In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda
On March 6, Moroccan police surrounded a cybercafe here and arrested a fugitive who many people assumed had fled the country or was dead. Saad al-Houssaini, known as "the Chemist" because of his scientific training and bombmaking skills, had vanished four years earlier after he was accused of helping to organize the deadliest terrorist attack in Moroccan history..."The Chemist" provides a vivid example of how veteran members of al-Qaeda's central command have continued to plot major terrorist attacks around the world, particularly in Europe, North Africa and Iraq, despite the capture or deaths of many of the network's top operatives since Sept. 11, 2001…..(Washington Post, 7 Jul 07)

The unexpected profile of the modern terrorist: 26, from a caring family, married, with children, graduate

...Doctors – dedicated, intelligent, well-educated, relatively affluent – do not fit the profile of the maniacal jihadist terrorist that is lodged in our collective imagination. If someone hates us so much that he is prepared to sacrifice his own life in order to commit mass murder, then we want to find a rational explanation in his personality or his background to separate him from the rest of us…..(Times Online, 7 Jul 07)

Two Terror Suspects Inquired About Medical Positions in U.S.

…Within the past year, Mohammed Asha, 26, a Saudi-born Jordanian, contacted a Philadelphia-based clearinghouse that reviews and approves foreign applicants for U.S. medical residency and fellowship programs. A second suspect, who was not identified, approached the same group, whose members include the American Medical Association, medical schools and teaching hospitals…..(Washington Post, 7 Jul 07)

Pols: NYC Stiffed Again on Terror Funds

…Last year, New Yorkers complained long and loudly after the Department of Homeland Security slashed anti-terrorism funding for the city by $83 million. The nation's largest city lost 40 percent of its funding just five years after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, while federal money was increased in such places as Louisville, Ky., and Omaha, Neb…..(AP, 7 Jul 07)

Fake bomb eludes airport test

Federal inspectors were able to slip a fake bomb through a checkpoint at Albany International Airport during a test of the facility's Transportation Security Administration screeners, according to individuals familiar with the incident….(Times Union, 6 Jul 07)

Subway Searches Go on Quietly, Just How Police Like Them

…“What is the likelihood of someone with a bomb encountering a checkpoint at a subway entrance?” “Understanding that checkpoints only last for three or four hours and are concentrated during the rush hours,” he said, “the department’s own figures reveal that as few as 2 or 3 percent of the 1,000 subway entrances may have checkpoints at any given time.” ….(New York Times, 6 Jul 07)

Statements Key in Miami Terror Case

Statements given to the FBI by six of the seven men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings indicate that some didn't believe the talk of joining up with al-Qaida and others were motivated by money rather than Islamic radicalism…..(AP, 6 Jul 07)

Terror sleeper agent jailed for nine years

A failed asylum seeker who hoarded manuals on how to carry out car bombings has been jailed for nine years at Manchester Crown Court. Omar Altimimi, 37, who had links to al-Qa'eda, was a "clean skin" who was unknown as a terror suspect when he arrived in England and applied for jobs with the police and as a teacher. However, he used multiple identities to cover his tracks and was so successful that police are still unsure of his true identity. He also hoarded computer files detailing how to carry out terror attacks… the court heard he was linked to terrorists in the Netherlands and to Junade Feroze, 31, from Blackburn, who was jailed last month for 22 years for his part in bomb plots led by Dhiren Barot, a prominent al-Qa'eda terrorists in the UK. Altimimi came to Britain from the Netherlands in 2002 claiming asylum for himself, his wife and their three children…..(Telegraph 6 Jul 07)

Reduced jail for Kurd who ran cash for Iraq terror group

A 37-year-old Iraqi Kurd who admitted smuggling funds to the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam was assured Friday of a reduced jail term after he admitted the charge in a German court. Sentence has yet to be passed at the trial in the southern German city of Stuttgart, but judges said they had agreed with the prosecution and defence that the defendant was not gravely culpable…..(DPA, 6 Jul 07)

Possible Eruption of Violent Crisis in Lebanon After July 15

In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007. It should be noted that certain international events concerning Lebanon and Syria are expected in mid-July….(MEMRI, 6 Jul 07)

Princeton Economist Says Lack of Civil Liberties, Not Poverty, Breeds Terrorism

…"As a group, terrorists are better educated and from wealthier families than the typical person in the same age group in the societies from which they originate," Mr. Krueger said at the London School of Economics last year in a lecture soon to be published as a book, "What Makes a Terrorist?"… "There is no evidence of a general tendency for impoverished or uneducated people to be more likely to support terrorism or join terrorist organizations than their higher-income, better-educated countrymen,"….(Wall Street Journal, 6 Jul 07)

Hamas won the propaganda war this week

…With Hamas, however, whose worldview and geopolitical ambitions are exactly the same as those fireball physicians, it’s all very different. Thanks to their efforts in the past few months, they are the stabilisers, the people who have brought peace to Gaza….(Times Online, 6 Jul 07)

Cyberterror and ID theft converge in London

…The case is also among the first to show direct links between identity theft, hacking, and terrorism. And it will give readers yet another reason to vigilantly protect their personal information while surfing or reading e-mail...Tsouli, the best-known of the three cyberterrorists, set up a series of jihadist Web sites in the months after the attacks on September 11. His chief claim to fame: posting gruesome execution videos, including those involving Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and American Nick Berg. Tsouli, now 23, used a vast network of hijacked Web sites to publish the videos. He went by the revealing moniker “Irhabi007” – in English, Terrorist007….(Redtape, 6 Jul 07)

'Cyber' gang targeted U.S. facilities

…Younes Tsouli, 23, Tariq Al-Daour, 21, and Waseem Mughal, 24, pleaded guilty this week to "inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder" through Web sites and chat rooms. The three men also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud banks and credit-card companies…..(Washington Times, 6 Jul 07)

Turkish government, military agree on Iraq incursion plans

Turkey's government and military have agreed on detailed plans for a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq…Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul urged the United States and Iraq, which oppose a Turkish military move into Iraq, to crack down on rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. But he said Turkey was ready to stage an offensive if necessary. "We have decided how to act, everything is clear,"…..(AP, 6 Jul 07)

Man jailed over terror cell plans

A man who stored up what police called a "vast library of terrorist material" has been jailed for nine years…..(BBC, 6 Jul 07)

A Low-Key Leader for a High-Intensity Job

When Peter Clarke, Britain’s counterterrorism chief, delivered a major speech in April describing the threat posed by extremists, he chose the title “Learning From Experience.”….(New York Times, 6 Jul 07)

Four explosions rock Baghdad''s Green Zone

Four explosions rocked the Green Zone in central Baghdad on Friday, after missiles fell over a number of buildings in the fortified area. Four consecutive explosions were heard by KUNA's correspondent here, likely to have been caused by mortar shells, and were followed by the wailing of siren….(KUNA, 6 Jul 07)

Nine killed in southern Iraq

Clashes between Shiite militants and police in the southern Iraqi town of Samawa have left five people dead, police said on Friday, while separately a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers….(Agence France-Presse, 6 Jul 07)

Suicide car bomb wounds two UK troops in Afghanistan

A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of NATO-led forces near the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, wounding two British soldiers, a senior Afghan police official said. The attacker's Toyota car also destroyed the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) vehicle….(Reuters, 6 Jul 07)

Kenyan Muslims denounce terror suspect renditions

…Kenyan police arrested scores of people on the Somali border in January and February after an Islamic courts movement was chased out of Mogadishu by Somali government forces and Ethiopian tanks, troops and warplanes. Human rights groups say the captives came from 18 countries, including Britain and the United States, and were subjected to a secret detention program that could erode international support for the U.S. war on terrorism…..(Reuters, 6 Jul 07)

Italian police arrest 2 suspected members of Red Brigades-style terror group

Italian police said Friday they have arrested two men in northern Italy accused of being members of a radical leftist terror group similar to the Red Brigades. The two were arrested late Thursday in the northeastern city of Padua….(AP, 6 Jul 07)

Yemen identifies slain Egyptian al-Qaida suspect as plotter of suicide attack on Spanish tourists

Yemeni authorities confirmed Friday that an Egyptian national killed in a gunfight when resisting arrest was an al-Qaida suspect and an alleged plotter of the suicide bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis earlier this week. Authorities said Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar, 52….(AP, 6 Jul 07)

Yemen detains 15 suspects in suicide attack against Spanish tourists

Yemeni security forces battled Islamic fundamentalists during raids in search of suspects in a suicide bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists….(AP, 5 Jul 07)

U.N., U.S. Actions Sometimes at Odds On Afghan Policy

Abdul Hakim Monib, the governor of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, has drawn praise from U.S. military commanders as a partner in the battle against global terrorism, lending crucial political support for international relief and reconstruction projects in territory contested by Taliban insurgents. But Monib, who served as deputy minister of frontier affairs in the prior Taliban government, is also on a U.N. list of suspected international terrorists, and Russia has repeatedly blocked U.S. and NATO efforts to take him off it….(Washington Post, 5 July 07)

WP: Bodies found in Iraq on rise

During the month of June, 453 unidentified corpses, some bound, blindfolded, and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information…the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets is considered a key indicator of the malignancy of sectarian strife…..(Washington Post, 5 Jul 07)

Al-Qaida Deputy Leader Seen in New Video

Al-Qaida's deputy leader sought to bolster the terror network's main arm in Iraq in a new video released Thursday, calling on Muslims to rally behind it at a time when the group is on the defensive, faced with U.S. offensives and splits with other insurgent groups. Ayman al-Zawahri defended the Islamic State of Iraq _ the insurgent umbrella group headed by al-Qaida _ against critics among Islamic militant groups, saying it was a vanguard for fighting off the U.S. military and eventually establishing a "caliphate" of Islamic rule across the region…..(AP, 5 Jul 07)

Australia, US Concerned by Chinese Power

Australia and a top U.S. military official expressed concern Thursday that China's rapid military buildup and use of a missile in space could add to instability in the Asia-Pacific, and backed a greater role for Japan in regional security….(AP, 5 Jul 07)

Web kingpin of terrorism to be sentenced

If the jihadist videos on the Internet today are akin to an illicit drug, then a young computer hacker who is to be sentenced tomorrow in London is the terrorist equivalent of a cocaine kingpin. Younis Tsouli, a 23-year-old Londoner originally from Morocco, went by the user name Irhabi 007 (the Arabic word for terrorist and the code name of fictional spy James Bond) on the Internet prior to his 2005 arrest…..(Globe & Mail, 5 Jul 07)

Prophet cartoons protester convicted in London of incitement to murder

A speaker at a rally protesting against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was convicted Thursday of inciting murder. Mizanur Rahman, 24, of London, spoke at a February 2006 demonstration protesting the publication in Europe of the cartoons, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily. Prosecutors showed video of Rahman speaking about British soldiers and saying, "We want to see them coming home in body bags. We want to see their blood running in the streets of Baghdad."….(AP, 5 Jul 07)

Airport attack doctor was known extremist

A former tutor of the car bomb suspect Dr Bilal Abdulla claimed yesterday that he had been recognized as a seriously "radicalized" student four years ago. Abdulla, who was held at Glasgow airport on Saturday, trained in Baghdad and was there from the outbreak of war in Iraq. It is claimed that he was radicalized by the destruction of the country and the persecution of Sunnis. Professor Ahmed Ali, who taught him at the University of Baghdad until 2004, said he was known as an extremist with possible links to the al-Qa'eda-led insurgency…..(Telegraph, 5 Jul 07)

U.K. police probe web of terror contacts

When two doctors crashed a Jeep Cherokee into Glasgow’s airport and then set it on fire in a desperate attempt to ignite crude bombs it was clear to a policeman on the scene that they were on a suicide mission. “They did not have a plan B,” … Police have refused to release “operational details” of the case. But the investigation would now be at the analysis stage, said Bob Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence officer now at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in London. “They’ve got all the evidence they’re ever going to have. There may still information coming in, but it will be based on what they’ve already got, like DNA from the cars,” Ayers

British court convicts man of having terrorist manuals, and money laundering

A man who sought asylum in Britain was convicted Thursday of possessing terrorist training manuals, including instructions on using gas canisters to make car bombs. There was no indication in court that Omar Altimimi, 37, had any connection to recent failed bombing attempts in London and Glasgow by terrorists using cars filled with petrol and gas canisters…..(AP, 5 Jul  07)

NHS terror plot: police investigate global email network used by 'bombers'

Detectives investigating the NHS car bomb plot are today examining an international network of emails and phone records. Police have seized computers from hospitals in Glasgow, Stoke-on-Trent and Liverpool. They are examining a theory that suspects planned the attacks in cyberspace while working at NHS hospitals…..(Daily Mail, 5 Jul 07)

Yemen employs new terror approach

Yemen is pioneering a novel approach for dealing with convicted al-Qaida operatives: Let them roam free as long as they promise to be law-abiding… Yemen's policy of negotiating agreements with al-Qaida operatives appears to be unique among the nations working with the United States in its anti-terror campaign. Breaking the agreement means returning to prison or causing a relative, who often acts as a guarantor, to be jailed to finish out the sentence…..(AP, 5 Jul 07)

Board looks at criminal checks on doctors

The Medical Board of Queensland is exploring the possibility of obtaining legislative power to do its own criminal checks on foreign doctors wanting to practice in the state. The board yesterday confirmed it was considering factors such as the costs involved and whether the move would delay the registration of doctors…..(Age, 5 Jul 07)

U.K. Plot Suspects Were Known to Domestic Spy Agency

Some of the doctors arrested over a terrorist plot to explode car bombs in London and attack Glasgow International Airport last week were already known to MI5, the U.K.'s domestic spy agency. Police issued no public appeals for information and were able to round up the suspects within days, unlike in previous terrorism investigations, because their details were already on security service records, said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday. All had worked in the National Health Service, suggesting some U.K. hospitals may have been penetrated by a terrorist network. ….(Bloomberg, 4 Jul 07)

U.K. combs alleged bomb factory

A Scottish house had been used as a makeshift bomb factory to carry out the terror attacks in London and Scotland….(AP, 5 Jul 07)

Terrorism Threat Level In Britain Is Lowered

With eight suspects in last weekend's attempted car-bomb attacks in custody, all of them foreign doctors or other medical professionals, Britain reduced its terrorism threat level from critical to severe Wednesday and Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced more rigorous background checks on foreign doctors applying for visas to work in the United Kingdom…..(Washington Post, 5 Jul 07)

7 suspected insurgents arrested in Thai south were bomb making experts

The Thai army on Wednesday identified seven Muslim men arrested early this week as top bomb-making specialists and key members of a militia group in Thailand's violence-wracked south, and they have implicated five more suspected insurgents…..(AP, 4 Jul 07)

Jihad tapes targeted professions

Videos have tried to attract doctors, lawyers and scientists into Islamic extremism for more than a decade, the BBC has learned.  The tapes were used to try to shame Muslim professionals to get more involved in violent jihad. One film from 1999 seen by the BBC shows a man claiming to be a third-year medical student in Birmingham. He is shown claiming: "What we lack here is Muslims who are prepared to suffer and sacrifice."….(BBC, 4 Jul 07)

BBC's Johnston describes relief

BBC reporter Alan Johnston has said it is "just unimaginably good to be free" after 114 days in captivity in Gaza. He said his ordeal felt like being "buried alive", and was "sometimes quite terrifying". Mr Johnston, 45, was handed over to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza City….(BBC, 4 Jul 07)

U.S. hit with Turkish demands on Kurds

…The issue has taken on greater urgency as Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks in Turkey and provoked Turkish threats to launch a military incursion into Iraq, a move that could have serious implications for the U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. U.S. officials say they consider the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK to be a terrorist organization and are working closely with Turkey to combat the threat…..(AP, 4 Jul 07)

Suicide Attack Kills 10 in Pakistan

A suicide car bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a Pakistan army convoy near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing five soldiers and five civilians….(AP, 4 Jul 07)

Interpol chief demands global anti-terror force

World governments should create a multinational force to plug "gaping holes" in the fight against terrorism, the secretary general of the international police force Interpol said on Wednesday. Writing in the International Herald Tribune daily, Ronald Noble said luck and the apparent incompetence of the terrorists had helped avert a major attack in Britain last week…..(Reuters, 4 Jul 07)

Yemen arrests al Qaeda-linked suspects after blast

Yemeni authorities have arrested dozens of people with suspected links to al Qaeda since Monday's suicide bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis….(Reuters, 4 Jul 07)

Exclusive: U.K. Terror Plot -- Why the Bombs Failed

London bomb plot allegedly planned by a cell of doctors failed early last Friday morning because a medical syringe used as part of the firing mechanism caused a malfunction…both mobile telephones initiated firing mechanisms rigged inside a Mercedes E 300 parked several yards from the front door of Tiger Tiger nightclub failed despite multiple calls to the cell phones designed to remotely trigger the devices…Fuel-air bombs, whether professionally made or rigged by novices, are notoriously difficult to get to perform as intended, which analysts said is why they are so rarely used. ….(Telegraph, 4 Jul 07)

Homemade, Cheap and Dangerous

The 39-page memo recovered from an al-Qaeda laptop computer in Pakistan three years ago read like an Idiot's Guide to Bombmaking. Forget military explosives or fancy detonators, it lectured. Instead, the manual advised a shopping trip to a hardware store or pharmacy, where all the necessary ingredients for a terrorist attack are stocked on the shelves…..(Washington Post, 4 Jul 07)

Turkey's Evolving Anti-Terrorism Measures on the Iraqi Border

Along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the struggle between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants is escalating. The Turkish press has released testimonies from captured Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who claim to have witnessed U.S. armored vehicles supplying weapons to a PKK base on Mount Qandil (The New Anatolian, July 2). Regardless of its ultimate veracity, this news is being widely reported in the Turkish press and is inflaming the already slowly deteriorating relations between Turkey and the United States…..(Global Terrorism Analysis, 3 Jul 07)

Taliban Graduation Ceremony Demonstrates Change of Tactics

Earlier this month, a Pakistani journalist filmed a Taliban "graduation ceremony" for would-be Western suicide bombers. The video, which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwwiGXIhnKo, shows a "graduating class of suicide bombers" ready to travel to the United States and Western Europe to carry out suicide attacks. The video deviates from usual suicide bomber propaganda…..(Global Terrorism Analysis, 3 Jul 07)

Al-Qaeda's New Leader in Afghanistan: A Profile of Abu al-Yazid

Al-Qaeda's late-May naming of Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid as the "general leader" of the group's activities in Afghanistan shows that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri believe that helping the Taliban win the Afghan war is a top priority. It also suggests that the al-Qaeda chieftains think that the path to victory in Afghanistan is set solidly enough that Abu al-Yazid can manage the organization's Afghan affairs while they turn to other aspects of the jihad outside Afghanistan…..(Global Terrorism Analysis, 3 Jul 07)

JI Weakened, Yet Potential for Violence Remains

The June arrests of two important Jemaah Islamiya (JI) leaders, Abu Dujana and Zarkasih (also known as Abu Nu'aim), along with their aides, is a major blow to the network and will weaken it significantly (The Jakarta Post, June 25; Terrorism Focus, June 19). Yet, experience in the last seven years has demonstrated that JI is a resilient clandestine organization, and it has the ability to adapt to internal rifts and crackdown efforts by the authorities. The continual arrests of JI members suggest that its numbers are consistently greater than most security analysts speculate…..(Global Terrorism Analysis, 3 Jul 07)

Terror Attacks Net Spreads To Australia

Two doctors are being interviewed by police in Australia in connection with the failed terror attacks in London and Glasgow. One, named as Mohammed Haneef, was arrested at Brisbane airport last night at the request of the British authorities. Officials have refused to confirm reports the 27-year-old had a one-way ticket to Pakistan…..(Sky, 3 Jul 07)

Seven doctors held over al-Qa'eda bomb plot

The suspected al-Qa'eda terrorists behind the attempted car bomb attacks on Britain were almost all foreign doctors working in the NHS, it can be disclosed today. It comes as an eighth person - also a foreign doctor who has worked in the UK - was arrested in Australia in connection with the attacks. A second doctor who has also worked in the UK is being questioned by Australian police but has not been arrested…..(Telegraph, 3 Jul 07)

Two admit inciting terrorist acts

Two men have admitted inciting terrorist attacks against non-Muslims on websites and in e-mails. Younes Tsouli, 23, of west London, and Waseem Mughal, 24, of Chatham, Kent, changed their pleas two months into their trial at Woolwich Crown Court…..(BBC, 3 Jul 07)

Judge affirms ruling to dismiss Gitmo charges

A military judge on Friday rejected the Pentagon's request to reinstate previously dismissed charges against a prisoner accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2001… Judge Army Col. Peter Brownback dropped the charges against Canadian detainee Omar Khadr last month on the grounds Brownback's court lacked the jurisdiction to try him.  Khadr was 15 when he was arrested…..(CNN, 3 Jul 07)

U.S. terrorism trial ponders meaning of "eggplant"

Since the start of accused American "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla's trial in May, onlookers have heard about conspiracies to maim and kill, but also picnics, eggplants and lazy Miami postal workers. Prosecutors say some of those seemingly innocuous terms are actually code words for violent "jihad," or "holy war," and acts of terrorism…..(Reuters, 3 Jul 07)

Car Bombing Suspects: Who Are They?

Eight people have now been detained as part of the "fast-moving" inquiry into the car bomb attacks on Glasgow Airport and London. Here is a run down of what is known about the arrested suspects….(Sky, 3 Jul 07)

Terror timeline: The foiled car bombs

Since paramedics stumbled on a car bomb in central London, events have rapidly unfolded to an inquiry that reaches as far as Australia….(Telegraph, 3 Jul 07)

Copter Shot Down in Iraq; Pilots Rescued

Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter south of Baghdad, and the two pilots were rescued with minor injuries, the military said Tuesday. The OH-58D Kiowa Attack helicopter was brought down by ground fire on Monday. After an Apache helicopter rescued the two pilots, a U.S. warplane dropped two 500-pound, laser-guided bombs on the downed craft to destroy it….(AP, 3 Jul 07)