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WASHINGTON - The trafficking of human beings constitutes a ''growth industry'' in the United States, with more than 15,000 people forced into bondage each year as sex slaves or captive laborers, according to testimony before a Senate panel on Wednesday. Although federal laws enacted over the past three years have enabled prosecutors to crack major trafficking rings, two U.S. attorneys and leaders of victim advocacy groups warned that ''modern-day slavery'' is spread across the nation and appears to be growing. ''It seems like we're just touching the tip of the iceberg,'' said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who presided at Wednesday's...

The body of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Abu Dhabi who went missing last week, has been found, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed Sunday morning. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates announced this morning (Sunday) that a body had been found in the country and that the identity of the deceased was in the process of being verified. The Prime Minister's Office and Foreign Ministry stated, "The UAE intelligence and security authorities have located the body of Zvi Kogan, who has been missing since Thursday, 21 November 2024. The Israeli mission in Abu Dhabi has been in contact...

Federal authorities are investigating a cohort of Uzbek nationals, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and claimed asylum in the United States, after new intelligence found they relied on assistance from a human trafficker linked to a "foreign terrorist organization," Fox News confirmed Tuesday.

VIDEOUZBEKS! If you had ever watched SCTV, probably the funniest comedy show ever, then you would know that there was something funny about Uzbeks which was like a running joke. Well, it turns out SCTV was right. Here are Uzbek law enforcement officials at a ceremony in Uzbekistan completely unsure on how to properly salute. UZBEKS!

The president of Uzbekistan on Wednesday offered his country's assistance in investigating the deadly terror attack in the lower Manhattan area of New York City. The suspect in the attack was identified as an Uzbek national, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, but the country has been linked to at least three other terrorist incidents over the last year. In April, Uzbek national Rakhmat Akilov drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people. Earlier that same month, Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Russian citizen who was born in Kyrgyzstan...

An international team of researchers... In a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution... found that the indigenous populations of inner Eurasia are very diverse in their genes, culture and languages, but divide into three groups that stretch across the area in east-west geographic bands... This vast area can also be divided into several distinct ecological regions that stretch in largely east-west bands across Inner Eurasia, consisting of the deserts at the southern edge of the region, the steppe in the central part, taiga forests further north, and tundra towards the Arctic region. The subsistence strategies used by indigenous groups...

Uzbeks! If you are a fan of perhaps the best comedy show on television, SCTV, you probably already have a smile on your face. Uzbeks were part of the hilarious SCTV universe from Canada that would be considered taboo today in our overly PC culture because they were parodied as being a drunken, shiftless people. Back when SCTV was broadcast during the years 1976 to 1984 the references to Uzbeks caused not a whiff of protest which says something about how times have changed.David Menzies of Rebel Media in Canada explains why SCTV was so popular and, sadly, why many of...

AL-QAEDA’S leadership secretly directed the Islamic militants whose armed revolt at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended last week with more than 100 deaths after it was stormed by the Pakistan army. According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah. Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters � including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans � had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Warden Message: Afghanistan Travel Concerns: Kabul to Logar Province CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS South / Central Asia - Afghanistan 29 Sep 2009 U.S. Embassy Kabul issued the following Warden Message September 29, 2009: The U.S. Embassy has received information that, as of late September 2009, Taliban members in Logar Province, Afghanistan, were planning on an unspecified date to ambush and capture unidentified Americans who routinely travel between Kabul City and Logar Province. The Taliban reportedly intend to follow the Americans’ vehicle from Kabul and stop the car en route. The U.S. Embassy urges Americans...

"Seven smuggled forged 'eye scan pass' seals into UAE Seven Uzbeks, including a woman, brought 60 seals through Abu Dhabi and Sharjah airports" SNIPPET: "Seven Uzbeks, including a woman, allegedly smuggled 60 forged eye scan seals into the UAE through Abu Dhabi and Sharjah airports and used them, the Dubai Criminal Court heard."

 SNIPPET: "We also confiscated in his car some forged stamps. He confessed to getting the stamps from MJA who in turn had got them from MYY,” he testified. 

Searching his two flats in Al Nahda area, police confiscated ten other eye scan pass seals in addition to...

Turkey is emerging as the new player in the unfolding Afghanistan peace process. As Afghanistan and Pakistan work on a peace roadmap, with the active assistance and blessings of London and Washington, Turkey has stepped in, even offering to host senior Taliban leaders released by Pakistan for reconciliation talks with the Afghan government. Although India is not part of the deal, India will be deeply affected by the outcome of whatever political process is implemented in Afghanistan. And with a strong presence on the ground in Afghanistan, India will be keen to ensure its own red lines about the accommodation...

The violence unleashed in Kyrgyzstan is being spun as ethnic rioting. The reality is a good deal more complex, and the blame can be laid directly at Russia's door. Russia's coup against the Bakiyev government which took power in the Tulip Revolution leveraged Uzbek separatists in the Osh Province to suppress Kyrgiz nationalist supporters of Bakiyev. Russia had been trying for a while to force out Manas Air Base, a US air force base that serves as a vital link to US forces in Afghanistan. Russia tolerated Bakiyev, so long as he was against the US base. But once Bakiyev...

MIRAMSHAH: A US drone attack targeting a militant compound killed 10 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal region on Wednesday, security officials said. Moreover, a BBC Urdu report quoted local authorities as saying that those killed in the strike were militants from the Haqqani network. Two missiles hit the compound located in Tappi, 10 kilometres southeast of Miramshah, the main town in volatile North Waziristan near the Afghan border, a military official in Peshawar said. “The attack triggered fire in the compound and 10 militants were killed,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 4, 2011 – A combined Afghan and coalition security force detained a Haqqani network leader yesterday during a security operation in the Sperah district of Afghanistan’s Khost province, military officials reported. The detained leader was responsible for directing more than 250 fighters, including Uzbek foreign fighters, in attacks against Afghan government officials and soldiers. He also planned and coordinated several attacks on the Sperah District Center. In other Afghanistan operations yesterday: -- In the Baghlan-e Jadid district of Baghlan province, an Afghan and coalition force detained a Taliban facilitator and an associate. The detained facilitator is linked...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Europe October 3, 2010 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation...

A pilotless U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border, killing at least 12 militants on Saturday, intelligence officials said. The United States has intensified missile strikes by drone aircraft in Pakistan's lawless Pashtun tribal lands in an effort to curb violence in Afghanistan, much of which U.S. officials say comes from militant sanctuaries on the Pakistani side. Most of the missile attacks this year were carried out on militant targets in North Waziristan region. In the latest strike, the missiles hit a house used by militants as a...

Richard Holbrooke in a visit to Central Asia is warning that AQ is seeking to take on Central Asia. The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that, the West is worried about risks to stability in the vast Muslim region, dominated by authoritarian but secular governments. Analysts believe terrorism could spread into the heart of Central Asia from nearby Afghanistan. The region’s main militant group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), wants to topple the secular government and establish strict Islamic rule.

A number of experts think the U.S. should abandon its “top down” strategy of building an Afghan national army and should switch to arming and paying local tribes to fight the Taliban. Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, appearing Thursday at a Capitol Hill conference sponsored by RAND, said he closely examined former Soviet counterinsurgencies in Poland and the Ukraine. In both cases, the Soviets successfully levered small, locally recruited militia forces to successfully battle numerically superior anti-regime insurgents. He warned of the perils of trying to police xenophobic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Pahstuns with an Afghan national army. A better...

Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the US jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark. Headley traveled to North Waziristan and afterward offered his view on the number of al Qaeda and other foreign jihadis in the tribal agencies' largest towns (in response to a think tank survey that said a significant number of people in the northwest approved of the Predator attacks against al Qaeda):

Pakistani forces say they have seized control of the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, one of the Taliban's key regional strongholds. The army said it had full control of the town, the latest capture in an offensive against militants that began in South Waziristan on 17 October. The offensive has sparked a string of suicide bomb attacks. About 35 people were killed in an attack in Rawalpindi and seven were injured on the outskirts of Lahore. Rewards offered Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, in the capital Islamabad, said that the Kaniguram area had been "completely cleared of terrorists"....