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
- Al-Qaeda in Iraq has announced the establishment of an all-Iraqi suicide squad, apparently to dissuade Iraqis that the murderous 'resistance' is foreign. The statement did not explain why it took al-Qaeda over two years since the invasion to form such a unit.
- JK: BBC interviewee Jeremy Binnie of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre believes the "flypaper strategy" is working. Impearls has a fuller analysis, with some new developments in Europe.
- A survey of arms experts by a Senate committee has found that the experts believe there is a high risk of a WMD attack this decade. Meanwhile, Russia says guards thwarted two attempts to penetrate storage sites for Russia's nuclear arsenal in 2002 & 2003.
- The IDF seems to have returned to targeted killings. The PIJ target in question escaped.
Other Topics Today Include: Brits arrest Iran dissidents; Russia to deliver nuclear fuel in months; spy-plane crashes; palestinian burn victim tries to blow up hospital; anti-Syrian politician killed; Red-on-Red; Saudis kill two jihadis; 9/11 suspect caught in Mexico; Hezbollah drug ring smashed; Hamas says they spoke to senior German official; Spain arrests five more; Chechens kidnapped young girls for suicide bombings?; Karzai says Pakistan interfering; Taliban kicked out of town; seven Abu Sayyaf get death penalties; more jihad in Thailand; Al-Qaeda's Africa arm stirs; A-Q angry with Sudan for intelligence tips to U.S.; and much more.
IRAN
- On Iran's "election" day, British authorities swooped on a group of dissidents. They were released without charge 48 hours later. Officials said they were not linked to international terrorism or any al-Qaida group, but were detained on suspicion of inciting others to commit offences abroad.
- In direct contrast: Don't pin hopes for reform on Rafsanjani, Britain warns.
- Russia will deliver Iran nuclear fuel within months.
- Iran's web-censorship is some of the world's most stringent.
THE MIDDLE EAST
- An American spy plane has crashed somewhere en route from Afghanistan to the United Arab Emirates. The pilot is said to have been killed. The U.S. is refusing to say where. This map should give you some idea of where it may have gone down.
- A palestinian woman with severe burns from a kitchen fire was caught carrying explosives from Gaza in to Israel. She was on her way to blow up the hospital where she had been offered medical care.
- After two deadly attacks and a series of near-misses, the Israeli government has allowed the IDF to crack down on Islamic Jihad. 52 have been arrested.
- Iran and Lebanon are discussing bilateral ties. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri praised Iran's role in liberation of Lebanon's occupied lands, and said that Iran and Lebanon have mutual concerns.
IRAQ AND THE GULF
- Enemy on enemy fire in Iraq. Bill has more: Red-on-Red.
- Trent on IEDs in Iraq.
- The U.S. says that a key insurgency financier is being harboured by Syria.
- French authorities have demanded that a French journalist be expelled from Iraq - no reasons given in this article.
THE AMERICAS
- An Arab American FBI agent is going to sue the Bureau for not being promoted. Read the article; the problem - a lack of expertise amongst senior agents - is serious. Whether lawsuits are the cure...
- A Hezbollah drugs ring in Ecuador has been broken up.
EUROPE
- Al-Qaeda member Abdelghani Mzoudi, recently acquitted of involvement in 9/11, is going to leave Germany.
- Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar says he met with a 'senior adviser in the German administration', in direct contradiction of EU claims that their contacts are only low-level.
- The Russians say they've picked up another Basayev aide in Chechnya.
- The Russian Interior Ministry says that Chechen jihadis have been kidnapping young girls to use as suicide bombers.
ASIA & AUSTRALASIA
- JK: Milblogger Col. Austin Bay reports from Afghanistan re: the New Afghan Army.
- President Karzai says that Pakistan is interfering in Afghan affairs.
- Afghan and U.S. forces have retaken a town that was overrun by the Taliban, killing 32 of them.
- This isn't sourced, but it certainly sounds feasible: ISI, LET use Kashmir bus service to bomb school.
- Two LeT jihadis were killed by police in a gunbattle in J&K. A police officer and a civilian were killed in the attack.
- Seven members of Abu Sayyaf have been given twelve death sentences each for involvement in a mass-kidnapping, and the beheading of ten men.
- A Muslim 'rebel' in southern Thailand entered a teashop, and shot a salesman twice. He then severed the man's head, and carried it away with him on his motorbike.
- Again in Thailand, a Muslim official ran a roadblock with a truck full of fertiliser.
AFRICA
- Al-Qaeda are mighty displeased with Sudan for giving the U.S. intelligence data.
- More fighting in Sudan, this time in the north-east.
On a nicer note: Lions rescue and guard kidnapper Ethiopian girl.
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OK, who'll take my bet that the all-Iraqi suicide unit will end up being people who were unable to understand what they were doing, tricked, or forced at gunpoint (or by threats to their families) to take part?
The IDF seems to have returned to targeted killings
You mean terrorisme
"a", no calling targeted killings terrorism is a lie. The targets are self-declared combatants, not civilians.
The IDF seems to have returned to targeted killings
Better to take out these terrorists with a targeted helicopter gunship strike, than dropping a 500 pound bomb in their viscinity.
"The Russian Interior Ministry says that Chechen jihadis have been kidnapping young girls to use as suicide bombers."
I'd be less inclined to pay attention to the Russian Interior Ministry's non-stop propaganda, and more inclined to keep an eye on things that are actually taking place:
Several days ago, a Chechen police officer beat a 14-year-old girl for wearing a headscarf.
"This took place in the district police department in Grozny's Zavodskoi district on 9 June, Taisa Isayev, chief of the Information Centre of the Council of Chechen Nongovernmental Organisations, told Caucasian Knot.
The girl's relatives (she is resident in Prigorodnoye, Grozny district) asked not to mention their names for fear of repressions and harassment on the part of law enforcement and security agencies."
"The girl's mother says she came to the Zavodskoi District Division of Internal Affairs together with her daughter to get a passport for the girl as she had grown 14 a while before that. The daughter came in,while her mother waited for her outside. In a while, the woman heard her daughter cry. She came in running and saw one police officer cruelly beat her daughter with a truncheon calling her "Wahhabi" and verbally abusing her. Only the girl's mother was able to stop this 'arm of the law,'" she says.
The girl's condition is grave, according to Taisa Isayev's information. Her relatives know the name of the police officer, but they are not going to take any steps for fear of possible negative implications of such steps.
I like to see the bloody Taliban getting its posterior rumpus tatooed by Afghan army boots. The spirit of freedom is a great motivator for kicking out the brutal islamic fascist terrorists.
Greater attention must be paid to the islamic clerics who are the inciters to terrorism. Remember that most muslims are ignorant and unintelligent. They are easily led by religious leaders, like sheep.
Bill, I'll grant you there's a lot of ignorance in the ME, the result of Madrassas being the primary education system. And I'll grant you Middle Eastern cultures tend to be rather savage. But ingorant savages are not necessarily stupid. Never underesitimate your enemy.
No, I mean targeted killings, nitwit.
Actually, Colt, you mean targets of war.
Enemy leaders are legitimate targets. Those who decalre war on Israel and seek the genocide of its Jews will be tracked by soldiers and killed as targets of war. Very simple.
Ideally, one would be even more specific and exempt incompetent enemy leaders from attack (per Heinlein's idea in Friday). Since the most scarce resource in any organization is genuinely competent people, and since the incompetent invariably drive out a number of competent individuals by their presence and populate organizations with "unthreatening" individuals, sustained use of this strategy should result in plunging enemy effectiveness over time. Terrorist organizations are even more vulnerable to this "Netwar" principle than regular organizations.
You're right. Damn. Even I'm using Israeli gov't phraseology.
I'd suggest that there is an element of that, more by accident than by intent. The IDF's and Shabak's hands are tied to a great extent by the government, so the targets they submit will (or at least, should) only be the most competent. The 'ticking bombs', obviously. But also the more experienced and creative cell leaders, who perhaps have Hezbollah support - hence the recent clampdown on PIJ. Disturbingly, though, PIJ seems to be the only group that is being directly targeted.
That said, the current policy inevitably leaves competent terrorists alive and free, as well as incompetent ones. Terrorists are usually targeted for death or capture if they've either been successful in carrying out an attack, or they've been a combination of near-successful and prolific in their efforts. The quite obvious donwside of this is that Israeli civilians have to be killed in order to determine who is particularly competent and who is not.
Which is why my initial reaction to this from Joe:
was 'ideally they'd all be killed'.