ROUNDUP OF NEWS FROM THE INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT….
| To subscribe: http://www.investigativeproject.org/list_subscribe.phpGeneral security, policy 1. US names Iran area of ‘money laundering concern’; Canada & Britain impose new sanctions2. CIA spies caught in Iran & Lebanon; US fears their execution 3. State Dep’t designates Ibrahim Suleiman Hamad Al-Hablain Specially Designated Global Terrorist; Bill seeks terror designation for flotilla groups4. NYC bomb plot suspect is called fan of cleric al-Awlaki; The ideas behind the alleged bomber5. Exporter pleads guilty in CA to selling sensitive technology to China 6. Appeals court weighs suits of four terrorists challenging Supermax move 7. Boston terror trial update
9. Feds probing possible cyberattacks at Illinois, Texas utilities 11. TSA investigating how gun got past security at Houston airport
Financing, money laundering, bribery, fraud, identity theft, civil litigation 13. Cook County State’s Attorney announces arrests in major retail theft rings 14. Miami federal lawsuit accuses Colombian warlord of murders in homeland 15. USDA targets stores in food stamp trafficking
Border security, immigration & customs
Other items
International 19. ISAF kills al Qaeda ‘facilitator’ in Afghan east; Afghanistan has big plans for biometric data; U.S. passport holder detonates in Pakistan 20. Could Judge Bruguière’s warnings have prevented the Mumbai attacks?21. UK security firms take up arms against pirates 22. Chechen shot dead in Moscow: Incriminate the usual suspects?23. Turkey detains 15 al-Qaida suspects; Turkey’s Parliament takes up bill against terror financing 24. Terror suspects accused of funding Pakistan training appears in London court25. 21/7 terrorist Siraj Ali back behind bars after newspaper investigation 26. Helsinki terrorist suspect to remain in pre-trial detention Comment /analysis 27. Yochi J. Dreazen: U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Iran, but Strongest Weapon Remains Unused 28. Andre Aciman: After Egypt’s Revolution, Christians Are Living in Fear… 30. Soeren Kern: Brussels: The New Capital of Eurabia
The Investigative Project on Terrorism Update is designed for use by law enforcement, the intelligence community and policy makers for non-profit research and educational use only. Quoted material is subject to the copyright protections of the original sources which should be cited for attribution, rather than the Update. Our weekly report, “The Money Trail,” derived from our Update, is a compilation of materials on terror financing and other related financial issues.
THE AMERICAS
GENERAL SECURITY, POLICY
1. U.S. Targets Iran Oil, Bank in Bid to Halt Nuclear Program Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. expanded measures aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear program, targeting its central bank and oil industry with sanctions intended to cut the regime off from international financial transactions. Yesterday’s actions, matched by similar steps from the U.K. and Canada, are in response to a Nov. 8 United Nations atomic agency report concluding that previous sanctions have not stopped Iran from clandestine nuclear-bomb work. The Obama administration for the first time yesterday declared that the entire Iranian financial sector, including its central bank, is involved in money laundering. It invoked the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act to target direct and indirect financing of Iran. Any institution or company that engages in transactions with Iran’s banking system is “at risk of supporting Iran’s illicit activities: its pursuit of nuclear weapons, its support for terrorism,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in a press conference in Washington. “Financial institutions around the world should think hard about the risks of doing business with Iran.” The new U.S. sanctions also target companies that provide goods or services to Iran’s oil and gas industries. Existing U.S. laws have forced most international oil companies out of Iran and the new measures aim to stop it from obtaining technology and money from smaller foreign companies…
US to name Iran area of ‘money laundering concern’ * Decision to be unveiled Monday by Clinton, Geithner * Designation gives U.S. range of measures against Iran * Britain orders banks to halt Iran transactions By Arshad Mohammed and David Lawder Mon Nov 21, 2011 1:00pm EST Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/iran-usa-sanctions-idUSN1E7AK13120111121 WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department plans to designate Iran as an area of “primary money laundering concern” on Monday, a U.S. official said, a move that will prompt new steps to isolate Tehran from the international financial system. The moves are expected to be coordinated with Canada and Britain, where the finance ministry ordered all UK financial institutions to stop doing business with their Iranian counterparts and the Iranian central bank. The United States is not expected to add Iran’s central bank, Bank Markazi, to its formal sanctions list, which could effectively cut it off from the international financial system, cause oil prices to spike higher and hurt U.S. economic recovery. But a U.S. official said the declaration is aimed at signaling to foreign governments and financial institutions that they must wind down their ties to Iran, with tougher sanctions to come down the road…
Fact Sheet: New Sanctions on Iran
Remarks by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Targeting Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Programs
Canada bars financial transactions with Iran OTTAWA—Ottawa has cut off almost all financial transactions with Tehran after Canada joined other Western nations in announcing they are targeting the flow of money to Iran in an escalation of sanctions over its nuclear program… But it was Britain and Canada who took the most dramatic steps Monday. Britain told its banking sector to cut off all ties to Iran’s, including the country’s central bank, effectively blocking Tehran’s access to one of the world’s major financial capitals. Canada, a vocal critic of Iran, can’t deliver that kind of sting, but it also barred financial transactions with Iran – except for those needed to comply with existing contracts, or remittances of less than $40,000 to relatives. That will make it nearly impossible to do new business with Iranian firms. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is to post a notice Tuesday explaining the restrictions to banks…
2. Exclusive: CIA Spies Caught, Fear Execution in Middle East http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-spies-caught-fear-execution-middle-east/story?id=14994428 In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community. The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran… Robert Baer, a former senior CIA officer who worked against Hezbollah while stationed in Beirut in the 1980’s, said Hezbollah typically executes individuals suspected of or caught spying… Other current and former officials said the discovery of the two U.S. spy rings occurred separately, but amounted to a setback of significant proportions in efforts to track the activities of the Iranian nuclear program and the intentions of Hezbollah against Israel…
American spies outed, CIA suffers in Lebanon http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i1zYZ1z_sBJ9FyPQExuBZ7kZP1vw WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA’s operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming. Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further…
CIA’s ‘pizza’ blunders leave informants facing execution http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8658 Agents working for the US in Lebanon and Iran are said to have been outed after their handlers used trackable mobile phones and used the code-word “pizza” when agreeing to meet at a Pizza Hut. The breaking of the two spy rings – one in the Beirut-based militant group that has killed hundreds of Americans, the other looking into the Iranian nuclear programme – amounts to a serious setback to US security. It may also make it difficult for US spies to recruit local informants in future…
3. Terrorist Designation of Ibrahim Suleiman Hamad Al-Hablain Media Note Office of the Spokesperson US State Department Washington, DC November 22, 2011 http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/11/177624.htm The Department of State designated Ibrahim Suleiman Hamad Al-Hablain (also known as Abu Jabal) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. Abu Jabal is an explosives expert and operative for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades (AAB), a Lebanese militant organization. According to media reports, AAB claimed responsibility for the July 28, 2010 maritime bombing of a Japanese oil tanker, the M. Star. AAB has also claimed responsibility for firing several rockets into Israel from Lebanon. Abu Jabal is a Saudi citizen currently wanted for extradition by the Government of Saudi Arabia for participating in extremist activities abroad. He is also the subject of an Interpol Orange Notice issued on February 10, 2009, for activities related to terrorism…
Bill Seeks Terror Designation for Flotilla Groups
4. City Bomb Plot Suspect Is Called Fan of Qaeda Cleric By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM New York Times November 21, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/jose-pimentel-is-charged-in-new-york-city-bomb-plot.html IPT NOTE: Complaint posted at http://www.scribd.com/doc/73312755/Jose-Pimentel-Complaint A Manhattan man who became fascinated by the American-born Muslim militant Anwar al-Awlaki was arrested on charges of plotting to build and detonate bombs in New York, city officials announced on Sunday night. At a hastily called City Hall news conference, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who appeared alongside Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said the man, Jose Pimentel, 27, had begun in August to plot a bomb attack. But it was the death of Mr. Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September, that refocused his efforts, Mr. Kelly said. Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Pimentel, a convert to Islam who was also known as Muhammad Yusuf, had been under police surveillance for more than two years and was arrested on Saturday after he had come close to completing at least three bombs. Holes had been drilled into pipes, sulfur had been scraped off matches, nails were ready to be used as shrapnel, and wires were used to fashion an ignition device, according to a law enforcement official. Mr. Pimentel planned to test his abilities by detonating mailboxes before embarking on a bombing campaign around New York City, Mr. Kelly said. “Pimentel talked about killing U.S. military personnel returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly Marines and Army personnel,” Mr. Kelly said. “He talked about bombing post offices in and around Washington Heights and police cars in New York City, as well as a police station in Bayonne, N.J. “Once his bombing campaign began, Mr. Pimentel said the public would know that there were mujahideen in the city to fight jihad here.”… A native of the Dominican Republic and a naturalized American citizen, Mr. Pimentel had spent much of his life in Manhattan, except for five years in Schenectady, N.Y., the authorities said. While upstate, his extremist remarks “made even some like-minded friends nervous,” Mr. Kelly said, noting that Mr. Pimentel considered changing his name to Osama Hussein “to celebrate his heroes.”…
Informer’s Role in Terror Case Is Said to Have Deterred F.B.I. By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN New York Times November 22, 2011
FBI passed on taking down terror plotter Jose Pimentel TWICE before NYPD busted him http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8659 The feds twice passed on taking down accused terror plotter Jose Pimentel, leaving the NYPD to bust him after being confronted with “an imminent threat.” The FBI and federal prosecutors were unimpressed by Jose Pimentel’s radical pedigree and Internet rantings, deciding he was a big talker who couldn’t carry out his plans without help, sources said. But when city cops arrested the Muslim convert over the weekend, he allegedly was drilling holes into pipes with the help of a jihadist bomb-making blueprint. “No question in my mind that we had to take this case down,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday. “There was an imminent threat. “All you have to do is look at this young man’s blog to see the violent rhetoric and you see the evidence.”… The Ideas Behind the Alleged Bomber
5. Exporter Pleads Guilty to Selling Sensitive Technology to China Former Cupertino Man Sold Restricted Microwave Amplifiers to People’s Republic of China Without a License SAN JOSE, CA—Fu-Tain Lu, formerly of Cupertino, Calif., pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose today to selling sensitive microwave amplifiers to the People’s Republic of China without a license, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. In pleading guilty, Lu admitted that he was the owner and founder of Fushine Technology, Inc. (Fushine), a California corporation formerly located in Cupertino. Fushine was an exporter of electronic components primarily used in communications, radar and other applications. At the time of the offense, Fushine had a sales representative agreement with Miteq Components, Inc. (Miteq), a New York-based manufacturer of microwave and satellite communications components and subsystems…
6. Appeals court weighs suits of four terrorists challenging Supermax move http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19362164 An attorney for four convicted terrorists asked a federal appellate court Thursday to find that the U.S. government violated the terrorists’ due-process rights when it moved them to the federal Supermax prison in southern Colorado. The four men — airplane hijacker Omar Rezaq and 1993 World Trade Center bomb conspirators Ibrahim Elgabrowny, El-Sayyid Nosair and Mohammed Saleh — were moved to Supermax from less-restrictive prisons between 1997 and 2003. The prisoners say they did nothing while in custody to warrant the step up in confinement and that the government gave them no legitimate chance to show they could be moved back to lower-security prisons. The government said the nature of their crimes made the move necessary. A federal district-court judge earlier sided with the government, prompting the terrorists’ appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals…
7. Witness: Terror suspect Tarek Mehanna’s father worried about his extreme views Alleged terror supporter Tarek Mehanna’s ideology became so extreme that after he gave a fiery speech at a Sharon mosque in 2006, his father became worried, a former friend of Mehanna’s testified today in federal court. His father told Mehanna, a young man who had grown up in Sudbury, to settle down, get rid of the books that “fueled” him, and to give no more sermons, Daniel Spaulding said in US District Court in Boston. One board member at the mosque even told the father, “If we didn’t know he was your son, we would say he was a member of Al Qaeda,” said Spaulding… Mehanna, 29, is facing charges in the high-profile trial of conspiring to support terrorists and conspiring to kill in a foreign country, as well as lying to investigators about a trip to Yemen in which he sought terrorist training. Prosecutors say after failing to find a terrorist camp in Yemen, Mehanna returned home dedicated to spreading materials promoting violent jihad on the Internet as the “media wing” of Al Qaeda in Iraq…
AIR, RAIL, PORT, HEALTH & COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY
8. Pentagon Biodefense Initiative Seeks Successor to Antibiotics The U.S. Defense Department is seeking proposals for a system that incorporates nanotechnology to develop biological-weapon countermeasures within roughly one week, Wired magazine reported on Monday (see GSN, Jan. 20). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s “Rapidly Adaptable Nanotherapeutics” project is aimed at creating a flexible “platform capable of rapidly synthesizing therapeutic nanoparticles” for neutralizing biological-weapon agents. Such technology could fully supplant antibiotics, and might be employed against agents with synthesized genetic components or a capability for rapid adaptation. Existing antibiotics can become less effective against bacteria over time, and human intervention could produce a disease strain capable of fully overcoming such treatments, according to Wired…
9. Feds probing possible cyberattacks at Illinois, Texas utilities http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/18/hackers-apparently-based-in-russia-attacked-a-publ/ Water utilities across the country are being urged to step up their cybersecurity in the wake of two incidents in which hackers gained access to computer systems that control pumps, pipes and reservoirs. “We have alerted our members to these two possible incidents and advised them to monitor their [computer] systems and review their protection” procedures, Michael Arceneaux, deputy executive director of the Association of Metropolitan Water Authorities, told The Washington Times. Federal officials said they were investigating, but downplayed the incidents, saying there was no evidence of a threat to public safety. Earlier this month, the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center reported a cyber-attack on a small, rural water utility outside Springfield. Hackers, apparently based in Russia, gained access to the utility’s computer systems and burned out a water pump by turning it on and off repeatedly, the center said in a bulletin dated Nov. 10. If the report is correct, it would the first cyber-attack against U.S. infrastructure by foreign hackers…
10. St. Louis Man Sentenced to Over Eight Years in Prison for Reporting False Bomb Threat to a Commercial Aircraft U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri Press Release November 21, 2011 http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8662 ST. LOUIS, MO—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Dorian Williams was sentenced to 100 months in prison on charges involving his January 15, 2010, call to the St. Louis Airport police, falsely stating that a passenger would be carrying explosives onto an airplane…
11. Travelers wonder how gun made it past TSA at IAH HOUSTON—There were many questions being raised Friday night about security screenings at Bush Intercontinental Airport after a Magnolia man claims he accidentally carried his handgun onto an airplane… Security agents at the Buenos Aires Airport arrested Burditt when he tried to return to Houston. Agents also found ammunition and pepper spray. Burditt said it was tucked away in a pocket in his large bag-style briefcase, and he had no idea it was there… The TSA said it is investigating. The agency said it is trying to determine if any agents were responsible for missing the gun.
FINANCING, MONEY LAUNDERING, BRIBERY, FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT, CIVIL LITIGATION
12. Two Members of Large-Scale Identity Theft Ring Plead Guilty U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey Press Release November 18, 2011 (973) 645-2700 NEWARK, NJ—Two more members of a large-scale and sophisticated identity theft scheme pleaded guilty this week, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Jung-Bong Lee, 38, of Palisades Park, N.J., pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz in Newark federal court to an Information charging him with conspiracy to unlawfully produce identification documents and commit credit card fraud (Count One) and aggravated identity theft (Count Two). Jung-Sook Ko, a/k/a “Grace Lim,” 48, of Ridgefield, N.J., pleaded guilty Tuesday before Judge Shwartz to an Information charging her with conspiracy to unlawfully produce identification documents and to commit credit card fraud (Count One) and aggravated identity theft (Count Two)… According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:…
13. Cook County State’s Attorney announces arrests in retail theft rings http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8663 More than 50 professional shoplifters were arrested as part of an undercover operation targeting such crews before holiday shoppers hit the malls, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced Sunday. The stings, which began in mid-October, were conducted in stand-alone stores in the suburbs, stores along Michigan Avenue and in shops at Orland Park’s Orland Square Mall and Schaumburg’s Woodfield Mall. The brazen crews of “boosters,” or professional shoplifters, targeted by the investigation are sophisticated and organized, working in groups to steal electronics, razors, over-the-counter medicine, baby formula and brand-named clothing, authorities said. They carry tools to open boxes and line their bags with Duct tape to prevent security sensors from activating. “This isn’t just some teenager going out to shoplift one item,” Alvarez said. “… We’re talking about big groups that are stealing large quantities of goods, fencing them, sending them elsewhere and making a lot of money off of it.”…
14. Miami federal lawsuit accuses Colombian warlord of murders in homeland …Alma Rosa Jaramillo, a lawyer who represented farming communities torn apart by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, would be found a few days later. … [S]he had been tortured, mutilated and dismembered — were recovered from a river in the Middle Magdalena region. Now her son, 29, is turning to Miami federal court, where he is suing a paramilitary warlord who commanded an army of 7,000 combatants that Cabrera says was responsible for his mother’s killing. The case is the first in which a Colombian drug trafficker has been sued in the United States for allegedly committing violent acts against people in his homeland. The defendant, Carlos Mario Jimenez Naranjo, aka “Macaco,” who headed the biggest unit in the so-called AUC army, was extradited in 2008 to the United States to face drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. He pleaded guilty and was recently sentenced to 33 years in prison. But the lawsuit also accuses the Colombian government — including top officials in former-Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s administration — of collaborating with the AUC paramilitary in a reign of terror that took the life of Jaramillo and thousands of others during the nation’s long-running civil war…
15. USDA targets stores in food stamp trafficking http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i0Kqy4IRdruOeZeF0g3zQO1GEGyQ PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A criminal swindle of the nation’s $64.7 billion food stamp program is playing out at small neighborhood stores around the country, where thousands of retailers are suspected of trading deals with customers, exchanging lesser amounts of cash for their stamps. Authorities say the stamps are then redeemed as usual by the unscrupulous merchants at face value, netting them huge profits and diverting as much as $330 million in taxpayer funds annually a year. But the transactions are electronically recorded and federal investigators, wise to the practice, are closely monitoring thousands of convenience stories and mom-and-pop groceries in a push to halt the fraud… The USDA last month awarded a 10-year contract worth up to $25 million to Fairfax, Va.-based SRA International, Inc., to step up the technology used to combat fraud…
BORDER SECURITY, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS
16. Canada’s visa system badly flawed – watchdog http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/idINIndia-60669420111122 OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada could be admitting people who are security threats or carrying serious diseases because its visa system is badly flawed, a parliamentary watchdog warned on Tuesday. The report by the auditor general is likely to bolster U.S. critics who call for much tighter controls on the border with Canada on the grounds that Ottawa is letting in terror suspects and militants who could one day attack the United States. Interim Auditor General John Wiersema said visa and security officials “need to do a much better job of managing the health, safety and security risks” of applicants… Wiersema said officials at the two main departments involved – Citizenship and Immigration and the Border Services Agency – were overworked, ill-trained, poorly supervised and were using outdated methods…
17. Wildfires Linked to Illegal Border Crossings, Says Study . Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 60 pages) Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)
OTHER ITEMS
18. Romeo-and-Juliet marriage lasted one day, ‘honour killings’ trial told KINGSTON, ONT.— In poignant testimony that went to the heart of the prosecution case against three people accused of committing multiple “honour killings,” the former boyfriend of one of the victims told of a clandestine, Romeo-and-Juliet romance and a marriage in Montreal that lasted just one day – destroyed by her parents’ disapproval. The witness, whose name is under a temporary publication ban, told the murder trial of Afghan-Canadian businessman Mohammad Shafia, 58, his second wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, and their 20-year-old son Hamed that he first began courting the couple’s eldest daughter, Zainab, in February, 2008… The three accused are each charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the June, 2009, drowning deaths of Zainab Shafia, 19, her two younger sisters, Sahar and Geeti, aged 17 and 13 respectively, and Mohammad Shafia’s first wife in a secret polygamous marriage, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53…
ASIA/PACIFIC
19. ISAF kills al Qaeda ‘facilitator’ in Afghan east Written by Bill Roggio on November 19, 2011 10:40 AM The Long War Journal http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/11/isaf_kills_al_qaeda.php Coalition and Afghan special operations forces killed an al Qaeda facilitator who served as a trainer and courier in an eastern Afghan district where US Navy SEALs were killed after their helicopter was shot down several months ago. The raid took place yesterday in the Sayyidabad district in Wardak province. The combined special operations team killed the al Qaeda facilitator after he opened fire on the force from a building. Two “insurgents” were captured and “multiple weapons to include bomb making material, firearms, grenades, and ammunition” were found and destroyed during the operation, the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release. The facilitator’s name was Mujib Rahman Mayar and “he was a local Afghan,” ISAF told The Long War Journal. Mayar “trained insurgents and worked as a courier,” the ISAF release said. “He delivered messages and transported money for the al Qaeda network.”…
Afghanistan Has Big Plans for Biometric Data By ROD NORDLAND New York Times November 20, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/world/asia/in-afghanistan-big-plans-to-gather-biometric-data.html KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan has many dubious distinctions on the international-rankings front: 10th-poorest, third-most corrupt, worst place to be a child, longest at war. To that may soon be added: most heavily fingerprinted. Since September, Afghanistan has been the only country in the world to fingerprint and photograph all travelers who pass through Kabul International Airport, arriving and departing. A handful of other countries fingerprint arriving foreigners, but no country has ever sought to gather biometric data on everyone who comes and goes, whatever their nationality. Nor do Afghan authorities plan to stop there: their avowed goal is to fingerprint, photograph and scan the irises of every living Afghan. It is a goal heartily endorsed by the American military, which has already gathered biometric data on two million Afghans who have been encountered by soldiers on the battlefield, or who have just applied for a job with the coalition military or its civilian contractors. The Kabul airport program is also financed by the United States, with money and training provided by the American Embassy. Americans, like all other travelers, are subject to it…
U.S. Passport Holder Detonates in Pakistan
20. Could This Man’s Warnings Have Prevented the Mumbai Attacks?November 21, 2011, 1:05 pm ET by Azmat Khan A Perfect Terrorist airs Nov. 22; check your local listings or watch it online. http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8665
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
21. UK security firms take up arms against pirates http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/idINIndia-60647820111121 LONDON (Reuters) – Security firms led by G4S are providing armed guards to ships sailing pirate-infested Somali waters, with one start-up kitting out a gunboat to lead World War II style convoys, as shipowners step up their response to constant attacks. G4S, which provides services ranging from airport and sports event security to prison management and cash transportation, has been in the vessel security market since 2003, but only recently switched to using armed guards. “We’ve been doing it at an increasing level basically as a response to customer demand because of the threat posed off the coast of Somalia and the Indian Ocean generally,” a G4S spokesman told Reuters, adding that the FTSE 100 firm sees combating pirates as a big commercial opportunity. G4S, currently serving two large Far Eastern shipowners, said it may also offer armed protection to shipping off the west coast of Africa and the Strait of Malacca, off Malaysia, both scenes of increasing pirate activity. The switch in favour of armed vessel security comes after Britain and the United States last month reversed their opposition to it amid growing acceptance that weapons could be the best deterrent to Somali gangs who have been seizing ships and holding their crews and cargo to ransom for the last five years…
EUROPE
22. Chechen Shot Dead In Moscow: Incriminate The Usual Suspects
23. Turkey detains al-Qaida suspects http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/11/22/turkey_detains_al_qaida_suspects/ ANKARA, Turkey—Turkish police on Tuesday detained 15 people on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terror network, the state-run news agency said. The suspects were detained in simultaneous police raids in the central Anatolian city of Konya, the Anadolu Agency said. State-run TRT television said they were suspected al-Qaida members but gave no other details. Police would not comment. Earlier this year, police arrested a group accused of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy and another group in the southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base used by the United States to transfer noncombat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but was deterred by high security…
Parliament takes up bill against terror financing Sunday, November 20, 2011 Hurriyet Daily News ANKARA – A parliamentary commission will this week start delibrations on a bill on the prevention of the financing of terrorism, however the busy agenda might hamper efforts to pass through Parliament it before year-end. The draft will be taken up on Nov. 23 at Internal Affairs Commission, but it is not clear when it will reach the General Assembly. Debates on a long-delayed bill on the prevention of the financing of terrorism will begin this week in Parliament amid pressure from the United States and international bodies on Ankara to enact the measures…
24. Terror suspects accused of funding Pakistan training appears in court http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/8667 Four men were remanded in custody yesterday charged with terrorism offences. Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain, Shahid Kasam Khan, all 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in Central London. The men, all from Birmingham, are charged with fundraising for terrorist purposes, travelling to Pakistan for terrorist training and travelling abroad to commit acts of terrorism. They were arrested in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham by officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit last week…
25. 21/7 terrorist Siraj Ali back behind bars after Sunday Mirror investigation Fanatical 21/7 terrorist Siraj Ali was back behind bars last night thanks to a Sunday Mirror investigation. Counter-terrorism officers swooped on the hate-filled extremist, 35, after we handed over damning evidence that he was taking drugs inside a bail hostel. Ali — graded as the highest possible risk to the public — was recalled to prison after he tested positive for marijuana and will now spend the rest of his nine-year sentence in jail. The recall is a massive coup for counter-terrorism officers who were so concerned about Ali being back on the streets that they put him under round-the-clock surveillance. He was on an MI5 list of people under watch and the cost of monitoring him for the next few years would have run into millions. The bomber was jailed for 12 years, reduced to nine on appeal, for helping a gang of five Al Qaeda suicide bombers in their bid to repeat the carnage of July 7, 2005, two weeks later. Ali, who is foster brother of failed 21/7 bomber Yassin Omar and a friend of ringleader Muktar Said Ibrahim, knew about the planned bombings and helped the would-be suicide killers clear up their explosives factory…
26. Terrorist suspect to remain in pre-trial detention
COMMENT / ANALYSIS
28. After Egypt’s Revolution, Christians Are Living in Fear…
29. Pakistan’s Terror Connections: The American Behind India’s 9/11—And How U.S. Botched Chances to Stop Him
30. Brussels: The New Capital of Eurabia |
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