US officials: Al-Qaida operative tied to NY plot

U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday.

Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks.Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have named Shukrijumah in a draft terrorism indictment but on Wednesday the Justice Department was still discussing whether to cite his role.
Some officials feared that the extra attention might hinder efforts to capture him.Shukrijumah's involvement shows how important the subway bombing plot was to al-Qaida's senior leadership. Intelligence officials believe Shukrijumah is one of the top candidates to become al-Qaida's next head of external operations, the man in charge of planning attacks worldwide.

Why should Australians fear from Muslims?


About 800 people gathered in Camden, NSW (the suburb located in the outskirts of Sydney's West) and raised their voice against the plan for an Islamic School to be built in the area. Their demonstration followed by a forum organized by Christina Democratic Party and other Christian Groups.

Among others Mr. Fred Nile, MP, of Christian Democratic Party was the prominent speaker. This was supposed to be an open forum to discuss the issue of the proposed Islamic School but there was no Muslim-speaker invited. Almost every speaker spoke against Islam and Muslims using inflammatory statements and warnings. In their support against the Islamic school the speakers called Muslims as terrorists and Islam as religion of hatred referring to the global situation of terrorists' attacks and bomb blasts.
The speakers argued that if the Islamic School is built in the Camden area then it would be a threat to their way of life & culture and the school will teach terrorism to the Muslim children. They warned that permitting an Islamic school in Camden would encourage Muslim community to build more Islamic centres in other areas and that will bring danger to the Australian society.

Islam is not a religion of peace


“You can’t say that Islam is a religion of peace. Islam does not mean peace, Islam means submission. So a Muslim is the one who submits. You know, there is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam.”

“The Quran is full of – you know – jihad is the most talked about duty in the Qur’an after tawhid (belief). Nothing else is mentioned more than fighting.”

On the July 2005 terrorist attacks in London that killed 52 and wounded hundreds:“For the people who carried it out, it was legitimate. If you look at the will of Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, they would be justified.
And there are many verses of the Quran and many statements to say that’s the Islamic argument. And that is a difficult Islamic argument to refute. And there are many scholars who support that argument as well.”

Suicide bomber kills five as 16 die in Iraq unrest


A suicide bomber killed five people in northern Iraq as bombs in Baghdad and other attacks raised the overall toll to 16 dead, including an Iraqi general, security officials told AFP.

The suicide attack in the refinery and power station town of Baiji targeted a police patrol and also wounded 18 people, police in the Salaheddin provincial capital of Tikrit said.
In Baghdad, the general, whom police identified only by his first name Khodr, was blown up by a magnetic bomb in Aden Square in the Shiite shrine district of Kadhimiyah in the north of the city.A second magnetic bomb killed one person and wounded two outside an army officers' club in Al-Hurriya in northwest Baghdad, police said. There was no immediate word on whether the casualties were soldiers or civilians.

Dozens of Americans Believed to Have Joined Terrorists


Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests overseas, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday.

“There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in various parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Brennan said he would not talk about lists of targeted American terrorists.
However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been following down U.S. nationals and U.S. passport holders who pose security threats, like the Yemen-based al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, he said.

Terror suspect 'A-chef'


A suspected member of the Basque nationalist group Eta wanted in Spain for questioning about terrorist attacks had been working as a chef in Belfast under an assumed name for the last two years, a court has heard.

Police also found several false ID documents belonging to Fermin Vila Michelena, 40, when they raided his rented flat where he lived alone, Belfast Recorder Tom Burgess was told.Michelena was detained in the city centre last Friday under a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities who are seeking to interview him about several attacks, including a car bomb which killed a senior army officer and a policeman.
The Spanish interior ministry claimed he was part of Eta's Madrid cell which was responsible for four bombings in 2001. The court heard that he left his home in the Basque region the previous year. Spanish police had sought him for three months before to the attacks he was wanted for.

Pakistani court sentences Americans for terrorism


The students, in their 20s, were arrested in December in Pakistan's central city of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad. Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar said the men were condemned on two counts each, with one carrying a 10-year sentence and the other carrying five years, to be served concurrently. They were also fined a total of 70,000 rupees ($820).
"Both these sentences will begin concurrently and in practice they will spend 10 years in jail. We will appeal in the high court to enhance the sentence," Bakhtiar said. Waqar Hussain Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq were each charged with five counts of conspiracy, raising funds for terrorist acts, planning war against Pakistan, directing others to launch attacks and attempting to cross the Afghan border illegally.
Deputy prosecutor Bakhtiar said the court issued the 10-year sentences for conspiracy and five years for raising funds. The other charges were dropped.
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Parcel bomb kills Greek security minister's aide


A parcel bomb enveloped as a gift exploded last night inside the offices of the minister in charge of security in Greece, killing a senior aide who tried to open the box. The explosion was meters away from where the minister, Michalis Chrysohoidis, was sat at his desk on the seventh floor of the heavily-guarded building in Athens.

Giorgos Vassilakis, 52, leader of the minister's security team, died instantly when the device, thought to have been gift-wrapped as a box of sweets, went off in his hands. So strong was the blast that workers in the building thought it had been struck by an earthquake.
Visibly shaken, Chrysohoidis vowed the "cowardly murderers will be brought to justice".
The unprecedented assassination attempt had clearly been aimed at him, he said, since as minister he has sought to break down on the medley of domestic armed groups active in Greece. By late last night no group had claimed responsibility for the explosion.
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The weapons of Mass Destruction


Several terrorist groups have actively sought weapons of mass destruction (WMD) of one kind or another. In particular, the Japanese cult group Aum Shinrikyo, al Qaeda and its associates -- notably the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jemaah Islamiya and Lashkar al Tayyib -- figure most prominently among the groups that have manifested some degree of intent, experimentation, and programmatic efforts to acquire nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

To date, however, al Qaeda is the only group known to be pursuing a long-term, persistent and systematic approach to developing weapons to be used in mass casualty attacks. The evidence suggests that the al Qaeda senior leadership was not directly involved or apparently even aware of attack preparations until late stages of planning.
Moreover, there is no evidence that the al Qaeda leadership regarded the use of crude toxins and poisons as being suitable for conducting what would amount to pin prick attacks on the United States; on the contrary, Zawahiri canceled the planned attack
on the New York City subway for "something better," suggesting that a relatively easy attack utilizing tactical weapons would not achieve the goals the al Qaeda leadership had set for themselves.

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Morocco sentences 2, including German, to prison on terror charges


A Moroccan court sentenced two suspects, including a German national, to prison on terrorism- related charges, state-run MAP news agency reported.


The appeal court in Sale, the twin city to capital Rabat, sentenced a 29-year-old Moroccan-born German national, identified by the report as M. H., to 10 years in jail after finding him guilty of "forming a criminal gang to plan and carry out terrorist attacks" in the kingdom.
According to the report, he was arrested last September by Moroccan security forces for alleged involvement in terrorist acts.


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The root cause of Terrorism - Unleashed


A religion is at the root of the terrorism that we observe across the world today. All Religions initiate from a psychiatric paranoia, based on a misunderstanding of the unknown universe as a god. This suspicion becomes a threat to civilization when a religion insists that everyone should accept that, the way in which this religion misunderstands the unknown universe as a god, is the ONLY right way (to misunderstand the universe!).

Missionary religions are a contagious psychiatric paranoia and Violent Missionary religions are a criminally infectious psychiatric paranoia that threaten human civilization. While all religions are psychiatric paranoias, only Islam is a criminally contagious psychiatric paranoia.
With the Quran setting the principles for forcible conversion of all non-Muslims to Islam and using compulsion of treating non-Muslims like 2nd class beings, the base is prepared for the Madaressahs (Islamic theological-terrorism schools) to inculcate these Quranic principles into the minds of every growing generation of Muslims to have this attitude of paranoid coercion. Further at every prayer (Ibadat/Namaz), the Muslim priest (Maulavi) moralizes the practice of terror to his audience. This is how a terrorist is born. So the Quran, and what is preached in the Madaressahs and the Mosques are the real roots of terror. And until the world over, we do not wipe out these; the problem of terrorism will not end.
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Guilty on Terror Charges -- Voice of America


A Pakistani court has sentenced five Americans to 10 years each in prison after finding them responsible of terror offenses.


Pakistani officials declared the verdict Thursday in the eastern city of Sargodha. They said the court condemned the Americans, all Muslims in their early 20s, on two terror charges and also fined each $821.
Prosecutors had been asking for life in prison, and Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar said officials will plea to the country's high court for a longer sentence.


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Army officer and LeT ‘commander’ killed in separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir


A senior Army officer, Colonel Neeraj Sood, commanding officer of Rashtriya Rifles (RR, 18th Battalion), was killed in an ambush by the militants at Saiwan village in the Lolab Valley of Kupwara District, Police said on June 23.


Colonel Neeraj was critically wounded in the militant attack… However, he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital late on Tuesday night," a senior Police officer said. Separately, the operation launched by the Security Forces (SFs) at Baghat in Sopore town of Baramulla District ended on June 22 with the recovery of the dead body of a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) ‘commander’, Abu Zubair, from debris of the house where he was hiding, reported Daily Excelsior.

An AK rifle, two magazines, one pistol, five live pistol rounds and a mobile phone were also recovered from the debris of the house, official sources said. Zubair, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was ‘deputy divisional commander’ of the LeT in North Kashmir and was involved in planning and execution of several attacks on SFs and civilians in the area, they said.
An unnamed senior Police official said intelligence inputs had put the number of militants in the house at two. We are hopeful of finding another body also as there is still some part of the debris to be searched," he added. As reported earlier, the operation began on June 21 in which a Policeman was killed and several others sustained injuries.

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43 Taliban militants executed in FATA


43 Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP) militants were executed in clashes with Security Forces (SFs) in the Orakzai Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on June 22. Militants had attacked the SFs with deadly weapons and mortar shells in the Sawar Kot area. Around 43 militants were executed in the gun battle that followed.


At least 12 soldiers were also harmed in the shootout. Also, around 22 Taliban (TTP) militants laid down their weapons and yielded before the SFs in the Bajaur Agency. Separately, SFs grabbed a large number of weapons including Russian manufactured Kalashnikov rifles during search operations in various parts of Mohmand tehsil (revenue unit).
Further, the Taliban (TTP) militants recognized that they were holding 33 missing Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers who went missing since militants attacked a check-post near the Afghan border in Mohmand Agency on June 14 as hostages and offered prisoner swap with the Government.

The offer was made in telephone calls to journalists from maintained Taliban spokesman Ikramullah Mohmand. “We are ready to exchange prisoners with the government as our comrades are in government custody too,” the Taliban (TTP) spokesman revealed. He warned that the Taliban (TTP) would kill the captives if the Government refused their demand.


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Afzal Guru’s Mercy Plea finally got Rejected


The Home Ministry has requested the President to reject Afzal Guru’s mercy petition and award him a death sentence.

They argue that his crime - attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 – is so critical that it doesn’t deserve any mercy.
Mohammed Afzal Guru and five others had attacked the Parliament killing nine security personnel. He was charged with plotting the attack a few days later.
December 18, 2002: A year later, a local court sentenced Guru the death sentence. He moved the Supreme Court.
October 29, 2003: Delhi High Court retains Guru’s death sentence.
August 4, 2005: The apex court retained the death sentence.
A committee consisted of academicians, lawyers and human rights activists such as Nirmala Deshpande with Mahasweta Devi, Rajni Kothari, Prabhat Patnaik, Ashish Nandy, Prashant Bhushan, Sumanta Banerjee, Mihir Desai, and others as members, held a press conference within a week of the judgment by the Supreme Court.
They took up Afzal’s case and requested for further inquiry as they felt he, ‘a surrendered militant,’ “was practically unrepresented in the trial” and a victim of whatever the police fed the courts.
October 20, 2006: Afzal Guru was to be hanged, but his wife Tabassum filed a mercy petition, so his execution was held. According to procedure, the then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam asked for the Home Ministry’s views on the defence.
The Home Ministry then sent the Afzal file to the Delhi Government where it was retained up for four years.
March 2010: Afzal had filed an application in SC persisting an early decision on his clemency plea. In fact, he pleaded for a death sentence instead of the solitary confinement saying “life in jail was worse than death”.
May 18, 2010: Several reminders didn’t yield any response till Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna sought explanations on the Afzal Guru mercy petition last month.
June, 2010: Only two weeks ago, the Delhi Government sent the file back to the Home Ministry saying it supported the Supreme Court’s verdict of a death sentence.
Interestingly, the President has only commuted 10 death sentences to life imprisonment out of the 77 mercy petitions that have been filed in the last 30 years.

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One person killed in Karachi


Unidentified assailants shot dead a person and injured his two brothers on June 21 in Gulistan-e-Jauhar in the remit of Shahrah-e-Faisal Police Station in Karachi in Sindh. The deceased was identified as Abdul Wahab. Separately, a watchman was shot and injured in Block 17 of the same area.


Meanwhile, the Anti-Extremist Cell (AEC) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested a Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP) militant from Kunwari Colony. The arrestee, identified as Azmatullah alias Asmatullah, is the brother Wahabullah, a TTP ‘commander’ for
North Waziristan in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Asmatullah had played an important role in the Karsaz carnage of October 18, 2007 which claimed more than 140 lives of Pakistan People’s Party activists and injured hundreds others.

Two civilians shot dead in Manipur


Suspected militants shot dead Nongthombam Sarat (55), Assistant Horticulture Officer in Bishnupur District, on June 20. Police said that four militants tried to abduct Sarat from his house around 7pm. Failing to abduct, the militants shot him dead.


Also, armed militants shot dead a youth, identified as Md. Akbar alias Ithem (20), at Sunulok at the adjoining area of Thoubal District and Chandel, according to Imphal Free Press. Sources said that the bullet riddled dead body with bruise mark was recovered by the locals on June 19.

Meanwhile, a suspected militant belonging to Noyon faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Moirangthem Anand (33), was arrested by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) amidst a gunfire incident and later handed over to Imphal West Police on June 19, reports Imphal Free Press.
According to reports, the incident occurred when five militants came to office of District Fishery Officer (DFO) Imphal East cum project co-coordinator of directorate of fishery, H. Biramani, in relation with monetary demand. Reports said that one Bajaj pulsar motor cycle and one empty case of 7.65 mm ammunition were recovered from the possession of the arrested militant.

US supreme court: Nonviolent aid to banned groups tantamount to 'terrorism'


The US Supreme Court has upheld a broad-ranging law that permits Americans who offer advice to banned organizations, including legal assistance and information on conflict resolution, to be prosecuted as terrorists.


The case raised out of human rights advice given by a California group to Kurdish and Tamil organizations that are listed as terrorist groups in the US.

The Supreme Court upheld the Obama administration's argument that also advice intended to be used for peaceful purposes amounted to "material support" for terrorism.
That includes a lawyer submitting a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of a banned group or helping a banned organization to petition international bodies to bring an end to a violent conflict.

"The supreme court has ruled that human rights advocates, providing training and assistance in the nonviolent resolution of disputes, can be prosecuted as terrorists," declared David Cole, a Georgetown university law professor who argued the case before the court.


NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty


NEW YORK (AP) - Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves Muslim lands alone, "we will be attacking U.S."


Wearing a white skull cap, prison smocks and a dark beard, Faisal Shahzad entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carried mandatory life prison sentences. He pleaded guilty to them all. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum challenged Shahzad repeatedly with questions such as whether he had worried about killing children in Times Square.
"One has to understand where I'm coming from," Shahzad calmly replied. "I consider myself ... a Muslim soldier." The 30-year-old described his effort to set off a bomb in an SUV he parked in Times Square on May 1, saying he chose the warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people he could injure or kill. He said he conspired with the Pakistan Taliban, which provided more than $15,000 to fund his operation.

Iraq car bombings leave dozens dead


Officials say at least 27 people were killed and more than 50 wounded today when two car bombs blew up outside a state-run bank in Baghdad.

The two explosives-packed cars were a few hundred yards apart when they detonated shortly after 11 am local time as the area was crowded with people at the start of the work week.

The force of the blast tore the glass facade off the three-story Trade Bank of Iraq building, leaving chairs and desks exposed.
Iraqi security forces swarmed through the debris while clean-up crews used cranes to move the charred wreckage of several vehicles destroyed by the blast.

Yemeni defense officials claim capture of al-Qaeda mastermind


Yemeni authorities have captured a man they believe pictured a suspected al-Qaeda attack on their intelligence headquarters in the southern city of Aden on Saturday. The attack killed around 11 people, including intelligence agents, women and children.


Yemeni security service authorities have named the alleged leader of the terrorist gang that carried out the killings as Goudol Mohammed Ali Naji. They have described him as a member of al-Qaeda with a long record of terrorist and criminal actions, including an attack late last year on the central bank in Aden.

Officials have said they believe the attack on Saturday had been planed to free prisoners who were being cross-examined in the intelligence headquarters building.
After the event the attackers and some people who had been freed from interrogation left the building in a bus, which had been waiting for them. Last week, the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged Yemen’s eastern tribes to rise up against the government.

Osama Bin Laden Hiding in Sabzevar, Iran


Osama bin Laden’s hiding place was pinned down for the first time Monday, June 7, by the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassa Monday, June 7, as the mountainous town of Savzevar in the northeastern Iranian provinceof Khorasan, 220 km west of Mashhad. He is said to have lived there under Tehran’s protection for the last five years, along with Ayman Al-Zawahiri and five other high-ranking al Qaeda leaders.


DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclosed Monday night that Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan and his intelligence chiefs are well aware that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are hiding in Iran. The leak to the Kuwait paper was intended to show the Obama administration that the Turkish leader’s ties with Iran had grown intense enough for him to be fully in the picture of Iran’s secret sanctuary for the authors of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Savzevar, a small town of about a quarter of a million inhabitants, is connected by road toTehran and Mashhad and has a small airport. A center for producing grapes and raisins, its location is remote and difficult to access because it is enclosed by lofty mountains and a salt desert 50,000 square kilometers in area.

‘Passenger Behavior’ Key to Catching Airline Terrorists


While the United States and other countries beef up airport searches for terrorists, an Israeli expert advises that eying passenger behavior is critical for preventing attacks.

Rafi Sela, a security consultant at Ben Gurion International Airport, explained to the Canadian news agency Canwest, “If you have a suicide bomber or somebody who wants to make an impact, he doesn’t have to bring down a plane. He can just explode in the middle of this huge crowd that is waiting for security.”
Sela’s advice was given shortly after the United States announced stricter inspections following last month’s failed bombing of an Amsterdam-Detroit flight. Passengers overcame the terrorist, who had put together an explosive device on board. Following the incident, Amsterdam officials hastily installed expensive scanning equipment.

Eight persons killed in Balochistan


Seven persons, including a tribal elder, were shot dead and two others injured when their vehicle was ambushed on the RCD Highway in Surab tehsil (revenue division) of Kalat District in Balochistan on June 15, according to Daily Times.


Separately, a person was killed in an explosion at the Airport Road in Turbat. According to Police sources, a man was planting an explosive device at the Airport Road when it exploded, resulting in his instant death. Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) spokesman Doda Khan, calling from an undisclosed location claimed that victim Qadeer Ahmed was a BLF member who was on a ‘secret mission’.
Further, unidentified armed motorcyclists hurled a hand grenade at a barbershop in the Kili Almo area of Quetta injuring three persons. Also, an under construction building of the Levies was completely destroyed in a rocket attack in Besima area of Quetta. Four Levies personnel were injured in the explosion.

New Jersey al Shabaab Suspect Said to Be Engaged, Has “Anger Management Issues”


The two young men in last week’s terrorism arrest in North Bergen, New Jersey – one the son of Palestinian immigrants, the other from a Dominican family – showed signs of angry, disruptive behavior in their teens.

According to the New York Times, “Their stories began like many others: troubled teenagers who scare and mystify their neighbors; run-ins with the police while still in high school; parents who cannot compete with the sense of belonging or purpose their boys find elsewhere.” Nadia Alessa, mother of defendant Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, said that her son is “stupid” but not a “terrorist” and had seen “16 or 17 psychiatrists for what she called ‘anger management issues,’” according to CNN.
Meanwhile Siham Abedar, 19, has come forward to claim that Alessa was traveling to Egypt to marry her as part of an arranged marriage. His desire to marry her and have children belies any believed terrorist intent, she claims.

High court rejects appeal in rendition case


The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Canadian engineer who was caught up in the U.S. government's secret transfer of terror suspects to other countries.

The court did not comment Monday in ending Syrian-born Maher Arar's quest to sue top U.S. officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Arar says he was mistaken for a terrorist when he was changing planes in New York on his way home to Canada, a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was instead sent to Syria, where he claims he was tortured.
Lower courts dismissed Arar's lawsuit, which asserts the U.S. purposely sent him to Syria to be tortured. Syria has denied he was tortured.The Canadian government agreed to pay Arar $10 million and apologized to him for its role in the case.

Iran arrests 13 terrorist group members


Iran said on Sunday it had arrested 13 members of a terrorist group that authorities in the Islamic state say carried out attacks on minority Sunnis, state television reported.

The armed group was linked to the Islamic state's "foreign enemies," state television said, using a phrase that usually refers to the United States and Israel.

"The group was directly involved in last year's assassination of a Sunni Friday prayer leader ... a Sunni member of an influential clerical body ...
and a Sunni religious leader," an Intelligence Ministry

Islamist Militant Sentenced in Hotel Attacks


An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamist militant to eight years in prison on Monday for his involvement in last year’s deadly bombings of two luxury hotels in Jakarta and a plot to assassinate the country’s president.

Amir Abdillah was found guilty of violating the antiterror law by helping a splinter group of the terror network Jemaah Islamiyah plans the suicide bombings that killed seven people and wounded more than 50.
Mr. Abdillah, 35, who uses several aliases, was also found to have hidden information about a foiled plot to kill President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The terrorism arrest


The swift arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old Pakistani-American, is reassuring. And dramatic - after all those episodes of 24 and all those movies, we could all picture it in our mind's eyes, couldn't we? The FBI tracking down the man who sold Shahzad the SUV. Tracing the locations of the cell phone he'd used and dumped. And finally charging onto the plane he was on, as it was preparing to taxi and head away to Dubai, and making the arrest.

The episode would have had scenes, too, of high government officials being on top of things. Attorney general Eric Holder apparently stayed at the office until 9:30, went home to tuck the kids in, and went back to the office (according to the Playbook, a morning news/heads-up email by Politico's Mike Allen), heading straight to something called the SCIF on the seventh floor. The Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. I swear, that's what it's called.
This episode comes complete with Hollywood ending. Well, I guess some would prefer that the feds would have blown the guy's brains out. Instead, starting today, Shahzad will enter the justice system. Excitable blood-lust notwithstanding, this is the preferred outcome because there are still of course lots of things to learn, about whether he acted alone, about what he did during those eight months he reportedly spent recently in Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda Grooming Muslims for Mumbai-style UK Attack


Young British Muslims are being groomed by Al-Qaida for a Mumbai-style attack on targets in Britain, the country's spy agency has warned.

Britain’s internal intelligence agency MI5 has warned that a new generation of British extremists is being radicalized by Middle East-based Anwar al-Awlaki, who recruited the Detroit plane bomber.

They are concerned that Awlaki’s followers could unleash a wave of easily planned guerrilla-style terrorist attacks similar to the massacre in Mumbai, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Such small-scale attacks could be carried out cheaply by individuals with little terrorist training and without the need for the support of a large organization, it said.

Gunmen open fire in a hospital in Pakistani city, one feared killed


At least one person was killed and two seriously wounded in a firing by unidentified gunmen on Monday in a Pakistani eastern city of Lahore, which has recently seen one the bloodiest wave of violence.

A group of four to five gunmen entered in a century-old Gulab Devi Hospital in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, and opened unsystematic fire, said Sajjad Bhutta, the District Coordinating Officer (DCO), while talking to newsmen. He said according to unproven reports at least three people were wounded in the firing. However, hospital sources confirmed to KUNA that one of the wounded dead and two were critically injured.
It was not right away clear whether it was a terrorist act or an enmity case. However, the DCO said that it appears to be a case of enmity between two rival groups. Lahore has seen one of the bloodiest terrorist incidents newly that led to the killing of about 80 persons, belonging to minority Ahmedi community, and wounded over a hundred others. (end) amn.aj KUNA 141053 Jun 10NNNN

7 year old murdered by the Taliban for "spying"


It seems the Taliban have sunk to a new low! The Taliban once again show their humanitarian side in yet another way, this time by hanging a 7 year old boy. This child, a 7 year old boy, was kidnapped on Tuesday from the village of Heratyan. Why was he killed?

Apparantly the Taliban felt he was guilty! Guilty of a crime so horrible it called for him to be put to death, EXECUTED!! What crime was that? The Taliban are claiming he was passing information to foreign soldiers.

Apparantly even the Taliban don't feel the need to follow their directive. A directive that came from Taliban leader Mullah Omar last year!

Terrorism and the Market


Terrorism is a real threat to all nations in the world. Wherever there are different groups of people, there are sure to be conflicting ideas. Some of the differences in opinions and beliefs lead radicals to turn to terrorism to push their ideas onto others and to send messages that result in the death or injury of many.

While this tactic is frowned upon by society as a whole, it is all too real a danger to ignore. The human tragedies that result from terrorist acts are horrifying and the economical impacts that follow terrorism can be almost as devastating.The loss of human life is undoubtedly the tragic side of terrorism. The effects of the deaths of loved ones are tremendous.
The business world does not go unaffected by these human losses; the loss in labor force and other key players in a company can cause significant negative effects.During the September 11th attack, the lives of many were lost, including top level executives from Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, American Express, and many other publicly traded companies. Not only did these companies lose a corps of wonderful human beings, but many lost their most important leaders and thinkers. The result was a tragedy for the victims’ families and the companies, as well.

The Terrorist Mind: An Update


This mystery of the mind became an issue again in recent weeks as a suicide bomber in Afghanistan — a double agent — killed seven C.I.A. officers; a man plowed a truck full of explosives into a crowded playground in Pakistan, and a Nigerian man tried to blow himself up on a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

Until recently, the psychology of terrorism had been largely theoretical. Finding actual subjects to study was daunting. But access to terrorists has increased and a nascent science is taking shape. More former terrorists are speaking publicly about their experiences.
Tens of thousands of terrorists are in “de-radicalization” programs around the globe, and they are being interviewed, counseled and subjected to psychological testing, offering the chance to collect real data on the subject.

Secretary Napolitano Announces Major Aviation Security Milestone


Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced that 100 percent of passengers traveling within the United States and its territories are now being checked against terrorist watchlists through the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight program—a major step in fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation. Before Secure Flight, airlines conducted passenger watchlist checking.

“Secure Flight fulfills a key recommendation of the of the 9/11 Commission Report, enabling TSA to screen passengers directly against government watchlists using passenger name, date of birth, and gender before a boarding pass is issued,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This program is one of our many layers of security—coordinated with our partners in the airline industry and governments around the world—that we leverage to protect the traveling public against threats of terrorism.
 Under Secure Flight, TSA prescreens passenger name, date of birth and gender against government watchlists for domestic and international flights. In addition to facilitating secure travel for all passengers, the program helps prevent the misidentification of passengers who have names similar to individuals on government watchlists.

NJ men accused of trying to join Somali terrorists


When the two New Jersey men tried to fly out of New York's Kennedy Airport in hopes of getting terror training in Somalia, investigators who had been following them for years were waiting for each of them at the gate, officials said Sunday.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, were arrested Saturday before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said.
hey are the latest of several U.S. Muslims accused of joining or trying to join terrorist groups, radicalized with help from fellow Americans preaching violent jihad over the Internet.

Terror attacks spike in Pakistan, Afghanistan


An increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan triggered a sharp rise in the number of civilians killed or wounded there last year, pushing South Asia past the Middle East as the top terror region in the world, according to figures compiled by a U.S. intelligence agency.

Thousands of civilians — overwhelmingly Muslim — continue to be slaughtered in extremist attacks, contributing to the instability of the often shaky, poverty-stricken governments in the region, the statistics compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center show.
he struggling nations provide havens for terrorists who are increasingly targeting the U.S. and other Western nations. At the same time, U.S.-led operations against insurgents increased in both countries.

Police arrest six suspects in Stavropol terrorist attack


Security services have arrested six people suspected of organizing and carrying out a recent terrorist attack in Stavropol in southern Russia that killed seven and injured more than 40 people, a police source said on Sunday.

A powerful blast went off outside the House of Culture and Sport in the city of Stavropol recently before a Chechen concert was to begin.

A source in the North Caucasus republic's security service said that two suspects in a deadly terrorist attack in the southern Russian city of Stavropol were detained in nearby Ingushetia,

"By now, six people suspected of preparing and carrying out the terrorist attack before the concert of the Chechen Vainakh dance ensemble in Stavropol. The persons were detained on the territory of Ingushetia," the source said.
According to investigators, the detained persons included both those who masterminded and carried out the terrorist attack.