Is Shutting Down Cyber Jihad Possible? The Real Scope of Cyber Jihad

by ADMIN on DECEMBER 1, 2009

MEMRI, 1 Dec 09: The exact number of Salafi-jihadi websites and forums has been a matter of debate among experts; the figures proposed range from a few dozen to thousands. The surge in the number of Islamist blogs in the past two years has intensified the debate and made calculation even more difficult. Scrutiny of many of these cyber domains, however, reveals that though the number of jihad domains is indeed high, only a handful of these domains can be considered significant and prominent sources of jihad material.

Currently, fewer than five forums are used by jihad media companies as a direct channel for disseminating their products (e.g., jihad films, texts, and audios). Moreover, only half a dozen Islamist forums attract multi-participant discussion among jihadists and jihad sympathizers worldwide. Most jihad cyber domains initiate very little, if any, original discussion, primarily reposting material from popular jihad forums. Hence, disabling the few prominent domains could seriously cripple Islamists’ ability to conduct mass online discussions, and could also hamper the rapid spread of jihad material in cyberspace. . . . . .

I have been finding this too in my extra curricular activities. Mostly the domains out there are replicating the postings from one to another. However, there are stealth sites out there without domain names attached that seem to have some new content.

The third gen version of the “Jihadi Manual” was a rather interesting find, but mostly I have been finding the usual file assortments of pdf fatwas, the manuals, jpegs, swf shaheed movies and numerous IED videos. I am hoping though, that the ever growing number of “stegged” jpeg files eventually turns up something of interest.

Surely there must be some more stealth php sites out there… Hmmm….

Back to the Google cave…

Well, after watching POTUS give his speech to the kids at West Point I am not impressed. I know that the president inherited these two wars and that basically W fucked the GWOT by going into Iraq. However, by setting a timetable, and trusting in the Karzai government to shape up within a year or so just ain’t gonna cut it.

We would be better served to use those 100K troops to run sweeper teams within the Tribal Areas (Waziristan) and take out the hard core Talib’s and, dare I say maybe actually kill or capture OBL. THEN and only then we should work with the Karzai government to clean it up and allow them to try and give themselves a progressive governmental body. THAT will not happen until the hardliner Talibs are all deceased. You want an analogy? Try on China for size. For all of their “progress” they are still a repressive government with hardliners in charge.

So here’s what I see that needs doing as opposed to just a troop increase.

1) Sweep and clear the tribal areas of Pakistan.

This will require some wheeling and dealing, which in the end will come to strong arm tactics on the part of the US against Pakistan to get them to acquiesce. It needs to be done though. Pakistan needs to be shored up too, hell, re-formed altogether really. They too need the Talib’s purged as well as AQ from their ranks. All we need is for AQ and their merry band of Talibs to get their hands on the nukes. They have been testing the security… How long before we have to go tactical on Pakistan just to stop AQ from making off with one?

I say use the UN resolution and get together a RAINBOW style series of teams and take these fuckers out once and for all. No fuss, no muss. It will be an “international” effort to save the globe.

2) Once the AQ and Talib situation is taken care of THEN we work on the Afghanistan government building.

We invest in their infrastructure, their economy, and build good will as opposed to the fine “Fuck You”  we gave them after arming the Mujahideen’s against the Sov’s. We should have helped them re-build then and its our fault that we didn’t. To be honest, some of the reasoning behind the talib’s and AQ’s mindset included the above short shrift by the US. Just how long this will take I have no idea, but we should be in for the long haul until such time as the tribal nature of the populace is replaced by a more cosmopolitan outlook… THAT will take some time… But, it has to happen otherwise any government in place will fall to the same crime and squabbling that reigns today.

3) We should remove ourselves from Iraq as soon as possible once their government has been purged of the same criminality and squabbling.

How long this will take? I have no idea, BUT, we have really worn out our welcome there as well as damaged any credibility we had post 9/11. We would have been much better served if we had worked harder at Afghanistan/Pakistan and left Saddam alone. Had he acted up, we could have taken him out then. Instead… well you know the story.

4) We need to actually finish ALL of the recommendations put forth by the 9/11 commission and shore up the defenses of this country.

We have been playing catch up with tools that countermanded the US Constitution thus far, but how long is it until we screw the pooch and another attack actually succeeds?

Fix the God Damned Emergency Response COMMS!

PROTECT OUR PORTS!

Secure our Nuclear and Biological facilities!

ETC. ETC…

Will this happen? Not likely… So I foresee bad things on the horizon. I don’t think this will succeed and I believe we will be in Afghanistan for a long time to come. We will continue to flail about and HOPE for the best. Meanwhile the Taliban and AQ will just continue on in the Tribal regions dodging predators and sending out more runners with orders to post on the newly posted. “Godaddy” domained, Jihadist PHP board.

CoB

I have been quiet lately, mostly due to doing two gigs, taking care of my new digs, and fighting the great leaf insurgency of 09. I have though, after winning said leaf insurgency, finally sat down for a bit with intartubes. What follows comes from a foray into the underbelly of the internet that seems to be proliferating very well.

Those whacky jihadists.

Following up on a previous project that kinda went nowhere, I decided to hoover some sites, then cull image files for testing with various steganalysis products. The net result of my searches and testing are here. I have washed hundreds of photos through the Stegdetect (Outguess) process and the files in that container all have a “high probability” of being stegged.

Now some of you out there may be saying to yourselves;

“Come on man, steg is so hard to detect and really, this is a myth. You’re just dreaming that you will find, never mind decrypt anything”

Well, I say why the hell not? I am focusing efforts on little known jihadist sites where those said same Jihadi’s and wanna be’s can easily download JPHIDE and other open source technologies and within minutes be hiding data within LSB’s.. So why not? I think that this is a easy and great way to be having covert channel conversations online. Of course that is the whole point is it not?

PSSST, lemme tell you a secret.. Google stego in the .mil and .gov space.. You will see that I am not the only one to think so. There are MANY RFP’s out there for building a better steganalysis product.

So, the captures continue, but those files above are open to attack. Please, have at them. Use anything and everything to determine if they have indeed been stegged and if you can crack them. If you do, you will get insane props and those files will be passed right on to the authorities. If nothing comes of it, at the very least you have had some fun playing with the tools and noodling about with the technology right?

So I hereby throw the gauntlet down.. Have at it! I will be working in parallel.

Meanwhile, also enjoy this little file. It’s the third gen jihadist manual that I happened upon with some fancy Googling in Arabi.

Enjoy.

PS.. Dear NSA, yes I know I have downloaded a Jihadist manual. If you wanna know where I found it just ask. I will happily bird dog it for you.. But please, no JTTF folks knocking at my door at 3am mmmkay?

CoB

Looking at this with the 6 years of history one cannot but see some validity.Take note of the debate now about pulling out of Afghanistan as opposed to the lack of talk in removing forces from Iraq. The difference is of course that there are no petrodollars to be made there. Poppy dollars sure…

Oil Factor

Posted by Audiegrl

Watching the horrific events at Fort Hood unfold yesterday, it saddens me to admit that one of the first things that came to my mind, once the shooter was identified, was “oh no, what is the right-wing going to do with this?” Today, after seeing some fair and some not so fair coverage of the Fort Hood Massacre, it reminded me of what General Colin Powell said on Meet the Press in October of last year. When asked by host, Tom Brokaw whether he was prepared to announce whether he was endorsing John McCain or Barack Obama, Powell answered with a very long explanation on how he came to the decision to endorse Barack Obama for president and how he felt about the recent actions of the GOP. Towards the end of his answer, he said something that needs to be said again and again, regarding some of the countries reaction to the events at Fort Hood.

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan's mother at his grave in Arlington Cemetary

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.~~Colin Powell

His words were important last year, but even more so relevant today. The following are two a thoughtful pieces written by Kamran Pasha and Jon Soltz.

A Muslim Soldier’s View from Fort Hood

Soldiers praying

Kamran Pasha—Major Nidal Malik Hasan is a murderer and has brought great shame upon every American Muslim in the armed forces.

There are currently over 10,000 Muslim soldiers in the U.S. military, men and women who are patriotic and love their country and their fellow service members. Hasan’s evil actions, the murder of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, have now brought those honorable soldiers’ loyalties into question.

The Islamophobe community on the Internet is trumpeting how Hasan’s behavior is reflective of the threat Americans face from their Muslim neighbors, and how radical Islamists have infiltrated the ranks of our military. Calls for purging the military, and perhaps even the United States, of its Muslim members have already begun.

Today there are dozens of families mourning the attack on their loved ones by a fellow-in-arms. And there are hundreds of Muslims at Fort Hood who knew Hasan and are stunned that he would betray their country and their community with such cold, calculated ease. Hasan’s rampage has truly shattered many more lives than we can begin to imagine.

I spoke today with a friend who is a Muslim soldier stationed at Fort Hood. He is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army and a recent convert to Islam. He agreed to share his perspective with me if I granted him anonymity. So we will call him Richard.

Richard is exactly the kind of soldier we need to protect our country from those that seek to do us harm. A combat veteran who has served in Iraq, Richard became interested in studying Islam initially as a strategic means of understanding his adversary in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. But as he began to study the religion’s teachings, he became struck by how different they were from what was being claimed by men like Osama Bin Laden.

More @

Kamran Pasha is a Hollywood filmmaker and author of “Mother of the Believers”

Many Issues With Tragedy at Ft. Hood — A “Muslim Problem” not One of Them, FOX News

Grave of Major James Michael Ahearn

Jon Soltz—Yesterday was one of the most tragic days in the military, in the midst of a slew of tragic days as we continue to see casualties in Afghanistan. Innocent soldiers lost their lives, and many more were injured, at the hands of a very troubled Major at Ft. Hood. Our hearts go out to all those who lost their lives, their families, and those wounded.

Like many, I’m angry and confused, as well, at how this could possibly happen. But, until the facts are all known, I won’t jump to conclusions, or cast aspersions at a large group of Americans, like the disgraceful hosts of FOX and Friends.

During an interview with Geraldo Rivera, the FOX and Friends hosts twice implied that this is some kind of Muslim problem. Of course, they didn’t come out and say it outright, they couched it in the form of a question, like FOX News can be so good at. You know, like their teasers, “President Obama. Does He Hate America?”

Brian Kilmeade asked if it’s time to have “special debriefings” or “special screenings” of all Muslims in the military. Because, as he said, “If I’m gonna be deployed in a foxhole, if I’m gonna be deployed in an outpost, I’m gonna want to know that the guy next to me isn’t gonna want to kill me.”

Perhaps sensing that they were not being offensive enough, Gretchen Carlson chimed in, “Could it be that our own military is so politically correct right now…to be careful about treatment of Muslims that they would have allowed this to go by?”

More @

Jon Stoltz is the Co-Founder of VoteVets.org, served as a Captain in Operation Iraqi Freedom

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Fort Hood Shooting: Muslim Groups Fear Backlash

Don’t Ask Me About Hasan

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: Senseless Shootings Violate Islamic Faith

Wajahat Ali: The Fort Hood Tragedy: Fanning the Anti-Muslim Hysteria

Right-Wing Media Respond To Fort Hood Shooting By Attacking Muslims

“Fox And Friends” Hosts Worry That Military Needs “Special Debriefings” For Muslims

Allen West, GOP Candidate: Ft. Hood Shows “Terrorists Are Infiltrating Military“

WND’s Jerome Corsi Claims Fort Hood Shooter Advised Obama

Year 2008 – 09 marked deadliest year for allied forces led by USA which comprise of NATO, ISAF, Afghan National Army and Pakistan securing northern borders to prevent supply of arms to Mujahideen in Afghanistan. The psychological and physical damage inflicted by Lions of Islam to Kuffar and their apostate friends is briefly shown in video that follows below. Insha Allah, a glorious victory is just ahead.

Sheikh ibn Baaz in his Fatwa no. 1 of 274 said,

“The scholars of Islam are unanimously agreed that whoever supports the kaafirs against the Muslims and helps them in any way is a kaafir like them as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):”

“O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Awliyaa’ (friends, protectors, helpers), they are but Awliyaa’ of each other. And if any amongst you takes them (as Awliyaa’), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allaah guides not those people who are the Zaalimoon (polytheists and wrongdoers and unjust)”

[al-Maa'idah 5:51].

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in Al Saarim al Maslool fatwa no. 3 of 735 writes:

Muhaarabah (waging war against Islam) is of two types: physical and verbal. Waging war verbally against Islam may be worse than waging war physically – as stated above – hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to kill those who waged war against Islam verbally, whilst letting off some of those who waged war against Islam physically. This ruling is to be applied more strictly after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Mischief may be caused by physical action or by words, but the damage caused by words is many times greater than that caused by physical action; and the goodness achieved by words in reforming may be many times greater than that achieved by physical action. It is proven that waging war against Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) verbally is worse and the efforts on earth to undermine religion by verbal means is more effective.

وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah. [Aal-e-Imraan : 54 ]

Year 2008 – 09 marked deadliest year for allied forces led by USA which comprise of NATO, ISAF, Afghan National Army and Pakistan securing northern borders to prevent supply of arms to Mujahideen in Afghanistan. The psychological and physical damage inflicted by Lions of Islam to Kuffar and their apostate friends is briefly shown in video that follows below. Insha Allah, a glorious victory is just ahead.

Sheikh ibn Baaz in his Fatwa no. 1 of 274 said,

“The scholars of Islam are unanimously agreed that whoever supports the kaafirs against the Muslims and helps them in any way is a kaafir like them as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):”

“O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Awliyaa’ (friends, protectors, helpers), they are but Awliyaa’ of each other. And if any amongst you takes them (as Awliyaa’), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allaah guides not those people who are the Zaalimoon (polytheists and wrongdoers and unjust)”

[al-Maa'idah 5:51].

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in Al Saarim al Maslool fatwa no. 3 of 735 writes:

Muhaarabah (waging war against Islam) is of two types: physical and verbal. Waging war verbally against Islam may be worse than waging war physically – as stated above – hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to kill those who waged war against Islam verbally, whilst letting off some of those who waged war against Islam physically. This ruling is to be applied more strictly after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Mischief may be caused by physical action or by words, but the damage caused by words is many times greater than that caused by physical action; and the goodness achieved by words in reforming may be many times greater than that achieved by physical action. It is proven that waging war against Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) verbally is worse and the efforts on earth to undermine religion by verbal means is more effective.

وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah. [Aal-e-Imraan : 54 ]

While surfing the intertubes today I came across this little piece of OPSEC FAIL on the DOE.gov site. I believe it is a planned site per the document, but, this is rather detailed even for a plan to just be out there for any Jihadist to download.

This brings up the whole OPSEC issue. Too many places just fail to understand the precepts of OPESEC even within the rarefied air of the DOE where super mental genius’s work on the next generation transwarp drive. It seems especially these folks fail to understand the needs for secrecy.

Of course looking toward the private sector, I see way too many places that fail to comprehend OPSEC never mind try to implement and enforce the rules surrounding it to protect their data.

Even defense contractors… Now there’s a scary thought huh?

Oh well.. Lets just hope the next wave of homegrown jihadi’s can’t read or use Google.

… Now where is that zombie apocalypse we were promised?

Pakistani people are paying for faith and their religious appearance, every bearded Pathan [Pakhtoon] in Swat or Tribal Area is taken as Taliban and subject to brutal torture by soldiers of Pakistan’s army who are friends of United States of America and other kuffar nations.

This is the hands on evidence of extra judicial killings in northern tribal areas of Pakistan by military men’s brutal torture, perhaps some God fearing soldier recorded it to expose the deep buried realities of this operation under USA’s pressure. Previously, there have been many reports which have been deneied by ISPR on extrajudicial killings of suspects during interrogation, for example, Washington Post reported Extrajudicial killings in Swat and humanitarian crisis! and New York times reported Pakistan Army said to be linked to Swat killings.

**WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU HAVE A WEAK HEART – IT CONTAINS EXPLICIT TORTURE OF SUSPECTS INCLUDING OLD MEN – USER DISCRETION ADVISED!**

Pakistani people are paying for faith and their religious appearance, every bearded Pathan [Pakhtoon] in Swat or Tribal Area is taken as Taliban and subject to brutal torture by soldiers of Pakistan’s army who are friends of United States of America and other kuffar nations.

This is the hands on evidence of extra judicial killings in northern tribal areas of Pakistan by military men’s brutal torture, perhaps some God fearing soldier recorded it to expose the deep buried realities of this operation under USA’s pressure. Previously, there have been many reports which have been deneied by ISPR on extrajudicial killings of suspects during interrogation, for example, Washington Post reported Extrajudicial killings in Swat and humanitarian crisis! and New York times reported Pakistan Army said to be linked to Swat killings.

**WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU HAVE A WEAK HEART – IT CONTAINS EXPLICIT TORTURE OF SUSPECTS INCLUDING OLD MEN – USER DISCRETION ADVISED!**

Sophisticated technology has an important role to play in countering the terrorist web. While some portions of the terrorist web are out in the open, other parts operate in an area of the Internet commonly referred to as “the Deep Web.” Akin to an ocean, the Internet has surface pages, but a significant portion lies beneath that surface, out of reach of most popular search engines.

A handful of companies have developed data intelligence technologies that give access to sites traditional search engines cannot find. The U.S. intelligence community and military use these technologies to transform web data from terrorist sites into actionable intelligence.

For example, certain applications can crawl millions of domains simultaneously, a task impossible for human analysts alone. Since this volume of data, including dynamic content from the most complex websites, can be overwhelming for intelligence analysts, applications automatically extract and analyze only the data of higher intelligence value. They also use “anonymizer” tools to hide the computer user’s identity to try and keep the intelligence analyst from being shut out by terrorist web masters.

Full Article

Absolutely true. There’s a lot out there and much of it has been more craftily hidden lately. The Jihadists have hired on hackers and coders who have been creating websites, hiding websites, and generally creating venues of communication and propagation of videos etc.

The paradigm for getting new recruits has changed too. These sites and their videos are the new Mosques where you need not know the Quran by heart. In fact, have Google will travel! So imagine how many youths can be reached by the internet…

You should also ponder how much money the Jihadists can make with the internet. Hacking, donation collection, etc. All of these things help them fund themselves and transfer funds quickly.

It’s a brave new world kids…

Westernized and secular media presented him as a terrorist whereas Pakistani Government and Army, the so-called non-NATO allies of American kuffar, propagated that he is an anti-Pakistan terrorist who is supported by idolaters of India. Pakistani nation living in world of fantasies of glad tidings believed it without any questions or thinking beyond the propaganda.

There will be no glad tidings [basharat] unless we start practicing Deen and there are no chosen people on earth. Allah s.w.t. Has clearly mentioned the criteria for success and failure – if anyone wants success, he has to follow what Allah has ordained and he has to stay on Haq – whatever it is no matter how dangerous or difficult it is to do so.

Coming to the subject, following video should be enough to expose highly paid experts and Munafiqun of media who led entire Pakistani nation astray for supporting USA’s war and the Kufr being committed by Pakistani Government and Her Army.

These self-proclaimed ghostly designated Defense Analysts only read scripts written by their dollars paying masters ridiculing to character of Mujahideen engaged in Jihad against Kuffar of America and their munafiq allies.

Abul Yazeed – Urdu version

Abul Yazeed – Arabic version

Wali ur Rehman – Urdu version

Westernized and secular media presented him as a terrorist whereas Pakistani Government and Army, the so-called non-NATO allies of American kuffar, propagated that he is an anti-Pakistan terrorist who is supported by idolaters of India. Pakistani nation living in world of fantasies of glad tidings believed it without any questions or thinking beyond the propaganda.

There will be no glad tidings [basharat] unless we start practicing Deen and there are no chosen people on earth. Allah s.w.t. Has clearly mentioned the criteria for success and failure – if anyone wants success, he has to follow what Allah has ordained and he has to stay on Haq – whatever it is no matter how dangerous or difficult it is to do so.

Coming to the subject, following video should be enough to expose highly paid experts and Munafiqun of media who led entire Pakistani nation astray for supporting USA’s war and the Kufr being committed by Pakistani Government and Her Army.

These self-proclaimed ghostly designated Defense Analysts only read scripts written by their dollars paying masters ridiculing to character of Mujahideen engaged in Jihad against Kuffar of America and their munafiq allies.

Abul Yazeed – Urdu version

Abul Yazeed – Arabic version

Wali ur Rehman – Urdu version

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular “man-made law” and the West’s “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism”.

They called for Sharia Law to be “the source of legislation” and said that women should not be “permitted to hold a position of leadership in government”.

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that “promiscuity” and the “breakdown of traditional values” were what Muslims admired least about the West.

She said:

“I think the reason so many women support Sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in Western media.

“The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance.

“The portrayal of Sharia has been oversimplified in many cases.”

Full Article Here:

Evidently we as a people have a general misunderstanding of Sharia law! Who knew? I am sorry, but I have seen the interviews with women who are under Sharia law at its most “right wing” and gee, I don’t remember them saying it was super fun and they wanted more!

That this woman is in the Obama administration kind of frightens me frankly. She goes on an extremist talk show and then says these things? Gee, now I kinda know now just how those crazies at Fox News say those whacky things about Obama’s being too compliant to the Islamic set post this little incident.

I hope that Obama at least considers replacing this woman with someone who might have the balls to call into question the Sharia laws where they regard not only women and womens rights but also around the idea that there need not be a universal caliphate.

CoB

By Peter Allen and Nabila Ramdani
Last updated at 5:54 PM on 13th October 2009

A nuclear scientist turned Al Qaeda agent was targeting a Total Oil refinery in a bid to cause an explosion which would have destroyed a city ‘the size of London’, it emerged today.

Adlene Hicheur , 32, also compiled a ‘wish list’ of senior European politicians as ‘assassination targets’ including French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the country’s interior minister Brice Hortefeux.

Hicheur is currently on remand in Paris after being charged on Monday afternoon with ‘criminal activities related to a terrorist group’.

The Rest

Well, finally the Hollywood ideal has become the real scenario where terrorism is concerned. A scientist who worked at the LHC was evidently planning on bombing large oil facilities etc in a plot that would rival 9/11… In the EU that is. The alleged plan he had in mind would devastate an area the size of London one claim makes.

In any case, we are starting to see the paradigm shift here and people should be paying attention. No longer are we just dealing with unschooled madrassa  programmed kids and wanna be’s. We are starting to see more and more guys who are like Mohammad Atta. Educated and completely and utterly bent on doing destruction to others for their God.

Today details of the ‘brilliant and solitary’ physician’s sinister plans were made public by security sources who have been collecting evidence against him for the past year-and-a-half during a surveillance operation.

During that time he was using a pseudonym on the Internet as he corresponded with leading members of Al Qaeda’s notorious North African unit.

Money transfers had already taken place between the two, as a plan was concocted to target Total, the multinational oil company which operates in most European countries including Britain and France.

There had also been an exchange of ‘technical expertise’, with the young boffin offering his considerable scientific know-how.

However, Adlene had ruled out any possibility of acting as a suicide bomber, insisting that a kamikaze attack would be less effective than a more conventional one.

So there you have it. Scientific know how that could have potentially really made for a big bang (no pun intended.. Ok, maybe a little) This guy was definitely smarter than the average shaheed though. He had no plans to do himself in just yet with a bomb vest. Instead he wanted to remote det something big.

Of course all of the headlines make him out to be a nuclear scientist. Really, he may know about nuclear theory but he was at CERN looking for the Higgs Boson! C’mon! Nope, he certainly could have planned and carried out a big attack, but he was caught. Caught mind you even though he was using a pseudonym online etc. Likely he was not a master mind enough to be using TOR for his transmissions….

It’s also interesting to note that he was in contact with the Algerian Maghreb. These are the same guys who had that little incident with the plague last year. These guys are on the edge and of all the Qaida out there, seem to be the ones on the move where bigger attacks using CBRN are concerned.

Keep your wits about you kids…

Atwan said that Al Qaeda has managed to drag the US into wars of attrition. He explains, “when I met bin Laden in November 1996, he told me ‘I can’t fight America inside America, but if I manage to drag America to Arab and Islamic countries, then I can win because I would be fighting it in our land.’” The US so far has spent $918 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at a time when its economy is in serious crisis.

Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape message confirms that he views the war in Afghanistan as an opportunity to fight a war of attrition against the US. Bin Laden said in the tape, which was aired on September 13

“If you [Americans] stop the war, then fine. Otherwise we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front just as we have worn out the former Soviet Union for ten years until it disintegrated.”

“Continue to fight for as long as you wish,” bin Laden warned. “You are fighting a desperate war that you can’t win.” He also observed that Obama was “powerless” to halt the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and must rethink his policy on Israel.

Al Qaeda Adjusting To New Era

Many people fail to understand that OBL really did want to not only hit us where it hurt emotionally, physically, and economically, but he also wanted to drag us into this “war of attrition” that the article is talking about. Like I have mentioned before, look at what the Russians failed at in Afghanistan and the end result. Unless we come up with some smart plans or we just pull out, we will be in the morass that is Afghanistan for a long long time.

Of course though, do not expect that were we to walk away from Afghanistan that all would be well and OBL would leave us be. Nope, the Caliphate that he seeks is a global, if not “universal” one and he and his followers will never stop until they do have full control. So, its going to be a long battle kids.

What Obama seems to be moving toward now is moving the focus toward only Al Qaeda.. Whatever that means.

One only hopes that it works…

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban inAfghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the United States, officials said Wednesday.

Source: NYT

I disagree with the assessment up to a point. Sure, Pakistan scares me more because they have nuclear weapons and an intelligence service that is still riddled with Qaeda sympathizers. However, its that porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the Qaeda is hiding (mind you under Pakistani protection in Waziristan) that should be secured to prevent their easy access in and out.

So, both areas are an immediate security threat and should be secured. Joe Biden has a point but he just does not see the bigger picture I think. The Talib’s and Qaeda both are running rampant throughout the countries and both need to be secured in order to round up all the players.

Frankly though, they will have a much harder time of it in Pakistan trying to get not only the people behind the efforts, but also to change the paradigm of how things are run there. Right now I fear that the graft, right wing religious bents, and overall climate will only lead to a nuclear device being exfiltrated out of the country and eventually used against the world.

I also don’t think that the US populace really understands the political and religious morays in the region well enough to make a decision here. All that really seems to be the case for the temperature of the nation now is “troop reduction is what we want” and I can’t blame them. Iraq is, was, and always will be a debacle that we were led into under false pretense. It’s a war that should not have been (yet) and we should have focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran long ago. Instead we went into a strong man’s hood and kicked his ass, only opening the door for the shaheed to pour in and create an insurgent war.

In the end, the American populace and the president and veep, need to see that we are in deep and there will be no pulling out for some time to come. Lets start focusing on shoring and securing Pakistan while cutting off that exfiltration point for Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Lets tighten the noose and not let them get that flow of shaheed, weapons, and food eh?

All scenarios require more boots on the ground… But they also require smart and cohesive plans. Look at what the Russians did in Afghanistan. Even with all their forces they still lost to a rag tag band of goatherds in the mountains…

Das vidanya comrades..