4-16-09 Daily intel Brief
1. New Interrogation Details Emerge
As It Releases Justice Dept. Memos, Administration Reassures CIA Questioners
By Carrie Johnson and Julie Tate Washington Post Friday, April 17, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3194
Justice Department documents released yesterday offer the fullest account to date of Bush administration interrogation tactics, including previously undisclosed strategies of slamming a prisoner into a wall and placing an insect near a detainee terrified of bugs. Authorities said they will not prosecute CIA officers who used harsh interrogation techniques with the department's legal blessing. But in a carefully worded statement, they left open the possibility that operatives and higher-level administration officials could face jeopardy if they ventured beyond the boundaries drawn by the Bush lawyers. The four memos, dated from 2002 to 2005, contain few redactions, despite a fierce battle within the highest ranks of the Obama White House about the benefits of releasing the information. Intelligence experts said the documents could ignite calls in Congress and among international courts for a fresh, independent investigation into detainee treatment...
Former CIA director decries memo release
Associated Press April 16, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3195
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director Michael Hayden says the Obama administration is endangering the country by releasing Justice Department memos that detail the CIA's interrogation techniques authorized by the Bush administration. Hayden tells The Associated Press the release will give terrorists a precise guide for what to expect in a CIA interrogation if those methods are ever approved for use again. The Obama administration outlawed the techniques but has a task force reviewing the military's interrogation methods to determine if they are sufficient for CIA use…
2. Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz Washington Times Thursday, April 16, 2009
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/16/inside-the-ring-1202159/
IPT NOTE: The full PBS interview transcript (3/19/2009) is posted at http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/images/pdf/freeh_transcr... [see also program notes at http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2009/04/louis-freeh-interview.html]
Counterspy review
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair has formed a panel of former officials to review troubled U.S. government efforts to counter foreign spying. The panel is headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who recently appeared in a PBS television documentary as a spokesman for Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former Saudi ambassador in Washington and a national-security adviser to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. In the "Frontline" program that aired last week, Mr. Freeh said claims that "my client," Prince Bandar, was paid $2 billion and an Airbus 340 as bribes "are totally false." The program revealed that the Justice Department is conducting an international corruption investigation into an $80 billion jet-fighter deal between Britain's BAE Systems PLC aerospace company and Saudi Arabia…
Afghanistan Intel
The 21,000 American troops preparing to reinforce U.S. forces in Afghanistan will find a Taliban enemy able to control key portions of the south, a military intelligence officer tells Inside the Ring. "The Taliban are in charge across the board," the officer told special correspondent Rowan Scarborough. "We don't like to admit it, but they are. We just need to figure out which ones we can work with. No easy task, but there are, in fact, good Taliban." What has happened in the south and its hub of Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace, is similar to problems experienced in Iraq. Americans would clear a village of the enemy, then go on to the next battle, leaving Iraqi insurgents and al Qaeda free to retake the territory…
Wartime advice
Veteran Washington national-security specialist Angelo M. Codevilla has advice for President Obama: Fire incompetent advisers and watch out for the CIA. Mr. Codevilla, a former naval officer and Foreign Service officer, states in his new book, "Advice to Wartime Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft," that the United States has been at war since 1914 but has lost "peace after peace" because of misguided policy and intelligence advisers, including liberal internationalists, neoconservatives and right-of-center realists…
Extended Interview With Louis Freeh
Former FBI Director, now attorney to Prince Bandar
April 7, 2009 Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2009/04/louis-freeh-inte...
As the head of his own global consulting firm, Freeh Group International, Louis Freeh has been hired by Prince Bandar as his legal representative on issues surrounding the Al-Yamamah arms deal. Lowell Bergman interviewed Louis Freeh on March 19, 2009 about allegations -- that Freeh insists are untrue -- that his client received approximately $2 billion and a wide-body Airbus 340 from arms company BAE Systems as part of the massive arms contract. Freeh finally agreed to be interviewed just weeks before our airdate, following months of requests by FRONTLINE for interviews with both Freeh and Prince Bandar...
3. Chinese spies may have put chips in US planes
17 Apr 2009, 0041 hrs IST, PTI
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3196
IPT NOTE: Dr Brenner's speech is posted at http://www.dni.gov/speeches/20090403_speech.pdf
WASHINGTON: The Chinese cyber spies have penetrated so deep into the US system — ranging from its secure defence network, banking system, electricity grid to putting spy chips into its defence planes — that it can cause serious damage to the US any time, a top US official on counter-intelligence has said. "Chinese penetrations of unclassified DoD networks have also been widely reported. Those are more sophisticated, though hardly state of the art," said National Counterintelligence Executive, Joel Brenner, at the Austin University Texas last week, according to a transcript made available on Wednesday. Listing out some of the examples of Chinese cyber spy penetration, he said: "We're also seeing counterfeit routers and chips, and some of those chips have made their way into US military fighter aircraft.. You don't sneak counterfeit chips into another nation's aircraft to steal data. When it's done intentionally, it's done to degrade systems, or to have the ability to do so at a time of one's choosing." …
4. Judge says he will approve 25 years for insurgent
By NEDRA PICKLER – Associated Press April 16, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3197
IPT NOTE: The gov't press release is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/April/09-nsd-355.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said he would approve a 25-year sentence agreed to as part of a plea deal with Wesam al-Delaema, who videotaped himself and others showing off roadside bombs they said they would use to kill Americans. But District Judge Paul Friedman acknowledged the actual time the defendant will receive in a Dutch court is beyond U.S. control. On Wednesday, he encouraged the Netherlands to impose the 25-year sentence on the Iraq war insurgent. Al-Delaema, a 36-year-old born and raised in Fallujah who became a Dutch citizen as an adult, is the first insurgent from the Iraq war prosecuted in U.S. courts…
Iraqi-Born Dutch Citizen Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Terrorism Conspiracy Against Americans in Iraq
US Department of Justice Thursday, April 16, 2009
NSD (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/April/09-nsd-355.html
WASHINGTON – An Iraqi-born Dutch citizen was sentenced to 25 years in prison today for conspiring to murder Americans overseas, including by planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. soldiers in Fallujah, Iraq, and by demonstrating on video how these explosives would be detonated to destroy American vehicles and their occupants… On Tuesday, in a separate case, al-Delaema was sentenced in Superior Court for the District of Columbia to 18 months imprisonment for aggravated assault. Al-Delaema pleaded guilty to this charge on March 3, 2009, admitting that he kicked a D.C. prison guard to the point of unconsciousness while the guard was prone on the ground during an incident at the D.C. jail in 2007. The prison guard sustained significant injuries, including a subdural hemorrhage, during the incident. The sentences for these separate offenses are to be served concurrently and were agreed upon as part of the global plea agreement. According to an agreement between the United States and the Netherlands, al-Delaema will serve out his sentence in the Netherlands…
5. U.S. Lays Out Anti-Piracy Plan
Strategy Comes as Somali Raiders Try to Take Another American Ship
By Ann Scott Tyson and Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post Thursday, April 16, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3198
The Obama administration yesterday called for expanding the international counterpiracy effort to deter Somali pirates, secure the release of hostage ships and crews, and freeze pirate assets, yet U.S. military officials said there are no immediate plans to devote more warships to the region…
6. Napolitano apologizes to veterans
Audrey Hudson Thursday, April 16, 2009 Washington Times UPDATED:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/16/napolitano-apologizes-ve...
Civil-liberties watchdogs within the Homeland Security Department (DHS) raised concerns about a security assessment of "rightwing extremism" but the report was released anyway, leading to the furor that Thursday had Secretary Janet Napolitano apologizing to veterans. Objections were raised about language in the report by its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) before the nine-page document was sent to law enforcement officials nationwide… However, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is demanding answers on how this report was cleared with privacy and civil liberty officials…
7. Phone calls from missing Somalis send mixed messages
by Sasha Aslanian, Minnesota Public Radio,
Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio
April 15, 2009
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/04/14/friends_of_the_m...
When a group of young Somali men disappeared from Minneapolis back in 2007, they weren't on the FBI's radar yet. The FBI is now investigating whether about a dozen young men went to Somalia to fight with Al-Shabaab, a militant group with ties to Al-Qaeda that the U.S. has labeled a terrorist organization. When the first group of Minneapolis men left, they didn't tell their friends back home exactly what they were doing. Instead, they appeared homesick, calling their friends to ask for news, and saying they missed Starbucks and the Internet… While it has been difficult for outsiders to piece together the names of the dozen or so men who disappeared, Ruqia Mohamed, Samiya Ahmed and Sahra Qaxiya know most of them by name, nickname, Facebook and family. In an empty University of Minnesota classroom where Mohamed and Ahmed are students, the three talk about the men now believed to have joined a terrorist group. Ruqia Mohamed rattles off descriptions of her missing friends… But not all the young men seemed troubled. Mohamed said Mohamoud Hassan, an engineering student at the University of Minnesota who left in 2008, was a charming class clown at Roosevelt High…
8. Interpreter for F.B.I. Thinks Interrogators Beat Terror Suspect
By BENJAMIN WEISER New York Times April 16, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/nyregion/16embassy.html
An interpreter for the F.B.I. during an interrogation of a suspect in the terrorist bombing of the American Embassy in Kenya in 1998 now says that she heard sounds and pleading that led her to believe that the suspect was being beaten, and that she was so traumatized by the incident that she fled from the room, newly filed court documents show. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who wrote that the interpreter made the claim only recently, have provided a summary of her statement to a lawyer for the suspect, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali who was convicted in 2001 in the attack, which killed more than 200 people, and was sentenced to life in prison… The summary said that American and Kenyan officials were present during the questioning, although it does not identify them further. The document also did not explain why she waited so long to report her observations, whom she finally told, and under what circumstances…
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
9. Detrick hosts biodefense response drill [multimedia]
Originally published April 16, 2009 By Justin M. Palk The Frederick News-Post
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=89032
FORT DETRICK -- … Wednesday's exercise was a first-of-its-kind event for USAMRIID, said Richard Arestad, the institute's Field Identification of Biological Warfare Agents training coordinator. USAMRIID is in a unique position to do this kind of training, he said. Four or five of the nation's 57 civil support teams are located nearby and USAMRIID has expert personnel and other resources on hand… Wednesday's exercise centered on a suspected clandestine biological weapons lab. Arestad, who helped set up the lab, said it contained an assortment of inert bacterial and viral agents...
10. Report concludes internal e-mail compromised airport security test
By Gautham Nagesh 04/13/2009
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090413_3503.php
IPT NOTE: The DHS IG report is posted at http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_09-43_Mar09.pdf
A Transportation Security Administration official compromised the covert testing of airport security screeners by sending out an e-mail about the testing and did not report the compromise, according to a report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general. An unidentified official in TSA's Office of Security Operations sent out an e-mail on April 28, 2006, that contained the subject line "Notice of Possible Security Test," according to the report, which is dated March 20 and released on Friday. The message warned TSA employees that the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department were conducting a secret test in April 2006 of airport security checkpoints at Jacksonville International Airport in Florida. The e-mail also contained information about how the test was to be carried out and the physical appearance of officials doing the testing, and it warned TSA employees to pay attention to passengers' identification. In all, security at 12 airports were targeted for testing… TSA former Administrator Kip Hawley told the House Committee on Homeland Security in November 2007 that the e-mail was a mistake, and there was no intent to alert screeners of the test…
11. Implant Sciences' QS-H300 Evaluated for Use in Air Cargo Screening
Press Release April 13, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3199
(Wilmington, Mass., April 13, 2009) -- Implant Sciences Corporation (NYSE Alternext US: IMX), a supplier of systems and sensors for the homeland security market and related industries, today announced that the Company's new Quantum Sniffer QS-H300 Air Cargo Screening System is being evaluated by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). New legislation mandates that 100% of air cargo on passenger aircraft must be screened for explosives by August 2010 (Public Law 110-53 "Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007"). Those responsible for meeting the mandate, such as Freight Forwarders and Indirect Air Carriers, have been facing significant challenges in implementing these requirements and have been looking for innovative technologies to help them achieve this goal…
Financing, identity theft, money laundering
12. Tamil Tigers controlled non-profit group: RCMP
World Tamil Movement raised money for weapons purchases, police allege
Stewart Bell National Post April 16, 2009
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1500151
TORONTO -- The Tamil Tigers directly controlled a Canadian registered non-profit organization that fundraised and produced propaganda for the Sri Lankan guerrillas, according to RCMP documents released on Wednesday. The documents allege that the director of the Toronto-based World Tamil Movement of Ontario was personally appointed by the leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who is wanted by Interpol for terrorism. In addition, the documents claim the World Tamil Movement was told in 2005 to help raise $7-million to finance the purchase of anti-aircraft missiles and artillery needed to fight a war for Tamil independence. The hundreds of pages of seized documents and unproven police allegations are the result of Project Osaluki, an RCMP counterterrorism investigation into the Ontario fundraising activities of the Tamil Tigers. Documents concerning a related investigation in Quebec were released last week. The papers were filed in Federal Court in Ottawa as part of a government effort to dismantle the World Tamil Movement, which the RCMP says is the Canadian financial and propaganda support wing of the Tamil Tigers…
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
13. Ex-prosecutor picked for new US 'border czar'
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL and ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press April 16, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3200
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The job title — "border czar" — is familiar to Alan Bersin, who more than a decade ago led an effort to fight drug and human smuggling that had mixed results at best. Bersin was tapped Wednesday to oversee America's efforts to keep drugs and illegal immigrants from flowing in from Mexico. As a federal prosecutor in the Clinton administration, he headed up a border crackdown that discouraged illegal crossings in the San Diego area but drove migrants to attempt more dangerous treks through the desert…
14. Bring Guard back, say Kyl, McCain
By Howard Fischer CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES Published: 04.16.2009 Arizona Daily Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/288951
SCOTTSDALE — National Guard troops should be brought back to the border, the state's two U.S. senators said Wednesday. Sen. John McCain said the Obama administration should accede to the requests of border governors — including Arizona's own Jan Brewer — to station soldiers in the area. He said the escalating gang violence in Mexico and the danger of that spilling across into this country makes their presence even more important. And Sen. Jon Kyl said they don't even have to be in a military role. He said their mere presence is a major deterrent to illegal activity. To date, though, the response from Washington has been to reject the requests. And it's not political: The Department of Homeland Security said both last year, during the Bush administration, and as recently as last month, after Obama became president, that the agency believes the soldiers are no longer necessary. That, however, could change. On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, during a visit to a border crossing at Nogales, said Obama is now considering the requests from the governors. But she made no promises…
Other items
15. Chaplain's E-mail Sparks Controversy
Published On 4/14/2009 1:45:38 AM By MELODY Y. HU Harvard Crimson
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527653
CLARIFICATION APPENDED
Harvard Islamic chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser '96 has recently come under fire for controversial statements in which he allegedly endorsed death as a punishment for Islamic apostates. In a private e-mail to a student last week, Abdul-Basser wrote that there was "great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment [for apostates]) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand." The e-mail was forwarded over Muslim student e-mail lists and later picked up by the blogosphere, sparking debate and, in many cases, criticism of Abdul-Basser from those who have interpreted his statement as supporting the execution of those who leave the Islamic religion…
16. La Shish owner's son fights conviction
He says seized tapes hold evidence not considered at murder trial
BY BEN SCHMITT DETROIT FREE PRESS April 16, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3201
The son of fugitive La Shish restaurant chain owner Talal Chahine today filed an appeal to overturn his 2005 murder conviction, saying federal agents seized 14 cassette tapes from the elder Chahine during a raid that were relevant to the murder case. Khalil Chahine petitioned the U.S. District Court in Detroit for a writ of habeas corpus – an appeal – seeking to overturn his conviction through attorney Robert Morgan. Talal Chahine, whom the government labeled as a Hizballah supporter, fled to Lebanon in 2005 to avoid tax evasion charges. His son, now 26, is in prison, for a second-degree murder conviction in connection with the May 16, 2004, shooting death of 20-year-old Paul Hallis in Dearborn. Chahine's brother-in-law and alleged cohort, Ali Abbas El-Ozeir, fled to his native Lebanon after the 2004 shooting. He confessed to being the gunman, then recanted that confession, to Lebanese officials. The state Court of Appeals ruled those statements were inadmissible at Chahine's trial, which is also raised by Morgan as unfair in the appeal. El-Ozeir remains in Lebanon. Morgan also argues that during the trial, the Internal Revenue Service raided Talal Chahine's restaurant headquarters, seizing $1.5 million in cash and 14 tape recordings...
17. Accused Chauncey Bailey Killer Striking Plea Deal
April 16, 2009 CBS 5 (Oakland)
http://cbs5.com/local/Devaughndre.Broussard.plea.2.986311.html
OAKLAND (BCN) ― A man charged with the August 2007 murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey in Oakland has agreed to a possible plea deal, his defense attorney said Wednesday. Devaughndre Broussard agreed to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Bailey killing and the death of Odell Roberson Jr. on July 8, 2007, defense attorney LeRue Grim said. Additionally, Grim said Broussard has agreed to testify before a grand jury that Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV had ordered the killing of Bailey and had been behind the killing of Roberson as well as the July 12, 2007, killing of a third man, Michael Wills… Bey, who has not been charged in connection with Bailey's death, is being held by authorities in connection with several other cases.
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
18. 18 killed, 50 wounded in Habaniya suicide attack
April 16, 2009 - 03:16:28
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=111667
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Casualties of the suicide bombing attack that took place at al-Habaniya base rose to 18 deaths and 50 injuries, a medic from the Ramadi Hospital said on Thursday, estimating the death toll is likely to rise as 10 of the wounded are in a critical condition. "The 18 dead victims are Iraqi army servicemen," Dr. Kadhum Hameed told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Earlier, a security source said that at least 11 army soldiers were killed and 40 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside al-Habaniya base in western Falluja city...
19. Al Qaeda Urges Somalis To Attack Ships
Posted by Khaled Wassef CBS News April 16, 2009 8:56 AM
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/16/world/worldwatch/entry4949488.sh...
(CBS) A senior Saudi Arabian al Qaeda operative has called on Somali jihadists to step up their attacks on "crusader" forces at sea in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, and on land in neighboring Djibouti, which hosts France's largest military base in Africa. "To our steadfast brethren in Somalia, take caution and prepare yourselves," Sa'id Ali Jabir Al Khathim Al Shihri (aka Abu Sufian al-Azdi) says in a new audiotape acquired by CBS News. "Increase your strikes against the crusaders at sea and in Djibouti." Shihri warns Somali militants against a conspiracy led by "the crusaders, the Jews and traitor Arab rulers," to put an end to the Muslim extremists' progress in Somalia…
Ten High-Tech Weapons to Repel Pirates
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Fox News By Paul Wagenseil
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,515986,00.html
How does a small gang of lightly armed Somali pirates hijack a modern cargo ship? Speed and weaponry, mainly. Modern pirates, whether off the coast of Somalia or in the crowded shipping lanes of southeast Asia, typically use fast speedboats to zoom up to the sterns of slow-moving cargo ships. They then toss grappling hooks up to the rails and climb up ropes to clamber on deck. Pirates are generally armed with assault rifles and, increasingly, rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Modern ships' crews are usually unarmed for a number of reasons, among them laws that prevent armed vessels from docking in the ports of many countries. "The maritime unions, shipping companies and the International Maritime Organization all agree that ship's crews should not be armed," says Capt. George Quick, vice president of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, based in Linthicum, Md. "It would only escalate the situation The [Somali] pirates are pretty well funded, and they'd just get bigger weapons."… So if the cargo ships can't fire back, how can they defend themselves against pirates? A number of non-lethal solutions have been suggested and tried, some low-tech, some practically science fiction…
Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates
2009-04-14 11:18:17
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm
BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday. The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while...
20. Yemeni security services uncover documents on planned Al-Qa'idah attacks - TV
BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
April 15, 2009 Wednesday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS
Dubai Al-Arabiya Television in Arabic at 0406 gmt on 15 April carries an announcer-read report on the Yemeni Interior Ministry's crack down on terrorist operations, plotted by Yemeni and Saudi nationals affiliated with Al-Qa'idah. The report also covers the increasing security presence around tourist attractions after the tourism sector lost 36 billion riyals last year due to terrorism… Correspondent Humud al-Munassar says "that the authorities have uncovered important documents that indicate plans for additional attacks, as well as confiscating weapons and equipment belonging to Al-Qa'idah."…
21. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood member denies links with Hezbollah cell
BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
April 15, 2009 Wednesday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS
Al-Jazeera TV in Arabic at 2020 gmt on 13 April carries the following report on live interviews conducted with Dr Abd-al-Mun'im Abu-al-Futuh, member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office, via telephone from Cairo; Dr Abd-al-Mun'im Sa'id, member of the Policies Committee of the National Democratic Party and director of the Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, via telephone from Cairo; and Talal Atrisi, professor of sociology at the Lebanese University, via satellite from Beirut. "Citing the Higher State Security Prosecution, Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo has learned that two of the defendants in what is now known as the Hezbollah cell have confessed to their affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood [MB]. These defendants are Hani al-Sayyid Mutlaq and Abdallah Ibrahim Awad," said presenter Layla al-Shayibon. The station then carries the following report by Anchorman Muhammad Kurayshan: …
'Hizbullah cell planned TA attacks'
Apr. 16, 2009 Brenda Gazzar, THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3202
Two Palestinian Fatah members accused of belonging to the Hizbullah-linked cell uncovered recently in Egypt were planning to carry out a major suicide attack in Tel Aviv, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday. The two were arrested a few weeks ago and are being questioned by prosecutors, according to the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The two belong to a 49-member cell in Egypt that is accused of planning attacks against Israeli targets and Egyptian installations throughout the country. Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has admitted that one of the men is a member of Hizbullah, but said he and nearly 10 others were helping to smuggle arms into Gaza and denied any intention to carry out attacks in Egypt. ..
IDF tightens borders with Egypt and Jordan
Apr. 16, 2009 Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3203
The IDF has beefed up forces along Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan out of concern that terror cells currently operating in the Sinai Peninsula will infiltrate into Israel, defense officials said Wednesday. Special Forces were deployed along the borders and were laying ambushes to catch terror cells that might try to infiltrate into Israel and particularly Eilat. Egypt has also beefed up its forces along the border with Israel. On Wednesday evening, after weeks of quiet, a Kassam rocket landed in the Eshkol region in the Western Negev without causing injuries or damages. Defense officials said that the launching of the rocket could have been timed in line with the visit of US Special Envoy George Mitchell to Israel, who was meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the time…
22. Impacting the collective global MEMRI
Apr. 15, 2009 Greer Fay Cashman, THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3204
Retired IDF colonel Yigal Carmon, the president of MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), has an impressive CV. He served in the IDF Intelligence Corps, was an adviser on Arab affairs to the Civil Administration in the West Bank and a senior staff member of Israel's National Defense College. He was a senior member of the Israel delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference, an adviser on counter-terrorism to prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, and director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. All of this, Carmon said, made him aware of the need for the organization he founded a little over a decade ago... The business he was referring to is the monitoring of the Muslim and Arab world, and the accurate translation of what is said on Arabic radio and television, which often differs from statements made to the print media. There are also many hidden - and sometimes dangerous - messages in Internet publications, discernable only to the most competent of linguists...
ASIA / PACIFIC
23. DoD Identifies Army Casualty
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 246-09 April 15, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12610
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Francisco X. Aguila, 35, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, died April 14 in Kabul, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation…
24. Major attacks against Pakistani security forces
Bill Roggio on April 15, 2009 2:23 PM to The Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/04/major_attacks_on_mil.php
Today's suicide car bombing against a police checkpoint in the district of Charsadda in Pakistan's insurgency-infested Northwest Frontier Province is the latest attack by the Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied jihadi groups directed against Pakistan's security forces. Ten policemen were among the 16 Pakistanis killed in the attack. There have been 56 major attacks against the police, the Army, the Frontier Corps, and other Pakistani security and intelligence services since July 2007 when the Musharraf government launched the operation to clear out the radical Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the heart of the capital of Islamabad. These attacks include suicide strikes and military assaults against checkpoints, training centers, forts, and bases; ambushes against convoys; beheadings and executions of captured security personnel; and targeted assassinations against military leaders. No region of Pakistan has been spared. These attacks have taken place in Pakistan's major cities, including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, as well as in the rural areas and Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. There also have been hundreds of smaller attacks in Pakistan that occur on a daily basis. List of major attacks on Pakistani security forces since July 2007:…
25. Mumbai Terrorist Trial Begins in India
By JYOTI THOTTAM / MUMBAI Time April 16, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1891671,00.html
Accused Mumbai terrorist Mohammad Amir Ajmal Qasab whose trial began Wednesday in Mumbai, was appointed a new lawyer today after his first lawyer was dismissed for a potential conflict of interest. The new lawyer, who was appointed by the court will be paid an undisclosed special fee given the unusual circumstances of the trial… Qasab has been in custody since Nov. 26, the first night of the attacks. Ansari, who was arrested last February, was found to be carrying a rough drawing of Mumbai landmarks. Sabahuddin, who was arrested for allegedly planning a bomb targeting Bangalore's Indian Institute of Sciences, is accused of doing legwork for the Mumbai attack. Both were brought to Mumbai late last year to be tried jointly with Qasab...
26. South Asian leaders discuss ways to check terror financing
The Daily Star (Bangladesh) Friday, April 17, 2009 Our correspondent, New Delhi
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=84353
Officials from South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, have wrapped up talks on government action to stop terror financing of charitable institutions. The three-day conference in New Delhi, which quietly ended yesterday, was held against the backdrop of growing international realisation that charities have been used for financing terrorist activities. The aim of the conference was to promote government action to prevent terror groups from exploiting humanitarian and religious charities as a way to conceal illegal transactions of funds across the world, said a statement by the US Embassy, New Delhi. Officials from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, the European Union and the United States attended the conference hosted by the US Embassy and the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering...
27. Shia cleric defends law said to legalise marital rape
The Shia cleric behind a law accused of legalising marital rape has said that while a man must never force himself on his wife, he can refuse to feed her if she does not submit.
The Daily Telegraph (London) By Ben Farmer in Kabul Last Updated: 7:28PM BST 16 Apr 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3205
Ayatollah Mohammed Asif Mohseni defended a clause requiring a woman to wear make-up if her husband wished, saying it was designed to encourage men to take an interest in their spouses. But since the Shia personal status law was signed last month, it has drawn condemnation in Afghanistan and internationally…
EUROPE
28. Maghreb-based Islamists menace Spain, France and Italy - daily
BBC Monitoring Europe – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
April 15, 2009 Wednesday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
Source: La Razon website, Madrid, in Spanish 15 Apr 09
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS
International experts warn that Islamist terrorists based in North Africa remain a real threat to Spain and other European nations with a large Maghrebi population, according to a report in a Madrid daily. It says that Al-Qa'idah in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb presently has around 800 members of different nationalities, some of who have been trained to carry out suicide attacks in their countries of origin. The following is the text of the report by the Spanish newspaper La Razon website on 15 April; subheadings as published: Madrid: Al-Qa'idah in the [Land of the Islamic] Maghreb (AQLIM) constitutes the main threat to Spain, according to reports written by international experts in Islamist terrorism to which La Razon has had access. Italy and France are at the same level of risk, because there are large Maghrebi communities living in these countries and because they were "colonialist" states in the past. The leader of this group, Abdelmalek Droukdal, has threatened our country and the French authorities on several occasions, in the same way as Al-Qa'idah number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has done. In the latest videos to have been posted by the terrorist organization, our flag appears alongside those of other countries that are fighting in Afghanistan, indicated as a clear target…
