ABC: Al Qaeda Dealt Major Blow by Pakistani Military

Al Qaeda's continued use of Pakistan as a safe-haven was dealt a major blow this week by the Pakistani military. As ABC reported, the Pakistani military has shut down a network of 150 tunnels and caves in Damadola, a town near the Afghan-Pakistan border.

In the past, we have highlighted the developing threat posed by al Qaeda safe-havens in Pakistan:

"Pakistan has been described as the epicenter of terrorism in light of the proliferation of Islamic terrorist groups beyond their traditional tribal bases into the Pakistani heartland in an unstable, nuclear-armed nation. Since the Taliban's downfall in Afghanistan in 2001 the lawless tribal areas in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan have become host to al Qaeda's core leadership. Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have penetrated the Pakistani heartland and revived the insurgency in southern Afghanistan."

While the threat remains, the actions taken by Pakistan are demonstrative of a renewed commitment to counter-terrorism cooperation. An interesting footnote to this story is that local villagers contacted the Pakistani army and directed them to the hideout which is believed to have once housed al Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri. Thanks to this increased cooperation from locals, al Qaeda has now been deprived of a substantial arsenal that was being stored at the facility including guns and ammunition, bazookas, artillery shells, rocket propelled grenades, mines, and stolen U.S. army uniforms.

British Islamic Scholar Condemns Suicide Attacks

One of Great Britain's leading Muslim scholars announced Tuesday that he is issuing a religious ruling (fatwa) condemning terrorism and suicide bombings. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a leading scholar of Sufism (an Islamic tradition focused on peace and tolerance) unequivocally denounced violence before an audience that included British Muslims, members of Parliament, clergy, police and other security officials.

Qadri, author of more than 300 books on Islam, said suicide bombings can never be considered genuine "martyrdom operations" and their perpetrators are not "heroes of the Muslim Umma (nation)."

"No, they become heroes of hellfire and their act is never, ever to be considered jihad," Qadri said. "Whatever those terrorists are doing, it's not martyrdom."

Qadri said his fatwa outlaws suicide bombings "without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions." The Quilliam Foundation, the British research organization that sponsored Qadri's speech, called his fatwa "arguably the most comprehensive theological refutation of Islamist terrorism to date."

Qadri, a native of Pakistan, said he decided to issue the fatwa in response to reports on the radicalization of British Muslims - many of Pakistani descent - on university campuses. He said he was also troubled by the failure of Muslim clerics and scholars to condemn radicalism.

American Islamist organizations have issued their own fatwa, yet they cannot bring themselves to condemn those who orchestrate violence Qadri calls unjustifiable. If their fatwa is sincere, they should have no difficulty embracing the more sweeping repudiation unveiled Tuesday.

PATRIOT Act Renewed Despite Controversial Provisions

After months of legislative wrangling, President Obama has signed a reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act into law. Had the government failed to act, a number of key provisions of the nation's counter-terrorism law would have expired on Sunday night at midnight. Instead, they have been extended for a year.

The reauthorization was enacted following Senate passage of the bill and a House vote 315 to 97 in favor of extending the necessary yet controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. At question were three tools which have been instrumental in the U.S. fight against terrorist organizations, both at home and abroad.

The three sections that will stay in force are:

• The authority to issue Section 215 orders and National Security Letters to seize records and property in counter-terrorism investigations.
• The use of roving wiretaps to conduct surveillance on multiple phones.
• Surveillance against lone-wolves, individuals engaged in terrorism who cannot be linked to a recognized terrorist group.

They were renewed without change, despite earlier attempts to gut the provisions and render them useless under the guise of civil liberties concerns.

The reauthorization of these provisions came despite the concerns of several Democrats and civil liberties advocates that the legislation failed to protect the rights of American citizens. For example, the American Civil Liberties lamented:

"Congress refuses to make reforming the Patriot Act a priority and continues to punt this crucial issue down the road. Once again, we have missed an opportunity to put the proper civil liberties and privacy protections into this bill. Congress should respect the rule of law and should have taken this opportunity to better protect the privacy and freedom of innocent Americans. We shouldn't have to live under these unconstitutional provisions for another year."

Despite these concerns, the renewal of these provisions is an indication that both Congress and the President recognize the necessity and efficacy of these national security tools. As Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) noted:

"Recent terror attacks, such as those at Fort Hood and on Christmas Day, demonstrate just how severe of a threat we are facing….This extension keeps Patriot's security measures in place and demonstrates that there is a growing recognition that these crucial provisions must be preserved."

Newly Released Evidence Sheds Light on Intentions in CIA Plot

A posthumously released video of the suicide bomber, who killed seven CIA employees on December 30^th, reveals new details about the terrorist's intended target. Humam Khalil Abu Mulal Al-Balawi, a Jordanian physician turned double agent of Al-Qaeda and the CIA, initially planned to kill his Jordanian handler. However, as he put it, Al-Balawi "got a bigger gift, a gift from Allah, who brought us, through his accompaniment, a valuable prey: Americans, and from the C.I.A."

Al-Balawi initially told the CIA that he could gain access to top Al Qaeda leaders. However, while the CIA was exploiting what they described as 'valuable intelligence,' Al-Balawi used the time to build up his relationship with Coalition intelligence forces. Ultimately, the CIA's decision to invite Al-Balawi to meet with U.S. operatives resulted in the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence staff in a quarter of a century.

According to the video released by As-Sahab, Al-Qaeda's media wing, Al-Balawi's intentions were far more complex than initially suspected. While cooperating with Jordanian intelligence, Al-Balawi was actually advocating more attacks on agents of that country, for their cooperation with the Americans.

This video also follows another recording, released 10 days after the attack, which states that the attack was a revenge attack for last year's killing of Hakimullah Mehsud. Mehsud was the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and the initial video featured Al-Balawi seated next to him while announcing his intentions to attack American forces.

Both videos show a sophisticated deception of American intelligence, and as New York Times reporter Scott Shane stated, "the terror network's advance planning in exploiting the attack to spread its message." According to a transcript provided to the Times by IntelCenter, a Virginia counterterrorism company, Al-Balawi mocked the CIA and President Obama. He stated that President Obama's speech in Cairo had only fooled 'simpletons' and that, "it wasn't long before these fools woke up to Obama's crimes, which are no less ugly than the crimes of his predecessor.

Another transcript is available from the NEFA Foundation, and can be found here.

Targeting Israeli Civilians an Integral Part of Hamas Strategy

Hamas has embarked on a dubious public-relations campaign to show that it did not deliberately attack civilians during the December 2008/January 2009 war with Israel.

Earlier this month, Hamas claimed the killing and wounding of Israeli civilians during the conflict (which it calls the "Battle of al-Furqan") was unintentional. The terror group later denied having apologized for Israeli civilian deaths and casualties.

Careful analysis of Hamas' behavior shows that targeting civilians is an integral component of its struggle against Israel. Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, writes that Hamas internal publications and propaganda aimed at Arab audiences have long applauded the killing of Israeli civilians.

For example, an Arabic-language article on the website of the Qassam Brigades (Hamas' military wing) discussed rocket operations during the al-Furqan battle and cites the heroism of the Qassam Brigades personnel who conducted the attacks.

During the Gaza war, the Qassam Brigades "launched some 600 rockets against Israel. This was high-trajectory fire by inherently inaccurate weapons, covering a broad swath of southern Israel," White wrote. "Targets included the major cities of Ashdod, Ashqelon, and Beersheba (combined population 850,000) as well as numerous smaller towns and settlements."

White quotes from Hamas's own chronology of rocket attacks directed at southern Israeli towns and settlements, which makes no distinction between civilian and military targets. They include entries like this one for January 2, 2009: "Al Qassam Brigades and resistance groups bombard Ashqelon and other Zionist towns and settlements, which led to the wounding of four Zionists."

Senior Hamas officials like Khaled Meshaal frequently cite "resistance" as a principal means of achieving the organization's goals. In a January 22, 2010 speech, Meshaal declared that Hamas would "refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist entity" and would focus on "building and developing the resistance."

Many observers dismiss such statements as empty rhetoric. But White says that would be a mistake.

"Resistance and jihad are mutually reinforcing concepts, and Hamas uses them to legitimize acts of violence against civilian occupiers, including rocket attacks and terrorism. These are essentially offensive, not defensive concepts - the usurped land must be fought for, and the usurpers driven from it," according to White. "Hamas views attacks on civilians as legitimate, appropriate, effective, and even heroic. Such strikes are fundamental to its operations - part of the Hamas way of war."

Fact Checking Tom Campbell

The Los Angeles Times reports today that "U.S.-Israel relations have taken an unexpectedly central role" in the California Senate race's Republican primary. Specifically, U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell's support for Israel is being questioned.

That's due in large part to the support Campbell gave, and received back, from Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor and admitted Palestinian Islamic Jihad supporter.

Campbell wrote a letter of protest when the university moved to fire Al-Arian. As a congressman, Campbell worked closely with Al-Arian fighting the use of classified evidence in immigration court, which happened to Al-Arian's brother-in-law. Al-Arian later reciprocated, sending $1,300 in campaign contributions to Campbell's 2000 Senate bid.

According to the Times story:

Campbell said he did not know about Al-Arian's illegal activities at the time and said that if he had he would not have written the letter.
"None of that had come out," he said.

Actually, significant documents had. During deportation proceedings on Al-Arian's brother-in-law in August 2000, the issue which first attracted Campbell's attention, immigration officials released this 1991 video and this 1995 letter. The video is from a Cleveland fundraiser which clearly was intended to serve Al-Arian's charity, the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP), and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Watch the video closely and at 1:40 into it you'll see Al-Arian taking his seat as Imam Fawaz Damra describes the charity as "the active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine," adding that "We preferred to call it the 'Islamic Committee for Palestine' for security reasons. The video shows Al-Arian had no reaction to Damra's description.

Later in that same program, Damra raises money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad saying checks can be written to Al-Arian's ICP.

In the 1995 letter, Al-Arian writes that the Islamic movement in Palestine is represented by "Hamas and the Jihad" and notes "serious attempts" at merging the two terrorist groups. He invokes a recent double suicide bombing in Israel and urges his acquaintance "to try to extend true support of the jihad effort in Palestine so that operations such as these can continue."

Again, all of this information was publicly released and reported in 2000. Yet, a Campbell spokesman told Tucker Carlson's new web paper that the candidate wouldn't have supported Al-Arian "if he knew then what he knows now."

If he didn't know it then, it wasn't because the information wasn't available. Campbell either never sought it out or simply ignored it.

Terrorism Gets Center Stage in India-Pakistan Talks

Terrorism was the key focus of a high-level meeting held Thursday between Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir. The meeting was part of a formal "composite dialogue" launched in 2004 to discuss issues including cross-border terrorism, the disputed border region of Kashmir, and the sharing of river waters.

India broke off the dialogue following the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 that left 183 people dead and thousands more injured. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terror group is believed to be behind the attacks.

At the meeting, India communicated its concerns about the unfettered activities of terror groups such as LeT, Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and others on Pakistani territory. Rao called on her Pakistani counterpart to "eliminate all terrorist groups operating from their soil, regardless of their ideology or agenda." Although Rao recognized some steps taken by Pakistani authorities to help try to convict the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, she noted that the efforts "did not go far enough to unravel the full conspiracy behind the Mumbai attack and to award exemplary punishment to all culprits."

India also handed over three dossiers to Pakistan that detailed activities of anti-India jihadi groups based in Pakistan. The dossiers named 34 terrorists wanted by India, including LeT founder and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader Abdur Rehman Makki. JuD, an Islamic charity, serves as a front for LeT operations.

The dossiers further detailed activities of top al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri. Kashmiri has been charged in the U.S. for his role in the Mumbai attacks. India also demanded Pakistan hand over fugitive leaders of the Indian Mujahideen, Asif Raza Khan and Riaz Bhatkal. The Indian Mujahideen is suspected to be behind a terror attack February 13 in the western Indian city of Pune.

Rao made a reference to Hafiz Saeed's speeches supporting jihadi attacks against India, including his incendiary speech earlier this month at a "Kashmir solidarity" rally in which the LeT leader dismissed the Mumbai attacks saying, "Ek Bombay Kya Hota Hai (One Mumbai is not enough)" and called for waging more jihadi attacks. At the same rally, Saeed's deputy Abdur Makki is quoted saying, "Muslims dying of thirst would drink blood of India," a reference to the ongoing water dispute between the South Asian neighbors and Pakistani anxieties that Indian dams on shared rivers in Kashmir deplete their water flow into Pakistan.

Bashir rejected India's dossiers as "literature, not evidence," but later retracted his statement. He did express frustration about the emphasis on terror exported from his own country, noting attacks at home have killed 5,366 Pakistani civilians in the past two years.

Bashir also made allegations of Indian support for insurgent activity in Pakistan's southwest province of Balochistan.

Rao also called on Pakistan to follow up "on the leads that have emerged following the arrest in the United States of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana."

The Obama administration favors a resumption of talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors given the expanded war in Afghanistan in light of the recent troop surge. U.S. policymakers hope that a thawing of tensions on the Indo-Pak border will make Pakistan more willing to shift military forces away from its eastern border with India to its western flank, and thereby aid the U.S. and its allies in fighting Taliban, al Qaeda, and other insurgents along the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

Napolitano's Surprising Islamic Terror Reference

Since the Bush Administration enacted a policy to avoid words like "jihadist" and remove references to Islam or Muslims from Islamist terrorist acts, we've challenged the wisdom behind it.

So it's surprising and heartening to see Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano clearly state that "Violent Islamic terrorism" exists and was part of the Fort Hood terrorist attack. A transcript isn't yet available, but Fox News reporter Mike Levine noted her references during questioning from U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. Napolitano denied there was any deliberate effort to avoid such references in the Obama administration:

"The [phrase] that you refer to, 'violent Islamic terrorism,' is something that we fight and deal with every day at the Department of Homeland Security. There is no doubt about that. It was the motivation [for the failed Christmas Day bombing], it was part and parcel of the Ft. Hood killings and other incidents we have seen this year within the United States."

That's interesting, since Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting rampage took place more than three months ago and Napolitano is the first official to publicly label it an act of terrorism. After the failed Christmas Day attack on a Northwest Airliner, the administration was quick to call it terrorism.

Lieberman also seemed to elicit some tacit agreement from Napolitano that Islamic terrorism is real, albeit "an extreme expression -- a violent expression -- of one of the world's great religions. It is not Islam as most Muslims practice it, and as most of us who are not Muslim know it. ... We're not at war with Islam, we're at war with a particular extremist violent terrorist expression, which in my opinion is a corruption, a perversion, of Islam. And we ought to be willing to say so."

Napolitano agreed, saying simply, "Indeed."

Levine notes Napolitano does refer to "terrorism" often, but "has rarely referred to 'Islamic terrorism.'" The phrase was nowhere to be seen in the recently issued, 108-page Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.

Napolitano's boss, President Barack Obama, has never uttered the phrase as president or as a candidate. And counter-terror advisor John Brennan has said the administration rejects the language of "jihad," instead recognizing the threat of "violent extremists."

It remains to be seen whether Wednesday's remarks are an anomaly or the start of a shift in administration attitude.

Hamas's British Support Base

A think-tank tied to Israeli intelligence is out with a new report detailing the depth of Hamas support and operations based in Great Britain.

The report from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a non-governmental organization "dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the Israeli Intelligence Community," argues that Britain's laissez faire approach has allowed "Hamas, with Muslim Brotherhood support … to take over a considerable portion of the Palestinian discourse in Britain … and has contributed to turning Britain into a center for extensive anti-Israeli activity." [Emphasis original]

As an example, Israeli officials hesitate visiting the country out of concern they might be arrested on trumped-up war crimes charges. Yet, activists with documented Hamas links operate freely despite clear recognition the organization itself is guilty of war crimes. As Human Rights Watch reported last month:

"Hamas can spin the story and deny the evidence, but hundreds of rockets rained down on civilian areas in Israel where no military installations were located," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Hamas leaders at the time indicated they were intending to harm civilians."

The Israeli report shows how London serves as home to Hamas publications, how Interpal and the Union of Good, both shut down in the U.S., route money to Hamas social service wings and how "money and material support for the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip [come] through Lifeline convoys: The convoys are dispatched to the Gaza Strip by an organization called Viva Palestina, founded by pro-Hamas British MP George Galloway." [Emphasis original]

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has chronicled Viva Palestina's Hamas support in great detail. See here and here for examples.

Hamas has been in power in Gaza for nearly three years and has taken no tangible steps toward modifying its radical, rejectionist views on recognizing and co-existing with Israel. Support from abroad, especially financial support, helps Hamas persist in its intransigence and obsession with violence.

In the 1980s and 90s, the U.S. served as a similar base of operations. Hamas deputy political leader Mousa Abu Marzook lived here, establishing a network of propaganda and financial support arms for Hamas. Leaders of the terrorist group routinely traveled the country to raise money.

Read the report and recognize that, absent a concerted effort by American law enforcement, the same depth of operations would still have a home in the United States.

Hamas Founder's Son Chronicles his Spying for Israel

A new book by the son of a Hamas founder claims Mosab Hassan Yousef spent a decade spying for the Israeli Shin Bet, providing information that helped thwart countless attacks and led to the arrest or killing of Hamas leaders.

Son of Hamas is scheduled to be released next week by Tyndall House Publishers, a Christian oriented publisher. Yousef left the West Bank in 2007 and, a year later, announced that he had converted to Christianity. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was among Hamas's founders.

According to an interview in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, "Yousef was the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname 'the Green Prince' - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and 'prince' because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders."

The Haaretz story quotes Yousef's former Shin Bet handler, who describes just a few examples of Yousef's life-saving information and actions. In one, he helped Shin Bet officials intercept a suicide bomb belt handed off to a would-be terrorist in the West Bank.

"So many people owe him their life and don't even know it," said the handler, named in Yousef's book as Captain Loai. "People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it."

Yousef expresses a desire to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but doubts it can happen with Hamas in power. The group's rigid theological and political ideology makes compromise impossible:

"The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis. Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does."

The full interview appears Friday in the Haaretz magazine.

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