Posted on 09/30/2006 10:18:39 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/board/main-square/33877-nigerians-suicide-bombers-thant-cannot.html
RED ALERT!
SUICIDE BOMBERS
By CHRIS AGUNWEZE (agunweze@yahoo.com)
Saturday, December 16, 2006
•Olomu
Photo: Sun News Publishing
Mores Stories on This Section
The nation may soon witness a deadlier dimension in the Niger Delta struggle as the militants have threatened to introduce suicide bombers as a new way of enforcing their demands. The militants also plan to intensify kidnaps, expanding their dragnet to enable them kidnap governors, council Chairman and other public office holders perceived to be corrupt. It is their own way of ensuring a more effective control of corruption in the region.
Audacious
This threat is coming from none other than the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group which sprang into prominence last year when Alhaji Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) was arrested by the government.
MEND, said to be the deadliest and the most organized militant group, has carried out most of the deviating attacks on strategic oil instillations in various locations of the oil rich Delta region. Many of such attacks claimed human casualties. It was also at the forefront of the practice of taking foreign oil workers in the region hostage, but it is better known for its disposition to crush anything that stands on its way during operations, including the military. In all the attacks, defiant MEND claimed responsibilities through e-mail messages dispatches to media houses.
One would naturally expect that leader of such a group would be holed up somewhere in the thick mangrove forests of the creeks, hiding from the law. But that is not the situation with Teks Olomu. The commander of the dreaded MEND freely cruises around Port Harcourt city in a Mercedes Benz car. He even stops at check-points to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with military men. While his bosom comrade in the struggle Asari Dokubo sounds like he would blow off the roof when he talks, Olomu is soft spoken and very casual in appearance. But when he speaks he pours out venom - so casually.
Those who are familiar with the antecedence of the Niger Delta militants especially MEND will attest that they hardly issue empty threats, which is why Olomu must be taken seriously when he says his group have already recruited young men and women willing to sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers in the struggle for the development of Niger Delta and fair treatment of Niger Deltans.
Even more scary is his claim that the next line of action is to step up the profile of those taken hostage by MEND. According to him, MEND wants to look beyond oil workers to politicians and top government officials, whose selfish interests, he says, continue to frustrate genuine efforts at bettering the lot of the neglected people of the Niger Delta
continued, I am not sure if the poster interviewed a suicide bomber or is saying that he is one.............
Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/16/wirq116.xml
Saturday 16 December 2006
Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq
By Toby Harnden in Washington
President George W Bush is poised to increase troop numbers in Iraq as
part
of a dramatic new strategy designed to regain control of Baghdad and
suffocate the Sunni insurgency.
Sending more soldiers and marines to Iraq would infuriate Democrats and
be
a slap in the face to James Baker, the former US secretary of state who
co-authored the independent Iraq Study Group report, which recommended
a
draw down of all combat forces by early 2008.
But an advisor involved in White House discussions said of Mr Bush:
"This
is the direction he's moving in. He understands we have to win and to
do
that requires more troops."
Mr Bush is debating with his aides and outside advisors how many extra
troops there should be and for what period. His options range from a
temporary "surge" of 20,000 troops to a "big push" involving more than
50,000.
A version of the "big push" plan – also known as the "double-down
gamble"
option – is supported by Senator John McCain, who is fast becoming
the
Republican establishment's choice for the 2008 presidential nomination.
Visiting Baghdad this week, Mr McCain described the situation as "very,
very serious" and said he would favour an increase of 15,000 to 30,000
troops.
Details of the type of plan that Mr Bush, who is due to announce a new
Iraq
policy next month, now appears to be favouring were released this week
by
the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank with close ties to the
White House. A paper entitled "Choosing Victory" was the result of a
study
by 21 scholars and retired officers.
Mr Baker and his team avoided the term "victory". But after meeting
Pentagon generals this week, Mr Bush said pointedly: "I've heard some
ideas
that would lead to defeat. I reject those ideas." He has ruled out
claims
he is searching for a "graceful exit".
The most senior retired officer in the AEI study was General Jack
Keane, a
former US Army vice-chief of staff and influential member of the
Pentagon's
Defence Policy Board. He was among a group of five retired officers and
academics who met Mr Bush at the White House on Wednesday.
Another of the five was Stephen Biddle, a member of the Council on
Foreign
Relations. He is an advocate of the "big push" option and told The
Daily
Telegraph: "My gut tells me big – 30,000 to 50,000 or more troops.
"If you are not prepared have a major, sustained increase [in troops]
then
the appropriate response is to get out as soon as it is militarily and
logistically feasible.
"To squander lives in a long draw down simply to put a fig leaf over
defeat
is unsustainable."
The AEI report, co-authored with Frederick Kagan, formerly on the staff
of
the West Point military academy, proposed increasing troop strength by
seven combat brigades or about 25,000 troops.
This would be achieved by extending by several months the tours of
troops
already in Iraq and sending in other troops earlier than they were due
to
deploy.
Five new brigades would be stationed in Baghdad to carry out "clear and
hold" operations from small outposts in mixed Sunni-Shia areas.
The US mission would switch from building up Iraqi forces and fighting
the
enemy to providing security for the Iraqi people. The aim would be to
stifle the Sunni insurgency while postponing tackling Shia militias and
death squads.
At the same time, there would be a major economic reconstruction plan
with
the goal of increasing the confidence of Iraqis in their government's
ability to improve their lives.
Two marine regimental combat teams, equivalent to US army brigades,
would
be sent to Anbar province to prevent insurgents melting away from
Baghdad
and re-basing there.
"The policy we have now has not succeeded," said Gen Keane. "It has
failed.
And if we want success you have to put the resources in the hands of
the
commanders and let them handle it.
"In every successful counter-insurgency, the basis for success has
always
been protecting the people."
Mr Biddle said a large troop increase would entail "great sacrifice"
for
Americans and tough choices for Mr Bush, who might have to abandon
elements
of his domestic agenda, but the president appeared to be leaning
towards this.
"His public statements have all been consistent with a double-down, big
push, try-real-hard option to make one last try to get this right."
Interview With Syrian Foreign Minister
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2006/11/interview_with_syrian_foreign_1.html
Here's the transcript the interview with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem conducted on December 14, 2006 in Damascus, Syria.
Q: Ignatius: Perhaps you could begin by giving an overall view of the Baker-Hamilton Report
A: Moallem: During my work in Washington (as Syrian ambassador in the early 1990s) I knew Baker and I knew Hamilton. I know their objectivity. I know that both of them and others on the (Iraq Study Group) committee who I used to know have vision.
The first question Baker asked me when we met in New York (in September 2006) was: Walid, how can we return to the Syrian-American situation of the early 1990s, when we succeeded to build mutual trust? I told him: This is our wish also in Syria.
continues.
http://www.metimes.com/print.php?StoryID=20061215-084506-3508r
Web site with naked truth on N.Korea shut down
By AFP
Middle East Times
Published December 15, 2006
A Web site recently launched in South Korea, featuring semi-nude photos of a North Korean actress and defector along with human rights messages, was apparently shut down Friday.
The site, www.kiswoman.com, featured testimony about the dire state of human rights and food shortages in the communist state, together with photos of a shapely Joo Soon-Young.
Kim Dae-Ho, another North Korean defector who lives in Seoul, said that he launched it to raise donations for compatriots who fled to China.
It could be accessed earlier Friday but was inoperative later in the day after local media reported its existence.
"The Web site was closed, apparently under pressure from other North Korean defectors," Professor Kim Young-Soo of Sogang University, an expert on refugee affairs, said.
Kim Dae-Ho said in an Internet message that while there are several Web sites publicizing the plight of North Korean refugees, very few people clicked on them.
"So I've decided to use nude pictures to help draw public attention," he wrote. "Animal rights activists do not hesitate to go naked in protest to help rescue endangered animals. It is rather a sacred act to stage a nude protest for our dying brothers and sisters."
The site charged $25 or 2,500 yen for access to most of Joo's photos, with thin fabric covering strategic areas. All-nude photos are banned under a law against obscenity.
Kim Dae-Ho said that 70 percent of the proceeds would go to help North Korean refugees. The actress would get 6 percent and he would take the remaining 24 percent.
He was unavailable for comment about the apparent shutdown of his site.
Other activists were unenthusiastic about the kiswoman concept.
"This is a very bizarre idea. It won't help at all in promoting the campaign for improving North Korean human rights," an official of the Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees said.
Joo, 41, allegedly once worked with a "pleasure troupe" that entertained North Korean leaders. She claims to have starred as the mother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il in movies and dramas.
Joo was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying that Kim had put her pictures on the Internet without her consent, although she agreed to have them taken in return for Kim repaying debts she had incurred in the South.
She defected in 2003.
Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061215-084012-9811r
Nintendo recalls 3.2mn Wii wrist straps
By Kyoko Hasegawa
AFP
Published December 15, 2006
Nintendo recalled 3.2 million wrist straps for its new Wii console Friday after reports of enthusiastic users inadvertently sending the motion-sensing controller crashing into their TV screens.
Nintendo Co. Ltd. spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said that the first version of the controller strap "turned out to be insufficient in its strength for some customers," so it would be replaced with a thicker one.
"The decision comes after reports that some users in the United States threw their controllers when playing with Wii sports software," he said.
By waving or swinging the controller, it can serve as a sword, tennis racket, or car steering wheel in the games showing on screen.
But Web sites dubbed "Wii have a problem" and "Wii damage" have chronicled injuries and wreckage reportedly inflicted by Nintendo game controllers sent awry in the heat of play by wild swipes, loose grips, or snapped wrist straps.
Wii controllers have been hurled or thrust into television and computer screens, according to online accounts. Among the reported casualties have been windows, glasses, dishes, stereos, walls, and ceiling fans.
The official Wii Web site warns users to "hold the Wii Remote firmly and do not let go" when playing, while taking a moment to dry perspiring hands to prevent injury to people or damage to objects.
Nintendo, which launched the Wii in the United States last month and in Japan Saturday, has been getting rave reviews for its new controller and games that shy away from blood-and-guts action.
But Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted last week that "even beyond our expectations people are becoming more and more excited playing with the Wii" following the reports of snapping wrist straps.
The Wii outsold the rival PlayStation 3 by more than double in the US in November, according to industry tracking group NPD, which estimates that Nintendo sold 476,140 of its Wii consoles against Sony's 196,580 PS3s.
Nintendo said that although it has not sold as many as 3.2 million Wii consoles some owners may have more than one controller to allow more than one player to compete at the same time.
Consoles shipped from early December already have the thicker strap.
Wii set itself apart from Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles by designing a system that got players moving and encouraged family or friends to join in the activity.
Within weeks of Wii's debut in November, The American Chiropractic Association made the unusual move of publicly advising console enthusiasts to "stretch first, then play."
Nintendo also said Friday that it would recall 200,000 AC/DC power adaptors for Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite portable game machines.
Nintendo said that some adaptors supplied by Nagano Japan Radio Co. Ltd. (JRC) between January and October this year could generate excessive heat and possibly cause burn injury during charging.
Nintendo said to date, it has recorded nine such incidents of overheating. One such incident burned a hole in the body of the portable game machine but no injuries have been reported.
The Kyoto-based company said that models with defective AC/DC adaptors were sold only in Japan.
Cumulative sales of Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite have so far reached 13 million units.
Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061214-064036-6191r
US losing info war to media-savvy jihadists
By Sherwood Ross
Middle East Times
Published December 15, 2006
The US Army and Marine Corps December 15 will release a new counterinsurgency field manual that notes how insurgents use media "to magnify the effects of their actions" and which suggests ways to defeat those efforts. The manual may be too little and too late as experts say the US is being beaten on the propaganda front.
The manual is already in use in Afghanistan where US units are employing the new tactics against Taliban forces that have started to mount large operations in the Pashto-speaking south, according to a reliable article in an American magazine.
Australian-born Lt.-Col. David Kilcullen, currently working at a high-level counterterrorism post in the US State Department, is quoted as describing the Taliban as essentially an "armed propaganda organization."
"They switch between guerrilla activity and terrorist activity as they need to, in order to maintain the political momentum, and it's all about an information operation that generates the perception of an unstoppable, growing insurgency," Kilcullen told reporter George Packer of The New Yorker December 18.
Kilkullen said when insurgents ambush a US convoy in Iraq it's because "they want spectacular media footage of a burning Humvee." He adds, "It's now fundamentally an information fight. The enemy gets that, and we don't yet get that, and I think that's why we're losing." He said, "If Bin Laden didn't have access to global media, satellite communications, and the Internet, he'd just be a cranky guy in a cave."
One of the questions raised by Packer's article, "Knowing The Enemy," is whether the US can shift its heavy reliance on military operations to community support efforts and develop the capability to inform civilian populations about them. That time may have already come and gone.
The new field manual asserts, "...by focusing on efforts to secure the safety and support of the local populace, and through a concerted effort to truly function as learning organizations, the US Army and Marine Corps can defeat their insurgent enemies."
The struggle in the Middle East increasingly appears to be an information battle to win public opinion. An Afghan villager, for example, has access to the Internet, e-mail, satellite phone, and text messaging and these tools are thought to be more easily exploited by insurgents than by the Afghan government.
"In the information war, America and its allies are barely competing," Packer writes, because they are not the primary strategy but used to publicize military victories and no one in the battlefield areas hears the message. At times, the US has relied on radio to get across a message that would spread quicker by floating rumors in Iraqi coffee shops.
The emphasis on military response does little to win friends in Islam, Packer writes. He quotes Frederick Barton, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank: "Hard power is not the way we're going to make an impression."
In Pakistan, Barton says, the US since 2002 has spent $6 billion shoring up the Pakistani military and billions more on intelligence-gathering yet it has spent less than $1 billion dollars on aid for education and economic development in a country where Islamist madrassas and joblessness contribute to the radicalization of young people."
James Kuner, acting deputy of the US Agency for International Development and a former US Marine told The New Yorker that in Iraq and Afghanistan "the civilian agencies have received 1.4 percent of the total money," whereas classical counterinsurgency doctrine says that 80 percent of the effort should be nonmilitary."
Packer asserts, "There is little organized American effort to rebut the jihadist conspiracy theories that circulate daily among the Muslims living in populous countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria."
Bruce Hoffman, of Georgetown University, believes the US must help foreign governments flood the Internet with persuasively youthful Web sites presenting anti-jihadist messages yet without leaving American fingerprints. He said jihadists have posted 5,000 Web sites that react swiftly and imaginatively to events. Adds Kilcullen, "We've got to co-opt or assist people who have a counter-message. And we might need to consider creating or supporting the creation of rival organizations."
"You've got to be quiet about it," Kilcullen said. "You don't go in there like a missionary." The idea is to offer an alternative to individuals to walk a road other than jihad.
The Pentagon currently is recruiting social scientists to serve in a new project called "Cultural Operations Research Human Terrain". The plan calls for sending five-person "human terrain" teams into Iraq and Afghanistan with combat brigades to serve as cultural advisers. The first teams are planning to leave next spring.
Such teams might prevent repeat of US strategic miscalculations made to date. One was described by Montgomery McFate writing in "Joint Force Quarterly": "Once the Sunni Bathists lost their prestigious jobs, were humiliated in the conflict, and got frozen out through Bathification, the tribal network became the backbone of the insurgency. The tribal insurgency is a direct result of our misunderstanding the Iraqi culture."
Sherwood Ross is an American reporter who covers military and political affairs. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,72291-0.html
Spammer Slammer Targets Politics
By Ryan
02:00 AM Dec, 14, 2006
The brains behind a doomed antispam service are turning their technology into an online swarming tool for activists, hoping to subject politicians and government agencies to the kind of mass pressure Blue Frog once inflicted on spammers.
With its Blue Frog software, Israel-based Blue Security made it easy for spam victims to automatically send opt-out requests to advertised websites, either in e-mail or through online order forms on the sites being promoted. In practice, that meant that some sites were deluged with thousands of such messages simultaneously, prompting critics to charge that the service was little more than a vigilante denial-of-service tool.
Controversial or not, the company claimed to have forced some of the world's top spammers to remove Blue Frog users' e-mail addresses from their e-mail lists, before a retaliatory cyberattack by a Russian spammer forced the service to close its doors last May.
Now founders Aran Reshef and Amir Hirsh are reincarnating their software to turn armies of internet users into political activists. Their new Collactive platform takes the drudgery out of grass-roots action, letting armchair activists fill out online petitions, file comments in rule-making proceedings, send letters to their representatives in Congress and seed collaborative web forums with sympathetic news items -- all with the push of a button.
The Collactive software is offered as a generic distribution to organizations, who then configure it for a particular political issue and give it to users as a downloadable software package or Firefox plug-in.
Once it's installed, the organizers can send alerts to users or update the software with scripts that know how to take particular actions, such as automatically filling in feedback forms on a politician's website. End users can also forward e-mail alerts to their friends, who have the option of installing the software themselves and joining the network.
One of the first tests of the new platform will be by the Privacy Alert Network, headed by Bill Scannell, a publicist known (and not always loved) in privacy circles for his one-man campaigns against controversial antiterrorism initiatives, such as passenger profiling and RFID-enabled passports.
Scannell envisions using the new network to selectively mobilize citizens across the political spectrum who are wary of government programs.
"By picking a couple of issues that all Americans agree on, we can really rain holy privacy hellfire," Scannell said.
Scannell's first objective will be getting citizens to criticize the Automated Targeting System, or ATS, a program that has been secretly assigning terrorist risk scores to everyone traveling into and out of the United States for the past five years. ATS was revealed by the government in early November.
The Department of Homeland Security has extended the comment period on ATS to Dec. 29, and Scannell hopes to rally hundreds of people to comment on the program by using Collactive to send them directly to the rule-making docket, which is currently buried in the unwieldy Regulations.gov website, where it cannot be reached by a direct web link.
Scannell said Collactive can give citizens a simple way to submit their own thoughts, aided by his suggested talking points. He also plans to use it to publicize the work of privacy-interested groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to evangelical Christians.
Former Blue Security CEO Reshef says his new venture is about bringing Web 2.0 interactivity to the masses. He says the system is already supporting an anti-global-warming initiative called WorldCoolers.
"Basically, what we are trying to do is help anybody to participate in the Web 2.0 revolution, regardless of their technical skills," Reshef said.
To that end, Collactive's tool will also help users through processes like registering and voting on sites like YouTube, or submitting stories to news aggregators like Digg and Reddit. (Reddit is owned by CondéNet, the parent company of Wired News.)
Collactive isn't the first attempt to use technology to inspire citizen action. Many organizations maintain activist e-mail lists that let recipients click to send an automated fax, for example, and both the left and right have systems to bombard journalists and Congress with issue-oriented feedback.
Reshef says Collactive aims to be simpler to use than those earlier techniques. And this time he hopes to be spared from criminal reprisal.
Â
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/botnet_pr.html
Attack of the Bots
The latest threat to the Net: autonomous software programs that combine forces to perpetrate mayhem, fraud, and espionage on a global scale. How one company fought the new Internet mafia – and lost.
By Scott Berinato
Plus:
5 Easy Steps to Total Web Domination
Interesting how they did it article...................
http://themissal.blogspot.com/2006/12/conventional-approaches-to.html
Conventional approaches to unconventional problems: Analyzing terrorism
Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, Jan-March, 2002 by Del Erin Stewart
Considering the implications of the 11 September 2001 attack on the United States, many changes must occur in how the U.S. Army conducts its counterterrorist operations. New methodologies and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) must emerge if the Army is to address this new threat. Based on experience, the following methodology is one possible interim fix.
The theory is simple: if you know your enemy's capabilities, vulnerabilities, methods, and thought processes, you are more likely to successfully predict when, where, and how he will attack and be able to plan countermeasures. While we used the following methodology experimentally at an analytical cell at a numbered Army level, the tools and techniques discussed below may be useful for other echelons.
When predicting traditional or conventional military threats, the U.S. Army employs analytical methodologies such as intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) and related tools. The terrorist threat, however, is unique in that its nature and survival require it avoid direct engagements with main force units. Terrorists are exceedingly mobile, have mastered the art of blending into the surrounding population, and employ harsh measures to ensure security.
On the other hand, our national collection assets provide so much diverse information that making sense of it all is a daunting task. Reports on terrorist activity originate from all intelligence disciplines, to include open source. The information that surfaces is usually of limited scope, fragmented, and can address anything from financial issues to those focused on training or operations. Currently approved doctrinal symbols do not reflect terrorist operations types of data, nor is there generally a doctrinal method for graphically portraying such activities. The question is, then, how can an analyst take the disparate, seemingly unrelated data points, and move forward toward accurate predictive analysis? One thing is certain: the effort will involve all intelligence disciplines.
We rethought and revisited these methodologies because the commander was very unhappy with detailed, multicolored charted and graphed after-the-fact analysis; he wanted reasonably accurate predictions to help in his decision-making process for recommending countermeasures. First, it is useful to look at existing tools and methodologies for analysis, then additional areas of focus, and recommending countermeasures.
Existing Analytical Methodologies Applied Against Terrorist Operations
The following analytical tool descriptions and examples are from FM 34-60, Counterintelligence, Section VI, Counter-Human Intelligence Analysis, to Appendix A, Counter-Human Intelligence Techniques and Procedures. We modified the wording slightly for ease of use in this forum. This section discusses a chronological record and three analytical techniques.
Time-Event Charting. The time-event chart shown in Figure 1 is a chronological record of individual or group activities designed to store and display large amounts of information in as little space as possible. This tool is easy to prepare, understand, and use. Symbols used in time-event charting are very simple. Analysts use triangles to show the beginning and end of the chart and to show shifts in methods of operation or changes in ideology. Rectangles or diamonds indicate significant events or activities.
Analysts can highlight particularly noteworthy or important events by drawing an "X" through the event symbol (rectangle or diamond). Each of these symbols contains a chronological number (event number), date (day, month, and year of event), and may contain a file reference number. The incident description is a very brief explanation of the incident, and may include the team size, type of incident or activity, place and method of operation, and duration of incident. Arrows indicate time flow.
Analysts also use a variety of symbols, such as parallelograms, pentagons, and others, to depict different types of events and activities. Using these symbols and brief descriptions, an analyst can analyze the group's activities, transitions, trends, and operational patterns. Time-event charts are excellent briefing aids as well as flexible analytical tools.
Association Matrix. The association matrix delineates the existence of relationships between individuals. The part of the problem deserving the most analytical effort is the group itself. Analysts examine the group's elements (members) and their relationships with other members, other groups and associated entities, and related events. Analysts can show the connections between critical players in any event or activity in an association matrix (see Figure 2), which shows associations within a group or similar activity, and is based on the assumption that people involved in a collective activity know one another.
The construction of this type of matrix is in the form of a right triangle, and analysts list personalities in exactly the same order along both the rows and columns to ensure that all possible associations appear correctly. The purpose of the personality matrix is to show who knows whom. Analysts determine a known association by "direct contact" between individuals; a number of factors determine direct contact, including face-to-face meetings, confirmed telephonic conversation between known parties, and all the members of a particular organizational cell.
Analysts indicate a known association between individuals on the matrix by a dot or filled-in circle. They consider suspected or "weak" associations between persons of interest to be associations that are possible or even probable, but they cannot confirm it using the above criteria. When a person of interest dies, a diamond next to his or her name on the matrix relays that fact.
Activities Matrix. The activities matrix helps to determine connectivity between individuals and any organization, event, entity, address, activity, or anything other than persons. Unlike the association matrix, the construction of the activity matrix is in the form of a square or a rectangle (see Figure 3). The analyst can tailor rows or columns to fit the needs of the situation at hand or add them later as the situation develops. The analyst determines the number of rows and columns by the needs of the problem and by the amount of information available.
Analysts normally construct this matrix with personalities arranged in a vertical listing on the left side of the matrix and activities, organizations, events, addresses, or any other common denominators arranged along the bottom of the matrix. This matrix can store an incredible amount of information about a particular organization or group, and can expand on the information developed in the association matrix.
Link Diagram. The third analytical technique is link diagramming. Analysts use this technique to depict the more complex linkages between a large number of entities, and can include persons, organizations, or almost anything else. Analysts use link analysis in a variety of complex investigative efforts including criminal and terrorist investigations, analysis, and even medical research. Several regional law enforcement training centers are currently teaching this method as a technique in combating organized crime. The particular method discussed here is an adaptation especially useful in counterintelligence (CI) investigative analysis in general and terrorism analysis in particular.
In link analysis, a number of different symbols identify various items. Analysts can easily and clearly display obstacles, indirect routes or connections, and suspected connections. In many cases, the viewer can work with and understand the picture more easily than the matrix. Link analysis can present information in a manner that ensures clarity.
As with construction of association matrices, analysts should follow certain rules of graphics, symbology, and construction. Standardization is critical to ensure that everyone constructing, using, or reading a link diagram understands exactly what the diagram depicts. The standard rules follow:
* Show persons as open circles with the name written inside the circle.
* Show person known by more than one name (alias, also known as [AKA]) as overlapping circles with names in each circle.
* Show deceased persons with a diamond next to the circle that represents that person.
* Show nonpersonal entities (organizations, governments, events, locations) by squares or rectangles.
* Show linkages or associations by lines: solid for confirmed and dotted for suspected.
* Show each person or other entity only once in a link diagram.
Complementary Methodology Developed
The approach used to meet the commander's intent for predictive analysis was to use traditional IPB-style graphic overlays, but then modify this methodology to specifically monitor the actions of a terrorist group and its associated elements. The use of overlays on training, organizations, finances, and warnings can be effective.
Training. The first overlay (Training) may contain all the available information on training camps and locations, by country, which this organization and its associated elements reportedly use. This data will primarily come from imagery intelligence (IMINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), and signals intelligence (SIGINT). There is utility in knowing what topics specific camps train, and recognizing changes in what they are teaching or training. As an example, if a camp that traditionally worked on the use of RPGs (Soviet antitank grenade launchers) and small arms suddenly changes to one of hostage taking, analysts would note this radical change as a possible alteration in organizational objectives. Certainly it would be a key indicator.
Organizations. The second overlay (Organizations) may contain all of the available information on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and subordinate or related elements (e.g., branch offices of the same organization, but in a different country). That overlay depicts known and suspected relationships between NGOs (especially those that Were essentially front organizations) and the terrorist groups. As appropriate, analysts can include other organizations. Information allowing completion of this overlay will mainly come from reports issued by HUMINT, Cl, and SIGINT sources. Knowing what surrogates are available is essential to understanding the extent of the potential threat. For example, a legitimate mining operation may have second- or third-hand ties to a terrorist group, which could mean that industrial-grade explosives might be available for the group to use in future attacks.
Note: A crucial consideration in evaluating this data is to ensure compliance with intelligence oversight requirements, and not store or depict any data that violates AR 381-10, U.S. Army intelligence Activities, Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities, and related regulatory requirements.
Finances. The third overlay (Finances) depicts information available on finances, business transactions, assets, and related issues. Nearly everything costs money and, as the maxim states, "follow the money." The money trail leads through organizations to people and equipment, which in turn helps provide an understanding of the terrorist's objectives and capabilities. Of particular importance are reports pertaining to the transfer of funds for training, either directly or via NGO surrogates. Again, this will come mostly from HUMINT and SIGINT sources as well as foreign and domestic law enforcement agencies and other interagency reporting.
Personalities. The fourth overlay (Personalities) depicts the current location of essential personnel within the terrorist organizations. These reports will at least include SIGINT, HUMINT, and some measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) and IMINT (e.g., a photograph or a sensor confirmed that a vehicle was at a particular site at a specific time). When looking at the movement of individuals, analysts should ask "Why?" All movement is risky; someone can blow a person's cover and interdict vehicles, so why is he taking this risk? Such risktaking can be an indicator in itself, while answering the question of "why?" may lead to other issues and concerns.
Warnings. The fifth overlay (Warnings) shows where (by country) national agencies issued warnings and advisories, where previous attacks occurred (if the security posture allowed one attack to occur, will others follow?) and where authorities thwarted attacks because the adversaries clearly intended something. These interdictions could include confiscation of arms shipments. The warning reports originate from all intelligence disciplines and may include law enforcement and other interagency information.
Convergence. Analysts may create additional overlays as needed. Because there are no doctrinal symbols for most of these overlays, analysts will have to create their own symbols, and post a legend to define them. Flexibility is paramount to success. Similar to chess masters, analysts look for convergent lines to indicate the possibility of attack. Despite the adversary's ability to project into areas where they have not previously conducted an attack, normally there are indicators graphically depicted in two or more areas, (for example, to show movement of important personalities, supplies, and funds).
The current doctrinal analytical tools discussed above work well to explain how something happened. The critical point, however, is to go beyond the stage of describing history to the essential point of predicting when, where, and how the adversaries will strike next. Getting there requires personal skill, time, experience, and dedication. Additionally, it will require analysts possessing access to all levels of reporting and analysts from different disciplines who focus exclusively on this form of analysis.
Other Considerations
Open-Source Data. Regarding open-source reporting, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and Cable News Network (CNN) provide some of the most readily accessible and timely reporting in the world. Terrorists have been using propaganda, media manipulation, and other similar aspects of information operations for a long time, as the requirement to gain popular support is crucial to their success. Terrorist organizations need to "get the word out" to legitimize their operations, actions, and positions. The trained, experienced analyst can exploit this fact. For example, if a respected terrorist leader were to say something like, "In the course of jihad, many innocents may have to be sacrificed for the greater good of the will of Allah." That could portend an attack where mass casualties might occur, and it might also mean that the attack might occur in an area where Islam is a dominant religion.
An experienced analyst will consider numerous aspects including-
* Timing of the pronouncement (Is it a significant date, by either the solar or lunar calendars?)
* Location. (Is this a culturally or religiously significant site that issued the pronouncement?)
* Important personalities who were present (which may indicate support for the pronouncement, an end to differences between the groups, etc.).
* Other factors.
There may be other similar cues in other public pronouncements, some of them web-based instead of traditional newspaper and radio media. Just tracking the public pronouncements and postings, looking at them in detail, cross-referencing the announcements with other data, and so forth, is a full-time job-which means dedicating analysts to monitor these sites. There is a difference between the "normal" rhetoric and something that, in symbolic context, is genuinely a potential indicator. Again, deciphering these cues requires analysts who have the requisite experience and training, so that the terrorism analysis section does not begin to suffer from the "chicken little" syndrome in the eyes of the senior intelligence officer and the commander.
Visual Cues. Graphic aids are nothing more than visual cues to check the report details, develop requests for further information, and study the matter in greater detail. No system or software can begin to deal with these complex issues. The group synergy and crosstalk derived from experts in different disciplines looking at the same data is what makes or breaks this effort. Additionally, having "broken the code" on what the adversary might be planning is, in itself, insufficient; the analyst must pass data to the affected elements. Normally, at the commander and senior intelligence officer levels, this transmission will be via secure videoteleconference or similar methods. Behind the scenes, analysts often highlight a specific set of messages for one another in daily secure E-mail crosstalk. Because the amount of reporting is so great, each echelon has its own set of filters for sorting through the messages. When dealing with more than one thousand messages a day, it is easy for someone to leave out or overl ook something inadvertently. Cooperation is fundamental to success.
Because the level of detail required involves individuals, and may include single individuals to squad-sized elements (as employed in the 11 September 2001 attacks), there is absolutely no utility in developing traditional decision-support templates or similar tools. However, depending on circumstances, location, echelon, and other considerations, there may be utility in devising specific activity-based templates for depicting possible courses of action, etc. Being in the loop for the daily data feed exceeding one thousand messages a day is an all-consuming business. In my experience, the graphics aid was an effective cue for conducting deeper analysis for converging lines.
When using the IPB-style graphics overlays, not only can this be a successful methodology, it also has the additional advantage of serving as a briefing aid. Words alone, and reams of reports alone, can be confusing. Today's senior intelligence officers are accustomed to acquiring data in visual icon form. The methodology described herein lent itself to transitioning instantly from conducting analysis to briefing that analysis in a manner in which the G2 was accustomed.
Countermeasures
The final step is recommending countermeasures. It is easy to develop a siege mentality, such as that which existed throughout U.S. Army elements stationed in the Middle East after the bombings of the Office of the Program Manager, Saudi Arabian National Guard (Riyadh) in 1995, and the Khobar Towers (Dhahran in 1996) in Saudi Arabia. However, when everything is always on "high alert," it defeats the purpose of the heightened alert status. Instead of temporarily raising defense levels, the defense level remained at threat condition (THREATCON) Delta (now called force protection condition or FPCON) for a prolonged period.
Such a prolonged state of high alert had at the minimum the following effects:
* Left open the potential for complacency.
* Created a state where a new (stable) pattern nullified the intent of thwarting hostile surveillance efforts.
* Negatively impacted the local economy.
Consider the fact that when U.S. forces no longer engage in or stimulate a local economy, the merchants (and their families, associates, etc.) have no further economic incentive to having U.S. forces present. What may then develop is a general attitude that is at best ambivalent towards U.S. forces; for if there is no perceived benefit for the presence of U.S. forces, then it is a short move towards resentment of the U.S. presence. Once popular sentiment opposes the presence of U.S. forces, it is difficult to regain good will. From an intelligence perspective, it is useful to keep these economic considerations in mind when evaluating the threat, the enemy's ability to blend in with the local populace (will they be reported for suspicious activity), and related factors.
The fear that "something might happen" was so great in the Middle East after the 1996 Khobar Towers attack that Army intelligence and CI elements sometimes found it difficult to leave the compound and perform their missions. In fact, at least one G2 proposed taking all of his intelligence collectors and agents and incorporating them into the analysis cell! Analysts, however, will have nothing to analyze if the collectors do not collect. To be effective, intelligence and CI assets need to leave the compounds, and commanders must provide them with the necessary freedom of movement as prescribed in AR 381-20, U.S. Army Counterintelligence. Risk management must not become risk avoidance. Defensive postures and countermeasures must change appropriate to the threat.
Final Thoughts
The options and techniques detailed above are not radical. Our fundamental analytical methodologies are adequate to deal with this unconventional threat, with only minor adjustments; if we grant ourselves some flexibility, current doctrine will suffice. The critical principle of translating intelligence into viable options and recommendations for the commander to evaluate and implement remains unchanged.
Chief Warrant Officer Del Stewart is currently serving as a Training Senior Writer, Doctrine Division, Directorate of Combat Developments, U.S. Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca. Excluding his 12 years of enlisted experience, some of his assignments have included the 102d MI Battalion, Korea; Chief, Counter-terrorism Analysis Section, 3d U.S. Army, Fort McPherson, Georgia; and the 501st MI Battalion, Dexheim, Germany (with 11 months in Bosnia supporting IFOR as the OCE Chief for 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division).
Posted by Jack at 5:07 PM
Labels: analysis, INTEL, military
Where Holocaust denial is welcomed
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Iran
Iran has been severely criticised for hosting a conference questioning the Holocaust. Delegates included not only some of the world's best-known Holocaust deniers, but also white supremacists and anti-Semites.
In the BBC there's a lot of talk about impartial broadcasting. I've always wondered how that would work if you were the BBC correspondent in Nazi Germany reporting on Hitler.
Would you not have to take sides? Well I got closer than ever before to this problem reporting on Iran's Holocaust conference.
I have interviewed suicide bombers, sexually-abused children, raped women - I have seen the devastation of war and the tsunami.
But I have never reported on anything like this. On the second day some of the delegates were coming up to me congratulating me on my coverage of the story.
The guest list was a who's who of holocaust deniers - men who have spent time in prison in Europe for saying Hitler's gas chambers never existed
I was actually lurking around wondering if they wanted to kill me for calling them Holocaust deniers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Quite the contrary - all publicity is good publicity for these sort of people. They were delighted to have made it onto the BBC and did not think being called a holocaust denier was at all insulting.
Only one Malaysian woman whose interview I didn't broadcast looked at me rather sourly.
Nazi apologists
The conference was organised by the Iranian Foreign Ministry in a centre where normally the topic of discussion is the price of oil or the future of the non-aligned movement.
When it is so difficult for an American to get an Iranian visa, I cannot understand how the government here let in a man who has been described as perhaps America's best known racist.
There's a photograph on the internet of a young David Duke wearing a swastika on his arm.
He formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People, not to mention the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
One of my colleagues tried to explain to a foreign ministry official what sort of organisation the Klan was - he talked of its history - men in white hoods going around lynching black people.
Every delegate I interviewed congratulated Iran on its commitment to freedom of speech which they said was absent in the West
The official just shrugged it off. I wondered if the Foreign Ministry lost control over the guest list but then again the visa process is rigorous - it took my mother more than three months to get a tourist visa for Iran.
But it was not just white supremacists - the guest list was a who's who of Holocaust deniers - men who have spent time in prison in Europe for saying Hitler's gas chambers never existed.
A small clique of apologists for the Third Reich with only fringe appeal suddenly revelling in being mainstream - well mainstream at least in Iran.
Free speech
Let me give you a flavour of the so-called academic papers they delivered. One French speaker said: "The Holocaust is a gigantic lie and the gas chambers should be put in the rubbish bin of history."
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Australian Fredrick Toeben , jailed in Germany for incitement and insulting the memory of the dead
Frenchman Robert Faurisson , convicted in France under Holocaust denial laws
Frenchman Georges Thiel , convicted in France under Holocaust denial laws
American David Duke , a former KKK leader and white supremacist
He had already spent one year in prison because of what he called "one of his little books". Little books - but big lies - denying the Nazis had a deliberate policy to exterminate the Jewish people.
He summed up his argument succinctly. He claimed there were no gas chambers at all - millions of Jews did not die - therefore there was no holocaust.
And if there was no Holocaust then there was no justification for the creation of the state of Israel. Therefore Israel was an impostor.
It had all the simplicity of a mathematical proof - refuting the worst genocide in living memory and absolving one of the most evil and wicked regimes in history of its crimes against humanity.
So this was the aim of the conference for Iran - to undermine the very argument for the existence of Israel.
And also to score a few points over the West on the issue of freedom of speech. Every delegate I interviewed congratulated Iran on its commitment to freedom of speech which they said was absent in the West where their comrades were in jail for denying the Holocaust.
They all paid tribute to their new hero, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. I asked them if they knew about the journalists and students who have been jailed in Iran for pushing the limits of freedom of speech in this country.
They were vague - happy to whitewash Iran without knowing the facts. As a journalist living and working in Iran I found it particularly galling to be told that I had freedom of speech by these people.
Eventually I found one of the movers and shakers behind the conference - a friend of President Ahmedinejad and asked him why there was freedom of speech to deny the Holocaust but not to criticise the Iranian government.
He told me there was complete freedom but the Western media was in the pocket of the Zionists and sent spies to undermine Iran's national security.
Presumably he meant all the students, bloggers, journalists and human rights lawyers who've been jailed here are Zionist spies.
Then he went on to say that the very presence of a BBC correspondent in Iran proved there was freedom of speech. Another twisted logic.
But when all the delegates were taken to see President Ahmedinejad for a mutual admiration session, the BBC, unlike other foreign media, was excluded from covering it. So much for Iranian freedom of speech.
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 16 December, 2006 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.
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Published: 2006/12/16 12:04:14 GMT
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US envoys start rare Cuba visit
The largest delegation from the US Congress to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution has arrived in Havana.
The 10 members of the bipartisan group favour the easing of US sanctions on Cuba and are seeking dialogue.
Jeff Flake, a Republican congressman heading the delegation, said he hoped to meet officials and launch a "new era in US-Cuba relations".
It is not clear whether the team will meet acting President Raul Castro, who has called for better ties with the US.
President Fidel Castro, 80, temporarily ceded power to his brother after having emergency intestinal surgery in July.
The US broke official ties with Cuba following Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959 and has had an economic embargo in place against the island since 1960.
Important timing
The US delegation will spend three days in Cuba, during which time members are due to meet several high-ranking Cuban officials.
Made up of six Democrats and four Republicans, the party is led by Mr Flake, a Republican from Arizona, and William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
The BBC's Americas editor Emilio San Pedro says the timing of the visit, coming as Cuba undergoes what could be described as its most significant internal political transformation in decades, is important.
However it remains unclear whether the trip will be anything more than symbolic, our correspondent says.
The visit has been criticised by some opponents of the Castro regime in the US, including Cuban exiles in Miami, who say that economic interests should not be put before human rights in Cuba.
The Bush administration has also shown no signs of embracing a thaw as long as Cuba's communist system remains intact and political prisoners remain in jail, our correspondent adds.
'Very ill'
Acting leader Raul Castro has given several indications that he may be open to a warming of relations.
A fortnight ago, he used an address at a military parade held to mark his older brother's 80th birthday to attack the US - but also to renew an offer to hold talks with Washington.
Fidel Castro did not appear at the parade and has not been seen in public since 26 July.
His last appearance on Cuban TV, looking frail and wearing pyjamas rather than his trademark military fatigues, was in late October.
The top US intelligence official, John Negroponte, has told the Washington Post newspaper that the president is believed to be very ill and close to death.
"Everything we see indicates that it will not be much longer... months, not years," he told the Post.
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Published: 2006/12/15 21:19:40 GMT
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Rio police held over drugs links
Seventy-five police officers in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have been arrested as part of a probe into drug trafficking and organised crime.
More than 500 police were deployed to arrest the officers, members of Rio's heavily-armed paramilitary police.
Brazilian police are regularly accused of corruption and brutality, with two recent reports suggesting widespread involvement with drugs and firearms.
There was no indication of what charges the officers might face.
The head of Rio's elite paramilitary police said the operation was the biggest of its kind against serving officers.
They are thought to have profited from drug trafficking and other forms of organised crime.
Some officers are suspected of selling police uniforms on to criminals.
Most of those arrested were said to be from the city's most violent and crime-ridden districts.
Corruption 'widespread'
Some 350 Rio police officers, backed by 200 federal police flown in from the capital, Brasilia, detained the suspects as they arrived for work on Friday morning
State police commander Hudson Aguiar said Rio's police force was committed to rooting out rogue elements.
"We will continue to expel those who don't honour their commitment to society," he said.
Rio's powerful drug gangs have long been thought to have contacts, links and even direct control, over elements of the city's police force.
But arrests are rare and prosecutions rarer still.
Nevertheless, a survey of guns seized from criminals in Rio revealed that almost 20% carried weapons that once belonged to police officers or soldiers.
Another study revealed that police routinely extort money from those involved with drug gangs, confirming suggestions that some of those paid to fight crime in Brazil are in fact profiting from it, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Brazil.
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Published: 2006/12/15 19:55:36 GMT
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Tri-border transfers 'funding terror'
The tri-border area, where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, is a lawless region where drugs trafficking, gun running and counterfeit goods are rife.
The BBC has now found documents showing the suspicious transfer of large sums of money to the Middle East, which investigators believe goes to fund terrorism. The BBC's Andrew Bomford reports from Ciudad del Este in Paraguay.
It didn't look like the global centre of a business sending billions of dollars overseas, but on the first floor of the dingy-looking shopping arcade, if you could get past the two guards blocking the stairs, there it was - a shop, looking like a pawnbrokers, called Telefax.
According to Paraguayan and American investigators, Telefax, owned by a Lebanese businessman called Kassem Hijazi, is responsible for transferring huge sums of laundered money overseas and hiding the identities of the people responsible.
The money is believed to be the proceeds of crime - anything from drug smuggling, to gun running, to counterfeit goods to tax evasion.
"From the evidence and documentation we saw, it was clear that this man was moving large sums, hundreds of millions of dollars, through its doors, in its own name, hiding the identities of who was truly the owners of the money," said Carlos Maza, of the US Department of Homeland Security.
"Kassem Hijazi is a serious player who more than anything else has found the vulnerability in the Paraguayan system, the ability to control how money is moved through its banking system."
'Frustrating situation'
But US investigators are particularly worried that some of this money goes to fund terrorism as well as militant organisations like Hezbollah and Hamas.
Robert Morgenthau, the New York District Attorney, has prosecuted a number of American banks for moving millions of dollars from the tri-border area to what he suspects are terrorist bank accounts in the Middle East.
"We've found money going to the Arab Bank in Ramallah," he told the BBC.
"The Arab Bank is well known as one of the banks used by terrorist organisations. But that's part of the frustration. You don't know who's sending the money and you don't know who's receiving it."
The BBC saw company accounts for Telefax showing a business with an annual turnover of just $50,000.
But a large number of money transfer documents, obtained in a series of raids by Paraguayan prosecutors, show Telefax making international transfers worth ten times that amount almost on a daily basis.
Claims denied
The owner of Telefax, Kassem Hijazi, agreed to do an interview with the BBC.
The people I work with are friends, not terrorists
Kassem Hijazi
Telefax owner
He produced a large amount of the prosecution paperwork allegedly showing thousands of money transfers, but claimed that every single one of the documents had been forged.
"The proof is here," Mr Hijazi said, indicating the transfer documents.
"They have to prove that I've done it. Even the prosecutor says the documents are false, not us, the prosecutor. I wasn't transferring money abroad. It's the money exchange houses that send the money, and they've forged the documents. We don't do transfers abroad."
Mr Hijazi did admit to using numbers instead of names for his clients, effectively hiding their identities, but he said that was merely to make his paperwork easier.
The BBC examined a number of the transfer documents and saw large amounts of money, around $10m, moving to Lebanon in the space of a year.
Three transfers, for $100,000, $70,000, and $42,200, went in the space of two days to companies in Beirut which did not appear to exist.
Adolfo Marin, the original prosecutor in the case, said it was very difficult to investigate the money transfers because the banks in Beirut were dominated by Hezbollah.
"I have no idea what they can export to us from Lebanon, so necessarily the money that goes to Lebanon is not for imports," he said. "So it is possible to formulate a hypothesis about the probability of money laundering and links with terrorism."
Kassem Hijazi strongly denied any involvement in terrorist financing. "It's absurd," he said.
"It doesn't happen here. The people I work with are friends, not terrorists. They've been investigated and if there was some evidence they would have been charged."
'Helping our brothers'
This view was supported by Sheik Taleb Jomha, the Muslim leader of the 30,000-strong Lebanese community in the tri-border area.
"I am not telling you a secret when I say that Iran and Syria are supporting Hezbollah," he said.
"Iran has the ability to send weapons and rockets, not us. They say money is moving from here to the Middle East. That's right. But not to help political or military groups, but to help our brothers and sisters who need help."
Kassem Hijazi is not facing charges of money laundering or even terrorist financing.
In Paraguay, funding terrorism is not a crime, and the law on money laundering is out of date, making it difficult to achieve a prosecution.
A new law has been languishing, unapproved, in the country's Congress for more than two years.
In the meantime, Mr Hijazi has been accused of tax evasion, which he also denies, and is expected to face trial in 2007.
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Published: 2006/12/14 15:16:54 GMT
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Bosnian Serbs 'lied about past'
US authorities have charged 16 people over concealing their previous service in the Bosnian Serb military when they applied for refugee status in the US.
One of the accused, Nedjo Ikonic, is alleged to have been involved in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Swoops in six states led to 13 arrests - the other three are still at large.
"These cases demonstrate our resolve to identify and prosecute those who enter the US under false pretences," Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said.
"Especially those who hide their military past."
The defendants failed to disclose their previous service in the Bosnian Serb military on immigration applications, it is alleged.
This enabled them to enter and live in the US after winning refugee status. One became a US citizen.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary Julie Myers said: "ICE will not allow the United States to be a safe haven for those who failed to disclose their service in military forces that were known to commit atrocities."
Special ICE agents carried out arrests over the past week in Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Colorado.
Three of the accused were still being sought, the ICE said.
The defendants face between five and 10 years in prison if found guilty.
Nedjo Ikonic is alleged to have commanded a police unit that took part in the Srebrenica massacre in which nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.
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Published: 2006/12/16 10:35:09 GMT
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Security high at anti-Putin rally
Opponents of President Vladimir Putin have staged a protest against what they see as the Russian leadership's increasing authoritarianism.
Organisers, including former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had hoped up to 5,000 people would attend. But turnout was about 2,000.
Some witnesses said their numbers were dwarfed by the police and security service presence in central Moscow.
A police helicopter flew overhead, threatening to drown out chants.
The demonstration comes 15 months before the next presidential election.
Although Mr Putin is not eligible to stand, analysts believe his popularity is such that whoever he backs is assured of an easy victory.
The 2,000 or so protesters were kept confined behind barriers and surrounded by helmeted riot police, says the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow.
Today we finally came together and called for our collaborators and supporters that we start our political process to change this particular power
Mikhail Kasyanov
Former PM
Some reports suggested thousands of riot police and soldiers were on the streets for the protest.
The anti-Putin lobby ranged from radical youth groups to communists nostalgic for the Soviet Union to free marketeers.
Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov - now a Kremlin opponent - insisted this was a significant and important day.
"Today we finally came together and called for our collaborators and supporters that we start our political process to change this particular power. Fight together with us, politically, and get prepared for elections.
Mr Kasparov left professional chess to devote his attention to opposition politics and now runs an organisation called the United Civil Front.
The Russian opposition has long been wracked by internal divisions, the BBC regional analyst Stephen Eke says.
But he adds that with parliamentary elections due next year, and presidential elections due early in 2008, they have begun to co-ordinate their efforts.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2006/12/16 16:18:09 GMT
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Litvinenko 'killed over dossier'
Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was murdered because of information he held on a powerful Kremlin figure, an ex-business associate has said.
Ex-spy Yuri Shvets said Mr Litvinenko was commissioned by a reputable UK firm to provide information on Russia.
Mr Litvinenko was poisoned after his dossier containing damaging details was deliberately leaked to the high-ranking Moscow figure, Mr Shvets told the BBC.
Mr Litvinenko died in London last month from suspected polonium-210 poisoning.
'Most probable theory'
In an exclusive interview, Mr Shvets told BBC Radio 4 programme The Litvinenko Mystery about his theory.
"I cannot really be 100% sure, but I am pretty sure," he said.
"Obviously there is always room for other suspicions, but in a tradecraft there is such a thing as most probable theory, and this is the one."
He said the British company wanted the eight-page dossier of commercial and political information before it invested millions of pounds in Russia.
He drank a tea which was not made in front of him
Yuri Shvets
Washington-based Mr Shvets, who advises businesses and individuals on legal and security issues in the former Soviet Union, said he talked to Mr Litvinenko in hospital.
Mr Litvinenko was convinced that he was poisoned when he met three Russians at the Millennium Hotel in London.
Mr Shvets said: "He drank a tea which was not made in front of him. He was agonised by the understanding that as a professional he failed.
"He was always saying 'I can identify my enemy a mile away'. But in this particular case, when it came to his own life, he failed."
Mr Shvets, who has been interviewed by senior Scotland Yard officers, said British detectives investigating the death now have the dossier compiled by Mr Litvinenko.
The Litvinenko Mystery, presented by Tom Mangold, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 1030 GMT on Saturday 16 December.
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Published: 2006/12/16 12:19:09 GMT
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Mass drug arrests across Europe
Police across Europe have broken up an international drug-trafficking network, arresting 90 people in a number of countries.
The operation, called "Tiro Grosso", was a co-ordinated effort involving European and Colombian police, and the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
The network included members of criminal gangs from Italy, Colombia, Spain and Bulgaria, the Spanish interior ministry announced on Friday.
Large amounts of drugs were seized.
The network was principally involved in supplying drugs to a number of gangs operating in Italy, Spain's interior ministry said.
Arrests were made in Spain, France and Italy.
Italian authorities froze assets worth around 14.5 million euros (£9.7m).
International co-operation
NUMBER OF ARRESTS
Italy - 40
Spain - 29
France - 20
Germany - 1
Operation "Tiro Grosso" involved the co-operation of police forces from Ecuador, Colombia, France, Italy, Germany and the US.
The international operation has investigated 230 people from various countries and tracked 3,500 financial movements resulting in nearly two million euros (£1.4m) worth of assets being frozen in Europe and South America.
Spanish authorities say the operation is ongoing and more arrests have not been ruled out.
In Spain 4.8 tonnes of hashish and 950kg of cocaine were confiscated while in Italy 1.4 tonnes of hashish and 14kg of cocaine were seized.
Police in France found 90kg of cocaine, and in Germany 190kg of cocaine was confiscated.
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Published: 2006/12/15 13:36:53 GMT
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Saudi defence deal probe ditched
The Serious Fraud Office has dropped a corruption probe into a defence deal with Saudi Arabia, after warnings it could damage national security.
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the SFO was "discontinuing" its investigation into Britain's biggest defence company, BAE Systems.
The reversal follows reports that Saudi Arabia was considering pulling out of a deal to buy Eurofighter jets from BAE.
Lord Goldsmith said he thought that a prosecution "could not be brought".
He said the decision had been made in the wider public interest, which had to be balanced against the rule of law.
No weight has been given to commercial interests or to the national economic interest
Serious Fraud Office statement
Lord Goldsmith also told peers that Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed that the continuation of the investigation would cause "serious damage" to relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia.
The probe had related to the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. BAE has denied any wrongdoing.
Job fears
It emerged earlier this month that French and Saudi officials were in talks over a possible alternative deal, which could scupper the BAE sale.
The Saudi government was reported to have been angered by the SFO investigation into allegations of a slush fund for members of the country's royal family.
Lord Goldsmith said that both Mr Blair and Defence Secretary Des Browne had argued that carrying on the investigation would harm intelligence and diplomatic co-operation with Saudi Arabia, in turn damaging the UK's national security.
No one is going to win any Saudi business until this SFO investigation ends
Senior defence executive
Responding to the announcement, BAE Systems said: "After over two years of what has been a thorough investigation by the SFO, we welcome the statement made today by the Attorney General in the House of Lords."
BBC business editor Robert Peston says that major UK companies - both arms firms and other manufacturers - have voiced fears that they stood to lose other lucrative deals should the probe have continued.
The SFO said its decision had been taken "following representations that have been made both to the Attorney General and the Director of the SFO concerning the need to safeguard national and international security".
It added: "No weight has been given to commercial interests or to the national economic interest."
The Al Yamamah contract with Saudi Arabia is thought to have been worth £40bn to BAE Systems over the past two decades.
Saudi Arabia said in August that it planned to buy 72 Eurofighters to replace its range of Tornado jets, which were also made by BAE.
Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said: "From the moment investigations began, it was clear that they would not be popular in Saudi Arabia.
"But to pull the plug halfway through, and when real progress was just being made, is the worst of all possible outcomes.
"It is not in the interests of a successful British defence industry, of British exports, or of British diplomatic interests around the world that we cannot now show that our legal system is above undue influence or improper pressure."
But Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "We made it clear that because of the commercial issues involved we wanted the SFO to make a rapid decision about whether to continue their inquiry or whether to bring it to an end.
"Having decided there is no case to answer, it will be welcomed by all those concerned."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6180945.stm
Published: 2006/12/15 05:25:15 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Pakistan 'arrested' 500 Taleban
Pakistan says it has arrested more than 500 Taleban militants this year and handed most of them to Afghanistan.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said the upsurge in violence in Afghanistan called for better security co-operation between the neighbours.
Earlier this week, President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of harbouring and supporting militants who have stepped up violence in Afghanistan.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in violence in Afghanistan this year.
Strongly-worded
In a statement released on Thursday, Pakistan's foreign ministry said: "Pakistan has arrested over 500 Taleban this year from Quetta and other cities."
The foreign ministry said that Pakistan had handed over 400 of these arrested men to the Afghan authorities.
Afghanistan says Taleban leaders plot some of their attacks in Afghanistan from Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's south-western Balochistan province.
Pakistan was once the Taleban's main sponsor, but after the September 2001 attacks in the United States, Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror".
The government in Islamabad denies it continues to support the militants or that it could do more to stop them crossing the porous border.
Officials point to the deaths of hundreds of Pakistani troops fighting pro-Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border.
Pakistan says that the roots of Afghanistan's violence are mainly to be found within its borders.
But recent peace deals with the militants aimed at ending the bloodshed have been viewed with suspicion in Kabul and Washington.
'Tyranny'
Mr Karzai's comments earlier in the week were among his most strongly-worded yet in the worsening spat between the neighbours over border attacks.
He accused Pakistan's government of trying to turn Afghans into "slaves" - something he said it would not achieve.
"This tyranny against our people is not by the nation of Pakistan, it is by the government of Pakistan."
The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says Taleban fighters are known to move across the border between the two countries and there are growing concerns that the insurgents are increasing their strength in the tribal-controlled areas on the Pakistani side in Waziristan.
Our correspondent says many diplomats support the view that elements within Pakistan are making things worse in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has seen its most violent year since the overthrow of the Taleban five years ago, with more than 3,500 people killed, according to the authorities.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6181907.stm
Published: 2006/12/15 09:18:23 GMT
© BBC MMVI
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=14039
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 5:57 PM
Subject: PC at it's best.
I know of many Military Chaplains who never even came close to anyone in the Department of Defense on such a personal level.
Semper Fidelis,
Leo
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Quantico mosque leader promoted
Pentagon honors Wahhabi-trained Muslim chaplain
Posted: December 14, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Saifulislam, which is Arabic for "Sword of Islam," received his religious training at a radical Islamic school raided by federal agents after 9/11. The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, based in Leesburg, Va., is run by Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Sami al-Arian terror case. A federal affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search the school alleges Al-Alwani gave at least $50,000 in jihad money "to support suicide bombings." In a special ceremony, the Pentagon recently promoted a Wahhabi-trained Muslim chaplain who catered to al-Qaida detainees at Guantanamo and fought to establish the first mosque in Marine Corps history.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, right, personally decorates Navy Muslim chaplain Abuhena Mohammed Saifulislam
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England personally promoted Navy chaplain Abuhena Mohammed Saifulislam from lieutenant to lieutenant commander. Saifulislam also received a Joint Service Commendation Medal at the Pentagon ceremony held on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Pentagon officials say the ceremony was unprecedented.
"It's unusual for a deputy secretary to personally promote an officer of that rank," said one official who wished to go unnamed. "No one has known of such a high-level dignitary doing that."
Chaplain Lt. Abuhena Saifulislam, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and Marine Corps Gen. Michael Hagee unveil a plaque at a Marine Islamic Prayer Center
England also earlier this year personally dedicated a new Islamic center at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va., on the advice of Saifulislam, a Bangladesh immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
The Muslim chaplain, who is stationed at Quantico, recited verses from the Quran in Arabic and English at the summer dedication ceremony, which included representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, several leaders of which have been convicted on terrorism-related charges.
Saifulislam insists he is moderate and condemns "terrorism," but critics say his Wahhabi background and associations should give the Pentagon pause.
"The Pentagon is giving him a permanent, taxpayer-supported platform from which to convert grunts to Islam," said terror expert Paul Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington."
"With the Quantico mosque, the Pentagon is facilitating the study of the holy text the enemy uses, heretically or not, as their manual of warfare."
Saifulislam's promotion along with the dedication of his new Quantico mosque – the first of its kind in the 230-year history of the Corps – comes on the heels of a Muslim spy scandal at Gitmo involving another Muslim chaplain.
Army Capt. James "Yousef" Yee, who ministered to al-Qaida detainees, was charged with mishandling classified information. Yee, a convert to Islam, quit the Army and the charges were dropped. But two of his Muslim military friends at Gitmo were convicted of espionage-related crimes.
Yee's predecessor at Gitmo was Saifulislam, who was first assigned to the terrorist prison camp after 9/11. While at the Cuban base, the Navy imam privately counseled al-Qaida prisoners in their native tongues of Urdu and Arabic. "I must give hope for them to cope," Saifulislam said at the time.
He set up the diet and prayer regimes for the detainees, recommending they be served halal meals – including traditional dates and lamb – prepared according to Islamic dietary law. Gitmo detainees can now choose from a menu of 113 Muslim-appropriate meals.
In addition, Saifulislam saw to it that detainees receive copies of the Quran and have access to prayer beads and skull caps. Saifulislam also set up a program to train guards to be more sensitive to the religious customs of their Muslim prisoners.
West Point bows to Mecca
Multiculturalism appears to trump concerns about Islamist infiltration of the military. Following the Marine's lead, the Army in October dedicated a new mosque at West Point.
The U.S. Military Academy's first worship hall for Muslims boasts green carpets, shoe racks and a pulpit facing Mecca. Officials agreed to set up the mosque, large enough for dozens of followers, after Muslim leaders complained that the office where Muslim cadets gathered for Friday prayers had become too crowded.
The Army has been recruiting international cadets from Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Muslim enrollment at the academy in New York has jumped to 32 from just two in 2001.
"We live in a world where everyone is looking at the United States saying, 'You're anti-Islam,'" explained West Point Chaplain Col. John Cook. "But here at West Point, that's not what we do."
The U.S. military now boasts more than 10,000 Muslim soldiers, many of them black converts. On the eve of the Army's push into Iraq, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a black Muslim convert, fragged commanding officers at a military camp in Kuwait. He killed two of them and wounded 15 others.
Akbar, recently convicted of murder and given the death sentence, said at the time he did it out of loyalty to the umma, or global community of Muslims.
"You guys are coming into our countries," he said, "and you're going to rape our women and kill our children."
Within months of Akbar's traitorous 2003 attacks, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued an internal report warning that Muslim soldiers pose a possible security threat, according to national security reporter Bill Gertz in his new book "Enemies."
It was also in 2003 that Yee was accused of spying for the enemy while serving as a Muslim chaplain at Gitmo. Yee graduated from West Point, site of the Army's new mosque.
__________________
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