News

General security, policy

1. Pentagon Feels Chill Set In With China As Beijing Reacts to U.S.-Taiwan Deal
By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH and LORETTA CHAO Oct 8, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122340564708012139.html

BEIJING -- China's decision to halt military contacts with the U.S. to protest proposed weapons sales to Taiwan puts the brakes on efforts to improve relations between the Pentagon and Beijing's defense establishment. The arms deal "has contaminated the sound atmosphere of our military relations" and "gravely jeopardizes China's national security," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday. He said the sale "threatens stability and world peace."…

2. DHS warns of potential terror attacks on public buildings
Posted on Monday, October 06, 2008 5:54 PM ET
By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/06/1501940.aspx
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The DHS analysts--after coordinating with the FBI Threat Analysis Unit--said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and operators to be aware of potential attack tactics." According to the note obtained by NBC News, a "recently discovered audio recording of al-Qa‘ida training sessions conducted several years ago provides instruction to potential suicide terrorists on seizing a publicly accessible building and damaging or destroying it with explosive charges." Among the materials on a CD–ROM seized earlier this year by Belgian authorities and provided to Interpol, the note said, "is a detailed audio explanation by now-deceased senior al-Qa‘ida operative Yousef al-Ayeeri of a method taught in an al-Qa‘ida training camp for attacking a publicly accessible building. Interpol believes the Arabic-language recording was made shortly before al-Ayeeri’s death in 2003." Saudi security forces killed al-Ayeeri in 2003...Update: I have edited this post to make it clear that the Department of Homeland Security authored this document, after consulting with the FBI. As the document states, it was "Prepared by the DHS/Critical Infrastructure Threat Analysis Division. Coordinated with the FBI/Threat Analysis Unit." --Jim Popkin

What are the odds of a terrorist attack?
Posted: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:30 PM From NBC's Robert Windrem

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/07/1508504.aspx

Is this an opportune time for a terrorist attack? Could al Qaeda use the financial distress and political uncertainty to magnify its power? U.S. intelligence officials suggest that while al Qaeda may want to be "part of the conversation" in the presidential election, there is no "specific or extraordinary" threat information, nothing to indicate that terrorists are capable of taking advantage of the current situation. "They attack when they can, when they have an opportunity," said one intelligence official, adding that terrorists have wanted to attack the U.S., have tried and failed on several occasions since Sept. 11th, without success… Another official noted that they still expect to see "an uptick" in threat reporting all the way up to the Inauguration on Jan. 20, al Qaeda officials are not limited to attacks to be part of the conversations…

3. General Dynamics Awarded $13 Million to Continue Developing Maritime Air and Missile Defense Planning System

October 7 Press Release

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1180

FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 7 -- The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a contract valued at up to $13.5 million for engineering services in support of the Maritime Integrated Air and Missile Defense Planning System (MIPS), a successor to the AADC Area Air Defense Commander Capability (AADC). General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems is a business unit of General Dynamics. MIPS is an operational-level planning tool designed to help the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander rapidly analyze and optimize alternatives for defeating current or projected air and missile threats. MIPS uses advanced algorithms to predict the outcomes of various scenarios and interactions of military forces, to allow the commander to visualize enemy courses of action, and to help determine the most effective way to counter those actions...

4. Jury selection proceeds in Fort Dix case

By George Anastasia Philadelphia Inquirer Oct 8, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1173

Amid heightened security - including two rows of large, water-filled orange barriers in front of the federal courthouse and the presence of a parked Camden City police car with its emergency lights flashing - jury selection moved forward yesterday in the Fort Dix terrorism trial. Additional security measures included an electronic monitor designed to sense explosives and a metal detector, both at the fourth-floor entrance to the courtroom where the trial will be held. The precautions were not lost on one of the potential jurors, who said security concerns had given her pause about serving on the panel. "Why do you need so much security and are you safe?" the woman asked in explaining her reticence during a question-and-answer session with the judge and lawyers in the case. She was one of 10 potential jurors excused yesterday during a voir dire session, when jury candidates are interviewed about their backgrounds and possible biases. Nineteen others were found qualified. Judge Robert Kugler has said he wants to have a pool of 80 to 100 qualified jurors before entering the final selection phase, in which lawyers use preemptory challenges to dismiss jurors about whom they still have concerns...

5. Two Americans Believed to Be Missing in Lebanon
Associated Press OCTOBER 8, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,434515,00.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two American journalists vacationing in Lebanon are missing, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday, appealing for information on their possible whereabouts. An embassy statement said Wednesday that Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, have not been heard from since Oct. 1 when they reportedly left Beirut en route to the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli. The city is a predominantly Sunni Muslim city where militants and Islamic fundamentalists are known to be active. It has witnessed sectarian fighting in the past few months as well as two car bombs targeting Lebanese troops that killed 25 people and left dozens others wounded. The embassy says the pair had arrived in Lebanon on Sept. 29 from Amman, Jordan for a vacation and told a friend on Oct. 1 that they were traveling from Beirut to Tripoli through the coastal town of Byblos in the north that day. They were then to cross by land to Syria before returning to Jordan where they were due to report to work on Oct. 4...

6. Chinese Muslims Ordered Released From Guantanamo

By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post Wednesday, October 8, 2008; A01

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1181

IPT NOTE: See related item #28 below.

A federal judge yesterday ordered a small band of Chinese Muslims being held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison released into the United States by Friday, rejecting the Bush administration's contention that it could detain them indefinitely without cause. It was the first time a U.S. judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, and the first time a foreign national held at the facility in Cuba has been ordered transferred to the United States. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued his ruling in dramatic fashion from the bench in a packed courtroom, saying he was ordering the release of 17 Uighurs because the government provided no proof that they were enemy combatants or security risks. Under the order, the men will live with Uighur families in the Washington area until a more permanent situation can be found…

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

7. TSA calls Newark screener a one-person crime wave
Wednesday, October 08, 2008 BY JEFF WHELAN Newark Star-Ledger

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1182
As a screener at Newark Liberty International Airport, Pythias Brown was supposed to keep deadly objects off airplanes. But for the past year, authorities allege, Brown has been swiping electronic equipment from luggage of the passengers he was supposed to protect. A laptop here, a cell phone there. Within months, he had snatched more than 100 items, authorities say. But this summer, Brown got too ambitious for his own good, allegedly stealing a $47,900 camera from an HBO crew and a camcorder from a CNN employee, authorities said. Brown attracted the attention of one of his victims -- and eventually investigators -- when he tried to sell the equipment on eBay, the online auction site, authorities said. Federal investigators charged the 48-year-old Maplewood resident this week with theft and he is scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark today. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenny Kramer said...

8. Charge Vernon man in scares near tunnel
Wednesday, October 08, 2008 By MICHAELANGELO CONTE The Jersey Journal

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1183

A Vernon man has been charged in connection with recent incidents in which suspicious objects were discovered fastened to the divider on Route 495 in North Hudson, prompting a bomb squad response and traffic delays near the Lincoln Tunnel, officials said. Lawrence Fellilppello, 39, was arrested Monday by Port Authority police and charged with making a terroristic threat, and police are searching for a second New Jersey man, Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said yesterday. As a spoof, the men glued several plastic bottles to the median on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel on several occasions, most recently on Friday, DiFulco said. Last Thursday, just before noon, a bottle was found fixed to the median on Route 495 at Central Avenue in Union City, and a second was found at 1 p.m. on Route 495 at the Kennedy Boulevard Interchange in North Bergen, officials said. Responding officers had to divert traffic as bomb technicians examined what turned out be harmless, liquid-filled objects, officials said…

9. Exclusive: TSA Screeners Find Inert Grenades in Luggage
Last Edited: Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008, 11:23 PM EDT MyFoxNew.com
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1190

MyFoxNY.com -- Federal airport screeners found two grenades in a man's luggage at the JetBlue terminal at Kennedy Airport. A TSA bomb specialist determined the grenades were inert, thankfully. However the TSA never called the cops and they allowed the passenger to board the plane. Some security experts say that was a serious breach of airline travel safety. But the TSA says that procedure was just fine.

10. Tennessee man indicted for alleged hack of Governor Sarah Palin’s email account

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2008 US Department of Justice
CRM (202) 514-200 TDD (202) 514-1888
http://knoxville.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2008/kxhacking100808.htm

WASHINGTON—David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tenn., for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced today. Kernell turned himself into federal authorities for arrest and will be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley. The single count indictment, returned on Oct. 7, 2008, and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password. According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information. According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public website. Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others…

11. Datastrip Handheld Biometric Reader Successfully Completes TSA's Evaluation for TWIC Program
U.S. Coast Guard Contracts for Units with TWICCheck Software from Codebench

Oct. 8, 2008 Press release
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1184
EXTON, Pa., Oct 08, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Datastrip's DSV2+TURBO(R) handheld biometric reader operating with Codebench's TWICCheck software successfully completed all of the Transportation Security Administration's Initial Capability Evaluation scenarios for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential pilot program. The confirmation means that port operators and security integrators can employ this equipment as the basis for a TWIC-compliant solution for identity verification as published on the Initial Capability Evaluation (ICE) list…

12. High court refuses to hear racial profiling case
Jose Cerqueira had sued American Airlines for discrimination after being removed from a flight in 2003.
By Warren Richey The Christian Science Monitor October 7, 2008 edition

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1007/p25s15-usju.html

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a man who was kicked off an American Airlines jetliner in Boston because a flight attendant thought he looked like a Middle Eastern terrorist. John Cerqueira is an American citizen of Portuguese heritage who was trying to fly home to Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 28, 2003. Instead, he was escorted off the jetliner and questioned by police for two hours because American Airlines personnel thought his dark hair and olive complexion made him look Middle Eastern. When police realized the mistake, they reported back that Mr. Cerqueira was cleared to travel. But American refused to issue him a ticket on any of its flights. Cerqueira sued American Airlines for discrimination and won. An appeals court in Boston reversed that decision. On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it would not examine the case. The justices offered no explanation for their decision. The action means the appeals court ruling throwing out Cerqueira's case remains undisturbed…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

13. Hamas Leaders Dominate HLF Speakers List
IPT News October 7, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/787
DALLAS – Senior members of Hamas appeared at fundraising events sponsored by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and a related charity called the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), an FBI agent testified Tuesday. Agent Robert Miranda took the witness stand Tuesday afternoon in the Hamas terror-financing trial of five former HLF officials. In addition to bringing speakers from overseas, Miranda said, HLF also arranged "conference calls" with speakers abroad to audiences in the United States. These calls included solicitations for contributions to HLF. Jihad was a common theme in these conferences that demonized Jews as enemies and spoke against the Oslo peace process, Miranda said. Hamas symbols that glorified martyrdom were conspicuously displayed. Speakers from regions as diverse as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, Gaza, and Palestine appeared at MAYA (Muslim Arab Youth Association) conferences, IAP events, Intifada festivals, and Ramadan events. Federal Prosecutor James Jacks said the government had earlier shown videos from these Intifada festivals featuring a singing troupe called Al-Sakrah performing skits and singing songs glorifying HAMAS and the killing of the Jews. Defendant Mufid Abdelqader was a part of the troupe and performed in the skits…

FBI: CAIR is a front group, and Holy Land Foundation tapped Hamas clerics for fundraisers
6:47 PM Tue, Oct 07, 2008 Dallas Morning News Jason Trahan
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/fbi-cair-is-a-front-gro...
The FBI took a new slap at the Council on American-Islamic Relations today at the Holy Land Foundation trial. FBI Special Agent Lara Burns was going over more transcripts from the Philadelphia meeting -- the 1993 gathering of Holy Land officials and Hamas sympathizers that the government contends was meant to brainstorm ways to downplay the Foundations extremist ties -- when talked turned to a passage from defendant Shukri Abu Baker. He is quoted on the wiretap transcript talking about how it would be beneficial to have more traditional, secular American organizations to help spread the Islamist message. He and others envisioned an "alternative" organization "which can benefit from a new atmosphere, one whose Islamic hue is not very conspicuous," according to the transcript. Prosecutor Barry Jonas asked Burns whether any groups formed after the Philadelphia gathering fit this mold. "CAIR," she said. CAIR is one of about 300 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case, and testimony has shown that its founder, Omar Ahmad, and current executive director, Nihad Awad, both participated in the Philadelphia meeting.

14. Luxury cars stolen for overseas market

By JON WILLING he Ottawa Sun October 8, 2008

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2008/10/08/7015361-sun.html

OTTAWA -- He used his own name to rent high-end vehicles from companies around the Ottawa International Airport, but it appears an Ottawa man had no intention of returning the keys. When authorities using GPS technology tracked down four stolen vehicles around a Montreal port in July, it was clear the vehicles weren't meant to stay in Canada for long. Police found three of the four in containers at a Montreal port, while the other turned up abandoned nearby. An Ottawa man is facing charges in relation to the stolen vehicles… Det. Andrew Pidcock of the Ottawa police organized auto theft squad said there's a "big market" overseas for the vehicles, especially in West African countries, where the accused is believed to be originally from…

15. Terrorist Financing: ‘They’ve Picked Up on Globalization Faster Than We Have’
By Matt Korade, CQ Staff CQ HOMELAND SECURITY Oct. 7, 2008 – 10:36 p.m.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000002972462

The increasingly fractured international map is easily exploited by terrorists, who merge their syndicates with criminal groups to globetrot without ever raising their heads above ground. This merging and malleable network allows the free flow of currency, arms, people and drugs — anything the terrorists and criminal groups need — and proves the fallacy of national borders in an ever-shrinking world… A panel of counterterrorism experts, including former federal officials and a noted journalist, outlined the difficulties of targeting terrorist finances during a roundtable discussion Tuesday… The changing nature of criminal and terrorist networks will require a more sophisticated, comprehensive, and nimble approach to halting terrorist financing than is being pursued today, the panelists agreed. This included a focus on financial intelligence, a comprehensive product-labeling and regulatory system to track the flow of commerce and finances, and an understanding of how terrorists have spread beyond their initial borders. Journalist and author Doug Farah of the Counterterrorism Blog and Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation underscored some emerging macro-trends in hopes of dispelling common misconceptions about terrorist operations…

Border security, immigration, customs

16. US officials fear terrorist links with drug lords

Oct 8, 2008 By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsIE-UFw5_bhsz9A-BMzwydnDlkgD93MGLSO2

MIAMI (AP) — There is real danger that Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah could form alliances with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug lords to launch new terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Extremist group operatives have already been identified in several Latin American countries, mostly involved in fundraising and finding logistical support. But Charles Allen, chief of intelligence analysis at the Homeland Security Department, said they could use well-established smuggling routes and drug profits to bring people or even weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. "The presence of these people in the region leaves open the possibility that they will attempt to attack the United States," said Allen, a veteran CIA analyst. "The threats in this hemisphere are real. We cannot ignore them." Added U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations chief Michael Braun: "It is not in our interest to let that potpourri of scum to come together." Their comments came at a two-day conference on the illegal drug threat in the Americas hosted by the U.S. Southern Command and the 35,000-member AFCEA International, a trade group for communications, intelligence and national security companies. Much as the Taliban tapped Afghanistan's heroin for money, U.S. officials say the vast profits available from Latin American cocaine could provide al-Qaida and others with a ready source of income. The rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has long used drug money to pay for weapons, supplies and operations — and is also designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. "We've got a hybrid that has developed right before our eyes," Braun said. Latin America's drug kingpins already have well-established methods of smuggling, laundering money, obtaining false documents, providing safe havens and obtaining illicit weapons, all of which would be attractive to terrorists who are facing new pressures in the Middle East and elsewhere...

17. Ex-ICE official charged with accepting bribes
By Scott McCabe Examiner Staff Writer 10/5/08
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1175

A former high-ranking U.S. Homeland Security official was charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to get the government to buy nearly $3 million in armored vehicles that ultimately were unable to stop bullets, court documents said. Because of the safety risks, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been forced to replace dozens of armored sport utility vehicles. An ICE spokesman did not know whether any personnel were harmed because of the faulty armor. The case remains under investigation by the inspector general… Between 2003 and 2007, former ICE official Gerardo Chavez, once the deputy assistant director of international operations in Washington, D.C., steered no-bid government contracts to a Venezuela auto dealership to buy 57 armored sport utility vehicles, according to charging documents filed recently in federal court in Alexandria. In exchange, $259,000 was to be wired and mailed to bank accounts in Miami, Laredo, Texas, and Palm Desert, Calif., prosecutors said. The kickback scheme began in 2003 when Chavez was a special agent and attache in Caracas, Venezuela, and he visited the Blincar factory where the SUVs were outfitted with armor, documents said. In requesting the vehicles, Chavez wrote that the dealership was the only company with armored vehicles in their inventory even though he knew that Blincar did not maintain an inventory of armored SUVs…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

18. Abandoned Homes Used to Shelter Troops Often Prove Deadly in Iraq
Inside a House Bomb With U.S. Forces: 'It's Better to Be Lucky Than Good'
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Wall Street Journal October 8, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122341256335212555.html

TAHWILLA, Iraq -- It was just after 10 p.m. when a sergeant started yelling in the darkness. "There's a bomb in the building!" The dozens of soldiers bivouacked in an abandoned house here grumbled as they threw on their dusty flak vests. They'd been awake for more than 30 hours. Several called the warning a prank. Ten minutes later, the soldiers learned the house had been wired with explosives from top to bottom. If the bombs had gone off, the explosions would likely have killed everyone inside. "It's better to be lucky than good," Capt. Russell Wagner muttered under his breath. Unlike much of Iraq, this area remains hostile territory. A Sunni-dominated region about 40 miles north of Baghdad, Diyala Province is one of the deadliest areas for U.S. forces and the last major stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq, a largely homegrown terrorist organization that came into existence after U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 2003. One reason is a tactic that has become the province's calling card: a house bomb, or, in the antiseptic jargon of the U.S. military, a "house-borne improvised explosive device." Created to kill U.S. troops when they are most vulnerable, house bombs undermine a central tenet of the American counterinsurgency strategy -- the reliance on hundreds of vacant houses as small combat outposts. In Diyala, insurgents turn those houses into bombs, which have killed more than a dozen American troops since the summer of 2007…

Female suicide bomber kills 11 in Baquba

The Associated Press Wednesday, October 8, 2008

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/08/mideast/iraq.php

BAGHDAD: A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest Wednesday in a city northeast of Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding 19, Iraqi officials said. The attack occurred around 11:30 a.m. in front of a courthouse in central Baquba, the provincial capital of Diyala, one of the most violent areas in Iraq, the police said. It was apparently intended to be a double suicide bombing, but a man accompanying the woman failed to detonate his explosives vest and was arrested at the scene, said Ibrahim Bajilan, the provincial council chief… Abu Mohammed, who would only give his nickname for security reasons, said the target of the attack appeared to be Iraqi Army Humvees parked nearby. He said about five shops in front of the courthouse had been damaged…

19. Iraq: 'Three Christians killed in 24 hours'

AKI Oct 8, 2008

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.0.2557700115

Mosul, 8 Oct. (AKI) - Three Christians have been killed in the past 24 hours in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting police sources. A Christian man and his father were both shot dead on Tuesday at their workplace in a northern district of Mosul. Also on Tuesday, unknown gunmen forced their way into a pharmacy in an eastern neighbourhood of Mosul and killed a Christian who worked there, VOI said. Extremists killed a man and his father in September in Mosul, which is the capital of the Nineveh Governorate, located some 400 kilometres to the north of the capital, Baghdad. The city is home to the second-largest community of Christians in Iraq after Baghdad. Iraq's Christian minority is persecuted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and by Shia militias…

20. Yemen: Six suspected Islamist militants arrested

AKI Oct 8, 2008

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2558243153

Sanaa, 8 Oct. (AKI) - Yemeni security forces have arrested six suspected Islamist militants who are allegedly responsible for issuing threats against embassies, the official SABA news agency said on Wednesday. The suspects belong to a local militant group called Islamic Jihad and were arrested on Monday, SABA reported. Islamic Jihad has sent several threatening letters to Arab and foreign embassies in Yemen including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the news agency said…

ASIA / PACIFIC

21. NZ soldier injured in Afghan bomb blast
1:04PM Wednesday Oct 08, 2008 NZ HERALD STAFF

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10536477

A NZ Defence Force member has been injured in a bomb attack in Afghanistan after the vehicle his patrol was travelling in was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device (I.E.D). The blast happened in Bamyan Province, the same area as an earlier incident in March. The injured person was treated at the scene for a minor cut to the face and there were no other injuries. Defence Force spokesperson Commander Shaun Fogarty said an investigation into the attack would be carried out. "The area in which the patrol took place is known for having tribal and criminal tensions between different groups and as a result the patrol was larger than normal. Currently NZDF personnel remain at the site of the IED awaiting the arrival of an investigation team who'll examine the site," Commander Fogarty said…

22. Melamine fears over fruit, vege imports
4:00AM Thursday Oct 09, 2008 By Alanah May Eriksen New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10536601

There are fears a chemical that has already poisoned more than 50,000 Chinese babies could be contaminating vegetables imported into New Zealand. The industrial chemical melamine was last month reported as tainting milk products, but international media reports have raised concerns some fruit and vegetables could also be contaminated from fertilisers or pesticides containing the chemical. Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards Australia New Zealand in Canberra said Australian investigators were looking into the reports and would do a safety assessment. They would speak to authorities in Malaysia and in other Asian countries that had tested vegetables...

EUROPE

23. German Party Seeks Further Probe of Turk Charity, Hurriyet Says

By Mark Bentley Oct 8, 2008 Bloomberg

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1185

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A German opposition party is demanding that the government answer questions in parliament about possible links between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and the Germany-based Deniz Feneri charity, Hurriyet newspaper said. The Left Party filed a motion with the assembly in Berlin asking the government to clarify whether members of the Deniz Feneri Islamic charity had relations with high-level Turkish bureaucrats or politicians, Hurriyet reported. A German court on Sept. 17 sentenced directors of the German arm of the charity to jail for siphoning off 16 million euros ($11.8 million) in donations. Turkish prosecutors are examining allegations that Erdogan's Justice and Development Party may have received illegal payments from the charity. Erdogan denies any connection…

24. Terror police raid 7/7 'bomb factory' flat
Police have raided a flat in Leeds on the suspicion it may have been a bomb factory for the July 7 terror attacks.
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent 08 Oct 2008 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1186

Officers began the search of the flat at 7am after receiving information from a member of the public. They are investigating whether the flat was used for meetings, storing chemicals or making the bombs in the lead up to the attacks, sources told the Daily Telegraph. The present occupiers are not being connected to the investigation and officers believe an associate may have returned after the attacks to clear it up. They are hoping that forensic traces may remain which allow them to put another piece of the jigsaw in place. In the three years since the suicide attacks on the London transport system, police have discovered bomb factories in the Hyde Park and Chapeltown areas of Leeds… Information has been slow to come forward from the Muslim community in West Yorkshire and Scotland Yard has always said it believes people know more about Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay, than they have so far revealed…

25. Exclusive: £3m bill as evil Hook stays put for five years
By SIMON HUGHES Chief Investigative Reporter The Sun (UK) Published: 06 Oct 2008
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1771169.ece

HATE preacher Abu Hamza could stay in Britain another FIVE YEARS — racking up a £3million bill for taxpayers. The hook-handed fanatic is wriggling desperately to dodge extradition to the USA. And an insider at the European Court of Human Rights where he has launched an appeal said: “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this took five years to resolve.” Jailed dad-of-seven Hamza, 50, is already estimated to have cost Britain £2.75million in benefits, legal and prison bills. And if he drags out his stay, £230,000 will be added to the tab. He still hasn’t paid a penny towards the £1million defence costs of the trial which saw him jailed for soliciting murder. Hamza, who stirred up race hate at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, is serving seven years. But America also wants him on terror charges that carry life without parole — which Hamza claims is degrading and inhuman. He turned to European judges after appeals in Britain failed — but the court has a backlog of 100,000 cases...

26. Terror trial Dewsbury pupil 'approved of 9/11'

Published Date: 08 October 2008 Yorkshire Evening Post By Aisha Iqbal
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1178
A schoolboy accused of downloading a terror manual and hoarding chemicals in his bedroom had been thrown out of school for saying: "All Americans must die", a court heard. Waris Ali, now 18, from Ravensthorpe in Dewsbury, is charged with downloading the Anarchist's Cookbook and buying several kilos of potassium nitrate on eBay as part of a plan to bomb members of the BNP. Leeds Crown Court heard that Ali had been thrown out of Westborough High School in Dewsbury just weeks before sitting his final GCSEs after writing: "All Americans must die" on a classroom whiteboard. Nicola Colloby, Ali's RE teacher and form tutor, said his last few months at the school had been peppered with "disturbing" incidents which suggested he was becoming increasingly radicalised. In his homework planner he had marked the 9/11 twin towers attacks as a key date and had openly approved of them, the court was told…

Muslim pupil planned to blow up BNP members, court hears
A muslim pupil who allegedly planned to make home-made bombs and blow up members of the BNP glorified 9/11 in his school book, a court has heard.
By Duncan Gardham The Daily Telegraph (London) Last Updated: 6:08AM BST 08 Oct 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1187

Terrorist sympathiser Waris Ali is said to have angered teachers and fellow pupils with his radical views. And he even allegedly asked librarians and a policeman how much potentially lethal fertiliser he could keep at home before it was illegal under anti-terror laws. Ali, now 18, denies three charges of possessing articles for terrorist purposes, namely a copy of the Anarchists' Cookbook, 3.5kg of potassium nitrate and a quantity of calcium chloride. His co-accused Dabeer Hussain, also 18, denies one count of possessing the cookbook, which lists how to make lethal bombs... In art lessons his paintings concerned the teacher and he wrote the slogans 'President Bush must die' and 'Tony Blair must die'…

27. Schools 'should challenge extremist views'
School should identify pupils at risk of being groomed by violent radicals, according to official guidance.
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor 08 Oct 2008 The Daily Telegraph (London)

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1176

IPT NOTE: The cited school pamphlet is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1177

They should look out for extremist material being distributed among children and target pupils with counselling, it is suggested. Teachers are also encouraged to allow pupils to debate controversial topics such as the Iraq war - stopping frustrated young people turning to radical groups and crime. The recommendations are contained in guidance due to be outlined by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary. A new "toolkit" will provide teachers with practical advice about how to deal with concerns over extremism in schools. It comes amid fears that young people may be targeted by Islamist groups and right-wing organisations...

COMMENT / ANALYSIS

28. Welcome to Boumediene World, Chapter 2
Andy McCarthy National Review Online The Corner 10/06 06:09 AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1188

Boumediene World Update — McCain Should Be Listening
Andy McCarthy National Review Online The Corner 10/07 06:23 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1189

29. "Sharia Is Hate"
by Supna Zaidi FrontPageMagazine.com October 6, 2008
http://www.meforum.org/article/1993
Supna Zaidi is editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today and assistant director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East Forum.