9-08-08 Daily Updtae
THE AMERICAS
General security, policy
1. Terror groups developing 'dirty bomb', say security chiefs
Islamist terrorists have stepped up their efforts to develop a 'dirty' bomb for use against Western targets, senior Western security sources have told The Daily Telegraph.
The Daily Telegraph (London) By Con Coughlin Published 08 Sep 2008
They are exploiting the political chaos in Pakistan in a bid to acquire nuclear material for a 'spectacular' attack. At least one plot has been uncovered involving Pakistani-based terrorists planning to use nuclear material against a major European target. Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror group, whose terrorist infrastructure is based in the province of Waziristan in northwest Pakistan, is known to be trying to acquire nuclear technology to use in terror attacks against the West. Other militant Islamist groups in Pakistan, such as the newly formed Pakistani Taliban, have also shown an interest in developing weapons with a nuclear capability, according to Western security officials. Security chiefs fear the mounting political instability in Pakistan will make it easier for militant Islamist groups to develop a primitive nuclear device…
2. Cheney to Peres: Russia supplies terrorist arms
By Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies, By Barak Ravid Sept 7, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018591.html
IPT NOTE: VP Cheney's prepared remarks are posted at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080906-1.html
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney told President Shimon Peres yesterday that Russia is selling arms to Syria and Iran with the clear knowledge that they are being channeled to Hezbollah and terror groups in Iraq. After meeting Peres on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti forum by Italy's Lake Como, the American vice president later reiterated these remarks in his address at the economic conference, saying that "Russian arms dealing in the Middle East has endangered the prospects for peace and freedom in the region." Cheney added that the Russian leaders view democracy as a direct threat to their regime. Russia crossed a clear line when it invaded Georgia and attacked democracy and the rights of innocent civilians, Cheney said…
Remarks by Vice President Cheney at the Ambrosetti Forum
At The Ambrosetti Forum Villa d'Este Cernobbio, Italy
Office of the Vice President September 6, 2008 5:11 P.M. (Local)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080906-1.html
3. Russia Sets War Games in Caribbean
Monroe Doctrine Is Entangled
By ELI LAKE, New York Sun September 8, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/russia-sets-war-games-in-caribbean/85365/
WASHINGTON — With American-Russian relations declining to the point of Cold War-era posturing, Moscow is sending ships to the Caribbean. If the scheduled joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy take place, the maneuver would be one of Russia's most provocative exercises in the Western Hemisphere since the Soviet Union supported Marxist guerrillas in Nicaragua and El Salvador — and could entangle the Kremlin in the Monroe Doctrine, which holds that the Europeans should keep out of the American hemisphere. The chief of Venezuela's naval intelligence, Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said in a statement that Russian warships, along with 1,000 Russian soldiers, are headed to Caracas in November for a series of military exercises. The move appears to be a response to the decision by the U.S. Navy earlier this year to re-form the Fourth Fleet to patrol the Caribbean. The Pentagon has justified the re-creation of the fleet, which was disbanded in 1953, as part of an effort to prevent drug smuggling, in light of Venezuela's decision not to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Administration...
4. NY terror trial of Pakistani woman may lead to first investigation of US secret intelligence techniques; “Noise of terrorism”
Sep. 7, 2008 ALLISON HOFFMAN, JPost correspondent,
NEW YORK, THE JERUSALEM POST
A Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three suspected of being a "fixer" for al-Qaida, moving money to support terrorist operations, has been charged with assault and attempted murder in federal court in Manhattan. Aafia Siddiqui, 36, holds a bachelor's degree from MIT and a doctorate from Brandeis University. Siddiqui's lawyers and human rights groups claim Siddiqui was abducted by intelligence agents and tortured at secret interrogation facilities for five years, until she became a cause celebre in Pakistan and authorities engineered her sudden reappearance with her eldest son, an 11-year-old, in Afghanistan this summer. It is thought she may have been held at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, an American detention facility located at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan... "It could be precedent-setting in terms of transitioning people from extralegal detention into the criminal justice system," said Jonathan Hafetz, director of litigation for the Liberty and National Security Project at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. "You could have a judicial inquiry into how someone was treated at a black site - it would be incredibly valuable."…
5. Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack
Western intelligence sources in Pakistan believe that al-Qa'eda's prize American recruit and propaganda chief may have been killed in a CIA-directed airstrike.
By Nick Meo published 07 Sept 2008 The Sunday Telegraph (London)
Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa'eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq. Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead. Mr Gadahn has been credited with helping transform al-Qa'eda's al-Sahab propaganda wing into a slick operation which communicates in fluent English and produces professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year. But he may have fallen victim to an expanded programme of predator assassinations which in the last year has targeted and killed many of al-Qa'eda's military commanders, terrorist trainers and facilitators. Jihadists around the world will be watching as closely as intelligence officials this week to see whether Mr Gadahn - also known as Azzam al-Ameriki - produces a new video message to mark September 11, as he has done every year since 2003...
6. Roth case may be lesson
Prosecutors hope retired professor's conviction a deterrent
By Jamie Satterfield Thursday, September 4, 2008 Knoxville News-Sentinel
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/04/roth-case-may-be-lesson/
IPT NOTE: The indictment is posted at http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/roth-indictment.pdf and the government’s press release is found at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/September/08-nsd-774.html
Academia, take note. That was the message two federal prosecutors hope will be sent by a jury's conviction Wednesday of University of Tennessee professor emeritus J. Reece Roth. "We think this case is being watched nationally," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore said following a federal jury's conclusion that Roth, 73, violated the Arms Export Control Act by using foreign graduate students to work on a defense contract. "We believe this case could actually have a significant deterrent effect."… Roth, an expert in plasma research, agreed to serve as a subcontractor on a U.S. Air Force project awarded to Knoxville technology firm Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc., where former Roth student Daniel Max Sherman worked. The project involved the development of advanced plasma actuators for use on the wings of Air Force drones. Because it involved a defense munitions system, the project fell under the auspices of export control laws. Roth maintains that he did not intend to violate the law and believed the research he allowed foreign national graduate students to work on was itself not subject to export control laws. His trial served as a test case nationwide for whether information itself can be a "defense article" subject to export control. Traditionally, export control violations have involved actual equipment or devices. Roth assigned two graduate students, one an American and the other a Chinese foreign national, to work on the project. AGT officials assured the Air Force that no foreign nationals were involved. Initially, Chinese student Xin Dai was not allowed to view American student Truman Bonds' work. Bonds was assigned to AGT, and Xin worked at the UT Plasma Research Laboratory…
7. Fort Dix judge weighs witness request
By George Anastasia Philadelphia Inquirer Sept 5, 2008
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080905_Fort_Dix_judge_weighs_witness...
Asserting the Sixth Amendment guarantees "a fair trial, not a perfect trial," a federal judge yesterday said he wants to hear from an expert defense witness before deciding whether to postpone the Fort Dix terrorist trial. Judge Robert Kugler told defense attorneys during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Camden that he needs more information to determine the importance of the testimony of Gregory Lee. "I am not convinced that he is all that essential," Kugler said of the former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who is being deployed to Iraq shortly. Kugler has ordered a hearing next week, possibly on Tuesday, to try to determine what Lee will say and how it will impact the defense in the controversial case. Lee will be questioned and cross-examined during a courtroom deposition that will be videotaped for possible use at the trial, which is set to begin with jury selection on Sept. 29...
8. Capitol Police Arrest Man With Weapons Cache
Grenade-Type IED, Guns, Ammunition, Knife Found in Vehicle Near U.S. Capitol
By JASON RYAN, JACK DATE, KIRIT RADIA and THERESA COOK
Sept. 5, 2008— ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5736256&page=1
A man arrested near the U.S. Capitol with a small cache of weapons and explosives in his vehicle is facing charges for carrying a deadly weapon and possessing an unregistered firearm and ammunition, according to U.S. Capitol Police. Department spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said that at approximately 10:45 a.m. ET, a white male driver, later identified as Christopher Shelton Timmons, 27, approached a Capitol Police officer for directions at 2nd and Independence Ave., SE, near the Library of Congress. The officer noticed a rifle case in the vehicle and proceeded to search it. Police say they found one AK-47 type rifle, two fully loaded magazines, ammunition and what was described as a grenade-type IED. Schneider added that officers found a loaded pistol and at least one knife in the vehicle. The IED was removed and rendered safe. Authorities transported it to an FBI lab in Quantico, Va., for further analysis…
9. Khawaja loses bid to have terrorism charges dropped
Last Updated: Monday, September 8, 2008 11:13 AM ET CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/08/khawaja-trial.html
Mohammad Momin Khawaja's terrorism trial will go ahead after a judge Monday rejected the Ottawa software developer's attempt to have the charges against him quashed. Justice Douglas Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa ruled that the Crown had presented enough evidence for the trial to continue. Khawaja, 29, was arrested in Ottawa four years ago, becoming the first person charged under Canada's Anti-terrorism Act. He is facing seven charges of financing and facilitating terrorism for his alleged connection to a plot to set off a fertilizer bomb in England. As part of the charges, he is accused of building the remote-control device for detonating a bomb. Khawaja has pleaded not guilty. Five of Khawaja's alleged co-conspirators were convicted last year by a British court and sentenced to life in prison…
10. 9/11 lessons profoundly change NYPD
By the Associated Press 3:24 PM EDT, September 5, 2008
www.amny.com/news/local/am-nypd0906,0,3461708.story
Nearly seven years after terrorists took down the World Trade Center's twin towers, police officials have embarked on an ambitious plan to secure the new development that is finally sprouting at ground zero. But a repeat of the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001 is only one of a long list of worries that have prompted the New York Police Department to spend the last several years reinventing itself as an intelligence and homeland security agency. The nation's largest police department, with about 37,000 officers, has spent tens of millions of dollars -- much it from federal grants -- on an array of high-tech security measures designed to thwart threats potentially more daunting than another attack on a downtown skyscraper. It's also assigned 1,000 officers to counterterrorism duty, including 10 detectives posted around the globe who collect and share intelligence. Overall, it's an effort unmatched by any other city in the nation, and perhaps the world… David Cohen -- a former CIA official brought aboard after Sept. 11 to head the NYPD's intelligence division -- said the department has identified more than a dozen serious plots against the city in the past seven years that were either interrupted or abandoned, including some that haven't become public. Among those that have come to light: a planned cyanide attack on the subways by al-Qaida operatives that authorities say was called off in 2002; another aborted al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge in 2003; a local scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in 2004, resulting in the arrest and conviction of a Pakistani immigrant; and a plot to bomb underwater train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan, which was broken up in 2006 by several arrests overseas…
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
11. Pakistani NJ Resident Accused Of Terrorist Threat
PAULSBORO, N.J. (CBS 3) ― Sep 5, 2008 2:11 pm US/Eastern
http://cbs3.com/local/Pakistan.Paulsboro.NJ.2.810971.html
A Pakistani resident has been indicted for allegedly threatening the Valero Refinery in Paulsboro, N.J. via telephone in 2007. Zahoor Ahmad, 32, of Havelian, Pakistan was accused of making terroristic threats in a grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice on Thursday. According to authorities Ahmad allegedly made the phone threats on November 29, 2007. The investigation by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness discovered that Ahmad was involved in a relationship with an American woman who had relatives working at the Valero Refinery. The investigation revealed that Ahmad was trying to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. legally and marry the woman, the threats made to the refinery allegedly stemmed from disputes between Ahmad and the woman's family…
12. Islam group urges forest fire jihad
Josh Gordon September 7, 2008 The Age (Melbourne)
AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror. US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands". The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine. The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time". "Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."…
13. Body Scan Imaging Is Delayed
By TED JACKOVICS The Tampa Tribune Published: September 5, 2008
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/05/bz-body-scan-imaging-is-delayed/
TAMPA - The installation of new high-tech security devices, which can provide images of passengers beneath their clothing, has been delayed at Tampa International Airport, a federal official said Thursday. No specific date has been set for the launch of the machines at TIA, said Gary Milano, the Transportation Security Administration's federal security director for three Tampa Bay area commercial airports. But the controversial devices are expected to be installed within the next two months at the airsides, the outlying terminals where TSA conducts passenger security screenings, he said… More than 90 percent of passengers at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where the equipment was first tested in October 2007, opted for millimeter wave over the traditional pat-down procedure, Koshetz said…
Financing, identity theft, money laundering
14. Libya deal may be model for others
U.S. looking to press more into paying for role in attacks
By Bay Fang Washington bureau, Chicago Tribune September 6, 2008
www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-terror-libya_fang_06sep06,0,1798407.stor...
WASHINGTON—As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Libya on Friday, lawyers and diplomats in the U.S. were paying special attention to the claims settlement agreement that cleared the way for her trip and whether it could be a model for diplomatic leverage with other countries, such as Iran. The agreement, approved by President George W. Bush last month, created a way to resolve all remaining claims by American victims of Libyan terror. Libya is soon expected to begin paying more than $1 billion into a fund that will eventually distribute payments to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, the 1986 bombing of a disco in Berlin and several other attacks from the 1980s, as well as settle Libyan claims from U.S. airstrikes against Libya. The administration used the outstanding claims as a diplomatic tool in its final talks with the Libyans leading up to Rice's visit, the first there by a U.S. secretary of state since 1953. It hopes that Iran and other countries that have similar issues with U.S. citizens will take notice of the settlements and see it as a way to improve relations with the U.S…
15. Palestinians Seek to Overturn Judgment, but There’s a $192.7 Million Catch
By BENJAMIN WEISER September 8, 2008 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/nyregion/08plo.html
When a Palestinian gunman burst into a bat mitzvah celebration in northern Israel in 2002, killing 6 people and wounding more than 30, the attack sparked anger and despair, and military retaliation by Israel. It also prompted a lawsuit in New York, which has taken an unusual turn. The family of the sole American, Aharon Ellis, killed in the attack, charged the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority with orchestrating the shooting that killed him. The suit was brought under a law that allows American victims of international terrorism to sue for triple damages in federal court. A federal judge awarded the family a default judgment of $192.7 million in damages after the P.L.O. and the Palestinian Authority refused to defend the suit on the merits. But now the Palestinians, holding themselves out as a partner in the Middle East peace process, have changed lawyers, and asked the judge for a second chance. The judge, Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan, has agreed to set aside the judgment and give them that chance. But there’s a catch. He is requiring the Palestinians to post a bond of $192.7 million so that if they lose again, the damages would be paid. The new defense lawyers have proposed a bond of $15 million, saying that their clients cannot afford $192.7 million, which they said was nearly 10 percent of the annual budget of the entire Palestinian Authority. The defendants “are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy,” they said in court papers...
Border security, immigration, customs
16. 4 men sentenced for illegally exporting thousands of rounds of ammunition
US Immigration & Customs Enforcement Press Release September 5, 2008
http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0809/080905mcallen.htm
McALLEN, Texas - Four men were sentenced here Friday to varying terms in federal prison for their roles in illegally exporting hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition from the United States into Mexico. The sentences were announced by U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle, Southern District of Texas; the case was investigated by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Noe Guadalupe Calvillo, 29, Juan Luis Hernandez-Ramos, 37, and Guadalupe Ramiro Munoz-Mendez, 34, are all from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Rogelio Garcia, 47, is from Edinburg, Texas. Calvillo was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, Garcia to 39 months, Hernandez-Ramos to 37 months, and Munoz-Mendez to 30 months. The two-count indictment alleged the unlicensed and unauthorized exportation of defense articles from the United States to Mexico. Garcia, Hernandez-Ramos and Munoz-Mendez pleaded guilty to count one, alleging exportation of 30,900 rounds of ammunition. Calvillo pleaded guilty to count two that alleges exportation of 51,400 rounds of ammunition…
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
17. U.S. Teams Weaken Insurgency In Iraq
By Joby Warrick and Robin Wright Washington Post Saturday, September 6, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/05/AR200809...
By the time he was captured last month, the man known among Iraqi insurgents as "the Tiger" had lost much of his bite. Abu Uthman, whose fierce attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in Fallujah had earned him a top spot on Iraq's most-wanted list, had been reduced to shuttling between hideouts in a Baghdad slum, hiding by day for fear neighbors might recognize him. In the end, a former associate-turned-informant showed local authorities the house where Uthman was sleeping. On Aug. 11, U.S. troops kicked in the door and handcuffed him. They quietly ended the career of a man Pentagon officials describe as the kidnapper of American journalist Jill Carroll and also as one of a dwindling number of veteran commanders of the Sunni insurgent group known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Uthman, whose given name is Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, was one of the bigger fish to be landed recently in a novel anti-insurgent operation that plays out nightly in Baghdad and throughout much of Iraq. U.S. intelligence and defense officials credit the operation and its unusual tactics -- involving small, hybrid teams of special forces and intelligence officers -- with the capture of hundreds of suspected terrorists and their supporters in recent months. The "fusion cells" are being described as a major factor behind the declining violence in Iraq in recent months. Defense officials say they have been particularly effective against AQI, which has lost 10 senior commanders since June in Baghdad alone, including Uthman...
18. Kidnappers demand US$2.5-million for journalist
Gwendolyn Richards, Canwest News Service Published: Monday, September 08, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games//story.html?id=777410
CALGARY -- Kidnappers holding an Alberta journalist in Somalia have demanded a US$2.5-million ransom in exchange for her release, a local chief in contact with the abductors said Sunday. Dahir Farah has been participating in negotiations to free Amanda Lindhout -- a 27-year-old journalist from Sylvan Lake, Atla. working out of Baghdad -- Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan and their Somali fixer, who were all abducted on August 23. The three were on the road between the capital Mogadishu and Afgoye, when they were kidnapped at gunpoint. "The kidnappers demanded US$2.5-million and we are trying to secure their release," Farah said…
19. British aid workers risk arrest in Gaza
Richard Kerbaj From The Times (London) September 5, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4678132.ece
British aid workers distributing medical and food supplies in the West Bank risk being arrested by Israel after it banned five British-based charities operating in Gaza for their alleged links with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group. British citizens and Palestinian volunteers working with the proscribed charities in the West Bank could potentially be arrested by the Israelis for operating with organisations accused of being “fundraising networks” for Hamas, The Times has learnt. The Charity Commission-registered organisations - Muslim Aid, Human Appeal International, Muslim Hands, Human Relief Foundation and Educational Aid for Palestinians - strongly rejected any links with Hamas, and some urged the Government to help to lift the ban. This came as the Israeli Embassy in London gave warning that action would be taken against charity organisations in the Palestinian territories that were considered to be dealing with terrorism groups. The military wing of Hamas, Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, which has been responsible for numerous suicide attacks in Israel, was banned by Britain in March 2001…
ASIA / PACIFIC
20. Taliban blast brings military toll to 97
Fallen soldier saved comrade's life in similar attack two years ago
GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail September 8, 2008 at 3:22 AM EDT
KABUL — A Canadian soldier who saved a comrade's life after a bomb attack two years ago was himself killed by a similar bomb yesterday, during a patrol at an undisclosed location in the Panjwai district west of Kandahar city. Sergeant Prescott Shipway, 36, was remembered for his gallant actions under fire during a Taliban attack on his previous tour in Afghanistan, as the Canadian military mourned its 97th death of the mission. The improvised explosive device that killed him detonated at 12:30 p.m. local time. Little more information was released, but Brigadier-General Denis Thompson offered some detail about another blast, on June 21, 2006, when one of the sergeant's colleagues had his legs blown off…
21. TV Reporter Killed, Editor Beaten in Russia
By ALAN CULLISON September 4, 2008 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122046989425196111.html
MOSCOW -- One journalist was shot to death and another hospitalized with a fractured skull in separate attacks in Russia's Caucasus region that are likely to further worsen Russia's reputation as a hostile environment for the media. The journalists, one an opposition newspaper editor and the other on a mostly progovernment television broadcaster, were both apparently targeted for their work. In the Russian province of Dagestan, television journalist Telman Alishaev died Wednesday morning after he was shot in the head by two men while he sat in his car in the regional capital of Makhachkala on Tuesday night. Mr. Alishaev's colleagues said they suspect that radical Islamists singled out Mr. Alishaev for his criticism of Wahhabism. Mr. Alishaev hosted a program on state-controlled television that focused on religious themes and produced a documentary that was critical radical Islam. Separately, in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik, a newspaper editor was severely beaten outside of his home by three men Tuesday night. The editor, Miloslav Bitokov, was hospitalized with a skull fracture. Colleagues at his newspaper, Gazeta Yuga, said he had been threatened for publishing articles critical of local authorities…
22. Zardari Wins Pakistan's Presidency, But Bombing Casts Cloud on Victory
By PETER WONACOTT Wall Street Journal September 7, 2008 2:19 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122069968044906833.html
ISLAMABAD -- Asif Ali Zardari won the presidency of Pakistan Saturday, in a vote that continued the country's shift from military rule and completed a political resurrection for the controversial spouse of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But the sense of triumph for Pakistani democracy was clouded by a huge car bomb in the city of Peshawar, in the Northwest Frontier Province, which killed at least 35 and injured dozens. The explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber driving a four wheeled vehicle who slammed into a police post. The blast caused the partial collapse of a nearby market. The final tally from an electoral college showed Mr. Zardari capturing more than two-thirds of the votes cast. His win underscored the political clout of his Pakistan People's Party among provincial and national assemblies as well as the Senate, which together made up the body casting the votes. (There is no general election for president). The lawmakers voted for Mr. Zardari over two other candidates, a retired judge, Saeeduz Zaman Siddique, and Mushahid Hussain, a leader of a party that supported Mr. Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf. Mr. Musharraf is a former army chief who had ruled Pakistan since a 1999 military coup. Mr. Musharraf resigned last month rather than challenge a drive to impeach him…
23. Jury mulls verdict over 'terrorism book'
AAP September 8, 2008 - 3:26PM
http://tinyurl.com/6jx44w
A jury has retired to consider its verdict at the trial of a Sydney man accused of producing a book aimed at inciting people to commit terrorist acts. In the NSW Supreme Court, Belal Sadallah Khazaal, of Lakemba in Sydney's southwest, has pleaded not guilty to knowingly making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act. He also has pleaded not guilty to attempting to incite the commission of a terrorist act. The jurors retired on Monday, after Justice Megan Latham concluded her address giving them legal directions relating to the charges. At the trial's opening on August 13, crown prosecutor Peter Neil SC said Khazaal had produced the book, which is in Arabic, in September 2003 and soon afterwards had caused it to be posted on an internet website, www.almagdesse.com...
24. Counter-terror ambassador appointed
September 05, 2008 12:37pm AAP
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24298464-29277,00.html
AUSTRALIA'S new ambassador for counter-terrorism is diplomat Bill Patterson. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Mr Patterson, most recently Australian ambassador to Thailand, had extensive experience in international strategic and security policy. He headed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT's) anti-terrorism task force immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States…
25. George Galloway's charity Interpal back under police glare
Richard Kerbaj From The Times (London) September 5, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4678151.ece
A British charity that distributes aid in the Palestinian territories and is backed by George Galloway, the Respect MP, is at the centre of a police investigation in Australia. Interpal, a London-based aid network set up in the early 1990s to provide healthcare to refugees in the West Bank, was investigated by the Charity Commission in 1996 and in 2003 after allegations that it was supporting the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas but was cleared on both occasions. However, it is currently being investigated by the commission for a third time. It was banned in the US in 2003 on the ground that it was using its global humanitarian missions as a cover for generating money on behalf of Hamas and was outlawed in Australia in 2003 for allegedly being linked to terrorist activities. Interpal's legal representatives applied to the Australian Government to have its proscription revoked in June 2004 but on August 12, 2005, the request was rejected by Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister at the time. Interpal is now the subject of a police inquiry, with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigating the group's affiliation with Muslim Aid Australia (MAA), a prominent charity that admitted channelling aid to the Palestinian territories through the banned organisation - a criminal offence under the Charter of the United Nations Act for Australian individuals or groups. The AFP's inquiry led to the MAA headquarters in Sydney being raided in July… According to the US Treasury Department list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons, Interpal is also known by 13 other names.
26. Afghan al-Qaida figure warns of attacks on West
By KATARINA KRATOVAC – Associated Press Sept 5, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPsHRGnpEArRKBmgy60-UqRALV3gD930JNSG0
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida's top commander in Afghanistan warned of more attacks against the West in a video posted on the Web that paid tribute to a suicide bomber said to have carried out the June bombing of the Danish Embassy in Pakistan. The blast killed six, including one Danish citizen, and caused widespread destruction in the Islamabad neighborhood. Al-Qaida quickly claimed responsibility soon after the attack, saying it was carrying out Osama bin Laden's promise to exact revenge over the publishing of a cartoon of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in Danish papers. It was the deadliest strike against Denmark since the reprinting of the cartoon earlier this year. In the 55-minute video posted late Thursday, al-Qaida's commander in Afghanistan commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed warned "once more the Crusader states that insult, mock and defame our Prophet ... that we will exact revenge at the appropriate time and place." Abu al-Yazeed, an Egyptian as Abu Saeed al-Masri, said the embassy attack in Islamabad was "but the beginning" and called on Muslim youth in the West to "retaliate" against the "enemies of Islam and Muslims in whose midst they live." The video's authenticity could not be independently verified. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum commonly used by al-Qaida to issue videos and bore the logo of the terror group's Al-Sahab media arm…
EUROPE
27. Germany indicts 'home-grown' Islamists for terrorist bomb plot
Posted : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:42:08 GMT DPA
http://tinyurl.com/6n49aa
Karlsruhe, Germany - Three alleged Islamist terrorists, two of them Germans who had converted to Islam, planned bomb attacks on a string of German cities and the main US air base in Germany, federal prosecutors said Friday. The prosecutors in Karlsruhe named the alleged target cities as Frankfurt, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne. The US air base at Ramstein near Frankfurt was another potential target, they said. Police, who had bugged the plotters' communications and surreptitiously confiscated the main ingredient in the explosive, arrested the men a year ago. If the bombing had succeeded, it would have been Germany's bloodiest experience by far of Islamist terrorism. Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Daniel Schneider, 22, both Germans, and Adem Yilmaz, 29, a Turkish national, are to be tried by a state court in Dusseldorf... Gelowicz, said to have led the plot, changed his religion to Islam and allegedly resolved five years ago to join the "jihad" or holy war against the West. The precise allegations against the men have yet to be disclosed, but the indictment accuses them of membership in a terrorist organization on German soil and abroad, which are two separate charges. Schneider was also indicted for the attempted murder of a policeman because he grabbed a gun and fired it while fleeing arrest in a small country town on September 4, 2007…
28. JTF-East training in Bulgaria officially begins
Headquarters US European Command Release Date: Sep 08, 2008
Sgt. Aimee Millham
http://www.eucom.mil/english/FullStory.asp?art=1821
NOVO SELO TRAINING AREA, Bulgaria — A Sept. 1 ceremony here marked the official beginning of Joint Task Force-East's training rotation in Bulgaria, and once again the theme was interoperability. While there was a two-week Bulgarian-American combined training exercise here last year, this marks the first JTF-East training rotation at NSTA. "There is no doubt in my mind that we will continue to strengthen our already existing bond as we share our respective knowledge and skills as professional Soldiers," said Lt. Col. Sean A. Gainey, commander of Task Force Panther. The exercise will serve as a platform for U.S. and Bulgarian military forces to exchange ideas and learn from each other Gainey said. Approximately 900 U.S. and 300 Bulgarian service members are participating in the exercise, and hail from the Utah National Guard and the 3-10 Bulgarian Infantry Battalion, respectively...
COMMENT / ANALYSIS
29. How to Manage Savagery
Bret Stephens Commentary Magazine, issue: September 2008
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/how-to-manage-savager... [HTML]
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewpdf.cfm?article_id=12507 [PDF]
Reprinted in Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122059157681303377.html
Bret Stephens is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and the author of the paper’s “Global View,” a weekly column.
