Hamas Reiterates No Interest in Peace

In the wake of Wednesday's surprising announcement that the Palestinian Authority's Fatah movement and its rival Hamas reached a reconciliation and unification agreement, Hamas has reiterated its longstanding position that it remains a sworn enemy of Israel, according to a Palestinian Media Watch bulletin.

"No recognition [of Israel] and no negotiations," said Hamas leader Mahmoud Azhar regarding his group's political platform. Azhar added that he is confident that Hamas' issues with Fatah regarding the peace process with Israel will not interfere with the functioning of the new Palestinian unity government since the purpose of this government is to address internal Palestinian issues.

In response to the agreement announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, "The Palestinian Authority has to choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. Peace is impossible with both of them. Hamas is trying to destroy Israel, and sends missiles on our cities and our children."

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated that peace talks with Israel would still be possible. He clarified that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which he leads and which Hamas is not a part of, will be responsible for "handling politics, negotiations."

Nevertheless, senior Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi emphasized that peace with Israel is not the group's top priority. Rather, it is focused on presenting a unified Palestinian front for the United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood in September. "If Israel thinks we have to choose between peace with it and peace with Hamas – any Palestinian you ask will tell you we prefer Palestinian unity over peace with Israel," he said.

The U.S. cautiously backed the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, releasing a short statement in which it lent support to the union - provided the new Palestinian government worked for peace. "The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization which targets civilians," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.

According to Tirawi, Hamas' status in the international community as a terrorist organization was never considered when negotiating the reconciliation agreement. "No Palestinian group is a terror organization in our eyes," he said.

Jihadist Website Cites Classified Information

A popular jihadist website has reposted a classified list of British intelligence agents, with names and the location of their postings. The post is the most recent example of Islamist websites citing classified intelligence data, released by whistleblower groups like Wikileaks and Anonymouse.org.

Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum [AMEF], an important forum for aspiring jihadists, featured the record in a section on "Ummah" or Islamic nation news. The original list comes from cryptome.org, a website that publishes government documents. Many of those listed are posted in Muslim countries and the majority does not come from Middle Eastern or South Asian backgrounds.

While the authenticity of the list has not been verified, it is part of a worrisome trend of jihadist media exploiting information from stolen intelligence information. AMEF has reprinted several articles about Wikileaks releases, highlighting those that identify weaknesses in American security or reinforce their belief that the West is targeting Islam.

Hamas and Fatah Reconcile

Officials from the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements have reached a reconciliation agreement, ending a four-year old split that led to the establishment of separate governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The agreement calls for the formation of a unity government in the next few days and preparations to have presidential and legislative elections a year from now.

"The two sides signed initial letters on an agreement. All points of differences have been overcome," said Taher Al-Nono, the government spokesman for Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President, Mahmoud Abbas, has made several unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation with Hamas since the groups' unity government disintegrated following a five-day civil war in 2007, in which the Islamist Hamas movement seized control in Gaza.

To reach an agreement, Hamas leaders demanded a full power-sharing deal, including a division of security responsibilities. They also insisted on the release of hundreds of Hamas members imprisoned in the West Bank, the re-opening of outlawed Hamas charities, and the removal of a ban on Hamas activities in the West bank.

The recent push for an agreement with Hamas comes amidst a large-scale effort by Abbas to gain international recognition of Palestine as an independent state without signing a peace deal with Israel. The United Nations is expected to vote on this issue in September.

Though Palestinian officials maintain that a resolution with Hamas will help them win the UN vote, the reconciliation agreement already is threatening the PA's relationship with Israel and the United States.

"You can't have peace with both Israel and Hamas," warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Choose peace with Israel."

The U.S. administration, for its part, is the largest single donor to the Palestinians, providing more than $470 million a year in direct financial assistance. The U.S. withheld this support when Hamas was part of the Palestinian unity government in 2007 and will likely do so again unless Hamas agrees to renounce violence and recognize Israel. Hamas has so far shown no signs that it is willing to do either.

Hamas is seeking to use this situation as an opportunity to improve its relations with the new Egyptian regime. Egypt mediated the surprise agreement between Hamas and Fatah in a series of secret meetings and both groups are expected to visit Cairo shortly for an official signing. Hamas also is planning to send a senior delegation to visit Cairo, headed by Mousa Abu Marzook, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau. In an effort to bolster relations, the new Egyptian regime has demonstrated a willingness to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, release Palestinians held in Egyptian jails, and consider Hamas' request to allow a representative in Cairo.

Holder Defends Decision to Spare CAIR Official

Attorney General Eric Holder has acknowledged that the Justice Department nixed a request from Dallas prosecutors last year to bring criminal charges against a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) founder.

Omar Ahmad was a key figure in a network of groups called the Palestine Committee which, prosecutors say and government exhibits show, was created to help Hamas politically and financially. The committee's financial arm, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five former officials were indicted in 2004 and convicted in 2008.

Prosecutors then tried to broaden the case, seeking charges against Ahmad and perhaps others last year. But that was shot down in Washington.

Blogger Patrick Poole first reported on the decision earlier this month, citing an anonymous source who said the case was rejected by top-level political appointees in what was "a political decision from the get-go."

The case was indeed rejected, Holder told reporters Tuesday. But the reasons were based on "the facts and the law," he said. He noted that an earlier prosecution request was rejected by the Bush Justice Department for similar reasons.

Dallas Morning News federal court reporter Jason Trahan previously reported that "the age of the Holy Land evidence, much of it gathered in the 1990s (before Hamas was designated as a terrorist entity)," has been a hurdle to broadening the case. The original HLF indictment was issued in 2004. It isn't known whether there is additional, more recent evidence implicating Ahmad, but the bulk of the evidence has aged seven years since the case was brought.

The original HLF trial ended with a hung jury on a majority of counts in 2007. A year later, prosecutors made several key adjustments and won convictions on the remaining 108 counts. (The Investigative Project on Terrorism compiled this report detailing the evidence and testimony about Ahmad's Palestine Committee involvement. An FBI agent testified that he was "a leader within" it.)

The evidence against Ahmad and CAIR prompted the FBI to break off outreach contacts with CAIR in 2008. An FBI official wrote in 2009 that, "until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy acknowledged it would have been better to include Ahmad in the original HLF indictment. "Cases don't get better as they get more stale," he told Politico's Josh Gerstein. But that doesn't mean DOJ made the right decision.

McCarthy believes the determination has as much to do with preserving outreach efforts with American Muslim organizations as anything else. In Poole's original report, his source cited outreach concerns above all others.

"It's kind of hard to prosecute someone on material support for terrorism when you have pictures of them getting handed awards from DOJ and FBI leaders for their supposed counter-terror efforts," Poole's source said. "How would Holder explain that when we're carting off these prominent Islamic leaders in handcuffs for their role in a terror finance conspiracy we've been investigating for years? This is how bad the problem is. Why are we continuing to have anything to do with these groups knowing what we know?"

U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who has written Holder asking for more information about what prompted the decision, issued a statement indicating he found the attorney general's explanation lacking. "He should not be hiding behind the decision of the Bush administration, because that decision was made before the Holy Land Foundation was convicted," King said in a statement to the Main Justice website. Once the Holy Land Foundation was convicted, that would make it easier to get an indictment and conviction of CAIR."

Report Shows al-Qaida Connection Inside Yemen's Government

A recently released Guantanamo Bay intelligence assessment indicates that a member of Yemen's Political Security Organization (PSO) was an active member of al-Qaida and used his government position to transport terrorists around the world.

The leaked report, from Sept. 24, 2008, also contends that Abd al Salam al Hilah, who has been a detainee since 2004, had ties to some of the most high-ranking al-Qaida operatives, including Ayman al Zawahiri. It adds that he "had foreknowledge of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 2000 attack on the UK Embassy in Sanaa ... the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, a planned attack on the US or British Embassy in Sanaa that was to occur in October 2002, and probably the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack."

The PSO is characterized in the file as Yemen's "primary state security apparatus, an independent agency which reports directly to" President Ali Abdullah Saleh. However, according to Hilah, the PSO and Yemeni government are filled with al-Qaida sympathizers "who facilitated the travel of al Qaida members and other extremists by providing false passports and purchasing airline tickets."

Though one analyst dismissed these findings as being part of Yemen's policy of deporting terrorists, Hilah said that PSO members actively supported al-Qaida. These members, along with other high-ranking officials in the Yemeni government, had been providing false documents and safe passage out of Yemen for terrorist operatives since 1996 "under the guise of deportation."

The PSO's deputy chief, direction, transportation commander and another officer were implicated in the intelligence report as al-Qaida accomplices. Additionally, Ali Muhsin, an influential Yemeni general who assisted in President Saleh's rise to power, was said to be aware of these arrangements.

According to the leaked report, Hilah also knew of an alleged meeting between the Yemeni government and al-Qaida in which the two groups conspired to attack American and British targets prior to the American invasion of Iraq. Hilah "has knowledge of an April or May 2002 meeting, where members of the Yemeni parliament met with al-Qaida members to plan retaliatory car bomb attacks on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Headquarters in Brussels…if the US attacked Iraq," the report said.

In the 2008 assessment, Hilah was characterized as a "high risk" detainee. He was also considered to be of "high intelligence value" and wanted for further questioning about 9/11 and the alleged ties between Yemeni government officials and al-Qaida.

Hamas Paper Touts Benefits of Kidnapping Israelis

Israeli security officials warn that Hamas may be planning to abduct more of its soldiers. The warnings follow an article in al-Risalah, the terror group's weekly newspaper, which said Hamas plans "more kidnappings in the near future." According to translated excerpts published by Ynetnews.com, the article said Hamas realized that another kidnapping could lead to a military escalation in Gaza, which may result in the killing of Gilad Shalit. Shalit, an Israeli soldier, was kidnapped by Hamas from southern Israel in a June 25, 2006 cross-border raid from Gaza.

"The resistance is coming closer to conducting another kidnapping," al-Risalah said, adding that this "would create essential pressure that would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel as part of an exchange deal." Israel, it said, "was worried about another kidnapping because such a step would pressure the government to consent to Palestinian demands."The last Hamas abduction took place during Operation Cast Lead, when Hamas members kidnapped an IDF soldier and held him inside an apartment until Israeli forces bombarded the building, killing the abductors and the soldier.

The article appeared to be part of a Hamas psychological warfare campaign aimed at pressuring Israel into agreeing to more concessions (i.e., the release of more imprisoned terrorists) in exchange for Shalit's freedom. A Hamas-affiliated analyst quoted in the article reportedly said that armed factions in Gaza "may at any moment change the equation, instead of talking about a prisoner exchange deal, they could start talking about new kidnappings."

Earlier this month, the Counter Terrorism Bureau warned Israelis to leave Egypt's Sinai Peninsula immediately, citing reports that Bedouin tribes and jihadists were preparing to kidnap Israelis. The warning came less than a week after Israeli Defense Forces announced it had killed members of a Gaza-based terror cell who were planning to kidnap Israelis during Passover.

The Price of Calling Out a "False Martyr"

Newly released American military records show that Canadian al-Qaida operative Omar Khadr provided his interrogators at Guantanamo Bay with valuable information into the terrorist group at least through 2004.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was detained on an Afghan battlefield in 2002 after killing a Special Forces medic with a hand grenade. The report, obtained by Wikileaks and posted by the Globe and Mail, indicates that Khadr's father, "a senior Al-Qaida leader in Canada and close associate of Usama Bin Laden," urged Omar to go to Afghanistan to "translate for Al-Qaida personnel and to participate in Jihad against the United States."

Khadr's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, died in a 2003 gunfight with Pakistani soldiers.

A military tribunal last year sentenced Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison. But, under terms of a plea agreement, he will serve no more than eight years. It sounds like a good deal, and it is. That's why efforts by Khadr's defense attorneys to further reduce his sentence – in part by unjustly trashing a government witness – angered Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

In a lengthy article, Joscelyn shows how the criticism is just plain wrong or based on misleading information. Specifically, he stands up for forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner, who Joscelyn says attorneys blame for their client's lengthy sentence.

The article, "A False Martyr," is named in reference to Khadr's claims of torture while in U.S. custody. They were rejected last year by military judge Patrick J. Parrish, who ruled there was "no credible evidence the accused was ever tortured…even using a liberal interpretation considering the accused's age."

Welner's testimony, defense attorneys argue in a new motion, was "unscientific," and "designed solely to inflame and mislead the jury."

Defense attorneys say that Welner "intimidated" a jury of senior military officers who handed out the 40-year-term, of which, again, he will not serve more than 20 percent. Psychiatrist Marc Sageman further went after Welner in a letter given to defense lawyers. That letter, Joscelyn argues, involved no direct contact with Khadr. Rather, Sageman reviewed a transcript of Welner's interview with Khadr and Welner's subsequent testimony in order "to take potshots at Welner, and not to do any real analysis of his own."

A video and transcript of Welner's interview with Khadr never made it into the court record, though, Joscelyn writes. "The prosecutors haven't even seen them."

Joscelyn pays Sageman back, noting that in 2005, Sageman told a Frontline interviewer that al-Qaida was "operationally dead," having been replaced by a leaderless jihad that didn't need al-Qaida's training and connections.

Subsequent terrorist attacks in London and elsewhere prove that wrong, Joscelyn writes. Even the Fort Hood shooting followed ongoing inspiration and encouragement from al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The lesson, Joscelyn concludes, seems to be that "Anyone who stands in the way of Khadr's complete exoneration deserves to be slimed. The defense team has no compunction about making things up. Marc Sageman was more than happy to join their effort. And so a highly-respected forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, is attacked online."

Read the whole article here.

Four Added to Lashkar Prosecution

Prosecutors in Chicago have added four defendants to a case involving planning for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India that killed 164 people.

The four, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal and a man known only as "Major Iqbal" are charged with conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and with six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India. None of the men added to the case are in custody.

Co-defendant Tahawwur Hussain Rana faces a May 16 trial date. Last year, David Coleman Headley, an American of Pakistani descent, pleaded guilty to charges he helped plan the Mumbai attack by scouting the targets for the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and of scouting a proposed follow-up attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Mir also was charged in connection with the Danish plot.

Headley is expected to be a prosecution witness at Rana's trial. A federal judge has ordered that Rana cannot argue his actions were "an exercise of public authority on behalf of the government of Pakistan" via its intelligence service, the ISI. The Indian government believes the ISI was involved in the plot. In new cables released by Wikileaks, U.S. government officials in 2007 listed the ISI among foreign terrorist groups

Rana is accused of helping facilitate Headley's surveillance missions and of serving as a communications conduit for "Major Iqbal."

For more, see the second superseding indictment here.

Al-Jazeera Director Resigns in Protest of Coverage

The Director of al-Jazeera's Beirut office has resigned citing what he sees as the network's abandonment of objectivity and professionalism in its coverage of the current unrest in the Middle East.

Ghassan Bin Jeddo, a well-known presenter and journalist for the Qatar-based TV channel, confirmed a report published in the Arabic language Lebanese daily al-Safir that he was leaving al-Jazeera. Bin Jeddo's statements explaining his resignation could not be independently confirmed, but according to "reliable sources" quoted in al-Safir, Bin Jeddo accused al-Jazeera of being "an operation room for incitement and mobilization."

Al-Safir added that bin Jeddo's decision was a response to the network's "provocative policy" that he considers "unacceptable, particularly in light of the historic stage the region is passing through." Al-Safir emphasized that Bin Jeddo resigned on moral grounds since al-Jazeera covered extensively the events in Libya, Yemen, and Syria, but not Bahrain.

Bin Jeddo was banned from Syria for a year and a half in 2005 following the assassination of the country's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. The reason for the ban was that Bin Jeddo was "an advocate of reform and freedom in that country."

Asked if Bin Jeddo's resignation was the result of al-Jazeera's policy on covering the protests in Syria, which it ignored for the first few weeks, a source told al-Safir that "It's [Bin Jeddo's resignation] is an issue of principle and morality for him."

State-run Syrian TV channel Alikhbariya reported that Bin Jeddo has made it clear that "there is no coming back from this decision."

Egyptian Army Jails Dissident Blogger

An Egyptian blogger is being called the "first prisoner of conscience after the revolution" after being sentenced to three years in prison for "insulting the military establishment" and "spreading false information."

Maikel Nabil Sanad was sentenced last week by Egypt's ruling military council following a hasty trial at which he was denied legal representation.

Sanad is a 25-year-old unemployed veterinarian from the Egyptian city of Asyut. He is an atheist of Coptic origin, a pacifist and staunchly pro-Israel. His blog, "Son of Ra," reflected these viewpoints, but his arrest allegedly was based on his posts about the military's abuse of protestors and torture of detainees during the anti-Mubarak uprising. Ironically, this information was already released by human rights groups like Amnesty International.

After refusing his obligatory military service in October, Sanad gave an interview in which he explained his pro-Israel stance. "From a young age, I read a lot about the Israeli-Arab conflict. I understood the Arab media hid facts that support Israel," he said. "Many Arabs living in Israel told me how they are really treated and how they prefer living in Israel over any Arab state."

Labeled a Zionist by Islamist and mainstream media outlets, Sanad was also criticized as a traitor and a heretic for his comments denouncing the Egyptian military. Sanad has argued that the Egyptian military leadership is as responsible for the country's troubles as was the Mubarak regime. He predicted that the army would be just as violent in subduing the anti-government protests as Mubarak.

Randa al Tahawy, an Egyptian journalist and blogger who focuses on women's issues, sees a troubling precedent in Sanad's arrest. "It's a step backward from what we're trying to achieve and that's freedom and democracy," she said.

Though Sanad was imprisoned for his comments on the military, his followers believe that his pro-Israel statements played a role. "Contrary to what most people think, that Maikel's imprisonment has nothing to do with his last article about Israel, I think that it was a great excuse for his imprisonment," wrote a friend of Sanad who blogs under the name Kefaya Punk. "It is becoming strikingly clear that our militarist leaders don't want any normalization or peace activism with Israel."

Sanad "represents a small but growing part of the blogging community – pro-secular, pro-Western and even pro-Israel," said David Keyes, executive director of Advancing Human Rights and cofounder of CyberDissidents.org. "He is attractive to many because he is utterly fearless: a staunch liberal in a deeply conservative society and a fierce critic of the military, an institution not known for its openness to alternative views."

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