Colt's Winds of War: Dec 24/04

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET 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 every Monday & Thursday. Thursday's Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.

TOP TOPICS

• UPDATE: A senior official in the US administration has told the Jerusalem Post that the United States may strike Syria. Not full-scale hostilites, mind, and he emphasised that cross-border military action is still a matter of discussion.

• Asia Times Online reports that the Pakistani army is taking a firm line against the jihadists in their midst: Purging Pakistan's jihadi legacy.

• A special analysis: A window in to al-Qaeda.

• A Hamas front is operating quite openly in the United Kingdom, with the blessings of the British government.

• Iraq says they have photographs of Syrian officials with insurgents and terrorists.

Other Topics Today Include: organ harvesting infidels; Iran's nuclear efforts; Iran no match for U.S.; Ansar al-Sunnah primer; Arafat's kosher investments; peace activists or Zionist saboteurs?; GCC pledges to fight jihadi cashflow; Egypt builds more tanks to fight Nile crocodiles; honeymoon suicide bombers; French journalists released; 'I married a terrorist'; Spain terror cell busted; Basayev defrauding financiers; Basayev and Maskhadov key to Chechen jihad; Zio-drones in Kashmir; JI leader: "Jemmah what?"

IRAN

• How close is Iran to the bomb? Too close, that's for sure.

• Iranian drama: Israel harvests Arab children's organs.

• Debka reports that authorities in the United States have broken up Iranian cells planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets.

• Meanwhile, Iran arrests a Mossad/CIA/Halliburton (maybe not Halliburton) spy ring who passed information to Israel and the U.S. about their nuclear program.

• Iran is ready to defend their nuclear sites.

• A CSIS analyst says the Iranian military is no match for America's.

• Iran is to put to death what they call a 21-year-old prostitute, and whatever one else calls a 19 year-old with a mental age of eight.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• A good primer on Ansar al-Sunnah, the terrorist group thought to be behind the suicide bombing in an American military base in Mosul that claimed 22 lives.

• Yasser Arafat invested in kosher caterers and used the cash to destroy Israel. What a legacy...

• Weirder still - the PLO suggests that a party of terror-enablers, including Rachel Corrie's parents, poisoned Yasser Arafat.

• The GCC pledges to halt finance of terrorism. Given how little terrorist cash has been seized, even with the assistance of our friends in the Gulf, there's little reason to think much will change.

• Hamas says they won't surrender their weapons.

• From our own Joe Katzman: How do you solve a probelm like Mubarak?

• Egypt will build another 125 M1A1 tanks.

• The IDF warns that terrorists may tunnel beneath the security fence in Judea and Samaria.

• Middle East Newsline reports that the U.S. has increased intelligence monitoring of Israel.

• Shabak prevented a suicide-bombing honeymoon, planned by two Israeli-Arabs who were to strike the tragically famous Sbarro restaurant.

• PA PM Queria tells Tony Blair we don't need no reformation.

• Jordan has released a journalist of the Islamic Action Front, held for criticising government appointments. "The party strongly condemns our colleague's detention, which is in violation of public freedoms and the liberty of expression," [Party president Hamza] Mansour said. Uh-huh.

• In Qatar, two Russian intelligence operatives convicted of murdering a Chechen terrorist will serve their sentences in Russia.

• Saudi paper: U.S. harvests Iraqi organs.

• Two French journalists released: 'We played the 'French journalists' card. Also typical: [Defence Minister] Alliot-Marie said the captors had never asked for a ransom. Asked on television if Paris would say if it had paid them off, she nodded and said: "Why would we hide it? Who'd see anything wrong with that?"
  
  THE AMERICAS

• 'I married a terrorist' - ABC talks to an American lady who married an Islamist believed to have established one of al-Qaeda's first sleeper cells.

EUROPE

• A Morrocan-Dutch national will on trial in February, accused of plotting to blow up the Dutch parliament and Schipol Airport.

• Spanish police have broken up yet another terror cell.

• A Chechen messenger for Shamil Basayev was killed yesterday, carrying tapes of attacks carried out 2001-2002. Apparently based on the captured tapes, Russian authorities believe that Basayev is trying to win reward money from jihadi sponsors.

• Still in Chechnya, a captured terrorist claims he sheltered Basayev and other terrorists planning attacks on a military bus.

• A Russian commando says the Chechnya jihad will die with Basayev and Maskhadov.

• A London-based Russian youth group demands the extradition of Akhmed Zakayev, a man wanted by Russia and the U.S.

ASIA & AUSTRALASIA

• India has deployed Israeli-made drones in Kashmir.

• Abu Bakir Bashir delivered pro-Qaeda sermons; Bashir replied that Jemma Islamiya does not exist.

• Astonishingly, Indonesia's tourist trade is drying up.

AFRICA

• A-Q in South Africa? The Pakistanis say the two were caught in Gilani's house...

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