Link
November 11, 2008
Abu Qatada back in jail 'after plotting to flee to Middle East'
A radical cleric once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe was back behind bars yesterday after allegedly planning to escape the country.
Abu Qatada, 47, is due before an immigration court tomorrow morning after being arrested on suspicion of breaking his bail conditions. The latest development comes just five months after the fundamentalist preacher was controversially released from prison. The Palestinian-Jordanian, who was jailed in a clampdown on terror suspects in 2002 but not charged during six years in custody, was granted bail under a strict 22-hour curfew.
But he was back in custody yesterday after UK Border Agency officials allegedly discovered he was planning to escape to the Middle East – despite having his passport taken away. At a hearing convened on Friday, a judge ruled bail should be temporarily withdrawn. Qatada was arrested on Saturday and could face being returned to prison permanently if a Home Office application is successful.
Qatada was released in June after he won an appeal against deportation to Jordan – where he has been convicted of terrorism offences in his absence – amid concerns that evidence gathered through torture could be used against him in a future trial. Ministers are appealing against the decision but the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled he could be released on bail in the meantime.
The decision to free him was met with angry protests from both the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and her shadow counterpart.
Ms Smith said at the time that she was extremely disappointed, adding: "The Government's priority is to protect public safety and national security and we will take all steps necessary to do so." Meanwhile, the shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve added: "This man should be deported if possible. His presence is offensive. Failing deportation, he should be prosecuted."
The father-of-five was at a house under strict bail conditions. A day-long hearing before the SIAC tomorrow will look at allegations that he has breached some of these conditions.
The SIAC – which has previously described Qatada as "a truly dangerous individual" who was "heavily involved, indeed at the centre of terrorist activities associated with al-Qaida" – first ruled that he could be deported because Britain had signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Amman guaranteeing that he would not be tortured. But the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling on human rights grounds.
Qatada became one of the UK's most wanted men in December 2001 when he went on the run on the eve of government moves to introduce new anti-terrorism laws allowing suspects to be detained by authorities without charge or trial.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'
Link
Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'
The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US.
CIA director Michael Hayden said the Saudi militant was probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan.
Gen Hayden said that Bin Laden was "putting a lot of energy into his own survival" and that his capture remained the US government's top priority.
But he warned that al-Qaeda continued to grow in Africa and the Middle East.
In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Gen Hayden said: "[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security."
CIA director Michael Hayden discusses Osama Bin Laden
"In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads."
However, Gen Hayden added: "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda."
The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing al-Qaeda's activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
However, Gen Hayden said other areas were showing an increase in activity, including:
• East Africa : "Al-Qaeda is engaging Somali extremists to revitalise operations... al-Qaeda could claim to be re-establishing its operations base in East Africa"
• The Maghreb : Attacks have worsened since the merger in 2006 of al-Qaeda and the Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The GSPC has renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
• Yemen : Saw an "unprecedented number of attacks" in 2008, and could become a launch-pad for attacks in Saudi Arabia
• Pakistan : Safe haven has allowed al-Qaeda to train a "bench of skilled operatives"
Nevertheless, the CIA chief said the hunt for Bin Laden remained the top priority of the US security forces.
"His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core al-Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world," he said.
Gen Hayden was appointed in May 2006 by President George W Bush but it remains to be seen whether he will retain his job when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'
The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US.
CIA director Michael Hayden said the Saudi militant was probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan.
Gen Hayden said that Bin Laden was "putting a lot of energy into his own survival" and that his capture remained the US government's top priority.
But he warned that al-Qaeda continued to grow in Africa and the Middle East.
In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Gen Hayden said: "[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security."
CIA director Michael Hayden discusses Osama Bin Laden
"In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads."
However, Gen Hayden added: "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda."
The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing al-Qaeda's activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
However, Gen Hayden said other areas were showing an increase in activity, including:
• East Africa : "Al-Qaeda is engaging Somali extremists to revitalise operations... al-Qaeda could claim to be re-establishing its operations base in East Africa"
• The Maghreb : Attacks have worsened since the merger in 2006 of al-Qaeda and the Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The GSPC has renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
• Yemen : Saw an "unprecedented number of attacks" in 2008, and could become a launch-pad for attacks in Saudi Arabia
• Pakistan : Safe haven has allowed al-Qaeda to train a "bench of skilled operatives"
Nevertheless, the CIA chief said the hunt for Bin Laden remained the top priority of the US security forces.
"His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core al-Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world," he said.
Gen Hayden was appointed in May 2006 by President George W Bush but it remains to be seen whether he will retain his job when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Trial of gang accused of cooperating with Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terrorist organizations continues in Azerbaijan
Link
Trial of gang accused of cooperating with Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terrorist organizations continues in Azerbaijan
[ 12 Jun 2008 17:34 ]
Baku. Shahriyar Alizadeh-APA. Court of Grave Crimes held hearing on the case of the organized gang accused of cooperating with international terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad. Judge Aflatun Gasimov presided over the process. APA reports that public prosecutor Huseynkhan Mammadov read the indictment in the closed hearing.
Following this, Naib Ardabil a.k.a. Abu Jafar partially admitted his guilt. The court hearing will continue on June 14.
The members of the gang Naib Ardabil a.k.a. Abu Jafar, Sumgayit resident Elchin Alimirzayev, a.k.a. Abdul Malik and Haji, Vidadi Karimov, Adil Garaykhanov, Vitali Agamammadov, Asef Hazarov, Daniyal Abuyev, Mirza Babayev, Gadir Hajiyev, Vugar Aliyev, Amin Jami, Logman Muradov, Habil Mesmeliyev and Parviz Karimov were arrested by the officers of the National Security Ministry. The member of the gang, Gusar resident Telman Abdullayev showed armed resistance, wounded two police officers and managed to escape.
The gang members faced charges under articles 279.2 (creation of armed formations or groups, which are not provided by the legislation), 315.2 (application of violence, resistance with application of violence concerning the representative of authority), 228.2.1 (illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation or carrying of fire-arms,) of the Criminal Code.
Trial of gang accused of cooperating with Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terrorist organizations continues in Azerbaijan
[ 12 Jun 2008 17:34 ]
Baku. Shahriyar Alizadeh-APA. Court of Grave Crimes held hearing on the case of the organized gang accused of cooperating with international terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad. Judge Aflatun Gasimov presided over the process. APA reports that public prosecutor Huseynkhan Mammadov read the indictment in the closed hearing.
Following this, Naib Ardabil a.k.a. Abu Jafar partially admitted his guilt. The court hearing will continue on June 14.
The members of the gang Naib Ardabil a.k.a. Abu Jafar, Sumgayit resident Elchin Alimirzayev, a.k.a. Abdul Malik and Haji, Vidadi Karimov, Adil Garaykhanov, Vitali Agamammadov, Asef Hazarov, Daniyal Abuyev, Mirza Babayev, Gadir Hajiyev, Vugar Aliyev, Amin Jami, Logman Muradov, Habil Mesmeliyev and Parviz Karimov were arrested by the officers of the National Security Ministry. The member of the gang, Gusar resident Telman Abdullayev showed armed resistance, wounded two police officers and managed to escape.
The gang members faced charges under articles 279.2 (creation of armed formations or groups, which are not provided by the legislation), 315.2 (application of violence, resistance with application of violence concerning the representative of authority), 228.2.1 (illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation or carrying of fire-arms,) of the Criminal Code.
Q&A Islamic Radicals in Central Asia Not All That Significant
Link
ISLAMIC RADICALS IN CENTRAL ASIA “NOT ALL THAT SIGNIFICANT” – EXPERT
Havilah Hoffman: 4/25/06
Central Asian leaders are exaggerating the danger posed by Islamic radicals, two experts asserted during a recent discussion at the Open Society Institute. They contended that the influence of radical groups is waning at present, as regional residents appear to prefer moderate organizations that focus on economic initiatives.
David Abramson, a Central Asia analyst at the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and Alisher Khamidov, a Kyrgyz journalist now pursuing a doctorate from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, were the featured speakers at an April 10 Open Forum examining recent trends concerning Islam in the Ferghana Valley. Abramson contended that the known radical groups in Central Asia, especially the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb-ut-Tahir, are “not all that significant these days.”
Authoritarian-minded leaders have continued to portray the radical groups as a major security threat to justify political clampdowns, Khamidov said. By “painting them [radical groups] as a threat,” Central Asian leaders, especially Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, have been able to “target political opponent and postpone much needed reform.” Khamidov estimated that about 11 percent of the Uzbek population holds radical Islamic views, but added that only about half of those radicals favor the establishment of an Islamic state in Uzbekistan.
In recent months, regional residents frustrated by declining living standards have tended to shun radical groups in favor of so-called jamiyats – described by Abramson as “Islamic self-help organizations.” In English jamiyat is translated as meaning either “society” or “association.” In the Central Asian context, jamiyats have formed in order to plug wide gaps in government safety nets in some Central Asian states, especially Uzbekistan. Abramson explained that jamiyats provide “social welfare - extending employment to families.” According to Khamidov, these groups are not militant and “don’t want the establishment of an Islamic state. What they want is a greater role for Islamic values in society.”
Increasingly, officials have come to view the economic work of jamiyats as a threat to their political positions. Karimov in particular has attempted to portray jamiyats as extremist in orientation, intending to disband the organizations and tighten his grip on power. The most notorious example of this trend occurred in 2005 in Andijan, where leaders of a local jamiyat were accused of membership in a banned extremist group known as Akromiya. Their trial sparked a chain of events that culminated in the Andijan massacre. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Abramson and Khamidov asserted that Akromiya should be classified among the more moderate jamiyats, contradicting Karimov’s claim that the organization is “an Islamic extremist group bent on the overthrow of the government.”
The State Department’s most recent Country Report on Uzbekistan’s human rights practices, released in March, provides backing for Abramson’s and Khamidov’s assertions. The report characterizes Akromiya as “a religious association that promotes business, not extremism.” It goes on to state that the Uzbek government’s tendency to brand political opponents, both real and perceived, as Islamic radicals has prompted officials to engage in widespread “surveillance or harassment” of “more religiously observant (yet nonextremist) persons.”
Khamidov argues that a distinction needs to be made between pious Muslims and extremists. “Just because these people want Islam to have a greater influence in society doesn’t mean they advocate Sharia law. They do not.”
Abramson predicted that if Karimov maintained his hardline policies, Uzbekistan would experience the “increasing Islamization” of society. Islamization, he added, is a symptom of “deeper political and economic issues” that, if not addressed, could have a “destabilizing effect on the region.” Uzbek repression may end up having a boomerang effect, Khamidov added. “Groups with radical agendas thrive in areas... where the pent up frustration of the people can’t be channeled through legitimate secular means.” he said. “An Islamic call to revolution will find greater resonance under such regimes that exclude political competition.”
Editor’s Note: Havilah Hoffman is an editorial assistant for EurasiaNet in New York.
ISLAMIC RADICALS IN CENTRAL ASIA “NOT ALL THAT SIGNIFICANT” – EXPERT
Havilah Hoffman: 4/25/06
Central Asian leaders are exaggerating the danger posed by Islamic radicals, two experts asserted during a recent discussion at the Open Society Institute. They contended that the influence of radical groups is waning at present, as regional residents appear to prefer moderate organizations that focus on economic initiatives.
David Abramson, a Central Asia analyst at the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and Alisher Khamidov, a Kyrgyz journalist now pursuing a doctorate from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, were the featured speakers at an April 10 Open Forum examining recent trends concerning Islam in the Ferghana Valley. Abramson contended that the known radical groups in Central Asia, especially the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb-ut-Tahir, are “not all that significant these days.”
Authoritarian-minded leaders have continued to portray the radical groups as a major security threat to justify political clampdowns, Khamidov said. By “painting them [radical groups] as a threat,” Central Asian leaders, especially Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, have been able to “target political opponent and postpone much needed reform.” Khamidov estimated that about 11 percent of the Uzbek population holds radical Islamic views, but added that only about half of those radicals favor the establishment of an Islamic state in Uzbekistan.
In recent months, regional residents frustrated by declining living standards have tended to shun radical groups in favor of so-called jamiyats – described by Abramson as “Islamic self-help organizations.” In English jamiyat is translated as meaning either “society” or “association.” In the Central Asian context, jamiyats have formed in order to plug wide gaps in government safety nets in some Central Asian states, especially Uzbekistan. Abramson explained that jamiyats provide “social welfare - extending employment to families.” According to Khamidov, these groups are not militant and “don’t want the establishment of an Islamic state. What they want is a greater role for Islamic values in society.”
Increasingly, officials have come to view the economic work of jamiyats as a threat to their political positions. Karimov in particular has attempted to portray jamiyats as extremist in orientation, intending to disband the organizations and tighten his grip on power. The most notorious example of this trend occurred in 2005 in Andijan, where leaders of a local jamiyat were accused of membership in a banned extremist group known as Akromiya. Their trial sparked a chain of events that culminated in the Andijan massacre. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Abramson and Khamidov asserted that Akromiya should be classified among the more moderate jamiyats, contradicting Karimov’s claim that the organization is “an Islamic extremist group bent on the overthrow of the government.”
The State Department’s most recent Country Report on Uzbekistan’s human rights practices, released in March, provides backing for Abramson’s and Khamidov’s assertions. The report characterizes Akromiya as “a religious association that promotes business, not extremism.” It goes on to state that the Uzbek government’s tendency to brand political opponents, both real and perceived, as Islamic radicals has prompted officials to engage in widespread “surveillance or harassment” of “more religiously observant (yet nonextremist) persons.”
Khamidov argues that a distinction needs to be made between pious Muslims and extremists. “Just because these people want Islam to have a greater influence in society doesn’t mean they advocate Sharia law. They do not.”
Abramson predicted that if Karimov maintained his hardline policies, Uzbekistan would experience the “increasing Islamization” of society. Islamization, he added, is a symptom of “deeper political and economic issues” that, if not addressed, could have a “destabilizing effect on the region.” Uzbek repression may end up having a boomerang effect, Khamidov added. “Groups with radical agendas thrive in areas... where the pent up frustration of the people can’t be channeled through legitimate secular means.” he said. “An Islamic call to revolution will find greater resonance under such regimes that exclude political competition.”
Editor’s Note: Havilah Hoffman is an editorial assistant for EurasiaNet in New York.
Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack
Link
Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack
Western intelligence sources in Pakistan believe that al-Qa'eda's prize American recruit and propaganda chief may have been killed in a CIA-directed airstrike.
By Nick Meo
Last Updated: 12:52PM BST 07 Sep 2008
Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa'eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.
Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.
Mr Gadahn has been credited with helping transform al-Qa'eda's al-Sahab propaganda wing into a slick operation which communicates in fluent English and produces professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year.
But he may have fallen victim to an expanded programme of predator assassinations which in the last year has targeted and killed many of al-Qa'eda's military commanders, terrorist trainers and facilitators.
Jihadists around the world will be watching as closely as intelligence officials this week to see whether Mr Gadahn - also known as Azzam al-Ameriki - produces a new video message to mark September 11, as he has done every year since 2003.
If there is no message it will be taken as near certain confirmation that he is dead – killed either in a strike by Hellfire missiles, or perhaps by jihadi colleagues who have grown jealous of his success.
Mr Gadahn is now thought to have been killed in an attack launched from a remotely piloted aircraft in January which killed al-Qaeda's then military commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, in Mir Ali, Waziristan.
Al-Libi was the most prominent of a series of terrorist leaders to be killed in recent months. Abu Saeed al-Masri, who was implicated in attacks on Britain, was killed in July. Syrians, Somalis and Kuwaitis have also been killed.
Evan Kohlmann, an investigator with the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (Nefa) foundation which monitors terrorist groups, said: "Al-Qaeda acknowledges that several of its leaders have been taken out. There aren't that many experienced leaders left in the middle ranks and they are being replaced by younger guys with no credentials but lots of enthusiasm."
Experts now fear that younger leaders will attempt to prove themselves by launching bloody attacks such as a suicide bomb attack on workers at a munitions factory in Pakistan last month which killed 70.
Gadahn has taken on real importance as al-Qa'eda's best known Westerner. He also became the poster boy of would-be jihadis around the world who are radicalised on the internet - and identify with a former Orange County teenager who once reviewed heavy metal bands before finding radical Islam and travelling to Pakistan in 1998.
His rants about globalisation and the US mortgage meltdown struck a chord with the alienated loners who are targeted by al-Qaeda.
Mr Kohlmann said: "The people in the dark world of online jihad, the ones who watch the videos from Iraq, are the ones he speaks to. They are dangerous because they could become home-grown jihadis."
Another possibility being considered by intelligence officials is that Gadahn may have been killed by rivals, or demoted if jealous colleagues decided that he was too close to Osama bin Laden. Last year he appeared to have coached bin Laden for propaganda videos.
But his most likely fate seems to have been death by predator, the deadliest weapon against foreign terrorists on Pakistani soil.
The lawless tribal region along the Afghanistan border is still al-Qa'eda's main base. US troops cannot officially venture there, and the use of predators is highly controversial in Pakistan. Their use comprises a legal grey area but their attacks have become commonplace.
Refugee tribesmen from the Bajaur region in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province told The Sunday Telegraph that pilotless drones fly overhead constantly, hunting for Taliban and al-Qaeda targets. They are armed with Hellfire missiles which can be fired by an operator thousands of miles away in the United States.
Establishing exactly how many al-Qaeda targets have been killed in the lawless region is difficult, but Nefa believes dozens of mid-level leaders have died along with their bodyguards and followers. Many civilians have also been killed in attacks, causing huge anger in Pakistan.
But there are signs that despite the effectiveness of the assassination programme, al-Qa'eda is rebuilding its strength in Pakistan.
It has built an alliance with resurgent Taliban guerrillas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. New recruits - including some battle-hardened veterans who have withdrawn from the diminishing conflict in Iraq - are thought to be coming in from the Gulf, and the terrorist organisation stands to benefit from the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Richard Barrett, the head of the United Nation's al-Qa'eda and Taliban Monitoring Team, said that al-Qa'eda's immediate ambition is to carve out a space where it is secure and protected, with better training facilities. It hopes to achieve that by working with the Taliban.
He warned too that al-Qa'eda is determined to strike the West again after suffering defeat in Iraq and reverses elsewhere. He said: "They keep on making warnings and from their point of view they have been unlucky with some recent attacks.
"We certainly shouldn't be complacent – they want something to happen, and they take a long view. They have suffered some reverses, but the idea of al-Qaeda is still potent."
A key al-Qaeda objective is to become more closely integrated with the Taliban. Mr Barrett said: "They have intermarried in villages, which provides them with a social glue. They can bring expertise and knowledge of the outside world which is lacking among the Taliban."
He warned that charismatic but uneducated young Pakistani leaders in the tribal areas can easily be influenced by al-Qaeda.
He said: "The West has to make it clear to the Pakistani Taliban that they will never be left alone while they are close to foreign Arab jihadis."
The most prominent jihadi of them all – Osama bin Laden – is almost certainly hiding somewhere in the tribal region, but it is unlikely that he will ever fall victim to a predator. He is thought to have survived for so long by being carefully guarded and by not making any phone calls or sending e-mails which could be tracked by the formidable US array of satellites and electronic surveillance equipment focused on the region. Such restraint is not an option for the hands-on terrorists who are still operating in Waziristan, making them more vulnerable than bin Laden to discovery and attack.
Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack
Western intelligence sources in Pakistan believe that al-Qa'eda's prize American recruit and propaganda chief may have been killed in a CIA-directed airstrike.
By Nick Meo
Last Updated: 12:52PM BST 07 Sep 2008
Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa'eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.
Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.
Mr Gadahn has been credited with helping transform al-Qa'eda's al-Sahab propaganda wing into a slick operation which communicates in fluent English and produces professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year.
But he may have fallen victim to an expanded programme of predator assassinations which in the last year has targeted and killed many of al-Qa'eda's military commanders, terrorist trainers and facilitators.
Jihadists around the world will be watching as closely as intelligence officials this week to see whether Mr Gadahn - also known as Azzam al-Ameriki - produces a new video message to mark September 11, as he has done every year since 2003.
If there is no message it will be taken as near certain confirmation that he is dead – killed either in a strike by Hellfire missiles, or perhaps by jihadi colleagues who have grown jealous of his success.
Mr Gadahn is now thought to have been killed in an attack launched from a remotely piloted aircraft in January which killed al-Qaeda's then military commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, in Mir Ali, Waziristan.
Al-Libi was the most prominent of a series of terrorist leaders to be killed in recent months. Abu Saeed al-Masri, who was implicated in attacks on Britain, was killed in July. Syrians, Somalis and Kuwaitis have also been killed.
Evan Kohlmann, an investigator with the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (Nefa) foundation which monitors terrorist groups, said: "Al-Qaeda acknowledges that several of its leaders have been taken out. There aren't that many experienced leaders left in the middle ranks and they are being replaced by younger guys with no credentials but lots of enthusiasm."
Experts now fear that younger leaders will attempt to prove themselves by launching bloody attacks such as a suicide bomb attack on workers at a munitions factory in Pakistan last month which killed 70.
Gadahn has taken on real importance as al-Qa'eda's best known Westerner. He also became the poster boy of would-be jihadis around the world who are radicalised on the internet - and identify with a former Orange County teenager who once reviewed heavy metal bands before finding radical Islam and travelling to Pakistan in 1998.
His rants about globalisation and the US mortgage meltdown struck a chord with the alienated loners who are targeted by al-Qaeda.
Mr Kohlmann said: "The people in the dark world of online jihad, the ones who watch the videos from Iraq, are the ones he speaks to. They are dangerous because they could become home-grown jihadis."
Another possibility being considered by intelligence officials is that Gadahn may have been killed by rivals, or demoted if jealous colleagues decided that he was too close to Osama bin Laden. Last year he appeared to have coached bin Laden for propaganda videos.
But his most likely fate seems to have been death by predator, the deadliest weapon against foreign terrorists on Pakistani soil.
The lawless tribal region along the Afghanistan border is still al-Qa'eda's main base. US troops cannot officially venture there, and the use of predators is highly controversial in Pakistan. Their use comprises a legal grey area but their attacks have become commonplace.
Refugee tribesmen from the Bajaur region in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province told The Sunday Telegraph that pilotless drones fly overhead constantly, hunting for Taliban and al-Qaeda targets. They are armed with Hellfire missiles which can be fired by an operator thousands of miles away in the United States.
Establishing exactly how many al-Qaeda targets have been killed in the lawless region is difficult, but Nefa believes dozens of mid-level leaders have died along with their bodyguards and followers. Many civilians have also been killed in attacks, causing huge anger in Pakistan.
But there are signs that despite the effectiveness of the assassination programme, al-Qa'eda is rebuilding its strength in Pakistan.
It has built an alliance with resurgent Taliban guerrillas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. New recruits - including some battle-hardened veterans who have withdrawn from the diminishing conflict in Iraq - are thought to be coming in from the Gulf, and the terrorist organisation stands to benefit from the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Richard Barrett, the head of the United Nation's al-Qa'eda and Taliban Monitoring Team, said that al-Qa'eda's immediate ambition is to carve out a space where it is secure and protected, with better training facilities. It hopes to achieve that by working with the Taliban.
He warned too that al-Qa'eda is determined to strike the West again after suffering defeat in Iraq and reverses elsewhere. He said: "They keep on making warnings and from their point of view they have been unlucky with some recent attacks.
"We certainly shouldn't be complacent – they want something to happen, and they take a long view. They have suffered some reverses, but the idea of al-Qaeda is still potent."
A key al-Qaeda objective is to become more closely integrated with the Taliban. Mr Barrett said: "They have intermarried in villages, which provides them with a social glue. They can bring expertise and knowledge of the outside world which is lacking among the Taliban."
He warned that charismatic but uneducated young Pakistani leaders in the tribal areas can easily be influenced by al-Qaeda.
He said: "The West has to make it clear to the Pakistani Taliban that they will never be left alone while they are close to foreign Arab jihadis."
The most prominent jihadi of them all – Osama bin Laden – is almost certainly hiding somewhere in the tribal region, but it is unlikely that he will ever fall victim to a predator. He is thought to have survived for so long by being carefully guarded and by not making any phone calls or sending e-mails which could be tracked by the formidable US array of satellites and electronic surveillance equipment focused on the region. Such restraint is not an option for the hands-on terrorists who are still operating in Waziristan, making them more vulnerable than bin Laden to discovery and attack.
Al Qaeda down but not out in S. Arabia, Yemen
Link
Al Qaeda down but not out in S. Arabia, Yemen
By Lydia Georgi
Agence France-Presse
DUBAI - Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, has largely neutralised local Al Qaeda militants but they cannot be written off so long as their "dogma" is alive, officials and experts say.
And a surge of Al Qaeda militancy in neighbouring Yemen shows that the fight against the group is not over in the Arabian Peninsula.
"Security forces have managed to bring the situation on the ground under control and have so far succeeded in foiling Al Qaeda's plots in the kingdom," said Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki.
"But this does not mean that Al Qaeda is finished. Al Qaeda still seeks to propagate its thinking and recruit youths in and outside the kingdom," he told AFP, echoing the cautious view often voiced by officials.
"A greater degree of international cooperation is required to defeat Al Qaeda everywhere," Turki added.
Saudi authorities periodically announce the arrest of scores of Saudi and foreign Al Qaeda suspects and the thwarting of plots to attack targets, including oil facilities.
Riyadh has waged a relentless crackdown against Islamist extremists since they launched a wave of attacks in the Gulf country in May 2003 - a jolt which many have called Saudi Arabia's "own September 11" in a reference to the 2001 attacks in the United States, in which 15 of 19 suicide hijackers were Saudis.
"It is true that in military terms Al Qaeda has been mostly dismantled in Saudi Arabia, but we haven't yet destroyed its dogma," said Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the Saudi daily Al Watan and an expert on the extremist group.
"It could hit back if we eased the pressure on it. Al Qaeda is not a mass movement, but a movement of select groups... and as long as Al Qaeda is able to recruit five or 10 people, we are still in danger," he said.
Khashoggi said Saudi Arabia has made some progress in fighting Al Qaeda's ideology through projects such as the "advice committee" of scholars who seek to wean youngsters from the group.
But "the ideological battle has not been won yet," as evidenced by the recurrent arrests of suspects, he said.
Sheikh Mohsen Al Awaji, a prominent Saudi Muslim cleric, said the threat from Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia has been "reduced to its lowest level" thanks to a three-pronged offensive.
First, security forces "struck with an iron fist at anyone who carried out subversive acts," which led to the elimination of the group's leaders, he told AFP.
Secondly, thinkers and scholars were enlisted to promote "sound alternative thinking" and they managed to "besiege the sources which feed Al Qaeda's ideology." Thirdly, "the sources of financing which used to reach Al Qaeda - either inadvertently from well-intentioned philanthropists or from people sharing the group's views - were dried up," according to Awaji, a moderate Islamist.
"True, it is the government that has led this effort. But it has done so with the assistance and support of everyone, even those who call for political reforms," he said, alluding to opposition activists.
"This is a national security issue." While Saudi Arabia seems to have put behind it the dark days when Western residents fled the country after a spate of attacks by the so-called "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," including the gruesome beheading of a US engineer in June 2004, its southern neighbour Yemen has in the past year faced an upsurge in Al Qaeda operations against both Western and local targets.
Authorities in Yemen, ancestral homeland of Saudi-born Al Qaeda chief Osama Ben Laden, have reported the arrest or killing of many Al Qaeda suspects in past months, including some who they said were plotting attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Both Sanaa and Riyadh have publicised their cooperation in fighting the militants.
"Al Qaeda looks for security gaps here or there," such as in Somalia, Khashoggi said.
"The problem with Yemen is that the government does not have full control over its territory," and there are de facto "autonomous areas," a situation which Al Qaeda takes advantage of.
"We shouldn't see it as a case of Al Qaeda regrouping as an army in Yemen... We're talking about dozens [of militants]. But they are still dangerous," not least because of their use of suicide attacks, he said.
Al Qaeda down but not out in S. Arabia, Yemen
By Lydia Georgi
Agence France-Presse
DUBAI - Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, has largely neutralised local Al Qaeda militants but they cannot be written off so long as their "dogma" is alive, officials and experts say.
And a surge of Al Qaeda militancy in neighbouring Yemen shows that the fight against the group is not over in the Arabian Peninsula.
"Security forces have managed to bring the situation on the ground under control and have so far succeeded in foiling Al Qaeda's plots in the kingdom," said Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki.
"But this does not mean that Al Qaeda is finished. Al Qaeda still seeks to propagate its thinking and recruit youths in and outside the kingdom," he told AFP, echoing the cautious view often voiced by officials.
"A greater degree of international cooperation is required to defeat Al Qaeda everywhere," Turki added.
Saudi authorities periodically announce the arrest of scores of Saudi and foreign Al Qaeda suspects and the thwarting of plots to attack targets, including oil facilities.
Riyadh has waged a relentless crackdown against Islamist extremists since they launched a wave of attacks in the Gulf country in May 2003 - a jolt which many have called Saudi Arabia's "own September 11" in a reference to the 2001 attacks in the United States, in which 15 of 19 suicide hijackers were Saudis.
"It is true that in military terms Al Qaeda has been mostly dismantled in Saudi Arabia, but we haven't yet destroyed its dogma," said Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the Saudi daily Al Watan and an expert on the extremist group.
"It could hit back if we eased the pressure on it. Al Qaeda is not a mass movement, but a movement of select groups... and as long as Al Qaeda is able to recruit five or 10 people, we are still in danger," he said.
Khashoggi said Saudi Arabia has made some progress in fighting Al Qaeda's ideology through projects such as the "advice committee" of scholars who seek to wean youngsters from the group.
But "the ideological battle has not been won yet," as evidenced by the recurrent arrests of suspects, he said.
Sheikh Mohsen Al Awaji, a prominent Saudi Muslim cleric, said the threat from Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia has been "reduced to its lowest level" thanks to a three-pronged offensive.
First, security forces "struck with an iron fist at anyone who carried out subversive acts," which led to the elimination of the group's leaders, he told AFP.
Secondly, thinkers and scholars were enlisted to promote "sound alternative thinking" and they managed to "besiege the sources which feed Al Qaeda's ideology." Thirdly, "the sources of financing which used to reach Al Qaeda - either inadvertently from well-intentioned philanthropists or from people sharing the group's views - were dried up," according to Awaji, a moderate Islamist.
"True, it is the government that has led this effort. But it has done so with the assistance and support of everyone, even those who call for political reforms," he said, alluding to opposition activists.
"This is a national security issue." While Saudi Arabia seems to have put behind it the dark days when Western residents fled the country after a spate of attacks by the so-called "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," including the gruesome beheading of a US engineer in June 2004, its southern neighbour Yemen has in the past year faced an upsurge in Al Qaeda operations against both Western and local targets.
Authorities in Yemen, ancestral homeland of Saudi-born Al Qaeda chief Osama Ben Laden, have reported the arrest or killing of many Al Qaeda suspects in past months, including some who they said were plotting attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Both Sanaa and Riyadh have publicised their cooperation in fighting the militants.
"Al Qaeda looks for security gaps here or there," such as in Somalia, Khashoggi said.
"The problem with Yemen is that the government does not have full control over its territory," and there are de facto "autonomous areas," a situation which Al Qaeda takes advantage of.
"We shouldn't see it as a case of Al Qaeda regrouping as an army in Yemen... We're talking about dozens [of militants]. But they are still dangerous," not least because of their use of suicide attacks, he said.
Al Qaida 'lacks leadership'
Link
Al Qaida 'lacks leadership'
By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
Published: September 08, 2008, 23:50
Sana'a: Al Qaida activists in Yemen do not follow Osama Bin Laden, Nasser Al Bahri, a former bodyguard of Bin Laden, told Gulf News.
The 33-year old Al Bahri, also known as Abu Jandal, joined Al Qaida in 1996 and spent four years in Afghan-istan. He had orders to kill Bin Laden if his boss was on the brink of being captured.
Al Bahri was arrested at Sana'a airport on his way back to Afghanistan, on suspicion of being involved in the suicide bombing of the American destroyer USS Cole in September 2000.
Interrogation
Al Bahri had spent nearly two years in prison and was interrogated by US Federal Bureau of Investigation officers.
He was released in 2002, along with other Al Qaida members, after making a pledge to the government that they would not be involved in armed activity inside Yemen.
Al Bahri plans to establish a think-tank on jihad in the Yemeni capital, where he lives under house arrest. He is now looking to fund his new venture, which he claims has the backing of the Yemeni authorities.
While the younger generation of Al Qaida accuses Al Bahri of betrayal for his refusal to carry out operations in Yemen, Al Bahri claims Bin Laden had condemned using Yemen as a battleground.
"Osama Bin Laden has a clear strategic vision, but the groups who call themselves Al Qaida aren't organised. There is no new generation and there is no effective leadership in Yemen," Al Bahri explained.
Loose links
"Qasim Al Raymi and Nasser Al Wahayshi don't understand what Osama wants," said Al Bahri, in reference to the two self-proclaimed leaders of Al Qaida in Yemen. Al Bahri admits that the duo may be loosely connected to Osama, but those links are very weak.
Al Raymi, Al Wahayshi and a third operator are the last who are still at large out of the 23 Al Qaida activists who escaped from a maximum-security prison here in February 2006. Fifteen of them were either arrested or they surrendered, and five were killed in raids.
Al Qaida 'lacks leadership'
By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
Published: September 08, 2008, 23:50
Sana'a: Al Qaida activists in Yemen do not follow Osama Bin Laden, Nasser Al Bahri, a former bodyguard of Bin Laden, told Gulf News.
The 33-year old Al Bahri, also known as Abu Jandal, joined Al Qaida in 1996 and spent four years in Afghan-istan. He had orders to kill Bin Laden if his boss was on the brink of being captured.
Al Bahri was arrested at Sana'a airport on his way back to Afghanistan, on suspicion of being involved in the suicide bombing of the American destroyer USS Cole in September 2000.
Interrogation
Al Bahri had spent nearly two years in prison and was interrogated by US Federal Bureau of Investigation officers.
He was released in 2002, along with other Al Qaida members, after making a pledge to the government that they would not be involved in armed activity inside Yemen.
Al Bahri plans to establish a think-tank on jihad in the Yemeni capital, where he lives under house arrest. He is now looking to fund his new venture, which he claims has the backing of the Yemeni authorities.
While the younger generation of Al Qaida accuses Al Bahri of betrayal for his refusal to carry out operations in Yemen, Al Bahri claims Bin Laden had condemned using Yemen as a battleground.
"Osama Bin Laden has a clear strategic vision, but the groups who call themselves Al Qaida aren't organised. There is no new generation and there is no effective leadership in Yemen," Al Bahri explained.
Loose links
"Qasim Al Raymi and Nasser Al Wahayshi don't understand what Osama wants," said Al Bahri, in reference to the two self-proclaimed leaders of Al Qaida in Yemen. Al Bahri admits that the duo may be loosely connected to Osama, but those links are very weak.
Al Raymi, Al Wahayshi and a third operator are the last who are still at large out of the 23 Al Qaida activists who escaped from a maximum-security prison here in February 2006. Fifteen of them were either arrested or they surrendered, and five were killed in raids.
Car Bomb Found in London 20 Days After al Qaeda Suicide Bomber 'Graduation Ceremony'
Link
Car Bomb Found in London 20 Days After al Qaeda Suicide Bomber 'Graduation Ceremony'
June 29, 2007 7:02 AM
Brian Ross Reports:
London_mercedes_main The discovery of a massive car bomb set to detonate in central London comes just three weeks after what was described as an al Qaeda graduation ceremony of suicide bomb teams to be dispatched to Europe and the United States.
A videotape obtained by ABC News from a Pakistani journalist shows groups of dozens of men al Qaeda says have gone through a terror training camp somewhere in Pakistan.
Photos: Inside the al Qaeda 'Graduation'
Teams of 50 to 60 men were supposedly dispatched to the United States, Canada, Germany and Great Britain.
Abc_aqtaliban_british_logo_070618_s On the tape, the leader of the British team speaks of the mission in broken English, "Let me say something about why we are going along with my team to tell a suicide attack in Britain."
That was just 20 days ago, and the existence of the tape first reported by ABC News put British and German security experts on edge.
It was also just last year that al Qaeda operative, Dhiren Barot, was convicted in a London court of planning suicide attacks in London and the U.S., using limousines and other vehicles, not unlike the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes discovered in London this morning.
Based on the early sketchy details, the car bomb was potentially powerful but relatively crude.
The great concern now is that if it is an al Qaeda operation, something that is still not known, but if it is, there would likely be other vehicle bombs in the works.
Today British officials are continuing a program begun earlier this month to check gas and chemical trucks, cement trucks and limousines and all vehicles coming and going from the famed Wimbledon tennis tournament now underway outside London.
Car Bomb Found in London 20 Days After al Qaeda Suicide Bomber 'Graduation Ceremony'
June 29, 2007 7:02 AM
Brian Ross Reports:
London_mercedes_main The discovery of a massive car bomb set to detonate in central London comes just three weeks after what was described as an al Qaeda graduation ceremony of suicide bomb teams to be dispatched to Europe and the United States.
A videotape obtained by ABC News from a Pakistani journalist shows groups of dozens of men al Qaeda says have gone through a terror training camp somewhere in Pakistan.
Photos: Inside the al Qaeda 'Graduation'
Teams of 50 to 60 men were supposedly dispatched to the United States, Canada, Germany and Great Britain.
Abc_aqtaliban_british_logo_070618_s On the tape, the leader of the British team speaks of the mission in broken English, "Let me say something about why we are going along with my team to tell a suicide attack in Britain."
That was just 20 days ago, and the existence of the tape first reported by ABC News put British and German security experts on edge.
It was also just last year that al Qaeda operative, Dhiren Barot, was convicted in a London court of planning suicide attacks in London and the U.S., using limousines and other vehicles, not unlike the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes discovered in London this morning.
Based on the early sketchy details, the car bomb was potentially powerful but relatively crude.
The great concern now is that if it is an al Qaeda operation, something that is still not known, but if it is, there would likely be other vehicle bombs in the works.
Today British officials are continuing a program begun earlier this month to check gas and chemical trucks, cement trucks and limousines and all vehicles coming and going from the famed Wimbledon tennis tournament now underway outside London.
Bin Laden Threatens Americans in First Video Message in Three Years
Link
Bin Laden Threatens Americans in First Video Message in Three Years
September 07, 2007 3:09 PM
From The Blotter:
Osama_2007_transcript2_main Osama bin Laden's rambling address includes a direct threat to the American people.
There are only two options to end the war in Iraq: either end the American democratic system of government, or for insurgents, he says, "to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you."
World News Video: Watch Bin Laden's New Video Message
The al Qaeda leader refers to Democrats' gains in the November 2006 elections, saying they "haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there."
The reason, he says, is the American democracy is corrupted by the influence of money from corporations, "the true tyrannical terrorists."
"[S]ince the democratic system permits major corporations to back candidates. . . there shouldn’t be any cause for astonishment. . . the Democrats’ failure to stop the war," bin Laden says. He also says that "despite the differing intentions," his interests overlap with corporations and others who perpetuate the war.
Bin Laden also has harsh words for the U.S. news media, which "lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires" with its early coverage of the Iraq war. That coverage, he says, was often worse than what was produced by news outlets under dictatorial regimes.
He also mentions French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who came to power in May and at the end of June, respectively.
Bin Laden does refer to the Sept. 11 attacks. He criticizes Americans for not holding "those who waged this war" accountable and for re-electing President Bush "to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"Then you claim to be innocent!" he says. "The innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 9/11 -- were I to claim such a thing."
Bin Laden emphasized the tolerance Islamic countries have shown Jews and Christians in history, contrasting that with the Jewish holocaust and the slaughter of Native Americans in North America. Ultimately, bin Laden says, everyone should convert to Islam.
This is the al Qaeda's leader first video message since October 2004.
Bin Laden Threatens Americans in First Video Message in Three Years
September 07, 2007 3:09 PM
From The Blotter:
Osama_2007_transcript2_main Osama bin Laden's rambling address includes a direct threat to the American people.
There are only two options to end the war in Iraq: either end the American democratic system of government, or for insurgents, he says, "to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you."
World News Video: Watch Bin Laden's New Video Message
The al Qaeda leader refers to Democrats' gains in the November 2006 elections, saying they "haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there."
The reason, he says, is the American democracy is corrupted by the influence of money from corporations, "the true tyrannical terrorists."
"[S]ince the democratic system permits major corporations to back candidates. . . there shouldn’t be any cause for astonishment. . . the Democrats’ failure to stop the war," bin Laden says. He also says that "despite the differing intentions," his interests overlap with corporations and others who perpetuate the war.
Bin Laden also has harsh words for the U.S. news media, which "lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires" with its early coverage of the Iraq war. That coverage, he says, was often worse than what was produced by news outlets under dictatorial regimes.
He also mentions French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who came to power in May and at the end of June, respectively.
Bin Laden does refer to the Sept. 11 attacks. He criticizes Americans for not holding "those who waged this war" accountable and for re-electing President Bush "to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"Then you claim to be innocent!" he says. "The innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 9/11 -- were I to claim such a thing."
Bin Laden emphasized the tolerance Islamic countries have shown Jews and Christians in history, contrasting that with the Jewish holocaust and the slaughter of Native Americans in North America. Ultimately, bin Laden says, everyone should convert to Islam.
This is the al Qaeda's leader first video message since October 2004.
UK jury finds 3 men guilty in bombing plot in liquids plot
Link
UK jury finds 3 men guilty in bombing plot
September 9th, 2008 Sana · No Comments
Source: The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Three British Muslims with ties to Pakistan were found guilty Monday of conspiracy to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign but jurors failed to reach a verdict on whether they plotted to blow up multiple trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
The failure to get convictions on the more serious charges was a major setback to the British government, which has struggled to put suspected terrorists behind bars with intelligence from multiple countries.
Last month, government prosecutors failed to convict three other men of helping to plan the deadly London transit bombings of 2005 — the worst attack on Britain’s capital since World War II.
In Monday’s decision, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and co-conspirators Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted of trying to make a bomb out of hydrogen peroxide.
But the jury struggled to find enough evidence to support prosecutors’ claims that the men planned suicide attacks targeting passenger jets flying from London to major North American cities.
The three will be sentenced at a later date.
The men were arrested on Aug. 10, 2006 — a date that would go down in history as the day when air travel changed dramatically.
Airports in the United States and Europe ground to a halt with hundreds of flights canceled over security concerns. Planes were stuck on runways for hours. Tempers flared as passengers lined up to surrender carry-on items under new security precautions that severely restricted the quantity of liquids in their luggage — limits that remain in place until today.
Prosecutors said they would consider a request for retrial of the three men. The jury failed to reach verdicts Monday on four other men facing the same charges — Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. Prosecutors would consider a retrial for them as well.
An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was found not guilty.
Prosecutor Peter Wright said during the trial that the men planned to attack United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights at the height of the 2006 summer vacation season.
British and US intelligence officers said the alleged plot was uncovered during a marathon investigation that led to a number of different sites including a bomb factory in eastern London, British woodlands where chemicals had been dumped, Japan, Mauritius, South Africa and Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas where conversations were intercepted.
Police swooped down and arrested two dozen suspects in dawn raids across Britain on Aug. 10, 2006.
A lawyer for Ali, a 27-year-old computer-systems engineering graduate and the alleged ringleader of the group, insisted last month he was guilty only of planning a childish stunt to make a political point.
Ali told the court they planned to set off a small bomb at a site such as the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Airport to advertise a propaganda documentary protesting the West’s actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He denied intending to kill anyone.
“It was childish, it was stupid, but it is not murder,” the lawyer, Nadine Radford, said during a July hearing.
Ali, Sarwar and Hussain pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions. All eight defendants denied conspiracy to murder.
Prosecutors claim the liquid explosives plot to blow up airlines had probably been inspired by both the Sept. 11 attacks and the July 2005 London transit bombings, although they do not allege the men had direct links to al-Qaida.
The prosecutor Wright told the court police found a computer memory stick in Ali’s pocket with details of flights from London’s Heathrow Airport to Chicago, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Montreal.
Prosecutors also say the men had stockpiled enough hydrogen peroxide to create 20 liquid bombs, although they did not create any viable explosives, and no date had been chosen for the attacks.
Several plotters were awaiting fresh passports free of Pakistani visa stamps to avoid suspicion.
Ali had visited Pakistan in early 2006, as had Tanvir Hussain, Arafat Khan, and Sarwar. Security officials said Sarwar flew to Islamabad in June 2006 and likely discussed final details of the plot with al-Qaida organizers.
All the accused men except Gulzar and Assad Sarwar recorded videos where they denounced Western policies in Iraq and Afghanistan during venomous tirades.
“The time has come for you to be destroyed,” Ali said, pointing an accusatory finger at the camera.
The men allegedly planned to add food dye to the liquid explosives to mimic the color of soft drinks, and to put pornographic magazines in their luggage to rattle security guards who opened bags.
Investigators said Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, an Egyptian regarded by both U.S. and British intelligence as a senior al-Qaida organizer in Pakistan, was one of the key organizers of the airliner plot.
Al-Masri, who officials say died of hepatitis in Pakistan last December, is also suspected of having a role in orchestrating the July 7, 2005 bombing attacks on London transit, which killed 52 subway and bus commuters.
Rashid Rauf, a British-born baker’s son — was a key link between the U.K. and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and arrested soon after al-Masri give the final go-ahead, officials said
A former university roommate of Gulzar, he escaped from Pakistani police guards in December and is still at large. British officials want to question him over the 2002 murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in central England.
Security officials remain convinced that al-Qaida and other terror networks are still obsessed with airline plots because of the potential death tolls and spectacular nature of such attacks.
The jury in the case of three men accused of helping to plan the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings was dismissed in August after failing to reach a verdict. Prosecutors said at the time that they wanted a retrial of Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem, and Mohammed Shakil — the only people charged over the attacks on the British capital’s transit network.
UK jury finds 3 men guilty in bombing plot
September 9th, 2008 Sana · No Comments
Source: The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Three British Muslims with ties to Pakistan were found guilty Monday of conspiracy to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign but jurors failed to reach a verdict on whether they plotted to blow up multiple trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
The failure to get convictions on the more serious charges was a major setback to the British government, which has struggled to put suspected terrorists behind bars with intelligence from multiple countries.
Last month, government prosecutors failed to convict three other men of helping to plan the deadly London transit bombings of 2005 — the worst attack on Britain’s capital since World War II.
In Monday’s decision, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and co-conspirators Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted of trying to make a bomb out of hydrogen peroxide.
But the jury struggled to find enough evidence to support prosecutors’ claims that the men planned suicide attacks targeting passenger jets flying from London to major North American cities.
The three will be sentenced at a later date.
The men were arrested on Aug. 10, 2006 — a date that would go down in history as the day when air travel changed dramatically.
Airports in the United States and Europe ground to a halt with hundreds of flights canceled over security concerns. Planes were stuck on runways for hours. Tempers flared as passengers lined up to surrender carry-on items under new security precautions that severely restricted the quantity of liquids in their luggage — limits that remain in place until today.
Prosecutors said they would consider a request for retrial of the three men. The jury failed to reach verdicts Monday on four other men facing the same charges — Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. Prosecutors would consider a retrial for them as well.
An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was found not guilty.
Prosecutor Peter Wright said during the trial that the men planned to attack United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights at the height of the 2006 summer vacation season.
British and US intelligence officers said the alleged plot was uncovered during a marathon investigation that led to a number of different sites including a bomb factory in eastern London, British woodlands where chemicals had been dumped, Japan, Mauritius, South Africa and Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas where conversations were intercepted.
Police swooped down and arrested two dozen suspects in dawn raids across Britain on Aug. 10, 2006.
A lawyer for Ali, a 27-year-old computer-systems engineering graduate and the alleged ringleader of the group, insisted last month he was guilty only of planning a childish stunt to make a political point.
Ali told the court they planned to set off a small bomb at a site such as the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Airport to advertise a propaganda documentary protesting the West’s actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He denied intending to kill anyone.
“It was childish, it was stupid, but it is not murder,” the lawyer, Nadine Radford, said during a July hearing.
Ali, Sarwar and Hussain pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions. All eight defendants denied conspiracy to murder.
Prosecutors claim the liquid explosives plot to blow up airlines had probably been inspired by both the Sept. 11 attacks and the July 2005 London transit bombings, although they do not allege the men had direct links to al-Qaida.
The prosecutor Wright told the court police found a computer memory stick in Ali’s pocket with details of flights from London’s Heathrow Airport to Chicago, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Montreal.
Prosecutors also say the men had stockpiled enough hydrogen peroxide to create 20 liquid bombs, although they did not create any viable explosives, and no date had been chosen for the attacks.
Several plotters were awaiting fresh passports free of Pakistani visa stamps to avoid suspicion.
Ali had visited Pakistan in early 2006, as had Tanvir Hussain, Arafat Khan, and Sarwar. Security officials said Sarwar flew to Islamabad in June 2006 and likely discussed final details of the plot with al-Qaida organizers.
All the accused men except Gulzar and Assad Sarwar recorded videos where they denounced Western policies in Iraq and Afghanistan during venomous tirades.
“The time has come for you to be destroyed,” Ali said, pointing an accusatory finger at the camera.
The men allegedly planned to add food dye to the liquid explosives to mimic the color of soft drinks, and to put pornographic magazines in their luggage to rattle security guards who opened bags.
Investigators said Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, an Egyptian regarded by both U.S. and British intelligence as a senior al-Qaida organizer in Pakistan, was one of the key organizers of the airliner plot.
Al-Masri, who officials say died of hepatitis in Pakistan last December, is also suspected of having a role in orchestrating the July 7, 2005 bombing attacks on London transit, which killed 52 subway and bus commuters.
Rashid Rauf, a British-born baker’s son — was a key link between the U.K. and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and arrested soon after al-Masri give the final go-ahead, officials said
A former university roommate of Gulzar, he escaped from Pakistani police guards in December and is still at large. British officials want to question him over the 2002 murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in central England.
Security officials remain convinced that al-Qaida and other terror networks are still obsessed with airline plots because of the potential death tolls and spectacular nature of such attacks.
The jury in the case of three men accused of helping to plan the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings was dismissed in August after failing to reach a verdict. Prosecutors said at the time that they wanted a retrial of Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem, and Mohammed Shakil — the only people charged over the attacks on the British capital’s transit network.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen Reorganizes under Nasir al-Wahayshi
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Al-Qaeda in Yemen Reorganizes under Nasir al-Wahayshi
By Gregory D. Johnsen
The man most responsible for the growing strength of al-Qaeda in Yemen is a 32-year-old former secretary of Osama bin Laden named Nasir al-Wahayshi. He took over the leadership of the group when it had all but been eliminated, and has slowly, over the past two years, resurrected al-Qaeda in Yemen.
The publication of the second issue of Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Battles) on March 13 illustrates the degree to which al-Qaeda has reconstituted and reorganized itself in Yemen. The most recent issue of the online journal was released exactly two months after the first issue was posted on various websites and devoted blogs. But already there have been significant changes to the journal. No longer is it published by al-Qaeda in Yemen, but rather by “the al-Qaeda Organization of Jihad in the South of the Arabian Peninsula.” There is also a certainty of tone and authority to the second issue that was lacking in the first. For example, the journal denied that a January interview between a local Yemeni paper and an individual claiming to be al-Qaeda in Yemen’s Information Officer was legitimate. “We say that we are the al-Qaeda organization of Jihad in the South of the Arabian Peninsula, and that the callers are ignorant of the situation and have no relationship with the organization.” All of this speaks to an increasingly centralized leadership within the group’s ranks in Yemen.
In November 2002, the organization lost its leader, Abu Ali al-Harithi, in a CIA attack. A year later, al-Qaeda in Yemen seemed defunct after the capture of al-Harithi’s replacement, Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal. Coincidentally, it was at this time, when al-Qaeda in Yemen reached bottom in November 2003, that al-Wahayshi was returned to Yemen as part of an extradition agreement with Iran (al-Ghad, June 25, 2007). Concentrated efforts by the U.S. and Yemeni governments, various alternative programs, and the lure of the war in Iraq all contributed to more than two years of relative calm in Yemen. But all that changed in February 2006, when al-Wahayshi and 22 other prisoners escaped from a political security prison in San‘a (Reuters, February 15, 2006). The escape marked the beginning of the second phase in the war against al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Along with his most trusted lieutenant, Qasim al-Raymi—also known by the kunya (honorific or war-name) of Abu Hurayrah al-San‘ani—al-Wahayshi has completely rebuilt the organization, which is much more ordered now than it was under al-Harithi in 2002. The initial process of rebuilding was slow and it is unclear whether al-Wahayshi was commanding the group’s operations before he was officially announced as al-Qaeda in Yemen’s leader in June 2007 (al-Wasat, June 27, 2007); but since then he has consolidated control of the group, and now appears to be firmly in command.
Al-Wahayshi authored a lengthy narrative detailing the prison break, which, in the absence of any official descriptions, has served as the most widely accepted version of the escape (republished by al-Ghad, June 25, 2007 and July 7, 2007). Al-Wahayshi, who is known by the kunya Abu Basir, also eulogized Abu Layth al-Libi, the al-Qaeda commander who was killed in late January in Pakistan, in the most recent issue of Sada al-Malahim. Part of this eulogy may help to explain why al-Wahayshi was selected as the group’s leader in 2007. Early in his statement he lists a series of al-Qaeda figures who have been killed including men such as Abu Hafs, Abu Abaydah, and Abu Ali al-Harithi; implicit in this is not only his duty to speak about al-Libi as the group’s commander, but also his connection to these early al-Qaeda figures through his time at bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan.
It is unclear exactly when during the 1990s al-Wahayshi left his home in the southern governorate of al-Baydah to travel to Afghanistan, where he eventually became one of bin Laden’s secretaries. But al-Wahayshi has certainly played up his personal links to bin Laden, which appear to have impressed the relatively young men who now constitute al-Qaeda in Yemen’s second generation. This personal connection to the early figures of al-Qaeda in the late 1990s seems to have acted as implicit endorsement of his qualifications as a leader. It could be said that his authority has been certified by his association with the first generation of al-Qaeda.
Following the U.S. attack on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in late 2001, al-Wahayshi escaped across the border to Iran where he was arrested. He was later extradited back to Yemen along with eight other Yemenis in November 2003. Yemen never officially brought charges against him, but he remained in prison until his escape in February 2006. The years in Iranian and Yemeni prisons seem to have hardened him. He has complained of torture in Yemeni prisons, and threatened to repay those who torture his comrades with death (al-Ghad, June 25, 2007; News Yemen, July 2, 2007). Al-Wahayshi has also accused older members of al-Qaeda of making deals with the Yemeni government. This no-holds-barred approach is a relatively new one in Yemen, where negotiation and compromise are much more common methods. The underlying philosophy that al-Wahayshi has instituted among his followers in Yemen is articulated in the most recent issue of Sada al-Malahim: “Jihad is a religious duty that God has made incumbent.” This type of reasoning leaves no room for negotiation, and this is exactly the stance that al-Qaeda in Yemen under al-Wahayshi has adopted. Under his leadership, al-Qaeda in Yemen has become more strident, better organized and more ambitious than it has ever been before.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen Reorganizes under Nasir al-Wahayshi
By Gregory D. Johnsen
The man most responsible for the growing strength of al-Qaeda in Yemen is a 32-year-old former secretary of Osama bin Laden named Nasir al-Wahayshi. He took over the leadership of the group when it had all but been eliminated, and has slowly, over the past two years, resurrected al-Qaeda in Yemen.
The publication of the second issue of Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Battles) on March 13 illustrates the degree to which al-Qaeda has reconstituted and reorganized itself in Yemen. The most recent issue of the online journal was released exactly two months after the first issue was posted on various websites and devoted blogs. But already there have been significant changes to the journal. No longer is it published by al-Qaeda in Yemen, but rather by “the al-Qaeda Organization of Jihad in the South of the Arabian Peninsula.” There is also a certainty of tone and authority to the second issue that was lacking in the first. For example, the journal denied that a January interview between a local Yemeni paper and an individual claiming to be al-Qaeda in Yemen’s Information Officer was legitimate. “We say that we are the al-Qaeda organization of Jihad in the South of the Arabian Peninsula, and that the callers are ignorant of the situation and have no relationship with the organization.” All of this speaks to an increasingly centralized leadership within the group’s ranks in Yemen.
In November 2002, the organization lost its leader, Abu Ali al-Harithi, in a CIA attack. A year later, al-Qaeda in Yemen seemed defunct after the capture of al-Harithi’s replacement, Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal. Coincidentally, it was at this time, when al-Qaeda in Yemen reached bottom in November 2003, that al-Wahayshi was returned to Yemen as part of an extradition agreement with Iran (al-Ghad, June 25, 2007). Concentrated efforts by the U.S. and Yemeni governments, various alternative programs, and the lure of the war in Iraq all contributed to more than two years of relative calm in Yemen. But all that changed in February 2006, when al-Wahayshi and 22 other prisoners escaped from a political security prison in San‘a (Reuters, February 15, 2006). The escape marked the beginning of the second phase in the war against al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Along with his most trusted lieutenant, Qasim al-Raymi—also known by the kunya (honorific or war-name) of Abu Hurayrah al-San‘ani—al-Wahayshi has completely rebuilt the organization, which is much more ordered now than it was under al-Harithi in 2002. The initial process of rebuilding was slow and it is unclear whether al-Wahayshi was commanding the group’s operations before he was officially announced as al-Qaeda in Yemen’s leader in June 2007 (al-Wasat, June 27, 2007); but since then he has consolidated control of the group, and now appears to be firmly in command.
Al-Wahayshi authored a lengthy narrative detailing the prison break, which, in the absence of any official descriptions, has served as the most widely accepted version of the escape (republished by al-Ghad, June 25, 2007 and July 7, 2007). Al-Wahayshi, who is known by the kunya Abu Basir, also eulogized Abu Layth al-Libi, the al-Qaeda commander who was killed in late January in Pakistan, in the most recent issue of Sada al-Malahim. Part of this eulogy may help to explain why al-Wahayshi was selected as the group’s leader in 2007. Early in his statement he lists a series of al-Qaeda figures who have been killed including men such as Abu Hafs, Abu Abaydah, and Abu Ali al-Harithi; implicit in this is not only his duty to speak about al-Libi as the group’s commander, but also his connection to these early al-Qaeda figures through his time at bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan.
It is unclear exactly when during the 1990s al-Wahayshi left his home in the southern governorate of al-Baydah to travel to Afghanistan, where he eventually became one of bin Laden’s secretaries. But al-Wahayshi has certainly played up his personal links to bin Laden, which appear to have impressed the relatively young men who now constitute al-Qaeda in Yemen’s second generation. This personal connection to the early figures of al-Qaeda in the late 1990s seems to have acted as implicit endorsement of his qualifications as a leader. It could be said that his authority has been certified by his association with the first generation of al-Qaeda.
Following the U.S. attack on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in late 2001, al-Wahayshi escaped across the border to Iran where he was arrested. He was later extradited back to Yemen along with eight other Yemenis in November 2003. Yemen never officially brought charges against him, but he remained in prison until his escape in February 2006. The years in Iranian and Yemeni prisons seem to have hardened him. He has complained of torture in Yemeni prisons, and threatened to repay those who torture his comrades with death (al-Ghad, June 25, 2007; News Yemen, July 2, 2007). Al-Wahayshi has also accused older members of al-Qaeda of making deals with the Yemeni government. This no-holds-barred approach is a relatively new one in Yemen, where negotiation and compromise are much more common methods. The underlying philosophy that al-Wahayshi has instituted among his followers in Yemen is articulated in the most recent issue of Sada al-Malahim: “Jihad is a religious duty that God has made incumbent.” This type of reasoning leaves no room for negotiation, and this is exactly the stance that al-Qaeda in Yemen under al-Wahayshi has adopted. Under his leadership, al-Qaeda in Yemen has become more strident, better organized and more ambitious than it has ever been before.
MS-13/Al-Qaeda Connection
Link
MS-13/Al-Qaeda Connection
Tuesday , June 06, 2006
MATAMOROS, MEXICO -- The chief officer of the American Consulate in the border city of Matamoros says he is concerned about the Central American Mara Salvatrucha gang helping al-Qaeda.
Consul John Naland made his remarks following the arrest Feb. 24 of an MS-13 gang member in Matamoros trying to smuggle three illegal aliens into the United States. The arrest comes on the heels of the American government acknowledging last week it was holding Ebner Anibal Rivera-Paz - the reputed head of the Honduran Mara Salvatrucha organization - after his arrest in Falfurrias, Texas on Feb. 10.
"The Maras are certainly a threat to the United States," Naland said. "The concern is that they might be just the kind of group which would take money to smuggle an honest-to-goodness terrorist into the United States.
"There has been some intelligence that al-Qaeda has talked with the Maras to help smuggle someone in to the U.S.," Naland added. "It's kind of the logical open door that could be used and the Maras are just ruthless enough to do it."
Gang experts in Matamoros say the Mara Salvatrucha are a "transit-gang" in the area, only interested in transporting drugs and people for profit.
Congressman Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) says others in the American government have heard rumors about the al-Qaeda/MS-13 union, but confirmation has not been easy to pin down.
"Some people who are witnesses to these meetings will not confirm or deny because they are concerned not only for their lives but also the safety of their own country," Ortiz said.
Ortiz adds that MS-13 are practically everyhere in the United States, spreading like a cancer. The Salvatrucha gang is believed to have members in at least 16 states, including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Utah.
Ortiz doesn't discount what the groups could be capable of doing. He says the recent capture of Rivera-Paz is a measure of how vicious the MS-13 gang can be. The gang leader is wanted in his native Honduras for the murders of 28 people two days before Christmas.
"If he was to do that to people he knows," Ortiz said. "Can you imagine what he's capable of doing here in the U.S. for the right amount of money paid to him?"
MS-13/Al-Qaeda Connection
Tuesday , June 06, 2006
MATAMOROS, MEXICO -- The chief officer of the American Consulate in the border city of Matamoros says he is concerned about the Central American Mara Salvatrucha gang helping al-Qaeda.
Consul John Naland made his remarks following the arrest Feb. 24 of an MS-13 gang member in Matamoros trying to smuggle three illegal aliens into the United States. The arrest comes on the heels of the American government acknowledging last week it was holding Ebner Anibal Rivera-Paz - the reputed head of the Honduran Mara Salvatrucha organization - after his arrest in Falfurrias, Texas on Feb. 10.
"The Maras are certainly a threat to the United States," Naland said. "The concern is that they might be just the kind of group which would take money to smuggle an honest-to-goodness terrorist into the United States.
"There has been some intelligence that al-Qaeda has talked with the Maras to help smuggle someone in to the U.S.," Naland added. "It's kind of the logical open door that could be used and the Maras are just ruthless enough to do it."
Gang experts in Matamoros say the Mara Salvatrucha are a "transit-gang" in the area, only interested in transporting drugs and people for profit.
Congressman Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) says others in the American government have heard rumors about the al-Qaeda/MS-13 union, but confirmation has not been easy to pin down.
"Some people who are witnesses to these meetings will not confirm or deny because they are concerned not only for their lives but also the safety of their own country," Ortiz said.
Ortiz adds that MS-13 are practically everyhere in the United States, spreading like a cancer. The Salvatrucha gang is believed to have members in at least 16 states, including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Utah.
Ortiz doesn't discount what the groups could be capable of doing. He says the recent capture of Rivera-Paz is a measure of how vicious the MS-13 gang can be. The gang leader is wanted in his native Honduras for the murders of 28 people two days before Christmas.
"If he was to do that to people he knows," Ortiz said. "Can you imagine what he's capable of doing here in the U.S. for the right amount of money paid to him?"
From Chicago Gang to Possible Al Qaeda Ties
Link
June 11, 2002
TRACES OF TERROR: THE BOMB SUSPECT; From Chicago Gang to Possible Al Qaeda Ties
By JODI WILGOREN WITH JO THOMAS
The man suspected of plotting a radioactive bomb attack, a Brooklyn-born Hispanic Catholic who converted to Islam when he married a Middle Eastern woman, had a lengthy criminal record in two states. The record started with an arrest in connection with a murder when he was a teenager, according to law enforcement officials and court records.
In 1985, the man, born Jose Padilla to Puerto Rican parents but later known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, told the police that after his friend stabbed a stranger in a Chicago alley, Mr. Padilla, who was 14, kicked the victim in the head ''because he felt like it,'' a police report said. While in jail in Florida in 1992, Mr. Padilla pushed an officer and said, ''If you touch me, you don't know what I'll do to you,'' recalled the officer, Marc Albino of the Broward County Sheriff's Department.
Mr. Padilla, now 31, served time in a juvenile detention center in Illinois and later in a Florida prison, though neighbors here and on Long Island, where he lived with his pregnant wife in 1994, remembered him as quiet and good-natured.
''He has the same face he did when he was a child,'' Norma Leon, 47, said this afternoon after seeing his photograph on the Internet. For a decade Ms. Leon shared a house with Mr. Padilla's family in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.
''I don't believe it,'' she said, ''but then again, people do change.''
Donna Newman, a New York lawyer who represented Mr. Padilla from his arrest on May 8 on a material witness warrant at O'Hare International Airport until his transfer this weekend to a military brig in South Carolina, said, ''The issue is civil liberties, and that's the real issue because he is an American.''
She added, ''It's very strange indeed when the defense counsel is not told he is being moved,'' Ms. Newman added.
The story of how a Chicago street criminal may have become an operative for Al Qaeda baffled law enforcement officials and gang experts. Mr. Padilla's path is strikingly different from that of John Walker Lindh, the American who the government says joined the Taliban after growing up in a liberal, affluent family in California's Bay Area before traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan to find himself through Islam. Though many blacks become Muslims while in prison, conversions are rare among Hispanic gang members. Mr. Padilla's mother, Estrela Ortega-LeBron, had told friends that her son joined a cult.
Victor Olds, Ms. Ortega-LeBron's lawyer, said that today's announcement regarding the so-called dirty bomb plot ''caught her off guard'' and that before Mr. Padilla's arrest at O'Hare, where he arrived from Pakistan, via Zurich, with $10,000, his mother, who lives in Florida, ''thought he was coming home to visit the family.''
''She knows that he was in the Middle East for a while,'' Mr. Olds said, ''but there is nothing else she knows.''
A high-ranking law enforcement official in New York said that Mr. Padilla had hatched a plan for exploding a dirty bomb himself and that it was unclear whether it had been embraced by Al Qaeda leaders or whether a site had been picked. ''He might have been distrusted,'' the official said, ''maybe because he was not Arab or he was a convert.''
Mr. Padilla moved to Chicago as a child of 4 or 5, living with his mother, who worked in hotels, and several half-siblings, neighbors said. He played baseball and basketball at the school across the street from the gray-stone house where he slept on a bunk bed in a room off the kitchen. One landlord recalled teaching the boy to drive a blue 1965 Chevy in an empty Lincoln Park lot; another said he was diligent about doing his chores, hauling out garbage and cleaning his room.
But in 1985, Mr. Padilla was arrested in Chicago in connection with an armed robbery turned homicide. He told the police that he and a friend had decided to rob a pair of Mexican gang members because they were drunk; court documents show they took a watch, $107 and some Mexican currency. The victims chased the robbers, leading to the stabbing. Mr. Padilla was prosecuted as a juvenile.
Mr. Padilla's records are sealed because of his age at the time, but he is believed to have spent three years in juvenile detention. The prosecutor at the trial where his partner was convicted of murder said in a closing statement that Mr. Padilla ''punched, kicked and clubbed'' a victim with a baseball bat.
Court records show that Mr. Padilla, using aliases, was arrested twice in 1989, for assault and battery and for trespassing, and failed to report to his probation officer two months in a row, prompting an arrest warrant. Two years later, he faced weapons charges after being caught on Chicago's West Side with an unregistered .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson, police records show. At one point, he identified himself as a member of the Latin Disciples gang.
Mr. Padilla apparently jumped bail and, soon after, got in trouble 1,355 miles away, in Sunrise, Fla., near his mother's home. He was sentenced to 364 days in jail after a traffic accident in which he fired a revolver toward a car 20 to 25 feet away, according to police reports.
''He was resisting our commands, he was reaching for the gun,'' said the arresting officer, Lt. Charles Vitale of the Sunrise police. ''He was 20 years old. It was an anger-type incident. None of those prior incidents came out. There were no links to organized crime or anything during our investigation.''
Sometime after his release in 1992, Mr. Padilla apparently married a Muslim and adopted the name Abdullah al-Muhajir. Carl Christesen remembered watching him play with his son on the lawn of the house the family rented in a working-class section of Brentwood, N.Y., in 1994.
Here in Chicago, neighbors said they last saw Mr. Padilla, then known as Mr. Muhajir, in 1995, when he returned to Logan Square for the funeral of Diego Ojeda, the brother of his former landlady and father of his half-brother.
Nelly Ojeda, Mr. Ojeda's sister, said Ms. Ortega-LeBron told her over the telephone several months ago that her son was doing fine.
''I guess she never knew either,'' Mrs. Ojeda, 63, said. ''Sometimes we are the last to know.''
Correction: June 15, 2002, Saturday Articles on Tuesday and Wednesday about Jose Padilla, who has been linked to a suspected plot by Al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive bomb inside the United States, misspelled the name of his mother. She is Estela Ortega-Lebron, not Estrela Ortega-LeBron.
June 11, 2002
TRACES OF TERROR: THE BOMB SUSPECT; From Chicago Gang to Possible Al Qaeda Ties
By JODI WILGOREN WITH JO THOMAS
The man suspected of plotting a radioactive bomb attack, a Brooklyn-born Hispanic Catholic who converted to Islam when he married a Middle Eastern woman, had a lengthy criminal record in two states. The record started with an arrest in connection with a murder when he was a teenager, according to law enforcement officials and court records.
In 1985, the man, born Jose Padilla to Puerto Rican parents but later known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, told the police that after his friend stabbed a stranger in a Chicago alley, Mr. Padilla, who was 14, kicked the victim in the head ''because he felt like it,'' a police report said. While in jail in Florida in 1992, Mr. Padilla pushed an officer and said, ''If you touch me, you don't know what I'll do to you,'' recalled the officer, Marc Albino of the Broward County Sheriff's Department.
Mr. Padilla, now 31, served time in a juvenile detention center in Illinois and later in a Florida prison, though neighbors here and on Long Island, where he lived with his pregnant wife in 1994, remembered him as quiet and good-natured.
''He has the same face he did when he was a child,'' Norma Leon, 47, said this afternoon after seeing his photograph on the Internet. For a decade Ms. Leon shared a house with Mr. Padilla's family in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.
''I don't believe it,'' she said, ''but then again, people do change.''
Donna Newman, a New York lawyer who represented Mr. Padilla from his arrest on May 8 on a material witness warrant at O'Hare International Airport until his transfer this weekend to a military brig in South Carolina, said, ''The issue is civil liberties, and that's the real issue because he is an American.''
She added, ''It's very strange indeed when the defense counsel is not told he is being moved,'' Ms. Newman added.
The story of how a Chicago street criminal may have become an operative for Al Qaeda baffled law enforcement officials and gang experts. Mr. Padilla's path is strikingly different from that of John Walker Lindh, the American who the government says joined the Taliban after growing up in a liberal, affluent family in California's Bay Area before traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan to find himself through Islam. Though many blacks become Muslims while in prison, conversions are rare among Hispanic gang members. Mr. Padilla's mother, Estrela Ortega-LeBron, had told friends that her son joined a cult.
Victor Olds, Ms. Ortega-LeBron's lawyer, said that today's announcement regarding the so-called dirty bomb plot ''caught her off guard'' and that before Mr. Padilla's arrest at O'Hare, where he arrived from Pakistan, via Zurich, with $10,000, his mother, who lives in Florida, ''thought he was coming home to visit the family.''
''She knows that he was in the Middle East for a while,'' Mr. Olds said, ''but there is nothing else she knows.''
A high-ranking law enforcement official in New York said that Mr. Padilla had hatched a plan for exploding a dirty bomb himself and that it was unclear whether it had been embraced by Al Qaeda leaders or whether a site had been picked. ''He might have been distrusted,'' the official said, ''maybe because he was not Arab or he was a convert.''
Mr. Padilla moved to Chicago as a child of 4 or 5, living with his mother, who worked in hotels, and several half-siblings, neighbors said. He played baseball and basketball at the school across the street from the gray-stone house where he slept on a bunk bed in a room off the kitchen. One landlord recalled teaching the boy to drive a blue 1965 Chevy in an empty Lincoln Park lot; another said he was diligent about doing his chores, hauling out garbage and cleaning his room.
But in 1985, Mr. Padilla was arrested in Chicago in connection with an armed robbery turned homicide. He told the police that he and a friend had decided to rob a pair of Mexican gang members because they were drunk; court documents show they took a watch, $107 and some Mexican currency. The victims chased the robbers, leading to the stabbing. Mr. Padilla was prosecuted as a juvenile.
Mr. Padilla's records are sealed because of his age at the time, but he is believed to have spent three years in juvenile detention. The prosecutor at the trial where his partner was convicted of murder said in a closing statement that Mr. Padilla ''punched, kicked and clubbed'' a victim with a baseball bat.
Court records show that Mr. Padilla, using aliases, was arrested twice in 1989, for assault and battery and for trespassing, and failed to report to his probation officer two months in a row, prompting an arrest warrant. Two years later, he faced weapons charges after being caught on Chicago's West Side with an unregistered .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson, police records show. At one point, he identified himself as a member of the Latin Disciples gang.
Mr. Padilla apparently jumped bail and, soon after, got in trouble 1,355 miles away, in Sunrise, Fla., near his mother's home. He was sentenced to 364 days in jail after a traffic accident in which he fired a revolver toward a car 20 to 25 feet away, according to police reports.
''He was resisting our commands, he was reaching for the gun,'' said the arresting officer, Lt. Charles Vitale of the Sunrise police. ''He was 20 years old. It was an anger-type incident. None of those prior incidents came out. There were no links to organized crime or anything during our investigation.''
Sometime after his release in 1992, Mr. Padilla apparently married a Muslim and adopted the name Abdullah al-Muhajir. Carl Christesen remembered watching him play with his son on the lawn of the house the family rented in a working-class section of Brentwood, N.Y., in 1994.
Here in Chicago, neighbors said they last saw Mr. Padilla, then known as Mr. Muhajir, in 1995, when he returned to Logan Square for the funeral of Diego Ojeda, the brother of his former landlady and father of his half-brother.
Nelly Ojeda, Mr. Ojeda's sister, said Ms. Ortega-LeBron told her over the telephone several months ago that her son was doing fine.
''I guess she never knew either,'' Mrs. Ojeda, 63, said. ''Sometimes we are the last to know.''
Correction: June 15, 2002, Saturday Articles on Tuesday and Wednesday about Jose Padilla, who has been linked to a suspected plot by Al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive bomb inside the United States, misspelled the name of his mother. She is Estela Ortega-Lebron, not Estrela Ortega-LeBron.
Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs
Link
September 28, 2004
Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs
A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States -- including a stronghold in the Washington area -- in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans -- mostly gang members -- into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults -- including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border. El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America." In August, an FBI alert described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security. Earlier this month, Mr. Ashcroft confirmed that U.S. border agents and inspectors had ramped up efforts to find El Shukrijumah amid reports that the al Qaeda leader was thought to be seeking entry routes into the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Ashcroft noted that increased enforcement efforts were under way in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington. Mr. McNulty, whose office has prosecuted Mara Salvatrucha gang members, has described the organization as the "gang of greatest interest" to law enforcement authorities. He said gang members are recruited predominantly from Hispanic communities and typically among juveniles, some as young as 13. Recruits are "jumped" into the gang by being beaten by members while others count to 13, he said. Gang rules, he said, are indoctrinated into new recruits and ruthlessly enforced. Those who cooperate with law enforcement are given the "green light," he said, meaning that the gang had approved their killing. In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.
September 28, 2004
Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs
A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States -- including a stronghold in the Washington area -- in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans -- mostly gang members -- into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults -- including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border. El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America." In August, an FBI alert described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security. Earlier this month, Mr. Ashcroft confirmed that U.S. border agents and inspectors had ramped up efforts to find El Shukrijumah amid reports that the al Qaeda leader was thought to be seeking entry routes into the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Ashcroft noted that increased enforcement efforts were under way in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington. Mr. McNulty, whose office has prosecuted Mara Salvatrucha gang members, has described the organization as the "gang of greatest interest" to law enforcement authorities. He said gang members are recruited predominantly from Hispanic communities and typically among juveniles, some as young as 13. Recruits are "jumped" into the gang by being beaten by members while others count to 13, he said. Gang rules, he said, are indoctrinated into new recruits and ruthlessly enforced. Those who cooperate with law enforcement are given the "green light," he said, meaning that the gang had approved their killing. In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.
Woman dubbed Al-Qaida backer skips NY arraignment
Link
Woman dubbed Al-Qaida backer skips NY arraignment
Tue Sep 2, 2008 8:02 PM EDT
Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer
An American-educated Pakistani woman who's been labeled an al-Qaida supporter refused to appear in federal court Thursday to answer charges that she tried to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents after they detained her this summer in Afghanistan.
Aafia Siddiqui had been expected to plead not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges contained in an indictment unsealed earlier this week. Prosecutors say that when taken into custody, she was carrying handwritten notes referring to a "mass casualty attack" and listing the Empire State Building and other New York landmarks.
In court, Siddiqui's lawyers told a judge their client didn't want to go through the humiliation of a strip-search — a precaution taken with all prisoners when moved between from federal lockups and courthouses.
The lawyers also claimed Siddiqui, before being arrested and brought to New York, had been kidnapped by U.S. operatives and kept in secret captivity in Pakistan. The ordeal, they said, left her with severe physical and mental problems.
"She's a really smart person, but she's a mess, judge," said defense attorney Elizabeth Fink. "We believe it's because she's been tortured."
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman put off the arraignment to give Siddiqui's lawyers time to either persuade her to come to court or arrange for her to enter a plea from jail using a closed-circuit camera. He also asked the defense to propose a plan to evaluate her competency to stand trial.
Another hearing was set for Sept. 22. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Siddiqui, 36, came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995. She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida. Her family has vehemently denied any link.
Authorities say she vanished in Pakistan in 2003. She mysteriously resurfaced in July outside a government building in central Afghanistan's Ghazni province and was stopped by police.
During Siddiqui's interrogation she picked up a soldier's rifle, announced her "desire to kill Americans" and fired the rifle but missed, the indictment says. She was wounded by return fire.
The indictment contains no charges of terrorism. A government official briefed on the case has told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the New York landmarks were a "wish list" of potential targets but that there was no evidence of a credible plot.
Outside court on Thursday, about two dozen demonstrators protested Siddiqui's arrest and demanded her release.
Woman dubbed Al-Qaida backer skips NY arraignment
Tue Sep 2, 2008 8:02 PM EDT
Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer
An American-educated Pakistani woman who's been labeled an al-Qaida supporter refused to appear in federal court Thursday to answer charges that she tried to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents after they detained her this summer in Afghanistan.
Aafia Siddiqui had been expected to plead not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges contained in an indictment unsealed earlier this week. Prosecutors say that when taken into custody, she was carrying handwritten notes referring to a "mass casualty attack" and listing the Empire State Building and other New York landmarks.
In court, Siddiqui's lawyers told a judge their client didn't want to go through the humiliation of a strip-search — a precaution taken with all prisoners when moved between from federal lockups and courthouses.
The lawyers also claimed Siddiqui, before being arrested and brought to New York, had been kidnapped by U.S. operatives and kept in secret captivity in Pakistan. The ordeal, they said, left her with severe physical and mental problems.
"She's a really smart person, but she's a mess, judge," said defense attorney Elizabeth Fink. "We believe it's because she's been tortured."
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman put off the arraignment to give Siddiqui's lawyers time to either persuade her to come to court or arrange for her to enter a plea from jail using a closed-circuit camera. He also asked the defense to propose a plan to evaluate her competency to stand trial.
Another hearing was set for Sept. 22. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Siddiqui, 36, came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995. She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida. Her family has vehemently denied any link.
Authorities say she vanished in Pakistan in 2003. She mysteriously resurfaced in July outside a government building in central Afghanistan's Ghazni province and was stopped by police.
During Siddiqui's interrogation she picked up a soldier's rifle, announced her "desire to kill Americans" and fired the rifle but missed, the indictment says. She was wounded by return fire.
The indictment contains no charges of terrorism. A government official briefed on the case has told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the New York landmarks were a "wish list" of potential targets but that there was no evidence of a credible plot.
Outside court on Thursday, about two dozen demonstrators protested Siddiqui's arrest and demanded her release.
Terror cells scope El Al crew in Toronto with attack in mind
Link
Last update - 10:30 04/09/2008
Terror cells scope El Al crew in Toronto with attack in mind
By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent
Terror cells have recently been seen observing El Al crew members in Toronto, apparently in preparation for a terror attack targeting airline personnel. This appears to be the first time Israeli airline crews have been specifically targeted by terrorists, although Israeli businessmen abroad have already been warned that Hezbollah may attempt to abduct them.
The suspected terrorists were seen at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, one of the hotels where the pilots and crew of the Boeing 767s that fly El Al's direct Tel Aviv-Toronto route stay between flights.
The sighting has triggered a higher alert level, and the Shin Bet security service has ordered El Al procedures altered.
U.S. television stations, basing their information on American intelligence sources, reported in mid-June that a Hezbollah cell had been caught collecting information on Israeli targets in Canada, including the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa.
Israeli intelligence experts increasingly think Hezbollah is determined to attack Israeli targets abroad to avenge the February assassination of Imad Muhgniyeh, one of Hezbollah's top leaders, which the Lebanese Shi'ite group attributes to the Mossad.
El Al would not comment on the terror threat, saying the company "does not deal with security matters."
However, sources at the company said flight crew members abroad are constantly aware of being potential victims of attacks targeting the planes, passengers or themselves. Company employees are briefed when there is specific intelligence warning of a terror threat.
El Al has been targeted for attack in the past. Two people were killed in July 2002 when a gunman opened fire on El Al passengers at Los Angeles International Airport. An Israeli security official halted the attack by shooting down the gunman.
There have also been what appear to be close calls. In May 2003, on Shin Bet orders, the company canceled a flight to Kenya due to a specific warning of a planned attack. In September that year, an El Al plane with 193 passengers heading from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles was supposed to stop over at Toronto, but diverted to Montreal because of a warning of a terror attack planned for Toronto.
The arrest of seven Dutch youths planning to attack an El Al plane became public in November 2005, and in June 2006 the general prosecutor's office in Bonn confirmed that Swiss authorities had revealed an attempt by a Muslim terror cell to attack an El Al plane.
In addition, in November 2006, the German government arrested six Muslims on suspicion of planning to blow up an El Al plane after takeoff from Frankfurt.
Last update - 10:30 04/09/2008
Terror cells scope El Al crew in Toronto with attack in mind
By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent
Terror cells have recently been seen observing El Al crew members in Toronto, apparently in preparation for a terror attack targeting airline personnel. This appears to be the first time Israeli airline crews have been specifically targeted by terrorists, although Israeli businessmen abroad have already been warned that Hezbollah may attempt to abduct them.
The suspected terrorists were seen at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, one of the hotels where the pilots and crew of the Boeing 767s that fly El Al's direct Tel Aviv-Toronto route stay between flights.
The sighting has triggered a higher alert level, and the Shin Bet security service has ordered El Al procedures altered.
U.S. television stations, basing their information on American intelligence sources, reported in mid-June that a Hezbollah cell had been caught collecting information on Israeli targets in Canada, including the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa.
Israeli intelligence experts increasingly think Hezbollah is determined to attack Israeli targets abroad to avenge the February assassination of Imad Muhgniyeh, one of Hezbollah's top leaders, which the Lebanese Shi'ite group attributes to the Mossad.
El Al would not comment on the terror threat, saying the company "does not deal with security matters."
However, sources at the company said flight crew members abroad are constantly aware of being potential victims of attacks targeting the planes, passengers or themselves. Company employees are briefed when there is specific intelligence warning of a terror threat.
El Al has been targeted for attack in the past. Two people were killed in July 2002 when a gunman opened fire on El Al passengers at Los Angeles International Airport. An Israeli security official halted the attack by shooting down the gunman.
There have also been what appear to be close calls. In May 2003, on Shin Bet orders, the company canceled a flight to Kenya due to a specific warning of a planned attack. In September that year, an El Al plane with 193 passengers heading from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles was supposed to stop over at Toronto, but diverted to Montreal because of a warning of a terror attack planned for Toronto.
The arrest of seven Dutch youths planning to attack an El Al plane became public in November 2005, and in June 2006 the general prosecutor's office in Bonn confirmed that Swiss authorities had revealed an attempt by a Muslim terror cell to attack an El Al plane.
In addition, in November 2006, the German government arrested six Muslims on suspicion of planning to blow up an El Al plane after takeoff from Frankfurt.
EU not eager to put Hezbollah on terror list, official says
Link
EU not eager to put Hezbollah on terror list, official says
Updated: 17/Sep/2008 14:33
BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerckhove, told EJP he doesn’t believe that the EU would put Hezbollah on the list of terror groups because several member states, including France, oppose such a move.
The EU official made the comment in the framework of a seminar on ‘Terrorism and Europe’ organized at the European Parliament in Brussels by B’nai B’rith International’s EU affairs office.
A group of five MEPs from across the political spectrum have initiated a campaign which calls on the EU to add Hezbollah on the terror list because, they said, the Lebanese Shiite militia "poses a direct terrorist threat to the EU’s security."
The MEPs issued a written declaration calling the EU to make such a move, which sor far has been signed by 44 members of the European Parliament.
Currently, among the 27 EU member states, only the UK and Netherlands are in favor of adding Hezbollah to the EU list of terror which would freeze the group’s Europe-held financial assets.
This blacklist is regularly updated by the member states while it is the EU Council which has the final say on it.
According to de Kerckhove, the reluctance of several to take a step against Hezbollah lies in the fact that it is represented in the government of Lebanon. "It plays a role on the Lebanese political scene and several countries think that this could bring them closer to the democratic process," he added.
De Kerckhove, who works under the umbrella of EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said that while he doesn’t want to underestimate the threat posed by Hezbollah in Europe, he believes that the main threat itoday “is coming from Al-Qaeda."
“The threat remains high and diversified,” he said.
German Liberal MEP Alexander Alvaro, one of the co-sponsors of the call to blacklist Hezbollah, said that “900 Hezbollah sleepers are stationed within Germany.”
“The situation is probably not very different elsewhere," underlining that a terrorist group label would enable the "drying out of its activities in Europe."
Czech Jana Hybaskova, from the Christian Democrat group, stressed that Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, which was banned from the EU satellite network, "is still spreading its hatred and terrorist propaganda to European viewers through Egyptian satellite providers." "Terrorism is an imminent danger for Europe and it is our duty to warn citizens about its threats," she said.
Portuguese Socialist MEP Paulo Casaca said "it is Hezbollah's political influence that makes it a dangerous organisation. "We hope to get as many signatures as possible from MEPs to our declaration and we would like this to be a policy of the European Parliament," he added, expressing his disappointment over the fact that his own political group does not support his tough line against Hezbollah.
The two other MEPs who initiated the declaration are Polish Socialist Jozef Pinior and German Helga Trupel from the Greens.
EU not eager to put Hezbollah on terror list, official says
Updated: 17/Sep/2008 14:33
BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerckhove, told EJP he doesn’t believe that the EU would put Hezbollah on the list of terror groups because several member states, including France, oppose such a move.
The EU official made the comment in the framework of a seminar on ‘Terrorism and Europe’ organized at the European Parliament in Brussels by B’nai B’rith International’s EU affairs office.
A group of five MEPs from across the political spectrum have initiated a campaign which calls on the EU to add Hezbollah on the terror list because, they said, the Lebanese Shiite militia "poses a direct terrorist threat to the EU’s security."
The MEPs issued a written declaration calling the EU to make such a move, which sor far has been signed by 44 members of the European Parliament.
Currently, among the 27 EU member states, only the UK and Netherlands are in favor of adding Hezbollah to the EU list of terror which would freeze the group’s Europe-held financial assets.
This blacklist is regularly updated by the member states while it is the EU Council which has the final say on it.
According to de Kerckhove, the reluctance of several to take a step against Hezbollah lies in the fact that it is represented in the government of Lebanon. "It plays a role on the Lebanese political scene and several countries think that this could bring them closer to the democratic process," he added.
De Kerckhove, who works under the umbrella of EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said that while he doesn’t want to underestimate the threat posed by Hezbollah in Europe, he believes that the main threat itoday “is coming from Al-Qaeda."
“The threat remains high and diversified,” he said.
German Liberal MEP Alexander Alvaro, one of the co-sponsors of the call to blacklist Hezbollah, said that “900 Hezbollah sleepers are stationed within Germany.”
“The situation is probably not very different elsewhere," underlining that a terrorist group label would enable the "drying out of its activities in Europe."
Czech Jana Hybaskova, from the Christian Democrat group, stressed that Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, which was banned from the EU satellite network, "is still spreading its hatred and terrorist propaganda to European viewers through Egyptian satellite providers." "Terrorism is an imminent danger for Europe and it is our duty to warn citizens about its threats," she said.
Portuguese Socialist MEP Paulo Casaca said "it is Hezbollah's political influence that makes it a dangerous organisation. "We hope to get as many signatures as possible from MEPs to our declaration and we would like this to be a policy of the European Parliament," he added, expressing his disappointment over the fact that his own political group does not support his tough line against Hezbollah.
The two other MEPs who initiated the declaration are Polish Socialist Jozef Pinior and German Helga Trupel from the Greens.
'Franchises' of al-Qaida Pose a Great Threat
Link
'Franchises' of al-Qaida Pose a Great Threat
By Michael Jacobson and Matthew Levitt
Camden Courier-Post, September 7, 2008
Despite setbacks, al-Qaida remains a potent threat. In mid-August, the U.S. intelligence community's senior ranking terrorism analyst concluded that while increased counterterrorism efforts worldwide have constrained the ability of al-Qaida to attack the United States and its allies, the group "remains the most serious terrorist threat to the United States."
As recently thwarted terrorist plots in Britain, Germany and elsewhere make clear, seven years after 9/11 we remain in a heightened threat environment. But the nature of the transnational threats facing the world today is far different than the ones the United States and its allies faced on 9/11.
While al-Qaida itself remains a formidable opponent -- particularly with its recent resurgence and secure safe haven in northwest Pakistan -- its affiliates and homegrown cells pose a growing threat as well. As of 9/11, al-Qaida was the main threat facing the United States. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaida was a centralized, hierarchical organization directing terrorist operations around the world from its base in Afghanistan.
The Unites States now faces a different -- and in some ways more complicated -- threat than it did on 9/11. This is a threat -- and an enemy -- that continues to evolve rapidly, often in response to U.S. and international pressure. Today, the United States and its allies face a three-fold threat. The first is from the core al-Qaida. While al-Qaida was on its "back foot" from 2004 to 2007, it has now "regained its equilibrium," according to a senior Homeland Security official.
The primary reason for its resurgence is that it has established a de facto safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan from which it can direct its global propaganda efforts, and recruit and train terrorist operatives.
Al-Qaida has also successfully expanded its reach through partnerships with other organizations throughout the Middle East and North Africa, described by the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Dell Dailey, as the "franchising of al-Qaida." These affiliates include al-Qaida in Iraq, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
Finally, there are more local groups today inspired by al-Qaida, even if they have no direct ties. In fact, there were almost 300 different groups involved in terrorist attacks in 2006 -- most of them Sunni. According to one former intelligence official, more than 40 organizations in all announced formation and pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden between January 2005 and April 2007. These groups are located in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Europe, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt, among others.
The shift in the terrorist threat is largely attributable to U.S. and international efforts after 9/11 to crack down on al-Qaida. With tighter border security, document control and financial tracking, al-Qaida recognized that it would be more effective if it used local groups to conduct its attacks. While the al-Qaida core is somewhat resurgent, it is still a far more decentralized model than the al-Qaida of 9/11.
Although al-Qaida and its affiliates may still present the most serious threat to the US, focusing on this group alone would be a mistake. Groups such as Hezbollah, PKK, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad remain terrorist threats, focused not only on their operations at home but also on maintaining their financial and logistical support networks internationally. And, even most disturbing, as Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the Department of Energy's intelligence chief warns, "the threat posed by nuclear terrorism is much broader than the aspirations of any single terrorist group."
To be sure, counterterrorism will remain a top national security priority for whoever next occupies the White House. Ongoing tactical efforts to capture and kill hardened terrorists, however, need to be better combined with strategic efforts to counter the increasing radicalization of disaffected Muslim youth (particularly in Europe) and to highlight al-Qaida's bankrupt ideology and contest its violent and intolerant message.
We will not be able to say we are defeating al-Qaida and its allies until we are effectively countering their message and narrative, and beating them not only on the physical battlefield, but in the virtual ones as well.
'Franchises' of al-Qaida Pose a Great Threat
By Michael Jacobson and Matthew Levitt
Camden Courier-Post, September 7, 2008
Despite setbacks, al-Qaida remains a potent threat. In mid-August, the U.S. intelligence community's senior ranking terrorism analyst concluded that while increased counterterrorism efforts worldwide have constrained the ability of al-Qaida to attack the United States and its allies, the group "remains the most serious terrorist threat to the United States."
As recently thwarted terrorist plots in Britain, Germany and elsewhere make clear, seven years after 9/11 we remain in a heightened threat environment. But the nature of the transnational threats facing the world today is far different than the ones the United States and its allies faced on 9/11.
While al-Qaida itself remains a formidable opponent -- particularly with its recent resurgence and secure safe haven in northwest Pakistan -- its affiliates and homegrown cells pose a growing threat as well. As of 9/11, al-Qaida was the main threat facing the United States. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaida was a centralized, hierarchical organization directing terrorist operations around the world from its base in Afghanistan.
The Unites States now faces a different -- and in some ways more complicated -- threat than it did on 9/11. This is a threat -- and an enemy -- that continues to evolve rapidly, often in response to U.S. and international pressure. Today, the United States and its allies face a three-fold threat. The first is from the core al-Qaida. While al-Qaida was on its "back foot" from 2004 to 2007, it has now "regained its equilibrium," according to a senior Homeland Security official.
The primary reason for its resurgence is that it has established a de facto safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan from which it can direct its global propaganda efforts, and recruit and train terrorist operatives.
Al-Qaida has also successfully expanded its reach through partnerships with other organizations throughout the Middle East and North Africa, described by the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Dell Dailey, as the "franchising of al-Qaida." These affiliates include al-Qaida in Iraq, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
Finally, there are more local groups today inspired by al-Qaida, even if they have no direct ties. In fact, there were almost 300 different groups involved in terrorist attacks in 2006 -- most of them Sunni. According to one former intelligence official, more than 40 organizations in all announced formation and pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden between January 2005 and April 2007. These groups are located in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Europe, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt, among others.
The shift in the terrorist threat is largely attributable to U.S. and international efforts after 9/11 to crack down on al-Qaida. With tighter border security, document control and financial tracking, al-Qaida recognized that it would be more effective if it used local groups to conduct its attacks. While the al-Qaida core is somewhat resurgent, it is still a far more decentralized model than the al-Qaida of 9/11.
Although al-Qaida and its affiliates may still present the most serious threat to the US, focusing on this group alone would be a mistake. Groups such as Hezbollah, PKK, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad remain terrorist threats, focused not only on their operations at home but also on maintaining their financial and logistical support networks internationally. And, even most disturbing, as Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the Department of Energy's intelligence chief warns, "the threat posed by nuclear terrorism is much broader than the aspirations of any single terrorist group."
To be sure, counterterrorism will remain a top national security priority for whoever next occupies the White House. Ongoing tactical efforts to capture and kill hardened terrorists, however, need to be better combined with strategic efforts to counter the increasing radicalization of disaffected Muslim youth (particularly in Europe) and to highlight al-Qaida's bankrupt ideology and contest its violent and intolerant message.
We will not be able to say we are defeating al-Qaida and its allies until we are effectively countering their message and narrative, and beating them not only on the physical battlefield, but in the virtual ones as well.
Al-Qaeda Masters Terrorism On the Cheap
Link
Al-Qaeda Masters Terrorism On the Cheap Financial Dragnet Largely Bypassed
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 24, 2008; A01
LONDON -- Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al-Qaeda has increasingly turned to local cells that run extremely low-cost operations and generate cash through criminal scams, bypassing the global financial dragnet set up by the United States and Europe.
Although al-Qaeda spent an estimated $500,000 to plan and execute the Sept. 11 attacks, many of the group's bombings and assaults since then in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia have cost one-tenth as much, or less.
The cheap plots are evidence that the U.S. government and its allies fundamentally miscalculated in assuming they could defeat the network by hunting for wealthy financiers and freezing bank accounts, according to many U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.
In an ongoing trial here of eight men accused of planning to blow up airliners bound for the United States two years ago, jurors have been told how the accused shopped at drugstores for ingredients to build bombs that would have cost $15 apiece to assemble.
Similarly, the cell responsible for the July 7, 2005, transit bombings in London needed only about $15,000 to finance the entire conspiracy, including the cost of airfare to Pakistan to consult with al-Qaeda supervisors, according to official British government probes.
Investigations into several plots in Europe have shown that operatives were often flush with cash, raising far more than necessary through common criminal rackets such as drug dealing and credit card theft.
Testimony in the trial of the accused airliner plotters has shown that the defendants had enough money to buy a northeast London apartment for $260,000 shortly before their arrest, allegedly so they would have a safe place to mix liquid explosives for their bombs.
One of the July 2005 suicide bombers, a 22-year-old part-time worker at a fish-and-chips shop, left an estate worth $240,000 after he blew up a subway train. Neither his family nor authorities have explained where he got the money.
In Spain, the cell responsible for the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid needed $80,000 to finance the plot, according to Spanish court documents. But they had access to more than $2.3 million worth of hashish and other illegal drugs that they could have sold to raise more money, the documents showed.
Even the 9/11 hijackers wired back about $26,000 in surplus funds to accounts in the Persian Gulf area a few days before the attacks.
Authorities said it is often impossible to monitor fundraising by such cells because they generally keep so little in the bank. Instead of receiving wire transfers or making large deposits that would trigger automatic alerts, they move cash in person and are discreet about how they spend it.
"The groups operating in Europe don't need a lot of money. The cost of operations is very low," said Jean-Louis Bruguière, a former senior anti-terrorism judge in France who now works as an adviser to the European Union on terrorism financing. "But they are very skilled at obtaining money and using criminal systems to do it. They can collect thousands and thousands of dollars or euros in a few weeks. It is beyond our control."
Law enforcement officials in London said al-Qaeda cells are trained to plot and live on the cheap. Operatives lead ascetic lives, often keeping their day jobs or depending on their families to cover expenses. Above all, they are taught to build bombs that are lethal but crude and inexpensive. Almost every terrorist plot in Europe in recent years has followed a simple formula: homemade explosives stuffed into backpacks, shoes, suitcases or car trunks.
Outflanking the Laws
Thirteen days after the Sept. 11 hijackings, President Bush launched what the White House later described as the "first strike in the war on terrorism." He signed an executive order freezing the assets of 27 individuals and groups suspected of terrorism and forbidding anyone from doing business with them.
"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "Today we're asking the world to stop payment."
A month later, Congress and Bush went further by adopting the USA Patriot Act, which required banks to report transactions larger than $10,000 to the Treasury and to check if any of their customers were on a database of suspected terrorists.
By December 2001, the government had frozen $33 million in assets and expanded its terrorism-financing blacklist to 153 names. In a report assessing its progress in the fight against al-Qaeda, the White House declared, "The United States and its allies have been winning the war on the financial front."
The measures, however, have failed to dry up the supply of money available to al-Qaeda and have had no discernible effect in preventing the network from carrying out attacks, according to several counterterrorism officials and experts in the United States and Europe.
Before Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda and its affiliates rarely used the banking system in a manner that might arouse suspicion, officials and experts said. In response to the new anti-terrorism financing laws, the network has became even more cautious, relying on couriers to carry money across borders when necessary, authorities said.
Ibrahim Warde, an adjunct professor at Tufts University and an expert on financial systems in Islamic countries, said the Bush administration and its allies falsely assumed that al-Qaeda had stashed large sums in secret bank accounts.
"It got the entire financial bureaucracy started on a wild-goose chase," Warde said. "There's a complete disconnect between this approach and the underlying reality of how terrorism is funded."
Dennis M. Lormel, a former head of the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations section, said the laws passed since 2001 have closed some gaps and addressed vulnerabilities that made it easy for al-Qaeda to raise and transfer money.
But he said the network has responded quickly. Its cells in Europe and elsewhere now raise money on their own instead of relying on financial transfers from external sources that could be tracked by law enforcement officials.
"Clearly, when you're dealing with groups that are self-funded, you're dealing with a different set of circumstances from when they put these laws in place," said Lormel, now a senior vice president at Corporate Risk International, a Reston-based firm.
"The bad guys, after a while, they realize what we're doing, so they're going to alter how they do business," he added. "Obviously, you're not going to stop them from getting money, and they're going to be able to adapt."
Inventive Fundraising
Al-Qaeda's self-financing cells in Europe have become increasingly creative in their fundraising methods, officials said.
After the July 2005 London transit bombings, police knocked on the door of a sheep farmer in Scotland to inquire about a livestock deal gone sour. The farmer, Blair Duffton, confirmed that he had lost more than $200,000 when he sent several truckloads of sheep to a slaughterhouse in Leeds, England, but never received payment.
The slaughterhouse specialized in halal meat, or food prepared according to Islamic law. Detectives informed Duffton that the person who had stiffed him for the sheep was an associate of Shehzad Tanweer, one of three bombers who had lived in Leeds.
"I almost went bankrupt," Duffton recalled in a telephone interview. "I couldn't believe it when they told me that this might have been connected to terrorism."
British authorities have not commented publicly on the sheep scam or said if any of the proceeds were used to finance the attacks. Three men accused of providing support to the suicide bombers are currently on trial in London.
In Germany, three Arab men were convicted in December on charges of attempting to raise $6.3 million for al-Qaeda by faking a death to collect on nine life insurance policies. In Switzerland and Spain in 2006, authorities broke up a cell that had stolen $2 million worth of computers, cars and home furnishings. Police said the group sold the goods on the black market and had couriers carry the cash, in $2,000 increments, to an al-Qaeda-affiliated network in Algeria.
In Britain, an al-Qaeda operative, Omar Khyam, was caught on a surveillance tape urging some of the July 2005 London suicide bombers to defraud banks and hardware stores by defaulting on loans of less than $25,000.
Khyam said the goal was not just to raise money for operations but to "rip the country apart economically, as well," according to court testimony in April at the trial of the three men accused of providing support to the bombers.
Acting on Khyam's advice, one of the bombers obtained and then defaulted on a $20,000 loan from HSBC Bank. Another secured a $14,000 line of credit from a building supply company.
Given the small scale of such transactions, banks or police would have had little reason to suspect the involvement of terrorists, officials said.
"That's the cleverness of these schemes -- to keep it under the radar," said Stephen Swain, former head of Scotland Yard's international counterterrorism unit. "By doing this, they can raise significant amounts of money, fairly quickly, and there's no real way to detect it."
Cracking Down After the Fact
A few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gordon Brown, then Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, or finance minister, announced a major effort to "crack the code" of terrorist financing. He said Britain would press the entire European Union to hunt for al-Qaeda by combing through the international banking system.
"If fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood," said Brown, who is now Britain's prime minister.
In response to the July 2005 London transit bombings, Brown said the government would freeze the suspects' bank accounts and place additional controls on international financial transfers, even though there was no evidence the cell had received any money from outside sources. "There will be no hiding place for those who finance terrorism," he promised.
Two months after authorities broke up what they said was the plot to bomb transatlantic airliners in August 2006, Brown reiterated that the key to fighting terrorism was to disrupt al-Qaeda's bank accounts. He said Britain would use classified intelligence to freeze assets of people suspected of having links to terrorist groups and would exercise greater control over Islamic charities.
"We will take any necessary steps and find all necessary resources to ensure whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else there is no safe haven for terrorists and no hiding place for terrorist finance," Brown said, echoing his 2005 comments.
Britain has frozen assets belonging to 359 individuals and 126 organizations suspected of assisting al-Qaeda, according to a Treasury report released last year. All told, about $2 million has been seized, the Treasury reported.
But the government's efforts have had little practical effect, several current and former British counterterrorism officials said. For instance, Britain froze the accounts of 19 suspects in the 2006 transatlantic airliner plot -- but only after they were arrested. Officials said most of the accounts contained negligible amounts.
As part of the same investigation, British officials announced an inquiry into the operations of a charity, Crescent Relief, saying that it was suspected of providing money to the cell. Officials with the charity, which was set up to aid earthquake survivors in Pakistan, denied wrongdoing.
Two years later, however, the trial has yielded no public evidence linking the defendants to Crescent Relief. A spokeswoman for Britain's Charity Commission, which regulates nonprofit organizations, said the investigation is continuing but declined to comment further.
Swain, the former Scotland Yard counterterrorism official, said politicians often announce stricter anti-terrorism financing laws after an attack as a public relations measure. But he said they do little good in terms of actually preventing terrorism.
"I think there is a realization that they are not that effective," Swain said. "But they need to be seen as doing something to provide reassurance to the public that they're doing something. We're living in a false paradise if you think these things will stop it."
Needles in Haystacks
Some officials defended the anti-terrorism financing laws passed since 2001, saying that al-Qaeda would have a much easier time raising money if the measures weren't in place.
"We mustn't be wooed into the idea that because attacks are costing less and less, that there isn't a need for money, or that it isn't being provided," said Michael Chandler, who headed a U.N. panel that monitored financial sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban from 2001 to 2004. "It's not just the money they need to make the explosive devices. It's the money they need for other things: to support the network, to recruit and to train."
Chandler also acknowledged that al-Qaeda and its affiliates have adapted and are having little difficulty financing their plots.
"Notwithstanding the successes we've had, groups associated or affiliated with al-Qaeda still appear to be able to carry out an attack, as and when they feel so inclined," said Chandler, a former British Army officer and U.N. diplomat, citing the Taliban and cells in Iraq and North Africa. "Either they had the money already when they needed it, or they have no problem getting it."
Law enforcement officials said terrorism-financing controls also make it easier to investigate cells that are under surveillance or after an attack. By retracing suspected plotters' financial footsteps, no matter how small, investigators can map their movements and develop new leads.
But Cliff Knuckley, a former chief money-laundering investigator for Scotland Yard, said it's difficult to detect potential terrorist plots just by monitoring cash flows or bank transfers -- the basis of many of the anti-terrorism financing laws in place today.
"You're looking for a needle in a haystack, and unfortunately you have a field full of haystacks," Knuckley said.
Al-Qaeda Masters Terrorism On the Cheap Financial Dragnet Largely Bypassed
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 24, 2008; A01
LONDON -- Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al-Qaeda has increasingly turned to local cells that run extremely low-cost operations and generate cash through criminal scams, bypassing the global financial dragnet set up by the United States and Europe.
Although al-Qaeda spent an estimated $500,000 to plan and execute the Sept. 11 attacks, many of the group's bombings and assaults since then in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia have cost one-tenth as much, or less.
The cheap plots are evidence that the U.S. government and its allies fundamentally miscalculated in assuming they could defeat the network by hunting for wealthy financiers and freezing bank accounts, according to many U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.
In an ongoing trial here of eight men accused of planning to blow up airliners bound for the United States two years ago, jurors have been told how the accused shopped at drugstores for ingredients to build bombs that would have cost $15 apiece to assemble.
Similarly, the cell responsible for the July 7, 2005, transit bombings in London needed only about $15,000 to finance the entire conspiracy, including the cost of airfare to Pakistan to consult with al-Qaeda supervisors, according to official British government probes.
Investigations into several plots in Europe have shown that operatives were often flush with cash, raising far more than necessary through common criminal rackets such as drug dealing and credit card theft.
Testimony in the trial of the accused airliner plotters has shown that the defendants had enough money to buy a northeast London apartment for $260,000 shortly before their arrest, allegedly so they would have a safe place to mix liquid explosives for their bombs.
One of the July 2005 suicide bombers, a 22-year-old part-time worker at a fish-and-chips shop, left an estate worth $240,000 after he blew up a subway train. Neither his family nor authorities have explained where he got the money.
In Spain, the cell responsible for the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid needed $80,000 to finance the plot, according to Spanish court documents. But they had access to more than $2.3 million worth of hashish and other illegal drugs that they could have sold to raise more money, the documents showed.
Even the 9/11 hijackers wired back about $26,000 in surplus funds to accounts in the Persian Gulf area a few days before the attacks.
Authorities said it is often impossible to monitor fundraising by such cells because they generally keep so little in the bank. Instead of receiving wire transfers or making large deposits that would trigger automatic alerts, they move cash in person and are discreet about how they spend it.
"The groups operating in Europe don't need a lot of money. The cost of operations is very low," said Jean-Louis Bruguière, a former senior anti-terrorism judge in France who now works as an adviser to the European Union on terrorism financing. "But they are very skilled at obtaining money and using criminal systems to do it. They can collect thousands and thousands of dollars or euros in a few weeks. It is beyond our control."
Law enforcement officials in London said al-Qaeda cells are trained to plot and live on the cheap. Operatives lead ascetic lives, often keeping their day jobs or depending on their families to cover expenses. Above all, they are taught to build bombs that are lethal but crude and inexpensive. Almost every terrorist plot in Europe in recent years has followed a simple formula: homemade explosives stuffed into backpacks, shoes, suitcases or car trunks.
Outflanking the Laws
Thirteen days after the Sept. 11 hijackings, President Bush launched what the White House later described as the "first strike in the war on terrorism." He signed an executive order freezing the assets of 27 individuals and groups suspected of terrorism and forbidding anyone from doing business with them.
"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "Today we're asking the world to stop payment."
A month later, Congress and Bush went further by adopting the USA Patriot Act, which required banks to report transactions larger than $10,000 to the Treasury and to check if any of their customers were on a database of suspected terrorists.
By December 2001, the government had frozen $33 million in assets and expanded its terrorism-financing blacklist to 153 names. In a report assessing its progress in the fight against al-Qaeda, the White House declared, "The United States and its allies have been winning the war on the financial front."
The measures, however, have failed to dry up the supply of money available to al-Qaeda and have had no discernible effect in preventing the network from carrying out attacks, according to several counterterrorism officials and experts in the United States and Europe.
Before Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda and its affiliates rarely used the banking system in a manner that might arouse suspicion, officials and experts said. In response to the new anti-terrorism financing laws, the network has became even more cautious, relying on couriers to carry money across borders when necessary, authorities said.
Ibrahim Warde, an adjunct professor at Tufts University and an expert on financial systems in Islamic countries, said the Bush administration and its allies falsely assumed that al-Qaeda had stashed large sums in secret bank accounts.
"It got the entire financial bureaucracy started on a wild-goose chase," Warde said. "There's a complete disconnect between this approach and the underlying reality of how terrorism is funded."
Dennis M. Lormel, a former head of the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations section, said the laws passed since 2001 have closed some gaps and addressed vulnerabilities that made it easy for al-Qaeda to raise and transfer money.
But he said the network has responded quickly. Its cells in Europe and elsewhere now raise money on their own instead of relying on financial transfers from external sources that could be tracked by law enforcement officials.
"Clearly, when you're dealing with groups that are self-funded, you're dealing with a different set of circumstances from when they put these laws in place," said Lormel, now a senior vice president at Corporate Risk International, a Reston-based firm.
"The bad guys, after a while, they realize what we're doing, so they're going to alter how they do business," he added. "Obviously, you're not going to stop them from getting money, and they're going to be able to adapt."
Inventive Fundraising
Al-Qaeda's self-financing cells in Europe have become increasingly creative in their fundraising methods, officials said.
After the July 2005 London transit bombings, police knocked on the door of a sheep farmer in Scotland to inquire about a livestock deal gone sour. The farmer, Blair Duffton, confirmed that he had lost more than $200,000 when he sent several truckloads of sheep to a slaughterhouse in Leeds, England, but never received payment.
The slaughterhouse specialized in halal meat, or food prepared according to Islamic law. Detectives informed Duffton that the person who had stiffed him for the sheep was an associate of Shehzad Tanweer, one of three bombers who had lived in Leeds.
"I almost went bankrupt," Duffton recalled in a telephone interview. "I couldn't believe it when they told me that this might have been connected to terrorism."
British authorities have not commented publicly on the sheep scam or said if any of the proceeds were used to finance the attacks. Three men accused of providing support to the suicide bombers are currently on trial in London.
In Germany, three Arab men were convicted in December on charges of attempting to raise $6.3 million for al-Qaeda by faking a death to collect on nine life insurance policies. In Switzerland and Spain in 2006, authorities broke up a cell that had stolen $2 million worth of computers, cars and home furnishings. Police said the group sold the goods on the black market and had couriers carry the cash, in $2,000 increments, to an al-Qaeda-affiliated network in Algeria.
In Britain, an al-Qaeda operative, Omar Khyam, was caught on a surveillance tape urging some of the July 2005 London suicide bombers to defraud banks and hardware stores by defaulting on loans of less than $25,000.
Khyam said the goal was not just to raise money for operations but to "rip the country apart economically, as well," according to court testimony in April at the trial of the three men accused of providing support to the bombers.
Acting on Khyam's advice, one of the bombers obtained and then defaulted on a $20,000 loan from HSBC Bank. Another secured a $14,000 line of credit from a building supply company.
Given the small scale of such transactions, banks or police would have had little reason to suspect the involvement of terrorists, officials said.
"That's the cleverness of these schemes -- to keep it under the radar," said Stephen Swain, former head of Scotland Yard's international counterterrorism unit. "By doing this, they can raise significant amounts of money, fairly quickly, and there's no real way to detect it."
Cracking Down After the Fact
A few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gordon Brown, then Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, or finance minister, announced a major effort to "crack the code" of terrorist financing. He said Britain would press the entire European Union to hunt for al-Qaeda by combing through the international banking system.
"If fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood," said Brown, who is now Britain's prime minister.
In response to the July 2005 London transit bombings, Brown said the government would freeze the suspects' bank accounts and place additional controls on international financial transfers, even though there was no evidence the cell had received any money from outside sources. "There will be no hiding place for those who finance terrorism," he promised.
Two months after authorities broke up what they said was the plot to bomb transatlantic airliners in August 2006, Brown reiterated that the key to fighting terrorism was to disrupt al-Qaeda's bank accounts. He said Britain would use classified intelligence to freeze assets of people suspected of having links to terrorist groups and would exercise greater control over Islamic charities.
"We will take any necessary steps and find all necessary resources to ensure whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else there is no safe haven for terrorists and no hiding place for terrorist finance," Brown said, echoing his 2005 comments.
Britain has frozen assets belonging to 359 individuals and 126 organizations suspected of assisting al-Qaeda, according to a Treasury report released last year. All told, about $2 million has been seized, the Treasury reported.
But the government's efforts have had little practical effect, several current and former British counterterrorism officials said. For instance, Britain froze the accounts of 19 suspects in the 2006 transatlantic airliner plot -- but only after they were arrested. Officials said most of the accounts contained negligible amounts.
As part of the same investigation, British officials announced an inquiry into the operations of a charity, Crescent Relief, saying that it was suspected of providing money to the cell. Officials with the charity, which was set up to aid earthquake survivors in Pakistan, denied wrongdoing.
Two years later, however, the trial has yielded no public evidence linking the defendants to Crescent Relief. A spokeswoman for Britain's Charity Commission, which regulates nonprofit organizations, said the investigation is continuing but declined to comment further.
Swain, the former Scotland Yard counterterrorism official, said politicians often announce stricter anti-terrorism financing laws after an attack as a public relations measure. But he said they do little good in terms of actually preventing terrorism.
"I think there is a realization that they are not that effective," Swain said. "But they need to be seen as doing something to provide reassurance to the public that they're doing something. We're living in a false paradise if you think these things will stop it."
Needles in Haystacks
Some officials defended the anti-terrorism financing laws passed since 2001, saying that al-Qaeda would have a much easier time raising money if the measures weren't in place.
"We mustn't be wooed into the idea that because attacks are costing less and less, that there isn't a need for money, or that it isn't being provided," said Michael Chandler, who headed a U.N. panel that monitored financial sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban from 2001 to 2004. "It's not just the money they need to make the explosive devices. It's the money they need for other things: to support the network, to recruit and to train."
Chandler also acknowledged that al-Qaeda and its affiliates have adapted and are having little difficulty financing their plots.
"Notwithstanding the successes we've had, groups associated or affiliated with al-Qaeda still appear to be able to carry out an attack, as and when they feel so inclined," said Chandler, a former British Army officer and U.N. diplomat, citing the Taliban and cells in Iraq and North Africa. "Either they had the money already when they needed it, or they have no problem getting it."
Law enforcement officials said terrorism-financing controls also make it easier to investigate cells that are under surveillance or after an attack. By retracing suspected plotters' financial footsteps, no matter how small, investigators can map their movements and develop new leads.
But Cliff Knuckley, a former chief money-laundering investigator for Scotland Yard, said it's difficult to detect potential terrorist plots just by monitoring cash flows or bank transfers -- the basis of many of the anti-terrorism financing laws in place today.
"You're looking for a needle in a haystack, and unfortunately you have a field full of haystacks," Knuckley said.
Al Qaeda Endorses John McCain
Link
On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain
By Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 22, 2008; A13
Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.
The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers. In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had "exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy." It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.
"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda," said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. "Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America."
It was unclear how closely the commentary reflected the views of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has not issued a public statement since the spring. Some terrorism experts said the support for McCain could be mere bluster by a group that may have more to fear from a McCain presidency. In any event, the comments summarized what has emerged as a consensus view on extremist sites, said Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist Web pages. Site provided translations of the comments to The Washington Post.
"The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful 'son of Bush' -- someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk," Raisman said. "They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain."
Islamist militants have generally had less to say about Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Leaders of the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah expressed a favorable view of Obama during the primary campaign but later rejected the Democrat after he delivered speeches expressing support for Israel.
In an e-mail response, senior McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann noted that al-Qaeda leaders have repeatedly said that America "did not have the stomach to fight them over the long haul," which the Arizona senator has pledged to do. "Whatever musings and bravado on radical websites the Washington Post chooses to quote, the fact remains that only John McCain has the experience, judgment and fortitude to lead a country at war," he said. The Obama campaign declined to comment on the Web postings.
Both the Bush administration and the two major presidential campaigns have rejected any suggestion that the economic downturn will undermine the country's fight against al-Qaeda. Obama and McCain have stepped gingerly around the issue of how they would adjust their priorities in a recession and have spoken of the importance of maintaining a strong defense. Both have advocated expanding the size of the U.S. military overall, but neither has explained in detail how to pay for it.
From shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks to last year, U.S. defense spending rose from 3 to 4 percent of gross domestic product, but it remains far below the 45-year average of 5.5 percent. The Pentagon's budget for fiscal 2009 is $527 billion, a figure that does not include Iraq and Afghanistan war costs, which have totaled more than $800 billion since 2001.
"History shows us that nations that are strong militarily over time have to have a strong economy," McCain said this month. He has said the United States must send more troops to Afghanistan while avoiding a withdrawal timetable from Iraq.
Obama has tied an Iraq withdrawal to increased forces in Afghanistan and the ability to fund domestic programs. The continued fight in Iraq "means we can't provide health care to people who need it," Obama said in his first debate with McCain.
"Nobody is talking about losing this war," Obama said of Iraq. "What we are talking about is recognizing that the next president has to have broader strategic vision."
It is not the first time al-Qaeda and its allies have weighed in on a Western election. Bin Laden released a video message Oct. 29, 2004, days before the U.S. presidential election, warning of plans for further attacks on U.S. targets. Some strategists for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic nominee, have said the timing of the message tipped the balance toward Bush, who defined himself as the anti-terrorism candidate.
The deadly train bombings in Spain that year were seen as an attempt by al-Qaeda to bring down then-Prime Minister José María Aznar, who had sent troops to Iraq. Aznar lost his reelection bid three days after the bombing.
Recent polls suggest that Iraq and terrorism are less important to most Americans than the economy. Still, terrorism experts have warned that al-Qaeda may indeed launch a major strike before the U.S. election or shortly afterward.
"The idea of testing a new president or hitting us when we're off-balance is enormously attractive to them," said Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism expert.
Staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain
By Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 22, 2008; A13
Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.
The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers. In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had "exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy." It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.
"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda," said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. "Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America."
It was unclear how closely the commentary reflected the views of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has not issued a public statement since the spring. Some terrorism experts said the support for McCain could be mere bluster by a group that may have more to fear from a McCain presidency. In any event, the comments summarized what has emerged as a consensus view on extremist sites, said Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist Web pages. Site provided translations of the comments to The Washington Post.
"The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful 'son of Bush' -- someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk," Raisman said. "They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain."
Islamist militants have generally had less to say about Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Leaders of the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah expressed a favorable view of Obama during the primary campaign but later rejected the Democrat after he delivered speeches expressing support for Israel.
In an e-mail response, senior McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann noted that al-Qaeda leaders have repeatedly said that America "did not have the stomach to fight them over the long haul," which the Arizona senator has pledged to do. "Whatever musings and bravado on radical websites the Washington Post chooses to quote, the fact remains that only John McCain has the experience, judgment and fortitude to lead a country at war," he said. The Obama campaign declined to comment on the Web postings.
Both the Bush administration and the two major presidential campaigns have rejected any suggestion that the economic downturn will undermine the country's fight against al-Qaeda. Obama and McCain have stepped gingerly around the issue of how they would adjust their priorities in a recession and have spoken of the importance of maintaining a strong defense. Both have advocated expanding the size of the U.S. military overall, but neither has explained in detail how to pay for it.
From shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks to last year, U.S. defense spending rose from 3 to 4 percent of gross domestic product, but it remains far below the 45-year average of 5.5 percent. The Pentagon's budget for fiscal 2009 is $527 billion, a figure that does not include Iraq and Afghanistan war costs, which have totaled more than $800 billion since 2001.
"History shows us that nations that are strong militarily over time have to have a strong economy," McCain said this month. He has said the United States must send more troops to Afghanistan while avoiding a withdrawal timetable from Iraq.
Obama has tied an Iraq withdrawal to increased forces in Afghanistan and the ability to fund domestic programs. The continued fight in Iraq "means we can't provide health care to people who need it," Obama said in his first debate with McCain.
"Nobody is talking about losing this war," Obama said of Iraq. "What we are talking about is recognizing that the next president has to have broader strategic vision."
It is not the first time al-Qaeda and its allies have weighed in on a Western election. Bin Laden released a video message Oct. 29, 2004, days before the U.S. presidential election, warning of plans for further attacks on U.S. targets. Some strategists for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic nominee, have said the timing of the message tipped the balance toward Bush, who defined himself as the anti-terrorism candidate.
The deadly train bombings in Spain that year were seen as an attempt by al-Qaeda to bring down then-Prime Minister José María Aznar, who had sent troops to Iraq. Aznar lost his reelection bid three days after the bombing.
Recent polls suggest that Iraq and terrorism are less important to most Americans than the economy. Still, terrorism experts have warned that al-Qaeda may indeed launch a major strike before the U.S. election or shortly afterward.
"The idea of testing a new president or hitting us when we're off-balance is enormously attractive to them," said Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism expert.
Staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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