June 16, 2006

Ansar al Islam Gets Squeezed

Via email:

BERLIN (AP) - An Iraqi man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion he transferred money to a radical Islamic group in Iraq linked to al-Qaida, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The 36-year-old man, identified only as Burhan B., was arrested Monday at Frankfurt's airport. A federal judge ordered him to remain in custody Tuesday on suspicion of supporting a foreign terrorist organization and violating German export laws, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

They said the suspect was in contact with a man, identified only as Ata A.R., accused of playing a central role in the terror group Ansar al-Islam's European network. Ata A.R. is due to go on trial in Stuttgart next week as the alleged ringleader of a December 2004 plot to kill then-Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a visit to Germany.

No deutschmarks for you!

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June 11, 2006

Fox News' O'Reilly Visits Gitmo, Prisoners Commit Suicide

Well, somebody had to say it. Certainly odd but, I believe, merely coincidental.

From CNN.com:

Three prisoners at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have hanged themselves in what is being called a "planned event," the U.S. military has said.

They are the first confirmed deaths at the compound. Prisoners have attempted suicide in the past.

"Two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards," said a statement issued by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo on Saturday.

According to Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, there is a mythical belief that Guantanamo would be shut down if three detainees died. As a result, the suicides were planned, not spontaneous.

Human rights advocates are eagerly jumping on the incident to bolster their claims that America is bad and President Bush is evil. Expect their assertions to be repeatedly emphasized by the generally complicit mainstream media.

My take on the situation is that fanatics killing themselves is not, at all, an unusual event. And, in all candor, I'd much rather fanatics commit suicide in a cell as opposed to a bus or restaurant crowded with innocents.

From Interested-Participant.

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June 01, 2006

The Way To A Jihadi's Heart...

...isn't through his stomach.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - More Guantanamo Bay detainees protesting their indefinite confinement joined a hunger strike, raising the number of those refusing food to 89 from 75, the U.S. military said Thursday. Six of the hunger strikers at the isolated U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba were being force-fed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand.

Force feedings? Why? Haven't they heard that starvation is euphoria? Besides, suicide by starvation doesn't blow up 20 other people, and I'm not totally sure, but I don't think it gets anyone a virgin in Paradise.

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May 16, 2006

Surviving Beslan Terrorist Sentenced to Die

He won’t be surviving very long if a “moratorium" on executions is lifted. Nurpashi Kulayev was sentenced to die for his role in the siege of school which ended in the deaths of the rest of the terrorists and 300+ school children and teachers. At the very least he will rot for the rest of his life.

Euronews: The only man charged over the Beslan school siege two years ago has been found guilty and could face the death penalty. Reading out the sentence, the Russian judge said Nurpashi Kulayev had committed murder and attempted murder, taken part in a bandit group, taken hostages and illegally stored and transported weapons.

An official moratorium on the death penalty is in place.

However Deputy Attorney General Nikolai Shepel said he had asked for the highest punishment, the death penalty, but that he would not comment further and would wait for the court to decide.

A total of 330 people were killed when a group of gunmen, including suspected Chechen separatists, took over a school in Beslan on the first day of term. The other hostage-takers were killed in a shoot-out with Russian security forces.

Life the moratorium and place a moratorium on this manÂ’s life ASAP. This is one of the most heinous examples of what Islamic terrorism really means.

Previous Jawa Report posts on the Beslan School siege here, here (video), here and here.

Related : More problems with Islamic terrorists in Dagestan.

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April 18, 2006

Terrorists Recruiting Non-Arab Fanatics

The desire of terrorists to recruit non-Arabs to conduct attacks has been known for some time, however, now an official report of the practice has been prepared.

From SunTimes.com:

Terrorists have been working to recruit non-Arab sympathizers -- so-called "white Muslims" with Western features who theoretically could more easily blend into European cities and execute attacks -- according to classified intelligence documents obtained by The Associated Press.

A 252-page confidential report jointly compiled by Croatian and U.S. intelligence on potentially dangerous Islamic groups in Bosnia suggests the recruitment drive may have begun as long as four years ago, when Arab militants ran up against tough post-9/11 security obstacles.

This is nice to know but hardly surprising. However, it would be nicer to know how the Ass. Press, with apparent ease, obtains classified intelligence documents.

Nevertheless, since there will always be a segment of the population that succumbs to the lure of fanaticism, it's logical that terrorists would attempt to recruit those they can. And despite the augmented security obstacles, suicide bombers are single-use only and must be replaced.

From Interested-Participant.

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August 30, 2005

Study: Terrorists Easily Enter U.S.

Simply put, by using a variety of tactics, terrorists are entering the United States with unacceptable ease. According to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies, gaps in the nation's border security, visa approval, and immigration systems have allowed dozens of terrorists to enter and embed themselves in the United States between 1993 and 2004. Ultimately, at least 21 foreign nationals became naturalized U.S. citizens before being identified as terrorists. The report of the study will be formally released later today at the National Press Club.

From the Associated Press:

Overall, 59 of 94 foreign-born nationals who were either convicted or indicted on terror charges broke federal immigration laws to enter or remain in the country between 1993 and 2004, the report found. It also noted:
_Twenty-two of the 94 either had student visas or other applications approving them to study in the United States; another 17 used visitor visas to enter the country.

_In at least 13 instances, suspected and convicted terrorists overstayed their temporary visas.

_Seven of the 94 were indicted for using false driver's licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards and immigration records.

_Twenty-one became naturalized citizens.

The report identified many of the immigrants as affiliated with at least one terror organization, including 40 with al-Qaida, 16 with Hamas, 16 with the Palestinian or Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and six with Hezbollah.
The Department of Homeland Security has enacted programs to improve immigration enforcement, undeniably not a moment too soon. According to Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke, the levels of scrutiny imposed by the new programs "vastly improve the odds of stopping" the terrorists before they act.

Frankly, the odds of my satisfaction with national security are not improved when it's described in terms of a mathematical probability. What's next? Television news reporting the chance of terror right after the weatherman tells us the chance of rain? Obviously, more needs to be done. National security should be a "yes or no" issue, not something that requires a handicapper.


[Update 8/30/05, 1630 EDT]

The full report, Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff report on Terrorist Travel by Janice L. Kephart, has been posted on the Internet. It's informative and engaging, particularly the section on the extent that terrorists use sham marriages to gain permanent residency and citizenship in the U.S. Beguiling American women into marriage is an effective tactic used intentionally to further their terrorist goals. I'm not shocked.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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August 12, 2005

Bomb Makers Blow Themselves Up

(Istanbul, Turkey) I suspect this probably happens much more regularly than is reported.

From the Turkish Daily News:

Turkish police said on Tuesday that two men killed in a blast in an Istanbul flat were Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members in the process of making a bomb.
An additional five people were injured.

From a fundamental Islamist perspective, would a man be given martyr status and 72 virgins if he never completed the suicide mission because he blew himself up while making a bomb? Islamic scholars must surely be searching for an answer.

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July 26, 2005

More Jihad Denied, For Now

This almost completely passed me by. I heard a snippet of this report on the radio today, and made a mental note to get a post up about it. I damn near forgot. Time to wake up, dhimmis:

July 26, 2005 — Five Egyptian men with maps of the New York City subway system and video of New York landmarks have been arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark, N.J., ABC News has learned.

FBI and law enforcement officials told ABC News the five men — four illegal immigrants and one law enforcement fugitive — were arrested Sunday night following a tip to the Newark Police Department. In addition to the subway maps and video, the men had train schedules and $8,000 in $20 and $50 bills.

It's not a game, it's not happy happy funtime. What happened in London can happen here, what happened in Egypt can happen here, what happens in Israel every goddamned week can happen here.

Richard's post below was exactly right. This was going on well before Iraq, well before 9/11. I'm old enough that I watched the coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palesimian terrorists. And it's not going to stop until Islamofascism is defeated, the dream of the global ummah crushed, and the jihadis who believe in it killed, incarcerated, and humiliated into reform.

CP@VAM

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July 23, 2005

London Times: No Bomb on Man Shot

The Timesonline, without citing a source, reports that the man shot dead as he fled police and jumped onto a tube carriage was not carrying explosives:

It is understood that he was found not to have been carrying a bomb.

Three officers had followed him to Stockwell station after he emerged from a nearby house that police believed to be connected with ThursdayÂ’s attempted bombings.

The suspect, described as being of Asian appearance and wearing a thick, bulky jacket, vaulted over a ticket barrier when challenged by police and ran down the escalator and along the platform of the Northern Line.

Another witness has described what appears to be an attempted hostage-taking by the man:
Dan Copeland, a Northern Line passenger, told BBC News: “The man burst in through the carriage door to my right and grabbed hold of the pole and a person by the glass partition near the door, diagonally opposite me.
Information from police sources indicates that the man was a confederate of the London bombers.
Police are describing him as an “intimate accomplice of the cell”. His name and address were thought to have been found among the possessions left by the would-be bombers on Thursday.

Police sources said he did not live at the address from which he had been followed.

But the BBC reports the man was not connected to Terror bombers:
A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was unconnected to the incidents, police have confirmed.

A Scotland Yard statement said the shooting was a "tragedy" which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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Sharm El-Sheik Bombings

As more information is reported, the situation just gets worse.

From the AP:

The attacks appeared well coordinated. Two car bombs, possibly by suicide attackers, went off simultaneously at 1:15 a.m. just more than 2 miles apart. A third bomb, believed hidden in a sack, detonated around the same time near a beachside walkway where tourists often stroll at night.

A total of 83 people were confirmed dead, said Dr. Saeed Abdel Fattah, manager of the Sharm el-Sheik International Hospital where the victims were taken. Among the dead were two Britons, two Germans and an Italian, he added, and Czech officials said one Czech tourist was also killed. Rescue workers were still searching for victims at some attack scenes.

Several hours after the attacks, a group claiming ties to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the explosion on an Islamic web site. The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, was one of two extremist groups that also claimed responsibility for October bombings at the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34. The group also claimed responsbility for a Cairo bombing in late April.

Currently, 83 are known dead and 119 are wounded. Others following the story include: ITB, LGF.

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July 22, 2005

Egyptian Resort Bombed

It's breaking news and I've gotten some indications that it's worse than described as follows.

From The Courier-Mail:

THIRTY people died and about 100 more were wounded when four car bombs rocked the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and hotels at nearby Naama Bay today.

A police source said four car bombs appeared to have exploded - one near the Sharm el-Sheikh bazaar, and three in Naama Bay, at a tourist bazaar, the Ghazala Hotel and the Moevenpick Hotel.

Sources said the explosions had killed up to 30 people and wounded about 100 others.

I've heard that 36 people have died. Information is sketchy right now. It happened about 1:15 am local time. Current reports say seven bombs were detonated.

By the way, on a somewhat related issue, am I the only person that's noticed that when Rusty leaves town, London gets bombed?

[Update 2230 EDT]

From Aljazeera.com:

A series of explosions hit the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh early Saturday, killing at least 49 people and wounding 150 others, witnesses and police said.

Police officials in Sharm el-Sheik said there may have been as many as seven blasts; three in Naama Bay, which is packed with hotels, and four in the nearby Old Market area.

"Many of the injuries are very serious and they are in critical condition," said one doctor at Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital.

Eyewitnesses say that the blasts shook windows miles away.

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And How Does Al-Jazeera Report the Tube Shooting?

Most people read only a couple of paragraphs deep into news stories; some only read the lead before moving on. That's why journalists tend to pack so much information into the first paragraph of a breaking story. For example, this is the lead for the tube shooting story at MSNBC: "Hours after chasing down and shooting to death one man on the subway..."

So how does al-Jazeera serve their Arab audience? Like this [emphasis added]:

Police have confirmed that they shot dead a man in an underground train station in south London.

The man was shot apparently while trying to board a train on Friday morning at Stockwell station in south London.

Just a peaceful man trying to take the tube into work when the British Gestapo murdered him for no reason. In the sixth(!) paragraph it's mentioned that he "ran" onto the train.

This isn't just a matter of style, this is how propaganda is done.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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Oozing Rucksacks

From the Courier-Mail:

OOZING rucksacks, harmless puffs of smoke and the failure of the latest apparent attempted bombings in London suggest a link between this week's attacks and the July 7 atrocities, experts said today.

The four bombs that apparently failed to explode on Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus yesterday bore similarities to the type of Al-Qaeda-style devices used in the suicide attacks earlier this month, which killed 56 people, explosives specialists said.

Witnesses spoke of seeing a lard-like substance oozing from one of the would-be bombers' backpacks after it failed to go off, suggesting the presence of an explosive mixture such as acetone peroxide which was used on July 7, the experts said.

That substance - made from household items such as sulphuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and acetone - deteriorates over time and becomes harmless if it passes its use-by date.

"If the bombers from July 7 and yesterday all loaded their rucksacks together two and a half weeks ago, you might expect a substantial amount of the explosive to have disappeared by this week," chemist Andrea Sella of University College London said.

I apparently am ill-supplied. To my knowledge, there has never been any sulphuric acid in my house. My car battery, sure, but not in the house. In any event, it all sure seems amateurish.

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July 19, 2005

Egypt: el-Nashar an Innocent Lamb Wrongfully Accused

Magdy el-Nashar, the Leeds scholar who was arrested in Egypt following the London terror bombings, has been absolved of any wrongdoing by the Egyptian government. From The Guardian:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt said Tuesday that a detained chemist wanted by Britain for questioning about the London bombings had no links to the July 7 attacks or to al-Qaida.

Government spokesman Magdy Rady said in a statement that a Cabinet meeting Tuesday reviewed an Interior Ministry report that "made clear that there is no link between Egyptian chemist Magdy el-Nashar with al-Qaida or the (London) bombings."

So there.

Of course Egyptian officials offered no explanation for this inconvenient report from CNN:

(CNN) -- The explosive TATP was found in connection with the investigation of the London bombings, three knowledgeable sources have told CNN.

One of the sources said that investigators found the TATP in the Leeds apartment rented by Magdy el-Nashar, an Egyptian biochemist detained for questioning Thursday in connection with the London attacks.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for these seemingly contradictory reports. After all, it's not as if the Egyptians have a history of lying about terrorist incidents or anything.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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July 15, 2005

Magdy Elnasher

Here's some information regarding Elnasher's life that is worth knowing. Magdy Elnasher was born in 1972 in Egypt.

1994
Graduated from Cairo University with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry degree,

1998
Received Masters in Science in Organic Chemistry from Cairo University,

1999-2000
Studied chemical engineering at North Carolina State University,

2000-present
University of Leeds, UK, Postgraduate.

Elnasher's schooling has put him at the forefront of study in the fields of biological catalysts and enzyme immobilization.

To refresh everyone's memory, enzymes are protein substances that act as triggers for various biological processes. So, Elnasher's expertise appears to be associated with seemingly mundane applications like improving water treatment facilities or manufacturing processes that rely on enzymatic actions.

With regard to my previously-stated bother, if Elnasher, as a terrorist, wanted to apply this expert knowledge, he could, but only in a convoluted manner. I believe that a biological threat could only exist if Elnasher was working out of his house or in a garage creating something nefarious. His line of study and work does not lend itself to anything other than access to chemicals and biologicals for easy theft. To put anything together, he'd need a lab - and time.

One other thing - Elnasher has some sort of link with the University of Graz in Austria which is associated with his biochemical work.

All in all, I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that there have been no reports of a laboratory being found in the investigation by the British authorities. Without one - somewhere - I don't see Elnasher's biochemical expertise being a threat right now. Of course, don't trust me. I'm just a guy with a computer.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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