Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 03 Aug 2007 07:59

Mush re-election bid may fuel Islamic radicalism

India should be in far greater demand if this is true.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 03 Aug 2007 08:52

Obama Gets Praise for Answering Hypotheticals

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 06 Aug 2007 05:56

Dawood moved to Kazakhstan with new identity (video)
http://broadband.indiatimes.com/videoshow/2255406.cms

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1112655

Pakistan gives Dawood new passport, ID
Baljeet Parmar
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 08:14 IST
MUMBAI: The don is on the run again, thanks to pressure from Uncle Sam and several international anti-terror agencies.
With the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asking Pakistan to hand the fugitive over to them for investigating his links to al-Qaeda and the narcotics trade, Dawood has been given a new identity and passport and sent to a safe haven in a central Asian Islamic country.

According to intelligence sources, the Pakistani authorities, when asked about Dawood, said no one by that name was in Pakistan.
Dawood is also wanted in India in connection with the 1993 blasts, and several other cases.
The American request to Pakistan was made in mid-April. Fearing a US backlash, Dawood's mentors in Pakistan reportedly put him on a flight to Kazakhstan, where the don has several business interests, including mining and petroleum products.
Former CBI director Joginder Singh told DNA on Monday that whenever they demanded that Dawood be handed over, the Pakistani authorities refused to admit that he was staying in Karachi.
"It is very easy to grow a beard or shave it off and get a new Pakistani passport under an assumed name and travel to a new destination," said Singh, when asked if he could now be in another country.
"Dawood has been declared an international terrorist by the UN for his links with the Afghan militants and documented support to the fundamentalist regime in Iran," Singh added.
The Pakistani regime under Pervez Musharraf has a tacit understanding with the US under which the details of all passengers leaving and entering Pakistan are provided.
"So the Pakistani authorities had no choice but to provide Dawood with a new identity and documents," says a senior intelligence officer.
Sources in Pakistan and London confirmed that Dawood had left Pakistan in April for Kazakhstan and packed his wife and children off to London, where he has a plush house.

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 06 Aug 2007 06:49

[quote="arun"]Transcripts of Nicholas Burns, Teresita Schaffer, Samina Ahmed and Stephen Cohen presentation's to the US Senate Foreign Policy Committee hearing, â€œ Pakistanâ€™s Future ; Building Democracy or Fueling Extremismâ€

enqyoobOLD · Post by **enqyoobOLD** » 07 Aug 2007 05:59

Pakistan wins mention - for the usual reasons.

'Plot Would Have Killed Thousands'
EXCLUSIVE: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Offers Chilling Details About 2006 Airplane Plot and Current Terror Threats

Aug. 6, 2007 â€”

Terrorists who had planned to detonate gel-based explosives on U.S.-bound flights from London last August would have achieved mass devastation, according to new information from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

"I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11," Chertoff told ABC's Pierre Thomas. "If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

.....
Sources tell ABC News that after studying the plot, government officials have concluded that without the tip to British authorities, the suspects could have likely smuggled the bomb components onboard using sports drinks.

The components of that explosives mixture can be bought at any drugstore or supermarket; however, there is some question whether the potential terrorists would have had the skill to properly mix and detonate their explosive cocktails in-flight.

But they can work: scientists at Sandia National Laboratory conducted a test using the formula, and when a small amount of liquid in a container was hit with a tiny burst of electrical current, a large explosion followed. (Click on the video player on the right side of this page to view the video.)

The test results were reviewed today by ABC terrorism consultant Richard Clarke, who said that while frequent travelers are upset by the current limits on liquids in carry-on baggage, "when they see this film, they ought to know it's worth going through those problems."

One official who briefed ABC News said explosives and security experts who examined the plot were "stunned at the extent that the suspects had gamed the system to exploit its weaknesses."

"There's no question that they had given a lot of thought to how they might smuggle containers with liquid explosives onto airplanes," Chertoff said. "Without getting into things that are still classified, they obviously paid attention to the ways in which they thought they might be able to disguise these explosives as very innocent types of everyday articles."

Tense Hours as Officials Learned of Plot

Chertoff speaks candidly about those moments when Homeland Security learned about the potential attack, and the terrorists had not yet been captured.

"This was very, very tightly held, because the British were concerned about any possibility of a leak getting out. Obviously, the intelligence folks knew, the senior intelligence folks, the president, senior leaders in the White House," he said. "Within my own department, only the deputy and I were initially told about this."

"I got a call telling me that it looked as if the focus had turned on an attack on the United States, specifically an attack on airliners leaving from Britain, traveling to American cities," Chertoff said. "It also became evident, within 24 hours, that the time frame within which the attack was going to take place, would not be a matter of months but & a matter of weeks or even days."

Airports in the United States and the United Kingdom were put on red alert meaning a potential attack could be imminent and liquids were banned from carry-on luggage as suspects were picked up, including 24 British-born Muslims and seven Pakistanis.

"We had to start about 9, 10 o'clock in the evening, when the arrests began to go down in Pakistan, and when we were first given the ability to tell other people about the plot," Chertoff said. "And we had to turn the entire process around by 6 a.m. the following morning, before people started to board airplanes.

"You had to change literally thousands of people's behavior in the course of about 12 hours. We had to train them. We had to get everybody to understand what the new rules were going to be. And you had to communicate to the public in a very short period of time.

"And so, we spent literally the entire night bringing in not only the TSA senior leadership, but also talking on the phone to the airline leadership, so that everybody would understand what needed to happen at 6 a.m. the following day," he said.

For Chertoff, the concern remained that an attack would have been carried out if they'd missed a critical detail. "There's an enormous sense of working against time, giving the analysts as much time as you possibly can, but always recognizing at the end that the benefit of the doubt has to be in favor of saving lives."

Assessing Current Risks

Since last August, the failed plot has had an enormous impact on U.S. airports, which have remained on orange or high alert, for nearly a year.

After authorities tested the explosive liquids, the government determined what quantity of liquid explosives could pose a risk if smuggled onboard flights, leading to the 3-ounce limit for carry-on bags.

Passengers are still restricted when bringing liquids onboard, and those rules may remain in place forever.

At the moment, Chertoff believes there is a "heightened risk" of an attack.

"We have seen that in some areas of Pakistan, the enemy has been able to reconstitute itself and get a breathing space, so to speak, where they can plan and do some recruiting and some training. We've seen increased effort to develop terrorist operatives in Europe.

"And, of course, the concern we have, because of the visa waiver program, has been Europeans either carrying out attacks against Americans on the European continent, or even coming to the United States," Chertoff said.

"When you add these things together, they don't move into a mathematical certainty we're going to have an attack, but they do suggest that there is a heightened threat, a bit more capability than there was, and, therefore, all the more reason for us to continue to raise the level of our security and our defenses," he said.

That progress was aided after the arrests last year that provided Homeland Security with information about terrorist capabilities.

"Clearly, the effort to put explosives in sports bottles was a reaction to what we had done with respect to other kinds of explosives, and & we're going to be back and forth with terrorists on this kind of cat-and-mouse process for years to come," Chertoff said.

And while he is confronted by pieces of data daily as Homeland Security tries to assess credible threats and piece together information, Chertoff said he remains continually struck by the nature of the enemy.

"You know, we go about our business during the summer, other times of the year. People are going to ballgames or watching their children graduate from high school," he said, "and it chills me sometimes to think there are people a half a world away who are spending the same period of time in a cave, trying to figure out how to kill us."

(Except they are not in caves - they are in ISI HQ or the Musharraf Mansion)

enqyoobOLD · Post by **enqyoobOLD** » 07 Aug 2007 22:16

Happened to find something in the course of searching for something else.Comments are illuminating.

Also see Ref. 6 in the article "Radical Trends in African-American Islam

By Chris Zambelis"

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 12 Aug 2007 13:44

How the 'Good War' in Afghanistan went bad - NY Times

All this is known, but worth reiterating.
[quote]A Lingering Threat

Before departing Afghanistan, Mr. Khalilzad fought a final battle within the administration. It revealed divisions within the American government over Pakistanâ€™s role in aiding the Taliban, a delicate subject as the administration tried to coax Pakistanâ€™s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to cooperate.

In an interview on Afghan television, Mr. Khalilzad noted that Pakistani journalists had recently interviewed a senior Taliban commander in Pakistan. He questioned Pakistanâ€™s claim that it did not know the whereabouts of senior Taliban commanders â€” a form of skepticism discouraged in Washington, where the administrationâ€™s line had always been that General Musharraf was doing everything he could.

â€œIf a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs, and a lot of security and military forces, not find them?â€

bala · Post by **bala** » 16 Aug 2007 07:28

More from the known series...
Pakistan funded, armed Taliban

The National Security Archives of the George Washington University has published details of American concerns over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban...

Close on the heels of a US intelligence report of a resurgence of Taliban in Pakistan's border areas, newly declassified documents reveal that Islamabad was directly involved in funding, arming and advising the militant group.

The National Security Archives of the George Washington University has published details of American concerns over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban during the seven-year period leading up to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

The revelation comes just days after Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that there is "no doubt" Afghan militants are supported from Pakistani soil.

"While Musharraf admitted the Taliban were being sheltered in the lawless frontier border regions, the declassified US documents released today clearly illustrate that the Taliban was directly funded, armed and advised by Islamabad itself," the National Security Archives said in a statement.

The government documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also detailed US concerns about Pakistani troops training and fighting alongside the Taliban inside Afghanistan.

"The records released today represent the most complete and comprehensive collection of declassified documentation to date on Pakistan's aid programmes to the Taliban, illustrating Islamabad's firm commitment to a Taliban victory in Afghanistan," the Archives said.

The Archives also pointed out is that these new documents also support and inform the findings of a recently-released CIA intelligence estimate characterising Pakistan's tribal areas as a safe haven for al-Qaeda terrorists.

"Declassified State Department cables and US intelligence reports describe the use of Taliban terrorist training areas in Afghanistan by Pakistani-supported militants in Kashmir, as well as Pakistan's covert effort to supply Pashtun troops from its tribal regions to the Taliban cause in Afghanistan -- effectively forging and reinforcing Pashtun bonds across the border and consolidating the Taliban's severe form of Islam throughout Pakistan's frontier region," the Archives said.

Even though Islamabad denies that it ever provided military support to the Taliban, the documents reveal that in the weeks following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 1996, Pakistan's intelligence agency was "supplying the Taliban forces with munitions, fuel, and food," the Archives said.

Pakistan's Interservice Intelligence Directorate was "using a private sector transportation company to funnel supplies into Afghanistan and to the Taliban forces," it said.

The documents point to a September 2000 cable cited in the 9/11 Commission Report which noted that Pakistan's aid to the Taliban has reached "unprecedented" levels, including reports that Islamabad haD possibly allowed the Taliban to use territory in Pakistan for military operations.

Furthermore the US has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors," the Archives said.

arun · Post by **arun** » 03 Sep 2007 16:49

Pakistan's IT exports grow

:

Pak bomb makers held: Kabul

Web posted at: 9/3/2007 2:25:11
Source ::: AFP

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan â€¢ Authorities in Afghanistan said yesterday they had detained four Pakistanis on suspicion of helping insurgents build bombs, as new blasts killed three soldiers and wounded a dozen people.

The alleged militants were seized on Friday in the southern city of Kandahar soon after they arrived from Chaman, a town just across the border in Pakistan, intelligence official Abdul Qayoum Katawazi told AFP.

"On a tip-off we captured four Pakistanis who are experts in making suicide-bombing vests and remote-controlled bombs," Katawazi told AFP.

He would not provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation.

Afghan officials say Taleban insurgents are being aided by extremist circles in Pakistan.

Roadside bombs and Iraq-style suicide explosions have become key tactics for the Al Qaeda-linked rebels, who have intensified their attacks as part of a bloody insurgency they are waging against the government in Kabul.

A new bombing killed three Afghan army soldiers on Saturday in Kandahar province, a hotbed of Taleban activity over the past two years, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The soldiers were on patrol in the Zhari district when they were killed, it said. Two other soldiers were injured. Around 10 Afghan civilians were injured in a bombing in the normally calm northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late Saturday, police said.

The bomb, which was attached to a bicycle, was detonated by remote control, police official Abdul Rauf Taj said.

"It was an act of terrorism," Taj said. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but similar attacks have been blamed on Taleban guerrillas.

The Taleban were toppled from power by a US-led invasion in late 2001 but are still able to wage an insurgency which is being fought back by tens of thousands of Afghan and international forces.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 04 Sep 2007 14:59

Anybody wants to bet they were not TSPians or there was no TSP connection ?

Several arrested in Denmark over terror plot

Anindya · Post by **Anindya** » 04 Sep 2007 20:02

SSridhar wrote:Anybody wants to bet they were not TSPians or there was no TSP connection ?

Several arrested in Denmark over terror plot

Took a few hours to come through.... from AP, we have

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/ap_ ... ark_terror

"Those arrested are militant Islamists with connections to leading al-Qaida persons," Scharf said without naming those people. "According to our assessment, there is a direct connection to al-Qaida."

The suspects â€” of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin â€” were arrested without incident, Scharf told reporters. He declined to say whether more people were being sought. Eleven locations were raided in and around Copenhagen, including the Ishoej suburb and the Noerrebro district of the capital.

The TV2 News channel reported a 19-year-old electrician was arrested in Ishoej, while a taxi driver in his early 20s was arrested in Noerrebro.

TV footage shot from a helicopter showed bomb squads and forensics agents at those locations.

Sadiq al-Fatlawi, who said he lives on the floor above the cab driver, told TV2 News that police ordered him and other neighbors to leave the building during the raid because it was dangerous to remain inside.

"When we came down to the (police) van they told us that they had suspicions that there were explosives in the property," al-Fatlawi said. They were let back in four hours later.

He said the taxi driver was of Pakistani origin and had recently moved in.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 05 Sep 2007 16:30

The Hyderabad blasts, the ones in Rawalpindi, the arrest in Denmark and now Germany are all indicators that the TSP based, assisted and funded Al Qaeda is regrouping. More daring attacks seem to be on the way. India should be extremely vigilant.

enqyoobOLD · Post by **enqyoobOLD** » 05 Sep 2007 18:07

I have a question about this news of further Pakistani influence

Germany: 'Massive' attacks foiled

... The suspects, two German converts to Islam aged 22 and 29 and a 29-year-old Turk, appeared before a federal magistrate on Wednesday. They were picked up Tuesday after a series of raids in 30 places across Germany, Ziercke said.

They received terrorist training in Pakistan and had close ties to al Qaeda, he noted.

QUESTION: WHY are the German POLICE wearing the burkhas in this case? AoA!

Scofield · Post by **Scofield** » 05 Sep 2007 18:50

enqyoob wrote: QUESTION: WHY are the German POLICE wearing the burkhas in this case? AoA!

The same reason Pakistani soldiers wear skirts!

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Sep 2007 16:57

Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 13:35

Subject: /Pakistan-Terrorism/Germany/

NEWS FEATURE: Germany arrests spotlight Pakistan terror camp fears

By Nick Allen, dpa

Islamabad (dpa) - The arrest in Germany this week of three suspects in an alleged plot to blow up US military and civilian targets has again raised the spectre of terrorist training camps in Pakistan that groom killers to wreak havoc in the Western world.

The claimed existence in the remote tribal belt by Afghanistan of centres run by Taliban insurgents, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network and other Islamic extremist groups is not new.

US intelligence agencies assert that such facilities exist and regular visits to Pakistan by top administration officials have focussed on the need for counter-terrorism ally President Pervez Musharraf to ensure they are eradicated.

But while acknowledging that terrorist and insurgent "elements" are present in the tribal areas, Islamabad sharply rejects claims that bin Laden's network in particular has reconstituted itself there and is now coordinating global operations from Pakistani soil.

"There are no terrorist training camps (here), whether al-Qaeda or anyone else," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said after officials in Germany on Wednesday announced the arrests of two German converts to Islam and a Turkish Muslim suspected of planning attacks.

Remarks by Federal Prosecutor-General Monika Harms that they were members of the Uzbekistan-linked Islamic Jihad Union and had received training in Pakistan in 2006 were "just claims," Aslam said, noting that there had been no formal contact by German authorities concerning such a connection.

But despite the efforts of the Pakistani military to tame the mountainous tribal areas, independent experts do not doubt the existence of terrorist training camps in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where they are located.

"Most of them are in North and South Waziristan and were mainly established after 2001 when the US invasion of Afghanistan forced al-Qaeda militants and the members of other Islamic resistance movements from Chechnya, Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia to flee to these areas," said Ismaeel Khan, a respected authority on terrorism and bureau chief of the Dawn newspaper in the NWFP capital of Peshawar.

"The militants are well trained in warfare skills and in making and using highly sophisticated explosive devices," Khan said, noting that intelligence agencies in Pakistan, the United States and other Islamic countries trained many of the foreign fighters to engage Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. "This knowledge has now been handed down to the next generation of the militants," he added.

While Islamabad is rigid on the issue of camps, Pakistani security forces on the border say they are struggling to stem the arrival of suspected terrorist trainees via Afghanistan, especially at the Tuftan crossing in the southwest Baluchistan province.

"We pick up around a dozen such people every week," a senior official said on condition of anonymity. "It is possible that many others might have passed the crossing without coming into our notice as hundreds of people travel through it every day."

After questioning, suspects are handed over to state intelligence agencies, he said, adding that individuals and groups from Western Europe use two main routes to reach Pakistan for training purposes or to join the conflict against NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The first is from Eastern Europe via Russia, Central Asia, Turkey or Iran and finally to Balochistan. Or they travel directly to Turkey, Iran and into the same province. The same routes are used to move people and material to the West.

There are also established mechanisms for the financing of training operations, according to Khan.

"Many locals as well as Muslims living abroad who sympathize with the cause and objectives of the jihadi forces give them donations. The funds are in millions (of dollars), which are sent here through the old Hawala system of transferring money," he said, referring to the unofficial but widespread practice whereby funds are deposited with individuals abroad and paid out by an associate at the other end, like a regular wire transfer.

Meanwhile, recruits are also believed to receive religious indoctrination at some of Pakistan's thousands of Islamic madrassa seminaries, and learn how to assemble suicide bomb vests and build explosive devices.

According to German prosecutor Harms, the three arrested men had accumulated some 730 kilos of hydrogen peroxide, from which bombs similar to those used in London in July 2005, were to be made.

Two of the London bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, are known to have visited Pakistan shortly before they and two other British Muslims blew up three underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people.

In December last year, British police were trying to trace a gang of British Muslims dubbed the "English brothers," which included nine Britons, two Norwegians and an Australian who were believed to have been smuggled into Waziristan in October 2005.

The group was thought to be under the command of an al-Qaeda veteran suspected of training some of the Britons accused of the alleged plot in 2006 to blow up passengers planes flying to the US from Heathrow airport.

LINK

Vivek_A · Post by **Vivek_A** » 07 Sep 2007 02:38

url

Germany Eyeing More Suspects in Plot
By KATRIN BENNHOLD and JUDY DEMPSEY

KARLSRUHE, Germany, Sept. 6 â€” German investigators were trying to build a case on Thursday against a handful of suspects beyond the three arrested in connection with a foiled terrorist attack by Islamic militants, and German officials prepared to debate whether security services should be given wider surveillance powers.

Officials know the identities and whereabouts of several of the seven suspects still at large, some still in Germany, according to the federal prosecutorâ€™s office. Their homes were among about 30 properties raided on Tuesday, said Andreas Christeleit, a spokesman for the federal prosecutorâ€™s office in Karlsruhe.

According to an official close to the investigation, at least one of the men is Pakistani and another is Lebanese. At least one of them left Germany by plane to go to Turkey, but since then he may have traveled elsewhere, the official said. He declined to be identified because the investigation is still active.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 07 Sep 2007 10:42

German police arrest 3 in terrorist plot - NY Times
Excerpts. . .
[quote]Those arrested â€” two German citizens who had converted to Islam and a Turkish resident of Germany â€” were in the advanced stages of plotting bomb attacks that could have been deadlier than those that killed dozens in London and Madrid, the police and security officials said. At least five lesser figures are still being pursued, they said.

An American intelligence official said that the United States helped German authorities track the location of two of the German suspects by eavesdropping on their cellphone conversations as they moved out of training camps in Pakistan.

Ms. Harms also said that the two German converts had trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan . . . . .

â€œThis is the first time Iâ€™ve seen a Turkish-German network,â€

Vivek_A · Post by **Vivek_A** » 09 Sep 2007 01:42

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/sep-2007/9/index10.php

Pak link helped foil Germany terror plot

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US intelligence intercept of suspicious communications between Pakistan and Germany was the initial breakthrough that helped authorities foil a terror plot this week, it was reported on Friday.
The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified officials, reported that communications referring to â€œapparent terrorist activityâ€

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Sep 2007 03:40

Vivek_A wrote:http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/sep-2007/9/index10.php

Pak link helped foil Germany terror plot

The Pakis even take this as a compliment !!

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Sep 2007 04:10

Afghan suicide attackers coming through TSP: UN Report

The spiralling number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan are often carried out by young Afghan men who pass through religious schools in Pakistan, a United Nations report said on Sunday.

Some attackers appeared driven by anger at the presence of international forces and the civilians being killed in their anti-Taliban operations, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) study said.

Others were motivated by religious zeal or were young boys who had been abducted and forced into the task or somehow persuaded they would survive and earn rewards such as cash, a motorcycle or a cell phone, it said.

arun · Post by **arun** » 09 Sep 2007 10:45

Most Afghanistan Suicide Bombers Trained in Pakistan.

Any one got their hands on the cited UN report ?

Most Afghanistan Suicide Bombers Trained in Pakistan (Update1)

By Ed Johnson

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- More than 80 percent of suicide bombers staging attacks in Afghanistan are trained, recruited or sheltered in neighboring Pakistan, the United Nations said in a report published today.

Only about half are Afghan nationals, with the remainder coming from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Arab countries, according to the report, which analyzes suicide attacks in the country since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

Suicide bombings are rising and won't fall ``as long as anti-government elements can rely upon Pakistani territory for the recruitment and training of operatives, for fundraising and safe havens,'' said the report.

Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents are waging a guerrilla war in Afghanistan against the government of President Hamid Karzai, who has blamed Pakistan for failing to stop rebels crossing the mountainous border between the two countries. U.S. intelligence officials said in a report published in July that al-Qaeda has established a haven in Pakistan's tribal regions.

The UN said its report is based on interviews with national and international intelligence, military and police officials, and with failed suicide attackers held at the Pul-e-Charki prison outside the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Religious Schools [

Almost all suicide attackers in Afghanistan ``undergo some form of training and preparation'' in religious schools in Pakistan, known as madrassas, according to the report.

``Over 80 percent of suicide attackers pass through recruitment, training facilities or safe houses in North and South Waziristan en route to their targets inside Afghanistan,'' the UN said, referring to Pakistani tribal districts.

Taliban groups around the Pakistani city of Quetta, of which there are about 30, are expected to produce one or two suicide attackers each this year, the UN added.
Only five suicide attacks took place in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2005, when they escalated to 17 during the course of the year, according to the report. Last year, there were 123 attacks and 103 this year up to the end of August.

Pakistan denies charges that it is failing to control al- Qaeda and Taliban fighters and points to the more than 80,000 soldiers it has deployed along the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border with Afghanistan.

In 2006, President Pervez Musharraf ordered religious schools to register with the government. A year earlier, he demanded they expel non-Pakistani students, after a U.K. investigation into the 2005 bombings in London showed that at least one of the suicide attackers visited a Pakistani madrassa.

`Ground Zero'

``The ground zero of terrorism has moved from Afghanistan to the tribal areas of Pakistan since 2001,'' Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said by telephone today.

``As long as al-Qaeda and the Taliban maintain a presence in the tribal areas there will be violence, not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan and beyond into Europe where there is a large Pakistani diaspora community,'' he added.

Gunaratna, the author of ``Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror,'' said the terrorist group had replicated the operational, training and support structures it built in Afghanistan, where it had the protection of the Taliban regime, in Pakistan's tribal regions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: September 8, 2007 23:50 EDT

arun · Post by **arun** » 09 Sep 2007 10:59

Tsk â€¦. Tsk, a rather UnAmerican Oped in Yahoo.

Why just a couple of days back US Sec Def Robert Gates had lavished hosannas on Pakistan and termed Pakistan a [url=http://voanews.com/english/About/2007-0 ... kistan.cfm] â€œSteadfast Allyâ€

arun · Post by **arun** » 09 Sep 2007 11:23

arun wrote:Most Afghanistan Suicide Bombers Trained in Pakistan.

Any one got their hands on the cited UN report ?

Most Afghanistan Suicide Bombers Trained in Pakistan (Update1)

The UN report ........ 1.5MB.

Going by the number of mentions to Pakistan, the reader may be forgiven in thinking that that the document is mistitled

:

Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan (2001-2007)

It will be fun to watch the ensuing antics of Pakistanâ€™s FO

.

Laks · Post by **Laks** » 10 Sep 2007 08:05

bala wrote:The National Security Archives of the George Washington University has published details of American concerns over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban...

Close on the heels of a US intelligence report of a resurgence of Taliban in Pakistan's border areas, newly declassified documents reveal that Islamabad was directly involved in funding, arming and advising the militant group.

Link to US National Security Archives with all the documents which again makes it clear that Unkil has been in the loop about this all along.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm

Pakistan: "The Taliban's Godfather"?

Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists

Covert Policy Linked Taliban, Kashmiri Militants, Pakistan's Pashtun Troops

Aid Encouraged Pro-Taliban Sympathies in Troubled Border Region

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 227
Edited by Barbara Elias

Posted - August 14, 2007

A collection of newly-declassified documents published today detail U.S. concern over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban during the seven-year period leading up to 9-11. This new release comes just days after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, acknowledged that, "There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistan soil." While Musharraf admitted the Taliban were being sheltered in the lawless frontier border regions, the declassified U.S. documents released today clearly illustrate that the Taliban was directly funded, armed and advised by Islamabad itself.

Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, the documents reflect U.S. apprehension about Islamabad's longstanding provision of direct aid and military support to the Taliban, including the use of Pakistani troops to train and fight alongside the Taliban inside Afghanistan. [Doc 17] The records released today represent the most complete and comprehensive collection of declassified documentation to date on Pakistan's aid programs to the Taliban, illustrating Islamabad's firm commitment to a Taliban victory in Afghanistan. [Doc 34].

These new documents also support and inform the findings of a recently-released CIA intelligence estimate characterizing Pakistan's tribal areas as a safe haven for al-Qaeda terrorists, and provide new details about the close relationship between Islamabad and the Taliban in the years prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Declassified State Department cables and U.S. intelligence reports describe the use of Taliban terrorist training areas in Afghanistan by Pakistani-supported militants in Kashmir, as well as Pakistan's covert effort to supply Pashtun troops from its tribal regions to the Taliban cause in Afghanistan-effectively forging and reinforcing Pashtun bonds across the border and consolidating the Taliban's severe form of Islam throughout Pakistan's frontier region.

Also published today are documents linking Harakat ul-Ansar, a militant Kashmiri group funded directly by the government of Pakistan, [Doc 10] to terrorist training camps shared by Osama bin Laden in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. [Doc 16]

Of particular concern was the potential for Islamabad-Taliban links to strengthen Taliban influence in Pakistan's tribal regions along the border. A January 1997 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan observed that "for Pakistan, a Taliban-based government in Kabul would be as good as it can get in Afghanistan," adding that worries that the "Taliban brand of Islamâ€¦might infect Pakistan," was "apparently a problem for another day." [Doc 20] Now ten years later, Islamabad seems to be acknowledging the domestic complications that the Taliban movement has created within Pakistan. A report produced by Pakistan's Interior Ministry and obtained by the International Herald Tribune in June 2007 warned President Pervez Musharraf that Taliban-inspired Islamic militancy has spread throughout Pakistan's tribal regions and could potentially threaten the rest of the country. The document is "an accurate description of the dagger pointed at the country's heart," according to one Pakistani official quoted in the article. "It's tragic it's taken so long to recognize it."

Islamabad denies that it ever provided military support to the Taliban , but the newly-released documents report that in the weeks following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 1996, Pakistan's intelligence agency was "supplying the Taliban forces with munitions, fuel, and food." Pakistan's Interservice Intelligence Directorate was "using a private sector transportation company to funnel supplies into Afghanistan and to the Taliban forces." [Doc 15] Other documents also conclude that there has been an extensive and consistent history of "both military and financial assistance to the Taliban." [Doc 8]

The newly-released documents also shed light on the complexity of U.S. diplomacy with Pakistan as the State Department has struggled to maintain the U.S.-Pakistan alliance amid concerns over the rise of the Taliban regime. In one August 1997 cable, U.S. Ambassador Thomas W. Simons advises, "Our good relations with Pakistan associate us willy-nilly, so we need to be extremely careful about Pakistani proposals that draw us even closer," adding that, "Pakistan is a party rather than just a mediator [in Afghanistan]." [Doc 24] In another 1997 cable, the Embassy asserts that "the best policy for the U.S. is to steer clear of direct involvement in the disputes between the two countries [Pakistan and Iran], and to continue to work for peace in Afghanistan." [Doc 22]

As to Pakistan's end-game in supporting the Taliban, several documents suggest that in the interest of its own security, Pakistan would try to moderate some of the Taliban's more extreme policies. [Doc 8] But the Taliban have a long history of resistance to external interests, and the actual extent of Pakistani influence over the Taliban during this period remains largely speculative. As the State Department commented in a cable from late-1995, "Although Pakistan has reportedly assured Tehran and Tashkent that it can control the Taliban, we remain unconvinced. Pakistan surely has some influence on the Taliban, but it falls short of being able to call the shots." [Doc 7]

Highlights

* August 1996: Pakistan Intelligence (ISID) "provides at least $30,000 - and possibly as much as $60,000 - per month" to the militant Kashmiri group Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA). Despite this aid, the group is reaching out to sponsors of international terrorism including Osama bin Laden for additional support, and may in the near future become a threat to Islamabad itself as well as U.S. interests. HUA contacts have hinted they "might undertake terrorist actions against civilian airliners." [Doc 10]

* October 1996: A Canadian intelligence document released by the National Security Agency and originally classified Top Secret SI, Umbra comments on recent Taliban military successes noting that even Pakistan "must harbour some concern" regarding the Taliban's impressive capture of Kabul, as such victory may diminish Pakistan's influence over the movement and produce a Taliban regime in Kabul with strong links to Pakistan's own Pashtuns. [Doc 14]

* October 1996: Although food supplies from Pakistan to the Taliban are conducted openly through Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISID, "the munitions convoys depart Pakistan late in the evening hours and are concealed to reveal their true contents." [Doc 15]

* November 1996: Pakistan's Pashtun-based "Frontier Corps elements are utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary - combat" alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. [Doc 17]

* March 1998: Al-Qaeda and Pakistan government-funded Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA) have been sharing terrorist training camps in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan for years [Link Doc 16], and HUA has increasingly been moving ideologically closer to al-Qaeda. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is growing increasingly concerned as Fazlur Rahman Khalil, a leader in Pakistan's Harakat ul-Ansar has signed Osama bin Laden's most recent fatwa promoting terrorist activities against U.S. interests. [Doc 26]

* September 1998 [Doc 31] and March 1999 [Doc 33]: The U.S. Department of State voices concern that Pakistan is not doing all it can to pressure the Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden. "Pakistan has not been responsive to our requests that it use its full influence on the Taliban surrender of Bin Ladin." [Doc 33]

* September 2000: A cable cited in The 9/11 Commission Report notes that Pakistan's aid to the Taliban has reached "unprecedented" levels, including recent reports that Islamabad has possibly allowed the Taliban to use territory in Pakistan for military operations. Furthermore the U.S. has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors." [Doc 34]

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 10 Sep 2007 15:01

Link

[quote]Europeans Get Terror Training Inside Pakistan

By SOUAD MEKHENNET and MICHAEL MOSS

FRANKFURT, Sept. 9 â€” The accused conspirators in a bombing plot disrupted last week in Germany were part of what the authorities say is a small, but growing, flow of militants from Germany and other Western countries who are receiving terrorism training at camps in Pakistan.

Beginning early last year, at least five of the suspects traveled to the tribal regions of Waziristan, where they learned to prepare chemical explosives and military-grade detonators that they intended to use to build three car bombs, according to German officials and a confidential German intelligence document that details the allegations.

The authorities said the man they had identified as the leader of the plot, Fritz Martin Gelowicz, 28, apparently found his way to the camp in Waziristan through contacts he made at an Islamic center he attended in Neu-Ulm, Germany. Other suspects in the suspected conspiracy then followed Mr. Gelowicz to the camp, where their instructors included militant Islamists from Uzbekistan who are aligned with Al Qaeda, according to the confidential document.

As further evidence of traffic between Germany and the tribal areas of Pakistan, intelligence officials said six other men from Germany who had received similar training had been detained in Pakistan, and they suspect that numerous other Germans have attended the camps without being identified by the authorities.

German officials say they are troubled by evidence that Al Qaeda and other groups are training Western-born recruits whose passports allow them easy access to other Western countries.

â€œThey started to look especially for people from Europe, because they wanted to train them and later to use them here in Germany for operations,â€

Rich · Post by **Rich** » 10 Sep 2007 20:22

9/11 - Dawood Connection. Who woulda thunk - that of all places, such an article would appear in the Vancouver Sun.

link

Powerful Indian gangster a strong backer of terrorism
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, September 10, 2007
In all the inevitable soul-searching over the next few days accompanying the sixth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, one name unlikely to draw much attention, at least in the West, is Dawood Ibrahim.

But perhaps he should.

This extraordinary character, an Indian national about 52 years old, is an entrepreneur with a mind-boggling portfolio of enterprises.

Ibrahim is don of Mumbai's major organized crime syndicate, the fabled D-Company, beside which the Mafia seems like a corner store operation.

Much of the D-Company's street cred stems from movies glamourizing Ibrahim and his gangsters as folk heroes, produced just down the road from Mumbai in Bollywood and financed, of course, by Ibrahim. As much as anyone, Ibrahim symbolizes that grey area between India's movie industry and the underworld, and which has seen several Bollywood stars as famous for their courtroom performances as their on-camera action.

Ibrahim is also a fervent Muslim. And it is this that has catapulted him into the world of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, international drug dealing, money laundering, and a star spot on the U.S. government's list of global terrorists.

It's not only Washington that wants Ibrahim dead or alive -- so does the Indian government. New Delhi believes the Pakistani government, and especially the military's Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI), is sheltering him.

Ibrahim and his financial empire are seen as essential ingredients in the survival of al-Qaida and the Taliban insurgents whom Canadian, British and Dutch forces are battling in southern Afghanistan.

Opium grown in Afghanistan and trafficked through Taliban networks is believed to be transported to Europe, where it is processed into heroin before being sold locally or moved on to North America. All of this travels through Ibrahim's courier systems in Central Asia.

Recent reports say Afghanistan now produces 95 per cent of the world's illegal heroin, and is the major source of financing for the Taliban insurgency.

At the same time, Ibrahim is believed by Indian police to control much of the "hawala" system in Pakistan and India. Hawala is an ancient but still very popular invisible method of transferring money from country to country by use of credit guarantees. Washington has often railed that the system is tailor-made for financing terrorist operations.

That Ibrahim is still at the centre of a spiderweb of criminal enterprises is in itself a testament to the man's perverted genius. His empire should have crumbled in 1993, but instead he seems to have rocketed ever upwards.

In December 1992, extremist Hindu nationalists attacked and demolished the Babri Muslim Mosque at Ayodhya in northern India.

Ibrahim, it seems, was incensed by this outpouring of anti-Muslim violence, although there are also strong suspicions that he already had links to Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, which persuaded him to seek vengeance.

Using his D-Company network and scores of unemployed Muslim street youths, Ibrahim launched a massive terrorist attack on Mumbai. Thirteen bombs exploded in the city on March 12, 1993, killing at least 250 people and injuring another 700.

Shortly before the attacks, Ibrahim and some of his closest cohorts left India for the United Arab Emirates, but he later moved to Karachi, Pakistan's southern port and commercial centre.

Here Ibrahim has rebuilt his empire around his links to ISI, al-Qaida and the Taliban.

As the U.S. assessed the al-Qaida network after the 2001 terrorist attacks, Ibrahim came into view. In 2003, Washington designated him a terrorist and ordered financial sanctions imposed on anyone doing business with him.

This does not seem to have cramped Ibrahim's style.

Pakistan does not have a film industry offering Ibrahim stars and starlets with whom to consort. In Pakistan, the megastars are cricket players, and Ibrahim's daughter is married to Javed Miandad, Pakistan's greatest batsman and one of the great cricket players of all time.

The Indian police are not allowing Ibrahim to live in peace, however. In November of last year, Mumbai police managed to get 10 of Ibrahim's gang members extradited from the United Arab Emirates.

Now, one of the techniques used by Indian police in their interrogation of prisoners is to administer the so-called "truth drug", sodium pentothal -- although resultant confessions are not used in court, as they are deemed too unreliable.

But as a result of the gangsters' drug-induced babbling, New Delhi says it has a detailed picture of Ibrahim's operations and is demanding Pakistan hand him over. Pakistan says it doesn't know where he is, although there are persistent reports Ibrahim was detained by police in Karachi after a gun battle two weeks ago.

It would be unwise to bet, however, that Ibrahim's time has run out.

jmanthorpe@png.canwest.com

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 11 Sep 2007 04:55

TSP American gets 24 years for 'terror camp' link

Hamid Hayat, who turned 25 on Monday according to reports, was jailed after being found guilty in April 2006 of providing "material support" to Al-Qaeda training in Pakistan and lying about it to FBI agents.

US District court Judge Galand Burrell said Hayat, a US citizen had "attended a terroist training camp, returned to the United States ready and willing to wage violent jihad when directed to do so.

During his trial, prosecutors alleged Hayat had trained with militants in Pakistan and planned an attack in the United States.

He purportedly had the blessing and support of his father, Umer Hayat, an ice cream vendor from the Californian city of Lodi, according to prosecutors. Charges against Umer were dropped last year.

The probe into the Hayats sprang from a wider investigation into the 2,500-strong Pakistani community in Lodi, a region best known for farming and wine-growing just outside Sacramento.

enqyoobOLD · Post by **enqyoobOLD** » 15 Sep 2007 05:28

U.S. probes banned briefs found at Gitmo

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

Guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp found two prisoners sporting unauthorized underwear, and the U.S. military is investigating to determine how they got the contraband.

Both prisoners were caught wearing Under Armour briefs and one also had on a Speedo bathing suit, items the military said were not issued by Guantanamo personnel or sent through the regular mail, according to a Defense Department letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush, a spokesman at the jail holding some 340 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, said more was involved than just an uproar over skivvies.

He said the appearance of contraband raised serious concerns about the potential for smuggling other items that could be used by detainees to harm themselves or staff.

"There is no room for error when working in a dangerous environment, and constant vigilance is of the utmost importance," Bush said.

Detainees are given cotton briefs similar to those issued to U.S. soldiers in basic training, he said.

The letter, sent last month by the Office of the Navy Judge Advocate General to a lawyer for one of the prisoners involved noted both detainees are represented by the British human rights group Reprieve and suggested attorneys might have "surreptitiously" provided the garments.

"We are investigating this matter to determine the origins of the above contraband and ensure that parties who may have been involved understand the seriousness of this transgression," said the letter, which was provided to AP by one of the attorneys, Clive Stafford Smith.

Stafford Smith called the suggestion that he or the other lawyer, Zachary Katznelson, smuggled underwear to prisoners "patently absurd."

"Neither I, nor Mr. Katznelson, nor anyone else associated with us has had anything to do with smuggling 'unmentionables' into these men, nor would we ever do so," he wrote in response the letter.

Stafford Smith noted lawyers are searched when they enter the detention center and a camera monitors them while they visit clients.

"The idea that we could smuggle in underwear is farfetched," he wrote in his reply.

He said Under Armour briefs are popular with members of the military and suggested investigators check to see if the offending underwear was purchased at the U.S. Navy base where the prison is housed.

One of the detainees â€” the one with the Speedo and Under Armour â€” is Shaker Aamer, a Saudi Arabian nicknamed "the professor" by Guantanamo guards who is considered a leader among the detainees.

A former resident of Britain, Maryland and Georgia, Aamer has been accused by the U.S. of once sharing an apartment with convicted terror plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and receiving a stipend directly from Osama bin Laden. He denies the allegations, and the British government has called for his release.

The other detainee was identified in the letter as Muhammed al-Qareni, who military records show was born in Saudi Arabia but is a citizen of Chad. He has been accused of being an al-Qaida fighter in Afghanistan, an allegation he has denied.

Both have been held at Guantanamo for more than five years.

At the time the letter was received, Aamer had not seen his lawyer for a year and al-Qareni had not been visited by Katznelson for four months, Stafford Smith said.

Stafford Smith has previously accused the military of attempting to falsely link him to the June 2006 suicides of three prisoners at Guantanamo, saying at least one of his clients reported being questioned about whether the lawyer had any role in the incident.

U.S. officials did not comment on the claim but the former commander has said in court papers that he had asked investigators to try to determine whether the suicides were "encouraged, ordered or assisted by other detainees or third persons."

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Sep 2007 15:04

US helps catch TSP-trained {where else ?} Danish terrorist

US authorities helped Danish security officials locate the terror suspects in an alleged bombing plot unearthed this month through an electronic intercepts from Pakistan, {the hip-hop happening place} where one of the men had received training at an al-Qaeda camp.

The method was similar to that adopted during arrests of some suspects in a bombing plot in Germany, a media report today said quoting intelligence officials in Washington.

One of the men in the Danish case received instruction within the past 12 months in explosives, surveillance and other techniques at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, The New York Times quoted officials as saying.

While much of the world's attention was focused on the arrests that took place the same day in Germany but were announced a day later, intelligence officials in Denmark and in Washington were quoted as saying that at least one suspect in the Danish group had direct ties to leading figures in Al Qaeda which has regrouped in northwestern Pakistan.

"What's coming from this is that they are now able to give military and terrorist training and able to plan and steer specific operations in Europe," Jakob Scharf, the Danish intelligence chief, told the Times, adding "al-Qaeda is back."

Scharf, the paper said, drew a clear distinction between independent or loosely affiliated groups drawing inspiration from al-Qaeda's ideology and specific control of plans for attack, saying the Danish bomb plot was clearly the latter.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 17 Sep 2007 20:43

British 'wannabe suicide bomber' found guilty

A 'wannabe suicide bomber' was today found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of a series of Islamist terrorism offences.

The jury had spent the weekend considering the case of Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, before delivering the guilty verdict this morning after hearing the closing speeches of a three week trial on Friday.

Siddique, of Alva, Clackmannanshire, had denied three terror charges and a breach of the peace.

Prosecutor Brian McConnachie, QC, referred to extremist documents and videos found on Siddique's computer and on a CD and dismissed the suggestion that he was carrying out research.

He told the jury: 'This is not someone who is systematically carrying out research into Islamic politics and the difficulties facing Muslims in the Middle East â€“ this is a wannabe suicide bomber.'

Donald Findlay, QC, defending, began his speech by quoting from the Koran and said the jury should not be 'bound into a conviction' through a 'fear or alarm' of Islam and insisted there was 'no crumb of evidence' that Siddique planned terrorist acts.

Siddique was stopped with his uncle Mohammed Rafik on April 5 last year.

Special Branch Detective Constable Gary Murray, who gave evidence from behind screens during the trial, told the High Court in Glasgow that Siddique did not ask why he had been stopped.

DC Murray added: "He said he was going to Pakistan for a three-month period with his uncle."

DC Murray said 22 CDs were found in Siddique's luggage. The suspect said they contained Arabic poems.

Siddique was also carrying a laptop, the court heard. DC Murray said he examined it for 70 minutes, with permission from his boss, but found nothing related to terrorism.

Siddique and Rafik were freed after questioning but Siddique was arrested on April 13 in a 7am raid on his home in Alva, Clackmannanshire.

Siddique had denied possessing articles in circumstances which gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that they were connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism and collecting items and information likely to be useful to terrorists.

He had also denied breaching the peace by showing students at Glasgow Metropolitan College images of suicide bombers and terrorist beheadings, threatening to become a suicide bomber and claiming to be a member of al-Qaeda.

Siddique further denied providing instruction on firearms and explosives on the internet and distributing terrorist publications online to encourage acts of terrorism.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 18 Sep 2007 07:05

New terrorism case confirms Denmark is a target - NYT

Excerpts. . .
[quote]After three terrorism cases in less than two years, including an alleged bombing plot broken up this month, intelligence officials say tiny Denmark is on the front line in the battle against Islamic terrorism in Europe.

American authorities helped Danish security officials locate the suspects through electronic intercepts from Pakistan, just as they did in arrests the same day in a bombing plot in southern Germany, intelligence officials in Washington said. They said one of the men in the Danish case received instruction within the past 12 months in explosives, surveillance and other techniques at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.

â€œIn the schools, Danish teachers are always talking about democracy and human rights, but now they see what Denmark is doing in Afghanistan and what they did here with the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad,â€

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 Sep 2007 15:30

Two more Pakistani origin terrorists will shortly be getting their comeuppance :

Two face court on terror charges

Press Association
Wednesday September 19, 2007 8:48 AM

Two men are appearing in court in London charged with terrorism offences.

Raingzieb Ahmed, 32, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday when he arrived back in the UK after being held on suspicion of militancy in Pakistan.

Ahmed, of Barnston Avenue, Fallowfield, Greater Manchester, is charged with three offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, Greater Manchester Police said.

The first is that between April 22, 2004 and August 24, 2006 he directed the activities of an organisation which was concerned in the commission of acts of terrorism.

He is also charged with possessing material for terrorism purposes during the same time period, relating to three books that he owned.

The third charge is possession of an article, namely a rucksack containing traces of explosive, in circumstances which give rise to a reasonable suspicion that possession of it was for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.

This offence allegedly took place between January 1, 2006 and January 24, 2007.

A 17-year-old, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has also been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, after he was arrested in the town on Tuesday last week, a West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said.

The teenager is charged with possession of material for terrorism purposes, under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and with the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism, under Section 58 of the same Act.
Both will appear before City of Westminster Magistrates.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 21 Sep 2007 09:59

Two TSPians arrested in Spain for funding terrorists

Two Pakistani men were arrested in Spain on Thursday accused of channelling 1 million euros ($1.40 million) to Islamist militants, Spanish police said.

Anar Muhammad Shan and Preces Mehmood Sandhu used money from drug trafficking to fund radical groups in Spain and abroad, a police statement said.

They were detained in Madrid and Barcelona after a three-year operation by Spanish National Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Intelligence.

Shan and Sandhu used the so-called hawala financial transfer system that allows funds to be exchanged with a handshake, piece of paper or on trust and leaves few clues, Spanish police said.

The arrests came on the same day as an al Qaeda videotaped message urging North African Muslims to "cleanse" their land of Spaniards and French.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 21 Sep 2007 13:44

I think this thread has 'served its purpose', everyone now automatically connects terrorism and pakistan without a second thought - maybe admins should consider changing tack on this theme?

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 21 Sep 2007 14:37

Lalmohan, no can do ... this thread serves as a single point of reference for people researching the specific Pak links... needs to continue so long as Pakistan exists.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 21 Sep 2007 14:48

Lalmohan,
everyone now automatically connects terrorism and pakistan without a second thought

Absolutely true, Lalmohan. However much everyone knows that the relationship between Terrorism and Pakistan is deeper than the deepest oceans, taller than the tallest mountains and peachier than the most peach-bottomed jihadi TSPian suicide bomber, we should still keep this thread alive for a couple of more years onlee to keep an accurate historical account of what happened in erstwhile Pakistan. More often than not, people of the Indian subcontinent have been accused in the past of not having kept proper records of events. This thread is a single-stop source for intelligence agencies and historians around the world. Have patience for just some more months please. We are reaching the climax and I expect a lot of usefullness for, and URL hits on, this thread.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 21 Sep 2007 14:50

i hear you!

ksmahesh · Post by **ksmahesh** » 21 Sep 2007 14:51

I cam e accross a very apt definition of Porkistan:

PAKISTAN - People Against Kashmir Insisting on Spreading Terrorism And Nukes ( Nuclear War)

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 21 Sep 2007 14:55

Lalmohan wrote:I think this thread has 'served its purpose', everyone now automatically connects terrorism and pakistan without a second thought - maybe admins should consider changing tack on this theme?

Sorry Lalmohan - did you actually have the time and opportunity to ping "everyone" on the issue?

There is no such state of existence in which "everyone" knows something - no matter how important or obvious it may seem to you.

The forum loses nothing by keeping the thread, and what puzzles me is your sudden decision that this particular thread may be unnecessary.

However a thread regarding some changed or different tack might be useful, but do you have any ideas beyond your statement "maybe admins should consider changing tack on this theme?"

arun · Post by **arun** » 21 Sep 2007 14:57

SSridhar wrote:Two TSPians arrested in Spain for funding terrorists
Two Pakistani men were arrested in Spain on Thursday accused of channelling 1 million euros ($1.40 million) to Islamist militants, Spanish police said. ...............

Pakistani origin individuals are very much in the news today for indulging in their national past time, International Terrorism.

Besides the arrest in Spain we have from Atlanta, USA â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦..

Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
Officer: Terror suspect had religious writings at border check

BY HARRY R. WEBER
ATLANTA

A young man charged with aiding terrorists was carrying personal writings that showed his frustration with Islam in Pakistan when he was questioned at an airport after arriving back into the U.S. from overseas in 2005, an officer testified Thursday.

Syed Ahmed also had religious books and pamphlets written in Urdu, Pakistan's national language, when he was stopped at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport because a federal terrorism task force wanted to talk to him, said Melissa Harper, who at the time was a Customs and Border Protection officer.

The testimony came at a hearing at which a lawyer for Ahmed was asking that a judge throw out the evidence obtained from searching his backpack and a suitcase he had. The lawyer also is asking that the statements Ahmed made to Harper and two other federal agents during the search be suppressed.

The full details of the statements Ahmed made and what was contained in his writings were not provided at Thursday's hearing. The significance of the writings also was not explained, though Harper said officers questioning someone in a terrorism probe ask about religious practices because that could be an "indication of mind-set we might want to explore."

Harper acknowledged that Ahmed, a U.S. citizen, was not asked if he wanted an attorney present during the questioning, nor was he told that he could remain silent if he chose. She said it was standard procedure for Ahmed to be questioned because of the computer hit on his name.
There was no immediate ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn Brill. Ahmed, with a long beard and dressed in a T-shirt and pants, declined to stand when Brill entered the courtroom. His lawyer, Jack Martin, said Ahmed did not stand because of religious reasons, though he didn't elaborate.

Trial dates for Ahmed and a co-defendant, Ehsanul Sadequee, have not been set. A hearing at which Sadequee's lawyer will ask to have evidence suppressed is scheduled for next week.

Ahmed's airport stop on Aug. 19, 2005 - after which he was given back his belongings and permitted to leave - occurred nearly a year before he and Sadequee were indicted on charges of providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts.

Harper said that the personal writings Ahmed was carrying, which she described as journal entries, involved Ahmed's dissatisfaction with the status of Islam in Pakistan. She said officers made copies of the writings.
Martin said after the hearing that the questioning of his client at the airport amounted to a custodial interrogation and, therefore, Ahmed was entitled to be read his Miranda rights.

Ahmed and Sadequee, also a U.S. citizen, are accused of discussing terror targets with Islamic extremists and undergoing training to carry out a "violent jihad" against civilian and government targets, including an air base in suburban Atlanta.

Authorities say the men wanted to plan attacks for "defense of Muslims or retaliation for acts committed against Muslims." They have pleaded not guilty to a July 19, 2006, indictment charging them with providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts.

Ahmed, born in Pakistan, was a Georgia Tech student at the time of his arrest. Sadequee, born in Virginia of Bangladeshi descent, has relatives in the Atlanta area.

And from Houston, USA â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦..

PAKISTANI STUDENT SENTENCED FOR UNLAWFULLY POSSESSING FIREARM

Date: 2007-09-20
You are viewing a printer friendly version. If you want to view the original release please click the link below:
Original Article: http://media-newswire.com/release_1054595.html
Distributed by: Media-Newswire.com
Published by: USDOJ

Convicted by a Houston jury in approximately one hour following the three-day trial before United States District Judge Melinda Harmon in May 2007, Shah was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

(Media-Newswire.com) - ( HOUSTON, TEXAS ) ï¿½ Syed Maaz Shah, 20, a Pakistani national in the United States on a student visa, was sentenced today for two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

Convicted by a Houston jury in approximately one hour following the three-day trial before United States District Judge Melinda Harmon in May 2007, Shah was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. In arriving at this sentence, Harmon upwardly departed from the 21 to 27 month sentence Shah faced under the United States sentencing guidelines. Shah will likely be deported from the United States upon completion of his prison term. Shah has been in federal custody since his arrest in November 2006.

ï¿½This case demonstrates the United Statesï¿½ continued efforts to detect, disrupt and dismantle groups of individuals contemplating and training with an eye toward jeopardizing our national security,ï¿½ DeGabrielle stated.

During the trial, the United States introduced photographs of Shah holding and firing an Armalite M-15, .223 caliber semi automatic rifle during firearms training sessions held over the weekends of Jan. 13 and March 10, 2006, on private property located near Willis, Texas. Through the testimony of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) agent, the United States proved that Shah, a citizen of Pakistan, last entered the United States in August 2005 as an F-1 student visa holder. Given Shahï¿½s status as a non-immigrant student visa holder, Shah is prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm. A special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATFE ) further related that the Armalite M-15 possessed by Shah in January and March 2006 was operable and manufactured in Illinois and thus, traveled in interstate commerce.

In finding the defendant guilty, the jury rejected Shahï¿½s claim that undercover officials working with the Houston Joint Terrorism Task Force impermissibly entrapped Shah. In arguing Shah was not entrapped, but rather, was predisposed to commit the firearms violations, the United States presented evidence that at the time of Shahï¿½s arrest Nov. 28, 2006, Shah orally confessed he had an interest in weapons and had engaged in the firearms training weekends to prepare for ï¿½what may come.ï¿½ Shah went on to state that he viewed American forces in Iraq as ï¿½invadersï¿½ and felt it was his duty to prepare for ï¿½Jihad,ï¿½ described during the trial as armed combat. The United States also presented evidence showing that Shah had literature regarding Jihad on his computer, seized by FBI personnel at the time of Shahï¿½s arrest.

During Shahï¿½s testimony, he claimed he did not give an oral confession to the FBI, that many people had access to his laptop computer and that he went to Willis ï¿½to fishï¿½ on Jan. 13-14 and March 10-11, 2006. In fact, Shah denied knowing that firearms training would occur over the January weekend.

The United States offered multiple recordings made by an undercover police official which demonstrated Shahï¿½s interest and knowledge that the January and March weekends would focus on military-style firearms and combat training. One of the recordings revealed Shah had paid $30 for ammunition prior to engaging in the military-style combat training and target practice Jan. 14, 2006. The recordings further revealed Shah and his companions, which included Houston residents Kobie Williams and Adnan Mirza, attended the second training session in March 2006, again for the purpose of participating in military-style training.

Williams pleaded guilty Nov. 28, 2006, to conspiracy charges relating to funds earmarked for the Taliban and related firearms offenses. Williams is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 12, 2007. Mirza, also charged with conspiracy and firearms offenses, is scheduled for trial Oct. 29, 2007. A related defendant, Shiraz Syed Qazi, a nonimmigrant F-1 student visa holder who also attended the Willis firearms training camp, was sentenced May 17, 2007, to 10 months incarceration for his unlawful possession of a firearm.

The investigation was led by the FBI and the agencyï¿½s Joint Terrorism Task Force with participation by ATFE, ICE, the Houston Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorneys Shelley J. Hicks and Glenn Cook prosecuted the case.

For a change of pace , news from New Zealand :

Thursday, 20 September 2007

lEx-city chef in terrorist probe

Immigration officials are probing claims a former Hamilton East chef trained as a terrorist in Pakistan and gained a New Zealand work permit using false documents.

The man, who worked at the Tandoor restaurant on the corner of Te Aroha and Grey Sts in 2002, was the subject of parliamentary questions yesterday.

Despite video and written evidence suggesting the Muslim man is linked to terrorist organisation Lashkar e Taiba, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe told Parliament he was inclined not to believe the claims.

He had ordered an investigation as a precaution but implied the claims, made by the man's former employer, Javed Chaudhry, could stem from the chef winning a case against his boss about holiday pay.

"There is an investigation under way, but early indications are the information is unsubstantiated and may be malicious in nature," Mr Cunliffe said.

But Mr Chaudhry is angry his evidence is not being taken seriously by the minister and believes the chef, Jameel ur Rehman, now has permanent residency. "The outcome should be very straight-forward," he said. "I don't know why they make this case so complex."

Mr Chaudhry travelled to his home country of Pakistan in 2001 and recruited Mr Rehman and his cousin, Muhammad Anwar, to work as cooks in his restaurant.

He became suspicious of the men in 2003 and reported Mr Anwar first, and later in 2004, Mr Rehman, to authorities, while they worked for him.
Mr Anwar was deported in 2005 and soon after Mr Rehman "disappeared". He is now believed to be working as a chef in Auckland.

The issue came to light in an Investigate magazine article on Monday which claimed Lashkar e Taiba was trying to set up support networks in New Zealand.

National Party immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith used parliamentary Question Time yesterday to grill Mr Cunliffe.

"Why is Mr Rehman still in New Zealand when his cousin, who arrived under similar circumstances, has already been deported, and when Immigration New Zealand has evidence that Mr Rehman supports terrorist organisations and received military training at a terrorist base near the Afghan border?" Mr Smith asked.

Mr Cunliffe confirmed that Mr Anwar had been deported after refusing to answer questions from Immigration New Zealand, but officials had told him Mr Rehman had answered all questions adequately.

He has asked for a further report, but said the only evidence to date came from Mr Chaudhry - and that under New Zealand law, "a gentleman, wherever they come from, whatever their name sounds like, is innocent until proven guilty".