Monday Winds of War: August 08/05

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Top Topics

• The main planks of Tony Blair's antiterrorist platform. Which he'll need, as his intelligence chiefs are warning him that Britain faces an Islamic insurgency at home, too. Meanwhile, The Sunday Times goes undercover in an academy of hatred.

• California is overhauling its domestic intelligence apparatus, and California's Office of Homeland Security is training private security guards in counterterrorism. Meanwhile, a top California state National Guard commander is accused of trying to set up a renegade intelligence collection system, drawing much controversy.

• Intelligence, Homeland Security-now the State Department is next in line for a major overhaul as the Bush administration seeks to reshape government for the present and future challenges facing the nation. State will move away from its Cold War obsessions, toward a focus on weapons proliferators and terrorists. Its democracy promotion muscle is also to be beefed up.

• India and China are burying the hatchet: an old border dispute has been resolved and the two countries are looking forward to increased trade and investment, as well as a space exploration partnership. And yet, China is engaging in an unprecedented buildup of its capability to wage war on India at the same time.

Other Topics Today Include: Ahmadinejad gets snubbed, snubs back; Egyptian torture; AIPAC lobbyists charged; Revolution ain't coming to Iran; FBI's translation backlog swells; unwelcome customs laxity; Mauritania coup; Jaish e Mo to hijack jet; India to fence off Banglia; Aus. to join UK, France in terror-preacher eviction measures; Chechnya jihad on Wahhabis; Aus. and Canada want to sell uranium to China; 7 in 10 Guantanamites to be repatriated; Binnie large and in charge sez old pal; the Saudis Knew! and much more...

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.

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