Threat Matrix: December 2006

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747324/posts?page=1249#1249

===
===

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2534

Five Iranians Detained in Recent Baghdad Raids

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2006 – Several Iranian nationals were detained in recent coalition raids conducted in Iraq’s capital city, a senior U.S. military officer said in Baghdad today.

Two Iranians were among eight other suspects detained during a coalition raid at a Baghdad site Dec. 21, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters.

The early-morning operation was based on intelligence information, Caldwell said, noting documents, maps, photographs, and videos were also confiscated.

“Debriefings of these detainees and investigation of the seized materials have yielded intelligence that link perhaps some of them to some illegal activities that have occurred,” Caldwell said. The investigation is still ongoing, he said.

The 10 detainees are still in the custody of Multinational Force Iraq, Caldwell said, noting U.S. officials remain in contact with the Iraqi government regarding the matter.

In another operation, three Iranian nationals and one Iraqi were detained during a vehicle search by coalition forces that took place in the early evening in Baghdad Dec. 20, Caldwell said.

The four detainees have since been transferred to the custody of the Iraqi government, Caldwell said.

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2537

Cell Leader Killed in Iraq, Weapons Cache Found

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2006 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed an insurgent cell leader today and discovered a weapons cache yesterday in Iraq:
In operations in Abu Sukhayr, near Najaf, 8th Iraqi Army Division forces, with coalition advisors, killed a terrorist cell leader who was implicated in an October roadside bomb attack on a police chief in Najaf, military officials said.

Soldiers from the scout platoon, Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, discovered a weapons cache yesterday near the Euphrates River village of Abu Farris.

(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=somalia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=islamiccourts

---

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200612/INT20061228a.html

"Somalia Conflict Sparks East Africa Terror Fears"
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Managing Editor
December 28, 2006

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - Islamic radicals wanting to bring international pressure to bear on the fighting in Somalia -- where Ethiopian forces are trouncing Islamists -- may target Western facilities in East Africa for suicide bombings, a U.S.-based Somali campaigner warned Wednesday.

Terrorists hoped such attacks would "engulf the whole region" and increase the likelihood that bodies like the Arab League and European Union would intervene and cut short the rout of the Islamists, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.

Jamal said by phone from Minnesota that many Somalis desperate for stability after 16 years of conflict had welcomed the arrival of the Islamists known as the Islamic Court Union (ICU) when they seized control of Mogadishu last June by ousting an alliance of warlords and businessmen."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=russia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=canada

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=espionage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=spies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=spy

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759300/posts

"'A Gold Mine' For Spy Agency [Legends, the new Wave of Russian Spies]"
National Post [Canada] ^ | Wednesday, December 27, 2006 | Stewart Bell And Adrian Humphreys

Posted on 12/28/2006 3:02:32 AM PST by canuck_conservative

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Late in the afternoon on Tuesday, Nov. 14, a trim, middle-aged man walked into Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to catch a flight overseas.

Concealed under his shirt was a travel pouch the size of a postcard that held a forged Ontario birth certificate identifying him as Paul William Hampel, age 40, born in Toronto.

The shortwave radio, two digital cameras, three cellphones and $7,800 in European and North American currencies he carried were meant for an extended trip to the Balkans. But he had walked into a trap.

Instead of boarding his flight, he was pulled aside and arrested by Canada Border Service Agency officers working in co-operation with spy-catchers from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The arrest, approved five days earlier by two federal Cabinet ministers, was the culmination of a probe by the CSIS counterintelligence branch, which was convinced the man passing himself off as a Canadian businessman was actually an elite Russian spy.

For the next six weeks, the highly trained Russian intelligence officer gave up little about himself as he was held at a detention facility near Montreal, waiting to be escorted to Moscow.

While he did volunteer his name, it was almost certainly as fake as the Paul Hampel pseudonym he had adopted after slipping into Canada in the mid- 1990s to begin his espionage operation.

But his arrest may still prove instructive in the fight against Russia's resurgent spy program. The electronics he was carrying are no doubt being carefully dissected for clues of Russian spycraft. And while he was careful, "Mr. Hampel" left a trail that may shed some light on how Russian espionage is being conducted by the new wave of intelligence officers that have entered the business since the demise of the KGB.

"For this reason, he represents a possible gold mine for CSIS," said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto intelligence expert and past president of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.

Experts and officials believe the Russian's mission was not to spy on Canada, but rather to assume the identity of a Canadian so he could travel to the Balkans and collect intelligence for the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, or SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service.

But during the decade he lived a false life in Montreal, "Mr. Hampel" did damage to Canada as well: He stole the birth certificate number of an unwitting Ontario man; corrupted the passport system; used fake credit cards; ran a shell company; exploited the trust of those around him; and brought suspicion upon Canadian travellers by impersonating one as he spied.

"This case illustrates once again--as various previous cases running back into the 1930s have amply demonstrated -- that the Russian intelligence services value and continue to exploit Canadian cover for intelligence operations," said Dan Mulvenna, a former RCMP counterintelligence officer."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759301/posts

===
===

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53543

"Muslim sensitivity training for 45,000 airport workers
Security officials told 'to be aware that they may also be praying'"
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

===
===

Note: The following text (minus the photo) is a quote:

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=December&x=20061226172155ndyblehs0.4967768

USINFO > Products > Current Issues

26 December 2006

U.S. Airport Security Officers Briefed on Hajj Traditions

Officers learn about cultural sensitivities of Muslim travelers

By David Shelby
USINFO Staff Writer

A Transportation Security Administration agent checks a passenger at an airport security checkpoint. (File photo © AP Images)
Washington -- The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has provided special training to sensitize the 45,000 security officers working in the nation’s airports to the cultural traditions of American Muslims traveling to Saudi Arabia to participate in the hajj.

“We put out information telling everyone that hajj is coming; this is the time frame; individuals are going to be traveling with these types of items; just to be aware that they may also be praying,” TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser told USINFO December 26. “I guess you would call it cultural sensitivity training.”

Kayser said cultural awareness has been an integral part of TSA training since the agency assumed responsibility for managing airport security after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He said the hajj briefings were essentially “refresher training” and a chance to alert officers that a larger number of Muslim travelers will be passing through the airports during this season. He said the TSA had a particular interest in performing the training this year, as the hajj corresponds with the busy Christmas-New Year holiday travel season.

The training comes just one month after Department of Homeland Security personnel came under criticism for removing six imams from a domestic flight for what one passenger considered suspicious behavior. (See related article.)

The hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is a religious duty for Muslims. According to Saudi officials, it draws about 2.5 million pilgrims each year.

The number of American Muslims participating in the hajj has been increasing in recent years. According to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, about 15,000 Americans made the pilgrimage in 2005. (See related article.)

Kayser said the training included reminders about procedures for screening individuals with head coverings and TSA policies regarding the transport of holy water. According to TSA guidelines, any container larger than 88 milliters must be carried in a passenger’s checked baggage.

The TSA began its training sessions in mid-December and expects to see hajj travelers through early January 2007.

Additional information on hajj travel is available at the TSA Web site.

More information on U.S. society is available at Population and Diversity and International Religious Freedom.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov )

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=IRAN

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hezbollah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizballah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizbullah

===
===

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881992801&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Dec. 28, 2006 0:51 | Updated Dec. 28, 2006 12:04
"Hizbullah paying for Kassam attacks"
By HERB KEINON AND YAAKOV KATZ

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Hizbullah is paying Palestinian splinter groups "thousands of dollars" for each Kassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to Israeli intelligence information, Hizbullah is smuggling cash into the Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.

"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.

"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later."

According to the officials, while Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded 14-year-old Adir Basad in Sderot - several splinter terrorists groups are also involved and have received direct funding from Hizbullah.
According to security officials, Islamic Jihad gets the money via its headquarters in Damascus while Fatah's Tanzim terror group and the Popular Resistance Committees receive payment from Hizbullah in Lebanon.

All of the money originated in Iran, the officials said."

Note: The following text is a quote:

https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=61035

you are here: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Military Action
Consular Affairs Bulletins
Sub-Saharan Africa - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia
27 Dec 2006

Printer Friendly Email Article
Related Reports
27 Dec 2006
Warden Message: Ethiopia-Somalia Border Clashes
27 Dec 2006
Warden Message: Ethiopia-Somalia Border Clashes
22 Dec 2006
Pirates Pursue American Ship
1 Nov 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Terrorist Threat
1 Nov 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Terrorist Threat
U.S. Embassy Djibouti issued the following Warden Message on December 27:

The US Embassy in Djibouti wishes to alert American citizens living and traveling in Djibouti that the Ethiopian military and Transitional Federal Government of Somalia have commenced military operations against Council of Islamic Courts militias in Somalia. Because Djibouti borders both Somalia and Ethiopia, the U.S. embassy in Djibouti urges American citizens to exercise caution and to be keenly aware of their personal safety and surroundings.

American citizens with questions or concerns may telephone the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti at 253.35.39.95 or visit the embassy website at http://djibouti.usembassy.gov.

For the latest security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs internet website at http://travel.state.gov, where the current Worldwide Caution, Public Announcements, and Travel Warnings can be found. Up to date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. Federal Holidays.)

Note: The following text is a quote:

https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=61037

you are here: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report
Warden Message: Ethiopia-Somalia Border Clashes
Consular Affairs Bulletins
Sub-Saharan Africa - Ethiopia, Somalia
27 Dec 2006

Printer Friendly Email Article
Related Reports
27 Dec 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Military Action
27 Dec 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Military Action
22 Dec 2006
Pirates Pursue American Ship
1 Nov 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Terrorist Threat
1 Nov 2006
Warden Message: Horn of Africa Terrorist Threat
U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa issued the following Warden Message on December 27:

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa urges American citizens living and traveling in Ethiopia to exercise caution due to the December 24 announcement by the Ethiopian Government of military operations against the Council of Islamic Courts in Somalia. Military engagements have occurred along the southeastern border of Ethiopia and within Somalia. American citizens are reminded that the U.S. Embassy restricts travel of Embassy personnel to the Somali Region (Ogaden) of Ethiopia to a case-by-case basis, and strongly discourages travel to the Somali region if unrelated to humanitarian objectives. Due to credible threats of possible reprisals from terrorist organizations, American citizens are advised to remain vigilant, avoid demonstrations or large gatherings, and to be cautious when frequenting prominent public places and landmarks.

American citizens with questions or concerns may telephone the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa at 251-11-124-2424; emergency after-hours telephone: 251-11-124-2400; website: http://addisababa.usembassy.gov.

For the latest security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs internet website at http://travel.state.gov, where the current Worldwide Caution, Public Announcements, and Travel Warnings can be found. Up to date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. Federal Holidays.)

Note: The following text is a quote:

https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=61036

you are here: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report
Warden Message: Avoid Jerusalem's Old City December 29-30
Consular Affairs Bulletins
Middle East / N. Africa - Jerusalem
27 Dec 2006

Printer Friendly Email Article
Related Reports
20 Nov 2006
Middle East and North Africa Public Announcement
9 Nov 2006
Warden Message: Hamas Threatens U.S. Interests
11 Oct 2006
Worldwide Caution Public Announcement
25 Sep 2006
Warden Message: Israel Security Directive for Official Americans
31 Jul 2006
Warden Message: Jerusalem Demonstrations August 1
U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem issued the following Warden Message on December 27:

The Regional Security Office would like to advise that large groups of people are expected in the Old City to celebrate Eid al Adha on December 29-30. Personnel should avoid the Old City all day on Friday, December 29. Upwards to 100,000 people are expected to come to the Asqa Mosque during the day and evening. On Saturday, December 30, morning prayer begins at 7:10 a.m.. and the same number of people are expected to be in the Old City from about 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. Personnel should avoid the Old City on Saturday December 30 from 10:00 a.m.

Personnel can also expect heavy vehicular traffic and some road closures around the Old City. Salah A'Din Street and Sultan Suleiman Street should be avoided during these times as they will be congested with vehicles and people.

For the latest security information, Americans should regularly monitor the Department's web site at http://travel.state.gov, where the current Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, Middle East and North Africa Public Announcement, Travel Warnings and other Public Announcements can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays.)

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=IRAN

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=TURKEY

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hezbollah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizballah
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hizbullah

===

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=62370

'Turkish Hezbollah' issuing terror threats

Saturday, December 23, 2006

ISTANBUL - Associated Press

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A Kurdish Islamic militant group with reported ties to al-Qaeda is re-emerging in Turkey after six years underground -- and has started issuing vague but worrying threats, authorities say.

Turkish Hezbollah's rise parallels developments across the broader Muslim world, where the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon are believed to have served as powerful recruiting tools for radical Islamic groups.

Turkish Hezbollah, which takes its name from the better-known Lebanon-based Hezbollah but has no formal links to it, was largely eradicated six years ago when its leader was killed and more than 6,000 of its members were arrested in a massive police crackdown.

Like the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Turkish group is allegedly backed by Iran."

5 from Lackawanna Six sent to Indiana prison

Five of the six members of the Lackawanna Six have been transferred to a federal prison in Indiana, and their families are trying to find out why.

Their attorneys confirmed Wednesday that Shafal A. Mosed, 28; Mukhtar al-Bakri, 26; Yasein A. Taher, 29; Faysal H. Galab, 30; and Sahim Alwan, 34; were all recently moved to the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also verified that the men are being held there.

Family members of the five men are upset because most of them were held previously in facilities much closer to Western New York. Now family members will have to drive 570 miles - more than nine hours - to visit the convicted conspirators in Terre Haute. They also could take a flight to Indianapolis, about 70 miles from Terre Haute. (snip)
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061228/1065560.asp

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.