UK Commission Rules on Charity's Terror Ties

The United Kingdom's Charity Commission has denied what is calls "public allegations" that a London-based charity, which has funded Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad through another charity, has links to terrorist groups, according to a report the commission released Friday.

The Commission found that the charity in question, Muslim Aid, provided thousands of pounds to the Al-Ihsan Charitable Society in 2002 and 2003. The Society was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Treasury in May 2005, and designated by the UK in June 2005. Although Muslim Aid "set aside" £13,998 for the Society in March 2005, "these were not subsequently paid," and, as a result, Muslim Aid "had not illegally funded the Al-Ihsan Charitable Society." Payments made to the charity by Muslim Aid prior to its UK designation date were determined to be inconsequential.

Al-Ihsan Charitable Society has documented links to the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Under Secretary of Treasury Stuart Levey told a 2005 Senate hearing. "The Elehssan Society [Al-Ihsan Charitable Society] served as the fund-raising arm of PIJ in Gaza and the West Bank and distributed funds to the families of PIJ prisoners and suicide bombers," Levey said.

Britain's Charity Commission, however, did not adequately investigate other allegations against Muslim Aid, including documented information that the group funneled money to six organizations linked to Hamas since July 2009, according to a column by Andrew Gilligan in London's The Telegraph Friday. Two of those groups are The Islamic Society and the Islamic Centre of Gaza, which were both named part of Hamas' "social infrastructure" and unindicted co-conspirators during the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development trial.

Gilligan noted that Muslim Aid is a member of the Union of the Good, designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2008 as an "organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization."

Additionally, Muslim Aid is tied to the pro-Hamas Islamic Forum of Europe and the East London Mosque (ELM), and is located on their premises. According to Gilligan, Muslim Aid paid at least £555,000 to the ELM and £40,000 to the ELM's school, the London East Academy.

The UK Charity's Commission clearance of Muslim Aid is not the first time the commission has dismissed a group's ties to terrorist organizations. The commission has repeatedly cleared the UK Charity Interpal of supporting Hamas. Interpal was designated by the U.S. Treasury for its support to Hamas in 2003. The Commission also cleared the UK-based organization Viva Palestina for its support of Hamas in March of this year. Viva Palestina, under the leadership of former British MP George Galloway, has delivered millions of dollars to the Hamas regime in Gaza since its first convoy to region in March 2009.

Jihad Threats and Attacks in the Christmas Season

The affair of Camilia Shehata, a Egyptian Christian woman allegedly being held against her will by the Church after converting to Islam, is at the center of a series of threats and attacks by jihadis during the Christmas season. MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor noted calls to violence and an upsurge in killings directed at Christian minorities in the Middle East, such as the Copts and Iraqi churches, and Christians in the West.

Participants on jihadist forums outlined attacks against the West. Yaman Mukhadab of Shumukh Al-Islam forum, advised Muslims to strike America's "soft-belly" during the holiday by sabotaging the electrical grid through hacking attacks into their SCADA [Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition] systems through the Internet. Another idea was to flood the security services with false threats to create confusion. On the same blog, "Ayman 435" posted a manual for making homemade bombs and outlined a target list of Coptic churches in the United States, Australia, and Europe.

Syrian iihadi cleric Abu Baseer [Basir] at-Tartousi called on Muslims to "break down the doors of the churches and search them one by one – even if this means you must trample the course of the [Coptic Patriarch,] the wicked Shenouda… and of the other wicked bishops and priests the abductors of women. This is no crime, Allah willing, but a religious duty." Mauritanian cleric Abu Al-Mindhir Al-Shinqiti stated: "In principle, the killing of those [Egyptian] Christians…is permissible…," while Gazan sheikh Abu Walid Al-Maqdisi, head of the Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad organization, stated that Christians living in Islamic countries no longer enjoy dhimmi status, i.e., are not entitled to protection and are legitimate targets.

In Egypt, the Global Jihad Media Front issued its 37^th edition of its e-journal Sawt Al-Jihad, mostly dedicated to the affair. In one article, author Abu Abdullah Anis portrayed Copts as agents planted in the heart of the Muslim world by the global Crusade, who were controlling Egypt's politics, economy, and cultural life. The article also accused Copts of collaborating with Israel and with a future U.S. attempt to invade Egypt.

Al-Qaida-affiliated organizations responded to the calls for violence. The Islamic State of Iraq, an organization known for carryout large suicide bombings, attacked the Our Lady of the Salvation Church in Baghdad, killing 52 people and injuring dozens. The group released a statement afterwards, which described the Baghdad church as "a corrupt den of polytheism" that has "long been used by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for the battle against Islam." The group issued an ultimatum to the Coptic church in Egypt, giving it 48 hours to release Shehata, otherwise the Egyptian Christians and their religious facilities and organizations would become legitimate targets for the mujahideen. The Islamic State of Iraq has also been implicated in a plot to bomb Western targets during the Christmas season, one which may have begun with Sweden's first suicide bombing on December 11^th.

Other jihadist leaders also legitimized the attack, including Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad's leader, Sheikh Nasser Al-Din Al-Baghdadi, who ruled that Christians were legitimate targets because of their "war on Islam and Muslims."

British Muslim Converts Killed in Airstrike

An American drone strike in Pakistan has killed two al-Qaida-linked Muslim converts from Britain. It appears to be the result of a growing phenomenon of Western Muslims going to fight in Pakistani terrorist organizations.

The British Muslim converts, Caucasians going by their noms de guerre Abu Bakr and Mansoor Ahmed, were killed in Data Khel in the al-Qaida stronghold North Waziristan province, British media reports indicate. A local official in the town of Data Khel claimed that the pair's given names Stephen and Dearsmith. The strike occurred in the same region where another British Muslim and terrorist leader, Abdul Jabbar, was killed by an October 2010 airstrike.

Americans have also joined the Pakistani jihad. Al-Qaida's English-language voice in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Adam Gadahn, was a Caucasian Muslim convert from California. In March 2010, Pakistani officials reporting capturing Gadahn, but it turned out to be Abu Yahya Mujahideen al-Adam, allegedly a Pennsylvania native linked to al-Qaida's Afghan combat operations.

Waziristan is also said to the location of a small village of German converts, battling alongside local terrorist organizations as "some of the insurgents' most dedicated fighters."

MPAC Slams Plan to Investigate Homegrown Radicalization

The incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., plans to investigate the radicalization of American Muslims next year. "When I meet with law enforcement, they are constantly telling me how little cooperation they get from Muslim leaders," King said.

He pointed to the case of Najibullah Zazi, a legal resident of the United States, who was arrested in September 2009 in conjunction with an al-Qaida plot to attack Manhattan subway lines.

Attorney General Eric Holder called the plan, which involved the use of at least a dozen small backpack bombs to hit the subway, "one of the most serious threats to our nation since September 11^th, 2001." Zazi, who pled guilty to terror charges in connection with the plot and faces a life sentence, admitted to training with al Qaida in Pakistan and discussing attacks on subway trains with leaders of the group.

While investigating Zazi, King noted, New York Police Department detectives spoke with Ahmad Wais Afzali, an imam in Queens who had been an NYPD informant in the past. Afzali contacted Zazi the following day to inform him that the police were asking questions. As a result, authorities who had been recording Zazi's conversations were forced to hastily conduct raids to prevent suspects from fleeing and destroying evidence.

A week later, Afzali lied in an interview with members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force, saying he had not told Zazi that the authorities had approached him. In April, Afzali pled guilty to lying to federal agents and subsequently left the United States to avoid deportation.

Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), attacked King's plans to investigate the radicalization problem. King "basically wants to treat the Muslim-American community as a suspect community," he said.

King was potentially undermining the relationship that Muslim leaders had sought to build with law enforcement around the country, al-Marayati told the New York Times. Read here about how MPAC and al-Marayati have exaggerated the extent of the Muslim community's assistance to law enforcement.

Terrorists Target Americans Abroad As Concerns Mount Over Domestic Attacks

Yemeni authorities in Sana'a prevented a bomb attack on a car carrying four U.S. Embassy personnel, the U.S. State Department reported Thursday.

On Wednesday, police caught a Jordanian citizen as he attempted to plant explosives next to the car, which was stopped near a pizza restaurant frequented by Westerners. No one was injured. The attacker was carrying fake papers and had weapons in his car. Yemeni police are trying to determine whether the man has any links to al-Qaida.

In Pakistan, another U.S. public official serving abroad saw himself caught in a dangerous situation this week. Islamabad's C.I.A. station chief left the country Thursday, after his life was threatened when a document revealing his name was made public as part of a lawsuit over alleged U.S. drone attacks. The C.I.A. official served in an important undercover role, managing the use of drones against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan.

The threats against the chief "were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act," an unnamed U.S. official said.

Back in the United States, law enforcement is ramping up domestic security measures, including implementing random baggage checks for passengers boarding the D.C. Metro. A joint FBI and Homeland Security bulletin issued Wednesday warned that "terrorists may seek to exploit the likely significant psychological impact of an attack targeting mass gathering in large metropolitan areas during the 2010 holiday season." However, the bulletin noted that "the timing of a terrorist attack" is determined more by the "terrorists' readiness to execute an attack rather than a desire to attack on a specific date."

The bulletin mentioned other plots for law enforcement to consider in trying to prevent holiday season attacks. Last year, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to set off a bomb on board a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. The Yemeni-based al-Qaida group, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed credit for the attack. Last month, Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested after an FBI sting operation ended in the Somali man's attempted bombing of a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon.

The bulletin comes after Iraqi authorities announced Wednesday that captured insurgents confessed al-Qaida is planning attacks around Christmas-time in the United States. The advisory did not mention the insurgents' claims.

D.C. Metro to Conduct Random Searches

In the wake of two recent bomb plots targeting the D.C. Metro, authorities have announced they will begin conducting random inspections of carry-on items.

Using explosive screening chemicals and K-9 units, Metro Transit police will randomly select bags or packages to check for hazardous materials. The random searches, which will be conducted throughout the region's 86 rail stations and 12,000 bus stops "will increase visible methods of protecting our passengers and employees, while minimizing inconvenience to riders," MTPD Chief Michael A. Taborn explained.

Customers can refuse to enter a station if they don't want to be screened, and they can also refuse to have their packages searched. In either case, the passenger will not be allowed to bring those bags into the Metro system. Similar programs are already in place in New York and Boston, and have been upheld by federal judges as constitutional.

Each of these programs was put into place in recognition of the threat posed to the American rail and bus infrastructure. In October, authorities arrested Farooque Ahmed, a 34 year old Virginia man who plotted to bomb the DC Metro. On Monday, authorities arrested another Virginia man, Awais Younis, and charged him with threatening to bomb the D.C. subway system.

With reports that al Qaida is preparing a series of attacks on Western targets, especially in the United States, during the Christmas season, it's important to consider ways to protect these soft targets. The March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings provide a sense of what a successful attack could look like, killing nearly 200 people and wounding almost 2,000. As Ray Locker, the IPT's Managing Director recently explained, "if you want to paralyze a city or kill a lot of people, a major public transportation system is where you would go."

Following the thwarted attack earlier this year by Ahmed, the head of TSA John Pistole raised the issue of increased security to trains and busses during a press conference. "Given the threats on subways and rails over the last six years, going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there's not the type of security that you find in aviation."

Metro announced similar plans for random searches two years ago, but the program was never implemented amid a resulting controversy. The Washington Post is reporting that customers are unhappy about the possible inconvenience of the screening.

Israeli Intel Reports Financial Crisis in Hizballah

Israeli intelligence sources indicate a serious financial crisis is brewing for Hizballah, with the Jerusalem Report reporting that Iran has cut aid to the group by 40%. The cutbacks are a result of international economic sanctions against Iran and have caused created a row between Hizballah and its patron.

Iran is Hizballah's primary funder and arms source, with upwards of $1 billion in direct military aid flowing to the group in recent years. Much of this aid is used to purchase advanced weaponry, establish and maintain military posts, and pay and train its operatives, the Post reported. Other financial sources for the organization include Lebanon's Beka'a Valley drug trade, tithes paid by wealthy Shia, and overseas criminal activities, such as a North Carolinian cigarette smuggling operation busted in 2002.

Despite the cutback, Iran tried to give a boost to Hizballah in October when President Ahmadinejad visited Lebanon. "In Lebanon Iran wants what the Lebanese people want: That it be an independent and sovereign people, present in the regional balance. There is no other Iranian project," Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah told audiences during the visit. "In my [position of] responsibility in Hezbollah, I bear witness before you that Iran, which has always supported us and still does, has never demanded of me that I take a [particular] stance. It has never issued a command and never expected thanks from us, although we take pride in our deep faith in the guardianship of the just, wise, and courageous jurisprudent."

Hizballah is also under pressure from the impending publication of the first round of indictments by the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is expected to name Hizballah officials as responsible for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hizballah has promised a "new era for resistance" unless the Lebanese government shuns the tribunal's findings.

JFK Bomb Plotter Sentenced to Life

A leader of a homegrown terror cell plotting an attack that would be "bigger than the World Trade Center" was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. A federal judge rejected the pleas of leniency from Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament and the man who plotted to blow up fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International airport.

Kadir is an engineer with ties militant groups in Iran and Venezuela, prosecutors say. He linked the conspirators to experienced terrorists and provided explosives advice, a Department of Justice statement said. Kadir was arrested in Trinidad aboard a plane headed to Venezuala, en route to Iran.

Together, the men performed physical surveillance, made video recordings of JFK, and conducted additional reconnaissance on the Internet in preparation for the attack. "Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," ringleader Russell Defreitas reportedly told the other conspirators. "To hit John John F. Kennedy, wow. They love John F. Kennedy like he's the man. If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice."

DeFreitas also was convicted with Kadir on August 2, 2010, but has not yet been sentenced.

The men were charged in a 2007 criminal complaint with plotting to blow up fuel tanks at JFK and the underground pipelines that run through an adjacent Queens neighborhood. The thwarted attack was "one of the most chilling plots imaginable," U.S. Attorney Roslyn R. Mauskopf said following the arrests. "The devastation that would have been caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable."

The members of the plot also tried to win support from prominent international terrorist groups and leaders, as well as the government of Iran, including Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidadian militant group Jamaat al-Muslimeen, and Adnan el-Shukrijumah, an al-Qaida leader.

Wikileaks: Spain a Center of Radical Islamic Activity

An October 2, 2007 cable to American intelligence agencies called for increased U.S. and Spanish cooperation "in combating the target-rich environment of terrorist and criminal activities centered in the region." Spanish government officials told their U.S. counterparts that "they fear the threat from these atomized immigrant communities prone to radicalism, but they have very little intelligence on or ability to penetrate these groups."

The document, "Spain/CT: Proposal to Create a Southern European Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism, and Regional Intelligence Hub in Barcelona," is among tens of thousands of sensitive government transmissions released by Wikileaks. It called for establishment of a counterterrorism center in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Located in Barcelona, the facility would monitor threats that included a "large Muslim population susceptible to Jihadist recruitment."

The center would be designed to "confront the terrorist threat in all its aspects." This would include combating "the links between terrorist networks and criminals involved in the contraband of goods, drug trafficking, money laundering, human smuggling, and document falsification."

It's not clear whether the center was ever created, the Associated Press reported.

The document also lays out the importance of Spain in global counterterrorism incidents. "Spain is a past and current al-Qaeda target and a critical player in US-EU counterterrorism efforts, due to its close proximity to the Maghreb and the presence of over 1 million Muslims."

New Charges Against Christmas Bomber

New details emerged today as a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the failed Christmas Day bomber.

Following his failed attempt, Abdulmutallab was subdued by other passengers and turned over to law enforcement officials in Detroit. He was charged with six counts, including attempted murder and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

After the first indictment was unsealed, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade said "the attempted murder of 289 innocent people merits the most serious charges available, and that's what we have charged in this indictment." In court records unsealed on Wednesday, prosecutors added charges of conspiring to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and of using a destructive device, both counts in reference to the bomb Abdulmutallab had hidden in his underpants. Prosecutors also revealed that Abdulmutallab practiced detonating similar explosive devices in the lead up to the failed Christmas attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

On September 13, during a preliminary hearing, Abdulmutallab fired his attorneys and asked the judge how he could plead guilty. He has yet to do so and a trial date has not yet been set.

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