Terrorists May Be Using Online Tracking to Time Attacks

U.S. intelligence officials believe packages intercepted in September with books and other items shipped from Yemen may have been part of last week's plot to send bombs in airline cargo shipments, the New York Times reports.

Such air freight shipments have hour-by-hour tracking, leading to speculation the September packages "may have been used to plan the route and timing for two printer cartridges packed with explosives that were sent from Yemen and intercepted in Britain and Dubai on Friday," the newspaper reports.

Officials learned about the packages and searched them in September, allowing their delivery after finding no explosives or terrorist connections. The package bombs discovered last week were intercepted after a tip from Saudi intelligence officials.

When they learned of the packages being shipped on airplanes, U.S. intelligence officials remembered the September shipment, which now is viewed as a test run. "Both events reflect solid intelligence work," an unnamed intelligence official told the Times.

Yemen reportedly has stepped up efforts to find Ibrahim al-Asiri, who is considered by law enforcement and intelligence officials to be the main bomb maker for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the mastermind of the recent plot. On Monday, the Investigative Project on Terrorism unearthed video of Asiri saying farewell to his brother last year before sending him on a suicide mission targeting the Saudi prince in charge of counter terrorism.

Hamas Official Comes Cleaner on Gaza Toll

To hear Hamas officials tell it, nearly every casualty in Israel's 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead was an innocent civilian. Nearly two years later, the group's interior minister acknowledges Hamas lost hundreds of fighters.

In an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat, Fathi Hamad said 250 Hamas fighters died in the three-week conflict, and another 150 "security personnel" were killed, too. Just after the fighting ended, Hamas claimed no more than 50 of its people were among the 1,300 casualties.

Israeli officials reported nearly half of those killed in the fighting were tied to Hamas or other terrorist groups.

Israel launched Cast Lead to stop missile fire from Hamas and other terrorist groups that targeted civilian communities. The fighting exposed how Hamas used schools, mosques, apartments and other areas to both store weapons and launch missile attacks.

Hamad is unapologetic about placing innocents in harm's way and for reports of human rights abuses by Hamas security forces in Gaza, the Jerusalem Post reports. "We are not a society of angels," he said, adding, "We seek to advance the institutions and training, we are keen on the prestige of the police and their enforcement of the law. At the same time, we need to preserve the dignity of the citizen."

Quieting Talk of Offensive Jihad

A report issued by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) in September shed light on a new approach in the discourse about jihad. Saudi writer Khaled Al-'Ghanami wrote an op-ed in the al-Watan newspaper and 'Abdallah Al-Naggar wrote one in the Egyptian al-Gomhouriyya that call for suppression of calls to violent jihad. They both recognize the emphasis that violent jihad gets in discussions on Islam is a factor that creates hostility from the West. The constant focus of this aspect of Islam causes what they see as the sole undefeatable issue between the Muslim world and the West.

Raymond Ibrahim, associate director of the Middle East Forum and author of The Al Qaeda Reader, assessed these op-eds as a call to Muslims to quell their talk of offensive jihad for the time being so that they can more easily coexist with the West. Otherwise, the Muslim world will be plagued by constant intervention from the West. The authors aren't advocating that the concept of offensive jihad be abandoned, Ibrahim notes, only that discussions of it should be minimized because it hinders the advancement of the Muslim world. As Ibrahim writes, to do so would violate Islamic law:

"These writers are insightful enough to understand that Islam's imperative for Muslims to wage offensive jihad is the one insurmountable obstacle for peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. Best not to keep reminding the infidel world, then."

Al-'Ghanami and Al-Naggar therefore, aren't seeking more peace and co-existence. Rather, Ibrahim writes, it's a cynical call to bide time until circumstances are more favorable.

RCMP Ordered Away from Radical Conference

Canada's public safety minister has ordered members of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) community outreach unit not to attend a conference in Ottawa today featuring Iranian professors closely tied to the Islamic Republic's regime.

"Let me be clear," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, "Canada's national police force must have no involvement in any event organized by those who promote extremism and hatred."

Until Toews spoke up, the Toronto Sun reports, "the RCMP's 'ethnic liaison office' was promoting the event to members of the national force and one of the participants is a member of the Mounties' cultural diversity committee."

The "Just and Sustainable Peace" conference is organized by four members of Canada's Green Party. One of the four, a physician named Qais Ghanem, is part of "Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth" and has argued the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" by the American government. The roster was considered so extreme, it even drew a rebuke from the Green Party leader.

The event's moderator, Zijad Delic, was disinvited from speaking at Canada's National Defence headquarters earlier this month after it was determined his views were too radical.

In an article Wednesday in Point de Bascule, Marc Lebuis argues the episode exposes a problem that is bigger than one conference:

"Disturbing aspects of certain RCMP Community Outreach initiatives invite questions about whether the unit has drifted away from fulfilling its counter-radicalization mandate. The RCMP could now be perceived as catering to Islamists by pressing upon its affiliated community members an event with troubling implications and connections."

A government sanctioning of the event, which appeared likely before Toews' order, upset Muslim opponents of the Iranian regime. Attorney Sayeh Hassan expressed concern that the organizers were giving a platform to advocate for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"People like myself that have escaped the regime and the propaganda are concerned that now they're bringing these professors promoting the regime to Ottawa," he said.

U.S. Designates Afghan NarcoTerrorists

The U.S. Treasury has designated two Afghan drug traffickers as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for providing financial and logistical support to Taliban insurgents. The men, Haji Agha Jan Alizai and Saleh Mohammad Kakar, ran organized networks that coordinated actions with Taliban militants.

Alizai ran one of the largest drug trafficking networks in Helmand province. The drug operation, which received protection from the Taliban, reportedly provided funds, shelter, and transportation to insurgents in the region. Alizai personally purchased weapons for the Taliban, traveled to Pakistan to meet with senior Taliban leaders, and facilitated the procurement of fraudulent passports for Taliban members.

Kakar's drug network, which operated in Kandahar and Helmand, included heroin processing labs that were protected by the Taliban. He also collected, managed, and hid money belonging to senior Taliban leaders, and was responsible for facilitating the payment of protection "taxes." Kakar also reportedly provided the Taliban with vehicles for use in suicide attacks from a car dealership that he owned.

Cooperation between drug traffickers and terrorist organizations is not new. We previously reported on a connection between al Shabaab militants and narco traffickers in Somalia. Explaining the move, the Treasury said "today's action is aimed at further disrupting the financial networks of these individuals who are fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan."

Former Staten Island Resident Nabbed in Attempt to Join Taliban

A federal criminal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn Monday charges Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, a former resident of Staten Island living in Hawaii, with lying about a failed attempt to travel to Pakistan to wage jihad with the Taliban.

In mid-2008, Shehadeh, then a resident of Staten Island, flew on a one-way ticket from New York's Kennedy airport to Islamabad in Pakistan. He told U.S. authorities during an interview before boarding the flight that he was traveling to Pakistan to attend a madrassa, or an Islamic school. But he was sent back to the U.S. after Pakistani officials refused to grant him entry.

Later, when questioned by FBI agents and NYPD detectives about the purpose of his trip, Shehadeh lied and said he had gone to visit an Islamic university and attend a friend's wedding. He subsequently admitted to federal agents that the true purpose of his trip to Pakistan was to join the Taliban. Once there, he expected to receive training in "guerilla warfare" and "bomb-making" with the terrorist group. Shehadeh also confessed to authorities that he considered al Qaida and the Taliban to be "one and the same," and he wanted "to do whatever was necessary to drive the United States out of Muslim lands."

Shehadeh had been under investigation along with several other individuals in connection with a plot to wage violent jihad against the U.S. and coalition military forces, the complaint said.

In meetings with FBI agents Shehadeh described the radicalization process for young Muslims in the United States. He believed if he died a martyr in Pakistan he would receive 72 virgins as a reward. Shehadeh also operated several websites under the alias "Abdul-Qasim" that were dedicated to spreading violent jihadist ideology. The websites included speeches from top al Qaida leaders such as Abu Yahya al-Libi and Ayman al-Zawahiri. One of the websites contained a video of Osama bin Laden called "To the Peoples of the West." The site also included a link to Yemeni-based al Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's website that supports violent jihad against the U.S. and its allies. According to the complaint, Shehadeh also attempted to recruit another person to wage jihad after the two discussed a sermon by Awlaki.

Several weeks after Shehadeh botched attempt to join the Taliban in Pakistan, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army at a recruitment station in Times Square. Shehadeh's application was denied when it was discovered that he had concealed his trip to Pakistan.

If convicted of lying about a failed attempt to join the Taliban, Shehadeh faces a maximum of eight years in prison.

The complaint can be found here.

Bank of China May Pay for Terror Financing

A federal judge has ruled that the Bank of China may be held financially responsible for the death of a U.S. citizen killed in a 2006 suicide bombing undertaken by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The case, Wultz v. Islamic Republic of Iran, was brought in Washington, DC by the parents of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old from South Florida who was visiting Israel four years ago when he was killed in a PIJ attack. According to the complaint, officials from the Bank of China ignored warnings by senior Israeli officials that a senior officer of the PIJ, Said al-Shurafa, maintained accounts at the institution.

Between 2003 and the April 17, 2006 attack, the Bank of China reportedly "executed dozens of dollar wire transfers for the PIJ, totaling several million dollars." The transfers, which were allegedly initiated by PIJ leadership in Iran and Syria, were executed by and through BOC's branches in the United States, and were used "for the purpose of planning, preparing for, and executing terrorist attacks."

The bank had asked that the case be dismissed, arguing, among other things, that al-Shurafa was not designated as a member of a terrorist organization, and that the bank did not knowingly provide financial support to a terrorist organization. As with other similarly situated banks, BOC protested that it merely engaged in "the routine provision of banking facilities."

In rejecting these claims and allowing the suit to move forward, Judge Royce Lamberth emphasized that a financial institution could be held liable merely for receiving and transmitting the funds of a Foreign Terrorist Organization. "Even the provision of basic banking services," can qualify as material support to a terrorist group.

Applying this rule, the court explained that the Bank of China knew that PIJ was a terrorist organization, the institution allowed the members of the terrorist group to maintain accounts, and the money in those accounts facilitated acts of terrorism, including the Tel Aviv bombing which killed Wultz. Had the bank followed the law and denied PIJ militants access to its institution, "the ability of PIJ to conduct banking activities would be severely restricted, and PIJ's ability to plan, to prepare, and to carry out terrorist attacks would be significantly reduced."

This ruling is the most recent in a line of cases seeking to cut off funding to terrorism by going after the financial institutions that serve as intermediaries and knowing participants in terrorist financing. Commenting on the ruling, Robert Tolchin, the attorney for the plaintiffs, explained "the lifeblood of terrorism is money. You can't shoot missiles if you can't get money to buy them…Judge Lamberth has taken a significant bite out of that process by allowing this case to proceed."

Gitmo Trial Ends in Guilty Plea

The youngest detainee held at Guantanamo Bay has pled guilty to killing an American soldier while he was a young teenager as part of a deal that would allow him to avoid a military trial.

Omar Khadr was 15 when he threw a grenade in an Afghanistan firefight that killed an American soldier. After his capture and eight years of legal wrangling, the Obama administration was set to begin a military trial at Guantanamo.

Last week, a military judge postponed the trial in order to allow time for the attorneys to negotiate a plea deal. Now, Khadr has pled guilty to five charges, including murder. The guilty plea makes Khadr the fifth person to be convicted in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

The details of the plea deal were not immediately available, but Khadr is due to be sentenced by a military jury in several days. He is expected to be repatriated to Canada after serving a year of his sentence.

Congressman Calls on YouTube to Pull Jihadi Videos

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has called on YouTube to make terrorist propaganda videos less accessible, particularly those of Anwar al-Awlaki, dubbed the "bin Laden of the Internet."

"We are facilitating the recruitment of homegrown terror," Weiner, D-NY, warned in a letter dated Sunday to YouTube CEO Chad Hurley. "There is no reason we should give killers like al-Awlaki access to one of the world's largest bully pulpits so they can inspire more violent acts within our borders, or anywhere else in the world"

Awlaki, a designated terrorist, has become a potent threat to the United States. As Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey recently explained "he has involved himself in every aspect of the supply chain of terrorism—fundraising for terrorist groups, recruiting and training operatives, and planning and ordering attacks on innocents."

While he was living in the United States, Awlaki served as an Imam with the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami in San Diego and Dar al-Hijrah in Fairfax, Virginia. As an IPT analysis of Awlaki's lectures during that time revealed, the man whose name is now synonymous with terrorism "first demonstrated a concerning radicalism over a decade ago."

Since taking a leadership role in AQAP in Yemen, joint American and Yemeni efforts, have pushed al-Awlaki underground, forcing him to rely upon the Internet to spread his hateful message and incite others to follow in the footsteps of Nidal Hassan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and Faisal Shahzad. In one such video interview released May 23, 2010, Awlaki stated:

"my message to the Muslims in general, and to those in the Arabian Peninsula in particular is that we should participate in this Jihad against America…No one should even ask us about targeting a bunch of Americans who would have been killed in an airplane. Our unsettled account with America includes, at the very least, one million women and children. I'm not even talking about the men. Our unsettled account with America, in women and children alone, has exceeded one million. Those who would have been killed in the plane are a drop in the ocean."

Despite the free speech concerns, Weiner urged Hurley to pull hundreds of videos of Awlaki. "al-Awlaki's message, promoted via YouTube, has caused violence and is a threat to American security."

Richard Clarke on Cyber-Threats

"In the age of cyberspace, an Iranian cyber-force could attack within the United States from Tehran" without reliance on Hizballah, said former national security official Richard Clarke in a speech Friday.

Having co-authored "Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to do About It," with Robert K. Knake, Clarke presented a grim picture of the national security threats facing the United States from the open Internet. Speaking before a packed room at the Army-Navy Club in Washington, Clark discussed three evolving threats: cyber-crime, cyber-espionage, and cyber-war; and how they are all intertwined.

The expansion of the Internet has created "cyber-crime sanctuary countries," based largely in Eastern Europe, from which criminals have raked in billions of dollars. Clarke suggests that more can and should be done to combat this threat, arguing that global enforcement and sanctions may be necessary to curb the expansion of this threat.

Similar to the way that the Internet has expanded criminal enterprises, it has revolutionized espionage. Unlike during the Cold War, Clarke explained, there is a very favorable risk-to-reward ratio for cyber-espionage. Only by recognizing this threat, and understanding that massive amounts of information are being made publicly available to our enemies, can the United States begin to craft an effective counter-espionage policy for the 21^st century.

Finally, Clarke discussed cyber-war, which he described as being only a "few keystrokes away" from cyber-espionage. As seen in Estonia in 2007 and Georgia in 2008, nation-states already have the capability to launch large scale attacks against foreign military and civilian infrastructures.

The most recent STUXNET virus plaguing the Iranian nuclear program is another demonstration of the drastic impact that cyber-war can have on infrastructure.

Recognizing this threat, Clarke argued that the United States needs to ramp up its defensive capabilities to be on par with its already world-class offensive cyber-war capabilities. First and foremost in this effort, the United States needs to focus resources and policy on protecting private companies running critical infrastructure: power plants, trains, pipelines, etc.

This past week the Department of Defense announced that it is expanding cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security to protect companies located within the "defense industrial base."

But this is not enough, says Clarke. Government policy must look beyond agency-specific territorial concerns—instead focusing on our nationwide domestic security interests.

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