Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Has New Friends?

The ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, recently made a two day official visit to Iran and met with newly re-elected Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Oman, a Persian Gulf country that, via the Musandam Peninsular, shares control over the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, maintains good relations with the Islamic Republic.  Oman also has friendly relations with both the United States and Great Britain.

On August 12, an article appeared on the Iranian news site Ayandeh News concerning Sultan Qaboos' visit to Tehran.  A State Department and BBC translation of the Iranian news article cites that one purpose of Qaboos' visit was to relay a "secret" message to Iranian leaders from the British government that Britain "called for the building of trust and removal of tension in its relations with Tehran and announced its readiness to cooperate closely with the Ahmadinezhad government."  Further, the article notes, "the British government has been trying to negotiate directly with Iranian officials" and British foreign secretary David Miliband "sent messages to one of our country ' s (Iran) senior officials in which he has voiced his desire to negotiate...".  Reportedly, the Iranians have not responded positively to the British overtures.

If this Iranian news report is true, it would appear America's British allies have taken a cue from the Obama Administration and decided that attempting to negotiate with and accommodate a country that calls for the destruction of Israel and the United States while seeking nuclear weapons is a preferred approach.  Interestingly, the Iranians seemingly have no interest.

Second Man Convicted in Georgia Lashkar Conspiracy

A Georgia man has been found guilty of conspiring to provide material support for terrorists. Ehsanul Islam Sadequee faces up to 60 years in prison. He is the second person convicted in the conspiracy to aid to the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Sadequee and Sayid Haris Ahmed traveled to Canada to meet with other potential jihadis about plotting terrorist attacks, prosecutors say, and they presented video clips of the two men scouting sites for a possible attack in Washington, D.C.

Sadequee, 23, represented himself during the six day trial. He told jurors he and his friends were "immature young guys who had imaginations that run wild" but were not terrorists.

But two friends testified against him. One, Omer Kamal told jurors that the plans for jihad grew so intense that he wrote a note telling Sadequee and Ahmed he wanted nothing to do with it.

Ahmed testified for the government after being convicted on the same charges in June. The two were serious about joining the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, Ahmed said, and wanted to wage domestic attacks to "disrupt the U.S. economy."

In a statement, Gregory Jones, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge in Atlanta, said:

"The FBI continues to investigate a growing number of cases involving U.S. citizens providing material support to terrorists. However, as we move further away from the tragic events of September 11, 2001, there also seems to be a growing public perception that such conduct is harmless, especially since no bombs were exploded and no one was killed. This defendant, like many others we have investigated, tried to argue that his criminal conduct and activities were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The FBI does not buy that argument and today the jury agreed."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has details about Sadequee's conviction here.

Investigate Intelligence Interrogators? Bad Idea!

Shortly after he authorized the partial release of Department of Justice (DOJ) legal memos related to CIA interrogation procedures against terrorist suspects overseas, President Obama went to CIA Headquarters and "assured" the Agency's assembled rank and file that no CIA officers would face investigation or prosecution for conducting interrogations while following DOJ legal advice and policy. The President's words did not necessarily assuage the fears of many of those line CIA officers, since, reportedly, many are retaining legal counsel to defend their personal and professional interest.

Now it seems those fears may be well founded. Attorney General Eric Holder has recently stated, "No one is above the law" and, "We're going to follow the evidence wherever it takes us, follow the law wherever that takes us" related to the CIA terrorist interrogation matter. In view of the President's speech at Langley, it might seem that (prosecutorial) discretion might be the better part of valor for the Attorney General. Notwithstanding the President's assurances, it appears the high command of DOJ has left open the real possibility of launching a criminal probe of terrorist interrogations.

Holder and, apparently, the White House posture that if CIA officials engaged in the interrogations somehow went beyond the scope of what was "authorized" in those DOJ legal memos, they may have violated the law and committed what Holder believes is torture. There are very significant legal and moral "what's right" issues that mitigate against any such investigations.

Andrew McCarthy, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York who successfully prosecuted Omar Abdel-Rahman (the "Blind Sheik"), Ramzi Yousef and a number of other Islamic terrorists in the 1990s, is now a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. On August 11, McCarthy authored an Op-ed article in the National Review Online that details why any criminal investigation of CIA interrogators is wrong. Read McCarthy's article here.

Deutsche Doldrums in Counter-Terrorism

John Rosenthal is a writer who specializes in European politics, particularly Germany and France. He recently wrote a review of a new book authored by a former agent of the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigations, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Michael Von Wedel. The BKA is the German version of the FBI and, like the FBI, has a significant oversees operational program. Von Wedel was a BKA Chief Inspector assigned to key counter-terrorism investigations immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Von Wedel's book, Settling Accounts: A Former BKA Inspector Tells All, highlights what he claims is a notably lackluster and often haphazard approach to counter-terrorism by German authorities. Von Wedel ultimately was removed from the BKA and even lost his pension, supposedly over his strong disagreements with BKA management concerning the agency's ant-terrorism procedures and policies.

In his review, Rosenthal cites examples of Germany's poor track record in conducting counter-terrorism operations. One such incident involved intense back-door efforts by the BKA and the German foreign intelligence service to have an Egyptian-born German citizen, who was believed to be the financier behind the deadly 2002 Bali bombing attack, expeditiously returned to Germany from Indonesia before the CIA and other American authorities had a chance to take him into custody. Those German efforts ostensibly were to allow German prosecutors to bring charges against the suspect; however, when returned to Germany, the alleged terror mastermind was set free and even granted substantial social welfare payments and public housing.

Rosenthal identifies a significant disdain for US counter-terrorism policies within the BKA and the German intelligence service. German authorities appear to view the efforts of their American counterparts, supposed allies, as too heavy handed. German counter-terror efforts, however, have focused primarily on what are described as "small fish" and have allowed senior terror operatives, including those linked to al-Qaeda, to go free. Von Wedel's book attributes much of this German complacency to a de facto nonaggression pact the government has with certain Islamic terror organizations, including Hizballah, that allows the organizations to operate essentially unmolested within Germany as long as they do not mount attacks on German soil.

The review is notably insightful and raises serious questions about how German security services deal with terrorists, especially Islamic terrorists, within their midst. On the heels of recent reports that Europe's Muslims are expected to constitute one-fifth of the continent's population by 2050, one of these questions might be whether the German approach really is misguided appeasement.

The full review can be seen here.

Pakistan Nuclear Arms Security: FAIL

It has been three short months since Pakistani Taliban fighters stood at the doorstep of that nation's capital, Islamabad. At that point, the once remote scenario of a sovereign state falling to Islamist militants was beginning to look inevitable. Media outlets were in a whirlwind, reporting with a sense of urgency the rapid advance of the Taliban through the Swat and Buner districts and the threats that were stifling the once bustling city. A primary concern during all of this was the ability of the deficient government of Asif Ali Zardari to effectively protect the country's stockpile of nuclear warheads. Unfazed by the threat that the Taliban posed to his government's stability, Zardari struck back at critics by assuring "the world that the nuclear capability of Pakistan is under safe hands…"

But was it really? Or were Zardari's reassurances nothing more than wishful thinking or face-saving PR?

A story released Tuesday by the Times of India details how Pakistan's nuclear facilities had long been vulnerable to domestic terror attacks, even in the months and years prior to the most recent standoff with the Taliban. The story documents the findings of Bradford University (UK) professor Shaun Gregory, first published in the July issue of West Point's Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel.

According to the report, incidents included "an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly."

Gregory notes that these attacks occurred despite government attempts to install some safeguards. In fact, various measures have been put into place to secure the nation's arms stockpile. However, "empirical evidence points to a clear set of weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Pakistan's nuclear safety and security arrangements."

One thing is painfully clear: if Pakistan wants to be a member of the nuclear arms-possessing community, it has a responsibility to get its act together in securing its stockpile from insurgents. Rather than waging a PR war against those who are critical of its attempts at security – as it did in January 2008 when criticized by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei – Pakistan must focus on being critical of those that wage war on it.

Islamic Terrorists, Latin Style

On August 1, Homeland Security Today published a report providing intriguing details about the rise of radical Islamists in Latin America. The report notes how, from the 1980s, Islamic terror organizations from the Middle East began establishing significant operational footholds in various Latin American countries. Hizballah has the largest such presence, but a terror branch of the Palestinian Liberation Organization also engaged in such infiltration. This report noted how, even in these earlier years, the radical Islamist organizations were making alliances with leftist guerrilla and drug trafficking groups as well as the intelligence and security services of Panama's then dictator Manuel Noriega.

This Islamic terror presence in America's backyard has grown over the years but may not have been receiving appropriate attention from US Intelligence and law enforcement agencies nor Congress. Periodic arrests of Middle East terror suspects along the US-Mexican border, or such suspects after they have entered the US, occasionally bring this issue to light; however, there have been notable indicators in more recent years that such terrorists pose a definite threat to US interests.

In June 2005, a report surfaced about a cocaine smuggling ring based in Ecuador that funneled money to Hizballah. In March of this year, The Washington Times reported that Hizballah utilized Mexican drug smuggling routes to facilitate its own narcotics and human trafficking enterprises. Journalist Todd Bensman has done some groundbreaking work on the subject.

There is little doubt Latin America has a significant population of radical Islamists, to include those affiliated with Middle East terror organizations. This threat has existed for more than 20 years in that region, and these Muslim terrorists and their supporters have forged alliances with indigenous Latin American leftist insurgent groups and organized drug trafficking cartels. This demands greater attention by U.S. authorities.

Saudi Cleric's London Sermon Draws Fire

England rolled out the welcome mat this week for a Saudi hate sheik allowed to preach Tuesday night at the East London Mosque, prompted some heated complaints. Abdul Rahman al-Sudais is the chief cleric at Mecca's Grand Mosque.

He has disparaged Jews as "monkeys and pigs," Christians as "cross worshippers" and Hindus as "idol worshippers."

Human Rights advocate Peter Tatchell wonders why al-Sudais was allowed into the country at all, when Canada won't let him in and when the British government has banned others considered traffickers in hate. According to Tatchell:

"The East London mosque received $US1m from the Saudis towards its new London Muslim Centre. The mosque's links to Saudi Arabia go back many years, according to the BBC.

I don't understand why the Home Secretary is allowing al-Sudais into Britain, given that similar hate preachers have been banned. Is it because of the close business links between the British and Saudi establishments?"

Tatchell cites a 2002 sermon by al-Sudais that was broadcast on Saudi television which he characterizes as "echoing Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda, with openly racist caricatures of Jewish people."

Jews, al-Sudais said "are...the worst of mankind. Allaah cursed them and cast His wrath upon them. He turned some of them to monkeys and pigs and worshippers of creatures... History of Jews is full of deception, trickery, rebellion, oppression, evil and corruption."

Guardian newspaper wrier Rizat Butt also wondered why "the British appear to welcome" al-Sudais, noting he never contested the statements attributed to him or apologized for saying them:

"So why no uproar in the UK? It is either that people have forgotten what he has said or that they are willing to overlook it and concentrate on his more palatable condemnations of suicide bombings and extremism. Whatever the reason, his feting by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is no cause for celebration, just confusion."

The criticism did not seem to put a crimp in the turnout for the sermon, which drew an overflow crowd to the mosque that holds 7,000 people.

All We Are Saying...

...Is give blood a chance.

The Palestinian Fatah faction is holding a general assembly for the first time in 20 years in Ramallah this week. With a renewed U.S. emphasis on brokering peace between Palestinians and Israelis, you might hope that a conciliatory, hopeful tone might emanate from the meeting.

You'd be wrong. As journalist Khaled Abu Toameh reports at the Hudson Institute, older Fatah officials are trying to cling to power against a younger generation of emerging leaders, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stacking the delegates and bringing Mohammed Ghnaim in from Tunisia.

Toameh describes Ghnaim as "one of a handful of senior Fatah leaders who remain strongly opposed to the Oslo Accords, insisting that the 'armed struggle' against Israel is the only way to 'liberate Palestine.'"

The moves almost guarantee that Fatah's Central Committee "will continue to be controlled by former Arafat cronies" with intransigent attitudes.

Reinforcing this confrontational approach, the Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI) has this video from a Fatah rally in Ramallah July 27. As the translation here shows, speakers referred to Palestine in Israeli cities including "Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and Our Arab Jerusalem." Fatah Secretary Raed Radwan exhorts the crowd:

"This is the Palestinian people that said and will continue to say that we are all seekers of martyrdom - the student and the worker, the clerk, the father and the mother, the brother and the sister - towards Palestine."

These are the "moderates" who run the Palestinian Authority and on whom the U.S. is hinging hopes for peace.

Toameh reports that a draft of Fatah's political platform shows Fatah is not willing to recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. He sums up the Fatah message this way:

"By adopting a hard-line approach toward the conflict and blocking reforms, Fatah is sending a message both to the Palestinians and the world that it's still not ready for any form of compromise or reforms. As such, Fatah remains part of the problem, and not part of the solution."

Look for Washington to echo that assessment around the time Fatah gatherings break into John Lennon singalongs.

Friends Testify Against Atlanta Terror Suspect

A Georgia man spent hours watching videos showing Taliban speeches and showing how to make bombs while discussing possible targets for a domestic terrorist attack, a former friend testified Tuesday.

Omer Kamal testified against Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, who is charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to help the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group. Prosecutors say Sadequee and Sayid Haris Ahmed scoped out possible targets in Washington, D.C. and that they went to Canada to conspire with other Lashkar supporters.

Ahmed was found guilty in a bench trial June 10 and now has agreed to testify for the prosecution against Sadequee.

On Tuesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, former friend Omer Kamal testified that Ahmed and Sadequee were "contemplating going to any theater of combat to participate in violent jihad." The plans grew so intense that Kamal said he wrote his friends a note saying he wanted nothing to do with it.

Sadequee is representing himself in the trial. During his opening statement, Sadequee passed off his comments as "just empty talk" and claimed "There was no plan."

During Ahmed's trial, prosecutors showed rough surveillance videos Sadequee and Ahmed shot of the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.

Australians Foil Suspected Somali Terror Plot

Australian police announced Tuesday that they have arrested four men in connection with a plot to attack a military barracks in Sydney and kill as many soldiers as possible before being killed themselves. The four, of Somali and Lebanese descent, are believed to have ties to Al-Shabab, a Somali terrorist group that is ideologically sympathetic to Al Qaeda and has been officially designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

They were arrested in a predawn raid involving 400 police officers at 19 locations, the result of a seven-month investigation during which police said that they discovered the men had received military training in Somalia. Police have said there may be as many as 18 people involved in the terror cell.

The alleged plot came to Australian authorities' attention in January when they were monitoring telephone calls made by a Lebanese man who had been espousing "extremist" views at his mosque in a Melbourne suburb. The Lebanese man telephoned a Somali living in the Melbourne area and asked for assistance so that he and his friends could travel to Somalia.

Police soon learned that the Somali man was a "facilitator" who arranged for Australian jihadists to get to Somalia and fight for Al-Shabab. Authorities believe that he had recently enabled a pair of Somalis living in Australia to travel through Kenya into Somalia to train with the group. But the Lebanese man was dogged by passport and visa problems that prevented him from leaving Australia.

The Australian newspaper reported Tuesday:

"Frustrated by his inability to travel abroad to join al-Shabaab, the Lebanese man and the core hardline group discussed their options. Investigators listened in horror as the men were then overheard planning a terrorist attack in Australia."

Investigators heard the alleged conspirators discuss a suicide attack on an Australian army base in revenge for the presence of Australian troops in Muslim countries. As police listened to the men talk about an attack, there were suspicions that the jihadists were just mouthing off.

Those hopes were dashed when surveillance teams followed one of the suspects to Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney – the home base for Australia's elite Parachute Battalion and Commando Regiment. They watched as the suspect cased the area, observing the movement of people and traffic. They heard other suspects discussing ways to obtain firearms and exchanging information about family members and friends with firearms licenses.

As evidence mounted against the alleged plotters, police and prosecutors found themselves facing a dilemma: They could continue the investigation and glean more intelligence to increase the likelihood of securing convictions. But delay would increase the possibility that the group would carry out an attack. In recent days, The Australian reported, officials decided to launch the raids after concluding "that immediate action was justified to prevent the possibility of innocent lives being lost."

Meanwhile, Australian authorities say they have been communicating with American FBI officials about the investigation. There are indications Al-Shabab supporters in both countries have coordinated on fundraising and other activities. National Public Radio reported that the U.S. investigation into Al-Shabab had become the "biggest domestic terrorism investigation in this country since Sept. 11" and cited sources predicting major arrests in the coming weeks.

Read more about the Australian case here and here. Read more about Al-Shabab here.

Newer Postings   |   Older Postings