World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #5

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The following items are terrorism-related items from the National Intelligence Council's "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts" report (December 2000).

States with poor governance; ethnic, cultural, or religious tensions; weak economies; and porous borders will be prime breeding grounds for terrorism. In such states, domestic groups will challenge the entrenched government, and transnational networks seeking safehavens.

At the same time, the trend away from state-supported political terrorism and toward more diverse, free-wheeling, transnational networks—enabled by information technology—will continue. Some of the states that actively sponsor terrorism or terrorist groups today may decrease or even cease their support by 2015 as a result of regime changes, rapprochement with neighbors, or the conclusion that terrorism has become counterproductive. But weak states also could drift toward cooperation with terrorists, creating de facto new state supporters.

Between now and 2015 terrorist tactics will become increasingly sophisticated and designed to achieve mass casualties.

Experts agree that the United States, with its decisive edge in both information and weapons technology, will remain the dominant military power during the next 15 years. Further bolstering the strong position of the United States are its unparalleled economic power, its university system, and its investment in research and development—half of the total spent annually by the advanced industrial world. Many potential adversaries, as reflected in doctrinal writings and statements, see US military concepts, together with technology, as giving the United States the ability to expand its lead in conventional warfighting capabilities.

This perception among present and potential adversaries will continue to generate the pursuit of asymmetric capabilities against US forces and interests abroad as well as the territory of the United States. US opponents—state and such nonstate actors as drug lords, terrorists, and foreign insurgents—will not want to engage the US military on its terms. They will choose instead political and military strategies designed to dissuade the United States from using force, or, if the United States does use force, to exhaust American will, circumvent or minimize US strengths, and exploit perceived US weaknesses. Asymmetric challenges can arise across the spectrum of conflict that will confront US forces in a theater of operations or on US soil.

Some potential adversaries will seek ways to threaten the US homeland. The US national infrastructure—communications, transportation, financial transactions, energy networks—is vulnerable to disruption by physical and electronic attack because of its interdependent nature and by cyber attacks because of their dependence on computer networks. Foreign governments and groups will seek to exploit such vulnerabilities using conventional munitions, information operations, and even WMD.

Much of the terrorism noted earlier will be directed at the United States and its overseas interests. Most anti-US terrorism will be based on perceived ethnic, religious or cultural grievances. Terrorist groups will continue to find ways to attack US military and diplomatic facilities abroad. Such attacks are likely to expand increasingly to include US companies and American citizens. Middle East and Southwest Asian-based terrorists are the most likely to threaten the United States.

http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/details.php?shape_ID=6330

West must accept the true jihad

THE need for a dialogue between Islam and the West has never been more
acute. But Pope Benedict XVI's recent use of a 14th century quotation
that
described Islam as evil and inhuman is clearly not the best approach.
In his lecture, the Pope made several references to Islamic theology on
the
nature of God, reason and faith, but his passing reference to jihad
presents
the stereotypical Western view of the concept, which ignores extensive
Islamic debates on the topic.

The word jihad appears in more than 40 verses of the Quran with varying
connotations. No single reading of the verses can claim primacy. It is
surprising that a theologian of the pontiff's stature sees jihad as an
Islamic holy war in the Christian tradition.

The meanings of jihad in Islamic jurisprudence have included, first,
personal striving for achieving superior piety; second, justifications
for
early Arab conquests of non-Muslim land; third, struggle for Islamic
authenticity; fourth, resistance against colonialism; and finally, now,
the
struggle against the perpetrators of what sections of Islamists have
labelled Muslim holocaust.

For contemporary Islamists, jihad is neither simply a blind and
bloody-minded scrabble for temporal power nor solely a door from which
to
pass from this life into the hereafter. It is, in fact, a political
action
in which the pursuit of immortality and martyrdom is inextricably
linked to
a profound endeavour in this world to establishing a just community on
Earth. It is a form of political action whose pursuit realises Gods
plan on
earth and immortalises human deeds in its pursuit. The penultimate
focus of
jihad is: ``Human beings must change so that they may change the
world.''

From this perspective, jihad can be viewed as a revolutionary process
with
stages that proceed from the spiritual to the temporal realm of
politics.
This interpretation is counter to the prevailing conceptions, primarily
Western and like the one given by the Pope, which view jihad in terms
of
destruction and suffering inflicted by religious fanatics on civilians.
It is seen as a pure and simple expression of violent impulses born of
religious conviction. Such interpretations ignore the political
dimension of
the action. In doing so, they also ignore the violence, genocide and
coercion undertaken in the name of political convictions such as
democracy,
with the war in Iraq just one example. American sociologist Michael
Mann has
called this method of implementation the dark side of democracy.

Throughout history humans, inspired by faith, have undertaken action to
gain
for themselves and their group immortality. In this respect, the
modern-day
Muslim jihadists such as al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hizb ut-Tahrir
al-Islami,
Laskar-i-Taiba have much in common with the constant warfare waged by
Puritan saints of the European Reformation.

They fought their own natural inclinations to fulfil their visions of
an
ordered society and improve their chances for divine salvation. The
Puritan
Christians, by linking military action and politics to scripture,
according
to American philosopher Michael Walzer, were transformed into political
revolutionaries, instruments of God for whom action in pursuit of the
Holy
Commonwealth on Earth became the ultimate expression of faith.
The irony of modern jihadists is that the West contributed to building
structures and institutional frameworks that sustained their jihadist
consciousness and these structures continue to exist to this day.
In the 1980s, with the assistance of Western governments, jihadists
were
recruited from across the Muslim world, asked to support the people of
Afghanistan in resisting the cruel and unjust occupation of the Russian
infidels.

President Reagan called them freedom fighters battling an evil empire,
stating: ``To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle
modern
arsenals with hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love
freedom.'' These jihadists have since turned into Frankenstein's
monsters,
taking on the task of destroying their one-time sp

[article has many hidden links]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=24685

CAIR’s Catholic Blood Money
By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | October 3, 2006

On Sunday, September 24, 2006, Ahmed Bedier led a delegation of Muslims from his organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a visit to the St. Paul’s Catholic Church of St. Petersburg, Florida. At the end of the visit, Bedier handed a check for $5000 to the pastor of St. Paul’s for the repair of churches that had been damaged recently in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, over one sentence spoken by the Pope. The money was for a good cause, but accepting the money came with a price.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a speech he gave during a trip to Germany on September 12, quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor as saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This set off a firestorm across the Muslim world, resulting in violence. Enraged crowds took their frustrations out on symbols of Christianity. This included the murder of an Italian nun and the firebombing of churches located in the West Bank and Gaza.

Taking advantage of this sensitive situation was CAIR, an organization that pawns itself off as a “civil liberties” group, while having numerous ties to Islamic extremism, including links to individuals convicted for terrorist crimes. At a press conference, on Thursday, September 21, Ahmed Bedier, the Director of CAIR’s Tampa office, and Rev. Robert Gibbons, the Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, held aloft a large poster-board check for $5000 bearing CAIR’s insignia. The money was said to be for the half-dozen churches that had been attacked, five of which were firebombed and shot at, the other doused with gasoline and set aflame.

It was a disquieting scene as Ahmed Bedier stood side by side with a high-ranking Diocese official. Exactly two months prior to the event, Bedier hosted a radio show where all three of his guests lauded Hezbollah, a group that is found on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. One of the guests went as far as to label the group “heroic.” One must question if Rev. Gibbons was aware of this fact.

The check, which CAIR described as “seed money,” was made out to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), a humanitarian relief program run by the Catholic Church, based in New York City. Additionally, a CNEWA fund was created in CAIR’s name, to raise further monies.

In order to make a donation to the fund, people have been asked to forward their checks to the CNEWA office under the title, “CAIR Palestine Damaged Churches.” The term “Palestine” denotes statehood and seems to have been injected into the fund’s address purely for political purposes. If that is the case, the Catholic Church is being used for nothing more than to make a political statement, and being as such and the fact that the church accepted the money, the implication is that the church is in full agreement with the statement.

A situation similar to this occurred in October of 2001, when Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a CAIR financier, offered New York City a check for $10 million dollars to go towards relief efforts, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The check was rejected by the former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, on the grounds that the money was attached to a political statement made by Bin Talal, concerning America’s relationship to the Mid East.

While visiting the wreckage, Bin Talal called the attacks “a tremendous crime.” He added, “We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the United States wholeheartedly.” However, in a written statement handed out by his publicist, the Prince had another message for America. He stated, “At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.”

Mayor Giuliani responded by stating, “There is no moral equivalent for this attack. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem.” He said the statements were “highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous.”

Rudy Giuliani showed integrity, when he returned the check. The Catholic Diocese could have done the same. Instead, they kept the money and all of the extremist baggage that went along with it, while CAIR used the church to gain legitimacy and manipulated the media to gain publicity.

When Ahmed Bedier led his delegation to St. Paul’s, it was not to have dialogue with Catholics, as CAIR had stated in press releases and elsewhere. It just appeared that way, because, while Bedier acted like he was a friend to the Catholic community, the following day something occurred that would severely contradict the “friendship.”

On September 25, on WTVT-Tampa’s ‘Your Turn with Kathy Fountain,’ Bedier lashed out at the Pope, the figure whose picture adorns the website of the CNEWA, the group CAIR is raising money through. Bedier angrily stated, “He said his intention was to start a dialogue. Well, if you want to start a dialogue with someone, you don’t start it off by slapping them across the face and calling them names and say, ‘Well, now let’s talk.’” It seems CAIR was acting in the same disrespectful manner towards Catholicism’s most revered, as it was accusing the Pope of acting towards Islam’s most revered -- except in this case, while extremists across the world were screaming “Death to the Pope,” Catholics were embracing them by taking their money.

10/01/2006 Gulf News

Mideast targets investments in Asia and Africa

By Ahmad Ameen, Special to Gulf News

http://www.gulf-news.com/business/Investment/10071436.html

Abu Dhabi: The Middle East is looking at more investments in Asia and
Africa rather than the US and Western economies, according to a senior
economist.

"The new South-South trade corridor is picking up strongly, with Asian
econ-omies achieving remarkable progress," said Gerard Lyons, Chief
Economist and Head of Global Research at Standard Chartered Bank.

"With South Asia hosting one fifth of the world's population and
producing one fifth of the world's GDP, and yet accounting for one
hundredth of world trade, one might expect that such a trend is about
to
change," he added.

The Middle East countries' pursuit of investments in Asia is not merely
a result of the way the US handled DP World's acquisition of P&O's
assets in the US as well as other such Middle East investments, but it
is mostly due to purely economic reasons, according to Lyons.

"In the coming 10 years, more than one billion jobs are expected to be
created in the Middle East and Africa, which indicates a dramatic
change
in the economic dynamics for these regions, as this would result in a
growing middle class and hence stronger domestic markets," he
explained.

Diversification

Recently, the OECD economies have underperformed, while Asian and
Middle
Eastern economies have outperformed, with remarkable success in
economic
diversification especially in the UAE which is witnessing an investment
boom in infrastructure.

"Earlier, the additional revenues of oil price increases were not
invested in the region, but now these are serving in job creation,
capitalising on the Middle East's relatively young population," Lyons
said, explaining that regulations, education, and taxation should be
the
major concern of the Middle East governments, to create a better
infrastructure.

Lyons said the rigid relationship with the US dollar is not serving the
needs of economies here. He suggested that the new single currency
should not fall into that trap, while interest rates should have more
room for manoeuvring.

Creating more jobs in the UAE will serve in strengthening the domestic
market, and accordingly rendering the country more attractive for
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), he said.

"Tourism is a very important job creator, and the sector is growing
remarkably in the UAE, with Dubai becoming the second most popular
long-haul destination, after New York, in the UK market," he said. He
also warned that the environment would be the biggest challenge in this
respect.

Power and Interest News Report (PINR)

http://www.pinr.com
content@pinr.com
+1 (312) 242-1874

02 October 2006

PINR Senior Analyst Dr. Federico Bordonaro recently published an analysis on Russia-Vietnam relations in the Asia Times. To read that article, please see:

"Russia's New Vietnamese Courtship" http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI30Ag01.html

Intelligence Brief: Escalating Tension between Georgia and Russia
Drafted By:
http://www.pinr.com

Russian troops in Georgia were put on "high alert" on Sunday and ordered to "shoot to kill if provoked" while defending Moscow's two military bases in the Caucasian country. Tensions between Russia and Georgia are escalating after Tbilisi arrested four Russian officers on September 27 on spying charges.

As a consequence, Moscow withdrew its diplomats from Tbilisi and warned that it could postpone pulling out its troops by 2008 as initially planned. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press on September 27 that the situation is "very serious," and, therefore, "when the U.N. Security Council will consider the Georgia-Abkhaz settlement in the next two weeks, we will insist on assessing Georgia's activities as subversive."

The crisis has its roots in the pro-Western, pro-U.S. turn of Georgian national elites epitomized by President Mikhail Saakashvili and his "Rose Revolution." The situation had already worsened in August when Georgian security forces attempted to secure control of the Abkhazian river valley of the Kodori Gorge in order to regain control of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Tbilisi then called for the replacement of Russia as the official mediator in Georgia's regional conflicts. Moscow maintains peacekeepers there along with two military bases.

This escalation signals that Georgia is likely to become the catalyst for U.S.-Russian geopolitical conflict for strategic and economic influence in the Caucasus. Washington criticized Moscow's reaction to the officers' arrests and continues to sponsor Tbilisi's gradual integration into N.A.T.O. Saakashvili has never concealed his pro-U.S. stance and frequently accuses Russia of being the destabilizing force behind breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Although Moscow officially says that Georgia is a sovereign state and is free to join N.A.T.O., Russia is working to maintain strong influence in the Trans-Caucasus region.

As PINR pointed out on September 19, the recent Russian-backed Transdniester pro-independence referendum may be a pattern for the two Georgian separatist regions' attempts to gain national independence. The United States and N.A.T.O., however, are likely to be more active in preserving Georgia's national integrity by strongly supporting Saakashvili than they have been in Transdniester. Therefore, a continued dispute between Tbilisi and Moscow with significant U.S. and European participation on the Georgian side is to be expected in the coming months. [See: "Intelligence Brief: Transdniester Votes for Independence"]

continued..................

Kommersant, Sep.30, 2006

Moving to Non-Alignment

// Lukashenko has ditched Russia//

The united state of Russia and Belarus will not be created within the
next three yeas – as long as Vladimir Putin is in office in Russia,
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday. Lukashenko has
declined to sell 50 percent in Beltransgaz to Gazprom for $300 million
and threatened to walk out of the treaty on the united state in case
Moscow hikes gas prices for Belarus. Moscow's closest ally has
attacked it just when the Kremlin is on the brink of war with Georgia.
Alexander Lukashenko invited Russian journalists yesterday to tell
them everything he thinks about Moscow, Russia's current authorities
and the outlook of the united state. He started by saying that he does
not hope to come to an agreement about anything with the current
Russian leadership. "The hot time is coming in the Russian Federation
– time of parliament and then president election. There will be a
break in taking serious and even radical decisions in the bilateral
relations within the next three years," he said. Alexander Lukashenko
then tried to prove that the Kremlin is to blame for the fact that the
united state has not been created yet.

Belarus' president told that the Russian president's administration
had turned down his draft Constitutional Act since it transferred too
many powers to bodies of the united state. Moscow thought that the
Belarusian leader had thus tried to secure his key role in the
structure of the would-be state. The Kremlin came up with its
amendments which Lukashenko thought were turning the united state into
a kind of the European Union whereas he would like to see something
resembling the Soviet Union. "You must have already heard that the
president of Russia wants to build a European Union. What for? We were
living in one country just yesterday. The European Union was not," the
Belarusian leader noted.

Alexander Lukashenko attributed this behavior of Russian authorities
to a striving to annex Belarus to Russia. "I don't want to be the
first and the last president of Belarus," Mr. Lukashenko said. "Once
Belarus has entered Russia, we will have things here far worse than in
Chechnya. People from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Baltic
countries will come down here. They are already ready to come here
with arms. They will even get money for this."

Complaining about the enmity of Russian authorities, Alexander
Lukashenko made an announcement that Moscow has recently stopped
executing package agreements of 2002. "You have just walked out of the
agreement on equal conditions on pricing. What kind of united state
are you talking about if you break an agreement with your main ally?!"
the Belarusian president was raging. This information was considered
confidential and was available only in diplomatic circles. Russia's
Foreign Ministry sent a note to Minsk late August informing that it
stops executing agreements on supplying gas to Belarus at Russian
domestic prices after Minks had declined to sell 50 percent in
Beltransgaz to Gazprom. A source at the Russian Foreign Ministry
explained then that there was no need to denounce the agreement on the
principles of pricing as it was expiring in April 2007. Therefore
Gazprom will have no more formal grounds to keep gas prices low for
Belarus.

Belarus now pays $46.68 for 1,000 cu. meters of Russian gas but
Gazprom sent a contract for 2007 to the Belarusian government this
April with the bottom gas price of $200. A source of Kommersant at
Gazprom said that there was no approaching of positions on gas prices
and value of Beltransgaz.

Alexander Lukashenko cited some fresh statistics yesterday. He said
Gazprom is wiling to pay only $300 million for the half of Beltransgaz
while it was offering $700 million two years ago. "If we put
Beltransgaz up for sale, and Americans offer $2 billion, but not $300
million as Gazprom is now offering, what are you going to do then?"
the president asked the Russian journalists. "Do you want to sell gas
at market prices? Buy things at market prices, then. I am not saying
`Pay $2.5 billion tomorrow.' You can pay by gas. I don't mind."

Reaching the sorest point with him – a hike in gas prices – Alexander
Lukashenko did not talk about temporary differences. He spoke about a
breakup. "Raising gas prices to these highs clearly means a breakup of
relations." After counting that Belarus will have to pay one billion
more to Russia if the prices are raised, Mr. Lukashenko exclaimed: "I
must ask you: what do you want from Belarus? You don't anything! You
don't want this union. Your elite don't want it. We won't die because
of this billion, but you will lose an ally and just disgrace
yourselves!"

Alexander Lukashenko has chosen the right time to deal a blow on his
Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Russian president is now
trying to reach an agreement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
French President Jacques Chirac on guarantees for Russian gas supplies
in exchange for amending the energy charter of the EU. Alexander
Lukashenko's words that Russia does not meet its obligations even with
its closest ally may cause substantial damage to Moscow's reputation
and make talks between Moscow and the European Union more difficult.

Russia can hardly benefit from a row with Belarus in the view of a
growing escalating conflict with Tbilisi. Moscow appeals to the world
community, asking the UN to interfere in the trial of Russian
officers. Georgia also makes attempts to get the West by its side and
accuses Russia of blackmail. Now Belarus has joined the choir of those
lambasting the Kremlin. Alexander Lukashenko's rallying with Russia's
enemies obviously makes their arguments sound more substantial in
front of the world community.
Mikhail Zygar and Nataliya Grib

All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 30, 2006

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=708992

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1885371,00.html

Arrested in Afghanistan: Abdullah, 25, an Iranian jihadist 'rejected by the Taliban'

Officials claim there is a new stream of support for the insurgency coming from Iran
Declan Walsh in Ghazni
Monday October 2, 2006

Guardian
Knock-kneed with fear, the young prisoner perched on the edge of his chair in the windowless Afghan intelligence office. Eyes bloodshot and hands trembling, he blurted out his story.

Abdullah had reached the end of a pitifully short career as a Taliban fighter. He had been arrested hours earlier, just 10 days after signing up to the insurgency. But the 25-year-old with a soft face and a neat beard had something unusual that aroused the intelligence agents' curiosity.

"I come from Iran," he said in a quavering voice, wringing his hands nervously. "They told me the Americans had invaded Afghanistan and I should go and fight jihad. But I was cheated. Now I am very sorry that I ever left."

As a hurricane of Taliban violence tears across Afghanistan - the latest suicide bombing killed 10 people in Kabul on Saturday - accusations of foreign support have centred on Pakistan, where fighters can shelter, organise and rearm.

But recently Afghan and western officials have started to detect a second, albeit far smaller, stream of support from within Afghanistan's other powerful neighbour, Iran.

Military and diplomatic sources said they had received numerous reports of Iranians meeting tribal elders in Taliban-influenced areas, bringing offers of military or more often financial support for the fight against foreign forces. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meetings took place in Helmand province, where more than 3,000 British troops are based, and neighbouring Nimroz, a lawless desert province bordering eastern Iran.

Although the reports are hard to confirm due to security fears, officials say the direction of flow is unmistakable. "There's definitely an Iranian hand," insisted one western official, who said the phenomenon was being quietly monitored by western intelligence and militaries. A top-ranking Afghan military official said he had received similar information. "The Iranians were offering money and weapons. This is a very sensitive issue," he said.

Identifying the source of the clandestine support is difficult. One foreign official with long experience in Afghanistan singled out Baluch militants from eastern Iran. The Baluch nationalists are violently struggling against the Tehran government and are also believed to be involved in the drugs trade. Iranian Baluchistan is one of the prime smuggling routes for heroin, so instability in Afghanistan - where nearly the entire world supply is sourced - is in the smugglers' interest. They also have ideological ties with the Taliban, especially through Jundullah (Soldiers of God), a militant group with an extremist interpretation of Islam.

Dirty tricks

Far more controversial are possible links with the Iranian state. One official with long experience in southern Afghanistan said elders from Nad Ali district in Helmand told him they had been visited by an Iranian intelligence officer six weeks ago. "They say he stayed two nights, trying to indoctrinate them and offering support," he said. As tensions rise between Tehran and the US over the nuclear issue, such interference makes geo-strategic sense. Continued turmoil in Afghanistan keeps the 40,000 foreign soldiers stationed there, half of them American, very busy.

But others discount Iranian dirty tricks as being highly unlikely. When in power during the late 1990s, the Sunni-dominated Taliban were at daggers drawn with Iran's Shia government, which funnelled aid to the Taliban's enemies. Since 2001, Tehran has closely allied itself with President Hamid Karzai, sending aid and cooperating closely on combating cross-border drug smuggling. Iran is one of Afghanistan's biggest trading partners and the border crossing near the western city of Herat is a major economic lifeline. Every day hundreds of visa applicants queue outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul, many of them economic migrants looking for work. The most striking thing about rumours of Iranian interference, one western official in Kabul said, "is how little we hear of them". If it wanted to, Iran could play havoc in Afghanistan, he continued, "but my impression is they are holding back, that they haven't played their cards". Attention is concentrated on Pakistan which, along with Afghanistan's weak police and corrupt government, is seen as a major driver of the insurgency. In London last week, President General Pervez Musharraf angrily denied allegations his ISI spy agency is supporting the Taliban.

Ten days ago Barnett Rubin, an academic and expert on Afghanistan, warned the US Senate that "anyone who tries to sell you intelligence reports that Iran is destabilising Afghanistan is misrepresenting the facts". Pakistan is the principal factor in the destabilisation of Afghanistan, he said, "regardless of the fact that President Musharraf speaks good English, wears a suit and says things that we like to hear".

Whatever the truth about official support, it is clear the Taliban has ideological soul-mates in Iran. Abdullah's journey to jihad, from a quiet town in western Iran to the battlefield of Afghanistan, suggests the conflict has started to attract freshly indoctrinated foreigners and their shadowy mentors.

In the dingy intelligence office in the central Ghazni province, the distraught young man told his story. Abdullah said he had left his home in Kamyaran in the western province of Kurdistan six weeks earlier, telling his family he was going to Tehran to work. Instead he continued hundreds of miles east until he reached the desert city of Zahedan and slipped across the Afghan border. All he carried was an address given him by a jihadi leader named Abdullah Shafi, he said.

Secret training

Shafi, a Kurdish militant from northern Iraq, is a former leader of Ansar al-Islam, a Taliban-like group with links to al-Qaida. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Shafi became known for despatching suicide bombers to Baghdad. Although Shafi was subsequently expelled from Iran, Abdullah said his organisation is still recruiting fresh militants - like him.

Abdullah was sent to a secret training camp near the Iraqi border that he believed was run by the Iranian government. "They gave us weapons, money and accommodation, and made sure we would not be arrested," he said. "Our government doesn't like America. It wants to install a Shia government in Iraq like in Iran. It is doing its best to achieve that."

Most graduates at the camp were destined for Iraq or Lebanon, Abdullah said - 19 of his 20 classmates were subsequently sent to Iraq - but Abdullah Shafi told him to go to Afghanistan. Travelling alone, he claimed, he made his way to Ghazni, a once peaceful central province, by early September and knocked on the door of a Taliban organiser named Mansoor. After a brief interrogation, Mansoor confiscated his Iranian identity card and gave him a bed. But when a group of Taliban fighters turned up late that night, Abdullah said, they refused to take him with them. "They said I would be caught because I didn't have a gun," he said.

But days later, while US bombers pounded the area, Abdullah and a Taliban fighter were arrested and brought to the NDS intelligence services offices. It was impossible to confirm his story, although he spoke in Iranian-accented Farsi and officials corroborated the details of his capture. If true, his account supports a report that argues Iraq is shaping "a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives". Last week the National Intelligence Review, a group of 16 US intelligence agencies, said the Iraq conflict "would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere".

But in the dingy Ghazni office where Abdullah waited to be transferred to Kabul, there was little bravado or talk of jihad. "I am so sorry," he said, seeming on the verge of tears. "I regret ever leaving home. I just want to be released."

Backstory

Although dominated by Pashtun tribesmen from south Afghanistan, the Taliban draws on sponsors and influences from many countries. During a battle in Kandahar last month, Nato intelligence detected Arab, central Asian and Pakistani fighters among their ranks. The surge in suicide attacks and roadside bombs this year has been linked to the Iraq conflict. Westerners trying to track their funding see links with wealthy, religiously conservative businessmen in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. But the Taliban's greatest source of support comes from closer to home.

Pakistan's ISI spy agency nurtured the Taliban in the 1990s and helped it seize power in 1996. After 9/11, President Musharraf severed the link but that didn't stop hundreds of Taliban fleeing into Pakistan's tribal belt. Many are still there, a fact Afghan and western military officials says has been critical to the insurgency's comeback this year. President Musharraf is less convinced. After admitting to cross-border infiltration during a recent trip to Kabul, he seemed to change his mind by the time he reached the US last week. Nato chief Gen James Jones' claim that the Taliban were headquartered in Quetta, west Pakistan, was "the most ridiculous statement", he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1885395,00.html

Prisons failing to tackle terror recruitment

Officers call for policy to stop al-Qaida radicalising ethnic minorities in jails
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Monday October 2, 2006

Guardian
The prison service has no strategy to tackle al-Qaida operatives radicalising and recruiting young African-Caribbean and other ethnic minority prisoners in British jails, according to prison officers.

Britain now houses more suspected terrorist prisoners - the number is in the high hundreds - than any other European country, with many housed on normal wings alongside ordinary offenders.

The Prison Officers' Association says some of these terrorist prisoners are targeting for radicalisation and recruitment other alienated ethnic minority groups, as well as the smaller number of younger Muslim prisoners, and they are providing "rich pickings". Many of those held, whom they describe as "dangerous and highly capable", are "high up" in groups using the al-Qaida name and their lives have been dedicated to radicalising younger and more vulnerable people.

But senior prison managers have admitted in official correspondence that despite being aware of the problem they are waiting for a recently formed extremist prisoner working group to report before they do anything about it.

The POA has warned the government that urgent steps need to be taken to prevent the more dangerous suspected terrorist prisoners engaging in criminal integration and collusion, as well as their adoption of new radicalising and recruitment techniques.

Terror suspects and convicted terrorists are concentrated in high-security prisons, including Belmarsh in London and Woodhill in Milton Keynes. Despite being given the highest security, category A rating, most are kept on normal prison wings as the resources do not exist to deal with them all in separate secure units.

Steve Gough, the POA's vice-chairman, said he did not think there were "al-Qaida-controlled wings" yet in British prisons but said the stage had already been reached where they were recruiting prisoners sharing their cells or impressionable youngsters in the cell next door.

"Prison staff are very good at intelligence-led surveillance but it is difficult gathering intelligence listening to people who are having conversations in languages you don't understand. There are now many high-profile terrorist prisoners locked up on normal location, on normal wings with any other prisoner instead of in special environments."

The shoe bomber Richard Reid, the son of two non-Muslims, a white mother and a Jamaican father, has revealed how being radicalised while inside Feltham young offenders' institution led to his conversion to violent jihadism.

Lord Carlile, the independent watchdog on the government's anti-terror laws, this year identified the recruitment of radicalised youth in prisons as a problem and raised concerns about the activities of a small number of imams in prisons.

But more than a year after the bombings in London highlighted the need to tackle the radicalisation of Muslims the prison service has admitted that it has done little about it.

Peter Atherton, the deputy director-general of the prison service, has told the POA that "while there are some concerns that some people might be radicalised, there is little hard evidence that it is happening to date".

In a letter to Mr Gough, he disclosed that the prison service has recently formed an extremist prisoner working group, but senior managers are waiting for it to report before drawing up a prison service strategy for combating terrorism.

Meanwhile the Metropolitan police special branch has set up an intelligence unit in the prison service headquarters and there is also a system for monitoring terrorists held in high security.

Mr Gough said this response was entirely inappropriate: "This isn't a problem that will occur in the next few years. This is something the prison service should have been planning for since 9/11."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1885054,00.html

US pushed MI5 into airport terror swoop

Fight over suspect in Pakistan revealed as Musharraf quashes terror claims
Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend
Sunday October 1, 2006

Observer
The US warned Britain that it was prepared to seize the key suspect in the UK's biggest ever anti-terrorism operation and fly him to a secret detention centre for interrogation by American agents, even if this meant riding roughshod over its closest ally, The Observer can reveal.

American intelligence agents told their British counterparts they were ready to 'render' Rashid Rauf, a British citizen allegedly linked to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and who was under surveillance in Pakistan, unless he was picked up immediately. Rauf is the key suspect in the alleged plot to detonate explosives on up to 10 transatlantic planes that was exposed in August and, according to the police, would have brought 'mass murder on an unimaginable scale'.

The Americans' demand for Rauf's quick arrest dismayed the British intelligence services, which were worried that it could prompt terrorist cells in the UK working on separate plots to bring forward their plans or go underground. In the weeks preceding his arrest it is understood that MI5 and MI6 discussed with their US counterparts the best way to dismantle the alleged plot. Britain wanted more time to monitor Rauf, but the US was adamant that Rauf should be arrested immediately.

The revelation casts new light on the nature of America's relationship with Britain in the war on terrorism and provides further evidence of its suspicions that Pakistan was not fully committed in the war against al-Qaeda.

It comes as Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, today launches a fierce defence of claims that his country has fuelled Islamic terrorism and attacks Britain for failing to integrate Muslims into its society.

US intelligence has harboured fears for many years that Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, has not done enough to combat al-Qaeda and as a result was worried it would allow Rauf to flee. But the British intelligence agencies were concerned that seizing Rauf too soon would compromise further investigations. Although there were allegedly significant amounts of wire-tap evidence, this could not be made use of in a British court, so a decision was taken to continue with Rauf's surveillance.

However, a senior intelligence source has told The Observer that US agents had agreed on a plan to seize Rauf and fly him to an interrogation centre at a secret location if he remained at large.

Immediately following the US's veiled ultimatum that MI6 should 'lift' Rauf, which was communicated to ISI, he was arrested by Pakistani intelligence officials, a move that forced the British police to carry out a series of arrests as they looked to pick up those allegedly linked to him. Rauf's father, Abdel, was arrested in Pakistan. Rauf's brother, Tayib, from Birmingham, was arrested and later released without charge.

The intelligence source said the alleged plot had not been at the advanced planning stage.

Rauf remains in custody in Pakistan. Britain is now looking to extradite him in connection with the murder of his uncle in Birmingham in 2002.

Tellingly, although Britain's Home Secretary, John Reid, was full of praise for the part played by Pakistan in uncovering the alleged plot, the US did not pay tribute to the country's role.

American concerns about Pakistan's role in the war on terror were echoed last week. A leaked document from a Ministry of Defence think-tank, the Defence Academy, suggested that Pakistan was sabotaging British efforts in Afghanistan. The report blamed the ISI for 'indirectly supporting terrorism and extremism, whether in London on 7/7 or in Afghanistan or Iraq'.

Today, Musharraf uses an interview on ITV's Sunday Edition to fiercely reject claims the 7/7 bombers were indoctrinated in his country. 'The main problem is here in your society, which is allowing these youngsters to be indoctrinated and then attack you through suicide bombs,' Musharraf tells the programme.

Musharraf also says he believes Osama bin Laden could be hiding in Pakistan but rules out US forces being allowed to enter the country to hunt for him. 'We are in the hunt for Osama together,' Musharraf says. 'When we locate him, we'll hunt him down.'

Separately, it has emerged that a senior government official has joined a growing list of experts to warn the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have exacerbated the threat from Islamic terrorism.

David Richmond, the director general of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign Office, states in a paper for the Royal United Services Institute that concerns over foreign policy are used by al-Qaeda to justify attacks and have helped terrorist cells to recruit. According to Richmond, misgivings over foreign policy among elements of the Muslim community are 'exploited by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to justify terrorism and ... propagate their message and seek new recruits'.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1885444,00.html

Furious Moscow orders 'shoot to kill' as Georgia crisis escalates

· High alert as four officers are held on spying charge
· Putin accuses leadership of act of state terrorism
Michael Mainville in Moscow
Monday October 2, 2006

Guardian
Infuriated by the arrests of four Russian officers on spying charges, Moscow has put its troops in Georgia on high alert and ordered them to "shoot to kill" to defend their bases in the former Soviet republic.

In his first public comments on the escalating crisis, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, yesterday accused Georgia of "state terrorism" and compared the arrests to the repressions of Stalin's secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria.

The commander of Russian military forces in Georgia, General Andrei Popov, said Russian law authorises the use of force to defend bases abroad from aggression. "We are ready to thwart any possible attempts to penetrate our facilities using all means, including shoot to kill," he said. Mr Putin held an urgent meeting with armed forces chiefs, top ministers and the heads of intelligence services to discuss Russia's response to the arrests.

"As a result of his meeting ... the president termed the actions of Georgia's leadership as an act of state terrorism with hostage taking," the Kremlin said in a statement. Mr Putin said on national television that the arrests were "a sign of the political legacy of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria". A Georgian - like Stalin - Beria ran the feared NKVD secret police that purged millions of Soviet citizens in the 1930s and 1940s. In a clear reference to US support for Georgia, Mr Putin also warned Georgia not to count on foreign backing in the crisis. "These people think that under the roof of their foreign sponsors they can feel comfortable ... is it really so?" he said.

Russia has about 4,000 troops at two military bases in Georgia, along with another 2,500 soldiers deployed as peacekeepers in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On Saturday, the Russian military said it was suspending a planned withdrawal of the bases by the end of next year, but yesterday the Kremlin announced they would go ahead.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia have reached an unprecedented high since the arrests of the Russian officers, whom Georgia accused of gathering sensitive military information, organising an explosion that killed three police officers and planning a "serious provocation".

Moscow has recalled its ambassador to Tbilisi and evacuated all but two staff and guards from its Georgian embassy. Georgian troops have maintained a blockade of Russia's military headquarters in Tbilisi to demand the handover of another Russian officer accused of spying.

The Georgian foreign minister, Gela Bezhuashvili, said yesterday that Russia is trying to punish Georgia for its pro-western course under President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has pledged to join Nato. He called for Russia to end its support for separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in bloody wars in the early 1990s.

Mr Bezhuashvili said Mr Putin had met the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Saturday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. "This is an open support of separatism by Russia's leadership," he said. Members of Russia's parliament have reacted furiously, with some calling for a military response. The speaker of the upper house, Sergei Mironov, said the spying charges were "either a load of bull or a peculiar pre-emptive strike on Russia".

At a glance

Moscow annexed Georgia in the 19th century. After the 1917 revolution Georgia enjoyed a brief period of independence, until the Soviet Union invaded four years later.

The Soviet break-up in 1991 marked an era of seesawing relations. They took a downward swing in January 2004 when Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in the rose revolution, promising a turn toward Nato and the west. Since then ties have soured further.

Russia raised the price for gas supplies to Georgia in January, later banning imports of Georgian wine.

Relations have been aggravated by disputes over Georgia's separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both supported by Russia.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

http://aussie_news_views.typepad.com/aussie_news_views/2006/10/cronulla_riots_.html

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October 02, 2006

Cronulla Riot's report delayed by Muslim friendly state Labor government.

Riot report delays 'suspicious'

News.com.au
September 30, 2006 11:22am

THE New South Wales Opposition has called for the immediate release of an independent report into last year's Cronulla riot and retaliatory attacks that occurred in the hours and days after the event, accusing the government of having something to hide.

Liberal member for Cronulla, Malcolm Kerr, said the report of Assistant Commissioner Norm Hazzard into last December's beachside violence, was due for completion at the end of August.

"It was to be handed to Cabinet by September, and it was up to Cabinet to decide whether it would be released to the public," Mr Kerr said.

"We are now at the end of September. It's now scandalous that they haven't released it.

"How long does it take to do a report?"

"I think you have to have a suspicion that they have something to hide."

Opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher asked government upper house leader John Della Bosca in parliament on Thursday why the report had not been released, Mr Kerr said.

"He never answered the question."

Until the report's release it was impossible to have informed public debate on the riot and its aftermath, he said.

Mr Kerr also called on the NSW government to appeal against the sentence yesterday handed to a Sydney teenager who sparked the Cronulla race riot by assaulting a lifesaver.

Ali Osman, 18, of Bankstown, was sentenced to 300 hours community service after pleading not guilty to the assault of a lifesaver at North Cronulla Beach on December 4, 2005.

"The government does have to appeal against that, because it does send the wrong message," Mr Kerr said.

"Even the magistrate's remarks show that this was a violent attack, a reprehensible crime that, I would have thought, warranted a custodial sentence to send a message of deterrence."

NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said it was in the best interests of the government to withhold the report. "That was the most fundamental breakdown of law and order in NSW for 100 years, I'm sure the report is going to be damning," Mr Debnam said.

"There's no doubt that the government would want to hide that report until they deem it a suitable day to release it, no doubt it will be a very busy news day."

He also called for an appeal to Osman's "slap on the wrist" sentence, saying it sent a permissive message about violence and intimidation.

"This thug not only attacked lifesavers but attacked our way of life," he said.

"Unless we get the judiciary to do their job properly this culture of violence is going to continue."

Posted on October 02, 2006 at 03:16 PM in "Cronulla Riots" & Lebanese

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1159740908911&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Quebec to probe overpass collapse
No way of predicting tragedy: Charest
Five die in cars crushed by concrete
Oct. 2, 2006. 01:00 AM
SEAN GORDON
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF

MONTREAL—Quebec's provincial government has ordered a public inquiry into an overpass collapse north of the city that crushed three members of a suburban Montreal family and also claimed the lives of a young couple expecting their first child.

Premier Jean Charest toured the accident site yesterday afternoon as crews continued to haul away the rubble created when a 20-metre section of the three eastbound lanes of a major thoroughfare gave way Saturday afternoon, sending hundreds of tonnes of concrete and asphalt onto the highway below.

Five people who were in vehicles crossing the viaduct on Blvd. de la Concorde E. at the moment of the collapse remain in hospital — one in critical condition — while a sixth was recovering at home yesterday.

It took rescue crews in Laval, a sprawling city north of Montreal, until nearly 3 a.m. yesterday, more than 15 hours after the accident, to reach two cars crushed under the deluge of reinforced concrete. One vehicle was so severely compressed its roof came up to mid-shin on a firefighter standing next to it.

It emerged yesterday that the fallen overpass was designed by Quebec-based Dessau-Soprin. The same firm designed an overpass a few kilometres west of the accident site that collapsed while under construction in June 2000, killing a 50-year-old motorist. A coroner's inquiry found negligence and faulty bracing methods were to blame for his death.

Though Transport Quebec confirmed it received at least two reports of debris falling from the bridge in the minutes before it collapsed Saturday, Charest insisted the tragedy couldn't have been foreseen.

"We're not talking about a situation the government was aware of. We weren't aware of it," said Charest. "For the moment this is inexplicable. This bridge broke in a place where normally this does not happen."

Police released the identities of three of the victims: 40-year-old Jean-Pierre Hamel, his girlfriend Sylvie Beaudet, also 40, and his brother Gilles, 44. All were from Laval. Hamel and Beaudet are survived by their 8-year-old son.

The names of the two other victims were not made public, but sources told La Presse they were a pregnant Laval woman and her boyfriend.

Quebec Transport Minister Michel Després told a news conference he has closed a second overpass built on a similar design to the one that failed, adding that engineers with his department have pored over blueprints and plans for all 4,900 bridges and viaducts in the province, concluding that 20 merit closer scrutiny.

The accident also means months of heavier commuter traffic for motorists who use the already-overburdened highways that link downtown Montreal with the northern suburbs.

Laval officials warned of several weeks of traffic slow-downs because what remains of the overpass will almost certainly have to be demolished. The area will be closed indefinitely, Transport Quebec said.

Després also announced he has appointed former Parti Québécois premier Pierre-Marc Johnson to preside over the public inquiry into the collapse.

There were few details, however, concerning the precise scope of Johnson's mandate.

Quebec's Order of Engineers called for a full and complete inquiry that considers the broader question of infrastructure maintenance.

Charest acknowledged Quebec's road system is aging rapidly, but pointed out his government has doubled road maintenance and construction budgets over the past three years.

Irate municipal officials pointed out Transport Quebec's budget was cut in the 1990s, along with those of other departments under PQ governments, and that both the provincial Auditor-General and transport ministry bureaucrats have raised alarm bells recently over deteriorating infrastructure.

A government analysis released in late 2005 said as many as 2,200 of Quebec's 4,900 bridges and overpasses were in need of repair, and nearly 800 were structurally deficient.

Charest defended his government's efforts at improving the province's increasingly dilapidated highway infrastructure, and bristled at the suggestion they have skimped on repairs.

"When it's a question of security, money is no object. Whenever we've had a situation that put the security of the population in peril, we've never, never, hesitated to spend the money on getting the work done," he said.

Després pointed out the overpass underwent a full structural inspection just over a year ago, which revealed no structural problems or weaknesses.

"This structure was built in 1970, the experts estimate the life-span of such a bridge is 70 years," he said.

With files from La Presse

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