News

THE AMERICAS

General security, policy

1. Activist turned extremist, US says
Ex-Hub woman tied to Al Qaeda
FIVE-YEAR DISAPPEARANCE The mystery of Aafia Siddiqui's whereabouts adds another twist to the bizarre tale of her transformation into a terror suspect.

By Farah Stockman, Boston Globe August 12, 2008

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/12/activist_turned_ex...

WASHINGTON - She was a tiny woman with big convictions. While her fellow students at MIT read newspaper articles about the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia in the 1990s, Aafia Siddiqui sprang to action, giving slide shows and rousing speeches to collect donations for their cause. While other women from traditional Pakistani families stayed home after marriage, Siddiqui juggled the demands of motherhood, a doctoral dissertation at Brandeis, and a Roxbury-based nonprofit organization she established to spread Islamic teachings. But yesterday, federal prosecutors in New York alleged that Siddiqui's activism had become extremism. US officials say that the 36-year-old mother of three became an Al Qaeda operative who ended up in Afghanistan and attacked US soldiers who had come to interrogate her. "She is a high security risk," said Christopher Lloyd LaVigne, assistant US attorney, told a judge at a hearing yesterday. Now, those who knew Siddiqui in Boston are struggling to understand how the MIT graduate and trained neuroscientist could pose "a clear and present danger to America," as the FBI alleges... Intelligence officials believe that Siddiqui, considered the world's most-wanted female before her arrest, became affiliated with Al Qaeda while in Boston. Though the FBI had sought her in 2003, she returned to her native Pakistan with her children and went underground before agents found her, according to interviews with US officials and documents from the FBI and the director of national intelligence. US officials say she eluded them until last month when she was arrested with an unidentified teenage boy in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Local police caught the two outside the provincial governor's compound with chemicals, maps, and documents on explosives, according to court papers. "They were here for suicide bombing," an Afghan official in Ghazni told the Globe in a telephone interview last week. "Both of them were looking like they were prepared for suicide." Siddiqui is also accused of shooting at US officials who had come to interrogate her. She allegedly grabbed an M-4 rifle and opened fire; she was wounded when a soldier returned fire. Last week, FBI officials brought her to New York for trial in the attempted shooting. The teenage boy, who relatives fear might be Siddiqui's son, remains in Afghan custody, according to the Afghan official… The mystery of Siddiqui's whereabouts for the last five years adds yet another twist to the bizarre tale of her transformation from an MIT student activist to international terrorism suspect awaiting trial in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center…

2. Pakistan TV network censored Al-Qaeda deputy's video
Agence France Presse August 11, 2008

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5je9HGApJxEhQErfQ3Q0yBDvEj8iA

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A Pakistani television network which aired a video tape of Al-Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said on Monday that parts of the tape were withheld because they were too sensitive. "Some portions of the video were not telecast due to sensitivities and personal attacks," deputy director of the ARY One television network, Mazhar Abbas, told AFP. "The video tape was given to ARY One television in Islamabad on Saturday and was telecast on Sunday during 5.00 pm regular news bulletin," he said. In the video Zawahiri accuses Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf of being "thirsty for money and a bribe-seeker," arguing that he is working to support US and Western interests and that he has committed crimes against Muslims all over the world. Musharraf is facing impending impeachment proceedings by the coalition government led by the parties of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League of former premier Nawaz Sharif. The US-based IntelCenter, which monitors extremist websites and communications, said that it was "the first official message ever... in which he speaks English"…

3. U.S. Keeps North Korea On Terrorism Blacklist
Associated Press August 11, 2008 1:29 p.m.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401209,00.html

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. said Monday it would not remove North Korea from a terror blacklist until Kim Jong Il's government has agreed to a plan to allow international inspectors to verify an accounting of its nuclear programs. Monday was the soonest that the U.S. could have taken North Korea off the state sponsor of terror list, which Washington said it would do in exchange for Pyongyang's disclosure of its nuclear programs in June. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that the North, which exploded a nuclear device in 2006, would not receive the concession until there was a "strong verification regime" in place…

4. Justice wants criminal intell systems to include terrorism info
By Ben Bain Published on August 11, 2008 Federal Computer Week

http://www.fcw.com/online/news/153472-1.html

The Justice Department wants state criminal intelligence data systems to specifically include more intelligence about terrorism. According to a proposed rule, state and local organizations should gather and include terrorism-related information in their federally funded criminal intelligence data systems. The rule also would extend the length of time that the systems contain information without review from five to ten years. Justice said the change is necessary because new data analysis technologies might reveal useful intelligence from the data later. Criminal intelligence systems store and share investigative data about individuals or organizations that authorities reasonably suspect participate in criminal activity. The systems are different from the criminal record databases that law enforcement authorities also maintain. The operational regulations for criminal intelligence systems that receive federal funding were last amended in 1993. They include federal guidelines for how state and local law enforcement entities gather, store and share criminal intelligence data. The proposed amendments would define terrorism and its material support as criminal activities about which state and local law enforcement should gather and maintain intelligence. In addition, they would establish standards for how information can be used for prevention purposes, something that the regulations do not currently mention…

5. Driver pleads guilty to attempted murder
By Jesse James DeConto, News & Observer

Published: Aug 12, 2008 07:07 AM Modified: Aug 12, 2008 10:31 AM
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/taheriazar/story/1174255.h...
HILLSBOROUGH - Mohammed Taheri-Azar pleaded guilty this morning to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder charges stemming from a March 2006 incident in which he drove a rented SUV into a crowd of people on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped nine counts of aggravated felonious assault charges. Teheri-Azar will be sentenced for two counts of attempted first-degree murder on Aug. 25. Each count carries a maximum of 40 years in prison. Over the past couple of years, Taheri-Azar has tried to fire his court-appointed attorney, been committed to a mental institution and asked to be released so he could move to California to work for his father…

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

6. City Would Photograph Every Vehicle Entering Manhattan and Sniff Out Radioactivity
By AL BAKER The New York Times August 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/nyregion/12cars.html

The Police Department is working on a plan to track every vehicle that enters Manhattan to strengthen the city’s guard against a potential terror attack, the department’s chief spokesman said. The proposal — called Operation Sentinel — relies on integrating layers of technologies, some that are still being perfected. It calls for photographing, and scanning the license plates of, cars and trucks at all bridges and tunnels and using sensors to detect the presence of radioactivity. Data on each vehicle — its time-stamped image, license plate imprint and radiological signature — would be sent to a command center in Lower Manhattan, where it would be indexed and stored for at least a month as part of a broad security plan that emphasizes protecting the city’s financial district, the spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said. If it were not linked to a suspicious vehicle or a law enforcement investigation, it would be eliminated, he said. “Our main objective would be to, through intelligence, find out about a plot before it ever got to a stage where a nuclear device or a dirty bomb was coming our way,” Mr. Browne said. “This provides for our defense after a plot has already been launched and a device is on its way.” The proposal is one element of a 36-page plan for security, mainly focused on the site of ground zero, that Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and his counterterrorism bureau commanders have shared with the director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey…

Police Want Tight Security Zone at Ground Zero
By CHARLES V. BAGLI The New York Times August 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/nyregion/12security.html

Planners seeking to rebuild the World Trade Center have always envisioned that the 16-acre site would have a vibrant streetscape with distinctive buildings, shops and cultural institutions lining a newly restored street grid. From the destruction of Sept. 11, 2001, a new neighborhood teeming with life would be born. But now, the Police Department’s latest security proposal entails heavy restrictions. According to a 36-page presentation given by top-ranking police officials in recent months, the entire area would be placed within a security zone, in which only specially screened taxis, limousines and cars would be allowed through “sally ports,” or barriers staffed by police officers, constructed at each of five entry points. Roughly a dozen guard booths would be established at street corners where pedestrians or vehicles are most likely to enter the area, while the western lanes of Church Street would be reserved for emergency vehicles. All service and delivery trucks for the trade center site would be directed to an underground bomb screening center at the south side of the complex. Tour buses would drop off and pick up passengers at Liberty and Greenwich Streets. But no bus would be summoned from the underground security center and garage until all the passengers are present, a requirement that could leave large clots of tourists waiting for stragglers…

7. Federal raid stuns family when son suspected of shining laser at pilots
22-year-old faces felony charge after pilots say he aimed light at helicopter
South Florida Sun-Sentinel August 12, 2008

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flplaser0812pnaug12,0,5150...

Thomas Kiefer Jr. felt like the little guy — a speck on the ground pointing an even smaller speck of light at a helicopter that was shining a 30-million Candlepower searchlight onto his parents' home. But inside the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office helicopter last week, pilots Carl Kamstra and Dave Fell saw serious dangers posed by the green laser as it lit up their cockpit. "If you get it in your eye, it can burn the interior. It can do quite a bit of damage," Kamstra said. "And it can be very disruptive." Contending with a nationwide surge in the number of laser incidents disrupting the piloted skies, the Sheriff's Office and the FBI came down hard on Kiefer. After identifying the house on Dillman Road west of West Palm Beach, they arrived with a search warrant and assault rifles that the family says were pointed at them as agents tossed through drawers and closets in search of lasers. They confiscated 10 lasers. Kiefer, 22, spent the night in jail and faces a third-degree felony...

8. Judge rules guns may not be carried in airport
GeorgiaCarry.org, Rep. Bearden had contended new law nullified ban.

By BILL RANKIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 08/11/08 UPDATED: 6:23 p.m.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/08/11/guns_a...?

ATLANTA - People with firearms licenses still can't take guns into non-secure areas of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob refused to grant a preliminary injunction that would have stopped the city from enforcing the airport gun ban. Shoob ruled against gun-rights group GeorgiaCarry.org and state Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica). Bearden sponsored House Bill 89, which became law on July 1 and permits people with firearms licenses to carry guns in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on mass transit. But Shoob said allowing concealed weapons into non-secure areas of the world's busiest airport will make the airport less safe and require it to substantially revise its security procedures…

9. SFO laptop mystery treated as theft, cops say
John Coté, San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, August 12, 2008

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BADV129864.DTL

Investigators are treating the disappearance and recovery of a laptop containing personal information on 33,000 travelers enrolled in a fast-pass program at San Francisco International Airport as a theft, authorities said today. The move came as the Transportation Security Administration announced it was lifting a freeze on registration for the program, known as Clear. The Clear service speeds registered travelers through airport security lines. Verified Identity Pass operates the program at about 20 airports nationwide. New enrollments in the program were suspended after a laptop with names, addresses and birthdates for people applying to the program disappeared from a locked Verified Identity Pass office at the airport. The files on the laptop were not encrypted, but were protected by two passwords, a company official said. A preliminary investigation showed that the information was not compromised, said Steven Brill, CEO of Clear, but the TSA is still reviewing the results of its forensic examination of the computer. The laptop was reported missing to airport police and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office on July 26 and to the TSA on July 28. It reappeared in the same locked office - although in a different place - Aug. 5, the day after the TSA announced it was suspending new enrollments in the Clear program, authorities said…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

10. Treasury Designates Iranian Nuclear and Missile Entities

US Department of the Treasury Press Release HP-1113 August 12, 2008
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1113.htm

Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated five entities for their ties to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. All five designees are owned or controlled by, or acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, entities that have been designated by the United States or the United Nations Security Council. The entities designated today are the Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture and Medicine (a/k/a Karaj Nuclear Research Center), the Esfahan Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center (NFRPC), Jabber Ibn Hayan, Safety Equipment Procurement Company (SEP Co.) and Joza Industrial Company…

11. SoCal man gets 7 years in prison for fraud scheme
The Associated Press: 08/11/2008 09:07:25 PM PDT

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10171398

IPT NOTE: An archive DoJ press release with details of the scam and names of co-conspirators is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2006/100.html. The current press release is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/110.html

LOS ANGELES—A Beverly Hills man convicted of orchestrating a fraud scheme that bilked more than $8 million from lenders was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison. Reza Bahram Tabatabai, 53, was also ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution, the U.S. attorney's office said. Prosecutors said Tabatabai bought established businesses in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Barbara, Denver and Atlanta so he could use the companies' lines of credit to borrow money. They said he took the money to make large purchases of goods that he then resold for cash and cashier's checks. The banks never received payments on the lines of credit. Following a bench trial two years ago, Tabatabai was found guilty of conspiracy, interstate transportation of fraudulently obtained property, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

BEVERLY HILLS MAN SENTENCED TO OVER 7 YEARS IN PRISON IN ‘BUST-OUT’ SCHEMES THAT CAUSED OVER $8 MILLION IN LOSSES

U.S. Department of Justice, US Attorney, Central District of California
Release No. 08-110 August 11, 2008
Thom Mrozek, Public Affairs Officer (213) 894-6947 thom.mrozek@usdoj.gov

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/110.html

BEVERLY HILLS MAN CONVICTED OF OPERATING 'BUST-OUT' SCHEMES THAT CAUSED MORE THAN $8 MILLION IN LOSSES
U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California
United States Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, California 90012
Press Release No. 06-100 July 25, 2006
For Information, Contact Public Affairs Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2006/100.html

… The investigation in this case started when the FBI received a complaint from a company that did business with Impaq Micro, a Norcross, Georgia company that had been a legitimate computer wholesaler until it was purchased by Tabatabai under an assumed name. As part of the sales agreement, the previous owners of Impaq Micro were prohibited from telling its vendors about the change in ownership. After purchasing the business, Tabatabai and his co-conspirators made efforts to increase the line of credit available to the business and then obtained a large amount of merchandise on the credit. The merchandise was shipped to a warehouse in California, and was sold in exchange for cash and cashiers checks. The banks never received payments on the line of credit. By the end of August 2004 – less than four months after Tabatabai and the others had taken over the company – Impaq Micro had been abandoned, leaving unpaid bills of approximately $3 million… Previously in this case, three defendants pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. They are: Edmond Masjedi, 35, of Beverly Hills; Touraj Benshian, 38, of Los Angeles; and Mohammad Majidi, 42, of Los Angeles… Two other defendants have been indicted, but they have not been apprehended by federal authorities. Masoud Sabet, 52, and Masoud Rahmani, 34, both of Encino, are fugitives who are believed to be in Iran…

12. Global Trail of an Online Crime Ring
By BRAD STONE New York Times Published: August 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/technology/12theft.html, reprinted at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/business/theft.php
IPT NOTE: The August 5th gov't press release, previously circulated, is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/08-ag-689.html

As an international ring of thieves plundered the credit card numbers of millions of Americans, investigators struggled to figure out who was orchestrating the crimes in the United States. When prosecutors unveiled indictments last week, they made a stunning admission: the culprit was, they said, their very own informant. Albert Gonzalez, 27, appeared to be a reformed hacker. To avoid prison time after being arrested in 2003, he had been helping federal agents identify his former cohorts in the online underworld where credit and debit card numbers are stolen, bought and sold. But on the sly, federal officials now say, Mr. Gonzalez was connecting with those same cohorts and continuing to ply his trade, using online pseudonyms — including “soupnazi” — that would be his undoing. As they tell it, Mr. Gonzalez had a central role in a loosely organized online crime syndicate that obtained tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from nine of the biggest retailers in the United States. The indictments last week of 11 people involved in the group give a remarkably comprehensive picture of how the Internet is enabling new kinds of financial crimes on a vast international scale. In interviews over the last few days, investigators detailed how they had tracked Mr. Gonzalez and other members of a ring that extended from Ukraine, where a key figure bought and sold stolen numbers over the Internet, to Estonia, where a hacker infiltrated the servers of a Dallas-based restaurant chain. The criminals stored much of their data on computer servers in Latvia and Ukraine, and purchased blank debit and credit cards from confederates in China, which they imprinted with some of the stolen numbers for use in cash machines, investigators say…

13. Michael Savage vows to take Islam fight to Supreme Court
Popular radio host seeks to expose CAIR's 'international funding sources'

WorldNetDaily Exclusive Posted: August 10, 2008 4:50 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=72008

Talk-radio host Michael Savage has announced he will bring his recently dismissed copyright infringement lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of making public the Islamic group's sources of funding. Savage's suit – originally filed in San Francisco district court – alleged CAIR illegally published singled-out quotes and audio excerpts from his show regarding Islam, misappropriated his words and used the clips for its own fundraising purposes, damaging the value of his copyrighted material. CAIR last year waged a public campaign using excerpted Savage remarks to urge advertisers to boycott his top-rated program. CAIR stated its campaign successfully resulted in Savage losing $1 million in advertising. Part of Savage's lawsuit alleged CAIR received millions in foreign funding and that it may have been wrongfully acting as a lobbyist or agent for a foreign government, violating the Islamic group's nonprofit status. Savage also alleged CAIR was engaged in racketeering, describing the group as a "mouthpiece of international terror" that helped fund the 9/11 attacks, a contention strongly denied by CAIR…

Border security, immigration, customs

14. UTEP launches border security, immigration program

08.12.08 Associated Press

http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=8828772&nav=AbC0

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The University of Texas at El Paso officially became the home of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration on Tuesday. The center, a U.S Department of Homeland Security-supported research and degree program focused on producing border, homeland security and immigration experts, will be a partnership with the University of Arizona. Retired Army Brigadier General Jose Riojas, executive director of the center at UTEP, lauded the program's launch at the second day of the fifth annual Border Security Conference… The center, with a six-year contract with the government, will be awarded about a $1 million a year, but Riojas said it will also give UTEP a chance to become a serious player in research and real-world solutions for security concerns. Center officials also hope to have an international presence in the future.

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

15. Coalition forces capture 9 Hezbollah Brigades operatives in Baghdad
By Bill Roggio August 12, 2008 6:28 AM Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/08/coalition_forces_cap_1.ph...

Coalition forces, likely the special operations hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured nine Hezbollah Brigades operatives during three raids in the Adhamiyah district in Baghdad over the past 24 hours. The first intelligence-driven raid netted a Hezbollah Brigades cell leader who operated in Basrah. "According to information from suspects already in custody, he is believed to be involved in smuggling weapons and fighters across the Iraq-Iran border," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. Three other suspected Hezbollah Brigades associates were captured. The second raid resulted in the capture of Hezbollah Brigades operative behind improvised rocket-assisted mortar (IRAM) attacks in Baghdad. Coalition forces "found weapons, as well as electronics equipment believed to be used in the manufacture of IRAMs" and also detained three other men. A "propaganda expert" and other member of the Hezbollah Brigades were captured during the third raid. "The man admitted to designing websites for [Hezbollah Brigades] in order for the group to publicize their IRAM attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces." This is the third Hezbollah Brigades propaganda specialist captured in the past month. On July 31, Coalition forces detained a cell member who was responsible for videotaping attacks on US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad. On July 21, Coalition forces captured a member of a Hezbollah Brigades propaganda cell who was responsible for uploading attack videos to the Internet in New Baghdad. The Hezbollah Brigades, or the Kata'ib Hezbollah, has been active for more than a year and has increased its profile by conducting attacks against US and Iraqi forces using the deadly explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, and improvised rocket-assisted mortars, which have been described as flying improvised explosive devices. The Hezbollah Brigades has posted videos of these attacks on the Internet… For more information on improvised rocket-assisted mortars, see: Mahdi Army uses “flying IEDs” in Baghdad, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/mahdi_army_uses_flyi.php

16. DoD Identifies Marine Casualties

U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 687-08 August 12, 2008

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12138

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. The following Marines died Aug. 7 while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq: Cpl. Adam T. McKiski, 21, of Cherry Valley, Ill.; Cpl. Stewart S. Trejo, 25, of Whitefish, Mont. The Marines were assigned to the 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. For additional background information on these Marines, news media representatives may contact the Camp Pendleton public affairs office at (760) 725-5043/5044.

Secret work of SAS in Iraq exposed
The secret work of SAS troops battling Al Qa'eda terrorists in Iraq has been exposed by the American commander in the country.
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
12 Aug 2008 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://tinyurl.com/6a3gkf

British special forces had played an "immense" role in taking out terrorist bomb-making cells and insurgent leaders over the last five years, said Gen David Petraeus. In one incident the SAS blended into the heavy Baghdad traffic by hiring a pink pick-up truck and removing their military clothing to capture a terrorist, the general said. "They have helped immensely in the Baghdad area, in particular, to take down the al-Qaeda car bomb networks and other al-Qaeda operations in Iraq's capital city, so they have done a phenomenal job in that regard," he said. The exposure of SAS exploits is unusual as the Ministry of Defence very rarely comments on special forces operations giving little insight. The SAS has been operating from Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 carrying out strike operations against insurgents…

17. Five members of a terrorist cell killed and two others detained
Written By: Mohammed al-Kibsi Aug 12, 2008 - 6:55:22 AM Yemen Observer

http://www.yobserver.com/front-page/10014753.html

Five terrorists were killed and two others detained by security forces in Tarim district, Hadramout province, in the south east of Yemen last Monday. The security authorities also uncovered that large amounts of weapons, explosives and devices that were going to be used to prepare car-bombs were ceased in the hide out of the Tarim terrorist cell in IdeedHasat al-Maqateel area. During the operation launched by the security authorities the al-Qaeda member Hamza al-Quaiti was killed. Al-Quaiti had issued a statement last week threatening to launch large terrorist operations unless al-Qaeda members in the Yemeni political security prisons were released. The 26 September website attributed to security sources that among the ceased materials the police found three passports, one of them belonging to Ahmad Saeed Omar al-Mashjari, who launched the suicide operation at the security complex in Sayoun. Two other passeports belong to Saudi citizens named Badah Maghas, Bin Badah al-Qahtani and Waleed Bin Radhi, Bin Smilil al-Utaibi. The source said that more than 50 big sacks loaded with gun powder and large amounts of TNT explosives as well as other materials needed for making bombs were found in the hide out. In addition to this, other weapons including grenades mortars were seized. The sources added that the police also found a number of computers and valuable documents, information and dangerous plans that targeted not only Yemen but the whole region…

18. Loud prayer calls in Muslim Morocco spark uproar

By Alfred De Montesquiou August 12, 2008 Associated Press

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-08-11-muslim-prayer-call_N.ht...

RABAT, Morocco — The muezzins' calls echo well before daybreak, summoning the Muslim faithful to daily prayers and reminding foreign tourists in the Moroccan capital how far they are from home. But the rising decibel level is deepening fault lines between a government drive to modernize and a wave of rigorous political Islam. Morocco, a country of 33 million people, gets more than 7 million tourists a year, and there are worries that some may be put off by the five heavily amplified calls a day, each lasting five minutes, to "hasten to the prayer, hasten to the prayer." Muslim purists counter that authorities are compromising religion to please Westerners and the country's liberal elite. The frictions are happening in a country that is considered moderate on matters of religion and is a U.S. ally at a time when there are fears that al-Qaeda is establishing itself in North Africa. Morocco has lately been shaken by two different cases in which the government, or wealthy Westerners, have been accused of plotting to force down the volume on the muezzins who make the call to prayer…

19. Mauritania junta vows hard line on Qaeda militants
Mon 11 Aug 2008, 11:35 GMT Reuters By Daniel Magnowski

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN145277.html

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania's new military leaders will take a harder line on al Qaeda militants than the democratic civilian administration they deposed last week, the country's new ruler Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said late on Sunday. Abdel Aziz, who ousted the northwest African country's first freely elected leader on Wednesday, said in an interview it was "not impossible" he himself would run for president in elections he has promised to hold as soon as possible. Abdel Aziz's overthrow of Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi brought virtually unanimous international condemnation, despite support from many Mauritanian politicians disillusioned with Abdallahi's rule after barely 15 months in office. Washington cut all non-humanitarian aid, including more than $15 million in military assistance to an ally in the U.S.-led war on terror which has seen a rash of attacks by al Qaeda's North African arm since late last year. Militants killed four French tourists and several government soldiers in separate attacks last December, forcing the cancellation of the annual trans-Saharan Dakar rally. A February al Qaeda attack on Israel's embassy highlighted Mauritania as one of the few Arab countries with ties with the Jewish state…

20. Three dead, six missing in Gaza tunnel collapse
Agence France Presse August 11, 2008

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCnlZEej8RKDNrEZ0IWpgSqFi2JQ

GAZA CITY (AFP) — The bodies of three Palestinians have been recovered from a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and the Gaza Strip which collapsed at the weekend, while six people are missing, medics said Monday. The tunnel near the Rafah border crossing caved in on Saturday, burying the nine Palestinians, the medics said. Several Palestinians have died in recent months in the tunnels, which are used to smuggle arms, fuel, and other supplies into the Gaza Strip, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for nearly a year. Israel, which sealed Gaza off from all but vital humanitarian aid after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, has accused Egypt of not doing enough to shut down the extensive tunnel network, charges Cairo denies…

ASIA / PACIFIC

21. Al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan rumored killed in Pakistan
By Bill Roggio Long War Journal August 12, 2008 9:01 AM
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/08/al_qaedas_commander.php

Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, has been killed during the heavy fighting in Pakistan's tribal agency of Bajaur. The report of Yazid's death is based on statements made by an unnamed senior Pakistani security official. Pakistani television claimed Abu Saeed al Masri was killed in fighting in Bajaur. Yazid is also known as Sheikh Saeed and Abu Saeed al Masri (the Egyptian). But it is unclear if this Abu Saeed al Masri is the same person as Yazid. Other al Qaeda operatives go by the name of Sheikh Saeed, a senior US military intelligence official warned The Long War Journal. Yazid serves as al Qaeda's senior military commander in Afghanistan as well as a senior spokesman. He was born on Dec. 17, 1955 in Egypt, according to Geo TV, who recently interviewed Yazid. The 9-11 Commission identified Yazid as al Qaeda's "chief financial manager." Yazid "served time in jail with al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al Zawahiri after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981," Reuters reported….

B.C. soldier killed in Afghanistan
Master Cpl. Erin Doyle was killed Monday during a brief attack by insurgents
Graham Thomson and Jason Hewlett
Canwest News Service and Kamloops Daily News Monday, August 11, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/6rjgnb

B.C. - The Afghanistan conflict has claimed another Canadian life, this time an Edmonton-based soldier who grew up in Kamloops. Master Cpl. Erin Doyle was killed Monday during a brief attack by insurgents against a Canadian combat outpost in the middle of Taliban territory. Doyle was serving with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. A second, unidentified, soldier was wounded during the attack and was reported to be in good condition…

Afghan suicide bomber hits Nato convoy
A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed three civilians in a Nato convoy that reportedly also contained some British troops.

The Daily Telegraph (London) Last Updated: 3:16PM BST 12 Aug 2008

http://tinyurl.com/59ms42

The vehicles, travelling in a convoy of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) personnel, were attacked by the bomber on the eastern outskirts of the capital Kabul. ISAF, which is composed of Nato soldiers, said 12 people were injured in addition to the three who were killed. A small number of ISAF soldiers were also hurt, but their identities or countries were not revealed. According to press reports, eyewitnesses suggested that the convoy included British soldiers...

22. Jury warned Muslim religion not on trial
August 11, 2008 - 6:01PM AAP

http://news.smh.com.au/national/jury-warned-muslim-religion-not-on-trial...
A judge has warned a jury the Muslim religion is not on trial as they hear the case against a Sydney man accused of producing a Jihad instruction book. Justice Megan Latham told the NSW Supreme Court jurors they should not jump to the conclusion Belal Saadallah Khazaal was guilty on the basis of his clothing, language or religion. "The Muslim religion is not on trial here, ladies and gentlemen," she said on Monday, directing them to keep an open mind and to consider all the evidence. Khazaal has pleaded not guilty to knowingly making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act and to attempting to incite the commission of a terrorist act. The first offence allegedly occurred between September 20 and September 23, 2003, and the second between September 22 and October 8, 2003, in Sydney and "elsewhere in the world". The document Khazaal allegedly made was a book titled "Provisions on the Rules of Jihad - Short Judicial rulings and organisational instructions for fighters and Mujahideen against infidels". The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) claims Khazaal caused the document to be posted on a website...

23. Filipino troops press assault on Muslim rebels

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Mon Aug 11, 6:46 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_re_as/philippines_muslim_rebel...

Philippine troops regained control of two southern villages from Muslim rebels Monday as the number of Filipinos displaced in the fighting grew to 130,000, officials said. Government troops pressed ahead with a massive assault to clear 13 other villages. At least one soldier and seven Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas have been killed since nearly 3,000 troops and police launched the attacks on Sunday. The assault, backed by artillery and rocket-firing helicopters, came after the guerrillas defied an ultimatum to withdraw from five towns in North Cotabato province, military vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna said...