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French arrest 10 in connection with terror probe By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer Authorities in France, Germany and the Netherlands on Friday detained at least 10 people suspected of helping to fund al-Qaida-linked militants with roots in Uzbekistan, officials said. One suspect was detained in Germany, another in the Netherlands, with the rest detained in France, said a senior French police official who was only authorized to discuss the arrests on condition of anonymity. The suspects' nationalities were not given but officials said they were Turkic-speaking. French police suspect they collected funds for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a...

Excerpt - DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations to continue the fight against the Jewish state and its allies and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Bin Laden said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the heart of...

NEW YORK (AP) — Terror leader Osama bin Laden will release a new Internet message dealing with Israel and the Palestinians, a terrorism monitoring group said Thursday. The announcement of the impending comments by the head of al-Qaida was posted on Web sites often used by terror groups, the SITE Intelligence Group said. Bin Laden's statement will be titled, "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the State of Israeli Occupation" and will be addressed to the "Western peoples," SITE said. Al-Qaida messages usually follow within 72 hours of such announcements. The terror network has...

The most interesting discovery during a visit to this city where Osama bin Laden planted his flag in 1996 is that al-Qaeda seems to have all but disappeared. The group is on the run, too, in Iraq, and that raises some interesting questions about how to pursue this terrorist enemy in the future. "Al-Qaeda is not a topic of conversation here," says Col. Mark Johnstone, the deputy commander of Task Force Bayonet, which oversees four provinces surrounding Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Pete Benchoff agrees: "We're not seeing a lot of al-Qaeda fighters. They've shifted here to facilitation and...

This is a FReeper made video based off the Al Qaeda document found and posted here at Free Republic by Jveritas. I plan to post it also at Googlevideo and Liveleak. I will present these links as they become available.

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

U.S. war planes killed an Islamist rebel said to be al Qaeda's leader in Somalia and at least a dozen other people on Thursday in Washington's biggest blow against an insurgency raging since 2007. The rebels said Aden Hashi Ayro -- who led al Shabaab militants blamed for attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies -- died in the first major success for a string of U.S. air-strikes on Somali insurgents in the last year. "Infidel planes bombed Dusamareb," Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by phone, referring to a town in central Somalia, where body parts lay...

War On Terror: Caving to Muslim pressure groups, the Bush administration has banned the term "jihadist" to define the enemy. Islamic terrorists will now be known as "violent extremists." Our war on radical Islam has been hamstrung by political correctness from the start. First, we couldn't call the campaign to strike back at al-Qaida a "crusade" because Muslims found it historically offensive. Then we couldn't define the enemy as "Islamic terrorists" because it insulted Islam — even though it accurately described the Muslims committing murder and mayhem in the name of Islam. To appease critics, we narrowed the terminology, confining...

The Iraq Status report has a translation of al-Qaeda's Zawahiri's call to do or die in Iraq. The full text follows after the Read More. The most comedic moment comes when he tries to revile Moqtada al-Sadr as a poseur and a loser; saying in effect that the Boy Wonder is all hat and no cattle. What old whiskers fails to realize is that he might very well be talking about himself. "Iraq today is now the most important arena in which our Muslim nation is waging the battle against the forces of the Crusader-Zionist campaign. Therefore, backing the mujahidin...

The latest three messages from al-Qaeda addressing the Sunni community uncover the depth of the crisis that al-Qaeda is facing in its former host community. The threatening tone of the missives from the alleged Abu Omar Baghdadi and Aby Ayyub, and the insulting tone of the second by Zawahiri, reflect mistrust, anxiety and a dire need to retrieve what was lost. Death threats do not represent a serious call for cooperation on an achievable objective. This “work-for-me-or-I-kill-you” tone is completely different from the usual recruiting slogans that have focused on the ideology of fighting for absolute truth against absolute evil....

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A man claiming to be the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq vowed in an audiotape released Saturday to launch a monthlong offensive against U.S. troops. There was no independent confirmation that the voice belonged to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, but it sounded exactly like the one heard on previous audiotapes. Al-Muhajir has been the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq since his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad in 2006. "We call on our beloved ones ... that each unit should present the head of...

More Emergency Prep Could Be Done, Experts Tell Senate -- Concerned that not enough attention is being paid to the risk of a nuclear attack, a Senate committee yesterday looked at the consequences of such a terrorist strike in Washington -- and said that more could be done to save lives. A hearing, called by the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, featured charts showing the horrific effects of a small nuclear device detonating near the White House. It was the panel's third session in recent months on the threat of a nuclear explosion. "The scenarios we discuss today...

Al-Qaida's nuclear attack against the US is in planning stages, top American intelligence officials have said. Deposing before a Congressional Committee on Homeland Security early this week, these US intelligence officials told US lawmakers that the threat of nuclear attack by the Taliban was growing and there is need to enhance its security measures. Charles Allen, Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer at the Department of Homeland Security; and Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the director of Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence for the Department of Energy testified before this key Congressional committee on nuclear terrorism on April 2. ''There's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities have seen no signs of al Qaeda trying to insert operatives into the United States from Mexico, but the militant group has considered doing so, a U.S. intelligence official said on Friday. The comments by Charles Allen, Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, could undercut one argument by advocates in and out of government for get-tough tactics to fight illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border -- that they are needed to fight terrorism. In contrast, at least one Islamist militant has been caught trying to enter the United States by land to attempt an...

BAGHDAD, April 9 (UPI) -- An Iraqi special forces team under the supervision of the U.S. military arrested six al-Qaida suspects as separate raids uncovered a variety of illegal weapons. The Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics team in Baqubah raided an area thought to be used by al-Qaida forces as a weapons storage area, the U.S. military said.

The Anaconda Chart is a complex graphic that depicts an intricate, multi-dimensional war. It's tough to describe even with a copy in front of you. However, the strategic concept behind Petraeus' chart (titled "Anaconda Strategy versus al-Qaida in Iraq") is dirt simple: Squeeze and keep squeezing. A commercial artist would certainly describe the chart as "too busy," but war isn't an exercise in aesthetics. The Anaconda Strategy identifies six routes of attack on al-Qaida in Iraq: 1) Kinetics (which includes combat); 2) Politics (which includes countering ethno-sectarian pressures and Iraqi political reconciliation); 3) Intelligence (operations from air recon to intel...

QUETTA, April 4: Four foreigners suspected of having links with Al Qaeda have been arrested from the Dera Murad Jamali area of Nasirabad district. They were travelling in a Peshawar-bound bus. “The suspects are Turkish nationals. They were going to Jacobabad when security officials intercepted the bus on Thursday night,” sources told Dawn. They were handed over to the authorities in Quetta for interrogation. According to sources, the bus coming from Quetta was intercepted by the Frontier Corps personnel on a tip-off. A large quantity of high explosives, 1,600 rounds of sub-machine gun, a laptop, 10 Jihadi books, CDs and...

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, rejecting criticism of attacks by the terror network's followers that have killed thousands, maintained Wednesday that it does not kill innocent people. His comment came during a 90-minute audio response that was billed as the first installment of answers to the more than 900 questions submitted on extremist Internet sites by al-Qaida supporters, critics and journalists in December. "We haven't killed the innocents, not in Baghdad, nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else," al-Zawahri said, according to a 46-page English transcript that accompanied the audio message posted on Web sites...

Istanbul - Turkish police have arrested 45 suspected members of al-Qaeda in eight districts of Istanbul. The militants were reportedly planning attacks against foreign embassies. In January, police carried out raids at 18 locations in southeastern Turkey after receiving information that an al-Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. One police officer and four militants were killed in a gunfight. Seventeen people were arrested.

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

The Liberal media has been focused on a so called Gaffe John McCain has made recently in the press. Example is this IPS news story http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41693 POLITICS-US: McCain's Gaffes Reflect Bush's Iran-Qaeda Myth Analysis by Gareth Porter* WASHINGTON, Mar 21 (IPS) - Sen. John McCain's confusion in recent allegations of Iranian training of al Qaeda fighters in Iraq is the result of a drumbeat of official propaganda about close Iran-al Qaeda ties that the George W. Bush administration and neoconservatives have promoted ever since early 2002. Funny how the left-wing press is eager to point out a McCain Gaffe when...

Law enforcement officials and security experts are warning against the threat of homegrown terrorism as several cases involving alleged American jihadists enter the courts. "The public is getting complacent," New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tells FOX News. Full article

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/dcpi/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat" prepared by Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt Senior Intelligence Analysts NYPD Intelligence Division

Watch for the howls of protest to come, in which the possibility of Al-Qaeda's actually obtaining such viruses will be lost amid cries of "racism" and infringement of privacy, etc. "M15 in terrorist checks on 800 killer virus labs," by Jason Lewis in the Daily Mail (thanks to Sr. Soph):

CIA director Michael Hayden said today al-Qaeda was training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. General Hayden said the terror network over the past 18 months has established a safe haven in tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan where they are preparing militants for attacks against the West. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training - operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport near Washington DC) with you," Gen Hayden told NBC television. The new...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

Video here: http://www.jibjab.com/view/45801

Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri is calling on Muslims to strike Israeli and American interests to avenge Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a new audiotape. In the 4-minute tape, posted on a Web site Monday, al-Zawahri accuses Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of helping Israel in its offensive by sealing off the border between Egypt and Gaza. He calls on Muslims to "strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," and says attacks should not be limited to areas in Israel or the Palestinian territories....

The Democrats say he did. So does the Washington Post which, we all know, is basically the same thing: Sen. John McCain, in the midst of a trip to the Middle East that he hoped would help burnish his foreign policy expertise, incorrectly asserted Tuesday that Iran is training and supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq, confusing the Sunni insurgent group with the Shiite extremists who U.S. officials believe are supported by their religious brethren in the neighboring country. The mistake, which he quickly corrected after a brief whisper from a colleague, was an unwelcome stumble as McCain (Ariz.), the all-but-certain Republican...

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) - An Al-Qaida terror cell was behind a mortar strike against the U.S. embassy in Yemen that missed its target but killed a security guard and wounded 13 students at a nearby school, an Interior Ministry official said Saturday. The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said al- Qaida militant Hamza al-Dayan launched three mortars at the embassy Tuesday before fleeing the scene in a vehicle with three accomplices. The mortar shells crashed into the school in the downtown Sawan district of San'a, killing the security guard and wounding 13 schoolgirls, three grievously. On Thursday, the...

In an audiotape posted on Internet, Osama Bin Laden threatened Europe with punishment because of its "negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures" to stop the publishing of the Danish cartoons.  It also menaced the Vatican with retribution for an alleged role in incitement "against religion."  This al Qaeda warning would have been normal in Salafi Jihad logic. This radical movement obviously considers the drawings as an ultimate insult to Muslims and would unleash extreme violence in retaliation. Actually one would have expected al Qaeda to strike back "for the cartoons offense" a long time ago. In...

In recent weeks, two news reports have circulated about Iran’s relationship with al-Qaeda. On Tuesday, March 18, Sen. John McCain repeatedly stated that Iran was aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq. Later, however, he retracted this statement. Senator McCain was right the first time. In fact, al-Qaeda and Iran have a rather long history of cooperation. A few days before Senator McCain’s unfortunate retraction, a senior military adviser to the Barack Obama campaign, retired Air Force general Merrill McPeak, was quoted in the March 15 edition of the Washington Times as saying, “Iran is a big enemy of al-Qaeda.” General McPeak’s statement...

An Iraqi Insurgent Tell-All: Al-Qaida Is To Blame For "Killing Sunnis" And "Demolishing Their Homes, Mosques, and Their Hospitals" By Evan Kohlmann The NEFA Foundation has obtained a copy of a recent interview with a senior military commander of the Hamas al-Iraq insurgent group in the restive Diyala province of Iraq. During the interview, the unnamed Hamas commander sharply condemned the "criminal actions launched by the Al-Qaida network targeting innocent civilians and... other jihad movements... The occupying forces were unable to enter many districts and villages of Diyala until Al-Qaida paved the way for them when they began killing the...

U.S.-Based Plotters On January 8, 2007, Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Queens, New York resident, received a thirty-year jail term after being convicted of conspiring to plant explosive devices at a New York City subway station. On March 2, 2007, James Elshafay, a Staten Island, New York resident, received a five-year prison sentence for his involvement in the plot; he had pled guilty in October 2004. The Target: The Herald Square Subway Station Siraj and Elshafay planned to target Manhattan’s Herald Square (34th Street) subway station, which United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Roslynn R. Mauskopf labeled...

Audio and video messages from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11, 2001: _ March 19, 2008: Slams European countries for the publication of cartoons insulting to the Prophet Muhammad and promises a strong reaction, saying "the response will be what you see and not what you hear." _ Dec. 29, 2007: Warns Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vows to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel. _ Nov. 29, 2007: Urges Europeans to stop helping U.S. in Afghanistan conflict, saying on audiotape that war was unfair because he was the "only one responsible" for the...

Saddam's Dangerous Friends What a Pentagon review of 600,000 Iraqi documents tells us. By Stephen F. Hayes This ought to be big news. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Saddam Hussein actively supported an influential terrorist group headed by the man who is now al Qaeda's second-in-command, according to an exhaustive study issued last week by the Pentagon. "Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives." According to the Pentagon study, Egyptian Islamic...

AMMAN, Jordan - Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, mistakenly said Tuesday that Iran was allowing al-Qaida fighters into the country to be trained and returned to Iraq. McCain, expressing concern about Iran's rising sway in the Mideast, said, "Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." He made the comments Tuesday at a news conference in Jordan; he made similar comments earlier to radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt. Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters...

The amazing series of events that led to an Al Qaeda terrorist manual becoming freely available on the internet can be revealed today. Only last week a terror suspect was jailed in Britain for having a copy of it and told that its possession was a serious criminal offence. But the deadly document, described as a Declaration of Jihad, is a public record in the US after being translated from Arabic and typed up for MI5, passed to the American authorities and then declassified by the Department of Justice. The manual includes advice on planning kidnappings, bombings, assassinations and torture....

The Foreign Office on Saturday dismissed as "inconceivable" calls by an ex-aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair to open a channel of communication with al Qaeda. Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief of staff between 1995 and 2007, said he would "want to find a channel to al Qaeda" if he was still in government, the Guardian newspaper reported. Only by talking to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan could Western governments hope to secure a long-term halt in their campaigns of violence, he was reported as saying. But the Foreign Office said: "It is inconceivable that...

A retired Kuwaiti superstar singer has recently the left the Gulf emirate for Afghanistan to join ranks with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in fighting foreign troops there, according to a press report published Saturday. Hussein al-Ahmad, who was until recently one of the Gulf’s most famous pop stars, decided to join “his Mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan to support Islam and fight alongside his fellow Muslims in al-Qaeda”, reported Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Saturday. Al-Ahmad has previously told Kuwait’s Al-Rai TV that the reason he decided to quit singing was “a dream” where he saw his “own journey from this world into...

The Jordanians had held Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi without trial for several years without trial, but could apparently find no charges to bring against him.  Earlier today, the man described as more influential in al-Qaeda than either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri went free from the prison where he mentored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded al-Qaeda in Iraq: Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said.They said Maqdisi, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor of slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,...

An Austrian court on Wednesday sentenced a married couple to 22 months and four years in jail for posting a video on the Internet calling for attacks in Austria and Germany. Mona S, a 21-year-old Austrian, and her 22-year-old Egyptian-born husband Mohamed M, were found guilty of "belonging to a terrorist organisation" with links to Al-Qaeda, trying to blackmail the Austrian government and inciting a crime. The main defendant, Mohamed M., was given a four-year term while his wife was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Mona S. had translated the video, which was signed "Global Islamic Media Front", into...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said. They said Maqdisi, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor of slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been in solitary confinement since he was rearrested in July 2005 following his acquittal at a trial of al Qaeda sympathizers. "He was released," said one security source without elaborating on the circumstances of the release of Maqdisi. The militant Jihadi shared a cell block with Zarqawi for four years between 1995 and...

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East , U.S. officials told McClatchy . However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime. The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives...

(IsraelNN.com) Members of the North African branch of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda announced Monday that they are holding two Austrian tourists hostage "in retribution" for what they claim is Western support for Israeli counter-terrorism operations. Al-Qaeda threatened more such kidnappings. AQIM will issue their demands for release of the two Austrians soon, Abu Muhammad said. In an audio tape aired by the Gulf-based Al-Jazeera satellite network, a man who claimed to represent Al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa (AQIM), Salah Abu Mohammad, identified the two Austrians and said they were in good condition. The alleged hostages, a man and a...

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for kidnapping two Austrian tourists last month in Tunisia in an audio recording aired Monday on Al-Jazeera television. A man who identified himself as Salah Abu Mohammed said in the recording that the terrorist group kidnapped the two Austrians on Feb. 22 in retribution for Western cooperation with Israel, but said the hostages were in good health. "We tell Western tourists that at the same time they are flowing into Tunisian lands seeking joy, our brothers are being slain in Gaza by the Jews with the collaboration of the Western...

TROY — The Sanctuary for Independent Media will host a controversial exhibit in which an artist portrays himself as a suicide bomber on a mission to kill the president starting at 6 p.m. Monday. The exhibit, created by Wafaa Bilal, is described as a “Virtual Jihadi” and was recently suspended by officials at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute because of concerns about its intent and al-Qaida content. “Like many others, I did not have a chance to see Wafaa’s exhibit in its original form and hope the community will take advantage of this chance to appreciate it,” said Steve Pierce, an adjunct...

Four police officers in Britain's top force are reportedly under close secret service surveillance after being identified as Al Qaeda spies, it emerged today. MI5 are said to have homed in on the sleeper agents passing secrets from Scotland Yard to the terror group only in recent weeks. The suspected spies are believed to have used methods similar to those employed by the IRA in the 1970s as they infiltrated the police and the Army in Northern Ireland. All four are understood to be Asians living in London and are feared to have links both with Islamic extremists in Britain...

Commander warns of al-Qaida threat to US By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic defense said. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, also told reporters Thursday he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S. presidential elections. But he said it would be rash to think that such threats are not there. "We need only to look at Spain and see that...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...