Terrorist Attack _______________ Information Only

Top 465. Dec 3, 2001 2:00 PM

» BPyles - New Homeland Alert

Monday December 3 4:18 PM ET

U.S. to Issue New Alert of Possible Attacks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government was expected on Monday to issue a new warning of possible threats against American targets during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a government official said.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was to make the announcement at the White House at 4:35
p.m., the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

``It's a continuation of being on a higher state of alert during Ramadan,'' the official said.

The last alert was issued Oct. 29.

-- posted by BPyles

http://www.afghanradio.com/news/2001/dec...

Top 466. Dec 9, 2001 12:57 AM

» Steven_Russell - Re: Belgian terror cell - 909 Massoud murder

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

The terror war actually began 2 days before 911, when 2 Egyptians with Belgian passports posing as documentary journalists killed Masoud in a pre-emptive strike suicide bombing, with bombs cleverly hidden in a film camera and battery pack.

European Cell of Al Qaeda Cited in Killing Of Massoud

By JOHN TAGLIABUE with SUSAN SACHS
The New York Times
PARIS, Dec. 7 — Investigators piecing together the suicide-bomb assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Afghan rebel leader, say they believe the plot was carried out by members of a European-based cell of Al Qaeda that on remote-control command from Osama bin Laden reached back to Afghanistan to destroy its prey.

One of the assassins, Belgian officials said today, was the cell's presumed leader, a Tunisian who, like several leaders of the Sept. 11 hijackings, came to Europe as students only to be drawn into the bin Laden terror network. The Tunisian lived in Belgium from the late 1980's until he departed on his suicide mission.

Mr. Massoud was killed on Sept. 9 by two suicide bombers posing as journalists, and from early on, American intelligence officials have said the killing was part of the overall terror scheme that unfolded in America two days later.

Now, for the first time, investigators in Europe and North Africa say they have uncovered evidence to support that idea. And they say the plot's use of a distant cell fits Mr. bin Laden's pattern of reaching out to assimilated Arab radicals living in Europe and North America as a means of masking his activities.

This week the police in Belgium arrested two men, identified only as a Moroccan and a Tunisian, bringing to at least five the number of people being held in Belgium and France. They are suspected of having supplied the forged documents used by Mr. Massoud's killers.

Today, Belgian officials identified the Tunisian assassin as Dahmane Abd al-Sattar, 39. They said he was the leader of a cluster of men, mainly North Africans, who were part of Mr. bin Laden's network, Al Qaeda. The Belgians said the identity of the second killer could be determined within days.

Posing as journalists and photographers, the killers detonated bombs on their bodies and in a camera at the start of what was to have been an interview in northern Afghanistan.

Early in the investigation, American intelligence officials described the killing as a pre-emptive strike by Mr. bin Laden in anticipation that the United States would turn to the Northern Alliance after the attacks on Sept. 11.

If Mr. Sattar is proved to be linked to Al Qaeda, it would provide the first evidence of that. What little was revealed about Mr. Sattar, who was first identified today by the Belgian daily Le Soir, fit a familiar pattern.

Tunisian officials with access to intelligence reports said tonight that Mr. Sattar had left for Belgium in 1987 after obtaining a journalism degree, planning to pursue studies at the Free University of Brussels and the Catholic University in Leuven.

Christel Lejeune, a spokeswoman for the Free University, said Mr. Sattar enrolled there in 1990 but left after a year without taking exams. A spokeswoman for the Catholic University said officials who might confirm his attendance were not available.

According to the Tunisian officials, Mr. Sattar went underground in 1999, after the Belgian authorities sought to expel him because his residence permit had expired. He next surfaced in Britain in June of last year, when he was detained at Heathrow Airport for using a fake Belgian passport, they said.

Françoise Caussé, a French journalist who spent several days with Mr. Sattar and his fellow assassin in a Northern Alliance guest house before the suicide attack, described him as the friendlier and more open of the two. She said he spoke accent- free French and good English.

Nasrine Gross, an Afghan-American from Washington and a proponent of Afghan women's rights, who was also there, said Mr. Sattar had stood out for his dapper dress.

"We were the grunge of the world," she said in an interview. "He was dressed to a T." Though both men said they were Moroccans, Mr. Sattar did not betray a Moroccan accent when speaking Arabic with her, she said.

As reconstructed by investigators, Mr. Massoud's killers used Belgian passports stolen in 1999 from the Belgian Consulate in Strasbourg, France, and the embassy in The Hague. Mr. Sattar used a passport issued to Karim Touzani, 34, while that used by his accomplice had been issued to Kacem Bakkali, 26.

Traveling to Britain, they boarded a flight from Heathrow Airport to Pakistan, which they entered using multiple-entry visas. Attiya Mahmood, Pakistan's deputy high commissioner in London, said a search of records showed that the visas had not been issued by Pakistani consulates in Britain. "They must have been forged," she said.

This week the Belgian police arrested two men, a Tunisian and a Moroccan, accused of altering the stolen passports. Jos Colpin, a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor's office, said the men had been found in possession of passports with serial numbers corresponding to those stolen in Strasbourg and The Hague. He did not identify the men.

An Algerian man, identified only as Boualem B., is being held on similar charges.

The arrests were the latest in roundups in France and Belgium of Arab men suspected of ties to the forgers' group. One man detained in France, Adel Tebourski, 38, a native of Tunisia, confessed to purchasing the airline ticket used by Mr. Sattar.

He described to investigators the activities of the Belgian group in providing forged travel documents and recruiting young Arabs to travel to Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. But he denied knowledge of the assassination plot.

Last month an Yasser al-Siri, 38, was arrested in London and charged in connection with Mr. Massoud's killing. Mr. Siri runs the Islamic Observation Center in London, and according to investigators, the assassins got close to Mr. Massoud with the help of a letter on the center's stationery saying they were journalists with an Arab news agency.

Mr. Siri says the men altered the text of what he gave them. His lawyer, Gareth Peirce, did not return phone calls.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://www.afghanradio.com/news/2001/dec...

Top 467. Dec 9, 2001 11:01 AM

» Steven_Russell - Does Al Qaeda Need Osama Bin Laden?

Does Al Qaeda Need Osama Bin Laden?

His leadership style differs markedly from other terrorist leaders.

By JERROLD M. POST
The Los Angeles Times December 9 2001

WASHINGTON -- During the Iran hostage crisis, a wishful group of foreign-policy analysts believed that when the shah of Iran died, the reason for Ayatollah Khomeini's hostility would also die, and the U.S. hostages at the American embassy in Tehran would be released. Their fantasy neglected Khomeini's need for an enemy to unify his following. So, as the shah withered, Khomeini adroitly shifted the animus from him to the United States, the "Great Satan," and the hostage crisis continued--for 444 days.

There is a similar fantasy circulating in some Washington circles today that when Osama bin Laden is taken "dead or alive," a mortal blow will have been struck at the Al Qaeda network, which will waste away and die, and no longer pose a threat. But fantasy it is, for Bin Laden's role and character differ markedly from those of other charismatic leaders of terrorist organizations. Two recent examples come to mind. When Abimael Guzman, the charismatic founder and leader of the Peruvian terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path), was captured in 1992, a mortal blow was struck at his movement; when Turkish forces caught Abdullah Ocalan, founder and leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, the Kurdish separatist terrorist group, in 1999, his movement was severely wounded, and changed course. Both organizations were highly hierarchical, with authority resting solely in the paramount leader. In neither case was there a clearly designated successor.

By contrast, Bin Laden's leadership style is more akin to that of the chairman of the board of a holding company, which may be a product of his education in business management at King Abdul Aziz University in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, Al Qaeda, a collection of semi-autonomous terrorist groups, has a flat organizational structure, with cells reportedly operating in at least 30 countries, perhaps as many as 55. Bin Laden has grown his corporation by mergers and acquisitions, so that, for example, the previously autonomous Islamic Jihad of Egypt has essentially fused with Al Qaeda.

Unlike Guzman and Ocalan, Bin Laden has shared power with Ayman Zawahiri, a founder of the Islamic Jihad of Egypt. In addition to being Bin Laden's designated successor, Zawahiri is Al Qaeda's CEO, in charge of daily planning and management and is believed by U.S. authorities to have planned the Sept. 11 attacks. It was with Zawahiri that Bin Laden jointly founded Al Qaeda, "the base," in 1991. Zawahiri's role underscores the distinction between Al Qaeda and other terrorist movements: It is a two-headed organization. Furthermore, Zawahiri is considered to be even more apocalyptic, and more charismatic, than Bin Laden, so that while it appears to the outside world that Bin Laden is the charismatic force driving Al Qaeda, in fact, within the organization the two leaders are experienced as a charismatic duo. Zawahiri's death, which has been reported but not confirmed, would be as significant for Al Qaeda as Bin Laden's. But the fact that Al Qaeda is not dependent on a single leader bodes well for its survival.

Charisma does not really rest in an individual or individuals. Rather, it is a system, a lock-and-key fit between a leader with certain personality traits and his vulnerable followers who thirst for someone who has the answers and who can lead them to a brighter future. The Al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 were fully formed adults, several with higher educations, a number from comfortable middle-class homes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who had lived for years in the West. They were "true believers" who subordinated their individuality to the cause as articulated by Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Called to give their lives while taking thousands of casualties, they did so without questioning the guidance of their leaders.

A leader does not become a leader until he encounters his followers, and Bin Laden's leadership experience during the struggle in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion was assuredly a transformational experience. Ascetic in life style, often living in caves, Bin Laden gave generously of his fortune, building hospitals and clinics, purchasing weapons and ammunition. Inspirational in his rhetoric, he won the adulation of his Afghan freedom fighters. The defeat of the Soviet Union, a superpower, was confirmation that Allah was on their side. But success left Bin Laden without an enemy. His return to Saudi Arabia provided one: America, whose troops were stationed on sacred Islamic land.

A series of Bin Laden triumphs--the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Khobar Towers in 1996, the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, last year's attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen and the most spectacular terrorist act in history, the events of Sept. 11--further confirmed for Bin Laden and his followers the righteousness of their holy cause, for surely their small group of committed Muslims could not possibly have struck these blows against the one remaining superpower unless God was on their side. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have taken pains to say their war against terrorism is not against Islam, but Bin Laden has sought to frame it as a religious war and has laid claim to the title of commander in chief of the Islamic world, heroically confronting the commander in chief of the secular, modern West, George W. Bush. During this dizzying series of triumphs, Bin Laden's messianic sense of mission has expanded, and his charismatic attractiveness increased.

Many Bin Laden watchers have suggested that his charisma is "manufactured," expertly created by Al Qaeda's highly effective public relations department. In person and in speaking style, he does not convey a particularly powerful impression. The charismatic aura often attributed to leaders like Bin Laden is not experienced as powerfully by followers in his immediate vicinity. Accordingly, those within Al Qaeda's leadership circle probably respond at least as strongly to the personal force of Zawahiri's leadership.

There are at least four scenarios regarding the future of Al Qaeda:

In the event of Bin Laden's death or capture, Al Qaeda's flat, dispersed organizational structure, the presence of a designated successor, Zawahiri, who is charismatic in his own right, and the appeal of Al Qaeda's radical Islamic mission--all suggest that the terrorist network would survive. Bin Laden's loss would assuredly be a setback, but since Zawahiri is already running Al Qaeda's daily operations, his transition to the top job would be virtually seamless, assuming he survives Bin Laden.

Early last week, there were a number of reports that Zawahiri had been killed or seriously injured in a bombing raid. A number of inner-circle members were also said to have died. Should Zawahiri, in fact, be dead or incapacitated, and Bin Laden survives, Al Qaeda would be dealt a major, probably crippling setback, especially if other inner-circle executives were killed, too. But because it has systematically promoted individuals to leadership positions, Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden alive, would eventually recover and continue.

If both Bin Laden and Zawahiri, as well as other key leaders, were killed or captured, in effect eliminating the leadership echelon, this would probably be a fatal blow to the terrorist network.

Finally, should Bin Laden disappear, the myth of the hidden imam would probably be infused with mythic power, and others might well speak in Bin Laden's name in attempting to continue Al Qaeda's terrorist mission.

Jerrold M. Post is professor of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University. He is also co-author of "Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred."

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://www.afghanradio.com/news/2001/dec...

Top 468. Dec 9, 2001 11:33 AM

» Steven_Russell - bin Laden planned only top of WTC collapse, Jalalabad tape

Expect an initial deafening silence from the wider Muslim and Arab communities on this new development, a videotape of bin Laden found at Jalalabad.

Followed of course by their "experts" claiming to show that the tape is "an American forgery."

U.S.: New Tape Points to Bin Laden
Words Suggest Sept. 11 Planning Role

By Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 9, 2001; Page A01

The United States has obtained a videotape of Osama bin Laden describing the damage around the World Trade Center -- where the twin towers and other buildings were destroyed -- as being much greater than he had expected, according to senior government officials.

On the tape, which was obtained in Afghanistan during the search of a private home in Jalalabad, bin Laden praised God for far greater success than he expected, using language that indicated he was familiar with the planning of the attacks, according to one of the officials.

The administration has blamed bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attacks but has not released evidence showing that he directly planned or ordered them. Although officials have said they have intercepted communications allegedly tying bin Laden or his associates to the hijackers, they have not released any such material, citing intelligence concerns.

The videotape discovered in Jalalabad offers the most conclusive evidence of a connection between bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, according to government officials who have been briefed on its contents or have read transcripts.

Senior Bush administration officials are debating whether and how to release the videotape, which some officials hope could tamp down concern in the Muslim world that Washington has unjustly accused bin Laden.

"It is very clear that bin Laden not only had advance knowledge [of the Sept. 11 attacks], but [the video] is proof he was responsible for planning," said one senior official who has been shown a transcript of the videotape.

The 40-minute tape, which an official said appears to have been shot by an amateur, has been viewed by very senior Bush administration officials within the past week. Fearful it might be a fake, officials sent it to outside experts for review, and they declared it "legitimate," one senior official said.

On the tape, according to one official who has heard a description of its contents, bin Laden said he was at a dinner when first word came that a plane had crashed into a World Trade Center tower. Bin Laden said that he told the others at the dinner, and that they cheered. He then indicated on the tape that more is coming, according to the official.

Bin Laden used his outstretched hands to explain that he expected only the top of the Trade Center towers to collapse, down to the level where the airliners struck. The eventual total collapse of both towers, the al Qaeda leader said, was totally unexpected.

U.S. intelligence officials are not certain as to why the tape was shot, but in other cases such tapes have been used by al Qaeda for recruitment purposes, a senior official said. Government officials declined to offer more details of how the videotape fell into the U.S. government's hands or which agency obtained it.

The new videotape is not the one described last month by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Intelligence sources had obtained only a transcript of that tape, not the actual video.

Blair, in a Nov. 10 speech to Parliament, said the transcript of an Oct. 20 video shows that bin Laden was asked by an interviewer about the New York and Washington attacks. Blair said the al Qaeda leader replied: "It is what we instigated, for a while, in self defense. And it was revenge for our people killed in Palestine and Iraq."

A decision on whether to release information on the newly discovered tape is in the hands of presidential counselor Karen Hughes, according to a senior official familiar with the situation.

Shortly after the September terrorist attacks, President Bush gave Hughes the task of managing the White House information flow on the Afghan war. Hughes heads a special White House-based public relations operation that the United States and Britain began early last month to win international public support, particularly in the Islamic world, for the anti-terrorist campaign.

The public relations group has been concerned with the lack of U.S. credibility in the Muslim world, and recent discussions about release of the tape have focused on how to get Arab audiences to believe its contents -- something that might not happen if Washington was the source of the release.

Asked yesterday about the bin Laden tape, Hughes responded through deputy White House communications director Jim Wilkinson: "We cannot confirm or deny this report. As a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters of intelligence or military activities."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell promised on Sept. 23 that the United States would produce a document containing compelling evidence bin Laden and his network were responsible for the attacks. He later said the material was classified and could not be released.

On Oct. 4, however, Blair used a speech to Parliament to lay out the U.S. proof. He said that Western governments had evidence that bin Laden indicated, before the attacks, he was preparing "a major attack on America" and that he ordered associates to return to Afghanistan by Sept. 10. Blair also said a top al Qaeda lieutenant admitted the bin Laden organization was responsible for the suicide attacks. That person has not been identified and has not made any statements in public.

Evidence shown by U.S. officials to the government of Pakistan on Oct. 4 provided "sufficient basis for indictment" of bin Laden in a court of law, that country's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Riaz Muhammad Khan, said without providing details.

Last month, in releasing a 23-page update of intelligence findings, British officials said that another bin Laden associate had admitted that he trained some of the hijackers. That individual, also, has neither been identified nor has made any statement in public.

Bin Laden, himself, has denied a role in the attacks. On Sept. 12, the day after the attacks, a bin Laden aide told an interviewer from al Jazeera television over a satellite phone that the al Qaeda leader "thanked Almighty Allah and bowed before him when he heard this news," but that "he had no information or knowledge about the attack."

On Sept. 17, a bin Laden aide gave the Afghan Islamic Press a statement in which bin Laden said: "I have taken an oath of allegiance to [Mullah Omar, head of Afghanistan] which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan. We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved."

In a tape prepared for release over al-Jazeera television after the first U.S. missiles fell on Afghanistan on Oct. 7, bin Laden again praised the "groups of Islam, vanguards of Islam . . . [who] destroyed America," adding, "I pray to God to elevate their status and bless them." But he again did not accept responsibility for the attack.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/200112...

Top 469. Dec 12, 2001 9:29 AM

» Lawhawk - Warms the heart

It really warms the heart to know what the Egyptian media bigwigs think of the US efforts in Afghanistan. In general, the folks who sit in front of the cameras hold tremendous sway over what people think of world events and how events are covered varies tremendously from network to network.

Needless to say, suggesting that the US is dropping food in Afghanistan only to fatten up the Afghans before the US slaughter is not only preposterous factually, but shows the hatred that is directed at the US for whatever reason people try to justify.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 470. Dec 12, 2001 2:54 PM

» BPyles - Press in Iran

I sure envy individuals/countries that can conveniently call upon God to sanction whatever they want to do. Must be nice! Who could possibly protest or argue "for the sake of God?"

TEHRAN, Iran (December 12, 2001 8:01 a.m. EST) - Iran's hard-line judiciary
said it has ordered the closure of more than 50 newspapers "for the sake of God," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.

Abbas-Ali Alizadeh, head of the judiciary administration in the capital, Tehran,
said the closures were a service to the nation.

"One of our greatest glories is closure of offending newspapers. Based on our
assessments, by doing this, we have done the greatest service to the
people," IRNA quoted him as saying.

"When you do a job for the sake of God, defeat is meaningless," the agency quoted Alizadeh as saying in a speech in Damavand in the suburbs of Tehra Tuesday evening.

The newspaper closures began after hard-liners lost control of the Majlis, or
parliament, in elections last year. The hard-liners are locked in a power struggle with liberal supporters of President Mohammad Khatami.

Khatami's allies also continue to be jailed and harassed by the hard-liners, who control unelected key institutions, including the judiciary and police.

Deputy Culture Minister Shaban Shahidi was quoted Monday as saying that the closure of 56 newspapers and magazines over the past 20 months was a "disaster." Nearly all of the publications closed down by the hard-liners backed a pro-democracy initiative began by Khatami in 1997.

-- posted by BPyles

Top 471. Dec 12, 2001 7:00 PM

» Hughey - Re: Israel's terrorist attack

In response to message posted by BPyles:

But why would they want to do such things to us? Down through the centuries we have not been natural enemies. We share no common borders with them. We have not damned up their water supplies. In fact we are separated from them by thousands and thousands of miles of ocean.

-- posted by Hughey

Top 472. Dec 13, 2001 4:35 AM

» rasputin - Re: Re: Israel's terrorist attack

In response to message posted by Hughey:

Hey Hughey, I read your post last night and it kinda' struck me in an odd sort of way. So, I decided not to respond until I thought about it awhile. There's been so much talk about the terrorists and what motivates them. When we try to figure out why terrorists act as they do, I think it's to try to gain some kind of control when we feel helpless.

I start thinking about rape victims in a way. There's a "blame the victim" phenomenon that takes place. It goes like this. "Well, what was she doing out at that time of night?" or "I bet she was dressed provocatively." We try to figure out some rhyme or reason for the attack.

I think the reason for this is simple. If we can figure out what the victim did to deserve it, then maybe we can feel safe. If I don't dress that way, or if I don't go out late at night, then I'm safe. Except it doesn't work that way. Old, frumpy women get raped just as often as anyone else. And most rapes occur in the victim's home. So go figure. Pretty scary to think that there are predators out there and that safety is an illusion.

I don't know if the analogy is legitimate, but it's what came to mind.

-- posted by rasputin

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2001/...

Top 473. Dec 13, 2001 9:06 AM

» Lawhawk - Text of the bin Laden transcript can be found at:

Text of the bin Laden transcript can be found at:

Specific text that implicates bin Laden:

UBL: (...Inaudible...) we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all.
(...Inaudible...) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.

UBL: We were at (...inaudible...) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time.

Any questions? There can be no question as to his involvement as a mastermind and leader of the murderous band that attacked my city, my country, and killed thousands of my fellow citizens.

I am only waiting for the predictable Arab response - which will try to somehow pin everything on Israel - the Mossad fabricated the whole shebang. Because, if the Arab world were to truly and honestly confront the evidence in the tape, they would have to look in the mirror and take serious steps to cull the terrorists in their midst and open up their countries to democratic measures that give the masses a voice.

-- posted by Lawhawk