Washington Post Gives Voice to Radical Islamist

Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee and director of Islamist group Cageprisoners, objected to the killing of Osama bin Laden in an op-ed in the Washington Post. Although Begg portrays himself as a civil rights activist, his organization has been more of a lobby on behalf of terrorists. The group even recently featured an article celebrating the mock death of President Obama.

Begg is quick to explain he was "not [a] member of al-Qaeda and did not agree with its methods," but says that the U.S. is "distorting the bin Laden narrative somewhat." He cites others' quotes about bin Laden's "piety, generosity, personal bravery, strategic ability, charisma and patience," and declares that "such characteristics can be admirable in any human being."

What Begg leaves out of his op-ed is his connection to other al-Qaida leaders, as well his organization's support for extremist positions. Cageprisoners' primary role is advocating on behalf of Islamists that it perceives are victims of Western injustice. Its most recent focus campaigns include al-Qaida trainer Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, convicted terrorist Aafia Siddique, and al-Qaida ideologue Abu Mus'ab al-Suri, whose writings on strategy are incorporated into issues of al-Qaida magazine Inspire.

In a mock story on Cageprisoner's website, the organization celebrates the fake assassination of "American War Criminal Barack Obama," along with a gruesome picture of the murdered president. "[T]o many in the Muslim world, Obama became the embodiment of global terrorism, but to others he was a hero, a devout Christian who fought three wars in the name of democracy," the article says, reversing the roles of bin Laden and President Obama. "You cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us, but you can make the choice to abandon the CIA and participate in a peaceful political process," it mockingly quotes a Pakistani official as saying.

Begg has been heavily involved in his organization's extremism. He interviewed Anwar al-Awlaki, who would go on to become an al-Qaida leader, in late 2007. In the interview, Awlaki saluted Cageprisoners for its role in helping secure the release of terrorists. "The brothers and sisters at Cageprisoners are fulfilling the order of RasulAllah [the Prophet] which was stated in [the religious text of] Bukhari, 'Seek the release of the prisoner', and they are at the forefront of fulfilling this command of RasulAllah so I ask Allah to reward them and assist them in their efforts," Awlaki said.

Begg then invited Awlaki to give two audio-recorded addresses for Cageprisoners fundraisers, even after Awlaki's extremism had been revealed in posts on his blog.

Begg also defended the "right of resistance" in reference to the American occupation in Afghanistan. "If you are asking me what are my feelings towards people fighting occupation, the answer is I completely support them," Begg said to the Irish Times in 2010. "I believe in the inalienable right to defend yourself against foreign occupation."

Pakistan Rejects Bin Laden Criticism

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has rejected criticism of his nation's counterterrorism efforts and called claims that Pakistan sheltered Osama bin Laden "absurd." The discovery of bin Laden on Pakistani soil has created skepticism about the nation's commitment to fighting terror.

"No other country in the world and no other security agency has done so much to interdict Al-Qaeda, than the ISI [Pakistani intelligence] and our armed forces," said Gilani. "This was done with the full support of the nation and in accordance with the political will articulated by the Parliament of Pakistan."

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. We emphatically reject such accusations. Speculative narratives in the public domain are meant to create despondency. We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan."

During an interview broadcast Sunday on "60 Minutes," President Obama said it was clear there was some "sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was. We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate."

In apparent retaliation for the American allegations, Pakistani authorities have leaked the name of the C.I.A. station chief in Islamabad to local news sources. The incident was the second time in five months that Pakistani authorities have tried to embarrass U.S. intelligence in their country. "It is [a deliberate effort to complicate the work of the American spy agency in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden," the New York Times quoted unnamed American officials as saying.

Counterterrorism in the region had already been a difficult task, with Pakistan's neighbor Iran actively countering U.S. efforts. Iran's intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi recently tried to undermine the American assassination of bin Laden, saying that "We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago." He also questioned, "why don't they show him (his dead body), why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?"

Pressure on al-Qaida in Yemen, Iraq

U.S. forces nearly killed Yemeni al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki Thursday, while al-Qaida in Iraq lost a senior leader during a failed prison break. The increasing pressure on al-Qaida leaders follows the assassination of the group's mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Awlaki narrowly survived a drone strike, after switching vehicles with fellow al-Qaida members who were then killed by American missiles. Yemeni intelligence officials claim that beleaguered President Ali Abdullah Saleh gave the U.S. information about Awlaki's whereabouts, in an effort to gain some support for his shaky regime. Although Awlaki is not in charge of Yemen's al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), he is a prominent online terrorist ideologue among English-language speaking jihadis.

In Iraq, at least 17 prison inmates and four policemen were killed during a riot at a high-security prison in Baghdad. Among the dead was senior al-Qaida in Iraq figure Huthaifa al-Batawi, who was killed while leading the riot. "This incident was planned well in advance," said Baghdad's security spokesman, Major General Qassim Atta. "The criminals were high-level members of the Islamic State of Iraq [al-Qaeda's front group]. The prime minister has ordered a committee to investigate the incident."

Al-Qaida in Iraq, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq, recently became the first branch of the group to pledge its loyalty to second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

"I tell our brothers in al Qaeda organization and on the top of them Sheikh Mujahid Ayman al-Zawahri ... be merry, you have faithful men in the Islamic State of Iraq who are following the right path and will not quit or be forced out," said caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISC), Abu Baker al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi. "I swear by God, blood for blood and destruction for destruction."

Egyptian Copts Protest Islamist Attacks

Christians took to Cairo's Tahrir Square Monday to protest violence targeting two churches and an apartment building over the weekend. At least a dozen Egyptian Christians were killed after a mob attacked a church and set fire to an apartment building.

More than 200 more people were injured.

The churches were targeted after rumors circulated that a Christian woman was being detained in order to stop her from converting to Islam. The attacks, coming four months after a Coptic church in Alexandria was bombed, killing 21, has renewed criticism that Egyptian authorities don't do enough to protect Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Authorities arrested dozens of people and the Egyptian justice minister vowed that "an iron fist" awaits those who threaten national security. An emergency cabinet meeting reportedly opened the door for the death penalty to be applied for attacks on religious sites.

Reports say Salafists, an ultraconservative Islamist sect, instigated the rumors and the violence as a political ploy.

"They want to assert themselves in the political arena, and their means to do so is to highlight rumors of conversion cases of ladies," Youssef Sidhom, a Coptic newspaper editor, told the Washington Post. "That is their way of creating a buzz."

One witness outside the Virgin Mary Church in Cairo's Imbaba district said Egypt's political instability opened the door to Salafi violence, the Los Angeles Times reported. They feared Mubarak, he said. "But now there is no security and they are free to attack. They want to turn this neighborhood into a place of Sharia law. They want full control."

Copts have faced increased violence since Mubarak's ouster in February, with attacks on churches and individual Christians. In addition to the Tahrir Square protest, other Copts are trying to wage a sit-in at the state television station.

Internal Iranian Tension Over Sorcery Charges

The strained relationship between Iran's President and Supreme Leader has gotten worse, after allies of the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking bad spirits. The bad blood has led the president to declare a partial ban on his official duties, refusing to attend meetings and participate in government decisions.

Ahmadinejad's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was accused of invoking djinns (genies) and of promoting an "Iranian school," an abhorrent form of nationalism to right-wing clerics. Abbas Ghaffari, the former president of the National Iranian Oil Company and a close advisor of the president, was called "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds," according to Iranian news site Ayandeh.

The tension first arose when Ahmadinejad tried to sack his intelligence minister following embarrassing revelations that the nation's spy service was monitoring the president's closest aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, vetoed the decision, prompting Ahmadinejad to skip out on two cabinet meetings and other functions.

After the event made headlines, Ahmadinejad attended a cabinet meeting Sunday and denied that there was any bad blood. "The relationship between the supreme leader and the president is that of a father and a son," the Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. However, recent events may spark more incidents.

Egyptian Presidential Frontrunner Targets Israel

The frontrunner in Egypt's upcoming presidential election - former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa - has a long history of Israel-baiting and whitewashing the threat posed by Iran. In an interview published Friday by the Wall Street Journal, Moussa described an Egyptian political landscape dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood after parliamentary elections in September and indicated that he would take a tougher line toward Israel than ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Writing in The New Republic, Foreign Policy Research Institute scholar Eric Trager observes that Moussa owes his political ascendance to "his shameless exploitation of anti-Israel demagoguery for political gain."

Moussa's animus towards the Jewish State was immortalized by pop singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim, who recorded the Egyptian hit song "I Hate Israel." The song includes a line, "I Hate Israel and I love Amr Moussa."

Trager marshals considerable evidence documenting Moussa's hostility against Israel.

As Egyptian foreign minister from 1991-2001 and Arab League secretary-general since 2001 (he will step down May 15), Moussa has been consistent in his efforts to marginalize Israel. Before his first official visit in August 1994, Moussa triggered a firestorm of controversy when he indicated he would refuse to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Moussa eventually agreed to go there after intense diplomatic pressure, but refused to enter the Hall of Remembrance where he would have been forced to wear a yarmulke.

Moussa claimed U.S. support for Israel had "poisoned" the peace process and he supported Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat's refusal to compromise on Jerusalem during the failed Camp David negotiations with Israel during the summer of 2000. When Arafat launched a war against Israel in September 2000, Moussa called on the Arab world to support him.

As Arab League secretary-general starting in 2001, Moussa condemned the 9/11 attacks, but refused to participate in any anti-terrorism campaign that included Israel - a nation he accused of "slaughtering" Palestinians. During Israel's summer 2006 war with Hizballah, he attacked Israel for "targeting civilians."

Moussa, who has said Hamas "is not a terror group," criticized Arab governments who supported Israel's 2008-2009 war against Hamas and said that any Arab country that pursued normalization with Israel would face a "tough" reaction. He has also called for a "no-fly zone" over Gaza, implicitly equating Israeli actions with Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's attacks against his people.

Moussa has minimized the threat from Iran. He has reportedly suggested that Israel, rather than Iran, poses the main nuclear threatto Middle East countries – a point noted approvingly in Tehran.

Read the full New Republic article here.

Egypt Demands Repatriation of the Blind Sheikh

The Egyptian government reportedly has asked the United States to release the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, and send him back to Egypt, according to the Open Source Center, a government clearinghouse of publicly available foreign intelligence.

Abdel-Rahman is the former spiritual leader of the Egyptian terrorist organization, Gama'a al-Islamiyya. He is considered the spiritual inspiration behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and is serving a life sentence in connection with a subsequent plot to bomb New York landmarks and tunnels.

But his continued imprisonment could spur anger in Egypt and other Islamic states, said his son, Abdallah Abdel-Rahman. Keeping his father in custody would show that the United States did not seek to combat terrorism, but rather sought war on Islam.

He asked Egyptian officials to make a similar request, and an official at the Egyptian Ministry of Justice indicated that had been done. The official recommended Abdallah Abdel-Rahman make his own request to the U.S. government for his father's repatriation since the two countries have no joint agreement for the exchange of prisoners.

Last month, hundreds of Gama'a members protested near the U.S. embassy in Cairo demanding Abdel-Rahman's release.

Al-Qaida Confirms Bin Laden Death – Again

Al-Qaida issued a more direct statement confirming Osama bin Laden's death today, to solve a debate raging in jihadi forums about whether his death was true. Although this statement comes on the back of several other posts acknowledging his death, the method and presentation of this announcement makes it different.

CNN reports that the statement urged Pakistanis "to rise up and revolt," and states that bin Laden's death will be a "curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries." It also pledges that al-Qaida will "continue on the path of jihad, the path walked upon by our leaders … without hesitation or reluctance."

Although several jihadi forums and online al-Qaida ideologue Hussein bin Mahmud had already admitted bin Laden's death, no official statement had been issued about bin Laden's death from the central al-Qaida organization.

This most recent statement also is accompanied by the sharp graphics reserved for official statements, and is clearly being accepted as more authentic by Islamist forums. This clarification, which finally settles the issue, has the potential to embarrass websites which took the "bin Laden is alive" approach.

Japan Nuclear Disaster Could Spur Terrorist Plots

Note: this post has been updated to correct information about the Fukushima plant's condition.

News reports citing intelligence sources say material found in Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound show he was planning attacks on American trains to coincide with the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Now, a law enforcement Fusion Center is pointing to aging nuclear power plants in Europe and the United States as possible targets for retaliation for bin Laden's death. A briefing paper issued Thursday by the Pacific Information Regional Clearinghouse viewed by the Investigative Project on Terrorism warns al-Qaida long has desired a nuclear attack.

If it can't obtain a weapon, terrorists might try to attack a nuclear reactor, the report warns. And Japan's March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami could provide a template. The Fukushima nuclear plant is leaking radioactive water and faced a reactor melted down after the tsunami knocked out power to the plant, and its back-up systems also failed within hours.

The lesson, the report says, is that some aging reactors can be sent into "catastrophic failure" if denied power to cool reactors for a matter of hours.

"An air strike by a small general aviation plane or truck bomb aimed specifically at the electrical power, perhaps coupled with a Mumbai style disruption, might be sufficient to interrupt power long enough for a meltdown to begin," the report says.

It mentions France and former Soviet states as targets with older reactors that could be vulnerable, sending radiation over large chunks of Europe. American targets exist, but may be more difficult for al-Qaida terrorists to reach.

Abbottabad: The Global Terrorists' Palm Springs

It seems that Public Enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden, wasn't the only highly-sought-after terrorist that found his way to a middle class suburb north of Islamabad, Indonesia's Jakarta Post reports.

In January, Umar Patek, Indonesia's most wanted terror suspect and leader of al-Qaida's Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, was arrested just minutes from where al-Qaida's top leader was shot and killed early Monday. Officials purport that Patek, a key player in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 civilians, was visiting Abbottabad with his wife in order to meet with bin Laden. They were said to have been travelling on fake Indonesian passports.

But not everyone is convinced that Patek met with the al-Qaida leader. A U.S. counterterrorism official told ABC News Thursday that the arrest appears to be more of a "coincidence."

Patek reportedly was nabbed by Pakistani authorities before ever having the opportunity to make contact with bin Laden or visit the al-Qaida leader's walled compound. Since that time, he has been held in a Pakistani prison and has reportedly undergone questioning by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

In April, Pakistan publically stated a willingness to extradite the JI operative to Indonesia for trial, but since has stalled all attempts to make that happen.

Patek's fate, and the secrecy surrounding it, is causing a diplomatic dispute not only between Indonesia and Pakistan, but also between Pakistan and Australia—where tensions are high after Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd leaked to the press information about the Patek arrest over the protests of senior Pakistani leaders.

Australia was hit disproportionately hard in the Bali attacks—88 of the 202 that died were Aussie—and, as a result, it has been passionately committed to seeing the responsible parties brought to justice.

Pakistani intelligence leaders claim that Rudd's actions could have caused "subsequent leads…[to] go dead" and ultimately could have disrupted the U.S. strike mission against bin Laden.

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