Winds of War: Mar 10/05

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

• Aslan Maskhadov is dead. Rusy has the details, Dan has the analysis.

• Half a million people turned up to a pro-Syria rally organised by Hezbollah in Beirut. Analysis here, and a claim from a genuinely anti-Syria politician (they came this close to killing him) that many protesters were co-erced. In other Lebanon news, after the resgination of PM Omar Karami, the Lebanese parliament has chosen former-PM Omar Karami to form a new government. This article makes it clear that the problem is less Syrian soldiers, and more Syrian intelligence. One report suggests that even the Mukhabarat are leaving.

• Israeli intelligence has provided a transcript of a conversation in which an Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus authorised a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv to Sec. State Rice.

Other Topics Today Include: enrichment plants in bunkers; protests in north Iran; most young Iranians secular; P.L.O. rejects terror?; Hamas and PIJ deny Syria expulsion; IDF prepares to leave under fire; Shabak nabs lynch mob suspect; most Iraqi resistance fighters are Saudis; Kuwait bans charity boxes; IEDs improve in Iraq; KSA holds bio-terror conference (!); A-Q joining U.S. intelligence agencies?; Bloomberg for U.N.; Muslim Brothers radicalise Europe; Mullah Krekar may be kicked out; China threatens Australia; A-Q wanted to kidnap Russell Crowe; LeT attack thwarted; Bashir's lawyers claim conspiracy; shooting at Thailand train station; Darfur rapes continue; and more.

IRAN

• Iran has placed a uranium enrichment plant underground, to protect from Zionist-Imperialist attack.

• Iran is accusing the E.U. of breaching the nuclear deal made with Tehran.

• The temperamental tyrants have also threatened to start re-making nuclear fuel.

• The U.S. admits that its intelligence on Iran's nuclear program is lacking.

• Students at a northern university have kicked out the Health Minister that was due to address them.

• A government survey has found that 44% of Iranians aged 15-29 want to leave the country, and 50% are secular.

• A senior Iranian MP has given the E.U. an ultimatum: If the Europeans maintain their new language on Iran in the next month's negotiations, it will be our last nuclear negotiations with them.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Israeli COS Moshe Ya'alon says the P.A. leadership rejects terror. Apparently the change hasn't filtered down to the P.L.O.'s media, which lauded the murderer of five people as a martyr.

• Israeli deputy-PM Ehud Olmert has decided that the IDF's flight from Lebanon should serve as "a model which Israel would apply to Gaza and Samaria." Arutz Sheva points out that Olmert's claim that the northern border is calm is, well, lacking in the truth area.

• Hamas and Islamic Jihad have denied claims that Syria expelled them.

• Another meeting to hammer out a deal to handover cities to the P.L.O. has yielded no results. DM Mofaz has already said Israel will pull out of Jericho and Tulkarem.

• The IDF is preparing to withdraw under fire from Gaza. There was a report at the Jerusalem Post, which I cannot find, that said the IDF will re-take Gaza cities before the retreat, in order to check terror attacks at their source.

• The new moderate, reformist (etc) P.L.O. minister of the economy has close ties to Hamas.

• Shin Bet has arrested a man involved in the brutal lynching of two Israeli reservists in October, 2000.

THE GULF

• The Carnival of the Liberated is up. Riverbend suggests that the whole Sgrena kidnapping was a 'kidnapping'. Liberal Iraqi says that the divisions in Iraqi society are a bigger hurdle in Iraq's future than terrorism or a transition to democracy.

• Reuven Paz has looked at the backgrounds of 154 of the terrorists killed in Iraq. 61% are Saudis.

• Jihadis in Iraq are getting better at making bombs.

• Kuwait has banned the display of charity boxes, in an effort to cut cashflow to terrorists.

• Saudi Arabia is holding a conference on biological terrorism. Attendees will include Syria, Lebanon and the P.L.O..

THE AMERICAS

• America's new ambassador to the United Nations will be John Bolton, hardly a fan of the U.N.

• U.S. intelligence agencies are concerned that some applicants are al-Qaeda terrorists or sympathisers.

• A Congressional hearing has found that dozens of individuals on terrorist watch list have been buying firearms.

EUROPE

• Germany is transferring hundreds of military intelligence analysts to civilian counter-terror agencies to tackle the threat from jihadi terrorism.

• A French charity has funneled tens of thousands of dollars to Hamas.

• The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe - radicalising Europe.

• Interpol will create a bio-terror centre.

• The Israelis are holding a former student of Durham University personally responsible for last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. A further clue to Shallah’s views is provided by his Durham thesis. It calls for the replacement of the western-style banking system by one in accordance with Islamic law, which bans paying or receiving interest. The thesis begins with a quotation from the Koran, warning of a “war” from “Allah and his apostle” to be waged against those who persist in demanding the payment of interest.

• The Dutch Cabinet plans to restrict immigrant access to welfare.

• Some good (though familiar) news from Norway, that Ansar al-Islam leader Mullah Krekar may be expelled.

• An anti-terror conference in Madrid has yielded some predictable results. "It is the same policy, it has become more intelligent." So now France will get on board?

ASIA & AUSTRALASIA

• An Australian newspaper claims that China has demanded that Australia review its strategic alliance with the U.S. and New Zealand.

• A senior U.S. general says that Mullah Mohammed Omar has lost control of the Taliban insurgency.

• M.E. Forum has a long look at Tablighi Jamaat.

• Lashkar e-Toiba planned to attack a software firm in Bangalore, but police thwarted the attack, seizing arms and explosives.

• Jemaah Islamiyah have landed more terrorists in the southern Phillipines, where they are training Abu Sayyaf and MLF forces.

• Several gunmen in Thailand have opened fire on a train station, killing two policemen.

• Abu Bakar Bashir's nutty lawyers believe there was a plot to convict the terrorist scumbag, undoubtedly planned by Jews, but also involving an air-conditioned room and, well, lunch.

• A Bangladeshi politician has claimed that an al-Qaeda affiliate is recruiting in the country, with the assistance of Pakistani ISI.

• Russell Crowe has said that he was warned by the F.B.I. of an al-Qaeda plot to kidnap him.

AFRICA

• The rape campaign in Darfur goes on. And on...

• An Islamic group in Libya, believed to be supported by Iran, has been designated a major threat to U.S. interests in the country.

• Somali demonstrators have turned out in the thousands to reject a proposed African peacekeeping mission.

And finally...

• Another inmate in Belmarsh prison has lamped Abu Hamza. The Sun asks, Was it a right Hook?? DID you whack Hook? If so call The Sun on 020 7782 4105. And by the way, WELL DONE!

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