LivingWatersForum.com

By KATHY GANNON
The Associated Press
Updated 2:49 p.m. CT, Sun., April 18, 2010
MSNBC.com
Source of Article

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban are moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer showdown with insurgents, according to a Taliban commander with close ties to senior insurgent leaders.

NATO and Afghan forces are stepping up operations to push Taliban fighters out of the city, which was the Islamist movement's headquarters during the years it ruled most of Afghanistan. The goal is to bolster the capability of the local government so that it can keep the Taliban from coming back.

The Taliban commander, who uses the pseudonym Mubeen, told The Associated Press that if military pressure on the insurgents becomes too great "we will just leave and come back after" the foreign forces leave.

Despite nightly raids by NATO and Afghan troops, Mubeen said his movements have not been restricted. He was interviewed last week in the center of Kandahar, seated with his legs crossed on a cushion in a room. His only concession to security was to lock the door.

He made no attempt to hide his face and said he felt comfortable because of widespread support among Kandahar's 500,000 residents, who like the Taliban are mostly Pashtuns, Afghanistan's biggest ethnic community.

"Because of the American attitude to the people, they are sympathetic to us," Mubeen said. "Every day we are getting more support. We are not strangers. We are not foreigners. We are from the people."

It is difficult to measure the depth of support for the Taliban among Kandahar's people, many of whom say they are disgusted by the presence of both the foreign troops and the insurgents. Many of them say they are afraid NATO's summer offensive will accomplish little other than trigger more violence.

Orders from Omar

Mubeen said Taliban attacks are not random but are carefully planned and ordered by the senior military and political command that assigns jobs and responsibilities to its rank and file. The final arbiter is the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who heads the council, or shura, that decides strategic goals passed down the ranks to commanders in the field, he said.

"We are always getting instructions from our commanders, what suicide attacks to carry out, who to behead if he is a spy," Mubeen said, gesturing with a maimed hand suffered during fighting in 1996 when the Taliban were trying to gain control of the capital of Kabul.

Then, like now, his enemies were members of the Northern Alliance, dominated by Afghanistan's minority ethnic groups and returned to power by the U.S.-led coalition following the Taliban's collapse in 2001.

Mubeen, a native of Zabul province, worked with the Taliban's civil aviation minister, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, during the Taliban's five-year rule. In the final days before the Taliban abandoned Kandahar in 2001, Mubeen played a crucial logistical role, helping move weapons and supplies to hideouts outside the city.

Mullah Mansoor was one of two senior Taliban figures named by Mullah Omar to replace the No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader, who was arrested in Pakistan in February.

Mubeen said that in the first years after the Taliban were routed, fighters had to survive in the mountains, rarely making forays into Afghan towns and villages. He attributed the Taliban comeback to deep resentment — especially among ethnic Pashtuns — to the presence of foreign military forces and public disgust with the Afghan government.

'More sophisticated' attacks vowed

"Our brothers are already here and ready," he said. "Our people are skilled now. They know a lot of things, how to make things more difficult and to be more sophisticated in our attacks."

Mubeen said Taliban fighters had received better training, although he would not say where and by whom.

"But we were interested to get the training and we understood that we needed the training," he said.

Mubeen said the Taliban's main goal in the war is the establishment of sharia, or Islamic law, in Afghanistan. When they ruled the religious militia enforced an antiquated and regressive interpretation of Islamic law that appalled the West, including publicly amputating hands and feet for theft and carrying out public executions.

"We want sharia. That is first. Everything else comes after that," he said. "People want sharia and then development."

Mubeen said he was confident that efforts by President Hamid Karzai and his international partners to win over rank-and-file members with promises of amnesty, jobs and money would not succeed in undermining the insurgents.

"The government and the Americans did a lot of work to make disputes in the Taliban and to give money to the Taliban," he said.

He also said peace negotiations with the Taliban leadership would not take place without the blessing of Mullah Omar.

"The world community should leave our country and then we are ready to negotiate," he said.


***

By NAHAL TOOSI
Associated Press
Source of Article
May 3, 2010, 2 hrs 22 mins ago

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani Taliban promise future attacks on major U.S. cities and appear to claim responsibility for an attempted car bombing in New York in three separate videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said Monday.

U.S. authorities have played down the potential connection between the Pakistani militant network and the car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square, saying the group does not have the global infrastructure to carry out such a strike. However, the Pakistani Taliban is allied with militant networks such as al-Qaida, which could aid in expanding its reach.

Two of the videos feature Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, providing the strongest evidence to date that he survived a U.S. missile strike in January.

Police in New York found the potentially powerful car bomb on Saturday. It had apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle. The vehicle contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, officials said.

The most substantial of the militant videos is nearly nine minutes long, according to IntelCenter, a U.S.-based group that monitors militant media. In it, Mehsud does not specifically mention New York, but says he is speaking on April 4 of this year, and promises that, "(God willing), very soon in some days or a month's time, the Muslim (community) will see the fruits of most successful attacks of our fedayeen in USA."

"Fedayeen" usually refers to suicide bombers, which the car bomb attempt in New York did not involve.

Mehsud also refutes earlier Pakistani and American claims that he died in a U.S. missile strike in January, referring to reports about his demise as propaganda.

A picture of Mehsud next to a map of the United States showing explosions in three cities coast to coast is featured in another video that surfaced, IntelCenter said. However, the map is not detailed enough to identify which cities.

The clip is 2 minutes, 19 seconds long and was purportedly made on April 19. Audio attributed to Mehsud says that the group's main targets from now on are U.S. cities, and that "good news will be heard within some days or weeks."

An additional video was about 1 minute, 11 seconds long and appears to refer to the New York scare, though it does not mention any specific location or that it was a car bomb, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, another militant media monitor.

A voice attributed to a Pakistani Taliban militant acts as if the attack was successful, and calls it revenge for the U.S. missile strike killing of ex-Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud as well as the recent slaying of al-Qaida in Iraq leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri. The latter two were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops last month north of Baghdad.

SITE, which is also U.S.-based, first uncovered the video on YouTube. The tape later appeared to have been removed from the website. It was not immediately clear if militants prepared the video in anticipation of a successful attack but then removed it after the car bomb failed to explode.

In a copy of the tape provided by SITE, an unidentified voice speaking in Urdu, the primary language in Pakistan, says the group takes "full responsibility for the RECENT ATTACK IN THE USA."

The videos list grievances against the United States. One clip says the attack comes in response to American "interference and terrorism in Muslim Countries, especially in Pakistan for (the) Lalmasjid operation," a reference to the Pakistani army's 2007 storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad where militants were holed up.

The claims in the three videos could not be immediately be independently verified, and U.S. officials have played down the group's potential involvement. New York City's police commissioner said there's no evidence of a Taliban link to the failed car bomb, while the White House has declined to comment on the claims.

If they turn out to be genuine, however, it would be the first time the Pakistani Taliban has struck outside of South Asia.

Pakistan considers the network it's No. 1 internal threat, and the army here has pursued offensives against the group that are believed to have significantly weakened it.

The network also has no known global infrastructure like al-Qaida, though it professes the same hatred of the U.S. and has threatened to attack it. In at least one past instance, the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack it played no role in — a mass shooting in Binghamton, N.Y. in April 2009

Still, the Pakistani Taliban have proved remarkably resilient and crafty. For instance, since mid-January, Pakistani and U.S. officials had come to increasingly believe that Hakimullah had died in a U.S. missile strike. Only recently did the Pakistani intelligence agencies revise that assessment.

The group also is believed to have played a role in a suicide bombing at a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan that killed seven of the agency's employees late last year. Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in a video with the would-be suicide attacker, a Jordanian the agency was cultivating as an informant, in which the bomber listed grievances against the U.S.

Press Trust of India
Article Source
Posted online: Fri Sep 24 2010, 03:03 hrs

New York : The CIA is running a 3,000-strong covert army to hunt down leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with US officials saying that the force is proving “highly effective”.

The heavily-armed irregular force manned entirely by Afghan personnel operates in small units called Counter-terrorism Pursuit Teams is modelled after the US Special Forces, the officials said confirming the disclosure made in a new book — Obama’s Wars — by journalist Bob Woodward. The brigade sized force, officials said, is “one of the best Afghan fighting force that has made a major contribution to stability and security”.

The book said the force trained and bankrolled by the CIA and had been operating for nearly eight years to hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders. The Afghan force reportedly drawn out from private militias and armies of former warlords has been trained in CIA’s facilities in the US.

The force has been designed to pursue “highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan”, The Washington Post reported. The New York Times said these CIA forces conducted clandestine raids into Pakistan as part of stepped-up campaign against al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban havens there.

“The covert army captures and kills Taliban fighters and seeks support in Tribal areas,” The New York Times quoted Pentagon officials as saying. Afghan units were closely working with American Green Berets to go after Taliban fighters.

“We need to make clear to the people that the cancer is in Pakistan”, the book quotes Obama as saying, adding that the CIA had turned this into its classic old strategy of setting up of a lethal proxy unit. Pakistan says it is unaware of such a force.


***

By Nic Robertson, Paul Cruickshank and Paul Armstrong, CNN
Article Source
September 29, 2010 -- Updated 2131 GMT (0531 HKT)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A deadly plan uncovered by Western intelligence services to attack targets across Europe could indicate a change in tactics by al Qaeda, security analysts say.

German intelligence officials say much of the information about the plot has come from a German citizen with suspected links to al Qaeda who was detained in Kabul in July and handed over to U.S. forces.

The officials say he has spoken of a plan similar to the 2008 assault on the Indian city of Mumbai and had told interrogators the plan had the blessing of Osama bin Laden.

In that attack, spread over three days, more than 160 people were killed as 10 men attacked and occupied a number of prominent buildings including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, the city's Victoria Terminus train station, and the Jewish cultural center, Chabad House.

India blamed the attacks on the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.

With al Qaeda struggling to replicate attacks on the scale of the devastation witnessed on September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, security experts believe the Mumbai attack, which gained worldwide publicity, may provide the template for its future operations.

"This new plot is perhaps an indication that al Qaeda is trying to change its strategy," said CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. "The high-profile attacks that it has always liked using explosives are clearly getting harder and harder to perpetrate.

"The cells are being spotted and it's harder to keep undercover when you're making bombs. Even buying the material to make bombs is getting harder, so many analysts believe al Qaeda would be unable to mount a 9/11-style attack in the current climate.

"Therefore Mumbai would have been viewed as successful by the al Qaeda leadership as it killed a large number of people. This type of attack is just as deadly but harder to stop."

In the last year, a number of plots targeting the West have been foiled, including the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner; the failed car bomb attempt in New York City's Times Square and an alleged plan to attack shopping malls in Manchester, England over one holiday weekend in 2009.

Read how the plot was uncovered

CNN Terrorism Consultant Paul Cruickshank says Western intelligence officials are extremely worried about a Mumbai-style attack if al Qaeda chooses "softer" economic targets.

"We're so vulnerable in Europe and the United States," he said. "Guns and ammunition can be concealed easily. They may be harder to access in Europe, but not impossible on the black market."

Last week, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the terrorism threat against the United States has evolved, with homegrown terrorists and a greater diversity in the scope and methods of attack -- making it more difficult to prevent them.

"It is diversifying in terms of sources; it is diversifying in terms of tactics," she said. "The results of these changing tactics are fewer opportunities to detect and disrupt plots."

Al Qaeda's hideouts in the tribal areas that straddle the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have come under greater pressure.

Operations by the Pakistani Army have forced the group into a diminishing area; and the much expanded U.S. drone campaign has disrupted its operations and killed senior figures. But enough of the leadership remains at large and it is a supremely adaptive organization.

"They're down but not out," warned Cruickshank. "Osama bin Laden most definitely signed off on this operation and this is a major fact to bear in mind.

"This is interesting because there has been little in recent times to pinpoint his role in various plots. So he's still in charge, he's still the strategic driving force but not the details guy.

"They may go to him for the big decisions but the detailed operations will be taken care of by people under him who have risen through the ranks in tribal areas of Pakistan, where it has its center, or have come recently from Europe or the U.S."

This diversification has also meant forging links with groups around the world that share al Qaeda's anti-western and jihadist ideology, such as al Shabaab in Somalia and Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

"Al Shabaab is involved in a nationalist struggle in Somalia but has already shown it is willing to strike outside its borders with the recent attack in Uganda," said Robertson. "It has attracted people from the U.S. to go there and join the fight and al Qaeda would like to turn many of them around, creating a wider potential threat there."

Despite a number of failed plots, al Qaeda has retained a command structure -- and has a external operations chief planning operations around the world. U.S. officials say evidence of this emerged in the case of Najibullah Zazi, a U.S. resident, who this year confessed to a plot to carry out suicide bombings in the New York City subway.

U.S. officials allege that a senior al Qaeda handler, Adnan El Shukrijumah, recruited Zazi to conduct suicide bombings in the city with bombs made of hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and high explosive detonators.

An accomplice also confessed to being involved in the plot; a third man is due to go on trial in New York also accused of involvement. Prosecutors allege all three went to Pakistan and received training in making bombs at al Qaeda camps. Shukrijumah is a U.S. citizen who had lived in New York and Florida.

"Even though many al Qaeda plots failed, they have shown they can still send personnel to western countries, said Cruickshank. "The feeling is some attacks will eventually get through. Al Qaeda may be smaller now but they are still very capable of launching deadly attacks."


***

CAIRO, Oct. 27, 2010
Article Source
CBSNews.com




(AP) Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatens in a new audio tape to kill French citizens to avenge their country's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and a new law that will ban face-covering Muslim veils.

In the tape obtained by satellite television station Al-Jazeera and then posted on its website on Wednesday, bin Laden said France was aiding the Americans in the killing of Muslim women and children in an apparent reference to the war in Afghanistan. He said the kidnapping of five French citizens in the African nation of Niger last month was a reaction to what he called France's oppression of Muslims.

"How can it be right that you participate in the occupation of our lands, support the Americans in the killing of our women and children and yet want to live in peace and security?" said bin Laden, addressing the French.

"It is a simple and clear equation: As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured. And as you threaten our security, your security will be threatened. The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression and its impact on our nation, most importantly your withdrawal from the ill-fated Bush war in Afghanistan."

The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified but the voice resembled that of the terror group leader on previous tapes determined to be genuine. France's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tapes by bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, have recently been posted on Al-Jazeera website rather than on sites run by militant Muslims as has been done for years. The shift appears to reflect the unexplained technical difficulties or closures experienced by the militant sites in recent months.

France has about 4,000 troops deployed in and near Afghanistan.

"You need to think of what happened to America as a result of that unjust war," bin Laden said, again addressing the French and referring to the war in Afghanistan. "It's on the verge of bankruptcy ... and tomorrow it will retreat to beyond the Atlantic."

France passed a law this month that will ban the wearing of face-covering burqa-style Muslim veils in public starting in April. Many Muslims have expressed fears the law would stigmatize them.



"If you deemed it your right to ban (Muslim) women from wearing the hijab, then should not it be our right to expel your invading men by striking their necks?" bin Laden said.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot of bin Laden's group, has claimed responsibility for the abductions of five French citizens in Niger and is believed to have taken them to neighboring Mali. The French hostages, as well as a Togolese and a Madagascar national were kidnapped on Sept. 16 while they were sleeping in their villas in the uranium mining town of Arlit.

"The kidnapping of your experts in the Niger is a reaction to your oppression of Muslims," said bin Laden.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in Algeria, merging with al Qaeda in 2006 and spreading through the Sahara and the arid Sahel region. It has increasingly been targeting French interests.

In July, the group said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before. It said the killing was retaliation for the deaths of six al Qaeda members in a French-backed military operation against the group.

Also in July, the French military said it provided technical and logistical assistance to help Mauritanian forces thwart an attack by suspected al Qaeda members in northwest Africa. It said the operation left six extremists dead.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy later described that operation as a "turning point" and said France would provide training, equipment and intelligence to local troops working to fight militants in the Sahel.

A series of warnings has put France and other European countries on high alert in recent weeks, prompting the U.S. State Department to advise American citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions. Speculation on the source of a potential terror threat in France has focused on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.


***

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2010
Article Source
CBSNews.com




(CBS/AP) Last updated 2:00 p.m. Eastern

Suspicious packages containing toner cartridges with wires and powder was found during routine screening of cargo in the United Kingdom, prompting authorities to scour three planes and two trucks in the United States on Friday. Sources tell CBS News that the cartridges also contained a syringe.

Authorities are investigating whether the string of suspicious packages was a dry run for a plot to send bombs through the mail.

Searches were conducted in Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and New York City, but no explosives were found. All the packages believed to be suspicious came from Yemen and were being sent via UPS.

Yemen is the home of the al Qaeda branch that claimed responsibility for an attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas.

Meanhwile, officials for FedEx said the company has confiscated a suspicious package in Dubai that was shipped from Yemen and is cooperating with the FBI.

Cargo planes in the U.K. and Dubai were searched in response to a specific warning that they were carrying suspicious packages originating in Yemen with addresses to synagogues and Jewish centers in Chicago, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

A Joint Terrorism Task Force source tells CBS News that investigators are looking for between 10-20 packages shipped out of the UPS office in Sanna, Yemen during the same time frame.

Authorities are looking for a small device in the packaging similar to the Detroit underwear bomber device, a law enforcement source told CBS News.

The White House says President Barack Obama was notified about the potential terrorist threat.

Officials found a suspicious item during a basic security screening process in the United Kingdom, according to a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

U.K. officials discovered that a toner cartridge on the plane had been manipulated and found wires attached to it and white powder. Tests on the device came back negative for explosives, according to a law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

All the packages being investigated in the U.S. originated from a specific address in Yemen that is connected to the suspicious device found in the U.K., the law enforcement official said. The official would not say where in Yemen the package came from.

Concerns about the possibility of similar and potentially dangerous devices shipped elsewhere prompted officials to check other cargo headed to the U.S.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Kristin Lee says the planes in Philadelphia and Newark were swept. The planes were moved away from terminal buildings so law enforcement officials could investigate.

Two Philadelphia jets belonging to UPS were searched. A federal law enforcement official, who was not authorized to provide information on the investigation, told the AP that nothing suspicious was found on them.

A source with knowledge of the situation in Newark who was not authorized to speak said the FBI and a bomb squad checked two packages there and gave the "all clear."

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it was taking steps to enhance security.

"Some of these security measures will be visible while others will not. The public may recognize specific enhancements including heightened cargo screening and additional security at airports," the DHS statement reads.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that the NYPD removed a package from a UPS truck in Brooklyn, tested it for possible explosives and found it not to be dangerous. The package was an envelope that came from Yemen, appeared to contain bank receipts, and was addressed to the JP Morgan Chase bank in Brooklyn, Kelly said. The package arrived on a plane that landed at Kennedy Airport, he said.

Yemeni authorities reached by the AP declined to comment. Many offices were closed because Friday is a day off in Yemen.

Mike Mangeot, a spokesman for Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc., said two planes in Philadelphia that had come from Cologne, Germany, and Paris were being investigated.

"Out of an abundance of caution, those aircraft have been isolated, and they are looking into the shipments in question there," he said.

Air Cargo Loopholes May Risk Security

All UPS packages are x-rayed and visually inspected, the manager at UPS Sanaa told CBS News.

A third plane had arrived in Newark, N.J., from East Midlands airport in England. That plane was cleared and flew to UPS' main hub in Louisville, Ky., on its usual route, Mangeot said.

In central England, police had evacuated a freight distribution building at East Midlands Airport after a suspicious package was reported at 3:30 a.m. Police and emergency workers examined the package and lifted the security cordon by midmorning, but Leicestershire Constabulary later said officers were re-examining it "as a precaution."

Sarah Furbank, a passenger who was about to board a plane out of East Midlands Airport, said that she had noticed an increased security presence.

There were "quite a few police cars round the edge" of the airport, Furbank told The Associated Press. "Apparently there was an incident earlier according to staff but they didn't go into detail."



***

Mirror.co.uk.com
Article Source
By Nick Owens
31/10/2010

Woman is arrested as agents track down printer plot terrorists

The al-Qaeda cargo bomb was primed to blow up in mid-air and could have exploded over Britain.

Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that the bomb discovered at East Midlands Airport on a US-bound cargo plane could have been set off in an atrocity similar to Lockerbie.

It is believed to have been posted by a woman in the rogue Arab state of Yemen and built by al-Qaeda terrorists.

The PM said: "We believe the device was designed to go off on the aeroplane. There is no early evidence it was designed to take place over British soil, but we can't rule that out."

The Premier's statement came as UK security officials continued to carry out tests on the bomb - concealed in a printer cartridge - which was discovered on a UPS cargo plane.

Meanwhile, authorities in Dubai have released dramatic new pictures of a second bomb - also bound for the US - which terrorists had hidden inside a printer.

Highly potent explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate - PETN - had been tucked inside the printer's toner cartridge with wires linked to a mobile phone SIM card.

A simple phone call would have activated the bomb at 30,000ft and brought down the jet carrying it.

Yesterday the hunt for the terrorists behind the plot focused on the Yemen, home to more than 500 members of al-Qaeda. Authorities in the Arab state, where there is virtually no government, were reportedly searching for another 24 bombs in the capital San'a.

Last night they arrested a woman in connection with both bombs.

Today the Sunday Mirror can also reveal that militants in Yemen have been issued with instructions to use Semtex to launch attacks to cause terror and mayhem throughout the West.

Home Secretary Theresa May chaired a meeting of the emergency committee Cobra yesterday and announced a ban on all cargo flights from the Yemen into or via the UK.

She said: "The target of the device may have been an aircraft and, had it detonated, the aircraft could have been brought down.

"Our investigation remains sensitive. The threat level is already at severe, meaning that a terrorist attack in this country is highly likely. We do not plan to change that threat level at this stage."

A ban on passenger flights from the Yemen, introduced in January, will remain in place. The PM and US President Barack Obama shared a phone call yesterday to discuss the terror alert. The Prime Minister also spoke with President Saleh of Yemen, who said later that the arrested woman had posted both of the bomb packages.

Last night it was suggested that the East Midlands device was so sophisticated that initial examination by forensics experts suggested it did not contain explosives.

"Even when it was examined, the sniffer dogs couldn't detect it," a security source was quoted as saying.

"It was only when forensics experts had a second look at it they realised what it was."

Police in Dubai have confirmed the device found there bore the hallmarks of terror-group al-Qaeda.

A spokesman said: "The parcel was prepared in a professional manner where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer. This tactic carries the hallmarks of methods used by terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda."

Us Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she also suspected al-Qaeda involvement.

The suspect packages - described by President Obama as "a credible terrorist threat" - were addressed to synagogues in the Chicago area.

But security sources think that could be a bluff and that the intention was actually to bring down planes.

The discovery of the packages triggered massive security alerts in the US, UK and Middle East.

Aviation security expert Terry Tozer said British airport passengers can now expect a raft of new draconian security measures driven by the demands from the US.

Powerful weapon of choice PENTAERYTHRITOL tetranitrate, or PETN, is a major ingredient of Semtex and is one of the most powerful explosives known.

Its colourless crystals are hard to detect in a sealed container, making it a favourite of terrorists. Around 100g of PETN could destroy a car, say experts. Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber", tried to set off a PETN device on an American Airlines jet to Miami in 2001.


***

Al-Qaeda calls for new attacks on West

MySinchew
Article Source
2011-02-25 09:53

WASHINGTON, Friday 25 February 2011 (AFP) - In a message released Thursday, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri encouraged extremists everywhere to dream up new ways to attack the West, as the September 11 bombers did nearly 10 years ago.

The 35-minute message -- a video containing only a still picture of Zawahiri in which he can be heard delivering a speech -- was the second in a series titled "A Message of Hope and Glad Tidings to the People of Egypt." It was produced by Al-Qaeda's media arm, as-Sahab.

"If we are not able to produce weapons equal to the weapons of the Crusader West, we can sabotage their complex economic and industrial systems and drain their powers, which fight without a cause, until they run away fleeing," Zawahiri said in the audio message, according to the US-based SITE monitoring service.

He complained that the Muslim world trails behind the West in technological know-how and military weaponry.

"Therefore, the mujahideen (holy warriors) must invent new ways, ways that never dawned on the minds of the West," Zawahiri continued. "An example of this brave and courageous thinking is the use of airplanes as a mighty weapon, as happened in the blessed invasions in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania."

The 9/11 attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead when Al-Qaeda extremists slammed airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Zawahiri's first message last week addressed the popular uprising that led Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down after three decades in power. Al-Qaeda has long advocated that violence is the only way to overthrow regimes.

But a handful of countries across the Middle East and North Africa are now roiled by popular revolts against longtime autocratic rulers.

In his lecture, Zawahiri also criticized the Coptic Christian Orthodox Church, accusing it of provoking Muslims and encouraging conflict.

He called the church a "danger" to Egypt, and urged Arab Christians to avoid fighting Al-Qaeda and not look toward the United States and the West as sources of power and influence.

Zawahiri also denied that Al-Qaeda was behind the New Year's Eve bombing of the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria in Egypt, calling the attack a "consequence" of the church's transgressions.



***

AP Associated Press
Article Source
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI,
March 8, 2011


CAIRO – Clashes between Christians and Muslims escalated on Tuesday with thousands of people burning tires, smashing parked cars and cutting off a main road despite military moves to control a day of violent protests in Egypt's capital.

Tensions have been simmering between Egypt's minority Christian community and its Muslim majority after a Muslim mob burned a church in a Cairo suburb. Egypt's military rulers have since pledged to rebuild the church and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met Monday with the protesters outside the state-television building.

On Tuesday, thousands of Christians demonstrated in locations around the city, saying they were being persecuted. But several of the gatherings descended into violence when the two sides confronted each other in the streets.

About 2,000 people cut off a main road running on the eastern side of the city and pelted motorists with rocks. A crowd of garbage collectors known as the zabaleen — who are predominantly Christians — also demonstrated on a main street near their neighborhood demanding equal rights and better quality of life.

Tensions remain high in Egypt nearly a month after mass protests ousted President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power. The upheaval has plunged many parts of the country into turmoil, with virtually incessant protests, strikes and a higher rate of violent crime.

Also Tuesday, an Egyptian court rejected an appeal by Mubarak and his family against a top prosecutor's move to seize funds that could total in the billions of dollars. The decision clears the way for a criminal investigation and a possible trial of Egypt's former leader.

Mubarak, his wife, two sons and their wives have also been banned from travel abroad.

Judicial officials described the court decision to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

During the pro-democracy uprising, unconfirmed reports that Mubarak and his family might have amassed billions, or even tens of billions of dollars, over their three decades in power, fueled protesters already enraged over massive corruption and poverty in Egypt.

Mubarak, top leaders of his one-time ruling party and other cronies, as well as the powerful military have all profited richly from the corrupt system while nearly half of Egypt's 80 million people live under or near the poverty line set by the World bank at $2 a day.

Mubarak, 82, is suspected of turning a blind eye to corruption by family members and their associates, while many of the allegations of wrongdoing centered on the business activity of his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, as well as Gamal's wife and her family.

Unlike other Arab leaders, particularly those in the oil-rich Gulf nations, Mubarak was far from ostentatious. Whatever wealth he and his family may have had was rarely — if ever — flaunted. But that did not stop Egyptians from swapping stories about the size of their wealth and the allegedly corrupt methods they used to amass it.

The most prominent symbol of their presumed fortune that has surfaced was a town house in London's exclusive Knightsbridge district, which is listed under Gamal Mubarak's name and where he was said to have lived while working as an investment banker in the early 1990s. The town house has become a focal point for many in Egypt as foreign governments begin to either enact, or consider freezing the family's assets.

Gamal Mubarak was the ousted leader's one-time heir apparent, although they never confirmed the plan and remained evasive on the topic almost until the very end. The younger Mubarak rose rapidly through the ranks of his father's National Democratic Party, or NDP, over the past decade to become the country's most powerful politician after the president.

In the NDP, Gamal Mubarak surrounded himself with mega-rich businessmen who sought political careers to promote their business interests. Between them, they introduced far-reaching economic reforms that benefited the businessmen. But any prosperity Egypt ever enjoyed never trickled to the impoverished majority.

Several of those businessmen are now in prison and subject to criminal investigations as the ruling military pushes ahead with a campaign to cleanse the country from the corruption of the ousted regime.

Alaa Mubarak's wealth had been the subject of much speculation well before the political rise of his younger brother. There are allegations that he used the family name to muscle in on profitable enterprises, taking a cut of profits without contributing to the funds invested or work done.


***

By HAMZA HENDAWI,
Associated Press
Article Source
March 9, 2011


CAIRO – Clashes that broke out when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting against the burning of a Cairo church killed at least 13 people and wounded about 140, security and hospital officials said Wednesday.

The Muslims torched the church amid an escalation of tensions between the two religious groups over a love affair between a Muslim and a Christian that set off a violent feud between the couple's families.

The officials said all 13 fatalities died of gunshot wounds.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The late Tuesday night clashes added to a sense of ongoing chaos in Egypt after the momentous 18-day democracy uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. The uprising left a security vacuum when police have pulled out from Cairo and several other cities three days into the uprising.

The police have yet to fully take back the streets, something that has left space for a wave of violent crime and lawlessness in some parts of the nation.

In a separate incident, at least two people were wounded when rival crowds pelted each other with rocks at Cairo's central Tahrir Square, the uprising's epicenter, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene. He said the violence pitted youths camping out at the square to press their demand for a complete break with the ousted regime and another group that is opposed to their continued presence at the square.

The Christian protesters on Tuesday blocked a vital highway, burning tires and pelting cars with rocks. An angry crowd of Muslims set upon the Christians and the two sides fought pitched battles for about four hours.

Mubarak handed power to the military when he stepped down, but the military does not have enough troops to police every street in Cairo, a sprawling city of some 18 million people that, at the best of times, is chaotic.

Even before the uprising unleashed a torrent of discontent, tensions had been growing between Christians and Muslims in this country of 80 million.

On New Year's Day, a suicide bombing outside a Coptic church in the port city of Alexandria killed 21 people, setting off days of protests. Barely a week later, an off-duty policeman boarded a train and shot dead a 71-year-old Christian man and wounding his wife and four others.

Egypt's ruling generals have pledged last week to rebuild the torched church and the country's new prime minister, Essam Sharaf, has met the protesters outside the TV building in downtown Cairo to reassure them that his interim government would not discriminate against them.

But the Christians were not appeased. At least 2,000 of them protested on the highway on Tuesday night and a separate crowd of several hundred has been camping out outside the TV building for days to voice their anger at what they perceive to be official discrimination against them.


***

Anger over Quran burning spreads in Afghanistan

Story By: Amir Shah, Associated Press, April 2, 2011

Source of Article

KABUL, Afghanistan – Anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a Florida church fueled a second day of deadly violence half a world away in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze Saturday in a riot that killed nine protesters, officials said.

The church's desecration of the Quran nearly two weeks ago has outraged millions of Muslims and others worldwide, fueling anti-American sentiment that is further straining ties between the Afghan government and the West.

The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan on Friday, where a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed a U.N. compound in an outpouring that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead.

In an unrelated attack that nonetheless demonstrated the kind of violence plaguing Afghanistan nearly a decade after the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt al-Qaida, two suicide attackers disguised as women in blue burqas blew themselves up and a third was gunned down at a NATO base on the outskirts of Kabul.

The Quran was burned March 20, but many Afghans only found out about it when Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the desecration four days later. The burning took place at the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, the same church where the Rev. Terry Jones had threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year but initially backed down.

On Saturday, hundreds of Afghans carrying long sticks and holding copies of the Quran over their heads marched through Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the cradle of the insurgency. The crackle of gunfire could be heard throughout the city, which was blanketed by thick black smoke.

Security forces shot in the air to disperse the crowd, said Zalmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. It's unclear how the protesters were slain, he said.

The governor's office in Kandahar province issued a statement saying that nine protesters were killed and 81 others were injured in the demonstration that turned into a riot. Seventeen people, including seven armed men, have been arrested, the statement said.

The governor's office claims demonstrators were incited by extremists who joined the group and set property ablaze.

"Some wicked and destructive people placed themselves amongst the protesters and started rioting throughout the entire Kandahar city," the governor's office said. "The enemies of the people and country also burned down the furniture and a bus at a ladies' high school in Kandahar and destroyed some other properties.

Shops and restaurants throughout the city were shuttered and routes leading into the city were blocked by security forces.

An Associated Press photographer estimated the crowd at a few thousand and said demonstrators had smashed his camera and roughed up other journalists.

The bloodshed began Friday in Kabul, Herat in western Afghanistan and Mazar-i-Sharif, where thousands flooded the streets.

The seven foreigners killed at the U.N. compound included four Nepalese guards. The other three were identified by officials in their home countries as: Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede; Lt. Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot from Norway; and Filaret Motco, a 43-year-old Romanian who worked in the political section of the U.N.

Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the U.N. in Kabul, said the organization had no plans to pull out of Afghanistan.

"The U.N. is absolutely committed to remaining in Afghanistan to ensure that the Afghan people receive all the support they deserve from the U.N.," McNorton said.

Karzai's office said the president spoke on the telephone Saturday morning with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Karzai asked the secretary-general to extend his condolences to the families of the slain U.N. workers.

He also called on the U.N. to help promote religious tolerance throughout the world to ease friction between people of different faiths. Karzai said Afghan officials were investigating the U.N. attack and would bring the perpetrators to justice.

In Florida, Wayne Sapp, a pastor at the church, called the events "tragic," but said he did not regret the actions of his church.

"I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened," Sapp said in a telephone interview on Friday. Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob outside the U.N. compound and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid sent a text message to The Associated Press on Saturday denying that the insurgency was responsible for killing the U.N. workers.

Demonstrators have alleged that the four protesters were killed by Afghan security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Saturday that a delegation of high-ranking Afghan officials was being sent to the city to investigate what happened during the demonstration in which seven vehicles, including a police vehicle, were burned.

"When the demonstration started, the number of people increased every minute to around 5,000," Bashary said. "The police did take action, but we are investigating how these casualties occurred. Were the steps and actions by police adequate or not?"

Bashary also gave reporters details of Saturday's attack on NATO's Camp Phoenix, a base on the east side of Kabul that's used to train Afghan security forces.

He said three armed insurgents wearing suicide bomb vests arrived at a main gate at the base around 6:45 a.m. Two of the attackers opened fire and then detonated their vests of explosives, Bashary said. The third opened fire and was killed by NATO forces. The body of a fourth person, an Afghan man at the scene, has not been identified. Three NATO service members were injured.

The gate at the base was scorched from the explosions. An AP reporter at the scene saw the remains of at least one of the attackers dangling from the gate. Police officer Mohammad Shakir told the AP that two suicide bombers were clad in blue burqas, the all-encompassing coverings worn by many women in Afghanistan.

***

April 3, 2011
Article Source
CBS News




(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan protests against the burning of a Quran in Florida entered a third day, with demonstrations in the south and east Sunday, while the Taliban called on people to rise up, blaming government forces for any violence.

The desecration at a small U.S. church has outraged Muslims worldwide, and in Afghanistan many of the demonstrations have turned into deadly riots. Protests in the north and south in recent days have killed 20 people.

In southern Kandahar city on Sunday, hundreds took to the streets for the second day in a row, and hospital officials said 20 people were hurt in skirmishes between police and demonstrators. On Saturday, nine people were killed and 80 injured when a protest turned into a riot.

At least two wounded police officers and 18 civilians had been brought into city hospitals, said Qayum Pokhla the provincial health director.

9 more dead in Afghan Quran-burning protests

A morning protest in Jalalabad city was peaceful, with hundreds of people blocking a main highway for three hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave and burning an effigy of President Barack Obama before dispersing, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

A similar protest in eastern Parwan province blocked a main highway with burning tires for about an hour, with more than 1,000 people protesting against the desecration of the Quran, said provincial police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani. He said there was no violence.

The violence started Friday when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 11 people including seven foreign U.N. employees.

The Taliban said in a statement e-mailed to media outlets that the U.S. and other Western countries have wrongly excused the burning a Quran by the pastor of a Florida church on March 20 as freedom of speech and that Afghans "cannot accept this un-Islamic act."

NATO officials re-iterated their condemnation of the Quran burning in an apparent attempt to quell the rising anger.

"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Quran," said the statement issued by military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill.

"We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Quran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people," the statement said.

On Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters and said desecration of the Quran "is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry." But he said that does not justify attacking and killing innocent people, calling it "outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity."

Video: Pastor Terry Jones

Pastor Terry Jones says he doesn't feel responsible for the violence in Afghanistan.

Last month Jones put the Muslim Holy Book on "trial,"charging the Quran with crimes against humanity. A "jury" found the Holy Book guilty, and the kerosene-soaked book was ignited, the video streamed over the Internet.

Jones, speaking from a judge's bench, said that like in an American court, if one is found guilty, there are consequences.

And to anyone watching who may disagree with the verdict, Jones said, "All you have to do is put together your own trial."

The Taliban statement said that those killed during the protests were unarmed demonstrators.

"Afghan forces under the order of the foreign forces attacked unarmed people during the protests, killing them and arresting some, saying there were armed people among these protesters, which was not true," the statement said.

Sher Jan Durani, a spokesman for the government of northern Balkh province, where the first riots occurred, said there were multiple armed men among the more than 20 arrested. Afghan authorities suspect insurgents infiltrated the mob.

In Kandahar, officials said 17 people, including seven armed men, have been arrested.

The protests come at a critical juncture as the U.S.-led coalition gears up for an insurgent spring offensive and a summer withdrawal of some troops, and with Afghanistan's mercurial president increasingly questioning international motives and NATO's military strategy.


***

Associated Press
Article Source


By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press – Sun May 8, 4:59 pm ET

CAIRO – Relations between Egypt's Muslims and Christians degenerated to a new low Sunday after riots overnight left 12 people dead and a church burned, adding to the disorder of the country's post-revolution transition to democracy.

The attack on the church was the latest sign of assertiveness by an extreme, ultraconservative movement of Muslims known as Salafis, whose increasing hostility toward Egypt's Coptic Christians over the past few months has met with little interference from the country's military rulers.

Salafis have been blamed for other recent attacks on Christians and others they don't approve of. In one attack, a Christian man had an ear cut off for renting an apartment to a Muslim woman suspected of involvement in prostitution.

The latest violence, which erupted in fresh clashes Sunday between Muslims and Christians who pelted each other with stones in another part of Cairo, also pointed to what many see as reluctance of the armed forces council to act. The council took temporary control of the country after President Hosni Mubarak was deposed on Feb. 11.

After the overnight clashes in the slum of Imbaba, residents turned their anger toward the military. Some said they and the police did almost nothing to intervene in the five-hour frenzy of violence.

Analysts warned of signs of Coptic violence, especially with reports that some Christians have opened fire at Muslims.

"The Coptic volcano is exploding," Coptic expert Youssef Sedhom said. "How would Copts respond if they find their back to the wall facing guns? They would have no option but self defense," adding, "don't blame Copts for what they do."

Six Muslims were among the dead, according to Egypt's state-run news agency.

The bloodshed began Saturday around sundown when word spread around the neighborhood that a Christian woman who married a Muslim had been abducted and was being kept in the Virgin Mary Church against her will.

Islamic extremists declared the crowded district a state within a state in 1990s, calling it "the Islamic Republic of Imbaba," one of the country's hottest spots of Islamic militancy.

The report of the kidnapping, which was never confirmed by local religious figures, sent a large mob of Muslims toward the church. Christians created a human barricade around the building and clashes erupted. Gunfire sounded across the neighborhood, and witnesses said people on rooftops were firing into the crowd.

The two sides accused each other of firing first.

Crowds of hundreds of Muslims from the neighborhood lobbed firebombs at homes, shops and the church. Residents say Christians were hiding inside. Muslims chanted: "With our blood and soul, we defend you, Islam."

Rimon Girgis, a 24-year-old with a tattoo of a Coptic saint on his arm, was among the Christians who formed a human shield around the church.

"They were around 40 bearded men chanting slogans like 'There is no God but Allah.' After rallying Muslim residents, they opened fire," he said. "We Copts had to respond, so we hurled stones and pieces of broken marble."

Some of the wounded were carried to the nearby St. Menas Church, where floors were still stained with blood hours later.

"Every five minutes, an injured person was rushed into the church," said Father Arshedis. "We couldn't reach ambulances by phone. We called and no one answered. We tried to treat the injured. We used the girls' hair clips to extract the bullets."

"The army is responsible because they took no action," he said.

Later the same night, the Muslim crowd moved to a Christian-owned apartment building nearby and set it on fire. Piles of charred furniture, garbage and wood were mixed with remains of clothes, food and shoes. Shops on the ground floor of the buildings were destroyed.

Some soldiers and police did fire tear gas, but failed to clear the streets for hours.

By daybreak, the military had deployed armored vehicles and dozens of troop carriers to cordon off a main street leading to the area. They stopped traffic and turned away pedestrians. Men, women and children watching from balconies took photos with mobile phones and cheered the troops.

Across the Nile river, in downtown Cairo, clashes broke out on Sunday afternoon. Muslim youths attacked Coptic Christian protesters, said Christian activist Bishoy Tamri.

TV images showed both sides furiously throwing stones, including one Christian who held a large wooden cross in one hand while flinging rocks with the other.

Scores were injured, but an army unit securing the TV building did nothing to stop the violence, Tamri said.

Late Sunday thousands of Copts decided to camp out in front of the TV building overnight to press demands to bring the arsonists to justice and to make religious instigation a criminal offense.

Islamic clerics denounced the violence, sounding alarm bells at the escalating tension during the transitional period following Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster by a popular uprising.

"These events do not benefit either Muslim or Copts," Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the sheik of al-Azhar, told the daily Al-Ahram.

During the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak, there was a rare spirit of brotherhood between Muslims and Christians. Each group protected the other during prayer sessions in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution.

But in the months that followed, there has been a sharp rise in sectarian tensions, as the once quiescent Salafis have become more forceful in trying to spread their version of an Islamic way of life. In particular, they have focused their wrath on Egypt's Christians, who make up 10 percent of the country's 80 million people.

On Friday, a few hundred Salafis marched through Cairo to praise al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and condemning the U.S. operation that killed him.

Critics say Egyptian military authorities have done too little to stem the religious violence. But authorities arrested 190 people after the church attack, sending them to military prosecutions and threatening the maximum penalty against anyone attacking houses of worship.

Copts complain of widespread discrimination, including tight restrictions on building or repairing churches, while Muslim places of worship do not face such limits.

In one of the worst attacks against them, a suicide bomber killed 21 people outside a church in the port city of Alexandria on Jan. 1, setting off days of protests. Egypt made some arrests but never charged anyone with the attack.

Tensions have been building for the past year as Salafis protested the alleged abduction by the Coptic Church of a priest's wife, Camilla Shehata. The Salafis claim she converted to Islam to escape an unhappy marriage — a phenomenon they maintain is common.

Because divorce is banned in the Coptic Church, with rare exceptions such as conversion, some Christian women resort to conversion to Islam or another Christian denomination to get out of a marriage.

Shehata's case was even used by Iraq's branch of al-Qaida as a justification for an attack on a Baghdad church that killed 68 people and other threats by the group against Christians.

On Saturday just before the violence erupted in Imbaba, Shehata appeared with her husband and child on a Christian TV station broadcast from outside of Egypt and asserted that she was still a Christian and had never converted.

"Let the protesters leave the Church alone and turn their attention to Egypt's future," she said from an undisclosed location.

In the Egyptian Sinai desert, hundreds of Bedouins forced authorities to set free a prisoner after laying siege to the main courthouse, firing gunshots in the air and burning tires, witnesses said.


***

May 31, 2011
Article Source
Memri



Following are excerpts from footage from pro-Osama bin Laden rallies in the Gaza Strip, which was posted on the Internet on May 20, 2011, CLICK HERE to view.
At Gaza Rally: "America is the Enemy of Allah"

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah.

"America is the enemy of Allah." […]

At Rafah Rally: "Osama Destroyed America"

Crowds: "Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama.

"Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama.

"Our souls and our blood we will give for you, oh Osama."

Demonstrator: "There is no god but Allah."

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah."

Demonstrator: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Crowds: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Demonstrator: "There is no god but Allah."

Crowds: "There is no god but Allah."

Demonstrator: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Crowds: "Sheikh Osama is loved by Allah."

Demonstrator: "Osama destroyed America…"

Crowds: "Osama destroyed America…"

Demonstrator: "…using a civilian plane."

Crowds: "…using a civilian plane."

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'"

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Beware, oh Pakistan…"

Crowds: "Beware, oh Pakistan…"

Demonstrator: "…of the soldiers of Taliban."

Crowds: "…of the soldiers of Taliban."

"Khaybar, Khaybar, Oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad Is Returning"

Demonstrator: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews…"

Crowds: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews…"

Demonstrator: "…the army of Muhammad is returning."

Crowds: "…the army of Muhammad is returning." […]
Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "This blessed man, Osama, Allah's mercy upon him, has given his money and his soul for the Jihad for the sake of Allah. At a time when real men are few, he united the nation around monotheism. Allah's mercy upon you, oh Osama. You were good in your life, and you were good in your death. That man Osama thwarted the American plan in this region, and did what no man has ever done before, especially in our times. He is not a man like all men. He is a man who was true to the pledge he made before Allah.

"That is the man who said: 'I pledge before Allah that America and its people will enjoy no security before we enjoy true security in Palestine.' He was always devoted to the land of Palestine. He was always devoted to the liberation of the holy places. He was always devoted to the instating of the law of Allah. […]

"Today, this proud lion has been dumped in the sea by the country of heresy and prostitution, America. They wanted him dead or alive. […]

"That is the man who brandished his weapon to fight the enemies of Allah. He led the Global Front for Jihad against America and its allies, the worshippers of the cross. He rightfully earned the title of the imam of our times."

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: Bin Laden Is "The Man Who Shattered the Crosses"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'"

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Demonstrator: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!"

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "That is the man who shattered the crosses. That is the man who brought the Americans to their knees. That is the man who humiliated the hypocrites in the East and West. That man through whom Allah distinguished men of truth from men of falsehood. […]

"In the days of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, when there were claims that the Koran was man-made, the scholars of those times would say that you could distinguish between a man of truth and a hypocrite by his love for Imam Ahmad. In our times, we too say that you can tell a believer from a hypocrite by his love for Osama bin Laden."

Crowds: "Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!

"Allah Akbar!"

Sheikh Munir Al-'Aydi: "You are not dead, oh Osama. You live on in the hearts of us all. Osama lives on in the heart of every man. All our sons are Osama. Our entire nation is Osama." […]


***

APBy DANIELLA CHESLOW
Article Source
Associated Press
AP – 4 hours ago

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (AP) — Israeli troops on Sunday battled hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to burst across Syria's frontier with the Golan Heights, killing a reported 20 people and wounding scores more in the second outbreak of deadly violence in the border area in less than a month.

The clashes, marking the anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war, drew Israeli accusations that Syria was orchestrating the violence to shift attention away from a bloody crackdown on opposition protests at home. The marchers, who had organized on Facebook, passed by Syrian and U.N. outposts on their way to the front lines.

"The Syrian government is trying to created a provocation," said Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai. "This border has been quiet for decades, but only now with all the unrest in Syrian towns is there an attempt to draw attention to the border."

Human rights groups say President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 25 people in northern Syria over the weekend, and another 65 activists were killed in the central city of Hama on Friday, as anti-government protests spread through the country demanding his resignation.

There was no Syrian comment on why the protesters were allowed to storm the border, apparently undisturbed by authorities. But Syria's state-run media portrayed the event as a spontaneous uprising of Palestinian youths from a nearby refugee camp.

After nightfall Sunday, Syria's state TV said there would be an open-ended sit-in at the border, and thousands more protesters were on their way.

The protests began around 11 a.m. with what appeared to be several dozen youths, brought in on buses. It gained strength through the day.

By evening, the crowd had swelled to more than 1,000 people, who milled about, prayed and chanted slogans in an uneasy standoff with Israeli troops in the distance. The army bolstered its positions, posting a dozen armored vehicles and jeeps along the border road.
A small group of youths managed to cut through a recently fortified coil of barbed-wire and took up positions in a trench inside a buffer zone about 20 yards (meters) from a final border fence. Israeli troops periodically opened fire at young activists jumping into the ditch, sending puffs of soil flying into the air.

As the standoff stretched into the evening, Israeli forces fired heavy barrages of tear gas to break up the crowds. Hundreds of people fled the area in panic, while some 20 people laying on the ground received treatment. It was not immediately clear whether the crowd would return to the front lines.

At nightfall, crowds of people fell to the ground in Muslim prayer, and several small groups lit bonfires, indicating the standoff would continue.

Israel had promised a tough response after being caught off guard in last month's demonstrations, when troops killed more than a dozen people in clashes along the Syrian and Lebanese borders. In Syria, hundreds of unarmed protesters managed to breach the border and entered the Israel-controlled Golan for several hours.

The May 15 unrest occurred on the anniversary of Israel's birth in 1948, a day the Palestinians refer to as the "nakba," or catastrophe.

Sunday's clashes marked the "naksa," or setback, the term the Palestinians use for the defeat in the 1967 Mideast war. During that war, Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt in just six days of fighting.

Israel returned Sinai to Egypt under a 1979 peace accord, and withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with Gaza, for a future state, while Syria demands a return of the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel which Israel has annexed, as the price for peace.

Still, until last month, Syria has steadfastly kept its border with Israel quiet for nearly 40 years, fueling the Israeli accusations that Syria was trying to draw attention away from the months of protests that have left more than 1,200 Syrians dead.

Ahead of Sunday's unrest, the army said it would deploy large numbers of forces, along with anti-riot weaponry like tear gas and water cannons, to prevent a repeat of the May clashes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered forces to show "maximum restraint," but also said Israel would protect its sovereignty.

"Unfortunately, extremist forces around us are trying today to breach our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens. We will not let them do that," he told his Cabinet.

The Israeli military said it used live fire only after firing warning shots into the air and issuing verbal warnings to protesters to stay away.


Protesters waved Palestinian flags and threw rocks and trash over the fence, and the sporadic pops of Israeli gunfire were heard throughout the day. The wounded were taken away on stretchers by groups of young men.

"We were trying to cut the barbed wire when the Israeli soldiers began shooting directly at us," Ghayath Awad, a 29-year-old Palestinian who had been shot in the waist, told the AP at the hospital.

Residents of Majdal Shams, ethnic Druse who remain Syrian citizens while living on the Israeli side of the frontier, watched the protest from rooftops, booing each time the military tried to speak and cheering on the protesters. When troops fired tear gas, a crowd of residents — some holding Syrian or Palestinian flags — began to scream and hurl stones from rooftops at the nearby forces. Israeli anti-riot police fired tear gas and moved into the town. Village elders with thick mustaches argued with the forces, but there were no signs of violence.

Throughout the day, ambulances raced to the hospital in the Syrian border town of Quneitra with the wounded and dead. State-run Syrian TV said 20 people were killed, including a woman and teenage boy, and 325 were wounded, 12 critically. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty count, providing names of all the dead.

Capt. Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed that protesters made it through a first layer of the border fence — the area protected by barbed wire — but got no closer than 160 yards (meters) away from the final fence. He said the army would "continue to operate" throughout the night to prevent border breaches.

He refused to confirm reports that Israel had laid land mines along the area, saying only that the army "took measures to ensure we wouldn't allow any crossing into Israel."

The army claimed that protesters threw firebombs that ignited land mines on the Syrian side of the border. There was no confirmation from the Syrian side.

The recent protests have drawn attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during Israel's war of independence in 1948. The original refugees, and their descendants, now number several million, and they demand "the right to return" to the families' former properties.

"We want on this occasion to remind America and the whole world that we have a right to return to our country," said Mohammed Hasan, a 16-year-old student who was wounded in both feet.

As a Palestinian living in Syria, he is likely the descendant of people who left or fled the area that became Israel during the 1948-49 Middle East war.

Israel opposes the return of these people, saying it would spell the end of the country as a Jewish state. The plight of the refugees and their descendants is one of the most difficult issues in any future Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

Around half a million Palestinian refugees live across 13 camps in Syria, a country with a population of 23 million. Palestinians are allowed to work and study in government and private schools, but they do not have citizenship and cannot vote. In neighboring Lebanon, Palestinian refugees are largely discriminated against and banned from all but the most menial professions.

Things were relatively calm on Israel's other borders on Sunday.

About 400 Gazans hoisting Palestinian flags and posters gathered near the main passenger crossing into Israel, but riot police from Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, prevented them from marching toward the crossing.

At the West Bank's main crossing into Jerusalem, several hundred Palestinian young people tried to approach the checkpoint. They threw stones at Israeli forces, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. No major injuries were reported.

Palestinian organizers in Lebanon called off a planned march to the Israeli border after Lebanese authorities had declared the area a closed military zone.


***