IIT Bombay to help security forces fight terrorism

MUMBAI: Capturing images and viewing them at a command station during terror operations will soon be possible in the country. The wireless communication device, used to capture images when American military forces gunned down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, could become a reality in India.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay will set up a research centre on homeland security to help police and paramilitary forces use state-of-the-art technology to tackle problems like urban terrorism, naxalism and cyber crime.

The institute's electrical engineering department has developed a wireless communication device that will permit beaming live images to a command station.

"Images are transmitted using ultra-broadband services. We are updating the version to shrink the size and make it more cost-effective," a student associated with the project said.

The institute has collaborated with a recently set-up anti-terror force and is developing the device for it. However, the product needs to be commercialized to make it deployable.

Though many individual efforts have begun at the department level, the institute has drawn up a blueprint to set up the virtual centre.

"Police forces in the country do not have access to technology that could be used to tackle urban crime like terrorism. The institute plans to use its expertise to develop technology for security forces. We plan to make a consolidated approach so that as a centre we can seek funds to streamline research," said Professor Abhay Karandikar, from the IIT's electrical engineering department, and who is involved in the project.

The Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF) has taken active interest in the institute's projects and some demonstrations of prototypes developed by the institute have been held for some of its top officials.

"Many agencies are interested in the technology we are developing. Once the research centre is set up, we can have focused research activities. Training and educating police officials in latest technology will be important. The police force must understand the threats they are dealing with in the modern world. Training them may become part of the centre's activities," the professor added.

The institute has been been involved in training senior police officials in technology for the last few years.

While the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) already works towards developing technology for military forces, there is almost no centre or agency working for police forces in the country.

"There are overlaps in requirements of the military and police forces, but there are requirements which are specific to the police force. The police work in urban set-ups in most cases," Karandikar said.

Watch Out: Cyber Criminals Launching Steve Jobs' Death Scams

Source: http://techland.time.com/2011/10/06/watch-out-cyber-criminals-launching-steve-jobs-death-scams/

By Matt Peckham on October 6, 2011
It's sad but probably inevitable: When someone as recognizable and popular as Apple's Steve Jobs passes away, cyber crooks and spam moguls turn up in droves.

So watch out, because the scams are already circulating, like one noticed by Kapersky Lab's Dmitri Bestuzhev, who snapped pictures of a Jobs'-death-related shakedown.

"The death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was mourned by millions across the globe on October 5, 2011," it reads, urging visitors to "Remember Steve Jobs" by clicking "to purchase on of his inventions." Fake contest text highlighted neon-green claims you could "Win 1 of 15 MacBook Pros in Memory of Steve Jobs" is you submit your email. Do so, and chances are all you'll win is pole position placement on someone's virtual spam rolodex.

MORE: Steve Jobs: Not a Gamer, but a Game Changer

And then it gets downright disturbing, with purported links to "Photos of the Funeral and the Coffin," a "Video of Steve's Funeral," and an option to "Pay Tribute to Steve." There's even a dummy photo of some random, actual funeral with a promise that "Video footage and images will be here uploaded live from the funeral ceremony," and to "Check back here each day to see if they are posted."

Then there's this Facebook scam, morbidly titled "R.I.P. Steve Jobs," and claiming that "In memory of Steve, a company is giving out 50 ipads tonight. R.I.P. Steve Jobs," followed by links to an online survey and a virtual casino. Security firm Sophos walks through the scam, explaining why the chances anyone's getting a free iPad out of it by clicking the link are essentially zero, though it seems well over 15,000 people were already suckered into doing so.

"How do the scammers make money?" writes Sophos' Graham Cluley. "Well, they are earning affiliate cash - in a nutshell, they make more money the more traffic they can direct to websites, driving more people to become customers, or take online surveys and competitions."

And as a warning, he adds: "Chances are that this won't be the only scam we see regarding the untimely death of Steve Jobs. It wouldn't be a surprise, for instance, to see scams which might try to take advantage of those moved by the loss of Apple's founder with lures like 'Donate to Steve's favourite charities as a tribute'."

So be careful out there, and probably best to steer clear of anything related to Steve Jobs' death that involves solicitous emails, funeral pictures, Apple product contests, tribute link bait, or that asks you to pass along your personal info (including your email address).

Russia claims it has detained Chinese spy

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8808005/Russia-claims-it-has-detained-Chinese-spy.html
Russia's security service said it had detained a suspected Chinese spy late last year who tried to gain access to sensitive missile technology, according to reports.
12:23PM BST 05 Oct 2011
It was not clear why news of the detention was released only now, less than a week before Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits China as part of efforts to strengthen ties with Beijing. Chinese citizen Tun Sheniyun had been accused of trying to buy sensitive material on a Russian anti-aircraft missile system while working under the guise of a translator for official delegations, the state-run RIA news agency said.
"The investigation revealed that a Chinese citizen ... was working as a translator for official delegations and was attempting to gather ... documents on the anti-aircraft S-300 missile system from Russian citizens for money," Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) told RIA.
The prosecutor has filed charges with a Moscow city court, the FSB said.

Afghanistan war 10th anniversary dispatch: 'Life was safer under the Taliban'

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8812105/Afghanistan-war-10th-anniversary-dispatch-Life-was-safer-under-the-Taliban.html

When the USA and Nato began their war against the Taliban government which had harboured Osama bin Laden they offered a tantalising new future to the Afghan people.
After the repressive regime of Mullah Mohammad Omar and his Taliban zealots was swept away, Afghans would have freedom, democracy and aid to modernise their neglected, backward country.
A decade later, the life of the majority of Afghans now stands in stark contrast to the bright vision laid out in those promises.
Ten years of foreign presence in Afghanistan have done little for 48-year-old Ghulam Rabbani Ahmadzai, or ordinary people like him, he says.
"We don't see any considerable changes," said the 48-year-old, leaning on the counter of his street restaurant and lamenting how little his life has changed. "Aid has been misused. There has been a huge misallocation of funds. A small percentage of the top ranks have become rich but there has been no change in life for the rest of us.
"Millions of dollars came here and we don't know where this aid has gone. There is no infrastructure, nothing is working. They didn't use the funds in the right manner. They invested for themselves.
"If we had used the aid in a good way, our country would have become paradise." Instead only a voracious elite, many of whom are linked to Hamid Karzai's government, had benefited from the billions of pounds poured into the country, he said.
He added that Nato has not even been able to bring security.
Afghans already traumatised by more than three decades of fighting see a Taliban insurgency spreading across the country despite a coalition of 48 nations ranged against it.
The crime and lack of punishment which plagued Afghanistan during the notorious warlord years of the 1990s are back, say many residents. Security has deteriorated in Kabul to such an extent that Mr Ahmadzai now has fond memories of the strict Taliban regime.
"You didn't have to worry about whether you left your door open or shut," he said. "If you left a million dollars lying about no one would steal it. I am very supportive of the Taliban in that sense." Kidnapping by criminal gangs is also a daily hazard.
"If you are a millionaire, you risk being kidnapped," explained Mr Ahmadzai. "If you have a handsome son or a beautiful daughter, they will be kidnapped." He said complaining to the local police was futile.
The increasing violence in Kabul - suicide bombers and rocket attacks - has also been bad for his family and for business.
"When there is a bomb blast, people go into hiding. No one dares to come to the bazaar; even for up to a month after an attack, no one comes to the bazaar."
The disappointment of the past decade has festered into distrust and suspicion of the West. Afghans cannot understand why the United States and Britain or their allies, with so much money and technology at their disposal, have achieved so little.
Increasingly many Afghans feel the only answer can be that the West is not interested in helping them and has a hidden agenda – feelings easily played upon by Taliban propaganda.
Among Mr Ahmadzai's greatest disappointments are the prospects for his six children. "I am absolutely not happy about their future," he said.
"[My eldest son] is still working with me in the burger shop. My ambition was for him to become a government worker, but to do that you must graduate from college.
"The people who find jobs know English, know computers, and are relatives of government officials." He concluded: "We are tired of the war. We need peace. It doesn't matter who the president is, we just need peace."

To Fight Extremism, Indonesia Blocks Radical Web Sites

Source: VOA

Photo: REUTERS

Soldiers stand guard along a road after Sunday's riots in Ambon September 12, 2011. Several people were killed and dozens injured when riots broke out on Sunday after rumors spread online that a motor taxi driver was tortured to death by a group of residents.

The Indonesian government has blocked 300 websites it calls extremist after several recent sectarian clashes. Despite the effort, hundreds more sites cataloging the glories of jihad are still readily available online.

In a country where online social networks are growing fast, some analysts say a better method of countering hate speech may be through the online tactics of religious moderates.

On September 11, seven people died and hundreds of homes and vehicles were burned in a deadly riot in Ambon, eastern Indonesia after the death of a Muslim man led to rumors he had been captured and tortured by Christians.  Those rumors spread through cell phone text messages, and on Twitter and Facebook.

Following the attack, strident websites such as Arrahmah.com, displayed messages pleading for better weapons and more fighters.  The site was founded by Muhammad Jibril, a leader of Jemmah Islamiyah.

Another website says that as long as Muslims continued to be oppressed in Ambon, suicide bombings such as the one in Solo in late September will continue.

Terrorism analyst from the International Crisis Group Sidney Jones says social networking sites are an important way for jihadists to reinforce their ideology and stir up emotion.  But he adds that blocking them is not the answer.

“Three hundred sites have been blocked, but the most dangerous ones are still there and upgrading, so it's not clear what goal is being served," Jones says. "Also, it's true that if you block a site, another site pops up by the same people in about six hours, especially with the proliferation of blogspots and so on.”

The International Crisis Group recently released a report that details how extreme conservatives manipulated recent tensions in Ambon by posting inflammatory messages online.  It also looks at how one moderate, multi-religious group used social networking to counter hate speech.

When the group of Ambonese Muslims and Christians known as the "peace provocateurs" heard rumors that a church had been destroyed, they took a photo of the undamaged church and circulated it on social networking sites.

Jones says such efforts prevented the conflict from escalating any further.

“I think in this case in Ambon, there were people that were skilled in the use of text messages, Twitter and Facebook actually taking tendentious rumors and proving that they were false and getting that information out through social networking sites immediately, deploying people in some of the worst-hit conflict areas and so on," says Jones. "That is a great way of countering that and in some ways a far more effective way than trying to shut down websites.”

Slamet Effendy, a leading figure in one of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations, Nadhatul Ulama, condemns the sectarian conflict in Ambon and the suicide bombing in an East Java church.

Noting that social networking sites could be a good way to promote tolerance, he says that much more is needed to combat terrorism. Terrorism in Indonesia, he says, can only be eradicated if religious understanding is in line with the state, which advocates pluralism and a society founded on justice and welfare.  Comprehensive efforts to develop good relationships between religious communities are needed at the grassroots level, Effendy says.

In the meantime, millions of Indonesians have come online in recent years as Internet access has improved.

Although some Muslim clerics were initially skeptical of online networks and their impact on morality, the country now has more than 40 million Facebook users, second only to the United States.

Dangerous shift in Naxal strategy: IB

Source: asianage

In what is being viewed as a major shift in Naxal strategy, the outfit CPI (Maoist) is now trying to infiltrate key infrastructure sectors like railways, surface transport, coal, shipping, rural development, telecom and civil aviation with sympathisers and their own cadres.

As the intelligence agencies feel the move could have serious long-term ramifications for the Indian economy, they have sent out a detailed note to the Naxal-affected states with a view to nip the menace in the bud.
The Intelligence Bureau document, accessed by this newspaper, states that the main aim behind this move by the Naxals is that “when the need arises they can stall work and cripple the Indian economy”. The note adds, “While educated CPI (Maoist) sympathisers are being used to take up office work in these ministries and departments, those who are not qualified are pumped into various infrastructure projects going on across the country, particularly in Naxal-dominated states.”
“The uneducated cadre basically works as labourers or supervisors while the educated cadre, which is a sizeable chunk, take up white collar jobs. Most of the sympathisers are educated and based in cities so it’s easier for them to get such jobs. There are reports that the cadres have already infiltrated into these key sectors,” a top intelligence official said.
The intelligence agencies have now asked the Naxal-affected states to carry out an extensive verification drive to check the background of all employees working in these ministries and departments. A similar exercise is also being conducted at the Central level.
These states have also been advised that all fresh appointments being made in the infrastructure sector should be thoroughly screened. “We have asked the state agencies to prepare a list of suspicious persons and work in close coordination with our state multi-agency centres in this regard,” the official added.

Philippine troops clash with communist rebels after mine attacks, 1 soldier killed, 3 wounded

Source: Washingtonpost
MANILA, Philippines — Army troops have clashed with communist rebels in the southern Philippines amid a hunt for hundreds of guerrillas behind an attack on three mining compounds.
Military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos says one soldier was killed and three others were wounded in the gunbattle Thursday near Esperanza town in Agusan del Sur province.

Burgos says the army scout rangers captured a New People’s Army encampment and 12 assault rifles and inflicted harm on an undetermined number of Maoist rebels. The rebels retreated and were being pursued by troops.
It was not immediately clear if the guerrillas were among more than 200 rebels who laid siege on three nickel mining complexes Monday in nearby Surigao del Sur province.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Argentine leads FARC infiltration of student protests: Police

An Argentine man is suspected of being the brains behind left wing guerrilla group FARC's alleged attempts to infiltrate student protests, according to Colombia's police force.
Police say that 35 year old Argentine Facundo Molares, alias "Camilo" or "El Argentino," arrived in Colombia in 2002 and has recently been working for FARC column "Teofilo."
According to intelligence officials, Molares is one of the guerrillas responsible for reactivating the FARCs Clandestine Communist Party (PC3) and has been in charge of the ongoing infiltration of university student protests in Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Neiva, Bucaramanga, and Florencia.
According to the police, the Argentine guerrilla is also the suspected leader of ten people who were arrested Monday for alleged political and logistical support of the FARC, eight of whom were university students and professors.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and the country's intelligence agency DAS blame the FARC and ELN for inciting violence at student protests throughout the country since April and for wielding undue influence at Colombian universities.

Kazakh diplomat: Illicit drug trafficking continued to be global challenge

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 6 / Trend , G.Dadashova /

The problem of illicit drug trafficking continued to be a global challenge, Kazakh permanent Representative to the UN Byrganym Aitimova, speaking on behalf of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), said at the meeting of the Third Committee of the 66th UN General Assembly on Oct.5.

Aitimova said this problem could not be solved separately from the problems of organized crime, international terrorism, extremism, corruption and illegal migration.

Welcoming the World Drug Report 2010 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), she nonetheless said that it was too early to discuss the reduction of heroin production from the cultivated crop area in Afghanistan, as noted in the UNODC World Drug Reports of the past three years.

That production, 90 percent of the world's total, remained the main threat to the region and affected all parts of the globe.

Aitimova said heroin use was rising in CSTO countries, despite the fact that they were not final trafficking destinations, she said.

The "northern route," passing through the countries of Central Asia and Russia, was a principal trafficking route to Europe, but left half of the 120 tons of heroin, so transported, in those countries. Consumption in CIS countries resulted in 50,000 deaths annually. Regional cooperation was essential to eradicate that traffic, she noted.

Regional entities engaged in fighting the growing threat included Operation Channel, undertaken by CSTO in 2003, and the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre, the coordinating mechanism in fighting transborder drug trafficking, opened in Kazakhstan in 2009, she said.

CSTO was making serious efforts to build and strengthen anti-drug "security belts" around Afghanistan

Terrorist Bombing in Baghdad Wounds 3 Iranian Pilgrims

TEHRAN (FNA)- At least three Iranian pilgrims were wounded in a terrorist attack on their bus in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad at midday.

FNA dispatches from Baghdad said a remote-controlled bomb blasted on the way of a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in Taji town in Baghdad, wounding three Iranian pilgrims.

Iraqi police forces transferred the wounded pilgrims to Taji hospital immediately after the attack.

More that 1,500 pilgrims come from the neighboring Iran each day to visit Shiite shrines in Iraq, mainly in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

The shrine of Imam Ali (PBUH) is located in Najaf and the shrine of Imam Hussein (PBUH) is located in Karbala.

Violence is at the lowest in the country ever since the US invasion in 2003, but Iraq's cities have seen a surge of terrorist attacks in recent weeks.

Many Iraqis believe that the surge is the result of a US plot to set the stage for an extension of its military mission in Iraq which comes to an end in just the next three months.

After several bomb blasts in the holy city of Karbala took the lives of scores of people late last month, Iraqi politicians condemned the US for the terrorist attacks and said the explosions took place as a result of a US plot to justify its longer military buildup in Iraq.

Spokesman of al-Ahrar Faction in the Iraqi parliament Mashreq Naji took the foreign and occupying forces responsible for the blasts in the holy city of Karbala, which killed at least 15 and wounded 113 more, and said the US is seeking to create an excuse for extending its mission in Iraq.

"The US occupying forces should be blamed for the yesterday blasts in the holy city of Karbala and they should account for it to the people," Naji told FNA at the time.

He said such moves are aimed at stirring or intensifying sectarian strife between the Shiite and Sunni populations in a bid to create a pretext for the extension of the occupying troops' mission in Iraq.

Naji described unity among different groups and tribes in Iraq as the only way to encounter such plots, and said, "The political groups should keep united against the enemies of Iraq since it is the only way to fight these infidel groups.

"We will be able to foil all their plots through our unity."

In relevant remarks, a spokesman for the Shiite Sadr Movement stressed that the multiple blasts in Karbala served as part of a broader plot hatched to spark sectarian strife in Iraq to justify a longer US military presence in the war-torn country.

"These explosions are mainly aimed at intensifying differences and ethnic tension between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis to prepare the ground for extending the security deal and the US military mission in Iraq," Sheikh Saleh al-Obeidi told FNA last month.

Russia and China face criticism for backing 'violent' Syrian regime

Source: Independent

World leaders and Syria's newly formed opposition movement united to condemn Russia and China yesterday for vetoing an attempt to up the pressure against President Bashar al-Assad if he failed to rein in his violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

The rejection of a UN Security Council resolution that threatened sanctions against the Baathist regime late on Tuesday came despite EU nations watering-down a previous draft to try to win Russian and Chinese support. Moscow and Beijing have economic and strategic interests tied up in Syria.

The US and EU have already issued numerous sanctions targeting Baathist leaders. Last month European governments struck an agreement banning imports of Syrian oil – a blow to Damascus, which had sold virtually all of its oil supplies to the EU. Yet the failure to reach a UN consensus will give succour to Mr Assad's regime, which would have been under enormous pressure if Russia and China had decided to rubber stamp the sanctions.

Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said his country would plough ahead with its own sanctions against the Syrian regime. "Turkey and either some or all of the European Union nations, and who knows which others, will take steps," he said.

Addressing the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday, the Foreign Secretary William Hague said Moscow and Beijing had made the wrong decision. "The decision of Russia and China to veto this resolution and to side with a brutal regime rather than the people of Syria is deeply mistaken," he said.

His French counterpart, Alain Juppe, issued an unusually angry statement which denounced Mr Assad as a "dictator who is massacring" his own people and pledged support for the Syrian opposition. The failure was also met with dismay from activists as well as members of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the political opposition movement established this week in a bid to help topple Mr Assad.

"We're disappointed," Molham al-Drobi, a Muslim Brotherhood member who sits on the SNC's secretarial committee, said. "By taking this action [Russia and China] are actually causing more deaths and more bloodshed around the country." An activist called Osama from the Syrian city of Homs told The Independent he was "shocked and disgusted" by Russia and China. "We feel that they are now officially partners in the crime against us," he said.

Moscow has a long-standing strategic relationship with Damascus, its last remaining toehold in the Middle East. The Russian military has a Soviet-era base on Syria's Mediterranean coast, while previous Communist governments propped up the President's father with large loans and also helped develop the country's modern infrastructure.

But Frederic Volpi, a Syria expert from the University of St Andrews, said Tuesday's vote also marked a Russian and Chinese "backlash" in response to Nato's recent campaign in Libya. The Russians and Chinese governments had a good relationship with Colonel Gaddafi," he said. "But the outcome of regime change seems to be that there is a new government which is much more pro-Western and far less likely to do deals with them. If the Libya scenario were to occur in Syria, they would not get anything out of it."

In spite of the failure to reach an agreement at the Security Council, some analysts still believe there are ways to pile pressure on Mr Assad. The Syrian economy is sagging heavily as a result of the crackdown, which human-rights groups say has killed more than 2,700 civilians since March.

Last month, the IMF revised its growth forecast for 2011, saying the economy would shrink by 2 per cent as opposed to the 3 per cent hike predicted in April. Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, said leaders would continue to apply pressure to the Syrian regime.

Contentious UN vetoes

Zimbabwe, 2008

Russia and China vetoed proposed UN sanctions that aimed to penalise President Robert Mugabe over the use of violence against civilians during Zimbabwe's elections in 2008. The resolution, backed by nine other nations including the UK and US, called for an arms embargo, as well as financial and travel restrictions on Mr Mugabe and other regime leaders. The arms embargo would have hit Russian and Chinese weapons exporters.

Israel, 2006

The US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that demanded Israel halt its attacks in Gaza in 2006. The proposal also called for Palestinian militants to release an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped in Israel earlier that year and ordered that rockets should not be launched at Israel from Gaza. Ten nations had voted in favour. In 2002, the US also blocked a draft resolution that criticised the killing of several UN employees by Israeli forces and the destruction of a World Food Programme warehouse in the West Bank.

Iraq, 2003

France and Russia signalled that they would veto a new resolution sanctioning war in Iraq in 2003, which led the US, UK and Spain to withdraw their draft and go to war without explicit UN backing.

Terror politics in the Philippines

Source: Atimes
MINDANAO - A series of mysterious bombings on the southern island of Mindanao has raised speculation that foreign-backed, local Muslim terror groups are ramping up and expanding their operations against government forces. However, it is just as likely the explosions are part and parcel of the region's tumultuous and often violent politics.

No group has come forth to claim responsibility for the bombings, two of which detonated near the headquarters of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Philippine intelligence reports have claimed that the incidents are linked to terror suspect Basit Usman, a reputed member of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and his trained cohorts from the notorious Abu Sayyaf group.

Police say they are now hunting some 20 terror suspects who reportedly have been trained by Usman and recently graduated from a bomb making course. These newly minted bomb makers have reportedly been trained to conceal bombs in liquefied petroleum gas tanks used for cooking and other terror techniques novel to the region, police say.

Authorities also believe that while the recent bombings have been limited to Cotabato province, the attacks have also likely served as test missions in preparation for bigger terror operations, potentially targeting the capital Manila and other urban centers. They have claimed that several JI members have recently arrived in Mindanao, including Beduh Abdul, a reputed classmate of Basit during their 1994 elite force training in bomb making, to execute the missions.

However, there is a gaping hole in those assessments: US intelligence reports claim that Usman was killed in a Central Intelligence Agency-led drone strike in Pakistan in January.

Security analysis firm Pacific Strategies and Assessments (PSA) wrote in a recent report that numerous past reports from Philippine authorities were based on "presumptions that all bomb blasts suggest foreign terrorist group connectivity, while warning Metro Manila was a likely future target". PSA notes that Philippine officials have often later retracted or contradicted earlier alarmist reports.

In response to such criticism, Philippine police say they now have video proof of actual terrorist bomb-making exercises, although they won't verify where or when the video was made.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, citing reports from national security adviser Cesar Garcia, said last week that Abu Sayyaf is now working closely with JI but that attacks on Manila were not imminent. He didn't elaborate on the information, revealing only that the intelligence had been shared among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Political motivations
Other sources view the recent bombings differently. One source familiar with the Mindanao's rough and tumble local politics believes the recent attacks are the work of a local official in Cotabato province who he declined to name for fear of reprisal. He contends the recent bombings are more accurately interpreted as election-related violence than terrorist operations.

"If it was terrorism you would have numerous casualties," the source said. "Obviously, the bombings were not meant to hurt many people."

The source contends that the bombings are a ploy to make the situation in Mindanao appear more volatile than it really is and to discredit the current ARMM chairman's ability to maintain security. Once a new head of the ARMM is elected, the source ventures, the anonymous bombings will likely cease.

The ARMM election was scheduled for August 8 but President Benigno Aquino and his allies in congress pushed for its postponement to synchronize the poll with mid-term elections due in May 2013. Congress instead allowed Aquino to appoint an officer-in-charge (OIC) who will replace the outgoing ARMM chairman, whose term ended on September 30, and remain in power until the next election.

There were initially 50 candidates considered for the OIC post, including former leaders of Muslim rebel groups and members of warring political clans. By mid-September the list was trimmed to seven and competition between top candidates for the politically powerful post heightened regional tensions and may have contributed to the bombings.

Aquino was reportedly set to name an OIC before leaving for the US until a Supreme Court decision ruled against the legality of postponing the ARMM election until 2013. The ruling declared the executive appointment of an interim OIC was unconstitutional and that the incumbent should have been allowed to serve until a new head was elected.

The Philippine government has long sought an end to autonomy-driven conflicts in Mindanao. With frequent government clashes with insurgents, fighting among competing political clans and roving kidnapping and extortion gangs that target foreigners, the news from Mindanao often puts the country's image in a bad and unstable light. Instability has greatly deterred both local and foreign investment.

According to Florangel Rosario-Braid, a noted scholar and academician, poverty is still the root cause of conflict in Mindanao. Decades of neglect and war have pushed the poverty rate to almost half of the population, making the region a fertile recruitment ground for insurgent and criminal groups. The poverty rate in ARMM is estimated at 45.7% while access to water, electricity and social services is among the country's lowest.

In a bid to stabilize the region through greater development, the government vowed to spend 30% of its annual infrastructure budget in Mindanao. Due to ongoing instability and government corruption, only a fraction of those earmarked funds have actually been spent in Mindanao. Notably none of the Aquino administration's major 32 public private partnership infrastructure projects is scheduled for Mindanao, according to Crisanto Frianeza, secretary general of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Although 75% of Mindanao's population is Christian, Muslim insurgent groups insist they should be given autonomy over the resource-rich island, an area they claim as their ancestral homeland dating to before the arrival of colonial Spain in the 15th century.

Many observers believe that the government's latest attempt to find a settlement with the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group fighting for autonomy, is doomed to failure since the MILF wants to create and govern a sub-state from territory it controls. Government negotiators have insisted that the Philippine constitution doesn't allow the creation of a sub-state and instead has offered an "enhanced autonomy" agreement.

Aquino earlier hinted he might be open to amending the constitution to bring peace to Mindanao. But the island's majority Catholic population is certain to oppose any changes that allow Muslim rebels to establish a sub-state. "Christians have stronger prejudices and biases against Muslims than the other way around," said a former mayor of Mindanao's General Santos City.

As long as those sentiments prevail, so too will instability and occasional unexplained bombs.

Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.

Saudi police open fire on civilians as protests gain momentum

Source: independent

Pro-democracy protests which swept the Arab world earlier in the year have erupted in eastern Saudi Arabia over the past three days, with police opening fire with live rounds and many people injured, opposition activists say.

Saudi Arabia last night confirmed there had been fighting in the region and that 11 security personnel and three civilians had been injured in al-Qatif, a large Shia city on the coast of Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province. The opposition say that 24 men and three women were wounded on Monday night and taken to al-Qatif hospital.

The Independent has been given exclusive details of how the protests developed by local activists. They say unrest began on Sunday in al-Awamiyah, a Shia town of about 25,000 people, when Saudi security forces arrested a 60-year-old man to force his son – an activist – to give himself up.

Ahmad Al-Rayah, a spokesman for the Society for Development and Change, which is based in the area, said that most of the civilians hit were wounded in heavy firing by the security forces after 8pm on Monday. "A crowd was throwing stones at a police station and when a local human rights activist named Fadel al-Mansaf went into the station to talk to them and was arrested," he said.

Mr Rayah added that "there have been protests for democracy and civil rights since February, but in the past the police fired into the air. This is the first time they have fired live rounds directly into a crowd." He could not confirm if anybody had been killed.

The Shia of Saudi Arabia, mostly concentrated in the Eastern Province, have long complained of discrimination against them by the fundamentalist Sunni Saudi monarchy. The Wahhabi variant of Islam, the dominant faith in Saudi Arabia, holds Shia to be heretics who are not real Muslims.

The US, as the main ally of Saudi Arabia, is likely to be alarmed by the spread of pro-democracy protests to the Kingdom and particularly to that part of it which contains the largest oil reserves in the world. The Saudi Shia have been angered at the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain since March, with many protesters jailed, tortured or killed, according Western human rights organisations.

Hamza al-Hassan, an opponent of the Saudi government from Eastern Province living in Britain, predicted that protests would spread to more cities. "I am frightened when I see video film of events because most people in this region have guns brought in over the years from Iraq and Yemen and will use them [against government security men]," he said. He gave a slightly different account of the start of the riots in al-Awamiyah, saying that two elderly men had been arrested by the security forces, one of whom had a heart attack.

"Since September there has been a huge presence of Saudi security forces in al-Qatif and all other Shia centres," he said. Al-Qatif was the scene of similar protests in March, which were swiftly quashed by security forces.

The Saudi statement alleges that the recent protests were stirred up by an unnamed foreign power, by which it invariably means Iran. The interior ministry was quoted on Saudi television as saying that "a foreign country is trying to undermine national security by inciting strife in al-Qatif". Saudi Arabia and the Sunni monarchies of the western Gulf have traditionally blamed Iran for any unrest by local Shia, but have never produced any evidence other than to point at sympathetic treatment of the demonstrations on Iranian television.

The 20 doctors in Bahrain sentenced to up to 15 years in prison last week say their interrogators tortured them repeatedly to force them to make false confessions that Iran was behind the protests. The counter-revolution in Bahrain was heralded by the arrival of a 1,500-strong Saudi-led military force, which is still there.

Mr Rayah, who flew from Saudi Arabia to Beirut to be free to talk about the protests, said: "People want a change and a new way of living." He said that, in particular, they were demanding a constitution and a free assembly for the Eastern Province. He also wanted the Society for Development and Change legally registered.

Mr Hassan blamed the protests on the fact "that there has been no political breakthrough".

"I am from the city of al-Safwa, which is very close to al-Awamiyah, and there is very high unemployment in both," he said. Some 70 per cent of the Saudi population is believed to be under 30 and many do not have jobs. "We were hoping for municipal reforms and regional elections for years but we got nothing."

He said reforms reported in the Western media were meaningless and that only a few Saudis had bothered to vote in the most recent local elections because local councils had no power.

Aid workers urged to stay after suicide blast

Source: independent

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has appealed to aid workers not to desert the famine-ravaged nation after militants linked to al-Qa'ida killed 70 people in a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu.

A truck bomb struck at the heart of the capital on Tuesday and the Islamist group al-Shabaab warned of more "serious blasts" at a time when aid groups are struggling to reach four million people, most of whom live in the rebel-controlled southern and central parts of Somalia.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said the rebels could not have "attacked the Somali people at a worse time", as the country struggles with the worst drought in decades.

"The donor community should not reduce their support to the Somali people," Mr Ali told journalists in the Ethiopian capital when asked if he feared the attack might force aid workers to stay away from providing humanitarian support. "We will make sure our security and national police force will work harder. The TFG [Transitional Federal Government] is committed to eliminating this threat."

Al-Shabaab pulled most of its fighters out of Mogadishu in August after government and African Union soldiers seized much of the capital. But the rebels vowed to fight on.

Analysts have warned the conflict is far from won and a shift in the insurgents' tactics could herald a wave of al-Qa'ida-style attacks. AP

Bomb targets Somali students

 

A suicide bomb blast yesterday claimed by al-Qaida-inspired rebels in Somalia killed at least 70 people in Mogadishu, the first such attack by the insurgents since pulling out of the city in August. Students awaiting exam results were among those killed

Somalia's al-Qaida-linked rebels struck at the heart of the capital on Tuesday, killing more than 70 people with a truck bomb in the group's most-deadly attack in the country since launching an insurgency in 2007.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed denounced the blast, which caused the most casualties among young students waiting for exam results at the education ministry, as a "cruel and inhumane act of violence." Another 150 people were wounded.
The African Union force in Somalia said a truck laden with drums of fuel rammed a checkpoint outside a compound housing government ministries in the K4 (Kilometre 4) area of Mogadishu, where students had gathered to register for scholarships offered by Turkey.
Hundreds of parents stood weeping outside the Madina Hospital in Mogadishu after being denied access for security reasons and nurses said they were overwhelmed.
The al Shabaab insurgents who carried out the attack later warned Somalis to stay away from government buildings and military bases. "More serious blasts are coming," their spokesperson, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told reporters.
Britain condemned the attack and France reasserted its support for the country's UN-backed transitional government.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was appalled by the vicious attack.
"It is very difficult to prevent these types of terrorist attacks which we have consistently warned are likely to be on the increase," the UN special envoy to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, said.
The government said no senior officials were hurt in the attack on the ministry buildings.
Al Shabaab insurgents pulled most of their fighters out of Mogadishu in August to allow government troops and African Union soldiers to seize much of the capital city.
But the rebels vowed to still carry out attacks on government installations.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Bomb+targets+Somali+students/5503361/story.html#ixzz1Zzil9C5o

Japan seeks India's cooperation against piracy, terrorism

Source: Moneycontrol

India today hoped that its strategic partnership with Japan would deepen further to build an edifice for peace and stability in Asia, as Tokyo sought expansion of areas of bilateral cooperation to deal with the growing menace of piracy and terrorism.

The two sides exchanged their views on these issues during a meeting between visiting Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar and Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba.

During the meeting, Kumar expressed sympathies on behalf of the people of India for the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March this year following a massive earthquake and tsunami and voiced the country's solidarity with Japan.

He expressed the hope that India and Japan would together deepen their strategic partnership so as to build an edifice for peace and stability in Asia, an official statement said.

Kumar informed the Japanese side that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ordered a comprehensive reinforcement of safety measures in India's nuclear power plants and added that India is prepared to move in this regard consistent with Japan's policies.

On his part, Gemba said the two countries should enlarge the areas of cooperation and together secure the safety of the sea lanes against piracy and terrorism so as to ensure maritime security and the security of energy supplies of both India and Japan.

He also stated that Japan supports the call for reform of the UN and multilateral institutions to reflect the new realities.

India is looking forward to the visit of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to the country in December and Kumar hoped that the strategic dialogue between the two countries will precede the annual summit meeting.

Kumar said that India remains committed to a fair and non-discriminatory non-proliferation regime and expressed appreciation for Japan's support to India in the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) for its civil nuclear energy programme.

He also proposed establishment of an Indo-Japan Science Centre in India.

The two ministers exchanged notes on the ways to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to further deepen their multifaceted engagement.

Exclusive: India's most wanted Maoists revealed

Click to play video

New Delhi: An Intelligence Bureau (IB) dossier with details of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) Politburo and central committee members has finally revealed some of India's most wanted. CNN-IBN has accessed the IB dossier which has the photographs and details of India's most wanted Maoist leaders.

The following are India's most wanted - the Politburo and central committee members of CPI (Maoist), who for more than 30 years now have challenged India's security establishment and often defeated them. These are the people who have been described by the Prime Minister as the biggest internal security threat.

The dossier has been prepared by the IB, Union Home Ministry and the police force of Naxal-affected states. The dossier lists the top brains behind the Naxal threat.

On top of the list, General Secretary Ganpati alias Laxman Rao, 61, carries a reward of Rs 24 lakh and is the main ideological pillar behind the Naxals. The dossier lists Ganpati's family members in Hyderabad, Dharmapuri and Karimnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Number two in the Politburo is Nambala Keshav Rao who comes from a family of government officials with a reward Rs 19 lakh on him. Rao's brothers are Vigilance and CMD level officers in Andhra Pradesh.

Kishanji, the masked darling of the press, is alive and active in the Orissa-Chhattisgarh forests while his younger brother Mallojula Venugopal is also a Politburo member.

Kattam Sudashan, Bureau Secretary of CPI (Maoist), is the alleged mastermind in April 2010 Dantewada massacre in which 76 security personnel were butchered. Kattam is believed to be still influential in the Dantewada region.

Pulluri Prasad Rao alias Chandranna is the secretary of the North Telangana special zonal committee.

Kishan alias Mahesh is the international face of CPI (Maoist) and believed to be the link between Indian and Nepali Maoists. Kishan is the only Bengali amongst the largely Andhra-dominated outfit.

Former DGP, BSF Prakash Singh said, "In any anti-insurgency operations, it is important to know your friends from your foes. These pictures, one hopes, will help that cause."

So far the men fighting the Naxals on the ground have complained that there is no way to find out if the man in the village store is a Naxal waiting to bomb you or an innocent villager. With the Central and state government's coordinating to reveal the identity of the top brass of CPI (Maoist), will it help the actual fight on the ground? Or will the stalemate in the war against Naxals continue?

Militants attack Shia Muslims in southwest Pakistan

Source: DNA Militants today stormed a bus carrying Shia Muslims in Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan, killing 13 men and injuring seven others in the latest of a string of attacks targeting the minority community.
Three gunmen travelling in a pick-up truck stopped the bus with about 30 passengers in Akhtarabad area on the outskirts of provincial capital Quetta, witnesses told the media.
Two gunmen entered the bus and fired indiscriminately, they said. Thirteen men, most of them Shia Hazaras, were killed and seven others injured, police said.
The injured were taken to the Bolan Medical Complex and those with critical wounds were shifted to Quetta’s military hospital. Officials described the condition of three of the injured as serious.
The attackers fled from the area before it was cordoned off by police and paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel.
City police chief Ahsan Mehboob removed a police officer from his post for failing to provide security to the bus in the wake of several attacks on vehicles carrying Shia Hazaras in Quetta and nearby areas.
A large number of Shia Hazaras reached the Bolan Medical Complex and staged a protest against the attack. The bus that was attacked was set on fire by angry protesters.
Some protesters shouted slogans against the police and the government for their failure to prevent attacks on Shias.
Some protesters accused the authorities of being in league with terrorists and demanded targeted operation and a crackdown on those who were attacking members of the Hazara community.

Inquiry blames Cyprus president for deadly blast

Sourse: CBS NEWS(AP)  NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus' president is mainly to blame for events that led to the explosion of seized Iranian munitions that killed 13 people and caused a political and economic crisis on the island, the head of an official inquiry said Monday.

But President Dimitris Christofias rejected the inquiry's conclusion that he bears personal responsibility for the blast, saying it is not supported by the evidence that was given during weeks of public hearings and that he won't step down.

The finding is not legally binding, and Christofias cannot be impeached under the Cypriot Constitution, but the inquiry's findings have likely quashed his chances at re-election when his current term in office ends in February 2013.

Christofias conceded some political responsibility for the blast as head of state and he apologized for the "omissions, mistakes and weaknesses that led to the tragedy." But he said resigning now would lead the divided island "to a period of instability and tension."

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek speaking south and a breakaway Turkish speaking north in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Currently, Cyprus is trying to reboot a stagnant economy, invigorate stalled reunification talks, and cope with threats from Turkey about its offshore oil and gas exploration.

Polys Polyviou, who led the inquiry, said Christofias was primarily responsible for the "inadequacy, negligence and carelessness" that led to the July 11 blast at a naval base. But Polyviou said two government ministers also share some responsibility for the disaster.

The explosion wrecked Cyprus' main power station and sapped public trust in Christofias' presidency amid calls for him to resign. The blast's impact on the economy also stoked fears that the island could be forced to seek a bailout from its European Union partners.

"My conclusion is that the main responsibility for the tragedy weighs on the president of the republic," Polyviou, a legal expert, told a nationally televised news conference to present the public inquiry's nonbinding findings.

Christofias had testified at the inquiry hearings that he was never told by subordinates just how dangerous the munitions were. He also denied any personal responsibility and blamed the disaster on "a failure of the system." He said that although he consented to destroying any material thought to pose a danger, nothing ever happened.

But Polyviou said Christofias had "very serious personal responsibilities," adding that he should have known about the dangers involved with the munitions and showed "inexcusable negligence which resulted in the death of 13 people."

Christofias said many of Polyviou's conclusions "obviously, and at first glance, lack the necessary proof, are unfounded and even contradict presented evidence." He also accused Polyviou of exceeding his mandate by delving into the government's handing of foreign policy.

The munitions — mostly gunpowder and some nitroglycerine stored in 85 containers — were seized in February 2009 from a Cypriot-flagged ship suspected of transporting it from Iran to Palestinian militants in Gaza through Syria. The United Nations ruled that the ship had breached a ban on Iranian arms exports.

The containers had been left piled in an open field inside the base for 2 1/2 years, exposed to wide temperature swings on the Mediterranean island. Military officials had warned five months before the explosion about the possibility that the munitions could spontaneously ignite as a result of their exposure to the elements.

Polyviou called the munitions "a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off" and that it was incumbent on the president to take measures that would ensure the munitions' safe storage.

Christofias said there is no evidence proving that he was primarily responsible for the munitions' safekeeping or that he knew how dangerous it was.

Polyviou said Cyprus' ministers of foreign affairs and defense — both of whom resigned because of the explosion — also shouldered plenty of blame for the handling of the matter that was "left to the mercy of the usual bureaucratic procedures."

A Foreign Ministry official had served as the main liaison between Christofias and the two ministers regarding the stockpile.

"The essence of the matter is that the president of the republic, in this instance, failed in his duty to implement the necessary measures for the safety of the citizens of the Cyprus republic and especially its military and fire department personnel," said Polyviou.

A separate, police-led probe into the explosion is also expected to conclude soon.

Polyviou said he had no doubt that serious crimes — including manslaughter — have been committed as a result of the blast, but that was a matter for the attorney general to pursue.

Bomb blast, shootout in north Nigerian city

Source: AFP
KANO, Nigeria — Attackers used explosives and gunfire to target a military patrol near a wedding in violence-torn northeastern Nigeria, with residents reporting two civilians killed in the violence.
The incident on Saturday, Nigeria's independence day, occurred in Maiduguri, hit by scores of attacks blamed on an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also claimed an August bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja.
"There was a bomb and gun attack on one of our patrol teams yesterday," said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, spokesman for a military task force deployed to Maiduguri. "Our men responded to the attack but details are still sketchy."
Residents reported that two people were left dead after the bomb blast and an exchange of gunfire between soldiers and residents. It was unclear whether they were killed by the bomb or gunfire.
Those attending a nearby wedding took cover when the violence broke out. Two residents said those killed were not part of the wedding.
Thousands have fled Maiduguri in recent months out of fears of further violence. Dozens of similar bomb blasts have hit the city as well as assassinations blamed on Boko Haram.
While most of its attacks have occurred in Nigeria's northeast, Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the August 26 bomb blast at UN headquarters in Abuja that killed at least 23 people.

Troops foil terror attack in Cotabato

Source: Philstar
COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Xinhua) -- Security forces on Sunday foiled a terror attack of suspected Muslim militants in the southern Philippines, police said.

Residents discovered a powerful homemade bomb fashioned from an 81-millimeter mortar shell in front of a government office in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato and immediately reported to police, said police commander Senior Superintendent Roberto Badian.

Bomb experts rushed to the scene and defused the bomb, Badian added.

On Saturday, an explosion hit the city but caused no casualties.

No group claimed responsibility for the twin incidents, but authorities blamed Muslim rebels in previous attacks in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao.

Terror groups merge in Philippines

Source: australian networks

An international counter terrorism expert has told a meeting of ASEAN military analysts that the terror groups Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf have merged in the southern Philippines.

Professor Rohan Gunarathna, of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, says Jemaah Islamiyah - or J.I - and Abu Sayyaf leaders, operate as one organization in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.

Professor Gunarathna told a two-day forum of ASEAN military analysts in Manila that a dozen J.I. operatives from Malaysia and Indonesia are planning terror attacks with the Abu Sayyaf.

He says the Abu Sayyaf has been able to carry out bomb attacks because of training and support given by the J.I.

The forum held in Manila allowed ASEAN intelligence analysts to share best practices and tools to combat terrorism.

Travel warning

The Australian Government has warned Australians travelling to Saudi Arabia and the Philippines of a very high threat of terrorist attack.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is asking Australians to reconsider any travel plans to the Saudi Arabia, saying terrorists may be planning an attack on oil infrastructure.

The Department says international terrorist organisations are calling for attacks against Westerners on the Arabian Peninsula.

It also says there have been recent protests in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and that such action is illegal under Saudi law.

"We continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners," DFAT's Smart Traveller website says.

DFAT says the advice has been reviewed and reissued but the overall level of the advice has not changed.

Philippines
Meanwhile, The Department of Foreign Affairs has also updated its travel advisory for the Philippines, raising concerns about terrorism, kidnapping and crime.

The Department says it continues to receive credible reports that terrorists are planning attacks against a range of targets in a variety of locations frequented by foreigners.

It says violent crime is also a significant problem and there's a danger of kidnapping throughout the Philippines, particularly in southern parts.

Travellers are being urged to exercise a high degree of caution.

Six killed in Iraq's twin blasts

Source: HT
At least six people were killed in two back-to-back roadside bomb blasts near the Iraqi capital Baghdad late on Sunday, Xinhua reported. Two members of the Sunni paramilitary group "the Awakening Council" were killed when their car detonated a roadside bomb in al Nibaie area, some 50 km north of Baghdad.

A second roadside bomb exploded minutes later when another vehicle carrying militiamen rushed to the scene. It killed four other people, said a police official requesting anonymity.
The Awakening Council is a consortium of Sunni militia, who once worked with al Qaeda in the aftermath of 2003 Iraq war against American occupation. But they turned their rifles to al Qaeda after the latter exercised indiscriminate killing against both Shi'ite and Sunni neighbourhoods.

Bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan kill 3

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A motorcycle-rickshaw packed with explosives blew up as it was driving on the outskirts of southern Afghanistan's main city Monday, killing two civilians, officials said.

The driver of the motorcycle appeared to be on his way to Kandahar city when the bomb detonated inadvertently, said Kandahar provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi.

The explosion, which killed two bystanders and wounded more than 10 others, did not appear to be a targeted attack, according to Ayubi and Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq.

However, a government minister says his car was nearby when the bomb went off, suggesting that he may have been the target. Border and Tribal Affairs Minister Asadullah Khalid said on Afghan television that he was driving toward development projects in Kandahar when the bomb exploded near his vehicle. He was not injured.

Civilian deaths have increased greatly in Afghanistan in recent years, largely because of insurgent bomb attacks.

Also Monday, a suicide bomber in an army uniform tried to force his way into the branch of Kabul Bank, which pays military salaries, on an army base in Kandahar city. A soldier guarding the entrance saw the explosives strapped to the man's body and started shooting at him, killing the attacker but also detonating the bomb strapped to his body, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry.

The attacker was killed, along with the soldier who shot him, Azimi said. Two other soldiers were wounded.

Assassinations of al Qaeda Leaders Designed To Keep Americans In The Dark

sOURCE: INFOWARS

It is hardly surprising that President Obama ordered the assassinations of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki since the last thing he wants is to bring any leader of al-Qaeda to trial. If the U.S. wanted bin Laden to have his day in court it might have had the Navy Seals go against his lightly defended hideout with stun grenades or tear gas instead of launching a shoot-to-kill attack.

As The New Yorker article “Getting bin Laden” of August 8 by reporter Nicholas Schmidle makes clear, the bin Laden slaying was a shoot-and-kill operation from the get-go and “all along, the SEALs had planned to dump bin Laden’s corpse into the sea.” Schmidle writes that when the SEALs came upon Obama in his three-story compound in Abbottabad that he was unarmed and that those guarding him had already been killed. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to capture him and put him on trial. Instead, by having the SEALs execute him, Obama made good on his 2008 campaign pledge, “We will kill bin Laden” and spared the American public the story of how the U.S. created al-Qaeda in the first place and why and how the terrorist band turned against Washington.

Reporter Schmidle writes the bin Laden slaying was a CIA covert operation, so it was a natural fit for the President. For years a CIA employee, Obama shares the Agency’s criminal outlook, which has long been the expropriation of the energy resources of the Middle East. To further this goal, Obama vastly increased the number of drone assassination terror strikes by the CIA over those ordered by his predecessor George W. Bush, and this escalation has also led, reliable sources inform us, to the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians—a figure that now may well number a thousand or more. I underscore: innocent civilians. Ask yourself, how any civilized man can purchase the destruction of an accused enemy at the price of the murders of so many innocent bystanders, including women and children?

And why no trials? Well, it is hard to think of any aggressorin history who sought to put his foreign captives on trial. As a rule, invaders don’t do that. The U.S. surely hasn’t done this in the Middle East. Of the thousands of “terrorist” captives (and I put the term in quotes because in my book a man is still innocent until proved guilty in court) arrested and held for years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and other hell holes, how many have been put on trial? How many have had lawyers? How many have had anything resembling due process? How many have been allowed to contact their families? The late entertainer Michael Jackson’s physician currently is on trial in a procedure exposed on nation-wide television—but which captive of the Pentagon allegedly guilty of the grave crime of seeking to destroy America by force and violence has been afforded a like opportunity to defend himself in a public trial?

If there was the slightest shred of justice in the CIA’s renditions, it has been obliterated by the burdens the U.S. has heaped on the several lawyers allowed to represent a handful of the accused, making it difficult for them to visit their clients, to speak to their clients, and to represent them fairly. Worse, the Pentagon has dressed military personnel in civilian suits and sent them to tell captives they are their court-appointed lawyers and can speak to them freely when, in fact, they are spies! And nothing points to American culpability so much as the widespread torture of captives. When, in the annals of human history, has a nation using such foul methods ever been in the right? When has any nation that closets men in secret prisons to deny access to them by the International Red Cross not had something ghastly to hide? When, in all of human history, has any nation that ever outspent all the other nations on the planet combined on armaments not been an aggressor state?

Let’s be clear about this: the nation that arrests suspects without first going before a judge to make its case is no respecter of human rights. Just the opposite. Its violation of international law is precisely what it accuses those it arrests of doing. Al-Awlaki’s slaying by the U.S. “is a real body blow against the United States Constitution by the Obama administration—the murder and assassination of a U.S. citizen in gross violation of the Fifth Amendment,” says Francis Boyle, the distinguished authority on international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign. This states: “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

Instead, Boyle says, this was a “Mafia-style ‘hit’” on a U.S. citizen authorized by President Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago whose action “proves how degraded and bankrupt legal education at such elite institutions has become.” Harvard’s moral bankruptcy, though, is the least of it.

The killing of al-Awlaki is no cause for rejoicing by the American people. Not only has President Obama once again authorized a murder but by denying al-Awlaki any chance of a fair trial Obama cheats the American people of their right to hear what the defendant has to say. One of the great blessings of trial by jury enshrined in centuries of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence is its educational aspect. There is not only sworn testimony presented by the involved parties but the opportunity to examine and cross-examine witnesses and to get at the motives for their conduct and to determine the truth of their positions. There is the opportunity to hear opening and closing arguments by both the defendant and the prosecution and to evaluate them calmly and weigh them one against the other. In the present situation, the prosecution is trying al-Awlaki, like bin Laden before him, in the compliant media of the American Warfare State.

Boyle charges that as the CIA originally established Al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan, “they are aware of all the dirty work we have been involved in around the world since about 1980 that we have had them doing, most recently in Libya. Hence, they all get Kangaroo Courts on Gitmo that are under the complete control of the Pentagon to silence and control whatever they have to say as well as their lawyers.” In short, bin Laden and al-Awlaki knew too much.

Finally, just as President Bush’s attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq created a precedent for waging deceitful and illegal “preventive wars,” so, too, has President Obama’s latest assassination established a precedent for the murder of Americans by the White House without jury trial, opening the door to the killing, say, of any president’s political opponents and dissenters. Where Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo failed miserably, Presidents Bush and Obama have brilliantly succeeded in turning America into a totalitarian state that can execute on a president’s whim. With luck, other peoples and nations will halt the spread of this American empire using creative non-violence rather than the use of force. The way to fight fire is with water. #

(Sherwood Ross was active in the civil rights movement and has worked as a reporter for major dailies and as a columnist for several wire services. He currently runs a public relations firm “for good causes” and directs the Anti-War News Service. To contact him or contribute to his news service, email sherwoodross10@gmail.com) #

Al-Awlaki, al-Qaeda and drones

Source: The Hindu

The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone attack in Yemen shows the extent to which the C.I.A has succeeded in putting together an effective intelligence gathering system on the ground to track al-Qaeda's leadership. It is the second important catch for the United States after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this year. Awlaki had been on the C.I.A radar ever since a U.S. military doctor killed 13 fellow soldiers at a Texas military base in 2009. Immediately before that incident, the medic had exchanged emails with the American-born Yemeni cleric who lived and preached in the U.S. until 2002. Awlaki was said to have inspired others arrested in the U.S. for terrorist plots, such as the Nigerian ‘underwear bomber,' and the Pakistani-born Times Square bomber. He was also linked to the 2010 airline parcel bomb, and though he was never named in the 9/11 attacks, three of the bombers were said to be in frequent contact with him. President Barack Obama has described him as the chief of “external operations” of “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” But his role was more of a propagandist whose fluent English and insider knowledge of the west appealed to the young American and British Muslims al-Qaeda sought to radicalise and recruit. Also killed in the attack was another American citizen, Samir Khan, who was the editor of al-Qaeda's magazine Inspire. More than Awlaki's elimination, the gain for Washington would be the panic and insecurity that the manner of his killing is likely to have created in the top al-Qaeda leadership: from a Hellfire missile fired by an unmanned plane that had the information to pinpoint his location exactly as he travelled with companions across a desert in North Yemen.

Believing the al-Qaeda's Yemen operations were now a bigger threat than what was left of it in Pakistan, the C.I.A sought to expand its covert war against the group by building a secret base in the Arabian peninsular region earlier this year. Awlaki's killing would seem to be a fairly quick payoff. As Pakistan and Yemen are thought to cooperate in the C.I.A's drone operations, the question of U.S. violation of the national sovereignty of those countries finds no resonance in the world today, despite the dangerous precedents it sets in international relations. It is ironical that Awlaki's killing has drawn protests against the Obama administration's denial of due process to an American citizen. Something is clearly wrong if American rights activists can work up so much outrage on behalf of a fellow citizen linked to al-Qaeda but not for the innocent civilians who perish in C.I.A's drone attacks in Pakistan.

Top al-Qaeda bomb maker survived drone strike

Source: telegraph

The hopes of US officials have been dashed after it emerged that al-Qaeda's top bomb maker in Yemen survived the drone strike that killed American terror cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. 

Anwar al-Awlaki, above, died in Friday's drone strike in Yemen, but top bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is still alive 

American propagandist Samir Khan, who published a slick English-language web magazine that spouted al-Qaeda's anti-Western ideology, died alongside Awlaki in the strike on Friday.

US intelligence had said it appeared that bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri was among the dead, leading to hopes they had killed three of al-Qaeda's top leaders.

However on Sunday a Yemen official confirmed that Asiri did not die in the attack. It was not clear is Asiri had been in the attack but survived, or if he was not in the area at the time of the strike.

The Saudi-born Asiri, 29, who is of Pakistani descent, was tied to the so-called underwear bomb that was used in an attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day in 2009. A Nigerian man has been charged in that attack.

Asiri was also believed to have been behind an intercepted pair of explosives-laden printers that were mailed from Yemen to the US in 2010.

He has been described as a critical component of al-Qaida's activities in Yemen and his death would be a significant blow to the organization.
Even before officials determined Asiri had not died in the strike, anti-terrorism experts noted that al-Qaeda remained a powerful threat in Yemen. Months of political turmoil in the Mideast nation has helped the group grow stronger.
 

 

 

Report: Al Qaeda's Yemen Chiefs Still a Menace to U.S.

WASHINGTON –  The killing of American-born Al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki may weaken the Yemen branch's ability to attack the United States, but the only way to eliminate the threat is to take out its Yemen leaders, according to a new report by a top Army counterterrorism center.

Terror chief Nasir al-Wahayshi, who used to work for Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and other key figures are the real secret to the group's survival, and are equally committed to attacks on the U.S. homeland, according to the report released Monday by the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center.

A year in the making and written before Friday's drone strike that killed al-Awlaki and fellow U.S.-born propagandist Samir Khan, the report also suggests that its leaders' strength is key to the group's end. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's "reliance on this capable leadership is simultaneously the group's central vulnerability," said study editor Gabriel Koehler-Derrick.

"Removing these leaders from the battlefield ... would rapidly bring about the group's defeat," according to the study, made available exclusively to The Associated Press.

Al-Wahayshi was in charge when the group launched its first official attack, the dual suicide bombing of U.S. oil facilities in Yemen in 2006.

Another key figure still at large is military leader Abdullah al-Rimi, who is wanted for questioning in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, in 2000, in which 17 American sailors were killed.

Audio statements by both men "demonstrate unequivocal calls for jihad and attacks against the U.S." but have received less attention because they're in Arabic, Koehler-Derrick said.

In addition to targeting those leaders, the study's authors argue the Yemeni government can help defeat the group by cutting deals with a growing list of local opponents. Since unrest started in Yemen as part of the cascade of revolts known as the Arab Spring, Al Qaeda's recent military campaign to seize and hold territory inside Yemen has won it many new enemies, the study authors assert.

Bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri has backed seizing territory in Yemen to start down the road of establishing an Islamic caliphate, according to a senior intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

But that has woken two sleeping giants: the Yemeni government and the country's powerful tribes.

Before Al Qaeda attacked the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, there was an unwritten understanding that the government would largely leave Al Qaeda alone as long as it left the regime in peace, according to two U.S. counterterrorism officials. They spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive policy clash with the Yemeni government, which frustrated the Americans because it meant there were certain parts of Yemeni territory where the U.S. was unable to operate.

The Yemeni government started allowing the U.S. a freer hand after Al Qaeda attempted to send explosive devices hidden in printer cartridges aboard U.S.-bound cargo planes last year, but only "allowed the U.S. to take the gloves off" once Al Qaeda joined in the uprising and started seizing large swaths of Abyan province, one of the officials said.

That's when the Yemeni government started sharing much more intelligence with U.S. counterterrorism officials, and allowed them increase the presence of CIA officers and military advisers inside the country, working alongside Yemeni forces.

The Yemenis still don't allow the U.S. to fly armed drones and spy planes from Yemeni territory, instead forcing them to fly from a nearby secret CIA base in a nearby country, as well as bases in Djibouti and a temporary post in the Seychelles. But Yemen has allowed the U.S. to increase the number of flights and the territory they cover, even suggesting occasional targets which may or may not be Al Qaeda-related -- so much so that the U.S. has had to guard against the Saleh government employing U.S. firepower against other internal rivals to stay in power, the two U.S. officials said.

As for Yemen's tribes, Al Qaeda has "utterly failed" at winning them over, Koehler-Derrick said. "None of its prominent leaders are tribesmen and it enjoys no formal alliance with Yemen's tribes," he said.

And in the power struggle among Yemeni tribes and opposition political parties, Al Qaeda falls to the bottom of the heap in terms of public popularity, Koehler-Derrick added.

If the Yemeni government cuts deals with its opponents, as Saleh has done in the past, they'd form a majority that would overwhelm Al Qaeda, the report suggests. That would also undermine Al Qaeda's message that change only comes through jihad -- a religious struggle. Instead, as in the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, it would signal that change can come through a far more secular form of revolution.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/03/report-al-qaedas-yemen-chiefs-still-menace-to-us/#ixzz1ZixDWtEn