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Terrorist Says Bin Laden Spoke of Mission to Destroy U.S.

April 24, 2012 in 2012, 9/11, Al Qaeda, America, Bin Laden, Bomb, Explosive, High Alert on 9/11, Homeland Security, Jihad, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Muslims, NYPD, Pakistan, Terrorism

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(Updates with Badat testimony starting in ninth paragraph.)

Saajid Muhammad Badat, convicted in the U.K. in 2005 of plotting to explode an airplane, testified that Osama Bin Laden told him his mission would help bring down the U.S. economy.

“He said that the American economy is like a chain. If you break one — one link of the chain — the whole economy will be brought down,” Badat said the now-deceased leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda told him in a one-on-one meeting in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Badat testified today at the trial of a New York man, Adis Medunjanin, accused of plotting to blow up New York subways in 2009 on behalf of al-Qaeda.

Jurors heard Badat’s recorded testimony in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Badat, 33, is the first terrorist convicted in the U.K. to present evidence in a U.S. trial, the Crown Prosecution Service said in an April 16 statement.

Medunjanin, 28, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay were recruited by al-Qaeda to bomb subway lines in Manhattan around the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the indictment. The plot was stopped within days of its happening in 2009, prosecutors said. Zazi, 26, and Ahmedzay, 27, who pleaded guilty in 2010, are cooperating with the government and testified at the trial.

 

Military Training

 

In August 2008, the three men went to join the Taliban in Pakistan where they were recruited by al-Qaeda, which gave them military training and encouraged them to conduct suicide attacks in the U.S., Ahmedzay and Zazi said. The plan was for an attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The three men lived in the New York borough of Queens and went to Flushing High School.

Badat pleaded guilty to plotting to bring a shoe bomb on an airplane and was sentenced to 13 years, later lowered to 11 because of his cooperation. He abandoned the al-Qaeda plot. His co-conspirator was Richard Reid, who was flying to Miami from Paris in December 2001 when he was found trying to light his shoe. Reid pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence in the U.S.

Badat said he backed out of the plan because of reluctance, fear and concern for his family.

“You’ll have to tell Van Damme that he could be on his own,” Badat, by then in the U.K., e-mailed to his al-Qaeda handler, referring to Reid.

 

War Crimes

 

Badat said one reason he agreed to cooperate in terrorism trials was that he wanted to testify against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and is charged with war crimes.

Badat said he has come to believe that Mohammed’s views are wrong and that he and others in al-Qaeda manipulate people, including young people. He told U.K. authorities that the Sept. 11 terrorists were victims — “to a lesser extent, a much lesser extent” — as were those who died in the attacks, he testified.

He went to Afghanistan in 1999 to be trained in weapons, explosives, navigation and intelligence, to fight “oppressors of Muslims.” As with the accused subway bombers, he was then recruited by al-Qaeda for a suicide mission.

 

Pending Charges

 

In his April 16 opening statement, Robert Gottlieb, one of Medunjanin’s lawyers, said Badat’s testimony will show that the three subway-plot suspects received much less extensive training in Pakistan. Badat testified that he received about six to eight months of training in Afghanistan over three years.

Badat, who was arrested in November 2003, said he couldn’t travel to New York to testify because U.S. charges are pending against him stemming from the same incident and he would be arrested. He was released after six years in prison in the U.K. in March 2010.

The Medunjanin jury began hearing live testimony today of Bryant Neal Vinas, a 29-year-old man from Long Island, New York, who also traveled to Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan and then joined al-Qaeda. He participated in two efforts to attack U.S. forces near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan in September 2008, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in the U.S. in 2009.

 

Suicide Mission

 

Vinas, a graduate of Longwood High School in Middle Island, previously said he provided information to al-Qaeda leaders about New York City’s transit system for a bomb attack, according to court records.

He testified today that he suggested to al-Qaeda that it bomb Wal-Mart and the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S.

He also agreed to conduct a suicide mission, Vinas testified.

“I was having a difficult time with the altitude, I was feeling very sick, so I thought it would be easier,” he said. Such a “martyrdom operation” is “the highest, most honorable death in jihad,” he said.

Ultimately, he was told he didn’t have enough religious knowledge to carry out a mission, he said.

Medunjanin is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Bosnia. Ahmedzay immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan. Zazi was born in Pakistan. He testified that he had falsely written on immigration forms and told authorities that he was from Afghanistan. The three have been in custody since their arrests.

U.S. District Judge John Gleeson is presiding over the trial, which may last about three weeks.

The case is U.S. v. Medunjanin, 1:10-cr-00019, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

–With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch and Patricia Hurtado in New York. Editors: Mary Romano, Charles Carter

 

reporter on this story: Thom Weidlich in Brooklyn, New York, at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.

 

editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.

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Profiles of the terrorist suspects facing extradition to the US

April 10, 2012 in 2012, Al Qaeda, America, Egypt, European, FBI, Homeland Security, Islamic, Jihad, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Middle East, Muslims, Radical Islam, Terrorism

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The European Court of Human Rights will today rule on whether six men, including Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad and Khaled al – Fawwaz, should be extradited on terrorism charges to the US.

Abu Hamza, who was born in Egypt and gained British citizenship in 1986, is accused of taking hostages and conspiracy to take hostages in relation to the kidnap of 16 Westerners in Yemen in December 1998.

Three Britons and an Australian were shot dead by the kidnappers during a rescue mission.

Hamza is said to have been in contact with the leader of the hostage takers, Abu al – Hassan, by satellite phone before and during the kidnapping.

His son and stepson were jailed in Yemen. Hamza is also accused of conducting violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 by providing material and financial assistance to his followers in London and arranging for them to meet Taliban commanders in Afghanistan.

Along with Haroon Rashid Aswat, from Batley, West Yorkshire, Hamza is also accused of conspiracy to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon between June 2000 and December 2001. Hamza is also accused of providing material support and resources to al – Qaeda.

Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, both from Tooting, south London, are accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; providing material support to terrorists; conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country; and money laundering.

The material support is alleged to have been provided through a series of websites whose servers were based in Connecticut. The other charge is based on an allegation that the pair were in possession of classified US Navy plans relating to a US naval battle group operating in the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and that they discussed its vulnerability to terrorist attack.

The main website, known as “Azzam Publications” was named after Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian scholar who was, according to the website, “instrumental in reviving jihad in the 20th century.” It carried a series of personal stories from fighters in Chechnya, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Khaled al – Fawwaz, a Saudi citizen, and Abel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian who claimed asylum, were arrested in September 1998 in connection with the bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania a month earlier that killed 223 people and injured more than 4,000.

Fawwaz is said to have previously fought with bin Laden in Afghanistan and to have run a training camp there. He is accused of running an al – Qaeda cell in Kenya before fleeing in 1994 to Britain where he and Bary set up the advice and reformation committee, a publicity machine for al – Qaeda.

According to the US government, bin Laden called him more than 200 times between 1996 and 1998 and in May 1998 Fawwaz published a fatwa by bin Laden which called on Muslims to attack Americans and their allies around the world.

Bary was allegedly in contact with Ayman al – Zawahiri, now the leader of al – Qaeda, and was sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt over a plot to blow up a market.

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German-Afghan man accused of al-Qaida membership

March 19, 2012 in Al Qaeda, America, Jihad, Middle East, Military, Muslims, Radical Islam, Terrorism

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A German-Afghan man whose information helped prompt terrorism warnings across Europe in 2010 goes on trial Monday on charges that he was a member of al-Qaida and another terrorist group.

Ahmad Wali Siddiqui was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in July 2010 and while in custody provided details on alleged al-Qaida plots supposedly targeting European cities. No attacks materialized.

Attorney Michael Rosenthal, who represents Siddiqui, said the indictment is based largely on statements made by his client to authorities and that Siddiqui plans to address the court as the trial opens in Koblenz state court. He would not give details.

The 37-year-old Siddiqui faces a possible 10 years in prison if convicted of membership in al-Qaida and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Siddiqui trained with both terrorist groups in Pakistan and in the border region with Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, with the aim of taking part in violent jihad, or holy war, according to the indictment.

Authorities have said he was one of about a dozen radical Muslims who left the northern port city of Hamburg in 2009 to pursue terrorist training in the border region. Several of them have been captured or killed.

Another member of the group, German-Syrian dual national Rami Makanesi, was convicted last year in a Frankfurt state court of membership in al-Qaida and sentenced to four years and nine months. He was arrested in Pakistan in June 2010 and then extradited to Germany.

Prosecutors maintain Siddiqui received general military training at a camp run by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and helped produce a German-language propaganda film.

In the summer of 2009, he decided to leave the group’s camp, and moved to an al-Qaida training area where he learned how to use heavy weapons, including anti-tank weapons and mortars, prosecutors said.

In June 2010, a “high-ranking al-Qaida member’’ instructed Siddiqui to return to Germany to become part of a European network of the terrorist organization, prosecutors said in a statement when Siddiqui was charged.

“The network was supposed to secure financial support for the organization, but at the same time be ready for other, not yet concrete, orders from the al-Qaida leadership,’’ the statement said.

German magazine Der Spiegel, which obtained the full 114-page indictment, identified the al-Qaida leader behind the orders as Younis al-Mauritani, who was apprehended in 2011 by Pakistani agents working with the CIA.

After receiving his orders, prosecutors said Siddiqui slipped across the border into Afghanistan to return from there to Germany, but was captured by American troops in Kabul before he could leave the country.

Intelligence officials have said that, while in American custody, he provided interrogators with details of an early stage terrorist plot in Europe around Christmas 2010, which led the U.S. and others to issue a travel alert for Europe.

He was turned over to German authorities last April and is being tried in Koblenz, because it is near where he was brought back in to Germany at the U.S. Air Force’s Ramstein Air Base.

Before going to Pakistan, Siddiqui and several other suspects met at Hamburg’s al-Quds mosque, the prayer house that had served as a gathering point for some of the Sept. 11 attackers before they moved to the U.S. to attend flight schools in 2000, German intelligence officials have said. The mosque has now been shut down by authorities.

Intelligence officials also said Siddiqui was a friend of Mounir el Motassadeq, who was convicted by a German court in 2006 of being an accessory to the murder of the 246 passengers and crew on the four jetliners used in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. El Motassadeq also frequented the al-Quds mosque.

David Rising, Associated Press

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U.S. intelligence community’s threat assessment cites strides, threats

January 31, 2012 in 2012, 9/11, Al Qaeda, America, Bin Laden, CIA, FBI, First Responder, Homeland Security, Jihad, Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement / Terrorism, Military, Obama, Security, Terrorism

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The al Qaeda terror network is weakening and the embattled Afghan government is making modest strides, but cyber security threats are on the rise and Iranian nuclear aspirations remain a major peril.

These are among the main themes in the annual U.S. intelligence community’s threat assessment, a sweeping 31-page document released Tuesday that touches on a range of issues across the globe.

“The United States no longer faces – as in the Cold War – one dominant threat,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in prepared testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which will meet on Tuesday to discuss the report.

He said “counterterrorism, counter-proliferation, cyber security and counter-intelligence are at the immediate forefront of our security concerns” and that the “multiplicity and interconnectedness of potential threats – and the actors behind them … constitute our biggest challenge.”

Al Qaeda – the terror network that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001 – “will continue to be a dangerous transnational force,” but there have been strides, the report concludes.

The deaths of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and top lieutenants under its new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has made a dent in the Pakistan-based core of the group, the report said.

“These losses, combined with the long list of earlier losses since CT (counter-terror) operations intensified in 2008, lead us to assess that core al Qaeda ability to perform a variety of functions – including preserving leadership and conducting external operations – has weakened significantly,” the report said.

“We judge that al Qaeda’s losses are so substantial and its operating environment so restricted that a new group of leaders, even if they could be found, would have difficulty integrating into the organization and compensating for mounting losses.”

They expect the leadership to have “sustained degradation, diminished cohesion and decreasing influence in the coming year.” Al Qaeda will try to “execute smaller, simpler plots to demonstrate relevance.”

The death of bin Laden and other leaders has affected their influence in the Arab uprisings, the report says.

“They probably will struggle to keep pace with events,” the report said. “Rhetoric from Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor, has not resonated with the populations of countries experiencing protests.”

“Prolonged instability” in the Arab world could work in al Qaeda’s favor.

But, “if over the longer term, governments take real steps to address public demands for political participation and democratic institutions – and remain committed to CT (counter-terror) efforts, we judge that core al Qaeda and the global jihadist movement will experience a strategic setback,” the report said.

The report cites al Qaeda affiliates al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb in northern Africa, and Al-Shabaab in Somalia as dangers. They “will remain committed to the group’s ideology, and in terms of threats to U.S. interests will surpass the remnants of core al Qaeda in Pakistan.”

It says that despite the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the AQAP “transnational operations chief” last year, AQAP “remains the node most likely to attempt transnational attacks.” However, the death “probably reduces” its “ability to plan attacks.”

The report also says al Qaeda’s impact on the insurgency in war-torn Afghanistan is “limited.”

“Al Qaeda is committed to the Afghan jihad, and the propaganda gains from participating in insurgent attacks outweigh their limited battlefield impact,” the document says.

As for the government, it “will continue to make incremental, fragile progress in governance, security and development.”

The Taliban-led insurgents have “lost ground in some areas,” but mainly where NATO-led “surge forces are concentrated.” Insurgents remain “resilient” and senior Taliban leaders “enjoy safe haven in Pakistan.”

There have been improvements in “extending rule of law” and most provinces have established basic governance structure.” President Hamid Karzai’s government “did achieve some successes” last year, citing security transition to Afghan leadership.

Only brief references were made to Pakistan, despite its importance in the war against terror and the deep U.S. rift with the government, accentuated after Navy Seals assassinated bin Laden in Abbottabad. It cites al Qaeda’s increasing reliance on “ideological and operational alliances with Pakistani militant facts to accomplish its goals within Pakistan and to conduct transnational attacks.” It said the country’s leaders have had “limited success against the group’s operatives.” It also said the country’s “economic recovery” is at risk for various factors.

As for Iran, the report said it will attempt to “undermine any strategic partnership between the United States and Afghanistan” and it continues to play a destabilizing role across the globe. The report cites the plot last year to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States and concern about “Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests.”

It isn’t known if Iran will build a nuclear weapon, but “we assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.”

It would most likely use missiles to deliver nuclear weapons, saying that the country has “the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.”

“It is expanding the scale, reach, and sophistication of its ballistic missile forces, many of which are inherently capable of carrying a nuclear payload,” it said.

“Iran’s technical advancement, particularly in uranium enrichment, strengthens our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons, making the central issue its political will to do so. These advancements contribute to our judgment that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses.”

The report cities Iran’s economic problems and notes the international sanctions against the regime because of its nuclear aspirations.

“Despite this, Iran’s economic difficulties probably will not jeopardize the regime, absent a sudden and sustained fall in oil prices or a sudden domestic crisis that disrupts oil exports,” the report said.

Iran was cited in the report’s section about the “evolving and strategic concern” of cyber threats. The country’s increasing intelligence operations against the United States include “cyber capabilities.” It said Russia, and China, as well as Iran, will be top espionage threats in “coming years.”

Entities in China and Russia “are responsible for extensive illicit intrusions into U.S. computer networks and theft of U.S. intellectual property.”

Foreign intelligence services have launched operations targeting U.S. entities and “we assess many intrusions into U.S. networks are not being detected.” It also cites “insider threats” to classified information, saying “trusted” people are using access to computer networks for “malicious intent.”

The report says strides in information technology are “increasing exponentially” and “emerging technologies are developed and implemented faster than governments can keep pace.”

It cites the “failed efforts” to censor social media during the Arab Spring and denial of service attacks and website defacements by hackers against governments and corporations.

“The well-publicized intrusions into NASDAQ and International Monetary Fund networks underscore the vulnerability of key sectors of the U.S. and global economy,” the report says.

It says the U.S. government and the private sector must work together to counter the threat.

The report touched on other places: India, Pakistan, North Korea, China, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Venezuela, Central Asia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Central Africa’s Great Lakes region, Russia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Ukraine, Belarus, and Turkey and the Kurds.

It also dealt with the subjects of space, energy, world financial markets, water security, health threats, and mass atrocities.

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Jihad in America

January 26, 2012 in 2012, America, Jihad, Terrorism

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Homeland Security Network Is Al-Qaeda Gaining A Foothold In Libya?

January 9, 2012 in Al Qaeda, Islamic, Jihad, Terrorism

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Western intelligence agencies are said to be aware that al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, personally dispatched a former British detainee to Libya.

al-Qaeda

al-Qaeda

Be aware that after 2005 London terrorist attacks, there was a heightened concern of Libyan residents in England possible involvement in terrorist activities which led to the arrest of a number of them. The jihadist is described as committed to al-Qaeda’s global cause by attacking U.S. interests. He is actively recruiting fighters in the eastern region of the country, near the Egyptian border. Experts sat that additional evidence that proves the terror group has launched a campaign in the country was provided by a recent video message to Libyans distributed on jihadist forums. The recording featured a well know Libyan, Abu Yahya al-Libi who told his countrymen: “At this crossroads you have found yourselves, with a choice, you either choose a secular regime that pleases the greedy crocodiles of the West for them to use as a means to fulfill their goals, or you take a strong position and establish the religion of Allah.”

Remember that al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda inspired terrorism remains the biggest threat to global security. The Gadhafi regime mercilessly curbed militant groups that have long had a presence in eastern Libya, many of which joined the insurgency in Iraq. Now analysts point to a weak central government, high unemployment, and the influence of veteran Libyan jihadists returning from Afghanistan as playing a role in the radicalization of a new generation of Jihadists.

Additionally according to a new report entitled “A View to Extremist Currents In Libya” written by Michael S. Smith II, a counterterrorism adviser for Kronos LLC, the Arab Spring may quickly become an Islamist Winter in Libya. The advance copy of the report was prepared by the strategic advisory firm for policymakers on Capitol Hill and states in part “Despite early indications that the Libyan revolution might be a largely secular undertaking, the very extremist currents that shaped the philosophies of Libya Salafists and jihadis appear to be uniting to define the future of Libya”

Consider that Libya is considered by many as being important to al-Qaeda because of its proximity to Egypt and its perceived ability to affect the jihadist political situation there. Now filling the vacuum left by Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall are now individuals like the head of the Tripoli’s Military Council Abd al-Hakim Belhadj. He is described as an Islamist who spent time in Afghan Taliban camps and was a former emir of the al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a group whose members have been featured prominently in al-Qaeda’a history as core members. In fact Libya was considered so important to al-Qaeda that in April 2011 al-Qaeda’s new leader Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri called on jihadis to prepare to mount an insurgency against any Western forces in Libya.

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Not So Fond Farewells, Remembering Terrorist That Were Killed In 2011

January 1, 2012 in Bin Laden, Jihad, Terrorism

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By: TVR – a 28 year veteran First Responder

As one year comes to an end and a new year is about to unfold we must take a look back at the individuals whose lives and evil deeds changed ours. Below is a fairly extensive but partial list of significant terrorists killed in the year, 2011:

Osama bin Laden was al-Qaeda’s leader, and he mastermind behind the worst-ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Anwar al-Awlaki an the American-born jihadist cleric and recruiter, called by many “bin Laden of the Internet. He rose to become lead figure in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader

Atiyah Abd al-Rahman was a Libyan national that allegedly took on a leadership role in al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, hijackings.

Dangerous al-Qaeda commanders: Ilyas Kashmiri, Ammar al-Waili, Abu al-Harithi, and Ali Saleh Farhan

Harun Fazul was a senior of al-Qaeda in East Africa (AQEA). His death dealt a significant blow to al-Qaeda’s operations in the area.

Baitullah Mahsud the leader of Tehrik e-Taliban Pakistan. He was said to be responsible for the growth of the militant group in his country and accused of various high profile attacks

Noordin Muhammad Top was Jemayah Islamiya’s operational planner and was suspected of involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Indonesia.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabban was an al-Qaeda’s East Africa (AQEA) planner and the alleged ringleader of a cell responsible for the 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast, and the 1998 attacks on two American embassies in East Africa.

Al-Qaeda operational commanders: Saleh al-Somali, and ‘Abdallah Sa’id

Muhammad Haqqani was a Haqqani network commander.

Qari Zafar was a leader of the al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked Fedayeen-i-Islam. He was allegedly behind multiple terror attacks in Pakistan and was wanted by the US for murdering a consular official in Karachi.

Hussein al-Yemeni was a al-Qaeda operative. He allegedly played a key role in the 2009 bombing of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) post in Afghanistan.

Dulmatin was a senior Jemayah Islamiya operative. In 2002 he allegedly helped organize the murder of 202 people on Bali.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders: Abu Ayyub al Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi

Sheik Saeed al-Masri was al-Qaeda’s number three commander, and the group’s chief operating officer.

Hamza al-Jawfi was believed to have been al-Qaeda external operations chief and chief weapons procurer.

Consider that although as evidenced above, great strides have been made. But the war on terror is likely to be an extremely long-term endeavor. It will require not only the elimination of extremists, the prevention of terrorist acts but also the eradication of an ideology that continues to breed radical individuals like the ones mentioned above, which will test the tenacity, resourcefulness and will of counter-terrorism personnel.

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Sports Fans Targeted For Attack

December 13, 2011 in Explosive, Islamic, Jihad, Terrorism

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At least one person was killed and more than 10 others injured recently when militants detonated explosive devices at venues packed with sports fans watching a soccer game in the Nigerian city of Jos.

According to investigators four improvised explosive devices (IED) were planted near outdoor bars called “viewing centers” packed with fans in the predominantly Christian area of the city, watching the Real Madrid-Barcelona soccer game. Three of the lethal IED’s exploded causing the injuries but a fourth failed to detonate.

Although there has been no claim of responsibility for these cowardly acts the, Islamist sect Boko Haram is the lead suspect. Over the past year as part of their campaign to implement strict Islamic “Shariah law” across the central African country’s northern sector, Boko Haram has launched a wave of deadly attacks, including a string of bomb blasts in the same city of Jos on Christmas Eve 2010.

According to police the Nigerian radical Islamist group is now becoming increasingly more violent. Their attacks have included the bombing of police stations, churches, banks, and army bases, which analysts say suggest is a result of the group’s associations with other al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups in Africa. These groups include the Algeria based Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al Shabaab in Somalia which the analysts believe has led to a significant escalation in the group’s scope and methods.

Be aware that in this era of global terror the incident above is not just a regional problem. Remember that terrorists seek to use violence to generate fear, and thereby to achieve their political goals, experts say that terrorists target two types of targets: symbolic items or places, and places with large numbers of people. Sporting events should be considered significant targets of terrorism because they have both of those characteristics, having the potential for mass casualties and are so strongly connected with a countries economy and culture, which would reap huge national and international media attention.

Consider that a 2006 posting on a jihadist message board, carried information detailing how to conduct an attack on a sporting event and during a 1998 search British police found an Arabic-language document titled “Declaration of Jihad Against the Country’s Tyrants, Military Series.” The document laid out the organization’s missions. Many of its 18 chapters contain extended citations from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in an effort to justify their actions. In addition undercover cell members are given 22 rules of conduct, but topping the list is “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality and sin.

www.homelandsecuritynet.com

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Is Al-Qaeda Still A Threat, And How Can Responders Help?

November 2, 2011 in Al Qaeda, CIA, Jihad, Terrorism

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By: TVR – a 28 year veteran First Responder

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll taken just prior to the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks indicated that 61% of American’s polled thought another attack was likely. Compare these results with a similar 2009 survey, which found that that just 16% of Americans believed there would be a significant terrorist attack in the United States.

Remember that the brass ring” to which terrorist organizations aspire is to attack the U.S. homeland. Although it is true that military and intelligence efforts have reduced al-Qaeda’s operational safe havens, and their leadership structure has been seriously damaged, the organization remains as committed as ever to attacking the U.S. homeland. It is dangerous to dismiss al-Qaeda as a spent force. The terrorist network is said to operate in over 60 countries around the world.  Their core group is disciplined, relentless, and fanatical. Osama bin Laden may be dead, but experts believe that his organization remains fully capable of, and determined to kill large numbers of Westerners and disrupt the global economy by orchestrating attacks worldwide, possibly using local groups they have recruited to do their dirty work.

In his book “Leaderless Jihad”, Dr. Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer, argued that, “the present threat has evolved from a structured group of al-Qaeda masterminds controlling vast resources and issuing commands to a multitude of informal groups trying to emulate their predecessors by conceiving and executing operations from the bottom up. According to Dr. Sageman, these “homegrown wannabes” form a scattered global network, a “leaderless jihad.” Once they have been recruited, indoctrinated and prepared, their lust for “martyrdom” makes them difficult to deter.

Consider that al-Qaeda or its off shoots will undoubtedly continue to attempt to launch their attacks until they are killed, captured, and decisively defeated. Up to this point our national counterterrorist strategy has failed to incorporate hundreds of thousands of first responders (firefighters, local law enforcement, and emergency medical personnel). They are the first to arrive at catastrophes and have an everyday presence in the communities they are sworn to protect. They traverse these areas daily, and are more likely to notice even subtle changes in the neighborhoods that they patrol. In my opinion these “first responders” should also be viewed as potential “first preventers” of terrorism, utilized as the eyes and ears of the intelligence community.

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AL- MANAR:SATELLITE PROPAGANDA NETWORK- M. Zuhdi Jasser

October 17, 2011 in Islamic, Jihad, Palestine

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Published on the Counter Terrorist Magazine

“Jihad leads to Arab and Islamic unity, and it nourishes the Palestinian cause. It is the path of life, pride, and dignity. And what our Palestinian brothers live today highlights the need for all kinds of jihad: political, military, fifinancial, and cultural jihad. Our jihad against Israel is in defense of humanity and the civilized world. Resistance in Lebanon and in the beloved Palestine is an obligation for the Arab and Islamic world. Lastly, the Islamic resistance in Lebanon was the key that awakened the Arab and Islamic masses. The martyrs of the intifada are heroes. God bless the martyrs and their families, and may God give them more strength.”1

Lev Dassin, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted for the record in 2009 that “Al-Manar [the Beacon] is a Lebanonbased television station operated by Hezbollah and designed to cultivate support for Hezbollah’s activities and mission.” 1 Dassin was announcing the conviction of John Iqbal for giving material support to Hezbollah through his workings with Al-Manar.

Understanding Al-Manar’s history and utility is instructive regarding the central part that a television medium plays in radicalization and implementation of a systematic program for the indoctrination of instruments of Islamic supremacist terror within a population. Hezbollah began broadcasting locally via Al-Manar in Lebanon in 1991. It went global, transmitting by satellite in May, 2000. It is now available in most Arab countries on satellite and in Lebanon terrestrially. Since December 2005 the station has been banned in Europe and the United States.2 Although the ban has kept the station from radicalizing Western Muslims, the ban has also paradoxically enabled them to operate globally with little awareness of their actions among Westerners. Some polls list Al-Manar as one of the top four so-called news stations in the Middle East.3

Al-Manar’s goal is to promote the ideology and advancement of Hezbollah as a political, cultural, religious, and military organization. Al-Manar broadcasts have included glorified representations of attacks on Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. After Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, Al- Manar’s Islamist mantra did not change. It maintained Israel as its primary target, but changed focus to Palestinian advocacy instead of the occupation of Lebanon upon which it was founded. Ideologically, its anti-Israeli focus positions Muslims (Islamists) as the perpetual victims in a “holy war” against the Jews. It sculpts the perspective that Israeli strength is a myth and that the Muslim resistance will be victorious.

Nayef Krayem, Al-Manar’s general manager and chairman of the board, stated:

There is no act of resistance that can be classified as terrorism …. Civilians and military are both occupiers and therefore, both are legitimate targets …. We do not create these acts [acts of terrorism], but we do support any resistance acts through our media. We cover and promote any act of resistance on our programming …. Hezbollah uses Al-Manar to express its stands and its views etc. Al-Manar, in turn, receives political support for its continuation.4

Its reporters are often “embedded” with Hezbollah fighters. “Who’s Next?” is a program that is part of its psychological campaign to show Israeli casualties leaving a blank space for future soldiers.5

The Jerusalem Media Communication Center reported that most Palestinians watch Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi TV, and Al-Manar. Terrorism analyst Avi Jorisch reported that on a 2003 poll on “Palestine” 28% of Jordanians tuned into Al-Manar first, followed by Al Jazeera (27.5%).6 Some sources have cited an annual cost of running Al-Manar at $10–15 million with more than 300 employees of American, Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, and Palestinian nationalities. Whether through Hezbollah or via other indirect Shia sources, Al-Manar is intimately connected to the radical Shia movement of clerics in power in Iran.

Hezbollah constituents have 20% of their income tithed in Lebanon. A large portion of Al-Manar’s sustenance comes from that tithing. Al-Manar does not have a history of being notably profitable. It lost a large number of Western advertisers after they became more aware of Al-Manar’s ideology and terror links. All Western advertisers eventually dried up after the US government’s terrorist designation of Al-Manar. Hezbollah leaders also invoked the channel’s own religious extremism and rejected many advertisers on “morality grounds”.7

Al-Manar broadcasts include a variety of programming from news and current affairs to children’s programs and drama, with an emphasis on religious and political programming. It has correspondents across the world from Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf to Belgium, France, and Kosovo. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reviewed Al-Manar television content from December 2008 to January 2010. It found that the religious programming focused on general recommendations on religious practices from both Sunni and Shia clerics. The political programming included “martyr and martial programming” that glorified suicide bombers and showed martyrs (shahids) with patriotic settings and music. Hezbollah leaders are featured giving speeches and other political programming that is anti-American and anti-Israeli, and promotes the belief that Muslim lands are “occupied.”8

According to the ACMA report, it felt “that certain styles or forms of programming (for example, martial, martyr, memorial, and unmediated party political programming) could amount to advocacy of a terrorist act in periods of heightened conflict in the region.”9Al-Manar not only broadcasts outright militant and radical views, but it also addresses various facets of domestic and foreign policy for the Hezbollah Islamist agenda. For example, with regard to US actions in Iraq, Al-Manar news reports refer to US forces as the “the American occupation army.” What are neutrally termed “insurgents” to the United States are labeled “resistance” by Al-Manar, and action against the “insurgency” is referred to as action against the “Iraqi people.” These actions are “depicted in all their tragedy” with “details of [alleged] torture, indictments, and rapes by American troops.”10

Al-Manar’s programming is primarily dedicated to inspiring resistance against Israel and against the United States. According to Avi Jorisch, Lebanese and Palestinian terror groups use Al-Manar as the primary venue to “claim responsibility for suicide attacks against Israelis.” With regard to the United States, Al-Manar has had programming that has spread unfounded conspiracy theories, fabricated American history, and attacked American foreign policy. The Iraq war gave Al- Manar a renewed vigor of propagandizing an anti-American narrative against its “Great Satan,” the United States. It openly called for suicide attacks and other violent acts of armed resistance against the United States in the region.11

Interestingly, more than one-fourth of Al-Manar programming is music videos (anashid). These videos amplify emotions for the Palestinians and against Israel and the United States in an incendiary way. The station admits that these images are meant to stimulate suicide operations by driving viewers toward violence.

Reportedly one viewer, Ayat al Akhras, a young Palestinian woman, watched Al- Manar incessantly before blowing herself up in front of a Jerusalem supermarket in March, 2002, killing two Israelis and wounding twenty-eight others.12

The station uses images of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict to drive war. The programming according to CNN13 was a “drum beat of carefully selected, dramatically composed, one-sided visual accounts of West Bank and Gaza violence beamed across Lebanon and, via satellite to a vast regional audience, transmissions which incite the Arab world to mobilize popular support for the Palestinian cause.”

Jeffrey Goldberg called the station “The Suicide Channel” in Th e New Yorker. Al- Manar News Director Hassan Fadlallah told Goldberg, “We’re not looking to interview [Ariel] Sharon, we want to get close to him in order to kill him.” It glorifies suicide bombers as martyrs and their families as heroes. It openly and repeatedly calls for the obliteration of Israel and the death of the United States. It calls for Palestinians to violently overthrow their “racist oppressors,” and portrays the Israelis as “baby-slaughtering terrorists.” An Al-Manar public service message tells families of suicide bombers where to go to collect a “subsidy” from the martyrs’ “foundation.”14

providing Hezbollah with a global platform from which to spread its radical message.15

In a speech televised on Al-Manar on March 20, 2002, Nasan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah stated:

Today the main source of evil in this world, the main source of terrorism in this world, the central threat to international peace and to the economic development of the world, the main threat to the environment of this world, the main source of … killing and turmoil, and civil wars and regional wars in this world is the United States of America …. The American political discourse is to terrorize the countries of the world …. America is a beast in all meanings of the word. A beast that is hungry for power and hungry for blood.16

Al-Manar reaches its millions of viewers through a vast network of satellite providers and some Western corporations.17 In 2006 Al-Manar headquarters and infrastructure were bombed by the Israeli Air Force. The station, though severely damaged, continued to broadcast. This was after a March, 2006 move by the United States that designated Al-Manar a terrorist organization much like its paternal organization, Hezbollah. At the time, Stuart Levey, US Treasury undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said that Al-Manar is an “entity maintained by a terrorist group” and therefore “as culpable as the terrorist group itself.” The European Union then concluded that Al-Manar violated European law and four European satellite providers discontinued transmission as did others in Barbados, Australia, Brazil, and Hong Kong. According to Mark Dubowitz, many Western companies discontinued more than $2 million in annual corporate advertising after being alerted to Al Manar’s programming.18

ARABSAT, a satellite company owned primarily by the Saudi government, and Nilesat, owned by the Egyptian government, continue to provide Al- Manar with a venue to spread its hate globally. ACMA reported in February, 2010 that Al-Manar was also carried by an Indonesian-owned and controlled satellite, PT Indosat Tbk (PT Indosat). It verified that the programming was transmitted on the global beam in Palapa-D satellite.19 Its goal is to engage and inflame its ever-growing Muslim constituencies. Al-Manar has described its Palestinian viewers as its Palestinian “human nuclear bomb.”20

Al-Manar also operates a website enabling viewers to watch streaming video. This streaming video is available in the United States through the Wa3ad (“promise” in Arabic) website, which is hosted by a Las Vegas-based Internet service provider. The Arabic language Wa3ad website claims to be “for the support of the resistance movement” and consists of various sections, including those entitled “Zionist affairs,” “the resistance support,” and “divine victory.”

For anyone who may assert Al Manar’s “journalistic” ethics, the recent transformations sweeping across the Middle East exposed Al-Manar’s method of doing business. The LA Times reported on May 24, 2011, (citing Tunisian newspaper, Sabah) that Al-Manar was paid $100,000 to promote the human rights image of Tunisian dictator Zine el Abedine Ben Ali, who is now exiled in Saudi Arabia. Al-Manar had allegedly received $150,000 a year to support the Ben Ali regime and asked for an extra $50,000 annually if he wished positive coverage in light of recent developments.21

WINNING THE WAR OF IDEAS

Islamists have a propaganda advantage with organizations like Al-Manar that do not play by the same rules as Western networks. When we look back at the cold war, one of the most important tools employed was the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe that highlighted the benefits of individual liberty and made an effort to counter the ideological dogma of communism and socialism.

The following policies need to be enacted:

• Sanctions against Al Manar’s funders and satellite providers.

• Open criticism regarding Al Manar’s conflicts of interests with autocrats, absence of journalistic ethics, and inherently corrupt operations.

• Western media should be encouraged to build a “firewall” with regard to refusing to “do business” with so-called media agencies that promote violence and Islamic supremacist ideas that are incompatible with free societies.

• Nonprofit groups and media-monitoring organizations can prioritize countering any “mainstreaming” of Al Manar or similar networks into American households and expose the ethical lapses that these networks frequently exhibit.

The United States and our allies have to be willing to engage in the ideological battle. We must help foster a debate within the Muslim consciousness about modernity and the role of shariah in governance. We need to engage leading American Muslims who are liberty-minded and anti-Islamist to take the offense and reshape the narrative of freedom and liberty against agents of the Islamic state. If we are able to shape the narrative of liberty as being one fully open to Muslim devotion and practice as long as there is a separation of mosque and state, that can ultimately be the way toward victory in the war of ideas.

We must shape the narrative that the United States is not an enemy of Islam, but an enemy of governments and ideologies that usurp the power of the people through theocratic ideologies like Islamism. Understanding the types of ideas, programming, and networks disseminated and promoted on Al-Manar and similar networks is of the highest priority in our counterterrorism efforts. We cannot continue to allow Al-Manar to define who we are as a Western society without an equally accessible counter message. Winning the ideological war will minimize the need for military confrontation and set the stage for real national security.

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