Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• As Andrew noted on Monday, there was recently a coup attempt in the Philippines. While the actual plot was foiled, about 70 of the plotters (members of the Filippino equivalent of the Special Forces) managed to escape and then proceeded to seize control of a major commercial center in Manila, holding the Australian ambassador and 2 Americans hostage. The plotters finally surrendered, but are claiming a moral victory. It appears that the renegade soldiers had some significant backing within elements of the Filippino government, as at least one cabinet member has been detained in connection with the plot.

• Something extremely weird took place recently took place in Malawi. First, five al-Qaeda operatives, including a member of the Saudi royal family, were arrested by the CIA and the Malawian National Intelligence Bureau, as they were on a watch list of people linked to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. A judge initially tried to block the deportation order, but all five suspects were placed in US custody and presumably en route to Guantanamo, prompting a riot in Blantyre that got so far out of hand that the government had to call in the army to restore order. But no sooner are things back to normal in Blantyre than do the five individuals in question turn up in Sudan, claiming that they have been cleared of all charges.

• RFE/RL has a fairly thorough analysis up of Iran's relationship with al-Qaeda and a plausible explanation why the nation is behaving in the manner it is.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq and Iran updates; President Bush's press conference; more possible hijackings; thwarted attack against the US Embassy in Ottawa; seiges underway in Monrovia and Buchanan; battles against the Taliban and warlords in Afghanistan; al-Qaeda's brain trust, terrorist training camps and shoot-outs in Saudi Arabia; a raid on al-Muhajiroun; Equatoria Guinea's new god, a peaceful transition of power in Sao Tome; Australia's planned deployment in the Solomon Islands; an update on the kidnapped Algerian tourists; and a satire by Mark Steyn on how today's BBC might take the news of Mussolini's death.

read the rest! »
 

From The Australian :

The reversal came after Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director general Dennis Richardson, Attorney-General Daryl Williams and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer all said the US warning was wrong.
...
Mr Richardson said he believed an honest bureaucratic error was probably to blame.

"Unfortunately the threat advisory issued by the (US) Department of Homeland Security in so far as it referred to Australia, did not accurately reflect the intelligence which was available to that department," he said.

"The intelligence on which that threat advisory was based did not refer to Australia as being a target."

"It referred to Australia as being a point of origin."

<sarcasm>Whew! That's all right then.</sarcasm>

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Bali bomb suspect Amrozi has told journalists that he would welcome a death sentence when he receives a verdict next week.
...
He says his death could spawn a million people just like him.

Amrozi joked and sang during a meeting with his lawyers.

Amrozi sang a tune about Jihad he said he wrote in jail, ending with calls to expel what he called "the filthy Christians and cruel Zionists".

He joked when asked if he had a message for victims, and he said he looked forward to the painless death of a martyr, and had done since he was a child.

If I believed in the Death penalty, I'd say burning at the stake would be appropriately painless. But I don't, so I won't.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A Perth man accused of plotting to bomb Israeli diplomatic premises in Sydney and Canberra will stand trial in May next year.

Jack Roche made a brief appearance in the Perth District Court today.

Roche, a Muslim convert, has pleaded not guilty to two conspiracy charges under the Commonwealth Crimes Act.

Full details of the charges have been supressed.

It is alleged he conspired with others to bomb the Israeli consulate in Sydney and the Israeli embassy in Canberra.

CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A high-level al Qaeda operative was one of the sources of information leading to the latest warning about possible suicide hijackings of airliners, a government source told CNN Wednesday.

The source said Ali Abd al-Rahman al Faqasi al-Ghamdi -- allegedly one of the key organizers of the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 23 people, including nine Americans -- gave information concerning possible hijackings.

He surrendered to Saudi authorities in June and is being held by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval station, the source said.

More...

AsiaOne:

BALI - Al-Qaeda may have financed the attacks on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 202 people, an imprisoned Muslim radical said on Thursday at the trial of a key bombing suspect.

Wan Min Wan Mat, who is in prison in Malaysia, spoke via videolink at the trial of Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, the alleged operations head of Jemaah Islamiah, the regional terror group blamed for carrying out the two nightclub bombings on Oct 12.

Ghufron is one of four top suspects currently on trial for the attacks that shattered the peace in one of the world's premier tourist destinations.

More...

Jewish Weekly:

Israeli security forces have nabbed al-Qaeda operatives who were preparing to recruit others and establish a terrorist base in Israel, Israeli Deputy UN Ambassador Aryeh Mekel told the Security Council. Mekel said the operatives were carrying foreign passports when they were picked up attempting to enter the country.

NEWS.com:

Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists are using children carrying pen bombs to attack US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said after two children were injured by an exploding pen.

"There are reports of anti-coalition forces typically using non-threatening children, women and handicapped people to approach coalition forces with exploding ink pens as a method of attack on the coalition," Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul.

"I can only characterise the use of children to behave in such a manner as despicable," he said.

More...

July 30/03: Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings normally run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. This Regional Briefing focuses on Central Asia and "the -stans," including Afghanistan.

TOP TOPIC

• Taliban forces based in Pakistan are intensifying attacks on US and Afghan government forces. According to the top US general in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters and affiliated Islamic militants have divided eastern Afghanistan into three zones for launching attacks. Meanwhile, al Qaeda is organizing openly in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Other Topics Today Include: al-Qaeda's new Afghan offensive; Afghanistan/Pakistan ties strained; The new Afghan Army; "aid" workers; Preserving Afghanistan's cultural heritage; Azeris in Iran push for change; Russian-led rapid reaction force in Kyrgyzstan; Chechnya - a lesson for China?; 'Oil curse' for Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan?; Central Asia's water crisis; and The Agonist cheats death in Tibet.

read the rest! »

Noah Shachtman of Defense Tech wonders if the Penatgon made a mistake in canceling its Policy Analysis Market.

"The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) fumed, as he brought the project to the general public's attention.

But supporters of the program point out that gathering intelligence is often a messy business, with payoffs to unsavory characters and the elimination of potential adversaries. The futures market, ugly as it may sound, doesn't involve any of those moral compromises, said Robin Hanson, one of the earlier promoters of the concept of trading floors for ideas and a PAM project contributor. It's just a way of capturing people's collective wisdom.

"Among the many things we do for intelligence, this is one of the least reprehensible," Hanson said. "Paying people to tell us about bad things. That's intrinsic to the intelligence process."

And a trading floor could be more effective than paying off a snitch.

Read the rest, as they say.

Ha'aretz:

Fawzal Abdullah Mohammed, a senior activist in al Qaida who is believed responsible for attacks against Israeli and American targets in Kenya and Tanzania recently arrived in east Africa and is plotting an attack with a light aircraft against an Israeli or American target, say Israeli security sources. He is on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists.

He is said to be directly responsibility for the two attacks in Mombassa, Kenya last November - a booby trapped car blew up at the Paradise Hotel, killing three Israelis and 11 Kenyans and a shoulder-launched missile was fired at an Arkia plane. Fawzal Abudllah Mohammed is is also tied to the plots to
blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, where some 250 people were killed.

More...

AP:

Saudi authorities said Muslim militants arrested or killed in recent police raids were trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan and possibly Saudi Arabia itself, acknowledging for the first time the kingdom may have been infiltrated by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terror network.

The revelation that al-Qaida may have Saudi training facilities contrasted with earlier attempts by Saudi officials to play down the extent of al-Qaida's presence in the kingdom.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said most of the suspects "received their military training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan," but acknowledged "a small number perhaps were trained on farms and the like inside the country." His comments were carried in an interview published Tuesday in the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

More...

Fox News...

Al Qaeda may be planning new airline hijack attacks similar to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks for later this summer, Fox News has confirmed. Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network was blamed for the 2001 attacks, and interviews with captured Al Qaeda members along with electronic intercepts describe scenarios similar to Sept. 11.

Full Story....

MSNBC reports that two US senators object to Policy Analysis Market:

But a pair of U.S. Senators doesn't think this is all such a great idea. On Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) called on the Defense Department to halt the project, saying the "terror-wagering scheme" was a waste of taxpayer dollars -- especially after a recent report on Sept. 11 citing breakdowns in conventional intelligence gathering.

"We don?t need a lot of fictional scenarios," said Wyden in a telephone interview. "We're not dealing with communication and follow-through in the real world; we think that's what ought to be the focus, rather than trying to chase down these mysterious scenarios with taxpayers dollars."

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-SD) and Ron Wyden(D-OR) say in a letter to the Pentagon:

"The example that you provide in your report would let participants gamble on the question, 'Will terrorists attack Israel with bioweapons in the next year?' Surely, such a threat should be met with intelligence gathering of the highest quality - not by putting the question to individuals betting on an Internet website," the Senators wrote to Poindexter. "Spending taxpayer dollars to create terrorism betting parlors is as wasteful as it is repugnant. The American people want the Federal government to use its resources enhancing our security, not gambling on it."

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted of AndrewOlmsted.com.

TOP TOPICS

* The U.S. is adopting more aggressive tactics in Iraq. MSNBC does a very good job of describing the tactics, the adjustments from both sides, and the results: 300 Iraqi fedayeen dead, rewards for U.S. troops up over 1500% to induce cooperation, more intelligence, fewer 'contact' incidents of fire. I'm not big on body counts etc., but the tactical descriptions tell us a lot. The Toronto Star adds more first-hand accounts.

* Bring 'em on? Apparently terrorists are taking President Bush at his word. U.S. commander Ricardo Sanchez reports that Iraq has become a magnet for foreign terrorists looking to attack Americans. In the long run this will be a good thing, but it also means a higher casualty rate for the foreseeable future.

* JK: Andrew won't link to this, but I will: his initial thoughts about the 9/11 Congressional Report. Matt Yglesias, meanwhile, notes some interesting things about Afghanistan, and the Saudis. Just ask Omar Bayyumi.

Other Topics Today Include: WMD updates; Japan to Iraq; al-Qaeda in Iran; FBI & TTIC; Israel releases 200 terrorists from jail; Syria; Phillipines aftermath & implications; Malaysia warns Burma; America marks the 50th anniversary of the Korean War armistice as NK prepares for a nuclear test; and the humourous "Ig Nobel" prizes.

read the rest! »

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Six Muslim militants and two policemen were killed in a shootout with Saudi security forces trying to arrest wanted Islamists on Monday, Saudi television said.

The television, quoting an interior ministry official, said eight other policemen were wounded in the clash in a farm in the Qassim province - an Islamist heartland in the north-east of Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

AP:

Dozens of digruntled soldiers stormed a major commercial center in Manila's financial district early Sunday, hours after the Philippine president ordered the arrest of mutinous officers believed to be plotting a coup.

Heavily armed men in camouflage uniforms rigged explosives at several locations around the Glorietta complex, which includes one of the capital's largest shopping malls, and in front of the adjacent Intercontinental Hotel. Guests were barred from leaving for their safety.

"These explosives are set to defend our position. If they try to take us down, we will be forced to use it," navy Lt. Sr. Grade Antonio Trillanes, one of the officers Arroyo ordered arrested, told reporters on the scene.

More...

NY Times (reg. req'd)

Senior officials of Saudi Arabia have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable groups and other organizations that may have helped finance the September 2001 attacks, a still-classified section of a Congressional report on the hijackings says, according to people who have read it.

The 28-page section of the report was deleted from the nearly 900-page declassified version released on Thursday by a joint committee of the House and Senate intelligence committees. The chapter focuses on the role foreign governments played in the hijackings, but centers almost entirely on Saudi Arabia, the people who saw the section said.

More...

Arab News:

MANILA, 26 July 2003 — The third highest ranking official of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist network has admitted to US authorities that he plotted in Manila the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, CNN reported last night.

CNN said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested overseas earlier this year, admitted during interrogation that he and his nephew Ramzi Yousef planned in 1994 the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

That same year, CNN reported, the two “admitted” slipping 14 bottles containing liquid explosives into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. They said they used plastic bottles of contact lens solutions as containers, according to the international news network.

Mohammed supposedly concealed a metal detonator between his toes and carried other pieces of metal and jewelry to confuse airport authorities.

More...

I'll post the link to CNN's story when I find it.

AP:

CASABLANCA, Morocco - A suspect in a string of suicide bombings in Morocco that killed 44 people admitted in court Friday that he failed in a key part of his mission — to blow himself up during the attacks.

Among the 35 suspected Islamic militants present as their trial resumed were three alleged bombers who survived the May 16 attacks in Casablanca.

One of the would-be bombers — Mohamed El Omari, a 23-year-old night watchman — told the court he was "not happy with the (political) situation in Morocco" and "hoped to blow myself up" at a major downtown hotel that was targeted in the attacks.

More...

This is priceless. MuslimPundit isn't exactly happy about having to share his residence in the British Isles with the likes of hate-spewing jihadis like Abu Hamza. The good news is, he may not have to much longer. Or as Adil puts it: Stupidity, Thy Name is Abu Hamza Al-Misri....

"When he isn't inciting supporters to combat their humiliation with arms and martyrs (and then accidentally blowing his own limbs off with home-made explosives), Abu Hamza "Captain Hook" al-Misri casts a blind eye to the resolve of those "soft, weak" Brits who do not subscribe to his mad delusions of grandeur:

"Hamza is said to have been so convinced by a British undercover investigator posing as an extremist website operator that he allegedly sent him several secret propaganda films designed to attract new recruits. The videos were used, say investigators, to convince British Muslims to undergo jihad training at camps in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

The tapes and e-mails were obtained by Glen Jenvey, a 38-year-old freelance counterintelligence investigator from Wiltshire, over a period of more than a year. As the evidence flowed in, Jenvey forwarded it to the FBI, which is now building a case to extradite Hamza to America.

Ah, these plucky infidels and their personal home computers. This is playing dirty, and I advocate it strongly....

read the rest! »

Saif al-eslam Gadhafi, son of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, tells CNN's Judy Woodruff:

"I would like to send this message to the American people and the American government that we, the Libyan people, we want to have a more constructive and fruitful relationship with the Americans. . . . We don't want confrontation and aggression and, you know, to fight anymore. It's over. It's behind us now. It's dead with the Cold War."

As WSJ Best of the Web editor James Taranto notes: "Smart boy. He knows what happens to dictators' sons who do seek confrontation with America."

Just in case you had any lingering doubts, Saif.... As for Syria and Iran, another warning from U.S. President Bush to reinforce the concept.

New Flash from FOX News (full AP text is here).

President Bush said that Syria and Iran continue to harbor terrorists.

"...today Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorists. This behavior is completely unacceptable and states that support terror will be held accountable.

Supporting and harboring terrorists undermines the prospects for peace in the Middle East and betrays the true interests of the Palestinian people."

Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Dan Darling really ought to become a spook or something. Another unbelievable briefing today...

TOP TOPICS

• Earlier this week, Reuters ran a story that was apparently designed to debunk an audiotape claiming to be from al-Qaeda's Fallujah branch. Their experts were less than satisfactory in my own opinion, so I set about analyzing their claims for your reading pleasure.

• Robert over at Alphabet City notes that yet another Iraqi resistance group has emerged (guess we'll have to add that one to the pile) and correctly notes that the Democrats' criticism of the Bush administration over the Niger flap has likely emboldened the Iraqi insurgents and their foreign backers. He also has a nice analysis of the Virginia-based Lashkar-e-Taiba cell here and here. I would add that among the Lashkar-e-Taiba's various antics in Indian Kashmir, they also hosted Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan after the Taliban's defeat in Afghanistan.

• As other bloggers have noted, Cuba is jamming the US-based Iranian satellite TV stations, but there also appears to be a possibility that the jamming is also being orchestrated by Hezbollah operatives in Latin America, who have a substantial presence, along with al-Qaeda, in the Triple Border area. This also brings to mind Fidel Castro's remarks in 2001 that by working together Cuba and Iran can bring America to its knees.

Other Topics Today Include: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea updates; a coup in Sao Tome; killings in Liberia; a bin Laden aide turned over to the US; al-Ghozi's great escape; thwarted attacks in Indonesia; a Chechnya update; Graham's numbers; a claim of responsibility in the Quetta attack; and a killer kangaroo.

read the rest! »

BBC:

A Palestinian man has stabbed three people in Tel Aviv, in what police describe as the first case of political violence in an Israeli city since Palestinian groups declared a truce in June.

One of the victims later died in hospital.

The attacker was shot in the leg and restrained by security guards from a nearby restaurant until police arrived.

The man, reported to be a 23-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, told investigators that he is a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

More...

AP:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban fighters attacked a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan, killing the police chief and four other officers, an official said Tuesday.

Two other policemen were wounded in the attack Monday in Ghorak district, 72 miles northwest of Kandahar, said Mohammed Salim, deputy police chief in Kandahar.

About 12 suspected Taliban drove up to the district police headquarters in two cars and a pickup truck. They stormed the station killing police chief Sakza Mama and his men.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Salim blamed the Taliban, who are usually the first ones to be accused of any attack on government offices in Afghanistan.
More...

CNN :

WASHINGTON -- A congressional report will soon reveal close ties between residents of Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, two senior lawmakers said Sunday.

"It would be embarrassing, I think, to a lot of people there," Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

The classified report is the result of an investigation into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The report, or portions of it, is expected to be declassified soon.

"There are a lot of high people in Saudi Arabia, over the years, that have aided and abetted Osama bin Laden and his group. And they've done it through charities, they've done it directly and everything else," Shelby said. "What we've got to do is find the truth."

The Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi Arabia for cracking down on terrorists and those who've supported terrorist groups financially.

More...

CNN:

MADRID, Spain -- Spanish police have deactivated a powerful bomb in a Pamplona hotel they say was placed by the Basque separatist group ETA.

The hotel was filled with visitors attending the annual San Fermin Fiesta which includes the famed running of the bulls, authorities said. No one was injured.

Police evacuated the 138-room Hotel Maisonnave and nearby apartment buildings after receiving a phone call on Sunday warning them of the bomb. They found the 4 kilogram explosive device in a women's bathroom at the hotel, a government statement said.

More...

From Ha'aretz:

A man was killed late Monday night when a Palestinian armed with a knife tried to enter the Tarabin club on Tel Aviv's promenade near the border with Jaffa. The terrorist was wounded and captured.

The terrorist stabbed the club's security guard, moderately wounding him and then went on to stab another person on the promenade. The man later died of his wouneds.

The attacker tried to enter club at around 2 A.M., said police spokeswoman Shlomit Hertzberg. He struggled with a security guard and stabbed him in the neck, she said.

AP:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A bomb damaged a wall and shattered windows in Indonesia's Parliament building on Monday, just days after police arrested nine Islamic militants they said were planning fresh terror attacks.

No one was injured in the blast, the latest in a series of small bombings in the world's most populous Muslim nation since last year's devastating attacks on Bali island.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing.

More...

AP...

MANILA, Philippines - An Indonesian man who allegedly confessed to involvement in bombings in Manila that killed 22 people escaped from jail early Monday along with two other suspected Muslim extremists, police said.

Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a reputed leader of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and the other two men escaped from police intelligence custody, national Police Chief Hermogenes Ebdane said.

The escape took place before dawn from the heavily secured command building at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Manila. Ebdane said three policemen guarding the three were being investigated, and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered them sacked immediately.

More...

From The Guardian:

A group of Indonesian terror suspects arrested with a huge cache of explosives and weapons were planning a series of attacks on churches and shopping malls across the world's most populous Muslim nation, police said Saturday.

The capture of the nine men underlined the threat Islamic militants still pose in Indonesia despite the arrests of scores of suspects since last year's Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

The Saudis are on another academic shopping spree in the USA. Martin Kramer's expose is timely and important; and his suggestion on how to deal with this approach to buying universities' silence is first-rate.

All part of Winds of Change.NET's Home Front Briefing today, which includes other stories on:

• Enemy combatants, their Saudi connection, and al-Qaeda in Canada
  
• Bioterrorism and the water supply
  
• The PhD dissertation that became a 'terrorists treasure map'
  
• One man who successfully reversed his High School's rabid anti-Americanism
  
• The million-cricket march

AP:

MANILA, Philippines - A bomb exploded in a crowded market in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring 26 others, including many children.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Koronadal, about 600 miles south of Manila. The Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has a presence in the region, denied any role in the explosion.

"There are many children among the casualties, both among the dead and wounded," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero. Lucero cited reports as saying six people were killed, but two local hospitals confirmed only three dead — including an 11-year-old boy — and 26 injured.

More...

Ananova:

The September 11 attacks were given the code name "Operation Holy Tuesday" and precisely planned at an al-Qaida meeting in Malaysia.

The purpose of the three day secret conference in January 2000, which was monitored by Malaysian police at the CIA's request, was to discuss details of how the hijackers should train and hide in the US and how the attacks should be carried out.

"This was the first planning meeting of the 9/11 operation. It was to review the progress they had achieved on the operation and to map out their future course of action," Rohan Gunaratna, a leading expert on Osama bin Laden, said after appearing before the US commission investigating the attacks.

More...

Ananova:

Israeli premier Ariel Sharon will boycott the BBC when he visits London next week, according to reports.

Newspaper Haaretz said Israel has not invited the the BBC to Sharon's briefing after talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The BBC has asked for an interview with Sharon during the visit, but this request is expected to be turned down, said the Israeli newspaper.

The director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, said that Israel decided not to cooperate with the BBC in protest against "its anti-Israel coverage, which is characterised by violation of journalistic ethics and the broadcasting of baseless claims."

More...

Winds of Change.NET runs "Winds of War" every Monday & Thursday - a fast, convenient, high-powered round-up of global developments that matter in the War on Terror.

Thanks to a scheduling glitch, we have 2 editions today. Venemous Kate's Winds of War: 2003-07-10 is up right now on Winds of Change.NET. As a bonus, I'm posting excerpts from Dan Darling's Winds of War bulletin here in relevant areas of The Command Post.

• The GSPC has assassinated an Algerian politician near Tizi-Ouzou. In the meantime, the Algerian government has released two leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front, the political wing of the GIA, after twelve years in jail.

• Time Magazine has an interesting article up on al-Qaeda's recruiting efforts among Canadian Muslims.

• North Korea is apparently conducting high-level explosives testing as a prelude to testing a nuclear bomb.

• We always try to end on a lighter note if possible, but I think the title for this one pretty much stands on its own.

Palestinian Leadership in Turmoil After Bombing
Tue July 8, 2003 03:49 PM ET
REUTERS

Mahmoud Abbas threatened to quit as Palestinian prime minister and offered to resign from a top Fatah body in a dispute with internal critics over peace moves with Israel, officials said on Tuesday.

Israel also stepped up pressure on Abbas, demanding he dismantle militant Palestinian groups, as mandated by a U.S.-backed peace plan, following a suicide bombing that killed a 65-year-old Israeli woman in her home near the West Bank.

Abbas sent President Yasser Arafat a letter in which he tendered his resignation from their Fatah faction's policymaking Central Committee, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian officials said.

The Central Committee said it rejected his resignation and Abbas's office made clear he was not quitting Fatah.

Hardline members of the Central Committee prompted the move by asking the moderate Abbas to step down as prime minister after he failed to persuade Israel to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners to bolster a "road map" to peace.

In a second letter to Arafat, Abbas asked the veteran leader and Fatah to outline their ideas of how to handle confidence-building steps the peace plan charts for both sides on a path to Palestinian statehood by 2005. "If he rejects their ideas, he will resign as prime minister," one senior official said, adding that the internal crisis prompted Abbas to postpone a meeting on peace moves slated with Sharon for Wednesday.

Abbas sent President Yasser Arafat a letter in which he tendered his resignation from their Fatah faction's policymaking Central Committee, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian officials said.

The Central Committee said it rejected his resignation and Abbas's office made clear he was not quitting Fatah.

Hardline members of the Central Committee prompted the move by asking the moderate Abbas to step down as prime minister after he failed to persuade Israel to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners to bolster a "road map" to peace.

AP:

JERUSALEM - A blast leveled a house in Kfar Yavetz, an Israeli village near the West Bank, killing the 65-year-old woman who lived there and an unidentified man.

Police said it was apparently a suicide bombing.

It would be the first such attack since Palestinian militants declared a cease-fire on June 29. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

More...

AP:

MOSCOW - In the wake of twin suicide attacks at a Moscow rock festival, President Vladimir Putin vowed Monday that Russia would not give in to terrorism and asserted that Chechen rebels are supported by international groups.

The separatist rebels that have been fighting Russian forces for nearly four years in Chechnya are seen by officials as being behind the Saturday blasts that killed 15 people, including the two female bombers, and injured scores.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but news reports have said a passport was found at the site showing that one of the bombers was a Chechen.

Putin, in a meeting with his Cabinet, said "today, after the latest series of terrorist acts, we can say that the bandits active in Chechnya are not simply connected with international terrorist organizations, they have become an integral, maybe the most dangerous part, of the international web."

More...

BBC:

At least 15 people have been arrested in the Pakistani city of Quetta in connection with the attack on a Shia mosque which left 53 people dead.

The deputy head of police in the province of Baluchistan said members of outlawed Sunni organisations had been arrested in several raids in the city overnight.

He said they were also looking into the possibility that foreigners were involved in the attack on Friday.

There are unconfirmed reports that seven Afghan nationals have been arrested in the border town of Chaman.

More...

A follow-up on this TCP post regarding the forthcoming role of the USIP in brokering peace between the Philippine government and the Islamic secessionists. From the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

The United States is now keen on brokering peace negotiations between the Philippine government and Muslim rebels, following reports that Malaysia was having second thoughts about hosting the talks.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Saturday announced that the US government was "forming a team to craft an appropriate role" for itself in the long-stalled process, should Malaysia pull out.

Quoting official sources, the Inquirer earlier reported that Malaysia would back out unless the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stopped treating MILF peace negotiators as terrorists. This was after Malacañang turned down the Malaysian government's proposal to lift the arrest warrants against the MILF leadership.

Pimentel made the disclosure after a meeting with Ambassador Richard Solomon, president of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

Full story »»

Reuters:

KABUL - Three Dutch peacekeepers were wounded in Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by an explosion while they were on patrol north of the capital, Kabul, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

All three were in stable condition but the man most seriously hurt in the Friday evening blast was expected to be sent back to Europe for medical treatment on Saturday, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said.

The cause of the blast, while the men were on patrol in the Shomali plain on the northern outskirts of Kabul, was being determined.

More...

Reuters:

LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistani police have arrested a prominent Islamic militant belonging a group which has been blamed for many sectarian killings and has been linked to the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, officials said on Saturday.

Allah Wasaya was detained in Lahore. Police did not say which crimes the militant was wanted for, but a senior police official told Reuters: "He was one of the most wanted members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi."

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was declared a terrorist organization by the United States earlier this year.

More...

It seems al-Qaida has a "you are either with us or against us" rule as well. From the Guardian:

Pakistani authorities raised the possibility Saturday that Taliban fugitives and their al-Qaida allies carried out a massacre of 44 Shiite Muslims at a mosque in this southwest Pakistani town across the border from Afghanistan.

The attack on Friday was the first use of a suicide bomber in Pakistan's bitter sectarian conflict between extremist Shiite and Sunni Muslims. It came a few weeks after a former Taliban military commander said the ousted Sunni Muslim movement would begin using suicide squads against its foes.

NJ.com:

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Imprisoned Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman says the violent attempt to overthrow Peru's government that he launched two decades ago was a "popular war" and not terrorism.

A copy of a statement Guzman gave to court officials was made available to The Associated Press on Friday by Guzman's lawyer, Manuel Fajardo. Fajardo said the statement was presented on May 5 to judges preparing Guzman's new public trial, which is expected to begin in two to three months.

"I am a Marxist, Leninist, Maoist and, until my detention, president of the Peruvian Communist Party and therefore responsible for the popular war that my party led from May 17, 1980," Guzman said.

"The Peruvian government called it and continues to call it terrorism. To call it terrorism does not correspond to the facts, to reality," he said.

More...

NJ.com:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest who received death threats after his church took over a school in eastern Pakistan was gunned down at home Saturday, police said.

Gunmen broke into Rev. George Ibrahim's home in Ranala Kot, a small village about 180 miles south of Islamabad, shortly after midnight. There were no reports of arrests and no claims of responsibility.

Ibrahim had received several death threats, according to Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. The threats apparently came after the province returned the school to Catholic Church ownership.

"He wanted to denationalize the school, which had been the property of the church and when he got it back he received threats saying 'you will pay a price for the school,"' Bhatti said.

It was not known who made the threats, but Bhatti feared it was extremist Muslim groups, who have been blamed for previous attacks against Christians in Pakistan.

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Fox News:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A Palestinian suspected of ordering a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement fired on Palestinian policemen who came to arrest him, the first show of resistance to Palestinian security forces enforcing a fledgling truce.

Three people were injured in the shooting at Gaza's Beach Refugee Camp just before midnight on Friday, a Palestinian police source said. It wasn't clear if the suspect was among the wounded.

Altogether, Palestinian police have arrested 12 people in connection with the mortar attack, which wounded four Israelis. Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan has vowed that his forces will pursue militants who violate a cease-fire by militant groups that went into effect on Sunday.

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From the Guardian:

Three explosions that officials called terrorist bombings roared out near a giant rock festival in suburban Moscow on Saturday afternoon, killing at least 13 people.

The Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies both cited unnamed law enforcement sources as saying the first blast took place after guards stopped a woman at the entrance to the festival and she detonated an explosives-packed belt.

The locations of the other two blasts were not immediately pinpointed, although some reports said the second one went off at a vast open-air market near the festival site.