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Buried Videos and Documents in Backyard of Co-Conspirator Show HAMAS Links
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
Dallas, TX—The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial resumed this Monday with hours of video evidence, some of which had been buried in the backyard of unindicted co-conspirator Fawaz Mushtaha, a former resident of a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington DC.
The videos show HLF fundraising festivals (involving singing, lectures and sermons, presumably for charitable purposes), including one in which defendant Muhammad El Mezain is sandwiched between two leaders of HAMAS at that time, Mahmoud al Zahar and Jamil Hamami. Along with Mezain, several other defendants in the trial are clearly visible.
Mufid Abdulqader, a member of the musical troupe al-Sakra can be seen performing at these festivals where crowds chanted slogans such as a "A peaceful solution is not acceptable!” and “Khaybar, Khaybar ya yahud. Jaish Muhammed soufa ya’oud!” (“O Jews of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning!”) ***
Skits were performed on stage at the festivals, including one that portrayed Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian children as well a skit starring defendant Abdulqader as a HAMAS activist who chokes a Jew in one skit and stabs an Israeli soldier in another.
One such festival in Los Angeles shows clips of speeches from Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, the charismatic Palestinian cleric who was close with and greatly influenced Osama Bin-Laden in the 1980s. (Azzam was also a popular speaker at Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) conferences; IAP is an unindicted co-consopirator in this case).
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Several of the videos also praise the military wing of HAMAS, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades, as well as Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Other Clips from Videos:
Caption: “I am from Hamas.”
Man singing: “I am from Hamas.”
Caption: “Hamas, a continuous revolution.”
Caption: “Do not throw away your weapons.”
At the end of two of these fundraising videos, a flashing banner rose from the bottom of the screen urging people to donate to The Occupied Land Fund, the name used by HLF until the early 1990s.
*** Khaybar, an oasis near Medina inhabited mainly by Jews in the 7th century. In the year 628, Muhammad led the Muslims against it, defeating the Jews in battle and subjugating the survivors, who would later be expelled from Arabia. The chant implies that history will repeat itself.
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What to Do about Tehran's Money Laundering
By Michael Jacobson
I had a piece in the Jerusalem Post yesterday on ways to ratchet up the financial pressure against Iran.
As the US presses for a stronger UN Security Council resolution on Iran, the Treasury Department continues its international outreach to highlight Iran's illicit financial activity. While the Treasury-led campaign has achieved considerable success, this initiative would be far more effective if the US was not the only voice decrying the risk that Iran's deceptive practices pose to the global financial system.
Over the past year and a half, senior Treasury officials have traveled the world, briefing their finance ministry counterparts and the private sector on the range of Iran's deceptive financial activity. This includes: Iran's use of front companies; frequent requests by Iranian state-owned banks to remove their names from financial transactions; and the involvement of these same banks in Iran's nuclear and missile programs and terrorist financing.
In light of this, the Treasury Department has argued that doing business with Iran is a risky endeavor, and could ultimately cause great reputational harm to those associated with the regime.
To read the rest of the piece, click here
Pakistan: Another Mosque Painted Red, Islamic Revolution Feared
By Animesh Roul
Embattled Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz recently said “There are many Ghazis (His brother and Deputy who was killed during Op Silence at Red Mosque) living to be martyred” […] "God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon."
To predict or think of an impending Islamic Revolution in Pakistan is not at all a hard task now. Even keen observers of developments in Pakistan would agree what the cleric said. Self exiled leader Benezir Bhutto guessed it too sitting hundred miles away from the land. The fear of Islamic Revolution which might erupt from religious seminaries or madrassas, is gaining ground as things are shaping up in Pakistan, especially after the fall of Red Mosque. The military operation and subsequent fall of Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) early this month actually have galvanized radical sentiments in Pakistan. This has been fuelled and coupled by anti Musharraf and anti-US wave prevalent in the region including in neighboring Afghanistan. Though it had little effect on neighboring India so far.
In the latest turn of events, on July 28, hundreds of pro-Taliban militants have occupied Turangzai Sahib Mosque located in Lakaro, a tribal dominated area in northwest of Peshawar. The militants later painted the structure in red colour and renamed the Mosque as Red Mosque, similar to the besieged Islamabad mosque. The militants were reportedly vowed to continue the legacy of cleric Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy head of Red Mosque who died during the military operation in Islamabad and establish seminaries on the lines of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia soon at Lakaro. The move came following July 27 reopening of Red Mosque and subsequent suicide bombing near a restaurant where around 15 people got killed, mostly security personnel. The suicde attack took place after pro-Taliban elements tried to reoccupy the Lal Masjid (that time it was painted Yellow by government agencies) during evening Friday prayers.
Why the militant choose Turangzai Sahib Mosque? Militants knew that this is the appropriate place to start an Islamic revolution as Turangzai (Lakaro Mosque is named after him) known as “forbearer of Islamic reform in the Frontier Pakistan,” was a religious and nationalist leader who led Pashtun fighters against the British in early 1900s. A detailed study on Turangzai’s life and his revolutionary contribution would be imperative here to understand how and why militants drew inspiration from Turangza’si life and teachings. This is certainly a matter of concern that militants got their much needed martyrs in Turangzai and Maulana Ghazi. More religious seminaries will be under militant’s control soon. Pro-Taliban Militants will occupy major learning centers in Peshwar (e.g. Islamia college) and in Wazirstan and Tribal dominated areas near Afghanistan border. More difficult times for Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf (with or without Bhutto ) and his cohorts are certainly on the cards.
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Muzammil the "Moderate"
By Steven Emerson
Continuing in its efforts to help sanitize radical Muslims and present them as mainstream voices, the Washington Post and Newsweek, in their “On Faith” blog, published a piece from long-time Imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County, Muzammil Siddiqi.
“On Faith” describes Siddiqi as involved in “inter-faith initiatives, including participation in an inter-faith prayer service with President George W. Bush” and as the “Chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, a body tasked with interpreting religious law throughout the continent.” (For more information on the pro-terrorism background of the Fiqh Council, read, “The American Islamic Leaders' 'Fatwa' is Bogus").
And speaking of that Fatwa, Siddiqi writes in his post:
Terrorism, suicide bombings or any other kind of bombings, shootings or violence that target civilians are totally forbidden in Islam and there is no justification for these acts. A body of Muslim jurists known as the Fiqh Council of North America has issued a strong Fatwa (religious ruling) against terrorism and suicide bombing. This Fatwa has been endorsed by hundreds of Islamic centers and mosques throughout North America.
If we are to trust that Siddiqi really believes what he writes, one would expect to find a string of denunciations by Siddiqi against terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, who have specifically targeted civilians for murder. Yet not only has that never happened (nor does the Fiqh Council’s “anti-terrorism” fatwa name Hamas, Hezbollah or any Islamic terrorist group), but when Siddiqi was President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in 1997, his organization received special thanks from Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, who wrote that ISNA supported him through his jailing and extradition process, writing that such efforts “consoled” him. (That fact is likely one of the many reasons why federal prosecutors named ISNA an un-indicted co-conspirator in the current trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.)
And Siddiqi has made numerous pro-jihad statements in the past and has denied that 9/11 was carried about by Muslims.
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In a video recording, made roughly 15 years ago, obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), Siddiqi exhorted the successes of violent jihad, proclaiming:
When people really carry on Jihad, they carry on the Islam in its peak in its totality. And that’s why in the hadith the Prophet (SAS) said (Arabic), ‘No people have ever neglected Jihad except they became humiliated.’ And people leave, renounce Jihad, they became humiliated. That means in order to gain the honor, Jihad is the path, Jihad is the way to receive the honor.
[…]
The most first and foremost the most important effect of Jihad on Afghanistan on the Muslim Ummah at large because I do not see that Jihad of Afghanistan, only the victory of the Afghan people. Certainly it is the victory of the Afghan people, but I see it as the victory of the Muslim Ummah at large. I see it as the victory of Islam and in that sense it brings, aychsa, dignity and honor to the whole Muslim Ummah.
I can see that there is already some impact after Jihad in Afghanistan in the Intifada movement in Palestine. With this, more courage, more strength, more confidence and shall I even say that in a few years we will be celebrating with each other the victory of Islam in Palestine. Insh’allah, we shall be celebrating the coming of the Masjid al-Aqsa under the Islamic rule. We shall be celebrating insh’allah the coming of Jerusalem and the whole land of Palestine insh’allah and the establishment of the Islamic State throughout that area.
And as I first reported in American Jihad, at the Jerusalem Day Rally in Washington DC, October 28, 2000, Siddiqi said:
The people of Palestine, they were not given the right to return to their homes and to their land, like any refugees. Any people that you find that have occupied land, they have the right to return to their own land, they are not given that right. They are not given that right to go back. Jerusalem, which is the heart of the whole issue, Jerusalem has not been solved. There have been all types of accuses (sic) have been made. The land of Aqsa, the land of Jerusalem, is the land that belongs to Muslims.
The United States of America is directly and indirectly responsible for the plight of the Palestinian people. Our government is responsible for plenty of the injustice that is going on there. The United States is the greatest supporter of Israel – economically, militarily, and politically. We give billions of dollars to the State of Israel.
Our Congress and our media is blaming the victims, not the oppressors. The Palestinian demonstrators are not violent people. The violent people are those who are oppressing them day and night and for many years. We want to say to our government to respect the right of the Palestinian people. Do not be the blind supporters of oppressors. And al-Aqsa, my brothers and sisters, is our sacred mosque. It belongs to Islam. It belongs to all the Muslims of the world, 1.5 billion Muslims of the world, it belongs to them. We cannot accept any type to the al-Aqsa mosque. We cannot give up Jerusalem. Jerusalem belongs to Islam. We want justice and peace. We want justice for ourselves and as for everyone else. We do not want anyone mistreated. We want respect for all holy places and for all people.
We want our government to be on the side of justice and not on the side of oppression. We want our government not to be a blind supporter of Israel. We want our government to stop feeding the Israeli war machinery. We want to awaken the conscience of America. America has to learn that because if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please! Please all Americans, do you remember that, that Allah is watching everyone. God is watching everyone. If you continue doing injustice, and tolerating injustice, the wrath of God will come.
In the comments to Siddiqi’s post, he is asked whether he said the above (in particular, “America has to learn ... if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that? ... If you continue doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come.” By “injustice,” he meant U.S. support for Israel.”) and Siddiqi replied that the “statement is mutilated and distorted.”
Rather than being “mutilated and distorted,” Siddiqi said exactly that and more, calling for the destruction of Israel by “peaceful” means (the right of return), as well as violent means, supporting the violent jihad of the Palestinian terrorist groups and their suicide bombings, that Siddiqi euphemistically calls an “uprising,” and further stated that Jerusalem belongs to Muslims and Muslims alone, justifying violence to acquire it, which is all in contrast to his message of brotherly love and inter-faith relations that the Post and Newsweek uncritically published.
In a September 2002 speech at an ISNA convention, Siddiqi stated of 9/11, well after Osama Bin Laden took credit for the attacks:
It is, the point is that we said, whosoever did it, we condemn it. We did not say it is Muslims who did it. We did not say this and that. But the point is that whosoever did it, it was wrong. And this is a basic point … We cannot say in surety whoever did it or not. But the point is that if the name of Islam is taken, we have to clarify the name of Islam.
Yet Siddiqi’s radicalism is not limited to his own statements, but also to the company he keeps. In January of this year, the New Yorker published an article profiling a famous former congregant at Siddiqi’s mosque, Adam Gadahn (a.k.a. Azzam the American), which included the fact that Siddiqi had hosted the notorious Blind Sheikh to speak about jihad:
In December, 1992, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a prominent Egyptian cleric and Islamic radical also known as the Blind Sheikh, visited the Islamic Society to lecture about jihad, and Siddiqi sat beside him to translate. Abdel Rahman dismissed nonviolent definitions of jihad as weak. He stressed that a number of unspecified enemies had “united themselves against Muslims” and that fighting them was obligatory. “If you are not going to the jihad, then you are neglecting the rules of Allah,” he said. The opportunities for jihad were virtually everywhere, ranging from apostate Middle Eastern regimes to “those who are taking the wealth of Muslims from petrol or from oil.” As he spoke, a red toolbox, with a slit cut into its lid for donations, was passed around the room. Videotapes of the lecture were later offered for sale at the society’s bookstore. (emphasis added)
Several months afterward, Abdel Rahman was indicted for helping to plot the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of his fatwas, issued from prison in 1998, became central to Al Qaeda’s justification of mass violence. (When I asked J. Stephen Tidwell, the assistant director of the F.B.I.’s Los Angeles division, about Siddiqi’s association with Abdel Rahman, he said, “We have a very strong relationship with Dr. Siddiqi. You do have to put it into the context of back then.” Siddiqi told me that Abdel Rahman “was touring, and some people insisted that he should be there.”
Also of note is the FBI’s insistence, despite copious evidence of his radicalism, of partnering with Siddiqi. This problem of legitimizing radical Muslims goes far beyond the media's involvement: it extends right up through the highest levels of our top law enforcement agency.
Once again, sadly, we are left to come to the same conclusion: one must be very suspicious when the media and the FBI tell you they have found, or are dealing with, mainstream Muslim leaders, involved in “inter-faith” activities. They are often suckers for polite smiles and Western business suits, but pull back the covers, and the truth is, all too often, much more sinister. « Close It
The Muslim Brotherhood and Tomorrow's Jordanian Municipal Elections
By David Schenker
Tomorrow, Jordanians go to the polls for municipal elections. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood’s political party—the Islamic Action Front (IAF)—boycotted the last local elections in 2003, but will participate tomorrow. The local elections are a tune-up for the November parliamentary elections in Jordan. In this regard, IAF performance tomorrow will be a harbinger of what’s to come in November.
Given regional trends--Hamas’ Gaza takeover a little more than a month ago, and last week’s landslide victory for the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish national elections--these elections will be important to watch.
I have a longer article on the significance of these elections titled “Jordan's Islamists and Municipal Elections: Confirmation of a Problematic Trend?” published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
In a related development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a press conference last week where he said he would be working on changing the Palestinian Election Law, eliminating the two vote system (one constituency vote, one national vote) in favor of a one-man one-vote system. Hamas’ 2006 landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections was largely attributable to this law.
If Abbas succeeds in changing the law, the Palestinian Elections Law will look more like Jordan's. The Jordanian law was first adopted by King Hussein to limit Islamist success at the ballot box. It worked, so much so that in 2001 Salem Falahat, who now serves as secretary general of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, described this voting policy as a “black flag in the history of Jordanian democracy.” The IAF is still trying to convince King Abdullah to change the law, which they describe as "undemocratic."
The Muslim Brotherhood posted an article expressing concern about this prospective change in the Palestinian law on its website last week.
Lessons From the Past for Iraq and Afghanistan
By Douglas Farah
I recently spent a week in my old stomping grounds, El Salvador, from whence I covered the nearly-forgotten wars of the 1980s. I was able to talk to many of my friends from both sides of the bloody conflict about the war, tactics, intelligence and strategy.
For a brief refresher, the FMLN, Marixist-led and backed by the Sandinistas and Cuba, fought the US-backed government and army there for 10 years (although the rebel movements actually started several years earlier). The US was putting in $1.5 billon a year at the peak, not much by today's standards, but a significant amount in a country that is the size of Massachusetts.
The war ended with a negotiated settlement that fundamentally altered the political landscape, enfranchised the rebels as a political party and brought about basic reforms, but nothing like a revolution.
What I found striking were two things that ought to be kept in mind in the current irregular conflicts.
The first is that almost every one of the combatants on the different sides of the conflict took up weapons because someone they cared about was killed by the other side.
The leadership on both sides had clearly defined political agendas and strategies, but particularly the FMLN would never have gained the strength to almost win the war in the years if the civilian deaths had not driven thousands of people into their arms. There, they fought for revenge or self protection, far more than ideology.
The ranks of the military and paramilitary groups likewise grew when the FMLN began its campaign of selective assassination and the indiscriminate use of land mines. Again, the driving force is not the ideological decision to support the government or army, but the decision to strike back at people who had hurt one's family. My full blog is here.
Yet Another Group of British Homegrown Jihadists Sentenced to Jail
By Evan Kohlmann
In yet another landmark legal case in the United Kingdom regarding Internet-based terrorism, a judge in London has sentenced a group of five British-born youngsters to a total of 13 years in prison for conspiring to use the web in order to accumulate vast amounts of terrorist propaganda in hopes of eventually traveling to Pakistan and joining Al-Qaida's forces there. The convicted defendants--Mohammed Irfan Raja, Usman Malik, Aitzaz Zafar, Awaab Iqbal, and Akbar Butt--were all between the ages of 17-21 and had made contact with each other through an Internet chatroom. In explaining his decision, Judge Peter Beaumont admonished the defendants: "Each of you is British. You were born here, your families lived here, you went to school and university here, you hold British passports. You live under the protection of its laws, which give you freedom of speech and religious observance, yet each of you were prepared to break its laws. Why? Because in my judgment you were intoxicated by the extremist nature of the material each one of you collected - the songs, images and the language of violent jihad - and so carried away by that material were you that each of you crossed the line. That is exactly what the people that peddle this material want to achieve and exactly what you did... To stop them and you and to protect this country and its citizens abroad, a message has to be sent."
This past spring, I was formally requested by the United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to help identify and assess the swath of extremist material seized from defendants Raja, Malik, Zafar, Iqbal, and Butt. As a result of my analysis, I produced a 27-page expert report, in which I concluded: "...The cached material is generally of fairly recent origin and thematically tracks the most extreme wings of Al-Qaida in Iraq and Saudi Arabia that have specialized in fringe tactics such as beheadings and suicide bombings. There is a specific, disturbing emphasis on rituals associated with suicide bombers and justifying such sacrificial actions, even when they result in the deaths of innocent civilians. It is not simply a matter of one or two items easily located via general searches on the Internet, but rather an extensive and impressive reference library of terrorist-related documents and videos that would require many concentrated hours of browsing and downloading to assemble... significantly more than one would expect from a mere curious websurfer with a 'passing interest'... The evidence... communicates the general aims and ideology of Al-Qaida and affiliated groups to a wide, global audience; it further communicates specific guidance on the use of Al-Qaida’s preferred military tactics such as suicide bombings; it fosters a sense of organization and purpose for isolated extremists living in Western countries who are drawn to Al-Qaida; and, finally, it encourages even those who have no direct connection to Al-Qaida to join its cause and execute military operations on its behalf around the world, including the use of suicide bombings." My findings were based upon the presence of a number of specific items that I outlined in my report, including a vast quantity of material acquired from a shadowy online organization known as At-Tibyan Publications. In the wake of the demise of Azzam Publications in late 2002, At-Tibyan has gradually taken over as the premier source of English-language terrorist propaganda. The group maintained a popular English-language Internet discussion forum for jihad supporters living in the West which has been locked with user passwords since at least late 2005 in an attempt to evade law enforcement scrutiny. Mirroring the role of the now-absent Azzam Publications, At-Tibyan also produced its own original online content—primarily translations of mujahideen recruitment material obtained from Al-Qaida commanders in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Rather than merely translating news reports or offering background on particular military operations, At-Tibyan focused on distributing ideological material designed to convince likeminded individuals to sacrifice their lives in the cause of jihad. For instance, it was At-Tibyan Publications that was responsible for producing an English-language edition of the notorious Al-Qaida in Iraq propaganda video “The Battle of Omar Hadid”, a copy of which was found in the possession of the four jailed Britons. The men also had in their custody what appeared to be saved HTML web pages from the At-Tibyan online discussion forum, wherein “various members [are] discussing their religion. One, an Ibn El Sheikh talks about being famous when he has gone… [there are] long heated discussions between the following [users], Abu Dujanah, al-Muwahhid, c4explosive re: killing women and children.” No less significant was another At-Tibyan-translated document found with the defendants in this case: "The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Self-Sacrificial Operations: Suicide or Martyrdom" originally written in Arabic by the founder of Al-Qaida's network in Saudi Arabia, the late Shaykh Youssef al-Ayyiri. Indeed, while Western analysts have been quick to latch on to the name of Abu Musab al-Suri (a.k.a. Mustafa Setmariam Nasar) when it comes to the process of Internet-based homegrown radicalization, terrorism cases such as this one demonstrate that the works of other competing figures within Al-Qaida--such as al-Ayyiri and Abdullah al-Rashood--have (thus far) had a much greater impact in influencing the recruitment of outsiders, especially those living in the West, thanks to the translations produced by At-Tibyan Publications.
NEFA Series "Target America": KSM's Terror Plot to Collapse the Brooklyn Bridge
By Evan Kohlmann
On the heels of the foiled plots targeting Fort Dix and JFK Airport, the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation announces the release of the eighth in a series of reports examining the multitude of threats directed at the United States since 9/11. This week's report focuses on the plot, directed by 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge. Columbus, Ohio truck driver Iyman Faris, who is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence, researched "gas cutters" on the Internet and traveled to NYC to assess the bridge's vulnerabilities before concluding that the plan would likely fail. Faris had been recommended to KSM by Al Qaeda operative Majid Khan, a Baltimore resident now being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Click to view NEFA Report on KSM's terror plot targeting the Brooklyn Bridge
Week of July 16, 2007: Hamas' Military Operations in North America
Week of July 9, 2007: Irhaby007's American Connections
Week of June 25, 2007: The PATH Tunnel Plot
Week of June 18, 2007: The East Coast Buildings Plot
Week of June 11, 2007: The Illinois Shopping Mall Plot
Week of June 4, 2007: The L.A. Plot to Attack U.S. Military and Jewish Targets
Week of June 4, 2007: The Miami Plot to Bomb Federal Buildings and the Sears Tower
Overlooked History: Islam, Warrantless Wiretaps, and Organized Violence
By Jeffrey Breinholt
As a legal researcher, I am constantly amazed at how many modern issues we think are unique to our time have been debated in the past and are discussed in old American court opinions. A few years ago, I wrote a law review article which described this phenomenon in relation to the then-hot debates on the USA PATRIOT Act. In it, I argued that the very same points then being made by critics of American counterterrorism efforts had been tried (and resolved) non-stop over the past 50 years, and that these critics should visit the law library before throwing around such words as “unprecedented.” Lately, in the course of my ongoing research on Islam in the U.S. courts, I stumbled on another set of cases that demonstrate this dynamic. These cases involve whether Islam is, doctrinally, a religion of peace, and the implications and consequences of warrantless wiretapping by the FBI. Sound familiar?
The remarkable thing about these cases is that they include a Supreme Court case and an American icon, Muhammad Ali (nee Cassius Clay), yet - to my knowledge - nobody has mentioned how they relate to modern counterterrorism debates. Here’s what I found:
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Amazingly, unlike today, where Islam is mentioned in U.S. court cases on a daily basis, references to the religion did not appear in many American judicial opinions - either federal or state - until the 1960s. Prior to that time, I found one 19th Century case in which a rather ponderous judge engaged in some written philosophical (and irrelevant) musings on the development of law on whether the government should reimburse private parties for land that was destroyed when the government built a canal. Canal Appraisers of State of New York v. People ex rel. Tibbits, 17 Wend. 571, Lock. Rev. Cas. 51, 1836 WL 2823, N.Y., 1836. Then, in the 1950s, a couple of state courts issued opinions in cases where persons wanted to change their names to monikers more appropriate to their Muslim faith. In re Taminosian, 97 Neb. 514, 150 N.W. 824, Am.Ann.Cas. 1917A, 116 (Neb. 915); Application of Wing, 4 Misc.2d 840, 157 N.Y.S.2d 333 (N.Y.City Ct. 1956).
The issue of Islam in American courts started to take hold in the 1960s, mainly arising in two contexts: (1) the religious rights of Muslim individuals incarcerated in American prisons, and (2) the claim by American Muslims that they should be exempted from mandatory service in the U.S. military because of their religious beliefs. Each type of case involved courts struggling with Islamic doctrine, but only the second resulted in the Supreme Court entering squarely into the controversy.
The early Muslim prison cases, by and large, involved the growing popularity of the Nation of Islam (NOI) among incarcerated Americans, where courts tried to decide whether the Black Muslims, then led by Elijah Mohammad, qualified as a religion, as opposed to a nationalist cult. Although the military draft cases also involved the NOI, the courts’ focus was on the sincerity of the individual’s religious beliefs, rather than the relationship between the NOI’s brand of Islam and that practiced by Muslims in other parts of the world. This meant that these cases are more interesting to our current debates about Islam than the prison cases.
The claim of American Muslims to “conscientious objector” exemption from military service was undoubtedly hurt by the first controversy reported in American case books. Wallace Delaney Muhammad was granted contentious objector status in 1955, but he then proceeded to harm the cause of future Muslim-American claimants by informing his draft board in 1957 that he would refuse to participate in meaningful civilian alternative to national security at an Illinois hospital. On May 20, 1958, he was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to three years in prison. U.S. v. Mohammad, 288 F.2d 236 (7th Cir. 1961).
The boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay registered for the draft in 1960. In 1964, he converted to Islam and became a member of the Nation of Islam, and thereafter became known as Muhammad Ali. On February 28, 1966, facing induction, he filed a conscientious objector status form with local draft board. Clay v. U.S., 397 F.2d 901 (5th Cir. 1968). Up to that time, including the Mohammad decision, there had been only four cases of Muslim-Americans claiming conscientious objector status resulting in court decisions. Moore v. U.S., 302 F.2d 929 (9th Cir. 1962); U.S. v. Taylor, 351 F.2d 228 (6th Cir. 1965), and U.S. v. Al-Majied Muhammad, 364 F.2d 223 (4th Cir. 1966). Six months later, Ali tried to decrease his odds of going to Vietnam by claiming to be a credentialed minister for the NOI. Clay v. U.S., 397 F.2d 901 (5th Cir. 1968).
The publicity surrounding his case meant that American courts were, more than in the prison cases, going to have to carefully delve into Islamic doctrine and what it says about the acceptability of violence. And yes, there would be wiretaps.
Ali's claim was used by several other would-be Muslim military inductees of the era. The wording in these claims was so consistent as to suggest either central planning by the NOI or an effort by other draft-eligible Muslims to copy Ali‘s example: he was a Muslim, and he and his fellows did not believe that they should be forced to take part in wars conducted by the United States, unless the Government would agree to give them their own territory, in which event they would have something to fight for. Clay v. U.S., 397 F.2d 901 (5th Cir. 1968). See also U.S. v. Al-Majied Muhammad, 364 F.2d 223 (4th Cir. 1966); Carson v. U.S., 411 F.2d 631 (5th Cir. 1969); U.S. v. Orr, 474 F.2d 1365 (2nd Cir 1973); U.S. v. Lemons, 480 F.2d 1214 (5th Cir. 1973)
Ali’s claim did not impress his local draft board in Houston, where he had moved from Kentucky, nor the higher authorities. On March 6, 1967, the Presidential Appeal Board unanimously voted to classify him 1-A. Three weeks later, Local Board No. 61, Houston, Texas ordered Ali to report to it on April 28, 1967, for delivery to the induction station. He reported as ordered, for but declined to submit to induction on the grounds of his religious beliefs as a minister of the Islam Religion. He was indicted on May 8, and convicted June 20, 1967. Clay v. U.S., 397 F.2d 901 (5th Cir. 1968).
It was then that the wiretaps came into play. It turns out Ali was captured on warrantless FBI electronic surveillance years earlier, talking by phone to some people the FBI was interested in at the time - Elijah Mohammad and Martin Luther King. When this became known, the Supreme Court ordered the lower courts to re-open his case to see if the wiretaps either tainted his prosecution or were helpful to his defense, in which case they should have been turned over to him. Clay v. U.S., 400 U.S. 990, 91 S.Ct. 457 (Mem).
It turned out the wiretaps, which were not court-authorized (this was before FISA), were not related to the issue of Ali’s guilt, though they are interesting historical artifacts.
On March 24, 1964, Ali spoke by phone to Elijah Muhammad. Elijah said he wanted to see Ali as he was going to make a minister out of him when he quit thinking of fighting all the time. Elijah told Ali would make a better minister than a fighter anyhow. Elijah then said he would contact him when he had time to talk to him. Elijah also told him to “keep quiet.” U.S. v. Clay, 386 F.Supp. 926 (S.D. Texas 1969)
On September 4, 1964, Ali spoke by phone to Martin Luther King. King wished him well on his recent marriage. Ali invited King to be his guest at his next championship fight, King said he would like to attend. Ali said that he is keeping up with King that King is his brother, and that he was with him 100 percent but can't take any chances, and that King should take care of himself, that King is known world wide and should “watch out for them whities,” adding that people in Nigeria, Egypt, and Ghani had asked about King. Id.
A federal judge in Houston, on July 14, 1969, found that the wiretaps did not taint the government’s evidence in the Ali prosecution, that he was not entitled to further discovery, and that he did not have the right challenge the legal or constitutional basis for the wiretaps. U.S. v. Clay, 386 F.Supp. 926 (S.D. Texas 1969). On July 6, 1970, this ruling was affirmed on appeal. U.S. v. Clay, 430 F.2d 165 (5th Cir. 1970). It was all set up for the Supreme Court. For the first time in American history, the justices would undertake analysis of Islamic religious doctrine and what it says about individual obligation to undertake or avoid organized violence, as this was relevant to Ali‘s case.
The Court, in another case, had recently determined that the Department of Justice had been using the wrong standard in ruling on conscientious objector claims: if the claims were “political or racial,” they were not religious. The Court concluded that the claimaint's beliefs need not emanate from an actual religioun to qualify, and the test was whether they were held sincerely and were religious-like, even if not styled as part of an organized system of a recognized religious tradition. Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333, 90 S.Ct. 1792, 26 L.Ed.2d 308 (1970).
According to the Court in the Ali case, in order to qualify for classification as a conscientious objector, a registrant must satisfy three basic tests: (1) that he is conscientiously opposed to war in any form; (2) that this opposition is based upon religious training and belief, as the term has been construed in Supreme Court decisions; and (3) that this objection is sincere. Under recent Supreme Court precedent, the Selective Service System must be concerned with the registrant as an individual, not with its own interpretation of the dogma of the religious sect, if any, to which he may belong.
In the Ali matter, the Department of Justice had had concluded that “the teachings of the Nation of Islam preclude fighting for the United States not because of objections to participation in war in any form but rather because of political and racial objections to policies of the United States as interpreted by Elijah Muhammad. * * * It is therefore our conclusion that registrant's claimed objections to participation in war insofar as they are based upon the teachings of the Nation of Islam, rest on grounds which primarily are political and racial.” However, the Court noted that the record shows that Ali’s beliefs are founded on tenets of the Muslim religion as he understands them, and there was no question that they were sincere. Thus, according to the Supreme Court, “the Department was simply wrong as a matter of law in advising that the petitioner's beliefs were not religiously based and were not sincerely held.” Ali’s conviction was reversed. Clay v. U.S., 403 U.S. 698, 91 S.Ct. 2068 (1971).
The more interesting part of the ruling, in terms of its description of Islamic doctrine, came from the concurring opinion of Justice William Douglas, who used the opportunity to dip into the Holy Koran.
“In the present case there is no line between ‘carnal’ was and ‘spiritual’ or symbolic wars,“ Douglas wrote. “Those who know the history of the Mediterranean littoral know that the jihad of the Moslem was a bloody war.”
Douglas noted that Ali had testified that he was:
sincere in every bit of what the Holy Qur'an and the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad tell us and it is that we are not to participate in wars on the side of nobody who-on the side of non believers, and this is a Christian country and this is not a Muslim country, and the Government and the history and the facts shows that every more toward the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is made to distort and is made to ridicule him and is made to condemn him and the Government has admitted that the police of Los Angeles were wrong about attacking and killing our brothers and sisters and they were wrong in Newark, New Jersey, and they were wrong in Louisiana, and the outright, every day oppressors and enemies are the people as a whole, the whites of this nation. So, we are not, according to the Holy Qur'an, to even as much as aid in passing a cup of water to the-even a wounded. I mean, this is in the Holy Qur'an, and as I said earlier, this is not me talking to get the draft board-or to dodge nothing. This is there before I was borned [sic] and it will be there when I'm dead but we believe in not only that part of it, but all of it.
Justice Douglas then got into the concept of jihad:
O ye who believe! Shall I guide you to a gainful trade which will save you from painful punishment? Believe in Allah and His Apostle and carry on warfare (jihad) in the path of Allah with your possessions and your persons. That is better for you. If ye have knowledge, He will forgive your sins, and will place you in the Gardens beneath which the streams flow, and in fine houses in the Gardens of Eden: that is the great gain.
Thus God propoundeth unto men their examples. When ye encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them; and bind them in bonds; and either give them a free dismission afterwards, or exact a ransom; until the war shall have laid down its arms. This shall ye do. Verily if God pleased he could take vengeance on them, without your assistance; but he commandeth you to fight his battles, that he may prove the one of you by the other. And as to those who fight in defence of God's true religion, God will not suffer their works to perish: he will guide them, and will dispose their heart aright; and he will lead them into paradise, of which he hath told them. O true believers, if ye assist God, by fighting for his religion, he will assist you against your enemies; and will set your feet fast.
Justice Douglas noted that war is not the exclusive type of jihad, and that there is action by the believer's heart, by his tongue, by his hands, as well as by the sword. Regarding the military type, Douglas quoted again from the Islamic scriptures:
The jihad, in other words, is a sanction against polytheism and must be suffered by all non-Muslims who reject Islam, or, in the case of the dhimmis (Scripturaries), refuse to pay the poll tax. The jihad, therefore, may be defined as the litigation between Islam and polytheism; it is also a form of punishment to be inflicted upon Islam's enemies and the renegades from the faith. Thus in Islam, as in Western Christendom, the jihad is the bellum justum.
Far from harming Ali’s claim, this helped him, for Justice Douglas noted that “The jihad in the Moslem's counterpart of the ‘just’ war as it has been known in the West. Neither Clay nor Negre should be subject to punishment because he will not renounce the ‘truth’ of the teaching of his respective church that wars indeed may exist which are just wars in which a Moslem or Catholic has a respective duty to participate…. What Clay's testimony adds up to is that he believes only in war as sanctioned by the Koran, that is to say, a religious war against nonbelievers. All other wars are unjust.”
This wonderful concept meant, to Justice Douglas, that Muhammad Ali was entitled to avoid Vietnam by availing himself of conscientious objector status.
So we have the Supreme Court, in 1971 - a full 30 years before 9/11 - coming to terms with the Islamic concept of jihad, and worrying about the FBI's use of wiretaps (which Justice Douglas, in another opinion of the same era, described as “a dirty business” and a “disease.” Heutsche v. United States, 414 U.S. 898, 899 (1973)).
These cases are more reason, if there were any doubts, that people concerned with the violent underpinnings of Islam and the efficacy of American counterterrorism efforts should renew their library cards.
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The Growing Saudi Conundrum
By Douglas Farah
Well, six years after 9/11, the Saudis continue to be a major obstacle in the fighting radical Islam, while remaining a necessary partner because of the oil reserves.
Two recent stories shed a clear light on the huge damage the Saudi royal family and business elite continue to do in hindering meaningful progress is shutting down the hate speech, bigotry and twisted theology that drive the _jihadist_ movement, financed by these actors.
The first was in the Wall Street Journal by Glenn Simpson, outlining the role of the al Rajhi family and banking institutions in funding radical Islamists, and what the U.S. knew about the activities.
In every case when U.S. officials could and should have been raising the issue publicly to force action, the administration opted for "quiet diplomacy," resulting in nothing.
While there is only circumstantial evidence the Al Rajhi network directly aided terrorists, it is clear that Islamic banks, while mostly doing legitimate business, are the institutions extremists rely on. Why? In part because they are _sharia_ compliant, and in part because the Islamic banks are largely exempt from Western (pagan) banking regulations, and have virtually no transparency requirements.
The article drops another interesting tidbit in the middle: That Saudi Arabia has never set up the commission, promised several years ago, to oversee Saudi charities, the lifeblood of many Islamist groups.
And, my sources tell me, they never set up the Financial Intelligence Unit either, and there has been virtually no cooperation on the financial side at all. My full blog is here.
Buried Videos Surface in HLF Trial
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
A Northern Virginia man’s home landscaping chore became evidence Thursday in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation and five of its officials in Dallas. Marcial Peredo told jurors how he was leveling the yard at his new Falls Church home when he stumbled into a stash of videotapes buried in the ground.
Jurors were not told what was on those tapes, but Peredo testified that he bought the house from Fawaz Mushtaha, an unindicted co-conspirator in the case and the Washington, D.C. representative for the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), an organization with intimate links to HAMAS. (More on Mushtaha below)
The Holy Land Foundation and the five defendants are charged with providing material support to HAMAS, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Jurors also were told that burned videotape cases, cellular telephones, money, and maps were later found in Peredo’s backyard barbeque pit.
Read More »
FBI Agent Lara Burns also testified Thursday, describing an interview she had with defendant Mufid Abdulqader on April 5, 2002. Abdulqader claimed that, before moving to Dallas in 1995, he didn’t know anybody at HLF except his cousin, co-defendant Akram Mishal. But records seized from HLF offices contradicted Abdulqader’s claim. Prosecutors offered into evidence a 1990 American Express bill in the name of defendant Shukri Abu Baker and the Occupied Land Fund. The bill included travel charges for Abdulqader, who performed in a musical troupe, known as Al Sakra, at fundraisers for HLF throughout the country. The same credit card bill listed identical itineraries for other members of the band.
The Occupied Land Fund was an earlier name for HLF.
Abdulqader also claimed that he was merely a volunteer for HLF and sometimes served as a fundraiser, but that he was never compensated anything more than for travel expenses. Again, documentation from HLF offices seemed to contradict him. Prosecutors presented checks written from HLF to Mufid Abdulqader for “services.” To emphasize the distinction, the government also included checks made out to Abdulqader for “travel.”
The testimony of Agent Burns is expected to last for the next several days. The trial resumes on Monday.
Who is Fawaz Mushtaha?
In addition to his IAP work, Mushtaha was also the president of Light Star Travel Agency in Virginia and contact for The Dar El-Eiman Tour Group which share an address and phone number. Dar El-Eiman identifies itself as a Hajj agency--planning trips to Saudi Arabia. According to their 2002 brochure: Dar El-Eiman announces that the following well-respected imams and scholars will be accompanying this year’s Hajj Trip.
Among the 4 scholars listed:
**Muhammad al-Hanooti: A former IAP president who gave a speech in 1998 in his capacity as an imam stating: At the moment, Dar al-Hijra [the name of the mosque he is addressing] is the greatest example in sacrifice, execution and in carrying out the Jihad that Allah calls for. Allah will give us the victory over our tyrannical enemies in our country. Allah, the infidel Americans and British are fighting against you. Allah, the curse of the infidel Americans and British are fighting against you. Allah, the curse of Allah will become true on the infidel Jews and on the tyrannical Americans. ** Anwar Aulaqi: Spiritual advisor to two of the 9-11 hijackers (Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar) both in San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.
**Dr. Salah Sultan: Whose "vision", according to his online resume, is: "To live happily. To die as a martyr." On May 17, 2006, on al-Risala TV, Dr. Sultan praised Yemenite sheikh Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been categorized by the U.S. government as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" for "his support to bin Laden and al-Qaeda." « Close It
Somalia Still Bleeds
By Douglas Farah
Somalia is still bleeding, and in critical condition. My sources working the region say the Union of Islamic Courts leadership is safely operating from bases in Eritrea. They are being armed by Russian planes with Ukrainian or Tajik crews, flying from Moldova (sound vaguely familiar??) and preparing a major offensive.
The transitional government has proven to be almost completely incapable of moving toward true reconciliation, and the inability to control the sporadic violence in the capital, while simultaneously failing to provide the basic services the Islamists were providing, is a corrosive combination.
The dependence on the Ethiopians has further weakened its position, as has the almost complete lack of interest in trying to construct a true, new national government that includes most of the clans and sub-clans.
So, we (the broader international community) is giving a defeated Islamist force the chance to regroup and wreak havoc and not holding the facilitating governments accountable at all. My full blog is here.
Another "Ambassador of Peace" Underlies Thailand's Cluelessness
By Zachary Abuza
Once again Thailand has brought in another Muslim dignitary in the hopes that they will be able to miraculously quell the violence in the restive south, in which nearly 2,400 people have been killed since the start of 2004.
In late June, the head of the quasi-official Saudi agency, the Muslim World League, Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki, came and white washed any religious or ideological affinity of the insurgents. The MWL is one of the primary means that the Saudi government exports their virulent and intolerant version of Islam, often termed Wahhabism. Yet the Thai government is in denial that there is any correlation between the current outbreak of violence and the spread of Salafi/Wahhabism into the region. Southerners repeatedly tell me that the current generation of militants is comprised of ideological hardliners, completely intolerant of non-Muslims and moderate Muslims who seek accommodation with the Thai state. To wit, roughly 55 percent of the victims of the insurgent have been their co-religionists.
Yesterday’s visit of Din Syamsuddin, the head of Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization, the Muhammidiyah, and the Vice Chairman of the Ulama’s Council of Indonesia, came to Thailand. The Thai government would have done itself a great service if they had done their homework on this “moderate” Muslim. Yes, the American-educated Din can be charming and to the English language media and audiences; but if you look at what he says and does in Indonesia, you would see that Din is part of the problem, not the solution to sectarian woes.
• Last year during the Israeli-Hezbollah war, Din Syamsuddin, was quoted in the Jakarta Post as saying, “There is no need to send [Indonesian] men there. I think we should donate more money to help Hezbollah and Hamas fighters buy more weapons.” Din Syamsuddin claimed that the Muhammidiyah had already donated money to Hamas and delivered it to the PLO “Embassy” in Jakarta. Not withstanding their popular support among certain segments of the population, Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations.
• In 1998-2001, Din Syamsuddin used his position in the MUI to call for recruits to travel to the conflict zones in Indonesia to engage in sectarian conflict against Christians and Hindus. Din was one of the leading voices for the jihad in Maluku, which he saw as part of an international conspiracy to carve out a Christian republic in the heart of Indonesia and “Christianize” the nation. Some 6,000 people were killed in that conflict, which still simmers to this day. It should also be noted that the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah was leading the sectarian bloodletting in this period, through its two paramilitaries, the Laskar Jundullah and Laskar Mujihidin. He explicitly encouraged the Laskar Jihad to fight on behalf of the Muslims in the Malukus.
• Din Syamsuddin has publicly supported defended many militants and radical Islamists. These include Ja’far Umar Thalib, who was arrested, not for leading some 3,000 machete wielding Islamist thugs to the Malukus to fight Christians, but for leading the stoning of an adulterer in an area that he had unilaterally implemented Sharia law. Din has also repeatedly defended Abu Bakar Ba’asyir the convicted Amir, or spiritual leader, of Jemaah Islamiyah, including high profile visits to prison when Ba’asyir was incarcerated.
• Din is exceptionally janus-faced about his support for an Islamic state, and he tailors his remarks to each constituency. While not explicitly supporting sharia, he has repeatedly stated that he is all for “internal debate” on the possibilities of Indonesia adopting Islamic law. He likewise counsels against confronting radicals, preferring to accommodate them: “It is unwise to confront the radicals—better to keep them inside.”
• In July 2005, Din oversaw the quadrennial meeting of the MUI that saw the issuing of 11 unequivocally hardline fatwas. These fatwas amongst other things banned “liberal Islamic thought,” secularism, religious pluralism, inter-faith marriage, inter-faith prayers led by non-Muslims and women leading prayers attended by men. As Ma’aruf Amin, chief the MUI's Fatwa Commission, warned, “This is a reminder for Muslims to follow the religion in a correct way and not to try to deviate from the principles.” The fatwas had three specific target groups: Christians, the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) and a Muslim sect, the Ahmadiyah.
This is Thailand’s newest “ambassador for peace” in the south? No wonder the situation has only gotten worse since the coup. If the government and Council on National Security can’t even do basic due diligence, can we really expect them to come up with a viable counter-insurgency strategy?
Counterterrorism Blog Expert, Matthew Levitt, Takes the Stand in Dallas HAMAS Trial
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
This afternoon, government expert Dr. Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow and director of the Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence, and Policy, and Counterterrorism Blog contributor,continued his testimony. During his direct examination Wednesday afternoon, jurors were shown a videotape from a HAMAS graduation ceremony in the Gaza Strip. Children were dressed in army fatigues holding toy weapons and, in some cases, wearing suicide belts. Several of the children were dressed as well known figures including Sheikh Yassin, a founder and spiritual leader of HAMAS.
Prosecutors used the video to show how HAMAS indoctrinates its followers at the youngest ages. Levitt referred to the ceremony as “typical of HAMAS run schools.”
Levitt, the prosecution’s first witness, testified as a HAMAS expert about the group’s methods of recruitment and their violent attacks. In contrast to descriptions by defense attorneys in Tuesday’s opening statements, where the first Intifadah was described as occasional rock throwing by children, Levitt explained to jurors that “HAMAS’ role in the first Intifadah was much more violent then rock throwing.” “They were involved in shooting attacks,” he said.
Levitt also spent considerable time discussing the charitable Zakat Committees. He called them “HAMAS’ most effective tool… they build grassroots support for the organization…(and) provide a logistical support mechanism to the terrorism wing by providing day jobs to HAMAS terrorists.”
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In her cross examination, Nancy Hollander, defense attorney for Shukri Abu Baker, focused on Levitt’s employment with the Washington Institute, which was founded by Martin Indyk, as a way of questioning his objectivity. Indyk previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Hollander also asked Levitt a series of questions about his relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish Federation, both of which have hosted Levitt as a speaker
Earlier that day, prosecutors in the terror-support trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) had opened their case Wednesday morning by calling Dr. Levitt, an expert witness to explain HAMAS structure to jurors and detail its operations in the United States.
Levitt walked jurors through HAMAS history, explaining how it broke off from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and rose to power in the Palestinian Authority in January 2006.
HLF and seven of its top officials are charged with channeling material support to the Palestinian terrorist group. Five of those officials are on trial in a Dallas courtroom while two others live abroad and are considered fugitives.
Levitt previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the US Department of Treasury and as a Counterterrorism Intelligence Analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His latest book “HAMAS: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad,” directly speaks to the charges facing HLF. He has testified in other criminal trials in the United States including US v Marzook et al in Chicago and US v Al-Arian et al in Tampa.
His morning testimony focused on delineating HAMAS’ origins, and beliefs as spelled out in the group’s charter and identifying some of its key players. "Hamas seeks to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank," he said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization with representation throughout the world, “is very active in the United States,” Levitt said. It is represented in the United States as the Muslim American Society (MAS) which was founded in 1993 in Illinois and maintains branch offices throughout the United States in at least 27 cities.
In an extensive Chicago Tribune story on the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S [free registration required], the origins are described: ...the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members. Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential… When the leaders voted, it was decided that
Brotherhood members would call themselves the Muslim American Society, or MAS,
according to documents and interviews. An undated internal memo instructed MAS
leaders on how to deal with inquiries about the new organization. If asked, "Are you the
Muslim Brothers?" leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the
Muslim American Society. "It is a self-explanatory name that does not need further
explanation. And if the topic of terrorism were raised, leaders were told to say that they
were against terrorism but that jihad was among a Muslim's ‘divine legal rights’ to be used
to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam.
It should also be noted that the 1993 Articles of Incorporation for MAS, states that " Upon dissolution of the Society, and after paying or making provisions for payment of all liabilities of the Society, and in furtherance of the purposes of the Society, all assets should be distributed to the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a non-for-profit, charitable, and religious federally tax exempt organization under section 503 (c) (3)..."
NAIT was named by the HLF prosecutors as a Muslim Brotherhood group and as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the case.
Tuesday, representatives of the MAS Dallas chapter protested outside of the Earle Cabell Courthouse against the trial, which they dub a witch hunt brought on by post-September 11 Islamophobia. Mahdi Bray, the Executive Director of the MAS Freedom Foundation, headquartered in Washington DC, flew to Dallas for a press conference which took place during the lunch break. During the trial proceedings yesterday, Bray sat in the courtroom with family and friends of the defendants.
The Government’s questioning of Dr. Levitt will continue this afternoon.
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The Changing and Expanding al Qaeda Threat
By Michael Jacobson
A piece I wrote today on last week's NIE
On July 17, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell released declassified key judgments from a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland." According to the NIE -- which represents the intelligence community's collective view on a given issue -- al-Qaeda still has both the capability and intent to conduct an attack inside the United States and will increase its efforts to place operatives in the country. Terrorists coming from Europe pose a particularly serious risk. Yet, in addition to remaining a major threat to the United States, al-Qaeda has made clear through recent statements and actions that it poses a serious threat to many U.S. allies as well -- and that its definition of success is no longer limited to an attack on U.S. soil.
To read the rest of the piece, click here
Criminal Trial Begins for US Charity Accused of Funneling Money to HAMAS
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
In a packed Dallas courtroom yesterday, 18 jurors including 6 alternates listened to the opening statements given by the Government and Defense Attorneys in the case of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Assistant United States Attorney James Jacks told jurors that the defendants in the case knowingly sent millions of dollars to HAMAS linked charities called Zakat Committees.
While none of the men are accused of engaging in violent terrorist activities, the material support charge stems from financial transactions which, according to prosecutors, defendants intended to further HAMAS’ goal of destroying Israel. Jacks asked the jury “Are the organizations that received money from Holy Land Foundation controlled by and work on behalf of HAMAS and if so did the defendants know that?”
The defendants, according to Jacks, even went as far as using codes in a second set of bank records they maintained in an attempt to hide their conspiracy. The Government claims that the monies sent to HAMAS by HLF freed up funds that the terrorist organization used to finance their violent activities.
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Following the Government’s opening statement, attorneys for the five defendants: Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdulrahman Odeh, asserted that the prosecution’s proof was based solely on associational evidence which will not prove that the defendants gave material support to HAMAS. Furthermore, the defense claimed that the Zakat Committees, which the prosecution mentioned, had never been designated as terrorist organizations and that they are even registered with the Palestinian Authority. Each one maintained that his client was a good, decent, law-abiding citizen who merely wanted to extend aid to people whose lives had been hardened by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nancy Hollander, attorney for Shukri Abu Baker, stated that following the US designation of HAMAS as a terrorist organization in 1995, HLF officials “were so concerned that they hired lawyers and went to the government and said that they wanted to make sure that they were on the right side of the law, but that they were never told to stop working with anyone because they were not breaking any laws.”
Joshua Dratel, attorney for Mohammad El Mezain, picking up where Hollander left off, maintained that the Government’s case is about “quantity, not quality.” Dratel claimed that the Government wants to make this case about association and family relationships, which are not crimes, as substitutes for evidence, citing our First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.
The case is expected to last several months and will include testimony from expert witnesses from the United States and abroad, evidence from wiretaps and material obtained through search warrants, bank records, and video tapes as the Government tries to prove its case that the defendants knowingly engaged in a 14 year conspiracy to support HAMAS from right here in our very own country. « Close It
U.S. News Media and Terror Group Figure Editorials
By Jeffrey Imm
In the battle against global Jihadist organizations, the challenge of how to effectively deal with Jihadist terror group propaganda remains a national issue that needs to be addressed.
Individuals who are either members of or supporters of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) (as designated by the U.S. State Department), are increasingly being represented in the U.S. news media's editorials, op-ed pieces, and other columns. FTO's Hizbullah and Hamas terrorist group figures are gaining unfettered access as columnists in major American newspapers, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Hizbullah "Supporter" Column in Washington Post
The Washington Post and Newsweek today has provided an online column for Hizbullah terrorist group supporter and religious leader Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah to discuss the nature of Jihad as a "defensive" struggle. The Washington Post column clearly describes Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah as a Hezbollah "supporter", stating that he is "a controversial figure known primarily for his support of the armed Shi’ite resistance movement, Hezbollah".
Hizbullah is a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and "Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah" is on the US Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN). As reported by Newsweek itself, "In 1983, U.S. officials accused him of issuing a religious edict, or fatwa, that condoned the devastating truck bombing of the Marine headquarters in Beirut ."
Today's Washington Post online column from Hizbullah "supporter" Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah is part of a series of Washington Post-Newsweek columns "On Faith" to discuss religious issues. On July 23, Douglas Farah provided a blog posting addressing a recent Washington Post outlook section by Islamic scholars which failed to address push factors key to radicalization of Jihadists.
While both the latest National Intelligence Estimate warns Americans of potential attacks by the terror group Hizbullah, and the US Treasury announces more financial sanctions on Hizbullah's support organization, the Washington Post provides an online column for a Hizbullah "supporter", promoted on the front page of its website.
Hamas Figure Column in Washington Post and New York Times
A month ago, both the Washington Post and the New York Times provided op-ed columns to "Hamas figure" Ahmed Yousef.
Reuters reported "Shunned by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, the Islamist group Hamas scored a publicity coup this week by defending its policies in Gaza with opinion pieces in two of the country's most influential newspapers on the same day. The New York Times and The Washington Post gave space to Ahmed Yousef, a senior Hamas figure, on Wednesday to argue that the United States should not interfere in Gaza".
The Washington Post clearly knew of Ahmed Yousef's relationship with Hamas by the very title of the op-ed piece June 20, 2007 op-ed piece "Engage With Hamas - We Earned Our Support".
This is not the first time that Hamas figure Ahmed Yousef has written editorials for such news media. A year ago, on November 1, 2006, the New York Times had another Ahmed Yousef editorial: "Pause for Peace" by Ahmed Yousef.
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Ongoing Problem of Jihadist Unfiltered Propaganda Using News Media
This is not a new issue, and as Steven Emerson points out in his July 24 posting, there are "American newspaper editors advocating on behalf of Hamas", such as former public editor for the Chicago Tribune.
In March 2004, Newsweek published an interview with Hizbullah supporter Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, where Newsweek acknowledged his "role as the spiritual leader of Hizbullah" but stated that he was "no longer so closely associated" with Hizbullah. The Newsweek interview focused on the U.S. 2004 elections, Iraq, suicide bombers, "the Jewish lobby" and his view that President Bush should go "to a psychiatrist".
Nearly a year earlier, on April 7, 2003, Newsweek again did an interview with Hizbullah supporter Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah.
In both cases, the interviews serve as functional "columns" for Hizbullah "supporter" Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah to provide a mainstream media source for his viewpoints, unchallenged and undebated, without any references to Hizbullah as U.S. Government-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, but only as a "resistance" organization.
On March 23, 2006, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Hizbullah propaganda organization Al-Manar as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity" and as an "Arm of Hizballah Terrorist Network". In this designation, the U.S. Department of the Treasury stated that "Al Manar and al Nour are the media arms of the Hizballah terrorist network and have facilitated Hizballah's activities".
The challenge is, with a nation of free speech and a free press, what actions apply to US news media organizations that pick up where the now prohibited Al-Manar and other propaganda organizations leave off.
Sources:
April 30, 2007 - U.S. State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization Listing
July 24, 2007 - U.S. Department of Treasury - Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN)
July 24, 2007: Washington Post: Lebanese Cleric Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah - Jihad is Self-Defense Against Aggression
July 23, 2007 - Douglas Farah: What is Missing in the Current Debate on Islam
July 24, 2007 - Steven Emerson: Tribune's Former Public Editor: Hamas Operative Is An Asset To Chicago Community
June 22, 2007 - Reuters: Hamas scores publicity coup in U.S.
June 20, 2007 - Washington Post: Engage With Hamas - We Earned Our Support - Ahmed Yousef
June 20, 2007 - New York Times: What Hamas Wants - Ahmed Yousef
November 1, 2006 - New York Times Editorial: "Pause for Peace" - by Ahmed Yousef
May 12, 2004 - Newsweek: "From Mistake to Mistake" A leading Shiite cleric discusses Iraq, suicide bombers, U.S. elections -- and why he thinks George W. Bush should see a psychiatrist - interview with Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah
April 7, 2003 - Newsweek: War in Iraq - "‘We Don't Trust America" - interview with Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah
March 23, 2006 - U.S. Department of Treasury: U.S. Designates Al-Manar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity Television Station is Arm of Hizballah Terrorist Network
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The U.S. Moves on Hezbollah Charities
By Douglas Farah
The U.S. Treasury Department today announced the sanctioning of Hezbollah-funding organizations, including one with a branch operating inside the United States.
The first is the Martyrs Foundation, including the Goodwill Charitable Organization in Dearborn, Michigan. The Treasury statement says the GCO is a "fundraising office established by the Martyrs Foundation...a Hezbollah front organization that reports directly to the leadership of the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon."
The second is the Al-Qard al-Hassan, described as "cover to manage (Hezbollah) financial activity," and a conduit to the international banking system.
What is ironic about the sanctions is that they come as one of Hezbollah's leading theologians, in an article written for the Washington Post web site, offers an unapologetic and straightforward defense of violent jihad. My full blog is here.
Tribune’s Former Public Editor: Hamas Operative Is An Asset To Chicago Community
By Steven Emerson
Many have noted the fairly recent trend of Hamas leaders taking to the op-ed pages of major American newspapers. (Side note: Hamas is not the only terrorist group with access to the op-ed pages of American newspapers. Just this morning, the Washington Post, in its Muslims Speak Out section, has a piece from Hizballah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, extolling the virtues of violent jihad).
But another equally insidious phenomenon has been occurring for much longer: American newspaper editors advocating on behalf of Hamas. One of the worst offenders is Don Wycliff, former Public Editor and Editorial Page Editor of the Chicago Tribune.
On July 11, 2007, Hamas operative Muhammad Salah was sentenced to 21 months in prison, fined $25,000 and ordered to do 100 hours of community service on charges of obstruction of justice related to his lying under oath in a lawsuit concerning his time as a money courier for the terrorist group.
Prior to sentencing, Salah’s attorneys orchestrated a letter writing campaign to U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve on behalf of their client. One of the letters came from Mr. Wycliff, who wrote:
I write on behalf of Muhammad Salah, who shortly will come before you for sentencing. I cannot claim to know Mr. Salah well. However, I can tell you that what I do know of him suggests to me that he is not a danger to the community—on the contrary, he is an asset—and that if ever there was an ideal candidate for leniency, for probation, Mr. Salah is that candidate.
For Wycliff, this letter represents only the latest in a years-long advocacy campaign for Salah and his family. In 2003, on the editorial pages of the Tribune, Wycliff made a similar plea, claiming that while he could not personally “vouch” for Salah, that Salah surely was being grossly mistreated by the U.S. justice system.
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In 2006, Wycliff took to his paper’s editorial page yet again, writing:
Muhammad Salah has been on my conscience for the last 13 years. What has troubled me about the Salah case from the beginning was the secrecy of it all. He and a couple of colleagues were arrested by Israeli military authorities during a trip to the occupied territories back in 1993. They were held incommunicado from the beginning, and the U.S. government seemed strangely lackadaisical about the whole business.
For that effort, Wycliff was presented a community service award by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, whose Chairman kicked off the ceremony by announcing, “Given that KindHearts, a Muslim Charity in Toledo, Ohio, has [recently] had its assets frozen without due trial or process, these awards have become even more meaningful.” An ironic, yet telling statement, since KindHearts, like Salah, was the target of law enforcement because of its extensive links to the Hamas terrorist organization.
Just to remind everyone, the jury found Salah guilty, and the judge sentenced Salah, because he (see page 35):
corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice by submitting to the United States District Court, through lawyers acting under the authority of the court, false and misleading verified answers to interrogatories propounded on defendant SALAH in a civil suit filed against defendant SALAH and others which answers falsely stated, among other things, that defendant SALAH had never provided or delivered funds for the purpose of supporting Hamas.
That’s right, the jury found Salah was a member of Hamas and had perjured himself about handling and delivering Hamas funds. Despite this, after having publicly advocating for Salah for years from his perch at the Tribune, Wycliff was not deterred from offering more public support for Salah, continuing in his letter:
I got to know Mr. Salah and his family initially as a result of my writing about him, first as editorial page editor of the Chicago Tribune and later as public editor. Maybe I am naïve, but I was appalled to see my government going after a citizen in defiance of all the due-process principles I was taught decades ago in civics classes: a trial and conviction before punishment; presumption of innocence, the right to confront one’s accusers, and so forth.
At this point, one can question Wycliff’s grasp on reality. It is obvious that Salah was in fact tried and convicted before he was punished, was presumed innocent before – and throughout - his trial (in fact, he was acquitted on a greater charge, even if trial watchers and followers of Salah’s career with Hamas feel he is guilty in fact, if not by the law), and, like all criminal defendants, had the opportunity to confront his accuser: the U.S. government.
How Wycliff missed these facts is a mystery, and it seems sour grapes to claim that a trial, in which Salah received an acquittal on a very serious racketeering charge, was somehow unfair to him. Perhaps Wycliff's years of ethically and morally questionable public advocacy on behalf of a Hamas operative has clouded his thought process.
At sentencing, Judge St. Eve told Salah, “Telling the truth is the bedrock of our judicial system and a slap on the wrist will not provide a deterrent.” If only Mr. Wycliff, the former public editor and long time editorial page editor of one of America’s major newspapers, felt the same way. « Close It
Holy Land Foundation Trial Opens in Dallas
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
A Dallas, Texas jury will begin to hear the case of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLFRD) tomorrow. Along with the organization itself, there were seven men indicted, two of which fled the country and are considered fugitives from justice.
The trial is expected to last at least five months.
The IPT will be observing court proceedings and reporting from Dallas on significant developments.
What of the Push Factors in Answer to "Why do they hate us?"
By Douglas Farah
It has become quite fashionable now to give a relatively small group of Muslim scholars free rein to talk, unchallenged, about what Islam does and does not teach. In the Sunday Washington Post, the Outlook section devoted most of this week's pages to letting Muslims of different viewpoints speak out. Newsweek Magazine and the Post have a joint inter-faith dialogue, Georgetown University has given Tariq Ramadan more time than anyone could reasonably used, and the list goes on.
What is strikingly missing in reading through these pages is any recognition that there are significant push factors that are extremely important in the radicalization of many of today's _jihadis._
While it may be true that U.S. foreign policy has contributed to some radicalization, and poverty and racism have their place, what of the billions of dollars the Saudis and others, often through mosques controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, used to teach people how to hate us? Might that not be a factor as well?
It is a topic that only rarely is raised by all these voices claiming that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. My full blog is here.
United Kingdom Terror Investigations Update - week ending July 22
By Jeffrey Imm
Roundup and update of UK terror investigation news stories for the week ending July 22:
British radicals 'are a danger to America'
The Daily Telegraph reported on the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and comments by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. The July 18, 2007 Telegraph story reported:
"Muslim radicals recruited to terrorism in Britain and Europe were labelled a major threat to US national security last night. The US homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, singled out extremists who have been radicalised in Britain as a danger to America. A report compiled by US security chiefs on the threat to their homeland concluded that British-based Muslims would regard 'the use of violence here as legitimate'. The findings will reinforce efforts by the US government to tighten up visa controls. Mr Chertoff is calling for visitors from the European Union who enter the US via the visa waiver scheme to register their personal details 48 hours before taking a transatlantic flight."
DHS Secretary Chertoff has previously warned of potential attacks on USA homeland from British Jihadists, and has been in discussions on visa issues for months with the UK government. The UK Foreign Office has stated, however, that the "visa waiver program is certainly not a 'loophole' ."
Earlier this month, links between British Jihadist investigations and threats against the USA included July 5 report that 45 doctors had used UK jihadist web site to make plans to attack US facilities such as the shipping facilities for USS John F Kennedy in Jacksonville, Florida, July 6 reports that two of the UK car bomb doctors sought work in Philadelphia, and July 4 report that AQ attacks in USA would follow attacks in UK.
4,000 in UK trained at terror camps.
Daily Telegraph reported that between 3,000 to 4,000 Islamists traveled from the United Kingdom to apparently pre-9/11 terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The July 15, 2007 Daily Telegraph story reported stated that:
"Up to 4,000 Islamic extremists have attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan before returning to Britain, security chiefs have revealed." The July 15, 2007 Daily Telegraph reported that "[a] senior security source said of the al-Qaeda camps: 'There are 3,000 to 4,000 people who went from the UK to Afghanistan and came back. The important question is, where are they now?' The figure is more than double the estimate of 1,600 which MI5 gave last autumn for the number of individuals actively involved in plotting terrorist attacks in the UK."
4,000 are UK terror suspects
The UK Sun reported that the number of Islamist terrorists increased to 4,000 active terrorists with 2,000 sympathizers. The July 17, 2007 UK Sun story reported:
"[the] number of suspected Muslim terrorists in the UK has multiplied nearly four times in seven months, security chiefs have been told. A staggering 2,000 active terrorists are under watch in Britain.And there are another 2,000 sympathisers. It is a massive rise from the 1,200 warned about by MI5’s former head seven months ago. The chiefs of MI5, Scotland Yard and MI6 were told the figure last week."
Missile Blueprint British Jihadist Imprisoned for 3 1/2 Years.
On July 18, Yassin Nassari was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for smuggling blueprints on how to build a missile into the United Kingdom. Per the July 18 Daily Telegraph report, in arresting Yassin Nassari "[p]olice discovered a mass of jihadi material on a laptop and removable hard drive including blueprints for an Al Qassam 1.5 rocket used by the Palestinian terror group Hamas." Yassin Nassari also had a letter from his wife urging him to conduct Jihad and hoping that their five month son would also be martyred. The UK court decided to accept his wife's contention that this was "creative writing". The Telegraph also provided partial illustratrations of the Nassari diagrams.
Hate Crimes British Jihadists Imprisoned.
The July 18 London Times reported the sentencing of four British Jihadists charged with hate crimes; protestors over the Muhammad cartoons included Mizanur Rahman, Umran Javed and Abdul Muhid sentenced to 6 years, Abdul Saleem sentenced to 4 years. Afterwards, the July 19 Daily Mail reported that dozens of veiled women gathered outside the Old Bailey to protest against the jail sentences given to four Muslim men for encouraging terrorism.
Hate Crimes British Jihadists in Court.
In a separate case, the July 17 Guardian reported that British Jihadists Abu Izzadeen (aka Omar Brooks) and Abdullah Hassan were in court on terrorism charges relate to hate speeches made at London's Regents Park mosque in 2004.
UK Car Bombs Suspect -- Dr. Sabeel Ahmed Update
Dr. Sabeel Ahmed's lawyer indicated in court on July 16 that he will plead not guilty to having information of material assistance in preventing the commission by another of an act of terrorism. Dr. Sabeel Ahmed was charged on July 14, and has been remanded in custody until August 13. On July 17, NDTV reported that "Sabeel Ahmed knew of his brother's involvement in the UK terror plot, reports say. Ahmed has been charged with not informing the police about the conspiracy. Sabeel was sent a text message by his brother Kafeel after the car bombs were planted in London but before the attack on Glasgow Airport. The message contained the password for an internet email account. Inside the email account was a folder containing Kafeel's last will and testament and instructions on what to say to the police." Engineer Kafeel Ahmed remains hospitalized under police guard.
UK Car Bombs Suspect -- Dr. Mohammed Asha Update
Per the July 19 Daily Telegraph, Dr. Mohammed Asha was charged on July 19 with has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. His wife was released without charge on July 13. Per the July 20 London Times, Dr. Mohammed Asha was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on July 27.
UK Car Bombs Suspect -- Dr. Mohammed Haneef Update
There have been a number of stories in the past week regarding Indian native Dr. Mohammed Haneef who has been detained in Australia: (a) one story regarding discrepancies in the reports on the SIM card linking him to Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed, (b) one story regarding deportation status, and (c) one story regarding potential involvement in Australian attack plans.
Regarding the SIM card, the July 22 Daily Express reports that "Dr Haneef, 27, appeared in court in Brisbane last week after being charged with supplying a mobile phone SIM card to his cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, on a visit to the UK. The court was told Ahmed then passed the card on to his brother, Kafeel – the driver of the blazing Jeep driven into the airport terminal – and that the phone card had been found inside the wrecked car. But senior sources in Australia revealed the mobile phone card was actually with Ahmed in Liverpool at the time." Dr. Mohammed Haneef's lawyers are stating that errors in the government inquiry reports should result in his release.
The July 19 Times of India reported that Dr. Mohammed Haneef had chatted on the Internet with his cousin, accused UK terrorist Sabeel Ahmed, just days before the attack on Glasgow airport.
Regarding deportation, the July 22 DPA and Sun Herald reported that Dr. Mohammed Haneef was likely to be deported to India, rather than face trial in Australia on a charge of supporting terrorism. "Haneef had been in contact with his cousins, Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed. The brothers are terrorism suspects now in custody in Britain. He left his SIM card with Sabeel when he left Britain last year. "
Regarding potential involvement with plots in Australia, the July 22 Times of India states that "Australian police denied newspaper reports on Sunday that they were investigating whether the Indian doctor Haneef detained on terror charges may have been plotting to blow up a high-rise building on the Gold Coast." The July 22 Herald Sun reported that "Australian Federal Police are examining images of a Gold Coast building and its foundations found in documents and photographs seized in a raid on Dr Haneef's Southport unit three weeks ago".
Half of UK Terror Suspects Arrested Since 9/11 Released Without Charge
On July 17, BBC reported that since 9/11, "Home Office statistics show 669 of the 1,228 people arrested in terrorist investigations were later freed." A July 9 Daily Telegraph story reported that "more than 40 separate terror court cases due to be heard" and "[m]ore than 100 suspects are awaiting trial in British courts for terrorist offences".
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Three Arrests in Manchester under Terrorism Act
On July 18, BBC reported that "Three men have been arrested in Manchester for alleged terrorism-related activity. The three were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and a fourth man was arrested under immigration legislation."
London Terror Police To Track Cars via CCTV Cameras
The July 17 London Times reported that "[p]olice in London are to be able to track vehicles entering the capital by accessing congestion charge cameras as a result of the 'enduring threat' of terrorist car bombings" and that the UK government "lifted restrictions on access to the cameras to enable the Metropolitan Police to view images in 'real time' from the 1,500 congestion charge cameras in the capital. "
UK Dirty Bomber and NYC Terror Plotter Dhiren Barot Returned to Prison
On July 12, AFP reported that, after being scalded with water and oil, British Jihadist Dhiren Barot "returned Saturday to his cell after hospital treatment for severe injuries suffered in prison" and that "[p]olice sources said Barot returned to Frankland Prison in Durham following treatment at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary in northeast England, where he had been admitted on Monday".
UK Ambulance Crews Get Radiation Detectors
The July 22 Daily Mail reports that "Britain's ambulance crews have been issued with personal radiation monitors in response to the growing threat of 'dirty bomb' attacks by terrorists. "
UK "Oil" Suspects Released
The July 20 London Times reported that two Bristol terror suspects arrested for due to belief that they had posed 50 liters of' hydrogen peroxide, were released when the containers were found to hold vegetable oil. The arrests were related to a drug investigation.
UK Politics - English in Mosques.
UK's political news has an ongoing debate regarding actions to discourage extremism in mosques including greater control over foreign imams. BBC previously reported that over 50% of UK's imams are from Pakistan. The July 22 Daily Telegraph reported Muslim politician views that "Mosques should be banned from recruiting foreign preachers unless they speak excellent English, according to a senior Muslim politician"; this idea has been condemned by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The July 22 Daily Telegraph also quotes the MP as stating that "MCB was 'hindering the fight against terrorism'."
Sources:
July 22, 2007 - Daily Express: Terror case 'botched' by Australians
July 22, 2007 - DPA: Australia to deport Indian doctor held over British bomb plot
July 22, 2007 - Times of India: Australia denies new claims against Dr. Mohammed Haneef
July 22, 2007 - Australian Herald Sun: Haneef plot probed
July 22, 2007 - AFP: Bomb plotter back in British cell after hospital care: police
July 22, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Preach in English, Muslim peer tells imams
July 20, 2007 - London Times: Dr. Mohammed Jamil Asha remanded over failed car bombings
July 20, 2007 - London Times: Bristol terror suspects released
July 19, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: M6 doctor charged over car bomb plot
July 19, 2007 - The Times of India: Cousins chatted before UK terror attack
July 19, 2007 - Daily Mail: Veiled protest as race-hate Muslims are jailed
July 19, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Drop-out is jailed for missile blueprints
July 18, 2007 - Missile blueprint smuggler 'celebrates' jail term
July 18, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Yassin Nassari's Terror Blueprints
July 18, 2007 - BBC: Three arrests under Terrorism Act - in Manchester for terrorism-related activity
July 18, 2007 (updated July 19) - Daily Telegraph: British radicals 'are a danger to America'
July 18, 2007 - London Times: Four jailed for hate crimes at cartoon protest
July 17, 2007 Daily Mail: Jail for the Muslim with blueprint for rocket
July 17, 2007 - Guardian: Two Britons in court on terrorism charges
July 17, 2007 - London Times: Terror police to track capital's cars
July 17, 2007 - BBC: Half of terror suspects released
July 17, 2007 - UK Sun: 4,000 are UK terror suspects
July 17, 2007 - NDTV: 'Indian suspect knew UK terror plot'
July 16, 2007 - Australian News: Sabeel Ahmed will plead not guilty
July 15, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: 4,000 in UK trained at terror camps
July 9, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Nuclear alert by ex-head of MI5
May 5, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: US pushes for visa control on Pakistani Britons
April 7, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Britain 'could stage another September 11' « Close It
Bout's Planes Still At It
By Douglas Farah
The Times of London has just outed another aircraft tied to Viktor Bout by U.N. reports, to arming Islamist radicals in the Horn of Africa.
The undercover sting operation by the newspaper found that a Russian, Alexander Radionov, whose Antonov 8 aircraft in Sharjah was already identified as a Bout aircraft, was willing to fly a load of weapons to the Islamic Court Union forces in Somalia, even though Somalia is still under a U.N. arms embargo.
It is worth remembering that the ICU is the radical Islamist organization that was imposing _sharia_ law in Somalia before being driven out last December by Ethiopian troops, who acted with the support of the United States.
Not only does the embargo exist on paper, but the journalist posing as an arms purchaser specifically stated the flights would not be declared, and that they would be dropped in an area clearly controlled by the Islamists.
As the Times noted, "The offer to hire out an aircraft and provide parachutes for the mission to Somalia, which is under a United Nations arms embargo, demonstrates how easy it is to flout the efforts of western governments to stop illegal arms trafficking." My full blog is here.
Scheuer's Faulty Memory
By Steven Emerson
On Tuesday, I appeared on the Glenn Beck show with Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer to discuss the Bush administration’s release of the latest National Intelligence Estimate, and Mr. Scheuer experienced a bout of selective amnesia.
During the segment, the subject of the Islamists’ desire to re-establish the caliphate came up:
Beck: Do you really think that (Al Qaeda terrorists) would stop (targeting America) if we -- I mean, what behavior is it that we could possibly change that would stop them when they`re looking for a global caliphate?
Scheuer: Well, I think a global caliphate is kind of the last refuge of the neoconservatives after they`ve been wrong about everything else. There`s no chance of a caliphate in our world any more than there is of all Christians turning the other cheek, sir. (emphasis added)
In Mr. Scheuer’s haste to win debate points, he apparently forgot his own words and analysis, argued in his celebrated “anonymously” published book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror.
In a section titled, “The Importance of Afghanistan,” (see underlined passages) Scheuer himself described the centrality of the re-establishment of the caliphate in the Islamist mindset, writing (on pages 141-142):
But why, one might ask, is one of the poorest countries [Afghanistan] on earth and a one-eyed, battle-scared, and not superbly educated mullah pivotal in the Islamists’ eyes? The answer, once again, is found in the annals of Islamic history. Since the British completed the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, no country has replaced Turkey as the Muslim world’s center. In other words, Islam has needed a site from which to launch a new Caliphate, a state that would be governed by the shariah, God's law. (emphasis added)
And:
Suddenly, when the Taleban captured Kabul I 1996, Afghanistan became an official Islamic state – or emirate – ruled by shariah principles, and so the Islamists found themselves having the long-sought basics: a state ruled by an Islamic scholar from which to revive the Caliphate. (emphasis added)
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So what was once good enough for Mr. Scheuer and also “found in the annals of Islamic history,” is now somehow “the last refuge of neoconservatives” and something that there is “no chance” of becoming a reality.
Of course, whether or not the Islamists will actually be able to re-establish a caliphate is hardly the point. It is the fact that al Qaeda is intent on trying to do just that – a point which Scheuer himself makes in his book – which is a driving force behind al Qaeda’s extremism and terrorism.
Never mind the fact that one of the ways al Qaeda seeks to generate support amongst Muslims, both for themselves and for the idea of the re-establishment of the caliphate, is by attacking Western targets, obscuring the fact that much of the damage and violence launched by bin Laden and his minions have been against other Muslims.
Mr. Scheuer needs to brush up on his Islamic history a bit, and he should start by reading his own book.
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Somalia's National Reconciliation Conference Begins Amidst Rising Violence
By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
A national reconciliation conference convened this week in the volatile Somali capital of Mogadishu, while local residents trickled out amidst mortar attacks, grenade explosions, and small arms fire. Chaos has escalated in Somalia over the past several months as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)-backed insurgency has picked up steam. While this conference will by no means solve that situation, Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG) may be able to make some small gains.
The conference's TFG organizers planned to host 1,325 elders from Somalia's clans and subclans, and "have them meet for at least 45 days to discuss clan differences, disarmament and radical Islam." Roughly 1,000 delegates gathered in an old police warehouse to begin the conference on Sunday, but conference organizer Mohammed Ali Mahdi postponed discussions until July 19 to allow more representatives to arrive. A number of TFG opponents are not only boycotting the reconciliation conference, but have also scheduled a rival conference in Eritrea in September designed "to form a coalition whose main objective is to end Ethiopia's occupation of Somalia."
The TFG faces a number of barriers to bringing stability to Somalia. Its enemies exploit its relationship with Ethiopia, since the Ethiopian military is the primary reason that the TFG hasn't yet been driven from the country by the ICU. The ICU frequently uses the word "occupation" in its rhetoric, and has referred to Ethiopia as "the Israel in Africa," likening its occupation of Somalia to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This rhetoric is designed not only to bolster the ICU's standing in Somalia, but also to win over backers in the Middle East. Another problem for the TFG is the Darod clan's dominance within the government's leadership, which can make other clans feel they do not have a stake in the government.
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The reconciliation conference convenes against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating security situation. Even with Ugandan and Ethiopian boots on the ground, the streets of Mogadishu are plagued by fighting. Explosions and small arms fire targeting TFG and Ethiopian soldiers rock Mogadishu almost daily. For example, the Bakara market was hit by attacks on two straight days: on July 17 four civilians died in a blast at the market, and three people (including a Somali soldier) were killed in a July 18 grenade attack. Before that, bombs killed three and wounded thirteen on July 12 in attacks on TFG forces. On July 11, mortars were fired at the presidential palace.
Moreover, the conference itself is an attractive target. Militants announced in an intensive leafleting campaign that they would attack delegates. Shabaab, the ICU's youth wing, announced last weekend that anyone who went to the conference was "sentenced to death." Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf issued a blistering rejoiner, stating that "even if a nuclear bomb explodes in Mogadishu . . . it [the conference] will be held as scheduled." Mortars slammed neighborhoods near the conference site as it opened on Sunday, but they failed to hit their target. At least twelve mortars have been fired at the conference so far. Although the discussions continue, the delegates are taking risks every day that they attend.
The conference faces many obstacles to success, including the fact that the factions most responsible for insurgent violence in Somalia refuse to attend. Their boycott places a hard limit on the amount of stability the conference will be able to produce. The TFG's lack of resources is another obstacle: the TFG has lacked the resources to implement a countrywide federally-backed court system, and has been unable to provide the security that Somalis crave. Other countries have been hesitant to get involved, and aid has not been forthcoming. Since the TFG cannot collect tax revenue and is relying on reluctant external donors to resolve monetary concerns like its soldiers' wages, it is confronting a constant internal economic crisis.
While there are many discouraging signs, few things are certain in warfare, and it is too early to declare the TFG's defeat. At least one positive development has come from the conference: the participation of the Hawiye clan. Haji Iman Omar, the Hawiye clan leader, recently agreed to attend the conference -- reversing his previous refusal to attend. This is significant because Omar has been very anti-government, and has enjoyed a strong relationship with ICU. If Omar ends up changing this stance, that could have an effect on what other Hawiye clansmen do. Moreover, the ICU continues to use Omar's statements in their recruiting efforts. So far Omar has reporteldy said little at the conference, so it remains to be seen whether this conference will split him from the ICU.
The conference also at least gives the TFG the chance to try to put its house in order. The TFG -- essentially a power-sharing group with no unifying ideology -- has been riven by internal rivalries. This makes it difficult for the TFG to present a credible face internationally. If the TFG were able to resolve some of these internal disputes and put forward an image of unity and cohesion, that may help it to attract external donors and give the Somali people more confidence in the government. However, accomplishing this would require a level of competence that the TFG has never displayed.
Sasha Eckstein contributed research to this analysis.
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Pakistan: Revenge Attacks on Chinese Nationals and Security Personnel
By Animesh Roul
It is rightly observed that Pakistan is on the brink of precipice. In Pakistan, Chinese nationals, security forces and Musharraf regime, all are in an Islamist terror mess, especially after the fall of Red Mosque early this month. Wave of revenge attacks on Chinese nationals and security personnel have been increasing. Fears for a Pro-Taliban militant backed civil unrest is gaining ground, with the recent spate of violence across the country that has already taken hundreds of lives in the last seven days. Avowed militants continued suicide attacks and intensified their deadly assaults on security forces and Chinese populations. As many as Six suicide attacks have taken place since July 12 Miranshah and Swat incidents including three in one single day.
On July 19, Thursday there were three suicide attacks: in Hub, Hangu and Kohat all located in northwestern Pakistan. Over 50 people died in these attacks. On July 19 morning, a suicide bomber triggered a blast when he drove an explosive laden car into the parade ground of the police academy in Hangu. Seven people died and over twenty other injured in the assault. This could have been a major disaster if the bomber reached the ground where hundreds of trainees were undergoing training. The second attack, a car bomb, though targeted towards a vehicle carrying Chinese mining workers in Baluchistan’s Hub town, hit the police convoy guarding the workers instead. The blast and subsequent police firing reportedly claimed 30 lives including eight policemen and as many injured. However, all Chinese have escaped the attack. Again, later in the day (late Thursday) another suicide bomber triggered a blast at a mosque in an army cantonment in the northwestern town of Kohat. At least 15 people have been killed and over 30 people were injured in the blast.
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This was not the only instance of militants targeting Chinese citizen in Pakistan. Around 9,000 workers (engineers, technicians and buisnessmen) from China who are engaged in various construction projects are facing the maximum brunt in the aftermath of Red Mosque fiasco. Radical elements in Pakistan believe China is instrumental in ultimate storming of the red mosque and influence Pakistan to clamp down Pro Taliban/ Uighurs elements hiding/operating in the country. Earlier on July 8, three Chinese nationals were killed in Peshawar by unidentified militants. Last month, students of seminaries inside Red Mosque raided a Chinese massage parlor in Islamabad and abducted seven Chinese nationals. However they were released with a strict warning not to involve in any immoral activities. Later Pakistan was urged by Chinese authority to safeguard Chinese citizen and their business interests in Pakistan.
With this deteriorating security situation, President Musharraf is actually in a catch-22 state whether to impose a state of emergency or not. Again, a shattered peace pact with tribal militants in Wazirstan and signs of Al Qaeda’s presence in its territory, make things further down for him. Now both Washington and Beijing are watching closely at the unfolding situation in Pakistan and Mush's next move.
Earlier incidents:
• July 17: Around 16 people died in a suicide attack just outside the venue of a lawyers rally in the capital Islamabad.
• July 15: Suicide attacks took place in the Swat and Dera Ismail Khan districts of NWFP targeting police personnel. The first attack took place at Matta (Swat) where around 20 people including 13 security personnel were killed. The next attack of the day was in Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines where over 25 people were killed (including 12 police personnel).
• July 14: A suicide bomber drove an explosive laden car into the convoy of Frontier Corps personnel near Miranshah, in North Waziristan. 23 FC personnel were killed and 27 others injured in the incident.
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Holy Land Foundation…Dispelling the Myths
By Dennis Lormel
The U.S. based charity Holy Land Foundation (HLF) went on trial this week, along with seven individuals who were principals of HLF. They were indicted in 2004 for providing material support to terrorists, namely to HAMAS. The trial began with the jury selection phase. Thus far, the trial has generated moderate media coverage. As it progresses, the trial will garner more intense coverage. This is an extremely complex and document intensive case. The trial should last a minimum of five months. To date, the media coverage has spawned a series of myths that warrant being dispelled.
The bottom line is that HLF did in fact fund HAMAS. HAMAS is a masterful organization at exploiting and manipulating charities for financial and logistical support, as well as for recruitment and marketing, in the sense of winning the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people.
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The term “Islamophobia” has been described by media and Islamic organization sources as the catalyst for this investigation and trial. Make no mistake about it; this trial is not about ethnic discrimination or political motivation. This trial’s sole consideration is the willful disbursement of funds by HLF to HAMAS, a terrorist organization. Islamic groups espousing “Islamophobia” or political motivation are providing a disservice to their constituencies. Islamic groups must stand up and honestly recognize the fact that their charities are vulnerable to exploitation by terrorist groups and have historically served as a significant source of funding for terrorists. It’s incumbent on the Islamic community to police its charities and ensure donations intended for charitable purposes are in fact used for charitable purposes and not in any way to support terrorism. Islamic charities serve a vital role and provide much needed relief to the poor and destitute.
There have been reports that the HLF case was driven by political pressure brought to bear by the Israelis. There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. This investigation was initiated by the FBI, specifically based on the predication that HLF was providing funds and other support to HAMAS. The Israelis have cooperated with the investigation but have no influence over the investigators or prosecutors.
Distinctions have been drawn between the social and military wings of HAMAS. As a result, it has been theorized that providing funds to the social or charitable wing of HAMAS should be acceptable because humanitarian aid is provided to the needy. The unfortunate reality is that no such distinction can be drawn. HAMAS, the organization, the entire organization, must be recognized and treated as a terrorist organization. Regardless of the use of funds, under all circumstances, HAMAS, the terrorist organization benefits. This is a heart wrenching and unfortunate reality for those who truly need aid. HAMAS must be held responsible for this because of the manner in which they use charities to support their terrorist activity. The U.S. government has rightly taken a hard line in this regard.
A theme gaining traction in the media has been that there is pressure on the government to win this trial. The government has suffered setbacks in two recent cases, which possessed similarities to this case. First was the Sami Al-Arian case in Tampa. Al-Arian was tried on charges of providing material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was acquitted of certain charges and there was a hung jury concerning other charges. Al-Arian ultimately accepted a guilty plea to lesser charges. The second case occurred in Illinois where two subjects were found not guilty for providing material support to HAMAS. The reality is, neither of those cases factor into the HLF case. The prosecutors and investigators are focused specifically on HLF. Those other cases are irrelevant with respect to this case. Another case, which hasn’t been mentioned in this context, was the Infocom case, which was related to HLF. In Infocom, five brothers, including Ghassan Elashi, a subject in the HLF case, were convicted in Dallas for conducting business with Libya and Syria, known state sponsors of terrorism. They were also convicted for financial dealings with a longtime HAMAS operative.
Despite the fact that HLF did provide funding and support to HAMAS, obtaining a conviction in this matter will be a challenge for the government. As mentioned earlier, this is an extremely complex and document intensive case. This is where the “lawyering” comes into play. The prosecutors must prove their charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense attorneys must create questions and doubts to sway the jury for acquittal. They must establish doubt to the government’s argument that the subjects knowingly provided material support. In cases of such complexity, it is difficult to gauge how the jury will respond. The prosecutors should attempt to simplify the case as much as possible.
This is an extremely important case. However, regardless of whether there are prosecutions or acquittals, actions already taken against HLF and other charities have definitively disrupted the flow of funds to terrorists. In December 2001, HLF assets were frozen. In and around that time frame, the assets of other charities were also frozen. These actions had a chilling effect on charitable giving to like charities. The indictment and trial in the HLF case continue the deterrent created by the asset freezes. The disruptions achieved have diminished the flow of funds to terrorists. Consider the current HAMAS financial state. If HAMAS still had access to a funding mechanism such as HLF, it would have been extremely beneficial. Fortunately, they don’t.
Should the government lose this trial, they will receive harsh criticism and in a sense validate some of the myths addressed above. It will also cause the government to take a step back to seriously reevaluate prosecutive theory and investigative methodologies. Should the government win this case, they should leverage the sense of credibility achieved in this matter and use it to work with the Islamic community to address the areas of vulnerability, such as charities, exploited by terrorists. Meaningful dialogue is an important step in this process.
Win or lose, the government should reevaluate prosecutive theories and investigative methodologies in cases of this nature. They should identify mechanisms that work best and develop new mechanisms to better address future challenges. From the stand point of lessons learned, training curriculums should be developed for prosecutors and investigators to enhance their skills and abilities in handling these challenging and complex cases.
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NEFA Series "Target America": Hamas' Military Operations in North America
By Evan Kohlmann
On the heels of the foiled plots targeting Fort Dix and JFK Airport, the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation announces the release of the seventh in a series of reports examining the multitude of threats directed at the United States since 9/11. This week's report focuses on a Hamas plot to attack members of the U.S. and Canadian Jewish communities, as well as to assassinate an Israeli official visiting the U.S. According to the Israeli government, Ahmed Wahabe, a "senior Hamas terrorist," tasked Jamal Akal, a Canadian citizen, to raise funds for the attack in Canadian mosques and purchase a M-16 from a Detroit gang. Further, Wahabe advised Akal that "New York is an easy place to find Jews."
This week (July 18, 2007): Hamas' Military Operations in North America
Week of July 9, 2007: Irhaby007's American Connections
Week of June 25, 2007: The PATH Tunnel Plot
Week of June 18, 2007: The East Coast Buildings Plot
Week of June 11, 2007: The Illinois Shopping Mall Plot
Week of June 4, 2007: The L.A. Plot to Attack U.S. Military and Jewish Targets
Week of June 4, 2007: The Miami Plot to Bomb Federal Buildings and the Sears Tower
What is FPLP-GC up to in Lebanon?
By Olivier Guitta
While there was a second attack on the UNIFIL soldiers in Southern Lebanon and Hezbollah is playing dumb, not knowing who is behind the attacks.
This is all the more surprising that Hezbollah is still very much in charge of the south and literally nothing happens without it being aware of it.
Another pro-Syrian terrorist group could be behind these attacks: the FPLP-GC.
What is FPLP-GC up to?
The Croissant partially answered this question:
Lebanese fear that Syria ordered its agents in Lebanon, in particular Fatah Intifada [FI] and Ahmed Jibril’s FPLP-GC, to start a third front [after Nahr el Bared (Northern Lebanon) and Ain Al Helwi (Southern Lebanon)] against the Lebanese army, around Qosaya in Eastern Bekaa [Southern Lebanon].
This was done in response to the failure of the second front.
In fact, Lebanese authorities fear that the failure of Jund Al Sham to open a new front in Ain El Helwi will push FPLP-GC and its new recruits to enter the arena
- this all the more since Fatah and other PLO factions are very present in Ain El Helwi, contrary to Nahr el Bared where they were totally crushed by the Syrian army in the mid-80’s; they could rein in Jund Al Sham and thus prevent total unrest inside the camp.
Also, Beirut takes very seriously the information relating to the offensive apparatus put in place by the Palestinian bases located on the border with Syria:
In Qosaya, the FPLP-GC has welcomed in its ranks fighters from the “Al Yarmuk brigade”; the latter is based in Syria and is part of the Army of Liberation of Palestine.
Finally, in the same area, i.e. between Halwa and Wadi Al Anbar, on June 4, Lebanese security forces arrested eight Iraqi, Syrians and Sudanese citizens along with their guide; they were trying to clandestinely join the Palestinian camps. Finally last month, 15 other foreign fighters were arrested in this area.
To read the rest of the story, please click here.
Preventing the West from Understanding Jihad
By Walid Phares
In the years that followed 9/11, two phenomena characterized the Western public's understanding of the terrorists' ideology. The first characteristic stemmed from the statements made by the jihadists themselves. More than ever, Islamist militants and jihadi cadres didn't waste any opportunity to declare, clarify, explain, and detail the meaning of their aqida (doctrine) and their intentions to apply Jihadism by all means possible. Unfortunately for them, though, those extremely violent means changed the international public opinion: the public now was convinced that there was an ideology of Jihadism, and that its adherents meant business worldwide.
From Ayman al Zawahiri in Arabic to Azzam al Amriki in American English, via all of the videotapes made by "martyrs" in Britain, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the public obtained all the evidence necessary. Against all the faulty academic literature of the 1990's, the statements by the jihadists themselves were very convincing.
The second phenomenon of help to the public was the surfacing of a new literature produced by alternative scholars, analysts, journalists, experts, and researchers who, from different backgrounds and countries, filled in some of the gaps is "jihadi studies." Producing books, articles, and blogs from Europe, India, the Middle East, and North America, a combination of Third World-born and Western-issued scholarship began to provide the "missing link" as to what Jihadism is all about. These factors came together to shift the debate from "Jihad is spiritual yoga" to "Why didn't we know it was something else as well?" And this triggered in response one of the last attempts to prevent jihad from being understood.
In the 1990's, apologist literature attempted to convince readers and audiences in the West that jihad was a "spiritual experience only, and not a menace." [1] That explanation has now been shattered by Bin Laden and Ahmedinijad. So in the post-9/11 age, a second strategy to delay public understanding of Jihadism and thereby gain time for its adherents to achieve their goals has evolved. It might be called the "good cop, bad cop" strategy. Over the past few years, a new story began to make inroads in Washington and the rest of the national defense apparatus. A group of academics and interest groups are circulating the idea that in reality jihad can develop in two forms: good jihad and bad jihad.
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The practice of not using "Jihad" and "Jihadism" was lately defended by two academics at the National Defense University [2] who based their arguments on a study published by a Washington lobbyist, Jim Guirard.[3] On June 22, 2006, Jim Garamone, writing for the American Forces Press Service, published the study of Douglas Streusand and Harry Tunnel under the title "Loosly Interpreted Arabic terms can promote enemy ideology." Streusand told CNN that "Jihad is a term of great and positive import in Islam. It is commonly defined as striving or struggle, and can mean an internal or external struggle for faith." [4]
The article was posted under the title "Cultural Ignorance Leads to Misuse of Islamic Terms" by the US-based Islamist organization CAIR. [5] Since then the "concept" of deflecting attention away from the study of Jihadism has penetrated large segments of the defense newsletters and is omnipresent in Academia. More troubling though, is the fact that scholars who have seen the strategic threat of al Qaeda and Hezbollah have unfortunately fallen for the fallacy of the Hiraba. Professor Michael Waller of the Institute of World Politics in Washington wrote recently that "Jihad has been hijacked" as he bases his argument on Jim Guirard's lobbying pieces.[6] Satisfied with this trend taking root in the Defense intelligentsia of America, Islamist intellectuals and activists are hurrying to support this new tactic.
The good holy war is when the right religious and political authorities declare it against the correct enemy and at the right time. The bad jihad, called also Hiraba, is the wrong war, declared by bad (and irresponsible) people against the wrong enemy (for the moment), and without an appropriate authorization by the "real" Muslim leadership. According to this thesis, those Muslims who wage a Hiraba, a wrong war, are called Mufsidoon, from the Arabic word for "spoilers." The advocates of this ruse recommend that the United States and its allies stop calling the jihadists by that name and identifying the concept of Jihadism as the problem. In short, they argue that "jihad is good, but the Mufsidoon, the bad guys and the terrorists, spoiled the original legitimate sense."[7]
When researched, it turns out that this theory was produced by clerics of the Wahabi regime in Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood, as a plan to prevent jihad and Jihadism from being considered by the West and the international community as an illegal and therefore forbidden activity. It was then forwarded to American- and Western-based interest groups to be spread within the Untied States, particularly within the defense and security apparatus. Such a deception further confuses U.S. national security perception of the enemy and plunges democracies back into the "black hole" of the 1990's. This last attempt to blur the vision of democracies can be exposed with knowledge of the jihadi terror strategies and tactics, one of which is known as Taqiya, the doctrine on deception and deflection. [8]
First, the argument of "good jihad" raises the question of how there can be a legitimate concept of religious war in the twenty-first century to start with. Jihad historically was as "good" as any other religious war over the last 2,000 years. If a "good jihad" is the one authorized by a caliph and directed under his auspices, then other world leaders also can wage a "good crusade" at will, as long as it is licensed by the proper authority. But in fact, all religious wars are proscribed by international law, period.
Second, the authors of this lobbyist-concocted theory claim that a wrong jihad is called a Hiraba. But in Arab Muslim history, a Hiraba (unauthorized warring) was when a group of warriors launched itself against the enemy without orders from the real commander. Obviously, this implies that a "genuine" war against a real enemy does exist and that these hotheaded soldiers have simply acted without orders. Hence this cunning explanation puts "spin" on jihad but leaves the core idea of jihadism completely intact. The "spoilers" depart from the plan, attack prematurely, and cause damage to the caliphate's long-terms plans. These Mufsidoon "fail" their commanders by unleashing a war of their own, instead of waiting for orders.
This scenario fits the relations of the global jihadists, who are the regimes and international groups slowly planning to gain power against the infidels and the "hotheaded" Osama bin Laden. Thus the promoters of this theory of Hiraba and Mufsidoon are representing the views of classical Wahabis and the Muslim Brotherhood in their criticism of the "great leap forward" made by bin Laden. But by convincing Westerners that al Qaeda and its allies are not the real jihadists but some renegades, the advocates of this school would be causing the vision of Western defense to become blurred again so that more time could be gained by a larger, more powerful wave of Jihadism that is biding its time to strike when it chooses, under a coherent international leadership.
Dr Walid Phares is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy. This piece was adapted from his recently published book The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy.
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[1] See John Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? 3rd edition. (New York: Oxford University Press) 1999.
[2] May 23, 2006
[3] "Hiraba Versus Jihad," the American Muslim. August 2003.
[4] See Henry Shuster, "Words in War," CNN, October 19, 2006.
[5] Quoting the American Forces Press Service on June 29, 2006.
[6] Michael Waller. "Making Jihad Work for America." The Journal for International Security Affairs. Spring 2006
[7] See James Fallows, "Declaring Victory," Atlantic Monthly (September 2006).
[8] According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Taqiya: "spelled Taqiyah, Arabic Taqiyah ("self-protection"), in Islam, [is] the practice of concealing one's belief and foregoing ordinary religious duties when under threat of death or injury to oneself or one's fellow Muslims. The Qu'ran allows Muslims to profess friendship with the unbelievers (3:28) and even outwardly to deny their faith (16:106), if doing so would save them from imminent danger," on the condition that their hearts remain attached to faith. Also see Larry Stirling, "On Taqiya' and ‘Fatwas,'" San Diego Source, September 25, 2006; also Walid Phares, "al-Taqiyah: The Muslim Method of Conquest," Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, December 1997.
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A Review of Campbell and O'Hanlon's "Hard Power"
By Jeffrey Breinholt
Today in Family Security Matters, I have a review of the excellent book Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security (Basic Books 2006). Authors Kurt Campbell and Michael O’Hanlon effectively argue that our role as the world’s last superpower requires an appreciation of non-military tools of counterterrorism, and they discuss the blame deserved by both political parties in creating the conditions in Iraq. The Democrats needs to recognize the need for military force and stop treating people who choose military careers as curiosities. The Republicans meanwhile, need to embrace peacekeeping and nation-building, and get over the notion that these roles are somehow beneath us. I believe we need to develop a permanent cadre of stabilization and reconstruction experts so the U.S. can perform these roles unilaterally, and to stop treating military and law enforcement counterterrorism tools as somehow mutually exclusive.
HLF’s P.R. Blitz: “Islamophobia” and Apple Pie
By Steven Emerson
Yesterday, jury selection began in the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history, against alleged Hamas-front group, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).
Yesterday also witnessed the launch of the defense’s public strategy, a dual-track approach consisting of self-appointed Muslim leaders (in this instance, many are implicated in the case themselves, as the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] was named as an un-indicted co-conspirator), and some in the media, claiming the prosecution is “Islamophobic,” while family members of the defendants wrap themselves in the American flag.
In today’s New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar, parroting the tactic of Islamist organizations like CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), pretends to speak for all American Muslims, writing:
For American Muslims, whose religion stipulates that they give 2.5 percent of their annual income to charity, the shuttering of so many of their organizations without a hearing smacks of discrimination.
No attempt is even made to qualify that statement with a “some," "many" or even a "most” – apparently MacFarquhar knows how all American Muslims feel. Much of his article serves as apologia for the defendants, as well.
But a truly egregious article appeared in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News, profiling the daughter of Ghassan Elashi, defendant in the HLF trial, founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter, and already sentenced to nearly 7 years in prison for his role in an Internet company, Infocom, which laundered money for Hamas-kingpin Mousa Abu Marzook and violated sanctions against state sponsors of terror.
Dallas Morning News reporter Jason Trahan interviewed Mr. Elashi’s daughter, Noor, herself a reporter for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Trahan informs his readers how Ms. Elashi is affected by her father’s legal tribulations:
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"The trial has taken over my thoughts during the day and my dreams during the night," said Noor Elashi, daughter of Mr. Elashi and a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
"While I'm driving, while I'm working, while I'm eating, it's all I think about," she said. "I keep asking myself, 'How can my father and the other co-defendants be accused of supporting heinous acts of violence when all they did was feed, clothe and help educate Palestinian orphans and widows?'"
What Mr. Trahan fails to elicit from Ms. Elashi is a quote on her feelings about her family member, Hamas Deputy Political Bureau Chief Mousa Abu Marzook, married to her cousin. Marzook is the second-ranking official of a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths as well as the infusion of a culture of death, martyrdom and hatred in a large segment of Palestinian society. Regardless of the outcome of the HLF trial, Ms. Elashi’s father is going to prison for laundering Marzook’s money, yet Trahan somehow fails to get a comment on that rather important aspect of her father’s life.
Then Ms. Elashi, via Mr. Trahan, tells us just how much she and her family love the United States of America:
"It's unimaginable that a man who loves America so much would face such tribulations in the country he now calls home," Ms. Elashi said.
Ms. Elashi said her father was uprooted from his childhood Palestinian home in 1967, along with his parents and four brothers. The family settled in the U.S. about 25 years ago and has called it home since.
"America is the only home that my five siblings and I have ever known – from my brother who lives and breathes skateboarding, to my teenage sister, whose favorite show is Gilmore Girls."
That’s right. The Elashis are just your normal, average, American family; a normal family with a relative who’s a high-ranking leader in one of the most murderous terrorist organizations in the world, and a father (and several uncles, for that matter) already convicted of serving as his U.S.-based money launderer.
Expect the public defense to continue throughout the course of the trial and even after its conclusion, and expect the themes of “Islamophobia” and “American values” to be part of the actual legal defense, as well, as seen in the trials against Sami al-Arian in Tampa and Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar in Chicago.
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UK Terror Investigations - Update and News Roundup - July 16
By Jeffrey Imm
Update and news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
UK Car Bomb Suspects Status: Three Charged, Three Released, Two Being Questioned:
UK Car Bomb Suspects Charged:
-- July 6, 2007: Iraqi Dr. Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah charged by UK with conspiracy to cause explosions. BBC reported freezing of his assets on July 11, 2007.
-- July 14, 2007: Dr. Sabeel Ahmed charged by UK under Section 38(B) of the Terrorism Act 2000 that he had information which he "knew or believed may be of material assistance in preventing the commission by another of an act of terrorism". BBC reports that Dr. Sabeel Ahmed has been remanded in custody until August 13, 2007. This same report indicates that "Dr. Sabeel Ahmed holds no tenancy agreement for his home in Ramilies Road, Liverpool, and has not applied to extend his working visa, the court also heard."
-- July 14, 2007: Dr. Mohammed Haneef charged by Australian police with providing "reckless support" to a terrorist organization. On July 16, an Brisbane, Australia magistrate released Dr. Mohammed Haneef on bail. The Australian reports that "federal prosecutors failed to convince a magistrate the Indian-born man was too dangerous to release." However, the Australian federal government then used immigration laws to keep Dr. Mohammed Haneef under detention. The Australian reported that Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews revoked Dr. Haneef's visa, and "citing 'national interest, national security' - said it was not appropriate for him to 'move freely in the community'. " Australian news media report that Dr. Haneef's lawyer would appeal this visa cancellation. On July 12, BBC reported that bureaucratic wrangling between India and Australia was hampering the inquiry into Dr. Mohammed Haneef.
UK Car Bomb Suspects Released Without Charge:
-- July 15, 2007 - two Paisley medical workers. BBC reports two car bomb suspects released: "Two men arrested in connection with the failed car bomb attacks in Glasgow and London in June have been released without charge. The men, aged 28 and 25, had been arrested by Strathclyde Police at the residences of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley on 2 July."
-- July 13, 2007 - Marwa Asha. BBC reports that Marwa Asha, wife of Dr. Mohammed Asha, was released without charge
UK Car Bomb Suspects Still Being Questioned:
-- Dr. Mohammed Asha arrested June 30, 2007. BBC states that he "remains in custody at Paddington Green police station." London Times reports that "[p]olice have been given until July 21 to continue questioning".
-- Engineer Kafeel Ahmed remains hospitalized under police guard
UK Hospital Security Must Be Tightened.
Daily Telegraph and Sky News reported on the poor security in British NHS hospitals. The Daily Telegraph stated that "Poor security in hospitals could give terrorists working in the NHS easy access to deadly chemicals and viruses, an expert warned yesterday. Hospitals are 'just as vulnerable as any nightclub', a security management specialist based in a London hospital told the Health Service Journal." Sky News reported that security management specialist stated "Most hospitals give staff cards that let them into certain areas, but it's easy to lend someone your pass...That could give them access to X-ray machines, isotopes, chemicals and disease slides. It could be days before anyone realised a virus was missing.' "
UK Security Minister: UK monitoring 30 terror cells, 2000 suspects.
Australian News reported that UK Security Minister Alan West told BBC radio that "Britain's security services believe up to 30 Islamist militant cells are plotting attacks and they are monitoring 2000 suspects and another 2000 sympathisers". Security Minister West was reported as saying: "There are 30 that are actually being looked at very closely indeed because they have got to the stage where they are gathering materials and doing things which could lead in fairly short term to doing something if they wanted to. This means that effectively about 2000 individuals are being monitored in varying degrees of closeness and probably about another 2000 loosely connected to them. The scale of this whole thing is quite dramatic."
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UK Missile Plans Terrorist Found Guilty
On July 13, the Khaleej Times reported that "Yassin Nassari, 28, was found guilty of possessing documents likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism...[t]he charges related to computer files on the hard drive of Nassari’s computer -- including plans for building a missile". Yassin Nassari's wife was found not guilty of of failing to disclose information to police. Khaleej Times reports "[a]mong the evidence produced in court was a letter written by El-Hor to Nassari in which she wrote she was proud of him and happy that Allah had granted him the chance to be a shaheed (martyr) in the cause of jihad, or holy war."
UK Suspected July 21, 2005 Al Qaeda Operative Free in London.
The July 15 London Times reports that a suspected Al-Qaeda operative for the July 21 bomb plots is walking freely in London. London Times states that "[suspected] Al-Qaeda operative who is believed by MI5 to have played a key role in the events leading up to the July 21 failed bombings is at liberty and living in east London. Mohammed al-Ghabra, a 27-year-old Syrian who has been given British citizenship, is said by security sources to have arranged for the leader of the failed 21/7 London suicide attacks to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training."
London Times reports that the British Treasury stated "Al-Ghabra has organised travel to Pakistan for individuals seeking to meet with senior Al-Qaeda individuals and to undertake jihad training. Several of these individuals have returned to the UK to engage in covert activity on behalf of Al-Qaeda. " British Treasury claimed it had information showing he had undertaken jihadi training at a terrorist camp in Kashmir.
UK Considering Restrictions on Offenders in Foreign Travel
The July 12 Guardian reported that UK Prime Minister "Gordon Brown is considering introducing restrictions on offenders traveling to Pakistan and other countries in an attempt to stop radical Muslims going abroad for training by terror groups" and that "[t]ravel to certain countries could be restricted, and those convicted of less serious crimes could be included in a ban". AP also reported that "Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been ordered to examine possible restrictions on the travel of those convicted of terrorism and other offenses."
UK Terrorist Dhiren Barot Attacked in Prison
On July 15, 2007, Channel 4 reports that convicted British Jihadist terrorist Dhiren Barot was attacked in at the Frankland prison and scalded with hot water. Barot is serving a 40 year sentence. Barot's lawyer is calling for a special area for Muslim terrorists and "for Muslim prisoners to be given special rights in jail." Channel 4 has also provided a video on this report.
The Daily Mail reported that lawyer Mudassar Arani it is unfair they must undergo frequent searches and curbs on meeting other imprisoned radicals. The Daily Mail reported that Dhiren Barot "was moved to a Durham jail after bosses at Belmarsh in London feared he was radicalising Muslims there."
Debate on UK Detention Policies
The UK police have raised issues on the limitations of the 28 day detention policy. Sky News reports that the UK's Association of Chief Police Officers stated that "said police were struggling to operate within this limit [of 28 days for detention], stressing the global scale of terror investigations and the need to arrest suspects early.' " The police officers' organization representative stated that "police were 'up against the buffers' on the 28-day limit." The Daily Telegraph reported that "[a] senior police chief ignited a major row yesterday after calling for terror suspects to be kept in custody 'for as long as it takes' without charge."
Australia News reports that UK Security Minister Alan West felt that "the police and security services needed more time to analyse the data, and were hamstrung by the 28-day limit on holding suspects. 'I think, looking at the complexity of this, there will be occasions when we need more than 28 days'."
The London Times also reports that the UK Security Minister Alan West is opposed to Parliament making decisions to amend laws to extend the detention period for terrorist suspects, and is advocating that such issues should only be dealt with by British courts.
Tablighi Jamaat and "Mega Mosque"
The July 15, 2007 Daily Express reported that the new "mega mosque" being planned for London "is being funded by the fundamentalist Tablighi Jamaat sect. One member of the sect is said to be Kafeel Ahmed, who was engulfed in flames when a Jeep laden with gas canisters crashed into a Glasgow Airport building two weeks ago. The 7/7 suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer attended the European headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat at Dewsbury, West Yorkshire."
UK Car Bomber Kafeel's dream was to build India housing complex where Shariat would rule.
Rediff India News reports the British car bomber Kafeel Ahmed "had a dream of constructing a housing complex on the outskirts of Bangalore where Shariat would have been the rule of law."
UK Former Jihadist Speaks Out.
Former British Jihadist Hassan Butt speaks out in the July 14 London Times, challenging British Muslims to deal with Jihadism in the UK. Butt states "[w]e can no longer turn a blind eye to the driving force behind terror attacks both at home and abroad. It should not matter how painful or embarrassing this admission may be, and nor should it matter how taboo this subject is."
UK Passport Issuance Control Sought
The Daily Mail, reporting over concerns in laxity in issuance of British passports, reported on July 12 that "[m]ore than a million British passports have been issued to immigrants over the past decade according to new Government figures. The 1,020,510 total - an average of 102,000 every year - means an immigrant is granted British citizenship every five minutes. Under current rules, even heinous criminals - including murderers and rapists - can be approved for a passport if they wait for a 'clear period' before applying."
Sources:
July 17, 2007 - The Australian: Canberra's court bypass traps doctor
July 16, 2007 - Australian news: Haneef lawyer to appeal visa cancellation
July 16, 2007 - Australian news: UK monitoring 30 terror cells, 2000 suspects
July 16, 2007 - BBC: Bomb accused remanded in custody
July 16, 2007 - London Times: Suspects released as police seek extended detention
July 16, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Anger over call to hold suspects indefinitely
July 16, 2007 - Sky News: Police Demand Greater Powers On Terror
July 16, 2007 - London Times: Leave terror detention to courts, says Brown's new security minister
July 16, 2007 - Rediff India: Kafeel's dream was to build housing complex where Shariat would rule
July 15, 2007 - London Times: Fixer for 21/7 plot free in London
July 15, 2007 - Channel 4: Terrorist Barot 'attacked in prison'
Channel 4 Video on Dhiren Barot Attack -- alternate link
July 15, 2007 - Daily Express: Fears grow over "mega mosque"
July 15, 2007 - BBC: Two bomb attack suspects released
July 14, 2007 - The London Times: Muslim heads stuck firmly in the sand
July 13, 2007 - BBC: Woman in UK bomb probe released
July 13, 2007 - Khaleej Times: Husband guilty, wife freed in UK terrorism trial
July 13, 2007 - Daily Mail: Jailed terrorist fanatics 'should be treated as prisoners of war'
July 12, 2007 - BBC: Red tape holds up UK terror probe
July 12, 2007 - Guardian: Offenders may be prohibited from traveling to Pakistan
July 12, 2007 - AP: Travel bans considered to stop Britons from training for terrorism overseas
July 12, 2007 - Daily Telegraph: Hospitals 'must tighten security'
July 12, 2007 - Sky News: NHS: Could Terrorists Spread Killer Virus?
July 12, 2007 - UK News of World: Al Qaeda evil is spreading like a virus
July 12, 2007 - Daily Mail: Another foreigner gets a UK passport every five minutes
July 11, 2007 - BBC: Assets of terror suspect frozen « Close It
Libya: Al Qaeda's next target?
By Olivier Guitta
American authorities have warned Libya of a potential terror attack against major targets in the capital in the style of the 4/11 attacks in Algiers.
Security has been impressively heightened in Libya's major cities.
In fact Al Qaeda in The Islamic Maghreb struck Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco in the past few months, and Libya seems to be next.
For background The Croissant has this story:
The LIFG (the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group) was founded at the beginning of the 1990’s in Afghanistan by Libyan militants who had come to fight the Soviets and stayed there after the departure of the latter. Its existence was only officially announced in 1995. It is a known fact that it was one of the founding members of Al Qaeda along with:the Egyptian Jama Al Islamayah, the Yemeni Jihad, the Pakistani Al Hadith, the Lebanese Partisans’ League, the Jordanian Bait Al Imam:those called then the “Arab Afghans”.
According to French researcher Rodier, a large number of LIFG members then returned to Libya to overthrow the Khadafi regime and install an Islamic state.
Terrorist actions took place inside the country, including one attempt, foiled by the security services, to murder Khadafi himself.
To read the rest, please click here.
Shari’ah Courts in America?
By Jeffrey Breinholt
An issue in Zeyno Baran’s recent Counterterrorism Blog post jumped out at me because of my current research into how Islam has been treated by U.S. courts. Zeyno’s note dealt with the recent appointment of Imam Talal Eid to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which she questioned, in part, because of his suggestion in his Harvard Divinity School dissertation of “the establishment of Shari’ah courts which would manage the family affairs of American Muslims and mediate their religious affairs within the scope of American law.”
When she posted the article, I was attending a transnational counterterrorism conference sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and I had occasion to discuss the implications of Eid’s idea with a constitutional law professor in attendance, Wayne McCormack of the University of Utah. How radical Eid’s idea is in American law would depend on the specifics, but I am convinced it is grounds for concern, for the reasons Zeyno puts forth.
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In plenty of situations in American life, citizens agree to be bound by the rulings of institutions that do not have any force of law, other than the consent of the parties. Private arbitration, for example, is an established form of resolving labor and stock trading disputes. The legality of arbitration judgments, and their enforceability by U.S. courts, is generally determined by contract law. What happens when religion is injected into the equation?
It might help to consider this question outside of the context of Islam. I can offer up the tradition where I come from, a religious institution in the news lately because of Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign.
The Mormon Church is somewhat similar to Islam, in terms of how its adherents view their role in society. Mormons believe their church is the only true faith on earth, and they struggle with maintaining doctrinal purity in the face of assimilation. The LDS Church has been known to punish dissidents in a heavy-handed way, and to suffer frustration at how their beliefs are portrayed by non-adherents.
As Professor McCormack’s colleague, Edwin Firmage, described in the book Zion in the Courts, the Mormon Church has its own justice system established to enforce behavioral standards on its members. Bishop courts determine whether Mormons who have violated the behavioral norms of the faith should remain on the memberships roll. These courts are empowered to sanction members with the punishment of excommunication, which results in the stripping of membership and the individual inability to take partake in Mormon sacrament and participate in other spiritual functions.
In some communities, excommunication can seriously impact one’s livelihood. If a Mormon lresides is a predominantly LDS enclave, her Church membership may be necessary for professional goodwill. A Mormon physician, for example, may have staff privileges at LDS Hospital, and a patient base that involves a reputation for trustworthiness fostered through years of faithful church service. This means that being publicly stripped of LDS Church membership can have some real financial consequences, not to mention an impact on non-pecuniary aspects of life (like one’s relationship with neighbors).
The Mormon Church’s internal court system – which also delves into member’s marital conduct and the reasons for divorces – has never been challenged in real courts, in part because there have not been ex-members willing to go that route, but also because lawyers know real courts are reluctant to get too involved in religious matters. This does not mean that the LDS Church has never been sued. For example, some Mormon institutions – which required employees to conform their conduct to Church standards – have been sued for religious discrimination. Corporation of Presiding Bishop of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints v. Amos,. 483 U.S. 327, 107 S.Ct. 2862, 97 L.Ed.2d 273 (1987). .
Viewed this way, Imam Eid’s idea may not be particularly radical. It has precedent in other American settings. Perhaps he was simply advocating an increase in church-provided services to American Muslims.
However, the risk lies in a particularly apt observation by Zeyno: Shari’ah is a system of Islamic laws that makes no distinction between public and private life and that, when applied, encompasses all aspects of life. The danger of Eid’s proposal would arise if the American Muslims succeeded in setting up a religious court system that was the exclusive means of resolving disputes among Muslims, while insisting that the American judicial system had no right to intervene.
This would be a change in the current law – private arbitration judgments that require illegal actions are unenforceable – but is conceivable if American society ever reached a point of Balkanization where current institutions were perceived as feeble in the face of religiously-inspired violence. This benefit would not likely be limited to Islam. Conceivably, every ethnic enclave could insist that it has the right to educate and police its own members according to its own standards and conceptions of justice. This power would extend even over those who are unwilling to be bound by the enclave's norms but who have not yet reached the age of majority. Certainly, this would be bad.
Imagine a Shar’iah court system in America that insists that it has the exclusive right to resolve disputes between Muslim husbands and their wives, or one in which the youthful indiscretions of Muslim teenagers result in punishment for theft that is required by the Qur’an. Then go the next step and assume that this system is sanctioned American society, through a pre-arrangement not to interfere with the “internal” affairs of the American Muslim community. This is not obviously what Imam Eid is suggesting. He was careful to note that his proposal would be “within the scope of American law.”
However, the scope of American law is not immutable. Muslim civil rights organizations, since 9/11, have been active in promoting changes to the law to benefit their members, and have argued that such time-tested law enforcement tools as undercover operations and electronic surveillance should be off limits when targeting Muslims. Consider how Imam Eid himself seeks to justify his Shar’ia court proposal, in the abstract to his dissertation cited by Zeyno:
At present, Islamic organizations, mosques, and centers have jurisdiction over Islamic matters. Each of these organizations may react differently to these conflicts, create tensions among themselves, and become a source of confusion for Muslims. At the same time, the state’s involvement in matters that were, and for many still are, religious issues raises difficult legal problems as well as other issues concerning the relationship between religion and the state in America.
(emphasis added.)
It is conceivable that Eid is referring in his dissertation to the hard-line Islamic organizations which unnecessarily discourage it members from certain life activities because of their erroneous interpretation of the Muslim doctrine, and this is what he wants to change. If this were the case, however, why would he have included the emphasized sentence, complaining about state involvement in religious matters?
If Imam Eid and others believe that the U.S. should accept Shar’iah law and permit the resolution of private disputes to religious authorities without any oversight of the lawful authorities, we should be very worried. Some of us, after all, like the fact that we have a state that stands in the way of us being forced to act in accordance with others’ religious sensibilities, and we would rather keep it that way.
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Newly Released Message: Osama Bin Laden Calls for Islamic Martyrdom
By Jeffrey Imm
Osama Bin Laden appeared in a 50 second clip in an As Sahab video posted on Jihadi web sites today, promoting Islamic martyrdom and quoting Muhammad.
CNN and Laura Mansfield have released translations of the Bin Laden comments today. The video is linked at Laura Mansfield's web site here.
In today's video message, Osama Bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes, quoting Muhammad per translations by both Laura Mansfield and CNN:
"So be alert, be wise and think. What is this status that the best of mankind wished for himself? He wished to be a martyr."
"He himself said 'By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to attack and be martyred, then attack again and be martyred, then attack again and be martyred.' "
"So this whole broad life is summarized by he who was inspired by God, the lord of the heavens and earth, praised and exalted is He. This glorious prophet who was inspired by God summarized this entire life by these words. He wished upon himself this status. Happy is the one who was chosen by god as a martyr. "
Osama Bin Laden quotes Muhammad based on Hadeeth Sunnah Sahih Bukhari, Book 52. Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad), specifically in Volume 4, Book 52, Number 54. Sahih Bukhari is a collection of sayings and deeds of Muhammad, also known as the sunnah. The specific reference states: "By Him in Whose Hands my life is! Were it not for some men amongst the believers who dislike to be left behind me and whom I cannot provide with means of conveyance, I would certainly never remain behind any Sariya' (army-unit) setting out in Allah's Cause. By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred in Allah's Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred."
The video also included "various clips showing jihadist fighters reading their final wills, as well as statements from new Al Qaeda in Afghanistan commander Abu Yazid."
ABC states the martrydom video included statements from "al Qaeda followers from Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkistan."
CNN states that '[t]he videotape was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old... [and that the video included] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" who was killed in June 2006. CNN also stated that the "environment shown is similar to that on releases made before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, in which bin Laden is seen in the company of some of the hijackers".
Per ABC, "[t[he clip is part of a 40-minute film "Scent of Heaven" from al Qaeda's as Sahab video propaganda arm discovered on the Internet by Laura Mansfield of Strategic Translations."
Laura Mansfield notes that "The Bin Laden clip appears to be a short portion of an older video of the Al Qaeda leader speaking to his followers about martyrdom. There are no indications as to the date when the clip was filmed. Bin Laden is shown dressed in dark, with a camouflage jacket, and a dark cap. He has a ring and a watch on his right hand, and gestures freely with both hands. The video surfaced on jihadist forums where similar Al Qaeda statements have been released previously. It is branded with the As Sahab logo. No subtitles were provided."
Sources:
Laura Mansfield web site: Bin Laden stresses martyrdom in short segment of new As Sahab video
Video Web Link from Laura Mansfield web site
CNN: Newly released bin Laden video calls for martyrdom
ABC News: Possible New Message From Osama Bin Laden
FOX News: Osama Bin Laden Appears in New Video, Officials Probe Authenticity
Hadeeth Sunnah Sahih Bukhari, Book 52. Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad). Quote from Volume 4, Book 52, Number 54
Beheadings in Basilan: Untangling the Allegations
By Zachary Abuza
On 10 July, a group of 80 Philippine Marines were patrolling Guinanta village in the Tipo Tipo area of Basilan, Island, just south of Zamboanga, when they were ambushed by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and quite possibly members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). 14 marines were killed, 10 of those were decapitated, and nine more were wounded. That the MILF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) clashed is not in doubt and both have acknowledged the conflict. But those are about the only facts the two sides agree.
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The AFP asserts that they had some intelligence that an Italian priest, Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped from his parish on the Zamboanga Peninsula on 10 June was being held in the Tipo Tipo region. Most analysts and government attributed his kidnapping to the Abu Sayyaf Group, not the MILF. It fits the profile of both groups. From 1991-1995, the ASG engaged in exclusively anti-Christian violence, bombing churches and attacking Christian clergy. Though the ASG degraded into a criminal element in the mid-1990s, by 2000, they had re-entered a more ideological fray, and again stepped up attacks on Christians and missionaries. The MILF by contrast has never engaged in sectarian conflict and, indeed, has worked closely with members of the Catholic clergy in peace efforts.
There is a possibility that the MILF were involved. The Philippine police labeled Akiddin Abdusallam as the lead kidnapper. The MILF acknowledge that he was once an MILF member but that he had previously been kicked out of the MILF and had since joined the ASG. This is unverifiable, and a standard response of MILF when a member/former member is implicated in an act of terrorism. I would note that MILF units on the Zamboanga Peninsula, ostensibly part of the 108th Base Command, have always been a less disciplined force, without the standard kit, discipline and numbers found in MILF forces in central Mindanao. They have also been closely tied to ASG in that area. If one recalls, there were frequent skirmishes between the MILF and the AFP during the latter’s campaign against the ASG in 2001-02 that led to the death of Abu Subaya. These incidents were reported to the Malaysian-led International Monitoring team. The AFP always asserted that the two groups in that region were indistinguishable and often worked together.
Even if the MILF did not assist in the abduction, it is not unreasonable to think that local members are giving the ASG sanctuary. It is not historically unprecedented. On 11 July, a military spokesman told one of the country’s two major TV networks, "We have persistent reports that Bossi is being held in Al-Barka town [in Tipo Tipo] and the MILF is preventing us from searching the priest," he said
Further complicating the matter is the possibility that some renegade members of the MNLF, who on 19 April launched attacks on Philippine army posts on the Zamboanga peninsula, assisted in the kidnapping (This group is believed to have followed an MNLF leader on Jolo, Habier Malik, who took up arms against Philippine and US forces on 13 April and since disappeared into the bush allegedly with the ASG).
The Tipo Tipo portion of Basilan is home to the Yaccan tribe, who are very loyal MILF members. It is the one part of the Sulu Archipelago, which is predominantly dominated by Tausigs, where the MILF have a strong presence. In 2002, when US and Philippine forces were engaged in operations against the ASG on Basilan, they negotiated an informal agreement with the MILF that they would not enter the Tipo Tipo region. This was allowed for the sake of the nascent peace process between the MILF and Philippine Government, despite the fact that there was significant intelligence that the MILF gave the ASG sanctuary. The area remains firmly in MILF hands.
The MILF has asserted through the media and their website that they were acting in self -defense. The MILF’s chief negotiator and Central Committee member, Mohagher Iqbal, told Reuters that “The incident could have been avoided if the government had coordinated with our forces in Basilan before they actually moved in... Our forces were attacked, we only defended ourselves.” But the MILF there have a history of giving a degree of sanctuary to the ASG. Would the permission really have been given? Could Philippine troops have had freedom of operation? The AFP asserts that they were leaving the area when they were ambushed? If they were voluntarily leaving, why the ambush?
The AFP asserts that they were ambushed not just by MILF but also by the ASG. The MILF deny that there were any ASG in the area, and publicly assert that they have nothing to do with them. There have, however, been periods of cooperation in the past.
But not only were the troops fired upon and 14 killed, but ten of those were then beheaded. Now this does not fit a pattern of MILF behavior. To my knowledge they have not beheaded any enemy before. The ASG is another matter. Many recall the 2000 beheading of an American national. On 19 April this year, the ASG beheaded six people in nearby Jolo. Beheadings are something the ASG likes to do.
The MILF readily admit killing the marines, but they deny beheading them. On 11 July, the MILF website said that the 10 were “beheaded by unknown groups after the fighting.” On 13 July, the MILF announced on their website that they were investigating the incident which they acknowledge was “an act both strictly prohibited by Islam and the Geneva Conventions that provide rules of engagement especially on non-combatants.”
The MILF says that “unknown groups” were responsible for the beheadings, but not the ASG; for to admit that it was the ASG would be to admit that they were protecting them and operating in concert with them. So who did the gratuitous and grisly act?
The MILF website on 13 July stated that Matarul Hakim Alkanul, a partially blind immam, was found dead in his in the morning of July 10 in Guinanta. Though they don’t explicitly blame security forces, the intention is clear. Supporters of the MILF are now circulating a more detailed report that the beheadings were in retaliation for the killing of an ustadz by security forces. The report asserts that enraged local civilians spontaneously desecrated the corpses in revenge.
The only press report about the imam’s death was a GMA report that simply cited the MILF website. The imam’s death, while it could very well be true, has not been independently confirmed. Even if true, it is not too convincing of an explanation. I am the first to admit that the AFP has committed some pretty egregious human rights violations in the past. But even still, they never caused civilians to spontaneously desecrate the corpses of 10 AFP in a pique of rage.
The GRP-MILF peace process is clearly not going as smoothly as the Philippine Government would like us to believe. The issues are enormously complex, there are a lot of competing interests, and there are spoilers on both sides. The longer the talks are dragged out, the more the MILF hardliners who are already skeptical of the peace process, will feel vindicated in their analysis that the government is not negotiating in good faith or doesn’t have the political will to negotiate a durable political settlement. The reality is, the longer talks go on, the more the MILF’s military capabilities diminish. So they may respond robustly to government violations of the ceasefire if for not other reason than to remind the government of the costs of returning to war. They may also maintain some ties to the ASG and continue training members of Jemaah Islamiyah, as force multipliers, as they have always done.
There is another calculated justification on the MILF’s part. Despite the fact that in 2002 there was an informal agreement that the AFP would not enter the MILF’s zone on Basilan, the ceasefire committee currently does not cover Basilan. It was on the table at the 13th round of exploratory talks, but those fell apart. On 11 May, the army spokesman even denied that the MILF had territory in Basilan: "As far as we are concerned, there is only one authority and one government in Basilan and that is the Republic of the Philippines, not the MILF." Starting in 1999, the MILF really began to push for formal demarcation of its camps; a process begun but then scrapped by hardliners in the AFP and Philippine Government, as they felt they were acknowledging de jure sovereignty of the MILF.
A few things must be done immediately:
The two sides must renew their commitment to the ceasefire.
While the IMT is not legally mandated to cover Basilan, an ad hoc team should be sent there immediately.
The government must resume its commitment to the peace process with the MILF. Elections are over and there is no reason to forestall talks any longer.
The MILF must stop trying to have it both ways. This is unlikely to happen, but the double speak is just absurd. The MILF cannot blame rogue commanders all the time. If it does, there is no incentive for the government to negotiate with the central leadership.
The AFP, US military advisors and the Embassy in Manila must acknowledge that despite considerable successes against the ASG, it can still be a thorn in their side. They must also admit something they have been loathe to do, and something that they have criticized in my recent article in Jane’s, that the ASG are doggedly trying to make a comeback on Basilan, Jollibee notwithstanding. « Close It
Discourse on Suicide Terrorism: A Must Read
By Animesh Roul
As I was thinking to post couple of latest reading materials on Suicide Terrorism here at CTB, reports of suicide attacks in Iarq, Pakistan and Algeria came thick and fast.
On July 11, Iraqi town Garmah (near Fallujha) witnessed suicide attacks killing at least 20 people and injured around fifty others when couple of suicide bombers have blown themselves up among a crowd and again two more suicide bombers exploded when people rushed to evacuate injured from the site. The bombers have succeeded in their plans to destroy a gathering of local tribesmen (mostly Sunni) who were planning to join the Iraqi security forces to fight Qaeda militants in western Anbar province.(I am surprised how Xinuha news agency reported this and not other media?). Elsewhere, same day, a suicide attack took place in Lakhdaria, Algeria by Qaeda’s North African wing [Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb] that killed at least eight people and injured over 20 people. A day after, on July 12, suicide attacks took place in Miranshah and Swat, in Pakistan. Five people were killed in both incidents including three policemen in Swat attack alone. Though pro-Qaeda Taliban’s hand suspected, they denied any involvement in the attacks
Most of us can understand how they kill themselves, others and where they come from, but not many of us can fathom why they go to such an extreme. Leonard Cole (Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn, 2007) has observed that there is a “fascination in reading about and understanding the rationale of suicide bombers, but much less attention is paid to the consequences of their actions [...]”. He is right to some extent. But to counter this dreaded terrorist act, a better understating of the act itself and the motivation of perpetrators would be more useful and equally imperative.
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I would like to draw attention of readers to one review essay by Martha Crenshaw in Security Studies (T&F), Vol. 16 (1), Jan-March 2007). She has reviewed some 13 seminal books on suicide terrorism in this essay titled "Explaining Suicide Terrorism: A Review Essay". Reviewed books include Robert Pape’s Dying to Win (Random House, 2005), Ami Pedahzur’s Suicide Terrorism (Polity Press, 2005), Mia Bloom’s Dying to Kill (Columbia Univ. Press, 2005) and Shaul Shay’s The Shahids (Transaction Pub., 2004). Crenshaw also included two translated books: German author Christoph Reuter’s My Life is a Weapon (Trans by Helena Ragg-Kirkby, Princeton Univ Press, 2004) and French author Farhad Khosrokhavar’s Suicde Bombers (Trans by David Macey, Pluto press, 2005). Couple of Assaf Moghadam's work on the subject (in Pedahzur (ed), Root Causes Suicide Terrorism, Routledge, 2006) also figures in this review.
I hope it would serve greatly who can’t avail all 13 books on the subject to start with. « Close It
CAIR & Hamas: Implications and an Illustration
By Aaron Mannes
Allow me to add a few notes (and a graph) to the many excellent previous posts on Hamas, CAIR, and the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. It cannot be re-iterated too often that CAIR is a Hamas spin-off. This has implications both for placing CAIR in the proper context, but also for the new challenge of handling the defacto Hamas mini-state in Gaza.
Musa Abu Marzuq, currently the deputy chief of Hamas’ political bureau, earned his Ph.D. in industrial engineering in the United States. Living in the United States from 1981 to 1992 he worked for Hamas. In 1989 he was elected head of Hamas’ political bureau and after Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin’s 1989 arrest he effectively ran Hamas from the United States (see Terror By Remote Control by Yehudit Barsky, Middle East Quarterly, June 1996.)
While in the United States, Abu Marzuq helped found the United Association for Studies and Research and the Islamic Association for Palestine. The Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) was Hamas’ U.S. arm. However, in 1994 then IAP President Omar Ahmad advised then IAP PR director Nihad Awad to start a new organization devoted to combating anti-Muslim discrimination in the U.S. Other CAIR leaders, including Rafeeq Jabar and Ibrahim Hooper also had worked for the IAP. (Full credit for this information goes to CT co-blogger Steve Emerson and the Investigative Project.)
This network graph below is incomplete, but (hopefully) helps to illustrate the links between CAIR’s leadership, the (now defunct) IAP, and Hamas. The big dark blue tangle in the middle is Hamas’ leadership. The lighter blue lines represent contacts and meetings. Those coming off of Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashal show his meetings with leaders from other Palestinian movements and regional governments. The light blue lines in the upper right indicate the web of events behind the 2002 Passover Massacre suicide bombing. The broken line between Mohammed Deif (Hamas’ military chief) and Zarqawi indicate rumors that they were in contact. (For more on this graph and my work at the University of Maryland see the end of this entry.)

In this graph the yellow lines are critical - they indicate individuals sharing an affiliation with with IAP, including Abu Marzuq. The blue lines between several of those same individuals indicate their shared association with CAIR. The overlap between CAIR and IAP is tough to miss. Additionally, the light blue line between Abu Marzuq and Ghassan Elashi (head of CAIR’s Texas branch) indicates Abu Marzuq’s investment in Elashi’s company Infocom. (I didn’t have the energy to input the data surrounding the Infocom-Holy Land Relief Foundation operation.) Also, the group centered on former CAIR employee Randall Todd Royer are the “Virginia Jihad group” who played paintball and planned to link with the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba and possibly the Taliban. (Much more on CAIR and its links to radical Islamist activity in the U.S. and abroad can be read in CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha,Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2006.)
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This slight degree of separation between a terrorist organization and self-described civil rights advocacy group makes it no surprise that CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The fact that CAIR is basically funded by foreign sources (see the Pipes article cited above) puts it in the camp of the old Communist front organizations that the Soviet Union funded during the Cold War.
There are several important conclusions to be drawn here, beyond the obvious - that political leaders should shun CAIR. There is also the good news, the Washington Times reports that since 2000 CAIR’s membership has dropped from 29.000 to 1,700. American Muslims have effectively rejected CAIR’s bid to be their leader. This speaks well for the American Muslim community and its readiness to distance itself from those linked to terrorism.
But it is also a sharp reminder of Hamas’ ingenuity and global ambitions. That Hamas would start a U.S. propaganda arm like the IAP is unsurprising. That it would then spin off a “civil rights” organization that has taken on the broad mandate of shaping U.S. views towards Islam is an important reminder that Hamas is a sophisticated organization and, like Hezbollah, not simply a terrorist threat but also a capable political actor. Also, it shows that although Hamas ostensibly focuses on the Palestinian issue, it does share in the global ambitions of its parent organization – the Muslim Brotherhood. We forget these realities at our peril.
Hamas is now poised to take on an international role as the first Muslim Brotherhood state. It has already won an election and a war. Their opening gambits as Gaza’s rulers, the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston and also the return of a lion kidnapped from the Gaza zoo, have been savvy. Hamas is portraying itself as a responsible player that can maintain order in the Gaza strip – unlike the deposed Fatah. If Hamas can play its cards well, it can establish itself as the a group with which “business can be done.” Achieving this kind of legitimacy will have a profound effect across the region where in most countries the Muslim Brotherhood or one of its offshoots is the primary opposition to the government. They have shown remarkable ingenuity – the establishment of CAIR is only one example – don’t bet against them.
About the Graph and My Research at the University of Maryland
You can view this graph live here: the nodes are navigable, but it takes a moment for the site to generate the graph.) A brief description of my dayjob using the Semantic Web to research terrorism is here. A short academic paper I wrote about it can be found here and the website (technically a Semantic Web terrorism research portal) is here. Quick caveat, the data on the site - which is very much research in progress - is less important than the underlying technology.
While I will continue on this project, I also have a new position (still with the University of Maryland) with the Laboratory for Computational Cultural Dynamics which seeks “to develop the theory and algorithms required for tools to support decision making in cultural contexts.” That is, we hope to develop computer systems that will help model how different cultures act and react in different situations. When these models are developed they can be applied to a range of issues including counter-insurgency, development, crime prevention, and disaster relief.
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An Interesting Historical Mystery
By Jeffrey Breinholt
My recent post on the Muslim Brotherhood's history in the U.S. courts (here), drew some attention and curiosity. In it, I described a court opinion involving a document seized by American prison officials in 1959, detailing the goals and membership requirements of the Muslim Brotherhood. Pierce v. LaVallee, 212 F. Supp. 865 (S.D.N.Y. 1962.). Some who reviewed the text of the document are convinced, based on its wording, that it did not relate to the Muslim Brotherhood we know today as the Ikwan.
I cannot solve this mystery, based on the methodology I used for the article - on-line legal research tools, which allow full-text searches of American court opinions. This is a method I used in an article about Watergate a few years ago, and I believe it is an effective way of historical narration in situations where facts are controverted, because of the role of judges in resolving factual controversies. The beauty of judicial opinions is that they are the result of the adversarial cauldron, where opposing sides put on their evidence. This makes them a nice historical tool. Judicial opinions also have their limitations, since judges don't address facts that are not relevant to their rulings. Whether the document described in Pierce relates to the Ikwan was not relevant to the court's ruling.
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This is what we know: in 1962, a federal court in New York determined that prison officials were legally justified in taking action against group of Muslim prisoners who were agitating, based in part on a document that described the requirements for members of a group called the Muslim Brotherhood.
There are three possibilities, and hopefully readers and contributors of the Counterterrorism Blog can assist me in determining which is most likely: (1) The document in the court opinion derives from the Ikwan, as Doug Farah and I originally suspected, (2) the document derives from the Nation of Islam, which briefly adopted the name or literature of the Muslim Brotherhood or (3) the document comes from third group that went by the name Muslim Brotherhood.
Here is some additional factors I found:
Malcolm X allegedly met with Muslim Brotherhood's Said Ramadan in Switzerland in 1964. Elijah Muhammed, the leader of the Nation of Islam during the relevant period, joined the group in 1933, around the same time as the formation of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. According to FBI reports issued under the Freedom of Information Act, the Nation of Islam was publicly accused by a group known as the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood in 1959 of not being true Muslims.
What do these additional factors suggest? The second of these possibilities I mentioned is supported by the fact that another Muslim Brotherhood prison case (Desmond v Blackwell) involved an inmate who specificaly complained that he was being deprived of writings of Elijah Muhammad. This would suggest judges of that era may have been confused about the distinction between these two groups and conflated them. However, the document excerpted in the Pierce opinion specifically referred to the Muslim Brotherhood, not the Nation of Islam. Moreover, it would not make any sense for the Nation of Islam to force its adherents to follow the edicts of a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood, nor that the Muslim Brotherhood would permit the Nation to use its internal policies, if the two groups were not aligned. This makes the second possibility highly unlikely.
The first possibility is suggested by the date of Elijah Muhammad's conversion and by Malcom X's meeting with Ramadan in the early 1960s. Under this theory, the Nation and the Ikwan may have secretly (and perhaps temporarily) joined forces based on common origin, and the language of the Muslim Brotherhood document in the Pierce case represented a melding of rhetoric of the the two groups.
What about the third possibility - the document refers to a third group, which was distinct both from the Nation of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood we know today, which went by latter's name?
Here's some additional information to support this theory. The person described in the FBI document as criticizing Elijah Muhammed was Alhajji Talib Ahmad Dawud. He was married to a jazz singer named Dakota Station and founded a group called the Muslim Brotherhood as an offshoot of an Indian group called Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (AMI). Many of its converts were black musicians like McCoy Tyner, and - while practicing an orthodox brand of Islam - they were not political. In fact, Dawud even sued the Nation of Islam when it appeared that his wife's singing career was being tarnished by the Nation's reputation.
In my opinion, the Pierce document did not come from Dawud's group. It's an open question whether it came from the Ikwan. Anyone else out there want to try their hand at this question?
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Al-Qaeda Threatens US From Europe - So What Else Is New?
By Bill West
The AP is reporting the “new” intelligence concerns about Al-Qaeda operatives making their way into Europe and from there being able to readily enter the United States via the Visa Waiver program posing as or really being Euro-citizens. Do they mean like wannabe shoe-bomber Richard Reid?
Americans should be under no illusions about European based Al-Qaeda operatives having the ability to penetrate our border defenses via the Visa Waiver program. It has very likely already been done and will likely occur again. This should not be “news” to anyone. Surely not to those of us who have been suggesting for years the Visa Waiver program, along with other faulty border security and immigration control procedures, is part of a huge immigration-related gap in our national security protection system that should have been closed long ago. Ironically, there has been no serious effort to do so in the nearly six years since the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps it is worth suggesting yet again.
America’s Muslim Representatives: Are the Right Questions Asked?
By Zeyno Baran
American officials are rightly eager to promote moderate Muslims. However, words alone cannot be the basis to determine whether someone is truly committed to the Constitution and to American pluralism. While many public Muslim figures will surely say the things we would expect to hear from them, we should not so readily bestow upon anyone the title of “moderate” title without a thorough investigation of the person’s background.
The recent White House appointment of Imam Talal Eid to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) may be an example of just such a rush to judgment. The Commission is, as it describes itself, an “independent, bipartisan U.S. government agency … to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.” Given the importance of this Commission, one would expect the Executive Branch to have done the necessary checks on its appointees, especially when it comes to their views on religious freedom and Islamist terrorism.
As a Muslim, I am happy that the USCIRF includes a Muslim commissioner, given that there is so little religious freedom across the Islamic world. That said, I certainly do want any commissioner—whether Muslim or non-Muslim—to be fully committed to American ideals and principles, including secular democracy and the protection and equality of all human beings, especially regardless of gender.
Information about Imam Eid is scant. He has been serving as a Chaplain at Brandeis University, and his supporters emphasize his statements against terrorism and that he does not consider Osama bin Laden a Muslim. However, this is not enough—every human being should oppose terrorism and the horrendous acts of bin Laden. Nor does a university chaplaincy or the backing of well-intentioned Americans say very much about Imam Eid.
His appointment was praised by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Given that both often attack Muslims who do not share their views, and both are named by U.S. federal prosecutors as “unindicted co-conspirators” in a Hamas funding case, and given further that both organizations are the US affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, the founding leading group of the modern Islamist movement, their endorsements of Imam Eid hardly inspire confidence.
There are two key reasons why I am concerned about this appointment.
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First, as stated on his webpage, in his 2005 dissertation, Imam Eid advocates “the establishment of Shari’ah courts which would manage the family affairs of American Muslims and mediate their religious affairs within the scope of American law.” While seemingly innocuous, this is a very problematic line, as Shari’ah is a system of Islamic laws that makes no distinction between public and private life and that, when applied, encompasses all aspects of life. Does the White House and the Commission realize that this would mean American Muslim women would no longer be able to enjoy their full rights as American citizens? If his proposal is enacted, American women would be first and foremost considered as Muslim, separated from the mainstream American society, and subject to strong social pressure to confirm to Islamist norms?
Second, as Imam Eid openly admits, he came to the US as a representative of the Muslim World League (MWL), a quasi-governmental agency of the Saudi Arabian government primarily tasked with promoting its rigid and dogmatic interpretation of Islam, known as Wahhabism. In Wahhabi eyes, those who do not practice their form of Islam are infidels and enemies. Moreover, as many of my CTB colleagues have pointed out, the highest U.S. official tasked with monitoring terrorist financing has expressed concerns about the activities of the MWL.
In her post, Tamar Tesler wrote, “As recently as July 2005, Stuart Levey, the U.S. Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism & Financial Crimes, noted that “Saudi Arabian charities, particularly the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), the World Association [sic] of Muslim Youth (WAMY), and the Muslim World League (MWL) continue to cause us concern."
Victor Comras in his post mentioned a speech by Under Secretary Levey on May 23, 2005, in which he said, "For too long, wealthy donors and multinational charities in Saudi Arabia were underwriting terrorism of all kinds, without any meaningful controls. Since 9/11, our government has worked aggressively to press the Saudis to take action against these financiers and to clean up their charitable sector.... We impatiently await the creation of a commission to monitor the charitable sector, and continue to insist that this commission regulate all Saudi charities, without exception of such groups as the Muslim World League and the International Islamic Relief Organization, or "IIRO."
Zachary Abuza in his post on Mohammad Jamal Khalifah, the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden and who was killed in Madagascar, mentions how “Khalifah established the branch offices in the Philippines of the Muslim World League and the sister agency, International Islamic Relief Organization… 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… On 3 August 2006, the US Treasury department designated the Philippine Branch of the IIRO as a terrorist financier.”
And Olivier Guitta wrote on the arrest of a French imam, Dahou Meskine, along sixteen others arrested for allegedly financing Islamic terrorism. Quoting from his post, "The most probable organization that benefited from this money is the Algerian terrorist group GSPC.” In his last sentence, Olivier mentions, “In addition, he received donations from the Muslim World League and was the official translator of Abdullah bin Abdul-Mohsin Al-Turki, Secretary General of the Muslim World League during his French visit in October 2002.”
According to a Boston Globe article of January 27, 2007, "…although he no longer has a mosque, Eid said he still holds his original appointment from the Muslim World League, a theological and cultural entity in Saudi Arabia that certifies imams, which sent him to Boston in 1982....Outside of not having his own mosque, Eid said his work today is largely what it was before." What this means is that Imam Eid has been an employee of a Wahhabi religious organization, long suspected of links to terrorism, for almost 25 years. Even if he is no longer paid by the Saudi government, unless he makes a clear statement of his views regarding Wahhabism, it is fair to assume that he still professes its tenets.
This may also explain why he included the following on his webpage in regards to having attended a White House Iftar (the Ramadan dinner): “Disclaimer: I attended this event for dawa purposes only." To whom is this American citizen apologizing for having attended an event at the White House—and why? Is he deceiving everyone except those to whom he addresses his “disclaimer”? Moreover, while to an untrained ear this may sound like an innocent statement (the formal definition of dawa is “summons” or “call,” and can mean the inviting of non-Muslims to the faith), in the context of MWL’s Wahhabi Islam and its suspected ties to terrorists, it becomes highly problematic.
Was Imam Eid still connected to the MWL when he was appointed to the Commission? Has he since ended this relationship and disavowed any MWL connection with terrorists overseas? Even if he just ended it, can he really act independently in a way that would not lead to a conflict of interest after having served Saudi interests for over two decades? For example, will he raise critically important concerns contrary to Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia (and other areas where Wahhabism is spreading, thanks to the activities of the MWL)?
To put it simply: As the MWL is a quasi-government entity—controlled not just by any government, but one that has significant shortcomings on issues of religious freedom—how does Imam Eid’s membership of the Commission affect its objectivity and support its mission statement? Moreover, would other commission members be even able to recognize it if Imam Eid were saying things that would seem reasonable to well-intentioned Jews and Christians, but not to non-Islamist Muslims?
I would like to think that these questions were asked when Imam Eid’s nomination was first suggested—especially since his connection to MWL and his PhD abstract calling for Shari’ah in the US are both on his website. If not, then maybe the Congress should do so now. « Close It
Hamas' Mystery Media Representative in the U.S.
By Brian Hecht, IPT
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Mousa Abu Marzook, Hamas’ Deputy political bureau chief in Damascus and specially designated global terrorist (pdf, see page 4). This just a few weeks after Ahmed Yousef, the senior political advisor to Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, had op-eds in both the Washington Post and New York Times published on the same day.
Both Marzook and Haniyeh made appearances on the Post’s editorial page last year. And Yousef has graced the pages of the New York Times in the past.
The Post’s Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, shed some light on the process of how op-eds penned by high-ranking Hamas operatives end up on the editorial pages of major American newspapers. Commenting on the confusion between the Post and the Times over the publishing of two competing Yousef pieces, Howell reported:
(Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred) Hiatt said, "Our piece came to us through a representative of Mr. Yousef [in the United States] with whom we'd dealt before. He assured us afterward that he did not realize a separate piece was in the works." (New York Times op-ed Editor David) Shipley's source was in London and assured him of the same thing. (emphasis added)
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It is hardly surprising that Yousef, or Marzook for that matter, would have a representative in America. Both Hamas leaders spent a significant amount of time living in the United States, developing an extensive infrastructure of front groups for the terrorist organization.
It is notable that, from the Post’s perspective, the controversy was not the publishing of propaganda from a designated foreign terrorist organization, but rather that its major competitor had published a similar op-ed from the same author that very day.
But while certain sectors of the American media are bending over backwards to provide a platform for terrorist leaders to promote their agenda, the combined efforts of federal law enforcement and private lawsuits are slowly rolling up Hamas’ American network, engineered by Marzook, Yousef and others.
Just yesterday their former colleague, Muhammed Salah, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for obstruction of justice. Salah’s conviction resulted from his lying about his Hamas connections in a civil lawsuit brought by the parents of David Boim, an American teenager murdered by Hamas terrorists in 1996. While Salah was acquitted on the racketeering charge and did not receive the stiffest penalty possible, his trial, conviction and sentence demonstrate that federal law enforcement officials are very serious about prosecuting terrorism financing cases. Salah’s co-defendant, Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar, is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
Further, jury selection is slated to begin next Monday in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest terrorist financing case in U.S. history.
The recent spate of op-eds by Hamas leaders in American newspapers, though, presents two potential questions for federal prosecutors and the family members of the victims of Hamas terrorism: just who exactly is Ahmed Yousef’s representative in the United States? And do Marzook and Haniyeh have U.S.-based representatives facilitating the publication of their op-eds? « Close It
Al Qaeda to Pakistanis: Join The Jihad
By Jeffrey Imm
Al Qaeda's Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri issued a new videotape on Wednesday titled "The Aggression against Lal Masjid".
This message is focused on the clashes between the Pakistan Army and Islamic students at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Pakistan, in which Al-Zawahiri calls upon Pakistani Muslims to rise up and take revenge against the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani government for their actions against the Lal Masjid mosque. Al-Zawahiri stated: "Muslims of Pakistan: your salvation is only through Jihad".
This 4 minute, 24 second address is the third in seven days, and the 10th this year by Al-Zawahiri.
The video is available on Laura Mansfield's web site.
Associated Press, Laura Mansfield, and SITE Institute have reported translations of this new Al-Zawahiri message.
Al-Zawahiri says of the Lal Masjid clashes: "I talk to you today on the occasion of the criminal aggression carried out by Musharraf, his army and his security organs - the Crusaders' hunting dogs - against Lal Masjid in Islamabad, and on the occasion of the dirty, despicable crime committed by Pakistani military intelligence - at the orders of Musharraf - against Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi when it showed him on television in women's dress. This is a message of blinding clarity to the Muslims in Pakistan, the Pakistani Ulema, and indeed, the Ulema in the rest of the Islamic world, and this crime can only be washed away by repentance or blood. I call on the Ulema in Pakistan and tell them: this is what you are worth to Musharraf, and this is the treatment that awaits you in the prisons of Musharraf's hunting dogs, and this is what you are worth to the Crusaders... Musharraf won't spare any of you, and won't stop until he eradicates Islam from Pakistan".
Al-Zawahiri tells Pakistanis that "demanding that he [Pakistan President Musharraf] adhere to Islam and refrain from worshiping the Crusaders and Jews will only get you the worst types of contempt, humiliation and degradation", and that "this is your fate if you are silent and prefer the life of this world to the hereafter."
Al-Zawahiri calls Pakistanis to take action: "Muslims of Pakistan: your salvation is only through Jihad."
Furthermore, Al-Zawahiri calls Pakistanis to also back Jihad in Afghanistan: "so you must now back the Mujahideen in Afghanistan with your persons, wealth, opinion and expertise, because the Jihad in Afghanistan is the door to salvation for Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the region. Die honorably in the fields of Jihad, and don't live like women with moustaches and beards. Aren't there any honorable ones in Pakistan? Aren't there any jealous ones? Isn't there anyone who prefers the hereafter to the life of this world? O you who believe! What is the matter with you, that, when you are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, you cling heavily to the earth? Do you prefer the life of this world to the hereafter?"
This new Al-Zawahiri message comes on the heels of report by Reuters on intelligence analysts appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee stating that Al Qaeda remains entrenched in Pakistan, and an AP report that 106 had been killed in the Pakistani Army's "Operation Silence" clash with the Lal Masjid Jihadists.
Prior to the final completion of the Pakistani Army "Operation Silence" in Lal Masjid, the Pakistan Daily Times reported a survey of Pakistanis critical of one of the clerics who attempted to flee the battle. Some of the comments included: "He should have fought till the end and died to prove what he did was right" from a Pakistan banker, and "Had the Maulana been sincere he would have preferred death to earn a name and not have run like he did" from a Pakistani grocer.
Sources:
AP: Al-Qaida: Wage holy war against Pakistan
ABC: Al Qaeda Leader on the Web Again -- Instant Messaging Next?
Laura Mansfield: Yet another message from Zawahiri: Aggression Against Lal Masjid
Video of Al-Zawahiri Message
SITE Institute: “The Aggression Against Lal Masjid [Red Mosque]” – An Audio Speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri Produced by as-Sahab Media
Reuters: Al Qaeda entrenched in Pakistan, U.S. officials say
AP: 106 dead at Red Mosque; militants cleared
London Times: Hundreds feared killed in mosque siege
Pakistan Daily Times: People resent Lal Masjid cleric’s attempt to flee in burqa
British Counterterrorism: Implications for the US
By Michael Jacobson
A piece by my colleague Simon Henderson on recent terrorism-related developments in Britain.
British police have been praised for their speedy and effective efforts in thwarting terrorist attacks this month in London and Glasgow, as well as for the arrest and subsequent prosecution of four men who attempted to bomb the London transport network on July 21, 2005. Today, those bombers were each sentenced to a minimum of forty years in prison. (Two alleged accomplices, on whose guilt the jury could not agree, face a retrial.) But details of the cases and official comments suggest that Britain's vulnerabilities to al-Qaeda-style terrorism remain acute and could lead to tension with the United States.
Details of July 2005 Plot Revealed
With the conclusion of the trial, new and disturbing details have emerged. Although Eritrean-born Muktar Ibrahim tried to blow himself apart on an east London bus on July 21, 2005, he could just as easily have come to the United States under the visa-waiver program. He had become a British citizen months earlier despite a criminal record that included indecent assault, robberies, and a gang attack for which he spent five years in a youth prison. In addition, more than a year before the attempted bombing, covert police surveillance had observed him undergoing quasimilitary training in the British countryside, along with his three fellow plotters.
Upon acquiring his British passport, Ibrahim traveled to Pakistan; his ride to the airport was an Iraqi terrorist suspect being tailed by a ten-member surveillance squad from MI5, the British Security Service. He was then in Pakistan at the same time as two of the so-called "7/7 bombers," whose London suicide attacks (using homemade explosives similar to Ibrahim's) killed fifty-two people only two weeks before the July 21 attempts.
To read the rest of the piece, click here
Mumbai Train Blasts: Masterminds Still At Large, Question Marks Remain!
By Animesh Roul
A year after Mumbai commuter train blasts that rocked the country’s commercial capital on July 11, 2006, the suspected masterminds –Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Azam Cheema and three other Pakistani accomplices– are still at large. The anti terrorist squad of Mumbai police has arrested 13 suspected perpetrators including Faisal Sheikh, Mohammad Ali, Naved and Sajid, so far, but failed to nail even one of them. Early claims of Pakistan hand and proofs against LeT–ISI nexus died down under Indo-Pak bilateral bonhomie. India’s National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Union Home Secretary V K Duggal aired their views publicly on the "fairly solid evidence" gathered by ATS, pointing towards Pakistan’s ISI. But later it turned out to be ‘not clinching’.
A lesser-known militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahar (LeQ) claimed responsibility for the blasts, indicating that some 16 LeQ militants carried out the attacks. The LeQ has been suspected to be a front organization for LeT.
The later developments such as hullabaloo over sharing evidences under the joint anti-terror mechanism between India and Pak and softening of stance by investigating agencies thereafter diluted the whole investigation process. Avid observers criticized abysmal performance of both government and investigating agencies.
One year after, a Compact Disk (CD) containing the confessions of one of the arrested suspects, Mohammad Ali, leaked to the media allegedly by some ATS official. In that CD, Ali can be seen admitting to the blast conspiracy and taking names of Faisal Sheikh and Azam cheema and their connection across the border. Plausibly, the ATS might have wanted to show that it had actually cracked the case long back, but the agency was under some kind of duress. So it opted now to show the people of India to instill confidence.
However, why and how the CD reached media is not the question (the CD leak case could bring whole ATS under scanner). The point is since the Mumbai blast, there were many more terrorist attacks including– Samjhauta train blasts and Mecca Mosque blasts, but the intelligence and security agencies have failed to fathom any of them. May be there is a lack of strong political will as far as present government is concern, which can push those (intel and security) agencies to run that needed extra mile.
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Isolating Hamas In Gaza May Be Best Road Ahead
By Victor Comras
Middle East experts have to be scratching their heads as they seek to analyze the enigma's posed by Hamas’ takeover of Gaza. Could this be the seminal event that causes a realignment in the interests and actions of key Arab Middle East players and changes all previous assumptions?. Egypt and Jordan have already made it clear that they view Hamas' takeover of Gaza as a grave threat to their own national interests. This is reflected also in recent opinion pieces in the Egyptian and Jordanian Press which point out Hamas’ Muslim Brotherhood origins and continuing close ties with Egyptian radical fundamentalists. There is concern that “Hamas might infect the Islamist movements in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in particular, boost their morale and motivate them to replicate the Gaza example." (See David Kimche's excellent piece in THE JERUSALEM POST)
Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi leaders are also particularly irked that Hamas is increasingly looking to Iran for sponsorship and support. This includes establishing closer ties with Hezbollah. Hamas Interior Minister Emad Al-Alemi was in Iran July 7th for discussions with his Iran counterpart, Hachemi Rafsandjani. Iran has reportedly provided some $20 million to $30 million to support the Hamas government. Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was quoted recently as stating : "Iran's policies encouraged Hamas to do what it has done in Gaza and this represents a threat for Egypt's national security, because Gaza is a stone's throw from Egypt."
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, once a supporter of Hamas, has reportedly developed “a new antipathy for Hamas,” as it has moved closer to Hezbollah and Iran. This is reflected also in a growing tension between Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood which it long supported as an ally in spreading Wahhabi Salafist theology overseas. Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi clergy are seriously upset that the Muslim Brotherhood is now cosying up to Iran. (See my earlier Blog on this topic)
There are indications that Jordan and Egypt are discretely joining ranks with Israel to give a boast to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. as he solidifies Fatah's hold over the West Bank. This reportedly includes intelligence, and material and financial support. These developments are being played up in the European Press as providing opportunities for a possible new peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. This means throwing their support also to President Abbas, and to the front line states seeking to contain Hamas.
European leaders still seem befuddled as they try and take advantage of this new situation. A letter sent by 10 EU Foreign Ministers to Tony Blair, in his new capacity as Middle East Envoy, urges Blair to exercise caution and restraint in regard to Hamas. The Foreign Ministers of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Slovenia and Malta warn Blair not to “push Hamas into a corner, ” but, rather to encourage the reopening of Gaza's borders with Egypt and Israel, the re-establishment of dialogue by Egypt and Saudi Arabia with Hamas, and renewed dialogue between Hamas and Fatah themselves. The text of the letter was published in the July 9th edition of Le Monde. But, trying to push the clock back on Hamas – Fatah relations seems more like wishful thinking than good diplomacy. And one can only wonder what good could come from returning to the instability and insecurity of their previous relationship. And what benefit could possibly be derived from strengthening the role of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as brokers with Hamas? Now is the time to look forward, not backward.
Sustaining Hamas control in Gaza can serve no positive interest when it comes to Middle East peace. On the contrary Hamas astride Gaza can serve only to exacerbate tensions between moderates and fundamentalists, put Egyptian and Jordanian stability at risk, egg on Hezbollah militancy vis a vis Lebanon and Israel, and fuel tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran whose surrogates are already fighting a civil war in Iraq. The people of Gaza will be left to bear the brunt of these confrontations so long as Hamas remains in control there.
Use All Available Tools to Fight Terrorism
By Douglas Farah
International law enforcement and intelligence bodies are only as effective and useful as the people in them and the political will of various countries. Open source information is only as useful as the willingness to look for it and use it.
But the truth is that some of these international groups produce very useful data that the U.S. and European communities could use effectively. If we are to maximize the chances of finding the needles in the haystacks of data that could be useful, some of these walls have to come down.
I am not arguing for a complete globalization of intelligence sharing, but we do need to recognize that, despite the deep unpopularity of the Bush administration in most of the world, we have many allies who are in as serious danger of attacks by radical Islamists as we are. Maximizing the access to information across these lines will give us information we would never obtain alone, and offer useful help to our allies.
For example, Interpol in Europe has a significant data base of 7 million stolen passports that is unused by British and U.S. services. What more useful database could there be as we hear new warnings that al Qaeda has cells here or is sending them to attack us this summer? My full blog is here.
Our Borders Are Just a "Speed Bump" for Al Qaeda
By Michael Cutler
I watched the ABC News report on the possible infiltration of an al Qaeda cell into the U.S. The report is more than a little disquieting, not only because of the fact that our officials apparently believe that our nation may be attacked within a short time frame, but because our government has done virtually nothing to prevent this from happening! How will our officials prevent these terrorists from entering our country? If they are here, how will be identify them and seek to arrest and neutralize them before they attack us?
Let me make this as clear as I can. Our nation's borders barely represent a speed bump to millions of illegal aliens who simply want to work in violation of law in the United States. How much of a deterrent would those borders be to terrorists who are determined to enter our country to attack us? Additionally, our immigration bureaucracy is so inept and incompetent that, according to the GAO, last year the USCIS claims to have lost more than 111,000 immigration files relating to aliens seeking a wide variety of immigration benefits, including some 30,000 who applied for United States citizenship. Incredibly, USCIS adjudicated those critical applications without the related files! Senators Grassley of Iowa and Collins of Maine requested that the GAO conduct and investigation into this madness. You can read Senator Grassley's press release concerning the report here, and you can read the actual GAO report here.
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The consistent failures to secure our borders, create an immigration system that has meaningful integrity and effective efforts to enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States all contribute to our vulnerabilities. It is also important to understand that while everyone who understands law enforcement agree that the cultivation of informants is an important component of counterterrorism, the most effective way of cultivating informants within alien communities is to enforce the immigration laws and then provide opportunities to those aliens who violate the laws to become informants and seek their assistance in identifying terrorists as well as other relevant intelligence.
Rather than focusing on methodology for keeping the terrorists out (if they are not already here), it would appear that our officials such as Michael Chertoff accept the fact that terrorists can easily cross our borders and simply move on to the next issue - how to minimize the damage they do within our country!
The administration and members of the Senate had been pushing for a Guest Worker Amnesty Program in the guise of a bill that would have granted official identity documents to millions of illegal and undocumented aliens whose nationalities as well as their names are unknown and unverifiable. Fortunately this bill is dead, for now, but I am concerned that Capitol Hill may well try to resurrect this bill yet again. I came to refer to the last version of this bill as the "Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007."
There are so many ways that terrorists can easily circumvent our nearly nonexistent efforts at securing our border that I understand why Secretary Chertoff seems to believe that we cannot stop the bad guys from entering our country, but this is not the way it can or should be! Our borders needed to be secured after the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The Visa Waiver Program needed to be terminated after the attacks of 9/11; instead, President Bush, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, and the other current and former members of the administration have been clamoring for an expansion of the disastrous Visa Waiver Program! Our nation currently permits corporations to make national security decisions for the United States! As a consequence of this lunacy, "We the People" may pay for this with our lives!
Our government is supposed to be "Of the people and for the people." Apparently this is not the case!
We the People need to make our concerns heard in Washington. It is time to remind the members of Congress that they work for us! If only 14% of the American people approve of the way that Congress does its job, then it is time that the 86% who do not approve call their senators and members of the House of Representatives tomorrow morning!
Democracy is not a spectator sport! « Close It
NEFA Series "Target America": Irhaby007's American Connections
By Evan Kohlmann
On the heels of the foiled plots targeting Fort Dix and JFK Airport, the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation announces the release of the sixth in a series of reports examining the multitude of threats directed at the United States since 9/11. This week's report focuses on the Atlanta, Georgia cell in Younes Tsouli's global, Internet-based, jihadist network. That Atlanta cell transmitted surveillance video of Washington D.C. landmarks to Tsouli in the U.K, and, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "had long-term goals of creating a large network of extremists in preparation for conducting attacks, possibly inside the United States." Notably, earlier this month, Tsouli and his two British co-conspirators pled guilty to inciting murder for terrorist purposes and received prison sentences ranging from 6 1/2 to 10 years.
This week (July 10, 2007): Irhaby007's American Connections
Week of June 25, 2007: The PATH Tunnel Plot
Week of June 18, 2007: The East Coast Buildings Plot
Week of June 11, 2007: The Illinois Shopping Mall Plot
Week of June 4, 2007: The L.A. Plot to Attack U.S. Military and Jewish Targets
Week of June 4, 2007: The Miami Plot to Bomb Federal Buildings and the Sears Tower
The cells are already here, while more are coming
By Walid Phares
The current media rush to interpret what the US Government is releasing in terms of potential infiltration by an al Qaeda cell (or cells) to strike this summer is warranted but still unfocused. ABC News and AP have reported new official "concerns" of an attack on the US homeland this summer. ABC specified that (according to its sources) the Terrorists intend to attack a Government facility. Furthermore, as reported widely in the press, "new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the US, or may already be here." The report added that the White House has convened an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday afternoon to address ways to minimize or counter the threat, and steps to harden and protect Government facilities."
The report quoted a former FBI agent (and ABC Terrorism expert) analyzing the potential threat by stating that the target is a Government building. ABC told its viewers that the tactics by the London attackers provided clues that are being used to decode other emails, etc. Even further AP reported that US Counter Terrorism officials have warned that al Qaeda has "interest in attacking in the summer time." Added to this salad of analysis, was the news about a previous video showing a "graduation" by the Taliban in Pakistan. And to season it, two more leads were added: One was the Daily Telegraph story about the 45 doctors who were planning on attacking a US military target in Florida and a Sky News report about British Pastor Canon Andrew White who has said of an April discussion with al Qaeda "representative" who told him "the killing will start in the UK and the US."
So in short, based on these "reports," US media are telling their audiences (from their Government sources) the following:
1. A Graduation has occurred in Pakistan (they showed the footage) and Jihadists are on their way to the West.
2. A Pastor has met an al Qaeda representative who told him operations are underway.
3. American analysts looked at the British Jihadists tactics over the past few weeks and "learned" something new. Something that taught them how to better read information they already had.
5. A media report said 45 doctors were to prepare an attack against a US base.
4. Hence, the conclusion is that a cell, or more, is on their way to the US. And according to a general mood, it was concluded that summers are better for Jihadists to attack.
But if the reader would re-read those five points he/she may ask many troubling questions. I have the following ones:
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a. What if the footage of "Taliban graduation" aired by a TV network wasn't obtained and thus wasn't shown to the American public? Would it mean that the Taliban aren't graduating, or haven't been graduating since 2001 or even before? Will that mean that there were no Jihadist graduates already heading to the West? Does it mean that this is the "only" graduation by the Taliban, other Jihadists around the world? Did we have to "see" that particular footage to "learn" that a Jihadi machine is producing "graduates" as we speak, even if they are not featured on ABC or al Jazeera?
b. What if the Pastor hasn't met with the al Qaeda representative? Would that meant that the Jihadists weren't marching and aren't willing to strike deep inside the West? With great sympathies to the cleric, who should be thanked for reporting, but was that a "new" revelation? We have the leaders of al Qaeda informing us every few months on al Jazeera and online, and a daily wave of chat rooms statements enlightening us on the "blessed strike to come." Why aren't we taking that seriously until a "personal story" occurs somewhere? Don't we know that there is a standing order by al Qaeda to strike when and where possible?
c. Did we have to wait for the British Jihadis to load two Mercedes and one Jeep and target a nightclub and an airport to "learn" that this is a possible tactic? Is this scenario that impossible to imagine and project? What did we learn from these tactics that we've already seen in the Sunni triangle in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria and Afghanistan? That it could happen in England too? So are there advisors in the West who are telling Governments and the public on both sides of the Atlantic that there is no such thing as "Jihad;" that there is no "war on terror;" that "it is about socio-economics?" So what have we learned tactically from the UK failed "raids?" What is it that our imagination has failed to predict, since the 9/11 Commission has told us that we have a "failed imagination."
d. Then we learn about the discovery of 45 doctors who planned for a Jihad in Jacksonville against a US base. What did we really discover here? That doctors "can be" Jihadists? Weren't we listening to "Doctor" Ayman Zawahiri for years and many other "doctors" in the region threatening with Terror? Haven't we seen in the 20th century’s darkest moments "Nazi doctors" involved in one of the most horrific genocides of all times? Or were we surprised by the fact that Jihadists were planning on attacking a US base in the US homeland? Didn't we analyze enough the Fort Dix guys who were planning a similar attack on American soil against an Army base few weeks ago? Weren't the two Georgia young Jihadis, arrested last year, planning on striking at US military installations across the nation? In short, is that shocking to "learn" that the Jihadis are targeting our national defense?
e. Last but not least, we are supposing that "al Qaeda likes to attack in the summer." So, should we discount attacks in the fall, winter and spring?
I am not being sarcastic here but there is something strange about how we proceed in analyzing the Jihadi war against democracies and America, and how we break news to the public. On the one hand, the overwhelming majority of the academic elite, many in the political establishment and most of the mainstream media are desperately trying to demobilize their audiences by claiming that all what we see "is just a mirage." And on the other hand, the same media tells us that al Qaeda could be "attacking us this summer" because of a graduation, a Pastor's report, tactics we learned from London, doctors-turned-Jihadis, and summer times. With all these ingredients, the debate on Terrorism seems to be swinging between total denials on the one hand and blurry vision on the other hand.
This summer and any other summer, and all other seasons by the way, are Jihadi times. We need to adapt to this reality for as long as this conflict is on. For al Qaeda and its allies, as well as the Khomeinists are on the path of war. And when they are in that mode, nothing should surprise us.
* Al Qaeda has already established cells in the UK, the US and the West. If there is an "additional" cell coming this way, we would certainly be happier if the Government would have detected it, and will stop it. But it would be misleading the public to state that al Qaeda's second cell ever to infiltrate the country (after Mohammed Atta's in 2001) is "now" heading to our shores.
* The intention to penetrate our systems and to strike is as old as the Jihadi war against the West (that would be at least since the early 1990s). An al Qaeda representative in Iraq is not serving us with news if he "reveals" that the group will be spilling blood soon.
* Arresting the Terror-doctors is a positive development, but we shouldn't be in shock and awe about it. Our analysts and public educators should have (and some have) informed the public of the deep penetration that has been taken place within liberal democracies. We should learn form the infiltration of this particular segment of the medical field to preempt the penetration of other sectors, and of other fields as well. We should project that the Jihadists have infiltrated the engineering, computer, banking, security and other fields.
* Zawahiri's orders to strike inside the West and within the realm of moderate Arabs and Muslims are al Qaeda standing orders at least since 2001. His additional statements are reminders of what has already been a war waged at will and is taking place as its perpetrators are acquiring means and targets.
* Yes, it may be true that, statistically, most al Qaeda known attacks have taken place in the West between July and September, with the exception of Madrid's March 11, but there is no "Jihadi summer time." If and when these "forces" would acquire targets and circumstances, they will most likely wait for warmer months to strike.
So, if indeed evidence is gathering that al Qaeda is preparing for a series of attacks in the US in the next weeks and months, then it is important to inform and ready the public for it. But the media -and their sources- must help their audiences put the information in context. There is a Jihadi war on liberal democracies including America, and a US-led campaign on Terror. The learning and educational processes must be set in this general direction not in terms of an out-of-context sensationalism. For it would have been out of line if in 1942, spokespersons and reporters in Allied nations would have been announcing that "unidentified planes with Swastikas on their wings were dropping what we think could be bombs on European cities."
*****
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a visiting fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy. He is the author of The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy. « Close It
US Govt Concern About Potential Al Qaeda Attack on US Homeland This Summer
By Jeffrey Imm
Both ABC News and the Associated Press are reporting new U.S. government concerns of an attack on the U.S. homeland this summer, and in the case of ABC News, reports of an Al Qaeda cell intending to attack a government facility or facilities.
ABC News reports that "new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here. The White House has convened an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday afternoon to deal with the new threat." The meeting will address ways to minimize or counter the threat, and steps to harden and protect government facilities.
ABC reports that from former FBI agent Brad Garrett that 'It suggests they have information that the cell or cells coming this direction want to attack a government facility'.
ABC also reports that "Law enforcement officials say the recent failed attacks in London have provided important new clues about possible tactics. And officials say the London attackers use of the Internet left important clues that are being used to decode other e-mails that had initially been deemed unimportant but are now taking on new significance. A senior administration official said the level of concern of a new terror attack is now higher than it has been in some time".
Associated Press also reports that "U.S. counterterror officials are warning of an increased risk of an attack this summer, given al-Qaida's apparent interest in summertime strikes and increased al-Qaida training in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he had a 'gut feeling' about a new period of increased risk. He based his assessment on earlier patterns of terrorists in Europe and intelligence he would not disclose. 'Summertime seems to be appealing to them,' Chertoff said in his discussion with the newspaper about terrorists. 'We worry that they are rebuilding their activities.' "
On July 1, ABC reported that "A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror 'spectacular' this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document. 'This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001,' the official told ABCNews.com."
ABC also previously reported on a June 9 Al Qaeda / Taliban "graduation" ceremony, where a Pakistani journalist recorded video of the "graduation" ceremony and reported that "[l]arge teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe"
In other news about threats, there have been links between British Jihadist investigations and threats against the USA. On July 5, it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that 45 UK doctors were making plans to attack US facilities such as the shipping facilities for USS John F Kennedy in Jacksonville, Florida - that "45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site". On July 6, it was reported by AP and the Philadelphia Inquirer that two of the UK car bomb doctors sought work in the United States in Philadelphia. On July 4, the UK Sky News reported the full text of an email from British Anglican cleric Canon Andrew White who has said of an April discussion with Al-Qaeda representative where "[h]e told me that they were going to start killing in the UK then the USA".
Sources:
ABC News: Al Qaeda Cell in the U.S. Or On Its Way, According to New Intel
Associated Press: Officials Worry Of Summer Terror Attack
ABC News: Secret Document: U.S. Fears Terror 'Spectacular' Planned'
ABC News: Suicide Bomb Teams Sent to U.S., Europe
Daily Telegraph: 45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids
AP: U.K. Terror Suspects Made U.S. Inquiry
Sky News: Full Text Of Vicar's Terror Warning Email
A Tale of Two Deportation Cases
By Bill West
There is the enlightening, if disheartening, story of Ahmed Zaoui in New Zealand. Zaoui, an Algerian, arrived in New Zealand in 2002 traveling on a false passport and was summarily arrested and detained as an illegal alien. He sought refugee status there. His immigration case has been pending in various New Zealand immigration and judicial proceedings ever since. Zaoui spent a good amount of the past five years detained, based partly on classified (“secret”) evidence the New Zealand government claims relates to Zaoui being a national security threat. Zaoui has since been freed on bail pending further litigation. The outcome of his immigration case remains uncertain. What is clear is that New Zealand, a liberal Western democracy, has likely expended millions from its treasury and nearly five years trying to determine if just one illegal entrant alien who is also suspected of being a national security threat should be allowed to remain in their country.
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Before any American reacts with too much disbelief at the handling of the Zaoui case by our Kiwi cousins, we would do well to remember the case of Mazen Al-Najjar. Al-Najjar is the brother-in-law of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) supporter Sami Al-Arian. Al-Najjar was deported from the US (finally) in 2002...ironically the same year Zaoui arrived in New Zealand...after what was a seven year legal battle by the US Government to remove him from the United States. Like Zaoui, the Al-Najjar case involved multi-year detention based in part on classified evidence and a lengthy public drama pitting his supporters, and most of the media, against the Feds. In the end, the Al-Najjar case boiled down to the US Government deporting an illegal alien who had overstayed his student visa by nearly two decades and who was suspected of being a national security risk. Many years and probably millions of taxpayer dollars were required to remove that one illegal alien. Unfortunately, cases like Zaoui and Al-Najjar are not so rare. « Close It
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 10
By Jeffrey Imm
July 10 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
Al Qaeda's Zawahiri Threatens Retaliation Against Britain for Rushdie Knighthood of Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses". AP reports Ayman al-Zawahiri's 20 minute speech entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves", threatened retaliation against UK for knighthood of Salman Rushdie. SITE Institute reports that "Zawahiri threatens that a 'very precise response' is in the stages of preparation, and addresses current Prime Minister Gordon Brown, stating: 'The policy of your predecessor has brought tragedy and defeat upon you, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the center of London. And if you did not understand, listen, we are ready to repeat it for you, with the permission of Allah. We are sure that you have quite understood it.' "
British Islamists and Jihadists "Rank-and-File" Are Educated Professionals. Newsweek publishes op-ed from former British Hizb ut-Tahrir radical Ed Husain: "The rank-and-file of Islamist organizations, the precursors to terrorism, are filled with activists with a technical education. The instructor of my first secret cell in Hizb ut-Tahrir in London was a town planner; my second cell-leader was a medical doctor. Even today, medical doctors manage the British arm of Hizb ut-Tahrir-a global Islamist political party working for the re-establishment of an Islamic caliphate: doctors Nasim Ghani, Abdul Wahid, and Nazreen Nawaz. Globally, the central leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir is a Jordan-based engineer, Abu Rishta. The story of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is similar. When Islamists graduate to jihadist terrorism the profile is equally chilling." Ed Husain is author of "The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left"
Jury in British terrorism trial fails to convict two men. AP reports that UK jury failed to reach a verdict of remaining two July 21 bombing suspects: Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya. Judge Adrian Fulford "dismissed the jury after less than two hours of deliberations. Fulford gave prosecutors until Wednesday morning to say whether they would seek a retrial of the two."
UK Police let the July 21 bombers slip the net. Daily Telegraph reported that "Police missed a string of opportunities to intercept four terrorists months before the botched suicide bomb attacks on July 21". "Muktar Ibrahim, 29, the leader of the suicide gang, was seen by officers on at least four occasions before the bombings, Woolwich Crown Court had heard and was on bail after being arrested on suspicion of extremism."
Daily Telegraph reports "London was saved only by Ibrahim's lack of basic arithmetic. A scribbled note found at the bomb factory showed that Ibrahim, who had failed maths GCSE, had wrongly calculated the ratio of ingredients, rendering the bombs harmless."
July 21 Bomber Allowed To Travel To Pakistan while facing charges. Sky News reports that "Questions are now being asked about how [Muktar] Ibrahim managed to leave the UK while facing charges over extremist behaviour. In 2004, the 29-year-old travelled to Pakistan in December to learn terrorist skills, despite being on bail. He was there at exactly the same time as July 7 bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, and stayed for three months. Two months earlier, the 21/7 mastermind had been charged with threatening behaviour for distributing extremist Islamic material in London. While abroad, a warrant was issued for his arrest after missing a court appearance." Sky News also has a video of the process of getting visa from UK to Pakistan.
Reuters provided a "Chronology of major terrorism trials in Britain".
July 21, 2005 Terrorists Had Plans of UK's Sizewell B Nuclear Plant. BBC reports: "Detailed plans of Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk were found in anti-terror raids after the July 2005 bomb attacks, it has been revealed." The plans included layout of the nuclear plant that were provided by a nuclear expert in a public lecture. "The expert said he was told the notes about Sizewell were found in the back of a car connected to one of the 21 July bombers. The expert said nuclear plants 'are not prepared enough' for an attack either by terrorists on the ground or through terrorists crashing a plane into the power station. He said nuclear plants were designed to withstand accidents, not terrorist attacks."
India: Bin Laden Speeches, Jihadist Material Found in Kafeel Ahmed House. Times of India reports that police discovered "[i]nflammatory speeches by Osama bin Laden and anti-UK, anti-US propaganda material in three CDs found in an almirah at Kafeel Ahmed's house". Times of India also reports "Kafeel and his associates are believed to have visited Pakistan more than once to seek approval for the UK terror plot. Added to this, one of the main suspects, Bilal Abdulla, is suspected to have indoctrinated Kafeel and Sabeel." The Times of India reports that Indian counterterrorism officials "believe the Al-Qaida is recruiting young educated people who can be sent to the US and Europe to create terror. 'The US and Europe are closely monitoring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Arab countries. We believe Al-Qaida is trying to use Indian resources and infrastructure to create havoc in the US and Europe,' said a senior officer working on counterterrorist strategies. "
Times of India news story states that the newly discovered information "helped investigators get closer to the link between the UK terror plot and Al-Qaida." The Hindu newspaper reported, however, that "[a] senior official in a Central Intelligence agency told The Hindu late on Monday night that there was no proof to link Kafeel with the al-Qaeda. They believe that Kafeel was indoctrinated in the United Kingdom by an Iraqi doctor Abdullah Billal, who was said to be with him in the flaming jeep, the official said."
Indian Imam Says 2 UK Suspects Changed Recently. Guardian reports that Indian imam Mohammed Hassaan says that after Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed moved to Britain, they changed. When they returned to visit from the UK, they attended a radical mosque in Bangalore, India.
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India: 'Secret data' found in Car Bomber Kafeel Ahmed's Computer Hard Disk. Hindustan Times reports that "[e]xperts have succeeded in decoding 'secret information' stored in the hard disk of a computer seized from Kafeel Ahmed's home in Bangalore" and will "report on the disk's contents to Bangalore Police". It is believed that Kafeel Ahmed "stored 'project' data in the hard disk and protected it with a secret code that is difficult to decipher". "Kafeel, before leaving for Britain on May 5, had handed over the disk to his mother Zakia Ahmed, warning her that it contained some important information on his 'project'. Kafeel also asked his mother to ensure the safety of the disk and not to let it slip into anyone's hands."
India: UK attack linked to science hub strike? Hindustan Times reports that there may be links between the UK car bombers and a 2005 attack on an Indian science hub. "In Bangalore, investigators looked for connections between Kafeel Ahmed and the Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla...They worked on evidence that suggested Abdulla visited Bangalore to meet Kafeel and his brother Sabeel — a line of enquiry the police said could lead them to clues on the attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in December 2005."
Australian Terrorism Probe Into UK Bomb Plot Heads to India. Hindustan Times and Bloomberg are reporting on this. Bloomberg states: "Australian police widened their investigation into a terrorist plot to detonate car bombs in the U.K. and sent a detective to India, the home country of three suspects in the case. The officer will 'liaise' with Indian authorities also probing" the bombings.
Australia: Dr. Mohammed Haneef's lawyer may appeal detention. The Australian reports: "The lawyer for a Gold Coast doctor being detained over the bungled British bomb plots says he may launch an appeal. Authorities want to hold Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef as long as they can to ensure any links to British bomb plotters are thoroughly investigated, the government says. Dr Haneef has been held without charge under federal counter-terrorism powers since he was arrested trying to leave Brisbane international airport on a one-way ticket on July 2."
Australia Visa Cross-Checks System Moved Up to September. The Australian reports that a news security system upgrade that will perform visa cross-checks has been moved up from October to September. "Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said yesterday the new system of background checking for visa applicants, proposed on Sunday, would have likely detected a group of doctors who had similar country of origin, training and travel patterns."
Scotland: Petrol proof sought in new anti-terror measure. The Scotsman reports: "Filling stations in Edinburgh are vetting customers buying petrol in cans, as security is stepped up following the terror attack at Glasgow Airport. Police have said that anybody buying a can of petrol should now be asked for identification and quizzed over what they plan to use it for. They should also be asked to pay by credit or debit card, to ensure the purchase can be traced. Any staff who turn away a customer who refuses to co-operate have been promised police backing."
Sources:
AP: Zawahiri Threatens Retaliation Against Britain for Rushdie Knighthood
SITE Institute: "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves" -- An Audio Speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri Produced by as-Sahab Media
Newsweek: Bin Laden's Army - A one-time jihadi looks at why so many radical Islamic groups include doctors and engineers—and how their involvement threatens the religion itself.
AP: Jury deadlocks on last 2 defendants in failed London transit attacks
CNN: Jury dismissed in UK terror plot
Daily Telegraph: Police let the July 21 bombers slip the net
Sky News: Cops Face Pressure Over 21/7 'Failings'
Sky News Video: Pakistan's Visa Process
Reuters: Chronology of major terrorism trials in Britain
BBC: Terrorists had plans of Sizewell
Times of India: UK terror plot: Cops see Al-Qaida link
The Hindu: 'No proof to link Kafeel with Al-Qaeda'
Guardian: Imam Says 2 UK Suspects Changed Recently
Hindustan Times: 'Secret data' found in Kafeel's computer hard disk
Hindustan Times: UK attack linked to science hub strike?
CBS: Burned UK Suspect Unlikely To Survive
Bloomberg: Australian Terrorism Probe Into U.K. Bomb Plot Heads to India
The Australian: Haneef's lawyer may appeal detention
The Australian: Terror evidence may be lost after 'bungle'
The Australian: New visa cross-checks ramp up scrutiny
Scotsman News: Petrol proof sought in new anti-terror measure
« Close It
Potential major break in Lebanon
By Olivier Guitta
From The Croissant come these two stories:
Lebanese Minister Pierre Gemayel’s murderers were arrested.
Lebanese security forces obtained the confessions of the killers of the Lebanese Industry minister shot in November 2006.
The assassins belong to Fatah Al Islam [FAI], group linked to the Syrian security services.
If this is confirmed, it could have huge implications on proving beyond any reasonable doubt Syria's role in the murder of anti-Syrian Lebanese personalities.
At the same time, some are taking their precautions.
Right after the murder of Lebanese MP Walid Eido in Beirut on June 13, the majority decided to send abroad MPs and this for their own protection.
So about 30 of them now live in Paris, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Cairo; the other MPs belonging to the majority who stayed in Lebanon have been given extra security measures.
In fact, the majority thinks that the targeting of its most prominent MPs is aimed in fact at “switching it” to the minority by killing little by little its MPs. This would greatly impact the election in the fall of a new president.
The government has also decided to organize 2 parliamentary by-elections scheduled for August 5 but this has been contested by the opposition.
New Insights into the Clandestine Muslim Brotherhood Work in the United States
By Douglas Farah
Thanks to my colleague Jeff Breinholt's new post we have new insights into the long-standing, clandestine nature of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. A 1959 court case, a public record that had remained unexamined for decades, reprints the Muslim Brotherhood's constitution, found in a prison locker.
The rare document of the Ikhwan in the United States, sitting in musty but public court records since 1959, explains much about the Brotherhood and much about some of the enigmas that, to my mind, still surround the Northern Virginia Safa case and other issues.
It is important, but often forgotten, that the Brotherhood arrived here decades ago, contemporaneously with the efforts to spread Islam in Western Europe. While their activities have been successfully traced to the early 1960s, with the formation of numerous Islamist groups here at that time, this document pushes the launch date of the efforts back by several years, especially as an organized political/religious movement embedded here.
The document bears a striking resemblance to the Marxist literature of the day, defining the Brotherhood as the "vigorous, intellectual vanguard" of the global struggle to unite Islam.
It also bears a striking resemblance to the documents founding al Qaeda, with calls for the unity of Muslims and the specific design for replicating clandestine cells across the country and the world. My full blog is here.
The History of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. Courts
By Jeffrey Breinholt
The most pointed and interesting discussions at the recent NEFA Conference on the Muslim Brotherhood involved the issue that is the subject of so much recent public commentary: whether Western governments should embrace the Brotherhood as an effective counterweight to Al Qaida. Meanwhile, the lawsuit filed by several Arizona-based Muslim leaders against US Airways, after passenger complaints led to their being pulled from a recent Minnesota flight, along with the libel actions filed against those who have dared to write about Islamic charities in the U.S., raises an interesting issue that was not addressed at the NEFA event nor, to my knowledge, by any legal commentatory: what is the Muslim Brotherhood’s history with the American courts?
Here’s the short answer: the Muslim Brotherhood has been mentioned in a total of 36 federal court opinions, a sufficiently small universe that one can easily absorb all of these opinions to get a sense of this aspect of American jurisprudence. This universe of cases offers some truly fascinating insight.
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This insight does not come from those cases that have already been well publicized. As described in the Counterterrorism Blog by Matthew Levitt, starting in Dallas this month, federal prosecutors will be opening a trial that involves allegations that persons affiliated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development illegally provided material support to Hamas, and this case has generated some pre-trial rulings that mention the Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, 2006 WL 3542685 (N.D.Tex 2006.). After 9/11, prosecutors in Virginia succeeded in obtaining a conviction of a Hamas operative named Soliman Bihieiri for naturalization fraud, though they failed to obtain the terrorism enhancement at sentencing, during which they presented evidence about his association with the Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. v. Biheiri, 299 F.Supp.2d 590 (E.D.Va.,2004). The Muslim Brotherhood was also mentioned in one court case involving Mousa Abu Marzook’s New York proceedings to determine whether he should be extradited to Israel, which had charged him criminally. Matter of Extradition of Marzook, 924 F.Supp. 565 (SDNY 1996).
There were several opinions arising out of the civil wrongful death lawsuits, in which American lawyers sought or are seeking damages from entities and governments allegedly associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Weiss v. National Bank of Westminster, 2007 WL 1460933 (E.D.N.Y 2007); Weiss v. National Westminster Bank PLC, 453 F.Supp.2d 609 (E.D.N.Y.,2006;) Strauss v. Credit Lynonnaise, 2007 WL 1558567 (E.D.N.Y 2006.); Strauss v. Credit Lyonnais, S.A. 2006 WL 2862704 (E.D.N.Y. 2006); Boim v. Quranic Literacy Institute, 340 F.Supp.2d 885 (N.D.Ill.,2004); and Ungar v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 211 F.Supp.2d 91 (D.D.C. 2002). These opinions recite the plaintiff’s allegations that the Muslim Brotherhood should be held responsible for some terrorist attacks.
The most common type of case mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood (16 opinions), it turns out, involves immigration litigation, where aliens litigated whether they should be sent back to their home countries. Several involved persons who claimed that they would be persecuted or tortured if returned to their home country - typically Syria or Egypt - because of the perception that they are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Farag v. Attorney General, 2005 WL 147463 (E.D.Pa. 2005); Elzour v. Ashcroft, 378 F.3d 1143 (10th Cir. 2004); Kharrat v. I.N.S., 60 F.3d 833 (9th Cir. 1996); Kharrat v. I.N.S., 60 F.3d 833 (9th Cir. 1995); Khano v. I.N.S., 999 F.2d 1203, (7th Cir. 1993); Ajlani v. I.N.S., 947 F.2d 953 (10th Cir. 1991)(unpublished); and Chebchoub v. I.N.S., 257 F.3d 1038 (9th Cir. 2001). Several of these cases involved an alien’s allegation that they would be threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood if forced to go home. Almasri v. Gonzlalez, 147 Fed.Appx. 707, 2005 WL 2673540 (9th Cir. 2005).; Malak v. Ashcroft, 110 Fed.Appx. 217, 2004 WL 2202256 (3rd Cir. 2004)(unpublished); Zaza v. Ashcroft, 106 Fed.Appx. 640, 2004 WL 1987310 (9th Cir. 2004); Al-Sayegh v. Ashcroft, 104 Fed.Appx. 656, 2004 WL 1826220 (9th Cir. 2004); Khalil v. Ashcroft, 337 F.3d 50 (1st Cir. 2003); Aljabi v. I.N.S., 108 F.3d 336 (9th Cir. 1997)(unpublished); Rouman v. I.N.S., 983 F.2d 1077 (9th Cir. 1993); and Elnager v. I.N.S., 930 F.2d 784 (9th Cir. 1991).
Among these immigration cases is a single opinion arising out of the celebrated case involving the U.S. government’s refusal to permit academic Tariq Ramadan to come to the U.S. to accept a teaching appointment at Notre Dame. American Academy of Religion v. Chertoff, 463 F.Supp.2d 400 (S.D.N.Y. 2006). In that litigation, Ramadan - who is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood - claimed that he has not embraced his grandfather's vision and has never considered himself a Muslim Brotherhood member.
The most interesting of the Muslim Brotherhood cases, however, involve persons who argued that their constitutional rights were being violated by not being permitted to engage in Brotherhood activities while incarcerated in American correctional facilities. Reischauer v. Jones, 2007 WL 1521578 (W.D.Mich 2007); Reischauer v. Jones, 2005 WL 2045833 (W.D.Mich. 2005); Small v. Lehman, 98 F.3d 762 (3rd Cir. 1996); Salih v. Smith, 1994 WL 750529 (D.Md. 1994); Munir v. Scott, 792 F.Supp. 1472 (E.D. Ich 1992); and Muhammed v. Michigan, 924 F.2d 1058 (6th Cir. 1991)(unpublished).
The truly amazing insight come from three of these prisoner lawsuits:
• George Desmond, an inmate at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit complaining that prison officials refused his request to enjoy religious instruction from Elijah Muhammed, the leader of the Nation of Islam. The officials decision was based on the content of the meetings that had been held were hate-filled and filled with anti-Christian and anti-Jewish diatribes, and the prison had uncovered coercive recruiting by the group among the black inmate population, and their decision was ultimately affirmed.
• In New York, Emmanuel Washington sued the warden of the Green Haven State Prison, claiming that three fellow prisoners had been segregated from the others and deprived of the guidance of their own minister, and of the right to receive prayer books, Holy Koran magazines and newspapers, solely because they are adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood. The trial judge found that the Muslim Brotherhood as it existed at the prison was not a religion but rather a secret organization which was a fomenting point for unrest and frustration, and that plaintiffs had been punished for their membership in the Brotherhood and segregated as a proper and necessary step in the insurance of discipline and good order within the prison and that, in so doing, the Warden had violated no rights.
• James Pierce, Martin Sostre and another inmate of the Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York unsuccessfully challenged the wardens decision to punish them for agitation, which they claimed was as a result of their association with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Why are these cases so interesting? It turns out they were litigated in the early 1960s. Desmond v. Blackwell, 235 F.Supp. 246 (W.D. Pa. 1964); Sostre v. McGinnis, 334 F.2d 906 (2nd Cir. 1964); and Pierce v. LaVallee, 212 F.Supp. 865 (S.D.N.Y. 1963), 319 F.2d 844 (2nd Cir. 1963).
This revelation is stunning. It means is that the Muslim Brotherhood was sufficiently active and well-organized in the United States to have reached American prisoners, and to have litigated prison conditions here, starting over 40 years ago. The fact that this legal history exists has, to my knowledge, never been considered in recent debates about whether to embrace the Brotherhood as an organization that can help the U.S. meet the challenge of violent jihadists.
These old cases should be of vital interest for another reason, which involved a court’s decision in one of them. The Pierce case described what triggered the disciplinary action against the three Muslim inmates accused of “agitation” in the administrative action challenged in the lawsuit. At the Clinton facility, there had been a system whereby plots of land in the prison yard of varying dimensions are assigned to inmates for their use during specific hours when yard privileges are available. Some 300 plots, known as “courts,“ were dedicated to various recreational or educational purposes. One or more of such courts were assigned to and controlled by members of the Muslim organization.
In the spring of 1959, the prison authorities directed surveillance of the Muslim court and a report by the yard guard of activities on them. The testimony of the guards indicated a more or less continuous activity within the Muslim court. A larger number of inmates that was usually found gathered at that area and were often addressed by some individual. Upon the approach of a guard to the Muslim court, all conversation and activity ceased so that the guard was unable to hear what was being said. When the guard moved out of hearing distance, conversation resumed and the speaker apparently received the full attention of the group. This action was interpreted by prison officials as indicating furtive discussions, indicative of secretiveness or condition of unrest.
On August 10, 1959, the prison authorities examined a homemade “locker” located on the Muslim court and discovered a Muslim Brotherhood written constitution. This document was significant enough to the court’s decision for it to include it as an appendix to the Pierce opinion. It provided:
1. To maintain ourselves and the Muslim Brotherhood as the vigorous, intellectual vanguard of the struggle for complete unity among our brothers by employing the unifying force of Islam.
2. To secure & maintain the complete intellectual unity & awakening of our brothers by promoting the advantages of unity of action and organization through the study of: Islam; our history which has been concealed from us; the struggle for freedom being made by our brothers at home and abroad; and all other pertinent subjects.
3. To build and train leaders for the future struggle so that each member upon his release shall be so equipped, that he will be able to successfully organize his own group or be an asset to any organization he may join.
INTRODUCTION
Since no movement can endure unless there is a stable organization of trained, selected and trusted men to maintain continuity and carry its program forward to successful conclusion.
And since the more widely our brothers are drawn into the struggle for freedom the more necessary it is to have an organization such as the Muslim Brotherhood to establish unity of action and thereby making it impossible and difficult for demagogues, sell-out men, uncle-toms, traitors, cowards and self-seekers to lead astray any section of the masses of brothers.
And since, in a country like this with a despotic anti-brother and anti-Muslim government, and in addition being inside the prison of the enemy, the more necessary it is to restrict the Muslim Brotherhood to persons who are sincere and going “all the way”. These will be trained in the art of combatting all manner of intrigues, deceptions & persecutions thereby making it difficult for anyone to disrupt the programs of the Muslim Brotherhood.
I therefore accept and abide by the laws of the Muslim Brotherhood which are as follows:-
1. I will irrevocably obey and act upon the orders, commands, instructions and directions of the Muslim Brotherhood.
2. I will always serve, sacrifice and suffer anything for the cause for which the Brotherhood stands, and will at all times be ready to go on any mission that I may be called upon to perform.
3. I will always and in all circumstances help a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in all things and in all difficulties.
4. I will make it my aim & duty to foster the cause for which the Brotherhood stands among all the brothers.
5. I will, except as a last resort avoid the use of violence.
OATH OF ALLEGIANCE
On my life, honor and fortunes, I solemnly pledge and promise that I shall always live up to the aims and aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood, and shall never under any circumstances divulge any secrets, plans and movements of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor betray a member brother; and if I dare to divulge any secrets, plans or movements of the Muslim Brotherhood, or betray a member brother or the cause, or use the influence of the Brotherhood for my own personal interest, I do so at my own risk and peril.
MEMBERSHIP
Only brothers shall be eligible for membership and these must accept Islam, the objects, policy, program & discipline of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Any person who is a known informer or a homosexual shall not be eligible for membership. (the rumor that one is an informer, shall, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, bar one from membership).
Application for membership shall be made through a member who shall introduce the applicant to members of the Brotherhood for their acceptance or otherwise.
All new members accepted by the organization shall undergo a probationary period of two months. During this time such probationary member shall be given a copy of the Rules of Court only and such probationary member shall be carefully watched at all times by all members as to his conduct, sincerity and motives of joining the Brotherhood.
During the probationary period, the probationary member shall merely be an observer at Brotherhood meetings and although he may voice his opinion, he shall not vote. He may participate in all activities of the organization except the meetings in which strategy & secret plans are discussed.
It shall be the duty of all full-fledged members to instruct the probationary member on Islam, Arabic and all other projects, activities & studies (except secret plans & strategy) of the Brotherhood and to aid him toward becoming a full-fledged member.
After the two month probationary period, the probationary member shall become a full-fledged member of the Brotherhood only upon an affirmative vote of the members.
Should the probationary member fail to receive the necessary vote, a second vote shall be taken to extend his probationary period for an additional month.
If on the second vote less than the majority of the members vote for extension of the probationary period, the probationary member shall be denied membership.
MEMBERSHIP DUES AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Each individual member of the organization shall pay monthly dues as determined by the Brotherhood unless exempted therefrom.
The Brotherhood shall maintain a fund (from dues & voluntary contributions), such fund to be used for supplementing the diet of the members and furthering the cause of the Brotherhood only.
COMMUNICATION
A close liaison shall at all times be maintained between all members of the organization, in prison and out. As far as possible all communications should be done by personal contact, or employing only members as couriers and messengers. Letters & notes on important subjects (in prison) should be written in Arabic (on the outside, letters, telegrams, telephones & cables should be used only for making appointments to discuss business). Discussion of Muslim Brotherhood matters in public places is forbidden.
All members shall upon their release maintain contact with the Brotherhood and aid it.
Also important is part of the Pierce court’s ruling - that the Muslim Brotherhood should be treated as a political rather than religious organization, for purposes of determining the constitutional claims of the Brotherhood prisoners. Pierce v. LaVallee, 212 F.Supp. 865 (S.D.N.Y. 1962).
In considering to what extent the U.S. should officially embrace the Muslim Brotherhood, it is not a question whether they are already at our shores. They are, after all, so entrenched that they have been an organized group in our prisons for almost half a century.
It should be noted that this aspect of American jurisprudence dealing with the Brotherhood is a small portion of those cases that have involved the religious rights of Muslims in U.S. prisons. Prison litigation is a trademark of the Nation of Islam. As I will describe in another article, starting in the 1960s, a full 80 percent of all references to the Nation of Islam in American federal court opinions (197 cases out of approximately 250) involved prison litigation.
(As always, the opinion in this article are the author's own, and do not reflect those of the Department of Justice.) « Close It
The Terror Hunt
By Michael Jacobson
My piece in the Wall Street Journal Europe today on the terrorist threat in Europe and problems with European counterterrorism efforts.
The thwarted bomb attacks in London and Glasgow showed that Europe has become one of the most important battlegrounds in the global terror war. Not that further proof was needed, after the 2004 Madrid attacks, the 2005 London subway and bus bombings, and failed or disrupted plots in the U.K. and Germany last year.
In 2006 alone, European countries -- including Spain, Italy, Denmark, France, the Czech Republic and the U.K. -- arrested 260 Islamist terrorist suspects. In addition to those charged with plotting attacks, others were apprehended for terrorist financing, recruiting, facilitation, and for spreading propaganda.
While the threat is serious, the Europeans' ability to fight it is uneven. Some countries, such as France, Spain and Britain, have strong intelligence and law enforcement capabilities to address this menace. Unfortunately, that's not the case across the board. Many European countries are less cognizant of the danger -- still regarding it as primarily an American problem -- and lack the capacity to deal with terrorist threats. Of the 27 EU states, probably fewer than 10 have taken a real interest in counterterrorism.
For the rest of the piece, click here
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 9
By Jeffrey Imm
July 9 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
Four Guilty of Conspiracy to Murder in July 21 Bomb Plot. BBC reports that '[f]our men have been found guilty of plotting to carry out suicide bombings on London's transport network on 21 July 2005. Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussain Osman, 28, were convicted of conspiracy to murder at Woolwich Crown Court. The jury will continue to consider verdicts on Tuesday for two others", who AP has identified as "Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya". Per Sky News, [t]he terror cell attempted to detonate hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour bombs covered in shrapnel on three tube trains and a bus on July 21, 2005. Their plan only failed at the last moment because of problems with the home-made explosives, hot weather, or mere "good fortune", Woolwich Crown Court heard." In addition, the Daily Mail indicates that the terror bombing failed due to incorrect calculations of bombing ingredients by the Jihadists. BBC has profiles of the 4 convicted terrorists: Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar, and Hussain Osman. The Daily Telegraph also has a profile of them.
40 British Jihadist Cases Yet To Be Heard; 100 Suspects. Daily Telegraph reports that the "more than 40 separate terror court cases due to be heard include Operation Gamble, an alleged plot to kidnap and video the beheading of a British soldier and Operation Overt, an alleged plan to blow up 10 US airliners." Former MI-5 Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller advises this includes "[m]ore than 100 suspects are awaiting trial in British courts for terrorist offences".
Nuclear alert by ex-head of MI5. Daily Telegraph reports statement from former MI-5 chief Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller: "It remains a very real possibility that they may, sometime, somewhere attempt a chemical biological, radiological or even nuclear attack".
Interpol: "UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century." Interpol has criticized UK for failure to share information with Interpol, and for UK's failure to use Interpol criminal database in reviewing immigrants to the UK. On Interpol's web site, Interpol chief Noble states "The UK has not shared its terrorist watch list with Interpol". Daily Telegraph reported that "The head of Interpol also accused the authorities of failing to check visitors to Britain against its global database of 11,000 suspected terrorists and further quotes Interpol chief Noble as saying 'The guys detained last week could be wanted, arrested or convicted anywhere in the world and the UK would not know'." The Daily Mail quotes Noble "The UK government really needs to catch up and realise that unless it consults global databases for passports, names and photographs then it risks letting dangerous people roam free." BBC states that the UK "Home Office has insisted border officials are aware of the list." Guardian reports: "Interpol said last night that the UK makes just 50 checks a month of the database; France by comparison makes 700,000 checks and Switzerland makes 300,000." BBC also stated the Interpol's chief stated that there was a "clear link between stolen passports and al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity. The UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century."
Daily Telegraph reports that "deep concerns were raised over the weekend that a loophole in visa controls for foreign students could have been letting in extremists without real checks." Daily Mail reports "it emerged thousands of visas are obtained by immigrants from terror hotspots for university courses which they then don't attend."
Other related UK news media stories today report British Jihadist car bomb suspects traveling to Pakistan, Britons going to South Africa without a visa and then going to Pakistan (which has previously been reported in the London Times), and Britons traveling to Bangladesh, and UK's outsourcing of immigrant checks to a private company in India.
UK's MI5 Risk Map of 219 Extremist Groups in UK. Daily Telegraph reports "[t]he security service is watching 219 groups, mostly in the Midlands and North. A 'risk map' of terrorist threats shows a total of 80 groups of extremists in the Midlands, 60 in Leeds, Bradford and Manchester and 35 in London. There are also 20 being watched on Merseyside, 12 in Scotland, 10 in Wales and two in Northern Ireland. Each network can involve more than a dozen people bringing the total to well over 1,600 - some estimates have put it as high as 3,000." Belfast Telegraph reports that "Northern Ireland has at least two of the networks, containing around 30 people".
London Times points out that "the terror hot spot" of Birmingham and "West Midlands, with about 80 suspected terror networks under surveillance is more than double the "only" 35 terror networks under surveillance in London. The London Times reports that Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller has called for creation of "a network of Muslim spies to gather intelligence on terror suspects plotting attacks in Britain" and said that the networks 'scattered across the country' are thought to be plotting up to 30 attacks at any one time.
UK Five Face Second Week of Questioning over Car Bomb Plots. Daily Mail reports: "Five terror suspects remained in police custody at London's high security Paddington Green police station. Police have been given more time to hold the four men and one woman." This includes Dr. Mohammed Asha, Marwa Asha, a 26 year old doctor from Bangalore, and two trainee doctors. KUNA reports that "Dr. Asha, Marwa Asha, and the 26-year-old doctor from Bangalore can be questioned until Saturday July 14. The two trainee doctors arrested at the Royal Alexandra Hospital can be held for a further day, until July 15."
Australia Extends Car Bomb Suspect Mohammed Haneef Inquiry: BBC reports that "Australian police have been granted an extra 48 hours to continue detaining an Indian doctor in connection with the suspected UK car bomb attacks." The Australian Federal Police stated that this "would allow 'for the analysis of material obtained during the course of the investigation by joint counter-terrorism teams'."
Australia: Police in Australia search bomb suspect's car and flat. The Daily Mail reports that "Police in Australia investigating the London and Glasgow bomb plots, today confiscated the car of one the suspects. The vehicle, belonging to Dr Mohammed Haneef was under examination as investigators search for vital clues linked to the bungled car bomb attempts. Police also executed a search warrant to further examine Dr Haneef 's top-floor apartment, close to the hospital where he worked on Queensland's Gold Coast."
India: Ongoing Investigation. Indian investigators seized computer of car bomber Kafeel Ahmed, per Associated Press, Bangalore's Commissioner of Police N. Achuta Rao stated that the "hard disk is being examined to ascertain the contents and possible connection to the UK incident and also regarding terrorist activity, if any, in India and elsewhere". AFP reports that "Police said on Monday they were questioning relatives and friends of three suspects held over the failed British car bombings but had made no formal arrests."
Car Bomber Kafeel Ahmed Computer Reveals Terrorist Links. NDTV reports "Hard disk reveals Kafeel's terror links" - "There is incriminating material like videos of terrorist executions, attacks filmed by terrorists and speeches by key Al Qaida leaders, none of which is available, either publicly or on the internet.The intelligence agencies say this indicates that Kafeel was part of some kind of internal distribution list in a terrorist network. British Intelligence sources have also told India that there is CCTV footage showing Kafeel involved in parking the explosive-rigged cars in The HayMarket London. This means Kafeel is not just the main suspect in the Glasgow attack but also directly involved in the Hay Market failed bombing. The cars in HayMarket were discovered by police before they exploded after fuel leaks were detected."
Car Bomber Kafeel Ahmed Worked in Jet Design. The International Herald Tribune reports that Kafeel Ahmed worked for much of last year as an aeronautical engineer" for Infotech Enterprises, "an Indian outsourcing company that designs aircraft parts for clients including Boeing and Airbus." IHT reports "that Ahmed might have had access to the design secrets of some top aircraft makers in the very period when his friends have told the Indian police that he was turning into a Islamic radical", and that Infotech Enterprise's clients included the UK Home Office.
India: UK Car Bomber Kafeel Ahmad linked with Tablighi Jamaat. NDTV reports regarding Tablighi Jamaat "is yet again in the news for its links with Glasgow plotter Kafeel Ahmad and his father in Bangalore" and that "Bangalore police have now revealed that Kafeel Ahmed's father was a member of the Tablighi Jamaat." In August 2006, after the failed British Jihadist transatlantic jet plot to attack the United States, the Hindustan Times identified a link between Tablighi Jamaat and several of the British terror suspects including Waheed Zaman. The Hindustan Times reported: "The relatives and friends of some of the 23 people arrested last week told the police that the detainees were followers of the Tablighi Jamaat, which is believed to control several mosques in Britain." The Hindustan Times continued: "This is not the first time that a terror plot has been linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. One of the 7/7 suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, was a follower. Another, Shehzad Tanweer, had visited a mosque controlled by the Tablighi Jamaat in Leeds."
Times of India also reports that Kafeel Ahmed's mother felt her son was on the wrong path, and was concerned about the influence of Kafeel's father, Dr Maqbool Ahmed. Times of India reports that Kafeel's father was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Pakistan: Car bomb suspect visited Pakistan. The Daily Telegraph reports that "[a]t least one of the alleged plotters of the London and Glasgow car bombings had spent time in Pakistan". This was discovered through delays in car bomb suspect taking a hospital post, and per Inverclyde Royal Hospital hospital: "[t]here were calls from him about the delay and he was in Pakistan at the time." Daily Telegraphs reports that "[t]he information suggests that the leaders of the gang may have been seeking approval from al-Qa'eda before going ahead with their plan." As the London Times has previously reported, British Jihadists can easily get to Pakistan through South Africa (and other African countries), as Britons flying to South Africa do not require a visa.
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Bangladesh: British Jihadists Traveling to Bangladesh for Training. London Guardian reports that that "[s]ignificant numbers of Britons are travelling to Bangladesh to train in terrorist techniques amid rising concern among security and intelligence officials about the increasing appeal of al-Qaida's message throughout the Middle East and south-east Asia. Their concern is compounded by a realisation among al-Qaida leaders of the value of individuals who can enter western countries easily. Officials say the number of Britons of Bangladeshi descent apparently prepared to consider carrying out terrorist acts marks a new and worrying development. It coincides with the increasing number of young Britons travelling to Pakistan via South Africa in an effort to avoid being noticed by British security officials. Recent terrorist trials have shown how the Britain-Pakistan link has been crucial, with many convicted terrorists having trained in camps in Pakistan." The London Times has also previously reported on the use of South Africa by British Jihadists to get to Pakistan.
UK Outsourcing Immigrant Checks to India. Daily Mail reported that the UK "Foreign Office was criticised for contracting out vital checks on immigrants to a private company in India." The Daily Express is reporting that "[t]he Foreign Office has also come under fire for contracting-out vital security checks on immigrants to a private company based in India. Earlier this year, responsibility for security checks on immigrants from countries including India and Pakistan was given to VFS Global. The business, which employs local staff, even carries out the critical task of taking fingerprints and storing them electronically."
EU Human Rights Laws and Terrorists. The London Times reports that "Migrationwatch says the UK should give six months’ notice that it will withdraw from the convention and announce that that any foreigners convicted of a terrorist offence will be deported to their home country at the end of their sentence. The report adds that the Government should also be allowed to detain suspects for long periods of time. Ministers will continue to find it almost impossible to kick out terrorist suspects or those who have served a sentence for terrorism while the UK remains in the convention. Migrationwatch says that the convention and its interpretation by the courts is acting as a 'positive encouragement' to terrorists to come to the UK because it is almost impossible to deport them to foreign states with poor human rights records."
Scotland - Hizb ut-Tahrir bid to control Scotland's main mosque. Scotland's Daily Record reports: "A radical Islamic group tried to gain control at Scotland's main mosque just months before one of its members allegedly tried to bomb Glasgow airport. The Hizb ut-Tahrir sect are said to have put forward candidates for ruling positions at the city's Central Mosque. The group want a global Islamic state. But their plans failed when officials realised who was putting up nominees for senior positions."
Scotland: Terror debate raises stark views. During a BBC Scotland program entitled "Scotland After the Bomb", Aamer Anwar stated: "A Stealth bomber in Iraq is the moral equivalent of a suicide bomber in Scotland". This was greeted by "rounds of applause" by the BBC studio audience. On the BBC Scotland program, Mr. Anwar continued "There is no justification for the murder of innocent people. The US and Israel, however, are equal to any 9/11 hijacker." BBC reports that "[h]e added that it was a myth that there was an inclusive, multicultural Scotland..."
London Central Mosque Protest - Media Recording. WorldNetDaily.com has reported a recording by radio host Rusty Humphries of Anjem Choudary and an estimated 3,000 protesting Islamists in front of the London Central Mosque on June 22, 2007. The report quotes Anjem Choudary as shouting "One day my dear Muslims, Islam will govern Britain!" The report quotes Abu Saif as stating "Brothers and sisters, make no mistake. Make no mistake. The British government, the queen, the MPs in this country, they are enemies to you, enemies to Allah and enemies to the Muslims." WND reports that "Abu Saif is believed to be a member of the group Hizb ut-Tahrir".
WND states that radio broadcaster Rusty Humphries interviewed Abu Saif, and reports that the "Muslim leader said he does not believe in democracy and insists there is no such thing as freedom of religion, 'because freedom is an absolute term.' 'Are we to say that Muslims can fully practice religion in America,' he asked in an attempt to explain. 'Say, for instance, I was a Muslim in America. Could I call for the destruction of the American government and establishment of an Islamic state in America? No. So where is the freedom of religion? There is none.' "
More background on doctors in car bomb plots. Newsweek has done an article on additional background on doctors in car bomb plots, which doesn't mention Hizb ut-Tahrir or other influences. The Newsweek article is intended to show links between the British Jihadists and Iraq.
Sources:
BBC: Four guilty over 21/7 bomb plot
AP: 4 guilty of plotting suicide bombing attack in London
Sky News: Three Guilty Over 21/7 Bomb Plot
Daily Mail: 21/7 bombers failed to kill dozens as 'mastermind' could not do maths
BBC: Profile: Muktar Ibrahim
BBC: Profile: Ramzi Mohammed
BBC: Profile: Yassin Omar
BBC: Profile: Hussain Osman
Daily Telegraph: The four guilty July 21 bombers
ITV News: Profile of the July 21 plotters
Daily Telegraph: Nuclear alert by ex-head of MI5
London Times: Recruit Muslim spies in war on terror, urges new security chief
Daily Telegraph: New UK terror threat from foreign students
Interpol Web Site on UK Non-Cooperation
BBC: UK defends its border procedures
Guardian: Britain failing to check migrants on terror database, says Interpol chief
Daily Express: Interpol: Britain is letting in terrorists
Belfast Telegraph: Terror networks operating in Ulster
KUNA: Five face second week of questioning over bomb plots
BBC: Australia extends Haneef inquiry
Daily Mail: Police in Australia search bomb suspect's car and flat
Evening Standard: Police in Australia search bomb suspect's car and flat
AP: India: Police seize UK terror suspect's computer
NDTV: Hard disk reveals Kafeel's terror links
International Herald Tribune: British terror suspect worked in jet design
AFP: No arrests in India over Britain terror plot: police
NDTV: Kafeel Ahmad linked with Tablighi Jamaat
August 2006: Hindustan Times: UK terror suspects' faith made in India
August 2006: India Daily: Suspected Terrorists for Recent UK Terror Plot Keep Faith in Tablighi Jamaat
Times of India: Kafeel's mother feared he was on wrong path
Daily Telegraph: Car bomb suspect visited al-Qa'eda's heartland
Guardian: More Britons travelling to Bangladesh to train in terror
May 3, 2007: London Times: British terrorists using Africa as secret staging post (story on use of South Africa to get to Pakistan)
London Times: "Change human rights laws to stop encouraging terrorists"
Daily Mail: Families abandon overseas holidays because of airport terror fears
Scotland Daily Record: Mosque Takeover Bid
BBC Scotland: Terror debate raises stark views
WorldNetDaily news report on London Central Mosque protest
Newsweek: Doctor of Death - A busted terror plot in Britain puts the spotlight on radicalized Muslim professionals. « Close It
A Week in Southern Thailand
By Zachary Abuza
Last week the violence in southern Thailand continued at a low-level but steady rate. In all 32 people and three militants were killed, and 94 were wounded. In the week, there were 23 IEDs detonated and three defused. A bomb in Songhkhla killed four and wounded 26. Five soldiers on teacher protection detail were wounded when a bomb hidden in the ceiling panel of the teacher’s room was detonated. Seven soldiers on teacher patrols were killed by a bomb or shot by insurgents after being thrown from their vehicle. In other roadside IED incidents, a total of ten bombs wounded six soldiers, nine police and six rangers. Several bombs had no casualties. In one instance, a second IED was placed to target first responders. In another incident an IED was placed en route to the scene where a family of four was shot dead; four police were wounded. Most of the victims were killed by gunshot, including, four headmen, 14 civilians, and a female ranger. Other security forces came under fire, wounding, two border patrol police, three police and several soldiers, and one village defense volunteer. In one instance, suspected militants opened fire on a teashop killing a woman, wounding a police and a civilian; and in another case militants opened fire on a “pickup truck school bus” wounding two, including a student. In one of the more planned ambushes, a 10-man police convoy for teachers was ambushed, wounding one, and a roadside IED placed for the group of soldiers coming as reinforcements, detonated wounding one. In other violence, there were grenade attacks on a mosque and a teashop, wounding six civilians. One civilian was hacked to death and his corpse burnt; another civilian was shot, before his body was burnt. Two schools and a sub-district office were arsoned and train tracks were sabotaged: between 55-65 bolts were removed.
There have been a string of successes by the security forces. On 29 June a militant was arrested, senior enough for militants to try to attack the police station where he was being held in the night of 30 June to free him. On 2 July, three simultaneous raids led to the arrest of 50 suspected militants and the seizure of bomb-making materials (wires, digital watches), small arms, documents and CD-roms. Among those detained was Muhamad Jaemae, believed to be a fairly senior member of the BRN-C. On 4 July, 11 suspected militants were arrested during a raid at the Islam Burapha Islamic School, in Narathiwat’s Muang district, only five kilometers away from the Taksin Royal Palace. Some 600-700 students tried to block the security forces from entering the compound. Some 108 items, including gun and bomb-making materials were seized. Several days later, authorities shut down the school [pictured below]. On 5 July, three men were arrested in possession of seven bombs, and arrest warrants went out for five more individuals. Moreover, three militants were killed in firefights with police.

The security presence in the south was minimal. In five days of driving, last week, I rarely witnessed patrols. The vast majority of security forces, including army, police, rangers, and border patrol police were in fixed static positions, usually behind sandbags and concertina wire. Checkpoints are unmanned during the days, and only once was my vehicle stopped and searched. The security forces tend to go out only in reaction to events, rather than on active patrols. In only one case, did I see five soldiers on foot patrolling/searching. Most of the soldiers who are killed or wounded are on security detail for teachers; hence they do not like to leave their barracks.

Despite the fact that there were two schools arsoned that week, and more than 200 altogether, I did not see a single security detail in front of a school. Not one school had even the slightest deterrent to attack. One is left with the impression that Thai intelligence is improving, and that the security forces are aggressive when they have actionable intelligence. Otherwise, they are passive, giving insurgents a fairly free reign in the countryside. Very simply, without a degree of protection, a small security presence to deter insurgents, people have no choice but to accede to the threats and demands of the militants.
The insurgents probably could increase the tempo and ferocity of attacks. I do not think they have to: they are succeeding in making the region ungovernable, killing/neutralizing/silencing political opponents within the Muslim community and imposing their values and writ on the villages. They are doing just enough to accomplish this; the rate of attacks is very well considered. Politically the insurgents are very smart, and far better organized than they are given credit for.
While the government continues to cling to the hope of “reconciliation” it is a failed policy. The militants are going to continue their operations, as they are winning; they have no incentive to negotiate. The government must dramatically increase the number of troops on the ground to stop the militants from having free range. They are becoming more emboldened, openly propagandizing in the villages, and gaining a considerably more popular support.
A Hezbollah Coup Attempt This Summer?
By Walid Phares
This week, MEMRI issued a report entitled "Possible eruption of violent crisis in Lebanon after July 15." The report either cites or quotes previous reports published by Lebanese and Arab media, both pro and anti-Syro-Iranian. Following are my thoughts on the points raised:
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The Syro-Iranian plan to crush Lebanon is not new. It has been incrementally developing since the summer of 2005. The plan moved forward inch-by-inch — assassinations, intimidations, so-called dialogue, urban intifada in Beirut, intelligence activities, war with Israel, propaganda, fighting with Fatah al Islam, etc. — so that by early summer 2007, the gradual crush would be set to begin.
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The Lebanese cabinet of Fuad Seniora is aware of this possibility, but it lost multiple opportunities, early on, to bring in the United Nations and a multinational presence on the Syrian-Lebanese borders and in the major cities. The Syro-Iranian axis took advantage of this to reinforce its own forces within Lebanon.
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The "axis" believes that the United States and its allies will be less-and-less capable of intervening by early 2008, hence during the summer-fall 2007 period we may see moves to gain more territory in Lebanon.
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The main issue now is the presidency of the republic. Elections are currently slated to take place in September. But current, pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud will try to postpone the elections as long as he can. The March 14 movement (opposed to the Syrian regime) will try to vote for its candidate — not yet selected — by late October/early November. The new president won't be recognized by Hezbollah and its allies.
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Hezbollah and its allies will form a government of their own and take control of large parts of Lebanon. This plan is two years old. It is being publicized only now by both parties in the propaganda-warfare realm.
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There is a possibility that the "axis" may attempt to break down the Seniora government during the summer (July-September) through ground action, and also by initiating the formation of another cabinet.
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Al Mustaqbal, the pro-Hariri daily is publishing reports about a potential coup d'etat by Hezbollah as a "preemptive strike." The information about Iran-Hezbollah plans for a coup, were made available as early as 2006 by the Lebanese international lobby (also known as the World Council of the Cedars Revolution). The March 14 coalition chose to release this information now, as the other side is also leaking it in an attempt to intimidate the Seniora cabinet. Hence, as both sides are leaking it simultaneously, it has been picked up by international monitors of the various media, including MEMRI. In short, the plan of a coup d'etat by Hezbollah, and backed by Iran and Syria is two years old, but it is surfacing now as the crush moment draws dramatically closer. "
Read the MEMRI report here.
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and the author of War of Ideas
« Close It
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 8
By Jeffrey Imm
July 8 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
UK Security Minister Views 15-year Fight Against Terror. The Daily Telegraph reports that the UK's top security minister, Admiral Sir Alan West, has stated that the battle against terror in UK would be a 10 to 15 year battle. Security minister West "said the overall danger facing the country, from both home-grown and foreign terrorists, was at its greatest ever level and that a new approach was badly needed to tackle it." He summarized the UK anti-terror strategy as "the four Ps": "prepare, protect, pursue, prevent - but that the 'prevent' side, dealing with the radicalisation of young Muslims, was the most important..." and stating that he believes "it will take 10 to 15 years."
New UK bomb warnings. The Daily Star is reporting that "the security services now believe that the global Islamist terror network has more outrages primed to happen in the UK." Al-Qaida expert and author Neil Doyle tells the Daily Star that Jihadist web site inactivity is a sign of pending plots: "What terrorists do is issue a general alert as an instruction to everyone to shut their mouths."
British Police Report Identity of Principal Protagonists. The NYT is reporting that British police are stating the two "principal protagonists" in both the Glasgow bombing and the failed London car bombs are Dr. Bilal Abdulla and Kaleef aka Khalid Ahmed.
Bomber linked to Irish Al-Qaeda Jet Bomb Plot. The Observer reports that British Jihadist bomber Kafeel Ahmed was an associate of convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist Abbas Boutrab in Ireland. Boutrab was "headed up the cell that operated on the quiet both in Northern Ireland and the Republic. That cell included Kafeel Ahmed while he was a student at Queen's" University, "which viewed Ireland as a 'quiet base'." "Boutrab was arrested in Belfast during 2003 and convicted two years later for downloading information on how to blow up an airliner."
Suspect or Supects Communicated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq. London Times reports that one or more of London car bomb suspects had recently been in contact with Al-Qaeda in Iraq: "Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command SO15 is understood to have uncovered evidence that in the months leading up to the attacks one or more of the suspects communicated by telephone or e-mail with terrorist leaders in Iraq."
Modern militant 'recruits himself'. The Australian reports on analysis of the approach by the latest Jihadists, that rather than being recruited and groomed by Al Qaeda, that such Jihadists effectively "recruit" themselves.
International Investigation of London Bomb Plot. London Times reports on "Operation Seagram", which is the international investigation of the London bomb plots with active investigations in UK, Australia, India. In addition, due to communications between suspects and Al Qaeda in Iraq, the London Times also reports that "well-placed officials are investigating potential links with Al-Qaeda in Iraq." The Australian has developed a graphic of international plot ties.
Indian police hunt for 12 UK bomb suspects The Australian Sunday Mail reports that "police in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, home to three suspects held in the British bomb plot, are hunting 12 more people who may be linked to the conspiracy"... and that "police were interested in a man it named as Saleem Ahmed, adding investigators were also probing the possibility that fake Bangalore driving licences were used in the bomb plot." Three Indians originating from Bangalore have thus far been arrested in the plot: Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, his brother engineer Kafeel Ahmed, and Dr. Mohammed Haneef.
India: Jihadi CDs seized from Kafeel's home. The Times of India reports that "[d]ocuments and CDs containing jihadi propaganda material have been seized from the Bangalore home of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, suspects in the failed British terror plot, city police sources said on Sunday. Police were also mum on reports that they were specifically looking for 12 people who could have formed a 'cell' along with Kafeel, a mechanical engineer, and Sabeel, a medical doctor."
UK: Kafeel Ahmed had left a suicide note at his Glasgow house. The Times of India reports: "A suicide note was found at the house near Glasgow where Ahmed had been staying since April," a security source was quoted as saying.
India: Car-Bomb Research Done in Bangalore. The Hindu reports that online activity of Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed shows that he did research on car bombs in Bangalore, before returning to the United Kingdom.
Australia Ongoing Investigation, and Scrutiny of Overseas Bank Transactions. Australian news reports that "five doctors in Australia quizzed by federal police late last week over the UK bombing attempts have been released on the grounds they will be available for further questioning" and that Dr. Mohammed Haneef was still being detained. The Australia Courier-Mail reports that investigators are tracking overseas and local transactions from the bank accounts of Indian-born doctor Mohammad Haneef, and that "[e]ach overseas transaction is believed to be below $10,000 which would avoid any scrutiny from AUSTRAC – a Federal Government regulator of transactions of $10,000 or more."
Australia: Remote Car-Bomb Plot Report. The Australian Sunday Mail also reports that "suspects linked to the foiled car bomb attacks in London allegedly planned to blow up the devices using mobile phones in Australia" and that British police said "They intended to blow it up by remote control - by calling mobile phones in the car". In a different report in Australian news, the Australian Attorney-General "played down a report today suggesting that there was a plan for bombs in Britain to be activated by phone from Australia, stating that '[i]t probably misstates what is in the public arena'."
Shiraz Maher: Met Bomber Bilal Abdulla Through Cambridge Hizb ut-Tahrir. London Times reports that Shiraz Maher states that he met bomb Dr. Bilal Abdulla through Cambridge recruiting for Hizb ut-Tahrir. "Mostly we met in the cultural centre, the Shiraz Academy on Gilbert Road. One of those rooms was rented by the Hizb guy and this became the main focal point of where we would socialise, meet and discuss things." Shiraz further states "[a]nd so it was through my involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and its ideology of extremist political Islam that I came to befriend Bilal, the alleged would-be bomber. Without movements such as Hizb ut-Tahrir creating the moral imperatives to justify terror, people like Bilal wouldn’t have the support of an ideological infrastructure cheering them on."
Cambridge Islamic charity linked to car bomb suspect. The Daily Telegraph reports that Cambridge charity, the Islamic Academy, has been linked to the car bomb suspects. When living in Cambridge, Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed "rented a room above the academy's offices and prayer chamber", and in the room next door was the Cambridge organizer for Hizb ut-Tahrir. Kafeel Ahmed's brother Dr. Safeel Ahmed and Dr. Bilal Abdullah were frequent visitors. Former radical Shiraz Maher witnessed this and stated "The HT (Hizb ut-Tahrir) guys and Bilal controlled, steered and directed the conversation...Kafeel listened more than he talked. He became more religious as he progressed." Daily Telegraph also reports that the leaders of the Islamic Academy have been viewed as "moderate". Daily Telegraph also reports that "Sejad Mekic, the imam at the Cambridge mosque which Abdullah also attended, gave a sermon on Friday condemning all acts of terror. However, he later said he had doubts that the incident at Glasgow airport was a terrorist attack, saying it could have been a car accident." When asked about the containers of gasoline found in the car, Imam Mekic stated that maybe the men were gasoline salesmen.
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MI5 Agents To Spot Student Terrorists in Scotland. The Daily Express reports that "foreign students in Scotland will be spied on to ensure campuses do not become secret havens for potential terrorists... and [o]verseas applicants, particularly those enrolling for 'high risk' courses such as engineering or chemistry, will be kept under surveillance." Daily Express reports that one of the Jihadists in the Bali Bombing, Azahari Husin, had forged friendships while at Reading University. Moreover, "David Capitanchik, a terrorism expert at Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, said some groups have been active on British campuses since 9/11." In addition, the Daily Express states that a "study in 2005 warned that campuses in Scotland had already become a recruiting ground for Islamic fundamentalists."
Call for Information, Cooperation on Terror Suspects. Sky News reports that UK PM Gordon Brown is calling for "greater international sharing of information about possible terrorist suspects", especially across Europe. UK Security Minister West also "said preventing people being recruited to extremism was central to defeating terrorism and called for the public to inform on suspects".
UK Terror Suspect Monitoring Failing Due To Electronic Tag Failures. Daily Mail reports on the failure and unreliability of electronic tag devices used to monitor Islamist terror suspects who are under "house arrest" and control orders.
Convicted Terrorist Working as UK Traffic Warden. Daily Mail reports on a convicted Jihadist terrorist, Mustapha Boutarfa, who now has a job working as a UK traffic warden. Jihadist Mustapha Boutarfa was "jailed for his involvement in a bomb attack on the Paris Metro - which killed eight people and wounded 80". Daily Mail states "It was unclear why Boutarfa was allowed back into Britain. It is understood he lied about his criminal conviction when he applied for his job as a traffic warden."
Not In Their Name? BBC reports that the Muslim Council of Britain has advised UK Muslims that it is their "Islamic duty to co-operate with the police to ensure the safety of British citizens - Muslims and non-Muslims." Daily Telegraph questions the relative change of heart by the Muslim Council of Britain saying that "in the past, the MCB has seemed to be somewhat lukewarm about encouraging British Muslims to go to the police or security services with any suspicions they might have about friends or acquaintances who they think might be involved in terrorism. It is, after all, only nine months since Mr Bari issued a scarcely veiled threat to the authorities: he said that if the Government and 'some police officers and sections of the media' continued to 'demonise Muslims… Britain will have to deal with two million Muslim terrorists, 700,000 of them in London'."
The London Times reports that " 'We acknowledge that there is radicalisation taking place in our community,' said Daud Abdullah, deputy leader of the Muslim Council of Britain." Daily Telegraph also reports comments by former extremist Ed Husain that "None of the leading members of the MCB have condemned the hard-line anti-Western ideology of figures such as Syed Qutb", and that the Muslim Council of Britain does not denounce the terrorist group Hamas. Daily Telegraph also provides a graphic which summarizes statistical information on Muslims in the UK, as well as surveyed support among some British Muslims for suicide bombing, terrorism, and Sharia law.
Negative Reactions in Calls for British Muslim Protest Against Jihadism. The London Times reports on some negative response among British Muslims on calls for Islamic protest against Jihadist terrorism. "On the ummah.com forum a lively debate flourished. One participant, junaid368, asked: 'Shouldn't the Muslim community of UK protest [against] the recent terror attacks?' One response advised: 'Don't forget, if they [the alleged bombers] are Muslim, they are your brothers. Don't ever give the impression the kufr [nonMuslims] are more valuable.' And a user called AbuMubarak posted: 'Instead of kissing kufr butt, why don’t we go forth and tell them that they must worship Allah and fear the fire?' Another poster, Saadet, wrote: 'No Muslim should make any official condemnation of this incident . . .' " Per London Times: "But not all comments were negative. A contributor called Kal-El wrote: 'It's time to show the world that we are not barbaric people who lust for blood. I am sick and tired of my faith being tarnished in this way and . . . being labelled a terrorist simply because I am a Muslim.' "
Failure of UK Policies in Preventing Jihadism? London Times reported that "[t]wo years on from the 7/7 attacks, government strategy for tackling Islamic extremism is in turmoil". London Times has documented policy failures: "proposal to shut mosques “fomenting extremism” was immediately shelved after protests from Muslim leaders and the police; no progress has been made on plans to speed up the extradition of terror suspects wanted in other countries; and nobody has been convicted under a new offence of glorifying terrorism (though one person has been charged). Plans to boot out radical preachers have been hampered by the government’s failure to secure agreements with other countries not to torture deportees. Only four agreements have been signed and one person deported. A proposal to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group with which at least two of the alleged car bomb plotters came into contact, was dropped. The use of "control orders" to keep terror suspects under close scrutiny is descending into farce. Out of 18 suspects placed on these orders -- a form of house arrest -- seven have absconded."
Meantime, as London Times reports, "Quite apart from the car bombs, recent court cases have revealed other, home-grown terrorists are still intent on plotting death and destruction. A poll last month by Channel 4 News revealed that almost a quarter of Britain’s 2m Muslims still do not believe that the 7/7 attacks were carried out by the four named suicide bombers -- even though two of them left video-taped testimonies. More than half of those polled also felt the security services had made up evidence to convict terror suspects. A survey in July 2006 found that 13% of Muslims in Britain viewed the 7/7 bombers as heroic and 16% said that while the attacks were wrong, their cause was right."
London Times also reports: "Gordon Brown has dropped the use of the phrase “war on terror”, and Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, was careful not to single out Muslims or Islam when briefing MPs about the car bombing attempts."
Sources:
Daily Telegraph: Warning of 15-year fight against terror
BBC: Terror fight 'may take 15 years'
The Daily Star: New bomb warnings
Daily Telegraph: Nuclear alert by ex-head of MI5
The New York Times: British Identify Two "Principal" Suspects
Observer: Terror suspect's jet bomb plot link
London Times: Car bombs are linked with Iraq's Al-Qaeda
The Australian: Modern militant 'recruits himself'
London Times: Biting back at terror suspects - How far did the alleged plot to bomb London stretch? A special report on a case that spans the globe from the UK to Iraq, India and Australia
The Australian: Graphic of International Plot Ties
Australian Sunday Mail: Indian police hunt for 12 UK bomb suspects
Times of India: Jihadi CDs seized from Kafeel's home
Times of India: 'Kafeel had left a suicide note at his house'
The Hindu: Was car-bomb designed in Bangalore?
Australia News: Doctors freed after terror questioning
Australia Courier-Mail: Focus on bomb plot transfers
Australian Sunday Mail: Car bomb 'to be detonated from Australia'
Daily Telegraph: Islamic charity linked to car bomb suspect
London Times: How I befriended a Glasgow bomb suspect and Islamic radical
Daily Express: MI5 Agents To Spot Student Terrorists
Sky News: PM Gordon Brown - 'Urgent' Need To Share Terror Information
Sky News: Call To Snitch On Terror Suspects
Daily Express: Tag fiasco: Failures in monitoring terror suspects
Daily Express: NHS doctors accused of bomb plots, Al Qaeda fanatics working for the police, and now the Terrorist traffic warden
BBC: 'Islamic duty' to help UK police
Daily Telegraph: Not in their name?
Related graphic
London Times: The battle for hearts and minds - Two years on from the 7/7 attacks, government strategy for tackling Islamic extremism is in turmoil
Metro: Anti-terror message 'failing'
« Close It
Switzerland, next target?
By Olivier Guitta
I just wrote an article for The Weekly Standard on Switzerland and Radical Islam. To read it in full, please click here.
Here is an excerpt:
As jihadist plots continue to be uncovered from Glasgow to New Jersey, it is plain that no place can be considered entirely safe. That includes placid, would-be neutral Switzerland, where a series of incidents and controversies in recent months points to a small but untiring Saudi-sponsored Islamist presence--and to a growing determination to resist its excesses on the part of some Swiss citizens and the Swiss authorities.
Switzerland has more than 300,000 Muslims--some 4.3 percent of the population--few of whom are of Arab descent. Most came as migrants or refugees from the former Yugoslavia (57 percent) or Turkey (20 percent). Yet the small minority who are Arabs (5 percent) have made their mark.
The influential Geneva Islamic Center was founded as long ago as 1961, with roots in the international Islamist movement. Its leader, Said Ramadan, had been expelled from Nasser's Egypt for ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by his father-in-law, Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan also helped create the World Muslim League, funded by the Saudi establishment for the purpose of spreading Wahhabism around the world. Today, Ramadan's sons Tariq, intellectual superstar of European Islamism, and Hani, head of the Geneva Islamic Center, continue to serve the cause.
But the Islamic Center is not the only Islamist institution in the Swiss capital. There is also the Grand Mosque of Geneva, which has undergone sweeping leadership changes in recent months. It has a new director, fresh from Jeddah, who suddenly fired four executives at the end of March. The Swiss daily Le Temps reported that the firings were initiated by the Saudi consul general in Geneva. The fired executives have sued, claiming they lost their jobs for being too moderate.
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 7
By Jeffrey Imm
July 7 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
-- London Remembers July 7, 2005 Bomb Attacks. Sky News reports: "The second anniversary of the July 7 London bombings will be marked today by survivors and victims' relatives. Four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters and injured hundreds more in 2005. Hundreds were expected to gather at Kings Cross station shortly before 9am, when the first bomb exploded." DPA reports an analysis that states "Britain remains top terror target two years after July 7 attacks".
-- Dr. Bilal Abdulla Appears in Court. Per CNN, Dr. Bilal Abdulla appeared in court Saturday on charges linked to the failed car bomb plots in London and Glasgow. His next court appearance was set for July 27. His lawyers did not ask for bail. The charge against Dr. Abdulla specifies that the conspiracy began around the first of January 2007 and concluded at the start of this month, accused Abdulla of conspiring "with others to cause explosions of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom."
-- Daily Mail Report: MI5 says Jihadists working for police. The Daily Mail and the Evening Standard report that UK's MI5 has drawn up a dossier on alleged Islamist extremists working for the police: "Up to eight police officers and civilian staff are suspected of links to extremist groups including Al Qaeda. Some are even believed to have attended terror training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Their names feature on a secret list of alleged radicals said to be working in the Metropolitan and other forces." The papers go on to state that the alleged MI5 dossier was drawn up "amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism are taking advantage of police attempts to increase the proportion of ethnic staff", but that UK police cannot dismiss them as information is based on classified intelligence. The papers also state "one suspected jihadist officer working in the South East has been allowed to keep his job despite being caught circulating Internet images of beheadings and roadside bombings in Iraq. He is said to have argued that he was trying to 'enhance' debate about the war." Sky News is also now reporting this story.
In addition, the Daily Mail article references past news on attempted infiltration of UK public services organizations: "It is widely feared that 'long-term' Al Qaeda sleepers are trying to infiltrate other public sector organisations in the UK. In November last year, it was revealed that a leading member of an extremist Islamic group was working as a senior official at the Home Office. MI5 has warned in the past that suspects with "strong links" to Osama Bin Laden's killers have tried to join the British security services and, in January, exiled radical Omar Bakri claimed that Islamic extremists were infiltrating the police and other public sector organisations."
-- Indian police: E-mails, internet chats of terror suspects probed. The Times of India reports that the "police team probing the Bangalore link of the UK terror plot has begun scrutinising the e-mails, internet chats and other communication modes of three suspects- Sabeel, Kafeel and Mohammed Haneef."
-- Australia: Dr. Haneef talked of car bombs; Iran involvement?. Daily Mail reports that Indian doctor Dr. Mohammed Haneef held "discussion on car bombings with other suspects. Investigators in Australia disclosed that the conversation was monitored during anti-terror operations and passed on to the Security Services." In the same report, the Daily Mail states that " 'significant' links between the bomb plot, the terror cell and Iran are being investigated after intelligence was uncovered indicating a 'Tehran involvement'."
-- Australia: Dr. Haneef questioning continues, five other Indian doctors released. Times of India reports today that Dr. Haneef is still in custody and being questioned, and it separately reports that five other Indian doctors in Australia have been released. The Australian has a different story titled "Six doctors questioned as terror net widens".
-- Australia: Hizb-ut-Tahrir faces ban. The Australian reports today that "Attorney-General Philip Ruddock will ask security agencies to reinvestigate the radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir after revelations that the British men arrested over the foiled car bomb plot were closely linked to members of the group in London." Hizb-ut-Tahrir is legal in UK and Australia.
-- UK Counterterror Analysts Surprised by Doctor Jihadists. Both the Daily Telegraph and the London Times are running articles about the suprise to British counterterrorism analysts that Jihadists are not uneducated and poor. The Daily Telegraph has an article "The textbook terrorists" and the London Times has an article "The unexpected profile of the modern terrorist: 26, from a caring family, married, with children, graduate". Daily Telegraph reports: "'The one overwhelming thing was that [these attacks] defied all of our assumptions,' Peter Neumann, the director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College, London. But the backgrounds of the alleged terrorists come as no surprise to Ed Husain, a former member of the extremist Hizb ut-Tahir organisation." Husain tells the Daily Telegraph: "Al-Qa'eda is filled with people who are graduates from medical and engineering colleges. They regard scripture like a textbook, manual or medical handbook. In their minds, there is no room for any humanity based nuance or even alternative arguments. They have the arrogance of their advanced education, consider themselves to be above the rest, and to be absolutely right."
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Cal Thomas v. CAIR et al
By Douglas Farah
An interesting brouhaha developed over the July 4 holiday when Cal Thomas chose to speak out on WTOP on CAIR and the other Muslim Brotherhood groups operating in the United States. CAIR cried foul, as it is wont to do, and demanded listener reactions.
A source at WTOP reports that they have moved beyond the brief tempest after determining that email generated in response to CAIR's caviling demands for an attack campaign ran 10-to-1 in favor of Cal Thomas. Perhaps CAIR underestimated Americans' commitment to free speech, or they overestimated the willingness of listeners to pay much attention to a group now formally named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in yet another Federal terrorism trial and a U.S. body of the Muslim Brotherhood. Or both.
In any event, NY Times columnist Tom Friedman and 3-time Pulitzer winner, writing on July 4th, made some of the same points and used the same "cancer" metaphor.
1) As CAIR is the initiator of the complaint against Cal Thomas, it deserves first mention.
CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current ongoing Federal terrorism trial (“United States v. Holy Land Foundation”). CAIR has had several of its founders, directors, officials and staff indicted, arrested, convicted or listed as unindicted co-conspirators in a number of terror trials over the past decade-plus. CAIR's paid staff, nationwide numbers in the dozens, (they claim 70 on their website) consequently, the number of its persons in the federal criminal system, even before the present trial, is remarkable, both as a percentage and as an absolute figure. It has attacked these cases and defended the charged, and subsequently convicted, terrorists as victims of “Islamophobia” “Jewish” judges, and the failed U.S. justice system (beginning with the World Trade Center 1993 bombing leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, aka “the Blind Sheikh”).
Moreover, CAIR is designated by the U.S. Department of Justice in its indictment as a U.S. member of the Muslim Brotherhood. (See my previous post here.
The Brotherhood is the founding leader of modern Islamist extremism and the precursor group for today’s violent Islamist groups, notably Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc.The Brotherhood, or Ikhwan, has as its ultimate goal the establishment of a global caliphate, starting with the formerly claimed Muslim lands stretching from Spain to Indonesia, and thence beyond. My full blog is here.
Understanding & Disrupting Terrorist Financing: Types of Terrorist Groups
By Dennis Lormel
This is the second in a series of five articles. In order to disrupt terrorist financing, there must be a more comprehensive understanding of the multi-dimensional elements involved in the funding process. The previous article provided an overview of four components that must be included in training in order to establish a framework for understanding the complexity of terrorist financing. Through knowledge, we increase our opportunities to develop successful disruptive mechanisms. The four components include:
1. Types of terrorist groups
2. Funding capacity
3. Mechanisms for fundraising and operations
4. Individuals and cells
This article focuses on types of terrorist groups. The first step in understanding terrorist financing is to differentiate the myriad of terrorist groups. In developing an understanding, you must learn about terrorist groups, the nature of their threat, the scope of their operational reach and their financial infrastructure. Terrorist groups possess certain similarities. However, they differ in many respects due to demographic and logistical considerations, to include how and where they operate, raise funds, launder funds and disburse funds. Although the need for funds and the operational goals and funding demands for major terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas may be similar, the sources of funds, actual operations and application of funds are vastly different. It is critically important to draw the distinctions in operations and funding requirements between various groups in order to develop and implement group specific strategies that disrupt and diminish their ability to raise, launder and disburse funds. The successful disruption and diminishment of funding flows adversely impacts terrorist operations, thereby reducing their ability to attack.
Based on an assessment issued by the FBI on January 11, 2007, in conjunction with Director Robert Mueller’s testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the following groups were identified as threats to the United States (U.S):
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Al-Qaeda
Since 9/11, Al-Qaeda has gone from operating as a terrorist group, with an organizational structure, to evolving into an ideology aligned with regional terrorist groups, back to a group being reconstituted as an organization. In essence, Al-Qaeda the group versus Al-Qaeda the ideology presents overlapping challenges and a sense of confusion. Regardless of the form, as a group or an ideology, Al-Qaeda has been a constant threat to U.S. security. It still seeks to infiltrate operatives into the U.S. to conduct catastrophic attacks. The genesis of Al-Qaeda has caused changes in the manner it raises and uses funds. In the period around 9/11, Al-Qaeda relied on wealthy donors and charities for much of its funding. As the organization became disrupted and less identifiable due to U.S. government action, pressure was brought to bear on wealthy Middle Eastern donors and charities, especially in Saudi Arabia. This led to greater reliance on criminal activities to raise funds. As Al-Qaeda becomes more visible as an organization again, it is likely that new funding sources and donors will emerge. On the other side of the ledger, Al-Qaeda’s funding needs went from being extremely large as an organization to less demanding as an ideology. The reemergence of an organization will require an increase of organizational funding requirements. Operational activities continually require funding sources. If funds are not available through the group, the operators will have to generate funding through their own devices to include criminal activity.
Regional Terrorist Groups aligned with Al-Qaeda
Since 9/11, regional groups have emerged as a significant threat. They are more autonomous and in many instances have adopted Osama Bin Laden’s ideology. Groups to include Jemaah Islamiah, Ansar Al-Islam, Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), and Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) are examples of highly dangerous and visible regional groups aligned with Al-Qaeda. In the pre 9/11 environment and shortly thereafter, these groups received funding from Al-Qaeda. When Al-Qaeda’s organizational presence diminished, so did its funding support. These groups rely on their own fundraising mechanisms, to include criminal activity. Certain of these groups may receive some state sponsored funding. It will be interesting to monitor Al-Qaeda’s reemergence to determine if they again provide funding to regional groups.
Homegrown Cells
The homegrown threat is posed by self-radicalized groups and individuals already living in the U.S. who are inspired but not led by Al-Qaeda. These groups pose vastly different threats and capabilities in comparison to Al-Qaeda. For the most part, they have proven to be unsophisticated and operate on a small scale. Many of these individuals have funded themselves through legitimate jobs. Because of the small scale of their operations, they have not required significant funding. In other countries, in addition to legitimate jobs, homegrown terrorists have funded themselves through government entitlement programs.
Shia Extremists
The most notable Shia terrorist group is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is centered in Lebanon. A great deal of its funding comes from state sponsors Iran and Syria. In addition, Hezbollah has established a worldwide infrastructure that raises significant amounts of funding through organized criminal activity and questionable business practices. In fact, in many respects, Hezbollah operates like a traditional organized crime family in terms of its criminal activity. Almost all terrorist groups operate based on ideology. Hezbollah operates with a sense of ideology but also with a sense of greed, like an organized crime family. Most other terrorist organizations do not operate with a sense of greed. Hezbollah also requires considerably more money because of its position in Lebanon and its outreach and marketing as a benefactor to the Lebanese people. In addition to state sponsors and criminal activity, Hezbollah has raised significant funds through donations from the global Lebanese expatriate community. Although the U.S. has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization, many countries have not, making it easier for Hezbollah to raise funds in those venues.
Palestinian Terrorist Groups
Palestinian terrorist groups include Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Their activities have emanated from the Palestinian territories and have focused their attention on Israel. Hamas is the most recognizable Palestinian terrorist group, especially since gaining political leadership in Palestine. The U.S. recognizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. As is the situation with Hezbollah, many countries do not, which makes fundraising in those territories viable. The fighting between Hamas and Fatah for power has consumed the Palestinians and has split the territory with Hamas controlling Gaza and Fatah the West Bank. Hamas relies on charities, donations, friendly Arab States and state sponsors for funding. Hamas has been particularly skillful in using charities for fundraising and logistical support for their terrorist activities. The U.S. and Israel have led an international sanctioning effort against Hamas which has successfully limited, restricted or denied funding sources through banking channels. This has adversely impacted Hamas’ operating capability. Hamas has had to rely on informal financial channels such as bulk cash shipments and couriers to receive funding.
Domestic Terrorist Groups
Domestic terrorist groups are those groups operating strictly within the U.S. They encompass a broad spectrum of groups motivated by a number of political and social issues. These groups include white supremists, militia/sovereign citizen movements, black separatists, animal rights activists and environmental extremists. Funding sources for these groups usually originate with group members, sympathizers or group generated revenue. Groups generate revenue from front companies, either legitimately or illegitimately. In the case of the National Alliance, they raised funds through the sale of books and publications. Certain of these groups also generate funds through the sale of false identification documents.
Terrorist financing is extremely challenging to identify and deal with. Understanding that varying organizations have unique operational considerations, requiring different financial infrastructures, sets the foundation for understanding and developing methodologies to counter these infrastructures and disrupt the flow of funds. « Close It
Storms in Pakistan
By Aaron Mannes
Although Pakistani officials are denying it, apparently shots were fired at Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s plane from the roof of a house in Rawalpindi. Rawalpindi is the headquarters for Pakistan’s army!
At the core of the frequently disturbing news from Pakistan is the reality that the government’s writ does not seem to extend over substantial parts of the country. Pakistan’s tribal areas (which in fairness have been resisting far-off governments for centuries) were problematic enough. But the Red Mosque siege indicates that the government does not even control its own capital city. That a large campus – with over a thousand residents – is incubating radical Islamists minutes from the Supreme Court is nerve-wracking (particularly in light of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.)
This has led the United States and other nations to view Musharraf as the indispensable man, holding back the tide of radical Islam in Pakistan. Whatever Musharraf’s virtues or faults, it is essential that policy look beyond him. Pakistan was founded as a secular state for India’s Muslims. Islamist parties have received only small percentages of votes in national elections. Only a decade ago a secular, civilian (albeit corrupt) political party governed Pakistan. The rise of radical Islam has, in great part been fueled by the economic and social stagnation of military rule. Parts of the military have also supported radical Islamist groups, both to counter civilian political parties and as proxies in fighting India in Kashmir and extending Pakistani influence in Afghanistan.
There are important parallels with Egypt, where the primary source of the current regime’s legitimacy is that Mubarak is not an Islamist. Pakistan’s military government appears to be headed down that path, but the Pakistani Islamists are not as well organized or powerful as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood – and there is a powerful secular civilian alternative. To effectively stem the rise of radical Islam it is essential that the United States and the world help Pakistan develop civilian institutions and return to civilian rule - not to place our faith in the fate of a single leader.
As it happens, Musharraf was flying to Turbat, Baluchistan to see the damage done by recent floods. National Review Online ran my article (also see below) urging the U.S. to provide aid in the wake of this flooding, first for humanitarian reasons, but also as an opportunity to better engage with the Pakistani government.
July 6, 2007
Pakistan Needs U
And We Need Pakistan
Aaron Mannes
Hopefully the United States is preparing a massive relief package for Pakistan’s coastal regions, which have been hard hit by flooding caused by a cyclone and heavy monsoon rains since June 23. In addition to the humanitarian importance of this mission, aiding Pakistan’s response to the flooding could have some positive implications for the U.S.-Pakistani relationship.
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While possibly not as horrendous as the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, there have been over 200 deaths so far and at least two million are homeless. Karachi, Pakistan’s leading port, and a sprawling megalopolis with over 10 million inhabitants (some population estimates double this figure) that suffers from power outages and poor municipal services at the best of times, was battered. Particularly hard hit were the coastal regions of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, where the floods have isolated communities, cutting transport and communications links. Outbreaks of cholera and other diseases also loom.
The Pakistani provincial and federal governments have been slow to respond. In shades of our own Katrina disaster, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been roundly criticized for its failures. At one point, the NDMA chairman claimed that there had been 14 deaths when the media had already confirmed nearly 100. There have been large-scale protests throughout flood-hit parts of Baluchistan.
At the moment the Pakistani government is distracted. There is a standoff in Pakistan’s capital between government forces and the radical Islamist “Red Mosque.” The nation has also been rocked with massive protests in the wake of President Musharraf’s ham-handed firing of the chief justice.
A timely and large-scale relief package is much needed. Aiding people suffering from natural disasters is always the right thing to do. Also, it is good public diplomacy. The Pakistani image of the United States changed when the U.S. led the way in delivering assistance to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquakes. Models of U.S. Army Chinook helicopters became the favorite toy for Kashmiri children.
U.S. aid to Pakistan’s coastal regions would also serve a range of positive strategic purposes. The aid would be an opportunity for U.S. and Pakistani military forces to work together in a peaceful role. The Pakistani military is effective, but heavily focused on a conventional war with India. The U.S. has been assisting the Pakistani military in its transformation into a more nimble force that can perform a range of missions. Collaborating on flood relief would be a learning experience for both militaries.
One of the Pakistani government’s major concerns is that eventually the United States will abandon it, leaving Pakistan encircled by India. A major rescue operation might help reassure Pakistan that the U.S.-Pakistan relationship is for the long-term. If the Pakistani government were more confident in strength of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship it might also be more flexible in undertaking political reforms that move the country back to democratic civilian rule.
The region hardest hit by the flooding is Baluchistan, the largest in area, but poorest province of Pakistan. Sitting on mineral wealth, including natural gas, and with a seacoast that is just beyond the Straits of Hormuz and the terminus for the shortest land route to Central Asia, Baluchistan has become central for Pakistan’s future development. Baluchi frustration with the Pakistani government has sparked uprisings in the past. The current round of violence between the Baluchi tribes and the government is fueled by the failure of the investments in the province to bring benefits to the inhabitants. Past Pakistani governments responded to Baluchi uprisings with negotiations, but currently the Pakistani military is responding with a large-scale offensive. Last year, the Pakistani military assassinated a prominent tribal leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The government’s failure to deliver disaster relief is seen as simply another example of the Pakistani government’s attitude towards the region.
A strong aid program might help defuse some of these tensions and allow the government and the Baluchis to resolve their disputes. With Baluchistan bordering southern Afghanistan (Taliban leader Mullah Omar is rumored to be in the vicinity of the provincial capital Quetta) the Pakistani military does not need this distraction from the main battle against the radical Islamists. Additionally, China has built a deep-water port at Gwadar on the Baluchi coastline. It would only be prudent for the United States to also be engaged in this strategic region. Finally, if assistance from other sources is not forthcoming, the void will be filled by Pakistan’s powerful Islamist organizations. The Baluchis have not traditionally been extremist in their religious beliefs, but if no one else shows concern for their plight that could change.
Delivering aid to the suffering people in Pakistan’s coastal regions is an opportunity to provide much needed humanitarian relief while improving relations with a nation crucial in the fight against radical Islam.
Aaron Mannes is a researcher in international security affairs and Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland. « Close It
Gordon Brown’s Critical Test: Will He Ban HT?
By Zeyno Baran
Following the attacks on 7/7/05, Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined a 12-point plan to combat terrorism that, among other things, called for the proscription of HT. Almost two years have passed and Hizb ut-Tahrir is still very much active. On his fifth day in office, and only a few days after the London and Glasgow bomb plots, new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked by Tory leader David Cameron why the extremist Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir has not yet been banned. Brown responded that “we can ban it under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005” but that it would require greater evidence, arguing that it will take more “than just one or two quotes.”
Of course, it is a lot more than “a few quotes” that leads people like Shiraz Maher or Ed Husain, both former HT members, to urge that HT be banned. So far the main opposition to banning HT has come from the Home Office, which argues that banning them would push them “underground”. Anyone who knows how Islamist groups like HT work knows that the real work they do has always been underground anyway; what they do openly is just the tip of the iceberg. Yet failing to proscribe HT gives them undue legitimacy, and has certainly not helped de-radicalize young Muslims.
Shouldn’t we learn from repeated “surprises” expressed by law enforcement agencies at every new terrorist plot, and how they “did not see it coming”? Clearly, their “engagement” with Islamists like HT and the Muslim Brotherhood has not been helpful in preventing new attacks. So far, it has been the terrorists’ own mistakes that saved Britain from even greater destruction.
UK Plot: Stop at the "extremist"
By Zeyno Baran
After each terrorist incident, the family and close friends of the accused say something like “he was such a nice person” and express strong doubt that he/she really could have been involved in such a horrible act. When will we learn that “being nice” is not mutually exclusive with being ideologically committed to bringing about an Islamic world order in the way the Islamists consider would be best for “social justice”? Or that these nice people would commit violent acts to achieve this goal?
Take the most recent case of Bilal Abdulla, the British-born doctor who rammed his Jeep into the Glasgow airport last weekend. According to Hicham Kwieder, an acquaintance of Abdulla during his time in Cambridge, the good doctor was “a genuine man, he looked fine and was often smiling.”
But then we have this quote: “His mother was apparently afraid to remove her headscarf in his presence. And one classmate recalls an incident when he tried to destroy a crucifix dropped by a Christian student in a classroom.” Shiraz Maher, one of the former HT members, wrote about his memories of Dr. Bilal Abdulla from his time as student at Cambridge. He remembers Bilal as believing in “Wahhabi ideology” and that “He didn't see himself as being radical: he saw himself as following Islam.” Indeed, according to Shiraz, it was this Wahhabi stand of Islam that got Bilal angry with his housemate who “use to sing and play guitar—a complete no-no for the Wahhabis…so, what does Bilal do? "Bilal called him a 'waster' and boasted to me that a few days earlier he had brought the guy into his bedroom. He sat him down and told him he needed to pray. He told him: 'If you ever play again I'm going to smash the guitar.' He then put on a video of al-Zarqawi beheading one of the hostages in Iraq. 'If you think I'm messing about, this is what we do. This is what our people do - we slaughter.' Bilal laughed when he recounted the story."
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Shiraz further recounts, "Bilal talked about the validity of jihad, about expelling American and British troops. He described jihad as the highest pinnacle of Islam. He worked to the same endgame that we were all working to. There was no difference between us at the time. He would laugh when we talked about a particular bomb attack in Iraq. We all rejoiced then. And yet even I didn't think that he would take action himself.
Like myself, Bilal didn't have any non-Muslim friends and the circle of Muslims he chose to socialise with was small and selective. But he certainly trusted and respected us. I think this was solely because he recognised that we shared the same ultimate vision as him for Iraq and the wider Muslim world. In that sense our views were virtually identical. We only differed over our choice of method."
And I completely agree with Shiraz and all those other Muslims who either escaped the Islamist trap or have been lucky not to have ever fallen into it that: "….I believe it's wrong to distinguish between 'extremism' and 'violent extremism' as the government has been doing in recent months. The two are inextricably intertwined. Without movements such as Hizb creating the moral imperatives to justify terror, people like Bilal wouldn't have the support of an ideological infrastructure cheering them on. And, I believe, it's a fallacy to suggest that the culpability of agitators and cheerleaders is any less than for those who actually carry out acts of terror." « Close It
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 6
By Jeffrey Imm
July 6 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
First Car Bomb Terror Plot Charge. Daily Telegraph reports that prosecutors have given the approval to police for Dr. Bilal Abdulla to be the first Jihadist car bomb suspect to be charged over Glasgow and London attacks. "Crown Prosecution Service said it was advising Scotland Yard to charge Bilal Abdulla with conspiring to cause explosions."
British Prime Minister Says Investigators Figuring Out Terrorist Cell. RFERL and other media have reported that "British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says investigators have "got to the bottom of the cell" responsible for last week's attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow. Brown said the incidents were 'designed to cause maximum carnage.'"
London Times: Bombing plots "were carried out with bin Laden's blessing". The London Times is exclusively reporting that "The London and Glasgow bomb plots were carried out with the approval of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, a top foreign intelligence source said last night. 'It was an established fact from Day 1 that al-Qaeda was behind this and it was planned by its followers in Great Britain with bin Laden's blessing,' the source told The Times. British security officials were more guarded, saying that it was too early to say whether the plot was masterminded by some foreign hand or hatched in Britain."
UK Bombs plot investigators look at role of al-Qaida cells in Iraq. London Guardian states that "MI5 and MI6 were yesterday investigating the role of al-Qaida cells in Iraq as they began to build up a picture of the foreign contacts of those involved in the plot to bomb London and Glasgow."
UK: "Sleeper Agent" Omar Altimimi sentenced to 9 years in prison. As Sky News reports: "Failed asylum seeker Omar Altimimi has been sentenced to nine years in jail after being discovered with a collection of terror manuals." London Times reports that Altimimi had instructions on "how car bombs can be detonated at the entrances to buildings via remote control" and that he "hoarded car bomb manuals". The London Times also reports that, in addition to instructions on various types of suicide bombing techniques, that Altimimi had "poisonous cyanide gas using tablet capsules which would kill humans within minutes, a shopping list of common substances for use in home-made bombs and a “chilling” reference to the use of radioactive radium in explosives." Prosecutors believe that Altimimi was linked to the Dhiren Barot British Jihadist group through connections with convicted terrorist Junade Ferouze. Reuters also reports that Manchester police called Altimimi a sleeper agent, and was likely planning to attack nightclubs and airports.
UK Bombers Connection in Cambridge and Links to Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The Australia reports today that four of the UK car bomb suspects spent time working or studying, "where some of them socialised and prayed with members of the radical group Hizb ut-Tahir." Dr. Bilal Abdulla, Dr. Mohammed Asha, 26, and his wife, Dana (Marwah) "worked together at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in 2005." Dr. Kafeel Ahmed "studied as an engineer at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge at that time and is believed to have made the group's bombs. Dr Ahmed previously had been named as a doctor whose first name was Khalid. His brother Sabeel Ahmed, who was arrested in Liverpool, visited him in Cambridge and met his friends. Hizb ut-Tahir member Shiraz Maher told the BBC's Newsnight program the men seized in Glasgow shared the group's beliefs and associated with followers in Cambridge." BBC program "Politics of Terror" first reported that the Cambridge cell of Hizb-ut-Tahrir tried to recruit Dr. Bilal Abdulla.
U.K. terror suspects made U.S. inquiry. AP reports that the "FBI confirmed Friday that two suspects in the failed car bombings in Britain had contacted a clearinghouse for foreign doctors about working in the United States". AP reports "Mohammed Asha and another suspect had contacted the Philadelphia-based Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, but apparently did not take the test for foreign medical school graduates". Mohammed Asha was arrested on the M6 highway Saturday night along with his wife. Philadelphia Inquirer also has news report on this subject.
Australia Five ex-NHS doctors quizzed over UK bombs. Daily Telegraph reporter in Australia reports that police are questioning four doctors in western Australia and 1 doctor in Sydney, as well as confiscating computer equipment. Per the Telegraph: "All five had previously worked in the NHS in Britain and had come into contact with Mohamed Haneef" - who was the Australian doctor who attempted to leave the country. Also per the Telegraph: "Police in Western Australia seized evidence, including computers and telephones, from two hospitals, one in the state capital, Perth, the other in the Outback gold mining town of Kalgoorlie." BBC provides a timeline on the Australian investigative activities.
Australian Dr. Haneef still being questioned. London Times reports that "[y]esterday a judge in Queensland granted Australian police and a senior British counter-terrorism officer an extra 96 hours to question Dr Haneef. Police are examining more than 30,000 files on Dr Haneef’s laptop computer and a Sim card mobile phone device he left with one of the British bomb suspects.".
Indian police question doctors' families. DPA reports that the "Crime Branch of the Bangalore police launched a full investigation into the terrorist plot, and on Thursday night questioned the family of Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed, both brothers, who are among the eight suspects in the case".
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Operation Lal Deen: Rising at Pakistan’s Red Mosque
By Animesh Roul
The battle between Pakistani soldiers and radical elements in pro Taliban Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has erupted on July 3 (Tuesday) and a full fledged military operation (code named Operation Silence) is currently underway in Pakistan capital Islamabad. Though conflicting reports about who-fired-first reached outside world, video footage from Geo TV showed masked gunmen firing sporadically brandishing Kalashnikovs and shot guns while the students of Theology (read Talibans) from two religious seminaries Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa, including women student were running and shouting Jihadi slogans, possibly playing veiled-cheerleaders or a human shield.
As per the latest reports, Maulana Abdul Aziz the head cleric at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid has been arrested when he attempted to flee the besieged Mosque. At least 19 deaths have been confirmed by interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao till July 5. Over hundred others were reportedly injured in the gun battle. As many as 50 armed terrorists are said to be holed up in the premises of Lal Mosque and Jamia Hafsa with Ak series rifles, hand-grenades, petrol bombs and other lethal weaponries.
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More than two months have been passed since Maulana Abdul Aziz gave the Pakistan government ultimatum to enforce Sharia law in the country. He even threatened that clerics will Islamize society themselves, if the government failed to enforce Sharia and employ suicide bombers to go to any extent. The trouble started following an April 17 clerics’ convention on the protection of Madrassas (seminaries) declared that suicide bombings were un-Islamic and must not be encouraged. The convention was organized by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur (JUI-F) faction. The convention also noted deteriorating security situation in the North West Frontier Province and elsewhere in the country, blaming Lal Masjid administration for their clarion call for Shria and Jihad.
In mid April, it was reported that over 300 militants affiliated to several Sunni outfits like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami have reorganized themselves and sheltered in the Capital to work as “a back up in the event of a military action against the Lal Masjid.” Now it has been learned that many of the surrendered students actually belonging to these terror groups.
In the meantime, the ongoing standoff entered fourth day even after thousands of students surrendered and return to their houses. Pakistani security forces are still on guard and trying to flush the last remaining militant holed up inside the Mosque premise.
For latest developments, See, MetroBlogging Site. « Close It
Zawahiri, Great Britain and Networks
By Douglas Farah
In the face of intense propaganda and terrorist activities by al Qaeda and its affiliated groups, it is sometimes useful to step back and remind ourselves that, despite the swirl of activity, the enemy is fallible, fails more often than succeeds and is composed of fallible people in fallible networks.
This does not mean we can grow complacent, let down our guard or take the enemy to anything less than deadly serious. The jihadists want to kill us, and will do so by any means at their disposal. But that desire does not mean their advance is inevitable or even remotely likely.
It means we have to become better at detecting the recruits and potential recruits. It means that, if we are prepared, they will make as many or more mistakes than we do. It means they are vulnerable, as we are.
The recent long lecture by Zawahiri to the Muslim faithful threatens more attacks, but also acknowledges shortcomings and mistakes by the jihadist groups, particularly in Iraq.
All is not well elsewhere, although Zawahiri does his best to paint the picture of a triumphant caliphate toppling the old world order.
In Iraq, the Islamist groups are running into the buzzsaw of not only U.S. military efforts but the willingness of local tribes to fight against their radical agenda. Like most of the armed groups that meet with some success, the groups appear to have over-reached and it is costing them. My full blog is here.
The White House, CAIR and the OIC
By Steven Emerson
The White House has admitted to a senior government official that it did not vet the audience members in attendance at President Bush’s speech last week at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., despite having been warned of the potential presence of individuals who might have triggered national security concerns.
An informed source has told me that the White House was completely unaware that a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) representative would be present at President Bush’s speech last week for the rededication ceremony of the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., and, in fact, had no idea who the mosque leaders had invited to the event, basically surrendering the vetting process to the Islamic Center, a Saudi-funded institution with a documented history (pdf) of extremism and anti-Semitism.
Further, the source told me, “We desperately need to know what radical Islamists are doing in this country” and he was “shocked and surprised to learn that the White House would not take greater care of who was vetted to this event," adding, "this was not your typical Rotary Club invitation.” The source told me that a White House official said that it does not vet all attendees at events to which the President is invited to speak, and the Islamic Center ceremony was no exception. Additionally, the White House was warned by a senior government official that it was making a huge national security error in not vetting those in attendance at the mosque. A White House liaison has told me in the past that CAIR has been barred from attending White House events on national security grounds.
And on cue, CAIR is playing up spokesman Ibrahim Hooper’s attendance at the speech and taking full advantage of its presence to insinuate itself into the President’s agenda.
On the heels of President Bush’s strange announcement at the mosque that he would appoint a “special envoy” to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a body with a very disturbing track record (see my article published in the National Review Online, Radical Outreach: Bush coddles American apologists for radical Islam), CAIR has started lobbying for the job.
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On a trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ishanoglu to “discuss future CAIR-OIC projects,” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad made his feelings on the American-OIC envoy known, telling the Saudi-based Arab News, “[w]e hope that the selection of the individual would also be representative of the Muslim community and its views,” meaning that to avoid an Awad-engineered outcry and pressure campaign, the envoy must be “CAIR-approved.”
President Bush said that the special envoy’s job would be to “listen and learn” from the OIC, and that the envoy “will share with (the OIC) America's views and values.” Unless the purpose of the envoy would be to see who can be the more radical and anti-American mouthpiece, CAIR needs to be kept as far away from this initiative as possible, lest both organizations gang up in some outrageous, Karen Hughes-approved “grievance theater” performance. CAIR and the OIC are already in lockstep on virtually all issues, especially relating to terrorism, and CAIR is in no position to share America’s views and values with anyone. In fact, someone needs to explain America’s views and values to CAIR.
As readers of this blog know, CAIR was recently officially named (pdf) as a Muslim Brotherhood organization and as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the case against alleged Hamas-fundraisers, the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Beyond that, CAIR’s lengthy history of extremism, pro-terrorist sentiments and anti-Semitism has been extensively reported and is well known.
And the Arab News article telegraphs just how useless having a CAIR-approved individual as special envoy to the OIC would be:
Muslims and Muslim organizations in the US have been criticized for not being effective in lobbying and standing up to smear campaigns compared to other US minorities. This is the most common criticism heard from the Muslim world, according to Awad, who added that Muslims in the US are heading in the right direction and that the Muslim community there is becoming more effective and gaining ground in building bridges.
So the “most common” criticism has not been that Muslim organizations in the U.S. have failed to sufficiently condemn terrorism or put forward policies and positions that condemn the targeted use of violence against civilians by such groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda, but that CAIR is not “effective” in standing up to “smear campaigns” against it. Expect more of this if CAIR has any say about the President’s appointment.
The President’s plan to appoint a special envoy to the OIC was a bad idea from the start, and can only be further compounded by letting CAIR – or other Islamist groups like it - have any say in the matter. « Close It
UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 5
By Jeffrey Imm
July 5 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news:
-- 45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids. Daily Telegraph reports that "45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site". Police found details of discussion on the British Jihadist web site run by Younis Tsouli ("Terrorist 007"). Jihadists stated "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy." Telegraph believes that is refers to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida. Daily Telegraph states that the Jihadists also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades. This would support Sky News report on July 4 of British Anglican cleric Canon Andrew White who has said of an April discussion with Al-Qaeda representative where "[h]e told me that they were going to start killing in the UK then the USA".
-- UK Court Gives 24 Years in Prison to 3 British Internet Jihadists. Per Reuters, police said that three Islamist cyber-terrorists were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison: Younes Tsouli (10 years), Waseem Mughal (7 1/2 years), and Tariq al-Daour (6 1/2 years). "Tsouli, the suspected ringleader, used the online identity 'irhabi007' -- the Arabic word for terrorist, followed by the code number of the fictional British spy James Bond. He was responsible for setting up an Internet chat room forum used by al Qaeda supporters from which explosives and weapons manuals could be downloaded." The Washington Post reports a related link in "Terrorism's Hook Into Your Inbox", where it shows a link between online fraud and jihadist networks, specifically how eBay Internet fraud was sold on the Internet black market by British Jihadist Tariq al-Daour (convicted for 6 1/2 years in this case). UK television has a video report on such cyber-terrorism.
-- Jihad tapes targeted UK professionals for more than a decade. BBC reports today that "Videos have tried to attract doctors, lawyers and scientists into Islamic extremism for more than a decade". BBC indicates that these videos include a 1999 film with "a man claiming to be a third-year medical student in Birmingham", and that such Jihadist recruitment videos included appearances by Al-Qaeda's Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri.
-- Asylum-seeker convicted for terror training materials and money-laundering. AP reports that Omar Altimimi was convicted "Thursday of possessing terrorist training manuals, including instructions on using gas canisters to make car bombs". Guardian states that "[f]iles on Altimimi's computer contained detailed information on how to set up terror cells in the UK, ways to make explosives, and instructions on how car bombs could be detonated at the entrances to buildings via remote control." Prosecutors believe that Altimimi was linked to the Dhiren Barot British Jihadist group through connections with convicted terrorist Junade Ferouze. Reuters also reports that Manchester police called Altimimi a sleeper agent, and was likely planning to attack nightclubs and airports.
-- Mohammed Asha - Ringleader 'Al-Qaeda sleeper'. Courier Mail reported that suspected terrorist ringleader Dr. Mohammed Asha "was a "sleeper" sent to Britain to await orders from Al-Qaeda", according to British security sources. "There are genuine concerns that the cell which was broken up in the past few days was not a one-off and that there are others out there plotting mass murder," a British security source said yesterday."The worrying truth is, we don't know how many are out there."
-- Profiles of individual terror suspects: Daily Mail provides individual profiles on: Dr. Mohammed Haneef, Dr. Mohammed Asha, and Dr. Bilal Abdulla.
-- Ties between terrorists. Daily Telegraph reports that 3 of the terrorists "are members of the same family from the Indian city of Bangalore, while the families of another two were old friends in the Middle East. Several shared homes in Britain. All but one were doctors working in NHS hospitals. What unites them all is their chosen profession, medicine." Telegraph also provides an illustrative chart. London Times reports that two of the terrorists are cousins.
-- Airport attack doctor was known extremist. Daily Telegraph reports that Glasgow bomber Dr. Bilal Abdulla "had been recognised as a seriously "radicalised" student four years ago... with possible links to the al-Qa'eda-led insurgency".
-- UK Islamist Group Hizb-ut-Tahrir Tried To Recruit Glasgow Bomber. BBC television show "Politics of Terror" revealed that Cambridge cell of Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir tried to recruit Glasgow bomber Dr. Bilal Abdulla. Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a legal organization in the UK, and its members have included an employee of the UK Home Office. See Zeyno Baran's Oct. 30, 2005 IHT op-ed on Hizbut.
-- UK Parliament Debate over Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other UK Islamist groups. Sky News shows video where UK Parliament members challenged UK PM Gordon Brown over the government's failure to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Islamist groups in UK that advocate violence. UK PM Gordon Brown argues that there is insufficient evidence to do so, despite Parliament opposition referencing specific Hizb-ut-Tahrir literature advocating violence. On December 24, 2006, UK PM Tony Blair shelved plans to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
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Al Qaeda's Zawahiri Urges Muslims to Join Jihad
By Jeffrey Imm
Al Qaeda's number 2, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, released a new video today calling for Muslim unity behind Al-Qaeda, and calling for global Muslims to join jihad. According to SITE Institute: "Touching upon a variety of issues pertinent to the jihadi arena and Muslims, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Palestine, Zawahiri repeats his call for unification of Mujahideen and total support among Muslim populations for jihad."
The 1 hour, 39 minute video entitled "The Advice of One Concerned", also "includes clips from other videos and news broadcasts, including one from Al Furqan, the video production arm of the Islamic State of Iraq" (per Laura Mansfield). SITE indicates that in this video Zawahiri also uses excerpts from Bob Woodward’s book, Plan of Attack, a PBS Frontline documentary, and words from Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Dr. Sa’ad al-Faqih.
AP reports: "Al-Zawahiri, the top deputy of Usama bin Laden, called on Muslims to follow a two-pronged strategy: work at home to topple "corrupt" Arab regimes and join Al Qaeda's 'jihad,' or holy war, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia to fight and train 'to prepare for the next jihad.'"
Zawahiri defend the Islamic State of Iraq organization, despite mistakes that it may have made, and stated that "The Islamic State of Iraq is set up in Iraq, the mujahedeen (holy warriors) celebrate it in the streets of Iraq, the people demonstrate in support of it," Al-Zawahiri said, "pledges of allegiance to it are declared in the mosques of Baghdad." Zawahiri also said that global Muslims should "support this blessed fledgling mujahid garrison state with funds, manpower, opinion, information and expertise," saying its founding brought the Islamic world closer to "establishment of the caliphate, with God's permission."
Per AP report: Zawahiri stated that Jihadists' strategy should be to target U.S. and Israeli interests "everywhere" in retaliation for "attacks on the Islamic nation" in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and that such a strategy calls for "diligent work to change these corrupt and corrupting (Arab) regimes." He said Muslims should "rush to the fields of jihad" in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia "to defeat the enemies of the Islamic nation" and for "training to prepare for the next jihad."
Regarding Gaza and Hamas, Zawahiri stated that: "As for the leadership of Hamas, I tell it: return to the truth, for you will only get something worse than what (late Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat got" from the Israelis in negotiations, he said. The peace process, he said, is a U.S. attempt to "deceive the Islamic nation and say that America solved the issue of Palestine, so what need is there to fight it and wage jihad against it?" And per SITE Institute: "Zawahiri continually laments the ceding of four-fifths of Palestine, and again voices his anger at Hamas for entering into negotiations and abandoning Shari’a".
Laura Mansfield reports that Zawahiri's video also states that he views the enemy is beginning to see the signs of imminent defeat: "I speak to the Muslim Ummah today as the battles which it is waging against its enemies are raging and as it moves from one victory to another, with Allah’s help and power, and its enemies retreat in front of it and as the good omens of the new dawn of victory have begun to loom on the horizon, with Allah’s permission and will. And the stage preceding victory is normally in the history of nations the stage in which there is most seen an increase in conspiracies, plots, and inciting of discord in an attempt by the enemy, who has begun to see his defeat approach to push back and delay the defeat as much as he can."
Sources:
SITE Institute: "The Advice of One Concerned" – A Video Speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Produced by as-Sahab Media
Laura Mansfield: "Zawahiri message: The enemy is beginning to see the signs of defeat; no mention of London attacks"
Associated Press: Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahri Releases New Video Calling for Muslim Unity
CNN: Al Qaeda's No. 2 says end of West imminent, video shows
UK Terror Plot Investigation - News Roundup - July 4
By Jeffrey Imm
July 4 news roundup on the ongoing UK terror plot investigations:
-- British Cleric: 'Al-Qa'eda leader told me of bomb plot'. Daily Telegraph reports that in April, British Anglican Canon Andrew White "met an unnamed al-Qa'eda leader on the sidelines of a religious reconciliation meeting in Amman, Jordan", where the Al-Qaeda leader told White that " 'the plans were already made and they would soon be destroying the British' and that 'the people who cure you would kill you'." Sky News has a similar report.
-- British Cleric Meeting with Al-Qaeda: USA to be Bombed Next? Sky News also posted the full text of Canon Vicar White's email on the April meeting with Al-Qaeda member which states "He told me that they were going to start killing in the UK then the USA".
-- MI5 knew at least four of the bomb plotters. Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph reported that MI5 was aware of bomb plotters. Daily Mail reported that "at least four of the eight suspects being questioned had their details logged on MI5's databases before the attacks took place", and the Daily Telegraph reported that "At least one was on a Home Office watch list after being identified by security services - meaning their travel in and out of Britain was monitored by immigration officers." BBC summarizes several media comments on intelligence issues.
-- UK NHS Hospital Computers may have been used to plot attacks. Daily Mail is reporting that "[p]olice have seized computers from hospitals in Glasgow, Stoke-on-Trent and Liverpool. They are examining a theory that suspects planned the attacks in cyberspace while working at NHS hospitals"
-- Strict new checks for foreign NHS doctors. Daily Telegraph reports that "Background security checks on foreign doctors and other health workers migrating to Britain are to be stepped up after the weekend bomb scares in London and Glasgow. Recruitment of overseas medical staff will also be reviewed and the worldwide watch lists for terrorists expanded. " Reuters reports the UK PM Brown is ordering a "review of recruitment to Britain's state-run health service after security sources confirmed all of the eight people arrested, including one in Australia, are doctors or have medical links".
-- Scotland and London Bomb Attempts Linked to Same Two Men. ABC News reports that British investigators' leading theory is that two brothers who are doctors, Dr. Khalid Ahmed and Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, "are the same two persons attempted the downtown London bombings early Friday morning and then traveled to Glasgow where they attempted what now appears to be a failed suicide attack on Glasgow Airport."
-- UK terror police find suicide note. CNN reports that "British police have found a suicide note in connection with the two men who rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into Glasgow's airport".
-- British: Bombing suspects recruited in UK. Daily Telegraph reports that "British security sources insisted there was no intelligence that al-Qa'eda commanders plotted to infiltrate the NHS. Most of the alleged cell members arrived in this country after 2004 to take up NHS jobs. It is believed they were recruited in Britain. Whitehall sources said that, as yet, there was no sign of any orders, instructions or training from al-Qa'eda based in Pakistan." AP has a similar report with different sources with the same view.
-- Australian Investigation Ongoing. AP and Daily Telegraph report on the ongoing investigation of Dr. Mohammed Haneef in Australia. AP reports: "A British counter-terrorism officer was set to arrive in Australia on Thursday to interrogate Mohammed Haneef, a 27-year-old Indian doctor who was arrested at Brisbane international airport Monday. It was not immediately clear if Britain would seek his extradition. Australia's Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said the next action would become clearer within 48 hours." Daily Telegraph provides a similar report.
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US Supreme Court To Review Guantanamo Terrorism Detention Cases
By Victor Comras
Catching the Bush Administration by surprise, the Supreme Court decided late last week to take a close look at the legitimacy and constitutionality of the operation and p |