Another Side of Child-Soldiering: Girls

…According to Human Rights Watch, child soldiers play various roles, including spies, porters, mine sweepers, concubines as well as active combatants, often serving on front lines and sustaining some of Africa's bloodiest and longest running conflicts. The number of child soldiers _ defined in international law as children under 18 _ cannot be estimated, humanitarian groups say. And though most are forcibly recruited, many join out of desperation…..(AP, 25 Aug 07)

Two Somalia Reconciliation Delegates Injured in Grenade Attack

Officials in Somalia say that two delegates to the nation's peace and reconciliation conference have been injured in a grenade attack in the capital, Mogadishu. Government and police officials say insurgents threw three grenades at the hotel housing peace conference delegates in north Mogadishu late Friday….(VOA, 25 Aug 07)

Afghan troops were ready to save hostages: minister

Afghan special forces called off a plan to rescue 23 Korean hostages soon after they were kidnapped by Taliban insurgents five weeks ago because the South Korean government intervened, the defense minister said on Saturday….(Reuters, 25 Aug 07)

As the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States approaches, al Qaeda appears to be gaining strength. America remains on alert. We are told we must remain vigilant. The global war on terror continues. It's reasonable to wonder whether, how and when this conflict will end. To answer these questions, we must separate reality from rhetoric. Never a war in the traditional sense, the global war on terror remains a banner of many missions…..(Washington Post, 24 Aug 07)

India's fears of terrorists using sea routes well-grounded: US

The US feels India's fears of terrorists using sea routes to sustain their campaign are well-grounded and has suggested that counter-measures like Container Security Initiative needed to be ratified soon. "Such fears are realistic as terrorists are feeling hemmed in their present sanctuaries," Top US Admiral Timothy J Keating said here adding, "possibilities of their using maritime domain are alive"……(Times of India, 24 Aug 07)

For Security in Iraq, a Turn to British Know-How

In the 1990s, there was the dot-com boom. Now, there's the Iraq bubble.

That's what British security contractors have come to call the business opportunity in the Middle East. The British may have lost their empire but they have quietly established a major presence in the distant outpost of Iraq, securing lucrative contracts to safeguard not just British interests but the U.S. military. And a private British firm may be poised to land the largest U.S. security contract in Iraq…..(Washington Post, 24 Aug 07)

Yemen: Weapons banned in capital and other cities

The authorities in Yemen have banned people from carrying firearms in the capital Sanaa and other provincial centers. The interior ministry said that this would prevent violent incidents and help maintain security and order in the main cities of the country…..(AKI, 24 Aug 07)

US soldiers arrest Iraqi policemen after bomb attack

Nine Iraqi policemen in Baghdad have been detained by US forces on suspicion of involvement in a roadside bomb attack near a police checkpoint, the US military said.

The policemen were detained during a security sweep in Baghdad's notoriously dangerous southern Rashid district on Tuesday and were being held for questioning…..(Reuters, 24 Aug 07)

ETA blamed for car bomb attack

A car bomb exploded Friday outside a police station in the Basque city of Durango, slightly injuring two officers in what appeared to be the first attack by the separatist group ETA since it called off a cease-fire in June….(AP, 24 Aug 07)

Three dead as Al-Qaida attacks police checkpoints in Samarra

Sixty suspected Al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a coordinated attacks in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured…The masked attackers drove into the city at dusk on Thursday, in about 20 vehicles, including pickups with machine-guns, then split into small groups and assaulted four police checkpoints and a headquarters building….(AP, 24 Aug 07)

Afghanistan: Return to the lair of bin Laden

…A week ago American forces launched a major operation to counter a rejuvenated al-Qa'eda, which has been steadily regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and has in the past three months moved back into the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan. American military officials say much of what is happening around Tora Bora remains "classified". Discreetly, Western officials in Kabul describe it as "very successful", trapping insurgents in a series of adjacent valleys…..(Telegraph, 24 Aug 07)

Violence hits Russia's N. Caucasus region

A shootout in Chechnya's capital left two policemen and a rebel dead, the Chechen Interior Ministry said Friday. Word of the shooting came a day after authorities said ambushes of Russian forces in two provinces neighboring Chechnya had left three troops dead….(AP, 24 Aug 07)

NIE: Iraq 'Unable to Govern' Itself Effectively

Iraq remains "unable to govern" itself effectively and hobbled by the absence of strong leadership, but removing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as some critics in Baghdad and Washington have advocated "could paralyze the government," warns a new U.S. intelligence report to be released later today. Seven months after President Bush ordered more U.S. troops to the country, "there have been measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq's security situation," the report concludes….(Washington Post, 23 Aug 07)

Intelligence report details ups and downs in Iraq

…The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which is described as the “Intelligence Community’s most authoritative written judgments on national security issues,” sees greater uncertainty now than six months ago regarding the situation in Iraq. This is attributed to “the unfolding pace and scope of security and political realities in Iraq,” according to the report. Leading a list of the NIE’s key judgments is an assessment of the security situation. It says that “the steep escalation of violence has been checked for now,” even though overall levels of violence remain high. However, the political situation is volatile…..(The Hill, 23 Aug 07)

'Revolutionary Guards try to get around sanctions'

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are using cover companies to get around UN sanctions against the country's nuclear program, exiled Iranian Ali Reza Jafar Zadeh told reporters in the US on Wednesday. Jafar Zadeh called on the US to take immediate action to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons……(Jerusalem Post, 23 Aug 07)

Islamic Republic of Fear

The head of Iran's judiciary is a confident man. Despite foreign attempts at slander, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi recently declared, his country has presented a fine image to the world of Islamic law at work…..(Economist, 23 Aug 07)

Toward a new face of Islam

There is a growing phenomenon within the Muslim community in America that will change the history of Islam. Young Muslims, mostly the children of immigrants, are publicly reflecting on their identity. Many are becoming, or have become, Islamic scholars and activists on behalf of a civic Islam. Often, these young men and women were raised in fairly secular households, and so as they become self-consciously Muslim they must re-imagine what being Muslim, as Americans, means…..(Jerusalem Post, 23 Aug 07)

Chechnya has overcome those who used Islam to undermine the republic - Ramzan Kadyrov

One of the main tasks of the Chechen Republic is proving that Chechens as Muslims ‘have been, are and will be a peaceful element of this world,’ Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov believes. ‘The Chechens as nation and a part of the Muslim community have already proved that they are a stronghold of law and order in the Russian Federation,’ he said at the opening ceremony of the international forum of Islam as Religion of Peace and Constructiveness held in Gudermes, Chechnya……(Interfax, 23 Aug 07)

Tolerance and tradition in Turkey

Turkey, the first secular republic with a majority Muslim population, is expected to soon have a president who prays in public and whose wife wears a headscarf as a manifestation of her religious convictions. Anti-religious secularists in the Muslim world see this development as a threat to Turkey's laicism. But it could also be an opportunity to define secularism in the Muslim world as a political system ensuring separation of theology and state rather than as an anti-religious ideology…..(International Herald Tribune, 23 Aug 07)

Homeland Security to broaden sharing of visitor data

The Homeland Security Department on Wednesday announced broad changes for using a database that collects and stores information on foreign travelers to the United States.

In one of the biggest changes, the department plans to regularly share information with U.S. intelligence agencies, department officials said in an interview Thursday. "This is a first step to make it clear that we do have the authority to conduct this type of sharing and to make the public know that we do plan to do so in the future," one official said on condition of anonymity.  The database, called the arrival-and-departure information system, contains information collected at U.S. ports of entry and departure on all foreigners who enter, travel within or leave the United States. It was created in 2003 as part of the US-VISIT foreigner-tracking program and does not contain information on U.S. citizens…..(Gov Exec, 23 Aug 07)

Foreign Aid Groups Face Terror Screens

The Bush administration plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism, according to a recent Federal Register notice. The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected…..(Washington Post, 23 Aug 07)

Charity Wants Seized Documents Back

An international Muslim humanitarian organization, which was raided by federal counterterrorism officials nearly a year ago, is asking a judge to order the return of nearly 200 boxes of paperwork it says are critical to its operations. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents searched the Southfield headquarters of Life for Relief and Development last September. Agents hauled away computers, documents, letters and ledgers, but no one was charged and the agency was allowed to continue operating…..(AP, 23 Aug 07)

Imams drop lawsuit against 'Doe' passengers

A federal court yesterday accepted a request by a group of Muslim imams to drop all claims in a federal lawsuit against unspecified "John Doe" passengers for reporting the men's suspicious behavior, which led to their removal from a US Airways flight last year. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota was amended to "hereby dismiss possible defendants 'John Does' as set forth in ... the first amended complaint as parties from this action," said the notice of dismissal. The lawsuit still targets US Airways and Minneapolis airport workers…..(Washington Times, 23 Aug 07)

Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers

…A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using "non-work" Social Security numbers — numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S. "Let's clean up our own house, let's especially clean up the federal employment of all those working for the federal government," said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee…..(Washington Times, 23 Aug 07)

Feds want Oregon Islamic charity figure held

A missing passport and questions about whether he supports radical Islamic doctrine will keep the co-founder of a defunct Islamic charity in jail at least another two weeks after he voluntarily returned to face tax fraud and conspiracy charges. Pirouz Sedaghaty, 49, also known as Pete Seda, left the country in 2003 during an investigation that resulted in a federal grand jury indictment in February 2005, accusing him of helping to smuggle $150,000 out of the country to aid Muslim fighters in Chechnya…..(AP, 23 Aug 07)

Austria: U.S. shield a 'provocation'

Austria’s defense minister said a planned U.S. missile shield defense system in eastern Europe was a “provocation,” and called on Washington to abandon the project, according to a news report published Thursday. Norbert Darabos told Die Presse that U.S. officials should instead seek a compromise with those who oppose the system, including Russia and some in Europe……(AP, 23 Aug 07)

CAIR concedes membership down

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it's suffering a decline in membership and fundraising and blames the Justice Department for listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Texas case against a charity accused of ties to terrorists. CAIR asked a U.S. District Court in Dallas to strike it from the list of more than 300 other Muslim groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the government's case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development……(Washington Times, 22 Aug 07)

Al-Qaeda Suspect Released by Pakistan

An al-Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in plots targeting the United States and Britain spent more than two years in a secret prison run by Pakistan's spy agencies before he was released...Muhammed Naeem Noor Khan, an engineer by training who served as a computer guru for al-Qaeda and conduit to the group's top commanders, was quietly freed by Pakistani officials in recent days -- three years after his capture in the eastern city of Lahore and subsequent disappearance. Khan never faced criminal charges, and Ali Dayan Hasan, a Pakistan-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said evidence suggested he had been held for most of his three years at a secret detention center in Lahore operated by the Pakistani intelligence services….(Washington Post, 22 Aug 07)

Britain to start terrorism survival course

The first European terrorism survival course for the common man is starting in Britain, with plans to fan out across the world, including India, a known high-risk destination. The day-long course, priced at £ 150 per head, teaches survival techniques to ordinary people faced with perils now increasingly part of 21 st-century life. These include suicide bomb scenarios, 9/11-style aeroplane hijackings and attacks with IEDs or improvised explosive devices…..(Times of India, 22 Aug 07)