June 12/03: Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by team member Dan Darling, whose other blog is Regnum Crucis.
MUST-READ
JK: That could only be Dan Darling's Special Analysis Briefing on al-Qaeda's Algerian connection. You can see why he's a valued host of Winds of War!Today's Topics Include: a key arrest in the Phillipines, Ba'ath Poker hands, the museum looting hoax, who's behind Iraq's mujahideen, multiple warnings over al-Qaeda and WMDs, the 9/11 money trail, French arrests, where's Zarqawi, strangeness in Mauritania, and the Liberian connection...
IRAQ BRIEFING
Two more of the Iraqi most wanted were captured by US forces. Here's the CENTCOM list, Doc Weevil's visual version of "Ba'ath Poker," and Boomshock on our best poker hands to date.
Dean Esmay points us to a piece about the State Department's resistance to the De-Ba'athification process that you really should read.
Yet another US soldier has been killed in Baghdad today in an organized attack. This may well be the work of the Kiada al-Makauma ve al-Tahrir al-Iraqiyyah that I blogged about in my last Winds of War. While the attacks on US forces in Fallujah and Tikrit are more likely to be those of former Baathists and/or Saddam Fedayeen, the more organized attacks on checkpoints et. al. are using the same M.O. al-Qaeda has demonstrated over the years in Chechnya and Indian Kashmir.
The apparent leader of the "Iraqi mujahideen" is himself an alumni of Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. In addition the fatality, 4 US soldiers were wounded. In an attempt to nip the Iraqi guerrillas in the bud, 384 Iraqis were detained in a series of raids.
JK: Bill Hobbs reminds us that the U.S. government managed to hide a massive secret bunker in a West Virgina town for 35 years, then segues into a plausible scenario explaining where Iraq's WMDs could be. Just one more example of why I'm serious about giving inspections more time to work; this will take a significant intelligence operation before we can draw solid conclusions (log-in: laexaminer/laexaminer).
In a twist of irony, The Guardian's David Aaronovitch is savaging the media over the bogus stories about looting at Iraq's National museum. Turns out many if the items were removed by the curators (we called that one), most of the collection is intact, and missing pieces generally vanished before the war.
In a further twist of irony, anonymous sources within the Iranian hierarchy are supporting US claims about Iraq's arsenal.
The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated April 1, 2003]
THE WIDER WAR
A news article covers yesterday's protests in Iran (Hat Tip: Iranian.com), and an op-ed from Pooya Dayanim helps put it into perspective. I'm also putting together a special Iran Regional Briefing for tomorrow... and see Iraniangirl's report.
Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps may be harboring Abu Musab Zarqawi, a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda of whom the State Department's 2002 Report on Global Terrorism states: "In the past year, al-Qaida operatives in northern Iraq concocted suspect chemicals under the direction of senior al-Qaida associate Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and tried to smuggle them into Russia, Western Europe, and the United States for terrorist operations." The Washington Post has also named him as the architect of the recent attacks in Casablanca.
The arrest of Saifullah Yunos, a senior leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who was allegedly trained by al-Qaeda in the use of anthrax, was a major blow to the Islamist organization. Now Yunos is talking and detailing the links between MILF and Jemaah Islamiyyah, the Southeast Asian arm of al-Qaeda. Given the recent reports of al-Qaeda training facilities reopening in Mindanao, this may well prove to be an intelligence coup for the Filippino authorities.
A United Nations report released in April cites a "high probability" of al-Qaeda launching a WMD attack, which would seem to jive with Bill Gertz's recent claims in the Washington Times. Bin Laden's first claim to possess WMDs was in an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, and has been echoed by other al-Qaeda leaders in recent weeks. This includes the self-described head of the organization's training program, Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj. Ablaj has also implied collusion between the terrorist network and the former Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, 9/11 lawyers on the money trail. Go boy - sic 'em!
The German Defense Minister is saying that there are indications that al-Qaeda was behind Sunday's suicide bombing that killed four German peacekeepers in Kabul.
The French have arrested two senior members of al-Qaeda in Europe, Karim Mehdi, who was planning an attack at tourist locations on Reunion Island, and Christian Ganczarski, a top recruiter for the organization in Germany who helped to plan the suicide truck bombing of the Djerba synagogue.
The coup attempt in Mauritania is over and thousands of Nouakchott residents are celebrating, but what actually took place there several days ago appears to be anyone's guess. This whole mess started on June 4 when 36 Islamic extremists who sought to use Mauritania as a base were arrested. Then on June 8, an armored division and elements of the air force led by former colonel Salah Ould Hnana attempted a coup, during which they freed the 36 militants in question during the obligatory storming of the local equivalent of the Bastille.
Charles Taylor's tyranny rule in Liberia is rapidly coming to an end. Even ignoring the destruction that Taylor has wreaked across West Africa over the last decade, he has also chosen to harbor al-Qaeda even after September 11, including high-level members of the terrorist organization. The US has recently accused Liberia of harboring al-Qaeda operatives. In interview with LURD General Joe Wylie, the official Liberian reaction to 9/11 is described in detail. The Palestinians in Gaza weren't the only ones cheering that day, simply the most reported.
We try to close on a lighter note if possible. Moxie's cover page for "Martha Stewart Prison Living" makes us wonder how many more terrorists might crack if we shipped her to Guantanamo instead.If you find something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". Thanks for reading!
Gracis