Posted on 08/10/2005 1:11:52 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
Jamie Gorelick and the Clinton Administration's Policies Protected 9/11 Cell
Stay Angry
Turkish Police Detain al-Qaida Suspect
By LOUIS MEIXLER
Turkish police detained a Syrian who is believed to have been a go-between for al-Qaida and a Turkish cell that carried out deadly 2003 bombings in Istanbul and said Wednesday they are pursuing other militants.
Turkish media said the Syrian was one of 10 people detained who were plotting to attack Israeli cruise ships docking at vacation resorts on the Mediterranean coast, but police later denied the reports.
Israel on Monday urged its citizens not to visit beach resorts on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey and five cruise liners carrying some 5,000 people were diverted from Turkey to Cyprus over the weekend due to terror threats.
Israeli officials said Turkish police were aggressively cracking down, but added the terror warning was still in force.
Emmanuel Nahshon, the Israeli deputy ambassador in Ankara, stressed the warning did not apply to the entire country. "It is not Turkey, it is just a particular area," Nahshon said.
Overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey is a top vacation spot for Israelis and more than 300,000 visit each year.
Police confirmed that the Syrian citizen who was detained was suspected of having facilitated communication between al-Qaida and Turkish extremists responsible for the 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank. The attacks killed some 60 people.
The suspect also is believed to have helped the bombing masterminds flee the country and to have remained in contact with al-Qaida operatives who are planning future attacks, Turkish police officials added.
The officials, however, could not confirm that those attacks included plots to attack Israeli tourists. Turkish civil servants are only allowed to speak on the record with prior authorization.
Police said the Syrian was detained in Antalya, a beach resort that is so popular with Israelis that there are direct flights from Tel Aviv.
CNN-Turk television later reported that he was detained in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit the overwhelmingly Kurdish city later this week.
Suspects tried in Turkey for the 2003 bombings said they originally planned to attack an Israeli cruise ship in the Mediterranean, according to a court indictment.
Turkey's NTV television said that nine of the people arrested Wednesday were checking the timetables of cruise lines.
Turkey's police headquarters, however, later issued a statement saying that press reports that "members of the al-Qaida organization were caught with C-4 (plastic) explosives as they prepared to attack foreign ships in our southern provinces are totally false."
Police would not elaborate on the statement.
The issue of attacks at tourist resorts is extremely sensitive in Turkey, which is hoping to host some 22 million tourists this year. The industry is projected to bring in $19.5 billion in revenues, a 50 percent increase over last year.
1 US soldier, 16 insurgents killed in Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 16 Afghan insurgents and oneUS soldier were killed Monday during a fight in the southern province of Zabul, the US-led coalition said on Tuesday.
The US soldier was killed when an Afghan and US patrol conducting operations aimed at routing insurgents from the Deh Chopan area of Zabul came under attack by insurgents with small-arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.
US and coalition aircraft arrived at the scene and provided continuous close air support, the coalition said in a new release.
Afghan and US forces would continue the search and attack mission to ensure there would be no enemy safe havens in the region, Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, Combined Joint Task Force-76Deputy Commanding General, was quoted as saying.
Zabul and the neighboring provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand commonly known as the heartland of Taliban has been the witness of increasing militancy over the past four months, during which more than 400 including rebels, civilians and US troops lost their lives.
Pakistan to deploy 4000 more troops on Afghan border
Pakistan which has stationed seventy thousand troops on its border with Afghanistan will deploy 4000 more troops on Afghan border to check terrorism. Foreign Office spokesman Naeem Khan told a news briefing Monday in Islamabad that Pakistan is trying its level best to eradicate terrorism and contain terrorist activities, Kazinform refers to PPI.
For this purpose "we have carried out 53 operations in Waziristan tribal agency (close to border with Afghanistan),'' he added.
Participant in illegal armed group detained Chechnya
MOSCOW, August 9 (Itar-Tass) - - A participant in an illegal armed group has been detained in Chechnya, Itar-Tass learnt at the republic’s law enforcement bodies. According to a police representative, the 30-year-old resident of Chechnya “took active part in combat actions against federal forces on the territory of the republic.”
Law enforcers detained the gunman in the village of Sharoi of the Achkhoi-Martan region. An investigation is underway.
In the southern Zabul and Helmand provinces, officials claimed capturing seven Taliban fighters along with arms and explosives.
In Zabul, police said they had captured two Taliban fighters following an encounter in the Atghar district on Sunday. Atghar police chief Gul Habib told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the militants had planned to ambush the government forces. However, on a tip off, the military attacked and captured two of them after a gunfight.
The student militia has confirmed the clash but stopped short of confessing the arrest of their fighters. A day earlier, the government forces claimed killing eight militants and detaining three others after exchange of fire in the Shehr-i-Safa district of the restive Zabul province.
In a separate incident in Helmand, police said they had arrested five militants following a crack down.
Helmand deputy police chief Haji Mohammad Ayub told this news agency on Monday the militants were detained after a swoop on in the Gareshk district. He said some of their accomplices managed to run away.
Alleged Al Qaeda militant quizzed in Pakistan (Interesting info on US phone tracking in Pakistan)
Islamabad, Aug 9 (DPA) A day after Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao confirmed the arrest of an alleged Al Qaeda militant, Pakistani officials remained tight-lipped about his interrogation Tuesday.
Even Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the National Crisis Management Cell, played down the hype around Osama bin Yousaf's arrest Sunday from the central city of Faisalabad.
"He is an activist of the defunct militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but a very insignificant, low ranking member of the organisation," Ahmad said here.
Sherpao restricted himself to the confirmation of Yousaf's arrest, who according to The Daily Times was an important Al Qaeda operative.
"Yousaf was in contact with other Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan, Britain, Italy and Germany, whom he also called the previous week through a mobile phone which had been under surveillance," the newspaper quoted an anonymous Pakistani intelligence official as saying.
Investigators stumbled on Yousaf's cell phone while scanning documents recovered from other alleged Al Qaeda operatives.
Maps of Italy, Germany, Pakistan and Britain were recovered from Yousaf, who was arrested after the American Cellular Call Tracking System (CCTS) installed at several locations countrywide traced his phone call to Peshawar Sunday.
But Cheema categorically denied any maps were found in Yousaf's custody. "It (the report) is totally rubbish. Security forces did not recover such items," he said.
Currently, most phone calls from within Pakistan are monitored through CCTS, which the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) installed in the country as part of the war on terror in Afghanistan.
A Special Investigation Group (SIP) comprising Pakistani and American intelligence officials oversees the entire tracking operation from Islamabad.
It has been instrumental in the arrests of 9/11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Ahmad Khalfan Al-Ghailani, Yassir al-Jaziri and Abu Zubaidah.
Yousaf, The Daily Times said, twice visited Afghanistan in the 1990s where he was introduced to Al Qaeda leaders, and received training in guerrilla warfare.
As a key member of the international coalition against terrorism, Pakistan has so far arrested and handed over some 700 Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives to the US.
Police Find Laptop Used to Plan Attack on (Indian) Parliament
New Delhi, August 9: A laptop, used by Jaish-e-Mohd terrorists to plan the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament, became a tool for Delhi police unravel the conspiracy and also proved to be a clinching evidence on Mohmd Afzal's involvement resulting in confirmation of his death penalty by the Supreme Court.
The 271-page judgement given by a bench comprising Justice P V Reddi and Justice P P Naolekar stated that the police recovered the laptop from Afzal when he was fleeing in a truck along with his cousin Shaukat, a co-accused in the case.
"The recovery of laptop from the truck in which Afzal and Shaukat travelled on being pointed out by them is a highly incriminating circumstance against them," said Justice Reddi, writing for the bench.
It was established from the evidence that it was the same laptop which was used for the preparation of identity cards found on the person of the killed terrorists, who stormed the Parliament house, as well as stickers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which were pasted on the windscreen of the car used by them to gain entry into the high-security zone.
"It admits of no doubt that the laptop, which must have been with the deceased terrorist Mohammed and others came into the custody of Afzal (and Shaukat) soon after the incident on December 13 and such possession has not been accounted for," the apex court inferred.
Taliban commander surrenders to Afghan gov't: US army
KABUL, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A local commander of Taliban militias laid down his arm and joint in the national reconciliation process in the troubled Paktika province in southeast Afghanistan, a US military spokesperson said Monday.
"Mullah Hajji Jilani, a former Taliban sub-commander of Paktika province has renounced violence against government of Afghanistan and joined the peace process on August 4," Cindy Moore said at a news briefing here.
She said that over a dozen fighters were accompanying the Mullah in his decision to lad down arms and support the peace process in the war-ravaged country.
"A ceremony honoring his decision will be held on August 9," Moore added.
Under the national reconciliation policy launched by the President Hamid Karzai-led government and US military in November last year, according to officials, hundreds of Taliban fighters have laid down arms and resumed their normal lives in their communities.
To boost the process, the government has offered amnesty for all the Taliban members except 150 top ranking leaders that include the movement's elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his close aides and commanders.
But the Taliban leader has termed the offer as a trick to split the movement and called upon his loyalists to nullify the offer by intensifying attacks on the Afghan government and US military interests across the country.
| Terrorist Scorecard | |
| The Iraqi "Deck of Cards" Scoreboard | |
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| Saudi Arabia's Most Wanted Scorecard | |
| Saudi Arabia's New Most Wanted Scorecard | |
| The Round-up Blog | |
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Ping
Thanks!
A 'Thanks for that POST' BUMP!
Gore-lick needs to be held accountable for her actions. With thousands of Americans dead, she still has the nerve to smile.
** WARNING **
New terms for TERRORISTS are as follows:
fighters
militias
Members of al-Quida Organization
illegal armed group
militants
and of course the ever popular - insurgents
I am sure I missed some. India however, still calls them TERRORISTS. This must be part of the gentler, kinder "struggle against extremists"
Many thanks!
You do us all a tremendous service!! Thank you
Bump!
Good!
Police confirmed that the Syrian citizen who was detained was suspected of having facilitated communication between al-Qaida and Turkish extremists responsible for the 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank.
Of course the Syrian govenment knew nothing about this.
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