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Locked on 03/01/2007 8:34:01 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1793738/posts |
Posted on 02/01/2007 7:36:02 PM PST by nwctwx
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bas = base
The syntax of this article is a little vague.
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/623.htm
It may fit on the treason matrix rather than the threat matrix
'Muslim Brotherhood Contacts with U.S. Congressmen, U.K. Officials'
Madrid, 12 Feb. 2007 - Al-Qaeda has allegedly established a training base in the sub-Saharan scrub country running from Senegal to Ethiopia known as the Sahel and camps in Mauritania, Mali and Niger are those posing the greatest threat to Europe, according to security experts cited by Spanish daily El Pais in an in-depth article. Militants recruited in Spain, especially in the northeast region of Catalonia.
A Moroccan activist, Mbar El Jaafari, arrested last week in the port city of Tarragona south of Barcelona, sent the jihadis recruited by al-Qaeda in Spain have been sent for training in the Sahel camps, according to El Pais.
The militants have heavy weapons, ground-to-air missiles, and satellite phones, and the jihadis recruited in Spain learn to how to use explosives and also poisons, the paper reported. European security services are on alert to the the proximity of these alleged new al-Qaeda training camps to Europe. Concern is especially great in France and Spain - where many militants from the al-Qaeda linked north African Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) formation are based.
The GSPC last month renamed itself 'al-Qaeda in the Maghreb'. While the GSPC - a splinter group of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has always had its stronghold in Algeria, it has now found 'allies' in the impoverished countries of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad.
In late January, anti-terrror prosecutors from Morocco, France and Spain signed an accord in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, agreeing to a 'real time' exchange of intelligence data on al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda 'sleeper' cells are present in Spain, France Italy and Great Britain but also in Afghanistan and Chechnya. In Europe, the cells are primarly engaged in recruitment of new jihadis and terror financing, El Pais said.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=
Italy: Officials Uncover Arms To Libya Smuggling Ring
Perugia, 12 Feb. 2007 - Military police in the central Italian city of Terni arrested on Monday four people in connection with a significant weapons and drugs smuggling ring. According to prosecutors with the local anti-Mafia Directorate in Perugia, ring members were about to supply to the Libyan government 500,000 machine guns and 10 million rounds of ammunition.
Reports said the negotiations were made by people not included in the defence ministry's National Register of Authorised Firms, and without any link to the ministry.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.385572205&par=0
Well that's interesting, thanks TWhiteBear. Perhaps more details will be forthcoming.
THANKS Velveeta for the ping.
Well good deal!
It's good to know people care enough to take the time
to contact the tip line.
Thanks TWhiteBear.
MEMRI is always interesting.
"...arms to Libya..."
Thanks Oorang.
_______________________
Update on situation in Japan:
First Attack by Al Qaeda in Japan?
February 12, 2007 3:01 PM
There was a scare today at a U.S. military base outside Tokyo when two small explosions occurred shortly after 11 p.m. there. While no one was injured, investigators are looking at the possibility that it was an attempted terrorist attack.
Intelligence reports in Japan and Pakistan suggest al Qaeda has established a small but powerful presence in Japan, which leads some wondering whether or not today's events are the first attempt at an attack by al Qaeda in Japan. Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News they have had several reports that Pakistani militant organizations working with al Qaeda had established networks in Japan as far back as 1999.
A Pakistani intelligence source says these networks were set up following the direct orders of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the top al Qaeda leader who is now in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed reportedly had a "deep interest" in conducting operations inside Japan.
The source also tells ABC News around two dozen Pakistanis had been sent to Japan on student visas in the late 1990s to set up "sleeper cells," and those individuals had linked with operatives from the leading Indonesian terror group, Jemaah Islamiya. The source said the mission of the sleeper cells was to draw up plans for terror attacks and that some of their plans were seriously considered by top al Qaeda leaders.
One potential plan involved planting several bombs at and around stadiums during the 2002 World Cup. The plan was never carried out, but the intelligence source says he believes these networks are still in place and are still "actively planning operations against U.S. and Western targets in Japan."
He added, "If these explosions [today] turn out to have been terrorist attacks, these networks are the first place to look." Back in Tokyo, no arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/02/first_attack_by.html
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2863333
"Court Blocks Suspect's Transfer to Iraq
Appeals Court Blocks American's Transfer to Iraq for Trial on Terror Charges"
by Michael J. Sniffen (AP) (February 9, 2007)
===
===
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://osint.internet-haganah.com/archives/000828.html
February 12, 2007
US Court of Appeals in DC claims Iraqi jurisdiction
MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press Feb 9, 2007
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court blocked the Pentagon on Friday from transferring an American citizen to an Iraqi court to face charges he supported terrorists and insurgents. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously ruled that Shawqi Omar, a citizen of both Jordan and the United States who once served in the Minnesota National Guard, has a right to argue for his release before a U.S. court. By a 2-1 vote, the panel also upheld an injunction issued last year by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina here that barred the U.S. military from turning Omar over for trial in an Iraqi court… Voicing disappointment, spokesman Erik Ablin said the Justice Department believes the decision "will inappropriately interfere with the executive branch's prerogative to prosecute a war and to make good on its commitments to our allies." He noted the partial dissent called the ruling unprecedented and said it would effectively block a foreign government from making an arrest on its own soil… Omar was captured in Iraq in 2004 by U.S. forces during a raid on associates of Iraq al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in 2006. Omar is imprisoned at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq. He was been held in several camps for over two years without formal charges and, his family says, without access to counsel. The U.S. military says Omar was harboring insurgents and had bomb-making materials at the time of his arrest. The military decided in 2005 to transfer him to the Central Criminal Court of Iraq for trial but has been blocked by the U.S. court injunction…
Posted on 12 February 2007 @ 15:38 GMT
NOTE: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3016
Numerous Suspected Terrorists Captured in Iraq; Weapons Cache Found
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2007 – Coalition forces captured a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq military planner and detained 14 other suspected terrorists during multiple operations today, military officials reported.
-- In Mosul, coalition forces detained two suspected terrorists including an alleged al Qaeda military planner who is suspected of attacks in Muhalabiyah.
-- In Baghdad, five suspects were detained with alleged ties to a makeshift bomb procurement and operations cell. Coalition forces northeast of Balad also detained six suspected terrorists who have alleged ties to foreign fighter operations.
-- Two more people with suspected ties to al Qaeda foreign fighters were detained today in Tikrit, officials said.
No civilians or coalition forces were injured during the raids. These types of operations continue to disrupt al Qaeda's ability to operate in Iraq, officials said.
Elsewhere in Iraq, soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, uncovered a weapons cache buried on a farm in western Baghdad yesterday, and Iraqi troops working together with soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment took 15 suspects into custody for questioning.
The weapons cache contained numerous munitions, including blasting caps, artillery rounds, ammunition rounds and makeshift bomb materials, officials said.
Also, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers destroyed a building used by terrorists near a village west of Baghdad on Feb. 9. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, coordinated the strike in cooperation with other units from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in Sumalat.
The building, which has been a known insurgent sniper position and an alleged makeshift-bomb manufacturing site, was destroyed to prevent its further use by insurgent forces, officials said.
In addition, soldiers from the 3rd Combined Arms Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, and Iraqi army soldiers cordoned off the Jabouri Peninsula, just outside of Balad on Feb. 9 and began operations to clear the area of insurgents and al Qaeda fighters, officials reported.
"Al Qaeda and other insurgents have used this area as a safe haven. We have targeted the insurgents in this area for the past five months, but they still pose a threat to coalition forces, Iraqi civilians and Iraqi security forces," said Lt. Col. Kevin Dunlop, commander of 3rd Combined Arms Battalion.
This operation will target high value individuals, training areas and terrorist safe havens in an effort to restore and sustain peace in the peninsula and surrounding areas, Dunlop said.
Finally, on Feb. 8, Iraqi army soldiers responded to a tip and conducted a raid to break up a car bomb cell in Ameriyah. The Iraqi army troops detained one terrorist suspect. During initial questioning, the suspect implicated a second suspected car bomb cell member living next door, officials said.
(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq and Defense Department news releases.)
Thanks for that update on Japan.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3027
Taliban Senior Leader Targeted in Assault
American Forces Press Service
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 12, 2007 – Several Taliban fighters were killed during an assault by Afghan National Army and coalition forces early this morning near the town of Gershk, in the Nahr Surkh district of Helmand province.
A group of Taliban fighters initiated hostilities by firing a rocket-propelled grenade at Afghan and coalition forces. The troops then engaged and killed the Taliban fighters. Officials have not yet determined the exact number of terrorists killed, according to a statement from Combined Joint Task Force 76.
The assault was conducted based on substantial information provided about a Taliban senior leader operating in the neighboring province of Kandahar, officials said. The targeted individual has ties to Mullah Mohammad Osmani and Mullah Mohammad Omar.
During the assault, an Afghan National Army vehicle overturned in a ravine. One Afghan soldier suffered a non-life threatening injury and was taken to a coalition hospital for further treatment, and the vehicle was destroyed on site.
No Afghan or coalition forces were killed during this operation.
(From a Combined Joint Task Force 76 news release.)
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3028
Bomb-making Sites Raided; 10 Suspects Nabbed in Separate Operation
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2007 – American and Iraqi soldiers raided suspected bomb-making sites in eastern Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported, while U.S. and Iraqi troops yesterday nabbed 10 suspected insurgents following a firefight near the village of Ubaydah, Iraq.
Iraqi and American soldiers targeted eastern Baghdad’s Rusafa section during raids focused on disrupting vehicle-borne improvised explosive device networks, officials said.
Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army, the 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army, and U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, participated in the operation.
"Our mission is to clear areas in Rusafa specifically focusing on the VBIED networks," Army Lt. Col. Joseph Davidson, a Congers, N.Y., native and executive officer for the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said.
One suspect with a fake identification card was detained.
The 10 insurgents were seized after Iraqi troops and U.S. soldiers with Multinational Division Baghdad were fired on during a joint operation conducted northeast of Haswah, Iraq.
Soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, working with Americans from Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment, detained the suspects after coming under small-arms fire near the village of Ubaydah. There were no casualties in the incident.
The suspects are being detained for questioning by Iraqi forces.
In other news from Iraq, a car bomb detonated outside of the Dwar police station just east of Tikrit yesterday.
Tikrit police and U.S. soldiers with Task Force 1-319th, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, reported nine Iraqi policemen killed and six wounded.
The blast collapsed the second and third floors of the police station and caused other structural damage, officials said. Four policemen and two civilians were removed to medical facilities for treatment.
Iraqi police and U.S. troops are continuing a search for survivors. A joint investigation by the police and U.S. troops is under way.
(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq press releases.)
RAFAH, Egypt - Egyptian police found boxes on Monday with around 18,000 bullets hidden in a tunnel near the Egyptian border with the Palestinian territories, security officials said. The tunnel linked Egypt to the Gaza Strip, where the ammunition appeared to be destined.
‘It seemed the smugglers felt the police were close so they abandoned the ammunition and fled,’ said one official, who asked not to be named. He said the tunnel would be destroyed.
Egypt has frequently seized large quantities of weapons and explosives in Sinai over the last three years, some of which police suspect were bound for Palestinians. Earlier this month police found rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades hidden in the sand on the border with Gaza.
Israel has accused Egypt of not doing enough to prevent weapons smuggling to Palestinian militants. Egypt denies the charges and has asked Israel to provide information on any planned smuggling operation.
Jordan court indicts 18 on terror charges
AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 12 -- Jordan's State Security Court has indicted a group of 18 people on charges of terrorism and recruiting elements to fight in Iraq and train in Lebanon.
Judicial sources said Monday the charges were dropped against one group member, who was killed in a shoot-out with authorities in the northern city of Irbid last month, while two suspects were still at large.
According to the charge sheet, the suspects worked to recruit people from Jordan to join al-Qaida in Iraq to carry out terrorist attacks there, saying the defendants succeeded in enlisting a number of people in the kingdom to send to Lebanon, via Syria, for military training before going to Iraq.
Excerpted
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070212-013100-5376r
Excellent news, thanks Cindy.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3035
"Pace Calls Australia Global Leader in Fight on Terror"
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 12, 2007
It comes down to beards again. What's next? Radios and kites?
---
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1783620/posts
Suspected Islamic Militants Warn Barbers
Newsday ^ | 2/12/07 | HABIBULLAH KHAN
Posted on 02/12/2007 2:47:08 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
KHAR, Pakistan -- Suspected Islamic radicals have issued a Taliban-style warning to barbers in a Pakistani border town not to shave off or cut their customers' beards, saying it offends Islam, residents said Monday.
Pamphlets with the warnings were found at several shops in Inayat Kalay in Pakistan's Bajur tribal region near the Afghan border, said Bacha Khan, a barber in the market town.
"Barbers! Correct yourselves," said the handwritten, Pashto-language notes, one of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has authorized the addition of Mohammed Ali Hamadei and Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah to the U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Program, each with a potential reward of up to $5 million.
Hamadei and Shallah were added to RFJ's Most Wanted List at the request of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division; both are also on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List.
Excerpted
A recent editorial in Investors Business Daily, “The 8-Million Muslim Lie”, took issue with population figures regularly bandied about by radical Islamic activists since the November 2006 elections as a supposed demonstration of Muslims’ collective political power. Because of the number of elections decided around the country with slim majorities, including critical congressional and senatorial races, the Muslim activists advancing this statistic contend that because of this fictionalized mass of Muslims, the radical agendas of organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) must have their demands for the Islamization of American society catered to by political parties, government officials and law enforcement authorities. At least that’s how their argument goes.
The IBD editorial completely deconstructs the methodology of the report used by these organizations to support their “8-Million Muslim” claims. The report in question, The Mosque in America: A National Portrait, was published in April 2001 by CAIR, and was authored by CAIR National Board member, Ishan Bagby, who has no professional training in demography. The study concluded:
Estimates of a total Muslim population of 6-7 million in America seem reasonable in light of the figure of 2 million Muslims who associate with a mosque. (p. 3)
In fact, more careful scientific studies have placed the population of Muslims in America much lower. A NY Sun op-ed by Dr. Daniel Pipes in October 2001 (“How Many U.S. Muslims?”) noted two different scientific university-conducted studies in recent years that place the population of Muslims at less than 3 million:
The American Religious Identification Survey 2001 carried out by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York polled more than 50,000 people and found the total American Muslim population to be 1.8 million.
Meanwhile, the University of Chicago's Tom Smith reviewed prior national surveys and (in a study sponsored by the American Jewish Committee) found that the best estimate puts the Muslim population in 2000 at 1,886,000. (With a nod toward figures supplied by Islamic organizations, he allowed that this number could be as high as 2,814,000 Muslims.)
Even though critics have decisively shown the fatal assumptions of CAIR’s wildly exaggerated population study, CAIR still promotes this 6-7 million number on their website. As an aside, the CAIR study only evaluated Sunni Muslims. The Shi’ite community, which the Sunnis consider heretic, was curiously not considered in their population “guesstimates” of Muslims in America.
But what if CAIR and the other Islamist organizations floating these fictional statistics were given the benefit of the doubt? While their population estimates bear no resemblance to reality, it is true that in certain congressional districts the Muslim vote, which trended heavily to Republicans in 2000 but dramatically shifted towards Democrats in 2004 and 2006, did play a role in some House and Senate races in districts with large Muslim population in the last election. That can certainly be conceded.
However, the question has to be asked: if there are in fact 8 million Muslims in America, just how many of them does CAIR actually represent? Of course, if you were to ask that question of Ibrahim Cooper, CAIR National spokesman, he would say all of them. But a close inspection of internal documents of the radical Islamic organizations that represent themselves as advocates of the exponentially increasing Muslim masses betrays a difficult truth – that they actually represent few American Muslims at all:
An inspection of CAIR’s most recent publicly available IRS Form 990 (2004) shows for that year they received $119,029 in membership dues for that year (line 3). But at $25 per membership (the current rate is $35), that would mean that in 2004, CAIR only had 4,761 dues-paying members – less than 5,000 members out of 8 million Muslims in America. This would mean that CAIR only represents 1 out of every 1,680 Muslims. Even if a lower 6 million Muslim population figure were assumed, CAIR would still only be able to claim representation for 1 out of every 1,260 Muslims for that year.
MAS is in even worse shape than CAIR when it comes to actual representation of the American Muslim community. In 2004, MAS received only $87,299 in membership dues, which represents a dramatic decrease in membership from 2003 ($366,613 in members dues received) and 2002 ($378,993 received). Membership has declined so rapidly for MAS that they have stopped offering memberships on their website altogether, though MAS has not publicly acknowledged, let alone explained, their stunning membership decline since 9/11.
Data for ISNA is not available because they have claimed exemption as a church, which aren’t required to make their IRS Form 990s publicly available. This is unfortunate, as ISNA has previously claimed in press releases to represent an astounding 10 million Muslim Americans – a population statistic and membership claim that cannot be independently verified.
The implication of these findings threatens to shatter the myth that these radical Islamic organizations are actually representative of American Muslims. In the case of both CAIR and MAS, their actual and documented representation of Muslims is so miniscule that their claims to speak on behalf of Muslims in America put inordinate strain on their credibility. As for ISNA, the simple fact that they publicly claim to represent numbers far exceeding the number of American Muslims than even the most unscientific and evidently biased population study can identify immediately calls into question their veracity.
It seems those that are the quickest to use the “8-Million Muslim Lie” are actually the ones most damaged by it. As population figures for Muslims in America are continually inflated, the hard membership numbers for CAIR and MAS found in their own tax documents shows that they are representing progressively less of the Muslim community if the population figures they cite are to be believed. In a strange twist of fate, at the very moment that these organizations want to capitalize on the opportunity of the supposed growing political clout of Muslims in America, their own numbers show that they are becoming less representative of the community they claim to speak for. Unfortunately for CAIR, MAS and ISNA, there is no escaping that the real numbers don’t lie.
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