IMPORTANT NEWS UPDATES FROM THE INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT
http://www.investigativeproject.org/
General security, policy
1. Iranian underground missile bases enable ‘surprise launches’; US confirms Iran tested nuclear-capable ballistic missile; Iran’s ludicrous conviction of Jason Rezaian
2. US Navy civilian engineer sentenced to 11 years for attempted espionage for Egypt
3. TX man admits to lying about ISIS terrorist allegiances
4. State Dep’t report: Radical Islamist groups are the world’s chief religious persecutors
5. Haroon Aswat, Brit who plotted to set up OR terror training camp, sentenced to 20 yrs in prison
6. Federal appeals court revives lawsuit over NYPD surveillance of Muslims
7. Iranian-Canadian imprisoned for terrorism challenges possible loss of citizenship as ‘cruel & unusual’
8. Three weeks after kidnapping in Philippines, video surfaces of Canadians being held by Abu Sayyaf, affiliated with IS
Cyber, transportation, health, energy & communication security
9. ISIL-linked hacker arrested in Malaysia on US charges of providing material support to ISIL and computer hacking related to theft & distribution of US military and federal employee personal info
10. Terror watch list program glitch blamed for flight delays at major airports
11. Man who pointed laser at Tampa Police Department helicopter sentenced to prison
Financing, money laundering, fraud, identity theft, civil litigation
12. Two Hezbollah associates charged with conspiring to launder narcotics proceeds & with int’l arms trafficking
13. US Treasury sanctions prolific Chinese synthetic drug traffickers; 151 arrested in 16 states in probe of synthetic drug rings, proceeds traced to Middle East
14. Georgia man pleads guilty to operating unlicensed money transmitting business
15. New indictment adds bank fraud & financial aid fraud charges vs 2 Orange County men charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIL
Border security, immigration & customs
16. ACLU accuses US Border Patrol of profiling and abuse
17. Ontario man who ‘got the last laugh’ and slipped past no-fly list into Turkey now back in Canadian court
Other items
18. Montreal trio convicted in “honor” killings of 4 family members seek new trial, argue they were victims of “cultural stereotyping”
19. Molotov cocktail lobbed at 2 Jewish students in Midtown
International
20. IS tries to show it can govern in Iraq and Syria; Iraq using info from new intel center staffed by Russia, Iran & Syria to bomb IS, official says
21. Terror attacks in Israel: Terrorist disguised as journalist stabs IDF soldier near Hebron; Palestinian rioters set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus; Bomb-sniffing dog thwarts possible terror attack in E. Jerusalem
22. Turkish military downs drone that entered airspace from Syria; Investigators focus on home-grown Islamic State cell in Turkey bomb probe
23. Two new Lockerbie bombing suspects identified, including Gaddafi spy chief
24. I loved my terrorist son but I’m relieved he’s dead
25. In reversal, Obama says US soldiers will stay in Afghanistan to 2017
26. Bali-bombs boarding school graduates flocking to teach or fight with Islamic State; Bali bomber Ali Imron’s path to terror began at 10
Comment / analysis
27. Yaroslav Trofimov: America’s Fading Footprint in the Middle East
28. Stephen Dinan: Book: Obama, Clinton Left Libya a Terrorist Training Site
29. Eli Lake and Josh Rogin: Turkey Angers the Jihadists It Once Tolerated
30. Col. Richard Kemp: Palestinian and Western Leaders: Blood on Their Hands
31. Jeffrey Goldberg: The Paranoid, Supremacist Roots of the Stabbing Intifada
The Investigative Project on Terrorism Update is designed for 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.
THE AMERICAS
GENERAL SECURITY, POLICY
1. Iranian underground missile bases enable ‘surprise launches’
Iran may be able to fire its missiles from underground through surface vents.
By YAAKOV LAPPIN Jerusalem Post 10/16/2015 05:09
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12935
An underground Iranian missile launch base unveiled in recent days enables the Islamic Republic to store and covertly fire surface-to-surface missiles, a senior Israeli defense expert said. Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies in Herzliya, spoke on Wednesday after Iranian state television released images of large caves storing long-range missiles on-board mobile launches. He described the underground facility, whose location is unknown, as a “complex system of enormous tunnels.” These allow Iran to fire its missiles from underground, through surface vents… The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps showed off the secret mountain side facility on the semi-official Fars TV, Sky News reported on Thursday morning…
U.S. confirms Iran tested nuclear-capable ballistic missile
BY LOUIS CHARBONNEAU Reuters Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:03pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-iran-missiles-usa-idUSKCN0SA20Z20151016
UNITED NATIONS: The United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. “The United States is deeply concerned about Iran’s recent ballistic missile launch,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said in a statement. “After reviewing the available information, we can confirm that Iran launched on Oct. 10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon,” she said. “This was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929.” The United States is preparing a report on the incident for the Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee and will raise the matter directly with Security Council members “in the coming days,” Power said…
Iran’s ludicrous conviction of Jason Rezaian
By Editorial Board Washington Post October 12, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12952
FROM ITS beginning, the case of Jason Rezaian has been a showcase for the opacity, the brazen disregard for the rule of law and, ultimately, the sheer cruelty of Iran’s Islamic regime. Its latest twist is no different. On Sunday, Iranian state television reported that the 39-year-old Post reporter had been convicted in a trial that ended two months ago. Convicted of what? Punished with what sentence? We don’t know: The court’s spokesman told state television he didn’t have “the verdict’s details.” Nor, it appears, did Mr. Rezaian’s lawyer, who told the New York Times she had not been informed of the verdict and did not know whether Mr. Rezaian himself knew it. Mr. Rezaian, who was arrested with his wife in their home on July 22, 2014, was held for months in solitary confinement without charge, in violation of Iranian law. He was then subjected to a secret trial on several charges, reportedly including espionage, in which the prosecution presented no live witnesses and no substantial evidence. Now, well after the deadline set by law, he has been subjected to a secret verdict. His lawyer, Leila Ahsan, told the Times that while an appeal is possible, she can’t contest a judgment she hasn’t seen. “Now, I do not know what I am appealing against,” she was quoted as saying…
2. Navy Civilian Engineer Sentenced to 11 Years for Attempted Espionage
Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs Thursday, October 15, 2015
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/navy-civilian-engineer-sentenced-11-years-attempted-espionage
Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 36, of Yorktown, Virginia, was sentenced today to 132 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia for attempted espionage relating to his attempt to provide schematics of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to Egypt while serving as a Navy engineer… Awwad pleaded guilty on June 15, 2015. According to court documents…
3. Mesquite man admits to lying about ISIS terrorist allegiances
Kevin Krause Dallas Morning News Published: October 13, 2015 11:20 am
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/10/mesquite-man-admits-to-lying-about-terrorist-allegiances.html/
IPT NOTE: Court documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/714/us-v-abood
A Mesquite man has admitted to lying to the FBI about pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, federal authorities said. Bilal Abood, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to one count of making a false statement to a federal agency… He has been in federal custody since his May arrest. A sentencing date has not been scheduled. Abood pledged allegiance over social media to the leader of ISIS and forwarded propaganda from the terrorist network, prosecutors said. He also traveled to Syria, against the warning of the FBI, according to prosecutors. He was stopped at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and in San Antonio the first two times he tried to travel abroad but later crossed into Mexico and traveled to Syria through Turkey to fight with the Free Syrian Army, authorities say…
4. Islamic State, Extremist Groups Are World’s Chief Religious Persecutors, U.S. Report Says
Rise of extremist movements has wreaked havoc on religious liberties, according to a State Department report
By FELICIA SCHWARTZ Wall Street Journal Updated Oct. 14, 2015 1:44 p.m. ET
https://archive.is/Q2g5h
IPT NOTE: The International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 is posted at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm
WASHINGTON—The rise of the group calling itself Islamic State and associated extremist movements has wreaked havoc on religious liberties in the Middle East and elsewhere, as weak governments are unwilling or unable to intervene, according to a new State Department report on international religious freedom. Islamic State has pursued a practice of seeking to “eliminate members of any group it assessed as deviating from ISIL’s own violent and destructive interpretation of Islam,” the report said, using an acronym for the group that is also sometimes referred to as ISIS or Daesh. The annual assessment, issued Wednesday, covers 2014 and is the first since Islamic State began seizing swaths of land in Iraq and Syria and allying itself with militant groups across the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere. In presenting the report on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that, unlike in previous years, nonstate actors are now principal persecutors of religious minorities…
5. Man who plotted to set up US terror training camp sentenced
FoxNews.com Published October 16, 2015
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/16/man-who-plotted-to-set-up-us-terror-training-camp-sentenced/
IPT NOTE: Court documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/252/us-v-kassir-et-al
A man who pleaded guilty to plotting to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Oregon was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday. The judge sentenced Haroon Aswat to 120 months for each of the two terror charges to which he pleaded guilty. The British man admitted he traveled to Bly, Oregon, in 1999 at the direction of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, a double-amputee and radical cleric based in London. He said his orders were to help train recruits “who wanted to participate in jihad on behalf of a terrorist organization.”…
Terrorist Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Providing Material Support to Al Qaeda
Office of Public Affairs, Friday, October 16, 2015
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/terrorist-sentenced-20-years-prison-providing-material-support-al-qaeda
… Aswat was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom on Oct. 21, 2014. Aswat pleaded guilty on March 30, 2015, to one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and one count of providing material support to al Qaeda… According to the allegations contained in the indictment, statements made at related court proceedings including today’s sentencing, court fillings and evidence presented at prior trials:…
6. Appeals court revives lawsuit over NYPD surveillance of Muslims
By Josh Gerstein Politico.com 10/13/2015 02:46 PM EDT
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12936
IPT NOTE: The opinion is posted at http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/141688p.pdf
In a blistering opinion Tuesday, a federal appeals court revived a lawsuit challenging extensive surveillance efforts the New York Police Department conducted of Muslims in the years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted unanimously to reinstate the lawsuit, which was dismissed by a federal district judge in New Jersey last year… In the 59-page court opinion released Tuesday [and posted here], Ambro acknowledged the NYPD’s arguments that the program was intended to pursue terrorist threats, but said that alone did not excuse the clear focus on Muslims or tactics that could amount to discrimination…
7. Iranian-Canadian imprisoned for terrorism challenges possible loss of citizenship as ‘cruel and unusual’
Stewart Bell National Post October 14, 2015 4:59 PM ET
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12937
TORONTO — An Iranian-Canadian imprisoned in Edmonton for terrorism has filed a court challenge against federal legislation that could result in the loss of his citizenship, arguing it amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment.” Hiva Alizadeh, who pleaded guilty last year to possessing explosives with the intent to endanger life or damage property for the benefit of a terrorist group, wrote in his application to the Federal Court that the citizenship law harmed his right to security. Alizadeh is among nine convicted terrorists notified by Citizenship and Immigration Canada that their citizenship may be revoked under a law that came into force in May. A tenth, Toronto 18 bomb plot ringleader Zakaria Amara, has already been stripped of his citizenship…
8. Three weeks after kidnapping in Philippines, video surfaces of Canadians being held by gunmen
Stewart Bell National Post October 13, 2015 12:39 PM ET
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12938
Two Canadians kidnapped in the southern Philippines three weeks ago have surfaced in a video with what appear to be Abu Sayyaf gunmen who demand a halt to military operations against them before negotiations can begin. In the two-minute video posted online, the hostages identify themselves as Robert Hall, 50, and John Ridsdel, 68, who were abducted Sept. 21 from a marina on Samal Island along with Hall’s girlfriend and a Norwegian. A man can be seen gripping Ridsdel’s head with one hand and a machete with the other. The black and white flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with which Abu Sayyaf is affiliated, is show in the background…
CYBER, TRANSPORTATION, HEALTH, ENERGY & COMMUNICATION SECURITY
9. ISIL-Linked Hacker Arrested in Malaysia on U.S. Charges
Defendant Charged with Providing Material Support to ISIL and Computer Hacking Related to the Theft and Distribution of U.S. Military and Federal Employee Personal Information
Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs Thursday, October 15, 2015
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/isil-linked-hacker-arrested-malaysia-us-charges
IPT NOTE: The complaint is posted at http://www.justice.gov/opa/file/784501/download
Malaysian authorities have detained Kosovo citizen Ardit Ferizi in Malaysia on a U.S. provisional arrest warrant alleging that he provided material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and committed computer hacking and identity theft violations in conjunction with the theft and release of personally identifiable information (PII) of U.S. service members and federal employees. The criminal complaint was unsealed today. The United States is seeking his extradition to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial…
Malaysia arrests hacker for supplying U.S. targets to Islamic State
BY YANTOULTRA NGUI AND MARK HOSENBALL Reuters Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:00pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-malaysia-islamic-state-idUSKCN0SA05R20151016
KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON – At the request of the United States, Malaysia has arrested a man on charges of hacking personal data of more than a thousand U.S. officials and handing it to Islamic State militants in Syria so they could target the individuals. The man, 20-year-old Ardit Ferizi from Kosovo, who entered Malaysia in August 2014 to study computer science and forensics, will be extradited to the United States, police said on Thursday night. The suspect communicated with an Islamic State member in Syria about hacking servers containing information and details of U.S security personnel, Malaysian police said…
10. Terror watch list program glitch blamed for flight delays at major airports
Published October 15, 2015 FoxNews.com
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12939
The technical glitch that delayed flights at airports across the country was caused by a computer program that checks passengers against the federal secure flight watch list, a law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News Thursday. As this source familiar with the incident explained, the watch list automatically taps multiple databases, and this outage was essentially a “disruption in the chain.” According to this source, during the 90-minute outage Wednesday, screeners were still able to access this database but had to do so manually. U.S. officials say the computer program processes international travelers. The outage sparked widespread complaints on social media as customers complained of long lines at airports in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and other ports of entry into the U.S…
11. Man Who Pointed Laser At Tampa Police Department Helicopter Sentenced To Prison
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida Wednesday, October 14, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12949
Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich has sentenced Jeremy Wayne Sumpter (31, Garland, TX) to 12 months and one day in federal prison for knowingly aiming a laser at an aircraft. He pleaded guilty on March 24, 2015. According to court documents, on February 14, 2014, aviation officers with the Tampa Police Department (TPD) were flying in a Bell 407 helicopter during aerial patrol when they observed a green light illuminate the cockpit…
FINANCING, LAUNDERING, FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT, CIVIL LITIGATION
12. Two Hezbollah Associates Arrested On Charges Of Conspiring To Launder Narcotics Proceeds And International Arms Trafficking
Defendant Iman Kobeissi Charged with Conspiring to Sell Firearms to Members of a Terrorist Organization
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York Friday, October 9, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12940
Earlier today, Iman Kobeissi, also known as “Iman Kobeissu” and “Iman Kobreissi-Ghadry,” was arraigned at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, on money laundering conspiracy charges and unlicensed firearms dealing conspiracy for laundering funds she believed to be drug money, and for arranging for the sale of thousands of firearms, including military assault rifles, machine guns, and sniper rifles, to criminal groups in Iran and Lebanon, including Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization… Kobeissi was arrested yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia. An indictment was also unsealed today against Joseph Asmar, an alleged Hezbollah associate who is charged with money laundering conspiracy. Asmar, Kobeissi’s alleged co-conspirator, was arrested in Paris, France, on a provisional arrest warrant issued from the Eastern District of New York… According to court filings, the investigation, a DEA sting operation…
13. Treasury Sanctions Prolific Chinese Synthetic Drug Traffickers
Coordinated Sanctions and Law Enforcement Actions Target Major Synthetic Drug Trafficking Organization
US Department of the Treasury Press Release October 15, 2015
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0214.aspx
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Chinese national Bo Peng (alias Kevin Peng) and the company Kaikai Technology Co., Ltd. (Kaikai) as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for their significant role in international synthetic drug trafficking. Kaikai, a purported pharmaceutical and chemical products company based in China, is controlled or directed by, or acting for or on behalf of, Bo Peng… These designations complement law enforcement actions taken today by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other law enforcement partners under Project Synergy III, a coordinated initiative to target the synthetic drug industry…
151 Arrested in DEA-Led Investigation of Synthetic Drug Rings
Rogue Chinese labs producing for U.S. and global consumption; proceeds flow to Middle East countries
October 15, 2015 Contact: DEA Public Affairs (202) 307-7977
http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq101515.shtml
OCT 15 (WASHINGTON) – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), along with other federal, state, and local law enforcement today concluded a 15-month, nationwide drug interdiction effort that resulted in 151 arrests in 16 states. The enforcement action, known as Project Synergy III, targeted the synthetic designer drug industry, including wholesalers, money launderers and other criminal facilitators. In addition to curbing the flow of synthetic drugs into the country, Project Synergy III continues to reveal the flow of millions of dollars in U.S. synthetic drug proceeds to countries of concern in the Middle East…
14. Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to Operating Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business
Defendant Cashed Fraudulent Tax Refund Checks Totaling More than $1.3 Million
Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs Tuesday, October 13, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12941
A Columbus, Georgia, resident pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business… According to court documents, between February 2013 and March 2014, Sawan Shah, aka Sunny, 43, owned, operated and managed several money transmitting companies in the Columbus area. Shah offered check-cashing services to the public, including cashing checks that exceeded $1,000. Shah knew that he and his companies were required to be registered with Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and with the state of Georgia. Neither Shah nor any of the businesses he controlled were registered with FinCEN or the state of Georgia as a money transmitting business or as a check cashier…
15. New Indictment Adds Bank Fraud and Financial Aid Fraud Charges Against Two Orange County Men Charged with Conspiring to Provide Material Support to ISIL
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California Wednesday, October 7, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12942
IPT NOTE: Court documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/711/us-v-badawi-et-ano
Two Orange County men who were indicted in June 2015 for conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been indicted for additional charges involving bank fraud and financial aid fraud. Nader Elhuzayel, 25, and Muhanad Badawi, 24, both of Anaheim, California, were named in a superseding indictment returned today by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana. Elhuzayel is charged in the indictment with 25 counts of bank fraud, and Badawi is charged with one count of federal financial aid fraud. According to the first superseding indictment…
BORDER SECURITY, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS
16. Border Patrol Accused of Profiling and Abuse
By FERNANDA SANTOS New York Times OCT. 15, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12950
TUCSON —… But newly released complaints against United States Customs and Border Protection paint a disquieting portrait of the interactions between agents and many of those they stopped and searched… The accounts were culled from nearly 6,000 pages of complaints, arrest statistics and other records released in recent months to the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona by Customs and Border Protection’s overseer, the Department of Homeland Security, after the A.C.L.U. sued the department for access. Collectively, the documents, detailing encounters between motorists and border agents from January 2011 to August 2014, portray an agency whose fractured oversight system has enabled at least some agents working along the southern border to stretch the limits of law and professional courtesy while rarely facing meaningful consequences…
17. Windsor man who ‘got the last laugh’ and slipped past no-fly list into Turkey now back in Canadian court
Stewart Bell National Post October 16, 2015 12:01 PM ET
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12951
WINDSOR — Mohammed El Shaer was on a no-fly list, did not have a valid passport and was prohibited by his parole conditions from leaving Canada when he disappeared from Windsor, Ont. in February and somehow made his way Turkey. “I guess we know who got the last laugh,” the 27-year-old Palestinian-Canadian wrote in an email to a National Post reporter. “Allah’s plan has beaten your fragile entire nation’s plan. May Allah guide you to the truth or destroy you.” But on Friday, El Shaer was no longer laughing as he appeared in a Windsor courtroom by video link, charged with six documents fraud and parole violation offences after police arrested him as he was returning from the Middle East. According to Ontario court records, police charged him on Sept. 23 with making a statement he knew was false to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for the purposes of obtaining a passport. He was also charged with breach of probation… It was the third time in less than two years El Shaer had been arrested after returning from trips to the Middle East. His first came after he traveled with a Canadian Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant fighter who is wanted by the RCMP for terrorism…
OTHER ITEMS
18. Shafia trio convicted in slayings of four family members seek new trial
Argue they were victims of “cultural stereotyping” at murder trial
ROB TRIPP, SPECIAL TO MONTREAL GAZETTE Published on: October 13, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12943
A Montreal father, mother and son convicted nearly four years ago of murdering four other family members in an honour killing argue, in an appeal to Ontario’s top court, that they were victims of “cultural stereotyping” and “overwhelmingly prejudicial evidence” that should not have been admitted at their murder trial. In a 110-page document filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Mohammad Shafia, 62, his wife Tooba, 45, and their son Hamed, 24, claim they’re entitled to a new trial. The document is a concise outline of the evidence and legal argument that lawyers for the three will present at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 14. The trio, who were tried together, complains that the trial judge, Justice Robert Maranger, made numerous errors of “misdirection and non-direction” that may have permitted jurors to make improper conclusions. The three were each convicted in January 2012 of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Shafia sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti, 13, and Rona Amir, 52, Shafia’s first wife in the polygamous 10-member Afghan family that came to Canada in 2007 and settled in Montreal. The three were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. They have been behind bars since the convictions…
19. Molotov cocktail lobbed at 2 Israeli students in Midtown
By Michael Gartland, Amber Sutherland & Daniel Prendergast New York Post October 11, 2015 7:57pm
http://nypost.com/2015/10/11/molotov-cocktail-tossed-at-2-israeli-students-in-midtown/
A Molotov cocktail was hurled at two Israeli rabbinical students as they walked in Midtown, and cops are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, said law-enforcement sources and witnesses Sunday. he unidentified attacker hurled a glass Snapple bottle filled with some type of accelerant at Yosef Rachimi and Yisrael Gadasi, both 19, near the corner of West 37th Street and Ninth Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Friday, sources said… Meanwhile, police were investigating another possible bias attack in Brooklyn after an Orthodox Jewish mother had unknown objects hurled at her as she pushed a baby carriage past the Bangladesh Muslim Center in Kensington on Saturday, police said…
MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
20. Islamic State Tries to Show It Can Govern in Iraq and Syria
Terrorist group’s media machine steps up positive propaganda in its sales pitch describing a utopian state to Muslims
By MARGARET COKER and ALEXIS FLYNN Wall Street Journal Oct. 13, 2015 7:39 p.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-a-shift-islamic-state-tries-to-show-it-can-govern-1444779561
In a bustling Iraqi city, road crews fill potholes, while hundreds of miles away in Syria administrators prepare for the new school year and bureaucrats implement a new crop-watering regimen. Welcome to a week in Islamic State—or at least the vision of the state the terrorist group wants to portray to Muslims skeptical of its self-ascribed authority. Last year, Islamic State stormed to prominence with its ruthless military tactics and brutal execution videos. Now, its media machine has pivoted to a different—yet still controversial—sales pitch: that it is energetically building the utopian state its puritanical ideology promises. During a single month this summer, from mid-July to mid-August, Islamic State produced nearly 900 pieces of Arab-language propaganda, including radio broadcasts, public-service announcements, pamphlets and religious decrees. More than half of this output—52%—focused on quality-of-life issues like food, utilities and schools, while 37% was devoted to military themes. Scenes of brutality, like execution videos, comprised 2%…
Iraq using info from new intelligence center to bomb Islamic State, official says
BY BABAK DEHGHANPISHEH Reuters Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:03pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-russia-iran-idUSKCN0S71JC20151013
BAGHDAD – Iraq has started bombing Islamic State with help from a new intelligence center that has staff from Russia, Iran and Syria, a senior parliamentary figure said on Tuesday about cooperation seen as a threat to U.S. interests in the region. The center has been operational for about a week, and it provided intelligence for air strikes on a gathering of middle-level Islamic State figures, Hakim al Zamili, the head of parliament’s defense and security committee, told Reuters. The new security apparatus based in Baghdad suggests the United States is losing clout in a strategic oil-producing region where it has been heavily invested for years. Two weeks ago Russia started bombing anti-government rebels in neighboring Syria, including Islamic State, to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, to the consternation of the West. Iraqi officials, frustrated with the pace and depth of the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State, have said they will lean heavily on Washington’s former Cold War rival Russia in the battle against the insurgents…
21. Terrorist disguised as journalist stabs IDF soldier near Hebron
Soldier sustains moderate wounds; attacker shot dead at scene.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN Jerusalem Post 10/16/2015 13:53
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12944
IPT NOTE: For details of terror attacks & victims, see
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx (October 2015 attacks); http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12898 (attacks since Sept. 2000); and http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/11981 (individual bios of all victims killed since Sept. 2000).
A Palestinian disguised as a photojournalist stabbed and moderately wounded an IDF soldier near the West Bank city of Hebron, police reported Friday. The stabbing incident occurred at Zayit Junction, in the Kiryat Arba area. The terrorist was shot dead at the scene. During the incident, the terrorist approached the soldier wearing a “press” flak jacket and carrying camera… The attack came as Hamas called for a “day of rage” against Israel as two weeks of violence continued.
Palestinian rioters set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
PA forces douse the flames and disperse some hundred rioters, who caused heavy damage to the West Bank holy site
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF October 16, 2015, 4:54 am
http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-try-to-set-fire-to-josephs-tomb-in-nablus/
A large group of Palestinians set fire to the compound containing Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus. Channel 2 television said Palestinian Authority security forces dispersed the hundred-strong crowd and managed to douse the fire at the tomb, believed to contain the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the scene once the confrontation was over and the fire was out, the television station reported…
Bomb-sniffing Labrador thwarts possible terror attack in E. Jerusalem
Border Police dog uncovers pipe bomb at Isawiyah checkpoint; sappers neutralize explosive device
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF October 16, 2015, 2:30 pm
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bomb-sniffing-labrador-thwarts-possible-terror-attack-in-e-jerusalem/
A bomb-sniffing police dog thwarted a possible terror attack in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyah on Friday, according to police. “Taj,” a Labrador in the Border Police Canine Unit, discovered a pipe bomb at a checkpoint leading from the East Jerusalem neighborhood to the main road into Ma’ale Adumim, just outside the capital, police said in a statement. Sappers arrived at the scene and disabled the explosive device…
Wave of terror October 2015
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs 14 Oct 2015
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx
The recent series of attacks against Israelis is the direct result of incitement by radical Islamist and terrorist elements, calling on Palestinian youth to murder Jews. Seven have been killed this month…
Palestinian incitement and terrorism: Truth and lies
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs 14 Oct 2015
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Issues/Pages/Palestinian-incitement-and-terrorism-Oct-2015.aspx
Security Cabinet approves anti-terror measures
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs 13 Oct 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12945
The Security Cabinet convened to continue its discussions on the security situation and approved a series of additional steps to deal with the wave of terrorism…
PM Netanyahu addresses Knesset on security situation
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs 13 Oct 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12946
Rocket fire from Gaza and Palestinian ceasefire violations after Operation Cast Lead (Jan 2009)
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs 14 Oct 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12947
Kerry Tells Abbas to Stop Inciting While Fatah and Hamas Call for More Attacks
by IPT News • Oct 16, 2015 at 2:04 pm
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5006/kerry-tells-abbas-to-stop-inciting-while-fatah
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry finally told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cease inciting violence after weeks of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis, the Times of Israel reports…
EUROPE
22. Turkish Military Downs Drone That Entered Airspace from Syria
Russia says all its aircraft returned to its base
By EMRE PEKER Wall Street Journal Updated Oct. 16, 2015 11:52 a.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkish-military-downs-unidentified-aircraft-violating-airspace-1444992779
ISTANBUL—Turkey said Friday it shot down a drone that violated its airspace from over the border with Syria. The aircraft continued its breach despite three warnings, and was then shot down by Turkish jets patrolling the Syrian border, Turkey’s military said. It didn’t specify which country it belonged to or how it warned the aircraft. The incident highlights the risks in the region’s crowded airspace as Russia ramps up its air campaign in support of the Syrian regime and U.S.-led coalition forces, including Turkish jets, bomb Islamic State in Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry said all its warplanes had returned to their base in Syria after completing missions and that its drones were operating normally. Russia, the U.S. and Israel operate drones over Syria. Ankara tightened its engagement rules after Syria downed a Turkish reconnaissance jet in June 2012, and treats any approach from Syria as a military threat. Since then, Turkey has downed one Syrian MiG-23 jet and two helicopters. Damascus maintains that one of those was a drone…
Investigators focus on home-grown Islamic State cell in Turkey bomb probe
BY HUMEYRA PAMUK AND ORHAN COSKUN Reuters Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:18pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-turkey-explosion-investigation-idUSKCN0S72AO20151013
ISTANBUL/ANKARA Turkish investigators believe an Islamic State cell from the southeastern town of Adiyaman, thought to have been behind previous attacks in the country, may have carried out a double suicide bombing that killed 97 people in the capital Ankara. Turkey’s Human Rights Association said several families from the town had approached authorities in recent years expressing concern their sons could have left to join Islamic State in Syria. It said there had been no proper investigation. Two bombs exploded seconds apart on Saturday, targeting a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups near Ankara’s main train station, three weeks ahead of a general election. It was the worst attack of its kind in Turkish history, triggering protests against what critics of President Tayyip Erdogan and the government see as a major intelligence failure…
23. Tripoli confirms new Lockerbie suspects include Gaddafi spy chief
BY AHMED ELUMAMI Reuters Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:17am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-scotland-lockerbie-libya-idUSKCN0SA14V20151016
TRIPOLI Tripoli’s government on Friday named the two new Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing investigation as Abdullah al-Senussi, the former spy chief of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a second man, Mohammed Abu Ejaila. Senussi is currently being held in a jail in Tripoli after he was sentenced for his role in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi. No details were immediately available on the second suspect in the 1988 airline bombing that killed 270 people. But one person familiar with the case said Ejaila may also be known as Mohammed Abouajela Masud, a known bomb maker…
24. I loved my terrorist son but I’m relieved he’s dead
A home counties mother tells Richard Kerbaj how her loving son became a jihadist who beheaded Christians and torched churches
Richard Kerbaj The Sunday Times (London) Published: 10 October 2015
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/focus/article1618299.ece [subscription req’d]
My Son the Jihadi, produced by Richard Kerbaj, will be broadcast on Channel 4 on October 22 at 9pm
When Sally Evans opens her pantry door each morning, she sees a picture of a smiling face. Her eldest son, Thomas, painted it in green, pink and purple when he was a boy of four. It reminds her of him as a child. Today she is tortured by the knowledge that her boy grew up to be not just a strapping 6ft 2in Manchester United fan but also a white jihadist who committed terrible atrocities. She believes he is “burning in hell” for his crimes. His bedroom overlooks the back garden of her tidy semi-detached house on an estate in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A favourite black T-shirt lies in the wardrobe. It was in the wash on the day that he left to join al-Shabaab, the Islamist extremist group that has brought terror to east Africa…
ASIA / PACIFIC
25. In Reversal, Obama Says U.S. Soldiers Will Stay in Afghanistan to 2017
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and MICHAEL D. SHEAR New York Times OCT. 16, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama halted the withdrawal of American military forces from Afghanistan on Thursday, announcing that the United States will keep thousands of troops in the country through the end of his term in 2017 and indefinitely prolonging the American role in a war that has already lasted 14 years. In a brief statement from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Mr. Obama said he continued to oppose the idea of “endless war.” But the president, who once traveled to Afghanistan to declare “the light of a new day on the horizon,” said Thursday that a longer-term American presence there was vital to the security of the United States and a country that is beset by the Taliban, their allies from Al Qaeda, and militants from the Islamic State. “While America’s combat mission in Afghanistan may be over, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people endures,” said Mr. Obama, flanked by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and top military leaders. “I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.”…
26. Bali-bombs boarding school graduates flocking to teach or fight with Islamic State
BYLINE: DEBORAH CASSRELS, BALI The Australian October 12, 2015 Monday
SECTION: THENATION; Pg. 6
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12948 [requires subscription]
Graduates of the Islamic boarding school in east Java where the 2002 Bali bombs were planned have increasingly been linked to Islamic State, new research shows. Jailed Bali bomber Ali Imron, now 45, told an Indonesian academic researching jihadi-inclined pesantrens or boarding schools that a number of ex-students were associated with the terror organisation. “Some of the students who learned directly from Ali Imron and Mukhlas in the 1990s are now spiritual teachers of IS,” Badrus Sholeh, head of the department of international relations, social and political sciences at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, said Imron told him. “Many are fighting in Syria with IS. Some are committed to being suicide bombers and about three have been killed recently, -according to teachers.”…
EXCLUSIVE: Bali bomber Ali Imron’s path to terror began at 10
by: Deborah Cassrels, JAKARTA
The Weekend Australian OCTOBER 10, 2015 12:00AM
https://archive.is/gMjPa [requires subscription]
Bali bomber Ali Imron was hardwired for violent jihad from the tender age of 10. His early radical family ties laid the foundation. But it was the indoctrination of jailed firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was behind the bombings, that was the catalyst for Imron’s life as a terrorist. Thirteen years on from the bombings, Imron, in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian at Jakarta’s police headquarters detention centre, describes his part in the carnage in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed. Recalling Bashir’s call to jihad through the voice of Mukhlas — the brother Imron idolised — Imron said he was instantly hooked. “I was a militant at 10 years old,” he says. “Mukhlas (Ali Gufron) was the most influential person in my life. I looked up to him. I did whatever he said. It started when I was at elementary school. I was 10.” Imron says Mukhlas was teaching him how to found an ¬Islamic state when he was studying at the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school in Solo, central Java, under the guidance of Jemaah Islamiah leader Bashir…
COMMENT / ANALYSIS
27. America’s Fading Footprint in the Middle East
As Russia bombs and Iran plots, the U.S. role is shrinking—and the region’s major players are looking for new ways to advance their own interests
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV The Wall Street Journal THE SATURDAY ESSAY Oct. 9, 2015 1:32 p.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-fading-footprint-in-the-middle-east-1444411954 [subscription]
28. Book: Obama, Clinton left Libya a terrorist training site
Pete Hoekstra writes that pair wrongly ousted Gadhafi from power
by Stephen Dinan Washington Times October 13, 2015
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5000/book-obama-clinton-left-libya-a-terrorist and
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/13/hillary-clintons-libya-failures-highlighted-in-arc/
For more on the book “Architects of Disaster,” click http://www.architectsofdisaster.com/
29. Turkey Angers the Jihadists It Once Tolerated
By Eli Lake & Josh Rogin Bloomberg View OCT 13, 2015 8:53 AM EDT
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-13/turkey-angers-the-jihadists-it-once-tolerated
Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes about politics and foreign affairs. He was previously the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast. Josh Rogin is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes about national security and foreign affairs. He has previously worked for the Daily Beast, Newsweek, Foreign Policy magazine, the Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and Asahi Shimbun.
30. Palestinian and Western Leaders: Blood on Their Hands
by Richard Kemp Gatestone Institute October 16, 2015 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6703/palestinian-blood-hands
Colonel Richard Kemp spent most his 30-year career in the British Army commanding front-line troops in fighting terrorism and insurgency in hotspots including Iraq, the Balkans, South Asia and Northern Ireland. He was Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan in 2003. From 2002 – 2006 he headed the international terrorism team at the Joint Intelligence Committee of the British Prime Minister’s Office.
31. The Paranoid, Supremacist Roots of the Stabbing Intifada
Knife attacks on Jews in Jerusalem and elsewhere are not based on Palestinian frustration over settlements, but on something deeper.
Jeffrey Goldberg The Atlantic October 16, 2015 12:45 PM ET
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/12953
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