05-22-09 Daily Intel Report

1. U.S.-Russian Team Deems Missile Shield in Europe Ineffective

By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Tuesday, May 19, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR200905...?

IPT NOTE: The cited East-West Institute press release is posted at http://www.ewi.info/announcements/news/index.cfm?title=News&view=detail&... and its report, "Iran's Nuclear and Missile Potential - A Joint Threat Assessment by U.S. and Russian Technical Experts," is posted at http://docs.ewi.info/JTA.pdf

Correction to This Article
Earlier versions of this story incorrectly attributed a quote about Iran's arsenal being derived from North Korean missile components that had originally come from the Russians. That quote was not from the report but was instead from one of the U.S. team members, who made it in a separate commentary. This version has been corrected.

A planned U.S. missile shield to protect Europe from a possible Iranian attack would be ineffective against the kinds of missiles Iran is likely to deploy, according to a joint analysis by top U.S. and Russian scientists. The U.S.-Russian team also judged that it would be more than five years before Iran is capable of building both a nuclear warhead and a missile capable of carrying it over long distances. And if Iran attempted such an attack, the experts say, it would ensure its own destruction. "The missile threat from Iran to Europe is thus not imminent," the 12-member technical panel concludes in a report produced by the EastWest Institute, an independent think tank based in Moscow, New York and Belgium. The report, scheduled for release today, could further dampen the Obama administration's enthusiasm for a Bush administration plan to deploy radars and interceptor missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. The missile shield has been promoted as a safeguard against future attacks from rogue states, particularly Iran. But the plan has severely strained relations with Moscow, which says it would undermine strategic stability and lead to a new arms race…

2. Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says
By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER May 18, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/world/asia/18nuke.html

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan's nuclear program. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal. "Yes," he said quickly, adding nothing, clearly cognizant of Pakistan's sensitivity to any discussion about the country's nuclear strategy or security. Inside the Obama administration, some officials say, Pakistan's drive to spend heavily on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents. The administration's effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan's activities…

3. Senate Leaders Balk at Closing Guantánamo Prison
By David M. Herszenhorn New York Times May 19, 2009, 11:48 am
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3447

Moving to avoid a bitter partisan feud, Senate Democratic leaders have decided to remove from a war spending bill the $80 million that President Obama had requested to close the detention center for terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. House Democrats had already removed the money from their version of the $96.7 billion military spending measure, which will finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and some other national security programs through Sept. 30. It was overwhelmingly approved last week by the House. The Senate had included the money in its version of the legislation, headed for a vote this week, but with tight restrictions that for now at least would have barred the transfer of prisoners to the United States. Both the House and Senate had directed the White House to provide a more detailed plan for closing the detention center and relocating the more than 200 terror suspects still being held there. The Obama administration has announced plans to revive the military tribunals first proposed by the Bush administration, but lawmakers were still clamoring for more information about what would happen to the terror suspects after the Guantánamo prison was closed...

Democrats Plan to Block Gitmo Closing
By NAFTALI BENDAVID MAY 20, 2009 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277768246937129.html
WASHINGTON -- Bowing to political pressure, Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they planned to withhold funding to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until President Barack Obama comes up with a detailed plan for handling its 241 detainees. Democrats also plan to prevent the administration from spending any money to transfer Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. during the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Both restrictions are contained in an amendment to a $91.3 billion measure funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the amendment is expected to be approved in the Senate as early as Wednesday. The issue of Guantanamo's closure has been a distraction for the Democrats since Mr. Obama several weeks ago requested $80 million to wind down operations at the prison for terrorism suspects by next January. Republicans have seized on the issue, conjuring images of terrorists being released onto America's streets, something the administration says it will never do. A White House task force is scheduled to report by July on how to close Guantanamo and what to do with the detainees. Some could be tried by military commissions, others could be sent to civilian U.S. courts, and still others could be transferred to foreign countries…

4. Amid Queries, CIA Worries About Future
Intelligence Officials Privately Warn That New Rules May Hinder Their Interrogations

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Tuesday, May 19, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR200905...

Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself for more public scrutiny and is questioning whether agency personnel can conduct interrogations effectively under rules set out for the U.S. military, according to senior intelligence officials. Harsh interrogations were only one part of its clandestine activities against al-Qaeda and other enemies, and agency members are worried that other operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan will come under review, the officials said. CIA Director Leon Panetta said he has established a group at the agency to handle requests for documents by Congress, the prosecutors and any "truth commission." The agency is facing a dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over how much agency officials told congressional overseers about the harsh techniques. The agency's defensiveness in part reflects a conviction that it is being forced to take the blame for actions approved by elected officials that have since fallen into disfavor. Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said in an interview that CIA managers and operations officers have again been put "in a horrible position." Hayden recalled an officer asking, "Will I be in trouble five years from now for what I agree to do today?"…

5. Atlanta terror suspect waives right to jury trial
By Bill Rankin The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday, May 19, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3448

A former Georgia Tech student on Tuesday waived his right to a jury trial, agreeing to let a judge decide if he conspired to provide support to terrorists. Syed Haris Ahmed said he made the decision largely because he wants to give a public statement at the close of his trial, which begins June 1. "I consider the opportunity to give the statement more important than anything to me right now," Ahmed told U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey. Ahmed did not disclose what he plans to say. Ahmed also told Duffey that, considering the high-profile nature of the case, he believed the judge would be "more impartial than normal people." During a pre-trial hearing, Duffey carefully questioned Ahmed about his decision to relinquish his right to let 12 jurors decide the case. Ahmed said he understood what he was doing. The judge granted the request. Duffey, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, was put on the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2004. Ahmed is charged with Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, of Roswell, of trying to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani-based terrorist group. They also are accused of taking videos for "potential terrorist attacks" during a 2005 trip to Washington. Sadequee is to be tried separately in August. Both men have pleaded not guilty…

6. Somali Suspect Is Indicted on Piracy Charges
By Benjamin Weiser May 19, 2009, 4:33 pm New York Times Updated, 5:48 p.m.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/somali-suspect-is-indicted-...
The young Somali man brought to New York last month and accused of piracy was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said. The young man, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, whose age is unknown but who is believed to be a teenager, was the only survivor of a group of men that boarded the Maersk Alabama, a United States-flagged cargo ship, off the coast of Somalia on April 8, the authorities have said. The ship's captain eventually offered himself as a hostage, and was later rescued in a daring Navy Seal operation, in which three of his captors were killed. The indictment charges Mr. Muse with 10 counts, including piracy and conspiracy to seize a ship by force and to take hostages. Mr. Muse is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday before Judge Loretta A. Preska in United States District Court in Manhattan. Any trial would seem to be many months away…

7. Panel votes to investigate 'extremism' report
Audrey Hudson Washington Times Tuesday, May 19, 2009

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/19/house-investigate-extremism-...

Democrats on a key House panel joined Republicans in a unanimous vote calling for a formal inquiry into the Homeland Security Department to determine how a contentious report that described military veterans as possible recruits for radical extremists was developed and distributed. In a rare bipartisan manner, the House Homeland Security Committee agreed to a resolution of inquiry that calls for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to turn over all documents used to draft the report "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." "When this DHS-produced assessment first surfaced in April, like many Americans, I had issues with its content," said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the committee. "Certainly its definition of 'rightwing extremism,' which did not clarify that extremist violence was the department's true focus, raised considerable concern," Mr. Thompson said. "So did the suggestion that returning war veterans posed a potential threat to the homeland." The subpoena measure was originally introduced May 6 by Rep. Peter T. King of New York, the panel's ranking Republican, along with other GOP leaders. But the move was criticized then by Mr. Thompson as "another GOP stunt aimed at embarrassing the new administration." The full House must approve the subpoena for documents before it becomes binding. The documents must be turned over within 14 legislative days of such a vote. ..

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; TSA Press Releases http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/index.shtm

8. Biodefense labs make bad neighbors, residents say
A series of state and federal lawsuits have blocked the opening of a lab complex in Boston. Neighbors are nervous that toxins could get out, and some scientists are likewise skeptical.
By Bob Drogin From the Los Angeles Times May 17, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-biolabs17-2009may17...

Reporting from Boston — Klare Allen, a once-homeless mother turned community activist, was stunned at a public meeting in 2002 when she and her friends learned that Boston University Medical Center officials planned to build a biological defense laboratory in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods… Seven years later, the $198-million lab complex stands completed between an apartment building and a flower market. But state and federal lawsuits by anxious residents, backed by skeptical scientists, have blocked the opening until late next year at the earliest. The battle marks the first major setback in the vast growth since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of labs authorized to research the world's most dangerous diseases. It also underscores a growing debate over the safety and security of such labs -- and whether so many are needed. Federal officials and scientists say the labs will not secretly create germ weapons, which the United States renounced in 1969, but they are determined to stiffen America's defenses against pathogens that terrorists might use…

9. Hunt under way for former San Jose water company employee accused of stealing $9 million
By Howard Mintz San Jose Mercury News Posted: 05/13/2009 04:36:53 PM PDT
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12362552

Federal agents say they are on the hunt for a former California Water Service Co. employee who quit his job a few weeks ago, broke into the firm's computers to wire $9 million into overseas bank accounts and then fled the region when confronted with criminal charges in Santa Clara County. In court documents filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, law enforcement officials have charged Abdirahman Ismail Abdi with unlawful flight from prosecution after he disappeared from the area earlier this month. Local prosecutors and police determined that Abdi has been trying to flee the country since at least May 1, when he tried to book a flight to London just days after police searched his South Bay home. Court papers show that Abdi, 32, resigned from his job as an auditor for the San Jose water company April 27 and was spotted by a janitor returning that night to the office of a former co-worker. The following morning, water officials discovered that Abdi had engineered three wire transfers totaling more than $9 million from the company's accounts to an account in Qatar. The accounts were frozen and the money returned to the water company, according to court papers. But San Jose police then closed in on Abdi, finding that he had put his wife and two children on a plane to Frankfurt, Germany, on April 28. Officials believe Abdi fled the country, perhaps to Canada, on May 5, according to a letter sent last week from the district attorney's office to San Jose federal prosecutors… According to the same letter, Abdi is not a U.S. citizen and was ordered deported to Somalia in 2005.

10. NYC to Expand Emergency Notification System
Weekend Terror Drill at World Trade Center Site Successful, Authorities Say
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MEGAN CHUCHMACH and MARK CRUDELE ABC News May 18, 2009—
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7614074&page=1

After what New York City authorities are calling a successful terror drill over the weekend at the World Trade Center site, the city is moving to expand a "Notify NYC" system that alerts residents and businesses by e-mail, text message and telephone to emergencies either city wide or in a targeted area or borough. Often called "reverse 911" the system has been used or tested successfully in a number of other cities across the country as a way to move residents to safety in the face of natural calamities -- hurricanes, flooding or dam collapse and is also intended to work in terror or other "man made" emergencies, officials say. In New York it has been successfully used, city officials say, in a pilot program across four neighborhoods. It was launched following the former Deustche Bank fire right off the site of Ground Zero. In that case residents did not know what was the source of smoke, or whether they needed to take shelter or evacuate. City officials say the system has proved effective in the terror drill, a recent lower Manhattan building collapse and in the case of the recent planned but aborted second military flyover of the city. Any resident or business can sign up for the program at: nyc.gov/notifynyc…

11. Elite West Point program prepares FDNY members for terrorist attacks

COLLEEN LONG 2:36 PM EDT, May 19, 2009 Associated Press

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3449
NEW YORK (AP) — Fire Capt. John Feehan escaped death in the Sept. 11 attacks, worked for months on the smoldering pile and mourned the loss of his father and friends who died there — so he considered himself pretty knowledgeable about terrorism. Now, with the help of an elite course taught at West Point for members of the New York Fire Department, he's an expert… Firefighters and emergency medical services crews are already trained on the tactics of handling mass casualties, and in how to respond to an improvised explosive. The course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point goes beyond tactics and into the theory and history of terrorism around the globe. The class studied hypothetical scenarios like a chemical attack in the subway system, the detonation of a 1-kiloton nuclear device on Wall Street and a shutdown of the municipal water system. They pored over works by political scientists, government officials and other experts to understand the ideologies, causes and methods of terrorism. Students are expected to participate in lectures and average about 100 pages a week in reading…

12. Obama's IT cuts for K-12 could jeopardize schools' cybersecurity
By Jill R. Aitoro 05/19/2009

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090519_8467.php

President Obama's proposed cuts in federal technology grants for K-12 education could make it more difficult for schools to protect their networks from cyberattacks and students from online predators, said school officials in charge of information technology and security. Schools are already under cyberattack, officials point out. In the past 12 months, 55 percent of school districts reported a security breach, according to a survey of 400 K-12 IT officials conducted by IT solution provider CDW Government. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said a lack of funds were the primary reason they could not improve cybersecurity, and 56 percent said not enough staff resources hindered creating better security programs…

13. Plasma physics lab device has second life in homeland security
A serendipitous discovery
Posted May 18, 2009; 09:39 a.m. by Kitta MacPherson May 18, 2009, Princeton Weekly Bulletin
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S24/26/53K30/index.xml

In 1999, faced with the task of decommissioning the legendary Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), officials at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) realized they needed something that didn't yet exist -- a way to detect exactly what "hot" elements were lacing the inner vessel of the doughnut-shaped reactor. So they asked a team from the lab to invent a device that would identify each element in the reactor and how much was there. Ten years later, the group not only has successfully tackled that challenge, but it has won national recognition for a system that offers practical applications for homeland security and deterring radiological terrorist attacks. The "Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System" (MINDS) was designed by a group led by Charles Gentile, one of the lab's leading experts in radioactive materials…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

14. Cyberthieves steal millions from US banks-FBI
Tue May 19, 2009 3:44pm EDT Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN19430000200...

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. banks have lost hundreds of millions of dollars to cyberthieves who have electronically broken into ATMs and forged electronic transfers, a top FBI agent said on Tuesday. "Particularly in the last couple of years, the threats have spiked," said Shawn Henry, the agency's assistant director of its cyber division. "Attacks on our financial sector are significant, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars." The bureau knew of one bank whose security system was breached and which lost $10 million in cash in a day, while another lost $5 million, enough to put it out of business. "The bank was in business on Friday (and) was out of business on Monday," he said. Henry did not identify either bank. President Barack Obama's proposed fiscal 2010 budget, announced in late February, included $355 million for the Department of Homeland Security to make private- and public-sector cyber infrastructure more resilient and secure...

Border security, immigration, customs

IPT NOTE: For more details, see US Customs and Border Protection releases at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/ ; US Immigration and Customs Enforcement http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2754 , and Canada Border Services Agency http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html

15. FBI Joins Probe of Murder of Four Young Americans in Mexico
Monday , May 18, 2009 Fox News By Joshua Rhett Miller

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520574,00.html

The gruesome murder of four young Americans in Tijuana remains unsolved, and Mexican authorities are investigating the possibility that the killings may be linked to the country's burgeoning illegal drug trade. The bodies of the victims — who were reportedly beaten, stabbed and strangled — were found inside a van in eastern Tijuana on May 9, two days after at least two of them told relatives in Southern California that they were going to the border city for a night of partying. Charles Smith, a spokesman for the U.S consulate in Tijuana, identified the victims as Luis Gamez Chaves, 21; Oscar Garcia III, 23; Brianna Hernandez, 19; and 20-year-old Carmen Jimena Ramos. All four were U.S. citizens from the San Diego-Chula Vista area. Mexican prosecutors told the Associated Press they had ruled out the possibility that the killings were a case of drug cartels targeting tourists. Investigators for the Baja California state prosecutor's office are reportedly examining a threatening letter to one of the victims sent from a jail inmate in San Diego. Mexican officials said a toxicology report on Hernandez's body tested positive for cocaine, the AP reported. Another victim, Garcia, was apprehended in the San Diego area with six illegal immigrants in a car, but he was not charged, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Lauren Mack confirmed to FOXNews.com. No arrests have been made and no motive has been identified. FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said bureau officials in San Diego were providing assistance to Mexican authorities. He declined to elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation...

16. U.S. to Expand Immigration Checks to All Local Jails
Obama Administration's Enforcement Push Could Lead to Sharp Increase in Deportation Cases

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Tuesday, May 19, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR200905...

Correction to This Article
Earlier versions of this article, including in the print edition of today's Washington Post, incorrectly said a program that checks the immigration status of local jail inmates was already underway in Los Angeles. The program will be launched in that city later this year.
The Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by President George W. Bush aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. In four years, the measure could result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation, current and former U.S. officials said. By matching inmates' fingerprints to federal immigration databases, authorities hope to pinpoint deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Inmates in federal and state prisons already are screened. But authorities generally lack the time and staff to do the same at local jails, which house up to twice as many illegal immigrants at any time and where inmates come and go more quickly. The effort is likely to significantly reshape immigration enforcement, current and former executive branch officials said. It comes as the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress vow to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes, rather than those who otherwise abide by the law…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

17. DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 342-09 May 18, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12683
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. David A. Schaefer Jr., 27, of Belleville, Ill., died May 16 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Schweinfurt, Germany…

18. Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood officials face 'terror camp' charges
May 18, 2009
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3327713044

Cairo, 18 May (AKI) - Thirteen officials from Egypt's banned opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, have been formally charged with terrorism and money laundering in Cairo. According to the Arab daily, al-Hayat, the leaders have been accused of running "secret training camps called 'jihadist camps' where they trained groups of students in armed combat". The most important member of the group, Osama Nasr, has been accused of "having supported an illegal group that uses terrorism to achieve its aims and publishes brochures and and books to spread its ideological message, recycling money obtained from terrorism". Prosecutors claim that the accused hid their training camps behind the guise of so called "sports camps" and young recruits were taught how to use arms before being sent to "war zones" to show their solidarity for besieged Gazans their and opposition to Israel's recent military offensive. The leaders were arrested last week in Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in the north.…

19. Somali pirates embrace capture as route to Europe
Somali pirates might be allowing themselves to be deliberately captured in order to take advantage of European asylum laws, Dutch legal experts have warned.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Published: 2:30PM BST 19 May 2009 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3450

Pirates captured after attacking a Dutch vessel have gone on trial in the liberal Netherlands and at least two of them have declared their intention to stay on as residents. Geert-Jan Knoops, an international criminal law attorney and professor at the Royal University of Utrecht, has suggested that the Dutch trial might encourage pirates to surrender just in order to seek a better life in Western countries. '"These trials may trigger other pirates to let themselves be arrested on purpose," he told the Volkskrant newspaper. "The Dutch Justice department must be cautious. I cannot imagine the five alleged pirates would voluntarily return to Somalia after their conviction."…

20. Shabaab on the offensive in Somalia
Written by Bill Roggio on May 18, 2009 12:45 PM to The Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/05/shabaab_on_the_offen.php

The newly formed Somali government is in danger of being ousted from its remaining strongholds in Mogadishu and central Somalia as Shabaab and Hizbul Islam took control of a key city.
Shabaab and Hizbul Islam seized the central town of Jowhar in Hiran province after several days of fighting with the pro-government Islamic Courts. Dozens civilians and fighters from both sides were killed as the rival Islamist groups battled for control of the region. Shabaab, or the Somali Youth Movement, is an al Qaeda-backed Islamic terror group that has lobbied to join the international terrorist organization. Hizbul Islam was created in January of this year. The group was created by the merger of four separate Islamic groups: Hassan Aweys' Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia-Eritrea, Jabhatul Islamiya (the Islamic Front), Mu'askar Ras Kamboni (the Ras Kamboni Brigade), and Anole. Hizbul Islam was led by Sheik Omar Iman Abu Bakar but was ousted by Aweys for being too moderate. Shabaab is also battling the pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljama Islamist militia in the towns of Wabho and Mahas in the central province of Galgadud. Wabho is described as a "military town" by local villagers. More than two dozen people are reported to have been wounded during the heavy fighting...

21. Italians reported among young insurgents in Somalia
BBC Monitoring Europe – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
May 18, 2009 Monday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
Text of report by Italian leading privately-owned centre-right newspaper Corriere della Sera, on 18 May
[Report by Massimo A. Alberizzi: "Somalia: Advance of the Fundamentalists -With Them 'Italian' Islamics"]
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
IPT NOTE: The cited Corriere della Sera story is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3446
Nairobi -For a few days now a battle has been raging in Mogadishu between TFG [Transitional Federal Government] troops, led by the moderate Islamic Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed, and Al-Shabab fundamentalist insurgents. The latter, after fierce fighting, yesterday managed to take Giohar, which lies at a distance of approximately 90 kilometres from the capital. The fundamentalists, however, suffered a serious setback because of the defection of their most committed commander, Shaykh Yusuf Mohamud Siad, known as Inda 'Adde [White Eyes], who yesterday at dawn, after a heated assembly with his clan (the habergidir/aer) elders, decided to hand over a part of his arsenal to the government. However, Inda 'Adde is no novice in terms of sudden side-changes. International organizations (none of which has expatriate personnel in the Somali capital) put the number of dead at 200, the wounded at 500, and the homeless to at least 10,000. Saturday, for the first time, a spokesman for the Shabab ("youth," in Arabic) admitted that there were foreign combatants in his ranks. According to Yussuf Hassan, a stringer for the Corriere della Sera, there are Italians included among them. It is not known whether they are naturalized Muslims, or Italian converts to Islam. One of the fundamentalist leaders, Shaykh Hassan Abdallah Hersi, better known as Hassan Turki, the most fundamentalist of all, transferred his militiamen to Mogadishu so as to be able to fight alongside the Shabab. Hersi, who for the Americans is Al-Qa'idah's man in Somalia, is the guerrilla chief who, with his men, controls Somalia's entire southern region. His base is located in Ras Chiamboni, on the border with Kenya. Another Shabab leader, Shaykh Hassan Daher Aweis, instead, has been removed from the US terrorist list. Therefore, he will be allowed to take part in future peace negotiations. With this move, Washington seems to be following the Italian line, supported by [Italy's] former special envoy [to Somalia] Mario Raffaelli, according to whom peace in Somalia can be achieved only through dialogue, and not by muscle-flexing. Raffaeli remained unheeded, and no longer occupies himself with Somali matters…

L' offensiva Scontri anche a Mogadiscio, duecento morti
Somalia, gli integralisti avanzano Con loro islamici «italiani»
Verso la capitale Gli Shebab, legati ad Al Qaeda, hanno conquistato Giohar, una novantina di chilometri dalla capitale

Alberizzi Massimo Pagina 15 (18 maggio 2009) - Corriere della Sera

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3446

22. Egypt holds suspect in Schalit kidnapping

May. 18, 2009 Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3451

The Egyptian security services have arrested a Gazan university student in connection with the kidnapping of IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, sources close to Hamas revealed on Monday. The suspect, Ahmed Atta, 22, is the son of an Egyptian man and a Palestinian woman. The father, Mahmoud, previously served as an imam and has been wanted by Egypt's General Intelligence Service for nearly a decade on suspicion of membership in a radical Islamic organization and plotting terrorist attacks against government institutions and foreign tourists in Egypt, the sources said. The father is believed to have fled to the Gaza Strip when the Palestinians knocked down the security barrier along the border with Egypt for 11 days in January/February 2008…

IAF bombs Gaza targets in retaliation for Kassam attack

May. 19, 2009 JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3452

Several hours after Palestinians fired a Kassam rocket into a Sderot residential area for the first time in over two months, the IAF responded by bombing targets in the Gaza Strip. The army said it attacked two weapons production sites in Gaza City and four smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border. Four people were reportedly wounded in the strikes. The Kassam launched earlier by terrorists in the Strip slammed into a storeroom in the backyard of a home. A woman was lightly wounded and evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital. Several other people were treated for shock, while both the storeroom and the house sustained damage. The rocket was a 115-millimeter projectile, a police source told the Jerusalem Post…

ASIA / PACIFIC

23. DoD Identifies Army Casualties
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 343-09 May 18, 2009

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12684
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died May 15 at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire in Chak, Afghanistan. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Esau I. De la Pena-Hernandez, 25, of La Puente, Calif.; Sgt. Carlie M. Lee, III, 23, of Birmingham, Ala…

24. Afghan Girls' Illness Prompts Theories
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG MAY 19, 2009 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124268603363232099.html

CHARIKAR, Afghanistan -- Three times in the past three weeks at three different schools in Afghanistan, dozens of girls have been rushed to hospital after collapsing or becoming ill. In all three schools, the students say just before falling ill they smelled an odor that some described as perfume or sweet flowers. Others said rotting garbage or cigarette smoke. A few of the students collapsed; others complained of headaches, dizziness, vomiting and stinging in the eyes. That much is beyond dispute. But what caused about 200 schoolgirls -- most teenagers -- to fall ill abruptly and quickly recover in two northern Afghanistan towns remains a mystery. Some Afghanis say they fear the Taliban, which is opposed to education for girls and has made the country a terrifying place for many women -- has found a new weapon to keep girls from school: poison. But with no conclusive evidence of that, a small number of experts and officials say they wonder if instead, the girls are suffering from a mass psychological disorder, brought on by the very real fear of being attacked for going to school. "At first, we all thought it was poison. What else could cause this?" said Muhammad Qassim, the health director of Parwan province, where two of the affected schools are located. Blood tests on the victims turned up nothing, he said in an interview. "We have to consider everything," he said… For now, Afghan officials maintain poison is the most likely explanation. Authorities have arrested six people; they haven't released any details about the suspects or filed charges against them. U.S. Army Col. Scott Spellmon, whose forces are aiding the investigation, said Afghan and American authorities are testing brown powder found at all three schools. They should have results in a few days, he said...

25. A Notorious Terrorist Who Refused to Compromise to the End
By PETER WONACOTT Wall Street Journal MAY 19, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124269099109232581.html
NEW DELHI -- Velupillai Prabhakaran was rarely photographed without jungle fatigues that, to his supporters, symbolized the ferocity and dedication with which he pursued the war for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. His arch-foes in the Sri Lanka military, meanwhile, portrayed the Tamil Tiger chief as a well-fed armchair commander who lived in luxury as he sent others to fight and die. But for the past year, as Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war wound down to a bloody end, Mr. Prabhakaran fit neither of those images. Instead, he beat a desperate retreat, trying to stay one step ahead of the brutal offensive the Sri Lankan army launched to capture him and his senior leadership. His reported death capped a life dedicated to the goal of a separate state for ethnic Tamils, even though his militancy resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of his own people…

EUROPE

26. Intelligence officials 'laughed' at al Qaeda 7/7 bomb link
Senior intelligence officials initially dismissed suggestions the July 7 bombings were al Qaeda linked, it has been claimed.
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent The Daily Telegraph (London) 19 May 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3453

Chris Driver-Williams, a former senior IED analyst for the Defence Intelligence Staff said his claim provoked laughter at a meeting of intelligence agencies on the morning of the bombings. One senior intelligence officer attending the Cobra meeting said the idea of an al Qaeda link was "absurd". Al-Qaeda terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers"When I suggested this at Cobra, I was met with laughter. This was by people in the intelligence community who knew their onions," Mr Driver-Williams said. "Someone senior from an intelligence organisation said: 'Who are you and what possibly qualifies you to come out with such an absurd statement?"' Later that day the al Qaida link was widely accepted by investigators as the details of the simultaneous planned attacks became clear. Mr Driver-Williams, an expert in suicide terrorism, said the meeting showed the "information vortex" as the first reports of the blasts came in. It comes as the Intelligence and Security Committee is due to publish its second report in to the bombings which claimed the lives of 52 people and left hundreds more injured. It is expected to clear the Security Service of missing opportunities to prevent the attacks…

Analysis: 7/7 missed opportunities make uncomfortable reading

Michael Evans, Defence Editor Times Online (London) May 19, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6319076.ece

The missed opportunities to uncover the July 7 suicide bombers before they launched their attack on that fateful morning in 2005 make uncomfortable reading. So much was known but, equally, so much was unknown about Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shazad Tanweer in the two years leading up to July 7. If MI5 had had the extra manpower and funds which are available today, it is reasonable to conclude that some smart desk officer at the Security Service would have have been able to draw together all the intelligence strands and come up with the right answers. The parliamentary Intelligence and security Committee, repeats its previous finding in its first report in 2006 that no one can be blamed. Nevertheless, the detail produced in the latest review of the facts provides a tragic insight into how MI5 was so overwhelmed by the pressures of the surveillance operations against dozens of terrorist suspects at the time that many of the individuals who came into their radar were given low-priority labels. And as a result, terrorists slipped through the net…

MI5 could only track one in 20 terror suspects ahead of London bombings

Sean O'Neill, Crime and Security Editor From Times Online (London) May 19, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6318698.ece
MI5 could only properly track one in 20 of the people it connected with terror cells in the run up to the July 7 London bombings, a detailed analysis of the intelligence service's actions concluded today. The second report by the Intelligence and Security Committee into the bombings, in which 52 people died and 1,000 were injured, describes the finding as 'astounding' and records that Mohammed Siddique Khan, the terrorist ringleader, crossed the radar of police and MI5 on at least nine occasions. But at no time was he properly traced and identified and neither he nor his key lieutenant, Shazad Tanweer, were ever categorised as "essential" targets...