Monday Winds of War Briefing
Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Monday's Winds of War briefings are given by Peace Like a River and Security Watchtower.
Top Topics
* A female suicide bomber blew herself up on Friday in front of a mosque in the city of Ordu, Turkey, wounding two people. Violence and confrontations have been escalating the last month between Turkish government forces and Kurdish militants.
* Iranian security forces killed Abdolmalek Rigi, the Sunni militant leader of Jundullah (Soldiers of God), near the Afghan border in Sistan-Baluchistan.
* According to a Seymour Hersh article in the April 17th edition of the New Yorker magazine, the Bush administration is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran that will include the use of nuclear bunker busters. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called the reports "completely nuts" and U.S. officials have denied that any extraordinary planning is taking place in regards to Iran.
* U.S. troops in Sulu are trying to win the hearts and minds of the people in the southern Philippine islands. While training Filipino troops in counterterrorism measures, American soldiers are also building roads, hospitals, schools and other basic infrastructure projects that the island lacks.
Others topics today include: IAEA in Iran; Fatah and Hamas clashes; Israeli strikes in Gaza; Security clampdown in West Bank; al Qaeda sets cites on Israel; Palestinian aid cut; al Qaeda trials in Yemen; Vegitable ambush in Venezuela; Bombings in Columbia; UAV expanding role; Moussaoui trial; Russian-Tajik counterterror exercises; Clashes in Nepal; Violence in Sri Lanka; Protests in Pakistan; Fighting along Pakistani-Afghan border; Pakistan labels BLA terrorist organization; Muslims and Hindus clash in India; Bombings in Bangladesh; Car bombings in southern Afghanistan; Taliban commanders killed; Bomb cache found in Indonesia; Communist rebels killed in Philippines; Mladic to surrender soon; thwarted plots against Italy; al Qaeda role in London attacks; Madrid charges pending; More wiretaps in Europe; Attacks in southern Algeria; and more.
Iran & the Middle East
* IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will be travelling to Iran this week in hopes of securing some concessions from the Iranian government on their nuclear programs. UN inspectors will visit several locations related to Iran's nuclear program, including the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and another facility at Isfahan.
* Asharq Alawsat is reporting that Hamas believes Fatah leaders are planning to recruit armed factions to launch mass protests in an effort to topple the Hamas led Palestinian government, deepening the political rift that continues to grow.
* Retaliating for Qassam rocket fire, Israeli artillery strikes killed a Palestinian police officer in Gaza on Sunday and wounded sixteen others. Islamic Jihad has announced a one week suspension to the rocket attacks on Israel, in an effort to halt IDF artillery fire into Gaza. An hour later the report was denounced.
* Syrian officials are aggressively silencing domestic political opposition while accommodating religious conservatives to shore up support across the country. The security forces have detained human rights workers and opposition leaders, and in some cases their families. They have barred travel abroad for political conferences and shut down a human rights center financed by the European Union. And the government has delivered a stern message to the national media, demanding that it promote - not challenge - the official agenda.
* Israeli intelligence confirmed the arrest of Assam Zinadin, a Palestinian terrorist wanted in a shooting attack in the West Bank a month ago that killed an Israeli father of two. Following an increase in attempted suicide bombings, Israel has implemented more restrictive security measures in the West Bank.
* Israel Defense Forces arrested a female Palestinian in Nablus last week, who was on her way to carry out a suicide bombing.
* According to terrorism expert Olivier Guitta, al Qaeda is recruiting in the Palestinian territories and plan to attack Israel within three years. Guitta notes that "signs of a major destabilization in the Palestinian territories and Israel are all over the wall." The Sunday edition of the Times Online also has an article on al Qaeda recruiting in Gaza.
* A Kuwaiti researcher says that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program with the assistance of Pakistan and other allies, a charge that Riyadh denies. (Hattip: Threatswatch)
* On Friday, an al Qaeda linked Palestinian terrorist was taken into custody in Hizme by Israeli security forces.
* Al Qaeda's Committee in the Arabian Peninsula released a new statement denying the recent arrest of 40 al Qaeda linked terrorists and denied rumors that an al Qaeda website discussion forum was infiltrated and used by authorities against the terrorists.
* According to reports, Iran has successfully tested a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. One U.S. official described it as "a major breakthrough for the Iranians", adding that Iran has "been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."
* Two Turkish security force officers were killed when their vehicle drove over a remote-detonated mine on Saturday in the Kurdish southeastern region of the country. The attack followed the killing of six Kurdish militants in Sirnak, the province bordering Iraq.
* The United States and the European Union have ceased aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, prompting condemnation and warnings that the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse and leaving Palestinians wondering about their future.
* Yemen will soon put 172 al Qaeda linked terrorists on trial in "the coming days", after interrogations are concluded.
* On Friday, Israeli aircraft struck a vehicle with four missiles in Rafah, killing six people, including three Hamas members and a key bombmaker. In response, Hamas vowed to retaliate. On Saturday, a separate airstrike killed six Palestinian terrorists at a Fatah training camp in Gaza.
America Domestic Security & the Americas
* Dadmanly writes about the press story claiming President Bush gave the go-ahead for a leak of classified material, when in reality the Bush Administration was counteracting the falsehoods in Joe Wilson's report. Dadmanly has a good roundup of links on the story as well.
* Supporters of President Hugo Chavez threw eggs, fruit and vegetables at the U.S. ambassador's car Friday, and a group of motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles, a U.S. Embassy official said. No one was hurt. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as the car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded and pelted.
* A woman and her two daughters were reported kidnapped in northeastern Venezuela on the same day that three Canadian brothers and their driver were cremated after being abducted and murdered, local media said. The kidnapping came as protests raged in Caracas over a spate of kidnappings, including the abduction and murder of three Canadian boys and their driver, who were cremated on Thursday.
* Bombs exploded on two buses in a working class district of Colombia's capital Thursday, injuring two dozen passengers, including three children with burns over half their body, officials said. Authorities said the near simultaneous blasts in southern Bogota were likely the work of leftist rebels.
* Unmanned aerial vehicles have soared the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq for years, spotting enemy encampments, protecting military bases, and even launching missile attacks against suspected terrorists. Now UAVs may be landing in the United States. A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday heard testimony from police agencies that envision using UAVs for everything from border security to domestic surveillance high above American cities.
* The judge in the death-penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui said Friday she would open much of the voluminous record in the case to families of Sept. 11 victims pursuing negligence suits against American Airlines and United Airlines.
* In Trinidad, the leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Imam Yasin Abu Bakr will reappear in court on Monday when a date for his retrial on a charge of conspiracy to murder is expected to be fixed.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
* Reports of a Russian police commando raid in Adygeya back on March 31st were made public this weekend, in which dozens of Muslims were detained.
* Russia and Tajikistan held joint counterterrorism exercises last week at a Russian military base near the Tajik-Afghan border.
* Russian authorities detained a suspected terrorist in the Ingushetia city of Nazran on Sunday, and confiscated a grenade and 900g of plastic explosives.
* A police officer and two family members were gunned down in the Chechen village of Sernovodsk in the Sunzha district on Sunday.
* The USS Porter (DDG 78) has been deployed in Georgia the last week holding tactical training exercises with the Georgian Navy and a Turkish vessel.
Afghanistan & Southern Asia
* Hundreds more protesters were arrested in Nepal on the second day of a general strike calling for King Gyanendra to restore democracy as demonstrations left two dozen injured. "Some 200 protesters from the Nepali Congress Party and more than 150 from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) have been arrested and 12 injured during protests," said Nepali Congress Party secretary Shovarkar Parajuli. He vowed the opposition-party sponsored protests, which have seen more than 750 people officially detained since Tuesday, would go on.
* Communist rebels bombed government buildings and raided security bases in a southern Nepal town, taking hostages and engaging police in gunbattles that left 13 people dead, officials said today. Meanwhile, an army helicopter gunship crashed while responding to the attack, killing 10 soldiers on board.
* In Nepal, Security forces fired on anti-monarch demonstrators in separate marches Saturday, killing one and wounding five as the government escalated its crackdown on those seeking a return of democracy. Authorities said they would extend a dawn-to-dusk curfew in the capital to a second day Sunday after opposition parties announced plans to hold a rally. The curfew will be imposed from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Katmandu and its surrounding areas, and gives security forces orders to shoot any violators, a notice on the state-run Nepal Television said. On Saturday, the government had already imposed a curfew in Katmandu and its suburbs, saying it was necessary to ensure the safety of people and property.
* At least 19 persons, including two civilians, were killed and nearly three dozen others were injured in fierce Maoist attacks in the headquarters of Rupandehi and Kapilvastu districts, south-western Nepal, on Friday night. A local resident of Butwal in Rupandehi district, three security personnel – two Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers and a policeman – and 14 Maoists were killed when hundreds of Maoists simultaneously attacked the security bases and government installations in Butwal and Parasi Bazaar in Nawalparasi district at around 9:00 p.m., according to security sources.
* Security forces fired at anti-monarchy demonstrators in eastern Nepal on Sunday, killing at least one man, as the main opposition parties and communist rebels said a nationwide general strike and protests would continue indefinitely. The death in Banepa, 20 miles east of the capital, was the third in ongoing demonstrations to pressure King Gyanendra to give up absolute rule.
* The risk of Sri Lanka returning to full-scale hostilities despite a four-year-long ceasefire with Tamil rebels is stunting economic growth and investment, the Asian Development Bank said. Political negotiations between Colombo and Tamil Tiger rebels remain on hold since April 2003.
* A pro-Tamil Tiger activist and two police guards were shot dead in Sri Lanka's volatile east as Norway's top peace envoys left the island following a new bid to salvage a truce, police said. Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, who spearheaded the Tamil Resurgence Movement, a known front organisation of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was gunned down in the town of Trincomalee, police said.
* Thousands of activists from an outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group rallied in Pakistan's capital, calling for the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in the country and across the world. Activists of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) openly distributed pamphlets preaching jihad, or holy war, and hatred against minority Shiites in Islamabad as their leaders delivered fiery speeches to a crowd of around 5,000 late on Thursday.
* Pakistani authorities said on Thursday that up to 40 militants were killed by security forces in clashes a day earlier in a remote tribal region near the Afghanistan border. After a major operation on Wednesday in North Waziristan tribal district, the military had said at least 16 militants were killed and 19 captured.
* Although the Pakistani government vowed to reform the country's 13,000 madrassas or Islamic seminaries, little has actually changed. After the London bombings in July, when it was confirmed that two of the suicide bombers had travelled to Pakistan before the attacks and one of them was also shown to have visited a Pakistani madrassa, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf said that all foreign students in the madrassas, some 1,400 of them, had to leave the country by the end of 2005. Months after the pronouncement, and after fierce opposition from Pakistan's religious parties, the reality on the ground is different.
* Pakistan has branded an underground militant group operating in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan a "terrorist" organisation. "The federal government has declared Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) as terrorist organisation over its involvement in sabotage and subversive activities," provincial police chief, Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub, told AFP Sunday. He said Baluchistan police had arrested an unspecified number of militants who confessed they had been receiving money and weapons from the group for attacks on government installations. He said now the group was officially a terrorist organisation, its name could not appear in the Pakistani media.
* Activists of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) vowed to establish a global caliphate, beginning with Pakistan. In a rally attended by thousands of activists of the banned group to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on Friday, leaders of the SSP called for an Islamic theocracy in Pakistan.
* In India, two people were killed and several injured on Thursday when groups of Hindus and Muslims clashed over prayers at a Hindu temple, officials said. The rioting erupted in a crowded neighbourhood of Aligarh town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after Muslims objected to the use of loudspeakers overnight by Hindus, who were celebrating the birthday of the Hindu god-king, Rama.
* Uttar Pradesh police's Special Task Force and Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday nabbed a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist from Ateria Railway station in Sitapur district in a joint operation.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Four people were killed and 25 wounded when dozens of homemade bombs exploded in clashes between farmers and Bangladesh's ruling party members over power supplies, according to police reports. More than 5,000 farmers marched in the northern town of Shibganj late Thursday where they faced off with supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), an area police chief said.
* Feuding Bangladesh political parties have agreed in principle to hold talks over electoral reform proposals made by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. But the deal hit an immediate hurdle when the opposition asked the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to exclude its coalition partner, Jamaat-e-Islami party, from the talks.
* A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near British troops in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing himself and possibly wounding British troops, a police chief said. The attacker blew himself up outside a coalition base in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Saber said.
* A suicide car bomb outside a NATO military base in a western Afghan city Saturday killed two Afghans and wounded seven others — the second such attack on a foreign military base in as many days. The explosions highlighted the increasing risk to foreign forces as they expand into new areas across Afghanistan.
* Two suicide attackers exploded car bombs in separate assaults on US and Afghan forces yesterday, slightly wounding two US military members and one US civilian contractor, officials said. The bombings occurred around 11:30 a.m. in the southern province of Helmand, a hub of Afghanistan's drug trade and Taliban rebellion.
* Coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander during an offensive in southern Afghanistan, the US military said. The commander 'was directly tied to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks that killed and crippled multiple Afghans since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted,' the statement said.
* Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other Sunday in Afghanistan's main southern city, wounding 11 people, officials said.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS) released their annual threat report that noted al Qaeda sympathizers living in the nation but the likelihood of an attack remained low. New Zealand's police department just received 97 recruits from Britain, who will join their police force after 11-weeks of training.
* Two Indonesian terrorists tied to Jemaah Islamiyah leader Noordin Mohammed Top, have confessed to surveying Japanese targets in Indonesia as part of an effort to target interests of the United States and allies.
* Australian Ministers face a grilling this week over kickbacks in the Iraq oil for food scandal. Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile will appear on Monday before a board of inquiry.
* Malaysia came out with praise for the peace talks taking place between the Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
* Syrian born Ahmad al-Hamwi has been living in Australia since 1996, despite ties to al Qaeda and plots against the United States dating back to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
* Indonesian authorities found a cache of 40 homemade bombs in a cemetery on Suwalesi island on Sunday, the scene of frequent confrontations between Muslims and Christians.
* Two Communist NPA rebels were killed in fighting with Filipino government troops this weekend after a raid on an NPA safehouse in Tigacalaan village. Two other militants were captured.
* John Ritch, head of the World Nuclear Association, says that North Korean claims of having nuclear weapons should not be taken seriously, and much like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, North Korea may be exaggerating their capabilities.
Europe
* An Egyptian accused of helping plan the Madrid train bombings in 2004 indoctrinated young people in Spain and advocated martyrdom, an Italian investigator told a court on Friday. Former army member Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," sat quietly inside a cage in the Milan court as the investigator accused him of advocating jihad and cheering the execution of American hostage Nick Berg in Iraq. "Rabei's activity in Spain was to indoctrinate the young people," Bruno Megale, a Milan anti-terrorist investigator, told the court.
* A Bosnian weekly said on Thursday top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic told U.N. chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte he would surrender soon, in a phone call placed by the Serbian prime minister from his office. Slobodna Bosna quoted an unnamed source close to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as saying the premier called Mladic on March 29 when his guest del Ponte asked him how he could be so sure of his promise to deliver him to the Hague tribunal within weeks.
* A conference of 150 Muslim leaders and imams from more than 40 European countries opened on Friday in the Austrian capital, Vienna. The three-day gathering will focus on issues affecting the Muslim communities in Europe, such as the creation of new jobs and the role of women. A key goal will be to hammer out an identity for European Muslims that preserves their traditions while integrating with Western political and social values.
* The Croatian authorities have denied allegations in a new Amnesty International report that America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used its airports to transport terror suspects seized in extra-judicial abductions. The London-based rights group said in a report released on Wednesday that the airport in the Adriatic resort town of Dubrovnik was one of the 46 airports in 30 countries that CIA used for its clandestine operations.
* In The Bullpen links to a story saying "Italian authorities have thwarted planned terrorist attacks against a church in Bologna and Milan's subway, the Interior Minister said Thursday." Chad writes "the Italian thwarting of an attack appears to have a Moroccan connection."
* Spain's High Court has said overnight that it had quashed jail terms handed down to three of 18 Al-Qaeda operatives, including the Syrian head of a Spanish-based cell found to have helped to organise the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. According to court sources, the High Court freed Driss Chebli, Sadik Meriziak and Abdulaziz Benyaich after receiving notification from the Supreme Court that the trio's appeal would lead to their being absolved.
* Al-Qaeda played no part in the London bombings last July, instead they were planned on a low budget from information off the Internet, the leaked findings of an inquiry into the blasts revealed. The Observer newspaper, reporting the leak, said the government probe into Britain's worst terrorist attack concluded that it was a "simple and inexpensive" plot dreamt up by four suicide bombers intent on martyrdom.
* At least 400 Al-Qaeda terrorist suspects — double the previous estimates — are at large in Britain, according to police and MI5. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, has said the figure could be as high as 600 if all those thought to have returned from combat training in camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere are included.
* A Spanish judge is expected to charge about 30 people with involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings on Monday, completing a two-year investigation into attacks which left 191 people dead. Judge Juan del Olmo will take steps toward a trial that probably won't start before early next year, judicial sources said.
* In Europe, Big Brother is listening and being allowed to hear more and more. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the terrorist bombings that followed in Madrid and London, authorities across the continent are getting more powers to electronically eavesdrop, and meeting less apparent opposition than President Bush did over his post-9/11 wiretapping program.
Africa
* The Algerian police have dismantled an international terrorist group that infiltrated terrorists into Spain and other European countries. Several dozen of them have moved into Spain with false residence permits, passports, and visas. The group began operations in 2000, and at least twenty persons have been arrested while carrying arms in Algeria with false papers supposedly issued at the Algerian consulates in Madrid and Alicante.
* Nigerian militants whose attacks have shut a quarter of Nigerian oil output threatened on Friday to execute anyone found on previously attacked oil platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell.
* The Tuareg tribes are again in rebellion against the Mali government. The Taureg take their Islam in a decidedly Taureg fashion. Leave the Taureg and al Qaeda together long enough, and you can expect some homegrown Taureg counter-terrorist action. But the Mali government doesn't want to wait, for they know that al Qaeda might get into some local mischief first.
* Gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the desert in southern Algeria on Friday, killing 13 and wounding eight others, the official APS news agency reported. One other person was reported to have disappeared in the attack in the Ghardaia region, 745 miles south of the capital of this North African nation, APS reported, citing local security sources.
* Since 2003, Sudan's Arab Janjaweed militias have terrorized blacks in the Darfur region by burning villages, stealing cattle and livestock and indiscriminately shooting civilians. In recent months, they've exported that campaign of terror to black villages in neighboring Chad, where victims describe attacks virtually identical to those in Darfur.
* Gates of Vienna has a piece titled "The Taliban, Somalia style", while the Chronicle is reporting that the United States is backing Somalian militants who are fighting Islamic extremists.
The Global War
* To hear Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed tell it, Osama bin Laden was a meddling boss whose indiscretion and poor judgment threatened to derail the terrorist attacks. He also saddled Mohammed with at least four would-be hijackers who the ringleader thought were ill-equipped for the job.
* The more than 6,000 terror- and hate-related websites catalogued by the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center in its annual report represent a 20-per-cent increase over last year, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said. "I think there's been a line crossed insofar as the Internet really emerging as a virtual university of terrorism," said Mr. Cooper, associate dean of the centre. "Giving the political leadership, a snapshot of what's going on will help to formulate some of the discussions and bring them up to speed."
* The Pentagon and the State Department have recommended spending about $100 million this year to train and equip foreign militaries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa as part of a new strategy to help partner nations fight terrorism beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said yesterday.
* While the United States struggles to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, a more frightening nightmare is simmering right now in Pakistan, where a weak but nuclear-armed government is being buffeted by radical Islamist influences, terrorism and several bloody insurgencies. Among all the perils the U.S. faces, "Pakistan is the most horrific and the hardest one to do anything about," said Charles D. Furguson, a senior nuclear proliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a naval officer on a nuclear missile submarine.
* Jordanian foreign minister Abd-al-Ilah al-Khatib is scheduled to arrive in Moscow this week for discussions on Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The fight against international terrorism and religious extremism is also expected to be a prominent point of focus.
* Canada has added to its list of terrorist organizations the Tamil Tigers, a group fighting for the autonomy of northeastern Sri Lanka, the National Post reported, saying an official government announcement was expected Monday.
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Top Topics
* A female suicide bomber blew herself up on Friday in front of a mosque in the city of Ordu, Turkey, wounding two people. Violence and confrontations have been escalating the last month between Turkish government forces and Kurdish militants.
* Iranian security forces killed Abdolmalek Rigi, the Sunni militant leader of Jundullah (Soldiers of God), near the Afghan border in Sistan-Baluchistan.
* According to a Seymour Hersh article in the April 17th edition of the New Yorker magazine, the Bush administration is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran that will include the use of nuclear bunker busters. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called the reports "completely nuts" and U.S. officials have denied that any extraordinary planning is taking place in regards to Iran.
* U.S. troops in Sulu are trying to win the hearts and minds of the people in the southern Philippine islands. While training Filipino troops in counterterrorism measures, American soldiers are also building roads, hospitals, schools and other basic infrastructure projects that the island lacks.
Others topics today include: IAEA in Iran; Fatah and Hamas clashes; Israeli strikes in Gaza; Security clampdown in West Bank; al Qaeda sets cites on Israel; Palestinian aid cut; al Qaeda trials in Yemen; Vegitable ambush in Venezuela; Bombings in Columbia; UAV expanding role; Moussaoui trial; Russian-Tajik counterterror exercises; Clashes in Nepal; Violence in Sri Lanka; Protests in Pakistan; Fighting along Pakistani-Afghan border; Pakistan labels BLA terrorist organization; Muslims and Hindus clash in India; Bombings in Bangladesh; Car bombings in southern Afghanistan; Taliban commanders killed; Bomb cache found in Indonesia; Communist rebels killed in Philippines; Mladic to surrender soon; thwarted plots against Italy; al Qaeda role in London attacks; Madrid charges pending; More wiretaps in Europe; Attacks in southern Algeria; and more.
Iran & the Middle East
* IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will be travelling to Iran this week in hopes of securing some concessions from the Iranian government on their nuclear programs. UN inspectors will visit several locations related to Iran's nuclear program, including the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and another facility at Isfahan.
* Asharq Alawsat is reporting that Hamas believes Fatah leaders are planning to recruit armed factions to launch mass protests in an effort to topple the Hamas led Palestinian government, deepening the political rift that continues to grow.
* Retaliating for Qassam rocket fire, Israeli artillery strikes killed a Palestinian police officer in Gaza on Sunday and wounded sixteen others. Islamic Jihad has announced a one week suspension to the rocket attacks on Israel, in an effort to halt IDF artillery fire into Gaza. An hour later the report was denounced.
* Syrian officials are aggressively silencing domestic political opposition while accommodating religious conservatives to shore up support across the country. The security forces have detained human rights workers and opposition leaders, and in some cases their families. They have barred travel abroad for political conferences and shut down a human rights center financed by the European Union. And the government has delivered a stern message to the national media, demanding that it promote - not challenge - the official agenda.
* Israeli intelligence confirmed the arrest of Assam Zinadin, a Palestinian terrorist wanted in a shooting attack in the West Bank a month ago that killed an Israeli father of two. Following an increase in attempted suicide bombings, Israel has implemented more restrictive security measures in the West Bank.
* Israel Defense Forces arrested a female Palestinian in Nablus last week, who was on her way to carry out a suicide bombing.
* According to terrorism expert Olivier Guitta, al Qaeda is recruiting in the Palestinian territories and plan to attack Israel within three years. Guitta notes that "signs of a major destabilization in the Palestinian territories and Israel are all over the wall." The Sunday edition of the Times Online also has an article on al Qaeda recruiting in Gaza.
* A Kuwaiti researcher says that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program with the assistance of Pakistan and other allies, a charge that Riyadh denies. (Hattip: Threatswatch)
* On Friday, an al Qaeda linked Palestinian terrorist was taken into custody in Hizme by Israeli security forces.
* Al Qaeda's Committee in the Arabian Peninsula released a new statement denying the recent arrest of 40 al Qaeda linked terrorists and denied rumors that an al Qaeda website discussion forum was infiltrated and used by authorities against the terrorists.
* According to reports, Iran has successfully tested a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. One U.S. official described it as "a major breakthrough for the Iranians", adding that Iran has "been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."
* Two Turkish security force officers were killed when their vehicle drove over a remote-detonated mine on Saturday in the Kurdish southeastern region of the country. The attack followed the killing of six Kurdish militants in Sirnak, the province bordering Iraq.
* The United States and the European Union have ceased aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, prompting condemnation and warnings that the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse and leaving Palestinians wondering about their future.
* Yemen will soon put 172 al Qaeda linked terrorists on trial in "the coming days", after interrogations are concluded.
* On Friday, Israeli aircraft struck a vehicle with four missiles in Rafah, killing six people, including three Hamas members and a key bombmaker. In response, Hamas vowed to retaliate. On Saturday, a separate airstrike killed six Palestinian terrorists at a Fatah training camp in Gaza.
America Domestic Security & the Americas
* Dadmanly writes about the press story claiming President Bush gave the go-ahead for a leak of classified material, when in reality the Bush Administration was counteracting the falsehoods in Joe Wilson's report. Dadmanly has a good roundup of links on the story as well.
* Supporters of President Hugo Chavez threw eggs, fruit and vegetables at the U.S. ambassador's car Friday, and a group of motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles, a U.S. Embassy official said. No one was hurt. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as the car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded and pelted.
* A woman and her two daughters were reported kidnapped in northeastern Venezuela on the same day that three Canadian brothers and their driver were cremated after being abducted and murdered, local media said. The kidnapping came as protests raged in Caracas over a spate of kidnappings, including the abduction and murder of three Canadian boys and their driver, who were cremated on Thursday.
* Bombs exploded on two buses in a working class district of Colombia's capital Thursday, injuring two dozen passengers, including three children with burns over half their body, officials said. Authorities said the near simultaneous blasts in southern Bogota were likely the work of leftist rebels.
* Unmanned aerial vehicles have soared the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq for years, spotting enemy encampments, protecting military bases, and even launching missile attacks against suspected terrorists. Now UAVs may be landing in the United States. A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday heard testimony from police agencies that envision using UAVs for everything from border security to domestic surveillance high above American cities.
* The judge in the death-penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui said Friday she would open much of the voluminous record in the case to families of Sept. 11 victims pursuing negligence suits against American Airlines and United Airlines.
* In Trinidad, the leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Imam Yasin Abu Bakr will reappear in court on Monday when a date for his retrial on a charge of conspiracy to murder is expected to be fixed.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
* Reports of a Russian police commando raid in Adygeya back on March 31st were made public this weekend, in which dozens of Muslims were detained.
* Russia and Tajikistan held joint counterterrorism exercises last week at a Russian military base near the Tajik-Afghan border.
* Russian authorities detained a suspected terrorist in the Ingushetia city of Nazran on Sunday, and confiscated a grenade and 900g of plastic explosives.
* A police officer and two family members were gunned down in the Chechen village of Sernovodsk in the Sunzha district on Sunday.
* The USS Porter (DDG 78) has been deployed in Georgia the last week holding tactical training exercises with the Georgian Navy and a Turkish vessel.
Afghanistan & Southern Asia
* Hundreds more protesters were arrested in Nepal on the second day of a general strike calling for King Gyanendra to restore democracy as demonstrations left two dozen injured. "Some 200 protesters from the Nepali Congress Party and more than 150 from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) have been arrested and 12 injured during protests," said Nepali Congress Party secretary Shovarkar Parajuli. He vowed the opposition-party sponsored protests, which have seen more than 750 people officially detained since Tuesday, would go on.
* Communist rebels bombed government buildings and raided security bases in a southern Nepal town, taking hostages and engaging police in gunbattles that left 13 people dead, officials said today. Meanwhile, an army helicopter gunship crashed while responding to the attack, killing 10 soldiers on board.
* In Nepal, Security forces fired on anti-monarch demonstrators in separate marches Saturday, killing one and wounding five as the government escalated its crackdown on those seeking a return of democracy. Authorities said they would extend a dawn-to-dusk curfew in the capital to a second day Sunday after opposition parties announced plans to hold a rally. The curfew will be imposed from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Katmandu and its surrounding areas, and gives security forces orders to shoot any violators, a notice on the state-run Nepal Television said. On Saturday, the government had already imposed a curfew in Katmandu and its suburbs, saying it was necessary to ensure the safety of people and property.
* At least 19 persons, including two civilians, were killed and nearly three dozen others were injured in fierce Maoist attacks in the headquarters of Rupandehi and Kapilvastu districts, south-western Nepal, on Friday night. A local resident of Butwal in Rupandehi district, three security personnel – two Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers and a policeman – and 14 Maoists were killed when hundreds of Maoists simultaneously attacked the security bases and government installations in Butwal and Parasi Bazaar in Nawalparasi district at around 9:00 p.m., according to security sources.
* Security forces fired at anti-monarchy demonstrators in eastern Nepal on Sunday, killing at least one man, as the main opposition parties and communist rebels said a nationwide general strike and protests would continue indefinitely. The death in Banepa, 20 miles east of the capital, was the third in ongoing demonstrations to pressure King Gyanendra to give up absolute rule.
* The risk of Sri Lanka returning to full-scale hostilities despite a four-year-long ceasefire with Tamil rebels is stunting economic growth and investment, the Asian Development Bank said. Political negotiations between Colombo and Tamil Tiger rebels remain on hold since April 2003.
* A pro-Tamil Tiger activist and two police guards were shot dead in Sri Lanka's volatile east as Norway's top peace envoys left the island following a new bid to salvage a truce, police said. Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, who spearheaded the Tamil Resurgence Movement, a known front organisation of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was gunned down in the town of Trincomalee, police said.
* Thousands of activists from an outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group rallied in Pakistan's capital, calling for the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in the country and across the world. Activists of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) openly distributed pamphlets preaching jihad, or holy war, and hatred against minority Shiites in Islamabad as their leaders delivered fiery speeches to a crowd of around 5,000 late on Thursday.
* Pakistani authorities said on Thursday that up to 40 militants were killed by security forces in clashes a day earlier in a remote tribal region near the Afghanistan border. After a major operation on Wednesday in North Waziristan tribal district, the military had said at least 16 militants were killed and 19 captured.
* Although the Pakistani government vowed to reform the country's 13,000 madrassas or Islamic seminaries, little has actually changed. After the London bombings in July, when it was confirmed that two of the suicide bombers had travelled to Pakistan before the attacks and one of them was also shown to have visited a Pakistani madrassa, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf said that all foreign students in the madrassas, some 1,400 of them, had to leave the country by the end of 2005. Months after the pronouncement, and after fierce opposition from Pakistan's religious parties, the reality on the ground is different.
* Pakistan has branded an underground militant group operating in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan a "terrorist" organisation. "The federal government has declared Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) as terrorist organisation over its involvement in sabotage and subversive activities," provincial police chief, Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub, told AFP Sunday. He said Baluchistan police had arrested an unspecified number of militants who confessed they had been receiving money and weapons from the group for attacks on government installations. He said now the group was officially a terrorist organisation, its name could not appear in the Pakistani media.
* Activists of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) vowed to establish a global caliphate, beginning with Pakistan. In a rally attended by thousands of activists of the banned group to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on Friday, leaders of the SSP called for an Islamic theocracy in Pakistan.
* In India, two people were killed and several injured on Thursday when groups of Hindus and Muslims clashed over prayers at a Hindu temple, officials said. The rioting erupted in a crowded neighbourhood of Aligarh town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after Muslims objected to the use of loudspeakers overnight by Hindus, who were celebrating the birthday of the Hindu god-king, Rama.
* Uttar Pradesh police's Special Task Force and Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday nabbed a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist from Ateria Railway station in Sitapur district in a joint operation.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Four people were killed and 25 wounded when dozens of homemade bombs exploded in clashes between farmers and Bangladesh's ruling party members over power supplies, according to police reports. More than 5,000 farmers marched in the northern town of Shibganj late Thursday where they faced off with supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), an area police chief said.
* Feuding Bangladesh political parties have agreed in principle to hold talks over electoral reform proposals made by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. But the deal hit an immediate hurdle when the opposition asked the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to exclude its coalition partner, Jamaat-e-Islami party, from the talks.
* A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near British troops in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing himself and possibly wounding British troops, a police chief said. The attacker blew himself up outside a coalition base in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Saber said.
* A suicide car bomb outside a NATO military base in a western Afghan city Saturday killed two Afghans and wounded seven others — the second such attack on a foreign military base in as many days. The explosions highlighted the increasing risk to foreign forces as they expand into new areas across Afghanistan.
* Two suicide attackers exploded car bombs in separate assaults on US and Afghan forces yesterday, slightly wounding two US military members and one US civilian contractor, officials said. The bombings occurred around 11:30 a.m. in the southern province of Helmand, a hub of Afghanistan's drug trade and Taliban rebellion.
* Coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander during an offensive in southern Afghanistan, the US military said. The commander 'was directly tied to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks that killed and crippled multiple Afghans since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted,' the statement said.
* Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other Sunday in Afghanistan's main southern city, wounding 11 people, officials said.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS) released their annual threat report that noted al Qaeda sympathizers living in the nation but the likelihood of an attack remained low. New Zealand's police department just received 97 recruits from Britain, who will join their police force after 11-weeks of training.
* Two Indonesian terrorists tied to Jemaah Islamiyah leader Noordin Mohammed Top, have confessed to surveying Japanese targets in Indonesia as part of an effort to target interests of the United States and allies.
* Australian Ministers face a grilling this week over kickbacks in the Iraq oil for food scandal. Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile will appear on Monday before a board of inquiry.
* Malaysia came out with praise for the peace talks taking place between the Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
* Syrian born Ahmad al-Hamwi has been living in Australia since 1996, despite ties to al Qaeda and plots against the United States dating back to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
* Indonesian authorities found a cache of 40 homemade bombs in a cemetery on Suwalesi island on Sunday, the scene of frequent confrontations between Muslims and Christians.
* Two Communist NPA rebels were killed in fighting with Filipino government troops this weekend after a raid on an NPA safehouse in Tigacalaan village. Two other militants were captured.
* John Ritch, head of the World Nuclear Association, says that North Korean claims of having nuclear weapons should not be taken seriously, and much like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, North Korea may be exaggerating their capabilities.
Europe
* An Egyptian accused of helping plan the Madrid train bombings in 2004 indoctrinated young people in Spain and advocated martyrdom, an Italian investigator told a court on Friday. Former army member Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," sat quietly inside a cage in the Milan court as the investigator accused him of advocating jihad and cheering the execution of American hostage Nick Berg in Iraq. "Rabei's activity in Spain was to indoctrinate the young people," Bruno Megale, a Milan anti-terrorist investigator, told the court.
* A Bosnian weekly said on Thursday top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic told U.N. chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte he would surrender soon, in a phone call placed by the Serbian prime minister from his office. Slobodna Bosna quoted an unnamed source close to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as saying the premier called Mladic on March 29 when his guest del Ponte asked him how he could be so sure of his promise to deliver him to the Hague tribunal within weeks.
* A conference of 150 Muslim leaders and imams from more than 40 European countries opened on Friday in the Austrian capital, Vienna. The three-day gathering will focus on issues affecting the Muslim communities in Europe, such as the creation of new jobs and the role of women. A key goal will be to hammer out an identity for European Muslims that preserves their traditions while integrating with Western political and social values.
* The Croatian authorities have denied allegations in a new Amnesty International report that America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used its airports to transport terror suspects seized in extra-judicial abductions. The London-based rights group said in a report released on Wednesday that the airport in the Adriatic resort town of Dubrovnik was one of the 46 airports in 30 countries that CIA used for its clandestine operations.
* In The Bullpen links to a story saying "Italian authorities have thwarted planned terrorist attacks against a church in Bologna and Milan's subway, the Interior Minister said Thursday." Chad writes "the Italian thwarting of an attack appears to have a Moroccan connection."
* Spain's High Court has said overnight that it had quashed jail terms handed down to three of 18 Al-Qaeda operatives, including the Syrian head of a Spanish-based cell found to have helped to organise the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. According to court sources, the High Court freed Driss Chebli, Sadik Meriziak and Abdulaziz Benyaich after receiving notification from the Supreme Court that the trio's appeal would lead to their being absolved.
* Al-Qaeda played no part in the London bombings last July, instead they were planned on a low budget from information off the Internet, the leaked findings of an inquiry into the blasts revealed. The Observer newspaper, reporting the leak, said the government probe into Britain's worst terrorist attack concluded that it was a "simple and inexpensive" plot dreamt up by four suicide bombers intent on martyrdom.
* At least 400 Al-Qaeda terrorist suspects — double the previous estimates — are at large in Britain, according to police and MI5. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, has said the figure could be as high as 600 if all those thought to have returned from combat training in camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere are included.
* A Spanish judge is expected to charge about 30 people with involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings on Monday, completing a two-year investigation into attacks which left 191 people dead. Judge Juan del Olmo will take steps toward a trial that probably won't start before early next year, judicial sources said.
* In Europe, Big Brother is listening and being allowed to hear more and more. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the terrorist bombings that followed in Madrid and London, authorities across the continent are getting more powers to electronically eavesdrop, and meeting less apparent opposition than President Bush did over his post-9/11 wiretapping program.
Africa
* The Algerian police have dismantled an international terrorist group that infiltrated terrorists into Spain and other European countries. Several dozen of them have moved into Spain with false residence permits, passports, and visas. The group began operations in 2000, and at least twenty persons have been arrested while carrying arms in Algeria with false papers supposedly issued at the Algerian consulates in Madrid and Alicante.
* Nigerian militants whose attacks have shut a quarter of Nigerian oil output threatened on Friday to execute anyone found on previously attacked oil platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell.
* The Tuareg tribes are again in rebellion against the Mali government. The Taureg take their Islam in a decidedly Taureg fashion. Leave the Taureg and al Qaeda together long enough, and you can expect some homegrown Taureg counter-terrorist action. But the Mali government doesn't want to wait, for they know that al Qaeda might get into some local mischief first.
* Gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the desert in southern Algeria on Friday, killing 13 and wounding eight others, the official APS news agency reported. One other person was reported to have disappeared in the attack in the Ghardaia region, 745 miles south of the capital of this North African nation, APS reported, citing local security sources.
* Since 2003, Sudan's Arab Janjaweed militias have terrorized blacks in the Darfur region by burning villages, stealing cattle and livestock and indiscriminately shooting civilians. In recent months, they've exported that campaign of terror to black villages in neighboring Chad, where victims describe attacks virtually identical to those in Darfur.
* Gates of Vienna has a piece titled "The Taliban, Somalia style", while the Chronicle is reporting that the United States is backing Somalian militants who are fighting Islamic extremists.
The Global War
* To hear Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed tell it, Osama bin Laden was a meddling boss whose indiscretion and poor judgment threatened to derail the terrorist attacks. He also saddled Mohammed with at least four would-be hijackers who the ringleader thought were ill-equipped for the job.
* The more than 6,000 terror- and hate-related websites catalogued by the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center in its annual report represent a 20-per-cent increase over last year, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said. "I think there's been a line crossed insofar as the Internet really emerging as a virtual university of terrorism," said Mr. Cooper, associate dean of the centre. "Giving the political leadership, a snapshot of what's going on will help to formulate some of the discussions and bring them up to speed."
* The Pentagon and the State Department have recommended spending about $100 million this year to train and equip foreign militaries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa as part of a new strategy to help partner nations fight terrorism beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said yesterday.
* While the United States struggles to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, a more frightening nightmare is simmering right now in Pakistan, where a weak but nuclear-armed government is being buffeted by radical Islamist influences, terrorism and several bloody insurgencies. Among all the perils the U.S. faces, "Pakistan is the most horrific and the hardest one to do anything about," said Charles D. Furguson, a senior nuclear proliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a naval officer on a nuclear missile submarine.
* Jordanian foreign minister Abd-al-Ilah al-Khatib is scheduled to arrive in Moscow this week for discussions on Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The fight against international terrorism and religious extremism is also expected to be a prominent point of focus.
* Canada has added to its list of terrorist organizations the Tamil Tigers, a group fighting for the autonomy of northeastern Sri Lanka, the National Post reported, saying an official government announcement was expected Monday.
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