133.5 million request. It also cut funds from some smaller programs, such as the Terrorist Interdiction Program used at international airports...Althought he House made cuts, the Senate approved the full Administration request. It is important that the conferees accept the Senate mark and provide the full funding request for the ATA and related counterterrorism programs...OMB consistently cuts the State Department�s request for the various counterterrorism program -- an average of 20 per cent for the first three years after 9/11 according to a calculation I once made. Then the Congressional appropriators impose additional cuts. Last year the House mark cut 13% from the request...An important part of the US counterterrorism law is the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. It includes a provision that makes it a criminal offense to knowingly provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations designated as such by the Secretary of State, or for specific acts of terrorism...Consideration should be given to whether providing internet services ought to be added to the definition of material support. This is, admittedly, a tricky area because of free speech concerns and the availability of foreign servers."

From Victor Comras's statement: "What is clear is that al Qaeda, the Taliban, and those associated with them still get the money they need...The pace of terrorist recruitment and activities has accelerated, not decreased, and the growth of self sustaining local al Qaeda cells is also increasing...In fact, most of al Qaeda�s financial supporters and deep pocket donors continue to run their business...Many of the charities identified as linked to al Qaeda were supposed to be closed. In fact, most are still in business...Most countries have failed to take any action against tangible assets supporting terrorism, including businesses and other income producing assets...First, we need to focus greater attention on the funding that supports the propagation of radical Islam...We need a much better forum for providing mutual support and for exchanging information related to terrorism financing...We must also find a better way to use intelligence information in freezing assets and pursuing criminal prosecutions..."

From Douglas Farah's statement, commissioned by the New America Foundation and Democracy Coalition Project for the National Policy Forum on Terrorism, Security and America�s Purpose�: "Since the attacks of 9-11, the Bush administration and its allies have struggled to develop an effective strategy to cut off the stream of financial assets to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups...The intermediate term efforts have sought primarily to remedy vulnerabilities in the formal financial sector, and this remains the focus today. This includes drafting new reporting requirements, seeking consensus in international forums on how to create effective multinational structures to identify the movement of terror finances, criminalizing the activity and punishing countries that do not comply...But this strategy largely ignores the strong evidence some terrorist groups, particularly al Qaeda, have not been reliant on the formal financial sector for many years. In fact, al Qaeda had begun moving away from the formal financial system at least by 1998, in the aftermath of the attacks on the two U.S. Embassies in East Africa...Al Qaeda has used several identified methods to raise and move money, including hawalas, commodities such as gemstones and gold, charities and the financial network of businesses and financial institutions owned and operated by leaders of the international Muslim Brotherhood...To begin to effectively deal with terrorist finance, there must be a paradigm shift in the underlying approach...There has been little serious work done on the network of ethnic Lebanese businessmen that dominate West African trade�including diamonds and gold--from Mali to Cameroon...A second example is the slow nature of the response to the crucial role that leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood have played in the radical Islamist financial infrastructure, including that of al Qaeda...The flow of money from the Arab Peninsula to spread wahhabism must ultimately be addressed if progress is to be made in stemming the flow of money to al Qaeda and likeminded terrorist organizations."

From Zachary Abuza's statement: "In the perspective of Southeast Asia, the threat has always been tangential. Despite the categorization as the �Second Front,� only 9 Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia since 2001; others have been wounded and kidnapped, but the overall death toll is low...The greater threat to the United States is to our interests and our allies... There are eight reasons why the terrorist threat in the region remains high: (1) Despite concerted counter-terror efforts, 18 known leaders (are) still at large. They have significant experience, bomb-making expertise, and charisma. (2) The radical Abu Sayyaf have regenerated from a group of kidnappers into a bonafide terrorist organization, who have stepped up ties to JI (Jemaah Islamayah) and hence improved their technical proficiency. They have been responsible for a number of lethal bombings, including the February 2004 bombing of the Superferry that killed 116 people, and several attempted bombings. (3) Sectarian Violence - More JI activity/resources in the next few years will be focused not on targeting Western interests (though they will not stop that) but rather on fomenting sectarian violence...Al Qaeda and its affiliates have always been quick to inject themselves into sectarian conflicts and situations where they believe a Muslim community is being systematically persecuted and/or where the state is not protecting the interests of the Muslim community. (4) Technological Proficiency...Training, conducted by JI members in MILF camps (including two of JI�s top bomb-makers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek), have substantially improved the lethality and sophistication of their bombs...In short, while Al Qaeda�s training camps in Afghanistan no longer exist, technological transfer by personal instruction and the internet is transforming terrorism. (5) The MILF continue to give JI members sanctuary, which has allowed them to regroup and train a new generation of members. The peace process between the MILF and the GRP continues to falter as Manila is mired in its own parochial squabbles. (6) Maritime Terrorism - There is no evidence that JI is engaged in preparations for maritime terrorism, but two things deserve mention: first, Al Qaeda have shown an intense interest in perpetrating maritime terrorist incidents in the region... Second, a major attack in the Strait of Malacca would have a devastating impact on the world economy. (7) Global Connectiveness - Thai authorities have now arrested two people involved in the burgeoning marketplace of forged travel documents. Both have links to Islamic militants, while one is wanted by British authorities in direct connection with the 7 July terrorist attacks in the UK. (8) Still high levels of Anti-American sentiment - While America had the moral high ground following the September 11 attacks, we quickly squandered it, mainly due to Iraq. Despite the superb work of US forces and the exceptional generosity of the US Government, corporate sector and citizens alike in the wake of the devastating Tsunami last December, anti American sentiment is still high across the region.

A plea to Tony Blair

By Zeyno Baran

A progressive British Muslim I met with while in London last week sent me this brief to post. He is one of the moderates desperately trying to contribute to Blair�s initiative on the fight against radicalism. Needless to say, it is rather disheartening to see that the radicals in the UK (like in the US and many other parts in the world) have managed to re-cast themselves as the "moderates" and continuing to dominate the mainstream and silencing the real moderates.

Has Blair thrown in the towel before the battle has been won?

Tony Blair delivered the speech that inspired millions of Muslims around the world. We believed finally we had a world leader in the West, who not only had the courage to recognise the ideological battle that Muslims and the rest of the world are facing, but was prepared to take on the bad guys.

With rhetoric like, �What we are confronting here is an evil ideology;� �This is the battle that must be won, a battle not just about the terrorist methods but their views. Not just their barbaric acts, but their barbaric ideas. Not only what they do but what they think and the thinking they would impose on others,� a clear message went out to extremists that their time was up!

No sooner had the Prime Minister declared �Its roots are not superficial, but deep, in the madrasas of Pakistan, in the extreme forms of Wahhabi doctrine in Saudi Arabia, in the former training camps of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan� the slick, well oiled machine that represents the Wahhabi doctrine in the UK went on the offensive. The spearhead of this network, the Muslim Council Britain (MCB), led the political networking that would be needed to ensure that they, and the groups that they represent, would be well placed to increase their foothold. In fact when the PM declared that he was going to proscribe radical groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al Muhajiroun, the MCB were amongst the first to cry outrage at this suggestion, shouting that �banning Hizb ut-Tahrir is certainly not the solution.�

So who in reality are the good guys and who is representative of the ideology that Tony Blair refers to above? The answer may well be staring us in the face and yet there seems to be a reluctance to act upon words that many of us British Muslims have been waiting for since 9/11. The BBC (Panorama � �A Question of Leadership�) undertook a brave piece of journalism to try and expose the fact that the majority of Muslims in the UK are not being represented by the existing groups to which the is is talking. In fact the researcher had proved that groups such as MCB, MAB, Jemaat Islamiah, Deoband, etc that fall under the alleged umbrella that the government considers moderate are in fact one of the major factors that contribute to the first stage of the �Extremist,� i.e. they all have their roots firmly entrenched within Wahhabism. This is something that the real moderates have been saying for years, and perhaps for the first time in the UK we had real hope that we may see some real solutions.

�More engagement with the moderates� was the battle cry from the Home Office. �Let�s talk to the common man� was heard from the rafters. Some bright sparks came up with a real Eureka moment: �Let�s set up some working groups,� with the emphasis on bringing the real moderates out so that they can debate the issues that need to be resolved. Let�s create SEVEN Working Groups to find solutions, in fact let�s create briefs for them with the objective being that they will each make four to five recommendations. Let�s spend up to �70,000 ($140,000) over a two-week period on this. Why not invite people from all aspects of modern life? Let�s call the whole process �Preventing Extremism Together.� In fact why don�t we have interesting titles for the groups, such as:

1. Tackling extremism and radicalisation;
2. Engaging with young people;
3. Supporting regional and local initiatives and community actions;
4. Engaging with women;
5. Imam training and accreditation and the role of mosques as a resource for the whole community;
6. Providing a full range of education services, in the UK, that meet the needs of the Muslim community; and,
7. Security for the community, including tackling Islamophobia, protecting Muslims from extremism, and building community confidence in policing.

AND BY THE WAY, WHY DON�T WE PUT THE WAHABIS IN CHARGE??

Mr. Blair, please do not leave the majority of the moderate Muslims that supported your government (even if we did not all agree entirely with your Iraq policy) at the mercy of these people that have proven themselves more than capable of playing the political game.
Please do not have the top role as the convenor for the task force, �Tackling extremism and radicalisation� given on a plate to a man that in January 1993, wrote a letter to Private Eye, the satirical magazine, calling the blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman "courageous" - just a month before he bombed the World Trade Center . After Rahman�s arrest in July that year, the same man said that it was probably only because of his "calling on Muslims to fulfil their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere".

Five months before 9/11, he also circulated writings of Osama bin Laden, who he regarded as a "freedom fighter," to hundreds of Muslims in Britain.

Why is there a majority of Wahhabis on all of the groups, in fact why have you included the very people that you describe as the problem? When will you finally realise that sects such as Deobandi, Ikhwan, Ah le Hadith, Wahhabi, Salaafi etc. all come from the same source.

My request, my PLEA to you, Mr Blair, is that you do not give the majority of us that are moderates false hope. For the sake of all of the children of the world, stay firm in your resolve to weed out this cancer. AND please do not lose credibility with the majority of us - help us �take back the microphone�

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CT Blog Experts' Media Appearances for 9-11 Anniverary

By Andrew Cochran

The Contributing Experts of The Counterterrorism Blog will make numerous media appearances during coverage of the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Steven Emerson will appear on NBC's Today show on Saturday at 7 am ET. Walid Phares will be on MSNBC on Saturday and Sunday on (times to be announced). He'll be on ABN Arab TV on Sunday and on al Jazeera on Saturday at 3 PM ET and on Tuesday, and on ABC radio nationwide on Sunday, September 11th at 8:10am Eastern time. Matthew Levitt will participate in a Washington Post LiveOnline session on Monday at 3 pm.

Major Terrorism Financier's Hotel Finally Under Pressure

By Lorenzo Vidino

Over the last few months this site has dedicated a lot of attention to Ahmed Idris Nasreddine, the wealthy Eritrean businessman whom the US have repeatedly accused of financing various terrorist groups through a network of companies and banks. In the past, sanctions against Nasreddine have been ineffective and, as this site reported, the financier still controlled a posh hotel in Milan, Hotel Nasco. Things are finally changing. A few days ago the UN officially put the Hotel Nasco on its list. It is today�s news that Italian authorities have seized all assets (90,000 Euros) of the Moroccan company (Sempione srl) that controlled the hotel.

By Andrew Cochran

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the chief architect of the current legislation reauthorizing key sections of the USA PATRIOT Act, gave the opening remarks today at the CT Blog panel titled, " Four Years Later: Are We Safer?" Chairman Sensenbrenner's answer to the primary question was that "(W)e are safer, but no we are not safe. Our enemy�s goal is to destroy us." He reminded us of Congress's accomplishments since the attacks, which include "passing the PATRIOT Act; tearing down the 'wall,� which prevented the sharing of vital information between law enforcement and the intelligence community; updating antiquated law enforcement tools; creating the Department of Homeland Security; reforming the Intelligence Community; strengthening our criminal laws against providing material support to terrorists..." and other measures. But he also warned, "We lack control of our borders...As you probably know, border security and immigration are at the top of the congressional agenda this fall." He thanked the CT Blog "for enhancing the public scrutiny that often assists Congress in discovering problems and solutions."

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, ranking Member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, was also scheduled to speak, but could not as he deals with the effects of Hurricane Katrina on his district and on homeland security efforts. He graciously provided us with his remarks for the attendees, in which he tied the hurricane to homeland security from terrorist attacks. "Tens of thousands of victims are probably dead, killed by a combination of natural disaster and ill-prepared government...I have heard too many stories of police, firefighters, and EMT overwhelmed last week because they did not have the tools and the resources necessary to do their jobs...The failure of the levees in New Orleans shows us how vulnerable our nation's critical infrastructure is...If an electrical outage could wreck so much havoc on our gas supply, what could a terrorist attack do?"

I will post today's statements by the Contributing Experts and a link to a tape of the panel discussion soon.

Discosvery Channel's "The Flight That Fought Back" Is an Outstanding Tribute to the Flight 93 Warriors

By Andrew Cochran

To commemorate the fourth anniversary this Sunday of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Discovery Channel will present "The Flight That Fought Back" at 9 pm ET. The special takes us through the timeline of United Airlines Flight 93, which took off from Newark International Airport, was hijacked by Osama bin Laden's minions, and then crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA, after the passengers attempted to take back the aircraft. "The Flight" presents a dramatization of the events onboard, alternating with interviews with the victims' loved ones about the phone calls received from the aircraft. The producers had unprecedented access to the families and United Airlines and used actual recordings of the conversations, many never previously heard on television.

Discovery Channel sent me a copy to review, and I highly recommend this outstanding tribute to the first warriors in the first battle of the post-9/11 era. The transitions from interviews to dramatization scenes are almost seamless and the flight details are meticulously presented. The producers even interviewed the men who trained the hijacker-pilot to fly and in the martial arts, a chilling set of interviews. The emotions of the entire event are presented openly, and I was drawn in until I felt that I was also part of the passengers' last-minute struggles to take over the cockpit. I had intended to watch it over two nights, but I couldn't turn it off. Watched without interruption, as I did and as the Discovery Channel will present on Sunday night, I'm confident that you won't turn it off either.

Discovery Channel is also using "The Flight" to urge us to contribute to the Flight 93 National Memorial to honor the fallen heroes. They've created a special page about the Memorial, which includes links to give directly to the Memorial Fund and to the official Memorial site. The final design was announced yesterday in Washington. Let's remember that the "Freedom Warriors of Flight 93" saved us from another attack on Washington that day, and let's build that Memorial to honor their sacrifice and their victory.

To Defeat Hamas' Terror, Compete with Hamas' Charity

By Matthew Levitt

Now that Israel has disengaged from the Gaza Strip and four settlements from the northern West Bank, the international community has a clear interest in doing all it can to see that the post-withdrawal security situation remains stable so that the exit from Gaza leads to further steps along the path laid out in the Quartet's Roadmap to Middle East peace. As former World Bank leader James Wolfensohn, now Washington's special envoy for disengagement, lobbies world leaders to offer significant support for Palestinian development projects, a parallel effort is necessary to create new, transparent public and private social-service organizations unaffiliated with Hamas or other groups engaged in terrorism or political violence.

The need for humanitarian support is indeed acute in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where in 2004 47 percent of Palestinians were reported to be living below the poverty line. But this need -- and the fact that Hamas efficiently exploits this need to great effect -- should not amount to a free pass for the terrorism Hamas carries out and the political violence it espouses. Therefore, at the same time it presses the Palestinian Authority (PA) to shut down the Hamas dawa, the international community should launch a cooperative effort to create a trustworthy, transparent humanitarian relief system that fills the welfare void Hamas exploits that does not promote support of "martyrs' families."

To read more, click here

Pentagon to Honor Families of September 11 Victims With Special Event (updated 9-9)

By Andrew Cochran

The Defense Department will honor the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks with a special "America Supports You Freedom Walk" and concert this Sunday, beginning at 10 am, near the site of the future Pentagon Memorial. The walk will proceed over the Memorial Bridge crossing the Potomac River, pass several national memorials, and end with a musical tribute by country music star Clint Black near the Washington Monument. The walk and tribute is open to anybody who registers at a special Pentagon website. UPDATE 9-9: Regisration for the walk is now closed, and DoD will not allow walk-ins.

Poll: Islamic Militants Support Expansion of Jihad in Iraq to Saudi Arabia

By Evan Kohlmann

An informal poll conducted by the notorious Muntada al-Ansar webforum indicates that a large number of militant Islamists are enthusiastically in favor of immediately expanding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's current jihad in Iraq to the neighboring Kingdom of Saudi Arabia--where many of Iraq's foreign fighters originate from. The al-Ansar webforum--known for distributing messages and videos directly on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorist leaders--asked participants the following voluntary poll question: "Do you support the jihad in Al-Jazeera [Saudi Arabia] at the current time? Or instead, following the [end of] the jihad in Iraq?" Of approximately 90 respondents to the poll, 72% of them voted for "jihad in [Saudi Arabia] given the current situation", whereas only 25 of those voting (28%) felt that the war in Iraq should supercede Al-Qaida operations in the Saudi Kingdom.

Though the results of the poll are not entirely surprising, this is yet another sign of the impending "bleedout" effect from the conflict in Iraq. Given the responses of those who participated in the poll, there is a startling degree of enthusiasm for additional transnational terrorist attacks beyond the borders of Iraq, such as the recent failed rocket barrage in Aqaba, Jordan aimed at U.S. military vessels and claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It should be noted that several prominent members of the al-Ansar web forum have allegedly traveled to Iraq and volunteered as suicide bombers on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

New Terror Threats from the GSPC in Algeria

By Evan Kohlmann

The Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)--a known Al-Qaida affiliate group active in North Africa and Europe--has issued a flurry of new statements--calling for, among other things, the assassination of Algerian "collaborators" in France and joint attacks on local U.S. military forces by mujahideen from both Algeria and neighboring Morocco. In its latest communiqu�, the GSPC specifically called upon its Moroccan brethren "to take revenge for your mujahideen and impotent brothers� these days, America is depositing its Marines in the grand desert and this is your chance to seek revenge for the events of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Al-Aqsa [Jerusalem], and Al-Haramain [Saudi Arabia]."

Click to view English translations c/o Globalterroralert.com:
- Aug. 15 message addressed to "our brothers in France"
- Aug. 15 message addressed to Algerian Muslim youths
- Sept. 5 message to the "Monotheists of Islamic Morocco"

Walid Phares: "Katrina's Geopolitics: The Tower of Babel and America?s 'Image'"

By Andrew Cochran

Walid Phares is on travel and asked me to post the following, which is one of a series of observations he will make about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the counterterrorism effort:

The tragedy left by the mass killer hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi, will produce more words flooding the debates in America than the water that flowed into the Big Easy through the levee. But while the US Army and the Corps of Engineers will repair the breach and pump the water out, the political cacophony over the dead, the injured and the destructions is unfortunately endless. In moments like these, when humans meet mother-nature unleashed, you test society�s ability to absorb the crisis. And as I observe the fiery accusations fuming from all quarters of politics, I cannot but offer these oversimplified remarks. Let me summarize what graduate students would call: what is the research question? In laymen�s words: what are we talking about here?

It�s warranted to ask a question about the questions, because while the physical storm is over, the mental storms are picking up without limits. Average people, those who usually listen only -let alone the miserable refugees, hospitalized, orphaned, and all others in pain- all of them are watching the politicians, those at various levels of Government and the would-be-willing to replace them, as well as the media, fuming in all directions. A big Tower of Babel is being built: people talking about many things at the same time, in different mental languages. From are storms caused by the Pentagon to under whose authority was FEMA to act. A huge brouhaha has installed itself for a long period of time. And to complicate the lives of those who lost most of it, they are compelled to listen to overseas lectures on how Americans should live their lives and build their levees by both friends and foes.

On top of it, the enemy is enjoying the show: al Qaida has enlisted the hurricane as �Sister Katrina� sent by Allah to destroy American cities. But not only the enemy: even intellectuals and scholars within America went to the morbid extent of considering the victims in New Orleans and the Coast as �people whose sacrificed their lives to remove the Government from Washington:� (A real quote to be revealed later) We�ll get back to the abusers of natural catastrophes to cause further harm to the surviving society. They won�t be off the hook. But now, let�s start the questioning and reflection over the disaster.

America�s image

Many among the commentators, especially those on the superficial side of this business, are extremely worried about the so called America�s image. �What is the world going to think of us after they saw these horrible images on their TVs?� Wait a minute: What is the relevance of this bourgeois like concern. We are facing a tragedy caused by a natural force which doesn�t answer to international law, or to public image. Katrina is neither an American political institution nor was it born on American soil. It is a huge body of water pushed by atmosphere-created winds, initiated from the West Coast of Africa and slamming into the southern coast of the United States. I don�t see its constitutional dimension or the contribution of intellectuals in its creation. Katrina is weather not legislation; it is a natural phenomenon at least four billion years old, not born in Falluja last year. It is not about the political credibility of the United States in as much as it is about the maturity of the international community in dealing with planetary drama. Prague had floods so did France and Germany; but luckily to them, they are not located in the final destination of tropical storms. Europeans love vacationing in warm places, but many among their writers miss the other dimension of sunny places. In the Caribbean, storms kill inhabitants, even in the most powerful democracy on Earth. Yes Americans are humans, even though Hollywood made them into semi gods. Americans die, are injured, and cry like any other human species. There is no need for pity coming from editorialists and bloggers who, like crows awaiting bad news, slam America when it bleeds.

They accuse this country of having its helicopters overseas when its citizens died in the flood. At least America�s helicopters and service men and women are not entertaining the Club Meds of the world or strictly parading on national holidays. The US military was helping the victims of the Tsunami in south Asia, while the world watched and whined and it is protecting the voters of Afghanistan and Iraq, while the international elites are skiing in the Alps.

Yes, the American civilians who died in Louisiana and Mississippi should be revered by the world, because their sons and daughters were on the battlefields to defend world freedom and security. And even if the entire army has been deployed within the US at the end of August, nature has determined its course no matter what. Back in 1992, as Andrews was killing in South Florida, there was no War on Terror nor democracy building in Iraq, and all the National Guard were at home, yet God�s will happened regardless. When people die and humanity is confronted by a higher order of creation, there is no image to worry about. A deadly hurricane doesn�t kill �Americans,� it kills humans who happen to live on these coasts. One twist from nature, and Katrina could have flattened Cuba, crushed the Yucatan or dismantled Hugo Chaves� oil refineries. When mother-nature strikes at a city, a country, it is striking at our precarious humanity, not at a nation-state or a particular flag. Hence, if image there is, America has always had the best in humanitarian assistance. In Banda Aceh last January we haven�t seen Russian and Chinese planes nor have we seen Venezuelan and Cuban ships, rescuing the victims of the Tsunami. We don�t remember the Saudi National Guard being dropped over the Muslim island, or the Iranians dispatching their special forces.

When Turkey had an earthquake, even Greece sent its best. Turks responded in kindness when its neighbor was hit. When Iran was devastated by underground shocks, it was the infidels who came up with the largest support. As soon as the Czech Republic tasted its floods, the European Union rushed for help. When a Russian sub got stuck, British and Americans sent their best technology. All nations have political problems with each other, but when natural cataclysms happen, countries should come together not lecture about the victim�s image.

Walid Phares is a Professor of Comparative Politics at Florida Atlantic University, and also a survivor of Hurricane Andrews and many other tropical storms.

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Head of Aryan Nations Responds to "The Peculiar Alliance"

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

On Thursday, I published an article at the Weekly Standard's website entitled "The Peculiar Alliance," about the growing relationship between white supremacists and Islamists. These two groups have found a surprising amount of common ground in recent years due to their shared hatred of the Jews in particular, and also their hatred of the United States.

One of the figures I discuss at length in the article is August Kreis, the head of Aryan Nations and an admitted admirer of Osama bin Laden:

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Kreis said of al Qaeda, "You say they're terrorists, I say they're freedom fighters. And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples' heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah." Going a step further, Kreis told CNN that he had a message for Osama bin Laden: "The message is, the cells are out here and they are already in place. They might not be cells of Islamic people, but they are here and they are ready to fight."

My article also explores in some depth the Aryan Nations website, which goes to great lengths to detail its sympathy for radical Muslims.

In response to my piece, Kreis sent an e-mail to the Weekly Standard that provides further insight into the psyche of Kreis and his followers:

----- Original Message -----
From: <natdir@aryan-nations.org>
To: <webeditor@weeklystandard.com>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 1:24 PM
Subject: Respond to Article: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross 09/01/2005

As you know this respect between Jihadic believers and Aryan National Socialists is nothing new. This relationship will continue to grow as the jew continues to flex it's power using the Zionist controled jew.S.of A.. There is a growing grassroots movement in this nation and around the world that identifies the jew as the enemy. As this jewish problem is identified and expounded upon there will be intensified open attacks against the jew across the globe. The jew has become brazen and has now literally helped hasten their own demise by the hand of the Goy they so despise. So keep writing your degrading articles about us for the masses are awakening!

For Faith, Folk & Family, August Kreis

One nice thing about rhetoric of this kind is that it's entirely self-refuting. If somebody were to read Kreis's rant and find it persuasive, there would be no room for reasoned discourse in the first place.

Katrina Response - Another Quick Observation

By Bill West

It's becoming increasingly clear the Federal response in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has been less than stellar. It finally seemed to be getting underway in a major way as of Friday. The inevitable inquiries, investigations and reviews will undoubtedly pick this apart for months to come...and rightfully so. Since the hurricane response has a direct correlation to the Government's ability to deal with the aftermath of a major terrorist attack, we should all be paying close attention to what is happening along the Gulf Coast. We can bet our terrorist adversaries are.

There was at least one notable exception to the lethargic institutional Federal reaction to the hurricane disaster, and that was the United States Coast Guard. As soon as the weather conditions allowed, the Nation saw those orange Coast Guard choppers rescuing victims from the flood waters. And those efforts have continued relentlessly throughout the crisis. One recent report noted the Coast Guard rescued an incredible 10,000 victims.

Having worked with the Coast Guard on many occasions during my Federal law enforcement career, I was always impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of their members. That has clearly come through in this latest disaster. All Americans should be very proud of the men and women of the United States Coast Guard and how they have courageously and swiftly responded to this crisis. And a special salute should go to the Coast Guard commanders who immediately launched their rescue missions without waiting to first clear foolish bureaucratic hurdles. Those decisions and actions no doubt saved many lives.

Jihadists: Katrina, an al Qaida soldier..

By Walid Phares

Walid Phares

When I posted my latest comments on FDD blog on September 1, titled "Allah punished New Orleans," I didn't expect Zarqawi and the Jihadist bloggers to enlist Hurricane Katrina as a "sister" in al Qaida. But they did, and they went ballistic about it. Using almost the same words I reported about from al ansar chat room, Abu Mass'ab said in a statement that this is the "start of the collapse." As reported by AFP today, he announced that "the anger of the Almighty has descended on the tyrants."

AFP (and others) also report today that the Jihadi webblogs declared that "Katrina, a soldier sent by God to fight on our side... the soldier Katrina joins us to fight against America." In al Siyassah, Mohammed Yussuf al Mulaifi wrote: "It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire." He asked: "Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?"

Ironically "sister Katrina" wasn't only enlisted by the Terrorists. Yesterday, at a session featuring a prominent Columbia University Professor at the Annual Convention of the American Political Science Association in Washington, the storm was described as an ally against US policy. "Against the servile media and nauseating Government," Katrina was described by the Ivy League scholar as a force to uproot the "occupiers of Washington." (read the Jihadi statements in the extended text)

Zarqawi says Katrina 'beginning of the end' for US

DUBAI - AFP, September 4, 2005. The group headed by Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi hailed the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina as beginning of the end for the United States, in an Internet statement published Sunday.

"It is the start of its collapse," said the statement from the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers, whose authenticity could not be verified.

"Congratulations to the Islamic nation, to our sheikh Osama abu Abdullah (Osama bin Laden), to our emir Mullah Mohammad Omar, to sheikh Ayman Zawahiri (bin Laden's deputy)... for the destruction of America, which is at the forefront of evil."

The whereabouts of Al-Qaeda chief bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the leader of the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan, remain unknown.

"Just yesterday, America attacked, killed and starved whomever it liked. Today, it is begging for oil and food. America has been hit by a divine strike. The curses of the oppressed have been fulfilled," the Zarqawi statement said.

Thousands are feared dead after the hurricane that has laid waste to the southern US city of New Orleans.

Followers of the Jordanian-born Sunni Muslim extremist have claimed scores of deadly attacks in Iraq and he himself has a 25 million dollar US price on his head.

"There are signs of victory on the horizon. The anger of the Almighty has descended on the tyrants. Their deaths can be measured in the thousands, their material damage in the billions (of dollars)," the statement said.

"If Muslims are powerless to defend their religion, God is on the lookout (to punish) the oppressors."

* * * *

'Allah's soldier': Islamist bloggers hail Katrina

by Habib Trabelsi

DUBAI -AFP September 4, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the US Gulf coast this week, has incited a storm of enthusiasm among Islamist bloggers who claim the destruction was sent by God to torment the American empire.

"Katrina, a soldier sent by God to fight on our side... the soldier Katrina joins us to fight against America," said one Islamite web site.

Another said: "Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Soldiers of God, Hurricane Katrina demolishes America. Don't think that God doesn't care about the injustices of tyrants."

Internet sites published dozens of photos showing crumbled buildings, overturned cars, flooded streets, devastated oil refineries, residents wading through muck and water and US flags ripped to shreds by the hurricane that wreaked havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The pictures should "serve as a lesson," one blogger said.

"In spite of being a superpower and of its technological development, America was unable to cope with the power of the Almighty," the writer said.

Another blogger, who decorated his site with photos of Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Iraq's most-wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said: "America observes silence over its human losses."

The Islamist perspectives were not limited to the Internet.

A Kuwaiti Arabic-language newspaper published similar comments by the director of the Kuwaiti ministry of endowment's research center, Mohammed Yussef al-Mlaifi.

"When the satellite channels reported on the scope of the terrifying destruction in America (caused by) this wind, I was reminded of the words of (Prophet Mohammed): 'The wind sends torment to one group of people, and sends mercy to others.'

"I do not think -- and only Allah knows -- that this wind, which completely wiped out American cities in these days, is a wind of mercy and blessing. It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire," he said in the daily Al-Siyassa.

"But how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip (America's) cities to shreds? Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?"

He also cited a passage he found in the Koran: "The disaster will keep striking the unbelievers for what they have done, or it will strike areas close to their territory, until the promise of Allah comes to pass, for, verily, Allah will not fail in His promise."

Many bloggers drew parallels between the destruction caused by the storm and that brought by US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and blasted US President George W. Bush's so-called "war on terror."

"America fights Islam in the name of the war against terrorism, kills innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq and supports the Zionist entity (Israel)," said one site, then listing two dozen curses -- habitually used by Islamist radicals at the end of prayers -- against the United States.

Amid all the criticism, at least one blogger spoke out in defense of the victims, saying he was "exasperated at the rejoicing over the misfortunes of Americans."

"Certainly, the leaders of the United States have oppressed many peoples, but the citizen... is in no way guilty."

Islamist web sites had also cast blame on South Asian countries hit by last year's tsunami that killed more than 125,000 people, saying "the hand of God" was involved.

Back then, one scribe described the tsunami as "divine vengeance against Thailand, a country of debauchery."

Katrina is estimated to have killed thousands in the affected regions and caused widespread property damage.

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Jihadists: "Allah punished New Orleans"

By Walid Phares

Walid Phares

�allahu daraba al kafireen wal fasiqeen fi new orleen, wallahu daraba al mushrekeen el shiia fil iraq�

�Allah hit the infidels and the depraved in New Orleans, and Allah hit the Shiia apostate in Iraq.�

-al ansar chat room � Thursday September 1, 2005. 11 AM (EST)

When I logged in to one of the ansar�s voice chat rooms, I kind of expected to hear some sort of �interpretation� of the flood in Louisiana and Mississippi. I still remember the Jihadi elaboration on the south Asian Tsunami last January. Before I even listened to the self-declared �Imam-on-line,� I almost predicted the words: It had to have �infidels,� �Allah,� and �punishments.� And indeed these words and many others were there. Flooding the web with speeches, the voices of the ansars, close to al Qaida and the other Salafi Jihadists insisted with certitude that �Allah has punished America with winds and water.� Strangely, I remembered online rhetoric from months ago, when couple Salafi clerics announced that �soon, inshallah, Allah and his angels are going to begin the tadmeer (destruction) of evil America.� They repeated endlessly that �all what the mujahidin have to do is to fight and kill infidels wherever they can, and that Allah, pleased with them, will do the rest. He will destroy their cities, one after the other.�

In that ansar chat room today, it was a series of I- told-you-so.� The chief commissary was proud and assertive: allahu daraba al kafireen wal fasiqeen fi new orleen.� Which translate and rime well into �Allah hit the infidels and the depraved in New Orleans: Ironically, among the most cited cities on the list of satanic places in America, are Las Vegas, Manhattan, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

�Innaha ardul u'hr wal fisq wal lawaat� �It�s the land of prostitution, deprivation and homosexuality- says the cyber cadres. �It is where Allah would strike first, to show America how weak it is, how arrogant it has become.� The Salafi logic is totally ideological grounded in self established theology. To the Jihadi theoricians, since every single natural disaster is allowed by Allah, the hurricane that put New Orleans under waters is not just an act of God, but an act within the War against the infidels. Many other theologians and individuals from all religions believe in the godly design of natural phenomena, but they do not necessarily attribute to their supreme being, a geopolitical decision-making system. The Jihadists have been brainwashed to believe that Allah is part of their war against their enemies, or that they are part of Allah�s war against his enemies. Hence, it would have been impossible to their ideologues to skip Katrina�s wrath in America. In fact it was just too obvious for the Jihadists not to inscribe the hurricane, its devastation, its victims and the ensuing social unrest in their reading of religious politics. Everything they were taught by the clerics came together: America is at War with Islam; it has become the enemy of Allah; the Jihadists are fighting the US with all their resources, including suicide bombings; the clerics have predicted a divine intervention; the angels of death strike at one of America�s sin cities with winds and flood; and as a result of it, continue the commentators, �helicopters are shot at, their armed forces are now deployed inside their lands, and their economy will be going down.�

With this apocalyptic tale a Jihadist would believe in the Salafi preaching more than ever. The natural disaster and its consequences are already been captured by the fundamentalist ideologues not only as signs from Allah, but also victories against the infidels. Instead of compassion with the victims, expect incitement against America at large and its Government in particular.

And very interestingly, the al Qaida followers had a huge opportunity to claim that �Allah dislike the Shiites as much as he dislikes the infidels.� In fact, the Wahabi-inspired analysis in the chat room stated it clearly. Commenting on the stampede that killed next to a thousand Shiia pilgrims in Iraq, the voice said: �How can we miss the sign, it happened on the same day: Allah daraba al mushrekeen al shiia fil iraq� -Allah hit the Shiia apostate in Iraq- The Salafi Jihadists couldn't�t hope for a better coincidence: Americans and Shiia mass killed almost on the same day at thousands of miles away from each other. To the Terrorists it would be the sum of all messages. Now they can prove to the undecided, on both sides of the Ocean that Allah is on their side, not on the side of democracy and its promoters.

To defeat that purpose, Americans, Iraqis, and the democratic societies around the world must come together and deflect the hallucinations of the Terrorists: Americans must pour all their support to the victims of the disaster so that no one is left behind. The country must be mobilized to help the aching part of the nation. Iraqis must absorb the pain and resume the process of inclusion and democratization. And the international community must continue in its solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and Terrorism alike.

*****************

Dr Walid Phares is a Senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington and a Professor of Comparative Politics.

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Steven Emerson in the Lion's Den - Debate With Islamist Radical on Al Jazeera

By Andrew Cochran

On August 23, Steven Emerson debated a U.S.-educated Jordanian author, Dr. Ibrahim Alloush, on Al Jazeera on the subject, "Who Is a Terrorist?" As I write this, I can't find the transcript on the Al Jazeera English-language site - maybe that's because they don't want to publicize Alloush's bizarre views. Fortunately I have a transcript from someone who listened to it, and Alloush was in full "destroy America, destroy Israel, and support terrorism" throat in the interview - excerpts below, and read the full transcript provided to me:

Every day there are crimes committed by the United States on the ground against all peoples of the world...And Mr. Emerson, who is accusing me, he is one of the worst terrorists as a thinker...And therefore there are studies and scientific research that show that the Holocaust never existed...Nazism is what the Zionist movement is doing today and what the United States government is doing today...all those who collaborate with an occupier, whether a Palestinian or Iraqi or other, he is to be targeted. We don't have any remorse...9/11, I say that the Americans are responsible. This is the case of the chicken home to roost. You brought this to yourself..."

You can't make this stuff up. The transcript doesn't communicate how Steve was able to keep his compsure when hearing such a twisted mind spew this hate, but he certainly scored points and summarized Alloush's views in one statement near the end of the debate, without rebuttal or denial:

One, you believe Dr. Alloush that the Nazis did not kill six million Jews; two, that there were no crematoria and that most died from disease; number three, you believe that the 9-11 attacks were deserved by the United States; number four you believe that the US is bombing the mosques in Iraq; number five, you believe that anybody who collaborates with an occupier deserves to be killed; number seven, you believe that basically all Jews deserve to be attacked.

You have to read the transcript to believe it. There is no reasoning with a warped mind such as Alloush - it's hard to believe that he spent over 13 years in the U.S. and came away with so little actual knowledge of the American people. I have no doubt that he and his followers are celebrating the deaths and destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina of those areas not occupied by "his" kind of Muslims.

Two Senior Congressmen to Address CT Blog Live Panel About 9/11 Anniversary

By Andrew Cochran

We are pleased to announce our first live event to discuss the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) will give remarks at a panel discussion by the Contributing Experts on September 8, beginning at 8:30 am until noon. The panel discussion, titled, �Four Years Later: Are We Safer?� will begin with opening remarks by Rep. Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, discussing the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act and other issues. Rep. Thompson, ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, will give his remarks at 9:45 am. The following Contributing Experts will participate in the panel discussion:

Zachary Abuza
Zeyno Baran
Victor Comras
Michael Cutler
Douglas Farah
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Evan Kohlmann
Michael Kraft
Dennis Lormel
Walid Phares
Lee Wolosky

I will moderate the discussion, and we will reserve time for questions from the audience. Attendance at this event is open only to the press and invited guests. Send inquires to Rachel Sullivan at Rachel.Sullivan@gmail.com.

Zawahiri Claims London Blasts in Al-Qaida's Name, Threatens More Attacks in "Enemy Territory"

By Evan Kohlmann

Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network has aired footage today of a videotape purportedly from Al-Qaida's Al-Sahab Media Wing in which London 7/7 suicide bomber Mohammed Sadiq Khan explains his reasons for the July attacks on the British capital. Usama Bin Laden's second-in-command--Egyptian Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri--also appeared on the video, promising similar attacks in the future. According to Al-Jazeera, the late Mr. Khan explained, "Your [Western] democratically elected governments continue to perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support for them makes you directly responsible... until we feel security, you will be our targets. Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop." During his portion of the tape, Ayman al-Zawahri described the 7/7 attacks as "9/11" for the United Kingdom and promised more such operations in "enemy territory" in the near future, particularly Europe--because European leaders ignored a supposed offer of truce from Usama Bin Laden issued last year after the 3/11 bombings in Madrid.

Security Chaos in Hurricane Aftermath ? What Does It Mean for the Future?

By Bill West

The tragic disaster facing the Gulf Coast in the wake of hurricane Katrina is demonstrating the Government�s ability to respond to a widespread catastrophe within the United States for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. How the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now tasked with the lead role in the Federal Government�s response, will fare in this effort will take weeks, if not months, to evaluate.

What is becoming increasingly clear, almost by the hour, is how the security situation, especially in New Orleans has become dire. The local and State police have been unable to control looting and what has become generalized chaotic violence in some parts of the devastated city. Reports of extreme acts of random violence, including shooting attacks against the police and rescue personnel, as of today are common in the media. The Administration has reportedly committed tens of thousands of National Guard and other military units to move into the area to reestablish security, law and order. They cannot get there fast enough. Given that this hurricane, with its strength and potential destructive power, was something public officials knew about well in advance, there might well be questions about why mobilization of sufficient manpower resources did not occur beforehand. But, those are questions for later. Establishing security and order and the safety of the survivors is the highest priority at this time.

As the Government responds to this disaster, the counter-terrorism community should pay close attention. If America ever suffers a WMD terrorist attack with widespread destruction and casualties, how the Federal Government responds to the Katrina aftermath may be indicative of what the American people could expect after some future massive terrorism event. Unfortunately, what we are seeing with the rapid breakdown of law and order in New Orleans might also be indicative of what could be expected after an extended, large-scale disaster in any large metropolitan area. With that understanding, it becomes clear that humanitarian assistance cannot be provided when there is no security. Safety and security for survivors and relief workers must be provided before real help can begin.

By Andrew Cochran

New indictments of four individuals in California (Acrobat file of the indictment) show exactly what Daveed Gartenstein-Ross what talking about in his August 25 post, "Radical Indoctrination in U.S. Prisons." Note that the indictment says that Kevin James started his little jihadist wannabe group way back in 1997, but the acts giving rise to the indictments didn't occur until 2004 and 2005. So our questions (Daveed's and mine - he is on travel) are: who trained James in his radical Islam - who visited him - which books did James read prior to 1997 and where did they come from - and how did James continue to receive indoctrination after he formed his group in 1997? Think of this case and the Lodi and Abu Ali cases as chapters in the (apparently) always expanding history of radical Islamist indoctrination in the U.S. Longtime readers will recall that the nonpartisan Freedom House organization released a great study of radical Islamic literature circulated in Islamic schools and mosques. The same forces have been treating federal prisons as another training ground. So it was "better late than never" to read that the FBI is investigating indoctrination at prisons.

One other note - the DOJ press release on the case notes the importance of the Joint Terrorist Task Force concept in this case. According to the US Attorney, the case started with local law enforcement, which then referred it to the Long Beach JTTF. The press release lists numerous other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies involved. Our compliments on the great cooperation.

Hurricane Katrina ? Assistance, Overcoming Consequence Chaos and the Importance of Contingency Planning

By Dennis Lormel

As a follow up to Andy�s post, I�d like to suggest that in addition to monetary contributions, those of us who are, or were, affiliated with businesses or government agencies in the stricken region contact those entities to offer assistance in the form of housing. I retired from the FBI almost two years ago. I, as many others in the FBI family, contacted the FBI�s Employee Assistance Program, at FBI Headquarters and volunteered to house families of current or former Bureau employees who were displaced by the storm.

With respect to Andy�s comments about preparedness, I�d like to offer my perspective. In certain assignments as an executive, I was responsible for crisis management. In my experience, no matter how well prepared you are for an incident, regardless of the type of incident, there is always a timeframe where chaos can overwhelm organization and communication. Those responsible for consequence management must integrate all responder services into the consequence response plan as quickly as possible, and in so doing, attempt to minimize chaos and confusion while maximizing organization and communications. This can be a very challenging process. The enormity of this disaster makes this process all the more difficult.

It�s not necessarily the preparation that�s the problem. It�s more likely that the problem at hand is dealing with the scope of the actual consequence. Unfortunately, in the best case scenario, establishing consequence organization, coordination and communication in this situation will be a slow process.

From a standpoint of lessons learned, we should realize how vulnerable we are not only to natural disasters, but to potential terrorist attacks. Think of what would happen if a major terrorist attack took place in the form of a dirty bomb being detonated in a large city. One of the failings that will come out of this situation is the lack of contingency planning at all levels. In addition to government at the local, state and federal levels, it is incumbent that individuals, families and companies establish and maintain contingency plans. My sense is that few companies or individuals and families had contingency plans in place. This should serve as a reminder to all of us.

Katrina Victims Need Our Help and Better Information From Media and Government - And We Are Obviously NOT READY (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

To quote Michelle Malkin, "Today's the day!" We're joining with hundreds of blogs around the world to urge you to give to a number of terrific charities. We start with the American Red Cross - Doug Farah and I add Catholic Charities - Doug also recommends the Mennonite Disaster Services - the Salvation Army has been on the ground in New Orleans since the first hours - others add United Jewish Communities - my co-worker Rachel Sullivan adds Habitat for Humanity, which will no doubt be able to build new housing in a hurry. We'll add more during the day. And Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com is aggregating the lists. LET'S OPEN OUR CHECKBOOKS AND CONTINUE OUR PRAYERS!!

ANOTHER point - lots of media stories on what's going wrong in New Orleans, but very little about pickup sites in New Orleans to prepare for evacuation. By TV, radio, bullhorn, and airborne banner, the media, government, and military have to tell the healthy where to go so they can catch a bus or truck to get out of town. One of my best friends has a brother who was in good condition there, but he didn't know where to go in town. The brother got out by finding someone with a van - with no official assistance. And a MSNBC correspondent in N.O. reiterated this morning that "nobody knows what to do" and the police officers around her also had no food or water. There are NO EXCUSES for this three days after the hurricane hit.

FINALLY - THIS SHOWS US HOW UNPREPARED WE ARE FOR A MAJOR URBAN TERRORIST ATTACK - almost four years after the 9/11 attacks and on the first anniversary of the Beslan school terrorist attacks - the terrorists watch the chaos in New Orleans and plan.....

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POSTS ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

POSTS ON 2008 MUMBAI ATTACK

Counterterrorism Blog Panels:

Reforming U.S. Counter-Terrorism Assistance Programs, Feb. 12

The 2008 Mumbai Attacks, Dec. 4

Future of Turkey-U.S. Strategic Partnership, May 19

Iran & U.S.: Outlook for Next Decade? April 15

Compañeros de Armas ("Friends in Arms"): Chavez, FARC & South America, March 19

Meta-Terror: Terrorism & the Virtual World, Feb. 29

Evolution of US Counterterrorism Policy, Feb. 12

Terrorism Litigation After Boim Decision, Jan. 28

Holy Land Foundation & Muslim Brotherhood, Dec. 11, 2007
------------

July 2008 Posts and August 2008 Posts

Contributing Experts

Douglas Farah, Editor

Steven Emerson & The Investigative Project on Terrorism
Dennis Lormel
Bill West
Evan Kohlmann
Michael Cutler
Victor Comras
Michael Kraft
Dr. Zachary Abuza
Dr. Walid Phares
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Olivier Guitta
Kenneth Conboy
Aaron Mannes
David Schenker
Animesh Roul
Matthew Levitt
Jonathan Winer
Michael Jacobson
Frank Hyland
Roderick Jones
Paul Cruickshank
Farhana Ali
Lorenzo Vidino
Madeleine Gruen
James McGinnis
Michael Braun

James Gordon Meek, Guest Expert

Margot Williams, SNS Global, Newslinks Editor

Phillip Smyth & Mark Offenbach, Asst. Newslinks Editors

Andrew Cochran,
Founder & Editor Emeritus

EXPERTS' ARCHIVES & BIOS

The GSPC cell arrested in France was onto major acts of terror

By Olivier Guitta

On Monday, French authorities arrested an Islamist cell in the suburbs of Paris and in Normandy that was planning attacks on the Paris metro, airport and the DST- rough equivalent of the FBI- HQ. Among those arrested is a well-known Algerian terrorist, Safe Bourada. Indeed, Bourada was sentenced in 1998 to a ten-year jail term because of its active involvement in the 1995 terrorist attacks in Paris. He had recruited one of the main actors of the GIA terrorist wave Khaled Kelkal. He also has been in contact with Rachid Ramda, the financier of the 1995 attacks jailed in London and that Britain has refused to extradite so far. Coming out of jail in 2003, he was right away watched by the police.After receiving tips from Algeria at the beginning of this month, French police acted because of the potential imminent threats. In fact, one of the arrested members of the cell confirmed the three targets and added that his group was planning attacks against other European countries. Also, some of the members of this group traveled to Lebanon to gain explosives expertise. And they even thought about launching a chemical or biological attack, using ricin but gave up because of the complexity of the technical aspect. France has been considering the GSPC -an offshoot of the GIA- as its biggest threat especially after July when the US informed the French about the alliance between Zarqawi and the GSPC. And also after the recent GSPC message qualifying France as number one enemy of the Algerian terror group.

The implication of a recidivist demonstrates the importance of more severe jail sentences in terrorism cases. And fortunately that�s what the new French law is envisioning: in this case instead of ten years, Bourada would get 20.

Advice to NYFD: Scrub Your "Islamic Society" Before Picking Your Next Muslim Chaplain

By Andrew Cochran

"The fire department's new Muslim chaplain abruptly resigned Friday after saying in a published interview that a broader conspiracy, not 19 al-Qaida hijackers, may have been responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." Well, that was a wise and honorable thing for the chap to do, after he embarrassed the fine men and women of the NYFD with his ridiculous comments. But the first fault lies with the NYFD for its lack of oversight of its own Islamic Society, which recommended Intikab Habib and several other imams for the job. The NYFD suffers from the same problem as the Federal Bureau of Prisons - they didn't determine how the imams were being educated, what they were reading, and what they were learing on their overseas trips to Saudi Arabia. So I recommend that the NYFD start the search by asking outside experts to do a top-to-bottom audit of the NYFD Islamic Society and tell them whether Wahabbism has infected it to the point of no return. I can recommend a number of such experts on the left sidebar of this site.

Abu Azzam al-Iraqi: In His Own Words

By Evan Kohlmann

Given the controversy that has erupted--and in an attempt to shed more light on the precise role of Abu Azzam al-Iraqi within Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq--I am now making available a transcript of comments that Abu Azzam made during an Al-Qaida video recording released in December 2004. Ironically, the hooded Abu Azzam was featured in the video discussing the life and death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's former top deputy in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Anas al-Shami (a.k.a. Omar Yousef Jumah), who was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Abu Ghraib prison on September 16, 2004. Certainly, given the context of Abu Azzam's remarks and his mere presence on the film, he was an important Al-Qaida commander with an established pedigree and a direct relationship with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. However, Abu Azzam is described in the video merely as an Al-Qaida "commander" and veteran of the year-long battle for Fallujah in 2004. At least as of December 2004, he is ascribed no specific importance in Zarqawi's chain-of-command--other than that Zarqawi preferred that he remain in a non-combat role.

In the future, if the Pentagon and White House want to avoid this silly numbers controversy, they should take the sage advice of my colleague Doug Farah and simply steer clear of misleading and irrelevant hierarchical representations of non-hierarchical terrorist groups. I admit that I'm a bit baffled as to why it has taken them this long to recognize that for themselves.

Whitewashing Saudi Arabia time and again

By Olivier Guitta

After Andy�s post re the fundraising on Saudi TV for terrorists, one should or should not be surprised by Karen Hughes� statement while visiting Saudi King Abdullah.
She stated:
I salute the Kingdom�s efforts to work with us to combat terrorism. I am proud of the excellent relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States and the exceptional cooperation between the two countries. Despite occasional disagreements, we have much in common.
This echoed the memo from President Bush to Condi Rice indicating, �I attest to that Saudi Arabia is cooperating in the global war on terrorism.�
This stance is a major return to that sixty-year old policy of collusion with the royal family.

If that was not enough, the recent deal the US negotiated with Saudi Arabia regarding this country�s access to the WTO did not include two major clauses:
- Saudi Arabia would accept to stop the boycott of Israel
- Saudi Arabia would implement additionnal measures to fight terrorism and would stop all financial support to terrorism.

So, there you have it, Saudi Arabia got a free pass to continue its support of terrorism through its diverse charities. For instance, it is no coincidence that the hardliner Abdullah bin Saleh al-Obaid, ex-head of the Muslim World League, the largest Saudi quasi-governmental �charity� organization, was appointed Minister of Education back in February.
Also, to show Saudi Arabia�s �friendship�, here is what the Saudi daily Al Watan, very close to the Royal family, published as an editorial on September 11, 2005:
The September 11 attacks triggered a ruthless war against what the US calls �terrorism�. This word has been generalized to include in particular all Arabs but also all Muslims, thereby refusing to distinguish between Al Qaeda -which counts in its ranks Americans, Europeans and Asians- and Arab countries (including Saudi Arabia) where some citizens belong to Al Qaeda. Washington justifies this generalization by stating that most terrorists were Saudis, thereby forgetting that Saudi Arabia is working hard to eradicate Al Qaeda.

Our British allies are also quite good at whitewashing the Saudi regime. Writing on Saudi national day, Sir Shepard Cowper-Coles, British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia published an op-ed in Asharq Al Awsat where he wrote:
The Saudi government has shown great wisdom, investing the oil income with a prudent eye on the future, while confidently mounting successful campaigns against the men of violence and to equip young Saudis for the demands of the new century. As one of Saudi Arabia's oldest and closest friends, Britain will accompany Saudi Arabia on that journey to the future. We will be with you in the tough times as well as the good times, in the knowledge that true friendship means sticking together through thick and thin.

At the same time this widespread white washing is going on, some in Congress have kept their sanity. For instance, the Senate Judiciary Committee is going to start hearings at the end of October re the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005.

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Why Individuals Do and Do Not Matter in the Insurgency

By Douglas Farah

The debate over whether the recently-killed Abu Azzam is really the second in command to Zarqawi in Iraq or an important figure in the insurgency, reminds me of how little we know of the internal structures of the enemy there, and, in a broader sense, of the al Qaeda network. Newsweek, along with my colleague Evan Kohlmann, are correctly pointing out that Azzam may not have been all he was portrayed to be by President Bush and U.S. military commanders.

Having covered conflicts and the war on drugs for two decades now, it is clear how unhelpful it is to repeatedly trumpet the supposed damage to an organization when one person is taken out of action. The closest parallel I find is in the drug wars, when first Pablo Escobar then other leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel were taken down. Then the the leaders of the Cali cartel were killed or arrested, then the Northern Valley gangs were decapitated. At every step, the DEA and U.S. government would hail the actions as a major triumph, destined to end or greatly diminish drug trafficking. Yet, after each major killing or arrest the amount of cocaine entering the United States remained unchanged. New people would simply step into the breach. While each generation of traffickers was able to individually control less of the market, and each succeeding organization was small and less vertical in its structure, the aggregate amount of drugs they are able to produce and export did not diminish, and ultimately grew.

It seems to me there is a lesson here we have not learned in Iraq and with al Qaeda. In largely non-hierarchical structures, where highly-trained individuals are running small cells with interchangeable responsibilities and tasks, the loss of an individual is likely to matter less. The same is true in U.S. Special Forces and other elite units. What would damage the organization more than taking out a field commander would be to eliminate someone with a specific skill set, such as bomb-making, communications and internet expertise or document forgery, that would be hard and time consuming to replace. Go here to read complete blog.

Newsweek's speedy conclusions lead to analytical crash

By Walid Phares

Walid Phares

An interesting Newsweek story this week -that references CT Blog among its sources- claim scoring a point against what it paints as a �questionable Bush administration portrayal of Abu Azzam.� In short, the authors of the article, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball claim the Administration�s leaders aggrandized the real importance of the killed al Qaida commander basing their conclusion on a number of �non identified� US counter Terrorism officials and a report posted by our colleague Evan Kohlman on the blog. The �charge� by Newsweek is about the hierarchy of the man. Was he or was he not the �number two� of abu Mus�aab? In fact, the article�s real problem is in semantics. Was Abu Azzam number two, deputy commander, a top lieutenant, the second most powerful man, or even a future heir for the organization? What seems to be journalistically a one status are in fact multiple functions with various consequences on the War in Iraq, and different statements made by different people. Isikoff and Hoseball are right to �investigate� the matter, as all experts should do, but their fast conclusion missed crucial nuances, crashing analytically.

In their hurry to score a point against �Bush�s War in Iraq� the level of analysis was mixed up ultimately playing in the hands of the Jihadists propaganda as one would forecast in the last paragraph.

The article's real proposition is embodied by this sentence: �Bush seized on the killing of Abu Azzam by joint U.S-Iraqi forces in a shootout last Sunday as fresh evidence that the United States is turning the tide against the Iraqi insurgency.� Let�s not argue with the political goal, for if indeed Isikoff and Hoseball can establish that the Bush Administration knew that abu Azzam wasn�t someone important and used the killing to prove the �turning tide� then Newsweek�s point is made. Even if the article would prove that the President�s team wasn�t able to evaluate the Jihadi commander in his real weight, a point will nevertheless be made. But in this case, and until further analysis is developed no one has made a final point, neither the Administration nor Newsweek. Here is why:

The President, according to Newsweek said �this guy was a brutal killer.� He added that abu Azzam �was one of [Abu Mussab al-]Zarqawi�s top lieutenants.� And furthermore Bush said he was told the man was �top operational commander of Al Qaeda in Baghdad.� He didn�t say �deputy commander.�

Now, Newsweek�s article says �.�that U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terrorist�described by President Bush today as the �second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq��was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming

Then the authors write: �Gen. Richard Myers, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. military considered Abu Azzam the �No. 2 Al Qaeda operative in Iraq, next to Zarqawi.�

Newsweek�s article adds: �Three U.S. counterterrorism officials, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, also told NEWSWEEK today that U.S. agencies did not really consider Abu Azzam to be Zarqawi�s �deputy� even if he did play a relatively high-ranking role in the insurgency.

Let�s stop here:

According to Newsweek

1) The President said about abu Azzam

a. Brutal killer
b. One of Zarqawi�s top lieutenants
c. A top operational commander of Al Qaeda in Baghdad.�
d. �Second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq�

2) General Myers said about abu Azzam: �No. 2 Al Qaeda operative in Iraq, next to Zarqawi.�

3) Per Newsweek, three US counter Terrorism officials (no names were provided) said of abu Azzam:

a. He is not as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.

b. That U.S. agencies did not really consider Abu Azzam to be Zarqawi�s �deputy�

An easy comparative analysis shows that both the President and General Myers didn�t �say� nor �describe� the al Qaida commander as M.M. Isikoff and Hosenball blamed them for. Bush used the terms of �brutal killer;� �one of Zarqawi�s lieutenants;� �top operational commander in Baghdad;� �second most wanted al Qaida leader in Iraq.� Ironically the so-called �secret� US counter terrorism officials (which statements can�t be verified) produced only judgments not an identification. Newsweek attributed to the �secret sources� that the guy was not a �significant figure� nor did the agencies consider him as �deputy.� In synchronic analysis the President said the man is a big shot, and the article quoted �sources� who said abu Azzam �wasn�t the official deputy.� Hence, what Newsweek attempted to portray as a misrepresentation by the President of a Terrorist leader, against the so-called �expertise� of agencies is not even an issue: In a sum, I haven�t read yet an official release by the White House stating that the man�s official title was �deputy commander of Zarqawi (na�ib al Qa�id).� And the sources didn�t know better.

Yes, General Meyers described him as �No. 2 Al Qaeda operative in Iraq, next to Zarqawi:� Which doesn�t either tell us if he is or not the deputy commander, the vice president, the second emir in command, or so. So, what Newsweek raised was a faux probleme, an irrelevant hypothesis. That abu Azzam was or not an important cadre is the real issue. But that he was specifically (or not) the actual organic deputy commander under Zarqawi, neither the Administration can establish that nor the article was able to establish how al Qaida function in Iraq.

The only open source Newsweek was able to use, to build its case (next to the unrevealed sources) was the accurate research by our colleague Evan Kohlmann. He concluded that �there are ample reasons to question whether Abu Azzam was really the No. 2 figure in the Iraqi insurgency.� And he stated that according to his research �this guy was not the deputy commander of Al Qaeda.� Our colleague explained that many other commanders have been described as number two or deputies in the past. And he rightly added that those who have been branded as deputies by the Jihadists haven�t been captured or killed yet. Bottom line: The US didn�t get the official deputy commander of Zarqawi yet. This is very possible but here are questions to address in the game of analysis:

1) No one in al Qaida Iraq has issued an official statement yet, declaring the Bayi�a, a necessary Jihadi formality to render one particular commander as the deputy, or Nai�b. So, even as many web sites and other sources �talk� about this or other mujahid as the �man who comes after Zarqawi,� it is only talk. We don�t have a name yet: it�s that simple

2) However, intelligence services both US or Iraqis can obviously determine if one of these �emirs� is acting as the second most influential man after Zarqawi. But that is only assessment. Therefore, if a man with that profile is eliminated, it is normal to state that upon intelligence assessment, such a person has the profile of the second most powerful man. And to rebut this executive assessment �not impossible- one would have to present stronger evidence. Not a game of words about what the President said or unofficial releases by Jihadi online: we need hard evidence.

3) But beyond this Byzantine debate, let�s consider few al Qaida complicated mechanisms:

a. The organization�s pyramid has more than one deputy and more than one second in command. Strange but efficient.

b. The second most powerful man in the organization is not necessarily the second in command or the number two.

c. The next to take over is often �hidden� and not always chosen from the immediate entourage.

d. The head of the military committee or tanzeem is not always the head of the organization nationwide. Hence the military chief of staff is not necessarily the deputy chief on the political level, but could be as well.

e. The real hierarchy is imariya, meaning based on �emirship.� So far, there is not enough information about the �emirship� not only in Iraq but throughout al Qaida worldwide.
f. Last but not least, if and when Zarqawi �goes� there would be a �legal� process to name the heir. It involves clerics, commanders, and other procedures and details.

So was the man killed by the Coalition �the� man? He certainly is one who deserves commenting and a story. But instead of thorough investigation of the �emir� place and value in the real world of Jihadism, the �story� was diverted towards the politics of the War on Terror not the actual war. Regardless of good analysis of who is really abu Azzam, how does al Qaida functions and will this episode weaken or not the organization, the investigative effort targeted the misreading of the President. In fact the article didn�t provide with neither a better reading nor another reading of the equation. For both the Administration and the �secret sources� of Newsweek agreed that the man was high up. No one was able to determine his file number within the organization.

Another interesting argument made by the article was the criticism of US authorities for announcing several times since the war in Iraq began that key al Qaida commanders were terminated, although leaders are still in place. I don�t understand the logic of the argument: For it is evident that al Qaida replaces its vanishing emirs and commanders as the conflict is evolving. I thought this was standard procedure. Unless some experts believe that al Qaida has only ten cadres, and by their vanishing the war would be over�

It would be na�ve to think that if a number two is eliminated, his post will remain empty (?). Hence it is obvious that the possibility of announcing the departure of several number 2s over the span of a conflict is very high.

The real deal in the article is this paragraph: �The real question is whether taking any one figure out will really have an appreciable impact on an insurgency that seems to have shown a remarkable resiliency. For nearly two years now, U.S. officials have touted previous arrests or captures, most notably that of toppled leader Saddam Hussein in December 2003, as developments that would cripple the insurgency.�

That is a real question: is the elimination of the Organization�s head(s) the equivalent of total victory? Obviously not; no need to elaborate. Will it have an impact on the so-called insurgency? Not by itself. Would that mean that military action alone wouldn�t defeat the Jihadists? True. But who said that the elimination of al Qaida field commanders and military action alone �is� the road to victory? I haven�t seen such policy declaration anywhere yet. And may I add, even if some in the Administration would like to portray it as such, or if its detractors want to portray the Administration as thinking that way, the concept is wrong. In the War on Terror, we need to think complex.

There are multiple tracks, and one influences the other: military, intelligence, political, ideological, psychological and regional: For example, as I analyzed for BBC TV last night, the killing of abu Azzam is strategically less important than the dismantling of Tal Afar networks few weeks ago. Even better, perhaps the victory on the Syrian-Iraqi border was one of the reasons for finding the al Qaida cadre. Besides, had the Iraqi Government been ready politically, these two operations could have been invested immensely in further defeating the Salafists. You don�t rely on the elimination of Terror leader as the sole factor in a War on Terror but you factor it in and make sure the other pincers are moving simultaneously. .

This is why I do not recommend the evaluation of the War in Iraq in simple equations: �One cadre is gone, let�s look if the insurgency has weakened.� It is too simplistic. Besides, the Jihadists are railing us.

For in its conclusion, Newsweek relied on al Qaida�s statement on Abu Azzam! By translating what the organization posted on the group�s Web site, the article echoed that �Abu Azzam al-Iraqi was a soldier� in the Iraqi Al Qaeda organization. It quoted �them� ridiculing allegations by U.S. officials that Abu Azzam was the �second man� in Iraqi Al Qaeda. Citing the SITE Institute�s translation Newsweek quoted the Terrorists stating that the US �should stop saying that because it will not do any good.� A minimal understanding of the propaganda machine of the Jihadists would have realized that �they� don�t want to give any psychological victory to the infidels. From at least a significant leader in the structure, his companions reduced him to a �simple soldier among others.� Just to deny Iraqis and Coalition any political victory.

Understanding the mind of the Jihadis is crucial in the analysis of the War on Terror. As with the �flushing� affair few months ago, it is advisable to keep the big picture around when one is zooming on a point to be scored.

Walid Phares is a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington

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U.S. Congressional Hearing Will Analyze Status and Future of Counterterrorism Strategy

By Andrew Cochran

The U.S. House International Relations Terrorism Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), will explore the status and future of US counterterrorism strategy at a hearing today. The press statement offers some of the chairman's concerns: "Some observers suggest that insufficient attention has been paid to countering the ideology fueling Islamist terrorism. Others lament the lack of a sharp, well-formed strategy along the lines of the "containment" doctrine that guided the United States during the Cold War." Witnesses will include terrorism expert Dr. Bruce Hoffman of RAND; Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Tim Roemer, former member of the 9/11 Commission; and Major Dana Dillon, USAR (Ret.) of The Heritage Foundation.

"Newsweek" Confirms Evan Kohlmann's Post: Abu Azzam Was Not Al-Zarqawi's "#2"

By Andrew Cochran

This week's "Terror Watch" column at "Newsweek" has confirmed what Evan Kohlman reported yesterday on The Counterterrorism Blog - that Abu Azzam was not truly al-Zarqawi's "#2" in Iraq. Reporters Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball dug deeper and interviewed senior counterterrorism officials. They quoted Evan: "�If I had a nickel for every No. 2 and No. 3 they�ve arrested or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, I�d be a millionaire...this guy was not the deputy commander of Al Qaeda.� And they confirmed his conclusions through their interviews:

"Three U.S. counterterrorism officials, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, also told NEWSWEEK today that U.S. agencies did not really consider Abu Azzam to be Zarqawi�s �deputy� even if he did play a relatively high-ranking role in the insurgency.
The characterization of Abu Azzam as No. 2 to Zarqawi is �not quite accurate,� said one of the officials. According to this official, it would be more correct to describe Abu Azzam as a �top lieutenant� to Zarqawi who was involved in �running� terrorist operations in Baghdad�not all of Iraq. Other top lieutenants operate in other parts of the country, the official indicated.

Two other officials agreed that Abu Azzam was a senior figure, perhaps the emir (leader), of Al Qaeda operations in Baghdad, and that he was of critical importance in moving funds to insurgent operatives in the Iraqi capital area. �He�s a money guy,� one official said. �He is significant but not No. 2 [to Zarqawi],� said another official."

Congratulations to Evan for being willing to report the facts, which is our mission here on The Counterterrorism Blog. And congrats to Messrs. Isikoff and Hosenball for following up with an important story. When the Iraqis or Americans nail al-Zarqawi's #2 (and he will get nailed), we will celebrate it here, but not until it actually happens.

Top U.S. Military Intel Officer: Zarqawi "Hijacked" Insurgency

By Evan Kohlmann

Today's Washington Post carries a long overdue concession from U.S. military intelligence: that "Saddamists" and former regime officials play little--if any--role in the ongoing Sunni insurgency in central Iraq. In fact, according to Army Major General Richard Zahner:

"I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign... In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft... You'll see some of the old regime elements on [the list of most-wanted insurgents in Iraq], mainly just to maintain pressure and, frankly, accountability. But when you look at those individuals central to the inflicting of huge amounts of violence, it really is not those folks."

One would hope that the media pays close attention to Zahner's remarks. There is an unfortunate and inexplicable reluctance among some analysts to accept the weighty role that Zarqawi and his foreign fighters have taken in the Iraqi insurgency--take, for instance, a Christian Science Monitor piece from last weekend with the presumptuous headline, "The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters." The real myth about the "resistance" in Iraq is that somehow it is the exclusive domain of ex-Saddamists and Iraqi nationalists.

Our New Reports on Terrorist Threats to Italy and the Muslim Brotherhood in France

By Steven Emerson

Senior analysts at The Investigative Project on Terrorism have produced two new studies of importance. Lorenzo Vidino's "Is Italy Next In Line After London?," published by The Jamestown Foundation, discusses the potential targeting of Italy by al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups operating in Europe. As Lorenzo points out, the number of hardcore militants operating in Italy number in the hundreds; suicide bombers recruited in Italy have carried out attacks outside Italy; and Italy, like the UK, was unable until recently to pass effective anti-terrorism legislation or effectively enforce immigration and terrorism laws. Lorenzo names numerous groups which might strike within Italy, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's in Iraq - an arrestee there stored satellite pictures of locations in Rome on his laptop, and he told interrogators that he attended a meeting where attacks in Italy had been discussed.

Glen Feder's "The Muslim Brotherhood in France," published by "In the National Interest," discusses how the Muslim Brotherhood "has taken hold of the most powerful Muslim organization in France today, and is quickly penetrating into the political and social fabric of secular France." It is a detailed and excellent account of the history of the Brotherhood in France; how Brotherhood leaders outwitted French governments; took over the leadership of key French Muslim groups; and support Hamas and numerous Islamic terrorist spokesmen such as Tariq Ramadan (see my April 1 post on him), the late Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The current French government now knows of its problem - to quote Interior Minister Villepin: �Today, out of the 1,200 imams who practice in our country, 75% are not French and one third don�t speak our language. This is unacceptable.� But Glen concludes that, "At present, the French government�s efforts to encourage moderation and Muslim toleration of non-Muslims have backfired." As I've discussed here and elsewhere, the Muslim Brotherhood is the ideological precursor to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Al-Qaeda and continues to pursue its focused agenda.

Castorena Crime Family: Intersection of Immigration Fraud, Identity Theft, & Terrorism

By Michael Cutler

I recently received an article about the Castorena Family Criminal Organization that appeared in an Arizona Newspaper. In checking through ICE press releases I came upon the fact sheet that was published by ICE about this organization. Undoubtedly ICE is targeting an organization that is worthy of scrutiny. The article in the Newspaper and the press release from ICE show just how insidious this organization is and how it threatens our nation's security.

Identity theft is identified as America's fastest growing white collar crime. The production of false identity documents is of concern in other areas as well. The most basic question we ask someone who we meet is, "Who are you?" To the law enforcement officer, this most basic of questions takes on an additional dimension. The identity of an individual may cause a law enforcement officer to take the person in question into custody because of an outstanding warrant. When a criminal is able to conceal his true identity, he may escape arrest by concealing his identity and criminal history. Name-based watch lists and no-fly lists help security officers to determine whether or not an individual should be permitted to board an airplane, or a train or enter a secure building or facility. Finally, the determination of an individual's identity also has a bearing on whether or not that person should be permitted to work in the United States. The 19 terrorists who did so much damage to our nation and to so many families around the country who lost loved ones, friends and business associates understood the need to conceal their true identities. According to the 911 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel, the 19 terrorists used, in the aggregate, some 364 aliases.

The success in identifying, investigating, and subsequently arresting and successfully prosecuting members of this organization is truly a worthwhile accomplishment. However (and you know, there usually is a "however" ) with so few special agents available to conduct these critical investigations, how many other organizations are "out there" as we speak, furnishing false identity documents to those who pose a threat to our nation and our people? As members of this criminal organization are arrested, how many new "employees" will succeed in making their way into the United States to replace those who have been arrested?

Additionally, fraud schemes are equally troubling and dangerous. As I have testified before Congress, if it is the prospect of employment that draws the majority of illegal aliens across our nation's borders, it is by immigration benefit fraud that they are able to remain here and "hide in plain sight." Indeed, through immigration benefit fraud they are able to gain free access to not only to nation's borders, but to borders of many other countries around the world. Again, to refer to the Staff Report on Terrorist Travel, the terrorists needed to travel often and extensively as they prepared to attack our nation. While we focus on our porous borders, our nation has also failed to focus on the lack of integrity of the immigration benefits program which according to a GAO report that was published in January 2002, fraud was a pervasive problem that permeated the process by which applications for various immigration benefits are adjudicated. These benefits range from granting a nonimmigrant student authorization to change schools, to aliens applying for lawful residency in the United States to the conferring of United States citizenship upon an alien.

The fact that the organization was also able to furnish a complete document "package" including utility bills is especially troubling because this enables an individual, especially a terrorist, drug trafficker or gang member to create a whole new identify for himself. This is virtually the same way that the "Witness Protection Program" works except the Witness Protection Program uses authentic documents whereas the criminals use apparently high-quality counterfeit documents. If our nation is foolish enough to create another amnesty program, even if it called a "Guest Worker" program, document vendors and their parent organizations, such as the one described in these articles will be working overtime to crank out new identities for aliens seeking to prove they meet the requirements to be eligible to participate in such a program, such as evidence that they have been physically present in the United States for the requisite period of time. Lacking the investigative resources, such aliens will have a high probability of succeeding in defrauding our government. This is yet another reason to not only provide better training to ICE, CBP and USCIS officials to identify fraudulent documents, but to require that any alien who wishes to remain in the United States under the auspices of any such guest worker program, should Congress approve it, must first return to his/her country of citizenship and return with a valid passport from that country with an appropriate visa issued by the United States.

The linked article and fact sheet shows just how sophisticated the bad guys can be. It is time that our government committed the resources to successfully battle these criminals to improve the security of our nation. Our government needs to hire many new special agents, provide them with proper funding, training and leadership so they can go after this insidious threat to our well-being and survival.

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Jihad from Jail: Kevin James Pleads Not Guilty

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

My recent Weekly Standard article analyzing radical Islamic literature in America's prison system discusses the recent indictment of four California men on charges of conspiring to attack military and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area. Their targets allegedly included military bases and recruitment centers, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate, and El Al airline facilities. This case is significant for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it's the first alleged terrorist plot since 9/11 to be hatched in a U.S. prison cell.

There was a development in the case Monday when Kevin James, one of the four defendants, entered a not guilty plea. His indignant lawyer, Robert Carlin, called the indictment "pretty worthless," described statements by the U.S. Attorney's Office linking James to a domestic jihad as inflammatory, and said that James was "shocked" by the allegations against him.

The indictment paints Kevin James as the ringleader in this terrorist plot. It states that James founded Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), a covert prison organization devoted to his radical interpretation of Islam, in 1997. The indictment then provides a snapshot of how JIS functioned:

2. Defendant JAMES preached the duty of JIS members to target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or "infidels," including the United States Government and Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel.

3. Defendant JAMES actively recruited his fellow prison inmates to join JIS by clandestinely distributing a document or "protocol," which set forth defendant JAMES' religious teachings about Islam, including his justification for killing infidels or non-believers, and guidelines to be followed by JIS members ("JIS Protocol").

4. Defendant JAMES required prospective JIS members to take an oath of obedience to him and swear not to disclose the existence of JIS. Defendant JAMES also required prospective JIS members to swear that they would obey a ninety day contact rule, wherein they would communicate with defendant JAMES at least once during every ninety day period.

5. In addition to his recruitment efforts inside prison, defendant JAMES also sought to establish groups or "cells" of JIS members outside of prison which would carry out violent attacks against perceived infidels, including the United States Government, the Government of Israel, and Jewish persons.

The indictment states that another defendant, Levar Washington, joined JIS in November 2004. It also claims that James "provide[d] instructions [and] spiritual and tactical guidance" to all of the plotters.

It's worth following the criminal case as it moves forward following James's not guilty plea. The case can provide us with important insight into the dangers posed by radical Islam in the prison system. Two questions that deserve scrutiny are what Islamic sect James and the other plotters belonged to, and how Kevin James came to embrace such a radical interpretation of his religion (i.e. where and how he received his education in Islam).

The indictment claims that James clandestinely distributed a document setting forth his "religious teachings about Islam, including the justification for killing infidels or non-believers." If this document is made public, it would be invaluable in helping us to understand James's violent theology. If we're to make the prisons less of a hotbed for potential terrorists, we need to understand how California state prisoners became so steeped in Islamic radicalism that they were prepared to take up arms against their own country.

Walid Phares: "Al Qaida's TV" won't replace al Jazeera, it is the official archives

By Walid Phares

The piece was first posted on FDD blog at link

Writing in the Washington Post (article), Daniel Williams announced that al Qaida has launched its own news bulletins via Internet. He referred it to an Italian news agency called Adnkonois, reporting from Dubai. He mentioned that the entire 16 minutes was available on an Italian web site. At first, one would be impressed by the news value of the "story." And indeed, in our current world of Global War on Terror, sensational pieces such as this one make headlines, inflame talking heads, and put writers on TV screens. If we agree that Terrorism and counter terrorism have produced an industry and consumers a headline such as "al Qaida has its own newscast now" will open ears and eyes and drag mouses to click on links. But let's examine where is the real meat in this story, with a comparative analysis..

The Washington Post article says: "if the program was indeed an al Qaida production, it would mark a change in how the group uses Internet to spread its messages and propaganda." The "if it was al Qaida" caution is an understandable journalistic reservation, escorting any investigation. But sometimes it becomes intellectually obsolete. For no one has so far explained where and what is the official al Qaida. Most research indicate today, that whatever calls itself al Qaida is in fact al Qaida, unless you're joking or it is an implant of some intelligence service. The real caution should be nowadays, "if indeed it is not a fake," rather than questioning the Jihadism of the Jihadists online. In short, if a material is signed by al Qaida appears on a Jihadi web, one would assume it is al Qaida, either part of the core organization, or willing to associate with it. But that is only a little academic note. The meat is elsewhere.

People are excited to follow al Qaida's activities and to discover its new trends and fashions. But sometimes, if we're not attentive to the Jihadi world, there could be pitfalls. In this case for example, al Qaida is not really marking a dramatic substance-change, but has organized what it had been producing for years. The Bin laden's network has been producing these footage and documentaries in pieces and posting them as they were produced. What wasn't there was the weekly address via video in one form by one production. Comments on issues such as Gaza, Iraq, hurricanes hitting the US, and Shiia-bashing were available even before 9/11, and certainly multiplied afterward. Better, al Qaida's non-video bulletins were regularly broadcast on al ansar, ahl al sunna, al khilafa, and many other web outlets. Over the past three years I listened to them almost on a daily basis. In a sum, the material "discovered" by the Italian news service existed ages ago. It was simply not reported enough in the West. The only news meat in the Washington Post story is the fact that al Qaida's PR teams decided to consolidate this material in one "broadcast" and air it on a weekly basis. That's all. But behind the story, one can see two serious issues.

First, the Washington Post attempt to explain why is al Qaida creating its own broadcast. The author writes: "Direct dissemination would avoid editing or censorship by television networks, many of which air only excerpts of the group statements and avoid showing gruesome images of killings." In other words, and straight to the point, the article considers al Jazeera's airing of al Qaida's video not acceptable to Bin Laden, and therefore mainstream by Western standards. It seems that this sentence is the real conclusion of the whole article. Let's rephrase: al Qaida had to find its own media because Arab media, particularly al Jazeera (although not cited but assumed) are acting in the mainstream. Well that is not the case.

When an al Qaida videotape is obtained (no one knows how, but that is another issue) by al Jazeera the "treatment" of the material is maximized but within the boundaries of the professional format. Al Jazeera didn't declare itself as the official media of al Qaida. Therefore, it will not show signs that it is the spokes-outlet of Bin Laden. But the Qatar-based network has millions of viewers. By showing 30% of a video tape, and the most important segment, that is the political message, it would be more efficient than showing the rest of the tape, which is usually either dry and boring or repetitive. I myself had opportunities to see the "core" before being able to see the "rest." Showing that essence many times a day, bringing in panels to discuss it is by far more efficient and globally impacting than the rigid airing of the whole al Qaida made package once a week. Al Jazeera's art work with fragments of al Qaida's tapes is by far more influential than a web-based group-ran broadcast. So, why would al Qaida even spend time on the weekly address?

Precisely because of organizational needs. The "official" statements have to be posted somewhere for the organic membership to gather around and watch. While satellite networks inflame the millions with embellished fragments from al Qaida's production, the proper organization's web cast would air the entire raw material to the membership directly. Besides, the Jihadists understands the geopolitics of the War on Terror. They know that eventually even radical Arab media could fall into problems. It is ironic that the article on al Qaida's newscast came out one day after Taysir Alluni, al Jazeera corespondent in Spain, was sentenced to seven years in prison for what the court found as a connection to al Qaida. The sentence obviously linked an al Jazeera cadre to al Qaida (an accusation immediately rejected by the channel). But the Washington Post article hinted otherwise. Coincidental, the article was telling its readers that al Qaida didn't like al Jazeera's handling of its videos, therefore decided to create its own news service. Let's call this the politics of Jihadism and its complications. For the most important item in the whole story, at least from my perspective as a reader of Jihadi political history is the name of the new al Qaida weekly bulletin.

"Sawt Al Khilafa" or the "Voice of the Caliphate." This name alone is deeply meaningful. Researchers in Jihadi studies can click immediately at the sight or hearing of the name: While the article -and other media shows delved in the news worthiness of a weekly address by al Qaida, experts in the real depth of the Jihadist movement will stop there. Are we getting closer to what many analysts have been waiting for, looking for and expecting to appear? If you review carefully the videotapes of Usama, Ayman and abu Mus'ab, as they appeared at least since 2001 you'd see the ideological trajectory of the central message: The Caliphate is not far away in time. The preparations are underway. It is an exciting time for the Jihadists. In my forthcoming book, (November) I try to examine the ballistics of the upcoming events, or what is on the minds of the Jihadists globally. The highest moments of al Qaida are still ahead, not in terms of winning or losing the War, but in terms of revealing itself to the world in more stunning ways.

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Dr Walid Phares, Senior Fellow, FDD, Professor of Middle East Studies. www.walidphares.com

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A New TSA Program Looks Good?Should Other DHS Agencies Pay Attention?

By Bill West

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has just issued new regulations allowing limited general aviation (GA) flight traffic in and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) near Washington, DC. The new rules should become effective and operational by the end of the year. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, general aviation flights have been restricted from DCA due to the special security concerns around the Nation�s capital.

The new TSA regulations require all such GA flights to have on board what will be called an Armed Security Officer (ASO). Uniquely, ASO personnel will not be Federal Air Marshals, but will be private security officers employed by either the general aviation air carrier or the Fixed Base Operator servicing one of the designated gateway airports allowed to fly GA flights into DCA. Essentially, these ASOs will be private Air Marshals.

A review of the ASO program information, which is available on the TSA Web site at http://www.tsa.gov/public/, indicates this may be one of the potential success stories of the TSA. The qualification requirements for Armed Security Officers are substantial. Among others, they include the requirement that applicants be either active duty law enforcement officers, qualified retired law enforcement officers (retired in good standing) or former law enforcement officers who served at least four years and left under honorable conditions, completed a certified basic law enforcement training course, submit to and pass a TSA background/fingerprint check and FAA medical exam, and pass, at their own expense, a training course provided by the Federal Air Marshals Service.

This will be a limited program employing well-screened, experienced and trained security personnel working aboard general aviation aircraft flying into and out of DCA. It should cost the taxpayers little, since application and training expenses are covered by the applicants and their general aviation employers. The ASO personnel will, in fact, be experienced law enforcement officers, even though they will be acting as private security officers in their ASO capacities. The positions are likely to attract many retired officers wanting to do the work on a part-time or temporary basis, or active duty officers working off-duty assignments. Either way, the ASO cadre should be a solid, competent group of professionals and not low-paid, low-skilled and quickly hired security guards with guns aboard the private airplanes. In this regard, the public should feel secure, and it appears TSA has worked this one correctly.

And that brings to mind the ever-festering issue of border security and now, in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Federal Government�s disaster response capabilities. How might all this be related? TSA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (at least still for now), has just demonstrated that it can put together a common sense plan for incorporating professional private sector security resources, at little expense to the Government, for a significant security sensitive program involving the Nation�s capital. That program, admittedly, is just beginning; but it looks good so far.

The utilization of retired law enforcement officers as a reserve or auxiliary Homeland Security Force is a concept that has been proposed by several sources since 9/11. There are several variations of such plans, and while there is some interest in Congress, none so far have received serious consideration by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Administration has noted its aversion to private border surveillance groups such as The Minutemen, even though that organization has arguably succeeded in reducing illegal border traffic where it set up operations. Would not a Government sponsored and controlled Border Patrol Auxiliary composed of experienced volunteer law enforcement retirees work well to augment the understaffed active duty Patrol with such duties as fixed observation, detention work and administrative duties? And do so with minimal taxpayer expense? Shouldn�t such a program at least be explored?

And what about a similar Homeland Security Reserve Force that could be deployed in the event of large-scale disasters? Such Reserve Officers could conduct activities as static security and detention control duties and free regular active officers for more aggressive patrol and investigation duties. Again, shouldn�t there at least be some �thinking outside the box� on such matters?

The much-maligned TSA has actually displayed some forward thinking with its ASO program. Hopefully it works as well as it sounds. Perhaps other branches of DHS should take heed.

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"Abu Azzam": Is He Really Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Iraq?

By Evan Kohlmann

Yesterday, U.S. military officials made statements to the press reporting the death of Abu Azzam al-Iraqi (a.k.a. Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed Al-Jawari), whom they described as the "No. 2 official" in Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq and the "top deputy" to Al-Qaida commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. While there is no doubt that Abu Azzam is a relatively influential figure within Al-Qaida's local Baghdad network, there are several cogent reasons to question his purported title as "Number 2."

1.) Al-Qaida's top level infrastructure has already been publicly identified in recent statements and audio recordings issued by the group. Though little has been heard from him lately, Al-Qaida's de-facto "Deputy Commander" is reputed to be an unidentified Iraqi national who goes by the combat name "Abu Abdelrahman al-Iraqi." Allegedly, sitting beneath Abu Abdelrahman in Al-Qaida's chain of command is the official commander of Al-Qaida's Military Wing: another Iraqi national known as "Abu Usaid al-Iraqi" (see here and here). Neither of these individuals has been reported as killed or captured--neither by Al-Qaida nor by coalition military forces in Iraq.

2.) Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq has already angrily issued its own statement acknowledging the likely death of its lieutenant Abu Azzam in a coalition military assault in Baghdad, but nonetheless insisting: "[these are merely] endless fruitless efforts to raise the morale of their soldiers... The Mujahid Abu Azzam al-Iraqi is one of many soldiers from Al-Qaida's Committee and serves as a commander of [just] one of our Brigades operating in Baghdad." [English translation provided by Globalterroralert.com] While it is always smart to keep a healthy dose of cynicism when analyzing raw Al-Qaida propaganda, Zarqawi's group is surprisingly candid when it comes to admitting the passing of significant figures within its movement, such as Abu Anas al-Shami (a.k.a. Omar Yousef Jumah), Omar Hadeed, and Abul-Harith al-Iraqi (Mohammed Jassim al-Issawi). In fact, following the death of the legendary Abu Anas al-Shami a year ago, Zarqawi released a video on the Internet in which he confessed to being "in tears" upon learning the (sad) news.

3.) Even some statements previously issued by the Pentagon and the MNF in Iraq seem to raise questions about the notion of Abu Azzam al-Iraqi being legitimately described as Al-Qaida's "Number 2" most important official--even if we limit ourselves merely to the confines of the Iraqi capital. On July 20, 2005, the MNF in Iraq issued a statement asking for help in locating Abu Thar al-Iraqi (a.k.a. Muhammad Rabi Hadi Jassir al-Dulaymi), described as "Al-Qaida's chief bombing coordinator for Baghdad." There have been no subsequent reports from either the MNF or Al-Qaida suggesting that Abu Thar has since been killed or captured. One is left to wonder then, who is the real chief of Al-Qaida in Baghdad?

Treasury Department's FinCEN Unit Recovering From "Cyberjacked" E-Mail System

By Andrew Cochran

We were the first site to report the "cyberjacking" last Friday of the subscriber-based e-mail service used by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which administers the Bank Secrecy Act (as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act) and shares financial intelligence gathered from financial institutions with law enforcement and the intel community. Yesterday, FinCEN issued an update which further explained the steps that they are taking to rebuild their systems. The release also states that, "Since FinCEN did not collect personal information from subscribers to this service, no information, other than e-mail addresses, was compromised." Considering that numerous senior compliance officials at major financial institutions subscribed to the service, I will be looking for any news of spamming or identity theft involving the stolen e-mail addresses, as well as the results of the criminal investigation into the cyberjacking.

The most important impact of the cyberjacking has been to shut down the automated system whereby FinCEN and law enforcement request and receive information from financial institutions for use in terrorism and money laundering cases.

By Matthew Levitt

Israeli authorities announced today the arrest of an Israeli-Arab Hamas activist who played central militant, political and financing roles for the group in coordination with a "Hamas command in Saudi Arabia."

Until he was arrested last month, Yakub Muhamad Yakub Abu Etzev was in contact with senior Hamas officials in Saudi Arabia via e-mail. According to Israeli authorities, "Abu Etzev confessed that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Hamas HQ in Saudi Arabia as well as instructions that he passed on to Hamas field operatives." These funds entered the West Bank through human couriers and money changers.

The Hamas office in Saudi Arabia reportedly instructed Abu Etzev to open a "communications office" to report on developments on the ground to Hamas operatives abroad. The Hamas leaders in Saudi Arabia provided the funding for this venture, as well as funding for the families of suicide terrorists and imprisoned terrorists and a variety of Hamas institutions. Monies were often transfered under the cover of charity work.

Abu Etzev informed that Hamas' decision to participate in Palestinian elections came only after the group canvassed field operatives. This input was then forwarded to Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia. Abu Etzev himself was personally involved in the logistical preparations leading up to elections, and funded the creation of local Hamas committees in towns and villages with funds from Hamas' Saudi office.

The revelation that Hamas operates a command center in Saudi Arabia with close ties to Hamas militants executing attacks as well as the movement's political and social-welfare (dawa) operations is remarkable. But neither the fact that Hamas operatives are active in the kingdom nor the fact that Hamas receives significant amounts of funding from within the kingdom is news.

As early as 1994, Palestinian sources noted that "the widespread belief is that Hamas has received money [from] the governments of Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states," adding that such support is believed to have continued after the Persian Gulf War "as a way of punishing the PLO for its support of Iraq during the Gulf crisis." In 1997, Italian press reports cited unnamed Palestinian officials who complained, "Riyadh's help to Hamas has grown with the opening of new [financial] channels," and revealed that "over 140 billion lire has been collected in Saudi Arabia and the other oil monarchies." In September 2003, U.S. officials noted in congressional testimony that despite some success in curbing terror financing, "by no means have we cross[ed] the bridge of the issue of terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia." In testimony on efforts to target Hamas financing, a senior Treasury official noted that not only is it "not a crime to give to Hamas in Saudi Arabia," but also that "Hamas during the Hajj alone raises enormous amounts of money and send their political director there."

Individuals, charities and banks tied to the ruling class in Saudi Arabia are among the most prolific supporters of Islamist extremism, both Palestinian and global. The al-Raji family has been tied to Hamas funding, as have other members of the Saudi elite, such as Khari al Agha and Abd Al Rahim Nasrallah, who is believed to have laundered and transferred funds through charitable organizations fronting for Hamas in Europe. Nasrallah was reportedly in direct contact with Zayd Mahmoud Abd al-Rahim Salameh Zakarneh, the head of the Jenin charity committee--a central node in the Hamas dawa in the northern West Bank. Together, Zakarna and Nasrallah may have arranged for the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas. Individual contributions from Saudi Arabia were instrumental in Hamas' development of the Qassam rockets it routinely shoots into Israel from Gaza. In December 2001, Israeli authorities arrested Hamas operative Osama Zohadi Hamed Karika as he attempted to cross the Rafah border crossing at Gaza. On his person were documents detailing the development of the Qassam rockets. Under questioning, he admitted that he was on his way to Saudi Arabia to brief unidentified persons on the development of the rockets and to obtain their continued funding for the project. Karika also told his Israeli interrogators that it was in Saudi Arabia where he had personally secured initial funding for the rocket program.

Much of the above research is drawn from sections of my forthcoming book, "Exposing Hamas: Funding Terror Under the Cover of Charity" (Yale University Press, 2006).

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Lebanon asks for US and French help re terrorism

By Olivier Guitta

An FBI team, requested by Lebanese PM Fuad Siniora, just arrived in Beirut today to help solve the latest string of terrorist attacks, since Rafik Al Hariri's murder on February 14. In fact, after the attempted murder of the popular journalist May Chidiac, the Lebanese authorities have had enough. They recognize their incapacity to fight effectively terror at home and that's why on top of the FBI they requested major logistical and technical help from France. France's mission will be to strengthen the Lebanese security forces to better deal future acts of terror.
Also, interestingly Elias Murr, the Vice Prime Minister who barely escaped a few months ago a car bomb attack, revealed that Syrian general Ghazale, the de facto ruler of Lebanon before Syria's forced pullout, physically threatened him.
A few weeks ago, French president Chirac contacted major Lebanese leaders and told them that he had specific intel that their life was in danger. He then offered to fly them to Paris and protect them with French Secret Service agents. Most of the Lebanese in question including Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt accepted and stayed in Paris for about a week.

By Andrew Cochran

Abdullah Abu Azzam, the Al-Zarqawi lieutenant killed in Iraq on Sunday, is being labeled "the #2 Al Qaeda in Iraq" by the Pentagon and in media reports. Counterterrorism experts and students have learned, often the hard way, to never take claims of important tactical victories or defeats without skepticism and objective review. Evan Kohlmann is checking his sources and internet sites and will discuss Abu Azzam's place in the AZ network in a post later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, we invite you to review the AZ leadership chart that he prepared months ago (Acrobat file), which is always available in the "Counterterrorism Library" in the left sidebar and also on Evan's site. You'll notice that at the time that Evan prepared the chart, Abu Azzam held an important place in the network, but not in the innermost circle. Evan will also update his important post from September 24 on the status of the fight against the AZ network, the first time that Evan has expressed some optimism on this site about the battle.

Evan will also discuss the arrest of GSPC suspects in France and the potential threats to the Paris metro and airport. He posted about threats of attacks by "Al-Qaida in Northern Europe" on September 15, and about threats by the GSPC, with one message addressed to "our brothers in France," on September 6.

UPDATE: Steven Emerson was on Fox News this morning to discuss the Abu Azzam killing.

Balik Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf

By Zachary Abuza

On 27 February 2004, a bomb detonated on SuperFerry 14 after departing Manila, killing 194 people. Although the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) initially dismissed the claim of responsibility by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), evidence emerged that confirmed the group�s immediate claim of responsibility. It was the second most lethal terrorist attack in Asia after the Bali bombing perpetrated by Jemaah Islamiyah on 12 October 2002, and the single most deadly terrorist attack in the Philippines. Since then, Philippine security officials arrested several other Abu Sayyaf members in metro-Manila who were in the final stages of preparation for bombings. Between October and January 2005, there were three aborted bombings, including a planned attack on the US Embassy. On 14 February 2005, the ASG claimed responsibility for three near simultaneous bombings in Manila, Davao and General Santos that left 11 people dead and 136 wounded. In May 2005, Philippine officials uncovered a cache of bomb-making chemicals in a Manila warehouse.

In short, the ASG has re-entered the arena of terrorism. Although the group is thought to have only 200-300 members, Philippine National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales named the Abu Sayyaf as the �most dangerous� of all rebel groups in the country. �Compared with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the New People�s Army, the Abu Sayyaf is the most dangerous because these terrorists even volunteer to conduct attacks to win the recognition of international terrorist groups, including al-Qaida,� Gonzales said. This is hyperbole, directed at the United States government, as the primary internal security threat remains the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People�s Army. But the ASG and their ties to JI have the potential to cause instability and negative economic impacts.

Why has this brutal kidnap-for-ransom gang re-entered the fray and abandoned its 8-9 year reign of deadly, though hardly political, kidnapping? What are the endogenous and exogenous factors in explaining the Abu Sayyaf�s reinvention? What are the implications for both Philippine and regional security?

For more on the Abu Sayyaf's history, goals, and their relationship with the MILF and Jemaah Islamiyah, please see the author's report here link.

Al-Qaeda's Hurricane Lesson: Target the Oil Supply

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

There can be no doubt that our terrorist enemies have keenly watched both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. One thing they will surely seize on (as noted by Bill West, among others) is the complete inadequacy of the governmental response to Katrina -- which suggests that we are not prepared to handle the effects of a major terrorist attack. Another clear lesson is the U.S. economy's vulnerability to high oil prices.

Christopher Dickey has an excellent article in Newsweek demonstrating that our foes are cognizant that an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil and gas facilities could significantly damage the U.S. economy. He notes a shoot-out that occurred on September 6 in the Saudi Arabian city of Ad Dammam, which at the time was well below the media's radar because of Katrina's tragic aftermath. The shoot-out lasted almost 48 hours, and Saudi forces were only able to end it when they brought in light artillery; afterward, the police found "enough weapons for a couple of platoons of guerrilla fighters." But on top of that, Saudi police found documents showing that the terrorist cell "had planned major attacks on some of Saudi Arabia's key oil and gas facilities."

Dickey points out that, with the current hurricane-induced oil shortages, Saudi Arabia is "more important than ever to world oil supplies" -- and al-Qaeda knows it:

"They're watching Katrina. They're watching Rita. They're watching what it's doing to the United States," says former CIA agent Robert Baer, who has written extensively on Saudi Arabia's vulnerabilities. A few ruptured pipes could be repaired quickly, says Baer, but a concerted attack at several points could bring on the kind of nightmare scenario that U.S. officials have been dreading since the Reagan years, pushing oil prices up from their current prices in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel to well over $100 for weeks or even months.

Such an attack would have a tremendous effect on the U.S. economy. This situation deserves our attention in the coming months -- and highlights one of the many reasons we should be working to reduce our dependence on oil.

EU?s New Comprehensive Anti-Terrorism Strategy Not All That Its Cracked Up To Be!

By Victor Comras

Last week the EU Commission proposed four new measures to strengthen the EU�s counter-terrorism program. The Commission cast their proposals as a new �comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy.� But, the measures they proposed certainly lack sufficient substance to justify such billing. They include a $7 million Euro pilot project for terrorism prevention, preparedness and response; a proposal that the Commission engage all EU members as parties to the Council of Europe�s latest Convention for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, and a �Communication� (ie Statement of EU Programs) for combating violent radicalism and terrorist recruitment. Most notable in the new package is the Commission�s proposal to require the retention of electronic communication traffic data. Europe� telecom companies and other service providers had strongly opposed such measures. They were joined by several human rights groups concerned by the inroads such requirements would make on rights of privacy and other civil liberties. The proposal would require all providers of publicly available electronic communications, or a public telecommunications network, to retain data related to mobile and fixed telephony for one year and all internet communications for six months. However, the requirement does not extend to the actual content of the communications. There is also provision for reimbursing service providers for any demonstrated additional costs they may incur. This proposal still requires the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council.

Counter-terrorism authorities in a number of EU countries had pushed for even more stringent electronic communication retention rules. They argue that such measures would be of great assistance to tracking terrorists and preventing terrorist attacks. The EU Council reportedly may decide to trump the EU Commission�s proposals by adopting stronger requirements that would extend data retention for both telephonic and internet communications for up to three years. This possibility was vetted publicly at several Council meetings. See reports of the European Council of 16/17 June and, the special meeting following the July 7 London attacks.

The Commission�s new program provides only a very modest 7 million Euro for what it deems a �pilot project on prevention, preparedness and response to terrorism� These funds will be directed at implementing at least some of the programs announced by the Commission last October. Some two thirds �5.4 million Euro - will go for preparation of a future European Program for Critical Infrastructure Protection. One million Euros is being allocated for projects to enhance European expertise on terrorism. This will include funding studies on violent radicalisation and on the financing of terrorism. The Commission also proposes to create two new European networks of experts: one in the field of �violent radicalization,� and the other on the �economics of security.� Much of the remainder will also be used to support a �civic and democratic debate on �fighting terrorism, securing freedom.�� The Commission promises to consider further funding for these projects next year.

The Council of Europe�s new Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism updates and expands an earlier COE treaty adopted in 1990. It was opened for signature on May 16, 2005. The new Convention significantly tightens financial regulatory standards and implementation measures and incorporates several of FATF anti-money laundering and terrorism financing recommendations.

The Commission�s �communication� on factors contributing to violent radicalisation and terrorism recruitment carries forth a directive included in the 2004 Hague Program. It provides a basic index of pre-existing EU programs available to stem the spread of terrorist propaganda and a basic game plan to begin using these programs to better advantage. The devil here will be in the details. We mus wait and see just how effective this new proposed European public media, education and social initiative will actually be.

Madrid and London were stark wakeup calls for Europe�s leadership. Its time for the EU commission to grasp the very enormity of the tasks ahead in combating terrorism within their midst and internationally. While the modest proposals developed last week are certainly positive steps, they certainly do not merit the �comprehensive� accolade they have been given. So much more is still needed from the EU Commission, Parliament and Council, and from Europe�s national leaders, to pull the EU countries out of a general lethargy in dealing with terrorism and to get them to do their part.

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French foreign Minister officially thanked Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi!

By Olivier Guitta

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and TV star on Al Jazeera, who called for killings of Americans in Iraq, civilians or not and approves suicide bombings in Israel even against children and babies because as he put it one day they'll grow up to wear the Israel Defense Forces uniform, gave a mind boggling interview to the French Islamist website oumma.com. Incidentally, Oumma is the website used by the UOIF, the French branch of the Muslim brotherhood.
Qaradawi revealed that Philippe Douste-Blazy, French foreign minister, sent him a letter congratulating and thanking him for the release of the French journalist Florence Aubenas abducted in Iraq. Also he recalls how Michel Barnier, Douste- Blazy predecessor, came to see him to plead the case of two other French journalist kidnapped in Iraq in 2004. Qaradawi adds that he thanked Barnier at that time for France's stance in Iraq. He also called on Al Jazeera twice to ask for the release of the two French journalists in 2004 and that of Florence Aubenas in 2005.

By Matthew Levitt

Israeli security forces announced today that a West Bank Hamas cell abducted and killed an Israeli businessman from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev. After several days of searching, Sasson Nuriel's body was found this morning in an industrial zone west of Ramallah.

Just last week "moderate" Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef threatened that Hamas intended to kidnap Israeli soldiers and to continue firing Qassam missiles at Israeli communities. "All options are open," Yousef said, "including the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers to release our prisoners from Israeli prisons." Yousef insisted Hamas would not disarm, warning, "no power on earth can take our weapons from our hands." Yousef was subsequently arrested.

The kidnapping of Sasson Nuriel -- an Israeli civilian who did business with local Palestinians, not a soldier -- may also be tied to a recent meeting Hamas and Al Aksa Martyr Brigade militants reportedly held with a senior Hezbollah operative in Egypt just after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. According to Israeli officials, after Hamas blew a hole in a concrete barrier at the Egyptian border senior Hizballah official Kais Obeid flew from Beirut to Egypt where he met in the northern Sinai city of El Arish with terrorists from Gaza. Israeli intelligence officials describe Obeid as the Hezbollah contact for Palestinian terrorists in the West Ban and Gaza Strip and note his personal involvement in Hezbollah' kidnapping of Elhanan Tannenbaum.

More information is available on Kais Obeid here.

What game is Iraqi Shia Sheikh Al Khalissi playing?

By Olivier Guitta

Sheikh Jawad Al Khalessi, Shia imam of the Al Kazemiya mosque in Baghdad and General Secretary of the Iraqi National Congress, had some very "juicy" revelations. In an interview with Le Monde, he declared:
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi is dead. He is an invention of the occupying forces to divide the people of Iraq because he was killed in the north of Iraq at the onset of the war. His family in Jordan even organized a ceremony after his death. Zarqawi is an excuse for the Americans not to leave Iraq.

Also, he denied the fact that Najaf was in the hands of the Iraqi Army saying it was only a smokescreen for the media. He called for a boycott of the constitutional vote whereas Ayatollah Sistani just did the opposite.

So here you have it again: another wild rumor about Zarqawi, a Sheikh trying to get attention and an Iraqi puzzle where our friends are sometimes not the ones we think would be grateful for liberating them,i.e. the Shia community.

Olivier Guitta Joins Us As a Contributing Expert

By Andrew Cochran

We're pleased to welcome Olivier Guitta to the CT Blog as a Contributing Expert, effective today with his post below. Olivier, born in Morocco and now living near Washington, has over a decade of experience in international banking and portfolio management, and possesses broad expertise in Israel, the Arab world and European actions against terrorism. His articles have been published in numerous outlets, including the "Weekly Standard," "Middle East Quarterly," "Jerusalem Post," "FrontPage Magazine" (an excellent article on the French counter-terrorism model), and "Tech Central Station." We look forward to his articles and insights.

France is adding to her CT arsenal

By Olivier Guitta

France, who suffered from Islamic terrorism in 1986, when Hizbullah placed bombs in the streets of Paris and then the Algerian GIA did so in 1995, has focused on a strong judicial arm and impressive intelligence capability. After the 7/7 London bombings, France decided it was not enough. So, even though France has already one of the toughest anti-terrorism judicial arsenal in Europe, it is adding to it. Indeed, French newspaper Le Monde just revealed the clauses of the new anti-terrorist law due to be formally presented to the government on October 19.
Here is a rundown of the major changes:
- hold suspected terrorist without charging them for six days instead of four today.
- longer sentence for terrorist cases: 30 years instead of 20 for masterminds of terrorist plots; and 20 years instead of 10 for just helping in a terrorist enterprise.
- very fast procedure to freeze assets after a decision from the Economy Minister.
- control of individuals traveling to "risky" countries, i.e. Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Iran...
- cyber cafes are required to keep for one year all their connection datas.
- major expansion of video surveillance

First Signs of Daylight in Battle with Zarqawi in Iraq

By Evan Kohlmann

Only days after Al-Qaida announced the completion of its latest campaign of violence aimed at avenging alleged "massacres" of Sunni Muslims in Tel Afar by the U.S. and Iraqi government, there are growing indications that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his Al-Qaida acolytes may be facing the most serious political and operational challenges they have encountered since they first joined the anti-coalition insurgency in mid-2003. The deadly glut of suicide bombings that began on September 8 has undoubtedly caused destruction and chaos--but militants were neither able to undermine the anti-insurgent operation in Tel Afar nor deter Iraqi government efforts to formulate a constitution. [English translations of Al-Qaida's various claims of responsibility for recent suicide bombing attacks are now posted online at Globalterroralert.com]. Instead, renewed apparent threats from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to massacre both Shiite and Sunni "collaborators" have been warily received by many Iraqi Sunnis, leading the respected Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars to issue a statement strongly admonishing Zarqawi:

"There is no religious basis allowing you to take your revenge on the innocent while ignoring the true criminals, nor are there rules stating that the innocent should bear the consequences for the acts of criminals� it is impossible for someone who claims to rely on the laws of Allah to make his decisions based on emotions and personal grudges. Such a dangerous statement only serves the most deadly wishes of our enemies�the desire to tear apart our country and to initiate a battle amongst the faithful... The best course of action for those who came to help eliminate the foreign occupation in our land is advocacy, not killing and annihilating the perspectives of others... we would like to remind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that religion can be used to advocate and we ask him to retract all the threats he has made because they damage the image of the jihad and take away from the success of the jihadi resistance project in Iraq, and it increases the bloodshed suffered by innocent Iraqis.�

The AMS statement is indeed significant and represents compelling evidence of a real break between mainstream Sunni Iraqis and fringe Salafist extremists, including many foreign fighters drawn from across the Middle East. Within days, Al-Qaida angrily rushed to respond to the AMS criticism, first issuing a video statement from an Al-Qaida representative known as Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi. Abu Hamza adamantly insisted that Zarqawi had been misquoted:

"The [Sunni] Muslims are our family and the children of Al-Qaida who have shed their blood in the land of Mesopotamia in order to defend the word of Allah and to defend the honor and holy places of the Muslims. O� Sunni people, how is it possible for us to sacrifice your blood and bodies without sacrificing our own? And yet, we are still being accused of spreading fear amongst you, intimidating you, and shedding your blood� this is neither accepted by the laws of Allah nor the human intellect� You should be sure that you have heard the entire speech before judging it... if you had listened to the entire speech, then you would have come to realize the complete truth and the correct judgment would now be clear to you... Anyone who attempts to distinguish between Iraqis and non-Iraqis with regards to jihad in the cause of Allah and helping to determine the destiny of the nation, then he would be mistaken. The true foreigner is the one who runs away from the land of courage and rests with the oppressors who toss him their scraps and leave him to sip at the remnants of their drunken binges. Conversely, those whose blood is shed in the cause of their religion and nation, then he is a true Muslim Iraqi. Where is the blood that you have shed for the honor of the Muslim women held in prisons? May Allah be our witness, we say to you that the fingernail of any foreign mujahid who is fighting in Mesopotamia beyond Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi�may Allah protect him�is worth more than a country full of those who follow al-Sistani, al-Jaafari, al-Hakim, al-Sharastani, and Chalabi... anyone who forsakes his own country and comes to Mesopotamia in order to declare jihad in the cause of Allah and who remains steadfast in the Muslim homeland is superior to any Iraqi who runs away from battle, delivering himself into the hands of the oppressors and attempting to distinguish between the Iraqis and the non-Iraqis.�

A day later, Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq issued an official statement in response to the AMS, largely echoing the protestations of Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi:

"We have received the statement published by the Association of Muslim Scholars regarding the audio recording of our commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi... and it made us grow sad and concerned. The statement published allegations that [Abu Musab] had issued a threat to Sunnis who participate in the election. That allegation is false and the Association only took selected excerpts of the statement and construed them as a threat� We were amazed by the statement from the Association and their point of views� [especially] at a time when the Islamic nation and the people of Mesopotamia are anxiously awaiting fatwas, lectures, and statements urging the faithful to fight on, revealing the disbelief of those who refuse the message of Islam and trouble us with their tyranny, and to reveal their increasing crimes perpetrated on the Sunni people�including killing them, disgracing them, and stealing their possessions. We ask the Association of Muslim Scholars�which serves a key role as the guide for the Islamic nation�where is your statement that aims at ridding us of the crusaders and urges the faithful to declare jihad and sacrifice their most precious possessions in the cause of Allah and our religion? �As a result of your lectures, you have divided us from our brothers who were eager to be with us. However, your lectures only made them stay away� In a time where endless condolences� are pouring forth for the evil dead people who dead on the bridge [near Al-Azamiyya], no one is weeping for those who were bombed and buried alive�such as our mothers and children in Al-Qaim�nor for those whose homes were demolished and honor taken away�such as our brothers and sisters in Tel Afar. Therefore, be patient, O� Sunni people�even if your clerics will not defend you, then your righteous sons will still avenge you, if Allah wills it... In regard to the term �brotherhood�, we do not understand the purpose of you using it in your statement. Are you talking about brotherhood in faith� or nationality? Are the Muslim brothers in Indonesia considered as your brethren or not? If everyone is your brother, then who is considered an infidel in your eyes?"

Meanwhile, a new report on the insurgency in Iraq has been published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The report concludes that foreign fighters comprise merely between 4% and 10% of the total number of insurgents, and that Saudi Arabian nationals are only a small portion of even that minority contingent. The somewhat unusual results turned up by the CSIS report seem largely attributable to the principle sources cited in the report: Saudi intelligence memoranda. If the authors at CSIS--including the distinguished Anthony Cordesman--had done further field research, they would have discovered that Saudi authorities are vigorously attempting to suppress any information leaking out about Saudis who have gone to fight with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. For instance, researchers at CSIS could have contacted the family of Walid al-Shamri, a Saudi Al-Qaida operative who blew himself up in a June 15, 2004 suicide bombing attack on a crowded Baghdad street that killed at least five foreign contractors, including two Britons, a Frenchmen, and and an American. According to al-Shamri's family, they were specifically contacted by Saudi authorities and instructed not to discuss their son's fate with anyone else. As if to underscore the errors in the latest CSIS report, Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq has published the biography of yet another Saudi Arabian national killed during recent fighting in western Iraq: Abu al-Laith al-Najdi (a.k.a. Sulaiman al-Ghanim). According to the biography, Abu al-Laith fought previously in Afghanistan and later was slain alongside most wanted Saudi Al-Qaida leader Abdallah al-Rashood during a U.S. airstrike in the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim.

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Spain and Germany Feud Over EU Arrest Warrant

By Victor Comras

Spanish judicial authorities have finally reacted to last July's decision of the German Constitutional Court to release suspected Madrid Bombing suspect Mamoun Darkanzali (see my earlier blog) rather than extradite him to Spain under a Spanish issued EU Arrest Warrant. The EU Arrest Warrant was established in June 2002 by the EU Justice Ministers to provide a fast track method for extradition and cross border judicial assistance in terrorist and other high profile criminal cases. The European warrant was designed to speed up the cumbersome extradition procedures which could take up to 270 days. The German Constitutional Court July ruling held that the German legislation adopted to support the EU Arrest Warrant was "unconstitutional." Based on that finding Mamoun Darkanzali was released from German prison. Spanish authorites have now indicated that they will not honor German extradition requests based on the EU Arrest Warrant Arrangement. They will require German extradition requests to Spain to be handled through the old and time consuming, paper intensive, procedures. This means that German authorities must file the necessary judicial documentation through formal extradition channels within 40 days of their initial request asking Spanish authorities to detain suspected German fugitives. Failure to do so would result in their release. Around 50 people are currently being held in Spanish jails under extradition requests from Germany.

Senior U.S. Officials Criticize International Failure to Fight Terrorist Financing

By Andrew Cochran

Speaking today at a meeting sponsored by the IMF and World Bank of numerous finance ministers and treasury officials, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official criticized the international failure to stop terrorist financing. Daniel Glaser told the group of officials that the failure to implement the U.N. Security Council resolutions to stop al Qaeda and other terrorist financing "is probably the least understood and most poorly implemented component" of anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls worldwide. worldwide. "These failures range not only from countries that do not have the capacity to block terrorist assets, but also to entire regions of the world that do not even attempt to implement this UN requirement (emphasis mine)...too many countries have taken little or no action to block the assets of other terrorist groups as specifically required by UNSCR 1373." This follows an op-ed on August 31 by the top U.S. Treasury official in this area, Under Secretary Stuart Levey (Acrobat file), in which he wrote, "Some governments, in Europe and elsewhere, have refrained from bringing terror supporters to the Security Council's attention, even when these individuals were known to be supporting al-Qaeda within their own borders. Additionally, too many countries limit compliance simply to adding designated names to a domestic "list" with no mechanisms to ensure that the sanctions are actually being enforced."

We've been highly critical of the continued failure of our "allies" to take real action (see these Doug Farah and Victor Comras posts as examples). It's good to see bold criticism by Bush Administration officials of our "allies" who talk a good game but won't "walk the walk." Hopefully that will be backed up by action, especially when we see clear examples of those same allies, such as the Saudis, when they allow its citizens to provide material support for terrorism live on their own TV.

Saudis Soliciting Funds for Jihad, Cont'd

By Matthew Levitt

Andy's blog earlier today presents very disturbing evidence that despite some positive measures Saudi officials still have far to go when it comes to controlling the funding and promotion of radical Islamic extremism within the Kingdom. But speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations this week, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal depicted the Kingdom as the victim of "an unjustified intense onslaught" and a "scapegoat" of the 9/11 tragedy.

Over 18 months ago I wrote a piece on the status of Saudi efforts -- real and promised -- to curb terror financing from within the Kingdom. From the August television program Andy highlighted it seems clear not only that the infamous "Accounts 98" still exist but that the pseudo-governmental Muslim World League remains at the forefront of efforts by official religious leaders to promote violent jihad.

My article, Charity Begins in Riyadh, was written a year and half ago - but it could have been written this week.

U.S. Congressman Proposes High-Tech Defense to Prevent Terrorist Infiltration

By Andrew Cochran

Rep. Rick Renzi, U.S. Congressman from the 1st District of Arizona, is proposing the deployment of high-tech equipment along the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent infiltration by terrorists. Rep. Renzi represents the largest district, geographically, in the U.S. (except for those districts covering an entire state) and serves on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee and Financial Services Committee. Rep. Renzi's announcement on his "Red Zone Defense" proposal states, "Along with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), drones, ground sensors and tower sensors, we need aerostat balloons equipped with night-vision and infrared technology and other intelligence payloads to see into Mexico looking for illegal aliens before they get to the border. This capability will provide a constant stream of real time intelligence, which can then be down-linked to a multi-agency command center." He also notes the volume of terrorist-related border crossings: "In fact, thousands of these special interest aliens (illegal immigrants from terror-related countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and even Iraq) have been apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol this year, and this number continues to climb."

The use of this type of equipment in Jerusalem and Fallujah have sharply reduced the number of terrorist attacks in those cities. Our own citizens deserve nothing less than the same equipment and devotion of resources.

U.S. Treasury Department's FinCEN E-Mail List "Cyberjacked" and Abused (UPDATED)

By Andrew Cochran

The e-mail list used by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to send announcements was "cyberjacked" and abused by an outsider this morning. The outsider sent the following message to the FinCEN e-mail list:

go away from iraq
takeback your monsters (army)
you killed my father and mother
what you want???
i know (oil)

and followed the text with two pictures supposedly from Iraq. FinCEN quickly sent a new message to its e-mail list to disregard the first message and that it is investigating the origin of the bad e-mail. As of this writing, the FinCEN site for subscribing to e-mail announcements is closed. UPDATE at noon: FinCEN issued a press release saying "Bank Secrecy Act data, and all other sensitive information maintained by FinCEN, was in no way, shape or form compromised by this incident. We have contacted the appropriate law enforcement authorities to ensure a prompt and thorough investigation."

Saudi Official Solicits Funds on TV For Terrorists - And Nobody Cares?!

By Andrew Cochran

MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) regularly provides stunning proof of the explicit, shameless intentions of terrorists and their supporters through translations of tapes and writings. Yesterday they dropped one into our laps that ought to enrage anybody who has heard the claims of Saudi government officials about their "progress" in fighting terror emanating from the Kingdom, and the support in Washington for their claims (generated by their paid lobbyists). I quote from the MEMRI dispatch:

An August 29, 2005 program on Saudi Iqra TV was devoted to supporting Jihad in Palestine. The program host began by telling all Saudis that they must donate and explained how to do so. A caption then appeared on the screen: "Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Quds Intifada, Account No. 98, a joint account at all Saudi banks." A moderator stated that "Jihad is the pinnacle of Islam" and explained that the funds would go directly to those waging Jihad, where it would "help them carry out this mission." The program included the secretary-general of the Saudi government's Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission, Sheikh Abdallah Basfar, who explained why it was an "obligation" for all Muslims to support Jihad. He also promised that "all of the funds sent via the known charities and organizations" would reach "your Muslim brothers." TO VIEW THIS CLIP VISIT: (link)

I have some questions about this: (1) Why does the Saudi government allow Sheikh Basfar to publicly solicit funds for "jihad," a.k.a. terrorism, on TV? (2) If Saudi authorities won't arrest this man for "material support" of terrorism, whom would they arrest for supporting terrorism, and what is the legal standard? (3) Why does the Saudi government continue to allow their banks to collect funds for terrorists? (4) Why should Americans believe any claims of "progress" against terrorism made by the Saudi government when they let a Saudi official blatently solicit funds on TV for terrorism and then allow their banks to funnel the money to terrorists?

By Victor Comras

Senator Shelby, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, used the Nomination Hearing for new Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorism Financing Patrick O�Brien to express his concern that the US is still not doing enough to stem the flow of funds to Iraqi insurgents and terrorist groups overseas. Some of these funds, he said, may even come from US sources. In written questions following the hearing he focused on continuing weaknesses associated with correspondent accounts, suspicious transaction reports, and due diligence. He put Treasury on notice that it was due time for it to finalize its BSA Section 312 regulations and to take steps to rationalize and revalue the use of suspicious transaction reports. The reader will recall that Section 312 requires regulations to tighten due diligence requirements over correspondent accounts or private banking accounts held by US institutions for non US persons, especially offshore and shell banks. Treasury initially proposed such regulations in May 2002, and Interim Final Rules, now in effect, were issued in July 2002. But these rules have turned out to be a much more controversial matter than originally envisaged, and have provoked the ire of banking managers across the country.

The rationale behind the proposed Treasury 312 regulations is to use expanded due diligence requirements to mitigate the risks that US accounts are used or manipulated by persons working through foreign financial institutions to mask their money laundering, terrorism financing or for other crime-related activities. There are a number of overseas jurisdictions that lack effective AML/Terrorism financing controls. Financial institutions in these countries, which maintain correspondent accounts in the United States pose special due diligence problems. Such banks can provide cover directly (or through nesting accounts) for their own customers, who might otherwise be closed off from using US banking facilities. The risk is that the accounts maintained by the foreign bank can then be used by them anonymously, thus avoiding the US banks due diligence measures. Congressional concern over such use of correspondent accounts stems in part from an extensive congressional study conducted prior to 9/11. It showed that US banks had failed to take adequate measures to prevent such accounts from being used for money laundering purposes.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (�CSBS�), a national organization of state officials responsible for chartering, regulating and supervising the nation�s 6,868 state-chartered commercial and savings banks and 419 state-licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks, was one of the first groups to complain about the new 312 requirements. They expressed strong concerns that the new regulations arens, if implemented would impose undue burdens without gaining any meaningful AML/terrorism financing benefit. The regulations were too broad, they said, and had to be more carefully and narrowly crafted.

�The proposed definition goes beyond traditional notions of correspondent banking and will encompass a wide range of businesses that do not engage in �correspondent banking� activities or maintain �correspondent accounts� with U.S. financial institutions. In addition, the accounts, activities, sources of funds and ownership of these businesses are already covered by the �know your customer� policies and procedures of U.S. financial institutions. The final rule should carefully weigh the added costs and responsibilities of implementing enhanced due diligence procedures for these non-traditional types of �foreign financial institutions.� to ensure that the additional law enforcement benefits will result in effective and meaningful anti-money laundering strategies.�

The number of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed in recent years has burgeoned beyond proportion. FinCen had to wade through some 14.8 million reports from financial institutions last year, including 663,655 SARs, an increase of over 250,000 in one year. Most of these are generated by computer programs and subjected to only minimal manual review. Only a very small handful of these SARs actually lead to any further investigation, giving rise to concern that the �wheat is being lost in the chafe� (See my earlier Blog). Shelby wants to know if there isn�t a more effective way for banks to monitor and indicate their concerns with overseas related transactions. These are tasks that the new Assistant Secretary for Terrorism Financing will have to address off the bat.

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UN Security Council Adds Abdul Latif Saleh to Sanctions List

By Andrew Cochran

When the U.S. Treasury Department designated Dr. Abdul Latif Saleh, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, for providing support to bin Laden and al Qaida, Doug Farah asked whether the UN Security Council would follow suit. Thankfully, the Council's Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee added him last Tuesday, as announced yesterday. The Sanctions Committee also made a few editorial changes and corrections to existing names on the list, which is important if you need exact names for your Patriot Act/BSA compliance list of PEPs ("politically exposed persons").

Its time to Put Yasin Al Kadi Out of Business!

By Victor Comras

This note follows up on Doug Farah�s and Evan Kohlmann�s excellent posts concerning the US Treasury designation of Dr. Abdul Latif Saleh, a close business associate of Saudi billionaire Yasin Al Kadi (aka al-Qadi). This designation is quite intriguing. Saleh worked out of Tirana, Albania where he was a business partner and close associate of Al-Kadi. During the days of the Bosnian War and subsequent Kosovo conflict, Albania was an active staging ground for radical salafist groups that sought to recruit for Al Qaeda and to insert their influence and force into these conflicts. Saleh's designation comes some 14 months after he came to the attention of Albanian authorities. Working on a tip from US authorities, Albanian police moved quickly in June 2004 to freeze a 2.4 million Euro account in Saleh�s name. The money was about to be transferred to a certain Jordanian, Hamza Abu Ratah, about whom little is yet known. The Albanian authorities also seized several apartment buildings owned by Al Qadi. Last June Al-Qadi challenged these seizures in Albanian court, but was rebuffed. He proved more successful in Turkish courts which allowed him to retain control over his Turkish based companies (See my blog on this subject.

This latest designation should be viewed as aimed as much at Al-Kadi as Saleh, who apparently acted as one of his agents. Al Kadi, it should be recalled was one of the first al Qaeda financier�s to be identified and designated after 9/11. He was the founder and key financial supporter of Muwafaq and its Blessed Relief branch charities that were implicated directly in financing for the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. But, despite designation by the US Treasury Department and the UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, Al Kadi has been able to run his worldwide business empire as if such designation made little matter. The UN designation requires that all countries

�Freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of these individuals, including funds derived from property owned or controlled, directly or indirectly by them or by persons action on their behalf or at their direction, and to ensure that neither these nor any other funds, financial assets or economic resources are made available directly or indirectly, for such person�s benefit, by their nationals� See UN Security Council Resolution 1617 (2005)

But these restrictions have apparently done little to slow Al-Kadi down. Before 9/11, Al Kadi's extensive business empire extended globally. He also had extensive interests in the United States. Some of these, like his interest in the Boston Software firm PTECH only came to light after 9/11. PTECH remains under local and federal investigation. Other US investments reported included Global Mining Resources, in Nevada. Al Kadi reported continues as Chairman of Saudi National Consulting Center and Qordoba Real Estate Co. based in Saudi Arabia, as well as chairman of Caravan Co. based in Turkey. He is also a board member of Himont Chemical based in Pakistan and Cariba Bank based in Kazakhstan. At least until recently, al-Kadi served as Vice President of the Saudi Arabian company M.M. Badkook Co. He also reported had extensive holdings in South Africa, and other areas of Africa. He continues to run a number of these business from his offices in Jedda. When, if ever, will the UN Sanctions put him out of business?

Youssef Nada Wins Again! But What About the UN Sanctions?

By Victor Comras

Incredibly a Swiss Court has ordered the Swiss Federation to pay 123,125.10 Swiss Francs ($96,000) to Youssef Nada as damages with regard to the Swiss Federal Prosecutor�s Office failure to pursue its criminal case against Nada. The basis for the judgment award is that Nada was unjustly prejudiced by having criminal charges brought against him and then dropped. We are told that this financial award is within the normal range provided to the accused in such cases. Nada�s lawyer, Counselor Fritz Schiesser, had asked for considerably more. He filed suit for such damages last June following the decision of the Prosecutor�s Office to drop its terrorism financing case against Nada (see my earlier blog on that topic). The investigation against Nada had been opened in 2001. The Prosecutor�s Office had indicated that it might subsequently re-file the charges against Nada. This has not yet occurred. Apparently the Prosecutor�s office continues to face difficult barriers inhibiting it from converting intelligence information into court usable evidence.

But, this judicial award in favor of Nada raises another important collateral question concerning the application of UN sanctions. Nada was designated by the UN�s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee for having provided funding to Al Qaeda and associated entities. There is a long line of UN resolutions which require all countries to �Freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of these individuals�and to ensure that neither these nor any other funds, financial asets or economic resources are made available directly or indirectly, for such person�s benefit, by their nationals or by any persons within their territory.� It would appear from this that the Swiss government should ensure that if payment of such an award is actually contemplated, that it be paid only into a blocked account. Any question of payment against Nada�s legal expenses would require an exception from the UN Al Qaeda and Sanctions Committee. It will be interesting to see what really happens here.

Senior U.S. Congressman & Russian Official Comment on Terrorist Funding Through Afghan Drugs

By Andrew Cochran

A senior member of the U.S. Congress and the director of Russia's drug enforcement agency have commented in recent days on the flow of drugs from Afghanistan that is used to finance terrorism. Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the U.S. House International Relations Committee, sent this letter (Acrobat file) to Secretary of State Rice on September 8, in which he wrote of the issue of "the emerging and dangerous growth of the illicit drug trade in Iraq, especially with heroin, now originating and pouring out of nearby Afghanistan...We know that illicit drugs fuel and finance terrorism in Afghanistan, where the opium and heroin in the region originates. It passes out through terrorist-controlled areas, is taxed by them, and helps finance and arm our terrorist enemies, including the Taliban, Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), and al-Qaeda, who are all attacking American troops and seeking to destoy the new Afghan democracy." An article in yesterday's "Washington Times" quoted a former Pentagon official: "Iraq has become a transit route for drugs, which are sold in both Europe and in Iraq and are used to further destabilize Iraq by funding anti-coalition militant activities in Iraq." Chairman Hyde requested that Secretary Rice fund a special study of the drug situation in Iraq, to be conducted by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Chairman Hyde's concern was echoed today by Russian official Viktor Cherkesov during a meeting with the UNODC. Cherkesov reported that Russia seized a record 3.9 metric tons of heroin in 2004. The UNODC reports that the land dedicated to heroin production actually fell this year by 21% from 2004.

Newly Designated Terrorist Worked as Saudi Diplomat in Albania (UPDATED)

By Evan Kohlmann

Yesterday, as my colleague Doug Farah noted below, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Dr. Abdul Lateef Saleh pursuant to Executive Order 13224 for providing support to Usama bin Laden and al Qaida. According to the Treasury, Saleh is "closely associated with Usama bin Laden" and received $600,000 from UBL in order to "encourage the establishment of extremist groups in Albania." Furthermore:

"Saleh is closely associated with a number of non-governmental organizations in Albania with links to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization tied to al Qaida. Saleh founded and organized an Albanian jihadist organization that has been financed by the Al Haramain Foundation, a non-governmental organization linked to al Qaida... Al� Haramain recruited members from this organization, which Saleh directly assisted in vetting... In 1998, six individuals were arrested in Albania, two of which were tried and executed in Egypt as perpetrators of terrorist attacks. In their testimony, the individuals said it was Saleh who had helped them come to Albania. Saleh was identified as 'the one who had helped them in every respect, beginning with picking them up at the airport.'"

However, the story does not end there. In fact, according to at least one document translated and released by the Al-Haramain Foundation, Dr. Abdul Lateef Saleh was engaging in various activities in support of Usama Bin Laden and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad while simultaneously serving as the Charge D'Affaires of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tirana, Albania. In a memorandum dated May 1, 1999 under the letterhead of the Saudi embassy in Tirana, Dr. Abdul Lateef Saleh addressed Sheikh Salih bin Abdulaziz Al-alsheikh (the Vice Minister of Islamic Affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and then-"General Supervisor" of the Al-Haramain Foundation) seeking "to express my appreciation and praise for the efforts of Al-Haramain Foundation in the Albanian Republic... We thank you for the cooperation of the Foundation in Albania with the Embassy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd Ibn Abdul-Aziz--may Allah preserve him. If anything, this indicates the deep ties among Saudi society both governmentally and with its people." Saleh signed the letter under the official title "Charge de Affaires" at the Saudi embassy.

Click to view document c/o Globalterroralert.com

[*UPDATE*]: In the interests of full reporting, I've received a message from my friend and esteemed colleague in Europe Jean-Charles Brisard who suggests that his research indicates the possibility of two different Abdul Lateef Saleh's working with Al-Haramain in Albania. JCB also notes:

"An important issue that is not mentioned in the US Treasury designation is the involvement of Saleh in the [International Islamic Relief Organization] IIRO in Albania, prior to joining the Muwafaq Foundation. Saleh was indeed the medical supervisor for the IIRO for years. He opened several hospitals and mosques for the Mujahideen in the country, including in Kukes, a known base and training camp for the Arab fighters."

U.S. Designates Important bin Laden/Qadi Associate

By Douglas Farah

The U.S. Treasury Department today designated Dr. Abdul Latif Saleh, a business associate of Yasin Kadi and funder of al Qaeda, as a Specially Designated terrorism sponsor. While the number of designations by Treasury has dwindled sharly since early 2002, this was an important step in dealing with the Qadi group that has continued terrorist financial operations in the Balkans, according to U.S. government officials. Qadi was designated in October 2001, and, as one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest and most prominent businessmen, has continued to deny any ties to terrorism. The Treasury Department announcement can be read here.

What makes Saleh interesting is that he is tied to the "charitable" al Haramain Foundation, one of the primier Saudi charities that is officially "non-governmental," but in fact closely tied to senior officials. The other interesting aspect is his work in Albania, where he founded a radical Islamic group bent on wreaking havoc in the Balkans. According to the designation, Osama bin Laden provided $600,000 to Saleh to set up his Albanian activities. Albania has become a stronghold of organized crime and terrorism in recent years. Officials in the Balkans view Albania as the most corrupted and criminalized state in the region, which is indeed saying alot. So desgnation's statement that the Qadi group continues to operate there, unimpeded, when almost all legitimate businessmen have been driven out.

The designation says Saleh was a partner of Qadi in several businesses in Albania. Qadi also has run several businesses in Bosnia that officials have linked financing of al Qaeda. This Albania-Bosnia network never went out of business, and continues to be a serious concern to intelligence officials in the region. NATO and United Nations forces continue to reduce their presence and few outside the immediate region seem to be paying any attention to the al Qaeda threat there. The network, and its access to easy money, investments, money laundering and banking services, should be of serious concern, especially since senior leaders of the jihadi movements from the early 1990s are now in positions of signficant power (i.e. Hassan Cengic and others).

The designation is useful, although, like most designated individuals, he likely had no money in the United States to freeze. What will be much more useful is if he is added to the consolidated United Nations list, making the freezing of his assets worldwide mandatory. Without that, and global enforcement of the measure, the designation will be like that of Yousef Nada, Idriss Nasreddin and countless others who continue to live lives of luxury and freedom despite being globally designated as terrorist financiers.

Post-Katrina Environment Opens Window for Relaxation of Bank Secrecy Act Burdens

By Dennis Lormel

Last week Andy Cochran posted about the post-Katrina balancing act between providing regulatory relief to Katrina-affected banks and customers and the Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirements (as toughened by the USA PATRIOT Act). Now the balance is tilted towards the regulatory relief side, with the regulators and key Congressmen ready to help Katrina-area banks and make a significant reduction in reporting requirements for all financial institutions. On September 15, the Federal Reserve Board reiterated the guidance first given on September 2 that "The Federal Reserve encourages depository organizations to use nondocumentary verification methods for affected customers that may not be able to provide standard identification documents, as permitted under the regulation." With respect to broader relief, a U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee will hold a hearing this Thursday on the relief bill proposed by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). It appears that the bill will include an agreement between the regulators and the industry that financial institutions won't have to file currency transaction reports (CTRs) for transactions with businesses that have been customers for at least 12 months ("seasoned customers"). The House Financial Services Committee has passed regulatory relief bills for financial institutions before, but they haven't been agreed to by the Senate. In the post-Katrina climate, with concerns about nationwide economic growth added to the desire to help the affected area's businesses, the Hensarling bill has a much better chance of success.

Congress Should Unite ICE & CBP (Amended Title)

By Michael Cutler

Today's Washington Times includes an article about a recent report released by the DHS Office of the Inspector General that was critical of the current structure, in which two separate agencies share the responsibilities for enforcing the immigration laws of this country, and consequently, dividing the mission of border-security in half.

CBP (Customs and Border Protection) includes the Border Patrol and the inspectors at ports of entry. The current structure of "One face at the border" means that employees who had formerly worked as Immigration Inspectors, Customs Inspectors and Agriculture Inspectors now do all of these jobs. In my opinion this is not the best way to have so many complex and critical issues dealt with. In medicine and other professions, we have specialists who deal with a narrow area because of the complexities of the myriad issues they must deal with. These three missions are sufficiently complex and different that in my opinion, they should never have been merged this way.

ICE, (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) handles the issue of the enforcement of customs laws and regulations and immigration laws and regulations from within the interior of the United States. A bureaucratic barrier, in my opinion, and apparently in the opinion of the Inspector General, has been erected between the two agencies that are supposed to secure the borders of the United States. I would also recommend that the enforcement of customs laws and regulations and immigration laws and regulations are so complex and critical to our nation's security that while it is good to have various agencies with separate areas of jurisdiction to work cooperatively, (I was a member of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force). It must be recognized that these areas of law enforcement are so different that it is ineffective to have all of these laws to be enforced by the same employees.

By Bill West

In January 2004, I wrote an article published in FrontPage magazine concerning the issue of terrorist aliens slipping through the Government�s national security immigration net and becoming naturalized US citizens. That had been a problem going on for many years, due in large part to the inefficiencies and mismanagement inherent in the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the lack of communication and coordination among the various Intelligence and law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism matters. Notwithstanding those problems, a few good cases were made, with successful investigations and prosecutions being realized.

The dissolution of the INS and creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the sub-component Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the immigration investigative agency promised to ensure better investigative coordination and enforcement of these kind of cases. The immigration benefit function was retained under DHS, but structured within a separate agency known as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). CIS is the agency solely responsible for processing and adjudicating naturalization applications, although ICE is responsible for investigating suspected violations of immigration law related to such applications, such as fraud, upon referral from CIS.

Those referrals, as it was when INS existed, are often the result of the expertise of the Adjudicators processing the naturalization applications catching fraud indicators in the paperwork or in the interviews they conduct. Unfortunately, even the most experienced and well-trained Adjudicators can be overwhelmed by workload, especially when the institutional process favors backlog reduction over quality adjudication. And, notwithstanding whatever rhetoric came out of the old INS and is now coming from the new CIS, backlog reduction has always been one of the top priorities. Pushing (and in reality approving) large numbers of naturalization applications is what led to the disaster known as �Citizenship USA� in the mid-1990s under the Clinton Administration, wherein thousands of unqualified aliens, including convicted felons, were naturalized.

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

In light of the recently uncovered terrorist plot that was hatched in the California state prison system, my August 25 post "Radical Indoctrination in the U.S. Prisons" was designed to shed light on the kind of radical Islamic literature that has made its way into the American prison system. That blog post has been expanded into an article that just came out in the new print edition of the Weekly Standard. Since the article isn't yet available to non-subscribers at the Standard's website, I post it below.

Wahhabi Prison Fellowship: The teaching of jihad in American penitentiaries.

by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Weekly Standard, Sept. 26, 2005, Volume 11, Issue 2

ON AUGUST 31, FOUR men were charged with participation in a terrorist plot hatched in a California prison. The six-count indictment describes a conspiracy to attack military and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area, including military bases and recruitment centers, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate, and El Al airline facilities. It also spotlights a problem that has surfaced repeatedly since 9/11: that of jihadist indoctrination in prisons and jails.

The roots of this latest alleged conspiracy reach back to 1997, when Kevin James, an inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, founded Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), an organization promoting his radical interpretation of Islam. James required members to take an oath of obedience to him and swear not to disclose the existence of JIS. According to the indictment, James "preached the duty of JIS members to target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or 'infidels,' including the United States Government and Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel." James's teaching apparently found sympathetic ears. The plot was uncovered after former CSP-Sacramento inmate Levar Washington was arrested this July for a string of gas station robberies, and a search of his apartment turned up extremist literature and documents listing the addresses of intended terrorist targets.

While some Muslim advocacy groups deny that extremist indoctrination is occurring in prisons, the evidence continues to mount. Muktar Said Ibrahim, arrested in the attempted bombing of London's Underground on July 21, reportedly converted to Islam while incarcerated, as did attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid before him. And students of the case of former gang member Jose Padilla, accused of being part of a "dirty bomb" plot, consider relevant the time he spent behind bars just before his conversion.

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Newslinks

Domestic militants harder to profile: experts

U.S. Adds Two Firms in Gaza to Terror List - Islamic National Bank and Al-Aqsa Television

Basque Group Killed Officer in Shootout, France Says

Venezuela asks for details of charges in ETA case

U.S. Woman Charged in Terror Plot Pleads Not Guilty

'Jihad Jane' pleads not guilty - 2nd Philly-linked terror suspect takes a plea

Arrests Halt U.N. Talks With Taliban

Dismantling of Saudi-CIA Web site illustrates need for clearer cyberwar policies

Key al Qaeda operative killed in US strike in North Waziristan - Sadam Hussein Al Hussami, AKA Ghazwan al Yemeni

U.N. Drops Muslim Brotherhood Figure From 'Terrorist Finance' List - Youssef Nada

Former CIA counter-terrorism officer explains how he ignited a controversy over waterboarding - John Kiriakou

Azerbaijan detains extremists plotting attacks

"JihadJane" said to have confessed - Colleen LaRose

Drone Strike Kills Senior Qaeda Leader in Pakistan - Hussein al-Yemeni

Yemen-American imam calls for US Muslim revolt - Anwar al Aulaqi

N.Va. men in Pakistan charged with 6 counts in terror case

Al-Qaeda crippled as leaders stay in hiding, CIA chief says

(Pakistan) Americans have direct access to Taliban No. 2 - Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

AP: Americans who have been charged or suspected of terror-related activities over the past year

Eric Holder: US does not expect to capture Osama bin Laden alive

Who's Abu Yahya Mujahideen Al-Adam?

Chicago man to plead guilty in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks: David Headley had been cooperating with authorities

(Algeria) Droukdel possibly out as leader of AQIM: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalek Droukdel appears to have been replaced

Irish extend arrests of 7 over Swede murder plot

Aide: Karzai 'very angry' at Taliban boss' arrest

(Pakistan) Huge cache of explosives seized in Islamabad, Lahore

(Indonesia) Killed terrorist suspect in Aceh convicted in Aussie embassy bombing

Yemen kills Qaeda chief in fresh air strikes - Jamil Nasser Abdullah al-Ambari

Afghan held peace talks with captured Taliban boss

Bin Laden's son calls on Iran to free his siblings

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(Yemen) NJ-born Al-Qaida suspect tricked, killed guard - Sharif Mobley

A Tale of Two Taliban Reveals U.S. Afghan Dilemma - former Guantanamo detainees Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul and Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef

(India) Mumbai police arrest men 'planning terror strikes'

Suspected ETA member arrested in London - Garikoitz Ibarlucea Murua

Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants

Al Qaeda suspect's work at nuclear sites prompts call for probe

(Afghanistan) Blast kills Pakistani national in Afghanistan: police

Afghanistan eases ban on news coverage of raids

(Afghanistan) Explosions across Afghanistan's Kandahar; 30 dead

Afghanistan's new great game: The undeclared wars within the war

(Afghanistan) Taliban: Kandahar bombings a 'warning' to NATO

Pakistan helicopter attack 'kills 13 militants'

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(Iraq) US soldier killed in central Iraq

Israel captures senior Hamas militant in West Bank

Yemen suspect tricked guards

Sahara states to hold talks on tackling al Qaeda

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(Philippines) Journalist murdered in Sth Philippines

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U.S. Woman Held in Plot Is Released, Family Says - Jamie Paulin-Ramirez

Three Released in Ireland Terror Case

.For the Love of Islam: A Second American Woman Is Arrested in Cartoonist Case - Jamie Paulin-Ramirez

Opinion: Afghan Prosecutors Key to Beating Taliban. Establishing a Judicial System Afghans Can Trust Must Be Priority.

Bomb blast kills six civilians in Afghanistan

Blasts in Pakistan show pattern of insurgent resilience

Pakistan militants attack checkpoint

U.S. citizen accused in Yemen killing had been under FBI watch

(Spain) Venezuela-bound ETA suspect held in Portugal - Andoni Zengotitabengoa

(UK) 'Terrorist British Airways worker planned to take advantage of strike':A British Airways worker who allegedly wanted to be a suicide bomber has been accused of offering to take advantage of the airline's approaching strike to join the cabin crew - Rajib Karim: " Sources say that Karim's brother has been arrested in the Yemen"

Internet making it easier to become a terrorist: 'JihadJane' and other U.S. suspects don't need militant training camps, officials say. They just go online.

Jailed Jordanian Cleric Is a Poster Boy for Al Qaeda Recruiters - Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Tahawi

Al-Qaida vet 'takes over Somali jihadists' - Fazul Abdullah Mohammed

Indonesia crackdown may have foiled major attack

Friend: Suspected US al-Qaida Member Grew Radical - Sharif Mobley worked at nuclear plants in NJ

Al Qaeda link, a gun in hand: Jersey man held in Yemen - Sources: Sharif Mobley met Anwar al Aulaqi

Interview: 'My Life With the Taliban' - Translators of autobiography of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan and former Guantanamo detainee

Complaints Persist as US Frees Afghan Detainees

US District Court Sends Summonses to N. Korean Foreign Minister - DC cases stem from the alleged abduction of a missionary who was aiding N. Korean defectors in China and alleged North Korean weapons sales to Hezbollah

'Jihad Jane' Exposes Web's Dark Side

An Awlaki Link for Jihad Jane? via IPT Blog

Hamas Releases British Journalist

Yemen Reportedly Holding U.S. Terror Suspect - Sharif Mobley

South Jersey Man Accused of Terror Attacks: Sources say Sharif Mobley may be linked to al-Qaeda and is accused of shooting Yemeni police guards - Sharif Mobley, 26, of Buena Borough, N.J. is accused of going on a shooting rampage in a Yemeni hospital on Monday, according to sources

No-Fly List Doubles After Christmas Attack: 2,600 New Additions to Government's List Include Yemeni Associates of Suspected Christmas Day Bomber

Bali bomber led new terrorist gang - After Dulmatin's death, seeking terrorist cell's last at-large

Russia: Militants formally arrested over Russian train bombing - 6 other militants, including Alexander Tikhomirov AKA Said Buryatsky, were killed.

Spain: Aid worker snatched by al Qaeda freed - AQIM still holds 2 Spanish workers kidnapped in Mauritania

(Sweden) 'Jihad Jane' visited Sweden to plan attack - Also, in Swedish, Dagens Nyheter extensive coverage

Why the Jihad Jane Case is a Win for the Patriot Act

(UK) British Airways employee faces terrorism charges Rajib Karim advised foreign terrorists on airport security measures, including suspicion scans, liquid allowances, and computer systems, prosecutors alleged

'JihadJane' suspect dropped out before high school, married at 16

(Indonesia) Police Kill Bali Nightclub Bombing Suspect - Dulmatin

Suspect's Death Leads to Questions on Indonesia's Border Security - Dulmatin

Behind the scenes, crafting the US no-fly list

'Jihad Jane's' Arrest Raises Fears About Homegrown Terrorists: Experts Say Suburban Pennsylvania Woman Was Easy to Find, and There Could be More Like Her

Eritrean pleads not guilty to aiding terrorists - Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, Al Shabaab

Pak likely to offer 'deal' to Karzai over Baradar's extradition during his Islamabad visit

Pa. woman accused of recruiting jihadists: Indictment alleges American used Internet to spark terror overseas - Colleen R. LaRose, relates to Ireland case re Swedish artist threat

Irish arrest 7 over threat to kill Swedish artist - Drawings by Lars Vilks published in a Swedish newspaper in August 2007

Nigeria extradites Al-Qaeda suspect - Ibrahim Haman Ahmed

Venezuela linked to terror groups

(Canada) U.S. looks for way to return Khadr: No stomach to try child for war crimes: insider - Omar Khadr

Indonesian Police Confirm 3 Terror Suspects Killed Near Jakarta: Unclear whether Dulmatin, one of the most-wanted leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, among the dead

(EU) Passenger data deal key to catching terrorists, says US - Passenger Name Records (PNR) agreement has been provisionally in force since 2007, but now requires ratification by the European Parliament

Taliban, HIG infighting leads to split in Afghan insurgency in the North

Brought to U.S., Man Is Charged With Aiding Somali Terrorists - Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed brought from Nigeria on Saturday, believed to be Eritrean citizen resident of Sweden

(Canada) Distinguish between jihadists and terrorists, Harkat trial told - Expert testimony of US professor at trial of Mohamed Harkat

Terror trial opens for 9 in Belgium - Names of defendants

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