Intelligence

Named: the al-Qaeda chief who ‘masterminded murder’

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Military’s spokesman sparks row over what caused Bhutto’s death Baitullah Mehsud Martin Fletcher

A notorious al-Qaeda leader named Baitullah Mehsud was named by Pakistan’s
Government last night as the mastermind behind Benazir Bhutto’s
assassination.

The security services intercepted a call from Mehsud yesterday morning in
which he “congratulated his people for carrying out this cowardly act,”
Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, announced.

In a transcript of the call released by the Government an interlocutor named
Maulvi Sahib tells Mehsud that three men were involved in the attack and two
— Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah — actually carried it out. Mehsud tells
Maulvi Sahib not to tell the men’s families yet and adds: “It was a
spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.”

But Brigadier Cheema also deepened the confusion surrounding Ms Bhutto’s death
by insisting that she had been killed not by her assassin’s bullets or by
shrapnel from his suicide bomb, but from a fractured skull caused by her
head smashing into the lever of her vehicle’s sunroof following the blast.

This directly contradicted accounts given by doctors and security officials on
Thursday who said that she had died from bullet wounds to her head and
spinal cord.

A senior Bhutto aide last night called the Government’s explanation a “pack of
lies”. “Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head,” said
Farook Naik, her top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP).

“Bhutto’s personal secretary, Naheed Khan, and party official Makhdoom Amin
Fahim were in the car and they saw what happened. It is an irreparable loss
and they are turning it into a joke with such claims. The country is heading
towards civil war.”

Brigadier Cheema was speaking at a packed press conference in Islamabad that
seemed designed to allay suspicion that the Government had colluded in the
assassination, or failed to protect Ms Bhutto.

He argued that the PPP leader had ignored the Government’s security advice,
and seemed to suggest that she would have survived had she followed it. The
vehicle was bomb-proof and bullet-proof.

“If she had not come out of the vehicle she would have been unhurt, as all the
other occupants of the vehicle did not receive any injuries,” he said,
adding: “It pains me, I say with a lot of anguish, that we wish she had not
come out of that vehicle to wave to the people.”

Mr Naik also questioned the Government’s claim that Mehsud ordered the
assassination. “The Government is now claiming that Baitullah Mehsud is
responsible. What is the evidence?” he asked.

Hillary Clinton, the US senator and Democratic presidential contender, waded
into the row last night, calling for an independent, international
investigation of Ms Bhutto's death.

“I don’t think the Pakistani Government at this time under President Musharraf
has any credibility at all,” she said. “They have disbanded an independent
judiciary, they oppressed a free press.”

The Interior Ministry released the transcript of its intelligence intercept,
and said that there was “irrefutable evidence that al-Qaeda, its networks
and cohorts are trying to destabilise Pakistan”.

Brigadier Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaeda leader who was also behind
the attack on Ms Bhutto’s homecoming parade in Karachi on October 18, which
killed 140 people, and claimed that he was “responsible for most of the
attacks that have taken place in the country”. Other targets had included
President Musharraf, senior government officials and army and intelligence
officers.

Mehsud is thought to be based in the lawless tribal area of South Waziristan,
near the Afghan border, where Pakistani troops have been fighting Islamist
rebels for several years. He has ties to the Taleban as well as to al-Qaeda,
and was quoted in a Pakistan newspaper last autumn as saying that he would
greet Ms Bhutto’s return from exile with suicide bombers.

Not a lot else is known about the man. He reportedly has close ties to Mullar
Omar, the Taleban leader in Afghanistan. He is said to run a “parallel
government” with a private army of 20,000 that imposes strict Islamic law in
Waziristan. Before he kills proGovernment tribal leaders he allegedly sends
them a 1,000 rupee note, a thread and a needle with instructions that the
recipient should buy himself a shroud.

Asked why Pakistan’s security services could intercept Mehsud’s calls but not
track him down, Brigadier Cheema said that he moved fast and went to ground
very quickly after contacting followers and was therefore hard to pick up.

The Interior Ministry released a grainy video taken of Ms Bhutto just moments
before she was shot as she left a rally in a park in Rawalpindi on Thursday
afternoon.

It shows her standing up through the sunroof of her stationary sports utility
vehicle and confidently waving to supporters. The film ends abruptly as
shots ring out. One, possibly two, guns can be seen above the heads of the
crowd behind the vehicle. Given the crush around the vehicle it seems
impossible that the assailant — or assailants — were on a motorbike as some
early reports claimed.

Brigadier Cheema said that all three shots fired by the attacker missed Ms
Bhutto. She was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle and
shock waves from the suicide bomb rammed her head into a lever attached to
the sunroof, he said.

“The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull . . . There was
no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.”

Brigadier Cheema said that Ms Bhutto’s husband had refused to permit a
post-mortem examination on her body — Islam discourages desecration of dead
bodies. But he said X-rays and an external investigation showed that “there
was no bullet that hit her . . . there was no splinter that hit her”.

Pakistan’s Government is facing considerable public anger for failing to
protect Ms Bhutto. Brigadier Cheema sought to deflect that anger by
insisting the Government had done everything in its power to protect her.

He said that everybody at the rally in Rawalpindi had been searched, Ms
Bhutto’s rostrum had been bullet-proof, and “all possible security
arrangements were made within the resources of the Government of Pakistan”.
He insisted that “no political leader in this country has been provided with
as much security”.

Brigadier Cheema announced two inquiries into the assassination — one by a
high court judge and the other by the security services. He also said that
several other prominent Pakistani politicians were under threat from Islamic
militants, and named Nawaz Sharif, leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim
League, as one of them.

The 20 other people who died in the assassination included Tauqee Akram, 35,
the husband of a British woman and active member of Ms Bhutto’s PPP. His
widow, Lubna Akram, lives in Halliwell, Bolton, and the couple have two
children.

‘Congratulations’

This is a translation of the alleged telephone conversation yesterday between
Baitullah Mehsud, a senior al-Qaeda leader, and Maulvi Sahib, another
militant, which the Pakistan Interior Ministry said had been intercepted
after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

Maulvi Sahib (MS) Asalaam Aleikum (Peace be with you)

Baitullah Mehsud (BM) Waleikum Asalam (And also with you)

MS Chief, how are you?

BM I am fine

MS Congratulations, I just got back during the night

BM Congratulations to you, were they our men?

MS Yes they were ours

BM Who were they?

MS There was Saeed, there was Bilal from Badar and Ikramullah

BM The three of them did it?

MS Ikramullah and Bilal did it

BM Then congratulations

MS Where are you? I want to meet you

BM I am at Makeen [town in South Waziristan tribal region], come over, I am at
Anwar Shah’s house

MS OK, I’ll come

BM Don’t inform their house for the time being

MS OK

BM It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her

MS Mashallah (Thank God). When I come I will give you all the details

BM I will wait for you. Congratulations, once again congratulations

MS Congratulations to you

BM Anything I can do for you?

MS Thank you very much.

BM Asalaam Aleikum

MS Waaleikum Asalaam

December 28, 2007 at 09:14 PM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Espionage - general | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Authorities point the finger at militant pro-Taliban leader

Authorities point the finger at militant pro-Taliban leader | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Rory McCarthy Saturday December 29, 2007 The Guardian Pakistani officials said last night they already had evidence from "intelligence intercepts" linking a pro-Taliban militant commander to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and several other suicide bombings.

On the intercept the commander, named
as Baitullah Mehsud, was recorded congratulating his men for the attack
on Bhutto, said Javed Iqbal Cheema, Pakistan's interior ministry
spokesman.

He described Mehsud as an "al-Qaida leader". Mehsud,
who is one of Pakistan's most wanted militants, is known to be a
pro-Taliban commander based in the violent tribal region of South
Waziristan. Before Bhutto flew back to Pakistan in October he was
reported as threatening a wave of suicide attacks against her, but he
later denied making the threat.

Pakistani officials said they believed Mehsud was also behind the
suicide bomb attack on the day of Bhutto's return which left 130 of her
supporters dead. Mehsud was "behind most of the recent terrorist
attacks that have taken place in Pakistan," Cheema said.

The
announcement came as police began the gruesome task of trying to
identify the suicide bomber behind the assassination at the start of a
fraught and difficult investigation.

The bomber's badly burned
head was recovered from the scene of the blast. Saud Aziz, the city's
police chief, said investigators would reconstruct the head and take
DNA samples from other body parts found nearby in the hope that they
could quickly identify the killer.

However, there is already deep
mistrust in Pakistan among many, not just Bhutto's supporters, who
doubt that a small cell of extremists alone was responsible for her
death. At the heart of these fears lies the long and dangerous
association of the Pakistani government and its military with Islamic
militants, in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Bhutto herself warned
before her death that there were powerful figures in Pakistan plotting
to kill her. Yesterday disturbing new evidence emerged of concerns that
Bhutto voiced two months ago.

On October 26, a week after her
return to Pakistan was marred by a first suicide bombing which killed
138 of her supporters, she sent an email to her spokesman in the United
States saying she was anxious that she was not being given enough
security. The email was passed to Wolf Blitzer, a CNN presenter, to be
published if she was killed. In the email Bhutto said if she was killed
it would be the responsibility of Pervez Musharraf, the general who
seized power in a coup and became Pakistan's president.

"Nothing
will, God willing happen. Just wanted u to know if it does in addition
to my names in my letter to Musharaf of Oct 16nth, I wld hold Musharaf
responsible," the email said. "I have been made to feel insecure by his
minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me
from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or
four police mobiles to cover all sides cld happen without him. B."

Two
days before her return, Bhutto sent Musharraf a letter, giving names
and telephone numbers of several men she believed were plotting against
her. Reports in the Pakistani press said the men included an official
in the Pakistani intelligence agencies, a member of the National
Accountability Bureau, which has long investigated corruption cases
against her, and a former provincial government official. Then after
the first attack on the day of her return, Bhutto asked for
international investigators to be assigned to the case. Her request was
rejected.

Al-Qaida, or militants allied to the group, might have
had a lot to lose if Bhutto had as expected, won next month's
elections. She had spoken repeatedly of her plans to take on the tide
of militancy sweeping Pakistan. Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No 2,
spoke out against Bhutto's return in a video this month and called for
attacks on all candidates in next month's election.

Bruce Riedel,
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior director
for south Asia on the national security council, said al-Qaida had been
trying to kill Bhutto for many years. "If it's not them, it's certainly
one of the groups that are sympathetic with them," he said. "They all
work together and share a common antipathy to Bhutto because she's a
woman, an advocate of secularism, a supporter of democracy and
everything they stand against."

Others say it may be more
complex. "It's going to be very difficult to establish the truth of who
was behind this," said MJ Gohel, the executive director of the
Asia-Pacific Foundation, a security and intelligence thinktank in
London.

"As well as the Taliban and al-Qaida elements, there are
many other candidates - there are elements within the military and
elements within the intelligence services, which never had a good
relationship with Bhutto."

The transcript

A
transcript released by the Pakistani government yesterday of a
purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is
referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi
Sahib, or Mr Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted
conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto

Maulvi Sahib Peace be on you.

Mehsud Peace be on you, too.

MS How are you Emir Sahib?

Mehsud Fine.

MS Congratulations. I arrived now tonight.

Mehsud Congratulations to you, too.

MS They were our men there.

Mehsud Who were they?

MS There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there.

Mehsud The three did it?

MS Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

Mehsud Then congratulations to you again.

MS Where are you? I want to meet with you?

Mehsud I am in Makin. Come I am at Anwar Shah's home.

MS OK I will come.

Mehsud Do not inform their family presently.

MS Right.

Mehsud It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.

MS Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.

Mehsud I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.

MS Congratulations to you as well.

Mehsud: Any service?

MS Thank you very much?

Mehsud Peace be on you.

MS Same to you.

December 28, 2007 at 09:07 PM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Espionage - general | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

FP Failed States index

The Fund for Peace - Failed States Index Scores 2007

We are pleased to present the third annual Failed States Index - which has been expanded to include 177 countries. Hundreds of thousands of articles from global and regional sources were collected from May to December 2006 using Thomson Dialog. Utilizing our CAST software to do initial analysis of these voluminous documents and with a review by experts, we compiled the scores below.

August 30, 2007 at 03:03 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Al-Qaeda tells British cells to carry out wave of beheadings

 

David Leppard

ISLAMIC terror cells in Britain have been instructed to carry out a series of kidnappings and beheadings of the kind allegedly planned by the nine terrorist suspects arrested in Birmingham last week.

The “strategic” assassination instruction was issued by Al-Qaeda’s leaders in Pakistan and Iraq to dozens of their followers in this country. It was uncovered by MI5 last autumn, senior security sources say.

As a result police are on standby for multiple attempts by terrorists to kidnap and then behead people across Britain. MI5 is conducting a counter-terrorism surveillance operation to prevent such an attack.

The alleged attempt to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier or soldiers in Birmingham was just the first of a series of planned attacks, security sources say.

The revelation explains the recent deployment of a permanent SAS unit to London. The unit has been placed on 24-hour standby to respond to a terrorist attack in the capital. It would aim to carry out a hostage rescue mission within minutes of being alerted.

Muslim police officers serving in London may also be given extra protection. The Association of Muslim Police is in talks with the Met, which is expected to carry out a risk assessment of the dangers.

One well placed source said: “Cells in the UK have been alerted to carry out this type of attack as opposed to the more sophisticated type of bombing in which you place a large number of volunteers at risk. All you need for a beheading is a bit of courage and a sharp knife.”

The order to encourage “low-tech” assassinations is said to follow a review by senior Al-Qaeda planners after an alleged plot to smuggle bombs onto airlines was foiled by police last August.

The order encouraged followers to adopt the tactics used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, who was behind the abduction, torture and beheading of Ken Bigley, a British engineer, in Iraq in 2004.

Bigley, 62, was kidnapped and filmed on video begging for Tony Blair to end the war before being beheaded. Footage of his “execution” was later posted on the internet.

After learning of the alleged Birmingham plot to behead a British Muslim soldier returning from Iraq or Afghanistan last autumn, the Ministry of Defence spent several months trying to establish how many soldiers fitted into this category.

After focusing on soldiers in the regular army, the Royal Marines and the Territorial Army, officials whittled the list of potential targets down to fewer than 10.

These soldiers were warned about the potential threat and advised on protection measures, or given the means to protect themselves. Sources said several of the suspects were personally acquainted with the Muslim soldier who was said to have been lined up as their first victim. The soldier, a corporal in military intelligence, is said to be under close protection.

The surveillance operation in Birmingham was stepped up at the beginning of last month when scores of detectives were seconded from the Greater Manchester police to join their colleagues in the West Midlands anti-terrorism unit.

The decision to arrest the nine suspects is said to have been made after one of them was seen buying a video camera in an electronics shop last weekend.

According to another source close to the investigation, those involved in the plot were supplying equipment and computer hardware to Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. One of the suspects had recently returned from a trip to Pakistan.

There were also claims this weekend that several of the arrested men attended the Hamza mosque in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham.

An official at the mosque, who refused to be named, said it was a centre for a group called Tablighi Jamaat, described by western security services as a “conveyor belt to Al-Qaeda”. The group’s British headquarters is in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where two of the London bombers regularly attended. In a statement, mosque officials said they could not confirm the claims.

Despite intelligence about the new UK strategy security sources say that Al-Qaeda has not entirely dropped more traditional terrorism tactics.

At least two cells are believed to be preparing attacks using cars packed with fertiliser explosives to cause mass casualties.

Armed guards were last month deployed outside the Bacton gas terminal in Norfolk following intelligence that it had been “scouted” by known terrorist suspects. Intelligence suggested the suspects were discussing how to carry out a car bomb attack.

A Whitehall official said MI5 was now monitoring about 280 terror suspects.

Each was suspected of serious intent to carry out an attack. Cells are being closely observed in at least four British towns and cities.

February 4, 2007 at 12:14 PM in Current Terrorism, MI5, UK | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Worldwide Terror Organisations

Worldwide Terror Organisations

Group
Center of Gravity
Status

Al-Qaeda
Pakistan
Active

Hezbollah
Lebanon
Active

Militant Sunni Islamic Groups

Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Iraq
Active

Mujahideen Shura Council
Iraq
Active

Ansar al-Sunna
Iraq
Active

Jemaah Islamiya
Indonesia
Active

Taliban
Afghanistan
Active

Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin
Afghanistan
Active

Abu Sayyaf
Philippines
Active

Al Gamaa al-Islamiyaa
Egypt
Reconciliating?

Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Egypt
Merged with al-Qaeda

Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Algeria
Active

Al-Badhr Mujahedin
Pakistan
Active

Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami
Kashmir
Active

Harakat ul-Mujahedin
Kashmir
Active

Hizbul-Mujahedin
Kashmir
Active

Jaish-e-Mohammed
Kashmir
Active

Jamiat ul-Mujahedin
Kashmir
Active

Jammat ul-Furqan
Kashmir
Active

Lashkar e-Tayyiba
Kashmir
Active

Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade
Chechnya
Active

Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance
and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs
Chechnya
Active

Special Purpose Islamic Regiment
Chechnya
Active

Al-Ittihad al-Islami
Somalia

Armed Islamic Group
Algeria
Defunct?

Asbat al-Ansar
Lebanon
Active

East Turkistan Islamic Movement
China
Active

Jamaatul-Mujahedin Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Active

Harakat-ul-Jihad-I-Islami Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Active

Hezba Nahda
Tajikistan

Islamic Army of Aden
Yemen
Active

Yemen Jannubi Group
Yemen

Islamic Jihad Group of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Active

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Active

Jamaat e Jihad Eritrea
Eritrea

Jamaat e Jihal al Suri
Syria

Kumpulan Mujahedin Malaysia
Malaysia

Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Libya
Active

Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Morocco
Active

People Against Gangsterism and Drugs
South Africa

Sipah-I-Sahaba Pakistan
Pakistan
Active

Tunisian Combatant Group
Tunisia
Active

Al-Qaeda Organizations

Al-Qaeda Fatwah Committee
Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda Finance Committee
Pakistan

Al-Qaeda majlis al shura
Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda Media Committee

Al-Qaeda Military Committee
Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda Travel Subcommittee
Sudan

Al Hijra
Sudan
Defunct

al Themar al Mubaraka
Sudan
Defunct

Jamat Nasiyah Dawa
United Kingdom

Khartoum Tannery
Sudan
Defunct

Ladin International
Sudan
Defunct

Qudarat Transport Company
Sudan
Defunct

Sajana Tower Fruit and Vegetable Company
Sudan
Defunct

Taba Investments
Sudan
Defunct

Wadi al Aqiq
Sudan
Defunct

Operational Cells

UK-US airline bomb plotters
United Kingdom
Captured?

9-11 plotters
United States
Dead or Captured

Hamburg Cell
Germany
Dead, captured or at-large

Bojinka Cell
Philippines
Captured

Palestinian Groups

Hamas
Palestine
Active

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Palestine
Active

Palestine Islamic Jihad
Syria
Active

Palestine Liberation Front
Lebanon
Active

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Palestine
Active

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
-General Command
Syria
Active

Other Groups

Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC)
Colombia
Active

Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia Group (AUC)
Colombia
Reconciliating

Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN)
Colombia
Reconciliating?

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)
Peru
Active

Page maintained by John Lumpkin

August 16, 2006 at 12:00 AM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Espionage - general, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

The truth about Lashkar-e-Taiba

Pakistan Facts - The truth about Lashkar-e-Taiba

Friday, May 21 2004 @ 09:40 PM Central Daylight Time

Pakistan TerrorismKaushik Kapisthalam
When it comes to the common terrorist thread between Willie Brigitte, Izhar-ul-Haque, David Hicks and Faheem Lodhi, Australians constantly hear the name "Lashkar-e-Taiba" (LeT) bandied about. Given the preponderance of LeT connections to terror plans within Australia therefore, it is critical that Australians understand the origins and activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba. To begin with, one must be disabused of the notion that the LeT is a "Kashmiri" group. It is not. The LeT was founded in Pakistan and is made up of mostly Pakistani Punjabis with a smattering of Afghans, Arabs, Bangladeshis, South East Asians and the occasional Western or Indian Muslim recruit. To understand the LeT, it is critical to appreciate its position in the Pakistani as well as the global jihadist movement.

Islamists today are a fractious bunch, but they can agree on the notion that the creation of a 'pure' Islamic state represents the best hope for salvation in both this world and the next, and as such Muslims everywhere are obliged to strive for such a goal. The Jihadist movement represents a subset of Islamists who intensely believe that near-perpetual war, pursued by any and all means against the unbeliever offers the best way to meet their obligations and make the Islamist dream real. In particular those inspired by the 18th century Saudi preacher Ibn Abd al-Wahhab - often known as 'Wahhabis' or 'Salafis'- are among the most persistent, energetic and emphatic promoters of this kind of jihad.

Salafis have been active since the 19th century in the sub-continent, where they are also became known as the "Ahle-Hadith" (People following the Prophet's Tradition.) The connections were renewed as thousands of Arabs armed with billions of petro-dollars streamed in to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. One result was the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the "Army of the Pure" is the jihadi or military expression of the Pakistani Ahle-Hadith movement.

While the Salafi LeT represents one part of the Pakistani jihadi community, the other major grouping consists of the more numerous Deobandi sect with terrorist groups like the Sipah-i-Sahaba-Pakistan (SSP) Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM.) Unlike the Ahle-Hadith, the Deobandis have built a powerful political movement within Pakistan but their political participation has also resulted in periodic bouts of serious tension with the Pakistani Army, which although highly supportive of jihad in Afghanistan and India, nevertheless brooks no challenge to its vice-like grip on political power within the nation. In contrast, the LeT led Ahle-Hadith movement has traditionally stayed apolitical and instead focused on its main goal - the dream of establishing an Islamic Caliphate that stretches from Indonesia to Morocco, including Northern Australia by means of a violent jihad.

Due to its eschewing of political confrontation with the Pakistani army and thanks to the strength of its ties to Saudi Arabia the LeT steadily grew in to one of the largest and most capable jihadist groups in Pakistan, despite the relatively small size of the Ahle Hadith followers in that nation. Even though the LeT elects not to take part in politics, it does have an unarmed wing, the Markaz Da'wa wal-Irshad (MDI) or "Centre for Religious Learning and Social Welfare". At the inspiration and by some accounts seed money from Osama bin Laden, Pakistani Salafists Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed of the University of Engineering and Technology of Lahore, founded the MDI in 1987. One of the other founding fathers of the MDI was Palestinian promoter and scholar of jihad Abdullah Azzam of the Muslim Brotherhood. Azzam was also one of the inspirations behind the creation of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Many consider Azzam the "Godfather" of the modern jihadist movements. Azzam was in fact the religious and political mentor of Osama Bin Laden and the inspiration behind the "Arab-Afghan" phenomenon of international, particularly Arab volunteers hijacking local conflicts involving Muslims in the name of Islam and turning them into a part of a global jihad. To this day, Lashkar uses Azzam's speeches and publications to train and motivate its cadres. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Lashkar-e-Taiba, before it renamed itself "Jamaat-ud-Dawa"(JuD) in 2002, linked on its website to the Hamas official website and the then English mouthpiece of al Qaeda, Azzam.com. Before Israeli forces killed him, Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin routinely addressed LeT rallies in Pakistan through phone. It is to be noted that Hafiz Mohammad Saeed became the supreme leader or the "Emir" of the LeT following Azzam's death.

The 190 acres large headquarters of the MDI/LeT is located in the town of Muridke, about 45 kilometres from Lahore. Its vast campus contains a huge mosque for the construction of which Osama bin Laden had reportedly contributed 10 million Pakistani Rupees, along with a garment factory, an iron foundry; a wood works factory, a swimming pool and three residential colonies for the volunteers. During the days of the US-Saudi funded jihad in Afghanistan to drive out the Soviets, the MDI was allowed its LeT volunteers to fight along with the Afghan Mujahideen. The Muridke campus also served as a base camp for Arab fighters to rest and recuperate and even train for jihad.

Reports say that Bin Laden also paid for the construction of a lavish and secure guesthouse in the LeT's Muridke campus. Other than staying in the guesthouse occasionally, Bin Laden also used to chair LeT's annual conclaves. After he became a global fugitive in the early to mid 1990s, Bin Laden preferred not to stay in the Muridke guesthouse due to security concerns. While Osama bin Laden stopped attending LeT's annual moots, he has addressed them over the phone until a few years ago from his hideout in the Sudan and, since after 1996 from Afghanistan. Addressing the November 1997 LeT annual meeting on the phone from Kandahar, bin Laden reportedly said: "Those who oppose jihad are not true Muslims." The LeT like other Pakistani jihadist groups also benefited greatly from Al Qaeda training at its camps in Afghanistan. In those camps, LeT fighters gained access to suicide bombing techniques, learned how to build large truck bombs that could destroy reinforced concrete structures, how to conduct surveillance on targets without being noticed, how to plan for spectacular operations covertly etc.

It was only after the Mujahideen's capture of Kabul in 1992 that the LeT aimed its attention on Kashmir. Urged on and materially assisted by the ISI, Pakistan's sinister intelligence agency, with whom it had a working relationship during the Afghan jihad, the LeT started a mass recruitment campaign in Pakistan to fight Indian troops in Kashmir. Though the LeT's nominal goal was to help Pakistan annex Kashmir, it fit in well with its grand plans of establishing an Islamic Caliphate. The LeT saw Hindu majority India as an obstacle on par with the US and Israel to the Islamist dream of creating a unified empire that spans the entire Muslim world. At a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on February 18,1996, LeT's Emir Saeed said: "The jihad in Kashmir would soon spread to entire India. Our Mujahideen would create three Pakistans in India." The LeT is still active in Kashmir while simultaneously being faithful to its original goal.

To finance its day-to-day activities, the LeT leverages its contacts in Saudi Arabia as well as launches donation campaigns with overseas Pakistanis, especially middle class and wealthy Punjabis in Britain, Australia and the Middle East. According to Jane's Terrorism & Insurgency Centre, Osama bin Laden has also financed LeT activities until recently. The LeT, under its new name JuD, uses its outreach networks including schools, social service groups and religious publications to attract and brainwash recruits for jihad in Kashmir and other places.

While LeT apologists try to use its connection to Kashmir to palm it off as a "Kashmiri freedom fighter" group, the reality is that it has always used brutal terrorist tactics in Kashmir and elsewhere in India. LeT members have perpetrated and even claimed responsibility for scores of attacks on Hindu pilgrims, temples and innocent farmers. In fact, the LeT boldly claimed responsibility for a May 2002 attack on the wives and children of Indian troops at a time of war-like situation between India and Pakistan. European Union External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten noted at that time that he was repulsed by the sheer savagery of the attack where sleeping infants were machine-gunned to death at close range. Despite this, the LeT openly praised the attack and glorified it on its website.

August 12, 2006 at 02:02 PM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Muslim background | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Three decades of terror

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Three decades of terror

Published: February 7 2003 16:18 | Last updated: April 28 2006 18:00

April 26 2006. Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in Sinai near the Gaza border in Egypt. Their targets, peacekeepers from the multinational force and observers and Egyptian police, escape injury.

April 24 2006. Scores of people are injured and at least 24 killed in three separate explosions at the Egyptian resort of Dahab, an area popular with Europeans and Israelis. The attacks are blamed on a Sinai desert-based group of extremists and appear to follow an organised pattern in Sinai.

April 23 2006. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warns in an audiotape broadcast on al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television network, that the West should not send UN forces to Darfur in Sudan. He cites Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian Authority since the Islamist group Hamas won January elections as evidence of an alleged anti-Muslim campaign.

November 9 2005. Four Iraqi bombers, including a husband and wife team, attack the Radisson and Grand Hyatt hotels and the Days Inn in Amman, Jordan. The attacks killed at least 57 people. Abu Musab Zarqawi, the alleged leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, claims responsibility.

July 23 2005. At least 64 people were killed in a string of three bombings at the Red Sea resort Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt.

July 21 2005. Four attempted bombings spread fear in London exactly two weeks after the deadly July 7 attacks, but none of the devices, again on three underground trains and one bus, exploded. In April 2006 the five accused men deny conspiracy to murder and cause explosions. Their trial is set for October 2006.

July 7 2005. Four British suicide bombers hit London’s public transport system in co-ordinated attacks, killing 52 and injuring 700. Three bombs go off on underground trains and a fourth is detonated on a bus an hour later.

December 6 2004. Terrorist organisation al-Qaeda claims responsibility for an attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in which five attackers use explosives to break through the fortified entrance and shoot their way into the compound, killing five and injuring nine.

October 7 2004. In Taba, Egypt, Islamic militants drive a car filled with explosives into the lobby of a Hilton Hotel, killing 34 and wounding 159 others. Egyptian authorities identified a Palestinian and an Egyptian as the perpetrators.

June 12 2004. Militants abduct Paul Johnson, a US contractor in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On June 19, graphic pictures of his body are posted on an Islamist website. The kidnappers, who who claim to be al-Qaeda members, behead their victim after their demand to release prisoners arrested in Saudi Arabia for links to radical Muslim groups are not met.

March 11 2004. Four explosions blow up commuter trains in Madrid, killing 190 people. The Spanish government initially blames the Basque separatist group, Eta, but subsequent evidence points to an attack by Islamist terrorists. The Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigades, said to be a division of al-Qaeda, claims responsibility in retaliation for Spain's involvement in the US-led war in Iraq.

November 20 2003. Two suicide car bombings against Turkish headquarters of HSBC bank and British Consulate in Istanbul, result in the deaths of 27 people, including the British Consul and his personal assistant. al-Qaeda and a local Islamist group claim responsibility.

November 15 2003. Turkish Islamists kill 24 people in truck bombings against two synagogues in Istanbul. Although the attacks target the Beir Israel and Neve Shalom temples, most of the victims are Muslim passers-by. The bombings are claimed by al-Qaeda and a local Islamist group.

November 10 2003. US supreme court announces it will hear the appeals of several British, Australian and Kuwaiti citizens held with more than 600 others after US anti-terror sweeps in Afghanistan. At issue is whether US courts have jurisdiction to hear challenges by the detainees to their imprisonment.

November 9 2003. Suicide car bomb attack on a residential compound in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, kills 17 people, mostly Arab expatriates.

October 29 2003. Ten men, held without trial in the UK for almost two years under controversial anti-terror laws, lose their appeal against detention. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission decided there were "reasonable grounds" for suspecting the detained individuals had links with terrorism.

October 29 2003. Delhi appeals court overturns the conviction of S.A.R. Geelani, a Muslim professor at Delhi University, who had been sentenced to death for his alleged role in orchestrating a suicide terrorist attack on India's parliament two years earlier.

October 2 2003. Court in Indonesia sentences Mukhlas, alleged Jemaah Islamiah operations chief, and third key suspect in Bali bomb trial, to death.

October 2 2003. A federal judge rules that US government prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui, the man accused of conspiring with al-Qaeda in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

September 30 2003. A Belgian court sentences 18 Islamic militants, ending a four-month trial that highlighted the depth and diversity of al-Qaeda's terrorist network at the heart of Europe. Nizar Trabelsi, a former professional soccer player, receives the maximum sentence for his crimes under Belgian law of 10 years in prison after he admitting to preparing a suicide attack on a US air base at Kleine Brogel, near the Dutch border.

September 18 2003. Ali Imron, fourth Bali bombing suspect, sentenced to life in jail.

September 11 2003. Americans hold a day of prayer and remembrance to mark the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. A ceremony at Ground Zero in New York features children who lost parents in the attack reading out the victims' names.

September 10 2003. On the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera broadcasts what it claims is a new tape of Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, encouraging new attacks against Americans. Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz, a 33-year-old Indonesian computer expert, is sentenced to death for organising the Bali bomb attacks.

September 10 2003. Bali court sentences Imam Samudra, alleged ground commander of Bali attack to death.

August 19 2003. The Brigades of the Martyr Abu Hafz al-Masri, said to be a division of al-Qaeda, claims responsibility for a massive truck bomb which devastates the Baghdad headquarters of the UN, killing Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top UN envoy to Iraq, and 21 others.

August 7 2003. Amrozi bin Nurhasyim is found guilty of conspiring, planning and carrying out terrorist bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Known as the "smiling bomber", he is sentenced to death by firing squad.

August 5 2003. A huge bomb kills 10 people and wounds 150 at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Matori Abdul Djalil, Indonesian defence minister blames the militant group Jema’ah Islamiyah.

July 31 2003. Wan Min Wan Mat, alleged Jema'ah Islamiah treasurer, tells Bali court part of group's funding came from al-Qaeda, providing link between the two organisations.

June 7 2003. A suicide car bomber blows up a bus full of German peacekeepers east of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing four and wounding 31. Peter Struck, German defence minister, blames al Qaeda.

May 16 2003. Suicide bombers attack a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community centre in Casablanca, killing 45 people, including 12 bombers. Members of a Morrocan organisation known as the Salafist Jihad, which has indirect links to al Qaeda, are later found guilty of co-ordinating the attacks.

May 12 2003. Suicide bombers in vehicles shoot their way into housing compounds for expatriates in Saudi capital, Riyadh, killing 35, including nine Americans. Colin Powell, US secretary of state, blames al-Qaeda.

April 30 2003. Six men suspected of links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network are seized in a raid in the Pakistani city of Karachi. The Pakistani interior ministry said they had been planning major acts of terrorism in the country.

March 6 2003. Top Central Intelligence Agency officials arrive in Pakistan as evidence mounts that Osama bin Laden is hiding in an area concentrated around Gwadar, a port in the south.

March 1 2003. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's third-ranking officer and the self-confessed planner of the September 11 attacks in the US, is arrested in Pakistan and interrogated by US and Pakistani officials.

February 19 2003. Mounir al-Motassadeq, a Moroccan student, is sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Hamburg court for being an accessory to murder in 3,066 cases - the number of people known to have died in the September 11 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. He is also found guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation.

February 11 2003. Osama bin Laden broadcasts a "call to arms" for Muslims to rise up against the US and its allies in his first public statement in more than four months. Washington takes references to Baghdad as proof that some links exist between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

January 5 2003. UK anti-terrorist police find the deadly poison ricin in a London flat. Seven north Africans are arrested.

December 16 2002. French anti-terrorist police arrest nine north African men in a series of raids in northern Paris. Evidence that they were developing chemical weapons - using cyanide - is discovered.

November 28 2002. Two attacks are launched against Israeli targets in Mombasa, Kenya. A hotel blast kills 16 - including the three suicide car bombers - and a missile is fired but misses an Israeli plane. Al-Qaeda is believed responsible.

November 5 2002. A US missile attack fired from an unmanned Predator aircraft inside Yemen kills six alleged al-Qaeda members, including Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, whom the US has linked to the attack on the warship USS Cole off Aden in October 2000.

October 12 2002. Three bombs explode on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing nearly 200 people, mostly foreign tourists. Investigators blame the Jemaah Islamiyah, a southeast Asian terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda.

October 6 2002. A French-registered oil tanker, Limburg, is damaged by explosives while sailing off the coast of Yemen. Al-Qaeda is suspected.

October 4 2002. A US court sentences John Walker Lindh, the so-called 'American Taleban', to 20 years in jail for fighting for the ousted regime in Afghanistan. US law enforcement officers charge four men with waging war against the US and supporting al-Qaeda.

August 28 2002. Mounir al-Motassadek, a 28-year-old Moroccan living in Germany, becomes the second person to be charged in relation with the 11 September attacks. He is charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and belonging to a terrorist group.

July 26 2002. The US House of Representatives approves the creation of a Department of Homeland Security. The agency is responsible for guarding US borders, protecting potential targets such as the transportation system and overseeing the recovery from future attacks.

July 24 2002. The US House of Representatives approves a massive increase in intelligence gathering spending. The 2003 fiscal intelligence authorisation bill adds up to $35bn, to cover funds for the CIA, the National Security Agency, several Pentagon departments, and the Departments of State, Justice and Energy.

June 26 2002. A bill is passed in the US House of Representatives that will make it easier for federal agencies to share information about terrorism. The legislation makes co-ordination between the FBI and CIA a legal requirement.

June 11 2002. US authorities say they thwarted a plot by al-Qaeda to attack the country by detonating a radioactive 'dirty bomb' . The alleged bomber Abdullah al-Muhajir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested on 8 May at Chicago airport after arriving from Pakistan.

May 14 2002. President Bush signs a new immigration bill aimed at making it more difficult for terror suspects to enter the country. Recommendations include increased border checks and closer monitoring of foreign students. All passports issued after 2003 must now contain fingerprints or facial recognition technology.

April 11 2002. A lorry laden with dynamite and gas cylinders explodes at a synagogue on the Tunisian Island of Djerba, killing 17 people - 11 German tourists, five Tunisians and a Frenchman. German officials blame al-Qaeda and trace planning of the attack to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a senior al-Qaeda planner.

December 23 2001. Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, is arrested on a flight from Paris to Miami. He allegedly had explosives hidden in his shoes.

December 14 2001. US Government releases a video which it says proves that Osama bin Laden masterminded the 11 September attacks. Indonesia acknowledges ties between local Islamic groups and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

December 12 2001. Zacarias Moussaoui is the first to be charged in connection with the 11 September attacks.

November 28 2001. Mounir El Motassadeq, charged with serving as an accessory to 3,044 murders in New York and Washington D.C. and with belonging to Hamburg al-Qaeda cell, is accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks. His trial, the first against a suspected 9/11 conspirator, begins in Hamburg in October 2002.

November 7 2001. US Government freezes the assets of financial networks alleged to be linked to Osama bin Laden, bringing to 62 the number of groups and people added to a list of suspected terrorist associates.

October 24 2001. US Congress approves anti-terrorism legislation that gives law enforcement agencies sweeping new powers to monitor and detain suspected terrorists.

October 7 2001. US and British forces begin air strikes against targets in Afghanistan.

October 5 2001. Robert Stevens, 63, dies in Palm Beach, Florida, after contracting pulmonary anthrax. Anthrax attacks kill five people and leave 17 seriously ill. Suggestions that Iraq or al-Qaeda might be responsible, are eventually discounted.

September 24 2001. The US authorities freeze the assets of 27 groups and individuals, many of them Islamic charities, alleged to be funding terrorist organisations.

September 14 2001. The FBI reveals the identities of the 19 alleged hijackers and launches the biggest investigation in its history. US Attorney-General John Ashcroft says that all roads in the investigation lead to Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation.

September 11 2001. Two hijacked airliners crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Soon after, the Pentagon is struck by a third hijacked plane. A fourth hijacked plane, suspected to be bound for a high-profile target in Washington, crashes into a field in southern Pennsylvania. More than 5,000 US citizens and other nationals are killed as a result of these acts.

December 30 2000. A bomb explodes in a plaza across the street from the US embassy in Manila, injuring nine people. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is thought to be responsible.

October 12 2000. In Aden, Yemen, a small dingy carrying explosives rams the destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. Supporters of al-Qaeda are suspected.

December 14 1999. Ahmed Rezzam, an al-Qaeda operative based in Canada, is arrested as he crosses into the US near Seattle, when a bomb is found in his car. He admits he planned to detonate the bomb at Los Angeles airport on the millenium.

October 18 1998. A National Liberation Army (ELN) planted bomb explodes on the Ocensa pipeline in Antioquia Department, Colombia, killing about 71 people and injuring at least 100 others.

August 15 1998. A 500-pound car bomb planted by the Real IRA explodes in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killing 29 people and injuring more than 330.

August 7 1998. A bomb explodes at the rear entrance of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 247 Kenyans, 12 US citizens, and 32 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs). About 5,000 Kenyans, six US citizens, and 13 FSNs are injured. Almost simultaneously, a bomb is detonated outside the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing seven FSNs and three Tanzanian citizens. The U.S. Government holds Osama bin Ladin responsible.

November 17 1997. Al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya (IG) gunmen shoot and kill 58 tourists and four Egyptians and wounding 26 others at the Hatshepsut Temple in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

September 4 1997. Three suicide bombers of Hamas detonated bombs in the Ben Yehuda shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing eight people, including the bombers, and wounding nearly 200 others.

December 3 1996. A bomb explodes aboard a Paris subway train as it arrives at the Port Royal station, killing two French nationals, a Moroccan, and a Canadian, and injuring 86 people. No one claims responsibility for the attack, but Algerian extremists are suspected.

August 1 1996. A bomb exploded at the home of the French Archbishop of Oran, killing him and his chauffeur. The attack occurred after the Archbishop's meeting with the French Foreign Minister. The Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is suspected.

June 25 1996. A fuel truck carrying a bomb explodes outside the US military's Khobar Towers housing facility in Dhahran, killing 19 US military personnel and wounding 515 people, including 240 US personnel. Several groups claim responsibility for the attack.

June 15 1996. IRA truck bomb detonated at a Manchester, UK, shopping center, wounding 206 people, and caused extensive property damage.

March 4 1996. Dizengoff Center Bombing. Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) both claim responsibility for a bombing outside of Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall that kills 20 persons and injuring 75 others.

February 26 1996. In Jerusalem, a suicide bomber blews up a bus, killing 26 people, including three US citizens, and injuring 80 others.

January 31 1996. Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rammed an explosives-laden truck into the Central Bank in the heart of downtown Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 90 civilians and injuring more than 1,400 others.

November 19 1995. A suicide bomber drove a vehicle into the Egyptian Embassy compound in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 16 and injuring 60 people. Three militant Islamic groups claimed responsibility.

April 19 1995. Right-wing extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols destroy the Federal Building in Oklahoma City with a massive truck bomb that kills 166 and injurs hundreds more in what is then the largest terrorist attack on American soil.

March 20 1995. Twelve people are killed, and 5,700 injured in a Sarin nerve gas attack on a crowded subway station in the center of Tokyo, Japan. A similar attack occurrs almost simultaneously in the Yokohama subway system. The Aum Shinri-kyu cult is blamed for the attacks.

February 25 1994. Jewish right-wing extremist and US citizen Baruch Goldstein machine-gun Moslem worshippers at a mosque in West Bank town of Hebron, killing 29 and wounding about 150.

April 14 1993. The Iraqi intelligence service attempts to assassinate former US President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait. In retaliation, the US launches a cruise missile attack 2 months later on the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

February 26 1993. The World Trade Center in New York City is badly damaged when a car bomb planted by Islamic terrorists explodes in an underground garage.

December 21 1988. Pan Am flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb believed to have been placed on the aircraft in Frankfurt, West Germany, by Libyan terrorists. All 259 people on board are killed.

November 29 1987. North Korean agents plant a bomb aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 858, which subsequently crashes into the Indian Ocean.

April 5 1986. Two US soldiers are killed, and 79 American servicemen injured in a Libyan bomb attack on a nightclub in West Berlin, West Germany. In retaliation, US military jets bomb targets in and around Tripoli and Benghazi.

June 23 1985. A bomb destroys an Air India Boeing 747 over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people aboard. Both Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists are blamed for the attack. Two cargo handlers are killed at Tokyo airport, Japan, when another Sikh bomb explodes in an Air Canada aircraft en route to India.

12 April 1984. Eighteen US servicemen are killed and 83 people injured in a bomb attack on a restaurant near a US Air Force Base in Torrejón, Spain. Responsibility is claimed by Hizbollah.

October 23 1983. Simultaneous suicide truck-bomb attacks are made on American and French compounds in Beirut, Lebanon. A 12,000-pound bomb destroys the US compound, killing 242 Americans, while 58 French troops are killed when a 400-pound device destroys a French base. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.

October 9 1983. North Korean Hit Squad blows up a delegation from South Korea in Rangoon, Burma, killing 21 people and injuring 48.

April 18 1983. Sixty-three people, including the CIA's Middle East director, are killed, and 120 injured in a 400-pound suicide truck-bomb attack on the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.

October 6 1981. Soldiers who are secretly members of the Tak fir Wal-Hajira sect attack and kill Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a troop review.

November 20 1979. Two hundred Islamic terrorists seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, taking hundreds of pilgrims hostage. Saudi and French security forces retake the shrine after an intense battle in which 250 people are killed and 600 wounded.

March 16 1978. Italian premier Aldo Moro is seized by the Red Brigade and assassinated 55 days later.

September 5 1972. Eight Palestinian "Black September" terrorists seize 11 Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. In a bungled rescue attempt by West German authorities, nine of the hostages and five terrorists are killed.

July 21 1972. Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb attacks kill 11 people and injures 130 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Ten days later, three IRA car bomb attacks in the village of Claudy leave six dead.

Sources: US Department of State; BBC; ERRI; Reuters;

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

July 1, 2006 at 11:54 AM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

British agents trace 7/7 terror links to smalltown America

British agents trace 7/7 terror links to smalltown America - Britain - Times Online

By Daniel McGrory
No 10 rejects calls for inquiry into bombings as evidence emerges of extremists’ role in global terror network
BRITISH agents are operating in the United States to trace links with Islamic extremists from England who recruit Muslims to fight for terrorist groups abroad.

The British-led investigation has played a part in identifying a number of US-based terrorists and helped the authorities in Washington to break up an al-Qaeda cell operating in Falls Church, Virginia.

The agents are particularly keen to discover if the visitors included Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is alleged to have travelled to America’s East Coast to meet fellow militants and stage a series of attacks on synagogues.

Khan was considered such a threat that he was banned from returning to America two years before the attack on London, according to a book written by a US intelligence specialist.

The disclosure, made by the award-winning author Ron Suskind in an extract from The One Percent Doctrine in The Times yesterday, led to calls for a full public inquiry into intelligence lapses before the attacks on July 7 which killed 52 people in London.

Intelligence sources in America insist that the man they were alerted to was Khan.

However, Tony Blair’s spokesman said the claims would not lead to any further investigation by the Intelligence and Security Committee, which last month cleared MI5 of serious errors, or any other form of inquiry. “The [Security and Intelligence] Committee’s conclusion is that there was not an intelligence failure,” he said.

The Conservatives have called for an independent inquiry into the July 7 bombings, while the Liberal Democrats and victims’ relatives want a full public inquiry.

Neither the FBI nor police would comment on the investigations into Khan’s alleged visits to the US in 2002, but, in Falls Church yesterday, residents blamed “foreign agitators” for encouraging young men from the city’s Muslim community to join extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

In the Falls Plaza shopping mall, most preferred to chat about their historic city’s latest civic award for its floral displays and not its reputation as the jihad capital of America.

Over the past few months, 11 men who regularly attended the same Islamic Centre in Falls Church have been convicted of terrorism charges. Seven reportedly went to training camps in Pakistan, including one used by Khan.

Their trials exposed a network stretching from this placid commuter belt serving the US capital ten miles away, passing through British cities and on to jihadi camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A twelfth man from this city of barely 11,000 residents, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was jailed for 30 years in March for plotting to assassinate President Bush and being a member of al-Qaeda. FBI investigators claim in The One Percent Doctrine that Abu Ali, 24, was in regular e-mail contact with Khan.

The latest trial of the “Virginia 11” led to a junior school teacher, Ali Asad Chandia, being convicted on June 6 for giving aid to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which is banned in both the US and Britain. A number of Scotland Yard officers and British intelligence agents gave evidence.

Like Khan, who worked as a teaching assistant in Leeds, Chandia, 29, was popular with parents and pupils, and his family deny he had any links with British extremists or trained at a camp in Pakistan.

Prosecutors described how Chandia had worked as a chauffeur for a London-based terrorism organiser, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who was jailed for nine years in March in Britain after admitting shipping weapons to Pakistan.

Chandia was also described as the personal assistant to a charismatic young preacher in Falls Church, Ali al-Tamimi — a US-born biology graduate — who in January was sentenced to life plus 70 years, without parole, for encouraging his followers to go to Afghanistan to fight US-led coalition troops.

The National Security Agency is accused of bugging mosques and private homes where al-Tamimi preached, including the Dar al-Hijrah centre on the edge of Falls Church. This glass-fronted mosque acquired its notoriety in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when it was discovered that the imam, Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, was the spiritual mentor to two of the hijackers.

The imam was never charged but moved to Yemen. His successor, Joharri Abdul Malik, says: “The community is disturbed by what previously happened here,” but believes many of the “Virginia 11” were jailed for “having big mouths”.

“They made inappropriate and irreponsible comments,” the imam said. “Some did go to training camps but none fired a shot in anger, and once they were in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan and saw what it was really like, they soon had a change of heart and came home. They are guilty of thought crimes.”

Imam Joharri is angered that the FBI did not approach community leaders to discuss concerns that extremists from Britain and elsewhere were trying to recruit youngsters from the area. “If the authorities knew this was going on, why weren’t we warned?” he asked.

He described how Ali al-Tamimi, frustrated at his failure to take control of the mosque, led a breakaway group of his followers to a trading estate on the opposite end of the city to set up the Dar alArqam Centre for Islamic Information. The building included the offices of two charities outlawed by the US as fronts for terrorism organisations.

After al-Tamimi’s conviction, what was left of his group abandoned the Dar al-Arqam centre, which no longer has any links with fundamentalist groups. FBI sources say they are unsure what has happened to some of his followers.

THE PROPOSALS

Among the measures suggested by the task force which have yet to be taken up:

# A public inquiry into 7/7 bombings
# Rapid rebuttal unit to combat Islamophobia
# National resource unit for development of curricula in mosques and madrassas, and guidelines for teachers
# Programmes to “upskill” current imams
# Muslim “beacon centres” to help small mosques and cultural centres
# Set up and fund network of Muslim safety forums to promote meaningful partnership between community and police
# Ministerial review of raids, stop and search and armed police activity
# Correct the “alien” image of Islam in the national curriculum

June 19, 2006 at 10:02 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Men attended `training camp': Sources

TheStar.com - Men attended `training camp': Sources

un. 3, 2006. 07:25 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD, SURYA BHATTACHARYA AND STAN JOSEY
STAFF REPORTERS

A group of Canadian teenagers and young men in their 20s, accused by police of being members of a suspected homegrown terrorist cell, will appear in court this morning to face accusations that they plotted to attack Canadian targets, the Toronto Star has learned.

Some members of the group allegedly attended a "training camp" north of the city where they made a video imitating military warfare, and the suspects allegedly had acquired weapons and listed targets in Ontario, sources told the Star.

Some members of the group allegedly attended a "training camp" north of the city where they made a video imitating military warfare, and the suspects allegedly had acquired weapons and listed targets in Ontario, sources told the Star.

Led by the RCMP's anti-terrorism task force, more than 400 police officers from across Ontario made the series of arrests last night and early this morning, taking as many as a dozen suspects into custody at a heavily guarded Pickering police station. Sources said there was a concern that some of the group's members had acquired explosives.

The arrested men were driven one by one into the Ajax Pickering community police station at Brock and Kingston Rds. and were taken into the underground garage for processing. Unmarked police cars lined up outside the door, with one car being allowed in approximately every 15 minutes.

Members of the Durham region tactical unit were stationed at one-metre intervals providing a security wall around the police property. Just before 11:30 p.m., five vans belonging to Toronto police's elite Emergency Task Force unit and the force's canine unit converged on a Scarborough home.

The arrests were expected to continue overnight and early this morning, sources say.

Sources told the Star that the group had been watched by Canada's spy service since 2004 and a criminal investigation by the RCMP began last year.

It's not known specifically why police acted last night and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

The group is being charged under the new anti-terrorism legislation introduced into the criminal code in December 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. It's only the second time the terrorism laws have been used in Canada.

Mohammad Momin Khawaja, an Ottawa-area software operator, was the first person arrested on terrorism charges and will stand trial in January for his alleged connection to a British group.

Sources close to last night's investigation are calling the suspects arrested yesterday a "homegrown" group, meaning they are Canadian citizens or long-time residents, raised and allegedly radicalized without leaving the country. It's a phenomenon Canadian officials have been warning about for the past few years.

The London bombings on the subway and a double-decker bus last July were blamed on a homegrown British group.

Although the RCMP would not talk about the arrests last night, community sources confirmed the names of three of the men now behind bars.

Fahim Ahmad, a 22-year-old Scarborough father, was arrested late yesterday. He allegedly rented a car last summer for two men who were later caught bringing weapons across the border into Canada.

The arrests of two other men from Mississauga — brothers-in-law Ahmad Ghany and Zakaria Amara — shocked neighbours and family who said they couldn't believe the allegations.

"I think they have it wrong. Those guys have nothing to do with (terrorism)," said Scarborough Imam Aly Hindy.

Hindy has been a high profile critic of the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service, accusing the federal agency of targeting Muslims who criticize the foreign policies of Western governments.

He believes this is what led to the arrests yesterday.

"Because they are young people, and they are Muslims, they are saying it's terrorism," he said in an interview last night.

Ahmad had only moved into the Scarborough area, near Sheppard Ave. and Markham Rd., a few weeks ago.

"This is a good community and we're very shocked by the news. We leave our whole family here for the whole day, including our small children, and come back to this," said local resident Qadeer Mohammed.

"This very shocking, and the whole community will be affected."

The case is critical for Canada's international reputation and will be scrutinized worldwide as it works its way through the courts.

There has been cause for skepticism concerning the ability of Canada's intelligence and police services to prosecute security cases. Since 9/11, the majority of high-profile security investigations have ended in international embarrassment, such as the acquittal of suspects in the Air India bombing case and the Maher Arar affair which raised questions about international information sharing, exposed an inexperienced federal police force and left an Ottawa man broken after his deportation, detention and torture in Syria.

Then there was Project Thread, a 2003 joint immigration-RCMP case touted as the dismantling of an Al Qaeda cell, but ending in a routine immigration case that sent Pakistani students home branded terrorists.

With files from Bob Mitchell

June 3, 2006 at 08:48 AM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

How Internet monitoring sparked a CSIS investigation into a suspected homegrown terror cell

TheStar.com - How Internet monitoring sparked a CSIS investigation into a suspected homegrown terror cell

Jun. 3, 2006. 01:00 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER

Last night's dramatic police raid and arrest of as many as a dozen men — with more to come — marks the culmination of Canada's largest ever terrorism investigation into an alleged homegrown cell.

The chain of events began two years ago, sparked by local teenagers roving through Internet sites, reading and espousing anti-Western sentiments and vowing to attack at home, in the name of oppressed Muslims here and abroad.

Their words were sometimes encrypted, the Internet sites where they communicated allegedly restricted by passwords, but Canadian spies back in 2004 were reading them. And as the youths' words turned into actions, they began watching them.

According to sources close to the investigation, the suspects are teenagers and men in their 20s who had a relatively typical Canadian upbringing, but — allegedly spurred on by images of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and angered by what they saw as the mistreatment of Muslims at home — became increasingly violent.

Police say they acquired weapons, picked targets and made detailed plans.

They travelled north to a "training camp" and made propaganda videos imitating jihadists who had battled in Afghanistan. At night, they washed up at a Tim Hortons nearby.

One was a math and chemistry whiz from Scarborough who grew up to become a 22-year-old husband and father.

It's unclear why the authorities decided to act on their suspicions yesterday. None of these allegations has been proven in court, where the suspects are expected to appear for the first time this morning.

Sources say the arrests involve a "homegrown" terrorism cell — Western youths who have never set foot in Afghanistan but allegedly were radicalized here, and who are thought to be potentially as dangerous as the cells that once took orders from Osama bin Laden. Western governments, including Canada's, have repeatedly warned of this phenomenon and blamed recent attacks, such as last July's bombings in London, as the work of such groups.

The Canadian investigation involves a complicated web of connections, with alleged ties to two men from Georgia who came to Toronto in March 2005 to meet with "like-minded Islamic extremists," according to U.S. court documents.

Details of the Canadian investigation will be officially released this morning at a news conference.

For the spies who work on the 10th floor of a Front St. office building, with the CN Tower looming above and a hub of Toronto's tourist district buzzing below, this investigation was personal.

The group arrested yesterday allegedly had a list of targets, sources have told the Star, and the Toronto headquarters of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was one of them.

So were the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and a smattering of other high-profile, heavily populated areas. But since most of the suspects lived in the GTA, it was the potential threat to the spy service's office and the chaos an attack would create in the heart of Toronto that concerned CSIS most.

According to sources, the suspects allegedly planned to target the spy service because many of them had encountered agents early in the investigation, when they were interviewed and put under surveillance. They also were allegedly angered by media reports accusing CSIS of racial profiling of Muslims.

Many of the agents were known to members of the group only by aliases, but the belief that the office had been targeted led to months of unease among CSIS staff, sources said.

Some of the group's members had even been spotted taking notes around the building, and at least one had reportedly visited the basement, one source told the Star.

The investigation began back in 2004, when CSIS was monitoring Internet sites and tracing the paths of Canadians believed to have ties to international terrorist organizations. Local youths espousing fundamentalist views drew special attention, sources say.

Since it was created 21 years ago, the spy service's mandate has been to protect Canada's security. It is not a police force; its agents don't carry weapons, have no power of arrest and traditionally have preferred to stay out of public view.

But CSIS does have a relationship with the RCMP, albeit one traditionally fraught with turf wars and communication problems, and the focus of criticism and concern since 9/11.

The two federal agencies work independently, but when CSIS is monitoring someone who could be prosecuted criminally, the spy service notifies the Mounties in what's known as an "advisory letter."

`We are seeing phenomena

in Canada such as the emergence of homegrown second and third generation terrorists'

Jack Hooper, CSIS deputy director

That happened in this case on Nov. 17, 2004.

Four months after authorities began to fear that Canada might have its own homegrown terrorist cell, two Americans entered the picture.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi descent who had attended high school in Ontario, and Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, a student at Georgia Tech, boarded a Greyhound bus in Atlanta on March 6, 2005, and travelled to Toronto to meet "like-minded Islamic extremists," a U.S. court document alleges.

At the time the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force was watching the U.S. pair, Sadequee, according to court documents, was already on a no-fly list. But they crossed the border uneventfully and met three people associated with the group the Canadian authorities were watching.

Ahmed later told authorities that the meetings were to discuss U.S. locations suitable for a terrorist strike, including oil refineries and military bases, court documents state. They also allegedly talked about how to dismantle the Global Positioning System in an effort to disrupt military and commercial communications and traffic, and their plans to go to Pakistan to train at "terrorist-sponsored camps." (The FBI claims Ahmed "later travelled to Pakistan in an attempt to receive just such training.")

Ahmed is now in U.S. custody, indicted in March for material support of terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty.

Sadequee is accused of making false statements in connection with a terrorism investigation. He was arrested in April in Bangladesh and handed over to American authorities — a transfer his lawyer later characterized in court as being closer to a kidnapping than an arrest. Sadequee was flown to Alaska, according to U.S. news reports, and, having waived a preliminary hearing, consented to being transferred to Brooklyn, N.Y. He has been denied bail and is awaiting trial.

Fahim Ahmad, who was arrested as part of yesterday's sweep, was living with his wife and children in a Scarborough apartment in August 2005, while authorities were watching him closely. The 22-year-old allegedly rented a car for two Toronto-area men to go to the U.S.

The licence plate was flagged so it could be pulled over upon its return to Canada, sources told the Star and court documents confirm. On Aug. 13, at 5:30 a.m., a student working with the Canada Border Services Agency at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie pulled over the white Buick that Ahmad had rented, which was being driven by Yasin Mohamed, 24, of Toronto, with Ali Dirie, 22, whose last address was in Markham, as a passenger.

The car was targeted because its plate number came back with the warning: "Look out, possible narcotic involvement," on a customs database, court documents state.

After the two were briefly questioned, a superintendent was called over, and Dirie and Mohamed were told to wait outside the car as it was searched.

"The customs inspector noticed that Mohamed seemed to fidgeting with his hands in his pockets, and unable to stand still despite being told to keep his hands where the officers could see them," states the summary that was read into the court record during a hearing last October.

Both appeared nervous, frequently looking at each other. At one point Mohamed tried to push his back away from the wall where he was placed, the documents state. It was at that point that the customs officer discovered a loaded Highpoint .380 calibre handgun that Mohamed had tucked inside his waistband. Ammunition, some of which did not match the guns the men were bringing in, fell out of his pockets as he was being handcuffed.

Officers later found two loaded handguns taped to Dirie's inner thighs — a Millennium PT 19mm and a .380 Calibre Jennings. In his socks they found a magazine for a semi-automatic handgun and "several rounds of ammunition," according to the court transcripts.

Both men, who are landed immigrants, had minor criminal records and told the court they were buying the guns for their own "protection." They pleaded guilty last October and were both given two-year sentences.

"Whether they were mules, whether they were going to use them for their own protection, which is all we have right now, we have nothing to indicate that they were going to be sold," St. Catharines Crown attorney Ron Brooks told the court, according to a transcript of the October sentencing hearing.

"But the bottom line is — the mayor of Toronto indicated fairly recently in an interview — is that there's only one thing that you can use weapons of that nature for, and it's either to kill somebody or to give them to somebody else to kill somebody."

Ahmad, who rented the car, was not charged in the incident.

As to laying such as charge, "I think the only thing we'd be looking at there is if they aided in the commission of the substantial offence. Did they send them on this mission with a rented car? To my knowledge there was not any information that would support the laying of a criminal charge in that case," Niagara police Insp. Brian Eckhardt said in an interview earlier this year.

"I'm sure it was looked at at the time, which is what we always do."

`I do believe that when the time comes, a number of these people will attempt to do something quite serious.'

Dale Neufeld, retired CSIS deputy director

The Star contacted Ahmad last March to discuss the incident, but he refused to meet or answer questions about why he rented the car for the two men.

"I don't want to be discussing this," Ahmad said. When asked about the car rental, he replied: "The police and whatnot, they know my side of the story and that's all that matters."

Mohamed and Dirie both declined the Star's request to be interviewed. Mohamed's brother also said his family did not want to comment.

Although there was no public acknowledgement of this investigation, by last fall, officials were beginning to send out frequent warnings about a homegrown threat.

In the only interview CSIS director Jim Judd has given since taking the helm of the service, he told the Star in September that homegrown terrorism was a pressing concern mainly because it's so difficult to detect.

Unconnected to the case, but being watched closely during this time by Canadian authorities, was the Netherlands investigation into the assassination of filmmaker Theo van Gogh and a young local extremist cell dubbed the Hofstad Group.

Made up of mainly Dutch-born youths angered by van Gogh's critical portrayal of Islam, Canadian authorities believed the group was eerily similar to the Canadian group, sources say. They appeared to be unsophisticated, disenfranchised youths, but the group became a growing threat, killing van Gogh and forcing a number of political figures to go into hiding or flee the country.

That the Canadian group shouldn't be underestimated was a message that hit home.

Last winter, the investigation took a turn when some of the younger members allegedly went north to what police were referring to as a "training camp."

By February this group was being viewed in police and intelligence circles as Canada's greatest terrorism threat. Chiefs of Ontario police forces, including Toronto's Bill Blair, met in Toronto for a high-level briefing.

While the public denials of any specific threat continued, hints were dropped.

During a Senate committee review of Canada's anti-terrorism legislation, now-retired CSIS deputy director Dale Neufeld spoke at length about Canadian-born radicalized youths.

"It's the second generation, the children of Muslims who are born in this country. They have a very normal upbringing, according to our analysis, but at some point in their teenage years or young 20s, they decide that radical Islam is the path they want to take," Neufeld said.

"The other (concern) is young Canadians who are generally quite disillusioned, which is again very disturbing because it's hard to detect and hard to investigate. They're the kids who don't do well in high school, but could do anything. They could become petty criminals. They could get involved in the drug culture. They might join a motorcycle gang. We're now seeing a number of examples where they decide to take up Islam in the radical form.

"It's not just rhetoric. I do believe that when the time comes, a number of these people will attempt to do something quite serious."

On Monday, as final preparations were being made for yesterday's arrests, current CSIS deputy director Jack Hooper again spoke before senators of the threat posed by young people radicalized at home.

"We are seeing phenomena in Canada such as the emergence of homegrown second- and third-generation terrorists. These are people who may have immigrated to Canada at an early age who become radicalized while in Canada. They are virtually indistinguishable from other youth. They blend into our society very well, they speak our language and they appear to be, for all intents and purposes, well assimilated," Hooper said.

He talked about youths absorbing radical ideas from the Internet.

"You are satisfied from the information you have that the homegrown terrorist is primarily looking at targets in Canada?" Senator Michael Meighen asked.

The normally verbose Hooper answered with a curt, "Yes."

Michelle Shephard covers terrorism and security issues for the Toronto Star. She can be reached at mshephard@thestar.ca or 416-869-4391.

June 3, 2006 at 08:47 AM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Threat tracker - visual display

http://www.trackingthethreat.com/flash/nav.jsp

January 27, 2006 at 12:54 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Bomber spotted a year before July 7

London bombs terror attack The Times and Sunday Times Times Online

By Michael Evans
Analysis of surveillance tapes found that the terrorists' leader cropped up more than was thought
THE leader of the London suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, appeared on surveillance tapes a year before the attacks on July 7, the security services have admitted.

MI5 has been trawling through transcripts of eavesdropping tapes and video footage of surveillance carried out on a large number of terrorist suspects over a period of about 12 months, leading up to the attacks on the London Underground and a double-decker bus.

ts analysts have been checking to see what could have been uncovered about Khan’s activities and preparations for the suicide bombings.

Previously it had been admitted that one surveillance tape had identified Khan but he had been judged to be only “on the periphery” of suspected terrorist endeavours and, with limited resources available, he was not considered a priority.

Like many other potential suspects caught up in the process of long-term surveillance operations, Khan escaped the net because there was insufficient evidence against him to merit a full-scale monitoring programme, which can take up to 20 MI5 officers for each suspect.

However, since the July 7 bombings, MI5 and other secret agencies have produced a wealth of intelligence that has enabled the Security Service to pinpoint Khan’s activities in the previous year with more accuracy.

Security sources said that with the new intelligence it had been possible to identify Khan on a number of surveillance tapes, matching what were often grainy pictures taken in the dark with the features and profile of the suicide bomber.

The sources said that it was not just a question of benefiting from hindsight. It was the post-July 7 intelligence that had helped to build up a fuller picture of a potential terrorist plot and the key individuals who were to be involved. Apart from Khan, there was also some prior knowledge of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the other suicide bombers.

The discovery of more tape and video evidence puts MI5 in a sensitive position. While the organisation can argue that it did not have the resources to follow every suspect who flitted in and out of its long-term surveillance operations, the more that the Security Service finds from the past records, the more difficult it will be to satisfy the families of the 52 victims of the London bombings that everything possible had been done to try to prevent the terrorist attacks.

The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, headed by Paul Murphy, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, has questioned Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director-General of MI5, and several of her most senior intelligence officers on a number of occasions as part of its inquiry into the July 7 bombings.

The committee is examining whether there were intelligence failings and is expected to publish a report in March or April.

Separately, the Home Office is also drawing together a publishable “narrative” of the events leading up to July 7, which is expected to be published in the spring.

Tony Blair has ruled out holding a public inquiry into the bombings.

ON THE TRAIL OF A TERROR SUSPECT
# Mohammad Sidique Khan was spotted on several occasions meeting other terrorist suspects

# He visited a terrorist training camp in northern Pakistan in 2003

# Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were bugged talking about raising funds for Islamic extremism

# The pair went to Pakistan together in November 2004

# Khan learnt how to make bombs in the Pakistani al-Qaeda camp

January 25, 2006 at 09:42 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

US mosques checked for radiation

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US mosques checked for radiation

US authorities have been secretly monitoring radiation levels at Muslim sites amid fears that terrorists might obtain nuclear weapons, it has emerged.

Scores of mosques and private addresses have been checked for radiation, the US News and World Report says.

A Justice Department spokesman said the programme was necessary in the fight against al-Qaeda.

Last week, President George W Bush admitted allowing the wiretapping of Americans with suspected terror links.

Mr Bush has defended the covert programme and vowed to continue the practice, saying it was vital to protect the country.

No warrants

According to US News and World Report, the nuclear surveillance programme was set up after the attacks of 11 September 2001.

It began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support Team.

The Associated Press news agency said federal law enforcement officials have confirmed the programme's existence.

The targets were almost all US citizens
Source
US News and World Report

The air monitoring targeted private US property in the Washington DC area, including Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle, the magazine said.

At its peak, three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 sites a day.

Nearly all of the targets were key Muslim sites.

"In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the programme," the publication said.

"The targets were almost all US citizens," an unnamed source involved in the programme told the magazine.

"A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs," the source said.

Muslim anger

Federal officials cited by US News and World Report said that monitoring on public property, such as driveways and parking lots, was legal and that warrants were not needed for the kind of radiation sampling it conducted.

They also rejected the claim that the programme specifically targeted Muslims.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the programme was necessary as al-Qaeda remained committed to obtaining nuclear weapons.

An FBI spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report.

The programme has been denounced by Islamic leaders in the US, who say that once again Muslims are being targeted by the government simply for being Muslim.

December 24, 2005 at 02:21 AM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Spies warned of Tube attack

Spies warned of Tube attack - Sunday Times - Times Online

David Leppard
SPYMASTERS warned Tony Blair before the July 7 suicide bombings that Al-Qaeda was planning a “high priority” attack specifically aimed at the London Tube.

A leaked four-page report by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which oversees all spying, is the first definitive evidence that the intelligence services expected terrorists to strike at the Underground.

The disclosure will fuel critics’ suspicions that Blair decided to rule out a public inquiry into the bombings last week because it could expose intelligence failings at the highest level.

The document, marked Top Secret and signed off by the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government eavesdropping centre, was based partly on the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al-Qaeda’s then operations chief.

It stated: “The UK and its interests remain high in Al-Qaeda’s priorities . . . Plans have been considered to attack Heathrow, the London Underground and other targets.”

Ministers and senior security officials have insisted that there was no warning of an imminent attack ahead of the July 7 bombings, in which 56 people died.

While technically true, the leaked document dated April, 2003, will be seized on by critics to show that ministers failed to disclose that they knew Al-Qaeda was targeting the Tube.

A statement in September 2003 by the prime minister and Sir John Stevens, the then Metropolitan police commissioner, that a suicide attack was “inevitable”, did not name the Tube as a specific target.

The performance of MI5 has already been criticised because it lost track of Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the suicide gang, whom it placed under temporary surveillance 18 months before the bombings.

Officers judged that Khan was not an immediate threat to national security and decided to stop monitoring him.

Blair ruled out a public inquiry on the grounds that it would detract from the investigation into the July 7 bombs and the failed July 21 attacks.

The report dated April 2, 2003 is entitled International Terrorism: The Current Threat from Islamic Extremists. Mohammed, who organised the 9/11 attacks, had been arrested in Pakistan the previous month.
In a key passage it states: “The UK and its interests remain high in Al-Qaeda’s priorities. Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees confirms this.

“It shows that plans have been considered to attack Heathrow, the London Underground and other targets.”

The report adds that terrorist suspects with links to east Africa are under surveillance.

“We do not yet know the full nature of their activity, but they do not appear to be planning attacks here (some were questioned by the police).”

Five men have been charged over the July 21 attacks. Four of them came from either Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia.

JIC documents are circulated to a small group of senior ministers. These include the home secretary, the foreign secretary and defence secretary as well as top civil servants in Whitehall.

The Tories demanded the government publish the whole JIC document and disclose what other intelligence there had been about threats to the Tube. Patrick Mercer, the party’s homeland security spokesman, said: “This leak underlines our demand for an independent inquiry.”
# The police would consider shooting civilians to prevent contaminated people leaving a cordoned-off area in a radiological, biological, nuclear or chemical attack, Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, has said.

December 17, 2005 at 10:07 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Firearms officers in Welsh siege

BBC NEWS | Wales | Firearms officers in Welsh siege

Police officers remain embroiled in an armed siege hours after they swooped on a house in Wales searching for a man wanted over firearms offences.

Nearby residents have been evacuated for their "own safety" while the street - Cromwell Road in the Maindee area of Newport - remains sealed off.

Gwent police have been trying to make contact with the suspect.

The 38-year-old was killed while investigating a robbery on 18 November. Her colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, 37, was also shot and injured.

Two men - Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, 24, and 25-year-old Mustaf Jama - are being hunted by police over the incident.

Newport has a large Somali community and Mr Jama is Somali but police have refused to comment on whether they were searching for him.

Police in Wales say two local schools - St Patrick's on Fairfax Road and St Andrew's Infants on Milner Street - will be closed because of the siege.

'Battering ram'

Chief Inspector Heather Jones said: "The schools will be closed because the inquiry is ongoing.

"We have to make sure the search area is safe."

One resident saw a heavy police presence opposite her house when she woke at 7am.

She said: "We think they broke down the door with a battering ram but the man they want to question is still inside.

"We've seen armed police, riot police, uniformed police and dog handlers. We've seen black vans as well as normal police vans."

Chief Insp Jones said: "Gwent Police are attempting to establish contact with a man in the Maindee area with regard to firearms offences.

"Residents in the locality have been evacuated as a precautionary measure for their own safety and Gwent Police are looking after their welfare."

December 11, 2005 at 08:37 PM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

The Training of Terrorist Organizations

From: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1995/SDE.htm

by Major David E. Smith USMC

training_of_terrorism_xi

CONCLUSIONS

My first conclusion is that there is no evidence today of a

worldwide terrorist training apparatus.

This is because there is no nation, or block of nations, with both the resources and the belief that its political goals will be furthered by a coordinated global terrorist assault against an opposing camp. The world has fractured into a number of competing alliances and factions, each attempting to further its own ends. This has resulted in terrorist training cooperation along regional, ethnic and religious lines.

A second conclusion is that the training techniques for the
majority of terrorist organizations exhibit many similarities. The first and most important is that ideology is paramount. Political or religious indoctrination is stressed by everyone from Marighella to Islamic fundamentalists. Terrorists from most movements must
demonstrate ability and loyalty by performing simple tasks prior to being trained for more difficult assignments. Hence, as we have seen, Sendero recruits begin by painting graffiti while PIRA initial instruction is designed to build confidence rather than technical ability. Additionally, most groups have a small number of trained key personnel supported by many more less specialized members.

In l985 the British Army estimated the PIRA relied on only four or five master explosives experts.66 Finally, all groups are moving towards weapons and tactics that are increasingly sophisticated and deadly. Their level of violence is increasing, perhaps because the world has become immune to "routine" bombings and shootings.

Past patterns and current developments point to several
trends during the next ten years. First, Islamic fundamentalism will increase rather than wane, and it will be accompanied by continued cooperation in training among militant Islamic cliques. Algeria and Egypt will be subject to increased fundamentalist violence, and religion will have a greater appeal to the poor masses of those nations than their governments will. Continued Shia-Sunni, Iranian-
Sudanese concord will be particularly crucial to support terrorist organizations in North Africa and the Middle East. There is every indication that radical Sunni Islam is on the ascent.67 The increased immigration of Muslims to the United States will facilitate fundamentalist terrorist actions being conducted here in the same way they made it easier to operate in Europe.

Marxist groups will continue to decline because of the failure of communism in the former Soviet Union and general disillusionment with its philosophy. The remnants of those organizations have been deprived of their former East European safe havens. More importantly, they have lost their former popular support above and below ground. Without their support infrastructures these groups will eventually fade away.

Another future trend will be increased participation in the
political process by wings of terrorist organizations. Sinn Fein and the PIRA demonstrated how potent the terrorist political/military combination could be. They were emulated by the Basque ETA whose political wing, Herri Batasuna, generally draws l5 to l7 percent of the votes in the Basque region of north Spain.6 s Several Middle Eastern groups have entered the political arena. Hizballah has recently ventured forth into mainstream Lebanese politics and fundamentalist Islamic groups have attained political successes in
Turkey and Algeria. The political trend is also surfacing in South

America where the Patriotic Union has pursued the interests of the Colombian FARC.69 State-supported terrorism will remain common. This is because terrorism pays. Nations do not need to invest a great deal of resources to assist a terrorist organization, and can gain great negotiating power when it is presumed that they can influence the
activities of certain movements. Terrorism is a particularly effective means of confronting the United States. Saddam Hussein challenged the United States conventionally and was decisively defeated. Iran challenges us constantly through her surrogates and has not suffered

significantly for it. State sponsors of terrorism will be more wary of

the groups they aid, and will increase their efforts to infiltrate and

influence them, intensifying their attempts at agent recruitment

during training. They will increasingly try to guarantee that the

recipients of their assistance do not turn against them.

Ethnic and religious movements will perpetuate as the world

proceeds to evolve after the demise of the former Soviet Union.

Repressed minorities that were held in place by oppressive

communist regimes will struggle for national identity, and faced with

overcoming more heavily armed governments, will resort to

terrorism.

Surviving ethnic/nationalist groups operating in hostile territory

will become much more sophisticated as counter terrorist efforts

increase in effectiveness and expertise. "Survival of the fittest" will

be the rule; groups will either adapt or perish. Organizations that

are able to operate from territory controlled by their sponsors, such

as Hizballah in the Bekaa Valley, will not need to adapt as radically

to persevere. Terrorist groups may take a vested interest in

maintaining their safe havens and may deliberately attempt to

undermine the political, military, or diplomatic efforts of their

sponsors that could threaten them.

Alliances between terrorists and criminals are already a matter of

grave concern. The line separating terrorist organizations and

criminal enterprises has become indistinct, and may be more vague

in the future. The Irish Republican Army and the Loyalist

paramilitaries illustrate groups that risk significant financial loss if

there is a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Protracted struggle lends an air of legitimacy to their local extortion

and racketeering operations. The growing worldwide appetite for

illegal narcotics will provide even greater incentives for alliances

between narcotics producers/distributors and indigenous terrorist

bands. The amount of money Peruvian and Colombian terror

organizations can extort from narcotics traffickers is staggering.

Many drug lords pay terrorists $l5,OOO per flight in or out of

protected runways.70 Police in Lima, Peru believe Sendero Luminoso

has accumulated $4O million, largely from runway "landing fees" .71

Future terrorists will continue to exploit publications that provide

instruction in useful techniques. Military manuals are common,

easily understood, and readily reproduced. The Anarchist's

Cookbook and publications such as the PIRA's Green Book

supplement those documents. Active duty or reserve military

training provides a background of experience that terrorists will

continue to tap as members of action teams and instructors. The

Former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact have generated thousands of

dispossessed military commissioned and noncommissioned officers

who could conceivably be enticed to provide mercenary instruction.

The combination of profits from illegal undertakings, in conjunction

with an available pool of experienced instructors, could lead to

enhanced training for members of financially unconstrained

movements. In addition to individual instructors, corporations may

offer training to terrorist organizations. Israel's Hod Hohonit Security

Firm was investigated for training Colombian drug cartel

executioners.72

Many terrorists will continue to learn their initial skills while

serving periods of incarceration. John Stephenson (a.k.a. Sean

MacStiofain) of the Provisional IRA learned terrorist techniques from

Greek Cypriot inmates while serving a sentence at the Wormwood

Scrubbs Prison.73 Increased apprehension and sentencing of

terrorists to institutions where they mix with other convicted

criminals will provide them with a fertile recruiting ground, and a

violent and largely dispossessed audience for instruction/exchange of

ideas.

Terrorists will also avail themselves of advances in technology to

further their aims and enhance their training. John Maxwell Oliphant

developed a bomb making video for distribution to Aryan groups in

the United States.74 The Internet and other computer systems

provide a superb medium for spreading global propaganda.

Worldwide mobile communications systems provide the means for

coordinating training and operational planning across great distances.

In the long run, Soviet orchestration of international terrorist

training might seem like "the good old days", since Moscow exerted a

moderating influence on movements it supported, and historically

did not promote actions against United States territory. Today's

Islamic Fundamentalists will be less likely to refrain from attacks on

our soil (as we have seen with the World Trade Center Bombing).

That lack of restraint, with more advanced and lethal munitions, to

include weapons of mass destruction (as evidenced in Tokyo), will

exemplify the character of future terrorist operations.

MAPS Map One: Simferopol and Baku

Map Two: Plauen, Karl Marx Stadt, and Dresden

Map Three: Babelsberg and Kleinmachnow (Klein Machsrow)

Map Four: Varna

Map Five: Al Bayda (Al-Beida), Surt (Sirte), and Tukrah (Tokra)

Map Six: Baktia (PaktikaIPaktia), Jalabad, and Peshawar

Map Seven: Wadi Seidna (Wadi Saydna)
NOTES

l. Karl A. Segar, The Antiterrorism Handbook (Novato: Presidio Press), 6-1l.

2. David Segal, "Tehran's Terror Czar: Sayeed Ali Akbar Mohtashemi," Counterterrorism and Security Affairs, Winter l989-9O, l4- l7.

3. Segar, 4-6.

4. Eileen MacDonald, Shoot the Women First (New York: Random House), 47.

5. Joseph S. Bermudez, Terrorism, the North Korean Connection (New York: Taylor & Francis), l47.

6. MacDonald, 33-62.

7. Christopher Dobson and Ronald Payne, The Terrorists, Their Weapons, Leaders and Tactics (New York: Facts on File Publications), l2- l3.

8. Segar, 44-45.

9. Michael Connor, Terrorism, Its Goals, Its Targets, Its Methods (Boulder: Paladin Press), 22-26.

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