Iran & the Middle East

• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is vowing to bring Syria before the U.N. Security Council for their refusal to fully cooperate with the Mehlis investigation. Last week Syrian president Bashar Assad refused to be interviewed and the regime has been of little assistance.

• Lebanon has charged thirteen men suspected of belonging to al Qaeda with planning attacks. The arrests, which included seven Syrians, three Lebanese, one Saudi, one Palestinian and one Jordanian, were made two weeks ago. According to some reports, Hezbollah is unimpressed with al Qaeda's efforts in Lebanon.

• Palestinians fired eight Qassam rockets at western Negev, though no damage was reported. In response, Israeli artillery shelled the point of origin of the rocket attacks.

• In the Gaza strip, Hamas has launched a local television station with hopes of developing a satellite network, a move that could have significant impact.

• A new travel advisory from the British Foreign Office is warning that the risk of terror attacks in Jordan remains high, but the British embassy reopened in Amman after closing last week. Australia and Canada also reopened their embassies in Amman as well.

• In Lebanon, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is verbally clashing with pro-Syrian Hezbollah, accusing the Iranian and Syrian backed Shi'ite group of "hiding behind weapons of treachery."

• While acknowledging progress Saudi Arabia has made against al Qaeda in the kingdom, some U.S. officials are criticizing the Saudis for not doing enough to crack down on the financing of terror or taking an active enough role in the global fight abroad. The Counterterrorism Blog has consistently highlighted this issue, and offers a solid overview of the Saudi failure to fight terror on all fronts.

• The Lebanese Army intercepted a boat loaded with weapons, including long range missiles that authorities believe were funded by Syria or Iran and intended to reach Hamas or Islamic Jihad in the Gaza strip.

• The Israeli cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to allow Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem to vote in next week's legislative elections, but won't allow Hamas candidates to campaign in the city. On Sunday, Israel arrested 10 Hamas activists, including four leading candidates in eastern Jerusalem.

• In response to six more rocket attacks from Gaza, the Israeli military bombed the off-limits zone in Gaza though no injuries were reported.

America Domestic Security & the America's

• Samir Ait Mohamed, accused of belonging to a Canadian-based, Algerian terrorist cell that plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport and of talking about staging violent attacks in Montreal, has been quietly deported from Canada.

• Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan. Michelle Malkin has a roundup on the topic. The FBI subsequently said there was no link to terrorism.

• One of the crossings on the Colombia-Ecuador border was cut off when leftist guerrillas blew up a bridge last week. Authorities blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, which has mounted a series of attacks in the region over the past three weeks, for the bombing.

• A New York Times article describes two film documentaries on Shining Path, a terrorist group active in Peru from roughly 1980 to 2000. The article says Peru's war on terror may offer some lessons to the United States.

• The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to dismiss an appeal by a terror suspect held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. Solicitor General Paul Clement based the request on a new law the Bush administration says sharply limits challenges to the detention of hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. In November, the high court agreed to hear Salim Ahmed Hamdan's constitutional challenge to the administration's plan to try him and others by military commission for war crimes. In doing so, the justices agreed to test the president's wartime powers.

• After the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to oust its Taliban rulers, authorities found a locker full of applications to join al Qaeda's holy war overseas. Among the alleged applicants: Jose Padilla, the former "enemy combatant" who once lived in Broward County. A prosecutor produced the alleged document for the first time Thursday in Miami federal court, where Padilla pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that he was a recruit for a North American terrorist cell that aided Islamic jihad abroad. Michelle Malkin has a copy of the document.

• A co-defendant of a former Florida professor in a recent terrorism trial has asked federal prosecutors to disclose if he was wiretapped without a warrant, a court clerk said on Thursday. Hatem Fariz, who stood trial along with Sami al-Arian and two other men, filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Tampa on Tuesday asking U.S. District Judge James Moody to compel the government to disclose if it intercepted communications between him and others without a court order, the clerk said.

Russia & South/Central Asia

• In the deadliest clash since a Maoist ceasefire ended in Nepal this month, 10 rebels were killed by the army on Thursday as tens of thousands of people protested King Gyanendra's plans to hold municipal elections.

• At least 16 Maoist rebels and a government soldier died Saturday during clashes in Syangja district, western Nepal, an army official said.

• At least 11 police have been killed in Maoist rebel attacks on two police posts on the outskirts of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, officials say.

• Heavily armed troops searched for Tamil Tiger rebel infiltrators Friday in government-held areas in Sri Lanka's restive north, a day after an anti-personnel mine killed nine sailors in the latest deadly attack on the military.

• At least two Sri Lankan navy sailors were killed and two others wounded in a claymore mine attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Saturday, hours after a bomb ripped through a car belonging to the Scandinavian truce monitors.

• Soldiers in full battle gear manned checkpoints and patrolled Sri Lanka's capital on Sunday after an intelligence report warned that prominent landmarks could be targeted by Tamil Tiger suicide bombers.

• Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Here is the North Caucasus Security Watch from Friday.

• The latest issue of Chechnya Weekly has eight items, including one on indications that Islamic terrorists may be planning to widen their operations in the North Caucasus.

• A militant ringleader was arrested in Chechnya's capital of Grozny, the Chechen Interior Ministry said Saturday. Aslanbek Bargishev, 30, a member of warlord Doka Umarov's gang, pointed to two caches where the police found 100 kg of plastic explosives and other weapons and ammunition, the ministry said. (Umarov was mentioned in the Jan 9 Briefing.)

• A suspect of organizing four terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan was eliminated during a special operation Saturday, Daghestan's interior minister said. Shamil Abidov, an accomplice of the notorious terrorist Rappani Khalilov, is suspected of organizing four terrorist acts in Daghestan's capital of Makhachkala in 2003, which left seven policemen and one civilian killed, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov said.

• Reports about trials of proponents of religious extremism and terrorism in Russia are no longer breaking news. Many of them involve organizations that call themselves Islamic and operate all over Russia, including the North Caucasus, the Volga region and the Urals. Muscovites seldom hear much about them or know what is at the bottom of disputes in the regions.

• Ruling out the demilitarization of Jammu and Kashmir as suggested by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Army Chief General JJ Singh in New Delhi on Friday said continued presence of terrorist-infrastructure across the Line of Control necessitated troop-presence in the state. "We need to be present. Terrorist camps still exist across the LoC and infiltration is still on," said Gen Singh.

• An imam of a mosque in Mumbai was arrested Saturday by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Mumbai Police for his alleged links with three suspected militants of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, arrested last week in the city.

• Indian soldiers have killed three key Pakistani members of a hardline Islamic militant group waging an insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir, police said on Sunday.

• US-led and Afghan government troops have killed about eight insurgents in the latest clashes in Afghanistan, the US military and Afghan government said. Two insurgents and an Afghan government soldier were killed early on Saturday in the southeastern province of Paktia, the Defence Ministry said.

• Gunmen killed a former Taliban leader who renounced the hard-line Islamic regime after it was ousted in late 2001 and had since supported Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government, witnesses said Saturday. A suicide car bomb, meanwhile, wounded an American soldier when it blew up near a U.S.-Afghan military convoy traveling along a main southern Afghan road, a local police chief said.

• An article from the Boston Globe says there is a striking antidote to worsening security in Afghanistan, where suicide bombing and convoy ambushes now occur every day. Increasingly, these Taliban- and Al Qaeda-sponsored attacks are linked to opium and heroin trafficking. Afghanistan supplies 80 percent of Europe's heroin and is the largest grower of poppies in the world.

• A Taliban suicide car bomber has attacked a convoy of Canadian troops in the heart of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Witnesses said they saw four soldiers being taken away on stretchers, but they were unsure if the troops were wounded or dead.

• Law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh have yet to arrest the masterminds behind the August countrywide serial bomb blasts although the government is continuously telling the people that apprehending the culprits involved is a "matter of time." Meanwhile, police arrested some top leaders of the banned JMB and they confessed to their involvement in the activities.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• The U.S. government will pay out a $ 100,000 reward to a Filipino that assisted in the capture of Toting Hanno, an Abu Sayyaf leader who abducted three Americans in May 2001.

• Indonesian authorities have announced that eight of the twelve men arrested in the 2002 killing of two American teachers are suspects in the attacks, while four others were released. Among those detained was Anthonius Wamang, an Indonesian indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in 2004 on two counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder in connection with the killings.

• NPA communist insurgents in the Philippines killed 4 soldiers in attacks near Catbalogan City. In a raid on the Batangas jail, NPA members disguised as police officers also freed 13 inmates. Philippine National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales called on the government to face the growing strength and aggressiveness of the NPA.

• On Sunday, U.S. troops began arriving in the Philippines in preparation for Balance Piston 06-2, joint military exercises scheduled to begin on Tuesday that will focus on small unit tactics, patrolling, marksmanship, and life saving techniques.

• On Sunday, Singapore held anti-terror exercises (North Star V) at the Chomp Chomp Hawker Center in Serangoon Garden, involving more than 2,000 people from 22 government agencies. The two-hour mock terror attack included a car bombing and other explosion.

• Indonesian police have arrested four terror suspects in central Java, three of which have ties to wanted Jemaah Islamiah leader Noordin Top.

Europe

• A German court convicted Amin Lokman Mohamed, an Iraqi national living in Munich, of belonging to a foreign terrorist organization and human trafficking in smuggling jihadists into and out of Iraq.

• British authorities have unveiled a new body scanner designed to detect weapons and explosives. The unit will begin testing at Heathrow and train and subways stations in London.

• Spanish police have arrested Omar Nakcha, a Moroccan national they suspect of leading two extremist groups in recruiting terrorists to send to Iraq. Nakcha is also suspected of helping suspects in the Madrid train bombing escape the country. A Spanish judge has jailed seven others in connection to the recruiting cells.

• British anti-terrorism investigators are expected to arrive in Sarajevo this week, investigating a Bosnian connection to the 7 July London subway attacks.

• Information leaked last year that pointed to a terror plot to shoot down French airliners has been confirmed. According to the report, "a terrorist group headed by Algerian Islamist Taqi Al Din purchased in mid 2000 two Russian SAM 18 Igla missiles from Chechen rebel Ruslan Gulaiev."

• British jurors in the case against Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri were shown a videotape of one of his sermons at the Finnsbury Park mosque, where he praised Adolf Hitler and called for the Jews to be destroyed. Al-Masri faces possibly life in prison if convicted of inciting murder. The Finnsbury mosque has prior terror connections and past members include the shoebomber Richard Reid, and Zacarias Moussaoui.

• According to the testimony of Zouaoui Choki, a Tunisian arrested in Italy on terror related charges, he belonged to an Islamic terror cell that was plotting to blow up a cathedral, two underground stations and a police building in northern Italy.

Africa

• Sudan is not ready for a proposed UN peace force in Darfur, its foreign minister has told the BBC. Lam Akol said no official request had been made and that the money spent sending a UN force would be better used on helping the existing African force. The African Union (AU) has some 6,000 peacekeepers in Darfur but says they are under funded and may be withdrawn.

• Algeria's reconciliation efforts aimed at halting all terror activities have been the subject of intense debate among the Algerian population. The debate is raging once again after Madani Mezrag, the former head of the now disbanded armed Islamist militant group AIS (Islamic Salvation Army) made controversial statements in a French publication, acknowledging his role in the killings that have occurred in the 1990s.

• A report from PINR looks at Somalia's uncertain future. Somalia does not have a strong central authority to combat the mix of gangs, warlords and radical Islamic elements that are entrenched in the country.

• Algerian police nabbed 13 members of a terror group which was uncovered in a recent raid in western province of Tilimsen, Algerian news agency reported Friday. The police seized a batch of ammunition as well as some traffic and communication equipment such as vehicles, mobile phones and computers.

• A previously unknown Nigerian militant group claimed responsibility Friday for dual attacks that cut Nigeria's oil output by 10 percent. In a phone call to the AP in Lagos, a man who identified himself as Brutus Etikpaden said he and his group claimed responsibility for blowing up an oil pipeline and kidnapping four foreign oil workers on Wednesday and Thursday. Etikpaden, speaking from an unknown location, called on the government to release militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a convert to Islam.

• Algerian authorities are mopping up the main extremist group responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, having wiped out another movement, Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said in an interview.

• In the jagged terrain north of Mekele, Ethiopia and Eritrea have amassed at least 200,000 soldiers on either side of the border. That has raised fears of a new war that analysts said would kill thousands more and plunge the Horn of Africa region -- including ever-volatile Sudan and Somalia -- deeper into crisis. A team of senior U.S. diplomats, led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, is due to arrive this week to try to defuse the tension in a region that is important in the war against terrorism. Ethiopia hosts U.S. troops along its eastern border with Somalia, a potential outpost of groups allied with Al-Qaida.

The Global War

• From Knight Ridder, here are some war stories from 2005 that you might have missed: Shiite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen are giving up. Islamic extremists in Algeria are, too. In Burundi, peaceful elections ended 20 years of bloody civil war. Rebels in Sumatra disarmed after 29 years to participate in elections. It seems that armed combat is falling out of fashion. According to war historians, the number of conflicts worldwide declined sharply in the last decade, and their overall lethality is the lowest since the 1950s. Some war historians think the lull is temporary.

• According to a web statement posted on Sunday, al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist groups have set up an umbrella organization, The Mujahideen Council, to coordinate the fight against U.S. and Iraqi forces.

• Demand for special operations forces capabilities has increased dramatically since Sept. 11, 2001, the deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command said last week. "There's been much demand for our capabilities," Navy Vice Adm. Eric T. Olson said, "more than we can meet".

• Despite objections and a veto from the U.S. government, Spain will sell Venezuela a dozen C-295 transport aircraft in a deal worth $ 1.2 billion, that includes some vessels.

• Book Reviews: Kirk Sowell reviews Andrew Meier's book, Chechnya: To The Heart of Conflict and C.S. Scott reviews Paul L. Williams' book, The al Qaeda Connection.

• An article by Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager in the 1st Quarter 2006 issue of Joint Force Quarterly looks at the challenges of interagency coordination, and uses Afghanistan as a case study. The article is available here in PDF.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.