02-24-09 Daily Intel Brief
1. North Korea Says It Is Preparing Satellite Launch
By Blaine Harden Washington Post Tuesday, February 24, 2009; 6:34 AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2724
TOKYO, Feb. 24 -- By announcing that it is preparing to launch a "communications satellite," North Korea on Tuesday dressed up its planned test of a long-range ballistic missile -- which may be able to reach Alaska -- as a benign research project… North Korea's announcement comes amid warnings from the United States not to test the missile. A U.N. resolution, passed after North Korea exploded a nuclear device in 2006, bans the country from any ballistic missile activity… North Korea appears to be setting up radar and other monitoring equipment around a missile launch site on its northeast coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday. It said, however, that a missile has not yet been placed on the launch pad…
2. FBI Director Warns of Terror Attacks on U.S. Cities
By Carrie Johnson Washington Post Monday, February 23, 2009; 3:19 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2726
IPT NOTE: The text of Mueller's address is posted at http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mueller022309.htm
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III today warned that extremists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons" to sow terror, raising the specter that recent attacks in Mumbai that killed 170 people last year could embolden terrorists seeking to attack U.S. cities. At a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Mueller said that the bureau is expanding its focus beyond al-Qaeda and into splinter groups, radicals who try to enter the country through the visa waiver program and "home-grown terrorists."… One particular concern, the FBI director said, springs from the country's background as a "nation of immigrants." Federal officials worry about pockets of possible radicals among melting-pot communities in the United States such as Seattle, San Diego, Miami or New York. A Joint Terrorism Task Force led by the FBI, for instance, continues to investigate a group in Minneapolis after one young man last fall flew to Somalia and became what authorities believe to be the first U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing. As many as a half-dozen other youths from that community in Minnesota have vanished, alarming their parents and raising concerns among law enforcement officials that a dangerous recruiting network has operated under the radar… For the first time, Mueller also disclosed details about FBI efforts to assist Indian authorities probing a November siege by conspirators with ties to a terrorist group in Pakistan.…
Militants Drew Recruit in U.S., F.B.I. Says
By DAVID JOHNSTON February 24, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/washington/24fbi.html
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said Monday that a Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States. The man, Shirwa Ahmed, was the first known suicide bomber with American citizenship. He immigrated with his family to the Minneapolis area in the mid-1990s, Mr. Mueller said, but he returned to Somalia after he was recruited by a militant group. "It appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota," Mr. Mueller said, speaking at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations. Minneapolis claims the country's largest Somali population. Mr. Ahmed was driving a vehicle laden with explosives that blew up in northern Somalia in an attack that killed as many as 30 people, according to news reports. His body was returned to the United States with the help of the F.B.I. Federal authorities have said that Mr. Ahmed was one of as many as two dozen young men of Somali descent who had disappeared in the past two years from their homes in the Minneapolis area after being recruited by the Shabab, a militia that is suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda and that has waged a war against the Somali government…
Major Executive Speeches
Robert S. Mueller, III Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Council on Foreign Relations Washington, D.C. February 23, 2009
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mueller022309.htm
DHS: Chances of Home-Grown Attack 'Very Low'
Hours after the FBI expressed concern over home-grown terror attacks, the Department of Homeland Security said such an attack was unlikely.
By Mike Levine FOXNews.com Monday, February 23, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2727
The latest intelligence indicates that a home-grown terrorist attack inside the United States is not likely anytime soon, according to a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "We are not immune to an attack from a home-grown terrorist, but the probabilities and sustainability of such an act are very low," said DHS spokesman Michael Keegan. That assessment came just hours after FBI Director Robert Mueller said his agency is "particularly concerned" that young men living in the United States could be recruited to attack the very country they call home…
3. A Reversal on Terror Defendant's Fitness for Trial
By Benjamin Weiser New York Times City Room (Blog) February 23, 2009, 1:29 pm
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2728
A federal prosecutor said Monday that two psychiatrists who have examined Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with trying to kill an American soldier and F.B.I. agents while in custody in Afghanistan, said she was not suffering from psychological illness that would render her unfit for trial. That assessment was in contrast to a previous evaluation of Ms. Siddiqui's fitness. The case of Ms. Siddiqui, 36, who studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University and who American officials say has ties to operatives of Al Qaeda, has been watched since she was brought to New York for prosecution from Afghanistan last summer. Ms. Siddiqui was taken into custody in Afghanistan last July after being found loitering outside an Afghan police station with suspicious items in her handbag. These included handwritten notes that referred to a "mass casualty attack," and listed various landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, an indictment says. After she was detained, prosecutors have said, she picked up an unsecured rifle and fired at least two shots toward a soldier who was part of an American team of F.B.I. agents and military personnel who were about to question her. No one was hit. She has pleaded not guilty. An earlier court-ordered evaluation by the Bureau of Prisons personnel had concluded that she was suffering from mental illness and was not competent for trial. But on Monday, after a prosecutor in New York cited the new psychiatric reports, which have not yet been made public, Judge Richard M. Berman of United States District Court in Manhattan said he might be ready to consider setting a trial date....
4. One in ten freed Guantánamo detainees goes back to terrorism, says Pentagon
Tom Baldwin in Washington and Michael Evans The Times (London) February 24, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article57930...
More than one in ten of the Guantánamo detainees sent back to their countries of origin have subsequently become involved in terrorist activities, according to the Pentagon. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, said that an estimated 62 former inmates had been linked to terrorism again. "That's an 11 per cent recidivist rate," he told The Times. Said Ali al-Shihri, released to Saudi Arabia in 2007, was put through the kingdom's special rehabilitation programme for Jihadists but subsequently emerged as al-Qaeda's deputy leader in Yemen, Mr Morrell claimed. "The detainees released in the early phases were considered to be the easy ones, in other words they could be released with minimal risk, and yet 11 per cent have returned to terrorism," he said. "With the remaining detainees, it's increasingly difficult to come to an arrangement because they are considered to pose a greater danger, although not necessarily too dangerous to release to their home countries in the right circumstances." f the 243 detainees left in Guantánamo, 100 are Yemenis. The United States is still trying to negotiate a deal with the Yemeni Government about suitable monitoring and rehabilitation before they can be released...
5. Controversy Surrounds Possible Appointment of Chas Freeman as NIC Chairman
Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman reportedly has been tapped to be the next National Intelligence Council chairman, but critics question Freeman's ability to serve objectively.
FOXNews.com Monday, February 23, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2733
Strong supporters of Israel are questioning whether the man who reportedly has been chosen to head the National Intelligence Council will undermine U.S. policy in the Mideast. Chas Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a longtime critic of Israel and the Iraq War, has been tapped for the position, according to several news outlets. As chairman of the NIC, he would head the group that prepares the sensitive National Intelligence Estimate for President Obama. The White House would not confirm whether Freeman, now president of the Middle East Policy Council, was offered the influential post, which does not require Senate confirmation. A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the council, told FOXNews.com: "We have nothing to announce." Freeman was offered and has accepted the position, according to reports in Foreign Policy Magazine and politico.com, among others… But statements the former ambassador made over the last three decades on U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East and Iran's threat to the international community have prompted some to question his objectivity in a role that requires it…
6. Captured diplomats top talks at UN
Toronto Star Feb 24, 2009 04:30 AM Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/592037
OTTAWA – The plight of two Canadian diplomats held by extremists in Africa got high-level attention yesterday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper pressed their case at the United Nations and Amnesty International publicly appealed for their release. In a morning meeting yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Harper talked about the disturbing disappearance of Canadians Robert Fowler, the United Nations secretary general's special envoy to Niger, and his aide, diplomat Louis Guay. "We ... discussed how we can expedite the process of releasing my special envoy, Mr. (Robert) Fowler," Ban told reporters after the meeting. The two diplomats and their driver went missing after a visit to a gold mine in Niger in mid-December and are reportedly being held by Al Qaeda-affiliated extremists. Ottawa has declined to comment on their kidnapping out of fear of jeopardizing their lives. The recent kidnappings of diplomats and journalists around the world were a top item of discussion, Harper aide Kory Teneycke told The Canadian Press…
7. Senators Praise FBI's CAIR Freeze
IPT News February 24, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1001/senators-praise-fbis-cair-freez...
Three United States Senators have written to FBI Director Robert Mueller praising a decision last year to cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and inquiring about other groups linked to a Hamas-support network in the U.S. Republicans John Kyl of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and New York Democrat Charles Schumer signed the letter http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/242.pdf dated Tuesday, which asked Mueller for additional information about the decision. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) broke the news last month that concerns over CAIR's roots in a Hamas-support network prompted FBI leadership to cut off contact with the advocacy group last summer... They asked whether the policy applies to FBI field offices as well as headquarters and whether there are exceptions. In addition, they asked whether the FBI has contacts with other organizations listed as un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case and whether other federal agencies knew about the Bureau's policy. "Obviously, we believe this should be government-wide policy," they wrote... Evidence tying CAIR and its founders to the Hamas-support effort was disclosed during the prosecution of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF)... In a press release, http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=308555, Kyl said the senators want to "clarify the FBI's decision-making process and new policy, and help determine if further action by other federal government agencies is necessary."
8. The Navy Has a Top-Secret Vessel It Wants to Put on Display
Sea Shadow and Its Satellite-Proof Barge Need a Home; Plotting in Providence
By BARRY NEWMAN PAGE ONE Wall Street Journal FEBRUARY 24, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123543023154353525.html
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Anybody want some top-secret seagoing vessels? The Navy has a pair it doesn't need anymore. It has been trying to give them away since 2006, and they're headed for the scrap yard if somebody doesn't speak up soon. One is called Sea Shadow. It's big, black and looks like a cross between a Stealth fighter and a Batmobile. It was made to escape detection on the open sea. The other is known as the Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) Mining Barge. It looks like a floating field house, with an arching roof and a door that is 76 feet wide and 72 feet high. Sea Shadow berths inside the barge, which keeps it safely hidden from spy satellites. The barge, by the way, is the only fully submersible dry dock ever built, making it very handy -- as it was 35 years ago -- for trying to raise a sunken nuclear-armed Soviet submarine...
Air, rail, port, health & communication infrastructure security
IPT NOTE: For more infrastructure news, see Dep't of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/editorial_0542.shtm; Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/dir/index-eng.aspx
9. Someone shining laser at planes landing at Sea-Tac
Twelve different flight crews reported that someone was shining a laser into their cockpits as the aircrafts were making their final approach Sunday evening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
By Seattle Times staff February 23, 2009
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008775367_weblaser23m.h...
Twelve different flight crews reported that someone was shining a laser into their cockpits as the aircraft were making their final approach Sunday evening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Pilots reported seeing the laser between 7:10 and 7:30 p.m. as they came in for landing, said Mike Fergus, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's Northwest Mountain Region, headquartered in Renton. All of the planes were at an altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 feet and one of the pilots "had a fairly decent description of where the source was," Fergus said. No suspects were found and all of the planes landed safely...
Lasers aimed at Sea-Tac jets
08:32 AM PST on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 By KING Staff http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2736
SEATAC, Wash. - … The FAA says there have been sporadic reports of this happening in other areas, but Sunday's incidents at Sea-Tac have been the largest by far.
10. Group unveils security controls to thwart cyberattacks
By Jill R. Aitoro 02/23/2009 NextGov.com
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090223_4077.php
A consortium of federal agencies and private organizations released a set of guidelines on Monday aimed at protecting data and information systems from cyberattacks. The list of security controls eventually will be compared to global audit guidelines to determine whether they should be incorporated into assessments of information security. Security experts have criticized federal cybersecurity efforts, saying agencies tend to respond to attacks after they occur, rather than taking a proactive approach to eliminating network vulnerabilities. The new audit guidelines, which were developed as part of a larger initiative at the Center for Strategic International Studies to advance key recommendations of a report by the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, addresses that criticism by defining the 20 most critical security controls needed to protect federal and contractor information and systems...
11. Axcess Wins $3.5 Million Port Security Infrastructure Award
Tue. February 24, 2009 Posted: 09:30 AM Press Release
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2192412/
DALLAS, Feb 24, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AXSI -- Axcess International Inc. (OTCBB: AXSI), the leader in Micro-Wireless systems for automated identification, tracking and sensing announced today that it has won a competitive procurement worth $3.54 million to provide security infrastructure solutions for the Port at Trinidad's capital, Port-of-Spain. When the contract is finalized, the comprehensive system will include active RFID, multiple types of sensors and multiple types of scanners to improve daily security operations and will augment the security at the Port for modern day threats such as terrorism. In April, Trinidad hosts the Fifth Summit of the Americas Conference attended by over 30 heads of state of countries from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. ..
12. DHS to use more simulations in infrastructure protection
By Jill R. Aitoro 02/23/2009 NextGov.com
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090223_9398.php
The Homeland Security Department will rely more on simulations to test the integrity of critical infrastructure and key resources, according to a 175-page plan released last week. But one security specialist said the plan was thin on details. DHS will increase coordination with the science and technology community on requirements for the "development, maintenance and application of modeling capabilities," according to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan released on Feb. 19 http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_Plan.pdf. The plan -- an update of a 2006 strategy -- emphasized the need to incorporate simulations into training at agencies such as the Coast Guard, which is responsible for overseeing protection of the maritime transportation sector...
Financing, identity theft, money laundering
13. Terrorism case ends with 1-year fraud sentence
Authorities found money wasn't going to al-Qaida.
By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune Posted: 02/23/2009 04:35:01 PM MST
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11767686
He was once accused of supporting terrorism. Those accusations disappeared and Sharif Omar on Monday was sentenced for something much more common in Utah -- fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball sentenced Omar to one year and one day in prison. In December, Omar pleaded guilty to three felony counts for banking and wire fraud and tax evasion. Kimball ordered Omar to pay $256,000 in restitution to lenders. He may have to pay $67,000 to the IRS... When he and his brother were arrested in 2006, federal authorities suggested the financial scheme might have directed money to al-Qaida. Law enforcement later acknowledged the case had nothing to do with terrorism. Omar's brother, who lived in California, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor…
Border security, immigration, customs
14. Man with alleged terror ties aided police in 2007
The Associated Press February 24, 2009 Tuesday 4:52 AM GMT
By GILLIAN FLACCUS and AMY TAXIN, Associated Press Writers
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2729
DATELINE: SANTA ANA Calif. - The alleged brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard reported a Muslim convert to authorities for making terrorist threats two years before he himself was charged with lying about alleged ties to terrorist groups on his citizenship application. Ahmadullah Niazi, 34, was arrested Friday on charges of perjury, procurement of naturalization unlawfully, passport fraud and making a false statement. He could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all charges. In 2007, Niazi testified on behalf of the Islamic Center of Irvine, which was seeking a restraining order against a new Muslim convert who spoke repeatedly of jihad and organizing terrorist attacks, according to court documents. Police reports also indicate that Niazi, an Afghan native and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was one of several people at the Islamic Center who contacted police after being bothered by the convert. Shortly after the center was granted the restraining order, Niazi said he was approached by an FBI agent who accused him of lying in that case and pressured him to become an informant, said Issa Edah-Tally, president of the Islamic Center of Irvine… Niazi is referred to as Ahmad Niazi not Ahmadullah Niazi in the 2007 court documents and in several police reports taken around that time. Munira Syeda, a spokeswoman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations, confirmed that Niazi is the same man who was arrested by federal agents last week. Syeda said officials of her organization met with Niazi in 2007 after his run-ins with the radicalized convert…
15. Border Patrol discovers underground tunnel in Otay Mesa
By Debbi Baker San Diego Union-Tribune 2:06 p.m. February 23, 2009
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/23/bn23-tunnel-discovere...
SAN DIEGO – Border Patrol agents discovered an underground tunnel in Otay Mesa on Saturday that authorities suspect was built to connect a storm drain in the United States to a pipeline in Mexico for smuggling purposes. he passageway, which was about 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall and reinforced with wooden beams, was discovered about 110 feet north of the border near Via de la Amistad, just east of the Otay Mesa border crossing, said Border Patrol Agent Richard Smith. Agents suspected that the tunnel is linked from the storm drain to a parallel natural gas pipeline that is not in use. It appears that the tunnel had been used recently, Smith said. t was found after members of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, which is made up of the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, came across the information while investigating recent smuggling activity in the area and conducted a search, Smith said. No arrests have been made and no contraband was found...
16. Homeland Security official affirms Mexican drug cartel violence has spilled over into Texas
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau Posted: 02/24/2009 12:00:00 AM MST El Paso Times
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11770847
AUSTIN -- Violence from Mexican drug cartels has spilled over into Texas, state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said Monday. "Yes, absolutely it has occurred; there's no question about it," McCraw said after a hearing before the House Committee on Border and International Affairs. McCraw answered lawmakers' questions about Gov. Rick Perry's request for another $135 million for border security operations on the same day Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked lawmakers for a new tool to help bring down transnational gangs that threaten border communities. During the border committee meeting, state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, asked McCraw whether some incidents that have been reported in the El Paso area would be considered elements of spillover violence from Mexican drug cartels. Moody asked, among other things, if threats against American citizens, individuals seeking treatment at U.S. hospital for injuries sustained in Juárez and Mexican nationals seeking asylum would be evidence of spillover. McCraw said yes…
17. Pilot project finds almost half of foreign criminals have fled Canada
Feb 22, 2009 Canadian Press
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2737
OTTAWA — Up to half of some 2,000 foreign criminals thought to be hiding in Canada may have already slipped out of the country, a new report suggests. A sweep of northern Ontario by a special squad of border police found that almost half the criminals being tracked had abandoned Canada, most of them for the United States. The results of Project Hide and Seek, launched last spring, suggest the lists of high-priority cases maintained by the Canada Border Services Agency are significantly out of date. And most of the fleeing criminals appear to be heading south. The agency, responsible for kicking unwanted foreigners out of the country, has 1,973 so-called priority cases on the books - criminals and security threats for whom removal warrants have been issued but who have simply disappeared…
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
18. DoD Identifies Army Casualty
U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 118-09 February 23, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12519
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Mark C. Baum, 32, of Telford, Pa., died Feb. 21 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire in Mushada, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard…
3 US soldiers, interpreter killed in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL – Associated Press Feb 23, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2740
BAGHDAD (AP) — Three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed Monday during fighting north of Baghdad, the military announced. The combat took place in Diyala province, an area northeast of Baghdad that remains volatile despite an overall drop in violence nationwide. The statement did not provide more details. The attack came two weeks after a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months...
19. Zawahiri praises Shabaab's takeover of southern Somalia
By Bill Roggio Long War Journal February 24, 2009 12:14 AM
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/zawahiri_praises_sha.php
Al Qaeda's second in command released a videotape urging Somalis to oppose the government of former Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, just one day after African Union soldiers were killed in a dual suicide attack in Mogadishu. The deadly strikes on an African Union base killed 11 Burundi soldiers and seriously wounded 15 more. Shabaab spokesman Muktar Robow took credit for the bombings and named the two attackers, claiming that "they inflicted heavy damage on soldiers at a church." Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked Islamist terror group, has vowed to attack African Union troops who are in the country attempting to restore order in the war-torn country. "We will attack the bases of the occupying forces in K4 and the airport until the last foreign forces leave our country," Robow said at a news conference at the end of January as Ethiopian forces pulled out of Mogadishu…
20. Mali holds Islamist preacher over hostages -source
23 Feb 2009 18:26:55 GMT Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LN641556.htm
BAMAKO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Malian security forces have detained an Islamist preacher on suspicion of involvement in the seizure of four European hostages claimed by al Qaeda's North African wing, a senior Malian security official said. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in an audio recording released last week that it was holding the four Europeans -- two Swiss, one German and a Briton -- seized in late January in Mali's southeastern Gao region, near the border with Niger. Al Qaeda, which later published photos of the four Europeans surrounded by gunmen, said it also was holding two Canadian diplomats, one of them a U.N. envoy to Mali's eastern neighbour, Niger, where the pair vanished in December. Malian security forces arrested the Islamist preacher last Thursday in the remote Anderamboucane locality on the border with Niger, on suspicion of being involved in the abduction of the European tourists, the Malian security official told Reuters at the weekend…
Al-Qa'idah in North Africa disagrees over European hostages' fate - paper
BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
February 23, 2009 Monday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
Algerian security forces obtained information indicating that an Al-Qa'idah in North Africa leader mulls over the killing of two of the four European nationals recently kidnapped in Mali, Algerian El-Khabar newspaper said. The privately-owned daily quoted on 23 February Algerian security sources as saying that leader of the Saharan branch of Al-Qa'idah in the Land of Islamic Maghreb Yahia Djouadi "insists on executing two of the four kidnapped European hostages after finding out that they were collaborating with a European intelligence service". The paper said that a "dispute" had raged between the Al-Qa'idah chief Abdelmalek Droukdal, also known as Abou-Mousab Abdelouadoud, and Djouadi over this issue. The dispute was caused by a threat from "armed criminal groups in northern Mali and Chad", who vowed to fight Al-Qa'idah elements if the European hostages are executed. The paper said this disagreement had been behind the delay in announcing the abduction of the four hostages...
21. Five Detained After Cairo Bomb Blast
The New York Times February 24, 2009 Tuesday
By NADIM AUDI and MICHAEL SLACKMAN; Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York, and Paul Ruban from Paris.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/world/middleeast/24egypt.html
DATELINE: CAIRO - Security officials said Monday they had detained five people -- three men in their 20s and two women -- a day after the first terrorist attack in Cairo in years left a French teenager dead and wounded at least 20 other people. The attack, an explosion on the crowded Hussein Square, one of the main tourist stops in Cairo, sent hundreds scrambling for cover just before nightfall on Sunday. Some witnesses reported seeing two explosives lobbed into the square from a nearby rooftop or vehicle; those reports were in keeping with an early statement by authorities that grenades had been thrown. But some security officials said Monday that they believed explosives had been placed under a bench in the square, in front of one of Cairo's most revered shrines, the Hussein mosque. A second explosive was found undetonated in a grassy park near the mosque. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The teenager who died was a 17-year-old girl on a trip with dozens of other young people sponsored by their hometown, the Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret, said Jerome Sterkers, the chief of staff for the town mayor. Seventeen others in the group were injured…
22. 4 Yemenis convicted of forming al-Qaida cell
By AHMED AL-HAJ – Associated Press 24 Feb 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2734
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Four Yemenis were convicted and sentenced up to seven years in prison on Tuesday for forming an al-Qaida cell and plotting to attack government and foreign targets in the country. The court verdict came a day after al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri released a new audio message calling on Yemeni tribes to support the "awakening jihad," or holy war, in Yemen. The ruling said the four suspects, who included a 15-year-old, set up the terror cell and collected weapons and ammunition to be used in attacks. The teenager was sentenced to two years, while the three other suspects each got seven-year sentences. The court also said the group sought to avenge the killing of local senior al-Qaida leader, Hamza al-Kaaiti, who masterminded a March mortar attack on the U.S. Embassy in San'a. Al-Kaaiti was killed in an battle with Yemeni troops last August. As the verdict was read, one of the defendants shouted that Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh was an "agent of the Crusaders" and vowed to take revenge….
Yemen jails Qaeda-linked cell over attack plots
Agence France Presse Feb 24, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2735
SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni security court on Tuesday sentenced three members of an alleged Al-Qaeda cell to seven years each in jail on charges of plotting attacks and possessing explosives… Mohammed al-Saadi, 24, Issam Gheilan, 24, Munir al-Bouni, 23, and Osama al-Saadi, 15, confessed to possessing a rocket launcher, an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and ammunition. Saadi's brother Ossama al-Saadi, 15, was sentenced to two years in jail for resisting arrest and threatening police with a hand grenade… The trial of four began in November at the same time as the trial of another four Yemenis charged with plotting to form an armed group with the intention of attacking tourists, hotels and government installations. The members of the other group are also alleged to have planned an attack on the Red Cross near the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia…
23. Syrian minister calls for expanding media cooperation with Iran
BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
February 23, 2009 Monday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
Text of report in English by Iranian official government news agency IRNA website
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
Damascus, 23 February: Syrian Information Minister Muhsin Bilal appreciated Iran's support for 'Resistance' in the region and described its stance as important. In a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Syria Seyyed Ahmad Musavi, he said that the hegemonistic and capitalist system has undertaken a new strategy to create divisions among Muslim and Arab states. "They have used media more than ever in their new strategies," he noted. He also called for expanding media cooperation as this can contribute to defusing the enemies' plots...
ASIA / PACIFIC
24. 4 U.S. troops killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Tuesday, February 24, 2009
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/24/asia/25afghan.php
KABUL: A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops patrolling in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. An Afghan civilian working with the Americans also died. The troops were patrolling with Afghan forces when their vehicle struck a bomb Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. military said in a statement. The military did not release the location of the attack pending the notification of relatives. The previous deadliest attack against U.S. forces this year was an explosion in Zabul province in January that killed three troops...
25. Pakistan's slump creates security risks
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY Feb 24, 2009
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-23-pakistan_N.htm
FAISALABAD, Pakistan — … The lingering tensions in Faisalabad highlight how, in the early days of the Obama administration, the global economic crisis is making combustible countries such as Pakistan even more of a security risk to the United States and its troops abroad. The fear here, and in other parts of the Muslim world, is that unrest over soaring unemployment and food shortages could cause unpopular governments to collapse, resulting in more support for militant organizations such as al-Qaeda or the Taliban… Even before the economic mess took hold, Pakistan was one of President Obama's biggest foreign-policy headaches…
