The Command Post - Global War On Terror

July 26, 2005

Special Analysis: Degrees of Decentralization

[by counter-terror analyst Dan Darling]

Dan Nexon, who is among other things an assistant professor at Georgetown, asked some very interesting questions as to whether or not there is an organized terror network. As an advocate of this position, I feel inclined to answer them and hope that others will agree.

Dan writes in the comments of this thread:

Dan may be right, or he may be wrong. But conclusive evidence either way? We lack that - at least in the public domain - in spades.

Ah, but do we? I don’t think so and neither does Michael Scheuer, the man who once headed up the CIA’s bin Laden unit. Regardless of one’s opinion of his views on other issues, I think that we can definitely agree that Scheuer is in a position to know on these topics and one of the reasons he wrote Through Our Enemies’ Eyes was to demonstrate to other CIA analysts the value of open-source information in intelligence analysis. Like its successor Imperial Hubris, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes definitely supports the idea that there is an organized terror network, as does Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies if one desires another insider account. Other statements and court documents issued by European anti-terrorism judges as Baltasar Garzon and Jean-Louis Bruguiere likewise support this opinion. Newsweek even took the administration to task for assuming otherwise in an August 2004 article entitled “Like Clockwork” that includes the following statement:

Read the Rest…

Posted by Winds of Change at 12:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 19, 2005

Time: 10 Questions For Porter Gross

TIME has a brief interview with CIA boss Porter Goss.

WHEN WILL WE GET OSAMA BIN LADEN? That is a question that goes far deeper than you know. In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we’re probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice. We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you’re dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.
IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF WHERE HE IS. WHERE? I have an excellent idea of where he is. What’s the next question?

For a long time I would have read this and thought “Pakistan.” But frankly, now I’m inclined to think “Iran.” You?

Posted by Alan at 08:41 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

June 16, 2005

Special Analysis: Saif al-Adel, Zarqawi, al Qaeda and Iran

News on the Zarqawi front has gone cold; however the Coalition continues its efforts to dismantle his organization by attacking the middlemen. Abed Dawood Suleiman, Zarqawi’s military aide, and his son Raed, a former captain in Saddam’s army, have been captured outside of Baghdad. Jassim Hazan Hamadi al-Bazi, a bomb maker who “built and sold remote-controlled bombs used in roadside attacks from an electronic repair shop in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad” has also been detained.

While the hunt continues for Zarqawi and his murderers, Dan Darling points us to interesting information on the relationship between Saif al-Adel, Zarqawi, al Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Saif al-Adel is widely believed to be the nom de guerre of former Egyptian Army Colonel Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi (Special Forces), who fought in Afghanistan with the mujahedeen against the Soviet Union. He is purported to have been involved with the Black Hawk Down battle in Somalia, which resulted in the deaths of 18 US servicemen, the 1998 embassy attacks in Kenyan and Tanzania, the training of several of the 9-11 hijackers, and the Riyadh bombing in 2003. After the death of Mohammed Atef, al-Adel is believed to have taken on some of the Atef’s responsibilities in al-Qaeda. He is believed to be the third ranking member in the organization.

Read the Rest…

Posted by Winds of Change at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2005

Winds of War: May 30/05

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. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report today.

Today’s Winds of War briefing is brought to you by Bill Roggio and evariste of Discarded Lies.

Top Topics

Happy Memorial Day to those in the United States! Here is a fitting tribute to our men and women who have served (Windows Media format) - and here are a set of Memorial day posts and resources, including our updated directory of ways to support the troops.

The Zarqawi roundup. He’s dead. He’s just fine. He’s in Iran or is he surrounded in Iraq? Where might he go if he is wounded? The reports are all over the place, but it seems clear he has been wounded, perhaps seriously. This may result in infighting as various factions struggle for ascendancy. Bill looks at the potential successors.

The health of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd is reported to be improving. Belmont Club looks at the failures of successive administrations’ policy towards the Saudi government. Victor Comras states the US continues to send mixed signals about the Saudi’s participation in the war.

The citizens of France have rejected the referendum on joining the European Union. But does ‘non’ mean ‘oui’? Belmont Club has more. Austin Bay says its time for a new NAFTA.

In what may portend major policy shifts, a high-level internal review in the Bush administration may lead to broadening the anti-terror effort from killing Al Qaeda leaders to dealing with the rise of a new generation of loosely-affiliated terror leaders.

NATO’s Rapid Response Force is quickly becoming a force to reckon with.

Other Topics Today Include: Iran roundup, Iran set to resume nuclear bomb; A look at the political process in Lebanon; Fleet surge; Hamas still building bombs; CIA cyberwar simulation; Los Zetas; Algerian Jihad; new Crisis in store for southern Sudan; Pakistani bomb blast kills 20; Indonesia bomb kills 22; Schapelle Corby; Protests in China; Terrorist bases in Europe; ETA Arnaldo Otegi; Russian power; Japanese hostage Akihiki Saito murdered.

Read the Rest…

Posted by Winds of Change at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Two Americans Charged With Aiding Al Qaeda

Authorities said Sunday that Rafiq Abdus Sabir , 50, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, 42, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, conspired to treat and train terrorists. Both are American citizens.
Both men were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court, Shah in New York and Sabir in Florida, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney David Kelley in Manhattan.

It was not immediately clear who would represent them in court. If convicted, each man faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The one-count complaint claims the men allegedly took an oath pledging their allegiance to Al Qaeda. The government said the men engaged in multiple recorded conversations with a confidential source and an FBI agent posing as an Al Qaeda operative.

Other news stories:
Google News

5:30 UPDATE: Reuters has the same basic facts, along with some new ones:

Earlier, Britain resisted calls to match the United States’ high state of alert after warnings that al Qaeda bombers might strike and played down concerns of an immediate security threat.
On Monday, the United States increased security and increased the nation’s alert to “High,” prompted by Pakistan’s capture of a suspected al Qaeda computer expert which yielded documents, computers, surveillance reports and sketches.

A British police spokesman declined to say if there was any link between intelligence from Pakistan and the raids….

…The police said searches were continuing and were expected to take “some time” to complete.

The operation was part of extensive inquiries by police and the security service into alleged international terrorism, the police said.

5:43 UPDATE: The BBC has eyewitness accounts of the arrests:

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the suspects would be brought to a central London police station for questioning.
Officers are continuing to search “residential premises” in London and the three counties where the arrests were made.

The police spokesman said they were expected to remain at the sites for some time.

Eyewitnesses in Blackburn told the BBC they had seen the arrests of two young men.

Ruth Lazell said she had been alerted by the sounds of voices in the street outside her Preston Old Road home.

She said: “I heard a man shouting and went outside to see what was going on. As I got out of my door a policeman told me to get back inside.”

Mrs Lazell said she had seen armed officers force one man to the floor and pull a second from a car, handcuffing him on the ground.

Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told BBC News Online she had seen a number of officers, some in flak jackets and others in plain clothes.

She said the men had been dressed by police in white paper suits and their hands and feet covered with plastic bags before they were driven away.

Resident Pearl Bernasconi told the BBC she had seen forensic officers pore over the gold Mercedes car from which the suspects were pulled.

6:00 UPDATE: The Age reports:

The police said the arrests were in north-west London, suburban Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and in Lancashire, north-western England. The Lancashire raid was in the town of Blackburn and the Hertfordshire arrests were in Luton, police said….
…Police would not say whether today’s raids were linked to the Pakistani discovery, but noted that the investigation leading to the arrests had been underway for some time.

While British authorities say the threat from terrorism remains high, they have not warned of any specific threat along the lines of that announced America.

Police will have up to two weeks to hold the men before deciding whether to charge them.

Suspects arrested in previous anti-terrorism raids have often been released without charge before the two weeks expired.

6:13 UPDATE: The Independent:

The spokesman said the plan for the arrests “predated the weekend just gone”, suggesting they had nothing to do with recent publicity about possible threats to London’s financial district.

6:27 UPDATE: Sky News has produced the below map of the locations involved:

6:32 UPDATE: I failed to notice the line about nationalities in any of the other feeds of the AP story I saw, so this might be an update (via Fox News):

The suspects, who are all in their 20s and 30s, will be brought to a central London police station for questioning by anti-terrorism officers, police said. They declined to specify the men’s nationalities.

7:30 UPDATE: BBC reports have been updated. I edited one of the previous BBC reports quoted so it matches their updated one, specifically concerning the identity the make of the car previously described.

The timing of the raid has also been questioned.

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

Posted by Jeff Quinton at 04:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Report: U.S. Banks in London Targeted

UPI:

British intelligence officials say U.S. financial institutions in London have been targeted for terror attacks by al-Qaida, The Times of London said Tuesday.
The information came from a cache of coded e-mails found on a computer belonging to an al-Qaida suspect living in Pakistan. The information prompted the U.S. government to raise its security alert status for New York, Washington, and Newark, N.J.

The British government responded immediately to the intelligence by convening a session of the emergency coordinating unit known as Cobra.

The newspaper said after the meeting, Scotland Yard cautioned high-profile U.S. institutions such as Citigroup, which is based in one of the “twin towers” of Canary Wharf, and the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which have headquarters in London.

Cross-posted from Backcountry Conservative.

Posted by Jeff Quinton at 03:37 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Al Qaeda Suspects Arrested in Pakistan

AP:

Several more arrests of al-Qaeda suspects have been made in Pakistan in the past several days, including one man arrested trying to leave the country from an airport in the eastern city of Lahore, and another seized in a nearby town, a senior government official and police said.
The arrests were all made in the last 72 hours and the suspects were being interrogated, said the government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the men arrested identified himself as a Syrian named Juma Ibrahim. He was taken in Sunday in Hafizabad, a town near the eastern city of Lahore, said district police chief Aslam Ghauri. He said the man told authorities that he was in the town for business, but had no references and could not say who he was meeting with, Ghauri said.

Reuters:

Pakistan has arrested two more foreigners believed to be members of al Qaeda in the last 24 hours, local intelligence officials said Tuesday.
They were the latest in a series of arrests of members of the radical Islamic network in Pakistan, which U.S. officials have said had led to information about a plot to bomb buildings in Washington and in the New York area.
In the latest arrests, one of the men was apprehended at a bus stop in the Hafizabad town in Punjab province but the officials were unsure of his nationality.

“He first said he was from Yemen but later changed his statement to say he was Egyptian,” one of the officials who asked not to be named told Reuters. “We are still checking his nationality. He does not have a passport.”

In another swoop, authorities arrested a foreign al Qaeda suspect along with two Pakistanis who were traveling to the eastern city of Lahore, also in Punjab, from the nearby town of Sheikupura Monday night.

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

Posted by Jeff Quinton at 09:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Al Qaeda Alpha Geek Captured

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

Pakistani authorities claim they have arrested an Al Qaeda-linked computer engineer and discovered significant information on his computer and email.
The disclosure came amid United States press reports that the details on the computer outlined fresh plans to attack financial institutions in New York and Washington.

“We’ve arrested a computer mastermind. He is linked to Al Qaeda. We got information from computer and email,” Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.

Refusing to reveal the expert’s nationality, the minister said he was captured either in eastern Lahore city or the nearby town of Gujrat, where a key Al Qaeda suspect in the 1998 east Africa bombings was seized July 25.

The capture was around the same time as the arrest of Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Mr Rashid said, but would not specify the date.

The New York Times said the computer expert, whom it identified as Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, 25, used and managed an Al Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages.

A senior US intelligence official told the newspaper the information was more detailed than any he had seen during his 24 year career in intelligence work.

Analysis: One of the many things I’ve done in my Brilliant Career is to engage in Computer Forensics.
Although the details are sketchy, this couid - I say could - be an enormous breakthrough. Al Qaeda has used basic, but effective cryptographic and stenographic techniques for some years. Records that only an expert knows exists on a hard drive could provide clues to decoding a mass of intercepted but undecyphered traffic that has no doubt been recorded.
Unless some advance notice was given so that the data could be destroyed - usually by incinerating the machine - there may well be a mass of valuable information recovered. Any threat-levels in the coming weeks are likely to be both more accurate, and more precise, down to the level of individual buildings or institutions.
There is a significant possibility that not much useful has been recovered but the smart money says that a lot has been. (I won’t go into the technical details - but it takes both specialist knowledge and a lot of daily inconvenience to hide things effectively.) Of course, if the basic details that have been reported are wrong, this is no big deal. But the possibility exists that this is a very big breakthrough indeed.

UPDATE : the New York Times story describes him as no more than a ‘messenger’, so the odds of this being a big deal are diminished.

UPDATE : Looks like my initial estimate was right after all.

Posted by Alan Brain at 03:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 29, 2004

Pakistan Says It Captures a 'Most Wanted' Qaeda Man

Reuters reports:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Pakistan has arrested a senior al Qaeda figure with a bounty of up to $25 million on his head, Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat told CNN television Thursday.
He said the suspect had been captured during a raid in central Pakistan a few days ago. He did not identify the captive but said he was “a person who is most wanted internationally.”

Al Arabiya satellite news channel quoted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as saying the suspect was arrested Sunday.

“The Pakistani president said the arrested person is Tanzanian who is married to an Uzbek woman, and who is wanted by the United States,” the station said.

Al Arabiya said the suspect may be Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is on the FBI (news - web sites)’s most wanted “terrorists” list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings by al Qaeda of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Ghailani was among seven people about whom the United States said in May it was seeking information amid fears of a possible attack in the near future.

An FBI Web site lists Ghailani as a suspect in the African embassy bombings and says it is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture.

A Pakistani official said Tuesday that Pakistani security forces were holding three Africans, including a Tanzanian, suspected of being militants after a shootout last week.

Another said the suspects had been trying to flee Pakistan along with their families, using fake documents, after living in neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led “war on terror,” has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Several senior al Qaeda figures have been handed over to Washington.

Posted by V-Man at 04:01 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

July 28, 2004

Al Qaeda Suspect Arrested in Texas

WTOP/Federal News Radio:

A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high-level al-Qaida operative.
Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19 headed to New York.

Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns.

“In looking at her documents, they did not find any entry documents in her passport where she was legally admitted into the United States,” says Flores.

Ahmed produced a South African passport to the agents with four pages torn out, and with no U.S. entry stamps. Ahmed reportedly later confessed to investigators that she entered the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Ahmed was carrying travel itineraries showing a July 8 flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London. Six days later, Ahmed traveled from London to Mexico City before attempting to travel from McAllen to New York.

Government sources tell FederalNewsRadio.com that capturing this woman could be comparable to the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It was revealed in court Tuesday that she was on a watch list and had entered the U.S. possibly as many as 250 times.

Tuesday, the South African government issued a warning that Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe had obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.

(Via Rusty Shackelford.)

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

Posted by Jeff Quinton at 04:44 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

July 27, 2004

Guantanamo inmates back in France

BBC: Guantanamo inmates back in France

Four French nationals captured by US troops in Afghanistan have been transferred home from the US military base in Guantanamo Bay.
The detainees - among seven Frenchmen seized during the war against the Taleban in late 2001 - arrived at the Evreux air base, west of Paris.

They are expected to appear before a French anti-terrorism magistrate.

Nearly 600 prisoners from the US “war on terror” are still held at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 12:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 23, 2004

Al-Qadea mastermind planned to crash plane into Eilat

MAARIV: Al-Qadea mastermind planned to crash plane into Eilat

Al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed offered Osama Bin Laden in the spring of 2001 to perpetrate a terror attack on the Israeli resort town of Eilat, the report published by the 9/11 investigative commission reveals.
According to the report, Mohammed raised the idea of crashing an airplane on the city but the al-Qaeda leader rejected his idea.

The panel of five Republicans and five Democrats on Thursday released the findings of its 20-month investigation into the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. They called for an overhaul of America’s intelligence agencies to stop the next terror attack. Citing multiple government failures, the report called for a national counterterrorism center headed by a Cabinet-level director to centralize intelligence efforts.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 10:44 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

July 22, 2004

9-11 Commission: Richard Clarke Leak Cost Chance At Bin Laden

9-11 Commission Report: “[L]ess than a week after [Richard A.] Clarke’s phone call [to an Arab government] the bin Laden camp was hurriedly dismantled, and the site was deserted.”

According to the 9-11 Commission Report, the Clinton Administration had bin Laden’s camp in its sites, but the camp was “hurriedly dismantled … and … deserted” after a leak to an Arab government by Richard A. Clarke:

Via the 9-11 Commission Report:

- - - - - - -

Even after bin Laden’s departure from the area, CIA officers hoped he might return, seeing the camp as a magnet that could draw him for as long as it was still set up. The military maintained readiness for another strike opportunity. On March 7, 1999, Clarke called a UAE official to express his concerns about possible associations between Emirati officials and bin Laden. Clarke later wrote in a memorandum of this conversation that the call had been approved at an interagency meeting and cleared with the CIA. When the former bin Laden unit chief found out about Clarke’s call, he questioned CIA officials, who denied having given such clearance. Imagery confirmed that less than a week after Clarke’s phone call the camp was hurriedly dismantled, and the site was deserted. CIA officers, including Deputy Director for Operations Pavitt, were irate. ‘Mike’ thought the dismantling of the camp erased a possible site for targeting bin Laden.

- - - - - - -

Richard A. Clark earlier this year was critical of the Bush Administration, and its policies for combating terrorism, during his 9-11 Commission testimony. During Clarke’s public testimony, at least, Clarke made no mention of the above-discussed lost chance to capture or kill bin Laden in 1999, during the Clinton Administration.

The full 9-11 Commission Report is here.

Via The Corner and Instapundit.

The link to the nikita demosthenes post is here.

Posted by nikita demosthenes at 12:54 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

July 14, 2004

Bahrain arrests 'al-Qaida' suspects

AL-JAZEERA: Bahrain arrests ‘al-Qaida’ suspects

Bahrain has arrested seven men suspected of having al-Qaida links and for allegedly plotting attacks in the kingdom.
Six of those arrested on Wednesday were freed last month after being briefly detained for similar reasons.

The suspects “prepared a plan to carry out attacks using explosives against government, economic and tourist facilities”, said an interior ministry statement.

The men wanted to “spread panic among the population, create disorder and expose the national economy and foreign investments to danger,” the statement added.

The six were released without charge on 23 June after being arrested the previous day for planning to carry out “grave acts” in the tiny Gulf country on behalf of al-Qaida.

A Bahraini official had said last week the suspects were still under judicial investigation.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 12:32 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

July 07, 2004

Yemen Begins USS Cole Bombing Trial

MSNBC carries an AP report on the opening of the trial in a court in Yemen of charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the al Qaeda-linked accused mastermind of the USS Cole bombing who is presently held in U.S. custody, and five other Yemenis in the October 2000 terror attack that claimed the lives of 17 American sailors.

U.S. officials believe the Saudi-born al-Nashiri is a close associate of bin Laden. In addition to the Cole attack, he is suspected of helping direct the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. U.S. officials say al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the Cole bombers from the [United Arab] Emirates.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Baseball Crank at 09:41 AM | TrackBack

July 05, 2004

Libya Exposes Al Qaeda Camp

the Bahraini Gulf Daily News writes about a report from the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (link unavailable), in which a source with the intelligence services of a European country claims that Libyan agents some ten days ago discovered an Al Qaeda camp on the Libyan border with Chad.

The French newspaper said that the GSPC - the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - was recruiting actively in the Tibesti region and buying arms and vehicles with German ransom money paid for the release of tourists in the Sahara in 2003.

The GSPC has seen a lot of activity against it lately. It seems however that, despite all efforts to eradicate this Algerian terrorist group, they are still operational.

“Above all, it appears that the GSPC is clearly preparing terrorist attacks in Africa, on American or European targets - including French ones - be they economic, diplomatic or tourist sites,” the newspaper said.

The article then notes the downplayment of European governments of the recently repeated threat by Al Qaeda to strike Europe again if they fail to take them up on their truce offer.

Most poignantly so did the German interior ministry. The same German government that last year paid this ransom to the GSPC in the first place.

Update: Algeria’s Le Matin (French) has more.

Posted by V-Man at 10:41 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 01, 2004

US, UK, Australia Beefing Up Sharing of Timely Intelligence

The Financial Times reports on a collaborative effort between the three major partners in the global war on terror - the U.S., Britain, and Australia - to build a global, real-time intelligence-sharing operation to track and counter Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups:

Counter-terrorism chiefs in the US, Britain and Australia are aiming to build a global intelligence-sharing structure that will allow security services to assess threats and issue warnings continuously across all time zones.

The new system is intended to allow each country to benefit from the daytime collection and assessment of information on the threat from groups affiliated to al-Qaeda.
Security services in the different time zones will assess information received from the other services and then pass on updated assessments in an unbroken flow.

“The step change has been in the intelligence sharing because no one country can understand al-Qaeda,” said a senior security official involved in creating the new system.

Extensive intelligence sharing on terrorism and other issues between the three countries is already routine. But al-Qaeda’s fragmented structure has intensified the focus on local terrorist cells whose cross-border links have become increasingly difficult to identify.

The foundation of the system will be the new terrorism assessment centres the three countries have established. In the aftermath of the bombing of a nightclub in Bali on October 12 2002, which killed 199 people, including many Australians, several security services blamed a lack of intelligence co-ordination for having limited the sharing of information available before the bombings.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Baseball Crank at 11:42 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 30, 2004

Hezbollah and Fahrenheit 9/11: A "natural" pair?

A couple weeks ago, news broke that Hezbollah had approached distributors of Fahrenheit 9/11, asking how they could help support the movie:

In terms of marketing the film, Front Row is getting a boost from organisations related to Hezbollah which have rung up from Lebanon to ask if there is anything they can do to support the film. And although Chacra says he and his company feel strongly that Fahrenheit is not anti-American, but anti-Bush, “we can’t go against these organisations as they could strongly boycott the film in Lebanon and Syria.” [Originally published in ScreenDaily, 6/9/2004]

News of this connection has been decried by many as right-wing conspiracy-fostering, but those complaints miss the point. The fact that terrorist groups would approach the distributor is not scary; those groups are rational, and they see that this film is the better propaganda than they could ever make (after all, it’s not like American movie theatres would ever show al Qaeda training tapes).

What is scary is that the distributor is so nonchalant about accepting help from these terrorists:

Gianluca Chacra, the managing director of Front Row Entertainment, the movie’s distributor in the United Arab Emirates, confirms that Lebanese student members of Hezbollah “have asked us if there’s any way they could support the film.” While Hezbollah is considered a legitimate political party in many parts of the world, the U.S. State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization. Chacra was unfazed, even excited, about their offer. “Having the support of such an entity in Lebanon is quite significant for that market and not at all controversial. I think it’s quite natural.”

The right can’t make up stuff as absurd as this. (Hat Tip: Blogs for Bush)

Posted by hideandseek at 02:20 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

June 22, 2004

Murderous Methods

Nick Berg was beheaded in Iraq early in May and it received a great deal of attention because of the video.

More recently, Robert Jacob was murdered in Saudi Arabia on tape, but he was shot to death. It didn’t receive quite the same amount of attention as the videotaped beheadings - either in the mainstream media or the blogosphere.

The Saudi arm apparently learned their lesson from this and proceeded to behead Paul Johnson on video and it received a great deal of media attention.

The news of today’s beheading of Kim Sun-il means beheading on videotape is probably now cemented as the method of choice of Al Qaeda in the region. With 10 hostages reportedly still being held, I am reminded of something someone said recently (~~I think~~ it was ~~either James Joyner or~~ Steven Taylor ~~- I’ll update this to reflect who said it when I find it again~~.) The beheadings may become smaller news stories in the future if they keep happening with frequency was the gist of it as I remember it. Al Qaeda terrorists in the region may adapt and change methods again if that ever happens.

UPDATE: Bryan also discusses the P.R. savvy of the terrorists and mentions that the video is getting heavy play on South Korean television. He reminds me that it was Steven Taylor who discussed what I mentioned above. Bryan also previously discussed the evolving tactics of the terrorists dealing with the media.

Taylor:

All very tragic, and yet again underscoring the barbaric nature of this enemy. One wonders if the beheading routine will continue, or if they will have to find new and more terrible methods of execution to maintain the attention of the public/to maintain the appropriate level of fear.

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

Posted by Jeff Quinton at 05:14 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

June 21, 2004

NYT reports: "Commission, Bush agree!"

Amidst the weekend’s barrage of news that the Bush Administration and the 9/11 Commission were disagreeing over whether there were connections between al Qaeda, the NYT admitted, in an easily-overlooked item, that the Bush Administration indeed never> claimed that Iraq was involved in the terrorist actions on September 11:

Critics of the Bush administration argue that it falsely created a link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks to help justify the war. Last week, the administration countered that it had never made such an assertion — only that there were ties, however murky, between Iraq and Al Qaeda. A survey of past public comments seems to bear that out — although whether there was a deliberate campaign to create guilt by association is difficult to say.

You can see the NYT’s words for yourself in this NYT graphic.

While the NYT takes a look at connections between Iraq and al Qaeda, they may want to dig through their own archives. On 11/5/1998, the NYT reported that bin Laden had been indicted by the US Attorneys office, which claimed that he had collaborated with Iraq:

Both indictments offer new information about Mr. bin Laden’s operations, including one deal he is said to have struck with Iraq to cooperate in the development of weapons in return for Mr. bin Laden’s agreeing not to work against that country.

No details were given about whether the alleged deal with Iraq led to the development of actual weapons for Mr. bin Laden’s group, which is called Al Qaeda.

You can read the indictment for yourself:

Al Qaeda also forged allieances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hebollah for the purpose of working together against the perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperateively with the Government of Iraq.

Not surprisingly, the good folks at The Free Republic are going apeshit over this. Apparently Rush Limbaugh talked about it on Friday, too.

Posted by hideandseek at 11:56 AM | Comments (26) | TrackBack

June 17, 2004

Bush: "[T]here was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda."

President Bush’s statement at today’s cabinet meeting:

The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. For example, Iraqi intelligence officers met with bin Laden, the head of al Qaeda, in the Sudan. There’s numerous contacts between the two.

I always said that Saddam Hussein was a threat. He was a threat because he had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He was a threat because he was a sworn enemy to the United States of America, just like al Qaeda. He was a threat because he had terrorist connections — not only al Qaeda connections, but other connections to terrorist organizations; Abu Nidal was one. He was a threat because he provided safe-haven for a terrorist like Zarqawi, who is still killing innocent inside of Iraq.

No, he was a threat, and the world is better off and America is more secure without Saddam Hussein in power.

The response from Senator Kerry:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said the commission’s report is evidence that Bush misled the nation in setting out the case for war against Iraq.
“The president and the vice president, on a number of occasions, have asserted very directly to the American people that the war against al-Qaeda, the war against terror, is the war against Iraq,” Kerry said after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Airport this afternoon. “It is clear the president owes the American people a full explanation” for the war.

[snip]

Kerry, a four-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts, said the report by the Sept. 11 commission, a 10-member bipartisan panel, bolsters his argument that the war in Iraq was a distraction from the hunt for al-Qaeda.
“This administration took it’s eye off the real war on terrorism — al- Qaeda, Afghanistan — for reasons of its own choosing,” Kerry, 60, said.

Posted by Baseball Crank at 07:06 PM | Comments (37) | TrackBack

June 02, 2004

Trial of four Kenyan al-Qaida attackers resumes

AP: Trial of four Kenyan al-Qaida attackers resumes

The trial of four Kenyan men charged with murder for their alleged roles in an al-Qaida attack on Israeli tourists resumed Wednesday.
Omar Said Omar, Mohammed Nabhan, Aboud Rogo Mohammed and Mohamed Kubwa have been charged with 15 counts of murder for the Nov. 28, 2002 bombing of the Paradise Hotel north of Mombasa, an attack that killed 15 people, including three Israeli tourists. All four suspects have pleaded innocent.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 11:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 25, 2004

18,000 Potential Al Qaeda Terrorists Still at Large?

An AP report in the Washington Post bears grim news:

Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al Qaeda has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday.
Al Qaeda is probably working on plans for major attacks on the United States and Europe, and it may be seeking weapons of mass destruction in its desire to inflict as many casualties as possible, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its annual survey of world affairs.

Osama bin Laden’s network appears to be operating in more than 60 nations, often in concert with local allies, the study by the independent think tank said.

Although about half of al-Qaida’s top 30 leaders have been killed or captured, it has an effective leadership, with bin Laden apparently still playing a key role, it said.

It’s not entirely clear what IISS’ angle is here; the report “suggested that the two military centerpieces of the U.S.-led war on terror - the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - may have boosted al-Qaida” for contradictory reasons:

Driving the terror network out of Afghanistan in late 2001 appears to have benefited the group, which dispersed to many countries, making it almost invisible and hard to combat, the story said.
And the Iraq conflict “has arguably focused the energies and resources of al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition that appeared so formidable” after the Afghan intervention, the survey said.

The report’s methodology seems rather simplistic as well:

The IISS said its estimate of 18,000 al Qaeda fighters was based on intelligence estimates that the group trained at least 20,000 fighters in its camps in Afghanistan before the United States and its allies ousted the Taliban regime. In the ensuing war on terror, some 2,000 al Qaeda fighters have been killed or captured, the survey said.

None of which suggests that the report shouldn’t necessarily be taken very seriously, but as usual bear in mind the difficulty of getting accurate information in this context as well as any possible biases of the source.

Posted by Baseball Crank at 05:03 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

May 20, 2004

Special Analysis: The Amman Chemical Plot

While what little media coverage there was of the recent chemical weapons plot in Amman, Jordan was over within a day, it received wide coverage within blogosphere. I myself consider the possibility of terrorists using chemical weapons to kill thousands of innocent people to be worthy of at least as much airtime as anything else these days, but then it’s probably just as well that I got out of the the whole media business to begin with. In any case, this analysis will deal with both the Amman plot and other aspects of what we know about al-Qaeda’s WMD program, as well as the potential future implications from this.

Read The Rest…

Posted by Winds of Change at 11:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 05, 2004

Europe Simulates Nuclear Hit

International Herald Tribune: What If? Europe Simulates Qaeda Nuclear Hit

European officials have conducted a simulation showing how Al Qaeda could kill 40,000 people and plunge the continent into chaos if a crude nuclear device were detonated outside NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe,” said the former U.S. senator Sam Nunn, who helped organize the exercise, named Black Dawn. “To win this race, we have to achieve cooperation on a scale we’ve never seen or attempted before.”

Nunn spoke to reporters Tuesday, a day after the closed-door war games, which were attended by top officials including the European Union’s security chief, Javier Solana, and his new counterterrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries.

In the first part of the scenario, European officials were asked how they would respond to intelligence that Al Qaeda had obtained enough highly enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb.

In the second, they were confronted with computer projections and video displays illustrating the impact of terrorists exploding the device at NATO’s headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels, immediately killing 40,000 people, overwhelming hospitals with hundreds of thousands of injured, spreading panic through Europe and plunging the world economy into turmoil.

“Once you are in this phase, there are no good options,” said Michele Flournoy, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who helped prepare the exercise.

More than 50 people from 15 countries and a dozen international organizations attended the exercise, mostly EU ambassadors but also civilian and military officials from that North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Interpol and other bodies.

Nunn appealed to the Europeans to step up funding for increased protection at sites where weapons-grade uranium and plutonium are stored - particularly in former Soviet states.

He said that preventing Al Qaeda from getting its hands on such material was the best chance of stopping it from building a bomb.

“It’s well within Al Qaeda’s operational capabilities to recruit the technical expertise needed to build a crude nuclear devise,” he said. “The hard part is getting the nuclear material, but we do not make it nearly hard enough.”

Nunn, a Democrat from Georgia and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped push through a $10-billion program in 1991 to destroy and safeguard weapons of mass destruction in Russia and other former Soviet republics. But he said at least 60 percent of sites still must be secured.

He said European leaders should make good on pledges made two years ago as part of a $20 billion commitment by the Group of 8 of industrialized nations to provide more funding for that program over 10 years.

They should also push President George W. Bush and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to do more when the G-8 group of world leaders meets next month in Georgia, he said.

“It’s too easy for the G-8 to have a photo opportunity, to have a nice set of dinners, to have press conferences, make a bunch of pledges, go home and everybody forgets about it,” Nunn said. “That must not happen.”

Solana and the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, convened the exercise to show the extent of the danger. “The threat of catastrophic terrorism is not confined to the United States or Russia or the Middle East,” Solana said. “The new terrorist movements seem willing to use unlimited violence and cause massive casualties.”

Nunn urged increased protection for weapons-grade uranium kept at research sites, which are often poorly guarded university facilities; accelerated destruction of tactical nuclear weapons by both the United States and Russia; enhanced international intelligence sharing; and more help to find new jobs for poorly paid Russian nuclear scientists.

Some commentary at OTB.

Posted by at 08:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 30, 2004

Al-Qaida: If we had chemical bomb, we would have hit Israel

HAARETZ: Al-Qaida: If we had chemical bomb, we would have hit Israel

A purported message from Al-Qaida operative Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi said Friday his group did plan to blow up a Jordanian intelligence building, but not with chemical weapons as the authorities have alleged. If Al-Qaida had chemical weapons, he said, it would have used them to attack Israel.

“The [allegation] that there was a chemical bomb to kill thousands of people is a mere lie,” the reported voice of al-Zarqawi says on a tape broadcast via an Islamic site on the Internet.
“God knows, if we did possess [a chemical bomb], we wouldn’t hesitate one second to use it to hit Israeli cities such as Eilat and Tel Aviv,” the voice said.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 10:04 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

April 26, 2004

Jordan to air confessions of alleged chemical bomb attack planners

HAARETZ/AP: Jordan to air confessions of alleged chemical bomb attack planners

State television will air confessions from Al-Qaida suspects who allegedly planned chemical and poison gas attacks against the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Jordan, officials said Monday.

Monday’s 20-minute taped program was scheduled for 9 P.M. local time, considered prime time because it follows the main news bulletin. Government spokeswoman Asma Khader and other officials disclosed few details ahead of the program. The number and identities of the suspects who will appear were not announced.
“There will be a detailed announcement on television tonight,” was all Khader would say at her weekly press briefing.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 12:11 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

April 23, 2004

Patriotic NFL Star - Pat Tillman - KIA in Afghanistan

This early breaking news is from the Drudge Report. The NFL plans a 1:00 p.m. ET press conference.

Pat Tillman turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to volunteer as an Army Ranger.

Here are some background articles on Pat Tillman from the NFL, USA Today, the Las Vegas Sun, Veterans Advantage, ESPN, and the Army Times.

Former Arizona safety Pat Tillman turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals to pursue his dream of being a Ranger in the U.S. Army

On the U.S. Army Rangers: Members of the 75th Ranger Regiment - Pat Tillman’s unit - make up an “elite combat unit.” Candidates must pass a stringent orientation course, where they are challenged physically and mentally, before they can even be selected. The Rangers are an infantry force trained to fight against any threat. Their creed: “Rangers lead the way!”

This is a duplicate of the original post from the nikita demosthenes website.

UPDATE: Pat Tillman, KIA. Reports from Army Ranger.com, CNN, and MSNBC.

Per MSNBC:

- - - - - - -

In Afghanistan, Tillman’s batallion was involved in “Operation Mountain Storm,” part of the U.S. campaign against Taliban and al-Qaida groups along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, military officials said.

He was killed during action in the past 24 hours, they said.

- - - - - - -

SECOND UPDATE: A true American hero: the sad news of patriot Pat Tillman’s death, fighting al Qaeda in the line-of-duty along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, reverberates throughout the United States and the world. See:

Fox News,
Associated Press,
The Washington Post,
Reuters,
U.S. Army Ranger Association,
Arizona Cardinals Official Website,
Peggy Noonan - “Privileged to Serve”,
California’s “Patio Pundit” blog,
France’s “Merde in France” blog,
Canada’s “Ghost of a Flea” blog, and
Australia’s Tim Blair.

NFL.com - (April 23, 2004) — Former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, who gave up an NFL contract to join the Army Rangers, reportedly has been killed in Afghanistan.

NFL.com - (April 23, 2004) In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Tillman turned down a three-year contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the Army.

More from the Arizona Cardinals Official Website:

- - - - - - -

Tillman was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the Army refers to them as an “elite combat unit.” Candidates must pass a stringent orientation course, where they are challenged physically and mentally, before they can even be selected. The Rangers are an infantry force trained to fight against any threat. Their creed: “Rangers lead the way!”

An unrestricted free agent in 2002 when he made his decision, Tillman declined an offer from the Cardinals to play football that year. That wasn’t the first time Tillman had proven his loyalty — in 2001 he turned down a chance to play with the St. Louis Rams to stay with Arizona for another year.

- - - - - - -

Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals in the spring of 2002 to join his brother as an Army Ranger. He made the move quietly, staging no press conference, granting no interviews and issuing no public remarks about his decision. The move was a personal one for Tillman, who, according to those around him, was deeply moved by the attacks of 9-11. He wanted to “pay something back,” Cardinals defensive coordinator Larry Marmie told reporters at the time.

THIRD UPDATE: Per Iowa Hawk:

- - - - - - -

Pat Tillman 1976-2004

MSNBC reports that Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army Ranger, has been killed in Afghanistan.

In 1972 Major League Baseball recognized Jackie Robinson’s remarkable story of selflessness and sacrifice by universally retiring #42. I believe the NFL should do no less in honoring the memory of Pat Tillman. Please contact the office of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and encourage him to universally retire #40.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
National Football League, Inc.
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017

(212) 450-2000.

- - - - - - -

Posted by nikita demosthenes at 11:37 AM | TrackBack

April 20, 2004

King Abdullah: al-Qaida tried to "decapitate" the government of Jordan with WMD from Syria

This is more in the wealth of evidence indicating that many of Saddam Hussein’s WMD’s ended up in Syria.

- - - - - - -

Jordan’s King Abdullah revealed on Saturday that vehicles reportedly containing chemical weapons and poison gas that were part of a deadly al-Qaida bomb plot came from Syria, the country named by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay last year as a likely repository for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government,” King Abdullah told the San Francisco Chronicle. Jordanian officials estimated that the death count could have been as high as 20,000 - seven times greater than the Sept. 11 attacks.

King Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of explosives had come from Syria…

- - - - - - -

In his testimony before Congress last year, weapons inspector Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S. attack on March 19, 2003.

While Kay said investigators couldn’t be sure the cargo contained weapons of mass destruction, one of his top advisers described the evidence as “unquestionable.”

“People below the Saddam-Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,” said James Clapper in comments reported by the New York Times on Oct. 29. Clapper heads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

- - - - - - -

By Saturday morning European news services were quoting an unnamed Jordanian official, who revealed that the al-Qaida plotters planned to use weapons of mass destruction in the foiled attack.

“We found primary materials to make a chemical bomb which, if it had exploded, would have made nearly 20,000 deaths … in an area of one square kilometre,” the official told Agence France-Press.

Another operation planned by the network was to use “deadly gas against the US embassy and the prime minister’s office in Amman,” he added.

A car belonging to the al-Qaida plotters, containing a chemical bomb and poisonous gas, was intercepted just 75 miles from the Syrian border.

- - - - - - -

It’s past time to give Syrian President Bashir Assad an ultimatum: voluntarily let the U.S. search Syria for Saddam Hussein’s WMD, or we’ll send in some troops. The rationale for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (to prevent Saddam’s WMD from being used against the U.S. by al Qaeda or other terrorists) is precisely the same rationale present now for the U.S. to go into Syria.

This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

Posted by nikita demosthenes at 12:04 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

April 14, 2004

Tenet: U.S. Lacks Tools to Combat al-Qaida

AP: Tenet: U.S. Lacks Tools to Combat al-Qaida

CIA director George Tenet predicted Wednesday it will take “another five years of work to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs” to combat al-Qaida and other terrorist threats.
“The same can be said for the National Security Agency, our imagery agency and our analytic community,” Tenet testified before the commission investigating the worst terror attacks in the nation’s history.

Readily acknowledging that intelligence agencies “never penetrated the 9-11 plot,” he added, “We all understood (Osama) bin Laden’s intent to strike the homeland but were unable to translate this knowledge into an effective defense of the country.”

Tenet testified that when he became the nation’s top intelligence officer in 1997, agencies had lost “close to 25 percent of our people and billions of dollars in capital investment” in the preceding several years.

He made his appearance after the commission released a report that noted the same erosion in resources dating to the end of the Cold War.

(Thank you, Frank Church.)

Posted by Laurence Simon at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 09, 2004

Uzbek Terrorists Said Trained by al-Qaida

AP: Uzbek Terrorists Said Trained by al-Qaida

The suspects behind a wave of suicide bombings and attacks on police in Uzbekistan got military training from Arab instructors who also taught al-Qaida fighters, the country’s top prosecutor said Friday.
Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov also said the militants were influenced by Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist Islamic group that claims to disavow violence, and the Islamic Movement of Turkestan — a terrorist group believed to have emerged from the remains of an Uzbek group decimated in U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

Kadyrov did not offer any evidence or take questions from reporters at his news briefing. Uzbekistan has been keen to portray itself as the latest victim of global terrorism, but the authoritarian regime has created many enemies at home through its oppressive policies and crackdown on Muslims who worship outside state-affiliated mosques.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 01:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 06, 2004

Al Qaeda Absent In Final Clinton-Clarke National Security Report

Via today’s Washington Times:

- - - - - - -

The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.

The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an “urgent” threat, while President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, “ignored” it.

The Clinton document, titled “A National Security Strategy for a Global Age,” is dated December 2000 and is the final official assessment of national security policy and strategy by the Clinton team. The document is publicly available, though no U.S. media outlets have examined it in the context of Mr. Clarke’s testimony and new book.

- - - - - - -

. . . the Clinton administration’s final national security document, written while Mr. [Richard A.] Clarke was a high-level national security adviser, never mentions al Qaeda.

- - - - - - -

More detail on how the national security failures of Clinton and Clarke helped unleash global terrorism, see the recent book on the subject, “Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror” by Richard Miniter:

Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror

Per Amazon.com’s review of Miniter’s book:

- - - - - - -

Book Description

Years before the public knew about bin Laden, Bill Clinton did. Bin Laden first attacked Americans during Clinton’s presidential transition in December 1992. He struck again at the World Trade Center in February 1993. Over the next eight years the archterrorist’s attacks would escalate killing hundreds and wounding thousands - while Clinton did his best to stymie the FBI and CIA and refused to wage a real war on terror.

Why?

The answer is here in investigative reporter Richard Miniter’s stunning exposé, Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror, that includes exclusive interviews with both of Clinton’s National Security Advisors, Clinton’s Counter-Terrorism Czar, his first Director of Central Intelligence, his Secretary of State, top CIA and FBI agents, lawmakers from both parties and foreign intelligence officials from France, Sudan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as on-the-scene coverage from Sudan, Egypt, and elsewhere.

Bill Clinton had countless opportunities to nab Osama bin Laden during his presidency, but time and time again, bin Laden slipped out of the Clinton administration’s grasp,

In Losing bin Laden you’ll learn:

- How the Northern Alliance was criticized by the Clinton Administration for trying to kill bin Laden-and why they kept trying anyway.

- The never-before-told story of the Saudi government attempt to assassinate bin Laden.

- Why Bill Clinton refused to meet with his first Director of Central Intelligence.

- Drawn from secret Sudanese intelligence files, the never-before-told story of bin Laden’s role in shooting down America’s Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia-and how Clinton manipulated the news media to keep the worst off America’s TV screens.

- How the Clinton administration turned down repeated offers from Sudan to hand over bin Laden to the U.S. because they didn’t want him in a U.S. court.

- How the Clinton administration never took a look at offered Sudanese intelligence files, a database of names, movements and locations of bin Laden and hundreds of al Qaeda operatives.

- The 1993 World Trade Center attack-why Clinton never visited the site; why the CIA was kept out of the investigation; how one of the FBI’s most trusted informants was actually a double agent working for bin Laden.

- Why the CIA never funded bin Laden-despite the liberal myths.

- The untold story of a respected congressman who repeatedly warned Clinton officials about bin Laden in 1993-and why he was ignored.

- Revealed for the first time; how Clinton and a Democratic senator stopped the CIA from hiring Arabic translators-while phone intercepts from bin Laden remained untranslated.

- How the Predator spy plane-which spotted bin Laden three times-was grounded by bureaucratic infighting.

- Why the Clinton administration refused to retaliate for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

Plus much more, including appendices of secret documents and photos, as well as the established links between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Losing bin Laden is a dramatic, page-turning read, a riveting account of a terror war that bin Laden openly declared, but that Clinton left largely unfought. With a pounding narrative, upclose characters, and detailed scenes, it takes you inside the Oval Office, the White House Situation Room, and some of the deadliest terrorist cells that America has ever faced. If Clinton had fought back, the attacks on September 11, 2001, might never have happened.

Losing bin Laden is a story-and one hell of a lesson-that the reader will never forget.

- - - - - - -

For more on this story, see: Instapundit, Captain’s Quarters, National Review, QandO, and Croooow Blog.

Via Instapundit.

This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

Posted by nikita demosthenes at 01:51 PM | Comments (83) | TrackBack

US Embassy in Jordan warns it was potential target

JERUSALEM POST: US Embassy in Jordan warns it was potential target

The US Embassy was the target of a terror plot hatched by armed Muslim terrorists detained in Jordan last week and believed to be linked to al-Qaida.
US Embassy spokesman Justin Siberell said Tuesday that while Jordanian authorities were interrogating the suspected terrorists, it “emerged that one of the targets was the US Embassy” in Jordan.

Jordanian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Posted by Laurence Simon at 12:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 26, 2004

Did Rice Know About Al Qaeda?

Here is a quote from Condi Rice in October of 2000 [before the election]:

Osama bin Laden, do two things, the first is you really have to get the intelligence agencies better organized to deal with the terrorist threat to the United States itself. One of the problems that we have is a kind of split responsibility, of course, between the CIA in foreign intelligence and the FBI in domestic intelligence. There needs to be better cooperation because we don’t want to wake up one day and find out that Osama bin Laden has been successful on our own territory.

Here is the quote from Richard Clarke’s new book:

… as I briefed Rice on Al-Qaeda, her facial expression gave me the impression she had never heard of the term before. So I added, ‘Most people think of it as Osama bin Laden’s group, but it is much more than that, it’s a network of affiliated terrorist organizations with cells in over 50 countries, including the U.S.

Listen to the sound byte at Rush Limbaugh.

Posted by Mike Van Winkle at 12:07 PM | Comments (77) | TrackBack

March 24, 2004

CNN Reports Rice Releasing Email From Clarke Post-Septmeber 11

CNN is reporting that Condi Rice just held a press conference to release an unclassified portion of an email sent to her from Dick Clarke just after September 11 in which he states that he worries the Bush Administration might be accused of not doing enough to prevent September 11, and listing actions that the Administration had taken against terrorism and Al Qaeda to combat that perception.

6:04 update: CNN reports Rice says on July 5, 2001, she met with Clarke and instructed him to put all domestic agencies on a higher alert, because there was a chance of a domestic attack, even though the evidence principly indicated a foreign attack.

Posted by hideandseek at 05:44 PM | Comments (137) | TrackBack

March 17, 2004

Almost, but not quite

JERUSALEM POST/AP: Frenchman tries to run over Bin Laden look-alike

A Frenchman was convicted for trying to run over a pedestrian he mistook for Osama bin Laden.
The 35-year-old, identified as a struggling artist named Pierre, was sentenced Tuesday by a court in this southern France city to a three-month suspended prison term and ordered to pay 500 (US$615) to the victim, who was unharmed.

The man’s lawyer, David Mendel, said his client was traumatized by last week’s terror attacks in Madrid and was temporarily the “victim of a hallucination,” while driving Monday through Montpellier’s historic center.

The victim, a man in his 30s, was able to run from the oncoming car, which crashed along the side of a street.

“It wasn’t bin Laden,” Mendel said. “If it was, we would have won US$5 million.”

Posted by Laurence Simon at 09:59 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 11, 2004

UPI: Madrid bombings carry al-Qaida hallmark

From UPI:

While all fingers in Spain are pointing at the Basque separatist movement ETA as the perpetrators of Thursday’s atrocious train bombings that left some 186 dead and 600 wounded, the attacks carry all the markings of al-Qaida and its jihadi affiliates.
For starters the Brussels-based World Observatory of Terrorism, an independent think tank affiliated with the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, points to five major reasons that cast doubt on the involvement of ETA.

First, ETA generally warns Spanish authorities moments before launching their attacks in which civilians are likely to be harmed. This, obviously, was not the case on Thursday.
Second, ETA traditionally targets representatives of the government or the administration, such as policemen, the military, magistrates or even journalists who oppose them.

Third, ETA customarily selects “symbolic” targets, such as military barracks and administrative buildings. Although ETA’s largest attack to date was in 1987 against a supermarket in Barcelona that killed 21 people, this was the exception rather than the norm.

Fourth, ETA always claims its attacks. Following any ETA bombing, ETA militants call in a claim to Spanish authorities. This failed to happen this time.

Fifth, ETA has never in the past carried out multiple attacks. According to some sources, at least 10 bombs were detonated almost simultaneously on Thursday.

On the other hand, these murderous attacks bear the traditional hallmark of al-Qaida: multiple bombs detonating a few seconds apart and programmed to cause the largest possible number of human casualties.

Posted by Yeechang Lee at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 28, 2004

Tehran Radio: Osama bin Laden Captured; US & Pakistan Deny Report

Ha’aretz:

Osama bin Laden has been captured along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Saturday on Tehran Radio.
In the report quoting “knowledgeable sources,” the official Iranian media outlet does not specify when the al-Qaida leader was captured, and the report has yet to be confirmed elsewhere.

It said that Bin Laden was apprehended in a region populated by tribes along the border of the two countries, adding that U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visit to Pakistan on Thursday was related to capturing the al-Qaida leader.

The United States and Pakistan on Saturday denied the reports.

Posted by Gil Shterzer at 06:20 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

February 23, 2004

The CIA in Iraq & Afghanistan

Amygdala excerpts and links to a report on the state of the CIA in Iraq & Afghanistan. It’s not a comfortable read, but it is enlightening.

This situation has been developing since the mid-70s, and post-9/11 criticisms from ex-agents like Robert Baer and Reuel Marc Gerecht were unsparing and accurate. While CIA Director Tenet’s Georgetown speech trumpeted significantly improved human intelligence capabilities, the truth is that even an incomplete fix will probably take at least five years. Until then, this is what things will often look like on the ground.

UPDATE: StrategyPage adds some further thoughts on the CIA’s “human intelligence” difficulties. It also offers a very vivid look at the moral and political challenges inherent to this kind of intelligence work, especially when viewed from a left-lib perspective. I suspect this is why my colleague Armed Liberal is always so stunned when he hears other liberals blithely propose extensive covert action, SOG teams, etc. as the preferred way to deal with al-Qaeda - so if you’re one of those, please read it.

Posted by Winds of Change at 03:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 21, 2004

Rumors/Reports that Bin Laden is 'Boxed In'?

I was going to wait for more credible sources but looks like it’s about to take off in the blogosphere so here is the rumor.

(Please note these are Australian wires reporting that a British paper will be making the official report - if there is really anything to this no one should be reporting on it becuase, well, Bin Laden might have a radio!)

First reports; The Weekend Australian and News.com.auand The Sunday Mail

OSAMA bin Laden is reportedly surrounded by United States special forces in a mountain range that straddles north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Internationally respected investigative journalist and author Gordon Thomas says the al-Qaida terror group leader has been sighted for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite.
In a report to be published in a British newspaper, Thomas says bin Laden is in a mountainous area to the north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
The region is said to be a stronghold for bin Laden supporters and the terror kingpin is estimated to have 50 of his fanatical bodyguards by his side.
Thomas attributes his report to “a well-placed intelligence source” in Washington who is quoted as saying: “He (bin Laden) is boxed in.”
The area makes an all-out conventional military assault impossible, according to the report.
The plan to capture him would depend on a “grab-him-and-go” operation.
“US helicopters already sited on the Afghanistan border will swoop in to extricate him,” the report says.
It continues by saying bin Laden and his men “sleep in caves or out in the open”.
“The area is swept by fierce snow storms howling down from the 3000m-high mountain peaks. Donkeys are the only transport.”
The US special forces are “absolutely confident” there is no escape for bin Laden and are waiting for the order to snatch the shadowy terrorist leader.
The timing of that order will ultimately depend on President George Bush, the report says.
“Capturing bin Laden will certainly be a huge help for him as he gets ready for the election.
“It will be an even bigger bonus than getting Saddam.”
The article goes on to say bin Laden’s movements are continually monitored by a US National Security Agency satellite positioned over the land in which the wealthy Saudi is trapped.
Joint chiefs of staff chairman General Richard Myers said last week the US had been engaged in “intense” efforts to capture bin Laden.
But General Myers insisted that the focus of the search had not narrowed for months.
“There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the same,” he said. “They haven’t changed in months.”
Asked where bin Laden was hiding, General Myers said: “We think in that border region somewhere. We don’t know precisely.”
Bin Laden’s whereabouts were discovered, according to the report, when US Central Intelligence Agency analysts – geographers and soil experts – studying the background in the al-Qaida boss’s latest video suggested it matched rocks in the Toba Kakar ranges.
CIA agents, working with Pakistani guides, went from Afghanistan to the region to take photographs and bring out rock and soil samples.
These were flown to Washington where the CIA analysts electronically matched them to the video background.
A two-man special forces surveillance unit infiltrated the area.
“Within a week, they had picked up the first clues that bin Laden was around,” according to a source quoted in the report.
“Other teams then slipped into the area.
“No helicopters were used, to avoid any alert.”
Once the area was sealed, the special forces troops watched and waited for the order to go in and end the largest manhunt in history.
Bin Laden, head of the fanatical Muslim al-Qaida group, is alleged to have masterminded the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Posted by Robert Mayer at 04:03 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

February 12, 2004

NBC: Soldier accused of trying to aid al-Qaida

According to MSNBC, a National Guard member has been arrested for helping Al Qaeda.

Spc. Ryan G. Anderson has been charged with “aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network,” U.S. officials told NBC News. The officials said that Anderson was caught up in a sting operation conducted jointly by the Army, the Justice Department and the FBI. Anderson, however, is currently being held and charged only by the Army. Anderson is a Muslim, officials said.

Posted by Jeff M at 06:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 10, 2004

Islamic Extremists Enter US, Join Sleepers

Wash Times reports on Islamic extremists entering the the US.

Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to “sleeper cells” in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.

A high-ranking foreign intelligence chief told The Washington Times in an interview last week that this clandestine but aggressive network of training camps “represents a serious threat to the United States, one that cannot be ignored.” The official said as many as 400 terrorists have been and are being trained at camps in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Pakistani officials are denying the accusations.

Posted by Jeff M at 11:58 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

January 08, 2004

Dan's Winds of War: Jan 8/03

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. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report. Today's briefings are brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

* Saudi Arabia, friend or foe? This is an issue that I've dealt with in the past here on Winds of Change, but right now I'm taking to task a recent article in Foreign Affairs that, as noted by the Belmont Club, seeks to Kremlinize the issue of Saudi Arabia into traditional Cold War divisions of moderate/hardliner, much the same way that has unfortunately been done in many media outlets on the issue of Iran in regards to the civilian government and the unelected clergy. Michael Scott Doran, the author of the article, is wrong in many interesting ways.

* For those of you just joining us, I have an analysis of recent events that have been largely ignored by Western media outlets in Dagestan, Thailand, Nigeria, and Iraq.

* Recent investigations by European law enforcement have identified London as al-Qaeda command and control center in Europe. I would note that blogosphere was talking about these Milan transcripts several weeks ago thanks to the efforts of Alphabet City.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefing; Iran Reports, USA Homeland Security Briefing; Osama's new video; the UK a terrorist haven; arrested Americans in the Philippines tied to MILF; Ahmed Hussein Abu al-Khir possibly captured; radical Islam in Bangladesh; 150 Saudis petition against education reform; Taiwan targeted by al-Qaeda; Nigerian Taliban; bin Laden's legacy; Taliban bombing in Kandahar; and suing the television.

Read The Rest...

Posted by Winds of Change at 11:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 01, 2004

Deputy to Al-Zawahiri arrested?

NewsMax is carrying a story, citing the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute, which claims that Ahmad Hassan Abu Al-Khir, the top deputy of Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri, has been arrested. The intel apparently comes from �Islamist sources in London�, in contact with MEMRI.

Posted by sean at 01:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 23, 2003

BIN LADEN NEXT?

Newsweek reports that recent events have made the capture of Osama bin Laden more likely:

U.S. intelligence officials agree that trapping the Qaeda leader, who has eluded pursuers for more than a decade, will be much more difficult than getting Saddam. But U.S. manhunting teams in Afghanistan, recently united with similar teams in Iraq under the umbrella of Task Force 121, have actually come close to nailing their quarries on several occasions, sources say. They are also using, in some cases, similar techniques. NEWSWEEK has learned that software used to track wanted Iraqis is also being used to piece together and identify weaknesses in the ethnic, family and tribal links of bin Laden's network, according to intelligence analysts and company officials. The software, called Analyst's Notebook, was developed by i2 Inc., a Springfield, Va., company. Analyst's Notebook allows investigators to turn huge volumes of data into actionable intelligence, creating charts of complex networks by identifying, for example, frequent phone calls between members. The same program traced the "love bug" computer virus of 2000 to an obscure hacker in the Philippines and has been used to nab serial killers, said Chuck Izzo, an i2 spokesman.

Even Zabihullah says that bin Laden had a close call not long ago. He says the terror chieftain and his protective entourage scurried into the bushes when a U.S. aircraft streaked overhead as they were walking along a mountain trail. The plane did not see them. Another Taliban fighter who calls himself Assadullah Zarafat says that several months ago, U.S. and Afghan forces brushed by Mullah Omar in Uruzgan province without recognizing him. Omar and his security detachment had stopped at a local mosque to say their afternoon prayers. As they were finishing, several pickup trucks and Humvees carrying Afghan and U.S. soldiers pulled up to the mosque and the Afghans went in to pray. Mullah Omar told his men to hide their weapons and not to react. He then led the newcomers in prayer.

***

The real test of bin Laden's vulnerability may now come in Pakistan. If the attack on Musharraf proves to be Qaeda-linked--rather than an "inside" assassination attempt, perhaps by members of the Pakistani military--it could backfire against bin Laden by provoking the Pakistani president into decisive action. U.S. intelligence officials say their ability to capture bin Laden and his associates is largely dependent on intelligence assistance from Pakistan, an ally that once supported the Taliban and whose loyalties have sometimes been in doubt. "Most of Musharraf's actions against jihadis have been reluctantly taken under tremendous U.S. pressure, often preceding or just following a high-level American visit," says Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani diplomat. One U.S. intel official, asked about a potential breakthrough against bin Laden, responds simply: "That's going to be a Pakistani thing."

Cross-post from OTB

Posted by at 02:47 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

December 19, 2003

AP: Boat With Drugs, Ties to al-Qaida Seized

According to the Associated Press:

The U.S. Navy has seized a boat in the Persian Gulf carrying two tons of hashish and four people tied to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the military said Friday.

The guided missile destroyer USS Decatur intercepted the boat on Monday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. On board were two tons of drugs worth an estimated $8 million to $10 million and 12 people, four of whom have suspected ties to al-Qaida, the statement said.

The boat, a wooden vessel known as a dhow, was near the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow part of the gulf between Iran and Oman, the statement said. The area is a known smuggling route used by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, the statement said.
American forces searching the boat found 54 70-pound bags of hashish, the statement said. The investigation which followed found clear ties between the drugs and al-Qaida, the military said.

The Decatur is part of a U.S. Navy force including the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Posted by Martin at 12:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 20, 2003

Bio-terror link in raid on JI hideout

Sydney Morning Herald/AFP:

Security forces recovered a bio-terror manual and traces of possible biological weapons in a raid on a Jemaah Islamiah hideout in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato, the army said today.

Local police said up to eight local and foreign JI suspects escaped yesterday's raid in central Cotabato but left behind what vice chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia described as possible residues of a "tetanus virus-carrying chemical".

A "bio-terror manual" was also recovered, Garcia said over ABS-CBN television.

The raid on a Cotabato apartment unit was launched a day after the visit to Manila of US President George W Bush and more than two weeks after the arrest in Cotabato of Indonesian Taufiq Rifqi, described by the Filipino authorities as the number-two man of JI.

Posted by Willie Galang at 03:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 08, 2003

Special Analysis: Al-Qaeda Reorganizing

2003 has not been a good year so far by al-Qaeda. In the course of less than six months, key members of their military committee have been captured or killed as a result of the US-led campaign against terrorism. Their two biggest losses so far this year include that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the head of their military committee, and Hanbali, the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyyah. The network's terror theoretician, Yusuf al-Ayyeri, was killed in a gunfight in Saudi authorities. Ali Abd al-Ghamdi has been captured and over 600 members of the Salafi Jihad have been arrested in Morocco. In addition, any number of senior commanders and mid-level leaders have been arrested worldwide since the beginning of the year, many of them since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq.

The capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed likely served as the catalyst to spur this reorganization of the terror network.....

read the rest! �

Posted by Winds of Change at 11:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 25, 2003

Dan's Winds of War: Sept 25/03

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" and Iraq Report are brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

Two interesting anecdotes to the Guantanamo espionage case. The first is that at least two al-Qaeda leaders, Abderrazak and Mullah Fuad, were in Damascus sometime in March, so Yee could have met with them. Another point is that the story on al-Halabi mentions that a possible destination for the material he gathered was Qatar. The Qatari Interior Minister, Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani, is known ally of al-Qaeda and has been for nearly half a decade.
El-Al 2, al-Qaeda 0. Thai authorities have thwarted a plot to either shoot down or blow up an Israeli airliner in Bangkok. This can be seen as a potential follow-up to the Mombasa bombing in November 2002 and fits with al-Qaeda's modus operandi of recycling failed plots to be used later.
The brother of al-Qaeda leader Hanbali has been arrested in Pakistan with 16 associates. They are all suspected of membership in Jemaah Islamiyyah, al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian arm.

Other Topics Today Include: Iran Reports; more intrigue at Guantanamo Bay; al-Qaeda in desperation in the US; the terror network's spinal problems; Hanbali's successor; an arrest warrant for the Sahara kidnapper; more fighting in Algeria; Taliban bases in Pakistan; MMA ranting in Baluchistan; Saudi foot-dragging on terror financiers, Mullah Omar's latest war council; Afghan women learning to defend themselves; the Venezuelan recall; Chechens targeting schoolchildren; US bases in Africa; and a smuggler with snakes in his pants!

Read the rest of Dan's Winds of War Briefing... �

Read Dan's Iraq Report �

Posted by Winds of Change at 03:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2003

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & Bin Laden

The blogosphere has been on the Saudis' case for a long time now over their role in al-Qaeda and beyond. Now doubts about the Saudis are going mainstream, and similar doubts are growing about Pakistan and the role of its ISI intelligence service. They too have been on the blogosphere's hit list for quite some time now, but a combination of recent events and the work of a French anti-Idiotarian intellectual are beginning to bring their role into mainstream consciousness as well.

Dan Darling & I are currently engaged in a research project into "The Saudi-Pakistani-Bin Laden Triangle," and we'll be drawing together sources and analysis to paint a more complete picture for our readers. In the meantime, we thought it might be a useful service to hand our readers some advance sources and reading materials...

read the rest! �

Posted by Winds of Change at 01:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 12, 2003

Al-Jazeera Releases Video of Sept. 11 Hijacker

A videotape showing one of the Sept. 11 hijackers encouraging Arabs to fight against Americans was released by the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera Friday.
Saeed Alghamdi, one of the four hijackers onboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing 40 people, is shown reading his will and making threats against America on the videotape, which was recorded at some point before Sept.11, 2001.
�The Mujahideen will carry out more attacks against the United States,� Alghamdi, a Saudi Arabian citizen, said on the tape.
Alghamdi is shown in the desert firing a machine gun and operating a rocket launcher. �The safety of the American is by leaving the Muslim countries,� he said on the tape.
U.S. intelligence officials told Fox News the tape's release is "underwhelming" because they say these type of last will and testament videos have been aired before.