Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism

[A Sharma]

The CIA's Destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 Connection



On December 5, the CIA's director, General Michael V. Hayden, issued a statement disclosing that in 2005 at least two videotapes of interrogations with al Qaeda prisoners were destroyed. The tapes, which the CIA did not provide to either the 9/11 Commission, nor to a federal court in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, were destroyed, claimed Hayden, to protect the safety of undercover operatives.

Hayden did not disclose one of the al Qaeda suspects whose tapes were destroyed. But he did identify the other. It was Abu Zubaydah, the top ranking terror suspect when he was tracked and captured in Pakistan in 2003. In September 2006, at a press conference in which he defended American interrogation techniques, President Bush also mentioned Abu Zubaydah by name. Bush acknowledged that Zubaydah, who was wounded when captured, did not initially cooperate with his interrogators, but that eventually when he did talk, his information was, according to Bush, "quite important."

In my 2003 New York Times bestseller, Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, I discussed Abu Zubaydah at length in Chapter 19, "The Interrogation." There I set forth how Zubaydah initially refused to help his American captors. Also, disclosed was how U.S. intelligence established a so-called "fake flag" operation, in which the wounded Zubaydah was transferred to Afghanistan under the ruse that he had actually been turned over to the Saudis. The Saudis had him on a wanted list, and the Americans believed that Zubaydah, fearful of torture and death at the hands of the Saudis, would start talking when confronted by U.S. agents playing the role of Saudi intelligence officers.

Instead, when confronted by his "Saudi" interrogators, Zubaydah showed no fear. Instead, according to the two U.S. intelligence sources that provided me the details, he seemed relieved. The man who had been reluctant to even confirm his identity to his U.S. captors, suddenly talked animatedly. He was happy to see them, he said, because he feared the Americans would kill him. He then asked his interrogators to call a senior member of the Saudi royal family. And Zubaydah provided a private home number and a cell phone number from memory. "He will tell you what to do," Zubaydah assured them

That man was Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, one of King Fahd's nephews, and the chairman of the largest Saudi publishing empire. Later, American investigators would determine that Prince Ahmed had been in the U.S. on 9/11.

American interrogators used painkillers to induce Zubaydah to talk -- they gave him the meds when he cooperated, and withdrew them when he was quiet. They also utilized a thiopental sodium drip (a so-called truth serum). Several hours after he first fingered Prince Ahmed, his captors challenged the information, and said that since he had disparaged the Saudi royal family, he would be executed. It was at that point that some of the secrets of 9/11 came pouring out. In a short monologue, that one investigator told me was the "Rosetta Stone" of 9/11, Zubaydah laid out details of how he and the al Qaeda hierarchy had been supported at high levels inside the Saudi and Pakistan governments.

He named two other Saudi princes, and also the chief of Pakistan's air force, as his major contacts. Moreover, he stunned his interrogators, by charging that two of the men, the King's nephew, and the Pakistani Air Force chief, knew a major terror operation was planned for America on 9/11.

It would be nice to further investigate the men named by Zubaydah, but that is not possible. All four identified by Zubaydah are now dead. As for the three Saudi princes, the King's 43-year-old nephew, Prince Ahmed, died of either a heart attack or blood clot, depending on which report you believe, after having liposuction in Riyadh's top hospital; the second, 41-year-old Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud, died the following day in a one car accident, on his way to the funeral of Prince Ahmed; and one week later, the third Saudi prince named by Zubaydah, 25-year-old Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, died, according to the Saudi Royal Court, "of thirst." The head of Pakistan's Air Force, Mushaf Ali Mir, was the last to go. He died, together with his wife and fifteen of his top aides, when his plane blew up -- suspected as sabotage -- in February 2003. Pakistan's investigation of the explosion -- if one was even done -- has never been made public.

Zubaydah is the only top al Queda operative who has secretly linked two of America's closest allies in the war on terror -- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -- to the 9/11 attacks. Why does Bush, and the CIA, continue to protect the Saudi Royal family and the Pakistani military, from the implications of Zubaydah's confessions? It is, or course, because the Bush administration desperately needs Pakistani and Saudi help, not only to keep Afghanistan from spinning completely out of control, but also as counterweights to the growing power of Iran. The Sunni governments in Riyadh and Islamabad have as much to fear from a resurgent Iran as does the Bush administration. But does this mean that leads about the origins of 9/11 should not be aggressively pursued? Of course not. But this is precisely what the Bush administration is doing. And now the cover-up is enhanced by the CIA's destruction of Zubaydah's interrogation tapes.

The American public deserves no less than the complete truth about 9/11. And those CIA officials now complicit in hiding the truth by destroying key evidence should be held responsible.

[Rangudu]

LA Times

Extremist group operates openly in Pakistan

Jamaat ud-Dawa is listed as a charity, but the U.S. say it trains terrorists.

By Josh Meyer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 18, 2007

LAHORE, PAKISTAN — Although the war against Islamic militancy has focused on shadowy underground organizations such as Al Qaeda, counter-terrorism officials say there is a growing worldwide threat from an extremist group operating in plain sight in Pakistan.

The group, formerly known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, was formed in the late 1980s and, with the support of the Pakistani government, launched attacks against India in the dispute over the Kashmir region.

In recent years, the camps that Lashkar once used primarily to train Pakistanis to fight for Kashmir have increasingly become a training ground for other militant groups and extremists who come from around the world to learn guerrilla warfare, according to current and former U.S. and allied counter-terrorism officials.

And as its ranks have swelled along with anti-U.S. sentiment, they say, there is evidence that the group is working more closely with Al Qaeda and other extremist groups and may be getting more directly involved in militant activities against the West. Counter-terrorism officials cite evidence in recent years of fundraising or recruiting efforts in Canada, Britain, Australia and the United States. Inquiries are ongoing in Massachusetts and Lodi, Calif.

Lashkar-e-Taiba was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in December 2001 and was soon outlawed by Pakistan. It disbanded, but its founders created another group named Jamaat ud-Dawa, which functions openly in Pakistan as an officially recognized humanitarian organization.

U.S. authorities consider it one and the same as Lashkar-e-Taiba and say it has continued to operate camps that train militants. The Treasury Department designated Jamaat ud-Dawa as a terrorist organization in April 2006, saying, "LET renamed itself JUD in order to evade sanctions. The same leaders that form the core of LET remain in charge of JUD."

U.S. counter-terrorism officials say the group's status as a legal organization in Pakistan makes it difficult to target the group. It has thousands of loyal supporters and close ties to a government that has done little to rein it in, they say, a factor that has been a source of tension between the United States and Pakistan.

"The U.S. government . . . has voiced its concerns" about Jamaat ud-Dawa to the government in Islamabad, said Daniel Markey, who oversaw South Asia policy for the State Department until February. U.S. officials have expressed the view that "the Pakistan government cannot sit by while Islamic extremists continued to win converts and press their agenda," he said.

Pakistani officials said that Jamaat ud-Dawa is "under watch," but that the group is legal and separate from Lashkar-e-Taiba, which they insist has been shut down.


Charity work

Representatives of Jamaat ud-Dawa say they are running a legitimate charity, citing the group's campaign to help Pakistanis recover from a massive earthquake in 2005 and its efforts to provide social services, food, water, medical care and education. Lashkar-e-Taiba, they say, no longer exists.

Jamaat ud-Dawa spokesman Abdullah Muntazir said the organization does not participate in any militant activities or run military training camps.

"No political party in Pakistan has as many offices as Jamaat-ud-Dawa," Muntazir said. "So how can the government of Pakistan ban a group that has such deep roots throughout Pakistan society?"

U.S. officials say that Pakistan has closed down some of the training camps, but that the camps pop up again elsewhere in secret locations along the borders with India and Afghanistan. They say leaders of the group have been detained at times by Pakistan, but only temporarily.

A major concern for U.S. officials now is that the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, contending with its own crises, does not have the ability to control the group.

"It has gradually grown and morphed over recent years from something that was directed and manipulated by the Pakistan military establishment into something more grass-roots, more independent and more dangerous -- and more closely tied to terrorist groups with global reach," Markey said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba was founded around 1989 by a college professor named Hafiz Mohammed Saeed to help fight the occupying Soviet army in Afghanistan. The Soviets soon pulled out, and Lashkar turned to fighting for Muslims in Kashmir against Pakistan's predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

Over the years, Lashkar has claimed responsibility or been blamed for dozens of deadly attacks on Indian forces and civilians, including a 2001 strike on its Parliament that brought the two countries to the brink of war.

U.S. and European authorities believe that throughout the 1990s the group branched out and established close ties with more than a dozen Islamic militant groups in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and areas of the former Soviet Union.

Although its leadership has not been directly connected to any terrorist acts against the West, members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and others who have attended its training camps have been linked to some of the most serious plots uncovered since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including a scheme in Britain to blow up at least 10 U.S. jetliners over the Atlantic in 2006, plots to attack a nuclear plant and other targets in Australia, and one to blow up Canada's Parliament building.

In one such case, Frenchman Willie Brigitte was sentenced in a Paris court in March to nine years in prison for planning terrorist attacks in Australia, where, authorities said, he was sent in 2003 after attending Lashkar training camps.

Since the formation of Jamaat ud-Dawa, which translates roughly as "the Islamic Missionary Organization," Saeed has remained at the helm. From its headquarters near Lahore, close to the border with India, Jamaat still runs a network of at least 10 camps and mobile training centers, U.S. officials say. The camps provide training in explosives, weapons, assassinations and surveillance to recruits and to individuals affiliated with other extremist groups, such as the Taliban of Afghanistan, which pay for the service, said a Western diplomat in Pakistan who monitors the group.

Jamaat also has a sophisticated fundraising apparatus that has raised tens of millions of dollars from donors in the oil-rich Middle East, the United States and elsewhere, according to U.S. officials, court testimony and government reports. The group's leaders say the funds are for its charities, hospital network and more than 130 schools and 35 religious academies.

U.S. officials believe some funds are diverted to support holy war. The Treasury Department said in 2006 that Jamaat "has also used its 'relief' wing . . . to exploit humanitarian disasters such as last year's earthquake in an effort to raise money to support its terrorist agenda."

Jamaat has publicly advocated violence, including calling for a holy war against the United States and its allies and the destruction of Jews worldwide.

The Treasury Department said that "while JUD claims to be a 'humanitarian' organization, it continues to voice its support for violence against civilians. A recent article in a JUD magazine, for example, praised suicide attacks around the world, including by the Taliban, Iraqi insurgents and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, among others."

Husain Haqqani, a former senior advisor to three Pakistani prime ministers, described Jamaatas a highly disciplined organization that furthers its agenda through associations with both the Pakistani government and militant groups including Al Qaeda. But the group has taken pains not to have its fingerprints on any violent attacks against the West, Haqqani said.

"That is why they have survived the global war on terror to fight another day," said Haqqani, a professor and director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the author of the 2005 book, "Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military."

"They have managed to fly under the radar of the global network of law enforcement and still maintain their global links. But they have a grandiose ideological agenda and the capacity to wage violence, which makes them very dangerous."

U.S. and allied officials now fear that the group may be getting more directly involved in the terrorism business.

"They are still a rent-a-service," said the Western diplomat in Pakistan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. "But they are increasingly involved in discussions with other terrorist groups about tactics and targets."

Bahukutumbi Raman, a former head of counter-terrorism for India's intelligence service, said Saeed's group has established much closer ties to Al Qaeda in recent years and has sleeper cells in Britain, France, Australia and the U.S., as well as Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.

Those cells collect information, motivate Pakistani expatriates, recruit, procure weapons and raise money, said Raman, director of the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai, India.

One British convert to Islam, Dhiren Barot, wrote a book about his experiences in Lashkar before the Sept. 11 attacks. He pleaded guilty last year in London to plotting numerous attacks in Britain with extremists of Pakistani origin; some of the attacks would have used a radioactive bomb.

Ties to Al Qaeda

U.S. authorities say Barot is one of many men who "graduated" from Lashkar camps to Al Qaeda, which sent him to the United States to scout prominent financial targets for attack, including the World Bank in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.

In suburban Washington, 11 men -- including an associate of Saeed -- were convicted in one conspiracy for preparing for holy war against U.S. troops in Afghanistan in late 2001 with the help of Lashkar.

One of them, Masoud Ahmad Khan, told his FBI interrogators that a senior British-based Lashkar operative asked him to conduct surveillance on a chemical plant in Maryland. A 2003 search of Khan's home in Gaithersburg, Md., turned up weapons including an AK-47 rifle, a "Terrorist's Handbook" and a photograph of FBI headquarters in Washington.

FBI and Homeland Security officials said they could not comment on Jamaat-related investigations underway in the U.S., but several officials in Washington and Islamabad said there are inquiries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.

In one case in the last year, federal agents arrested as many as 33 people in a continuing investigation of suspected immigration fraud. Among them were two Massachusetts imams, the brother and brother-in-law of Saeed, federal authorities say. The two were arrested for visa violations and released on bail.

Authorities say they are watching that Pakistani community and another in the Lodi, Calif., area for men with ties to the Lashkar organization.

Meanwhile, Saeed appears to have grown more militant in speeches and sermons.

"Do I suspect LT will go over and blow up a U.S. facility?" asked the Western diplomat. "Right now, I'm not sure that it's their primary objective. But they are happy to help anyone who is going to."

[SSridhar]

From the above,

"No political party in Pakistan has as many offices as Jamaat-ud-Dawa," Muntazir said. "So how can the government of Pakistan ban a group that has such deep roots throughout Pakistan society?"

Absolutely on the dot. That's what we have been saying here. The support for radicalism and extremism is more deep rooted and widespread in TSP than what is made to appear. The claim that MMA types do not win more than 10-11% votes and therefore fundamentalists are marginal in TSP is incorrect.

Since the formation of Jamaat ud-Dawa, which translates roughly as "the Islamic Missionary Organization," Saeed has remained at the helm.

But, JuD split on July 18, 2004 and the splinter Khairun Naas (KN) is something that needs to be watched closely as it seems to have a closer relationship with the TSP 'agencies'.

[Johann]

Absolutely on the dot. That's what we have been saying here. The support for radicalism and extremism is more deep rooted and widespread in TSP than what is made to appear. The claim that MMA types do not win more than 10-11% votes and therefore fundamentalists are marginal in TSP is incorrect.

It is true that Islamist politicians outside the Pashtun belt dont do as well in elections.

But that has nothing to do with the support that Islamist causes garner from the Pakistani public.

To make a very loose analogy - the green party doesnt do very well in American politics, but the majority of people in the US may agree that its important to preserve the environment, and an ever larger number are willing to give money to environmental causes, or factor in a candidate's stand on environmental issues.

[pradeepe]

My observation is that talk of env or green policies enter american or american political discussion with any degree of interest when the general economy, political situation etc is on a smooth path. OTOH, Islamic radicalism of the type in TSP is prevelant all the time, good times or bad times never mattered. Different sections of the society might bring it to the fore at different times.

[Rangudu]

Link

Scotland - Counterfeit DVD gang funds Kashmiri terrorists

By Richard Elias

A SCOTTISH gang is bankrolling murderous terrorist attacks in Kashmir, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds each year through counterfeiting and mortgage fraud, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

MI5 sources say around 50 Scots Asians – most of them in Glasgow – are raising funds for Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Kashmiri separatist group responsible for hundreds of deaths and reportedly involved in the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Much of the cash raised in Scotland is sent first to Dubai, where it is laundered, and then passed to JeM terrorists operating in the Kashmir region, say security sources.

It is estimated that up to £50,000 a month is raised in Scotland. As well as money from mortgage fraud, around £15,000 of this total is raised by selling counterfeit DVDs, CDs and clothing at market stalls and in pubs and clubs across Scotland.

Last week, a British citizen and JeM suspect, Rashid Rauf, wanted in the UK for his alleged part in a plot to blow up 10 trans-Atlantic airliners last summer, escaped from custody in Pakistan.

JeM militants have been waging a war for Kashmiri independence since the group was formed in 2001 by scholar Maulana Mazood Azhar. They have been a proscribed terror group in the UK for years.

MI5 learned about the Glasgow fundraising operation from the Pakistani secret service, the ISI, which became aware of large amounts of money being paid into suspects' bank accounts.

A security source told Scotland on Sunday: "The Kashmiri problem is becoming an increasing headache for both the Pakistani and Indian governments, and they have been keeping a very close watch on those individuals who they believe are orchestrating the violence. It was from this surveillance work and analysis of their bank details that the alert was first raised about money coming in from the UK."

The Scottish-based organisers of the group have, so far, managed to keep a relatively low profile, making it hard for the authorities to act against them.

But ever since the ISI tip-off a few months ago, security services have been urged by their bosses to turn upthe heat on individuals they suspect are behind the scams.

All of the Scots behind the fundraising are British-born but remain fiercely supportive of their roots.

There are also hot-beds of support for Kashmiri militants in London and Birmingham, although a recent crackdown has had a severe impact on the activities of fundraisers.

The security source added: "The people involved in the mortgage frauds are only too aware that the banks and lenders are none too keen on prosecuting anyone caught up in this charade, as it will mean them having to answer a lot of awkward questions in court."

In a recent Law Society report, it issued a warning about the risks of mortgage fraud: "The recent slowdown in the UK property market has exposed a rise in mortgage fraud by organised criminals and the potential vulnerability of professionals to be exploited by organised crime syndicates."

[Rangudu]

Link

Alone, Afraid, In The Company Of Men Dreaming Of Death

By Sami Yousafzai | NEWSWEEK

Dec. 31, 2007-Jan. 7, 2008 issue

No journalist could turn down the offer: a face-to-face interview with would-be suicide bombers. A chance to learn how the insurgents recruit, train and deploy, to examine why the Taliban relies so heavily on this imprecise, indiscriminate tactic. The only problem was, I was scared that I wouldn't survive the meeting.

Suicide bombings became the scourge of Afghanistan in 2007, as the Taliban, outnumbered and outgunned, turned to asymmetrical-warfare tactics to battle the 100,000 Coalition and Afghan security forces in the region. Afghanistan endured more than 140 suicide bombings in 2007, more than in the past five years combined, according to the Jamestown Foundation think tank. Those bombs have killed more than 300 people, many civilians.

For my meeting, I traveled 100 miles by car and an hour on foot—through snow-covered paths—to reach a poor village in Ghazni province, south of Kabul, where my Taliban sources instructed me to go. I drank tea with village elders in a humble, mud-walled house. Then three young men walked in. A Taliban officer introduced them as fedayeen—Arabic for someone who is about to sacrifice himself. One, a 27-year-old Pakistani, wore a green-checked scarf over his hair, nose and mouth. Another, also from Pakistan, wore a knit ski cap and a brown jacket. The third was an Afghan who wrapped his face in a black-and-white-checked kaffiyeh with only his blue eyes peering out. They had recently crossed the border from Pakistan's frontier tribal region, a lawless haven for militants, where they attended a training course in suicide bombing. Now they awaited orders—and the afterlife.


We sat down briefly, but moments later, one of the men's cell phones rang and the room filled with movement. Two of the bombers grabbed nearby sacks of flour and removed hidden explosive vests. The third took his vest from an adjacent room. They attached small AA-battery packs to the wires protruding from their chests and screwed tiny white plastic plungers into the detonators. As they prepared, I learned that the caller had summoned them on an "urgent mission." Then, before I could interview them further, they hurried out of the house and disappeared into the snow.

It's hard to explain my feelings as I sat watching these men ready for their final moments. I was terrified for my own safety, and I felt powerless to prevent them from carrying out their deadly mission. I later learned that they hadn't found the target they'd been looking for that day, and I was relieved. But only for a moment. More attacks are being planned.

[enqyoobOLD]

From ibnlive

New Delhi: Five jawans and two civilians have been killed in a suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

The attack took place at 0230 hrs (IST) when armed fidayeens reportedly tried to enter the camp from the gate. At least six troopers are reportedly injured.

Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Gupta told news agency PTI that the terrorists armed with AK-47s and grenades opened fire at the camp and killed the troopers after being intercepted by the jawans and civil police patrolling the site.

One attacker was reportedly killed in the shootout. The CRPF camp is located in Rampur on National Highway 24.

New reports say the area has been cordoned off and police have launched a combing operation. Senior officials have also rushed to the spot.

In the last week of November, intelligence agencies had issued an alert of possible terrorist attack at the CRPF camp in Rampur.

[SSridhar]

Looks like it is a recruitment camp for CRPF

Four heavily-armed militants stormed a CRPF recruitment camp in Rampur in the early hours on Tuesday, killing eight persons that included security personnel.

The tactic is very similar to what AlQ/Taliban has been employing in TSP where they have attacked army & police training camps. We now have to be careful with buses that transport military personnel.

[SSridhar]

LeT claims responsibility for the Rampur attack

Lashkar-e-Toiba has claimed responsibility for the attack on the camp.

[enqyoobOLD]

JEM: Sue CNN for plagiarism?

CNN: VIDEO ON PAKISTAN: TERROR CENTRAL



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jsc3nBR ... re=related

Or take grim satisfaction that the oiseueles are having to come around and face the truth for a change?

[JE Menon]

grim satisfaction N.

No need to show cards

At least through plagiarism they are enlightened

[Nayak]

Ardsley businessman says he was motivated by profit, not terrorism

By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: January 4, 2008)

NEW YORK - An Ardsley businessman accused of trying to supply terrorist training camps with military equipment says he was more interested in getting an undercover operative to invest in his failing business than in helping terrorists.

Abdul Ibn Tawala Alishtari, 54, of 472 Ashford Ave. was arrested in February by federal agents and New York City police and charged in a federal indictment with financing terrorism, material support of terrorism, money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy.

He has been held in a segregated housing unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan since his arrest.

He filed papers this week asking a judge to release him from the strict confinement and into the jail's general population.

"I am a proud citizen of the United States," Alishtari said in the court papers.

His lawyers submitted papers saying that recordings secretly made by federal agents show that Alishtari was trying to get money for his company, Flat Electronic Data Exchange, from an undercover agent posing as a wealthy Middle Eastern man.

"The hours of tape reveal that the undercover had to continually try to reassure either himself or the investigation team that (Alishtari) was aware of the terrorism-related goals of the undercover," lawyers Richard Rosenberg and Daniel Parker wrote in a six-page letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. "But what is clear from the tapes is that (Alishtari) was interested more in the profit potential of the undercover's supposed money backers and himself than he was to their 'cause.'"

Alishtari's lawyers say his ability to properly mount a defense in the case has been hamstrung by his continued placement in the administrative detention wing of the jail.

"Even in today's world, it is still the law of the land that unduly harsh treatment of a pre-trial detainee violates due process," the lawyers wrote.

Alishtari and his former business partner Brian Anderson are also charged with money laundering in the case. Anderson is not charged in any of the terrorism-related counts.

Federal prosecutors said Alishtari arranged for a transfer of $152,000 he thought was going to buy night vision goggles for terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2005. They also charge that the business Alishtari ran was actually a financial scam in which he promised high returns on investment, returns that he never intended to deliver.

Reach Timothy O'Connor at 914-694-3523 or [email protected].

[enqyoobOLD]

Even for Pakis, this report appears silly.

French terror strike foiled, Eiffel Tower was targeted

UNI

TimePublished on Sat, Jan 12, 2008 at 15:23, Updated at Sat, Jan 12, 2008 in World section


EIFFEL THREATENED: The 1,060 ft high tower has, on an average, more than 16,000 visitors a day.

London: A plot by Islamic terrorists to blow up the Eiffel Tower, which could have been the French 9/11, has been unearthed.

A scrambled short-wave radio conversation exposing the planned attack on the world's most visited monument was picked up by Portuguese air traffic controllers and passed on to French intelligence.

The 1,060 ft high tower has on an average more than 16,000 visitors a day and a successful strike on the iron tower could result in the loss of thousands of lives.

The plot was uncovered in a ''vague and muffled'' radio conversation picked up by air traffic controllers in Lisbon, the Daily Mail reported.

A police source close to France's DST intelligance agency said, ''It was a muffled conversation in Arabic that was passed on to us as a matter of course, but our analysts clearly identified the threat.''

''Security at the tower was already tight, but is now being stepped up.''

The plot comes in the wake of other threats made in recent days on the websites linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, calling for the ''brothers of Islam to strike Paris.''

How the heck do you bring down the Eiffel tower? Shaped charges on several of the struts? Suicide abduls inflating as they slide down the sides?

Airliner strike at its center section? I guess a massive-enough impact can buckle anything?? But how does beefing up security AT the tower help in that?

Also, what does "air traffic control" pick up about the planning for such an attack? This report seems fit for April 1.

BUT... given that we are talking about Pakis...

[Rangudu]

Militants escape control of Pakistan's ISI, admit officials - NYT

[quote]Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.

As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.

The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan. American officials have begun to weigh more robust covert operations to go after Al Qaeda in the lawless border areas because they are so concerned that the Pakistani government is unable to do so.

The unusual disclosures regarding Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency — Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI — emerged in interviews last month with former senior Pakistani intelligence officials. The disclosures confirm some of the worst fears, and suspicions, of American and Western military officials and diplomats.

The interviews, a rare glimpse inside a notoriously secretive and opaque agency, offered a string of other troubling insights likely to refocus attention on the ISI’s role as Pakistan moves toward elections on Feb. 18 and a battle for control of the government looms:

¶One former senior Pakistani intelligence official, as well as other people close to the agency, acknowledged that the ISI led the effort to manipulate Pakistan’s last national election in 2002, and offered to drop corruption cases against candidates who would back President Pervez Musharraf.

A person close to the ISI said Mr. Musharraf had now ordered the agency to ensure that the coming elections were free and fair, and denied that the agency was working to rig the vote. But the acknowledgment of past rigging is certain to fuel opposition fears of new meddling.

¶The two former high-ranking intelligence officials acknowledged that after Sept. 11, 2001, when President Musharraf publicly allied Pakistan with the Bush administration, the ISI could not rein in the militants it had nurtured for decades as a proxy force to exert pressure on India and Afghanistan. After the agency unleashed hard-line Islamist beliefs, the officials said, it struggled to stop the ideology from spreading.

¶Another former senior intelligence official said dozens of ISI officers who trained militants had come to sympathize with their cause and had had to be expelled from the agency. He said three purges had taken place since the late 1980s and included the removal of three ISI directors suspected of being sympathetic to the militants.

None of the former intelligence officials who spoke to The New York Times agreed to be identified when talking about the ISI, an agency that has gained a fearsome reputation for interfering in almost every aspect of Pakistani life. But two former American intelligence officials agreed with much of what they said about the agency’s relationship with the militants.

So did other sources close to the ISI, who admitted that the agency had supported militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir, although they said they had been ordered to do so by political leaders.

The former intelligence officials appeared to feel freer to speak as Mr. Musharraf’s eight years of military rule weakened, and as a power struggle for control over the government looms between Mr. Musharraf and opposition political parties.

The officials were interviewed before the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, the opposition leader, on Dec. 27. Since then, the government has said that Pakistani militants linked to Al Qaeda are the foremost suspects in her killing. Her supporters have accused the government of a hidden hand in the attack.

While the author of Ms. Bhutto’s death remains a mystery, the interviews with the former intelligence officials made clear that the agency remained unable to control the militants it had fostered.

The threat from the militants, the former intelligence officials warned, is one that Pakistan is unable to contain. “We could not control them,â€

[ramana]

Op-Ed Pioneer, 17 Jan., 2008

How US helps fund jihad

Kanchan Gupta

American Government and military officials have told The New York Times that much of the aid provided by the Bush Administration to Pakistan to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban has been diverted for Islamabad's jihad against New Delhi. According to The New York Times report, funds have been "diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India" and pay "tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs". An European diplomat, aware of this diversion, has told the newspaper, "I wonder if the Americans have been taken for a ride."

The revelation has been greeted with sullen silence by the Bush Administration, which continues to invest faith in Gen Pervez Musharraf and still treats him as a "staunch ally" in the war on terror even as Pakistan falls, bit by bit, to the advancing hordes of barbarians who think nothing of slaughtering both believers and non-believers to further the cause of fanatical Islam. Pakistani officials, however, are "incensed at what they see as American ingratitude for Pakistani counter-terrorism" efforts.


In India, there is a sense of outrage and those who are not particularly fond of America (all of them aren't card-carrying Communists) have bitterly pointed out how the US will never learn from its past mistakes. They have a point. Gen Zia-ul Haq, and later 'elected' Governments and the ISI, used military hardware and funds supplied by the US during the Washington-sanctioned Afghan jihad against Soviet troops to wage a covert war against the Indian state and extract a terrible toll of innocent lives.

Just as that diversion was no secret for American officials, this diversion, too, is known to them. If despite such knowledge they have chosen to keep quiet and ply Gen Musharraf with more funds -- the Bush Administration has sought a billion dollars in non-food aid to Pakistan during fiscal 2008 -- the Americans have only themselves to blame for floundering so miserably in the war on terror. Worse, thanks to America's stupendous folly, the lives of millions of people in the region have been imperilled as never before. The fidayeen attack on Kabul's Serena Hotel is the harbinger of further dreadful news, as is the suicide bombing in Lahore.

This is not to suggest that all Americans are equally blind to the Bush Administration's shocking inability to see through Pakistan's charade. Voices are being increasingly heard on Capitol Hill, demanding that the Pakistani establishment be held accountable for its failure to deliver on promises. There are also demands that further American aid to Pakistan should be linked to actual performance on the ground in the war on terror. But every time this is mentioned, officials in Islamabad slyly let it be known that "any attempt to link American aid to certain conditions could impede Pakistan's role in the war on terror and hurt bilateral ties". And a hush descends on Washington, DC.

The stakes for Pakistan are obviously very high, given the quantum of American non-humanitarian aid it has been receiving since 9/11. A recent report on 'Direct Overt US Assistance and Military Reimbursements to Pakistan, FY 2001-FY 2008', prepared by the Congressional Research Service, provides interesting details of American funds that have reached Islamabad and a clue to how much has been diverted to acquire weapons targeted at India and to pay inflated, bogus bills. For instance, between fiscal 2002 and 2007, the US has given Pakistan $1.3 billion towards foreign military financing and an additional $418 million towards 'other security related aid'. The US has provided a whopping $5.7 billion to Pakistan during this period as 'Coalition Support Funds', which is "Pentagon funding to reimburse Pakistan for its support of US military operations". The total 'Non-food Aid Plus Coalition Support Funds' that were transferred from American to Pakistani accounts added up to $9.8 billion.

In sharp contrast, American food aid was a piffling $177 million. It would appear that the Bush Administration believes all Pakistanis shop at Harrod's. Ironically, a poll conducted by International Republican Institute, founded by the Congress and run by prominent Republicans, to gauge the issues that are likely to dominate the general election scheduled for February 18, shows 53 per cent Pakistanis view inflation as the biggest issue, followed by unemployment (15 per cent), poverty (nine per cent) and terrorism (six per cent). Acquisition of military hardware targeted at India and accumulation of riches in numbered Swiss bank accounts, facilitated by unrestricted flow of dollars from the US, may thrill Pakistanis in khaki, but the people of that benighted country are not impressed, least of all by the war on terror which has resulted in greater collateral damage than tangible, verifiable results simply because the Americans are happy to trust -- some would say stupidly so -- a wily General.

Astonishingly, in spite of the huge body of evidence that amply demonstrates America's post-9/11 policy on Pakistan has been an unmitigated disaster, opinion-makers who influence those who write out cheques in Washington, DC -- their influence would considerably increase if the Democrats were to capture the White House later this year -- continue to peddle the old line, counselling engagement with those very elements who are singularly to blame for the mess that prevails in Pakistan today.

In a policy brief, 'Pakistan -- Conflicted Ally in the War on Terror', Ashley J Tellis, senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues, "Although Pakistani counter-terrorism effectiveness has fallen short of what Americans expect, Islamabad's failures in this regard are not simply due to a lack of motivation. Instead, the convulsive political deterioration in the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan, Islamabad's military ineptitude in counter-terrorism operations, and the political failures of the Karzai Government in Afghanistan have exacerbated the problem."

If being accorded the status of 'staunch ally' in the war on terror (notwithstanding the fact that Gen Musharraf has done nothing to put down even those whom he could, for example, Jaish-e-Mohammed's chief Maulana Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's leading jihadi Hafeez Saeed) and being provided with billions of dollars are not motivation enough, then we need to redefine this word. Mr Tellis also conveniently ignores the fact that the situation in the North-West Frontier Province and in Afghanistan is entirely the creation of Pakistan -- no doubt helped in great measure by American aid. But who is to tell the Americans that they are utterly, horribly wrong? Most of us would rather tell the naked king that he's wearing a splendid robe in the hope he will be pleased and throw some crumbs our way, too.

[Anindya]

The Pakistani connection in the Siljander and IARA indictment....

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/Januar ... d_029.html

[quote]KANSAS CITY -- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.

The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division; and Monte C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office.

“This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity,â€

[enqyoobOLD]

alleging that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property and interests in property of Hekmatyar.

According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyar’s organization by sending approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.

It's pretty hypocritical to be prosecuting guys for sending $$ to Hekmatyar, since the GOTUS was the sponsor of Hekmatyar. Killed only about 1 million Afghans, among other things.

[vsudhir]

The latest buzz going on is that akin to charlie wilson's war, script-starved hollywood is coming out with 'Mark Deli Siljander's charity'.

Yup, Tom Hunks, Julia dudette and even saeed anwar with a dyed beard playing Bulbuddin etc are in the thick.....

[Rangudu]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printe ... r0115.html

Student terror tie revealed

Aid to extremists: Suspect admits he made, sent 'casing videos'

By Bill Rankin, Moni Basu, Brian Feagans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 01/15/08

When Syed Haris Ahmed first sat down with counterterrorism agents on March 10, 2006, the Georgia Tech student acted as if he had done nothing wrong.

But over the next week, through 12 hours of arduous and sometimes-threatening questioning, the 21-year-old Ahmed changed his story dramatically. He admitted to taking "casing videos" of Washington landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol, that ended up on the computer of a London terrorist. He acknowledged meeting with extremists in Toronto and going to Pakistan for jihadist military training.

Even so, Ahmed told agents at one point, "It was nothing. It was just childish talk and stuff like that." He also admitted in a signed statement: "I hoped to be recruited into a Jihadi training camp where I could learn how to fight Muslim oppressors everywhere."

By March 17, 2006, Ahmed told agents that his jihadist thoughts led him to contemplate attacks on Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, the Masonic Temple in Washington and oil refineries in Texas. Ahmed said he contemplated attacking Dobbins because he once lived near there. He said he believed Freemasons were like the "devil." He suggested the attack on U.S. oil refineries to raise the price of oil and bring more money to the Middle East, because "it is Muslim property and it's being stolen," Ahmed told agents.

Ahmed, born in Pakistan and raised in Dawsonville, now stands indicted with co-defendant Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell of federal charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Ahmed and Sadequee, who was born in Virginia to Bangladeshi parents, have pleaded not guilty.

The transcripts of Ahmed's taped interviews were released Monday at a hearing in which a judge is considering a motion to suppress Ahmed's statements to counterterrorism agents. Ahmed, then a 21-year-old Georgia Tech mechanical engineering student, was interviewed on five occasions —- initially at his home, then at a hotel and, the final three times, at FBI headquarters in Atlanta. Ahmed did not know the interviews were being secretly tape recorded.

FBI Special Agent Mark Richards testified Monday that Ahmed initially lied to investigators, minimizing his involvement. Later, however, Ahmed divulged more and more about his activities with Sadequee.

Ahmed's primary interrogators were Richards, a member of the FBI's counterrorism task force, and Khalid Sediqi, a DeKalb County detective and Muslim who was brought in to create a rapport with Ahmed.

The agents had suspected Ahmed and Sadequee, who was in Bangladesh at the time of the first FBI interview, were involved in terrorist activities. Because their leads were drying up and they worried Sadequee could be plotting an attack from overseas, they confronted Ahmed at his rental house near the Georgia Tech campus.

Over the course of the interviews, Ahmed became increasingly defensive and weary, at one point asking the agents if they thought it would be "safer for America" if he just left the country.

"No, I think it's going to be safer if you sit here and tell me what's going on," Sediqi said.

"Nothing's going on, man, just kids," Ahmed answered, downplaying his and Sadequee's actions.

The agents pressed Ahmed to tell them the truth, saying he could only help himself by telling what he knew and only make matters worse if he didn't.

If Ahmed tried to conceal Sadequee's activities, he was just as guilty, the agents told him. "I'm saying no more Georgia Tech," Sediqi said. "I'm saying no more masjid [mosque]. I'm talking about praying [in] a six-by-six cell."

Ahmed initially said he knew little about the April 2005 trip he took with Sadequee to Washington, where the videos were taken. The videos were Sadequee's idea, and he had no idea why they were going to the nation's capital until they got there, Ahmed told the agents.

Ahmed later admitted the videos were his idea, he used his father's camera and he knew Sadequee was going to put them online so they could be accessed by "the brothers," meaning terrorist extremists, Richards testified.

The casing videos, Richards said, were found on the computer of Younis Tsouli, an al-Qaeda-inspired computer expert in London now serving 10 years in prison.

Ahmed admitted the videos would be helpful to "plan something," according to the transcripts.

Plan what? he was asked.

"Some kind of terrorist act. I don't know," Ahmed answered.

At one point, the agents asked him directly if he were planning terrorist activity. Ahmed replied: "Look man . . . it was nothing; it was just childish talk and stuff like that."

He said he went to Pakistan in 2005, intending to join Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, an extremist group operating in Kashmir and wanted to join a militant training camp.

Still, Ahmed told the agents his activities were not a cause for concern.

"There is nothing to be worried about," Ahmed said during a March 15, 2006, interview. "We are just stupid, childish. You know we did, yeah, stupid mistake. We went and took a video, but in reality it means nothing. You look at the video. The quality is so stupid, you know. It had nothing of value whatsoever."

Sediqi, the DeKalb detective, would later scold him for such a thought.

"You think it's silly," the detective said. "You think it's stupid. But people are getting arrested and going to jail for it. ... Silly little things that you say and do and talk and take pictures of become big things, once they get into people's hands."

AN ADMISSION

Ahmed admitted the videos would be helpful to "plan something," according to the transcripts.

Plan what? he was asked.

"Some kind of terrorist act, I don't know," Ahmed answered.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2A0 ... gD8U5UAPG3

FBI: Atlanta, Canada Terror Suspects Met

By HARRY R. WEBER – 2 days ago

ATLANTA (AP) — Two U.S. citizens accused of plotting to attack civilian and government targets shot "casing videos" of Washington landmarks that were found on a terrorism suspect's computer in Britain and met with suspects in a Canadian terrorism case, an FBI agent testified Monday.

Agent Mark Richards testified that the videos of the U.S. Capitol and other Washington landmarks taken by Syed Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee were found on a computer belonging to Younis Tsouli, a Moroccan-born man who pleaded guilty in Britain in July to inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

Richards also said Ahmed and Sadequee, during a trip to Toronto in March 2005, met with several of the 17 people charged in a June 2006 Canadian terrorism sweep. Charges against the suspects in the Canadian case include participating in a terrorist group, importing weapons and planning a bombing.

Ahmed and Sadequee wanted to plan attacks for "defense of Muslims or retaliation for acts committed against Muslims," authorities have said. They have pleaded not guilty to a July 19, 2006, indictment charging them with providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts. No trial date has been set.

At a hearing Monday that was expected to last three days, Jack Martin, an attorney for Ahmed, asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill to throw out tapes of interviews Ahmed gave investigators or abide by a purported agreement not to prosecute him.

Martin argued that FBI agents who questioned Ahmed over five days in March 2006 promised him immunity if he cooperated. Martin suggested the statements should be considered involuntary because Ahmed was later charged.

But Richards testified that agents neither promised Ahmed anything nor threatened him. He said that the interviews were conducted at Ahmed's home, a hotel and an FBI office, and that Ahmed was never in custody. He testified that Ahmed was not truthful during some interviews.

It wasn't immediately clear when Brill would rule on Ahmed's suppression motion.

Transcripts of the 10 to 12 hours of interviews with Ahmed were released Monday. Copies of the recordings played in court were withheld, pending a ruling by Brill.

According to the transcripts, Ahmed said he traveled to Pakistan in 2005 wanting to join a Kashmir militant group, Lashkar-e-Tayyba. Ahmed also told FBI agents that he had hoped to be recruited into a holy war training camp where he could learn to fight against "Muslim oppressors everywhere."

During an interview, an agent tells Ahmed that he's "getting credit for" being honest.

"You are doing the right thing by letting us know the details," the agent said, according to the transcript.

Ahmed also told agents that during his trip to Canada he and others discussed targeting U.S. oil refineries for an attack, according to the transcript.

"And the reason for that was?" one agent asked him.

"I thought that all the oil in the Middle East, and, like, it is Muslim property and it's being stolen," Ahmed responded. "That's what we think."

Ahmed, 23, and Sadequee, 21, are accused of undergoing training to carry out a "violent jihad," or holy war, against civilian and government targets, including an air base in suburban Atlanta, according to the indictment.

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

[SSridhar]

For how long TSPians can remain dormant ?

Spain arrests 14 terrorists, many of them TSPians

Spanish police on Saturday arrested 14 people suspected of links with Islamic terrorism, the prime minister and Interior Ministry said.

Civil Guard officers made the arrests in the northern port city of Barcelona as part of raids planned with the National Intelligence Center, the Spanish equivalent of the CIA, the ministry said in a statement.

Authorities did not rule out more arrests, the ministry said.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero confirmed the report to reporters and said the investigations were continuing.

Officials gave no further information, but newspaper El Pais said on its Web site that officers searched a mosque, several homes and an unofficial prayer site.

Most of those so far detained were believed to be Pakistani nationals, Europa Press Agency said, while Spanish TV news channel CNN+ reported that traces of chemicals which could be linked to explosive material have been seized for analysis.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba was due to give more details at a midday press conference, the ministry said.

[prakashtirupati]

For how long TSPians can remain dormant ?

Spain arrests 14 terrorists, many of them TSPians

Most of those so far detained were believed to be Pakistani nationals, Europa Press Agency said,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7197562.stm

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the suspects included 12 from Pakistan and two from India.


as we can see "The Hindu" did not talk abt Indians( may be this should go in to media watch thread?)

[Nayak]

Spanish police arrest 14 in anti-terror raids: interior minister

17 hours ago

MADRID (AFP) — Spanish police have smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting 14 people and recovering bomb-making equipment in overnight raids in Barcelona, the interior minister said on Saturday.

"During our searches, we found various materials which could be explosives or be used to make explosives," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a press conference in Madrid.

Those arrested included 12 Pakistanis and two Indians, he said. Four timing devices as well as computer equipment which was still being examined were also recovered.

According to Spanish media reports, a 15th person was arrested late Saturday night in Barcelona -- although there was no immediate confirmation from police in the city.

The man, aged about 60, is thought to own a bakery near to a mosque searched by police.

Rubalcaba said that the group could be characterised as "radical Islamist", was "highly organised" and was preparing to carry out an attack in the north-eastern Spanish city.

The operation, which saw five homes raided by police, was carried out on the basis of information gathered by Spain's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

The intelligence suggested "the possibility that a terrorist action was being prepared on Spanish soil, in Barcelona to be precise," Rubalcaba said.

Police then "detected an organised group suspected of gathering materials used to make explosives," and decided immediately to swoop, he said.

He added that it was "probable" that some of the 14 were innocent.

Private radio station Cadena Ser reported that the suspects were believed to have links to a financial network for certain branches of Al-Qaeda.

All the arrests took place in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, home to a large Muslim immigrant population, media reports said.

In May last year in Barcelona, authorities dismantled a network that was recruiting fighters and funding militant organisations in North Africa and Iraq. Thirteen Moroccans and two Algerians were arrested in that case.

On March 11, 2004, simultaneous bombings on commuter trains in the Spanish capital Madrid killed 191 people.

Newspaper El Pais reported on its website that Spanish authorities had warned France, Portugal and Britain of the possibility of attacks on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during a visit to Europe next week.

Small groups composed principally of Pakistanis were preparing to carry out attacks "imminently," the report cited Spanish intelligence agency sources as saying.

Musharraf begins a European tour on Sunday that will see him visit Brussels, France, Britain and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking in Portugal, praised the intelligence services for the raids but said not to jump to conclusions about those arrested.

[arun]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7197562.stm

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the suspects included 12 from Pakistan and two from India.


as we can see "The Hindu" did not talk abt Indians( may be this should go in to media watch thread?)

Still not clear if Indians were involved :

Spain arrest - None appears to be from India: reports

New Delhi (PTI): None of the 14 persons arrested in Spain for allegedly planning terror attack appears to be from India, according to information reaching official agencies here on Monday night.

Sources said Spanish authorities had been approached directly by Indian agencies for identification of individuals arrested in Barcelona in connection with plans to carry out terror strikes in that country.

However, reports reaching here indicated that none of the arrested was from India and they comprised mainly nationals from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they said.

The suspects were detained on Saturday in the northern port city's Raval neighbourhood, home to many Arabic-speaking and Muslim immigrants, in Spain.

The Spanish police today linked all the arrested men with Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba terror outfit.

In a related move, the External Affairs Ministry had also approached the authorities in Madrid for providing immediate consular access if anyone of the arrested was an Indian national.

The CBI also approached Interpol, Madrid, seeking details about the arrests made. The investigating agency cited media reports about the nabbing of two Indians among the 14 people and sought details immediately. There was no official word so far from Spanish authorities.

LINK

[Rangudu]

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,881 ... 61,00.html

Monday, Jan. 21, 2008

A Pakistan Link in Europe Arrests

By Bruce Crumley

Details surrounding the weekend bust of 14 suspected Islamist extremists in Barcelona are giving European security forces reason for concern — even beyond the evidence suggesting the group was working toward an eventual terror strike. Whereas radicals of North African origin have long been the main jihadist threat in Europe, Spanish authorities say 12 of the 14 men arrested Saturday are Pakistani. The reason that's so troubling, counterterrorism officials believe, comes with the considerable risk of two different arching lines eventually crossing: the fast-growing size of Pakistani communities on the continent, and their close ties to a homeland where Islamist radicalism is rampant.

"The concern across Europe is we'll soon be facing the same kind of threat Britain has been fighting for several years now," explains a French counterterrorism official, referring to Pakistani communities within the U.K. whose cohesion and relative insulation have inadvertently created niches for virulent extremist activity well hidden from outside eyes. "What this means is growing numbers of tightly knit Pakistani immigrants around Europe who maintain close and frequent contact with people back home. Against that background, the eventuality of surging radicalism in Pakistan spreading to Pakistanis communities in Europe is virtually a given."

Or even established fact. The July 7 London Underground and bus bombings that killed 52 people in 2005 provided proof of just how potent the terror collusion between extremists in Pakistan and ethnic Pakistani Europeans could be. But more piecemeal evidence that the same sort of cooperation has spread to the continent has largely escaped the attention of public opinion. The most recent example came with the Barcelona arrests, where raids on several apartments and mosques turned up materials such as timing mechanisms, ball bearings, and batteries that could have been used for building bombs. Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba called the 14-member cell of 12 Pakistanis, an Indian, and Bangladeshi a "well-organized group that had gone beyond radicalization", and whose possession of apparent bomb-making equipment indicated that "violent acts are being planned."

Those Barcelona raids followed arrests in Germany last September, where a trio of radicals were caught with 1,500 pounds of explosive materials that were to be used in bombing strikes on U.S. military bases — primarily the Ramstein Air Force base — and Frankfurt airport. The operatives in that case underwent terror training in al-Qaeda-allied installations in Pakistan, and — similar to the 7/7 London bombers — got broad instruction shaping their terror plot from Pakistani mentors. Meanwhile, a French national, Willie Brigitte, who was arrested in Australia while allegedly canvassing a terror strike in 2003, received his training in a terror camp run by Pakistani jihadists. And as far back as December 2001, would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid relied on radical members of France's 50,000-member Pakistani community to prepare his attempt to bring down an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic.

As in France, the number of immigrant and ethnic Pakistanis in continental European countries is dwarfed by Britain's official total of nearly 750,000 (that 2001 census figure is, according to some experts, significantly higher today). But Pakistani communities are expanding rapidly in Europe — bringing with them the risk of radicals in their midst.

"There have been so many trails leading back to Pakistan when plots have been broken up or extremist groups uncovered that it has become second nature to look in that direction when trouble arises," says the French official — who nevertheless stresses that the terrorism emanating from jihadist groups in Algeria and Morocco remains the greatest threat to continental European countries today. "To their credit, the Pakistani security services have been good about cooperating with European counterparts to preempt radicals and plots who have come from Pakistan and turned up here."

Indeed, while this official could not confirm Spanish press accounts claiming that a tip-off from Pakistani intelligence about a known jihadist's arrival in Barcelona prompted the busts there, he says there are reasons to believe that sort of activist cooperation from Islamabad will continue. For one thing, in his opinion, Pakistani security services clearly have an interest in not seeing any instances of radical violence explode in Europe during this week's visit by President Pervez Musharraf.

What's more, both the Musharraf regime and al-Qaeda-linked extremists that Pakistani intelligence agencies are known to have aided in the past remain prime suspects in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Given such suspicions, the official says, Islamabad's reputation could use the restorative effects of helping to fight terror in Europe. "Let's be honest: news inside Pakistan over the past few months doesn't leave Western governments with lots of reasons to continue backing Musharraf," the French official concludes. "Awaiting clear signs of improvement at home, helping the West beat terrorism in its own backyard is the only card Musharraf has left to play."

[Vivek_A]

Iraq deputy prime minister 'in Blackburn mosque jibe'
By Tom Moseley
Comment | Read Comments (11)

THE DEPUTY Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn are more extreme than in his home country, according to an MP.

The shock comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack Straw in 2005.

He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn. What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal."
advertisement

The comments have angered mosque leaders in the town, who have branded them "a load of rubbish".

The Lancashire Telegraph has sent a fax to Dr Salih via the Iraqi Embassy in London asking him to explain his views.

[Rangudu]

Link

[quote]February 3, 2008

Suicide bomb suspects held at Gatwick after tip-off

David Leppard

SCOTLAND YARD is braced for a fresh wave of possible terrorist attacks against public transport after a group of suspected Islamist suicide bombers were arrested in a secret security operation at Gatwick airport.

Six Pakistani men were held under anti-terrorism laws 10 days ago after they flew in from Barcelona. The arrests were prompted by a tip-off from the Spanish intelligence services after the discovery of a suspected Al-Qaeda terror cell in the city. The cell is alleged to have planned to detonate suicide bombs on the Barcelona Metro. The Spanish warned a similar attack was being planned here.

The six Pakistanis were taken to Paddington Green police station in west London and were questioned by detectives from the Yard’s counter-terrorism unit. After being held overnight they were driven under police escort back to the airport and escorted onto a flight back to Pakistan.

Soon after the arrests MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infra-structure warned of a possible terrorist attack on bridges, tunnels and the Channel tunnel.

The Gatwick arrests followed an antiterrorist operation in Barcelona in which 12 Pakistanis and two Indians were held for allegedly planning bomb attacks. It has been reported that among the cache was a quantity of triacetone triperoxide, a comparatively cheap explosive used by suicide bombers in the Middle East.

At the time of the Barcelona arrests counter-terrorism officials played down reports of any imminent threat to Britain. But it has since emerged that Spanish intelligence did receive information about an attack against Britain’s public transport system.

According to El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, a member of the Barcelona cell told the Spanish civil police that it was planning attacks not just on Barcelona’s underground system but also against public transport in Britain and other European countries.

The informant is said to have told police that pairs of suicide bombers planned to strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves up on the rail and bus networks in Britain, France, Germany and Portugal.

Referring to the arrests of the Pakistanis at Gatwick, a senior British official said: “The intelligence from Spain was that there was to be another wave of attacks on the way to us after the attempted attacks in Barcelona. When it was followed up it led to this lot.â€

[Rangudu]

Link

Al-Qaeda Commander Moved Freely in Pakistan

Libyan Killed Last Week Operated Openly

By Imtiaz Ali and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 4, 2008; A01

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb. 3 -- A Libyan al-Qaeda commander who was killed last week in northwestern Pakistan had lived there for years and, despite a $200,000 U.S. bounty on his head, felt secure enough to meet officials and visit hospitals, according to officials and residents of this city.

As he organized suicide bombings and other attacks in neighboring Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi found a comfortable refuge in Pakistan's border region, the sources said in interviews. He met openly with a Pakistani politician and a Libyan diplomat and called on foreign fighters recovering from their wounds.

The Pakistani government contends it has been doing everything possible to capture al-Qaeda figures within its borders. But Libi, who was killed in a missile attack last week, moved unchallenged around the heart of Peshawar, a city of about 1.2 million people, underscoring how freely he and other al-Qaeda leaders have been able to operate in Pakistan.

One day in 2006, Libi strode into the central prison in Peshawar, the administrative capital of North-West Frontier Province. As another Libyan fighter sat nearby behind bars -- in the custody of Pakistani authorities -- Libi, the politician and the Libyan diplomat argued over whether the man should be deported against his wishes to Libya or released to fight another day, according to Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the politician who helped arrange the meeting.

"I knew Abu Laith for quite some time," said Paracha, a former member of the Pakistan National Assembly who is running for a parliamentary seat again in elections this month.

Paracha called Laith "a good and pious Muslim" and said the Libyan had frequently visited hospitals in Peshawar and the nearby city of Bannu to check on foreign fighters who had been wounded fighting alongside the Taliban and other militant groups.

A Pakistani prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed some details of Paracha's account of the gathering and said it occurred at least 18 months ago.

The lack of progress in hunting al-Qaeda commanders such as Libi has fueled frustration among U.S., Afghan and European officials, who say al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies regularly plan operations abroad from havens in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has barred U.S. forces from searching for al-Qaeda leaders on its soil.

It has been nearly two years since Pakistani forces are known to have killed or captured any significant al-Qaeda figures. The last was Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, an Egyptian citizen who had been indicted in the United States in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

Atwah had been on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorism suspects, although intelligence analysts did not consider him part of the network's core leadership. He was killed in April 2006 in a Pakistani airstrike in North Waziristan.

Libi's activities in Pakistan had been a particularly sore point between the United States and the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

A few months after Libi visited the Peshawar jail, U.S. military officers said, Libi organized a suicide attack outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Cheney. At least 23 people were killed in the February 2007 bombing.

Some security officials and analysts said Libi also orchestrated a 2005 prison breakout of four al-Qaeda fighters from the U.S. military's prison at Bagram.

Libi emerged as a major figure among Islamic extremists in 2002, when he announced via videotape that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar had survived the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Libi's death was reported Thursday in a statement released on an al-Qaeda Web site. Although the statement did not give details, he is thought to have been among 12 people killed in a missile strike Tuesday in a village in North Waziristan.

Intelligence reports indicate that Libi had been on his way to a meeting with Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander and tribal leader who has been blamed in the Dec. 27 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, according to an intelligence official in Europe who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The identities of the other people killed in the missile strike are unknown. Pakistani officials said they have had difficulty gaining access to the scene, but residents have said local Taliban commanders pulled the bodies out of the rubble. Neither U.S. nor Pakistani officials have publicly asserted responsibility for the attack.

Libi's death came two months after he and al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a joint statement that a Libyan militant network had formally joined forces with al-Qaeda. Libi was a longtime leader in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organization founded in the early 1990s to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan government had been trying to persuade members of the group to agree to a truce, which was partly why Libi had agreed to meet at the Peshawar prison with a diplomat from the Libyan Embassy in Islamabad, said Paracha, the Pakistani politician who arranged the meeting.

Paracha said the encounter led to further "interactions" between Libi and the Libyan government, though he declined to give details. At the time, he said, Libi was an independent operator who had not formally pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, but worked closely with the network and Taliban forces to fight U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

"He was not directly involved with al-Qaeda but would join the bin Laden forces on a needed basis," Paracha said. "He was leading his own group of Libyan militants."

Paracha is a regional leader in the branch of the Pakistan Muslim League party that is headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Paracha is known to have close contacts with Taliban leaders and other militants.

He said he has negotiated the release of hundreds of foreign fighters from Pakistani prisons on the condition that they leave the country. "I've been doing this service for four years," he said.

Paracha's efforts to mediate a peace deal between Libi and the Libyan government went nowhere, however, according to a Libyan source familiar with the talks.

"Abu Laith was 100 percent against the negotiations between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the government," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He refused to be part of it."

Whitlock reported from Berlin.

[SSridhar]

Link

Al-Qaeda Commander Moved Freely in Pakistan
. . . .It has been nearly two years since Pakistani forces are known to have killed or captured any significant al-Qaeda figures. The last was Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, an Egyptian citizen who had been indicted in the United States in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

Well, it has been nearly 18 months since a significant catch or kill inside TSP. But, the above is slightly inaccurate. I consider Rashid Rauf, who recently vanished, as a significant Qaeda operative.

Just to recall. . . On Aug. 9, 2006, Pakistan announced the arrest of this British citizen of Pakistan’s Mirpuri descent, from Bahawalpur, for his involvement in the proposed terror plot of Trans-Atlantic flights (similar to the Bojnka Plot). {The Egyptian, Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, also known as Abdul Rahman Al Mohajir, was killed in North Waziristan on Apr. 13, 2006} Rauf is a close relative of Masood Azhar, the Amir of JeM. Repeated requests by the UK government to extradite him were refused. Later, in Dec. 2006, the Pakistani government inexplicably dropped all terror related charges against him. Then, suddenly, on Dec. 15, 2007, Pakistan announced that Rauf had escaped from Police custody by hoodwinking the police escort while being taken to a court. It is widely believed that it was an ‘inside job’ by which Rauf was taken to the FATA area where he vanished.

[arun]

X Post.

For another 20 Billion I’m sure the US can get Pakistan to relocate these “guestsâ€

[arun]

X Post.

Excerpt:

Interview: Lee Kuan Yew -- Part 1

Published: Feb. 8, 2008 at 10:13 AM
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE
UPI Editor at Large

SINGAPORE, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- UPI Editor at Large Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Feb. 2. The following is the text of the interview. ………………

Q: Switching to Pakistan, most terrorist trails in the United Kingdom and most recently in Germany via Turkey, track back to training camps and madrassas in the tribal areas that straddle the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

A: We even had a terrorist of Pakistani descent here in Singapore.

Q: So what's your view of what should be done about the Pakistan-terrorist nexus?

A: (Laughs for several seconds) We should learn to live with it for a long time. My fear is Pakistan may well get worse. What is the choice? (President) Musharraf is the only general I know who is totally secular in his approach. But he's got to maneuver between his extremists who are sympathetic to Taliban and al-Qaida and moderate elements with a Western outlook. We forget that right after Sept. 11 he was given a stark choice by President Bush: either you abandon your support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan or face the disintegration of Pakistan. There is an interesting study of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency that says 20 percent of the Pakistani army's officer corps is fundamentalist.

Q: So what do you feel the United States can do there now?

A: There is very little, if anything, the U.S. can do to influence the course of events in Pakistan that wouldn't make matters worse. Any U.S. interference in Pakistan would result in Pakistan's four provinces becoming four failed states. And then what happens to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal? It's a horrendous festering problem. The Feb. 18 elections may bring a little clarity and hopefully democratic stability to Pakistan, but I am not holding my breath. ……….

Link

[Nayak]

wrong thread

[Nayak]

self edit

[arun]

X Post of Naidu's post.

[quote]Terror Threat From Pakistan Said to Expand

....... “In my opinion, the jihadi threat from Pakistan is the biggest emerging threat we are facing in Europe. Pakistan is an ideological and training hotbed for jihadists, and they are being exported here.â€

[arun]

Excerpt from CFR intervew of Ashley Tellis.

While its nice to see that Pakistan’s perfidious role in the GWOT is being recognised in the US, it would be better if the US did something was about it besides endevouring to buy off Pakistan :

[quote]Pakistan’s Mixed Record on Anti-Terrorism

It’s been reported for years now that al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, and his crew are holed up somewhere in Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden and his crew are most likely in the northern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, in what is called the Bajaur agency.

And is the Taliban leadership in the Pakistancity of Quetta?

Yes; the Kandahari clique that was expelled from Afghanistan, led by Mullah Omar, and the coterie around him.

Now obviously the Pakistani security forces know they’re there.

Yes.

And this is not in some distant territory. Why don’t the Pakistani forces just take them out?

It appears that they have been there now for several years. So that’s fact number one. Fact number two is that they are in part of Pakistan that is not in the stateless areas of the FATA. They are in the populated areas, in the provincial capital of Balochistan. That’s fact number two. Fact number three is that it is almost certain that the Pakistani intelligence agencies knows the location of these individuals and actually has some kind of a liaison relationship with them. But the Pakistani state has consistently refused to go after them, and I think the reason for that is a complex blend of geopolitical calculations.

“This outcome would reflect more or less the kind of agreement that [Musharraf] had envisaged with [Benazir Bhutto] several months ago.â€

[Rangudu]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/108672/output/print

A $4 Million Ransom?
The Taliban claims South Korea paid at least $4 million for the release of 21 Christian missionaries held hostage last year in Afghanistan.

By Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 3:45 PM ET Feb 6, 2008

Five months after the release of the 21 surviving South Korean hostages who had been captured by the Taliban in July, Afghan insurgents are claiming that Seoul paid a hefty ransom for the Christian missionaries' freedom. In an interview in this week's edition of Afaq, a Pashtu-language magazine published in neighboring Pakistan, senior Taliban leader Ustad Yasir confirmed that a large ransom indeed had been paid. "If we were going to free them without any payment, [the hostage taking] would not have been worth it," he said. "The best way to release them was with a ransom payment." Two hostages were executed before the others were released.

Another senior Taliban commander, who would only speak on condition of anonymity for security purposes, tells NEWSWEEK that the South Korean government paid at least $4 million for the missionaries' release and that it delivered the cash to the insurgents in the Pakistani frontier city of Quetta. The commander said the Taliban were aware that U.S. and Afghan intelligence were closely watching the hostage negotiations that were taking place between South Korean and Taliban officials inside the compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Ghazni province and decided to outsmart them. "It was funny," said the Taliban official, "the intelligence agencies were watching for a transfer of money to us in a Red Cross car in the province." So the Taliban arranged for the secret payoff in Quetta.

Another Taliban official in Ghazni, who asked for anonymity for similar reasons, tells NEWSWEEK that 35 percent of the money went to fund local insurgent operations in the province and that the rest went to the ruling Taliban council presided over by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. During the tense negotiations the Taliban had demanded the release of some of their senior jailed commanders. But Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government refused to consider releasing them after it ran into heavy international flak for having freed five senior Taliban leaders, including Yasir, in exchange for the release of an Italian journalist last March.

After the successful conclusion of the negotiations, South Korea only admitted that it had promised to withdraw the 200 noncombatant troops it had stationed in the war-torn country and neither confirmed nor denied that a ransom had been paid. On Wednesday, a South Korean presidential secretary told NEWSWEEK, "We aren't aware of any new developments in the case. Our government position is we didn't pay any ransom for the hostages."

[Vivek_A]

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=39840

US chief: Pakistan terror threat rising

US Military Chief Says Terror Threat Rising in Pakistan

Staff
AP News

Feb 09, 2008 11:59 EST

The top U.S. military commander said Saturday that the threat of Islamic extremism was growing in Pakistan and that the country's leadership was keenly aware of the challenge facing the nation.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comment to reporters after meetings with Pakistan's senior leadership including President Pervez Musharraf and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Mullen said much of the discussion centered on the situation along Pakistan's lawless northwestern border with Afghanistan, where Pakistani forces have been battling Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

"Certainly the threat is going up," Mullen said. "We're both concerned about that. Certainly in my meetings today, all the leadership expressed concern about being able to eliminate that threat over time."

U.S. officials have complained privately that the Pakistani leadership had underestimated the threat posed by Islamic extremists, who, at least in the past, have had close ties with Pakistani intelligence officials.

Mullen's remarks came on the same day a suicide bomb attack killed at least 20 people and wounded 45 at an election rally in a northwestern town. No one immediately claimed responsibility. Islamic extremists operate in the area.

Fighting increased sharply last year between Pakistani government forces and militants, some of whom sought refuge in Pakistan after being driven out of Afghanistan.

Mullen said he came away from his talks even more convinced "that the border regions are very, very tough" and that Pakistani forces "are making very real sacrifices in this war."

Mullen also said he believed that Pakistan's military had secured the country's nuclear arsenal.

"I'm very comfortable that nuclear weapons are secure and that proper procedures are in place," he said. "And I'm not concerned that they are going to fall into the hands of any terrorists."

Mullen arrived in Pakistan on Friday for a three-day visit, his first since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs last year.

He travels to the city of Peshawar on Sunday to meet with commanders of the Pakistani 11 Corps, which is fighting in the border area.

[abrahavt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/world ... ref=slogin[/list]

[arun]

From Canada :

Friday, February 15, 2008

Pakistan A 'Hotbed' For Terror

Lawless tribal belt is al-Qaeda training ground

Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008


For centuries the wild Pakistani tribal area -- stretching 1,000 kilometres along the Afghan border -- has been lawless, violent and remote. Now, it is rapidly becoming a central front in the U.S.-led war on terror.

The harsh mountainous territory, which Pakistan doesn't control and is off limits to U.S. troops, has become a breeding ground for jihad and the chief training centre for al-Qaeda.

Just days before Pakistanis vote in a crucial election, their country is being threatened by a new generation of radicalized Islamist insurgents who have allied themselves with international terrorists.

Fighters in the tribal areas have been blamed for carrying out more than 60 suicide attacks in Pakistan in the last year, including the Dec. 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. But fears are growing another high-profile attack could ignite the sort of chaos Islamic radicals thrive on.

But as al-Qaeda and the Taliban dispatch suicide bombers from the tribal belt to attack Pakistani security personnel and politicians, there are increasing indications Pakistan has become a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the ideological heartland for Islamist terrorists worldwide.

According to top U.S. security officials, South Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, is the new headquarters for al-Qaeda's global operations and forms the centre of a web of terror plots and assassination attempts that reaches into Europe and the United States.

In testimony before Congress last week, retired admiral Michael McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, stressed al-Qaeda has "regenerated its core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks."

"Al-Qaeda has been able to retain a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) that provides the organization many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale," he said.

"The FATA serves as a staging area for al-Qaeda's attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as a location for training new terrorist operatives, for attacks in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States.

"The next attack on the United States will most likely be launched by al-Qaeda operating in the 'under-governed regions' of Pakistan," he added

Judging from online videos and local reports from Pakistan, a study published yesterday in the CTC Sentinel, a publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, estimates "al-Qaeda is running as many as 29 training camps in the [FATA] region that are less elaborate than those found in Afghanistan in the 1990s."

But those camps funnel new recruits or "Lions of Islam" into the fight against NATO forces, including Canadians, in Afghanistan, and train potential terrorists from overseas to launch attacks.

Unlike the large military-style camps al-Qaeda used in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks, the new training in Pakistan's tribal areas is being done in small groups and is specially tailored to prepare Western recruits for attacks.

On Monday, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that officials in Germany's federal police believe four men in their 20s are being trained in Pakistan to conduct terror attacks in Germany.

Also on Monday, David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, while encouraging NATO to redouble its efforts in Afghanistan, noted that 70% of all terrorist incidents in Britain had their origins in Pakistan.

In the last six months, Danish, German and Spanish officials have all broken up alleged terror plots that are linked to Waziristan.

Last month in Barcelona, police claimed to have broken up a plot to attack Spain's transit system and in four neighbouring countries.

"In my opinion, the jihadi threat from Pakistan is the biggest emerging threat we are facing in Europe," said Judge Baltasar Garzon, Spain's top anti-terrorism magistrate.

"Pakistan is an ideological and training hotbed for jihadists, and they are being exported here."

lINK

[arun]

Willing to take bets, providing generous odds, that Zahoor Iqbal is of Pakistani origin :

Anyone interested

Man convicted in UK

LONDON, Feb 15: A British jury on Friday convicted a fifth suspect of joining in a plot to kidnap and decapitate a British soldier.

Zahoor Iqbal, 30, was found guilty of helping Parviz Khan to supply equipment to people in Pakistan for terrorist activities. The jury in Leicester, England, cleared Iqbal of another charge of possessing a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.

Khan was convicted of concocting a plot to lure an unidentified Muslim soldier into a trap and then cut off his head. He pleaded guilty to four charges linked to the plot and other offences.

The jury acquitted Amjad Mahmood, 32, of Birmingham, of a charge of helping supply equipment for terrorist activities.—AP

Dawn