Al Qaeda Seeking Revenge against Morocco – Anti Terrorism Expert

Source: Al awsat

06/01/2011

By Latifa al Arousni

Rabat, Asharq Al-Awsat – Moroccan political analyst Dr. Mohamed Darif, who specializes in studying Islamist groups, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities have dismantled dozens of terrorist cells since 2002 thanks to the pre-emptive security approach pursued by Morocco which had made it possible for the Moroccan authorities to foil a large number of these terrorist cells' plans.

Dr. Darif added that the continuous news in Morocco of terrorist plans being foiled and terrorist cells being dismantled can be explained by the logistical and technical abilities developed by the Moroccan security services, which has allowed Rabat to monitor the activities of such groups.

Answering a question about some people's suspicions about why so many terrorist cells have been uncovered in Morocco - with Rabat claiming to have dismantled as many as 70 terrorist cells since 2002 - Dr. Darif told Asharq Al-Awsat that the skeptics need only ask themselves one question, and that is: Is Morocco truly being targeted by Al Qaeda?"

Dr. Darif stressed that there are a number of reasons why Morocco would be targeted by Al Qaeda to this extent, not least of which is that Morocco is one of the few countries that has announced its full commitment to the global war on terror. Darif added that the ruler of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, was visiting Mauritania when 9/11 occured, however he cut short this visit and returned to Morocco where he announced that Rabat was fully committed to waging war against terrorism.

Dr. Mohamed Darif stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that ever since this time, Al Qaeda has had a vendetta against Morocco. He also added that we should not forget that one of Al Qaeda's leading commanders, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, was arrested by the Moroccan authorities in December 2001 and later handed over to Syria. Morocco was also known to have taken part in the controversial US "extraordinary rendition" program, with Guantanamo Bay detainees being rendered to Morocco, including senior member of Al Qaeda Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who is accused of being a "key facilitator" for the 9/11 attacks, as well as former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who has subsequently spoken about the torture he suffered there.

Dr. Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that some people have said that the 16 May 2003 Casablanca bombings which resulted in the deaths of 45 people were planned by Al Qaeda – and carried out by their affiliate organization Salafia Jihadia – in retaliation for Moroccan security cooperation with the West, particularly the USA.

Further evidence of Morocco's commitment to combating terrorism, according to Darif, can be seen in the case of the two Moroccan embassy staff who were abducted in Iraq in 2005. Rabat completely refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda for their release, and in fact, the Moroccan Senior Council of Clerics which is headed by King Mohamed VI met [at this time] and issued a statement condemning Al Qaeda as an organization that has nothing to do with Islam.

Darif also indicated that when the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat changed its name to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007, it issued a statement threatening violence against Morocco if any officials appeared on satellite television to condemn them.

Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities' success in dismantling this huge number of terrorist cells is, most of all, due to the authorities' awareness that their country is being targeted, and has therefore sought to develop strong relations with security apparatus in western countries and the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan.

Darif also indicated that the majority of those arrested in Morocco do not belong to any single organization, for the jihadist salafist ideology is prevalent throughout Morocco. As a result of this, the Salafist jihadists who have been arrested by Morocco are of different trends, and vary in their attitudes towards the authorities which is something that has made it even more difficult for the Moroccan authorities to open a dialogue with them.

Darif added that the majority of cells that have been dismantled since 2005, such as al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, the Ansar al-Mahdi group, al-Murabatoon al-Judud, Fatah al-Andulus, and others, were also accused of trying to recruit fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan.

StandWithUs BART ads to take aim at ‘Palestinian terrorism’

Source: Jweekly

The pro-Israel national organization StandWithUs announced Jan. 6 that it is launching a new ad campaign, placing posters in six BART stations.

The posters have received BART approval and will go up in the Berkeley, 12th Street/Oakland, MacArthur, Civic Center, Balboa Park and Embarcadero BART stations starting Jan. 17, a StandWitUs spokesperson said.

Dubbed "Say Yes to Peace," the campaign has been launched, organizers said, to counter a recent poster campaign co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, a group often critical of Israel. Those posters, still on display at three BART stations (according to the StandWithUs release), depicted Palestinian and Israel fathers with their young children, along with the headings "Be on our side: We are on the side of peace and justice" and "End U.S. military aid to Israel."

The StandWithUs posters feature the image of a masked terrorist with the heading "Stop Palestinian Terrorism." Below that, there is a photo of Palestinian and Israeli children at an annual Palestinian-Israeli children's soccer game, and the heading "Teach Peace" with the address for a new website.

"The anti-Israel ad confuses and deceives the public," Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs CEO, said in the press release. "It declares it represents the side of ‘peace and justice' and shows happy pictures of an Israeli father and a Palestinian father with their little sons. These images and words appeal to all people of good will. But the real message is that Israel is the obstacle to peace and that the U.S. should stop all financial assistance to Israel. The ad tries to hide the real obstacles-Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, and decades of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate education. We cannot let this message, with its deceptive, velvet-gloved rhetoric, influence unsuspecting commuters who may not know the facts. Our ads will provide the needed facts."

Last month, StandWithUs allied with other pro-Israel groups to persuade Seattle's Metro Transit to reject proposed bus ads that StandWithUs viewed as anti-Israel.

Alexandria attack is plain terrorism

Source: Tehran times
Wednesday, January 5, 2011

By Linda S. Heard

I was woken on New Year's morning by a flurry of phone calls from worried friends and neighbors. A terrorist bomb had struck Coptic worshippers celebrating mass at a church in the poor Alexandrian suburb of Baqoos, killing 21, wounding more than 80 and leaving a legacy of wrecked vehicles on the street.

Everyone I've spoken to are shocked, saddened and dismayed at this turn of events, which threatens a rift between Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities.

Ominously, in reaction to the attack, young Coptic youth entered a nearby mosque, threw out books and other items and clashed with riot police. Their fury is understandable but hitting out against Muslims is playing right into the hands of the crime's perpetrators.

On Saturday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a rare appearance on television to calm the nation and call for unity. He described the attack as “alien to us”, promised to “cut the head off the snake” and indicated that there were “foreign hands” behind the bombing. “All of Egypt is targeted. This blind terrorism does not differentiate between Copts and Muslims,” he said.

Initial reports from Egyptian officials put the explosion down to a car bomb, as witnesses saw a car being parked outside the church and the driver and another man walking away seconds before the blast, but that was later replaced by the theory that a suicide bomber may have been responsible for the devastation. The truth is as yet unknown.

Fingers are now pointing at the Islamic State of Iraq which last November threatened attacks on Egyptian Copts. This group has claimed responsibility for Baghdad bombings in January, April, June and August 2010 as well as for the attack on a Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad on October 31st. But unlike many, I do not believe this particular incident has the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.

High-profile targets

For one thing, Al-Qaeda and its offshoot the Islamic State of Iraq usually carries out simultaneous attacks.

For another, Al-Qaeda and its clones tend towards high-profile targets for maximum effect and media coverage. When there are so many beautiful, ancient Coptic churches in the Old City of Cairo that attract camera-clicking foreign tourists, it seems strange that this organization would choose a relatively unknown church in a deprived area of Alexandria.

Moreover, Iraqis and other foreigners in Egypt are tracked closely by the Egyptian secret police.

As someone who has been living in Egypt for the past six years — three of those in Alexandria — I can't help taking this incident very personally. The question uppermost in my mind is whether the violence will stop here or is there more to come?

I can honestly say that in all my years in Egypt I have never come across any hint of sectarian hatred and, in fact, Muslims and Christians here are indistinguishable in most cases. Sometimes you can tell who's who by a person's name, but not always.

In Alexandria, Copts and Muslims are mixed. They live in the same apartment blocks, socialize with one another, and don't discriminate on the basis of religion. I have never heard any of my Muslim friends say, “Oh, those Copts...” or vice versa.

Muslims here know that the Coptic minority is as Egyptian as they are. Historians might say even more so as they are considered the direct descendents of Ancient Egyptians who embraced Christianity.

No precedent

Of course, there have been violent clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians, mostly over Coptic women who convert to Islam and later return to the church, land disputes or because of difficulties Christians face in getting permits to build new churches, but nothing involving car bombs or suicide bombers.

A Muslim man who attacked three churches in Alexandria in 2006 was judged to be mentally unstable. In March, young assailants threw fire bombs at a Coptic centre in Marsuh Matruh because of a fence that had been built around it.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say this wicked act was carried out either by local religious fanatics or individuals with an axe to grind against the Coptic community or by foreign agents acting on behalf of a country whose interests lie in seeing Egypt destabilized and fragmented in a similar fashion to Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan. There are some foreign elements that would like Egypt to break out into civil war as a prelude to its division into a Muslim state and a Coptic state.

The only thing for certain is that whoever is behind this atrocity is evil incarnate. The Egyptian government needs to be transparent and determined to bring the culprits to justice, Alexandria's Copts should eschew revenge and the city's Muslims must do everything they can to show solidarity with their Coptic brethren. Everyone must work together to ensure that, this time, the terrorist scum doesn't win.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com.

(Source: Gulf News)

Photo: People express their anger on Saturday as the bodies of victims are carried into ambulances at the Coptic Orthodox church in Alexandria. (Reuters photo)

Egypt terrorism expert: Church bombing evidence points to Qaeda in Iraq

Source: ahram

A noted Egyptian expert on terrorism tells Ahram Online the evidence indicates that random Al-Qaeda entities crossing over from Iraq to Arab North Africa are the most likely culprits in the Alexandria church bombing

Ahmed Eleiba , Tuesday 4 Jan 2011

Following mixed reports on the possible source of the church attack in Alexandria on New Year's eve, Major General Mohamed Megahed, an Egyptian expert on international terrorism and deputy director of the National Center for Middle East Studies, said that the available information indicates a strong possibility that foreign entities are involved in the church attacks, just as President Hosni Mubarak had pointed out in his speech on Saturday.

In an an interview with Ahram Online, Megahed said that although the available information still needs further verification and confirmation, the Ministry of Interior is currently looking for 15 suspected foreign elements that are believed to have entered Egypt through its eastern borders from Iraq en route to the Maghreb countries. Megahed added that investigations reveal the presence of random elements related to Al-Qaeda.

Maj. Gen. Megahed said that the attackers are believed to have been of North and sub-Sahran African origin, who have been receiving training in Iraq, under Al-Qaeda's Iraq faction. He noted that the Al-Qaeda faction in Iraq had previously made clear through its website, Shemoukh Al-Islam, or 'Glory of Islam', that they will be targeting the Two Saints Church and several other Egyptian churches. The declaration was also supported by other factions in the Maghreb countries. He insisted however that there were no Al-Qaeda branches, nor any of its dormant cells, operating inside Egypt.

Al-Qaeda, which is now beseiged in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq, is believed to have committed the attack as a means of asserting its presence, and proving its continued ability to penetrate a strongly secured state. Megahed said. He pointed out that it was common practice for the group to conduct small and medium scale attacks to generate media attention.

Details of who might have been behind the bombing on the Two Saints Church were initially confused. Mixed reports emerged due to the absence of license plates on a car near the bombing, seemingly indicating that the car itself may have been the source of the explosion. Evidence later confirmed that the car was not in fact the source, and details of the case have since begun to clarify, the expert said.

General Sameh Seif, who is supervising the investigation, told Ahram Online that it is currently believed that one, or several, suicide bombers were responsible for the explosion. Thirteen cars present at the scene of the attack are being investigated as possible transport vehicles used by the attackers. Security personnel present at the time of the attack are also being interrogated. Forensic reports of the 18 bodies found at the scene of the attack have not revealed any details regarding the identity of the offenders, and no DNA maps are available, he said.

Source:Strategy page
January 6, 2011: It is indeed a grim irony that while the Pakistan government has yet to execute anyone under its controversial blasphemy (against Islam) laws, enacted three decades ago, more than thirty alleged blasphemers have been killed in this period -- lynched by angry mobs. The assassination of Punjab Governor and media tycoon Salman Taseer in Islamabad, by his own security man on January 4, 2011, may have stunned all Pakistanis but would have surprised none in the international community. Such is the extent to which fundamentalism has permeated the population of Pakistan. The assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a member of the Elite Force of the Punjab Police, quietly threw down his weapon and surrendered after firing 26 bullets into Taseer. Qadri told his interrogators later that he killed Taseer because the Governor had called the blasphemy law “a black law” and had been campaigning for its repeal. Significantly, Qadri is from the Barelvi sect, which is considered more tolerant than sects like Deobandis, Wahabis and Salafis. Taseer was a prominent leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and considered quite close to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistani fundamentalists have been vociferous in their criticism of Taseer and even gave a "withdraw opposition (to the blasphemy law) or else" threat to another PPP politician and former minister Sherry Rehman. The fundamentalists’ deadline for Rehman is January 6, 2011. Rahman has been assigned a large government security detail, and the men who work these details are being screened for murderous tendencies.

The most surprising aspect of this is that several governments have come and gone in Pakistan since the blasphemy law was passed, but no political leader has ever been able to muster enough courage to repeal Section 295C of Pakistan’s Penal Code. The Section stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."

Even General Pervez Musharraf, who has the distinction of being Pakistan’s second longest-serving President after Gen Zia, could not dare to repeal this law at the peak of his authority and popularity. Right from Benazir Bhutto to Zardari, every single Pakistani leader has chosen to retain the status quot. No Pakistani leader ever considered it worthwhile to rock the Mullahs’ boat. Besides, every Pakistani President/Prime Minister has been snowed under by multiple problems of far graver importance than the blasphemy law. A weak President like Zardari, who is leading a minority coalition government, can hardly be expected to do what should have been done long ago. – Rajeev Sharma

Hijack attempt foiled aboard Turkish Air flight

source:CNN
By the CNN Wire Staff

January 6, 2011 -- Updated 0425 GMT (1225 HKT)

A passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight from Oslo to Istanbul tried to hijack a plane similar to the one pictured.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Passenger claiming to have a bomb approached the cockpit, Turkish media report
• He allegedly urged the captain to turn the plane around and head back to Norway
• Two passengers tackled the man, who suffers a mental illness, the news agency says
• Airport operations in Istanbul were not disrupted

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- A man claiming to have a bomb tried to enter the cockpit of a Turkish Airlines plane about to land in Istanbul, Turkey, but was tackled by passengers and taken into custody, Turkish media reported Wednesday.
The man, identified as 40-year-old Cuma Yasar, was wearing a snowmask as he approached the cockpit during the descent of the Boeing 737-800 from Oslo, Norway, into Ataturk International Airport, the state news agency Anadolu said.
He threatened to blow up a bomb he said he was holding, and urged the captain to fly back to Oslo, the news agency reported.
But passengers Firat Faysal Ali and Dag Gjerstad tackled the man, the agency reported. Airport police took him into custody after the plane landed but found no explosives on him, it said.
But they did find an identification card for the handicapped on Yasar, who suffers a mental illness, it added.

Airport operations were not disrupted, an operations supervisor at the airport told CNN.

Extremists trying to recruit from schools: Malaysia

Source: Zee news

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has said that Islamic, Tamil and Sikh militant groups were seeking to recruit from schools and universities in the country, but intelligence agencies were keeping a close watch on such activities.

Expressing concern that students were being exposed to militant ideology, the nation's Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the militant groups active in the country included Islamist extremist, Tamil and Sikh separatists.

But Hussein said there was no "immediate threat" that these leanings could lead to terrorism.

"The situation is very much under control and a close watch is being kept on these activities," he said.

The minister said that people of extremist ideology were not confined to the campuses but also were present within the society, Star newspaper said today.

"Nevertheless, we do not take things for granted. Our intelligence personnel are constantly monitoring and conducting surveillance on these groups and their activities.”

"If they are found to pose a threat to national security, we will not hesitate to take action as had been done in several instances," he said after receiving International Organisation of Migration (IOM) director-general William Lacy Swing at his office here yesterday.

Hishammuddin said the authorities had made several arrests of locals and foreigners who are members of militant groups.

The paper said he declined to give details. Hishammuddin said Malaysia's intelligence agency was working closely with its regional and international counterparts, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States as well as intelligence outfits in Britain, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

Another daily, the New Straits Times, quoted the minister as saying that though the situation was under control and did not affect the country's security nor pose an immediate threat, "we cannot be nonchalant about it”.

PTI

Explosion rocks French embassy in Mali

Source: MSN

2 Malians injured; building sustains minor damage

BAMAKO, Mali — An unidentified assailant hurled a homemade bomb and fired several gunshots at the French embassy in Mali's capital late Wednesday, wounding two Malian citizens. The blast from the explosive device appeared to be small, however, and caused only minor damage to an outer gate of the building.

Hammadoun Billal Traore, a police officer in Bamako, said the explosive was a small gas cylinder. He said the attacker lit it and threw it toward an entrance to the embassy. The man then fired off several shots with a pistol before being detained by security forces.

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said she had no information about possible motives and said at least one Malian staffer at the embassy was "very lightly" injured.

It was not immediately clear whether the attack was terror-related. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb operates in the former French colony and has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping last year of five French citizens and two others who worked at a French-owned uranium mine in neighboring Niger. AQIM is believed to have taken the seven across the desert into neighboring Mali.

The main damage from Wednesday's explosion was a pair of black burn marks on a gray sliding metal door used by vehicles to enter the embassy from one of Bamako's primary thoroughfares. The gate still functioned, and a silver, diplomatic four-wheel-drive vehicle exited the embassy later Wednesday night.

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One of the burn marks was about one yard high on the gate. The other, slightly smaller, was on the gate and a corner wall.

About two dozen Malian security forces were dispatched to the embassy after the explosion, but all but one left soon afterward.

Two private Malian security guards who went to the scene afterward also said one suspect had been detained — a pale-skinned man with small cuts on his head. Traore said the man was of North African origin.

The security guards said the attacker fired shots toward the embassy, and two small pock marks were visible in the glass of sentry post and half a dozen rounds appeared to have hit a nearby tree. Security forces did not return fire, they said, but one person was wounded by a gunshot, the other was burned by the blast.

The security guards, employed by a private company hired to protect the embassy, declined to be named.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in Algeria that merged with al-Qaida in 2006. It has since spread through the Sahara and the arid Sahel region, and in recent years has increasingly been targeting French interests.

Late last year, France rejected a reported demand from al-Qaida to negotiate with Osama bin Laden over the fate of five French hostages seized in Niger. The five, as well as two people from Togo and Madagascar, were kidnapped Sept. 16 as they slept in the Niger uranium mining town of Arlit.

AQIM, which is believed to have about 400 fighters active from Niger to Mauritania, conducts the bulk of its attacks — bombings or ambushes — in Algeria.

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP Exclusive: Building a network to hit militants

Source: fox news

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has ramped up its secret war on terror groups with a new military targeting center to oversee the growing use of special operations strikes against suspected militants in hot spots around the world, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the new center would be a significant step in streamlining targeting operations previously scattered among U.S. and battlefields abroad and giving elite military officials closer access to Washington decision-makers and counterterror experts, the officials said.

The center aims to speed the sharing of information and shorten the time between targeting and military action, said two current and two former U.S. officials briefed on the project. Those officials and others insisted on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified matters.

The creation of the center comes as part of the administration's increasing reliance on clandestine and covert action to hunt terror suspects as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have tested the country's patience and pocketbook. The White House has more than doubled the numbers of special operations forces in Afghanistan alone, as well as doubling the CIA's use of missile strikes from unmanned drones in Pakistan and expanding counterterror operations in Yemen.

JSOC's decision-making process in counterterror operations had previously been spread between special operations officials at Pope Air Force base in North Carolina, top officials at the Pentagon and commanders on the battlefield.

Now located at a classified address a short drive from the Pentagon, the center is staffed with at least 100 counterterror experts fusing the military's special operations elite with analysts, intelligence and law enforcement officials from the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies, the U.S. officials said.

The new center is similar in concept to the civilian National Counterterrorism Center, which was developed in 2004 as a wide-scope defensive bulwark in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to share intelligence and track terrorist threats.

But the new military center focuses instead on the offensive end of counterterrorism, tracking and targeting terrorist threats that have surfaced in recent years from Pakistan to Yemen and Somalia and other hot zones. Its targeting advice will largely direct elite special operations forces in both commando raids and missile strikes overseas.

The data also could be used at times to advise domestic law enforcement in dealing with suspected terrorists inside the U.S., the officials said. But the civilian authorities would have no role in "kill or capture" operations targeting militant suspects abroad.

The center is similar to several other so-called military intelligence "fusion" centers already operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those installations were designed to put special operations officials in the same room with intelligence professionals and analysts, allowing U.S. forces to shave the time between finding and tracking a target, and deciding how to respond.

At the heart of the new center's analysis is a cloud-computing network tied into all elements of U.S. national security, from the eavesdropping capabilities of the National Security Agency to Homeland Security's border-monitoring databases. The computer is designed to sift through masses of information to track militant suspects across the globe, said two U.S. officials familiar with the system.

Several military officials said the center is the brainchild of JSOC's current commander, Vice Adm. Bill McRaven, who patterned it on the success of a military system called "counter-network," which uses drone, satellite and human intelligence to drive operations on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While directly run by JSOC, the center's staff is overseen by the Pentagon, while congressional committees have been briefed on its operations, officials said.

Locating the center in Washington has the advantage of tying in special operations forces officials to the NSA's electronic data and to the White House's decision-making arm, the National Security Council, said Brookings Institute's Michael O'Hanlon. "There's ready access to the NSC for face to face decision-making," he said.

O'Hanlon, who specializes in national security and defense policy, predicts positive U.S. public reaction to the military's expanding use of special operations forces in counterterrorism strategy. "After spending a trillion dollars on two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, with so far questionable result, people will say, heck yeah. This is the only tool of foreign policy where we can see immediate, positive results," he said.

Officials said Afghanistan has been a proving ground for both the military's growing use of special operations forces in raids against militants and in honing its "counter-network" system.

Over the past year, the numbers of special operations forces and commando raids against militants have surged in Afghanistan. Two strike forces have grown to 12, according to an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

"We've gone from 30-35 targeted operations a month in June 2009 now to about 1,000 a month," said NATO spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky. "More than 80 percent result in capture, and more than 80 percent of the time we capture a targeted individual or someone with a direct connection."

The raids have often come at night, when civilians are indoors and U.S. night vision equipment gives the American raiders the advantage in what military officials often describe as finding, fixing and finishing a target. The raids are aimed at capturing or killing militants, but despite the military's emphasis on capturing suspects to bolster intelligence on the enemy, the killings have often attracted the most attention.

The night raids have been a source of constant complaint by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who calls them a violation of Afghan sovereignty. U.S. officials insist the night raids always have a small team of Afghan security forces in the lead. Gen. David Petraeus, the overall Afghan commander, now briefs Karzai on the raids almost weekly to reassure him, according to a senior U.S. official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss high-level conversations.

The emphasis on capturing militants and quickly sifting through evidence left at their capture scene was developed under now-retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal. He commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan until he was dismissed last June by President Barack Obama after unflattering comments by the general's staff about the White House appeared in a Rolling Stone magazine story.

McChrystal's intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Michael Flynn, recognized early innovations by special operations forces in the field and then refined the intelligence sharing process among the military into the "counter-network" system.

Under that system, U.S. special operations forces have acted as police crime scene investigators, quickly combing for evidence after capturing or killing their targets. They bring their data back to a team of defense intelligence analysts who work with interrogators questioning captured suspects. Their teamwork, officials said, speeds up the targeting of new terror suspects.

Similarly, the military's new targeting center near Washington will rely on a steady flow of information and evidence from the field, which will then by analyzed by special operations experts and their civilian counterparts.

A tip from Africa that suspected militants are planning a strike in the United States, for example, would lead to the names of those suspects being fed into the cloud-computing network. The computer would compare the information with U.S. and international border and flight information, mined from the database of watch lists from the Counterterrorism Center, DHS and the FBI.

If the targets surface overseas, for example, in a country such as Somalia, where special operations forces have already staged snatch-and-grab raids against militants, the military forces would likely be chosen to pursue the targets.

But if the suspected militants turned up inside the U.S., the FBI and other domestic law enforcement would take the lead, officials said.

Terrorists Converge in Morocco-Algeria DMZ

Source: morocco board

Washington / Morocco Board News

The dismantlement of a 27-member of an Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terrorist cell near Amghala, about 200 Km from the Moroccan city of Laayoune, is a considerable enlargement to AQIM activities in the Sahara and regions under the control of the Algerian military and [Western sahara separatists] Polisario militiamen . The discovery of a large cashes of arms, and bomb-making material typically used to build bomb belts and car bombs is an alarming development that would alter to approach to fighting terror in the Sahara and the Sahel. Yet, the most disturbing aspect of the Moroccan security findings remains the location of the AQIM base in the no-man’s land located between the Moroccan borders and a swap of land where the Algerian supported Polisario Militia and the Algerian military patrol on a regular basis.

The news of the arrest of the Amghala cell on the buffer zone in the Western Sahara comes at a time when evidence of AQIM infiltration of the [Western sahara separatists] Polisario units has been mounting. The existence of a terror cell in Amghala signals a worsening of the security situations in the buffer zone where the Polisario is active. The latest arrests of former Polisario fighters by the security forces of Mali and Mauritania in their anti-QMI sweeps and the set up of a terror cell in the buffer zone are evidence of a larger involvement of some active Polisario militiamen in illicit activities to support AQIM
The use of the Western Sahara’s no-man’s land by AQIM is a bold move by the terrorist group and indicative of the limited success of the fragmented and weak attempts by the Algerian military and the Polisario militia to monitor the Sahara. AQIM continues to recruit among the seasoned Polisario fighters and to keep its elements moving freely around the vast Sahara and the Sahel, as Algeria’s focus on offsetting Morocco’s efforts to find a final and durable solution to the conflict of the Western Sahara.

The facts that members of the AQIM cell were carrying detailed maps of the Moroccan-Algerian borders is a shift in AQIM methods as it tries to set up shop on an area that escape effective control of Moroccan and Algeria due to sensitivities related to the Western Sahara dispute.
The Amghala arrests will put further pressure on the European Union and the United States to compel the Moroccan and Algerian governments to resolve their difference and find a solution to the Western Sahara conflict that would pacify the region, and absorb the Polisario fighters.
The possibility of establishing an AQIM “mini-Kandahar” on the Moroccan-Algerian the buffer zone is a nightmare for security experts in the West. As it becomes evident that the eradication of a major financial and recruiting source for AQIM activities must start with the resolution of the Western Sahara, some Moroccan experts wonder if the European Union and the United States would ever held the Algerian military responsible for their behind the scenes interferences and disruptions of the United Nations efforts to adopt a middle of the ground solution to the Western Sahara. AQIM’s advancement into a region like Amghala and the international link of some of the suspects arrested by the Moroccan police are a show of the organization’s strength and a warning message to world.

Morocco: Police arrest 27 as alleged Al-Qaeda cell uncovered

Source: ADNKRONOS
Moroccan authorities say they have arrested 27 people, including a member of Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa for planning terrorist attacks in the kingdom.

Rabat, 5 Jan. (AKI) - Moroccan authorities say they have arrested 27 people, including a member of Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa for planning terrorist attacks in the kingdom.

The network was led by "a Moroccan national who is a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and who wanted to create a rear base in the country for terror attacks," an Interior Ministry statement said late Tuesday, cited by Moroccan news agency MAP.

The statement did not name those arrested or specify when their arrests took place.

But it said the suspects "planned to commit terrorist acts with explosives-laden belts and car bombings."

AQIM, the acronym by which the group is know, has bases spread across Algeria, Mauritania and Mali, according to analysts.

Local daily Hespress said the arrests followed police raids in Amghala, an oasis town in Western Sahara (photo), a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, and Algeria to the northeast .

Police uncovered three hideouts in the area containing arms caches and explosives belts as well as several car bombs, according to Hespress.

The alleged cell was planning to target 'sensitive' sites in Morocco, the paper reported.

It had recruited a number of local youths and was planning to send them to Al-Qaeda training camps in Algeria and Mali.

The members of the alleged cell were also planning bank robberies to finance their terrorist activities, said Hespress.

Somali pirates find Mozambique Channel a balmy home

Source: Defence web
Somali pirates have hijacked a Mozambican-flagged fishing vessel about 200 nautical miles (370 km) southwest of Comoros in the Mozambique Channel, the European Union's anti-piracy taskforce says. The capture of the 140-tonne Vega 5 and its 14-strong crew of unknown nationalities – likely on Friday - was the third strike by pirates in waters between Africa and Madagascar in a week.

Somali pirates usually operate further north in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia where a lack of central government and an Islamist insurgency has allowed piracy to flourish off the anarchic Horn of Africa nation's shores, Reuters reports. While the pirates frequently venture east around the Seychelles and towards the Maldives they are rarely active south of Tanzania.

"Since late December, Somali pirates have been focusing their activities around Tanzania, Comoros and Madagascar to avoid rougher seas further north," Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, told Reuters.

A NATO counter-piracy website reported last week that the hijacked Taiwanese-owned fishing vessel FV Shiuh Fu No 1, seized on December 25, was operating as a pirate "mothership" in the same area off Madagascar.

The Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique last week reported the country's Deputy Defence Minister, Agostinho Mondlane, as confirming that the Mozambican Navy had received a distress call on December 24 from a ship that had come under attack from Somali pirates in the Mozambique channel.

He said the pirate attack took place about 200 kilometres east of Quelimane, capital of the central Mozambican province of Zambezia. The city is about halfway up he Mozambican coast and some 300km north of Beira. This is the furthest south any Somali pirate has ventured so far, the agency reports. The Mozambican navy, Mondlane said, retransmitted the call to the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Maritime Security Centres in Madagascar and South Africa.

Wing Commander Paddy O'Kennedy, spokesman for the EU's Maritime Security Centre says the Liberian registered tanker the "NS Africa" came under fire on December 24 and the "Majestic", a cargo vessel registered in Panama, was attacked the next day. O'Kennedy said the two attacks were just 20 miles (32 kilometres) apart, and so were probably carried out by the same group. He said two small boats were involved, believed to be carrying six pirates.

O'Kennedy said the "NS Africa" was able to outmanoeuvre the pirates, while the "Majestic" returned fire, and drove the pirates off. Neither of the ships was registered with the anti-piracy authorities who coordinate operations in the Indian Ocean, which is why news of the attacks was held up for several days. The "NS Africa" is known to be heading for the Gulf of Aden, but there is no information on the destination of the "Majestic".

Mondlane said that Mozambique would be cooperating against the pirate threat with other members of SADC and of the African Union.

Reuters adds pirates are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from seizing merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, despite efforts by foreign navies to clamp down on such attacks.

To fight Somali piracy, find a government to work with

Source: the globe and mail

As a step toward restoring order in Somalia, a former nation-state that disintegrated in 1991, the international community should explore ways of granting limited recognition to the part of it known as Somaliland. The world is giving disproportionate effort to propping up a putative national government that controls only a few neighbourhoods in Mogadishu, Somalia’s former capital, and which is called transitional; “artificial” would be more accurate. It would be wiser to build upon the stability of Somaliland.

Infographic

Where the Somali pirates attack

Video

Pirates attack U.S. ship again

Meanwhile, the Somali pirates of the Indian Ocean are thriving more than ever, in spite of the work of the navies of 30 countries in recent years, and indeed ranging over a larger area. No country is showing consistent resolve to prosecute captured pirates in its own courts.

The pirates are not simply a floating confederacy of criminals. They depend on land bases, particularly in Puntland, another organized fragment of the former Somalia, where they can enjoy the fruits of their robbery in peace, thanks to a degree of civil order. International navies need to pursue the pirates to their safe havens. If the government of Puntland fully co-operates, it should gain a recognition similar to what Somaliland has already merited.

Somaliland is prosperous and democratic, but it needs some regular status that can provide the underpinnings for trade and investment. There is a reasonable reluctance to countenance formal independence from the rest of Somalia, especially because of the potential for chaos and war if a precedent is set for the redrawing of boundaries. Somaliland should not simply become a separate country, or join the Union Nations, but the world has managed to accommodate some anomalies; the very different cases of Taiwan and the Vatican City illustrate such possibilities.

Somaliland, and perhaps Puntland, could eventually serve as a model for a reunified Somalia, or else for the reordering of the anarchic part of Somalia as another independent state. The piracy around the Horn of Africa cannot be ended only at sea – law and order on the adjoining shores is necessary, too.

Somali pirates seize Algerian ship

Source: IOL

January 3 2011 at 07:14pm

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Reuters

The brother of Deborah Calitz, the woman taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2010, says there is still no information regarding her whereabouts. Photo: Reuters

Nairobi - Suspected Somali pirates have seized an Algerian-owned ship with 27 crew members aboard in the Indian Ocean.

The European Union's anti-piracy task force said the MV Blida was hijacked on Saturday about 150 nautical miles southeast of the Omani port of Salalah.

The ship was heading to Tanzania at the time it was seized. The force said late on Sunday that the sailors were from Algeria, Ukraine and the Philippines.

Piracy is thriving off the coast of Somalia because the country has not had an effective government for two decades. They currently hold at least 28 vessels and 654 hostages.

Pirates tried to capture two ships in separate attacks in the Mozambique Channel over the Christmas weekend - the farthest south they have ever attempted a hijacking. - Sapa-AP

U.S. Military Aid Is Available for Hire in Yemen

By MARGARET COKER

ADEN, Yemen—The Yemeni Coast Guard, working through private companies, is renting out servicemen and patrol boats—including vessels given to Yemen by the U.S.—for commercial ships seeking armed escorts against piracy. The arrangements are raising fresh questions about whether the San'a government is effectively using American military aid.

The U.S. has donated boats for use in protecting Yemen's coastline against terrorists and other security threats. Discussions are under way in Washington about significantly ramping up assistance to help fight the al Qaeda network based in Yemen.

Congressman Pete King (R., N.Y.), the incoming chairman for the House Committee on Homeland Security, said reports of diverted U.S. military aid to Yemen raise "serious questions, which will be addressed by the Homeland Security Committee," in Congress's next session.

Four Yemeni officials familiar with the private security details said they are done for profit and involve high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Interior and the nation's Coast Guard Authority, which falls under the ministry.

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The agreements to provide the ships to the Yemeni Coast Guard included provisions stipulating that vessels donated by Washington wouldn't be used in private commercial operations, according to U.S. defense officials. "U.S.-provided vessels to the Yemeni Coast Guard aren't intended to perform escort operations," a defense official said, referring to commercial, for-profit escort operations for private companies.

The two companies with the most business arranging the escort service are Lotus Maritime Security Services. a San'a-based concern, and the Channel Islands-based Gulf of Aden Group Transits Ltd., or GoAGT, according to the officials and clients.

A Yemeni government official familiar with private ship-escort services in Yemen defended the arrangement, saying it was his understanding that the commercial use of Yemeni Coast-Guard ships and military personnel didn't enrich anyone personally, and that all fees for the services go "back to the government."

Lotus Chief Executive Abdullah al-Huraibi didn't respond to requests to comment. Nick Davis, founder and chief executive of GoAGT, declined to comment.

A Yemeni Coast Guard official who has participated in the privately arranged escorts said Coast Guard vessels given by the U.S. are employed in about 30% of the contracted operations run by both companies. Yemen also provides U.S.-trained sailors on a routine basis for the escorts, said the official. Coast Guard officers routinely refer private shippers afraid of pirate attacks to Lotus, said the official.

The Yemeni Ministry of Interior didn't reply to requests for comment. Brig. Gen. Ali Rasa'a, chairman of Yemen's Coast Guard Authority, didn't return calls and text messages seeking comment.

U.S. military aid to Yemen in 2010 was $155 million. Congressional approval is needed for a proposed increase to $250 million in aid for 2011. Washington reduced aid to Yemen to almost zero earlier in the decade due to the country's widespread corruption.

Since 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard has delivered two dozen vessels to its Yemeni counterpart. Two larger "coastal protection boats" are scheduled for delivery this year. The U.S. U.S. Coast Guard has given extensive training to the Yemen Coast Guard's estimated 1,800 Yemeni servicemen and 200 officers.

U.S. officials have long had concerns about accounting for military aid to Yemeni armed forces, citing the Yemeni government's belief that two internal rebellions it is facing pose a more dire security threat than al Qaeda.

The U.S. counts on San'a to help choke off supply routes between Africa and Yemen used to smuggle arms and other contraband. The Gulf of Aden is considered a major route for al Qaeda to re-arm and exchange expertise, according to intelligence officials. The Gulf of Aden and the Bab al Mandeb, leading to the Red Sea, are among the world's most pirate-infested waters.

Lotus and GoAGT have advertised security packages that typically include a team of up to nine armed, uniformed personnel and heavily armored patrol vessels, for fees of up to $55,000 for a detail of about three days.

Both companies' websites previously showed images of uniformed servicemen and naval vessels, and Lotus said it was "operating with the full cooperation and support" of the government.

By mid-December, the two companies had advertised on their websites that each had completed roughly 300 operations since 2008. Since that time, Lotus Maritime's website appears to have been taken offline. GoAGT'S website appears to have been amended, with information about pricing and a formerly advertised partnership with Lotus taken down.

A coast guard official said he received $200—almost double an average monthly salary—for participating in an operation arranged by Lotus. He didn't say who paid him for his services.

Washington helped develop the Yemeni Coast Guard after al Qaeda attacked the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole while it was harbored in Aden in 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

—Adam Entous in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

Neutrality will not shield Sweden from terrorism

Source: daily caller

Until Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly’s explosive belt went off prematurely in Stockholm last month, Sweden was the poster child for isolationism in the war on terror. While Abdulwahab’s bomb failed to achieve his desired result, it did obliterate the myth that nations can remain neutral to global terrorism.
Abdulwahab’s failed attack typifies the jihadis’ all-out war against “infidels.” He was a doctrinaire jihadist with ties to a local militant Islamist organization, and his attack didn’t spring up out of nowhere. There had already been warning signs that terrorists were mobilizing against the Scandinavian democracy. Militants had threatened Swedish artist Lars Vilks for his satirical cartoon portrayal of the prophet Mohammed, attacking his home and attempting to murder him with an axe. Others threatened Vilks.
The Iraq-born Abdulwahab was a member of the Facebook group “Islamic Caliphate State.” He lived in Luton in Bedfordshire, England, home to four of the terrorists who killed 52 and injured more than 2,000 in the 7/7 train bombings.
Swedish authorities claimed that Abdulwahab had been “completely unknown” to them before the blast, and that they were trying to ascertain when he was first “radicalized.” Swedish prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand said that the country’s security apparatus “was not a Stasi organization engaged in analyzing people’s Facebook pages.”
The irony is that Abdulwahab’s musings on Facebook are the only evidence of his radicalism prior to the attack.
Farasat Latif, the secretary of the Luton mosque to which Abdulwahab belonged, said, “Despite Abdulwahab’s extreme views nothing pointed to the fact that he was going to do something stupid.”
While not rock-solid evidence of a plot in the making, Abdulwahab’s “extreme views” were at least an indication that he was a potential danger to others. Contradicting his statement above, Latif added, “Soon Abdulwahab began making extremist statements focusing on suicide bombings.”
From Stockholm to Luton, confusion seems to be the order of the day. No one seems to be able to comprehend how Abdulwahab became radicalized, what his motives were, nor the extremist network in which he was radicalizing.
Abdulwahab arrived in Sweden as a child in 1992 and obtained a European passport. In 2001, he moved to Great Britain to study at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, where a jihadi network was already growing. Between 2004 and 2007, his activities were unknown.
In late 2009, during a resurgence of jihadi actions in Europe, Abdulmutallab appears to have joined the campaign on the Continent. In a recorded message he made before the attack and sent to the Swedish government and the TT news agency, he said, “I never went to the Middle East to work or to make money; I went for jihad.”
Last Sunday, the al Qaeda-affiliated Shumokh al-Islam website posted a message calling Abdulwahab a “brother” and quoted a prayer that says “God let me die as you are satisfied with me.”
European authorities have a lot of catching up to do. Whether or not they wish to admit it, they are at war. Even when jihadists act as “lone wolves,” they always have ties to some kind of radicalizing environment. The internet is always a vehicle for radicalization, but small cadres of global jihadists create the habitat that cultivates terrorists like Abdulwahab. Luton had been a known hotbed of radicalization since July 7, 2005.
The Swedes have now joined the community of nations besieged by Salafi terrorists. They may entertain notions of neutrality, but the jihadists who attack them don’t care.
Dr. Walid Phares is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/04/neutrality-will-not-shield-sweden-from-terrorism/#ixzz1A8dt82rd

Pakistan's Minorities Come Under Fire…: The hidden war

Source: Frontpage

DECEMBER 21, 2010

Pakistan's Minorities Come Under Fire…
By Kalsoom Lakhani
The persecution and targeting of religious and sectarian minorities has occurred throughout Pakistan's history, but a number of attacks in 2010 highlight a qualitative shift in this trend. The scale, location, tactics, and claims of responsibility for attacks on minority religious institutions have changed dramatically between last year and this one, proving not only that Pakistan's minorities are a primary target of the region's extremist groups, but also that minorities are losing support among the population at large.
Although the number of recorded attacks against minorities seems not to have changed much between 2009 and 2010, other key factors changed significantly. In 2010, attacks on minority religious institutions were for the most part large-scale, resulting in significantly higher death tolls than those in 2009. For instance, based on calculations from the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, news reports, and other sources, the average number of people killed in minority-related mosque attacks in 2009 was three. In 2010, the number ballooned to 18 (the average number wounded was 24 in 2009 and 61 in 2010).
Many of these 2010 attacks occurred in Pakistan's major cities, such as the Sufi shrine bombing in Karachi and the Ahmadi mosque attacks in Lahore. In 2009, comparatively, such attacks were mostly concentrated in the country's northern areas, including the tribal areas and smaller towns in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The type of attacks also shifted between 2009 and 2010. Last year, militants used mainly IEDs (improvised explosive devices), VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices), and grenades in their attacks on minority religious institutions; in 2010, on the other hand, suicide attacks were more common, a reason for the larger death tolls.
Finally, there was a shift in groups claiming responsibility. While there was no claim of responsibility for many of the attacks in 2009, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed more attacks this year, including the bombings of the Sufi shrine in Karachi and the Ahmadi mosques in Lahore (though TTP spokesmen denied they were behind the Sufi shrine attack in Lahore in July).
But the TTP, despite what it claims, may not be behind all these attacks. Instead, groups belonging to the Punjabi Taliban, with more reach into Pakistan's urban centers, could be working with the militant umbrella organization to carry out these attacks. By claiming responsibility, the TTP is in effect perpetuating the perception that there is one centralized larger enemy rather than a more manageable cluster of nameless militants operating independently. The increasing number of large-scale suicide attacks occurring in Pakistan's major cities, not just in the northwestern areas, is also important in the perceptions war because these incidents garner more media attention and exacerbate the notion that the threat is close by, stoking greater instability and fear in the country.
The shift in the nature of these attacks on minority religious institutions also mirrors increasingly heightened anti-minority sentiment in the country. Religious and sectarian minorities have long been marginalized, targeted, and persecuted throughout Pakistan's history, though the introduction of the blasphemy laws in the 1980s added further legitimacy to this intolerance. Among the most recent victims of these laws is Aasia Bibi, who recently became the first Christian woman to be sentenced to death because of a conviction under the blasphemy laws, and whose story has sparked polarizing reactions from human rights groups to religious organizations.
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's latest annual report, "[D]iscriminatory laws, promulgated in previous decades and persistently enforced, have fostered an atmosphere of religious intolerance and eroded the social and legal status of members of religious minorities, including Shi'a Muslims, Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians. Government officials do not provide adequate protections from societal violence to members of these religious minority communities, and perpetrators of attacks on minorities seldom are brought to justice."
It's clear that over the course of the past year, Pakistan's militant groups have re-emphasized a brutal method to realize their goal of destabilizing the country: By attacking minorities' places of worship, they hope to instigate a nationwide sectarian war.
Kalsoom Lakhani is the director of Social Vision, the strategic philanthropy arm of ML Resources in Washington, D.C. She is from Islamabad, Pakistan, and blogs at CHUP, or Changing Up Pakistan.

The Generals' Victory : Book

Source: Frontpage

The arrival of a new Bob Woodward book is attended with rituals as solemn and predictable as those of the annual Congress of the Communist Party in North Korea-there are the three days of excerpts in The Washington Post; a few days before that the obligatory spoiler piece in The New York Times where an enterprising reporter has obtained a copy of the heavily-embargoed tome; Woodward appearing for the full hour with Larry King; the defensive comments from the institutions that have something to defend-when asked to comment on Obama's Wars, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell demurred, explaining "We don't do literary criticism;" the quotable insider disses, the best being General Tommy Franks on the senior Bush Pentagon official Douglas Feith-"the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth"; and the telling anecdotes about key players in the narrative, such as the one about the intensely focused General Petraeus electing to stay in Iraq rather than attend the funeral of his father.
The action in all of Woodward's past five books has taken place largely in the bowels of the White House, often in the Situation Room, with occasional forays to the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. If there is a shift outside the Beltway, it is usually to Tampa to visit the headquarters of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and adjoining parts of Asia. Woodward has written three books about the Iraq War and never visited Iraq, and he has written two books about the Afghan War and has visited Afghanistan for forty-eight hours (a visit well milked here).
As a result, Woodward's books do not have the whiff of cordite but the waft of stale coffee, as harried staffers pull all-nighters to write papers that the "principals" will probably never read, and meetings drone on interminably because, while everything has already been said, not everything has been said by everyone. The notoriously garrulous Joe Biden makes an intervention at one National Security Council discussion of Afghanistan that a backbencher clocks at twenty-one minutes.

To read the rest of this article, visit TheNewRepublic.com, where this was originally published.
Peter Bergen, the editor of the AfPak Channel, is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and at New York University's Center on Law and Security, and the author of the forthcoming The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda. He is a national security analyst for CNN.

Pakistan's dangerous blasphemy laws claim the governor of Punjab

Source: Frontpage

ISLAMABAD — The assassination of the governor of Punjab, Pakistan's most politically powerful province, Salman Taseer earlier this morning provides the latest example of how religious intolerance, coupled with contentious laws, can wreak havoc on human lives. If the confession of the killer -- Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri -- is any indication, then Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws have claimed another life, in addition to the more than 30 people accused of blasphemy and later killed by angry mobs or individuals over the last quarter-century.
Qadri, 26, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, told police he killed Taseer "because he had called the blasphemy law a black law." Reportedly a member of an elite police force, Qadri was part of the security detail deployed to protect Taseer in Islamabad. The governor was on his way to an upscale market for a cup of coffee near his Islamabad residence when he was killed.
Taseer's assassination stunned Pakistanis but surprised none; by openly criticizing the country's controversial blasphemy laws, Taseer also had upset religious groups, including even mainstream religiopolitical parties. "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing," was one of Taseer's recent tweets on the laws, imposed in the late 1970s by former dictator General Zia ul-Haq, whose Islamist legacy continues to haunt Pakistan today.
Immediate context
Taseer's opposition to the sentencing to death of a Christian woman named Asia Bibi in November of last year for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed in 2009 was the latest reason for religious parties to criticize Taseer. In June 2009, Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields in Pakistan's central province of Punjab. Muslim women laborers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl. The wife and mother was later arrested by the police and prosecuted on a complaint by Muslim women that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Following her conviction, Bibi's lawyer petitioned the Lahore High Court, and in mid-November, Taseer visited Bibi in prison and told the press that he would personally pass on her appeal to Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari.
In early November, even Pope Benedict XVI called for Bibi's release and said Christians in Pakistan were "often victims of violence and discrimination." Although Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, the case of Asia Bibi highlights the controversy over Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which opponents say encourage extremism.
Reaction by the religious right
On Dec. 31, when members of Pakistan's religious parties took to the streets across the country to warn the government against even contemplating a review of the blasphemy law, Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, secretary-general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), said that he regretted that so far no action had been taken against Taseer and Sherry Rehman, a member of the PPP who had proposed a bill in the National Assembly to amend the law last year and has since been the target of the ire of religiopolitical groups. Haideri told a gathering of followers in the southern metropolitan Karachi that his party would strongly resist any moves to amend the law, and he demanded assurances by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that the government would not try to do so.
The same day, Tehreek Namoos-i-Risalat -- an alliance of religious parties in defense of the Prophet Mohammad -- demanded that the government dismiss Taseer and throw Rehman out of the party and the parliament.
The JUI-F had until two weeks ago been part of the coalition led by Gilani. Last week, two central ministers assured the JUI-F and other religious parties that the blasphemy law would not be touched.
"We had tried several times to make Salman Taseer stay silent on the issue, but he kept on condemning a law that the parliament had passed," Hanif Tayyab, a former minister and religious scholar told Express TV. "We must also look into what caused the killer to go after Taseer," Tayyab said in what appeared to be the traditional argument peddled by religiopolitical outfits on Islamist laws.
Pakistani political parties must view the fact that Taseer was murdered by his own personal guard at such close range with caution and consider how long they can keep acquiescing to the demands of religiopolitical parties that, on the one hand, are part of the democratic process, but on the other, continue to defend contentious religious laws whose potential misuse continues to threaten the lives of Pakistanis -- from the fieldworker Asia Bibi to the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer.
Imtiaz Gul heads the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies -- CRSS-Islamabad -- and is the author of The Most Dangerous Place.

Osama's top aide killed in drone strike

Source: IBN LIVE

Islamabad: Nasir al-Wahishi, a top al-Qaeda commander, who reportedly served as an aide of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US drone attack in northwestern Pakistan on December 28.

Al-Wahishi, 32, a Yemeni national, who presided over the January 2009 merger of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni splinters of al-Qaeda, was killed in the year end.

Wahishi was killed when two missiles were fired on a militant camp at the Ghulam Khan sub-district of North Waziristan, Kyodo reported quoting Pakistani officials.

Al-Wahishi is among four top al-Qaeda commanders killed in American drone strikes which assumed unprecedented proportions in 2010.

Those killed by US missiles include al-Qaeda number 3 Abu Mustafa al-Yazid, Sheikh Fateh al-Misri, al-Qaeda's operations head for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who replaced Yazid.

The two other commanders killed were Abdallah Umar al-Qurayshi, who co-ordinated Osama bin Laden's Arabs in Afghanistan, and explosives expert Abu Atta al-Kuwaiti.

The drones have also felled top Taliban commanders including its chief Baitullah Mehsud and the trainer of suicide bombers Qari Hussain Mehsud.

The officials claimed Wahishi had served as secretary of bin Laden until 2003. He was arrested in Iran and extradited to Yemen in 2003. The al-Qaeda commander was among 23 Yemeni captives who made a dramatic escape from maximum security prison in Sana'a, in 2006 and was at large since then.

The Yemeni figures in the Interpol's Orange Notice as well as US State Departments and UN Sanctions List.

400 Pak Hindus await Indian citizenship

Source: TOI 400 Pak Hindus await Indian citizenship

AMRITSAR: With the Centre agreeing before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a couple of months ago, to grant citizenship to 120 Pakistani Hindus staying near Jalandhar for years, around 400 more such people placed in a similar situation here have intensified their demand for citizenship.

According to president of a local NGO, All India Hindu Shiv Sena, Surinder Kumar Billa, there were around 450 to 500 Pakistani Hindus settled in Amritsar who have been awaiting citizenship. He said most of them had fled from Pakistan fearing extortion and kidnapping by Taliban and Muslim fundamentalists.
Talking to TOI on Monday, Billa said his NGO had begun collecting papers of all Pak Hindus and would move court besides approaching human rights organization demanding citizenship for them so they could settle in peace at least.

Roop Chand, in late sixties, said he had left Peshawar in 1995, under the cover of darkness along with his wife, two sons and two daughters for India fearing kidnapping and extortion and his prime worry was to reach Amritsar safely. With fingers crossed he said, the family reached Lahore and boarded Samjhauta Express.

Chand said he had social freedom here. His daughters attend school without the fear of diktats of Muslim fundamentals and his sons don't have to get humiliated by sarcastic remarks by Muslim friends, but the family was still waiting to get Indian citizenship for a lifetime assurance.

Almost all Pak Hindus have similar stories to narrate. They have been staying here for past more than 18 years. A few came to settle down with their family members who had migrated earlier, a few came to earn good money and many out of fear. Earlier, hesitant to speak against the Taliban or militants fearing for the safety of around 40 remaining Hindu families in Peshawar, they finally broke silence to narrate their horrifying tale.

''There had been incidents of extortion and kidnapping with some Hindus of the area and I had two daughters, who could become their target, so I decided to leave Pakistan for good,'' said Roop Chand who was a sewadar at Dargah Sri Peer Rattan Nath Ji at Peshawar. But here he runs a small tea kiosk.

Another Pak Hindu, Shiv Kumar, said they were forced to embrace Islam so he decided to leave Pakistan. ''We can live in poverty, but can't go back to live in an environment of uncertainty,'' said another Pak Hindu, Bachan Devi.

''We will take up their cases with both human rights organizations and to the government so they could have a peaceful life in India,'' Billa said.

Record terror cover sought for 2011 ICC World Cup

Source: TOI
MUMBAI: The fear of terror has begun to take a toll on the 2011 ICC World Cup. International sports broadcaster ESPN has sought a record Rs 600-crore terror and weather insurance cover for the Cup, which begins on February 19. This is three times the Rs 200-crore cover for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

State-owned New India Assurance and General Insurance Corporation (GIC Re) are reliably learnt to have been approached for insurance support. The stakes for the broadcaster are very high because the matches are being held in a region that's prone to terror attacks. Also, India has been in much better form than in the 2007 World Cup and is expected to make it to the final stages. Add to that the fact the World Cup is, for the first time, being broadcast in high definition and will be available through mobile streaming.

According to top insurance industry officials, the cost of cover is expected to be in the region of Rs 7.5-8 crore. This involves only the broadcasters' interests, which is the loss it will incur in advertising revenue should a match be cancelled. The overall cost of insuring the event would be higher if one were to take into account the premium to be paid by the organizers in each country and by individual sponsors.

Clearly, ESPN does not want to take any chances after the losses it suffered when the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai led to the cancellation of the Champions League.

GIC Re is the only domestic entity which has the capacity to provide an underwriting support as large as Rs 600 crore. Insurance for broadcasters cannot be provided from the Indian Terrorism Pool — a collective fund formed by all non-life insurers — since it covers only property.