Abu Sayyaf Claims Responsibility for Ferry Blast

Fox News reports that the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed at least two people, though 180 more were missing, according to a radio report.

MARIVELES, Philippines — The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed at least two people, though 180 more were missing, according to a radio report.

The Radio Mindanao Network said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sulaiman claimed Friday's explosion was revenge for government attacks in the southern Mindanao area. Abu Sayyaf has often called the radio network in the past.

Fire raced through the Superferry 14 on Friday shortly after it left Manila for central and southern islands, killing one person and injuring 12 others. Witnesses reported a powerful explosion that sparked an inferno.

The fire occurred the same day that two alleged Abu Sayyaf members were convicted of kidnapping an American in 2000 and another was arraigned in a separate mass abduction.

Remember that American kidnapping? No? You're in good company. But Abu Sayyaf has kidnapped and even killed other Americans in the Philippines as well.
Before 9/11, Americans tended to slough off overseas terrorist attacks on Americans, our embassies, and even our soldiers, sailors and Marines. Such attacks were merely passing outrages somewhere out there beyond our borders, and indifference allowed our enemy to thrive and grow. With the War on Terror slipping steadily in the polls as an important issue to voters, that is something to think about.

Israel arrests Palestinian youths for planning suicide attack over West Bank barrier

Becoming a reality?

A 13-year-old would-be suicide bomber. From AP:

Israeli security forces arrested three Palestinian youths who planned to carry out a suicide attack out of anger over Israel's West Bank barrier, relatives said Sunday.

The youths, ages 13 and 14, were among the youngest ever arrested for planning suicide attacks. Parents of one of the boys expressed outraged that militant groups had taken to drafting young boys to carry out suicide attacks.

Most suicide bombers have been in their 20s. The youngest was 16 years old.

The army did not immediately comment.

Mohammed Abu Mahsen said his 13-year-old son, Tarek, along with his friends, Jaffer Hussein, 13, and Ibrahim Suafta, 14, left a letter saying they planned to carry out a shooting attack at an Israeli military checkpoint or army base, he said.

The 13-year-olds claimed to be members of Islamic Jihad, while Suafta said he belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, family members said. The boys were arrested last Thursday.

"I want to carry out an attack against (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's fence. This fence, we will blow it up also, the Islamic Jihad youth movement," Tarek wrote in the letter.

"We want you to give out candies and don't cry for us and hold a big demonstration," he added, referring to traditional salutes given to "martyrs" who die for the Palestinian cause.

Jihad in Cambodia

Hambali

Hambali, who has been involved in many Asian terrorist adventures, has been charged in Cambodia. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

Asia's top terror suspect, Hambali, and eight other alleged Muslim militants were charged yesterday with attempted murder in an unspecified terrorist plot to bomb targets in Cambodia.

A Cambodian court levelled the charges against Hambali and three others in absentia midway through the trial of five men who were arrested last year for allegedly training terrorists and planning attacks in the country.

Though the five were originally charged with terrorism, Judge Ya Sokhan changed the charge to 'attempted premeditated murder with the goal of terrorism' after a defence attorney argued that Cambodia had no anti-terrorism law.

The five men were ordered to remain in detention pending a new trial. No date was set.

In another surprising twist, the judge said Hambali and three others - identified only as Ibrahim, Zaid and Zakariya - faced the same charges.

It was the first time their names were mentioned in connection with the case.

Prosecutor Yet Chakriya told the court that all the suspects were 'plotting a plan to cause explosion, destruction of property and human life' in Cambodia.

He did not elaborate, and officials would not give details about the alleged plot.

The attempted murder charge carries a life imprisonment sentence - the same as the earlier terrorism charge. . . .

Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, is said to be a key leader of the Jemaah Islamiah, Al-Qaeda's South-east Asian arm. He is believed to have spent several months in Cambodia last year and reportedly used the country as a staging ground from which to launch regional terror attacks. He was arrested in Thailand last August and is now in US custody.

It was not immediately clear where Ibrahim, Zaid and Zakariya were or what they were accused of doing.

The suspects present in court yesterday were Esam Mohammed Khidr Ali of Egypt, Abdul Azi Haji Chiming and Muhammad Yalaludin Mading of Thailand and Sman Ismael of Cambodia. Another Egyptian, Rousha Yasser, 33, also known as Yasser Elsayed Mohamed, is a fugitive.

Their trial stemmed from their membership of the Umm Al-Qura group, which operated a Saudi-funded Islamic school outside Phnom Penh.

Prosecutors accused them of using the school as a cover for training terrorists and planning attacks against Western interests in Cambodia.

Jihad can be offensive or defensive

This Pakistan Times op-ed by Yamin Zakaria contains familiar moral equivalency arguments, but it is notable for what it says about the meaning of jihad. It's a bit different from the sanitized version offered by Muslim spokesmen in the West. (Thanks to Twostellas.)

Jihad can be both defensive and offensive, preferably by the Islamic state. At times, the distinction between the two modes of operation is blurred, depending on the political and military situation. At present it may be academic to discuss offensive Jihad, as the Islamic state does not exist in the world today. In addition the Muslims are facing an onslaught in their own lands, but nevertheless, it is worth examining it briefly to clarify some of the misconceptions.

Offensive Jihad

The Islamic state reserves the right to use military force against foreign states that engage in persecuting Muslims or, preventing the spread of Islam within their lands. Note, in principle there is no concept of forceful conversion of non-Muslims to Islam. Even today, there are non-Muslims in most of the majority Muslim countries.

Note that jihad should "preferably" be waged by the Islamic state — evidently, under some conditions others can wage it as well. Also, Zakaria's point about forced conversion is absolutely true: forced conversion is against Islamic law. Under Islamic law, which is not fully enforced in most majority Muslim states today, non-Muslims are allowed to live in Islamic states as inferior dhimmis.

In any case, this understanding of jihad is used by radical Muslims worldwide today to justify their actions.

Pakistani official: schools play vital role in promoting Islam

Brushing aside abundant evidence that Islamic schools in Pakistan have become training grounds for terrorists, Pakistani Information Minister Rashid Ahmed defended the schools (madaras) as vital for the safeguarding of Islam. Oh, and don't worry about nukes. Pakistan's "nuclear assets are in safe hands." From NNI, with thanks to Twostellas:

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has lauded the role of Madaras in the promotion of Islam.

Addressing an International Peace and Martyrs Conference at Jamia Sirajia Nazamia here Friday, he said that most of the Madaras are play real role in the service of Islam, but one or two have to be restructured and government has evolved a strategy to safeguard the Islam and the country.

He said that our nuclear assets are in the safe hands and we will not hesitate to play the historical role if Pakistan faces any danger. . . .

He rejected the impression that Pakistan is a terrorist country and its Madaras are promoting terrorism and said that our Madaras are the biggest NGOs, they are not promoting terrorism, but work to safe guard Islam.

September 11 is God's work: Mufti

More damaging words and implausible explanations from Sheikh Al-Hilali. From Smh.com.au, with thanks to LGF:

The powerful leader of Australia's 300,000 Muslims, Sheik Taj el-Din Al Hilaly, has praised the September 11 terrorist attacks as "God's work".

The controversial Mufti also appears to have lent support to Arab suicide bombers in an inflammatory sermon during a Middle East lecture tour.

Sheik Al Hilaly, who is based at the Lakemba mosque, last week vehemently denied that he called for a jihad against Israel in one of his sermons. But a translation of a sermon, delivered at the Sidon mosque in Lebanon and obtained by The Sun-Herald, is littered with references to Arab martyrs and Americans being punished by God.

Sheik Al Hilaly spoke of an "Islamic revolution", and told his audience not to be surprised if one day a muezzin called out "Allah is Great!" from the "top of the White House".

"September 11 is God's work against oppressors," he said. "Some of the things that happen in the world cannot be explained; a civilian airplane whose secrets cannot be explained, if we ask its pilot who reached his objective without error: 'Who led your steps?'

"Or if we ask the giant that fell: 'Who humiliated you?' Or if we ask the president: 'Who made you cry?' God is the answer."

Declaring there was a "war on infidels" around the world, the Mufti praised the boy who, "despite his mother's objections", went to war to become a martyr.

Bemoaning the lack of "real men" in the Arab world, he said the "true boy" was one who told his mother not to cry for him if he died. The boy who cried: "Oh mother, jihad has been imposed on me and I want to become a martyr [was a son of Islam]." The boy would cry to his mother: "Oh mother, I'm going with a stone in my hand to become a martyr."

After seeking clarification from Sheik Al Hilaly in Egypt, his spokesman, Keysar Trad, said the Mufti had taken bits from poems, which he often incorporated into his sermons.

The September 11 reference meant that "evil can reach everywhere and everything", and the power of terrorism should not be belittled. Stating that September 11 was God's work against oppressors meant "people only do these things when they feel oppressed".

He denied the Mufti had supported suicide bombers, saying the "boy with a stone" could not possibly mean that.

A week ago, the Australian Federal Police decided against investigating the Mufti's overseas activities.

US troops to silence terror threats in Africa

The war on terror is expanding into Africa. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The United States is scaling up its military presence in Africa as concern mounts over terrorist threats - both immediate and future - on the continent, the deputy head of American forces in Europe said Friday.

"The threat is not weakening, it is growing," Air Force Gen. Charles Wald said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Luanda, Angola. "We can't just sit back and let it grow."

The focus on Africa is part of major restructuring as U.S. forces in Europe reposition for the war against terror. . . .

European Command is not looking to station large concentrations of troops on the continent, Wald said. But it intends to make its presence felt through joint exercises, training initiatives and other exchanges.

U.S. forces have also negotiated access to a number of sites, including air strips in Angola and Gabon, that can be used for stopovers, refueling, or to position troops and equipment.

Wald said this will allow U.S. forces to respond with light, mobile troops - whether for peacekeeping, crisis response or a specific terrorist threat.

"We're actually going to get more capability with less force because of our ability to move around fast," he said.

Key to the effort is supporting the development of regional security groups, im-proving the capabilities of African police and soldiers, and building relationships with governments and militaries, Wald said. . . .

Wald's trip includes stops in regional military powers Nigeria and South Africa; oil-rich Angola, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe; and Algeria and Niger, whose vast desert expanses are seen as a potential haven for terrorists.

At the same time, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, the European Command's point man on planning for force reconfiguration, has been visiting the Saharan nations of Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

Israeli couple dead in ambush

More civilians murdered in the jihad in Israel. From the New York Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A young Israeli couple driving on the road between two West Bank cities were shot to death last night in a drive-by ambush by suspected Palestinian terrorists, Israeli authorities said.

The unidentified husband and wife, believed to be in their late 20s, were traveling between Hebron and Beersheba when their car came under fire.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian faction.

The violence came during in a week of escalating tensions as Palestinians fiercely protested Israel's construction of the West Bank barrier.

Israel considers the controversial barrier, which is one-fourth completed, as a protection against Palestinian homicide bombers, while Palestinians claim it is nothing more than a land grab.

In the Gaza Strip yesterday, a bicycle-riding Palestinian homicide bomber blew himself up near a military jeep outside the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom.

There were no other casualties, the army said.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Earlier, in Jerusalem, Israeli police clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians in a square outside the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said officers fired rubber bullets and tossed stun grenades after hundreds of Palestinians tried to stone worshippers standing below the compound at the Western Wall, the most sacred site of Jewish prayer.

Saudis on alert for Al Qaida attack on oil facilities

Would Al-Qaeda be short-sighted enough to destroy the ultimate source of worldwide funding for jihad? From the World Tribune, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Saudi Arabia has bolstered its forces in the Eastern Province after an alert of an Al Qaida attack on the kingdom's oil fields and nearby Shi'ite communities.

Saudi opposition sources said Riyad has reinforced National Guard troops and has constructed barriers around the regional capital of Qatif. The sources said the main concern is that Al Qaida would launch a suicide car bombing in the city.

So far, Saudi authorities have closed off sections of the Shi'ite-populated city of Qatif. Police also banned cars to the Al Qalaa section of that city.

The Al Qaida threat comes amid an effort by the state-owned Saudi Aramco to increase oil production at Qatif, Middle East Newsline reported. The effort has been plagued by safety difficulties because of the proximity of the oil fields to Shi'ite communities.

Saudi opposition sources said Al Qaida has been encouraged by Saudi clerics to launch attacks on the Shi'ite minority amid demands for equal rights with the Sunni majority. They said ruling clerics in Saudi Arabia have been concerned that the destruction of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein would result in a Shi'ite-dominated Iraq that would encourage separatism in Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaida has already issued several fatwas, or religious rulings, that encourage violence against Sh'ites. On Jan. 14, Sheik Salman Al Odeh, a pro-Al Qaida Saudi cleric, termed Shi'ites infidels and enemies. Another pro-Al Qaida cleric, Sheik Safar Al Hawali, warned the Shi'ites that they would be massacred while others called for the removal of Shi'ites from all government positions.

Paris pizza jihad

Two pizzeria workers have been arrested in Paris. From AP:

Anti-terrorism judges placed two Paris pizzeria workers under investigation Friday in a probe into radical Islamic training camps set up in France during the 1990s, judicial officials said.

Mustapha Boussaffa of Tunisia and Hazdine Sayeh, a French-Algerian, were being investigated for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," the officials said on condition of anonymity. In France, being placed under investigation is one step short of formal charges.

Boussaffa ran a pizzeria that is believed to have become a meeting place for radical Muslims and Sayeh worked there, the officials said.

The men, who are both about 30, were taken into custody Tuesday in the Paris region during the investigation into a network of Islamic radicals that once ran training camps for new recruits, the officials said. One camp was set up in the late 1990s in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris.

The men are believed to have played only marginal roles in the case, the officials said.

The wider probe focuses on the death of anti-Taliban military commander Ahmed Shah Massood in Afghanistan. The anti-terrorism judges are looking into an alleged support network for Massood's killers.

Massood was slain Sept. 9, 2001, in northern Afghanistan, two days before the terror attacks in the United States, by two men posing as journalists.

Willie Virgile Brigitte, a French man extradited from Australia in October, is believed to be at the heart of the case. He is suspected of running false passports to Massood's assassins.

Brigitte organized the survival training lessons in Fontainebleau and spent months in al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to French judicial officials.

Muslim Missionaries Recruiting Africans For Holy War

A lot of people complain about Christian missionaries, but I have never heard of them doing military recruiting. This is just another example of activities going on in mosques that must be halted if terrorism is ever going to end. From AP:

Muslim missionaries from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Pakistan have been visiting mosques in East Africa to recruit young men for holy war.

Moderate Muslim leaders say the part-time preachers go from mosque to mosque spouting sermons of hate, then offer young men a chance to wage holy war in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.

A moderate Muslim leader in Tanzania says most older clerics try to warn their congregations that the extremists distort Islam.

Most people in Zanzibar follow a mystical form of Sufi Islam, which emphasizes peace and harmony, so they tend to reject the missionaries' fiery rhetoric.

But the missionaries appeal to a frustrated minority who believe Islam is at war.

Muslim FBI Agent reinstated

Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, the FBI agent who allegedly refused to tape a fellow Muslim, has been reinstated. Did he really refuse to tape a Muslim? He says he was misunderstood. From MSNBC, with thanks to LGF:

Overturning the action of its senior disciplinary officer, the FBI has reinstated a high-profile Muslim agent who had been fired last year amid a swirl of controversy over allegations of conflicting loyalties in the war on terrorism, NEWSWEEK has learned. . . .

But congressional aides noted that it comes at a time when the bureau is under fire for its failure to recruit more Muslim and Arabic-speaking agents. The move also comes barely two months after Abdel-Hafiz filed a lawsuit against a current and former FBI agent, as well as ABC News for making statements in a December 2002 broadcast that left viewers with the impression he was a “sympathizer to terrorism and other religious fanatics.”

Until only a few years ago, Abdel-Hafiz had been one of the bureau’s prized counterterrorism assets, winning promotions and commendations for his work on such cases as the bombings of the Khobar Towers military barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996 and the Navy destroyer USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in October 2000.

Promoted to the post of deputy legal attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in February 2001, Abdel-Hafiz was a pivotal figure in the investigation into the September 11 terror attacks. He also extracted a crucial confession that led to the arrest of the so-called Lackawanna 6—six Buffalo, N.Y.-area men who had attended an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, a case that has been publicly touted by top Justice Department officials as one of the Bush administration’s biggest successes in the war on terrorism. “You couldn’t ask for a better job by an FBI agent,” Paul Moskal, the FBI spokesman in Buffalo, told NEWSWEEK last fall about Abdel-Hafiz’s work on the Lackawanna 6 case.

But Abdel-Hafiz’s career turned sour in the fall of 2002, when a fellow FBI agent in Chicago, Robert Wright, accused him of refusing to cooperate in an earlier 1999 case targeting fundraising by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Wright claimed that Abdel-Hafiz, who was then assigned to the bureau’s Dallas field office, had refused his request that he wear a hidden wire in a meeting with a suspect in the case on the grounds that “a Muslim does not record another Muslim.” Abdel-Hafiz has insisted that his comment was misunderstood and that his reluctance to wear the wire stemmed from his concerns that it could undermine his effectiveness in the Muslim community and jeopardize his family if word got out that he had done so. In any case, Abdel-Hafiz pointed out that his supervisor at the time, Danny Defenbaugh, then the special agent in charge of the Dallas office, made the final decision that Abdel-Hafiz should not wear a wire in the Hamas investigation.

Wright’s allegations, first made at a Washington press conference and later repeated in his December 2002 interview with the ABC News show “Primetime Live,” led to increased scrutiny of Abdel-Hafiz’s work in Riyadh. By then, Abdel-Hafiz’s chief supervisor, Wilfred Rattigan, had converted to Islam. When both Abdel-Hafiz and Rattigan flew off to Mecca for the hajj, a top FBI official in Washington complained and an auditing team was dispatched to review the office’s work. During the course of the audit, Abdel-Hafiz told NEWSWEEK, the chief inspector from headquarters concluded that there was too much “clutter” in the office and ordered the “shredding” of over 2,000 documents related to the September 11 terror investigations. Although most of the documents were duplicated in the FBI’s computers, a small number were not, according to Abdel-Hafiz. These consisted of between 50 and 100 letters written by Saudi security officials responding to FBI requests for information about terror suspects. When the FBI was forced to ask the Saudis for new copies of the letters, the Saudis—who were being severely criticized in Congress for failure to cooperate on terrorism cases—complained to senior U.S. officials.

Nigerian jihad continues

This "Muslim-Christian violence" is rather predictably one-sided. From AP, with thanks to Peter Rockas:

Suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and bows and arrows killed at least 48 people in an attack on a farming village in central Nigeria. Most of the victims died as they sought refuge in a church, police said. The latest bout of Muslim-Christian violence in the region occurred Tuesday night in Yelwa, a mainly Christian town in Nigeria's Plateau State, police commissioner Innocent Ilozuoke said.

Army and police reinforcements helped restore calm, Ilozuoke told a news conference Wednesday in Jos, the state capital.

The killings appeared to be the latest retaliatory attack in a sporadic conflict that has rocked the central region since an outburst of sectarian violence in 2001, pitting Christians against Muslims in once-peaceful Jos. In the initial outburst in Jos more than 1,000 people died in one week.

Since then, several hundreds more have died as rival Muslim-Christian militias attacked isolated villages and towns.

Dawood Ibrahim: "India's Osama"

Is terrorism really the last desperate resort of the poor? Dawood Ibrahim has 430 million dollars. From Asia Times, with thanks to Jean-Luc:

While all attention is focused on Osama bin Laden and his cohorts allegedly cornered in western Pakistan, in India there is an equal amount of interest in the one man who is wanted just as desperately - Dawood Ibrahim. . . .

The hunt for Dawood is taking place following Pakistan's realization that flushing out terrorists and jihadi elements has become a necessity for its own survival. Pakistan has currently amassed 20,000 troops along the Afghanistan border for what is being believed to be a decisive battle against bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants. But what might be more than a coincidence is that Pakistan's sudden willingness to flush out Dawood comes amid reports in the Indian media that a timely tip-off by the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) helped foil a third assassination plot against Musharraf. Two abortive attempts have been reported in the past few months. There is, however, no doubt in anyone's mind that Dawood is indisputably the number one criminal wanted by India, and what has rankled is that he has for long used Pakistan as a base. . . .

It is the nature of the crimes attributed to Dawood that place him at the top of India's most wanted wish list. The son of a police constable, he is the prime suspect in masterminding a series of bomb blasts that occurred in a single day in 1993 in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the financial heart of India, killing 260 people and injuring 1,000. . . .

It is estimated that in Mumbai alone, Dawood and his family own assets worth US$430 million. This includes several buildings at prime locations such as Colaba, Crawford Market, Bhendi Bazar, Bandra, Oshiwara and Versova. Many of these are benami (fictitious names), which makes it difficult to seize them. The family has several builders, stockbrokers and jewelers fronting for it. Apart from this, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India. Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly owned by the family. Dawood has also allegedly began operating an airline from a Central Asian republic.

"Chicks with Bombs"

The New York Post (as if you couldn't tell from the headline) reviews a new book about female suicide bombers, Barbara Victor's Army of Roses (Rodale Press). (Thanks to Jeffrey Imm.)

The Israeli occupation, Victor finds, does not fully explain Palestinian terrorism. Rather, its roots lie in the "culture of death" that Palestinian leaders have promoted. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been at the forefront of fusing martyrdom with patriotism. The popularity of these groups prompted Yasser Arafat to authorize his own al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade to engage in terrorism and in 2002, Arafat began calling for the recruitment of women as Shihada (female martyrs) to create "an army of roses that will crush Israeli tanks."

Not to be outdone, Hamas, normally religiously conservative, issued a fatwa permitting women to become suicide bombers. . . .

This book explodes the myth that Palestinian terrorism would cease if Israel's occupation ended. Terrorism now functions in Palestinian society in ways that are independent of Israel.

The lesson is that peace will necessarily require a sea change within Palestinian society, one that, unfortunately, shows little sign of occurring.

"I wanted to be a martyr and kill Israeli soldiers"

She will try again, and kill even children. From the Telegraph:

A woman suicide bomber arrested by Israeli forces as she prepared to blow up a Tel Aviv bus station vowed yesterday to carry out a successful "martyr attack" as soon as she is freed from jail. "Yes, I will do it again if I can," said Obeida Khalil, 27. "When I put the suicide explosives belt on I felt very happy, very content. I was angry when they caught me because I was not able to be a martyr.

"I wanted to be the first female martyr and to kill as many Israeli soldiers as possible. I chose the bus station because my brother blew himself up there."

There have been seven female Palestinian suicide bombers. Two of them alone have claimed 25 lives. Another 24 bombers, including Khalil, have been stopped before they could strike.

Speaking to The Telegraph in her cell in HaSharon prison near Netanya, Khalil, a member of Islamic Jihad from the village of Beit Wazan, near Nablus, said she had been pushed to act because of the Israeli occupation and the "murder" of her fiance.

"Four days before our wedding, he went up on the roof and he was shot dead by an Israeli helicopter. If we had been married, then I would have had children. I would have done other things for the jihad besides being a martyr.

"But before he died we had discussed being martyrs by blowing ourselves up together. With the help of God, we said, maybe both of us would do it and then we would be together forever."

Khalil is one of 74 female Palestinian prisoners kept in a special wing at HaSharon. It is divided between prisoners linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in one segregated group and Hamas and Islamic Jihad inmates in the other. They are kept locked up 21 hours a day in tiny shared cells and allowed three hours exercise in the wing's central yard. One prisoner had a baby and will be allowed to keep him until he is two.

Kaiera Sa'idi, 26, serving a life sentence for driving a suicide bomber, said she knew what she was doing might mean she would never see her four children again. "But I felt it was my duty and I believe God will take care of them."

Most of Khalil's time is spent reading the Koran, doing needlework and preparing what she feels she must do when released. Arrested 20 months ago, Khalil is serving a five-year sentence. Relatives are not allowed to visit because several family members have been suicide bombers.

Her mother, she said, understood why she wanted to kill herself. "Every Muslim wants to be a martyr. It was in me before I was born. The Israelis took my land and our state was conquered.

"People in Europe do not understand us but if they lived in Palestine they wouldn't ask questions about why we do what we do."

Although Khalil wanted to blow up soldiers in her planned attack in Tel Aviv she said it was legitimate to kill Jewish children because one day they would serve in the Israeli army.

Terror suspects arrested in Italy

Milan's Duomo: possibly a target

Several imams have been arrested on suspicions of terror plotting in Italy. The spectacle of religious teachers being arrested for this kind of activity has become so commonplace as to escape notice. But it points up vividly the problem that Muslims face globally: radicalism is coming from those who should be most familiar with the supposedly peaceful teachings of the religion. Global reform is needed, but it is not at all on the horizon. From the BBC, with thanks to Jean-Luc.

Italian police have arrested three North Africans suspected of plotting to bomb Milan's metro and a cathedral in the north of the country. Arrest warrants had been issued for five men from Morocco and Tunisia, who served as Muslim religious leaders in the city of Cremona.

The suspected cell members are under investigation for conspiracy to commit "international terrorism". . . .

The crackdown targeted an alleged cell linked to a mosque in the city of Cremona.

Investigators believe the men planned to blow up the Milan metro stop below the cathedral in December 2002 and also to bomb the Cremona cathedral.

"The subversive cells have maintained themselves over time, working out of the mosque of Cremona and led by the successive imams," Brescia's attorney general said.

Another ex-imam of the Cremona mosque was arrested last October, after being accused by Morocco of links to the suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people in May.

A blueprint for jihad, or a red herring?

Gulf News thinks that the notorious Zarqawi letter is a forgery, for some interesting reasons.

The London-based daily Al Hayat recently published a letter allegedly written by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, America's most sought after man in Iraq due to his connections with Al Qaida.

The US has placed a reward of $10 million on his capture.

If true, the letter provides invaluable insight into the workings of a terrorist's mind. Its publication has stirred much debate and received wide condemnation - as well as scepticism - from Arab writers and intellectuals.

Some analysts have expressed doubt over the letter's authenticity, since all of Al Qaida's content is marked by optimism for future actions and plans.

This particular letter, according to critics, more or less harbours pessimism as it repeatedly mentions how all doors are being shut in the face of the mujahideen. The contents of the letter are highly inflammatory and full of religious overtones.

Gulf News publishes this letter to give the reader some understanding of the writer's perspective, and it should be read in this context.

The letter, according to the website Elaph, was found on a man - captured by Kurdish troops - who they claim was a close confidante-cum-messenger of Al Zarqawi. The man captured was en route to delivering the letter to his supporters in Iraq.

The Jordanian Al Zarqawi was sentenced in absentia in 2000 by a Jordanian court to 15 years in prison for his role in plotting to carry out a series of attacks against Western interests in Jordan.

The US State Department last year also labelled Al Zarqawi as one of the most senior Al Qaida leaders with close ties with Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri.

Addressed to 'two brothers', a reference that is assumed to be made to bin Laden and Al Zawahri, the letter maps out in detail the agenda for the coming four months in carrying out attacks against the Americans. It calls for turning Iraq into a new battlefield against the Americans.

It further details the ethnic break-up of Iraqi society, describing each group in detail, whether they are supporters of Al Qaida or not, and how they are to be treated accordingly.

Gulf News has translated excerpts of the controversial letter.

Unjust West ganging up on Islam: Megawati

Megawati (AFP)

The US and its allies are behaving with "exceptional injustice" toward Muslim countries, says Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. From Smh.com.au, with thanks to Jean-Luc:

Mrs Megawati sought to contrast the way Indonesia had used the law to find and prosecute its terrorists with the "unilateral" US-led invasion of Iraq. The remarks opened an international conference of Islamic scholars, which her government partly funded.

"It may be due to either coincidence or intention, but an exceptional injustice is apparent in the attitude and action of big countries towards countries [whose] major populations are Muslims," she told 300 delegates from Islamic universities and governments around the world.

Indonesia, she said, had the right idea:

Indonesia was a genuinely moderate Muslim society that used the justice system to oppose terrorism, such as the bombings in Bali, she said. "The nation resolutely repudiates and legally prosecutes those perpetrating acts of violence against others, despite their conviction that those are religious acts."

Hmm. What about the light treatment meted out to Abu Bakar Bashir?

Megawati was also exercised about France:

Although France had staunchly opposed the Iraqi invasion, she said it was guilty of perpetrating a "far smaller" injustice towards Muslims by its recent move to restrict women and girls from wearing the Islamic head scarf.

Such discriminatory acts would be seen as test cases in Muslim countries to judge whether "those big countries are serious in practising the human rights they have preached to the whole world since the past 20th century".

What tests, if any, meanwhile, would Muslim countries themselves have to take regarding human rights? Megawati did have a few comments:

But she also criticised Islamic society and said it too needed to change and present "a more peaceful facade". She urged Islamic leaders to become more open to ideas and technological advances in the West that were leaving Islamic societies behind.

"Islamic scholars need to formulate and develop a socio-religious conception that is more open, more inclusive, which provides space to the pluralism of mankind that is so diverse."

Indonesia's 40 million strong Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama organised the meeting with government help to redress the "stigmatisation of Islam as a religion that accommodates acts of violence", a conference document said.

If Nahdlatul Ulama really wants to do that, it will have to address jihad ideology. I doubt that was on the agenda.

Islamic teacher jailed for hiding Bali bomber

Until Muslim groups worldwide face up to the involvement of "Islamic teachers" in terrorist acts, and do something to prevent it, military actions will not win a decisive or lasting victory in the war on terror. From Reuters:

An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced an Islamic teacher, believed to have been a leader of the most feared militant group in South-east Asia, to three years in jail for hiding one of the Bali bombers.

Abu Rusydan, who is believed by authorities to have taken over cleric Abu Bakar Bashir's role as leader of the shadowy Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group six months before the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, was found guilty of involvement in acts of terror.

Prosecutors had asked for nine years in jail for Rusydan.

"The defendant has been proven guilty of purposely carrying out acts of terror by giving leeway to a terror suspect and hiding information on a terror crime," Judge Machmud Rochimi told the South Jakarta court.

About 200 supporters of the 43-year-old Central Java religious teacher chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) after the verdict was read out and punched their fists in the air.

Rusydan was charged with hiding Mukhlas, top controller of the Bali blast operation, while he was on the run from the police.

Prosecutors had told the court Rusydan led a meeting a few days after the blast that killed 202 people and a participant heard Mukhlas say "the perpetrators of the Bali bombings were us".

Prosecutors say Rusydan became JI caretaker after Bashir took over leadership of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, a hardline Islamic group advocating full implementation of Islamic sharia law in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

Rusydan has admitted he led the meeting and helped Bashir but has denied he had anything to do with a terror organisation.

About 30 people, including many accused of being JI members, have been convicted for their role in the Bali attacks, the worst since the September 11 strikes on the United States.

Three, including Mukhlas, have been sentenced to death.

A separate Jakarta court in September found Bashir guilty of treason and sentenced him to four years, but said accusations he was JI's chief were unproven. A higher court later acquitted Bashir of treason and reduced his jail term to three years.

Terror attack in Britain 'inevitable'

So said British Home Secretary David Blunkett, who also had some choice words for opponents of anti-terror measures. From the Australian, with thanks to Nicolei:

A TERRORIST attack in Britain was inevitable, British Home Secretary David Blunkett said.

Security measures alone were not sufficient to stop the threat, he said. Asked if such an attack was a question of "when, not if", Blunkett told BBC television: "Yes, it's the view that's been expressed by the head of the (home) security service", Eliza Manningham-Buller.

Blunkett said that a suicide attack was "the most likely" scenario in Britain, which has been a staunch supporter of the US in its so-called war on terror.

Blunkett told the BBC that Prime Minister Tony Blair "and I have confirmed that whatever we do - and we are doing everything we can - we can't guarantee and nor should we pretend to that we can protect ourselves forever by security alone.

"But we can do a damn good job if we enable the security services to be able to apprehend people before rather than after they have committed the act," Blunkett said, adding: "In this country the threat is extremely real."

His comments came the day before he was due to publish a controversial paper setting out possible options for introducing tough new counter-terrorism laws in Britain.

The proposed measures were expected to feature radical proposals such as lowering the standard of proof in terrorist-linked court cases and introducing secret trials heard by security-vetted judges.

The plans have been fiercely criticised by human rights campaigners.

But Blunkett argued that Britain now faced a threat different from that of attacks carried out by Northern Ireland paramilitary groups during decades of violence in the British-ruled province.

"Whatever they (such groups) did, and it was horrendous, they actually always tried to save their own lives."

But they were not "as terrorism is from Al-Qaeda and the network around it, geared up to suicide bombers who can take our lives at any time in ways that we never perceived before.

"So prevention rather than simply prosecution and punishment have to be the way forward. Because prosecution and punishment to a terrorist who is prepared to take his or her own life as well as everyone else's is a meaningless concept."

Blunkett said that the document he was to unveil today "explains more of how al-Qaeda cells organise and operate".

"Without this information, we cannot have an informed debate about how to balance our security with our rights," he said in an interview with Britain's domestic Press Association.

Blunkett called for a debate to produce solutions to the international terrorist threat, a step he admitted risked attracting the derision of his political opponents.

"I am fed up with what little debate we have in this country being dictated by the campaigners and lawyers who only say how rights are being damaged rather than come up with some solutions. In short, I want answers and ideas, not just brickbats."

Blunkett added: "I live with constant, never-ending worry day and night about the threat we face and whether we are doing everything we can to make this country as safe as possible."

The Home Secretary was also expected to unveil details of a 50-per-cent expansion of Britain's home security service, known as MI5, which is to hire 1000 new staff to counter the threat of terrorism.

Tenet: al-Qaida Weakened, Extremism Isn't

I have long argued that the worldwide jihadist movement is not restricted to any single organization. Now, after virtually everything has been blamed on Al-Qaeda for awhile, this is being acknowledged. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

Al-Qaida is damaged seriously, but it has spread its radical agenda to other groups that now pose the leading threat to the United States, CIA Director George Tenet and other intelligence chiefs said.

Tenet described a terrorist organization lacking central leadership and squeezed financially. Al-Qaida remains determined to attack U.S. interests, however, and still is capable of carrying out assaults on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001, he said Tuesday.

In addition, dozens of smaller Islamic extremist organizations with ties to al-Qaida have emerged, in places like Libya, Iraq and Uzbekistan, to constitute the next wave of terrorist threats, Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee in an annual public session on national security threats.

"The steady growth of Osama bin Laden's anti-American sentiment through the wider Sunni extremist movement and the broad dissemination of al-Qaida's destructive expertise ensure that a serious threat will remain for the foreseeable future, with or without al-Qaida in the picture," Tenet said.

At Tuesday's politically charged hearing, given recent debate over the intelligence community's prewar assessments on Iraq's weapons, Tenet and other officials walked gingerly through questions on the intelligence agencies' cooperation and effectiveness. They touched on instability in countries from Haiti to Afghanistan, although Iraq dominated much of the discussion.

On Iraq, Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said allies of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein are thought to be responsible for most anti-U.S. attacks. Foreign fighters, including those from al-Qaida, have carried out some of the most significant attacks and may be behind the high-casualty suicide bombings largely against Iraqi targets, he said.

"Left unchecked," Jacoby said, "Iraq has the potential to serve as a training ground for the next generation of terrorists."

Further, many in the country's Sunni minority, which prospered during Saddam's Baath party control, have yet to decide whether to support the U.S. coalition or the resistance, Jacoby said. "The key factors in this decision are stability and a future that presents viable alternatives to the Baathists or Islamists," he said.

Largely ignoring an appeal from the committee chairman, Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to focus on current threats, Republican and Democratic lawmakers questioned the intelligence chiefs about intelligence mistakes before the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq. The agencies' performance in those crises has called into question the reliability of intelligence and the Bush administration's pre-emptive strike doctrine.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, asked Tenet how, since a National Security Strategy promulgated in September 2002 set up a strategy of pre-emption, Bush and other administration officials used words like "grave and gathering threat" to describe the level of Saddam's danger to the United States. International law traditionally requires that a threat be "imminent" before a nation can defend against it.

"If it wasn't an imminent threat in your mind, how would you have characterized or assessed the threat?" Snowe asked.

Tenet said intelligence analysts were "quite worried " about surprise attacks and what they didn't know, given Saddam's history of deception. Estimates also indicated he had biological and chemical weapons, and other programs. "Whether it stands up or it doesn't stand up over the course of time is something we're going to look at quite carefully," he said.

"People voted to authorize the use of force based on what we read in these reports," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "It's a pretty bitter pill to swallow, particularly with a pre-emptive war."

After the hearing, Roberts told reporters that "everybody would have some second thoughts" about the rationalization for war, but he believes that Saddam posed a national security threat, "in some ways even more dangerous" than expected, due to the deterioration of his leadership.

Also at the hearing:

-Tenet said officials have uncovered plans to recruit pilots and evade security measures in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. In the last year, officials also have seen an increase in threats from more sophisticated chemical, biological and radiological weapons. They've learned of widely disseminated instructions for an improvised chemical weapon, he said.

-When asked if the country is safer today than a year ago, Tenet, Jacoby and FBI Director Robert Mueller all said yes. Mueller later cautioned that threats may be more significant because of the decentralization that followed the undoing of many terrorist leaders and their sanctuaries in Afghanistan. He said the country is safer, however, because of government protection.

-Tenet rejected suggestions that the CIA did not follow up on a 1999 German intelligence tip about one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, a first name and a phone number. "You got a name, named Joe, and here's the phone number," Tenet said. "We didn't have enough, but we didn't sit around."

-Tenet praised "great cooperation" from Muslim leaders, including Pakistani Gen. President Pervez Musharraf, who "remains a courageous and indispensable ally who has become the target of assassins for the help he's given us."

Israel Says Hizballah Pays Bonus For Suicide Bomb Victims

The more civilians are killed in those buses and restaurants, the better Hizballah likes it. From the Dow Jones Newswire, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Hezbollah is paying bonuses for each person Palestinian suicide bombers kill, the head of Israel's parliamentary defense and foreign affairs committee said Tuesday.

Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz told Dow Jones Newswires that the Lebanese guerrilla group is rewarding the cell organizers for each victim of suicide bombers.

Steinitz confirmed an Israel radio report citing the head of the Shin Bet security
service, Avi Dichter, who appeared before the committee earlier Tuesday, saying Hezbollah was making the payments. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been helping to finance attacks carried out by groups affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement since the Palestinian uprising against Israel broke out nearly 3 1/2 years ago.

But more recently, Hezbollah has begun paying individual terror cells a "bonus" of several hundred dollars for each individual victim killed, Steinitz said.

Hezbollah refused to comment on the report.

Steinitz said Israel is unsure how much money in total the Lebanese guerrilla group has paid to finance uprising-related terror activity.

Palestinian militants didn't immediately comment on the report, but have previously said that Hezbollah has said the payment depends on the size of the attack, although there is no fixed scale for victims.

The militants have said they get monthly payments from Hezbollah for basics such as ammunition and cellular phone cards, as well as larger lump sums of tens of thousands of dollars for individual attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah have been bitter enemies since Israeli troops occupied southern Lebanon more than two decades ago. Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and a Jan. 29 prisoner swap that also led to the release of 400 Palestinians from Israeli prisoners, haven't reduced the tensions.

Bounty payments for acts of terrorism are a familiar item on the Mideast landscape. Two years ago, then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein began paying $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers, more than doubling previous payments of $10,000.

Israel also accuses Saudi Arabia of sponsoring Palestinian terror through payments to Islamic charities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia says the money is used for humanitarian purposes only.

A spokesman for the Al Aqsa martyrs' brigade, a militant group loosely affiliated with Arafat, later denied they were getting bonuses for killing more people.

Said Abu Mujahed: "Hezbollah is supporting the Al Aqsa brigades and the intifada financially as the Jews all over the world are supporting Israel. They are supporting us on the basis that they are Arabs and Muslims and they are supporting their brothers in resisting the occupation."

However, he said they weren't getting a lot of money from Hezbollah. "We get just enough to survive and struggle."

11th issue of "Voice of Jihad" released

Wage jihad, fight the Crusaders, topple the apostates of the House of Saud -- that's right, it's a new issue of the Al-Qaeda magazine "Voice of Jihad." From the SITE Institute, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The 11th issue of the al-Qaeda biweekly “Sawt al-Jihad” [Voice of Jihad] online magazine has been released. In this issue, we find three main points of emphasis:

This issue places great emphasis on propaganda, especially through the internet. Time and again, the magazine states that one of the great successes of the mujahideen in the past year was managing to spread their ideas and mobilize public support, despite the Saudi regime’s effort to stop them. In this context, the new Al-Qaeda video entitled “Badr Al-Riyadh” is referred to at length, with great emphasis on its impact. This video, we learn, has set the stage for a new phase, in which people will move from passively supporting the mujahideen to actively joining them in their holy war against the infidels.

As is characteristic of the magazine, we find the usual rhetoric calling on all Muslims to “fight the crusaders” in Saudi Arabia and in Iraq and to sacrifice themselves as martyrs for this holy cause.

The magazine continuously reemphasizes its clear, unambiguous hate-filled stand against the Saudi royal family ruling Saudi Arabia. They are presented as traitors who are collaborating with the “crusaders,” and must be dealt with accordingly.

Propaganda

In an article summarizing the achievements of the mujahideen, the “most prominent victory” at this stage is ascribed to the mujahideen’s ability to “prove the truth of their belief.” The article goes on to explain that “this theoretical and theological war stands in the center of the current struggle.”

This statement sheds some light on the mujahideen’s view of their main objectives over the past months. Performing attacks against western targets was important, but the main objective had been that of mobilizing public support and gaining grass root legitimacy among the Muslims, despite the “vicious campaign against the mujahideen which has been carried out lately” by the “renegade regime.”

Crowning these informative efforts was the video, “Badr Al-Riyadh.” “This video had a great impact on the tyrants of the Peninsula, it baffled them, it destroyed everything they had done… Months, and even years of organized deceit went to waste in a mere 90 minutes.”

Furthermore, this movie, we are told, has set the stage for a new phase, in which the mujahideen will move from gaining public support to mobilizing it for the holy war: “God willing, this will be the start of a new phase, the most prominent characteristic of which will be the movement of the jihad firebrand into the midst of the people.” Instead of only passively sympathizing with mujahideen, people will move to “giving all possible support to the mujahideen, standing by them with heart and soul, with prayers and by urging sons to become time bombs and heroic commandos against the crusaders and their allies…”.

According to this article about the video, between three and four hundred thousand people downloaded the movie from the internet in less than five days, parts of the video were broadcast by various TV news channels, and the video was also copied “in great numbers” on video cassettes and distributed all over Saudi Arabia.

Fighting the Crusaders

Opening the new Hijra year 1425, the 11th issue of the magazine begins with a summary of the “great events in the land of the two holy Mosques [Saudi Arabia],” in which “The mujahideen brigades set out to fight the crusaders and launch painful attacks against them…giving them a taste of what the Muslims are being subjected to everywhere by the criminal infidels, be it in Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Kashmir.” The article describes and glorifies the two attacks that were carried out in the past year against western targets in Riyadh—the attack on the residential compounds in May and the attack on the Mahyah residential complex in November. The magazine stresses that despite their small number, “the quality of these attacks, as well as their actual and media impact, was great, creating havoc in the calculations of the crusaders and of their collaborators in the region.”

In subsequent articles our attention is directed to the great power the Mujahideen have accumulated in the past year, managing “to establish training camps…, accumulate weapons, missiles, new equipment, and multiply the number of cells…; truly, they have become a country within a country!”

Characteristically, we also find fervent calls upon the Muslims to join this holy war: “We will bring our ardently desired Ummah back to the times of glory and honor…We will continue on this path until Allah will bring this about, or until we die…We will put all our efforts into fighting the crusaders, in order to raise the flag of the religion, so that the holy law of Allah, the Creator of the Worlds, may rule…O, Muslims, perform your duty! Persist, persevere, and fight. Place your trust in Allah, so that you may be successful.”

Stand against Saudi Royal Family

It is impossible to overlook the hate-filled position held by the magazine against the Saudi regime, in general, and the Saudi royal family, in particular. In fact, such is its contempt for the regime that the magazine consistently abstains from referring to the family by its name, instead degradingly calling it “Al-Salul,” meaning “the infiltrated family.” The magazine further attacks the royal family, stating, “the collaborating governments of the [Arab] Peninsula have rendered logistical support to the crusading American army in its fight against Iraq” and are still continuing to do so.

The issue maintains that the way to handle a situation in which a country has been occupied and is being employed as a base for launching operations against Islam is clear. This country must be fought, “together with all who collaborate with it.” Throughout the magazine, the Saudi government continues to be denounced in the context of aiding the Americans, arresting holy warriors, launching media campaigns against them, and doing all in their power to stand in their way.

Bin Laden Lieutenant Taunts Bush on Tape

Al-Qaeda is still full of threats and murder — oh, and they're not too happy about France and that headscarf thing, either. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Audiotapes purported to be from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant aired on Arabic TV stations Tuesday, one taunting President Bush and threatening more attacks on the United States, the second criticizing France's decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools.

Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri were broadcast a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, competing pan-Arab satellite channels based in the Persian Gulf. Officials at both stations said they had aired only excerpts judged newsworthy. The two stations said they had received different tapes.

In Al-Jazeera's tape, the voice believed to be that of al-Zawahri challenged Bush's claim to have liberated Iraq and indicated al-Qaida is still running operations from Afghanistan.

"We remind Bush that situation is not stable in Afghanistan, or else how do we wage, with God's support and might, our attacks on your troops and agents. ... How do we send our messages that challenge you and reveal your lies," the tape said.

"We remind Bush that he didn't destroy two-thirds of Al-Qaida. On the contrary, thanks be to God, al-Qaida is still in the holy war battleground raising the banner of Islam in the face of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against the Islamic community," it added.

In his State of the Union address in January, Bush said "nearly two-thirds" of al-Qaida's known leaders had been captured or killed.

"Bush, fortify your targets, tighten your defense, intensify your security measures," the voice warned, "because the fighting Islamic community — which sent you New York and Washington battalions — has decided to send you one battalion after the other, carrying death and seeking heaven."

The audiotape aired by Dubai-based al-Arabiya also criticized France's decision to ban religious symbols in public buildings, including headscarves worn by Muslim women. The law is expected to go before the French Senate early next month, where little opposition exists.

"The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader's envy, which Westerners have against Muslims," the voice said in Al-Arabiya's tape. "This envy boils in their hearts and overflows in their chests and they pass it on to the generations."

Both stations identified the voice on their tapes as that of al-Zawahri, and both said they had received the material on Tuesday. Officials at both stations spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Al-Arabiya official said his station's analysts believed the voice to be al-Zawahri's and that the station believed it was authentic primarily because of the source from which it received the tape, which he would not disclose. The Al-Jazeera official said only that his station had received the material over telephone lines and that al-Zawahri's voice was familiar to his staff.

The voice on both tapes sounded identical. The tone and rhetoric were familiar from previous videotapes and audiotapes also believed to be from al-Zawahri, though it was not possible to independently confirm the speaker's identity.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born physician, is thought to be in hiding along with bin Laden in the mountains somewhere along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The tapes come at a time when Pakistani forces backed by helicopters were searching villages in a remote border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan where bin Laden and Taliban suspects are believed to be hiding. The fugitives were believed to have taken refuge among tribes.

The voice on Al-Arabiya's tape singled out Egypt's foremost religious leader, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik of Al-Azhar, calling his support of the French decision "a scandal."

Tantawi issued an edict early this year asking Muslim women living in France to comply with French laws on religious symbols. His first remarks defending the ban were made Dec. 30, so the tape would have been made sometime after that.

The French decision has sparked protests across the Islamic world.

A French Foreign Ministry official, responding to the tape, reiterated Tuesday his country's position that the law is meant to protect the country's secular foundations and is not directed at Muslims or any particular religion.

Al-Qaida is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Tapes by the group have focused on the wars with the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan and Iraq. France has strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The last time a videotape of al-Zawahri was released on Arab television was in September. It showed the bearded, turbaned cleric climbing down a craggy mountainside with bin Laden.

C.I.A. was given data on 9/11 hijacker in 1999

The CIA had a chance in 1999 — and blew it. From the New York Times:

American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers two and a half years before the attacks on New York and Washington, but the United States appears to have failed to pursue the lead aggressively, American and German officials say.

The information — the earliest known signal that the United States received about any of the hijackers — has now become an important element of an independent commission's investigation into the events of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said Monday. It is considered particularly significant because it may have represented a missed opportunity for American officials to penetrate the Qaeda terror cell in Germany that was at the heart of the plot. And it came roughly 16 months before the hijacker showed up at flight schools in the United States.

In March 1999, German intelligence officials gave the Central Intelligence Agency the first name and telephone number of Marwan al-Shehhi, and asked the Americans to track him.

The name and phone number in the United Arab Emirates had been obtained by the Germans by monitoring the telephone of Mohamed Heidar Zammar, an Islamic militant in Hamburg who was closely linked to the important Qaeda plotters who ultimately mastermined the Sept. 11 attacks, German officials said.

After the Germans passed the information on to the C.I.A., they did not hear from the Americans about the matter until after Sept. 11, a senior German intelligence official said.

"There was no response" at the time, the official said. After receiving the tip, the C.I.A. decided that "Marwan" was probably an associate of Osama bin Laden, but never tracked him down, American officials say.

The Germans considered the information on Mr. Shehhi particularly valuable, and the commission is keenly interested in why it apparently did not lead to greater scrutiny of him.

The information concerning Mr. Shehhi, the man who took over the controls of United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the south tower of the World Trade Center, came months earlier than well-documented tips about other hijackers, including two who were discovered to have attended a meeting of militants in Malaysia in January 2000.

The independent commission investigating the attacks has received information on the 1999 Shehhi tip, and is actively investigating the issue, said Philip Zelikow, executive director of the commission.

American intelligence officials and others involved with the matter say they are uncertain whether Mr. Shehhi's phone was ever monitored.

An American official said: "The Germans did give us the name `Marwan' and a phone number, but we were unable to come up with anything. It was an unlisted phone number in the U.A.E., which he was known to use."

The incident is of particular importance because Mr. Shehhi was a crucial member of the Qaeda cell in Hamburg at the heart of the Sept. 11 plot. Close surveillance of Mr. Shehhi in 1999 might have led investigators to other plot leaders, including Mohammed Atta, who was Mr. Shehhi's roommate. A native of the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Shehhi moved to Germany in 1996 and was almost inseparable from Mr. Atta in their time there. Both men attended the wedding of a fellow Muslim at a radical mosque in Hamburg in October 1999 — an event considered an important gathering for the Sept. 11 hijacking teams just as the plotting was getting under way. American and European authorities say that Mr. Shehhi was actively involved in the planning and logistics of the Sept. 11 plot.

"The Hamburg cell is very important" to the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Zelikow said. The intelligence on Mr. Shehhi "is an issue that's obviously of importance to us, and we're investigating it," he added.

Asked whether American intelligence officials gave sufficient attention to the information about Mr. Shehhi, Mr. Zelikow said, "We haven't reached any conclusions."

The joint Congressional inquiry that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks was told about the matter by the C.I.A., but only a small part of the information was declassified and made public in the panel's final report in December 2002, several officials said. The public report mentioned only that the C.I.A. had received Mr. Shehhi's first name, but made no mention that the agency had also obtained his telephone number.

Officials involved with the work of the joint Congressional investigation made it clear that the publication of a more complete version of the story was the subject of a declassification dispute with the C.I.A. A former official involved with the Congressional inquiry acknowledged that having a telephone number for one of the hijackers was far more significant than simply having a first name.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other government agencies have been heavily criticized for failing to put together fragmentary pieces of information they received from a wide array of sources in order to predict or prevent the terrorist plot. The joint Congressional panel that investigated the attacks concluded that American authorities "missed opportunities to disrupt the Sept. 11 plot by denying entry to or detaining would-be hijackers; to at least try to unravel the plot through surveillance and other investigative work within the United States; and finally, to generate a heightened state of alert and thus harden the homeland against attack."

Until now, the most highly scrutinized failure has related to the C.I.A.'s handling of information about a meeting of extremists in Malaysia in January 2000 that involved two of the men who would become hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi. Although the C.I.A. identified the two men as suspected extremists, the agency did not request that they be placed on the government's watch lists to keep them out of the United States until late August 2001. By that time, they were both already in the country. In addition, while the two men lived in San Diego, their landlord was an F.B.I. informant, but the bureau did not learn of their terrorist links from the informant.

But unlike the leads to Mr. Midhar and Mr. Alhazmi in San Diego, the earlier information about Mr. Shehhi could have taken investigators to the core of the Qaeda cell at a time when the plot was probably in its formative stages. According to testimony in Germany in December in a criminal case related to the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Shehhi was one of only four members of the Hamburg cell who knew about the attacks beforehand.

Mr. Shehhi and Mr. Atta traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to train at a Qaeda camp with several other Sept. 11 plotters. And after returning to Germany, Mr. Shehhi made an ominous reference to the World Trade Center to a Hamburg librarian, saying: "There will be thousands of dead. You will all think of me," German authorities said.

Soon after, Mr. Shehhi, Mr. Atta and another plotter, Ziad al-Jarrah, began e-mailing several dozen American flight schools from Germany to inquire about enrollment, and they arrived in the United States later in 2000 to begin flight training.

US Muslim power broker's ties to terror suspects

Kenneth Timmerman in Insight has valuable background on Khaled Saffuri, a man whose influence has reached to the White House:

The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism.

A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both parties by generously contributing to their election campaigns, from California libertarian Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the GOP to Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the hard-left Georgia Democrat. He has worked to get President Bill Clinton to intervene in Bosnia. He has taken members of Congress on trips to Arab countries. He has lobbied hard but quietly against pro-Israel legislation. In 1998, along with Republican activist Grover Norquist, Saffuri established the Islamic Institute in Washington with the stated purpose of promoting free-market ideals in the Muslim world and of bringing American Muslims into the Republican Party.

Recognition of his role came with a thunderclap during the 2000 presidential campaign, when Karl Rove named him the Bush campaign's point man for Muslim outreach. With George W. Bush in the White House, Khaled Saffuri had arrived.

By all accounts, Saffuri put his new prominence to use, promoting the friends who had helped him achieve his newfound status and advocating for the issues about which they cared. One by one, he introduced them to President Bush and his entourage. With Saffuri frequently smiling in the background, they proudly posed for campaign photographs and, later, attended White House events.

Now, however, some of the very people Saffuri introduced to Bush and Rove are in federal prison on terrorism-related charges. Others have been expelled from the country. Still other former colleagues and donors have become subjects of a massive federal probe into U.S. funding of terrorist organizations that is code-named Operation Greenquest.

In a series of interviews with Insight over the course of more than two years, Saffuri and his supporters claim he has been given a bum rap by critics who point to the alleged terrorist ties as a reason why the White House should distance itself from Saffuri and his friends.

Norquist, the conservative fund-raiser and antipork president of Americans for Tax Reform, insists that any attempt to tie Saffuri to terrorist supporters is "guilt by association." Those who make such accusations, Norquist tells reporters, are "racists and bigots."

But Saffuri's ties to radical Islamists and apologists for terror are neither superficial nor coincidental. An Insight investigation has uncovered a consistent pattern of fund-raising and influence operations in which Saffuri played a prominent role side by side with Abdurahman Alamoudi, a well-known Muslim activist who was Saffuri's employer at the American Muslim Council (AMC). Alamoudi was arrested last September on charges of illegally taking cash payments from the government of Libya in exchange for lobbying the Bush administration to lift sanctions against the Qaddafi regime.

Alamoudi also was one of the leaders of a vast network of Hamas supporters operating across the United States under the guise of American Muslim activist groups.

At a rally in front of the White House on Oct. 28, 2000, Alamoudi told the audience that reports he was a supporter of Hamas were accurate. "Anybody support this Hamas here? Anybody's [sic] is a supporter of Hamas here? Anybody's [sic] is a supporter of Hamas here? Hear that Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas! Allah akbar [God is great]! I wish to add here I am also a supporter of Hezbollah!"

On June 2, 2000, the U.S.-based al-Zaitounah newspaper interviewed Alamoudi in English on his pro-Hamas activities at the AMC. "Our position with regard to the peace process is well-known," he said. "We are the ones who went to the White House and defended what is called Hamas." According to the Jerusalem Post, Alamoudi attended a leadership conference in Beirut in January 2001 along with top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda. These and other Alamoudi actions and statements were cited by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Brett Gentrup in a September 2003 affidavit in support of Alamoudi's arrest.

Saffuri tells Insight that Alamoudi won praise from American Jewish leaders for his work on Bosnia in the 1990s. "I have a letter from 1997 from the AJC [American Jewish Committee] to Alamoudi and cc'd [copied] to me," he says. Saffuri promised to send Insight a copy of the letter, but an aide later reported he was unable to locate it. Officials at the AJC could find no trace of such a letter either. Saffuri also told Insight that the AJC "joined" the American Task Force on Bosnia, which AJC officials say is untrue.

"The only time Jewish organizations did something - not really together - but in coordination with Muslim groups were demonstrations against the genocide in Bosnia," says Yehudit Bartsky, an aide to AJC President David Harris. But that cooperation evaporated in 1994, once statements by Alamoudi and other Muslim leaders condemning the Oslo agreements became public. "Everybody was shocked to see they were opposed to Oslo, which all the Jewish organizations supported at the time," she says. After the horrific spate of suicide bombings in 1996, which the AMC and other Muslim organizations refused to condemn, those ties - such as they were - evaporated. "So 1997 would be really late," Bartsky adds.

Saffuri tells Insight that the suicide bombings used by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and others is "a condemned tactic. It's horrible, it's wrong, it's un-Islamic, it's unethical, because you're targeting innocent civilians."

Saffuri claims he broke with Alamoudi "after a year-and-a-half of bickering and arguing." But the arguments weren't over Alamoudi's support for suicide bombing, but over the latter's demand for a strict Islamic lifestyle in the office. "When I came, I was the first one to hire women without cover," Saffuri says. "Most people would hire from the mosque. I told him this was wrong. I hired peoples with skills. I ended up leaving because I couldn't work with that style of work."

Another key Saffuri ally, Sami Amin al-Arian, was arrested on Feb. 20, 2003, by federal agents in Tampa, Fla., because of his alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists. Like Saffuri, al-Arian is a Palestinian who came to this country from Kuwait. He was the subject of a long-standing criminal investigation because of the leadership role he allegedly played in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that has claimed responsibility for the murder of hundreds of Israelis and more than a dozen Americans, and that raises money for terror in the United States [see "Controversial Professor Arrested in Florida on Terrorism Charges," posted March 4, 2003, at Insight Online].

Al-Arian was one of a group of Muslim leaders who met with President Bush in the White House in May 2001 as part of White House outreach to the Muslim community. The person who helped set up that meeting and who chose the participants was Khaled Saffuri, White House officials tell Insight.

Federal prosecutors now believe al-Arian was a founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that the organization actually was created in the United States by Muslim immigrants in the 1980s who used America's lax immigration laws and strong civil-liberties protections to shield them from federal law-enforcement investigations.

The federal indictment against al-Arian alleges that he used his position as a professor at the University of South Florida to gain visas for terrorists to enter the United States. It also alleges that he transferred cash into overseas accounts that were used for the planning or support of terrorist operations that killed Americans. All through the 1990s, Saffuri worked together with al-Arian and Alamoudi to prevent the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from using secret evidence in deportation hearings, as the INS was seeking to deport top leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. During the 2000 election campaign, Saffuri's chief effort was to get the Bush campaign to support the repeal of secret evidence, a position Bush publicly adopted in his final debate with Al Gore.

After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the use of secret evidence was expanded under the USA PATRIOT Act. Saffuri and his friends lobbied heavily against the new law and now are trying to get it repealed. They have won support from key conservatives such as Norquist and former congressman Bob Barr of Georgia. Many conservatives and libertarians are made nervous by what they regard as a slippery slope.

Far more disturbing to national-security analysts are Saffuri's long-standing ties to Jamal Barzinji, an Iraqi who heads a network of investment companies and nonprofit groups that have been targeted by the Greenquest task force investigating terrorist-related fund raising. Barzinji's Marjac group of investment companies and the various charities he heads share office space, accountants and interlocking boards. They sometimes are referred to by federal prosecutors as "555 Grove Street," an address they used in suburban Herndon, Va. Money financing the 555 Grove Street network has been traced back to big-name Saudi investors.

Organizations operating out of Barzinji's offices included the International Islamic Relief Organization, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), and al-Haramain, all of which have been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department because of their ties to al-Qaeda. Until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the head of the WAMY office in Herndon was Abdullah bin Laden, younger brother of the Saudi terrorist who heads al-Qaeda. All of these groups were raided and their files seized by the Greenquest task force on March 20, 2002. Alamoudi's residence also was searched during that raid.

A lawyer representing Barzinji and his corporate network, Nancy Luqu, insists that her clients have not been charged with any crime. But a previously sealed affidavit that lays out the government's motives for the massive raid alleges that Barzinji and his Safa Group companies were "suspected of providing material support to terrorists, money laundering, and tax evasion through the use of a variety of for-profit companies and ostensible charitable entities under their control, most of which are located at 555 Grove Street, Herndon, Virginia."

Saffuri acknowledged to Insight that both Barzinji and Alamoudi provided $20,000 checks to help him and Norquist establish the Islamic Institute in 1998.

While not denying his friendship and business relationships with Alamoudi, al-Arian or Barzinji, Saffuri tells Insight he was unaware of their alleged terror ties. "What do I have to do with that?" Saffuri exclaims. "I guarantee you, there are people you worked for in your lifetime who later did something wrong. I didn't know they were involved in [activities] that were under investigation." However, none of the three ever sought to disguise their support for Palestinian terror groups, speaking often at public rallies and private conferences in praise of the terrorists.

Saffuri says he first met Barzinji in 1988 but only met Alamoudi three years later, even though Alamoudi was Barzinji's top aide at the time. "In 1990 and 1991, George Bush Senior was meeting with them, and he was taking advice from them on how to deal with Iraq. You know, when I looked from the outside, I saw them meeting with the president and said, 'Wow, that's impressive.' Seeing those people going inside and outside the White House, that gave them legitimacy. So for me to come and work with them five years later, I should not be suspicious of anything they do," Saffuri says.

In his efforts to distance himself from Alamoudi, Saffuri claims he went to work for him at the AMC in 1995 but left some 18 months later after the two had a falling out. But documents uncovered during Insight's investigation show that Saffuri had been working for Alamoudi since at least 1993 and stayed with him until May 1998.

In April 1993, Saffuri was employed as executive director of the American Task Force for Bosnia, a registered charitable organization that was lobbying Congress and the Clinton White House to get the United States to intervene militarily on behalf of the Bosnian Muslim population, then under siege by Bosnian Serbs. The organization listed its headquarters as 1212 New York Ave. N.W., Suite 400, in Washington - the headquarters of the American Muslim Council, then headed by Alamoudi.

At the time, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization actively was recruiting and training Arab fighters to fight alongside the Bosnian Muslims. Bosnia had become the focus of the worldwide "jihad" after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.

Saffuri says he frequently went to Bosnia for trips lasting four to five weeks at a time during this period. After returning to Washington from Bosnia in April 1993, he says, he was asked by Alamoudi to serve as the treasurer of a newly formed political-action committee (PAC), National Muslims for a Better America (NMBA).

In filings with the Federal Election Commission, which Insight reviewed, the new group listed its address as 1212 New York Ave. N.W., Suite 400 - the headquarters of the AMC. Saffuri did not explain why he would "take orders" from Alamoudi in 1993 to become treasurer of the new PAC if he didn't start working for Alamoudi until 1995.

While it was never a major lobbying force, NMBA is significant because its donor list includes a stunningly high proportion of individuals who have been publicly identified as leaders of terrorist groups, or have been arrested, expelled or currently are under investigation for allegedly raising funds for terrorist organizations. Among the contributors to Saffuri's AMC-sponsored PAC:

Hisham al-Talib, who lists his employer alternately as the SAAR Foundation and Marjac Investment Group, both controlled by Barzinji and raided by Greenquest on March 20, 2002.

Muhammad Ashraf, "an officer and/or director of Safa Group companies including Sterling Investment Group, Sterling Charitable Gift Fund and York Foundation," according to the government's affidavit in support of the raid. Ashraf's residence at 12528 Rock Ridge Road in Herndon also was searched during the March 2002 raid.

Mohammad Jaglit, a SAAR Foundation director considered by federal investigators to be a key figure in the terror-support networks. The affidavit cites Jaglit as "an active supporter of [Sami] al-Arian and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], both ideologically and financially" and notes that letters accompanying checks he sent to al-Arian from the SAAR Foundation instructed al-Arian "not to disclose the contribution publicly or to the media." Jaglit's residence also was raided.

Yaquib Mirza, a Pakistani national considered by authorities to be the financial wizard of the Safa/SAAR network, who appears as the accountant for scores of Barzinji companies.

Basheer Nafi, identified in the affidavit as the "U.S. agent of PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]." Nafi, a 50-year-old Ph.D., was deported from the United States in 1996 for visa violations, according to government sources. According to a government indictment, he "was a member and founder of PIJ" while he was working with al-Arian and PIJ leader Ramadan Abdallah Shallah at the World Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE) in Florida, now identified by federal prosecutors as a front for Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Iqbal Unus, a director of Safa Group companies "including Child Development Foundation," whose Herndon residence was raided.

Other donors to Saffuri's PAC whose houses or offices were raided by Greenquest, say federal authorities, include Wael al-Khairo, Ahmad al-Shaer, Ahmad Khatib and Ali Abuzakook - all Barzinji employees - as well as Mohammad Salim Attia, Hibba Abugideiri and Hussam Osman, who worked for the Saudi-funded International Institute of Islamic Thought, and Fakri Barzinji, Altogether, say federal authorities, Saffuri raised slightly more than $28,000 for the AMC-sponsored PAC and distributed it to members of Congress including Rohrabacher and Democrats McKinney, David Bonior and John Conyers of Michigan, James Traficant of Ohio, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, and Nick Rahall of West Virginia.

What united all the recipients, who ranged from far-left Democrats to libertarians, was their support for Palestinian causes and their hostility to the state of Israel.

During the entire period that the AMC's PAC operated, from 1993-98, Saffuri was listed as its treasurer. He signed all the papers, say authorities, and made all the reports to the FEC. And yet, Saffuri insists he had nothing to do with the PAC. "If these guys gave checks to Alamoudi [for NMBA], it doesn't mean much," Saffuri says now. "I was an employee of his. He asked me to do it. I did what he asked me to do. In the end, he was paying the check."

Of the 40 donors to the PAC, the documents show, nearly half have been arrested or are under investigation for terrorist ties.

"Look, I work with people who also do wonderful things," Saffuri says when asked about the terrorist ties of NMBA donors. "Look at Abduwahab [al-Kebsi]," Saffuri's assistant at the Islamic Institute. "Abdu is doing a project to promote democracy for the National Endowment for Democracy in Iraq. Another staff member of the institute is working for the Department of Homeland Security. Another staffer is working for USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development]. If there was one shred of evidence that we were a security risk, they would be talking to me, not you. I am invited to meet with [FBI Director Robert] Mueller at the FBI, on average, every six months. I think if there is a problem with me, I wouldn't be at these meetings."

When asked by Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson if he thought radical Muslim groups such as the friends and associates of Khaled Saffuri were exercising "undue influence" at the White House, Karl Rove simply shrugged and replied, "No."

As evidence of Saffuri's ties to three prominent terrorist suspects deepens, say alarmed conservatives, those blanket denials may look to be increasingly hollow.

Voice of Palestine Honors Rather Than Condemns Bus Bomber

The official PA radio is contradicting official condemnation of the latest bus bombing. From IMRA:

Voice of Palestine Radio (VOP) (that is run by the PA and under the tight control of Yasser Arafat) referred to the man who committed the bombing of the bus in Jerusalem yesterday as a martyr ("shahid") in their news programs. They treated him royally both yesterday and today.

Shahid is an honorary term given to someone who dies in battle. It is not conferred to a criminal. If the act was considered a criminal act then he would not be termed a martyr "shahid".

It should also be noted that the pro forma condemnation broadcast in Arabic on VOP never said anything against the person who carried out the attack itself. Instead the "condemnation" explained the act - blaming it on Israel and voicing concern regarding its timing.

It is also noteworthy that yesterday's bombing was repeatedly described on VOP as "an explosive operation" without any negative terminology associated
with it. In sharp contrast, the announcement of the demolition of the "martyr's house" by the IDF was termed "barbaric" with VOP urging Palestinians to come out of their houses to show resistance to the "racist Israeli threats".

At 6:00 PM last night, right before the main evening news program last night, PA TV broadcast film clips openly encouraging attacks against Israelis. For example, they ran a clip of a small child no older than 6 - 7 years old singing to himself "by stone or by knife I will attack the enemy".

The clip was several minutes long and this chorus was repeated many times. The clip demonstrates that the PA is actively encouraging attacks - even by youths.

Alleged traitor's Saudi influence

Joel Mowbray has more insight on the Ryan Anderson case. From the Jewish World Review, with thanks to Nicolei:

To those who worry about the extremism that Saudi influence can foster here in the United States, the joint Muslim community at Washington State University and the University of Idaho — just nine miles apart — might provide a classic case study.

It also happened to be the home of detained National Guardsman Ryan Anderson, aka Amir Talhah, when he converted to Islam five years ago.

Anderson, who was nabbed while allegedly trying to pass secret information on to al Qaeda through an Internet chat room, graduated from Washington State University in 2002. Though the strength of his ties to the local Muslim community is unclear, there is no denying that it could have provided the perfect breeding ground for a radical Islamist.

And perhaps not coincidentally, there is a strong Saudi influence.

Last year, the FBI made several arrests while investigating alleged terror activity in Pullman, Washington (home to WSU) and Moscow, Idaho (home to UI). Because of the close proximity and the relative small numbers of Muslim residents (fewer than 200 total), the two towns have essentially a single Muslim community, according to many local Muslims.

Four people total were arrested. Two were affiliated with WSU and two with UI. Three were arrested as material witnesses and have since been released.

Still at large, though, is Saudi national Abdullah Aljughaiman, who was a lecturer at UI and received his religious training King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Investigators have been unable even to speak with him, however, because he is most likely in Saudi Arabia, where he's off-limits to U.S. authorities.

At the probe's center was Sami Omar al-Hussayen, a graduate student and computer whiz at UI who was also seen as a leader in the local Muslim community. The Saudi national, who goes to trial this spring, is charged with visa fraud, making false statements, and providing material support of terrorism.

The terrorism charge does not seem to have adversely affected al-Hussayen's popularity in the local Muslim community. Several Muslims in the Pullman-Moscow area contacted by phone spoke favorably of the alleged abettor of terrorism. One who had attended the preliminary hearings opined, "The evidence against him doesn't seem that strong."

In addition to allegedly designing web sites for two radical sheikhs with direct contact with Osama bin Laden, al-Hussayen is charged with handling financial and administrative functions for supposed charities that allegedly supported terrorism.

The most chilling part of the indictment, though, is a section describing an e-mail group managed and edited solely by al-Hussayen, in which an appeal was made for information from Muslims in the U.S. military that would aid terrorist attacks on American personnel, including the murder of a "specifically identified high-ranking American military official."

Although the charges do not tie the Saudi national to 9/11, some evidence surrounding al-Hussayen is troubling. Reportedly found on his computer hard drive were thousands of photos of the World Trade Center, both before and after September 11.

Then there's the family connection.

According to court documents, al-Hussayen's uncle traveled to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia and "stayed in the same hotel in the Herndon, Va., area as three of the Sept. 11 hijackers of Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon."

Though northern Idaho or eastern Washington might seem like a strange destination for students from the Middle East, roughly one-half of the Muslims in Moscow, Idaho and one-fourth in Pullman, Washington are Saudis, according to estimates of several local Muslims.

The Saudi ties appear to be longstanding. When the mosque at WSU was built in the late 1970's, most of the funding came from the Gulf — principally from Saudi Arabia — according to a longtime Muslim resident in the area.

What remains uncertain at this point is what role the local Muslim community had in impacting Anderson's Islamic development. Several local sources claim he was a member of the Muslim Students Association, whose national organization was Saudi-created and funded. (Al-Hussayen was president of Idaho's MSA chapter.)

Several members of Washington State's MSA deny that Anderson was an active member, however, including past MSA president Irshad Altheimer. Altheimer said that he accompanied Anderson to mosque services for a month during Ramadan in 2000, but that he never saw much of the now-detained National Guardsman after that.

Investigators are not ruling out a connection to the local Muslim community in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Boise, Idaho said that no ties have yet been found, but quickly added, "Our investigation is still ongoing."

Pakistani, US Troops Intensify Bin Laden Search

Now comes a report that the hunt is continuing and intensifying. From the Dow Jones Newswires, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

U.S. spy chief George Tenet made a secret visit to Islamabad last week as American and Pakistani troops began a major operation to hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda fugitives believed to be hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency met with senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials as Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, started deploying thousands of his nation's troops into the semi-autonomous tribal region of Waziristan. The territory has become a sanctuary for al Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan after the U.S. toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

U.S. troops are searching for al Qaeda leaders inside Afghanistan. Pakistani officials have said the operation on their side of the border with Afghanistan will be the biggest yet to hunt for Mr. bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders. But Pakistani officials have denied some media reports that American troops would be participating in the offensive inside Pakistani territory.

Taliban claim responsibility for fatal attack on American reconstruction team

The Taliban is attempting to keep the jihad alive in Afghanistan by murdering construction workers. The focus on non-combatants accord with the provisions of Islamic law that forbid killing them unless they are considered to be aiding the war effort. This is used to justify bombings on buses in Israel, and by Osama for his attacks in the U.S. From the Guardian:

An Australian helicopter pilot was killed and a British security officer seriously injured in southern Afghanistan yesterday after their team, working for an American construction company, was attacked by a gunman. An American woman employed to build cottage hospitals was also seriously injured in the attack, while another Briton, a security guard, was unharmed, a US diplomat in Kabul said yesterday.

The diplomat said the helicopter belonged to the Louis Berger Group, an American company carrying out road-building and other construction projects in southern Afghanistan, where the remnants of the former Taliban regime and other Islamic extremist groups are active.

Mullah Mohamed Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader, has pronounced death penalties on anybody, Afghan or foreign, working to support the government of Hamid Karzai.

Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for the government of Kandahar province, where the attack occurred, said the team of four foreigners and an Afghan interpreter were inspecting a school in a remote village about 40 miles south-west of the province's capital, Kandahar.

After inspecting the school, the team boarded the helicopter, which was then attacked by a man with a Kalashnikov rifle. He fled after killing the pilot and injuring two other foreigners.

"The helicopter had not taken off when it was attacked," said Mr Pashtoon.

Abdul Samad, a man claiming to speak for the Taliban, told the Associated Press news agency that the militia was responsible for the attack.

American troops, more than 10,000 of whom are stationed in Afghanistan, airlifted the wounded to Kandahar airbase, where they were being treated, the diplomat in Kabul said.

Louis Berger group has been awarded some of the most lucrative reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban two years ago.

This includes a $250m (£135m) contract to resurface one of the country's main roads, which runs from Kabul to Kandahar, but the project has been blighted by the Taliban's frequent kidnapping of foreign and Afghan workers.

More than 550 people have died in an insurgency blamed on the militia in less than seven months, and Taliban fighters have vowed to step up the campaign in the run-up to democratic elections in June.

New jihadist tape from Iraq

The world is gradually waking up to the fact that Al-Qaeda is far from the only radical Islamic group out there. This new tape takes responsibility for several recent bombings in Iraq, and purports to come from a "new" terror group, Ansar Al-Sunnah. "A key purpose of the video is for propaganda — to attract recruits and raise money. 'The tape shows a more sophisticated organization that is thinking well beyond the roadside bombings of tomorrow'" says an analyst. From MSNBC:

On Feb. 1, two suicide bombers simultaneously destroyed two Kurdish party headquarters in Irbil, Iraq. More than 100 people were killed.

On Nov. 20, a truck bomb in Kirkuk killed five.

On Sept. 9, there was another deadly suicide car bombing in Irbil — this time at U.S. intelligence headquarters.

All the violence is claimed to be the work of a new terror group named Ansar al Sunnah, which U.S. intelligence believes is trying to unite all Islamic militants in Iraq.

A tape now circulating on the Internet attempts to put the group on the map — showing terrorists preparing for suicide missions. “We will hit the American forces!” one militant proclaimed through a translator.

According to terrorism expert Ben Venzke of Intelcenter, “This is the first time we’ve seen them actually put a face on the current series of attacks that are occurring in Iraq.”

Based on their dialect, most of the terrorist fighters appear to come from outside Iraq. At least two are seemingly from Saudi Arabia.

Their goal? One translator’s voice on the tape says, “The goal is not only to get rid of the occupiers of Iraq, but to establish an Islamic state.”

One sequence displays the identity cards of Spaniards and Canadians whom the group claims to have killed, including Spanish intelligence officers ambushed on a highway near Baghdad.

A key purpose of the video is for propaganda — to attract recruits and raise money.

“The tape shows a more sophisticated organization that is thinking well beyond the roadside bombings of tomorrow,” Venzke added.

Senior U.S. officials say this group is a threat and its claims are credible. They say the group’s propaganda has actually helped U.S. forces figure out who’s doing what and who’s to blame for much of the violence.

Global bomb-making network

More on the global reach of radical Islam, from the New York Times. (Thanks to Filtrat.)

Government forensic investigators examining how terrorists manufacture improvised explosives have found indications of a global bomb-making network, and have concluded that Islamic militant bomb builders have used the same designs for car bombs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, government officials said this week.

"Linkages have been made in devices that have been used in different continents," said one forensic expert involved in the intelligence effort. "We know that we have the same bomb maker, or different bomb makers are using the same instructions."

The previously undisclosed intelligence operation has expanded on studies of past cases like investigations of the thwarted shoe-bomb attack aboard a Paris to Miami flight in December 2001. In a test, detonation of a similar bomb on a grounded aircraft blew a 2 feet by 2 feet in the fuselage — a potentially catastrophic event aboard a pressurized plane in flight.

In another example of the investigators' work, bomb analysts have collected fragments from hundreds of improvised devices detonated in attacks in Iraq, including large car and truck bombings and smaller assaults using explosives packed in empty artillery shells and even concrete blocks. That project has led to a better understanding of the devices and to efforts to provide commanders in Iraq with faster countermeasures to help protect American troops.

But there are many questions still unanswered about who is behind various bombings, including some of the major suicide bombing attacks in Iraq. Intelligence analysts have said they believe that Al Qaeda has been weakened by the campaign against terrorism and lacks a central command, as well as financial and recruiting structures. But the bomb investigations suggest that the terrorist network still may be disseminating bomb-making skills to a generation of militants who have fanned out around the world.

Many bomb makers may have learned how to make improvised explosives in the 1990's at Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, and the methods taught there may now be showing up elsewhere.

Intelligence analysts did not say there was evidence of a single controlling entity behind the construction of the larger car and truck bombs often used in the most deadly attacks, although they suggested that there might not be many people with the technical skills to build larger bombs.

Suicide bomber kills 7 in Jerusalem

From CNN:

A suicide bomber on Sunday killed at least seven passengers on a crowded bus in Jerusalem at the height of rush hour, according to police in the city and Israeli ambulance services.

Jerusalem police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the suicide bomber also died in the terrorist attack, which wounded more than 50 people, 11 of them seriously.

The blast happened in West Jerusalem about 8:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET) on Sunday, the first day of Israel's working week.

Video showed the number 14 bus with its windows blown out and its interior mangled, as rescue workers removed the wounded and remains from the vehicle.

One of the people killed in the attack was an 18-year-old high school student identified by the Jerusalem daily Haaretz as Lior Azulai, a pupil at the Gymnasia Rehavia. Nine other students at the school were wounded in the blast, Haaretz reported.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- the military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement -- claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement.

The group said the attack was in response to a February 11 Israeli military incursion into Gaza, in which 12 Palestinians were killed in gunbattles. The Israeli Army said the Palestinians were all armed, and that its forces were fighting the terrorist infrastructure. Palestinians say many of the killed were civilians.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and military targets, and is designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

Video games attract young to Hizballah

There are several jihadist video games out there. I wrote of a children's version a couple of years ago. This from the Telegraph, with thanks to EPG:

Perching on the edge of a chair in a darkened room in Beirut, seven-year-old Hassan el Zein takes aim with his pistol and pumps three bullets into the forehead of Ariel Sharon.

He leaves the Israeli prime minister for dead and moves into the next room, swiftly dispatching Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister of "the Zionist enemy", with a commando knife. Twenty more points.

"May Allah's blessings and peace be upon you," flashes across the screen in Arabic as stirring martial music urges Hassan on. An Israeli special forces soldier is blown up by a hand grenade.

Welcome to Champions computer arcade in Beirut's southern suburbs, the urban stronghold of Hizbollah, Lebanon's self-styled "Islamic resistance fighters" and the heroes of young Shi'ite Muslims such as Hassan.

This is the Haret Hreik district, Hizbollah's heartland. Behind the stacks of fruit and vegetables at the grocer's is a portrait of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader, wielding a Kalashnikov. Along the main road is a mosque with a Hizbollah-run hospital built around it.

Inside Champions, Hizbollah flags hang from the ceiling and there are pictures of Nasrallah and Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, the group's spiritual inspiration, in the entrance. The game is called "Special Forces" and has been produced by the Hizbollah Internet Bureau. Hassan and his friend Ali Dikmak, also seven, are eagerly awaiting an updated version that will feature more advanced weapons.

Although it is not as technologically advanced as some American products, Ali says it is his favourite because it shows Arabs can be strong. "I don't like Israelis and I want to shoot them because they're bombing us and they're bombing the Palestinians. I want to shoot them in real life as well. In this game the Israelis don't win - the resistance always wins."

Hassan Jomass, 21, who is helping out in the arcade, explained the purpose of the game. "It serves a certain goal. It's not just for fun. It's a way to teach the youngsters to know their enemy better and be patriotic."

Hizbollah recognised, he argued, that American games could corrupt the Lebanese youth. "Look," he said, pointing at a child playing Command and Conquer Generals at another console.

"This is even showing Arabs as terrorists."

Sure enough, the game's Global Liberation Army, an Arab guerrilla force, is described as preferring "underhand and sneaky tactics to defeat its enemies" while US forces "utilise high-tech weaponry and skill".

Hizbollah, which means Party of God, was founded in 1982 by young graduates of Shi'ite seminaries in Ir