Terrorist Attack _______________ Information Only
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» Steven_Russell - the next 50, after Afghanistan
The list of the 50 possible foreign States we can go after next, because they harbor al Qaeda networks.http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/18...
50 states on American blacklist
Ewen McAskill
(Washington, November 17)
The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, warned on Friday that after the Afghanistan campaign is over, America could use military action in a second wave of attacks directed against states, which harbour terrorists.
Cheney said that up to 50 states could be targeted for a range of action, from financial and diplomatic to military, on the grounds that they had Al-Qaeda networks operating there.
Somalia, the east African country, which is a haven for al-Qaida supporters, would be high on any US list of targets, alongside Iraq.
Planners in Washington and London are considering the next steps. The ease with which Kabul has fallen has encouraged hawks within the US administration, who are keen to extend military action, particularly against Iraq.
A Foreign Office source said, "Thinking is going on about a second phase but no decision has been taken yet and we would never speculate on it."
But the British view is that direct military action against another state is unlikely and that action is more likely to be in partnership with other states against internal enemies.
Cheney, in a rare public foray, said in an interview for the BBC's Pashtu service on Friday,
“There are a great many places round the world where there are cells of the Al-Qaeda organisation. Maybe as many as 40 or 50.
“We're working with the services of other countries and other governments to try to wrap those organisations up.”
This threat of military action serves a useful purpose for Washington, making governments more amenable to action against terrorism, either inside or outside their own boundaries.
The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, asked the Pentagon to come up with post-Afghanistan options in which they were to think the unthinkable. Rumsfeld had even dismissed the resulting general command papers for not being radical enough.
As yet, no specific military target outside Afghanistan has been agreed.
That would change overnight if Osama bin Laden were to turn up in a country with close ties to al-Qaida, such as Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, recently told the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review that he saw a clear need to confront Al-Qaeda in Indonesia: "Going after Al- Qaeda in Indonesia is not something that should wait until after Al-Qaeda has been uprooted from Afghanistan."
Guardian News Service
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» Steven_Russell - intell intrigue at the Pak border
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.a...Foreigners held in Pakistani tribal area
Islamabad |By Shahid Hussain | 18-11-2001
Four Albanians and two Turks were arrested along with 17 Pakistanis when they sneaked into Pakistani tribal territory from Afghanistan overnight, border officials said yesterday, while Pakistan officials said they had no plans to offer asylum to Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden or the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The Pakistanis included several members of a Jihadi militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, an official said, adding that none in the group carried arms.
All were believed to be from among thousands of volunteers from Pakistan and other countries who had joined the Taliban militia before or after the start of the U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan early last month.
Pakistan, a frontline partner in the international coalition against terrorism, has taken additional measures to seal the porous border by deploying regular troops over the past few days.
Pakistani Col. Mohammed Sarwar said "They may come in bulk so that's why we strengthened our positions."
Our Lahore Correspondent adds: To guard against the possibility of bin Laden making his way into Pakistan, authorities are attempting to heighten intelligence infiltration in the Northern Areas.
There are reports that six of bin Laden's close companions were arrested close to the Pakistan border yesterday. These reports too are as yet unconfirmed.
The process of beefing up a watch of the tribal areas had in fact begun soon after Russian news agencies ran stories stating bin Laden was in Pakistan.
The fact that Islamabad has limited control over the tribal areas and the fact that outsiders stand out clearly within such isolated regions, however it has not been easy to place the kind of intelligence network within them that Pakistan would like to see.
"The government is eager that it should have first hand information of exactly what is going on, but for the intelligence agencies, it is no easy task to achieve," stated a retired official.
There are unconfirmed reports that at least two intelligence operatives have been 'kidnapped' in the tribal areas after they were detected. However, this has again being denied by Islamabad.
Groups within the country, known to have had links with bin Laden in the past are also being closely watched.
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» Steven_Russell - bin Laden's al Qaeda air fleet in Afghanistan
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...How Osama used Afghan airline to run his terror network
STEPHEN BRAUN AND JUDY PASTERNAK
LOS ANGELES: Osama bin Laden built a shadow air force to support his war against the US, using Afghanistan’s national airline, a smuggled surplus US Air Force jet, clandestine charters and the private aircraft of West Asian dignitaries.
Long before suicide teams crashed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, sympathetic foreign officials and wealthy supporters had provided planes to help bin Laden forge, arm and transport his terrorist network.
Interviews with more than 50 US diplomatic and security aides, law enforcement agents, former Afghan civil air officials, pilots and aviation executives provide a wealth of new details about how bin Laden cobbled together his unconventional fleet.
He sent an operative in 1992 to buy a surplus US Air Force passenger jet, have it refurbished in Southern California and fly it out of the country.
He shipped men and materiel on Afghanistan’s Ariana Airways after the Taliban took control of the country in 1996. And when international sanctions hobbled the airline last year, he turned to covert charters to keep his terrorist network airborne.
With the Taliban’s blessing, bin Laden effectively had hijacked Ariana, the national civilian airline of Afghanistan. For five years, according to former US aides and exiled Afghan officials, Ariana’s passenger and charter flights ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash and opium through the UAE and Pakistan.
Members of bin Laden’s Al-Qaida terrorist network were provided false Ariana identification that gave them free run of airports in West Asia.
Taliban authorities also opened the country’s airstrips to high-ranking Persian Gulf state officials who routinely flew in for lavish hunting parties. Sometimes joined by bin Laden and Taliban leaders, the dignitaries, who included several high-ranking officials from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates — left behind money, vehicles and equipment with their hosts, according to US and Afghan accounts. Bin Laden and Al-Qaida easily evaded rules governing the sale of US planes overseas — lapses that raise new warnings about the ability of terrorists to obtain aircraft inside the US.
When bin Laden went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invaders in the 1980s, he paid for charter jets to fly in arms for the mujaheddin and for construction and demolition equipment. After he was forced to move his budding Al-Qaida organization to Sudan in 1991, he again used charter flights to move troops and materiel.
In October 1996, a month after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, Ariana officials in Kabul grew alarmed about a missing Boeing 727 cargo plane.
The jet had been chartered for a round trip from Jalalabad, Pakistan,[sic] to Khartoum by two Sudanese diplomats.
It was to fly to the UAE, then on to Khartoum carrying a load of fruit and rugs. It was to return a few days later with a humanitarian cargo of food and medicine.
It took a week before the 727 returned. When the weary flight crew showed up in Ariana’s home office in Kabul, according to former Afghan civil air officials familiar with the incident, they offered a strange tale.
In Khartoum, the crew waited three days in a hotel until Sudanese authorities were ready to load the plane. Back at the airport, they were stunned to find no cargo but 90 passengers waiting to board. The Sudanese had installed 100 seats in the 727, then herded the passengers aboard — women veiled in burqas, men in desert robes, excited children. No travel documents were checked.
Flying into Jalalabad just after midnight, the passengers were greeted by a dusty convoy of jeeps, vans and trucks. Many of the drivers carried weapons. Within minutes, the passengers piled into the vehicles, then disappeared into the desert night.
According to the crew, the Arab passengers and their Afghan welcomers worked for bin Laden.
The ease with which bin Laden’s operatives boarded the 727 was soon replicated on a daily basis. Bin Laden and his Taliban hosts commandeered the 35-year-old national air company as their private charter service.
A frequent stop was Sharjah, one of the Emirates. Sharjah International Airport, former US and Afghan officials said, became a hub for drug and arms smuggling by Al-Qaida.
Sharjah’s airport is studded with numerous ‘‘fly-by-night’’ cargo operations willing to take on any comers, US analysts said. Some allegedly flew on contracts for Al-Qaida.
People familiar with Ariana’s growing abuse by Al-Qaida and the Taliban say there are reports suggesting that the airline might have been used to train Islamic militants as pilots.
According to Afghan sources, Taliban officials ordered Ariana executives in 1997 to train two of their men as Boeing 727 pilots. According to a former NSC official, Ariana’s domination by Al-Qaida and the Taliban was key for the UN decision in 2000 to impose sanctions on the Taliban.
After Ariana’s foreign flights were shut down, Ariana charter flights kept moving Al-Qaida cargoes and agents, former US and Afghan officials said.
Islamic militants often turned to a Lebanese-run charter service flying out of Sharjah.
According to the Afghan aviation expert, the cargo company provided mid-size Russian Antonov cargo jets for charter runs ‘‘when they couldn’t fly on Ariana.’’ (LATWP Svc)
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» Steven_Russell - Kashmir terror attack Sunday
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/19...13 jawans, 3 civilians killed in Lashkar ambush
HT Correspondent
(Jammu, November 18)
After a brief lull, terrorists struck again in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 13 soldiers and three civilians were killed and 40 others injured, a majority of them armymen, in an attack by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba militants near Ramban, on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, about 150 km north of Jammu on Sunday.
An Indian Army spokesman said that three Lashkar terrorists were killed in the gun battle.
The Lashkar terrorists posing as groundnut sellers came up to a bridge, which is exclusively used by the Army for moving its troops and equipment. The terrorists then hurled grenades on a group of soldiers who were crossing the bridge over the Chenab River. The incident took place at around 3 p.m. on Sunday.
the Lashkar men apparently waited for the Army convoy to slow down near the bridge before launching their attack. Official sources said the attack came when soldiers began to get down from their vehicles and started crossing the bridge on foot as the bridge was too weak to bear the weight of both vehicles and passengers together.
The terrorists, who stood near the carts of groundnut sellers on the southern end of the bridge, started hurling grenades at the soldiers.
At the same time, their accomplices who were stationed on nearby hilltops joined the ambush. They opened heavy fire at the soldiers and civilians.
This is the first attack of its kind on the highway where troop movement is particularly heavy. Troops move back and forth on the Jammu-Srinagar highway every day as the 294-km highway leads to the northernmost frontiers in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police sources in Jammu said that the whole area has been cordoned off and a massive combing operation launched to catch the terrorists.
The Lashkar has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group spokesman said that two militants were involved in the attack and both of them were safe. The security forces have sounded a red alert across the state.
Elsewhere, Indian border guards on Sunday killed six terrorists trying to cross into the Poonch district of Indian-ruled Kashmir from Pakistan, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Indian Army Lieutenant General J.R. Mukherjee said on Sunday that Pakistan would try to push members of the defeated Taliban militia into J&K after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» Steven_Russell - 70,000 al-Qaeda sleepers worldwide
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/19...Fear of reprisals by Al-Qaeda sleepers
Vijay Dutt
(London, November 18)
More than 80 per cent of the Al-Qaeda network is outside Afghanistan and it will continue to be a threat, according to intelligence agencies.
German authorities believe that over 70,000 people from 50 countries may have been trained for terrorism.
The intelligence agencies have gathered all this from half-burnt papers and documents found in the safe houses in Kabul which were abandoned by Osama bin Laden's top men when the Northern Alliance forces entered the city.
At present it is estimated that 10,000 Al-Qaeda fighters are inside Afghanistan. But now the report is that many more "foreign" Muslims trained at the Al-Qaeda camps are scattered all over the world.
Though cells have been discovered in France, Spain, Britain, the United States and Germany, many sleepers are still at large. The key middlemen who are activators and responsible for funding et al have not been identified.
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» Steven_Russell - fleeing cleric arrested in Pakistan Sunday
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/19...Pak cleric, aides held
AP
(Peshawar)
Hardline Pakistani cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammed, who had led more than 10,000 armed tribesmen to Afghanistan last month to help the Taliban fight US-led forces, was arrested with his 30 supporters as he returned to Pakistan on Sunday.
They have been charged with possession of illegal weapons. more than half of his followers fled to pakistan after the rapid collapse of the taliban militia.
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» JenL_2 - Re: 8 accused of Sept. 11 involvement
In response to message posted by rasputin:Wow - Good News Ras! Love seeing this international cooperation. And they must have gotten a ton more leads from all the papers left behind in Afghanistan when the Taliban fled in haste. The Noose Tightens on Terrorism!.....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» BPyles - China terrorists
Would not think China would have any problem rounding up their terrorists and putting them out of operation. Expect they can imprison them without all the testimony the Judge in Spain heard. The Spain group does sound like a real haul and step forward.China accuses Osama of links with terrorists, 11-19-01, Pakistan Frontier Post
BEIJING (Online): Acknowledging for the first time the existence of over ten separatist groups
in restive Xinjiang region with links to al-Qaida network, China has said these outfits received
support and training from chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden.
“The so-called East Turkistan Terrorist Force in Xinjiang has all along got support from bin
Laden,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said, confirming operation of
separatist groups in and outside Xinjiang in north-west China.
-- posted by BPyles
» BPyles - 69,992 al-Qaeda sleepers
Stephen: Think the authorities (or the journalist who wrote that) will think to subtract the 8 caught in Spain?Sure hope the figure 70,000 is exaggerated as that scares the daylights out of me. About time for some hard looks at the areas where they will feel comfortable to hide out and their countrymen who might mistakenly feel they need to protect them.
Thanks again for posting all the news. Best way for me to keep up.
-- posted by BPyles
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