Monday Winds of War: July 18/05

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. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report today.

Today's Winds of War briefing is brought to you by Bill Roggio and evariste of Discarded Lies.

Top Topics

• A Chinese general threatened to nuke the US in a confrontation over Taiwan. The threat may be China trying to find out how vehement the response will be, or else to send a signal to the US and Japan. The general may only have two stars, but in an authoritarian regime like China's, he wouldn't be saying this if he wasn't cleared to do so. The conversation in QandO's comments is quite interesting. Strangely, the US is softening its stance somewhat on European arms sales to China. Meanwhile, the "People's" "Liberation" Army announced a massive restructuring, shedding 200,000 troops and modernizing equipment. The army/navy/air force middle-management chain of command is also getting an overhaul/downsizing as China appears to be learning from the US military doctrine of "jointness". Also-Why oppose China's UNOCAL bid? Here are a couple of non-petrostrategic reasons: UNOCAL owns advanced deep-ocean technology that the Chinese could use for undersea mapping with potential military submarine ramifications, and UNOCAL owns the only rare-earth mine remaining in the US (American military technology is heavily dependent on rare-earth elements).

• DHS Secretary Chertoff announced plans to centralize intelligence and terror analysis, prioritize bioterrorism, and improve WMD detection systems for public transportation. The chain of command is being shaken up extensively as well. Controversially, a split-up of FEMA, the federal emergency management, preparedness and disaster response agency, is also in the cards. The department's Emergency Preparedness Directorate may be dismantled.

• Australia is stepping up with 150 SAS special forces troops for the Afghanistan mission in the Global War on Terror. This is up from its current troop deployment level of one (there was previously a larger contingent, later withdrawn). It may also send a 200-person provincial reconstruction team later. More.

• Canada, too, is stepping up its commitment in Afghanistan in a major way. Its elite Joint Task Force 2 soldiers are joining Canada's new 2,000 man deployment to Afghanistan.

• Pakistan's madrassas are implicated not only in the London bombings but in every single British-born Islamic terrorist yet. This op-ed argues that we're not getting our money's worth from Musharraf. His promises to reform the madrassa system have come to nil. One of the London bombers met the Islamabad Church bomber, for instance. On the other hand, Pakistan claimed to have helped Britain avoid terrorism attacks during its May elections, and has arrested two accused of links with one of the bombers.

Other Topics Today Include:
US wags finger at Iran; Iran thumbs nose at US; new bunker-busters to be tested soon; Israel could be destroyed by two nukes; targeted assassinations to resume; Syria blockading Lebanon; Chavez training 2 million; VA life sentence; Canadian sleeper cell; border, ferry worries; Colombia paramilitary disarmament plan; threat to NJ hospitals; cyanide plotter competent for trial; Lodi deportations; gas station robber/convert to Islam had target list of military, Jewish facilities in US; LRA rebels killed by Ugandans; Russia inflaming Ivory Coast situation; Norks come back to 6-way yak; Thai headchoppers headstrong; copious London bombing developments coverage; Italian sweep; Ireland home to a Qaeda cell; anarchists create entropy; Saudi wallets wide open for the terrorists; DIY splodeydopery; FBI whingeing discredited and much, much more...

IRAN REPORTS

• The US warned Iran not to restart enrichment and not to interfere in Iraqi affairs.

• Iran repeated that it will not abandon its pursuit of a full nuclear fuel cycle.

• A next-generation bunker buster is estimated to be able to bore ten times deeper into hardened WMD facilities and four prototypes are to be tested later this year. There's a certain country that rhymes with Iran where I hope we use these.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist in a British woman's home in Israel, to which she objected that they could have arrested him after the first time they shot him, but they simply stood there and emptied more bullets into the bastard. Can't see as how I'd do any different. Also, what's she doing getting drunk with terrorists in her house? Not a smart cookie, I'll wager.

• The British are allowing Islamic fascist vigilantes to have the run of Basra and intimidate the locals.

• Since terrorist innovations and best practices in Iraq often are copied elsewhere disturbingly quickly, it behooves us to note that the latest extremely deadly suicide attack in Iraq was a fuel-truck suicide mission. The death toll is 98 at the time of this writing.

• Geostrategy Direct says the US is now backing dissident groups in Syria to try and achieve regime change.

• The Israeli Defense Ministry says Iran could destroy Israel utterly with two nukes.

• Israel is considering resuming targeted assassinations of terror kingpins, lackeys and middle management in response to the Netanya mall bombing. Donald Rumsfeld suggested Iran might have been behind the attack.

• Syria is punishing Lebanon for its humiliating setbacks there with a trade blockade.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is training 2 million people to help repel any US invasion.

• The spiritual leader of the Virginian paintball jihad group was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

• A Canadian sleeper cell?

• A Greek man is to be tried in Mexico over his role in the smuggling of Iraqis with fake Greek passports into the US.

• The FBI is sounding the alarm over terrorist smuggling operations at the border.

• British Columbian ferries are taking new luggage-handling measures to combat terrorism.

• Colombia's President Uribe is seeking European support for an amnesty/disarmament scheme to neutralize right-wing paramilitaries who have torn his country apart. He already has American support for the plan.

• Terrorists may be scouting out New Jersey hospitals.

• Californians are questioning federal homeland security funding priorities after discovering that a Toyota dealership is named for security funding, but NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and major hospitals aren't.

• In Texas's Rio Grande Valley, Border Patrol agents are learning about the MS-13 menace.

• An Iranian-born, naturalized US citizen was ruled competent to be tried over his hoarding of enough cyanide to kill hundreds.

• A father and son in the Lodi case have agreed to deportation to Pakistan.

• A convert to Islam/robber's house was searched and a target list of California facilities was uncovered, including National Guard facilities and the Israeli consulate, two synagogues, and other Jewish targets.

• A commission recommended merging America's five nuclear weapons design and construction sites into one to better protect from terrorism. Sounds like a dumb idea to me. Sure, let's put all our nuclear eggs in a single basket!

• A CTA employee was arrested for making a fake bomb threat.

• Recriminations are flying over multiagency bungling in the off-again, on-again cellphone service in the tunnels.

• Congress was told that the nation's bioterrorism defenses were sorely lacking.

• Instant face recognition technology to protect you from terrorists: coming soon.

• Some police departments, in the face of federal indifference, are discouraging illegal immigrants from coming to their towns by arresting them for criminal trespassing.

• The DoJ, DHS and FBI jointly requested from the FCC the power to begin eavesdropping on in-flight broadband internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization to prevent terrorists from being able to coordinate hijackings or remotely activate bombs.

• The Patriot Act is set to be renewed with US lawmakers agreeing to make permanent some provisions and sunset others in 2009 or drop them entirely. In the wake of the London atrocities, provisions similar to the Patriot Act are coming to Europe, too, and although Greece seems wary, it'll probably come around in the end.

• The weaponization of space is imminent.

AFRICA

• Either Russia or ex-Soviet Bloc states are violating a truce in the Ivory Coast and providing arms to conflagrants there.

• Britain's Foreign Office minister is in Algeria for terrorism-related talks.

• Thousands displaced, scores murdered in cross-tribal warfare in Kenya.

• The GSPC released details on its attack on a Mauritanian border outpost.

• The Ugandan army killed several top members of the Lord's Resistance Army.

ASIA

• Some US officials are criticizing apparently failed British efforts to eradicate the poppy trade in Afghanistan.

• Turkish authorities warned that a female PKK suicide terrorist was on the loose and sure enough, she struck, killing at least 5.

• North Korea: back to the six-way talks.

• The Tamil Tigers threatened to resume the civil war in Sri Lanka. They complain that the government is killing off their guys.

• The Islamic insurgency rages on in Thailand.

EUROPE

• One of the London bombers is implicated in the Mike's Place bombing in Israel.

• Communist Romania's spy chief is being tried for siccing terrorist-for-hire Carlos the Jackal on dissidents.

• Egypt is dragging its feet on extraditing the biochemist who the UK suspects of involvement in the bombings, but is allowing UK intelligence to sit in on his interrogation. I hope they're hurting him.

• Undercover police sniper squads are tracking a dozen Al Qaeda terrorists in Britain. That is so cool.

• Irony: The stepfather of a Madrid 3/11 victim is accused of helping a London 7/7 mastermind flee.

• Britain's MI5 defended itself against various accusations of incompetence in the London bombings.

• The UK is set to adopt measures to ban visitors who are also banned by the United States and the EU after criticism of its relative laxity in this regard was accentuated by its admittal of suicide terrorism advocate and apologist Yusuf Qaradawi shortly after the London 7/7 bombings.

• Italian police launched a massive antiterrorist sweep, attempting to arrest more than 200 individuals on warrants.

• Blair is moving to tighten entry and deportation procedures.

• The London bombers hoped their explosions would form a "burning cross", according to information found on the Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe's website. Four planes on 9/11, four Madrid explosions on 3/11, four London explosions on 7/7...hmm.

• ETA is behind four bombings of a Spanish power plant, in a show of force designed to wring better concessions if the Socialists choose to negotiate with them.

• The Brits have much to learn from the French to control homegrown terrorists.

• Ireland may be home to an Al Qaeda base, according to the Justice Minister.

• A coffee-pot bomb exploded outside an Italian Culture Institute in Barcelona. The culprit is most likely anarchists. It exploded while being defused, killing a dog and injuring an officer.

• A three-week NATO drill began in Albania with the participation of 1500 American marines and navy men.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• Saudis continue to fund Al Qaeda with impunity.

• DIY suicide terrorism videos. Ugh.

• Osama bin Laden's job approval ratings are plummeting (or something).

• FBI agents' complaints about treatment of Gitmo detainees have been discredited by a high-level military investigation.

• The theory on four Al Qaeda escapees from a US detention camp in Afghanistan is that it was an inside job with help from some guards.

• The Treasury designated MIRA (Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia), a UK-based group, as a terrorist group.

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