THE MIDDLE EAST & IRAN

• Iraq barely has a military, but a billion dollars has already disappeared to fraud.

• Iraq's leaders are demanding no special scrutiny of the sovereign country for WMD programs now that Saddam is gone.

• Hamas is refusing to disarm and turn over its weapons to the PA following the Gaza disengagement.

• A Syrian Al Qaeda terrorist was brought to court in Turkey for a plot to bomb Israeli cruise ships. He's a big shouter; he shouted that his friends were still going to bomb the Israelis even if he went to jail, and he also shouted that he did not intend to kill any Turkish civilians, only Jews. How reassuring of him. Turkey has detained ten in the plot.

• The IAEA unanimously called on Iran to stop enriching uranium, which astonished former President Rafsanjani (who made very belligerent noises in his Friday sermon).

• France gets tough with Iran.

• Israel is thinking of hitting Iran. So is Bush.

• Newsweek's Robert Baer looks at what comes next now the Abdullah is the Saudi king.

• The Daily Star's Michael Young: is Syria the next Cambodia?

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• While the US and Venezuela exchange ever-harsher rhetoric, the Bush administration is giving permits to US companies to sell repression technology to Venezuela.

• They keep finding acid bombs in Savannah, Georgia.

• FBI abandons another computer system, starts over. Check back next year, they'll do it again.

• The Feds are trying to recruit hackers at DEFCON, a security research convention.

• Security cameras are sprouting up all over the place, especially Manhattan.

• There've been so many dangerous incidents at BP oil facilities that the feds are investigating a terror connection.

• Two clerics in the Lodi case were planning on setting up a terror madrassa in the US, according to the lead FBI agent on the case.

• The Santa Monica pier is getting beefed-up security measures after a cconcerned citizen photographed Middle-Eastern looking males who appeared to be taking video footage in a suspicious manner.

• The TSA wants more cash for its Secure Flight program (formerly CAPPS I, née CAPPS II, etc). Meanwhile, Congress wants to cut hundreds of millions out of TSA's budget request.

• DHS plans a new web site to help transportation asset owners and operators assess their security measures.

• The TSA might stop making you take your shoes off to go through the metal detector.

• US Homeland Security officials want to make foreign travelers carry around RFID-tagged documents as part of the standard registration process for entering the country.

• America's infotech infrastructure is highly vulnerable.

• Flyers over US airspace have no Constitutional rights other than not being subjected to gross physical abuse, according to the DOJ.

AFRICA

• South Africa is trying to hide the identity of the countries to which it sold weapons. Which means, probably, Iran and Venezuela are on the list.

• Once jailed, now freed after a military coup, Mauritanian Islamist leaders are now saying they were never terrorists.

• Al Qaeda propaganda videos added to the evidence that it has a presence in the Horn of Africa.

ASIA

• First America, and now Britain is lifting its restrictions on nuclear technology to India.

• After bombings wounded 28, the southern Phillippines is on alert for foreign suicide bombers.

• India has new, stringent policies for dealing with airline hijackings by terrorists in light of the threat of Jaish e Muhammad's threat to hijack an airliner.

• Australian authorities don't have the legal tools to ban Hizb ut Tahrir, but would like to.

• Aussie boffins are developing a shifty behavior detection system.

• Singapore is high on JI's target list.

• Sydney's subway tunnels would be a death trap due to lack of access for emergency personnel in case of terrorism.

EUROPE

• 9 are to be deported from Scotland for terrorist supporting activities. The nine had previously been undeportable due to a peculiar British interpretation of a European law, now discarded.

• Al Muhajiroun are still trying to recruit youngsters for terrorism in the UK, contrary to their claim to have disbanded.

• Bakri was banned from returning to the UK, meaning that he's now stuck in Lebanon. Aww.

• The prison holding a wannabe Al Qaeda shoebomber experienced a small explosion. The bomb was made with ingredients available in the prison.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• New micro-reactors could render international chemical weapons control treaties moot.

• A Jordanian journalist has published a book containing his view-based on intimate knowledge of some Al Qaeda leaders-of Al Qaeda's long-range plan.

• A wanted Al Qaeda man thought to be a European leader of the organization can blend into Western society at will due to his looks.

• Osama bin Laden's man in America, thought missing, has turned up working for the new Iraqi government in its Ankara embassy (!)

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.

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THE MIDDLE EAST & IRAN

• India follows Russia in refusing to invite Iran's new President, Ahmadinejad, for a state visit. Interesting.

• At least 22 people died of Egyptian police torture in 2004.

• Egyptians are in Gaza, training PA security forces in advance of the disengagement.

• In Egypt, it's still considered unclear who exactly was behind the Sharm el Sheikh bombings. You can theorize as long as you want (Israel did it seems to be popular), but don't suggest it was Al Qaeda, heavens no.

• Turkey foiled a Turkish al Qaeda cell's plot to mass-murder Israeli holidayers in Alanya, Turkey. Four Israeli cruise ships turned home as a result of the threat, aborting their trips to the southwestern port city.

• Iraqi leaders have been flown to Germany to train Iraq-bound US commanders.

• Revolution unlikely in Iran.

• Kurdish rebels killed five Turkish soldiers with a rocket attack. The rebels have been staging increasingly bold attacks from northern Iraq.

• Sworn in just Wednesday, new Iranian president Ahmadinejad is off to a roaring start, insisting on Iran's right to restart aspects of its nuclear program and rejecting the EU's latest proposal. Iran may go to the Security Council, which means nothing thanks to Russia's seat.

• How Qaddafi deals with terrorists.

• Jordan arrested 17 Al Qaeda terrorists who plotted to attack US military personnel in the kingdom.

• Saudi oil: doomed?

• Iranian front companies are smuggling extra-durable steel for Tehran's nuclear program, according to a dissident group.

• Hezbollah or the Revolutionary Guard is making shaped-charge explosives for Iraqi terrorists to kill Americans in armored vehicles with successfully.

• The US embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia are closed Monday and Tuesday due to specific terror threats.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• According to secret government analysis, Al Qaeda is definitely very interested in more mass-casualty suicide terrorism against mass-transit targets in the United States.

• A pair of former pro-Israeli lobbyists (since fired) are now facing charges for dining out with journalists on improperly obtained national security intelligence.

• A Baltimore cabbie was charged in federal court for support of Lashkar e Taiba.

• The FBI's translation backlog grew 50% in little over a year as its counterterrorism investigations outpaced its translation capabilities.

• ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is cracking down hard on illegal immigrant gang activity nationwide.

• US customs agents aren't taking their biological/chemical export-control regulation enforcement responsibilities seriously.

AFRICA

• After a military coup, the new dictators of Mauritania are seeking to assuage US and French concerns-they're probably worried we're going to depose them. But immediately freeing jailed Islamists is a hell of a way to assuage our concerns.

• Something sinister about the Africa connection with the London bombers?

ASIA

• Jaish e Mohammad is planning to hijack a passenger jet to pressure India to release an imprisoned terrorist comrade.

• India has decided to go ahead and fence off Bangladesh. That's a 4000 kilometer border we're talking about.

• North Korea is refusing to completely destroy its nuclear program under any circumstances, insisting it is not a defeated nation.

• Prime Minister of Australia John Howard is likely to put forward UK/France-like proposals to eject Islamic inciters during an emergency meeting of state and territory leaders next month.

• Peace negotiations with the Philippines's Communist insurgents have collapsed.

• Chechnya's council of imams has declared jihad on Wahhabism.

• India and Pakistan have agreed to notify each other when they conduct ballistic missile tests to reduce the possibility of inadvertent nuclear war.

• The US confronted North Korea with evidence of its second nuclear program, which North Korea denies the existence of, gleaned from Pakistani interrogations of noted bastard AQ Khan.

• Pakistan: multi-city terror attacks on the 14th?

• Japan's military aspirations are growing in reaction to the rising influence of China.

• An FAQ on the madrassa system.

• North Korea turned down the US's latest nuclear proposal.

• Australia and Canada want to sell China uranium.

EUROPE

• Two sisters appeared in court Friday in the UK on charges of failing to disclose information related to their brother's involvement in the failed second-wave suicide bombing attempt on London.

• Tony Blair announced that Hizb ut Tahrir and Al Muhajiroun's successor organization are now banned in the UK. He also delimited anticipated domestic reforms that allow summary deportation of extremists.

• UK intel chiefs are warning Blair that he faces a fullblown UK-based Islamic insurgency.

• Al Qaeda is threatening more attacks on Britain.

• Al Muhajiroun disbanded, but a lot of the same clowns have formed a successor group that continues to advocate terrorism.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• Read this wide-ranging interview with Ariel Cohen, author of Eurasia in Balance and Russian Imperialism: Development and Crisis at Security Watchtower.

• A former Israeli army major turned South Africa-based black-market weapons merchant was sentenced to 3 years by a Federal judge for illegally selling blacklisted US electronic components to Pakistani and Indian companies.

• Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the subject of US negotiations to transfer custody of 70% of the inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Afghanistan has already agreed to house its share of the detainees.

• An intimate look at the jihadist cyberworld from the Washington Post.

• Soon after losing Afghanistan as a refuge, Al Qaeda seems to have a new one: Anbar province of Iraq. A message from Zarqawi to his superiors indicates that Al Qaeda plans to use Anbar as a launching pad for attacks on Europe and the Middle East.

• Bin Laden is very much in command of Al Qaeda, according to his old friend, the new Saudi ambassador to the US.

• The Saudis are claiming to have warned MI5 and MI6 of the terror threat ahead of the London bombings. It also appears that there was Saudi funding for some of the bombers.

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.

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THE MIDDLE EAST

• The US warned that Al Qaeda was planning more attacks on Saudi.

• A Syrian official pointed out (correctly) that a disarmed Hezbollah would introduce a security threat for Syria.

• Al Qaeda has claimed credit for the Sharm el Shaykh bombing.

• Italy's parliament approved funding for its troops to remain in Iraq until the end of the year.

• Can it be said yet that Hamas and the PA are at open war? I think so.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• Famous last words.

• The LA Sheriff's Dept. sent a team to London to learn from the bombings there.

• A huge drug-smuggling tunnel was uncovered along the Canadian border.

• The President's Terror Threat Report will be streamlined into the Presidential Daily Brief.

• Some crazy guy tried to give a message from Allah to a church.

• The military's civil support joint task force is conducting a training simulation for a nuclear terrorism scenario in Virginia.

• The new Highway Bill controversially contains provisions requiring the states to use commercial data to authenticate the identities of applicants for CDLs.

• Who's watching NYC's underwater tunnels?

• The Minutemen movement is mushrooming nationwide.

• Terrorism-tainted Islamic groups CAIR and MPAC comically issued statements urging the Muslim community to be on the alert for radicals. Okay, so...they should call the FBI and complain about CAIR and MPAC?

• NYC subway passengers face random bag searches in a bid to deter or prevent attacks.

• Are America's Muslims integrating well?

• Vigilance in NJ hospitals is being intensified amid fears of "operational pre-surveillance" by suspicious individuals.

• Rep. Connie Mack got the House to pass a bill authorizing the US to broadcast alternative media into Chavez's repressive Venezuela.

• It emerged in the Al Aryan case that his home office received faxes praising terrorist operations.

• Two US Navy jets collided in mid-air in California. Two crewmen have been rescued and one is still missing.

AFRICA

• Kenya has arrested five on terrorism suspicions.

• Bill Clinton spoke out to Africans about their shameful silence on Mugabe's depradations.

ASIA

• Thai troops raided an Islamic school.

• A Briton in Pakistan who may be linked to the bombings was arrested.

• Indians are worried about Pak's nukes falling into jihadist hands.

• Looks like there's not much point in the Bush administration's attempt to play Vietnam off China.

• China is making its non-weapons military procurement a little less opaque.

• A cleric was found guilty of lesser charges and jailed for them for less than four years, but exonerated on bigger charges of complicity in the Australian embassy bombing in Indonesia.

EUROPE

• Strangely, phone-tap evidence is not admissible in court in the UK.

• The UN decided that Albanian institutions would run the Kosovo police services.

• The EU springs into action: they want to make explosives harder to get and easier to trace. I'm sure perfume will be exempt.

• Germany has ruled the Europe-wide arrest warrant unenforceable on persons in Germany, making the whole thing pointless.

• Did the KGB bomb buildings and blame it on Chechnya separatists? Take with two grains of salt.

• There are a quarter-million failed asylum seekers evading capture and deportation in the UK.

• Unsurprisingly, Al Qaeda's cop killer's appeal was turned down. Unsurprisingly, because his appeal appeared to have consisted of "they made a too-good case against me".

• UK police arrested a loyalist terrorist for questioning.

• The Moscow subway is getting cameras.

• Abu Qatada, Binnie's right hand man, is in danger of being extradited to Jordan after the UK made a deal with the monarchy on extradition of terrorist suspects. The deal is expected to be followed by other UK bilateral deals. Funny, all it took was a bunch of terrorist bombings in London. Dodgy clerics will also face other restrictions on their activities short of outright ejection.

• The UK has barred over 240 scientists from receiving training in its universities over terrorism concerns in the past four years, it has emerged.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• The terrorists are exporting cars from the US for use in terrorist operations, and US authorities are taking notice.

• A new crowd-control raygun is being criticized as unsafe. Not as unsafe as bullets, I'd wager.

• A man sought in the London bombings tried to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Oregon.

• Zawahiri KGB-trained? Apparently so.

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.

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IRAN REPORTS

• Iran's UFO mania in 2004 was justified. The US has been flying pilotless drones over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of Iran's nuclear program and to test Iran's air defenses, according to three blabbermouths telling tales out of school. The Iranians lodged an official complaint with the Swiss (since we don't talk to them) and decided not to engage the drones in any way, including turning on radar, because it might help us figure out more about their air defenses.

• Iran categorically refused European entreaties to end its heavy-water reactor project in favor of a light-water reactor. Heavy-water reactors are much more suitable for the production of nuclear weapons.

• US Special Forces are directing members of Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) in carrying out reconnaisance and intelligence collection in Iran?

• Mona Charen says we should heed the lessons of Nicaragua in dealing with Iran.

• Iran has begun producing stealth torpedoes that can be launched by helicopters, ships, and submarines and hit surface and subsurface targets.

• The Iranian regime's hitmen gunned down three Iranian dissidents in Balochistan (Pakistan), killing one.

• Rafsanjani called for the US to enter direct dialog with Iran. A few breaths later he said the United States can't stop Iran's nuclear program, and "advised" the US that "the revolution is here to stay". Thanks for the advice!

• The father of Iran's bomb? Yup. A. Q. Khan, according to an ISI investigation into the bastard. Musharraf still refuses to hand him over to the CIA.

• The sordid tale of how Iran rounded up and neutralized the CIA's entire Iranian espionage operation a decade ago.

• Germany's Defense Minister called on the US to give Iran economic and security incentives and ends its isolation. This all-carrot, no-stick approach seems to be loved by Europeans for some reason.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Rafiq Hariri was killed by a car bomb after voicing support for Lebanese independence from Syria. (Thanks to Colt.)

• Is Hamas hoping to use the latest ceasefire to become another Hezbollah?

• I don't understand this, but it's about fired FBI whistleblowing translator Sibel Edwards and also Turkey. Maybe you can make heads or tails of it.

• Syria's trying to buy Russia's S-400 antimissile system; Russia claims this system is more effective than the US PAC-3 system.

• The UAE will receive its first batch of F16C/Ds, the fruit of a $6.4 billion, 80 plane deal with Lockheed Martin, in May of this year.

• The Saudi labor minister, who like most labor ministers can't really do much about job creation, blamed extremist teachings and indoctrination for terrorism, saying unemployment had little to do with it. "Don't look at me!"

• UPDATE: Hoax-no they didn't. Thanks to Colt. Angry Israelis pelted Bibi Netanyahu with stuff at a wedding party and slashed his tires over his support (and yes vote) for Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan. He wasn't hurt.

• Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti came out with a long-overdue fatwa calling terrorism "an ugly evil" which must be fought at every level. Hey, nice of you to join us, pally.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• As part of a Homeland Security grant for a study that will stretch until 2007, a team of about 50 scientists and emergency planners will release 6 different harmless gases from tall NYC rooftops and use 31 air-sampling devices to measure how the air might flow in NYC's urban-canyon environment.

• There will be only 210 new Border Patrol agents, not 10000, if the Bush administration gets its way. I feel safer already.

• The US is protesting Russian plans to sell Venezuela a large batch (a hundred frickin' thousand) of AK-74 kalashnikovs. Russia is defending the deal (which also involves "a number" of helicopters) on the grounds that Venezuela is not at war with anyone and the deal does not break international law. Venezuela is also said to be considering the purchase of Russia's MiG-29 fighters.

• Nevada's enlisting cabbies and limo drivers to be on the lookout for suspicious individuals who want to blow the sin nervecenter of America to kingdom come.

• FARC terrorists ambushed and killed at least 17 Colombian soldiers in a remote northwestern jungle area.

• A radioactive shipment of americium belonging to Halliburton was waylaid but later found.

• Commander Kevin Mooney of the USS San Francisco, the submarine that ran aground, will be relieved of his command and will receive a letter of reprimand from his commander, which is typically career-ending for an officer. It's not clear why, exactly-the undersea mountain that the sub hit wasn't on their maps.

• Castro warned the US against plotting to kill his buddy Chavez. Someone cares what Castro says, but he couldn't be found for comment.

AFRICA

• A look at life in lawless Somalia. Hint: not so pleasant or sophisticated.

• Can African regional groups supersede French meddling and impose democracy on Togo, where a son has now succeeded his father as President in contravention of the constitution? Well, both the 53-nation African Union and the 15-nation Economic Community Of West African States have condemned the move in the small military dictatorship, with ECOWAS actually threatening economic sanctions if he did not step down.

• A decade after the genocide in Rwanda, 15000 Hutu guerrillas are still hiding in the forests of eastern Congo, emerging to wreak havoc and keeping the border region on the verge of war.

• This analysis of Al Qaeda's chances in Ethiopia is interesting. Quotes: "the threat has the potential to escalate exponentially", "all indicators suggest the problem is going from bad to worse", "The US military does not plan on walking away from East Africa any time soon".

• The same leaders who made peace between the north and south of Sudan are complicit in the atrocities in the west (Darfur).

• 30 people were killed by pirates last year. Of them, half were in Nigeria, which has the world's most dangerous waters.

ASIA & AUSTRALIA

• This analysis looks at the implications and subtexts of Rumsfeld's decision to renew direct military ties between China and the United States, which had been suspended since the crisis in which a US surveillance plane was forced down by a collision with Chinese fighter.

• The CIA says Pakistan will be a failed state by 2015. No one is shocked.

• Indonesia was removed from the G7's blacklist of money-laundering nations.

• North Korea announced it already has nuclear weapons, plans to produce more, and is withdrawing from the six-way talks.

• The Pakistani army made a bizarre deal to indirectly pay Al Qaeda half a million bucks in order to help formerly wanted tribal militants settle their debts with Al Qaeda, in a peace deal signed with a tribe in the near-lawless Waziristan area.

• The Philippines' most elite US-trained anti-terrorist fighting unit has been flown to the remote southern Philippine island of Sulu to quell violence by supporters of a jailed muslim leader. Philippine communist revolutionaries (with a surprisingly slick website) are threatening US forces.

• This Indian Express editorial points out that India's ability to influence regional events and outcomes as a major power is hobbled by the fact that India neither has very good sticks nor very good carrots.

• Nepal's King is threatening to resort to buying weapons from Pakistan or China should India make good on its threat of retaliating for his suspension of democratic government by refusing to provide him with any more weapons. India made good on its threat and suspended all military assistance to Nepal. The Maoist rebels have mounted their first major challenge to King Gyanendra, blockading transportation in all of Nepal until he withdraws the decision to sack the government, removes the state of emergency and restores civil liberties. For once, I'm with the Maoists. 500 Nepalis demonstrated for the restoration of the Republic in New Delhi.

EUROPE

• As elsewhere in Europe, fear of Islamists is driving the growth of far-right parties in Belgium.

• The UK has arrested a Pakistani man and charged him with conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to cause serious damage or endanger life; the offense in question happened as early as 16 months ago but he has only now been arrested upon attempting entry to the UK.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• Bin Laden indicated to a Pakistani scientist that he had nuclear material and wanted to know how to weaponize it.

• Ayman al Zawahiri issued a new audiotape denouncing various things. It was frankly boring and not much different from what you might hear at a WTO protest.

• NATO's Afghan mission is expanding from Kabul and parts of the north to cover more territory (in the West near the Iranian border) and involve more troops (500 more for a total of 8900) from more nations. Italy, Spain and Lithuania are increasing their troops in support of this redeployment; the UK will increase its contribution from 800 to 5000 next year.

• US prosecutors say a wealthy Pakistani businessman held at Guantanamo Bay urged Al Qaeda operatives to obtain nuclear weapons to use against US troops, and said he knew where to get them. He also participated in a plot to smuggle explosives into the United States (what, we didn't have enough already?) and help Al Qaeda stash large cash money.

• Mohammad El Baradei began his third term in office last month after the US failed to find anyone to challenge him. Still, the US is trying to oust him, gathering support for a vote of no-confidence in the IAEA chief.

We try to close on a lighter note if possible.

• What's snow for if not molding giant sculptures of private parts in full view of traffic?

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.

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IRAN REPORTS

• The US and Israel are said by Iranian sources to have set up surveillance devices in Basra that can intercept cellular conversations for 50 km into Iran.

• BP, Halliburton and GE are leading the charge of companies refusing to do any more business with the Iranian regime. I wonder if we'll see any French companies following suit. No I don't.

• Donald Rumsfeld says that Iran is "years" away from a nuclear weapon, inexplicably.

• Condi Rice is setting a harder tone in her comments about Iran. Iranian officialdom is belligerent towards what it terms Condoleeza Rice's "threats". She did take pains to say that there is "no current plan" to attack Iran.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Saudi Arabia is piloting a web site and phone hotline program to try and reform militant Islamists.

• Condi Rice's plans for Israel and the Palestinians include major retrenchment by the Israelis so the Palestinians can have what she terms "a viable state". Territorial contiguity means ethnic cleansing of Jewish settlements and even some large towns, in Condi's scheme.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• Colorado is seeking four truck drivers because they were issued licenses by clerks known to be selling CDLs to illegal immigrants.

• Regional autonomy is being wrenched from national governments across South America.

• Illegal 3rd world immigrant gangs like MS-13 a form of 4th Generation Warfare? The LAPD is one of the most avid students of 4GW for this very reason.

• Venezuela captured a fugitive anti-Chavez general linked to embassy bombings in Caracas and the shortlived 2002 coup attempt against Chavez.

• Just in time for the Superbowl, Jacksonville International Airport got explosive trace detection equipment.

AFRICA

• An opposition group in Sudan's East has demanded a federal state and a larger share of power, further isolating the genocidal Islamist regime in Khartoum.

ASIA & AUSTRALIA

• In a TV interview, Shamil Basayev promises Russia more Beslans.

• Has King Gyanendra's bloodless coup reopened the door in Nepal for Pakistan's ISI to reactivate its cells there? Indian intelligence is concerned, having used the past few years of democratic rule to make contacts and control the damage that the ISI had done by using Nepal as a base to plot operations against India. Ominously, Nepal's King is moving closer to China (which helped Pakistan achieve nuclear status) and further from India.

• Singapore has launched an elite anti-maritime terrorism unit.

• An Abu Sayyaf kidnapper wanted for the kidnap of 3 Americans has been captured.

EUROPE

• The Madrid 3/11 bombers financed their nefarious plot with sales of hashish and ecstacy.

• This story about various unprepared cannon-fodder losers being arrested by French authorities before they manage to go to Iraq to be jihadis is pretty interesting.

• Iran has deeply penetrated the entire Balkans and Italy and set up terrorist cells and infrastructure throughout, as early as the mid to late 90s.

• A 240,000 name list of Communist-era spies, informers and people who were questioned by the secret police was leaked onto the internet by a anti-communist activist journalist, causing uproar as Poles rush to check the list for family members.

• This analysis argues that the European method of insidiously absorbing nations and remolding them completely in the EU's image is a more durable and less vulnerable form of empire and transformation than American hard (military) and soft (cultural) power. Sprinkle liberal salt.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• There is a 90% certainty that North Korea provided Libya with uranium.

• US soldiers are getting counterterrorist training in India.

• What has Germany learned from eavesdropping on two Al Qaeda members, later arrested? Lots.

• The Phillippines and the USA have 28 separate joint military exercises scheduled this year-not that that makes the Phillippines any more interested in helping out in Iraq.

We try to close on a lighter note if possible.

• A new worm tempts users into opening it by pretending to contain photos of a dead Saddam Hussein, shot dead in a prison escape attempt.

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.

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IRAN

• Iran reported spotting US fighter jets carrying out reconnaisance missions over nuclear sites. I hope so.

• Iran and Uzbekistan are drawing closer together. Iran is also cosying up to the Arabs. Iran continues to make energy and trade deals at a furious pace, trying to give the entire planet a stake in the survival of the mullahcracy, I suppose.

• The IAEA will be inspecting Iran's massive Parchin military complex, after months of negotiations over the issue.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Islamic Army in Iraq is threatening to attack the US homeland on their website. They must have been emboldened after they found our Radio Shack plane.

• The IAEA says it found evidence that Egypt was experimenting with nuclear processes that could lead to nuclear weapons.

• Kuwaiti soldiers and officers, some high-ranking, were held in a conspiracy to attack the US.

• The head of the Shin Bet advised a Knesset committee that the West Bank would essentially turn into another Gaza-style terror bazaar with a "wide and deep" terrorism infrastructure.

THE AMERICAS

• A hyperviolent El Salvadoran gang in Boston is developing ties with Al Qaeda, according to this Boston Herald report. The gang (MS-13) controls some alien smuggling routes from Mexico. 14 local and national law enforcement agencies have formed an intelligence task force to deal with the threat.

• At Germany's behest, Bin Laden's former bodyguard has been taken off the Treasury Department's terrorist blacklist. He is the first person to ever be removed from the Specially Designated Persons list.

• A US commander warned Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker that the Army Reserve is degenerating into a broken force due dysfunctional policies.

• The FBI plans to build new case management system from scratch after its existing ($100 million plus) project was basically declared dead in the water.

• The GAO says that the computer targeting system that determines whether shipping containers receive extra scrutiny relies heavily on shipping manifests, which are created by untrusted persons. That's definitely weak security.

• Authorities are seeking a middle eastern man who tried to buy the same fertilizers Tim McVeigh used to blow up the Alfred P Murrah building with false construction credentials.

• The US is thinking about imposing more sanctions on Syria.

EUROPE

• The UK have set a date to try Abu Hamza: the Fourth of July. He is charged with inciting the murders of Jews and others.

• Six men are on trial in Paris for a plot to blow up the US embassy in Paris. One of them received his marching orders directly from Abu Zubaydah, a top Al Qaeda lieutenant in Afghanistan who is in US custody-and whose intransigence under interrogation prompted the CIA to ask the Justice Department for legal authority to employ methods of torture such as "waterboarding".

• A German tribunal confirmed the expulsion to Beirut of a Hezbollah "organizer" who was married to a German woman.

ASIA & AUSTRALASIA

• US intelligence has become convinced that Bin Laden is hiding in an urban area and some of the focus of the hunt for him has shifted to Afghan and Pakistani cities.

• India's military is growing uneasy with US intrusiveness.

• A grenade attack injured six, including three Russian soldiers, in a market in Grozny.

• Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov sounded a conciliatory note, telling a German daily that Russia won't interfere with Georgia or the Ukraine as their ties with NATO and the EU stengthen. He also says Russia will not even theoretically consider joining the EU.

• Russian disappointment with the West is leading it to seek strategic partnership with China, according to the Financial Times.

AFRICA

• Burundi's long-running Hutu-Tutsi civil war is drawing to a close as an agreement was reached with 6 of the 7 rebel groups to lay down their arms and integrate their forces with Burundi's military.

• 50,000 people protested Ethiopean peace talks over the two-year border war with Eritrea that ended but was never resolved in 2000.

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