Counterterrorism Programs Flat in CR

By Michael Kraft

Barring an unexpected Senate floor amendment next week, the Continuing Resolution working its way through Congress will again hamper efforts to counter global terrorism by strengthening the capabilities of vulnerable friendly countries around the world.

The Continuing Resolution that passed the House of Representatives Wednesday night by a 286-140 vote keeps most government program funding for the rest of the fiscal year at last year’s FY 2006 level. This affects State Department’s Antiterrorism Training Assistance (ATA) Program and related smaller programs that give courses ranging from airport security to bomb detection, coping with weapons of mass destruction and countering terrorism funding.

The Administration had requested $135.6 million for the ATA program for FY 2007. Congress last year approved $122 million.

Top Al Qaeda Financier Dead, Denied Links to Osama to His Dying Day

By Zachary Abuza

Mohammad Jamal Khalifah, the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden was killed during a robbery during a business trip to Madagascar, where he had invested in gem mines. Khalifah was a key financier of several Southeast Asian militant groups, particularly those in the Philippines.

He has always denied involvement in supporting terrorist and insurgent groups. For example in an emailed statement to CNN last weekend he wrote: "I have never given any money to any group or persons that include the Abu Sayyaf." "It is common knowledge that the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, the same year that Abu Sayyaf came to the news in the Philippines. It means that the Jihad was already over in Afghanistan... The war in Afghanistan became a civil war, between the Afghans. And Osama bin Laden himself was not there and left Afghanistan in 1989... I left Afghanistan in 1986 after my disagreement with him and we became apart from each other... So what volunteers was he [Khadaffy Janjalani] talking about?"

Khalifah got a total whitewash in Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Towers, where he disavowed any relationship with Osama. Wright should have done his homework on Khalifah. My file on Khalifah is thick, but here is some of the evidence against him:

• When Khalifah was arrested in the United States, on 16 December 1994, he was arrested with Mohammad Loay Bayazid, a confidante of Osama bin Laden and believed to be one of the founders of Al Qaeda. At the time he was the director of the Benevolence International Foundation, an international charity with an office in Chicago, which was shut down by US government officials in December 2001 for financing terrorism. BIF was very active in Bosnia in the 1990s and became an important conduit for Al Qaeda as well as Chechnyan militants. Bayazid was detained with Khalifah, though released. He subsequently fled the country. In 1993-94 he was charged with procuring fissile material for Al Qaeda.
• Khalifah was arrested in the US with documents about a militant training camp he had established for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He was in the US to fund raise for the group. One document detailed the “curriculum” that included coursework on assassinations, bomb-making, weapons, and military training. It emphasized the importance of “jihad” work, and Islamic movements and organizations. It focused the class on assassinations, “full military training, and IED construction.
• Khalifah asserts his innocence and claims that he was acquitted in US courts. He was not acquitted in US courts. He never even left the immigration courts. He was deported to Jordan where he had been sentenced in absentia for supporting terrorism. The US didn’t really have much on the guy at the time. He had broken few US laws in his two weeks in the country. Jordan had more standing.
• Khalifah established the branch offices in the Philippines of the Muslim World League and the sister agency, International Islamic Relief Organization. While the charities did some important social work, the IIRO’s literature made clear that the primary aims of the group was memorization of the Koran, hardly a charitable office. One Abu Sayyaf defector said that “Only 10 to 30 percent of the foreign funding goes to the legitimate relief and livelihood projects and the rest go to terrorist operations.”
• Khalifah was able to divert funds to the MILF and Abu Sayyaf by hiring members of these groups, their close family members or supporters to positions in the IIRO.
o In Tawi Tawi, the director of the IIRO branch office was Abdul Asmad, the Abu Sayyaf’s intelligence chief, before being killed on 10 June 1994;
o The IIRO Director in Zamboanga was Ustadz Bajunaid Ibrahim, the brother of MILF peace panelist Prof. Moner Bujunaid;
o The Director of IIRO in Cotabato/Maguindanao was Ustadz Omar Pasigan, a cousin of Ebrahim el Haj Murad, the current Chairman of the MILF, and a member of the MILF’s Central Committee;
o The Director of IIRO in Davao Province, Ustadz Abdul Moin Galmac, was a relative of MILF chair for military affairs in Davao.
o The IIRO funded an orphanage in Cotabato run by Dr. Abas Candao, the brother of the MILF advisor Zaccarias Candao. Dr. Candao is currently the director of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Development Agency.
• As soon as Khalifah was unable to return to the Philippines and funding for the ASG dried up, it began their spree of kidnapping.
• Khalifah founded another charity, the International Relations and Information Center, in the Philippines in 1994. The IRIC, in reality, was a complex umbrella organization, with a number of affiliated charities and organizations that to this day are being implicated in supporting terrorism in the Philippines. They include: Islamic Wisdom Worldwide Mission, Islamic Presentation Committee, Islamic World Committee, Islamic Da’wah Council of the Philippines Islamic Da’wah and Guidance International Inc, and International Islamic Efforts Foundation.
• The IRIC was the primary funding mechanism for Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Yousef, and Wali Khan Amin Shah’s attempt to blow up 11 US jetliners in early-1995, in what was known as Oplan Bojinka. Khalifah acknowledged a close friendship with Shah, a close confidante of Bin Laden’s, though denied any knowledge that Shah was part of a terrorist cell. Shah, who is sill under US detention, has detailed Khalifah’s use of the IRIC to fund the Ramzi Yousef plot.
• As the FBI Special Agent in charge of Khalifah’s case wrote in his affidavit. “In November 1994, there was a pattern of telephone traffic between [Wali] Khan’s apartment and the cellular telephone of Khalifa [sic], whole Yousef was proceeding at about that time with the purchase of chemicals.”
• One of Khalifah’s last acts in the Philippines was the opening of a branch of Muwafaq in Manila in October 1994. Muwafaq, or the “Blessed Relief” charity, was established as a charitable trust in the tax haven of Isle of Man, which later moved to Jersey that was managed by Yassim al-Qadi, who has been identified as a key associate of Osama bin Laden. The foundation was endowed by a group of wealth Saudi businessmen and investors, including, Khalid bin Mahfouz, a former chief of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia and financial advisor to the Saudi royal family, who appeared on Al Qaeda’s “Golden Chain” list of top financiers. In 1999, a Saudi Arabian government audit of the NCB discovered that Mahfouz had transferred roughly $3 million to Al Qaeda. Muwafaq, which had a $20 million endowment, was found to have sent millions of dollars to Al Qaeda in the 1990s before it was shut down.
• On 3 August 2006, the US Treasury department designated the Philippine Branch of the IIRO as a terrorist financier. Long overdue, but testimony of the deep-rooted nature of Khalifah’s networks.

Iraqi Passport Blunders: Another Example of Security Loopholes

By Michael Cutler

This is the sort of story on passport blunders that is significant on many levels. It points out how bureaucrats can be corrupted or can be incompetent or both. It also shows how passports, which are supposed to provide a secure means of identifying international travelers, are not always sufficient. While Iraq is not a participant in the Visa Waiver Program, I worry that similar situations can and have occurred with countries which participate in the Visa Waiver Program.

Most people are compassionate when they encounter political refugees. We are often reminded of the Holocaust and other human tragedies of similar nature with many victims of political strife and war. However, the bad guys who are intent on accomplishing their nefarious goals are all too happy to conceal their true identities and make all sorts of claims, often playing on the sympathies of those who would seek to help them. I have on occasion made the point that one of the biggest differences between decent people and bad guys such criminals and terrorists is that when a decent person wakes up in the morning, he goes through his belongings to figure out what he wants to wear. A criminal or terrorist, on the other hand, goes through his stuff to figure out who he wants to be.

Here we have a situation where 26,000 people availed themselves of the opportunity to alter their identities. That by itself is a crime, but what is more disturbing is why? Why would these people do this? Did they do this in order to conceal a criminal history? Did they do this to conceal their true nationality? Did they do this to embed themselves in Stockholm or some other country as did the terrorists who attacked our nation? Might the terrorists have done this to be able to create a fictitious identity for themselves in a country such as Sweden or Norway, intent on eventually going to another country that they want to ultimately attack, such as the United States? These are all very disturbing questions with no answers that are immediately available. The Iraqi ambassador attributed this disaster to being unable to verify the true identities of these people because of a lack of resources. It is also entirely possible that this was a matter of corruption or a combination of both. Consider the quote from that article:

"Details surrounding the fraudulent passport applications first emerged in Norwegian press after police cracked a forgery ring in Oslo. The Iraqi ambassador to Sweden informed Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that the embassy had issued passports based on false documentation simply because it did not have the resources to check the authenticity of the paperwork."

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross Releases Important New Book (updated video link)

By Andrew Cochran

The newest book by one of our Contributing Experts, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross' "My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir," officially launches tomorrow, and I predict it will attract a broad readership. Daveed tells the story of his work for the U.S. branch of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, one of the many charities found to be a financing funnel to Islamic terrorists, and his eventual cooperation with the FBI's investigation. But he also recounts his personal journey of faith into and then out of radical Islam before, during, and after the period of work with al-Haramain. I read a late draft, and I found his insider's account of that terrorist financing vehicle fascinating, while his personal journey was moving; this book is unique in the genre for that reason. Daveed wrote this article for Reader's Digest and was interviewed by FrontPageMagazine.com. You can see his interview on the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" program.

A Peek Into Islamist Banking in the United States

By Douglas Farah

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story (viewable for free for a few days) on the criminal tax investigation launched by the Justice Department into the activities of one of the largest Islamist banking entities-Dar al-Maal Al- Islami Trust (DMI). (Co-Editor's Note: The story is now available as an Acrobat file in the CT Library with express permission by the WSJ and with our appreciation.)

The case centers on investments made through a company called Overland Capital Group Inc. Two of Overland's offices in Boston were searched last week by IRS officials, according filings by federal prosecutors.

No one has been charged with any offense and the search warrant remains under seal. What is interesting is that the motion disclosing the investigation was filed by a prosecutor from the DOJ's Counterterrorism division.

Might this be the Al Capone method of getting at opaque Islamist financial structures in the United States?

As is often the case with Islamic banking institutions, the route to DMI is circuitous and not designed to be easily followed. DMI was founded in 1981 by the Arab Gulf elite as an Islamist alternative to the Western banking system. My full blog is here.

Musharraf's Inability to Control Pakistani Air Force is a Sign of Weakness

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

A new article on Adnkronos International by Syed Saleem Shahzad provides a glimpse of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's weakness. After last week's bomb blasts in Islamabad and Peshawar, Musharraf asked Pakistan's air force to carry out a strike on Islamabad's largest madrassa. Two of the Pakistani Taliban's leading ideologues, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz, are holed up there.

Shahzad reports:

[S]ources told AKI that Musharraf reportedly told a gathering of senior officials at a meeting in Rawalpindi: "I don’t want them in federal capital. If you are unable to arrest them . . . shoot them." Those attending reportedly disagreed categorically with the idea of an air strike in the capital city, and pointed out that the students of the influential clerics have already staged a powerful protest in the past few days against the demolition of two mosques in Islamabad and they are a force to be reckoned with.

In other words, Musharraf asked the air force to carry out a strike in Pakistan's capital city, and they refused to do so. According to a senior U.S. military intelligence source that I spoke with, the reason Musharraf asked the air force to carry out the strike is because Pakistan's army had already refused to raid the mosque. The source said that this further demonstrates the problem with Pakistan's security services: they are too close to the fundamentalists, such that Musharraf cannot exert full control over his military.

Which brings to mind a chilling thought: if Musharraf is unable to order an air strike in his own capital city, how can he control his nuclear arsenal?

New Anti-Terrorism Caucus Formed in U.S. House

By Zeyno Baran

Today at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Representative Sue Myrick (R-NC), along with Representatives Bud Cramer (D-AL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Ben Chandler (D-KY) formally announced they have formed a new bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. Myrick, Cramer, Granger, and Chandler are the co-chairs of the new caucus.

The Caucus mission statement states that it “serves to educate Members of Congress, their staff and the general public about the threats to our country that are fueled by extremist ideologies. The Caucus recognizes that terrorism is not a Democrat or Republican problem; it is a critical issue for all Americans. To this end, the Caucus will facilitate an educational process and healthy exchange of ideas in a bipartisan setting.”

Focus on the threat from “extremist ideologies” is much-needed and long-overdue. The new Caucus will meet in the coming months to hear from leading experts on issues such as terrorist financing and their use of the internet.

In her press release, Representative Sue Myrick states, “Terrorists don’t target Democrats or Republicans. They target Americans, and this is why we must face this issue as Americans… Members of Congress and the American public must know the threats we face from radical jihadist terrorists. This caucus will give Congress the tools and resources it needs to communicate those threats to the public, as well as help them make more informed decisions when it comes to terrorist issues…. This caucus is long overdue, and I’m glad we are doing this. Americans have desired to know what is really going on and what it means to them. My hope is that this caucus will be able to spur on an educated national dialogue on this issue so that we can unite as Americans did during World War II.”

First time suicide attack in Eilat

By Olivier Guitta

In fact until today Eilat has always been spared. Eilat is one of Israel's main tourist destinations and had almost played the safety card.
This is no more: this morning's suicide attack is a horrible wake up call that no place is terror-free in Israel. The implications of today's suicide attack are multiple: first the Israeli government will be under pressure to act because it cannot allow one of its largest revenue source to be tarnished, i.e. tourism, second it seems almost sure now that the bomber did not come from Jordan as initially reported but rather from Egypt. Indeed Jordanian and Egyptian sources have confirmed this. According to TV station Al Arabyia, Egyptian authorities have recently arrested two members of that three men commando which was to strike in Eilat.
Also Egyptian troops in the Sinai are in high alert for potential additional terror attacks.
After the bombings in Taba directed at Israeli tourists, Israel realized that desert beduins had become radicalized and could represent a potential threat to Israel.If the Sinai now becomes a hotbed for terrorism, Israel would have to count on Egypt for clamping down. But if Egypt is not successful or not willing to act, it's not far fetched to assume that Israel will one way or another take care of the problem. What it could mean for Israel is a potential other war front...

Is Treasury Bank Freeze Real or Phony Issue Stalling NK Talks?

By Jonathan Winer

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury's Daniel Glaser meets in Beijing with North Korea, it remains difficult to assess whether North Korea is using Treasury's freeze of $24 million of its assets in a Macau bank as an excuse not to move forward with six-party talks on halting its proliferation program, is genuinely feeling a pinch as a result of the sanctions, or is simply outraged in principle that the U.S. could grab its money through imposing sanctions from afar.

The six-party talks are due to begin February 8. But the North Koreans are refusing to discuss anything but how and when the U.S. will unfreeze some or all of the assets, which the U.S. has identified as being the proceeds of illicit activity. The question will be whether the U.S. is in a position to offer the North Koreans some of the assets back to take the issue off the table on the basis that those assets aren't traceable to particular criminal activity, or will find some process solution for resolving the issue.

At Davos this week, Treasury Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt made it clear that North Korea had asked for the talks, that the U.S. viewed progress was being made in helping North Korea understand the "technical elements" of the freeze, and that on substance, the U.S. would be taking a hard line. `According to Kimmitt, "these are a set of talks, from our perspective, designed to make clear that the action that we took was narrowly targeted, focused on illicit conduct - and the way to cure it is to foreswear such conduct, make restitution for what's been done in the past, and move forward.''

Apparently, the North Koreans will be asked to show clean sources for any funds to secure their release. That may not be easy in light of their history of using Macao to pass counterfeit U.S. currency, launder drug money, and to handle smuggled goods.

Africa: Different Paths to Success and Failure

By Douglas Farah

The designation of two South Africans for suspected ties to al Qaeda is the latest public evidence of the radical Islamist pipeline that runs through the heart of sub-Saharan Africa.

The U.S. military and part of the Intelligence Community are slowly focusing on the spreading threat there. As my friend Victor Comras noted on the Counterterrorism Blog, obtaining this designation package has been a long and arduous process, with little support from South Africa or the United Nations. Here is another interesting article on the Imam involved.

But what is just as interesting as the stories of possible Islamist penetrations are those of the Islamists' possible failures. The Project for the Research of Islamist Movements portrays al Qaeda's efforts to mobilize _jihadist_ fighters to Darfur as long on effort and short on results, despite the obvious interest of Osama bin Laden and other core al Qaeda leaders to raising up an Islamist force to fight there. My full blog is here..

New U.S. House Homeland Security Chairman Discusses Agenda

By Andrew Cochran

The leadership in the U.S. Congress changed hands this month, and the new chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, laid out his legislative agenda in comments today at a forum. With respect to the counterterrorism arena, Rep. Bennie Thompson pledged to pursue mass transit, rail, and bus security measures; to double the size of the Border Patrol; and to ensure improved intelligence and information sharing between the federal, local, and tribal governments. He also wants to "revisit" the fence on the Mexican border authorized by the Congress last year, and will probably get agreement from the Bush Administration, which has never really wanted a physical fence, as Michael Cutler posted about last year. Chairman Thompson is in a unique position, at the start of this Congress, to pursue energetic oversight of terrorism-related issues involving DHS and to push important and needed homeland security legislation through the House (see Victor Comras' post on potential priorities). His roadblock, as he expressed near the end of his discussion, will be the closely divided U.S. Senate.

Redirecting Iraq’s campaign

By Walid Phares

In short, President George W. Bush’s plan for “redirecting” the Iraq campaign is logical, in line with the war on terror and targets the correct enemies of Iraq, of democracies and of the United States. But the plan needs to fit within a global vision of winning the global conflict with the lJihadists, on a long term policy, win the support of the new Congress, and be well-explained to the American people by the various levels of the Administration. This is where the beef is. On the other hand, the response by the Democratic led Congress as stated by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is also logical, touches sensitive issues if the Iraq battlefield, and lays out the normal outcome of a strategic success, that is the return of the troops. So are the White House and Congress in harmony? We will see. Both have advanced what is essentially logical. The President challenge is to make sure his bureaucracy follows him thoroughly, and the Congress’ challenge is to make sure the American public sees the big picture the legislators are not revealing yet for the future. Let’s wait and see how Washington’s new dual approach will fare in the very near future.

Following are quick comments on the main relevant points in the President’s speech and the Democratic response immediately the announcements.

Treasury To Take Away Kim Jong il's iPods and Cognac

By Jonathan Winer

How do you get an evil dictator who starves his people to understand that you really mean business when you say he has to stop his nuclear proliferation program?

Treasury has decided you do it by taking away his iPods, sports cars, and booze.

This provocative announcement came today from Treasury as it sends out its seasoned Korea sanctions specialist Deputy Assistant Secretary Dan Glaser to Beijing's six-party talks to advise the North Korean government that if they want to enjoy the world's luxuries, they will also have to accept controls on their nukes.

The strategy is not so bizarre as it sounds. A similar approach which included freezing Serbian bank accounts played a central role in forcing out Slobodon Milosevic from Yugoslavia in 2000.

Here, in addition to blocking sales of high-end luxury goods to North Korea, the U.S. is holding out a carrot. If the North Koreans can make concessions on the nuclear issue, the U.S. will allow a Macau bank to release some $7.5 million in frozen funds, which amounts to about one-quarter of the total North Korean funds the bank froze in response to the U.S. finding the money to be the results of drug trafficking, counterfeiting and other organized crime involving North Korean officials.

During the Clinton Administration, senior U.S. officials knew about North Korean officially-sanctioned organized crime, but had yet to undertake this kind of targeted financial sanctions. It's an interesting play and demonstrates the kind of creativity that the U.S. can bring to the use of financial sanctions. It may even work.

Another UN Designation Goes Awry

By Victor Comras

For the last several years, US terrorism financing trackers have noted suspicious financial transactions coming out of South Africa that appeared to be for the benefit of al Qaeda. Some of these transactions predate 9/11. Following the money led them to a Johannesburg dentist, Junaid Ismail Dockrat, and to his cousin, Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, an Islamic Cleric. The South African authorities were notified. But, nothing happened. Despite US entreaties, South African officials were reluctant to take any action beyond agreeing to monitor their activities. They asked the US to be patient as they sought to develop new information concerning the pair’s activities.

Last week, with patience at an end, the US decided to move against Farhad and Juniad, and to put new pressure on the South African Government to act. The US presented the pair’s names to the UN Security Council’s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee for designation. South Africa had just become a member of that Committee on January 1st. It was hoped that South Africa would join in the designation request, and that all countries would then act to block their financial transactions and their assets. But, that did not occur. Instead, South Africa put an indefinite hold on the UN designation process.

This is not the first time that a member of the committee chose to hold back the UN designation of its nationals. Pakistan, also used its position on the Security Council and Al Qaeda Committee to stymie the designations of Lashkar e Toiba and Al Akhtar Trust for more than year. And Lashkar’s offshoot, Jamaat e Dawa has still not been designated by the UN Committee, despite US claims that Jamaat is merely an alias for Lashkar.

To the embarrassment of all parties, the story leaked, and Reuters reporter, Michael Georgy, published a story January 21st, reporting that papers had been submitted by the United States to the Security Council alleging that both Junaid and Farhad had acted as al-Qaeda "financiers, recruiters and facilitators." According to the news report they had transferred funds to al Qaeda and coordinated the travel of South Africans to Pakistan to train there with Militant Islamic groups. Both men deny these charges.

Despite the UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Committee’s hold on the designation, US Treasury Department officials decided to act on their own. A press release from the Treasury Department this morning announced that the US was designating both Farhad and Junaid, and an entity owned by them, Sniper Africa. The South African’s were reportedly furious.

According to the Treasury Department Press Release “Farhad Ahmed Dockrat and Junaid Ismail Dockrat, and a related entity { were designated January 26th} for financing and facilitating al Qaida, pursuant to Executive Order 13224.” The Press release goes on to say

"Today's action targets two family members that have supported al Qaida – one by providing funds to Al Akhtar Trust, a globally-recognized al Qaida fundraiser, and another by facilitating travel for individuals to train in al Qaida camps…. In one example, Dockrat in 2001 provided over 400,000 South African Rand (approximately $62,900 US) to the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan to be forwarded to al Akhtar Trust, an Afghanistan-based fundraiser for al Qaida. Al Akhtar Trust was previously designated by the United States under E.O. 13224 for its support to al Qaida. Al Akhtar Trust is also on the United Nations 1267 Committee's list of sanctioned individuals and entities designated for providing support to al Qaida, Usama bin Ladin and the Taliban…..Junaid Dockrat is an al Qaida financier, recruiter and facilitator. Junaid Dockrat in 2004 worked via phone and email with Al Qaida operations chief Hamza Rabi'a (now deceased) to coordinate the travel of South Africans to Pakistan in order for them to train with al Qaida. He is also responsible for raising US $120,000 that Rabi'a received in the spring of 2004.”

The US designation may turn out to be only symbolic as neither party holds any assets here. And with a hold at the Security Council Al Qaeda Committee, it’s not clear when or whether they will be placed on the UN designation list. Without such UN designation, neither South Africa or any other country may feel compelled to act against the pair’s assets or transactions. And, its doubtful that there’s any money still to be found, given that the story leaked last week.

Internet Security Company Cracks Special Jihadist Software

By Andrew Cochran

CT Blog posting from Jim Melnick, iDefense Intelligence Team, VeriSign, Inc.

On January 1, 2007, the pro-terrorist group, "Global Islamic Media Front" (GIMF) announced the "imminent release" of what they called "the first Islamic computer program for secure exchange on the Internet." Some Western websites that track online terrorist activity reported on the GIMF announcement, but it has otherwise not received any serious media attention. iDefense/VeriSign has since found a copy of this program, "Mujahedine Secrets," on a pro-terrorist Arabic language forum and has begun analyzing its capabilities and assessing what its impact will be. Earlier this week we announced this to our client base, which includes numerous key elements of the U.S. government. We are continuing to discover new aspects about the software, which we believe is bound to spread quickly in the online pro-terrorist world. As far as is known, none of this new information has been announced publicly anywhere else other than among the pro-terrorists themselves.

The "Mujahedine Secrets" encryption program offers terrorists and their sympathizers several key features, some of which are common features of PGP programs that are currently available elsewhere as well as other features that appear to be new. Technical analysis is ongoing and will be assessed in future iDefense reporting. Most importantly, this program is an executable application that does not need to be installed onto a PC and can be used with a USB drive. According to iDefense Middle East analyst Andretta Summerville, "the program's 'portability' as an application (not requiring installation) will become an increasingly desirable feature, especially considering the high use of Internet cafés worldwide by pro-terrorist Islamic extremists." The use of the 'Mujahedine Secrets' on a portable USB drive will offer additional anonymity to those who use the program, which may make it increasingly difficult or even impossible for investigators to track down the source of activity further than the Internet café itself.

Due to the strong "marketing" campaign of the program by the Global Islamic Media Front in Arabic-language forums, specifically on hacker and pro-terrorist forums, "Mujahedine Secrets" is likely to reach a broad audience of pro-terrorist supporters online and Arabic-speaking hackers. The PDF file included with the software assists non-English speaking users in the application's operation. This, unfortunately, could greatly impact the threat landscape of pro-terrorist communications worldwide, since it will make it easier and more comfortable for those Arabic speakers who may have been wary of using English-based encryption programs to use a program developed by "their own" people. According to a statement within the Arabic PDF file, this is a code that they have been developing for years. iDefense/VeriSign is continuing to assess what the impact will be with this new software - both as to its technical characteristics as well as how it will be greeted in the pro-terrorist online world. Requests for follow-on information on this development or information on how to obtain iDefense products can be sent to: di@idefense.com. Jim Melnick, Director of Threat Intelligence, iDefense/VeriSign, Inc.

Jim Melnick is director of threat intelligence for iDefense, the security intelligence arm of VeriSign, Inc., which operates the systems that manage the ".com" and ".net" domains. (Note: VeriSign is a client of GAGE LLC)

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq’s Meeting with Kashmir Militants in PoK !

By Animesh Roul

Jammu and Kashmir’s All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq who is presently visiting Pakistan along with other senior Kashmiri leaders has reportedly met several Islamic militant leaders operating from Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) , including Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, the leader of the Al-Umar Mujahedin militant outfit. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq in his quest to convince the leaderships of United Jehad Council (UJC) to give up their armed campaign and go for negotiations to resolve the vexed Kashmir issue, also believed to have met the commanders of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Mushtaq Zargar was the only Indian among the three terrorists (Maulana Azhar Masood and Umer Shaikh) who were released after the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight 814 at Kandahar in December 1999, in exchange of over 150 hostages.

The United Jehad Council (UJC), an amalgam of various Pakistan-based terrorist groups (e.g. LeT, JeM and Al Umar) had criticized Mirwaiz’s views on Kashmir earlier. The UJC had rejected Mirwaiz’s call to give up armed struggle, to pave way for a peaceful negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue. Most of the Militant leaders have expressed shock by the "baseless" and "uncalled" for statement of the Mirwaiz and his colleagues (in APHC-Moderate) and termed them "ignorant” of the Kashmir struggle.

Mirwaiz’s meeting with militants there, would certainly raise eyebrows in India and it would take a political picture in the coming days and can put Congress led UPA government and PM Manmohan Singh in an embarrassing situation. The meeting also can put Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf into a tight spot, as Islamabad has been denying the presence of Zargar and other militants ‘most wanted’ by Indian authority in its territory since long. Even Mirwaiz Umer Farooq himself might be in the line militant fire back home in Kashmir due to his overtly 'anti-gun-militancy' viewpoints. There was already a grenade attack on Mirwaiz’s residence in the Nageen area of capital Srinagar prior to his visit to Pakistan a week ago.

Arabsat Begins to Broadcast Insurgent Propaganda Station

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Nick Grace and I have been following the case of al-Zawraa TV, a 24-hour insurgent station that focuses on Iraq but is broadcast through the Middle East. Here's how we described the station in a Daily Standard article on January 3:

Al-Zawraa hit the airwaves on November 14. According to Middle East-based media monitor Marwan Soliman and military analyst Bill Roggio, it was set up by the Islamic Army of Iraq, an insurgent group comprised of former Baathists who were loyal to Saddam Hussein and now profess their conversion to a bin Laden-like ideology.

The Islamic Army of Iraq is subordinate to the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni insurgent groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq. The Al-Zawraa channel is not only viewed as credible by users of established jihadist Internet forums, but as a strategically important information outlet as well. Moreover, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is delighted by the station. A U.S. military intelligence officer told us that al-Masri "has long-term and big plans for this thing." . . . .

Al-Zawraa's content is heavy with insurgent propaganda, including audio messages from Islamic Army of Iraq spokesman Dr. Ali al-Na'ami and footage of the group's operations. The station calls for violence against both Shia Iraqis and the Iraqi government. According to Marwan Soliman, the station's anchors appear in military fatigues to rail against the Iraqi government while news crawls urge viewers to support the Islamic Army of Iraq and "help liberate Iraq from the occupying U.S. and Iranian forces."

When we wrote this, al-Zawraa was being broadcast by Nilesat, a powerful satellite administered by the Egyptian government. Today, BBC Monitoring reports that al-Zawraa has been picked up by Saudi-based Arabsat, thus making it more difficult to shut down the station:

On Friday 26 January BBC Monitoring observed Al-Zawraa TV, a Sunni satellite channel that targets viewers in Iraq and the Middle East, transmitting on Badr 4, one of the Arabsat satellites, at 26 degrees east.

Al-Zawraa also continues to be carried on the Egyptian-run Nilesat satellite.

Arabsat, based in Saudi Arabia, is an intergovernmental organization established originally by the Arab League. Saudi Arabia is the main stakeholder.

Al-Zawraa's founder is Mishan al-Jaburi, a former member of the Iraqi parliament and leader of the Sunni Arab Front for Reconciliation and Liberation.

The US has expressed concern about the content of the channel's broadcasts. An unnamed US official quoted by United Press International news agency on 14 January said: "We are very concerned about this. Al-Zawraa is glorifying the killing of American and Iraqi government officials, which we strongly object to. This needs to be taken care of. . . . This should never have been on air in the first place, much less over the satellite of a country that professes to be a friend of the United States."

Al-Zawraa is now based in Syria, after its studios in Iraq were closed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in November 2006, for allegedly inciting violence and terrorism.

The Iraqi government has also asked Egypt to remove Al-Zawraa from the Nilesat satellite. So far, Egypt has refused to take Al-Zawraa off the air, saying that the channel's broadcasts are a purely commercial arrangement.

GSPC in Algeria Announces New Name: "Al-Qaida in the Land of the Islamic Maghrib"

By Evan Kohlmann

The Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC) has issued a new statement today officially announcing a change in name for the group to "Al-Qaida in the Land of the Islamic Maghrib." According to the statement, the decision to adopt the Al-Qaida moniker was made "as an indication of the group's vibrancy, the strength of its coalition [with Usama Bin Laden], and the sincerity of the link between the mujahideen in Algeria, and other brothers from the Al-Qaida organization." On September 14, 2006, the GSPC declared its initial intention to merge with Al-Qaida, but continued unabated in using its traditional name. In its latest statement, the group explained, "we were cautious about this matter from the first day of the merger" and added that the final decision to name themselves Al-Qaida came only after "consultations with Shaykh Usama [Bin Laden], may God preserve him... and his consent."

See also: Speech from GSPC Commander in Algeria: "We are Coming"

A Serious Problem with the Surge

By Douglas Farah

The Bush administration has finally turned its attention in a serious way to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. It has, of course, been seriously deteriorating for some time and the attention is likely to be brief.

Afghanistan has been the victim of international attention deficit disorder. Not only the Bush administration suffers this malady that could snatch victory from defeat.

What has changed in the past 18 months? The Taliban have new weapons, vehicles, communications equipment with encryption, and outreach and propaganda facilities.

It is overdue to seriously rethink how to try to retake the initiative. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have gone from a defeated, dejected force under fire even from fellow travelers, to resilient heroes in the past two years.

Given the lack of security, people are helping the Taliban, if not for conviction, then out of fear that, ultimately, the Taliban will return, as they have in several provinces already.

The massive focus on Iraq by the Bush administration would have been less damaging to Afghanistan if NATO and other allies had been more willing to pick up the slack. My full blog is here.

Did the Libby Trial Testimony Reveal a CIA "Courage Gap"?

By Andrew Cochran

You would think that senior CIA agents who run operations are all rough, tough, unbreakable, imaginative men of steel - see Brad Pitts' and Robert Redford's characters in the movie Spy Games or Redford's character in Three Days of the Condor - but you wouldn't know that from yesterday's testimony in the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. See today's "New York Daily News" with the following: "Robert Grenier, the former top CIA official overseeing Iraq operations, testified that he was so unnerved about being pulled out of a summer 2003 meeting by Cheney's chief of staff Lewis (Scooter) Libby, he identified the spy as Valerie Plame... Libby ordered Grenier out of a meeting with CIA Director George Tenet - an unprecedented demand - to get answers. Grenier was so flustered that the vice president's office was calling, he blurted out to Libby that Wilson's wife was CIA."

Read that slowly and think about it. The man who ran the entire CIA operation in Iraq crumbled like a saltine when a politician's lackey asked him for information. His excuse? Grenier told the court (edit) that he figured that Libby "probably had every security clearance known to man." Oh really? In 15+ years of federal and Congressional service, I never assumed any such status, and certainly nobody who is running a CIA operation overseas should ever so assume. What he should have done was to stand nose-to-nose with "Scooter" and fire back, "Mr. Libby, what is your security clearance, on whose authority are you asking for that information, and do you have written proof of both?" Instead, he turned over important information with no idea how it was to be exploited.

No wonder CIA operations in Iraq were such a mess; if this guy can't stand up to a short-term political employee in a Washington meeting, how could we trust him to pull off something really important in the field? The Congressional intelligence committees should investigate this behind closed doors to determine if this "courage gap" at senior levels of the CIA is a widespread disease and whether CIA leadership has reminded career agents of their responsibility to protect sensitive information (classified or not) from unauthorized disclosure.

Iranian call for the "convergence of Islamic movements"

By Lorenzo Vidino

Yesterday Doug Farah posted two interesting articles that might show how Iran "may have tried to reach too far in extending its influence through Iraq and into the rest of the Arab world." Signs that Iranian leadership might be of the same opinion come from an interesting editorial written on January 20th by Saleh Eskandari on Resalat, one of Iran's most conservative papers (here translated by BBC). Going against some of the recent rhetoric coming from Iran, Eskandari stresses the unity of the umma against the West, indicating how divisions could play in the hands of the West:

Today, in the supra-neo-colonialism scheme, the West's confrontation and defiance towards the World of Islam has reached its height. Therefore, the need for separate Islamic movements in various Muslim states is not of issue as it was in the 20th Century. On the contrary, what is of importance to the World of Islam is the convergence of Islamic movements against the Western neo-colonialism.

In an ecumenical meeting with the Shi'i and Sunni scholars, the Supreme Leader [Khamene'i] made certain statements about the unity of the Islamic umma, saying: "We have to create the principles of an academic, true and sincerely realistic unity between the Sunni and Shi'is... The distinguished in the struggle against colonialism and global arrogance have doubly stressed the need for the "Islamic umma unity". Notice how Seyyed Jamaleddin Asadabadi (may God be satisfied with him), known as Afghani, and his novice Sheykh Mohammad Abdo and others, and the late Sharafoddin Ameli and other great ones from the Shi'i scholars endeavoured in the struggle against colonialism not to allow this easy tool to turn into a weapon in the hands of colonialism against the World of Islam.

Opposition Demonstrations in Lebanon and the Paris III Conference

By David Schenker

Co-Editor's Note, Jan. 24: A longer version of David's post, titled "Lebanon Goes to Paris III: High Stakes in France and Beirut," is now available from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy website.

This morning in Lebanon, government opposition forces—Hizballah, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), and their pro-Syrian allies—shut down key arteries in Lebanon, including roads into Beirut and the airport road, effectively closing the airport and paralyzing the country. Clashes with Lebanese security forces ensued, and according to reports, three people were killed and some 50 wounded. The striking images of tires burning and dump-trucks empting dirt onto Lebanese highways to block traffic were broadcast all day on LBC and Al Jazeera. At about 10 PM Lebanese time, the opposition ended the daylong “strike.”

The protest, a demonstration of opposition muscle-flexing, comes just two days before Prime Minister Fouad Siniora leaves for France to participate in Paris III, an international donors conference in which forty nations will pledge funds to rebuild the Lebanese economy. In turn, the Government of Lebanon will implement signifcant economic reforms. Lebanon is in urgent need of grant money to help defray the crushing interest payments on its nearly $41 billion in debt. Interest payments currently amount to over $3 billion a year.

Both Hizballah and the FPM led by General Michel Aoun, oppose Paris III and the proposed reforms. Hizballah, of course, left the cabinet in November 2006—demanding that the opposition be provided more cabinet seats and an effective veto over [Siniora] government initiatives. Aoun and Hizballah have since worked assiduously to compel the Siniora Government to form this “Government of National Unity.” In the absence of this unity government, the opposition is working to topple the Siniora.

The last thing Hizballah and Aoun want is for Siniora to have a “successful” conference in Paris. It would demonstrate that the March 14th Forces bloc, to which Siniora is aligned, is capable of governing effectively without Hizballah and Aoun. Opposition efforts to undercut Siniora have been ongoing since November 2006, but the Siniora Administration has hung tough. Today's demonstrations and violence represent a significant upping of the ante by the opposition, raising already extant sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

Of course, the success of Paris III is not a foregone conclusion. Expectations are high in Lebanon and if they are not met, Hizballah and the opposition may capitalize. If Paris III is perceived as a success, however, Siniora and the March 14th forces could regain some of the momentum they have lost in recent years.

Lacto-Terrorism: FARC Bombs a Dairy

By Aaron Mannes

Last week a FARC truck bomb carrying 660 lbs of explosives destroyed most of a dairy owned by the Swiss food multi-national Nestle in the southern state of Caqueta, one person was injured. Earlier in the week, also in Caqueta, a pair of cold-storage tanks owned by a Nestle supplier were destroyed in a FARC attack.

Recent FARC bomb attacks against the police in the port city of Buenventura and a convoy of soldiers near the border with Ecuador have evident rationales. In Buenventura the FARC was apparently retaliating for a counter-narcotics operation. The attack against the convoy was an effort to protect core FARC territory. But bombing dairies?

Coca-Cola and Nestle, and other multinationals operating in Colombia have been accused of using violence against labor organizers. There have been high levels of violence against union organizers in Colombia, although as the overall security situation has improved this violence has declined as well. In the past Colombian terrorists have extorted multinationals, although Nestle's spokesman insists that the FARC has made no recent demands for payment.

What is likely is that, as the FARC is losing control of territory, it is attempting to secure its strongholds. By attacking legitimate businesses it undermines the local economy, frequently forcing the poor to turn to growing coca or otherwise working in the illegal drug trade. The same tactic is being used in Afghanistan, where impoverished farmers are forced by the Taliban to grow opium poppies. Both the Taliban and the FARC may not need more drugs to export. But forcing people into the illicit economy also detaches them from the lawful government places them under the political auspices of the terrorists.

Cross-posted to TerrorProfiles.

Is Iran Reaching Too Far in Iraq?

By Douglas Farah

Two new publications show that Iran may have tried to reach too far in extending its influence through Iraq and into the rest of the Arab world. The result could be increasing clashes and all-out war between the Salafist project and the Shi'ia projects, with each side giving a higher priority to killing each other than attacking the West.

The first is a translation by PRISM of a new _jihadi_ document written by Kuwaiti Heikh Hamed bin Abdullah al-Ali, which has been widely circulated. Called the "Covenant of fht Supreme Council of Jihad Groups," it appears to have received enthusiastic support in the virtual _jihadi_ community.

One of the striking things about the document is the emphasis on the Iran-Shi'ia threat as the greatest to the _salafist_ and _jihadi_ movement, ahead, for the first time in a major document, of the "Jews and Crusaders." The document accuses the Shi'ia of searching "for the destruction of the Islamic civilization and slaughtering Muslims under false religious banners." My full blog is here.

Blackhawk Up

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

I have an article entitled "Blackhawk Up" in this week's print edition of The Weekly Standard. The piece focuses on the efforts of Somalia's transitional federal government to secure funding in the wake of the Islamic Courts Union's retreat. The article highlights a dispute between the Pentagon and State Department over how to dispense aid to the transitional government. An excerpt:

According to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer, the Pentagon and State Department are bickering about how to handle cash outlays to the transitional government. The Pentagon favors large cash transfers of the kind [transitional government permanent secretary in charge of international cooperation Dahir] Jibreel calls for, while State wants to provide aid in smaller chunks with tighter control on who receives the money. State's goal is to prevent corruption and mismanagement of funds while encouraging the transitional government to seek a broad-based coalition for governing Somalia, probably including putative moderates from the Islamic Courts Union.

The intelligence officer disagrees with this approach. "The government needs the money now," he said. "It'll do the most good right now. If you want to see the return of the Islamic Courts Union, this is the perfect recipe. The United States has been criticized for how it's acted in Somalia in the past. We can't repeat our past mistakes and allow the Islamic Courts Union to take power again."

The transitional government's financial shortfall has direct implications for the two greatest challenges it faces. The first is preventing an insurgency. The head of the Islamic Courts Union's executive council, Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed (who was captured during the past week), has called for a move to insurgent fighting.

There is reason to believe that the Islamic Courts Union may succeed in mounting an insurgency. A senior military intelligence officer told me that its forces' ability to "melt away" as Ethiopian troops advance is reminiscent of the Taliban's dispersal after Kandahar fell in Afghanistan. Also, a confidential report drafted by the U.N.'s Monitoring Group on Somalia in late 2006 warns that the Islamic Courts Union "is fully capable of turning Somalia into what is currently an Iraq-type scenario, replete with roadside and suicide bombers, assassinations, and other forms of terrorist and insurgent-type activities."

If an insurgency is to be prevented, the fact that the government's soldiers haven't been paid is of utmost concern. Jibreel worries that these troops "could walk away in despair."

The full article can be found here. For more on the transitional government's needs, see Eli Lake's recent article in the New York Sun.