2-20-09 Daily intel Brief

1. Iran Has a Third More Enriched Uranium Than Thought, Inspectors Say
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER New York TimesFebruary 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/world/middleeast/20nuke.html

In their first appraisal of Iran's nuclear program since President Obama took office, atomic inspectors have found that Iran recently understated by a third how much uranium it has enriched, United Nations officials said Thursday. The officials also declared for the first time that the amount of uranium that Tehran had now amassed — more than a ton — was sufficient, with added purification, to make an atom bomb. In a report issued in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had discovered an additional 460 pounds of low-enriched uranium, a third more than Iran had previously disclosed. The agency made the find during its annual physical inventory of nuclear materials at Iran's sprawling desert enrichment plant at Natanz. Independent nuclear weapons experts expressed surprise at the disclosure and criticized the atomic inspectors for making independent checks on Iran's progress only once a year…

2. Succession Struggle In N. Korea Hinders Talks, Clinton Says

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Friday, February 20, 2009; A18

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2690

SEOUL, Feb. 20 -- A succession struggle appears to be underway in North Korea and is hampering efforts to restart talks on its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday. In unusually direct comments, Clinton said that if North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died, there was the prospect of heightened tensions in Northeast Asia… In August, when Kim failed to appear at North Korea's 60th-anniversary parade, U.S. intelligence officials said they believed Kim had suffered a stroke -- an assertion that North Korean media vehemently denied as a cruel hoax. Kim did not reappear in public view until recently, and U.S. officials continue to believe he suffered some sort of medical malady. Clinton said she would seek advice from South Korean and Chinese officials about their latest intelligence on the power dynamics in Pyongyang... Clinton's concern, however, contrasts with that of National Intelligence Director Dennis C. Blair, who told Congress last week that Kim still appears to be in control and is "making key decisions." Kim's recent public activities "suggest his health has improved significantly," Blair told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "The state's control apparatus by all accounts remains strong, sustaining dismal conditions of human rights in North Korea."…

3. EXCLUSIVE: Spy agency focus of shakeup
Bill Gertz Thursday, February 19, 2009 Washington Times
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2676

Two senior U.S. counterintelligence officials have left positions inside the agency that coordinates America's efforts to root out foreign spies after an inspector general review identified management problems, government officials said. Marion E. "Spike" Bowman, a veteran intelligence lawyer for the Navy and FBI, told The Washington Times that he stepped down last month as the No. 2 official inside the National Counterintelligence Executive Office (NCIX) after an inspector general's management review raised questions about his leadership and ethics issues. Mr. Bowman declined to be more specific. NCIX chief of staff Robert L. Hubbard also was reassigned to another post in the aftermath of the IG review, officials said. Mr. Hubbard declined to comment through an agency spokesman. The agency's chief, National Counterintelligence Executive Joel F. Brenner, told The Times that neither official was dismissed but that it was his decision to prompt the moves. "I felt it was time to make a change in NCIX management," he said, declining to be more specific because of personnel privacy issues. Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the committee was informed that the IG probe had uncovered problems and recommended some management changes inside NCIX…

4. Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz Washington Times Thursday, February 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2678

China blinks

China's government and military have blinked in the standoff over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, with the People's Liberation Army lifting its ban on Pentagon talks and visits without an end to weapons sales to the island. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Inside the Ring that the resumption of military exchanges will go forward without the Pentagon's agreement to China's demand that no exchanges be held until the $6.5 billion U.S. arms package to the island is canceled. Asked about the status of the arms package and China's demand, Mr. Whitman said in a statement that "the U.S. policy on arms sales to Taiwan remains unchanged," repeating comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday...

Afghanistan troops

President Obama's announcement Tuesday that 17,000 additional U.S. troops will deploy to Afghanistan is part of a larger Iraq-style troop surge that is expected to involve dispatching a total of 30,000 U.S. troops and, it is hoped, additional allied troops to the embattled Southwest Asian state over the coming 12 months, military officials said. The troop deployment is the most visible element of the administration's initiative, which is adapted from the successful troop surge in Iraq. More than just sending U.S. troops, military planners and policymakers are hoping the additional U.S. forces will spur European allies to increase the numbers of their troops operating in Afghanistan. "Hopefully, the allies will pick up their levels, too," one military officer said. "That is what is expected." A second major focus of the surge will be bolstering Afghan government forces and implementing a nationwide program to develop a civilian infrastructure…

Missile defense battle

Defense officials say an internal political battle is under way over plans first announced in 2006 to build a $2 billion missile-defense interceptor site in Poland and the Czech Republic. The site is to have 10 interceptors in Poland and related radar in the Czech Republic designed to counter Iranian missiles. Both governments are fighting domestic political opponents of the defense system. Some in the Obama administration want to cancel the deployment over concerns that it will upset arms-control talks with Moscow, which are planned to try to foster cooperation with Russia despite the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer, which soured ties. Those in the Pentagon who favor missile defense told Inside the Ring that cutting the European missile-defense deployment would pose diplomatic and security problems. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the policy dispute, said that cancellation would undermine U.S. efforts to persuade NATO allies to do more to defend Europe against Iranian missiles. NATO unanimously approved the site...

Pakistan drone base

CIA and Pentagon officials are upset by the public confirmation last week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, that U.S. unmanned aerial-vehicle (UAV) attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists are being launched from a U.S. base in Pakistan. Mrs. Feinstein revealed during a Feb. 12 hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence with retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, director of national intelligence, that a U.S. base in Pakistan is being used to launch UAV strikes on militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. The comments were made in the context of Pakistani leaders' frequent public comments criticizing the U.S. drone attacks. "The comments were puzzling, to say the least," a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told Inside the Ring…

5. Mumbai attackers had hit list of 320 world targets
Lashkar-e-Taiba ringleaders had ambitions well beyond causing mayhem in India, the Guardian has learned

Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondent The Guardian (UK) 19 February 2009 16.31 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/19/mumbai-attacks-list-targets

The plotters behind the Mumbai attack, which left more than 170 people dead, had placed India's financial capital on a list of 320 worldwide locations as potential targets for commando-style terror strikes, the Guardian has learned. It suggests that Lashkar-e-Taiba, the outlawed terror group that planned much of the attack from Pakistan, had ambitions well beyond causing mayhem in India. Western intelligence agencies have accessed the computer and email account of Lashkar's communications chief, Zarar Shah, and found a list of possible targets, only 20 of which were in India. Two of the November 2008 attack's key planners – Shah and Lashkar's operations chief, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi – are now in police custody in Pakistan… The US has been trying behind the scenes to co-ordinate intelligence exchanges between the two nuclear-armed rivals. The CIA has worked hard to be seen to help New Delhi – including by recovering phone numbers deleted by the terrorists on their satellite phones…

6. Terrorist in 1973 NYC bomb plot to be deported
By ADAM GOLDMAN Associated Press February 19, 2009

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/19/america/NA-US-Mystery-Terroris...

NEW YORK - A Black September terrorist who served only about half his 30-year sentence for planting three car bombs in New York City in 1973 was released Thursday into the custody of immigration officials to be deported. Khalid Al-Jawary, 63, was released from the Supermax maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., said Carl Rusnok, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. Rusnok said a federal immigration judge had signed a deportation order for Al-Jawary. Al-Jawary's release date was set for Thursday after he was credited with time served before his sentencing and good behavior. Rusnok declined to say where Al-Jawary was being held as he awaits deportation. It's also not clear when Al-Jawary will be deported or where he will be sent. The mysterious terrorist had many aliases and was known to use fake passports from Jordan, Iraq and France. Al-Jawary has denied involvement in the 1973 New York City bomb plot; he claims his real name is Khaled Mohammed El-Jassem. The FBI to this day remains unsure of his true identity; his nom de guerre was Abu Walid al-Iraqi… Retired FBI agents John Syron and Jim Phelan, who worked the case in 1973, said freeing Al-Jawary was a mistake. The bombs would have killed many people if they had gone off, they said...

7. Federal ruling blocks detainees' release from Guantánamo Bay
BY MARISA TAYLOR Posted on Thu, Feb. 19, 2009 Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/story/910804.html

A decision by a federal appeals court Wednesday blocked the release of 17 Guantánamo Bay detainees into the United States and renewed pressure on the Obama administration to deliver on its promise to close the prison. The ruling applies to a group of Uighurs, a Chinese Muslim minority, who've been imprisoned since May 2002. The men are among scores at the prison whom the military has cleared for release or transfer but who are stuck in limbo because the U.S. government can't find a country to ship them to. The U.S. government and the Uighurs say the detainees can't return to China because they'll be tortured as political dissidents. So far, no other country has agreed to take them. Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote in the majority opinion that courts don't have the authority to order the transfer of foreigners into the United States; only Congress and the executive branch do. A U.S. district judge last fall had ordered the men released and transferred to the United States…

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

8. U.S. must craft cyberwarfare battle strategy
America has to face up to the realities of cyberwarfare with tactical and strategic planning, Kurtz says

By William Jackson Gov't Computer News Feb 18, 2009

http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/02/18/Black-Hat-Federal-Kurtz.aspx

The intelligence community and the military have crucial roles to play in protecting cyber space, former presidential adviser Paul E. Kurtz said Wednesday, and a clear command and control structure is needed to ensure that our information infrastructure can survive and recover from major disruptions. In his opening address at the Black Hat Federal security conference being held in Arlington, Va., Kurtz, who served on the National and Homeland Security councils under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said the nation has been reluctant to consider the proper role of government in regulating and defending cyberspace. He said it is important that these decisions be made openly after public discussion rather than allowed to happen behind closed doors…

9. Defense calls Liberty City Six terror case a 'setup'
BY JAY WEAVER Feb 19, 2009 Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/910709.html

After two mistrials, federal prosecutors recast a Miami terrorism case on Wednesday around the leader of a fledgling religious group and his alleged role model, a convicted terrorist who gained notoriety decades ago. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango said during opening statements the inspiration for Miami ringleader Narseal Batiste's alleged militancy was Jeff Fort, a Chicago gang leader whom Batiste admired as a young adult living in that city. Arango said that Fort, a drug trafficker who led a black militant group in the 1960s, was convicted years later of conspiring with Libya to terrorize the United States… Arango said that Batiste's mission was to establish a Moorish religious group in Liberty City to recruit men from one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods to conspire with al Qaeda to blow up major public and private buildings -- including Chicago's Sears Tower. Batiste, 34, and five of his followers are charged with conspiring to support the terrorist organization, destroy property and break away from the United States... But Batiste's lawyer shouted in the courtroom that no crime was committed by any of the defendants. "Taking an oath to al Qaeda is not a crime," Jhones said three times, adding that Batiste wasn't interested in weapons, explosives or violence -- only in obtaining money from the FBI informant.

10. Feds refute imams' bias complaint against US Airways
But airline must update booking policy
By David Hanners Pioneer Press Updated: 02/18/2009 11:53:10 PM CST
http://www.twincities.com/ci_11733883?

The U.S. Department of Transportation has said an airline didn't discriminate against six Muslim imams when it kicked them off a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006. "While we acknowledge the actions of US Airways' personnel could be perceived by some as discriminatory in this circumstance, we find the decision to remove the Imams from the aircraft was based on information available to the captain at the time and was reasonable," Samuel Podberesky, the agency's assistant general counsel, wrote in a Jan. 14 letter to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The Transportation Department did fault US Airways, though, for refusing to book the men on another flight after the FBI cleared them and a federal air marshal told the airline the men posed no threat. Podberesky said the agency was "putting US Airways on notice" that if it didn't come up with written policies for such instances, "more formal action will be taken."… The letter is among a stack of exhibits entered last week in a lawsuit the imams filed against the airline and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. The men, who were flying to Phoenix after attending a conference in Minneapolis, claim they were the victims of racial and religious profiling because they appeared Middle Eastern and some of them prayed before boarding the flight. The case is scheduled to go to trial in August. The airline has asked for a summary judgment in its favor, and next month, U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery will hear the airline's request, along with motions by an FBI agent and six airport police officers who want to be dropped as defendants...

11. Cops make bang to blow up stolen explosives case
By GILLIAN FLACCUS – Associated Press Feb 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2687

ORANGE, Calif. (AP) — When 150 pounds of highly unstable commercial-grade dynamite went missing, officials knew just what to do: Blow something up to demonstrate how dangerous high explosives can be. Federal and local authorities, hoping to trigger a tip after four months of fruitless leads, detonated one-third of a pound of dynamite borrowed from the FBI on Wednesday. The demonstration, within sight of Anaheim Stadium and near a bike path, created a bright orange flash and a 40-foot-tall plume of smoke that quickly dispersed… Authorities have also offered a $25,000 reward for help in finding who stole the explosives last year from a man who stored them in a locked container on a remote hillside near the Cleveland National Forest... Bomb squad agents and officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives insist the staged explosion will help crack the case — and say it's a public safety issue...

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

12. IRS suit: Customers of Swiss bank UBS hid assets from us
BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN Miami Herald Feb 19, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/911682.html

Up to 52,000 U.S. customers of Swiss banking giant UBS hid their assets from the federal government in violation of tax laws, according to a civil suit filed by the Internal Revenue Service Thursday. The civil action Thursday comes on the heels of a historic criminal settlement Wednesday with UBS, under which the bank agreed to pay a $780 million fine and to release the names of certain U.S. customers of UBS to the federal government. About 250 UBS clients may face criminal tax charges in that portion of the government's crusade. Thursday's suit seeks the names of a much larger number of the U.S. clients involved in shielding assets from the tax man. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, said about $14.8 billion in assets has been shielded from the government's view. If the court orders enforcement of the civil summons, it puts UBS in a tough spot between satisfying the IRS or complying with Swiss government requirements of bank secrecy…

U.S. Wants More Client Names From UBS

Wall Street Journal Feb 20, 2009
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP, GLENN R. SIMPSON and DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123506522244024485.html?mod=testMod

The Justice Department sued UBS AG to obtain access to 52,000 UBS AG accounts belonging to U.S. clients -- some 30,000 more than previously known -- a day after reaching an agreement to settle a criminal investigation that called for the Swiss bank to turn over 250 accounts in a wide-ranging tax-evasion probe. While the court filing in Miami was expected, the increased number of accounts being sought was a surprise to UBS, said a person familiar with the situation… If authorities find evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the account holders, they are likely to bring fraud cases against them… New IRS documents also detail secret transaction codes used to shroud client information -- for example, using the word "swan" to denote a $1 million transaction…

13. SEC names Robert Khuzami new enforcement chief
By MARCY GORDON – Associated Press Feb 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2686

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday named a former federal prosecutor as its new enforcement chief to lead the embattled agency's drive to strengthen its pursuit of financial fraud. Robert Khuzami has been a top legal official on Wall Street at investment firm Deutsche Bank since 2004. Before that he worked for 11 years in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and prosecuted insider trading cases, Ponzi schemes and other financial crimes. Khuzami, 52, replaces Linda Thomsen, the SEC enforcement director since May 2005.… Besides leading several major financial fraud cases, Khuzami also prosecuted the "Blind Sheik" Omar Ahmed Ali Abdel Rahman in what was then the largest terrorism trial in U.S. history following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Ten defendants were convicted of operating a terrorist organization responsible for the bombing, the assassination of Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane, and planning bomb attacks on law enforcement and other high-profile targets…

14. Charges Against Stanford a Long Time Coming, Offshore Banking Experts Say
Accused Financier Under Federal Drug Investigation
By JUSTIN ROOD and BRIAN ROSS February 19, 2009— ABC News

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6907429&page=1

Offshore banking experts say that the fraud charges this week against accused financial scammer R. Allen Stanford have been a long time coming. "There's no surprise at all," said Washington lawyer and IRS consultant Jack Blum. "This man has been on law enforcement's radar screen for the better part of 10 years." But the SEC didn't move forward until this week, after two former Stanford Financial whistleblowers filed an alleged lawsuit, which revealed how the bank lied about too-good-to-be-true certificates of deposit… But now the SEC's fraud charges may be the least of Stanford's worries. Federal authorities tell ABC News that the FBI and others have been investigating whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel. Authorities tell ABC News that as part of the investigation, which has been ongoing since last year, Mexican authorities detained one of Stanford's private planes. According to officials, checks found inside the plane were believed to be connected to the Gulf cartel, reputed to be Mexico's most violent gang. Authorities say Stanford could potentially face criminal charges of money laundering and bribery of foreign officials...

FBI tracks down Allen Stanford as accusations emerge he laundered money for drug cartel
By David Gardner The Daily Mail (UK) Last updated at 1:34 AM on 20th February 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2688

Sir Allen Stanford was found in Virginia and served with legal papers - but he is not under arrest
Fugitive financier Sir Allen Stanford has been tracked down by the FBI as he faced sensational new accusations of laundering money for a violent drug gang. The flamboyant cricket impresario was served with civil legal papers from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the government financial regulators who have accused him of a 'massive fraud'. Although he has been confronted by FBI agents in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Stanford has not been charged with any crime. The SEC - which marshalls the US financial markets - has accused the billionaire tycoon of fraudulently selling £5.5billion in certificates of deposit with impossibly high interest rates from his Antiguan affiliate, Stanford International Bank, in an alleged scam that conned investors from around the world...

15. Terror victims sue U.S. oil companies for funding terror
Ha'aretz Feb 19, 2009 By Yossi Melman
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065339.html

American and Israeli victims of terrorism have filed a precedent-setting suit against three U.S. oil companies and their directors, charging them that they indirectly assisted the funding of terrorist organizations. This is the first time that Israeli victims of terrorism have filed a suit of this kind against American firms. The suit was filed in January at the U.S. District Court in the capital, Washington D.C., by attorneys Michael Miller and Gavriel Mairone against NuCoastal Corporation, El Paso Energy Corporation, Bayoil (USA) Inc., and directors Oscar Wyatt Jr. and David B. Chalmers Jr. To date, most suits by terror victims were filed against Arab or Iranian individuals, terrorist groups, Iran and various Arab states. The suit argues that the companies and their directors traded with Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the period 2000-2003 under the framework of the United Nations' Oil for Food program. Investigative reporting and a UN probe revealed that bribes were paid and other violations were carried out in order to bypass the limitations set by the program, which was meant to allow Iraq to sell some of its oil in order to purchase food and medical equipment for the civilian population of Iraq. The UN probe concluded that Saddam Hussein and senior officials of his regime also transferred funds to terrorist organizations and the families of suicide bombers, in order to encourage terrorism during the intifada. Saddam Hussein announced at the time that he would make a $25,000 contribution to the family of each terrorist. Among those benefiting from the money were Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Arab Liberation Front, a group set up during the 1960s by Iraqi intelligence. The suit emphasizes that the aim of these groups was to engage in systematic and widespread acts of terror, crimes against humanity and genocide with the publicly stated goal of destroying and eliminating the state of Israel and ethnically cleansing its Jewish population. The suit also mentions dozens of attacks that claimed the lives of more than 100 Israelis…

Border security, immigration, customs

16. Protests may be Mexican drug cartels' latest tactic in fighting military presence

Thursday, February 19, 2009 By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2689

MEXICO CITY – Drug cartels unleashed a new and potentially powerful weapon this week in their battle with the government, analysts say – the use of unarmed civilian protesters to demand the withdrawal of army soldiers in drug hot spots along the Mexico-Texas border. Protesters paralyzed nine bridges linking Mexico to Texas on Tuesday, and local, state and federal authorities allege that the demonstrators were paid by drug-trafficking groups. If true, it puts the government in a delicate position. The protesters have a constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully, and they face increasingly tough economic conditions, including growing unemployment and a $5-a-day minimum wage. "It's an evolution of the strategy of groups fighting the government to demonstrate and to signal their areas of control," said Arturo Yañez, a commentator on security issues. "These are people without AK-47s, without grenades, who can take control of international bridges, and the government doesn't do anything about it." Officials in Ciudad Juárez, where all U.S.-Mexico traffic was shut down Tuesday, said in a statement that they respected the right of people to protest "when it does not affect third parties." But they cited opinion polls showing that 80 percent of residents support the military presence. President Felipe Calderón has sent tens of thousands of troops to drug hot spots to contain spreading cartel violence…

COLUMN ONE
Border drug war is too close for comfort
Tiny Columbus, N.M., a haven for baby boomer retirees seeking cheap living, small-town values and solitude, can't quite believe that a bloody brawl has broken out on its doorstep.
By Scott Kraft February 19, 2009 From the Los Angeles Times
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2692

Reporting from Columbus, N.M. — The day began gently here on the U.S.-Mexico border… Columbus, a settlement of 1,800 people clinging to a wind-swept patch of high desert in southern New Mexico, was a picture of tranquillity. But less than three miles south, in the once-quaint Mexican town of Palomas, a war is being waged. Over the last year, a drug feud that has killed more than 1,350 people in sprawling Ciudad Juarez has spread to tiny Palomas, 70 miles west, where more than 40 people have been gunned down, a dozen within a baseball toss of the border. More -- no one knows how many -- have been kidnapped, and the Palomas police chief fled across the border last year and has asked for political asylum. Now Columbus is on edge. A haven for baby boomer retirees seeking cheap living, small-town values and blissful, if unpolished, solitude, Columbus can't quite believe that a bloody brawl has broken out on its doorstep. The anxiety increased recently when Columbus disbanded its five-member police force after a local political squabble, putting its safety in the hands of the county sheriff based half an hour away. Many are ruing the decision. Angry and fretful residents packed a recent village trustees meeting to argue the case…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

17. Syria 'rebuilding' chemical weapons capability
Syria is rebuilding its chemical weapons capability, according to satellite images analysed by Jane's Intelligence Review.
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:46PM GMT 18 Feb 2009 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2677

Any suggestion that Syria is enhancing the offensive potential of its chemical munitions threatens to provoke a new round of hostilities with Israel as it will be treated as an additional threat to Israel's existence. Israel caught the world by surprise by ordering an aerial attack on a suspected Syrian nuclear research centre in the country's the eastern desert in 2007. Syria has maintained stockpiles of chemical weapons, including Sarin gas and blister agents, for decades. But satellite images from two operators, GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, appeared to show significant efforts to update known facilities. The Janes's report said that new structures for warehousing and manufacturing complex chemical materials had been built. The buildings had sophisticated filtration systems and cooling towers. Bays for specially adapted Scud missiles had also been built. It has long been suggested in intelligence circles that Syria had acquired chemical weapons munitions from Iraq in the run-up to the US-led assault on the country. An analysis by JIR suggested that the work on the al-Safir facility in the north-west of the country had started in 2005, in the aftermath of the Iraq war, and was continuing last year. Jane's analysts said that al-Safir was among the most significant chemical weapons production, storage and weaponisation sites in Syria. "Its presence indicates Syria's desire to develop unconventional weapons either to act as a deterrent to conflict with Israel or as a force enhancer should any conflict ensue," said Christian LeMière, editor of JIR. "Further expansion of al-Safir is likely to antagonise Israel and highlight mutual mistrust, even as peace talks between the two neighbours progress intermittently…

18. Lebanese in Shock Over Arrest of an Accused Spy
By ROBERT F. WORTH February 19, 2009 New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/world/middleeast/19lebanon.html

MARAJ, Lebanon — For 25 years, Ali al-Jarrah managed to live on both sides of the bitterest divide running through this region. To friends and neighbors, he was an earnest supporter of the Palestinian cause, an affable, white-haired family man who worked as an administrator at a nearby school. To Israel, he appears to have been a valued spy, sending reports and taking clandestine photographs of Palestinian groups and Hezbollah since 1983. Now he sits in a Lebanese prison cell, accused by the authorities of betraying his country to an enemy state. Months after his arrest, his friends and former colleagues are still in shock over the extent of his deceptions: the carefully disguised trips abroad, the unexplained cash, the secret second wife. Lebanese investigators say he has confessed to a career of espionage spectacular in its scope and longevity, a real-life John le Carré novel. Many intelligence agents are said to operate in the civil chaos of Lebanon, but Mr. Jarrah's arrest has shed a rare light onto a world of spying and subversion that usually persists in secret. Mr. Jarrah's first wife maintains that he was tortured, and is innocent; requests to interview him were denied…

19. Face of Defense: Vietnam Vets Serve Again in Iraq
By Army Pfc. Jasmine N. Walthall Feb 19, 2009 Special to American Forces Press Service
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53149

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, Feb. 19, 2009 – Two deployed soldiers who served in the Vietnam War are serving again -- this time in Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Louis J. Swift and Army Chief Warrant Officer Steven M. Derry serve here with the 3-142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion, a National Guard unit from Ronkonkoma, N.Y. "I enlisted for Vietnam from 1967 to 1973," Swift, a Detroit native, said. "Then, I enlisted for a one-year term for Desert Storm in 1991." Swift serves as a crew chief and door gunner, jobs he has performed for the past 24 years. He is responsible for ensuring his assigned aircraft is safe by performing routine inspections prior to takeoff. This is Derry's second tour in Iraq. He serves as the officer in charge of the battalion's air movement request section. His job includes viewing flight schedules for battalion soldiers and ensuring they have adequate fuel and time to execute missions. The soldiers are quick to note the differences between serving in Iraq and Vietnam…

20. Somali clerics call for rule of Islamic law
Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:30am EST By Abdi Guled Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLJ122864

MOGADISHU, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Somali religious leaders have given the new government 120 days to declare that the Horn of Africa country will be ruled according to Islamic law, a cleric said on Thursday. A meeting of more than 100 mainly moderate clerics in the battle scarred capital also said African Union (AU) troops in Mogadishu should be withdrawn by the same deadline and no other foreign troops brought in. It was not clear what actions they would take if the deadlines were not met... The main threat to stability comes from al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of foreign terrorists. The hardline Islamists and allied groups control much of southern and central Somalia and want to impose their strict version of Islamic law. Diplomats in the region hope that Ahmed, Somalia's first Islamist president, will be able to bring moderate Islamists on board and marginalise al Shabaab, which is known to have foreign fighters within its ranks...

21. New al-Qaida message urges Yemenis to fight gov't
Associated Press Feb 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2684

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is urging Yemenis in a new audio recording to rise up against the government. The audio message was released on militant Web sites Thursday. In it, Naser Abdel Karim al-Wahishi also calls on Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries to help their brothers in Yemen. Al-Wahishi is Yemen's most wanted fugitive. He leads the formation which includes al-Qaida in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. He was among 23 al-Qaida figures who escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006. Yemen is re-emerging as a terrorist battleground and potential base of operations for al-Qaida…

22. Yemen sends terrorism suspect to Saudi Arabia
Associated Press Feb 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2685

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Yemen says it has handed over another alleged al-Qaida operative to authorities in Saudi Arabia. The Interior Ministry says it sent back the Saudi national, Ahmed Owaidan al-Harbi, on Thursday, 20 days after his arrest in eastern Yemen. The ministry hasn't released any details on al-Harbi's case. The extradition comes two days after Yemen returned another Saudi national who was once held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo and later became an al-Qaida operative in Yemen. Officials say that suspect, Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, surrendered himself…

23. Al Qaeda Commander in Saudi Custody May Still Pose Threat From Prison
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Fox News By Joseph Abrams

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,495984,00.html

A Saudi formerly detained at Guantanamo Bay who became an Al Qaeda field commander in Yemen after his release from a Saudi "rehabilitation" program was brought back into custody Tuesday — but experts say he may still pose a considerable threat. Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi lived quietly in Saudi Arabia for a year after his release from Guantanamo Bay in November 2007, but he re-emerged last month in a jihadist video that showed him in Yemen, wearing a bandolier of bullets and threatening the United States. Hailed by militants as a "fomenter of war," he was named by Saudi Arabia as one of the 85 most-wanted men who had fled the country. Under pressure in Yemen, he turned himself in and was brought back to his native country, where he has been placed once again in a rehabilitation program meant to wean jihadists away from radicalism. But al-Awfi returned to battle soon after his release from the program in 2008, and experts are worried that deeply committed terrorists like al-Awfi can never be fully rehabilitated…