From the L.A. Times:

HAARETZ: Military Intelligence chief: Arafat’s death may end intifada

Military Intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi said Sunday that he believes that there would be a chance to bring about an end to the Al Aqsa Intifada if Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat dies.
Speaking at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Ze’evi stressed that the chairman’s death would only lead to the end of the violence that began in September 2000, and not the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday that Israel would continue moving forward with the disengagement plan despite the deterioration in Yasser Arafat’s health and the possibility that he could die soon.

Sharon also said that if a new Palestinian leadership emerged and it would put forth a real effort to dismantle terror infrastructures, Israel would be willing to renew negotiations based on the road map for peace plan. But, Sharon said, “as long as there will be no partner, we will push forward with the disengagement plan that was approved by the government and the Knesset.”

Reacting to a proposal by Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, according to which Israel would not allow Arafat to return to Ramallah in the event his health improved, Sharon said that “Israel has made a commitment to allow Arafat to return to the territories.” Sharon added, however that “so long as I am prime minister, Arafat will not be buried in Jerusalem.”

As per the story here, it seems that it wasn’t a full transcript after all.

New York Post:

Osama bin Laden doesn’t seem nearly so cocky in the unedited version of a videotape aired on al-Jazeera, complaining that the manhunt against him has hampered al Qaeda. AFP/Getty ImagesBin Laden the impotent / Opinion: Page 27 Osama bin Laden’s newest tape may have thrust him to the forefront of the presidential election, but what was not seen was the cave-dwelling terror lord talking about the setbacks al Qaeda has faced in recent months.

Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

Tip of the hat to reader Clyde.

TIME magazine has 10 Questions with Yeslam Bin Ladin (OBL’s brother). A sample:

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OSAMA’s LATEST VIDEOTAPE?

It was upsetting.

It’s the violence. It wasn’t a surprise to know that he was still alive. I always thought that if he was killed, everybody would know it. It seems that he might have seen the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

NYT

Militants holding three foreign United Nations workers in Afghanistan have threatened to kill them unless all Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners are released from U.S. custody by noon (0730 GMT) on Wednesday.

The leader of Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) told Reuters that the U.N. must also cease operations in Afghanistan, or the hostages would be killed “in such a way by which Muslims will be happy.”

The group also released a video of the hostages to the Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera on Sunday showing them in good health.

The three — Filipino Anjelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo — were snatched from their U.N. vehicle in rush hour traffic on Thursday.

They had been helping to organize Afghanistan’s first presidential election, which was held on Oct. 9.

Mullah Sayed Mohammed Akbar Agha, leader of the kidnap group, told Reuters in an interview that the group had four demands.

“The U.N. should leave Afghanistan and it should call Britain and America’s meddling in Afghanistan as illegal,” he said.

“Those who have no military involvement in Afghanistan, such as Philippines, must call Britain and America’s meddling in Afghanistan as illegal and must stop its contributions through the U.N. for America and Britain’s activities.” He also demanded that Kosovo and Britain immediately withdraw their forces from Afghanistan and that all Muslim prisoners in Afghanistan and Cuba, “be they Taliban or Al Qaeda,” be freed.

The kidnappings have stoked fears among the 2,000-strong foreign community that militants in Afghanistan may be copying tactics used by insurgents in Iraq.

But a spokesman for the Taliban — the hard-line Islamic regime ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in November 2001 and now the main group fighting the government and more than 28,000 American and NATO troops in the country — distanced the group from the kidnappings.

“We have no comment about the issue. It is their work and we are not involved in it,” said Hamid Agha, chief spokesman for the Taliban.

GROUP OFFERS PROOF

The Jaish-e-Muslimeen have already proved they are holding the three by giving Reuters credit card numbers that authorities have confirmed are genuine.

Security sources say so far the group has only contacted a handful of journalists in Kabul about the kidnappings, and investigators were trying to open up channels of communication with them.

“We call on those holding them not to harm them,” United Nations spokesman Manoel de Silva e Almeida told a news briefing on Sunday. “All three require medical attention and the best response to such a situation is their immediate release.”

He would not give additional details for fear of jeopardizing the investigation.

Jaish-e-Muslimeen emerged in early August when a group of Taliban commanders said they were splitting because the movement was beset with differences and had become ineffective under the leadership of its one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar, one of the world’s most wanted men for helping shelter Osama bin Laden.

Its leader is Mullah Sayed Mohammed Akbar Aga and the group aims to rid Afghanistan of foreign troops and install an Islamic government.

“The objective of the group is not to weaken the jihad (holy war) but to strengthen it,” Manzoor said at the time.

More than 1,000 people, most of them Afghans, have been killed mostly in Taliban violence over the past year, but President Bush, seeking re-election on Nov. 2, hoped a successful Afghan poll would give his campaign a foreign policy fillip.

The vote count shows that U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai won the election, but official results have yet to be released pending the report of a panel investigating irregularities.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

US forces in Afghanistan have said they believe Osama bin Laden, who has appeared in a video for the first time in 13 months, is still roaming along the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

”He is operating probably in the Afghanistan or Pakistan border area,” [Major Scott] Nelson told a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.

“We are not exactly sure, if we knew exactly where he was we would be there in a moment.

“But we don’t know exactly where he is.”
[…]
US commanders had expressed confidence early this year of finally capturing bin Laden, but since then they have been playing down his importance.

“We don’t have a time frame on when bin Laden will be captured, but we have firm confidence that he will be … it is a matter of time,” Nelson said.

The frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan snakes for some 2,500 kilometres, mostly unmarked, through rugged mountains and remote plains. It is porous and difficult to patrol.

Pashtun tribes straddling the border slip back and forth daily, visiting relatives and doing trade.

Hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives have found sanctuary and set up training camps in remote Pakistani tribal areas hugging the border, where hardline tribes support their Islamic extremism and hatred of the US.

Nelson described the frontier as “very rugged”.

“You have been there, you have seen the mountains, you can hide pretty much anywhere,” he said.

The Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera said Saturday that it received the latest videotaped message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at its offices in the Pakistani capital.

The tape was dropped off at the gate of the station’s office in an envelope on Friday, just hours before it aired, said Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Pakistan.

“We received it in Pakistan. … Somebody dropped it yesterday at the gate,” Zaidan told The Associated Press. “The guard brought it to me along with other mail. It was in an envelope, I opened it and it was a big scoop.”

Read more…

From NCB News, courtesty of Robert Cox at The National Debate

NBC NEWS TRANSLATION OF AL JAZEERA - BIN LADEN BROADCAST
Bin Laden Translation Al Jezeera 4 pm NY broadcast

Open: I direct my speech to the American people to the best way to avoid another conflict. (OBL)

Newsreader: A new message from Bin Laden to the American people about the reasons and resulats of the 9/11 attacks.

Newsreader 2: The head of AL Qaeda says the continuation of us policy will lead to the repetition of what happened.

Male presenter: The head of AL Qaeda organization directed a message to the American people and this video and audio apearence in this tape which Jezeera required for the first time for two years. In the beginning of his message, he spoke about the reasons why they chose the US to execute 9/11..

OBL: You American people, my speech to you is the best way to avoid another conflict about the war and its reasons and results. I am telling you security is an important pillar of human life. And free people don’t let go of their security contrary to Bush’s claims that we hate freedom. He should tell us why we didn’t hit Sweden for instance. Its known that those who hate freedom don’t have dignified souls.like the 19 who were blessed. But we fought you because we are free people, we don’t sleep on our oppression. We want to regain the freedom of our Muslim nation as you spill our security, we spill your security.

Female presenter: Bin Laden spoke for the first time about the main reasons he thought of executing Sept 11 attacks, confirming that the Israeli operation in Lebanon was the first incident where he thought of it.

OBL: I am so surprised by you. Although we are in the fourth year after the events of sept 11, Bush is still practicing distortion and misleading on you, and obscuring the main reasons and therefore the reasons are still existing to repeat what happened before. I will tell you the reasons behind theses incidents.

I will be honest with you on the moment when the decision was taken to understand. We never thought of hitting the towers. But after we were so fed up, and we saw the oppression of the American Israeli coalition on our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind and the incidents that really touched me directly goes back to 1982 and the following incidents. When the US permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon with the assistance of the 6th fleet. In these hard moments, it occurred to me so many meanings I cant explain but it resulted in a general feeling of rejecting oppression and gave me a hard determination to punish the oppressors. While I was looking at the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it came to my mind to punish the oppressor the same way and destroy towers in the US to get a taste of what they tasted, and quit killing our children and women.

Male presenter: Bin Laden considered in his message that the results of Sept 11 were successful in his opinion and as a reason of that, he said that the similarity between the administration of Bush the father and the arab regimes said Bush learned so much from them during his visits.

OBL: We didn’t find difficulty dealing with Bush and his administration due to the similarity of his regime and the regims in our countries. Whish half of them are ruled by military and the other half by sons of kings and presidents and our experience with them is long. Both parties are arrogant and stubborn and the greediness and taking money without right and that similarity appeared during the visits of Bush to the region while people from our side were impressed by the US and hoped that these visits would influence our countries. Here he is being influenced by these regimes, Royal and military. And was feeling jealous they were staying for decades in power stealing the nations finances without anybody overseeing them. So he transferred the oppression of freedom and tyranny to his son and they call it th e Patriot Law to fight terrorism. He was bright in putting his sons as governors in states and he didn’t forget to transfer his experience from the rulers of our region to Florida to falsify elections to benefit from it in critical times.

Female Presenter: Bin Laden considered the way Bush dealt with the first moments of Sept. 11, giving a good chance to the executors of Sept. 11 to complete it.

OBL: We agreed with Mohamed Atta, god bless him, to execute the whole operation in 20 minutes. Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the US armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves when they most needed him because it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting was more important than paying attention to airplanes butting the towers which gave us three times the time to execute the operation thank god.

Male presenter: the final part of the message is that the security of the Americans depends on the policy that they execute despite the winner of the elections.

OBL: Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda. Your security is in your hands. Each state that doenst mess with our security has automatically secured their security.

Female Presenter: In Bin Laden’s message he approached other points. He pointed to the contradiction which considers oppression and killing of innocents a legal act. They formed an international law as bush the father did with the children of iraq according to bin laden. Bin Laden pointed to the millions of pounds of explosives dropped on Iraqi children as bush his son had done, as he said to remove an old agent and install a new agent to help instealing the oil of iraq. And bin laden said the events of 9/11 came as an answer to this oppression and said that if the answer to this oppression is considered bad terror, then we need to do it. And he stressed that he wants to deliver this message to the Americans in words and in deeds since the 9/11 events. He reminded Americans of a few warning messages through various news media like Time Magazine and CNN and other Arab and correspondents since 1996. He warned them of the conswquences of their countries policies. He talked abou t the damage Sept 11 caused the US economy and that it cost close to a trillion dollars. He talked about President Bush and that the emergency law requires more money.

From MSNBC:

U.S. officials who had seen the entire tape told NBC News that in the tape, which they said was authentic, bin Laden tells the American people that “Bush cannot protect you.” They said there was no plan to raise the terrorist threat level, currently at yellow, or “elevated,” because it makes no specific threat.

Neither the Qatar-based channel nor U.S. officials would say how it had received the tape.

FOX:

Multiple sources told FOX News that the 18-minute videotape is authentic and said its release was timed to coincide with Tuesday’s presidential elections. Bin Laden makes reference to recent conflicts in Iraq and addresses the American people directly, sources said.

U.S. officials said the tape appears to have been made recently. Bin Laden is speaking from a lectern and he talks about threats to the United States and he says that President Bush will not protect the American people.

UPDATE:
Still waiting on a full transcript/translation…

AP: Al-Jazeera Airs Videotape by Bin Laden

The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a video of Osama bin Laden on Friday directly admitting for the first time that he carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and promising to outline “the best way to avoid another Manhattan.”

It was the first footage of the al-Qaida leader to surface in more than a year. The video showed bin Laden in traditional white robes, a turban and a cloak reading from papers and standing in front of a plain, brown cloth background.

“We decided to destroy towers in America,” bin Laden said.

He said the attack was carried out because “we are a free people … and we want to regain the freedom of our nation.”

He also accused President Bush of “misleading” the American people three years since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

UPDATE:
Al-Jazeera says that they have subtitled the tape and will be making it available on their web site soon.

More from al Jazeera:

In an address just days ahead of the US presidential election, bin Ladin also said the US administration resembled “corrupt” Arab governments.

He accused Bush of reacting slowly to the September 11 attacks, saying: “I never thought that the supreme leader would leave 50,000 of his people in the two towers to face the terrifying events alone at the time they were in need for him.”

Refering to next week’s elections, he told Americans: “Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or (President George W.) Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands ….”

He accused Bush of “misleading” the American people four years after the September 11 attacks.

Claiming responsibility for the attacks, bin Ladin said, “we decided to destroy towers in America,” because “we want to regain the freedom of our nation.”

He added that “the reasons to repeat what happened” on 11 September 2001 remain.

Reuters reports:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab satellite television Al Jazeera said on Friday it would broadcast a video tape from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden addressing the American people.

It said the tape, to be aired at 4 p.m. EDT, would discuss the reasons behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and their repercussions. It gave no further details.

Fox News is reporting the CIA has verified that Bin Laden is on the tape, and that he refers to a recent event in Iraq.

Comment: Until this tape surfaced, the evidence suggested that Bin Laden was dead. Unfortunately, that no longer appears to be the case.

[Admin note: We’ll update as soon as someone reports a translation of the video - so far Fox has only shown a still photo of Bin Laden. Al Jazeera only has a news flash up, no story yet]

JERUSALEM POST: French terror victims seek Arafat criminal probe

The families of French victims of terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel plan to ask judicial authorities to question Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, attorney Michel Calvo said Friday.

Calvo, who represents the victims’ families, said they would present their request to France’s chief anti-terror judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere. They base their claim on “murders in connection with a terrorist enterprise,” Calvo told reporters in Paris.

Arafat will be treated at a military hospital just outside Paris for a still-undisclosed ailment.

“In the next few days, we are going to ask Judge Bruguiere to question Mr. Arafat, as soon as his physical condition allows it,” the attorney added.

JERUSALEM POST: Two Hamas fugitives killed in Kalkilya

IDF soldiers shot and kill two senior Hamas fugitive in Kalkilya Thursday evening.

Ibrahim Isaa, who is also a member of Fatah’s Tanzim, was planning to launch a series of suicide attacks in Israel, including a car bomb attack. Issa was also involved in a numerous attempts to attack soldiers manning the built sections of the West Bank security fence.

Soldiers from an elite IDF unit killed Issa and his deputy in an exchange of fire with the two terrorists, who refused to surrender. A third gunmen managed to flee.

REUTERS: Explosion Hits Islamabad Hotel, Causes Casualties

An explosion hit the Marriott Hotel in the central area of the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Thursday, causing several casualties, witnesses said.

Glass and other debris were blown out the front of the hotel and through the lobby, the witnesses said.

There was no immediate official word on the cause of the blast, although some hotel staff said they thought it might have been caused by an electrical fault.

Blood could be seen on the ground and at least one man was carried out on a stretcher, but he was still alive.

UPDATE:
Further reports confirm that it was an electrical short.

The siren is blaring at Drudge right now. No story, no link yet, just the 40 point headline:

CIA and FBI have authenticated new al Qaeda video

Will update as soon as a confirming source is established.

UPDATE : There’s now a story, still no second source confirmation.

JERUSALEM POST: Would-be-suicide bomber, 16, arrested near Nablus

IDF troops operating in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp northeast of Nablus arrested overnight Wednesday two fugitives who planned to launch suicide bomb attacks on Israel.

According to officials, 16-year-old Miyoub Marouf, a member of the Fatah, was on the verge of launching an attack when soldiers of the Charuv Battalion arrested him.

The second fugitive arrested in the camp, Ali Abu al-Ghoub, admitted to security officials that he was also prepared to carry out a suicide bomb attack.

Security forces arrested a total of nine Palestinian fugitives in raids in the Nablus and Bethlehem areas.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET 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. Thursday’s Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.

TOP TOPICS

• Yasser Arafat is either dead or near death. Despite his unconciousness/critical state/coma/depends who you ask, he appointed a commission comprising Abu Mazen, Abu Queria and the PLC speaker Salim Zanoon to rule in the event of his death. Medical teams are flying in from Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria, as is Arafat’s wife, Suha.

• Dan Darling has 4 intel briefings for you: al-Qaeda & Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT); The LeT in Iraq; The ABC Video and Pre-election Plot; and Gerecht’s article asking if Iraq has made Al-Qaeda Stronger.

• Russia was involved in moving Iraq’s WMD before the war, according to the Washington Times. Ion Mihai Pacepa has been saying this for over a year.

• Fallujah is next. The British Black Watch is moving in to position to free up Marines for the job.

Other Topics Today Include: Iran Report; Egypt arrests; SA-7s in Gaza; A-Q iced in Waziristan; Chechen banker financed theatre takeover; Khashiyev killed; Al-Qaeda in Bosnia; GSPC decapitates soldiers; Bashir faces more charges; Russia warns Azeris; more Beslans planned; Zarqawi’s group hit; and much more.

Read the Rest…

This is likely going to be my last post prior to the election (and God willing, this time we’ll know by November 3 who the president is) so I’ll try to cover as many bases as possible on this one.

There’s been two very interesting articles out over the last several days, one of which I want to provide actual commentary for, and there is also a purported al-Qaeda videotape that was obtained by ABC News from an “intermediary” (Jamaat-e-Islami or Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami, one wonders …) in Waziristan. I’ll also deal with the issue of what I know about the pre-election plot stuff and we’ll go from there. Several of these remarks were prepared in response to questions that WoC reader praktike made on my own blog and I thought would be interesting enough to reference here.

• Al-Qaeda, bin Laden, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba
• The Lashkar-e-Taiba in Iraq
• Gerecht’s Article: Has Iraq Made al-Qaeda Stronger?
• The Pre-Election Plot & the New Video

The South Asia Tribune reports that Osama bin Laden has been spotted in the Tibet-Laddakh region, close to the North-Eastern tip of Pakistan, bordering India and China:

A high-ranking official of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) flew from Islamabad on Sunday to meet top Indian officials here in Delhi after reports of Bin Laden’s presence in the region.

According to sources, following the meeting between Indian security bosses and the FBI, the New Delhi Government has put its security forces in the North Western region, specially the Kashmir Valley, on ‘red alert.’

[. . .]

These sources in the Indian Home Ministry told this correspondent that intelligence agencies had received information that Bin Laden has been spotted traveling. Some such reports were also published in a section of the Pakistan media.

From California Yankee.

JERUSALEM POST: PA calls on Hamas to halt Kassam attacks

For the first time in three years, the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday called on Hamas to halt its rocket attacks on Israel.

The appeal came as Hamas marked the third anniversary of the launching of the first Kassam rocket on a settlement in the Gaza Strip.

“We must have the courage to admit that the firing of mortars and rockets is not only a mistake, but a sin because they could harm civilians,” said the editor of the PA’s official news agency Wafa.

PA officials have in the past made indirect calls for halting the firing of rockets by arguing that such methods harm the national interests of the Palestinians and give Israel an excuse to launch military operations in the Gaza Strip.

A senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the decision to publicly call on Hamas to stop the rocket attacks was the result of increased complaints by Palestinians living in areas where the IDF carried out military operations in recent weeks.

“Israel is using the rocket attacks as an excuse to escalate its aggression against our people,” he explained. “We are under pressure to stop the rockets because dozens of families have lost their homes.”

However, Hamas responded by vowing to step up the rocket attacks and develop more sophisticated weapons.

The John & Ken show (KFI Los Angeles) is currently discussing two internal memos they’ve obtained regarding gangs and terrorism.

The first memo is from the DHS. It’s a 15 page internal report entitled “Latin American gangs in the Americas”. It provides a background on the gang involved and mentions an increase in terror activity in the Americas, that cooperation between gangs and terrorists has created a great possibility of danger, and that gangs have assets to aid in smuggling terrorists and weapons into the U.S.

The other memo is from Los Angeles County’s Terrorism Working Group/Terrorism Early Warning Group. It’s marked “Do not disseminate to the public” and “For law enforcement use only” and dated October 5, 2004.

That memo discusses the possible threat of terrorist activity by gangs, a rash of recent terrorist warning about gangs and terrorists working together, and that the FBI thinks a large car bomb would be the most likely weapon, but WMDs aren’t ruled out…

There were more things mentioned, but I typed these in live off the radio, so perhaps links will be provided.

See also the earlier report Al-Qaida recruiting local U.S. gang ties.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

At least 84 people were killed in clashes with Thai security forces during protests in Thailand’s strife-hit Muslim-majority south yesterday, Thai officials said.
[…]
“After we brought people who were arrested into detention, we found that another 78 people were dead,” Manit Suthaporn, deputy permanent secretary from the Thai Justice Ministry, said.
[…]
“The bodies of people who were arrested were weak because of fasting. It caused them to be fatigued and when they came into crowded cars there was no air to breathe,” the official said.
[…]
The Thai government earlier said more than 1,000 people were arrested over the clashes.

”Eighty per cent of them died because they could not breathe,” Ms Rojansun said.

“We didn’t find any dead bodies with broken arms or legs, but between two or three of them had broken necks which may have been caused from the transportation,” she said.

Broken Necks from the transportation. Right. For exactly what the transportation entailed, see corresponding article on the Global Recon Page. Also see the remarks on previous post. Sometimes I hate being right in my predictions.

Freedom is contagious. Blogging from Bahrain, “Chan’ad” is reporting on the “Al-Khawaja affair” - i.e. the closure of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the arrest of its vice president after he called for the Prime Minister’s resignation at a seminar about Poverty and Economic Rights in Bahrain. Great series.

Chan’ad has a pretty level headed attitude about the whole thing, and it’s fair to note that Bahrain has taken significant steps toward liberty & democracy. Its rulers are now finding that it’s hard to hold the door half-open, and Chan’ad notes the irony of the trial proceeding even as related protests etc. are demonstrating and encouraging the spread of the very freedoms the government is attempting to contain.

I’ve got several copies of this Washington Post article in my Inbox and while I think that there are a number of entirely valid (albeit, at least IMO, politically-timed) criticisms of the administration that can be made.

It is also my belief that the people, likely in the State Department, who leaked details of the early 2002 negotiations with Iran to the Post are not reporting the full details of what was going on. The article makes some valid criticisms of the administration’s approach to the war on terrorism, and I’d still recommend reading it. But there are some egregious errors that the Washington Post makes in this story, either out of ignorance or by design, and as such I thought I’d feel free to point them out.

I’ll briefly deal first with the issue of Iran and then with the al-Qaeda high-value target (HVT) list.

• The Iranians and their al-Qaeda “Detainees”
• The al-Qaeda High Value Target (HVT) List and the War

REUTERS: Saudi Diplomat Threatened by Grenades in Gift Box

A senior Saudi diplomat in Islamabad received a gift box last week that contained four hand grenades and a threatening note, the Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan said Monday.

Ambassador Ali Awab Asseri said his deputy, Abdullah al Omari, received the package containing the grenades after midnight Thursday along with a note saying he should leave Pakistan within a month.

“A very nice, well-packed parcel in the form of a gift was delivered to the house of Mr. Abdullah by a man on a motorcycle,” Asseri told Reuters.

Asseri said Abdullah would not leave Pakistan in the wake of the threat.

HAARETZ: Egypt announces arrest of five plotters of Sinai attacks

Five Egyptians have been arrested on suspicion of plotting three near simultaneous car bombings of a hotel and resort in the Sinai that killed at least 34 people, including 12 Israelis, earlier this month.

In a statement Monday, the Egyptian Interior Ministry also said the mastermind of the attacks, identified as Palestinian Ayad Said Salah, died in the October 7 explosion at the Taba Hilton hotel along with a fellow plotter, Egyptian Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil.

The statement said the two, identified through DNA testing, had been trying to leave the scene but their timed explosives went off prematurely.

According to the statement, two other suspects are said to be at large: Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, brother of Suleiman Flayfil, and Hammad Gaman Gomah. Mohamed Flayfil was accused of carrying out the attack on one of the campgrounds and Gomah was accused of carrying out the third bombing.

The statement said the Egyptian suspects were residents of the Sinai, and that Salah, lived in the Sinai town of al-Arish.

HAARETZ: Two militants killed in IDF Gaza missile strike

An Israeli aircraft launched two missiles Sunday at a group of Palestinian militants gathered outside a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, killing two militants and wounding five other people, including four bystanders, Palestinian security officials said.

The attack early Sunday morning came as Palestinians were heading to mosques for morning prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The missile appeared aimed at militants from the Islamic Jihad group who had gathered outside, Palestinian security officials said. Two militants were killed, their bodies badly burned, and a third was seriously wounded. Four civilians were also wounded, health officials said.

The IDF had no immediate comment.

JERUSALEM POST: Hamas admits to having weapons factories in Gaza

In the first admission of its kind, a senior Hamas official disclosed on Saturday that the movement has a number of factories in the Gaza Strip for manufacturing various types of weapons.

Nizar Rayyan, a Hamas leader from Jabalya refugee camp, said the factories were busy manufacturing different types of mortars and rockets to be used against Israel.

Although he is considered one of the prominent political leaders of Hamas, Rayyan was seen wearing military fatigues and armed with a rifle during the recent 17-day IDF operation against Kassam rocket squads in the northern Gaza Strip.

“Thank God, the weapons of the Hamas fighters are manufactured locally,” Rayyan said. “For several years now we have had our own weapons factories and we are working round the clock to improve the fighting capabilities of our fighters. We first made hand grenades and rocket-propelled RPGs, mortar rockets and their launchers, and then Kassam and Yassin rockets.”

JERUSALEM POST: Hamas kills suspected collaborator in Gaza

The bullet-riddled body of a Palestinian was found near a dumpster in a Gaza City street Saturday, and Hamas said it killed the man on suspicion he provided information that helped Israel to assassinate the group’s founder and nine others.

Hassan Musallam, in his 20s, had been missing from his home for several days. He was shot dead two days after Israel killed the deputy chief of the Hamas military wing, Adnan al-Ghoul, in an air strike. The secretive Al-Ghoul, a top bomb maker and weapons engineer, had been on Israel’s most-wanted list since 1990.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said the killing of the suspected informer was meant as a warning to others. Those who come forward and repent during the current holy month of Ramadan would not be harmed physically, al-Masri said.

The Hamas military wing, Izzaddin Kassam, said Musallam was interrogated and “provided us with information and details about the way he assisted the Zionist enemy in carrying out the crimes of assassination.”

The Associated Press reports that Karzai still appears on course to secure a majority and avoid a run-off vote even though his share has slipped from around 60 percent to around 55 percent:

With 6.3 million, or three-fourths, of votes counted as of Saturday morning, the interim leader had 3,426,845 votes or 54.5 percent. Former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni was second with 17.3 percent.

[. . .]

“This really shows the nature of the consensus,” Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani told The Associated Press. “This is not an ethnic vote.”

Karzai has swept eastern and southern regions dominated by his fellow Pashtun tribesmen, as well as more ethnically mixed cities such as the capital Kabul, Herat in the west, and Mazar-e-Sharif in the north.

Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places most mainstream media seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month. This Winds of Change.NET HateWatch briefing is brought to you by Lewy14. (Email me at my handle “hatewatch” here at windsofchange.net). Entil’zha veni!

HIGHLIGHTED TOPICS

• Religious Hate: Indicted London mosque leader praises mothers of suicide bombers; Egyptian Islamist party leader justifies terror bombing; Al-Qaida web article praises beheading of Egyptian; Death threats for defamers of the Taliban; Christian Churches attacked in Istanbul – and Badhdad – and Zanzabar; A primer on Tariq Ramadan.

• Idiotarian Seethings: Egyptian editor blames hatred on the West; BBC documentary broaches Al-Qaida denial; Hatred in Arabic at the Frankfurt Book Fair; Nobel winner claims AIDS is western bio-weapon; French neo-fascist too extreme for his own party; Anti-Americanism in Britain?; Neo-anti-Semitism in Italy; Delegitimization of Israel in academia.

• Race and Culture: Racism as the source of conflict in Darfur; Bombing at Ras Shytan aims to drive a wedge between Egyptians and Israelis; Interference with Israeli rescue efforts at Taba alleged.

• A Hopeful Note: Al-Arabiya TV director condemns Taba bombing; Arab progressive denounces terror; Separation of mosque and state in Afghanistan; Muslim apostate debates Muslim convert.

JERUSALEM POST: Kassam falls in garden of Sderot home

A Kassam rocket fell in a garden of a house in Sderot Friday afternoon causing damage to the house but injuring no one.

The rocket is the second to land on Israeli territory since the end of Operation ‘Days of Repentance’, a major IDF offensive meant to end the attacks.

JERUSALEM POST: Church group meets Hizbullah, loses meeting here

The Foreign Ministry Thursday canceled a scheduled meeting with a delegation from the American Presbyterian Church because the group met Hizbullah officials in Beirut and even had words of praise for the organization.

Gadi Golan, the head of the ministry’s religious affairs bureau, said the decision was made after the ministry was informed of the delegation’s meeting with Sheikh Nabil Qauq, a Hizbullah leader in south Lebanon.

Golan said that one of the members of the church’s Mideast fact-finding delegation, Rev. Ronald Stone, a retired social ethics professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, was quoted on Hizbullah’s Al-Manar satellite network as saying, “Relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders.”

He also said, “We treasure the precious words of Hizbullah and your expression of goodwill toward the American people.”

JERUSALEM POST: IAF destroys home of Gaza terrorist

An Israeli helicopter fired a missile in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday, destroying the home of a local terrorist leader, Palestinian witnesses said.

The home belonged to a local leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of militant organizations.

A group spokesman said the leader wasn’t home at the time. But witnesses said his family was in the house, managing to flee without any injuries.

The home was located in Beit Lahia, near the Jebaliya refugee camp.

HAARETZ: Hamas holds competition to select movement’s anthem

“In recognition of the role of an anthem in expressing principles, hopes and ideas, and the manner in which it can lend voice to the will to confront danger and defend Palestinian life and land, and make every possible sacrifice, the Hamas movement will sponsor the project of creating an anthem that expresses its unique outlook. The anthem will stand side by side with the Palestinian national anthem,” the movement said.

Hamas activists have also defined the qualifying criteria: the lyrics and refrain should be “patriotic, underscoring the connection to all of Palestine, and the anthem should also be characterized by faith, and belonging to the Islamic movement.”

In addition, the organizers require the hymn to be written in classical Arabic. The wording should be lofty and yet catchy, and the anthem should also not exceed six stanzas. One of the stanzas must be “cathartic,” and have the “natural cadences of a refrain.” The competition guidelines allow composers to submit more than one entry.

Paging Mikis Theodarkis… paging Mikis Theodarkis…

JERUSALEM POST: IAF kills top Hamas explosives engineer

An IAF aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle traveling in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip late Thursday, killing two people and seriously wounding two others, Palestinian medical officials said.

One of those killed was Adnan Al-Ghoul, a Hamas military commander who is said to have been the terrorist group’s chief explosives engineer.

Imad al-Baas was the other Hamas terrorist killed in the strike.

A Hamas spokesman confirmed the death of its No. 2 military leader Adnan al-Ghoul in the Israeli airstrike.

Known as ‘the mechanic’ due to his expertise in bomb making, Al-Ghoul has been wanted by Israel for over ten years. He escaped several assassination attempts in the past, one of which resulted in the death of his son.

JERUSALEM POST: PC game simulates anti-Israel terror

A new video game for home computers is being developed in Syria which allows users to assume the role of Palestinians carrying out terrorist attacks on Israeli soldiers, including at least one suicide bombing.

Entitled “Under Siege”, the game is slated for release by the end of the year by Damascus-based Afkar Media, according to a report in the Beirut Daily Star.

Users will be able to simulate various types of attacks on Israelis, ranging from a teenage Palestinian armed with a slingshot to a 25-year old toting a machine gun.

In addition, one scene is said to depict a Palestinian female suicide bomber in Jenin who hands her child over to relatives before detonating a hand grenade in a crowd of Israeli soldiers.

Nonetheless, the game’s developers insist that it is intended to promote non-violence.

“This is not a game about killing. We are telling a story,” said Radwan Kasmiya, Afkar Media’s executive manager, adding, “It’s not about desperation, it’s about sacrificing your life to let others live,” he said.

The company’s primary target audience is said to be young Arab computer users across the Middle East.

JERUSALEM POST: Explosion at the Philadelphi route near Rafah

An explosion occurred near the Hardon outpost on the Philadelphi route in Rafah, on the border between Israel and Egypt, Thursday afternoon.

Troops operating in the area were conducting maintenance work on the infrastructure along the road when they discovered a tunnel opening. When soldiers got out of their vehicles to inspect the tunnel, an explosion was heard.

IDF officials are still trying to determine whether Palestinians fired an antitank rocket at the troops or detonated a bomb near them.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET 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. Thursday’s Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.

TOP TOPICS

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has pledged allegiance to Bin Laden. If he’s Osama’s rival, this is a funny way to go about undermining the guy. Dan Darling had a piece last week on the cases for and against Zarqawi being an al-Qaeda member.

• The Pakistani Army has launched a major operation to destroy the terrorists protecting former Guantanamo inmate Abdullah Mehsud. His group kidnapped and threatened to behead two Chinese engineers, but Pakistani forces killed the terrorists - one of the two Chinese was killed during the operation. (There was a rumour of a major AQ leader being captured; Mehsud might be a little small-scale to be considered ‘major’. More on the attacks on Chinese in the region…

• Who attacked the Sinai hotels? A letter signed the International Islamic Front and given to a Lebanese paper claims responsibility. Another group claiming responsibility have threatened more attacks against Israel.

Other Topics Today Include: Iran Reports; Domestic Security Briefings from Europe & USA; Mortars in Syria fired at Coalition; Hamas declares war on U.S.; Manilla ferry disaster a terrorist attack?; Hezbollah to negotiate?; Saddam’s philanthropy of terror; French jihadist Willie Brigitte breaks; and much, much more.

Read The Rest…

[by Dan Darling]

Several very important news stories have come out over the weekend that provide a great deal of insight into the nature and composition of our post-9/11 enemy, namely al-Qaeda and those groups aligned with it inside the framework of the Islamic International Front (the same name, one might note, as the group that sent a claim of responsibility for the Taba bombings to Sada al-Balad).

It is important to understand as much as possible with respect to the enemy because such things are very helpful in recognizing how al-Qaeda has changed and adapted since 9/11.

• Africa and the Pan-Sahel Initiative
• In Pakistan…
• And In Iraq…

This was inspired somewhat by a recent post by Gregory Djerejian over at the Belgravia Dispatch. Now just to be clear so that nobody mistakes this as an attack on him, I like Greg, I respect him, and his blog is on my daily reading list right next to such daily Darling reads as Rantburg, Roger Simon, Belmont Club, ect.

Unfortunately, I tend to disagree with Greg’s most recent conclusion that Osama bin Laden is among the deceased. I also think that a number of people (Greg not amongst them) don’t adequately understand where it is that bin Laden falls into the grander picture of what al-Qaeda and its allied groups are. This is key, because if he is at some point confirmed as being captured or killed it will be imperative that the US understand what we’ve done - and what we’ve not done - in terms of the long-term destruction of our current adversary, meaning al-Qaeda and its allies in the International Islamic Front. This post is an effort to demonstrate this, as well as to tie together a number of semi-incoherent threads that have been floating through my feebled mind of late.

Read the Rest…

JERUSALEM POST: Fatah leader: PA forces are private fiefdoms

The power struggle between rival Palestinian security services is the main reason behind the state of anarchy and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a senior Fatah official said Wednesday.

Sakher Habash, a veteran member of the Fatah Central Committee and close aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, accused the commanders of the Palestinian security forces of running the services as if they were private fiefdoms.

He said Arafat was unable to replace the security chiefs for fear that such a move could trigger internecine fighting. “The security forces have become private fiefdoms of their commanders,” he added.

“Instead of being loyal to the Palestinian Authority, the security forces are loyal to their chiefs. President Arafat is trying to contain the situation in order to prevent a civil war.”

Habash said the main problem was that the security chiefs have been in office for many years. “These forces are responsible for the security chaos in the Palestinian territories,” he charged.

HAARETZ: Hunt on after possible terrorist infiltration from West Bank

Israeli security forces launched a manhunt Wednesday afternoon after receiving intelligence information that a Palestinian terrorist armed with an explosive device was trying to enter Israel.

The warning led to the declaration of a high alert in the Sharon region, Army Radio reported.

Due to the warning, a main highway between the West Bank and central Israel was closed to west-bound traffic from Oranit Junction to Kafr Kassem and Rosh Ha’ayin.

Police are also trying to verify the intelligence information.