Al-Qaida Affiliate's Future in Question

Osama bin Laden's death could help undermine a Southeast Asian terror organization, according to analysis in the Asia Times Online. Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaida affiliate based in the Philippines and founded with help from bin Laden, could suffer far more than other al-Qaida offshoots in the wake of the terrorist's death, the report finds.

Abu Sayyaf will "disintegrate" with the loss of its "leadership, logistics, and people," predicts Philippine national security adviser Cesar Garcia following bin Laden's killing. This forecast is unusual, as many expect his death to invigorate al-Qaida branches worldwide.

While al-Qaida did not deeply entrench itself in the Philippines, bin Laden personally helped create Abu Sayyaf in the 1980s and provided logistical support during the 1990s by sending "emissaries" and bomb experts to the region. But bin Laden's direct contact diminished after 9/11. Thereafter, ideological inspiration "became his most important contribution." As a result, some contend his death will ultimately lead to the group's downfall.

Bin Laden's killing adds to other Abu Sayyaf setbacks. Recent intelligence-based operations undertaken by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) resulted in the January capture of Umar Patek in Pakistan. He was a member of Jemaah Islameeyah (JI), another Southeast Asian al-Qaeda affiliate linked to Abu Sayyaf.

Patek was travelling to meet bin Laden in Abbottabad when captured, Asia Times Online reported. With bin Laden dead and Patek captured, the ties between the groups "have been cut, perhaps irreparably."

Last week, Philippine authorities also captured Andurahman Luy Andang, alias Abu Nas, another "notorious Abu Sayyaf bandit" blamed for kidnappings and beheadings, The Nation reported.

UC Irvine "Awards" MSU Legitimacy

A year ago, a University of California, Irvine investigation found that the Muslim Student Union (MSU) devised a plot to silence a speech by Israel's ambassador and then lied about it to school administrators.

Now that same school has honored that same student group with an award for demonstrating "commitment to transforming the structures of inequality and injustices through reflection and action." The MSU won the school's Cross Cultural Center's Praxis Award at the Anteater Awards ceremony on May 18.

In February 2010, the MSU conspired to disrupt a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren by standing up during his speech and calling him a murderer and war criminal. The students were following a "game plan" to keep Oren from being heard.

"[O]ur goal should be that he knows that he cant (sic) just go to a campus and say whatever he wants," minutes of an MSU meeting obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism show. Members were advised to "push the envelope," in order to "realize our role as the MSU of UCIrvine."

Eleven students involved in the scheme face criminal charges for their roles in the incident and the MSU chapter was suspended for the fall semester.

The Anteater Awards are run through the Dean of Students office at Irvine and winners are "judged by staff and faculty members from across the campus." The MSU chapter finished second as "Most Outstanding Religious Organization."

Additionally, Alkalima, the Muslim student publication, was nominated for "Most Outstanding Student Newsletter." Alkalima has published radical articles and opinion pieces that legitimize terrorist actions. The Muslim magazine also stepped in to fill the void created by MSU's suspension, sponsoring the same contentious events and programs that MSU had planned for the semester, just under the magazine's name.

Yet, the Oren affair was just one of many examples of the chapter's radical behavior. It was investigated for hosting a fundraiser for a group suspected of giving support to Hamas. As a further testament to its duplicity, the MSU did not register the event as a fundraiser when submitting the paperwork to UCI.

It also has been tied to 13 incidents of alleged harassment of Jewish students between 2000 and 2006.

Creating an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment, actively plotting to silence speech on a university campus, lying to school administrators. At UC, Irvine, that is award-winning behavior.

Yemeni President Wounded By Rebels

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh was lightly wounded Friday when rebel shells hit the presidential compound in Sanaa, killing six guards and wounding seven top officials, the Guardian reported. The attack on Yemen's president, the first since the uprising began on January 18^th, is an unprecedented challenge to his 32 year grip on power.

"The president, may Allah protect him, is well and in good health and the news spread by Suhail channel is groundless," state television said about rumors of Saleh's death coming from opposition television. Saleh is expected to address Yemen in a few hours, despite claims by his party's leader that he was "lightly wounded in the back of the head."

The attack nearly decapitated almost all of Yemen's current leadership. Deputy Prime Minister General Rashad al-Alimi and Parliament Chief Yahya al-Raie were "critically wounded." Others injured included Saleh's private secretary, the head of Yemen's consultative council; GPC MP Yasser al-Awadi; and Sanaa Governor Noman Duweik, according to Agence-France Presse.

"The Ahmar (tribe) have crossed all red lines," leading party spokesman Tariq al Shami said. The president's advisors also have blamed the al-Ahmar tribe, which denied the attack and claimed it was actually ordered by the Yemeni president. The accused al-Ahmar leader, Sheikh Hamid, claimed the attack and accusations of his involvement were an "excuse to shell and destroy my home and the homes of my brothers Hemyar and Mizhij and that of Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar in an attempt to drag Yemen into civil war."

Clashes between the al-Ahmar tribe and the government have claimed many lives in the past several days. Saleh ordered the arrest of the 10 Ahmar brothers, last month, all sons of Sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar who was the president's main ally until his death.

Hacking Terrorist Websites Commonplace

British intelligence destroyed several pages of al-Qaida's first edition of Inspire magazine, in one of many instances of Western intelligence sources hacking into jihadi websites, according to Wired.com. However, the issue of disrupting jihadi websites and publications raises questions about the value of cyber attacks, and whether it exposes sensitive intelligence resources.

The case of the al-Qaida's Inspire magazine illustrates the challenge to intelligence. "The head of the newly formed U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Keith Alexander, argued that blocking the magazine was a legitimate counterterrorism target and would help protect U.S. troops overseas," the Washington Post reported. "But the CIA pushed back, arguing that it would expose sources and methods and disrupt an important source of intelligence."

"The proposal also rekindled a long-standing interagency struggle over whether disrupting a terrorist Web site overseas was a traditional military activity or a covert activity — and hence the prerogative of the CIA."

Although the CIA won out and the proposal was rejected, British intelligence was already hacking the magazine. It took nearly two weeks for al-Qaida operatives to release a corrected version. In the political fallout that followed, House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Tex) included language in the 2012 defense authorization bill which authorized cyber attacks by the military.

Attacks on jihadi websites are nothing new. In April 2009, the Pentagon announced its intention to shut down "Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country's burgeoning extremist underground," as well as rogue radio stations along the Afghani-Pakistani border. In June 2010 a Taliban web forum called Al-Sumud was hacked, presumably as part of the Pentagon's efforts. Earlier attacks on al-Ekhlass.net, what had been the world's most popular jihadi forum, brought down that network in September 2008.

New U.S., Pakistan Joint Counterterrorism Team to Focus on High Value Targets

Officials have confirmed that the U.S. and Pakistan will form a joint counterterrorism team, the Associated Press reports.

The team, which will be composed of intelligence officials from both countries, will focus on high-value terrorist targets. Before agreeing to form the team, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Pakistani officials a list of U.S. most-wanted terrorist targets, which included some targets Pakistan has previously been hesitant to go after.

The U.S. hopes top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaida operations chief Atiya Abdel Rahman will be among the new counterterrorism force's top targets, officials say.

Pakistani officials say those targets are not specifically named in the agreement. But one U.S. official did confirm that the two countries have agreed to go after several militants to repair confidence between them.

The move comes one month after the U.S. acted unilaterally to kill Osama bin Laden in his compound located in a garrison city not far from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Part of the joint team's responsibility will be to act on information recovered from that building during the May 2^nd raid. Information gathered by Pakistani officials in and around the Abbottabad compound following the raid will also be reviewed by the team.

The joint agreement raises hopes of successfully targeting the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida franchise closely linked to the Taliban. Siraj Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani tribe in Pakistan, is also on the list of the U.S.'s most wanted targets.

In a recent IPT interview, Reza Jan, leader of the Pakistan team at the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project and an expert on terrorism in that country, said that efforts against al-Qaida could be dampened if no action is taken against the Haqqani network. The two have a "symbiotic relationship," he said.

U.S.-Pakistan relations have been strained since the killing of Osama bin Laden. Pakistan, upset that the U.S. acted without first contacting Pakistani officials, was also embarrassed that the al-Qaida leader was able to find refuge in a city with a top military academy for several years.

Heightening tensions, a top witness who has admitted to helping plot the 2008 Mumbai attacks testified last week that members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) helped to train him and others. David Headley, an American from Pakistan, testified against Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of helping conduct surveillance for targets for the attacks and helping facilitate Headley's trip to India.

Somali American Becomes Suicide Bomber

A Somali American blew himself up Monday at a checkpoint in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, in a suicide attack for al-Shabaab. Abdullah Ahmed, a 25-year-old Minnesotan who had moved to the wartorn nation two years ago, became the latest American casuality in the battle for Somalia.

Ahmed blew himself up at a military checkpoint run by African peacekeeping force AMISOM, killing two peacekeepers and one Somali government soldier. The attack was initially reported on the Somali Memo website, along with a 22-minute audio (since removed) which includes a statement by Ahmed encouraging Muslims in the West to "die for their religion."

Ahmed is at least the third Somali American to carry out a suicide bombing on behalf of al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida affiliated organization that has targeted young expat Somalis. Shirwa Ahmed from Minneapolis, detonated himself in the northern territory of Somaliland in October 2008, in a joint suicide attack that killed 21 people. In September 2009, a Somali American from Seattle drove two stolen U.N. cars into a base for African peacekeepers, also killing 21.

Al-Shabaab's recruitment videos target young Somalis and East Africans abroad, trying to bring in members to shore up the group's declining numbers. At least 20 Somali Americans have joined al-Shabaab, with large numbers of expats in Sweden, Canada, East Africa also joining the group. The group's propaganda have also pushed for the murder of Muhammad cartoonists and publishers at Danish paper Jyllands-Posten.

Al-Shabaab has been at war with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and other autonomous regions, trying to implement sharia over the country and large Somali minorities in neighboring countries.

Chicago Businessman Unlikely to Testify at Trial

A Chicago businessman charged with aiding the Mumbai terrorist siege in 2008 is not likely to testify at his trial, defense attorneys said Wednesday.

Tahawwur Rana allowed the Mumbai office of his immigration business to provide cover to longtime friend David Headley to scout targets for the three-day rampage in India's financial capital for the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). The attacks killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Rana has also been charged in another plot to attack the offices of Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper whose 2005 publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad unleashed a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world.

Headley has pleaded guilty to his role in the Mumbai and Denmark plots and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. Six witnesses, including four FBI agents, took the stand Wednesday.

Headley was arrested in October 2009 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport while he was on his way to Pakistan to deliver surveillance videos of the Jyllands-Posten offices to al-Qaida commander Ilyas Kashmiri, who had promised to help out with the Denmark attacks after Lashkar backed out at the last moment.

A map of Copenhagen, a copy of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and a Jewish prayer book were found on Headley when he was arrested, FBI agent Douglas Seccombe testified. In earlier testimony Headley had said that he had obtained a Jewish prayer book to help disguise himself as a Jew when conducting the Denmark operation.

Court testimony also revealed that Rana had used Headley's American Express card to purchase roundtrip tickets for Headley to Copenhagen.

In his five days of testimony, Headley said members of Pakistan's powerful intelligence services, the ISI, helped plot and finance the Mumbai attacks.

During cross-examination Tuesday, however, he said that high-ranking officials within the ISI were unaware of the Mumbai plot. "My belief is that all of ISI did not know," Headley said.

"I was only in contact with him [Headley's ISI handler Major Iqbal] but I suspect his colonel knew about it," he added.

The testimony conforms with Headley's earlier statement to Indian interrogators that the director general of the ISI, Ahmed Sujja Pasha, had been ignorant about the attacks and had met with jailed Lashkar chief, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi learn more about the plot.

During the cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to portray Headley as a liar who has sought to implicate his friend to avoid the death penalty and possible extradition to India, Pakistan, or Denmark.

"He hides the truth from everyone," Rana's attorney Charles Swift said. "David Headley at the center is a spider who maneuvers everything in the web so it works out his way."

In a recorded conversation from last November, Headley is reported to have told his wife that he made a "big sacrifice" to secure her release as well as that of his brother in Pakistan. Defense attorney Patrick Blegen argued that the "big sacrifice" alluded to by Headley was his childhood friend Rana whose business Headley used as a cover for his reconnaissance missions.

Evidence also emerged in court that Headley had been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder in 1992. Headley earlier denied the allegation saying "I don't recall it." However when Defense Attorney Patrick Blegen offered to present the medical records, Headley replied, "I will accept it."

While IAEA Dithered, Israel Destroyed Syrian Nuke Facility

Already under fire for murderous assaults against his own people, Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime may face censure by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for illicit nuclear activities.

In a May 24 report to the agency's board of governors, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano referred to a building destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in a Sept. 6, 2007 raid. Amano said the IAEA "concludes that the destroyed building was very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria."

Amano's finding puts Syria in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As a signatory to the NPT, Syria is barred from developing atomic weapons.

Like its longtime ally Iran, Syria could soon find itself in the dock for flouting the NPT. Next week, the IAEA board of governors may formally declare Syria in noncompliance with the treaty, putting the question before the United Nations Security Council and potentially resulting in sanctions.

The IAEA's record in dealing with the subject is decidedly mixed. Bennett Ramberg, a Bush Administration State Department official, writes that IAEA inspectors did fine work in eventually thwarting a large-scale cover up by Damascus.

But for close to a decade, the IAEA was asleep at the switch. First, the agency failed to detect construction of a Syrian plant designed and engineered by North Korea. Even today, the IAEA doesn't know whether Syria has a secret reprocessing facility to extract plutonium for weapons or if it intended to export the spent fuel to North Korea for reprocessing.

The IAEA was slow to investigate evidence of Syrian cheating. For months, IAEA Director-General Mohammed El-Baradei ignored media reports that Syria built the reactor and claimed that governments failed to provide the IAEA with information. "By the time the agency began its investigation in mid-2008, Syria had demolished the remnants of the plant, carted away the debris and built a new non-nuclear structure to conceal evidence of the old," Ramberg writes.

El-Baradei also blasted Israel for destroying the Syrian site before notifying the IAEA. But in reality, "the agency's reputation for timidity prompted Israel's attack. After years of watching the IAEA fret with Iran, Israel had no confidence the agency would forcefully deal with Syria."

Had Israel not acted, the Syrian regime brutalizing its people today might have atomic weapons in its arsenal.

Read more about Syria's nuclear efforts here.

Palestinians Honor Fallen "Heroes" Bin Laden, Yassin

Echoing the sentiments of the Hamas government following the death of Osama bin Laden, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip honored their fallen hero in a rally in Rafah on May 20.

In video footage supplied and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a large group of Palestinians can be seen marching through the streets chanting slogans like "Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama," and brandishing images of the world's most wanted terrorist.

Those present also seized the opportunity to lash out at America and the Jews. In the video, the crowd can be heard repeating the phrases, "America is the enemy of Allah…Osama destroyed America," and also "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews…The army of Muhammad is returning." The latter phrase is a common taunt used by Islamists and makes reference to the village of Khaybar, which was the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in the 7^th century and the site of a Jewish massacre.

Focusing more on bin Laden's contributions to the umma, Sheik Munir al-'Aydi, a speaker at the rally, refers to bin Laden as a "blessed man" who gave "his money and his soul for the Jihad and for the sake of Allah" and "united the nation around monotheism."

Al-'Aydi further describes bin Laden as an ally of the Palestinian people. "That is the man who said: 'I pledge before Allah that America and its people will enjoy no security before we enjoy true security in Palestine.' He was always devoted to the land of Palestine. He was always devoted to the liberation of the holy places."

Because of this devotion to the liberation of Palestine and bringing "the Americans to their knees," al-'Aydi immortalizes the al Qaida leader, exclaiming "You are not dead, oh Osama. You live on in the hearts of us all…Our entire nation is Osama."

In a similar display of respect to a longtime terrorist, Hamas has recently declared the home of its founder and formal spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a heritage site, according to the Al Qassam website.

The decision to open the home of Yassin, who was killed by the Israeli government in 2004, is intended to educate visitors about Yassin's "Jihadist career" as well as his activities against the Israeli occupation.

"The goal is to commemorate his image in a place which saw him devote his life to the distribution of Islam," said the Hamas official who announced the plan.

Morocco Arrests Charged American in "South Park' Threat

Morocco has arrested American citizen Jesse Curtis Morton, who was charged as part of threats made last year to producers of the show "South Park," despite the lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries. Morton's group, Islam Policy, has protested the move as part of what it considers to be America's war on Islam.

In a jointly drafted statement for the group Revolution Muslim, convicted terrorist Zachary Chesser and Morton, threatened "South Park" producers with murder over illustrated depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Although the pair claimed that they were not "advocating direct violence," they claimed that the "creators of South Park will indeed end up like [murdered artist] Theo Van Gogh."

"Otherwise we warn all that many reactions will not involve speech, and that defending those who insult, belittle, or degrade the Prophet Muhammad is a requirement of the region," their statement threatened, if the cartoons didn't stop and an apology wasn't issued. "As Osama bin Laden said with regard to the cartoons of Denmark, 'If there is no check in the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of actions,'" they added.

While Morton, who now answers to the name Younus Abdullah Mohammad, may have believed that his comments were permitted under the First Amendment, the criminal complaint clarifies that "true threats" aren't protected speech. The complaint also takes into context Morton's previous declarations about "terrorizing the disbelievers," made in an interview with CNN, as well as his participation in disseminating al-Qaida's message on the group's web pages.

Newer Postings   |   Older Postings