News

General security, policy

1. Iranian Reports of Downed U.S. Plane Are Contradictory, Official Says
By Gerry J. Gilmore Oct 7, 2008 American Forces Press Service
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51415
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2008 – A senior Defense Department spokesman dismissed Iranian-sourced reports that a U.S. military aircraft had been forced down in Iran. The Iranian reports he has reviewed contradict themselves, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. One story he read claimed that an American military aircraft had unintentionally violated Iranian airspace and had been forced to land in Iran, Whitman said. A subsequent Iranian state television report, he said, stated that the plane that was forced to land in Iran was not a U.S. military plane, but had Americans on board. Another Iranian TV report said the plane was not American, Whitman said. A follow-on Iranian state television report, Whitman continued, said the plane in question was Hungarian. “While we’re looking into those reports, there’s no evidence to suggest any of these reports are true, with perhaps the exception of the last one about some Hungarian plane,” Whitman said. There’s nothing to suggest the accuracy of any of the Iranian reports, he added. Officials at Multinational Force Iraq issued a statement today saying all U.S. aircraft are accounted for, and none is missing…

2. NATO doubts the world will stop Iran getting bomb
Mon Oct 6, 2008 1:01pm BST By Crispian Balmer Reuters

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE4952T820081006?sp=true

EVIAN, France (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday he was not certain the world can stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Scheffer told a conference in southeast France that NATO did not have a direct role to play in the issue, but said he was worried that the United Nations had failed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. "It is a major challenge to prevent Iran from continuing to strive to get the bomb," Scheffer told a World Policy Conference organised by France's IFRI foreign affairs think tank. "I am not positive about the world being able to stop Iran from fulfilling its ambitions," he added…

3. Russian Firm Denies Weapons Sales to Iran, Syria
Agence France-Presse Published: 6 Oct 09:39 EDT (13:39 GMT)

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3758180&c=MID&s=TOP

MOSCOW - Russia's arms-export monopoly denied Israeli claims Oct. 6 that it plans to deliver S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran or Syria, the Interfax news agency reported. "We have no information of this kind," a spokesman for Rosoboronexport said when asked about potential sales of the sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons to Tehran or Damascus. The denial came as outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was due to arrive in Russia for a two-day visit in which concerns over Iran are expected to top the Israeli agenda. His defense minister, Ehud Barak, urged Russia on Oct. 5 not to upset the strategic balance in the Middle East with arms sales to Muslim countries. Israeli media say the Jewish state is concerned by the possible sale of S-300s to Tehran, which could use them to foil Israeli or U.S. airstrikes against sites linked to Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program…

4. US bans arms sales to Eritrea

The Associated Press Monday, October 6, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/06/america/NA-US-Eritrea.php

WASHINGTON: The United States is banning arms sales to Eritrea over concerns that it is aiding terrorists in the Horn of Africa. U.S. officials have accused Eritrea of supporting terrorist groups tied to the Islamist opposition in Somalia. Ethiopia, with U.S. backing, helped oust the Islamist government in 2006. Thousands have been killed in fighting between the government and opposition since then. Members of the Islamist opposition are now operating in exile from Eritrea and gaining influence in Somalia. The leader of the opposition, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, is designated a terrorist under a U.N. Security Council resolution…

5. Army touts ability to adjust FCS to changing threats
By Megan Scully, CongressDaily 10/06/08

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081006_4790.php

Army Secretary Pete Geren said today that he expects the service will continue to make changes to Future Combat Systems, the cornerstone of its modernization efforts, to better position the Army to counter changing threats. Speaking at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting, Geren said the Army's current plans for the program are a "good way ahead now." But any long-term transformation program like FCS is "going to evolve as the threat evolves," the former Texas House member said. "That is the nature of the beast.". In June, the Army announced that it would focus on fielding FCS first to infantry brigades, marking a major departure from initial plans that called for sending the first batch of war-fighting technologies to heavy units. Infantry brigades, which have been used heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan, will begin receiving pieces of FCS in 2011-- three years earlier than planned. FCS is a system of manned and unmanned air and ground vehicles tied together by a complex electronic network. Both Geren and Army Chief of Staff George Casey emphasized in comments today that the Army remains committed to the FCS program, the largest and most expensive development program in the service's history. FCS has been met with some criticism on Capitol Hill, particularly within the House where several key lawmakers have raised concerns about the cost and feasibility of the program…

6. Intell CIO to make standards the standard
By Ben Bain Federal Computer Week Published on October 3, 2008
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/154000-1.html

The intelligence community is taking a new standards-based approach to information security that officials believe will improve information sharing and cooperation across national security agencies and beyond. According to a directive signed last month, the intelligence community’s chief information officer will issue communitywide standards in the area of information technology risk management, systems certification, and accreditation and system interconnectivity. The CIO, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will be responsible for monitoring agencies’ compliance and resolving disputes between agencies. The intelligence community is made up of 16 agencies, which have followed their own security standards and processes. But that approach does not reflect the nature of their work, according to the directive….

7. Armor Holdings Products LLC Pays U.S. $30 Million for the Sale of Defective Zylon Bullet-Proof Vests

Department of Justice Tuesday, October 7, 2008
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/October/08-civ-901.html

CIV (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888

WASHINGTON - Armor Holdings Products LLC has agreed to pay the United States $30 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly manufacturing and selling defective Zylon bullet-proof vests, the Justice Department announced today. The United States alleged that Armor Holdings manufactured and sold Zylon bullet-proof vests despite possessing information showing that the Zylon materials degraded quickly over time and were not suitable for ballistic use. The Armor Holdings vests were purchased by the federal government, and by various state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies that were partially reimbursed by the United States under the Justice Department’s Bulletproof Vest Partnership program…

Air, rail, port, health & communication infrastructure security

IPT NOTE: For more infrastructure news, see Dep’t of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/editorial_0542.shtm; Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/dir/index-eng.aspx

8. Airport bomb scans tested in busy terminals
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY October 7, 2008

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-10-06-terminal-scans_N.htm

Every traveler in the post-9/11 era gets watched at airport checkpoints. But sometime soon, you may be checked for a bomb at the airport entrance. Fearing that terrorists with suicide vests may blow up crowded sections of airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the first time is looking at ways to scan people as they walk through terminals. Machines recently tested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Denver International Airport could pave the way for more airports to get the technology. It works this way: A scanner is mounted on a tripod at a busy part of an airport terminal, pointing at people 30 feet away. The $210,000 machine, which looks like a spotlight, reads the energy emitted from a human body. It looks for "cold" spots where dense objects — such as bombs — block energy. When the scanner sounds an alarm, a screener can call police to handle anyone who seems dangerous. The machine was tested in August and September, and could be added at more airports, train stations and ferry terminals, TSA spokesman Christopher White said…

9. Chemist is charged after car blast probe
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 The Times of Trenton (NJ) BY ALEX ZDAN

http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1223352318175050.xml...

CRANBURY -- Finally breaking their silence about the investigation into a mysterious explosion that destroyed a car nearly two weeks ago, authorities announced yesterday that the vehicle's owner was arrested after experts determined the blast was caused by volatile chemicals smuggled home from the corporation where the suspect works as a chemist. Dalbir Sethi, 65, was arrested Friday at his home in the 100 block of Plainsboro Road and charged with causing or risking widespread injury or damage, and also obstructing the administration of law, according to the New Jersey State Police, which made the arrest along with Cranbury police. Authorities did not reveal yesterday what substances Sethi allegedly brought home from his job at chemical company FMC Corp., but said they suspect he might have intended to use them to clean out his household septic system. Authorities confirmed that their investigation -- which involved members of the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force -- found no connection or suspected connection to terrorism…

10. Researcher finds evidence of massive Web site compromise
More than 200,000 Web sites have been compromised and used to attack users' PCs with exploit code

By Gregg Keizer, IDG News Service October 03, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1162

Several criminal gangs have acquired administrative log-in credentials for more than 200,000 Web sites -- including the one used by the U.S. Postal Service -- and have used the compromised domains to attack unsuspecting users' PCs with a notorious hacker exploit kit, a researcher said today. More than a month ago Ian Amit, director of security research at Aladdin Knowledge Systems, found and infiltrated a server belonging to a long-time customer of Neosploit, a hacker toolkit used by cybercriminals to launch exploits against browsers and popular Web software such as Apple's QuickTime or Adobe Systems' Adobe Reader. On that server, Amit uncovered logs showing that two or three hacker gangs had contributed to a massive pool of Web site usernames and passwords. "We have counted more than 208,000 unique site credentials on the server," said Amit, "and over 80,000 had been modified with malicious content."…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

11. Supreme Court Rejects Al-Arian Appeal
IPT News October 6, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/786
IPT NOTE: The Court's order in 08-137 Al-Arian, Sami A. v. United States is found at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/100608zor.pdf, on page 45.
Sami Al-Arian could be back in a federal courtroom within weeks to face criminal contempt charges after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up his appeal that claimed federal prosecutors have violated a 2006 plea agreement… Al-Arian was to stand trial in August on two contempt charges stemming from his refusal to testify before a northern Virginia federal grand jury investigating terror financing. Al-Arian insists that he doesn't have to testify because his 2006 guilty plea did not include a provision for him to cooperate with law enforcement. That argument has been rejected by appellate courts in the 4th and 11th circuits. Monday's Supreme Court action was the second time it refused to hear an appeal related to the case. When attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema decided to delay the contempt trial until the appeal is resolved. A new trial date should be set soon. The grand jury's focus is believed to be on terror financing by the Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). The institute was the single largest donor for a think tank Al-Arian created in Tampa called the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE). The president of IIIT Al-Arian wrote a letter in 1992 referring to WISE as an extension of IIIT…

12. Identity theft: Former ID thief comes clean
As a teenager Frank Abagnale, fooled people into thinking he was a Pan Am pilot and was the inspiration for the hit movie, Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo di Caprio.
The Daily Telegraph (London) By Paul Farrow Last Updated: 11:52AM BST 07 Oct 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1161

Frank Abagnale, is the man who as a teenager fooled people into thinking he was a Pan Am pilot (he never actually flew a plane) cashed bogus cheques to the tune of $2.5m in 26 countries and whose memoirs were the inspiration for the hit movie set in the late 1960s Catch Me If You Can which starred Leonardo di Caprio… Abagnale talked to the Telegraph a couple of years ago to inform readers how to protect yourself from identity theft. He claimed he could get 22 pieces of personal private information on a person by simply knowing their address. Within a couple of hours he claimed he could find out the person's salary details, bank account numbers, marital status and national insurance number. This is what he had to say...

Border security, immigration, customs

13. Defendant extradited from Columbia pleads guilty in cocaine for arms deal

Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas
Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr ·United States Attorney

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2008
ANGELA DODGE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER (713) 567-9388
http://houston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ho10062008.htm
(Diego Alberto Ruiz-Arroyave, aka El Primo, 46, a Colombian national extradited to the United States for his role in a $25 million arms for cocaine deal, has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the AUC, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. The AUC is a paramilitary organization originally designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Secretary of State on Sept. 10, 2001. Ruiz was extradited to the United States on May 12, 2008. According to pleadings filed in this case, on Oct. 14, 2004, a superseding indictment was returned by a federal grand jury arising from Operation White Terror which added Javier Conrado Alvarez Correa, aka Javier Alvarez, and Ruiz-Arroyave as defendants charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. The focus of Operation White Terror was a $25 million arms-for-cocaine transaction involving the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Ruiz-Arroyave and Alvarez were the key intermediaries between a cooperating defendant and the leader of the AUC’s Centaurus Block, Miguel Arroyave Ruiz. Ruiz directed the cooperating defendant to coordinate the exchange of weapons with his cousin, Ruiz-Arroyave, and to communicate with Ruiz through Alvarez. The cooperating defendant then had various discussions with Alvarez and Ruiz-Arroyave to work out the details and logistics of the transaction. According to press reports, Ruiz was killed by his own troops on Sept. 19, 2004, for participating in talks to demobilize the AUC. A warrant remains outstanding for the arrest of Alvarez, who is also a Colombian national…

14. Cuts to customs staff seen as threat to Duluth port
By Peter Passi Duluth News-Tribune Article Last Updated: 10/06/2008

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_10650310?nclick_check=1

DULUTH — Cuts in the staffing of Duluth's U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations could jeopardize the city's future as an international port and handler of cross-border air traffic. For Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, a letter he received from the local Customs office this summer drove home the danger. Ojard felt local customs operations already were thinly staffed when he learned that an agent was retiring and there were no plans to replace him. The Duluth Customs office was to go from having five agents to just two agents and a supervisor. "I was advised that at the current staffing levels, we could no longer expect seamless service," Ojard recalled…

15. Accused con man who dodged authorities for more than two decades deported at last
Ian MacLeod, with a file from Brian Hutchinson

Ottawa Citizen, Canwest News Service Tuesday, October 07, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1163
Authorities have finally caught and deported a suspected American con man who dodged officials for more than two decades amid tales of political assassination plots and international espionage. Alexander Henri Legault, 59, who became a poster boy for Canada's strained refugee and deportation system, was turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers last Friday. He was arrested by New York State Police for allegedly using Canada as a base for a multimillion-dollar securities fraud in Florida that bilked hundreds of seniors out of $13 million between 1993 and 1996. He faces additional fraud charges in Louisiana…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

16. Coalition Forces Apprehend Kataib Hezbollah Suspects
American Forces Press Service October 7, 2008
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51417
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2008 – Coalition forces captured an alleged weapons smuggler in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, and 11 other suspects in operations today, military officials reported. Coalition forces targeted a suspected key member of the Kataib Hezbollah terrorist network believed to be responsible for Iranian-supplied armor-piercing explosives used against Iraqi and coalition forces. Troops approached the targeted individual's location, where he identified himself as the wanted suspect. He and four associates were detained without incident. Coalition forces also discovered numerous passports and several weapons. In Tu Aym, west of Mosul, coalition forces detained four suspects allegedly associated with a man believed to facilitate the movement of foreign terrorists into Mosul. Several weapons, including a submachine gun and multiple military-style assault vests, also were found at the location. In Mosul, forces captured one wanted man detainees already in custody suggest is a foreign terrorist facilitator. Two suspects also were detained during a related operation in Mosul targeting a wanted man believed to have connections with the city's al-Qaida leaders…

17. Somali pirates say deal possible soon on arms ship

Agence France Presse Oct 7, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIJxAamZcHRiTMK-42nPDj-GO2zQ

NAIROBI (AFP) — Pirates holding a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware with 21-member crew off the coast of Somalia said Tuesday that a deal could be reached in a day for the vessel's release. "A deal might be sealed by Wednesday and then we will issue a statement regarding the end of the matter," said Sugule Ali, a spokesman for the estimated 50 pirates holding the MV Faina since September 25. The pirate would not comment on the amount of ransom being negotiated…

Somali Islamists want weapons on ship, say residents
Sun 5 Oct 2008, 10:59 GMT Reuters

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE494062.html
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist insurgents have demanded to be given some of the weapons aboard a hijacked Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks but the pirates holding it have refused, a local official said on Sunday. The Islamist gunmen from the al Shabaab group opposing Somalia's weak interim government have also received a five percent cut of the $1.5 million paid out for a Spanish ship released several months ago, a resident told Reuters. About two weeks ago, heavily-armed pirates captured the MV Faina near Hobyo town in central Somalia and are demanding a $20 million ransom. Several U.S. navy ships are watching it to ensure none of the weapons are unloaded…

18. FROM OUR BLOGS
Syria, Lebanon abuzz over report about militant's arrest
By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times October 6, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-abbsi6-2008oct06,0,4...

BEIRUT -- An intriguing item about the mysterious leader of a ferocious militant group floated around the Lebanese and Syrian media over the weekend. According to a report in the Arab-language Syrian newspaper Al Liwaa, the leader of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Fatah al Islam was captured two months ago in Syria. The report says that Shaker Abbsi, a former Libyan air force pilot turned Islamist, was caught in the poor Meliha district of south Damascus and hauled off to prison. Abbsi, 53, who is of Palestinian descent, has led a storied life. He piloted MIGs for the Libyan air force in a war against Chad and on a trip to Latin America in the early 1980s, he helped Nicaragua's leftist Sandinistas. But as the years went by, he drifted toward Islamist groups and beliefs. Jordanian officials accused him of playing a role in the 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan. Syria imprisoned him the same year, accusing him of plotting against the Damascus government, but released him in 2005. He popped up in Lebanon as leader of Fatah al Islam, a group of well-armed Islamic insurgents who fought the Lebanese army for months last year in a battle around the seaside Nahr el Bared refugee camp that left more than 400 civilians, soldiers and militants dead. Abbsi vanished after the battle. He issued statements this year vowing to take revenge against the Lebanese army, which has been the apparent target of two bombing attacks in the last two months. But according to Al Liwaa's report Saturday, Abbsi was captured when Syrian intelligence operatives carried out a "major house raid" two months ago in Damascus, the capital. The item was quickly picked up by media and websites in Lebanon and Syria...

19. Israel building new missile defense shield to protect against rocket attacks
Israel is developing a missile defence system designed to protect its cities from rocket attacks launched by Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The Daily Telegraph (London)
By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor Last Updated: 6:49PM BST 06 Oct 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1160

The timing of this shield's deployment will be a vital factor influencing any Israeli decision to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran could retaliate for a strike by using its key ally, Hizbollah, to fire missiles into Israel. With Iran's help, Hizbollah is believed to have amassed about 30,000 rockets in southern Lebanon, including the Zelzal missile which could strike as far south as Tel Aviv. Israeli officials believe these weapons are being held in reserve to aid Iran in the event of war. They say that Hizbollah has trebled its arsenal in the last two years and may now possess advanced weapons including C802 anti-shipping missiles. Israel believes these rockets have been smuggled from Iran to Lebanon via Syrian territory. Facing this threat on its northern border, Israel will probably want to perfect its missile defences before considering a strike on Iran. Two systems are now being developed: the Iron Dome which protects against short range rockets and the Magic Wand which shields against missiles with longer ranges…

ASIA / PACIFIC

20. U.S.: 43 militants killed in Afghanistan

By Fisnik Abrashi - The Associated Press Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 9:26:25 EDT
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_43militants_100708/

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and Afghan troops clashed and called airstrikes on a group of insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 43 militants, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The militants ambushed the U.S.-Afghan force with sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Qalat district of Zabul province Sunday, a statement from the U.S. military said. The joint force fought back and called in airstrikes that killed the militants, it said. A civilian, working as a contractor for the U.S. military, was wounded in the operation. There were no casualties among Afghan and U.S. troops…

21. War against the Taliban unwinnable, says Joel Fitzgibbon

Mark Dodd October 07, 2008 The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24457642-31477,00.htm...

DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has supported comments by the commander of British forces in Afghanistan that the war against the Taliban is unwinnable. Mr Fitzgibbon said yesterday he agreed with comments by Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith that a military victory over the Taliban is "neither feasible nor supportable". The brigadier, who will this month hand over control of British forces in Afghanistan after a six-month tour of duty in which 32 of his troops have been killed and 170 injured, said there would be no peace unless a political accommodation was reached with the Taliban. In answer to questions from The Australian, Mr Fitzgibbon said hewas not surprised by Brigadier Carleton-Smith's comments, and agreed with them. The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan lacked a cohesive strategic plan and continued to suffer chronic troop shortages, especially from countries unwilling to commit to combat operations in the violence-hit south, the minister said…

22. Karzai's brother angrily denies drug connections

GRAEME SMITH From Tuesday's Globe and Mail October 7, 2008 at 1:21 AM EDT

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1164

IPT NOTE: The cited New York Times article is found at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghanistan's president and the most powerful politician in the country's violent southern region, says the United States has tried to push him into exile over allegations of drug dealing. Reacting angrily to an article in this weekend's New York Times about his alleged links to the opium trade, Mr. Karzai summoned journalists to his heavily fortified house in Kandahar yesterday. As he has frequently in the past, he denied any connection to drug deals but he also described feeling pressure in a meeting with Ronald Neumann, who served as U.S. ambassador to Kabul from 2005 to 2007...

Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Afghanistan Heroin Trade
By JAMES RISEN New York Times October 5, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

WASHINGTON — When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly impounded the truck and notified his boss. Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck. Two years later, American and Afghan counternarcotics forces stopped another truck, this time near Kabul, finding more than 110 pounds of heroin. Soon after the seizure, United States investigators told other American officials that they had discovered links between the drug shipment and a bodyguard believed to be an intermediary for Ahmed Wali Karzai, according to a participant in the briefing. The assertions about the involvement of the president’s brother in the incidents were never investigated, according to American and Afghan officials, even though allegations that he has benefited from narcotics trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan. Both President Karzai and Ahmed Wali Karzai, now the chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council, the governing body for the region that includes Afghanistan’s second largest city, dismiss the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime foes...

23. Mullah Omar No Longer an Ally of Al Qaeda - Afghan Source

07/10/2008 Asharq Alawsat By Mohammed Al Shafey and Omar Farouk
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=14326

London, Islamabad, Asharq Al-Awsat - An Afghan source has revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are headed for Islamabad for further talks with Pakistani officials with regards to ending the violence in Afghanistan. The source close to the negotiations told Asharq Al-Awsat that a Taliban delegation met with representatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Attendees included Mullah Mohamed Tayeb Agha, the spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir who was second deputy of the Taliban’s Council of Ministers and former governor of Nangarhar province. The Afghan government delegation was led by MP Arif Noorzai, who was deputy to parliament speaker Sheikh Younis Qanuni. According to the source, others who participated in the negotiations included Mawlawi Arsalan Rahmani, former deputy minister of education during the Taliban era, as well as Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, former foreign minister, Mullah Ahmed Yaar, who was minister of refugees and returnees, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Islamabad who was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for four years, and Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the former Taliban envoy to the United Nations...

24. Taliban rebuild children’s suicide camp in South Waziristan
By Bill Roggio The Long War Journal October 6, 2008 5:36 PM
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/taliban_rebuild_chil.php
The Taliban have rebuilt a camp in South Waziristan that trains children to be suicide bombers, a video from Pakistan shows. Children as young as seven years old are indoctrinated to wage jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The video, obtained by AfPax Insider, http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1165 was shot in August in Spinkai Ragzai, South Waziristan, a tribal area run by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The Taliban are seen "training dozens of boys ranging in age from seven to 14," the news service reported. "The video attempts to justify suicide bombings as a legitimate means of attack against "infidels.'" The images shows the children reading from the Quran and an adult Taliban training the children. One slide shows a poster board with the words “Killing a Spy” written in English. While not explicitly stated in the AfPax Insider report, the camp is run by Qari Hussain, a senior lieutenant to Baitullah who has close links to al Qaeda. Hussain has rebuilt his child training camp after the Pakistani military demolished his suicide nursery during a short offensive in Spinkai in January 2008. In May, a senior Pakistani general described the previous camp as a "factory." The military seized numerous documents and training materials in the demolished camp. "It was like a factory that had been recruiting nine to 12-year-old boys, and turning them into suicide bombers," said Major General Tariq Khan, the commander of Pakistan's 14 Division, which led the operation in South Waziristan…

25. Mumbai Police: MNC techie sent terror emails
7 Oct 2008, 0058 hrs IST,TNN

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1166
MUMBAI: In what is touted as the 'biggest manhunt' in India, the Mumbai police on Monday claimed to have nabbed key members of the terror module allegedly responsible for the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and planting bombs in the diamond city of Surat. (Link to video) At a packed news conference, Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor and crime branch chief Rakesh Maria credited ordinary citizens - more specifically, Muslims - with providing key information that led to the arrest of 11 suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists from Pune, Mangalore and Mumbai. The top cops, who were flanked by a team of more than 30 crime branch officials involved in the operation, revealed that three of these suspects were directly involved in sending terror emails that had shocked the country for the past one month. "These are all highly qualified, computer-savvy people belonging to good and educated families. Their families were not aware of their activities," said Maria… According to Maria, the IM module which has been active since 2005, has been motivated by jihadi literature and CDs containing inflammatory material on incidents that happened in other parts of the world besides attacks on the minority community in India. "Most of them have undergone training in Pakistan," he added…

26. 'Afghan trip' by accused terrorist

The Australian Gary Hughes October 08, 2008

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24463666-5001561,00.h...

AN accused member of a Melbourne Muslim terrorist cell allegedly made trips to Afghanistan, a court has been told. A previous trial was told that alleged terror group member Shane Kent, 31, spent two months in 2001 training in weapons, explosives and topography at a paramilitary camp in an unidentified overseas country. A bail application in the Victorian Supreme Court was told yesterday that a point of dispute between the Crown and Mr Kent concerned alleged trips he had made to Afghanistan. Mr Kent's barrister, John O'Sullivan, requested that a copy of his client's passport, which had been seized by federal authorities, be made available to help resolve the dispute. He said entry stamps in the passport should show where Mr Kent had travelled. Commonwealth prosecutor Mark Dean SC said one trip by Mr Kent to Afghanistan in 2001 was already the subject of a previous admission. Mr Dean said Mr Kent's passport was not in the possession of the prosecution but that efforts would be made to find which agency held it and for a copy to be made available to Mr O'Sullivan. Mr Kent was applying for bail after a Supreme Court jury failed to reach a verdict last month on a charge that he was a member of a Melbourne terrorist organisation led by self-proclaimed sheik Abdul Nacer Benbrika…

27. Islamic Group Gains Power in Indonesia
By PETER GELLING New York Times October 7, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/world/asia/07indo.html

JAKARTA — In a sign of its growing prominence, Indonesia’s Council of Ulemas moved its headquarters from the basement of a major mosque here into an expensive new office tower in the heart of downtown. The council was established in 1975 as a quasi-governmental body of Muslim scholars by Suharto, the country’s leader for three decades, partly as a tool to keep politically minded Islamic organizations in check. But in the decade since the dictator’s fall, the group — whose leaders have increasingly espoused a radical form of Islam — has worked to establish itself as an assertive political force. The group, known as M.U.I., built an impressive network of offices throughout the country, staffed by people who promote the council’s view of Islam. It logged its first major political success this summer when the government agreed to severely restrict the activities of a Muslim sect that does not believe that Muhammad was the last prophet. Advocates of religious tolerance worry that the council’s new clout could signal the start of religious radicalization in a country known for its moderate brand of Islam…

EUROPE

28. Bosnia's former mujahedin leader in custody, faces deportation
Tue, 10/07/2008 DPA

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1167

Sarajevo- Bosnian police arrested a former mujahedin leader and fighter facing possible deportation to his homeland Sy