Candygram for Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani: US troops kill Zarqawi’s ‘right-hand man’. (Hat tip: Sugiero.)

The US military says it has killed the “right-hand man” of slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Major General William Caldwell says Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was killed on Friday by US forces in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad.

“We do know that Sheikh Mansur was a key leader in Al Qaeda in Iraq with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials within that organisation,” General Caldwell said. He describes him as Zarqawi’s right-hand man and a liaison between Al Qaeda and tribes in the restive area south of Baghdad. The Mashhadani are a major tribe of Sunni Arabs.

“He was tied to the senior leadership, including having relationships with both Zarqawi and al-Masri,” General Caldwell said, referring to Abu Ayub al-Masri, whom the US military claim to be Zarqawi’s successor. “We do think that his death will significantly continue to impact on the ability of this organisation to regenerate and organise itself.”  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

CENTCOM announced that one of the men expected to take the place of the now-room temperature Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has also reached thermal equilibrium near Baghdad. The spokesman for the military briefed reporters on the death of Sheikh Mansur, displaying before and after mug shots of the dead terrorist and explained his significance to the insurgent network in Iraq. So far, none of the wire services have picked up the story; I will fill in the details as they become available.

UPDATE: The BBC has an addendum to the story on the discovery of the two bodies that reports up to 15 insurgents killed while hunting a "senior member of al-Qaeda in Iraq," but does not identify Sheikh Mansur despite the specifics in the briefing.

UPDATE II: The Commissar asks if I may have mistranscribed the name from al-Masri or al-Mohajer. I took the name from the placard at the briefing, but it still might be the same person, as terrorists have been known to adopt multiple identities. I'm waiting for better reporting to come from the morning briefing, and find it disappointing that the story has not made its own way onto the wires thus far. Still scanning ...

UPDATE III: CENTCOM now has a release stating that they have detained a senior AQI leader and three of his lieutenants near Baghdad. CENTCOM has not named the terrorists detained as yet.

UPDATE IV: Thanks to CQ reader Brendan F, we see that the BBC has updated their report:

Gen Caldwell said on Tuesday US forces had killed Zarqawi's "right-hand man" in a raid in Yusifiya on Friday, near where the US troops were abducted.

The general said Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was "a key leader in al-Qaeda" and could have succeeded Zarqawi.

So now we have mainstream media confirmation on the kill -- and it appears we also have another senior AQI leader detained. It may take some time to get the information clear about the later CENTCOM release.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

BODIES OF TWO MISSING SOLDIERS FOUND IN IRAQ

The Iraqi government has found the bodies of two American soldiers reportedly captured by terrorists in Iraq last week, and the bodies show signs of torture according to the preliminary reports:

The bodies of two U.S. soldiers who had been reported kidnapped have been found near the checkpoint where the men disappeared after an attack, a senior Iraqi military official said Tuesday. The U.S. military said two bodies had been found but had not yet been identified.

Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., went missing Friday near the town of Youssifiyah, south of Baghdad. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. ...

Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer who said he witnessed the attack Friday, said three Humvees were manning a checkpoint when they came under fire from many directions. Two Humvees went after the assailants, but the third was ambushed before it could move, he told The Associated Press.

Seven masked gunmen, including one carrying what Falah described as a heavy machine gun, killed the driver of the third vehicle, then took the two other U.S. soldiers captive, the witness said. His account could not be verified independently.

McQ at QandO has written about this tactical shift in the terrorist game plan over the past few days, and how that tactics often shift on both sides in response to successes and failures in the field. The terrorists apparently detected a tactical pattern and came up with a strategy to exploit it, and CENTCOM will undoubtedly have already been working on a counter-tactic for patrols in the future. This happens in every war, but it doesn't make the loss any more palatable.

One of the families of the two men stated that the US should have paid the ransom from money captured from Saddam Hussein's riches. I can understand why they feel that way, and I don't blame them a bit (please see my update on this, too). However, I doubt that the soldiers even survived long enough for any negotiations to take place; they have been missing only a little under four days. In that time, the military received 66 intel tips, 18 of which were actionable, and they didn't have time to exploit them before the bodies were found. In any case, paying ransom for kidnappings only subsidizes more kidnappings, more Danegeld in proverbial terms, and it is a bad policy overall.

We'll keep the families in our prayers, as we do every day for all our young men and women in harm's way.

MISSILE DEFENSE: SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?

Earlier today, North Korea stepped up the rhetoric surrounding their impending missile launch by declaring themselves free of the moratorium on missile launches it established with Japan four years ago. In response, the US has activated its missile defense systems while trying to keep our moves from being unnecessarily provocative:

The United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the
Pentagon has activated the system, which has been in the developmental stage for years.

"It's good to be ready," the official said.

U.S. officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggests Pyongyang may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, which some experts said could reach as far as Alaska.

The Taepodong-2 missile has Alaska in easy reach for a direct targeting profile. Depending on the configuration used, however, the Taepodong-2 can hit targets in the continental US using a ballistic polar route for its flight. The pending launch has the US and Japan on high alert. Without a doubt, if the rocket fires, the US will have no choice but to respond in some forceful manner -- and if we're lucky, it will only be a successful demonstration of the missile defense system.

Pyongyang asserted its right to launch ballistic missiles earlier:

North Korea asserted it has full autonomy to conduct missile tests, and outsiders do not have the right to criticize its plans, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.

Before the latest statement, North Korea's apparent moves toward test launching a long-range ballistic missile already spiked tensions in the region and drew warnings of serious repercussions from the United States and others.

Australia on Tuesday strengthened its warning to North Korea, saying Canberra could downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang if the launch goes ahead.

Kim wants immunity from ... criticism? Well, he can wish all he wants. We've seen Kim's brinksmanship in the past, and we're still probably looking at more of the same. However, no one wants to shrug off his actions, and the increasing criticism coming from abroad will help convince Kim that provocative stunts like this may do a lot more damage than good.

In any event, we should know shortly whether Kim is bluffing or not. It may get to the point where further diplomacy simply cannot continue without some degree of rational thinking from the North Koreans.

UPDATE: Here's some timely information on our missile defense from TCS:

Missile defense remains a work in progress. For example, a highly sophisticated X-band radar is being towed by sea from Hawaii to Adak, Alaska, which sits some 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Once activated, it will discern between decoys and warheads as small as a baseball, and keep a watchful eye on inbound traffic from Beijing and Pyongyang.

Elsewhere on the high seas, May saw the Navy fire an SM-2 anti-missile missile from the deck of an Aegis cruiser and kill an inbound threat in its terminal phase (the final few seconds of flight). "It was the first sea-based intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase," according to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Likewise, the MDA scored a land-based success in May, when rocketeers at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico test-fired a high-altitude interceptor missile designed to seek out and destroy inbound threats in their final minute of flight.

In the skies, the Airborne Laser -- a missile-killing laser mounted on a 747 that can loiter outside enemy territory and destroy a missile long before it threatens American soil -- continues to hit its marks. Ground-based testing of the laser was completed in December, with a new round of flight-tests scheduled for this coming fall, all building toward a full-blown missile-intercept above Edwards AFB sometime in 2008.

It looks like the array may arrive just in time.

UPDATE II: Dan at the BY Sun blog It Shines For All reminds readers that the Sun editorialized on the need to prepare for war in regards to North Korea:

But most of all a priority should be placed on preparing a military response to North Korea's nuclear program so that the moment intelligence discovers that the communists who run the North Korean state have been cheating, its atomic weapons program can be dealt with directly, before things reach the point that more countries than South Korea and possibly Japan are within range of North Korean guns.

The pacifist argument that has been circulating since President Clinton first started appeasing Kim Jong Il and set North Korea down the nuclear road is that any action against the communist state would endanger nearby countries. But the flipside is that inaction just lets North Korea build up its strength and have more countries in its sight. And now America is threatened. Now will America prepare for war?

We'd like to think so.

OH, THOSE BRAVE AND HONORABLE JIHADIS!

The Times of London reports on the latest defensive tactic by the brave and honorably Islamists in Afghanistan when facing Western forces. Instead of just hiding among and targeting civilian populations in their terrorism, now they have started seizing women and children to use as human shields when running away from NATO/Coalition forces under fire:

TALEBAN fighters used women and children as human shields as they tried to escape into the mountains of Afghanistan, British troops claimed yesterday. The tactics were revealed in the first account by those who fought in one of the main battles faced by the men of 3 Para and the Royal Gurkha Rifles in Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops are stationed.

The Taleban’s use of human shields happened during a six-hour battle that began when British troops arrived in a remote area to flush out a suspected Taleban hideout.

They came under attack seven times and fired 2,000 rounds as the rebels set ambushes and opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades. About 21 Taleban were killed.

“It happened twice where they pushed women and children in front of them. The first time they ran into a compound and pushed them out the front to stop the assault,” said Corporal Quintin Poll, 29, from Norfolk [UK]. “The second time they were firing through a building with women and children inside. My guys had to go around the left and right to get them.”

The Western media should keep this story in mind when reporting on civilian casualties in areas where terrorists fight against Western forces. On two occasions during the rout that killed almost two dozen of the Islamists -- supposedly brave Muslim fighters -- they deliberately pushed women and children into the line of fire.

This has two purposes for the Taliban. First, it keeps Western forces from firing on them, as they know that Coalition troops will try to protect civilians where possible. Secondly as just as importantly from a strategic point of view, any women and children killed in the battle will almost certainly be blamed on the Western forces by the Western media. It allows the Taliban to continue their propaganda blitz against the West, one in which the media has unwittingly (in most cases) found themselves a pawn to the Islamists.

Men who throw women and children in the line of fire to protect themselves have no honor, no courage, and no claim to religious righteousness under any circumstances. It's high time that the West grows up and understands the cowardly nature of tyrannies and the people who impose them. It will give us much more clarity in the effort that needs to be made to rid ourselves of the craven ghouls who prey on civilian populations for their own delusions of grandeur.

IRAQ ALREADY HAS A PLAN FOR COALITION WITHDRAWL

Today the Senate will start debate on a non-binding resolution that will demand an end to the American presence in Iraq except for those troops engaged in training Iraqi security forces. This new proposal contains much of the same language as the amendment offered by John Kerry to the defense authorization bill that got soundly thumped last week 93-6 when offered by the GOP separately for debate, but as the newly appointed Iraqi National Security Advisor writes today in the Washington Post, the effort is completely unnecessary.

First, let's take a look at the latest Democratic effort to shut down the American effort in Iraq, a silly and nonspecific proposal that inspired Senator Mitch McConnell to call it a "cut and jog":

Trying to bridge party divisions on the eve of a Senate debate, leading Democrats called Monday for American troops to begin pulling out of Iraq this year. They avoided setting a firm timetable for withdrawal but argued that the Bush administration's open-ended commitment to the war would only prevent Iraqis from moving forward on their own.

Coming the week after partisan and often angry House debate over the war, the Senate proposal, a nonbinding resolution, was carefully worded to deflect any accusations that the Democrats were "cutting and running," as their position has been depicted by Republicans. The Democrats behind the measure did not even use the term "withdrawal," and talked about how to guarantee "success" for Iraq, not about any failures of the war.

"The administration's policy to date — that we'll be there for as long as Iraq needs us — will result in Iraq's depending upon us longer," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, who has been designated by the Democratic leadership to present the party's strategy on Iraq. "Three and a half years into the conflict, we should tell the Iraqis that the American security blanket is not permanent."

The resolution was cobbled together by moderate Democrats trying to smooth over differences within the party. The minority leadership has tried to distance itself from a proposal by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts setting a mandatory deadline for American combat troops to be out of Iraq by the end of this year, a limit that Mr. Kerry modified only marginally on Monday. Some Republican lawmakers and the White House pointed to that proposal last week in attacking Democrats as inconsistent and weak on national security.

The Times gets its analysis completely incorrect in the lead paragraph. This amendment has no intention of bridging differences between the parties, but to bridge a huge difference within the Democratic Party. Kerry's amendment exposed the lack of enthusiasm on the part of many Democrats to call the effort in Iraq a complete defeat, especially in an election year.

With the successful roll-up of the Zarqawi network last week demonstrating how long-range intel and boots on the ground work together for progress, the talking point that our military could not take on terrorists -- a defeatist attitude in any case, but especially after last week -- no longer holds water. The establishment of the elected government after five months of frustrating negotiations has also shown that the Iraqis have made real progress in learning to be democrats, a skill that did not get any development during the decades of Saddam's dictatorship.

We can expect the Democrats to complain bitterly during the debate about the lack of a plan for returning American troops home. That argument has already been undermined by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi National Security Advisor, who makes the plan very clear in today's Washington Post. Not surprisingly, his explanation of the security plan sounds identical to what the Bush administration has said all along:

There has been much talk about a withdrawal of U.S. and coalition troops from Iraq, but no defined timeline has yet been set. There is, however, an unofficial "road map" to foreign troop reductions that will eventually lead to total withdrawal of U.S. troops. This road map is based not just on a series of dates but, more important, on the achievement of set objectives for restoring security in Iraq.

Iraq has a total of 18 governorates, which are at differing stages in terms of security. Each will eventually take control of its own security situation, barring a major crisis. But before this happens, each governorate will have to meet stringent minimum requirements as a condition of being granted control. For example, the threat assessment of terrorist activities must be low or on a downward trend. Local police and the Iraqi army must be deemed capable of dealing with criminal gangs, armed groups and militias, and border control. There must be a clear and functioning command-and-control center overseen by the governor, with direct communication to the prime minister's situation room.

Despite the seemingly endless spiral of violence in Iraq today, such a plan is already in place. All the governors have been notified and briefed on the end objective. The current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has approved the plan, as have the coalition forces, and assessments of each province have already been done. Nobody believes this is going to be an easy task, but there is Iraqi and coalition resolve to start taking the final steps to have a fully responsible Iraqi government accountable to its people for their governance and security. Thus far four of the 18 provinces are ready for the transfer of power -- two in the north (Irbil and Sulaymaniyah) and two in the south (Maysan and Muthanna). Nine more provinces are nearly ready.

So not only do we have a plan in place, the Iraqis have already agreed to the plan, all of the provincial governments know it, and all of them have plans to implement it. The plan does not rely on timetables but on specific markers that show competency on the part of the new Iraqi security forces to deal with gangs, militias, and terrorists on their own. Four of the provinces have already met the standards and await the transfer, and nine more have almost met the criteria at this point, leaving five that need significant progress.

When would that place America in a position to drop troop levels significantly? Rubaie foresees significant declines in 2007 to a level below 100,000, and all but gone by the end of 2008. He wants the US to leave Iraq for the same reasons that some politicians have noted: Iraqis want to rule themselves, of course, and see the American troops as interlopers. Nevertheless, he understands that his government needs the US military to keep order for a while longer, and that drawing up deadlines instead of progress criteria only encourages more violence -- and he's correct.

The Democrats have demagogued this debate for years, and they keep trying to extend their foolishness despite the damage it does to the nation and their own party. They have once again been exposed as either negligently uninformed, deliberately obtuse, or just flat-out dishonest about the plan for Iraqi security and the progress being made towards it. Watered-down resolutions calling for retreat and defeat only continue a political lemming march, whether it comes at a run or a jog, and expect the American people to continue their disappointment in the Democratic lack of spine in fighting terrorists and spreading freedom as a forward strategy against Islamofascism.

ADDENDUM: This also shows that the Iraqis, despite the rather bigoted and contradictory language coming from the Senate on both sides of the aisle, are not lazy and simply allowing the US to do all the heavy lifting:

"As long as we're there to do this heavy lifting," [Senator Jack] Reed said, "even though they want to do it themselves, they won't do it."

This argument never made much sense. The same people who tell us this are telling us simultaneously that the Iraqis resent us and want us to leave. Rubaie confirms that the Iraqis not only want to provide their own security, they have increasingly done so, and have not transformed into layabouts.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

HILLARY, KERRY, GORE FACE NEAR-MAJORITY NO VOTES

In an early poll determining the strengths and weaknesses of the various potential candidates for the 2008 presidential race, both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry face a skeptical electorate. Both candidates have at least 47% of the voters opposing them already, the second-highest of any would-be Democratic contenders. Another previous nominee takes first prize, while a presidential brother takes the top spot for the GOP:

With the presidential election more than two years away, a CNN poll released Monday suggests that nearly half of Americans would "definitely vote against" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Respondents were asked whether they would "definitely vote for," "consider voting for," or "definitely vote against" three Democrats and three Republicans who might run for president in 2008.

Regarding potential Democratic candidates, 47 percent of respondents said they would "definitely vote against" both Clinton, the junior senator from New York who is running for re-election this year, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party's candidate in 2004.

Forty-eight percent said the same of former Vice President Al Gore, who has repeatedly denied he intends to run again for president. ... As for Bush, brother of the current president, 63 percent said there was no way he would get their vote. The younger Bush has denied interest in running for president in 2008.

Hillary also had the highest positive result from the poll, with 22% ready to cast votes in support of putting a Clinton back in the White House. That comes to a negative 25% rating, which cannot bode well for anyone wanting to win a primary nomination. Kerry fared far worse, with a negative 33%. Rudy Giuliani comes up with a -11%, while McCain surprisingly scored a -20%, almost the same as Hillary.

It certainly has some interest, but at this stage of the process this poll is hardly determinative. The race will not begin even preliminarily until next summer, and the upcoming midterms may have a tremendous impact on these numbers, especially for Hillary. I would be interested to see the same poll twelve months from now. In the meantime, the poll is notable for who has apparently been left out: Mark Warner and Barack Obama for the Democrats (as well as John Edwards, who has slipped through all the cracks), and Mitt Romney, George Allen, and Condi Rice for the GOP, the latter just for the fun of seeing how those numbers would look.  Monday, June 19, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

GUNS AND BUTTER

From AP: International sponsors OK Palestinian aid.

International sponsors of a stalled Mideast peace plan agreed Saturday to channel aid to cash-starved Palestinians for health care, utilities and social services, while continuing a boycott of the militant-led Palestinian government.

The United States went along with a compromise plan to send mostly European money through the World Bank for services and to pay stipends directly to poor people in the Palestinian territories.

Establishment of the fund is an acknowledgment that an international aid freeze imposed after the surprise election victory of Hamas militants in January has had unintended and harsh consequences for ordinary Palestinians.

As Caroline Glick so aptly point out last month:

[E]very cent transferred in "direct aid" to the Palestinians is money that will prevent Hamas from failing. Every well-fed Palestinian welfare case will be a vindication for the Palestinian people's decision to vote Hamas into power. Every penny of Western and Israeli aid tells them that they may both escalate their war against Israel while officially joining the global jihad and eat well on the Israeli/ American/ European dole.

Others are funding Palestinian terrorism more directly. From AP: Hamas pays Palestinian workers with cash.

Thousands of Palestinian workers left postal banks carrying crisp $100 bills Monday, their first payday since March, as the Hamas-led government dipped into suitcases full of cash its officials carried into Gaza to circumvent a Western aid cutoff.

Payday joy was tempered by the knowledge that the sanctions have forced the Hamas-led government into bankruptcy and hamstrung its activities. The West demands that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace accords, but Hamas refuses. As a result, the West has cut off much-needed aid to the Palestinian government. ...

Last week, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, hauled $20 million in cash across the Egyptian border into Gaza, and another official followed with $2 million. Hamas officials said the money came from private donations and Islamic charities.

The money distributed to workers Monday came from those suitcases.

Though Hamas officials insist they will continue carrying cash across the border, it is not nearly enough to solve their government's financial crisis.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

www.coxandforkum.com

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EU WILL MOVE AHEAD WITH DIRECT AID TO PALESTINIANS WITHOUT FUNDING HAMAS

By Victor Comras

The so-called Quad -- The UN, US, EU and Russia, agreed last month to find ways to provide direct aid to the Palestinian people while maintaining a tight freeze on funds for Hamas. (see my earlier Blog). Details of the plan have now been worked out and were announced at the EU June 16th Summit.

The program will commence in early July using the Emergency Services Support Programme (ESSP) of the World Bank to provide essential supplies in the health sector to Palestinian hospitals and clinics. This will be supplemented by direct allowances to Palestinian health care sector employees from the EU budget. The program will also engage the EU's Commission's Interim Emergency Relief Contribution (IERC) program to ensure an uninterrupted supply of essential utilities such as fuel to the Palestinian territory. A Needs Based Allowance Programme will also be developed that will make payments direct to individual bank accounts as required to maintain critical social services. The program supposedly also includes measures to assure strict controls and full accountability and transparency.

When the Hamas-led PA government came to power, the EU suspended direct aid to or through the Palestinian Authority. Nevertheless, some 154 million Euros have been made available since the beginning of 2006 to support humanitarian and other programs in the Palestinian territories. This includes 64 million Euro channeled through the UN Relief and Works Agency, 40 million Euro to ensure uninterrupted power supplies; and 34 million Euro for humanitarian aid. The new program will allot some 100 Million Euro to handle emergency medical needs and assure an energy supply for the territories. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner flew to Israel yesterday to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Israeli officials to work the arrangements. Israel has already signaled its willingness to see the assistance go forward. Mark Regev, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Israel is receptive to assistance that will bypass the Hamas-led government, giving it neither legitimacy nor recognition. No one on our side has an interest in seeing hardship in the Palestinian territories."

The US has already begun to provide similar assistance, although on a more modest scale. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced May 9th that the United States was moving ahead with $10 million in emergency aid for medicine and related supplies. The delivery of the first $4 million took place on May 10th with the delivery of truckloads of emergency medical supplies for NGO-run clinics in Gaza. The remaining $6 million will be used for emergency medicine and equipment which will be delivered by UNICEF, and a specified USAID grantee.

While Hamas is apparently feeling the pressure from reduced US/EU funding for the Palestinian Government, they have sought ways to circumvent the freeze on their funds. Last week Hamas reported smuggled in some $22 million in cash that it claims were from private donations and Islamic Charities. Saudi Arabia is also believed to be providing funding directly to Hamas. Some of these funds were distributed to Palestinian government workers yesterday. Each worker reported received $100.00 in back pay. The payments were made from Post Office accounts rather than from commercial banks. Hamas reportedly needs some $130 million per month to cover salaries and other fixed government costs.

President Abbas has threatened to act to curtail further Hamas cross border cash transfers, but is probably powerless to stop such activity. He has reportedly ordered Palestinian commercial banks to refuse deposist or transfers of cash brought into Gaza by Hamas.

Lets hope that keeping the pressure on Hamas will result in agreement with Fatah that a “two state” solution is the only viable option for Palestinians.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

http://counterterrorismblog.org

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BRITISH AGENTS TRACE 7/7 TERROR LINKS TO SMALLTOWN AMERICA

Falls Church Jihad Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BRITISH agents are operating in the United States to trace links with Islamic extremists from England who recruit Muslims to fight for terrorist groups abroad.

The British-led investigation has played a part in identifying a number of US-based terrorists and helped the authorities in Washington to break up an al-Qaeda cell operating in Falls Church, Virginia.

The agents are particularly keen to discover if the visitors included Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is alleged to have travelled to America’s East Coast to meet fellow militants and stage a series of attacks on synagogues.

Khan was considered such a threat that he was banned from returning to America two years before the attack on London, according to a book written by a US intelligence specialist....

Neither the FBI nor police would comment on the investigations into Khan’s alleged visits to the US in 2002, but, in Falls Church yesterday, residents blamed “foreign agitators” for encouraging young men from the city’s Muslim community to join extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

In the Falls Plaza shopping mall, most preferred to chat about their historic city’s latest civic award for its floral displays and not its reputation as the jihad capital of America.

Over the past few months, 11 men who regularly attended the same Islamic Centre in Falls Church have been convicted of terrorism charges. Seven reportedly went to training camps in Pakistan, including one used by Khan.

Their trials exposed a network stretching from this placid commuter belt serving the US capital ten miles away, passing through British cities and on to jihadi camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

PAKISTAN JIHAD GROUP "TRAINING, EXPORTING YOUTHS FOR AL QAEDA"

More on Pakistan's well-documented jihad factories -- and more adventures of the notorious Omar Bakri. "Pakistani Islamist group training, exporting youths for Al Qaeda," from the Indo Asian News Service, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Islamabad, June 19 (IANS) An US-based security think tank has linked recent arrests in the US and one associated with the July 7, 2005, London bombings to the Pakistani branch of the Islamist militant group al-Muhajiroun.

The group has evolved into one of many support networks connecting Western Muslim youths, mostly from Europe, to jihad in southwest Asia, according to an analysis circulated by Stratfor, the US-based online news analysis service.

This occurred after the Pakistani branch's 2003 announcement of independence from the parent group in London. The Pakistani branch of al-Muhajiroun had decided to participate more actively in the jihad in Afghanistan, which necessitated its secession from the parent body.

Omer Bakri Mohammed, the organisation's founder, blessed this decision as he wanted to maintain plausible deniability for the group as a whole, the Daily Times newspaper said in a report from Washington.

Stratfor writes: 'Groups like al-Muhajiroun's Pakistani branch are channels for bringing conditioned Western Muslim youths into contact with Al Qaeda recruiters. This is likely the same medium that allowed the July 7 London bombers to go from being radicalised youth to becoming actual suicide bombers.'

Stratfor cites the example of Syed Hashmi, a 26-year-old US Muslim and New York City resident, who was arrested on June 6 at London's Heathrow Airport as he prepared to board a plane for Pakistan. He was charged with aiding an Al Qaeda plot to stage attacks in London and shipping equipment to the jihadi network headquartered in Pakistan.

Hashmi, the analysis notes, is a US citizen of Pakistani origin who grew up in New York. He graduated from college in 2003. During his student days, he was exposed to radical Islamic ideas, particularly those of the now defunct London-based group al-Muhajiroun.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

SOMALIA: ISLAMIC COURTS DECLARE "JIHAD" ON ETHIOPIAN TROOPS

East African Jihad to begin? From Garowe Online, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist and Jane Novak:

MOGADISHU, Somalia June 18 (Garowe Online) THE UNION of Islamic Courts that have taken control of Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia in recent weeks have declared "jihad" on Ethiopian troops who have allegedly crossed into Somalia.

The Chairman of the Courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said that Ethiopia should not allow its troops to enter Somalia and added that heavily armed militias loyal to the Courts will take military action against the invasion of Ethiopian troops.

Chairman Sheik Sharif called on the people of Somalia to prepare themselves for the defense of the Motherland from Ethiopian military aggression. He refered to the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia as "direct aggression."  Monday, June 19, 2006

http://jihadwatch.org

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CHIRAC EXPOSED

A Paris Criminal Tribunal ruling has pinned the government of Jacques Chirac with responsibility for a 1995 coup in Comoros, giving suspended sentences to over two dozen French mercenaries who seized power on Chirac's secret orders. The judge refused to sentence the defendants to jail time, saying that the French government had obviously allowed the men to act as their agents in their attempt at an overthrow:

COVERT attempts by President Chirac to exert influence over Africa were exposed by a French court yesterday, when it denounced his secret services for conniving with a band of mercenaries in a coup in the tiny Comoros Islands.

In a damning ruling, the Paris Criminal Tribunal said that the French authorities had given at least tacit approval to the 1995 coup led by Bob Denard, the best-known French soldier of fortune. ...

The court refused a prosecution demand to jail the plotters and instead handed out suspended sentences after hearing them claim that they were acting with the backing of M Chirac’s Government.

Although France has long been accused of secret operations to maintain its influence in Africa, the ruling constituted an unprecedented, public condemnation of these practices. It was particularly embarrassing for M Chirac, who has sought to portray himself as one of the Third World’s greatest advocates in the West.

Chirac used just that pose to protect Saddam Hussein from an American invasion in the early months of 2003, attempting to shield France from the revelations of the Oil-For-Food scam as well as protect its corporate interests in Iraq. The French made quite a show about their disavowal of violence in the service of regime change, skipping over the sixteen unenforced UN Security Council resolutions that Saddam defiantly ignored. Now we find out that the French have no problems with military intervention for regime change, and only differ in the level of honesty involved.

France and Chirac owe an explanation of this episode. They won't give one, but they owe it nonetheless.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

THINK PROGRESS HOPES FOR FAILURE

Think Progress hopes the US missile defense system fails: Administration Responds to North Korea Missile Stunt With Missile Defense Stunt. (Hat tip: Motleygunner.)

Really. That’s what they wrote.

The North Korean test is a political stunt designed to grab some attention. The same can be said of the decision to activate the Alaska site. The North Koreans want to increase their negotiation leverage; the U.S. Missile Defense Agency wants to protect its massive $10 billion annual budget — “more than the entire U.S. Army is spending on research and development” — for a product that doesn’t work.

We have to hope that neither stunt succeeds.

PA DOCTORS CUT VICTIM NEEDLESSLY

Not only did Palestinian doctors dig out every bit of reachable shrapnel from the victims of the Gaza beach explosion, they were apparently in such a rush (“militants” standing over their shoulders, perhaps?) to remove the evidence before turning the victims over to Israel (to save their lives) that they made unnecessary cuts. (Hat tip: Liz Ard.)

Representatives of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) said on Tuesday that Ralia Niham, a 21-year-old woman who was seriously wounded in the Gaza beach explosion on June 9 that is at the center of a continuing controversy over who is to blame, suffered unnecessary cuts at the hands of the Palestinian doctors who treated her initially.

Niham, who regained consciousness at the hospital on Tuesday but remains in serious condition, suffered serious damage to her abdomen and upper limbs, with cuts all over her body, as a result of the surgical intervention performed on her at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the hospital said.

The Tel Aviv hospital added that no shrapnel was found in the woman’s body except for one piece that is not reachable by surgery and will have to be left there. The damage to her body was “without doubt” caused by shrapnel; Israeli authorities say the chances are “one in a billion” that she was hurt by an Israeli missile.

In most cases, some shrapnel remains in the victim’s body and stays there for the rest of his or her life, the hospital said.

The hospital stopped short of accusing Shifa’s doctors directly of removing shrapnel for no medical reason, but it did say that it had never received such a patient with all the reachable shrapnel removed.

“This is surprising and raises questions” about the care that Niham received in Shifa, the Sourasky spokeswoman said. Asked whether Sourasky surgeons had contacted Shifa doctors who treated the patient to ask the reason for the incisions to remove shrapnel, the spokeswoman said: “We are not in such close contact with Shifa. We received the medical report on the patient, and that’s all.”

TURKEY'S ANTI-AMERICAN POP CULTURE

At Slate, Richard Morgan has a piece on the rise of virulently anti-American popular entertainment in Turkey: Turkey’s anti-American pop culture. (Hat tip: Fjordman.)

Allies aren’t supposed to behave like this. In Turkey—a stable secular Muslim democracy that’s practically European—the country’s biggest-budget-ever movie, Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, is preparing to hit shelves on DVD and is scheduled for a U.S. theatrical release this summer. Based on a television series that has been a record-breaking hit for four seasons, it’s a military thriller about an elite Turkish intelligence officer who near-single-handedly smites a group of reckless U.S. soldiers who make Abu Ghraib look like a Sunday picnic. The film, which received some press coverage in the States, is only part of a wave of anti-American pop culture that’s sweeping the country.

Valley of the Wolves: Iraq starts off factually enough, with a depiction of a July 4, 2003, incident in which around 100 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade stormed the barracks of a Turkish special forces office in Iraq, arresting 11 Turks who allegedly were planning to assassinate the Kurdish governor of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The Americans not only handcuffed the Turks but also forced hoods over their heads and held them in custody for more than two days. The U.S. government later apologized, explaining that its soldiers couldn’t tell the difference between Turks and Iraqi insurgents because the Turks were not in uniform. Turkey didn’t buy it, and this blockbuster is the payback.

As the flick takes a sharp turn toward fiction, one of the 11 Turks in the 2003 debacle commits suicide to regain his warrior honor. His suicide note is sent to Polat Alemdar, the Turkish intelligence officer who stars in the Valley of the Wolves television show. Alemdar heads to Iraq to find U.S. Special Forces Cmdr. Sam William Marshall (played by Billy Zane), who, in his role as a self-described “peacekeeper of God,” is busy leading a massacre of machine-gun fire on unsuspecting civilians at an Iraqi wedding. Survivors are sent to a facility where a Jewish-American doctor (played by Gary Busey) pulls out human hearts with Mengelian apathy and sells them to aristocrats in London, New York, and Tel Aviv. When one of the American soldiers expresses concern that a truckful of Iraqi civilians are packed in too tight to breathe, a fellow soldier stops the car and bullet-soaks the trailer and its human cargo. “I was making sure they could breathe,” he quips, pointing to the holes in the truck.

Morgan doesn’t seem to notice that the character played by Gary Busey in this film is an appalling antisemitic caricature. And after recounting the near-psychotic, often delusional hatred of America that’s so prevalent in Turkey, Morgan’s conclusion is that we’re just as bad. After all, there was Midnight Express.

During a recent vacation to Istanbul, I did hear one complaint more than a few times, a long-lingering wound to their national pride: the hugely popular 1978 American film Midnight Express, which was nominated for six Oscars and won one for its writing. In it, Billy Hayes, an American tourist jailed for smuggling hashish, tells a Turkish court, “For a nation of pigs, it sure seems funny that you don’t eat them! Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can’t! I hate! I hate you! I hate your nation! And I hate your people! And I f**k your sons and daughters because they’re pigs! You’re all pigs!” So perhaps one good movie deserves another.  Tuesday, June 20 , 2006

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH BACKS DOWN

After initially leaping to the conclusion that Israeli artillery was responsible for the explosion that killed several Palestinians on a Gaza beach, Human Rights Watch and their “military expert” Marc Garlasco are now backtracking: Human Rights Watch admits unable to contradict IDF. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

While sticking to its demand for the establishment of an independent inquiry into a blast on a Gaza beach 10 days ago that killed seven Palestinian civilians, the Human Rights Watch conceded Monday night for the first time since the incident that it could not contradict the IDF’s exonerating findings.

On Monday, Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi - head of the IDF inquiry commission that cleared the IDF of responsibility for the blast - met with Marc Garlasco, a military expert from the HRW who had last week claimed that the blast was caused by an IDF artillery shell. Following the three-hour meeting, described by both sides as cordial and pleasant, Garlasco praised the IDF’s professional investigation into the blast, which he said was most likely caused by unexploded Israeli ordnance left laying on the beach, a possibility also raised by Klifi and his team. ...

Meanwhile Monday, The Post learned that the IDF was currently inspecting a second piece of shrapnel doctors had retrieved from one of the Palestinians wounded in the blast and currently being treated at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. A first piece of shrapnel, examined by the IDF as well as by an independent academic institute in Beersheba was found to not have come from a 155 mm shell, the type used in IDF artillery attacks on Kassam launch sites in the Gaza Strip. The second piece of shrapnel, sources said, was currently being examined in an IDF lab.

Garlasco told Klifi during the meeting that he was impressed with the IDF’s system of checks and balances concerning its artillery fire in the Gaza Strip and unlike Hamas which specifically targeted civilians in its rocket attacks, the Israelis, he said, invested a great amount of resources and efforts not to harm innocent civilians. “We do not believe the Israelis were targeting civilians.” Garlasco said. “We just want to know if it was an Israeli shell that killed the Palestinians.”

Lucy Mair - head of the HRW’s Jerusalem office - said Klifi’s team had conducted a thorough and professional investigation of the incident and made “a good assessment” when ruling out the possibility that an errant IDF shell had killed the seven Palestinians on the Gaza beach.

ISLAMIC EXTREMISM "PREVALENT" IN TORONTO

A Toronto Muslim who worked in a shelter in Scarborough, Ontario, and knew some of the suspects in the Canadian Jihad case, says extremism is prevalent in the Toronto area.

He should know. He says he was an extremist himself, but he’s all better now.

A Toronto-area man who knew some of the 17 people charged in connection with an alleged bomb plot in Ontario says one had some fairly extreme views.

Mohammed Robert Heft claims Faheem Ahmad thought the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were a good thing for Islam.

Heft converted to Islam in his twenties. He says he fell briefly into a radical religious mindset but then regained his perspective. That’s when he started helping troubled Muslims at a Scarborough, Ont., shelter.

He says he knows five of the suspects facing terrorism-related charges, some of whom came to the shelter. He never heard any of them advocate violence against Canadians, but he says he had a long and disturbing debate with Ahmad, 21, two months ago outside of a Scarborough mosque.

“He believed the 19 people involved in the World Trade Center bombings were martyrs and he was handing out DVDs openly of wills and testimonies of those 19 people suggesting what they did was right,” said Heft. ...

Heft says a lot of young Muslims are angry and extremism is prevalent in the Toronto area. They get upset when they hear of alleged atrocities overseas in places like Iraq.

“People get emotional. Imagine if somebody came into your house and raped your family, or by mistake just blew up your family, you’d get a little angry. I mean we get angry ... when the water isn’t hot in Canada or we lose our electricity for a day. So imagine what these people overseas are going through.”

So apparently we’re supposed to understand that being angry about alleged atrocities in Iraq naturally leads to a plot to blow up the CN Tower and murder thousands of people at random. Sure, makes sense. After all, they can’t drink.

How much of an extremist was this guy, anyway?

Heft knows personally about the road to religious extremism. He says when he was in the thick of it, he would have killed his own parents had they come between him and his newly chosen religion.  Monday, June 19, 2006

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