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Many Female Terrorists Motivated by Revenge

May 17, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Hazards, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Security, Terrorism

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Female terrorists share many similarities with male terrorists in that they are likely to be educated, employed, and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The latest findings contradict stereotypes presented in previous studies that describe female terrorists as socially isolated and vulnerable to recruitment because they are uneducated, unemployed and from a foreign land, psychologists reported in a study published online in the APA journal Law and Human Behavior.

“We discovered that some of the popular notions about female terrorists do not reflect what has occurred in the past,” said the study’s lead author, Karen Jacques, Ph.D. “A more realistic description is helpful because it provides insights into the social dynamics that might promote an individual’s involvement in terrorist activities.”

The researchers did find one difference between female and male terrorists: Female terrorists had more individual motivations, such as personal revenge for the death of a loved one, for their terrorist activities than men.

For the study, researchers at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom examined biographical data from multiple sources on 222 female and 269 male terrorists connected to one of 13 conflicts involving groups such as al Qaeda, the Irish Republican Army, and the Popular Liberation Army of Colombia.

Jacques and her co-author, Paul J. Taylor, Ph.D, examined eight variables for each terrorist: age at first involvement, education, employment status, immigration status, marital status, religious conversion, criminal activity, and activist connections.

The majority of both female and male terrorists were between 16 and 35 years old, native residents, employed, educated through secondary school, not converted from another religion, and rarely involved in a previous crime, the researchers discovered.

Compared to male terrorists, women had, on average, more education, with the majority continuing beyond secondary school, and were more likely to be divorced or widowed, less likely to be employed, and less likely to be immigrants.

“A surprising finding was that, unlike for other criminals, there were very few instances of previous involvement in criminal activity among both females and males,” said Jacques. “This could be because they were unwilling to confess to other crimes, because criminality could attract authorities’ undue attention to potential terrorists, or the possibility that having a criminal career is not a significant precursor to terrorism.”

About a third of all terrorists had previous connections to terrorism through their families. However, more than 50 percent of those with family connections to terrorism indicated that family influence did not motivate them to carry out terrorist activities, the researchers said.

By JANICE WOOD

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Fight the Terrorists, Not the Bombs

May 16, 2012 in 2012, America, Bin Laden, Bomb, Explosive, explosive detection, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Muslims, Terrorism

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Good news for those of you who enjoy taking your shoes off in airports. Al-Qaeda’s chief bombmaker, a cheerful fellow named Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who sent his younger brother off on a suicide bombing mission with a bomb up his rectum, has been working on turning everything into a bomb. Cameras, printer cartridges and even pets.

The good news is that al-Asiri isn’t very good at it. His bomb did a good job of killing his brother, but not much else. The original underwear bomb worn by the Christmas bomber didn’t work out. The bad news is that with enough cannon fodder and enough attempts, sooner or later al-Asri or another college dropout will get it right. But even if he doesn’t, the force multiplier of the threat alone will do the job.

All it took was one shoe bomber to get us to take off our shoes. A failed plan to blow up airliners with liquid explosives led to the liquid ban. In the age of underwear bombs we have naked scanners. What is going to happen when the next plot involves explosives surgically implanted in the human body or in a pet?

A bomb anywhere is a bomb everywhere. When the bombs are everywhere, then so are the security measures taken against them until life is one big bomb and one giant security measure.

We may sooner or later hunt down al-Asiri and blow him away, but taking out a twenty-something graduate of a Saudi university after a long manhunt at a cost of countless millions of dollars will not be some grand achievement. There are plenty of Saudi, Kuwaiti and Pakistani chemistry students who can step into his exploding shoes.

We are not fighting a war against toothpaste, shoes or underwear. Nor against bombs. Bombs after all don’t make themselves or detonate themselves. That’s what people are for and until we come to grips with the people making and detonating the bombs, then we will go on living in a world of bombs, where every item, no matter how innocuous, is treated as a potential explosive device, and every person in line as a potential explosive weapon.

The formula for fighting a War on Terror without defining a vector for that terror has led to a state of terror, in which everyone is either terrified or terrorized. The official word is that anyone and everyone can be a terrorist, and even though they all seem to be Muslim, the official position is that this is a complete coincidence, a misunderstanding of the religion of peace or a result of our foreign policy.

To believe any of these things is to also believe that history is bunk. Al-Asiri’s last name indicates that he comes from the Asir province, the heartland of fanaticism in Saudi Arabia. Asir means “difficult” in Arabic. Six of the 9/11 hijackers came from Asir and Bin Laden praised its tribes as “forming the lion’s share.” Asir had been a source of violence and Islamic fanaticism long before American foreign policy mattered to anyone outside the hemisphere. The Asiri Wahhabis had fought the Ottoman Empire in Asir going back to the early 1800s and then they fought the House of Saud. With global access, Asiris are able to extend their wars deep into our territory. To launch attacks well beyond their desert home.

The sword has given way to the bomb, though it is still used occasionally on hostages, and by importing Islam we have imported the way of the sword and the rule of the bomb. When the followers of the sword take the plane, then sooner or later they will bomb the plane or use the plane as a guided missile. There is no avoiding that.

The other meaning of “Asir” is prisoner. Without transportation, Asiri Muslims were imprisoned in their barren unwelcoming land. Given transportation we have all become their prisoners. Terrorist threats are enough to turn us into prisoners being herded into lines waiting for the next bomb to go off.

When we finally hunt down Ibrahim al-Asiri somewhere in Yemen, which once laid claim to Asir and has a history of contending with the House of Saud, among the tribes who have feuds and grudges as old as the desert sands, we will be nowhere closer to winning the War on Terror. Not so long as we have our heads stuck in those same sands.

Demographics alone dictate that there will be more young men to replace al-Asiri than there will be to replace the American men going off to war against his cronies. And in a polygamous society, even upper class young Saudi men are not only replaceable, they are competition for the harems of the Bin Ladens, the elderly men trying to make their paradise on earth with the help of Viagra and wealth. Many of these young men will have university educations and ample encouragement to join the Jihad to carve out more territory for the Dar-al-Islam.

Some will emigrate to London or New York and carve out professional roles for themselves while participating in Muslim political groups to build their influence. Others will make bombs or blow them up. Either way they will be doing what young men in the Arabian Desert have always done, raiding to expand the territory of Islam, and the prestige of their families and tribes.

It’s easy to snicker at the discrepancy of force between al-Asiri, embedding his bombs in underwear, but the bomb can bring down the jet. And the Sons of Asir can bring down the West. All it takes is enough time and effort.

The demographic bomb is the most explosive of all the devices and it doesn’t show up on even the most intrusive airport scanners. Arafat called the womb of the Arab woman his strongest weapon. The House of Saud liked to say that they had built their nation with a sword of steel and a sword of flesh. These two quotes explain the miserable state of the Muslim woman and the quiet ticking of the demographic clock, the bomb whose components are veiled women, trundling in groups behind a single man, the girls exploited by Muslim ‘Asian’ sex gangs and the rising number of female converts.

The biggest component of the bomb by far is still the jet plane, the passing shape that can either be a direct weapon or an indirect one. Before the 9/11 hijackers could hijack domestic flights, they had to obtain permission to arrive here on international ones. As the domestic population increases, the next wave of terrorists, men like Nidal Malik Hasan, Tariq Menhanna and Anwar Al-Awlaki, don’t even need the planes.

As Islam proliferates so does the number of bombs; the kind that al-Asiri makes and the kind that Arafat and the House of Saud made. The kind that blow up right away and the kind that tick slowly away from generation to generation, embedding themselves into a society, undermining it, chipping away at its roots, until it is time for them to go off. But whatever kind of bombs they are, when they go off they destroy our lives and our freedoms. And when enough of them go off, then life is a bomb.

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Mr. President, please don’t kill this terrorist

May 15, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Aviation, Bin Laden, Bomb, Explosive, explosive detection, Homeland Security, Middle East, Military, New York, Obama, Terrorism

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www.homelandsecuritynet.com

The United States is on the hunt for Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the al-Qaeda master bombmaker behind the just-thwarted plotto bring down a U.S.-bound jetliner. If previous patterns hold, at some point in the coming weeks or months a drone launched from a secret CIA base will take al-Asiri out — and we will celebrate another “success” in what was once called the war on terror.

Mr. President, don’t do it.

A drone strike would vaporize this ingenious terrorist intent on attacking the United States. But it would also vaporize all the intelligence inside his brain. Our national security would be better served if the United States captured al-Asiri and kept him alive for questioning, so we can find out what he knows.

What would be lost if President Obama chose to kill, rather than capture, al-Asiri? According to former senior intelligence officials involved in terrorist captures, a high-ranking terrorist leader such as al-Asiri could provide us with treasure trove of information on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the terror network that poses the greatest threat to the homeland today.

Al-Asiri could tell us “who’s who” in the AQAP network — identifying the couriers, financiers, operators, commanders, supporters and facilitators who make the network run, as well as the phone numbers, e-mail addresses and kunyas (or code names) they use so that we can track them down.

Al-Asiri could also tell us “what’s where” — the locations of AQAP safe houses, arms caches and training camps, as well as the ports of entry the terrorists use to move in and out of Yemen.

He could tell us “what’s what” — AQAP’s organizational structure, its hierarchy, its personnel strength, its view of how the battle is going and the state of the organization’s morale.

And, most importantly, he could tell us “what’s next” — the plots AQAP has set in motion and the operatives he has trained and deployed to carry them out.

This is information we can get nowhere else. The double agent we deployed was able to thwart al-Asiri’s most recent attempted attack, but he likely wouldn’t know if other operations are underway or who is carrying them out. Al-Asiri would.

Not only would taking al-Asiri in alive provide us with vital intelligence, it would help preserve the valuable “pocket litter” he possesses that could provide key leads. According to former CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez, author of the new book “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” “Al-Asiri’s capture could yield intelligence from phones, computers, paper records and fingerprints, which would help locate bombs he has created, bombers he has dispatched, new bombmakers he has trained and potential targets he had identified.” By contrast, Rodriguez says, “current tactics will leave the place he is standing a smoking hole, killing al-Asiri and whomever else might be nearby, but yield little else of value.”

We saw just how important such intelligence is following the operation against Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In that instance, President Obama made a rare decision against a drone strike and put boots on the ground. While bin Laden was killed in the raid, we recovered a massive cache of computers and hard drives containing hundreds of thousands of pages of al-Qaeda documents that were taken back to CIA headquarters for exploitation. It is no coincidence that the recent uptick in operations targeting al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen began soon after the bin Laden raid. All of that vital intelligence would have been destroyed had the president opted for a drone strike instead of a special operations raid.

Unfortunately, in virtually every case where the Obama administration has located senior al-Qaeda leaders in the past three years, the president has chosen targeted killings over live captures. Killing these terrorists has allowed Obama to avoid confronting the question of what to do with them once they are captured. But there is a lone exception to this rule. In April 2011, the United States captured a senior leader of al-Qaeda’s East African affiliate al-Shabab, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame. He was questioned for more than two monthsaboard a U.S. Navy ship before being flown to New York for trial on terrorism charges. If Obama is not willing to bring al-Asiri to Guantanamo, there is no reason the United States could not question him aboard a Navy ship as well..

A U.S. official told The Post last week, “The unfortunate reality is that Asiri is not the only one to worry about in AQAP. He appears to be training others so that, if he is taken off the battlefield, his expertise won’t be lost.” That is why it is critical to capture al-Asiri. Taking him alive would be difficult but worth great effort. We need to know who he has trained, where they are and what they are planning.

Killing al-Asiri would take down one dangerous terrorist. Capturing him could help us take down his entire network.

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Pakistani officer accused of terrorism calls for ties to US to be cut

May 14, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Bin Laden, Homeland Security, Middle East, Military, Muslims, Pakistan, Terrorism

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From his prison cell, a senior Pakistani officer accused of plotting an Islamist takeover of the military high command has issued a call for the army to break its anti-terror alliance with the United States, which he contends is forcing Pakistan to fight its own people.

“This may help us redeem some of our lost dignity and we badly need that,” Brig Ali Khan writes in the six-page document obtained by The Associated Press. The US might retaliate by cutting military and economic aid, but “do they not always do this at will? … Our fears that the heavens will fall must be laid to rest.”

The manifesto reveals the ideological underpinnings of the most senior Pakistani military officer detained for alleged ties to Islamist extremists.

The accusations against Khan go to the heart of a major Western fear about Pakistan: that its army could tilt toward Islamic extremism or that a cabal of hardline officers could seize the country’s most powerful institution, possibly with the help of al-Qaida or associated groups like the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani leaders dismiss such worries as ungrounded.

Khan, who was arrested a year ago, faces charges of conspiring with four other officers and a British member of Hizb ut-Tahrir to recruit officers to the group including the commander of the army’s 111 Brigade, which covers the capital and has been historically linked to army coups.

One witness at his ongoing court-martial said Khan discussed sending an F-16 jet crashing into the army headquarters, though that allegation has been withdrawn, according to Khan’s lawyer Inam-ul-Rahiem. Pakistan’s army declined to comment on the trial, which is supposed to be secret.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Pakistan and several other Muslim countries, professes non-violence and is not connected to terrorist groups like the Pakistani Taliban or al-Qaida. But the outfit makes no secret of its desire to penetrate the armies of Muslim countries, particularly Pakistan, and foment an “Islamic coup” to establish a global “caliphate.”

In interviews, Khan’s family and two of his army colleagues insisted he was innocent and has been targeted because of a falling out with senior officers and his political views – particularly his stance against the alliance with the U.S. Khan’s lawyer has denied the charges and says no concrete evidence has been presented at the trial.

But one of the colleagues said Khan did meet with members of Hizb ut-Tahrir and tried to enlist other officers, though the colleague played down the importance of the contacts.

“He was easy prey,” said the colleague, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was worried about prejudicing the case. “He walked into a trap. He was fed up with the government and (army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani.”

But he said Khan walked away from the group when it was clear his fellow officers were not interested in joining. The colleague said that he himself had also been approached by Hizb ut-Tahrir, via a cousin, but had turned them down.

“Our brother is honest and outspoken,” said Khan’s younger brother Bashir Ahmed. “He may have spoken against higher authorities and they don’t like people to speak that way. That’s why they are holding him.”

At a meeting with other officers days after the May 2, 2011, raid by US commandos that killed Osama bin Laden, Khan spoke out against the operation, which he and others on the forces considered a national humiliation.

Khan was arrested on May 5 and his manifesto presents himself as a “victim” of the bin Laden raid.

His lawyer, Rahiem, sought to submit the tract to a government commission investigating the bin Laden incident, but it was rejected. Some of the passages were included in a letter he sent to Gen. Kayani some time before his arrest, Rahiem said.

The manifesto doesn’t call for an armed insurrection, support Islamic militancy or mention Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Rather, it is a refutation of Pakistan army’s alliance with Washington, along the lines of what is often espoused by right-wing, Islamist Pakistanis. It buttresses its arguments with conspiracy theories, including that the United States was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In Afghanistan, he recommends a U.N. force of mostly Muslim nations to replace the current U.S.-led one.

Pakistan’s army has has long portrayed itself as a bulwark against extremism, even as it has to sought to harness militants to fight for its interests in Afghanistan and India. While many officers are secular or irreligious, a growing number are thought to have embraced a more conservative form of Islam over the last 10 years, like the country they are drawn from.

Khan was known to be a conservative Muslim. At army staff college, he had the nickname “Mullah Rocketi” – roughly “rocket cleric” – and was lampooned in a graduation skit as a cleric, said one of his colleagues.

At the same time, anti-Americanism has been rising, fueled by anger at U.S drone strikes in the tribal regions, the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor in 2011 and the U.S. border post attack in November.

Some soldiers and officers have carried out occasional, but serious, terrorist attacks against the institution they once served. Militant sieges against army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and against a navy base in Karachi weeks after the bin Laden raid are both alleged to have had inside help.

The 600,000-member army releases little data on its enrollment or makeup, so its hard to say whether it is undergoing Islamization. A study last year on what limited data found no evidence the force was recruiting disproportionately from conservative areas of the country.

Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani, who commands 150,000 troops in the northwest leading the fight against militancy, scoffed at the notion his men could become attracted to extremism. “This is absolute rubbish, leaps and bounds away from reality,” he said. “We are as disciplined a force as the British or American or any other first class army in the world.”

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country teeming with disgruntled Muslims, is a strategic priority for Hizb ut-Tahir, ex-members and analysts said.

A Britain-based spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is strong among British Pakistanis, declined comment on Khan. But he said the group has recruited officers and would continue to do so.

“We call on the people in the armed forces to use their authority and fulfill their Islamic duty of stopping the political and military leaderships’ transgressions,” Taji Mustafa said in an email.

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Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

May 14, 2012 in Police Blotter

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Dr. Ross L. Riggs, Chief of Police Retired, Louisville Ohio Police Department ~ Director SCI, LLC

National Police Memorial Week – May 15, 2012 –Police Memorial Day

“O, how the mighty have fallen” – King David cries out, mourning the death of a valiant warrior and dear friend, Jonathon of the family of Saul. (2 Samuel 1:25) Once again, Americans come together to honor the sacrifices of law enforcement across this great nation. This week around the country and particularly in Washington D.C., near the offices of the U.S. Supreme Court, at the Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial; officers, family and friends will gather to honor the newest ‘inductees’ into this place of tribute. One-hundred and sixty three names will be on the roll call for those killed in 2011, the third highest year since 2001.
Since 2001, 1,559 officers have been killed in the line of duty. Out of those fifteen hundred plus who have given up their lives, most were either shot or killed in a car crash. Just eight were killed by terrorist attack. Stack that number eight against the seventy-two that were killed in a matter of hours on 9-11-2001 and you see what a difference those who battle against terrorists are making. But whether it is 72, 8 or 1, to the family of that 1 it is a day that changes the lives of their families forever.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Personally, I feel a great sense of duty to those comrades who have fallen and to their families, to not allow anything to tarnish the memory of their sacrifice. I am extremely grateful for all who wage war against terrorism. I believe it is due to their efforts and divine grace that America has ‘only’ 8 terrorism related officer deaths in the decade since 9-11. (The word ‘only’ is used most preciously.)
As we honor all who have sacrificed, and particularly given the ultimate sacrifice, may we, as Americans, re-commit ourselves to do whatever it takes to keep freedom flying here at home and across the globe, wherever men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces serve. Jesus Christ said, “Greater love has no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) The Bible makes it clear that seldom will someone give their life for a good man but how blessed it is when someone gives their life, even for a stranger. That is the evidence of reward for those officers in Christ who have given up their own lives on behalf of someone they never knew and an encouragement to officers, every day as they hit their beat.

May God protect you, watch over you and your family and may He bless you, as He proclaimed in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”

 

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AP source: Feds investigate leak in terrorism case

May 10, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, Aviation, Bomb, Explosive, explosive detection, FBI, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Security, Terrorism

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WASHINGTON — Federal investigators are conducting a probe into who leaked information about an al-Qaida plot in which an explosive device was to have been detonated on a U.S.-bound airline flight, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity about the leak investigation, which is just getting under way.

The federal investigation is the latest move in an aggressive campaign by the Obama administration to crack down on leaks, even as it has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources. The administration has already brought at least six criminal cases against people for discussing government secrets with reporters, more than under any previous presidency.

The investigation follows stories by The Associated Press and other news organizations disclosing the terrorist operation by the group known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The reports said that al-Qaida had completed a sophisticated new, nonmetallic underwear bomb last month and that the would-be suicide bomber actually was a double agent working with the CIA and Saudi intelligence agencies.

The would-be suicide bomber secretly turned over the group’s most up-to-date underwear bomb to Saudi Arabia, which gave it to the CIA. Before he was whisked to safety, the spy provided intelligence that helped the CIA kill al-Qaida’s senior operations leader, Fahd al-Quso, who died in a drone strike last weekend.

In an appearance Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the FBI is examining the explosive device. He said the scheme hatched in Yemen demonstrates that it’s essential for Congress to reauthorize counterterrorism tools enacted in 2008. Some of these programs expire at year’s end.

A spokesman for the AP, Paul Colford, said in a statement that the news organization “acted carefully and with extreme deliberation in its reporting on the underwear bomb plot and its subsequent decision to publish.”

“As the AP has reported, we distributed our exclusive report on the underwear bomb only after officials assured us — on Monday — that their security concerns had been satisfied and we learned that the White House would announce the news the next day,” Colford said.

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Double agent led CIA, allies to terrorists, underwear bomb

May 10, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Aviation, Bomb, explosive detection, FBI, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Security, Terrorism

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WASHINGTON — The latest al-Qaida bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including a double agent — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.

The Saudi intelligence service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.

Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated the terrorist group posing as a willing suicide bomber and then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.

The bomb arrived at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., about a week ago and is being examined by explosives technicians, law-enforcement officials said. One said the explosive was made from a chemical compound that was “built to get around U.S. security and had the potential to do that.”

The plot shows al-Qaida’s franchise in Yemen remains committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.

The disruption of the threat also indicates the CIA and other agencies have gained significant traction on their target two years after President Obama began deploying more spies, eavesdropping equipment and armed drones to the Arabian Peninsula.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said spy agencies were able to keep tabs on the location of the bomb, as well as those involved in plotting how it would be used, before it was intercepted in another country in the Middle East, believed to be Saudi Arabia.

The device was described as an updated version of a design that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has used in a series of plots, including an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

The U.S. intelligence official declined to discuss what he described as “the disposition of the individual involved” in transporting the bomb before it was seized. Other officials indicated the bomb handler was cooperating with the CIA and the Saudi spy service and is in protective custody.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with recent operations against AQAP said the Saudi spy service has furnished a steady stream of intelligence to the CIA.

“They’ve had someone on the inside of (AQAP) for some time,” the former official said. The Saudi source has provided intelligence on previous plots, including the tip that enabled authorities to disrupt al-Qaida’s attempt to mail parcels packed with explosives to addresses in Chicago in 2010.

Efforts by the CIA and the Saudi intelligence service to protect that source and enable him to remain in place make it unlikely that he was used to deliver the bomb, according to former officials who said it is more likely that a lower-ranking operative was used in that role.

As part of an expanding collaboration with the CIA, the Saudi spy service has taken advantage of long-standing informant networks and tribal relationships in Yemen, exploiting them for intelligence on an al-Qaida franchise that has many Saudis in its ranks. Among them is Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the bomb maker suspected of designing the latest device.

Of dozens of AQAP fighters with Saudi backgrounds, “at least five or eight of them are under cover” working for the Saudi service at any point, a Middle Eastern official said. “The Saudis have always had a network” of sources in Yemen, the official said. “Now they are expanding its objectives.”

The deepening cooperation reflects the extent to which Saudi Arabia regards AQAP as a security threat. The country’s chief counterterrorism official, Mohammed bin Nayef, narrowly survived a 2009 attempt on his life by an AQAP operative.

The CIA established a drone base on the Arabian Peninsula last year, and the National Security Agency has deployed officers and equipment to monitor AQAP cellphone and email communications.

Both agencies work alongside the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, an elite military force that operates a fleet of armed drones and recently resumed providing trainers to Yemen’s counterterrorism units.

The pace of U.S. airstrikes has quickened dramatically this year, according to data compiled by the Long War Journal website. Of 31 U.S. airstrikes in Yemen since 2002, 14 were in the past five months.

The most recent killed an alleged operations planner wanted in connection with the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

U.S. officials said that Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso probably was involved in directing the plot but that the drone strike was ordered because of his larger role in AQAP.

By Greg Miller

The Washington Post

Washington Post staff writers Karen DeYoung and Sari Horwitz

and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

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Clinton presses Pakistan on terrorism

May 8, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Bomb, Homeland Security, India, Iran, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Military, Security, Terrorism

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NEW DELHI — The latest foiled terrorism plot in Yemen is a sign that terrorists “keep trying to devise more and more diverse and terrible ways to kill people,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said here Tuesday.

Wrapping up her eight-day trip to China, India and Bangladesh, Clinton also pressed Pakistan “to do more” to root out terrorists on its soil, including the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, for whom she has approved a $10 million reward.

She earlier said al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was most likely residing in Pakistan.

“We look to the government of Pakistan to do more,” Clinton said. “It needs to make sure that its territory is not used for launching pads for terrorist attacks anywhere.”

The Yemen plot was designed to create a more sophisticated version of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

U.S. intelligence officials interrupted the effort before it threatened the U.S. flying public, Clinton confirmed.

The secretary used news of the plot to reiterate U.S. efforts not only to prevent acts of terrorism from being carried out but to convince potential recruits not to join terrorist networks in the first place.

Appearing with her Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Clinton also addressed two other hot spots: Iran and Afghanistan.

•She said India must do more to reduce oil exports from Iran, as it has begun to do. The world’s second most populous nation relies on imports for most of its oil — and 10 million additional tons each year. Iran was its second largest supplier but has dropped below Iraq and Kuwait.

“There’s no doubt that India and the United States are after the same goal,” Clinton said. Without tightening the noose on sanctions, she said, “Iran will have less incentive to negotiate in good faith.”

•She reaffirmed the U.S. and NATO support for Afghanistan as the combat mission winds down toward its completion in 2014.

“We intend to remain an active presence in Afghanistan. We will support Afghanistan’s security and stability,” she said.

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

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US: CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot

May 7, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Aviation, Bin Laden, Bomb, Explosive, explosive detection, FBI, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Security, Terrorism

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www.homelandsecuritynet.com

WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought his plane tickets when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.

The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden’s death.

“We have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden’s death,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on April 26.

On May 1, the Department of Homeland Security said, “We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”

The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.

U.S. officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss the case, which the U.S. has never officially acknowledged.

It’s not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.

Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.

The operation is an intelligence victory for the United States and a reminder of al-Qaida’s ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group’s branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.

But along with the gains there also have been losses. The group has suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.

Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.

Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group’s head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.

ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.

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by rony

Medunjanin Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges in Connection to New York Subway Bombing Attempt

May 4, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, FBI, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, New York, NYPD, Radical Islam, Terrorism

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www.homelandsecuritynet.com

On Tuesday, after a four -week long trial, a Queens resident, Adis Medunjanin, age 34 was convicted of multiple federal terrorism charges.

Medunjanin was found guilty of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder of U.S. military personnel abroad, providing and conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, receiving military training from al Qaeda, conspiring and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, and using firearms and a destructive devices in relation to these offenses.

The defendant and his accomplices came within days of executing a plot to conduct coordinated suicide bombings in the New York City subway system in September 2009, as directed by senior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan. When the plot was foiled, the defendant attempted to commit a terrorist attack by crashing his car on the Whitestone Expressway in an effort to kill himself and others.

In 2008, Medunjanin , along with his co-conspirators, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, attempted to travel to Afghanistan to joint the Taliban with the intent of killing American military personnel there. But, they were turned away at the Pakistan border.

They did not let that deter them in their mission, however. Within days of being barred from entering Afghanistan, the three met with an Al-Qaida facilitator, who convinced them to travel to Waziristan to undergo training.

Once in Waziristan, the three would be terrorists met with al Qaeda leaders Saleh al-Somali, then the head of al Qaeda external operations, and Rashid Rauf, a high-ranking al Qaeda operative, who explained that the three would be more useful to al Qaeda and the jihad by returning to New York and conducting terrorist attacks.

As the three continued their training in that country, they were encouraged by Al-Qaida leaders to return to the United States to conduct “martyrdom” operations and emphasized the need to hit well-known targets and maximize the number of casualties. Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay agreed and discussed the timing of the attacks and possible target locations in Manhattan, including the subway system, Grand Central Station, the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, and movie theaters.

Upon returning to the United States, the three continued to conspire. They decided to carry out their attacks during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which fell in late August and September in 2009.

Using a hotel in Denver, explosive components were mixed, producing TATP (triacetone triperoxide). The FBI would later find residue from their bomb-making in the hotel rooms.

On September 8, 2009, Zazi drove from Denver to New York, carrying operational detonator explosives and other materials necessary to build bombs. However, shortly after arriving in New York, he learned that law enforcement was investigating the plotters’ activities. The men discarded the explosives and other bomb-making materials, and Zazi traveled back to Denver, where he was arrested on September 19, 2009.

On January 7, 2010, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Medunjanin’s residence. Shortly thereafter, Medunjanin left his apartment and attempted to turn his car into a weapon of terror by crashing it into another car at high speed on the Whitestone Expressway. Moments before impact, Medunjanin called 911, identified himself, and left his message of martyrdom, shouting an al Qaeda slogan: “We love death more than you love your life.”

A prosecutor in the case had this to say of the outcome, “Justice was served today in Brooklyn, as a jury of New Yorkers convicted an al Qaeda operative bent on terrorism, mass murder, and destruction in the New York City subways,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “Adis Medunjanin’s journey of radicalization led him from Flushing, Queens, to Peshawar, Pakistan, to the brink of a terrorist attack in New York City—and soon to a lifetime in federal prison. As this case has proved, working against sophisticated terrorist organizations and against the clock, our law enforcement and intelligence agencies can detect, disrupt and destroy terrorist cells before they strike, saving countless innocent lives.”

Medunjanin will be sentenced on September 7th of this year, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Seven others have been convicted in this plot to carry out suicide bombings in the city of New York.

By GW Rastopsoff | Alaska Native News

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