Saudis say al Qaeda targeting France

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Sunday that French had been warned by Saudi Ara that al Qaeda was targeting Europe and especially France. "Several hours or days ago, there was a new message from the Saudis that said al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was without doubt active or planning to be active in Europe, especially France," he told French radio RTL. "This is not about overestimating the threat or underestimating it," he said. "I am indicating, based on all these elements, that the threat is real." Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an arm of al Qaeda thought to include Yemenis and Saudis, has stepped up attacks on Yemeni and Western targets since it claimed a failed U.S. airliner bombing in December.

Impoverished Yemen, which is struggling to end a civil war in the north and a separatist rebellion in the south, is trying with U.S. help to crush AQAP, which has been based in Yemen since 2006, when Saudi Arabia mounted a counter-terrorism drive against its Saudi arm. Hortefeux's remarks indicated that the new warning was not connected with the heightened alert in France in late September based on a tip-off that a female suicide bomber was planning to attack its transport system. A police source told Reuters at that time that the information about the threatened attack had come from Algeria.

Read more...

Al-Qaida Takes Lessons Learned To Yemen

Yemeni soldiers streamed into the streets of the capital this weekend after a deadly attack on intelligence services by alleged al-Qaida gunmen, underscoring the impact of what U.S. government officials and experts on terrorism say has become the world’s most active and dangerous offshoot of al-Qaida. With dozens of attacks this year on spy and security forces, including deadly raids into the very headquarters of Yemen’s mukhabarat, or intelligence branch, Yemen's newly invigorated al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is reshaping the mission, strategy and tactics of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida brand, experts say. And the Yemeni government is now stepping up its effort to confront this insurgency and doing so with pledges of more than $1 billion in military aid from the United States.

At this point, there is a "raging war taking place between al-Qaida in Yemen and the Yemeni government," said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East politics at the London School of Economics, and a longtime scholar of al-Qaida. Diversifying from al-Qaida's core vision of mass-casualty attacks upon people of the distant, hated West, al-Qaida fighters in Yemen have redirected their aim squarely upon the weak, fumbling and corrupt government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh this summer sided more than ever with the United States against the al-Qaida forces who have made their home in his country, proclaiming al-Qaida the greatest danger to his country.

Read more...

Risk of small-scale attacks by al-Qaeda and its allies is rising

Al-Qaeda and its allies are likely to attempt small-scale, less sophisticated terrorist attacks in the United States, senior Obama administration officials said Wednesday, noting that it's extremely difficult to detect such threats in advance. "Unlike large-scale, coordinated, catastrophic attacks, executing smaller-scale attacks requires less planning and fewer pre-operational steps," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Accordingly, there are fewer opportunities to detect such an attack before it occurs."

Terrorism experts have puzzled over al-Qaeda's apparent unwillingness after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to use car bombs, improvised explosives and small arms to conduct assaults in the United States. The group appeared fixated on orchestrating another dramatic mass-casualty event, such as the simultaneous downing of several commercial airliners. Indeed, attacks inspired by al-Qaeda in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 involved multiple, coordinated bombings targeting mass-transit systems. But the risk of a single-target bombing or an attack by a lone gunman has increased, officials say, with the rise of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in the tribal areas of Pakistan, in Yemen and in Somalia, and with the emergence of radicalized Americans inspired by the ideology of violent jihad.

"The impact of the attempted attacks during the past year suggests al-Qaeda, and its affiliates and allies, will attempt to conduct smaller-scale attacks targeting the homeland but with greater frequency," said Michael Leiter (shown above), director of the National Counterterrorism Center, pointing to plots against the subway system in New York, the attempt to down a commercial airliner approaching Detroit and the failed car bombing in Times Square. Leiter said in his testimony that "al-Qaeda in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally," but he noted that "regional affiliates and allies can compensate for the potentially decreased willingness of al-Qaeda in Pakistan - the deadliest supplier of such training and guidance - to accept and train new recruits."

Read more...

Al-Qaeda Second-in-Command Ayman Al-Zawahiri: The Only Hope for Palestine is to Depose the 'Arab Zionists'

In a new 1-hour 3-minute audio recording, Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri reaffirms Al-Qaeda's basic strategy regarding Palestine and promised imminent victory in Afghanistan, and addresses words of praise and encouragement to the jihadist groups in North Africa, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The video, dated Rajab 1431 (June-July 2010), was produced by Al-Qaeda's media wing, Al-Sahab, and posted on jihadist websites on July 19, 2010. Despite the date shown on the release, it is likely that Al-Zawahiri's audio was recorded earlier, since there is no mention of the Gaza flotilla incident, which took place in late May.

Al-Zawahiri opens with the "good tidings" that victory is near in Afghanistan. He ridicules the U.S. for its early confidence in the Marjah operation and for its hopes that the arrest of senior commander Mullah Baradar would adversely affect the Taliban, saying that these hopes were crushed by the Taliban's stiff resistance in Marjah and subsequent martyrdom operations in Kandahar and Kabul. He also accuses the Arab and Western media of underreporting the Taliban's achievements – contrasting it with the wide coverage given to Hizbullah if it so much as fires a missile – and likewise blasts Turkey and a number of Arab states for their support for the coalition in Afghanistan, as well as 'ulema who have ruled that such support is permissible.

Read more...

3 Arrested In Norway Al-Qaida Bomb Plot

Three people have been arrested in connection with a plot to bomb targets in Norway, police in Oslo have said. Two of the plotters were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, said the head of the Norwegian security police, Janne Kristiansen. The men - a Uighur from China, an Iraqi and an Uzbek - are said to have ties to al-Qaeda and to be linked to bomb plots in the US and UK, Ms Kristiansen said. The three, all Norwegian residents, had been under surveillance for a year. US prosecutors say the Norwegian case is linked to foiled bomb plots in New York and the English city of Manchester. "We believe this group has had links to people abroad who can be linked to al-Qaeda, and to people who are involved in investigations in other countries, among others the United States and Britain."

Read more...

Al-Qaida Magazine Aims to 'Inspire' Western Jihadis

Scans of a new glossy magazine started popping up online this week. Inspire features slick graphics, high-quality production and stories like "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom." The first page also promises an editorial from Osama bin Laden himself, although due to technical issues, only three pages of the magazine are currently available.

Inspire is being published by a Yemen-based branch of al-Qaida, and it's aimed at radicalizing an English-speaking audience. Al-Qaida has a well-established propaganda arm, but, as analyst Juan Zarate tells host Guy Raz, Inspire marks its first major effort to reach out to English speakers.

Zarate is a former deputy national security adviser in the Bush administration and is currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He says that despite concerns about the authenticity of Inspire, he believes it genuinely does come from al-Qaida.

Read more...

Arrest of 'Easter bombers' led to international al-Qaeda network

When MI5 received a tip-off about a possible al-Qaeda cell in the north west of England last year, the security service had no inkling it was about to smash a terrorist plot to cause mass murder on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the following weeks and months agents would gather evidence which left no doubt that Muslim fanatics were not only planning to blow up shopping centres in Manchester, but were also connected to a planned attack on New York’s transport network which would have been the worst US atrocity since 9/11. Operation Pathway, as the investigation was codenamed, began in February last year, when MI5 began looking at a Muslim man in his forties living in the inner-city area of Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

The man was working in a hair products company where he had access to bomb making materials, causing instant concern. His roommate, Abid Naseer, had arrived in Britain from Pakistan on a student visa two years earlier, exploiting a system he knew well from working at an office in Pakistan where he handed out advice for John Moores University in Liverpool. Once in Britain, Naseer, 24, and his co-conspirators dropped out of their courses and began work as a security guard, maintaining their student status by signing up for bogus courses at the Manchester College of Professional Studies. MI5 noted that Naseer and others spent a lot of time at the Cyber Net café in Cheetham Hill, and GCHQ began monitoring their emails. Analysts believed the emails were in code and that Naseer was telling an al-Qaeda contact in Pakistan about the availability of different bomb-making materials, substituting girls’ names for chemicals.

Read more...

Terrorists May Have New Focus on Striking U.S.

The failed bombing in New York's Times Square is a possible signal that militant leaders in Pakistan have shifted their focus to targets in the U.S. and other Western countries instead of sticking to their home base, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. The attack, they also warned, could be only the first by terrorist groups that seek to avoid detection by using simpler methods that are more independently planned. U.S. investigators and intelligence agencies are trying to establish whether accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was trained or recruited for the Times Square operation by any Pakistan-based terrorist organization, including the Pakistani Taliban. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack. If those suspicions prove correct, it suggests that groups based in Pakistan, including the Taliban along the Afghan border, may be taking on a more global approach after years of focusing attacks largely on government or coalition forces in their region. That focus could stem from the Taliban's continued close association with senior Al Qaeda leaders, who are believed to be hiding in the lawless regions on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One counterterrorism official said the groups were "deadly enemies of the United States" BEFORE the U.S. began destroying their leadership, fighters, and camps from the air.

The counterterrorism officials say the Times Square attempt also shows a continuing shift to opportunistic attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups that don't have much money for overseas operations. So they use whatever method they can afford, wherever they happen to find a willing operative. As a result, U.S. authorities must figure out how to deal with less predictable patterns of behavior. The officials say one major concern is that terrorist groups could send people to the U.S. to train homegrown extremists instead of people going to Pakistan or elsewhere for training. Juan Zarate, President George W. Bush's former deputy national security adviser, agreed that the Times Square attack may mark a new chapter in the terrorist threat. "The model may be shifting here, in part because they may have made a calculus that it's much more difficult to have a big ticket attack, and secondly, they may have moved to a model of disruption rather than destruction."

• "Officials Consider New Tactics to Keep Pace With Evolving Terror Threat", Fox News, 5/9/10.
  

Read more...

Al-Qaida ‘Scammed’ in Its Quest for Nukes?

John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s adviser on Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, yesterday made an interesting claim: He said al-Qaida has been “scammed” in its efforts to obtain the material for building a nuclear device. “There have been numerous reports over the years, over the past eight or nine years, about attempts throughout the world to obtain various types of purported material that is nuclear related,” he said. “We know that al-Qaida has been involved in a number of these efforts to acquire it. Fortunately, I think they’ve been scammed a number of times, but we know that they continued to pursue that.”

How, exactly, do you run a nuclear scam? Brennan hinted that it was a lucrative line of business for criminal groups in the former Soviet Union. “Sometimes they’re criminal gangs that have information that some material had come out from the, let’s say, the area of the former Soviet Union or some stockpiles and they will try to provide that material to other groups to sell,” he said. “As I said, a lot of it is scam, you know, red mercury, whatever else.

• "Nuclear summit told how Georgia 'foiled plot to sell weapons-grade uranium'", The Guardian, 4/14/10.
  
• "Borderline detection: Georgia’s borders are guarded by some of the best radiation detectors available — so why are nuclear smugglers still slipping through?", Nature Magazine, 3/4/10.
• "Combating Nuclear Smuggling", US Government Accountability Office, 3/1/06.
  

Read more...

Saudi Arabian government fears Al-Qaeda disguises

Saudi Arabia fears members of Al-Qaeda may disguise themselves as journalists and use camera equipment to hide bombs in order to target government dignitaries and state guests. According to the English language daily, Asharq Al-Awsat, government warnings are expected to lead to increased security procedures and rigorous inspection of journalists covering official events. In March Saudi Arabia announced that more than 100 people had been arrested in connection with an alleged Al-Qaeda suicide plot to blow up oil installations. Saudi interior ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki stressed the need for media representatives to carry credentials identifying them as journalists while on duty.

Media sources monitoring Al-Qaeda believe it may use the media in order to achieve its objectives. Several journalists from the Arab daily, al-Watan, are being protected by police since their editorial office came under fire by presumed Islamic militants. Saudi Arabia said in March it had foiled several planned attacks on oil installations with the arrest of 113 suspected Al-Qaeda militants.

Many of the suspects had come to Saudi Arabia on visas to visit holy sites or by sneaking across its borders, but wanted to join and organise attacks, the interior ministry said at the time. Saudi Arabia has taken a strong stance in pursuing militants since a series of attacks inside the country that began in May 2003. The country is the birthplace of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and home to 15 of the hijackers who targeted the United States on 11 September 2001.

Read more...

Iraq bombers target foreign embassies

Reporting from Baghdad - At least 41 people were killed and 237 wounded Sunday in three suicide car bombings targeting the Iranian and German embassies and the Egyptian Consulate in a span of 30 minutes. The attacks, which Iraqi government officials blamed on the Sunni Arab extremist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, came two days after unknown gunmen in uniforms massacred 25 people in a Sunni district south of Baghdad.

The bloodshed raises fears that the security situation could unravel before Iraq's next government is formed, as armed groups and political parties look to exploit the uncertain period after last month's national elections. The conditions are reminiscent of early 2006 when Al Qaeda in Iraq took advantage of the transition between elected governments to blow up a major Shiite Muslim shrine and ignite a civil war between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni minority, which dominated the government of President Saddam Hussein before he was toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Read more...

Al Qaeda's Pakistan Lair Captured

In what is being hailed as a major victory against al Qaeda and its allies, Pakistani forces announced the capture of caves described as the nerve centre of militant activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border. An elaborate network of over 150 caves, believed to have once housed Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al Zawahiri, was revealed to journalists by the Pakitani military

"The location of Bajaur, especially Damadola, is very significant. The militants controlled their operations from this place," Maj. Gen. Attar Abbas, Pakistani army spokesman, said. The caves are impossible to spot from the air, but inside the tunnels carved into the moutains was a warehouse of military supplies including stockpiles of guns and ammunition, bazookas, artillery shells, rocket propelled grenades, mines and stolen U.S. army uniforms. Some of the material was from Iraq, others from Iran.

Read more...

Australia Releases Counter Terrorism White Paper

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd yesterday released a counter terrorism white paper prepared by the Australian intelligence community. Mr Rudd said at the release, "that many home-grown terrorists were inspired by what he called international jihadist narratives, and that the threat of home-grown terrorism is now increasing. This white paper is clear: some of the threat we now face comes from the Australian-born, Australian-educated and Australian residents."

Al-Qaida-linked groups in Yemen and Sudan are the new centre of threat internationally, the policy paper says, and the risks posed by Afghanistan and Pakistan remain high. The paper says that, despite Indonesia's successes against terrorism, the Jakarta hotel attacks of last July point to an ongoing threat there. "Terrorism continues to pose a serious threat and a serious challenge to Australia's security interests. That threat is not diminishing," Mr Rudd said.

• COUNTER-TERRORISM WHITE PAPER
  Securing Australia | Protecting Our Community
  

Read more...

Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs inside their bodies' to foil new airport scanners

Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them. Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection. But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time. Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights. It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day. One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’ A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

Read more...

Al Qaeda man captured wearing bomb belt in Yemen

Yemeni forces on Saturday captured an al Qaeda militant wearing an explosive belt who was planning a suicide attack on "economic facilities," a government official said. The man was detained while driving a motorbike in the Khalf area in the Hadramaut region, the Ministry of Interior official said in a statement sent to Reuters. He was named as Saleh Abdul-Habib Saleh Shawash.

"The primary interrogation of this terrorist (revealed) he was planning a suicide attack against economic facilities in Hadramaut ... the interrogation is ongoing to reveal more information about this and to see who else might be involved in the plan," the source said. Yemen has gained a reputation as a haven and a training and recruiting center for al Qaeda militants since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Authorities stepped up operations against the group after its Yemeni wing said it was behind an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on December 25.

Read more...

Al Qaeda's Pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction

In 1998, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was his Islamic duty -- an integral part of his jihad. Systemically, over the course of decades, he dispatched his top lieutenants to attempt to purchase or develop nuclear and biochemical WMD. He has never given up the goal; indeed, in a 2007 video, he repeated his promise to use massive weapons to upend the global status quo, destroy the capitalist hegemony, and help create an Islamic caliphate.

Since the mid-1990s, al Qaeda's WMD procurement efforts have been managed at the most senior levels, under rules of strict compartmentalization from lower levels of the organization, and with central control over possible targets and the timing of prospective attacks. The modus operandi has been top-down -- more similar to the 9/11 attacks than to more recent bottom-up efforts, like the attempted bombing of Flight 253. For instance, al Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri personally shepherded the group's ultimately unsuccessful efforts to set off an anthrax attack in the United States.

Al Qaeda concentrated its efforts on nuclear devices in the run-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Based on the timing and nature of its WMD-related activity in the 1990s, al Qaeda hoped to use such weapons in the United States during an intensified campaign following the 9/11 attacks. There is no indication that the fundamental objectives that lie behind its WMD intent have changed over time.

Read more...

Officials fear toxic ingredient in Botox could become terrorist tool

In early 2006, a mysterious cosmetics trader named Rakhman began showing up at salons in St. Petersburg, Russia, hawking a popular anti-aging drug at suspiciously low prices. He flashed a briefcase filled with vials and promised he could deliver more -- "as many as you want," he told buyers -- from a supplier somewhere in Chechnya. Rakhman's "Botox" was found to be a potent clone of the real thing, but investigators soon turned to a far bigger worry: the prospect of an illegal factory in Chechnya churning out raw botulinum toxin, the key ingredient in the beauty drug and one of world's deadliest poisons. A speck of toxin smaller than a grain of sand can kill a 150-pound adult.

No Chechen factory has been found, but a search for the maker of the highly lethal toxin in Rakhman's vials continues across a widening swath of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. U.S. officials and security experts say they know the lab exists, and probably dozens of other such labs, judging from the surging black market for the drug. Al-Qaeda is known to have sought botulinum toxin. The Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization, and other groups have bought and sold counterfeit drugs to raise cash. Now, with the emergence of a global black market for fake Botox, terrorism experts see an opportunity for a deadly convergence.

• "Botulism", Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, website.
  
• "Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon", AMA Journal, 2/28/01.
  

Read more...

Bin Laden takes credit for airline bombing plot; officials express skepticism

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an American civilian jet in an audiotape broadcast today on Arab television. U.S. intelligence officials quickly raised doubts about Bin Laden's role and suggested the statement was an attempt to score propaganda points for a plot already claimed by an increasingly independent faction of his movement in Yemen.

In the clip, Bin Laden said his group was behind the failed attempt allegedly carried out by Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight. Speaking directly to President Obama, the Al Qaeda leader vowed to continue launching terrorist attacks against the United States as long as Washington supported what he described as Israel's unjust treatment of Palestinians.

U.S. intelligence officials today did not cast doubt on the authenticity of the tape. But they expressed skepticism that Bin Laden or his lieutenants, believed to be based in Pakistan, played a meaningful role in conceiving or executing the Christmas Day plot.

Read more...

Report Cites 'Radicalization' of U.S. Prisoners

U.S. law enforcement authorities believe as many as three dozen Americans who converted to Islam in prison have traveled to Yemen, possibly to train with al-Qaeda, according to a Senate report. The "radicalization" of the individuals has alarmed U.S. officials even though no evidence has immediately tied them to terrorist activities. Several of the individuals have "dropped off the radar" for weeks at a time and continue to carry U.S. passports.

"Al-Qaeda's recruitment tactics also have changed, the group seeks to recruit American citizens to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States." Al-Qaeda forces in Yemen have emerged in recent months as a pressing threat to U.S. security, with ties to the recent airline bombing plot and Fort Hood shooting. In addition to the nearly three dozen prisoners, Kerry's staff also cites as many as 10 non-Yemeni Americans who moved to Yemen, converted to Islamic fundamentalism and married Yemeni women to remain in the country.

• "Al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somalia: A Ticking Time Bomb" Committee on Foreign relations, US Senate, 1/21/10.
  

Read more...

Al-Qaeda's New Business Model: Cocaine And Human Trafficking

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime.

Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support to al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization. The arrests mark the first time that al-Qaeda associates have been charged with narco-terrorism offenses.

The complaint accuses the three men of agreeing to transport large amounts of South American cocaine through West and North Africa and ultimately to Spain for $2,000 a kilogram, a fee slated to be partly turned over to al-Qaeda and its affiliated group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, in return for protection along the route.

"It's pretty compelling evidence, but not the only evidence that has been growing that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are becoming more and more involved in the global drug trade to help fund their operations," says Michael Braun, former chief of operations at the DEA and a founder of Spectre Group International. "They have to pay for their operations somehow."

• "US arrests three Africans in al-Qaeda cocaine sting", BBC News, 12/19/09.
• "US Prosecution links drugs to terrorism", Los Angeles Times, 12/19/09.
• "Feds: Arrests in Africa line al-Qaida and drugs", New York Times, 12/18/09.
  

Read more...