Athens dismisses Turkish newspaper reports concerning terrorist ‘training camps’

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras on Tuesday dismissed claims made by Turkish newspaper about the discussion that took place between the Greek and Turkish prime ministers on terrorism, during their meeting on Monday.

Replying to reporters’ questions regarding the articles appearing in the Turkish dailies “Hurriyet” and “Haberturk”, Delavekouras replied that their reports were “false and groundless.”

“It appears that someone was irritated by the fact that the two prime ministers had a clear stance on terrorism,” he said.

According to “Hurriyet,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had presented his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras with “names and photographs from the training of terrorists at a camp in Lavrio.”

It also claims that during a recent meeting between the two men in Qatar, Erdogan had demanded the dismantling of such camps and the extradition of terrorists to Turkey but the Greek side has denied their existence.

(Athens News Agency)

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“Sentence first, verdict afterwards.”  Lewis Carroll

If you are going on holiday this summer, or just staying around the comforts of home and looking for a thrilling summer read, check out my new novels on Amazon.Kindle (and other e-book retailers) On both Kindle US and UK websites as well.

Almost Perfect is a captivating thriller involving the Inquisition, the Cathars of 12th Century France, and modern-day financial greed in the city of London.

If you liked The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, and thrillers by Robert Ludlum, then get ready for a fast paced thriller set in 12th Century France with mysterious ties to the heart of today’s London financial centre.

Matt Brennan, a brilliant young investment banker in the City of London, is celebrating his greatest deal yet: orchestrating a mega-merger that will transform the electronics industry. He is rich and successful beyond his wildest hopes.   But his personal life is a mess.  Fed up with his constant work, his wife is about to walk out on him.  And he is plagued by mysterious dreams …of the Inquisition.

When Matt travels to Carcassonne in Southern France to buy a house he hopes will put his marriage and his life back together, he is plunged into the mysteries of the Cathar Sect, a fanatical branch of mediaeval Catholicism also known as the ‘the Perfects’.

As he unlocks their secrets, his life is at stake.  And Matt Brennan is about to discover that no man, and no religion, is ever perfect.

‘Almost Perfect’ is an enthralling thriller that straddles the centuries with consummate skill. It combines the plotting of Dan Brown, with the action of Steve Berry, and historical knowledge of Kate Mosse, and the story-telling of Lee Child.

• ‘A knock-out book. John Childress is at the top of his game.” – Matt Lynn, author of the best-selling Death Force thrillers.

• “A brilliant, thrilling combination of the ancient and modern.” – Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Trade Off.

Game Changer

When a suicide bomber blows herself up in Washington, President Roswell Clayton Pierce realises that nothing will ever be the same again. It is a Game Changer. 

When Matt Richards sees bodies strewn across the US capital, he realises that there are some professions from which a man can never quit. It is a Game Changer. 

And so begins a deadly game of cat and mouse against the most ruthless terrorists in the world. One man’s reputation will be decided, and a Presidency will be put to the test as the world stands on the brink of global chaos. 

Because when the Game changes, you either change with it…or you die. 

From the terror camps of Beirut and the Lebanon, to the politics of the Middle East and Washington, Game Changer is a brilliant action thriller, combining the meticulous research of Frederick Forsyth, the military and intelligence know-how of Tom Clancy, the global reach of Robert Ludlum and the pulsating story-telling of Lee Child. 

• “This will grip you from the first page, and won’t let go until the last” – Matt Lynn, author of the best-selling Death Force thrillers. 

• “The best thriller of the year.” – Tom Kasey, author of the best-selling Trade-Off.

I hope you enjoy these thriller novels and have a great summer.

Tight Lines . . .

John R Childress

john@johnrchildress.com

Jonathan Evans said the terror network has taken advantage of the unstable region, in the wake of last year’s revolutions, to spread its influence and create new bases for attacks.

British would-be jihadis are known to be receiving training in the likes of Libya and Egypt, mirroring what has already happened in the Yemen and Somalia.

And they could return to attack the UK in what is a “new and worrying development”, he said.

Mr Evans, the Director General of MI5, warned of the emerging threats in a rare speech, his first in almost two years.

In his talk, he:

“Revealed that the intelligence services and police are preparing for a potential threat from extremists and even lone wolf terrorists should the Eurozone collapse.”

 “Warned State-sponsored and criminal cyber attacks risked “real world damage” including one British company which has suffered estimated losses of £800m ($1.2 billion) after being hacked.”

“Suggested a potential return to State-sponsored terrorism by Iran.”

“Said it would be “extraordinary and self-defeating” if the Government’s proposed new email and phone snooping powers did not go ahead.”

“Popular revolts across Arab nations were last year welcomed around the world and resulted in, among others, the end of Hosni Mubarak’s reign in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya.”

 Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, described events at the time as “incredibly exciting”.

But in the inaugural Lord Mayor’s Annual Defense and Security Lecture in London on the 24^th, Mr Evans warned a new terror threat has emerged from an “Arab world in radical transition”.

He said while the events offered long term hope there was a “more immediate problem” as al-Qaeda has returned to its native home.

“Today parts of the Arab world have once more become a permissive environment for al-Qaeda.

“This is the completion of a cycle – al-Qaeda first moved to Afghanistan in the 1990s due to pressure in their Arab countries of origin. They moved on to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban.”

“And now some are heading home to the Arab world again. And a small number of British would be jihadis are also making their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen.

“Some will return to the UK and pose a threat here. This is a new and worrying development and could get worse as events unfold.”

Attribution: Tom Whitehead, UK Telegraph

(AaronDykesandAlexJones) – Soros-Hand in Middle East Strategy of Tension is Sign of New World Order’s Offshore Corporate Cartel, Not Leftist Agitators

Alex Jones breaks down the real factors behind Egypt’s uprising in a special video report where he rebuffs the theories of Glenn Beck, who tries to link the Muslim Brotherhood to radical socialism in the United States. While George Soros has significant influence over these mid-east events, he alone is not the ringmaster in the global game of chess. He is, rather, among those in control of an offshore globalist corporate cartel that dominates the finance of all nations and seeks influence over their domestic affairs.

For Beck, current events in Egypt are occurring as a result of their connection to his pet-list of far-Left idealogues, like Van Jones, and a host of organizations and unions allegedly linked to Soros. While many of these connections are legitimate, Beck obscures altogether the long history of Pentagon intervention in foreign politics. The CIA and U.S. military have, for decades, sponsored and created radical Islamic factions, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban and more.

What is really underway is a complex series of destabilization efforts all across the Middle East region, and perhaps the making of a wider war. Unlike Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose pursuit of Communist infiltrators in the U.S. government was based upon real evidence but skewed to appear hysterical and exaggerated, Glenn Beck’s relentless “outing” of Communist influence in modern U.S. and foreign affairs tends to smokescreen the coordinated actions, covert and otherwise, of monopoly capitalists toying with the nations of the world on their “grand chessboard” map.

Glenn Beck is right to warn of a “New World Order,” but wrong to nod to Soros as its captain. Its operators include the most wealthy and dominant bloodlines and their strategic managers. Geo-politics looms large in the scope of perpetual war and rising unrest in the Middle East. Control over the region, along with Central Asia, is believed to be essential for global domination. This aspiring New World Order will divide these nations in order to conquer them, even as they consolidate the major regions under a larger world government.

ARC OF INSTABILITY: CONTROL THROUGH MIDDLE-EAST & CENTRAL ASIAN CHAOS IS THE KEY TO GLOBAL DOMINANCE

What really goes on behind the scenes, by those really in power, is staggering to comprehend, without the knowledge that true imperialists always seek to play both sides. Those who think world events are governed by emotion-driven blowback alone might think again; there is more going on. Under the direction of Wall Street, the United States has financed, built and stabilized our greatest enemies, including Nazi Germany, Communist China and Soviet Russia. Sophisticated technology, including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons were transferred to “enemy” states through diplomatic and intelligence channels, with little need for true espionage. Smaller and more tumultuous territories were later given these weapons and technologies as well.

Sources:
Anthony Sutton: Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
Anthony Sutton: Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development
Anthony Sutton: National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union
Maoist China backed by West: The Boxer Rebellion
Smedley Butler: War is a Racket

“The Great Game” – 19th Century competition between British and Russian interests. In the 20th and 21st Centuries, this game continues, though modified by updated factors, in the quest for the new world order endgame via Central Asia lands (yes, the chess reference is deliberate).

Post-WWII redistribution of the territorial “pie” divided the world for a new era. Anglo-American & Western nations became the “First World,” the Soviet sphere, behind the Iron Curtain, became the “Second World.” Many former colonial areas in Latin America, Africa and Asia became the “emerging” and “developing” “Third World.”

Spykman’s Rimland (pictured above), coined during WWII by “godfather of containment” Nicholas Spykman, clearly illustrates the centralized pressures surrounding the crescent shaped swath dividing the First and Second World– from the Europe mainland, to Northern Africa and the Middle East nations, to lower and eastern Asia.

For many reasons, including the struggle for control of resources and dominance over the geo-political arena, this band of lands is destined to remain contentious. For those whose creed is “Ordo Ab Chao,” the chaos of war-torn regions means divisive energy from which to leverage political power.

The master geo-politicians like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger, working on behalf of the combined offshore global banking cartels, openly brag about their exploits on the “Grand Chessboard.” Through the Hegelian dialectic, our times are shaped by divisions over race, creed and nationality. Tension and conflict hold up the rule of corporate and military interests.

Literally hundreds of Third World governments have been over-turned by revolutions, assassinations, and staged coups under the guise of Cold War tensions fueled by the black ops warfare of the CIA/KGB factions.

Bitter disputes like those between Arab states and Israel or India and Pakistan assured those pulling the strings that the only stable governments and strong leaders that would emerge in the Spykman’s Rimland ‘arc of instability’ would be those controlled from behind the scenes. Even then, charismatic heads of state and petty dictators alike have always been dispensable.

Sources:
Carroll Quigley: The Anglo-American Establishment
Caroll Quigley: Tragedy & Hope
Arnold Toynbee: Acquaintances (See T.E. Lawrence, Nehru, et al.)
T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia): Seven Pillars of Wisdom
On Toynbee – Arnold Toynbee: Pro-Arab or Pro-Zionist?

Arab and Muslim groups have alternately been both allies and enemies to the West. The contradictions between the distinctions of friend and foe underscore the larger picture, the real story behind the wars and fight for global domination over resources, energy, politics and culture. Here are some of the most compelling bits of evidence that point towards a grand deception in the Middle East and long-term stratagem for perpetual conflict in the region:

• Uncertainty over the current uprising in Egypt is underscored by the Western roots of the looming revolution. The London Telegraph’s original headline, “America’s secret backing for rebel leaders behind Egyptian uprising” tells a story indeed.

• Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was removed via a CIA destabilization coup in 1953 known as Operation Ajax [see Terrorstorm]. Mossadegh, who was educated in the West and had a moderate, secular rule, had defied the oil companies in attempt to nationalize energy profits.

• The Muslim Brotherhood, now pivotal in Egyptian political turmoil, has been Western sponsored for decades. The CIA and other intelligence agencies partnered with the Brotherhood in opposing Nasser, who died in 1970. Similarly, Israeli, British and U.S. intelligence proved to be behind the formation and leadership of Hamas, considered an anti-Western terrorist organization.

• The United States Department of Education and State Department sponsored pro-jihadist textbooks sent to Afghanistan to radicalize children to grow up and fight the Soviet menace. The books remained a scandal when they proved to have influenced a generation of fighters that would be associated with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

•In 1979, then National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and the contingent of U.S. backers saw these Afghans as “freedom fighters.” By the late 90s, they became more widely regarded as terrorists, who, by 2001, would grow to ‘hate our freedoms.’

• Brzezinski admitted in a 1998 interview with Nouvel Observateur that he had sponsored the Afghan warriors at least six months before the Soviet invasion, and remained “proud” of his role, quipping “What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”

• The United States partnered with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War during which over a million people were killed. The later wars/invasions under Bush, Sr., and Bush, Jr., were both waged with personal zeal against Hussein, who was patently armed and put into power by the West before he became a top enemy.

• The Clash of Civilizations thesis carved out by Samuel Huntington frames the geo-political debate of the 21st Century around divisive cultural and religious differences, citing the likelihood of widespread ideological conflict between massive regions, as in the likes of Western culture pitted against the Muslim world.

• Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden would be blamed for the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and the 9/11 attacks. An examination of the real evidence behind America’s public enemy number one reveals that bin Laden was a U.S. asset known by the code name “Tim Osman.”

•Many of the alleged hijackers would be issued Visas to travel to the U.S. despite appearing on watchlists; their entry was approved by higher-ups and later became a scandal. Evidence put forward by FBI whistleblower and translator Sibel Edmonds indicates that the real 9/11 operation involved a ring of international intelligence including the U.S., the U.K., Israel, Turkey and others.

More on 9/11:
Michael Springman on Alex Jones TV: CIA Ordered Visas for 15 of 19 Hijackers in Jeddah
9/11 Encyclopedia: Michael Springman
Newsweek: Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases
Sibel Edmonds: FBI Whistleblower exposes foreign intelligence ring behind 9/11

Anwar al-Awlaki, who has emerged as the post-9/11 terrorist ringleader allegedly responsible for the Fort Hood shooter, the Underwear Bomber, the Time Square hoax-bomb and other smaller-scale attacks, was revealed as a Pentagon asset. Declassified documents show he dined at the Pentagon in the months following 9/11 as an invited guest at an event sponsored by the office of the Secretary of Defense.

• The attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound flight was blamed on one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was subsequently arrested and now faces trial. The official terrorist incident story fell apart, however, when fellow passengers and Detroit-based attorneys, Kurt and Lori Haskell, witnessed a “sharp-dressed man” escorting the accused terrorist onto the flight without a passport. Despite the FBI’s initial story that Abdulmutallab acted alone without other incident, the Haskell’s also indicated seeing other suspects after landing and other suspicious individuals during and after the incident on board the flight. The Haskell’s story maintained credibility. Later testimony from Patrick F. Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management, revealed that an ‘unnamed agency’ objected to revoking Abdulmutallab’s visa, allegedly in order to pursue a wider case in the terror network. The incident helped bring in naked body scanners in airports and contributed to re-invigorating the phony War on Terror.

Sources:
Kurt Haskell on Alex Jones TV: FBI Protecting Bomber’s Accomplice
Kurt Haskell Exclusive: Christmas Day Bomber Assisted by U.S. State Dept.
Tarpley – State Department Admits: Detroit Christmas Bomber Was Deliberately Allowed to Keep US Entry Visa, Board His Flight
BOMBSHELL: Evidence Clearly Indicates Staged Attack on Detroit Flight

Senator Joseph McCarthy: Communists in Government, or Red Scare?
Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman (& Response)
VIDEO – McCarthy-Army Hearings

Source: Infowars

.

This government report concerning the Muslims of America-connected group Jamaat ul-Fuqra is from 2005, but critics point out that the compounds are still thriving, even though several members have been arrested over the past couple of decades. The map on the right shows known Jamaat ul-Fuqra terrorist acts in the United States during the 1980s and 90s. Despite this wide variety of crimes extending back many years, the government, media and ‘neighbors’ are downplaying the danger of this group continuing to operate on U.S. shores.

• fire: left mouse
• movement: mouse

Later this week, diplomatic efforts will see the coming together of the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan in an attempt to redraw the relationship either nation shares with its neighbour – largely to talk tough on a serious problem, that being terror. This exercise, if successful, could lay down the foundation for a more composite dialogue in the future that will hopefully improve the level of confidence that both nations need in order to jointly tackle and address a slew of problems they have been facing, ranging from social, political, economic to the most important aspect of security systems.

But before all this is to begin, Pakistan needs to accept the fact that it’s boundaries are haven to many radical elements that threaten not only Indian security but also have been hard hitting on its own democracy. It may choose to call these elements as non-state actors, but the fact remains that these actors operate from Pakistani territory and are funded and aided by parts of the Pakistani establishment namely the ISI and the army. That this is factually so can be affirmed, among other incidents, by what was the brazenly customary presence of the former head of the ISI – Lt. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed at annual conferences of the Lashkar at Muridke. And that is not all. The attacks conducted in Mumbai by the group dispatched to do so on 26/11 in 2008 bore the hallmark of a very well crafted military operation, suggesting that the handlers of this operation were indeed part of the armed brass in Pakistan.

Today, after years of patronage and unconditional support to groups like the Lashkar, Pakistan has lost all control over them and chooses to echo to the world it’s utter helplessness in reining them in, in the hope that the international community will be overcome by the incidents within it’s borders and thus accord some sympathy. What it has done is create a dangerous network of well trained people who can lie low until the opportune moment and carry out a debilitating attack when needed. One such incident was witnessed in Pune, India, a few days ago, on 13th February, when an explosive device claimed the lives of 15 innocent people! Sleeper cells, hidden deep, and forever vigilant and abreast of their ideology are being used to threaten the secure fabric of India, and their handlers in Pakistan have sworn to step up the ante in a more violent manner. This is precisely what Pakistan needs to be cognizant of and admitting to when it’s foreign secretary Salman Bashir meets his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, in just a few days.

It needs to understand and accept the responsibility for the existence of such an elaborate network of sleeper cells and sincerely work towards dismantling this apparatus in the hope that this scourge is controlled, for any and all dialogue in a composite manner can only be initiated after the problem of security is addressed. Furthermore, the Pakistani establishment must refrain from falsely implicating India for its security woes, which in effect have been as a result of it’s involvement with radically fundamentalist elements operating unchecked within it’s periphery.

Why then is India not right in going to the table with minimal expectations and focusing primarily on issues such as terrorism and security? Why must Jammu & Kashmir be a part of the agenda? India is surely justified in voicing its concerns over what has come to be known as the Karachi Project – a scheme being orchestrated by the Lashkar and its collaborators in the ISI to engineer attacks across India with the help of fugitive jihadis. Besides, there are growing inputs of cadres being given systematic arms training in Pakistan, something that is conducted by the LeT and sponsored by the ISI.

For now, one needs to be cautiously optimistic on how these talks would set guidelines for the future, and more importantly what they will bring as a result thereof! It is certainly foolish to assume that long standing issues can be solved with just a round of talks – they will not! Issues can only be solved by measurable actions and those need to emanate from Pakistan in the form of clamping down on terrorist camps and their infrastructure. But this is more deep rooted than one can imagine, since the complicity of the Pakistani establishment is significant here, by virtue of the working relationship the ISI shares with the Lashkar and many such groups. Such an arrangement has a lot of Anti-India sentiment written all over it and for that to change will take more and just a conscious effort.

Until then, many exchanges will happen over the table. One only hope that they remain over the table and not across the border!

By Nicholas Contompasis

Friday, December 25, 2009

Today, Al Qaeda, from Yemen authorized an attack on America by attempting to blow up a US air carrier. A 23 year old Abdul Mutallab also known as Umar Farouk Abdulmutalib was apprehended by a passenger while he was attempting to ignite a liquid explosive. He is now with U.S. authorities being questioned. The White House finally has admitted that this is a terrorist attack. Of course this can’t be, since we no longer have a war on terror and any actions such as today’s is called something more mundane.

This seems to be a retaliatory strike against America, after last week’s attacks on Al Qaeda training camps in Yemen killing dozens of terrorists.

I feel that this is just the beginning of many smaller attacks against American interests. It is general knowledge that there are thousands of Muslim terrorists out there that will sacrifice their lives for this distorted religion. This person was on a terror watch list but did get through by boarding at a foreign airport destine for Detroit.

READ FULL STORY >

and

Terrorists bent on killing America and Americans.

Let

Me

Make

This

Perfectly

Clear

1. Any attempts to turn the trial in NY City of 9/11 terrorists into a 3 ring circus and a forum on American interogation techniques or what is wrong with America will be met with:

• A backlash of outrage such as never before witnessed in this country.
• The Tea Party held recently in Washington DC will pale in comparison.
• We will hold all responsible accountable.

2. We are going to flush out all of the terrorist rats out of this country.

• If you are operating a terrorist training camp.
• If you are espousing anti American propaganda from a Mosque or other forum.
• If you are embedded in the US Military or other government agency.

Pack your bags and scurry.

3. We will no longer tolerate political correctness to trump common sense and national security.
4. We will no longer tolerate terrorists getting preferential treatment. These war criminals are not US Citizens and are not protected under the US Constitution.
From The Right Side of Life

“9/11 Terrorists Brought Into US for Criminal Case”

“The Obama Administration is preparing to bring 5 of the terrorists behind the 9/11 attack to New York city to undergo a civilian, criminal trial, where the chief murder is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (IWatchObama has a run-down on the terrorists involved).”
“This summer, I theorized that Attorney General Eric Holder — and his boss — had a hidden agenda in ordering a re-investigation of the CIA for six-year-old alleged interrogation excesses that had already been scrutinized by non-partisan DOJ prosecutors who had found no basis for prosecution. The continuing investigations of Bush-era counterterrorism policies (i.e., the policies that kept us safe from more domestic terror attacks), coupled with the Holder Justice Department’s obsession to disclose classified national-defense information from that period, enable Holder to give the hard Left the “reckoning” that he and Obama promised during the 2008 campaign. It would be too politically explosive for Obama/Holder to do the dirty work of charging Bush administration officials; but as new revelations from investigations and declassifications are churned out, Leftist lawyers use them to urge European and international tribunals to bring “torture” and “war crimes” indictments. Thus, administration cooperation gives Obama’s base the reckoning it demands but Obama gets to deny responsibility for any actual prosecutions.”

Read more:

http://www.therightsideoflife.com/?p=7572

From Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.
“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decapitation of Daniel Pearl”
“Obama kisses the bloody fists of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and bestows upon one of America’s most lethal enemies in the world the gift of the constitutional rights given to an American citizen. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003.

Obama is our worst nightmare. This is evil.”

Read more:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/11/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-decapitation-of-daniel-pearl-.html

I have been receiving information and reading about terrorist camps in this country for many months. Recently I was given some information that is disturbing. I have been doing some more research and am awaiting some specifics.

It was just recently that jailed attorney Leo Haffey warned of activity at a Mosque in the Nashville, TN area.

I am reaching out to my fellow Americans, commenters, blog and website owners. We must expose terrorist camps and other radical Islam threats. We cannot allow to spread what is already, as recent events have born out, a serious situation.

Wells

Talk about home grown terrorist.  Officials are admitting to seeing a large increase of these people traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan for training.  The vast majority  are converts to Islam and Muslims whose families had migrated to the host countries.  Countries took these people in and now they have raised them to know the language, culture and know the system so they can better infiltrate and destroy in the name of Allah.

U.S. and European counter-terrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits — including Americans — are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps. The flow of recruits has continued unabated, officials said, in spite of an intensified campaign over the past year by the CIA to eliminate al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in drone missile attacks.

Since January, at least 30 recruits from Germany have traveled to Pakistan for training, according to German security sources. About 10 people — not necessarily the same individuals — have returned to Germany this year, fueling concerns that fresh plots are in the works against European targets.

“We think this is sufficient to show how serious the threat is,” said a senior German counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Last week, German officials disclosed that a 10-member cell from Hamburg had left for Pakistan earlier this year. The cell is allegedly led by a German of Syrian descent but also includes ethnic Turks, German converts to Islam and one member with Afghan roots.

In the past, such volunteers were largely self-motivated and had to find their own way to South Asia. Today, however, al-Qaeda and its affiliates have developed extensive recruiting networks with agents on the ground in Europe, counterterrorism officials said. The agents provide guidance, money, travel routes and even letters of recommendation so the recruits can join up more easily.

The Obama administration has said that al-Qaeda’s command structure and operations wing have become weaker in the past year because many of its leaders have been killed in drone missile attacks. But in its report, the Dutch intelligence agency offered a different assessment, saying that al-Qaeda’s ability to carry out attacks has generally improved in recent years largely because it has successfully bolstered its alliances with other terrorist groups.

“With the jihadist agenda of those allies becoming more international, at least at the propaganda level, the threat to the West and its interests has intensified,” the Dutch report found.

Of course this report does not cover the “camps” right here in the United States that are operating as training grounds for terrorist.  Our laws protect them until the “do something” criminal! BB

We just did a story on what we feel is the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to keep America safe.

And it generated comments from two sides of the fence, both whom claim to have experience in undercover intellegence operations.
You can read the original article and the comments here.

Of course, we have no means to verify or disprove undercover ops experience of the commenters.

One individual, going under the pseudonym Cherokee Parks, clearly understood the satirical nature of our implying that Janet Napolitano was getting her information from us.
And the point we were trying to make.
The other didn’t.

Regardless, the other person went on about how we have no idea of what is being done in order to keep America safe.
And stated that our “exaggerated journalism”  “reflects poorly on all of us.”
This individual also took the position that these jihadist training camps on American soil are common knowledge.

Let’s tackle that last one first.

After we…Read the rest of this entry

She must have stumbled across us, read some of our commentary, watched the Fox News videos, and started to become aware of what we have been talking about for months.

And we don’t mind her taking credit for our hard work, we just wish she had started paying attention a little sooner.

On October 12th, she made the following statements in an interview with Bloomberg TV:

“It is fair to say there are individuals in the United States who ascribe to al-Qaeda-type beliefs.”
“And so it makes information-sharing, it makes effective law enforcement and it makes the shared responsibility of law enforcement ever so important.”

Ms. Napolitano, we shared the sort of information that you are just now talking about months ago!

Take a look at updates to just two of our reports on this topic:

Back in April, we found that there are at least 35 Jihadist training camps right here in America, primarily on the eastern end of the country.
The Fox News video below outlines the practices of this movement, but our research uncovered more troubling information.

For instance, in just one example of what the government…Read the rest of this entry

* * * * *

Source: DAWN

WASHINGTON, Jan 24: Hours after US missiles killed 22 people in Fata, President Barack Obama convened a meeting of his top national security advisers and endorsed the decision to continue drone strikes into Pakistan.

The US media, quoting unidentified official sources, reported that the first meeting of Mr Obama’s National Security Council focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that the decision to attack alleged terrorist targets in Fata on Friday “dispelled for the moment any notion that Mr Obama would rein in the Predator attacks.”

The Washington Post noted that the strikes “offered the first tangible sign of President Obama’s commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups” in Fata.

At his daily White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the strikes, saying: “I’m not going to get into these matters.”

Remotely piloted Predator drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency have carried out 28 missile attacks in Fata since last summer, killing at least 132 people.

The NYT, quoting Pakistani officials, reported that as many as 100 of them were civilians.

Although US and Pakistani officials insist that the missiles targeted Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, many civilians were also killed in the attacks, making it harder for the country’s shaky government to win support for its decision to join the US-led war against terror.

After Friday’s strikes, a Pakistani security official said in Islamabad that at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly a high-value target such as a senior Al Qaeda or Taliban official, were among the 22 killed.

But US officials told NYT in Washington that “there were no immediate signs that the strikes had killed any senior Qaeda leaders.”

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, however, said that Islamabad “hopes President Obama will be more patient while dealing with Pakistan”.

Appealing to the new US administration to “hear us out,” Mr Haqqani said: “We will review all options if Obama does not adopt a positive policy towards us.”

Meanwhile, the US media reported that President Obama and his top national security team are likely in the coming days to review other counterterrorism measures put in place by the Bush administration. These include former President George W. Bush’s decision to send US Special Operations forces to Fata in July to carry out ground attacks without the approval of the Pakistan government.

The Washington Post noted that the ‘shaky’ Zardari government had hoped for warm relations with the Obama administration, “but members of Mr Obama’s new national security team have already telegraphed their intention to make firmer demands of Islamabad than the Bush administration.”

The Obama administration, the report said, backed up those demands with a threatened curtailment of the plentiful military aid that has been at the heart of US-Pakistan ties for the past three decades.

In August 2007, Mr Obama had declared that he favoured taking direct action in Pakistan against potential threats to US security if Pakistani security forces do not act.

Islamabad, however, had hoped that Mr Obama will tone down his rhetoric after the election.

But his Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated during her Senate confirmation hearing that the new administration will not relent in holding Pakistan to account for any shortfalls in the continuing battle against extremists.

In her written answers to the lawmakers’ questions, published in the US media on Saturday, Secretary Clinton pledged that Washington will “condition” future US military aid on Pakistan’s efforts to close down terrorist training camps and evict foreign fighters.

She also demanded that Pakistan “prevent” the continued use of its historically lawless northern territories as a sanctuary by either the Taliban or Al Qaeda. And she promised that Washington would provide all the support Pakistan needs if it specifically goes after targets such as Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be using Pakistani mountains as a hideout.

At the same time, Ms Clinton pledged to triple non-military aid to Pakistan, long dwarfed by the more than $6 billion funnelled to Pakistani military forces under President George W. Bush through the Pentagon’s counterterrorism office in Islamabad.

As that article discusses, India is continuing to pressure Pakistan to clean house and get rid of terrorism.  It is sad that a tragic catalyst was needed to bring the political community around to finally pressuring Pakistan, but, as I have said before, this just may be the perfect opportunity to take care of a serious problem of terrorism in Pakistan through peaceful means.

Some examples of Pakistan’s terrorist problem: For years, everyone has had a fairly well-founded belief that Osama bin Laden is hanging out in northern Pakistan; there are known terrorist training camps that anyone who can read wikipedia can learn about; and the group that carried out the Mumbai attacks was so politically powerful in Pakistan that it took several days for the weight of the entire international community to urge their arrest.  Pakistan is at least turning a blind eye to the presence of terrorism, and at worst actually supporting it.

It doesn’t help, of course, that the Pakistani government–which we do not question because it is a “democracy”–might still be funding Lashkar-e-Taiba; at the very least, their reluctance to arrest it leaders–and the subsequent speed with which they were arrested–does not inspire confidence.  Add that to the fact that a large portion of Pakistan is completely lawless and unsupervised (the tribal areas where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding) and Pakistan looks more and more like a place that needs some attention from the international community.

The world’s high beams have rounded the bend and are now pointed squarely at Pakistan.  With enough political pressure after this tragic event, Pakistan should have no other choice than to stop turning a blind eye to terrorism.   The U.S. should seize this opportunity to advance the goals of its “War on Terror” without any military action and before any conflict arises between Pakistan and its neighbor, India.

Of course, even diplomacy is difficult in this case.  Pakistan is a “democracy,” and Bush refused to get involved because of the fragile nature of our relationship with Pervez Musharraf, who some viewed for a long time as the only thing keeping Pakistan from an Islamic theocracy.  With Musharraf’s resignation and the subsequent election of Asif Ali Zardari (you will remember him as the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated a year ago), it seems that Pakistan’s democracy has in fact solidified somewhat, and, in retrospect, Musharraf’s military dictatorship was probably not a good surface for us to have rested our weight on for so long (although this is still somewhat up in the air).

Even as we express outrage, there are important lessons to absorb for our own foreign policy.  It is widely known that Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group behind the Mumbai attacks, received its inceptional funding from the CIA and the Pakistani ISI in order to help the fight against the Soviet Union in Pakistan.  They join a club that includes one of our favorite people, Osama bin Ladin himself and his mujahadeen, as direct recipients of U.S. funding in that conflict.

This is not to say that interference in Afghanistan in the 1980s was wrong (I mean, who didn’t cheer for Charlie Wilson in last year’s movie?), but it clearly provides a lesson in how U.S. foreign policy actions can have long term impacts.

President-elect Obama and the international community should join with India to pressure Pakistan to clean house.  With enough pressure and sustained global outrage from both governments and the public over the terror attacks in Mumbai, there is serious room for persuading Pakistan in the coming weeks and doing a lot to fight terrorism in the world.

Let’s just hope that pushing it off the news doesn’t close this opportunity.

Looks like Padilla’s defense team wisely tried to put some distance between their client and his more savvy co-defendants. But I’m not sure about the wisdom of placing so much emphasis on whether Padilla actually filled out the notorious registration form, or how his fingerprints wound up on it. To me (as I wrote in my previous post), the real issue is that the information on the form reveals very little about what was in Padilla’s mind (assuming that he did fill it out), and there is nothing else in the record going to his intent either.

 What struck me today is how little we know about the mind of Mr. Padilla.  The lynchpin of the government’s presentation today was the notorious “Mujahideen data form,” which Padilla allegedly completed to register at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.  While the evidence that Padilla actually filled out the form is quite convincing, the information which he supplied is rather parochial, and in the nature of the type of information people supply on forms every day — name, birthdate, languages spoken, education, marital status, etc.  It hardly suffices as much of a window into Padilla’s mind (and this is all the evidence we have directly from Padilla’s mind, along with his voice recorded on a few phone calls).  The prosecution dealt with this issue by attempting to place the form in the context where it was discovered: in a blue binder containing forms filed out by other individuals, some of which contained incendiary statements equivalent to “My hobby is killing Americans as part of the global jihad,” and the like.  Such statements are surely inciminating as to their authors, but Padilla’s form contained no such words, and it is fair to ask, why not, if it is indeed true that the act of filling out the form was part and parcel of Padilla’s commitment to violent jihad.  Of course, there are many possible answers to that question (one of which may be Padilla’s shaky grasp of Arabic, the language in which the form was written), but “beyond a reasonable doubt” is (and should be) an arduous standard, and my impression is that the government’s case against Padilla is a tough sell for that reason.