Terrorism Watch

Saturday, 14 January 2012 The Kurdish Globe By Mehmed Sabri Akgönül Investigations continue, but the damage is irreversible The Roboski massacre will not be the last mass killing as Turkey moves forward with its new war strategy against the PKK. On 28 December 2011, Turkish Military Forces (TSK) used F16's, killing 35 Kurdish villagers who were allegedly smuggling gas and tea from Iraqi Kurdistan. They were returning to Roboski village linked to Qilaban (in Turkish Uludere), in the district of Shirnak, close to the Iraqi border. The Diyarbakir chief prosecutor's office launched an investigation, and on 8 January 2012, Gendarmerie Col. Hussein Onur Guney, Deputy Commander of the Gulyazı (in Kurdish Bujeh) Border Regiment, was removed from his post by the Turkish Interior Ministry. This is yet to be announced formally. Turkish military authorities claimed that the road was bombed because it was known as the Kurdistan Workers, Party's (PKK) transit road, and frequent

Washington (CNN) -- Three men received sentences Friday ranging from 15 to 45 years for their roles in a homegrown terrorism ring based in North Carolina. Hysen Sherifi, a native of Kosovo and a legal permanent resident of the United States, was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Ziyad Yaghi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, got almost 32 years. The two men were convicted in October of plotting to kill people overseas and of conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism. Sherifi also was convicted of conspiring to kill a federal officer or employee and of two firearms charges. The third man, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism. All three are in their 20s and had pleaded not guilty. The men were part of a ring that prosecutors said was thought to comprise eight people. The leader, Daniel Patrick Boyd, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to kill people overseas and of material support for terroris

Twenty gunmen were killed Thursday in clashes between Zaidi Shiite rebels and Sunni Salafist gunmen in northern Yemen, a security official said, the AFP reports. Clashes erupted in the morning in the northwestern Hajjah province between rebel gunmen, known as Huthis, and Sunni extremists, the local official told AFP. The official said the gunfight took place in the city of Mustaba, close to the Red Sea port city of Midi, at the border with Saudi Arabia. Source http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2012/01/14/yemen/

JERUSALEM - Hackers claiming to be from the Gaza Strip defaced the website of the Israel Fire and Rescue services, posting a message saying "Death to Israel," a spokesman said on Friday. Fire service spokesman Yoram Levy said that attackers who identified themselves as the "Gaza Hackers Team" struck its website late on Thursday and posted a picture of Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon with footprints over his face. "There was some writing in Arabic and a picture of Danny Ayalon," Levy said, adding that by Friday morning the site was largely back to normal." Last week, Ayalon said Israel would respond to cyber-attacks in the same way it responds to violent "terrorist" acts, by striking back with force against hackers who threaten the Jewish state. His remarks came after hackers claiming to be from Saudi Arabia published details of tens of thousands of Israeli-owned credit cards online. Earlier this week, Ayalon said

A Woodlawn man watches online videos of Osama bin Laden, posts about jihad on his Facebook page, and — according to federal prosecutors — agrees to a plot to detonate a bomb at a military recruiting center in Catonsville. An Ellicott City teen is accused of using the Internet to solicit volunteers and money for a jihadist war in South Asia and Europe. A former Army private from Laurel comes across an Islamic website, becomes a Muslim and makes plans to join a State Department-designated terrorist group in Somalia so he can live under Sharia law. That soldier, Craig Benedict Baxam, is the most recent Marylander accused of finding his way to Islamic extremism online. He was charged last week by federal authorities with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. A besieged al-Qaida, weakened by 10 years of war, the killing of bin Laden and the removal of other top leaders, is now focusing much of its attention on inspiring recruits in the United St

Thai police were on alert Saturday in Bangkok after the US and Israeli embassies issued warnings against possible "foreign terrorist attacks" in the capital. Security was increased at the Israel embassy and in popular tourist areas, Police Chief Priewpan Damapong told the Bangkok Post. On Friday night, police detained a Lebanese man suspected of having links to Hezbollah militants at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, shortly after the US embassy issued an alert. "We're encouraging all US citizens to maintain a heightened sense of awareness, be alert to unattended packages and bags, and to report suspicious behaviour to the nearest law enforcer," the embassy said. Officials did not specify what prompted the warning. "Thai authorities have been aware of this possible threat throughout, and we've been working together with friendly countries on this issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said. In the late 1980s, terrorists

Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing SAN ANGELO, Texas — It's funny in an Orwellian way that in Europe there are now militant groups with such cutesy names as Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4Holland. Less funny, but perhaps more Orwellian: Last month, the European Foundation for Democracy held an event in Amsterdam featuring two speakers who favor liberalizing Islam. More than 20 members of the pro-Sharia groups pushed their way in shouting "Allahu Akhbar!" They demanded the event be stopped, called the speakers apostates, spat on them, threw eggs at them and threatened to kill them. Now here's the least funny and most Orwellian part: Few Europeans — few journalists, politicians, members of the self-proclaimed Human Rights community, Muslim organizations claiming to be moderate — have expressed outrage over this boot-stomping suppression of free speech in a city, country and continent that claim to

Two Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan after the vehicle they were travelling in was struck by an improvised explosive device. The Defence Force says the incident occurred yesterday in Uruzgan province during a troop transfer between locations. The soldiers suffered minor wounds in the blast. They were evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility at Tarin Kot where they are in a satisfactory condition. The acting deputy commander of joint operations, Commodore Michael Noonan, says the response to the detonation by the soldiers in the convoy highlights the effectiveness of their preparation for the deployment. "As soon as the device detonated, the area was secured and first aid commenced on the two wounded," Commodore Noonan said in a statement. "A medical evacuation was quickly organised and the two men are now resting comfortably in a satisfactory condition in Tarin Kot." One of the wounded soldiers was from Mentoring Task Force 3 and the

A bomb killed at least 30 Shiite pilgrims near the southern port city of Basra on Saturday, Iraqi officials said. It was the latest in a series of attacks during Shiite religious commemorations that threaten to further increase sectarian tensions just weeks after the U.S. withdrawal. Basra hospitals have received 30 killed and 90 wounded after the blast, said Dr. Riyadh Abdul-Amir, the head of Basra Health Directorate. Witnesses said the attack occurred outside the town of Zubair, southwest of Basra, as pilgrims were making their way to a Shiite shrine nearby. A police official confirmed the death toll. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to release details to the media. The governor of Basra province's spokesman, Ayad al-Emarah, said it was not clear whether the blast was caused by a suicide attacker or a roadside bomb. Zubair is a predominantly Sunni enclave in Iraq's largely Shiite south. The explosion came as Shiites commemorate the climax of Arbaee

BERLIN -- "Ten murders traced to neo-Nazi terrorists!" More and more ugly facts splashed through the German media, with echoes around the world. Politicians from the "respectable" parties expressed shock and surprise. In 2007 a German policewoman had been shot to death and her colleague badly wounded. The murder weapon was now found in a partly burned-out building in the East German town of Zwickau. Nearby lay the corpses of two men, probably suicides, both guilty of a recent bank robbery and mostly likely of killing the policewoman. Nine retail merchants, eight of Turkish, one of Greek background had also been murdered as far back as 2000, often with the same weapon. The two men and a woman accomplice who has since given herself up to police belonged to a "National Socialist Underground" with a brutal Nazi program. Why did it take years to find the culprits? Another group member, arrested on November 12th in Hannover, was arrested in 2006 for mailing ph

Hacktivist collective Anonymous published thousands of names and e-mail addresses connected to Germany’s far-right National Democratic Party. In support of its “Operation Blitzkrieg” campaign, the German wing of Anonymous created the “Nazi-Leaks.net” website and posted the information from the NPD, including contacts from a right-wing newspaper and names taken from neo-Nazi online store lists. The loosely organized collective has been busy lately disrupting those it opposes and aiming to bolster those it supports. The group’s latest efforts highlight its disdain for neo-Nazis, but aren’t the first to feel the collective’s wrath. For example, last month in the U.S., Anonymous shut down the Florida Family Association’s website, which was rallying against the TLC network show “All-American Muslim.” The hackers targeted the group’s homepage, saying it destroys free speech. The hackers also exposed the email and IP addresses of more than 30 FFA newsletter subscribers and donors and li

ROME: Organised crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country's biggest "bank" and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report on Tuesday. Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a "national emergency," said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa. Organized crime now generated annual turnover of about 140 billion ($178.89 billion) and profits of more than 100 billion euros, it added. "With 65 billion in liquidity, the Mafia is Italy's number one bank," said a statement from the group, which was set up in Palermo a decade ago to oppose extortion rackets against small business. Organised crime groups like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Naples Camorra or the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta have long had a stranglehold on the Italian economy, generating profits equivalent to about 7% of national output. Extortionate lending had become an increasi

Angelina Jolie makes her directing debut with a powerful drama set amid the "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosnian War. The drama, and another film on the atrocities in Bosnia, are drawn from true stories of brutality toward women in that 1990's conflict. "Who were you …before the war?" asks Serbian commander Danijel of his captive, a Muslim woman named Ajila from Sarajevo. Their complicated relationship plays out during In The Land of Blood and Honey, written and directed by actress and human rights activist Angelina Jolie. "I just wanted to tell a story about human beings from all sides and how war affects them," explains Jolie. Her visits to refugee camps and war zones as United Nations goodwill ambassador motivated Jolie to research and write the script about the systematic rapes and murders during the Bosnian conflict. Angelina Jolie talks about "In The Land of Blood And Honey" "When I started to look into it and I traveled

A new French report appears to erase suspicions that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his associates triggered the events leading to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Previous accusations froze French-Rwandan ties that only recently have warmed up. Commissioned by two French investigating judges, the report apparently dismisses a central French accusation behind the Rwandan genocide about the origins of a 1994 missile that destroyed a plane carrying Rwanda's then-president Juvenile Habyarimana. The plane crash helped trigger the genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 people. A previous French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, concluded the missile had been fired by rebels led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame. But at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday, lawyers for the Rwandan defendants say a new probe by French judges concludes the missile was fired from the base of Habyarimana's own soldiers. "It means the camp controlled by the Hutu power

A Russian policeman was killed and at least eight of his colleagues were wounded when a powerful bomb exploded as they were attempting to defuse it in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan. Russia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday the bomb was found near the village of Komsomolskoye, in the northern part of Dagestan. The ministry says the device included several canisters, one of which exploded as police tried to defuse them. Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia, plagued by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency. Separatists in neighboring Chechnya fought two major wars against the Russian government. Although the major fighting ended about a decade ago, attacks on government targets continue almost daily. source http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/01/11/russian-police-officer-killed-while-defusing-bomb-in-dagestan/

Red Cross says it won’t resume supplies until convoys can be guaranteed One of the few organizations providing urgent food and other humanitarian aid to over a quarter of a million people in the conflict areas in Somalia has announced it is halting supplies saying Islamic militants had suddenly and inexplicably begun blocking supplies. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stressed that decision applied to only parts of central and southern Somalia and is only temporary. A spokeswoman for ICRC said their coordination with the Al-Shabaab, the Islamic group that controls large swathes of the war-torn country, had inexplicably ended. “The problem is that our convoys, which are bringing the food to the places where we want to bring them, have been blocked by local authorities on the ground now,” Anna Schaaf, told The Media Line. “When I say local authorities I mean those who are related to Al-Shabaab because, of course, they are controlling the territories.” Schaaf sa

GARISSA, Kenya — An al-Qaida affiliated Somali militant group said Thursday that it took several hostages in a raid in northern Kenya that killed at least six people. Three policemen, a civil servant and a primary school teacher were among the six killed in the attack late Wednesday, said North Eastern Province Police Commissioner James ole Seriani. A pregnant woman was also killed, said relative Adan Gedi. Seriani said at least four government officials are missing, including a district officer. The press release from the Somali militant group al-Shabab did not specify how many hostages had been taken from the northern town of Gerille, near the Somali border, but said their identities would soon be released. Al-Shabab said seven people were killed and that they seized vehicles, communication equipment and a cache of weapons. The seizure of a police vehicle and communication equipment was confirmed by the officer commanding the police division in Wajir, George Tonui. Seriani s

ISLAMABAD, Jan 12 (APP): Nine Pakistani sailors and five Iranian have been rescued by the Danish Navy Vessel ABSALON off the coast of Somalia.According to Danish embassy the Danish Navy Vessel, which is participating in NATO’s anti-piracy Operation Ocean Shield took control of the hijacked Iranian fishing vessel TAHARI after following the ship overnight and conducting helicopter surveillance.ABSALON had received information from the Navy Operational Command, that had reported the suspected pirate ship. After use of warning shots and tear gas, the vessel was quickly brought to a halt and the Navy Maritime Action Team took control of the ship. Subsequently, it was found that the TAHARI’s original crew of nine Pakistanis and five Iranian nationals were on board and had been held hostage by 25 suspected pirates since November 2011. Danish Ambassador to Pakistan Uffe Wolffhechel said in a statement, “We are extremely glad to know that innocent people have been liberated.” He further sai

Kosmo! reported that there was an 88% increase in the number of cyber crime reports last year, with 15,281 cases last year. The highest number of cases 5,328 involved cheating, followed by 3,751 cases of spam and 3,699 cases of hacking. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said all complaints were channelled to the Cyber999 assistance centre. Source http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2Band%2BTech/Story/A1Story20120112-321336.html

The Israeli government has vowed to strike back after a cyber-attack breached security and nabbed credit card details from a large volume of its citizens. According to Reuters, the hacking of credit card details from thousands of Israeli citizens angered the government and considered the incident as one of the worst it has faced, likening the security breach to a form of terrorism. It was “a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such,” said Daniel Ayalon, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel. “Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action.” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Daniel Ayalon. Image: The Official CTBTO Photostream via Flickr (CC) The hacking attack focused on commercial sites and Ayalon said that Israel will not rule out the probability it was a “more organised and sophisticated” hacker group rather than one in

Violence surged in some previously calm areas like Veracruz in 2011 Mexican officials say that 12,903 people were killed in violence blamed on criminal gang rivalry between January and September last year. Murders in 2011 were 11% up on those for 2010, the federal attorney general's office said. But this was significantly less than the 70% rise in murders in 2009-2010. More than 40,000 people have died in drug-related violence since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon launched his crackdown on the drug gangs. The federal attorney-general's office (PGR) had not given any official figures on to drug-related murders since January last year. The statistics released now are an advance on the database the PGR is keeping on murders attributed to conflicts between rival criminal organisations. The PGR statement said that the 11% rise was "a significant decrease" on previous years. This compared with an increase of 70% in 2009-2010; 63% in 2008-2009 and a

The Santos government continues to urge rebels to lay down their weapons "We don't want more rhetoric, the country demands clear acts of peace," Mr Santos wrote on Twitter. He was responding to remarks by the rebels' new leader that they were "interested" in negotiations. Peace talks broke down in 2002 after the rebels hijacked a plane. President Santos has repeatedly stated that he is willing to talk to the rebels but only if they first release all the hostages they hold and end attacks. On Tuesday, he reiterated this position, saying the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (Farc) must take real steps towards peace. "They can forget a new Caguan," he wrote, referring to a demilitarised zone where peace talks were held between 1999 and 2002. The guerrillas were seen as having used those negotiations to buy time to re-arm and reinforce their ranks. Farc leader Rodrigo Londono - better known by his alias, Timochenko - said in a stat

The fighting happened as Russian forces confronted the rebels at a camp in heavily forested mountains, officials say. The militants had reportedly laid trip wires and mines around their hideout, which were buried under deep snow. Chechnya's long-running insurgency has recently spread to neighbouring areas. The fighting began on Sunday when a Russian security patrol came across the militants in the south of Chechnya, officials say. "During the pursuit of a bandit group in wooded mountainous terrain in Chechnya's Vedenskiy District, three bandits were destroyed," an unnamed security source told Russia's Interfax news agency. "Preliminary indications are that the militants were able to fortify their so-called camp and set up a large number of trip wire mines around it," the source told Interfax. "It was these mines that killed the law-enforcers." Militant hideout In addition to those who died, 16 other Russian servicemen were injur

A glaring failure by almost all European countries to check passports against an international database of lost and stolen travel documents is leaving the Continent vulnerable to a terrorist attack on the scale of the Madrid train bombings, the head of Interpol has warned. In what he said he hoped would not be his "last interview", Interpol's Secretary General Ronald Noble said nearly all EU members fail to make crucial checks against the agency's database of 15 million suspicious passports - allowing potential terrorists to enter Europe and cross multiple borders undetected. "So many basic steps aren't being taken, which could lead to another September 11, another July 7 (the 2005 London Underground bombings), another March 7 in Madrid," Mr Noble said. Speaking almost two decades after a terrorist used a stolen Iraqi passport to enter the US and bomb the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring 1,042, he added: "The lesson that sho

LONDON — Britain’s Justice Department was wrong to ban the BBC from filming an interview with a terror suspect held for seven years without trial, judges ruled Wednesday. The broadcaster said it wanted to film an interview with Babar Ahmad in prison to cover public interest issues, including the psychological and physical impact of prolonged detention without trial. Ahmad, 38, has been detained in Britain since 2004 on a U.S. warrant. He is accused of running websites used to raise money for terrorists. He has not faced charges in Britain and has been held without charge for the longest period of any British citizen detained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In December, lawyers for Justice Secretary Ken Clarke defended his refusal to grant the BBC request, saying the general policy was to block such interviews with prisoners. The lawyers argued that filming was not necessary to inform the public about Ahmad’s story, and that granting the request would set

Video footage of the Jarawa tribal women dancing for tourists, reportedly in exchange for food, on India's Andaman Islands, has created uproar among human rights campaigners. British newspapers - The Guardian and The Observer (a weekly) - earlier released the video indicating the involvement of local law enforcement personnel in "human safaris" on the islands. India's Tribal Affairs Minister, V. Kishore Chandra Deo, described the video as "deplorable" and said an investigation had been ordered. "You cannot treat human beings like beasts for the sake of money. Whatever kind of tourism is that, I totally disapprove of that and it is being banned also," the Minister told the Press Trust of India. The controversy surrounding the commercial exploitation of the Jarawas was first exposed by an NGO - Survival International - in 2010. The investigation exposed the fact that tourists were continuing to use the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) to enter the Jar

Belarus is just 40 kilometres away from the Lithuanian capital. Belarusian human rights campaigners use Vilnius as an asylum and distribution centre – yet the Lithuanian president keeps up a good relationship with the Belarusian despot The centre is so hidden that even the KGB hadn’t yet found it: who would voluntarily go along the kilometre-long rows of prefab houses and industrial barracks? Even someone who arrived at the destination would pretty quickly turn around again: the building appears abandoned, the sign on the door looks the worse for wear and there’s no bell. Only those initiated come across the threshold – to be surrounded by a hectic hustle and bustle. Olga Karatch, the leader of the human rights organisation Nash Dom (‘Our Home’), explains the plan for the coming weeks to two colleagues who have arrived from Minsk. Together with 300 volunteers they distribute the organisation’s newspaper throughout the country: 150, 000 copies – otherwise only the state media achi

12/01-2012 08:59, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency Human Rights Advocates Council of Kyrgyzstan extremely concerns over “increasing number and geographic expansion of ethnic clashes in the country”. This is voiced by civic activists today. “In the end of 2011 and in the beginning of 2012, incidents of ethnic character happened in a dozen of settlements of Kyrgyzstan – in Alabuka village of Jalal-Abad province, in Anderek village of Batken province, in such villages of Chuy province as Maevka, Petrovka, Zhany-Zher. Some conflicts were followed by pogroms and arsons of real estates belonged to ethnic minorities. There is still no information about arrests of even one of arsonists or pogromists. There is no information about intention of authorities to reconstruct destroyed property of citizens,” human right advocates sound the alarm. In their opinion “increasing character and geographic expansion of the violence is direct and obvious evidence of inadequacy of counter-moves made by autho

The latest instalment of the Jason Bourne Hollywood spy franchise began filming in the chaotic Philippine capital yesterday amid heavy security with the city on alert over a feared terrorist attack. Police officers with bomb sniffing dogs scoured a warren of Manila alleyways where British actress Rachel Weisz and her co-star, Jeremy Renner, shot scenes for the much anticipated Bourne Legacy movie. A 200-man crowd and traffic control team deployed by Manila authorities also blocked off a market road where the filming took place, while private security guards were in strategic places to thwart overzealous fans or strangers. “We want to ensure that this film ends here without a hitch,” said Ed Untalan, head of the local Task Force Bourne set up to co-ordinate security. Filming began just three days after President Benigno Aquino placed Manila security forces on alert over what he said was plot to bomb a Catholic procession on Monday not far from where the Bourne film is set. The att

China yesterday warned the US against interfering in its domestic affairs after Washington expressed “serious concern” over a spate of self-immolations by Tibetan monks. “The Chinese government attaches great importance to and safeguards the various basic rights of ethnic groups, including their freedom of religious belief,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters. “We firmly oppose making use of religious affairs to interfere in China’s domestic affairs,” he said in response to a question about Washington’s concerns. State media reported Monday that a Tibetan monk died after self-immolating in the northwestern province of Qinghai, taking to 15 the number of people who have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas in less than a year. It was the first time the Tibetan-inhabited province had been hit by such a death. Most self-immolations have taken place in neighbouring Sichuan province, in what rights groups say are protests against perceived religious repression. AFP

Protesters dance with traditional daggers in Sanaa yesterday during a demonstration against a draft law granting immunity to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh Reuters/Sanaa A Yemeni committee tasked with demilitarising the capital has given 48 hours to armed opponents and backers of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh to begin withdrawing after months of street fighting, state news agency Saba said yesterday. The presence of armed elements in Sanaa, defying an earlier deadline to leave their positions by the end of December, underlines the difficulty of restoring normality to the country, which was paralysed for most of 2011 by protests against Saleh. Tribal fighters led by Saleh’s opponents and Republican Guard troops commanded by the veteran leader’s son are still deployed in several areas of Sanaa, including the northern district of Hasaba, scene of some of the heaviest fighting. The 48 hours begin this morning, Saba said. It was unclear if the new deadline would