Winds of War: Dec 31/04

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. I'm evariste and I blog at Discarded Lies. Thursday's Winds of War briefings are normally given by Colt of Eurabian Times. This week, I'll be pinch-hitting for him.

TOP TOPICS

• Does Osama's newest audiotape indicate that Al Qaeda is now akin to a virtual organization or a brand?

• Palestinian terrorists have acquired ground-to-air missiles, according to Ariel Sharon. He promised a harsh response if attempts were made to hit aircraft. Meanwhile, the head of the LAPD's Counterterrorism Bureau, John Miller, told Aviation Week's Airports that security officials are undergoing training specifically to deal with the shoulder-launched missile threat, and air and ground perimeter patrols are being beefed up at LAX.

• House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner promises a tough fight to tighten immigration security on the first day of the 109th Congress, calling it "must-pass" legislation. Among the provisions sought: making terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility to the US also grounds for deportation, giving immigration judges wider latitude and subjecting their decisions to fewer opportunities for appeal, and expediting deportations of unwelcome immigrants, even if they might face torture in their home countries.

• Either two or three car bombs went off near-simultaneously in Riyadh, one of them attempting to drive into a compound where Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism forces are stationed. DEBKAfile says there were definitely three, and makes much of the fact that it's the first Al Qaeda attack on a member of the royal family. One of the seven people killed in a Riyadh shootout Wednesday is believed to be a top Yemeni Al Qaeda member-and the main point of contact between Osama bin Laden and the Saudi Al Qaeda organization.

• Terrorists are unlikely to be able to obtain nuclear weapons or successfully use them if they do obtain them, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Other Topics Today Include:
Should PMOI be considered a terror group?;UFOs, UAVs and satellites in Iran;terrorists sentenced in Syria, imprisoned in Spain, acquitted in Jordan, shot at in Saudi Arabia;FBI can't keep people;CIA can't get rid of people fast enough;How Al Qaeda cases buildings;Hambali sentenced to life;US commander says Al Qaeda has bases in the Horn of Africa and more...

IRAN

• At counterpunch, a look from the (far, far) left at whether or not Iranian resistance organizations such as the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran ought to be considered terrorist groups. Interesting reading.

• Amid frequent sightings of unknown flying objects, Iran's air force has been ordered to shoot down anything that flies near its nuclear installations. If it wasn't mass delusion it will be now, as it's now being reported in a major Iranian daily. News reporting of these kinds of things tends to bring out additional spurious reports. Are we spying on them with UAVs? Probably. Are even a tenth of the reported incidents related to our spying? I doubt it.

• The EU is in a big hurry to give the carrot to Iran and resume talks over $20 bn in trade ties. That's probably what they were after anyway, as the nuclear deal they negotiated doesn't tie Iran down in any real way-but does tie down the US from trying to get anything done in international forums.

• Russia is building Iran a nice satellite system. Comically, the two nations also agreed to study UFOs together. Someone should tell them about Bat Boy, that should keep them busy for a while. The Zohreh system is intended to consist of two satellites and mainly provide satellite telephony services to remote areas. Translation: it's a command and control system for Iran's military, because the citizenry is prohibited from owning satellite equipment.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Jordan has acquitted 13 men of conspiring to commit terrorist attacks against US targets in Jordan. 11 of them received sentences on explosives-possession charges. This isn't the first time Jordan has inexplicably acquitted terrorists who were plotting against the United States.

• Two terror suspects and a civilian were killed in clashes with Saudi security forces, while another was apprehended and imprisoned.

• Gun-toting bodyguards of members of Parliament pointed guns in the Yemeni Prime Minister's face. It's not the first time.

• Two of the 22 people involved in the bombing of an empty Damascus UN building have been sentenced to die by a national security court whose judgments cannot be appealed in Syria. The others received sentences varying from one year to life at hard labor. The Assad regime has been accused of staging the attack, though I'm not sure what they think they might gain by it.

THE AMERICAS

• The FBI has named its 6th counterterrorism chief since 9/11. They just can't hold on to these guys. Meanwhile The CIA's epic purge of George Tenet's team continues as the Deputy Director of the Analysis branch has been given the pink slip. At least a half dozen of Tenet's top officials have abruptly resigned or been fired, and the top tier of the agency's clandestine service is also mostly gone.

• A new US government intelligence bulletin describes Al Qaeda's building casing techniques in detail based on computers and cds found in Pakistan this July.

• Closing statements were made in the trial of blind terror cleric Omar Abdel Rahman's lawyer Lynne Stewart for helping him to communicate with other terrorists from his movement.

• Al Qaeda's network has been frayed and their ability to carry out attacks has been severely degraded. The greatest threat we now face is terrorists who we don't know owe their ideological allegiance to Al Qaeda, says the CIA's ex counterterrorism chief.

• A UPI editor tries to think like Osama and divine the new strategy that he's evolved.

• The half-brother of hunted Hamas terrorist leader Khalid Mish'al was a Dallas city engineer and a musician who frequently played at Hamas fundraisers. He kept his family connections secret and everyone who worked with him was surprised to find it out. He had access to blueprints of Dallas' most vulnerable infrastructure: gas lines, water plants, electrical grids, and maintenance tunnels under the commuter train system.

EUROPE

• A Spanish judge remanded two of the four men who were arrested Wednesday to jail. He released the third citing a lack of evidence connecting him to their plot to acquire explosives. The fourth man was also remanded to jail, by a different judge, for belonging to a terrorist group.

• Most Russians miss the Soviet Union and think they have good and friendly relations with the former Soviet republics, according to reputable polling.

ASIA & AUSTRALASIA

• Asia's top terrorist, "Hambali" (Riduan Isamuddin) went on trial Tuesday in Cambodia. He received a life sentence on Wednesday. Let no one accuse Cambodian justice of working slowly. He's currently in US custody. Rotten.com has a good bio. Did I just link to Rotten.com? I did.
  
• The "Tamil Tigers", a Sri Lankan separatist group which uses terrorist tactics and has pioneered and often resorted to suicide bombings, is now complaining that the central Sri Lankan government is ignoring their plight in the wake of the tsunami, in areas they killed thousands of people to control. Statues wept.

AFRICA

• A US commander says that terrorist groups including Al Qaeda are exploiting lawless regions of the Horn of Africa to hide and train their members.

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