News
Daily Update
General security, policy
1. Georgia: Terror fears over whereabouts of region's nuclear material
Georgia's conflict with Russia has raised fresh concerns over the whereabouts of the region's nuclear material that could be used by terrorists to make a "dirty bomb".
The Telegraph (London) By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent 6:50PM BST 17 Aug 2008
When the breakaway region of Abkhazia split from Georgia in 1993, the world's only known case of enriched uranium going missing was reported after up to 2kg of the potentially devastating material was stolen from a laboratory. There are now fears that the organised criminal gangs that are rife in the region could exploit the confusion of the current conflict to loot other stocks. Security services are worried that terrorist organisations such as al-Qa'eda could purchase weapons grade uranium and mix it with a detonator as basic as fertiliser to make a deadly device. While an estimated 15kg of uranium is needed to make a nuclear bomb just a small amount is needed for an unconventional device… Between half a kg and 2kg of uranium-235 was taken from a physics institute in Abkhazia's principal town Sukhumi after scientists fled during fighting but was not discovered as missing until four years later in 1997. But it is not the only incident in the region. A smuggler attempted to sell up to 3kg of uranium in South Ossetia three years ago with a price tag of $1 million per 100 grams. While not enough to make a nuclear device it could contribute to a dirty bomb. The Russian smuggler, from North Ossetia, never had the chance to sell the entire stock after he was arrested by Georgian security forces. The uranium was found to be 90 per cent pure, which is weapons grade standard…
2. Non-Nuclear Warhead Urged for Trident Missile
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Saturday, August 16, 2008; A03
A National Research Council blue-ribbon panel of defense experts is recommending development and testing of a conventional warhead for submarine-launched intercontinental Trident missiles to give the president an alternative to using nuclear weapons for a prompt strike anywhere in the world. In critical situations, such an immediate global strike weapon "would eliminate the dilemma of having to choose between responding to a sudden threat either by using nuclear weapons or by not responding at all," the panel said in a final report requested by Congress in early 2007 and released yesterday. Congress has delayed funding the conventional Trident program for two years while providing more than $200 million for research and development of additional, longer-term concepts for quick global strikes. One major congressional concern was that to other countries, such as Russia or China, the launch of a conventional Trident missile could not be distinguished from a nuclear one and could be mistaken for the start of a nuclear war. The panel recognized that problem and suggested several ways to mitigate it, but in the end it concluded that the benefits outweighed the risks. The panel said that before any deployment takes place, there should be diplomatic discussions, particularly with partner countries. It said these talks should include "the doctrine for its use, immediate notifying of launches against countries, and installing devices (such as monitoring systems) to increase confidence that conventional warheads had not been replaced by nuclear ones."…
3. New Unit of DIA Will Take the Offensive On Counterintelligence
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Monday, August 18, 2008; A09
The Defense Intelligence Agency's newly created Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center is going to have an office authorized for the first time to carry out "strategic offensive counterintelligence operations," according to Mike Pick, who will direct the program. Such covert offensive operations are carried out at home and abroad against people known or suspected to be foreign intelligence officers or connected to foreign intelligence or international terrorist activities -- but not against U.S. citizens, said Toby Sullivan, director of counterintelligence for James R. Clapper Jr., the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Sullivan and Pick, who is chief of the agency's Counterintelligence Human Intelligence Enterprise Management Office, spoke to reporters during a Pentagon briefing this month. These sensitive, clandestine operations are "tightly controlled departmental activities run by a small group of specially selected people" within the Defense Department, said Sullivan, who exercises authority over all Pentagon counterintelligence activities. The investigative branches of the three services -- the Army's Counterintelligence Corps, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service -- have done secret offensive counterintelligence operations for years, and now DIA has been given the authority…
4. 'Millennium bomber' sentence tossed out by U.S. court
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenges a provision in the 22-year sentence imposed on Ahmed Ressam, who had planned to set off explosives at Los Angeles International Airport.
By Carol J. Williams Los Angeles Times August 16, 2008
IPT NOTE: The court order is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/645.pdf
A federal appeals court Friday threw out the 22-year sentence imposed on Algerian Ahmed Ressam for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Seattle to recalculate a sentence for his conviction on nine felony counts. It was the second time the appellate court has scrapped Ressam's sentence. The San Francisco-based panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of its first decision to vacate the term failed to take into consideration recent federal sentencing guidelines on what constitutes a reasonable sentence outside the preset range for criminal offenses. Ressam was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, at a ferry terminal in Port Angeles, Wash., after crossing from British Columbia, Canada, in a rented sedan with explosives in the trunk. He had been under surveillance by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for at least two years for known association with suspected Al Qaeda operatives. After leaving his native Algeria in 1994 for France and eventually Canada, Ressam was recruited by Al Qaeda and trained in Afghanistan in the building of bombs and the use of weapons. He was one of four militants identified as part of the plot to set off explosions at public venues during the New Year's Eve celebrations ushering in 2000…
5. Libya to receive reparations for Reagan air strike
Country will be paid 'settlement' for U.S. retaliation after terrorist attack
Posted: August 14, 2008 2:17 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling WorldNetDaily
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72368
Despite 189 American lives lost in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, the U.S. settled all lawsuits against Libya for terrorist killings and restored diplomatic relations with the country today – with reparations to be paid to Libya. President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi on April 15, 1986, after Libyan terrorists planted 6 pounds of plastic explosives packed with shrapnel on the dance floor of La Belle discotheque in Berlin, killing three people – including two U.S. soldiers – and maiming 200 others. Two years later, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in a terrorist attack by a Libyan intelligence agent. The blast killed 268 people from 21 countries, including 189 Americans. U.S. families filed 26 lawsuits against Libya for the 1988 bombing of the plane en route to New York from London. The Bush administration began to consider restoring a relationship with the country in 2003 after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi promised to end production of weapons of mass destruction, halt terrorist activities and reimburse U.S. families of victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and other terrorist bombings. Following its pledge, U.N., U.S. and European sanctions were lifted, Libya was taken off the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism and the country was granted membership in the U.N. Security Council. An agreement required Libya to complete $2.7 billion in payments it had said it would provide to the families of victims…
6. Hemlock Park gunman gets 2 years probation
By Sean Delaney, Press & Guide Newspapers (Dearborn, MI) August 17, 2008
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/081708/loc_20080818004.shtml
DEARBORN - Houssein Ali Zorkot — a once-promising medical student at Wayne State University — was sentenced on July 29 to two years probation after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a Sept. 8, 2007, incident in Dearborn's Hemlock Park. The controversial case gained national attention in late 2007 when Zorkot, then 26 years old, was observed carrying a loaded AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle near the west side of the park, which is located north of Ford Road near Schaefer. Following his arrest, Zorkot's status as a Lebanese American and his open support of Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, led some to classify the Dearborn resident as a terrorist… While Zorkot openly supports Hezbollah on his Web site — www.zorkot.org — he has not been identified as a terrorist or linked to any terrorist group, according to law enforcement officials. The Dearborn resident pled guilty last month to the charges of possessing a weapon in a vehicle, possessing a weapon with unlawful intent and felony firearm. According to Dearborn police, Zorkot was dressed in dark clothing and had his face painted black when officers located him on Sept. 8, 2007, inside his 2007 Ford Escape, which was parked on the park's west side. The engine was still running...
7. U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules
More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned
By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson Washington Post Saturday, August 16, 2008; A01
The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years. The proposed changes would revise the federal government's rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation's 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants. Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders...
8. Defence opens case in Khawaja trial
Chris Cobb Canwest News Service Sunday, August 17, 2008
IPT NOTE: The Ottawa Citizen's special section on the Khawaja trial is found at http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/khawajatrial/index.html
OTTAWA - When seasoned defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon met Momin Khawaja for the first time four years ago, he wasn't convinced he was the right person to represent the young, computer savvy Ottawa Muslim accused of helping plot international terror attacks… The trial enters its final phase Tuesday when Greenspon begins presenting his case before Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford. The Ottawa software developer, now 29, is the first Canadian charged under post-9-11 anti-terrorism legislation and faces seven charges of financing and facilitating terrorism, including the accusation that he built a remote detonating device to trigger explosions in the United Kingdom. Five of his alleged conspirators in the British plot, which was foiled by police, are now serving life sentences. If he is found guilty, Khawaja faces similar punishment…
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
9. For US, a terror threat lurks in drug smuggling subs
Shift of cargo to arms and people is feared
The Boston Globe By Bryan Bender, August 17, 2008
KEY WEST, Fla. - Skimming just below the surface, they are extremely difficult to detect from surveillance aircraft or patrol boats. Their sleek design, up to 80 feet in length, can secretly carry several tons of cargo thousands of miles. These "semi-submersibles," which exhibit some of the same characteristics as military submarines, mark a significant advancement in the ability of drug smugglers to slip past coastal defenses. So far this year, the Coast Guard says it has encountered at least 27 such vessels headed toward the southern and western United States, more than in the previous six years combined, while far more are believed to have gone undetected, according to US military and law enforcement officials. The growing number and increased sophistication of the vessels, officially designated "self-propelled semi-submersibles," has set off alarms at the highest levels of the US military and the federal Department of Homeland Security. Counterterrorism officials fear that what drug runners now use to deliver cocaine, terrorists could one day use to sneak personnel or massive weapons into the United States. Navy Admiral James Stavridis, commander of the US Southern Command, the Miami-based military command that concentrates on Latin America, warned in a recent military journal article, "If drug cartels can ship up to 10 tons of cocaine in a semi-submersible, they can clearly ship or rent space to a terrorist organization for a weapon of mass destruction or a high-profile terrorist."…
10. New Anti-Nuclear Boats Used In Multi-Agency Drill In New York Waters
By Jonathan Dienst and Alice McQuillan WNBC-TV (NY) August 15, 2008
http://www.wnbc.com/investigations/17205082/detail.html
NEW YORK -- The NYPD showed off two new counter-terrorism boats Friday during a multi-agency nuclear exercise designed to test how fast radioactive devices can be detected in local waters. Costing $750,000 each, no other law enforcement agency has boats like these -- hard-wired with state of the art detection equipment able to track and identify the kind of materials that could be used for a dirty bomb. The vessels are known as TRACS for their tactical, radiation, acquisition, and characterization system. "There are no other technologies deployed in the United States to my knowledge that match the two TRACS boats that we took possession of in July," said NYPD Chief Joseph McKeever, of the counter-terrorism division. Eventually the NYPD hopes to have 10 such boats, police said. The large maritime drill, part of the Securing the Cities Initiative, was one of the most ambitious in the numbers of agencies participating, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. It launched 17 vessels to concentrate on three coastal "choke-points" into the Port of New York/New Jersey: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Outerbridge Crossing and the George Washington Bridge. The objective was to find a decoy boat nearing each of these crossings that was carrying radioactive material…
11. The Web Ushers In New Weapons of War and Terrorism
Protesters, terrorists and warmongers have found the Internet to be a useful tool to achieve their goals. Who will bring law and order to cyberspace?
By Dorothy E. Denning Scientific American Features August 18, 2008
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=web-brings-new-weapons-of-war
In the early days of the Internet, optimists projected that it would usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Maybe this will happen yet, but currently the net is proving to be a powerful tool in the hands of criminals and terrorists. On top of the rising number of globally based online thieves bent on stealing our identities and money, a growing cadre of state and nonstate actors are adding Internet weapons to their traditional arsenals that can be unleashed in cyber attacks…
Financing, identity theft, money laundering
12. Husband of Woman Killed in Century City to Be Arraigned
Last Edited: Monday, 18 Aug 2008, 3:03 AM PDT Fox 11 News
http://tinyurl.com/5gnzae
LOS ANGELES -- The estranged husband of a woman who was stabbed to death last month in a Century City parking garage is set to be arraigned today on a federal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. James Michael Fayed, 45, is scheduled to appear this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Eick in downtown Los Angeles. Deemed a flight risk, Fayed is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Fayed's 44-year-old wife, Pamela, was killed July 28. Fayed has not been charged in connection with the slaying, but prosecutors say in court documents that he is "the primary suspect" in her killing. According to court documents filed by federal prosecutors, Pamela Fayed's criminal defense attorney notified prosecutors about a month before her slaying that she wanted to cooperate in a criminal probe into the businesses she owned with her estranged husband… In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Aveis wrote that James Fayed was likely to have been ordered to pay about $1 million in spousal support, attorney fees and court sanctions at a hearing set for July 29, the day after his wife was killed… Pamela, the co-owner of the Camarillo-based Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and an associated Internet firm, E-Bullion, was murdered about 6:35 p.m. July 28...
13. Stolen beer find uncovers larger theft ring
By: Louie Rosella Mississauga News (Ontario) August 15, 2008 11:32 AM -
http://www.mississauganews.com/article/17744
The discovery of a tractor trailer full of beer that was stolen earlier this summer from a north Mississauga trucking yard has led police to a massive cargo theft ring operating in the GTA. A joint investigation by Halton Regional Police and the OPP's Provincial Organized Crime Enforcement Team in Georgetown led to the recovery on Wednesday of close to $1 million in stolen property and the arrest of two men. The investigation evolved on Aug. 3, when a tractor trailer full of beer, which had been stolen from a Dixie Rd. trucking yard in Mississauga, was recovered in Georgetown. The discovery led investigators to two warehouses in Georgetown – one on Todd Rd., the other on Armstrong Ave…
14. Florida Man Sentenced to Prison and Ordered to Pay $415,900 in Restitution for Selling Pirated Video Game Systems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, August 15, 2008
CRM (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/08-crm-728.html
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Kifah Maswadi, 24, of Oakland, Fla., was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for selling pirated video game systems, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia announced. In addition to the prison sentence, Maswadi was ordered to pay $415,900 in restitution for criminal copyright infringement by U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III in the Eastern District of Virginia. Maswadi previously pleaded guilty on June 3, 2008, to a one-count indictment for criminal copyright infringement, after being indicted on Jan. 24, 2008. Maswadi admitted to selling "Power Player" handheld game consoles that were pre-loaded with at least 76 pirated copies of copyright protected video games, most of which were owned by Nintendo and Nintendo’s licensees. Maswadi also admitted that from 2006 through 2007, he sold the game consoles and pirated games to customers in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere through several Web sites he operated. Records showed that Maswadi’s sales of the pirated game units exceeded $390,000…
15. Three arrested after Flatiron mall theft
By The Denver Post 08/16/2008 09:00:42 PM MDT
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_10225726
Three members of a South American theft ring were arrested in Broomfield Saturday, after allegedly stealing items from the Flatiron Crossing mall. According to the FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, the suspects tried to flee the mall in a green Isuzu. After a short chase, the FBI was able to capture two of the suspects. The third was found by the Broomfield Police K-9 team, in a nearby creek. The FBI said he was trying to avoid arrest by hiding underwater. The men are wanted in connection to high-end retail thefts in the Los Angeles area. They are in custody at the Broomfield Police department, with local charges pending…
Border security, immigration, customs
16. MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexico drug war's costs, risks exported to U.S.
Officers and others wounded across the border are increasingly being transferred to an El Paso hospital.
By Miguel Bustillo Los Angeles Times August 17, 2008
EL PASO — Lorenzo de la Torre Torres was on the cusp of death. Drug cartel hit men had pumped the deputy police chief with more than 20 bullets, and slightly wounded his boss, after a wild car chase in Nuevo Casas Grandes, the Mexican city the two were supposed to protect. Paramedics airlifted the officers 130 miles to Ciudad Juarez. Within hours, however, hospital officials wheeled them into an ambulance, which sped off to the Bridge of the Americas over the concrete-lined stretch of the Rio Grande that separates Mexico from Texas. There, an American ambulance picked them up and whisked them to El Paso's Thomason Hospital. For the next two weeks, De la Torre was treated at U.S. taxpayer expense. El Paso police and sheriff's deputies stood guard around the hospital's perimeter 24 hours a day, wearing bulletproof vests and holding semiautomatic rifles. Hospital officials closed off all but one entrance to the building and sent visitors through metal detectors…
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels
Licensed weapons dealers are abundant near the border. 'Straw buyers' assist the traffickers.
By Richard A. Serrano Los Angeles Times August 10, 2008
SIERRA VISTA, ARIZ. — High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials. The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico. More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons…
Other items
17. The Heckler's Veto
IPT News August 14, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/749
A brouhaha in the publishing world is raising the specter that violence seen in protests to Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, or in reaction to a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, could take place in the United States. The Jewel of Medina, a novel by Sherry Jones, was supposed to hit bookstore shelves Tuesday. But publisher Random House dropped the book at the last minute after being advised it could be offensive to some Muslims. In a statement, the company added: "(B)ut also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment...Jones is free to shop The Jewel of Medina to other publishers. If none is willing to replace Random House, free speech advocates fear a chilling precedent has been set. Books, even works of fiction, can be silenced not in the face of threats, but out of the fear that threats could develop. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch parliamentarian who moved to America to protect herself from death threats from Muslim extremists, accused Random House of letting a small minority of people dictate corporate decisions. If that stands, the problem will grow, she told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) in an interview, nodding to current events in Europe…
18. Justice Department Considers Siding With Dubai Sheik
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, New York Sun August 18, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/justice-department-considers-siding-with-du...
A member of the royal family of Dubai may get an unlikely ally in his legal battle against a lawsuit accusing him of encouraging the enslavement of boys for use as jockeys in camel races — the U.S. Justice Department. In a letter filed in U.S. District court in Lexington, Ky., where the suit is filed, a lawyer from the Justice Department, John Coleman, wrote that the "United States is actively considering whether to participate in this litigation." The development comes four months after the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates wrote Secretary of State Rice to request "that Your Excellency exert efforts to put a halt to the Lawsuit's negative effect on the excellent relations between the two countries," according to a copy of the May letter, which was filed in court. The Dubai deputy leader, Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has already sought to have the suit dismissed on the grounds that the UAE is providing compensation to child jockeys and that the case has no connection to America. Sheik Hamdan, who is also the economic minister of the UAE, is the only named defendant in the suit, which is brought on behalf of thousands of former jockeys. He has denied wrongdoing…
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
19. Yemeni security breaks new terrorist cell
Posted in: Front Page Yemen Observer Written By: Mohammed al-Kibsi Aug 17, 2008
http://www.yobserver.com/front-page/10014769.html
Security sources revealed Saturday that a large-scale hunting down operations are carried out by security authorities for arresting terrorist cell composed of 35 persons in a number of governorates across Yemen. The operation is carried out , based on information security apparatuses have collected during investigations with members of the terrorist cells already dismantled and their members were arrested in governorates of Sana'a, Hadramout, and Abyan. Governor of Hadramout Salem al-Hanbashi said security authorities in Hadramout have discovered a second terrorist cell in Mukalla where one of its members was arrested just one day after the successful security operation in Tarim where an al-Qaeda terrorist cell was broken down, five of its members were killed and two detained and its plots foiled…
ASIA / PACIFIC
20. Musharraf to Resign as President of Pakistan
By Candace Rondeaux Washington Post Monday, August 18, 2008; 7:29 AM
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 18 -- Bowing to pressure from Pakistan's newly-elected civilian government, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, once a top U.S. ally, said Monday that he will resign from office immediately, effectively ending nearly nine years of military rule in the country under his leadership. Musharraf announced his decision to step down in a nationally televised public address 10 days after leaders of Pakistan's two ruling coalition parties called for his impeachment. Demand for his resignation became increasingly vocal last week after Pakistan's four provincial assemblies voted overwhelmingly for his ouster. In the nearly hour-long address, Musharraf struck a defiant and emotional tone, saying that his political opponents had opted for the politics of confrontation over reconciliation. But he said that he is stepping down in the interest of maintaining stability in the country…
21. 300,000 flee as jihadis attacked
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent August 18, 2008 The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24196995-601,00.html
ISLAMABAD: A human tide of more than 300,000 civilians has fled the al-Qa'ida badlands, amid indications that the fighting there has reached unprecedented levels, with the Pakistani army using massive firepower to attack jihadi militant strongholds. Helicopter gunships, fixed-wing strike aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery have been used in the onslaught that followed the visit last month by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Washington, where he was berated for Pakistan's failure to wipe out the militants. The offensive runs counter to perceptions that Pakistan's new civilian Government is "soft" on Islamic extremism. This will reassure Washington, whose ally in the war in terror for the past nine years, President Pervez Musharraf, was given by the Coalition Government until midnight last night (4am today AEST) to resign or face impeachment proceedings beginning tonight in the National Assembly...
22. Taliban warns of more attacks on Canadians
Scott Deveau and Linda Nguyen, National Post Sunday, August 17, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=730323
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban issued a dire warning to Canada Sunday that if it does not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, insurgents would continue to target all Canadians in the country, like they did earlier this week in an ambush attack on female aid workers outside Kabul. The Taliban urged Canadians in an open letter to press the government to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan or risk further attacks… In a statement, Defence Minister Peter MacKay condemned the letter, saying that it will not waver the goals of Canadian soldiers currently in Afghanistan… Earlier this week, four aid workers from the International Rescue Committee, including two Canadians, were killed in a brazen daylight ambush on a stretch of road just south of Kabul. The Taliban have taken credit for the shooting deaths of Jackie Kirk, 40, of Montreal; Shirley Case, 30, of Williams Lake, B.C.; and Nicole Dial, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Trinidad. Their Afghan driver was also killed. The four were in the country working on educational programs for Afghan children…
23. Indian Police Arrest Nine People Thought to Be Behind Deadly Blasts
By ERIC BELLMAN Wall Street Journal August 17, 2008 10:46 a.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121898400193747569.html
MUMBAI -- Indian police on Saturday arrested a group they say was behind the blasts that killed more than 50 people in the western city of Ahmedabad last month. The nine arrested were all members of the banned Muslim group called the Students' Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, police said. One of the people arrested, a 30-year-old man named Abu Bashir, was the one that coordinated the blasts, police said. "As of information we have right now, he is the mastermind of the blasts (and) this network is the brains behind the blasts," senior police officer P.C. Pande told reporters in Ahmedabad, the business capital of the western state of Gujarat. Police didn't reveal much about how they caught the group but said they used cell phone records to connect the suspects to the bombings. Lawyers for the suspects could not be reached Sunday…
BACKGROUND: Probe exposes Islamic group's network across India
By Sunrita Sen Aug 17, 2008, 12:18 GMT Deutsche Presse-Agentur
New Delhi - In each of the dozen major bomb blasts that have taken place in India over the past three years, the name of one organization has cropped up with unerring constancy. Indian police and investigative agencies explored possible links of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after each terrorist blast, but achieved a breakthrough only after 27 serial bombs ripped through western Gujarat state's principal city Ahmedabad on July 28 killing 56 people. The Gujarat state police announced on Saturday that it had arrested nine people - most of them were SIMI activists - and the suspected 'mastermind' behind the blasts. The police claimed their investigations into the blasts in Ahmedabad and the trail of another 23 unexploded bombs found in Surat, another Gujarat town, between July 26 and August 3, had led to SIMI activists spread across several states. The SIMI, a Muslim fundamentalist organization, was founded in 1977 in Aligarh town of Uttar Pradesh, known for its famous Muslim university. Mohammad Ahmadullah, who currently holds an academic position in the United States, founded the SIMI 'to educate and enlighten Muslim youth in India.' In a recent interview with website rediff.com, he states he no longer has any links with the SIMI as it has been hijacked by radical elements. The SIMI, in its publications, lists as its objectives, the propagation of Islam and jihad for the cause of Islam. The organization saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s with units established in several states spread as far as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala in the south, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, central Madhya Pradesh and eastern West Bengal and Assam...
24. Terror book 'open to interpretation'
Natalie O'Brien The Australian August 15, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24184452-5001561,00.h...
AN interpreter asked by the Australian Federal Police to translate a book allegedly compiled by a Sydney man to encourage terrorist acts told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday that all translations were open to interpretation. Muhammad Gamal, giving evidence in the trial of Belal Saadallah Khazaal, said Arabic words did not have a one-word equivalent in English... Mr Gamal, who translated the book entitled Provision on the Rules of Jihad - short judicial rulings and organisational instructions for fighters and mujahideen against infidels, which is alleged to have been compiled by Mr Khazaal, said it was essential for translators to have some regard for the context of the documents involved... Mr Khazaal, of the southwestern Sydney suburb of Lakemba, has pleaded not guilty to knowingly making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act, and not guilty to attempting to incite a terrorist act….
25. Judge tells terror trial religiously motivated violence illegal
Gary Hughes August 18, 2008 The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24199195-2702,00.html
RELIGIOUSLY motivated violence was against the law, no matter which religious group was behind it, the judge in Australia's largest terrorism trial said today. During his final directions to the jury, Justice Bernard Bongiorno said it did not matter whether the supposed justification for such violence came from the Bible or the Koran. "Religiously motivated violence is illegal," he told the Victorian Supreme Court jury. He said the term "violent jihad" had been used by the prosecution in the case, despite the fact it had never actually been said by any of the 12 accused. The prosecution has claimed that the 12 Melbourne Muslim men allegedly led by self-proclaimed cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika plotted to wage violent jihad on Australian soil, including attacking sporting events. Justice Bongiorno said there had been a variety of definitions provided to the jury about the meaning of the term jihad. But the only definition that was relevant was the one the jury decided to place on "violent jihad"…
EUROPE
26. Three guilty of terror offences
Updated 13.40 Mon Aug 18 2008 ITN News (UK)
http://itn.co.uk/news/e3a526d8d4031e58eaab52fac0d94b0b.html
Two men and a teenager have been found guilty of possessing terror-related documents. Hammaad Munshi, 18, from Saville Town, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was found guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court of possessing a guide to making napalm. He is believed to be Britain's youngest terrorist. Co-defendants Aabid Khan, 23, of Otley Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, West Yorkshire and Sultan Muhammad, also 23, of nearby Hanover Square, Manningham were also found guilty. Eleven of the charges allege possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism and two of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism between November 23, 2005, and June 20 the following year. A verdict against a fourth man, 30-year-old Ahmed Sulieman, is expected shortly.
Breaking: Yorkshire schoolboy locked up on terror charge
Yorkshire Post 18 August 2008 2:15 PM
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Breaking-Youngest-terrorist-guilty-o...
Britain's youngest terrorist - a teenager from West Yorkshire - was behind bars today after a guide to death and explosives was found in the schoolboy's home. Hammaad Munshi, just 16 and taking GCSEs when arrested, was part of a cell of cyber groomers that set out to brainwash the vulnerable to kill "non-believers". For nearly a year the Dewsbury teenager, whose grandfather is a leading Islamic scholar, led a doub
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