Daily Intel Report 4-29-09
1. Senators push for business sanctions
Eli Lake Washington Times Tuesday, April 28, 2009
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/28/senators-push-for-business-s...
Nearly two dozen senators will introduce legislation Tuesday threatening punishment of foreign companies that provide gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran. The Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act, a summary of which was made available to The Washington Times on Monday, would sharply escalate a U.S. economic war aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and answer unresolved questions about its nuclear program. Past legislation and White House executive orders have banned U.S. investment in Iran's petroleum sector and barred U.S. banks from even indirect contacts with Iranian financial institutions. The new sanctions would go much further, though it is not clear how easily the measures could be enforced. They would freeze the U.S. assets of foreign companies providing refined petroleum to Iran and forbid them from doing business in the United States. The legislation seeks to exploit the fact that while Iran is the world's third-leading exporter of crude oil, it imports about 40 percent of its gasoline. This is because it lacks refinery capacity and government gas subsidies ensure that demand exceeds supply. The new bill "requires the president to impose sanctions on any individual or company that provides Iran with refined petroleum resources or engages in activity that could contribute to Irans ability to import such resources," the summary of the legislation said. Specifically, the bill would target those who sell, ship, insure or finance deliveries of gasoline and other refined petroleum products...
2. Plan to Cut Weapons Programs Disputed
Defense Supporters Say 100,000 Jobs Are in Jeopardy
By Dan Eggen Washington Post Tuesday, April 28, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR200904...
Some of the nation's largest defense contractors, labor unions and trade groups are banding together to argue that the Obama administration is putting 100,000 or more jobs at risk by proposing deep cuts in weapons programs. The defense industry and its supporters argue that the proposals by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will increase unemployment during a historic economic crisis. Why, they ask, would President Obama push hundreds of billions in stimulus spending to create jobs only to propose weapons cuts that would eliminate tens of thousands of them? … Lockheed and other contractors predict that up to 95,000 direct and indirect jobs are at risk because of Gates's plan to halt production of the F-22, which is built and assembled across 48 states but which has never been used in combat. Boeing says thousands more positions could be lost if the Pentagon halts production on other programs such as the C-17 cargo plane, which is assembled at a 5,000-worker plant in Long Beach, Calif. The clash poses a nettlesome political challenge for Obama, who relied heavily on Democratic union support during his presidential campaign but who is backing the ambitious efforts of his GOP defense secretary to remake the Pentagon budget. Opposition on Capitol Hill is being led by Republicans who hope to enlist the support of union-friendly Democrats to quash many of the proposed cuts…
3. Three convicted in Fort Dix terror plot sentenced to life in prison
by Joseph Ryan/The Star-Ledger (Newark) Tuesday April 28, 2009, 2:15 PM
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/judge_sentences_fort_dix_defen....
A federal judge today sentenced three Muslim immigrants from South Jersey to life in prison for plotting to attack Fort Dix, saying radical ideology and hatred for America drove their plot to kill United States soldiers. The men, brothers from the Balkens, were among five defendants convicted in December of conspiring to target the Burlington County military base in a crime prosecutors said was inspired by al Qaeda and proved homegrown jihadists were plotting inside America… The defendants - Dritan, Eljvir, and Shain Duka - … are ethnic Albanians who were born in the former Yugoslavia and have lived illegally in the United States since slipping across the border through Mexico in 1984. They ran a pizzeria and worked as roofers. Shain and Eljvir attended Cherry Hill High School West. Dritan and Shain Duka were given an additional 30 years to their life sentences. Complete coverage of the Fort Dix trial in The Star-Ledger http://blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/2008/10/the_fort_dix_terror_plot.html
New Jersey Brothers Get Life for Fort Dix Terror Plot (Update2)
Bloomberg April 28, 2009 By John P. Martin and David Voreacos
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsnutlu7lz8&refer=h...
… The sentences follow a 15-month FBI investigation and eight-week trial. Prosecutors said the men grew up in the U.S., adopted extremist religious views, and were inspired by online jihadist videos to plan an attack on America… The judge said Elvjir Duka was motivated by his hatred of the U.S. system, citing a letter the defendant sent him saying: "I hate and reject the entire system of justice. The entire system will be defeated by Islam and there is no stopping it." …
4. Trial Delayed For Terror Defendant In NYC
Apr 28, 2009 2:59 pm US/Eastern CBS News
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/al.qaida.suspect.2.996472.html
NEW YORK (CBS) ― A defense lawyer says a U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative may use a mental illness defense if she is brought to trial. The comments by defense attorney Dawn Cardi came as Judge Richard Berman postponed a July trial for Aafia Siddiqui (AH'-fee-ah Sih-DEE'-key). The judge scheduled a hearing instead to determine if Siddiqui is competent to stand trial. She is charged with shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents after her capture in Afghanistan. The government says she is faking mental illness to avoid trial. Cardi says Siddiqui may use mental illness as a defense at trial or may use a justification defense. Siddiqui studied at MIT and Brandeis University before she fled to her native Pakistan in 2003…
5. Liberty City 6 Jury Deliberations Hit A Snag
MIAMI (CBS4) ― Apr 28, 2009 2:45 pm US/Eastern
http://cbs4.com/local/liberty.city.six.2.996463.html
Jury deliberations in the Miami federal trial of 6 men accused of plotting to blow up a number of federal buildings across the U.S. appeared to have hit a snag. On Tuesday, the 12 member panel sent a note to the judge saying they were having difficulty distinguishing between two of the four counts against the men which dealt with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to destroy buildings using explosives. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard answered their query with her own note which pointed out specific jury instructions. Prosecutors claim the six men allegedly conspired to blow up a number of buildings including Chicago's Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, Miami's FBI offices in a jihad mission to destroy the United States. The Haitian-born men are also accused of pledging allegiance to al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Defense attorneys say the men were just "dirt poor" and pretended to be supporters of terrorist acts to scam $50,000 from two men they thought were working for Bin Laden. The two men turned out to be informants working for the FBI…
6. Judge sets June 1 for Omar Khadr hearing to resume as UN to debate child soldiers
Canadian Press April 28, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3274
TORONTO — The judge presiding over Omar Khadr's military commission proceedings issued an order Tuesday that the hearings, abruptly halted by U.S. President Barack Obama in January, are to go ahead on June 1. The order from Col. Patrick Parrish came on the eve of a UN Security Council debate on the issue of child soldiers, an event Khadr's lawyers planned to piggyback on with a news conference highlighting his plight... Khadr, now 22, is accused of throwing a hand grenade that killed an American special forces soldier following a four-hour firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002. The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 at the time…
7. CAIR/FBI Saga Plods On
by IPT News Tue, 28 Apr 2009 at 2:39 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2009/04/cair-fbi-saga-plods-on....
Readers of this site know we have more than a few lingering suspicions about the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Its roots in a Hamas-support network and its reflexive condemnation of virtually all terror-financing investigations prompt skepticism about the self-purported civil rights organization's true objectives. One thing we never thought, though, is that these guys are stupid. So we're a little surprised that CAIR's "aw shucks, did we do something wrong?" act in the face on FBI freeze-out is treated credibly. To recap, FBI officials decided last summer to break off communication with CAIR. Evidence in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) showed CAIR's founders were active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. Two CAIR founders, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, are listed on this phone of "Palestine Committee" members. Transcripts from a secretly wiretapped 1993 meeting of Hamas supporters in Philadelphia indicate CAIR actually is an outgrowth of that effort. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization...
FBI monitored members of O.C. mosques at gyms, alleged informant says
Craig Monteilh alleges he was instructed to pose as a Muslim convert, lure mosque members to gyms, work out with them and report to the FBI.
By Scott Glover Los Angeles Times 5:09 PM PDT, April 27, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-surveillance28-2009apr28,0,49923...
As part of their anti-terrorism efforts, FBI agents monitored popular gyms throughout Orange County to gather intelligence on members of several local mosques, according to a man who claims to have been a key informant in the operation. Sal Hernandez, director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, declined comment on the matter Monday. Another law enforcement source, however, confirmed that the surveillance occurred, but emphasized that it was a narrowly focused operation targeting people whom the informant had already implicated in alleged crimes. The informant is Craig Monteilh, who said he posed as a Muslim convert at the request of the FBI to gather intelligence that might aid anti-terrorism investigators… Gyms have played a role in the formation of terrorist cells, experts said. According to the British government's report on the bombings in London on July 2005, three of four terrorists became connected at gyms. One of the British gyms was dubbed the "Al Qaeda gym" because it was known as a hotbed for extremists, the report stated. The 9/11 terrorists and Madrid bombers also bonded at gyms. Monteilh's role as a government informant seemed to be supported by the testimony of an FBI agent in February…
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. WHO Raises Global Threat Level As Reports of Swine Flu Increase
Confirmed Cases Double in U.S.; Europe Cites Its 1st
By Rob Stein Washington Post Tuesday, April 28, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR200904...
IPT NOTE: CDC updates are posted at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/. The WHO statement is posted at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_20090427/en/ind...
With the number of swine flu cases and deaths continuing to mount, the World Health Organization yesterday raised its pandemic threat level one notch, saying the dangerous new virus was clearly causing sustained community-wide outbreaks. The decision came amid another day of rapid, sometimes confusing developments from around the world, including a rise in the suspected death toll in Mexico to 149, the confirmation of the first case in Europe and a doubling of the number of confirmed cases in the United States. In the first signs that the outbreak could be taking a toll on the staggering global economy, oil prices, the Mexican peso and airline stocks all plunged…
Swine Flu Expands to More New York Schools
Schools in Queens and Manhattan Struck by Virus; Hundreds Taken Ill
By Keith B. Richburg and Robin Shulman Washington Post Tuesday, April 28, 2009 5:01 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3275
NEW YORK, April 28 -- The number of confirmed and suspected swine flu cases spread today beyond the Queens high school that has been its epicenter here, with new cases now suspected at a Queens public school for autistic children and a Catholic school in Manhattan, and additional scattered cases in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Moreover, Gov. David Paterson and state health officials said possible swine flu cases were being investigated in all regions of the state. New York City remained the hardest hit, with now 45 confirmed cases and many more suspected. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said the numbers likely include "hundreds" of students, staff members and family members from St. Francis Preparatory school in Queens who have become ill. He said the city would be testing only severely ill people, because most of those hundreds of others can be assumed to be suffering from the virus and testing was not necessary. The school was closed Monday and Tuesday...
Key Posts Remain Vacant as Untested Pandemic Response Plan Implemented
By Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Monday, April 27, 2009 7:50 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3276
As they confront the growing swine flu crisis, President Obama's administration is attempting to implement a never-before-tested pandemic response plan while dozens of key public health and emergency response jobs in the administration remain vacant…
Cabinet: Sebelius Confirmed as Secretary of HHS
Washington Post April 28, 2009 Updated 6:26 p.m. By Shailagh Murray
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/28/sebelius_confirmation_exp...
The Senate approved the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services, filling the final seat in President Obama's Cabinet on the eve of his 100th day in office…
7 Countries Have Confirmed Flu Cases
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. April 29, 2009New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/health/29flu.html
Two new swine flu cases were confirmed in Israel and as many as 11 in New Zealand, bringing the number of countries with confirmed cases to at least seven on Tuesday. But all, with the exception of Mexico, said the patients were recovering or had been hospitalized with only mild symptoms, leaving health officials struggling to determine why the disease has killed only in Mexico...
Why is outbreak hitting Mexico harder?
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY April 28, 2009
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-04-27-swine-flu-mexico_N.htm
So far, only Mexico has reported deaths of people with laboratory-confirmed swine flu, but the disease isn't necessarily more severe in that country than elsewhere, U.S. scientists said Monday. "There's so much unknown at this point," notes Joan Nichols of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases… But Mexico is reporting nearly 2,000 suspected cases and, AP says, up to 149 suspected deaths. Perhaps swine flu seems to be more lethal there because it has cut a wider swath, says William Schaffner, infectious-diseases chair at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "Until we get more information, we won't be able to put our arms around it," he says…
9. Photo Op Panic: 911 Calls Reveal Terror during NYC Air Force One Flyover
Air Force Estimates Photo Op Cost at Over $328,000
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH and LUIS MARTINEZ ABC News April 28, 2009—
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7453062&page=1
911 calls just released by a New Jersey emergency office communicate chilling on-the-ground scenes of the panic and terror that besieged many eyewitnesses of yesterday's botched Air Force One promotional photo op over Lower Manhattan. "Oh my god," one caller says again and again, later telling the operator, "They are following an aircraft, a big aircraft coming like the 9-11." Also this afternoon, the Air Force released an estimate of the cost of the NYC flyover - $328,835. The estimate includes fuel, personnel costs and maintenance and was calculated over the life of the aircraft and did not necessarily occur yesterday… The calls were released this afternoon by the 911 office in Hudson County, NJ, just across the river from Manhattan…
10. Monday updates: Coast Guard gives OK for LNG terminals, with conditions
Monday, April 27, 2009 11:58 AM PDT By The Daily News (Longview, WA)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/04/28/area_news/doc49f53d4a05fbe0197420...
The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday gave its final approval for liquefied natural gas terminals on the Columbia River — provided the companies that want to build them meet certain conditions. In a final report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency tasked with approving LNG terminals, the Coast Guard said the river isn't ready for LNG yet, but LNG tankers could travel safely on the waterway if companies follow his agency's prescribed guidelines…
11. U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses
By DAVID E. SANGER, JOHN MARKOFF and THOM SHANKER April 28, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html?
This article was reported by David E. Sanger, John Markoff and Thom Shanker and written by Mr. Sanger.
When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group's computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights. When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into their computers and undermine the project. And the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is to simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the country's power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or freeze the financial markets — in an effort to build better defenses against such attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons. Just as the invention of the atomic bomb changed warfare and deterrence 64 years ago, a new international race has begun to develop cyberweapons and systems to protect against them… In a report scheduled to be released Wednesday, the National Research Council will argue that although an offensive cybercapability is an important asset for the United States, the nation is lacking a clear strategy, and secrecy surrounding preparations has hindered national debate, according to several people familiar with the report. The advent of Internet attacks — especially those suspected of being directed by nations, not hackers — has given rise to a new term inside the Pentagon and the National Security Agency: "hybrid warfare." It describes a conflict in which attacks through the Internet can be launched as a warning shot — or to pave the way for a traditional attack...
12. Airborne Laser Aircraft Completes Flight Test
Monday, April 27, 2009
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090427_8161.php
A modified Boeing 747-400F jumbo jet aircraft on Tuesday completed its first flight test since being fully equipped with an experimental missile defense laser, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced (see GSN, Dec. 12, 2008). In an upcoming series of tests, the Airborne Laser aircraft is expected to pick up, monitor, target and fire on increasingly challenging targets. In a final test planned for later this year, the aircraft would attempt to destroy a mock enemy ballistic missile in its boost phase (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, April 24)…
Financing, identity theft, money laundering
13. Report Reveals Why Lawyers OK'd Chiquita Payments to Colombian Terrorists
Brian Baxter The American Lawyer April 28, 2009
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/international/LawArticleIntl.jsp?id=120243025...
A new 269-page report by an independent special litigation committee reveals why Chiquita Brands International paid extortion money to Colombian terrorists for 15 years, reports the Cincinnati Business Courier. Cincinnati-based Chiquita, one of the world's top banana producers, admitted in March 2007 that it had paid millions to several Colombian terrorist groups in order to protect its workers and business interests in the South American country. Chiquita subsequently paid $25 million to settle a Justice Department investigation into the payments, making the company the first in the U.S. to be convicted of financial dealings with designated terrorist organizations. Former Covington & Burling partner and current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., was tapped by Chiquita to handle the Justice Department inquiry. The ensuing legal proceedings raised questions about the legal advice Chiquita had received about the payments from its outside counsel at Kirkland & Ellis and touched off a turf war between Main Justice's criminal division and the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia over how the investigation should proceed…
14. Suit claims Dole bankrolled Colombia death squads
By FRANK BAJAK The Associated Press Tuesday, April 28, 2009 5:54 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3277
BOGOTA -- Dole Food Co. made regular payments for at least a decade in a banana-growing region to illegal far-right Colombian militias that killed thousands, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday. Dole is the second U.S. banana importer after Chiquita Brands International Inc. to be sued in the United States for such alleged behavior. The plaintiffs are relatives of 51 men allegedly murdered by a militia belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The victims were either involved in labor union organizing or were small farmers fighting attempts by Dole to obtain their land and plant bananas, the suit claims... Filed in California state court in Los Angeles, the suit seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from Dole, claiming the company acted "with malice and oppression," said Terry Collingsworth, an attorney for the plaintiffs...
15. 'Operation Stamp Out' Nets 18 for Evading Nearly $2.2 Million in Cigarette Taxes
Charges are the result of a joint investigation by DA's office, Nassau Police, and State Tax Department
Nassau County District Attorney's Office Press Release April 28, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3278
MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Deputy Commissioner William Comiskey announced today that 18 people have been charged as the result of two undercover investigations into the sale of untaxed cigarettes. Investigators also seized nine vehicles and more than $1 million in cash. In coordination with the NYSDTF, members of the police department's DA Squad and the District Attorney's Office's Investigations Bureau conducted separate investigations targeting cigarette retailers that had previously violated New York State cigarette tax law. Both investigations sold illegal untaxed cigarettes to a network of store owners from a storage facility and a dummy distribution company. The total tax loss to the state from these sales is more than $2.195 million… Charged are:…
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
16. Southern border just as open despite flu
Audrey Hudson and Betsy Pisik Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Washington Times
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/28/southern-border-open-despite...
U.S. officials say traffic across the southern border will not be interrupted by the swine flu outbreak, despite rising numbers of Mexican-origin infections in the U.S. and a warning that the number of infections could reach international pandemic levels. The World Health Organization (WHO) late Monday raised the flu pandemic alert level from three to four, signaling that the outbreak is not just sporadic cases or appearing in small clusters, but poses a risk of reaching pandemic proportions. The group also said huge knowledge gaps remained about the virus's origins and spread…
Napolitano: Stern border enforcement not yet necessary
By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press April 28, 2009
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42592&dcn=todaysnews
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration on Tuesday staunchly defended its "passive surveillance" policy on the emerging swine flu threat, saying that its measured, cautious border monitoring makes sense. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that more draconian enforcement steps are not yet necessary, even as she acknowledged that officials "anticipate confirmed cases in more states." She reiterated President Barack Obama's stance that people are justifiably concerned but need not be alarmed by it…
17. Gunrunning sting nets 2
By Todd Bensman - Express-News (San Antonio) 04/16/2009 12:00 CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/Gunrunning_sting_nets_2.html
Two Mexican nationals accused of conspiring to export $2 million in firearms and ammunition to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, are in custody after a sting in El Paso. Undercover federal agents posing as arms merchants nabbed the two men Saturday, wrapping up a rare five-month sting featuring real weapons as props and a wired warehouse. In the end, the deal was drastically pared down on grounds that last month's deployment of Mexican infantry to stop the mayhem in Juárez made smuggling the load momentarily too risky, authorities said. The sting, by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement task force in El Paso, may be a sign of more such efforts as federal authorities start a major crackdown on the smuggling of U.S. guns to drug cartels…
18. In 45 minutes, 7 Tijuana police officers are gunned down
By Omar Millán González, Special to Enlace 12:40 p.m. April 28, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3279
TIJUANA — The municipal police department confirmed Tuesday morning the deaths of seven officers in a series of attacks spanning 45 minutes Monday night in various parts of the city… At least eight gunmen riding in three station wagons opened fire with large-caliber weapons against the officers. A fifth officer was wounded. Some 15 minutes later, motorcycle officer Alejandro Figueroa Medrano was killed in the Villa Fontana neighborhood of the La Presa district. The police said the agent was attacked by gunmen in a white Jeep Cherokee and a brown commercial van, the statement said… The statement did not cite a motive for the killings, but the close timing of the attacks pointed to the likelihood that they are linked…
19. Former FBI trainee sentenced in marriage fraud case
By Tim McGlone The Virginian-Pilot April 28, 2009
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/former-fbi-trainee-sentenced-marriage-fr...
NORFOLK - A former FBI trainee and Navy sailor was sentenced today to one year in federal prison after admitting that she arranged a phony marriage to get quick citizenship. Yue H. Cheng, 27, apologized to the court and the country for her behavior. She previously pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to naturalization fraud, making false statements and defrauding the Navy by accepting additional housing allowance as a married person… Cheng came to the United States from China in 1999 on a student visa. She married a California man two years later and then joined the Navy. After serving three years, part of which was at Oceana Naval Air Station, she joined the FBI in 2006 as a trainee at the bureau's Quantico academy. But during a polygraph test, agents became suspicious about her marriage. She later admitted to them it was a fraud, and the bureau dismissed her…
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
20. Terrorists moving from Afghan border to Africa
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, The Associated Press 3:20 a.m. April 28, 2009
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/28/us-terror-africa-0428...
WASHINGTON — There is growing evidence that battle-hardened extremists are filtering out of safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and into East Africa, bringing sophisticated terrorist tactics that include suicide attacks. The alarming shift, according to U.S. military and counterterrorism officials, fuels concern that Somalia is increasingly on a path to become the next Afghanistan – a sanctuary where al-Qaida-linked groups could train and plan their threatened attacks against the western world. So far, officials say the number of foreign fighters who have moved from southwest Asia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to the Horn of Africa is small, perhaps two to three dozen. But a similarly small cell of militant plotters was responsible for the devastating 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. And the cluster of militants now believed to be operating inside East Africa could pass on sophisticated training and attack techniques gleaned from seven years at war against the U.S. and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said. "There is a level of activity that is troubling, disturbing," Gen. William "Kip" Ward, head of U.S. Africa Command, told The Associated Press. "When you have these vast spaces that are just not governed it provides a haven for support activities, for training to occur." Ward added that American officials already are seeing extremist factions in East Africa sharing information and techniques…
Planes seen as crucial against Somali piracy
Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:39am EDT Reuters By Jonathan Saul
* More spotter planes needed to find pirates
* Anti-piracy operations hampered by aircraft shortage
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLS833271
LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - More spotter planes are urgently needed by the European Union's naval force to combat Somali pirates operating off the horn of Africa country's coast, senior naval officers said on Tuesday. Somali pirates have made millions of dollars in ransoms hijacking commercial vessels in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, despite patrols by foreign navies off the Somali coast, disrupting aid supplies and trade routes…
ASIA / PACIFIC
21. Fight Escalates Between Pakistani Military, Taliban
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG in Lahore, Pakistan and ZAHID HUSSAIN in Islamabad
ASIA NEWS APRIL 28, 2009 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124085342758159927.html
The Taliban controlling Pakistan's Swat Valley declared a peace deal with the government there "worthless" Monday amid a second day of clashes with troops in a neighboring district seen as a possible route for militants to Afghanistan. But government officials gave mixed signals on whether they would abandon the truce in Swat, as the military made its first sustained response to militants' move out of the valley over the past week, which has stoked fears of an Islamist push to dominate the nuclear-armed nation. Pakistan faces intense pressure from U.S. officials to abandon the pact and take stronger action against the Taliban, including in Swat. The truce, which allowed the Taliban group that controls Swat to impose Islamic law there, was supposed to end fighting and lead to the militants laying down their arms. Instead, Swat has become a major militant base since the accord was struck in February, and Pakistani officials estimate there are now 8,000 militants in the valley...
22. Pakistan Red Mosque preacher demands shari'ah in Friday sermon
BBC Monitoring South Asia – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
April 27, 2009 Monday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
Text of online report headlined, "I tell Musharraf that the graves of terrorists never emit a fragrance - Maulana Abdul Aziz", published by Pakistani newspaper Ausaf on 25 April
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
Islamabad: Maulana Abdul Aziz, preacher at the Red Mosque, has said that the solution to the current mayhem lies only in the imposition of shari'ah. He said: "Shortly I shall start touring the entire country to advocate the imposition of the Islamic system. Islam does not preach coercion, and women can visit markets wearing veils." He expressed these views during the Friday sermon in the Red Mosque. Abdul Aziz said that price rises, bribery, injustice and atrocities could be eradicated from the country only if the Islamic system was imposed. He further said that people were dying for justice…
Taliban gunmen shooting couple dead for adultery caught on camera
Taliban gunmen have been filmed executing a surprised couple whom they repeatedly shot for the alleged crime of adultery.
The Sunday Telegraph (London) By Saeed Shah in Islamabad 26 Apr 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3280
Their deaths were squalid, riddled with bullets in a field near their home by Taliban gunmen as the execution was captured on a mobile telephone. In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt. Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds. Their "crime" was an alleged affair in their remote mountain village controlled by militants in an area that was only recently under the government's sway. It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread…
23. Bangladesh charges NGO chief with funding militants
Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:39am EDT Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSDHA480784._CH_.2400
DHAKA, April 28 (Reuters) - Bangladesh has charged a leader of a British-based Islamic non-governmental organisation with funding Islamist militancy, an official said on Tuesday. Faisal Mustafa, a Briton of Bangladeshi origin who works for the Green Crescent organisation, was arrested earlier this month. "Ten of his accomplices were also charged for involvement in militancy in Bangladesh," a police inspector told Reuters. Security forces put out a warrant for Mustafa after a cache of arms and explosives were seized in March at a religious school, or madrasa, run by the charity in a village south of the capital, Dhaka…
24. More Palembang jihadists jailed for murder, terror attack
Eny Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Tue, 04/28/2009 7:15 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3281
Jakarta - The South Jakarta District Court has sentenced two Palembang jihadists, Ali Mashudi and Wahyudi, to serve 10 and 12 years in jail respectively for the killing of a clergyman and another terror attack. At Tuesday's court trial, presiding judge Aswardi said both defendants had violated article 15 of the Law No. 12/2003 on antiterorrism attack…
25. Report: Filipino radicals help Indonesia brethren
By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press Posted: 04/26/2009 09:30:00 PM PDT
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/world/ci_12234787
MANILA, Philippines—Muslim Filipino rebels have helped Indonesian terror suspects evade capture by giving them refuge and access to weapons and funds in the southern Philippines, a government report says. The information was gleaned from a recently arrested rebel who told government interrogators that Indonesian terror suspect Umar Patek has established ties with Filipino militants in the region. A report on his interrogation was seen by The Associated Press on Monday. Omar Venancio told interrogators that Patek, who fled to southern Mindanao in 2003, had established links with at least five rebel groups in order to gain a safe haven for Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Indonesia-based faction. U.S. and Philippine security officials have long been concerned that such tie-ups could allow foreign radicals to pass bomb-making skills and their extremist brand of Islam to Filipino militants and turn southern Philippine rebel strongholds into terrorist training grounds...
26. Vagni's medical condition hinders rescue mission — AFP [Armed Force of the Philippines]
By Mario J. Mallari 04/27/2009 The Daily Tribune (Philippines)
http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20090427hed3.html
Despite its readiness to pounce on Abu Sayyaf terrorists holding Red Cross volunteer Italian Eugenio Vagni captive, the military now seems to balk at mounting a strategic offensive aimed at rescuing him. Reason: Vagni, who can hardly walk owing to hernia, cannot flee from his captors when firefight ensues… Vagni is the last remaining worker of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) held captive by an Abu Sayyaf band led by Albader Parad. Marie Jean Lacaba, a Filipino engineer with ICRC, was freed on April 2 after Gov. Abdusakur Tan placed the entire Sulu under a state of emergency. Swiss national Andreas Notter escaped from his captors only last April 18. The three were snatched last January 15 while doing humanitarian work in Sulu's capital of Jolo...
27. Terrorism fear for Manchester United and Liverpool in summer tours
Manchester United and Liverpool are monitoring the security situation in their respective pre-season destinations of Indonesia and Thailand with travel advice issued by the Foreign Office warning of a "high threat from terrorism" in the two countries.
By Mark Ogden The Daily Telegraph (London) Last Updated: 9:44PM BST 26 Apr 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3282
European champions United are due to play fixtures in China, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia in July, with Sir Alex Ferguson's team facing an Indonesian Select XI in Jakarta's Bung Karno Stadium. Liverpool confirmed last week that Rafael Benitez's first-team squad will face Thailand in Bangkok on July 22. Both Indonesia and Thailand have been graded in the highest bracket for potential terrorism by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office following recent terrorist attacks and political upheaval in the two south-east Asia countries. Advice on the FCO travel website, updated last week, suggests that "there remains a high threat from terrorism [in Indonesia and Thailand]. We believe that terrorists continue to plan attacks, which could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers"…
EUROPE
28. British trio cleared of helping to plan 7/7 London attacks
David Brown From Times Online (London) April 28, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6131365.ece
Three British Muslims were cleared today of helping to plan terrorist attacks on London that killed 52 people and injured almost 1,000. Waheed Ali, Mohammed Shakil and Sadeer Saleem are the only people to have been prosecuted over Britain's first suicide bomb attacks, on July 7, 2005. They were accused of carrying out a reconnaissance mission to identify targets for the 7/7 gang but were found not guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions after a three-month trial at Kingston Crown Court. Ali and Shakil were convicted of planning to attend a terrorist training camp when they were arrested on their way to Manchester Airport for a flight to Pakistan in March 2007. Senior police officers have admitted that no one else is likely to be charged in connection with the London attacks despite evidence that other people were involved…
ANALYSIS: 7/7 bombing acquittals a bitter disappointment
Andy Hayman Times Online (London) April 28, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6131697.ece
Andy Hayman was Assistant Commissioner, Special Operations, in the Metropolitan Police from 2005-07
The spy picture that linked terror suspects in 2004
PHOTO: The surveillance image shows, from left, Waheed Ali, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Omar Khyam in East London
David Brown The Times (London) April 29, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6188602.ece
This grainy surveillance picture taken in a busy street in East London shows the links between two al-Qaeda terror cells and the failure of the authorities to halt the July 7 suicide bombings. To the right of the photograph in a blue top is Omar Khyam, the leader of the gang planning to bomb a London shopping centre or nightclub. Standing to his right is Mohammad Sidique Khan, who led the four suicide bombers in the attack that killed 52 innocent people and injured 700 on London's public transport in 2005. On the far left is Waheed Ali, one of t
